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Extrajudicial killing is official US policy. Drone wars normalize it. Obama decides who lives or dies. He appointed himself judge, jury and executioner.
He's got final kill list authority. His secret memo authorized Anwar al-Awlaki's assassination. Anyone anywhere in the world can be murdered on his say.
His "white paper" inverted inviolable legal principles. It's titled "Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a US Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa'ida or An Associated Force."
It calls lawless killing without trial or evidence legal. Vague language substitutes for clear evidence and just cause. Rule of law principles don't apply.
Habeas rights and due process are spurned. The 1215 Magna Carta states:
No free man shall be seized, or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed, or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals, or by the law of the land.It means due process is inviolable. It's constitutionally guaranteed. Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments affirm it. Doing so prohibits government from "depriv(ing anyone) of life, liberty, or property without due process of law."
Extrajudicial executive authority usurped fundamental freedoms. Courts have no say. Nor does Congress. Murder by diktat is policy.
Police states operate that way. America is by far the worst. It menaces humanity. It may not survive Obama's second term. He represents rogue leadership. He governs irresponsibly, lawlessly and recklessly.
Drones are instruments of state terror. They're America's weapon of choice. They're fast replacing manned aircraft. They sanitize killing on the cheap.
They reign death on helpless civilians. They kill by computer keyboards, monitors, infrared cameras, and other high-tech sensor devices.
Only 2% of victims are high-value targets. Others are innocent men, women, children, infants, the elderly and infirm.
Obama claims killing America's enemies anywhere in the world is legal. It's justified because he says so. International, constitutional, and US statute laws don't apply.
Obama defends the indefensible. Despots operate that way. He'll award medals for murder. Cowardly acts will be honored. Doing so elevates rogue leadership to a higher level.
Justice American-style is policy. Drone warriors will be rewarded for extrajudicial killing. Doing so creates a facade of meritorious service.
Post-9/11 operations alone qualify. Recipients don't have to set foot on battlefields. They can sleep comfortably in their own beds at night.
They'll get newly created Distinguished Warfare Medals. Critics call it the "Geek Cross." Some suggest it's close to awarding video-gamers Purple Hearts for animated wounds.
Awards will signify extinguishing targeted victims. Murder, Inc. honors its own.
Medals are brass pendants. They're nearly two vertical inches high. They're adorned with a laurel wreath. It circles a globe. There's an eagle in the center. It's attached to a red, white, and blue stripped ribbon.
DWMs be awarded for "extraordinary achievement related to a military operation." Doing so becomes part of Obama's rogue legacy. His rap sheet includes growing numbers of crimes. They're becoming too many to count.
Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta explained the new award. It'll provide "recognition for the extraordinary achievements that directly impact on combat operations, but that do not involve acts of valor or physical risk that combat entails."
"I’ve seen firsthand how modern tools like remotely piloted platforms and cybersystems have changed the way wars are fought," he added.
And they’ve given our men and women the ability to engage the enemy and change the course of battle even from afar.
Our military reserves its highest decorations, obviously, for those who display gallantry and valor in actions where their lives are on the line, and we will continue to do so.
But we should also have the ability to honor the extraordinary actions that make a true difference in combat operation.
They remove the enemy from the field of battle even if those actions are physically removed from the fight.Defense officials said the medal will outrank the Bronze Star. It's America's fourth highest combat award. It was created in 1944. It was the last war related one established. Recipients are rewarded for meritorious battle service.
Silver Stars are for bravery. They're America's third highest combat award. They'll rank above the Distinguished Service Medal. DSM recipients don’t have to set foot on battlefields.
They're safe in remote locations. They kill nameless, faceless victims. They do so nearby or half a world away.
Virtual war kills like sport. Command centers operate worldwide. Many more are planned. America has lots more killing in mind. Perhaps mass extermination is planned.
Pentagon and CIA personnel operate drones. They're licensed to kill. They do so with impunity. They'll be honored for committing murder. Washington finds more ways of sinking to new depths.
Americans support what demands condemnation. Why they'll have to explain. New Pew Research data show overall approval: 56% support drone killing. Only 26% oppose.
Men approve doing so by more than three to one (68% - 21%). Fewer women do: 44% accept what 31% reject.
Pew's data was obtained by telephone interviews. They were conducted from February 7 - 10. A national random sample of 1,004 US adults aged 18 or older were surveyed.
Princeton Survey Research Associates International contacted respondents. It expressed a 95% confidence level in results.
What's ahead who knows. Obama's waging war on humanity. It may not survive his second term.
Stopping him is a national imperative. Ousting him by impeachment is vital. Key is doing it now before it's too late.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected]. His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/
BE THE CHANGE! PLEASE SHARE THIS USING THE TOOLS BELOW | <urn:uuid:7b4f6e48-6747-4739-b96f-06fddf499635> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.activistpost.com/2013/02/medals-for-murder.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950216 | 1,416 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Don't Have Time for Cardio
Well, not really, and here's why: The longer the cardio session, the better the afterburn. "Afterburn" is technically known as post-exercise oxygen consumption, and what that fancy term refers to is your elevated metabolism after a workout. Afterburn can last anywhere from 15 minutes to 48 hours, depending on the intensity and duration of your workout — therefore, if you break up your cardio, you'll burn the same number of calories during training, but you'll minimize the number of calories lost because of afterburn.
If you really have to break up your cardio, all is not lost — but the truth is, you'd be better off finding something for the kids to do for 45 minutes while you get your treadmill on.
Get more fitness tips from Jillian Michaels.
Last Updated: 10/27/2009
Known as TV's toughest fitness trainer, Jillian Michaels is a best-selling author and fitness expert who has appeared on the U.S. and Australian versions of The Biggest Loser and the Emmy-award winning daytime talk show, The Doctors. | <urn:uuid:9b4e800f-6ee8-4db8-a770-e2f460ca8435> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.everydayhealth.com/fitness-specialist/no-time-for-cardio.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952037 | 231 | 1.78125 | 2 |
A Salute to Forest City Enterprises
June 1, 2005
The National Building Museum presented its prestigious annual Honor Award for 2005 to Forest City Enterprises, in recognition of the firm’s long history of investment in and revitalization of America’s urban centers, growing dedication to sensitive planning and sustainable development, and vital role in creating affordable housing.
Forest City Enterprises accepted the award on June 1, 2005, at a festive black-tie gala in the National Building Museum’s historic Great Hall. More than 1,000 cultural, corporate, political, and building industry leaders were in attendance, with proceeds supporting the Museum’s exhibitions and programs.
“This is a very great honor for Forest City. Our company has had the pleasure of working with partners with both the desire and the expertise to collaborate with us in our urban market strategy. Together we have carried out our vision of planned sustainable communities and commercial development. It is humbling to be recognized for our work by such a prestigious institution,” said Charles A. Ratner, president and chief executive office, Forest City Enterprises, Inc.
Bestowed annually since 1986, the National Building Museum's Honor Award recognizes outstanding individuals and companies who have made significant contributions in the fields of architecture, planning, construction, and building. Forest City Enterprises will be the 19th recipient. “As the company’s many awards and accolades testify, Forest City is making a positive impact in communities across America through its development and revitalization initiatives,” said Chase Rynd, executive director of the National Building Museum. “The National Building Museum is pleased to salute Forest City for its leadership in this arena.”
