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Inter-Korean Business Procedures Simplified
By Kim Sue-young
The government Tuesday abolished a system under which companies here must receive a permit to do business in North Korea.
As a result, companies which have been seeking to operate in the reclusive state would see simplified procedures when they start inter-Korean projects.
The Cabinet approved revisions of the law governing trade and cooperation between South and North Korea.
Under the previous licensing system, a permit for both companies and projects were necessary.
But now, companies have to get approval for their projects only and inter-Korean cooperation programs designated by a presidential decree can proceed without the approval.
If firms get the license in a dishonest way, the government can cancel it.
In a bid to diversify trade between the two Koreas, the revision allows services and intangible things as well as goods to be exchanged.
The government also approved a revision bill to encourage foreign investors to invest in inter-Korean trade.
It says that foreigners who invest $10 million or more can get some incentives such as cash grants.
The legislation on South-North cooperation was introduced in 1990 to support exchanges and cooperation between the two Koreas.
The Ministry of Unification has a committee under itself to coordinate related policies and make a decision on important inter-Korean cooperation issues.
To promote economic, cultural and social exchange projects, a permit from the minister has been required.
If caught violating the law, the person will be sentenced to up to three years imprisonment or fined up to 10 million won ($6,770). | <urn:uuid:6f4f6e23-4094-48de-8f7a-764a1d321fb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/10/116_33464.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954522 | 321 | 1.8125 | 2 |
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Tactical herbicides, such as Agent Orange, were used and stored in Vietnam, not Thailand. We received a letter from the Department of the Air Force stating that, other than the 1964 tests on the Pranburi Military Reservation, there are no records of tactical herbicide storage or use in Thailand. There are records indicating that commercial herbicides were frequently used for vegetation control within the perimeters of air bases during the Vietnam era, but all such use required approval of both the Armed Forces Pest Control Board and the Base Civil Engineer. In Vietnam, tactical herbicides were aerially applied by UC-123 aircraft in Operation RANCH HAND or by helicopters under the control of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. Base Civil Engineers were not permitted to purchase or apply tactical herbicides.
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© 2006–2013 WashingtonWatch.com | <urn:uuid:1a4c1363-0222-4fd3-bfbb-66234b685d1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonwatch.com/comments/reportabuse/297898 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949882 | 270 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Tiling can make your bathroom or kitchen look beautiful. But if your tile has an odd layout you’ll kick yourself even when others won’t notice.
The video below is of a bathroom in an office building I visited. It’s a single door entry and you’ll see that the right side of the room has a 2 inch tile end piece while the wall directly opposite has a 1/2 inch tile end piece. Standard 6 inch tiles were used for this floor installation, and the person setting them could have saved a lot of tile cutting by just measuring the floor dimensions.
The first step in tiling this simple rectangular room would be to start the layout with a full tile in the center of the doorway. This would leave any cut tiles at the opposite end of the room directly across from the door. Begin this process by snapping your first chalkline across the doorway, ensuring the line is midway underneath the closed door. This will make sure the tile transition is hidden under the door and not exposed in the bathroom or adjacent room.
The second step is to measure the door jamb distance, mark the half way point, and snap a second chalkline perpendicular to the one you snapped in step one. At this point, take a few tiles you’ll be using for the project and lay them out along the edge of the second chalkline until you get to the wall directly across from the door.
When you lay down the last full tile make a mark on the floor at it’s edge closest to the wall and then snap a third chalkline. The third chalkline will be parallel to the mark you made on the floor and perpendicular to the second chalkline.
This next procedure is the one that will prevent your room from having uneven small tiles at both end walls. Layout several tiles along the third chalkline in order to determine the size of both tiles that cap the ends of the row. To avoid having one cut tile that is a tiny sliver (like in the first video above) you can shift the tiles to either the right or the left by snapping a fourth chalkline parallel to the third chalkline. Keep in mind that shifting the tiles will affect how the full tiles look in the doorway. The video below explains how to perform this important step and provides a nifty tip on how to maintain your chalklines.
The person who installed the tiles in the first video should have shifted all the tiles to the left. This would have eliminated the 1/2 inch tile and made the tile on the right end of the row 1/2 inch bigger. Plus, the newly created 2.5 inch tile on the right side of the room would have been less noticeable in this case since the door opens to the right.
I hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial on laying tile in a bathroom. Anyone can do a tiling project the correct way by gaining knowledge and confidence. It’s my goal to encourage you to take that first step toward realizing your dream floor.
If you enjoyed this blog post sign up for email reminders on my homepage and like Home Repair Tutor via Facebook. Feel free to leave behind any comments as well. I strive to answer all questions and really enjoy getting tips from others.
Make it a great day! | <urn:uuid:4cf812ae-4023-4da0-88ff-98b763153e51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.homerepairtutor.com/avoid-tile-layout-mistakes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941689 | 667 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Imagine your kid finds a cute photo in a magazine and wants to look like the little girl pictured. Now imagine you're lucky enough to be one of those crafty moms who can make it happen (mazel tov ... goodness knows I'm not one of them!). What do you expect when you send your kid to school? A teacher to take pictures of her and turn her into the butt of jokes on Facebook? The rest of the world to tell you you're a bad mom?
That's what happened to a little girl in Chicago. The 7-year-old wanted to wear Jolly Rancher candies at the end of her braids -- where most girls wear little barrettes. So Lucinda Williams, a hairstylist, did what a good mom does. She put them into her daughter's hair and sent her off to school, feeling as proud as ... well, as proud as a 7-year-old who thinks she looks really cool can be.
But when a computer teacher took photos of little Ukailya Lofton's head, the little girl didn't know she'd be posting them on Facebook and opening the comments up to her friends to make fun of the little kid. The unidentified teacher got caught thanks to a parent who was "friends" with her on Facebook. She took a screenshot of the picture and comments and passed them along to Williams.
Can you say big ol' case of adults being @ssholes to a little kid? Not to make mountains out of molehills here, but a teacher posting a kid's picture on Facebook isn't such a big deal. People sitting there making fun of a 7-year-old's hairstyle is.
Because it hasn't stopped there. Instead of sounding off on what a jerk this teacher and her friends were, people have been adding to the commentary in news comments, calling Lucinda everything but a nice person for humoring her child.
But here's what I know about kids around that age. They do goofy things. My 5-year-old has worn Minnie Mouse ears to school. She's decided two weird ponytails sprouting out of the sides of her head were the height of fashion. She's come off the bus with one pant leg rolled halfway up and one down -- when I know she left the house with two cuffs around her ankles.
Why do I let it happen? Because she's just a kid. I delight in having two teenage babysitters who are still pretty proud to let their child-side out. They're not embarrassed to wear Beauty and the Beast socks to school (with sandals so EVERYONE can see them) or make bizarre faces as their photos are snapped for their student IDs. I want her to retain that child-like heart -- the longer, the better.
I'm on the mom's side here, how about you?
Image via Jo Naylor/Flickr | <urn:uuid:35db1093-a829-48c5-a1f1-f05715708bdd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thestir.cafemom.com/big_kid/118377/teacher_uses_facebook_to_pick | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977846 | 593 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Sustained City-Campus Engagement: Reflections on Our Practice
Academic-enhanced version of the previously released M@L Story Project, including new quotes from Boyer, Lynton, and Schon. (July 2009).
The MIT@Lawrence Story is a reflective practice exercise that aims to not only document and reflect on the progression of M@L as a university community partnership, but also as a conversation starter and discussion space for our partners on both sides of the @ sign. We're adopting a multi-layered approach to capture the story, including one-on-one interviews, panel discussions, and student reflections, all feeding into a website that will include a short documentary, an interactive and multi-themed timeline, and a physical summit of M@L stakeholders and friends. The goal is to create both a reflection of the lessons learned and a conversation about what's next in our endeavor to create sustained engagement mechanisms for university and community that lead to transformation of both planning theory & practice academically but also community-based action.
More info at http://mitatlawrence.net/matl-story-project/ | <urn:uuid:ea78cdbf-474b-4049-9e6c-0def18ada504> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ttv.mit.edu/videos/3498-sustained-city-campus-engagement-reflections-on-our-practice | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939691 | 234 | 1.570313 | 2 |
NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Dental and Oral Health (Seniors)
How often should dentures be relined? Should this be done by a dentist or are the walmart brand alignment kits alright? Is it covered by bluecross blue shield dental plan? I`ve had my dentures for several years, they are loose now and I catch myself moving my upper plate against my regular bottom teeth.
Dentures should be relined whenever their fitting and retention are compromised. This should only be done by a dentist. Several insuring agencies will cover such cost; Medicaid will pay for a new denture every 8 years. Check with your Insurance Company regarding their guidelines. An ill fitting denture can cause certain conditions which can be irritating to the denture wearer.
Abdel Rahim Mohammad, DDS, MS, MPH, FAAOM, FACD
Clinical Professor of Geriatrics
College of Dentistry
The Ohio State University | <urn:uuid:f9bcffd0-2471-4e97-bf91-8b8aaaf05d45> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netwellness.uc.edu/question.cfm/12654.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938681 | 228 | 1.664063 | 2 |
48 chemical firms targeted in Chinese 'PoisonIvy' cyber attack
Dozens of Fortune 100 companies had their computers compromised in a cyber espionage attack apparently linked to a Chinese national. Photo: Peter Riches
At least 48 chemical and defence companies were victims of a coordinated cyber attack that has been traced to a man in China, according to a new report from security firm Symantec.
Computers belonging to these companies were infected with malicious software known as PoisonIvy, which was used to steal information such as design documents, formulas and details on manufacturing processes, Symantec said on Monday.
It did not identify the companies, but said they include multiple Fortune 100 corporations that develop compounds and advanced materials, along with businesses that help manufacture infrastructure for these industries.
The bulk of the infected machines were found in the United States, Bangladesh and United Kingdom, Symantec said, adding that the victims include 29 chemicals companies, of which some developed advanced materials used in military vehicles.
"The purpose of the attacks appears to be industrial espionage, collecting intellectual property for competitive advantage," Symantec said in a white paper on the campaign, which the company dubbed the "Nitro" attacks.
The cyber campaign ran from late July through mid-September and was traced to a computer system in the United States that was owned by a man in his 20s in Hebei province in northern China, according to Symantec.
Researchers gave the man the pseudonym "Covert Grove" based on a literal translation of his name. They found evidence that the command and control servers used to control and mine data in this campaign were also used in attacks on human-rights groups from late April to early May, and in attacks on the motor industry in late May, Symantec said.
"We are unable to determine if Covert Grove is the sole attacker or if he has a direct or only indirect role," said Symantec's white paper. "Nor are we able to definitively determine if he is hacking these targets on behalf of another party or multiple parties."
The Nitro campaign is the latest in a series of highly targeted cyber attacks that security experts say are likely the work of government-backed hackers.
Intel's security unit McAfee in August identified Operation ShadyRAT, a five-year coordinated campaign on the networks of 72 organisations, including the United Nations, governments and corporations.
In February, McAfee warned that hackers working in China broke into the computer systems of five multinational oil and natural gas companies to steal bidding plans and other critical proprietary information.
Symantec said on Monday that the Nitro attackers sent emails with tainted attachments to between 100 and 500 employees at a company, claiming to be from established business partners or to contain bogus security updates.
When an unsuspecting recipient opens the attachment, it installs PoisonIvy, a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) that can take control of a machine and that is easily available over the internet.
While the hackers' behavior differed slightly in each case, they typically identified desired intellectual property, copied it and uploaded it to a remote server, Symantec said in its report.
Symantec did not identify the companies that were targeted in its white paper and researchers could not immediately be reached.
Dow Chemical said it detected "unusual e-mails being delivered to the company" last summer and worked with law enforcers to address this situation.
"We have no reason to believe our operations were compromised, including safety, security, intellectual property, or our ability to service our customers," a Dow spokesman said.
A spokesman for DuPont declined to comment. | <urn:uuid:6eea0ab2-0f59-4315-a44c-46fe6029ff2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canberratimes.com.au/it-pro/security-it/48-chemical-firms-targeted-in-chinese-poisonivy-cyber-attack-20111101-1msu4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973292 | 741 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Best quotes from current articles.
Date Posted: 12/1/2012
“I put sustainability in the same category as radio frequency identification (RFID). There was a time where we were going to put RFID on everything including a can of Coke and track it through the supply chain. There was a lot of hype about that.
“If you listen to people talk about RFID today, you would think that RFID died, that nobody is interested in it, and that it was an abject failure. But the reality is that RFID in industrial applications is growing at a double digit rate, nearing 20% per year. RFID is just being used differently than people imagined; it is becoming routine, and people are not talking about it as much.
“I think something similar happened with sustainability. It got a big marketing boost – a lot of talk, a lot of hype. Then you went through a recession where saving money was the highest priority over environmental stewardship.”
– Bob Trebilcock, executive editor of Modern Materials Handling magazine, page 20
“The UK is an island, and we believe a significant proportion of the movement of timber pallets and packaging manufactured here remains in the country. We therefore believe a dispensation is justified, and we will be lobbying hard to have this recognized when ISPM-15 regulations are reviewed.”
– John Dye, president of TIMCON, page 34
“OSHA will say bump firing is more dangerous. But the guys in the plants will just tell you that’s just OSHA being OSHA. The faster you go, the higher the likelihood of something going wrong. At the end of the day, the guys who are causing problems are the ones who aren’t paying attention. There is nothing inherently wrong with bump firing if you are smart and safe about how you handle a tool.”
– George Skarich, executive vice president of sales for Mid Continent Nail Corp., page 30
“The use of wooden materials in combination with a proper end-of-life technology which re-uses wood waste (mainly to produce particle boards), helps remove large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere for a very long time.”
– Professor John Dotelli, a principle researcher of a recent European pallet study, page 44
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Research and connect with suppliers mentioned in this article using our FREE ZIP Online service. | <urn:uuid:a1a581ff-ce00-4bb8-9444-e9537f8c609f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.palletenterprise.com/articledatabase/view.asp?articleID=3809 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962388 | 516 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Edie Sennett was touched by the reaction of seniors during a recent ceremony held in Delmar to honor veterans who served as far back as World War II.
It’s a common reaction for Sennett, who is the coordinator of the Long-Term Ombudsman Program in Albany, Schenectady, Montgomery, and Washington counties. The program, established through the federal Older Americans Act, is mandated for each county in New York.
Sennett’s job is to work with residents of long-term senior care facilities throughout each county.
“We represent the resident,” Sennett said following a ceremony at the Kenwood Manor home. “We don’t represent any of the facilities. We represent them, so our allegiance is only to them.”
Through the ombudsman position, Sennett is responsible for helping residents to understand their rights within facilities. Those rights include being treated with respect and dignity, being able to manage their own finances and being able to voice grievances without fear of retaliation.
“There’s not a lot of money attached to the program,” Sennett said. “We get federal money, and we get some state money.”
Over $67,000 is made available for the program yearly in the four counties. The federal government grants $40,000, with the rest picked up by the state.
The Red Cross of Northeastern New York has sponsored the program in Albany, Schenectady, Montgomery and Washington counties since July 2010. By combining the programs, enough money was available to hire Sennett full-time.
Sennett estimated that she serves about 5,600 long-term care residents in the area. Forty certified volunteers provide Sennett with assistance by also speaking with residents.
In Rensselaer County, ombudsman Rich Haldeman started a program to recognize veterans of all military branches who now live in long-term care facilities. It’s the type of program that Sennett hopes to expand throughout the areas she covers.
“Look at the people’s faces who are being recognized,” said Sennett. “I think that what we see every day in our business as ombudsmen, many of the seniors, you know, there’s nobody that comes to see them. They feel forgotten. So, here’s an opportunity to recognize them.” | <urn:uuid:6dd97512-79b0-49d5-bb5f-d940e0ea8e8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spotlightnews.com/news/2011/nov/21/counties-pool-resources-help-seniors/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961746 | 498 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Education & Reference
Wal-Mart announces new beef-safety rules
Drovers news source | Thursday, April 29, 2010
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced today that it will implement additional beef safety measures designed to further protect customers against foodborne illnesses. The new process controls standards and goals are additions to a food safety program that already requires ground beef suppliers to test for E.coli O157:H7 and achieve prevention-based certification against one of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) internationally recognized standards.
“At Walmart and Sam’s Club, our commitment to providing our customers with safe, quality foods is unparalleled,” said Vice President for Food Safety Frank Yiannas. “As part of our continuous improvement efforts, we go further than many U.S. retailers in requiring leading-edge food safety standards throughout the entire food production chain.”
“In light of recent beef recalls, we determined it was prudent to require an additional layer of protection for our customers,” he said.
The new program requires Walmart and Sam’s Club beef suppliers to implement controls that would significantly reduce potential contamination levels and validate that the measures they’ve implemented are effective through specialized testing.
Suppliers who do not operate slaughter houses must be in compliance with the new standard by June 2011. For beef slaughterhouse suppliers, there is a two-step approach with the first step to be completed by June 2011 and the second by June 2012.
Walmart and Sam’s Club will work closely with beef suppliers to ensure that the new requirement is implemented without additional cost to customers.
To read the entire story click here. | <urn:uuid:3552f347-8e05-4288-b275-d30bba7f2ad6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ofbf.org/education-and-reference/fai/news/21/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948383 | 345 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Taobao, the Chinese equivalent of eBay is a place where you can buy everything – even babies, as it seems. Recently, someone posted an ad to sell a baby girl, an advertisement that rapidly spread throughout China and shocked many netizens.
The ad specified that the baby was born in April 2008. Bids start at the symbolic amount of 1 RMB, and there are no shipping costs. However, the seller wanted to meet the buyer before transaction could take place.
The seller had been successfully selling DVD’s and alarm clocks, and gained a high buyers approval rating of 97.25%. The shop had a cell phone number and home address attached. Shortly after, Chinese media contacted the reseller explained that they wanted to continue the family name, but his niece had a girl instead of a boy. “I am not a human trafficker, it is adoption, and we do not require any money or material things in return.”
However, China Hush reported that the seller was indeed violating the law. Sichuan Lushi Law Firm attorney Pu Kui said that it is not accurate. According to the Adoption Act, there are strict rules for the adopter, the donor for adoption, the person to be adopted and related conditions. Violators may be constituted the crime of human trafficking babies, and subject to criminal charges. We have seen this in Germany before, the mother then said it merely was a joke. | <urn:uuid:0b59cbbe-a3ff-47e5-8d05-33a1b62ffa9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thenextweb.com/asia/2009/10/19/baby-put-chinese-online-auction-site-taobao/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977973 | 295 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Why plan for an uncertain future? Our world is changing in ways that we can hardly comprehend. The planning we have been engaged in over the last 100 years, is geared to a world with abundant energy, a stable climate, and a dwindling natural resource endowment that is reliant on cheap energy for extraction. That world is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Oil price spikes due to supply/demand and geopolitical concerns, water shortages (Google Lake Mead, Central Valley, CA or the Ogallala Aquifer for details), and soil depletion are just a few of the problems we face. As we move forward, the notion that we can continue with business as usual (BAU) is not going to sustain us.
Thinking creatively and making difficult decisions will test our abilities, push our cultural boundaries and hopefully shape a world where these uncomfortable realities can be dealt with in an equitable and meaningful manner. I write about things I see, think, and work on as I transition from being a planning student into the world of planning. I am neither a technological optimist, thinking we can invent our way out of all our problems, nor a doomer, believing in returning to a world much like pre-industrial times. I believe that our creativity combined with the lessons from the past will be instrumental tools for laying the foundation for the path forward. Some of my ideas may seem radical, others are just based on common sense and keen observations. | <urn:uuid:94fad27e-7295-4c0d-98c0-68aed7c21e97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mainelyplanning.tumblr.com/tagged/Congestion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943346 | 290 | 1.671875 | 2 |
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Judging by the volume of correspondence last week on the question of whether Israel’s critics are anti-Semites or not, the subject exercises National Post readers a great deal. To me, the answer seems uncomplicated and self-evident. I’ve been offering it for years and will probably continue in years to come. Watch my lips: Some are and some are not.
These six words contain everything one can usefully say about the subject, at least until the art of mindreading becomes more reliable. Some critics of Israel are anti-Semites and some aren’t, and no one can tell in advance which one is and which one isn’t, although one can often make a shrewd guess. No, the mere fact that a critic is Jewish doesn’t preclude him being anti-Semitic
More importantly, knowing the answer still doesn’t tell us whether the critic is right or wrong. The fact that a critic isn’t anti-Semitic doesn’t prove that his criticism is right; the fact that he is anti-Semitic doesn’t prove that his criticism is wrong. I wish it would but it doesn’t
Some years ago, Natan Sharansky devised a test. I’ve always regarded Sharansky an authority on morality as well as courage. As one of the leading “refuseniks” in the days of the old Soviet Union, he stood up to the Evil Empire with a resolution that matched Gandhi’s — and against a foe more ruthless than the British Raj. Even so, I have reservations about his test for distinguishing anti-Semitism from legitimate criticism of Israel.
At the 2004 International Conference on Global Anti-Semitism in Montreal, Sharansky introduced his “3D test” for contemporary manifestations of anti-Semitism. He defines what he calls “classical” anti-Semitism as a crude sets of myths that have Jews draining the blood of Gentile children or plotting to take over the world. He suggests that the new anti-Semitism, instead of being aimed at the Jewish religion or the Jewish people, “is ostensibly directed against the Jewish state.” His 3D test applies the criteria that identified classical anti-Semitism to the modern variety
The first D stands for demonization. Classical anti-Semitism demonized the Jew as a deicidal or usurious embodiment of evil, a Christ-killer or Shylock. Modern anti-Semitism demonizes the Jewish state the same way. “Comparisons of Israelis to Nazis,” Sharansky writes, “can only be considered anti-Semitic.”
His second D stands for double standards. Judging Jewish behaviour by a different yardstick has always been a sign of traditional anti-Semitism. “It is anti-Semitism when Israel is singled out by the United Nations for human rights abuses while tried and true abusers like China and Syria are ignored,” Sharansky suggests.
He defines the third D as delegitimation. Historically, anti-Semites tried to deny the legitimacy of the Jewish religion and/or people. Today, Sharansky writes, “they are trying to deny the legitimacy of the Jewish state.” One way to delegitimize Israel is to portray it as the last vestige of colonialism.
Sharansky contends, accurately in my view, that we need to draw clear moral lines to recognize evil, which flourishes “when those lines are blurred, when right and wrong is a matter of opinion rather than objective truth.” He’s on shakier grounds when he offers his 3D test as a kind of moral compass, comparing it to glasses he wore as a child in three-dimensional movie theatres in the 1950’s. It seems to me (as I’ve written elsewhere before) that Sharansky’s test is more of a parlour game than a navigational tool for those who find themselves at sea when trying to tell legitimate critics from anti-Semites.
After the Middle Ages, “classical” anti-Semites rarely based their prejudice against Jews on crude myths. 20th century anti-Semites were often highly literate. Few among them believed in blood libel or the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This didn’t prevent them, though, from supporting exclusionary laws or even the “Final Solution” of the Nazis.
Demonization was a feature of feudal Europe — or, for that matter, of the Middle East today — rather than of the belief system of nations participating in the Holocaust. Europeans were ready to commit — or condone — genocide without even thinking that Jews used the blood of Christian children to bake the Passover bread. I find this even more frightening. Education cures credence in demonic myths, but when anti-Semitism isn’t predicated on belief in demonic myths, education is no cure for anti-Semitism.
Delegitimizing the Jewish state is a similarly unreliable test. I myself know half a dozen people who think that Israel is the last vestige of European colonialism. They’re ludicrously wrong — but they aren’t anti-Semites. They’re just 60s-type confuseniks.
It would be nice to have a kind of litmus test that might separate anti-Semites from legitimate critics of Israel at a glance. It would be even better to tell at a glance critics who have a point from those who have none. I doubt, though, that such test will ever be available. As I said before and will say again: People must make their decisions about Israel’s critics, thoughtfully and painstakingly, on a case-by-case basis.
Do you have an opinion to share with other readers? Then send us a letter. | <urn:uuid:dc320a49-84f1-4e89-b892-a297cd31855b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/11/03/george-jonas-hating-israel-each-for-their-own-reasons/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951991 | 1,255 | 1.515625 | 2 |
China do-over fact of the day, markets in everything minus one
a sex theme park set to open this October in China won't have the
chance to lose it's virginity. Chinese bureaucrats ordered the park
destroyed after details of the park's featured attractions were leaked.The story is here. The rest of the article relates:The park was to have giant-sized reproductions of male and female
anatomy, and offered lessons in safe sex and the proper use of condoms.
There was also an exhibition about the history of sex, as well as
workshops offering sex techniques.The entrance to park featured
a giant pair of women's legs clad only in a red thong. Those legs are
now closed forever. Officials would only say that the concept of the
park was vulgar, and deemed unnecessary. Bulldozers and wrecking ball
were seen destroying the exhibits as onlookers tried to get a peak.
China considers the topic of sex taboo, even though illegal prostitution is at an all-time high in the country. | <urn:uuid:6ee9d0f6-fd49-4256-959d-6c91643f4d0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bullfax.com/?q=node/66901 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975686 | 216 | 1.609375 | 2 |
North Korea's military chief Ri Yong-ho has been relieved of all his posts "because of illness," state media reported Monday.
According to the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the decision to relieve Ri of his posts was made during a meeting of the Workers' Party Central Committee politburo on Sunday. The report, however, did not elaborate on Ri's health condition. It also did not name his replacement.
In addition to being the vice-marshal of the Korean People's Army and the military's General Staff chief, Ri also held several senior posts in the ruling Workers' Party. He was made the army chief three years ago by former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who died in December.
Ever since Kim's death, Ri was seen by the outside world as the most important military figure in the power transition process that saw Kim Jong Un succeeding his father as the country's supreme leader. Experts believe that Ri's sudden departure will be a serious test for the new regime, as the military remains the key to retaining power in the reclusive Stalinist state.
Many believe that Ri shared a brother-like relationship with Kim Jong Il before is death in December, and was instrumental in ensuring that Kim Jong Un succeeded his father as planned. Ri is said to have played an important role in protecting younger Kim from potential challengers.
Incidentally, North Korea's disputed missile and nuclear programs have isolated the Communist State from the rest of the international community. The reclusive nation has been the subject of several international sanctions over Pyongyang's continued refusal to roll back its controversial missile and nuclear programs.
Concerns have grown after North Korea's failed launch of a long-range rocket on April 13 in defiance of previous UN resolutions, prompting the international community to tighten sanctions against the impoverished country.
The launch had sparked widespread international criticism, including from the United States, South Korea and the European Union, and was seen as a disguised long-range ballistic missile test as part of Pyongyang's preparation for a possible third nuclear test. But North Korea insists that the launch was meant for "peaceful purposes," and marked the birth centenary of its founder- leader Kim Il-sung.
Earlier, North Korea had announced a moratorium on its nuclear tests, uranium enrichment, and long-range missile testing in exchange for food aid in March, following a third round of talks with the United States in Beijing a month earlier.
The US has since suspended delivery of its planned food aid to North Korea in retaliation to the alleged missile test. Further, the UN Security Council condemned the rocket launch, and ordered tightening of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea over its disputed nuclear and missile programs in 2006 and 2009, and warned of further action if Pyongyang conducted another launch or a new nuclear test.
North Korea had agreed in 2005 to roll back its nuclear program in exchange for aid, but pulled out of the six-nation talks, involving the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan, on its disputed nuclear and missile programs in April 2009 after the UNSC condemned it for launching a rocket and imposed sanctions on several of its firms.
Soon after walking out of the talks, North Korea expelled US nuclear experts and IAEA inspectors monitoring its Yongbyon nuclear complex, conducted its second nuclear test in May 2009 and test-firing of several ballistic missiles. The UNSC responded to those actions by slamming tougher sanctions aimed at persuading Pyongyang to resume nuclear negotiations.
International diplomatic efforts to restart the six-party talks gained momentum last year, but the death of Kim Jong-Il left prospects for resumption of talks uncertain. The international community has since been keenly watching the sincerity of North Korea's untested new leader in addressing concerns triggered by his country's nuclear and missile programs.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: [email protected] | <urn:uuid:95d4e4b7-6fc1-48eb-b96a-cfaed9346595> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rttnews.com/1922809/north-korea-s-army-chief-relieved-of-all-posts-state-media.aspx?type=msgn&SimRec=1&Node=B3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974039 | 789 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Belarus and Moldova invited into EU? Europe ponders countering 'resurgent' Russia
At Prague summit today, EU leaders seek stronger ties with six former Soviet republics.
BERLIN – Amid fears of growing economic and political instability in several former Soviet republics, the European Union (EU) convened a summit meeting in Prague on Thursday aimed at forging a stronger partnership between the 27-member bloc and its eastern neighbors.Skip to next paragraph
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To get these countries to adopt political, economic, and social reforms modeled on the EU – and in return, eventually to enjoy a degree of engagement with the bloc, including free trade and visa-free travel.
But with Ukraine reeling from the economic crisis, Moldova recovering from violent political unrest last month, and Georgian opposition forces currently clashing in the streets of Tbilisi and calling for the ouster of President Mikheil Saakashvili, the EU’s outreach is now being seen more immediately as a policy to bring stability to a volatile region (more news on this here).
“The EU needs to find some kind of incentive to get these countries closer to the West, for energy reasons and for security reasons,” says Mr. Techau. “Because really in the end for these countries, they have to make a choice: Do they want to be part of the Russian sphere or the European sphere?”
Yet some EU members, notably Germany, have grown increasingly alarmed at what they see as a deteriorating situation much closer to home and have called for more engagement in Eastern Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in Prague for today’s summit; French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown opted to send representatives.
Leaders were also expected to address the economic crisis’s impact on eastern economies, which is contributing to unrest (in-depth coverage can be found here).
The Eastern Partnership is meant to be the cornerstone policy initiative of the Czech Republic’s six-month EU presidency, which ends on June 30. That provides an interesting twist to today’s meetings, given that the Czechs themselves are models of a society that has moved clearly from a Soviet tradition to a western one. | <urn:uuid:f8868f49-fff1-43b8-a6a6-5d3f0878bfc1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2009/0507/belarus-and-moldova-invited-into-eu-europe-ponders-countering-resurgent-russia | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945717 | 523 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Nearly two decades after John Wayne Gacy's execution, Cook County sheriff's officials had hoped to examine the backyard of a Northwest Side apartment building in their continuing search for additional victims of the serial killer, a spokesman for Sheriff Tom Dart said.
The site, in the 6100 block of West Miami Avenue, was previously investigated after a retired Chicago police homicide detective tipped authorities to the fact that he had seen Gacy in the yard with a shovel in his hand at 3 a.m. one morning in the 1970s. That dig, in November 1998, turned up a glass marble and a flattened saucepan, but no bodies, according to Tribune accounts of the Chicago police excavation.
Among them: re-examining the yard of the apartment building where Gacy's mother lived and where Gacy once worked as a maintenance man.
"This site was one that was always looked at as a possibility for potential victims," said Frank Bilecki, a spokesman at the sheriff's office. "This is just another piece of the Gacy puzzle that should be run out."
The effort has run into obstacles, however. Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez has denied Dart's request to seek a search warrant for the property, saying the sheriff's office does not have probable cause — sufficient information that the search will produce evidence of a crime — to obtain a warrant.
Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for Alvarez, said that the information the sheriff's office presented was the same information as in 1998, when the search was done with the consent of the property owner and failed to turn up evidence that Gacy had buried bodies on the property.
"There is even less probable cause now as a result of the negative results of the consented-to search in 1998," said Daly, adding that the prosecutors in the office were "open to reviewing any new information that the sheriff's office may currently have or obtain in the future."
The sheriff's office added: "A request for permission to conduct the noninvasive search was presented to the owners of the property, and they politely declined. Their denial is respected and understandable."
Gacy was convicted of the murders of 33 young men and boys in the 1970s, all but one of them strangled, many of them recovered in his crawl space. He was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center, near Joliet, in 1994.
What brought sheriff's officials back to the property was that, during the 1998 dig, only two spots were excavated even though radar surveys of the property reportedly detected more than a dozen anomalies under the ground. That raised the suspicions of the retired detective who initially tipped police to the Gacy connection, Bill Dorsch. He provided the Tribune a letter from the radar company saying the initial dig was incomplete.
