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Philippines seeks US help on North Korea rocketBy Katherine Evangelista
MANILA, Philippines—Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Thursday the Philippines will seek the assistance of the United States to track a North Korean long-range rocket, part of which is expected to land off the Philippines.
“We need the help of the US to monitor the path (of the rocket). We don’t have the capability to do that,” Gazmin told reporters in a chance interview after the 115th Founding Anniversary of the Philippine Army in Fort Bonifacio.
“But with our alliances, we will be provided with the necessary information. We should know the details so that we will know how to inform and warn our people who will be in the (rocket’s) path,” he said.
He said that the government is very much concerned with the rocket launch since it involves the safety of the country.
North Korea announced last week it would launch the rocket to place a satellite in orbit between April 12 and 16, insisting it was for peaceful space research.
But the United States and other nations see the launch as a disguised ballistic missile test, and say that it would breach a UN ban on North Korean missile launches.
A previous North Korean long-range rocket in 2009 flew over Japanese territory and the boosters landed safely in waters off Japan.
Gazmin admitted that the government has yet to know the specific areas that might be affected by the launch so the public could be warned.
He said North Korean should heed the plea of countries like the United States and Japan.
“Makinig sila para walang mabuong tension (North Korea should listen to avoid tension),” Gazmin said.
In a letter to the UN’s International Maritime Organization, North Korea said the second stage of its latest rocket was expected to splash down 190 kilometers (118 miles) east of the northern Philippines.
The first stage of the rocket would fall about 140 kilometers off South Korea’s west coast, in international waters between China and the South, the letter said.
On Wednesday, the Philippine government joined its US and South Korean allies in criticizing North Korea’s planned launch, calling it “unacceptable”.
“The Philippine military is ready to coordinate with its US counterpart in the monitoring of the planned launch,” the Foreign Department said in a separate statement.
Japan has warned that it may try to shoot down a North Korean rocket if it heads towards Japanese territory or waters.
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Patent suit targets Formlabs and Kickstarter
3D Systems lays out claim over stereolithography
As the world turns increasingly into one in which nobody can do anything without being sued by someone, 3D Systems is suing Formlabs and Kickstarter over alleged patent infringement covering 3D printing.
Formlabs had pimped its project on Kickstarter, raising nearly $US3 million towards its aim of developing a low-cost 3D printer. Founded by MIT MediaLab researchers, the project’s explicit aim is to “disrupt” the world of 3D printing.
It’s certainly disrupted 3D Systems, which has filed a complaint in the US District Court of South Carolina. 3D Systems alleges that Formlabs’ stereolithographic 3D printing techniques violate its patents, including “U.S. Patent No. 5,597,520 covering improved methods of stereolithographically forming a three-dimensional object by forming cross-sectional layers of an object from a material capable of physical transformation upon exposure to synergistic stimulation”.
Kickstarter has been dragged into the complaint as the vehicle by which Formlabs plans to sell its printer.
Stereolithography uses a UV laser to solidify layers of resin – a common additive manufacturing technique. According to the BBC , the 3D Systems patent solved a particular problem in stereolithographic printing: how to deal with the problem of layers that failed to solidify.
The company says Formlabs’ infringement is in its “offering a 3D printer using specific stereolithography curing technology that can produce parts by delaying the curing of at least portions of some cross-sections until subsequent layers are formed and when sufficient exposure can be applied to achieve the desired depth of cure” – something that 3D Systems owns via its “520” patent.
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FSA leader pledges commitment to human rights, while warning of commitment to terrorism
Gen. Mustafa al-Sheikh, the leader of the Free Syrian Army, warned that if outside powers don’t quickly back the rebel fighters trying to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the rebels might all turn into terrorists instead.
“If there’s no quick decision to support us, we will all turn into terrorists,” he said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. “If you apply the pressure that’s been applied to Syria, it will explode in all directions. Terrorism will grow quickly.”
The US has been facilitating the delivery of weapons to the rebels from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, but has been reluctant to directly give the rebels any lethal aid. Part of the reason is that the so-called leadership of the FSA is hardly recognized by most of the fighters on the ground.
Notably, al-Sheikh’s warning is not very far from reality. US intelligence has recognized for some time now that the great bulk of the rebel fighters are jihadists, many having come from foreign countries, and some even fighting under the banner of al-Qaeda.
While issuing this warning, al-Sheikh is also trying to convince the West to more enthusiastically back the rebels. He claims he has established a command structure and published a manifesto giving lip-service for human rights.
But those efforts to appeal to the US for greater, and more lethal, arms support is ridiculous. Writing a manifesto about the FSA’s supposed commitment to human rights, while at the same time warning that they may just “turn into terrorists” doesn’t exactly fit.
Beyond this, the rebels are known to have committed war crimes, including executing captured Assad-supporters.
Last 5 posts by John Glaser
- Contra GOP, Obama Is Not Rolling Back Terror War - May 26th, 2013
- House Committee Prohibits Pentagon Base Closures - May 23rd, 2013
- Code Pink's Medea Benjamin Interrupts Obama Speech - May 23rd, 2013
- Obama Admits US Killed 4 Americans in Drone War - May 22nd, 2013
- CIA to Continue Waging Drone War in Pakistan - May 21st, 2013
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by Art Chantry:
jack kerouac writing “on the road” on a roll of restroom paper towels (supposedly done in one sitting.)
…actually, if you’ve ever seen early restroom paper towel material from that era, it has a cheezy “tracing paper’ sort of sheen/feel to it (like military toilet paper). so, “archivists” could easily make the “mistake” of thinking it was actually tracing paper (maybe intentionally). the book apparently took several rolls of the paper (taped together) to complete. it’s referred to as (i think) “the scroll”….in all honesty, i think it looks staged…but, until i know where it came from – it stays an open question.
…personally, i SO enjoy the idea that kerouac ran a roll of “toilet paper” through his typewriter and slammed the thing out in one marathon sitting and find it SO appealing that i would rather believe the myth. beyond that, who really gives a shit anyway? “scholars”? make me laff…
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Superstorm Sandy disrupted businesses across the northern Atlantic coast when it stuck October 29, and its impact is expected to be felt for months. The extent of Sandy’s immediate impact on book sales can be seen in the steep drop in sales during the week ended November 4 at outlets tracked by Nielsen BookScan. In a week when overall unit sales fell 4% compared to the previous week, sales in the Middle Atlantic states dropped 20%.
The three states that make up the Middle Atlantic region—New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—were the states hardest hit by Sandy, and the two largest metropolitan areas in those states, New York City and Philadelphia, had big declines in sales. In BookScan’s New York coverage, which includes the five boroughs, Long Island, parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania as well as the northern suburbs, sales dropped 32% to 517,000 units. Philadelphia fared a little better, but sales there (which includes parts of New Jersey) fell 17% (see map).
Most stores in New York City, Long Island, and the Jersey shore were closed for parts of October 29 and 30 when Sandy knocked out power, flooded low-lying areas, and disrupted travel. Individual stores, however, depending on their location quickly reopened while others may never get back to business. St. Mark’s Books in lower Manhattan was closed October 28 through November 2, and business was slowly picking up last week. “The city seems to me to still be somewhat traumatized,” said the store’s Terry McCoy, who was hoping things would return to more normal levels over the weekend. Gauging the full extent of the damage to bookstores in the Middle Atlantic region was complicated by the fact that the executive director of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, Eileen Dengler, still had no power at the end of last week, making it difficult for her to contact members.
One of the harder hit stores was powerHouse Arena, which suffered $50,000 worth of damages to its Dumbo, Brooklyn, store. The store is planning a fund-raiser for November 17 featuring panels, readings, and author signings with Jonathan Franzen, Jennifer Egan, Paul Auster, and Joseph O’Neill among those set to appear. Much more fortunate was Brooklyn neighbor Greenlight Bookstore, which suffered no damage or power loss because of the storm. Since many neighborhood residents were stuck at home for several days, Greenlight had a good week of sales, and co-owners Rebecca Fitting and Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo decided to donate 10% of the week’s proceeds to two Sandy relief funds, a sum that amounted to $4,000.
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So, I'm interacting with a friend who's uses reason in every aspect of his life except his faith (aren't they the most disappointing?), and I've asked him how he dismisses all the horrible shit of the OT. I say that Jesus said laws are binding until all has come to pass. He claims Jesus' death was all coming to pass. He goes on to say that only those laws which are repeated in the NT carry over (eg homosexuality). So, two things: are all of the 10 commandments repeated in the NT? Because if not, he's got to dismiss them as well, right? Secondly, what's the verse Matt mentions in some random YouTube clip about god being unchanging and, therefore, all laws are in order for any and all times? It's the same clip he mentions the sermon on the mount, jot or tittle bit from Jesus. I think this would be much more irrefutable if it came from a specific verse. Any help would be much appreciated.
The quote you're looking for is Matthew 5:17-18:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
That's Jesus speaking, so there isn't much claim that Jesus somehow changed the old laws.
I don't think you will be able to win this argument. Religious
beliefs appeal to passions and emotions, not to logic. Logical
arguments wouldn't address the foundation of religious beliefs.
Sure, there are inconsistencies in the Bible. All creeds seem to find
their way out of them. E.g., I can understand why Christians don't
sacrifice animals - they claim that "Jesus paid it all". But why Jews
don't do sacrifices? They claim, the law is a whole. One cannot
break a part of the law, but remain "mostly good". No. You break one
rule - you break it all. I've read in one book that Jews claim that the
sacrifices must be done in the Temple at Jerusalem which was destroyed
in 76 A.D. by Romans. Fine. But the Temple was built by Solomon,
long after Moses. Isn't it just a lame excuse? Why not build a
Tabernacle as Leviticus instructs? There are no instructions on how
to build the Temple in Leviticus.
I can understand why Christians don't stone adulterers - "let he who
is without sin cast the first stone", i.e. judge yourself before
judging others. Or why Christians do not stone Sabbath breakers -
"the sabbath was made for man, not man for sabbath." But why don't
orthodox Jews stone adulterers and Sabbath breakers? Jesus is not an
authority for Jews. It turns out that over the centuries, rabbis
created layers upon layers of interpretations of the law. So, there
is the written law - Torah (the 5 books of Moses), then there is the
Talmud which is the rabbinic interpretation of these laws accumulated
over centuries, then there is oral tradition passed in a form of
allegorical stories (midrashim) which fill in the gaps and develop
obscure concepts and characters.
Addressing religion with logic just doesn't work. Logical
inconsistencies don't seem to matter to believers. You might try these
questions as well. Why do Christians celebrate Christmas? There is
no such commandment in the Bible. And why is it on December 25?
There is no mention of the date in the Bible as well, and if there
were, why is Easter observed by the lunar calendar while Christmas is
observed by Gregorian calendar? Why are Catholic priests celibate?
Apostle Peter had a wife. Doesn't creating images of Christ violate the second commandment
(You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.)
What Santa Claus has to do with Christ?
And why do many atheists celebrate Christmas? Etc., etc. As you try
to answer these questions, you will realize that religious beliefs are
based on deep cultural traditions and emotions, not on logic and
The word of God doesn't change. Sure. But the interpretation does.
In the west, we don't stone adulterers and Sabbath breakers, do not
sell ourselves and others into slavery (literally speaking), etc.
Even fundamentalists do not do that. It could be time to change the
view on homosexuality now - we'll see.
I don't expect that you will change your friend's mind. This
discussion would only be useful if you try to understand each other.
I would like to know what your friend answers, though.
Faith seems unreasonable to those who claim to be reasonable, but those people will not find god through reason. This is what I have often heard from Christians and if true aces sense, considering we are not talking about natural phenomena that must be discerned through natural means. God apparently wants people to choose between this corrupt world or him. If God is the way and sin is rebellion, then if true would mean that it is the unbelievers who are unreasonable. I have often found it curious why Christians should not use the Bible to argue for their beliefs considering if it is true would hold up. Of course, it does require faith after all.
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New Surgery Will Turn Brown Eyes Blue...Permanently
Princess 19 on 26 Nov 2011 at 11:00am
Have you ever been envious of Paul Newman or Charlize Theron's eyes? Admit it, at some point we've all secretly wished we were born with big baby blues. Even Dorothy wanted to "dye her eyes to match her gown." Well, one doctor has found a way to go from brown to blue...permanently.
Dr. Gregg Homer of California-based Stroma Medical is in the process of perfecting a technique that utilizes a laser to remove the pigment of the iris, the colored part of the eye.
His technique can turn "brown-eyed girls" to blue ones. According to Dr. Homer, when the melanin (the pigment that gives the eye or skin/hair it's color) is removed, it will appear blue.
“We use a laser, and it’s tuned to a specific frequency to remove the pigment from the surface of the iris,” said Dr. Homer.
He says all brown eyes are actually blue underneath.
The treatment takes about 20 seconds to do per eye and the change is irreversible. His team has been working in this technique for over a decade and they claim that no damage is done in the process.
But, before you start making plans to dump your colored contacts to the be the next Charlize, maybe you should ask, "Is this really safe?"
Here's what some RealSelf doctors said:
"Liberating pigment from the iris is a good way to cause glaucoma," warns Dr. Benjamin Ticho. "We see this every day as a result of trauma. Blue contact lenses are safer, and let you change your mind."
"The reason a brown iris is brown, is that it contains more pigment than a blue iris. Therefore, if a device were used to knock some pigment off of the iris it would certainly become lighter, if not blue," says Dr. Anthony J. Kameen.
But he echoes Dr. Ticho: "Dislodged pigment has to go somewhere and there is actually a type of glaucoma called pigmentary glaucoma, in which the iris pigment falls off the iris naturally, and the collected pigment clogs the outflow channel of the eye causing glaucoma.
"So, couldn't this procedure cause exactly that?"
If it did, that would not be good.
We've seen other options for those folks that just have to have ocean-colored peepers, like implantable contacts (which are normally used to correct vision). But, even these types of devices or procedures are said to be questionable.
So, don't be so quick to trade in your colored contacts. At the very least, you know that they are safe AND you have the liberty to go back to who you were before you became blue. In any case, this procedure is about a year away from being available to the public.
And you thought laser eye surgery was just to fix your vision. Think again!
How far would you go to change your eye color? Sound off in the comment section.
Watch the full report regarding the new procedure:
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Here’s a good article by Owen Jones (author of the book Chavs, which is also great) about a policy which is a nice encapsulation of the Tory approach to austerity. The approach is divide and conquer.
The mean income in the UK is around £26,000 a year, but the distribution is skewed, so that the median is around £21,000. That means that 50% of incomes are less than £21,000 — in an important sense, the median is a better indicator because it tells you the income than which half the country (enough to, if it came to it, win a fight) earns less. The reason the mean (what we usually mean by “average”) doesn’t coincide with the median is because a small number of extremely high incomes (therefore a skewed, not symmetrical income distribution) drag the mean upwards.
Those incomes at the stretched, high side of the distribution belong to e.g. people who benefit from, rather than get outraged by, Vodafone and Starbucks-style tax dodges; people who, no matter how hard the recession hits them in relative terms can still pay accountants and lawyers to work out how best shield them from it. Not people for whom the recession might mean making a short step across the line into eviction, poverty, hunger, and switching the heating off (by the way: imagine the pure existential panic of that situation and then imagine having the time and the wherewithal to conduct a systematic campaign of “scrounging” that is in any sense morally equivalent with high-stakes corporate tax-dodging — the implicit conflation of these two cases is damaging and ridiculous).
£21,000 is not a lot, especially to support any dependents, and remember it’s not 50% of the country carefully but happily making do at £21,000 — that’s the most that anyone in the poorest half of our population earns. The people presently deciding to inflict further damage to the budgets of benefit claimants of all kinds and, now, those in social housing, comprise a cabinet of millionaires who cannot possibly be acquainted first-hand with a world in which £14 a week less (five paninis, or two DVDs, or three hours worth of petrol) is a disaster rather than a triviality.
Divide and conquer
The bedroom tax will work by reducing the benefits received by social housing tenants whose houses contain an unoccupied bedroom. The idea is, very literally, to force people to move out – if the tax was not enough to make that happen, money would still be saved on the benefits bill, but the other main goal — to free up housing for larger families — wouldn’t be fulfilled.
Similarly to the cuts in unemployment benefit, the policy aims to effect a change by the infliction of financial hardship (get people into work by making being on benefits even more fucking horrible than it already is/get housing freed up by making it impossible for people to stay in their homes). How do millionaires get away with doing this to such a large section of the population?
The answer is summed up in one phrase: “scroungers and strivers”. This is rhetoric directed by those at the top of the socio-economic ladder to make those at the bottom think their neighbours are responsible for their problems — not economic mismanagement, financial incompetence, an endemic lack of growth, but a disabled guy next door who, come to think of it, you’re sure could hold down a job if he was more of a “striver”. It’s the same instinct that lies behind the right-wing’s insatiable obsession with immigrants, who are a natural choice for this sort of treatment. The only way for a massively privileged elite to — democratically — inflict such hardship on roughly half of their voters is if those who are hit worst by it feel isolated and those who are hit less think the solution is to drive an undeserving underclass of “scroungers” (with spare bedrooms!) deeper into poverty. This is economic sado-masochism: it requires the destruction of solidarity and the sowing of contempt and mistrust between people who are in the same socio-economic class. The boundaries and divisions therefore have to be made along other available or invented lines of distinction: race, religion, or, as now, some imagined dichotomy between stoic, working class heroism and feckless, cynical worklessness. This is the essence of right-wing politics generally, and it is coldly embodied in the Government’s rhetoric and policies. The bedroom tax is the latest and most brazen example.
On a tangent: The amount of benefit fraudulently claimed is dwarfed by the amount that goes unclaimed because of people’s pride or ignorance of their own eligibility. If you want to fix the economy by getting people to somehow “do benefits properly”, you’d better be careful — if benefit fraud disappeared overnight and everybody claimed only (but fully) what they were entitled to, the bill would skyrocket.
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Global Terrorism Monitor, January 18, 2007
Iranian Involvement in Afghanistan
Iran has inaugurated huge cultural center in Kabul, which works to promote Iranian culture and to spread official propaganda
By Muhammad Tahir
The Afghan media has published an increasing number of critical reports about Iran's secret contacts with insurgent groups in Afghanistan, specifically those groups fighting against the U.S. presence in the country. On September 5, for instance, the Pashto-language newspaper Weesa referred to unidentified local officials in Nimruz province who claimed that Tehran was financing and providing weaponry to Afghanistan's militant groups. In March 2006, the Afghan official news agency Bakhtar reported on the secret activities of Iranians, including officers belonging to the armed forces, in border towns inside Afghanistan. Bakhtar quoted a high-ranking Afghan border policeman in Herat province, General Mohammad Ayub Safi, saying that "in only the first quarter of this year , more than 10 Iranian officials have been arrested in Herat who were allegedly involved in illegal activities." These developments show that Iran has been increasing its operations in Afghanistan in an effort to gain influence with the contending insurgent factions and to hasten the departure of U.S. troops from the country.
RAWA: Gunmen of pro-Iran Hezb-e-Wahdat (Party of Unity) in Kabul in 1994. This party was made, supported and armed by Iranian regime and has been involve in heinous crimes against Afghan people but its leader Karim Khalili is vice-president today.
Tehran has a long history of close contact with militant groups in the region, especially with Shiite groups in central Afghanistan. According to Kabul-based analyst Ustad Faizullah Amini, who spoke to The Jamestown Foundation in December, Iran has been against the Talibanization of Afghanistan, but the presence of U.S. troops at its doorsteps has changed the direction of its foreign policy. Now, Tehran is willing to cooperate with different groups to reach the shared goal of defeating the United States in Afghanistan. After the September 11 attacks, an unidentified official source in Tehran said that Iran's new policy in Afghanistan would be to play all available cards in its hand to defeat U.S. efforts there (Asia Times, February 14, 2002). According to Amini, this fear has led Iran to act fast, and cooperate with all anti-American forces in the region regardless of their religion and language. In addition to Amini, many other regional experts argue that the current escalation of violence in some parts of Afghanistan is a direct result of Tehran's new strategy.
Background of Iranian Involvement in Afghanistan
More than a decade ago, while mujahideen leaders were toppling the Moscow-backed Afghan leader Mohammad Najibullah, it was predicted that a strong Sunni fundamentalist regime in Kabul could come into conflict with Shiite Iran. This fear led Tehran to support groups such as the Shiite Hazara parties and the influential Tajik commander Ismail Khan in Herat province. When the Taliban finally gained control of Afghanistan, Iran referred to the development as a Sunni and U.S. plot to isolate Iran. The relationship between Kabul and Tehran took a more serious hit when Taliban forces killed seven Iranian diplomats who were serving in Mazar-e-Sharif in August 1998. This Taliban action led Tehran to announce its open support for all forces that would resist the Taliban and to increase its activities to bring anti-Taliban factions together. The most notable act by Tehran was to allow the influential Pashtun leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, to be stationed in Iran.
Tehran gave thousands of Hazara leaders refuge, training and financial support to fight against the Taliban. Yet the involvement of the al-Qaeda network in the September 11 attacks and the impending U.S. invasion of Afghanistan led Iran to again re-shape its strategy in the region since it considered the U.S. presence in the region a much greater threat than the unorganized Taliban.
9/11 Changes Iranian Policy toward Afghanistan
Shortly before the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Tehran made some swift policy changes in the region, which were evidenced by comments said by the top political and religious leader in Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei. In his televised speech on September 26, Khamenei said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran will not offer any assistance to America and its alliance in their attacks [on Afghanistan]." He also accused the United States of seeking to establish itself in Central Asia—Afghanistan, Pakistan and the subcontinent—under the pretext of "establishing security."
Many regional experts argue that Tehran does not believe that a stable Afghanistan with a large, long-term U.S. troop presence is in its interests. Tehran worries that if both its neighbors, Afghanistan and Iraq, are stabilized, Iran will be sandwiched between two pro-U.S. governments. In such a situation, "If Iran has not been attacked, it will definitely be troubled by internal pressures, such as minorities, inspired by the developments in the neighborhood," said Dr. Mehmet Seyfettin, a regional analyst with the Ankara-based think-tank Center for Eurasian Strategic Studies, who was interviewed in December.
"Iran is providing a lot of assistance for religious and cultural activities in Afghanistan," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secret nature of his work. "That is the easy way to build influence."
International Herald Tribune, Dec. 27, 2005
The difference between new and past Iranian policies is that now Iran is ready to cooperate and support any group, regardless of their religion and language, who can fight the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, according to Bahmen Karimi's column published recently in the local Afghan paper Arman-e-Milli. The columnist also argues that the escalation in fighting in the bordering provinces with Iran and in the Shiite populated central Afghan provinces is the direct result of the Iranian strategy. For instance, on October 2, 2006, The Guardian published an article stating that "military and diplomatic sources said they had received numerous reports of Iranians meeting tribal elders in Taliban-influenced areas, bringing offers of military or more often financial support for the fight against foreign forces." In addition, Afghan analyst Amini proposes that the armed groups who have been sidelined by the current central regime in Afghanistan create potential forces for any outsider such as Iran to harness and influence. He specifically points out some of the commanders of the former Northern Alliance, as well as Shiite forces in central Afghanistan, who feel ignored by the new administration. One of these is Abdul Rashid Dostum who, according to Aina TV on November 25, 2006, met with Iranian Ambassador to Afghanistan Reza Bahrami on November 24, 2006. The influence of Iran on the charismatic Tajik leader Ismail Khan is already widely known.
Multi-Layered Iranian Policy on Afghanistan
According to reports published in local Afghan newspapers, including Weesa, Iranian involvement is not limited to unofficial cooperation with militant forces, but in fact includes official efforts to influence the Afghan administration. Some regional experts argue that Iran is using the political tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan in its favor, leveraging the fact that Iran is the only route by which Afghanistan can maintain foreign trade. Afghanistan is becoming increasingly dependent on Iran for its transit trade route as a result of the tense Afghan-Pakistan relationship. Through this route, Afghanistan receives key imports such as electronic equipment, cars and spare parts—much of which originates in Japan. Food, clothing and other essential products are also supplied through Iran. This reality limits Washington's options to pressure Tehran since if Iran blocks its border, the Afghan economy could collapse.
In the meantime, the Iranian government is active in the financial sector as well. According to the Iranian official news agency IRNA, the chambers of commerce of the two countries have recently signed a number of documents, which are expected to make Iran a major player in the Afghan economy. Iran has become one of the largest donors in the reconstruction process in Afghanistan. An Iranian Foreign Ministry official puts the total amount of aid to Afghanistan since 2001 at about $600 million.
The Iranian media is also publishing provocative reports against the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, blaming Washington for not delivering what it promised to the Afghan people. The well-known Iranian newspaper Jamhur-e-Islami published an article on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks questioning the legacy and intentions of the United States in Afghanistan: "The Afghan people do not see any improvement in their lives and welfare as it was promised to them. Moreover, they are forced to bow to the presence of foreigners on their land and suffer the shame of occupation. Now the Afghan people know that America's goal in attacking Afghanistan and occupying it was part of the global plan America pursues for domination of the Middle East."
Iran encourages students who have graduated in Iran to be more active in establishing religious schools in Afghanistan and to strengthen Afghan-Iran ties. The education attaché at the Iranian Embassy in Kabul was quoted by Weesa on November 6 saying that "Shiite students who have graduated from Iranian universities are the messengers of Iran in Afghanistan and they should play a more important role." The Iranian official called on the Afghan government to permit Iran to launch cable network offices that operate Iranian educational programs in order to curb U.S. cultural influence in Afghanistan. Iran has recently inaugurated its huge cultural center in Kabul, which works to promote Iranian culture and to spread official propaganda by organizing workshops and literary exchange programs. In opposition to these Iranian efforts, Western countries have done little in Afghanistan, which is a result of the extensive cultural, religious and linguistic differences. Iran has used this void to change the situation in Afghanistan in its own favor.
If the increasing violence—not only on the Afghan-Pak border, but also in the areas bordering Iran and in the central Shiite populated provinces—is taken into account, the view of the aforementioned Afghan analysts seems to carry value. Experts on the region believe that the insurgency in Afghanistan has many directions, one of which is leaning toward Tehran. Insurgent fighters in Afghanistan traditionally opposed to working with Iran may have also changed their policy in light of the mutual short-term interest of removing U.S. and Western influence from the country. Due to the strategic location of Iran and its importance to the Afghan economy, however, the Kabul administration has avoided speaking publicly about Iranian influence in Afghanistan, as they believe, as a result of political tension with Pakistan, Iran is Kabul's last significant open door to the world.
Muhammad Tahir is journalist and analyst, specializing in Afghan/Iran and central Asian Affairs, is author of Illegal Dating-A Journey into the Private Life of Iran.
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Proving Pablo Picasso's famous words right that "all children are artists", Kaleidoscope-2011, the annual on-the-spot painting competition organised by Hindustan Times Pace, attracted more than 1,000 students from over 250 Delhi/ NCR schools on Wednesday.
In the 1930s, two decades into the new Capital and a few years after New Delhi was formally inaugurated, it was Connaught Place that held all the indicators of how the new city was doing, and where it was headed. Avishek G Dastidar reports.
As you find your way through the motor spare parts shops, leather goods showrooms, hawkers, carts and the general cacophony of Kashmere Gate, a narrow staircase welcomes you to the very different world of the Bengali Club.
The Capital will host a string of cultural events to celebrate 100 years of laying the foundation of New Delhi.
The quartet of Regal, Plaza, Rivoli and Odeon slaked Delhi's thirst for entertainment with both national and international box office blockbusters.
Delhi witnessed the earliest linguistic and cultural encounter between East and West, between English and the languages of the Orient, informs Rakhshanda Jalil.
The approach is through a wine shop and an array of world cuisine restaurants. Beyond the Vuitton handbags and Choo shoes, spas and Ice bars lies the heart of the matter. Aasheesh Sharma writes.
While Paris Hilton may be getting a mansion built for her babies (read dogs), Delhiites are not far behind when it comes to pampering their pooches, informs Namya Sinha.
You might know Delhi’s best shopping and dining hotspots, but do you know its amazing birdlife? Bharati Chaturvedi examines...
It’s not just sex and rock ’n roll that the city’s school going youngsters are experimenting with; experts say kids as young as 13 and 14 are indulging in substance abuse. Rajesh Ahuja and Damini Purkayastha report.
This is one purpose you never thought Delhi's high-end malls would serve: turning NCR's Swarovsky-crystal-hounds into art lovers.
Naya Bazar, as the name suggested, had come up just outside the old city, north of Lahori Gate—one of the several gates of the walled city.
HT City’s series on regional communities that give the Capital its cosmopolitan character.
It’s a hot Delhi afternoon and Philomena Berkeley, 79, listens to Song Sung Blue by Neil Diamond.
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DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Syrian President Bashar Assad's chances of staying in power "are slipping away," Russia's prime minister said, further distancing Moscow from the Assad regime.
"From the outset, the Russian Federation was not an exclusive ally of Syria or President Assad," Dmitry Medvedev told CNN at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
"We used to have good relations with him and his father [Hafez Assad], but he had much closer allies among the Europeans," Medvedev said.
He repeated Russia's longtime insistence outside powers shouldn't pick Syria's leaders.
Russia "never said that our goal was to preserve the current political regime, or making sure that President Assad stays in power," he added. "That decision has to be made by the Syrian people."