Through its work across the county, Forest City has prided itself on community involvement and public partnerships, ensuring that new development respects local interests and cultural traditions. The company’s projects have been praised for enhancing the urban experience while meeting rigorous environmental standards. Valuing the importance of quality design, Forest City has worked with many recognized architects, including Frank Gehry and Renzo Piano. Forest City has also exercised leadership in making housing affordable for more Americans, incorporating substantial numbers of low- and moderate-income apartments and houses in projects ranging from coast to coast. The efforts of Forest City can be found across the United States in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., among other locations.
In Cleveland, Ohio, Forest City’s revitalization of Tower City Center in the late 1980s and early 90s is widely regarded as the catalyst for the rebirth of the city’s downtown. Preserving the buildings’ cultural significance, Forest City implemented a mixed-use urban revitalization, historic preservation, and adaptive re-use strategy with award-winning results. Forest City’s plan for University Park at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology received awards from the Urban Land Institute and the Bruner Foundation for its rich urban character. The once decaying and neglected area in Cambridge is now flourishing with biomedical technology firms, residents, tourists, and school children in a high-quality urban environment that offers low- and moderate-income housing and has created more than 3,000 new jobs. In Colorado, Forest City worked in concert with the City of Denver, the Stapleton Development Corporation, the Stapleton Citizens Advisory Board, the Stapleton Foundation, the Denver community, and countless other groups to create a plan for the development of Denver’s former Stapleton Airport that reflected local interests and needs. The projected-25-year-transformation of the former airport to a viable community is underway and has already been lauded for its combination of urban renewal, innovation, and sustainability through awards from the United Nations Council on Sustainable Development, the Mayors Business Council, the University of Colorado, the King of Sweden, and others.
Forest City’s successful projects serve as outstanding examples of how strategic development, planning and partnerships, combined with a commitment to sustainability, community-building, quality design, and civic responsibility, can produce livable, thriving communities that benefit their citizens. | <urn:uuid:e50b9348-025c-4f7d-93e7-9728450e5c35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbm.org/support-us/awards_honors/honor-award/forest-city-enterprises.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946827 | 838 | 1.609375 | 2 |
This fundraiser is planned in hopes of raising awareness for ALS in the loving memory of Tony Averella. Tony passed away from ALS on July 16, 2011 after 6.5 yr battle with ALS. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
In ALS, nerve cells (neurons) waste away or die, and can no longer send messages to muscles. This eventually leads to muscle weakening, twitching, and an inability to move the arms, legs, and body. The condition slowly gets worse. When the muscles in the chest area stop working, it becomes hard or impossible to breathe on one's own. ALS affects approximately 5 out of every 100,000 people worldwide. There are no known risk factors, except for having a family member who has a hereditary form of the disease.
When you dine in or carry out at Bill Bateman's on THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 13, 2012, the restaurant will contribute 10% of your total food purchases to TONY'S ANGELS. Please bring all your friends, family, & co-workers because 10% applies to the total food. Please remember to bring the flyer with you for Tony's Angels to receive credit. ALCOHOL EXCLUDED.
Pound of Steamed Shrimp with Onions, Old Bay, and Cocktail Sauce $12.99, Friend Shrimp Dinner with fries and Slaw $6.99, and it's Trivia Night!
Bill Bateman’s Happy Hour Reduced Drink prices in the bar 4:00-7:00pm Monday-Friday! $1.00 off all house wines, domestic drafts, rail drinks. | <urn:uuid:8c88e2b6-14db-49f3-a888-384eb5c155d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://annearundel.patch.com/announcements/fundraising-for-als-43aaf56c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949083 | 367 | 1.507813 | 2 |
About Us: Our Commitment to Colorado Public Education
The Donnell-Kay Foundation is a private family foundation aiming to improve public education and drive systemic school reform in Colorado through research, creative dialogue and critical thinking.
It is the foundation’s goal to build a strong future in Colorado by providing a high quality education for all students. Our focus is funding systemic reform and state level policy in the areas of early childhood, K-12 and higher education.
Donnell-Kay provides operating and program dollars to innovative school and non-profit projects statewide, with a focus on metro Denver’s urban schools. Look to our “Grantees” section for stories from featured partners. The staff at Donnell-Kay also conducts research and publishes reports that address problems and investigate innovations in public education. Check out the “Our Work” page for details on our latest projects. Annually, DK spends about $1 million on grants, research and other education reform projects.
The Hot Lunch Speaker Series has been going strong for five years. It is an event in which Donnell-Kay has connected national education leaders with Colorado’s education community. Past speakers include Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers; Wendy Kopp, CEO and Founder of Teach for America; John Danner, co-founder and CEO of Rocketship Education; Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education at New York University; and Mike Feinberg, Co-Founder of the Knowledge is Power Program Foundation. Go to the “Events” page for the most up-to-date information about our latest Hot Lunch speakers.
DK has provided seed grants for – and continues to support – a number of nonprofit groups. Get Smart Schools is building the leadership pipeline for new charter and autonomous schools. Colorado Succeeds is a group that connects the business community with the education world. And Education News Colorado is an online-only publication with a focus on in-depth education journalism.
DK has a long history of informing education policy in Colorado. The foundation launched the conversation around school autonomy, with the help of former staff member Amy Anderson, which led to the 2008 Innovation Schools Act.
DK launched a statewide project in 2004 to assess the condition and funding of Colorado’s school buildings. The findings showed a serious need across the state and a large deficit in funds. The project led to the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) program.
In 2007, the foundation convened the Trujillo Commission, a group of policy makers who helped establish online learning practices and policies in Colorado. DK has an ongoing interest in the performance of Denver Public Schools. Among the projects with the district, we started initial conversations around DPS’s complicated enrollment processes. That project turned into the new DPS SchoolChoice system, rolled out in partnership with the district, Get Smart Schools and several other non-profits.
The foundation has also given grants to forward-thinking school models, including the Odyssey School, STRIVE Preparatory Schools (formerly West Denver Prep), Venture Prep, the Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST), and Rocky Mountain Prep.
DK started the Colorado Graduates Initiative after realizing the education community needed to come together and accelerate action towards reducing the state’s dropout rate. The effort is an ongoing one, connected with DK’s work around students who are off-track to graduation.
Creating healthy school lunches is another longtime priority for the foundation. Donnell-Kay helped bring Revolution Foods to Denver in 2009, a company that serves healthy, freshly prepared meals to students across the country.
Donnell-Kay operates as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. It was incorporated in 1965 through a trust by the Kay family.
The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals but does accept concept papers that address statewide educational policy issues.
The Donnell-Kay Foundation wants to build a strong future in Colorado by providing a high quality education for all students. We give operating and program dollars to innovative school and non-profit projects statewide, with a focus on metro Denver’s urban schools. The DK staff also conducts research and publishes reports that address problems and investigate innovations in public education. Donnell-Kay operates as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. It was incorporated in 1965 through a trust by the Kay family. The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals but does accept concept papers that address statewide educational policy issues. | <urn:uuid:33718994-c3bd-471e-b520-4b10590040b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dkfoundation.org/about-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952605 | 911 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Frostburg State University International Film Series will present the movie “West Beirut” on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. in Lane University Center Atkinson Room 201. The series is sponsored by FSU Center Stage.
Approximately 150,000 people died in Lebanon’s civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 1989, but surprisingly few films have been made about the conflict. Director Ziad Doueiri steps into the breach with “West Beirut,” a movie that captures the sociopolitical climate during the early part of the war with remarkable accuracy and subtlety, and without over sentimentalizing the subject.