"In a proper investigation," the letter said, "the authorities would have been more willing to excavate any possibility."
Dorsch, who retired in 1994 from the Chicago Police Department after 24 years, recalled that one day at 3 a.m., as he came home from work, he saw Gacy with a shovel and they chatted briefly. After Gacy's arrest, he called sheriff's officials with the information about him, assuming officials would investigate the tip and potentially excavate. That apparently did not happen until the 1998 excavation.
"I couldn't understand why anybody would not want to follow through on this," said Dorsch, now a private investigator. | <urn:uuid:863a7041-a855-4e6d-be1c-795dca9f5e56> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kwch.com/news/chi-sheriff-wants-new-dig-for-gacy-victims-20120329,0,5940872.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981595 | 705 | 1.507813 | 2 |
"Goals," "values," and "plans" are words which have come up in my life quite a bit recently, forcing me to sit down and give them some attention. It didn't take long to see that they are all intertwined: my goals should reflect my values, and my plans should be the steps I take to reach my goals. In order to live each day with more purpose and less wasted time, I knew I needed to define what my values, goals, and plans are.
Then I had to ask myself: what determines value? For me, the answer is plain: GOD. God is the founding father of my "Values Family Tree." Something has value to me if it has value to God. It doesn't have value to me if it doesn't have lasting, eternal value. So, my values are:
- God's love and my relationship with God
- My family, and my family's well-being
- My health and well-being
- My God-given talents/gifts/calling(s)
- My community (in both narrow and broad senses) - i.e., the well-being of others
My goals are the things I intend to do (or keep doing, or do better) to protect my values. My plans are, as I said above, the specific things I can do for each goal. There is a lot of overlap: particularly, there are some plans which can go toward more than one goal. I like that, because my life is not as compartmentalized as a list or chart may make it appear. It also shows how each of my plans ultimately finds its inspiration in God.
I call this my "Values Family Tree" because, in my head, this is how I see it:
I won’t bore you with all the details of my goals and plans, although I suspect that we'd have many in common. But something that jumped out at me as I constructed this chart was that the plan to "find service opportunities in Memphis" fit under EVERY value. It develops my relationship with God because, as I heard a pastor say recently, "If you want to have a face-to-face encounter with Jesus, go and do something for 'the least of these.'" (See Matthew 25:35-40.) It goes with my family's well-being because service develops empathy, charity, and perspective in my children, and doing anything meaningful together as a family strengthens our bonds. It enhances my well-being because I find it so rewarding, enriching, and challenging. It goes with my calling(s)/talents/gifts by providing ways for me to use those for God's glory and to further God's kingdom. It is, obviously, about the well-being of others, and it can be about creation if I apply it thus (clean-up efforts, recycling, community gardening, etc.).
Sometime around 587 B.C., the prophet Jeremiah wrote a letter to the leaders and top craftsmen of Jerusalem, who had recently been carried into exile in Babylon. Other (self-proclaimed) prophets in both countries were declaring that this exile would not last long - a couple of years at most. Jeremiah endeavored to speak the truth that no one wanted to hear: this exile was not going to be short. It would last 70 years, in fact (see Jer. 29:10). He therefore advised the exiles to go ahead and build houses and plant gardens. Spending a 70-year exile in a house is still better than spending it in a tent, right?
But he went even further. He didn’t tell them just to settle in for the long haul; he told them to invest in their new place - this place surely cursed by every Hebrew living at the time.
(The Lord says, via Jeremiah's letter) "But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."
- Jeremiah 29:7
That is both logical and crazy all at once. It seems crazy for them to pray for and work toward the well-being of the country that defeated theirs and forced them away from their homes. And yet... like it or not, Babylon was "home" now. If famine struck Babylon, they would go hungry along with their captors. If earthquake, plague, war, or any other disaster occurred, it would not be just those who were born in Babylon who would suffer. Babylon's and the exiles' welfare were bound up together.
I can understand some of what that must have been like. Memphis is both home and land of exile to me. It is not the place I would choose to live, and it is faaaar away from my family. But I am here, and I am now a part of this community. My welfare is bound up in Memphis's.
And what a place in which to have one's welfare bound up! Babylon was booming at the time of Jeremiah's letter, but Memphis is currently the poorest city in the US. THIS is the place in which I will find my welfare?! That's daunting. Frightening, even. And yet... it's also exciting!
That brings me back around to service being an element of each of my values... Being the poorest city in America, there is certainly no lack of service opportunities here. The hard part might be choosing one to start with! I'm very fortunate and grateful to be part of a church that also values community service. I've also been presented some other service possibilities within the last few days that bear consideration and prayer. What makes that more exciting than daunting is the words that come just shortly after the Bible verse above:
"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope."
- Jeremiah 29:11
God has his own values, goals, and plans, and we are a part of them. His plans for us are the steps he takes towards his goals, which reflect his values, which include wonderful things like love, unity, and peace. In Babylon, in Memphis, in the place where you live, God is at work, and we are his instruments. Let me encourage you to take the time to consider how your welfare is bound up with that of the place where you live, and to evaluate whether your everyday plans are consistent with your goals and values. And let me also encourage you to be excited!
Feel free to right-click and save this image to print!
If you use it on your blog or web site, please link back to me. | <urn:uuid:e4d4327e-fe91-4dfa-8a56-38fb22231791> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://meetinggodinmemphis.blogspot.com/2011/11/value-of-service.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980885 | 1,380 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Residents in the Country Road area of Bay Roberts are concerned about an increased level of traffic.
Deputy Mayor Bill Seymour brought those concerns to the council chambers during a May 8 meeting.
He said he spoke with one resident who counted over 200 cars passing by her front window over the course of one hour.
"The road was not built for that volume of traffic," said Seymour.
He figures the change in traffic patterns began last summer as motorists attempted to find quicker ways around construction activities along the Conception Bay Highway.
The delays have since ended, but Seymour believes many motorists have continued using Country Road as a shortcut from the CB Access Road to the Conception Bay Highway.
That includes large commercial vehicles destined for stores in the commercial district along the Conception Bay Highway and Water Street.
"The road isn't wide enough for all of this traffic," said the deputy mayor.
Residents who enjoy the occasional stroll have also raised concerns over the increased traffic, and Seymour agrees with them.
"There isn't any room for walkers to get off the road," he said.
Both sides of the road are either driveways for residences or ditches.
To cut down on the amount of traffic, Coun. Clarence Mercer suggested installing temporary speed bumps.
While there was no resolution reached during the meeting, Seymour said discussions will continue.
Much ado about curbside recycling
Another item raised at the meeting was the issue of curbside recycling.
Aided by the spotlight being shone on illegal dumping in the province, Coun. Mercer said he would like to see the town get a jump on curbside recycling rather than waiting until next year to map out an approach.
"I'd like to see a plan prepared now so that it can be rolled out for next year," he said. "There's a lot of footwork to be done before starting such a program and we've been putting it off and putting it off for the last couple of years."
Mercer, along with other councillors, suggested that Bay Roberts begin looking at what other towns are doing.
"Once we have enough information, we can go ahead and start up with some knowledge instead of without knowledge," said Coun. Melvin Walsh. "So, that next year we can do it right and not have to be correcting things all the time."
Mayor Philip Wood agreed.
"I would like to see us move before next year," he said.
Wood wondered if it would be possible to start a program with cardboard and paper, but one big obstacle stands in the way of any solution - the distance of the town from Robin Hood Bay in St. John's.
"Unfortunately, I don't see any progress being made on Harbour Grace," he said, alluding to proposed bulk waste management site in the town. "I was hoping it would be a valuable resource for the town."
The site is designed to help alleviate the illegal dumping in the region.
One problem that Bay Roberts is bound to run into is the lack of gold standard for curbside recycling when it comes to town's that are not quite urban centres, and council recognized that.
Mercer said the time is now for members of council to put their heads together and work out a plan.
"I would like to see some meaningful discussion," he said.
Bay Roberts has begun the process of re-evaluating its municipal boundaries with the intentions of extending them.
The town recently received an application for residential development in the Rocky Pond area. It received a similar application in 2010.
The town has the option of accepting the application as is, or it can explore the option of the extending its borders to the other side of Rocky Pond in Shearstown.
Choosing the latter, Wood said the process of extending the town boundaries to include the proposed area of development would allow for Bay Roberts to service the site and collect taxes.
Chief administrative officer Nigel Black said the process is a lengthy one as it includes the Crown Lands division, as well as neighbouring towns.
New home explosion
Previous to last week's council meeting, Bay Roberts had previously approved 14 new residential applications.
With an additional 12 approved at the meeting, that number jumped to 26 this year.
"It is certainly unusual for one meeting to approve that many. I'm not sure if it's a record but it's the most I've seen during my time on council," said Wood.
He said the number of applications approved did not include a couple of sites in Coley's Point that still needed site visits.
"There were more referred to planning," said the mayor. "It's a bumper year." | <urn:uuid:46d1f7c9-9ad8-4454-b1fa-97cfb154f55e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbncompass.ca/News/2012-05-15/article-2979324/Country-Road-traffic-increasing/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978937 | 950 | 1.664063 | 2 |
HOLMBERG: Old art-deco Huguenot bridge railings headed to the scrap heap
RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR)–The first half of the new Huguenot Memorial Bridge will open this Saturday, rather plain compared with the one it’s replacing.
The old Huguenot Memorial Bridge was completed in 1950, replacing the old Westham steel bridge.
The half-mile long span cost $1.3 million back then and included a mile of art-deco railing.
The new bridge will cost 40 times as much, and will have very simple, but functional railing sitting atop a low concrete barrier wall.
Crews finished cutting the rain grooves in the pavement Tuesday, and they’re busily taking down the catwalks workers used to build the bridge. All is ready for Saturday’s grand opening of the first half of the new bridge.
Drivers may find it a little tight – two opposing lanes in just 23 feet of roadway – until the second half of the bridge surface is finished next June. That will open things significantly, making room for bicyclists and pedestrians.
But what will become of the old decorative railing that 25,000 people drove past every day? It nicely guarded the edges of the bridge but allowed views of the river.
VDOT deemed it not tough enough for re-use. There also appears to be a lead paint issue.
Plenty of people would love to have some of it.
Rick Rudisill of Riverside Drive is just one of many who have asked about it. “It’s beautiful,” he said. “It would be a shame to just scrap it” for $1 per 100 pounds. He wants some sections to decorate a low retaining wall in front of his house.
But the spokeswoman for Skanska, the bridge contractor, tells CBS 6 the railings are part of the demolition contract, worth $42,000 in scrap metal to the firm tearing down the old bridge, Parrick Michael Group out of Evansville, Indiana.
The Skanska spokeswoman said the firm has learned of the sentimental value of the railings from people like Rudisill.
It appears anyone wanting to save some of this art deco bridge history better get on the phone to the demolition firm straightaway with a good story and some cash money pretty quick.
The old bridge is coming down, railings and all, to make way for the rest of the new bridge. | <urn:uuid:0f6fba62-5058-4c09-b6dd-84c49282bff6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wtvr.com/2012/06/27/old-art-deco-huguenot-bridge-railings-heading-to-the-scrap-heap/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95012 | 522 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Q:What other related degree does Anna Maria College offer other than the bachelor degree in criminal justice?
A:Other than Bachelor degree in Criminal Justice, the Anna Maria College offers Bachelor's in Fire Science Administration.
Q:Where can I study Criminal Justice Bachelors degree?
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and Grand Canyon University.
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Q:Which schools offer the B.A in Criminal Justice?
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Q:Can I pursue the Bachelor in Criminal Justice degree program online?
A:Sure. The Bachelor in Criminal Justice degree program can be pursued online. It is offered by the various accredited online schools listed on our website. These include Colorado Technical University Online, University of Phoenix, Kaplan International, Argosy University Online, American Intercontinental University Online, Grand Canyon University, Lincoln College Online, Salem University Online and Virginia College Online.
Q:How long does it take to become an FBI Agent?
A:To become an FBI agent, you will be required to earn a formal degree in the field of criminal justice. Moreover, you will need to complete the Bachelors in Criminal Justice with an area of specialization of your choice, followed by the Masters in Criminology or Criminal Justice degree. The Bachelors is a 4 year degree program and the Masters degree in Criminal Justice can be completed within 2 years. Therefore, it may take around 6 years of education to become an FBI Agent.
Q:What jobs can be pursued with the Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice degree?
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A:The shortest way to complete the Bachelor's in Criminal Justice degree program is to get enrolled in the online degree, which is a self paced program so students can complete the degree in as much time as they see fit. There is no restriction on the degree completion duration.
Q:What areas of specialization can I choose with the Bachelors in Social and Criminal Justice?
A:The Bachelor in Criminal Justice is a sought after degree program which can be availed with a number of areas of specialization. These include: Criminal Administration and Management, Juvenile Justice, International and Comparative Criminal Justice, Computer Security and Forensics, Criminal Psychology, Crime and Criminals, Homeland Security, Human Services, Organizational Security and Management, Political Science and Government, Emergency Management, and many more.
Q:While I read about the Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice career options, there was a mention of understanding of course in Juveniles in Justice System. What are the contents of this course?
A:The Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice degree programs in our country do have a dedicated 4 credits worth course on Juveniles in the Justice System. This course is a study of the crimes done by youth. It also studies the volume of these crimes, the trends and the causation behind it. You will also get to analyze how to predict, prevent, treat and control such adverse things from happening in the first place.
Q:I am confused between a criminal justice BS or BA. Please explain what is included in both of these degrees?
A:It is normal for students to be double minded about a criminal justice BA or BS degree. The Bachelor of Arts degree is usually less specialized than a Bachelor in Science. A Bachelor of Arts is usually in languages or humanities. On the other hand Bachelor of Science is technical and scientific. It is usually awarded in sciences. For more information, prospective students are requested to search our website for a list of institutions offering these degrees.
Q:What is Bachelors in Criminal Justice degree's objective?
A:The objectives of the Bachelor in Criminal Justice degree program are to offer students an in depth knowledge and background information about criminal justice, its implications, application, and other aspects to the modern world justice system of America. Students are made to study rigorously with the case-study approach. The case studies are selected strategically to enhance the skills and broaden the knowledge base of the students.
Q:What is taught in the Ethics in Technology course of the Bachelors in Criminal Justice with Financial Aid?
A:The Bachelors in Criminal Justice with Financial Aid have a mandatory course on Ethics in Technology. This course is worth 4 credits in total and aims to explore the more diverse issues of morality that surround the usage of computers and also the field of information technology these days. Students are trained to differentiate between ethical as well as non ethical practices.
Q:What is included in the course survey of corrections when studying for BA in Criminal Justice?
A:The course on survey of corrections is essential in studying BA in Criminal Justice. This course is worth 3 credits and deals with the correctional system as a concept in context to society. Students get an opportunity to learn about the history and its relationship with other criminal justice departments. It also examines the inclusion of criminology into the correctional system. Prospective students interested in this course are advised to search our website.
Q:Confused between BS or BA in Criminal Justice mentioned a course in Investigative Photography. What is included in this course?
A:It is natural to be confused between BS or BA in Criminal Justice. Investigative Photography is worth 2 credit hours and covers operation of photographic equipment, exposure to film, developing prints, preparing evidence and its application in the field of criminal justice. This course will be extremely beneficial for students who are interested in photography. Prospective students interested in this course are advised to search our website for an extensive list of institutions offering this course.
Q:As I read on ways of completing Bachelors in Criminal Justice, there was mention of the course on Business Law. What is taught in this course?
A:It is common to get to read about the course on Business Law while going the ways of completing Bachelors in Criminal Justice. This course is worth 4 credits in total and is designed to offer students with the examination of how the legal system and the legal environment functions in the United States. You also get to study the negotiable instruments.
Q:What are my job prospects if I have a Bachelors in Criminal Justice?
A:The employment outlook for a professional with a Bachelor in criminal Justice is favorable. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the sector is going to see an increase of more than 25% till 2018. Professionals in this field can expect to earn an average of $42,000 per year. Salaries increase with experience and location.
Q:My search about career options with bachelors in science of criminal justice mentioned diplomatic security special agent. What is the job description for this profession?
A:Diplomatic security special agent would be mentioned when searching for career options with bachelors in science of criminal justice. These agents are required to advise ambassadors and diplomats on security matters and also manage security for personnel and facilities. These agents are also required to provide protection to foreign dignitaries and conduct personal security investigations. Usually employed by the federal government, agents represent their country and are required to travel all over the world.
Q:Reading about what kind of job can I get with a bachelor in Criminal Justice degree mentioned ICE special agent. What is it all about?
A:ICE special agents would be mentioned when searching for what kind of job I can get with a Bachelor in Criminal Justice. ICE stands for U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These agents are required to assist in a number of tasks such as national security, smuggling, drug trafficking, illegal arms and human trafficking. These officials work in collaboration with other federal agencies such as the CIA, FBI and law enforcement.
Q:While going through the career with Bachelor in Criminal Justice, there was mention of the course on Criminal Law. What are the contents of this course?
A:It is common to get to see the mention of course on Criminal Law while going through career with Bachelor in Criminal Justice. This course is usually of around 3 credits in total. It is structured to provide the students of criminal justice with understanding of the application and implementations of criminal law and how it can help individuals and the whole federal and state governments in United States.
Q:What can I do after completing a bachelors criminal justice?
A:After you complete a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice degree, you will be able to find a large number of positions in various criminal justice departments. Depending on your specialization and interests, you can find work with government departments such as the CIA, FBI, Police Force or court system. The various positions include special agent, officer or even a forensic scientist if you are interested.
Q:Is it important to complete a course in introduction to computer crime to get a Bachelors in criminal justice?
A:Yes, students interested in getting a Bachelors in criminal justice will be required to complete a course in introduction to computer crime. This course is worth 3 credit hours and deals with the legislative aspects of cybercrimes. Students learn about issues with cyber security, precautionary steps to secure critical sites and implementation of key legislative provisions. Prospective students interested in this course are advised to search our website for more information.
Q:While going through B.A. Criminal Justice KS program, I came across White Color Crime course. Can you brief me about it?
A:B.A. Criminal Justice KS is one of the most sought for programs in the field. Various institutes around America are offering it as online and campus-based program. White Color Crime course deals with the cost of corporate and white color crime to the society. The course discusses various theories to prevent crime and safeguard the community.
Q:While going through B.A. degree in Criminal Justice New Jersey, I came across Victimology course. Can you brief me about it?
A:It is common to come across Victimology course while searching on B.A. degree in Criminal Justice New Jersey. In this three credit hours course the students get to learn history of victimology and developments made in the field on the way. The individuals will also get a chance to examine and analyze the results of victimization.
Q:What is taught in Domestic Violence course in BA Criminal Justice degree in Missouri?
A:Domestic Violence course is among the major courses included in BA Criminal Justice degree in Missouri. In this course the students get to study the cases of various victims of domestic violence. Students will get to study and investigate the reasons for domestic violence and will study ways of reducing this crime in the society.
Q:What are the contents of the Incident Command Systems course of the Bachelor degree in Criminal Justice Criminal Offenders MN?
A:The Bachelor Degree in Criminal Justice Criminal Offenders MN have dedicated course on Incident Command Systems. This course is of 4 credits in total. It is designed to offer the students with comprehensive understanding of the way in which mass casualty needs to be taken care of. This includes Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and logistics as well as communication management.
Q:With a BA In Criminal Justice, what entry level jobs will I be eligible for?
A:BA In Criminal Justice is a undergraduate degree program that leads to basic entry level jobs in the field. With this level of qualifications you can apply for jobs as a capitol police officer, administrations police officer, transportation security specialist, border patrol agent, and customs enforcement officer. But getting training in the above occupations is mandatory; you cannot become a police officer without getting training in a police academy.
Q:Can I opt for specialization in homeland security if I enroll in a Online Bachelor Of Arts In Criminal Justice Degree Program?
A:There are numerous areas offered for specialization in homeland security degrees. You can opt for homeland security as a concentration course in this degree program. This area focuses on skill development and concept development required for homeland security professions. Due to increasing numbers of national security issues, the demand for qualified homeland security officials has increased.
Q:What are the basic credit hour requirements of a BA In CJ degree program?
A:A bachelor in arts with majors in criminal justice is a widely pursued educational path. The degree program is equivalent t bachelor level studies. Generally the credit hour requirement ranges form 129 to 135 hours. Each course Included in the curriculum comprises of a number of credit hours that must be completed, projects and presentation, assignments and other work also carry credit hours. You must acquire all the credit hours in order to complete the degree.
Q:What is the major difference between a science Bachelor In Criminal Justice degree or a bachelor in arts criminal justice degree?
A:The major difference is that a bachelor I arts in criminal justice is usually less specialized, whereas a bachelor in science in criminal justice is more specialized and focused on the topic area. Students in arts degrees gain a general understanding of the subject, on the other hand a science degree requires more technical understanding.
Q:Are their any topics about research methodology included in the curriculum of Bachelor Of Arts In Criminal Justice?
A:Bachelor Of Arts In Criminal Justice has a curriculum that comprises of numerous courses. Research methodology is also an important course that is studied in this degree program. The course focuses on various qualitative and quantitative research methods, designing projects, analyzing statistics, measuring issues, analyzing findings, and presenting numerical data.
Q:What can you tell me about bachelor of science vs bachelor of arts in criminal justice?
A:The Bachelor Of Science Vs Bachelor Of Arts In Criminal Justice are both equally sought after degrees. A comprehensive curriculum is taught in each of these programs which enables students enter the practical work well prepared. Well-paying await those who graduate in this highly useful discipline whether they hold a BA or a BS. each degree can open up career opportunities in the field of law enforcement.
Q:What variations in courses am i given if i choose to do Bachelors in Criminal Justice Curriculum?
A:Bachelors In Criminal Justice is one of the most interesting fields of education of recent times. There is a lot of variation available in the curriculum of Bachelors in Criminal Justice, some of these are: Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, Multicultural issues in Criminal Justice, Juvenile Delinquency and Justice , Family Law, Criminology, Victimology, Judicial Process, Terrorism.
Q:If i cant afford to give up my full-time day job, but still want to pursue my Bachelors in Criminal Justice. Which is the best online programs for a Bachelors in Criminal Justice?
A:Online degrees are today as common and acceptable as regular degree programs. So pursuing an online degree while you work full time is no longer an issue. A lot of schools and colleges mentioned on this page offer some of the best online programs for Bachelors In Criminal Justice. Among the most prominent are Kaplan University Online, American Intercontinental University Online, Walden University Online to name a few.
Q:Could you tell me about the online criminal justice bachelor degree?
A:Although pursuing a Bachelor's course in Criminal Justice on-campus will take about 4 years to complete, this time period can vary if done online. Some of the courses included in the Criminal Justice degree program are Evidence Recovery, Legal System, Crime Forensics, Criminology, Correctional Systems, Criminal Law and Communication. There are lots of options available in subjects to specialize in also.
Q:How can an associate degree in criminal justice prepare me for further programs such as an online criminal justice bachelor degree?
A:An associate's degree is a pre-bachelor degree offered in all study areas. This program is designed to help students acquire basic knowledge in a certain subject area and develop a strong foundation for further education. If you enroll in an associate degree in criminal justice, you can acquire basic knowledge of the field that will help you prepare for advanced studied in this field.
Q:Is a bachelor degrees in criminal justice enough to get me into the professional field?
A:Yes, a bachelor degree in criminal justice is enough to qualify you for a number of entry level jobs in this field. Most of the job positions in the field of law enforcement require individuals to hold at least a bachelor degree in criminal justice. You can work as police officer, criminal justice lawyer, probation officer, corrections officer, or even a crime analyst with this level of degree.
Q:What are the different areas offered for specialization in bachelors of science in criminal justice administration degree programs?
A:A bachelor degree in criminal justice administration is four year program that is designed to provide students with administrative skills used in criminal justice systems. The program helps students learn how to effectively apply modern day techniques and theories to real life situations. Students can opt for specialization in the following main areas: management, security, cybercrimes, international healthcare, human services, and leadership. | <urn:uuid:68d4ebac-91ef-4016-8aed-059064d12315> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.excite.com/education/criminal-justice/bachelor | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940515 | 4,005 | 1.578125 | 2 |
This photo says a lot about the citizen involvement in government that is one of the hallmarks of Seattle. Chris Gower, 47, said he was brought to Tuesday’s Port of Seattle commissioners’ meeting by the front-page story he displayed.
It also is a perfect metaphor for the P-I’s coverage of mismanagement at the Port of Seattle.
State auditor Brian Sonntag has publicly credited a P-I special report, “On the Waterfront,” by reporters Ruth Teichroeb and Kristen Millares Young, as an impetus for doing the recently released scathing audit that in its turn spurred the just-announced federal criminal investigation into the Port.
Some insiders say the fulcrum of the coverage was Young’s outstanding April 2007 story revealing a Commission effort led by Commissioner Pat Davis to get the Port to pay outgoing director Mic Dinsore a “golden parachute” of more than $300,000. That story spurred an effort to recall Davis and became the most notable representation of the Port’s management issues — at least until the release of the audit.
However this story ends, I’m proud of Young and Teichroeb for an outstanding example off hard-nosed local journalism in the public interest. Which, like a remarkable level of citizen involvement in government, is another thing Seattleites have come to expect. | <urn:uuid:fe77c758-0447-4214-9613-1644c063d51c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2008/01/09/its-in-the-p-i/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95268 | 287 | 1.546875 | 2 |
TICKET TO SLIDE: These five Slippery Rock University students didn't let the snow that covered much of campus dampen their spirits ¬– they grabbed an inner tube and barreled down the slope behind the Ski Lodge. Taking a ride were (From left, front) Benjamin Rittenhous, an exercise science major from Green Bank, West. Va; Joseph Hunt, a therapeutic recreation major from Williamsport; Buddy Brudowsky, a biology major from Lancaster; (top) Timothy Campion, a park and resource management major from Monkton, Md.; and Rebekah Jaussen, an elementary education major from Greenville. (Photo by Mariia Berezina, an economics major from the Ukraine.) For more photos, click here
SRU names Carlson sustainability officer
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - Slippery Rock University President Robert Smith today named Herb Carlson, assistant vice president for construction, design and management, as the senior officer for institutional sustainability initiatives.
"This key leadership position will help the University manage the myriad of current sustainability initiatives and develop a strategic pathway for SRU to successfully implement the President's Climate Commitment that we signed last semester. The University is very fortunate to have someone as qualified as Herb to lead us in this effort," Smith said in announcing the appointment. Read MoreConcepts of sustainability could apply across the curriculum at SRU
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - Langdon Smith, associate professor of geography, geology and the environment at Slippery Rock University, will use the $4,150 SRU Green Fund Grant he was awarded to help share the concepts of sustainability across the academic curriculum and into many SRU classes.
"Dr. Julie Snow [associate professor in the same department] and I attended the two-day Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education workshop in Atlanta in January. It was a great chance to hear how those from San Diego and Arizona are involving their faculty in such projects that aid the sustainability issue. We hope to bring many of those ideas to campus to help fellow faculty build a sustainability component into each of their classes," Smith said. Read MoreSRU students bring air-quality research down to earth with weather observatory
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - Slippery Rock University students are measuring air pollutants, researching their terrestrial origins and studying the relationship between air quality and weather at the University's new Weather and Air Quality Observatory. Students say the observatory gives them valuable experience with high-tech equipment and that ultimately their findings will help the University community become more sustainable.
"My research involves analyzing meteorological phenomena. It is something that allows me to be in a leadership role," said Chris Abbott, an environmental studies major from Slippery Rock. "I am using a plethora of high-tech instruments. There is no possible way on my own that I would be able to get my hands on any of this equipment if I weren't a Slippery Rock student. Even an internship wouldn't introduce me to the sheer volume of instruments at my disposal." Read More | <urn:uuid:a6b17355-2f08-4a18-b58b-40d17d1cc657> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rockpride.sru.edu/2010/RP021210/index.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945844 | 628 | 1.625 | 2 |
BUSH TO CHINA—GRANT RELIGIOUS LIBERTY; McCAIN AND OBAMA DUCK THE ISSUE
Before leaving for Beijing tomorrow, President George W. Bush will give a speech in Bangkok, Thailand that cites the lack of religious liberties, as well as other human rights, that exist in China.
In his speech, Bush will say that “America stands in firm opposition to China’s detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists.” Moreover, Bush will say that “I have spoken clearly, candidly and consistently with China’s leaders about our deep concerns over religious freedom and human rights.”
Catholic League president Bill Donohue applauds what President Bush is doing and draws a contrast with what Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama have said about this matter:
“This is good news. In addition to President Bush’s statement on religious freedom that he is expected to give following a Beijing church service, the president is now going to call attention to China’s human rights deficit shortly before he arrives for the Olympic games. And Bush well knows that the first liberty is religious liberty, without which all freedoms are meaningless. His comments on this subject come on the heels of a plea by Pope Benedict XVI to Chinese leaders ‘to open [China] to the Gospel.’
“By contrast, Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama look weak. For example, McCain recently implored the president not to be ‘confrontational’ with Chinese officials about the issue of human rights. Should he be obsequious? Obama has spoken out about the rights of Tibetans (as has McCain) but has been singularly silent about the religious rights of the Chinese people. Will he now say something?
“Bush has shown the way. The ball is now in the court of the presidential candidates.” | <urn:uuid:ec737518-7a29-443f-9cf4-dbfb02f7b1e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.catholicleague.org/bush-to-china-grant-religious-liberty-mccain-and-obama-duck-the-issue/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960351 | 390 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Until the discovery of old garden roses, I shared the prevailing bias that roses were hard to grow, were fussy, needed to be sprayed, needed to be pruned in a certain way and were short lived. Roses we have since discovered have changed my bias and made me an advocate of these easy care roses and I truly believe they are the ultimate garden plant.
The beauty and hardiness of a rose called 'Mermaid' first got me hooked on antique roses in the late seventies, and my fascination with and unbounded appreciation for them has been growing ever since. I didn't start out as a rose lover. To my thinking, roses were just one bush with a thousand different flowers. With a Master's degree in Horticulture in hand, I started a nursery business in 1976 as a grower of woody ornamentals for the landscape industry and retail centers in central Texas. I soon lost interest in the overused plants I was working with (ligustrum, pittosporum etc.) and began to look for plants native to Texas that might fill the same niche.
On our forays to hunt native plants, my staff (which numbered two at the time) and I also started finding ever-blooming roses surviving without any apparent care in rather desolate surroundings. This was fascinating to me, for I had never thought of roses as something that could endure the notorious extremes of the Texas climate (droughts and blue northerns) without a gardener's care.
'Mermaid' opened my eyes. In 1982, while returning from a delivery and taking an unaccustomed route back to the nursery, one of my co-workers chanced upon a huge rose covering a chain link fence. He made an unauthorized "rustle," brought back flowers and cuttings, and urged me to go see it. It was surviving, indeed, performing spectacularly, in a completely neglected setting. My first thought was that there must be a landscape niche for such a specimen. Identified by a rosarian as 'Mermaid,' I could not find it available in commerce anywhere. Soon it, and the other "survivor" roses we stumbled across over the next couple of years, became the foundation of the Antique Rose Emporium.
These roses are different. For the past 30 years our goal has been to give credibility to these plants and happily we find ourselves part of a recent upsurge of interest in antique roses. We know from personal experience and from letters and comments of many repeat customers that there is no way one can begin to appreciate the versatility of thses roses until after a few seasons of working with them. Nothing we say here will substitute for the benefits of hands-on experience. But we hope to answer enough questions (see our FAQs) and generate enough enthusiasm to launch you into the world of old roses with confidence. Be aware, however, that these are captivating plants, and once taken with them you're likely to never be the same.
