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The Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority (TARTA) and the Arts Commission have partnered with representatives of Bowling Green State University (BGSU) and the University of Toledo (UT) to provide the opportunity for local artists to encourage the community's exposure to and appreciation for the arts through the artistic enhancement of buses, bus shelters and stops throughout TARTA's service area.
TARTA sponsors wraps for a selection of their buses that incorporate poetry written by Young Artists at Work (YAAW) apprentices and designs created by BGSU graphic design students.
A theme is selected and expounded upon each year. Past themes included a bridge theme, in recognition of the Maumee River Crossing Project, a jazz theme, in honor of Toledo-born jazz great Art Tatum, a glass theme, in celebration of the Toledo Museum of Art’s new Glass Pavilion, and a Restore Planet Earth theme, intended to raise awareness for maintaining a healthy planet. Variations on the Earth theme have spoken recently to the potential future of mass transit.
Of the theme, and its relation to the program, TARTA’s Jason Binder says, "The environmental theme has a lasting impression on all of us and it is an important theme to incorporate through arts. With the new testing of biodiesel in our transit buses, city and county-owned vehicles, the building of new ethanol plants and the new gas turbine on the county convention center, ‘green’ buildings for the new downtown arena, carpooling, riding transit, riding bikes, etc it is time to think about the environment and how we are doing our part as a region to restore planet earth. We hope to educate and entertain the general public of its importance."
Each year, a committee of area writers and representatives from TARTA and the universities juries the poetry. The selected poems are then sent to the Graphic Design Department at BGSU, where students interpret the poems into designs. A separate committee juries those designs, and the winning works are selected as bus wraps. The winners are announced, the newly beautified busses unveiled, and all submitted designs and many poems are featured at the Parkwood Gallery throughout December, celebrated with a public reception and awards ceremony.
For more information on the program, visit www.artintarta.org.
1838 parkwood avenue | suite 120 | toledo, ohio 43604 | 419-254-ARTS (2787)
Copyright © 2012 | All Rights Reserved.
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The Death Penalty was a feature implemented by the dev team to prevent people using death as a quick, easy way home. In softcore, upon death, half of your Coins (rounded up) will be dropped. It is possible to return and retrieve them. Your character will also only spawn with 100 health and minimal mana (if the character has any) upon respawn. In mediumcore, you lose all of your items, and respawn with 100 Health and minimal Mana, as well as a copper pickaxe, a copper axe and a Copper Shortsword. In hardcore, you permanently die, turning into a ghost, unable to interact with the world.The message "You were slain" will stay for 5 seconds and then you will spawn at your spawning point.
A character with 1 gold, 1 silver, and 1 copper will lose all his/her money when he/she dies (in case of odd numbers, the lost money will be rounded up).
Before Terraria was released, the death penalty was dropping all of your items (in patch 1.0.5, this is now true if you play in Mediumcore mode), but the Developers thought that was unfair, so they changed it to no penalty. Finally, they implemented the current system. A good way of avoiding the death penalty is to store all your money in a chest before going into caves or fighting boss monsters. That way, you will lose nothing when dying. Another way of saving money is having a Piggy Bank in your inventory, which allows you to store and access your money while underground. You can also use a Safe but a Piggy Bank is much cheaper then the Safe, being at the price of 1 Gold Coin as for the Safe being worth 50 Gold Coins.
Alternately, if you are about to die, you can (if you are quick) open your inventory and click "Save & Quit" or "disconnect" at the lower right corner of the screen. There is no penalty to this whatsoever; the Death Penalty only applies if you actually die. This strategy is much easier if you have enabled of auto-pausing while your inventory is open.
Note: Dying because of an explosion that the player causes will not result in a death penalty. They will respawn with all of their money and Items (minus the explosive used). This is because the explosive is a player thrown consumable, so if a player kills another player with one, they don't get their coins.
There are 3 types of Death Penalty:
- In Softcore mode, half of your coins are dropped.
- In Mediumcore mode, all of your items are dropped and you respawn with copper tools.
- In Hardcore mode, your character dies permanently, and although you will still respawn once, this will be as a ghost, and you will not be able to interact with the environment anymore. Upon leaving, the character will be automatically deleted.
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Both neurosarcoidosis and central nervous system lymphoma can be very difficult to diagnose. We describe the case of a patient in whom neurosarcoidosis was strongly suspected, but who was eventually found to have lymphoma. We believe the case to be of interest and practical value to neurologists, oncologists and internists with an interest in inflammatory diseases.
A diagnosis of neurosarcoidosis was considered in a 49-year-old Caucasian man on the basis of the following symptoms and indications: a cough, bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy confirmed by thoracic computed tomography, the development of an S1 radiculopathy, cerebrospinal fluid abnormalities (raised protein level), bilateral lung hilar and lachrymal gland uptake on a gallium scan, and erythema nodosum confirmed with skin biopsy. These were followed by the development of multiple cranial neuropathies, including seventh nerve palsy. Exhaustive further investigations yielded no evidence for an alternative diagnosis. Treatments with steroids, cyclophosphamide, intravenous immunoglobulin and finally infliximab were of no benefit. He eventually developed cutaneous nodules, a biopsy of which revealed lymphoma that proved resistant to therapy.
Constant diagnostic vigilance is required in disorders such as neurosarcoidosis.
Systemic inflammatory, autoimmune, infectious or neoplastic disorders frequently involve the central nervous system (CNS). Establishing a diagnosis can be particularly difficult when neurological symptoms are the presenting feature. Biological markers or diagnostic evidence of other organ involvement can be absent, and the perceived hazards, combined with the potential for eliciting only non-diagnostic information, often mitigate against cerebral biopsy.
We present the case of a patient that illustrates such difficulties and we discuss the implications of using aggressive immunosuppressive therapy in patients with suspected inflammatory disease.
A 49-year-old Caucasian man developed a cough in early 2004. A chest X-ray revealed bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy, confirmed by thoracic computed tomography (CT) scan. He had no other symptoms. A diagnosis of sarcoidosis was considered, but his symptoms were thought insufficient to warrant treatment.
In July 2004, he developed numbness and pain behind the right knee which gradually spread to the lower back, right buttock and posterior thigh. Upon examination he had reduced sensation over the lateral border of the right foot, an absent right ankle tendon reflex and a positive Lasègue's sign at 70°. He also had a dusky discolouration of the skin of the right foot.
He was admitted to our hospital in September 2004 because of progressive worsening of the symptoms. Lumbrosacral spinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed an increased heterogeneous signal within the S1 nerve root and of the nerve root ganglion on T2 images, thought to be due to oedema, with right piriformis wasting. His cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) contained no white cells, 0.52 g/l protein and 0.36 g/l glucose. Nerve conduction studies and an electromyogram (EMG) revealed abnormalities in the S1 segment, consistent with an S1 radiculopathy. Serum angiotensin converting enzyme (sACE) was persistently normal but an isotope-labelled gallium scan showed increased bilateral lung hilar and lachrymal gland uptake. He developed skin nodules on his right thigh which, when biopsied, were confirmed as erythema nodosum. The diagnosis of sarcoidosis was considered overwhelmingly likely, and in the absence of compression, the involvement of the S1 root was thought most likely due to neurosarcoidosis. He started treatment with prednisone 30 mg/day but his pain persisted; intravenous steroids and then local steroid nerve root injection was tried with temporary benefit. In April 2005, he started methotrexate (up to 12.5 mg per week) because of persistent pain and the need to lower his steroid dose because of his elevated glucose levels.
In November 2005, he developed left peri-orbital and hemicranial headache, followed by diplopia on left gaze. He was found to have a partial left sixth nerve palsy and was re-admitted. MRI showed thickening and gadolinium enhancement in the left cavernous sinus with no parenchymal change. Repeat gallium scanning showed normal lung hilar and lachrymal gland uptake. Serum rheumatoid factor, plasma viscosity, C-reactive protein, urea and electrolytes, liver function, clotting, auto-immune profile, protein electrophoresis, acetylcholine receptor antibodies, anti-neuronal antibodies, anti-thyroid antibodies, creatine kinase and ACE were all normal. He was treated with a three-day course of intravenous methylprednisone and experienced significant improvement.
The following month, he developed headache and further diplopia and he was found to have a painful pupil-sparing left third nerve palsy. His CSF was again entirely normal, including negative oligoclonal band assay. Brain and orbit MRI scanning were normal. EMG and nerve conduction studies suggested improvement of S1 radiculopathy. He also complained of left facial pain with tearing of the left eye. There was a patchy decrease in sensation on the left side of the face and scalp. Corneal reflex was diminished. Blink reflex and facial nerve conduction studies showed an afferent defect on the left suggesting a left trigeminal ophthalmic division neuropathy. His prednisone was increased to 60 mg/day, and cyclophosphamide was started instead of methotrexate. However, after reducing his steroids to 40 mg/day, severe facial pain recurred.
In March 2006, he developed numbness and tingling on the left side of his face, and was found to have a left maxillary ophthalmic division Vth neuropathy. A month later he developed a lower motor neuron left seventh nerve palsy and numbness in the right shoulder and in the left thorax. His CSF was again normal and/or negative including cytological study, acid-fast bacilli staining, and fungal and Mycobacterium tuberculosis cultures and sACE was also still normal. His blood count showed mild lymphopenia and macrocytosis. Lactate dehydrogenase was normal. Borrelia, syphilis, cytomegalovirus, HIV and human T-lymphotropic virus Type 1 serology were negative. An ophthalmological examination was normal with no signs of granulomata.
At this stage, new neurological symptoms developed while the patient was on treatment with steroids and cyclophosphamide. Because no diagnosis emerged other than sarcoidosis, alternative immunosuppressive therapy was administered. Intravenous immunoglobulins, however, had no impact. Infliximab was added in June 2006. Despite this, the patient's right shoulder became weak, his headache persisted and he also developed unsteadiness of gait and significant weight loss. He now had bilateral seventh nerve palsies with weakness of the left palate, right serratus anterior, right triceps, left triceps and left finger abductors. All the upper limb deep tendon jerks were absent. A left vocal cord palsy was noted. EMG and nerve conduction studies showed abnormalities compatible with a pre-ganglionic lesion at C5 and C6 level (right), but no generalised neuropathy. Repeat brain MRI scanning showed enhancement of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth cranial nerves (Figure 1). Spine MRI scanning was normal. MRI scanning of the upper brachial plexus was normal. A CT scan of the pelvis and abdomen were normal. A whole body fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scan was normal. Urine thallium screening and lead level were negative. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was normal.
Figure 1. Brain magnetic resonance images. (a) Brain magnetic resonance image scanning T2 weighted image showing high signal of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth cranial nerves (arrow). (b) Brain magnetic resonance image scanning T1 after gadolinium showing enhancement of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth cranial nerves (arrow).
The patient then developed three subcutaneous nodules, one in the left outer inferior breast quadrant, without lymphadenopathy. Biopsy of the nodules showed lymphomatous change, and the final diagnosis was diffuse large B-cell lymphoma involving cranial and peripheral nerves (neurolymphomatosis). Bone marrow was normal.
He was transferred to the Oncology department and treated with chemotherapy including methotrexate. After chemotherapy he received total body irradiation and a bone marrow stem cell transplant. There was no significant improvement in his neurological condition.
Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory systemic disorder of unknown cause. Neurosarcoidosis is a serious complication found in 5 to 15% of patients with sarcoidosis and often has a poor prognosis; treatment is recommended in the early period of disease. It most commonly causes cranial neuropathies, but any part of nervous system can be involved . Peripheral nerve involvement is less common and usually occurs in 15 to 18% of patients .
When neurological problems develop in patients with biopsy-proven systemic sarcoidosis, the diagnosis is usually straightforward. However, without biopsy evidence of sarcoidosis in other sites, neurological sarcoidosis may be difficult to diagnose and other disorders difficult to exclude, particularly infection and neoplasia. The importance of histological confirmation before starting treatment cannot be exaggerated , and our case helps illustrate this. Tissue-based proof of sarcoidosis was, despite our best efforts, never acquired. Had the patient undergone a transbronchial biopsy at the onset of his illness (when he had bilateral hilar adenopathy), it is highly likely that a definitive diagnosis - probably of lymphoma - would have emerged, but at this stage he had no other symptoms. Our experience here helps emphasize the importance of tissue proof in simple cases - before and/or in case they become more complex. In more cryptic cases - and neurosarcoidosis can notoriously be difficult to differentiate from a wide range of other inflammatory and non-inflammatory conditions - 'blind' biopsy of certain tissues such as conjunctiva and muscle can occasionally also yield diagnostic results (also reviewed in ).
In this patient, neurosarcoidosis was clinically an attractive explanation for his presenting problems: cough, hilar lymphadenopathy (confirmed by thoracic CT), development of a S1 radiculopathy, CSF abnormalities (raised protein level), bilateral lung hilar and lachrymal gland uptake on gallium scan, and erythema nodosum confirmed with skin biopsy, followed by the development of multiple cranial neuropathies, including seventh nerve palsy.
CSF abnormalities are seen in 80% of patients with neurosarcoidosis, but are non-specific; likewise, serum and CSF ACE (consistently normal in this patient) are also an insensitive test for sarcoidosis [1,4,5]. A brain MRI may show multiple non-specific white matter lesions, isointense on T1-weighted images, high signal intensity in T2-weighting, and with contrast enhancement of both the lesions and meninges.
The diagnosis of neurosarcoidosis requires a compatible clinical, laboratory and/or radiological picture of sarcoidosis and histological confirmation of non-caseating granulomas . In 'probable' neurosarcoidosis (Table 1), as in our patient, aggressive or experimental therapy should be commenced only with very great caution and in particular in the case of tumour necrosis factor blockade, following the utmost efforts to exclude tuberculosis. The progressive neurological deterioration of our patient, with no opportunity for histological interrogation, was thought to warrant such a therapeutic approach. Unfortunately, this produced no beneficial results for the patient. Erythema nodosum, of course, is hardly specific to sarcoidosis, in particular, lymphoma is a recognized cause.
Neurolymphomatosis represents a unique subtype of extra-nodal lymphoma with localised invasion of cranial or peripheral nerves, plexuses or nerve roots. In the vast majority of reported patients, the disease is a large B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) . Usually it develops in patients with widespread systemic NHL, but the nervous system may be the sole site, and patients often present without known lymphoma . Despite the infrequent clinical presentation of neurological complications, autopsy studies indicate common involvement of the peripheral nervous system . In our patient, serum LDH was consistently normal and CSF cytology was always unremarkable - but in fact, only a minority of cases has positive CSF cytology . His low lymphocyte count may have represented a clue, but a bone marrow biopsy (even at the time his skin nodules had developed) was normal, as was FDG-PET scanning - again, not unusual in some instances of lymphoma .
Cyclophosphamide and steroid treatment in this patient could have suppressed his lymphoma and so delayed its diagnosis. Paradoxically, it is not impossible that he did have refractory sarcoidosis warranting aggressive chemotherapy, but then developed lymphoma, that is, he had two diseases, but we believe this to be unlikely and that he had lymphoma at the outset. Cyclophosphamide may contribute to tumourigenesis; alternatively infliximab, at least in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, has been implicated in the development of lymphoma - though conversely, one epidemiologically robust study involving almost 20,000 patients with rheumatoid arthritis found that infliximab was not associated with a greater risk of lymphoma . Indeed, infliximab is even considered a potential treatment in other haematological neoplastic disorders including myelodysplastic syndromes .
Constant diagnostic vigilance and clinical surveillance is required in disorders such as neurosarcoidosis, and the importance of a tissue diagnosis - not obtained in this case until very late in the course and then excluding sarcoid - cannot be overemphasised.
CNS: central nervous system; CT: computed tomography; CSF: cerebrospinal fluid; EMG: electromyogram; sACE: serum angiotensin converting enzyme; MRI: magnetic resonance imaging; FDG-PET: f-positron emission tomography; NHL: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal.
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
ES analyzed and interpreted the patient data, and ES and NJS together prepared a draft and then finalised the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
McLean BN, Miller D, Thompson EJ: Oligoclonal banding of IgG in CSF, blood-brain barrier function, and MRI findings in patients with sarcoidosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and Behcet's disease involving the nervous system.
Zajicek JP, Scolding NJ, Foster O, Rovaris M, Evanson J, Moseley IF, Scadding JW, Thompson EJ, Chamoun V, Miller DH, McDonald WI, Mitchell D: Central nervous system sarcoidosis - diagnosis and management.
Curr Hematol Rep 2005, 4:429-435. PubMed Abstract
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This weekend brings 200 trade union delegates to the city of York for the annual general meeting of Yorkshire and the Humber region of the TUC.
The agenda will see debates on the economy, on cuts in public services, reductions in employment rights, attacks on welfare and the NHS and the austerity imposed on the people by an out-of-touch, uncaring government to pay for the mistakes of the banks, financial institutions and others in their attempt to get mega-rich quick.
Working people and many vulnerable groups have suffered far more than the richest in society and borne the brunt of a government programme determined to roll back the welfare state and encourage private enterprise to take over the running of state services.
Because of spending cuts there are now 60,000 fewer public-sector workers in the region. Pay has been frozen for three years leading to a catastrophic fall in demand.
Most towns and cities in the region have seen many high-profile companies go down the insolvency route, leading to further economic decline and loss of confidence - HMV, Woolworths and Comet, to name just a few.
With reduced bank lending to small business and large firms unwilling to invest, fearing there is no demand for the goods and services they supply, Yorkshire and the Humber is now in the top two regions in the country for unemployment.
On top of falling wages, we have seen many unemployed people unable to find work, many people in work underemployed and tens of thousands either forced into self-employment or working on a casual basis on very low rates of pay, sometimes at the beck and call of the employer on an hourly basis.
This is no way to run an economy.
A large proportion of the workers affected have been women, with bad employers calling for changes to maternity rights, cuts in childcare and Sure Start schemes.
And because women are more likely to be carers as well as workers, changes to social care and other services for the elderly have had a huge impact on women.
Attacks on workers' rights are also on the increase.
Fees for bringing a case to a tribunal have been introduced - a real problem for unorganised workers. Consultation periods for redundancy have been cut. And talk of encouraging workers to give up their statutory rights in return for shares is meant to undermine any collective co-operation in the workplace.
Welfare benefits have been capped and in-work benefits have been cut, meaning that people in low-paid jobs will now be worse off. So much for encouraging people to work instead of shirk.
Constant attacks on so-called shirkers - the unemployed, the disabled - have caused division in many communities that have been hit hard by the recession and where there are very few job opportunities.
In Hull there are now 14 people chasing every job. Together with massive rises in university and college fees this has led to massive unemployment among the 16 to 24-year-old age group, a wasted generation.
Well, some may say, what are the trade unions going to do about it all?
This weekend we will be forming our annual work plan.
We will be arguing and campaigning for investment in the region to boost economic growth. Clean coal technology will not only reduce carbon emissions but would be a fantastic export opportunity, the very thing this government keeps talking about.
Green energy and fuel efficiency could be abundant across the region. Our coastline and weather are great natural assets crying out for investment and certainty in this crucial policy area. And we need a massive house-building programme to house our people to decent standards.
All this could be achieved through long-term investment. Putting people back to work must be more cost-effective than paying out welfare. These measures would restore confidence, get people spending again, give hope to our young people for a fairer future.
Our aim this weekend is to organise ourselves into a united campaigning body, able to influence the decision-makers through the political and economic process.
We stand ready to play our part in rebuilding our economy. We need good, well-paid, high-skilled jobs so the region can contribute to the growth of both the regional and national economic well-being.
Rebalancing the economy is important, but investment is key to stimulate that dream and if we are ever going to go forward to producing our way out of debt then we need a new fairer economy, strong unions with a voice in the workplace, genuine equality and a strong welfare system with good benefits.
So this weekend we will be united. We will be energised and determined to take our representation of workers and their communities forward in a progressive and positive way.
We will do our utmost to protect the vulnerable in work and out of work against policies imposed upon them by a group of mainly public-school educated, very rich, mainly white men committed to rolling back the whole fabric of society across the country.
There has never been a more important time to be a member of a trade union. Our founding fathers were deported for forming unions. It is now time for us to show similar bravery and unite to force a change for good for everyone.
If you appreciated this article then please consider donating to the Morning Star's Fighting Fund to ensure we can keep developing your paper.
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Last October I wrote an essay about the decision of the European Court of Justice to deny a patent to the German neuroscientist Oliver Brüstle who had developed a method for turning human embryonic stem cells into neurons which could then be transplanted into patients with diseases such as Parkinson’s. The Court had decided that no patent could be valid on a process that involved the destruction of an embryo; such a patent was subversive of ‘human dignity’ and hence ’immoral’ and contrary to ‘public order’. I was critical of the Court’s decision, and equally so of Greenpeace, the organization that had brought the case before the Court:
If the court judgment is difficult to fathom, the attitude of Greenpeace is even more so. So hostile has the organization become to ‘big science’ that it is happy to line up with some of the most reactionary and obnoxious groups in Europe and jeopardize vital medical research… It is about time we stopped indulging theologians and Luddites in the absurd myth that they occupy the moral high ground. They don’t. They are using moral norms drawn from dogmatic and reactionary visions of life to prevent the practical alleviation of human suffering.
The essay was reprinted in Götesborg-Posten. Greenpeace took umbrage at my criticism of the organisation, and its Swedish campaign director Patrik Eriksson wrote a reply, to which I responded. I am publishing here Eriksson’s reply to my original essay together with my response.
In response to Kenan Malik’s essay in Göteborgs-Posten, in which he accuses the environmental group Greenpeace of opposing stem cell research, we want to make clear our views. First, I want to state clearly that Greenpeace is not opposed to stem cell research. We do not regard embryonic stem cell research as unethical. Nor do we take a stand as to whether or not a cluster of non-predetermined cells, so-called stem cells, should be regarded as a human being, and, thus, we are not opposed to the destruction of stem cells. Greenpeace is a religiously and politically independent organization, and does not support socially conservative arguments as Kenan Malik claims.
Access to embryonic stem cells is essential for scientists looking for a cure for severe diseases, such as multiple sclerosis or other neurological conditions. The issue at hand, however, is the risk that patenting of human embryos could lead to commercial exploitation of the human body. This is banned under the European Union Patent directive (98/44, Art.6), as well as in many individual countries and in the UN Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, dated 4th April, 1997. Malik paints a picture where patents are a prerequisite for science. This is a skewed view of reality. On one hand, patents can protect those who invest in medical research and manufacturing of remedies. But these are far from the only tools available – trade secrets, for example, can be maintained without patents. On the other hand, patents might become an iron wall excluding a majority of scientists searching for similar remedies but lacking the patent owner’s privileged access. Publicly funded scientists will then be forced to spend taxpayers’ money to buy access to data owned by private interests. As a consequence, a patent would impede progress.
Kenan Malik clearly did not understand what the challenge was about, nor the results of the court judgment. Because of the challenge to Brüstle’s patent, the European Court of Justice was forced to create a framework for what should be considered as acceptable in the relationship between science and patents. For science, just as for any activity, there must be a clearly defined set of rules and a framework, so that research can be conducted in a way that is acceptable for society. Such frameworks are nothing new or controversial, but have for a long time been a characteristic of medical research in particular. In addition, there has been a long-standing demand for a distinct framework for science, both from the pharmaceutical industry and the scientific community. So it is good that the European Court of Justice has been forced to revise the rules and regulations for patents based on stem cell research and make its standpoint clear.
This is, in other words, all about establishing limits for what a company should be able to patent, not about science as such. We strongly object to Malik’s accusations that Greenpeace is ‘hostile to big science’, his attributing to us certain alleged ‘moral’ views that we have never held, as well as claims that we have raised objections against the destruction of stem cells or embryos. So let us be explicit: Greenpeace stands up in defence of free and independent science. The challenge to Oliver Brüstle’s patent application is based on the belief that human cells should not be commercialized or exlusively owned by private companies. This does not mean that stem cell research as such is a bad thing.
Campaign director, Greenpeace
My thanks to Patrik Eriksson for his response to my essay on the European Court of Justice ruling on patents deriving from embryonic stem cell research, and on Greenpeace’s unfortunate role in the affair. I am unsure, however, whether he is being naïve or disingenuous in so distorting the facts to make his case.
Eriksson suggests that Greenpeace took up this case because ‘of the risk that patenting of human embryos could lead to commercial exploitation of the human body’. If Oliver Brüstle had been attempting to ‘patent human embryos’, I, too, would have opposed him. As I observed in my original essay, I disapprove of patents on natural processes or entities. In fact, Brüstle was attempting to patent not an embryo, nor even a cell, but a laboratory process, a method of generating neurons from human embryonic stem cells.
Suppose Brüstle had patented a technique to produce neurons from adult, rather than embryonic, stem cells. Would Greenpeace have objected? Unlikely. The key issue, therefore, is not that of patents but that of the legal and moral status of embryos, and of cells that derive from them. And that was the question upon which the Court primarily focused.
Under European law, patents must ‘safeguard the integrity and dignity of the person’ and not damage ‘public order or morality’. Patenting a process relating to cells derived from human embryos can undermine ‘the integrity and dignity of the person’ only if such cells in some sense possess ‘the integrity and dignity of the person’. The judges ruled that they do. Every fertilised egg, they insisted, must be recognized as an entity whose ‘human dignity’ had to be protected. They, therefore, banned any patents on scientific techniques that involve the destruction of embryos. The court, in other words, was not defending human dignity or civil liberties. It was insisting that the moral status of a handful of invisible, undifferentiated cells should be the same as that of a real, living human being. That, to me, is immoral, and deeply damaging to both human dignity and civil liberties.
It is disingenuous of Eriksson to suggest that Greenpeace does not ‘take a stand as to whether or not a cluster of non-predetermined cells, so-called stem cells, should be regarded as a human being.’ It could not have brought this case if it did not believe that such cells possess ‘human dignity’. Indeed, in the press release that Greenpeace produced after the European Court ruling, its International Senior Campaigner Lasse Bruun is quoted as saying that the ruling had ‘strengthened the protection of human life against commercial interests’. The press release concludes by insisting that the court decision will not affect medical progress because ‘in recent years, researchers have found alternative methods for obtaining stem cells, without the need to destroy human embryos’.
The question of whether medical research will be affected is a matter for debate. I, like many others, believe it will. What is clear, though, is that, contrary to what Eriksson says, what truly troubles Greenpeace is ‘the need to destroy human embryos’. In this Greenpeace shamefully lines up with the some of the most reactionary voices in Europe.
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Civil Rights Groups Take Alabama Immigration Law to the UN: Union and civil rights leaders have filed a complaint against Alabama and the U.S. government with the United Nation International Labor Organization. They allege that Alabama's immigration laws are a "flagrant violation of international norms" and that the United States' inability to come up with coherent immigration policy hurts domestic and migrant workers alike. The Service Employees International Union filed the complaint with the UN earlier this week:
The complaint, submitted to the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association alleges the U.S. government’s “inability to act promptly and decisively to put in place a national policy related to immigration - attentive to international guarantees related to individual workers’ rights as well as to the rights of trade unions with immigrant members - has given the space to individual states to enact laws that are in flagrant violation of international norms.”They are holding the US government responsible for the recently enacted Alabama immigration laws and they are not only willing to take it to the UN, they are bringing the fight directly to the foreign companies that have invested in that state.
In a statement to Daimler AG, which produces Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Alabama, the SEIU and its affiliate, the Southern Regional Joint Board of Workers United wrote, “Until now, Daimler and Mercedes-Benz have been silent on this law which violates human rights, even though one of its German executives was arrested under the Alabama law.”Labor Leaders Take Alabama Immigration Law Repeal Bid to Berlin: Labor leaders are backing up their words with action by going directly to the source in Berlin, Seoul and Tokyo and calling these companies on their tacit collaboration with what they feel is legislation that violates human rights:
At the Daimler AG annual shareholders meeting in Berlin April 4, U.S. labor and civil rights leaders said that unless the German company takes a stand on Alabama’s infamous anti-immigrant law, it is tacitly supporting a racist and unjust regime in a state where its Mercedes Benz factory is considered responsible for 10,000 jobs and $1.5 billion in economic impact.That is not only very gutsy, it's a very smart strategy. This is not exactly the kind of publicity these companies need. As for the U.S. government, if the ILO rules against them, it makes their criticism of other governments' policies (like China) look terribly hypocritical. Alabama certainly doesn't come off well either. If the unions and civil rights leaders can successfully equate investment in that state with support for violating international standards for human rights, companies might be less willing to do business there and that ought to make local lawmakers sit up and take notice. This is one to watch closely. If anyone in Germany, Korea or Japan finds links to this story in the local media, I'd really appreciate your adding them in the comments section. It would be interesting to see how this story is presented in these companies' home country media.
In March, civil rights activists and labor leaders attended Hyundai’s annual shareholder meeting in Seoul to make a similar point, as Colorlines reported, since Hyundai’s Alabama operations account for 2 percent of the state’s GDP. Depending whether the state legislature acts to repeal before then, they may also visit Honda’s shareholder meeting in Tokyo in June.
India challenges U.S. immigration rules at WTO: India has filed a complaint against the U.S. government with the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 2010 the U.S. raised visa fees for skilled workers to a whopping 4,500 USD per visa. Indian IT firms say that this discriminatory (and it does seem to have been directed against them) and a barrier to free trade. This may be a bit of a "tit for tat" situation since the complaint was filed after India put a ban on poultry imports from abroad - something that hurts the U.S. poultry industry. Nonetheless, the high fees and the high rejection rates of Indian applicants for U.S. work visas (H1B and L-1) really hurts the Indian IT industry.
The law under which those business visa fees were raised is known as the James Zadroga Act. Under the law, fees are substantially increased for H1B and L1 immigrant business visas. The rule also makes it harder for Indian multinationals in the U.S. like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro to bring in top executives or senior computer engineers from abroad.Tech CEOs visit Washington to lobby for H1B visa, tax reforms: Last month 60 CEOs of high-tech companies in the U.S. descended on Washington to fight for immigration reform. What do they want? More H1-B visas, faster processing of visa applications and a better retention policy for foreign graduates from U.S. universities with high-tech degrees. Technet is a lobbying organization that represents high-tech industries in the U.S. However, if you take a look at the executives they sent to Washington, you'll see that its members are not really U.S. companies, they are international companies like Cisco, HP, Intel, Google, Microsoft and EMC.
“It is the sovereign right of any country to hike visa fee, but the U.S. move is mainly against Indian IT companies. The law discriminates between an American and Indian companies. This is a breach of national treatment and most favored nation status,” an unnamed Commerce Ministry official told the ET.
These articles really highlight the complex nature of immigration policy and how it can't ever be made in a vacuum that takes into account only local concerns. Look at the stakeholders above: United Nations, WTO, trade unions, civil rights leaders, workers, lobbyists, local and international industry, local and national governments. And then take a look at the people who are responsible for sorting through all this and actually passing laws that make sense in this complex environment. How many U.S. congressman, for example, have ever lived or worked overseas as a civilian? How many of them have been immigrants? How many of them speak a foreign language or have extensive experience with another culture? I couldn't find any statistics on the Web but just looking at my Congresswomen, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, the answer is they have zero international experience. That's a bit worrisome when you consider that they represent a state that hosts the offices of international companies like Boeing and Microsoft. And lest you think that I am picking on the U.S. check out the biography of Claude Guéant, the French Minister of the Interior. His world is the Hexagone and reading his profile you start to understand why he was so surprised when his infamous circulaire received international attention.
I am not saying that these people are not intelligent - on the contrary they are smart, dedicated public servants who I am sure are doing the very best they can for their constituents. What I am saying is that when it comes to immigration policy they may be at the lowest level of ignorance which is "not even knowing what you don't know." They just don't have sufficient international experience that would give them the context they need for the decisions that they are responsible for making.
I think this is something to take into account in this election year even at the local level. Globalization is a fact of life and your local representative might just find him or herself thrust into an international spotlight thanks to some local policy or law that has international stakeholders. The question to ask is: can this person play at that level? Is he/she experienced and knowledgeable enough to understand the international implications of the votes he casts or the policies he has a hand in making? If the answer is "no" or "I'm not sure," you might want to think again. For your own protection and so that globalization may be rightly guided to the benefit of us all.
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My comments in RED
My emphasis in BOLD
“Social Networks: portals of truth and faith; new spaces for evangelization.”
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As the 2013 World Communications Day draws near, I would like to offer you some reflections on an increasingly important reality regarding the way in which people today communicate among themselves. I wish to consider the development of digital social networks which are helping to create a new “agora”, an open public square in which people share ideas, information and opinions, and in which new relationships and forms of community can come into being.
These spaces, when engaged in a wise and balanced way, help to foster forms of dialogue and debate which, if conducted respectfully and with concern for privacy, responsibility and truthfulness, can reinforce the bonds of unity between individuals and effectively promote the harmony of the human family. The exchange of information can become true communication, links ripen into friendships, and connections facilitate communion. If the networks are called to realize this great potential, the people involved in them must make an effort to be authentic [This authenticity has many aspects. It must be an authenticity based on the teachings of the Church, no on one's personal opinions. It must also be a lived truth, it is not enough to proclaim an idea. The "idea" or theology must become "flesh" in the lives of the believer who proclaims the message of Christ in this new medium.] since, in these spaces, it is not only ideas and information that are shared, but ultimately our very selves.
The development of social networks calls for commitment [A scary word to many!]: people are engaged in building relationships and making friends, in looking for answers to their questions and being entertained, but also in finding intellectual stimulation and sharing knowledge and know-how. The networks are increasingly becoming part of the very fabric of society, inasmuch as they bring people together on the basis of these fundamental needs. Social networks are thus nourished by aspirations rooted in the human heart. [This is a two way communication. New media is not like reading a book, watching a television program or listening to a cd. It is a "communion". In a sense, we are going back to that public square, although virtual, but there is a, or should be a personal connection.]
The culture of social networks and the changes in the means and styles of communication pose demanding challenges to those who want to speak about truth and values. Often, as is also the case with other means of social communication, the significance and effectiveness of the various forms of expression appear to be determined more by their popularity than by their intrinsic importance and value. Popularity, for its part, is often linked to celebrity or to strategies of persuasion rather than to the logic of argumentation. At times the gentle voice of reason can be overwhelmed by the din of excessive information and it fails to attract attention which is given instead to those who express themselves in a more persuasive manner. The social media thus need the commitment of all who are conscious of the value of dialogue, reasoned debate and logical argumentation; [Don't be fooled into thinking you need to be some superstar to be part of the dialogue. This is a "one soul at a time" operation. We shouldn't look for fame, but to reach out to the PERSON. This was often said of Blessed John Paul. He saw the person before him as if they were the only person in the world] of people who strive to cultivate forms of discourse and expression which appeal to the noblest aspirations of those engaged in the communication process. Dialogue and debate can also flourish and grow when we converse with and take seriously people whose ideas are different from our own. “Given the reality of cultural diversity, people need not only to accept the existence of the culture of others, but also to aspire to be enriched by it and to offer to it whatever they possess that is good, true and beautiful” [We are not alone in having something to offer. Even those with whom we disagree have something to offer us! I think we sometimes fail in this area, having an attitude that we are out to convert the pagans, who have nothing good to offer us. God speaks to us through all people and in all situations.] (Address at the Meeting with the World of Culture, Bélem, Lisbon, 12 May 2010).
The challenge facing social networks is how to be truly inclusive: thus they will benefit from the full participation of believers who desire to share the message of Jesus and the values of human dignity which his teaching promotes. Believers are increasingly aware that, unless the Good News is made known also in the digital world, it may be absent in the experience of many people for whom this existential space is important. The digital environment is not a parallel or purely virtual world, but is part of the daily experience of many people, especially the young. Social networks are the result of human interaction, but for their part they also reshape the dynamics of communication which builds relationships: a considered understanding of this environment is therefore the prerequisite for a significant presence there.
The ability to employ the new languages is required, not just to keep up with the times, but precisely in order to enable the infinite richness of the Gospel to find forms of expression capable of reaching the minds and hearts of all. [Many of the saints converted pagan practice, to shed light on the truths of the Gospel message. St. Patrick used pagan rituals to convert the pagans of his time.] In the digital environment the written word is often accompanied by images and sounds. Effective communication, as in the parables of Jesus, must involve the imagination and the affectivity of those we wish to invite to an encounter with the mystery of God’s love. Besides, we know that Christian tradition has always been rich in signs and symbols: I think for example of the Cross, icons, images of the Virgin Mary, Christmas cribs, stained-glass windows and pictures in our churches. A significant part of mankind’s artistic heritage has been created by artists and musicians who sought to express the truths of the faith.
