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The word 'Curragh' means place of the running horse in Gaelic, and the plain in County Kildare is the home of Irish racing.
The racecourse is used exclusively for flat racing, and host to all five Classics.
Home to the five Irish classics, The Curragh is a right-handed horseshoe shaped course with a circuit of two miles with no
sharp bends and a straight run in of three furlongs uphill. Races over five and six furlongs take place on an adjoining straight
course, and mile races join onto this course after a two furlong chute. It is recognised as a very fair galloping track.
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| 0.947429 | 139 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The governor’s support of changing the state fireworks law came a day after the Fort Wayne City Council discussed ways it could prompt the legislature to review the legalization of fireworks.
Councilman Tom Hayhurst, D-4th, Tuesday said he has received calls of windows being rattled from the booms.
“It sounds like there’s new monster armaments out there,” he said.
Councilman Tom Smith, R-1st, suggested the council write a letter to the state to reconsider making fireworks legal.
“I have a feeling the legislature is hearing it from all around the state,” he said.
Smith said Wednesday he was glad to hear of the governor’s support to give cities control over fireworks use.
“I think that would be wonderful,” he said. “The more control we have, the better.”
Even as he announces his support for local regulation, the Governor is still defending his decision to sign the new law liberalizing their use. Lanka writes:
Daniels said the fireworks law – passed this year – was a good one, even as a member of the audience shouted that it wasn’t because it prevented her from walking her dog or sleeping with her windows open.
The governor, however, defended the law because it eliminated the practice of people buying fireworks, saying they wouldn’t be used in Indiana, but still setting them off in the state.“We were making liars out of honest people,” he said.
He also said he supported the 5 percent tax on the explosives that will provide cash to create the first state-supported system for firefighter training in Indiana history.
State Rep. Randy Borror (R-Ft. Wayne) also told Lanka that a review of the new law will be taken up by the legislature next year and that changes are likely. It looks like this issue has the makings of supplanting other controversial issues, such as the privatization of the toll road and daily saving times, at least for the time being.
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| 0.977225 | 427 | 1.554688 | 2 |
A cargo plane full of Malian rebels is heading for N.Ireland say the Ministry of Defence.
The offer of help came from the rebels after it became obvious that despite nearly 500 years of sectarian violence blighting the province, the British government still has no answer to the ongoing problem.
A spokesman for the Ansar Dine said that with the British military yet again meddling in affairs that do not concern them that it was only fair that – in return - foreign nationals from Africa and the Middle East should try and solve the problems found on British soil.
The rebels say that during their stay in N.Ireland they hope to learn how it is possible to keep some vague, half forgotten grievance festering for 100s of years and how best to channel the hatred you have for your neighbours into some sort of cold, irrational festering malevolence.
There are even genuine hopes that being able to determine the enemy from the colour of his skin and not the colour of the flag he is carrying could unite the pale, pock marked Craggy Islanders.
But leaders from both divides insist that without the hatred they have for one another they would struggle to have an identity and that hatred is the only thing that defines them as a nation.
But with their hatred for one another barely 5 years old, few Malians believe they will be able to spin it out over the next 500 years.
Some Malians are already admitting they can’t remember what it is they hate each other for although veterans from The Troubles were quick to point out that such a dilemma has never stopped the people of N.Ireland....not once...not once in over 500 years.....not once in over 500 years of pointless bloodshed, mayhem and violence.
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January 13, 2006
The non-profit group habitat for humanity is making big things happen in Aiken County. More than three hundred women have signed up to help build homes for those in need. News 12 is on your side with what single-parent families stand to gain.
For Kip Boyd and his two young sons, it was too sweet a deal to pass up.
"It's a dream, you know what I mean? It's a dream come true," said Kip Boyd, Habitat homeowner.
A dream built by Habitat for Humanity, the same group that placed other families like the Boyds in this Warrenridge neighborhood.
"It's just such a sense of pride for the homeowner as well as the volunteers who helped to build it," said Lisa Carlton, administrative volunteer.
According to Volunteer Administrator Lisa Carlton, the boards and bricks are quick to leave the ground these days thanks to hundreds of women making three bedroom homes far more available than in the past. They started this home for example, just two months ago.
"I felt like if we invited 'em they would come and come they did. Over three hundred women," Carlton said.
"I would really love to see it. I really would. I really would," said Debbie Martin.
Debbie Martin is a potential candidate for a Habitat home. She's disabled on a fixed income and could use a break on her monthly bills.
"I've applied but they haven't approved me yet," Martin said.
"Having cheaper payments lets you afford more things, you know what i mean? A better car, a better life," Boyd said.
And for Kip's boys, their own bedroom, for their dog, a big yard, luxuries dealt strictly through a labor of love.
"You're just talking about it gives me chill bumps," Carlton said.
The breakdown of these homes is this: They're three bedrooms with one and a half bathrooms. Typically, owners pay $320 dollars a month and a 20-to-25 year mortgage. Even better, sponsors pay for the materials to build your home and you, yourself are encouraged to help out with that. For more information, you can call (803)642-9295.
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| 0.975905 | 460 | 1.5 | 2 |
There are tons of interesting mechanics you can integrate into a static board.
For a positional-based game like Chess or Checkers, you could add terrain or interesting shapes. Note for example how much more interesting the Stratego board is because it has those two lakes in the middle, creating three major choke points.
For a territory-control game like Risk, structuring the territories to form interesting shapes or clusters and unique landmarks on the board is more interesting than something purely symmetric. In Risk, both South America and Australia are easy to defend but give only a minor bonus, making them natural areas of early-game contention. In Pandemic, South America is an interesting region because it has the only dead-end location that's hard to get to, while Eurasia is also interesting because it has a lot of interconnected cities that lend themselves to major outbreak problems.
For a roll-and-move game like Monopoly or Life, make the spaces you land on interesting by having them give the players meaningful choices. This is one of the major reasons why the board game Talisman is marginally more palatable than Chutes & Ladders.
You can also, of course, include mechanics that change the nature of the board over time. Maybe you have some tokens that get placed on the board that make certain spaces temporarily (or permanently) impassable, or adding some additional effect to visiting those spaces. That keeps the board dynamic, even if the original starting game state is always the same.
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|Mavs Tenure:||1980-1987, 1994-1996|
Dick Motta was the inaugural head coach of the Dallas Mavericks and served as head coach from 1980-1987. Under Motta's supervision as coach, the Mavericks steadily improved their regular season record and recorded a 267-307 record in his seven years in Dallas.
Before his tenure with Dallas, Motta was the coach for the Chicago Bulls (1968-1975) and Washington Bullets (1976-1979). He spent one season coaching in Sacramento before returning to coach the Mavericks from 1994 to 1996. Motta would coach one year in Denver before officially retiring in 1997 with a career record of 935-1017
Born September 3, 1931, John Richard Motta was raised in Midvale, Utah. He began his coaching career at Idaho's Grace High School after a short stint in the Air Force. Despite an NBA Championship, Motta said his biggest thrill was winning the 1959 Class AA Idaho high school title, with former Sacramento Kings head coach Phil Johnson as his star player.
Motta coached at Weber State from 1962-1968, going 120-33 and winning three Big Sky titles in just six years. After originally aspiring to become a wrestling or football coach, Motta was cut from his high school basketball team as a senior and then four staight years while at Utah State. He had never seen an NBA game before coaching in one in 1968 at age 37. Madison Square Garden officials even refused to believe he was the coach of the Bulls until a Chicago trainer vouched for him.
Motta was named NBA Coach of the Year after the 1970-71 season while with the Bulls and won his first NBA Championship while with the Bullets in 1978.
Motta is perhaps more noted for seemingly coining the term, "It ain't over til the fat lady sings." When really the phrase was originated by San Antonio sportswriter and TV sportscaster Dan Cook, Motta is considered the man who made the term famous. During the 1978 NBA Eastern Conference Semi-Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, Cook used the phrase to encourage fans of the Spurs, who were down three games to one against Motta's Bullets. When hearing of Cook's saying, Motta responded and coined his own version of the term -- "The opera isn't over 'til the fat lady sings" -- in an effort to inspire Bullets fans.
The underdog Bullets would later go on to win the series against the Spurs, beat the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals and ultimately win the NBA Finals by beating the Seattle SuperSonics.
After Game 7 of the NBA Finals, Motta celebrated by wearing a t-shirt that read "The Opera isn't Over 'Til The Fat Lady Sings."
Motta-isms, which were excerpts from Motta's coaching philosophy were popular among NBA fans. Among the isms are: "I was going to be a coach from the time I was 13 years old. I still love the game. I think I am as viable as I was when I came in. I don't get as excited before the games, but I am as intense inside during the games."
Dallas Mavericks general manager Norm Sonju hired Motta on July 16, 1980, giving the expansion Mavericks instant credibility.
"There were many times when I wondered if we were doing the right thing by going with all the young kids. There is no role model on our team. No one for our young kids to look up to. When we went into our first playoff game, not one player had ever played a minute of a playoff game that counted. I've had to coach and do and say things a little harder than you would if you had a great role model that the y oung players respected."
"About three days into the (first Mavericks) training camp, I was hoping that I could take some type of a time tablet and play a Rip Van Winkle, and have someone wake me up in three or four years."
"When I looked out at the talent when Bob Weiss and I surveyed our kingdom, I said there were basically four types of people: people with bad contracts, people with bad injury, people with bad attitude or a bad player. Some of them qualified for three of the four categories."
Despite the varying types on the first-year roster, it only took Motta four years to get the Mavericks into the playoffs as Dallas became only the 10th team in NBA history to improve upon it's record in four consecutive seasons.
"Our fans are more loyal than maybe we deserve, but they are appreciated. We feel they are the most loyal fans in the league. I, as a coach, don't understand the phenomena of the Dallas fan, but not understanding it doesn't take away from my appreciation of them."
After being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in 1986-1987 by Seattle, Motta shocked the team and its fans by resigning.
As quickly as Motta was gone from the NBA...he returned. Taking on the task of turning around the Sacramento Kings. Taking the job after the season had begun, the Kings went 16-38 the remainder of the way. The next season, they improved to 25-57 but Motta was again gone the following year after beginning the season 7-18.
A three-year sabatical was all Motta needed to recharge his batteries and again answer the second time that Dallas General Manager Norm Sonju camd calling. Taking over from Quinn Buckner who had recorded a 13-69 record, Motta breathed new life into the team in 1994-1995 as Dallas improved an amazing 23 games to 36-46 winning more games than they had in the prior two years combined. Of course it didn't help that the team was led by NBA Co-Rookie of the Year, Jason Kidd.
The Mavs were a beat-up team the following season losing 212 player games due to injury or illness, not to mention losing Roy Tarpley when in December, the NBA announced he had violated the terms of his after-care program and was disqualified from the league. The team lost ground finishing only 26-56 with Motta leaving after the season.
There was one more NBA stop for Dick Motta as he coached the Denver Nuggets for 69 games in the 1996-1997 campaign, going 17-52 and completeing his professional career with a 935-1017 record and is still in the top ten all-time winningest coaches in NBA history.
Motta and his wife Janice have three children: Kip, Jody and Kirt. He now has completely retired from the professional basketball scene and runs an inn with his wife and daughter in Fish Haven, Idaho.
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This week dozens of executives from top technology companies and VC funds trekked to D.C. from around the country to deliver a plea to President Obama, Administration cabinet officials and our elected leaders on both sides of the aisle.
Topping our TechNet wish list are improvements in the nation's education system and stronger support for our human capital; fostering a globally competitive business climate; and driving investment for clean technology and 21st century energy solutions.
Besides this wish list, the tech leaders ranging from Oracle, Cisco, Solazyme, Bloom Energy and others also delivered something loved by all D.C. denizens...new polling data of likely U.S. voters.
Key findings from our new Zogby survey* found an American public that understands technology is central to our future growth. The results also show that voters understand that our lead in technology will wither unless we provide the proper ingredients.
Highlights from the survey provide good insight into Americans' views on our future competitiveness:
• U.S. voters believe our students are not competitive. Fully 78% of likely voters surveyed agreed that America's schools are failing to adequately prepare our children for the high-skilled jobs of the future. Thus, we need to do everything we can to better train our kids.
• Americans strongly support high skilled legal immigration. Roughly two-thirds of likely voters (66%) believe that it's acceptable to bring in highly-skilled individuals from other nations through the nation's legal immigration process if an American is not available to fill jobs that require high-level engineering or science skills. One-fifth (20%) think that the job should be left open indefinitely. This is good news as Duke University research shows that one-quarter of U.S. tech companies were founded by foreigners. In Silicon Valley, it's 52% of startups founded or co-founded by people born outside our borders so we must not close our borders to innovation as very smart people will create these companies (and jobs) elsewhere if we're not careful.
• Broadband is essential. An overwhelming number of respondents (91%) believe that broadband access is somewhat or very important in their lives. Additionally, 43% would be more likely to vote for their member of Congress if they supported investing in broadband improvements (27% were less likely). The power of broadband was brought to life for us by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski about how telemedicine enabled broadband can successfully treat a rare eye disease causing blindness in newborn children. Because of broadband, doctors can do remote diagnostics and don't have to send handwritten drawings by fax of babies' eyes miles away as a course of treatment. With broadband enable telemedicine, those treatments can be diagnosed remotely and treated fast locally.
• The tech sector and clean tech can create jobs. When asked what industries have the most potential to create good-paying, long-term jobs, the technology sector (28%) and green energy (28%) tied for top billing. Manufacturing was the third highest response with 18%.
• Americans would pay a bit more for clean technologies. 62% of likely voters would support short-term, small increases in their monthly energy bill if it would lead to new innovations that would ultimately lower their bills, reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels and create more high-paying jobs in the U.S. One-fifth (21%) of Americans would be less likely to support such an increase.
• Foreign competitors may lead innovation if we're not careful. The majority (58%) of likely voters believe a foreign country will drive the most technological innovation in the next decade. Only 33% of those polled think the U.S. will drive the most innovation in this period. To us, this number just reflects the fact that we need to re-double our efforts for the U.S. to have a strong innovation plan. The Chinese act on 5 year innovation plans - and so should America.
On one hand, the data shows that Americans have real concerns about our ability to innovate and grow. But overall, it shows that the Obama administration and Congress will have plenty of support on improving education and technology as keys to our nation's economic success.
TechNet's executives understand that having access to highly educated talent is one critical component for future growth. Fortunately, there is increasingly a desire in Washington to improve student's facilities and update our nation's visa laws. These fixes combined with intelligent investments in broadband, clean tech and R&D will all contribute to a stronger environment of success and innovation in America.
* Methodology: The Zogby-463 survey of 4,143 likely U.S. voters was conducted from March 12-15 with a margin of error of +/- 1.6 percentage points.
Rey Ramsey is the President and CEO of TechNet, a national, bipartisan network of CEOs that promotes the growth of technology industries and the economy by building long-term relationships between technology leaders and policymakers and by advocating a targeted policy agenda. TechNet has offices in Washington, DC, Palo Alto, Sacramento, Seattle, Boston and Austin. Web address: www.technet.org.
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In an industry where the value chain and the master product are both complex, it is hardly surprising that developing an all-embracing programme of environmentally-friendly business activities is taking time. That said, however, in my position as Managing Director of the self-adhesive label industry association in Europe, I have seen significant advances in the last year that are delivering practical, quantifiable results that prove our industry has genuinely moved on from rhetoric to establishing a real pathway to sustainability.
FINAT has enthusiastically embraced the key role of providing its members with an information source on all aspects of environmental conformance, driven today by specialist sub-committees focussing on sustainability and recycling as well as technical issues and test methods, and industry trends, and supported by the association’s raft of industry-standard technical publications and test methods and events around Europe. In the sustainability arena, FINAT is currently actively engaged in projects involving label release liner recycling, both paper and film; the recycling of label matrix waste into energy; solving the issues around contamination of thermoformed PET containers by self-adhesive labels; and defining the parameters for environmentally-friendly adhesive technology.
FINAT’s partner association in the United States, The Tag & Label Manufacturers Institute (TLMI), is also extremely active in the area of sustainability. Its LIFE (Label Initiative for the Environment) programme offers an audited business sustainability certification process tailored to the label converting industry. TLMI has also separated its focus on sustainability issues into specific task forces – with matrix waste and spent release liner (again, both paper and film) the two main targets. With just one country to take care of, TLMI’s mission may seem simpler than that of FINAT, which mentors around 50 different sovereign states – but the distances involved in waste collection in the United States are challenging. According to TLMI, around 270,000 tons of label matrix waste are currently generated in North America, and only an estimated 1% is recycled. A similar measurement for Europe is not available, but I somehow doubt that the outcome would be any better.
It is also true to say that the focus on sustainability and recycling in our industry is now world-wide. The Global Label Association, L9, has unanimously committed to a reduced carbon footprint in every aspect of the self-adhesive labelling supply chain – from raw material manufacture to end-use application and spent liner recycling. The Association embraces members from Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Mexico, and New Zealand, as well as FINAT and TLMI, and is actively liaising with both brand owners and major retail groups as well as the public sector to achieve environmental sustainability for self-adhesive labelling. This is an inspiring example of how, at a regional and local level, global goals can be pursued and achieved.
A growing spectrum of opportunities
Potential uses for both waste matrix and spent release liner – from closed-loop recycling through, for example, fuel pellets, engineered fuels, and waste-to-energy are, of course, being identified, examined, and recommended to member companies by all the label associations.
Of course, as in all responsible industries, the route to success in this arena begins with lean manufacturing practices and a reduced carbon footprint. FINAT member companies – including label converters, raw material suppliers, press and auxiliary equipment and automatic label applicator manufacturers, and self-adhesive laminators – are already experts here. At all levels of the chain, reduced set-up time and material waste have already been achieved, and technology advances have delivered considerable energy savings in such areas as drying – both of labelstock during manufacturing, and inks on-press. Digital technology advances have also streamlined pre-press activities as well as digital label print – both of which create a hugely flexible platform for label making that even enables multiple short label runs on the same labelstock to be ‘piggybacked’ on press for optimal efficiency in material, time, and energy usage. In some European countries – significantly Germany – practical financial assistance in achieving technology advances in support of sustainability is offered. Additionally, leading labelstock laminators are also offering a collection service for labelstock waste products from their converter customers.
At our recent FINAT Congress, a ‘round-table discussion’ brought together a panel of label converters from both sides of the Atlantic who all confirmed – and proved — their commitment to grasp every opportunity to save waste, time, and cost – both for the benefit of the environment, and their businesses. It is at the converter level of the label industry that self-adhesive labels actually make their physical appearance, and are then passed on to the brand manufacturers and contract packers who will apply them. While release liner plays its part in ensuring accurate, smooth, fast, label application at the packer’s premises, label matrix waste remains with the converter, in need of a solution that does not involve landfill.
Saying ‘no’ to landfill
It is one of FINAT’s major challenges to assist converters across Europe in making sustainable use of their matrix waste. The waste-to-energy channels already mentioned are an option. In addition label matrix waste can also today be recycled into wood-plastic composite products.
However, FINAT sees its prime role today as a facilitator in creating a ‘chain of custody’ for spent release liner involving the end user. For end-user companies that choose to take advantage of it, financial payback is available from industrial recyclers for film release liner, both PET and PP. Siliconised paper release liner, however, requires more specialised treatment. In this respect, Germany has led the way. VskE, the German label association, has actively promoted the services of the specialist recycling company Lenzing Paper Mill in Austria, working with independent facilitators Cycle4green (C4G). Together, they are actively closing the loop between converter, end user, and recycler. A regular collection rota has been created for spent release liner from end users’ packaging lines identified by converters, and who are prepared to participate in the scheme. C4G manages the logistics – collecting and delivering recyclables — and maintains the day-to-day contacts with converters and brand owners ‘customers’.
Major release paper manufacturers, too, have developed two important waste collection initiatives in central Europe. UPM offers a closed-loop system for release liner recycling in its paper production. Paper release liner is de-siliconised at UPM’s Plattling mill in Germany, and then re-used as raw material for different paper grades. This initiative is open to the whole labelling value chain, across the whole of Europe, regardless of the origin or colour of the material. Customised liner waste collection and logistic solutions are offered, alongside the company’s labelstock waste management programme.
Most recently, Ahlstrom has announced it will collect spent glassine liner (supercalendered kraft paper) and recycle it into the production of the company’s specialty papers at its Osnabrück mill in Germany. Ahlstrom’s logistics partners will collect the material from brand owners or printers free of charge, provided a minimum collection quantity is met. The scheme will work across Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands.
A parallel system is in the course of start-up in Switzerland, where three leading label printers have created a ‘map route’ of their customers in the country’s industrial areas, for collection of spent liner by logistics and support partners C4G for recycling at Lenzing. The scheme will be rolled out to smaller printers and their customers, as in Germany, in due course.
These pathways would appear to be the very best answer for reclaiming valuable spent paper release liner into new paper production: true closed-loop recycling. They however face the significant challenge of moving from being an opportunity to being a widely-adopted route, achieving economically-viable throughput volumes of spent liner to keep the mill systems running and reduce landfill. To give an example of the challenge, the label industry is so far contributing less than 10% of the Lenzing mill’s annual paper waste intake.
The long, long road to success
It is here, therefore, that the self-adhesive label industry needs help from the end user brand-owning and contract packing companies who use its label products. Reaching the right people to set up liner collection is a difficult task. First, the converter or his representative needs to get ‘buy in’ from the sustainability leader in the end-user company – often a person at board level, far from the location of the packaging line the converter serves. That achieved, purchasing and packaging managers have to be convinced that there are sustainability improvements and cost savings to be made by buying into a label waste collection process – a process which involves far smaller quantities than for, eg cartonboard or plastic films. Finally, the site manager must be contacted: he is finally the person with whom to organise preparation of spent liner waste, and collection timings. This affirmation cycle can take weeks and months.
There are, I believe, around 8,000 end-user customers of self-adhesive label converters in the EU alone. All of them have a contribution to make to improving not only the sustainability credentials of their own companies, but also that of the self-adhesive label industry. In the process, liner collection and recycling can give new life to valuable paper-based products. On behalf of Europe’s 3000 or so self-adhesive label converters, I appeal to brand owners – especially those in high-volume market segments such as food, beverage, and personal care – to facilitate a path to spent release liner collection. FINAT is here to help identify available local pathways that answer companies’ individual needs without creating difficulty or complexity. As raw material costs continue to escalate and the world’s natural resources diminish, this is a true opportunity to contribute to the sustainability of a leading product decoration technology.
Jules Lejeune is managing director of the European self-adhesive label association FINAT.
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- Google I/O 2013's Coolest Products and Services
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IDG News Service - Advanced Micro Devices showed off a Windows 8 tablet running the company's upcoming tablet chip code-named Temash, which the company hopes will reverse a string of past failures and provide enough ammunition to compete with tablet chip leaders ARM and Intel.
The prototype tablet made by Wistron has a 10.6-inch screen and plays full 1080p high-definition video. AMD has mostly been repurposing netbook chips for tablets, and the tablet demonstration was intended to showcase the progress made by AMD in making chips exclusively for tablets.
The Temash chip will be targeted at high-performance tablets that can run full HD games and productivity applications, and also have features that will enable long battery life, said Lisa Su, senior vice president at AMD, during a company press conference on Monday at the International CES trade show held in Las Vegas.
Many tablets are mostly content consumption devices that don't provide the capability to run full applications, Su said. Temash will be able to run a full operating system like Windows 8, while drawing less than 5 watts of power and providing long battery life to tablets.
The Temash chip will come in dual-core and quad-core variants. The chip will be 100 percent faster than the existing Z60 tablet chip, which was introduced in October and is currently found in only a handful of devices such as tablets from Fujitsu and Vizio.
The first tablets based on the Temash chips could reach shelves later this year, Su said. However, she could not provide a price for Temash-based tablets.
The Temash chip will be critical for AMD. The company has already failed with its first two tablet chips including last year's Hondo and its Z-01 tablet chip, which was announced in 2011 but failed as it appeared in only a handful of unsuccessful devices.
The fast-growing tablet market is one of AMD's top priorities as it tries to step away from its heavy reliance on the slumping PC market. The lack of a coherent tablet strategy forced former CEO Dirk Meyer to leave the company in 2011. Former Lenovo exec Rory Read was appointed AMD's CEO in August 2011, and the company has now retooled its chip road map as it tries to jump out of its financial struggles.
Tablets have mostly evolved around ARM processors, which are used in notable products such as Apple's iPad, Amazon's Kindle Fire HD and Microsoft's Surface. By comparison, adoption of the more power-hungry x86 tablet chips from Intel and AMD has been much slower.
But AMD is behind Intel even in the x86 tablet chip market. Device makers like Lenovo, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Acer and Asus have announced Windows 8 tablets with Intel's tablet-specific Atom Z2760 chip code-named Clover Trail. Some high-performance Windows 8 tablets also use the Core processors based on the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, and Intel is introducing low-power Ivy Bridge chips for tablets.
The Temash tablet chip is based on the faster and more power-efficient Jaguar CPU core. The chip will have an advantage over its Intel and ARM counterparts with 64-bit addressing capabilities, with which device makers will be able to add more memory and storage in tablets. The capability will also give Temash-based tablets the ability to run older 64-bit applications written for older Windows operating systems.
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Expert Q&A: Questions About Your Problem Skin -- Answered
Posted 04/01/11 at 11:51AM by Audrey Fine
Question: I have acne prone skin, however, I am 40 so I need to know what I can use to help aging effects without flaring up my acne. -- Nicole G.
Answer: "Avoid oil containing products," suggests Dr. Jones who also recommends making sure to "wear an oil free non-comedogenic SPF 30 or greater each morning." (Non-comedogenicmeans it's less likely to clog your pores.) Try Olay Complete Defense Daily UV Moisturizer, $13.
Question: Is Metrogel good for acne? -- Nicole M.
Answer: While it's not typically indicated for acne vulgaris (regular, run-of-the-mill acne), Dr. Jones has this to say about prescription-only Metrogel. "[This prescription] is approved for acne rosacea which is a subtype of acne consisting of pimples on the nose and cheeks, facial flushing and facial red blood vessels. It is best to consult with a board certified dermatologist to determine which type of acne you may have and the best treatment options [available to you.] (Learn more about treating rosacea -- the right way." Similarly, if you've been experimenting with various acne treatments to no avail, it's a good idea to consult with a derm who will best be able to map out a treatment plan designed with your specific skin needs in mind.
Question: I have oily skin that's prone to blackheads, but I also have rosacea. Cleansers to control oil and scrubs to prevent blackheads inflame my rosacea and thick moisturizers with SPF calm my rosacea [but] clog my pores! (Did I mention I am also trying to fight aging?) Is there a combination of routines that would work for all my skin problems? -- Meghan H.
Answer: Dr. Jones recommends that Meghan "Avoid scrubs and calming moisturizers [that contain] oil" and says that she should, "Make sure to wear an oil free, non-comedogenic SPF 30 or greater each morning" to fight aging. For her rosacea concerns, Dr. Jones says that, "If it's not responding [to your current regimen], I would recommend a consultation with a board certified dermatologist as there are several prescription therapies designed for your skin type."
Question: What are the best organic makeups and creams to keep my skin clear? -- Nicole M.
Answer: As mentioned above, it's best to look for oil free, non-comedogenic products that are less likely to cause breakouts. (Vapour Organic is a non-comedogenic, organic line infused with hydrating botanicals that boasts both cosmetic and skin care products.)
For more of Dr. Jones' insights and expert advice watch this Anti-Aging Skin Care: 101 video or this one about how to get touchably soft skin.
Our Expert Guides
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Troy Wayland - Teen reviewer
The movie "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is based around the era 1585, probably one of the best eras for stonework and huge cathedrals. At this time you should know from your history books that Spain was the most powerful empire in the world. It was interesting to see how religion played an extremely important part in both England and Spain. Spain was trying to rid the world of the evil queen and acquire her land.
Cate Blanchett plays Queen Elizabeth. The other main character is played by Clive Owen, the male lead, of course. He portrays the everyday "Player," like the guy that tries to get what he wants from the women.
Queen Elizabeth is quite attracted to his looks and charm, but must keep her distance from him, because he is not of royal blood, so she cannot pursue the relationship.
This movie is rated PG-13, I'm not quite sure why. There is no violence, no cursing and only a brief shot of the queen, naked from the back. I was disappointed because when I looked at the poster outside of the Sawmill Theatres, the poster said for "Queen Elizabeth Woman Warrior Queen." She does however dress up in armor, mounts her horse and give a victory speech to the men going into battle and that's about it.
I liked the movie for its abstract language and old-age voice. The characters were beautifully dressed, with some characters having distinct "pirate" clothing.
One cool thing that the guys might like about this movie, besides all the talking, would be a scene where a guy is in an iron maiden in the torture chamber.
So overall, this movie showed a good depiction of the history of Queen Elizabeth's reign and the battle between England and Spain.
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278: Spies Like Us
Nov 19, 2004
Stories about amateur spies—regular people who spy on other regular people, and the consequences of their spying.
- When Burt Covit was programming his VCR one day, he accidentally tuned in to a channel showing the lobby of a building. He started to watch, and couldn't stop. Then a mysterious woman appeared, wearing a pill-box hat. Burt told this story on the CBC radio program Wiretap. Jonathan Goldstein, a contributing editor to This American Life, is the host of Wiretap. This story is a work of fiction, staged as a radio interview. (12 minutes)
Song: " Television," Robyn Hitchcock
- Writer Beth Lisick decides to try a new strategy to get her infant to sleep better, and buys a baby monitor as part of the deal. Soon, she's hearing her neighbors make drug deals over the monitor's frequency. And then she learns some other, more complicated information. (15 minutes)
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The HECIWG is chartered by the The National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD). The purpose of the IWG is to coordinate high-end computing (HEC) programs, budgets and policy recommendations. This includes identifying and integrating requirements, conducting joint program planning and developing joint strategies for the HEC programs conducted by agencies that participate in the NITRD Program. A complete description of the HEC IWG can be found at NITRD's website.
The need for immense and rapidly increasing scale in scientific computation drives the need for rapidly increasing scale in storage for scientific processing. Individual storage devices are rapidly getting denser while their bandwidth is not growing at the same pace. In the past several years, initial research into highly scalable file systems, high level Input/Output (I/O) libraries, and I/O middleware was done to provide some solutions to the problems that arise from massively parallel storage. To help plan for the research needs in the area of File Systems and I/O, the inter-government-agency document titled "HPC File Systems and Scalable I/O: Suggested Research and Development Topics for the Fiscal 2005-2009 Time Frame" was published which led the HECIWG to designate this area (FSIO) as a national focus area starting in FY06.
The HEC FSIO was created to advise the HECIWG in coordination of government R&D funding in HEC File Systems and I/O area so that the government's investment in this area of HEC is well spent, reduces gaps and overlaps. We are attempting to enable more and better R&D and pass along the knowledge to the next generation.
The agencies involved are:
Subscribe to the HEC-FSIO mailing list by sending "subscribe hec-fsio" to [email protected] !
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Original Broadway Poster
Robert Edwin Lee
|Basis||Novel by Patrick Dennis
1969 West End
1983 Broadway revival
Mame is a musical with the book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Originally titled My Best Girl, it is based on the 1955 novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis and a 1956 Broadway play, by Lawrence and Lee, that starred Rosalind Russell. Set in New York and spanning the Great Depression and World War II, it focuses on eccentric bohemian, Mame Dennis, whose famous motto is "Life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death." Her fabulous life with her wealthy friends is interrupted when the young son of her late brother arrives to live with her. They cope with the Depression in a series of adventures.
In 1958, a film titled Auntie Mame, based on the play, was released by Warner Brothers once again starring Rosalind Russell in the title role. Russell was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe for her portrayal.
The musical opened on Broadway in 1966, starring Angela Lansbury and Beatrice Arthur. The production became a hit and spawned a 1974 film with Lucille Ball in the title role and Arthur reprising her supporting role, as well as a London production, a Broadway revival, and a 40th anniversary revival at the Kennedy Center in 2006.
The musical was inspired by the success of the 1956 Broadway comedy and subsequent 1958 film version starring Rosalind Russell, as well as the 1955 novel by Patrick Dennis. Dennis wrote several more comic novels, including a sequel, Around the World with Auntie Mame, and Little Me, which was made into a Broadway musical starring Sid Caesar. The success of that musical may have prompted Lawrence and Lee to turn Mame into a musical. Mary Martin turned down the title role, and after numerous actresses had been considered, the part went to Angela Lansbury. Jerry Herman tried to cast Judy Garland, and wrote the show with her in mind. He was talked out of it by her managers who thought she could not handle the stress of eight shows a week on Broadway.
Original Broadway
The musical opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on May 24, 1966. Three years later, it transferred to The Broadway Theatre, where it remained until closing on January 3, 1970. Between the two venues, it ran a total of 1,508 performances and five previews. The musical was directed by Gene Saks, choreographed by Onna White with scenic design by William and Jean Eckart, costume design by Robert Mackintosh, lighting design by Tharon Musser and orchestrations by Philip J. Lang. Besides Lansbury as Mame, the cast included Bea Arthur as Vera Charles, Frankie Michaels as Patrick, Jane Connell as Agnes Gooch, and Willard Waterman (who had played Claude Upson in the 1958 film) as Dwight Babcock.
Lansbury, Arthur and Michaels all won Tony Awards, while Saks, White, the writers, Herman, and set designers William and Jean Eckart all received nominations.
Celeste Holm, Ann Miller, Jane Morgan, and Janis Paige succeeded Lansbury in the title role. Lansbury left the Broadway production on March 30, 1968, on a limited US tour while it was still playing on Broadway. The tour played in San Francisco starting in April 1968 and also played Los Angeles.
West End
Other productions
Angela Lansbury led the second National Tour after her first Broadway replacement Celeste Holm led the first. Susan Hayward appeared in the Las Vegas production, while such stars as Ann Sothern, Janet Blair, Elaine Stritch, Patrice Munsel, Carol Lawrence and Juliet Prowse have appeared in stock or touring productions.
Despite the presence of Lansbury, a much-heralded Broadway revival was ultimately unsuccessful. After seven previews, it opened on July 24, 1983 at the George Gershwin Theatre, where it ran for only 41 performances.
Paper Mill Playhouse produced the musical starring Christine Ebersole. The Kennedy Center production ran from June 1, 2006 until July 2, and starred Christine Baranski as Mame, Harriet Sansom Harris as Vera, with Emily Skinner as Gooch.