Medvedev said he personally appealed to Assad to open up his regime to reform and said Assad's refusal have serious talks with part of the moderate opposition was an "important, if not fatal" mistake.
"The chances for him surviving are slipping away as days and weeks go by," Medvedev told CNN. "But once again, this should not be up to us. It should be up to the Syrian people."
Medvedev placed equal blame for the escalation of the 2-year-old civil war on "the leadership of the country and the irreconcilable opposition."
He warned that if Assad's rule is "swept away" by the revolt, the resulting conflict among its successors could last "for decades."
Asked about concerns jihadists in Syria could spread into southern Russia, where Islamic militant groups have been battling Moscow for more than a decade, Medvedev said such a prospect should alarm the West as well.
"They can travel to Europe. They tried to. And in the U.S.," Medvedev said. "So it is alarming for all of us. It does not mean, though, that we should bring to power radical opposition leaders. It should be a difficult process, led by civil society."
The Syrian conflict led to at least 106 deaths Sunday, including five women, 11 children and three people who were tortured to death, the opposition Local Coordination Committees reported.
The United Nations says more than 60,000 people have died in the conflict that began in March 2011.
|Additional World News Stories|
DAMASCUS, Va., May 18 (UPI) --Dozens of people were injured Saturday when a car in the Appalachian Trail Days parade in Damascus, Va., plowed into the crowd.
MALMO, Sweden, May 18 (UPI) --Oddsmakers pegged Emmelie de Forest as the favorite to win the Eurovision Song Contest finals in Sweden Saturday.
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Written by PETA
In yesterday's midterm elections, Missouri voters approved a measure that gives dogs who are mass bred in puppy mills some long overdue relief. Missouri holds the unenviable distinction of being our nation's puppy mill capital. The state is home to more than 1,400 commercial (or as the American Kennel Club likes to call them, "high-volume") breeders who subject dogs to miserable lives in cramped, filthy hutches, cages, and pens.
Proposition B, which goes into effect next year, will eliminate stacked cages, which have been known to cause dogs to develop "cage spins"—a condition in which animals turn manically in endless circles as a result of intensive, continuous confinement. Breeders will be "limited" to no more than 50 females, who can't be bred more than twice every 18 months. It's estimated that about one-third of the state's puppy profiteers currently breed more than 50 females, so this bill should, we hope, reduce the number of puppies born, sold, and shipped out of the state to pet shops all over the U.S. (The vast majority of puppies sold in pet shops—even hoity-toity ones—come from puppy mills!)
It's hard to believe, but the measure also had to spell out to breeders that they must feed animals once a day. It also mandates annual veterinary checks and requires that dogs be housed indoors with unrestricted access to an outdoor exercise area.
Keep cheering: Washington and Oregon have also recently toughened laws against puppy mill operators.
This is great news for dogs, but make no mistake: As long as people buy instead of adopting, the suffering will continue. Never buy from pet stores—which are basically puppy mill outlets—and tell everyone you know that those stores' "inventories" come straight from the factory.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
I am from Missouri and I am proud to say that I voted for Proposition B. I live in a city in northwest Missouri and the disgusting things I see happening to dogs here cannot be put into words. I am so glad that this passed because I know now that puppy "pimps" will no longer get away with what they are doing. I would also like to say that I adopted my dog Bella about two years ago and she is the most perfect dog ever :)
Great news! I hope they have someone to visit these puppy mills to make sure that the owners are following the new laws - which seem to be common sense on treating dogs. I hope that puppy mills won't exist in the near future, because it's sickens me to know that people treat dogs this way.
Puppy mills should be outlawed all together.Millions and millions of animals are killed each year because no body wants them. Why do we need inhuman puppy Mills? There is no shortage of dogs. And if anyone thinks they are o.k. they should be forced to spend a day at one. Only the ignorant, uninformed would think that puppy mills are ok.
you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail [email protected]. If you need to report cruelty to
an animal, please click
here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the
animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local
police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA
immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
Follow PETA on Twitter!
Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights? Read more.
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MBA Programs in California
General and operations managers are on the list of top occupations in California, the state's Department of Labor reports. The position is projected to see 72,690 new job openings between 2008 and 2018, making it one of the occupations with the most opportunities in the Golden State. Jobs for general and operations managers can be financially rewarding--the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2010, California workers in the field earned mean annual wages in the six figures. MBA programs in California can help you make the most of this rising trend.
Making It Big in California With an MBA Degree
Big business is no stranger to California. The state is home to more than 50 Fortune 500 companies, including Apple, Chevron, Google, Wells Fargo, and more, and businesses from IT to health care to retail can benefit from trained, professional leadership. Nine of the state's Fortune 500 companies are located in San Francisco, which has a population of more than 800,000 people. Five are located in Los Angeles, with a population of nearly 9 million people. Graduates in California MBA programs might find employment opportunities in the corporate hub of Los Angeles or in San Francisco, a retail hub and the headquarters for Gap, Levi Strauss and more. Explore business schools in California and boost your earning potential today.
MBA Programs in Costa Mesa, California
Note: This list also contains online schools that accept students from Costa Mesa, California.
Five colleges of study. One clear focus: Your career success.
Earn the respect of employers with a degree you can earn on campus, online or both.
Welcome to Argosy University
Argosy University offers doctoral, master's, and bachelor's degree programs to students through its seven colleges: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Business, Education, Health Sciences, Undergraduate Studies, The Art Institute of California and Western State College of Law as well as certificate programs in many areas.
- Business Administration (MBA)
Take a new step in your education with Brandman University.
At University of Phoenix, we believe everyone deserves access to higher education.
Continue your education with Strayer University.
Thanks to Florida Tech offering intensive degree programs 100% online, students located all over the world have the opportunity to access the same world-class education as those who attend classes on the main campus in Melbourne, Florida.
Earn a Certificate, Associate, Bachelor, Master's or Doctorate for less at Baker College Online.
Achieve your potential with an online degree from Capella University.
Kaplan University is focused on recognizing the achievements of military and veteran students and offers the flexibility of an online education.
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Friday's news that the nation's unemployment rate fell to 7.8% provided a much needed boost to President Barack Obama's campaign after a much maligned debate performance, and left his rival Mitt Romney without a usual attack line criticizing the president for presiding over an economy with unemployment above 8%.
The report, which is the penultimate set of monthly jobs data before November's general election, also showed 114,000 jobs were created last month. The unemployment rate now stands where it did in 2009, when Obama took office. At a campaign rally Friday in Virginia, the president cast the number as an indication his policies were working.
"Today I believe that as a nation, we are moving forward again. We're moving forward," Obama told a crowd of supporters in Fairfax.
The president, however, was careful not to crow too loudly.
"Every month reminds us that we've still got too many of our friends and neighbors who are looking for work," Obama said, adding: "Today's news certainly is not an excuse to try to talk down the economy to score a few political points. It is a reminder that this country has come too far to turn back now."
He also slammed his rival Mitt Romney, saying the GOP nominee wanted to give tax cuts to wealthy Americans at the expense of the middle class.
At an event in Abingdon, Virginia, Romney said that the country "can do better."
"There were fewer new jobs created this month than last month," he said. "And the unemployment rate as you noted this year has come down very, very slowly, but it's come down none the less. The reason it's come down this year is primarily due to the fact that more and more people have just stopped looking for work."
"So it looks like unemployment is getting better, but the truth is, if the same share of people were participating in the workforce today as on the day the president got elected, why our unemployment rate would be around 11%," he continued.
In January 2009 the labor force participation rate was 65.7%, according to the BLS. The September 2012 rate, as reported Friday, was 63.6%, an increase from the month before.
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With scores of fishermen languishing in jails, Coast Guard (CG) and Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency (MSA) will work for their early release during the talks to held next week.
During the talks scheduled on July 11, Directors General of the two forces will also hold discussions to evolve a joint cross-border fishing mechanism under which the two countries would take a lenient view towards each other's fishing communities, sources said here.
They said the talks were earlier scheduled for the first week of July but were later postponed.
The talks come close on the heels of the two sides holding parleys to address issues including Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek.
Coast Guard DG Vice Admiral M P Murlidharan and MSA DG Rear Admiral Waseem Akram will represent the two countries at the talks.
The sources said though there should not be many expectations about the outcome of the talks, it will help the two sides to engage each other and discuss issues faced by the two forces in guarding their maritime boundaries.
There is a hotline between the Directors General of the two agencies through which they talk to each other and discuss issues.
A large number of Indian fishermen and around 100 of their fishing boats are in Pakistan's custody after they were arrested in that country's territorial waters. India has also apprehended Pakistani fishermen who crossed over to Indian side as there is no proper demarcation of the maritime boundary.
India has significantly stepped up its vigil along the maritime boundary with Pakistan after a fishing vessel was used by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists to sneak into India and carry out strikes in Mumbai in November 2008.
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PHILADELPHIA –Over the next five years, Joel M. Gelfand, MD, MSCE, Assistant Professor of Dermatology and Associate Scholar in the Center of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Medicine, will receive funding from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to study the relationship between psoriasis, cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular outcomes. This research will build a deeper understanding of the relationship between inflammatory diseases like psoriasis and myocardial infarction (heart attack), potentially paving the way for improved disease management strategies for the over 7 million Americans with psoriasis.
Severe psoriasis affects greater than 10 percent of the body’s surface.
Photo credit: Joel M. Gelfand, MD, MSCE
Dr. Gelfand will be speaking at 67th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in San Francisco in a briefing on Friday, March 6 from 12:15pm – 1:30pm. He will discuss his ongoing psoriasis research, which has identified an increased risk of developing serious medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes, particularly when psoriasis is severe. For more information, please visit http://www.aad.org/meetings/annual/.
As with other major chronic illnesses, psoriasis can take a toll on patients’ quality of life. The disease is characterized by thick, red, scaly skin plaques which can be localized or widespread and appears as an inflammatory joint disease in some patients.
Affecting over two percent of the adult population in the United States, psoriasis is the most common inflammatory disease categorized as T helper cell type 1 (Th-1). Increasing evidence has linked this Th-1 inflammation to the development of atherosclerosis and ultimately, myocardial infarction, suggesting that the underlying physiological mechanism that results in psoriasis may also be a risk factor for myocardial infarction. Other Th-1 diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, have been shown to be independent risk factors for myocardial infarction.
For over 30 years, investigators have suggested that psoriasis may be associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction. To date, however, there have been no large, broadly representative studies evaluating the impact of psoriasis severity on cardiovascular risk factors and outcomes such as heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular death. Severity is determined by the extent of body surface area affected by the disease. Previously, Dr. Gelfand’s research has indicated that severe psoriasis patients, as defined by treatment history, may have an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and death, which is independent of traditional risk factors for these outcomes.
A series of population-based cohort studies will help Gelfand and his colleagues determine if patients with mild, moderate and severe psoriasis have a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, poorer control of cardiovascular risk factors, and an increased risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, and cardiovascular mortality compared to patients without psoriasis.
PENN Medicine is a $3.6 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Penn's School of Medicine is currently ranked #4 in the nation in U.S.News & World Report's survey of top research-oriented medical schools; and, according to most recent data from the National Institutes of Health, received over $379 million in NIH research funds in the 2006 fiscal year. Supporting 1,700 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) includes its flagship hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, rated one of the nation’s top ten “Honor Roll” hospitals by U.S.News & World Report; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. In addition UPHS includes a primary-care provider network; a faculty practice plan; home care, hospice, and nursing home; three multispecialty satellite facilities; as well as the Penn Medicine Rittenhouse campus, which offers comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation facilities and outpatient services in multiple specialties.
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So...any chance Luffy will become Yonkou? There's bound to be an empty position one way or another.
Wishing for a third Negima anime adaptation truthful to the manga with the arcs that were scrapped >:
There's nothing saying that Luffy can't become an Yonkou before becoming the Pirate King.
It would be wrong. They don't have the strongest crew, not even remotely close. Though Luffy certainly does have the allies i.e The Whitebeard Pirates and all the NW Pirates that were allied to Whitebeard - he certainly earned their respect, and there
Defeating one of the emperors should automatically mean that you become the new one. Although the Strawhats might not defeat all of the emperors, they're bound to face at least one of them. So I think Luffy becoming an emperor isn't too far off. Besides, Luffy's definition of an emperor is probably not the same as other people's.
Well said. So he will obtain it if he defeats an emperor/empress and as it was said, his definition of emperor will differ from the others. He has the allies and the crew to reach that position but it will take time before he gets there.
It took the WG + the warlords to take on WB, his crew and allies. So if Luffy wants to go up against even one of the emperors he better bring some heat.
Yonkou are more about territory and sheer number of followers than individual crew member strength.
So considering his reletively small crew I think he will just become the King.
Also remember what he said to Raleigh that he doesn't care about conquering anything, but that is what they do.
I'm sure blackbeards goal was to become yonkou, he didnt take over whitebeards territory not expecting to become an emperor.
Basically if luffy becomes yonkou that would mean he made an effort to become one and that's just not something luffy would do.
I don't think taking down a yonkou makes you jump to the position, bad match ups happen even at elite levels. Oda stated Enel would've had a 500,000,000 bounty if he was on the blue seas, yet luffy was nowhere near that level at skypiea. That's the point of having this whole fight vs a yonkou/making an alliance is about, they can't use Luffy's blatant charging against someone greatly above their level. I've been wondering why Law wants to take down a yonkou though, he said "confusion", but it's not like he'll run in and find one piece because of some confusion. Even if he did, he'd walk out of raftel all "I'm the pirate king" only to be murdered by blackbeard or some other overpowered SoB out there.
Veni, Vidi, Vici.
You don't become an Emperor for simply beating another one. The only reason they have that title is becuase they control such large portions of the New World, and that is because they have such influence and that is because of their strength.
Somebody could kill every one of the 4 Emperors. Does that make him an Emperor? No, all it would do is create a power vaccume for control for territory.
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New York, N.Y.
Collection size: 0.6 linear ft.
Collection Summary: The papers of painter Louis Wiesenberg measure 0.6 linear feet and date from 1913 to 1981. Found within the papers are biographical material; letters - mostly written by his widow Raizel Wiesenberg attempting to organize a posthumous exhibition; notes and writings, including manuscripts describing Wiesenberg's thoughts on art; numerous drawings of figure studies and landscapes; printed material, including catalogs from exhibitions by obscure organizations such as the Level Club and the Society of Independent Artists; and photographs of Wiesenberg, his family and his artwork.
Biographical/Historical Note: Louis Wiesenberg (1893-1943) was born in Poland and studied art in Montreal and at the National Academy of Design in New York.
Donated 1981-1982 by Mrs. Raizel Wiesenberg Arp, widow of Wiesenberg.
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Personal Reflection: “The Reds” as the Good Guys
I was about ten years old when my mother took the family to see Enemy at the Gates (2001). For one, this was the first time in my life that I was exposed to the Soviet Union as being the “good guys” rather than the place the “evil reds” in action movies came from. At the time, I had a rather typical understanding of the Second World War for a boy my age. From all of the John Wayne and other Hollywood films about it, as well as learning about the war in history class, my understanding was that the war was won by American GI’s landing in Normandy and single-handedly beating the Germans back beyond their own borders, then dropping a couple of big bombs on Japan to teach them a lesson about sinking ships in Hawaii. Yet here I was, sitting in a movie theater, seeing men and women flying red flags and wearing hammers and sickles, fighting the ultimate “bad guys.” Who were these people? Why don’t we talk about them more? Weren’t they fighting the bad guys too? These were questions I asked myself, and this experience led me to look at the Soviet Union with a more open mind down the road.
Enemy at the Gates, directed by Jean-Jacques Annuad, follows the story of Vasily Zaytsev (Jude Law), a Soviet sniper famous for his participation in the Battle of Stalingrad and his duel with Major König (Ed Harris), the head of a German sniper school, who has been dispatched to Stalingrad to hunt Zaytsev down. Plot points include his romantic involvement with a fellow sniper named Tania Chernova and his relationship with Commissar Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) whose responsibility is to report Zaytsev’s exploits.
The Purpose of this Review
There are, no doubt, many things wrong with this film, from historical inaccuracies involving uniforms, tanks, etc., to outright chauvinism in the depiction of the Red Army and its soldiers and officers. This much is to be expected from a Hollywood film, especially if the topic involves the Soviet Union. The purpose of this review, however, is not to dwell on these mistakes, and instead focus on the utility of an American made film that, despite these faults, acknowledges the central role of the Soviet Union at the battle of Stalingrad and in the broader battle against German fascism. For a more in-depth analysis of the failings of this movie, we recommend you read the special section below.
Stalingrad: A World in the Balance
The movie begins, after a brief scene involving a young Vasily Zeitsev (Alexander Schwan) learning how to shoot from his grandfather (Mikhail Matveev), by describing the situation presented by the Battle of Stalingrad.
“Autumn, 1942. Europe lies crushed beneath the Nazi jackboot. The German Third Reich is at the height of its power. Hitler’s armies are charging through the heart of the Soviet Union… towards the oilfields of Asia. One last obstacle remains. A city on the Volga… where the fate of the world is being decided. Stalingrad.”
For every attempt to portray the Red Army and Soviet command as bumbling fools and tyrants, this movie cannot deny the incredible importance of the Battle of Stalingrad. Indeed, the fate of the world was decided at Stalingrad, and it was the Red Army armed with arms and equipment produced by socialist production.
Briefly on Historical Inaccuracies
Here we will discuss the major historical inaccuracies of the film. This list is not meant to be comprehensive, merely a list of major errors.
1 ) The anti-Soviet distortions start in the beginning, when they lock the doors of the train. Army trains ran with doors open in case of an air raid.
2 ) The scene where Red Army soldiers are dragged from the train is almost laughable. One of the biggest mistakes—in the docks scene, there is absolutely no organization whatsoever. Red Army soldiers are yanked off the train by commissars—no squads, platoons, companies, NCOs, officers—just a big herd. No weapons either, and barely any equipment. Russian soldiers are shown as being horribly frightened on the boat ride across the Volga. Take a look at how Hollywood (Enemy at the Gates, based on its actors, writer/director, and production company can’t really be blamed on Hollywood) portrays American soldiers and marines in recent films. Fear is displayed realistically, largely based on the advice of actual veterans. Band of Brothers and the recent series The Pacific are wonderful at this. Enemy at the Gates was insulting to Soviet war veterans.
3 ) The 13th Guards division and the 284th Siberian crossed at night, not during the day. Vasily Zaitsev was actually a clerk in the navy, attached to the Pacific Fleet. He transferred to the army upon reading about the action in Stalingrad. As a result he wouldn’t have been such a stranger to military life, which brings us to the next point.
4 ) The plot point about the rifle shortage is a bit ridiculous. This kind of thing happened (one man shoots, one man follows), but mostly in 1941 in certain crisis situations. If I recall correctly, the book Enemy at the Gates it mentions a shortage of rifles in the 13th Guards Rifle (in other words, not Zaitsev’s unit), but usually a shortage of rifles just meant that those without were issued machine pistols, which were extremely abundant and very useful in Stalingrad. There is nothing in the literature to suggest that the depicted weapon distribution happened. This is clearly meant to make socialism and the Soviet Union look inefficient.
5 ) Of course, they show the typical “human wave attack.” Considering the nature of combat in Stalingrad, it is rather bizarre to see a moment of silence once Zaitsev and the men of his herd(since there are apparently no units in the Red Army) get up from the docks. The 284th went right into combat from the central landing stage to Mamaev Kurgan. The 284th might have had to take some of the heights overlooking the Central Landing stage but unlike in the case of the 13th Guards Rifle, they were not under fire from the buildings overlooking the landing stage (the 13th Guards had cleared these buildings upon arrival and placed their HQ in one of them, which is still preserved today). By the time the 284th arrived, they would have had some idea of how to fight in the city—they would not be lining up and charging en masse with half the men unarmed.
6 ) Why is Khrushchev given such a big role when in fact he had little to do with the battle? We don’t see Chuikov, Yeremenko, Rodimtsev, or anybody who was actually commanding in the city.
7 ) Tanya Chernova was not Jewish, and was also a blonde. She was injured by a mine set off by another female sniper (from her account it was probably a ‘Bouncing Betty’). The love affair has been claimed by Zaitsev in his memoirs and to the best of my knowledge was confirmed by Tanya herself, though they were never reunited after the battle.
8 ) The Major Konig incident may in fact be propaganda. This is primarily based on the fact that the name and branch of service of the mysterious sniper has two variants. It is possible that this was an urban legend as it isn’t difficult to believe that the Germans may have deployed their most elite snipers in Stalingrad. The 6th army itself was considered to be an “elite” unit based on its war record.
9 ) Stalin’s order 227 (Ни шагу назад!/Not a Step Backward) is misinterpreted. People were not shot for seeking cover or falling back, but for abandoning their post without orders, particularly in the case of officers ordering unauthorized retreats. It was designed to prevent panic, and as military historian John Keegan wrote in at least two of his books; a man in combat is most vulnerable when he turns his back and tries to flee. This is also true of entire units sometimes. Even a basic reading of the history of Stalingrad shows that there were numerous retreats, which did not have specific orders, wherein those who escaped were not shot, nor arrested. Some examples are Dragan’s retreat from the train station all the way back to the Volga. This is at least one kilometer.
10 ) Zaitsev was a hero no doubt, but we don’t see people like Mikhail Panikhakho, who after having one Molotov cocktail shot and its contents ignited all over him, continued to rush at a German tank, disabling it with the Molotov in his other hand—killing himself in the process. There is nothing about the 39th Guards Rifle Division, ex-paratroopers who perished almost to a man in the factory district. We don’t see the sailors who, numbering no more than 100, held off several German divisions for days from the Grain Elevator. We also don’t hear a word about “Pavlov’s House,” which held out for three months with a strength no larger than a company.
11 ) Finally, the movie really missed the essence of Stalingrad. The battle of Stalingrad wasn’t so much about snipers as it was about the machine pistol, the hand grenade, the bayonet, the knife, the entrenching tool, bricks and rubble, and even bare hands and combat boots. It was not about picking people off from a distance but rather endless hand-to-hand combat, often lasting for hours at a time, with opponents fighting over a single room, and all this time spent so close that you could hear the enemy breathe whenever grenades weren’t flying back and forth.
Verdict: Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth
Anyone who watches this film and has more than a summary knowledge of the Eastern Front is bound to be offended at some level, and the final “moral” concerning the viability of socialism delivered by Commissar Danilov at the end is downright insulting to one’s intelligence. Have no delusions: this is a propaganda film, designed to apply a bourgeois perspective to the Second World War.
Yet all of this considered, any film that breaks away from the bourgeois argument that “socialism and fascism are the same thing” and portrays the Soviet Union as anything less than pure totalitarian evil is deserving of a little credit, especially now as anti-communist and crypto-fascist rhetoric is on the rise. The legacy of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany and all the sacrifices made towards that end are something that needs to be kept alive in our memories, and despite its many inaccuracies and anti-communist themes, Enemy at the Gates serves a purpose in breaking through the typical rhetoric about Soviet Socialism.
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The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality
New Society Publishers (2011)
The End of Growth
Random House Canada (2012)
The end of growth seems literally unthinkable to most of us, including our politicians. Just the other day, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Peter Mansbridge: "You do need, as we are doing in Canada, you need to undertake a range of measures, not just fiscal discipline, to ensure growth... to increase the growth capacity of our economy."
His premise is that economic growth -- creating more wealth to support more people at a higher standard of living -- is absolutely essential. He goes on in the same interview to admit that "growth policies are often politically very challenging as well." In all this Harper is profoundly orthodox, as he was in his 1991 master's thesis criticizing Keynesian economics.
Questioning economic growth started at least 40 years ago, but never gained traction. Vancouver environmentalists in the early 1970s were fond of saying, "Unlimited growth is the philosophy of the cancer cell." The idea faded out with the 1973 oil shock and the recession that followed it.
Heinberg and Rubin both argue that booms depend on cheap energy, especially oil, and recessions happen when oil gets too expensive. They agree that we are now at a "peak oil" point, regardless of how much remains in the ground.
Rubin says the cost of extracting new oil from sea bottoms and tar sands is just too high to keep container ships on the ocean and trucks on the road. Heinberg says the same applies to coal and many other resources, and predicts that China will run out of coal altogether in 33 years if its economy keeps growing as it must.
Both writers dismiss the usual pro-growth rebuttals: innovation won't work any more, at least on the scale needed by the 9 billion of us we can expect by mid-century. Greater efficiency? Been there, done that in earlier oil shocks. We just burn more oil. Nuclear power? Fukushima!
Just pump more oil? The Saudis are using their increased production for their own people, who expect gas at 50 cents a litre and lots of water from oil-fired desalination plants. (Residents of Riyadh daily use 330 litres of water per capita, just like Canadians.)
Austerity vs. spending? Irrelevant
Neither book pays much attention to the current debate over conservative austerity versus Keynesian government spending. Both Rubin and Heinberg think spiking resource prices make the debate irrelevant; Rubin says the crash of 2008 was due more to high oil prices, not to the housing bubble.
He breaks up his text with countless tables, charts, and mini-essays; they add to his arguments but subtract from their force.
By contrast, Rubin has a more conversational style. He starts each chapter with an anecdote that seems off-topic but prepares us for that chapter's key point, usually delivered in clear, hard sentences:
"Beneath the slogans and campaign rhetoric, plans to put America to work share a common denominator: the idea of growth. Get the economy growing again and jobs will follow. But those plans don't account for a new world of higher energy costs that will prevent the economy from growing at the pace achieved in the last decade when it pumped out a steady stream of new jobs every month."
Rubin also raises an intriguing idea: Rising oil prices could save the planet by driving down our consumption and emissions (and making pipelines pointless with no markets to serve).
Both books deserve careful study. Heinberg's, while quite contemporary, is likely to become a reference thanks to the background material he provides. Rubin's is more accessible (especially to Canadians), but likely to become dated very soon.
In fact, Rubin is already dated. Throughout his book, which was evidently completed earlier this year, he invokes "triple-digit oil" as the force driving us into a no-growth economy. But oil has been trading around $85 lately, down from almost $110 in late February. Perhaps the flirtation with triple digits has already triggered another recession.
Both writers make reasonable arguments for the end of economic growth. But neither deals adequately with how a steady-state economy would actually function. Rubin suggests industries would come home from China and we'd do a lot of job sharing. Heinberg goes into a bit more detail, suggesting a "post-growth" economy evolving on the group and community level: "transition towns" and "common security clubs." It's not enough to persuade.
More seriously, neither really deals with the political implications of the end of growth. And these are very grave.
'Feed me, Seymour!'
Remember Audrey II, the carnivorous plant in Little Shop of Horrors that kept demanding, "Feed me, Seymour"? Every industrial nation's government regards its people the way Seymour regarded his plant. Kept fed, the people provide their governments with wealth and power. Stop feeding them, and the people will eat their governments alive.
So the House of Saud keeps its people quiet with subsidized desalinated water. Without jobs or pensions, Greeks are dismantling their country. China, having raised hundreds of millions out of poverty in the last 30 years, must now maintain economic growth rates of eight or nine per cent just to keep pace with the growth of its young job-seekers. Even so, the country experienced 180,000 protests and riots in 2010. No wonder Beijing is annoyed with all our preaching about human rights, as if rumbling volcanoes deserved freedom of eruption.
Imagine, then, a steady-state North America happily biking to work and making its own stuff again (including very expensive iPhones). Without us as customers, China would have to retool to supply its own domestic market, and might not have enough time to do so before the country broke down.
Expensive fuel would have other consequences. Countries like China, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia have already bought up vast tracts of African farmland to grow cheap food for their own people; shipping it home might make it too costly.
In business since 1492
Closer to home, imagine the automatic public rejection of a steady-state economy. Ever since 1492, the Americas have operated on the assumption that wealth would increase forever, whether extracted from the ground or from the lives of workers. Workers and CEOs alike dream of freedom in terms of getting a bigger slice of an ever-growing pie. Students postpone their lives and mortgage their futures in hopes of a bigger slice too.
Chasing that dream of endless growth, we fail to realize the chase breeds a profound alienation in many of us. It emerges (so far) not only in Chinese disturbances but in hockey riots, the Occupy movement, the pot-banging in Montreal's streets, and growing resentment of inequality. We are not fed, physically or spiritually.
We are not the only ones. The end of growth would mean a world in which economies are crashing everywhere, civil wars and local wars erupt over dwindling resources, and epidemics rage through malnourished populations. Do we just write off the rest of the planet and hunker down in our green, bike-friendly transitional towns?
Stephen Harper thinks growth policies are "politically very challenging." Post-growth policies will be challenging beyond his worst nightmares.
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- You are here: Jé Maverick
Sunday, December 12, 2010
To all who were not born as heirs to beauty
the memory of the flight of Icarus is dedicated -
you will not know even the dry bones of such exhilaration,
or how, from a loom of wings we are each woven softly
into delusions of great heights.
Zeus was a travelling salesman
who cleared a trail through lovelessness
with his bare tongue.
He returned with trench warfare and croissants,
paid for with the thin vertebrae of your finest warriors.
His backbone was the litmus for the battle.
His mistresses had breasts like slipknots;
their truths were dressed in leather - they had whips
and devilish instructions.