In social networks, believers show their authenticity by sharing the profound source of their hope and joy: faith in the merciful and loving God revealed in Christ Jesus. [It is sharing what we love and makes us love Christ that gives the message authenticity, not only sharing some doctrine. How is the doctrine real in my "real" life?] This sharing consists not only in the explicit expression of their faith, but also in their witness, in the way in which they communicate “choices, preferences and judgements that are fully consistent with the Gospel, even when it is not spoken of specifically” (Message for the 2011 World Communications Day). A particularly significant way of offering such witness will be through a willingness to give oneself to others by patiently and respectfully engaging their questions and their doubts as they advance in their search for the truth and the meaning of human existence. The growing dialogue in social networks about faith and belief confirms the importance and relevance of religion in public debate and in the life of society.
For those who have accepted the gift of faith with an open heart, the most radical response to mankind’s questions about love, truth and the meaning of life – questions certainly not absent from social networks – are found in the person of Jesus Christ. [The search for God is everywhere. We were created to "know, love and serve God" and are hard wired to seek Him out in our lives.] It is natural for those who have faith to desire to share it, respectfully and tactfully, with those they meet in the digital forum. Ultimately, however, if our efforts to share the Gospel bring forth good fruit, it is always because of the power of the word of God itself to touch hearts, prior to any of our own efforts. [We must always keep this in mind. I am a vessel of God. It is His work and not mine. Therefore, any fruit that comes from my work is His doing!] Trust in the power of God’s work must always be greater than any confidence we place in human means. In the digital environment, too, where it is easy for heated and divisive voices to be raised and where sensationalism can at times prevail, we are called to attentive discernment. Let us recall in this regard that Elijah recognized the voice of God not in the great and strong wind, not in the earthquake or the fire, but in “a still, small voice” (1 Kg 19:11-12). We need to trust in the fact that the basic human desire to love and to be loved, and to find meaning and truth – a desire which God himself has placed in the heart of every man and woman – keeps our contemporaries ever open to what Blessed Cardinal Newman called the “kindly light” of faith.
Social networks, as well as being a means of evangelization, can also be a factor in human development. As an example, in some geographical and cultural contexts where Christians feel isolated, social networks can reinforce their sense of real unity with the worldwide community of believers. [It is not only about sharing our faith, it is about developing "real" friendships. Caring for one another and supporting one another through prayer, kind words and listening. Being there for one another. We will need this more and more as our culture moves away from God and supports things that are alien to our faith.] The networks facilitate the sharing of spiritual and liturgical resources, helping people to pray with a greater sense of closeness to those who share the same faith. An authentic and interactive engagement with the questions and the doubts of those who are distant from the faith should make us feel the need to nourish, by prayer and reflection, our faith in the presence of God as well as our practical charity: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor 13:1).
In the digital world there are social networks which offer our contemporaries opportunities for prayer, meditation and sharing the word of God. But these networks can also open the door to other dimensions of faith. Many people are actually discovering, precisely thanks to a contact initially made online, the importance of direct encounters, experiences of community and even pilgrimage, [I have many exciting stories of meeting online friends for the first time. These are bonds that we all treasure and should continually nourish.] elements which are always important in the journey of faith. In our effort to make the Gospel present in the digital world, we can invite people to come together for prayer or liturgical celebrations in specific places such as churches and chapels. [Online is good, but we should, and often do have meet-ups for fellowship, prayer and education.] There should be no lack of coherence or unity in the expression of our faith and witness to the Gospel in whatever reality we are called to live, whether physical or digital. When we are present to others, in any way at all, we are called to make known the love of God to the furthest ends of the earth.
I pray that God’s Spirit will accompany you and enlighten you always, and I cordially impart my blessing to all of you, that you may be true heralds and witnesses of the Gospel. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mk 16:15).
From the Vatican, 24 January 2013, Feast of Saint Francis de Sales.
How blest are we, that our Holy Father encourages us in on-line communication and takes part in it himself. Follow the Holy Father on Twitter.
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Sun Xu (孙旭) posted the following on China's microblog "Weibo" on Saturday, 18 Feb 2012.
MP of Tampines GRC Baey Yam Keng has now shown us where he stands on the dastardly aliens in our midst, "We need to reflect, are we the way that they described?"
And what exactly is that, Mr Baey? That our senior citizens are deserving of the derogative descriptive “瘪三” ? Or that Singaporeans are a "bunch of 挫逼"? Maybe he is simply in agreement with the PRC scholar that, "There are more dogs than humans in Singapore”, alluding to the 60.1% of running dogs that put him into office. Sadly, someone else also used the same pejorative on us Singaporeans.
"Mine is a very matter-of-fact approach to the problem. If you can select a population and they're educated and they're properly brought up, then you don't have to use too much of the stick because they would already have been trained. It's like with dogs. You train it in a proper way from small. It will know that it's got to leave, go outside to pee and to defecate. No, we are not that kind of society. We had to train adult dogs who even today deliberately urinate in the lifts." - Lee Kuan Yew, 1997
It is easy to see why these foreign nationals are emboldened to openly attack us, biting the very hand that feeds them. And we thought only animals are capable of such behavior.
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Until last week, no British female team had ever competed at the games. The last time the men appeared was in 1960.
"Throughout all my career it's always been the World Cup," said British coach Hope Powell, who first played for England at the age of 16 and has led England's team to five major tournaments in her 14 years in charge of the squad. "But for us at the moment it feels equally as good, as important and as enjoyable."
In a soccer-mad kingdom, the women's absence from Olympic competition may seem strange, but not when you consider that the four nations that make up Britain—England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland—field their own male and female teams at international competitions, and have their own associations and supporters.
Unlike FIFA, soccer's international body, the Olympic Organizing Committee doesn't allow the four nations to compete as separate entities. The Welsh, Scotland and Northern Irish soccer associations have long opposed the creation of a "Team GB" because they fear it could jeopardize their place in world soccer. As a result, the vast majorities of both squads are English.
The men's competition has been mostly ignored in Britain because it doesn't represent the pinnacle of sporting achievement like other Olympic events. FIFA don't want the Olympics to take any commercial shine off the World Cup so insists that the men's competition be an under-23 event with just three older players allowed.
The women's game features no such restrictions. The crowd of 25,000 who saw Britain ease their way into the quarterfinals in Cardiff, Wales, on Saturday with a 3-0 win over Cameroon were watching the best female players of their generation.
Women's soccer is vastly overshadowed in Britain by the men's game. Events rarely get more than 5,000 spectators.
Hope said a crowd of 70,000 were expected at the team's next fixture against Brazil at Wembley on Tuesday to decide who tops Group E. The team has never appeared at Wembley—the home of English soccer—or played against the Brazilians, who like the men, are a global powerhouse.
"The support for women's football is there, and it feels great and the atmosphere is brilliant," said Alex Scott, an Arsenal defender who has been a pillar in England's defense for close to a decade.
"Growing up I didn't think about Olympics, but I can honestly say now I'm in it, it feels special and amazing."
It's not clear whether "Team GB" will last much longer than the final whistle of the games. Many inside the sport are predicting that opposition to unified sides will scuttle any hope of that. Much may depend on the performance of both teams in the coming days.
While expectations for a medal are rising, Hope is choosing to take the campaign one match at a time. Brazil is next.
The Brazilians are good, she said. "But like every team they have weaknesses, and we hope to exploit that."
Follow Chris Brummitt at http://www.twitter.com/cjbrummitt
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Pemuteran is a small collection of resorts located on the beach around 15 minutes east of Menjangan Island. The diving here is on 500 meter wide coral covered banks or mounds that go from the sand floor, at around 25 meters, up to about 6 meters from the surface. The three reefs, Pura Tembok, Close Encounter and Napoleon Reef are all located close to the resorts in Pemuteran. The slopes are dominated by soft corals, sponges and sea fans.
Close by at 22 meters lies the empty 16 meter long hull of a scuttled dive boat, generously "donated" by one of the local Bali dive operators.
The spot also makes a good night dive loaction. Pemuteran house reef can reward the diver with colorful Mandarin dragonets that can be seen in the late afternoon. This is the time they come out from their hiding places to forage for food. Sometimes shortly before night falls they rise up and do a mating dance together which is truly spectacular.
In 1998 the House Reef at Pemuteran was devastated by El Niño. So three years ago, this reef became the first in Bali scuba diving to be sponsored by an artificial re-generation project fund. Large holding domes were sunk with live coral samples. The reef receives electronic stimulus from shore and responds with remarkable growth rates. The local village have buoyed the area and guard it as a no-fishing exclusion zone, so that fish stocks can re-group too. So far, although still incomplete, the project has proved a well-deserved success.
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You will be redirected to your destination in 15 seconds.
From My Inbox: Product Start-Ups
Question: I started a company making handcrafted recycled-glass tile. I’ve finished my research and development, and have a beautiful translucent tile. What would be the best way to market my products to the green design community?
Answer: I get dozens of questions just like this from fledgling craftspeople and entrepreneurs, many of whom will not, unfortunately, succeed. It’s not the greenness of the product that will cause their failure. It’s more likely scale.
Years ago a very entrepreneurial fellow I knew designed a furniture system from recycled aluminum and multi-layered corrugated cardboard. It was handsome, durable, well priced, and very green. He and his partners invested quite a bit into marketing and promotion—trade show expositions, advertising, good visuals. They couldn’t make a go of it, not because the product wasn’t worthy, but rather because it couldn’t compete with or draw attention from the big guys.
In the recycled-glass tile industry, there’s already a lot of competition, possibly because used glass is so plentiful from curbside recycling programs. Oceanside, for example, offers a stunning collection of handcrafted glass tiles with up to 86 percent recycled material, and is considered a market leader.
Start-ups take heart. Four partners—three glass artists and a self-described bean counter—founded Oceanside Glasstile in 1992. A well-defined and strategic business plan, as well as an evolving and appealing product, allowed the company to grow. Sixteen years later, it is an award-winning resource for the design community.
There is a market out there for specialty green products including those from the smaller suppliers, especially those who make one-of-a-kind products. Many, who face distribution challenges, may consider looking to the green building product centers scattered around the country. They may consider clearing a shelf. It can’t hurt to ask. I believe there’s always room at the top.
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Programs and funding opportunities
Bridging the Commercialization Gap
A common bottleneck to the commercialization of innovative technologies is the scarcity of funding to support early stage applied research and development. This gap between traditional public granting agencies and private investors is often referred to as the “valley of death”.
OICR has an opportunity to make a lasting impact by strategically investing in the very best technologies arising from Ontario’s outstanding research base. OICR’s Intellectual Property Development and Commercialization Fund (the “Fund”) has been designed to address this Valley of Opportunity.
Our vision for the Fund is the creation of a model of commercialization that is founded on collaborative working relationships among institutions, investigators, commercial partners and investors. At the heart of our model is a commercialization team established for each approved project.
The primary purpose of the commercialization team will be to provide expert guidance and oversight to the commercial development of the project. The team will be multi-disciplinary and include representation from the institution or company, inventors and OICR and its business advisors.
Funding is intended to support cancer-related early-stage commercialization activities including: proof-of-concept, validation, standard operating procedures, market analyses, IP protection and acquisition, expert guidance and management.
In addition, it is the objective of OICR to encourage the maximum participation of Ontario organizations in the development, commercialization and utilization of inventions arising from OICR activities – OICR’s “Ontario First Policy.”
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Year of publication
- 2002 (1) (remove)
- Age-related impairment of human T lymphocytes' activation: specific differences between CD4+ and CD8+ subsets (2002)
- The relevance of physiological immune aging is of great interest with respect to determining disorders with pathologic immune function in aging individuals. In recent years, the relevance of changes in peripheral lymphocytes in age-associated neurologic diseases has become more evident. Due to the lack of immunological studies, covering more than one event after mitogenic activation, we envisaged a new concept in the present study, aiming to investigate several events, starting from T cell receptor (TCR) ligation up to T cell proliferation. In addition, we addressed the question whether changes are present in the subsets (CD4, CD8) with aging. Phosphorylation of tyrosine residues declines with increasing age in CD4+ cells. Fewer levels of CD69 positive cells after 4 h mitogenic activation, altered expression of cytokines (IL2, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha; 22 h) and lower proliferation (72 h) were determined in aging. Moreover, it could be shown that CD8+ lymphocytes react more effectively to mitogenic stimulation with reference to CD69 expression and proliferation in both age groups (<35 and >60 years old). These data indicate that T cell activation, mediated by TCR engagement, is significantly impaired in aging and both subsets are affected. However, bypassing the TCR does not fully restore T cell function, indicating that there are more mechanisms involved than impaired signal transduction through TCR only. The results will be discussed in relation to their relevance in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders.
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Storigami! with Christine Kallevig
An author and performing artist since 1991, Christine Kallevig folds paper as she tells stories. Each fold illustrates an action or character, so by the time the story is over, a surprise origami figure is magically created. Fold along, and you'll become origami illustrators, too! For all ages, but children age four and younger must be accompanied by an adult.
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Judge Hangs Up On NSA Spy Program
Dan Frommer, 08.17.06, 5:50 PM ET
A federal judge in Detroit has ordered the U.S. government to halt the National Security Agency's Internet and telephone surveillance program. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor said the spying program, which was authorized by President George W. Bush shortly after the 9/11 terrorism attacks but remained undisclosed until late last year, violates constitutional rights of free speech, privacy and the separation of powers.
The federal government immediately filed an appeal, calling the program "an essential tool for the intelligence community in the war on terror." In a news conference Thursday afternoon, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said that he had confidence in the program and that he believed Bush had the authority to order surveillance, especially in a time of war.
But Taylor disagreed. "Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution," Taylor wrote in a 43-page opinion released Thursday.
The American Civil Liberties Union had filed suit against the NSA in January on behalf of journalists, defense lawyers and academics, claiming their international calls were being intercepted by the spying program.
Meanwhile, a separate case still looms against AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ), the largest U.S. telecommunications company. In January 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy watchdog group, sued AT&T, arguing that it illegally gave customer records to the NSA without a court order. In July, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker refused the government's dismissal motions, requested because the suit supposedly could expose secrets.
In May, Internet publication Wired News posted previously sealed documents that bolstered the EFF's case, including diagrams and descriptions alleging AT&T's involvement with the NSA's wiretap program.
In June, USA Today pulled back on a May 11 story alleging that telco giants Verizon Communications (nyse: VZ - news - people ) and BellSouth (nyse: BLS - news - people ) had also collaborated with the NSA to spy on customers. The paper said it was unable to confirm that BellSouth and Verizon had participated in the program, and said its original story had overstated the size of the phone record database compiled by the NSA.
In Thursday's opinion, Taylor dismissed a claim by the ACLU that the NSA was engaging in large-scale data mining of millions of Americans' phone call records, citing insufficient information. She wrote that further litigation would require disclosure of information that could violate states' privilege to secrets.
'); //--> News Headlines | More From Forbes.com | Special Reports
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As I have contemplated this vast audience of priesthood bearers, and what I have in my mind and heart to convey to you this day, my thoughts have turned back to a bewildered and confused young man in a huge city. He had lost his way. In desperation he stopped a man on the sidewalk and said, “How do I get to such-and-such a destination from here?” After considerable thought, with the skyscrapers, dense traffic, confusing streets, winding rivers, freeways, bridges, tunnels, and so on in mind, the man said, “You can’t get there from here.”
I have often thought of this advice as I have contemplated particularly some of our youth in their present locations in life. Some are lost, bewildered, confused, scared, sick, insecure, and discouraged. What a tragedy to be in these straits and to be told, in answer to the questions “How can I get back to where I was?” or “How can I get to where I want to go?”—“You can’t get there from where you are.”
The disciples of the devil teach there is no way back: Live it up, everybody is doing it, be with the in-group, and it’s more fun to stay lost. The devil is an enemy to the ways of God, and enticeth to sin.
“Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually.” (Moro. 7:12.)
What a happy day it will be when, in contrast to the experience this lost young man had in the big city, he or others can find someone who will say, “Yes, you can get there from here. Come, follow me.”
I humbly, but with all of the power in my possession, declare to our “lost” youth, young men and young women worldwide, you can make it back from where you are. The great social services program of the Church, operating as an arm of the priesthood, lends a helping hand to our young people with social and emotional problems. As President Smith has declared to us tonight, by honoring our priesthood we can help them find their way back to joy and stability.
Young people, be not deceived. God loves you. He cares about you. He wants you back in his paths, where there is comfort, companionship, and purpose. We as leaders need to effectively communicate to our youth that God loves them no matter where they are. We need to sacrifice our time and talents in this direction.
“But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” (Heb. 13:16.)
I pray to God that we in the future may communicate the positive, the happy, the abundant way of life to those around us.
I would like to share briefly with you a few experiences of some of our friends who are proving you can get there from where you are.
Roger Locke, a friend of mine, is presently confined in the Utah State Prison. (Incidentally, I have visited with Roger within the past few days and have his and Warden John Turner’s permission to share his name and thoughts.)
Incidentally, you young Aaronic Priesthood bearers, I would appreciate it if you would remember that when I go to the prison to visit, I have the same trouble as the inmates—in one respect. That is, it is easy for me to get in, but difficult for me to get out. The difficulty comes when I am stopped by prisoners who want to talk. During my last visit, a young man stopped me, and we talked for about fifteen minutes, time I didn’t think I had to spare. As I was leaving him he said, and I will never forget it, “Thank you for talking to me.” As I drove home that night, I recalled that in fifteen minutes I may have said twenty-four or twenty-five words; however, I believe that is the kind of talking and listening we need to have more of. But that is another subject. Let’s get back to Roger. He said:
“I don’t want to blame anyone back home for my being in prison today, but it is factual that I had no family relationships. I am involved in the family home evening program at the prison. Without the parents who have been assigned to me through this social services program, many times I would have given up. These people love me as if I were their own son. I have never had that, even when I was a small boy. Now, with their help and that of others, I believe I can now make it back a day at a time. I am not proud of being in prison, but I am proud of my recent experiences while being there. We have a tendency to blame others. We don’t want to blame our parents for not loving us, because we know they do, but maybe they didn’t have the guidance and direction in their lives to apply when they were bringing us up.”
Perhaps in the minds of many of us, Roger would be justified in believing he couldn’t make it back. He had detoured too long. But he doesn’t believe that. Instead, he is thanking those who are presently helping him and is sincerely grateful for the direction in which his life is moving today.
The Church attenders in prisons are unfortunately in the minority and are often classified by their associates in uncomplimentary terms, but this fine young man, bless his courage, is not ashamed to be identified at the Utah State Prison as a member of “God’s Squad.” He seems determined to make it back from where he is.
A few weeks ago, I was visiting with an elder in the mission field. During our interview, I inquired, “Is your father a member of the Church?”
He said, “No.”
“Is your mother a member of the Church?” he was asked.
He responded with a smile, “Just barely.”
I said, “Did your father want you to go on a mission?”
He answered, “No.”
“Did your mother want you to go on a mission?”
“She really didn’t care whether I went or not.”
“Who influenced you most in your decision to go?”
Without hesitation he said, “I did. I’ve always wanted to go, and I knew I could make a success of it.”
I looked into this young man’s eyes and said, “From what I hear and what I feel of your spirit, you will succeed.” He is a determined individual, one who months ago might have said, “My dad doesn’t care. My mother doesn’t care. Why should I care?” This wonderful missionary knows the importance of going forward and has the courage to continue in the paths that lead to happiness. He admitted to me that he once was lost, but now he definitely knows where he is going and how to get there.
During a visit to a juvenile detention home some months ago, my attention was drawn to three young girls who were visiting with each other just prior to our religious service. They appeared to be ten to twelve years of age. I found later they were being detained for a few days to see if some problems could be resolved. As I was waiting to participate with them and others in the services, they seemed to be involved in serious conversation. “What could they be talking about?” I wondered to myself. My curiosity prompted me to step closer to them for a chance to catch a few of their words. I was moved when I heard one of the girls raise this question to her friends: “I wonder if someone will come today who will want to take me home. It would be fun to live with someone who wants me.”
Here was a ten-year-old who wasn’t wanted. Her parents had given the impression to those in charge that they were pleased when she was confined, because they were then free from putting up with her. What a pleasure it was later to learn she had been placed by licensed social services agents of the Church in a new home, adopted, loved, and was receiving parental direction. Loving foster parents are now helping her find her way in the warmth of family unity and oneness.
Many drug abusers are desperately trying to find their way back today. The road is difficult, the challenge tremendous. I am pleased to report many are making it, thanks to friends and volunteer members, priesthood bearers, who are concerned, care, and understand. Very often our glances, our indifference, our hasty comments and lack of patience convey the message, “You are hopeless. You can’t get back from here. You are too far down the road.”
After visiting with one of our young women who has been lost to drugs for many months, her only encouraging remark after more than three hours of sincere communication was, “Thanks for not chewing me out.” Two visits later she asked, “Do you think I would make a good schoolteacher?” To a sincere yes, she said, “Thanks, I’ll try. I’m only three semesters away from getting my teaching certificate.” This girl is making it back. Someone believes in her. Someone has convinced her she can get there from here. The trip she is on this time will bring her back home.
May I this day challenge all of us as priesthood bearers, young and old, to vigorously locate and lead those who have temporarily strayed. Let us lead them by our example, love, and persuasion. They deserve our help. They want our direction. They need our love. You priesthood bearers this night, honor your priesthood, build yourself by stooping to help someone who has temporarily lost his or her way. Remember that powerful truth found in Matthew 23:37: “… how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” [Matt. 23:37]
With your indulgence, I would like to repeat that quotation once more and add just two words of admonition: “… how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not help me!”
How many of us are actively helping the Lord gather his flock? How involved are each of us in the responsibilities of our priesthood? How many of us are helping as high council advisers, professional resource volunteers, and helpers with innate skills to our fellow members who need us? When our Savior declared, “If ye love me, feed my sheep” (see John 21:16), he wasn’t referring to just those found safely in the fold. I declare to all of us tonight, he needs our help in finding the lost and bringing them back.
The field is white, ready for harvest. The lost want to know how to get back. They want to be shown they can get there from where they are. Let us not give up. Let us not tire. Let us not weary.
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Gal. 6:9.)
Jesus set the pattern for us in his invitation, “Come, follow me.” I think it is significant our Savior Jesus Christ declared, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” rather than “He that hath heard me hath heard the Father.” The example bore witness. The life was the sermon. The life was the way.
I bear witness to you this day that God lives and this is his work, and that, Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I also bear witness that by doing his will and keeping his commandments, we can share in that great joy found in Third John: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (3 Jn. 1:4.)
And I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Official Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
© 2013 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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Survey: Americans Want Denser, Smaller, Closer Housing
Nothwithstanding Brian's post New Population Maps Show Americans are Still Moving to the 'Burbs, which covered the movements of a full decade, more recent surveys tell a different story. Richard Florida writes about a new survey conducted for the National Association of Realtors:
When selecting a community, nearly half of the public (47%) would prefer to live in a city (19%) or a suburban neighborhood with a mix of houses, shops, and businesses (28%). Another four in ten (40%) would prefer a rural area (22%) or a small town (18%). Only one in ten (12%) say they would prefer a suburban neighborhood with houses only.
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I've never heard of The Cheesecake Factory, but apparently you can order miso salmon (in cheesecake form?) there. Sounds gross, but it's actually not, according to people who've eaten there. The problem is it's laden with calories...1,673 to be precise. The other problem is that it tastes good, which is a problem because, as Ezra Klein points out, it's hard to get people to stop eating things that taste good.
This looks like it tastes good.
Ever wonder about the nutritional benefits of nuts? Here they are, in a nutshell.
It turns out that convenience foods aren't all that convenient.
Look, Bazu's giving away a cookbook!
This is my beef (sorry!) with vegetable gardens. Most people do not have the time, inclination, proper soil, or knowledge to successfully grow vegetables at home. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with supermarket carrots.
Looking for a recipe for ginger ale? No, I wasn't either.
Why you should eat your crusts.
The Washington Post food writer thinks you can be a vegetarian except for a burger once in a while from Five Guys. How about if you make it a veggie burger?
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A state of emergency has been declared and the National Guard has been called in to fight a destructive wildfire burning in a resort area outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern Tennessee.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency announced early Monday that the State Emergency Operations Center had activated to Level 3 -State of Emergency as a result of the wildfire in Sevier County that has destroyed at least 35 large rental cabins.
The Knoxville New Sentinel reported the 135-acre fire that broke out around 5 p.m. EDT Sunday and quickly spread with more than 30 fire departments across eastern Tennessee fighting the blaze.
Ben Bryson, a fire resources coordinator with the Tennessee Division of Forestry, said early Monday that the fire was contained and not expected to spread further at this time.
Two Black Hawk helicopters from the Tennessee Air National Guard were dispatched at 7 a.m. CDT Monday to begin an aerial survey of the damage and will air drop water from the nearby Douglas Lake onto the fire as needed, said Perrin Anderson, spokesman for Sevier County.
Some of the cabins destroyed in the wildfire were occupied with about 150 to 200 people, who were all evacuated, Bryson said. No injuries were reported.
Rain and thunderstorms are expected to aid in extinguishing the wildfire Monday afternoon into early Tuesday as a storm system moves across the area. The National Weather Service says up to one inch of rainfall is likely.
The exact cause of this wildfire is under investigation.
This follows another destructive weekend wildfire that engulfed multiple residential buildings in eastern South Carolina on Saturday, leaving dozens homeless.
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Improve Your Business and Yourself By Learning Better Money Management with Kawana Business Accounting Services0 Reviews
Proper money management is something that many small business owners have to struggle with, especially when they are still trying to get their feet wet as a Kawana business accounting service busin...
It's certainly tempting to wait until the last minute to pay your taxes, but you're actually playing with fire here, especially if you're not good at money management. When your taxes are due, you may not have any money to actually pay them. You can save yourself the headache by putting a portion of each payment you get in a separate account. Do this and you'll never have to worry where to get the money to pay your taxes every quarter because you've already got it saved. As a business owner, you'll be able to breathe easily each time knowing that you're able to pay your taxes fully and promptly.
You can help yourself by finding out how to keep your books. Don't neglect the importance of having a system set up for both your personal and business finances. You can either use basic spreadsheet or software such as QuickBooks. Budgeting tools like Mint.com are also an option. There are also many no-cost resources for those who own a small business to help them properly manage their bookkeeping. Your books are your key to truly understanding your money because they help you see what is happening with your business (and personal) finances. And if you simply can't afford to hire a bookkeeper at this time, you'll benefit from taking a basic bookkeeping and accounting class.
Just as you should track every penny you spend, you should track every penny that goes in as well. Whenever a client or customer pays you, record that payment. This is important for two reasons: one, you need to know how much money you have coming in, and two, you need to be able to track who has paid you and who still needs to pay you. When you know what your income is, you'll also be able to figure out how much taxes you can expect to pay and even how much money you should pay yourself.
When you know the right way to manage your finances, you can expect not just your business to improve but yourself overall as well. These are a few of the tips and tricks that will help you better keep track of your financial situation. When you've got your finances under control, you can expect your business and personal life to be a success.
business accountant kawana
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Experience spine-chilling thrills at some of the most hauntingly atmospheric houses and castles across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. With ghostly tales from centuries past, the houses, castles and abbeys of the National Trust are happy hunting grounds for an assortment of ghosts and ghouls. For a truly spooky Halloween, don’t miss these top 5 most haunted National Trust places:
Blickling Hall, Norfolk
The present Jacobean house stands on the site of the former medieval manor which was home to the young Anne Boleyn, whose unhappy ghost is believed to wander the grounds of Blickling in the form of the Grey Lady. Other ghostly residents allegedly include Sir John Falstofe, and Sir Henry Hobart, whose dying groans can be heard emanating from the West Turret Bedroom on the anniversary of his death.
Halloween, 27 October 6pm-9pm
Costumed mayhem and spooky goings-on in the house and gardens as Blickling opens after dark to celebrate All Hallows Eve. Suitable for families and brave children.
£9 per adult, £5 per child or £25 per family. Booking is essential, please call 01263 738030.
With centuries of history residing within its ancient walls, it is perhaps no surprise that Croft is reputed to be the most haunted house in the Midlands, with a total of seven spectres supposedly in residence. Of these, the most imposing is undoubtedly a 7-foot figure of a man clad in a leather jerkin, believed to be the ghost of Welsh freedom fighter Owain Glyndwr, from whom the Croft family are descended.
Halloween trails, 20 October – 4 November 10am-4.30pm
Take part in one of our spooky trails around the gardens; find all the clues to win a prize. Make sure you keep a look out for the bats in the castle!
Normal admission charges apply, plus £2 per trail. Booking not needed.
Evening ghost tour, 31 October 7pm-9.30pm
Adults-only exclusive tour depicting the stories of Croft’s infamous ghosts followed by supper and wine. £20 per person.
For booking and more information, please call 01568 780246.
Set in the middle of this eighteenth century landscape park is Newton House which, it is rumoured, is haunted at night by Lady Elinor Cavendish. Lady Elinor was betrothed to a man she didn’t love and to escape him she sought refuge with her family at Dinefwr, but she was followed by her enraged suitor who then strangled her to death.
Staff believe that there is a presence still haunting the house. Lights switch themselves on and off, muffled voices reverberate around empty rooms and from time to time there is the unmistakeable aroma of pipe or cigar smoke.
History and hauntings, 31 October 7pm – 11pm
Learn the history and ghostly goings at this spooky event at Dinefwr. Join staff for an evening of darkness, led by torchlight around the house, learn the history and haunting stories behind the property.
Normal admission charges apply. Booking not required. For more information please call 01558 825918.
Hughenden Manor, Buckinghamshire
With such strong personalities as Benjamin Disraeli and his wife Mary Anne as its most famous inhabitants, perhaps it is no surprise that they appear to have imprinted themselves on the house. On numerous occasions visitors have glimpsed ‘Dizzy’ Disraeli near the portrait at the foot of the stairs, many assuming he is a costumed actor or interpreter until they realise that the figure has mysteriously ‘dissolved’. Female visitors have also reported him grinning at them from this very spot.
Hallowe’en witchery, 27 October – 4 November 11am-4pm
Spooky activities for all the family. Wear your creepiest costume!
Normal admission charges apply. Booking not needed.
Haunted Hughenden, 28, 30 and 31 October 5.30pm-6.30pm
Explore Hughenden by night with the resident house manager and learn of the spooky happenings in the manor. Includes a spooky-themed tea.
£10 per adult and £8 per child. Booking is essential.
For more information, please call 01494 755573.
The largely late-Victorian house has long had a reputation for being haunted by an impressive variety of ghosts. A dapper gent wearing Victorian clothes complete with a top hat is frequently glimpsed; there is a grey lady, and a man supposedly hanged by the Royalist army during the Civil War. In addition there are accounts of sudden whiffs of cigar smoke and the sounds of children’s laughter in other rooms.
Spooky garden trail, 27-31 October 10am-5pm
Prize trail in the garden with a spooky theme. Pick up a trail from the gatehouse…if you dare!
Booking not needed. £1.50 per trail.
Lamplight tours, 19 and 26 October 7pm-10pm
Join the Victorian tour guides for a ‘pre-electricity’ tour around the house and meet some spooky past occupants…
Booking is essential. £15 per person, including a two-course supper in the restaurant.
For more information, please call 01208 265950.
For more information about National Trust haunted houses and days out, visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit.
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Thee nation’s thoroughfares were significantly safer in 2012, with the fewest
traffic fatalities in 50 years, the Transportation Ministry announced on Sunday
As of December 30, there had been 290 deaths in traffic
accidents, a 24 percent drop from the 382 in 2011.
Minister Israel Katz, speaking at the ministry’s annual road safety press
conference, set the goal of becoming one of the world’s top five countries in
road safety by 2018.
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JBS S.A. announced Friday that it has terminated the acquisition process of National Beef Packing Co. LLC, effective Feb. 23.
In a statement, the Brazilian beef giant said all related litigation with the Department of Justice also will be terminated.
JBS announced its intention to acquire National Beef on March 4, 2008. The Department of Justice filed a suit to block the deal on Oct. 20, 2008, on competition grounds. "JBS endeavored to encounter a solution with the parts involved, but in the absence of satisfactory conditions decided not to follow on with the acquisition," the company statement said.
JBS became the No. 3 U.S. beef producer in October 2008 when the DOJ approved its purchase of the beef operations of Smithfield Foods, which included four beef plants and the Five Rivers Ranch cattle-feeding operation, but held back on approving the National Beef deal. The company had been negotiating with the agency to try to work out a compromise since.
Focus on efficiency. JBS said it will continue to pursue further efficiencies at all its other units within the United States, which consist of eight cattle slaughter plants with a daily capacity of 28,100 head; three pork slaughter plants with a daily capacity of 47,900 head; 11 cattle feed yards in six states; a case-ready plant and a lamb slaughter plant as well as related operations in Australia, Italy, Argentina and Brazil, where its headquarters are located.
BS S.A. is currently the world's largest beef producer and exporter with a daily slaughter capacity of 65,000 head of cattle per day and the largest global exporter of processed beef. The company's operations include 22 plants located in nine Brazilian states, six plants located in four Argentine provinces, 16 plants in the United States, nine in Australia and 10 in Italy.
Opposing groups are pleased. Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America is pleased that JBS has abandoned its bid to take over National Beef
Organization for Competitive Markets Executive Director Fred Stokes said this news is extremely welcome and represents a very positive start on what will be a long, hard fight to restore competition to the U.S. cattle market that has already been lost due to previous mergers which resulted in the U.S. cattle market being one of the most concentrated markets in the U.S. economy.
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A few weeks ago, Steve Edwards and the Afternoon Shift talked about urban walkability with WBEZ blogger Lee Bey and Melody Geraci, Deputy Director of the Active Transportation Alliance. “A walkable city has a few different elements,” Geraci said, “compact land use and mixed land use.” They talked about everything from creating development around transportation nodes, expansion of light rail, the health benefits of pedestrianism. “We need to use that awful d-word density of people and of place and they need to be mixed up,” she said.
The question is, what is so attractive about these mixed-up neighborhoods, and is it a trend that will last? It was less than two decades ago that having a car and a garage in the suburbs to park it in was the hallmark of affluence. We’ve all seen the episodes of Mad Men in which Don Draper cruises to the park with his family in a new convertible, the epitome of the modern man.
The dream, however, might be changing. Walkability in a neighborhood has long been a desire of those who consider themselves urbanists (though the majority of people are still living in suburbs). A new study out of the Brookings Institute, however, explores whether the re-urbanization of city centers and broader cultural shift towards diverse-use, walkable neighborhoods might be permanent.
Christopher Leinberger, co-author of the new report along with Urban Imprint president Mariela Alfonzo, is a firm believer that the field of urbanism lacks the quantifiable, underlying principles that other sciences have. With his study of metropolitan Washington, DC, he hoped to find a way to prove that an important change was taking place in neighborhoods that city dwellers “basically threw away” twenty years ago. When they abandoned those neighborhoods, Leinberger said, boomers move to the outer suburbs, but now they want that walkable lifestyle back, and what’s important is that they’re willing to pay for it.
It starts with a cultural anchor, like a church with a big congregation. Then, through urban entertainment venues like restaurants, theaters and bars, the neighborhood will begin to draw visitors from throughout the region. As people begin to populate the street, those visitors will increasingly consider moving to a more dynamic place, somewhere they don’t have to drive to the grocery store, or where they can meet their neighbors on the sidewalk. The infrastructure and public policy that is needed to abutt and sustain this kind of neighborhood is sure to follow.
Chicago magazine’s Dennis Rodkin, who will join Leinberger in a discussion about property values in walkable cities on Monday on Eight Forty-Eight, says one of the best ways to promote walkable cities is simply to walk. “You’ll be walking to the store for a gallon of milk and ask, Why is there no sidewalk here?” Rodkin points to South Loop industrial corridor development along Roosevelt Road as proof that the times are a-changing. He'll also highlight areas like Libertyville, Oak Park and Lakeview whose density provided them some respite from plummeting housing prices during the recession.
When he began writing about real estate in the late 1980s, Rodkin said, nobody would have dreamed of putting a Target or a Whole Foods or new condos along what used to be the crossroads of the American railroad. Now, he says, young urbanites are shopping at box stores where their grandparents once bought uniforms, fabric and shoes from small, specialty goods stores.
One man who experienced first hand how best to make these shifts a reality is former Mayor of Milwaukee John Norquist. Norquist brings his experience as a municipal leader to his position as President of the Congress for the New Urbanism. He'll explain how the CNU approaches the Federal Housing Administration in terms of creating the traditional, mixed-use development that the market is increasingly demanding. On Monday, he joins Brookings’ Leinberger and Rodkin in their attempt to figure out how to encourage the growth of valuable, walkable properties.
A correction has been made to this story.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated that Christopher Leinberger was the sole author of the report "Walk this Way:The Economic Promise of Walkable Places in Metropolitan Washington, D.C." The report was co-authored by Leinberger and Mariela Alfonzo.