A 1974 film version of the musical starred Lucille Ball, Bea Arthur as Vera and Robert Preston as Beauregard. Although it attracted an audience it was considered disappointing by the critics because Lucille Ball was considered not up to the musical demands of the title role.
The madcap life of eccentric Mame Dennis and her bohemian, intellectual arty clique is disrupted when her deceased brother's 10-year-old son Patrick is entrusted to her care. Rather than bow to convention, Mame introduces the boy to her free-wheeling lifestyle, instilling in him her favorite credo, "Life is a banquet, and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death." Also figuring in the story line are Mame's personal secretary and nanny-in-law, Agnes Gooch; her "bosom buddy" Vera Charles, the baritone actress and world's greatest lush; and Dwight Babcock, the stuffy and officious executor of Patrick's father's estate. Mame loses her fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and tries her hand at a number of jobs, with comically disastrous results, but perseveres with good humor and an irrepressible sense of style.
Mame eventually meets and marries Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside, a Southern aristocrat with a Georgia plantation called Peckerwood. The trustees of Mame's late brother (Patrick's father) force Mame to send Patrick off to boarding school (the fictional St Boniface, in Massachusetts), and Mame and Beau travel the world on an endless honeymoon that finally ends when Beau falls to his death while mountain climbing. Mame returns home a wealthy widow to discover that Patrick has become a priggish snob engaged to an equally priggish debutante, Gloria Upson, from a bigoted family. Mame brings Patrick to his senses just in time to introduce him to the woman who eventually will become his wife. As the story ends, Mame is preparing to take Patrick's young son Peter to India (Siberia in the 1974 film version) with her usual flair.
Musical numbers
In 1966, Bobby Darin, Louis Armstrong, and Herb Alpert all charted in the United States and Canada with their cover records of the musical's title song. Eydie Gormé had a huge success with her recording of "If He Walked into My Life", for which she received a 1967 Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance. "We Need a Little Christmas" is a well known holiday tune and can be heard in several Disney Christmas parades.
The cut song "Camouflage", between Mame Dennis and Vera Charles before the discussion of whether Patrick could stay with Mame, was released on the 1999 CD release, performed by Jerry Herman and Alice Borden. Another cut song "Love is only Love" was sung by Mame to Patrick before "The Fox Hunt", but was later used in the movie version of Hello, Dolly!.
Awards and nominations
Original Broadway production
|1966||Tony Award||Best Musical||Nominated|
|Best Composer and Lyricist||Jerry Herman||Nominated|
|Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical||Angela Lansbury||Won|
|Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical||Frankie Michaels||Won|
|Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical||Beatrice Arthur||Won|
|Best Direction of a Musical||Gene Saks||Nominated|
|Best Choreography||Onna White||Nominated|
|Best Scenic Design||William and Jean Eckart||Nominated|
|Theatre World Award||Jerry Lanning||Won|
See also
- "Sons of bitches" was changed to "suckers" in the film version. Weaver, David E. "Mame’s Boys: Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee", Ohioana Quarterly, Fall 2006, Ohioana Library Association, accessed September 5, 2012
- Allmusic's review of Mame
- " 'Mame' " AngelaLansbury.net, accessed December 31, 2011
- Zolotow, Sam (December 29, 1967). The New York Times. p. 17.
- "Mame Realigning Cast for Departing Star". New York Times. March 13, 1968. p. 39.
- Windeler, Robert (June 29, 1968). "Angela Lansbury a Hit in Coast 'Mame'". New York Times. p. 19.
- Rich, Frank. "Stage: Angela Lansbury Stars In 'Mame' Revival", The New York Times, July 25, 1983
- "Christine Baranski 'Mame' Will Not Play Broadway", Playbill, 2006
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We inherited it from my wife’s grandfather who taught telecommunications at the Post Office’s training college, in the days before BT. If anyone knows more about the booklet I’d love to hear from them.
The author of ‘No Idle Words’ is uncredited, but their sound advice still holds more than 60 years later. Compare their watchwords with those of GOV.UK:
|GPO 1951||GOV.UK 2012|
Much of it is timeless good sense, but more than that, the tone seems to chime with the specific spirit of our own age. The GOV.UK people already have a sense of that aesthetic, noting the pioneering influences of the Festival of Britain and Margaret Calvert’s road signage system.
I reckon the Post Office booklet shines a different light on the period, though.
The year of publication marked the fag-end of George VI’s reign and the start of Winston Churchill’s disappointing second term.
From the first word of the title onwards, much of ‘No Idle Words’ is devoted to the negative. Despite the superficial appeal of the call to clarity, the writer’s overriding objective is to save time and cost by fobbing off and ticking off staff and the general public more quickly and directly.
For example from page 15:
I am sorry we cannot at present give you the telephone service you have asked for. The Post Office is alive to the difficulties and incovenience caused by the present shortage of telephones, and is doing what it can to improve the situation. You will be advised as soon as there is a definite prospect of giving you service and in the meantime, it would be a great help to know if you change your address or if you wish to cancel your order.
These are the words of a post-”KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON” society. However you put it, there is no glory in telling someone they cannot have a telephone. In an austerity administration all ambition is gone. What remains is for the civil servant to deliver bad news with good grace.
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WorkSafeBC Investigating Two Fatal Mill Explosions
In the aftermath of an April 23 sawmill explosion and fire that killed at least two workers and injured several others in Prince George, BC, WorkSafeBC has ordered all British Columbia sawmill employers to conduct full hazard identification, risk assessment and safety reviews.
Lakeland Mills sawmill shift supervisor Alan Little, 43, and worker Glenn Francis Roche, 46, died. Nine other workers suffered severe injuries in the explosion. There were 24 employees working in the mill at the time.
The WorkSafeBC order directs sawmills to pay particular attention to combustible dust accumulations and potential ignition sources. The agency says it will be following up on the orders to confirm that required actions have been taken and that sawmills are in compliance with the province’s Workers Compensation Act and Occupational Health and Safety Regulation with regard to combustible dust and potential safety hazards.
WorkSafeBC is also investigating a January 2012 explosion that killed two workers and injured 19 others at Babine Forest Products in the northern co
mmunity of Burns Lake, BC.
“No preliminary findings into the Burns Lake investigation are available at this time and WorkSafeBC is not in a position to release information that might compromise the process,” says Roberta Ellis, Vice President of Corporate Services. “Investigators continue to examine fuel sources including combustible sawdust and gas as well as potential ignition sources.”
“We recognize that there are similarities between the explosions in Burns Lake and Prince George—both are sawmills, dust was present in both, as in all sawmills, and both mills were working with (pine) beetle-infested wood,” she says. “However, we cannot speculate, based on these similarities, as to the cause of these events.”
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The death toll continues to rise from a meningitis outbreak. As of today, 12 deaths and more than 120 meningitis cases in the United States are being linked to tainted steroid solution from a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts.
But local health officials say there is little reason for residents in the twin states to be concerned.
"There have been no reports of people getting sick in Mississippi or Alabama," said Dr. Ken Staggs of Total Pain Care in Meridian.
According to Staggs and Dr. Eric Pearson, there likely will not be any cases of the virus reported in either state.
"The steroids have only gone to about 23 states," said Staggs. "Mississippi and Alabama are not in those states."
"As far as we know, no one in Mississippi has ordered these contaminated drugs," said Pearson.
The physicians make the point that the injections are safe and the steroids are safe. The issue with the meningitis outbreak was contamination apparently introduced at the compounding pharmacy.
Pearson said Total Pain, for instance, gets its solution direct from the manufacturer, not a compounding pharmacy.
Dr. Staggs also points out that this meningitis outbreak is not contagious because it's not like a typical viral or bacterial outbreak. Instead, it's a fungal meningitis that's tied to steroids that were contaminated by fungus while being developed at the New England Compound Center in Massachusetts. The steroid shots have been given to people to treat chronic or acute back pain.
Because steroids are not used during labor, Dr. Staggs says there's no reason for expectant moms to worry.
"In addition, we want people to know that if you're having a baby and need an epidural, it's completely safe and has nothing to do with it," Staggs said,
Meanwhile, according to officials with the Centers for Disease Control, in response to the outbreak, the potentially tainted steroid vials that were sent to 76 clinics in 23 states have all since been recalled.
With at least six deaths and 39 cases reported, the state of Tennessee is the epicenter for the outbreak with the most number of deaths and cases reported so far.
The symptoms for fungal meningitis include a severe headache, fever, nausea, chills and neck pain.
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FREDERICK MD – Computer maven and entrepreneur David Burroughs wanted to retire and take life a little easier. Years ago he sold a computer company he founded in the 1970s, Visual One, and intended to spend more time with his favorite hobby, model railroading. He’d created several extensive toy train layouts – he and his three sons all had, in fact – and he considered showing them off to the public on occasion.
Then, he thought, why not show them off all the time? Why not create a model railroad museum, and display some cars there too. And, yes, why not charge an admission fee to others who wanted to similarly enjoy his efforts?
Therein lies the July 2011 birth of the Roads And Rails Museum, found at 200 N. East St., Frederick MD, 37 miles southwest of Gettysburg PA. Burroughs has retired … sort of, the museum’s website explains. Now he, his sons John, Dave and Matt, and other staffers all work (and play) at their family’s newest business, as proof that if you do what you love the money will follow.
The museum claims to offer one of the largest 3-rail “O” scale model railroad layouts in the world – those involve the larger, Lionel-style trains so often depicted as running beneath a Christmas tree – as well as a display of vintage automobiles, and a working miniature roller coaster.
- Watch a video (above) of the train action at the museum, or see it at the YouTube channel of Outtatheway1.
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History: Ethic of reciprocity Edit History Back to page | View logs for this page Browse history From year (and earlier): From month (and earlier): all January February March April May June July August September October November December Deleted only For any version listed below, click on its date to view it. For more help, see Help:Page history. (cur) = difference from current version, (prev) = difference from preceding version, m = minor edit, → = section edit, ← = automatic edit summary (cur | prev) 13:28, August 13, 2012 Dr Joe Kiff (Talk | contribs) . . (18,306 bytes) (-25) . . (→See also) (undo) (cur | prev) 07:23, May 31, 2010 18.104.22.168 (Talk) . . (18,331 bytes) (-20) . . (undo) (cur | prev) 10:43, March 5, 2006 Lifeartist (Talk | contribs) . . (18,351 bytes) (+18,351) . . Retrieved from "http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Ethic_of_reciprocity"
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Yes, increasingly policy observers expect Congress will at least try to replace it by March 27, although there are no guarantees.
March 27 is the day funding for the government expires. To prevent a government shutdown on March 28, lawmakers must pass another funding bill -- if not for the rest of the year, then at least for a few weeks or months.
If lawmakers choose to replace the sequester, they would likely do so with a set of savings -- some real, some gimmicky -- elsewhere in the budget. And it's possible the savings would be realized over 10 years, rather than all in 2013.
What's wrong with the sequester?
It's a thoughtless, abrupt, poorly targeted way to cut spending. Sure, it will help reduce deficits in the near-term. But it won't do so in areas that are actually drivers of the country's debt.
In fact, the sequester was never intended to go into effect. The mere threat that it might was supposed to prod lawmakers to find a smarter, more gradual way to reduce deficits.
But Democrats and Republicans still can't agree on how, despite knowing this day would come for over a year.
House Republicans have proposed replacing the defense cuts with more nondefense reductions. Senate Democrats want to replace all the cuts with a mix of targeted spending cuts and tax increases. Each side rejects the other's solution.
How much will the sequester reduce deficits? Between now and 2023, projected spending would be reduced by more than $1 trillion if the sequester plus related spending caps in subsequent years are left in place, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.
Will the sequester hurt the economy?
Yes, if it stays in effect for the rest of the calendar year.
The CBO estimates that it could reduce economic growth by at least 0.6 percentage points and reduce job growth by 750,000 jobs.
Coupled with this year's payroll tax cut expiration and the higher tax rates on high-income households, the CBO estimates growth will be curtailed by a total of 1.5 percentage points.
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The committee is comprised of about 30 community and school members, nearly all of who are either students or parents of current or former students.
The purpose of the advisory committee is to anchor a several-month public process that will result in a proposal to the Juneau School Board for a secondary education program to be implemented in conjunction with the opening of Thunder Mountain High School in August 2008.
"This is one of the most important issues to affect our future," Peggy Cowan, superintendent said.
"We want to ensure the community's voice is heard on how best to meet the needs of Juneau's diverse student population. An advisory group that represents a cross-section of Juneau and a well-managed public process will help this happen."
The advisory group and the public process will be facilitated by former Colorado Principal of the Year Dave Schmid and his associate Linda Fiorella, an instructional specialist who teaches at the University of Colorado, Denver.
The public will have the opportunity to learn about and respond to a variety of current research-based "best practices" in secondary education as part of the process.
The series of advisory group meetings and related public forums, called, "Next Generation: Our Kids, Our Community," will occur from December through April. The forums will be held at every school and at a number of community locations.
The advisory committee is expected to consider public comment, review secondary models that could implement community goals, and present a recommendation to the school board by May 15. It's expected that the principal for Thunder Mountain will be hired by the end of March in order to have a full school year to implement the program for the new facility, which can accommodate over 800 students.
A Web site detailing the process, meeting times and dates, and associated research will be posted shortly.
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Web Content Display
The Possibility of Instant Realisation
A talk given by Shri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari
Dear brothers and sisters, I have already given a message which is printed in the souvenir, and I don't therefore know what to say. One thing is, of course, we must realise why we are here. Is it a celebration of an event? Is it a celebration of an opportunity? Is it a celebration of advancement already achieved? Or are we celebrating what we hope to achieve in the future? Babuji Maharaj, my great Divine Master, always emphasised that when we gather in assemblies, there is a sort of a group effort, which is far, far beyond just the multiplication. Hundred individuals does not mean hundred times the effect but could be a million times the effect, and today I believe we are about twenty- two thousand abhyasis here. If all of us put our minds and hearts together in one endeavour, I dare say that the goal would be achieved even today. [Applause] But it all depends upon us.
The Divine will is always wanting souls which have descended from above and are going around this universe in various life forms. The Divine will only wants one thing: like a mother wants her children to come home, the Divine will wants all these myriad forms of life, uncountable souls, to get back to their original home as early as possible. Divine will not is lacking. Where there is a will, there is a way. And Divinity has provided that way to us also. Sahaj Marg is at least one of those ways, if not the only way. So we have the Divine will pulling us up, we have the divine way offered to us to make it possible for us to easily, without much difficulty, without much suffering, get back to our beloved up above. The third factor is what we wish, what we will. 'There lies the rub', as Shakespeare would have put it. That is what is lacking.
So I make bold to say that the Divine has hardly any part to play. That is why long ago, some years ago, I gave a series of talks in Europe which was printed in one book, The Role of the Master in Human Evolution. Because the Divine will being there, the divine way being there, what must prod us on and on, on this, shall we say, inescapable journey of life back to its source? I very deliberately say inescapable because whether you will or not, whether you wish to or not, someday you have to come onto this path and go back. All that we do, in our human foolishness, stupidity, can only delay that progress, can only delay that journey to that ultimate destination of our original home, and that does not work in our favour as we realise when life after life, we struggle, we mistake enjoyment for pleasure, we mistake pleasure for happiness, we mistake happiness for the goal. But one day something happens - the fire is lit, and after that there is no stop. These bhandaras, these gatherings of spiritual devotees sitting together, meditating together with one goal, one aspiration, one marg [path] are meant to foster the flame of that longing, make it into a divine conflagration which should consume everything that we are, and push us up there where He is waiting for us. Therefore of course there is a celebration, there is the aspect of happiness, there is the aspect of joy, being together. But that longing for our eternal life in the Original Home, that longing must be fanned, and if these gatherings contribute to that, they are blessed gatherings.
Human beings have this proverb that 'Man shall not live by bread alone.' It is given to us by the Christian religion. We know it. You see, when we are poor and we do not have enough bread to put into our bellies, we long for bread. Then we long for butter, then we long for cheese, apricot jam, salads. And then one day when you have too much and all that too much-ness of food, of comfort, of pleasure, of happiness are not enough to satisfy something in our hearts which we feel is lacking, then comes the miraculous turn towards spiritual life. I think in the Christian Bible, it is said, "Even a camel may pass through the eye of a needle, but a rich shall never enter the doors of Heaven." I don't think that is quite true in modern life. That may have been true in the past when there were few rich people, but today we have more and more rich people, more and more affluence, more and more comfort, more and more happiness, pleasure, joy and more and more abhyasis from the affluent classes. Because they find, you see, that all this is emptiness. As the Bible again says, "Dust and ashes in the mouth." It is as if you put a jalebee [a sweet] in your mouth and it tastes like ash, and then you say, "What is this tamasha [illusion] of life?"
So the poor can come because they need God, they experience the need for God, God alone can help feed them, to give them the rain they need for their harvest; God alone can give them the happiness which modern conveniences and luxuries cannot give them, because they don't have them. Therefore they come in billions and billions. The rich come because all too soon they find out, they realise, they experience in their lives that this is not enough.
Therefore Sahaj Marg has made this miracle possible that everybody in society - rich and poor, educated and uneducated, powerful and powerless, the meek, the humble, the mighty, the strong, the arrogant, they are all here among us. Because I believe Sahaj Marg has shown to us that where the spirit is languishing, where it is not deriving its sustenance, which is what Sahaj Marg is offering in its pranahuti, the major, the greater, and in fact the vital part of me is not alive. One part of me, the bodily part, the sensory part is very much alive. But in fulfilling the sensory pleasures, and the desires and the needs of the body, we discover that, alas! That is but the tiny tip of the iceberg; the rest is all plunged in misery, whereas it should be floating in the ocean of bliss. This is the miracle of Sahaj Marg. This is what my great Master Babuji Maharaj and our great Adi Guru, Lalaji Maharaj have made possible for us to realise - not to teach. Teaching goes in through one ear and out the other ear. But when a system, when a marga, when a practice, when a padhati makes it possible for us to experience in our lives, often in just one sitting: where am I, what am I doing here, where should I be, how do I get there, we realise what a child which has lost its way coming back from school realises. There is a moment of panic, of despair: how will I get back home? Until that moment knocks in our heart, on our heart, within our heart, we are lost to spirituality and we are lost even to our material life, because in material life there is no fulfillment of any sort.
Therefore sisters and brothers, Sahaj Marg is a unique way. Because if you come here, you can realise perhaps in one sitting if you are lucky, in a few sittings definitely, that what is vital to you is missing. It is like a bundle of firewood lying there and raw rice lying here and no cooking because there is no fire in the firewood. There is no fire in us. The fire of the soul, the fire of the spirit, the fire of the eternal life, the tejas of God - the divine effulgence, that which must shine and bring more and more towards you, that is lacking. We are like a flashlight in the dark which has no battery. Battery is there - dead. It has to be charged. So again I say Sahaj Marg is a miraculous system, but without your cooperation it can do nothing for you.
Babuji Maharaj used to say that when it rains, the farmer who has ploughed his field, tilled it, made it ready it for agriculture, he makes the best use of that rain. The other man who says, "When it rains I shall see " well, may be he will utilize ten percent of that rain. The third fellow who comes after the rain has stopped, he will get nothing. Rain does not decide what we are going to produce. It is how we are prepared. Babuji Maharaj said, "The fool realises after the event, the intelligent realises during the event, the wise realise before the event." The fool realises that after he has been drunk, he is drunk and he is in the ditch, the laughing stock of everybody, perhaps has to go to the doctor. The intelligent man realises that even while he is drinking, he is doing the wrong thing and he stops. The wise man says, "Neti, Neti - not this, not this." In my opinion, this Vedic slogan of Neti Neti applies to everything that we do in life. Progressively we realise, not this, not this, not this, not this, goes on all our life until one day we come to a blessed marga like our marga with a great Master to bless us, to help us, to aid us, and we say, "Yes! This I have to do."
So if there is one thing worth doing, it is the spiritual practice. If there is one effective way that is useful for us in our life to take us back, it is our spiritual practice. If there is one person who should be our guide and our friend, he is the Master, who has only our good, our welfare and our destination in His mind, always, eternally. My Master never thought of anything in life. He was always worried, he was always concerned, he was always occupied with abhyasis. How should I do this? What can I do to help that person? Somebody's prayer coming into his consciousness, a pulse of transmission sent, some blessing to that, shall we say, suffering soul, which was felt immediately by that soul. It is not as if you know, you just say something and hope it gets there. This is what happens with temple worship. This is what happens when we pray to God. We pray with a sense of predestined despair that this may or may not happen, this prayer may or may not be answered, with the added doubt whether there is somebody at the other end of this, receiving the prayer, who will help us, who can help us. And generally our heart says "No!" because there is no contact between Him and me.
The Master, the spiritual guide, the Master of the age, He is there precisely to create this link through himself, with what we call the Ultimate. There can be no direct link with God. This must be clearly understood. Whatever be your religious belief, it does not matter. The truth is beyond all religions. Religions generally do not speak the truth. As Babuji Maharaj said, "God has no religion, religions have no God." These are bold statements which Sahaj Marg makes with, shall we say, a certain amount of fearlessness, impunity, courage, having all these attributes because it is the truth, the only truth and nothing but the truth. Without someone to establish a link between this and that, between the temporal and eternal, between the jeevatma [temporal being] and the paramatma [the Ultimate], to say that this is an amsha [essential part] of that... Yes, it is true. But what is the amsha doing here? It is like one of a flock of a sheep which has gone astray and is at the mercy of the wolves. It will not survive. It has to come back to the flock where the shepherd is. That is why the Christian prayer says, "The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. His rod and his staff, they comfort me." His rod and his staff are not to beat you with, but to keep the wolves away.
So you see, brothers and sisters of all religions, (we have many of them here from many religions,) whatever your religion may say, what ever your holy books may speak about, you must understand that without somebody who can connect you with Him, spiritual life is not possible. That is why we have in our ancient Puranas, you know the great rishis of the past, some of them (as it is said) meditated twenty five thousand years. We don't have twenty five thousand days in our life, perhaps not even twenty five thousand hours. So within this span of life available to each one of us, can we do this divine journey in one step? Babuji said, "If you take one step, you advance twenty-one inches. When He takes one step, He can advance from one end of eternity to you." Therefore this divine miracle of instant liberation is possible, instant realisation is possible, if we are willing to take that one step. Sahaj Marg offers us that possibility.
Sahaj Marg makes the probable a possible, and the possible an achievable, and the achievable an achieved object, in this lifetime. Because Babuji said, if you do not achieve in this life, what is the guarantee of another life? Some religions say there is another life, most religions don't. In any case, whatever religion may say, does it exist or not, we don't know. Sahaj Marg does not require any belief in a future life or in a past life. Sahaj Marg requires that you believe in this life, its possibilities, its potentials, its growth orientation and the definiteness of your ability to achieve it, provided you have a guide, you have a method, and you have an organisation - the three 'M's of Sahaj Marg: the Master, the Mission and the Method.
So brothers and sisters, these are all available to us; let us make wise use of them, let us convert it into the modern miracle of instant coffee, instant tea. Let us make this instant spirituality! I pray for all of you. May He bless you.
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A tee-to-green guide to great score-saving plays
Shotmaking is a broad term and one that’s typically reserved for highly skilled players. Yet all golfers, even those who have a tough time breaking 90, should consider themselves shotmakers. Face it, the game of golf constantly demands a degree of creativity, and unless you play on a perfectly flat course with no rough, no hazards and no undulations on the greens, you have to be ready with a variety of plays—just to get through a single round. So stop thinking that shotmaking is a term reserved strictly for the best players and embrace the notion that you, too, are capable of hitting more than one shot with every club in your bag. In the end, you’ll shoot better scores and have a lot more fun playing the game.
1. How To Alter Trajectory
It may sound simple, but adjusting your tee height is the easiest way to alter tee shot trajectory. As expected, raising your tee height will promote a higher trajectory shot with more carry, while lowering your tee height will promote a more boring shot with more roll. Another key is adjusting your weight placement at address—if you put more weight on the rear foot, the ball will tend to fly on a higher trajectory; if you place your weight on your forward foot, you’ll hit the ball lower. Finally, you change ballflight by moving the ball in your stance. Playing the ball forward will cause you to hit the ball higher; playing back hits it lower.
2. Power Fade
At address, aim your body slightly left of the target while keeping your club pointing at the target, and swing along your body line. Because you’re aimed left, making a regular swing in this alignment will produce a slightly out-to-in path and promote a left-to-right ballflight. Adding slightly more pressure in the last three fingers of your leading hand through impact also is a good way to prevent the clubhead from closing, which further promotes a fade. The secret to this shot is to follow the line of your body and “hold” on to the club through impact. Swinging aggressively after you’ve perfected this move will only cause you to hit it further!
3. How To Get It In Play
When you must get the ball in play, try these tips: 1) Tee the ball lower to the ground (you’ll have to experiment with your brand of driver), which will tend to produce a lower and flatter trajectory and more control; 2) Make a connected and full weight shift into your forward foot, allowing the arms and hands to be controlled by the pivot of your body; remember to stay relaxed and try to minimize any extra acceleration; 3) Don’t be afraid to choke down on your driver or 3-wood—the idea is to get it in play, not hit it far.
4. How To Play Alternative Clubs Off The Tee
Once you’ve selected a hybrid club to hit from the tee, take at least four practice swings to adjust to the different weight and feel of the club—particularly when you’ve been hitting woods for several consecutive holes. Next, tee up the ball slightly higher than you would a normal iron, which will make it easier to achieve square contact. Finally, focus on swinging with a moderate tempo, and don’t be overly concerned with hitting the shot with a lot of power.
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Nonprofit fundraising arms of the state-owned network in West Virginia and the school-board-operated stations in Miami are under fire as public officials scrutinize longstanding financial relationships that underpin their operations.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting and Miami’s WLRN-FM/TV, like many other public radio and TV operations owned by state and local governments, rely on sister nonprofits, often called Friends groups, to raise as much as 40 percent of their annual budgets.
These private 501(c)(3) nonprofits around the country differ in many details but typically have separate governing boards and sometimes their own staffs.
A major reason for their existence is also cause for the complaints: They give pubcasters more flexibility and speed in purchasing and contracting than government procedures usually permit and they can pay for programming or other mission-related activities that the stations couldn’t otherwise afford.
Friends of WLRN, for example, was able to contribute funding to continue the station’s editorial partnership with the Miami Herald when the newspaper’s new owners were cutting costs in 2008, according to Janet Altman, chair of the friends group.
The nonprofits also help assure donors, as well as the stations, that contributions from “viewers like you” — and other private funds such as underwriting grants, major gifts and bequests — are spent on programming or other projects that donors intended to support.
“People are less likely to give to the Miami-Dade schools, because they’re concerned about where their money is going,” Altman said. “We are a separate organization with the exclusive mission to raise money for those stations. We do it really well and we intend to keep doing it.”
From the vantage point of political leaders and watchdogs of public spending, however, these nonprofits have the freedom to spend too freely and remain politically unaccountable for their decisions.
That was the conclusion of auditors for the West Virginia legislature in a report June 9, charging that the public TV and radio network circumvents state regulations through its relationship with the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting Inc. and the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation Inc.
Anticipating the auditors’ criticisms, the Educational Broadcasting Authority on June 2 approved a motion to transfer most foundation underwriting revenues to state accounts. The vote occurred a week before the auditors’ report was released or discussed publicly, and the reasons for the transfer were not clearly explained, according to two EBA members who also serve on the foundation board.
Months earlier, the EBA transferred control of the networks’ CPB Community Service Grants to state accounts, according to minutes of the foundation board’s March meeting.
In Miami, the Friends of WLRN nonprofit is trying to resolve an ongoing dispute with Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho over its accountability, compensation and staffing.
The superintendent seeks to restore earlier provisions of the Friends bylaws from 1993, including one that would let him appoint the top executive of the Friends group.
The Friends’ continued employment of Executive Director Rick Lewis has been a major sticking point in negotiations to establish an operating agreement between the Friends group and WLRN, according to public documents of the school board’s audit committee.
“Our focus is to bring the superintendent back to the comfort level they have had with us for more than three decades and that allows us to continue our work raising money in the community for WLRN,” said Altman. Contract talks, which missed tight deadlines set earlier this year, are near completion.
“We’re in the middle of negotiating an operating agreement with our Friends group, and we’ve never had one,” said John LaBonia, WLRN general manager. He described the new agreement as “part of our continually professionalizing operations of the station.”
“I don’t want to say anymore because I don’t want to affect the outcome,” LaBonia said.
In West Virginia, Gov. Joe Manchin III (D) already has a say in who runs the state public broadcasting system. Shortly after his election in 2005, he won passage of a law giving him control of the state Educational Broadcasting Authority. His appointed proxy as EBA chair, Secretary of Education and the Arts Kay Goodwin, established herself as a watchdog for pubcasting accountability during a 2001 clash over a salary sweetener for Rita Ray, then executive director of the state networks.
On top of her state salary of $60,000, Ray received $36,000 from the pubcasting foundation for her fundraising work, according to local news accounts of the controversy. The nonprofit gave Ray the supplemental pay to retain her after she had been offered a better-paying job, but the foundation’s bonus payments ended when Ray retired in 2007. She announced her plans to step aside shortly after Goodwin became EBA chair.
Manchin appointed her successor, Dennis Adkins, a veteran broadcaster who previously managed commercial stations in Charleston and Colorado. The governor selected him from a list of finalists recommended by the search committee, according to local press accounts.
But Adkins was taken to task for a perk in late 2007, shortly after he joined the network. Foundation funds were to provide a car for the new director, rather than requiring him to go through state procedures to be assigned a car from the state’s fleet. Objections by some foundation board members sent the vehicle, reportedly a Chevrolet Impala, back to the dealer.
Now, Adkins is preparing the network’s response to its first legislative audit since 2001, which objects to a fundraising partnership that has existed for decades.
While the Friends group in Miami employs development staffers who work on behalf of WLRN-TV/FM, fundraising at West Virginia Public Broadcasting is done by state employees, which concerns the state auditing team.
The auditors examined the relationships between the network, its foundation and friends group and concluded that the nonprofits’ bank accounts allow the network to circumvent state spending regulations and travel rules, reducing transparency about their spending and decision-making.
“The entities should operate as complete and separate entities with clearly defined and disconnected missions and financial accounts to protect the financial rights of the State and persons affected by the EBA’s activities,” the report said.
The auditors found no instances of fraud or misuse of funds but questioned the handling of meal expenses for employees when traveling and criticized the fundraising operations as inefficient.
When legislative auditor Aaron Allred and his staff presented their report to lawmakers June 9, the hearing became so contentious that Adkins didn’t have time to present his response. Another hearing is to be scheduled for mid-July.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s network of three public TV stations and nine radio stations looks to its development staff to raise $2 million to meet its $10 million operating budget, Adkins told Current. “If they don’t raise the money, how else are we supposed to raise it?” he asked. An end to fundraising activities and the revenues they bring in would require “drastic changes.”
Goodwin, chair of the EBA, did not respond to Current’s request for an interview, but endorsed transparency in an e-mail: “The Authority is, of course, reviewing all this information, appreciates the questions and the process, and will be working to answer any concerns with our organization. Our governor insists on accountability and transparent [government] processes, and we strive to comply!”
The auditors called for radical restructuring to bring pubcasting into compliance. The report recommended the EBA “discontinue all fundraising or soliciting activity by its employees,” but it did not address specifics of how private fundraising could continue. “We want a clear delineation between the state and the private entity,” said Allred in an interview.
“It is inappropriate for state employees on state time on state equipment to be running non-state entities,” Allred said. “It is not the role of government to run nongovernmental entities.” It makes no difference to donors if their money goes into government accounts, rather than those of the foundation, because they’ll still be tax-deductible charitable contributions, he said.
“When you donate to a foundation you have the situation that we found with the EBA — where they don’t follow state purchasing rules or comply with state travel regulations,” Allred explained. “The state has rules to ensure honest and fair bidding and that there’s no excessive travel reimbursements that these private entities do not have.”
Allred said the audit was a routine exercise of due diligence. “Our objective is to do an audit in compliance with generally accepted government accounting principles. My staff did that I’m proud they did that.”
But some pubcasting supporters are asking why the EBA board, in a meeting one week before the auditors’ report came out, rushed to transfer foundation monies to state accounts.
“Even those of us in the middle of it don’t know exactly what is happening or why,” said Debra Hamilton, an EBA member who also serves on the foundation board. “I just hope that everyone has good motives and doesn’t do anything to hurt public broadcasting.”
“Some of this money belongs to the foundation and there is confusion of which funds belong where,” said longtime lay leader Ann Brotherton, also a member of the EBA and foundation boards. Brotherton objected to the funds transfer and abstained from the EBA vote June 2. “This needs to be clarified before there is a wholesale moving of the funds — that is why I didn’t vote.”
Brotherton believes politics are behind the recent EBA decision, but she doesn’t question the integrity of the audit. “I understand they’re looking for more explanations as to how the money is handled, and we want to be responsible stewards. The auditors have every right in the world to put in their report what they saw,” and their view of pubcasting’s financial structure is understandably different than those who work on behalf of the stations.
The auditors’ input can end up strengthening the pubcasting system, she said, if people put aside their personal differences. “It just takes some cool, mature heads.”
In Miami, minutes of recent meetings of the school board’s audit committee provide detailed accounts of Superintendent Carvalho’s criticisms of Friends of WLRN.
During a January meeting, Carvalho described compensation for Friends’ employees as “tantamount to insulting” in light of school salaries and the system’s budget problems, according to minutes.
Carvalho didn’t identify the employees he referred to, but cited compensation detailed on the nonprofit’s tax returns. Michael Peyton, a senior sales rep who receives a commission for sales performance, earned more than $315,000 in 2007. Rick Lewis and Patrick Harris, a corporate sales rep, earned more than $120,000 each, according to the nonprofit’s tax returns.
Carvalho also objected that the Friends staff rebuffed his requests for financial statements and other documents and disregarded his concerns about a proposed change to the nonprofit’s bylaws, according to the minutes.
By the end of the Jan. 26 meeting, representatives of the Friends had made several concessions: They would submit to an annual review of the nonprofit’s financial records by the school board’s audit committee and negotiate a formal operating agreement with WLRN. They also agreed to bylaw changes requested by Carvalho, but this is a point of continuing discussion, according to Altman.
“We’re going to have an agreement that gives him some level of control,” she said. “It’s not a bad thing that he be involved on some level . . . , but we’d prefer not to have it in the bylaws.”