The film follows the wisecracking Muslim teenager Tarek (Rami Doueiri, the director’s brother) as he struggles to understand – and, if possible, ignore – what’s happening when bombs start exploding near his school and home. But Tarek refuses to let war imprison him. He and his friend Omar (Chamas) horse around, make Super-8 movies, learn how to smoke and sneak into a brothel. Tarek’s parents, meanwhile, struggle to hang on to their jobs and their sanity under increasingly murderous conditions. Telling the story of wartime Lebanon through a child’s eyes allows director Doueiri to focus on the fundamentally disorienting experience of living in a splintering society.
The film is free and open to the public. For information, contact the Lane University Center Information Desk at 301-687-4411. FSU is committed to making all of its programs, services and activities accessible to persons with disabilities. You may request accommodations through the ADA Compliance Office at 301-687-4102, TDD 301-687-7955. | <urn:uuid:af7cfae3-f5b9-424b-b2e5-eaba8caf24be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.frostburg.edu/news/searchnewsdt/?id_number=2074 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940002 | 363 | 1.625 | 2 |
The summer of 2011 brought sunshine and warmth to residents of Hudson County. But for St. John’s church in Union City, summer cranked up the financial heat. The dwindling congregation and pressures of bill-paying threatened to shut down the Episcopal church built in 1901.
Fast-forward to Oct. 6, 2012, and a whole new tune (or, more literally, tunes) played on the corner of Palisade Avenue and 15th Street. Locals flocked to the venue that was dressed in yellow theatrical curtains and covered in colored lights, with the pulpit disguised as a 1920s cabaret-style stage.
Joseph Kolbow, the brains behind the new church-saving and local culture-reviving initiative called "Arts at St. John's," bounced around the church-turned-theatre dressed as Merril Garrick: host, performer, and activist extraordinaire.
"The progress we've made since we've begun the initiative has lent new meaning to 'Revival Cabaret,' " he said as he tweaked the sound system and made sure the wine was flowing for guests who'd spent an affordable $10 to be entertained and to ensure the continued existence of the beautiful performance space.
"Since May,” he added, “when we had essentially nothing, we now have eight wellness classes and a thrift shop to help keep this congregation going."
“We now have eight wellness classes and a thrift shop to help keep this congregation going." – Joseph Kolbow
As patrons settled in their pews, Kolbow and his partner Johnnie Niel took the mic and kicked off the evening with a splendid rendition of "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows," a lighthearted sentiment that Kolbow and company hope carries St. John's through into the far future.
Bring on the clowns (and the dough)
Over 30 people from the community had joined together April 12 in St. John’s sanctuary and formed a sort of think tank to figure out how best to promote the arts and save the church.
“We were actually laughing a bit at the meeting at how there were more people there that night than there were in the whole congregation,” Kolbow said. “It was fantastic. People were laughing, talking, having a good time; it was more like what church should be.”
Saturday evening may well have challenged people’s average ideas of “what church should be” as performers ate fire, danced provocatively (but tastefully) in see-through mesh costumes to guitar music, and performed self-authored skits that contained language that was, shall we say, not found in biblical sermons.
It was the second fundraising cabaret the group had held since Arts at St. John’s inception, and the atmosphere was duly reverent as the audience watched singers, dancers, magicians, comedians, and clowns fill the soaring space with art. And every penny went to save St. John’s.
“Many of our performers pretend they only function in New York City artistically,” Kolbow joked as he emceed the event, “But as you can see, there is a lot of talent right here in Hudson County.”
Catering to different communities
Before the show began, many supporters took a trip downstairs to the large, previously unused church basement to peruse the vast selection of discount items at their brand new thrift shop. Carr, an expert of sorts in just how to set up thrift shops in low-income communities, helped navigate shoppers through the space he set up in a mere month.
“I gladly came here from Harlem,” he explained. “I like helping to build up poor places to palaces dedicated to community outreach and support.”
Carr added that it is a unique position to be a part of a church in a largely Hispanic community that accepts homosexuality, particularly after the Newark Archbishop recently declared that those who are homosexual should give up religious pursuits and not receive their holy communion.
“There has been a marked drop in Hispanic attendance in Episcopal churches because they feel they need to choose between religion or the support of gay family members,” Carr said. “This church is a caring one. In my time here I hope to build Hispanic and gay outreach as well as secure a consistent revenue stream so we can finally clean up this beautiful space.”
All of the thrift shop’s proceeds go directly to St. John’s.
They have also developed a wellness program that offers Zumba, dance, mediation, yoga, and gymnastics classes on a weekly basis. For more information, email [email protected] or call (201) 301-8340. St. John’s is located at 1516 Palisade Ave. in Union City.
You can visit the church’s webpage at stjohns-unioncity.dioceseofnewark.org/St._Johns_Website.
Gennarose Pope may be reached at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:f18aa65c-f47b-4d53-aaf1-3e382860ed15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hudsonreporter.com/view/full_story/20477612/article-Church-life-is-a-cabaret-Dazzling-effort-continues-to-save-Union-City%E2%80%99s-St--John%E2%80%99s-church- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971413 | 1,066 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Heal Their Land
The manifestation of the sons of God brings with it the responsibility of restoring the earth and the abounding presence of every animal and plant species.
One of the most frequently quoted scriptures is 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my presence and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” To some, I am sure, this means I will restore prayer in public schools, or I will outlaw abortion, or even I will give more power to the Republican Party. But what does it say and what does it really mean, “I will heal their land?”
Most so-called Christians today are not even aware that the land is gravely injured, wounded, and suffering. The word of God says “the wilderness mourns,” but have you listened to its weeping? Romans eight tells us that the entire creation is eagerly awaiting the manifestation of the sons of God because the creation itself and all its creatures will be set free into the glorious liberty that all Christ’s real offspring enjoy! You are just waiting to go to heaven, but did you know that Jesus is waiting for us to be praying and working towards heaven’s coming to earth. Hey, He is going to be right here on the planet for a thousand years, and He says, “God should destroy those who destroy the earth.” Most of us have no idea of what our wicked ways are, so how can we turn from them? Is it bad to smoke, but okay to smoke up the atmosphere? Is it bad to drink alcohol, but fine to dump toxic chemicals in the river?
Most of us don’t know anything about what God’s creation looks like in its unspoiled condition. The insects that are now spreading disease across our land would have been devoured by countless bird species from nighthawks to upland plovers had we cared about our land. Hundreds of species of fresh water clams and mussels would be purifying our rivers and streams if we cared about our land. Seas of wild flowers would be perfuming our air and songbirds of every hue and color would be de-stressing the challenges of our daily occupations. Instead of being havens for chain saws and mono-cropping, our forests would be filled with the Creator’s diversity of fruits and nuts to feed humanity and nature. Some of the Native Americans had a better idea of protecting God’s handiwork, but we killed them and took their land and now we fight about property rights. We forgot about the law of reaping what we sow! Still, if we respond, God will heal our land.
But once the land is restored, what has to be done to maintain that healing? And what has to be avoided? And what are the benefits of a healed land? And what is the cost of the cure? Who cares that the ancient old growth forests are the unique mishkan of Almighty God? Psalms 132: 1-6
We serve God with lip service, but where is any evidence that the leaders and even the followers of our generation want or are ready for a healed land? Are we the meek that inherit a healed earth, or those whom the earth vomits out “because the land cannot bear them”? Let us not talk about “healing their land” when we know almost nothing about the earth…which is the Lord’s, or God who is Spirit, or what the scripture teaches about keeping the earth. First let us learn what God already revealed in His Word concerning His position on the environment and our relationship to it as Sons and Daughters of the Most High and then let us commit our energy and lives in service to Him and all He has created.