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Trust me when I say that I am not a technically inclined person. I’m not one of those guys who has a talent for taking things apart and putting them back together. Some people have it naturally, and for that, I’m jealous. But I am not completely inept. And since I know I can save money with DIY projects, I’ve pushed myself to find ones that I can handle. Here are 5 DIY projects that I have successfully completed with positive results. If I can do it, I promise you can too:
1. Computer Repairs and Upgrades
If you told me 5 years ago that I would have to replace a hard drive in both a laptop and desktop computer, and add memory as well, I would have thought you were smoking something. If I have learned anything at all, it is that there are quite a few fixes that you can do internally to your system that are not only easy, but also nothing to fear.
How to do it:
My laptop hard disk replacement was the first computer “repair” job I ever did. I found a website that showed me where the disk cartridge was, unscrewed it, pulled it out, and replaced it. Afterward, I reinstalled the operating system, and voila! Just like a brand new system! The desktop hard disk was almost the exact same process.
Adding RAM was a different story. To be honest, it scared me. Luckily for me, there are a number of tutorials online that walked me through the process. It was actually very easy. You pretty much just plug in a new or additional card and you’re on your way.
Tutorial sites for computer repairs:
Potential Savings: $25-65 Dollars
I decided to call a local repair shop and see how much they would charge to replace a hard drive and upgrade memory if I were to provide the necessary parts. My quotes? $25 dollars (and two days without computer use) for the hard drive replacement, which includes re-installation of the operating system, and $40 dollars (also two days without my system) for the memory upgrade. I think I got a pretty good deal considering my computers are still running smoothly!
2. Changing the Oil in Your Car
Have you ever changed your own oil? Changed a tire? Replaced windshield wipers? These are things every car owner should know how to do. Over the years, with the help of others, I have picked up a few tips and tricks to take care of my vehicle. If you ask me, knowing how to change your oil is the most important one of all.
How to do it:
The oil change is simple. First, find your oil pan and drain the oil by removing the bolt at the bottom of the pan (be sure to catch the old oil for recycling). Reattach the bolt when flow has stopped. Second, remove the old oil filter. This filter will be recycled with your old oil, as you need a new oil filter on every change. You may need a special wrench for this step. Third, get the new filter and lubricate the gasket that attaches to the vehicle with new oil. Fourth, fill your new filter with the new oil (roughly 2/3 full), lube the rubber gasket on the filter, and screw it into the vehicle. Fifth, refill the engine oil and check the level using the dipstick. The optimum fill level is indicated on the dipstick. If you have to do this little by little to avoid overfilling, that is just fine.
Tutorial sites for vehicle repairs:
Note: When searching for “how to” on vehicles, use your vehicle model specifically to get the best tutorials.
Potential Savings: $5-15/visit for an oil change
I can get a new oil filter and 5 quarts of oil for less than $25 dollars. The least expensive oil change shop near my house charges $29.99 (with coupon). While they do include everything for a standard oil change (oil, new filter, and labor), it does not include all of the many “up-sell” products they push on you when you get your oil changed. That $30 dollars at the shop can easily rise to over $100 when if you let them persuade you into extra purchases, which are often unnecessary and can definitely be found for less money elsewhere.
Windshield wipers, tire changes, and other necessary vehicle maintenance items are also easy, quick, and painless DIY projects. Savings vary greatly, but there’s no doubt they can be significant.
3. Interior House Painting
We have painted our kitchen, living room and one bathroom. First, I must warn you, this is not a quick job. There is a lot of prep work necessary to get good results when painting. This is probably why professionals charge what they do to paint your house.
How to do it:
Pick out the colors you want. This is the only fun part of the painting process. Get all the necessary equipment, which can vary depending on the job, and prep the rooms to be painted. Tape all borders, move all furniture and fixtures, and make sure the wall is primed before applying paint. When everything is in place, cover every single millimeter of the wall and repeat. You want solid and flawless coverage, so use plenty of lighting and double check everything before packing everything up.
Tutorial sites for interior painting:
Potential Savings: Hundreds
Again, this will vary greatly from job to job. Our living room is combined with a small dining area, so the measurements come in at about 18×12. For a room this size, hiring a contractor would cost $300-$550. Our total cost for paint and all necessary supplies came in at just under $200 about two years ago when we painted.
4. Caulking Your Tub or Sink
A well used shower will likely need new caulking every couple of years. This job is a complete pain in the you know what, but the level of difficulty is pretty low.
How to do it:
First, carefully remove ALL existing caulk. Clean the area meticulously. You may need Goo Gone or a similar cleaner to get rid of all of the caulk and junk that builds up in the area. With your new caulk, which costs only a few dollars, cover the entire border and smooth over with your finger to create a seal that is impenetrable to water. When complete, you may want to go over it a second time to make sure there are no missed areas. When complete, let dry. This may take up to a few days, so if you do not have a spare shower, make arrangements to clean yourself elsewhere (or be prepared to be very smelly).
Tutorial sites for caulking:
Potential Savings: Only a few bucks
Okay, this project will not save you a whole lot, since you can get someone to do it for as little as $25. But the satisfaction of a job well done still means something, right? A bathtub-sized tube of caulk can be found for less than $5, so even if you butcher this job when you try it yourself, you can always hire someone without having invested much money already. My advice? Try it yourself!
5. Hardwood Floors
About 6 years ago, my mom decided that the carpet in her family room just had to go. After careful deliberation, she decided on hardwood floors, which are one of the best home flooring ideas.
How to do it:
Although there will be a bit of cutting involved (for sides and corners), most floors are made up of panels that either glue together easily, or click together. My mom used the click-together flooring. This type of flooring can be installed with a couple days of work. For more how-to specifics, see the tutorials. It is much easier to explain with pictures:
Tutorial sites for hardwood floors:
Potential Savings: Hundreds or thousands
If you end up doing more than one room, you could be saving thousands. My mom’s overall price tag came in at just over $500. When compared to the estimates of $1150-$1400 that she got at the hardware store, this represents huge savings. In addition to the massive potential savings, this project, more than any other listed here, can actually make you money since it is a great investment. If you were to put your house on the market with pristine wood flooring, it could add thousands to the sale price.
With all of the resources available for DIY projects, there is almost nothing that cannot be done. In fact, while researching this post, I got ideas for quite a few new projects that I will likely undertake in the near future. Step-by-step guides and videos make most projects seem simple, especially when you compare them to books or schematics that were necessary prior to the Internet.
You may have noticed that there are no plumbing or electrical DIY projects here (unless you consider caulking a plumbing job). This is simply a personal choice, as I do not like to fuss with electricity at all because my grandfather was electrocuted and plumbing is just not something I enjoy at all. That said, these jobs are pretty easy too and you may even have fun doing them!
Have you had any experiences with any of these DIY projects that went well (or were a disaster)? Any DIY project ideas that you’d like to add to the list?
(photo credit: Shutterstock)
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“Produce great content.” No doubt you’ve heard this phrase over and over again as content marketers bask in the sun of Google’s animal algorithm updates. You’ve probably even heard it from me.
But what is great content? It’s a dreadfully fuzzy term that often disintegrates into a less that satisfactory ‘I know it when I see it’ explanation. Maybe our focus on great is misplaced.
Instead of creating great content, create memorable content.
The definition of recall is fairly straightforward.
A measure of advertising effectiveness in which a sample of respondents is exposed to an ad and then at a later point in time is asked if they remember the ad. Ad recall can be on an aided or unaided basis. Aided ad recall is when the respondent is told the name of the brand or category being advertised.
Advertisers are keen on recall because it’s a measure of mind share and true reach. It doesn’t matter (as much) if your ad was seen by millions of people if no one really remembers it. Particularly if they can’t connect that ad to your brand.
Ads are just another form of content. So shouldn’t content recall work the same way?
Online, we can’t easily identify those who saw a specific piece of content and then ask them whether they recall it two weeks later. (Though that’s an interesting little product idea.)
Yet, the absence of this data doesn’t mean we can’t begin to think about what type of content is memorable. Bill Sebald wrote something that struck a chord for me recently.
I tweeted that out after reading another “top x link building tactics” list. A fluffy, chewed up piece of tactics we’ve all seen before. It didn’t claim to be written for beginners – which would have at least described the intended action of the content – but it was just more noise that wasn’t helpful for a reasonably experienced SEO. It was also praised in the comments and shared quite a bit … but so are the annual “SEO is dead” posts, and I’ve yet to find a new takeaway from that topic either.
I shared this post with a headline of ‘124 Reasons This Post Could Save the Internet in 7 Seconds‘. Because I’m tired of these cookie-cutter posts too.
Mind you, we see them because they do well by some measures. I’d argue it’s because of the perceived value and not the real value. Too often we think more is better. So getting 96 tips must be hugely valuable right?
I believe very few of those tips are actually read. People aren’t going to read all of them so they scan and maybe they think a few are good. But how many are really remembered?
I suppose you could argue that this shotgun method ensures that some of the tips are found. Users simply cherry-pick the ones that matter to them. But that’s a lot of work for the user. Instead, the Paradox of Choice kicks in, people decide not to engage at all and it gets sent to some read-it-later hell where it collects dust until it’s ultimately deleted or succumbs to bit rot.
Those long list of posts may get you kudos but I think it’s a ‘I should think this is awesome so I’ll say it is awesome’ type of reaction. Maybe that’s okay for you, but it isn’t for me.
Because it speaks to the real problem with this kind of content. If you didn’t read it you’re not going to remember it.
Can you honestly recall that specific list versus another one? How often are you trying to find a list of content you saw a few months ago?
Reading Is Fundamental
The first obstacle to memorable content is getting it read. You can’t remember something if you haven’t read and understood it.
While there’s certainly a component of reach involved (getting people to the content), I’m more concerned with whether those who actually view the content are truly reading and comprehending it.
That’s why readability is so critical. Making your content more accessible – more scannable – actually helps it get read. They might not read it word for word, but you’ll increase the chance of them reading important passages that will stick.
This excerpt on why we mangle quotes shows how the brain craves readability.
Our brains really like fluency, or the experience of cognitive ease (as opposed to cognitive strain) in taking in and retrieving information. The more fluent the experience of reading a quote—or the easier it is to grasp, the smoother it sounds, the more readily it comes to mind—the less likely we are to question the actual quotation. Those right-sounding misquotes are just taking that tendency to the next step: cleaning up, so to speak, quotations so that they are more mellifluous, more all-around quotable, easier to store and recall at a later point. We might not even be misquoting on purpose, but once we do, the result tends to be catchier than the original.
Don’t you want your content to be easier to store and recall? I sure do.
How We Remember
It’s not just about getting your content read, but remembered. Yet, memory is a tricky thing. Here’s an excerpt from UX Booth on the concept of ‘Roomnesia‘ applied on a macro-level.
Recent research suggests the Internet is becoming an external part of our memory and that we are experiencing “reduced memory for the actual information, but enhanced memory for where to find the information.” In other words, we can’t remember the name of the director of Memento but we can remember where to find that information. It’s easier to remember one “room” (IMDb) rather than the many actors and directors that inhabit our world. By delivering high quality content through a trustworthy website you help to make your site memorable as the store of relevant information.
The concept of remembering one “room” is incredibly important when extended to content marketing. Obviously you must be focused and stay on topic. A reader has to be able to easily attach a phrase to your content. How do you want them to describe that post to a friend? If you can’t do it in a sentence you’re in trouble.
But think about how this applies to guest blogging. What room am I going to put a guest post in? The one that provides the most cognitive ease, right?
So your post on the power of evergreen content on SEOMoz? Odds are that’s going to go in the ‘SEOMoz’ room and not the ‘author’ room. At some point you might have enough pull, but Rand and team have done a pretty stellar job of branding, haven’t they?
This isn’t just theory. You can see how this plays out as people respond to guest content. Mackenzie Fogelson recently blogged on John Doherty’s site. Here’s the first comment on her piece.
So even with prominent text telling readers it was a guest post, it seems like an engaged reader associated this content with John and not Mackensie. I don’t think this is the fault of the reader (nor John or Mack). It’s just cognitive ease at work.
That’s not to say that guest blogging can’t be part of the mix. If I didn’t make it clear before, find publishers that are in a different and complementary vertical. Content recall goes up since users are more likely to put that content in the ‘right’ room based on the unusual topic.
Even if they don’t, you don’t want a lot of competition when people are searching for or re-finding this content. It’s a lot easier to find a specific piece of content about SEO on Bloomberg than it might be on Search Engine Land.
Modified Branded Search
I’d argue that when we remember content we’re using a root modifier strategy. The root is usually what the content is about – the topic. The modifier is usually the room where you stored that memory – the author, publisher or brand. So our content searches look something like this:
“hacking Jeff Atwood”
“Old Spice viral video”
“scamworld The Verge”
You can measure content recall by looking at your modified branded search terms and traffic.
Are people remembering and associating specific content I produced with my brand? Now, mind you I’ve got some odd things going on with my name versus my brand and a brand that can include a number or a word but I’m following Tim Gunn’s advice and making it work.
Monitor these metrics when embarking on a content marketing effort. Is your modified branded search traffic going up? Are the breadth of terms in your modified branded search traffic expanding? What content (and syntax) is getting the most traction?
Memorable content leads to brand awareness.
I know that content has been memorable when it is spontaneously mentioned in another piece of content. The number of Tweets, Likes, +1s and comments all show a certain amount of popularity but it’s these mentions and links that truly matter.
It’s funny how this resolves down to contextual citations, the real backbone of most search algorithms.
Of course the link is nice but it’s the knowledge that it was read, understood and remembered that counts. Your content and brand is a meme of sorts and those spontaneous mentions show how far it’s reached.
My post about the decline in US desktop search volume wasn’t particularly popular in comparison to other posts. Yet I was able to get a spontaneous mention from TheStreet. That’s pretty awesome in my book.
That’s why this focus on numbers, on the volume of Tweets or Likes, may be a false positive. That minute of fame feels good! Gamification 101 right? It’s so good you might try to replicate it again and again. But producing 15 posts that meet these numbers adds up to 15 minutes of fame and nothing more.
Track spontaneous mentions (not total backlinks) as a way to measure the strength of your content.
Fill In The Blank
Gabriel Wienberg recently put a different spin on recall.
He’s the _______ guy. That’s the _______ startup. Isn’t that the __________ search engine?
Unfortunately, the way we are wired means we generally don’t like to put more than one thing in those blanks even though most people and companies would prefer more words.
In other words, people often make poor choices of leading characteristics. They take the path of least resistance, insert their own biases, repeat hearsay, etc.
Once again we see cognitive ease at work here and the importance of recall. Are you using your content to continually play to your leading characteristic? Do you know how people are remembering your brand?
Memorable content can help ensure the right words go in those blanks.
A real content strategy should be about storytelling. It should promote your brand (personal or corporate), message and value proposition. Not every piece of content has to do everything at once, but together they should be moving your brand forward.
I think about each piece of content as an opportunity to tell a story and reinforce brand.
It’s not that our memory is a glitchy wetware version of computer flash memory; it’s that the computer metaphor just doesn’t apply. Roediger said we store only bits and pieces of what happened—a smattering of impressions we weave together into feels like a seamless narrative. When we retrieve a memory, we also rewrite it, so that the time next we go to remember it, we don’t retrieve the original memory but the last one we recollected. So, each time we tell a story, we embellish it, while remaining genuinely convinced of the veracity of our memories.
While this passage from Scientific American is about specific memories I think it can also apply to your memory of a person or brand. I want to ensure that each new piece of content shapes how other pieces of content are remembered and retrieved.
Because not every piece of content deserves to have the same level of recall. They’ll have different goals and meet different types of user intent. Not every piece of content has to be some epic War and Peace tome. But they should all fit your narrative and help perserve or improve the memory of the content corpus.
We’re constantly rewriting the memory of that person or brand or site. Your job is to shape memory through content.
Have A Take, Don’t Suck
Recent posts seem to indicate that creating controversy or, at a minimum, provoking emotion is the pathway to success. To me this is focusing on the result instead of the product. The goal isn’t to make someone cry, create controversy or generate enemies.
Despite what you’ve heard, any press is not good press. Not only that, but usually those trying to force these emotions are far too transparent. (Remember, don’t feed the trolls!)
Instead, follow Jim Rome’s advice: “Have a take, don’t suck.” Have an opinion and back it up with solid reasoning and logic. Have a point of view, but make it your point of view, not someone else’s point of view or one specifically created to generate a desired reaction.
Don’t obsess about whether your content is going to elicit emotion, bring your own to the table. Create passionately not programmatically.
Great content is only great when it’s read and remembered. Track metrics that measure content recall so you can produce a content marketing strategy that ultimately leads to increases in brand equity and awareness.
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Even as organizations worry about attackers and cyber-spies going after sensitive data, a recent Ponemon Institute survey found that employees still have too many data-access privileges.
still fail to adequately manage user privileges and protect sensitive data,
exposing them to the risks of data breaches, according to a study from
Hewlett-Packard and the Ponemon Institute.
A survey of
5,500 IT professionals around the world found that more than half the
organizations were still giving employees access to sensitive, confidential
data they didn't need to perform their jobs, Ponemon Institute said in a report
released Dec. 12. The survey looked at professionals in a variety of IT roles,
such as operations and security management, in 13 countries, including the
United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
More than half
the respondents say they have access to company data beyond the scope of their
job requirements, the survey found. Examples included giving a network
administrator access to payroll data or a database administrator access to the
percent of the respondents admitted they would look at the data out of
curiosity. Many of the organizations did not revoke privileged access after the
employee's role or job function changed and they didn't need the data anymore,
the report found.
study spotlights risks that organizations don't view with the same tenacity as
critical patches, perimeter defense and other security issues, yet it
represents a major access point to sensitive information," said Tom
Reilly, vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Security Products
group at Hewlett-Packard, which sponsored the study.
often focus their defenses on stopping external intruders from gaining access
to sensitive data, often forgetting that an outsider who has breached the
network will look like an insider, a legitimate employee, Ira Winkler,
Codenomicon's chief security strategist, told eWEEK. Organizations shouldn't worry about who is trying to
penetrate their systems as much as focusing on how data can be compromised and
protect the data accordingly. In most cases, that involves managing who has
access to the data in the first place, according to Winkler.
business data" such as documents, spreadsheets, emails and other sources
of unstructured data were most at risk for snooping, followed by customer data,
according to the survey. Mobile, social media and business-unit-specific
applications were most targeted. The findings are consistent with a recent
Symantec report on malicious insiders who steal corporate data. Business
information-such as billing information, price lists and other administrative
data-was stolen in 30 percent of the real-world incidents examined in the
was often a "culture" problem, according to Ponemon Institute founder
and chairman Larry Ponemon. "Somehow, privileged users think they have a
right to access," Ponemon said. In the study, 68 percent of respondents
said they were "empowered" to access sensitive data.
About a third
of the respondents said access-governance policies are in place and strictly
enforced. Few organizations had the technology in place to control access or
manage how data-access privileges are being used, according to the report.
percent of respondents said their organizations have technology-based identity
and access controls to detect when root-level or system administration access
rights are being shared among users. About 24 percent of the survey responders
said their organizations combined technology with a business process to control
user access. However, 15 percent of the professionals in the survey admitted
that access was not really controlled within the organization, and 11 percent
said they couldn't detect when access rights were being shared.
percent of respondents said a security information and event management (SIEM)
platform was critical to governing, managing and controlling privileged user
access rights, the survey found. However, the high cost of monitoring and the
difficulty in validating changes to a user's access rights made proper
privilege management a challenge, according to HP.
had difficulty keeping pace with change requests and had inconsistent approval
processes, the survey found. It was also necessary to improve how they
identified policy violations and enforced policies across all business units.
There also seemed to be some disagreement as to who was in charge of user
access management, with 47 percent saying IT was responsible for granting
access rights and 40 percent saying the responsibility belonged to the business
positive note, these organizations were revoking access rights as soon as the
employees quit or were laid off, the survey found. Only 17 percent of the
respondents thought it was likely that the former employee would continue to be
able to access data.
The risk to
the organization caused by the incorrect levels of access being granted to
employees would increase over the next 12 to 24 months, according to 42 percent
of respondents in the survey. An equal number of users said the risk would not
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Conflict over special-needs scholarship law on hold for now
BY KIM ARCHER World Staff Writer
Monday, November 05, 2012
11/05/12 at 7:36 AM
Controversy over a law that allows the use of public funds to send special-needs students to private schools may have died down for now.
But it likely will flare up again if, or when, the Oklahoma Supreme Court decides to consider the case.
Rep. Jason Nelson, R-Oklahoma City, and author of the legislation, recently told the Tulsa World that he has heard little about when the court might consider the case.
"I've not heard a thing. Even speculation has ceased at this point," he said. "Some attorneys I've visited with aren't surprised at the pace of the appeal and expect that the court will hear oral arguments later this year or early next year. But no one I've talked to really knows."
Former Gov. Brad Henry signed the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Act into law nearly 2 1/2 years ago. The law was named after his infant daughter who died from a rare neuromuscular disease.
So far this year, 188 students are in private schools using the vouchers, up from 149 students who participated in the program last year, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
Last year, the state spent $969,166.07 of common education funding for the scholarships.
The department doesn't have current spending figures because it hasn't yet received invoices for the first quarter of the school year, said spokeswoman Tricia Pemberton.
Since the law was enacted, public school advocates have argued it should be struck down because it violates the state constitution's ban on the use of public funds by private religious institutions.
Last month, the state Board of Education voted to add three schools to the list of those approved to accept the scholarships. Of the 44 on that list, only three are not religiously affiliated.
Educators also say the law siphons state funding from public schools that desperately need it.
The case began last year when Union and Jenks countersued the parents of five special-needs children to challenge the constitutionality of the scholarships act.
In June, a Tulsa District Court judge ruled the law was unconstitutional, yet left it in place until an appeal is considered.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C., later filed a brief with the state Supreme Court on behalf of the parents of five special-needs students who accepted the scholarships.
The attorneys, who are providing their legal services for free, argued in the brief that the law only would violate the Oklahoma Constitution's prohibition against using state funds for private sectarian uses if the aid "is used by the state to promote religion or to discriminate on the basis of religion. The Scholarship Act does neither. It is religiously neutral in every respect."
Attorneys for the Union and Jenks school districts filed their response two weeks later, arguing the state constitution authorizes the Legislature to fund a system only of free public schools.
The law, they wrote, diverts public funds from public schools "and into a competing system of private schools that are not open to all the children of the state."
House Bill 3393 timeline
June 2010: Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Act, or House Bill 3393, is signed into law.
Fall 2010: Broken Arrow, Jenks, Liberty, Tulsa and Union school boards vote not to process the scholarships.
Jan. 18, 2011: Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt threatens legal action against those school districts and individual board members if they fail to comply with the law within the week.
Jan. 24, 2011: Broken Arrow, Jenks, Liberty and Union school districts announce that they will sue Pruitt over the constitutionality of the law. They also vote to process scholarships under the law until a decision on its constitutionality is made.
April 2011: Twenty parents sue Broken Arrow, Jenks, Tulsa and Union school districts, alleging their special-needs children were denied private school scholarships in 2010-11.
May 2011: The state Legislature passes HB 1744, which transfers responsibility for administering the scholarship program from the districts to the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
July 2011: In light of that legislation, federal Chief Judge Claire Eagan grants the parents a stay so they can pursue "administrative remedies" through the state Education Department. Eagan also invites the school districts to file their challenge of HB 3393's constitutionality in state court.
September 2011: Jenks and Union school districts file a countersuit in state court to challenge the constitutionality of the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Act on behalf of all school districts. Their suit names the parents of three students in each district who participated in the federal lawsuit against the schools.
November 2011: A federal lawsuit filed against the Broken Arrow, Jenks, Tulsa and Union school districts by a group of parents alleging that their special-needs children were denied private school scholarships is dismissed at the parents' request.
March 27: Tulsa District Judge Rebecca B. Nightingale strikes down the law, ruling it unconstitutional.
June 15: Attorneys for parents of special-needs children file a brief with the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
June 29: Attorneys for Jenks and Union school districts file their response to the parents' appeal with the Supreme Court.
Original Print Headline: Conflict over special-needs scholarships on hold for now
Kim Archer 918-581-8315
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If anyone knows there's no such thing as a get-out-of-debt-quick scheme, it's Dann Berg.
At 22, Berg graduated from the University of Hofstra armed with a shiny new diploma, the whole world at his feet and $21,000 in credit card debt.
After four grueling years of skipping meals and doubling up on the job front, he's managed to pay off not one but five credit cards.
"I made a deal with myself that during college I was going to spend and spend and spend and afterwards I was just going to pay it all off," Berg told BI in an interview Monday. "I decided enough was enough."Wake up call
Like most students, Berg dug himself into debt one small purchase at a time––the occasional meal out, keeping his gas tank full and splurging on a few gadgets.
"It was my senior year that I finally started to realize the hole I had dug myself into," he said. "I thought, am I going to have to file for bankruptcy?"
With few job prospects to match his creative writing degree, Berg knew he couldn't afford the $600 monthly payments without help. So he turned to his Long Island, N.Y. credit union, which pointed him in a direction he hadn't considered before––a debt repayment service called Balance Pro.
The not-for-profit, San Francisco-based debt management firm bills itself as a financial fitness program, according to its website.
"They helped negotiate fixed payment rates for each cards and instead of paying each cards individually, I made one $500 payment to them and they dispersed it," Berg said.
Even with $100 shaved off his monthly bills, Berg said he knew things would be tight. He was so determined to be accepted into the program (good firms won't take on clients who can't comfortably meet their monthly payments) that he fudged his income and said his parents would be helping him out.
In reality, he was flying solo.
"It was rougher than when I was in actually living in college," he said. "I was often skipping meals."The simple strategy
Putting himself on a no-nonsense spending fast , Berg used a strict calendering system to time his debt payments––and got used to eating a lot of Ramen.
"The rent was due on the first of the month and I had my debt payment set up for the 15th," he explained. "I evenly spaced them so whenever I got a paycheck, whatever bills were in between that check and the next one I was able to pay off."
To put extra cash in his pocket, he took a weekend job managing the website for a Manhattan-based tattoo parlor and worked part-time at Hugo Boss.
"That $500 per month was so tough so many times," he said. "But I made it every single month and that's how I got to where I am."A somewhat happy ending
Berg made his final payment in June, but there's no picture perfect ending to his story. He's already run into one of the cons of debt consolidation––that little note credit reporting agencies tack onto your credit report to alert lenders you've sought debt payment help.
"I got declined for every single type of credit card," said Berg, who was looking to take out a new card to start building his credit. He settled for a $200 prepaid Capital One card that he reserves for monthly utilities and pays in full each month.
On the plus side, all the blogging he was able to squeeze in at his weekend job led to a full-time reporting gig for Laptop Magazine.
"I've paid (lenders) an extra $6,000 just in interest over the past four years," he said. "It feels great to not have to anymore."DON'T MISS: How this Olympic champion used minimalism to claw her way out of $80,000 in debt >
More From Business Insider
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The book that I wrote – “Climate Change: the Fork at the End of Now” –
Momentum Press (2011) – was written as “textbook for the general public,”
In academic terms: no prerequisites!
Yet, in my terms, it also means no preaching. The book is structured so that
there is almost equal weight and focus on the scientific issues and the social
issues that impact climate change, like population, economics and politics. The book
is anchored on data from organizations such as the World Bank, the Energy
Information Administration (EIA), oil company databases (mainly BP), the
International Energy Agency (IEA) American and International agencies such as
IPCC, NSF, World Bank, etc.
I tried to set up the book so that students could learn how to extrapolate to
the future without requiring that they be familiar with the details of exponential
growth (no prerequisites!!!) using concepts such as doubling time. They could
then actually use this skill to try to imagine what the world might be like when,
for example, an “average” Chinese citizen would be as “rich” as an “average”
American, based on current growth patterns. A chapter titled “What Can I Do?”
that appears toward the end of the book includes mainly activities like creating
personal energy audits and doing carbon footprint calculations.
At the time that the Hudson Falls meeting took place, where I saw “Paper Clips”
for the first time, the book was in print. It came out in June 2011 and since then,
I have been able to use it for two semesters in two kinds of courses. One is an “Energy
Use & Climate Change” course that is part of our Second Tier General Education
program. The other is a second year Honors College Seminar targeted at providing
Honors students with a taste of scientific issues and structured so that half
the time is spent in classroom education and the other half is spent on group
research (typically, three students per group) that focuses on issues in New York
In both courses, the students were asked to read the book cover to cover during
the first half of the semester and were then tested on the material in the midterm
examinations. The second half of the semester, in both cases, was focused on
related current events.
After I saw the “Paper Clips” movie, I started to think about how I could
individualize climate change and make it more personal for the students.
My first thought was that the best candidate that I had for an
environmental “Paper Clips” equivalent was the personal energy audits and
calculations of carbon footprints. I did try it in both courses.
The first hurdle that students had to overcome was to understand and handle the
broad spectrum of energy units that our energy bills contain. Once they learned
to handle the unit conversions, they could add up the amounts of energy from
various energy sources to figure out their total energy use and compare it with
the energy use of their friends and neighbors and with relevant averages in their
City, State, Country and, yes, even the world.
The second issue that they encountered was how to overcome the complexities
of the variety of living arrangements found in a city such as New York. To get
the appropriate information, they had to interact with their parents, landlords and
whoever actually pays all the electric bills. For the carbon footprint calculations,
they were not encouraged to go to the internet to get the “carbon coefficients” of
the various fuels. Instead, despite the fact that many of them had never taken
any chemistry courses (remember, no prerequisites), they had to learn the basic
principles of chemical equations. This included learning the concept of mole
and how to calculate the carbon coefficients from the basic chemical reactions
of burning the three most common forms of fossil fuels. They learned what
electricity is, the differences between primary and secondary energy sources,
and why a unit of electrical energy costs about three times more than a unit of
heat energy that we derive by a direct burning of fossil fuel. (Yes – they learned
the two laws of thermodynamics, but didn’t know they were doing it).
At the end of all this, they learned how and where they could save energy and
how much money those savings would produce. Now, they can also critically
evaluate advertising that promises them wonders by switching from one fuel
to another or one light source to another. I am now trying the concept on high
school students and eventually I hope to try it on middle school students, starting
with Whitwell, Tennessee.
These are my environmental “Paper Clips,” and I feel sure that learning how to
do energy audits made my students feel somewhat empowered and that they
were, in a real sense, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change, albeit on
a small scale.
My “dream” (likely unrealizable) is to try to follow Peter Finch in Sidney Lumet’s
film “Network” where, through the broadcasting network, he was able to incite
everybody to stand in front of the window or the terrace and shout, “I’m mad as
hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.” In the process, he gave a huge boost to the
rating of the network.
In today’s terminology, he was able to create what Richard Dawkins called
a “meme.” This was a “desperation” meme. I would like to use it to create
a “meme of hope.” The transmission of this meme will not be monopolized by
networks but will go through the educational systems – both formal and informal.
In my “dream,” the end result is similar – this meme of hope will be shouted from
the rooftops, windows, and terraces, from the tents, and from any other dwellings
throughout the world. In all languages, including braille and sign language,
people will be able to shout, “I can do my energy audit and calculate my carbon
footprint (zero is ok) and I am doing it right and helping the planet.”
Once we get even closer to this situation, it will be much easier to achieve the
global and local environment that Gernot Wagner so desires in terms of global
and local regulatory systems. In the process, everybody learns and we all gain.
With your help we will explore it further.
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Coalition Encourages Passage of 'Effective' Chemical Security Law
Philip J. Crowley, director of Homeland Security at the Center for American Progress, encouraged a House of Representatives subcommittee to strengthen chemical security in the United States during testimony on June 12.
Before the Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials, Crowley said he represents a broad coalition of organizations that have come together to support permanent, comprehensive, and effective chemical security legislation.
"Chemical facilities and their supply chains fit the existing targeting strategy of al Qaeda," Crowley said. "Insurgents in Iraq have made multiple attempts to convert chlorine gas tanker trucks into improvised weapons.
This is no longer a theoretical risk. Industrial chemicals are now part of the terrorist playbook. Business as usual is no longer acceptable. Our homeland security policy goal should be to reduce the terrorists’ ability to exploit chemicals as a weapon to the maximum extent possible," he added.
Congress passed an interim chemical security law in 2006 that has resulted in emerging Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards. CFATS improves the physical security of the status quo, but expires in 2009 and is not comprehensive, Crowley said. Drinking water facilities are specifically exempted from stronger security standards.
Crowley noted that H.R. 5577, while not perfect, is a more effective security standard and a good benchmark for drinking water facilities. It requires chemical facilities to evaluate alternative methods that can be employed to reduce the consequences of a terrorist attack. For drinking water facilities, this commonly involves a shift from the use of chlorine gas to liquid bleach. Facility operators are free to evaluate a range of options. Any action considered must reduce risk to the facility; must be performance-based, technically feasible, and cost effective.
The legislation focuses on the entire chemical supply chain, gives employees at chemical plants an important role in developing vulnerability assessments and security plans, provides important worker protections, and promotes proper training.
"Stronger security standards for drinking water facilities will involve additional costs. Our research at the Center for American Progress suggests that these costs are manageable, particularly taking into account potential savings, such as reduced requirements for security guards, protective equipment, emergency planning, insurance costs, and so forth," Crowley explained. "But given the uncertain budget picture that many cities and states are facing, the federal government must be prepared to provide substantial funds to support this legislation."
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In 1994, two major North American conferences (one at Elizabethtown College in June and the other at Goshen College in October) commemorated the 1944 publication of Harold Bender's Anabaptist Vision, an essay that articulated a modern appropriation of sixteenth-century European Christian radicalism to twentieth-century North American sectarian communities of Mennonites and Brethren. These conferences assessed the historical contingencies and future possibilities of the three points of Bender's Vision: discipleship, community, and nonresistance. Among the problematics that were highlighted in the Elizabethtown conference were the distance between Anabaptist radicalism and Mennonite sectarianism, the relationship of cultural and social practices to Christian faith and God's grace, and the place of the disciple in the church and in the world.
These are issues that have been under discussion for several decades with no clear consensus emerging on the best way forward. Indeed, these questions have been taken up quite differently by popular Anabaptist-identified scholars and writers in North America. Some scholars wish to recover Anabaptist zeal by maintaining a rigorous dualism between church and world and by priviledging the oppositional cultural practices of the believers' churches as the means of the world's salvation.1 Other scholars suggest that our historical situation differs from that of the Anabaptists insofar as the lines of distinction between believers' churches and the churches of Christendom are no longer necessary or clear, and that therefore the believers' church should forge alliances with the traditional Christian churches and their theologies in the war against secularism.2 Still others argue that the latter part of the twentieth century, like the early part of the sixteenth, constitutes a moment of historical possibility and cultural ambiguity which provides new relevance for the practices of Anabaptist discipleship, and which, unlike sixteenth century Reformation Europe, demands an acknowledgement of the believers' participation in and accountability to both churchly and non-churchly publics, and thus, which requires of contemporary disciples the integration of a multi-cultural public consciousness with a radical Anabaptist communitarianism.3
All of these proposals emphasize the narratively constituted character of both self and community, and all recognize the significance of social and historical differences for the formation of collective identities. In this sense, all of these reconstructions of the Anabaptist vision address the postmodern moment; that is, they presume the linguistic turn in intellectual and popular consciousness and they recognize the fallibility of reason as an arbiter of truth. But, as is often the case with postmodern theories of self and community, they are frequently taken to task for providing an inadequate explanation for radical personal and social transformation. Put in theological terms, cultural-linguistic models of religious and social identity are accused of not providing an account of the human experience of salvation by grace through faith in a God whose revelation transcends the narrow conceptions of reality held by individuals and social groups.
These questions of grace and transcendence are frequently articulated as a debate between evangelicals who insist that the experience of grace and transcendence is personally available to Christians as an act of salvation originating outside human culture and agency on the one hand and agnostics who declare that the ultimate reality referred to by the categories of grace and transcendence is always a contingent, historical construction of the human imagination and therefore unknowable in an absolute sense, on the other. The confinement of discussions about grace and transcendence to the boundaries of this debate is both unfortunate and unnecessary, if we are open to new learnings from postmodern social theories of human subjectivity and cultural consciousness. Postmodern descriptions of culture (particularly those who are trying to recover a Marxist or neo-Marxist project of emancipation) emphasize both the discursive foundations of the historical truths which guide human communities and the means by which members of such communities confront the limits of their discourses. To be sure, such postmodern social theories understand the ultimate inability of a given historical discourse about "truth" to fully constitute the world as the condition of possibility for the initiation of social transformation and emancipation from an unconstitutable "outside." In other words, a postmodern, post-Enlightenment conception of salvation would be suspicious of common-sensical and familiar experiences of "revelation" and "salvation," and would privilege rather the traumatic and surprising encounters with radical difference and otherness. Thus, in a religious appropriation of postmodern social theory, the category of "God" is returned, as it was in early Hebrew narratives about YHWH, to the linguistic space of the unrepresentable (at least unrepresentable through conventional narratives and preoccupations), as well as to the space of transcendence "outside" (but not independent of) cultural historical formations. This type of approach to God, grace, transcendence, and revelation, renders the old debates between traditional evangelicals and modern agnostics irrelevant, and it suggests new ways for the prophetic paradigm of Anabaptist discipleship to be articulated to the postmodern, multi-cultural global village of the twenty-first century. In what follows, I suggest three such points of connection between the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition and postmodern concerns which open new roads toward emancipation and salvation: peace theology, cultural nonconformism, and communal hermeneutics.