Roses currently in your shopping cart: To view any rose in your cart click on the image or name. To change the items in your cart click here
There are no item in your cart | <urn:uuid:a92c9898-58f9-4b42-9c47-7dd1d60192b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com/aboutus.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972382 | 651 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The Short List For U.S. Chief Technology Officer
Business Week quotes Professor Lawrence Lessig in an article that short-lists several Chief Technology Officers who might serve under Barack Obama. Lessig comments on how he envisions an interaction between the CTO and the FCC:
One who does not foresee conflict between a CTO and the FCC, whose charge is mostly regulatory, is Lawrence Lessig, a noted scholar on law in the digital age and the founder of Stanford University's Center for Internet and Society. Lessig says he sees the positions as "orthogonal"—or perpendicular—to one another. "That said, I do think the CTO could be a critically important position, from deciding how to make government more efficient and transparent through technology, to helping advance public policy questions like those surrounding global warming." Lessig, who would certainly be considered a candidate for the job of CTO, says he has not been approached by anyone on Obama's staff and adds that he would not be interested. | <urn:uuid:ab4ca180-f219-48cc-ab3e-1e6fb20e2944> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.law.stanford.edu/news/the-short-list-for-us-chief-technology-officer | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962356 | 203 | 1.664063 | 2 |
As a media psychologist interested in the role of media in conflict, I can’t pass up the chance to be in Beijing during the Olympics. I head out tomorrow, now that I have my visa in hand, and will report from the frontlines during the coming week. I don’t look forward to the crush of [...]
Mass media helps make a nation real and tangible through depictions of images, symbols, and events. Information from within China, which had been cut off during the Mao regime from 1949-1976, is more open but still subject to government censorship. Without adequate or accurate sources, western media creates and disperses images of China based on [...]
Interesting article about the growth of television in India in the NY Times In India, the Golden Age of Television Is Now talking about the booming growth of the television industry including new content that is being developed in response to the increased demand. There is also a video of the story that has brief [...]
I am part of a research team looking at the current definition and understanding of media psychology. This is the write-up submitted to APA Division 46 (Media Psychology) explaining the research project on Media Psychology awareness in hopes of generating a better response rate to the survey. Anyone, however, can take it by going to: [...]
Saturday morning–it was time to begin the journey home. At 7 am, a young translator named Cocoa came to the hotel (which is some distance from the university) to personally deliver a packet of informational brochures from Mrs. Cao about the English Teaching program. | <urn:uuid:07d00c30-e90a-4e9b-80e4-d68b29831b0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://athinklab.com/tag/global-perspective/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965399 | 317 | 1.765625 | 2 |
By Jamie Crawford
With a new package of sanctions passed by Congress along with an executive order signed by President Barack Obama earlier this week, the United States is further tightening the screws on Iran amid persistent tension and concern over its nuclear program.
Congress passed legislation Wednesday evening that along with the White House's action "closes loopholes and stops the use of front companies or financial institutions to get around international sanctions," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said in a statement released after its passage.
The new legislation aims to sanction banks, insurance companies and shippers that help Iran sell its oil by circumventing current sanctions, such as through the reflagging of Iranian ships. It puts virtually all of Iran's energy, financial and transportation sectors under U.S. sanctions.
In addition, the legislation seeks to prevent the return to Iran of any revenue from the purchase of Iranian oil that is legally allowed under existing sanctions.
"The bill sends a clear message to the Iranian regime that the U.S. is committed, through the use of sanctions, to preventing Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement.
The legislation passed by unanimous consent in the Senate following a vote of 421-6 in the House. It passed the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that the time to apply diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran, and persuade it to negotiate seriously over its nuclear program, was running out.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, announced its support of the legislation after its passage. "The maximum economic pressure must be exerted to persuade Tehran to change course," the group said in a written statement.
On Tuesday, the president signed an executive order against the Iranian energy and petrochemical sectors, seeking to prevent the establishment of payment mechanisms that could work around existing sanctions aimed at the Iranian energy sector that Obama signed into law earlier this year.
The United States, along with the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, engaged in discussions with Iran earlier this year about a program many Western countries fear has a clandestine military dimension to it. Iran claims the program is only for medical and energy purposes.
Those talks have produced little tangible progress, and the status of future talks is uncertain.
The United States has already granted exceptions to current sanctions to all major importers of Iranian oil based on evidence that those countries had significantly reduced their purchases. Countries granted exceptions must demonstrate every 180 days their continued reduction of such purchases in order to avoid the trigger of U.S. sanctions.
The Treasury Department also announced sanctions this week against Chinese and Iraqi banks that "facilitated transactions worth millions of dollars" for Iranian banks already under sanctions.
The actions by the administration and Congress "work very well together," according to Mark Dubowitz, an expert on Iran sanctions with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. By further restricting energy trade through Obama's executive order, "the legislation essentially kicks in by giving the president the authority to go after, really, any entity who is aiding and abetting Iran" through the purchase of its oil by working around existing sanctions Dubowitz said.
This week's actions come amid charges by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that the administration is not doing enough to force Iran to change course on its disputed nuclear program.
In a conference call with reporters this week, Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security advisor for strategic communications, said he had not seen anything in regard to Romney's rhetoric on sanctions that differed much from the administration's approach.
"We have thrown the book at the Iranian government in terms of leaving no stone unturned in the sanctions regime," Rhodes said. "And we are determined and committed to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."
Still, those like Dubowitz who follow the sanctions closely say more action can be taken to affect the Iranian calculus in regard to the West's demands that it come clean on its nuclear ambitions.
Dubowitz said action could be taken against purchasers of natural gas from Iran, which has the world's second largest reserves of that commodity, and there could be a complete designation of Iran's central bank as a zone of proliferation concern. That move would bar every financial transaction with the bank, with the exception of humanitarian goods, thereby setting up a de-facto trade embargo of the country.
"On the sanctions dial from zero to 10," Dubowitz said, "we are at seven or seven and a half. We need to get to 10."
The legislation now heads to the White House for Obama's signature. | <urn:uuid:fbbfda34-d9e5-47d7-a487-310273ab3609> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/02/congress-white-house-ramp-up-iranian-pressure/?hpt=wo_c2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959428 | 956 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
What's the shortest possible path from project initiation to completion? You might say it depends on the size of the project or the work involved. But there's always a shorter path than the one you have in mind -- even for larger projects. There's always a solution that makes better use of resources while providing faster delivery times. It's like when you play Scrabble ® and come up with a word combination that uses the fewest letters and still gives you the highest point value. Say you walked into a job interview, for example, and you were hired on the spot.
My project team and I had embarked on a massive renovation to our company's main movie theater. It was one of the largest projects we'd done to date. And it was one of those "your job is on the line if something goes wrong" type of projects.
What makes projects move and people excel? In my opinion, there are three characteristics that are consistently found in great project practitioners: 1.
Project requirements derive from concrete business needs or business-use cases and constitute the foundation for the project work. Without requirements, projects cannot exist. Incomplete and unclear requirements may result in project failure. Moreover a significant part of project rework is attributable to problems with the project requirements. On the other hand, requirements that are clear, complete and understood by all the parties are of "high quality."
Have you ever thought that as a project or program manager, you indirectly set a precedent on managerial style, behavior, competencies and professionalism. Unconsciously, we are showing our team members how to manage crises, deal with stakeholders and so on. There are many ways that we can unknowingly coach our team members. When dealing with stakeholders, for example, project managers have the authority to set limits and control the discussion to stay on the subject. To be able to do this, we need to know the business process at both a high level and in terms of the customer's business goals. In dealing with stakeholders, we indirectly coach our project team members to do the following things:
Project teams are built of people with multiple layers of skills and competencies. A few will be selected as project leads to have less responsibility than a project manager, but more than a team member. Project leads ensure smooth task management and reporting flow, but how many of them are allowed or trusted to make decisions?
Effective project management governance is becoming an important topic at all levels of many organizations. Project governance focuses on making sure the whole of an organization's project management system is effectively supporting its strategy. Good governance requires that the governing board sets the strategy and provides direction -- and not become involved in the day-to-day management of the organization.
Project management has begun to play an increasingly important role in organizations. Projects are identified to continuously improve the existing business performance and to prepare for the future per organizational strategy. Unfortunately, many of those projects fail. It's my belief that if you approach a project with management, leadership and entrepreneurial mindsets, the success rate of projects will improve.
Solid project planning is a prerequisite for project success. Poor planning, meanwhile, can lead to missed deadlines, budget overruns, poor quality deliverables, frustrated project teams and even project failure. In my previous post, I offered five steps to assist in planning the project-planning phase . One of those steps involved preparing planning documents.
In order to survive, project-driven organizations must compete on many levels. Delivering on time, to cost and with quality is always important -- but so is the interaction and customer experience they provide during the project. Project-driven organizations must consider customer satisfaction as a critical success factor.
Project managers are tasked with many simultaneous responsibilities. They manage and drive the delivery of a project while managing their team to deliver results according to the business expectations, on time and on budget. It's no small feat when this is accomplished seamlessly.
Can someone please help me understand the hype surrounding crowdsourcing? I understand the premise: Tasks are essentially outsourced to a large group of people through a call to action. (For more, see "The In Crowd" in the June 2009 PM Network ® .) This seems like a project manager's worst nightmare. The requirements and quality management alone must be a huge undertaking: How do you ensure a team of people who aren't getting paid remain focused enough to see your project through to completion?
Do you assign yourself a task that's actually framed as an expected result? For example, creating or updating a report is a task, while producing a report is a result of that activity. Or, performing a troubleshooting session is a task; solving a problem is an expected result. Language impacts how we work and what we accomplish.
One of the biggest challenges faced by all sectors of the project management profession is persuading senior executives to focus on implementing effective project governance. Governance is a "top-down" process. Most of the risks and rewards associated with a project or program are determined long before the project manager is appointed. Effective project management delivers a realistic and achievable outcome efficiently. If the parameters for the project are unrealistic in the first place, the best project management can do is stop the situation from deteriorating further. Failure is guaranteed.
Fellow blogger V. Srivinasa Rao recently wrote an interesting post about the Global Distribution Model 2.0 that is launching soon. The model holds a lot of promise and is a great framework for implementing mobile global communications tools. Today, the fastest rising communications and computing technology is mobile. | <urn:uuid:9e6f22c5-4e82-44ea-9174-64f8638670bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pearltrees.com/naujobs/project-management/id3521235 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953399 | 1,131 | 1.78125 | 2 |
You’ve got daytime potty training cracked, now here are some ideas for a dry night
Follow our reassuring do’s and don’ts and you’ll be on the road to getting your little one dry at night. Whether this is your first dry-at-night attempt or your ninth and counting, we’ve got the answers to help minimise those midnight mishaps…
There’s no ‘right’ age to start putting your child in pants at night. While you should wait until your little one is dry in the day, for some children it can take months or even years to master night-time dryness, so don’t take away bedtime nappies until you feel your child is really ready. Also, boys are often slower than girls.
“Some children can be school age before they achieve this milestone so don’t panic,” says Dr Olwen Wilson, consultant child psychologist at the Royal Surrey County Hospital.
“Before you begin, your little one does need to be dry during the day,” says Maggie Fisher of the Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association. “But if you start and find your toddler is soaked every morning, wait until she is getting drier nappies before you start again.”
It can also help to involve your tot in the decision. “When Hollie’s nappies were dry 50% of the time we asked her if she wanted to go without them in the night,” says Lisa, 28, mum to Hollie, 3, and Sam, 9 months.
“If there’s an accident, ignore the wet bed and instead focus on the positive,” advises Maggie.
“Praise works much better than punishment,” says Olwen. “Unfortunately, people do use punishment and then argue that it works. Fear always works in the short term but it’s not good for a child’s emotional development.”
Some children can be school age before they achieve this milestone so don’t panic.
Olwen Wilson, consultant child psychologist at the Royal Surrey County Hospital
“If you have three dry nights in a row, things are working, but if there’s no progression there’s no hurry,” says Maggie.
“Hollie managed a couple of weeks and then regressed,” says Lisa. “So we put her back into night nappies for a month. She then asked to give them up herself and the second time it was successful. My advice is, if it doesn’t work, stop for a while and then try again later on.”
There’s no need to be afraid – just take that nappy off for the first time. “If you keep putting a nappy on that means it’s OK to use it,” says Olwen. You need to be brave and leap right off that peeing precipice.
“Lifting your toddler for a late-night wee can help her to stay dry,” says Olwen. “But research shows that cutting down her fluid intake makes no difference.”
“I have a waterproof sheet protector that’s been a godsend,” says Cassandra, 36, mum to Sophie, 3. “I also keep a potty next to Sophie’s bed and I make sure she knows where it is.”
“It can be several weeks before there are dry nappies in the morning, but persevere and it starts happening,” encourages Jenny, 27, mum to Harriett, 6, and Connie, 8 months.
Day one: “I’ve decided to go for it now because Grace’s night nappies are usually dry in the morning. We go shopping today and I let her choose her own knickers so she feels in control. She’s so excited about having her special night-time knickers, she can’t wait to put them on. Before bed, I give her a small drink and get her to go to the toilet. Then, while she’s busy playing with toys, I make her bed up with some towels underneath the sheet.”
Day two: “Grace sleeps through and wakes up dry! I feel so incredibly proud and make a big fuss of her in the morning but then don’t mention it too much after that. I don’t want her to be disappointed if she doesn’t stay dry tonight. We go out shopping and I buy her a toy as a reward. At bedtime we follow the same routine and she fetches her night-time knickers saying, ‘These are what I wear for bedtime.’”
Day three: “Grace sleeps through again and is dry in the morning. I feel incredibly positive but quite prepared that things may go wrong.”
Day four: “Grace wakes me in the night as she wants to go to the toilet. She’s dry again in the morning.”
Day five: “Success again! Grace is really proud of herself too, and I think being dry at night makes her feel more grown up. I haven’t noticed too much of a saving yet as she’s keen to buy more knickers whenever we go shopping.”
Martha, 32, mum to Grace, 3
© Immediate Media Company Ltd 2012. This website is owned and published by Immediate Media Company Limited. www.immediatemedia.co.uk | <urn:uuid:e5794564-23b7-4448-9aa3-048c6916924a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.madeformums.com/potty-training/getting-dry-at-night/163.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953577 | 1,193 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Surprisingly, their "post kill-rate", apparently a measure of spam, dropped by a factor of two as well.
From Blake's post:
Back on December 12th, we released a site redesign that included user forums on each of our news pages .... One month after launch, we were still under 200 posts a day.If the intent is to control spam, requiring registration may do more harm than good.
Could we take the registration down? Of course the volume would go up, but what would happen to the quality of the posts? ... Was this going to double or triple the amount of spam and profanity we needed to parse through? Would an army of trolls invade and set up a siege?
Since removing registration, our volume has exploded and just this morning we just passed a quarter-of-a-million aggregate posts on our system.
And the quality of posts? To our surprise, our post kill-rate has actually dropped -- hovering below 2%. This is less than half of the number incurred when registration was in place.
We think it's the "Ni-chan paradox" .... Registration keeps out good posters ... Registration lets in bad posters ... Registration attracts trolls ... Anonymity counters vanity.
Slashdot is another great example. Slashdot allows anonymous posts in their forums. To control spam and surface good posts, Slashdot relies on user moderation.
It might be possible to extend this lesson to other areas. For example, many newspapers require registration, repelling many visitors.
Mandatory registration at newspapers has been a heated topic of debate. Here is a sample of some of it: .
Some newspapers, most recently the Houston Chronicle and Toronto Star, decided to eliminate mandatory registration, citing their desire to improve usability and increase traffic as the major factors in their decision.
Eliminating registration does not mean giving up on targeting advertising and content. Findory, for example, does not require registration, but still helps readers find relevant content and advertising by carefully paying attention to which news stories interested each person. | <urn:uuid:e7047142-b016-4238-ab82-299d6ed37d44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://glinden.blogspot.com/2006/03/removing-registration-and-topixnet.html?showComment=1285261591212 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948248 | 422 | 1.601563 | 2 |
One Eventful Weekend…
This is one eventful weekend! We have the start of Black History Month, Groundhog Day, the Super Bowl, and to top it all off, the first weekend of Jewish Disability Awareness Month. How will we possibly survive all the excitement? What were they thinking when they planned all of this for just a few short days?
Luckily, Jewish Disability Awareness Month gets to spread the love all month long. And, lucky for you, I’ll choose not to overload you today with a blog post packed with 4 events, but just focus instead on one (can you guess which?).
If you haven’t heard already (and, come on, what kind of email lists are you on if you haven’t heard this yet), today marks the first day of Jewish Disability Awareness Month. Go on out and celebrate! We here at the RAC sure are (but that’s probably because there’s also a staff birthday today…) Seriously, though, this is a great month. When else do you have an excuse to just learn about disability rights for 28 days straight? Um, never. And there is so much to learn.
Please allow me to point you to just a few places where you can begin your journey toward knowledge.
- The Jewish Disability Awareness Month Facebook page – If you’re not already a fan of them, do it right now. After the literally two clicks it takes to do so, you’ll have set yourself up for a month of learning, even if all you do for the rest of February is check your Facebook feed. Also, they’re really close to chai times 100 fans, so help ‘em out!
- The RAC’s Disability Rights page – Here you’ll find a wealth of Jewish texts relating to disability rights, a quick update on history and statistics, links to other useful pages, and much more.
- The URJ’s Disabilities Resources page – Included here are some quick and some not-so-quick ways to make your congregation more inclusive, programs that you can run with your youth groups and adult education classes, pieces to incorporate into Shabbat services, and even a few videos.
- Sign up to attend Jewish Disability Advocacy Day on February 12 – Jewish Disability Advocacy Day is a chance for Hill staff and community activists—like you—to learn about the most pressing issues facing the disability community today, what you can do to take action, and then actually take that action in the afternoon!
Or, if you refuse to learn from any sources other than RACblog, you can check back here all month long, and we’ll have posts about all sorts of current headlines in the disability rights arena—some you’ll have heard of and some will be new.
So, take a breath, I know you’ll be able to get through this weekend. I wish I could say it will calm down this month, but Jewish Disability Awareness Month has some surprises in store for you! | <urn:uuid:49338245-f087-4015-94b8-bbf8e2b14a68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.rj.org/rac/2013/02/01/one-eventful-weekend/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rjblog+%28RJ+Blog%29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936452 | 629 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The Conservative government has ordered Correctional Services Canada to halt all medical coverage for gender reassignment surgery. The change took effect immediately, on Friday, November 19th.
"The courts have ruled that CSC must provide essential medical services to inmates. However, we do not believe that sex change surgery is an essential medical service or that Canadian taxpayers should pay for sex change surgery for criminals," Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told QMI Agency.
Even so, regardless of what they may have been convicted of, inmates are entitled to essential medical treatment. A 2001 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision, backed up by a 2003 federal court ruling, required that GRS be considered essential medical treatment. So the Conservative government is in direct violation of what it has already been ordered to fund. The 2003 National Post article is no longer online, but is archived at Prisonjustice.ca:
Friday, February 07, 2003
OTTAWA - Canada's federal prisons will be forced to allow sex-change surgery for transsexual inmates as a result of a court ruling that concluded a blanket ban is discriminatory.
"If the medical opinion is that sex reassignment surgery is an essential service for a particular inmate, it follows that it should be paid for by Correctional Services Canada, as would any other essential medical service," wrote Madam Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson of the Federal Court of Canada.
Corrections Canada will revise its policy because of the decision, spokeswoman Michele Pilon-Santilli said.
But she warned that sex-change operations will not be available for all transsexual inmates.
The decision upholds a 2001 decision from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in the case of Synthia Kavanagh.
The tribunal said that it was discriminatory for prisons to have a blanket ban on sex-change operations but not on "non-essential" services such as the removal of tattoos.
The Corrections and Conditional Release Act requires prisons to provide essential health care to inmates.
The timing of this is curious, considering it coincides with a wave of religious right opposition to Bill C-389, which would extend equal rights to trans people. One has to wonder if the intent is to exploit Canadians' lack of sympathy for convicts in order to show off a faux worst case scenario of "we're going to have to pay for sex changes for murderers and rapists if we give them rights."
"CSC is legislatively mandated to provide every inmate with essential health care and reasonable access to non-essential mental health care that will contribute to the inmate's rehabilitation and successful reintegration into the community," said CSC spokeswoman Sara Parkes.
Of course, what could better facilitate a transsexual person's reintegration into the community than helping align their physical sex with their identity if they need it? Although we tend to think of the extreme of murderers and sex offenders when we think of inmates, the majority of those convicted are there because of a poverty issue or come from an environment of poverty that made it easy to slide into crime. I fail to see how releasing someone into society with an inevitable poverty issue (having to self-fund GRS) is going to help them avoid reoffending.
Currently, CSC houses inmates according to the genitalia they have. Amazingly, CSC fails to see how this might make someone particularly vulnerable to the problem of prison rape. One quarter to half of trans inmates are not taking hormone therapy or denied access to it.
For more information, see the earlier article, Why "Sex Change" Surgery is Medically Necessary. | <urn:uuid:b7ac5122-b930-442c-9639-f7963e3e1bb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bilerico.com/2010/11/canadian_government_halts_funding_of_grs_for_trans.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954673 | 719 | 1.554688 | 2 |
David McNew/Getty Images
A budtender pours marijuana from a jar at Perennial Holistic Wellness Center medical marijuana dispensary, which opened in 2006, on July 25, 2012 in Los Angeles, California.
Two separate groups sponsoring initiatives to regulate medical marijuana in Los Angeles have submitted signatures to qualify for the May ballot. A Los Angeles city clerk confirmed on Wednesday that the Medical Marijuana Collectives Initiative Ordinance, which would permit only the medical marijuana dispensaries that existed before the city’s 2007 moratorium, had over 41,000 signatures.
Major medical marijuana advocacy groups, including Americans for Safe Access and the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance, as well as the local arm of the powerful United Food and Commercial Workers’ Union, back the initiative. If passed, it would leave about 100 dispensaries open in Los Angeles. A separate initiative, the Regulation of Medical Marijuana for Safe Neighborhoods and Safe Access, sponsored by Angelenos for Safe Access, has submitted over 60,000 signatures and hopes to be qualified for the ballot as well. That initiative would provide for a tax increase on marijuana sales in addition to restrictions on dispensary locations to limit their proximity to schools. The L.A. City Council has struggled to regulate medical marijuana; it’s already considering adopting an ordinance that would allow most pot shops to stay open, but would increase regulations on their locations and operations.
Federal crackdown on Los Angeles marijuana dispensaries has increased in recent years – the local U.S. Attorney has issued over 70 cease and desist orders. But that may change: public views on marijuana regulations and restrictions are in flux, and President Obama recently stood up for state marijuana regulations.
During the November election, Colorado and Washington both passed measures legalizing recreational marijuana. Is California on its way to looser marijuana laws? How should Los Angeles regulate medical marijuana? With two competing measures on the May ballot, how will Angelenos cast their votes?
Don Duncan, Southern California coordinator for Americans for Safe Access and spokesperson for The Committee to Protect Patients and Neighborhoods, sponsors of the Medical Marijuana Collectives Initiative Ordinance
Aaron Green, spokesperson for Angelenos for Safe Access, sponsors of the Regulation of Medical Marijuana for Safe Neighborhoods and Safe Access
Alice Walton, KPCC Reporter
Correction: An earlier version of this post erroneously stated that both measures had qualified for the ballot. A second initiative is currently under review by the City Clerk. | <urn:uuid:47b7ff50-874a-478c-93a3-6c1477962343> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2013/01/03/29939/two-new-pot-shop-referenda-coming-on-la-ballot/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944125 | 490 | 1.625 | 2 |
Our group attends about 500 births a year. Our practice’s primary cesarean section rate (women having their first cesarean section) has been 7-10% in the last several years. Our total c-section rate runs about 12%. (This compares to a local and national average of somewhat more than 30%.) We are convinced that we accomplish this remarkable outcome through providing individualized, supportive patient care during labor. It does not put our babies at risk. Our practice statistics for indicators like Special Care Nursery admissions or low Apgar scores are the same as or better than the hospital averages.
Women who wish to attempt a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean section) find good support from our practice. In 2010, eleven women chose to VBAC with us and ten of these ladies were successful. In 2009 the success rate was similar, eight out of nine women were able to have a vaginal birth.
Some additional statistics about our group that you might be interested in:
- Episiotomy rate is less than 2%
- Epidural rate is less than 50%
- Infants with 5 minute apgar score of less than 7 rate is 0.3-2%
- Preterm birth rate is 2-5%
- Low birth weight babies (less than 5.5lbs) rate is 4%
- Induction rate on average is about 16%
To make an appointment with URMC Midwifery Group, call (585) 275-7892. | <urn:uuid:70632aab-cf83-4868-ab58-ac8e69345d4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/ob-gyn/midwifery/outcomes.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958335 | 317 | 1.625 | 2 |
If you follow my delicious bookmarks at all, you will have noticed that I’ve developed a bit of a macabre fascination with articles about the events that have come to be known as America’s Current Financial Crisis. Here’s the full list of those that I’ve considered significant for one reason or another over the past few days. They’re in no order, at this point, as I’m in a bit of an “information gathering” phase, reading through all these articles repeatedly to try and tease out the unifying threads.
I’ve quoted what I thought was a critical or key point in each article, though I change my mind as all this churns around in my head. As a teaser, you might pay particular attention to the articles from Open Secrets — that is, The Center for Responsive Politics — which will figure prominently in what I have to say. Open Secrets provides a look at the intersection of economics and politics that, as far as I know, is unlike any you’ll find anywhere else on the web.
- Bloomberg.com: Worldwide – “The market storm that brought down Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., American International Group Inc. and other pillars of U.S. finance may have also blown holes in the portfolios of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator John Kerry and more than 50 other members of Congress…. Altogether, 56 senators and representatives had stakes in AIG, Lehman, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns Cos. or IndyMac Bancorp Inc. — some of the biggest casualties of the market bloodbath — according to the Center for Responsive Politics….”
- Abroad, Bailout Is Seen as a Free Market Detour – NYTimes.com – “Is the United States no longer the global beacon of unfettered, free-market capitalism? In extending a last-minute $85 billion lifeline to American International Group, the troubled insurer, Washington has not only turned away from decades of rhetoric about the virtues of the free market and the dangers of government intervention, but it has also probably undercut future American efforts to promote such policies abroad…. ‘I fear the government has passed the point of no return,’ said Ron Chernow, a leading American financial historian. ‘We have the irony of a free-market administration doing things that the most liberal Democratic administration would never have been doing in it’s wildest dreams.’”
- Organic Market – Forbes.com – “The consensus is that Something Must Be Done to rein in financial markets. This consensus is part of a general theme among some pundits and economists that it’s time to give up the naïve faith that markets can solve every problem. We are told that markets have failed…. Yet much of the current chaos is the result of attempts to steer or control markets rather than let them be. Much of the chaos is the result of political failure.”
- Free Market To The Rescue – Forbes.com – “Although market ideas are today taking something of a beating, nothing like the 1930s fervor for central planning is in the air. For this reason alone, I am optimistic that we are not on the verge of a second Great Depression….. But in this optimistic account there’s a warning. If our confidence in free markets does come to be overwhelmed by a renewed, if utterly baseless, confidence in the central direction of the economy, then our economic prospects will once again truly be in a great depression.”
- Optimism Quickly Fading – “To ban short-selling of stocks is to short-circuit an important mechanism through which people share their knowledge and expectations with others. Banning a mechanism that better allows share prices to reflect the expectation that the underlying assets are not worth as much as current market prices suggest does nothing to change the underlying reality. Such a ban merely distorts knowledge of this reality.”
- SEC bans short-selling – Yahoo! News – “The Securities and Exchange Commission took the dramatic step early Friday of temporarily banning the routine practice of betting against company stocks…. The move, announced on the agency’s Web site, may well be unprecedented and a reflection of regulators’ concern about the widening scope of the financial crisis as entreaties come from all quarters to stem a swarm of short-selling.”
- Vast Bailout by U.S. Proposed in Bid to Stem Financial Crisis – NYTimes.com – “The head of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve began discussions on Thursday with Congressional leaders on what could become the biggest bailout in United States history….”
- Regulating away improvement – “The bailouts are getting bigger. The rescue of US mortgage giants Freddie-Mac and Fannie-Mae is hailed as the largest bailout in history. On our side of the Atlantic we saw the similar, but smaller, rescue of Northern Rock. All of these have common features. The companies concerned were nationalized, and their losses are now underwritten by taxpayers. Between them their rescues have engendered a culture of bailout,which says that the public has to be protected at all costs from the consequences of failure. It is almost as if there has been a collective loss of faith in capitalism and in its ability to take failures in its stride.”
- The Austrian Economists: Who Can Fix This? – “Government is NOT a corrective. More often than not, it is the source (as in this case) of our economic difficulties. No bailouts, eliminate regulations, certainly no nationalizations, no priming of the pump with easy money, just allow firms to be weeded out that made imprudent decisions, allow capital to be reallocated, and permit prices to adjust to the new market realities.”
- Economic View – Too Few Regulations? No, Just Ineffective Ones – NYTimes.com – “There is a misconception that President Bush’s years in office have been characterized by a hands-off approach to regulation. In large part, this myth stems from the rhetoric of the president and his appointees, who have emphasized the costly burdens that regulation places on business…. But the reality has been very different: continuing heavy regulation, with a growing loss of accountability and effectiveness. That’s dysfunctional governance, not laissez-faire…. In the meantime, if you hear a call for more regulation, without a clear explanation of why regulation failed in the past, beware. The odds are that we’ll get additional regulation but with even less accountability and even less focus on solving our very real economic problems.”
- OpenSecrets | Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Bailed Out After Buying In – Capital Eye – “As economists and analysts try to sort out how giant mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ended up needing to be bailed out by the federal government this past weekend, here at CRP we can see part of the picture of why that solution won out over others. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are prolific political players, pouring millions of dollars into campaign contributions and lobbying, efforts that have resulted in keeping the two companies afloat as more Americans have defaulted on their mortgages.”
- Commentary: How to prevent the next Wall Street crisis – CNN.com – The author writes about several causes of the current U.S. financial crisis, concluding with: “The coup d’grace was the Iraq War, which contributed to soaring oil prices. Money that used to be spent on American goods now got diverted abroad. The Fed took seriously its responsibility to keep the economy going…. It did this by replacing the tech bubble with a new bubble, a housing bubble. Household savings plummeted to zero, to the lowest level since the Great Depression. It managed to sustain the economy, but the way it did it was shortsighted: America was living on borrowed money and borrowed time.”
- How Paulson Would Save Fannie Mae – WSJ.com – “Recent statements by Barney Frank (D., Mass.), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), a powerful member of the Senate Banking Committee, make clear that Congress will never let them be privatized, broken up, slimmed down, nationalized or any of the other options hopeful reformers are putting forth today. Fannie and Freddie in their current form are just what Congress wants: an inexhaustible source of campaign contributions and funds for favored groups.”
- OpenSecrets | Wall Street Shake-up Connects to Washington Through Contributions, Personal Investments – Capital Eye – “Wall Street’s grim news has plenty of people worried about their pocketbooks. Lawmakers are among them, not only concerned with how to boost the economy but with their own personal finances tied to companies that are struggling. The richest members of Congress seem to be the most invested in the companies at the center of the Wall Street shake-up…. Of all of the companies facing major transitions, lawmakers owned the most stock in American International Group (AIG), the nation’s largest insurer, which has asked the Federal Reserve for emergency funding as it faces financial hardships. Twenty-seven lawmakers owned stock in AIG last year, worth between $6.4 million and $20 million…..”
I’ll have more on all this shortly, with a longish-post (more like a small book) where I try to make some sense out of what I’ve read in these articles. Until then, as a thought for today, listen to the lyrics of this 1986 performance of “Is This the World We Created,” by Freddie Mercury and Queen.
- Is this the world we created?
We made it on or own.
Is this the world we devastated
Right to the bone.
If there’s a god up in the sky
What must he think of what we’ve done
To all that he created…. | <urn:uuid:f022665b-86e3-4a2f-a9b0-4562fa581911> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.afewgoodpens.com/blog/2008/09/20/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955247 | 2,072 | 1.539063 | 2 |
If the chicken breast halves in your market are larger than 4 oz., they will take longer to cook. Be sure to cook them long enough so that they are no longer pink in the centers and the juices run clear.
How to Safely Handle Raw Chicken
Always wash hands, preparation surfaces and utensils in hot, soapy water before and after contact with raw chicken. Dry hands and surfaces with a clean towel or paper towels. Take special care in washing worn cutting boards as there may be hard-to-clean grooves or cracks that can collect bacteria. | <urn:uuid:7f3285ea-e8aa-4539-b14a-ee60782e6243> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/Recipe-All-Ratings.aspx?recipe_id=75459&ct=1&pg=12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936998 | 115 | 1.835938 | 2 |
After years of struggling with your old, sluggish Windows PC, you've finally unwrapped a shiny new computer. Here's how to get started tweaking your settings, installing programs, and beefing up security to keep it running like a dream.