There is no doubt that this teaching, the very dream and expectation of God, will bring some distance between those who are stuck in their “old time religion” while God is doing a new thing. Yes, He has always been committed to this new thing. Salvation, redemption, the new birth, being filled with the Holy Spirit and abiding in His word results in transformation and restoration. But we are being transformed and restored to become transformers and restorers of paths to walk in and you will notice I didn’t say places to “jostle one another in the streets.”
Many are focused on their old wine skins which keeps them from seeing the new thing that God has birthed onto the current scene. That old thing which prevents them from seeing God’s new thing causes them to say they oppose it and “no one ever spoke of restoring the earth and all creatures in other generations.” No doubt there is a polarization because they got so caught up in God’s word pertaining to caterpillar life that they were unwilling to enter the cocoon of death to old things so that the newness of life in the butterfly stage would emerge. Their protestation and insistence seeks to mourn that they will not support the climax of God’s intention on the earth but this climatic move of God which He has always anticipated with great joy affects not just man but all creatures and it will fill the earth like the waters fill the sea. I proclaim it this day in your ears.
Indeed the restoration of the entire creation was spoken of by all His holy prophets and has finally begun to be proclaimed presently by more than a few holy men and women of God. The only thing new about it is that we are now preparing to act upon His dream and not merely say we believe in it. From Isaiah to the Apostle Paul and from St. Francis Assisi to this present hour, this revelation from the heart of God and His written word has burst forth this man-child, who is just now stretching forth his baby hands towards His Father. This man-child is weeping and will not be satiated until He sees the restoration. God has thrust many bold anointed new leaders for this new generation to bear up on their wings of prayer and praise what His sons have been shown.
We have been the cutting edge of this divine revelation from the word and heart of God since the mid-90’s. At Church in the Green, we will connect you with the best biblical teaching and ministry preparation to see the gospel of the Kingdom go forth with power and to see the earth transformed. Simply send us an e-mail from the home page to get started. I leave you now with a quote from John Wesley, one of many noteworthy gospel teachers from hundreds of years ago: “I believe in my heart that faith in Jesus Christ can and will lead us beyond an exclusive concern for the well being of other human beings to the broader concern for the well being of the birds in our back yards, the fish in our rivers and every living creature on the face of the earth.” | <urn:uuid:26ac3a7e-263b-43dc-a34c-55456f2c2c23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.all-creatures.org/cre/art-healtheir.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967449 | 1,436 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Unkind to the Pigs
A minister, spending a holiday in the North of Ireland, was out walking, and, feeling ver thirsty, called at a farmhouse for a drink of milk. The farmer’s wife gave him a large bowl of milk, and while he was quenching his thirst a number of pigs got round about him. The minister noticed that the pigs were very strange in their manner, so he said:
“My good lady, why are the pigs so excited?”
The farmer’s wife replied, “Sure, it’s no wonder they are excited, sir; it’s their own little bowl you are drinking out of!”
Bilson, who is a stout man, was running to catch a train the other day, when his friend Jones called out: “Halloa, Bilson! In a hurry? Going somewhere?”
Keeping his breath for other purposes, Bilson made no reply, but he determined to take a terrible revenge. About one o’clock next morning he called Jones up on the telephone. After a great deal of ringing, a sleepy voice at the other end of the wire told him Jones was there.
“That you, Jones?” queried Bilson.
“Who do you want?” asked Jones. “I’ve been in bed these two hours.”
“I’m Bilson,” went on the other. “Remember seeing me running this morning, eh? Yes? Well, I was going somewhere, and I was in a hurry. Goodnight.”
Then Bilson hung up the receiver and got back into bed a happy man.
Clergyman: “Look here, Patsey Shea, if you’re a sensible man you’ll never let a drop of liquor pass your lips again. Sure, ‘tis your worst enemy.”
Patsey: “Arrah, now, your riverince, and haven’t you told us from the pulpit that we wor to love our enemies?”
Clergyman: “True for you, Patsey; but I never told you that you were to swallow them.”
News Item: English Society Women Take Up Poker.
Editor’s Note: London Bridge is Falling Down.
Hard on the Dog
When the young husband reached home from the office he found his wife in tears.
“Oh, John!” she sobbed on his shoulder, “I had baked a lovely cake, and I put it out on the back porch for the frosting to dry, and – and the dog ate it!”
“Well, don’t cry about it sweetheart,” he consoled, patting the pretty, flushed cheeks. “I know a man who will give us another dog!”
“This dog of mine is some dog, let me tell you! he has a wonderful pedigree.”
“I suppose you trace him away back to the dog Noah took into the ark.”
“Say, this dog’s ancestors didn’t go into the ark. He had a bark of his own.”
A Truly Useful Animal
Senator Martine of New Jersey tells of a farm hand whom he employed, who is much given to philosophizing.
One morning when the Senator was wandering over the farm, he came upon his man feeding the chickens. Alexander stopped him with: –
“Good mornin’, sir. I been thinking this mornin’ and I made up my mind, sir, as I was lookin’ at these here chickens, that they are the usefullest animal there is. You can eat ’em before they’re born, and after they’re dead!”
“I want a nice light book to read on the train.”
“How would the ‘Last Days of Pompeii’ do?”
“Pompeii? Who was he? How did he die?”
“I think it was some kind of an eruption.”
A Matter of Temperance
Teacher (severely): “What will your father say to your low average?”
Youngster(with hesitation): “When dad sees I’m down to zero, he’ll warm me up, I guess.”
Isn’t This Awful!
“That little chicken is a glutton.”
“Yes; it takes a peck at a time.”
A teacher asked her class to write an essay on London. Later she was surprised to read the following in one attempt:
“The people of London are noted for their stupidity.” The young author was asked how he got that idea.
“Please, miss,” was the reply,”it says in the textbook the population of London is very dense!”
The Exact Spot
“A train leaves New York,” supposed the teacher, “traveling forty miles an hour. It is followed thirty minutes later by a train traveling eighty miles an hour. At what point will the second train run into the first?”
The class seemed at a loss; that is, all except Willie Green, who was standing in the aisle vigorously, wagging his hand.
“Well, Willie?” said the teacher.
“At the hind end of the rear car, ma’am,” answered Willie.
What He Gave Brother
Little six-year-old Harry was asked by his Sunday School teacher: “And, Harry, what are you going to give your darling little brother for Christmas this year?”
“I dunno,” said Harry. “I gave him the measles last year.”
The Utmost in Care
“Shall I pump up the tires, sir?’
“Wait until we get out into the country, Jacques. I heard a doctor say that the air around here is very impure.”
“I am glad to see you home, Johnny,” said the father to his small son who had been away at school, but who was now home on his Christmas vacation. “How are you getting on at school?”
“Fine,” said Johnny. “I have learned to say ‘Thank you’ and ‘If you please’ in French.”
“Good!” said the father. “That’s more than you ever learned to say in English.”
“I suppose you have heard of the Fool Killer.”
“Yes; but I’ve never met him.”
“That is quite obvious.”
On the Home Track
“Dad, I was simply great in the relay events,” boasted the boy from college.
“That’s fine, son! We’ll make use of them talents. Your ma will soon be ready to relay the carpets.”