1. Mennonite peace theology should be brought into conversation with current discussions about the ethical relation to the other given the decline of modern assumptions about individual agency, the social contract, and personal autonomy. Anabaptist-identified communities came quite belatedly to the problems of professionalization, specialization, and pluralism that arose in modernity. Indeed, at precisely the moment when modern Mennonite institutions and communities have finally adapted more or less successfully to modern forms of social and economic organization, the modern world is itself encountering a profound crisis of legitimacy if not indeed facing its own end. Perhaps most importantly for Mennonites, the modern view of the self as an autonomous, free-floating agent has been challenged both in recent philosophical developments as well as in popular consciousness. It was this view of the self that Anabaptist communities struggled for centuries to resist through the development of organic and nonconformist communities of mutual assistance and accountability. The most profound expression of the Anabaptist opposition to free-floating selves has been the reappearance in different centuries and contexts of different forms of peace theology and practice. The commitment to peace, imperfect though it has often been, constitutes a challenge to modern conceptions of the self because it insists that selfhood is maintained not through autonomy from others but by seeking the well-being of others, even enemies. In other words, the self is sometimes saved by risking its loss. Thus, it would appear that Anabaptist peace theologies, which have often functioned primarily to justify Mennonite and Brethren commitments to pacifism, have an opportunity now to enter a broader conversation about the place of the other in the ethical constitution of the self.
2. One significant obstacle to participation in this conversation, it appears, is the sectarian residue still clinging to Anabaptist-Mennonite peace theology. Mennonite and Brethren pacifism has, for the most part, been articulated as part of a Christ against culture stance that views with suspicion the cultural practices and habits of the broader society. This suspicion has been productive as a negative stance that provides a prophetic voice to harmful cultural and institutional patterns located in the host societies. Yet this stance has also prevented Mennonites and Brethren from constructive and redemptive practices of solidarity and activism in the public spheres of government, the arts, the media, and the shopping mall, except as outside agitators or inside collaborators. There is a strong need for Anabaptist intellectuals to develop a nuanced theory/theology of culture which preserves the Anabaptist critique of cultural and institutional violence, yet suggests constructive ways for Mennonites and Brethren to engage in cultural and institutional activism from both within and without the contemporary public (and private) spheres of secular (and religious) activity. In this way Anabaptist communities can participate in the complicated (and often ambiguous) events of emancipation and salvation which occur in the midst of all human histories.
3. Another Anabaptist connection to postmodernity is the collection of theories and practices of biblical interpretation that have grown up in believers' churches around the general assumption of communal responsibility for "binding and loosing." The function of the gathered church in Anabaptist hermeneutical conventions is not a far cry from that of the interpretive community described in contemporary reception theories. Put simply, the court of reason is not constituted in Anabaptist hermeneutics as the final arbiter of textual truth; rather, it is the collective response to scripture performed by the gathered body that determines how the text is understood. The traditional Anabaptist emphasis on practice over proposition (obedience over assent) offers one program for reconstituting the means to truth after the failure of the Enlightenment valorization of reason as the primary mode of discernment. Yet Anabaptist disciples must take seriously the plurality of (often contradictory) truths discerned in the various communities to which they grant authority (occupations, nations, and secular and religious organizations, as well as the church). It is no longer sufficient to say that the church (in its local, gathered form) is always the final arbiter of truth. The church is often wrong and its sins are often prophesied against by non-churchly activists and discourses. A conversation between an Anabaptist hermeneutics of obedience and postmodern theories of reception and rhetoric can do two things: a) offer the church a way to reconceive its own fallibility and salvation through mutually redemptive encounters with other communities and their truths; b) offer postmodern skeptics a way out of cultural relativism vis a vis a theory of interpretation that emphasizes practice. These observations suggest that Anabaptist communities must pursue their salvation and the world's with an even deeper level of involvement in society than the admittedly brave steps of the past several decades have made possible. The work of investigating and reinvigorating the Anabaptist contribution and commitment to the public worlds of culture, politics, and religion can best be accomplished in the context of an interdisciplinary conversation involving a variety of discourses, genres, and media. Scholars and artists, pastors and presidents, writers and relief workers, all offer important perspectives on the problems and possibilities of an Anabaptist public theology. But because of the modernization of the Mennonite world, these persons are often housed in different departments, institutions, and locations which impede rather than encourage collaboration. Thus, there is a need for contexts which deliberately integrate the various knowledges, practices, and disciplines relevant to a new vision for Anabaptist cultural activism.
1.See John H. Yoder, The Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics as Gospel, (South Bend: U. of Notre Dame P., 1986) and J. Denny Weaver, Becoming Anabaptist, (Scottdale: Herald P., 1987).
2.Stanley Hauerwas took this position in his keynote address at the Elizabethtown College conference: "Whither the Anabaptist Vision?" See also A. James Reimer, "Towards A Theocentric Christology: Christ in the World," in Rodney Sawatsky and Scott Holland, editors, The Limits of Perfection, (Waterloo: Institute of Anabaptist-Mennonite Studies, 1993), pp. 95-109.
3.See Scott Holland, "God in Public: A Modest Proposal for a Contemporary North American Anabaptist Paradigm," Conrad Grebel Review 4.1 (1986), pp. 43-55. See also Gordon Kaufman, Nonresistance and Responsibility and Other Mennonite Essays, (Newton: Faith and Life P., 1979).
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Kiwi software company Bucky Box today globally launched software aimed at helping to level the playing field between small farmers supplying directly to consumers and large supermarket chains.
The web-based application was launched with local vegetable box schemes in New Zealand, Australia and Mexico.
Food-box schemes act as a go-between for farmers, by delivering boxes of fruit, vegetables or meat directly to consumers' doors.
Bucky Box helps food-box delivery companies to take care of the IT, administration and the operational side of things, including subscriptions, packaging and delivery logistics, plus billing and invoicing.
Bucky Box founder Will Lau said the software was simple, easy to use and received great feedback from schemes within New Zealand and internationally.
"The local food movement is already in full flight around the world especially in the countries where food has become highly industrialised."
Lau said Bucky Box held private trials with food-box schemes in Wellington and a small town near Sydney.
He said 200 schemes worldwide, mainly in the United States and Britain, had shown an interest in the software.
"We've differentiated ourselves from other sites because we're providing this software worldwide. Other sites are country-specific, so only people in the UK can use a UK site."
The team is also interested in trialling the technology in India to see if it would work in a less technologically developed country.
"It's cost somewhere between half and three-quarters of a million dollars to develop this."
He said most of this investment was made during Bucky Box's time with Wellington incubator Enspiral.
The company would donate two-thirds of its profit to local-food movement organisations, educators and researchers.
Bucky Box charged $19 per month for small start-up schemes which had less than 100 customers. Larger ones in first-world countries were charged $69 per month.
However, Lau said schemes in Third World countries, including India, would pay one-eighth of this.
"We're trying to make pricing as low as possible, while still making enough to optimise our business."
Most of the advertising was carried out through social media in order to "connect with our customers".By Siobhan Leathley
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Out of decades of making photographs, and thousands of images made, I can number less than a dozen efforts on my part at making this kind of photography. (I exempt from this photographs of my land art sculptures, because these are photos of sculptures, not staged set-pieces. Documents and new pieces of art in their own right: the sculptures were not made just to be photographed.) I prefer to work with discovery and exploration. I work almost entirely with found settings, found scenes, and if I direct a model to move within a setting, it is mostly to accentuate a posture or position the model has already found for themselves. It is more collaborative, I feel, than purely directorial.
Directorial photography is nonetheless a style of photography I greatly enjoy, in the hands of its masterful artisans, but one I have never felt moved to undertake seriously in my own work. I prefer to work spontaneously, in the moment, on location, and almost never stage models or events to accomplish a pre-visualized image. Certainly I validate that staged photography is a valid approach, just as is the photography of being-in-the-moment, which I practice much more often. (I also exempt still-life photography from this discussion, as creating an interesting arrangement of found objects to light and photograph, or draw and paint, is not the same thing as arranging a narrative tableau involving live models on a set or location.)
Some of the photographers who practice directed photography are Duane Michals (certainly one of my favorite photographers), Arthur Tress (whose photographs brought on this essay), Cindy Sherman, Bernard Faucon, Leslie Krims, Ralph Eugene Meatyard (another personal favorite, for different reasons than Michals), Richard Kirstel, Lucas Samaras, Clarence John Laughlin, Eikoh Hosoe, and others. I view George Platt Lynes and his circle in this light, too, although some do not.
Let's look at what directed photography actually is, as a practice and a means. Here's an excerpt from A.D. Coleman's Introduction to Arthur Tress' book The Theater of the Mind (1976):
All photographs are fictions, to a far greater extent than we are yet able or willing to acknowledge. Yet most of them still pretend to a high degree of verisimilitude and transparency, to the impersonal neutrality of windows on the world.
It is in the directorial mode of photography more than any other that the fictional nature of the photographic image is not only recognized and explored but openly declared as an active premise, a hermeneutical stance. This mode might most simply be defined as the deliberate staging of events for the express purpose of making photographs thereof—as distinguished from addressing oneself through the camera to an ongoing, uncontrolled external "reality."
Though you wouldn't know it from studying any of the available histories of the medium, the directorial mode of photography has a long, diverse, and honorable tradition. Yet for reasons which appear to have more to do with photo-historical politics than with scholarship and logic, certain uses (and users) of the directorial mode have been accepted as legitimate while others have been rejected out of hand. The basis for these usually arbitrary judgments generally boils down to the conservative taste patterns of the medium's heretofore dominant historians.
Thus it has been considered aesthetically permissible for the late Paul Strand to "cast" his book on an Italian village, Un Paese, by having the townspeople lined up and selecting from them those he considered most picturesque—but unacceptable for Edward Curtis to persuade American Indians to reenact rituals and events out of their past; valid for Edward Weston to arrange vegetables and nudes in static, pre-conceived configurations in his studio—but not for William Mortensen to use his studio as the setting for those mini-dramas which were the basis of his stylized, Symbolist allegories.
I'm sure some photojournalists would argue with Coleman about the fictional nature of photography: their purpose is to report, to present what happened, as nearly as possible, and to capture the moment. But there is still artfulness involved—and artfulness is artifice—after all, the photographer still chooses where and when to make the photo. There is no absolute objective eye watching all; it remains an artful choice, as to what to cover, and what not to. Editing is part of photojournalism, just as it past of reporting. Leaving out the details that are irrelevant to the story, or otherwise unimportant, is accepted without much thought as being just part of the process. So I think Coleman makes some valid points here, that are hard to just dismiss.
Also, as the post-modernist self-aware ironic consciousness has filtered more and more into the arts since Coleman wrote these comments, authorial mastery and transparency has become more suspect in general. There is almost always a question, now, as to whether the photograph can be trusted to be real, or not. Far too many photographic critics nowadays question everything, even family vacation snapshots, to decode them for hidden meanings, often as a criticism of the social status quo. (A priori political or ideological motivations, in other words, that color the critical results.)
Artifice is the root of artificial, and artifice is the craft of making art. Artists are artisans.
One of Coleman's best points is about the problematic distinctions that some historians have made between styles of photography, promoting one style as more valid than another. (It's hard not to see this as a swipe at Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, still the most influential and respected historians of the early American photographic movements and persons.) The point that styles of photography that are presumed to be purely representational nonetheless contain artifice is precisely the point that Edward Weston and Ansel Adams made numerous times, with their various comments that the finished print is not intended to reproduce nature, but rather the photographer's emotional response to what he or she sees. This point was repeated numerous times in their writings, as one of the reasons that photography must be considered to be an art, not just a technical craft. This is also why many people still feel black and white photography to be more inherently artistic than color photography: because it is more artificial. More fictional.
Coleman fails, though, in apparently criticizing Weston in opposition to other photographers, because Coleman misinterprets Weston's creative process. Weston didn't really stage events. While he did arrange vegetables on a table, when he was out photographing with models, he wrote in the Daybooks that his procedure was to let the models move as they wished, and asked them to freeze when he saw a composition or posture he liked. This points out the difference between discovery and pre-arranged tableau. Coleman is misunderstanding what Weston meant when he used terms such as pre-visualization: Weston was not planning the photograph before he ever took it, he was seeing in his mind's eye what the finished print would look like, as he snapped the camera's shutter.
Arthur Tress' series photography work involves the thought-out, frequently pre-arranged tableau; even locations were scouted in preparation, for some of his series. The photo-historic objection against Mortensen had more to do with his painterly use of the photographic medium (as did F. Holland Day and Edward Steichen) to illustrate subjects the same way they were treated in salon painting: this style of soft-focus illustrative photography was exactly what Group f-64, including Weston and Adams, were rebelling against.
The objections against directorial photography, historic and modern, often carry a moral flavor, rather than a purely aesthetic one. A lot of the criticism does come from disciples of the Group f-64 "photography is fine art" school; but it also comes from photojournalists, some of whom are purists about not manipulating the image, even to the point of including technical flaws such as blur and bad exposure.
Of course none of this escapes Coleman's first point about the very artificiality of the medium itself: it's all fiction, even if it strives not to be. Is there any such thing, really, as non-fiction, in any of the arts? If you take this viewpoint to its limits, non-fiction can't exist because all arts, including reportage, are engaged in by humans, who filter information through their own perceptions. There can be no objectivity, ever, in this viewpoint.
This has been taken up in the post-modern critical climate to negate any possibility of critical objectivity: everything is relative, everything is subject to personal taste, everything is subjective, and everything is affected by the local cultural context in which it was produced. This is valid in terms of reclaiming local origins for all art-making and cultural creativity—local as opposed to imperial, and thus a way of re-empowering the formerly or still oppressed—but there is a tendency in this critical trope to discard any notion of the human urge towards universality: to also find those ways in which we are alike, rather than different. Commonalities abound, even between peoples who have language or culture in common: we all live, we all die, we all have emotions to one degree or another, and many of those emotions are sparked by the same stimuli in life—love, sex, envy, hurt, wounds, joy, ecstasy, spiritual experience, what have you. We share some things simply because we are the same species.
The unfortunate result of the post-modern subjective relativistic stance is that we are not supposed to agree that we might agree on some things. We are not supposed to be able to see ourselves in the Other, because we are all too different, too alien to one another. This is obviously absurd. There are those of us who revel in our mutual diversity without ever losing sight of our shared commonalities. Two mothers who have both lost sons, on opposite sides of a war, can come together in their mutual loss and begin the peace process.
Coleman's second paragraph above is the best working definition of directorial photography that I have found. It is fitting that it's to be found in a book of Arthur Tress' photographs. Tress is a master of this style.
My favorite book of Tress' is The Dream Collector, in which the photographer helps the children whose portraits he is taking reenact their dreams and nightmares, using settings, props, and acting to replicate their dreams, visions, and fantasies. The resulting photographs are both humorous and disturbing, beautiful and terrifying, sublime and outrageous. The dream-logic that arises from the archetypes of the deepest parts of the mind has, since the Surrealists and before, been fodder for shock, surprise, awe, and funny juxtapositions in art, for a long time.
Some of the dreams that Tress helps the children reenact are disturbing for adults to see, and Tress has taken heat for this. Adults all too often sentimentalize children, having forgotten or repressed their own childhoods, and want kids to be passively innocent dolls, with no dark sides, no terrors, and no nightmares. We censor scary stories that kids love: but kids know better than adults that it's all pretend, delicious instead of abusive. Tress retains a certain amount of his own childlike wonder in all his photography, which is perhaps why these photos work so well. Clearly they are collaborative. The directorial element in The Dream Collector is perhaps more that of a produce than a director: someone who facilitates the work, rather than dictating it. Tress is, after all, recreating the dreams that the children told him about, who then reenact their dreams for the photograph.
Tress' Theater of the Mind contains a classic photograph that I have never been able to forget. It's one of those iconic images that goes so deep, it seems amazing that no-one thought of it before. This photograph is titled "Bride and Groom." The setting is a bombed-out church nave. A man stands in the wreckage, posed. On his right side, he wears a formal black groom's suit, including tophat and tails, and his hand is raised as though swearing an oath. But on his left side, he is wearing a bride's white dress, and holding out the skirt with his left hand. In one person is united the male and female, bride and groom.
This is nothing if not the sacred wedding, the marriage of opposites in one person, that C.G. Jung wrote about in his late books such as Psychology and Alchemy. The union of opposites. The merging of genders. I do not know if Tress had all of this in mind beforehand, but it is all there in the photo.
The setting appears to the ruins of civilization. There is something symbolic about that: after the fall of everything, then the man the woman shall be one. This is echoed in the Gospel of Thomas, a Gnostic gospel found among the papyruses discovered last century at Nag Hammadi:
Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom of heaven].
All this from one staged photograph.
That shows the power of how a photo can become something iconic, memorable, and archetypal. It is more than just an illustration of an idea. It cuts through the rational linear mind directly to the understanding, in the same way that a painting can bypass the intellect and go directly to the heart's meaning.
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A paper claiming that a diet of genetically modified corn and/or a widely used weed killer increased the likelihood of premature death in rats has received strong criticism in the media despite an attempt by the paper’s authors to prevent reporters from giving it proper scrutiny.
In late September, French scientists published research in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology that described the supposedly deleterious effects of the herbicide Roundup, and corn that has been engineered to be Roundup-tolerant. Access to the embargoed paper prior to publication—a norm in science journalism—came with an unusual condition, however: Journalists had to sign a confidentiality agreement that prevented them from sharing the paper with experts for evaluation, which is the basic reason for having an embargo system in the first place.
Embargo Watch’s Ivan Oransky exposed the shenanigans based on a series of early reports from European news agencies like AFP, Reuters, and the BBC, which mentioned the agreement. But the first two of those outlets, which apparently accepted the French scientists’ terms (the BBC said thanks, but no thanks) caught hell from science journalist Carl Zimmer. On his blog at Discover, The Loom, he wrote:
This is a rancid, corrupt way to report about science. It speaks badly for the scientists involved, but we journalists have to grant that it speaks badly to our profession, too. If someone dangles a press conference in your face but won’t let you do your job properly by talking to other scientists, WALK AWAY. If someone hands you confidentiality agreements to sign, so that you will have no choice but to produce a one-sided article, WALK AWAY. Otherwise, you are being played.
Zimmer’s absolutely right, of course, and those early articles, though not totally uncritical, were among the weakest from the mainstream media. The lack of scrutiny did not endure for long, however. The London-based Science Media Centre, which helps reporters find sources during breaking news events, quickly distributed a list of detailed comments, which many journalists quoted, criticizing the methods and conclusions of the ostensibly “alarming” paper, as the lead author reportedly described it in a conference call with the press.
Discovery News’s Emily Sohn provided what is perhaps the most detailed rundown of the research’s many alleged flaws, which included tumor-prone rats, their unlimited diet, the old age of the rats, the low number of test animals, the even lower number of control animals, and the fact that negative health consequences did not increase in-step with the dose of herbicide or genetically-modified corn, as would be expected. Similarly skeptical articles appeared at The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, and CBS News. (The New York Times carried an article that mentioned the various criticisms, but buried them at end.)
Coverage was far from perfect, however. Stories from McClatchy, the New York Daily News, and Food Safety News were downright credulous. And, in a sharp analysis for Slate, freelance journalist Keith Kloor called out Mother Jones and Grist for overplaying the study’s conclusions despite acknowledging its shortcomings. Making a keen observation about those outlets’ uneven defense of science, Kloor wrote:
The anti-GM bias also reveals a glaring intellectual inconsistency of the eco-concerned media. When it comes to climate science, for example, Grist and Mother Jones are quick to call out the denialism of pundits and politicians. But when it comes to the science of genetic engineering, writers at these same outlets are quick to seize on pseudoscientific claims, based on the flimsiest of evidence, of cancer-causing, endocrine-disrupting, ecosystem-killing GMOs.
At his New York Times blog, Dot Earth, Andrew Revkin called efforts to tout the paper Food and Chemical Toxicology in defense of anti-GMO positions an example of what he calls “single-study syndrome,” or “the habit of the more aggressive camps of advocates surrounding hot issues (e.g., climate, chemical exposure, fracking) to latch onto and push studies supporting an agenda, no matter how tenuous — or dubious — the research might be.”
It’s an effective tactic and despite critical coverage of the paper, the resarch has had a significant social impact. The Los Angeles Times reported that despite numerous accusations that the research was “seriously flawed,” it “was embraced by opponents of genetically altered foods, including backers of Proposition 37, which if approved by California voters in November would require most foods with genetically modified ingredients to bear a label.” And France’s Prime Minister has ordered a government review of the research, according to ScienceInsider, and will defend his country’s “right within the European Union to ban GM crops” if the results are deemed credible. [Update: According to an October 4 report from AFP, the European Food Safety Authority “said an initial review showed that the ‘design, reporting and analysis of the study … are inadequate,’ meaning it could not ‘regard the authors’ conclusions as scientifically sound.’”]
Those anti-GMO campaigns notwithstanding, most journalists seem to deserve credit for thwarting the devious attempt, feeble though it may have been, to prevent them from doing their jobs.
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A couple of weeks ago, I was a guest of the Indian Tea Association at their biennial convention which brings together producers, packers, researchers and government. My four day total immersion in the world of Indian tea was as educational as it was enjoyable. The old adage that, in the end, there is no substitute for going and talking to the people who work on the ground still holds true.
So what impressions did my trip leave with me? I guess the foremost thought would be about the scale of the opportunity unfolding in the Indian market to enroll new consumers into the wonders of tea drinking. The delegates were shown a string of powerful ads which promote the message that it’s cool to drink tea. There is obviously still massive potential in market penetration, growth and up trading, especially if tea is woven into the habits and lifestyle of the rapidly growing, urban middle classes. And it should be because the advertising glitz was also supported by more evidence of the health benefits of drinking tea. Fresh research from UCLA shows an unambiguous connection between tea drinking and the reduction of stroke risk. Drinking habits which support healthy lifestyles will definitely contain more tea and less calorie dense fizzy drinks.
But if demand and product credentials are on the rise, what about supply? Well the 2012 season has not been easy in India. The weather has been cool and pests plentiful meaning that yields will be at best on a par with 2011. After a period of strong growth, total production has been more or less flat for several years now. Climate patterns are not helping with Northern India in particular trending to be warmer and dryer. Whilst work to develop the smallholder sector has delivered good results, investment is needed to improve agronomic practice and replenish the ageing stock of bushes.
The employment model is under severe strain with labour shortages starting to develop as people flood into India’s booming cities in search of higher wages. The way forward to a more productive, better paid workforce is blocked by The Plantation Labour Act which was put in place 60 years ago. The Convention rightly identified that this to be in urgent need of reform. For myself, I find it amazing that we have a major industry here which is forbidden by law from improving its productivity by statutory employment quotas.
Encouragingly, this analysis of the challenges facing the sector came with clarity and frankness from the President of the Indian Tea association, Mr C.S. Bedi, speaking to the plenary session. The leadership knows that the tea plantation sector needs to be reformed in the coming years and much hard work – political, social, agronomic – lies ahead.
So where does all this leave the work of The Ethical Tea Partnership in India? Well, our philosophy of getting alongside and supporting producers is well appreciated. Our programmes to improve standards in health, safety and environmental management are showing results and we are bringing expertise on integrated pest management to bear on one of the industry’s hot issues. But it’s also clear from my visit that we can play a larger role. A couple of examples, our work on adaptation to climate change in Kenya may find some resonance in Assam whilst the experience we’re building with smallholder yields and quality in Indonesia could also prove to be valuable. We’re looking at both of these areas following the convention.
Speaking to producers about sustainability brings out a lot support for what we’re doing but also some frustration, not about the principles of sustainable supply – there seems to be strong acceptance that these are here to stay and provide part of the foundation for good plantation management – but about the multiplicity of standards now in play. This is a key issue for the ETP and its members as well as for producers. The practical issues to be tackled on the ground are complex enough without confusion over standards.
The ETP has therefore started convening the Tea Standards Forum, bringing all the standards and certification bodies together to improve consistency on key issues drive forward joint auditing and find ways of improving the value of sustainability standards to all those involved in implementing them.
Reflecting on all this took me back to core questions about labels such as “sustainable” and “ethical”. There are many angles here. As we were reminded at the convention, food products need to be part of sustainable lifestyles for consumers and it seems tea ticks all the right boxes here. So it’s imperative that the production side can follow the development of the market so as not leave consumers facing less healthy beverage choices. And as the market grows, it will be imperative that we make wise use of all resources – land, chemicals, people, energy. Improving productivity of these resources is likely to become an increasingly important emphasis of sustainable tea production in the years ahead.
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I was sitting in the cinema this week with my wife and girls settling down to enjoy Johnny English reborn, when my attention was immediately hijacked to the trailer advertising the coming of The Lorax in 2012…in 3D no less!
Dr Seuss caused controversy after the publication of this children’s tale several decades ago (I might add that it should become required reading for all adults too). The onwards march of industry in the name of ‘progress’ was most likely a desire shared by many, if not all, back in the 60s, but I wonder whether the ‘re-discovery’ of this tale in recent times will provide us with the prophetic jolt we so urgently require?
The short commentary below is taken from Charlie Hilton’s blog post:-
“The Lorax is a glorious creature, who embodies the environment and acts as the guardian of green. He is the “voice of the trees” and attempts to fight a lonesome battle against the giants of industry, the Once-ler. Overall, his message rings true to the folks here at Urban Times, as we also believe that without action, no solutions can be assembled…In the book, the arguments for and against big industry are largely simplified for younger audiences, but Dr. Seuss’ message was certainly not without controversy (in the 70s and 80s). Certain schools banned the work for attempting to put the logging industry into disrepute, and companies and government agencies were outraged with how they might be regarded after reading.”
The post is accesible at:- http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1LFnId/www.theurbn.com/2011/10/lessons-from-the-lorax/
Also well worth watching is the 17 minute narration of the story, no doubt a rather simpler production than the glorious hight-tech version we await next year! The youtube video is embedded in Charlie’s post above.
We have been warned to mind the trees…again!
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The Inevitable: Contemporary Writers Confront Death
Edited by David Shields and Bradford Morrow
Twenty acclaimed modern authors offer their thoughts on coming to terms with mortality.
What is death? How do we face it? How does it affect life? Those are the questions put before 20 contemporary writers, who each struggle to provide their own answers. Jonathan Safran Foer, Joyce Carol Oates, Annie Dillard, Terry Castle, Diane Ackerman, Geoff Dyer, and Kyoki Mori are some of the writers included in this smorgasbord meditation on the final event. Oates divides her life into the “before” and “after” periods punctuated by her husband’s death; Mori holds her mother's suicide as the reason she wants to welcome the consequences of her decisions. These writers see death as a biological reality that does not necessarily lead to a joyous rest or a fiery judgment, and Shields and Morrow's have collected what Kirkus Reviews calls “a wonderfully speculative patchwork quilt on the meaning of life and death.”
Pym: A Novel
by Mat Johnson
A riveting adventure novel that is also a cutting meditation on race, literature, and obsession.
Chris Jaynes is an American literature professor who, after losing his job, spirals into an obsession with Edgar Allan Poe's bizarre novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Mat Johnson’s latest novel gets just as strange when Jaynes decides to make a voyage to Antarctica, where Poe's story is set, in hopes of discovering the mythic land of pure and utter blackness that Poe describes with horror. Jaynes and his all-black crew find themselves cut off from contact with the outside world, and eventually imprisoned by Poe's frightening ice creatures. Library Journal praises Pym's “hilarious asides and footnotes” that make the novel a “genre-jumping work,” while author Colson Whitehead describes it as a “send-up of this world and the next.”
A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family
by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
A Chinese-Singaporean expat leaves behind fashion journalism in New York to revisit her culinary roots overseas.
Born in the Year of the Tiger, rebellious Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan left her home in Singapore to pursue journalism in America when she was just 18—but some 15 years later, she found herself yearning for her native country’s culinary traditions and the ambrosial meals that shaped her early life. Chronicling her quest for self-discovery through food, Tan’s A Tiger in the Kitchen is reminiscent of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, yet the author’s determination to master her grandmothers’ and aunts’ recipes also echoes the triumphs and struggles in Julie Powell’s Julie & Julia (Tan also maintains a blog, www.atigerinthekitchen.com.) Above all, A Tiger in the Kitchen is a tale of reconnecting with family and tradition—with the fried rice and flaky pineapple tarts that define Singaporean culture—and of food’s sensorial power to connect us to our pasts.
The Dark Side of Innocence: Growing Up Bipolar
by Terri Cheney
Following her bestselling memoir Manic about living with bipolar disorder in adulthood, Cheney gives us a poignant, enlightening view of her struggles with the disease as a child.
Terri Cheney was a bright, outgoing little girl with a loving family and a peaceful life in suburban Los Angeles, until she made her first suicide attempt at the age of seven. Thus begins The Dark Side of Innocence, Cheney’s painful recounting of a childhood and adolescence fraught with drastic emotional highs and lows. Pretty, intelligent, and popular among her peers, Terri struggled to maintain her daily life while repressing an inescapable inner pain. Desperate attempts to keep her turmoil a secret would backfire in frightening episodes of self-destruction, while neither she nor her parents truly understood the nature of her behavioral issues. Terri narrates her lifelong journey from the depths of despair to hope and treatment, providing an eye-opening account of a child’s attempt to cope with mental illness and the intervention she needed to survive.
In Office Hours
by Lucy Kellaway
A heated romp into the lives of two women who surrender to the temptations of illicit office affairs amid the pandemonium of financial crisis.
With biting wit and humor, Lucy Kellaway tells the story of a married female executive and a young associate and single mother who embark on steamy relationships with their coworkers at a global oil company. Stella Bradberry falls for her strapping young assistant, putting her marriage and job at risk as she gives in to sexting and elating quickies around the office and on business trips. Meanwhile, Bella is fooling around with her married boss in company conference rooms, and is forced to be the fourth wheel to his wife and another mistress. A satirical columnist for The Financial Times, Kellaway’s mastery of corporate language and sharp understanding of messy business environments makes In Office Hours not only a delicious pleasure but also an insightful depiction of the thrills and dangers of intimacy in the corporate world.
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- My Account
- Sell Art
Carole grew up in a small suburb with a large, eccentric cast of characters. She spent her childhood summers with her grandparents and an odd assortment of aunts and uncles in their poorly plumbed A-frame on the banks of a muddy creek in upstate New York.
At the age of nineteen, Carole struck out for New York City to find a different life. Her career at ABC News led her to the refugee camps of Cambodia, to a bunker in Tel Aviv, to the scene of the Menendez murders. Her marriage led her into the old world of European nobility and the newer world of American aristocracy.
What Remains begins with loss and returns to loss. A small plane plunges into the ocean, carrying John Kennedy, Anthony's cousin, and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Carole's closest friend. Three weeks later Anthony dies of cancer. The summer of the plane crash, the four friends were meant to be cherishing Anthony's last days. Instead, Carole and Anthony mourned John and Carolyn, even as Carole planned her husband's memorial.
Carole Radziwill has an anthropologist's sensibility and a journalist's eye. She writes about families--their customs, their secrets, and their tangled intimacies-- with remarkable acuity and humanity. She explores the complexities of marriage, the importance of friendship, and the challenges of self-invention with unflinching honesty. This is a compelling story of love, loss, and, ultimately, resilience.
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PUNE: Citizens group Pedestrians First, which has been working on road safety issues of pedestrians, has urged the Pune Municipal Corporation to take measures to prevent use of footpaths by two-wheeler riders.
Convenor of Pedestrians First, Prashant Inamdar said, it is usual to find two-wheelers being driven on footpaths to bypass vehicles waiting on road at traffic signals or to avoid detours on roads with dividers. We have long been demanding that bollards be put up on footpaths at all such locations to prevent entry of two-wheelers''.
Inamdar has sent a letter to municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak saying that the clearance between bollards needs to be less than the minimum required for any two-wheeler to pass. In case of cycle tracks, the distance should be sufficient for bicycles to pass. PMC has been installing bollards on footpaths at some places. However due care is not being taken to ensure that the purpose is being served'', he said.
The letter said that public money has been wasted in installing the expensive stainless steel bollards which have proved useless for the intended purpose. PMC should check and decide the specific distance that should be kept between two bollards to prevent passage of any type of two-wheeler. Suitable drawing and instructions should be standardised for the city and issued to all departments, ward offices and contractors'', he said.
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Senate Science and Technology Caucus Holds Briefing on Nanotechnology About three weeks ago the Senate Science and Technology Caucus had a roundtable on one of the most prominent S&T topics being discussed in Washington this year -- nanotechnology research. Several senators attended this briefing, which was somewhat like a hearing except conducted on a more informal basis. Appearing before the senators were Don Eigler of IBM, James L. Merz of the University of Notre Dame, Alton D. Romig, Jr. of Sandia, and Richard E. Smalley of Rice University. There was, as expected, much interesting discussion that afternoon. Passages from two of the presentations follow:
Richard E. Smalley, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry:
"The physical sciences (chemistry, physics, materials science) need a big boost. Funding in these critical areas have been flat for many years. As a direct consequence a severe shortage of bright young faculty has developed in these areas, and few young American boys and girls are electing to go into these areas in graduate schools through the U.S. But this is precisely the area from which the nanotechnology revolution will come. Chemistry, physics, and materials research are at the core of nanotechnology. These are the fields that discovered the atom and understood its inner workings, and developed the science of combining them in precise structures, and developed tools with which these nanostructures are probed and visualized. These are the fields that are developing the requisite fundamental knowledge, and the computational algorithms to realistically predict behavior. As nanotechnology develops, the critical, core areas of physics and chemistry in our nation's universities will become much more intimately coupled to engineering, to industry and society as a whole (Biotechnology is doing this now for large sections of the classic life sciences.) This greater relevance and higher-level funding will attract American youth to these classic core fields of science as never before. Trained in the physics and chemistry of nanotechnology they can reasonably expect to get high paying, high technology jobs that are of great social significance."
Don Eigler, IBM Fellow at Almaden Research Center:
"Why is IBM concerned about the federal government's role? Simply put, the job has got to get done and there is no way we can get the job done on our own. An economically viable and multi-industry era of nanotechnology will require a large knowledge base from which to grow, and a university-based infrastructure which produces well trained people. The federal government is the primary source of funds for university-based fundamental research. This research is the base from which new technologies are derived. This is NOT research that will get done in the private sector. The information technology industry does have a major R&D responsibility and it is investing heavily in R&D. However, competitive pressures cause the bulk of that investment to be short-term, and overwhelmingly devoted to the D side of R&D. Very few companies are able to invest in research that may not pay off for ten years or more. Despite this, the information technology sector has more than doubled its annual R&D investment over the past decade to its current level of about $30B. However, industrial R&D cannot replace government investment in long-term fundamental research. Federal and private research are largely complementary, not overlapping, activities."
Richard M. Jones
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Vettel problem revealed as sticking brake pedal
September 12, 2010
Posted by on
The problem which hampered Sebastian Vettel in yesterday’s Italian Grand Prix has been revealed as a sticking brake pedal, which slowed his car significantly for several laps, costing him a handful of places in the process. This was initially believed to have been caused by an engine problem, as Sebastian was complaining of a loss of power, but it has turned out that the brakes were slightly engaged while the car was on full throttle.
Sebastian Vettel's Italian GP was hampered by brake problems
At the start of Lap 20, Vettel first noticed the problem, which occured at the Parabolica corner the lap before. He lost several seconds a lap, and was overtaken by Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher. While the Renault engine technicians tried out several different presets to solve what they thought was a loss of engine power, the brake pedal became unstuck a few laps later.
Vettel later managed to jump past Webber, Schumacher and Rosberg thanks to staying out until the last lap on his softer tyres.
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Louise Brown is a Research Analyst for the International Financial Flows and the Environment (IFFE) project at the World Resources Institute. Her work focuses on governance within the context of international climate finance; in particular on developing effective and legitimate institutions and processes for the delivery of climate finance, both at the national and international level, as well as by multilateral development institutions.
Prior to joining WRI, Louise worked as an Environmental Economist in the Office of the President in Guyana, posted through a Fellowship with the Overseas Development Institute. There she worked with national, international and multilateral partners on setting up and operationalizing a financial mechanism to channel climate finance for avoided deforestation towards the implementation of Guyana’s low carbon development strategy. Previously, Louise has worked for economic and environmental consultancy companies in Namibia on a variety of land use and sustainable development related issues.