The superintendent already has other means of overseeing WLRN, she pointed out. Its general manager, LaBonia, reports directly to the superintendent and is a member of the Friend’s board and its finance and executive committees.
The Friends board defends Lewis, the nonprofit’s executive director for six years. A recent audit committee document stated that “based upon Rick’s past and continued performance, [the board] cannot agree that Rick can or should be terminated or asked to resign as part of the process of creating and reaching an operating agreement.” The May 7 memo by the group’s treasurer, attorney Charles Tatelbaum, requested that Lewis’s employment be placed aside so that negotiations can focus on “constructive issues.”
The focus on Lewis’s job is “more of a personality issue than a personnel issue,” Altman said. “Rick and John have had issues…. That’s become more of an important thing in this than it should have. They’re both very talented, they just don’t mesh well.”
Lewis declined to comment.
Pay levels for WLRN fundraisers are “not really an issue anymore,” Altman said. “We’ve shared information about the work these sales reps do and how they’re compensated based on their results. They’re very successful … and contribute a lot of the money that we’re able to give to WLRN.”
A spokesman for the school board said the Carvalho administration’s intent is to be a “good steward” of the public’s dollars. “When the whole issue of Friends of WLRN came before the audit committee, … it became apparent that work needs to be done to ensure that the dollars raised in support of WLRN are doing just that — maximizing the benefits of public television and radio for the public.”
Questions, comments, tips? [email protected]
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the West Virginia EBA board recommended Dennis Adkins to Gov. Manchin as its top candidate for executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, and the governor approved the choice. But a correction in the local press said an EBA search committee presented two options without expressing preference, and Manchin chose Adkins, according to a local news account and other sources.
While other school boards are laying off hundreds of educators, the Miami school system recently proposed to avoid teacher layoffs, according to the Miami Herald. Since he took charge of Miami-Dade schools in Sept. 2008, Superintendent Carvalho has cut $400 million in school spending.
Minutes of Miami-Dade school board’s audit committee, Jan. 26, 2010. See item No. 4.
An audit of the Educational Broadcasting Authority in West Virginia (PDF) released to state legislators June 9 concludes that the state public broadcasting network is circumventing state spending regulations by operating two supporting nonprofits with separate bank accounts.
Copyright 2010 American University
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Alex Rodriquez Ahead of His Time
Joel Sherman of the New York Post recently wrote a very good article about Alex Rodriquez and his training habits.
Sherman who is a well respected sports writer who I often read — although he rarely tells me anything I do not know about baseball is very informative about potential trades and team gossip. So I appreciate him.
In this article Sherman effectively wrote about the fact that our body parts work in sync with each other and how these interactions are now able to be quantified. He also mentioned which players are using this information to train.
In my opinion this should be nothing new in fact if I remember correctly they wrote a song about it many years ago. The hip bone is connected to the leg bone etc. and many of us sang it as children.
I have found that old habits and ideas are hard to give up especially if you have been successful in what you were doing. It is the more secure or perhaps driven person who is willing to take a look at what might make them improve their performance.
As new breakthroughs in science allow us to see and measure more we are gaining greater knowledge on exactly how the body parts are connected and how they exactly work together.
Alex Rodriquez should be given a lot of credit for searching for the latest techniques and information to help him do his job better. He also reportedly used plasma therapy as well. And as Sherman mentioned, more and more players are using science (stem cells, plasma therapy, diet, etc.) to help them have the potential to extend their careers.
Now if you buy into the mind-body connection and there is enormous research to support such—you have truly arrived. Look for more players to use what is available to improve their performance and extend their careers.
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What are you supposed to do with all the Apple logo stickers you get with each iPhone, iPad, and Mac purchase? Like, yeah I guess you could put one on your car if you’re into that, but then what do you do with the other 24 stickers you’ve collected over the years?
Redditor ebinellis decided to go super-meta and make an Apple sticker made out of Apple stickers. He says it’s still a work in progress, but unless he turns it into a Steve Jobs Apple-sticker-mural we think his work here is done.
Some radical Orthodox Christians in Russia are starting to have a hard time with Apple’s logo that decorates every iPhone, iPad and MacBook. These Russian Orthodox believe that the half-bitten logo is anti-Christian and represents the act of original sin committed by Adam and Eve in Garden of Eden when they first bit into an apple from the Tree of Knowledge.
To get past Cupertino’s symbol of evil while still using their products, many radical Orthodox, including priests, have swapped the Apple logo out for the much more “holy” image of the cross, a symbol of Jesus Christ.
Is this what the Option (⌥) symbol is supposed to represent?
The Apple Command key (or, as you might better know it, ⌘) has a beautiful and clear history. Originally, the ⌘ key was an Apple symbol instead, but Steve Jobs thought that using the Apple logo as a keyboard shortcut in the original Macintosh’s menus was “taking the logo in vain” so he tasked the great icon designer Susan Kare to find a solution. The symbol she chose was the traditional clover symbol we all know today, chosen because it is commonly used in Scandavaniva to indicate a tourist attraction or place of interest.
Interesting, right? Unfortunately, there’s no related story as to why the Option key has its own unique (and very abstract) symbol: ⌥. Marc Edwards’ brilliant take on what the ⌥ symbol means is doubtless revisionist history, but I love the visual metaphor of a train switching tracks. That may not be the real tale, but it should be.
Every so often, an iOS accessory maker takes advantage of a little-known or little-used feature to create a really unique product that no one else thought of. The FLASHr from Phaze5 is a Kickstarter project that falls right into that category. It’s an iPhone case that lights up whenever you receive a call, text message, or email — but there are no LEDs built-in. Instead, it uses your iPhone’s flash and the LED alert feature in iOS 5.
It’s been a week since Apple released its first iOS 6 beta, and we’re still digging up new features. We reported some improvements to the keyboard this morning, and now we’ve found some enhancements to Spotlight and wallpaper settings.
Unless you go for a boring old transparent hard case for your iPhone 4, you’re going to cover up that Apple logo on the back of your device when you slap a case on it. However, like those stick-on decals that you can buy for your MacBook, these iTattoo Snap cases compliment your Apple logo beautifully.
We’re all huge fans of the iconic glowing Apple logo that lights up every time we open up our MacBooks, so wouldn’t it be nice to have the Apple logo on the back of our iPhones do the same? Thanks to Andy and Chris at the U.K.-based iPatchiPhone & iPod repair specialists, you can have your iPhone 4 modded to boast a glowing Apple logo every time your screen lights up.
We don’t know who made it (J.G. Thirlwell, perhaps?).
We don’t even know if there’s an iPad or iPad 2 ensconced within this case’s leathery, plush-lined folds.
We’d love to find out (tell us if you know), but until we do, mere ignorance will not stop us from posting this exquisite iPad Case, because all we can see is that gorgeously medieval gold emblem, showing Isaac Newton lazing under an apple tree, waiting for the full weight of gravity to come crashing down on his head. That was Apple’s original logo back in 1976.
Australian retailer Woolworths is buying time in the latest Apple logo dispute.
At the core of the corporate tussle is a “W” logo of a peeled apple with leaf filed back in August 2008 for the 80-year-old supermarket chain.
The new logo was supposed to symbolize fresh produce, but speculation was that Apple opposed it because the retailer might also slap blanket trademark on “fresh” computer products and home electronics, causing confusion for customers. Woolworths already sells own-brand credit cards and mobile phone plans.
Apple Rush, based in Dolton Illinois, sells apple juice and sparkling beverages in bottles and cans through a network of 40 distributors in the U.S. and abroad.
Granted, since confusion is one of the cornerstones of trademark infringement, unless consumers are likely to mistake a sparkling beverage with an iPod — though an Apple energy drink, to make your computing breezier would be pretty nifty — this one may end up in the copycat hall of shame instead of the courts.
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Taxes are inconvenient, unavoidable, time-consuming, and can be frustrating. And while most of us would rather be doing just about anything else, Money Talks News founder Stacy Johnson has a few ideas to help you get through filing faster this year by planning ahead.
If your children don’t already have a Social Security number, get one now. Fill out the Application for a Social Security Card from the U.S. Social Security Administration website and locate your child’s birth certificate. You’ll need to bring the application, birth certificate, and your child to your local office. Anyone 12 or older applying for an original SSN has to be interviewed in person.
If you didn’t work last year but collected unemployment, you’ll need a 1099-G. If you received interest on savings accounts, made short or long-term capital gains, collected Social Security, or received a pension, you’ll need proof of that as well, which you’ll get from other 1099 forms.
See a pattern here? Proof of income you earned comes either on a W-2 or 1099.
Pull out last year’s tax return and see what income you reported. If you had income from the same sources this year, make sure you have all forms in hand. If you don’t have all documentation by Jan. 31, call employers, clients, or bank reps and ask.
If you can’t find last year’s returns, you can order a copy online through the IRS website at Order a Transcript.
In Tax Hacks 2012: 8 Easy-To-Miss Deductions we found some commonly overlooked deductions that can save you big, such as child care expenses. If you paid for someone to watch your child, disabled spouse, or dependent family member while you were working, you might be able to deduct part of the cost. And then there are medical expenses: If yours exceeded 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income, it will lower your taxable income.
Work from home? There are home office deductions, but they come with sticky rules. Check out Tax Hacks 2012: Home Office Deductions for more details.
Other things are deductible too, like mortgage interest, business travel, and work-related education expenses. Check out the Internal Revenue Service’s Itemized Deductions site for a list. Take your time and go over it carefully. Remember, every $100 of deductible expenses can mean up to $35 in refunds.
Another way to speed up your refund (in about 10 days, according to the IRS), is to file electronically.
And once you have that refund in hand, do something great with it. Check out this story we did last year, Tax Hacks 2012: 7 Smart Uses for Your Tax Refund for some inspiration, like building an emergency fund, investing, or starting a business.
Subscribe to the Money Talks News newsletter
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There's a heuristic, which I find appealing, that says that for every stochastic algorithm, there should be at least one deterministic algorithm that performs better, provided the universe isn't adversarial. I first heard this principle articulated by Eliezer Yudkowsky here.
Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms, which are some of the post powerful and general algorithms for approximating probability distributions are, seem like a counterexample to this principle. Has there been much investigation into algorithms which take their inspiration from MCMC algorithms (I'm mostly thinking of Metropolis Hastings and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo), but which are totally deterministic? If not, why not?
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A day after students at Oberlin College put down their books to focus on how to respond to a spate of hate messages targeting blacks, Jews and gays on campus, classes resumed Tuesday amid tension.
The messages included graffiti with swastikas, posters containing racial slurs and other derogatory statements targeting various student communities and fliers bearing racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic language.
A student's report on Monday that she had seen someone on campus dressed like a member of the Ku Klux Klan led the school to suspend classes for the day.
"I saw someone in what seemed to be KKK paraphernalia walking on a pathway, like, a pathway that leads to South Campus," the student, Sunceray Tavler, told CNN affiliate WJW. "Just seeing that and having that sink in, this is something that's real, that actually happens."
Police said they received a report of a student wearing a blanket on his or her shoulders but could not say whether the incidents were related.
Two students have been identified as being involved in the postings from February and will be subject to college disciplinary procedures, Oberlin police said.
Oberlin President Marvin Krislov said he was not able to discuss the details of the ongoing investigation. "It is a law enforcement matter," he told CNN.
He praised Monday's campuswide focus on the matter, calling it "an educational moment." The students "feel inspired because this institution has the courage to talk about these issues and to confront concerns and that that is part of our educational mission," he said.
As he spoke, a group of students behind him chanted, "No bull****!" Appearing rattled, Krislov ended the interview abruptly.
The events have left some students on edge.
"I was pretty horrified to hear that somebody was dressing as a member of the KKK, because that's something I've only seen before in the movies, on TV," said student Yangran Chang. "It's really unsettling."
"I didn't so much feel threatened for myself, but I felt threatened for the community that I live in," said Joshua Blue, a freshman. "Because Oberlin has such a reputation for being a very open and accepting place where people of any walk of life can come and live, that someone was threatening that way of life was kind of scary."
The report led to Monday's one-day suspension of classes. "All of the students came together to rally against these things," Blue said. "It wasn't so much of a rally of trying to lash out at the people that committed these acts, but almost a rally to come together and show our support for each other."
Meredith Gadsby, associate professor and chairwoman of the Africana Studies Department, said she had seen "isolated events" during her 13 years at the school, "but I've never seen the concentration of bias incidents that I've seen over the last four weeks."
She said she felt anger but did not feel threatened, "in some ways because I'm a grownup and have experiences beyond Oberlin." But students may have handled the incidents differently. "They have had their faith shattered a little bit because they expected to come here and escape some of these larger issues. I'm not quite so idealistic. I do not feel unsafe, but I understand why they do."
The incidents have resulted in more than a teachable moment.
On Wednesday, the school is offering a workshop for faculty to support their efforts to address the issues in the classroom. "Students are coming to class with an eagerness and also a desire to make connections between the events going on in their lives and what they are studying in their history or literature classes or other places on campus," said Dean of Arts and Sciences Sean Decatur.
The school prides itself on being progressive and inclusive. This college of 2,900 students was a center for abolitionists and a stop on the Underground Railroad.
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I can recall, when John Patrick Shanley's play "Doubt: A Parable," first appeared on Broadway in 2005, how critics focused on the issue that, at least on the surface, appears to be the heart of the play--the scandal of Catholic priests abusing young boys.
That's the unspoken evil that Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Sherrionne Brown) is willing to risk everything to combat, but in fact, is only incidental. This isn't a play about crusading nuns fighting to expose a renegade priest in the Bronx in 1964. It's a play about...well, doubt.
It's the doubt Sister James (Karina Ferry) harbors toward Sister Aloysius' drill sergeant philosophy of teaching. It's the doubt Father Flynn (Michael Leicht) explores as he delivers his sermon to the congregation of the fictitious St. Nicholas Church--does doubt provide us a bond "as strong as certainty" as he asserts? It's the doubts that plague Sister Aloysius' regards her own understanding of the world beyond the walls of the school she presides. It's the doubt Mrs. Muller (Nicole Mullins) feels toward Sr. Aloysius--is it more important to her to ruin the priest or help her son? And it's the doubt that Shanley seeks to instill in the audience as to who is in the right in this play...is Father Flynn guilty? Is Sister Aloyisius wrong in her crusade to "bring down" Father Flynn based on nothing more than her belief?
And note that Shanley titled his play not simply "Doubt," but "Doubt: A Parable"--a parable being a brief tale designed to make an ethical or moral point, as in the parables told by Jesus in the New Testament. Parables are designed to make us think, question, debate, and in the process, to learn and garner wisdom.
Father Flynn prefers parables to reality, noting "The truth makes for a bad sermon. It tends to be confusing and have no clear conclusion." Father Flynn preaches parables in a play that is a parable itself. And here there is irony, as a parable about doubt serves only to offer no clear conclusion, for that is the very nature of doubt. And in yet another layer of irony, Shanley presents his parable using characters religious--people of faith...who are in the business of believing without empirical evidence... for whom the spectre of doubt, in the hearts of those they seek to comfort and convert, and in themselves, haunts them daily.
It's a wonderfully written, succinct (90 minutes without intermission) and elegant play, sprinkled with moments of humor (Sr. Aloysius' ability to spy heresy in "Frosty the Snowman" and moral decadence in ballpoint pens), winner of both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. The only question is, how effective and entertaining is the Spotlighters' interpretation? Happily, right on target, have no doubt.
Spotlighter staples Leicht, Brown and Ferry, and Mullins as Mrs. Muller deliver strong, engaging performances. Leicht is commanding as a priest who seems sincere in his desire to modernize the Church, to be part of the congregation rather than above it. His character never stays at the pulpit, but walks down to the stage as if to be closer to his flock. Ferry is the right combination of sweet innocence but passionate conviction. Brown's Aloysius could easily become a "one note wonder," a stereotypical "Catholic school nun from Hell," but makes her much more than that, as a woman torn in many directions, firm as a rock at one moment but faltering the next, as in her exchange with Mrs. Muller. Mullins' Muller is Motherhood personified...for her, it all begins and ends with what is best for her son, a fierceness seen in her voice, her facial expressions, her body language--she's as much a stalwart as Sr. Aloysius.
The Spotlighters does an admirable job in creating multiple venues-- the school principal's office, a church pulpit, a courtyard--in their diminutive space. The small details, like an "old school" pencil sharpener, the hanging portraits of Pope John XXIII and Holy Mother Seton, even the potted plants not yet ready to bloom, are all spot on.
"Doubt: A Parable" continues its run at the Spotlighters Theatre, 817 St. Paul Street, May 15, 20-21, 27-29, June 3-5 and June 9-12, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and $16 for students. For more information, call 410-752-1225 or visit www.spotlighters.org.
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I get hundreds of e-mails each month from parents of kids newly diagnosed with celiac disease or beginning the gluten-free/casein-free dietary intervention program for autism or ADHD. I thought it would be helpful to share some of these e-mails with you...
My four-year-old son is autistic, and were trying the gluten-free/casein-free dietary intervention program. There are no health food stores near me, so I have to drive an hour to get all of his food. Also, its very expensive. I dont know if we can afford this diet. Do you have any suggestions?
Dont feel locked into shopping at health food stores. With the exception of baked goods and mixes (bread, cakes, cookies, etc.), you can do most, if not all, of your shopping at a regular grocery store. You can even buy generics! The first thing you need to do is become familiar with the safe and forbidden ingredients. To learn whats allowed and whats forbidden on the gluten-free diet, there is an excellent list on www.celiac.com -- you may want to print it out and take it to the store with you. Then learn to read labels carefully. If the ingredients appear to be okay, call the manufacturer (theres usually a toll-free number on the package - I bring my cell phone into the store with me so I can call before I buy) to confirm that the product is, in fact, gluten-free/casein-free. Youll find that the list of things he can eat is a lot longer than the list of things he cant! Happy shopping....
My daughter is six and has always had terrible diarrhea. My brother and I both have celiac disease, so I figured she does, too. I dont want her to have to go through all the testing, so Im going to put her on a gluten-free diet and see how she responds. How soon should we expect to see improvement?
I know its tough to handle the thought of putting our kids through testing, but proper testing is essential. Your daughter must be on a gluten-containing diet in order for testing to be accurate, so I would urge you to get her tested quickly, before putting her on a gluten-free diet. Id recommend doing the antibody screen (a blood test) first; if its positive, Id encourage you to have an intestinal biopsy done on her. Believe me, I know its hard to put our children through these tests, but its important that you know for sure, and proper testing is crucial.
I suspect my nine-year-old nephew has celiac disease, but the doctors wont test him because hes in the 70th percentile for height and weight. He has gas and bloating, and occasional bouts of diarrhea. My brother (his dad) had celiac sprue as a child, but doctors told him he outgrew it.
First, people dont outgrow celiac disease (celiac sprue). Decades ago it was thought that they did - but now we know that celiac disease is a lifelong condition (sometimes symptoms may appear to fade away, but damage is still being done to the small intestine). Your brother should be properly tested (testing is much better now than it was when he was a child). If he does have celiac disease, your nephew is at greater risk for having it, too, since celiac disease is a genetic (inherited) condition, and youre right to suspect it. Sometimes doctors are reluctant to test for celiac disease - its extremely important to demand testing - if the doctor wont test, find one who will. (By the way, my son was in the 75th percentile for height and weight when he was diagnosed - some adult celiacs are actually overweight.)
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According to a study conducted by the Aberdeen Group, 72% of received invoices are paper based, and it costs an average of $18.72 to process each one. This is an extraordinary amount of money to spend on a single invoice and businesses will soon see these figures adding up quickly over time. One of the ways business can reduce these processing figures is by employing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. OCR is helping businesses to save time and money by improve efficiency and reducing the amount of data entry required when processing documents such as invoices, faxes and emails.
So what is OCR? OCR can be defined as software which converts scanned images of printed or handwritten text into a form that can be recognised and easily processed. An OCR system enables you to extract important business data from a document, feed it directly into an electronic file, and then edit the file using a word processor or other software solution. OCR technology has made a huge impact on the way information is captured, stored, shared and edited. Prior to OCR, if someone wanted to turn a document into an electronic file, each page would have to be typed word for word.
Documation solutions use EMC Captiva’s OCR software, which is a fully customisable capture solution that scans vendor documents and automatically extracts and validates the data they contain before exporting it to business systems for processing. Using intelligent document recognition technology (IDR), the OCR identifies incoming documents such as invoices and immediately begins extracting information such as purchase order number, invoice date, total amounts, line item data and more. The result is a faster, more efficient means of handling invoices.
With industry research showing that as much as 70% of all invoice processing costs is wrapped up in document handling and data entry processes, eliminating manual data entry from your organisation will drastically cut costs and improve business processes. Businesses can spend a lot of time, money and man power manually processing data and finding and retrieving lost or misplaced documents, but with an OCR system the stress of sorting through filing cabinets for hours on end will become a thing of the past. Instead businesses will quickly become accustomed to searching and retrieving a document within seconds, rather hours.
The benefits of utilising software like OCR go beyond time saving; there are all kinds of advantages, including:
- Reduced data entry costs
- Increased speed of data extraction
- Fewer errors in data, increasing data integrity
- Reduced processing times
- Easy and inexpensive to store and locate documents
- Digital copies can be saved in a wide range of available formats
- Multiple people can access the same document at the same time
Businesses can reduce the costs associated with filing, archiving and long term storage with a document management solution which includes OCR. You can also reduce the amount of paper and ink used to print documents. With 7.5% of documents being lost or misplaced, document management software, such as Documation’s Invoice Management Solution, can provide additional security and user tracking to protect scanned documents.
With benefits like these, a business can improve efficiency within the workplace, allowing employees to concentrate on more strategic tasks; saving a lot of money in the process. OCR is a valuable piece of software which many businesses have benefited from and will continue to benefit from for years to come.
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At the very least, in the face of passionate hostility at home and abroad, George Bush has proved himself a brave and determined man who has staked his presidency on getting democratic momentum underway in the Middle East. Even if in the short run he fails-which many of us are not yet ready to concede-some Muslims in the future will be able to remember that in a difficult time an American president, at heavy cost, cared about their sufferings, their natural rights, and the better angels beckoning in their dreams. He held before them a democratic standard by which they will forever measure other political movements and other leaders. ~Michael Novak
I’m sure that’s what “some Muslims” in the future will remember, rather than the mass death and destruction that he brought. If my country were destroyed because of the decisions of a foreign leader, I know I would look back fondly on his high-minded rhetoric and remember how much he cared about me and my rights. Unfortunately, such has been the democracy “experiment” in Iraq that these Muslims in the future will use the “democratic standard” to measure all other movements and come to the conclusion that the other movements are at least not associated with the complete ruin of their countries. Mr. Bush’s accomplishment in Iraq is to bind together the idea of democracy with the reality of majoritarian tyranny and hell on earth. More than anyone, I suspect that he has convinced tens of millions of Muslims that this “democracy” business is not worth the slaughter and mayhem, and has probably confirmed in the minds of more than a few that the only way forward to a just order is through Islam. He will have managed to convince one of the most repressed and unfree regions on earth that “freedom and democracy” are disastrous political solutions for their woes. That is a not inconsiderable achievement.
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http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/a-few-more-achievements-like-this-and-we-are-undone/
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Cities may buy Avon Lake water: Officials to analyze capability of providing service to more communities
AVON LAKE — Two Cuyahoga County communities are interested in buying water from Avon Lake, officials said yesterday.
Officials from North Olmsted and Westlake have contacted Avon Lake Municipal Utilities about water service, said Tony Abram, Avon Lake Municipal Utilities board member. Avon Lake is now analyzing if it has the capacity to provide the water.
"We won't do it unless we have the capability, that's for sure," he said. The facility has a 40 to 50 million gallon per day capacity, he added.
Westlake Mayor Dennis M. Clough said his city has done a study that indicates it is feasible to purchase water from Avon Lake. Now, the city wants to do a more detailed engineering study that would outline where the pipes would be, how big they would be and where they would tie in.
Westlake currently gets its water from Cleveland, Clough said. The cost to buy water from Avon Lake would be 75 percent cheaper than buying from Cleveland, he added.
"I think it's more economical and I think we then would have the revenues to upgrade our water system that exists right now, today," Clough said.
Westlake has spent about $6 to $7 million in recent years replacing water lines from its general fund rather than from the revenues that should come in from water bills, he said. If the city switches to Avon Lake, however, lines could be replaced using the money from the water billings.
Abram said he expects a decision to be reached this year because both communities have contracts with Cleveland that expire this year.
Avon Lake sells water to Avon, North Ridgeville, Sheffield Village, Sheffield Lake, Rural Lorain County Water Authority, Medina County and the city of Medina, according to the municipal utilities Web site.
Location, ST | website.com
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HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- Mary J. Blige gets caught in a charity scandal, and Bob Dylan is honored by the president.
A charity run by Mary J. Blige has come under fire. TD Bank is accusing the foundation, which was established to support women, of failing to make payments on a $250,000 loan.
Musicians who performed at a benefit for the charity are also suing, claiming they weren't paid. The foundation is also under scrutiny for failing to file its 2010 federal tax return.
In a statement, Blige says the charity is working quickly to get back on track, and make good on its obligations. She says the wrong people were put in charge, but she is ultimately responsible.
Rock legend Bob Dylan was among an eclectic group selected this year to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
President Obama said there's no bigger giant in the history of music. He says, "He's still chasing that sound, he's still searching for a little bit of truth, and I have to say that I am a really big fan."
The Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civilian honor. Other recipients included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, novelist Toni Morrison and astronaut John Glenn.
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Serving in its’ customary role as maestro for the mainstream media, the New York Times today trumpeted the clarion call to all news organizations to create the illusion of a leading story for the weekend that would obscure and obfuscate the positive reverberation sounding forth from Thursday’s vote in Iraq. Almost certainly, the Gray Lady, tireless in her efforts to combat any genuine effort to fight the war on terror, cued up this article based upon leaks of classified information to assist democrats sounding off against the Patriot Act in the U.S. Senate today. By mid-morning, Andrea Mitchell was blathering on, singing in harmony with the writers at The New York Times. As usual, The Washington Post was singing the same tune in an almost perfect unison. In fact, MSNBC devoted two hours of coverage to the topic today between 10:00am-12:00 Noon with Andrea Mitchell filing regular reports that echoed the most strident, left-wing voices in the Senate. “This is Big Brother run amok,” declared Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. “We cannot protect our borders if we cannot protect our ideals.” Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., called it a “shocking revelation” that he said, “ought to send a chill down the spine of every senator and every American.” MSNBC perpetuated the story throughout the day casting the entire story as an illegal domestic spying incident without regard for the truth to be found in the breadth and scope of the story.
Fortunately, the brilliant legal scholar Mark Levin had provided an answer by 12:00 Noon on Friday and posted on The National Review Online. Mr. Levin provides us with this legal sketch with which the rest of the story begins.
“Some brief background: The Foreign Intelligence Security Act permits the government to monitor foreign communications, even if they are with U.S. citizens -- 50 USC 1801, et seq. A FISA warrant is only needed if the subject communications are wholly contained in the United States and involve a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power.
The reason the President probably had to sign an executive order is that the Justice Department office that processes FISA requests, the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR), can take over 6 months to get a standard FISA request approved. It can become extremely bureaucratic, depending on who is handling the request. His executive order is not contrary to FISA if he believed, as he clearly did, that he needed to act quickly. The president has constitutional powers, too.
It's also clear from the Times piece that Rockefeller knew about the government's eavesdropping, as did the FISA court. By the time this story is fully fleshed out, we'll learn that many others knew about it, too. To the best of my knowledge, Rockefeller didn't take any steps to stop the eavesdropping. And he's no friend of this administration. Nor is he above using intelligence for political purposes, as his now infamous memorandum demonstrates.
But these leaks -- about secret prisons in Europe, CIA front companies, and now secret wiretaps, are egregious violations of law and extremely detrimental to our national security. They are far worse than any aspect of the Plame matter. The question is whether our government is capable of tracking down these perpetrators and punishing them, or will we continue to allow the Times and Washington Post determine national security policy. And if these wiretaps are violative of our civil liberties, it's curious that the Times would wait a year to report about it. I cannot remember the last time, or first time, this newspaper reported a leak that was helpful to our war effort.”
Thank goodness we have experts like Mark Levin who can respond to the ludicrous half-truths promulgated on an unknowing public.
There are signs everywhere that the fractional and partial story told through incomplete reporting by the Times, the Post, and MSNBC is deficient at best and slanderous at worst. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice stated “Bush has "acted lawfully in every step that he has taken. "Scott McClellan said at the daily White House briefing that President Bush "is going to remain fully committed to upholding our Constitution and protect the civil liberties of the American people. And he has done both." In addition, justice department employees assert that the policy has uncovered several terrorist plots including one by Ohio truck driver Lyman Faris who intended to blow-up the Brooklyn Bridge. Michele Malkin has extended and comprehensive coverage on the story of Lyman Faris that is not included anywhere else.
On Hardball with Chris Matthews, Tom Brokow was singing the same tune as all of the other left wing journalists in saying that this news came on a day of a vote on the Patriot Act “when we now know that the administration was operating outside the law as we know it.” According to Ian Schwartz at The Political Teen, host Chris Matthews repeatedly asked the question to Anne Kornblut as to why The New York Times would choose today to expose this year-old story. Mr. Matthews got a host of disingenuous answers from Ms. Kornblut and Howard Fineman of Newsweek including that there was “room in the paper today,” and that the editors of the New York Times never even considered the unusual convergence of today’s news events. It seems that MSNBC has played host to the largest conflagration of liberal kook journalists in the history of cable news.
At Red State, author Dpayton, has a wonderful synopsis of today’s story in the Times. “But now we've given the terrorists new information--that anything seized in the war could be used immediately--and now they'll change their precautions. This means one less opportunity to prevent the loss of life of potentially thousands. What we have here is yet another intelligence leak.” And John Hinderaker at Powerline sums it up this way: “Under the Plame precedent, this case is a no-brainer. The intelligence officials who leaked to the Times should be identified, criminally prosecuted, and sent to prison.” The Times believes that it should be the arbiter of what will and will not help the terrorists and thus impair our national security.”
Over at News Busters, Noel Shepherd has linked the sale of James Risen’s new book to the splashy release of the front page article today. The Drudge Report, in an exclusive, just announced that this story by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau is just “one of many ‘explosive newsbreaking’ stories that can be found -- in [Risen’s] upcoming book -- which he turned in 3 months ago!” Yet, “The Times failed to reveal the urgent story was tied to a book release and sale.”
Stop the ACLU has extensive coverage of today’s artifical outrage at The Times, and the reaction by the ACLU. Perhaps James Joyner at Outside The Beltway sums up the rationale for the adminstration’s action in these matters. “As to the searches themselves, there's not enough information here to cause a red flag to go up. Presumably, the NSA doesn't have the time or inclination to eavesdrop on random Americans, preferring instead to concentrate their efforts on those whom they reasonably believe are tied to terrorists.” Providing the proper and authoritative context of these investigations as the essential apparatus for the protection of American citzens does not seem to be a role for the liberal media in America.
Certainly, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the frantic liberal press caused an infatuation with this story today, and the obsession is likely to continue for most of weekend including obligatory mentions on all of the Sunday news programs. Some of the shows may even make it the topic of the entire program. With the defeat of the Patriot Act today, our media seems to be awestruck by the publication of a year-old story on the front page of the New York Times. The editors and publishers of the Times must be feeling on top of the world tonight. Their ability to stage-manage a news cycle is unsurpassed as demonstrated by all of today’s events.
Right Wing Nation has many weekend stories worth reading.
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Turtle is ten when her mama gets a job cleaning house for a lady who can’t tolerate children. So she’s shipped off to Key West to live with a family of Currys she’s never met, in a place her dreamy mother calls “paradise.” Turtle knows better, even before she arrives on the steamy island courtesy of a traveling salesman who owes her mama’s current boyfriend money. One looong free ride with Smokey the cat and a chatty hair tonic entrepreneur and a quick introduction to her bratty cousins and surprised Aunt Minerva and she is stashed in a tiny bedroom on Curry Avenue, named for all the Curry clan who have lived there since before anybody can remember. It’s 1935. Shirley Temple is the reigning queen of cinema. Jobs are hard to come by and kids are forced to grow up pretty fast.
Jennifer L. Holm writes a spunky, clear-eyed preteen realist of a kid in Turtle in Paradise, a Newbery Honor book. Turtle knows mama will always believe in silver linings and better days just around the corner. But Turtle squints at what she sees, takes its measure and accepts no guff or fancy promises from anyone. She tags along with her ragamuffin cousins as the boys drag babies around in their Diaper Gang business. She isn’t allowed in the gang so she gets none of the candy they are paid for babysitting and curing diaper rash with their magic formula. But she cons the guy in the ice cream truck out of a scoop with no trouble at all and puts a little fear of the lord—actually fear of Turtle—into those bad boys from Day One.
Life in hot, poor, crowded, neighborly Key West softens Turtle’s tough shell and she acclimates to a new reality with Cuban food, a surprise—and crotchety—grandmother, grown-ups who look out for kids and a few who are too worn down by them to be anything but exasperated. She learns how to go barefoot after her prized shoes are stolen, talks herself into a job sponging and nearly drowns, discovers a possible key to buried treasure and survives a hurricane, stranded on a tiny barrier island. The real treasure has nothing to do with pirate gold and everything to do with open hearts. Turtle finds a bounty of those and knits herself into the fabric of a family like a bright silver thread.
Turtle in Paradise gives children a colorful glimpse of history, a legendary island community, and a young survivor wise beyond her years and sassy enough to brighten economic hardship and displacement with razor-sharp humor.
Turtle in Paradise Jennifer L. Holm | Random House 2010
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Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader in exile, has rejected any concessions over a future Palestine state at a rally marking the 25th anniversary of the armed Palestinian group.Just to remind you, this is the person that Karl Vick of Time has said supports negotiations.
More than 100,000 Palestinians gathered in the Gaza Strip on Saturday to hear him speak for the first time in the Palestinian enclave.
"Palestine is our land and nation from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river, from north to south, and we cannot cede an inch or any part of it," he said.
"We fight Zionists, not Jews. We fight whoever occupied our land, regardless of religion ... Statehood will be the fruit of resistance, not negotiations," Meshaal said to cheering fans.
The same person that went on PBS to claim that Hamas doesn't support violence against civilians, while today he was speaking in front of a replica of a "M75" rocket that was fired towards civilians in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The same person that the Globe and Mail called a "moderate" earlier this year.