She Knew from Experience
“What is conscience?” asked the Sunday School teacher. There was a dead silence from the class.
“Oh, you know,” she said encouragingly. “What is it that tells us when we do wrong?”
“I know,” said the littlest girl in the class: “it’s Grandma.”
A War Time Remedy
Johnny: “Maw, I haven’t got enough butter for my bread.”
Mother: “Well, then, put some of the bread back.”
A Nice Dry Heat
“It’s pretty hot here, isn’t it?” said a new arrival to Lucifer.
“Yes,” replied his Satanic Majesty. “The heat is what you might call excessive; but then it’s dry heat. There is no humidity about it.”
Teacher: “Now, children, can you tell me what are the national flowers of England?”
Teacher: “And France?”
Teacher: “And Spain?”
(Silence for a minute – then small voice at back of schoolroom.) | <urn:uuid:d0023dfe-b3ce-4dbd-b445-f8fd342bd853> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2010/05/29/funny-bones-1914-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97109 | 1,806 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Sat May 12, 2012, 03:19 PM
kpete (38,900 posts)
A New Amenity, Missiles, May Show Up on Some London Roofs for the Olympics
Source: New York Times
LONDON — “It looked like one of those things where you get free pizzas through the post,” Hilal Bozkurt said, describing the innocuous-looking leaflet that came through her mail slot recently. “But this was like, free missiles.”
The leaflet was from the Ministry of Defense, and it briskly informed Ms. Bozkurt that her building, Fred Wigg Tower, part of a sad-looking public housing project in a depressed neighborhood in an unloved corner of this city, had been selected as a possible front line against terrorist attacks during the Olympics. Because of the 17-story tower’s strategic location and “excellent all-around view,” the leaflet said, the military was considering installing a “high-velocity missile system” on the roof.
“The air defense system will be manned by fully trained, professional soldiers,” the leaflet said, adding in the “frequently asked questions” section that it would “improve your local security and not make you a target for terrorists.”
Ms. Bozkurt said she did not think that a residential apartment building, even one made of concrete and built in the pugnacious Brutalist style of the 1960s, was a suitable place for a pop-up military base featuring surface-to-air weapons able to travel at three times the speed of sound and hit targets more than three miles away in less than eight seconds. “It does frighten you,” she said.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/world/europe/london-wary-of-rooftop-missiles-plan-during-olympics.html?_r=1
8 replies, 1812 views
Always highlight: 10 newest replies | Replies posted after I mark a forum
Replies to this discussion thread
A New Amenity, Missiles, May Show Up on Some London Roofs for the Olympics (Original post)
|Dawson Leery||May 2012||#1|
Response to Dawson Leery (Reply #1)
Sat May 12, 2012, 09:48 PM
FrodosPet (1,030 posts)
8. What good would they have done in Munich 1972?
I would be more worried about a repeat of that.
If there is a legitimate threat of air attack, just keep a couple F-16s or F-18s flying around 24x7 and menace any air traffic that strays into a sensitive zone.
Response to kpete (Original post)
Sat May 12, 2012, 04:26 PM
freshwest (31,524 posts)
2. It sounds like they have more than one purpose in mind. Creepy.
I'm glad she's speaking out, maybe it's not a done deal.
What exactly do they expect those missiles to hit, and how much damage will hitting their targets entail for the area beneath them?
Perhaps it's better to be in the place they're launched from than on the other end. I guess no one gets to vote on this scheme to turn downtown London into a war zone, either. | <urn:uuid:42c9c533-410b-40e7-911f-48a91f1ff74c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=thread&address=1014119727&togglemark=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946055 | 726 | 1.59375 | 2 |
“Wearing a hijab isn’t inherently liberating – but neither is baring one’s breasts. What is liberating is being able to choose either of these things. It’s pretty ludicrous to think that oppression is somehow proportional to how covered or uncovered someone’s body is. Both sides of this argument present a shallow understanding of women’s empowerment, which only drowns out the substantive challenges facing all women – issues that cannot be encapsulated in a debate about a piece of fabric.”—Sara Yasin, Is the Hijab Worth Fighting Over?
“Wearing a hijab isn’t inherently liberating – but neither is baring one’s breasts. What is liberating is being able to choose either of these things. It’s pretty ludicrous to think that oppression is somehow proportional to how covered or uncovered someone’s body is. Both sides of this argument present a shallow understanding of women’s empowerment, which only drowns out the substantive challenges facing all women – issues that cannot be encapsulated in a debate about a piece of fabric. ”—Sara Yasin, “On Both Sides, a Weak Vision of Feminism,” NYT Debate: Is the Hijab Worth Fighting For?
Hijab Politics, Policing, etc.
For those genuinely curious. I’m not interested in polemics. If you’re not interested in understanding, don’t bother coming to me to argue. I won’t engage in discussions in which the only purpose is proving the other wrong.
- “That’s not Hijab!”
As a matter of fact, “Hijab” as the physical concept is not defined in cultural terms. What I mean by that is someone can cover their body in a way that doesn’t conform to the Arab-centric way of covering. If you’re covered, you’re covered. Islam is a universalist religion and doesn’t impose cultural standards of one region on the other. Regardless, why does it matter if it’s Hijab or not? She will answer, not you. I promise.
- “But Hijabis are better than non-Hijabis!”
I really shouldn’t have to refute this, but, alas, the mindset is prevalent. How you dress doesn’t define you as a person, I’m sorry. Of course the dichotomy between “Hypocritical Hijabi who wears Hijab but does everything else wrong” and “Noble non-Hijabi who doesn’t wear hijab but does everything else right” is false. But Hijab can never be the sole identifying factor of assessing a person’s character or eligibility.
- “But why can’t I as a man give my opinion on how Hijab should be worn?”
You can. But you have to understand that unless it is a woman who is extremely close to you, your opinion will likely not be valued because you’re unaware of her particular circumstances. Regardless, while you can have your own opinions, please understand that as a man, you will never understand what it is like to be a woman, to be reduced to your appearance and to then be expected to hide most of it. Just the way I wouldn’t understand what it’s like to be a man and hence shouldn’t comment on how a man is to deal with expectations of hypermasculinity etc. Just remember that your opinions will always merely be based on observations, never experiences and that hence, they have little merit to those who constantly undergo the female experience.
Also, please keep in mind that we, as women, face constant policing for how we should handle our bodies. It’s just so draining to come to your own community and face the same sort of scrutiny So, it would be nice of you to allow women to have control over this discourse; that is empowering in itself.
- “But the Prophet (pbuh) was a man why can’t I as a man police how women should wear the Hijab?”
Because you’re not the Prophet (pbuh). He was infallible, you’re not. He is one of the two major sources for Islamic jurisprudence. You are a fellow Muslim, just like me.
- “But I only say it because I care about my sister in Islam!”
That’s nice. But realize that your “care” is part of a patriarchal construct. The concern with the female body stems from an entitlement to control it. If you cared, you’d also care about other aspects of faith, still, I’m yet to see any concern of equal proportions when a prayer is missed, or Zakat is not paid, or a woman is domestically abused, or a Hajj not performed, or a Muslim is publicly slandered, or women are deprived of their God-given rights etc. etc. etc. Oh, what is that? That’s a private matter? They answer to God, not you? So how is Hijab any different then?
- “All I wanna do is help my sisters!”