Louise has a Master’s degree in Environmental Economics from the University of York in the UK, where her dissertation focussed on modelling the economic impacts of climate change on commercial agriculture in Namibia. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Zoology and Ecology and a Major in Economics from the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
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This week we had the chance to interview Brooks Dame, the young and energetic founder of Proof Eyewear, a fashionable sunglass brand that's committed to doing good in the world through its social business model. One of their initiatives is providing sight saving surgery for someone in India for every pair of glasses sold. To top it off, their eyeglass frames are made of sustainable wood.
In the questions below Brooks shares more about where the idea came from, having sawdust in his veins, and his advice on going after your dreams.
6 Questions with Brooks Dame, Founder of Proof Eyewear
1. How did the idea for the business model come about?
I was in my garage trying to make bamboo ski poles. I couldn't get it right so I bagged that idea but knew I wanted to do something with wood. I just love the look and feel of wood. It has so many great properties to it. My grandfather also started his own business 57 years ago in Southern Utah and it was a wood business, a sawmill to be exact. That business has grown and is still in our family today, so I guess I have sawdust in my veins.
After stumbling upon a pair of vintage bamboo reading glasses, I thought, "Why not sunglasses?" So I developed my first pair of bamboo sunglasses and it expanded to other woods. We now have a ton of different wood options and six models with another one or two on the way.
2. How did you decide to join this sector?
I'm a big accessories guy. I love watches, I love sunglasses -- I think accessories finish off a look. They are also small and you can take them with you or pass them down from generation to generation if they are timeless. I think our Wood Sunglasses are timeless. The Sunglass industry is huge, but there are so many plastic sunglass companies. It needed to be shaken up a little bit. Enter Proof Wood Sunglasses.
3. How do you get your inspiration?
I find it in unlikely places. I find it in looking through vintage magazines, pictures and books. I find it in nature. I find it in other industries that you wouldn't expect. Inspiration is all around us. I get little pieces here and there that just get me excited. A closed mind is an uninspired mind. I think keeping your mind open to new ideas and concepts helps you push things to the next level.
4. How do you reset yourself to be creative? Do you have any rituals?
I think it is good to stop what you are doing every once in a while. Push back from the table. You want to do it before you hit a wall. Go do something for you. Go do something you like. I like to recharge by just doing something that is a 180 degrees from what I was doing. I like to spend time with my family and friends. My son is a great way to reset and think differently. I watch him and his approach on things and it is totally different from how I would approach the same task or challenge, and looking through his eyes opens mine. Music is a good way to reset and to get some new inspiration. Sometimes a line from a song will set me off and I'm on another tear of inspiration.
5. Do you have any advice for aspiring social entrepreneurs?
Don't sleep on your dreams. That is actually inscribed in one of our sunglass models. I think people sometimes lose sight of their dreams and don't pursue them. You have to keep it 100 and make things happen. Wood eyewear is a crazy idea. But you know what? That crazy idea has become a business and a passion, not just for me, but for the whole Proof family. People support us like you wouldn't believe. It's been an amazing trip for just launching a year ago.
6. What are your dreams for the future?
I'm really encouraged by the future. We started Proof in a bad economy. There wasn't a lot of hope out there and we've scratched our way through our first year and made a lot of waves in the industry and as a company. We are always looking for ways to progress and get better. I see us as a company that keeps things moving and stays on the cutting edge.
Brooks Dame, Founder of Proof Eyewear (INTERVIEW)
3,422 clicks in 68 w
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Discover the Right Type Of Exercise to Shape Your Butt, Hips and Legs by Burning Fat and Toning Muscle
Every woman has at least one area of her body she'd like to improve. We all want a fitness solution that will help us become slender, strong, and healthy—but it's not always easy to tell good information from bad when it comes to wellness and exercise.
Whatever your physical goals, there are literally thousands of fitness videos, books, and guides with countless approaches to getting the figure you want. If your problem area is your legs, hips, thighs, or butt, however, you've probably already discovered that a lot of the available information is nonsense - and that without targeted, effective exercises that actually work, it’s all but impossible to burn lower-body fat and get your legs and lower body into the shape you desire.
Despite the widespread misinformation out there, it is possible to build a workout specifically designed to correct your body's problem areas. As a longtime personal trainer, I've spent years learning from the top fitness experts, and I'm here to tell you that there are leg and butt exercises that really work - and I can help you combine them into a foolproof system that anyone can learn.
How to Create the Shapely Hips, Legs and Butt You've Always Wanted
Your lower body makes up more than half of your physical form, but very few of the exercises taught by weight loss gurus and fitness boot camps focus on your legs or butt at all. Most so-called "fitness experts" provide a lot of cardio, sprinkled with strength training for the upper body. This does nothing to shape or enhance the biggest muscles in your body - those in your legs!
Strength training is the fastest, most effective, and in some cases, the only way to shape and tone your legs, butt, and thighs. These techniques not only build muscle, they also offer these other benefits:
Hot Leg Myths and Truths
- More energy and higher metabolism. With more muscle mass, you'll burn more calories doing your everyday activities—and even when sitting still.
- Improved body composition. The scale may not show much difference, but strength training converts fat to lean, healthy body mass.
- Greater bone density. Strength training builds bone density, reducing your risk of osteoporosis and injuries, now and in the future.
- Increased confidence. There's nothing more empowering to your self-confidence than watching your body turn into a strong, sculpted machine!
Why are so many people unsuccessful when it comes to achieving their fitness goals? Simply put, it's because they're doing it wrong.
Most fitness regimens push cardio and dieting, as if fat will just melt away through cardiovascular exercise and reveal strong, shapely legs. In fact, the combination of cardio with lower caloric intake can force your body to break down muscle, usually in large muscular regions like those in the legs and behind. With less muscle mass, lower metabolism causes fat to accumulate - and for women, the hips, thighs, and butt are the primary areas where this happens. So if you're looking for a way to tone and shape your hips, butt ,and legs, cardio and dieting is really not the ideal combination.
Strength training is the most efficient way to build muscle, and is much more productive than dieting if your goal is to tone and reshape your lower body. But strength training isn't a straightforward solution, since the most popular strength exercises focus on the upper body or offer too little resistance to effectively work the muscle groups in the legs. Where can you go to find exercises that work and advice that's targeted to your fitness goals?
Muscle and Metabolism Make the Difference
For years, I searched for a resource to help me and my personal training clients reshape the legs, thighs, and hips, but I never found a book or guide that provided what I needed. That's why I've written the Hot Legs Workout Guide, to provide you with the real facts - and just the facts - about leg exercises and body shaping.
The Hot Legs Workout Guide will teach you:
- How to reshape your butt, hips, thighs, and legs through targeted exercise
- The best exercises for each part of your lower body - and which are useless and can be eliminated altogether
- How to eliminate cellulite through exercise and healthy diet
- Why muscle is the one and only answer to burning fat and reshaping your lower body
- The big, powerful exercises that really work your legs
- Why multi-joint exercises like squats and deadlifts are more productive than any workout you could do while sitting down or on a fitness machine
- How to create a consistent exercise routine to build strong, firm, hot legs
Building your leg muscles through strength training exercises is the sure path to the toned butt and tight, sexy legs you crave. What's more, strength training provides a simultaneous boost to your energy levels and metabolism that will leave you feeling great, looking amazing, and ready to tackle the day with renewed vigor and confidence.
Ready to Learn the Right Workouts and Forget About the Wrong Ones?
If you're tired of ineffectual workouts that drain your time and energy without giving you real results, it's time for a change. Getting fit isn't easy - it takes time, discipline, and commitment - but it's possible for anyone to achieve sexy, hot legs by doing the right exercises in the right way.
Learn to work out safely and productively today, developing your butt and legs, burning fat, and changing the shape of your body forever. This is the year to reclaim your figure and your health, and finally turn your body into a sexy, shapely work of art!
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|For Immediate Release
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
|For More Information:
Awards Mark First for Commission under the Edison Innovation Fund
TRENTON – Working to implement the Edison Innovation Fund, the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology today awarded nearly $2.5 million in investments to 19 New Jersey technology companies.
The Commission demonstrated continued support of technology entrepreneurs through awards of the Entrepreneurial Partnering Fund. Awards totaling more than $1 million were given to three New Jersey companies leveraging an additional $840,000 in matching funds.
As part of the Edison Innovation Fund, this program provides funding to enable New Jersey technology companies to achieve critical development activities necessary to advancement of a technology. To increase research opportunities, applicant companies are encouraged to collaborate with either a New Jersey university or an industry partner.
The Commission also awarded $250,000 to five companies through Incubator Seed Funding to help accelerate the company’s business development process. This program provides awards of $20,000-$50,000 for companies located in one of the Commission’s 12 technology business incubators. In addition to being eligible for this funding, incubator companies receive administrative support, significant networking opportunities within the entrepreneurial community and a professional business environment necessary to achieving success.
The Commission today also announced nearly $1 million from the Edison Innovation Fund for New Jersey Technology Fellowships to 11 companies hiring New Jersey PhD graduates. In addition, the Commission awarded a SBIR Bridge grant of $50,000 to help bridge the funding gap that occurs during the federally funded Small Business Innovation Research program.
As part of the Governor’s Strategic Economic Growth Plan, the Edison Innovation Fund has been launched with $150 million committed in partnership by the EDA and the Commission on Science and Technology that will leverage $350 million in private capital. Resources from the Fund will support research and development in the growth and core industries vital to the state economy.
About The Commission
NJCST, established in 1985, is responsible for the development and oversight of policies and programs promoting science and technology research and entrepreneurship in New Jersey. Commission members include business leaders, university leaders, scientists, the Secretary of Commerce and Economic Growth Commission, the Commissioner of Education, a representative of the Governor and four legislators.
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Belgian crisis deepens.No one seems to be laughing anymore about the jocular joc·u·lar
1. Characterized by joking.
2. Given to joking.
[Latin iocul September 20, 2007 posting on eBay offering Belgium for sale. The country was put up on eBay for auction by a Belgian who was protesting the fact that since the June 2007 elections, Belgium's 11 political parties have yet to form a government.
Problem: No coalition, no government action. The caretaker government caretaker government n → gobierno provisional
caretaker government n (Brit) → gouvernement m intérimaire
caretaker government has almost no power at all. The country is--effectively--without a government.
The issue at hand is that activists in the north of the country, who are mainly Dutch speaking Flemings (until 1830 Belgium was part of the Netherlands) and activists in the southern part of the country, mostly French speaking Walloons, want to split Belgium in two.
At first, no one thought the crisis was terribly serious. But now, nearly five months after the elections with talks dragging on, the crisis is deepening.
At least, Belgium's consumer confidence numbers provide support for the idea that Belgians are worried. For the first six months of 2007, that is through the election month of June 2007, the component of the confidence index relating specifically to the financial situation of Belgian households, averaged 4.9 points.
From August 2007 through October 2007, household financial sentiment was at 2.5 points--just about cut in half.
Far worse were the results of the Belgian National Bank's (NBB NBB Nationale Bank van Belgie
NBB National Biodiesel Board (Jefferson City, MO)
NBB National Bank of Belgium (Brussels)
NBB Nederlandse Bridge Bond
NBB Non-Blow Back ) survey question about how Belgians feel in regard to the country's general economic situation. From January 2007 through June 2007, the average was zero--in other words, neutral. From August 2007 through October 2007 the economic sentiment average dropped to negative 7.25 points.
The consumer confidence index Consumer Confidence Index
A measure of consumer views regarding the current economic situation and consumer expectations for the future. Information for the index is compiled and released on the last Tuesday of each month by the Conference Board, an itself was negative 2.o points in both August 2007 and September 2007, and moved up to negative 1.0 in October 2007.
Even if Belgium does manage to disappear, it is unlikely that the surviving entities will suffer devastating dev·as·tate
tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates
1. To lay waste; destroy.
2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. economic harm. But as October 9, 2007 commentary in the Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times
Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). asks, if Belgium, the capital of the European Union The European Union does not have a de jure capital in the legal sense. However, many people accept a few cities in Europe as its de facto capital cities. Locations of the main institutions of the European Union
TO REMAIN UNITED, BELGIUM NEEDS TO ADDRESS ITS CULTURAL SCHISM
The population growth rate for Belgium is slightly above the regional average, due in part to a birth rate of 11 per thousand inhabitants
The game is based loosely on the concepts from SameGame. , which is above the average of 10 per thousand for Western Europe. Job creation has not kept up with growth of the labor force in recent years, and it is unlikely that the situation will improve further in 2007. Unemployment is running about 7.6 percent, and this continues to undermine consumer confidence.
Belgium's population reached 26-million people mid-2007, which amounted to just under 6.0 percent of Western Europe's 187-million inhabitants. According to data released by the Population Reference Bureau The Population Reference Bureau is a non-governmental organization in the United States, founded in 1929 by Guy Irving Burch, with support of Raymond Pearl. It provides information about demography. (PRB PRB Pharmaceutical Resources Branch ), Belgium's population will stay at 11-million through 2025. Also, according to that source, Belgium will still have a population of 11-million people in 2050.
The PRB revealed that an overwhelming 97 percent of Belgium's population lived in urban areas during 2007, and that the country's population density is a high 893 people per square mile. Belgium is somewhat bigger than Haiti in land area, and Belgium has about 2.5-million more inhabitants. The CIA's World Factbook, indicates that 17 percent of Belgium's population was birth to 14 years old in 2006, while 66 percent was 15 to 64 years old, and 17 percent of the populace was 65 years of age and over.
The CIA CIA: see Central Intelligence Agency.
(1) (Confidentiality Integrity Authentication) The three important concerns with regards to information security. Encryption is used to provide confidentiality (privacy, secrecy). estimates that the country's population growth rate was 0.12 percent in 2007. According to the United Nations Population Division, in the year 2050, 14 percent of Belgium's population will be birth to 14 years old, while 50 percent will be aged 15 to 59, and 36 percent of the populace will be 60 years of age and over.
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Kathleen Byron (1921-2009) b. London, England.
Kathleen Elizabeth Fell was born in East Ham, London; the daughter of two staunch socialists, both of whom would become mayors of East Ham. Educated at East Ham grammar school, she was judged to have university potential, but instead won a scholarship to the Old Vic. Her acting career began with small parts in Climbing High (1938) and The Young Mr Pitt (1942).
She began her association with Powell and Pressburger on the wartime drama The Silver Fleet (1943) and later appeared as an angel in A Matter of Life and Death (1946). Powell and Pressburger later cast her as the neurotic Sister Ruth in the steamy Black Narcissus (1947), driven mad by her lust for government agent Mr Dean (David Farrar). In the film’s climax, Sister Ruth rouges her lips blood red and slips into a hugging scarlet dress and grapples with Sister Clodagh in the bell tower, a scene superbly directed by Michael Powell, with whom she was having a love affair.
On the strength of Black Narcissus, Byron was cast as the female lead in war drama The Small Back Room (1949), again opposite Farrar, who was an alcoholic bomb- disposal expert. That year, she was Margaret Lockwood’s romantic rival in Madness of the Heart (1949). The strength of her performance in Narcissus led to Kathleen Byron being typecast as a dangerously neurotic woman and good parts were running out. It was frustrating for such a talented actress to be typecast. She asked John Huston about how he saw her: “We see you as strictly neurotic, Miss Byron,” he replied.
Increasingly, she drifted into second features and supporting role. Few were memorable and they ranged from stolid literary adaptations such as Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1951), crime-drama’s like The Scarlet Thread (1951) and My Death Is a Mockery (1952), to such horror pictures as Night of the Eagle (1962). But there would be cameo parts for Kathleen in The Elephant Man (1980) and Saving Private Ryan (1998).
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The Internet has transformed the way we find and listen to music over the past few years, and a band can be much more accessible to their audiences than in the days when record labels, distribution chains, album sales, and radio had a much larger role in choosing music for us.
I had the chance to ask Eric Hebert, of Evolvor Media, some questions recently about what those changes might mean to the industry, and to musicians.
How does one go about marketing music in a world where digital is the most important music format?
The first thing that needs to be understood is that the distribution and publishing of music has completely changed.
In the past, distribution of music was a very elaborate, expensive process. After music was recorded, it has to be pressed onto a CD, which had to be packaged, put on a truck, and delivered to places that sold music like Best Buy or your local record shop. This process was massive and controlled by the major labels – if you wanted your music in stores, you had to go through them.
Yesterday’s music marketing reflected the large amounts of time and money that it took to make it all happen. In order to get the word out, incredibly large advertising campaigns were unleashed through TV, magazines, and of course the radio.
Labels had a tried and true method of connections to each and every radio station, and had a certain influence on what those stations played.
That’s all changed. The labels no longer control the distribution. WE control the distribution. Now that digital is here, it’s what everyone prefers to use (because of its convenience), there’s no need for physical CD distribution. The Internet takes care of that for us.
And because of this, marketing that music has changed as well.
We don’t need the radio stations to decide what we listen to, we can explore the Internet and find what we like. So marketing music in the digital era is all about understanding the web, the different places where people go to find music online, and how people are using these technologies to discover new music.
In the past, the major record labels were responsible for building the brands of their artists. Can you elaborate on how and why a band can build their brand in the new music industry?
Indeed, labels were for the most part building the musician’s brand, in terms of being the people that worked with the band to determine the message they wanted to send.
They probably also offered suggestions on how to look, what to wear, etc., to achieve a sellable image.
And they should have, I mean they invested a lot of money into a band and they needed to groom them in a way that they made their money.
Nowadays, bands have to brand themselves, and that means they need to understand the same principles that the labels would have used, but for their own interests instead of someone else.
Branding is more than just a logo and some colors. It’s about the message you’re sending to your fans, the consistency of that image, and how you interact with fans to get that message across.
It starts with the band name, then a logo that is being used consistently, and that becomes a mantra, something to live by. You fans will wear your t-shirts not just because they like your music, but because you stand for something and show that through your music, your actions, etc.
If you’re a band that is all about being punk and hating authority, then show that to your fans time and time again.
Write music that reflects an idea, have a name that reflects this, and take actions that reflect it as well. It really all depends on what the message is all about. And you’ll use the web to help spread it, by making your presence known in the places that relate to your message.
How has the relationship between a band and its fans changed?
First I like to say that because of the web, anybody can be a rockstar, and that means that the perception of being one is changing. In the past musicians were these big celebrities that were untouchable.
Now, because everybody is a point and click away, musicians are more down to earth. They are accessible. And if you want to succeed, you’ve got to be personable.
Through things like social networking, an artist has to reach out and touch their audience. The more MySpace messages a band answers personally, the stronger the bond is between them, and that is probably the most important thing a band can do. It’s all about community, and the stronger is it, the more successful a band will be.
I mentioned before that the distribution has changed, which relates to this relationship as well. Now, instead of going to the store and buying a CD from some big box retailer, I can buy the music directly from the artist. That’s a feeling akin to buying produce from the local farmer or some other small business.
Another way the relationship is changing has to do with the actual music itself. Some artists, Beck would be a good example of this, is giving fans each recorded track of a song so they can do remixes and mashups of their music as they please.
This is a huge way to further interact with an audience because they become more than just a listener, they get to create and get their hands dirty with the music.
The same can be said about live shows. A HUGE part of a band is the live performance, and now bands like Pearl Jam are recording each and every performance and offering it to their fans after the shows digitally. That’s powerful, to buy the actual concert you went to and relive the memories of that particular show.
There is no way that every single band could have done that in the past.
What kinds of things do you do to help musicians today?
The main thing that I bring to the table is educating artists, and I’m doing that now through my blog, and as a service. I will also be rolling out an affordable way for bands to stay on top of these newskool marketing techniques and manage their own campaigns very soon.
My services include working with bands to develop their brand visually, their sound musically, and helping them craft the message they are trying to send.
Another thing I do is to help set up the distribution channels for their music because there’s more than one way to go about doing it.
In addition, I help provide artists with ways to interact with their audience and allowing this interaction to help increase awarenes, by understanding their fans and giving them the things they want and need to share with the world.
If a band has a budget and wants to have me actually do the grunt work of their campaign, then obviously who better to do it then the preacher himself. I take on multiple roles and offer different ways to help bands and artists regardless of how much money they have in their pockets.
One thing I strive for is having artists maintain control of their intellectual properties, to own them like a business. You won’t see me trying to get a band to sign their life away in order to use my services.
What sets a band apart these days?
What has ever set a band apart?
There’s no way else to put it. And that doesn’t mean just being original in your music. You can actually have a similar sound to someone else, but succeed because your originality in your branding or your marketing caught the attention of someone.
You have some bands right now giving music away for free – that’s kind of new, and I would say a good start if you’re trying to set yourself apart.
Maybe you create a persona, or believe in a specific cause. There’s so many ways or aspects that could set a band apart. I think it’s all about the genre you’re in. If you’re into hip-hop, do you create the tired image that you see on TV, or do you try something completely different to stand out?
Does a rock band play the tough guy card, or try to carve a different image? How about your marketing? Do you email that radio station your myspace page, or do something else unique to get their attention? Originality in these areas is what will make you stand out.
To the musicians of the future – is it easier or harder now to make a living as a musician?
Easier. I’m not saying it’s easy to do, but there are far more opportunities now then there ever has been to make a living as a musician.
So long as “making a living” is understood realistically. The days of signing to a label and sitting back and partying are over.
The musicians of the future have to be serious about their work and understand that their music is a business, and it will have to be managed like one. So for the kids now thinking about being a professional musician, I suggest gaining some solid business knowledge to help you along the way.
Understand the web and how it can be used to help your music, and your business will grow.
A number of links about the evolving music industry and music marketing, starting with some older articles and ending with some more recent news:
- The Internet Debacle – An Alternative View
- FALLOUT – a follow up to The Internet Debacle
- The Problem With Music by Steve Albini
- Courtney Love Does The Math
- Remixing Culture: An Interview with Lawrence Lessig
- Gilberto Gil and the politics of music
- “Year Zero” Project = Way Cooler Than “Lost”
- Unlike Trent Reznor, Saul Williams isn’t disheartened
- Radiohead album online: what happened next
- Don’t miss lessons Radiohead, Trent Reznor offer
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| 0.969019 | 2,063 | 1.710938 | 2 |
I get most of that, but the thing that doesn't make sense is how in the tunnel details pages for HE, it has 'Client IPv4 address: 173.x.x.11' listed, which is my WAN IP. However, I couldn't ping Google until I changed the D-Link 'Local IPV4 Address' from 173.x.x.11 to an internal LAN IP in the range of 192.168.1.2-.254. I would think that the 'Client IPv4' and 'Local IPV4' would be the same thing. The thing I base this off is that the first 4 categories of the tunnel details shows:
Server IPv4 address: 22.214.171.124
Server IPv6 address: 2001:470:1f04:6db::1/64
Client IPv4 address: 173.x.x.11
Client IPv6 address: 2001:470:1f04:6db::2/64
Where the D-Link shows:
Remote IPV4 Address: 126.96.36.199
Remote IPV6 Address: 2001:470:1f04:6db::1
Local IPV4 Address: 192.168.0.2
Local IPv6 Address : 2001:470:1f04:6db::2
Is this an issue with D-Link not following standards?
I also noticed that the DLink does not allow 2 simultaneous connection to the internet. When I try to ping from 2 separate PC's, one work and the other fails. If I wait a while, then the one that was not working will. I found a post on this that shows some recommended settings. http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=3847.msg25668#msg25668
Can I make this work with 2 PC's simultaneously?
The Local IPv4 in this context is the IPv4 address you want to use as your tunnel end point. That is, the IPv4 address that your router will use to originate and receive the IPv4 6in4 tunnel traffic which it uses to tunnel the IPv6 packets.
I presumed you were using the D-Link as your edge router, and it had a public IPv4 address on its outside interface. If you are using it behind another router which has your public IP address, and the D-Link has a NATed private IP (192.168.x.x), then you would specify the NATed address as your local IPv4.
The HE website can only see your public IP, since when you access the internet, your private IPs are NATed to the public. So, the HE website will always list your public IP as the "client IPv4 address" since it can't know what your "real" address is. If you were establishing the tunnel from a PC or router which had the public IP, it'd be correct. But since it appears you're behind a NAT, it wont work, and that line should be ignored.
When behind a NAT, the way it works is that the tunnel traffic uses your private IPv4 address as the source address of the 6in4 packets. When this packet reaches your NAT firewall/router, it will NAT this source address to your public IP, and "remember" which internal private IP originated the traffic via its connection/nat table. When return traffic comes back to the public IP, it will NAT it back to the original private IP and deliver it to your DIR-615. However, since 6in4 doesn't have ports, it only "remembers" the last internal host which sent IPv4 protocol 41 (6in4) traffic out, and sets that as the place to send any return traffic, unless
you set up a static NAT entry for 6in4 and point it to a specific IP.
As for only one IPv6 host working at once, this is really odd. It's either a bad bug with the DIR-615, or the LAN side of your IPv6 network isn't set up properly, or there's more than one host on the inside (something other than your 615) trying to do 6in4 and "poisoning" your NAT table on your edge firewall/router. Or a combo of the last two.
Make sure that autoconfiguration, or DHCPv6 are setting proper IPv6 IPs and default gateways on your LAN hosts. The IPv6s should be addresses in your routed /64, and the default gateway should be the IPv6 LAN interface for your DIR-615. It may use one of your routed /64 addresses, but it may also use the link local IPv6 address of your DIR-615 for the def gateway. Either should work.
Also make sure nothing else on your LAN is generating 6in4 traffic. I've heard windows vista and/or 7 tries to do 6to4 before it tries Teredo. If this is the case, 6to4 actually uses 6in4 for the actual tunnels it establishes. So if this is happening it's "poisoning" your NAT device and shunting 6in4 traffic to itself instead of your DIR-615.
You should really establish a static NAT entry on the edge firewall/router, sending all IPv4 proto 41 traffic to your 615, if possible (some routers only allow static NATs rules matching TCP or UDP ports, and not IPv4 protocol numbers). If you can't do that, then see if you can block outgoing IPv4 protocol 41 traffic from any inside host but the 615 (likely the security policy won't let you match on proto numbers either, if the NAT rules doesn't). If you can't that, you could try setting DMZ to the 615. But that probably wouldn't prevent the hijacking of the 6in4 traffic, since the "DMZ" setting usually only applies to unsolicited traffic. If you can't do any of that, you'll just have to stop any other host but the 615 from trying to do 6in4. If all your hosts have proper IPv6 global unicast addresses from your routed /64, this should prevent them from trying 6to4 or Teredo.
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| 0.937083 | 1,294 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Prof. Dr. jur. Ulrich Battis is a member of the expert commission appointed by the Federal Minister for Research and Education, Edelgard Bulmahn. In this essay he discusses how to improve the legal status of young academics and introduce performance-related salaries for university professors.
"The most important thing is missing," was the response of American professors and university presidents to inquiries from Germany. The most important thing, that is, the competition of universities for students, was missing as a criterion in a questionnaire which a group of German experts developed in the 1980s to measure the quality of universities in international comparison.
Little has changed since that time. Admittedly, beginning this year the universities are allowed to choose, at most, 20% of their students themselves, but all the others are assigned to them by a government agency, as in the past. Only at the very few private universities and the art institutes is this different.
Another issue is the battle over the imposition of tuition fees. This is hardly comprehensible from an American point of view, but it has ended in a political stalemate after years of discussion. The majority of university presidents and the majority of the Länder (German states), governed by Social Democrats and the Green Party, rejected tuition fees as antisocial. Thus, the statutory federation-wide introduction of tuition fees has been stopped for now.
All the same, the scene is not characterized by total immobility. Even under Kohl's old conservative government, the federal law's requirement that university legislation be regulated with fundamental uniformity was done away with. This was especially true for the law on university management and the relationship of the universities to the state. Many universities have used the new scope for budgetary and diverse organizational reforms that are in debted to the new public management. They strengthened the university management, in particular the presidents, as well as the position of the deans or the faculties; introduced a university council staffed with representatives of the economy and society; and introduced global budgets. The goal of the reforms is to push back the influence of the state in every respect; the stronger influence of the economy and society is in part striven towards, in part taken into the bargain. The Länder, which are largely responsible for university legislation, are at present experiencing a wave of new university laws which imitate rather than shape the reforms developed by the universities. The majority of university professors tend to take a skeptical view of all this.
This is especially true of the reform of the personnel regulations at the universities, initiated by the new federal government. On the basis of the recommendations of the university rector's conference (the panel of university presidents), the professors fear massive cuts in pay and a worsening of their status. In preparation for the service regulations reform, the federal government has now charged an expert commission with the task of presenting proposals by April 2000, which must then be jointly realized by the federation and the Länder. This joint character, provided for by the distribution of legislative competence between the federation and the Länder, is the first drastic restriction for an effective reform. No less drastic is the stipulation of the finance minister of the federation and the Länder that the reform must be cost-neutral, even in any transitional phase.
The reform package consists chiefly of three complexes. The first complex is the improvement of the legal status of young academics. The goal is to allow young academics freedom in research and teaching earlier than has been the case. As a standard, at least for the disciplines with large research institutes, assistant professorships or self-equipped qualification professorships with a fixed term of 6 years are being discussed. The details remain to be clarified, including selection procedures, intermediate evaluations, membership status, and continued employment. The equipment must be provided from the existing stock. These are assistant positions, but had previously been entirely or partly assigned to professors. It is controversial whether postdoctoral lecturing qualification should be abolished in all disciplines, or be retained as an option.
The second complex regards the performance-determined pay of the university teachers. Even previously, professors have been able to raise their salary vis-a-vis the regular pay by contract with the state or the university, each time they are appointed by special appointment agreements. In addition, the salaries of all professors, even those who are not offered a chair again, are increased up to a certain upper limit, generally every 2 years, as with all officials and employees of the public service. These age-determined increases are to be abolished. The resources thus made available are to be used for performance-related bonuses. The question of who should evaluate the professors' performance is controversial. In my opinion, the "peer review" should be decisive. They should then be put into action by the university management and the deans. The relationship to the special appointment agreements also remains to be clarified. The lowering of the starting salary and the recalculation of the retirement pension is also controversial.
The third complex regards regulations which are meant to expedite the exchange between academia and the economy, including the personnel employed in state-financed research institutions outside the universities.
Finally, it must be clarified whether the stipulated reforms should be realized with the help of civil service law or general employment law. Many reformers wish to abolish civil service law, which is seen as rigid and inappropriate. However, the vast majority of professors do not wish to lose the essentially lifetime security of civil servant status. They fear that the state and above all the university management will interfere with their freedom of research. Anyone who is familiar with the behavior of the unions, which are fixated on guaranteed stability, will wonder why Germany is making the attempt to achieve more flexibility by introducing collective wage agreements between unions and university management. If the civil servant status is to be retained, its university-related regulations must be made more flexible than they have been in the past.
If, as is to be hoped, the expert commission presents its proposals on time, and if these proposals are put into action by the federation and the Länder, the central questions mentioned at the outset--the selection of students and the imposition of tuition fees--will remain unsolved. Whatever the case, given the increasing international competition for the "best minds," a significant need for reform will remain.
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| 0.962437 | 1,280 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Pets good company for older adults 0
Many have researched the therapeutic value of pets and there is an undisputable link between health, well-being, reduced stress, and longevity when comparing pet owners to non-pet owners.
I am a strong advocate of seniors owning pets provided they are able to care for them appropriately.
If you are a caregiver, I encourage you to support and assist your loved one as necessary because the unconditional love of a pet in your absence can be an immeasurable value.
Having said that, I would also like to share some summer care tips for you and your pets. Summer is the time for both you and your pet to enjoy the sunshine and outdoors, but along with the fun, the season also offers many situations that can endanger your pet. By taking some precautions, you can decrease the chance that disaster will happen.
* Never leave your pet in the car. While it is tempting to take "Fido" along while you travel or run errands, you cannot leave your pet in the vehicle because it can reach temperatures of 50 C in a matter of minutes, even when parked in the shade. Dogs and cats cannot perspire and when left in hot vehicles they can suffer from heat exhaustion, heat stroke, brain damage and can even die. Leave them at home where they are cool and comfortable and you know they will be there to greet you when you return.
* Never put your furry friend in the back of a truck that will be moving. Remember the rules of physics -- whatever is in the
back of the truck will continue in that direction until the motion is stopped by the sides or back of the cab. Dogs should ride either in the cab (in a crate or wearing a seat belt harness designed for dogs) or in a secured crate in the bed of the truck. Even cats can become airborne projectiles when left uncrated in a vehicle. And for all those seniors I see driving around Belleville with their little friend perched on their lap -- stop it! Driving requires all your skill and attention. Imagine what a deployed airbag will do to a dog sitting on your lap.
* Beware of fertilizers and deadly plants on lawns and in gardens. While "Fido" or "Fluffy" might want to accompany you during outside chores; plant food, fertilizer and insecticides can be fatal if your pet ingests them. There are also in excess of 700 plants that produce physiologically active or toxic substances in sufficient amounts to cause harmful effects in animals. While on walks, keep watch for signs warning of insecticide spraying or fertilization of lawns and avoid these areas.
* Ensure your pet is always wearing a collar and identification tag. Unusual circumstances can lead to separation and proper identification can get them safely back to you.
* Schedule a check-up for your furry friend with the veterinarian each spring. Heartworm disease is transmitted by mosquitoes and can be fatal.
* Another summertime threat are fleas and ticks. Avoid over-the-counter products, as they can be toxic even when used according to instructions.
* When it is very hot, limit your pet's exercise to early morning or evening hours. Extra caution is required for older dogs, short-nosed dogs, and those with thick coats.
* Remember that asphalt gets very hot and can burn your pet's paws. Use a sunscreen on animals with light-coloured noses and ears as they are particularly vulnerable to sunburn and skin cancer.
* Do not take your pets to crowded summer events such as concerts or fairs. The loud noises and crowds, combined with the heat can be stressful and dangerous for pets. Friendly "Fido" may become overwhelmed and do something completely out of character, such as growl, snap, or bite.
Enjoy your summer, enjoy your furry friends and enjoy life. Thanks to the Humane Society for some of the information contained in this article.
Information in this column is compiled by Shell-Lee Wert, Community Care for South Hastings Inc., 55 South Pinnacle Street, Belleville, K8N 3A1. Please visit our website at www.ccsh.ca, or email me at [email protected], or call 613-969-0130 for information and assistance. Community Care is a proud United Way member agency.
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| 0.951998 | 886 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Sainsbury’s has come under fire from consumers and rivals alike for its Brand Match advert, which claims in print and online promotions that consumers “won’t pay more for brands than you would at Tesco or Asda.”
Tesco were quick to complain that Sainsbury's assertion that shoppers would not pay more for brands than at Asda or Tesco was misleading, because in some instances they would have paid less for the branded goods at those stores.
Tesco also complained that the adverts did not make it clear that the offer applied only to comparable brands, saying that each retailer stocked exclusive branded products that were not available elsewhere.
Members of the public criticised the restrictions on the coupons, which included a minimum spend of £20 and that one item must be identical in size and flavour to that of the rival store.
Consumers suggested Sainsbury’s did not make it clear that any saving was calculated across all of the brands in an individual's basket and that the price of those brands that were cheaper at Sainsbury's would be offset against the total branded shop.
The claim "Save at Sainsbury's with Brand Match" was also found misleading because prices were matched rather than bettered.
The ASA found that the advertising did not make it clear that any saving would not be passed on to consumers at the time of their shop.
In addition it deemed the phrase "live well for less" misleading in the context of Brand Match advertising because it implied branded goods would be cheaper at Sainsbury's, and therefore that consumers would not pay more.
The ASA told Sainsbury's that the adverts must not appear again in their current form and that it must “ensure future ads did not imply consumers would not pay more, or would save money, if that was not the case."
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| 0.985049 | 380 | 1.570313 | 2 |
© Medical Daily
Dennis Avner, known as "Cat Man", the Nevada native who spent years trying to morph his body into that of a cat died earlier this month at the age of 54 under unclear circumstances.
Avner, who holds the world record for body modifications, had undergone numerous tattoos, piercings and other cosmetic surgical procedures to look like a female cat.
The veteran of the U.S. Navy, who also had whiskers, cat ears and a mechanical tail, was found dead on Nov.5 in his home located in Tonopah, Nevada.
Avner, who likes to go by his Native American name "Stalking Cat", had become famous for morphing his face to resemble a tiger.
"I am Huron and following a very old tradition have transformed myself into a tiger," he said on his now-defunct website.
He had reportedly felt inspired after a discussion with a Native American chief told him to "follow the ways of the tiger."
Avner had undergone thousands of dollars worth of cosmetic surgeries including bifurcation or splitting of his upper lip, surgical pointing of the ears, silicone cheek and forehead implants, tooth filing, tattoos, and facial piercing.
The cause of Avner's death has not been revealed, and some believe that he may have killed himself.