The same person that the New York Times praised as having a peace plan virtually identical to the PLO's (actually, that might be correct, but not for the reasons the NYT gave.)
The BBC didn't bother noting the quotes above. Instead, they quoted this:
"As long as Palestine is ours and Palestine is the land of Arabism and Islam, we can never recognise the legitimacy of Israel's occupation of it," he told supporters.But without noting the other parts of his speech, a BBC reader may believe that Meshal is referring only to the the territories won in 1967. It would have been nice if the BBC noted explicitly that when Hamas says "occupation" he is referring to all of Israel, and when Hamas leaders say they want to "end the occupation" they mean they want to destroy Israel.
"There is no legitimacy for occupation. Hence, there is no legitimacy for Israel, however long time lasts."
But that is too much to ask from the BBC. And it is typical of Western media outlets who always try to soften the racist, genocidal rantings of terrorist leaders.
You will be hard pressed to find any mainstream Arab leader who is offended by Meshal's speech calling to utterly destroy Israel and ethnically cleanse Jews from their homeland.You will not find any op-eds in the Arab media saying that Meshal is a terrorist, or that peace is necessary, or that negotiations are desirable, or that a Palestinian Arab state cannot realistically encompass all of British Mandate Palestine.
The multiplicity of views common in Western media on any topic is not to be seen in the Arab media on this topic. There are no Arab "Peace Now" rallies in Ramallah or Amman.
To the Arab world, Meshal's Islamist supremacist rantings are completely mainstream.
That is the story that every major media outlet is missing. They are so invested in the false narrative of a moderate Arab majority interested in real peace that they will downplay genocidal Hamas rants and (mis)quote only the parts that can be interpreted as somewhat reasonable.
Here's a photo from the Gaza celebrations you won't see on any of those news outlets:
Hamas is grooming the next generation to be exactly as "moderate" as the current leadership is.
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NEW DELHI — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday urged Bangladesh's squabbling political factions to resolve their differences as she arrived in the country, which has been beset by weeks of general strikes, demonstrations and violence since an opposition politician disappeared last month.
The government and the opposition declared a truce for Clinton's visit. Each side blames the other for the disappearance of Elias Ali, one of as many as 22 people, mostly politicians, who have gone missing this year, according to human- rights groups.
"We strongly urge all sides to settle differences through constructive political dialogue," Clinton said at a news conference in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital.
Chronic infighting in the impoverished Muslim-majority country with 160 million people has been a huge drag on much-needed development efforts driven by the country's ambition to be a middle-income nation by 2021, analysts say.
In her meeting with Prime Minister Sheik Hasina Wajed, Clinton is expected to raise the issue of Ali's disappearance, which human-rights groups have decried.
"We're calling for a full independent investigation, including looking into the government's own security forces," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia researcher with Human Rights Watch. "There is suspicion this could perhaps be security forces under pressure to reduce extrajudicial killings."
Clinton is also expected to encourage further cooperation between the U.S. and Bangladesh on counterterrorism, environmental, health, food-security and educational issues.
Washington views Bangladesh as a prospective voice for moderation and leadership among Muslim-majority nations and pledged in January to extend nearly $1 billion in aid to the country over the next five years.
Clinton had hoped to sign a long-discussed trade-and-investment deal that would safeguard large investments by U.S. energy giants such as Chevron and ConocoPhillips. But analysts say disagreements over labor standards and anti-corruption safeguards demanded by the U.S. side prevented a deal in time.
Clinton is also expected to meet with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the founder of pioneering Grameen Bank, which focuses on giving very small loans to large numbers of poor people.
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Patients can be referred to the Hospice by a healthcare professional providing this has been agreed to by the patient. The general practitioner and / or consultant must also be in agreement with this decision.
The support provided is determined by the Hospice team after an initial assessment. This may range from a short term advisory role to ongoing support.
The Hospice clinical team comprises doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapist, chaplain and social worker.
The Hospice medical team provides a palliative care service at Ayr and Crosshouse Hospitals. If necessary a medical visit at home can be arranged.
Each patient is treated equally in respect of their care, regardless of culture, race, religion or social background.
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Connect to share and comment
In the midst of a politically delicate moment, ginning up resentment against foreigners is a tried and true political tactic.
HONG KONG, China — Foreigners living in Beijing are steeling themselves for three months of being stopped on the streets and asked, “Where are your papers?”
Just days after a video of a British man allegedly assaulting a Chinese woman went viral (caution: very graphic video), the Chinese government announced a 100-day crackdown on “illegal foreigners” living or working in Beijing.
The official announcement posted on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, showed a giant fist smashing the air, accompanied by instructions to call a hotline to report suspicious foreigners to the Public Security Bureau.
Police have said that they will carry out random checks of non-Chinese at bars, nightclubs, and universities — warning that all foreigners should have their passports and documents on them at all times, a regulation technically required by law but rarely enforced.
“We will enforce the rule and make sure that every foreigner knows that,” Lin Song, the official in charge of the crackdown, told China Daily.
The announcement was greeted with enthusiasm on Weibo, with one user declaring his “hope that these illegal immigrants will be thoroughly investigated across the country, otherwise if this group of foreign trash escapes overseas it won't be easy!” On Tuesday, the phrase “illegal foreigners” surged into the top 10 search terms on Baidu.
Beijing is expected to be just the first city in China carrying out the policy. Chengdu, the largest city in Sichuan province, has already announced it will introduce a similar campaign.
While residents have come to expect that big events, such as the upcoming power transition at the end of the year, will be preceded by a crackdown — as happened before the Olympics in 2008 — some foreigners are concerned that this time could be different.
More from GlobalPost: Chinese cars, made in Bulgaria
“In the time I’ve been here, it’s the first time they’ve ever explicitly said, 'we’ll crack down on those who don’t carry their passport and registration at all times,’” says Charlie Custer, editor of China Geeks and a resident of Beijing. “Even for China, that’s a bit dystopian.”
Some suspect that the policy is intended to whip up xenophobia to cement the Party’s control after an unprecedented series of snafus embarrassed China on the international stage. Years of carefully sculpting Beijing’s image flew out the window when Chen Guangcheng, the blind legal-rights activist, and Wang Lijun, an iron-fisted police chief, each fled to the US embassy for protection from their own government.
And with the Party preparing for its transfer of power this autumn, the crackdown may be intended to serve as a way to unite popular support.
“By deputizing the populists against the foreigners, it’s a way for the authorities to say we’re all in this together — the government and the people — against the illegal aliens,” says Jeremiah Jenne, a PhD candidate at the University of California-Davis, who has lived in Beijing since 2002.
In previous weeks, nationalist fervor has been stoked by the country’s continuing standoff with the Philippines over Scarborough Shoal, a disputed island in the South China Sea. The Global Times, a pro-government tabloid, wrote that “peace would be a miracle” if the Philippines did not relent.
More from GlobalPost: Will the US get involved in the China-Philippines standoff?
It is against this tense backdrop that even legal non-Chinese residents are made nervous by the crackdown. While acknowledging that the government is right to uphold the law, Jenne said "there is definitely something happening in attitudes to foreigners" in China. “As someone who’s been living here a long time, I definitely can feel a sea change going on.”
An estimated 120,000 foreigners now live in Beijing. Since 2008, city officials have processed 13,000 cases of illegal entry or improper employment, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.
Over the years, many young Americans and other foreigners have come to China to teach English while on student visas — an arrangement sometimes preferred by Chinese companies to avoid extra paperwork and expense. In 2010, as an employee of a large, state-owned company, Charlie Custer said he and other foreigners were employed on student visas.
“If a state-owned company isn’t giving work visas for workers there,” he said, “what are the chances an average regular company is going to be able to get that?”
Indeed, while the overall number of outsiders visiting China has exploded, from 740,000 in 1980, to 27 million in 2011, according to Xinhua, residents say it remains difficult to find official sponsorship to work.
“I've been told by several sources that it becomes more and more difficult for foreign people to obtain a work permit in China, year after year,” says Tom Van de Weghe, a Belgian journalist who has lived in Beijing for five years.
“Some people could make the conclusion that China is becoming less and less welcoming to foreigners. But I truly hope this is not the case.”
Still, some non-Chinese residents endorse the 100-day “clean up” campaign, seeing it as a justifiable response to Beijing’s emergence as an alluring global destination.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with fomenting jingoism,” said Bill Bishop, an investor and consultant who has lived in Beijing for more than eight years. Calling the measure “long overdue,” he asks: “Why should illegal foreigners in a first-world city like Beijing expect to be treated any differently than illegal foreigners in the US or Europe?”
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For More Information
Alicia Nestle (585) 389-2457
Speech-language pathology graduate student, Cameron McCurty '06, '10G, was selected to participate in the Minority Student Leadership Program (MSLP) at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention in Philadelphia on November 16 - 21, 2010.
MSLP is a leadership development program established for undergraduate seniors, graduate-level students, audiology students who are enrolled in communication sciences and disorders programs, and PhD students who are pursuing a research doctoral degree. MSLP recruits and retains racial/ethnic minorities that have been historically under-represented in the professions of audiology and speech-language pathology.
Thirty students were chosen to participate. MSLP applications were reviewed by a panel of ASHA members and rated on their essay, resume and a letter of support. Applicants must belong to The National Student Speech Language Hearing Association to participate in the program.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association is a professional, scientific, and credentialing association for 140,000 members and affiliates who are speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists in the United States and internationally. ASHA’s mission is to empower and support speech-language pathologists, audiologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists by advocating on behalf of persons with communication and related disorders, advancing communication science and promoting effective human communication.
Founded in 1924, Nazareth College is located on a close-knit, suburban campus in the dynamic, metropolitan region of Rochester, N.Y. The College offers challenging academic programs in the liberal arts and sciences and professional programs in health and human services, education, and management. Nazareth's strong cultures of service and community prepare students to be successful professionals and engaged citizens. The College enrolls approximately 2,000 undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students.
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The number of Syrian refugees going into Turkey has grown in recent days, officials said, most of them frightened by a government assault to drive rebels from the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs.
Amos arrived in Turkey earlier on Friday, after a trip to Syria where she said she had witnessed significant devastation in Baba Amr and wanted to know what happened to residents who had endured a 26-day military siege. Rebels withdrew a week ago.
Amos was due to meet with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at around 1100 GMT in Ankara, a ministry official said. A UN official said she was expected to make a statement at Ankara airport at 1200 GMT, before flying to Istanbul.
Some 12,000 Syrians are registered at several camps set up in Turkey's southern province of Hatay, including about 800 who crossed during the past week, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Two Syrian generals, a colonel and a sergeant were among 234 people who arrived in Hatay's Reyhanli district on Friday, a Foreign Ministry official told Reuters. Similar numbers were now crossing over on a daily basis, he said.
Ankara has turned against former friend President Bashar al-Assad over his brutal crackdown of protesters, and fears that there could be massacres in Syrian towns and cities that are centres of opposition to his rule.
The United Nations is readying food stocks for 1.5 million people in Syria as part of a 90-day, $105 million emergency plan to help civilians deprived of basic supplies after nearly a year of conflict.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it had distributed some food supplies in Syria through local aid agencies, but it had not reached people in the areas worst hit by the violence.
The UN estimates more than 7,500 civilians have died in the crackdown.
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last year My daughter started kindergarten 4.8 years old in public school. she struggled but i was told that she was not a retention child. i decided to retain her and place in private montessori kindergarten again. The school told me that the kids were between 5-6 years old. not so they are 4 to 5 years old. Aunee is a whole year older and bigger than the rest. She does not fit in The education she learned is now being lost because these are not at here level. Should i place her in public school in the middle of October in 1st grade or leave her there
You're fortunate to have a choice. Is your daughter unhappy in her Kindergarten class? Does she go to school willingly each day or does she ask to stay home? You could go into your public school and observe in a 1st grade classroom and see what you think. See if you think she would fit in better there. 81003
I would ask both a first grade public school teacher and a private school teacher to evaluate her and see what they tell you. The demands of each grade level will also vary from school district to school district, and even from school to school. So you will probably get different answers from different teachers. Last year, when I was asked to evaluate a child on whether or not she was ready to pass on to first grade from K midyear, I asked the first grade teacher for a packet of work from her class for the day for an average child. Then I asked the child to do it independently, (as much as she could, after I got her started.) She was really not ready for many of the concepts, and though she could read the passages aloud, did not comprehend them well enough. So I recommended that she remain in K for the rest of the year. That is one approach that you can try. Also, the Montesorri approach is known to be VERY developmentally appropriate, which in a lot of people's minds means "not a lot of worksheets" and that sort of thing. Being a year older, she may be ready for this. You might want to consider switching her to a different private Kindergarten! Heidi Butkus Heidi Butkus81017
Often when people think or talk about retention or skipping a grade - they only think about academics. I want to offer a different perspective or rather to throw other factors into the formula.
When my son was in kindergarten, I thought about retaining him as well. The reason? Not academics - he was doing fine. In fact, he was ready for first grade work probably mid-year of kindergarten. He knew all his sight words, count up 100, adds up to 10, etc. But at the time, I felt strongly about retaining my son in kindergarten because he has very weak social skills. He's 9 years old now and his social skills are still weak. My son's social and emotional development is a few years behind his peer. It was really hard for him to interact and play with his peers because their game is always more "mature" than what my son could handle. In kindergarten, they already played a really complicated game of freeze tag - rules that my son could not understand. So he just stuck to his slide and monkey bars. It was heartbreaking for me to see my son not being a part of the "group" activities.
My son was promoted and he's doing fine now. Although he's still not strong in his social skills, he found friends who are "socially" behind that he can now play with.
There are four big area of child development: social, emotional, physical, and cognitive. When thinking about retention, promotion, or skipping a grade, please consider all factors of your child's development and not only the cognitive aspect of it.
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Adult Nonfiction 613.0434 B
Summary: ANew York TimesBestseller! With the right lifestyle, experts say, chances are that you may live up to a decade longer. What's the prescription for success? National Geographic Explorer Dan Buettner has traveled the globe to uncover the best strategies for longevity found in the Blue Zones: places in the world where higher percentages of people enjoy remarkably long, full lives. And in this dynamic book he discloses the recipe, blending this unique lifestyle formula with the latest scientific findings to inspire easy, lasting change that may add years to your life. Buettner's colossal research effort, funded in part by the National Institute on Aging, has taken him from Costa Rica to Italy to Japan and beyond. In the societies he visits, it's no coincidence that the way people interact with each other, shed stress, nourish their bodies, and view their world yields more good years of life. You'll meet a 94-year-old farmer and self-confessed "ladies man" in Costa Rica, an 102-year-old grandmother in Okinawa, a 102-year-old Sardinian who hikes at least six miles a day, and others. By observing their lifestyles, Buettner's teams have identified critical everyday choices that correspond with the cutting edge of longevity research--and distilled them into a few simple but powerful habits that anyone can embrace.
Be the first to add a comment! Share your thoughts about this title. Would you recommend it? Why or why not?
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Speaking to several hundred Hispanic leaders at the Latino Leaders Network luncheon today, Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez announced that Speaker Pelosi has tentatively set November 29th for a vote on the Dream Act. Velasquez was honored at the luncheon for her leadership of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
Congresswoman Velasquez called for all Americans to contact their Members of Congress to urge passage. The Dream Act legislation would establish a process for undocumented immigrant youth, brought to the U.S before the age of 16, to achieve legal status if they enter the armed forces or attend college for two years, and have clean records. In an increasingly competitive international trade market, growing a better educated work force could have significant long term benefits. Passage of the Dream Act would both begin the process of solving the country’s immigration quandary and improving American competitiveness.
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Legislature Agrees On State Budget
Senator Thomas P. Morahanannounced that the State Legislature has agreed on the 2006-07 State budget. Morahan, one of the key joint Assembly-Senate Budget Conference chairmen responsible for producing the budget, noted that the document would deliver tax cuts to families, help make New York more economically competitive, and will make important investments in education, health care and other areas that will improve the quality of life for New Yorkers.
"This budget will return more than $4.1 billion to the hardworking, overburdened taxpayers of New York State over the next two years. A highlight of the budget is the Senate’s plan to provide almost $2 billion in direct rebates to property taxpayers, including $72 million for STAR cost of living increases for senior citizens," said Morahan.
The revised budget eliminates the personal income tax marriage penalty, provides a child education tax credit to parents of children in school, and will allow the sales tax on clothing and shoe purchases under $110 to end on April 1st.
School children throughout the State will benefit from a record education aid increase of almost $1.3 billion, including a new statewide school construction aid that will move ahead school building in New York City.
Restorations in health care will ensure that hospitals, nursing homes and emergency rooms stay open and that home care is provided for the sick and disabled.
Some key details:
Property tax relief in the form of direct rebate checks to property taxpayers. Rebate checks will range from $300 to $800, depending on where you live and if you’re a senior citizen.
Elimination of the marriage penalty which will save married couples who take the standard deduction and file jointly;.
Child education tax credit that provides $330 tax credits per child to parents with school-age children, to help pay for education-related expenses.
Teacher Resource and Computer Centers aid increased by $ 20.6 million
Teacher support aid of $ 67.5 million
Aid to BOCES increased by $ 58.1 million
Aid to public libraries increased by almost $ 6 million
Allowing businesses to keep a larger share of sales tax collections,
Expansion of Empire Zone tax credits - $50 million
Open space land acquisition - $ 50 million
Biofuels tax credit - $5 million
Film tax credit to $35 million and extending it to commercial production - $7 million
Extension of brownfields tax credit - $11 million
Farmers’ school property tax credit - $10 million
Volunteer firemen income tax credit - $25 million
Low income housing credit - $4 million
Land conservation tax credit - $1 million
PIT exemption for National Guard members $1 million
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McALLEN, Texas -- An unprecedented surge of children caught trudging through South Texas scrublands or crossing at border ports of entry without their families has sent government and nonprofit agencies scrambling to expand their shelter, legal representation and reunification services. On any given day this year, the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement has been caring for more than 2,100 unaccompanied child immigrants.
The influx came to light last week when 100 kids were taken to Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio for temporary housing. It was the first time the government has turned to the Defense Department – now, 200 boys and girls younger than 18 stay in a base dormitory.
While the issue of unaccompanied minors arriving in the U.S. isn't new, the scale of the recent increase is. From October 2011 through March, 5,252 kids landed in U.S. custody without a parent or guardian – a 93 percent increase from the same period the previous year, according to data released by the Department of Health and Human Services. In March alone, 1,390 kids arrived.
"The whole community right now is in triage mode," said Wendy Young, executive director of Kids in Need of Defense, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that matches pro bono attorneys with unaccompanied minors navigating the immigration system. "It's important that the resources and the capacity meet the need, and we're not quite there yet."
The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities in 10 states range from shelters to foster homes and have about 2,500 beds. Government-contracted shelters were maxing out their emergency bed space, setting up cots in gymnasiums and other extra spaces.
"It's a much more limited set of services," said Lauren Fisher of the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, which helps children and their families navigate the system. "It felt something like a Red Cross shelter, a hurricane shelter."
Unaccompanied children are first processed by the Department of Homeland Security, and then turned over to the ORR while the deportation process begins. Once in a shelter, the search begins for their relatives or an acceptable custodian, while nonprofit organizations try to match the children with pro bono attorneys. When a custodian is found, the child can leave the shelter and await immigration proceedings.
Eighty percent of the children referred to the ORR end up in a shelter, according to a report released last month by the Vera Institute of Justice – a nonprofit that developed a program to better provide access to legal services for children. The average shelter stay is 61 days, and the report found that at least 65 percent of the kids end up with a sponsor in the U.S.
The cause of the surge remains a mystery to child migrant advocates and government officials. The kids are coming from the same places as usual _Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico – and they offer the same range of explanations: they made the trek to look for parents already in the U.S.; they're seeking economic opportunity to send money home; they want to escape violence or abuse.
"We're talking to the children, but we don't have one solid answer," Fisher said. "There seem to be the same reasons that we've seen before."
Some have suggested that human smugglers are more aggressively marketing their services. Others wonder if the Border Patrol, whose presence has doubled in recent years, is simply catching more of them. But Border Patrol apprehensions of children and adults were cut in half from 2008 to 2011, and only 5 percent of those caught are unaccompanied children. Younger children commonly cross with adult smugglers at the ports of entry, while older kids join groups that follow guides through the brush.
A South Texas woman told border authorities this month that the 5-year-old girl accompanying her at the international bridge connecting Hidalgo, Texas, and Reynosa, Mexico, was her sister, according to court records. She even presented a Texas birth certificate. But the girl couldn't answer basic questions, so the woman told customs officers that she wasn't related to the girl at all. She said that a man whom she worked with in Mexico offered her $2,000 to "cross" the girl – who was actually from Guatemala – and accompany her to Houston. The woman was charged with transporting an illegal immigrant.
This week, the first ladies of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala spoke at a three-day conference on unaccompanied minors in Washington, D.C. Mexico's first lady, Margarita Zavala, and Honduran counterpart Rosa Elena Bonilla de Lobo noted that tougher U.S. border security made it more difficult for parents working in the U.S. to return for their children, a suggestion as to why parents increasingly would put their children in a smuggler's care.
"The statistics are worrisome," said Rosa Maria Leal de Perez, Guatemala's first lady. "We've had 6,000 unaccompanied children repatriated in the last year."
The Department of Health and Human Services limited its public statements on the unaccompanied migrant children program, but it allowed a few reporters to take a short tour this week of the housing at Lackland Air Force base. They were not allowed to speak with children.
The beige, nondescript four-story dormitory is located deep on the base. When children arrive, they are issued black duffel bags filled with clothing and are allowed two phone calls a week. Three-quarters of the children are boys, most between 14 and 17 years old.
Green cots were spaced two feet apart along the stark-white walls. A media room held a large flat-screen television and a video game console; there were also board games and an outside area with a basketball hoop and two soccer goals. The kids play outside for an hour each day.
"We are looking to add some educational features that are appropriate for a 30-day temporary program," HHS spokesman Jesse Garcia said, though the goal is to move kids to more established accommodations within 15 days.
As of late Friday, 83 kids had already been transferred out of Lackland, most to permanent facilities. Nineteen had been reunited with family.
Associated Press writer Paul Weber in San Antonio contributed to this report.
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The ISS Avenger (NX-09) was an NX-class Starfleet starship for the Terran Empire. It fought in the war with the Rebellion of the 2150s, and was one of the several vessels destroyed by the USS Defiant during Jonathan Archer's power struggle for the throne of the Empire.
The Avenger was constructed at Antares Ship Yards in the early-to-mid-22nd century. It was placed under the command of a Terran Starfleet Captain, and like Enterprise, was placed under the jurisdiction of Admiral Black. Avenger was assigned to an assault fleet by early 2155 during the conflict with the Anti-Terran Rebellion, and was used by Admiral Black as his flagship of the fleet.
In 2155, the Avenger's assault fleet was engaged by a fleet of rebel vessels, which included Andorian, Tellarite, and Vulcan starships. The battle did not go well for the Imperial assault fleet. Before long, nearly the entire assault fleet was destroyed except for Avenger, which suffered heavy damage and mass casualties. Included in its casualties was its captain, who was killed by a piece of shrapnel. After the captain was killed, Admiral Black took direct command of the Avenger.
The Avenger was under heavy fire and unlikely to survive much longer, when the USS Defiant under the command of Commander Jonathan Archer joined the battle. Given its vast tactical superiority, the Defiant was able to destroy the rebel fleet, except for a lone Andorian cruiser, which Archer allowed to escape, arguing that it would spread fear of Defiant throughout the Rebellion. The Defiant and Avenger then set course for Earth.
Defender of the EmpireEdit
As the Defiant and Avenger headed towards Earth, Admiral Black visited the Defiant. While there, Archer assassinated Black and took command of both vessels. Archer then gathered the officers from the two ships in Avenger's cargo bay to state his intentions to remove corruption from Starfleet by taking over the Empire. During this time, Archer's paranoia grew to the point where he transferred all non-Terrans, except Doctor Phlox, to Avenger.
Suspecting a plot against him, Archer had T'Pol transferred back to Defiant. During this time, Soval and his compatriots took control of Avenger's bridge and launched an attack on Defiant. The attack exposed that Archer's concerns of a plot were not unfounded, as the Defiant had been sabotaged by Phlox. The sabotage was quickly repaired though, and Archer returned fire on Avenger, which was lost with all hands.
The Latin text on the patch ("Audentes Fortuna Imperii") means "The bold [are] the fortune of the Empire". The intended translation may have been "The Empire [is] Bold [and] Fortunate". But this does not work out by all means. Fortunately it can be translated, grammatically and semantically correct, as "The bold [are] the fortune of the Empire".
|NX class starships|
|ISS Avenger | ISS Enterprise|
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- With Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist
Michael F. Picco, M.D.read biographyclose window
Michael F. Picco, M.D.Michael F. Picco, M.D.
Dr. Michael Picco has been with Mayo Clinic since 1999. He is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology. Dr. Picco is an assistant professor of medicine at College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, and a consultant in gastroenterology at Mayo Clinic in Florida.
He has authored numerous publications in the area of gastroenterology, including original research, editorials and textbook chapters. He works with a team of gastroenterologists that takes care of complex gastrointestinal conditions and has a particular interest in diarrheal illnesses and inflammatory bowel diseases (ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease). He is also active in medical education in training new gastroenterologist and internists.
"Mayo Clinic's website is an invaluable resource for patients and their families," Dr. Picco said. "Informed patients are better able to participate in their own health care. A patient's participation is vital to the treatment of his or her disease. I hope to assist in helping patients understand their digestive problems and current treatments that are offered. This will allow for better communication between patients, their physicians and other health care professionals."
Dr. Picco serves as a reviewer of new research for several medical journals in the area of gastroenterology and is an active member of the American Gastroenterological Association, American College of Gastroenterology and the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. He serves on numerous committees that address physician training, research and clinical practice in gastroenterology, both at Mayo Clinic and at the national level.
"Patients need to know about their disease, what to expect, the latest treatments and side effects so that they can make informed decisions about their health care. Gastrointestinal disease affects not only patients but also their families. My goal is to assure that our website provides accurate, reliable information and resources for patients. We must always provide the latest, most cutting-edge information to assist patients in dealing with their medical problems," Dr. Picco said.
Lifestyle and home remedies (2)
- Celiac disease: Can gluten be absorbed through the skin?
- Celiac disease diet: How do I get enough grains?
Celiac disease diet: How do I get enough grains?
I have celiac disease, and I find it difficult to get enough grains in my diet. Do you have any suggestions?
from Michael F. Picco, M.D.
Because people with celiac disease must avoid gluten — a protein found in foods containing wheat, barley and rye — it can be a challenge to get enough grains.
Grains are an important part of a healthy diet. They are a good source of healthy carbohydrates, various vitamins and minerals, and fiber, and they are naturally low in fat. When possible, choose foods made with enriched flours for added vitamins and minerals. Whole grains are even better for you. These include brown or wild rice, quinoa, amaranth, pure buckwheat, flax, whole corn, millet, gluten-free oats, sorghum and teff.
Many large grocery stores and specialty food stores carry ready-to-eat gluten-free grain products. The labels on such products will state that the product is "gluten-free." Consider the suggestions in the chart below for adding gluten-free grains to your diet.
|Gluten-free grains and grain products*||Serving size|
||1 slice or piece|
||1/2 to 1 cup|
||1 oz. (check label)|
||1/2 to 1 cup|
*Products vary by manufacturer, so be sure that the brand you purchase is gluten-free. Shopping guides that list gluten-free products are available. Check with a registered dietitian or celiac disease support group.
Oats may not be harmful for most people with celiac disease. However, oat products are frequently contaminated with wheat, so it's best to avoid oats. If your doctor or dietitian suggests trying oats, be sure to look for oats from a reputable gluten-free supplier.
Most gluten-free grain products aren't supplemented with vitamins, so it's a good idea to take a vitamin supplement.
Grain products that are not gluten-free include any type of wheat (including farina, graham flour, semolina and durum), barley, rye, bulgur, Kamut, kasha, matzo meal, spelt, triticale, couscous, emmer and einkorn.Next question
Food allergy vs. food intolerance: What's the difference?
- Celiac disease. National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NDDIC). http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/celiac/index.htm. Accessed July 18, 2012.
- Grains and flours glossary. Celiac Sprue Association. http://www.csaceliacs.info/grains_and_flours_glossary.jsp. Accessed July 18, 2012.
- See JA (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. July 20, 2012.
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Just in time for the new school year, Carpe Diem Learning Systems
will open its first Ohio school at Aiken High School
Aug. 21 in College Hill. Carpe Diem is Cincinnati’s first tuition-free public charter school for the general district population, and is sponsored by Cincinnati Public Schools
will offer a blended learning model of digital curriculum with blended learning experiences, says Rick Ogston, founder of CDLS.
Twelve years ago, Ogston’s wife, Sharon, encouraged him to go back to school and get a Masters' degree in education. After that, he started to learn about charter schools and the difference they can make in communities. From there, Carpe Diem was born.
“Carpe Diem is about personalizing education to the nth degree,” Ogston says. “It brings the uncommon combination of personalized education and high academics with a career focus on achievement to the table. We prepare students academically for the 21st
century, but we also allow students to progress at a pace more comfortable to them.”
The curriculum at Carpe Diem is tailored to meet the needs of a spectrum of students, from those who are lost in large schools or traditional classrooms, to gifted students who want to work at an accelerated pace.
Tyree Gaines is the new principal of Carpe Diem-Aiken, and she hopes to contribute instructional leadership that opens the door for students and teachers to maximize their potential.
“I want Carpe Diem-Aiken to empower students to be learners, thinkers, doers, believers and achievers,” she says.
Carpe Diem-Aiken will bring an innovative new educational model to the area, but it will also be debuting Aiken New Tech
, which infuses technology into curriculum while incorporating project-based learning and real-world experiences, says Janet Walsh, director of public affairs for CPS.
“We love that the Carpe Diem model incorporates ‘blended learning’—a combination of technology-driven and teacher-led instruction, which is very much a wave of the future,” Walsh says.
CDLS is North Central Association-accredited and includes Edgenuity
’s instructional content, uBoost
’s online recognition and reward system, and a secure online portal to provide parents with real-time student data. Carpe Diem also offers opportunities for career concentrations in Information Technology, Science and Engineering, Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Digital Arts and Entertainment, and Health Sciences.
Carpe Diem-Aiken joins CDLS’s first school, Carpe Diem Collegiate High School in Yuma, Ariz., and Carpe Diem Meridian, which opened in August in Indianapolis. Carpe Diem Summit in Fort Wayne is scheduled to open this August as well.
Parents and students who are interested in meeting with Gaines and learning more about Carpe Diem-Aiken can email her at [email protected]
or call her at 513-612-0153.
If you’re a Cincinnati student who is interested in attending Carpe Diem-Aiken and is 12-16 years old, you can enroll in Carpe Diem here
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter
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Readers may be interested in the views of American born Libyan author Hisham Matar (In the Country of Men, Anatomy of a Disappearance) on whether or not Gaddafi had to go. Matar responded in the London Review of Books to Hugh Roberts's long (12,000+ words) article
with the letter below in the 1 December 2011 edition.
I understood that Gaddafi was guilty of any number of crimes but I had little idea of the charges that Matar makes against him.
I gather the alleged crimes of Gaddafi are still a controversial issue on the left.
Who said Gaddafi had to go?
Letter by Hisham Matar
For 42 years Libyans endured the contempt and violence of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule. It subjugated the press, closed down unions and weakened the independence of the courts. It dismantled civic institutions and hanged students by the neck from the gates of the university. Executions of critics in public squares and sports stadiums were broadcast on national television. In a country with a population smaller than that of the City of London, tens of thousands disappeared or were imprisoned. Journalists who dared break the silence were found dead.
It is extraordinary how in his very long essay Hugh Roberts excludes any mention of this history (LRB, 17 November). It makes one wonder whether he knows the country at all. His objection to Nato’s support of the Libyan revolution causes him to lament the end of the dictatorship. With an air of ethnocentric contempt he disregards the will of the Libyan people. Indeed, he even disapproves of calling the deposed leader a dictator, and offers Gaddafi’s comical Green Book the respectability of a serious political theory that, according to Roberts, ‘drew many ordinary Libyans into a sort of participation in public affairs’. Really? What ‘sort of participation’ was possible when every independent agency and organisation was subdued? Although Roberts prefers to judge Gaddafi by his words and not by his actions, he mysteriously excludes any mention of the speeches Gaddafi delivered after 17 February promising to ‘exterminate’ the demonstrators. Just as baffling is the derogatory tone in which he refers to those ‘young men … careering up and down’. He means the men who led the battles that ousted the dictator. In more than 12,000 words Roberts succeeds in expressing no sympathy for, let alone solidarity with, a people’s legitimate aspiration for justice and freedom. Shame.
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Anyone who has an email account is familiar with spam emails. However, most of the people are unfamiliar with the ways to prevent email spam. In fact, you can stop receiving those annoying unsolicited email messages taking several simple email spam blocking steps.
There are various email spam blocking tools you can use. Essentially they all work in a similar manner:
Anti-spam software will intercept all incoming email messages. First, it will block any messages coming from known spam domains. Next, most email spam blocking services will look at the subject line of the email message and its contents. If the subject and/or the text of the email message contain specific spammy phrases, excessive punctuation, sloppy coding and so on, they will label the message as spam and send it to the spam or trash folder of your email client.
Each email spam blocking tool has different criteria to judge whether an email message is spam or not. Also, the threshold can vary from one tool to another. Basically, that means that some tools will need to find more proof that a message is spam than others in order to label it as spam and successfully filter it.
On the other hand, if you are an online business owner running permission based email marketing campaigns, those email spam blocking services can backfire. Why? Because your promotional email messages can accidentally end up in your customers’ trash folders.
Luckily, there are several ways to avoid this. First of all, ask the recipients of your emails to add your email in the contact book of their main clients. Obviously, you will need to use the same email address to send all your promotional emails or newsletters.
Other steps you can take to avoid any email spam blocking filters the recipients of your emails are:
- Don’t talk about money in the subject line of your emails
- Don’t include too urgent call-to-action phrases such as “Click here right now!” or “Free! Buy Now!”
- Avoid using excessive punctuation or any other symbols such as currency signs
- Don’t use all caps letters
To avoid getting your email marketing campaigns blacklisted as spam, it is highly recommended to use a spam checker tool. These tools simulate the way most email spam blocking services use and are a great way to make sure that any email you are sending is good to go.Tags:email spam prevention, how to report email spam, email spam blocking
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| 0.934359 | 499 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Folklore | Chinese Film & Music
F600 | 25648 | S. Tuohy
Students must attend the Monday night session.