That is noble of you. Realize that shaming and pressuring them to do as you please won’t achieve that. Constant nagging and “Why aren’t you wearing Hijab?” inquiries only achieved one thing for me: Push me further away from Hijab. So don’t feel like you are in some sort of superior position from which you can “save your Muslim sister from the darkness of not being a Hijabi” by pressuring her into wearing Hijab. It has to come with conviction — if it doesn’t, the ramifications will be severe. (e.g. if she wears it because people are pressuring her to and then faces a lot of hostility and racism while wearing it, you will be blamed; if it’s done out of conviction, nothing can shake the core).
- “I know this girl who took off her Hijab and that’s so wrong because Hijab is a life time commitment, I just don’t understand why she can’t keep it on”
Chances are she took it off because she was pressured into wearing it in the first place. Or because she was facing negative repercussions from her surroundings (believe it or not, many Muslim families are against their daughters wearing Hijab; let alone non-Muslim families). Or because the pressure from the community to be perfect in outward actions took away her focus on improving inwardly (e.g. concern with making the community shut up about her outfit choices outweighing the concern with pleasing her Creator etc). Or maybe because she realized she’s wearing it for the wrong reasons. Or maybe for other reasons. I don’t know. But good for her, she doesn’t owe you an explanation. People develop, people go through phases in their lives. They answer to God, and He ‘azza wa jal knows.
- “She doesn’t deserve to wear Hijab because she does X, Y and Z and that’s wrong so she might as well not wear Hijab at all!”
Hijab isn’t a trophy you get once you’ve achieved perfect-Muslim-status. Also, sinning in one way doesn’t disqualify you from following God’s commandments in other ways. So if you think that wearing Hijab is obligatory, your statement of “She shouldn’t wear hijab because she does X” is the equivalent of “She shouldn’t pray her five daily prayers because she does X”. Exactly. It doesn’t make sense. And it’s not up to you to decide how people are allowed to follow God’s commandments. So while a woman sinning while in Hijab might not be aesthetically pleasing to you, remember that everyone struggles in different ways and that just because your struggles differ, it doesn’t mean that one of you is inferior to the other.
I’ve also written about this here. | <urn:uuid:3cba461b-b11e-47a1-be53-488859d66aa9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hijab?language=nl_NL | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955197 | 1,765 | 1.625 | 2 |
|CANCER & TREATMENTS SUPPORT & SURVIVORSHIP PREVENTION & RISK ASSESSMENT CLINICAL TRIALS & RESEARCH LIVING WITH CANCER|
Strange Bedfellows: Cancer and SexFor the Spring, 2007 issue of Thrive, we talked to Sallie Foley, director of the University of Michigan Center for Sexual Health, about the impact of cancer and ways to regain a sense of normalcy in the bedroom. Foley is the co-author of "Sex Matters for Women: A Complete Guide to Taking Care of Your Sexual Self" and author of the "Modern Love" column in AARP The Magazine.
Q: Sex is one of those things people just don't talk about. What do we need to know?
Everybody is born in a sexual body. It is with us literally from before we are born until we die. An illness can affect our sexual response, but usually it affects us temporarily during the immediate aftermath of diagnosis and treatment.
Q: Before we discuss ways to rebound sexually after cancer treatment, can you talk a little bit about how our bodies work?
Absolutely. It's important to understand the sexual response cycle. We think of it in three parts.
Is a person interested in love making? Not everyone is.
If you are interested in getting into the bedroom, the
second thing is arousal.
Arousal involves all the physiologic things that happen in a person's body related to sexual functioning.
And finally, orgasm:
reaching a certain sensory threshold that then results in the sensation of orgasm, which are muscular contractions that occur in the genital region.
Cancer can have an impact on each part of the sexual response cycle.
Q: If I've had cancer, when should I expect to regain sexual function?
When I work with most people, they say it returns in six months to a year. We really ask that people give themselves a break psychologically and wait.
Q: What can people do to help bring desire back?
There's a lot you can do (see Tips), but one of the most important things is to get touched regularly in ways that are pleasurable.
Q: What if it's not a matter of desire and my body just isn't responding?
The one system that's often affected is the cardiovascular system. Medications can often temporarily compromise blood flow. For most people, once they're six months to a year past treatment, function will return. But if blood flow is impaired, the genitals don't become engorged. For men, what they experience is erectile difficulty; for women, the fancy term is "female sexual arousal disorder," but the real-life way to talk about it is, "I just don't lubricate, it's dry and it leads to painful sex." For women, one of our first lines of defense is to increase the use of lubrications. For men, we have medications that can help.
Q: Q: Any last thoughts?
Keep an open mind about the different ways to experience sexual pleasure. If your usual routines have been disrupted, try to be open to new ways, try touching different parts of the body and try using other ways to express caring and enjoyment. Remember that sex is a quality-of-life issue.
This document is not intended to take the place of the care and attention of your personal physician or other professional medical services. Our aim is to promote active participation in your care and treatment by providing information and education. Questions about individual health concerns or specific treatment options should be discussed with your physician.
This information is part of the U-M Health System. The information presented is not a tool for self diagnosis or a substitute for professional care. © 2008 The Regents of the University of Michigan. | <urn:uuid:20609608-a54e-44fb-96d8-e71fc22d67cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cancer.med.umich.edu/living/sex_matters.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948197 | 777 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Say it isn't So! Spring Snow Predicted For Sunday Night, Monday Morning
The National Weather Service issues a winter storm watch for our area.
Snow is on the way just days after some gorgeous spring weather.
The National Weather Service in Moon Township issued a winter storm watch late Sunday night through Monday evening.
Rain is predicted to change to snow after midnight Sunday night with the heaviest snowfall on Monday morning. Six inches of accumulation is expected in the area.
"A heavy, wet accumulation of snow is expected that may cause significant problems with the downing of tree limbs that have developed leaves which may in turn spawn power outages. Some travel difficulties can be expected Monday morning as well," according to the weather statement.
The area can expect northwest winds blowing at 15 to 25 miles-per-hour with gusts up to 45 miles-per-hour. Temps will be in the low 30s.
Visibility might be reduced to less that a quarter of a mile during the heaviest snowfall Monday morning.
What do you think about the winter storm watch issued? When was the last time you remember snow at the end of April? Tell us in the comments. | <urn:uuid:31e5beca-b38b-4f60-bf5d-c64cb647441e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://foresthills-regentsquare.patch.com/articles/say-it-isn-t-so-spring-snow-predicted-for-sunday-night-monday-morning | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942958 | 241 | 1.515625 | 2 |
kjv@Revelation:9:1@ And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
kjv@Revelation:9:2@ And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
kjv@Revelation:9:3@ And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
kjv@Revelation:9:4@ And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
kjv@Revelation:9:5@ And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
kjv@Revelation:9:6@ And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
kjv@Revelation:9:7@ And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
kjv@Revelation:9:8@ And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
kjv@Revelation:9:9@ And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
kjv@Revelation:9:10@ And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. | <urn:uuid:442d73cd-6467-40a3-ac63-79d9c7694c60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shepherdpuplinux.us/cgi-bin/pbiblx-basic.cgi?X=x&Css=1h&Mode=basic&X=x&Css=1h&Version=kjv&Book=VSEARCH&Chapter=Revelation:9:1-10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988315 | 457 | 1.59375 | 2 |
§ 3. Mr. Kimball
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, as representing the Lord President of the Council, what practical benefits are to be expected from the expenditure by the Nature Conservancy of £2,720 for research into bird vocalisations.