Shannon Larratt, the former editor and publisher of BMEzine who knew Stalking Cat, wrote a blog post saying that Avner tried to adopt the spiritual essence of the animal world.
He wanted to transform "himself not just into a tiger, but a female tiger at that, blurring and exploring the gender line as much as the species line."
Despite his unusual appearance, Avner worked as a computer programmer, although he often starred in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
as well as in events around the world.
"A wonderful and complex person, he was at times as troubled as he was remarkable, and he recently took his own life at the age of 54," Larratt wrote.
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http://www.sott.net/article/253597-World-famous-Cat-Man-who-spent-years-morphing-himself-into-a-tiger-may-have-died-by-suicide
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| 0.991407 | 423 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Quick Pitch: Pathbrite offers students and young job seekers a way to present their accomplishments holistically online.
Genius Idea: The digital platform lets users construct visual portfolios by pulling in representative pieces — pictures, links and published work — of themselves into one place.
Pathbrite is a San Francisco-based startup working to replace one-dimensional, text-based resumes with visual portfolios online with easy-to-spot contact information. Like with About.me, users can link their Pathbrite page to various social network accounts.
Portfolios are attractive, clickable and full-bodied on Pathbrite. By adding content they're proud of on one web page, users can show recruiters why they're special. Featured articles, writing, pieces of code, design projects and videos are encouraged.
Pathbrite is a place online where users can display things they're proud of, but wouldn't typically include on a traditional resume or Linkedin profile. Depending on what job you're applying for, pictures of big accomplishments such as finishing a marathon, winning an award and pictures of family would show your interests, dedication and skill. It's up to you.
Bold pages immediately catch the eye. All of the content is laid out in photos and linked subheads. If individuals choose to dive further within a portfolio, they are just clicks away from watch a video, downloading a resume, or visiting a web-based work.
Pathbrite, called a "next generation portfolio product," lets users make sure their online personas are different from others.
"It makes it easy for learners of all ages to showcase the best work they've done," Christopher Gray, Pathbrite chief product officer, tells Mashable.
Users can incorporate anything uploaded from their desktop, YouTube, Vimeo, badges from the Khan Academy and links. Pathbrite portfolio makers will be able to import content from Facebook, Dropbox, Linkedin and Flickr soon.
"It's a great complement to a resume," Gray said. "Using this to tell the whole story is a great way to help someone get the job."
Portfolios can be managed over a lifetime, says Gray. It's a way to curate your own online persona. While recruiters are Google searching you, this portfolio is a chance to tailor what's found out about you, in addition to other online accounts. Pathbrite also makes it incredibly easy to connect. The Pathbrite account can be connected with an email, telephone number, website, Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
Pathbrite was founded by CEO Heather Hiles originally as a secure multimedia-sharing platform. Clients soon found this was great way to present themselves online. In March, the platform made a full transition into a personal portfolio hub.
The startup is fully dedicated to helping 18-to-25-year-old students and young job seekers achieve their goals.
"Our guiding principle is, it should be impossible for someone to make makes a portfolio that looks bad," Gray says. "We make it easy for people to focused on experience. People can put their best foot forward."
In the next year, Pathbrite is working on developing native iOS and Android phone applications. Currently, the web platform is viewable as on mobile browsers and is available as an iPad app.
In the short-term future, the team is also working on adding new templates for custom displays. Plus, Pathbrite is working with other websites for content integration.
Pathbrite targets students, school admissions officers and employers to help make the real-world connections.
"We're committed to helping learners find that path forward," Gray says. "Our goal is to help people plan where they're going."
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
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The latest customer review on Amazon.com, written by Young I. Kim, for "Not My Turn to Die: Memoirs of a Broken Childhood in Bosnia" (2008, AMACOM Books, New York):
"Not My Turn To Die" is a personal account of Savo Heleta who survived the Bosnian conflict as a teenager. In many ways, we're blessed that Savo witnessed the best and the worst of humanity as a young Serb growing up in fear in the Muslim-controlled city of Gorazde.
Whereas other books and memoirs tend to explain the political or religious conflicts of why the Bosnia civil war happened and endured, Not My Turn To Die just focuses on how the effects of a brutal siege affects Savo Heleta, his younger sister, his parents, and grandparents.
Through the author's account, we see the worst of humanity on display, like neighbors and long-time friends turning on each other over ethnic lines or greed. Yet Savo's story is a journey of survival, helped by generosity of strangers who risked their lives to ensure that the Heleta family and other innocent bystanders have a future.
I don't recall reading another book where I felt so angered by mankind and yet so moved at the same time.
I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It's a brutal, honest reflection of one of the darkest hours of human history. Yet the author shows us that there's beauty that can arise from the ugliness.
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http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978225729
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| 0.942546 | 307 | 1.507813 | 2 |
IBM tops chart for churning out patents for the 20TH TIME
Today it's mostly software IP - 2 decades ago it was hardware
It may be arguable whether patents are desirable or over-prescribed in the high tech industry, but there is no doubt that companies use patents as competitive – and anticompetitive – weapons, and therefore they have a huge value. Applying for and receiving lots of patents, then, can be seen as an insurance policy against lawsuits as well as a means to generate them, just as much as they are an indicator of inventiveness.
For many years, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a report in January ranking companies by the number of patents it issued to them, but back in 2007 , the patent office decided to stop cranking out the list because it wanted people to stop focusing on the number of patents issued and to focus on the quality of patents issued. The simple way out of that conundrum is to hire more and better patent lawyers – perhaps with an engineering background – and stop issuing so many silly patents. Perhaps we can patent that idea.
Since then, IFI Claims Patent Services, a private company that takes the raw USPTO data and provides add-on services to it, has continued to top US patent ranking lists, and the 2012 list is out today. The rankings cover what are known as utility patents – which relate to machines or processes and can be electrical, mechanical, or physical in nature – and do not include design patents – which cover the shape of and ornamentation on things.
After doing some big data munching on the USPTO data, IFI reckons that the patent office issued a total of 253,155 utility patents in 2012, which is the highest number on record and an increase of 13 per cent over 2011's patent torrent. So much for that whole "focus on quality" thing, apparently. Of the top 50 companies to be issued patents, 41 had more patents in 2012 than in 2011 and 32 had double-digit or better growth compared to the prior year.
It will probably not come as much of a surprise to anyone that IBM, once again, is the company that had the most patents issued to it in the prior year. Specifically, IBM was issued 6,478 patents. (The IFI report does not say how many patent applications IBM made in 2012, but the number is very likely quite a bit larger.) Big Blue has been at the top of the heap for the past 20 years, and it would be remarkable if that changed. What has changed, of course, is that IBM's patents increasingly focus on software and services, not hardware, which is a reflection of the company's business as it has shifted over the past 20 years.
IBM is once again the top of the US patent heap, but Samsung is no slouch
IBM's incremental growth in its patent portfolio actually brought down the class average, with under 5 per cent growth year-on-year. IBM's Watson question-answer system pulled in a number of patents, including #8,275,803: System and method for providing answers to questions . This patent was filed in May 2008 and granted in September 2012, and it is specifically related to the statistical weighting system that Big Blue came up with to help the Watson machine zero in on the right responses when it was playing the Jeopardy! game show against humanity two years ago . (The chimps were chumps and they got spanked by a bucket of chips.) Other notable patents for Big Blue, which you can drill down into detail here , include methods for simulating synaptic activity in the brain, optimizing pattern recognition, dynamically placing applications in server clusters, thermo-electric liquid cooling of electronic components, and obviously many others.
Google's $12.5bn cash deal to acquire for Motorola Mobility back in May last year gave the Chocolate Factory a slew of hardware and software patents, and the combination pushed up Google patent issue rate by 170 per cent, making it the fastest grower on the top 50 list. Google ranked number 21 on the list, with 1,151 patents issued last year.
Google actually shot past Apple, which was issued 1,136 patents in 2012. Apple first appeared in the top 50 patent receivers from the USPTO in 2010, and last year's haul was 68 per cent higher than in 2011. The other big gainers on the list in the high tech arena and their growth rates were: Alcatel-Lucent (59 per cent), LM Ericsson (59 per cent), Research in Motion (49 per cent), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (49 per cent), Qualcomm (40 per cent), NEC (32 per cent), Sony (33 per cent), and Sharp (28 per cent). Cisco Systems, SK Hynix, Infineon Technologies, Micron Technology, and Nokia all saw the number of patents issued to them in 2012 fall compared to 2011.
While the number of patents issued shot up in 2012, the relative rankings of patents issued by the geographic region where companies are headquartered – an increasingly irrelevant bit of data given the multinational nature of modern large corporations – stayed the same. There were 17 companies based in the United States that made the top 50 patent issue rankings in 2012 and 26 companies from Asia, which is exactly the same as in 2011.
You can see the full IFI list of the top 50 companies by patents issued in 2012 here . ®
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CPSR's 2008 Norbert Wiener Award given to Bruce Schneier
For immediate release
January 24, 2008
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility honors Bruce Schneier, internationally renowned security technologist and author, with its 2008 Norbert Wiener Award.
CPSR's Vice President, Fyodor Vaskovich, notes that "Bruce has long been a passionate advocate for privacy, security, and civil liberties. He is distinguished by technical accomplishments such as designing the Blowfish and Twofish algorithms, bringing cryptography to a wider audience with his book Applied Cryptography, and founding security vendor BT Counterpane. But CPSR particularly applauds Bruce for his higher level social and political accomplishments. Through his best selling books, popular newsletter, tireless speaking schedule, and high-level contacts, Bruce fights to prevent America from succumbing to a culture of fear. He coined the term "security theater" to deride showy government security initiatives which may cost a lot of money, look impressive, and often invade privacy, but don't materially improve security. The Transport Security Administration has become notorious for this."
Bruce publishes his insights on his web site, blog, and in his current bestselling book: "Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly about Security in an Uncertain World". These resources and more can be found at www.schneier.com.
When notified, Bruce replied that "I am honored to receive this award, especially considering the list of people who have previously received it." Previous winners include Phil Zimmermann, Peter Neumann, Marc Rotenberg, Mitch Kapor, Douglas Engelbart, and more than a dozen other
The Norbert Wiener Award will be presented at CPSR's 2008 annual conference,"Technology in Wartime", on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at Stanford University Law School. Bruce is giving a keynote presentation there on dual-use technologies. All CPSR members and the public are encouraged and invited to attend. On-site registration is available. Further details, including the speaker schedule, are available at http://technologyinwartime.org.
In honoring Schneier, CPSR celebrates 27 years of advocacy by its members to address social issues in computing. CPSR's mission is to share the knowledge of technology professionals to assist society in understanding the power, promise, and limitations of that technology. The Norbert Wiener Award was established in 1987 by CPSR in memory of the originator of the field of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener (1894-1964), whose pioneering work was one of the pillars on
which modern computing technology was created. Wiener was among the first to examine the social and political consequences of computing technology. He devoted much of his energy to writing articles and books that would make the technology understandable to a wide audience. His books, The Human Use of Human Beings and God and Golem, Inc., were among the earliest works that opened a public discussion of computers and what they could do.
CPSR - http://www.cpsr.org - is an international public-interest alliance of computer scientists and others interested in the impact of information technology on society. CPSR attempts to direct public attention to difficult choices concerning the applications of computing and how those choices affect society. CPSR was founded in 1981 by computer professionals in Silicon Valley concerned about the use of computers in nuclear weapons systems. CPSR has working groups
and chapters throughout the world and is based in San Francisco, California.
Technology in Wartime Conference: http://technologyinwartime.org/
CPSR Wiener Award: http://www.cpsr.org/about/wiener
Past winners: http://www.cpsr.org/about/wiener/wiener-award
Bruce Schneier's web site: http://schneier.com/
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
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It is a tough book to get through, as Tim Weiner has a huge amount of sources and data to share with the reader. It is however fascinating to see an agency that devours billions of dollars per year can get away with decades of malpractice, lying an cheating. If even a third would be true (where I am afraid it is all true, base don the level and details of the sources), it is an utter disgrace that the agency has not been closed decades ago. In the businessworld this would have been done long ago. A very interesting an revealing book, very worthwhile for anyone interested in secret services and their doings.
This book has an unclear story underlying massive criticism on the scientists that believe in global warming and greenhouse effect. At the end the outcome of the stiry is still unclear, what now happens with the organisation faced, what was the argument behind, etc. Personally I liked Michael Chrichtons books, but this book obviously has a different agenda then creating good and scientifically based entertainment. It is intended to radiate the message that some conservative US politicians state, that caring for the environment is nonsense. He defences not signing the kyoto protocol, and quotes constantly reserach that denounces the global warming theory. I agree when we states we need to be critical towards what we believe and what we assume is provenor not. Unfortunately mr Chrichton forgets that 97% of the Global climat scientisis have consensus (Source: Nobel price winning institute of environmental research). He however cites from the 3%. Indeed there is a group of criticism on this topic, also in Europe there is an organisation that voices the critics, which is important for a healthy democracy. Potentially they should then next time not take a historian, but a climatic scientist as their chairman and only public member. And at the end, irrespective all arguments, no argument of unclear consequences can be an argument not to be carfull with our environment, No argument should move attention away from a continuous need for carefull contemplation on the consequences of human behaviour on the environment. Using arguments to move away from that is criminal to our future on earth. I agree with the final discussion that we do not need to discuss if earth will survive. Earth will, just humans will not (see also 'rare earth theory', earth will rebouce, it take a million oyears or such, which for a planet is not a huge issue, just we won't be around to tell). In my view, this book makes me realise people actually believe what crichton states, and that is scary..
The book starts off interesting, very catching and with increasing speed. One can't escape the feeling this has been written before. much in the style of the da vinci code a symbol mystery is wound up and unwound. This still allows for so,e hours of pleasent listening, but nothing too new, only then to be left with 1,5 hours of elongated talks on bibles, divinity of men and the scientific proof of the force of mind and the scince of noetics. I have read all of Dan Brown, but think this is his weakest book thusfar. too bad, as he is a great writer.
great details, including all the scenes and sights are accurate to those who have been there, the novel keeps you in suspense untill the lasted pages listened to.
It is brought clearly what the reason is that parts of the Arab world resent what the US and Great Britain stand for.Let us hope some policy makers listen to it too and are not led by their own fanatic religious thoughts.
This is one of those books that switches your brain into high gear. It is fascinating to hear Peter Drucker´s ideas, some so simple and logic, some so far from what you might have thought yourself, but always able to spin your mind into deep thoughts. Nothing to be taken lightly, this is no book for a relaxed moment, but it is a tour through the words written by a great mind that can express himself in an unforgettable way.
As the book contains many different input sources, it has a bit for everybody. There are speeches which I find less and ones I find more interesting. Through the amount of it however there is always something a reader will find that he or she can benefit from. Nice to listen through without being too deep. It is not a brain provoking set of speeches, but a nice mumble that regularly lights a small fire of recognition or of a moment or thought you like to remember. It were pleasant hours I spend listening.
The book listens easy, but one who has spend some time, either in the university or in business schools or conferences on training or communication will find there is hardly any new input to get from this book. Too bad.
This book is not a book on self development, but a personal idea of the writer with as its main target to improve your relationship with God. Should you have bought the book to become personally more effective etc. you will buy a useless book. I personally have no need to improve my relationship with a higher being, be it God, Allah, Jehova Budha or whoever. I feel that religion has no place in business or in business books. In the case of such books it should have been mentioned that this is a book on religion as I would have never bought this book.
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German political leaders and Jewish community representatives have demanded the boycott of a hit Turkish action movie that casts US soldiers in Iraq as villains.
Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber and the Central Council of Jews blasted "Valley of the Wolves -- Iraq" (Kurtlar Vadisi -- Irak) as anti-American and anti-Semitic and called on German cinemas to stop showing the picture.
"This irresponsible film does not encourage integration but sows hate and mistrust against the West," Stoiber told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in a reference to the film's popularity among Germany's large Turkish immigrant community.
"I urge the cinema owners in Germany to pull this racist and anti-Western hate film immediately," he said, adding that "EU candidate Turkey should take a clear stand."
Charlotte Knobloch, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung the movie stoked anti-Semitic sentiment.
The film has so far sold 200,000 tickets and is ranked fifth in the German box office charts.
Film based on actual event
It is based on an actual event -- the arrest of 11 Turkish soldiers by a US military unit in northern Iraq in July 2003 on grounds of "suspicious activity." The men were held for two days, their heads bagged, before being released without explanation.
The incident dealt a severe and lasting blow to relations between Turkey and the United States, long-time NATO allies.
"The Turks want to see this film to a certain extent because it's a kind of repayment on the screen for the ignominy that all Muslims -- whether they are believers or not -- perceive in Iraq," said acclaimed Turkish-German writer Feridun Zaimoglu.
The film features a "Rambo"-like Turkish intelligence officer who exacts revenge for the episode, and depicts sadistic violence against innocent Iraqi civilians at the hands of the US troops.
The GIs are also seen running a trade in organs extracted from prisoners at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison under the guidance of a Jewish US military doctor for rich buyers in New York, London and Tel Aviv.
"Valley of the Wolves" is an adaptation of a popular Turkish television series and the most expensive Turkish feature film to date with a $ 10 million (8.4 million euro) budget. It has become a blockbuster in Turkey since its release this month.
"It is an extraordinary film that will go down in history," exulted Bülent Arinc, president of the Turkish National Assembly, speaking to the Anatolia news agency after attending the movie's gala along with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's wife, Emine, who was equally impressed by the film.
Facts vs. fiction
Many Turkish movie goers told AFP news that the film is not an accumulation of anti-American cliches.
"No, no, it is not an exaggeration at all," said a 29-year-old computer engineer who identified himself only by his first name, Salih. "The news is full of hundreds of Iraqis being killed every day -- there's none of that in the movie. It presents the situation as it is, with the Americans who want to seize all power in the region."
"There is a bit of fiction," conceded 28-year-old soldier Alperen, who also withheld his surname, "but it's very close to reality."
A US diplomat meanwhile brushed aside the film's significance, arguing relations between Turkey and the US were returning to normal.
"It is entertainment," he told Reuters news service. "It does not purport to be a factual version of events."
Global companies, like Apple, have a plethora of possibilities to avoid paying taxes. Mostly, they use loopholes created by lawmakers. Now, these tax dodging schemes are coming under scrutiny.
Amnesty International has released its annual report assessing human rights around the world. In this year's report Amnesty says refugees and migrants in crisis areas were particularly vulnerable for human rights abuses.
On a trip to Africa's Great Lakes region, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced 1 billion dollars would be made available for development projects. Meanwhile fighting has resumed in eastern DRC.
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Facebook will soon be using your Web browsing to help decide which advertisements you see.
A new Facebook system will use your activity on other websites to send you what Facebook thinks are ads about your current interests. Advertisers will, in effect, be bidding to get their ads in front of you.
Here's an example: Say a Facebook user visits a travel website and clicks on a page about a vacation package to Las Vegas. If an advertiser has bid on that kind of search, that user could then see ads for discounted trips to Vegas the next time they visit Facebook.
"By bidding on a specific impression rather than a larger group, advertisers are able to show people more relevant ads while also running more efficient and effective campaigns," a Facebook spokeswoman said in a written statement.
The site announced the new system, called Facebook Exchange, to marketers last week. It's expected to begin rolling out in the next couple of weeks.
Real-time bidding is already widely used across the Internet. In a blog post, Mike Stiles of Atlanta-based social marketing company Vitrue compared the feature to Google's Ad Words, which pushes an advertiser's ad in front of users when they search for a keyword that advertiser has chosen.
"The underlying principle is that users want relevant ads, advertisers don't want to waste money on misguided ads, and Google wants both users and advertisers to be real happy so they'll come back again and again," he wrote.
Currently, Facebook ads are targeted based on users' profiles and the companies or other pages they "like." Stiles writes that model will still be available for advertisers, but the new one should be more specific.
Facebook noted that users will be able to opt out of Exchange by going to the site's About Ads page, by clicking on an "X" that appears on the ads themselves or by blocking cookies on their Web browser.
The company statement said Facebook won't share any user data with the advertisers and that no advertising controls that users currently have will go away.
Jim Anderson, Vitrue's chief operating officer, said the new system probably won't appear dramatically different to the typical Facebook user.
"It's not going to be discernible to most consumers," he said. "Most people won't notice any difference or, to the degree they can discern a difference, it will be 'Wow ... this is more relevant to me.'' "
And while the "real time" nature of the new system will enhance relevance, it won't be perfect, according to Anderson.
"It's possible you might not be served an ad until after you took that trip to Vegas," he said, referring to the previous example. "But without this kind of targeting, you might be served an ad for a trip to Miami, which you weren't considering anyway."
As Web giants like Facebook and Google get better at harvesting user activity, using Web searches for advertising is becoming increasingly popular. According to research firm International Data Corporation, more than $5 billion in online advertising is expected to go to real-time bidding ads in the United States in 2015. That's 27% of what's predicted to be spent, up from less than 10% last year.
Facebook, of course, is increasingly under pressure to demonstrate a sustainable advertising model since its stock went public last month. Anderson predicts the site will continue to diversify how its ads work in the coming months.
It's sometimes a tricky prospect. It was just revealed that Facebook settled a lawsuit last month by the state of California over its "Sponsored Stories" feature. According to reports, Facebook paid $10 million to charity after five users claimed the site broke California law when it used their posts in the feature without paying them.
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Pardon my French, but there really are no other words to describe this letter, written by Jourdan Anderson, an ex-slave, to his former master in 1865.
I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams’s Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio.
Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.
Read the whole letter to get the full effect: the cool yet cutting irony, the quiet yet lethal charges it levels, and the righteous indignation and defiance that lie just beneath the surface. It gives a good sense of what emancipation was all about, as a lived experienced on the ground. At its best, emancipation really was this kind of fuck you—delightful for the slave, less delightful for the master.
In my work on the right and its reaction to the left, I always try to keep these personal confrontations—which are nevertheless fraught with political meaning and drenched in political context—in mind. It’s always been my sense that what is missing in our scholarship and discussions of the right is precisely this lived experience of subjugation and emancipation, what it means for the oppressor and the oppressed. As I write in The Reactionary Mind:
Every great political blast—the storming of the Bastille, the taking of the Winter Palace, the March on Washington—is set off by a very private fuse: the contest for rights and standing in the family, the factory, and the field. Politicians and parties talk of constitution and amendment, natural rights and inherited privileges. But the real subject of their deliberations is the private life of power.
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According to Wikipedia, "Portals provide a way for enterprises to provide a consistent look and feel with access control and procedures for multiple applications and databases, which otherwise would have been different entities altogether."
I'll try to work with this definition for now ...
Consistent look and feel? - Yup
Access control? - Yup (sort-of)
Procedures for multiple apps and database? - It's so consistent that I can't tell whether there are multiple apps and databases.
So that implies that MOS is a Portal.
It is kind-a cute, especially the way a message window slides across the upper right corner to tell me that 'I actually did what you asked me to do - please tell me to go away'. (For example, "region x removed from page - undo, hide".) Reminds me of Clippy.
But hopefully that portal should help me do my job. So let's look at that 'job' part for a bit.
The way I see it, the portal needs to address several classes of users:
- manager and administrator (the ones who pay the bill)
- casual tech (the majority)
- expert in a focus area (the bread and butter folk)
- casual (search for information)
So let's look at the combinations and what simply logging in shows me.
When I log in, I am immediately taken to a Dashboard. That Dashboard gives me News which I can not remove. (In fact, I have 2 occurrences of the News, neither one will disappear.)
By it's very definition, News is very important. It is new. It is supposed to distract me into paying attention. And I have seen the 'News' - a 'Welcome to the new Metalink users' several times a day for the past week. (I am already inured to the news, so truly new News will likely be ignored. Which is bad for News.)
And so I get the News (twice) at whatever the bandwidth requirement is to get the region and to get that very important information that I am likely never to consciously see in the future.
Proactive & Casual Manager
Get OCM working and they can configure their Dashboard to show the targets, the general health check, bugs, and so on. They can even get high priority 'knowledge articles' such as the 'ALERT: Oracle Database 11gR2 Support status and Alerts' (which says it is 'under construction' and tells me that '11g R2 is available')
The dashboard appears to be useful for this role. GREAT!
It's Crisis time. As a manager in crisis, my people have been entering SRs. I can get status of my critical Service Requests.
Not bad at all.
We're covering management fairly well in terms of functionality.
Performance will be an issue, as a manager needs to get that information very quickly. That somewhat implies that the manager is expected to keep the portal open pretty much during the day.
Given the attention span that a manager can afford to provide (other than one specifically charged with support), I'm not sure that the page will be open very long and refresh time is critical. Given that the same manager possibly also has BAM and other dashboards open, and I'm thinking we may have a collision of priorities. (It may also explain why managers need the fastest CPUs and newest machines.)
Hopefully those dashboard regions are JSR 268 compliant ...
Proactive & Casual Tech
Pretty much the same as a proactive manager. Possibly not responsible for a lot of systems but at least can see the articles, and peruse the news (again and again). Could have the SR summary available on the dashboard, IF this person actually creates SRs.
It's crisis time, and this tech is not an expert. There are possibly 1/2 dozen windows open, each with a 'wait for me to get all sorts of information across the net' timeout. And the boss is coming down the hall, looking for answers. Remember that OCM is probably running and this tech has already had the opportunity to review recommended patches. Unless the 'SR summary' region is available to monitor other SRs, calling for help (by opening a SR) is still several clicks away.
We need to switch to the Knowledge Tab or the SR tab before anything can be done. Ouch!
So, not quite so good for the regular tech. Again, the biggie here is 'how much time will this person have the portal open'? Most admin techs I know are busy researching, scripting, glancing at health checks, checking mail, and so on - outside of Support. Can that person afford to have a window dedicated to a support portal?
And this is assuming the technical person is in the admin area. One whole class of potential users is missing and that is the class of developers. Not quite sure what is available here at all to the developer.
So let's look at the last of my categories - the 'expert'.
This is a relatively small group in count, but remember that the expert is hired specifically for the ability to get things done fast and accurately. This is the person everyone else turns to as a walking/talking library. This is the person who is called upon when the proverbial fan gets dirty.
This person is the front line of support. If this person is worried, management and the others are probably frightened.
The proactive expert may want the dashboard for the occasional glance. (But probably already has other tools up and running, such as Grid Control, HP OpenView, or the like AND personalized scripts.) Total time spent on the dashboard in a week, probably 1 hour, 45 minutes of which is in configuring it.
Over time, the expert may learn to be comfortable with OCM and the dashboard for health checks. I'm just concerned about the overhead of the dashboard page, time to access it if it;s not open, and the duplication of effort.
Still, not a bad possibility.
It is my belief that one of the things that creates experts is the drive to see new situations, learn and research.
If that is true, the expert, in casual mode, will be wanting to research in the knowledge base. I honestly do not see anything at all in the dashboard that will be useful at this time in the quest to learn more.
So for the expert in casual mode, the 'dashboard' is a wasted interception. (Unless he wants to see that old News again.)
And in reactive mode the expert is driven to research. The key here is getting to the information source as quickly as possible. That, as far as I can tell, is safely tucked away on the knowledge tab, a click plus 5 seconds of screen refresh away from login.
Unless the expert is expected to have the portal open at all times. Perhaps in conjunction with the company portal. I wonder if that would be a good business case justification for dual monitor?
So far I can see the dashboard has it place. One place appears to be on the manager's desktop, open at all times. There are definitely some interesting aspects. (Although they appear to compete with Grid Control. Hmmm ...)
For me ... I'd prefer to have a few configuration tweaks: allow me to clean the dashboard totally (no region displayed at all), especially the old News and overkill alerts; let me select the page on which I land at opening - in my case, the Knowledge page.
I'm sure that when I grow up and have a few more systems to manage, or when I'm in a customer site that allows me to monitor the health of their systems, I'll find the various capabilities of the dashboard very useful.
Since I learned the trick of how to use, it the ideal Portal landing page has been the Oracle Tech Net page. Fast!
Definitely a first glance at the dashboard. As time goes on I'll need to review it again. But the next one - the MOS Knowledge tab ...
Totally aside, I have no idea why getting to the community pages requires 3 steps in Internet Explorer 7 & 8:
1) click on the MOS 'Community tab', which presents the 'welcome page' with a button;
2) click on the 'Go to community' button, after reading the 'welcome to the community' verbiage for the nth time;
3) click on the 'MOS Community' IE tab that is opened in response to the button.
(And then I click on the Discussions tab because the community opens on a totally static (and traffic heavy) welcome page which I've now read n-3 times.)
I have to admit, all this 'welcome' is very ... bandwidth intensive?
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Notable Quotables - 05/10/1993
NBC's Anita Hill Double Standard
"Were any of
Clarence Thomas' real qualifications ever examined?. ..Did the White House
package him and sell him to the public?... In your book, you say that the
White House organized women's groups to support Thomas and that that was
somehow manufactured. Can you tell us about that?"
- Questions from then-Sunday Today co-host Mary Alice Williams to liberal Newsday reporter Timothy Phelps on his pro-Anita Hill book Capitol Games, July 5, 1992.
"You do, though,
Mr. Brock, have some innate biases, don't you? I mean, The American
Spectator is an ultraconservative magazine. And it seems as if you are an
advocate for Justice Thomas in the book. Is it really fair to call yourself an
- Today co-host Katie Couric to American Spectator contributor David Brock on his book The Real Anita Hill, May 3.
"Ever since the
Civil War...Americans have been reading a magazine called The Nation.
It's always been a platform for speakers who have been ahead of their time.
This morning, we'll look at a new book that reminds us how important that
platform has been."
- Then-reporter Katie Couric celebrating the far-left Nation magazine's anniversary, October 22, 1990 Today.
Overenthused About Gay March Attendance
demonstration in U.S. history is gathering now on the grounds that stretch
between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Gay and lesbian
Americans from around the nation have joined hands around the Capitol and laid
down a memorial to the victims of AIDS. They're here to step out of the closet
and onto the main stage of American history, today, Sunday, April 25th,
- Today co-host Scott Simon before any count of march attendance had been taken. (The U.S. Park Police estimated 300,000, half the official estimate of the 1969 Vietnam War moratorium.)
"Life and Death
puppets danced in the streets as an estimated one million lesbians, gays, and
supporters demonstrated about life and death issues....But for the most part,
this was a love-in that drew more than a million gay and lesbian peoples and
gave many of them chills of joy."
- WCAU-TV (Philadelphia) reporter Dennis Woltering on the CBS overnight news show Up To The Minute, April 26.
Strait's Dynamic Democrats: Califano, Roberts, Shalala and Hillary
"She restores a
tradition of excellence at the Department of Health and Human Services. That
agency has been headed by some of America's truly great human beings: Joe
Califano, Pat Harris, and now Donna Shalala. She is an academic who is
connected with the real needs of people. When it comes to being an effective
advocate for those who have no voice, she has few equals, perhaps only one -
the other half of the dynamic duo here in Washington, that is the duo of Donna
Shalala and Hillary Rodham Clinton."
- ABC health reporter George Strait introducing Shalala to the National Minority AIDS Council on C-SPAN, Apr. 22.
Clinton's Deficit-Cutting Courage
"Yesterday you came
out and said `Let's give the President an E for effort.' Shouldn't he get a
better grade for at least passing a budget that takes the deficit seriously
for the first time?"
- CBS This Morning co-host Harry Smith to Sen. Bob Dole, April 30.
that he is, Clinton can be viewed as a victim of his own success. His
insistence on deficit reduction - and his cajoling of Congress to support a
multi-year plan to accomplish it - is the very definition of courage in
modern American politics."
- Time Chief Political Correspondent Michael Kramer, May 3.
"What do you do for
an encore after ending the Cold War and reversing the arms race? That's the
latest assignment for Mikhail Gorbachev, having assumed the presidency of the
International Green Cross, a new environmental organization..."
- Time's "The Week" section, May 3.
Reagan Apologists Much Like Marxists
"We suffer, Hughes
claims, from a `hollowness at the cultural core, a retreat from public
responsibility,' and he is right; the alchemists of Commentary, refining their
elaborate and obsequious apologias for Reaganism, are at least as culpable as
the chic Marxists of the Modern Language Association, dancing their
politically correct minuets - and probably a lot more dangerous."
- Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley on Time art critic Robert Hughes' book Culture of Complaint, April 4 "Book World" section.
"For members of
Ronald Reagan's Administration, the metamorphosis has been traumatic. Just a
few years ago, they commanded Washington. They were privy and powerful,
setting the country's intellectual and moral compass. Their mission was called
noble. But after they left, their crusade was rejected, their ideology
repudiated much as the Russians have repudiated communism. They were accused
of making greed into the country's unofficial religion. Their fall was far and
fast and the crash was painful."
- Opening of New York Times reporter Lindsey Gruson's story on conference of former Reagan officials, April 25.
Progress: Women in Insane Combat
"Les Aspin said
last week that he means to clear the way for women in the armed forces to
fight in combat. That is a milepost, of course, and an advance of considerable
importance to women... The least sane enterprise upon which human beings ever
embark will thus be made non-sexist. Women have always suffered the madness
and horror of war. Now at least they will do so with a gun in their hands.
It's a milepost and a great leap forward, to be sure."
- CBS Sunday Morning host Charles Kuralt, May 2.
Little Coverage of Reagan-Bush Scandal?
"Reporters need far
more education, especially on budgeting and finance. This weakness follows a
campaign in which there was little coverage of the scandals of the Reagan-Bush
administration - or, if there was a mention, there was included a denial or a
disclaimer. Often editors hid behind that old phrase `there is no proof' when
there was plenty of fire and smoke."
- White House reporter Sarah McClendon in Editor & Publisher, April 3 issue.
Fast-Food-Quality Free Market Advice
"Some of the same economists whose belief in an undiluted free market seem to run to permitting many Americans to free fall into unemployment came to Moscow to tell President Yeltsin only shock therapy could snap Russia into prosperity....There's nothing wrong with having a McDonald's just off Red Square, (that McDonald's, incidentally, is Canadian), but for some Russians and Americans, it's beginning to characterize the quality of the over-the-counter economic advice we've been giving them - fast- fix assembly-line fast food that still leaves the store shelves empty.
opportunities for Americans in Russia should be something more than just the
last vast market for our most precious products or political theories. Helping
Russia to be free ought to mean helping the Russians to be free to find
- Weekend Today co-host Scott Simon, April 3.
Swinging at Reaganomics
earning about $40,000 a game? How can the Giants afford that....This kind of
baseball economics makes as much sense as Ronald Reagan's promise to balance
the budget by cutting taxes and increasing defense spending."
- Time contributor and Esquire Washington bureau chief Walter Shapiro, April 12 Time.
- L. Brent Bozell III;
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Andrew Gabron, Kristin Johnson, Steve Kaminski, Mark Rogers, Bill Thompson; Media Analysts
- Kathleen Ruff, Circulation Manager;
- David Muska,; Interns
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The Social Mobility Toolkit for the Professions, the first common framework to measure the progress of social mobility within the professions, has been launched today on behalf of Professions for Good.
The toolkit, researched by Spada on behalf of Professions for Good, surveyed 300 professionals and drew on the expertise of fifty representatives from universities, membership bodies, NGOs, regulators and Government departments. It provides practical recommendations for employer organisations of all sizes, professional bodies and regulators on how they can track and foster social mobility.
The 52-page toolkit examines the economic, business and moral case for social mobility; the state of social mobility in the UK and the recent policy initiatives in this area by the current Government. It also provides best-practice advice on how to collect and process data on social mobility and how organisations can diversify the socio-economic profile of their members and employees.
The Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science, commented:
'The Government is committed to investing in a fairer future where social mobility is unlocked and everyone with the potential can access the professions, regardless of their background. A significant proportion of new jobs that are expected to be created in our economy over the next decade are professional ones. We can't afford to let the talent of our people go un-utilised.
'I am delighted that Professions for Good have today published their guidance on how to recruit from the whole of the UK's talent pool to ensure we achieve our goal of a fairer society for everyone'.
Neil Stevenson, executive director, brand at ACCA, said:
'As the global body for professional accountants, one of ACCA's core purposes is to offer opportunity to people of talent regardless of their background, and keeping track of this core purpose is important to us. Monitoring and data capture are essential to opening up the professions, and this toolkit offers advice and guidance about how this can be done. The toolkit also offers suggestions for widening access, from good careers advice to mentoring programmes. By working together, and by sharing best practice, the professions can be a force for change when it comes to social mobility'.
Louis Armstrong, Chairman of Professions for Good, added:
'The professions are a major UK success story, but more can be done to attract individuals from every strata of society.
'Over the past six months, we have conducted intensive research and consulted with professional bodies, employers, Government departments, educational institutes and charities. The toolkit is ready. It now needs to be used. We will review its uptake and report on progress regularly. Over time we will all benefit: individuals when aspirations can be fulfilled and the professions as they access the widest range of talent available'.