Above class meets at 501 N. Park.
Above class meets with Folk-F305 and is cross-listed in the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC).
Fulfills: Area & Theory
The course introduces students to Chinese film, music, and the film
industry. We will view and analyze a range of “Chinese” films
produced in and about China, from the early 1900s to today. In
particular, we will look at features films that focus on Chinese
music, musicians, and actors (including films about famous female
performers and heroines, opera stars, and martial arts masters). We
also will consider other genres such as documentaries, MTV, and
videos circulated through the internet.
Among the primary course objectives are: 1) to learn methods
for "reading" film music; and 2) to learn to read Chinese films and
listen to their soundtracks in relation to their representations of
Chinese culture. We will explore theories, particularly those from
the field of ethnomusicology, and will experiment with methods for
the analysis of film music. The films will be contextualized within
the social-historical conditions of their production as well the
conditions which they portray.
Every other week (approximately), we will meet on Monday evening to
view together selected films. This course will meet with an
undergraduate section, F305. Graduate students will be assigned
additional readings, including readings in film music theory, and
will complete a more extensive final project. On selected weeks,
graduate students will meet during the Monday evening session for
additional seminars. The course also fulfills a “theory” (F700)
requirement; it is cross-listed in the Department of East Asian
Languages and Cultures.
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http://www.indiana.edu/~deanfac/blspr08/folk/folk_f600_25648.html
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| 0.938067 | 414 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Gorbachev, who is in Houston for a speech tonight, and Bush have maintained ties since both left office. In 1989, just a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the two presidents met at a summit in Malta where they essentially declared an end to the Cold War.
Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for reforms he initiated that ultimately led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He is the founder of Green Cross International.
For information on tickets, call 713-974-1335.
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http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Two-Cold-War-hands-Gorbachev-and-Bush-lunch-in-4000615.php
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| 0.959946 | 110 | 1.617188 | 2 |
TAMPA — People who live near the Ford Amphitheatre felt muffled Thursday as the Environmental Protection Commission ignored their protests and unanimously changed Hillsborough County's noise ordinance.
"We might as well have not said anything," said Arnold Stark, who has heard concert music and obscenities above his television and has felt his house shake from booming bass.
The rules no longer consider a millisecond spike in sound over the decibel limit as a violation. The new regulation measures whether a source of noise averages more than the legal decibel limits over a 10-minute period. The limits range between 70 decibels and 55 decibels depending on times and neighborhoods.
County commissioners, who voted 6-0 for the revisions with Kevin White absent, felt the old rule was unenforceable. A bird chirping, cicada buzzing, car door slamming, soda can opening and car traveling 25 mph all reached or exceeded the county's decibel limits.
"If we strictly enforced the current rule it would outlaw all outside activities," said John McDonald, a noise consultant the county hired.
But residents who surround the Interstate 4 concert venue said the new rules just make it easier for the amphitheater to blast songs that keep their children up, as long as they're followed by a quieter break.
"If a song's only four minutes long, I guess you could do two songs and talk for two minutes," said Chris Clifton, who lives four miles away and spent $9,000 on more soundproof windows. "I think we're being sold out on this."
Nearby homeowners and the amphitheater have had a contentious history. Clear Channel opened the Ford Amphitheatre in 2004, and hundreds of nuisance complaints about concert noise followed, prompting a county lawsuit. The case was settled after Live Nation, a company formed when Clear Channel spun off its entertainment division, agreed last year to build a $2.6-million sound-absorbing wall.
Complaints dropped but they rose again this year. Live Nation blamed the wall's worn-out acoustical carpet and spent $60,000 to replace it this spring.
Last year, when the county began revising its 30-year-old ordinance, officials formed a panel of six sound experts that included a consultant for Live Nation. The only other person to attend the panel's two meetings — which weren't publicly advertised — was Live Nation's attorney.
Many of the comments and recommendations the panel considered came from the Live Nation representatives, according to official notes from meetings. That made residents such as Stark skeptical when commissioners said the changes help control the amphitheater's noisy acts.
When he asked why five minute periods weren't chosen as a measuring stick instead of 10, he said the suggestion went ignored.
"We're trying to stay optimistic," said Joe Gross, Temple Terrace code compliance director, after Thursday's vote. "But it's just after you've taken call after call, you have to be circumspect."
He reminded commissioners to protect residents' quality of life, and to make sure the changes won't bring about a new flood of complaints.
While commissioners weighed the sentiments from the public, they said they also had to consider the importance of the concert venue as a prominent county business that has improved its relationship with the public.
"The amphitheater is there," Commissioner Mark Sharpe said. "It's there. And we asked them to build a wall and they did."
Commissioner Rose Ferlita called the changes reasonable.
"It's a partnership that has been better than in the past," she said. "We have to be the commonsensical board that brings some balance to this."
Along with new standards affecting the amphitheater, the rule change also exempts musical entertainment in Ybor City, the Channel District and downtown from the county's ordinance, leaving the city responsible for noise enforcement.
Tampa police already handle noise complaints at bars and venues in those areas.
Justin George can be reached at (813) 226-3368 or [email protected].
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| 0.967796 | 844 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Preparing to Attack Iran with Nuclear Weapons: “No Option can be taken off the Table.”
By Prof. Michel Chossudovsky - Center for Research on Globalization
““When a US sponsored nuclear war becomes an ” instrument of peace” , condones and accepted by the world´s leading institutions and highest authority, including the United Nations, there is no turning back: human society has indelibly been precipitated headlong onto the path of self-destruction”. (Towards a World War III Scenario, Global Research, May 2011)
The World is at a Dangerous Crossroads. America’s is on a War Path.
World War III is no longer an abstract concept
The US and its allies are preparing to launch a nuclear war directed against Iran with devastating consequences.
This military adventure in the real sense of the word threatens the future of humanity.
The Pentagon’s global military design is one of world conquest.
The military deployment of US-NATO forces is occurring in several regions of the world simultaneously.
War pretexts and “justifications” abound. Iran is heralded as a threat to Israel and the World.
The war on Iran has been on the drawing board of the Pentagon for more than eight years. In recent developments, a renewed set of threats and accusations directed against Tehran have been launched.
A “war of stealth” has already commenced. Mossad intelligence operatives are on the ground. Covert paramilitary formations are being launched inside Iran, CIA drones are being deployed.
Meanwhile, Washington. London, Brussels and Tel Aviv have launched specific destabilizing initiatives “to choke Iran diplomatically, financially and economically”.
A stepped up economic sanctions regime has been formulated by the US Congress:
“a bipartisan consensus has emerged in Washington in favor of strangling the Iranian economy.” The latter consists in implementing “an amendment to the 2012 defence authorisation bill, designed to “collapse the Iranian economy”… by making it virtually impossible for Tehran to sell its oil.” (Tom Burghardt, Target Iran: Washington’s Countdown to War, Global Research, December 2011). :
This new wave of diplomatic hype coupled with the threat of economic sanctions has also contributed to triggering an aura of uncertainty in the market for crude oil, with potentially devastating consequences on the global economy.
Meanwhile, the corporate media has embarked on a renewed propaganda stint pertaining to Iran’s alleged nuclear program, pointing to “activities related to possible weaponization.”
In recent developments, barely acknowledged by the US media, President Barack Obama met privately (December 16), behind closed doors with Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The meeting was held in the outskirts of Washington DC at the Gaylord Hotel, National Harbor, Maryland under the auspices of the Union for Reform Judaism.
The importance of this timely private meeting under URJ auspices cannot be underestimated. Reports suggest that the Barack O / E. Barak meeting centered largely on the issue of a US-Israeli attack on Iran.
Writing in Haaretz, Israeli political analyst Amir Oren described the Barack-Barak meeting as a potential “Green Light” to Israel to launch an all out war on Iran:
“Is it possible that the half-hour meeting last Friday at the Gaylord Hotel in National Harbor, Maryland, between U.S. President Barack Obama and Defense Minister Ehud Barak will be remembered in Israel’s history as the moment at which Barack O. gave the green light to E. Barak — for better or for worse — to attack Iran?... Can this be seen as a sort of flashback to the talk between Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig in Washington in May 1982, that gave rise to the (mistaken) Israeli impression that there was an understanding with the United States over going to war in Lebanon… ” No sign U.S. has given Israel green light to strike Iran – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
Following this private meeting, Obama addressed the Biennial Plenary of the Union for Reform Judaism, reassuring his audience that “cooperation between our militaries [and intelligence] has never been stronger.”
Obama underscored that Iran is a “threat to the security of Israel, the United States and the world … And that’s why our policy has been absolutely clear: We are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons….And that’s why … we have imposed the most comprehensive, the hardest-hitting sanctions that the Iranian regime has ever faced…. And that’s why, rest assured, we will take no options off the table.” (Transcript of President Obama Union for Reform Judaism Speech Video Dec. 16. 2011: Address at URJ Biennial, 71st General Assembly , emphasis added).
Towards a “Coordinated” US-Israeli Attack on Iran?
In recent weeks, the US media tabloids have been literally plastered with “no options off the table” statements by Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Panetta intimated, however, ”that Israel should not consider unilateral action against Iran” while stressing “that any military operation against Iran by Israel must be coordinated with the United States and have its backing“. (Panetta’s December 2 statement at the Saban Center quoted in U.S. Defense Secretary: Iran could get nuclear bomb within a year – Haaretz, December 11, 2011, emphasis added)
The Threat of Nuclear War against Iran
The “no options off the table” statement intimates that the US not only envisages an attack on Iran but that this attack could include the use of tactical bunker buster nuclear weapons with an explosive capacity between one third and six times a Hiroshima bomb. In a cruel irony, these “humanitarian” “peace-making” nuclear bombs “Made in America” –which according to “scientific opinion” on contract to the Pentagon are “harmless to the surrounding civilian population”– are contemplated to be used against Iran in retaliation for its nonexistent nuclear weapons program.
While Iran has no nuclear weapons, what is rarely acknowledged is that five (officially) “non-nuclear States” including Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey have US made tactical nuclear weapons deployed under national command in their respective military bases. This nuclear arsenal is slated to be used against Iran.
The stockpiling and deployment of tactical B61 in these five “non-nuclear states” are intended for targets in the Middle East. In accordance with “NATO strike plans”, these thermonuclear B61 bunker buster bombs would be launched “against targets in Russia or countries in the Middle East such as Syria and Iran” (quoted in National Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons in Europe , February 2005, emphasis added)
While these “undeclared nuclear states” casually accuse Tehran of developing nuclear weapons, without documentary evidence, they themselves have capabilities of delivering nuclear warheads, which are targeted at Iran, Syria and Russia. (See Michel Chossudovsky, Europe’s Five “Undeclared Nuclear Weapons States” , Global Research, February 12, 2010)
Israel’s Nukes are Pointed at Iran. Joint US-Israel “Coordination” of Nuclear Weapons Deployment
Israel rather than Iran is a threat to global security.
Israel possesses 100-200 strategic nuclear warheads, which are fully deployed against Iran.
Already in 2003, Washington and Tel Aviv confirmed that they were collaborating in “the deployment of US-supplied Harpoon cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads in Israel’s fleet of Dolphin-class submarines.” (The Observer, 12 October 2003).
According to Russian general Leonid Ivashov:
The Israeli military and political circles had been making statements on the possibility of nuclear and missile strikes on Iran openly since October, 2006, when the idea was immediately supported by G. Bush. Currently it is touted in the form of a “necessity” of nuclear strikes. The public is taught to believe that there is nothing monstrous about such a possibility and that, on the contrary, a nuclear strike is quite feasible. Allegedly, there is no other way to “stop” Iran. (General Leonid Ivashov, Iran Must Get Ready to Repel a Nuclear Attack, Global Research, January 2007 emphasis added)
It is worth noting that at the outset of Bush’s second term, Vice President Dick Cheney had hinted, in no uncertain terms, that Iran was “right at the top of the list” of the rogue enemies of America, and that Israel would, so to speak, “be doing the bombing for us”, without US military involvement and without us putting pressure on them “to do it”.
In the above context, political analyst and historian Michael Carmichael has pointed to the integration and coordination of military decision-making between the US and Israel pertaining to the deployment of nuclear weapons:
“Rather than a direct American nuclear strike against Iran’s hard targets, Israel has been given the assignment of launching a coordinated cluster of nuclear strikes aimed at targets that are the nuclear installations in the Iranian cities: Natanz, Isfahan and Arak. (Michael Carmichael, Global Research, January 2007)
“No Options off the Table”: What Does it Mean in the Context of Military Planning? Integration of Conventional and Nuclear Weapons Systems
The rules and guidelines of the US Military governing the use of nuclear weapons have been “liberalized” (i.e. ”deregulated” in relation to those prevailing during the Cold War era). The decision to use tactical nuclear weapons against Iran no longer depends on the Commander in Chief, namely president Barack Obama. It is strictly a military decision. The new doctrine states that Command, Control, and Coordination (CCC) regarding the use of nuclear weapons should be “flexible”, allowing geographic combat commanders to decide if and when to use of nuclear weapons:
Known in official Washington, as “Joint Publication 3-12″, the new nuclear doctrine (Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations , (DJNO) (March 2005)) calls for “integrating conventional and nuclear attacks” under a unified and “integrated” Command and Control (C2).
It largely describes war planning as a management decision-making process, where military and strategic objectives are to be achieved, through a mix of instruments, with little concern for the resulting loss of human life.
What this means is that if an attack on Iran is launched, tactical nuclear weapons will be an integral part of the weapons arsenal.
From a military decision-making standpoint, “no options off the table” means that the Military will apply “the most efficient use of force”. In this context, nuclear and conventional weapons are part of what the Pentagon calls “the tool box”, from which military commanders can pick and choose the instruments that they require in accordance with “evolving circumstances” in the “war theater”. (See Michel Chossudovsky, Is the Bush Administration Planning a Nuclear Holocaust? Global Research, February 22, 2006
“Once a decision to launch a military operation is taken (e.g. aerial strikes on Iran), theater commanders have a degree of latitude. What this signifies in practice is once the presidential decision is taken, USSTRATCOM in liaison with theater commanders can decide on the targeting and type of weaponry to be used. Stockpiled tactical nuclear weapons are now considered to be an integral part of the battlefield arsenal. In other words, nukes have become “part of the tool box”, used in conventional war theaters. Michel Chossudovsky, Targeting Iran, Is the US Administration Planning a Nuclear Holocaust, Global Research, February 2006, emphasis added)
The Integration of Conventional and Nuclear Warfare
Of utmost relevance to the planned attack on Iran, US military documents point towards the integration of conventional and nuclear weapons and the use of nukes on a pre-emptive basis in the conventional war theater.
This proposed “integration” of conventional and nuclear weapons systems was first formulated in 2003 under CONPLAN 8022. The latter is described as “a concept plan for the quick use of nuclear, conventional, or information warfare capabilities to destroy–pre-emptively, if necessary–”time-urgent targets” anywhere in the world [including Iran].” (See Michel Chossudovsky, US, NATO and Israel Deploy Nukes directed against Iran, Global Research, September 27, 2007). Coordinated by US Strategic Command, CONPLAN became operational in early 2004. (Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists).
CONPLAN opens up a military Pandora’s box. It blurs the dividing line between conventional and nuclear weapons. It opens the door for the preemptive use of nukes “anywhere in the World”
The Absence of Public Awareness
The “international community” has endorsed an attack on Iran in the name of World Peace.
“Making the World safer” is the justification for launching a military operation which could potentially result in a nuclear holocaust.
While one can conceptualize the loss of life and destruction resulting from present-day wars including Iraq and Afghanistan, it is impossible to fully comprehend the devastation which might result from a Third World War, using “new technologies” and advanced weapons, including nukes, until it occurs and becomes a reality.
The corporate media is involved in deliberately blocking news coverage as well as debate concerning these war preparations. The war on Iran and the dangers of escalation are not considered “front page news.” The mainstream media has excluded in-depth analysis and debate on the implications of these war plans.
Iran does not constitute a nuclear threat.
The threat to global security emanates from the US-NATO-Israel military alliance which contemplates –under the CONPLAN framework– the use of thermonuclear weapons against a non nuclear state.
In the words of General Ivashov, “The public is taught to believe that there is nothing monstrous about such a possibility”. Nuclear weapons are “part of tool box”.
An attack on Iran would have devastating consequences, It would unleash an all out regional war from the Eastern Mediterranean to Central Asia, potentially leading humanity into a World War III Scenario.
The Obama Administration constitutes a nuclear threat.
NATO constitutes a nuclear threat
Five European “non-nuclear states” (Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Turkey) with tactical nuclear weapons deployed under national command, to be used against Iran constitute a nuclear threat.
The Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not only constitutes a nuclear threat, but also a threat to the security of people of Israel, who are misled regarding the implications of an US-Israeli attack on Iran.
The complacency of Western public opinion –including segments of the US anti-war movement– is disturbing. No concern has been expressed at the political level as to the likely consequences of a US-NATO-Israel attack on Iran, using nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state.
Such an action would result in “the unthinkable”: a nuclear holocaust over a large part of the Middle East.
It should be noted that a nuclear nightmare would occur even if nuclear weapons were not used. The bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities using conventional weapons would contribute to unleashing a Chernobyl-Fukushima type disaster with extensive radioactive fallout.
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| 0.933666 | 3,302 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Manic Depression Gene
pete.dixon at canrem.com
Wed Dec 15 23:27:00 EST 1993
At a recent meeting of my Manic Depressive group a video was shown where they
talked about how a causal gene/gene set had been identified on chromosome 11.
The identification was confirmed by testing affected and non-affected family
members among the Amish and other gene mapping-friendly groups.
The strong implication to me was that there was now a genetic marker test for
this gene. If there is can someone direct to sources, costs, availability
information about these tests.
Even if the cost was in the 100's of dollars it would be cheap in relation to
the damage last/mis-diagnosis can cause. FYI, most manics report 11 years and a
series of mis-diagnoses before a Manic Depression conclusion was reached.
That's a lot of talk therapy to sit through to find out one's problem is
biochemical in origin. Not to mention the effect of those un-needed
More information about the Biochrom
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http://www.bio.net/hypermail/biochrom/1993-December/000126.html
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| 0.940579 | 227 | 1.71875 | 2 |
People Of WFIT
Mon January 9, 2012
Just How Much Did Clinton Eat As President?
If you're not a fan of a little White House gossip don't keep reading. But if you like reading about the every-day details a of a presidency, you'll like this bit Washingtonian magazine reports in its current issue.
The magazine said that pastry chef Roland Mesnier, who worked at the White House for 26 years beginning with the Carter administration, said when President Bill Clinton came into the White House in 1993 he had a "scary" appetite. "He could eat five or six pork chops."
And check out this story he told a crowd at American University in Washington:
"Clinton arrived in 1993 with not just his appetite but also some food allergies, including chocolate and flour. 'But he loved dessert,' says Mesnier. 'It made it very difficult for a pastry chef.' He recalls the episode of a strawberry cake he made one evening. Clinton devoured half of it all by himself, and the next morning he wanted more. 'No one could find the cake,' says Mesnier, who had a face-to-face with the distraught commander in chief. 'Clinton was pounding on the table and shouting, "I want my goddamned cake."'
'The chef, who is given to flights of humor, says that when the cake could not be found, 'We decided [Vice President Al] Gore must have eaten it.'"
After leaving office, Clinton went through two different heart procedures. That was part of the reason he went vegan, giving up red meat, chicken and dairy. USA Today has a 2011 story about his transformation.
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| 0.973707 | 345 | 1.8125 | 2 |
"Is Newt Gingrich's EMP Doomsday a Reality?"
December 12th, 2011
December 12th, 2011
This may sound familiar if, like me, you're a fan of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" -- a hugely popular first-person video game based in a fictional near-future when the U.S. goes to war with Russia. But if you've been following the GOP presidential campaign recently, you might think one or two of the candidates are out of touch with the not-so-fictional near future.
In particular, it seems Newt Gingrich has been playing too much "Call of Duty."
Gingrich has been a long-time worrier about the threat of an attack on the U.S. from a rich terrorist organization or rogue nation -- such as North Korea or Iran -- that could cripple the nation, killing "millions" of citizens. But how could such a dastardly deed be accomplished?
Citing the specter that has been hanging over us since the Cold War, he believes the U.S. is vulnerable to an electromagnetic pulse -- or EMP for short.
A nuclear weapon could be detonated above North America, reasons Gingrich, and the resulting electronic interference would render the nation's power grid, satellites, computers etc., useless. Death and mayhem would ensue. It would be a bit like "Mad Max," but with less '70's hairdos.
"Without adequate preparation, we would basically lose our civilization in a matter of seconds," he said during a 2009 conference.
The situation is apparently so dire that Gingrich co-wrote a doomsday book on the topic, called "One Second After."
Although game developers take the effect of EMP damage for granted, what are the realities of a space-based nuclear detonation?
NEWS: What It Takes to Make a Nuclear Bomb
Supporting Gingrich's argument, the impact of high-altitude nuclear tests during the Cold War proves that detonating nuclear bombs is a bad idea all-round.
In 1962, the U.S. detonated a 1.4 megaton nuke 200 miles above the Pacific Ocean to, you know, see what would happen.
Although situated 900 miles from the blast site, Hawaii felt the impact from the famous "Starfish Prime" explosion. Streetlights were knocked out, telephone communications were blocked and household alarms were triggered.
Beautiful equatorial auroral displays also lit up the sky. The event was nicknamed the "rainbow bomb."
The nuclear blast had caused all kinds of upper-atmosphere turmoil that generated rapid and powerful changes in the Earth's magnetic field, producing a pulse throughout the atmosphere below. The resulting induction of electrical currents shorted unshielded electrical supplies, like Honolulu's streetlights.
Radiation also surged above the atmosphere, causing indiscriminate damage to a number of satellites. The world's first commercial communications satellite Telstar was also badly bruised by the incident.
ANALYSIS: Will You Survive A Nuclear Attack?
In the same year, a similar test by the Soviets -- using a smaller warhead over a populated region of Kazakhstan -- generated an amplified EMP effect due to the stronger geomagnetic field at that latitude, causing a power station to fail and catch fire.
Some of the effects of an EMP are analogous to a geomagnetic storm, when the solar wind and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) interact with the Earth's magnetosphere. Although not as localized as a nuclear explosion, there are worries that an intense solar storm could generate huge currents across the Earth's atmosphere, shorting entire power grids.
In 1989, for example, the Hydro-Quebec power company in Canada was caught unawares by a huge solar eruption that generated intense atmospheric disruption, overloading the power supply, impacting thousands of customers. Solar flares and CME's regularly cause global communication outages and sometimes even turn satellites into "zombiesats."
OK, so the physics is there, Gingrich's concerns appear to be well-placed. Or are they?
Although Cold War tests have proven that there is some impact by a high-altitude nuclear blast to assets on the ground via an EMP, the result is far from certain.
Commenting in The Space Review last year, Yousaf M. Butt, a nuclear physicist and consultant with the Federation of American Scientists, said, "If terrorists want to do something serious, they'll use a weapon of mass destruction -- not mass disruption. They don't want to depend on complicated secondary effects in which the physics is not very clear."
Like an intense solar storm, although the worst-case scenario could inflict damage on satellites and national power grids, there's no certain way of knowing the impact of any given solar event. The same goes for a hypothetical EMP attack. The target is indiscriminate and the outcome is far from certain.
Surely, if a rogue state or terrorist organization had a nuclear warhead, they'd much rather find new and ingenious ways of rolling it into Washington, D.C. undetected rather than strapping it atop a rocket and blasting it into space?
Besides, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency has got that scenario covered if anyone was stupid enough to send any projectile toward the U.S.
According to Pentagon spokesman Richard Lehner, downing an incoming missile would be pretty straightforward. There's an arsenal of interceptor missiles just waiting for the opportunity to take out an EMP threat before it explodes.
"It doesn't matter if the target is Chicago or 100 miles over Nebraska," he said. "For the interceptor, it's the same thing."
Alas, Gingrich's EMP concern is, at best, misplaced.
In my opinion, the threat of a solar flare-induced disaster is far more serious than a megalomaniac or rogue state flying a nuclear warhead into space. And what about asteroids? There's lots of those floating around just waiting for the opportunity to drop into some unsuspecting gravitational well. There are plenty of real space-based threats out there that could be added to political wrangling without having to make one up.
Unfortunately, real space threats aren't politically "real" until a meteorite flattens a city.
Newt Gingrich has been smoking something odd...shockwave of electricity?
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A lot of people are up at arms at the news that Bank of America may be implementing a $5 monthly maintenance fee for debit card use. They’re talking about changing banks. On Marketplace yesterday morning, they read a letter from a listener who declared that she would be using her credit card and paying it off every month rather than paying the $5 fee.
On the one hand, I agree with the sentiments. $60 isn’t a negligible amount. Debit cards are less expensive for merchants to accept. If you have bad credit – as I did for many years – the Visa logo on your debit card may be the only way for you to shop any way other than in person.
On the other hand, and for a variety of reasons, I’m a little irritated by these sentiments. We’ve all gotten so used to “free” checking that we’ve forgotten that monthly maintenance fees used to be standard. I worked in banking from 2001-2004, and spent much of that time explaining the suite of fees charged for services ranging from using a foreign ATM to getting your checks back in your statement to transferring money by phone. Cut off times governed by geographic distance restricted when transactions could take place. Need to make a deposit at a branch at 6pm on a Friday to beat a check to the bank? Sorry. We accepted these fees as the cost of convenience and of doing business.
Now, I’m not going to defend the actions of Bank of America or any of the other big banks in this era of rampant financial speculation. They’ve screwed up, and taken our economy down with them. What I am saying, however, is that we’ve been able to take for granted that banking services are free. Opening an account? Free, and in some cases, they’ll GIVE you money as long as you keep the account open. Depositing cash into an ATM without using an envelope? Free. Transferring money using a (free) mobile app from your phone? Free. Talking to someone on the phone? Difficult, but free. Writing checks? Free, though you have to buy the checks. Receiving, viewing, and paying bills online? Free. Withdrawing money from ATMs in any state plus a few foreign countries? Free, as long as you use the right ATM. In the grand scheme of all of the things I’m able to do with my money through my bank, $5 per month in the months that I choose to use my debit card seems pretty minor.
I also understand wanting to keep your money in your community, rather than putting it in a national bank. I did that for a number of years, banking with AMCORE until I moved to a Champaign, more than an hour away from the closest branch or ATM. I loved AMCORE, and would have kept my money there if it had been remotely convenient. I loved it for all the reasons one loves a local business – with the added layer of affection from two and a half years of working there. In 2010, AMCORE was failed by the Fed, and is now part of Harris Bank. I worked for Busey Bank for the first year I was in Champaign, and immediately felt the limitations of having my money at a small town – not even regional – bank. I paid ATM fees at least 50% of the time I needed cash because Busey ATMs weren’t conveniently located in town, much less available out of town. I switched to National City, then we moved to DC, where there were no National City banks. We started using ING, but still couldn’t find ATMs. So, in 2007, we opened a joint account with Bank of America – first to give us an option for depositing cash and checks, then for all of our banking.
So here’s why I’ll be paying the Bank of America debit card fee: the convenience is worth it. It doesn’t make sense to me to change banks over $60 per year. We would pay far more than that in foreign ATM fees if we were to change to the local credit union, for example, considering that we’ve been out of town 12 of the last 20 weekends, and taken day trips 4 of the remaining 8. I don’t have a problem with paying for services I use, and the convenience of using a debit card is FAR GREATER than the cost.
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|Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary|
4:14-21 In reproving for sin, we should distinguish between sinners and their sins. Reproofs that kindly and affectionately warn, are likely to reform. Though the apostle spoke with authority as a parent, he would rather beseech them in love. And as ministers are to set an example, others must follow them, as far as they follow Christ in faith and practice. Christians may mistake and differ in their views, but Christ and Christian truth are the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Whenever the gospel is effectual, it comes not in word only, but also in power, by the Holy Spirit, quickening dead sinners, delivering persons from the slavery of sin and Satan, renewing them both inwardly and outwardly, and comforting, strengthening, and establishing the saints, which cannot be done by the persuasive language of men, but by the power of God. And it is a happy temper, to have the spirit of love and meekness bear the rule, yet to maintain just authority.
Verse 21. - What will ye? "The whole thing lies with you" (Chrysostom). With a rod; literally, in a rod a not uncommon Greek phrase. The meaning of this expression is best seen from 2 Corinthians 10:2; 2 Corinthians 13:10. In love. He would come to them "in love" in any case; but if they now rejected his appeals the love would be compelled to manifest itself in sharpness and stern deeds. In the spirit of meekness. Meyer here gives to the word "spirit" the sense of "the Holy Spirit," as in John 15:26; 2 Corinthians 4:13; but the simpler sense of the term is almost certainly the true one.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
What will ye?.... Or "how will ye, that I should come unto you?" as the Arabic and Ethiopic versions read it: since the apostle had determined upon his coming to them: and had made mention of it, he puts it to them, in what manner they themselves would choose he should come unto them;
shall I come unto you with a rod; either as a schoolmaster, as were their false teachers, with a "ferula"; or as a father with a rod of correction and chastisement, assuming his paternal authority, putting on severe looks, and using roughness; or rather as an apostle with the apostolical rod; by which is meant not excommunication, which is what belongs to a whole community, and not any single person; but a power of inflicting punishment on the bodies of delinquents, by smiting with diseases, and even with death itself; for as the prophets of the Old Testament had a power from God of inflicting diseases and death upon offenders; so had the apostles of the New, as appears from the instances of Ananias, and Sapphira, and Elymas the sorcerer:
or in love, and in the spirit of meekness? with the affection of a father, with a pleasant countenance, and a meek spirit; in opposition to that roughness and sharpness, he had an authority, as an apostle of Christ, to use in proper cases; and therefore as the latter would be most eligible by them, his suggestion is, that they would behave accordingly, that there might be no occasion to come to them in the former manner, which was not desirable by him, There seems to be an allusion to a practice among the Jews, in the punishing of a drunkard or gluttonous person; the rule for which was this (w),
"they first correct him "with words", or "with a rod", as it is written, Deuteronomy 21:18 and have chastened him; but if he adds and repeats (i.e. goes on in his sin), then they stone him.''
Or rather the allusion is to the judges in the sanhedrim, one of the instruments or ensigns of whose office was "a rod or staff" to smite with; it is said (x) of R. Hona, when he went to the sanhedrim, he used to say, bring me the instruments of the Tabernae (the place where the sanhedrim sat); what are they? "the staff" (in Cocceius's edition it is "the rods", and the sandals, the trumpets, and the thongs); the gloss is, "the thong" for scourging, "the staff" (or rods) for beating the rebellious until they return, the "trumpets" for excommunication, and the "sandals" for plucking off the shoe; things in which the judges of the court were concerned, and here the apostle proposes to come as judge; see 1 Corinthians 5:3.
(w) R. Elias in Adderet apud Trigland. de sect. Karaeor. c. 10. p. 161. (x) T. Bab. Sanhedrim, fol. 7. 2.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
21. with a rod, or in love—The Greek preposition is used in both clauses; must I come IN displeasure to exercise the rod, or IN love, and the Spirit of meekness (Isa 11:4; 2Co 13:3)?
1 Corinthians 4:21 Parallel Commentaries
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Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible
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MT. VERNON, TX(KLTV) - Less than five years after the end of World War II, war broke out in Korea. Gene Gardner was one of many young Americans caught in a war that to this day is officially designated as a "Police Action."
Gardner was assigned to the heavy freighter, the U.S.S. Helena. From April through November of 1951, the Helena bombarded the Korean coast, covering the landing of American troops. The ship itself was hit twice, the first explosion making a hole above Gardner's sleeping quarters. Gardner says he was "lucky" to escape injury and is glad he was there to "help out."
Thursday, May 23 2013 10:57 PM EDT2013-05-24 02:57:54 GMT
The Rusk County Sheriff's Office is investigating a plane that crashed near East Texas Regional Airport in Gregg County Thursday evening.Sgt. David Roberts with the Rusk County Sheriff's Office tells KLTVMore >>
Authorities say pilot, who was alone onboard, did not suffer serious injuries.More >>
Thursday, May 23 2013 11:54 PM EDT2013-05-24 03:54:32 GMT
East Texans react to the boy scouts of America voting to end their ban on openly gay members. The vote was the center of debate at a two day meeting for the organization in Grapevine. "We've gone fromMore >>
East Texans react to the boy scouts of America voting to end their ban on openly gay members.More >>
Thursday, May 23 2013 10:39 PM EDT2013-05-24 02:39:12 GMT
Lindale Independent School District was contacted this week by the Freedom from Religion Foundation about a music program scheduled at E.J. Moss Intermediate school on Thursday evening. According to ElizabethMore >>
Lindale Independent School District was contacted this week by the Freedom from Religion Foundation about a music program scheduled at E.J. Moss Intermediate school on Thursday evening.More >>
Thursday, May 23 2013 9:44 PM EDT2013-05-24 01:44:30 GMT
A World War II veteran's headstone is sitting at Kilgore City Hall while a city administrator searches for the family it belongs to. The headstone was found on a shore of the Sabine River almost a yearMore >>
The headstone was found on a shore of the Sabine River almost a year ago.More >>
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Saturday May 25, 2013
British 'Channel 4' labeled 'highly irresponsible' for 'Big Fat Gypsy Weddings'Salem-News.com
Television was a powerful medium and it could have been used in a more positive and educative way voicing European Roma apartheid.
(RENO, NV) - Hindus have blamed “Channel 4” of United Kingdom for acting highly irresponsibly in its smash hit documentary series “Big Fat Gypsy Weddings”, which they say resulted in adding more misery to the lives of already maltreated European Gypsy (Roma) community.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that in case of “Big Fat Gypsy Weddings”, “Channel 4” appeared to have even violated its own Corporate Responsibility statement which clearly aimed at promoting “responsible behavior”.
A recently released report by education expert reportedly revealed that this series had led to physical and sexual assault, racist abuse, misinformation and hostile questioning; harmed children's self-esteem and increased bullying and negative stereotyping of Gypsies; causing real long-term harm and even withdrawal of children from school.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, and who frequently takes up European Roma causes, argued that instead of tackling more serious issues facing Gypsy community, the show appeared to be laughing at them and was simply sensationalism, exaggeration and misrepresentation aiming at higher ratings and mercantile greed.