He tried to sell us life,
but we knew that disaster had been built into the product.
taste me like you taste a delicacy.
meet me on the same corner that you meet doom.
(In the grand ballroom
situated elsewhere in this poem
Hitler tangos with a headless mannequin,
and the great flaw is that he moves gracefully:
in such a beast we want uncertain footing on the parquetry;
we want an uneven floor; we want split loins;
femurs cleaving the quadricep,
torn buttocks, sprained ankles -
we want the demise; we want the end; the end
of all the wastrels i have worshipped,
i have loved their flesh like the earth.
The wilderness offered the veil from sin:
we frotted against the walls of caves,
we took hibiscus balm to ward off cataracts,
we studied the law of the jungle in a public school.
Too soon, the swamp of hidden blessings was infested with hogs of prey,
tearing new vents in the earth's crust, snorting in unison:
the skirts of the universe could be heard billowing
into the nothingness beyond.
Our faces had become whipped
with sands that had fled from the constraint of the hourglass,
the air was filled with disembodied laughter
deep enough for whales to dive in -
so in filling the donkey's panniers with the sacred juice
that was stolen from the temple,
we bled into the horizon,
strokes in a watercolor, with ancient maps
and satellite navigation, searching the cities for new madnesses.
On random corners, dilettantes juggled the heads of prophets
while savages whistled the anthems of lost archipelagos.
A washer woman who gave birth to clouds
caught the scared eyes of a teenage mother, panhandling
for the will to live.
With the death of chimney stacks came the demise of sweepers,
craftsmen, we were told, had eaten the locus of extinction,
the fat grew fatter, and spat venom at the chocolatiers.
Propaganda floated among the skyscrapers like dirigibles,
immunising the sexiest against aphrodisiacs;
immunising man against woman;
immunising the only way out against the will to escape:
to transcend the bromide and snowclones and the parade of horribles,
holy men and monks gathered on the rooftops and sifted
the rising noise with lariats,
forgetting all that they were told in the lamaseries.
we had worked the lava into a fine lather;
we had scarred our trembling hands with hot curses.
From the slums in the foothills
dusty children came running;
from the barrios in the wasteland
dirty children came running;
from the mansions on the islands
little pigs came running;
from ghettoes on the perimeter of the scorched earth policy
burnt children came running:
they saw love in a quadrangle downtown,
convulsing on the flagstones with a slit throat,
and the world carrying on about it, paying little attention,
explaining to their phones
that the chic will inherit the earth.
Take care, keep safe, and stay beautiful,
With love and peace,
The Mute Papers: Day 20 Next Post: Word Clouds
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HENRICO, VA (WWBT) - Jessica Gonzales had no idea what her bank colleague really cooked up at the King's Charter Clubhouse in Hanover County. But she came bearing goods and was thrilled to show off her latest creation - the project that's consumed much of her spare time over the past year since her mom taught her to crochet
"It's not much," said Gonzales. "They're plastic bags but it might mean a lot to someone who needs it. I feel like I'm helping the environment by taking something people throw away.
Jessica says she's addicted and finds therapy weaving bags bound for the trash into what might be a treasure if your home is on the streets.
"It makes a comfortable little mat for them to sleep on," she said. "If it get's wet, it dries quick."
The woven plastic makes a nice cushion. This one's a work in progress, each full sized mat takes a mountain of bags so Jess asked her co-workers to replenish her supply.
"You might think we have tons of them it takes 700 to 900 to make a mat," said friend Sylvia Hutt. "The crocheting itself take 40 to 60 hours for each mat."
But the prep work can be labor intensive.
"You cut the bags into three inch wide strips, then you link the strips together, then you roll those links into balls of plastic yarn then you do the crocheting," said Hutt.
Jessica and her mom give their mats to a local church to distribute.
"People are excited about it, I've taught a couple people how to do it," said Gonzales.
Thanks to co-workers Jess is stocked with bags.
Sylvia asked us to help recognize her colleague's compassion.
Gonzales said she may donate the money to a local charity.
Copyright 2011 WWBT NBC12. All rights reserved.
WWBT-TV NBC 12
P.O. Box 12
On Your Side
Video and Pics
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Airstream began with a single man and a most singular dream. The man was Wally Byam: his dream, to build the perfect travel trailer. One that would move like a stream of air. One that would be light enough to be towed by a standard automobile. One that would provide first-class living accommodations anywhere in the world.
Thus, over 70 years ago was born the first Airstream trailer. And with it was born yet another dream, a dream of new freedom, new places, new experiences, and new friendships. It was a dream so powerful, so enduring it did far more than create a new way of travel; it created a new way of life shared by thousands upon thousands of families.
The Airstream philosophy has always been and will always be, “ Let’s not make any changes — let’s make only improvements!” Every inch of an Airstream has a functional purpose. There is no planned obsolescence. This is as true in today's models as it was of the first Airstream to see the light of the open road. The classic Airstream of the thirties is no museum piece. Still in use today, it is as sturdy and modern in appearance as the first day it swung into traffic. As a result, an Airstream is always “in style’ — conceived and constructed as a lifetime investment in happiness.
Today, the Airstream is the most thoroughly tested Airstream in trailer history. It is years ahead in engineering — the culmination of over 70 years of experience in trailer making, millions of miles of Caravan travel throughout the world; plus millions of miles more, run up by happy Airstream owners!
More than ever, the Airstream remains a testimonial to the practical vision, the tenacity and know-how of one dedicated man — Wally Byam, and his team who made your travel dreams come true.
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Reminder: While I am on vacation this week, Consumerism Commentary is featuring articles by other writers. Please read Criminal Charges: Volume XVII, the first of this week’s guest articles.
Rescue Deal for CitiGroup. Citi is too big to fail, so the government is preparing an injection of $20 billion in addition to the $25 billion the company has already received. GM, Ford, and Chrysler are quoted as whining, “It’s not fair!”
Wall Street versus Pennsylvania Avenue. According to the Presidential Cycle, the stock market loses ground during the first half of a new president’s term while increases significantly during the second half. Statistics prove this to be true, but here’s why you shouldn’t abandon stocks for two years.
Gift Cards: A Bad Idea Gets Even Worse. This is bad news for office Secret Santa exchanges. Now we’ll have to think about what trinket someone else may like.
180th Carnival of Personal Finance. Living Almost Large is hosting this edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance with pictures of foreign paper currency. In addition to the Editor’s Picks, check out Visualizing $10,000 Extra in Your Life, The Not-so-Easy Part of Personal Finance, and Financial Education in Schools.
Updated February 6, 2012 and originally published November 24, 2008. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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At the end of March 2009, after 4 years of EC support, the project ‘EVI-Genoret’ will be successfully implemented. EVI-Genoret was the largest consortium ever funded by the European Commission in the field of vision research.
The history of EVI-Genoret is quite long: at the beginning were other European projects like RETRAINET and PRO-AGE-RET, started during the 5th European Framework Program. These two progenitors have to be considered as the “intellectual” basis. The Integrated Project ‘EVI-GenoRet’ consisted of 25 distinct partners, spread all over Europe. The major aims were, to find a solution against retinal diseases caused by genetic mutations, and to understand their fundamental mechanisms. As Prof. Sahel (scientific coordinator of EVI-Genoret and director of the Institut de la Vision in Paris) mentioned in a recent interview:
“EVI-Genoret has played a clue role in structuring and promoting the European Vision Research Community” further, in his opinion EVI-Genoret represents an intermediate station and not a ‘destination that the European vision research has reached’.
The 4th annual and last meeting of the consortium will take place in Paris, 5-6 March 2009.
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Take back the movies | Community
On July 20 James Holmes opened fire at a theater in Aurora, Colorado on the opening night of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises," killing at least 12 people and injuring at least 70 others. Click here for more details.
This incident has not only traumatized the Aurora community, but has also left its mark throughout the country.
A group of local entrepreneurs in the Denver area created a campaign "spreading some light in the dark" and it is calling it Take Back the Movies.
Its website blog of the same name has been created to explain what they are doing, such as "taking Denver to the movies" on August 4, and to encourage people to get involved and for other communities to do the same. Click HERE to learn more.
On My Neighborhood we want to know how the July 20 attack has impacted you, how you're dealing with it, and any thoughts you might have about the Take Back the Movies campaign.
Please share your comments on this News10 Facebook post.
Jeff Maher will be continuing the conversation on News10's Friday morning show and will be using these comments as part of the discussion.
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The "spirit of Wikipedia" is at risk, we're told; its fundamental philosophy is under attack. Good. About time. Allowing anyone to contribute to it without checking his or her credentials was always a flawed concept, encouraging inaccuracy, unreliability and irresponsibility. Its present crisis of confidence emerged when it tried to be more than an encyclopaedia of record and purported to be a reporter of immediate, ongoing events. It got it somewhat wrong last week when Senator Kennedy's entry included the "fact" that he had died after a seizure on inauguration day. His fellow senator Robert Byrd's entry had him as equally dead, equally falsely.
Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, responded by calling for stricter rules to apply to entries on people still alive, many of whose biographies had, in the past, been written, or changed, maliciously. It has taken the false report of the death of a very famous and much loved person to goad Wales into action; he hadn't reacted much when lesser beings were traduced or otherwise inaccurately portrayed. But even his modest proposals for reform have come under frenzied criticism. All he wants is to introduce rules that contributions on living people be "flagged" and checked before being allowed to be published. That's not very ambitious. The dead would not benefit; it would be all right to be wrong about them and about every other subject under, and including, the sun; only sensitive and controversial political and religious subjects - the Israel and Palestine issue for example - go through a vetting procedure. But to judge from the responses of some of his critics, he has become the archdevil of censorship, savaging contributors' basic human rights to be allowed to tell lies and to edit their own articles without anyone else being entitled to intervene. I exaggerate only a little. I've read some of the reactions, and it's a feeling obviously shared by many - 40% of contributors oppose Wales's proposal.
It would, it's true, mean inevitable delays - though only by a couple of weeks or so - in contributions reaching publication. But that is seen as a sin. It is better to be quick and wrong, it seems, than a few days late and right. Wikipedia did not start off competing to rush the latest breaking news to its readers. It should not have gone down that path. That is the function of a news network, not an encyclopaedia. It is hardly a secret that the hasty reporting of a current event is the enemy of context and accuracy. But speed appears now to have become a part of the spirit and philosophy of Wikipedia that a large proportion of its contributors seem keen to protect. If they manage to persuade Wales to water down his already mild reform, Wikipedia's standing and pretensions to trustworthiness will fall even lower than they already are.
The brutal fact is that a work of reference which depends mainly on volunteer amateurs, whose good faith, ability and expertise are unknown, and whose contributions are largely unchecked, cannot be other than unreliable.
I don't think there's a way of telling what proportion of Wikipedia entries are deficient, whether because of the writer's bias, mischief or lack of knowledge. It's clear that a significant number are questionable, sufficient to lead us to suspect all entries. But to do the right thing - vetting all contributors or contributions - would be impractical and hugely expensive. There is no easy solution. We many just have to accept that Wikipedia's undoubted usefulness comes at the price of occasional - perhaps frequent - inaccuracy. That is a sad conclusion to reach about an encyclopedia.
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the film that has attracted 13 Oscar nominations, is about someone born with the body of a 70-year-old who proceeds to age backwards, until he's physically a child.
But hold on, hadn't I read a very good novel a couple of years ago with that very same storyline but totally lacking in anyone called Benjamin Button? I sure had, and it was called The Confessions of Max Tivoli, by the American novelist Andrew Sean Greer. I'd even praised it in my three-line what-I-did at the bottom of this column. Had the hero's name been changed to suit the film? Unlikely, though not unprecedented. (The hero of the other main Oscar contender, Slumdog Millionaire, is Jamal Malik; in Vikas Swarup's original book he was called Ram Mohammad Thomas). Had Greer been ripped off and was he at this very moment with his lawyers planning a multimillion-dollar lawsuit? Or was it mere coincidence, two writers with the same unusual idea, one of whom had managed to sell the movie rights to his work? That's not too far from the truth, except that the original Benjamin Button tale appeared in an obscure short story published in an American magazine in 1921. Its young author was F Scott Fitzgerald. Greer had never heard of it, let alone read it, when he wrote Max Tivoli; the first he knew of it was when the Benjamin Button film came out.
Coincidentally, just before I learned of the Tivoli-Button similarity, I read Greer's latest novel, The Story of a Marriage, which I was going to recommend in my three-liner below as a moving, sensitive, beautifully written story of love, passion, scandal and motherhood in early 1950s America. I do hope he has managed to sell the film rights this time.
• This week Marcel read Tolstoy's Anna Karenina: "As wonderful as when I first read it, but Anna seemed much more of an hysterical, paranoid nag than I'd remembered. Poor, patient, put-upon Vronsky." He also re-read Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez: "I remain convinced it's one of the greatest novels of the 20th century."
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Final checks are made to an MA600 aircraft on Sunday, at a hangar in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. Courtesy of AVIC I
The MA600, a new aircraft to join China's turboprop fleet, is expected to roll off the assembly line in Xi'an on Sunday.
This latest MA "Modern Ark" member could be the stepping stone to China gaining a larger share of the world's turboprop aircraft market, insiders said.
Currently, the 50- to 60-seat MA60, the first and only model of the MA series on sale, has received 122 orders since 2005, mainly from African and East Asian countries.
"To assure a bigger slice of the turboprop market, the MA600 is designed to meet demand for the next 10 years," Chen Fusheng, deputy director general of the commercial aircraft department of AVIC I, said yesterday.
Engineers have optimized the aircraft's structure and its aviation electronics system, improved the interior decoration, and added maritime survival functions for island countries, He Shengqiang, chief engineer and vice-president of Xi'an Aircraft Industry Company Ltd under AVIC I, said.
"The total weight of the MA600 is 300 kg less than the MA60, further reducing the aircraft's fuel consumption," He said.
The MA600 is set to begin trials in September and will be delivered to its first customer - the Civil Aviation Fight University of China in Guanghan, Sichuan province - next year, He said.
AVIC I has drawn up an ambitious blueprint for its MA series, which will be comparable to the Canadian Bombardier and the French ATR aircraft.
Chen said: "We hope to see that 40 percent of all turboprop aircraft delivered in the world in 2018 are from the MA series."
To remain competitive in the years after 2018, AVIC I has already started work on the development of the MA700, an aircraft mainly targeted at markets in Europe and America, Chen said.
The entire series - MA60, MA600 and MA700 - will coexist to cater to the different demands of customers, he said.
"Turboprops have huge potential in this era of increasing oil prices," Chen said.
Turboprop aircraft use much less fuel than equivalent turbojets produced by Boeing and Airbus, and are just as safe as turbojets, he said.
"Some of our airline customers abroad have reported profits in the first quarter after they replaced turbojets with the MA60," he said.
Joint research by Bombardier and the Aviation Industry Development Research Center of China, found that of the 5,300-5,500 regional aircraft need in the next two decades, there will be a need for 1,900 turboprop aircraft.
(China Daily June 25, 2008)
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Debian Linux project group to pay developers
A group of senior developers from the Debian GNU/Linux project have decided to raise funds to pay volunteers who work on the project in order that releases can be made more frequently.
The initiative, which is being promoted by the Debian project leader Anthony Towns, is called Dunc, "an acronym for 'Development Under Numismatic Control' - which could equally be called 'coin-operated coding'."
In a media release, the Dunc board said what they were trying to do was to set up an experimental project to try and find ways of funding Debian development.
They stressed that Dunc was not endorsed by Debian, and Debian did not exercise any control over how Dunc operated. It was "not paying for servers or bandwidth, or reimbursing expenses and flight costs, but actually paying people to sit down and do useful Debian work rather than some other day job."
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It's All Politics
Fri January 13, 2012
Obama Government-Streamlining Offer Creates GOP Dilemma
Originally published on Fri January 13, 2012 11:54 am
Maybe even if it weren't a general-election year, President Obama would still be proposing that Congress give him the power to merge federal agencies to make the government smaller and more efficient.
But the fact is it is the year in which the president is seeking re-election, a year in which both the eventual Republican presidential nominee and Obama's GOP opponents in Congress will assert hundreds of times before it's over that he is a big-government Democrat.
So the president's proposal Friday that Congress grant him the authority to streamline government comes just in time to serve as a handy defense against those election-year charges from Republicans that he's a defender of oversized and wasteful government.
According to the Associated Press, which got a heads-up on the president's proposal from a White House official, the first recommended mergers would be in the commerce and trade areas.
Obama would be able to propose consolidations and Congress would dispose of them in 90 days with a simple up or down vote. President Ronald Reagan was the last Oval Office to have this authority.
The official told the AP that 1,000 to 2,000 jobs would be eliminated through attrition (that should ease some of the opposition from unions that represent federal workers.) The savings would be as much as $3 billion over 10 years, the official said.
What's not to love if you're a small-government Republican? It should be an offer congressional Republicans can't refuse.
Which is exactly the point. Obama is placing congressional Republicans in a box by presenting them with an idea they should be quick to embrace.
But it comes from a president whose agenda they seem to reflexively recoil against. And it also comes during an election year when the last thing they want to give him are any legislative victories that might help him win re-election.
Thus the dilemma for congressional Republicans.
If they reject it, Obama can add another arrow to his quiver of attacks against a do-nothing Congress while he can campaign as someone who would streamline government if only Republicans would let him.
And if congressional Republicans accept it, they give him a victory he can campaign on.
Either way, it allows him to better position himself against Mitt Romney, the likely Republican nominee. Romney's 59-point economic plan includes reducing the size of the federal workforce and eliminating duplication.
Friday's proposal gives Obama his own counter to Romney.
So now the ball's clearly in the Republican court. If the past is any guide, their response will be that Obama's plan doesn't go nearly far enough in whittling big government down to size.
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Now these are the ordinances which thou shalt set before them.
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
If he come in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he be married, then his wife shall go out with him.
If his master give him a wife and she bear him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
But if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
then his master shall bring him unto God, and shall bring him to the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever.
And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do.
If she please not her master, who hath espoused her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a foreign people he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.
And if he espouse her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
If he take him another [wife]; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
And if he do not these three things unto her, then shall she go out for nothing, without money.
He that smiteth a man, so that he dieth, shall surely be put to death.
And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver [him] into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.
And if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
And he that curseth his father or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
And if men contend, and one smite the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keep his bed;
if he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.
And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall surely be punished.
Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.
And if men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart, and yet no harm follow; he shall be surely fined, according as the woman's husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
But if any harm follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, and destroy it; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.
And if he smite out his man-servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
And if an ox gore a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be surely stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
But if the ox was wont to gore in time past, and it hath been testified to its owner, and he hath not kept it in, but it hath killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.
If there be laid on him a ransom, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
Whether it have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
If the ox gore a man-servant or a maid-servant, there shall be given unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein,
the owner of the pit shall make it good; he shall give money unto the owner thereof, and the dead [beast] shall be his.
And if one man's ox hurt another's, so that it dieth, then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the price of it: and the dead also they shall divide.
Or if it be known that the ox was wont to gore in time past, and its owner hath not kept it in, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead [beast] shall be his own.
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Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, isn’t shy about criticizing things that displease him. In recent months, he has taken aim at GitHub’s support for pull requests, the GNOME 3 user experience, and overzealous security mechanisms in software. That last case proved especially controversial, as Torvalds jokingly suggested that the developers responsible should kill themselves.
Now, computer graphics hardware manufacturer NVIDIA is his latest target. Torvalds publicly criticized the company last week during a question and answer session that followed a presentation. He called NVIDIA the “single worst company” that Linux developers have ever worked with, then pointed out that NVIDIA’s failure to work constructively with the Linux community is especially disappointing in light of the company’s large presence in the Android market.
After criticizing NVIDIA’s development practices, Torvalds concluded by addressing the company directly: “NVIDIA, FUCK YOU." Torvalds proceeded to raise his hand and present his middle finger. The talk was recorded, so the moment has been preserved for posterity (jump to the 49 minute mark for his remarks about NVIDIA).
Although it sometimes seems like AMD and NVIDIA are competing to see who can make the worst drivers for Linux, NVIDIA’s proprietary drivers are often the better of the two. AMD, however, has been more responsive to requests for collaboration from the Linux development community and has taken several steps to accommodate the development of open drivers.
NVIDIA hasn’t stepped up to officially support some features like its Optimus graphics switching technology on the Linux platform, and its drivers are also buggy and not particularly reliable. (Of course, NVIDIA’s track record with Windows drivers isn’t particularly good, either.)
The growing emphasis on hardware-accelerated rendering and ubiquitous compositing on the Linux desktop has made the graphics driver issue particularly painful in recent years. Linux developers have been working on independent open source driver implementations that are increasingly capable, though most are still no match for the proprietary drivers.
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You know how sometimes in life you make a friend, and at first you want to talk to her all the time, feverishly telling her details that, by their very personal nature, will bind you to this other person forever, or so you hope? But inevitably, of course, friendships shift and change and become something different from what they initially seemed.
I think books can undergo a similar transformation. You start reading a book thinking it's going to be one thing and one thing only, but after a while you realize it's gradually become something else, too. And so you feel a complicated set of emotions that replace your initial one-note purity.
I sort of felt this way about Susanna Sonnenberg's memoir She Matters: A Life in Friendships. Initially, I found myself drawn right in to the author's friendship vortex, fascinated by the knowing observations and beautiful writing she's applied to this most compelling of subjects. Here's Sonnenberg writing about an intense summer camp friendship, described to Judy Blume perfection:
"She stood next to me and we held in our stomachs when Greg La Rosa ambled by and said, 'Hi.' She explained marshmallow spread as we sat down with trays of Fluffernutter sandwiches ... She made me a peach-pit ring, and I made her a peach-pit ring.
"On my last day we said, 'How can I live without you?' "
What surprised me in this memoir was that, as the narrator gets older, her friends sometimes reveal that they certainly can live without her. There are bad, raw friendship breakups in this book. In one scene, Sonnenberg receives a letter from a girl who had been her college roommate 25 years earlier: "What she remembered of our acquaintance was that she hated me," Sonnenberg says.
And as a young mother, after a relaxed lunch with a friend, Sonnenberg gets an email that has the bluntness of a wartime telegram: "I can't be friends with you anymore," the woman says. And in yet another encounter, a vulnerable Sonnenberg asks a friend if she and her boys can come over that evening. The friend puts her off, asking to do it another night. Sonnenberg eventually confronts her, saying how hard it had been for her to ask for something specific.
"Well," [the friend] says, "my time."
To which Sonnenberg replies, "But I should count!"
That line serves as the heart of this book, because of course the author does count — not only to her friends, at least much of the time — but also to her readers, who will surely admire her honesty, intelligence and lack of vanity, and be occasionally taken aback by her unrelenting intensity. As a result, the book becomes not only what I initially thought it was — an affecting, emotional and nostalgic look at the ways in which women form bonds — but also just as much a study of the boundary issues that can crop up between friends and threaten to ruin everything.
Sonnenberg, who's aware of her passions and ambivalences, and doesn't hide from them, made me think about what a friendship is, anyway. After all, you're not related to these people, you're not married to them (although in one compelling episode, she does become lovers with a friend), so what exactly do you owe each other? What are the rules? And why do they keep changing all the time?
It should also be mentioned that the author's first book was also a memoir, about her dramatic, unstable, druggy mother, one of those people about whom other people probably said, "She was larger than life." A life-sized mother would have been just fine, for it's easy to see how having such an overwhelming mother might not only damage a daughter's friendship here and there, but also heighten a daughter's need for caretaking, love and attention from all female friends, forever. The author certainly is well aware of this, and she never tries to hide it, but simply gets it all down on paper.
But here's the funny thing: Had Susanna Sonnenberg written an empowering look at all the gentle women friends she's loved over the years, her book wouldn't have been interesting at all. Instead, I think, she's written something that interests, exhausts, moves, perplexes, impresses and yes, matters.
Meg Wolitzer's most recent book is called The Uncoupling. Her next book is The Interestings, which will come out in April.
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Several women pioneers in the sports world earned Distinguished Service Awards (DSA) and other honors from the United States Sports Academy’s 28th annual Awards of Sport to highlight the 40th anniversary of the landmark Title IX legislation that ushered in a new era of gender equity in college athletics.
The Academy’s Awards of Sport event annually pays tribute to those who have made significant contributions to sport and follows the theme “The Artist & the Athlete.” The awards show, which marks the university’s 40 years of excellence in sport education, is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 at the Academy’s Daphne, Ala., campus located at One Academy Drive.
In addition to Title IX advocates, this year’s Awards of Sport also honors several athletes, coaches and administrators who participated in the 2012 London Olympics. (Click here to see a complete list of the Academy’s 2012 Awards of Sport honorees.)
Among the nation’s top women in sports to be recognized by the Academy during to mark the 40th anniversary of Title IX are:
Billie Jean King, who earned an Honorary Doctorate from the Academy, is a legendary women’s professional tennis player who empowered women and educated men when she defeated Bobby Riggs in one of the greatest moments in sports history—the Battle of the Sexes in 1973. She continues to be a force in the advancement of women’s sports today.
Christine Grant, who earned the Academy’s Distinguished Service Award, is one of the most highly respected college sports administrators, especially for her work with Title IX and as a founding member and past president of Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). Grant, the University of Iowa’s former women’s athletic director, is viewed as one of the most respected scholars and activists on the Title IX issue.
Sue Gozansky is being honored with a DSA for her career as a player, coach, administrator and eventually a strong proponent for women’s sports during the 40-year evolution of Title IX. Gozansky began forging a path in women’s athletics before the law passed in 1972, playing on the UCLA and U.S. national volleyball team. In 1970, when she was hired at University of California, Riverside, she became one of the few female collegiate coaches in the United States.
Julie Foudy, a former star American women soccer player and current ESPN sportscaster, earned a Distinguished Service Award for becoming an outspoken advocate for women in sports in 2003 when the Title IX Commission was trying to weaken the landmark federal law. Foudy publicly criticized the Commission, attacking its proposed changes for among other things ignoring critical evidence, slanting facts, and inaccurately portraying the commission’s process as “open, fair and inclusive.”
For more background on the Academy’s Awards of Sport and a list of past winners, click here.
Please, join us for the Awards of Sport celebration at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 at the United States Sports Academy, located at One Academy Drive in Daphne, Ala. Wine and heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served. RSVP today by calling (251) 626-3303 or by emailing [email protected].
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Thursday, December 6, 2012
Annie Leibovitz Lists West Village Compound
LOCATION: New York City, NY
SIZE: 10,202 square feet with 13 fireplaces
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It's just come to Your Mama's attention, via the hard work of our unofficial researcher Hot Chocolate, that world famous and financially beleaguered photographer Annie Leibovitz has put her townhouse compound in New York City's historic West Village 'hood on the market with a sizable but probably not unreasonable $33,000,000.
This development may not be such a surprise to celebrity and high-end real estate watchers who surely recall that the celebrity snapping Miz Leibovitz ran into some financial issues a few years ago that just about forced her West Village compound into foreclosure. Several years ago, so the sordid story goes, Miz Leibovitz needed to scare up a toe curling $24,000,000 to cover a myriad of liens, loans, lawsuits, renovation costs and other debts.
Like many bankable artists in a pinch, Miz Leibovitz went to Art Capital Group, a private banking operation that provides loans to artists who often back the loans with their own art collection and future work(s). In Miz Leibovitz's case, the leviathan loan was collateralized by her significant but heavily mortgaged real estate holdings as well as the negatives and intellectual property rights to every photo she has ever taken. That's right puppies, every photo she has ever taken.
The brouhaha as settled in early 2010 with a kind of detente. Miz Leibovitz reportedly re-arranged the terms of the loan agreement in such as way as to buy her more time, re-purchased for an undisclosed amount the rights to act as her own "exclusive agent in the sale of her real property and copyrights...within the context of the loan agreement, which shall prevail until satisfied."
The complex consists, as per listing information, of three distinct but contiguous and at least partially interconnected ivy-covered red brick townhouses that surround a private garden. Property records and previous reports indicate Miz Leibovitz acquired the bulk of the complex in April 2002 for $4,150,000. She paid $1,870,000 for the third piece of her downtown real estate puzzle a few years later, in 2003.
Most if not all of one townhouse was converted and customized for Miz Leibovitz's studio space and offices. There are soaring ceiling in the main studio, multiple fireplaces, a private office, several smaller studios/work spaces and access to the garden through the English basement where there's more work space, ample storage and a kitchen. A triplex guest suite with living room, kitchen, and at least one bedroom with a full bath occupies at least part of the second townhouse.
The third townhouse was given over to the photographer's personal living space and includes—as best as we can surmise from listing information—a pared down but plush parlor level living room with two fireplaces and some of the most marvelous wide plank hardwood floors Your Mama has seen in a long time. Two doors in the living room lead into the formal dining room and a third into a compact but well and expensively equipped kitchen finished with a red leather built-in breakfast banquette, a wall of floor-to-ceiling stainless steel cabinets, marble counter tops, open shelving for daily dishware and direct access to the garden.
The third floor of the main residence is devoted entirely to the master suite and contains a large bedroom with wood-burning fireplace, a large walk-in closet plus several smaller ones as well, a windowed bathroom and a private den that opens into a sun room. There is convenient direct access from the den in the master suite to Miz Leibovitz's studio. There are four additional guest/family bedrooms and two bathrooms on the top floor—each with a wood-burning fireplace—plus a laundry room and a sky-lit playroom.