Before you do anything, there are a few things you'll want to set up first:
- Get to Know Windows 8: Chances are your new computer is running the latest version of Windows, so before you do anything else, it may be a good idea to get yourself acclimated. Read up on the newest features, learn how to get around with shortcuts, and dispel all those Windows 8 myths from the haters. If you want to, you can even bring back the Start menu and dig around some of its secret features.
- Install Microsoft Security Essentials: Let's not sugarcoat it: Because of its popularity, Windows is one of the more vulnerable operating systems, so before you do anything, you'll want to put a few security measures in place. Microsoft Security Essentials is still our favorite antivirus app; it's free, and it's more than good enough at catching malware. Head over to Microsoft's site, download the suite, and set it to auto-scan and auto-update so you can stop fussing with it and get on to the fun stuff. Note: If you're using Windows 8, you can skip this step, since Windows Defender is already installed on your system! All you need to do is set up a regular scan.
- Offload Your Computer's Bloat: Unless you built your computer yourself, it's likely the manufacturer's stuck some unsightly, unnecessary, bloated crapware on your computer that will do nothing but slow your computer down from the start. To get rid of it, download previously mentioned Revo Uninstaller and uninstall the software that shipped with your machine.
- Change Up Your Theme: Okay, so it's not entirely necessary to do this before anything else, but why stare at that bland Windows wallpaper when you could be watching a slideshow of different Ferraris as you set up the rest of your computer? Microsoft's got some great themes over at its site, and there are quite a few others floating around the net as well. Grab some of our favorite wallpapers from our Wallpaper Wednesday series, and if you want to take it even further, check out our guide to fully customizing your desktop and setting up an attractive, customized desktop HUD with Rainmeter. Once you've got your desktop looking awesome, it's time to get to know Windows intimately.
Install Some Killer Programs
Now that you're computer's secure, speedy, and looking awesome, it's time to install some great software. Here are a few places you can find our favorite Windows programs.
- Lifehacker Pack for Windows: Our List of the Best Free Windows Downloads: Looking for the best programs to keep you connected, get you organized, and amp up your productivity? Our annual Lifehacker Pack has a one-package installer for all our favorite Windows software.
- Superior Alternatives to Crappy Windows Software: Before you go downloading Adobe Reader, iTunes, and the other "default" programs that everyone uses, check out our list of alternatives to crappy Windows software. You might be surprised at what other options are out there.
- Most Popular Windows Downloads of 2012: Apart from our list of essential programs, there are also some really neat pieces of software we've featured over the past year. If you want to know the cool programs everyone's talking about, our 2012 list of the most popular Windows downloads and tweaks is the place to look.
- The 50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For: This Thanksgiving, you guys voted on the best free apps around. They're not all Windows downloads (though many are cross-platform), but it's a list to be reckoned with. So if you've still got a few holes after checking out the Pack and most popular, you're sure to find what you're looking for here.
- Don't Wait for Windows 8; These Five Programs Will Get You a Better Windows Now: Windows 8 is already here, but these five programs are still super relevant. If you really want a better experience on the Windows desktop, these five programs are well worth their cost.
- Top 10 Downloads That Enhance Windows' Built-In Tools: Windows has some nice built-in features, but sometimes they fall short of what us power users really want. Here are 10 downloads that beef up some of Windows' existing features, making them go from good to awesome.
Adjust Settings and Tweak Your System
Now that you've got the big stuff out of the way, it's time to start digging into the deeper recesses of your new Windows system.
- Get to Know Windows 7's Built-In Features Inside and Out: Windows 7 may not be the most recent version of Windows, but it's similar enough to Windows 8 that it's worth getting to know it inside out (along with the aforementioned Windows 8 guides). Check out our complete guide to Windows 7 to get the lowdown, and make sure to master Windows 7's shortcuts and explore its underhyped features as well. We've also looked deeply into Windows 7's jumplist, library, and taskbar, and system restore features, to if you want to be a true Windows ninja, you'll want to read up on those too.
- Set Up an Automated, Bulletproof File Back Up Solution: If you didn't have a backup before, there's no better time than now to get one set up. Never lose your documents, photos, music, and other files again. Set it up now, and forget it.
- De-Mystifying the Dark Corners of Windows: The Registry, DLLs, and More Explained: If you still aren't sure how some of the more technical parts of Windows work, there's never been a better time to learn. Check out this guide to see how the Registry, DLL files, drivers, and other features work—and how they can help you tweak and customize your new PC.
- Five Best Windows Tweaking Applications: If you just want to jump right in and start tweaking the heck out of your system, we've rounded up some of the best programs to help you do just that.
- De-Crapify Your Printer or Scanner Setup: If you've already installed your printer, chances are it's usurped your machine by installing loads of crapware and bloated apps. Check out our how-to for cleaning it up and freeing those resources.
- 7 Awesome Features You've Forgotten About in Windows 7: Again, whether you're using Windows 7 or Windows 8, there are probably a few awesome features you've forgotten were there. This guide will not only remind you, but show you some awesome tweaks you can perform to make them work even better. While you're at it, you should check out how to make Windows search a million times more useful with a few simple tweaks.
- Speed Up Your Computer's Boot Time: Even if you have a brand new machine, it may not be optimized for the fastest boot time. These are some of our favorite tips for speeding it up so you can get up and running in seconds.
- How to Run Windows, Mac, and Linux Side by Side and Pain-Free with VirtualBox: If you ever need to use software from other OSes (or just want to test other applications), you can run Windows, OS X, and Linux side by side without ever rebooting your computer. Of course, you could also dual-boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in perfect harmony.
- How to Break into a Windows PC (And Prevent it from Happening to You): It's unlikely you'll want to break into your shiny new Windows PC, but while you're tweaking your system, you may want to read up on how potential thieves will try to break in—and tweak your passwords accordingly.
- Tweak the Heck Out of Your Registry: The Windows Registry is one of the most mysterious, yet coolest features of Windows. With a bit of knowledge and some guts, you can tweak your computer to do nearly anything you want. Our Top 10 list has all the Windows Registry tweaks you could ever want.
- The Cleverest Geeky Windows Tricks Everyone Should Know: After you've become an expert on Windows' well-known features, delve into our guide about some of the best hidden Windows tricks to make getting around the OS much faster.
- Windows Maintenance Tips: The Good, Bad, and Useless: Now that you've got your system up and running, the last step is to make sure you keep it up and running (and running fast). We rounded up all the most popular Windows maintenance tips and showed you which ones really help (and hurt) your machine. For more Windows maintenance tips, you can check out our Ask Lifehacker on the subject, too. | <urn:uuid:33945ae8-ee07-4762-b745-ade89dddb9b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifehacker.com/5717628/set-up-and-get-to-know-your-new-windows-pc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931581 | 1,839 | 1.65625 | 2 |
with all that going on one may wonder whether we are still going to be buried in "We can't afford this" type of nonsense, and the answer is yes.
Recently, in a lengthy post about the NCAA basketball tournament, I noted that New York had cited fiscal difficulties in cutting $192,000,000 from social services while at the exact same time voting to spend $184,000,000 to give Donald Trump a golf course (no, I'm not even kind of making that up or exaggerating in any way) and even in the face of such nonsense as that, voters continue to buy into "we've got to cut spending" so much so that even Obama is touting spending reforms as part of his platform.
Let's be clear: Spending cuts cannot solve any deficit problem. Not in the long term. That is because 1/6 of our money is spent on defense, and 1/7 is spent on Medicare. Among other things. General government makes up less than 1/10 of total government spending, which means if you eliminated every single federal government employee up to and including Obama, you'd reduce our spending by about 10%.
Our tax rate, too, is the lowest it's ever ever ever been. Or at least since the 1920s. Same thing.
So the government takes a smaller percentage of people's money than it ever has, while people earn more than they ever have. There's really no other way to put that. Nowadays, our consumer spending averages about $5,000 per year on nonessentials. Look at all but the poorest people in the U.S. : they have cell phones and color TVs and cars, for the most part. This isn't a rant about how the poor aren't really the poor; this is a rant about how the rich are really really rich, and the middle class (while doing worse all the time) is pretty well off, too.
The latest example of how stupid we are about money -- cutting basic services and paying teachers next to nothing while rolling in discretionary funds -- is this:
What recession? Despite record unemployment, rising health care costs and sinking home values - Americans shelled out more than $10 billion on cosmetic surgery and other procedures last year.
The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery says there were almost 10 million surgical and non-surgical procedures done in the U.S. in 2009, that's down only two percent from the year before.
That was a 2010 article that I heard about recently. In 2009, in the worst economy anyone alive can remember, Americans spent $10,000,000,000 on cosmetic (elective, unnecessary, ineffective) surgery.
That was the a year after, remember, that Beverly Hills Chihuahua took in $29,400,465 on its opening weekend alone.
Two weeks ago, This American Life did an episode called What Kind Of Country, in which two segments focused on the fact that cutting government services drastically reduces not just quality of life, but safety. In one segment, a New Jersey city saw a rise in crime because they elected an incompetent mayor and laid off police officers. The cost of putting a sufficient number of new police officers on the streets? About $300 a year per household. Half the people said they wouldn't pay. Those people have cable TV, which costs about the same as the cops those people wanted but wouldn't pay for. Too bad cable TV can't keep you from having gutters stolen off your house in broad daylight.
Colorado Springs, meanwhile, voted down a tax increase and opted to privately fund streetlights, so that in poorer neighborhoods, people lived in the dark. USA! USA!
People are dumb. And by people I mean you. If you listen to a politician say "we need to cut spending" and nod in agreement, you're selfish and dumb. The next time a politician says "We need to cut spending," instead of silently listening or nodding, why not yell out "What if we just put a tax on unnecessary cosmetic procedures and then paid for cops to protect us using that money?" You'll make me proud, and the country better. | <urn:uuid:9f7ebc95-c69d-40ee-9fda-7bd56bc2b0d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nonsportsman.com/2012/03/plastic-surgery-gone-very-wrong-we-have.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976452 | 849 | 1.617188 | 2 |
By Richard Galpin
BBC News, Moscow
When President Putin leapt up onto the stage at the rally in his honour in Moscow on Wednesday, he set an important precedent.
President Putin is a major political asset for United Russia's campaign
Never before has a serving Russian president openly campaigned on behalf of a political party in parliamentary elections for which he himself has been nominated as a candidate.
It is a bizarre situation. He is not a member of United Russia and he may not even take up a seat in parliament because he is not due to step down as president until next spring.
The style of the rally was also unprecedented. The slick, bubble-gum choreography was taken directly from the American school of electioneering.
So why the need to put on such a glitzy show with the top man as star performer in between performances by boy-bands and girl-groups?
"Putin is annoyed by the fact that [the strategy] hasn't worked out as he'd been promised," says political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky.
"His decision to head the United Russia list [of parliamentary candidates] did not have the immediate effect of boosting United Russia's support to 70% as they had wanted."
Referendum on Putin
So getting President Putin up on stage in front of a crowd of 5,000 loyal supporters and more importantly in front of the cameras of state-run TV channels was an attempt to boost United Russia's popularity to the point where almost all opposition is eliminated.
Mr Putin wants to boost United Russia support to 70%
And that is crucial for President Putin himself.
Because as the United Russia party itself keeps saying, the parliamentary election on 2 December is primarily a referendum on Mr Putin and his policies after his eight years in power.
An overwhelming majority for United Russia along with a high voter turnout would, the argument goes, help the president remain in power after his second term in office comes to an end early next year.
Under the current constitution he cannot stand for a third term.
So a new leadership concept is now being put forward by his supporters.
"We want the continuation of the same foreign and domestic policies, we want him to stay in politics, we want him as our national leader," said Olga, a member of United Russia, as she sat surrounded by flags at Wednesday's rally.
It was a cry much repeated during the rally by the long list of celebrity speakers which included actors, journalists and even a fighter-pilot.
Many of President Putin's supporters at the rally were young
But while the concept is being trumpeted, the detail certainly is not.
Ask people to define what exactly they mean by "national leader" and the list of possible answers is endless, ranging from speaker of parliament to the head of one the giant state-run corporations or to simply being the power behind the throne without holding any official position.
Some analysts here believe even Mr Putin has not yet made up his mind up.
Likewise the power elites which lie behind him. It is a dilemma.
The only way he and his inner circle can be certain of retaining power is through a third presidential term.
But that would only be possible by changing the constitution and the word is that Mr Putin does not want to do that even though he is a genuinely popular leader.
According to analysts, the uncertainty is breeding nervousness among the political elite who fear the transfer of power, when it comes, may leave them out in the cold. | <urn:uuid:10cfc3b8-9e69-4eb7-8886-e032ee26ad9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7106497.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982522 | 714 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Herbs, Spices, and Salts
This collection of French seasonings includes many indispensable items on the French pantry shelf. If you keep these seasonings on hand, you'll always be ready to cook up something French.
French Sea SaltFrench sea salt is really something special. It has a wonderful melt in your mouth effect with no burning sensation. If you try it, you'll never want to go back to table salt. You can
French HerbsThe French use many different herbs, both dried and fresh, in their cooking. Many of these you are probably already familiar with: herbs such as oregano, rosemary, and thyme. Other herbs are a bit more unusual for many cooks, but nonetheless quite common in French cooking. You might like to consider trying some of these:
Special mention for herbes de Provence : There is one jar of in my kitchen that I buy in the jumbo size and that is herbes de Provence. This is a wonderful mix of different herbs that can go into just about anything. Even if you are missing the particular herb called for in a French recipe, you can most times quite satisfactorily substitute with an equivalent amount of this mix.
French SpicesIn general, traditional French food is not very spicy. This has to do with a desire to let the natural good taste of the food shine through and not cover it up with overwhelming flavors. The French do use spices to cook with, just in smaller quantities then what you may be used to. (Many people who visit France for a while find themselves craving something spicy, and many French people would respond that this is evidence that their taste buds have become lazy with too much over stimulation.) Return to
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You May Like | <urn:uuid:c8c62ff5-ece7-4021-8c2a-d6579d3ae639> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.easy-french-food.com/french-seasonings.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963516 | 384 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The above picture is of my waste set up. The three bags on the wall are made of cloth. I used cotton to make them, you can buy cloth laundry bags if you're not into sewing. If you do make your own, I suggest doubling up your seams.
These work well and they are washable. I have three, but your family may need up to five, depending on the rules of your nearest recycling center and your household habits. In my city, there are many recycling stations throughout, placed in parking lots that are free for public use. I have a trash service station two miles from my home that accepts all of my recyclables. The bags on the walls are for cardboard (like cereal or cracker boxes), plastic and metal. We save and reuse our glass containers, and office/news paper. The larger trash bin is for garbage, and the small is for compost. I have a good sized composter out back.
On our "trash day", which is any day we choose, we just grab up our four bags and put them in the car. We dump the recyclables into their allotted bins at the recycling center, and on our way home, we drop by the car wash. There, we will clean out any debris in the car, including our small bag of trash. Just so we're not being blatantly dishonest and "dumping" our trash, we take some time to vacuum out the car and wash it. Once a month or so, I wash the bags before hanging them back up.
That's pretty much the nuts and bolts, but this system would not work if we did not have a few very particular trash rules.
This really encompasses a lot. From being mindful of how items we purchase are packaged, and opting to buy items with less waste surrounding them - to not hauling home junk from a yard sale that we're not completely sure we would use. When you don't have the convenience of setting unwanted things out by the curb and having them hauled off, you become much more aware of that fact that everything you use will wind up being disposed of in some way. This can help your wallet as well as your wastefulness, as you tend to stop and consider how much you really "need" something before you buy it - and whether or not that need is worth the inconvenience of the disposal.
Don't create trash.
In my household, we forgo any items whose sole purpose is to become trash. Paper towels, napkins, baby wipes, disposable dishes, tissues, etc. The only exception is toilet paper. Instead, we opt for tea towels, bandannas (which are used as hankies and cloth napkins), cloth diapers and wipes, etc. And Swiffer? That's pretty much a swear word in my book. By using cloth items and simply washing them, we not only save on our amount of waste for our budget and the planet, but we never have to worry about running out.
If it's useful - in ANY way - it is not trash
This does not make us hoarders, see rule one. Those plastic yogurt containers? They make awesome reusable Dixie cups! And sour cream and dip bowls are perfect cereal bowls for little ones because they're so much harder to tip. Whenever we have an item to throw away, no matter how large or how small, we will take a few moments to give some creative thought to the matter. Can this be reused for another purpose than what it is typically used for? Can it be turned into something else with a few alterations? What can I do to avoid throwing this into the trash? Not only are we less wasteful because we are not throwing as much away, but we are saving money by needing to buy less. The bottom line is, we only send things to the landfill when we must.
Anything that biodegrades without leaving harmful byproducts goes into my handy dandy composter. If you don't have one, don't sweat it. They are so easy to make! You can use an old trash container, laundry hamper, or any kind of bin. You can even make an enclosure out of just about any kind of fencing materials. If you google it, you will find it.
Food is not trash
I pride myself on being a relatively calm person. However, you do not want to be at my house on a day when someone puts food (or my saved food containers) into the trash. Mainly, it stinks. If I am going to have but one bag for trash for the whole week and it sits in my kitchen from Monday to next Monday, then the spaghetti that was thrown away on Tuesday is going to reek up my entire house by Friday at the latest. And Daddy will not thank you for stinking up the car come trash day. Everything that goes into the trash or the recycling bins must be rinsed clean of any food or anything that will cause odor. So when it comes to food: Eat it. If it can't be eaten, compost it. If it can't be composted, it goes into that garbage disposal I spent over a hundred dollars for. If it can't go down there (this means animal bones and shrimp tales), it goes into the freezer to be used to make stock. Then it goes back into the freezer to be refrozen, and only then it will be taken out on trash day.
This may seem like a lot. Having to sort, rinse, think about and transport waste (not to mention washing boogery hankies and poopie diapers). But they say it only takes three weeks for a new practice to become a habit. My family and I do these things without giving them any thought. Which makes for odd moments when you're say, visiting a friends house and they ask you to throw away a plastic baggie that is COVERED in food and you find yourself trying not to argue with them about the fact that it needs rinsing first!
Ultimately, these changes can give back huge rewards. Your wallet, in that you're buying less by wasting less in the first place - the 60$ to 100$ per month that you are NOT paying the trash guys (sorry trash guys!) and the environmental impact you are having on so many levels. | <urn:uuid:21ba5f59-6252-4e24-ac1a-ed3777dd7cd6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theyareallofme.blogspot.com/2012/04/trash-rules.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96828 | 1,284 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Hardy silver sabal This silver-blue palm makes a wonderful and refreshing addition to the hot southern garden. For us it is the bluest of all the trunk palms. The southeastern Palm and Exotic Plant Society of Decatur Georgia reports Sabal uresana to be extremely cold hardy. Leaves look their best when given full sun and placed against black-green evergreens.
Notes and observations about this plant
- Absolutely no leaf damage whatsoever by Troy Hibbitts
- I have one of these in the ground that I purchased as a 3-gal plant in the fall of 2010. Jan/Feb of 2011, we had the coldest nights in 20+ years for our area (ca 13 degrees F) and this plant came through with absolutely no leaf damage whatsoever. (Posted on 10/9/12)
- Beautiful, cold hardy palm. by David Lyman
- We have had 4 of these in the ground for about 5 years in Southern NM. Record cold for 3 days in a row in early February (lowest night was 0). Only small amount of leaf burn on 2, the others were unaffected!! Beautiful, cold hardy palm. (Posted on 6/25/11)
- Note by Yucca Do Staff
- At shipping time these plants will be shipped with only one or two leaves left intact, because the record cold of Jan. 2010 burned many of the outer leaves. However these plants have a large and well established root ball and will flush new leaves rapidly once the season progresses. (Posted on 2/23/10) | <urn:uuid:9a932dbc-970b-4ab9-88c5-4556e5f49b2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yuccado.com/sabal-uresana.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957924 | 322 | 1.734375 | 2 |
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French and Malian troops entered the key town of Diabaly after Islamist rebels retreated from it last week.
French and Malian troops entered and seized the town of Diabaly on Monday, a key central town in Mali.
The town had been subject to airstrikes and fighting since the Islamist rebels seized it a week ago, but the French and Malian troops were able to enter without resistance, AFP noted.
The French military said it had only provided the troops with air support, according to CNN.
"This advance by Mali's army into towns held by their enemies is a certain military success for the government in Bamako and for French forces supporting the operations," French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement.
French officials said the Islamists were pushed into the forests beyond Diabaly, near Mauritania's border, and reported Malian forces had taken another area, Douentza.
Locals said the rebels fled Diabaly after French warplanes bombarded them last Thursday, according to the Guardian.
"We are truly really grateful to the French who came in the nick of time," Gaoussou Kone, 34, told the Associated Press. "Without the French, not only would there no longer be a Diabaly, there would soon no longer be a Mali. These people wanted to go all the way to Bamako."
Malian army officers warned that some of the population in Diabaly remains loyal to the Islamist rebels. One officer said the French and Malian troops have been told to remain on high alert.
Le Drian said the objective was to "totally conquer" Mali. He reportedly told a French TV channel, "We're not going to leave any pockets [of resistance]."
He said the French troops had to stop the progression of terrorist groups, hit their bases in the region of Gao and Timbuktu, guarantee security in Bamako and help Mali forces organize to retake all of Mali.
More on GlobalPost: Algeria: 37 foreign hostages dead, Algerian PM says
French President Francois Hollande said Monday his plan is to "hand over to AFISMA [African-led International Support Mission to Mali] as quickly as possible."
He added, "Until that happens, we shall do our duty, and our African friends understand exactly what that duty is." | <urn:uuid:d022bca2-efac-48df-af72-51c605eb7450> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/130121/diabaly-french-and-malian-troops-enter-key-central-town | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970389 | 487 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Considering that the majority of Buddhists in the world are not vegetarian, and that the Buddha ate meat when offered ..... is this a good idea ~ or will it be divisive?Gere backs vegetarian zone at site of enlightenmentBy Andrew Buncombe, NZ Hearld, Jan 9, 2010
DELHI, India -- Richard Gere the Hollywood actor who has spurned red meat for the past 30 years, has thrown his support behind a plan to transform the site of Buddha's enlightenment into a vegetarian zone to spread the message of peace.
The activist, who is taking part in a five-day training session with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader, in the Indian town of Bodhgaya, took part in a candlelit march this week highlighting the campaign. "Bodhgaya is a pious place and I want to come here again," the star of movies such as An Officer and a Gentleman and Pretty Woman told reporters, after joining around 500 monks and activists who took part in the march. "I am with the people who have launched this campaign."
According to Buddhist tradition, Bodhgaya, in the state of Bihar, is where Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment around 500BC. Starting in the 19th century, the area gradually become a site of pilgrimage and is now visited by Buddhists from all over the world, whose presence gives it a very different character from the rest of north India's impoverished "cow belt".
Since the Dalai Lama's flight into India from Tibet in 1959, Bodhgaya has become the winter pilgrimage destination for thousands of Tibetans who live in India, and is the site of a large Tibetan market. While not taking life is the first Buddhist precept, it is not essential to be vegetarian to be a Buddhist. The Dalai Lama himself sometimes eats meat while he is away from his purely vegetarian kitchen in Dharamsala. Indeed, because of the climate and the difficulty of obtaining fresh vegetables and alternative sources of protein, many Buddhists in Tibet are not vegetarian. Neither is Gere.
The plan to turn Bodhgaya into a vegetarian zone is the project of a group called Tibetans for a Vegetarian Society that believes doing so would help spread a message of peace. Speaking last night from Bodhgaya, the group's founder, Tenzin Kunga Luding, said Gere's participation in the event had been a morale booster for the activists. "We have been calling for this since 2006 and slowly the campaign is building up," said Mr Luding. "He really was very supportive and very good to us. It has helped the cause a lot."
Mr Luding, born in India, was himself a meat-eater until the age of around 10, when he discovered how animals were raised and then slaughtered. He said that in Tibet the climate worked against a vegetarian diet but he said turning Bodhgaya into a meat-free zone would send a powerful message to the world. "In such a sacred place as this, people come to promote peace and non-violence and I think that if you kill an animal here and then sell it, then the sanctity will be spoiled," he explained. "This most sacred land will act as a model for other places to emulate and will impart more positive influence for the well-being of all humans, animals and the environment."
With the encouragement of Gere's support, the campaigners have also launched a signature campaign near the Mahabodhi temple, the world heritage-listed building said to sit on the precise spot of the enlightenment. They will next submit a petition to Bihar's chief minister, Nitish Kumar, asking him to order the city be turned into a meat-free zone.http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php ... 44,0,0,1,0 | <urn:uuid:d1ca2ad7-614a-40ef-b3ea-1ad8000be63d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?p=47197 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97029 | 781 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Why write persuasively? The main reason - to get your reader to trust what you write. Some are for some reason, this kind-that motivated or a trick.Maybe someone will even call this post "instruction manipulation." I do not see anything wrong in order to be convincing. Need to convince someone not necessarily with the intent to deceive or desire something "vparit." We are interested in another aspect! You must be able to interest the reader , to be able to convey to him what he wants to hear. In the end, every blogger wants to be an authoritative source! So what is bought with the reader.
If your blog is dedicated to a particular topic. It would be natural to use professional language, because it describes the use you as a person qualified.
However, the effect can be negative - for example, if you do not know a question, this professional will be evident very quickly that you are an amateur. I remember at first I was very cautious in this regard - if in doubt, replaced the term or phrase in a more simple. In addition, an endless stream of professional terms, will scare the beginner, there is little that they will understand, therefore, all is good in moderation and to the point.
Facts and good examples
Bring facts. Since you can not argue with facts (if it is real evidence), they are convincing.
A good analogy is almost as fact. The fact can not, but the effect is produced similar. So always try to find examples in the subject, except when the conversation is already a commonplace things which do not require support with examples and analogies.
Vivid, picturesque detail
Rich in detail in the text works well. Details give the impression that you are "was seen, you know," when in fact he could not "be and be seen, as you know only by hearsay." This is not a technique of deception, fraud is not being. It is tasty talk about art. "Delicious," the text touches! If you are blogging about the schools, cooking, traveling, all articles must be very tightly seasoned pictures - then the visitors will become regular readers.
The opinion of authorities and their own experience
Reference to the authority are often instantly removes the questions about the loyalty of your position or opinion and is always a good argument.
The reader believes more to your personal experience and example than something abstract, so try to rely on personal experience. This is especially important when you write, for example, the earnings on the Internet and the like very specific things. It's one thing to read an article with some general overview, the other to see what the author really knows, and checked as says.
Straightforward application of the highest competence does not always looks nice and well, so it must be done wisely. For example, do not write anywhere that you have a super driver, it is better to mention in passing, "10 years ago when Schumacher came to me for advice ...". This advice must be understood correctly - just mention the fact that it was in fact, see item number 2 - Just the facts (at least the fact that no one can ever disprove)!
Experience, too, like bugs
Well, if sometimes in addition to positive experiences and achievements as you write about the failures and failures. It makes you look like a living thing, a real person, and the authority did not take away! The main thing with this is not too far :)
Drawings, diagrams, statistics
Charts, graphs, etc. work just magically. This is known by all those involved in presentations. Want something to sell - prepare more charts, graphs and drawings, they will do their job! Many webmasters, bloggers have attracted the attention of a very "sweet" in their earnings reports online. The larger the numbers, the more likely to interest the reader, although it should not get involved unnecessarily.
At this all seems. Use these techniques and you will believe as yourself. Just do not want anyone to cheat, as described above in order to "your truth" made the right impression. In order to get your facts are not lost in the gray boring paragraphs. Well, I think you understood me correctly! | <urn:uuid:2b0cb242-43dc-4ee4-968f-00fdd2f3fc72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbupdates.com/2012/05/how-to-write-posts-more-convincing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963757 | 860 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The races take place over four raucous days on the Isis (as the River Thames is known locally), when rowers' friends, parents and tutors head down to the river to cheer on their team. The stretch of riverside south of Christ Church Meadows is lined with the rowing houses of the colleges, where boats are stored before and after races. Each rowing house has a platform above the river where students, tutors and parents watch the races and sip endless glasses of Pimms.
Bumps racing is processional and is done in divisions of 18 boats at a time, each separated by one-and-a-half lengths. All the crews are started at the same time, usually by means of a cannon. The object is to catch and touch or """"bump"""" the crew in front, without being bumped by the crew behind. If one crew catches the one in front and bumps, the two crews pull into the side of the river whilst the others continue until they have crossed the finish line, or have been bumped/bump themselves. Getting all the way down the course without getting bumped is termed """"rowing-over"""".
|Wed 22 - Sat 25 May 2013|
|Notes||The course is upstream within the stretch from Iffley Lock to Folly Bridge.
Please confirm dates & times before travelling
Oxford, OX1 4LB
Map reference: SP 514055 Lat: 51.74584 Long: -1.25689
|Wed 27 - Sat 30 Nov 2013||Christ Church Regatta| | <urn:uuid:7a8a7fe4-f647-4d13-8fbb-90360da24751> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.visitoxfordandoxfordshire.com/thedms.aspx?dms=13&feature=1001&venue=2915649 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935662 | 322 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Whether they're annexed or form their own city, residents of the area of Franklin County known as the "doughnut hole" are about to have their lives changed.
The rural neighborhood filled with rambling homes and horse pastures won't be an unincorporated part of the county much longer.
Whether the doughnut hole becomes part of Pasco or a new city remains uncertain, but each side is digging in and fighting for its position -- Citizens for Lifestyle Preservation by turning in signatures on an incorporation petition, and Pasco by moving forward with public hearings to annex part of the doughnut hole despite a lawsuit trying to stop it.
On Friday, county auditors certified that the citizen group had the 268 registered voters it needs to put the measure to a vote.
For doughnut hole residents who oppose annexation, the issue is a quintessentially American one of independence, choice and property rights.
"This is an aggressive takeover of an area that doesn't want it," said Mark MacFarlan, one of the chief proponents of incorporating the doughnut hole as its own city.
But for Pasco city officials, it's a matter of need and efficiency.
City officials have said they can provide services more efficiently by annexing the area, which is an island of county land surrounded by the city.
The annexation would bring more money into the city's budget through property taxes from the doughnut hole, and by boosting the city's share of state gas taxes, liquor taxes and liquor profits -- money that's paid out based on population.
Regardless of which proposal wins, the doughnut hole's fate could have ripple effects throughout the Tri-Cities. The Herald is taking a look at the pros and cons of annexation and incorporation to give residents a glimpse at what shape the future might take for this part of Franklin County -- and the surrounding area.
The city began public discussions about annexation in July 2011, when the council opted to try negotiating an agreement with Franklin Fire District 3 and the Franklin County Commission on the details of annexing the area, which has been earmarked for future city growth since the '90s.
The doughnut hole area generally is south of Argent Road between Road 100 on the west and Road 44 to the east and Sylvester and Court streets to the south.
Hundreds of residents poured into several public meetings on the issue, many of them voicing concerns or fears that annexation would alter the rural character of the doughnut hole that attracted them to live there.
Primary among those concerns was that annexation would result in denser development -- more houses, closer together -- and that they wouldn't be able to keep the horse pastures and wide, open spaces that they love.
In May, a newly formed group called Citizens for Lifestyle Preservation announced plans to create its own city and began gathering petition signatures to take the incorporation proposal to a vote.
Franklin County commissioners then chose to stay out of annexation discussions to maintain neutrality on what had become a controversial issue.
With talks failing and the effort under way to incorporate a new city called Riverview, the Pasco City Council on June 18 voted 4-3 to go ahead with annexing a portion of the doughnut hole using powers of attorney agreeing to annexation that were signed by a number of doughnut hole residents when they became Pasco water customers.
City Manager Gary Crutchfield told the council at the time that they could make a pre-emptive strike against incorporation by pulling enough residents out of the potential new city and into Pasco to stop the new city from forming.
Riverview would need to have at least 3,000 residents to be eligible for an incorporation vote under state law. About 4,000 people live in the doughnut hole, but the annexation currently under way would absorb about 1,400 of those -- leaving fewer than 3,000 and killing incorporation efforts.