§ Mr. Godber
The sum referred to by my hon. Friend was for a period of four years from 1st October, 1953. Research on bird vocalisations plays an important part in the general programme of fundamental research into animal behaviour. My noble Friend could not accept the implication that the value of such research is necessarily to be measured solely in terms of practical benefit, but he understands that in this case, in addition to its intrinsic value, it is hoped that the results will prove of practical advantage in the protection of crops against bird depredations by the use of mechanically recorded warning notes.
§ Mr. Kimball
Is my right hon. Friend aware that, while none of us would deny that these researches may be of the greatest possible interest to many ornithologists throughout the countryside, they would be far better carried out by the zoology experts from the universities, and many of us feel that these activities have nothing to do with nature conservancy work throughout the country?
§ Mr. Godber
I am sure that the universities carry on useful work. The work of the Nature Conservancy in this respect is helpful. After all, bird vocalisation is practised not only by birds, as one notices. | <urn:uuid:9a9eaea6-5880-4d59-83c6-0e2fc1d90a9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1958/mar/13/bird-vocalisations-research | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957187 | 304 | 1.75 | 2 |
The 2012 Solar Race has come to a close with WMU in eighth place. Sixteen teams qualified, and 11 were able to cross the finish line in St. Paul. WMU finished the race just 8 minutes after the winner.
WMU also captured the event's annual Sportsmanship Award, which is no big surprise to all involved with the team.
Mechanical Engineering Advisor and past team member, Maddie McAuley (BS, Engineering Graphics and Design Technology; MS, Manufacturing Engineering; currently working on her MSE-Industrial
), and Manufacturing Engineering Technology student Michael Konkle participated in a late-night fix at the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The repairs allowed SUNY New Paltz to remain in the race.
I received a call around 8 p.m., a team member from SUNY New Paltz was desperately looking for help. They destroyed a front shock when a wheel turned 90 degrees into railroad tracks at a high speed. They improvised with bar stock to get to CEAS before battery impound. They were told they could not continue the race without a new shock. Luckily we had a box of spares and the facilities to modify the vehicle, " McAuley explained.
Helping an opponent? To the Broncos, it's a no brainer. "
It isn't about winning or losing, it's about the experience. I'm working on my third degree at WMU and have learned the most through Sunseeker," said McAuley. "I hope by helping other teams, other students can experience the same opportunities I have had through the WMU solar car program. Even after a successful race, it is very difficult for students to obtain money and resources for the next event. An unsuccessful race can be fatal for a university solar car program."
The SUNY team also lucked out when Konkle offered to machine a special part and provide opinions and expertise. "After an all out scavenger hunt for fasteners and "customizing" their roll cage a bit- SUNY was back in the race!" McAuley said.
Race officials approved the repairs, and SUNY was allowed to finish the race.
McAuley went on to add, "
Sunseeker is a very transparent team, which makes us very approachable by others in need. Having been involved in solar racing since the late 80's, we have a lot of experience. If something goes wrong, there is a good chance we already learned how to overcome the setback. Many teams don't like to broadcast their issues, but Sunseeker shares them so others benefit from lessons learned."
The WMU Sunseeker Team has won the Sportsmanship Award (or a similar title) in almost every race because of their willingness to help other teams cross the finish line.
"I have learned the most through Sunseeker. Sunseeker taught me how to be a practical engineer. Sunseeker's success is reliant on working closely with a multidisciplinary team. I've learned a great deal about other disciplines as well as working with people," said McAuley.
To learn more, please follow the links below:
WMU NEWS — SOLAR TEAM FINISHES EIGHTH
SUNSEEKER TEAM — TEAM BLOG | <urn:uuid:81c20a03-884c-4504-8689-7c2b9148359d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mywmu.com/s/1428/gid2/social.aspx?gid=2&pgid=252&cid=2244&ecid=2244&crid=0&calpgid=61&calcid=946 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973785 | 672 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Spain changes rules for U.S. military flights
MADRID (BNO NEWS) — As of February 1st, the U.S. Air Force can no longer perform refueling operations on Spanish territory, Defence Minister Carme Chacón announced on Wednesday.
The minister added that U.S. aircraft may not perform visual flights, only instrumental, with the aim of strengthening the control and security of Spanish airspace.
Spain and the U.S. have agreed on a series of technical improvements that affect the information on scale and flyovers, the storage of ammunition and explosives and adaptation to Spanish environmental legislation, Chacón said.
In addition to the new prohibitions, Washington now needs to request flight permits earlier than before and provide details about the flight. Chacón, however, insisted that the changes were not related to the CIA’s flight scandal, which involved the illegal transfer of detainees to Guantánamo via European bases.
The Pentagon agreed not to store landmines in Spain and to submit an environmental impact study, with the measures to alleviate it, when performing an activity on Spanish soil.
In January 1966, such a maneuver caused the collision of a tanker with a US bomber loaded with nuclear bombs above the south-eastern Spanish village of Palomares.
(Copyright 2010 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected].) | <urn:uuid:b65bbd58-d7c4-490f-9eda-32cb5e98938b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wireupdate.com/wires/14648/spain-changes-rules-for-u-s-military-flights/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950508 | 291 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Back in 1963, when Doctor Who first started, head honcho Sydney Newman was very keen that there were to be no BEMs – Bug Eyed Monsters and was keen that the time travel elements should be used to explore history for the entertainment and enlightenment of the viewers at home. All of which was well and good until the show’s second serial hit the screens and Dalekmania swept the nation. However despite the massive success the show enjoyed as a result of serving up monsters, the First Doctor still got to meet all manner of illustrious folk from the past and turn up for great moments in history, all without any BEMs sneaking into the storylines.
However in the days of Patrick Troughton, these more educational historical stories were soon phased out, and it was in the Second Doctor’s era that the show cemented its reputation for being scary. This period in the Doctor’s travels established a host of iconic creatures such as the Cybermen, the Ice Warriors and the Yeti: the monsters had well and truly won the day. Later still, the pseudo-historical story was born; adventures in the past that revealed the involvement of all manner of monsters and aliens in the fabric of our history.
When the show was regenerated in 2005, Mark Gatiss’ The Unquiet Dead, a gaslight tale which saw the Doctor rubbing shoulders with Charles Dickens, re-established the pseudo-historical as a firm staple of the new series. And not only would the Doctor be revisiting the past on a regular basis but he would be also hobnobbing with great historical figures, and since then we’ve seen the TARDIS crew meet Shakespeare, Queen Victoria, Agatha Christie, Madame Pompadour and Winston Churchill.
And while these adventures with historical celebrities have been great fun, with the show in full-on romp mode usually, few capture any real biography between the monster chasing. The Shakespeare Code and The Unicorn and the Wasp focus more on playfully referencing the works of Christie and Shakespeare, while Tooth and Claw, The Girl in The Fireplace and Victory of the Daleks feature Churchill, Madame Pompadour and Queen Victoria in a famous guest star character capacity. Of them all, only The Unquiet Dead really comes close to getting under the skin of its historical celebrity with Mark Gatiss’ script providing an interesting snapshot of Dickens: near the end of his life, exhausted and riddled with doubts.