The English basement level has a separate entrances and offers one more bedroom and bathroom for guests or a live-in domestic worker, a second laundry room, enviable storage space and a spacious mud room.
As far as we know Miz Leibovitz still retains ownership of her 200-and-some acre country spread country off scenic River Road in Rhinebeck, NY.
listing photos: Brown Harris Stevens
Posted by Your Mama at 1:30 PM
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I’ve seen a few comments today that have taken Pope Benedict’s resignation as some kind of implicit criticism of Bl. John Paul II: Benedict’s predecessor stayed in office until his passing, despite severe health problems. Others have said that Pope Benedict’s decision was somehow cowardly, and that he should have soldiered on to the end like the last Pontiff.
Both of these responses completely miss the mark.
While we are all part of one Body, we are different parts. St. Paul says that “the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” While we are all called to reflect Christ to the world, we are not all called to reflect the same aspects of His beauty and character. I think this must be true even of those that God has chosen to be Popes: within the Petrine charism, I think that the successors of Peter bring different charisms to the office.
Bl. John Paul II passed from this earth in a very public manner and with great dignity. The author of Evangelium Vitae bore witness to human dignity, even on his death bed. He seemed to be preaching, even from his death bed, that human life always bears the image of God, even when, in the world’s eyes, it is frail and weak. This was the finish line to which Christ Jesus called him.
Pope Benedict is laying down his authority for the good of the Church. Rather than seeking his own glory, he is showing grace and humility. With his abdication, he is preaching servant leadership, prayerful discernment, and seeking first the Kingdom of God. This, also, is the finish line to which Christ Jesus called him.
Both men have truly lived out their calling to be the Vicar of Christ on earth, albeit in different ways. Both have been gifts to the Church. Both have finished the race well.
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Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Australia has been voted the world’s happiest country after topping the OECD's annual Better Life Index, beating Norway and the United States.
The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development surveyed its 34 member nations on 11 topics: housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety and work-life balance.
Australians gave their life satisfaction a score of 7.4 out of 10, above the average of 6.7 among the nations surveyed. Surprisingly, America and Spain rated their life satisfaction above Australia despite the dire state of their economies and high levels of unemployment, compared with Australia's strong economic fundamentals.
And despite all the recent political turmoil Australians still have faith in the nation's governance, with the survey finding 74 percent trust their political institutions.
In its latest economic outlook the OECD forecast Australian growth of 3.1 per cent in 2012 and 3.7 per cent in 2013, after a 2.2 per cent expansion in 2011.
Commenting the data Acting Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan said the forecasts show Australia will significantly outperform the 34-member bloc this year and next.
"Australia's economic fundamentals remain strong, with our economy expected to grow more strongly than every single major advanced economy over the next two years," Mr Swan said in statement.
By contrast, the OECD expects a "muted and fragile" recovery in many other advanced economies, largely due to the lingering effects of past global turmoil and very challenging economic conditions facing Europe, the treasurer said.
OECD deputy secretary-general Pier Carlo Padoan warned in the report that the crisis in the euro area had become "more serious" recently and remained the most important source of risk to the global economy.
Against this backdrop, the OECD expects growth across OECD economies to remain at 1.6 per cent in 2012 before picking up to 2.2 per cent in 2013.
But Mr Swan also noted that among Australia's key trading partners, the OECD expects China's economy will grow by 8.2 per cent in 2012 and by 9.3 per cent in 2013.
Mr Swan welcomed the OECD's backing for this month's federal budget.
The Paris-based institution said the restoration of "fiscal leeway" in the 2012/13 federal budget was timely and approved of the Labor government's measures to reach an "ambitious" albeit "slight" surplus, after a deficit in the current financial year.
"The 2012/13 budget ensures that the Australian economy remains amongst the strongest in the developed world, by delivering four years of surpluses to provide a buffer in uncertain global times and give the Reserve Bank room to cut interest rates further should it decide to do so," Mr Swan said.
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Published on: September 26, 2008In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, LSC-Kingwood students and the Houston Food Bank have come together to provide relief to hurricane victims. Beginning Wednesday, October 1 and continuing through Tuesday, October 14, LSC-Kingwood students will be collecting canned goods and other non-perishable donations through a campus-wide food drive.
The Houston Food Bank is a private, nonprofit organization leading the fight against hunger. A certified member of Feeding American (formerly America's Second Harvest-The Nation's Food Bank Network, the Houston Food Bank distributed 35 million pounds of food to nearly 400 hunger relief agencies in 18 southeast Texas counties.
The following is a list of items most needed by the programs served by the Houston Food Bank. Please choose plastic containers or canned items rather than glass. In addition to canned goods items such as can openers, personal hygiene items, gift cards and cash are being accepted.
For the safety of those served, the Houston Food Bank is unable to accept open packages, baby food, homemade food items, perishable foods, or items with "expired" dates.
Please be as generous as you can. Families are struggling in our community, now more than ever. And after the hurricane is long gone, the Houston Food Bank will continue to provide help to those who suffer from hunger throughout the year.
Students, staff, faculty and community members are encouraged to drop off donations at any of the collection bins located at the main entrances of each campus building or collections bins located throughout the community. For more information about the student food drive, donation locations, or to make a donation, visit kingwood.lonestar.edu or call 281-312-1679.
Lone Star College System consists of five colleges, including Cy-Fair, Kingwood, Montgomery, North Harris, and Tomball, six centers and the Lone Star College-University Center. With 49,250 students, it is the largest college system in the Houston area, and third largest community college district in Texas. To learn more, visit LoneStar.edu.
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Home offices are becoming increasingly common as evermore people work from the domestic environment. The Internet has enabled remote working, while rapid developments in computer hardware mean that all office activities can be carried out on very simple setups, often needing little more than a laptop, desk, telephone or mobile device. As such, home office interior design can be very simple and uncluttered, stylishly minimalist and arranged for maximum productivity. This post brings together 20 examples of neat and minimal office setups to amaze and inspire.
This user is the assigned administrator for public submission posts. Public Contributor has contribute 190 awesome articles for WPTidBits.
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New Orleans Area
One of the country's oldest and most interesting cities, New Orleans is known as a culturally rich and vibrant center of fun, festivity, fine dining and history. Landmarks and historically significant architecture abound, as do sights, attractions and activities for families. Discover the restaurants, clubs and centuries-old buildings of the world-famous French Quarter and the grand homes of the Garden District. Ride a streetcar along beautiful, oak-draped St. Charles Avenue. Take the kids to the Audubon Zoo and Aquarium, visit the National World War II Museum, and stop for amazing views of paddlewheelers and freighters on the mighty Mississippi River. Take a drive south to Venice, and charter an offshore fishing boat for a day of trophy fishing on the Gulf of Mexico. Or drive just minutes out of New Orleans to Chalmette and visit the site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. Visit the area during Mardi Gras or during the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to enjoy major international events you will never forget.
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The Spiegel has a piece (g) called the "The Beta Bloggers" [h/t FJM] on why Germany doesn't have as many good blogs as it should. Few Germans read blogs on a daily basis, and of Germany's roughly 500,000 blogs, only about 200,000 are active.
And many of the ones that are are crap. The Spiegel writers, drawing on both German and American sources, point out a number of problems in the German blogosphere. First, there are relatively few political blogs. Second, the ones that do exist don't do any original reporting or convey new insights; they're generally just platforms for disgruntled Social Democrats/Christians/environmentalists to bitch about some policy or politician they dislike. Third, the German-language blogosphere is filled with thin-skinned malcontents who think that an audience of
millions dozens is interested in their childish, invective-fueled online feuds. Fourth, there are relatively few "expert" bloggers -- that is, people who in real life actually have some advantage in knowledge over their readers. There are exceptions of course (you'll find some of them on my sidebar). Overall, though, most of the German blogosphere can be safely ignored.
Compare that to the USA, the Spiegel authors suggest. Of course, there's all sorts of invective and ignorance in the American blogosphere, but it's also given rise to blogs whose original reporting, thoughtful analysis, or expert insight genuinely contribute to debates over important issues. There are also blogs that serve as potent online rallying-points and fund-raising conduits. Because these blogs are consistently worth reading, they eventually increase in influence to the point where they rival more "official" news sources. Germany is still light-years behind the USA in this respect, and, the Spiegel suggests, may never catch up.
Do I have theories about Germany's bloggy weaknesses? Did you have to ask?
- A national culture of modesty that frowns upon too much self-expression. Americans have the advantage here. They're hardly afraid of looking like fools, and like to talk about themselves. Combine that with a high-level of tech-savviness, and you'll get a profusion of online self-realization. An entertaining example can be found here.
- German experts, such as constitutional law professors or economists, do not see the point of blogging. Many of them have never even heard the word before. Frequently, they live in tiny, hermetically-sealed little information universes, and have almost no idea what's going on in the big world outside. The ones who do wish to communicate with larger groups generally favor the traditional media, where they can be assured of reaching other members of elite -- and being protected from "ignorant" feedback from ordinary readers, who are "not qualified to have an opinion."
- The average German is content to let a select group of experts (that is, the editorial staff of whatever paper he reads) choose the information and views he is exposed to. Generally, people are going to feel the most motivation to broadcast their point of view if they consider it unique -- that is, if they don't tell the world what they think, nobody else will, because nobody else thinks like they do. (See the link in #1). Comparatively few Germans are interested in developing and defending a highly original worldview. That would involve risk, and we know how Germans are with risk...*
- Germany's hierarchical, party-driven, elite-dominated political structure doesn't foster the belief that ordinary citizens can meaningfully change government policies. There is a great deal of political ferment and activism in Germany, but it tends to happen at the local level. Since there is no critical mass of people who consider the Internet a tool for positive political mobilization (rather than ranting), there is no real incentive to try to form mass movements or raise large amounts of money on-line. People pass out flyers or organize community meetings here, they don't start websites. And if they do, they don't do it with anywhere near the level of professionalism and sophistication that American bloggers do.
- Germany has a tradition of vituperative political disputation that serves as a model for many political bloggers. The political writings of Karl Kraus, Kurt Tucholsky, Bertolt Brecht, just to name a few examples, contain some of the most smolderingly bitter invective that has ever been committed to paper -- much of it entertaining and aimed at deserving victims, I hasten to add. Adopting these writers as models is dangerous, though. The thousands of Kraus-epigones in the German-speaking online world usually just come off sounding pompous and bitter.
Let me make clear that the above points are all meant to try to explain why things don't happen online in Germany. There's plenty of savvy citizen activism and expert opinion-mongering in Germany, don't get me wrong. It just doesn't happen online.
This is partly a selection problem, similar to what you find everywhere with the internet. The set of genuine experts, gumshoe journalists, and serious political activists still doesn't overlap with the set of internet-savvy people. What's happening in the U.S. is that these sets are quickly merging. This means that understanding how to make your argument or advance your cause on the internet (as opposed to traditional fora such as a protest march, community meeting, radio call-in show, or op-ed) is now seen as a basic life skill.
* This is not to say that Germans have no opinions. They've got lots of them, and enjoy expressing them. As the Greg Nees book I linked to a while back put it, "Germans ... shy away less from delicate issues like religion, politics, and sex than do Americans. This is something Germans miss when trying to have a satisfactory conversation with Americans, who are less willing to express different points of view, or at least to express them so bluntly. Germans do not necessarily like controversy more than Americans, but they shy away from it less. They share a widespread belief that it is important to be informed and to have an opinion, especially as regards politics. Not to do so is seen as a sign of poor character—and this is not only so among the highly educated Germans. Even among working-class people, talking about politics and other controversial issues is a common pastime. From the German perspective, having a good—even if somewhat confrontational—discussion allows the conversationalists to get to know one another better as well as helping them understand the world a little more. People who rarely express a clear point of view are viewed negatively as glatt (slippery), or 'lacking format.'" (p, 80-81)
Thus, if you hang around Germans, you will certainly hear lots of political opinions. But, in my experience, they'll generally be ones that (1) sound a lot like ones you've heard before; and (2) are invariably in-line with the opinions of other people in the same general social category.
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| 0.966857 | 1,469 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Translink urged to deliver long-awaited bus station
The tide is said to be turning on Banbridge’s decades-long battle for a bus station, after a local delegation descended upon Stormont to highlight the issue with politicians there.
A number of local representatives spoke to members of the Regional Development Committee to plead the case for the town.
It has emerged Translink lodged a planning application for the station in July this year, just two months after the body’s Chief Executive Catherine Mason told Banbridge District Council she couldn’t see funding becoming available for the project in the short-term.
Ms Mason also enraged councillors at the time by insisting risk assessments carried out by the PSNI and Roads Service had found the current site, outside the Downshire Arms Hotel in Newry Street, not to be a health and safety hazard.
Now, it is understood a financial appraisal is also being carried out for the scheme, which it is hoped would see a bus station built at what is currently Kenlis Street car park.
A delegation including local councillors and Stormont Assembly members said they got the “full support” of the DRD Committee last week in their bid to boost the campaign for a station.
Banbridge Regeneration Company member John Dobson said that while he is hopeful of a positive outcome on what has been a long-running issue, he would challenge Translink to finally deliver on the project.
“In my view Catherine Mason is rather too good at telling people why things can’t be done,” he said.
“I believe that public service is about telling people how things can be done and how a positive outcome can be achieved.”
Mr Dobson said the need for a station is plain to see.
“We have always believed that anyone can see the conditions are so bad in Banbridge that they need to be improved.
““If the Chief Executive of a body dedicated to providing transport considers there is no need for a bus station in Banbridge I find that a very strange view.
“It’s beside four lanes and a roundabout. It’s the furthest point from a pedestrian crossing in Newry Street, it’s the busiest point of Newry Street with a narrow footpath and mixes taxi traffic with local traffic.
“It’s fortunate there hasn’t been a reported accident.”
Mr Dobson said the he is delighted to see the situation moving forward.
“We are happy that the Minister intends if it is possible to deliver a bus station, We are happy that the committee will be 100 per cent supportive of that,” he said.
“The members of the committee who are not familiar were amazed to learn of the conditions we have to operate within.
“I would be hopeful that all efforts would be made that we don’t have to tolerate another winter after this one.”
When asked for further detail on the plans, a Translink spokeswoman said, “We can confirm that a business case to construct a new bus station in Banbridge has been submitted to the Department for Regional Development.”
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Weather for Banbridge
Friday 24 May 2013
Temperature: 3 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North
Temperature: 5 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South
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Today (Sept. 29) is National Coffee Day, a highly important, thoroughly made-up event.
Although Hallmark has yet to create an official greeting card, others have hopped mightily on the caffeinated bandwagon.
It might be a good idea, too. According to a report from the National Coffee Association, coffee consumption is up 7 percent from 2011. A study from the “New England Journal of Medicine” tracked the health of more than 400,000 older adults for nearly 14 years. Coffee drinkers were less likely to die during the study than those who didn’t drink it. The study also found that men and women who averaged f o u r or five cups of Joe per day had the lowest risk of death.
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A tourist hiker stands beside the shores of Moraine Lake and watches people canoeing on the lake The grand scenery of Moraine Lake and the Wenkchemna Peaks, or 10 Peaks at Moraine Lake make the area a popular tourist destination for hiking, canoeing, photography and adventures. Hiker, Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Click the image to see how good I look in red.
I was scanning through some images recently and stumbled on to this one. Here’s me in stunning mauve at Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, in Alberta Canada.
Most photographers know how much difference putting a person or 2 in the photo can make to the salability of an image. And adding some color makes a difference as well.
But the image must tell a story. For stock photography, the more generic the story might be, the more possible different uses it might have. This could be a tourist, a hiker, someone lost, a photographer, etc. It could even be someone advertising Arcteryx jackets.
But the real story of this photo, for me, is my first time to Moraine Lake. I spend a whole day just soaking up the grandeur of this place. I can think of very few places that are so simply pretty as the Canadian Rockies. They’re almost picture perfect. Many other places have a wonder all their own, and I’d never forsake the wildness of Wrangell – St. Elias National Park, for example, for the Canadian Rockies. But for sheer ‘hop out of the car and be amazed’ classical mountain beauty, the Canadian Rockies have it going on.
I’d been to Jasper National Park a few times, photographing wildlife there. I’d driven through Banff in order to get to Jasper. And I’d thought to myself ‘wow, Banff is pretty’ more than once. But the first time I drive up to Moraine Lake, got out the car and walked over to the lake, it just floored me. I walked along the lake’s edge, and sat and stared at everything. At the detail or these incredible peaks above me, the silence of the montane forest, and that water. That amazing water. It just absolutely blew me away.
They day was cloudy, it was early in the summer, and few people were around; those that were had taken rental canoes out on the lake, and I had the shoreline pretty much to myself. So I just sat and soaked it in. If you ever go to Banff National Park, and I recommend that you do, at least once in your life, give yourself plenty of time up at Moraine Lake. It takes time just to see it – you can’t stand at the overlook, glance around, and see it all. give yourself a day, and embrace the place. Your life will be richer for it.
More photos of Banff National Park.
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Mr Silvano de Gennaro, song writer and manager of the “Cernettes” had asked the four crooning dazzling ladies to give their best shot and “Lean in and smile” for a CD cover. He used the Canon EOS 650 that made history in 1992. It had clicked the first picture to be uploaded on the internet. Two decades ago a British Crooner and a CERN laboratory music group Les Horribles Cernettes (LHC), appeared in the 1st picture posted on the World Wide Web.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research centre, in Switzerland had the moment livened by 50 year old Colette Marx-Nielsen who acted and crooned along with the all-female parody comedy group,Les Horribles Cernettes (LHC). The significant photograph of Mrs.Marx-Nielsen and three other singers was clicked by Silvano de Gennaro on July 18th, 1992 and was the 1st picture uploaded on to the internet.
Silvano de Gennaro working at CERN as an IT developer clicked the snap and his colleague a computer scientist who developed the WWW (World Wide Web) Sir Tim Berners-Lee posted it online. The historical promotional picture clicked at the Hardonic Music Festival, had the group pose in period costumes from the 1950’s at the annual “rock festival” at the music club in a Geneva Laboratory.
Mrs.Marx-Nielsen, initially staying at Glasgow has now shifted to the South of France. She works as a voice teacher in Beausoleil. Tuesday was the eve of the 20th anniversary of the photo upload and Mrs. Mark-Nielsen felt that the photograph needed more recognition and people should realize its importance “I kinda put it out sometimes and say, ‘well, I’m in the first photograph on the World Wide Web’ (but) people don’t really care,” the formerly famous Colette Reilly stated to an online magazine from New York. “I suppose it had to be somebody and it just happened to be us.”
Mr. Silvano de Gennaro, head of multimedia productions at CERN mused over the past moment and said “When history happens, you don’t know that you’re in it,” claimed Mr. De Gennaro, who plans to move to Mauritius after his upcoming retirement. Sir Tim had been experimenting recent web upgrades at that time and was looking for a “guinea-pig image” to upload. Gennaro said he had been trying out the “scanned.gif version” with Photoshop on his Apple Mac.
“I was like, ‘why do you want to put the Cernettes on that? It’s only text!’ And he (Sir Tim) said, ‘no, it’s gonna be fun’.” The picture file was given to a programmer on the internet project, Mr.Jean-François Groff. A slightly altered and superimposed picture was successfully uploaded.
The sad thing is that Mr. de Gennaro’s original computer “died around 1998”, taking the original file along to extinction.
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Gingrich will point out the lack of left-wing outrage over our involvement in Libya. As a senator, Obama insisted that the President needed congressional approval to send troops into harm’s way — unless the country was under imminent threat. Yet for the joint bombing of Libya, a mission the Obama administration called “humanitarian,” Obama sought no congressional approval.
Gingrich will stand up against explicit or implied charges of racism. He scored by not backing down from Fox’s Juan Williams, who accused him of racial callousness for saying poor urban children lack working role models, and for calling Obama a “food stamp president.” Gingrich stood his ground and engaged in a needed, if uncomfortable, national discussion about the damage done to the family by the welfare state. This resonates with voters who are tired of being accused of racism for questioning whether the welfare state now hurts the very people it purports to help.
The White House narrative of why Obama should be re-elected is this: Obama rescued the country from destruction — and Republicans stand in his way from doing even bigger and better things for the country. Obama insists that “every economist” agrees that TARP, the bailouts and stimulus rescued an economy headed for Armageddon.
Gingrich will forcefully argue that in the early ’80s, Reagan saw higher unemployment, inflation and interest rates. But no one calls that period The Great Recession. Unlike Obama, Reagan cut taxes, slowed down the rate of domestic spending and continued deregulation. And the economy took off, averaging — by this stage in the Reagan recovery — between 6.5 and 7 percent quarterly growth vs. the current anemic 2 percent.
The media will not properly scrutinize Obama’s narrative. Count on them, however, to examine and reject Gingrich’s narrative that Obama’s policies place a dangerous and hard drag on the economy.
Gingrich has declared war on the anti-Republican media pro-liberal bias and double standard that give Democrat candidates a built in 8- to 10-point advantage. It’s about time. We’ve got a country to save.
Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: Click here.
Pages: 1 2
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Iran's Student Protests on Video
Protesters gathered at universities in Tehran, Iran, earlier today to voice their discontent with President Ahmadinejad as well as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who, unlike the president, does not often face public criticism. The university protesters, chanting "death to dictator," were joined by protesters in surrounding regions. The protests fall on the day of commemoration for three Iranian students killed in 1953.
Though phones were down in Tehran, making it difficult for protesters to coordinate or publicize their activities, and foreign media are banned from the country, Enduring America has great video coverage of the day’s protest:
The police have fired on protesters, exiled Iranian opposition leaders in neighboring countries told the BBC earlier today. The BBC also reported one especially ironic twist: as protesters filled the streets, a round-table discussion on student loyalty was broadcast on state television.
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My 25 y.o. TB hasn't eaten more than a few bites of food since yesterday. His food was moved with him, so is identical. The environment is different, but safe. He has a stall and run. He spends his time pacing, or staring off into space.
I know he should snap out of this, but am worried.
His move was only 15 minutes away. He has had some water. He doesn't seem sick, just upset, and distressed. He is not very interested in treats. He is not normally a great eater. Grazing is a good idea, but there is not much grass here right now. I might let him try and find some tomorrow.
That and maybe some ranitidine. Also, when I am going to be doing something out of the ordinary, I will put my sensitive TB on a probiotic for a few days before and after the "out of ordinary" activity (showing, moving, etc. etc.)
Check carefully his water intake and only toss 1 flake of hay at a time. It will be easier to monitor him that way.
You might want to use a water bucket and fill it with lukewarm water.
He might not be drinking enough, so he won't eat.
Maybe there is something he doesn't like about the water smell or taste or maybe it is too cold.
Ulcer treatment is also a good idea.
If you could get him to eat some calming supplement if you have some and he's used to. Call your vet.
My mare was off her feed for almost 4 days when we moved to a new place across the street from old place. She is typically a chow hound, so I was shocked. With an older horse, it must be even more scary/frustrating. All recs above are good. Hopefully he will come around soon.
I found that if I walk him up and down the barn aisle and let him "graze" on loose hay, he is interested in eating. But as soon as I put him back in the stall he is listless again. It's probably a social issue and he thinks he needs to see the other horses in order to feel safe enough to eat.
This evening, I might break up a flake of hay, and scatter it along the aisle so he can graze on it. Hmm, wonder what the new barn owner will think?
is there a paddock you can turn him out in where he can see the other horses, and get fed out there? I used to teach at a place where there was one horse that wasn't thrilled with stalls, so she got to stay in the center aisle of the barn and eat hay out there, and she was happy as a clam.
My mare was off her feed for about a week the last time I moved her.
I was pretty concerned about colic and her water intake so I fed her a fair amount of very wet soaked beet pulp 2-3 times a day for that first week. Luckily, while she wasn't eating her hay, she was willing to slurp down the beet pulp. I believe she would have colicked without it.
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Building a 2020 Vision of Entrepreneurship in Lebanon: Part 2
As I discussed in my last post, building an entrepreneurship ecosystem that consistently empowers small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in Lebanon will have to involve helping startups reach international markets; the local market is simply too small to support a rapidly scaling business.
Yet it’s critical to create an easier environment that will help companies migrate from the informal to the formal economy, and will help boost government tax revenue in the process.
imagine an environment where one can register a one person company within 24 hours on the internet at a cost of LL 75,000 (or even less), all included, and pay a low flat yearly tax until the company reaches a certain size and income level. Making registration simple will also fuel the enterprise service economy (auditors, lawyers, etc.), and everyone will gain from the increased number of business start-ups.
At the other end of the business lifecycle, closing a business must also become less burdensome. The regulatory environment should allow for mechanisms where bankruptcy can be avoided, as failure is an integral part of the lifecycle of a business.
Risk and Failure
Most highly entrepreneurial economies have accepted the fact of failure; however, in Lebanon, failure is stigmatized. While Europe has still a conservative approach to entrepreneurship, compared to, for example, the U.S., it’s a sign of progress that in a recent set of 10 principles set forth in Think Small First: A Small Business Act for Europe, the European Union has designated a principle focusing on bankruptcy: “Ensure that honest entrepreneurs who have faced bankruptcy quickly get a second chance.”
We learn from our failures. When one talks to entrepreneurs from the Silicon Valley, more often than not, entrepreneurs have failed at least once before succeeding in a business. Indeed, it is the ones who have not failed that are looked at suspiciously. Having a culture that is tolerant of failure is critical.
Furthermore, we need to address the issue of risk. The level of risk taking in Lebanon is very low. When we hear of academics advising students to get jobs instead of trying to develop an idea or an opportunity, we can only wonder. Often it may be the case that the idea pursued is not ideal for a variety of reasons, but it is vitally important not to dampen the passion and aspiration of our young talents. If they don’t have the necessary experience, then let them find it or hire it.
Which is riskier, trying to start your business after university (with the proper support that exists in Lebanon) when one has few immediate responsibilities, or starting it 5 or 10 years later when one has a family and financial obligations? Not everyone will become an entrepreneur and start a business. But those who have the drive and passion should be given all the support necessary. We have started to see a change in behavior in the past couple of years but there is still a long way to go.
Leveraging the Diaspora
When it comes to building organizations that will live on after the departure of the founder, Lebanon is also lagging behind. Why are Lebanese are so successful outside of Lebanon, in countries where the ecosystem allows them to be innovative and entrepreneurial? Why not give them the same chances in Lebanon and have them stay or come back here?
That said, the diaspora is potentially one of our biggest assets. With so many Lebanese abroad and quite often in important positions within societies, Lebanese entrepreneurs have a formidable ally in the diaspora. The biggest challenge is determining how to connect and leverage them. The model of having a sales and marketing arm in a foreign country with a large market while housing the headquarters, back office or research and development center in Lebanon, employing local talent, is one approach that has proven successful (for instance, for Amphipole).
We can also leverage the diaspora as a source of funding, a reservoir of expertise, a market or as a source of innovative ideas that can be transplanted back home.
Back home, it’s not all stagnation, however; efforts are being made to improve the business environment. The private and public sector are aware of the need for change. Some issues can be dealt with in the short term, helping to bring our ecosystem up to par without reinventing the wheel. However, we need to take a long term view, as I mentioned in my previous post.
Specifically, I suggest we create a “Lebanon 2020” vision process, to determine what kind of economic environment Lebanon can achieve. We need to assess what sectors can be boosted to bring the most sustainable results to our economy, and what kind of advantages can be leveraged, beginning with our educated and talented population. This vision should not prescribe rigid policies, but rather should create the environment to generate a buoyant and innovative economy.
Despite all difficulties it has faced, the entrepreneurial ecosystem has made great progress in the past 5 years with more organizations supporting startups then ever before. Yet if we don’t do anything, we will continue to regress and our momentum. But if we collectively create a shared vision for the future, we will be able to meet the challenge that is facing us.
Lebanon is a diamond in the rough. Every one of us recognizes it. But if it stays in the rough, we will have missed our chance. As the old Asian adage says, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second best time is now.” So it’s time to act. We owe it to the youth and the children of Lebanon.
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Inside a the Air Force Academy is a hidden gem to help cadets to achieve their goals on the field and in the field. It's called the Human Performance Lab. Lt. Col. Mike Zupan has spent 14 years in the lab to find new ways to help the cadets achieve their physical goals.
Lt. Col. Zupan was watching the Girls Soccer Team as they were in what's called the tent. It's a special room that helps simulate different altitudes. Not only does it help athletes, but it can save lives says Zupan, "If we can improve performances before they go to Afghanistan, then they are not not going to be as easy as a target. It's rewarding, it's real."
Leah Bratt is one of the AFA athletes who has seen the success of the human performance lab in her own soccer career at the Academy. She told me, "I think the biggest thing is strength wise. I feel I'm more strong when I'm running. When I'm against that person I have the advantage of the first three steps. I'm not as tired as them."
Kylie Williamson is also a soccer player and has seen the positives that Lt Col. Zupan has helped athletes with, in the performance lab. However, she also sees the real world benefit when it comes warriors whose lab experience could help save their lives, "If I can keep going facing people who can't, it's a benefit for all of us. Being in shape can save your life in the military."