The toolkit has its origins in the 2009 ‘Unleashing Aspirations’ report by Alan Milburn, which highlighted the barriers to entry and social mobility within the UK professions, and the detrimental effect this has on the professions and society at large.
In its aftermath, the Department for Business, Innovation of Skills’ Gateways to the Professions Collaborative Forum and Panel on Fair Access to the Professions recommended the development of a ‘Social Mobility Toolkit’ for use by the professions. In order to mobilise the professions, Professions for Good and Spada were commissioned to develop today’s toolkit.
By collecting sample indicative data every three years, the professions will be able to track their progress against the Coalition Government’s Social Mobility Strategy, and report to the relevant regulatory bodies and the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.
- Social Mobility Toolkit
Download the Social Mobility Toolkit for the Professions, from the 'Related Links' section to the left of this article. The research conducted by Spada, on behalf of Professions for Good, was funded by the Legal Services Board and the General Medical Council with additional support from the Chartered Insurance Institute and British Dental Association.
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In our first ADR e-bulletin of this year we reported that the UK government had publicly committed to a greater use of mediation and other forms of ADR in the civil justice system. To coincide with an announcement to Parliament regarding the government's reaction to its consultation on the Jackson recommendations for reform of civil litigation funding and costs, a new consultation on reform of the civil justice system was announced on 29 March 2011. The consultation, entitled "Solving disputes in the county courts: creating a simpler, quicker and more proportionate system", makes the following proposals in relation to ADR:
- Introducing automatic referral to mediation in small claims cases
- Introducing automatic referral to mediation awareness sessions in higher-value cases
- Extending the provisions in the Mediation Directive (for cross-border disputes) to domestic disputes, particularly the provisions in Article 6 of the Mediation Directive - making mediated settlements enforceable by courts
The proposal to extend the provisions in the Mediation Directive to domestic disputes is novel, given that the Ministry of Justice confirmed when announcing measures to implement the Mediation Directive in England and Wales that it did not intend to do so. The Directive expressly states that it is intended to apply only to cross-border mediations, but that Member States may choose to extend the application of the Directive to domestic mediations. Some Member States chose to do so when putting in place measures to implement the Directive, including Italy and Germany. It will be interesting to monitor the outcome of the consultation and the ultimate approach of the Ministry of Justice.
The consultation documents can be viewed on the Ministry of Justice website. The deadline for responses to the consolation is 30 June 2011.
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News from NZ Labour Party
Housing New Zealand is wasting millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money on security guards and cleaning up after vandals, when the best way to protect its properties is to put tenants in them, says Annette King. The government’s housing agency has resorted to boarding up empty state houses in the Hutt Valley, and has previously confirmed it pays security companies to monitor empty properties.
“Empty houses are an easy target for vandals. Surely the best possible way to protect a house is to have someone living in it?
“Housing New Zealand has thousands of peoples on its books desperate to get into a home. Rather than throwing money away on security guards, it should start filling up its empty stock.
“Housing New Zealand kept far too many properties empty in 2012 waiting for the Housing Minister Phil Heatley to give it clear directions. He’s been in the job four years – it is about time he started to pull his finger out.
“It is simply crazy to leave so many state houses empty. They should be used for the purpose they were built for – to house New Zealanders in need,” says Annette King.
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Yesterday, I attended the annual parent orientation at Xavier School. Unlike past years, there was something different about this year, I realized. I would be attending activities in this school for only one boy (my other boy already graduated high school and is facing a new life as a college freshie).
Ever since Fr. Johnny Go, S.J. took over the helm as School Director, I have seen vast improvements in terms of facilities, quality of faculty, curriculum, use of technology in academe and so many other aspects. In a previous post, I described how the school turned virtual during Typhoon Ondoy when school was suspended for 10 days. While many schools lost school days, Xavier students continued to study and do assigned homework via the net.
At the orientation, I eagerly awaited Fr. Johnny’s presentation to the parents. His part is always something I look forward to. After all, when the School Director blogs, uses multimedia in his presentations, has a Facebook account and maintains his own YouTube channel, you can be sure his talk would be a very interesting one. I was not disappointed.
Fr. Johnny talked about how important it is for schools (and parents) to learn how to educate and parent this generation of tech-savvy kids.
He described the TV Generation I belong to (the age when baby boomers first encountered a television set and whose free time was spent in front of the boob tube watching episodes of popular shows). He also described the next younger set called Generation X (that age group between mid 30s to mid 40s that were schooled in classrooms where passive learning was the norm: teacher lectures and student “vomits back” what he absorbed during exams).
He next described the 2 generations that students belong to now: The Net Generation (kids from 13 yrs old and up) and the Next Generation (those below 12 years old). These two generations have absolutely no fear for technology; in fact they embrace it wholeheartedly. But with such wide access to information at the tips of their fingertips, schools face a new challenge in teaching them, something that Xavier is moving briskly into. Unlike the generations of parents where a student WAITS for content before ASSIMILATING it, learning for 21st century kids must entail what Fr. Johnny calls the 5 “-ate’s”:
* LOCATE content (e.g., how to use search engines to find information)
* INTERROGATE the results (learning not to just accept search results as truth but to interrogate which is true, half-true, or false)
* CREATE and COMMUNICATE content
* COLLABORATE with others
At the same time, kids must learn 3 things that go along with ease of technology access and information:
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BUFFALO, NY - In it's continuing effort to help those in need, the WNY Coalition for the Homeless is trying something new when it comes to raising funds.
Skydiving for a Cause hopes to raise $10,000 to fund Project Homeless Connect Buffalo.
The event gives those in need access to everything from legal aid, and mental health services, to bicycle repair and socks.
The group of five agencies will hold their 5th annual Project Homeless Connect event at the Buffalo Convention Center in September.
Five brave souls representing those groups have planned their jump for the beginning of August, so funding is already under way.
2 On Your Side Photojournalist Dooley O'Rourke spoke to the group about their unique plan.
You can watch the story in the viewer above.
If you would like to donate to Skydiving for a Cause, follow this link http://phcbuffalo.com/ for more information.
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American Cancer Society
Like Batman and Robin, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, and other dynamic duos, Touchstone Energy® Cooperatives and the American Cancer Society have teamed up in the fight against our nation's second largest killer, cancer. The American Cancer Society is the nationwide, community-based, voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives and diminishing suffering from cancer through research, education, advocacy and service.
For the past several years, Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative has sponsored Relay For Life events in our service area. Relay For Life is a fun-filled overnight event designed to celebrate survivorship and raise money for research and programs of the American Cancer Society. During the event, teams of people gather at schools, fairgrounds or parks and take turns walking or running laps. Each team tries to keep at least one team member on the track at all times.
Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative is dedicated to providing the much needed funds for the Relay events. We want our members to see Gulf Coast as much more than just a company that provides electricity and other services. We want our members to recognize our employees are their neighbors, working side-by-side to defeat the evil forces of cancer. In addition to sponsoring Relay events, GCEC employees have also raised money to attend the annual Cattle Barons Ball, another fundraising event to support the fight against cancer.
Did You Know?
- Cancer is the #1 health concern among Americans
- 1.3 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year (1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women)
- More than 550,000 Americans will die from cancer this year. (1,500 people per day)
- More than 3,300 Americans per day are told they have cancer
- Two-thirds of all cancer diagnoses can be prevented.
- Everyone benefits from the American Cancer Society. If you have any questions or may need help from the American Cancer Society you can call 1-800-ACS-2345. You can speak with a live person 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 52 weeks a year, or you can log on to www.cancer.org. The website is an encyclopedia, offering a wealth of information on all types of cancer.
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Let Angelic Indulgence take you under its wing. Join the AI Monthly Indulgences newsletter for even more healthy lifestyle news, strategies, and member benefits.
Want more advice and news on decadent living in healthy ways? Check out these Angelic Indulgence columns, published in The Sunday Paper.
On TBS Movie and Makeover, AI Editor, Angela Braden, discusses using essential oils to beat stress and prevent depression. Peak inside a decadent life.
Send this page to a friend
If you’re seeing more green these days and wondering how you can help to minimize your own carbon footprint, you are in for an unexpected treat. The indulgent rewards of going green are physical, mental and, individual. Studies have found that people who see the larger picture in life and engage in group involvement to improve that picture actually boost their own wellbeing and longevity in the process. Going green isn’t only about the greater good. As environmental concerns shift from mere political rhetoric to very impassioned movements, the magical fringe benefit of doing good is icing on the cake of a green lifestyle.
A wide body of research suggests that being involved in something larger than ourselves; a group, an organization—a breeze through the house turning off lights and TVs—directly impacts our own health. Greener living may conveniently translate very literally into healthier living (and longer living) for the individual who indulges in it.
As our Earth-friendly efforts improve the community and the future health of our children, it can improve the very functioning of our bodies at the same time.
How? A few physical and mental health factors that are affected include: improved self-esteem, which translates to more motivation in many lifestyle elements, like exercise and nutrition; reduced heart rates and blood pressure, biomarkers of aging; increased endorphin production, which is also linked to longevity; and enhanced immune systems, which means lower incidence of disease.
Doing “good†has real bio-chemical and hormonal benefits that translate into enhanced cellular function and activity. One reason is that simply making a difference and improving a cause makes us feel good! And feeling good literally translates into vitality, invigorating us at the cellular level. Feel good activities, like helping the Earth safeguard its future, also buffers the impact of stress (a major health hazard) and combats social isolation, two factors that influence life expectancy.
So make a difference in ways that are meaningful to you and enjoy the results of the change you help to bring about. [Joy itself releases enzymes associated with anti-aging] It may be as simple as turning off the lights or computer monitor when you leave the room, buying “fair trade†and fresh foods from local markets, or doing a community green project like a neighborhood clean up. A home energy audit. is a great start, but the opportunities are endless. Now is the time to indulge on so many levels. By getting up, getting out, and going green you are helping to make a lasting positive difference in your health, in your community, and in the world! For more green ideas visit Think Earth Day 365.
The Latest from AI
And The Oscar for Best Remedies Goes to Green Pavilion!
Where better for Angelic Indulgence to spread our words of wellness than in the city of angels? Alive Expo Green Pavilion invited AI to join in the Oscar festivities to educate and inspire celebrity guests, media personalities, and tastemakers in the progressive wellness world. The message: Wellness and an eco-conscious lifestyle are achievable in virtually every area of our daily lives. AI was honored to mix and mingle with some of the brightest natural and green companies in the world and the celebrities who embrace them. While other swanky “swag†suites were loading celebs with free goods, Green Pavilion did just that—with the added bonus spotlighting an array of products and services that can make many so many shades of life greener, healthier and happier from the inside out.
Indulge in the Arts—Or Create Some of Your Own
Ahh, the beloved endorphin—for years, studies have shown that physical activity triggers the release of these feel-good hormones, but recently, scientists have been focusing their attention on creative activity as well. Turns out, the coveted endorphin rush that comes from physical activity , can also be attained by picking up a guitar and strumming out your favorite song. Art Therapy, as it has been labeled by the medical world, has even been proven to reduce stress levels, shorten recovery times and reduce the use of pain medication—just imagine what it can do for mid-week burnout.
To Dye For - A New Breed of Eco-Friendly Salons Offer Indulgent Alternatives
Do you love your dyed locks but not the toxic chemicals it took to get that perfect hue? If you’ve incorporated organic food into your diet, but your beauty and hair products remain loaded with toxins like formaldehyde and coal tar, it’s time to expand your indulgences.
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Reader reaction to Reuters news
Curbing rocket fire?
Kindergarten near-miss highlights Gaza risks
Hamas spurns permanent coexistence with the Jewish state, but its men have tried to curb the rocket fire from Gaza in recent years. Smaller groups continue to carry out attacks.
Why would you bias your news article with that statement?
How do you know Hamas leaders have tried to curb rocket attacks? To the best of my knowledge, they have tried to encourage rocket attacks.
When you are the reporter, you have a fiduciary duty to report the news – unless it is in your editorial column.
I am comfortable with that reference. Israel, for one, has said this in the past, although it also contends Hamas can do more.
You may wish to read this story from Jerusalem last year: “Israel general says Hamas curbing Gaza rocket fire“.
We have also written stories quoting factions leaders of other groups like the Islamic Jihad who accused Hamas forces of confiscating their rockets, etc. GBU Editor
Israeli police explosives experts examine the remains of a rocket after it landed in Kibbutz Zikim, just north of the Gaza Strip December 21, 2010. REUTERS/Edi Israel
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Proskills – making skills work
Skills development is essential for the development of the quarrying and construction materials industry. In 2011, we secured additional funding for training through Proskills' Joint Investment Programme (JIP), bringing real business benefits.
Proskills – the Sector Skills Council for the Process and Manufacturing Industries – helps companies in the sector boost their employees’ work skills. The initiative enables us to train our staff more efficiently, preparing for the future while managing short-term commercial challenges. Through the JIP funding, we have rolled out key health, safety and environmental qualifications to all our management and supervisory staff.
While our training prioritises operational staff working in the quarries, we aim to provide training right across the workforce. Sustainability is a key area, driven by social and corporate responsibility, environmental concerns and legislation.
Dyfed Jones, Tarmac’s NVQ assessor and internal verifier, said: “The technologies that we use to manage our quarries have become increasingly efficient over the last few years. The ways we develop our workforce and the processes in place have also changed, so it’s vital to ensure that our employees continue to have the relevant skills, both to support their development and ensure we continue to offer quality products to our customers.”
The training brings tangible benefits to the company. As many of our employees drive expensive dumpers, shovels and excavators, better training means less need for repairs and maintenance, fuel costs are lower and they drive more efficiently, resulting in improved productivity.
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The lead singer of Irish rock band U2, Bono is a well know campaigner against AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa. In 2002, he and Bobby Shriver co-founded DATA (debt, AIDS, trade, Africa) to raise awareness of the issues in its name and influence government policy on Africa. In 2004, to that same end, they helped to start the ONE Campaign, now 2.5 million members strong, which later joined with DATA to form a new organization also called ONE. Bono and Shriver also founded (RED) to deliver corporate profits to help eliminate AIDS in Africa. With his wife Ali, Bono started Edun, an ethical fashion company which makes clothes in Africa and other developing regions.
At the Sept. 25 UN Summit, we had a chance to show a short video to a group of world leaders at the Secretary General's reception. The film - Celebrate, Accelerate - marks the progress on the Millennium Development Goals to date and encourage further, faster commitment going forward.
ONE Vote '08
ONE Vote '08 launch videoFeatures Matt Damon, Bono, Sen. Bill Frist, Sen. Tom Daschle, Don Cheadle, Alfre Woodard, Tom Brady, Rick Warren.ONE Campaign extreme poverty global disease Africa ONE.org saving lives securing our future.
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Dental Implants | Dental Implants Derry, N.Ireland
Foyle Dental Spa has a dedicated Implant team in the practice led by renowned specialist Dr. James Hall. Whether you have full dentures, partial dentures or a single missing tooth, implants are the answer. They look natural, feel natural and can prevent further bone loss and the resulting “sagging” of facial tissues when teeth are lost. Ranging from single tooth replacements, to full mouth reconstructions, this is the most effective method of replacing missing teeth.
A More Natural Approach
A dental implant is a small, sturdy, titanium post that acts as the root structure would for a natural tooth. A dental implant is placed into your upper or lower jawbone. After the bone has grown around the implant, implants can hold a crown, bridge or over-denture just like roots hold natural teeth in place. Implants are very durable and can last a lifetime. They require the same maintenance as natural teeth; this includes brushing, flossing and regular dental check-ups. Many patients have told us that dental implants have transformed their lives, enabling them to smile with confidence!
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Linden Labs, makers of Second Life, announced a partnership with IBM and nearly 30 other companies today to work on creating a layer of interoperability across all online virtual worlds. This layer, the plans for which are being discussed publicly for the first time at today's Virtual Worlds Expo in San Jose, would allow users to port identities and other assets from one virtual world to another.
It's a logical next step for the medium of virtual worlds and one that could cause their number and size to grow substantially. It could also lead to bitter, if sometimes humorous, conflict between users identified primarily with different sites. Nick Carr warned this morning that the move will likely lead attacks on peaceful Second Life residents by ogres from World of Warcraft.
Is the move towards interoperability a meaningful announcement and what kind of future could it lead to? I asked three industry experts for their opinion this morning.
A Musical Tour of Select SecondLife Locations
Increasing User Numbers
Wagner James Au is the founder of New World Notes, a blog focused on Second Life. He was an embedded reporter on staff with Linden Labs in the games early years and is now working on a forthcoming book about SL. Au told me that he sees the interoperability announcement as very related to today's release of the Electric Sheep Company's simplified Second Life browser; both are events that could be key in turning Second Life into "a truly mass market phenomenon." That seems plausible to me; other virtual worlds are far more populated than Second Life and its official client is notoriously difficult for beginners to use.
Making mass access to virtual worlds more viable could lead to any number of events. IBM dealt with a relevant situation just last month when it was the target of what's believed to be the first labor strike in Second Life. Nearly 2000 people from around the world stormed the company's SL business center is solidarity with striking Italian IBM workers on the 27th of September.
Innovation in Identity
Barb Dybwad, Producer of the gaming Joystiq and Engadget networks at Weblogs, Inc, says the interoperability announcement raises the possibility of a standards based environment of incredible fecundity - the kind of thing the web at large should embrace more than it does.
"It's basically mashing up Second Life with concepts like OpenID and web standards and turning a once proprietary walled garden model into open architecture," she said, "and that's a good thing for users and businesses alike."
Professional virtual world gadfly Eric Rice told me this morning that it would not be easy to translate identities from one platform to another. He's known as the character Spin Martin in most of the worlds he visits, including Second Life where he's the owner of one of the premier event spaces in the world. That's not the case in the warfighting world of Halo, however, where Rice feels the need to operate under a more battle-ready identity.
Likewise, graphics standards are wildly different from world to world and Rice said that residents of some of the more visually high-end worlds would likely take on a "Not in My Backyard" attitude about ugly avatars from less visually compelling worlds if interoperability presumes a direct translation of avatars. Rice also predicted that some worlds would only respect standards in theory while in practice building non-compliant but technically superior avatars and functionality for their users.
Innovation Through Open Architecture
"I think digital identity/avatars is one component of it," Barb Dybwad told me in response to Rice's concerns, "but they go beyond that and are talking about opening the architecture in the platform itself - including transactions and integration with existing web services using web standards. That could be big."
I asked Barb if she thought the move could make Linden Labs more relevant to the virtual world market in general than it currently is. "What this work could do is open the market completely so almost everyone could add virtual world functionality on top of their existing services; so there would be a million second lifes. It distributes the virtual world market instead of hoarding it under linden lab and i think that's a smart move for them."
Dybwad believes this type of platform could become nearly ubiquitous online someday soon. "I'm playing a few other MMOs and I definitely see a future where gamers and even people who don't identify as gamers are spending much more time inside virtual worlds," she told me. "It's an incredibly compelling experience. It's experiential in a way that things like Facebook and Myspace don't quite get ... until they make their own 3D platform on top of themselves."
Standards are never an easy thing to agree upon but it's exciting to thing that these questions could be close to seeing some working answers developed. One thing's for sure - when the time comes I'd appreciate if you'll have pity on my poor, under-dressed avatar.
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Bush, a longtime proponent of immigration changes, surprised many immigrant advocates this week with the publication of a long-awaited book on the topic. In the book, he advocates allowing the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants to seek permanent legal residency in the United States, but not citizenship.
That issue has already shaped up to be one of the key dividing lines in the Congressional debate over immigration. Illustrating the shifting ground, Bush has given several interviews as part of the book roll-out further revising his position and indicating that he could, in fact, support a path to citizenship.
In a statement of principles published in January, the eight-member Senate group endorsed a path to citizenship, but a number of House Republicans have objected.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a member of the group, said he was “surprised” by Bush’s proposal, particularly since it comes from a governor who had long been out front on the need for an immigration overhaul and is well-liked in the Hispanic community.
He argued members of the Republican party who believe it is amnesty to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the country will not be appeased by denying them eventual citizenship.
“From a policy point of view, I don’t think it’s the right approach. I don’t like the idea of having millions of people here for their entire life without being able to assimilate into America,” he said. “From a political point of view, we’ve got 55 Democrats sent and a 72 percent support for a path to citizenship. It’s just not practical to think we’ll be able to pass any bill in the United States Senate without a path to citizenship.”
Behind the scenes, advocates and congressional sources familiar with the negotiations say the path to citizenship is not the trickiest issue facing the Senate group, which has been working to translate a joint statement of principles into a bill since January,
They say the more difficult issue for the Senate group has been how to structure a low-skill visa for temporary workers, an issue that has helped stymie past efforts to rewrite immigration laws.
Though the group has been meeting two to three times a week, it has not yet been able to resolve the difficult topic.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka came to the Hill on Tuesday to meet with the gang’s four Democratic members, as the two sides shuttle proposals for the low-skill visa program back and forth between the unions and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a Senate aide said.
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ST. PETERSBURG - Many property owners are experiencing "sticker shock" as they read their trim notices (Proposed Tax Rates). While these new evaluations are generating large increases in tax revenue (Pinellas County has seen a 15 percent spike in real estate values, equating to $60 million in additional revenues, Hillsborough County's increase is 16 percent AND St. Petersburg and Tampa have 15 percent and 14 percent increases, respectively) the downside for some property owners is catastrophic.
"This is a serious crisis with statewide implications on our real estate market. That is why I am sponsoring House Joint Resolution 39, the Save Our Holdings initiative," stated Farkas "The Save Our Holdings initiative will put fairness and balance into our property tax system, allowing Floridians to buy real estate properties without the threat of a huge tax increase."
Once approved by the House and the Senate, HJR 39 will give the voters the choice whether to extend the Save Our Homes Amendment (a 3 percent cap on annual assessments currently applied only to homesteaded property) to all real estate properties. The bill language would be on the November 2006 ballot for an up or down vote by the citizens of Florida.
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The day I married my spouse was the most beautiful and joyful of my life. We were surrounded by family and friends and exchanged our vows in the historic church where I grew up. Friends and family told us it was the most beautiful and genuine wedding they had ever been to. Perhaps they were just being nice, or perhaps they were telling the truth. Regardless, our wedding was different than most, because our marriage is treated differently than others.
Because my wife and I married in Massachusetts, our marriage is recognized by the state. Unfortunately, because of the Defense of Marriage Act, we are still discriminated against.
My wife works on a research team at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She is a federal employee, which affords her a number of benefits including a pension and retirement plan, and great health insurance. In the state of Massachusetts, there is a requirement that every citizen have health insurance. Neither of my employers offers health insurance. Our combined income is considered when applying for state health insurance programs, and thus I do not qualify. Because of the Defense of Marriage Act, I cannot be added to my wife’s insurance through her employer. This means that we pay $400 per month out of pocket for a minimal individual health insurance plan.
Perhaps the more pertinent differences in our treatment as a married couple became evident this past year. My wife is a Captain in the Air Force Reserve, and was deployed to Afghanistan for six and a half months of this year. In the week’s notice we had prior to her departure, there was a lot to get done. She needed more uniforms and other items that are only available at the stores on base. While she was wrapping up her work at the VA, you would think I could run those errands for her, right? Wrong. Because she is considered “single” by the military, I do not have a dependent card. This means I cannot use any of the services on the base, including the gas station, commissary, or gym. I cannot even get onto the base without a sponsor.
This also means that on her military legal paperwork I cannot be listed as “primary next of kin,” because we are a same-sex couple. This means that if the woman I married and have committed my life to were injured or killed while deployed, I would not be the first to be told. And I would receive no spousal survival benefits. None.
It also means that, during her deployment, we received no separation pay or BAH, which is normally afforded to married couples and can be hundreds of dollars a month. A heterosexual married couple would have access to education and employment benefits, included in the GI bill. My wife cannot share those benefits. This means that we have taken out student loans for my seminary education, an expense that would have been unnecessary otherwise.
The moral of this story is this: we are a legally married, loving, and committed couple, and we are discriminated against. My spouse is an officer in the USAF, a federal employee, and is treated differently than her colleagues and fellow Airmen. It is as if our marriage does not exist, because of the Defense of Marriage Act.
If DOMA were repealed, my family could focus more on its service to this country, and less on how we are treated differently. If DOMA were repealed, we could worry less about financial issues and have more security that our family is protected. If DOMA were repealed, it would mean that our marriage would be seen for what it is: a loving, genuine, joy-filled and faithful one. It would mean that we would not be treated as second-class citizens.
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Updated | Monday | 4:03 p.m. A protest by hundreds of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators who streamed into a square in New York’s financial district on Saturday afternoon resulted in about 20 arrests when police officers told the slow-moving marchers to get off the sidewalks — and then swept in enforce their command, my colleague Al Baker reports on City Room.
But the chaos that unfolded in New York’s Foley Square was but one in a string of several events, altercations and protests that occurred as part of the now-countrywide Occupy movement the same day.
Last week, 52 protesters camped in Atlanta’s Woodruff Park were arrested and the rest dispersed for violating a city ordinance that prohibits people in the park between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. On Saturday night, over 100 people returned to the park, many pitching tents and receiving words of encouragement from Rev. Jesse Jackson, The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Around midnight, the Twitter account @OWSAtlanta posted a live stream to the events unfolding near Woodruff Park. The Journal Constitution reported that soon after, mounted police had halted the impromptu midnight march and 20 people had been arrested.
Helicopters circled as groups of marchers shut down part of Peachtree Street, WXIA-TV Atlanta, a local news program, reported.
Below is video of the protest, from WXIA:
In Canada, one person encamped with the protesters in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery died Saturday, The Vancouver Sun reported. The cause of death is not known.
A woman, who is believed to be in her 20s, died Saturday afternoon at the Occupy Vancouver encampment in what Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services are calling a “medical emergency.”
The woman was found unresponsive around 4:30 p.m. and was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
VFRS spokesman Capt. Gabe Roder confirmed the woman was in a tent, but it is unknown whether she was a resident of the tent city.
Witnesses said the woman may have died of a heroin overdose, but police and rescue officials were unsure of the cause of death.
“We don’t know if it’s an overdose,” Roder said.
On Thursday, a protester went into cardiac arrest at the Canadian protest site after a drug overdose. He was rescued, according to officials, by a fellow protester trained in first aid before emergency medical crews arrived, according to CBC News, the national public broadcasting station.
Saturday was celebrated by some as National Bank Transfer Day, a grassroots initiative started casually by a Californian woman named Kristen Christian that called on people to transfer their funds from large banks to credit unions. Ms. Christian’s initial request, sent out to 500 friends on Facebook, has been embraced and magnified by the Occupy movement, The Los Angeles Times reports.
In Anchorage, two men were arrested for behavior possibly related to Bank Transfer Day, the Alaskan television station KTUU-TV reported.
KTUU-TV reports that according to Sgt. Tim Landeis of the Anchorage Police Department:
… the arrests occurred when protesters dressed in Hazmat suits spilled fake paper money outside the mall’s branch office of the Wells Fargo bank, then made loud noises as they picked it up.
KTUU-TV covered the response of some Anchorage residents to National Bank Transfer Day:
In Washington, D.C., what exactly occurred on Friday, when pedestrians at a march were injured after being hit by a car, was still a matter of contention, The Washington Post reports.
By Saturday, police and protesters were still giving divergent accounts of what occurred when more than 500 people gathered to protest a dinner held by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative free-market group affiliated with the tea party movement. Video clips showed tense shouting and shoving at the doors, which left two older women dazed on the ground.
Three protesters were struck by a car around 10 p.m., the police said, after they jumped in front of it as the driver tried to navigate through the crowd. Members of the protest contend that the car purposely sped up with the intention of hitting the pedestrians.
Tensions escalated when the police permitted the driver to depart, as seen in this video uploaded to YouTube by thisisbossi, which shows the driver, in a silver car, pulling away after the incident, and the reaction of the marchers:
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: November 7, 2011
An earlier version of this post confused two incidents in which protesters were struck by cars last week, and incorrectly identified video shot in Oakland on Wednesday night as having been recorded in Washington on Friday.
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Another Acronym to Strike Fear in Your Heart?
JCAHO. Until The Joint Commission changed its name early last year, that acronym was enough to strike fear in the hearts of hospital employees at all levels. When a JCAHO surveyor arrives, everyone from executives to front line managers scrambles to make sure that supplies are stored in the right places and medications are delivered properly. Survey time at a hospital is serious business.
Now another acronym has made its way to the accreditation scene, and it remains to be seen if this one will have the sheer power that JCAHO held for so long. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced last week that it has granted DNV Healthcare, Inc. deeming authority for U.S. hospitals. DNV is the first organization to receive deeming status in more than 30 years.
JCAHO hasn't been the only deeming authority over the past 30 years, but it may seem that way. In fact, I'm sure there are a lot of healthcare workers out there would be hard-pressed to tell you the names of the other accreditation organizations out there. The Joint Commission is the accreditation authority, and any hospital that wishes to be seen as one that provides quality care works to meet its standards.
So why after 30 years has CMS decided to grant another organization deeming authority? Surely it has something to do with CMS' increased focus on quality and patient safety. By creating a growing list of "never events," and an emphasis on transparency, CMS has made it clear that it wants hospitals to not only improve on certain key outcomes, but also make the quality of hospitals something that consumers take into consideration when they're selecting a hospital. DNV's accreditation process combines CMS Conditions of Participation with ISO-9001, a collection of standards for quality management systems. DNV's process is called the National Integrated Accreditation for Healthcare organizations and was designed to streamline the accreditation process, identifying ways to make continual improvements.
It sounds good, but will hospitals really abandon The Joint Commission for another agency? I think it's possible. The Joint Commission's accreditation process isn't perfect—just ask anyone on the hospital staff who is involved with accreditation. They'll tell you that the JC's standards change too frequently, and that JC staff members, though good at pointing out needed improvements, often aren't helpful to hospitals that are implementing changes or process improvements.
DNV, too, will have its challenges. It won't be an easy road convincing hospitals to move away from what they've always known—The Joint Commission—and work through a new and different accreditation process. But there's hope for them already. Before CMS' announcement last week, 27 hospitals had already received accreditation from DNV in addition to that of the Joint Commission.
Will DNV ever strike fear in the hearts of hospital executives as JCAHO once did? That remains to be seen. But with an increased focus on quality and patient safety from both CMS and accreditation agencies, you can bet that your hospital's accreditation process will get tougher each year.
Maureen Larkin is quality editor with HealthLeaders magazine. She can be reached at [email protected].
Note: You can sign up to receive HealthLeaders Media QualityLeaders, a free weekly e-newsletter that reports on the top quality issues facing healthcare leaders.
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This is an interesting article with regard to incentives for low income people to buy homes. I think the most important part however is the last section with regard to "Pushing too Hard".
Homeownership bill: political currency
$400 million effort aimed at minorities delights industry
By Steve Kerch, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 3:41 PM ET Oct. 2, 2003
CHICAGO (CBS.MW) - Efforts to increase homeownership among minorities got a boost this week as the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $400 million bill that provides down-payment and closing-cost aid to 80,000 lower-income buyers over the next two years.
Dubbed the American Dream Downpayment Act, the measure authorizes grants averaging $5,000 for first-time buyers whose incomes are less than 80 percent of a local area's median. The House passed the Republican-sponsored bill on a voice vote; a companion bill is pending in the Senate.
The bill's sponsors estimate it could result in construction of 1,000 new homes and the creation of 2,500 jobs.
But the first spin-off is the political spin being put out by GOP leaders going out of their way to point out the benefits to minorities.
"African Americans and Latinos will benefit from the new legislation since it provides much needed money to assist residents in the purchasing of a home," said Pamela Mantis, Republican National Committee deputy press secretary. "The benefits of this bill will not only help new homeowners, but will also contribute to job creation, adding to the increased momentum of the nation's economic recovery."
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez noted that President Bush asked Congress to fund the American Dream Downpayment Initiative as part of the administration's "Homeownership Challenge" to increase minority homeownership by 5.5 million families by 2010.
The initiative is certainly a noble one. Two-thirds of all American households own their own home, but the homeownership rate for African Americans and Hispanics is less than 50 percent. While that rate picked up throughout the 1990s expansion, the gap between minority and white homeownership remains large.
"Down payment and closing costs are the biggest hurdles to homeownership for many American families. By helping those struggling to meet these costs, we can give more families an opportunity to build assets, we can get more Americans into homes, we can create jobs, and we can boost local economies," said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio
Last year, HUD released a report that concludes adding 5.5 million minority homeowners will stimulate an additional $256 billion in benefits to the U.S. housing sector. In addition, HUD created The Blueprint for the American Dream Partnership, a coalition involving every housing-industry segment to build broad support for the President's goal of increasing homeownership opportunities for minority families.
Realty industry climbs aboard
It was no surprise real-estate trade groups jumped on the Republican praisemobile. The National Association of Realtors added at least two Democratic proponents of the bill to its greeting card.
"Realtors applaud the Bush administration and (U.S.) Reps. Oxley,, Barney Frank, D-Mass., Bob Ney, R-Ohio and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., for their outstanding leadership and commitment to helping more families achieve the American dream of homeownership," NAR President Cathy Whatley said.
"Although our homeownership rate is at a record high, one out of seven American families still faces critical housing needs. The American Dream Downpayment Act is a tremendous program that would not only create thousands of housing opportunities but also help sustain the housing market, which has been the pillar of our economy."
The Mortgage Bankers Association of America heaped on more accolades, for the leadership of the House Financial Services Committee, the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Katherine Harris, R. Fla., and for Martinez.
"The ability to come up with a down payment and closing costs remains a challenging hurdle to many families," said Kurt Pfotenhauer, MBA's senior vice president of government affairs. "Today, thanks to this legislation, more families will be able to overcome this hurdle and enjoy homeownership."
Pushing too hard?
It is true that down payments and closing costs are an added barrier to homeownership. And providing some cash to strapped borrowers will no doubt convince some to dive into homeownership.
But the fact is that the private mortgage market has already been doing its best to make everybody a homeowner, with plenty of zero-down options and in many cases allowing closing costs to be rolled into mortgages themselves. And it may be we've already pushed the envelope too far. See previous Resident Authority.
Mortgage delinquencies, while not near the records of previous recessions, are still high by the standards of what should be economic recovery. And there is ample evidence that the delinquency and foreclosure rates on subprime loans -- the loans most likely to go to homebuyers on the margins of creditworthiness -- are massively higher.
The bottom line is that the issues involved in providing decent, affordable housing to lower-income Americans are much too complex to be solved by a $5,000 check. But you can bet they'll be plenty of them cut - if not to average Americans, then at least by the housing-industry lobbyists to all the politicians they are now fawning over.
Steve Kerch is the real estate editor of CBS.MarketWatch.com in Chicago.
CBS and the CBS "eye device" are registered trademarks of CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
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It ain't how much you know, it's what you do with what you do know!
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Rise Against Release Video For "Make It Stop (September's Children)"
Group Partners With It Gets Better Project For Anti-Bullying Campaign.
Rise Against have joined forces with the It Gets Better Project to create their stunning, topical video to their latest single, "Make It Stop (September's Children)".
The video, directed by Marc Klasfeld, finds the band playing in the school gymnasium at, front man, Tim McIlrath's alma mater, Rolling Meadows High School. The video finds the band playing against the backdrop of LGBT teens being bullied and coping with it, along with YouTube submissions provided by the It Gets Better Project of members sharing their stories of encouragement.
McIlrath commented on the inspiration for the song and video, "A number of events were the catalyst for the creation of Make It Stop, everything from the suicides in September 2010, to our own fans voicing their fears and insecurities from time to time. I decided to create the song as a response, and when I discovered the It Gets Better campaign and [It Gets Better Project co-founder] Dan Savage's commitment to such an important and concise message, I was moved. I immediately felt that if our song is the road, then the It Gets Better project is the destination. I hope the synergy between the two can reach people and make a difference."
It Gets Better Project founder, Dan Savage said, "Tim McIlrath has written a powerful song, With the release of 'Make It Stop' and the accompanying video, Rise Against is sending the message to its fan base that the bullying and harassment of LGBT teens needs to stop and that suicide isn't a solution." Those looking for more information on the It Gets Better Project can head to itgetsbetter.org.
You can watch the video and an in-depth look at the behind-the-scenes of the video's creation below.
"Make It Stop (September's Children)" Video
Behind The Scenes
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Volkswagen unfolds coupé concept
Demos hybrid future at Detroit Motor Show
Leccy Tech Hot on the heels of Peugeot's SR1, Volkswagen has whipped the dust sheets off its own hybrid coupé concept at this year’s Detroit Motor Show.
VW's New Compact Coupé is only a concept, for now
Called, simply, the New Compact Coupé (NCC), VW’s concept car is another interpretation of the basic hybrid technology that the firm installed inside its Up! Lite concept, first seen during last year’s Los Angeles car show.