Mayor Matt Watkins, Mayor Pro Tem Rebecca Francik and Councilmen Saul Martinez and Mike Garrison voted in favor of initiating the annexation using the utility agreements.
Councilmen Al Yenney, Tom Larsen and Bob Hoffmann voted no.
In September, members of Citizens for Lifestyle Preservation sued in Franklin County Superior Court trying to stop the annexation.
The lawsuit claims that some of the utility agreements used to start the annexation were invalid because they weren't properly notarized.
A response filed by the city claims that it wasn't necessary to have the documents notarized anyway and that the people who filed the suit misread the state's annexation law. The city is asking the judge to dismiss the suit.
A hearing is set in the case Monday.
Doughnut hole residents took a step toward forming their own city Oct. 3 when they delivered an estimated 982 signatures to Franklin County Auditor Matt Beaton.
On Friday, Beaton's staff finished verifying the signatures to make sure each person who signed is a registered voter in the area and that the signature matches the registration.
Beaton will now notify the county commission to set a public hearing within 60 days.
If the county commissioners don't object, the incorporation measure then goes to a special election 60 days or more after the hearing, according to information from the auditor's office. It takes a simple majority to pass, but if fewer than 40 percent of voters are in favor, the measure can't be put on the ballot again for three years.
Separate elections have to be held for offices such as the mayor and city council members.
Proponents of incorporation have said that the new city won't have a city hall or city departments, but instead will contract with other jurisdictions or companies for typical municipal services such as police and fire protection, road maintenance, utilities and trash pick-up. Positions such as the mayor and city council members would be filled by volunteers.
They say that they're planning for the new city by looking at other examples of cities that have incorporated and then contracted for services.
Two of those proponents -- Roger Lenk and Jack Martincavage -- said they have experience working in contract cities like the one they're looking to form.
Martincavage previously lived in Lakewood, Calif., which became the nation's first contract city when it formed in 1954 as a way to avoid being annexed by nearby Long Beach.
He served as one of the city's public safety commissioners in the '70s and was one of the fire department's chief officers, he told the Herald.
"It's almost a blueprint of how to go about this," he said of Lakewood's history.
MacFarlan said he believes the new city would be in a position to negotiate better rates for some services than residents now pay.
What he believes is just as important as the details of how the new city would work, is that the new city would give its residents a chance to control their own destiny and preserve their property rights.
"We will be a truly representative city," he said. "You will know the people who represent you."
Meanwhile, despite the lawsuit, Pasco is proceeding with steps toward annexation with public hearings before the planning commission at 7 p.m. Thursday and the city council at 7 p.m. Oct. 29.
"We can keep moving forward. That's what the city intends to do," Crutchfield said. "If the court tells us we have to stop, we'll stop."
The Oct. 29 hearing theoretically is the last step before the council can take a final vote to annex the land. City officials said it's unlikely the council will make a decision the same night, but a vote could come before the end of the year depending on how the council decides to proceed.
The city recently completed a fact-finding process involving a committee made up of doughnut hole residents.
Crutchfield said the city sent letters to all of the property owners in the portion of the doughnut hole being annexed, which includes close to everything between Road 52 and Road 68 south of a Franklin County Irrigation District canal. There are about 500 homes in the area with a collective value of about $121 million.
The city received 20 applications, and selected 12 people to sit on the committee and evaluate a matrix comparing current conditions on a variety of issues -- such as taxes, fees, zoning, police and fire protection -- to those residents would experience in the city.
Applicants were asked whether they agreed with annexation, disagreed or were neutral or needed more information. Documents provided by the city indicate that of the 12 members, one person -- MacFarlan -- was against annexation. He also was the only person of the 20 who applied who indicated he opposed annexation.
Three members of the committee identified themselves as favoring annexation. The remaining eight members said on their applications that they're neutral or needed more information.
The document produced by the committee was published about a week ago and is available on the city's website.
The group plans a public meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Mark Twain Elementary School to answer questions about the comparison document.
MacFarlan told the Herald he thought committee participants overall did thoughtful work, but he expressed some skepticism about the city's screening process for selecting members.
"I think a lot of the individuals were sincere, but I think a large number were placed there by the city," he said.
And he said that while he believes most of the facts presented in the comparison document are accurate, he questions whether comparing city vs. county was the right question to ask from the start.
"The question isn't just, 'What are the taxes going to be?' " he said. "The question is, 'Will the quality of life be the same?' " | <urn:uuid:c8c4332c-d03e-493f-86d5-7d8480ba1eb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/10/14/2135000/circumstances-of-franklin-county.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973298 | 1,980 | 1.59375 | 2 |
- 1.17.11 - 9:00AM
- - by
- Cole Stryker
The Weird World of YouTube Response Videos
You know when you're watching a popular YouTube video, there's those videos in the sidebar titled "RE: The Video You're Currently Watching"? These are response videos, a feature YouTube created to allow users to create a simple video respose to an existing video.
And they're almost universally useless. Almost every response video I've come across looks like this:
Wow, I mean. I don't even know what to say about this. Watch this video. It's crazy! Can you even believe that happened? Yo man, watch the video for yourself and then tell me what you think in the comments. And uh, don't forget to subscribe.
And then that video gets 30k views, because people, after having viewed the original viral video, are so desperate to eat up as much related content as is available, happily click on these response videos. In sum, these videos are popular because humans are bored and stupid.
Take for example the recent Ted "Homeless Guy With The Golden Voice" Williams phenomenon, which might be the most rapidly expanding meme in the history of the internet. The super popular video generates responses like the following.
This first one is such a perfect example. A dumb teenager (all teens are dumb, chill out) in a dumb hat and a dumb bathrobe eats a dumb sandwich while recapping the most basic points from the Ted Williams video, that we all already knew about having watched the footage.
His commentary adds nothing to the story. It's not funny or thought-provoking. It's just there. And 3,000 people have watched it. Not a huge number in terms of YouTube traffic, but think about the fact that three thousand human beings watched this inane claptrap. Multiply this video by a couple million and you have a huge chunk of YouTube content devoted to stupid musings like this one.
He apologizes for eating his sandwich with, "You caught me at the wrong time," like it's live TV. Dude, you decided to make the YouTube video. You could have edited. RAGE.
Here's another. This one actually attempts to add an opinion. A stupid opinion, but at least it's a coherent thought.
Cool story, sis. This is the sort of sentiment that could have worked as just a basic video comment on the original video's page. Why create an entirely new video? No one wants to look at your face.
On to the next one, from Redneckpicker, a guy in a garage holding an energy drink.
He's actually got a few things to say, making him the cream of the crop in this content category. But still, why not just leave a comment rather than this super drawn-out video of you holding an energy drink?
Here's another. The guy offers the most basic assessment of the situation. "People make mistakes, but they deserve second chances." Cool platitude. *strokes chin*
Now here's a guy with a dream. "How cool would it be to hear [Ted] in an animated cartoon like a Nemo." What a neat idea.
Apparently he's some kind of internet marketing social media guru maven. You can always count on these vultures for some "value-added" contribution to the conversation.
The only reasonable use for these YouTube response videos that I can come up with is to have an actual intellectual debate, which sometimes does happen. People argue politics through response videos for instance, and while I'll never be interested, at least it's not this bottom-feeding parasitism that we see in the viral video space.
The problem is that creating an "um" filled video in your backyard demands so much more attention from me than a carefully crafted textual comment. Response videos are boring because they fail to capitalize on the medium's opportunities. Video is visual (duh), and your visual of you just standing there like a dope may as well be text.
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- No Articles Found | <urn:uuid:c22ee7ee-11da-4ccb-81e6-d8a18028c5a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.urlesque.com/2011/01/17/youtube-response-videos/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944957 | 851 | 1.585938 | 2 |
From the name of a Blue Peter cat to whether Jeremy Clarkson's voice can be used outside the corporation, the BBC has seen its fair share of scandals.
Now, just over a year after the death of Jimmy Savile, allegations of widespread abuse have emerged with the Met police saying the former BBC presenter could have abused 200 victims.
The BBC director general, George Entwistle was accused by MPs of failing to "get a grip" on the crisis after a Newsnight programme on the allegations was ditched.
In 2003 the broadcaster was plunged into crisis after the tragic events that led to the suicide of Dr David Kelly, who was named as a source for a report on the Today programme about the government's preparations for the Iraq war.
The corporation has also been hit with a number of bizarre scandals, including a storm over its Diamond Jubilee coverage which was branded "irreverant".
See below for a run-down of the 9 biggest scandals to hit the corporation.
A hoax report about a spaghetti tree was broadcast in 1957 on the BBC for April Fool's Day. However many believed the hoax, which was later described as "the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled."
The BBC had to apologise when security correspondent Frank Gardner revealed the Queen raised concerns about radical cleric Abu Hamza. "This is a conversation we had a little while ago and she did say that she had mentioned to - I don't know which Home Secretary it was at the time - that was there not some law he [Abu Hamza] had broken," he said.
Clarkson breaches BBC guidelines
Clarkson, who breached BBC guidelines by comparing a Japanese car to people with growths on their faces. The BBC apologised to the Mexican ambassador after Clarkson branded Mexicans "lazy", "feckless" and "flatulent" in 2011. Equally it had to pull out of a deal to produce sat navs with Clarkson's voice after it would find it breached guidelines.
Frank Bough was sacked by the BBC after he was linked to a sex and drugs scandal. Former news of the world deputy editor Paul Connew, said the scandal caused a sensation at the time, given Bough's public image as the squeaky clean frontman of breakfast and sports television."
Jonathan Ross million-pound BBC contract was not renewed after he and Russell Brand left a series of voice messages on actor Andrew Sachs' phone about how Brand had slept with the Fawlty Towers actor's grand daughter. In one call Ross called out "he f`***ked your granddaughter."
Richard Bacon was sacked by children's TV show Blue Peter in 1998 after allegations of drug taking
The Jubilee Coverage
The BBC received more than 2,400 complaints from the public about some of the live broadcasts during the national celebrations. It drew stinging criticism during the river pageant broadcast, with viewers attacking its "inane" commentary, camera angles and sound quality. Some people also singled out a sequence in Tuesday's coverage which saw Fearne Cotton and Paloma Faith discussing a Jubilee-themed sickbag.
Blue Peter cat
The BBC apologised after a poll to name the Blue Peter cat was rigged - with the feline being named Socks despite Cookie winning the online poll. Presenter Zoe Salmon said: "We'd like to say that we're sorry." (Cookie not pictured here)
Dr David Kelly killed himself after being named as the source for a BBC story about "sexing up" a government dossier on weapons of mass destruction. His death led to the resignation of BBC director general in 2004. | <urn:uuid:d08dc3db-0685-4fe6-b29c-d3cc6e63b919> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/23/bbc-scandal-david-kelly-blue-peter_n_2005186.html?1351002946 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976808 | 730 | 1.625 | 2 |
Schools should ditch books: New York City
- From: AAP
- January 17, 2013
NEW York students would ditch textbooks and be issued tablets under a proposal by a leading candidate for mayor.
Christine Quinn, the current city council speaker and a favorite to replace her ally Mayor Michael Bloomberg in November, said the technological upgrade would open "limitless" possibilities.
"Thanks to the Internet, teachers in any given subject can share lessons and materials with colleagues around the world. They can organise those lessons into online textbooks, which their students can read on tablets in school and at home," she said in a speech Tuesday.
"So a teacher in the Bronx can pull together the most relevant information for his class, and update it throughout the year to stay current. He can incorporate videos and interactive multimedia assignments that better engage kids living in a digital world."
According to Quinn, who is vying to be the Big Apple's first woman and lesbian mayor, the project would pay for itself.
"We currently spend more than a $100 million a year on textbooks. That's enough money to buy tablets for every student in New York City public schools, and cover staff costs," she said.
JUDGES will no longer be able to hand out suspended sentences to violent repeat offenders unless there are exceptional circumstances.
THE first "convincing evidence'' has emerged that petrol stations manipulate prices to maximise profits.
CORRUPT sports referees, dodgy players and suspect support staff could be exposed by a sophisticated new sports data tracking system.
PARENTS are rorting strict school zoning rules by registering parks and relatives' homes to trick their way into some of Adelaide's popular public schools. | <urn:uuid:50a3e516-36fb-48e4-82e9-d9ecef68661f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/breaking-news/schools-should-ditch-books-new-york-city/story-e6frea7u-1226555516207 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9587 | 345 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Khensur Thabkhey Rinpoche 1927 – 1999
Trashi Ge Phel Ling’s Founding Lama.
When Khensur Thapkhey Rinpoche was born his mother found golden flowers growing in the snow, which she took as an auspicious sign. From an early age the boy, named Thapkhey Gyatso, wanted to become a monk but, being the only son, his parents were not enthusiastic. However at the age of 14, he joined the local monastery, Shitsang Garser where he studied for some years. Later he journeyed to Lhasa to Drepung Gomang monastery where he continued his studies through the increasing Chinese domination in the 1950s. In 1959 the tension between the Chinese and Tibetans reach crisis point and His Holiness the Dalai Lama was forced to flee his country.
After that, The office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama approached him with a request to travel to New Zealand to become resident teacher at Dorje Chang Institute (DCI). He arrived in New Zealand on May 2, 1987 and remained at DCI until His Holiness’s first visit to the country in 1992 during which the Dalai Lama mentioned that Rinpoche should teach in Mongolia. Rinpoche went into retreat for a year at Te Moata on the Coromandel before leaving for Mongolia to teach at Gaden Hidd Monastery in Ulaan Bataar. However, his New Zealand students requested that he return to New Zealand which he did in 1995. In 1996 he set up Trashi Gomang Centre in Auckland as well as Trashi Ge Phel Ling here in Wellington. From this time on, Rinpoche gave teachings throughout the country including the Coromandel (at the Mahamudra Centre), Keri Keri, Whangarei, Nelson, Golden Bay and surrounding areas, Blenheim, Christchurch and places on the West Coast. In addition to this, had devoted students in Hong Kong where he regularly taught.
In 1999 Rinpoche led some of his New Zealand and Hong Kong students on pilgrimage to Tibet. At this time, while at his home monastery Shitsang Garser, he fell ill and suffered a mild stroke; a blood vessel had burst in his head. Against all predictions that he would recover, Rinpoche steadily worsened and, on the morning of 29 July 1999, he died. He was in meditation for three days before the final signs of his passing away.
Celia Smith, Rinpoche’s translator and student has provided a brief biography and tribute to him which is well worth reading. Click here for her brief outline of Rinpoche’s life and achivements. | <urn:uuid:d6f03f34-97f0-4549-8b8e-398b0e3d3577> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tgpl.org.nz/?page_id=320 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979418 | 559 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Physicists Anxiously Await News of the ‘God Particle’
High noon is approaching for the biggest manhunt in the history of physics. At 8 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday morning, scientists from CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, are scheduled to give a progress report on the search for the Higgs boson — infamously known as the “God particle” — whose discovery would vindicate the modern theory of how elementary particles get mass.
The report comes amid rumors that the two competing armies of scientists sifting debris from hundreds of trillions of proton collisions in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, or L.H.C., outside Geneva, have both finally seen hints of what might turn out be the elusive particle when more data is gathered next year.
Alternatively, the experimentalists say that a year from now they should have enough data to rule out the existence of the most popular version of the Higgs boson, sending theorists back to their blackboards in search of another explanation of why particles have mass.
So the whole world will be watching.
Those damn scientists are at it again! | <urn:uuid:84b11688-c9f9-4a2b-a454-742554732bf8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/264923_Physicists_Anxiously_Await_Ne | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934258 | 240 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Among the items in the museum's collection, for example, are the shoes and pocketbook of Bette Davis, who won two Oscars for the wrong movies ("Jezebel" and "Dangerous") instead of her classics "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" and "All About Eve." Davis' old Oscar nemesis Katharine Hepburn once warned that you usually win for a role "that doesn't rate it." Hepburn ought to know. Oscar's biggest winner claimed four, only one for a truly socko performance ("Lion in Winter").
So does that view apply to this year's lead-actress race? If Sandra Bullock wins for "The Blind Side," will she deserve it? Is this the film she should be remembered for? Some Oscar-watchers don't think so, but Pete disagrees and defends her performance strenuously.
By the way, one of Bullock's "Blind Side" costumes is on display at the Hollywood Museum. Read more here about everything on view in our award-season exhibition and how you can see items from "The Hurt Locker," "Julie & Julia" and "Gone with the Wind" up close. Check out Pete and my video dishfest on the question: Are the Oscars biased against sci-fi movies like "Avatar"? See Pete and my Oscar predix here.
Video by Steve Nycklemoe
Photo: Robert Freeman (Hollywood Museum) | <urn:uuid:83baab2b-4f77-4786-b81e-20f830cb339a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_goldderby/2010/03/oscars-academy-awards-predict-win-381925746-news-story-article.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939593 | 296 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The irresponsible rulers
1 Woe to the drunkards of Eph raim proudly adorned,
1 to that fading flower of luxurious beauty
1 on the head of a rich valley –
1 all are dizzy with wine.
2 Look, the Lord is sending
2 a powerful and strong one.
2 Like a downpour of hail,
2 like a destructive tempest,
2 like flooding water
2 in torrential rain,
2 he will cast it down to the ground –
3 that proud ornament
3 of the drunkards of Ephraim.
3 He will trample it underfoot –
4 that fading flower of glorious beauty
4 on the head of a rich valley.
4 It will be like an early fruit
4 which ripened before summer:
4 as soon as someone sees it
4 he picks it, and while it is yet
4 in his hand he eats it.
5 On that day, Yahweh Sabaoth
5 will be a glorious ornament,
5 a diadem of beauty,
5 to the remnant of his people.
6 He will be a spirit of justice
6 to him who sits in judgment,
6 a source of strength
6 to those who turn back the enemies at the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine,
7 reeling and stumbling from strong drink.
7 Priests and prophets stagger,
7 befuddled with wine,
7 reeling when seeing visions,
7 stumbling when rendering decisions.
8 All the tables are full of vomit;
8 there is not a spot without filth.
9 “Who does he think he is teaching?
9 Who does he think listens to him?
9 Babies just weaned from their mother’s milk?
9 Babies just taken from their mother’s breast?
10 Who cares to hear his
10 ‘Keep quiet, keep quiet!
10 Wait a little, wait a little!’
11 Yes, surely with stammering lips
11 and in a strange tongue,
11 he will talk to this nation,
12 he who once said to them,
12 “This is rest, give rest to the weary”;
12 and, “This is repose.”
12 But they would not listen.
13 That is why Yahweh now says:
13 Keep quiet, keep quiet!
13 Wait a little, wait a little!
13 So that when they have to go forward,
13 they will instead fall backward;
13 they will be injured and snared
13 and taken captive.
14 Therefore, listen to the word of Yahweh,
14 you scoffers who rule these people of Jerusalem.
15 Because you make a boast,
15 “We have made a covenant with death,
15 we have made a pact with the netherworld.
15 When the flood passes by
15 it cannot harm us,
15 for we have made lies our refuge
15 and falsehood our hiding place.”
16 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says this:
16 See, I lay in Zion a granite stone,
16 a precious stone,
16 a sure foundation;
16 he who relies on it shall not be put to shame.
17 I will make justice the measure
17 and righteousness the plumb line.
17 Violent hail will sweep away your re fuge of lies and raging waters will over flow your hiding place.
18 Your covenant with death will not stand,
18 your pact with the netherworld will be annulled.
18 When the overwhelming flood passes,
18 you will be crushed by it.
19 Morning after morning,
19 by day and by night,
19 the scourge will seize and crush you.
19 If you understood this message,
19 you would be terrified.
20 “The bed will be too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.”
21 Yahweh will arise as on Mount Pera zim,
21 he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon,
21 to work his work – his singular work;
21 to do his deed – his strange deed.
22 Put an end to your mocking,
22 or your bonds will be tightened,
22 for I have heard the destruction de creed
22 against the whole earth
22 by the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth.
Parable of the farmer
23 Listen to my words, pay attention and un der stand what I say.
24 Does the plowman do nothing but plow, loosen the earth, pulverize the clods with a harrow?
25 After leveling the soil, does he not begin to sow caraway and scatter cumin, wheat and barley and put spelt as the border? 26 For his God instructs him on what to do, he gives him guidance and discretion, too.
27 For caraway is not threshed nor cumin crushed, but caraway is beaten with a stick and cumin with a rod.
28 Is the wheat milled on the threshing floor? Is it threshed without end? They put in movement chariot and horses but do not grind it.
29 All comes from Yahweh Sabaoth whose advice is excellent, whose wisdom is wonderful. | <urn:uuid:6057a10e-5fd6-4bad-8790-992e67510395> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sobicain.org/lecturaEng.asp?lib=18&cap=28&vers=16 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942934 | 1,130 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Teens find thrill in reading
Collaboration between the Marin County Free Library and the Friends of the Marin County Free Library has brought a great gift to the Juvenile Detention facility in Marin. Did you know that we have a mini library in the classroom at the Jeannette Prandi School in the facility? Teens who have never read for enjoyment cannot get enough of their favorite authors. I have had the honor to join teen librarian, Carla Avitable, in visiting the classroom during the year. Thanks to the Friends we are able to bring new books and used books from the Bookplace to fill the bookshelves.
Students are given the responsibility of maintaining the library and take great pride in their work. Carla hosts a book review discussion with the teens and then they visit a popup new book area and they pick some new reads. I am amazed how well read they are and are so on top of authors they love. I spoke with a few students last week and hoped they would continue to read when their time was over at the facility. They tend not to read when they are home, what a shame!
Their reading has brought them so much, a whole new world, new language, and a peaceful respite from their troubles.Thank-you to the library and the Friends for this great gift to our youth. I hope they continue this new joy in their lives. | <urn:uuid:74505d40-2b2a-4d78-943e-f351293670b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marinlibrary.org/all-things-social-media/news/28344/27787 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974633 | 282 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Don't just buy a domain
name Get a
whole domain product; grow online, rise to
the top and get a higher ROI. Learn More!
as an Emerging Market
||The importance of a .MX domain
With nearly 200 countries in the world, there's lots of places you could invest your resources in order to expand your market. Why should Mexico be among them?
- Mexico is a major country. According to Wikipedia, Mexico is the 11th most populous country in the world.
It is one of the world's largest economies and a firmly established upper-middle income country. It has the 13th largest nominal GDP
and is the 11th largest by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to that of the United States. Mexico in 2007 was the
10th most visited country in the world with 21.4 million international arrivals.
- Mexico is an emerging market. And Forbes recently highlighted the fact that emerging markets including, specifically, Mexico are the growing markets right now, the markets where investors should place their money if they want to grow. Check it out:
If Forbes says to invest in Mexico, shouldn't you invest in .MX domain names?
- Mexico also has the
added advantage of NAFTA membership allowing free flow of goods and
services between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
- Portada reports that online advertising already exceeds magazine advertising in Mexico, and has been growing at rates exceeding 20% annually This means that effective Internet marketing is essential for reaching Mexican consumers and companies that fail to make the right investments in this area are likely to pay a heavy penalty.
- In the early days of the Web say, '95 to '98 it was much easier to get highly ranked in the search engines than it is today, because the Web was much less crowded. The situation is similar today in Mexico, which is still an emerging online market. By getting a .MX domain now, you can essentially get in on the ground floor and then by skillfully deploying the domain, you can ride the elevator all the way up as the Mexican market grows, maintaining your top position much more easily, in all likelihood, than you could muscle your way in later with expensive SEO and PPC ads when your competitors have already established their place. Search engines give points for the age of a website, so you should want to get in there now.
But what about the language factor? That is, why get an English-word domain name for a Spanish-speaking country?
We answer this important question
You may not be thinking of marketing in Mexico right now. But think ahead. Either you get a .MX domain name now or you just don't get it. If you're thinking of a particular domain, the chances are that the company that gets it won't ever let it go. Would you?
Above all, remember that you're getting the domain name not just for this year, but for years to come. As the Mexican market rapidly evolves and grows and English usage in Mexico continues to rapidly increase, as it most certainly will this asset can evolve and grow with it, serving in ways you may not be able to currently imagine. But only if you get it now.
Think about what this could mean to your company's future.
|| Have major companies recognized value in .MX domains?
Are these major companies?
MICROSOFT.MX (redirects to microsoft.com)
GOOGLE.MX (redirects to Google.com.mx)
YAHOO.MX (redirects to mx.Yahoo.com)
BESTBUY.MX (redirects to bestbuy.com.mx)
STARBUCKS.MX (redirects to starbucks.com.mx)
GMC.MX (redirects to gmc.com.mx)
AMAZON.MX (redirects to amazon.com)
CHEVROLET.MX (redirects to chevrolet.com.mx)
AVON.MX (redirects to mx.avon.com)
HEINZ.MX (redirects to heinz.com)
As you can see, right now these companies are all redirecting their .MX domains to their main website —
Kraft and Dell in English, the others in Spanish. But the point is, they have their .MX company-name domain. They saw value in having it. And later, if they wish, they can deploy it differently it's theirs.
Wise companies are also buying .MX category names to support the kinds of products they sell — as we are giving you the opportunity to do now. | <urn:uuid:88da21eb-f68c-413d-9558-94cbcb526115> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://webgrowdomains.com/article-mexico-emerging-market-domain-names.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954405 | 976 | 1.539063 | 2 |
I'll be honest, I had never even heard of infoglut until recently when it was voted the winning topic for discussion for our weekly Social Chat event last week. But I now realise I am a sufferer.
Infoglut (also known as "Information overload") is a term popularized by Alvin Toffler that refers to the difficulty a person can have understanding an issue and making decisions that can be caused by the presence of too much information
So what's the cure for infoglut?
Before I try to answer that, let me take you back a couple of years at a time when I first out started on my "social media is about people" crusade and how I overcame, what I now perceive as, infoglut.
In order for me to make the right business decisions to create The Social Workplace, I needed to keep an eye on the market and understand how social media was being used as well as listen to what my customers needed. This is a lot of information to wade through, a lot of infoglut.
It was never my objective to reduce my email traffic in the beginning, but with all this information being directed to my inbox it soon became apparent that email overload was a major contribution of my infoglut and it needed addressing.
These are the various stages, and thinking, I went through to overcome my infoglut (you might recognise some of these stages...):
Stage 1 - Toe dipping
My social network was small, I was reading a couple of blogs a week (receiving notifications via email) and expanding my knowledge and understanding of social media at a slow but manageable rate.
Stage 2 - The RSS Reader
As my social network grew and I was reading more blogs and listening to podcasts, my email inbox began to overflow like a blind barman pulling his first pint.
I needed a way to segregate the various bits of information to digest at a more convenient time so I started to use an RSS Reader (www.feeddemon.com allowed me to monitor information inside and outside my company's firewall) which helped me to structure my information flows and to separate it from my day-to-day email traffic.
Stage 3 - The power of Communities
By this time I was becoming better socially connected and whilst that was the goal it did mean that there was more demand for information on socialnomics and social technologies. The more email requests I received the slower I was to respond, and the slower I was to respond the more requests I received asking why I was slow in responding (oh the irony!).
The accessibility of an employees tacit knowledge is a highly under-valued commodity in most businesses and I wanted to tap into and utilise this expansive knowledge network to reduce my infoglut level. By introducing a couple of Social Business Communities (one focused on the business aspect of social media, the other focused more on social technologies) I was able to channel all requests into these online communities. This resulted in a significant reduction in my email traffic, allowing the communities to become self-sustaining (over time), and prevented me acting as a bottleneck of information.
Stage 4 - Working with Workspaces
This redirection of information to a social platform reduced my infoglut considerably and allowed me to refocus my energies on my "social media is about people" crusade once again, which is where I began defining and driving new projects and initiatives to create a more socially connected enterprise. Introducing online workspaces to work collaboratively with users on these new projects and initiatives was a really effective solution until.....
Stage 5 - Defining Favourites
I now had over 30 active workspaces. Workspaces to work with my team on identifying and managing their fiscal objectives, workspaces for managing projects, workspaces for team meetings, workspaces for task force meetings, even a workspace for sharing large files....so I started tagging my favourite workspaces and my favourite blogs, choosing to prioritise my time and energy.
Stage 6 - The Supermarket Scanner
Having worked so hard to have all this really useful information at my finger tips, I'm not willing to discard it but I don't have the time to read everything. So I now scan, choosing the key bits of information to respond to within the permitted time frame. And I have become an effective scanner, absorbing information at a fast rate (though I don't go beep once finished).
So what's the cure for infoglut? Is it to reduce the amount of information flows?
Sadly, I haven't found a cure to-date but...
"The objective is not for me to reduce the amount of information flows I'm connected to, but instead evolve how I manage them, whilst maintaining my productivity levels"
And I realised this is exactly what I have been doing over the last 2 years, constantly evolving how I choose to receive my information flows and how I engage myself and others with them and not becoming a slave to the data.
So next time you feel inundate with too many emails and overwhelmed by so much information from different sources, take a step back and assess how you are managing your own infoglut level and find a suitable solution to ease your suffering. Do this regularly and choose to be more productive.
How are you preventing you own infoglut suffering? What actions have you taken and what positive results have you seen? | <urn:uuid:b28883c3-119c-4527-99ea-b349f354ad16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stopthinksocial.com/blog/2010/9/14/whats-the-cure-for-infoglut.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964686 | 1,099 | 1.59375 | 2 |
While it’s not actually sea-worthy, this boat was once used as decoration in a restaurant. It could add a lot of character to a large space!
ReStore just got this cool-looking piano! It’s marked “Frederick New York Cabinet Grand.” According to the Blue Book of Pianos, Cabinet Grand usually refers to large upright pianos that were labeled “Cabinet Grand” or “Upright Grand” because they usually had string lengths and musical capabilities similar to actual grand pianos.
Cool wooden chest donated to ReStore…kind of looks like a treasure chest!
Japanese-style Shoji screens at ReStore! These make great room dividers. They can be moved to fit whatever need you have and can let some light through.
This would be a great DIY project. You could get creative with different paints and designs!
If you like DIY projects, check out our tile selection at ReStore. Different colors and sizes for all kinds of projects!
Gossip benches/telephone chairs became popular once telephones were no longer limited to being mounted on a wall in the early 20th century. They gave the caller a close and convenient seat while using the telephone resting on the table. This one comes with an iPhone port. But not really.
1950’s Coca-Cola vending machine.
Not exactly sure what this is called…
edit: It’s a valet! Thanks, Kevin.
Sweet 1950’s desk chair. | <urn:uuid:12814a80-1480-4582-ae06-3cb22c1c6e8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://restoremoco.tumblr.com/mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95325 | 317 | 1.726563 | 2 |
If the rise in prices was not hurting enough, the change in service tax regime will. Effective today, almost all services that we use will be subject to 12% service tax. Only a few on the negative list and the exempt list have been spared.
And of course the services offered by the unorganised sector remain unaffected. Some see the changeover as a more efficient way of administering the tax. In fact, India Inc has been in favour of a negative list of services that will not be taxed instead of a positive list which is expanded every year to tax more services.
It is also seen as a step forward towards a comprehensive Goods and Services Tax regime. ET Magazine spoke to tax experts to put together a list of new services on which you will be paying tax.
Impact on Consumers
1) Speed Posts, Express Parcels
Private couriers were subject to service tax since 1996 but speed post and express parcel service of the post office were spared. That changes from today. Premium postal services and life insurance provided by the post office will attract 12% service tax. Basic postal services, money orders, savings accounts, pension payments, etc remain exempt.
2) First Class & Air-Conditioned Class Travel By Railways
After holding back for several years, the government has finally decided to subject upper class rail travel to service tax. Tax on travel by lower classes, suburban services and Metros would have hurt aam admi and allies such as Trinamool Congress and so they remain exempt.
3) Travel & Holidays Bought From Online Portals
Tickets and overseas holidays bought via e-portals in India and a single ticket bought for many overseas destinations are to be fully taxed. If service providers and recipients are in India, tickets for trips originating in India will be taxed. But if you were to buy, say, separate tickets for the London-New York-London leg of New Delhi-London-New York round trip in London, that leg is tax free.
4) GMAT, GRE Tests
Taking tests such as GMAT and GRE will get more expensive as companies such as Prometric Testing that conduct these examinations will now be subject to service tax. Entrance tests of Indian institutions such as IITs and IIMs will be exempt. CFA Institute's examination fee will also rise. Private tuition providers will now be subject to
service tax if their annual turnover exceeds Rs 10 lakh.