If you want to nominate your own Wear Red Friday Hero, go to our front page and scroll down the right side.
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Eco Serendib Villa and Spa, an eight-suite eco-friendly, luxury villa, debuted on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands in June. Harith Wickrema, president of the Philadelphia-based communication and event production company Harith Productions and a faculty member of the School of Tourism and Hospitality at Temple University, is the owner and visionary behind the property.
Wickrema wanted to create an environment that would minimize the property’s carbon footprint by incorporating sustainable practices, while also providing an educational experience for guests. “The villa showcases how you don’t necessarily have to sacrifice luxury and modern conveniences to live a greener existence,” he says.
Wickrema brought together a select group of companies that are committed to the environment. For example, ESA Renewables installed Suniva rooftop solar panels, which significantly reduce Eco Serendib’s carbon emissions and energy costs. The property has three separate 20,000-gallon cisterns to collect rainwater, the pool is filled with saltwater, and the outdoor furniture was produced using sustainable plantation management systems. Other eco elements include water-conserving bath products, a gray water irrigation system, and energy-efficient kitchen appliances.
Eco Serendib is the first property Wickrema has developed and managed, but perhaps not the last. “As things are fine-tuned and perfected, we would certainly consider expansion with the right investor group,” he says.
Wednesday, June 05, 2013 by green modular homes
K8dt9T A big thank you for your article.Really looking forward to read more. Will read on...
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(CNN/WIBW) – A weak jobs report Friday was followed quickly by finger pointing from Republicans, who blamed President Barack Obama for enacting policies that have prevented growth and dissuaded employers from hiring.
U.S. employers created 80,000 jobs in June, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2%.
Reaction from Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (R) Kansas
Washington—Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins issued the following statement today in response to the latest jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. In June, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.2%.
“Today’s disappointing jobs report marks the third straight month of bad news for the economy. There are still 12.7 million unemployed Americans struggling to find work and millions more that have completely given up looking.
“We have yet to make much, if any, progress in the past six months. We can do better. It is time for Washington to wake up, and start pursuing policies that encourage small businesses to hire, rather than giving them another reason to stay on the sidelines.
“The recent health care decision is a perfect example of a policy that raises costs and increases uncertainty for employers. This is why next week, House Republicans will vote once again to repeal the president’s health care law that is making it more difficult for small businesses to grow.
“In the coming months, it is my hope that all parties in Washington will work together to pursue common-sense solutions that will unshackle the American economy. These solutions include reining in our excessive spending, implementing comprehensive tax reform, and removing the red tape from unnecessary regulations.”
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This is very interesting because it brings up another difference between exp pedal inputs on guitar type processors and those on keyboards. I was coming at this more from experience with guitar processors and I should have mentioned that in my post. On guitar processors (and MIDI floor controllers used with them), some degree of programmable expression pedal control is quite common. One reason is that with guitars, exp pedals are often used for wah. A standalone wah pedal has a fairly restricted sweep and exp pedals which mimic that do not complete the full rotation of the pot exactly as you describe. So a start and stop voltage for the pedal has to be programmed. Also guitar exp ports often double as switch ports and can be programmed to expect latching or momentary switches in the expression pedal ports for IA, tap tempo and similar functions. Most guitar processors I have found do expect an exp pedal to use a 3 wire connection and function as voltage divider although some, Line 6 being the most notable, use a 2 wire variable resistor. There is a chart of MIDI floor controllers herehttp://axefxwiki.guitarlogic.org/images/0/09/Floor_controllers_8.jpg a> that lists the models that have at least expression pedal calibration functions. James.
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Public Papers - 1990
Nomination of Sylvia Alice Earle To Be Chief Scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The President today announced his intention to nominate Sylvia Alice Earle to be Chief Scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce. She would succeed Melvin N.A. Peterson.
Since 1981, Dr. Earle has served as founder, director, and chief executive officer of Deep Ocean Technology, Inc., in San Leandro, CA. Prior to this, she served on the board of directors for Undersea Industries, Inc., 1978 - 1981; and as corporate secretary-treasurer of Sea Films, Inc., and Ocean Films, Inc., of Berkeley, CA, 1976 - 1978. In addition, Dr. Earle has served as a part-time manager and operator of Mead Ranch in Napa, CA, 1967 - 1976; and co-founder and secretary-treasurer of Aquaculture International, Inc., 1967 - 1970. She has served as fellow, research biologist, and curator at the California Academy of Sciences since 1979; research associate at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1969 to 1981; and research fellow at the Farlow Herbarium, Harvard University, since 1967.
Dr. Earle graduated from St. Petersburg Junior College (A.A., 1953), Florida State University (B.A., 1955), and Duke University (M.A., 1956; Ph.D., 1966). She was born August 30, 1935, in Gibbstown, NJ. Dr. Earle is married, has seven children, and resides in Oakland, CA.
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Crowding Out Watch, Updated
I'm teaching the concept of portfolio crowding out in my intermediate macro course (handout with algebra here) now, and as I was going through the notes, I observed that last I had checked, there was (still!) little evidence of crowding out. Here's the graph, updated with data through 2/25 (that is, pretty much the same story as last time I discussed this, despite the hysterics).
Figure 1: Ten year constant maturity TIPS yields (blue), and observation for 2/25 (blue square); five year constant maturity TIPS yields (green), and observation for 2/25 (green circle); and ten year constant maturity yield adjusted by ten year median expected CPI inflation rate (red circles), observation for 2/25 (red open circle). NBER defined recession date shaded gray. Source: FREDII, Philadelphia Fed Survey of Professional Forecasters, NBER and author's calculations.
Relative to my September post, the ten year TIPS is slightly up, but the five year remains at zero (well, actually negative).
This means that whatever upward pressure there is on government interest rates due to the large supply of government debt, it is being offset by low demand from the private sector (or by demand from offshore sources).
Of course, the crowding out of investment phenomenon relies upon a variety of assumptions. It follows from a two asset model (money, bonds), with the right parameter values. With three assets, one can get "crowding in". And even if interest rates had risen, if investment depends upon income (or the change in income), one could still get a net increase
in investment from a positive fiscal impulse.
Another implication of having interest rates at zero (at least the five year real) is that if fiscal policy is made more contractionary (as in some recent plans), then the contractionary impact should be large (this is just the mirror image of fiscal policy effectiveness in a liquidity trap). For more discussion/links of the economics, see here. For recent discussion of the impact by the economic research firms, see here and here. In his testimony today, Fed Chairman Bernanke indicated he believed the Moody's Analytics estimate was high, as it was described to him (although there was some back and forth on whether the estimates pertained to calender or fiscal years, and the magnitude of the cuts, so I'm not sure exactly how much of a difference there is in terms of per dollar impact).
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Questions you should be asking about your software
December 12, 2006
Manufacturing software has come a long way in just the last five years. Independent software developers point out some of the advancements in manufacturing software in the hopes that some fabricators realize they may be missing out on some real production-optimization tools.
Software has changed the nature of fabricating. Most fabricating shops hammer out the manufacturing details of a job on their own computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software packages immediately upon receipt of the customer's engineering drawings. Some of the more aggressive fabricating shops even might go back to the engineers and suggest ways to make the part more manufacturing-friendly and, perhaps, take some cost out of it simultaneously.
Some fabricating shops are going a step further—engineering parts and assemblies for customers. The computer-aided design (CAD) tools that used to be found only on the desks of engineers working for Fortune 1000 manufacturers are now available for those further down the supply chain, including fabricators.
In short, CAD/CAM tools have grown more affordable and user-friendly, while manufacturing relationships have grown more complex. Fortunately, the software tools, particularly from a CAM and nesting standpoint, are helping fabricators to stay competitive with the hope of improving even more.
Glenn Binder, vice president of sales, SigmaTEK Systems, said the folks at machine tool builder Mazak understand the opportunity that lies ahead for fabricating shops.
"Mazak calls it the 93 percent/7 percent rule," he said. "They say we spend only 7 percent of our total manufacturing lead-time burning. Ninety-three percent of the manufacturing lead-time—defined as the time between the customer placing the order to the time that the fabricator delivers the goods—is time wasted on non-value-added activities."
That leaves a lot of room for improvement, and software can play a large role in whittling away that 93 percent. To get a better idea of just what manufacturing software can do, The FABRICATOR talked to several independent software developers to determine just what a fabricator's software package should be capable of so that it can stay ahead of the competitor down the street and around the globe. The following are some questions that need to be asked.
From the most basic perspective, manufacturing software tools just aren't built the way they once were. The software is built in a 32-bit environment, not on the reliable but not-so-flexible DOS platform, and the database technology associated with the CAM software allows for easy information exchange between the software and the machine tool controls.
"Now it's a much more open environment," said Luca Poggi, sales manager for Computes Inc. "The customer can customize the software himself. For example, he can import information in Excel, ASCII, or other files from one system to another."
That sort of flexibility is necessary for a majority of fabricators because they want to maintain some sort of control over the manufacturing process. They are not ready to surrender complete control to software.
SigmaTEK's Binder said he believes 80 percent of his company's software users are working in a manual or semimanual mode when it comes to preparing sheet to be cut on the shop floor. Some are nervous about the technology supplanting someone's contribution.
"The folks also are nervous that these software tools are going to replace jobs, which in our experience doesn't happen very often," Binder said. "These are very good folks and skillful folks that can work with these tools. They either oversee the automation or move up in the organization."
Others need to be able to lay out nests manually because of certain details on the shop floor. For example, a steel service center may need to ensure that small parts are not nested in certain areas of the sheet because when they are plasma-cut, they might fall into the sump of the plasma cutting machine, becoming irretrievable unless the machine is shut down.
Manufacturing software's flexibility to work in a manual mode is important for some, but its ability to automate manual tasks is where software can make a big difference. The nesting algorithms that are available today simply weren't available only a few years ago because of underpowered computers.
"We literally had ideas for algorithms five years ago that we couldn't use because it would have taken you six hours to do a nest," said Oliver Goettsche, national sales manager, MTC Software Inc.
Derek Watson, MTC Software's international sales manager, offered up the advances in common-line cutting as an example of what the new nesting algorithms are capable of. Common-line cutting—in which the cutting device cuts a line between two straight-edged sheet parts leaving no space between them—used to be limited to common lines shared by rectangles and squares in an array. Now any combination of shapes that have at least one straight edge on the part can be nested for common-line cutting.
Automatic nesting is just one way that manufacturing software can save fabricators time. More software packages are equipped with bending, cutting, and forming simulation, which helps to streamline the actual fabricating process. Albert Sedlmaier, managing director of data M Corp., said such developments put the software closer to computer-aided engineering systems than typical manufacturing software.
Doug Wood, the Radan team leader for Planit Solutions Inc., said he has heard from fabricator customers that have saved at least 45 minutes in setup time by using the bending simulation features of the Radan CAD/CAM software. In addition, the simulation helps to eliminate the trial-and-error process that comes with running a first-time press brake job.
"It's a whole lot cheaper to scrap out those three or four parts electronically and offline," Wood said.
Over recent years the prices for solid modeling systems, such as Autodesk® Inventor™, SolidWorks®, and UGS's SolidEdge, have fallen to the point where it is no longer cost-prohibitive for small and medium job shops to invest in a software license or two. The world of 3-D design has come to the masses.
With the newfound design muscle, fabricators had to ensure that their manufacturing software could function in this 3-D world. Fortunately, many software developers have come a long way in ensuring that 3-D drawings lead to automatic tool selection and nesting layout, just as the software did for 2-D drawings. And when changes need to be made to the 3-D drawings, it's not that big of a deal.
"It's minimal," Wood said. "Traditionally, customers in the past sent flat DXF files back and forth. When whoever was forming the components needed to modify the part, in some cases they basically had to recalculate the flat pattern to get the part to match the press brake tooling and get the desired outcome.
"By working with 3-D data, it's much simpler to manipulate the geometry, make a minor change to it, and get the part correct."
Ed Patterson, vice president of technology, Vero International Inc., said this type of change on-the-fly is possible because software is no longer constricted by a history tree, a record and collection of every change that is made to a design drawing over the drawing's history and up to the most recent modification. When a change is made to a 3-D model, a designer doesn't have to worry how this might affect an earlier revision.
Patterson said Vero's die design software allows users to cut out a piece of a die, replace it with a new piece, and carry on with the project.
"We are seeing people enjoying their work because they can do a representation of what they are going to get, three-dimensionally," Patterson added.
Working with 3-D drawings and translating them into useful manufacturing files can be a wonderful thing, but it also opens the door to some new concerns.
"The shortcoming with these modeling systems is that once you talk about doing everything as a 3-D model versus individual drawing files, there is a lot more data that has to be managed," said Michael Boggs, sales manager, Striker Systems.
The result is the creation of a software product called a production data management (PDM) solution. The PDM product consistently would verify that the latest revision is being worked on. The software also would control who could check out design drawings and keep track of drawings checked back in. It would act as a sort of master revision control system.
Boggs said that PDM products targeted to the fabricating world are relatively new, and most CAD/CAM products in the fabricating shops don't have programming interfaces that allow them to interact with the new data management tools.
In lieu of a PDM solution, Boggs said an alternative might exist. For every job revision a customer releases electronically, the fabricator can request that a revision number be designated to the order. If the revision number does not exist in the fabricator's part library, the manufacturing software automatically could flag the customer to let him know that the fabricator doesn't yet have this revision or a new number needs to be issued.
At the very least, fabricators probably need manufacturing software with some sort of shared library system offering to keep up with the trend toward more 3-D data, according to Boggs.
The days of having a traveler card for a specific job order be the main source of manufacturing information in a fabricating operation are nearly gone.
First came the emergence of material requirements planning (MRP) software that used bills of material, inventory data, and production schedules to calculate material requirements. The software could recommend the initiation of new orders for materials as inventories dwindled and even reschedule jobs when due dates and shop floor realities did not align.
Enterprise resources planning (ERP) does what MRP software did, but reaches over the entire business. ERP handles not just inventory and resource tracking, but also covers all aspects of financial, manufacturing, and distribution management. Many view this type of software as the neurological lifeline for decision-makers because it provides the needed information to make informed business decisions.
"We are getting a lot of interest in this area," said Planit Solutions' Wood. "The need to have the production data and the schedules interfaced with the CAM software is necessary to prioritize jobs.
"With this ability to pull this data from the MRP system, you can drive the manufacturing software, the nesting, and other components with the information and on the back side get reports of what was produced and where jobs are at."
This trend has led many manufacturing software companies to develop interfaces with some of the leading MRP and ERP software used in the manufacturing space. Some manufacturing software developers even have created custom interfaces to work with homegrown front-office systems that might have sprung from the mind of a talented database administrator.
In reality, most have basic MRP systems or job shop management systems that handle the creation of job orders, production schedules, and quoting. Whatever the case, the need to have an up-to-date picture of the manufacturing operations leads to more efficient operations.
MTC Software's Watson said this level of connectivity between manufacturing software and front-office software automates formerly paper-based processes, helping to remove cost and possible mistakes from the production process. At the very least, he added, people are looking to have the bill of materials accompany the manufacturing drawing.
That level of connectivity is going to become more important as larger manufacturing customers rely on the Internet to communicate with their contract manufacturers. Job shops that rely on older manufacturing software or that fail to ponder future information technology may find themselves working on retirement plans instead of manufacturing drawings.
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Remember drawing and painting for your parents when you were growing up? I
do. My parents' excitement about something I'd created built my confidence.
It's the same kind of confidence God builds in us when we are faithful to
introduce others to Him. Like you, I do evangelism using creative methods like
we suggest in On Mission. But, as an artist, I have unique abilities I use to
draw people to Christ's light.
I learned about the amazing relationship of light to art while a student of
Dr. Lowell Vann at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. One day he
created a chalk drawing for our class. Then he turned off the overhead lights
and slowly dimmed spotlights onto the drawing that illuminated images and
colors that we had not seen before. It was definitely a wow moment for me to
see how light can change your focus.
Our lives are much more complex than a drawing or painting, and yet, I
believe our lives are our canvases, if you will. Each of us is given a palette
full of vibrant colors that are the unique gifts and abilities given to us by
God, the ultimate Creator and Artist. But it's how we choose to let His light
shine through us that determines what others see in our lives. Ephesians 2:10
says: For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so
that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago (NLT).
God has given me a second canvas as design editor for On Mission. Within our
pages I attempt to illuminate the stories by using a light that goes beyond
natural comprehension. Like Thomas Kinkade, the Painter of Light, I find myself
guided--inspired--to use the palette of abilities God has given me. My vision
is to bring visual understanding to sometimes complex communication. Kinkade
believes art has the power to touch people's hearts and change their lives. He
says: "My consistent goal has been to create inviting worlds that draw people
into their depths and encourage them to seek a better, brighter, more hopeful
You'll find Kinkade's work on our cover and also illustrating "Inside the
Lighthouse," a short story by Nate Adams beginning on page 18.
My prayer for the pages of On Mission is that the art, the photos, the
design, the entire presentation will provide a new light, a new focus on how
you can share Christ with the people around you. It's just like revealing new
colors in your palette to make a masterpiece that God has designed. God has
positioned me for the unique task I was called to do, and He also has
positioned you to touch people's lives. In the same way that most artists will
go to the trouble of stretching a canvas before they paint, we need to make
ourselves available to God to be stretched.
We truly are His works of art.
Missy Greenoe, Design [email protected]
A Southern Baptist Convention entity supported by the Cooperative Program and theAnnie Armstrong Easter Offering® ©Copyright 2013 North American Mission Board, SBC
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BERLIN (AFP) — The UN's special torture rapporteur called on the US Tuesday to pursue former president George W. Bush and defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld for torture and bad treatment of Guantanamo prisoners.
"Judicially speaking, the United States has a clear obligation" to bring proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said, in remarks to be broadcast on Germany's ZDF television Tuesday evening.
He noted Washington had ratified the UN convention on torture which required "all means, particularly penal law" to be used to bring proceedings against those violating it.
"We have all these documents that are now publicly available that prove that these methods of interrogation were intentionally ordered by Rumsfeld," against detainees at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Nowak said.
"But obviously the highest authorities in the United States were aware of this," added Nowak, who authored a UN investigation report on the Guantanamo prison.
Bush stepped down from power Tuesday, with Barack Obama becoming the 44th president of the United States.
Asked about chances to bring legal action against Bush and Rumsfeld, Nowak said: "In principle yes. I think the evidence is on the table."
At issue, however, is whether "American law will recognise these forms of torture."
A bipartisan Senate report released last month found Rumsfeld and other top administration officials responsible for abuse of Guantanamo detainees in US custody.
It said Rumsfeld authorized harsh interrogation techniques on December 2, 2002 at the Guantanamo prison, although he ruled them out a month later.
The coercive measures were based on a document signed by Bush in February, 2002.
French, German and US rights groups have previously said they wanted to bring legal action against Rumsfeld.
Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
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| 0.961888 | 383 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The greatest entrepreneur I’ve known – and my biggest mentor of all time – passed away last week. During Bud Hadfield’s 87 years on this earth, he lived the American Dream: being expelled from school before graduating; joining the Merchant Marines in World War II; starting and failing at a dozen businesses; teaching Dale Carnegie for 20 years; and eventually founding the Kwik Kopy Printing franchise, growing it to more than 1,000 locations and acquiring more franchise systems in the process; changing the lives of the hundreds of people he employed and thousands of new franchisees that were trained over the decades at the International Center for Entrepreneurial Development (ICED).
I was fortunate enough to be one of those employees. I started working at ICED in 1990, moving through several departments and working for several of the executives, one of them being the illustrious Bud. Larger than life, Bud was a dynamic, motivational, encouraging speaker who could bring an audience to tears. He was also well-known for being one of the few people I’ve met who could bring a person to tears with his temper tantrums, yelling and colorful language. For better or for worse, though, he was definitely one of a kind. I learned so much more from him than he ever realized, for his stories were the inspiration I needed to discover for myself that I could run a business and actually be successful at it. He believed in me, as he did every ICED employee.
ICED’s headquarters holds more than 1,000 paintings and statues of bald eagles, which to Bud were an example of the fierceness and tenacity that it takes to survive in this world and particularly in business. I believe Bud saw each of us as one of his eaglets that he fed, nurtured and taught life’s lessons until we were able to fly from the nest and make it on our own. In looking back at some of Bud’s tirades that I witnessed, I can’t help but wonder if those were his way of pushing us to our limit and beyond to teach us just those lessons, then taking us back under his wing again and smoothing over our ruffled feathers until it was time for the next lesson. He was the parent who never hesitates to give you a good hard spanking when you deserve it, but does it with tears in his eyes because he loves you so much that it hurts him more than it hurts you.
It is no surprise that Bud’s greatest mentor was Winston Churchill, and his favorite quote from Churchill was “never, never, never quit”. Appropriate words that can be applied to us in our businesses every day, as Bud applied them in his own life and business.
I left ICED in 2007 to pursue this dream of business ownership. Each of us has a story, a person or something that pushed us to believe we could be successful. I would love to hear yours if you want to share. Just remember that no matter how tough it may get “never, never, never quit”. Here’s to you, Bud. Thank you for changing my life.
Do you have a large file that is hard to send to me via email? Or does your file contain confidential information that you prefer to send to me securely?
Use the following link to upload up to 5 files and send them to me via SendThisFile.com.Send Me Files
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| 0.984516 | 712 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The government in Washington, D.C. may be tottering on the brink of a “fiscal cliff,” but what’s bad news for the feds seems to be good news for the City of Gilmer.
Over the past several years, the financial situation of the city has improved enough that it now has an “A” bond rating from the Bond Buyers Index and Standard and Poors.
This enabled the City Council at their meeting Tuesday evening to “refund” (refinance) the city’s outstanding debt, saving $489,000 over the life of the new loan. The new bonds are set to mature in 2027.
The savings come from a cut in the interest rate from the current .0417 percent to .019721 percent, and the fact that due to the new A rating, the city won’t have to buy insurance for the new bonds. This will result in large savings over the life of the bonds, said Jack Martin of Southwest Securities, the city’s financial advisor, who was present at the meeting along with two other company representatives.
(Ed Moore of Southwest Securities, who has worked for several years with the City of Gilmer, Gilmer ISD and many other governmental entities in East Texas, is retiring.)
“Don’t you wish we could all borrow for that?” asked Gilmer City Manager Jeff Ellington about the new interest rate. He said it is “an unbelieveable deal,” and the result of the condition of the bond market, the city’s new rating, and other financial factors coming into play at the same time.
“Bad news in Washington turned out to be good news for us,” Ellington said. “It’s a great rating.
“Not having to buy insurance contributed to our savings,” Ellington said. He said insurance on the bonds would have cost $50,000 to $70,000 over the life of the bonds.
“I’ve been in this business (city government) for 34 years. I’ve never had an A rating at any other city,” he said.
He said the rating was the result of a “lot of hard work on behalf of the city staff,” as well as Southwest Securities.
Ellington said city financial data had to be discussed with Standard and Poors, the national financial rating service, and they were shown the progress the city had made to achieve the A rating.
Ellington said that five years ago, the city’s bond rating was “junk bonds.”
During the eight years or so he has been city manager, indebtedness had dropped from about $26 million to about $12 million.
($4.6 million in indebtedness was assumed by the Gilmer Economic Development Foundation last year, Ellington pointed out.)
Ellington said the city had not had to borrow any new funds for eight years, and has a program in place to reduce its current debt.
“We had to pay the debt down substantially to get an A rating,” he said. He said he knows of no other city about Gilmer’s size with an A bond rating.
Refinancing the debt under these conditions was approved unanimously.
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| 0.973947 | 704 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Are Gen Y-ers Greedy or Just Different?By Reuters | Posted 01-31-2008
They may be a whiz with the computer and brimming with confidence, but would you give "Generation Y" a job if you had to suffer their pushy parents and fairweather notions of loyalty?
Technologically skilled, convinced they are highly employable but sometimes genuinely useless, the new British university-educated graduates are maddening employers -- but a recession could burst their bubble.
Britain's universities are turning out more graduates than ever before, and a report on Thursday from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGA) said employers found the generation born since 1982 ambitious, demanding, confident -- or overconfident -- tech-savvy and ethically conscious.
But they also said some were simply "self-centered", "fickle" and "greedy".
"They are coming up to recruitment stands at events and saying "what can you offer me?"," LGA chief executive Carl Gilleard told Reuters. "Better would be to say "do you have time so I can tell you what I can offer... Generation Y is me, me, me."
But perhaps unlike the more cynical, disaffected "Generation X" of the 1960s and 70s, they are less focused on salary and more on work-life balance, environment and ethics, he said.
With a job for life being something of the past, they are also seen as less loyal to individual employers.
The 217 employers surveyed -- including government organizations, major banks and companies -- said despite many applicants they had trouble finding suitable candidates.
The survey showed 22 percent bemoaning a lack of British candidates with the right qualifications, with the number of unfilled vacancies at a 10-year high and mounting numbers looking overseas.
While adept at using mobile phones and computers, recruiters complain some British recruits lack other basic skills.
"I have to go to London tomorrow," one graduate trainee at a British transport firm was quoted as saying on the phone to his mother. "But they haven't even told me how to get there."
Companies found that despite 30 or 40 applicants per position, graduates acted more surprised and distressed to be turned down than they used to be.
Parents have also become pushier at contacting universities if they feel their offspring are not being properly served and companies fear they will do the same at their workplaces.
"I think we as parents are certainly partly to blame," Gilleard said. "In America, there are now big global companies who have to have policies on how to deal with parents... Some parents are coming back and saying their children are worth more -- they are effectively acting as agents for their children."
But all that could change if a global economic downturn hits demand, he warned.
"In the early 1990s, graduates were really laying down the law saying they wanted a company car and phone," he said. "Then overnight the market turned and they had to become much more adaptable. Whether that would happen with Generation Y and if they could cope is yet to be seen."
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| 0.983855 | 638 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Quoting Allissa Specht:" OK, so I wasn't overly concerned that my 6 month old is not into solid foods. He doesn't like a spoon, ... [snip!] ... to think! To me, breastmilk is perfect food for him. But the nutritionist at the WIC office told me I HAVE to give him solids."
tell them to shove it. nothing wrong with that.. breast milk is all baby needs until a year. Yes, it's nice if they start learning to eat solids, but it's not needed.
my youngest didn't start solids until 7+ months (almost
she had no interest in it until then. when she started, she did JUST fine. she didn't have any catching up to do. really, babies younger than that just end up with most of it on their face, hands, chest, highchair, etc.. anyway. they rarely actually eat much.
and... it's just steamed veggies. They really are not getting much nutrition from those jarred carrots, beans etc... nothing like what they get from breast milk
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| 0.989391 | 226 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Sober Community | Sober Chat | Sober Forum | Sober Video
The Language of Letting Go
Resentments are the blocks that hold us back from loving others and ourselves. Resentments do not punish the other person; they punish us. They become barriers to feeling good and enjoying life. They prevent us from being in harmony with the world. Resentments are hardened chunks of anger. They loosen up and dissolve with forgiveness and letting go.
Letting go of resentments does not mean we allow the other person to do anything to us that he or she wants. It means we accept what happened in the past, and we set boundaries for the future. We can let go of resentments and still have boundaries.
We try to see the good in the person or the good that ultimately evolved from whatever incident we feel resentful about. We try to see our part.
Then we put the incident to rest.
Praying for those we resent helps. Asking God to take our resentments from us helps too.
What better way to begin a New Year than by cleaning the slate of the past, and entering this one free of resentments.
Higher Power, help me become ready to let go of my resentments. Bring any resentment that is hidden within me, and blocking me, to the surface. Show me what I need to do to take care of my self by letting go of resentments, and then help me do that.
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| 0.958964 | 301 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Editor’s note: The video has since been removed by the news station. It showed a man, who has been without power for some time, getting angry with the TV crew.
As this video from MyFoxDC.com shows, disasters inflict an emotional toll on those who survive them. It’s one thing to experience a power outage after a devastating storm. It’s another to wait through extreme heat for electricity to be restored. Nerves will be fried.
It’s not a surprise that the Washington, D.C.-area man in this video vented frustrations onto the news crew. The stress of the situation got to him.
Preppers spend time and money accumulating materials for survival situations. What about emotional preparedness? How will preppers and their families manage stress?
It’s a consideration that isn’t as easy as saying, “Buy product XYZ.” As with concealed carry, another topic Gun Digest covers, no amount of gear can prepare one for the actual emotionally charged event.
What may help is getting in touch with the spiritual side of things. Some may find comfort in a Bible, Torah or Koran tucked into a survival kit. Others could reach out to neighbors beforehand to curb stress post-disaster. Building a feeling of community can pay off when people need to come together. For adults, stress management may even mean a flask of the good stuff next to those MREs.
However one chooses to do it, stress management is as important as anything in a bug-out bag or survival kit. People under stress tend to eat more or less than usual, causing any number of effects on food supplies. Their vitals, such as blood pressure, may also be affected. This can cause havoc on those with strict medical orders.
For more on stress management and emotional preparedness, click here to browse Gun Digest‘s selection of survival books.
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| 0.944185 | 396 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Continuing Medical Education
Danville Regional is proud to provide AMA Category 1 Continuing Medical Education activities for physicians and Virginia Nursing Association Continuing Education credit (CEs) for nurses. For physicians, the DRMC CME Program is accredited with commendation which recognizes the program’s use of objective measurement for program development and evaluations. In addition, CME Programs include symposia and regularly schedule conferences.