The NCC’s 1.4l, four-cylinder petrol engine would produce 150bhp, VW said, and be paired with a 20kW (27bhp) electric motor.
Apparently able to hit 60mph in just over eight seconds, VW’s concept coupé could push on to a top speed of 141mph, while averaging 55mpg and emitting just under 98g/km of CO2. The car would also feature a seven-speed Direct Shift, semi-cum-fully automatic gearbox, VW added.
The NCC could hit 60mph in just over eight seconds
The company kept tight-lipped about the concept car’s potential battery capacity, admitting only that – much like the Up! Lite – the NCC would be capable of low-speed electric-only drive. Put the pedal to the floor and the electric motor will only use its 67lb/ft of torque to help with acceleration, VW said.
The NCC was designed to “technically and visually” show how Volkswagen envisions a front-wheel drive compact hybrid working “when the time is right”.
VW also said that the NCC would sit nicely between its Scirocco and CC models – though we can’t say for sure if the NCC will ever make it into showrooms. ®
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At The Atlantic, Molly Ball reports on Gallup’s recent poll on Americans’ attitudes about sin. According to the poll, Americans find birth control, divorce, and gambling the most morally acceptable, at approval ratings of 89%, 67%, and 64%, respectively, and polygamy (11%), cloning (10%), and adultery (7%) the most morally reprehensible.
Posts Tagged ‘sin’
Just when we thought we knew what to expect from evangelicals, they seem to be changing again. After more than two decades of developing a public identity as loyal Republican “values voters”—replacing their earlier image as otherworldly, backwoods bible-thumpers—evangelicals seem determined to confound our social scientific wisdom again. Just who are these people? In spite of the difficulty of definition and the constantly shifting terrain, I want to argue that there is a “there” there, but it lies in the stories being told more than in any theological or demographic categories. [...]
Why is it that sex is such a central part of American political life anyway? Why, when The New York Times reported on the influence of “values” voters on the 2004 Presidential election, did the Times name only two “values,” both of them reflecting a conservative sexual ethic: opposition to abortion and opposition to “recognition of lesbian and gay couples”?
So what’s the problem? What’s the ethical crisis? For Taylor it is this: sexuality cannot carry the burden of the enormous demands placed on it by those who would see its flourishing or repression as the foundation of all ethical, social, spiritual, and subjective goods.
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Seven years on, she still wakes up with a shock in the night, startled to remember that her only son is dead.
Inside the bungalow in the mountains above Los Gatos where Alice Hoagland lives, the house with the "No on Proposition 8" sign and the American flag outside, glass bowls from "Good Morning America" and USA Rugby memorialize one of the heroes of 9/11 — Hoagland's son, Mark Bingham. There are DVDs of "United 93," the movie about the hijacked flight that Bingham helped stop from completing its murderous mission.
Hoagland isn't the same woman she was before Sept. 11. Nor is she the same woman, baptized a Mormon, she was before Mark came out to her as gay in 1991.
"In so many ways," she said, "Mark really taught me how to live my life."
In about two weeks, Hoagland will be among the first 10 relatives selected by a Pentagon lottery to witness the military trials of the accused 9/11 conspirators in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Separated by only a glass pane, they will be able to look into the bearded face of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
"To me, he is the definition — the quintessence — of bloodthirstiness," she said. If she ran into him alone, somewhere in the wilds of Pakistan and with the means to kill him, she would probably do it. But with Mohammed in U.S. custody, Hoagland said she would say something different if she had the chance to speak at the hearings scheduled
She doesn't expect to speak, but if she did, she would say "there are things worse than death, and one of those things is to spend your entire life in prison, under the control of people you hate. We owe it to ourselves to spare their lives, because we have a better respect for life than they do."
"I try to remember they are human beings," she said. "I try to remember they are loved by the same Creator who created us, and that is Mormon doctrine, too."
Son comes out
At 59, Hoagland has a broad, open face, the kind of face you might expect from someone who grew up in Iowa and Ohio, and the generosity to thank a reporter for showing up to hear her story.
Mark came out to her in 1991, when he was 21. They were driving back to the UC Berkeley campus, where Bingham was a student, when Mark told her: "Mom, there's something I promised myself I would tell you before the sun went down today."
The sun was setting. The words tumbled out of Mark, including one phrase that obliterated all the others: "I'm gay."
"In that one sentence, he blew away all my preconceptions of what gay people were all about," Hoagland said. "I cried for a while, but I grew up."
In the wake of 9/11, Hoagland has dedicated her life to five causes.
"Those causes grew out of the wreckage of my life," she said. "I feel I owe it to Mark and I owe it to the world to fight hard for improving aviation security, and getting rid of terrorists, and helping radical Islam to realize it has moderate roots, which are much more about love than it is; and to advance the LGBT cause."
A fifth cause, reflecting how rugby changed Mark's life when be began playing at Los Gatos High School, is to advocate for competitive sports for kids.
'Get 'em! C'mon!'
In 2002, the FBI allowed Hoagland and the other relatives of Flight 93 to hear the last 31 minutes in the lives of their sons and wives and children and husbands. As a former flight attendant, she could visualize everything happening in the jet.
She heard Mark's voice shouting: "Get 'em! Get 'em! C'mon! C'mon!"
Those days are engraved on Hoagland's memory, even the smell of the lilacs that drifted in through the window as she awoke on the morning of Sept. 12, flowers left by mourners during that night. Mark had called before he and other passengers rushed the hijackers:
"Mom, this is Mark Bingham. I just want to tell you I love you." She doesn't know why he used his whole name, maybe the extreme stress of the moment.
The plane had been hijacked, he told her. "You believe me, don't you, Mom?"
"I wish I could have been there" on that plane, she said. "I really do."
Rallies for gay rights
As a woman baptized a Mormon at the age of 15, who attended Brigham Young University and had Mark baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Hoagland is an unlikely advocate for gay rights. She still admires some LDS teachings, although she left the church in the late '70s when leaders opposed the Equal Rights Amendment.
She spoke to the crowd at Saturday's rally against Proposition 8 in downtown San Jose. Monday, as about 100 people met at the Billy DeFrank Gay and Lesbian Center to plan next steps, someone volunteered to report on the rally and said, "Mark Bingham's mother was there!"
In fact, she was at the meeting, too, the woman sitting quietly in the first row, her hair in a bun. After the meeting, people crowded around to thank Hoagland for being there.
"I wish I could tell you how many times young men and women have come up to me and said, 'Thank you for telling Mark's story,'"" she said.
Hoagland said she plans to be active in coming protests for same-sex marriage. "Its time has come," she said.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been following the same-sex marriage issue in California as well.
At a hearing in June, described by The Wall Street Journal, Mohammed used decisions by state courts in California and Massachusetts to explain why he would refuse any lawyer.
"I consider all American constitution" evil, he said, because it permits "same-sexual marriage and many other things that are very bad," he told the military judge, Col. Ralph Kohlmann. "Do you understand?"
A Pentagon spokesman said the relatives in Guantánamo will be about 30 feet from Mohammed. For the first time, Hoagland and the others will be able to see the accused.
And for the first time, Mohammed will also be able to see them.
Contact Mike Swift at (408) 271-3648 or at [email protected].
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Centers for New Directions
The Centers for New Directions are Idaho's specific effort to meet the employment readiness needs of single parents and displaced homemakers.
Idaho Statutes established the Centers and provided direction for other elements such as the site location of the centers, funding structure, and accountability. These statutes can be accessed in Title 39 Health and Safety, Chapter 50 Equal Opportunity for Displaced Homemaker Act, as follows:
The Centers are situated on the campuses of the six technical colleges that are located regionally to best serve the majority of Idaho residents. Click on any of the locations on the map to learn more about that Center and its services.
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The corporate master here is Amazon, the world's largest online retailer. Amazon does not put its name on its collection of new buildings in these once-grungy environs, not even the trademark smile logo. The reason for this faux secrecy remains subject to speculation.
Anyhow, the king of cyberspace commerce chose a city tied to its identity as a liberal and quirky center of tech savvy. It revels in bistros serving locally grown arugula to young creatives eager to reunite with their corgis. But underneath these soft atmospherics stands a corporation in iron battle against paying state taxes and dismissive of hometown philanthropy, as described in a Seattle Times series, "Behind the Amazon.com Smile."
Something tells me that Amazon founder and corporate mastermind Jeff Bezos would not dislike that contrast. After all, the company's business model is based largely on taking the "local" out of shopping.
Amazon's aversion to paying taxes would play well in conservative America, except for this: The new "Red State model" is to rely less on state income taxes and more on sales taxes. A 1992 Supreme Court decision, written with mail-order merchants in mind, frees cyber-retailers from having to collect sales
So, with a few exceptions, Amazon does not burden out-of-state shoppers with sales taxes. This gives it a significant advantage over brick-and-mortar stores that must tack on such taxes. Amazon understandably likes it that way.
But this is a major-league problem in states dependent on sales taxes - especially as online shopping gains retail market share. In Kansas, Louisiana and Nebraska, for example, Republican governors want to cut or banish their states' income taxes and replace the lost revenues with higher sales taxes.
On this matter, Amazon can play rough. South Carolina offered Amazon $33 million in free land, property-tax cuts and payroll-tax credits to build a warehouse there. It even exempted the company from Lexington County "blue laws," thus letting the warehouse stay open on Sunday mornings.
But Amazon wanted more. It wanted immunity from collecting the 6 percent sales tax on stuff bought by South Carolinians, something the state would be entitled to once Amazon had a warehouse there. The state legislature rejected that request, at which point Amazon stopped construction on the facility and threatened to abandon the project. The state then gave the company a five-year exemption on collecting sales taxes.
Amazon has gone so far as to give its employees color-coded maps, dividing the United States between green and red states. In this case, the red stands not for Republican, but states where the presence of Amazon workers might unleash a tax liability. The employees must seek special permission before venturing into the red areas.
King County is known for strong corporate philanthropy — led by Microsoft, Boeing and Nordstrom — but Amazon has been a relative no-show on contributions to Seattle-area causes. Amazon argues with some reason that it contributes valuable jobs. Yes, but so do the others.
The museums, the symphony and other civic amenities help make Seattle the cultural cauldron from which Amazon finds its cool people. Meanwhile, the laws protecting Amazon and other online retailers from having to collect sales taxes are helping bankrupt many other local governments.
Sure, Amazon is a great success story and has a right to think itself special. It just shouldn't be that special.
Froma Harrop writes for the Providence (R.I.) Journal and is distributed by Creators Syndicate, Inc.
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A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would make e-Verify mandatory for all businesses.
Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and chief sponsor of the Legal Workforce Act, H.R. 2164, says the bill would open up jobs for unemployed American and legal immigrants.
“With unemployment at 9 percent, jobs are scarce. Despite record unemployment, seven million people work in the U.S. illegally. These jobs should go to legal workers,” Smith said in a recent statement.
The bill is opposed by many agricultural groups. Some conclude that mandatory e-Verify would destroy the agricultural industry. In a recent newspaper article, Tom Nassif, president and chief executive officer of Western Growers Association, stated that mandatory e-Verify would decimate the produce industry. Greg Wickham, chief executive officer of Dairylea Cooperative, says that the dairy industry would be in even worse shape than the produce industry.
Western Growers and Dairylea are not alone in their concerns. United Farm Workers Union and the Farmworker Justice are worried that a mandatory e-Verify bill will harm farmworkers. They point out that more than one-half of the nation’s seasonal farmworkers are undocumented.
“We don’t think mandatory e-Verify is the answer,” says a spokesperson for the United Farm Workers Union. “We think the answer is comprehensive immigration reform such as AgJobs.”
Legislation like, H.R. 2164 simply points out the need for the passage of some type of comprehensive immigration reform, says Michael Marsh, chief executive officer of the Western United Dairymen. Unfortunately, AgJobs has yet to gain the traction it needs to pass, he says.
“This is very short-sighted regulation,” Marsh says of the mandatory e-Verify proposal.
Opponents to H.R. 2164 agree that undocumented workers in agriculture cannot be replaced by Americans, since many of the jobs are ones that Americans don’t want to do. Case in point: The recent “Take Our Jobs” campaign that was launched last year to entice Americans to take agriculture jobs. Out of 8,600 inquiries, only 11 people took jobs in the field.
On June 15, the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement had a hearing on H.R. 2164, but no representatives of agriculture were asked to testify. In the week following the bill's introduction, Smith met with leaders in the agriculture industry and pledged to work with them going forward.
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.- The Vatican announced today that the Pontifical Gregorian University will host an upcoming event to discuss the responsibilities of Catholic universities.
The event, titled “The Catholic University in post-modern societies” will be held at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University from Nov. 16-20, and is presented by the International Federation of Catholic Universities (FIUC).
The Federation is known for it's contribution to the Apostolic Constitution “Ex corde Ecclesiae,” which was approved by the late Pope John Paul II in 1990. The document outlines the essentials that a Catholic university must have in order to “guarantee a Christian presence in the academic world, in the face of the great problems of society and culture.”
During today's press conference, Pedro Nel Medina Varon, adjunct secretary general of FIUC, discussed the three main responsibilities that the Catholic university has.
The first is “preserving the Catholic tradition,” he said, explaining that this means preserving “the reflection that the Christian community has been developing for the last two thousand years concerning the most profound questions about life and the human condition, as well as the beliefs and values transmitted by the gospel.” Varon went on to say that the second purpose of the Catholic university “is the integral education of the person.” The third purpose, he stated, is “service to the Church, and the preservation of the Catholic intellectual tradition through the integral education of the person.”
Some of the other themes to be discussed during the upcoming event are: the Catholic university in dialogue with cultures and religions, the Catholic university and the Christian intellectual tradition, the political and social responsibility of the Catholic university and the future of the Catholic university.
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Global Impact and Collaboration
Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs
Good afternoon, I want to thank Governor Schwarzenegger for inviting me to offer some remarks to open this session on Global Impact and Collaboration of efforts like this Governors Global Climate Change Summit (GGCS3). I am also delighted to see that he is personally attending and adding his energy to the session. It is so appropriate that this session is hosted by California’s Secretary of Education, Bonnie Reiss. Thank you Secretary Reiss. I want to thank the University of California Davis and its Chancellor Linda Katehi for hosting the meeting. Further, let me add my thanks to all the US and foreign dignitaries. And thanks to Anne Thompson of NBC for getting the word out and importantly to you all for attending this session and participating. I am delighted to be speaking to you today on behalf of the U. S. Department of State.
The U. S. Department of State is actively involving local leaders across the world to interact with their counterparts in the United States of America through the recent creation of the Office of the Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs. I accepted Secretary Clinton’s invitation to be appointed as the first Special Representative in this new office. Our Office works with the different functional and regional bureaus within the State Department to facilitate addressing challenges such as security, health, food and water, and climate change.
While national level response as well as countries and regions working together is so very important, the hand that helps needs to be near... the dry mouth to be wetted, the hungry stomach to be fed, and the sick child to be comforted…. with soothing warmth right on the hot feverish forehead…… The case for a local response to these natural challenges is that obvious indeed.
All of the challenges have different face, context, solution and impact in different parts of the world and at different levels of State and Local governments. One component of our success is measuring and accessing the challenges accurately and coming up with a thoughtful and effective solution. Can we do this again in the face of perpetual needs and challenges such as security, food, water, and health and new challenges such as climate change?
People around the globe are suffering as a result of lack of potable water and food as well as food distribution networks. Health care is excellent in many parts of the world and has led to great life expectancy and generally desirable growth in the population. However, sustainable quality, diversity, and fair distribution of resources remain human challenges. These are global challenges and national policies and planning and resourcing of responses by nation states are essential.
Through human history some, thankfully few but historic, grand challenges have required responses from larger units than the family and neighborhoods. In fact, this is why human beings formed the larger structures such as villages and towns, cities and boroughs, states and countries. All entities are different in size and structure and are located in different weather zones, latitudes and longitudes, and have developed unique historic relations with nature. The equatorial forest and the coniferous forest are both valuable but breathe differently and need different levels of care.
A few meters rise in the mean sea level has very different meaning to a man in Kansas compared to a man in New Orleans. However, a few meters rise in the water level in the river that runs from Kansas to Louisiana may mean the same thing to both. We are connected by waterways and oceans, canals, and channels and roadways and passes through many mountains. We have also seen different degrees of changes in the mean temperature, varying from minus two to plus five. It takes trusted partnerships and dialogues between these global communities to work with each other in spite of the differences in regional climate changes and their resulting impacts.
Many of the problems such as the global economy and unemployment are such that State Governments around USA must work together in bilateral, multilateral, and regional groups. For example, the Council of State Governments (CSG) is a group that brings together the executive and legislative sides of the State Governments within the United States of America to work on important issues with the help of the Federal Government. CSG has published a series of reports highlighting the importance of State and local actions on alleviating the root causes of greenhouse gas emissions while creating innovative ideas for local economies involving transportation, housing and electric utilities.
Our office has facilitated climate change discussions between States and US Territories and their counterparts in neighbouring countries and countries across continents. We are realizing that issues like local energy sources, electric grid, and transportation infrastructure are inherently enter-twined with climate change issues. Each state, city and local community of course has different needs and basis for approaching some of these challenges.
We have collaborated with offices such as Oceans and Environmental Sciences within the State Department to support programs such as Eco-Partnerships. Eco-Partnerships involve sub-State organizations such as Counties and Cities working with their counterparts in China to address specific problems associated with global disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes in some cases and with opportunities such as renewable energy development in other cases.
We are participating in meetings and represented the importance of local actions at meetings held, among others by the:
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI),
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum,
African Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA) forum.
These presentations communicate the fact that the people of the United States of America care about the challenges facing humanity and are contributing their best to potential solutions especially at the regional and subnational levels.
This Friday evening, I will be participating in a World Summit in Mexico City organized by the United Cities and Local Governments head-quartered in Spain. I am here until tomorrow and then flying to Mexico City and then over the weekend to China to connect with subnational leaders in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities before returning for a UN accredited Centre for Climate Strategies panel in the COP-16 discussions in Cancun on December 6 and 7.
A note worthy feature of President Obama’s recent Climate Action Report involves an entire chapter on the importance of local response that was facilitated by our office.
While much of our effort is proactive, we also face the sad fact that disasters such as the Haiti earthquake require reactive responses at all levels. We have encouraged American and world mayors to support Haiti’s reconstruction efforts. Much has been accomplished but even more needs to be strived for.
To summarize, there is a lot of work needed at the state and local government level and we are just delighted to see the response from all around the world.
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Interactive web project
Project for the online journal Traverses, issue 3
Publisher: Centre Pompidou, Paris
Editors: Daniel Soutif and Jean-Pierre Criqui
Essay by Jean-Charles Depaule
18 installation views taken in various exhibition spaces were selected from one-person exhibition catalogs published by the Centre Pompidou. From these photographs, line drawings were traced to reproduce the contours of the architecture. By clicking on the name of an exhibition space, the viewer accesses a drawing of it and, within it, a drawing of another space has been hung like a work of art, and clicking on that leads to another space, etc. In this way, one can wander from place to place and from one period to another. Clicking on “source” reveals the source photograph and its bibliographical reference.
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How much does it cost?
Because there are free options available, how much you spend on your CMS depends on how technically able your company’s team is and how niche your specifications are. It’s not necessarily the case that the more you spend the better your online presence will be. For one thing, a site is only as good as its content: CMS is simply the vehicle that gets your content online.
Aside from the spec of the operating system itself -- which would be the main concern with a bespoke system -- if you decide to buy the rights to the software for yourself, the bulk of your investment will rest in your licence. Licensing means that you own that software and you can more or less do what you want with it. Once you have it, you’re secure in that you have control over it and can install it in-house.
We spoke with Pete Stevens of GOSS Interactive, a CMS software and development company that also provides hosting. While adamant a CMS should be a crucial part of any business plan, especially for online start ups, Pete is also of the belief that a full licence is an unnecessary luxury for young businesses. He explains: “A full licence starts at about £22,000, though it depends on the size of the user. As you can imagine when you buy a licence you have unlimited use.
“But for a startup company that might only have a few users, a full licence might be a bit excessive. Another method is using the software as a server where you just pay per user: that would start at about £600 per user. You get exactly the same system, you’re just buying less of it as it were. You’re basically renting software.”
Alternatively, you can go down the Open Source route where initial software costs are nil. But even so, unless you’re quite tech savvy you’ll probably want someone to support and fine-tune the system for you when you set up your site.
Be aware too that installing a WCMS, whether licensed or Open Source, is one thing; hosting your entire site yourself is quite another. When you consider that to host a site on your premises you need to buy the server, hire a leased line as well as having the technical staff to set it up and maintain it as well, this is a costly option.
According to Pete, the first thing you need to do when choosing your CMS is think just how quickly and how big you’re going to grow: “On the smaller scales, an Open Source CMS may be fine. But if you just take off, you’re suddenly going to hit a brick wall and realise you can’t grow your website any more. You’ll have to go from scratch again. Try to project where you’ll be in six to twelve months.”
Adinda Sima, also of GOSS Interactive, believes that while there is merit in free systems, saleability really is the key concern: “For a startup company, if they started up with a basic Open Source product, they could of course build up from that. But if you consider that a lot of software providers have a mature product, it’s more straightforward. You can start up with a mature product and just pay for what you need. Then as you grow, you can access more as you need it.”
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I published several articles a year or two ago (at http://goo.gl/vI8Q1) describing Arlington National Cemetery's difficulties with record keeping. Burial records were lost and/or misfiled, dozens of burial plots appear on maps as occupied but have no headstone, and some graves that have a headstone are recorded as vacant. The cemetery's administrative staff was fired or re-assigned and a new team was brought in to clean up the mess. Not everything is perfect just yet, but the new team appears to have made a lot of progress.
Amongst other things, the old paper burial records have been computerized and even a new smartphone app due out in the fall will tap into the power of GPS technology and help visitors navigate through the more than 250,000 graves at Arlington, providing military-grade accuracy. The new app will give the public access to photos and maps with plus or minus 3-inch accuracy for each of more than 300,000 individuals buried at Arlington.
The system is a first for any federal cemetery and more accurate and up-to-date than anything in the private sector. It is a byproduct of Arlington's effort to move on from the mismanagement scandal.
Only one thing is missing: cell phone signals aren't very strong in the cemetery, making it difficult to use an iPhone or Android phone to retrieve information about locations of the graves.
You can read more at http://goo.gl/dcRVg.
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Of course, if you haven’t done so already, you should join my email newsletter mailing list to stay current on my latest articles and announcements. You can also cancel at any time within seconds.
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The University of Michigan says it's getting a $1.5 million federal grant to continue a program that prepares middle school, high school and college students to become nurses.
The school said Thursday that the Genesis program is receiving the aid from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It's the third round of funding and runs through June 2015.
The university says the program's is to increase the number of African Americans and members of other underrepresented groups in the nursing profession.
Program director Patricia Coleman-Burns says that 75 students have gone through Michigan's nursing program since 2002 as part of Genesis.
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A hole in the parquet
165 x 165 x 2 cm
A hole in the parquet
20 December 2011 - 03 February 2012
Sasho Stoicov’s solo exhibition “A hole in the parquet” at Sariev Gallery in December 2011 calls our attention and introduces this not so well-known, but emblematic Bulgarian artist from the Transition period. Sariev Gallery’s intent with this exhibition is to make a short presentational profile of the artist through his most characteristic works from the beginning of 1980’s, some of them were never shown and some are completely new from 2011. The title of the exhibition is that of the most memorable and scandalous of its time artwork – “A hole in the parquet”, 1989. This work was created for the exhibition “11, 11, 89” in Blagoevgrad and represents a piece of parquet floor with a cut off hole in the middle, in the artist’s words interpreting “the break in the parquet communism and the rise of the philistine class”.
In her text for the exhibition “A hole in the parquet” at Sariev Gallery, Maria Vasileva, Phd, writes:
For 30 years now Sasho Stoicov has been present in art somewhat silently, stepping almost on his toes, but sometimes it is this tiptoeing that leaves deeper traces. There is no other artist from his generation who has been changing so much and yet lived up to his own expectations. On the border between the 1970’s and 1980’s he appeared with big photo-realistic compositions which stood out with their cold retreat. The technique he used – camera, slide projector, a ruler, a sticker – looked almost blasphemous in a time when the handwork was highly praised. …
From that point it’s fully expectable that Sasho Stoicov found himself in the avant-garde of the conceptual activities on the brink of the transition. Not only did he participate in the most emblematic exhibitions of this period, but he also organized some of them as a hidden leader of “Blagoevgrad Group”. There is a lot of politics and social reflection in the works he created during that time: “Energy Boom”, 1988, “Home ecology”, 1988, “A hole in the parquet”, 1989. They are connected with the dramatic ideological changes and the tragic economic situation. In the beginning of the 1990’s he developed auction based, socially critical activities aimed at a more profound analysis of the past. He was doing that through the symbols (five-pointed star, pickaxes, shovels) in his paintings, wooden plastic works, water-colours - all with icon or eastern miniature stylistic; through ironical sacralisation – the tools of labour turned into gilded icons and altars - or through enlarging the motive so much that it loses its image and its concrete message. Sasho Stoicov is the only one who found the meaning and motivation to deal with the past and its visual rhetoric.
After leaving for New York in 1998 he appeared almost unexpectedly in Bulgaria with his exhibitions “Naturally” at the National Art Gallery, 2004, and “Waterfall”, 2005. At first sight they look completely disconnected from his previous development. Indeed, the work material is different –expanded polystyrene, colourful paper and scotch that build up three-dimensional imitation forms of natural elements. With added delicately negligent colour pencil drawings. The overall impression is minimalist but also dummy. It’s a parallel reality which reminds a lot of the portraits from the “Programme” series, namely in the border between the visible and irrational.
Sasho Stoicov continues to take advantage of his specific, non-obsessive sense of humour which plays with the world around in somewhat naïve, childish manner. In the same way, as a joke, he started to write his short poems on a notice board in a New York bar, which later turned out to be penetrating, unpretentious observations on the world around. The change or rather the progress in his art becomes more visible in comparing two of his works “A hole in the parquet”, 1989 (parquet), and “Parquet” 2011 (foam board). The first was created in the sensitive environment of the year of transition and symbolizes exactly this – the breakthrough in the system and all the consequences that followed. The second one was created in the seemingly comfortable reality of New York and leaves a sense of something temporary, disguised in clown’s colours, but initially doomed and transient. The artist may say that it brings “serenity from the present day”, but in a way it casts suspicion on it. This is a typical work that shows Sasho Stoicov’s ability to make us think by leaving the impression that we are just having fun.
Besides the homonymous work “A hole in the parquet” the solo exhibition at Sariev Gallery also shows and brings together other mentioned works from this period: the big-sized paintings in photo-realistic style: “One family”, 1979, “Andrei Programme”, 1980, “Bratanov Programme”, 1980. Four of the works from this exhibition were created in 2011, all in foam board: “Parquet” – wall installation, two “Poems” and “A photograph” – dummy replicas of “One family” from the 1980’s.
Exhibiting the work of Sasho Stoicov in the context of his development from the 1980’s until 2011 is part if the gallery’s policy to present Bulgarian contemporary art as a historical process in search of its own territory. This strategy began with the exhibition “At the edge of the Ideal” in 2009 which was dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the emblematic avant-garde group from Plovdiv “Edge”.
Sasho Stoicov was born in 1952 in Blagoevgrad. He graduated from The National Art Academy in Sofia in 1997. He participated in the first acts of the so-called unconventional arts in Bulgaria. He has been living in New York since 1998. Among his most notable independent exhibitions are: “Acrylic works”, Arosita Gallery, Sofia (2010); „Fly”, Arosita Gallery, Sofia (2008); “Waterfall”, Sofia City Art Gallery (2001); “Naturally”, National Art Gallery, Sofia (2004); „Mosholu PKWY”, Match Book Gallery, New York (2003); “Saxophone player in the bathroom”, ATA-Rai Gallery, Sofia (1996), “Eastern miniatures”, National Art Gallery, Sofia (1996), “Signs” XO Gallery, Berlin (1996). His artworks are part of the Sofia City Art Gallery collection, also of private collections in Bulgaria and abroad. He was awarded with the prize of M-Tel for contemporary art (2007).
December 20, 2011 – February 3, 2012
Opening: December 20, 2011, 19:00h, Sariev Gallery
Press release / Bulgarian
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Make PAs a Part of Your Team
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Physician assistants (PAs) are relatively new to the healthcare scene in New Jersey. Some facilities have been using PAs for quite some time, but few use us to the best possible advantage. It is becoming a widely accepted fact that mid-level practitioners are going to become increasingly needed to meet the growing demands of our healthcare system. Physician assistants are the most flexible and skilled mid-level practitioners on the market. PAs can go anywhere in your facility – from the clinic to the operating room – and make an immediate impact.
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PAs make good financial sense. Having PAs on staff can help to assure that minor problems in your patients can be addressed as they arise. The timely, efficient management of simple problems can often prevent the development of major, expensive problems. And services provided by physician assistants are reimbursable. PAs not only cover expenses associated with their employment,they generate additional revenue. If you hear from a facility that they are losing money on PAs, the problem is not with the PAs – it is with the billing department.
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Today we're hosting a guest-blog from Eisel Mazard, whose blog may be familiar to many of you (it has been in our Blog Roll for some time). I also explored Jeffrey's post on the decline of Buddhism online at my Patheos blog here back in July. As I said then, it's a complex issue. I was using Google's Ngrams, which only display data up to 2008, and Eisel looks at specific discussion groups. Could the discussion be going on somewhere that we're not looking? Blogs like this one and James Ure's Buddhism Blog continue to grow, and the Buddhist Geeks have been successful enough to hold two large conferences. My own blog over at Patheos just had its best month in terms of visitors (but most of that was due to a post about the 2012 US Elections). What do you think? Do you have a blog? How is it performing in terms of numbers, comments, and/or lively sense of community? --- Justin Whitaker
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Buddhism and the Silence of the Internet
written by Buddhist_philosopher
The culture of communication is changing: this makes it difficult to measure any kind of cultural change through the lens of any given medium. In an earlier article, I commented that one of the problems with counting the number of Buddhists in America through a telephone survey is that the culture of the telephone itself has changed in the last 20 years (who will answer an unknown number in the middle of the work-day, etc.). However, the simple fact that I'm here dealing with is the decline of the discussion of Buddhism in English. In some ways, the numbers speak for themselves, and in some ways they require quite a lot of talking to.
Jeffrey Kotyk recently drew attention to the sheer decline in the use of the word "Theravada" itself through Google's own statistics; you can compare that chart to what seems to be declining interest in Zen Buddhism, and other key terms (see his article, here). Although interesting, staring at that chart (below) raises many questions about what type of change the Google Ngram statistic really measures (in relation to changes in the publishing industry specifically, and the culture of communication generally). By contrast, the more colorful chart above is very simple: it shows the decline in the number of messages sent to an online discussion forum (namely, "Pali: The Pali Collective").
There was a generalized complaint about declining activity from the "Progressive Buddhism" blog a few months ago, too: "…so many of the 'names and faces' of 2007,8,9 and 10 are gone or have simply shifted interest…". That complaint is evidently applicable to "The Pali Collective" and many other online discussion groups I've recently glanced over; when I look back at the archives of messages from 2007, I can see the names of a few Pali scholars whom I know/knew and respect, who are evidently no longer active in the forum. However, "The Pali Collective" is still a relative success story: a large number of groups that I looked up have completely ceased to exist. Others, like the (declaredly) academic forum moderated by Richard Hayes have gone silent, but have not formally shut down. Circa 10 years ago, that forum was an extremely noisy place.
The Dhammadutas group (as shown above) declined into silence, and was then taken over by Spam. Clicking through the archives, 2009 seemed to be the last year of real (human-to-human) communication on the forum, but it had already been in decline for some time.
By far the most active discussion forum shown in any of these charts is "Dhammastudygroup", but we nevertheless must observe a decline over the last several years (the level of activity is now roughly half of what it was at its peak).
This discussion forum for Black Buddhists seems to have been a convivial gathering around 2006, but declined soon thereafter, and now has not had a single message posted in 2012.
The broadly inclusive forum named "Sangha" has now declined to a tiny fraction of its former level of activity. Although I'm showing a (roughly) 10 year period for each of these forums, I would note that "Sangha" was actually founded in 1998. As such, this is probably one of the longest-running (continuous) discussion forums for Buddhism (in English), although it is not as old as the (now-moribund) forum overseen by Richard Hayes that I mentioned before ("Buddha-L").
I have seen many, many other examples of decline (and, frankly, I do not know of any real exceptions to the rule). I've presented charts based on Yahoo groups specifically, because they display their own statistics in a manner that is easier to read than Google groups and other competitors (glance over the grid of numbers, e.g., at the bottom of the Buddhadasa group… also in stark decline).
Are we looking at a change in the culture of communication, or are we looking at an indirect indication of a real cultural change? Before I started a blog of my own (à bas le ciel) I did look through a long list of possible websites that I could have (instead) become a contributor to. There were no good options. Although I do still have three articles in peer review, in the last few years I've surveyed my publishing options on paper, again and again; the choices that exist (for an author) are similarly bleak, and many of the publications are in an ongoing state of decline.
Is the growth of my own blog now an exception to the rule? Although I'm surprised at my own growing number of readers, I also see this small-scale success in the context of the collapse of other modes of publication that should have (or could have) been available to me. 19th century journals really did contain "notices" written as casually as these blog-articles (often more casual still) and a forum of that kind (on paper) is now severely lacking for anyone in the field. As I mentioned in recent articles, we no longer have the type of "scholarly pamphlet" that the Buddhist Studies Review and the Pali Buddhist Review used to be (as recently as the 1990s). In looking over the charts above, however, we seem to be witnessing the shrinking of the internet (as a forum for Buddhism in English) especially since 2006. If you've been actively searching for blogs or new publications on Theravāda Buddhism lately (and, perhaps, this is how some of you discovered my writing in the first place) you will have noticed: I don't have much competition. As time goes on, I seem to have less and less competition, not more.
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It was "an exciting day for the Food Bank," said Kevin Sanchez, the organization's executive director.
The excitement was due to a record-breaking donation by Conaway Ranch growers and owners: 160,000 pounds of rice, all dedicated to needy families throughout Yolo County.
"That's the single largest donation in the history of our organization," Sanchez said, adding that the rice will be distributed to hundreds of families countywide.
"It's our intent to do this on an annual basis," said Kyriakos Tsakopoulos, Conaway Ranch president, pointing to what could become a cherished food source for the county's poorer residents.
Tsakopoulos thanked the assembled group -- which included all five members of the County Board of Supervisors, Woodland Councilman Tom Stallard, county administrator Pat Blacklock and others -- and said he hopes more people will follow in the Conaway growers' footsteps.
Supervisor Jim Provenza seconded that idea, saying, "I'd like to see every farmer in the county who is able to contribute to these efforts."
An estimated 34,000 people are "food insecure" in Yolo County, meaning they do not know where their next meal will come from. The Food Bank reaches about 22,000 people per month countywide, according to Sanchez.
This particular donation, which would fill a warehouse were it all given at
Mike DeWit, a Conaway grower, said they resolved to make the donation after considering, "We're pretty blessed. We have the resources and the ability to feed my family."
He added, "I'm probably spilling enough rice during my growing to feed a family."
Maya Kepner, a wildlife consultant for Conaway Ranch growers, said the idea for the donation stemmed from a conversation between her and Amanda McCarthy, the Food Banks' director of programs. But she added, "It was Mike DeWit and his dad (Jack DeWit) that really made it happen."
Sanchez said he wanted the labels on the bags of rice to clearly state who was behind the donation.
"To me this is relevant," he said.
"I want people to know this is a local product."
To sign up for the Food Bank's Christmas Food Distribution, qualifying residents can call 668-0648. More information is available at www.foodbankyc.org.
Follow Don Frances at twitter.com/donjfran
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Thus have I heard. At one time the Lord was staying at Uruvela, beside the river Nerañjara at the foot of the Bodhi Tree, having just realized full enlightenment. At that time the Lord sat cross-legged for seven days experiencing the bliss of liberation. Then, at the end of those seven days, the Lord emerged from that concentration and gave well-reasoned attention during the first watch of the night to dependent arising in forward order, thus:
This being, that is;
from the arising of this, that arises.
with ignorance as condition, volitional activities come to be;
with volitional activities as condition, consciousness comes to be;
with consciousness as condition, name-and-form comes to be;
with name-and-form as condition, the sixfold base comes to be;
with the sixfold base as condition, contact comes to be;
with contact as condition, feeling comes to be;
with feeling as condition, craving comes to be;
with craving as condition, grasping comes to be;
with grasping as condition, being comes to be;
with being as condition, birth comes to be;
with birth as condition, aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair come to be.
This is the origin of this whole mass of suffering.
Then, on realizing its significance, the Lord uttered on that occasion this inspired utterance:
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