5) Passport & Visa Services
Seeking help of agents to get a passport made or obtain a visa will get more expensive, as these services are provided for a commission. New rules that kick in today subjects commissions charged for providing a services to 12% tax. Visa and passport issuing are sovereign functions and so fees charged by governments will not be taxed.
6) Money Changing
Cash transactions are not subject to service tax but when currencies are changed, forex dealers charge a commission. This commission will be subject to service tax. For the purpose of calculating service tax, the difference between the buying/selling price of the currency and the RBI reference rate may be considered.
7) Mutual Funds Exit Loads
Entry or exit loads paid on purchase or sale of mutual funds will be subject to service tax. Such loads are seen as consideration for documentation, asset management and covering other expenses. Currently, mutual funds are not allowed to charge entry load, but if it is brought back, investors will have to be prepared to take a hit.
8. Actors, Singers & Other Performers
All artists other than those performing folk or classical music, dance or theatre, will now have to pay service tax on services they provide. So when Shahrukh Khan acts in a movie, he will be subject to service tax. Likewise, artists engaged in western music or dance, modern theatres and television serials have to pay service tax. Also in the net are painters and sculptors.
9. Attending Conferences/Seminars
Attending conferences, seminars, workshops, sports and cultural events where a fee is charged will also become more expensive as the participation fee as well as organising of these events will be subject to service tax. Attending roadshows of foreign education institutions too will get more expensive due to service tax.
10) Personalised Services, Fashion Designers
Getting a new wardrobe, particularly designer clothes and accessories, will cost more as designers will be subject to service tax at the rate of 12%. Similarly, services of marriage bureaus, astrologers, numerologists will also be taxed starting today.
Impact on Companies:
1) Independent directors
Services provided by independent directors to companies will be taxed. Independent directors are paid a sitting fee and sometimes retainership for attending meetings and advising the board. Service tax will be calculated on payments made to such directors, as they are not employees of the company.
2) Brand Ambassadors | <urn:uuid:e1354b20-2af5-4219-af70-52269b2e7548> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-07-01/news/32484856_1_negative-list-tax-regime-list-of-new-services | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958254 | 998 | 1.820313 | 2 |
▪ Objective: To determine the prevalence of cardiac valvular involvement in patients with the primary antiphospholipid syndrome.
▪ Design: Cross-sectional study with evaluation of case patients and control patients by Doppler echocardiography. The mean follow-up for case patients was 21 months.
▪ Setting: University-based tertiary medical center.
▪ Patients: Twenty-eight consecutive patients who were diagnosed with the primary antiphospholipid syndrome during a 10-year period; 28 age- and sex-matched healthy controls.
▪ Measurements and Main Results: Ten patients (36%; 95% Cl, 19% to 56%) with the primary antiphospholipid syndrome had cardiac valvular involvement: Four patients had mitral valve involvement; four patients, aortic valve involvement; and two patients, both mitral and aortic valve involvement; no patients had tricuspid or pulmonary valve disease. Eight of 10 patients had a regurgitant murmur. None of the control patients had valvular disease. The mean mitral valve thickness in patients with mitral valve involvement was 7.0 ± 1.6 mm, compared with 2.7 ± 0.8 mm in patients with normal valves and 3.2 ± 0.9 mm in the control group. The mean aortic valve thickness in patients with aortic valve involvement was 3.8 ± 0.5 mm compared with 1.4 ± 0.3 mm in patients with normal valves and 1.4 ± 0.5 mm in the control group. Stenotic lesions were not found. Regurgitation was severe in two patients (one required surgery), moderate in three patients, and mild in three patients.
▪ Conclusions: Valvular involvement is frequently found in patients with the primary antiphospholipid syndrome. The lesions are left-sided, causing regurgitation that may be clinically important. | <urn:uuid:ee716ed1-f42a-4d49-9e72-32a054c8c3c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=705312 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934334 | 405 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Clients of our Job Development program complete a shed
Arbor Day Tree Planting!
In celebration of Arbor Day, on April 27th the staff of Catherine Kasper Place and our Fresh Food Initiatve clients were joined by nearly two dozen community members at the Slataper Street farm for an educational tree planting event.
The Hoosier ReLeaf team brought us peach and nectarine trees, each in bloom and expected to produce fruit this season. As the team educated our clients, volunteers and the public, our staff here at CKP gave tours of the garden to many people of Fort Wayne who were stopping by to show their support and check out our new location. All of our visitors were encouraged to take home a few packets of seeds from our give away basket for their own gardens.
We here at CKP feel so lucky to be part of such an amazing community that includes gardeners, farmers, and citizens, all of whom appreciate the benefits of urban farming. It was a joyous morning spent at the farm, under a gorgeous sky, with friends who share the belief that planting trees and flowers and vegetables is not only creating a better world now, but ensuring those who follow us can sit in the shade of trees and provide food for themselves in healthy soil.
Thank you again to the team at Hoosier ReLeaf, the folks at Redemption House and all of the community members who came out to celebrate Arbor Day 2013 with Catherine Kasper Place!
About Hoosier ReLeaf
Founded in 1991, Hoosier ReLeaf is a nonprofit education and action organization aimed at engaging citizens across the state of Indiana in collaborative efforts to preserve the environment and to reforest local communities through tree-planting projects and environmental education programs. Coming soon will be their facebook page and website - Hoosierreleaf.com.
The Job Development Program of Catherine Kasper Place Assists with a New Hire
Wells Fargo has added another Burmese banker to their staff! Read the article here- courtesy of The News-Sentinel.
Garden Work Day!
Ready to get your garden groove on? Spring is in the air, so If you're looking for a way to give back or if you just want some quality time outdoors then we have the perfect opportunity for you! March 23rd is the IPFW Big Event where students take part in acts of service throughout their community. We are so thankful to be one of their sites for service which will help us get our garden ready for our clients. Located on the SE side of Fort Wayne at 2305 Slataper Street is our beautiful piece of land and it is in need of preparation for some serious vegetable production! Please come out and join us on Saturday, March 23rd at 9:00AM to help Catherine Kasper Place get the garden ready for the growing season! We will be working on our hoop house, tidying up the land, peg-boarding our shed, preparing our 36 raised beds and many other fun tasks to get everyone into the gardening spirit. We can use all of the help we can get to prepare for spring so come on out and get involved with a beautiful urban garden in your city!
For more details please call Abigail Kopen, Community Development Assistant at (260) 456-8969 Ext. 324 or email Abigail at
Catherine Kasper Place, a ministry sponsored by the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, provides programs, services and opportunities that advance the integration of immigrants, refugees and political asylees into the community of northeast Indiana. Additionally, we strive to participate in strategic alliances that strengthen the network of information and resources available for the population served. | <urn:uuid:fe58c528-5186-4818-9e6f-915570610565> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://catherinekasperplace.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946478 | 754 | 1.554688 | 2 |
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An enterprise service system is large and complex and manages big and complicated data. A large set of partial data models is used in designing an enterprise service system because each service application consisting of an enterprise service system uses only a part of big and complicated data in most cases. These partial data models provide several complementary views on the system to be developed. This however leads to a need for compositional models that are able to produce a single integrated model. These data models are often described by a class diagram of Unified Modeling Language because it is a very popular modeling language and describing a static view of a system. In this paper, we propose syntactical foundation of algebra on a family of well-formed class diagrams with composition operations-merge, difference, complement and intersection operations. We then show that the algebraic properties as associativity, commutativity and involutivity of this foundation are desired for model management to develop an enterprise service system.
Date of Conference: 28-30 June 2010 | <urn:uuid:3f746eb8-7f64-4dce-8103-f054298ccd67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=5530206&contentType=Conference+Publications | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940646 | 204 | 1.695313 | 2 |
E. Tautz & Sons, the venerable fine men's tailoring firm founded by Edward Tautz in London in 1867, has been resurrected by Savile Row's Norton & Sons to carry on its impeccable sartorial standards in a new century. Tautz began as a sporting tailor and introduced many innovations such as waterproof tweeds and knickerbocker breeches for the hunting set. By 1897 Tautz had been granted a Royal Warrant from the King of Italy, The King and Queen of Spain and The Emperor of Austria. Winston Churchill placed his first order with the firm in 1895 and continued to be a valued customer for the next 20 years; later on Tautz dressed such natty notables as David Niven and Cary Grant, and in 1968 the company was incorporated into the larger Savile Row firm of Norton & Sons and ceased to be a standalone label.
As Norton's owner Patrick Grant explained to Style Salvage, though quality on the level of Tautz's offerings doesn't come cheap, fine tailoring in the bespoke tradition pays for itself in the long run. "Tailoring is an incredibly efficient way of buying clothes cost wise and you really get what you pay for," he notes. "You are getting tremendous value for money if you go to a tailor and it just so happens that [Tautz is] in the middle of a community of the best tailors in the world. 'The only name in your suit should be your own' is the old adage and that is a nice way of thinking about it." Of course, custom made isn't for everyone, but Tautz is the next best thing as it shares many of the same tailoring methods with Norton's Savile Row workshops.
"We champion the notion of dressing properly and of men taking pride in what they wear," reads Tautz's mission statement. "We adhere to the age old belief that how you dress reflects your respect for the event and for your host. Edward VIII said it best. 'Be always well and suitably dressed for every conceivable occasion." FIne fabrics including the world's best wools and cashmere are a cornerstone of the Tautz style. Prices for Tautz's new ready-to-wear collection start at $300 for cotton sport shirts, $600 for knitwear, $1,500 for outerwear and $1,700 for sport coats. To begin with the collection will be sold in the U.S. exclusively through Barneys New York.
Gallery: The Return of E. Tautz | <urn:uuid:2e62bfa9-b64f-419e-92a0-e4c2f68f6701> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.luxist.com/tag/Norton+Sons/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961952 | 526 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The Decline of Berkeley’s Telegraph AvenueRandy Shawbyline‚ Feb. 05‚ 2013
Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue is known throughout the world. Yet its iconic status belies its current condition as a virtual ghost town. Cody’s Bookstore closed in 2006 and the building remains vacant. A fire across the street has left a large hole where the popular Café Intermezzo once prospered. Across the street from this hole is the longstanding vacant site of the former Berkeley Inn, which burned down in 1990. Its owner, Ken Sarachan, (who also owns Blondie’s Pizza and Rasputin Records), has held the site hostage while seeking to avoid paying city liens on the property. The colorful sidewalk sellers of handmade crafts are gone most of the time, and the area only regains its traditional activity when fans go to and from Cal football games. The demise of Telegraph is a tragedy because it was avoidable; it was caused as much by city government neglect as by larger social, demographic and other economic forces. | <urn:uuid:8d6bd8d0-d566-4dae-b3d4-e98aedb98141> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://quartz.he.net/~beyondch/news/nucleus/plugins/mailtoafriend/mailfriend.php?itemid=10938 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958385 | 220 | 1.648438 | 2 |
House passes shale gas production tax
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HARRISBURG -- Democrats and environmentalists praised it, while Republicans and gas industry officials pilloried it. But in the end, a bill to create Pennsylvania's first Marcellus Shale gas severance tax took a step forward Wednesday.
Senate Bill 1155, after being totally rewritten by House Democrats, would slap a hefty levy of 39 cents per thousand cubic feet (MCF) of gas extracted from underground shale throughout Pennsylvania.
The vote was 104 to 94, with most Democrats supporting the tax, along with a few Republicans, who voted for the bill after it was amended to give less money to the state general fund and more funds to protect the environment and water sources from drilling-related chemical contamination.
Two Republicans later changed their no votes to yes, making the final tally 106-92.
"This is a historic move in the House," said Democratic leader Todd Eachus of Luzerne. "This would put resources in place to help communities facing challenges with clear water and environmental safety."
"This tax is reasonable and robust, and allows the drilling industry to flourish while compensating the citizens for the use of the state's natural resources," said Penn Future leader Jan Jarrett.
Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said, "Votes for this misguided, unprecedented tax ... are votes against job creation. We are confident that the senate will remain steadfast in its commitment to realize a competitive climate for growth and prosperity for Pennsylvanians."
But the tax proposal seems unlikely to survive in its current form. The Senate leader, President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said he and his ruling Republican colleagues don't like what the House did and will seek to change the terms.
A rate of 39 cents per MCF -- forecast to generate almost $2 billion in the first five years -- is "an absolutely ridiculous tax rate on this industry," Mr. Scarnati told reporters. "The Senate is not going to entertain a tax rate that is punitive to this industry."
Republican senators favor a tax like that of Arkansas, a 1.5 percent levy on the market value of the gas for the first three years or so, with a somewhat higher rate later. Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell has proposed a third model, akin to West Virginia's -- a 5 percent levy on the sale price of the gas, plus 4.7 cents per MCF.
Rep. Tim Solobay, D-Canonsburg, admitted changes will be made to the bill, but called Wednesday's favorable vote "a starting point, an opportunity to continue the conversation."
Mr. Rendell and legislators are trying to meet a self-imposed deadline of Friday for enacting a gas severance tax, as they pledged to do in early July, when the 2010-11 state budget was adopted. The budget counts on getting $70 million from the first year of the tax, but some Republicans said that's too much for "state bureaucratic spending."
When the Senate will vote on a tax, or when a conference panel would form to find a compromise, isn't known, but it doesn't seem like a final agreement on a tax would be reached by Friday.
Democrats said it makes no sense for Pennsylvania to be the only Marcellus Shale state without a severance tax. They said Pennsylvania natural gas users are paying higher prices because of extraction taxes in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and other gas-producing states.
Rep. Neal Goodman, D-Schuylkill, made an emotional plea for a tax, saying it could produce funds to protect the environment, as should have been done 150 years ago with coal producers in his part of the state.
"I am a son of the coal region," he said. "The coal industry left behind strip-mining pits and other scars. My grandmother lost her husband at age 44 from a coal mining accident, and that industry did nothing to help her raise her five children."
He said the proposed Marcellus levy "isn't a tax increase. It's a life insurance policy that will protect the state for years to come."
Rep. David Levdansky, D-Forward, also was emphatic. "This bill won't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs," he asserted. "It won't drive drillers to other states. These drillers are savvy businessmen. They've built a severance tax into their business model."
But Republicans, especially those from Marcellus Shale regions, contended the tax will be a job-killer.
"This bill turns too much money over to the Harrisburg bureaucracy," said Rep. Kathy Rapp, R-Warren. "If you think government is better at creating jobs than private industry, vote for this tax, but if you don't, vote against the bill."
"This bill isn't pro-environment or pro-business, it's pro-government spending," complained House GOP leader Sam Smith of Jefferson.
Rep. Garth Everett, R-Lycoming, said the Marcellus industry will mean at least 3,500 jobs to his county, with thousands more around the state.
"Don't make Pennsylvania an unfriendly place for these companies to do business," he said. "They will go somewhere else. Don't drive them away with an onerous tax."
The Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association called the tax a "staggering economic blow" that would have "grave consequences" to a growing industry. Forty percent of the tax revenue would go to the state's general fund, with the rest divided among local towns, counties and environmental purposes.
"In this desperate effort to grab revenue in order to fill a short-term [state] deficit," the association said in a statement, "the Legislature is single-handedly risking the loss of thousands of jobs," millions in other kinds of taxes and "much-needed capital investment."
First Published September 30, 2010 12:00 am | <urn:uuid:848b7e83-4d52-43aa-a352-bbf5e3c3e4c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/state/house-passes-shale-gas-production-tax-266241/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966736 | 1,234 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Verona is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe offering various ancient sights, local attractions, shopping and amazing dinning options. Below we have put together a number of suggestions on what to do and see during your stay in this enchanting city.
The Verona Arena
Located in the historic area of the city, this Arena is still being used today as a background for concerts and musical evenings. Built around the 1st century and was the center stage for Gladiator Spectacles, the Arena along with Juliet’s balcony are the main attractions of the city.
This is the balcony made famous by Shakespeare’s great love tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The building dates back to the XIII century and is also located in the heart of the historic center of Verona. In the courtyard there is a bronze statue which represents Juliet and the recognition of one of the worlds best known scenes from world literature. This along with the Arena are the most important and most visited sights in Verona.
Piazza delle Erbe
Beautiful buildings surround the most well known square in Verona, this Piazza is the hub of Verona life. Every Saturday and Sunday morning a market takes place, then early evening its the meeting point for an aperitif before heading of for dinner in one of the many fine restaurants dotted around the city. In the center of the square sits the ancient fountain ” The Madonna Verona ” which dates back to around 1368, the square is a place to come and enjoy day or night.
Castelvecchio & Scaligero Bridge.
The castle was built by a local noble family by the name of Scaligero and the bridge was put in place to protect them from regular riots of the time. The bridge distanced the family from regular dangers and kept them separated by the river and if needed offered an escape to the countryside. The bridge was destroyed by the Germans in 1945 and rebuilt in 1951, the castle now houses the Museum of Verona.
The Cathedral of Verona
Built in a small but very attractive square and surrounded by beautiful buildings. The church was consecrated in 1187, however the works continued on the church for many more years beyond that date.
The city is not renowned for its lively nightlife, here its a little more relaxed. Most evenings start with a drink in the Piazza della Ebre, the Piazza Bra or on the banks of the river Adige. Then off to eat in one of the many restaurants, Pizza cafes or bistros that are dotted throughout the city, there are some amazing places to enjoy in the historic center of the city. For those looking to party into the night a few discos can be found in Verona, just go in the direction of the lake and this is were the young people go to play. From May to October the city offers a more cultural experience, with the Arena and Roman theater offering concerts along with regular musical Spectacles. | <urn:uuid:074a513f-6ee1-4c8e-887a-1a7361645fa4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hotelsinverona.co.uk/verano-sights-attractions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971097 | 607 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Believe It or Not!
If your golf game is anything like mine, your ball magically finds its way into every water hazard. No matter how hard I try to avoid them, there seems to be a magnetic pull to the wet abyss. I usually walk to the water and see if I can fish my ball out. However, I just came across one golf course where that practice could be deadly.
The Carbrook Golf Club, in Brisbane, Australia, has a water hazard full of sharks. A few years ago a local river flooded and broke its banks. The sharks left their home and found new lodging at the 15th hole. Currently six, 10-foot bull sharks call the course their home. Don’t believe it? Play the course yourself. Once you see the shark fins poking out of the water, you’ll be a believer! If you can’t make it Down Under, check out the video of the golf course sharks. This is one course where you need to be on your game!
[Source: Sky News] | <urn:uuid:9b405a5e-57aa-4180-96a4-dd43b73c6512> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ripleys.com/weird/uncategorized/fore/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953686 | 216 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Homes of the "Future"
Palmer-Krisel Home (1957), Northridge
If you've been reading my blog for awhile you know that I'm a fan of mid-20th Century architecture. Larry and I are members of the L.A. Conservancy and it's sub-committee, The Modern Committee.
On Saturday, we were invited to attend an information session in Northridge (primarily for residents of the neighborhood) at a Palmer-Krisel home. The owners of the home are also Mod-Com members. The speaker at the get-together was author/architect, Alan Hess. He was there to stress the importance of maintaining the architectural integrity of the neighborhood's Palmer-Krisel homes. Dan Palmer and William Krisel were architects that worked for the Alexander Construction Company from the late 1940's to the mid-1960's. They designed many tract homes in Southern California, primarily in the San Fernando Valley and in Palm Springs.
Alan Hess and Jennifer
Our trip to Northridge in the SF Valley on Saturday was delightful. The house where the meeting was held is part of a small tract of Palmer-Krisel homes. The home has a butterfly roof, rocky mountain stone on the exterior, high clerstery windows and a tiki bar smack dab in the center of the entertaining area! The turn-out was good.Tiki Bar
Sven, Naomi and Tom, listening to AlanNaomi, Larry
The homeowners gave an introduction to the program. Then, we each introduced ourselves and our relationship to the Palmer-Krisel connection. There were original homeowners there from the late 1950's and early 1960's. A short trailer of a new film about Bill Krisel was shown and then Alan Hess gave a slide presentation about Palmer-Krisel homes.Histotainer, Charles Phoenix
Delicious refreshments were served. We had a wonderful time communing with other like-minded architecture buffs. | <urn:uuid:9d0d86ce-6a43-4b12-919d-88bbe9f6ee55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ellenbloom.blogspot.com/2009/10/homes-of-future.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964669 | 401 | 1.578125 | 2 |
(Classic film even better in 3D)
Rule No. 1: We seldom see a movie more than once.
Rule No. 2: We are not overly excited about 3D.
Rule No. 3: Forget Rules 1 and 2 when it comes to James Cameron's 3D remake of the 11 Oscars Titanic.
From the opening scenes of the 1912 ocean liner lying on the ocean floor to the closing scene of an aging Rose standing at the stern of a ship, "Titanic" lives up to its hype as the movie to see again. We were pleased to see a number of young people watching the movie for the first time, plus parents bringing their young children to show them that Hollywood does have the talent to produce quality films.
On this 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, it is well worth your time and money to sit in a dark theatre for three and a quarter hours and soak up a piece of history, while being treated to one of the best love stories ever seen on the big screen.
A young Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are Jack and Rose, the star-crossed lovers, she traveling with her wealthy family and fiancé in the royal suite, and he sleeping in a crowded room below deck.
An aging Rose, brilliantly portrayed by Gloria Stuart, tells the story, softening a hard-nosed exploration crew intent on recovering a priceless necklace.
And what a story it is. We see how the upper class and lower class live on the Titanic. We watch love bloom as two young people from different worlds come together in the midst of tragedy. We see how on one hand people can be so selfless, and on the other hand how they can be so selfish.
Titanic is both an intimate love story and also an epic drama, filled with frightening scenes as the ship hits an iceberg and slowly sinks. The big lesson in the story is to make every day count, and the big moral is that we are all human beings and should be treated with respect. The movies don't get any better than this.
Rated PG-13, with a touch of nudity, profanity and violence, but all handled with the utmost care and acceptable for mature young people. | <urn:uuid:06f79c32-f98e-4627-9a10-a447d98a5b2f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://warwickonline.com/stories/Titanic,69925 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94651 | 456 | 1.5 | 2 |
Struggling Vince Carter Sanctuary rehab closes, changes focus
Published: Friday, March 8, 2013 at 11:08 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, March 8, 2013 at 11:09 p.m.
The Vince Carter Sanctuary was supposed to be a place where the well-to-do would go to get sober in a pristine setting.
The center's staff included a chef to cook gourmet meals. Promoters likened the $8 million sanctuary opened in 2009 to the Betty Ford Center, the California treatment facility known for helping the rich and famous kick their addictions.
Stewart-Marchman-Act Behavioral Healthcare, the nonprofit organization operating the center, hoped the sanctuary in Bunnell would generate revenue to subsidize indigent care for less fortunate members of the community.
That vision, however, didn't pan out, and on Friday, the sanctuary laid off about 40 employees. The center is now being converted into a women's health and recovery center that will serve 52 drug-addicted women from Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns and Putnam counties.
“We have struggled for the operations to break even,” said Chet Bell, CEO of Stewart-Marchman-Act Behavioral Healthcare. “Our assessment was it was not going to be a profitable venture for us, and it would be better to reorganize around our core mission.”
The center's employees will be able to apply for different positions with Stewart-Marchman-Act, but because they won't be working for an exclusive treatment facility, some of their salaries could be lower, Bell said.
Ultimately, it will take a few weeks to determine exactly how many people will be out of a job, he said. Overall, Bell anticipates Stewart-Marchman-Act will maintain its 625-employee workforce or maybe shed a few positions.
The reluctance of insurance companies to cover residential drug treatment and the sluggish economy contributed to the program's end, Bell said. A 45-day stint at the sanctuary costs $27,000.
The sanctuary features 50 bedrooms, but its highest patient count was in the 20s. The past six months only about 10 to 15 clients were receiving services.
Two people were in the program Friday, and they were referred to comparable services in accordance with applicable guidelines, Bell said.
A complaint was filed with the Department of Children and Families about the handling of those patients, said John Harrell, a spokesman for the agency. He could not elaborate on the matter because an investigation is ongoing.
Stewart-Marchman-Act is hoping to unveil a new Vince Carter Sanctuary on April 1. The organization received a $2 million state allotment to expand a program known as Women Assisting Recovering Mothers from 16 to 32 beds. The program helps pregnant women and mothers with children up to the age of 6.
Project WARM services are presently being offered at facilities on Beach Street and off U.S. 92 between Daytona Beach and DeLand. Those programs and additional beds to help women with substance abuse issues will be moved to Bunnell, consolidating services in one central location.
Supporters of Stewart-Marchman-Act are excited about the change, including Michelle Carter-Scott, who donated $1.6 million to build the facility along with her son and NBA player Vince Carter, said Deborah Zeoli, president of the organization's Foundation.
“It's always a little sad when you have to close a program,” Zeoli said. “At the same time, the opportunity for Project WARM is overwhelmingly supported. It is going to be a huge resource for the community. It's to help women, but it's also going to help their children.”
While Vince Carter Sanctuary is changing its focus, others in the community believe long-term residential treatment can be successful locally. A 10-bed residential treatment facility opened in August on 10 acres in Edgewater.
The private facility, called Serenity Springs Recovery Center, costs $14,500 for a 30-day stay, but scholarships are available that can cover half of the cost of treatment, said Jimmy Marshall III, chief operating officer.
Serenity Springs offers surfing lessons, fishing, kayaking, yoga and acupuncture to patients.
Marshall said the center's small overhead will help it succeed, despite the price tag for treatment. Seven clients were enrolled Friday, he said.
“You can recover from this disease,” Marshall said. “There is a solution from this.”
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:a3a112e5-7f14-435c-94ec-df0dc285b82c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20130308/NEWS/303089998/0/APA | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969889 | 954 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The Lawyer’s newest product is the most comprehensive overview of the Asia-Pacific legal market yet produced. With rankings of the top 100 local law firms by lawyer headcount as well as analysis of the leading 50 international players in the region, it is essential reading for anyone interested in the strategic future of the world’s fastest growing legal market
Rosenblatt Solicitors says it believes it has found "the silver bullet" that could pave the way for a multibillion-pound class action against the Government in relation to sailors used as human guinea pigs in nuclear tests in the 1950s.
The firm said that research shows a link between genetic defects and nuclear tests carried out on behalf of the UK Government at Christmas Island in the South Pacific between 1952 and 1962.
Professor Al Rowland of Massey University in New Zealand, who conducted the research, concluded that alterations found in Kiwi veterans' chromosomes could be attributed to their participation in the tests, which were codenamed Operation Grapple.
Clive Hyer, a senior supervising partner at Rosenblatt, said the study strengthened the claim against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) by veterans who developed illnesses, including cancer, after the tests exposed them to significant doses of radioactive material.
Hyer said: "We already have strong evidence of the breach, with letters from the 1950s effectively saying that the men were being used as human guinea pigs, as the conscripts were exposed to radiation both with and without protection.
"This research is the penultimate piece of the evidential jigsaw puzzle that we needed. All we need to do now is prove that the chromosome defect caused the cancer, which should be fairly straightforward." Rosenblatt has already issued proceedings on behalf of more than 700 UK, New Zealand and Fijian veterans.
Lawyers in both Australia and New Zealand are also forming groups of claimants who, if as expected on 5 July the court orders a group litigation, will be able to join the action.
The MoD and the Treasury Solicitor's Department have until June 2008 to serve their defence, which is expected to be a limitation defence. | <urn:uuid:b57ed7f1-eaf7-4dd3-879e-92c8cf57985e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thelawyer.com/rosenblatts-mod-nuclear-claim-gathers-momentum/125926.article | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973773 | 443 | 1.640625 | 2 |
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Daisetta sinkhole becomes private pool for 7-foot gator
By Cindy Horswell | May 16, 2008
DAISETTA _ Workers standing on the rim of a giant sinkhole that formed last week in this Liberty County town gasp and point as the water inside the cavity starts to ripple.
The first thing visible is a long snout. Then the creature begins to undulate through the water, with its muscular tail and back forming two humps, before vanishing beneath the surface as quickly as it appeared.
Sightings of a 7-foot alligator, although rare, have been reported since shortly after May 8 when the ground collapsed a block from the high school and fire station.
Residents believe the reptile was washed into the 600-foot-diameter crater with water from the swamps that surround the town. Once plunging more than 260 feet deep, the sinkhole is starting to turn into a lake.
Ground water is seeping into the hole from the bottom while marsh water has gushed from the top. Authorities estimate the lake is at least 75 feet deep and is still rising. The exposed walls of the sinkhole are about 30 feet high.
Workers dismantling storage tanks teetering on the sinkhole's rim had initially mocked reported sightings of an alligator. They had spent hours on the rim and seen nothing — until about noon on Friday.
Now they are believers. An alligator is indeed inhabiting this spot, using the sinkhole for its own private swimming pool. A Texas Railroad Commission employee snapped photographs for proof.
"He must love oil," one worker remarked.
Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden, Danny Diaz, said the patch of gooey crude floating on the east side of the crater might irritate the alligator's skin, but he is using the water on the other side.
"It's not really safe for anyone to climb down into that hole now to get anything out," said Diaz, pointing to stress cracks in the ground that encircle the hole. "The sinkhole could start growing again, especially if we get a saturating rain."
The commission is still studying what may have caused the collapse and if other underground voids might cave-in later. As a precaution, the public is being barred from the site and a portion of FM 770 that passes by it.
But some have not been able to resist slipping past the orange barriers to sneak a peek.
"I've been over there every day and only seen the alligator once," said Connie Rerich, 19, who works as a volunteer firefighter and is a clerk at the town's grocery store. She said the reptile was floating on top of the water and then dropped below the surface like he was riding an elevator.
She wasn't too surprised, because she said many alligators populate the bog that surrounds the old oil field town.
Harry Coplin, 74, doesn't believe anyone is worried about the alligator taking up residence.
"Some of the workers at a propane gas plant that shut down here used to feed their leftover sandwiches to 9-footer that lived right back in there," he said. | <urn:uuid:22ec7afd-8e1d-4463-82d4-0cdf028a6cdd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Daisetta-sinkhole-becomes-private-pool-for-7-foot-1785927.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973228 | 658 | 1.773438 | 2 |
PEER PRESSURE: Both Murray (left) and DeLeo have opposed a redistricting commission in the past. This time around, their fellow legislators should pressure them to change their tune.
The news last week from the US Census Bureau was as expected: Massachusetts is losing one of its 10 congressional districts. That loss of representation in Washington is unfortunate, but it is important that the state legislature not compound the problem with a politically controlled redistricting process. They should quickly, at the start of the 2011 session, create an independent commission to redraw the political map.
Governor Deval Patrick, Secretary of State Bill Galvin, and good-government groups like Common Cause and FairVote have called for a redistricting commission, which a dozen other states now use in some form, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
It is not just a way to prevent the partisan "gerrymandering" (a term that originated here in Massachusetts) that favors one party over another.
A more insidious problem of redistricting lies in the desire of incumbents, of any party, to maintain their familiar, safe boundaries. Their political lives lie in the hands of those drawing the districts — and that's a sure recipe for corruption, or the appearance of it.
That applies not only to congressmen, but also to state legislators, whose districts must also be redrawn to account for shifts in population within the state.
What state lawmaker would dare oppose Senate President Therese Murray, or Speaker Robert DeLeo, knowing that those two hold the power to redraw their district to ensure their defeat?
It doesn't take a raving cynic to suspect that this is precisely why Murray and DeLeo reject the use of an independent commission — and why, when Beacon Hill Republicans forced a vote on it in 2009, barely any Democrats bucked their leaders, and the measure went down to lopsided defeat in both houses.
Frankly, it is only the mind-boggling arrogance of power that allows DeLeo and Murray to continue blocking the creation of an independent redistricting commission, in the current atmosphere. Consider that the last Census, 10 years ago, led to the perjury indictment of Speaker Thomas Finneran — whose trouble stemmed from naming as House redistricting chair the consummate political horse-trader Thomas Petrolati. Petrolati is currently at the center of the latest Beacon Hill abuse-of-power scandal, involving patronage at the Probation Department.
DeLeo's tone-deaf dismissal of a redistricting commission — like his defense of patronage — rests essentially upon the argument that this is the way it's always been done.