Ralph R. Landes Medical Library
The Medical Library was established in the early 1970s by a group of dedicated physicians who recognized the need for access to medical literature through books, journals, and non-print media. In May 1987, the library name was changed to the Ralph R. Landes Medical Library in honor of Dr. Landes, the founder of Danville Urologic Clinic and an active promoter of the Medical Library.
Throughout the years, the library has grown from a "medical" library geared toward physicians only to a "health sciences library" encompassing all aspects of health care professions. The library offers a variety of services to meet the needs of the medical and hospital staffs and students of Danville Regional Medical Center.
Welcome to Danville Regional’s Physician Continuing Medical Education portal. Here, you can learn the latest techniques and practices, helping Danville Regional stay current with medical technology and advancement.
If you need to access login information please call this number 434-773-7999.
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| 0.936384 | 292 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Brown Research: Medicare Gym Benefits Lure Healthy Seniors
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Because healthy enrollees cost them less, Medicare Advantage plans would profit from selecting seniors based on their health, but Medicare strictly forbids practices such as denying coverage based on existing conditions. Another way to build a more profitable membership is to design insurance benefits that attract the healthiest patients. In the study published in January 12th edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, Brown University researchers report that plans have managed to do just that by offering fitness club memberships as a covered benefit.
Not denying coverage
“Offering a fitness membership does not mean that you are denying people coverage, but you are changing your benefits to appeal selectively to people who are healthy,” said co-author Amal Trivedi, a Brown public health professor and a physician at the Providence VA Medical Center. “Policymakers intended for Medicare Advantage plans to compete on the basis of improving quality and reducing costs, rather than on their ability to attract healthier patients. What we found in the study is that offering coverage for fitness membership is a very effective strategy to attract a much healthier population.”
That conclusion comes from Trivedi’s and lead author Alicia Cooper’s rigorous statistical comparisons among thousands of patients in 22 Medicare Advantage plans — 11 “case” plans that added fitness club memberships in 2004 or 2005 and 11 similar “control” plans that didn’t. They looked at when each plan member enrolled, when plans started offering the benefit, and what each plan member said about his or her health in the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey from 2006 to 2008.
One analysis compared the self-reported health of seniors who enrolled in case plans before the fitness club benefit was offered to the health of those who enrolled after the benefit was offered. While 29.1 percent of the seniors who enrolled before the benefit was available described themselves to be in excellent or very good health, 35.1 percent of the seniors who enrolled after it became available reported that level of health. In the before group, 56.1 percent reported some limitation to their physical activity but only 45.7 percent in the after group did. Also, a third of the before group reported difficulty walking compared to just a quarter in the after group.
Once the Medicare Advantage plans started covering health club memberships, they enrolled healthier enrollees with fewer physical limitations. In the control plans, which did not offer the benefit, self-reported health levels over the same timeframe changed only slightly. In comparison to the control plans, eight of the 11 case plans (the ones that added fitness club coverage) enrolled seniors with better overall health, 10 of the 11 case plans enrolled seniors with fewer restrictions in physical activity, and nine of the 11 case plans enrolled seniors that had less difficulty walking.
An increasing practice
Trivedi and Cooper studied the benefit structures of 101 Medicare Advantage health plans between 2002 and 2008 to select plans for comparison. What they found is a rapid growth in the number of plans offering fitness club memberships, from 14 in 2002 to 58 in 2008.
“This trend suggests that offering fitness memberships may be an attractive business strategy for Medicare plans,” Trivedi said.
Trivedi acknowledged that if every plan offered the fitness benefits, it would no longer be an effective way of selecting for the healthiest members. However, given the continued incentive to enroll more profitable enrollees, he said, insurers may employ other related tactics to cherry-pick desirable enrollees.
“In general, policymakers have regulated the Medicare Advantage insurance market to prevent the ability of private plans to select the healthiest enrollees,” Trivedi said. “If Medicare plans do engage in favorable selection, then unhealthy enrollees can be concentrated in a small number of plans or in the traditional Medicare program, driving up the costs for those enrollees and the tax-payers that fund the Medicare program.”
The National Institute on Aging supported the research.
For more Health coverage, don't miss GoLocalTV, fresh every day at 4pm and on-demand 24/7, here.
- Brown Researchers Find Toxic Chemical in Cosmetics
- Brown Research: Small Amounts of Pollen Triggers Kids’ Asthma
- Brown Research: More Water Can Protect Men from Bladder Cancer
- Brown Research: Racial Bias in Nursing Homes
- NEW: Women & Infants + Brown Pioneer New Down Syndrome Test
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Thanks to a more competitive marketplace and housing and credit markets that support home buyers, it has rarely been easier for home shoppers looking for cheap mortgages.
With rates and historic lows in many parts of the world, including in the US where current 30-year fixed rate loans go for less than 4 percent in many instances, buyers can make home buying a great investment and buy more home than they might normally be able to afford.
To get the best value on your mortgage you need to know your loan options and understand the market. The home loan market includes mortgage brokers and mortgage lenders. The lenders are the ones that actually originate the loan process and fund the loan. Brokers serve as a go-between and help connect prospective borrowers to the best mortgage alternative in their given situation.
Refinancing to a lower rate has been very popular in the last few years as well as many home owners have taken advantage of the opportunity to get better positioned to pay off their loan over the long run. Even a 1 to 2 percent decrease in your rate can save the typical home owner tens of thousands of dollars over the life of a home mortgage.
Disclosure: I have been compensated for this post. Any opinions are mine.
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Reaction to North Korea's nuclear test -- its third since 2006 -- poured in Tuesday from around the world:
Barack Obama, U.S. president:
"This is a highly provocative act that ... undermines regional stability, violates North Korea's obligations under numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions, contravenes its commitments under the September 19, 2005, Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks, and increases the risk of proliferation.
North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs constitute a threat to U.S. national security and to international peace and security. The United States remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and steadfast in our defense commitments to allies in the region."
"The danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants further swift and credible action by the international community. The United States will also continue to take steps necessary to defend ourselves and our allies."
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
"We're going to have to continue to deal with rogue states like Iran and North Korea. We just saw what North Korea's done in these last few weeks -- a missile test and now a nuclear test. They represent a serious threat to the United States of America and we've got to be prepared to deal with that."
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
The Chinese government "resolutely opposes" North Korea's nuclear test, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a prepared statement.
"Holding up peace and stability in Northeast Asia is China's resolute position," it said. "We strongly urge (North Korea) to abide by (its) promise to denuclearize and take no further action that will worsen the situation."
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Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Random House, 2012
656 pp., $30.00
I can still recall the day in 1989 when I bought my first edition of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. Some weeks earlier, the nation's largest bookstore chain, Waldenbooks, had removed the novel from its shelves because of threats emanating from Islamist quarters. Shortly thereafter, Cody's Books in Berkeley—which, like most independent booksellers, was proud to sell Rushdie's novel—had been damaged by a pipe-bomb. As I stepped into Tower Books that day, I took an involuntary look over my shoulder, just to be certain that no bearded terrorists were lurking in the shadows.
My little frisson of fear was nothing, of course, to what Salman Rushdie must have felt on St. Valentine's Day, when he was informed that the Ayatollah Khomeini, the supreme spiritual leader of the Islamic republic of Iran, had pronounced a fatwa against him, calling upon Muslims everywhere to kill the blasphemer. In those days, all we knew was that Rushdie had gone into hiding somewhere in the UK, protected by Scotland Yard's Special Branch. Meanwhile, crowds were burning copies of his book on the streets of British cities and storming American outposts overseas.
The months that followed were heady times for the scribbling classes. On the one hand, Rushdie's critics shed no tears for him, declaring that he had brought down the fatwa on his own head by gratuitously insulting the founder of a major world religion. (The novel devotes several chapters to an irreverent retelling of the life of the Prophet Mohammed, or "Mahound" as Rushdie calls him, appropriating the derogatory name used by Christians in the Middle Ages.) On the other hand, Rushdie's friends lined up to defend him, insisting that a universal human right was at stake: the right of free speech.
Meanwhile, Rushdie spent the early 1990s living under police protection, moving from one secret location to another with his team of bodyguards and drivers. (Previously, the Special Branch's main job had been to protect members of the government from the Provisional Irish Republican Army.) Eventually, he was allowed to settle down in a house in London which, remarkably, was never "blown"—never revealed as the home of the hunted author. It was not until March 27, 2002, however, that Rushdie's protection was finally withdrawn following an official reduction of the "threat level" against him.
Imprisoned writers have been known to keep diaries as a means of preserving their sanity. Rushdie may not have been imprisoned, but his safe houses came to feel like prisons. And he did keep a diary. That diary is the basis of this book about his decade of life in the shadows, Joseph Anton: A Memoir. "Joseph Anton" was his official pseudonym, a name he invented for himself by combining the Christian names of two of his favorite writers: Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov. For years, "Joseph Anton" was the name that appeared on his mail and his checks; even the protection boys called him "Joe."
It was only fitting, therefore, that Rushdie decided to write about his life as "Joseph Anton" in the third person—a decision that lends his memoir, at times, a novel-like quality. Here is how the book begins:
Afterwards, when the world was exploding around him and the lethal blackbirds were massing on the climbing frame in the school playground, he felt annoyed with himself for forgetting the name of the BBC reporter, a woman, who had told him that his old life was over and a new, darker existence was about to begin.
When I read that sentence, I was reminded of the famous opening line of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude:
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
As for the "lethal blackbirds," I confess that I missed the allusion to Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds until the author spelled it out for me on the next page.
Certainly Joseph Anton is long enough to be a novel—longer than The Satanic Verses itself, which, at 500 pages, proved too tall a mountain for many readers. In fact, Rushdie did contemplate a project, provisionally entitled "Inferno," in which he would give his life under the fatwa the full novelistic treatment, using Dante as his model. But he decided to drop it in favor of a more conventional memoir. As he told himself, "The only reason his story was interesting was that it had actually happened. It wouldn't be interesting if it wasn't true."
Unfortunately, the fact that Joseph Anton is true doesn't make it interesting. Salman Rushdie's memoir should have been the great literary memoir of our time, the story of a writer whose life happened to intersect with the most unexpected and hated development of the late 20th century—the rise of radical Islam. It should have taken its place next to such classics of modern prison literature as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Breyten Breytenbach's True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist. Alas, Rushdie's literary judgment failed him this time.
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Since the beginning of civilization, jewelry has play an important part in society. It has been used to signify status, highlight beauty or to distract from homeliness.
Favorite pieces have been buried with the dead, and have been worn to mark the passing of the dead as in the case of mourning jewelry.
A wonderful piece of jewelry is probably the most often received gift item.
It’s no wonder then, that antique jewelry would become and endure as one of our favorite collectibles. The same could be said for antique jewelry as a a real estate agent might say about a piece of land,”they ain’t makin’ anymore of it”.
Not only are they not making any more of it, but much of it is being destroyed, melting it down makes it even scarcer than it already is. During the 1980s when the price of precious metals were high, thousands of people sold off antique gold and silver jewelry to be melted down for quick cash. The same thing is happening now.
Recently gold hit as high as $900 per oz and I believe I saw silver as high as $18.00 per oz.. Both have come down a bit, but remain relatively high.
There’s an old saying, gold loves bad news, meaning that when economic times are tough people turn to gold as an investment. What we have is another period now when a lot of people are selling off gold and silver jewelry for quick cash.
That makes two “gold rush” periods in recent history which have caused a lot of antique jewelry to be destroyed. This affects the value of all antique jewelry, gold, gold filled and plated etc., because when a collectibles market fluctuates, it does so in a permeating way.
Antique jewelry is a classic, and classics are very safe long term investments. The value of a physical thing can never go to zero as with a stock or a bond, thus investing in good quality gold and silver jewelry at the right price is about as safe as it gets.
Can you think of any collectible or antique that a friend or even you yourself might own that is worth less now than it was 10 years ago? Beanie Babies don’t count. I’m talking about good quality, time tested antiques. I’m guessing you’ve answered no, but the same cannot be said for many stocks and bonds.
Of course like any investment, you have to buy right, because “well bought is half sold”.
My favorite way of buying any antique as an investment is through the auction method. There are some basic rules to follow to make sure your getting investment quality grade collectibles at prices that will reap rewards in the future.
Here are those rules, they apply whether your buying at an online auction, or a live auction:
- Don’t bother with auction items that have “reserves”, you are wasting your time, you will not get an item at an investment price there. That’s not even an auction really, it’s a store item, you just don’t know the price yet. Don’t play games with these jokers, there are enough real auctions out there to patronize.
- Pay very close attention to the description, be careful for terms that are vague and imply that the seller is not really sure of what they have. Term such as “style”, & “revival” “such as” all imply the item in question is not an authentic period piece. Some sellers are just legitimately not sure of the item, some sellers are shady.
- If in doubt ask questions. I put my phone # in my eBay auction listings for higher end items, it’s on my web-site and everywhere else I do business. If your considering a high end auction item and the seller doesn’t have easy access, ask yourself why.
- Many antique items are engraved, this can deplete the value a bit in most cases. The value loss is not as much if the item is only engraved on the inside or back of the item. It’s also easier to sell an item that is only marked with a common single initial as your likely to find a buyer with a first name who can use it for themselves or as a gift.
- Set a price threshold which you won’t surpass when bidding. This is the best way to insure you don’t get caught up in “auction fever” and grossly overpay for the item. Nothing is a good investment if you overpay for it.
I can almost hear you saying, “yeah, good luck finding pieces like that which are really auctioned with low starts at no reserve”!
Well I can assure you, great quality auctions of antique jewelry do happen every day by reputable sellers online and offline. You just have to beat the bushes a bit. No worry though, to start off with I’d like to introduce an antiques estate from North Admas MA which I’ll be auctioning off on eBay starting this Monday evening!
The auction will consist of many lots of antique gold, silver and costume jewelry, porcelain and much more. Every lot will fall into the criteria of a real auction as listed above!
There is so much, that the entire estate should take about 2-3 months to get up on eBay. Some of the items will be sold by the piece, some will be sold in lots. All of it will be sold no matter what the price!
Most items will start at $9.95 or lower and every one is an investment quality collectible.
The estate, (technically, it’s a revocable trust as the benefactor is still alive) comes from an Audrey Dearing Sweeney who was president of the North Adams Massachusetts Historical Society. If you have any interest in a chance at getting quality antique items for far under the money, you will not want to miss these lots as they are being sold on eBay.
Besides the antique jewelry there are many other items from just about every category of antiques you can think of. I’ll be listing the contents as fast as I can get them up on eBay. The auctions will all start and end on Sundays until the estate is completely liquidated.
Everything featured in the pictures here, will be up for auction on eBay starting Sunday evening. All auction items are guaranteed to be as represented and start at $9.95 with NO RESERVES and free shipping for the holidays!
Can you think of a more beautiful gift than a piece of antique jewelry? Why not give one nice thing that will increase in value rather than lots of disposable gifts that will be forgotten about before the New Year rings in?
Your thoughtful selection will be revered for many years.
Thanks for reading.
You can click on any of the pictures or links below them to see these and many other items from this estate starting Sunday evening.
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Managing the symptoms of multiple sclerosis can be challenging, as symptoms include fatigue, spasticity and pain in lower limbs, bladder dysfunction, tremors and depression, among other things. Certain medications can be used to manage some of these symptoms, and others can be managed with some lifestyle changes, such as exercise. Talk to your doctor about how best to manage your unique set of symptoms.
Have you ever found yourself too low on medication and skimped until you could get a new prescription? I have. This summer I had failed to get in one more refill on a prescription of gabapentin before it expired. I found myself counting out the remaining capsules, counting the days until my next neuro appointment, and rationing what I…
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Insight & Analysis / Expanding Medicaid and Workforce Supply
States deciding whether to implement the Medicaid expansions authorized by the Affordable Care Act are weighing many factors, including workforce capacity. In “A Half-Million Newly Insured: Is Colorado Ready?”, CHI asked how many primary care providers would be needed to care for the newly insured in Colorado. CHI’s analysis found that Colorado would need an additional 83 to 141 primary care providers (physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants) to care for those newly insured under both public insurance (Medicaid/CHP+) and private insurance.
Whether providers accept Medicaid presents another supply hurdle. Using provider-reported data from the MedicalQuest database administered by Peregrine Management Corporation, CHI estimates that approximately 65-70 percent of all nurse practitioners, physicians and physicians assistants licensed in Colorado accept Medicaid. Although Medicaid limits oral health benefits to beneficiaries ages 20 or under, fewer than 28 percent of dentists and registered dental hygienists licensed in Colorado accept Medicaid.
Colorado may already be challenged to meet demand for health care services among Medicaid beneficiaries. Increasing that demand through expanded Medicaid eligibility creates additional pressure on the current supply but it also provides opportunities for Colorado to make Medicaid a more attractive option for health care providers, especially oral health providers.
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So here it is, the 2 minute guide to having an awesome professional and personal life. Simple stuff that I’ve come across on various blogs and websites. Almost all of it is research backed but I don’t remember the references. Will link to them as and when.
1) Professional - You know what’s the primary difference between an average professional and an exceptional one? Well, it ain’t the usual suspects of intelligence, IQ, EQ or networking skills. It is “taking initiatives that are aligned to organizational goals”. That right there is the one most important factor that distinguishes great performers from mediocre ones.
2) Marriage - Researchers don’t know what’s the best form of marriage (monogamy, polygamy, polyandry, etc) but what they do know is that the most stable, happy marriages are based on two correlated things: trust and honesty.
3) Happiness - Remember this and strive towards recreating this situation as many times as possible: happiness is being with people you love and who love you in return.
4) Love - Is basically your willingness to sacrifice stuff for someone else. Eg. sacrificing your time for that person, money, certain goals of yours and in extreme cases, even your life. The more two people are willing to sacrifice for each other (and know it), the happier and stronger they’ll feel when together.
5) Objects vs Experiences - Don’t buy consumer goods for the object itself, but buy stuff for the experiences they provide. To explain, don’t buy a tv because it’s an awesome tv with super blasting-surround-whirl-around sound, buy it because it’ll provide you moments with your friends/partner/kids/parents that you’ll later remember and cherish.
6) Being good at a certain task or activity - The key to being good at anything is practice. As much as you can. In fact, there’s already an accepted number of hours you need to practice something to become a world class expert, and that’s 10,000 hours.
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Last month, we reported on the really awful smell in Bridgeton, Missouri that was so bad, residents said the terrible stench had invaded their homes and was causing their eyes to burn. Soon after the media attention, the company behind the landfill said it was "very sorry" and that it would work to ... More >>
A national environmental group is calling for a federal review of drinking-water quality at Missouri's state parks, citing a failure to perform federally mandated testing, as well as repeated instances of contamination with coliform bacteria, including E. coli.
For the uninitiated, when science typ ... More >>
Starting this afternoon, the Environmental Protection Agency will be back on the former site of Times Beach for a trip down memory lane.
Armed with new testing techniques, EPA scientists will collect soil samples in a pilot of new dioxin testing techniques. But spokesperson Chris Whitley says that ... More >>
The American Lung Association released its State of the Air report, and St. Louis once again ranked in the top ten for year-round particle pollution, coming in as the tenth most-polluted city out of the 277 metropolitan areas measured -- that's not good. However, the data shows that since 2003-2005 ... More >>
Photo: Jennifer SilverbergWarnings outside the Doe Run smelter in Herculaneum.A trial lasting three months wrapped up today in St. Louis Circuit Court with a jury awarding 16 plaintiffs $38.5 million in compensatory damages for lead poisoning they sustained living next to a Herculaneum smelter. M ... More >>
BPA can be found in common plastics such as the ones used to make water bottles.What's that in your hand? A Dasani bottle? Are you eating out of Tupperware as you read this?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you might not want to read about a recent study conducted at the Univ ... More >>
St. Louis woman Michelle Carter alleges that a misleading ad campaign convinced her to give Dial's Complete Foaming Antibacterial Hand Wash a try.A St. Louis woman filed suit in federal court Friday -- alleging that the Dial Corporation made "false and misleading" claims while selling her its foa ... More >>
A report out yesterday ranks metropolitan St. Louis as one of the most "toxic" (i.e. polluted) cities in the nation. The study by Forbes.com looked at cities based on five factors: air quality, water quality, the number of nearby Superfund sites, amount of days when the air-quality index (AQI) ex ... More >>
She's alone in the new pollution...Even though it's been soupy-hot for the last few days, and should be again tomorrow, summer is officially over as of today. And if you commute on I-64, you've seen a very clear sign of fall -- or rather, the lack of a sign.The St. Louis Science Center's walkway ... More >>
Ready for some crappy news? The Missouri Department of Natural Resources just sent out a news release informing the public that raw sewage has been flowing into the Mississippi River at a rate of up to 4.6 million gallons per day since June 24. The spill is reportedly the result of a mechanical fail ... More >>
The report from the Environmental Protection Agency is hardly shocking. Yesterday the agency released test results indicating that as many as one-third of properties situated within
a mile of the company's lead smelter in Herculaneum contain lead
at levels exceeding 400 parts per million (ppm) -- th ... More >>
flickr.com/photos/wheatfieldsThe Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America recently came out with its annual ranking of worst cities for asthma. Leading the list is St. Louis. The study, funded by drug company AstraZeneca, took into consideration factors such as a city's air quality, pollen score, po ... More >>
In its lawsuit, St. Louis is eager to blame the lead industry for making the area one of the most contaminated in the nation. But the city itself is guilty of doing little to prevent the poisoning of thousands of children like "Little Al" Evans.
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Tuesday, May 03, 2011, 06:00 pm
Intel interested in building Apple's mobile A4, A5 chips: reportIntel is interested in gaining Apple's mobile chip manufacturing business, competing against the company's existing producer Samsung and other independent foundries Apple is rumored to be considering.
Intel currently makes the CPUs powering Apple's notebooks and desktops, but Apple has increasingly turned to ARM processors to power its iPods, Airport base stations, and iOS devices including the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
Apple has also taken an increasing interest in designing its own ARM application processors, branding last year's chip the A4, and unveiling a new A5 in conjunction with the release of iPad 2. Both parts are built by Samsung from Apple's design, which incorporates licensed intellectual property from both ARM and Imagination Technologies.
Because the design is Apple's and does not belong to Samsung, Apple could team up with other chip fabricators to ensure a steady supply, to seek better pricing or improved production technologies, or simply to avoid doing business with Samsung, which is currently embroiled in legal disputes with Apple.
Apple had been rumored to be making plans with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to produce the company's A5.
Those plans were said to be motivated by the competitive efforts Samsung is making to produce very similar products to Apple's iPhone 4, iPod touch, and iPad, the subject of Apple's side of its lawsuit against Samsung. Apple was also said to be interested in TSMC's leading yields in the manufacturing of 40 nanometer processors.
In a new report by EE Times citing Gus Richard, an analyst with Piper Jaffray & Co., Intel is said to also be interested in producing Apple's mobile chips.
"Intel's manufacturing lead gives Apple an additional competitive advantage in these markets and distances it from Asian competitors that are knocking off its products,'' Richard said. ''Furthermore, it would also serve to weaken Samsung who is a significant competitive threat to both companies.''
Richard noted that "While it will take a few years for Apple to shift foundry suppliers, we believe Apple is shifting away from Samsung. We believe TSMC will start getting revenue from Apple in Q4 of this year. We believe the recent patent lawsuit between the two companies is further evidence to support our belief that Apple is moving its silicon needs elsewhere.''
A report from January indicated that Samsung was just beginning plans to increase application processor fabrication for Apple by a factor of four, dedicating a large proportion of the company's new $3.6 billion production facility in Austin, Texas, to building Apple's mobile processors.
Richard alluded to that deal and noted "we believe that Apple moving its foundry business away from Samsung is what has recently driven Samsung to reduce equipment orders, as it will likely repurpose this capacity [in Austin] for memory."
Apple's CPU business
Apple shifted its desktop Mac CPUs to standard architectures from Intel beginning in 2005 after the PowerPC alliance it helped to create ran out of steam, leaving Apple stranded as the only mainstream platform using the architecture.
Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs, whose earlier NeXT platform had shifted to Intel in the early 90s, was said to have wanted to shift the Mac to Intel five years earlier.
Apple had also helped to originate the mobile use of ARM processors in the early 90s with the Newton Message Pad, which was discontinued in 1998. Three years later, Apple began using ARM chips again in the iconic iPod, and is now one of the largest consumers of ARM processors, and one of few companies large enough to benefit from developing its own custom versions of ARM application processors.
Intel briefly ran its own ARM business named XScale before selling it off to Marvell at a huge loss in 2006. It then embarked on efforts to produce an x86-compatible mobile chip now named Atom.
Apple was rumored to be interested in using Atom (then called Silverthorne) to power what would become the iPad, but the company chose to go with its own ARM designs after finding Intel's mobile chips to be too power hungry. Intel's inability to catch ARM in mobile applications also prompted Microsoft to announce a shift in Windows 8 to support other chip architectures, including ARM, for tablet products.
Being able to reenter the mobile chip market by simply partnering with Apple as a chip fabricator could provide a strong incentive to Intel to fight for the iPhone-maker's business, much the same way that Microsoft has worked to establish partnerships with Nokia and RIM to promote Bing search as a competitor to Google's services after its own Windows Phone 7 mobile platform failed in the marketplace.
On Topic: Intel
- Teardown of Apple's new 11" MacBook Air finds smaller SSD module, tweaked battery
- Benchmarks of Apple's new MacBook Airs reveal superfast PCIe memory, Haswell power savings
- Apple unveils new MacBook Air lineup with all-day battery life, 802.11ac Wi-Fi
- Apple to update iMac lineup with Intel Haswell CPUs in June or July - report
- Intel on Thunderbolt: Our goal is quality, more compatible accessories on the way
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"At this my heart pounds
and leaps from its place.
Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice,
to the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven
and sends it to the ends of the earth.
After that comes the sound of his roar;
he thunders with his majestic voice.
When his voice resounds,
he holds nothing back.
God's voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding.
He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,'
and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.'
So that everyone he has made may know his work,
he stops all mortals from their labor.
The animals take cover;
they remain in their dens.
The tempest comes out from its chamber,
the cold from the driving winds.
The breath of God produces ice,
and the broad waters become frozen.
He loads the clouds with moisture;
he scatters his lightning through them.
At his direction they swirl around
over the face of the whole earth
to do whatever he commands them.
He brings the clouds to punish people,
or to water his earth and show his love.
"Listen to this, Job;
stop and consider God's wonders.
Do you know how God controls the clouds
and makes his lightning flash?
Do you know how the clouds hang poised,
those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge?
You who swelter in your clothes
when the land lies hushed under the south wind,
can you join him in spreading out the skies,
hard as a mirror of cast bronze?
"Tell us what we should say to him;
we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness.
Should he be told that I want to speak?
Would anyone ask to be swallowed up?
Now no one can look at the sun,
bright as it is in the skies
after the wind has swept them clean.
Out of the north he comes in golden splendor;
God comes in awesome majesty.
The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power;
in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.
Therefore, people revere him,
for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart? "
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Worshipis central to who we are as people of faith. We believe that our primary act as Christians is to offer up our praise to God. We gather each week to be fed on God’s holy
Word and at God’s holy table in the sacrament of Holy Communion. Having been nourished, we are sent back out into the world to share what we have received in worship and to serve as living sacraments of grace. At St. Peter’s we offer a variety of ways to engage in prayer and worship as a community.
A vital and integral part of worship at St. Peter’s, music is one of the ways by which we communicate with God and each other. We offer praise to God through music, following the Biblical example set forth in the Psalms and elsewhere. The music that we make helps to shape the seasons of the liturgical year; within the worship service, music serves the functions of invocation, edification and reflection. The music ministry provides an outlet of Christian expression for worshippers of all levels of musical skill, from the amateur to the conservatory-trained.
Please take a look at our worship schedule, our worship ministries, and the various facets of the music ministry at St. Peter’s Church.
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A roomful of expertise — department chairs, professors and student advisers — were on hand at the BFA Fair on October 4th to speak with students interested in art and design BFA majors. “Students often don’t realize the offerings and the vast number of programs available to them,” says Professor Ellen Goldstein from accessories design. “The BFA Fair opens their eyes to a vast number of opportunities.”
“We talked about everything from job opportunities to majors and ours being more 3-dimensional,” said Professor Anne Kong.
“The BFA Fair is a wonderful opportunity for all Art & Design students,” says Colette Wong, chair of fashion design. “It’s informative even for students who know what their major will be. They learn more about the study abroad programs and any lingering questions get answered.”
“I had a very important conversation with students about what they can do after graduation,” said Jeff Way, assist. chair of fine arts. “We have graduates who come to the classroom to talk about what they are doing.”
- Ramon Campos holding an octopus prototype made by alum Andres Garza
Ramon Campos, a student adviser, switched to toy design after completing his AAS in illustration. He was on hand to help prospective students navigate the waters.
photos: Rachel Ellner
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Proposed EQVs drop Cape’s taxable value by $6B
A drop in proposed equalized values for the Cape’s 15 towns will cause minor shifts in county assessments.