Rajan Zed argued that the role of a “public service broadcaster” like “Channel 4” should be helping to build the community and not to further harm the already most persecuted section of the community. It should scrap its reported plans of broadcasting any specials of “Big Fat Gypsy Weddings” in the future, Zed added.
Zed pointed out that television was a powerful medium and it could have been used in a more positive and educative way voicing European Roma apartheid.
Rajan Zed stated that apartheid conditions faced by Roma people were a social blight for Europe and the rest of the world as they reportedly regularly faced social exclusion, racism, substandard education, hostility, joblessness, rampant illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, living on desperate margins, language barriers, stereotypes, mistrust, rights violations, discrimination, marginalization, appalling living conditions, prejudice, human rights abuse, racist slogans on Internet, etc.
Zed noted that it was shocking to see how inhumanely Europe had been treating its about 15-million Roma brothers-sisters for such a long period.
“Channel 4” calls this highly rated show: “Revealing documentary series that offers a window into the secretive, extravagant and surprising world of gypsies…”.
Headquartered in London with a regional office in Glasgow, “Channel 4” is a publicly-owned, commercially-funded public service broadcaster which works across television, film and digital media. Lord Burns and Lord Hall are Chairman and Deputy Chairman of its Board respectively and David Abraham is Chief Executive.
Articles for October 20, 2012 | Articles for October 21, 2012 | Articles for October 22, 2012
|Contact: [email protected] | Copyright © 2013 Salem-News.com | news tips & press releases: [email protected].|
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For Mac OS X users worried about security, the latest upgrade to Apple's operating system should be enticing.
Unlike the last update, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Lion brings a number of key missing security features to the platform. Mac OS X 10.7 includes a complete implementation of the anti-exploitation feature known as Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), better sandboxing of applications, and full disk encryption.
"They have been playing catch-up to Microsoft, but they more or less have everything that is standard now," says Charlie Miller, a security consultant at Accuvant and co-author of "The Mac Hacker's Handbook."
Miller started looking into the security of Mac OS X in 2007 because it was much easier to find flaws in that operating system than in Microsoft's then-current platform, Windows Vista. With the release of Mac OS X Lion, which fixes a number of shortcomings, that's no longer true, he says.
In previous versions of the Mac operating system, for example, 32-bit applications were not protected by a full implementation of Address Space Layout Randomization, a technique that makes it hard for attackers to guess where specific code may be in a computer's memory and thus makes it difficult to exploit systems. With Lion, both 32-bit and 64-bit applications compiled on the system get the full benefits of ASLR.
Apple has also made its file encryption feature, FileVault, much better. FileVault now encrypts at the block level, allowing full disk encryption, Miller says.
Finally, the company has implemented sandboxing throughout many parts of the operating system and will require it of third-party vendors. Sandboxing restricts how a program can affect other data on the system. With its move to online sales of software through the App Store, Apple may be able to enforce better security on third-party programs as well, says Dino Dai Zovi, an independent security consultant and the other co-author of "The Mac Hacker's Handbook." Starting in November, Apple will be requiring all programs sold through the App Store to make use of sandboxing.
"They're kind of pushing the Mac App Store as a model, like what is on iOS," Dai Zovi says. "On iOS, you can't opt out of the sandbox, so they are going to push that for the Mac App Store as well."
This story, "Mac OS X Lion makes the security grade," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.
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Sunday, October 09, 2005
Hello, America. You fancy yourself the proudest member of the First World, and since you're reading this on your computer, you probably are. Got air-conditioning? Cable TV? A microwave? Congratulations, citizen, you're doing just fine. But, as some of you are learning, uncomfortably, there's another America, the Third World version. Dark and brutal, dimly lit by a faint flickering American Dream high up and far away. That's where I come from. If you could embody this shadow America in a single institution you'd be hard pressed to find a better candidate than Charity Hospital in New Orleans, where my mom was born. (read more below)
A cousin I never had a chance to meet died here. My uncle Sonny and Aunt Dusty had an infant here. After delivery he was taken away and placed on a bare table by the overworked staff. He had been low birth weight, probably due to malnutrition, and died that day. Being too poor to arrange funeral services, Sonny took his dead baby home with him, sitting on his lap in a little plain coffin, and buried his son himself. Three weeks later Charity Hospital called to tell him to come claim his dead son. They didn't even know he was gone.
Charity Hospital loomed large as a horror house for my family. They lost themselves there, literally. Eyes. Teeth. Limbs. Lives. All butchered, then forgotten about. Your cat or dog, First World America, was getting better health care than the poor wretched humans forced to decide between nothing, and Charity. And that was their only choice.
It's always been that way down here. Charity Hospital was founded over 250 years ago, which makes it about the oldest hospital in America. It was wretched from the start, because, after all, you get what you pay for, and this was literally a "Hospital for the Poor."
In 1815 someone wrote, upon visiting Charity Hospital, that it "served no purpose than to confine the wretched and compel them to die in a place contrary to their choice." Patients were found abandoned. Chickens wandered in, and their shit covered the furniture. The mattresses on which the patients slept were filthy with “the visible marks of the putrid discharges of those who had died on them of the most pestilential diseases."
This is how the other half dies, citizens. 1736. 1815. 1967. 2005. The years keep rolling by, a time lapse stream of lives lived hard and lost easy. Welcome to the new era, same as the old era. Everything new is old again.
I told my mom that after what happened at Charity last month, the flooding, the abandonment, the death, the bodies floating up from the basement morgue, the damage to what had been damaged its whole life, that they were thinking of tearing it down. She said she's been hoping for that since she was born.
Lord I Just Can't Keep from Crying
An Afternoon Of Forgotten Stories
Posted by clayton cubitt at 6:45 PM
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Nick Negroponte, founder and chairman of the One Laptop Per Child project, came out swinging at Intel on Friday, one day after the chipmaker decided to leave the group.
The OLPC's goal of bringing low-cost technology to children in developing countries apparently conflicts with Intel's goal of running a business. Even though the two agreed to put aside their differences in July, it's pretty clear that they never actually became friends.
"We at OLPC have been disappointed that Intel did not deliver on any of the promises they made when they joined OLPC; while we were hopeful for a positive, collaborative relationship, it never materialized," Negroponte said in a statement distributed by the OLPC on Friday.
Intel cited "fundamental differences" in describing its exit from the group Thursday; this appears to be the classic "creative musical differences" breakup.
Quite simply, Negroponte wanted Intel to stop selling its Classmate laptop in regions where he was trying to sell the XO laptop. "Intel continued to disparage the XO laptop in developing nations that had already decided to partner with OLPC (Uruguay and Peru), with countries that were in the midst of choosing a laptop solution (Brazil and Nigeria), and even small and remote places (Mongolia)," Negroponte said.
Intel has never been shy about its desire to sell the Classmate PC as one of many possible products for the developing world, and that seems to have offended Negroponte. "As we said in the past, we view the children as a mission; Intel views them as a market."
But Negroponte also said Intel's version of the XO laptop just wasn't that good. "The best Intel could offer in regards to an "Intel inside" XO laptop was one that would be more expensive and consume more power--exactly the opposite direction of OLPC's stated mandate and vision," Negroponte said.
An Intel representative declined to comment on the cost or power consumption of any chips slated for the XO laptop, which currently uses a Geode processor made by Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices.
And so it goes. It's always heartening to see two organizations disparage each other over who has the more appropriate vision for saving the world through technology--which assumes, of course, that notion is even possible.
Few would argue that it's a bad idea to connect students in impoverished lands to the outside world, but should they use custom laptops designed specifically for their needs, running open-source software and free from the Microsoft monopoly? Should they have access to the same technology that's available at Best Buy, but at a more reasonable price? Would all this time and effort be better spent on technology infrastructure in some of these nations?
Negroponte seems to think that because he's running a nonprofit with a "mission," he's entitled to a lock on the developing world and that the XO laptop is the only thing that can bridge the digital divide. That, of course, is preposterous; competition between firms is what improves products and brings down costs over time, and to expect Intel and other companies to just pass on burgeoning demand for computers in developing countries is pretty naive.
But I agree with Charlie Demerjian over at The Inquirer: the tone of this squabble is beneath Intel. Negroponte's project is well-intentioned, and the XO isn't a terrible product. Sure, he doesn't seem to really understand how to run a business venture, and he seems to have a bit of a messianic complex, but he really is trying to improve the lives of poor children.
The developing world needs more than one laptop. The folks at the OLPC do not have a divine right to sell laptops to poor cities and towns, and Intel isn't winning a lot of PR points by slamming a nonprofit.
And maybe, just maybe, some enterprising engineer in one of those developing countries might actually come up with their own idea for a laptop best suited for the needs of their people.
What are Intel and the OLPC going to do then, belittle the first homegrown laptop designer in Mongolia? Perhaps the best way to help developing countries get in on the technology revolution is to teach them how to design--not merely assemble--their own products, rather than coming to them from lofty perches in Cambridge and Santa Clara saying, "Don't worry, we know best."
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The ridiculous but true story of Merhan Nasseri.
A political refugee expelled from Iran in 1977, various lengths of red tape saw “Sir Alfred” Nasseri stuck at Charles De Gaulle airport in France from 1988-1999. Throughout his stay he relied on donations from travellers to survive.
When he was finally granted French residency in 1999, Merhan liked the airport so much that he couldn’t bring himself to leave. As far as anyone knows, he is still there:
According to the Sept. 27, 1999 New York Times, Nasseri has now been granted permission to leave the Paris airport. But he doesn’t want to go. He was still there as of Dec. 5, 2001, according to a brief report on that date in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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Credit: Geoff Caddick/PA
There was a lot of laughing – cheerful teasing between old friends, cries of delight when someone recognises a familiar face, patient good humour from nuns posing for photographs.
It’s the Enough Food for Everyone IF Religious lobby of parliament. The positive atmosphere is so infectious that even a policy expert – a profession not normally known for its light-heartedness – starts cracking jokes in his pre-lobby briefing: “The last time I stood up in front of this many nuns … I was 12 years old and at school.” He’s rewarded with gales of laughter.
The briefing over, clutching their papers and waving their placards, the merry band of campaigners go to parliament to meet their MPs.
Near the front of the group, a head or so taller than the others, is Sister Karen with her long stride, flowing white habit and unstoppable laugh. Alongside her is the much shorter Sister Erica from Zimbabwe, chanting and waving her arms in the air, holding her ‘Enough Food for Everyone IF we act and pray’ placard high. Two hundred or so more nuns, friars and priests follow on.
More photos and quotes from the Enough Food for Everyone IF lobby >> Continue reading
Clare Lyons, CAFOD’s Head of Campaigns reflects on yesterday’s Enough Food for Everyone IF lobby of parliament.
credit: Geoff Caddick/PA
A Japanese tourist stopped taking photos of Westminster Abbey to stare at the 200 monks, nuns, bishops and priests walking down the road.
The crowd was chanting and waving placards, one of which read “Hunger shouldn’t be a Habit”. The tourist nudged her friend. There was no discussion – this was clearly much more interesting than one of Britain’s most historic buildings.
The religious protestors were on their way to lobby Parliament, calling for action on global hunger. Many of these monks and nuns had lived in developing countries and seen the devastating impact of hunger.
They’d witnessed parents go without so their children could eat, and watched families sell everything they owned to put food on the table.
Hunger is the greatest scandal of our age, because the problem isn’t a shortage of food. Inequalities in the system that controls production and distribution mean that hungry people don’t get what they need. Put simply, there is enough food for everyone, but not everyone gets enough food.
It’s this message that’s at the heart of the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign, of which CAFOD is a founder member. Along with 200 other organisations, we’re calling for concrete action by the wealthiest nations to start bringing an end to global hunger.
Religious communities have an incredibly important role to play in the campaign. That’s why monks, nuns, priests and vicars in training came to Westminster to make their voices heard.
More quotes and photos from the Enough Food for Everyone IF Religious lobby >>
As we wait in anticipation of the big Enough Food for Everyone IF G8 rally on 8 June, Christina Kelling looks back on her experience at a previous mass demonstration: Make Poverty History. Join us on 8 June and help make history >
Christina Kelling works for Medair Sudan, and formerly worked in the CAFOD Campaigns team: “I was raised in a Christian family and from a young age was taught that the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love other people.
“If your five senses aren’t troubled by poverty and injustice – if you haven’t tasted the weevils in the flour, held the hand of the person who has fled from war – then how can you understand?” CAFOD supporter Sister Pat Robb asked me last week. “Politicians haven’t seen. That’s why they need us to tell them.”
Her words came back to me this morning, as I shivered in the cold in my borrowed suit and George Osborne mask. I was standing alongside hundreds of other supporters of the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign.
We were all dressed up as George Osborne – with matching masks and IF Budget boxes – to draw attention to the opportunity to address global hunger that the Chancellor has in tomorrow’s Budget. See more pictures here >>
This is his chance to keep a 43-year-old promise to spend 0.7 per cent of the UK’s national income on aid and to crack down on the tax-dodging which costs developing countries trillions of pounds each year.
Inside my plastic Osborne mask I was cut off from the outside world. I could barely see the person in front, sounds were muffled and – as no one could recognise the person standing next to them – few of us talked to each other. I certainly couldn’t see the bigger picture. Continue reading
It’s been an interesting week! If anything my diet has been more varied and enjoyable than ever. It could have gone either way, but the fact I had enough to eat has shown that between just a few people, enough food to feed an extra person would have otherwise been thrown away!
And this reflects the statistics on waste – that a third of food globally gets thrown away. So in theory, the shopping that two people do worldwide, is usually enough to feed three people. Yet sadly, it goes in the bin instead.
Think no one should go hungry? Act now. Call on the Prime Minister for an end to global hunger >>
It was also interesting to be more careful with food. Though I didn’t have to go without, or rummage through bins, I started seeing food differently. Instead of seeing the last slice of bread in a bag as something ready to be thrown away, I saw tomorrow’s breakfast.
Instead of walking past old snacks in the office, I thought ‘aha! – lunch!’ I hope that I continue to do this, and that my colleagues might start bringing in things they know they will not eat without feeling that it is an odd thing to do. Though we might live lives where food is not scarce, we can all be a little more aware.
I feel glad to have an increased awareness of the real value (and potential cost to others) of food, and hope to continue to think about how I consume food and my role in the global food system in the future.
About the author: Claudia Elliot is CAFOD’s Campaigns Communications manager. She lived off leftovers donated by friends and colleagues for a week during Lent to raise awareness about the Hungry for change campaign.
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Mariinsky’s ‘Cinderella’: A hard-edged fairy tale
By Sarah Kaufman,
With one look at the stage before Alexei Ratmansky’s “Cinderella” began Tuesday night, you knew you weren’t in for a fairy-tale treatment. The drop curtain shows a crowded, crudely painted city skyline, a prison of dark vertical lines and cramped tenements.
You can’t say he didn’t warn us. Ratmansky threads the theme of narrowness and confinement all through his ballet, from the steel-bounded dump where the heroine lives with her vulturous stepmother to the stiff, emotionally constipated posturing of the guests at the prince’s ball. With stark, modernist decor suggestive of the lean years of the 1930s — echoed in the thin, clingy costumes that emphasized bony angularity — the production’s design credo is total exposure. And what’s exposed is deliberately unlovely, for the most part.
This is not your daughter’s “Cinderella.” It may not be yours, either; empty seats materialized after each intermission. (With two of them, it’s a long evening.) If you found yourself wondering why the Mariinsky was bringing this work to the Kennedy Center Opera House for a second time, after its 2005 showing there, one reason may be the nostalgic connection that the ballet company feels toward the center itself.
Ten years ago, as he was readying “Cinderella” for its world premiere in St. Petersburg, Ratmansky traveled here with the Mariinsky (which was inaugurating its annual Washington visits with “Sleeping Beauty”) and finished making the ballet in the Kennedy Center’s rehearsal studios. Yuri Fateev, the company’s deputy director, related this to me with evident warmth Tuesday, saying he recalls the very studios in which Ratmansky created specific sections of “Cinderella.”
To the rest of the world in 2002, Ratmansky wasn’t yet the celebrated choreographer that he is now. But to those who knew him, as Fateev did, his gifts were obvious. It’s no surprise that memories of watching him in the throes of creativity left such a mark.
“Cinderella” is not a complete success. But it’s undone more by problems with Prokofiev’s music than by weaknesses in the concept. Ratmansky’s treatment echoes the sharp and piercing modernism in the score, which contains more aches and groans than fairy dust. But the musical world is not as fully realized as it was in “Romeo and Juliet,” which Prokofiev produced first, with more feeling. “Cinderella’s” music seems to wind around and around itself in spots, and in the face of its redundancies Ratmansky’s ideas are stretched thin. Solos at the ball for the stepsisters and stepmother run on to the point of dullness.
If the sharply restricted style wasn’t the most flattering vehicle to show off the strengths of the Mariinsky Ballet, the dancers dived into its grotesqueries with appetite. Ekaterina Kondaurova’s stepmother slashed across the stage, limbs like daggers.
With a discipline that may have been hard for the rest of the cast to swallow, Ratmansky reserved all aspects of warmth and beauty for two characters alone: Cinderella and her prince. His mistreated heroine dreams only vaguely of love. Her great hope, as Maria Shirinkina made clear in this role Tuesday, was for freedom. In a world of tight, clenched body language, freedom equates to grace. And so we saw Shirinkina tentatively soften and round her movements in her first solo, and then produce a glorious, full-blown unfolding of grace in her dance at the ball with Vladimir Shklyarov’s prince.
Shklyarov, who made a blazing entrance in white (all hail the Good Humor Man!), responds to Shirinkina by toning down his astounding virtuosity. In the ballet’s final moments, as Shklyarov opened up and grew more tender, you saw anxiety pass through Shirinkina, and then float away. And the two ended up in each other’s arms . . . on the floor. Not exactly a fairy-tale ending. But this was not exactly a fairy tale — it had hard edges, like life.
This production continues through Sunday, with cast changes.
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Anyone hear about the monster rattler caught up nea belknap? 9 fter plus . i got a grainy scan of a picture from the land office if you havnt heard.
10 replies [Last post]
Wed, 2007-06-06 18:39
Thu, 2007-06-07 10:38#1
Romey, what state is this in?
Sat, 2007-06-09 18:25#2
wow that thing is big
Sun, 2007-06-10 09:16#3
Wed, 2007-06-27 15:29#4
No Way nine feet. I am a reptile fan and they just don't get anywhere that big. Secondly, judging by the size of the child next to it, that snake might go six feet.
Thirdly, That pic appears to be a Western Diamond Back(Crotalus Atrox). The only Rattlers native to Montana are western prairie rattle snakes(Crotalus Viridis Viridis).
Mon, 2007-07-09 09:59#5
As for only prairie rattlers being in Montana id like to take you to a couple hay fields of mine and explain the rattlers there. And maybe you can explain why there are timber rattlers and diamondback both. Reading books doesn’t necessarily cover all bases in the world.
If you were an expert you’d know that Montana has Western rattlesnakes and along with those the prairie rattler is a subspecies of them.
I met a Herpetologist in college while I was studying Animal science and mentioned the diamond back belt I had around my waist, he said he wasn’t surprised to hear it came from our hay meadow or from Montana. I will agree though i dont think its as large as was told to me. At anyrate was a neat story.
Mon, 2007-07-16 18:08#6
I don't often make it over there,but If I do I will try and look you up. I do know that the prarie rattler is a subspecies of the western rattler, It's just not a diamond back, C. atrox. The pattern on the back of the animal is only a small indicator of the species, and Crotalus viridis is known for its many paterns and colors. That pic really is not good enough to determine with certainty the species, the tail would really help. I have just never heard of atrox being documented in montana, but as you stated, anything is possible. Now timbers Crotalus horridus would be of interest to me. They would have an almost solid black tale and usually have some reddish morroon color on the back. Crotalus viridus can inhabbit the wooded areas too. But like you said, You never know.
Whatever it is it's obviously a big fello.
Fri, 2007-07-27 19:31#7
how about this one is it 9'?
Tue, 2007-07-31 01:23#8
either way there is one thing cirtian about both of these snakes......I would have killed both regardless of size....my biggest so far was 4 1/2 footer here in eastern Washington.
Sat, 2007-08-04 19:11#9
I wouldnt wanna meet up with either one of them.
Mon, 2007-08-06 09:32#10
RidgeRunner07, I would watch what you admit on public forums as it is illegal to harm any native reptile in the state of Washington.
There is no reason to kill them so why not let them live? Many of my close friends and hunting buddies would also kill them and I do understand the thought process, however it is only driven by fear and ignorance.
The second picture is posed to make the animal look bigger than it really is. The tongs used to hold the animal are three feet long. I have seen that pic posted on a snake forum and it was broken down by a group of photographers and as I remember it, the conclusion was between 7 and 7.5 feet, a very large specimen.
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Love is a very delicate feeling. It flees from an atmosphere filled with blame, anger and sarcasm and grows in an environment of respect, acceptance and honesty. The following 10 marital proscriptions -- if followed consciously and conscientiously-- will transform a relationship mired in negativity into one based on trust and safety.
Why a list of marital taboos rather than a positive "to do" list of marital suggestions? The following Talmudic story answer the question:
A non-believer confronted the great sage Hillel, the Elder, and demanded that he teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel agreed and said the following: "What's hateful to yourself don't do to another. Everything else is commentary. Now go and learn." Many commentators have wondered why he chose to answer in the negative rather than quoting the famous Biblical proscription "To love thy neighbor as thyself."
My understanding is quite simple. We understand what it is that hurts us; we've experienced how painful a critical statement or disdainful look can feel; we've seen how one negative comment can harm or even destroy a relationship and we know that the negative things that we do or that are done to us can far outweigh our or others' positive behaviors.
Therefore, the first step in improving a relationship is to eradicate the negative behaviors that continually pollute the marital environment. It doesn't help to plant rose bushes in a toxic waste field. First, we have to clean up the poison and then we can beautify the area. The more we sensitize ourselves to the subtle ways that we have hurt our partners, the more we enable our feelings of love to blossom.
As you read each of the following 10 Things, I encourage you to practice the exercises. The challenge of marriage demands a commitment to the three P's -- practice, persistence and patience. Just do it, and you'll begin to see the benefit. Even if only one of the partners in the relationship makes a concerted effort to change, the results will still be quite significant.
1. DON'T TAKE YOUR PARTNER FOR GRANTED
Marriage is probably the most effective and challenging training program for developing character. Many of the encounters we have with our partners afford us an opportunity to practice self-control, kindness and respect. At any given moment, for example, you could be confronted with a choice between lashing out in anger or communicating your resentment. At another moment, the choice might be between taking your partner for granted or expressing appreciation.
You're either taking your spouse for granted or your acknowledging her kindness. There's no middle ground.
The injunction to stop taking your partner for granted is unique among the 10 Things. The only way to fulfill it is by performing a positive act, namely showing appreciation. You're either taking your spouse for granted or your acknowledging her kindness. There's no middle ground. It is also the best means for overcoming selfishness. In order to reach the point where you have a real desire to express appreciation you have to uproot three negative attitudes -- a sense of entitlement, unrealistic expectations and conscious amnesia.
Entitlement is that sense that whatever you do for me I deserve, so why bother thanking you. It's the attitude that my needs come first and it's your job to meet them. Closely aligned with a sense of entitlement is the attitude that if I expect it, you're obligated to do it. With entitlement and expectations, we relate to our partners as if they are extensions of ourselves, not unlike a baby's relationship to his mother's breast. When he cries, he expects to be fed immediately. Conscious amnesia or mindlessness is the art of ignoring or forgetting the obvious. We become oblivious to those small and large kindnesses that our partners do for us. I suspect a sense of entitlement or expectation leads to a state of conscious amnesia.
If you wish to know if you're taking your partner for granted, then I suggest you ask yourself the following question: Are you as polite, kind and considerate to your partner as you are to a casual acquaintance or to a colleague? For most of us, the answer is no. So, ask yourself this question: How would you feel if your partner treated you impolitely, ignored your kindnesses and was inconsiderate of your needs? Before answering, remember the words of Hillel the Elder, "What's hateful to you, don't do to another."
Record those things that your partner does for you -- both large and small. Try to include everything from the cup of coffee he makes for you in the morning to the efficient way that she manages the finances.
Ask yourself, "Among those things that your partner does for you, do you show appreciation and in what manner do you express it?" Most likely, you'll discover that for a good of portion of the kindnesses on the list you've probably never expressed your gratitude.
Try committing yourself to a week of expressing your appreciation and notice the change. You might even consider writing a letter of appreciation to your partner.
2. DON'T MIND-READ
Don't assume that you know what your partner is thinking and feeling. There's a good chance you could be wrong, and wrong assumptions cause unnecessary conflict.
Imagine this situation. You walk into the living room and there's your husband sitting on his favorite chair glaring at the wall. His lips are tight; his jaw is clenched. Your immediate reaction: fear! "What did I do? Why is he so angry at me?" You tentatively approach him, "What's the matter, David?" you ask, expecting him to pour his wrath upon you. David slowly turns toward you. The tense, angry look begins to melt and he says sadly, "I've been laid off." "Thank God," you almost blurt out, "at least it wasn't me."
In this case, the woman checked out her assumptions and discovered that her husband wasn't upset with her. Yet, how often does it happen that we make the wrong assumptions and just go on believing them without ever discovering if they're true?
It often happens during the process of marital therapy that assumptions, illusions and fantasies are exposed as false or only partially true. For example, the angry, critical husband who supposedly hates his wife might in fact be an insecure man who is convinced that his wife doesn't love him. Perhaps, as in one case that I know of, a distant, rejecting wife turned out to be a very sad woman, grieving the loss of her mother. Don't assume. Check it out.
Take a piece of paper and without thinking too much about it, complete the following sentence: "I assume that my partner thinks or feels.... about me."
After you compile your list, try checking out your assumptions.
I suspect that you'll discover that many of your assumptions are incorrect. However, it is possible that your partner will acknowledge the validity of some of your assumptions. This may be painful but it's far better to deal with reality than unverified assumptions. At least now, you have the possibility of resolving the issue.
3. DON'T BLAME
How easy it is to say, "It's your fault. You made me do it. It's because of you that things are so bad between us. You're the reason I feel so miserable." It's so hard to look at ourselves and ask, "What's my part in creating the difficulties between us?"
It's so hard to look at ourselves and ask, "What's my part in creating the difficulties between us?"
Blaming is a form of disempowerment. In essence, when I blame I am saying to my partner that she controls my feelings and behavior. My relationship to her is like that of Pavlov's dog -- the bell rings, the dog salivates. My wife forgets to say hello, and I blow up.
When we blame, we deny our partner the opportunity to think seriously about our words and to respond in a thoughtful manner. Instead of expressing our legitimate grievances and feelings, we accuse and threaten, which only invites a similar response. The result is either a skirmish or an all out war, and, as we so painfully understand, all is fair in love and war and marriage is both.
So, what's the antidote to blaming? The answer is simple: Take responsibility for yourself. Putting it into practice, however, is a challenge. It's hard to give up that feeling of being right. It's so difficult to let go of that need to force a confession out of our partners. I'll let you in on a marital truth: Being "right" in a relationship is the booby prize. You win; the relationship loses. If you want the relationship to win, try looking hard at what your part is in creating the conflict. Ask yourself, "What am I doing to create distance and hurt?"
Write a list of all the ways you blame your spouse. For example, "It's because of you that the house is a mess" or "You're the reason Sara is running around with a bad crowd. It's because you never spend any time with her."
Take a good hard look at yourself and record what you're responsible for.
Look for solutions in each of these situations. In the last example, she might consider telling her husband, "I'm worried that Sara is running around with a bad crowd. I'd like to talk about what we can do about it." She might be pleasantly surprised to discover that when approached respectfully, her husband, on his own, will realize that he needs to spend more time with his daughter.
4. DON'T INTERPRET
Think about how you would feel if your partner were to tell you, "Now I understand why you're so critical. You're just like your father. I'm sure he was even more critical of you than you are of me." Would you experience this so-called analysis of your behavior as helpful, as contributing to your self-knowledge and personal development?
I think the answer is self-evident. The words might appear to contain insightful information, but, in fact, they are resentments cloaked in a garment of objective concern. You might believe you understand your partner's deepest motivations and the subtlest nuances of his behavior, and you might think you're being objective and helpful when you interpret his behavior, but I can tell you that nobody who is deeply involved in a relationship can maintain professional distance. More often than not, our interpretations come from a place of self-interest and a desire to change our partners.
I don't want my wife to interpret what I think and feel. I want her to listen.
Perhaps, you're like me. I don't want my wife to interpret what I think and feel. I want her to listen. I want her to hear. I want her to respond as a friend, as someone who is concerned about me. I want her to help me to understand myself by reflecting back what I am saying and by identifying the feelings that I am expressing.
Therefore, in order to avoid interpreting, let me suggest the following two antidotes: First, be clear about your resentments and be careful not to express them covertly through an analysis of your partner's behavior. Second, listen in an open, loving manner.
The next time your partner talks to you, work extra hard at trying to understand her. Practice active listening by non-verbally indicating that you're hearing him. You can do this by maintaining eye contact and holding your partner's hand or embracing her in a caring, non-sexual manner.
Periodically, respond with supportive statements that acknowledge how your partner feels. An example might be, "I understand how angry you are at your boss. If I were you, I'd sure be furious."
5. DON'T SAY YES WHEN YOU MEAN NO
We're often afraid to say no to our partners. Perhaps, you're scared that she'll become angry, or, maybe, if you were to say "I'm sorry, I just don't want to do that," he'd be disappointed and you'd start feeling guilty. So, instead of asserting ourselves and saying what we want, we end up doing the opposite and feeling resentful. The problem with saying yes when we mean no is that we stop being real in the relationship. There's no intimacy in a relationship without honesty.
Becoming other-centered and giving does not mean that you have to sacrifice your feelings, wants and needs in order to satisfy your partner. If you do, you may very well feel resentful or distant. By expressing your true feelings and desires to your spouse, you enable him to relate to the real you rather than to some fictitious version of what you think he wants. The same Hillel, the Elder, whom I quoted earlier, said something very relevant and profound: "If I am not for me who am I? And, if I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, when?"
It may be that when you start to say no when you mean no, you'll say yes when you mean yes and your spouse might feel safer knowing that he can trust what you're saying. More likely, however, the change in your behavior will at first be threatening to your partner. Remember he's not used to your honesty. She might be painfully surprised to learn that not all your yeses were indeed yeses.
It's important to know that any time you change the rules in a relationship there's bound to be conflict. That's okay. Conflict is often necessary for a relationship to grow. Through conflict, two people can create a deeper understanding of one another and develop a stronger bond.
If you already have a strong connection with your spouse, then your commitment to honesty will only deepen that relationship. If you don't, I recommend that you proceed carefully. Before you start being totally honest, try assessing what your partner's reaction will be. Some couples may need professional guidance to help them make the transition from a relationship based on wanting the other's approval to a relationship grounded in truth. The process of reaching a deeper level of honesty is often bumpy, but once you arrive, it's well worth it.
Write the following on a piece of paper: "I'm afraid to tell my partner...."
Prioritize the list, one being the easiest of your truths to reveal, two the second easiest and so on.
Imagine approaching your partner and telling him or her the truth. Notice how you feel as you do that. Try breathing easily and gently tell yourself to relax. When you're able to visualize speaking to your partner, then take the risk to do it in reality. Start with the easiest (1) and go down your list.
Click here to read 10 Things Never to Do in a Marriage, Part 2
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Sony didn’t reveal what the PlayStation 4 will look like at an event in New York last week, but the company did touch on some of the plans and capabilities of the new console, one of which is streaming games.
Since the first PlayStation in the mid-1990s, games have been stored, sold and loaded on discs, be they CDs or DVDs. Though not confirmed, the PlayStation 4 may also have games on Blu-ray discs, but the life cycle of the console might eventually make these somewhat obsolete.
Rumours leading up to last week’s announcement postulated that Sony might actually go as far as decimating the used games market by tying ownership of a new game to just one person, making it very difficult to resell that game afterward. Sony didn’t address any of this during the event or in interviews after, but it may be that the company’s vision is to move games to the cloud. There, Sony and game publishers could charge a much lower price, while gamers could purchase a new game the moment it’s available.
That won’t necessarily happen right out of the gate, since PS4 games will probably be on disc to start, but the seeds are already there. After Sony acquired a company called Gaikai last year, there was speculation that something cloud-based was afoot. Indeed there is, and the vision is that an entire library of PS1, PS2 and PS3 games can be made available to consumers to try before they buy.
It’s not known if this will be available when the console launches before the holidays later this year, but the interesting part of this announcement is that gamers wouldn’t have to wait for a game to fully download. They can start playing as soon as the download begins. Think Netflix with a library of games instead of movies.
It begs the question of whether Sony would charge a monthly or annual subscription fee for an “all-you-can-eat” type of model a la Netflix, or if it would be a la carte like PlayStation Plus is now. Paying one fee for access to a massive catalogue of past games would almost certainly affect the used games market without opting for what would be a deeply unpopular policy of single ownership.
As bandwidth capacity grows, and Sony builds the infrastructure to support it, this model could apply just the same to new games. At that point, not only would the used game market be affected, EB Games, Future Shop and Best Buy wouldn’t really have a stake in new games, either.
This is still years away, but is conceivably something that could happen within the lifespan of the PS4. Whether the hardware will be good enough to last the seven years the PS3 has lasted thus far is hard to say at this point. Canada lags behind in that bandwidth caps on home Internet are a regular thing, but that will change dramatically in the next couple of years, as unlimited packages become more commonplace.
Once consumers have that kind of access, playing games that are streamed rather than loaded via a physical medium will be something Sony can offer to a large number of consumers. But there are still a considerable number of gamers, both in Canada and around the world, who don’t really have that kind of access. Game discs serve those customers well.
In the coming months, particularly at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles in June, more details about all this will be revealed. For now, there are clues and innuendo pointing to an entirely new era for console gaming.
02/27/13 11:37 2013
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| 0.962419 | 746 | 1.5625 | 2 |
WHERE IS THE NEAREST OCEAN AND HOW DO WE GET THIS TO HAPPEN?!?!!?
Australian divers are receiving GIFTS from wild dolphins near the Tangalooma Island Resort.
Since 1992, dolphins have received fish from the resort and occasionally, the dolphins have returned the favor.
Meals like fish, squid, and eels may not be too fun, but the actual idea of dolphins giving gifts is beyond phenomenal!