That's not good enough, by a long shot. Nor is the claim that we are too late in the process to create a commission. Many states using such bodies have not yet appointed their members. The actual Census data for redistricting has not even been released.
DeLeo and Murray should change their tune, and agree to a commission, with members appointed by themselves, Patrick, and Galvin, whose recommendations would still require approval by the legislature and governor.
But it is unlikely, given their history, that any outside pressure will prompt that switch. That is why we urge individual legislators to speak out in favor of the plan — and in particular, for Brighton representative Michael Moran to do so. | <urn:uuid:fcdd43cd-fd54-4ee4-94ae-f1681251aa14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/113479-careful-carving-keep-politics-out-of-redistrictin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959362 | 688 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Separating the sheep from the wolves
One fundamental problem of the idea of a game with impact PvP, in which the strong could dominate the weak, is that nobody wants to play the weak. If we really could manage to separate the sheep from the wolves, who would pay $15 a month to play a sheep?
Unless of course if you made playing a sheep vastly more comfortable than playing a wolf. So how about this set of PvP rules: At character creation, players permanently flag themselves as being either PvP (wolf) or not PvP (sheep). Sheep can't attack or hurt other sheep in any way, but they can attack wolves. Wolves can attack whoever they want. Sheep that win a PvP fight get nothing for it. Wolves that win a PvP fight get points and some loot from the loser. Sheep that get killed lose that loot, but respawn at a safe point. Wolves that get killed in PvP are permadead.
Note that the result would probably be very close to the outcome of what happens in the real world: People don't commit murder, because it is actually rather dangerous. The sheep would band together to keep themselves safe from the wolves. So as getting killed is rare for a sheep, and apart from losing some loot not so punishing, a lot of players would probably prefer that safer mode of gameplay. As long as the PvE was good, they would be willing to pay to play the sheep. You just better not call it that way. | <urn:uuid:c2ee8dc6-138a-4366-9a8d-e19a393511af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2009/10/separating-sheep-from-wolves.html?showComment=1255451039166 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978821 | 307 | 1.773438 | 2 |
A modicum of cynicism is healthy. So, it doesn’t surprise me one bit when marketing and innovation executives ask whether collaborative innovation is here to stay, or whether it is a mere fad; here today, gone tomorrow. Personally, I don’t like to read tealeaves, but being a betting man, I am putting my money on collaboration and co-creation having a healthy and prosperous decade ahead.
Why? Because whenever a management practice finds applications in non-traditional arenas, it augurs well for its future growth. We are all very familiar with traditional corporate examples of collaboration and co-creation:
- Unilever co-creating Marmite XO with the brand’s fanatical lovers
- IBM co-creating action agendas through its Jams technology – like the recently held Service Jam
- P&G’s engagement of teen girls through beinggirl.com
- Electrolux’s annual appliance design innovation challenges conducted through Electrolux Design Labs, etc.
However, how often do we come across case studies demonstrating collaboration and co-creation in the government and non-profit sectors? Not too often. Fortunately there are. Two interesting examples follow, one just taking off and the other already generating interesting success stories.
Collaboration and India’s 12th Five-year Plan
Bureaucracies are not known for experimenting with cutting edge thinking. But the Planning Commission of India seems serious about changing that, at least in its sphere of operation. Before the Planning Commission actually starts developing the Plan, it needs to develop what is called an Approach paper, which sets out plan priorities and targets, which subsequently guide resource allocation and later serve as performance measurement benchmarks; an activity typically performed by technocrats, bureaucrats, and politicians.
For the first time however, the Planning Commission is using the platforms of collaboration and co-creation; it is reaching out to the citizens of India to help shape the Plan’s priorities and targets. Indian citizens will get to voice their opinions and ideas before the Planning Commission, concerning the contents of the Approach Paper. The Planning Commission is inviting ideas, comments, and suggestions on important themes and topics that are relevant and cut across several sectors, such as:
- Innovation and Enterprise – Are we creating enough innovations and enterprise for inclusive and sustainable growth? If not, how can we do so?
- Governance and Institutions - How do Government or Public Institutions affect us in different sectors? How can we make them work better?
- Financing the Plan – What are the financial requirements, both public
and private of achieving our targets? Can we meet them?
Commenting on this collaborative and inclusive process, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said a special portal will be available on the Planning Commission’s website where people can drop in their suggestions. “We plan to make the process more inclusive. We invite people to comment and post their approaches on the portal. People’s suggestions will be discussed while finalizing the 12th plan.”
This program is just taking off, so its too early to tell how the citizens, collaborators in this case, will respond. In my book on Collaboration and Co-Creation, I refer to this type of commitment as a Light-level implementation.
I call it Light for several reasons:
- The motivation and onus for collaborating lies with the ordinary citizen. Why should they, especially if they have no confidence or trust in the Planning Commission or its intent?
- There is no opportunity for the citizens to debate and discuss different points of view. The opportunity for brainstorming can significantly improve the quality of submissions.
- Most importantly, there is no transparency once the ideas have been submitted. To a person submitting an idea or ideas, it is not clear who will read what has been submitted, how the idea(s) will be evaluated, and whether or not they will be accepted or rejected. This will undoubtedly affect the motivation to participate.
- There are no rewards for participation monetary or psychological. Imagine the missed opportunity here. Even a small newspaper article or mention of winning ideas on TV, with the person’s photo, would cause a huge amount of excitement and commitment.
So, yes, the Planning Commission and the Deputy Chairman need to be applauded for their enlightened thinking. However, much more can be done to transform the inclusiveness into a major creative and innovation force.
The UK Spending Review
Across the Arabian Sea and a continent away, earlier this summer, UK Prime Minister David Cameron kicked off a collaboration and consultation program, Spending Review, focused on ways to reduce government spending. The Prime Minister recognized openly that the biggest challenge UK faces is dealing with huge debts, which means reducing public spending. He also acknowledged that reducing public spending will require innovative and challenging ideas, best developed by those working on the frontline of public services, and not just by his army of economists and policy makers.
Together with Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, his office broadcast an appeal to Britain’s public service workers asking them to share their ideas on where to make spending cuts.
A Spending Challenge website was launched to solicit suggestions from Britain’s 6 million public sector workers. The challenge states that “Every single idea will be considered and the best ones taken forward by departments, the Treasury and the Cabinet Office.” The invitation also described, in detail, the process by which ideas would be evaluated and analyzed. By all accounts the Spending Review was the most collaborative ever with an extended period of engagement over the summer between Government, experts, the public sector and the general public.
Response to the Spending Challenge was, as the Brits would say, bloody damn good! Over 100,000 ideas, including 63,000 from the Public Sector were submitted to shape the way Government works, cut the deficit, and eliminate waste. In addition to inviting suggestions, Ministers traveled the country to hear people’s ideas and opinions first hand. Finally, The Treasury received several thousand pieces of direct correspondence on specific areas of Government policy – such as health, housing and education – that led to several rounds of
productive meetings with experts in these fields.
Ideas dealing with low hanging fruit dealt with issues such as reducing dependence on paper and migrating to digital media for routine communications, resulting in savings of several million British Pounds. Other ideas dug deeper. A few examples follow:
- reforming the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) grant and child benefit
- spending money more effectively by introducing a more preventative focus across public services, especially in public health services
- building closer links across health and social care
- minimising tax fraud, evasion and avoidance; a potential spending of £900 million to combat tax fraud, avoidance and evasion, could raise an estimated £7billion of extra tax revenue by 2014 (no need to compute an ROI on that).
Various government departments will continue to review ideas to identify and implement those that could help deliver further efficiencies. In the interests of transparency and openness, the UK Govt. intends to publish all of the original suggestions that met their moderation policy as a data set on data.gov.uk.
Nothing light about this implementation, very impressive indeed! In fact, to use another British expression, it is as close as you can get to a Full Monty; it meets all the criteria of the Listen-Engage-Respond framework discussed in my new book. I am betting that applications are likely to grow around the world, and in the coming decade we should expect to see some of the most engaging and productive applications of collaboration and co-creation in the government, public, and nonprofit sectors. | <urn:uuid:032f889b-b2d8-4b8d-9a7f-9f5ff078f847> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gauravbhalla.com/tag/government/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952423 | 1,581 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Industrial productivity levels of formerly socialist economies in Central East Europe (including East Germany) are considerably lower than in the more mature Western economies. This research aims at assessing the reasons for lower productivities at the firm level: what are the firm-specific determinants of productivity gaps. To assess this, we have conducted an extensive field study and focussed on a selection of two important manufacturing industries, namely machinery manufacturers and furniture manufacturers, and on the construction industry. Using the data generated in field work, we test a set of determinant-candidates which were derived from theory and prior research in that topic. Our analysis uses the simplest version of the matched-pair approach, in which first hypothesis about relevant productivity level-determinants are tested. In a second step, positively tested hypothesis are further assessed in terms of whether they also constitute firm-specific determinants of the apparent gaps between the firms in our Eastern and such in our Western panels. Our results suggest that the quality of human capital plays an important role in all three industrial branches assessed. Amongst manufacturing firms, networking activities and the use of modern technologies for communication are important reasons for the lower levels of labour productivity in the East. The intensity of long-term strategic planning on behalf of the management turned out to be relevant only for machinery manufacturers. Product and process innovations unexpectedly exhibit an ambiguous picture, as did the extent of specialisation on a small number of products in the firms’ portfolio and the intensity of competition. | <urn:uuid:964fab19-57ea-4b79-bff7-73d2492d8a35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/iwhdispap/183.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935582 | 297 | 1.539063 | 2 |
It should come as no surprise that the best seller at the bookstore on the south rim of the Grand Canyon is entitled, "Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon." It is full of tragic, but mostly avoidable, instances of injury and death by visitors oblivious to the danger of the imposing landscape. I was reminded of this when thinking about the fiscal cliff. The dangers seem obvious to many, but apparently less so to those closest to the edge in Washington. The solutions also seem obvious, but less so to those who insist on maintaining party lines. Let's hope that rational thinking dominates the negotiations from this point, and that everyone takes a step back from the edge. As with the Grand Canyon accidents, this is a tragedy that is avoidable.
It is no surprise that the fiscal cliff dominates investor attention and markets are stuck until there is some movement in the negotiations. Investors expect a deal. But, the chance of no deal is too high to have an aggressive over-weighted risk position. The most recent talking points out of Washington hint at a possible deal that both raises tax rates and adjusts entitlements. If we get it, stocks could rally sharply as investors breathe a sigh of relief.
If the fiscal cliff is triggered, a short-term flight to safety will likely follow, with stocks falling and treasuries rallying. However, any economic slowdown should be a relatively short cyclical downturn. In the long run, what is more important than the fiscal cliff are the details of any grand bargain. Especially important will be any changes that would adversely affect the recovery in housing, an important source of strength in an otherwise uneven recovery.
Let's twist again
In 1960, Chubby Checker soared to number one on the charts with his song "The Twist." Not one to let go of a good thing too early, he followed that up with another single entitled "Let's Twist Again," which rose to number 8 and won a Grammy Award. Which brings us to the other big event in Washington this week. The Fed meets on Tuesday and Wednesday, and with "Operation Twist" expiring, the question is what, if anything, will replace it? Like Chubby Checker, and believing in its success, the Fed will most likely be inclined to follow Operation Twist with something similar. Look for a program of similar size-$45 billion a month-that involves more money printing, which will be even more stimulative. Like QE3, it will likely be open-ended. You can be certain that the Fed is rooting hard for some help from the fiscal side of things and is watching the fiscal cliff negotiations closely.
The question is whether the Fed will overplay its hand. Mr. Checker went on the record "Twistin' USA", "Slow Twistin'", "Twistin' Round the World", and "Twist It Up" and met with decent, but diminishing success.
Two steps forward...
There has been some good news on the economy lately. Vehicle sales, ISM non-manufacturing, unit labor costs, November jobs, and housing activity have shown improvement. But, there is no doubt that the policy uncertainty is taking its toll on capital spending and consumer confidence.
The economic news out of China continues to be mostly encouraging, although not without question marks. Both industrial production and retail sales rose smartly in November. These reports follow the improvement in manufacturing reported last week. After hitting a four year low on December 3 the Shanghai Composite index is higher by 6 percent. However, China also reported that its export growth in November slowed to a disappointing rate of 2.9 percent, down sharply from the October pace of 11.6 and 9.9 percent in September, raising the possibility that the recent production improvement may be mostly attributable to seasonal holiday demand and not indicative of real cyclical improvement.
Nightmare on the Via Veneto
In Europe, the news that Prime Minister Monti will resign is not being well received. The yield on ten-year Italian bonds has risen 32 basis points in Monday trading. Spanish yields have risen by 17 basis points. And Italian stocks are lower by 3.5 percent. The prospect of a return to power by Silvio Berlusconi is being greeted with the same enthusiasm as the reappearance of Freddie Krueger in the Elm St. neighborhood.
The views expressed are as of the date given, may change as market or other conditions change, and may differ from views expressed by other Ameriprise Financial associates or affiliates. Actual investments or investment decisions made by Ameriprise Financial and its affiliates, whether for its own account or on behalf of clients, will not necessarily reflect the views expressed. This information is not intended to provide investment advice and does not account for individual investor circumstances. Investment decisions should always be made based on an investor's specific financial needs, objectives, goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance.
The Shanghai Composite Index is a capitalization-weighted index of all stocks on China's Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Investment products are not federally or FDIC-insured, are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed by any financial institution and involve investment risks including possible loss of principal and fluctuation in value.
Brokerage, investment and financial advisory services are made available through Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC. | <urn:uuid:d4540f57-6bab-4f34-9e2e-7e69d27093aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.noodls.com/view/57565B16822CB4663349C9606477BF0CC56092CC | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952649 | 1,089 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Thursday, July 24, 2003
Photos Courtesy of Coastwalk: Wild Coast and Free: The Coastwalkers trek on the Lost Coast.
Morning dawns with the clang of camp cups, the zip of sleeping bags and the chatter of short conversations. Eucalyptus sway above, and beyond, the typical coastal summer gray. Fleece-adorned, multi-pocketed people hustle and bustle, washing dishes, taking down tents and loading gear. To my left, a skinny fellow is perched atop a white van stretching a web of bungee cords over gear, and to my right, a woman searches around for her cup. In the middle, the big, calm chef, Steve Jones. "How about some leftover beans" he asks me. "Mmm-- sure."
Then suddenly everyone is packed and the busy throng, perhaps too well accustomed to one another, squeezes into the white van. They are ushered to the place they hiked to the night before, a good distance away from their campsite. Then the van door bursts open and the Coastwalk crew spreads out onto the windy beach, strewn with its blue jelly polka dots. Each person seems content with the rhythm of their own feet and I feel happy to be with them.
Ahead, Linda Hanes struts steadily forward, her short blonde-gray hair mostly tucked in a ballcap, long walking-poles in her hands. Her dark blue eyes are clear, and I sense a devoted will behind this unimposing woman. Hanes is a retired librarian from Sebastopol, and the leader of the group.
"This trail will one day be regarded as one of the most spectacular long distance trails in the world," she says.
Hanes is one of nine Californians walking the coast from Oregon to Mexico, outlining a vision that will encourage many more to follow in their footsteps. They picture the entire state shoreline connected by a 1,150-mile, unbroken hiking trail. The group, averaging 60 years of age, is hiking this great distance in order to publicize the idea and demonstrate the feasibility of the route.
Coastwalk president Linda Hanes.
They are from Coastwalk, a nonprofit whose mission is to educate, coordinate, and promote the trail. Since June 2, they have been inching their way from California''s northern border towards its southern one, where they plan to arrive on September 22. At roughly the middle of their 112-day journey, from July 28 to Aug. 4, the hikers will pass through Monterey County. They encourage the public to support the project by joining them for a short jaunt or a weeklong trek (see below for details).
Coastwalk represents the inspirational wing of a larger effort to implement what has come to be called the California Coastal Trail, or CCT. In 2000, CCT was selected by the White House as one of 50 nationwide Millennium Trails. In 2001, state agencies were assigned the duty of completing the trail in a "timely manner."
That same year, a constitutional mandate was passed requiring California to provide public access to the coast.
With state and local backing, the nine Coastwalkers have roused quite a media storm as they stomp their way down the trail. They have been featured on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle and on national public radio, as well as on local TV news programs all along the way. As a result, a bit of fame is coming their way as they travel, with honking cars and strangers stopping to say things like, "thousands of people will use this trail, what you''re doing is really great," and, "you guys are heroes." Each of the nine walkers, though, has their own reasons for going the distance.
Janette Heartwood, 65, of Laguna Beach, professes ecological motives. "I give to Greenpeace," she says, "but I''m not going to go out on a little boat in the middle of the ocean with a big tanker! This is something I can do."
Wallace "Jay" Nichols insists that the trail is "not some crackpot Californian idea." He points out that the reasoning for unbroken coastal access is laid out in the ancient Roman Codex Justinianus, which reads in part: "by the law of nature these things are common to all mankind--the air, running water, the sea, and consequently, the shores of the sea."
Jean Kenna from Palm Springs has a more personal reason for joining the trek: She says that she was wavering on the trip, but when her nephew died at only 43 years old she realized "we can''t afford to turn anything down in life."
Whatever their reasons, the group has had some good adventure on the way.
Near Ghiradelli Square, they stayed on the Balclutha, a three-mast ship built around 1890. There an old park ranger sang them pirate songs. On the beaches, they encountered colored glass fishing balls used by Japanese fishermen years ago to hold their nets aloft and a strange stake, inlaid with Chinese characters. Near Humboldt the trail passed an old stretch of Highway 1, cracked and crumbled, its white lines vaguely traceable amidst the redwood forest that has overtaken it.
Each night volunteers of Coastwalk come to meet the hikers, bringing dinner with them, from fish filets to hummus and shish-ka-bob. Virginia "Ginny" Gregurek says simply, "Every day is the best hike, and every night is Thanksgiving."
The Coastwalkers have spent $3,000 each to ensure that a support vehicle helps them arrive at their often out-of-the-way campsites. Sometimes they camp at the same location for three nights, walking ahead each morning, and driving back each night, for lack of adequate sites. Local Coastwalk volunteers also meet them each morning to help them maneuver the broken and often confusing route, or lead them inland through city streets where development dominates the coast.
A bull-kelp ensemble.
In many places, much remains to be done before casual travelers could conveniently use the CCT.
Today, about 40 percent of the trail is non-existent. It will take decades to plan and to build the trail over these many miles, although Hanes said, "a substantial amount will be done in the next ten years."
The largest hurdle will be gaining the use of now private lands, which account for 20 percent of the trail''s distance. It is roughly estimated that it will cost $660 million to pay private coastal landowners.
Use may be granted through easements, which would allow walkers use of the right-of-way; in other cases, outright purchases will be necessary. In the best-case scenario, it will take years for state agencies to allocate the money. And some owners are not willing to sell.
Dick Wayman of the Coastal Conservancy, which is providing the bulk of funds for the project, says that the $660 million figure is deceiving.
"Land is often purchased as part of other projects such as state parks," he says. "California Parks and Recreation Department will also put funds into the trail.
"There is a lot of local interest," Wayman says, adding that he expects local governments and nonprofits to help purchase land.
Coastwalk already has maintenance crews in every coastal county and will be playing an active role in finding volunteers.
In a recent research report, the Coastal Conservancy laid out what measures it would like to take in the Monterey area. One goal is to improve non-motorized access along 17 Mile Drive between Cypress Pt. and Forest Lake road. Also, they will try to widen Highway 1''s narrow shoulder where it winds through Big Sur. Plans also include a new trail linking Andrew Molera State Park with Pfeiffer Beach, as well as trails through the recently sold Palo Corona Ranch.
Perhaps most exciting, they plan to work with the US Forest Service to create a new path that runs along the seaward slope between Highway 1 and the Coast Ridge Trail.
The day ends for Coastwalk with quiet. After dinner, one couple withdraws to their tent, and I can see Ginny Gregurek reading on the campsite stage. Linda Hanes is editing a journal entry to be posted on the Coastwalk Web site, and Steve Jones is chatting and brushing tears from his eyes. "It''s just sunscreen," he says.
To Join Coastwalk leave a message with Steve Jones at 707-795-7537 or reach Linda Hanes between 6-8am or 6-9pm at 707-795-7537. Campground schedule: July 28: Sunset State Beach, Moss Landing. July 29-30: Monterey Vets Park. July 31: Coast Road. Aug 1-4: Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. | <urn:uuid:2c21a6b7-2281-4159-b76e-03236dbf27e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.montereycountyweekly.com/news/2003/jul/24/one-step-at-a-time/?templates=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960966 | 1,845 | 1.570313 | 2 |
|Posted by linda on September 27, 2002 at 20:47:12:|
the kitchen sink will back up when running the dishwasher and be slow with normal use. but other times when you pull the strainer up it is like a large suction and drains really fast. what causes this?
|Replies to this post|
|There are none.| | <urn:uuid:21db0f7e-d5d9-4305-aee6-f8478a7ef3ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://terrylove.com/wwwboard/messages2/27564.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941738 | 78 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Current State - Current Sports
Most Active Stories
Tue June 2, 2009
Sotomayor to make her Capitol Hill debut
WASHINGTON (AP) – WASHINGTON (AP) - Appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor is heading to Capitol Hill for a series of informal chats with top senators who will play a key role in considering her nomination to the Supreme Court.
Sotomayor's schedule Tuesday is packed with half-hour meetings known as "courtesy calls." The sessions help set a courtly tone of the debate over her nomination and provide Sotomayor with some face-time with senators.
Republicans in the Senate have already begun to question remarks Sotomayor has made in the past about how her life experiences influence her judicial decisions. In turn, Senate Democrats have defended her as a fair and unbiased judge.
Both sides say they are eager to talk to her privately and to question her in the public hearings to come. | <urn:uuid:74686190-4fae-4bd9-ad6f-67da1e737aee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wkar.org/post/sotomayor-make-her-capitol-hill-debut | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964477 | 193 | 1.515625 | 2 |
[Alpine-info] Re: Re: Strange behaviour in deleting from Gmail
jtwdyp at ttlc.net
Wed Dec 16 23:16:32 PST 2009
It would appear that on Dec 16, Mark Crispin did say:
> You misunderstand. There are other choices between alphabet soup and mouse.
Perhaps so. But depending on your definition of alphabet soup... I'm
curious, using oo.o writer for an example, would you consider "ctrl+p" or
"'Alt+f'p" to be less alphabet soupy than "%"? How about "'Alt+f't" verses
> Once upon a time, people understood how to do command interfaces that were
> neither alphabet soup ("; is the command to search")
I'll admit that I wouldn't think much of using keys like "%" to start the
print dialog, or ";" to select messages if there wasn't that nice helpful
on screen key guide at the bottom of the screen. But I've always been glad
that most of the "commands" don't require cording keys. I usually wind up
typing one handed and some modifier+key combos are difficult that way.
> nor cryptic ("cat is the command to view the contents of a file, grep is
> the command to search through files,...").
Now your picking on the executable names of the software, rather than the
command interface itself. And while I'd agree that an awful lot of
traditional unix tools were poorly named, I don't see that as any worse
than the executable names of some of the software on some other operating
systems. It's been so long since I needed to know, for example, that the
executable name of a program I don't willingly use anymore was winword...
And is "ls" really any worse than "dir"??? If you ask me, it's mostly a
matter of what you get used to.
What was/will-be wrong with the unix command interface has been a lack of a
good command index that would list the command names associated with a
function. IE If such a command index was named "index" then "index edit"
should tell me a little about both vim and pico etc... And the fact that
the command to find out how to use a command hasn't remained very
consistent (man command, info, command, command --help, etc) nor has any of
them a very good track record in explaining how to use "command" to someone
who didn't go to college.
> That knowledge has largely been lost, except in the minds of a few individuals
> over the age of 50. But, other lost knowledge is being rediscovered by the
> millenial kids (Gen-X is largely a lost cause). I suspect this too will be
> rediscovered in the fullness of time.
I certainly hope so. But since by the time that happens most of my synapses
will no doubt have calcified so much as to make learning the new improved
interface a bit of a challenge... So since I'm already used to the current
bash shell and tools like mc, I just pray they decide they don't have to
tear it all down to make room for the new stuff, at least until my
children's children have great grandkids...
> > > The modalities need to be replaced with windows and panels.
> > The very fact that it doesn't clutter my desktop with multiple open
> > windows is one of the things I like about alpine.
> Except when you need something from more than one message at a time.
The ability to open more than one message at a time would be nice. But I
put a *lot* of value on my ability to access my mail functions the next
time I do something stupid (or some software update does it for me) that
breaks the x server...
> Or you want to view a newly received message without having to postpone
> the message that you are composing first.
Did I mention I use fetchmail???
| --- ___
| <0> <-> Joe (theWordy) Philbrook
| ^ J(tWdy)P
| ~\___/~ <<jtwdyp at ttlc.net>>
More information about the Alpine-info | <urn:uuid:70796c2f-86b4-4d4e-82cc-f88dd81cf5fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/pipermail/alpine-info/2009-December/002883.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952137 | 919 | 1.539063 | 2 |
WHO would have thought that the kiwi would be ranked the nation’s third favourite fruit, after apples and oranges?
The kiwi fruit? I know that it’s meant to be good for you, but I just can’t imagine anyone eating more of these strange, charmless, novelty fruits than, say, bananas, at No 4, or pears, at No 8.
A recent survey by Sainsbury of our different regional fruit and vegetable eating habits, or at least that of Sainsbury’s customers, turned up a few other surprises, as well. Oxford, apparently, is mad for carrots, Glaswegians love melons, and Brighton is home to | <urn:uuid:4069a064-f684-44df-b0e8-ab178f42e0b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/article1720311.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963515 | 148 | 1.515625 | 2 |
"It takes twenty years to become an overnight success" -Eddie Cantor
The X Factor paradigm got it wrong. They made it about being 'discovered' and instantly succeeding. Sometimes it works, but then you have nothing to fall back on. You get defined by what you are once everyone knows your name. The chance to learn your craft and become an expert comes when you're in the wilderness, when no-one cares about you.
Being discovered isn't what you need. What you need is to become an expert, and you're better off on the outside. Look at sports, we stand in awe of the 19 year old geniuses, but then you find out they started playing football/basketball when they were 4, and it's the only thing they've ever cared about. In sport, you can't skip the hard work if you want to make it and sustain it.
It's a journey. Look at your writing or acting or directing from five years ago. We improve. But remember five years ago when you were desperate to be discovered... Did you deserve it? No way!
Stop worrying about 'making it'. Instead focus on becoming so good that you're unstoppable. Talent is great and you're privileged to have it, but it doesn't mean anything.
Some people stand out. Let's take actors; there are thousands doing the rounds, auditioning and fighting to make it. Very occasionally you meet one who just HAS IT. That's a natural thing, a fluke, luck, who knows. They have that thing that people thought was "special" when they were young, and they believed it and followed their dreams.
That's the easy part. The hard part comes next: putting the work in. Someone with the spark, who couples it with dedication, is irresistible. And I mean dedication to their development, not to 'success'.Talent comes naturally, but expertise is for the select few who have the dedication to achieve it.
When you get 'discovered', whatever that means, make sure you're prepared. When a director is rude to you, or a producer demands you nail the script in one draft, you need the tools to handle it. They come from experience, from learning, from challenging yourself. Even the task of going to an audition can take years to master. But after you've been doing it for ten years you learn how to play the game and you learn how to be yourself.
I am seeing this time and again with my peers. We're reaching a period of accomplishment, based on experience, on putting the years in. Those failed projects, those nightmare meetings, those awful scripts, they MEANT SOMETHING!
The thing you think is your big break probably isn't, but it is part of the journey. Don't look to The X Factor for how the world works, the winners may get famous and make some money but they're ultimately meaningless. You just wish those shows had been about nurturing talent rather than making money.
With success, comes rules and deadlines and personalities that are difficult to navigate. The period prior to success is your playground, a chance to discover who you are and where you want to go. Follow your fascinations, work hard, and become an expert in your niche. You'll be unstoppable. Knowledge is power. Yes, this is an art form, but you can shorten the odds on creating great work by doing the unexpected: you can dedicate yourself to nurturing your own talent. | <urn:uuid:194e8102-4b2f-4fa6-82b1-6e6388ed13e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kidinthefrontrow.com/2012/03/get-work-done-before-you-arrive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97765 | 710 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Volume 78 - Number 37 / February 11 - 17, 2009
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933
Courtesy of The New Press
Paul Maliszewski is the author of a new book examining truth, lies and where how to tell them apart.
Fakers: Hoaxers, Con Artists,
Counterfeiters, and Other Great Pretenders
By Paul Maliszewski
The New Press, 245 pp., $23.95
Lies, sweetly disguised
By ELENA MANCINI
Pushcart Prize-winning author Paul Maliszewski has written a fascinating social history of faking that spans from the truth excesses of Swiftian satire to the recent fake-memoir bombshells in the publishing world. In addition to chronicling some of the most virtuosic feats of lying in the past three centuries, “Fakers” raises thought-provoking philosophical questions about truth and fiction.
Through his in-depth case studies and interviews with high-profile pretenders, Maliszwewski’s approach to the subject of faking questions the role of ethics and responsibility in both the production and reception of truth claims. A key element in the proliferation of fakery, Maliszweski reminds us, is the public’s demand for it.
Elena Mancini: What is it about hoaxes and counterfeits that most fascinates you?
Paul Maliszewski: I started out being interested in the hoaxers themselves. They’re great characters, and they almost got away with some amazing tricks. Over time I became more interested in the people who fell for the tricks and tried to pay attention to both the hoaxer and the hoaxed.
EM: Your book begins with your recounting your own journalistic fabrications for New York business journals. Why did you do it?
PM: I didn’t fabricate facts or invent quotations in my own journalism. Why I sent in those satires is a bit complicated. I was a reporter who believed my work wasn’t wholly honest. It was journalistically sound, but it was also untruthful. In addition, I wanted to write short stories about business, and yet I could find no good way to marry my literary approach to the business stories I needed to tell, and anyway, I doubted any literary magazine would welcome my satires. That’s how I came up with the idea to submit them to the newspaper. I’d tell my stories not to a literary audience, but to the readers of the newspaper itself.
EM: What do you think is the most extraordinary counterfeit story of recent years?
PM: There are so many to choose from. In the category of a writer making the most extraordinary claims, I would nominate Misha DeFonseca, who wrote that as a child during WWII she walked across Europe, lived in forests, communed with wolves, and had a number of other incredible adventures.
The award for a writer who fooled the greatest number of people for the longest period of time would have to be shared by Laura Albert and Savannah Knoop, who gave inner life and physical form to the novelist JT LeRoy.
EM: The first high-profile account of fakery this year came in the form of plagiarism. It involves New Age author, Neal Donald Walsch and an essay by Candy Chand, which he recently published as his own on Belief.net. What do you think of his response to the episode?
PM: Plagiarists almost always employ the note-taker’s defense, explaining that they jotted down a passage (or an entire essay) and later confused it as their own work. Outright faking isn’t as readily forgiven. Ask Stephen Glass or Jayson Blair or Janet Cooke. They all left journalism for other lines of work. Clifford Irving, whom I interviewed for the book, is still remembered, more than 35 years later, for his part in creating the fake autobiography of Howard Hughes.
EM: Aside from the face-value gains of a successful forgery, what is it about hoaxing that you think appeals to the hoaxer?
PM: I wish I knew. One of the reasons I became more interested in the people who were fooled is that the hoaxers themselves are such unreliable narrators. Even—or especially—when they tell their own stories, they’re hard to trust. When I interviewed Irving, I asked him several times why he fabricated his Hughes autobiography, and he basically rejected the whole notion that people can ever be aware of, let alone honest about, their motives.
Paul Maliszewski will talk with Eric Banks on Wed., Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. at McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince St. | <urn:uuid:415de808-3cbb-4629-bd45-b899eb4e41d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thevillager.com/villager_302/liessweetly.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968075 | 1,009 | 1.554688 | 2 |
State-controlled media said Tuesday that the girl's post used language from a famous speech by Ho Chi Minh in 1946 appealing for resistance against French colonialists.
The post joked about never having to take exams again.
Phap Luat Viet Nam quoted a local official in Quang Nam province as saying the girl had "distorted history and seriously insulted teachers."