The county will assess $5.93 million for FY’13 to help cover its operations and those of the Cape Cod Commission. How much of this each town pays is based on their state-determined equalized values, or EQV, which is calculated for county assessments every two years.
Based on the Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s proposed EQVs, the 15 Cape communities will see a combined drop of more than $6 billion in county-wide EQV, to $79.7 billion.
A community’s EQV is based on the full and fair cash value of all taxable property.
All towns but Wellfleet are showing a drop in EQV for 2012. That’s good news for Wellfleet’s property values, but it also means a hike in its county assessment, about 11 percent higher than last year.
The county is allowed to increase assessments for itself and the Commission by 2.5 percent each year, following the limits of Proposition 2 1/2, an increase of $145,000 for FY’13. These assessments represent a quarter of all county revenue, which is supplemented by deed excise taxes, grants and department-generated revenues, among other sources.
The county’s total FY’13 spending plan is $23.86 million.
For Barnstable, the Cape’s largest town, its $1.1 billion proposed drop in EQV from 2010 is a decline of 7.25 percent, but enough to hold it essentially flat in county assessments. Barnstable will pay $11,500 more next year, 1.4 percent of its $1 million share.
Barnstable represents 17.4 percent of total county assessments.
Assessment vs. Voting Power
While property values are the key for how much a town pays to the county, population is used to determine the weighted vote on the county Assembly of Delegates.
The effect is that more populous towns may have a vote greater than the percentage of support they give to the county, and vice versa. Truro, for example pays three times more on a percentage basis than its Assembly vote counts, with 2.8% of the county assessment versus .93% of the vote.
The weighted vote won’t change again until after the 2020 federal census. That is, unless there’s a change in county government that does away with the weighted vote.
The Department of Revenue held a public hearing on the proposed EQVs last month and typically finalizes its figures early into the new year. In 2010, there were no changes from the proposed values to those adopted.
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The Boy Scouts of America might be the most patriotic organization in the U.S.
But don’t take that to mean we endorse any one political party.
The same applies to your pack, troop, team, or crew. You and your Scouts should Do Your Duty to Country but not by endorsing any one candidate.
During election years, though, the line between patriotism and political favoritism becomes thin, making it important to remind you of the BSA’s official policy on Scout participation in political rallies.
Here are some Frequently Asked Questions and the BSA’s official answers:
Q: Could a pack, troop, team, or crew provide a color guard flag ceremony for a candidate’s public speaking event or rally?
A: Yes. But, BSA Policy requires our adult and youth members in uniform to leave immediately after the presentation of colors and the Pledge of Allegiance. Should they want to stay they must do so as individuals, not Scouting represenatives, meaning, they would have to change out of their uniforms.
Q: So Scouts and Scouters can’t stand on the platform for the remainder of the speech or presentation?
A: No, they should not remain on the speakers’ platform or in a conspicuous location where media could construe their presence as an endorsement or symbol of support.
Q: Why is this the rule?
A: The policy is meant to prevent someone from using our brand to convey support of a candidate or ideology. This prevents Scouts from being used by any party in campaign advertisements or materials.
Q: So then why is it OK to even present the colors or lead the Pledge of Allegiance at all?
A: Those are displays of loyalty to the nation, something the BSA has always endorsed. Regardless of the outcome of the political race, the candidate and supporters pledge allegiance to the U.S. Because of this, it is always acceptable and deemed to be a part of the civic process. Also, this “service” is offered to any party, regardless of political affiliation.
Q: Can Scouts and Scouters pose for photos with political candidates at these events?
A: Yes. But photos of candidates or Scouts in uniform or BSA marks and logos are not allowed in political campaign materials of any kind.
Q: Can adult leaders or Venturers who are 18 or older vote in elections?
A: Not only can they — they should! This policy isn’t meant to limit the freedom of thought or action of any official or member acting as an individual. Scouters and Venturers shouldn’t wear their uniform to the polling place, but they should vote for whichever candidate they prefer. That’s all part of being a good citizen — something the BSA has taught for more than a century.
Q: What can Scout leaders do to support this policy?
A: Volunteers (and professionals) must be alert to situations that would imply that the BSA favors one candidate or party over another. Strict observance of our long-standing policy against the active participation of uniformed Scouts and leaders in political events is mandatory.
Have any other questions? Leave a comment below, and I’ll try to clarify.
And as Election Day nears, the message in the advertisement from 1956 still applies: “Vote as you think, but Vote!”
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Wee ones came out this past weekend to help the city prepare for spring. The City of Burnaby runs and eco-sculpture program, where the public is invited to help stuff plant plugs into the dirt-filled metal frames. Planting took place at a nursery close to Burnaby Lake. The sculptures are often in the shapes of animals - bees, cranes, salmon and bears, for instance. The sculptures are meant to highlight local environmental initiatives, while encouraging public participation in the program.
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Catalogs, degree audits and majors
Click one of these links for information on:
The catalog is the official record of degree program requirements. Students are expected to become thoroughly familiar with all academic regulations and requirements of the catalogs pertaining to their program of study and to comply with its provisions.
Major Maps are detailed, undergraduate, four-year course outlines that inform students on the classes they should take and when to take them. Outlines are updated yearly.
Graduate and professional students need to contact their program's individual school for program outlines.
Undergraduate and graduate students wishing to change their major, minor, emphasis area or certificate should consult with an academic adviser in the department for their new major, minor, emphasis area, or certificate. The adviser must submit a Declaration of Major form bearing the student’s signature directly to the Registration and Records Office to change a student’s major. Students must declare a major by the time they complete 60 credit hours.
A double major may be earned when a student completes two full majors, generally within the 120 hours required for a single degree. The specific major requirements of each major must be fulfilled. Students will only receive one diploma and it will indicate both majors.
If the two degree programs are administered by different academic units, the major requirements of both academic units, as well as the general education requirements, must be fulfilled. The double major is only available in B.A./B.A. or B.S./B.S. combinations.
A double degree may be earned when a student completes a minimum of 150 hours, completing the general education and major requirements for each of two majors. Students who earn a double degree will receive two diplomas simultaneously.
Minors are awarded in addition to a student's declared major at the time of graduation (minors cannot be awarded separately). There is no limit to the number of minors a student may earn, provided they complete all of the necessary coursework for each minor. A minor is typically 18 credit hours, 9 of which are junior/senior level classes. See the undergraduate catalog for specific requirements for each minor.
Minors do not appear on diplomas but do appear on transcripts.
Graduate Certificate programs are administered through the School of Graduate studies in conjunction with the academic unit. They can be awarded with a graduate degree or separately. See the graduate catalog for specific requirements for each certificate program.
Graduate certificates are printed separately from diplomas and appear on transcripts.
Undergraduate certificates are currently not available.
Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS)
The Degree Audit Reporting System automatically generates a report reflecting a student's academic progress toward the completion of a degree. A student may request a degree audit for their major.
In addition, a student may request "What If" reports for other majors they may be considering. The report automatically places the student's UMKC course work, transfer courses and courses in progress within a series of requirements and sub-requirements for a specific degree program.
A degree audit is not a confirmation of requirement or degree completion. You must meet with your academic adviser to confirm progress toward earning your degree. Click here for more information on Degree Audits.
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http://www.umkc.edu/Registrar/majors-degrees/default.asp
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| 0.942748 | 654 | 1.507813 | 2 |
It is appalling how many anti-smokers want smokers to die. Tobacco control fanatics are not interested in helping anyone but themselves; they are only interested in furthering their hate campaign against adults who smoke. Anti-smoker propaganda is disseminated to today's children with religious fervour -- "Believe and accept our faith and everlasting life will be yours," they preach from their pulpits of faux morality. They know that the only way forward is to socially-engineer the children to believe in hate over tolerance. It is a relentless crusade, one that exploits a natural instinct to protect your offspring at all costs, and so the crusade goes mostly unchallenged, for who would want children to be harmed? The result is an army of kids wearing khaki shirts who are true believers, because it is all they have ever been told. They grow up and become unwitting participants in a culture of hate, because it is all they have ever known.
People often say that you lose an argument the moment you call someone a fascist or a Nazi. And that may be true when it's done to end an argument you want nothing more to do with, and if you give no supporting evidence to back up that claim. The reason people say you've lost, however, is because of the grotesque and almost unimaginable acts that happened before and during WWII. We all know what happened. We all know how it happened. We even know why it happened. Even now, few people want to talk about it or even think about it. It's repulsive. But in order to truly understand it, you need to ask some very uncomfortable questions about what people are capable of doing to other people. You need to ask yourself those very same questions. What are you capable of doing to support your beliefs, your causes, your crusades?
And it's an answer that is almost impossible to accept. The truth is that some people are capable of doing anything. Maybe most people, given the right belief system, event or circumstance. What does that really say about us? Are we all monsters or are we simply sheep?
There are those out there who would wish great harm on smokers. These are people who are capable of justifying any act, no matter how terrible that act is, to support their cause. There are no boundaries for them. Everything and every one of us is fair game. They will attack any one who does not believe, or who gives comfort or support to their enemies. You shall know them by their fruits. And that fruit is ever-so-rotten.
I call it Smokercide.
What do you call it?
Oh no, not them too
28 minutes ago
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- Actress and leftwing activist
- Supporter of the Communists in Central America during the Cold War
- Member and financial supporter of Not In Our Name
- “Let us find a way to resist fundamentalism that leads to violence; fundamentalism of all kinds -- in al Qaeda, and within our government.”
Stage and screen actress Susan Sarandon is well known not only for her successful movie career, but also for her activist campaigns against capital punishment and U.S. military actions.
Sarandon was born Susan Abigail Tomalin in New York City in 1946. She graduated from Edison High School in New Jersey in 1964, and thereafter attended the Catholic University of America from 1964 to 1968, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in drama.
Susan met and married fellow actor Chris Sarandon in 1967. When she divorced him twelve years later, she retained her married surname.
In the mid-1980s, Susan Sarandon and film director Franco Amurri had a relationship that produced a daughter who also has become an actress.
While on the set of the 1988 film Bull Durham, Sarandon met actor Tim Robbins. Although the two never wed, they have remained a couple and had two children together -- the first of which, Jack Henry, they named after Jack Henry Abbott, the convicted murderer whose release from prison was infamously aided by Norman Mailer.
Beginning with the 1970 film Joe, Sarandon has played roles in nearly 100 movie and television productions, including: The Rocky Horror Picture Show; The Witches of Eastwick; Thelma and Louise; The Client; Stepmom; and Moonlight Mile. Sarandon won an Oscar for her work in Dead Man Walking, a 1995 Tim Robbins-directed film in which she played a nun who sympathized with a convicted killer on death row.
During the Cold War, Sarandon supported Nicaragua's Soviet-supported, Marxist Sandinistas, whom the United States was trying to help defeat by funding the "Contras," or counter-revolutionaries.
At a rally prior to the start of the Iraq War -- a rally whose attendees chanted that George W. Bush was guilty of "genocide" -- Sarandon stated: “I am here because I am tired of being frightened to speak out … Mr. Bush, you have hijacked our pain, our loss, our fear ... I say to you, Mr. Bush, this [crowd of protesters] is what democracy looks like.”
Sarandon was a member and financial supporter of Not In Our Name (NION), the Revolutionary Communist Party-led project whose "Statement of Conscience" condemned not only the Bush administration's "stark new measures of repression," but also its "unjust, immoral, illegitimate, [and] openly imperial policy towards the world." According to NION, it was the American government -- and not that of any other nation -- which posed the most "grave dangers to the people of the world."
Sarandon was also an endorser of World Can't Wait (WCW), the Revolutionary Communist Party-led group that sought to organize "people living in the United States to take responsibility to stop the whole disastrous course led by the Bush administration." Other celebrity endorsers of WCW included Harry Belafonte, Gloria Steinem, Martin Sheen, Jane Fonda, Gore Vidal, Sean Penn, and Howard Zinn.
Likening Islamic terrorism to American capitalism, Sarandon has said: “Let us find a way to resist fundamentalism that leads to violence; fundamentalism of all kinds -- in al Qaeda, and within our government. And what is our fundamentalism? Cloaked in patriotism, and our doctrine of spreading democracy throughout the world, our fundamentalism is business -- the unfettered spread of our economic interests throughout the globe.”
During the 2000 election season, Sarandon served as co-chair of the National Steering Committee organizing Ralph Nader’s presidential bid.
By contrast, in the 2004 election campaign she suspended her support for Nader and was one of the so-called “Nader 2000 Leaders” who signed a petition urging voters to support John Kerry instead. "For people seeking progressive social change in the United States," the petition read, "removing George W. Bush from office should be the top priority in the 2004 presidential election. Progressive votes for John Kerry in swing states may prove decisive in attaining this vital goal."
Also in 2004, Sarandon took part in "Vaginas Vote," an event aimed at persuading young women to support John Kerry in that year’s presidential election. The press release stated that a vote against Bush would help "to end violence against women and girls."
In 2006 Sarandon joined Sean Penn, Danny Glover, Ed Asner, Willie Nelson, Lynn Woolsey, and Cynthia McKinney in staging a “Troops Home Fast” hunger strike to protest the Iraq War. The fast was performed in a relay fashion (i.e., each participant fasted for a day, then “passed” the effort to another faster). The event was organized by Gold Star Families for Peace founder Cindy Sheehan and was endorsed by Code Pink for Peace.
In January 2007 Sarandon participated in an antiwar demonstration in Washington, DC to protest the planned "surge" of U.S. troops fighting in Iraq.
Along with Tim Robbins, Sarandon sits on the Advisory Board of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
Over the years, Sarandon has made campaign contributions to a number of political candidates, all Democrats. Recipients of her donations include John Edwards, Barbara Lee, Ralph Nader, Howard Dean, Charles Rangel, Bill Bradley, Harvey Gantt, Ted Kennedy, and Bernie Sanders. Sarandon also has given money to such organizations as MoveOn Political Action, Progressive Majority, EMILY's List, and America Coming Together.
Prior to the 2008 presidential campaign, Sarandon publicly criticized the candidacy of Senator Hillary Clinton, telling More magazine: “I find Hillary to be a great disappointment. She's lost her progressive following because of her caution and centrist approach.” Dismayed by the prospects of a Clinton Democratic nomination, Sarandon instead backed the candidacies of John Edwards and Barack Obama.
During a Hamptons International Film Festival interview in October 2011, Sarandon discussed her 1995 film Dead Man Walking, which was based on the anti-death-penalty book by Sister Helen Prejean, a copy of which Sarandon had sent to the late Pope John Paul II. In an effort to clarify that the recipient of the book was in fact John Paul -- and not his successor, Benedict XVI -- Sarandon said: “The last one, not this Nazi one we have now.” When the interviewer gently reprimanded Sarandon, the actress repeated her remark. (Sarandon was referring to the fact that Benedict had been a member of the Hitler Youth as a child, but only becuase he was forced to join.)
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Remarks as Prepared For Delivery by Secretary Bodman
Thank you very much, Bruce, for that kind introduction. My thanks also to Tom Donahue and the leadership of the Chamber for inviting me to be with you today.
I was quite pleased to hear that the Chamber was sponsoring this event. As anyone who knows me - or has heard me speak recently - can tell you, the biofuels industry is a favorite topic of mine. In my view, advanced biofuels offer tremendous promise for helping our nation to bring about a new energy future-one that is cleaner, more sustainable, more affordable, more secure and less reliant on foreign sources of oil. While biofuels are certainly not the only component of our energy future, they are a critically important one. We must aggressively pursue their development and widespread deployment along with a portfolio of other advanced energy technologies. And, as this conference recognizes, I believe that all nations of the world must be involved in this effort.
I just returned from a visit to the Middle East which included stops in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Egypt. And I made precisely that point throughout the trip: when it comes to new energy options, we need everyone at the table. Even those nations that possess tremendous hydrocarbon resources must turn their attention to alternative and renewable energy. Because the fact is, the world needs safe, reliable, clean, affordable, and diverse energy supplies - and in considerably greater numbers than it now has.
This is a global challenge, perhaps one of the most significant of our time. The International Energy Agency estimates that the world's primary energy needs will grow by 55% by 2030. Meeting this demand will require literally billions of dollars annually for decades. We also know that this investment must occur around the world - in developed and developing nations alike - and at all stages of the energy cycle.
At the same time, we all must recognize the realities of global climate change and look for ways to develop cleaner sources of energy that generate electricity and power our vehicles more efficiently and in an environmentally responsible way.
And of course, that's not even the full picture. Throughout this nation there is an appropriately high level of attention on the impact of energy prices on our economy, our families and the health of our businesses. I share that concern - believe me, it's what keeps me up at night. The pain of high energy prices is very real and very significant for many Americans - when they fill up at the pump or face high home-heating bills or try to keep a small business going.
Even beyond our own borders, we know that the effect of high energy prices on smaller, developing economies can be severe. They can restrict development in a way that stifles business growth and, more notably, inhibits improvements in the health and well-being of so many around the world. As a matter of principle - and as a matter of policy - I believe that we must keep the energy needs of the world's poorest nations in our discussions. We cannot leave the developing world behind.
Given all this, it is simply not enough to say that we should expand - or should diversify - the energy options available to us. In reality, we must. We have no choice. As President Bush made clear last night, our economic competitiveness, our national security and our environmental health require reducing our dependence on oil.
So, now comes the question: what do we do about it? Well, the answer is certainly not one dimensional. It is as complex and multifaceted as the problem itself.
First, we must work to bring sufficient hydrocarbons to market globally in a manner that is cleaner and more efficient. We need more supply from more suppliers along with new supply routes and improved infrastructure. And we must continue to demand transparency in the global oil market.
At the same time, we must dramatically change the way that we use energy in this country and around the world. The truth is the biggest source of immediately available "new" energy is the energy that we waste every day. I believe that improvements in energy efficiency can be achieved - in relatively short order - on a global scale in our industrial and power-generating sectors, our government agencies, our homes, our offices, and our transportation sector. Collectively, these measures will not only take some pressure off of demand, but also improve the health of the environment.
And finally, and perhaps most importantly, we must aggressively expand the availability of alternative fuels and advanced energy technologies - and do so on a global scale.
By way of just one example: in China, a nation of over one billion people, there are more than 31 million highway vehicles on the road today - that's about thirty vehicles per one-thousand people. Over the next 25 years, we expect that number to grow to over 200 million vehicles. By comparison, today the United States is a country of 300 million people with about 240 million vehicles, or about 800 vehicles per one-thousand people. We must work together so that we can help meet this global growth in demand with clean energy sources like advanced biofuels and other cutting-edge technologies. And, as President Bush called for in his State of the Union address, we should create a new international clean technology fund, which will help developing nations like India and China make greater use of these clean energy sources.
I'm proud to say that we are already well on our way to harnessing the tremendous power of clean-energy. Through the President's Advanced Energy Initiative, we are identifying the technologies that could have the greatest impact in the relatively near future-say, the next 5-10 years-and then going after them with increased resources and aggressive timelines. I'm talking about things like: commercially competitive cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels; advanced hybrid vehicle technologies; hydrogen fuel cells; solar photovoltaics and high-efficiency wind power; as well as technologies to more cleanly and efficiently use fossil fuels. These are things that are already in the pipeline and, as a matter of sound public policy, need to be pushed more quickly to market.
To do this most effectively, the federal government requires intense, strategic collaboration with the private sector and academia. To facilitate that collaboration we are employing a range of models - including cost-sharing partnerships and loan guarantees.
So, for example, during the past year, the Energy Department has committed to major investments that will help fuel the growth of a robust, sustainable domestic biofuels industry. Our strategy is, in part, to build on the vast accumulation of knowledge in the American biotechnology industry and to use it in the production of cost-competitive alternative energy. To that end, our Office of Science is investing over $400 million over five years in three Bioenergy Research Centers in California, Wisconsin and Tennessee that will work to apply the great strides we've made in human genomics to our energy challenges.
In addition, last February we announced the selection of six large-scale biorefinery projects that together will receive up to $385 million over the next four years. Combined with industry cost-sharing, the total investment is expected to be more than $1.2 billion. When fully operational, these six biorefineries are expected to produce more than 130 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year. And, the projects are already underway. Just a few months ago, I was in Georgia - at Range Fuels - for a ground-breaking ceremony for one of these plants. The first two phases of the Range Fuels project are expected to process about 1,000 tons per day of wastewood to produce about 40 million gallons of biofuels and chemicals per year.
And today I'm very pleased to announce a third significant investment that will speed the development of advanced biofuels across the nation. The Department has selected four companies to develop small-scale cellulosic biorefineries. The total funding for these four projects is approximately $331 million, with a federal investment of $114 million and a private investment of over $216 million. These biorefineries will operate at a level equivalent to about 10 percent of a full-scale commercial plant. So we're talking about more intensive, frequent, and variable demonstration and testing of the performance and operating characteristics of cellulosic biomass feedstock throughputs of at least 70 tons per day.
The four competitively selected, cost-shared projects are being awarded to: ICM, Inc. (for a proposed facility in Missouri), Stora Enso, which was recently acquired by NewPage (for a proposed facility in Wisconsin), Pacific Ethanol (for a proposed facility in Oregon), and Lignol Innovations (for a proposed facility in Colorado).
In essence, what we're doing here is supporting a group of projects that will demonstrate and test a wide range of innovative conversion technologies. These biorefineries will use a diverse set of cellulosic feedstocks, including agricultural residues like wheat straw and corn stover, energy crops like switchgrass, wood waste from the paper and pulp industry, and forestry residues. Our goal is to lower the technical hurdles associated with financing full-size commercial plants that utilize these kinds of sustainable feedstocks.
And, let me also mention this - which I view as a very good sign for this market - we had an overwhelming response to the solicitation for these funds. In fact, we have so many potentially worthy proposals that we plan to announce a second round of awards sometime in the next few months.
In my view, these biorefineries will help us to address the twin challenges associated with advanced biofuels. First, we must make them cost-competitive; and second, we must produce them in sufficiently large quantities from a diverse - and sustainable - group of feedstocks. If we can do that - and I certainly believe that we can - we will unleash the tremendous potential that biofuels have to offer for our economy, for our environmental health, and for our national security.
All of these investments will advance President Bush's goal of making cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive with gasoline by 2012, and help us to reduce America's gasoline consumption by 20% by 2017. And, of course, they will help our nation meet the new Renewable Fuel Standard mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. As many of you well know, that law set forth ambitious goals for renewable fuels generally - and cellulosic biofuels in particular. Among other things, it requires advanced biofuels to provide 21 billion gallons of fuel by 2022, or about 60% of the total requirement of 36 billion gallons of renewables. And, of that total, cellulosic biofuels must contribute at least 10 billion gallons by 2020 and 16 billion gallons by 2022.
But I don't want to get too bogged down in specific mandates, which I believe we will meet and likely exceed. What these federal investments are really about is aggressively pushing these technologies forward to get them out into the marketplace as quickly as possible - so they can have a real impact. By cost-sharing these investments with the private sector, we are kick-starting these projects and taking some risk out of the equation, if you will.
With biofuels as well as other advanced energy technologies, our strategy recognizes that many of the transformative breakthroughs are likely to happen in the private sector, and that the government must take an active role in encouraging that activity. Because the challenges that we face are too large and too important for a "business as usual" approach. As the President said last night, we must trust in the creative genius of American researchers and entrepreneurs. We must bet on technology . . . and we must take some risks. And we must all work together.
If we do, we will solve this problem; we will achieve a cleaner, sustainable, affordable, and secure energy future for our nation and our world. And advanced biofuels will be a key component of our success.
I thank you very much for your time and I'm happy to take your questions.
Location: Washington, DC
Media contact(s): Julie Ruggiero, (202) 586-4940
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Is McGovern again ahead of the times?
MITCHELL, S.D. His home state and his country are about to recognize that George McGovern was way ahead of the times about Vietnam more than 30 years ago.
A conference here this week at his alma mater, Dakota Wesleyan University, previewed the George and Eleanor McGovern Library and Center for Public Service. Groundbreaking is expected next year for the $8.5 million project, although about $1.5 million more still must be raised from McGovernites nationwide before the first shovel can be turned.
In case you've forgotten, here's the pungent punishment we gave McGovern because he preached against our Vietnam fiasco years before the rest of us got it:
As the Democratic candidate for president in 1972, he was wiped out by Richard Nixon. The popular vote: 47.1 million to 29.1 million.
His home state of South Dakota not only voted against him for president, but later threw him out of the U.S. Senate.
Often taunted but undaunted, McGovern kept up his campaign for world peace. His latest target: The Israelis and Palestinians. His solution: Force Israel to withdraw from all of the land it took in 1967 and help the Palestinians create an independent state there.
His method: Have President Bush appoint two former presidents — Republican Bush Sr. and Democrat Jimmy Carter — to preside over a meeting between Israeli leaders and Yasser Arafat's successor at Camp David and keep them there until they agree to such a deal.
"A solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict would do more to end the terrorist threat than keeping our troops in Iraq," McGovern says. He may again be ahead of the times. A la Vietnam.
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Gordon Brown's plans to tighten the law on cannabis by increasing the penalties for possession suffered a fresh blow yesterday as the latest official figures showed the decision to downgrade the drug had been followed by a significant fall in its use.
British Crime Survey statistics showed that the proportion of 16- to 24-year-olds using cannabis slumped from 28% a decade ago to 21% now, with its declining popularity accelerating after the decision to downgrade the drug to class C was announced in January 2004.
Mr Brown asked the government's advisory committee on the misuse of drugs to take a second look at the classification of cannabis in July after reports that stronger strains of cannabis - known as "superskunk" - were dominating the British market, with startling implications for the mental health of frequent users.
At the same time three Home Office ministers, including the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, publicly admitted using cannabis in their youth. Ms Smith will have the responsibility of deciding whether to regrade cannabis as a class B drug early next year when the committee is expected to report. The change would mean the current police policy of confiscating any of the drug found and issuing a warning on the street would be replaced by arrest and a formal caution at a police station.
But the BCS figures published yesterday showed that cannabis is beginning to lose its allure with teenagers. The proportion of frequent users in the 16-24 age group, who were using the drug more than once a month, fell from 12% to 8% in the past four years.
Since cannabis was downgraded the proportion of young people using it has fallen each year from 25.3% in 2003-4 to 20.9% now. Among those aged 16 to 59, the proportion over the same period has fallen from 10.8% to 8.2%.
Earlier this week, a Joseph Rowntree study found that heavy cannabis use exacerbated the existing social problems of vulnerable young people but those in further and higher education who lead relatively stable lives managed their cannabis use with fewer negative effects.
The decline in cannabis consumption prompted a call from the independent UK Drugs Policy Commission to take decisions about drug classification out of the hands of ministers. Dame Ruth Runciman, the commission's chief, said: "We do not believe the credibility of the current system or the clarity of message has been enhanced when, in just the space of seven years, five home secretaries have sought one way or another to address the classification of cannabis."
Good policymaking had been overshadowed by "politicking", and much of the confusion among public and politicians stemmed from misunderstandings about the classification system. The commission also says there is no evidence a drug's classification deterred use, and suggested that instead of tinkering the whole classification system should be placed outside the direct control of politicians.
The Home Office said yesterday the "widespread growing use" of police powers to issue street warnings was also a likely contributory factor to a 54% increase in cannabis seizures in 2005. The number of people dealt with each year by the police for possessing cannabis has doubled since the drug was downgraded.
Claims that "superskunk", which is up to 10 times stronger than imported resin, was dominant were also undermined by police and customs seizure figures. The latest statistics published yesterday showed that 69 tonnes of cannabis were seized in 2005 of which 49 tonnes were the traditional resin. Although herbal cannabis seizures, of which "superskunk" is one variety, were up by 76% - reflecting the growth of a homegrown cannabis industry - they still only amounted to 20 tonnes, less than one-third of the market.
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As you probably already know by now, the banking system of Cyprus has imploded, and Europe has stepped in to provide, not a "bail-out", but a "bail-in": the banks get a capital infusion, but the depositors have to take a haircut, losing between 7-10% of the value of their bank account. That's not exactly what they're calling it, of course; it's a "special bank levy" of 6.75% on accounts up to 100,000 (the limit for deposit insurance) and about 10% on accounts above that limit.
The depositor haircuts seem to have been necessary to get political support for the deal in the EU--and political support in the EU was necessary because Cypriot banks had assets somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 times the Gross Domestic Product of Cyprus. And just to bring it full circle, the banking system had grown to such grotesque, hypertrophied proportions because Cypriot bank accounts seem to be a favorite of tax-dodging Russian oligarchs . . . which is why it was politically necessary to give depositors such a large haircut.
From a technical, economic, perspective, however, this looks to be disastrous. If we are not yet having full-scale runs on Cypriot banks, we've at least worked up to a pretty brisk jog. No banking system can survive a bank run; if everyone tries to get their money out at once, even the soundest, most prudently managed bank in the world will fail, because they can't liquidate their loan assets fast enough to keep the cash moving out the door.
The decision to place a levy on insured accounts, in particular, seems extremely foolish. Note that it may have been necessary to prevent a run on the foreign accounts, which by some reports constitute about a third of total deposits. But if violating the deposit guarantees was necessary to implement your "tax the Russians to pay for the bank bailout plan", that should have been a sign that the plan was a bad idea.