Other species like cats and primates have been shown to present gifts to humans and studies are currently underway to understand why these dolphins are giving humans "food."
Most believe the dolphins want to create a communal dining experience with us.
So CUTEz!!!! We'd have a romantic dinner with a dolphin any day! LOLz!
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<urn:uuid:46dcb3c3-e2a1-459a-94a1-4a54a9a85a8d>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://perezhilton.com/teddyhilton/2013-01-03-wild-dolphins-give-humans-gifts-australia
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.936303 | 159 | 1.796875 | 2 |
By Steven Suskin
10 Mar 2013
From the archives of early television producer Max Liebman come two different Broadway-related specials from the mid-1950s, brought to us by Video Artists International (VAI). Neither are altogether successful, or even halfway successful. Both, though, offer things to watch.
Marco Polo, from 1956, is an example of a doomed attempt to reproduce an earlier success. In 1953, Alfred Drake had starred on Broadway in Kismet, subtitled "A Musical Arabian Night." This came with songs adapted from themes by Alexander Borodin (1833-87), one a group of Russian Nationalist composers — sometimes referred to as "The Mighty Handful" or "The Five" — who worked in St. Petersburg in the 1860s, attempting to write symphonic music that sounded more Russian than European. Kismet was a general crowd-pleaser although classicists could, and did, carp.
All of which might have provided a colorful hour-and-a-half. But there was a big problem. Rimsky-Korsakov was a fine composer, with an arguably stronger output than Borodin. (R-K's "Scheherazade" and "Capriccio Espagnol" remain justly popular.) But Kismet had Robert Wright and George Forrest, contemporary songwriters who specialized in taking themes from the classics and adapting them into show tunes. "Marco Polo" had Liebman's in-house arrangers Clay Warnick and Mel Pahl, who did not have the Wright & Forrest touch. (Warnick, for what it's worth, was an accomplished Broadway vocal arranger with over 20 musicals to his credit, in many cases working with Don Walker, Rodgers & Hart's By Jupiter, Coleman & Leigh's Little Me, and Donnybrook! among them.)
Visit PlaybillStore.com to check out theatre-related DVDs for sale.Continued...
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<urn:uuid:4fb05230-13d5-4d66-b171-e4653170ee6b>
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http://www.playbill.com/news/article/175767-THE-DVD-SHELF-Vintage-TV-Musicals-Marco-Polo-and-Babes-in-Toyland-Plus-The-Quiet-Man
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.960136 | 405 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Man pays off $114K in student loans -- in cash
Alex Kenjeev's Facebook photo of his receipt has gone viral
A Canadian man stunned loan officers when he used $114,000 in cash to pay off his student loans.
His Facebook photo of the receipt for $114,460 (US $111,350) has since gone viral.
Alex Kenjeev graduated from the University of Toronto in 2009 and found himself in a position to pay off his college debt after selling off a successful software start-up. He's currently president of O'Leary Ventures, a company owned by Kevin O'Leary of ABC's "Shark Tank," ABC News reported.
Kenjeev said he thought it would be funny to pay off the loans in cash.
So he went to his local Royal Bank of Canada and asked to withdraw $114,460. His request was delayed for three days as bank staff collected and counted the cash, the Vancouver Sun reported.
"Their initial reaction was they didn't want to do it," Kenjeev told ABC News. "Then they said, 'We can't give you this much." And I said, 'What do you mean? I deposit my money here with the expectation that I can take it out. Is this not what banks have been doing for hundreds of years?'"
He received the cash in a small, window-less room in the bank.
Kenjeev put the stack of bills in a grocery bag and walked two blocks away to the bank where the student loan was held. Once again, bank staff had to be mobilized to count the cash, but eventually his transaction was processed and he walked out debt-free, according to the Sun.
"It feels good," he told ABC News. "It feels like a weight has been lifted."
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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<urn:uuid:1b85b35f-d486-4fd4-b12a-e840defd5962>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.click2houston.com/community/education/Man-pays-off-114K-in-student-loans-in-cash/-/1735356/14176126/-/view/print/-/ui26jd/-/index.html
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en
| 0.987755 | 390 | 1.546875 | 2 |
How to monogram
Monogramming is quite the lost art for lady's, along with other needlework skills once taught in school. Unless you have a grandmother skilled in monogramming, you'll have to go to an embroidery shop and have someone stick it under a machine to stitch your initials perfectly and unlovingly. Or. You could do it yourself. And at first it will be terribly uneven and you will have knots and loose stitches and tight stitches, and you may poke your finger. But when you are finished you will feel so accomplished. Because you have created something so uniquely you. Made by you, designed by you, and with your very own initials. And you will look at it and it will be your quirky, terrible, awesome monogram.
Weeks ago I did my first monogram on a pair of gloves. I did a cursive "S" one one, and and "R" on the other. This time I decided to try the art deco approach and do a three letter monogram in a circular shape. The sharp straight lettering was much easier to accomplish than the curves of the glove lettering, and can start out by simply tracing a jar lid, or box lid if you want it the also popular diamond shape. However I will provide lettering for cursive:
Click to enlarge.
Traditionally the order of lettering is set as follows: Your last initial is the largest and in the middle. First initial is smaller and on the left, and middle initial also smaller and on the right. I decided to get a little ahead of myself and use Sam's last name instead of my own, so that would be "Solanah Raquel Cornell" and makes the monogram "sCr". So there's the two letter approach I used on my gloves, three letters on my jacket lapel, or go the Lavern way and have a little mystery with one letter.
You will need: Something to monogram. I wouldn't recommend gloves if you are not familiar with a needle and thread, but a shirt, cotton scarf, or anything with an open back and no stretch will do fine. Small sewing needle. Embroidery floss. Pencil (not pen, no pens around clothes!). Paper. Tracing paper. A couple of pins.
1. Draw out your initials. Practice until you get the correct size you want and how you want it to look. 1-1.5" tall works well for the middle letter, and about 3/4 of that for the outer ones.
2. Place the tracing paper on the main letter and trace. Do the same with the two outer initials making sure you trace them where you want, slightly overlapping.
3. Place the paper on the object you intend to embroider and pin down.
4. Cut a length of embroidery floss about 15" (38 cm) long, and split two threads from the floss. You will use only two threads at a time.
5. Pin the tracing paper to the area you intend to monogram. Stitch through the fabric and the paper on the outline using a back stitch
6. Once you have stitched the entire outline, carefully tear away all of the paper.
7. Using a satin stitch, start to embroider the middle letter, stitching just outside of the outline.
7. Once you have finished the big letter, move on to the smaller ones if you have them.
8. You are done! Congratulations! Pretty please send me pictures :)
The back is cool too.
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<urn:uuid:3b9afa42-9998-4a73-9ddf-789257e0ec69>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.vixen-vintage.com/2009/01/how-to-monogram.html?showComment=1295678836549
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.944125 | 736 | 1.632813 | 2 |
D1, the Decorah eagle with the satellite transmitter, has taken a sudden fishing vacation to Canada.
After spending almost all of this year near or south of her natal area, the yearling took off May 3 for points north.
As of Wednesday – after covering 453 miles in 12 days, including a 139-mile leg on May 8 – she was well above Lake Superior, apparently bound for Hudson Bay.
“Her peregrinations are proving to be most exciting. We are learning so much about the movements of an Iowa-fledged eagle,” said Bob Anderson, director of the Raptor Resource Project, whose nest-cam website attracts millions of viewers.
Anderson said he was shocked at her sudden departure and lengthy journey, which appears to be far from complete.
“I’m guessing she will spend the summer near Hudson Bay and stay there until winter drives her south,” said Anderson, who fitted her with the transmitter on July 12, a few weeks after she fledged from her parents’ nest near the Decorah Fish hatchery.
This year’s brood of three eaglets will fledge around June 20, according to Anderson, who intends to fit one of them with a similar transmitter around the Fourth of July.
Anderson said the detailed tracking of D1, which signifies Decorah first satellite, has impressed him with her pronounced affinity for rivers, her ability to make long flights and her apparent wanderlust.
“She has spent time along at least a dozen different rivers, which underscores the importance of maintaining good water quality,” he said.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, he said, is “how fast she can book – 140 miles in a single day.”
Although Anderson initially expected her to reside along the Mississippi River, not far from her natal area. her current northern journey is already her second, following a four-month, 850-mile tour of Wisconsin and Minnesota late last year.
Anderson said he is looking forward to 4:30 p.m. Monday, when his favorite television show, “Jeopardy,” will feature the Decorah eagles.
“I’m not sure if it will be a single question or a category, but the show’s producer said they were going to use some footage I sent them,” said Anderson, who described his allegiance to the program as “bordering on obsessive-compulsive.”
To view the Decorah eagles nest, go to www.raptorresource.org and click on the “bird cams” tab at the top of the page.
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<urn:uuid:66638152-754c-4484-85da-559658f4d290>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://thegazette.com/2012/05/18/northbound-decorah-eagle-has-left-the-country/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.972112 | 549 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Anti-war and anti-Wall Street demonstrations are springing up in major cities across the United States, nearly a month after they started in the heart of New York's financial district. At the protest in Washington, demonstrators are trying to remain for as long as possible.
What was supposed to be a four-day demonstration in Washington against U.S. wars abroad and corporate greed showed no sign of ending Monday on its fifth day. People continued to protest a few blocks from the White House.
The occupation of Washington's Freedom Plaza by the October 2011 movement is one of two ongoing demonstrations in the capital alongside protests in major cities across the United States.
The group's permit to gather in the square expired late Sunday. National Park Police had given the group until Monday afternoon to leave.
On Monday, police officers came to meet with the protestors, but the officers left after leaders of the movement refused to speak with them in private.
"Tell you what, we have your number, we'll be in contact with you," said one of the National Park policeman.
Tuesday morning, organizers said their permit had been extended for four months. But Park Police said nothing had been finalized.
Carla Fraydus said she left her home in Alabama without money to return, because she feels so strongly about the movement.
"This particular movement encompasses everything I care about. Everything. If you break down the problems that the country has or the world has, it's all based on unchecked corporate greed," said Fraydus.
Protest organizer Kevin Zeese said even if authorities do remove them from the park, they remain determined.
"Those of us who get arrested will come back and start again. We're not going to go away from an arrest for being in a federal park," said Zeese.
Zeese's group posted on YouTube what happened several days ago when some demonstrators tried to force their way past security at a museum to protest U.S. drone attacks in conflicts overseas.
Authorities arrested one person and used pepper spray to control the crowd.
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<urn:uuid:39895af4-3da9-4ec9-be78-039e5adce91b>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.voanews.com/content/washington-demonstrators-seek-to-continue-protest-131533143/146500.html
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.971922 | 421 | 1.625 | 2 |
Rubberwood is a popular plantation species which is environmental friendly. It is easy to machine, cut and durable. As such, it is widely used in the local furniture industry and the products are exported to the USA, Japan and the United Kingdom. The wood, mainly in the form of off-cuts and branches, are also used in the medium density fibreboard (MDF) and chipboard industry.
Rubberwood is recognized as the most ecologically friendly lumber used in today's furniture industry. Generally, rubber trees are fell and replanted after 26-30 years of latex tapping. The wood is then harvested for use in the furniture, fibreboard and particleboard plants.
Rubberwood is increasingly being demanded by the various sectors of the timber industry. To assist the industry in sourcing and supplying the timber, MTIB has set up the Rubberwood-E Portal where information and contact numbers of major rubberwood suppliers are listed.
HOW TO ACCESS
The Portal is open to all Malaysian manufacturers and to access the information in the Portal, a password is required. To apply for the password, and any further enquiries, kindly forward to Mr. Nizam, [email protected] or Mrs. Norfaezah [email protected]
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<urn:uuid:5edfcf19-02e8-4052-875b-115fb10e4afd>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.mtib.gov.my/rubberwood-E/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.93087 | 269 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Sorry, no definitions found.
“But what type of proff is needed to show that you are a citezen?”
“I could never have respect for him since he backed McCain and Palin and not the proff is in the pudding, he is an in the closet Republicadoom!”
“Network Association, kicked 'proff' out because he was using their network to crack into overseas systems.”
“I've worked in medicine and scince for many years and have yet to find 'proff' of evolution.”
“20: [Article on gun politics] The phrase in question is a caption for a photograph, the photograph is not provided as "proff" for anything.”
“And what the democrat party means is proff that eeting lead paint chips only makes you smarter.”
“This is Erik Sturchio I would like to know why you guys post information on people without any proff or facts.”
“I was never showed to proff read these articles nor have I ever been allowed to respond ....”
“What I want to say is I had got a email from a friend who is retired from the Army and was the head honcho of the Joint Cheif Of Staff Intellegence and he said a person needs to purchase as many matches and fire startersas you can and fix them inwater proff containers.”
“Greer admits to having no proff to back up his assertions, but he makes silly claims anyway.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘proff’.
Words that people on Twitter don't think are words.
I wrote a little script that runs every day. It searches the Twitter API for tweets containing the words, "is not a word". Each (non...
Looking for tweets for proff.
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<urn:uuid:3b8f503f-cd8c-48ad-9ebe-b5ad8bd8d04d>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.wordnik.com/words/proff
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.971119 | 397 | 1.59375 | 2 |
A little while back, Warren Ellis wrote an appropriately sharp post describing the Technological Singularity as “the last trench of the religious impulse in the technocratic community.” The post is worth reading for its own sake, but it’s also fun to read the hilariously pissy trackbacks from members of the singularitarian community. Belief in the singularity, part of the belief system called extropianism and/or transhumanism, is a strange thing; it’s probably best to understand it as one of America’s quaint 19th century excentricities, like libertarianism or private health care.
It’s funny, though, that these advocates of our glorious extropian future don’t seem to realize how historically specific is the idea of the “human” that they’re so keen to transcend. As Foucault puts it in The Order of Things:
It is comforting, however, and a source of profound relief to think that man is only a recent invention, a figure not yet two centuries old, a new wrinkle in our knowledge, and that he will disappear again as soon as that knowledge has discovered a new form (xxiii).
The transhumanist idea that at some point in the future technology will lead to a radical alteration of what it means to be human assumes that there is something fixed about “what it means to be human” in the first place. But it seems to me that, if there is a defining characteristic of human beings, it’s our lack of a defining characteristic: “man is what he is not, and is not what he is,” as Sartre says. To put it another way, the technological event that changed the meaning of being human is the invention of technology itself; our bold futurists aren’t just 19th century throwbacks: they’re a couple of million years behind the times.
The other 19th century ideology underlying transhumanism, of course, is the idea of progress, the idea that the present will have its meaning given to it by something existing in the future; “the desire to be saved by something that isn’t there (or even the desire to be destroyed by something that isn’t there) and throws off no evidence of its ever intending to exist,” as Ellis puts it. Though he doesn’t mention it in the post, this aspect of the Singularity ties in with Ellis’s new comic series. Doktor Sleepless is about the future or, rather, the absence of the future. The story is complicated, and the motivation and character of the “cartoon mad scientist,” Doktor Sleepless remain opaque. One theme, though is disappoint at the failure of the future to materialize: “where’s my jetpack?” But I wonder if the Doktor’s nurse (in the panels at the top of the post) doesn’t have it right. If the future was always a trick, “pie in the sky when you die,” shouldn’t we start thinking about the absence of the future as a liberation?
(This might tie in with discussions at Nate’s about an obsession with “newness” in political theory, as well as Benjamin’s connection of futurity with social democratic reformism. And, I recommend reading Doktor Sleepless while listening to Benga’s “Zombie Jig”).
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<urn:uuid:bb0c21d1-20b5-45ac-a2c8-91b64cb64fd3>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://blog.voyou.org/2008/07/06/fuck-the-future/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.954436 | 741 | 1.65625 | 2 |
|[Morton Feldman Page] [List of Texts]|
Almost all Feldman's music is slow and soft. Only at first sight is this a limitation. I see it rather as a narrow door, to whose dimensions one has to adapt oneself (as in Alice in Wonderland) before one can pass through it into the state of being that is expressed in Feldman's music. Only when one has become accustomed to the dimness of light can one begin to perceive the richness and variety of colour which is the material of the music. When one has passed through the narrow door and got accustomed to the dim light, one realises the range of his imagination and the significant differences that distinguish one piece from another ...It seems wholly appropriate to quote these words of Cornelius Cardew from the early sixties. In an interview in the summer of '85 Feldman recalled, Cornelius played my music beautifully and I don't think anybody wrote about my early music as beautifully as he did.
Feldman sees the sounds as reverberating endlessly, never getting lost, changing their resonances as they die away, or rather do not die away, but recede from our ears, and soft because softness is compelling, because an insidious invasion of our senses is more effective than a frontal attack. Because our ears must strain to catch the music, they must become more sensitive before they perceive the world of sound in which Feldman's music takes place.
In fact, Cardew's description refers equally well to the later works, notwithstanding all the profound changes Feldman's music underwent during the last ten years; for it is above all to this world of sound that the music owes its strength of continuity and its unique quality.
As performers of contemporary music we can move comfortably from Boulez to Carter, to Henze, and we can compare and contrast their methods, techniques, modes of expression, indeed their personalities; but essentially they inhabit the same musical world, a world moreover inherited from their great predecessors. For the mode of sound production in which we have been trained over the years through tuition and examinations at our conservatories still stands us in good stead. We can retain our traditional, time-honoured methods of phrasing and articulation, too. If we can make sense of the HAMMERKLAVIER sonata we can also make sense of Boulez' 2nd piano sonata. But above all what characterizes these composers is their acceptance of and dependence on received instrumental sound, the execution of which is taught and honoured in our music colleges and which bears an aesthetic which intervenes at the most crucial stage of music-making, at the very point of production, to produce a quality of reassuring familiarity and respectability.
This is what Feldman was referring to when he remarked, Most of the music you hear in London is official music, as if it was written for the London Sinfonietta ... For London read also Paris, or Milan, or Cologne, or Vienna ... In the hands of executant experts the authority of received sound will legitimize and sanction even the most brutal extravagances of modernism, such as the monstrous serial edifices spawned through Darmstadt in the fifties.
And herein lies the world of difference between Feldman and, in particular, his European peers; because through the infamous softness and slowness of his music and a radical commitment to the muscular, physical and essentially sensual qualities of the art of performance Feldman thwarts the attempts at expressive reduction and control which our conservatory training operates.
When David Tudor or Cardew played Feldman what you heard and experienced with great intensity was the limb as it performed, the fingerpad - that most erotic part of a pianist's body - and the resulting sound was raw and thrilling. In too many performances one is all too conscious of a culture intervening between body and instrument.
Tudor and Cardew were virtuosi, which has nothing to do with velocity or petty digital scramble (Barthes), by virtue of the extraordinary sounds they drew from the piano. Their performances steered a hazardous course generating risk and excitement: the phrasing and articulation 'situational', determined spontaneously by the idiosyncrasies of individual sounds at particular moments, by ambience and acoustics, by the imperfections in the instrument and the dimensions of the room. And this is Feldman's way.
From ancient China there is a description of a vibrato technique: Remarkable is the ting-yin, where the vacillating movement of the finger should be so subtle as to be hardly noticeable. Some handbooks say that one should not move the finger at all, but let the timbre be influenced by the pulsation of the blood in the fingertips pressing the string down on the board a little more heavily than usual.
Such extreme sensitivity of touch is of the essence in a performance of Feldman's music. In the piano pieces the depressed key is gently eased back to position to minimise the obtrusive sound of the key mechanism, time is allowed for the minutest of harmonics to resound, and at the end of the phrases fingers steal away from the keys noiselessly.
Repetition is one of the formal characteristics of FOR BUNITA MARCUS; sometimes immediate and sequential, often through the deployment of the same melodic and harmonic material throughout the whole piece. The repetition of a phrase may be subtly varied through rhythmic displacement, or the lengths between a number of repetitions are varied. In FOR BUNITA MARCUS the metre is constantly changing. The purpose is not rhythmic characterisation, however; rather it is the way Feldman controls and influences the flow of the music: a way of notating rubato. And in the final section he brings the music almost, but not quite, to a standstill: phrases fragmented, separated by the only (near) silences in the whole work which is played with just two changes of pedal.
The ending foreshadows the last measures of PALAIS DE MARI - Feldman's last work for piano; the rising intervals gently propel the music upwards and away, floating through an immense space.
In rehearsal Feldman would help his performers by describing the sounds as sourceless. He wanted them to take on that precious quality of transience, of uncatchability (Cardew's word), to be free but not arbitrary, elusive but compelling.
We are reminded of an old Taoist dictum:
|[Morton Feldman Page] [List of Texts]|
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<urn:uuid:09057819-23fa-4233-b255-4ea9145a5d48>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://cnvill.net/mftilb.htm
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.955018 | 1,334 | 1.820313 | 2 |
A complete system profile(14 posts)
I really had to laugh. But it is the truth. I only got my first PC last year (actually it was the wife that went out and bought it). But I guess having been around mainframes for 35 years helps a little. However, a first attempt was made by my staff manager in 1991. He got me the top of the line IBM laptop of those days trying to convince me to use it. I thought it was a nice toy. We agreed to put it into my credenza - it never resurfaced from there as long as I was around. So I missed my chance then.
Belarc has been mentioned on this forum many times, but it never hurts to refresh people's memory. Another tool that has been recommended is Everest which is available in a paid version and freeware here:
Also, in a pinch, you can try the System Information built in to Windows (msinfo32).
ScottW, Yes, msinfo32 is a good source of info. But it generates a huge file with a lot more info than one usually needs. What I liked about Belarc is that it is fast and gives you the essentials.
Btw: I had never seen Belarc mentioned here, but that is probably my problem. I suspected already that I was one of the few who was behind the information curve.
@whs, do a search and you will see prior mentions of Belarc. Sometimes you can be unaware of a tool that's been around for a while until you really need it. Then, when you find one you like, it's like a discovery -- look what I found! I'm not recommending msinfo32 as the best or first tool, only one that can be used in a pinch when you are at a friends or on a system with no Internet, etc.
@Snugglez64, SIW is a good addition to this list, thanks. I went to check and see that at least one of these is on the UBCD4Win Disc and it turns out to be SIW.
This topic has been closed to new replies. Please create a new topic instead.
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<urn:uuid:243109e2-ad47-4465-a024-cc0234998167>
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http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/a-complete-system-profile
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.985193 | 444 | 1.796875 | 2 |
New York (CNN) -- Ten Russians allegedly involved in intelligence gathering will be expelled from the United States in short order, in exchange for Russia's release of four Russian prisoners accused of spying for the United States, officials from both countries said Thursday.
The elaborately choreographed announcements emanating from both nation's capitals described a case evocative of the Cold War.
In Washington, Attorney General Eric Holder said none of the 10 had passed classified information and therefore none were charged with espionage.
"They were acting as agents to a foreign power," he told CBS News, referring to the Russians who had been under observation by federal authorities for more than a decade.
All of their children have been repatriated, he said.
But White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel told PBS "NewsHour" that, although they didn't plead guilty to being spies, they "were clearly caught in the business of spying."
Carlos Moreno, a lawyer representing two of the Russians, told CNN Thursday night that all 10 were in a detention center in New York City. They were to be taken to an airport in the city later Thursday or Friday, put on a plane provided by the Russian government, and flown directly to Moscow, he said.
In a conference call with reporters, senior administration officials said the 10 Russians agreed never to return to the United States without permission from the U.S. government.
Holding them would have conferred no security benefit to the nation, they said.
This "clearly serves the interests of the United States," one official said.
A second official said the four prisoners in Russia were in failing health, a consideration that prompted quick completion of the deal.
Under the plea agreements, the defendants disclosed their true identities in court and forfeited assets attributable to the criminal offenses, the Justice Department said in a news release.
"The defendants known as 'Richard Murphy' and 'Cynthia Murphy' admitted they are Russian citizens named Vladimir Guryev and Lydia Guryev and are agents of the Russian Federation," it said.
"Defendants 'Michael Zottoli' and 'Patrica Mills' admitted they are Russian citizens named Mikhail Kutsik and Natalia Pereverzeva, and are agents of the Russian Federation;
"Defendants 'Donald Howard Heathfield' and 'Tracey Lee Ann Foley' admitted they are Russian citizens named Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova, and are agents of the Russian Federation;
"'Juan Lazaro' admitted that he is a Russian citizen named Mikhail Anatonoljevich Vasenkov and is an agent of the Russian Federation;
Defendants Vicky Pelaez, Anna Chapman and Mikhail Semenko, who operated in the United States under their true names, admitted that they are agents of the Russian Federation; and Chapman and Semenko admitted they are Russian citizens," the Justice Department said.
Authorities have lost track of an 11th suspect, who was detained in Cyprus, released on bail and then failed to check in with authorities as he had promised to do.
In Moscow, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree Friday pardoning the four individuals imprisoned for alleged contact with Western intelligence agencies, the Kremlin press service said, according to state-run RIA Novosti.
Though the four Russians were released to the custody of the United States, that does not necessarily mean they would go to the United States, an embassy spokesman said.
"Three of the Russian prisoners were convicted of treason in the form of espionage on behalf of a foreign power and are serving lengthy prison terms," the Justice Department said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood. "The Russian prisoners have all served a number of years in prison and some are in poor health. The Russian government has agreed to release the Russian prisoners and their family members for resettlement."
It added, "Some of the Russian prisoners worked for the Russian military, and/or for various Russian intelligence agencies. Three of the Russian prisoners have been accused by Russia of contacting Western intelligence agencies while they were working for the Russian (or Soviet) government."
The individuals pardoned by Russia are Alexander Zaporozhsky, Gennady Vasilenko, Sergei Skripal and Igor Sutyagin.
All four appealed to the Russian president to free them after admitting their crimes against the Russian state, press secretary Natalia Timakova said.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the move was made "in the general context of improving Russian-American relations, and the new dynamic they have been given, in the spirit of basic agreements at the highest level between Moscow and Washington on the strategic character of Russian-American partnership."
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Sutyagin, who was convicted in Russia in 2004 for spying for U.S. intelligence services, said her client arrived Thursday in Vienna, RIA-Novosti reported.
Sutyagin was convicted in 2004 of passing secret data to members of U.S. intelligence services acting as employees of a British company called Alternative Futures, in exchange for monetary rewards in 1998-1999.
But in Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner denied Thursday that Sutyagin had been a spy.
CNN's Susan Candiotti, Elise Labott, Jill Dougherty, Eden Pontz, Deb Feyerick and Raelyn Johnson contributed to this report.
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Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Monday that "worst case scenarios" are becoming a reality in neighboring Syria over its 19-month civil war -- which has spilled over into border clashes between the two nations -- and that it "absolutely cannot" continue.
"The Syrian people are suffering and as you can see it is having an effect on us, too, from time to time," he told reporters.
After days of Syrian shells flying across the border into Turkey, tensions -- and carnage -- are mounting on both sides of the border.
The stray shelling has prompted Turkey to respond with threats and weapons fire, fueling concerns that the Syrian civil war will bleed into a greater regional battle.
Early Monday morning, Turkish authorities reported exchanges of fire in a southern central region of Turkey that borders Syria.
A mortar shell launched from the Syrian side landed in Turkey's Altinozu District, though no casualties were reported, authorities said in a written statement.
Turkish forces fired "retaliatory shots" into Syria, saying they believed the initial strike was launched by Syrian Security forces, the statement said.
Here are additional developments in the crisis:
Deaths add up amid continuing violence
A large explosion rocked Damascus on Monday, followed by heavy gunfire near a government checkpoint, though it is not clear if there are casualties resulting from the detonation and ensuing exchange.
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Using the Community for Support
One way to overcome the problems cited by Goodwin and Gilbane is to use the open source community as a support base. These communities have the potential at least to help soften the lack of more conventional types of support you may expect from a proprietary vendor. If you have a problem, you can always go to the community. Goodwin says it's the quality of that community that is going to move a project forward or not.
"The community surrounding an open source CMS can make or break the project," according to Goodwin. "There is generally no free formal support mechanism for open source CMSs so the community is the only place to get free support. Also, the programmers who become a part of community, that also actively code and provide their modules to the community, are an essential ingredient for the success of any open source CMS. If a good, active community fails to coalesce around the project, it will never get a foothold and will eventually die. The community is everything when dealing with open source content management systems," Goodwin says.
One problem that Bob Doyle, editor of CMS Review, sees with relying on the open source community for support is that it is not always a nurturing resource. "There's some question whether there is help in the community." The test, he says, is to see how community members respond to relatively easy questions. Sometimes, according to Doyle, "a newbie comes in and asks something and they say it's too basic. It doesn't always work well as a supportive, nourishing technical support system." He points out, however, that it only takes a few dedicated individuals to make a difference. "For a developer community to be successful with a CMS," Doyle says, "you need to have an active listserv, with at least a few people willing to play a role of what a commercial tech support would be and that's the hallmark of the open source community."
Whether your organization chooses to take the open source route to developing a content management solution may ultimately have less to do with cost than whether it is comfortable with (and capable of) employing a solution for which it will be largely responsible for support and updates. On the plus side, the open source community of developers will often be there to help. And, depending on your open source solution, a choice of consulting firms is available to contribute expertise for a fee. In the end, it really comes down to your company's enthusiasm for and comfort level with the pros and cons of the independence open source provides. For some companies fed up with high costs and tired of waiting for the features they need to be developed at vendor's discretion, this may be a reasonable trade-off. For others, it may be unthinkable. Either way, many, including Goodwin, think the market is going to grow, starting on the low end and percolating up to the enterprise. "In the 4-plus years I've been dealing with open source CMSs," Goodwin says, "I've seen a recent marked increase in interest regarding these systems." This means that for many organizations considering CMS alternatives, open source may be a choice worth considering.
Companies Featured in This Article
Bluebill Advisors www.bluebilladvisors. com
CMS Review www.cmsreview.com
eZ publish www.ez.no
Shore Communications, Inc. www.shore.com
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The Prime Minister has encouraged other countries to embrace China, in particular suggesting that the United States should take a softer approach, and noting that the rise of China presents great opportunities to Australia. I agree.
Recently I attended a public meeting at which a number of people spoke on China, including some people who would be regarded by China as dissidents. A common thread running through the speakers was that Australia should not be getting too close to China while its record on human rights and environmental protection remains as it is.
While we have different views to China on issues of this kind, avoiding getting close to China is not the way to affect China's position. It would not hurt China one iota for Australia to decline to deal with them. China needs nothing from us - we have no negotiating position whatsoever from which to pressure China to do anything it does not want to do. Yet by maintaining good relations with China we can maintain ongoing civil dialogue about areas of disagreement - dialog conducted through appropriate channels - that may be a factor in China eventually reconsidering its positions. This is the only way, realistically, that a country the size of Australia can hope to influence future policy in China. This may seem like a slow approach, and it is not as immediately satisfying as taking more direct action, but it is the only approach that is available to us.
As the Prime Minister says:
We seek to build on shared goals and not become obsessed by those things that make us different. By widening the circle of substance we are better able to deal openly and honestly with issues where we might disagree.
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I do not know much either, sorry. But what I find googling in the local language is this:
It seems Studiolasi Oy was founded 1977 when Riihimäen Lasi moved on to their so called "Kotilasi" era (only machine made mass production) so some of the big names of design apparently worked for Studiolasi after that for some time. Aimo Okkolin and Oiva Toikka mentioned too.
Studiolasi Oy still seems to exist. (In Kuortti, Pertunmaa, Finland) Here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/37loomy
and distribute hand made glass.
I found many kinds of birds made by them, also flowers and as the location by a main road is suitable for tourists to pop in, the items may be suitable for souveniers?
There seems to be a possibility for misunderstandings as some speak of "studiolasi" as a term for "lasi" (=glass) made in a "studio" meaning hand made glass. So all instances where the word is mentioned may not point to the actual company "Studiolasi Oy"
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James Graham Ballard (born November 15, 1930 in Shanghai) is a British writer. He was a prominent member of the New Wave in science fiction. His best known books are the controversial Crash, and the autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun, both of which have been adapted to film. The adjective "Ballardian", defined as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in JG Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments", has been included in the Collins English Dictionary. .
"We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind -- mass merchandising, advertising, politics conducted as a branch of advertising, the instant translation of science and technology into popular imagery, the increasing blurring and intermingling of identities within the realm of consumer goods, the preempting of any free or original imaginative response to experience by the television screen. We live inside an enormous novel. For the writer in particular it is less and less necessary for him to invent the fictional content of his novel. The fiction is already there. The writer's task is to invent the reality."
"A car crash harnesses elements of eroticism, aggression, desire, speed, drama, kinesthetic factors, the stylizing of motion, consumer goods, status -- all these in one event. I myself see the car crash as a tremendous sexual event really: a liberation of human and machine libido (if there is such a thing)."
"Hell is out of fashion -- institutional hells at any rate. The populated infernos of the 20th century are more private affairs, the gaps between the bars are the sutures of one's own skull. A valid hell is one from which there is a possibility of redemption, even if this is never achieved, the dungeons of an architecture of grace whose spires point to some kind of heaven. The institutional hells of the present century are reached with one-way tickets, marked Nagasaki and Buchenwald, worlds of terminal horror even more final than the grave."
"The car as we know it is on the way out. To a large extent, I deplore its passing, for as a basically old-fashioned machine, it enshrines a basically old-fashioned idea: freedom. In terms of pollution, noise and human life, the price of that freedom may be high, but perhaps the car, by the very muddle and confusion it causes, may be holding back the remorseless spread of the regimented, electronic society."
"I believe that organic sex, body against body, skin area against skin area, is becoming no longer possible, simply because if anything is to have any meaning for us it must take place in terms of the values and experiences of the media landscape. What we're getting is a whole new order of sexual fantasies, involving a different order of experiences, like car crashes, like travelling in jet aircraft, the whole overlay of new technologies, architecture, interior design, communications, transport, merchandising. These things are beginning to reach into our lives and change the interior design of our sexual fantasies. We've got to recognize that what one sees through the window of the TV screen is as important as what one sees through a window on the street."
"People nowadays like to be together not in the old-fashioned way of, say, mingling on the piazza of an Italian Renaissance city, but, instead, huddled together in traffic jams, bus queues, on escalators and so on. It's a new kind of togetherness which may seem totally alien, but it's the togetherness of modern technology."
"The geometry of landscape and situation seems to create its own systems of time, the sense of a dynamic element which is cinematizing the events of the canvas, translating a posture or ceremony into dynamic terms. The greatest movie of the 20th century is the Mona Lisa, just as the greatest novel is Gray's Anatomy."