The girl said the posting was "just for fun."
The current Communist government doesn't allow freedom of speech. | <urn:uuid:498453a6-eba9-4e30-ae2b-108d364e6edb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news.net/article/93342/Top+Stories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974814 | 98 | 1.617188 | 2 |
A love letter from Napoleon to his future wife, Josephine, has fetched some £276,000 ($556,000; 409,000 euros) at an auction in London.
Napoleon sent his future wife Josephine kisses through this letter
In the letter - one of only three known to have been sent to Josephine by the French emperor before their marriage - he apologises after a furious row.
It was among a collection of letters from famous people which sold for a total of £3.8m ($7.6m; 5.6m euros).
It belonged to an Austrian banker who died in Switzerland 2005.
Albin Schram had begun amassing the letters in the early 1970s and kept them in a cabinet in the laundry room of his villa.
The sale included letters by Peter the Great of Russia, Sir Isaac Newton, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Sir Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemingway.
Mr Scram was reportedly inspired to start his collection when given the letter from Napoleon to Josephine, the Viscountess of Beauharnais, by a family member.
The early love letter was written after a heated argument.
"I send you three kisses - one on your heart, one on your mouth and one on your eyes," Napoleon wrote.
The letter had been valued at £50,000 ($100,000), but ended up fetching five times the pre-sale estimate.
The manuscript by Sir Isaac Newton sold for £204,000 ($411,000), four times the expected value.
One of the last letters to be written by Mahatma Gandhi was withdrawn from the sale on Monday, because Mr Schram's executors had agreed that it should be returned directly to the Indian government.
In it, Gandhi is said to have pleaded for greater tolerance towards Muslims in newly-independent India. | <urn:uuid:b351c239-3475-4c54-80f2-ab657b0e3b73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6267838.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973342 | 383 | 1.546875 | 2 |
TEHRAN, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Iran expects to deploy a domestically manufactured oil tanker, capable of carrying 35,000 tons of oil, by March, a shipping director said.
Hamid Rezaeian, managing director of the Iran Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Complex Co., said the ocean tanker was expected to launch around the beginning of the Persian year, March 21.
The vessel can carry 35,000 tons of oil products and is valued at around $29 million, state-funded broadcaster Press TV reports.
Iran's consumer base for oil products has been restricted by sanctions imposed by Western governments concerned about the country's nuclear ambitions.
Iran ranks third among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in terms of proven reserves. Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr said this week that 14 billion barrels of crude oil during were discovered during the first three quarters of the Persian year.
OPEC stated in its monthly report for January that Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were among member states that saw crude oil production decline, however.
|Additional Energy Resources Stories|
TEL AVIV, Israel, May 17 (UPI) --Nobel Energy of Houston, which discovered Israel's big gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean, is pressing the government to decide soon on an energy export policy as the prospect of an undersea pipeline to Turkey gains credibility. | <urn:uuid:4d91c48c-654d-44c7-8fc8-6f44ec60bb59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2013/01/25/Iran-to-deploy-new-oil-tanker/UPI-94721359114887/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972234 | 283 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Anytime of the year is good to visit Sagalassos, a two hour drive north of Turkey’s Mediterranean tourist hotspot, Antalya, but my favourite time is winter when this ancient site set in the Taurus mountains is covered in a layer of crisp snow. First, take a climb up to the 9000 seat stone-built theatre in order to orientate yourself and savour the view over the remains of this remote but important Pisidian city, most of which dates back to the 1st and 2nd century AD. Then head down to the library, complete with a mosaic floor, the rock cut tombs, a good place to shelter from the wind and bask in the sun, the agora with the decorative fountain, the Antonine Nyphaeum now boasting reproduction statues, the reconstructed heroon and the remains of the ancient bathhouse. In early spring, despite the lingering snow, purple croci can be glimpsed among the rocks and noisy nuthatches dart between the boulders. The site has ongoing excavations every summer, but for the rest of the year, you are likely to have the entire site to yourself.
Send your feedback or queries to [email protected] | <urn:uuid:490cebd0-c8fd-4be6-a7b2-7e658472ab2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/37137 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936867 | 251 | 1.757813 | 2 |
How It All Began
When an unlikely partnership was formed in Philadelphia in 1974 between an NFL team, a children’s hospital and a restaurant chain, none of its members could have imagined that their dream of a “home away from home” for families of seriously ill children would grow to become an international phenomenon. They simply wanted to create a place where parents of sick children could be part of an understanding and supportive community.
The seeds of the partnership were planted when Kim Hill, the three-year-old daughter of Philadelphia Eagles tight end Fred Hill, was diagnosed with leukemia. Hill and his wife camped out on hospital chairs and benches, ate food from vending machines and did all they could to keep Kim from seeing their sadness, exhaustion and frustration.
All around, the Hills saw other parents doing exactly the same thing. They learned that many of the families had traveled great distances to bring their children to the medical facility; but the high cost of hotel rooms was prohibitive. They continued to think, “There has to be a better way.”
Hill rallied the support of his teammates to raise funds to help other families experiencing the same emotional and financial traumas as his own. Through the Philadelphia Eagles’ general manager, Jim Murray, the team offered its support to Dr. Audrey Evans, head of the pediatric oncology unit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. It was Dr. Evans’ dream of a house that could serve as a temporary residence for families of children being treated at her hospital that led to the first Ronald McDonald House.
Maryland’s Ronald McDonald House opened on June 28, 1982.
It was 1978 when Joe Ehrmann lost his only brother Billy to aplastic anemia. The experience provoked Joe to take action to bring together the people who built this House. Ever since, Joe’s involvement with the Baltimore Ronald McDonald House has been paramount to its every success.
Today, Joe is called many things: a minister, a former NFL player, a mountain of a man, and the most important coach in America. But here, within the walls that encircle Billy’s memory, Joe is our history. He is the keeper of our mission, enabling all those who pass through these halls to connect with our very reason for being. He is the constant that has remained within reach for these 30 years as 35,000 families have shared our Home.
When a child is told, “It’s time to get your life in order,” Joe is here to instill peace. When a family leaves us without their beloved child, Joe can touch their hearts with his faith. When the burden of losing child after child becomes too much to bear, Joe invigorates us with the value of our trying. Joe Ehrmann has quietly and powerfully held on to Billy’s memory as he has walked us through their legacy. We are fortunate to have his hand in ours. | <urn:uuid:5d4c1375-a9e9-40b4-90f4-5f47712919be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rmhcbaltimore.org/who-we-are/history/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985658 | 609 | 1.523438 | 2 |
We were not mistaken in asserting, on Saturday last, that the Hon. Preston S. Brooks had not only the approval, but the hearty congratulations of the people of South Carolina for his summary chastisement of the abolitionist Sumner.
Immediately upon the reception of the news on Saturday last, a most enthusiastic meeting was convened in the town of Newberry, at which Gen. Williams, the Intendant, presided. Complimentary resolutions were introduced by Gen. A. C. Garlington, and ardent speeches made by him, Col. S. Fair, Maj. Henry Sumner, and others. The meeting voted him a handsome gold-headed cane, which we saw yesterday, on its way to Washington, entrusted to the care of Hon. B. Simpson. At Anderson, the same evening, a meeting was called, and complimentary resolutions adopted. We heard one of Carolina's truest and most honored matrons from Mr. Brooks' district send a message to him by Maj. Simpson, saying "that the ladies of the South would send him hickory sticks, with which to chastise Abolitionists and Red Republicans whenever he wanted them."
Here in Columbia, a handsome sum, headed by the Governor of the State, has been subscribed, for the purpose of presenting Mr. Brooks with a splendid silver pitcher, goblet and stick, which will be conveyed to him in a few days by the hands of gentlemen delegated for that purpose. In Charleston similar testimonials have been ordered by the friends of Mr. Brooks.
And, to add the crowning glory to the good work, the slaves of Columbia have already a handsome subscription, and will present an appropriate token of their regard to him who has made the first practical issue for their preservation and protection in their rights and enjoyments as the happiest laborers on the face of the globe. | <urn:uuid:077efd78-abb3-4354-965e-962c7aa15f54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/Kansas/ColumbiaSouthCarolinian.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977049 | 376 | 1.75 | 2 |
Erik Kain, Contributor
I write about video games: the industry and the culture.
Valve’s Source Filmmaker program has entered its open beta phase, and it looks amazing.
Valve’s Source Filmmaker software is still in beta, but the closed portion of the beta is over and now anyone with 15GB of storage can download the entire thing and start making their very own movies.
I strongly suspect that this software will be revolutionary in both the future of animation and especially the future of game development, but for now it’s primarily being used to make funny videos starring the Team Fortress 2 cast, such as this one:
That’s “Hurt Feelings” by Flight of the Conchords (you can watch the original here.)
Here’s a little more information on the Source Filmmaker, which is really quite remarkable:
The ease with which they edit shot angles, facial animation, etc. is astounding, though I think the cartoony nature of the characters helps with this at least to some degree. The lip-synch feature is, by all accounts, pretty amazing.
One thing that leaps out at me watching the above video is the notion of repurposing the video game world to make movies. Lately, it seems that all we ever talk about is how games are becoming more like movies. This is something of a reversal of that, with games actually forming something of a kernel for future film efforts.
Top this off with the Steam Workshop and the extraordinary way that Valve and the community collaborate organically to create new content, and it’s not hard to see why Valve is so well-loved in the gaming world, or why they’re making so much money.
You can watch tutorial videos here, and watch a catalogue of user-created films here.
I plan to download the SFM either this week or the next and give it a shot, whereupon I’ll report back with any thoughts, impressions, frustrations or calamities I may encounter. Has anyone tried it out yet? What did you think? | <urn:uuid:f97c8a93-86f8-4f76-8b12-19fa02f4b8b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/07/11/valve-releases-source-filmmaker-to-the-masses-hilarity-ensues/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958327 | 442 | 1.515625 | 2 |
This transcript is automatically generated
Al Capone strained his arrival from Chicago and the crowd is watching to get a glimpse of the next big shot.
That's -- -- is waiting to take him to prison.
And the -- is still supporting his big white hat which will probably be all out of style when he gets a chance to Wear it again.
At the end of mystic Apollo landings last glimpse of the outside world for many -- -- to come.
That was Chicago in the 1930s.
Al Capone was officially public enemy number one.
The city was overrun by mob crime until Capone was caught -- ship docked Al contrasts.
And now for the first time since prohibition.
Chicago has declared a new public enemy number one.
Mike -- live in Chicago after -- night.
I you know making you can't avoid it when you hear that title public enemy number one it draws to -- all the images of the old Chicago mob.
Al Capone known for his ruthlessness therefore the ability to control the cops and control networks of rum runners coming down from Canada.
-- -- and a terrific street battles in the effort to ultimately take Al Capone down.
Well now the Chicago crime commission says there is a new public enemy number one the head of a cartel out of Mexico.
Joaquin Guzman low -- described as vicious.
Evil and powerful the crime commission says Guzman and his Sinaloa Cartel make Al Capone look like an amateur.
In Chicago alone over ninety per -- of the marijuana.
And other synthetic drugs that are being sold on the streets while we are standing here.
Have come from the Sinaloa Cartel.
Now you may know that Chicago has a terrific problem with street gangs and violence murders are part of every day on the south and west side.
Well they DEA says they are now -- link they say the Sinaloa Cartel has found willing business partners among the hundreds of thousands of members of Chicago street gangs.
So why Chicago for the same reason the rum runners chose it for the same reason the stockyards were located here for the same reason so many businesses -- option in Chicago.
It's a perfect transportation -- and that means to you this through the drugs -- -- show up on your street ultimately.
Flow through Chicago the Mexican not authorities are offering two million dollar reward the US five million dollar reward. | <urn:uuid:629154e0-9061-423a-b525-ee2a061c70f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://video.foxnews.com/v/2165571106001/el-chapo-is-the-new-al-capone | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947872 | 490 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Nissan claims to be at the forefront of all-electric vehicles with the Leaf. Yet the Japanese company and its U.S. division are currently been accused in the U.S. that it has misled buyers about its EV's battery life and true driving range.
Humberto Klee and David Wallak say that Nissan advertises a range of 100 miles (160 km) or less, depending on a number of variables like the road conditions and the weather.
The plaintiffs claim is that the carmaker does not say that the Leaf can attain this range only if its battery is fully charged.
One can’t help but wonder what this is all about; until, that is, you read the rest of the federal class action lawsuit:
“Before purchase or lease, Nissan failed to disclose its own recommendations that owners avoid charging the battery beyond 80 percent in order to mitigate battery damage and failed to disclose that Nissan’s estimated 100-mile range was based on a full battery charge, which is contrary to Nissan’s own recommendation for battery charging.”
It does sound odd for Nissan to recommend not charging the battery beyond 80 percent and at the same time, releasing a maximum range figure that is attainable only with a 100 percent charge.
On its behalf, Nissan replied even though it “regrets that a very small number of Leaf owners are dissatisfied”, in its opinion “the lawsuit lacks merit”.
Among other things, Nissan's statement reads:
“Nissan has provided information on how the vehicle works, its estimated range and factors that can affect both range and battery life through many sources, including the Nissan Leaf website, owner's manual and detailed written disclosure.”
The lawsuit has been filed against both Nissan Motor Company and Nissan North America with the Central District Court of California, which will be the one to decide whether the plaintiffs’ class action has merit or not.
By Andrew Tsaousis | <urn:uuid:e52d6f25-505a-4083-aaff-c58a4159e61f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.carscoops.com/2012/10/to-charge-or-not-to-charge-nissan-faces.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955426 | 404 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Ron Paul: We need to respect the Tenth Amendment
November 14, 2008 by Personal Liberty News Desk
America would be better off if it reduced the size of the federal government and returned more powers to the state, Rep. Ron Paul has said.
Answering readers’ question in the New York Times, the congressman described how he believes the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution is not currently being honored.
This amendment states that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Paul wrote that if he were in charge, he would "look to phase out entire departments and return these functions to the states – as the Constitution intended."
The Department of Education and the Department of Energy are wasteful in the way they spend taxpayers’ money and should be eliminated entirely, he suggested.
"Teachers, parents, and local community leaders should be making decisions about exactly how our children should be taught, not Washington bureaucrats," Paul said, explaining why he does not support the existence of the Department of Education.
Earlier this week, Paul wrote an editorial on CNN.com claiming that the GOP was no longer a party that supported shrinking government, but rather sought to expand its power. | <urn:uuid:19f5e27b-5ea5-421d-9b53-415747195f67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://personalliberty.com/2008/11/14/ron-paul-we-need-to-respect-the-tenth-amendment-18878229/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970211 | 262 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Bobby JindalState Governor
Born: 10 June 1971
Birthplace: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Best known as:
Governor of Louisiana, 2008-present
Name at birth: Piyush Jindal
Bobby Jindal of Louisiana is the first Indian-American to become the governor of an American state. A brainy conservative with special expertise in public health, he is widely regarded as a rising star in the national Republican Party; radio commentator Rush Limbaugh once called him "the next Ronald Reagan." Bobby Jindal grew up in Baton Rouge and went to Brown University, where he earned degrees in public policy and biology in 1992. He attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a Master of Letters degree (M.Litt.) in 1994, and worked briefly as a consultant for McKinsey and Company. He was only 24 when he was appointed Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals in 1996. Five years later he was appointed Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by George W. Bush, serving from 2001-03. He was elected to Congress from Louisiana's First District in 2004, and reelected in 2006. He was elected governor of Louisiana in 2007 and was sworn in on 14 January 2008; later that year he was widely discussed as a potential vice-presidential candidate for John McCain (a role that went instead to Sarah Palin). Bobby Jindal was reelected for a second four-year term in 2011.
Bobby Jindal married his wife, Supriya, in 1997. She was born in Metairie, Louisiana and went to high school with Jindal in Baton Rouge, but they didn't begin dating until 1996. They have a daughter, Selia, and two sons, Shaan and Slade... Jindal's parents emigrated from India to the U.S. in 1970. His parents are Hindu; Jindal converted to Catholicism in high school... Jindal also ran for governor of Louisiana in 2003, losing in a runoff to Democrat Kathleen Blanco... His legal first name is Piyush but he took the nickname Bobby as a child. He told CBS News in 2009, "Every day after school, I'd come home and I'd watch The Brady Bunch. And I identified with Bobby, you know? He was about my age, and Bobby stuck."
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More on Bobby Jindal from Fact Monster:
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:480c58d2-5334-436b-8a67-aa5e7a330541> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.factmonster.com/biography/var/bobbyjindal.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982467 | 509 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Ludington has so much to offer its residents and visitors, but our most popular draw is the 5,300 acres that lie just north of town, known as the Ludington State Park. The park opened on August 15, 1936, and celebrated its 75th birthday in 2011. This wonderful area of land is not just for camping--it's a haven for hikers, fishermen, bikers, or anyone who loves what nature has to offer. Here you'll discover sand dunes with spectacular views, hardwood forests, marshlands, and nearly seven miles of Lake Michigan shoreline. The state park is a vacation within itself, with special programs offered in the summer. For Camp Reservations, Call 1-800-447-2757
, or go to www.michigan.gov/dnr
A Michigan State Park Recreation Passport is required to enter the park and may be purchased at the park. Residents may also now purchase the $11 Recreation Passport when they renew their Michigan license plate at the Secretary of State office or through the Michigan e-store at www.michigan.gov/estore.
Enjoy a hike on one of the eight marked trails that cover 18 miles, and take note of the variety of trail markers and information kiosks along the way which provide some fascinating historical and natural facts about the park. A description of the individual trails - and the estimated walking time for each - is detailed by clicking on Trail Maps
at the top of this page.
The park is also well known for its unique and picturesque marked canoe pathway. Launch your canoe at the Hamlin Lake Beach and meander along the eastern shore of Hamlin Lake
through shallow bayous rich with wildlife and waterfowl. The time required to travel the pathway is about one to three hours, depending upon your skill level and preferred pace. Canoes are available to rent from the Hamlin Lake Concession Stand, where you can also rent paddleboats, rowboats, and kayaks.
Families especially appreciate the park's Hamlin Lake Beach for its calm waters, sandy shore, playground, picnic shelter, restrooms, and concessions. From here, it's just a short stroll to the Hamlin Lake Dam, which was constructed during the logging era when lumbermen dammed the Big Sable River to make a holding pond for felled trees. The other beach is along Lake Michigan, perfect for sunning, swimming, and jumping in the waves on a windy day! Don't forget to check out some of the nations best sand dunes
right here in West Michigan. Ludington State Park has miles of dunes to explore, and if that isn't enough, more dunes are just a short drive in either direction.
The park is a fisherman's paradise
, where anglers will discover an abundance of Hamlin Lake walleye, bass, northern pike, perch, and bluegill. A boat launch area provides easy access into the lake for boats up to 22 feet, with convenient parking for trailers. During the fall salmon run, when the fish attempt to jump over the dam on their way upstream, spectators and anglers line the Sable River Boardwalk to capture the thrill of this fishing season highlight. A hard surface walkway provides handicapped access across the dam and along both sides of the river. Other areas in the park that are barrier-free are the Hamlin Beach changing and concession building, certain campsites and all restroom buildings in the Pines, Cedar and middle Beechwood campgrounds.
In the quieter seasons of spring and fall, the Ludington State Park's beauty is magnified by serenity. When winter blankets the landscape with a pristine white hush, snow lovers can cross country ski on eight miles of trails...three of which are groomed. Snowshoeing is another great winter activity that's growing in popularity and you can burn up to 700 calories per hour of moderate walking! Guided snowshoe walks are held throughout the winter. You can bring your own snowshoes or borrow one of 40 pairs available on a first-come first-served basis at the state park. All walks begin and end at the warming shelter complete with picnic tables--and plenty of heat!
Discover the beauty--experience the fun--at the one and only Ludington State Park.
Ludington State Park Contact Info
- ALL Camping Reservations (Michigan DNR): (800) 447-2757 or Michigan DNR, Ludington State Park
- Main Office (Local): (231) 843-2423
- Cedar Camp Store (watercraft rental) (Local): (231) 845-8582
- Snowshoe Class Reservations/Special Programs (Local): (231) 843-9261 | <urn:uuid:c74f2746-4ed4-42d9-8fae-a7efa97be814> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.visitludington.com/statepark/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932691 | 981 | 1.679688 | 2 |
A Boulder County program that pairs "energy advisers" with home and business owners interested in upgrading their buildings has been a major boon for area contractors who specialize in increasing energy efficiency.
"The Boulder program has effectively doubled the size of our workload," said Mike Truitt, business manager for the Fort Collins-based This Efficient House.
The business of helping people make their homes more energy efficient can be a bit of a roller coaster, with the first cold days of fall often driving a rash of chilly homeowners to look into more insulation and air-sealing after typically slow summers. But this summer has been different for contractors working with Boulder County's EnergySmart program, which was launched in January with the help of a $12 million economic stimulus grant from the federal government.
"What EnergySmart has helped with is evening out our workload," Truitt said.
The idea behind EnergySmart is to make the county's existing housing stock more energy efficient by removing as many barriers to action for building owners as possible. For example, homeowners who sign up for EnergySmart get a visit from an energy expert who assesses the home's performance and makes a list of the most cost-efficient ways to save energy. The energy adviser will also help the homeowner find a contractor and apply for rebates that are available through EnergySmart and third parties, such as Xcel Energy. The program even offers its own micro-financing.
"We started by asking, 'What are the barriers? Where do people get stuck and how can we help them get through that spot?'" said Beth Beckel, energy efficiency and sustainability specialist.
The county's answer was to train a group of energy advisers who do an assessment of the building.
"The energy adviser will help you, from start to finish, understand the energy assessment," Beckel said.
So far, 2,728 homes and 815 businesses have signed up for the program, which has also given out more than half a million dollars in rebates. The county's goal is to enroll 10,000 homes and 2,000 businesses before the program is scheduled to end in 2013.
Knowing that EnergySmart, which is being administered for the county by the sustainable consulting firm Populus, will be in place for a couple of years has helped local contractors plan for the future.
"The fact that this is a longer program is huge," said Eric Van Orden, a Boulder-based energy efficiency manager for SolarCity. "This provides certainty to 2013."
Even after the program ends in 2013, some of EnergySmart's positive impacts on the industry may last into the future.
"The program has helped build awareness of the industry, which is good," said Danny Wood, director of futurefits and sales for EcoSmart Homes, where business is up 32 percent this summer compared with last summer.
Anyone living in the county can sign up for the program by visiting energysmartyes.com. The program is also offering rebates of up to $250 per household through the end of October.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Laura Snider at 303-473-1327 or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:cd8ad8ac-ff07-468c-9199-d2990fd1fe71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_18815767 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969788 | 641 | 1.71875 | 2 |
By Susan Froyd
By Byron Graham
By Robin Edwards
By Bree Davies
By Josiah M. Hesse
By Bree Davies
By Susan Froyd
By Kate Gibbons
Though it has sad and even bitter undertones, Pure Confidence is essentially a comedy. The central figure is one we recognize from myth and folklore: the trickster -- in this case, a jockey named Simon Cato who has an almost magical ability with horses. Small in stature, he's big in ambition, cheeky, insolent and constantly plotting ways to outwit those in power and better his lot. But there's one more thing: Cato is a slave in 1860s Kentucky. The horse he races belongs to his owner, Colonel Wiley "The Fox" Johnson, an essentially decent man with whom Cato delights in matching wits.
And for the most part, Cato prevails. He manages to buy Caroline, the slave owned by Johnson's wife, Mattie, so that he can marry her himself, and figures out a way to eventually win his own freedom. But then he's crippled by a terrible accident on the track, deliberately caused by white jockeys. After the Civil War, Cato and Caroline find life even more difficult. He works as a hotel bellhop, she takes in washing. Still, you know that any setback Simon Cato suffers will be temporary, thanks to his confidence and irrepressible high spirits. "I'm no slave, because I know who I am," he says at one point.
Pure Confidence has irony, intelligence, subtlety and a lot of good scenes -- a sweet, playful courtship, the searing monologue in which Cato, riding a barrel, plays out the struggle between freedom and slavery as a horse race. It's high-spirited, good-natured and often very funny, with the action framed by a toe-tapping rendition of "The Camptown Races" played between scenes. But seated in the middle of an amused and delighted audience, I felt alienated. The humor in Pure Confidence is more comfortable than savage, and the slavery depicted in the play seems almost tolerable.
A funny play about slavery? I tried to think of analogies. Could I imagine a piece about a wily Jew who utilized clever stratagems to escape Hitler's camps? Would I be able to laugh? Quite possibly. Would someone who wasn't Jewish? Maybe not. Or maybe in another hundred years.
Playwrights are blogging these days -- which means they can evaluate their critics' thinking as readily as we do theirs. Although it can be unsettling, it's also a welcome development: Why shouldn't artists respond to what is said about them in print? (One of my favorite such responses was a painter friend's letter sent to a newspaper after a reviewer there called her work insufficiently feminist. The riposte went something like, "If Ms. Blank believes the true subject of feminist art is one woman's hand reaching for another's, then let her paint it.") And besides, anything that adds to the buzz and interest surrounding a play is good. Carlyle Brown's blog means that I actually know what he intended in Pure Confidence. It was "to take what the average person thinks he or she knows about slavery and beat it with a hammer right before their eyes, in an attempt to incite a clash between the myth and the interpreted truth."
This makes sense. Our public discourse on charged and essential issues is horribly straitjacketed. Katie Couric was intensely criticized for asking John and Elizabeth Edwards whether their decision to stay in the presidential race was high-minded or selfish -- something many people had wondered. Couric had broken the rules. She had apparently forgotten that there's only one allowable way to describe cancer sufferers on television: as noble and brave.
The worn-out tropes most people employ to discuss slavery substitute for genuine knowledge, just as Brown suggests. Slavery was a huge and complex phenomenon that took many different forms, and there were no doubt slaves and owners who, like Mattie and Caroline, Cato and Johnson, felt genuine warmth toward each other. I like the fact that Brown doesn't shy away from showing this; neither does he downplay the ambiguity and anger within such relationships. But he also gives them an overlay of sentimentality.
Under Kent Gash's direction, the acting style in this Denver Center Theatre Company production is broad. There's no question that Gavin Lawrence, who plays Cato, is talented, but his portrayal is sometimes a little too cute. As is Maureen Silliman's Mattie, though the actress does reveal the living, breathing woman beneath the Southern-belle crinoline. Philip Pleasants tends to declaim, but his blustering, energetic Colonel Wiley communicates real decency and warmth. Heather Alicia Simms gives Caroline a gentle sincerity that contrasts nicely with the antics of the rest of the cast.
It's good to get an original perspective on slavery, useful to be forced into examining your preconceptions. Still, my predominant emotion as I left the theater was unease.
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Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city | <urn:uuid:2c471ed4-3be4-49a5-8c2b-c7c6f7c2d9e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.westword.com/2007-04-12/culture/pure-confidence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971369 | 1,095 | 1.671875 | 2 |
After another seven years of war abroad and repression at home, there is no longer much room for doubt about the motivations for these constantly escalating wars.
The more liberal sections of the British ruling class, having once denied that such a thing as imperialism even existed, are now being forced to prove their democratic credentials to the British public by criticising US imperialism in increasingly clear terms. The motivators for this are:
i) the unfettered, horrifying violence which has been unleashed in recent years by imperialist wars and which has shocked the British population;
ii) a recognition that the wars being waged in Afghanistan and the Middle East are unwinnable, such is the strength and resilience of the national resistance movements; and
iii) a belief by many in the bourgeoisie that closer economic and political engagement with the European Union will be more fruitful than the 'junior partner' relationship they have with the US.
What these 'liberals' try desperately to hide is the fact that US imperialism is only a part (albeit a large part) of a whole system of imperialism - a network of imperialist countries and multinationals that compete with one another for domination and control of markets, resources and avenues of investment. Britain is very much an active part of this system. Wars waged by the British state are fought in the interests of the profits of the British ruling class.
Nonetheless, even the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois criticisms of US imperialism available in the mainstream media are helping to facilitating the awakening of understanding among British working people about what is really going on in the world (as opposed to what they've always been told was going on).
The aggressors' tales about 'spreading democracy' by overthrowing elected governments and 'defending civilisation' by destroying the oldest societies on our planet have been thoroughly exposed for the lies they always were. So, too, has the nonsensical assertion that the US and Britain are simply trying to counter the 'threat to world peace' posed by the 'WMD' of a few 'rogue states' when they, the most militarised and aggressive powers in the world, drop a carpet of cluster-bombs over entire cities, or attack civilian populations with chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
Behind the benevolent motives they ascribe to themselves, the big business moguls who keep figureheads such as Bush and Blair in power are becoming ever more ferocious in their determination to control the world's resources.
Anything that gets in the way of this agenda is mere 'collateral damage', be it thousands of British workers losing their pensions, the 13 million African children under five who die every year of preventable diseases, the populations of whole cities in the Middle East who have been rendered homeless and jobless while their loved ones are slain by marauding invaders … or the very sustainability of life on earth that is daily more threatened by unchecked pollution and reckless carbon emissions.
Labour's imperialist traditions
Describing Bush as an idiot and Blair as a liar may temporarily assuage feelings of anger and frustration at the apparent impotence of the world's masses to bring these scoundrels to justice or change the seemingly inevitable course of events, but such characterisations bring us no closer to understanding what's really happening, or what we have to do to change it.
The idea that Blair's 'New' Labour is radically different from the Labour Party of yesterday is accepted almost as a universal truth in the left-wing movement. But, studying Labour's history in government, one sees that Labour has always represented the British ruling class and its empire with as much enthusiasm as the Tories.
In 1924, the first Labour government gunned down and jailed demonstrators in India and bombed Iraqi villages. Ramsay MacDonald used the army, Emergency Powers Act and secret police to break strikes, evict the unemployed from their homes, arrest and spy on activists.
To pay off war debt and rebuild Britain's economy, Attlee's government of 1945 intensified exploitation in Ghana, Kenya, Malaya and other colonies. Tens of thousands of people in Africa and Asia were killed in ruthless suppression of revolts against British colonialism. After WWII, Labour set up puppet regimes all over the Middle East, handed over Palestine to the zionists, helped restore French imperialist control over Indo-China and sent 12,000 soldiers to Korea. Eight million people died in the ensuing wars in south east Asia (Vietnam, Korea, Cambodia, Laos). Not a single African country obtained independence from a Labour government.
In fact, in its drive to defend imperialism at all costs, there has never been any crime that the Labour Party, in or out of government, has not been prepared to commit, either at home or abroad. -Today, Blair's Labour, far from being an aberration, is continuing in this long tradition of loyal service to imperialism.
Since 1997, the Labour Party has presided over illegal wars against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, besides giving full backing to Israel's criminal occupation of Palestine and its recent reinvasion of Lebanon. Meanwhile, the Labour government is working hard to quell all dissent at home through the introduction of draconian laws that allow those who raise their voices against such crimes to be arrested without charge, held indefinitely and convicted without evidence.
Blair is not some kind of duped 'poodle' of US foreign policy. The interests that Blair is protecting are not those of US multinationals, but of British companies like BP, Shell and BAe.
Time to go
It is not just Blair who has proved himself unfit to govern; the whole system of imperialism has shown itself to be entirely incapable of meeting the needs of the world's people, despite the vast wealth that modern mechanised labour has created. Today, a handful of billionaires control this wealth and use it to acquire more, while the overwhelming majority of humanity gets poorer day by day; the very wealth they produce by their labour only serving to make their oppressors more rich and powerful.
It's not just time for the troops to be pulled out of Iraq (they should never have been there!), or for Tony Blair to step down as Prime Minister; it's time the British people pulled the plug on the whole rotten system that perpetuates endless war, poverty, racism, inequality and injustice.
We need to unite with all those who are fighting British imperialism; a victory for the Iraqi, Lebanese, Palestinian or Afghan resistance against the British ruling class is also a victory for the British working class. We can make a start by refusing to cooperate in any way with the war effort, be it serving in the forces, making weapons, transporting equipment or putting out propaganda. Individually, we may be powerless, but collectively, British workers have the ultimate veto over these wars - the ruling class cannot fight them without us! | <urn:uuid:154c58b9-b3c8-4ad9-93fe-40b080665ed3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=leaflets&subName=display&leafletId=29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956721 | 1,371 | 1.703125 | 2 |
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