Deposit insurance is the one way we know to stop a bank run. Oh, the government can say that this was a one-time thing, but once you've broken your promise once, what's to stop you from doing it again? It's bad enough to slam middle-class savers in order to put a smaller levy on Russian oligarchs, but it's insane to do so when you're actually making it less likely that your bank bail-in will succeed. And at this point, the whole scheme is looking extremely shaky.
It's foolish for Europe, too. If Cyprus had done this on its own, the country would be in trouble, but the rest of the world would just emit a bemused sigh and move on. Now, however, this plan has the imprimatur of the EU stamped on it--and so people are going to be looking hard at other European banking systems. Which other nations' depositors might have to take a similar haircut in the future?
Hopefully, savers will view Cyprus as an extreme one-off: a tiny nation whose banking system was unsustainably oversized for its economy, and whose substantial depositor base of kleptocratic foreigners made it uniquely difficult to deliver government support.
The problem is, Europe seems to be chock full of unique, one time problems with its banking system. There's a real risk that investors will decide that they'd rather not stick around to see what one-of-a-kind, custom-crafted solution the European ministers come up with next.
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Listen up, teens! You might have a new reason for your parents to NOT put your phone down! LOLz!
Or, if you really do have a serious problem with depression — this is another hope for you!
There's a California-based clinical psychologist that says his patients said that regular texts about their treatment helped boost their moods and improve their outlook. This means it can't just be any old text — it has to be specific and helpful.
The texts encouraged the patients to take their medications and keep a positive perspective… and it works!
Ask your doctor about this if you're suffering from depression — and ALWAYS let someone know if you are suffering and haven't told anyone yet.
There are millions of people out there like you and millions more that want to help!
[Image via AP Images.]
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Updated 05/28/2012 06:53 PM
Purple Hearts bestowed on the award's 80th anniversary
The courageous acts of two service members were honored this Memorial Day. Purple Hearts awarded to the men who answered the call of duty and narrowly escaped death. YNN's Elaina Athans has more.
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NEW WINDSOR, N.Y. -- “You don’t really want to join the club, but once you’re there, it’s a very exclusive club of men and women," said Purple Heart recipient Sgt. Ernest Martinez.
On a day dedicated to remembering our fallen heroes, two men are honored at a Memorial Day service.
Purple Heart medals were bestowed on the veterans. The award is one of the United States military's highest honors. It's given to those wounded or killed by enemy combat.
Martinez received his medal after being injured in the Vietnam War. A Purple Heart was also given to Sgt. Richard Gerbeth, who was wounded during an Iraqi raid.
"We turned to run and it was the mortars already started landed and one landed right between us and knocked me out," said Purple Heart recipient Sgt. Richard Gerbeth.
For both of these recipients, the award ceremony holds even more meaning as the modern day Purple Heart marks a milestone on this Memorial Day. It's been 80 years since the first was handed out. Since 1932, at least 1.7 million service members have received the Purple Heart.
"The people who go are volunteers. Nobody asks to be killed or wounded, of course, and we must remember they did not have to go. And all of us are beneficiaries of their service," said Peter Bedrossian from the Purple Heart Hall of Honor.
“Getting the Purple Heart, getting the Silver Star isn’t much about me getting it or be getting recognized. Especially on Memorial Day, it’s about the guys that I fought with that didn’t make it back home. It’s about the guys that didn’t get recognized," said Martinez.
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It was an appropriate activity for the location, for the old house at that address was officially opened Friday morning as the party’s Calhoun County headquarters. From there the Democrats are looking to young voters to revive their shrinking ranks in the county.
Paul Hathaway, an assistant professor of political science at JSU, told Democrats rallying outside of the new headquarters that young voters are where the hope of the party lies. He said he gives a political ideology quiz to his freshmen class each semester which is based not on party lines, but rather ideology: liberal, libertarian, socialist, conservative. Based on the answers, the majority of his students consistently land in the liberal quadrant, but when asked to identify with a party, about 80 percent identify as Republican.
“There’s a lot of influence from family, from church, and peers, and I think when they start looking at the individual issues and they start voting for their self-interests, they’re realizing they’re really not a Republican like mom and dad.”
Calhoun County party chairwoman Sheila Gilbert said a big mission for Democrats is to change what seems to be a negative connotation associated with the label of Democrat in Alabama.
“To be a Democrat is not bad,” she said. “Democrats are good people.”
The strategy, she said, is to just continue doing good works and to try to keep on electing good people.
Good works and improving residents’ quality of life is what drew Foster Marshall to the Democratic Party in the first place, he said. The circuit judge candidate said Democratic legislation such as such as the Civil Rights Act, the GI Bill, the Affordable Care Act, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and those that allowed such developments as women’s suffrage, Medicare and Medicaid and Head Start have improved people’s lives.
“Obviously, the party can’t just rest on its laurels and on its history,” he said. “In my opinion, the best thing the Democrats can do is not be Republicans. Be Democrats, come forward with new ideas, bold ideas, risk being ridiculed to try something new, to try something different.”
Despite setbacks in recent years, no one should count the Democrats out just yet, said Lori Owens, department head for the Political Science and Public Administration Department at JSU. Owens has previously served as a Republican on the Cherokee County Commission and teaches the Southern Politics course at the university. “The Republicans had a perfect storm in 2010,” she said. The party went out and recruited a number of candidates and funded them, she said, and coupled with the rising tide of the Tea Party and conservative movement against President Barack Obama and U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a lot of these state and local candidates swept into office.
Some Democrats have managed to retain their offices, and Owens said that local politics is an entirely different animal. A lot of the races are individualized, she said. These candidates are the local person that voters see at Little League games, at the grocery store, at church. If Democratic candidates are working hard to connect with the local base, Owens said, they have a chance to compete with the Republican tidal wave.
Missy Hall, a candidate for Calhoun County circuit clerk, has been working hard to do just that. She said she’s been working to emphasize her nearly 11 years of experience in the legal field and the nonpartisan aspect of the clerical position.
“Missy Hall will be the one to show up and do the job every day,” she said. “Not the Democratic Party.”
“Even though Democrats may be in a very weakened state right now, they’ll never be as weak at the Republican party was,” said Bill Stewart, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama. Stewart said this is due partially to a very loyal base of black voters and the establishment of minority-majority districts under the Voting Rights Act.
“They’ll always have a presence in political office,” Stewart said.
Staff writer Paige Rentz: 256-235-3564. On Twitter @PRentz_Star.
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One of the things that never consider doing when maintaining their bike is maintenance. Bicycle riders do not realise that keeping your bike well maintained will actual serve a couple of purposes.
The first purpose of maintenance is that it may actually increase the performance of your bike. The improvement may be minimal however every bit helps when you are trying to get that little bit extra improvement in your performance.
The second purpose is to maintain the longevity of your bike. Ensuring you maintain your bike means that you will be saving long term.
The first step in bike maintenance is to clean your bike. When riding your bike along the roads, you will pick up a lot of dirt and grime that will get caught up in all parts of your bike. This can cause long term damage. A key area to focus is the drive train as this gathers a lot of dirt and junk and therefore needs to be kept clean.
Online shopping is growing more and more and one of the biggest growth areas is online fashion shopping. There are many advantages to shopping online which is why it is growing so rapidly.
One reason is the convenience of it. Shopping online allows you to shop online whenever you want as online stores never usually close. This allows you to shop at your own convenience and allows to shop without the pressure of someone looking over your shoulder.
Online shopping also is usually cheaper than buying from a store. Online stores usually don’t have the same overheads as a bricks and mortar store and therefore can offer goods at a cheaper price. Online stores usually have promotional methods as well which is not possible in bricks and mortar stores. One example is Boohoo.com who often give consumers a BooHoo coupon to get a discount off their purchase.
Finally, online shopping means you can usually get a wider range of products since the stores are not restricted by expensive limited shelf space as a retail store is.
The Apple iPhone 5 has been around for a while now and with the fast pace that the smartphone market is moving and the pressure from Samsung, Apple need to keep releasing awesome hardware to maintain their market position.
The Apple iPhone 5S and Apple iPhone 6 is reportedly in the works and it is expected that the iPhone 5S will be announced soon.
There are a number of rumours surrounding the new Apple iPhone 5S, and here are some of what we’ve been hearing.
Firstly, it is expected that the new iPhone will have more options of colours. Right now you can only select from black or white, however it is expected that this will be expanded to at least 5 or 6 options.
Next is that their will be a 13 megapixel camera on the back bringing it up to speed with other phones in the market.
When watching formula one, you may hear a lot of commentators mentioning DRS and wondered what it meant. DRS is the abbreviation for Drag Reduction System which is the ability for a formula one car to adjust the rear wing on the vehicle in a way that reduces aerodynamic drag.
DRS was introduced in the 2011 season and has gone through a number of rule changes since then. The DRS system was introduced as it’s use could be enforced. The system arose because Red Bull Racing made a complaint about the F-ducts system used by Ferrari which was said to increase a cars speed by up to 6kmph.
DRS has it’s restrictions and cannot be used all over the track. There are dedicated DRS zones (usually two) on a track where a driver is able to activate it. The driver is only allowed to activate it if they are within 1 second of the car in front of it.
The Iconic has achieved such a growth over the past few years that it’s the admiration of the online shopping community. The company has grown exponentially and now is considered one of the biggest online fashion stores in Australia.
This success has not gone unnoticed with the company announcing that it has secured new funding in the form of a 25 million dollar cash injection from investment firm Summit Partners. Summit Partners is a large US equity investor who targets businesses that they feel have huge growth potential.
The managing director of Summit Partners, Scott Collins, has explained that the company looks for companies that have a long term value and show dynamic growth. Criteria which The Iconic strongly exhibit.
In regards to the funds, The Iconic intend to consolidate and expand further into the Australian market and ensure that they have full penetration.
The iPhone 5 has been one of the most popular iPhones released to date and this has meant that millions of the devices have been sold. Interestingly, it has been revealed that Apple has had to return over eight million devices back to Foxconn, the manufacturer, due to it not meeting quality requirements.
According to Chinese Business News, such a huge amount of returns would mean that this would have cost Foxconn up to $250 US dollars.
Some of the issues that have plagued the device since launch include phones that come straight out of the box with scratches on the body, discoloration of the device’s housing and software bugs.
It has been since reported that Foxconn has achieved a quality rate of 80%, not up to the 90% required by Apple.
When quizzed on the issue, Foxconn denies that there is any truth to the story and have advised quality rates are at a normal level.
With the rapid decline in sales of personal computers and rise in tablet PC’s and smartphone devices, where Lenovo has very little market share, Lenovo is looking for new products to kick start revenue growth and slow down the decline in sales.
One area which the company is rumored to be investigating is the purchase of IBM’s low end x86 commodity server business and according to reports, discussions are very advanced and it is expected that a decision either way should be made in the near future.
Lenovo is slowly making it’s way into the managed services area. Computer hardware is extremely low margin and to achieve profitability, you must sell through high volume. The profit margins on managed services is significantly higher and hence a more attractive proposition.
Lenovo had originally bought IBM’s PC business in 2005 and with this, purchased the popular ThinkPad brand. They have recently started offering servers and purchasing the IBM commodity server business will integrate nicely with this strategy.
Online shopping is starting to really take off in Australia after lagging behind the rest of the developed world in popularity. In the past it seemed like many people resisted purchasing online due to the high costs of delivery and the problem with trying to purchase fashion online. Online shopping was largely restricted to items where you would know exactly what you were getting and didn’t need to try it on such as computers and electronics.
Nowadays however, online shopping for fashion has become more popular due to the fact that stores are offering customers an excellent shopping experience. One of these stores is The Men’s Shop who have implemented techniques such as free delivery and returns as well as The Mens Shop coupon to get you started on your purchase.
The store is owned by the Gazal Group and is targeting men who they believe aren’t keen on shopping. They are targeting men who would rather shop online in the comfort of their own home.
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Fitch Ratings, one of the international ratings companies has upgraded Iceland's government bond‘s ratings from junk bond status.
Fitch was the one ratings company that rates Icelandic government bonds that had degraded the government bonds to “junk” status. Moody’s and S&P had threatened to do so if Iceland did not pass the so-called Icesave law in a general election in April 2010. They did not deliver on their threat.
The rating of Iceland is still lower than most of the neighboring countries. Only Greece has a lower grade for government bonds in the European Economic Area. Still the higher grade was welcomed by the Governor of the Central Bank, Már Gudmundsson. In an interview with RÚV stat radio on Saturday he said that he did not expect the grade to increase again in the near future.
Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'BBB-' from 'BB+' and affirmed its Long-term local currency IDR at 'BBB+'. Its Short-term foreign currency IDR has also been upgraded to 'F3'from 'B' and its Country Ceiling to 'BBB-' from 'BB+'. The Outlooks on the Long-term ratings are Stable.
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Browsing 210 - 220 results of 1075 programs
In this show, we explore the Outdoor Exploratorium project, a collection of exhibits that enhance a unique and iconic landscape on the edge of San Francisco Bay. We hear from Exploratorium exhibit developers Shawn Lani and Steve Gennrich, who reflect on the challenges and rewards of going outside the walls of the museum--and way outside of their familiar ways of working--to successfully bring exhibits into the open air. The Exploratorium celebrated its future home at Piers 15 and 17 in San Francisco with an official groundbreaking ceremony and festivities on October 19, 2010. Megan and Rick Prelinger opened their personal library in San Francisco in 2004, seeking to share their collection of books and resources with a larger community. In this show, Megan shares her story of making this "hopeful gesture" towards a world where knowledge is accessible to all. As she puts it, "in utopia, there are no closed stacks." This video includes interviews with Exploratorium Executive Director Dr. Dennis Bartels and Exploratorium Chairman of the Board George Cogan about Piers 15 and 17, as well as a fly-through animation of the future home of the Exploratorium. Join us for another podcast in our series, Speaking of Music Rewind. This program features Grammy and Pulitzer-winning composer Steve Reich, a pioneer of minimalist, jazz, and Western Classical music. Join us for another podcast in our series, Speaking of Music Rewind. This program features Grammy and Pulitzer-winning composer Steve Reich, a pioneer of minimalist, jazz, and Western Classical music. This After Dark event presented a collection of objects, organizations, and activities use various alternative energy sources, and also looked at sustainably raised food. Biologist Kristina Yu and exhibit developer Denise King share their love for the mighty (and mightily underappreciated) microorganism.
Senior Exploratorium scientist, Paul Doherty, unlocks the mystery behind the corrosive dust that coats the Black Rock Desert. The Explainers are the go-to people on the Exploratorium's floor--in their trademark orange vests, they roam the vast museum, helping visitors engage with the exhibits. In this show, we explore the field trip Explainers, a team of people from all different backgrounds, some of whom had little interest in science before getting involved here. The story isn't just about our home team, it's about the broader possibilities of teamwork and togetherness.
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This exciting book has a threefold quality. First it is a carefully chosen collection of beautiful and detailed paintings, which are an accurate record of the British transport scene during the twentieth century, and one which can be an excellent reference book for the many vintage transport enthusiasts.
Second it is a nostalgic reminder of those great days when travel was a new leisure pastime, which was heralded as an exciting adventure, and a source of enjoyment. The book harks back to the heyday of British-manufactured vehicles, not only for land travel, but at sea and in the air as well.
Third, this publication will give an endearing pleasure, not only from the beauty of the pictures, but also from a certain sense of fun, typified by some surprises hidden among the pictures!
Malcolm Root was born in Colchester in 1950 and still lives in nearby Halstead. From an early age he combined
his love of art with a fascination for all kinds of transport. On leaving school he entered the printing industry and
in 1981 took the decision to become a full-time professional artist. Commissions followed, particularly for railway
scenes, and in 1983 he was elected a full member of the Guild of Railway Artists. Malcolm’s paintings have
encompassed almost every form of transport – from horse and cart and tram to Concorde and ‘le Shuttle’.They
have also appeared in many forms including fine art prints, collectors’ plates, jigsaws, calendars and books.
Tom Tyler was born in South Devon just before the Second World War. His interest in all types of transport
progressed from Dinky toys and Hornby trains to the Land Rover and Ferguson tractor on which he learnt to drive
in his early teens – off road, of course! His first car in 1956 was a 1935 Morris 8 Tourer. He now lives in Ipswich,
where he owns a 1946 Sunbeam Talbot and a 1957 A35. He is a keen dissectologist with a large collection of
transport jigsaw puzzles, and he has written several books on this subject.
Imprint: Halsgrove. ISBN 978 1 84114 221 0, hardback, 258x238mm, 144 pages. Reprinted March 2008.
REVIEWS: East Magazine.
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It always amazes me how many religious concepts and themes have become embedded in our nation’s ongoing debates about abortion. Truth is, it’s impossible for the mainstream media to avoid these religious entanglements because they have soaked into the language used in these events, debates, laws and court cases.
Consider, for example, arguments about the language that journalists use to describe unborn children.
Some journalists insist that the proper term is always “fetus,” because this is the scientific and, thus, neutral and objective term. Thus, it is the journalistic word to use.
My venerable copy of the Associated Press Stylebook does not take a stand on this issue. However I have heard journalists say that their own newsrooms had written “fetus” into their local style manual.
In addition to “fetus” being scientific, many journalists have argued that it is impossible to use terms such as “unborn child” or even “baby” because these words assume a specific stance on an issue that is rooted in religious doctrine — the question of “ensoulment.” In other words, it is an act of faith — not science — to say when a child becomes fully human. Yet, note that religious faith is involved the second that people involved in this debate begin discussing the human soul. Period.
The reason that I am mentioning this is because, in the past year or so, I noticed that more journalists are loosening up on some of these issues and starting to use the language that actual human beings use when discussing these issues. At the very least, journalists are starting to mix these terms in their copy. Consider this New York Times lede:
For years, surgeons have been trying to find ways of operating on babies in the womb, reasoning that medical abnormalities might be more easily fixed while a fetus is still developing. But with tremendous risks to babies and mothers, and a mixed record of success, fetal surgery is mostly used when babies are likely to die otherwise.
Yes, you read that right — one “fetus” reference and three references to “babies.”
Now we have the potentially tragic case in Colorado of a pharmacist’s mistake that may result in the tragic end of a pregnancy. Here is the Associated Press lede, as used by National Public Radio:
A pregnant Colorado woman mistakenly given an abortion drug by a pharmacist faces an excruciating wait to find out the fate of her unborn child.
A Denver television station posted this variation online:
FT. LUPTON, Colo. – She is six weeks pregnant and when she went to the pharmacy to pick up an antibiotic her doctor had prescribed, the pharmacist gave her an abortion drug by mistake. Mareena Silva might lose her unborn child because of the prescription drug error. … .
“For all this to happen now is really overwhelming,” said Silva. “This is my first child, so it’s really difficult to deal with.” …
Doctors are checking Silva’s bloodwork to make sure her hormone levels are OK. She could miscarry, carry the child to full-term with severe birth defects or she could have a happy, healthy baby.
You can see the basic problem. When talking about these issues, “fetus” is the kind of term that is used by lawyers, legislators and scientists (usually on one side of the abortion debate). Meanwhile, ordinary people tend to say “child,” “unborn child” or even “baby.” What is a journalist supposed to do? No matter what newsrooms decide, one side or the other is going to be ticked off.
Readers, what are you seeing in your local media? A consistent use of one term or this new mix of the scientific and, well, the language of the people? What do you think should be in the Associated Press Stylebook, if anything?
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LSU can be the economic leader for La.
During his speech at the ribbon cutting of the new LSU E.J. Ourso College of Business Education Complex, Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media and former presidential candidate, said, “As never before, Louisiana is open to business. Louisiana can be at the forefront of global growth and innovation.”
Those are some strong words from a powerful national business leader—and ones that get me excited about the potential for LSU and Louisiana.
As I have said before, I believe entrepreneurship is the key to new jobs and economic growth for Louisiana. And education is a critical foundation for competing in a knowledge-based and global economy. That is why reforming our K-12 public school system and offering more school choice is critical in this legislative session. It is also why I believe Louisiana's flagship university, LSU, and the E.J. Ourso College of Business, which develops entrepreneurs, must play an important leadership role in our state. But it is essential that citizens statewide better understand this urgent opportunity and the impact that LSU can have.
Another recent visitor to the LSU campus also understands. University of Kansas School of Engineering Dean Stuart Bell, a candidate for provost at LSU, acknowledged that LSU and many other universities nationwide are struggling with budgets. But he told The Advocate that higher education must do more to communicate its “relevancy and impact. There's nothing this state does that adds more economic value than what we do. We just haven't done a good job of communicating that.”
But like Forbes, Bell was optimistic about LSU and Louisiana, and described LSU's future as “extremely bright.”
I agree, and I believe that our flagship university must sell itself statewide as a catalyst for jobs that will impact everyone's future. It is a launching pad for entrepreneurs and a source of bright, young minds that can boost any business and help them grow and succeed. They win—and Louisiana wins.
As I walked through the new Business Education Complex, which is home to the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute, I realized that this fall the next Steve Forbes, Steve Jobs, Meg Whitman, Michael Dell or Mark Zuckerberg could be in one of these classrooms. Or another Jim Bernhard, Huey Wilson, Norman Saurage, Richard Lipsey, Bert Turner, Lee Berg, John Folse, Lane Grigsby, Newton Thomas, Hans Sternberg, Brace Godfrey, Kevin Reilly, Bill Borne, Todd Graves, Art Favre ... the list goes on. They could create the next great Louisiana or U.S. company, headquartered here in our state and creating thousands of jobs.
There could already be a future Fortune 500 entrepreneur at LSU right now at the Louisiana Business & Technology Center. There are currently 30 businesses operating in the LBTC, and another 31 LSU student startups in its new student incubator area. And some of the students, like Logan Leger and Kenny Nguyen, have recently received national attention.
That is the potential, and we—LSU faculty and staff, Board of Supervisors, alumni, business leaders and elected officials—all need to work as a team to make sure everyone else in Louisiana sees such a vision for the future.
Funding the vision is up to all of us as well. Alumni, corporations, federal grants, student tuition, donors and state government must all play a part. Times have changed in America and Louisiana, and the strong and innovative—as well as those who hustle and prove their value—will survive in the marketplace. That is LSU's challenge—and its opportunity.
You “LEAP” what you sow
Would it be surprising to you to learn that two of the lowest ranking school systems in the Capital Region, East Baton Rouge and Baker, were closed last Wednesday so bus drivers, cafeteria workers and teachers could go protest at the Capitol—just one week before the LEAP testing begins? Of course, it was no surprise to learn that the No. 1 district, Zachary, had its teachers and children in class “where they belong,” according to Superintendent Warren Drake. Kudos to him and the superintendents of Central, West Baton Rouge, Iberville, West Feliciana, East Feliciana, Ascension and Livingston, which all had class as usual. I am sure their students and parents appreciated being made a priority.
Regarding the closing of EBR schools, BESE Vice President Chas Roemer said last week on WJBO that it was no wonder the EBR system was losing community support, because they don't put children first just a week before testing starts.
I am proud to say that Children's Charter School was open for class last week, too. They are celebrating their 15th anniversary this year and were around the last time the EBR system closed for employees to go protest. I dropped by the school that day to find the LSU business school visiting with a cart of laptops, which the children used to make a movie. So, while the EBR kids sat at home back then watching soap operas, the Children's Charter kids were making a digital movie.
Sadly, in 2012 we are seeing a re-run. A good title for it would be Insanity, because the EBR system wants to do the same thing over and over and expects different results.
Children's Charter is a Type 1 charter and part of the EBR district, but it operates independently and can do what is in the best interest of its children and parents. The school doesn't take orders from the central office. It might be no surprise to you that it has a waiting list for admission.
Ledet and crawfish in spotlight
Joseph Ledet from Westlake (near Lake Charles) was the star on American Idol last week with a soulful rendition of “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge (who is in the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame and Gerry Lane car commercials). The judges gave Ledet a standing ovation halfway through the song, and Jennifer Lopez said, “It was the best I have ever seen on American Idol.”
But also sharing the spotlight with Ledet were Louisiana boiled crawfish. Ryan Seacrest said he and former Idol judge Randy Jackson (who is from Baton Rouge) had been in New Orleans recently and arranged to have the crawfish brought in for Ledet. Seacrest rolled out a tub of boiled crawfish, and Ledet showed them how to peel and eat. It was after the tasting that Ledet hit it out of the park with his song.
Seacrest had them bring Ledet another plate of crawfish after he finished as a reward for his stellar performance. It was a good night for Ledet, crawfish and Louisiana. Maybe we discovered a new side benefit to eating crawfish and a possible national ad campaign if Ledet goes on to win. “Eat crawfish. Become an American Idol.”
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Real estate recap: DPW reorganization recommendations coming … Capital Region home sales post 5% gain in February … WWII bombing range near Hammond at center of new lawsuit
In Costco we trust
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WHEREAS, promoting the capacity of Missouri's people, communities, businesses and organizations to work collaboratively is vital to the state's long-term prosperity; and
WHEREAS, collaborative work and community service can help alleviate Missouri's unmet educational, public safety, environmental and human needs; and
WHEREAS, the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 (the "Act") provides new federal resources to fulfill unmet service needs and promote volunteerism across the country,
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Mel Carnahan, Governor of the State of Missouri, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the State of Missouri, do hereby establish the Missouri Community Service Commission (the "Commission") to encourage community service and volunteer participation as a means of community and state problem-solving primarily in the areas of education, public safety, the environment and human services; to promote and support voluntary citizen involvement in government and private programs throughout the state; to develop a long- term comprehensive vision and plan for action for community service initiatives in Missouri; and to serve as the state's liaison to national and state organizations which support its mission,
a) The Commission shall be composed of not less than fifteen (15), nor more than twenty-five (25) voting members. Any number of nonvoting members may be appointed. Members of the Commission shall be appointed by the Governor, with the exception of one nonvoting ex officio member who shall be named by the Corporation for National and Community Service (the "National Corporation"). Except for the National Corporation appointee, all nonvoting members shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor. Of the initial voting appointees, one-third shall serve one-year terms, one-third shall serve two-year terms, and one-third shall serve three-year terms. All subsequent voting appointees shall serve three-year terms.
b) The Chair of the Commission shall serve as its chief executive officer. The Chair shall be elected by the voting Commission members from among the voting member's ranks. The Commission may elect other officers from the voting membership at its discretion.
c) The Commission shall perform all duties required by the Act.
d) The Commission shall have authority, consistent with applicable law, to undertake other activities relating to the promotion of volunteerism and community service.
(e) The Commission shall meet at least quarterly. The Commission shall establish rules for meetings, attendance, and conflicts of interest consistent with applicable state and federal law,
(f) The Commission shall reside in the Office of Administration, but shall be directed through the Office of the Lieutenant Governor.
(g) This Executive Order shall supersede the Executive Order of August 21, 1974, creating the Office of Volunteer Coordination in the Office of the Lieutenant Governor.
|IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Missouri, in the City of Jefferson, on this 28th day of January, 1994.|
|[Mel Carnahan's signature]||GOVERNOR|
[Judith K. Moriarty's signature]
SECRETARY OF STATE
Governor's Executive Orders documents are available on this website in the .pdf format. In order to view or print them, you must have Adobe Reader installed on your computer. To download a free copy of Adobe Reader, click on the icon below.
NOTE: If you are experiencing problems opening PDFs using IE8, please place the mouse over the selected PDF, right-click then select Open in New Tab or Open in New Window.
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| 0.937366 | 741 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Software That Saves Lives
The statistics were telling: 15% to 20% of neurosurgery patients developed infections in the drains that neurosurgeons implanted to draw away fluids, a complication that not only threatened lives, but also led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment costs annually.
Dr. Daniel St
That may not be surprising, but his choice of IT tools is: St
"I needed to handle large databases and have tools to make proper decisions on which patients were to be selected for specialized and very expensive care," he says.
"Certainly, [this accomplishment] would be possible without technology, but that would take a lot of work [from] several people working continuously. That costs a lot, and it is very difficult to keep performance 24 hours a day on the highest level. There will be mistakes, misunderstandings, etc., resulting in repeated failures," says St
This innovative use of QlikView software earned QlikTech International and St
To be sure, St
Such experiences, he says, allowed him to recognize how computers could help doctors make critical decisions by providing them with analysis of information that they just couldn't access quickly enough through manual systems. And when he saw another hospital using QlikView, he saw the possibilities that this particular application could bring to his own medical work.
"I understood how extremely fast they could make searches, and how they could combine all data in an illustrated way," he says.
"You could see these patterns with other tools, but it was much easier with QlikView," St
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| 0.980496 | 316 | 1.59375 | 2 |
OLPC Ghana’s national program, initiated under the last national regime and supported by the Baah-Wiredu Laptop per Child Foundation, was deployed to one large town (the Millennium Village of Bonsaaso), but then was delayed for a year while the new regime reviewed the program. Recently the rollout of XOs to rural parts of Ghana has continued.
Last week XOs reached a new school in the Suhum Kraboa Coaltar district, as reported by GhanaWeb, along with new furniture for the school. It is unclear from the report, but the laptops there seem to be in a new part the school, in a computer lab. This is unlike the project in Bonsaaso, and not the implementation we would recommend, but it is good to see that school connectivity in rural parts of the country is being revisited as a priority.
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| 0.97763 | 181 | 1.632813 | 2 |
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