"The marriage of reason and nightmare which has dominated the 20th century has given birth to an ever more ambiguous world. Across the communications landscape move the specters of sinister technologies and the dreams that money can buy. Thermonuclear weapons systems and soft drink commercials coexist in an overlit realm ruled by advertising and pseudo-events, science and pornography. Over our lives preside the great twin leitmotifs of the 20th century -- sex and paranoia."
Search Quotations Book
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| 0.953008 | 920 | 1.625 | 2 |
Estate Taxes: Will Your Estate Be Taxed At Death?
As the saying goes, “nothing is certain but death and taxes.” In the context of estate planning, this reality drives the estate planner’s desire to minimize taxes upon death as much as possible. In fact, the world of estate planning is consumed with the minimization of taxes in all of its forms. Attorneys and advisers have clients jump through legal and financial hoops in order to avoid or delay the payment of taxes, whether estate, capital gains, gift, income, etc. It is imperative that clients know if their assets will be taxed upon their death so that they can properly seek advice from their estate planning professional. This article provides a general overview of estate taxes. More detailed articles dealing with the proposed tax savings are available in the articles section with more to be written in the future.
What Is Taxable?
Very generally, any property that a person owns at his passing is taxable including bank account, cash, securities, real estate, cars, etc. are includable in his gross estate. Contrary to popular belief, the death benefit of life insurance policies a person owns are taxable unless properly structured. See a more detailed explanation regarding life insurance policies here. Joint property, including joint bank accounts, is 100% includable in the estate of the first joint property owner to die except to the extent that the other joint owner can show that he contributed to the property. Business, corporate, and LLC interests are also includable in the gross estate as are general powers of appointment.
Deductions from the Gross Estate:
To determine the taxable estate, we need to reduce the gross estate by the applicable deductions. The IRS allows the following deductions from the gross estate [1. http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=108143,00.html#5] which reduce the gross estate:
1. Marital Deduction: One of the primary deductions for married decedents is the Marital Deduction. Both jurisdictions allow for an unlimited marital deduction which means that assets passing outright to a citizen spouse will not be taxed at the death of the first spouse. There are often very good financial, legal, and tax reasons not to leave everything to the surviving spouse as will be discussed in the upcoming article dealing with credit shelter/bypass trusts
2. Charitable Deduction: If the decedent leaves property to a qualifying charity, it is deductible from the gross estate.
3. Mortgages and Debt associated with the properties.
4. Administration expenses of the estate including executor/administrator, accountant’s and attorney’s fees.
5. Losses during estate administration.
Not One, But Two:
Both New York State and the federal government impose separate estate taxes on decedents who pass away with a certain amount assets[2. It should be noted that only about 15 states and Washington D.C. impose estate taxes which explains why many seniors move to Florida which doesn’t have an estate tax.]. The government figures that death should be a taxable event because almost everything else you did in life was. New York State and the federal government tax estates at different levels and at different rates. Uncle Sam does, however, give taxpayers a deduction for the amount they paid in state taxes[3. The Estate Tax Credit was phased out completely in 2005.].
Federal Estate Taxation:
The federal government taxes estates valued at over $5.12 million, which is adjusted for inflation ever year, at a rate of 35% in 2012 and 40% in 2013 and beyond.
New York State Estate Taxation:
New York State taxes the estates of New York residents if they are over $1,000,000. Non residents pay the tax only if their estate includes real property or tangible personal property located in New York and worth over $1 million. NY estate tax rates range from 5.6% to 16% for estates over $10 million and are expected to remain the same for the foreseeable future. New York requires estates with a gross estate of over $1,000,000 to file form ET-706 along with a federal estate tax return, even though one may not be required by the IRS (because the estate is under the federal filing threshold).
The tax thresholds mentioned above assume that the decedent did not make taxable gifts during his lifetime. A taxable gift is a gift made to a person above the annual gift tax exclusion amount, currently at $14,000 in 2013[4. Married couples can “gift split” and give away $28,000 a year. The amount is pegged for inflation and adjusts to the nearest thousand.]. If taxable gifts were made, they reduce estate tax exemption amount to the extent that gift tax was not paid on them.
It is possible to avoid the sting of the estate tax by (1) fully utilizing each spouse’s estate tax exemption (2) deferring taxes until the death of the second spouse (3) and completely escaping taxes by gifting properly during life and/or after death. To speak to an estate planning attorney for an evaluation of your financial situation and to see which options can minimize or eliminate your potential estate tax liability, contact us at (347)ROMAN-85
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ASK IRAN TO JOIN NATO
This was when I went around repeating to myself,
and to anyone who cared to listen, that people like myself had become
irrelevant. This pathological disorder was not limited to me;
many others felt they had lost their place in the world. I wrote
rather dramatically to an American friend: “You ask me
what it means to be irrelevant? The feeling is akin to visiting
your old house as a wandering ghost with unfinished business.
Imagine going back: the structure is familiar, but the door
is now metal instead of wood, the walls have been painted
a garish pink, the easy chair you loved so much is gone.
Your office is now the family room and your beloved
bookcases have been replaced by a brand-new television
set. This is your house and it is not. And you are no
longer relevant to this house, to its walls and doors and floors;
you are not seen.”
Prof. Azar Nafisi describing her sense of displacement by the Iranian Revolution in
“Reading Lolita in Tehran,” paperback edition, 2004, p. 169.
The rulers of Iran have a singular fear of acceding to the demands of the European Union and the United Nations (ex rel. U.S. of A.). As a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is being asked to grant verifiable assurances that her nuclear energy activities (centrifuges, etc.) will not be converted into a weapons program. All of the leading spokespersons critical of Iran have publically agreed that Iran has not yet decided to “weaponize.” How they can be sure of that, as a fact, is beyond me because the conclusion crosses the line that should separate intelligence from clairvoyance. The governing Ayatollahs believe that even if Iran were to proclaim such an iron-clad guarantee, the United States – and possibly others – would still seek to subvert Iran’s regime. Such an intent to provoke regime change could be thwarted only by Iran’s achievement of its goal to enter the association of nations forever poised on the brink of mutual assured destruction -- as anyone can see by looking at the respect the United States bestows upon North Korea, not only because North Korea is befriended by China but also because North Korea already has some quantity of deliverable atomic bombs. At any time, including just yesterday, North Korea could or could have placed one nuclear armed missile each aboard a series of indistinguishable fishing vessels on the vast Pacific that might set sail to within striking distance of Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
It has been reported that since the 1980’s, an increasing number of Iranians have been suffering from “buyer’s remorse,” over their decision to morph their revolution into a theocracy. The same issue that confronts Islamic countries in turmoil today was apparently settled by the Persians a generation ago. Tersely stated, that decision, now pending from Egypt outward through all of North Africa and the Middle East is whether Islam is a polity or a religion. It cannot be both. As a religion, Islam can inform the institutions, laws and practices of a society, but where Islam is a polity, so far, all we have seen is a resultant theocracy that is far more repressive than the cruel and corrupt reign of the late Shah. At least under the Shah they had some measure of intellectual and academic freedom.
No external set of forces can protect the Ayatollahs from the universal trend toward democracy and freedom, especially in this information age – nor should they. At some point, the Iranian people will have had enough of the brutal suffocation that occurs every day in their country. No government that holds power through force or internal terror can possibly last. Should the Iranian people stage a rebellion or counter-revolution that seems to suggest a shadow of success, the temptation on the part of the United States and other NATO countries to come to their aid, as we did in Libya (for all the trouble that may continue to cost us), would be irresistible.
So it seems to me that the ONLY option we really have regarding Iran depends upon how sure we are that we could not abide an Iran with nuclear weapons. Iran will not, and need not, bow to sanctions. Indeed, their leaders must be at least as aware as we are that sanctions cause deprivations among their people that are far more likely to reinforce the people’s ethnocentricity than they are to foment a war by the people against their government, which would appear to ally their citizens with Iran’s enemies.
Asking Iran to join NATO as the trade-off for abandoning their WMD intentions, which seem to me to be unwavering, would certainly strengthen the government’s hand against its people. As a member of NATO (like Turkey and Poland neither of which are adjacent to the North Atlantic) Iran would have shared responsibilities, but would be insulated against subversion by its new allies. However, that circumstance need not be conclusive as to internal momentum toward regime change. Indeed, if Iran were to join NATO, increased contacts between their people and Western societies might actually hasten Iran’s hoped for liberalization.
The United States must continue to distinguish our own foreign policy from that of an insistently bellicose Israel. If we do not, war between an isolated Israel and the United States against Iran is inevitable. Such a war would incur monumental costs to the United States. President Obama was exactly on the right track when he declared, before the election, that any definition of Israel acceptable to the world must include, with certain adjustments, their return to pre-1967 borders. That eventuation would further isolate Iran, not Israel, but the Israelis have yet to signal any awareness of that likelihood.
Whoever is elected the next Prime Minister of Israel should face a few uncomfortable truths.
- After World War II, the Jews never had the opportunity or occasion to vent their anger, let alone seek revenge against the Germans for the Holocaust. West Germany had to be rebuilt quickly and turned into an ally in order to create a buffer state designed to stem Stalin’s westward imperialism, which sought to Sovietize France and Italy.
- Jewish repressed anger now breaks into pieces and is displaced and projected upon the Arabs. The Jews may be genuinely threatened by Hamas and Hezbollah, but are they really so threatened they have to kill women and children, as they did recently in Gaza? Is anti-terrorist revenge Israel’s only motive? What we witnessed in Gaza went far beyond my understanding of Mosaic principles.
- Not only Iran but also many others in the world continue to ask about the need for a specifically Jewish state. In a sense, the Israelis are struggling with the same question confronting Islam: Is Judaism a religion or a polity? We can understand the longing for a Jewish state through history and sociology, but what about theology? Philosophically, the Israelis face a conundrum. Judaism, as set forth in the scriptures, describes a closed society, whereas the Israelis want an open – read democratic – system of government. This is not an academic question because the continued occupation of the West Bank is justified on Biblical grounds which brook no recourse to reason and common sense.
- For what it’s worth, my own take on the religious question is this: Jews are the chosen people not to hold dominion and sway over captive peoples. Jews are chosen for one reason and one reason only. Upon the Sabbath, in every synagogue, the rabbi raises the Torah over his head and proclaims, “This is the Law of God given to us through Moses.” The act is symbolic and has been regarded so by most Jews for centuries. Our central mission in the world is to uphold the law. The greatest American jurists who have been Jews, beginning with Brandeis, Cardozo and Learned Hand, have made clear that law entails an evolving set of institutions and precepts: it is not “set in stone” nor is it situate in the mythic 18th Century that so bemuses Justice Antonin Scalia.
- Jews have also played an important role in the development of international law, significant human rights aspects of which the Israelis violate on an almost daily basis. As one of the characters in “The Plague,” by Albert Camus observes:
“For many years I’ve been ashamed, mortally ashamed, of having been, even with the best intentions, even at many removes, a murderer in my turn….Yes, I’ve been ashamed ever since I have realized that we all have plague, and I have lost my peace. And today, I am still trying to find it; still trying to understand all those others and not to be the mortal enemy of anyone. I only know one must do what one can to cease being plague-stricken, and that’s the only way in which we can hope for some peace or, failing that, a decent death. This, and only this, can bring relief to men and, if not save them, at least do them the least harm possible and even, sometimes, a little good.” (Translated from the French by Stuart Gilbert in 1948, a year after the original publication.)
- So, Mr. Putative New Prime Minister of Israel, are you and your fellow Israelis capable of envisaging a Jewish identity that omits the need to create and sustain mortal enemies?
Finally, for those who would argue that Iran would turn down an offer to join NATO, I am reminded of an anecdote somehow elided by Tony Kushner’s magnificent screenplay for the movie “Lincoln.” When Lincoln told his Cabinet that he was about to free the slaves, one of the Secretaries piped up, “but Mr. President, suppose they refuse?”
Harvard Hollenberg is a writer and an appellate lawyer in New York City.
© Copyright Harvard Hollenberg 2012. All rights reserved.
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Do you have stacks of old magazines lying around that you just can’t seem to trash? Are you a fan of greener living? Try your hand at making art from what would have been thrown away. The possibilities are endless. I have seen everything from picture frames to bowls to jewelry. I will be showing you how to make the coils, and sharing what I found works best. This cross took me 2-3 hours total. The duration will depend on how much of a perfectionist you are, and how many coils your project requires.
- Bone folder
- Glossy accents or other quick dry glue
- Scotch tape (optional)
- Mod Podge or other sealant
- A good movie or soundtrack to enjoy while you fold
- I like the folded strips making up the coil to be thin, so I cut the page in half lengthwise, then folding each half in half, and cutting along the folds, making 4 strips from each page. It looks fine if you use a whole page per strip, just chunkier coils. Start folding by bringing each long edge to the center and creasing to make 2 new edges (see pic). Using the bone folder to crease makes much neater coils. NOTE: THE PICTURES SHOW STRIPS BEING MADE FROM ENTIRE PAGES; I HAVE SINCE LEARNED THAT STRIPS MADE FROM 1/4 OF A PAGE LOOK MUCH BETTER IN THE PROJECTS I SHARE HERE AT SBLC.
- Now coil your strips. When your come to the end of your strip, place a small dab of glue and hold pressure to secure it in place. If you want the coil larger, begin another strip where your first one ended. You can place a thin piece of scotch tape where the two strip ends meet, or just secure each end with glue leaving no gap between them.
To make the cross, I sketched out the design, made the coils I needed, attached them together with Glossy accents (I love using this on paper – dries clear and fast) and outlined the joined coils with strips to form the “+” shape. You can make anything you imagine. Google and you will find all kinds of ideas. I coated the final piece with Mod Podge attached a wire to the back for hanging and that is that.
I would love to see what you create with your lovely coils. Recruit friends and family to fold pages into strips for you if your project is big. My nephew and grandmother were pleased to play along!
ADDENDUM: I just found an wonderful tutorial with some other tips, here, at Craftstylish. She used a glue gun and mentions you could use glue, but you have to hold the coil in place til the glue grabs. With Glossy Accents, this happens in 5 seconds. Easier and less burn potential than glue gun!
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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘science’ tag.
I hope to have a more complete reply to Jim Manzi’s assessment, but I wanted to make a couple of remarks off the cuff.
One Manzi says
Economists will sometimes make explicit claims that “the economic science says X,” and will more frequently make implicit claims for scientific knowledge by flatly asserting the known truth of some predictive assertion. This is normally a statement made around some specific policy question – we should (or should not) execute the following stimulus program; we should (or should not) raise the minimum wage right now, etc.
. . . all we have is an informed opinion of the type we might have from an expert historian rendering an opinion about something the likelihood that Libya would revert to an authoritarian government within ten years if it overthrew Gaddafi
Its important to distinguish between economics as science and economics as a policy driver. Manzi is focusing on economic statements that are made as policy drivers and saying it is only informed opinion. Yet this informed opinion is what is being offered. Economic science is a different enterprise.
Saying that we should execute the following stimulus program is much different than saying that we have an established scientific principle that stimulus has such-and-such effect. Contrary to intuition the first statement is far, far weaker. This is why “economic science says” is heard less frequently than “we should.”
Even setting aside personal values, “we should” is, by its very nature, a statement about subjective probability distributions. It is saying I believe that the distribution of possible effects in the stimulus world is – by some metric – superior or inferior to the distribution of possible effects in the non-stimulus world.
This requires only that you have some evidence – any evidence – that the stimulus is more likely than not to do things that you judge to be good or bad.
As such, saying that “we should” do something does not make an implicit claim about factual knowledge. Moreover, no one advising the government acts as if it does. Hardcore proponents of democracy assert that “we should” follow the advice of a group of people on the grounds that they have all survived to the age of 18. This is hardly a claim to any sort of scientific knowledge.
Now, I know Manzi’s complaint will be that economists come waving models and multipliers as if their recommendations were based on well established science. However, this is not how economists have traditionally offered their evidence. Economists are famous for refusing to draw firm conclusions and offering loads of caveats. As Harry Truman famously said
Give me a one-handed economist! All my economics say, ”On the one hand… on the other.
That scarcely represents overselling policy recommendations as scientific knowledge. In recent years some economists, myself included, have responded to the near relentless pressure for clear concise statements with
Our model suggests . . .
I believe you will find this statement repeated over and over again in congressional testimony. No “there is”, “there will be”, “it is a scientific fact.”
Our model suggests, gives you one interpretation. Many economists would love to stand before legislatures and give an hours long lecture on all of the evidence and competing possibilities. However, you get 20 minutes and the audience will demand that your story have a moral.
At the end of a presentation, more than once, the very first question has been this exact phrase: That’s all very interesting professor, but are you saying we should do this or not?
It’s a joke among my friends and family that I begin the answer with “Well, . . . “ Again, no false mantle of scientific certainty.
Now, lets consider economists as pundits. Aren’t they asserting models as facts. Very rarely.
Take Paul Krugman.
Conservatives will no doubt have noticed that one of Krugman’s major themes is that their point of view is stupid. One might be inclined to think that this is a rude way of saying “you do not have access to the scientific knowledge that I do”
It is not. It is a statement about what he thinks of your intelligence and ability to draw well formed conclusions.
He is not saying, I have such a deep understanding into the nature of the economy that everyone should listen to me. He is quite literally saying that the statements of conservatives convey such a shallow and imbecilic understanding of the economy that no one should consider listening to them.
He is not claiming the mantle of science, he is claiming the mantle of not being a moron.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, go back and look at the public statements of Milton Friedman. How many times did he lean on the fact that economics had established scientific knowledge that shouldn’t be questioned.
He always began with very simple facts and then drew out a small, compelling story. At worst, he would say “look at the evidence” and then proceed to offer the type of simple statistics that wouldn’t be uncommon in an Op-Ed.
Again, no implicit claim to scientific knowledge, only an implicit claim that reasonable informed people would agree with him.
The public policy statements of economists aren’t assertions of scientific knowledge. They are informed argument and economists present them as such. There is no doubt that economists use their knowledge of economic science to inform their policy arguments. Yet, in making those arguments they are not claiming scientific knowledge that they do not possess.
What you can argue is that economists think that they are smarter than everyone else. Indeed, economists across the political spectrum have made precisely that point. From Greg Mankiw
“President Summers asked me, didn’t I agree that, in general, economists are smarter than political scientists, and political scientists are smarter than sociologists?” [former dean Peter] Ellison told the Globe.
Here (via Mark Perry, posted two days ago) are GRE scores by field. Economists rank number 4. Political scientists are number 17, and sociologists are number 23.
In short, Manzi’s true point shouldn’t be that economists falsely assert scientific knowledge were there is none. It should be that we are arrogant pricks. I think many economists would agree.
Slate is the internet’s most notorious house of contrarianism. It’s their formula, and most of the time it’s pretty obvious -at least it was, I haven’t been a regular Slate reader for some time, being turned off by said obvious contrarianism and the frequent wrongness it required. But they may have just lured me back with what might be the most contrarian sentence in the most contrarian article in the history of the internet:
Noncannibalistic people may be the weird ones, cross-culturally speaking.
The article is titled “Bite Me: An Evolutionary Case for Cannibalism”, and quite frankly I love it… the article that is, not cannibalism. Perhaps dropping their bucket into the contrarian well and coming up dry is pushing Slate to extremism. If so, then I think I’m going to reconsider making them part of my daily reading, because that, at least, would be interesting.
If you had a computer chip implanted in your brain that allowed you to perform complex mathematical computations just by looking at numbers and equations, like an onboard calculator, would you consider that genuine cognitive activity? How about if the computer chip was instead in your pocket? Answering “yes” to the former question is much more intuitive than a “yes” to the latter, but why should that be?
This are questions that occur in the fields of “embodied cognition” and “the extended mind”, and the topic of a recent article in the New York Times. The author of the article, Andy Clark, argues that we should view the theoretical brain-mounted computer chip as “bio-external elements in an extended cognitive process: one that now criss-crosses the conventional boundaries of skin and skull”. Importantly, he argues that iPhones and blackberries function in a similar way that a brain mounted chip would, and so they should be thought of likewise.
I’ve made similar arguments before, and I think that in the not-so-distant future we won’t need thinkers like Andy Clark to prompt us to consider these questions, as technology will place them front and center. Even if you find it absolutely clear that none of todays technologies should be considered cognition, or part of your brain, mind, or self, it will be much less clear as future technologies become more seamlessly integrated with our thought process.
For instance, consider the inevitable scenario I’ve laid out before: micro-computers, visual retinal displays, augmented reality, and neural input devices combined so that you’ve essentially got a brain-mounted computer on virtual floating screens in front of you that you control with your thoughts. Whether or not using these future devices should be considered cognition and part of our minds will be much trickier than it is with today’s iPhones, especially considering that from everyone else’s perspective “organic thought”, as you might call it, will often be indistinguishable from “computer thought”. “Did he just remember my birthday when I asked if he knew it, or did he look it up?”
Glenn Beck drew (more) attention the other day when he declared on his radio program that he didn’t believe in evolution because “I haven’t seen a half-monkey, half-person yet”. Leave aside for the moment the fact that humans descended from, and in fact are, apes, not monkeys. Let’s give Beck the benefit of the doubt and presume what he meant was that he has never met something in between a human and some monkey-like creature, and here I think I can help him. As you can see in the map below, a mere 7 minute drive from Fox News Studios at Rockefeller Center where Beck broadcasts is the American Museum of Natural History. There Glenn can visit the The Hall of Human Origins and see life-sized dioramas of Australopithecus afarensis, Homo ergaster, Neanderthal, and Cro-Magnon. Not only that, but he can also see actual casts of Lucy, the 3.2 million Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, and Turkana boy, the 1.7 million year Homo erectus skeleton.
Now Lucy may not technically be a “half-monkey, half-person”, but as you can see from the picture below of how an Australopithecus afarensis is believed to have looked, that’s not a half bad description of her.
Of course, lover of science that he is, Mr. Beck may have seen these casts and recreations already, and his skepticism can only be appeased by meeting the “real thing”. Well, he should have said something earlier, because from June through October 2009 Lucy was actually on display at the Discovery Times Square Exposition a mere 7 minute walk from Fox News Studios. He could have gone there on his lunch break.
If Beck wants to see a “half-monkey, half-person” all he needs is a little genuine curiosity and about 30 minutes of free time. Given his talent and zeal for digging up convoluted “proof” of far fetched conspiracy theories, you’d think he be a little better at finding evidence for a legitimate theory like evolution; especially since there’s plenty of evidence right in his neighborhood. Maybe someone should tell him that “Van Jones loves Karl Marx” has been scrawled on a bathroom wall at the American Museum of Natural History. Important evidence like that is sure to draw him there.
In a defense of stimulus skeptics, Jim Manzi offers this appeal to a non-consensus among economists on the issue:
…in a genuinely scientific field which has accepted a predictive rule as valid to the point that there is a true consensus—such that the only reason for refusal to accept it is crankery or, in Chait’s terms, “politics”—you don’t usually see: several full professors at the top two departments in the subject, when speaking directly in their area of research expertise, challenge it; 10 percent of all practitioners in the field refuse to accept it; and the two leading global general circulation publications in field running op-eds questioning it.
Specifically, he cites the fact that the University of Chicago’s Barro, Fama, and Mulligan are stimulus skeptics, and according a survey from Mankiw, so are 10% of all economists. But I don’t think 10% of economists and a handful of high-profile experts disagreeing is sufficient to say there is not a strong consensus.
For economics 90% agreement is a pretty high level of agreement, and I would be surprised to find a consensus much stronger on that on most issues. From a survey of economists by Whaples we can see that ”only” 87.5% of economists agree that the U.S. should remove all remaining tariffs and trade barriers, 90.1% believe that employers should not be restricted from outsourcing jobs, 85% agree that subsidies to agriculture should be removed, and the same percent say it about sports subsidies as well. From another survey of economists, 87.5% agree that the U.S. trade deficit is not primarily due to other nations’ nontariff trade barriers, 83.5% agree or agree with provisos that tax policy can affect the long-run rate of capital formation, 93% agree that pollution taxes or tradeable permits are more efficient than emissions standards, 92.9% agree or agree with provisos that flexible exchange rates are effective, and 92.6% agree that tariffs or import quotes reduce the general welfare of society.
Despite the disagreement by 7% to 17% of economists on these issues I would argue that are all accurately characterized as representing as a strong consensus. Whaples calls the agreement in those examples a “consensus” and “an overwhelming majority”, and Fuller and Geide-Stevenson, the authors of the other paper, explicitly refer to those examples as representing a “strong consensus”.
Yet I’m certain that on each of these issues you could find experts at the top 10 economics departments that agree with the minority position. Stiglitz alone will probably disagree with more than half of them, and you won’t have to look hard to find a half a dozen other Ivy League dissenters.
My point is not to disagree with Manzi that a strong consensus means it is okay to call anyone who disagrees with the consensus a “crank” or “politically motivated”, but just to point out that the bar he’s set for a “true consensus” pretty much means that there’s is no “true consensus” on important issues in economics. Then again, he may very well agree with that point.
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Penner, Abram (1856-1933)
Penner, Abram: minister and elder; born 14 April 1856 in Kronsthal, Chortitza Colony, South Russia. His parents were Peter Penner (1802-1869) and Anna (Thiessen) Penner. Abram married Katharina "Katie" Wallmann (28 June 1858, Kronsthal, Chortitza Colony, South Russia - 23 September 1931, Deyevka, Orenburg, Russia) on 25 June 1878 in Kronsthal, Chortitza Colony. She was the daughter of Andreas Wallmann and Anna (Dyck) Wallmann. Abram and Katie had ten children, with three dying in infancy. Abram died in 1933 in Deyevka, Orenburg.
Abram was baptized on 2 June 1875 in the Chortitza Mennonite Church. A few years after their marriage, Abram and his young family moved to Blumenfeld, Nepluyevka Colony. After approximately ten years they moved to Alexeifeld, Russia and then to the Orenburg settlement. Abram was elected minister in 1896 and became the first elder of the Deyevka Mennonite Church organized in 1899. He was characterized by a great love for the brotherhood, a firm will, and an unusual gift for organization.
Unfortunately, soon after his election serious conflicts arose on the question whether the planned Zentralschule was to be located at Deyevka or Pretoria. In the heat of this strife Penner had to retire from office in 1910 upon the wish of the congregation. However, because he felt himself called by God to the office of elder, he continued to conduct meetings in private homes with a small group of his followers. But before long even these were discontinued. He died without having found his way back into his former congregation.
GRANDMA (The Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry) Database, 5.05 ed. Fresno, CA:, 2008: #214833.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 134. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.
©1996-2013 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.
MLA style: Quiring, Walter and Richard D. Thiessen. "Penner, Abram (1856-1933)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. August 2006. Web. 23 May 2013. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/P46601.html.
APA style: Quiring, Walter and Richard D. Thiessen. (August 2006). Penner, Abram (1856-1933). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 23 May 2013, from http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/P46601.html.
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Could one unthinkable action be followed by another? It may be, if Formula 1 heads get their wish for a standard engine for the racing series. Both Toyota, a team near the bottom of the standings, and Ferrari, which is up near the top as it usually is, have expressed their concerns about such a plan, with both entities threatening to pull out of the racing series if such a path were taken. A Formula 1 world without Ferrari is practically unfathomable, as is seeing a Prancing Horse powered by a McLaren/Mercedes powerplant.
Does one knee-jerk reaction deserve another? Probably not. Our guess is that cooler heads will prevail and the FIA will come up with another alternative to lower the costs of competing in F1. This is, after all, the path that the FIA often takes when it comes to making major rules changes. Thanks for the tip, everyone!
[Source: F1-Live, Photo by Vladimir Rys/Bongarts/Getty]
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The communist country has leapfrogged past advancements that took Western nations decades to perfect — and it's now looking to turn a profit on all that work.
Hurriyet today announced the race to equip Turkey with a long-range missile system is well underway and China's already sent other countries scrambling.
Europe, Russia, the U.S. and China are all competing for the $4 billion contract and Beijing's Precision Machinery HQ-9 is the lowest competing bid so far.
Word is the offer came in at $1 billion less than expected after Beijing tried to cut the original estimate by half.
American company Raytheon was forced to revise its offer to stay in the running, but officials there won't comment on just how much until the contract is selected next month.
In the end it may not matter if China loses money on the deal if the fears of some experts are proven justified, and it achieves access to new classified data.
Some believe that Russian and Chinese systems are incompatible with NATO systems and that with a successful bid, either of those countries would achieve access to classified NATO information.
Turkey has refused to exclude either China or Russia despite the fact it could, in fact, compromise NATO's entire "set of procedures."
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City grants tax break to HEB
HEB is close to buying — and subsequently razing — the old Baptist Hospital at College and 11th Street in Beaumont, but some say the deal could remove access to healthy foods in low-income areas of Beaumont.
At the city’s regular Tuesday council meeting Oct. 30, city officials approved a tax break for the grocery chain totaling about $156,570 over seven years. Beaumont’s tax abatement program comprises four “Neighborhood Empowerment Zones,” which give municipal tax breaks to large companies that make investments in Beaumont of $5 million or more.
According to HEB, the company’s investment is at least $5.3 million to raze and construct a new 68,000 square-foot store and will employ about 300 people.
After construction is completed, however, HEB plans to close two stores in lower-income areas of Beaumont. The HEB on 1180 S. 11th St., just blocks from the old hospital, and the store at 3930 E. Lucas will be closed some time in 2014, the company said.
“I understand business decisions have to be made,” said Councilman Audwin Samuel in Tuesday’s meeting, “But we’re seeing an alarming trend across this country whereby they are removing grocery stores that provide wholesome foods to the inner city community.”
Samuel went on to say, while he appreciates HEB’s multi-million dollar investment in an aging and abandoned old Baptist Hospital, council members should do more to encourage grocery vendors large and small to build their business within Beaumont’s poorest areas. Samuel said the inner city’s lack of healthy options is hurting Beaumont’s most vulnerable citizens.
“I think it’s devastating,” Samuel said, seeming to refer primarily to the HEB on East Lucas in Beaumont’s North End neighborhood, which is in Samuel’s Ward 3. “And it struck me like a ton of bricks when I saw there are no grocery stores on this side of Interstate 10.”
Smaller grocers do exist in poorer areas of Beaumont, but Councilman W.L. Pate said the days of the neighborhood mom-and-pop grocers have long been over.
“When I grew up ... every neighborhood had an Italian grocery store,” he said, adding residents in his day could walk to various independent grocers.
Pate said removing the old Baptist Hospital and replacing it with an HEB at least twice the size of the Lucas and 11th Street stores is in the city’s best interest.
“Since some of us have spent some time in that old Baptist Hospital, those of us that are a little older,” Pate said, “we’d be happy to not see that building there anymore and replaced with a building that employs people and is on the tax rolls — eventually.”
In recent months, city officials have bent over backward to accommodate a deal with HEB, abandoning multiple easements in the area and working closely with company officials.
According to the council agenda, “Staff is already very familiar with this project and has already been working closely with the real estate and design professionals from Baptist Hospital and HEB in an effort to bring this project to fruition.”
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One of the questions I've been working through in my book is this: how do you decide when it's okay to outsource a cognitive function? When is it okay to let your electronic address book remember all your phone numbers, for example? When should you try to memorize a street address, rather than let your GPS or iPhone remember it for you.
I think the simple answer is this. Will memorizing the information help you survive a Zombie Apocalypse?
Let me explain through a couple examples.
I haven't memorized a Skype user name other than my own. Ever. And I don't worry about that one bit. Skype user names are useless outside of the Skype service. You can't go on AOL Instant Messenger and call someone's Skype username; you can't dial it from a phone; you can't use it to send an email. The only context in which that piece of information is really useful is when you're using Skype. (You might argue that if I know someone's address, and a different person asks for it, I could give it to them; but poor mental cripple that I am, I can't. My response is that Skype itself contains pretty powerful search functions that let you find pretty much any user who wishes to be found.)
Now, if there is a Zombie Apocalypse (or ZA), I assume that Skype is going to go down. The service might keep going for a little while, but eventually its sysadmins and developers are going to stop maintaining the system, and start eating brains.
Knowledge about usernames holds no value outside the context of the service. Given this, it makes sense to not bother to remember usernames.
More generally, knowledge that is useful in one specific context only can be safely left out of your memory, if it's easily retrievable in that context. For example: pretty much every weekend I make pancakes or waffles. I always use Bisquik to make them. The recipes for pancakes and waffles are on the side of the Bisquik box. So even though I've made these for ages, I still don't really remember the recipes. Why? Because if I don't have a box of Bisquik, knowledge about how to cook with Bisquik isn't really very useful. And I can rely on the Bisquik people to remind me of the recipes, by publishing them on the side of the box.
So like Skype, whose usernames are useless if the service doesn't operate, I don't memorize the Bisquik pancake or waffle recipes because they're on the side of the box. If I don't have the box I don't have the mix. and if I don't have the mix, I don't need the recipe. The information and its utility always reside together in the same system.
In contrast, I feel uncomfortable if I don't know the phone numbers of close friends and family. (I confess I haven't memorized them all, but still I think I ought to.) Likewise, there are lines of poetry or quotes from the Bible, Stoic philosophers, and elsewhere that I memorize because knowing them makes me feel like a deeper person, and because they're useful during challenging times (like during a ZA). And while I take thousands of pictures a month at sports events, school functions, on trips, and so on, I still think it's very important to remember those events-- to construct an interior narrative that gives them some logic, and places them in a structure that helps explain them-- not just have records of them. As some neuroscientist said, our experience is reality is a vanishingly thin edge of the present, behind which stands a vast store of memory. Looked at this way, memory isn't just a function, or information. Memory is you.
Knowledge of how to fashion a tent: useful. Knowledge of how to assemble THIS particular exotic tent? Probably less so. Need to learn it if the instructions are stamped on the side of the tent? Zero. The need to be able to remember events in your own life, so you can make sense of yourself and the world. Always infinite.
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Beatrice Wood at 100
February 13, 1993 - May 16, 1993This exhibition presents a small group of works by the American artist Beatrice Wood, drawn from the Museum's collection of over sixty works and the collection of the Fabric Workshop. It celebrates the artist's one-hundredth birthday on March 3, 1993. Wood, who began her artistic career in 1917 with her Dada-inspired drawings and paintings, has since expanded her activities to include prints, fabric arts, and ceramics. Her use of brilliant colors, economy of line and whimsical autobiographical references, bring a spirit of continuity to her career of over seventy-five years.
Innis Howe Shoemaker
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