Hence when I heard that this series would feature a tale where the Doctor and Amy meet Vincent Van Gogh, I was a little worried for several reasons. Firstly as a devotee of the great man’s paintings and being very familiar with the details of his troubled life, I was wondering how appropriate it was to insert a large sci-fi monster into his biography. While I revere the Bard of Avon as equally highly, we actually know very little about Shakespeare’s life – indeed scholars are still debating whether he really penned the plays that bear his name* . And due to this biographical vacuum, Shakespeare’s works aren’t bound up in his life story and there aren’t many historical toes to avoid treading upon. Similarly, Agatha Christie’s many books and stories aren’t interpreted through the lens of her life. But Van Gogh’s paintings are inextricably linked in his personal history; his struggles with creative innovation, madness and the attitudes and reactions of society past and present to both.
Secondly I was also concerned that Richard Curtis was on script duties. Now, like many of you, I have a somewhat mixed response to Mr Curtis’ oeuvre. While I grew up on his comedy work, Blackadder, Not the Nine O’clock News, Spitting Image, I’ve never really clicked with most of his film work. Don’t get me wrong, the writing is as lively and polished as ever, but in the main, rom coms just don’t really do it for me I‘m afraid – such is the price of cynicism…
But my own misanthropy aside, I couldn’t really see how Curtis writing in either mode would fit with introducing the Doctor to Van Gogh in a respectful manner. And reading that the initial title of the episode was ‘Lend Me Your Ear’ didn’t exactly help either. However after Simon Nye, another writer best known for his comedy work, surprised us all with the excellent Amy’s Choice, I decided to put aside my preconceptions and not automatically assume it was going to be awful.
And as it turned out, by the time the credits rolled I was convinced I’d just watched an extraordinary episode of Doctor Who and a unique piece of television. Not only did it deliver the most biographical pseudo-historical we’ve seen to date, but it was truly genre-bending and surprisingly, actually genuinely moving. In fact, I was quite, quite stunned by what Curtis and co delivered. However my first proper critical thought was – this one is going to be very divisive.
And indeed Vincent and the Doctor has provoked a very mixed reaction. Now obviously if you don’t rate Van Gogh as an artist, this episode is probably going to leave you very cold. And although I wouldn’t agree with your assessment of his works, I do understand that Vincent’s paintings aren’t to everybody’s taste, and therefore this episode of Doctor Who which is a paean to the man and his art just isn’t going to appeal. Equally this episode is not going win around anyone who hasn’t took to Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the lead roles. And those reactions are fine; you can play the personal taste card with pride.
But I can’t help feeling that some of the negative reactions stem from reviewers not shelving their expectations and prejudices as I did. To begin with, a certain proportion seems to take issue with this episode because it didn’t deliver the comedy that they expected from the writer of Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley. And this reaction just doesn’t make sense to me - after all when Simon Nye delivered Amy’s Choice no one was clamouring for Doctor Behaving Badly.
Doctor Who has always had a touch of comedy. When it’s done right, it is limited to a touch of wit in the dialogue and the Doctor’s bumbling, but when it’s done badly, the comedy is broad and we get farting Slitheen, which pleases no one. And in Vincent and the Doctor, Curtis sagely kept his comedy chops in check, and deployed just the right amount of wit and clowning in a manner appropriate for Doctor Who. So to use Curtis’ past CV as stick to beat him with seems a trifle odd; after all he was paid to write an episode of Doctor Who not a sitcom, and so to criticise the episode for not being funnier, is like complaining an apple isn’t a banana.
Reading between the lines, I think this ‘not funny’ critique is tied up with the mixed feelings people have about the trajectory of his career. Many of us spent years quoting Blackadder at each other and so when he switched sarcasm for sentiment in his rom coms, some see it as a sign that Curtis has lost the old magic. And certainly the sentiment in Vincent and the Doctor is also a problem for some.
Now as stated above, Curtis’ romantic comedies have left me cold; I’m far too much of a marble hearted fiend to enjoy light and syrupy tales of love’s triumphs. But in fairness, that’s more a reflection on my tastes and attitudes than on Curtis’ abilities as a writer. And while I can appreciate that non-fans of his more recent work will see Vincent and the Doctor as Curtis pouring forth the schmaltz again, I really think that there is a big difference here.
To begin with new Who isn’t exactly a stranger to tugging on the old heart strings these days and I think the problem is not that Vincent and the Doctor aims to stir the emotions and touch the heart but the fact that it is Richard Curtis doing it. But more importantly, piling on the emotion in a romantic piece of fluff in which an empty headed girl gets it together with a lank haired fop is poles apart from building up to the ultimate tragedy of Van Gogh’s life.
To often these days, we will happily lap up works that heavily lay down hard emotional negatives – bleak, grim and depressing are almost always instantly critically credible - but anything that is heart warming or tear jerking is swiftly dismissed as manipulative pap. Now Vincent’s paintings are all about passion and feeling, and his life story is a very poignant one, and so I really don’t think that Curtis was doing anything wrong in going for a moving finale that reflects the intensity of feeling in his art. Indeed, to properly communicate the essence of the man and his work, such a story should be emotionally moving.
And this was an episode firmly focused on Vincent, illuminating his life and work with a depth we haven’t seen in Doctor Who since the Hartnell days. Despite a rampaging alien beastie, in Vincent and the Doctor, Curtis managed to paint a well rounded portrait of the troubled artist; choosing to depict the harsh realities of his illness and his failure to be recognised as an artist, yet at the same time showing us his great passion and enthusiasm for painting and for life.
And Curtis’ finely nuanced script was brilliantly brought to life. Tony Curran was simply astounding in the role, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see that in the wake of this appearance, he will be asked to reprise the role for a straight biographical drama. Curran gave a powerful yet balanced performance, capturing Vincent’s humanity as well as his troubles. With a tragic figure like Van Gogh, all too often fictional renditions of their lives present just the madness and pain, and hence it was very refreshing to see Vincent portrayed as more than just a tortured soul; as a human being, possessing humour and joy as well as sorrow and depression.
Equally impressive was the manner in which some of Van Gogh’s paintings were brought to life in this episode, with loving creations of the real world scenes that inspired Café Terrace at Night, Wheatfield with Crows, and Bedroom in Arles. But most wonderfully of all, was seeing Starry Night forming in the heavens before our eyes, illuminating the links between reality and his paintings, showing us how Vincent’s unique vision interpreted the world around him.
Vincent and the Doctor provides both a perfect introduction to Van Gogh, neatly outlining his biography, his influences and his ultimate impact on the world of art. I’m quite certain that this episode will open the door to his work, making great art accessible for countless viewers. It really was a return to the Reithian values that Doctor Who started with back in 1963.
However both Who and television itself have changed considerably since back then, and so despite the strength of the biographical drama, we also had an invisible alien running amuck. And despite the fact a good few of us would have gladly seen the monsters being given a week off, alien threats are now so heavily embedded in the public consciousness as an integral part of what Doctor Who does, the Krafayis was a necessary addition.
And indeed another faction of the negative reviews has focused on the fact that the usual sci-fi monster business was pushed to the background, damning the episode as being not very Doctor Who as a consequence. But in that case, many Hartnell stories, historicals that don’t feature any monsters, aliens or robots, are invalid too. Doctor Who should be more than a monster of the week type of show, and I for one applaud the decision to run with this story that uses the flexibility of the format to great effect.
But at the same time, I do think that Curtis found a way to include a monster that was both suitably Doctor Who and fits neatly with the themes of the episode. And while I must question the design decision to have the Krafayis appear as a monstrous chicken - surely a crow would have been a more appropriate template considering the context – as it was invisible for most of the time I can let this niggle pass. However the fact that only Vincent can see it, moves the beast from the usual sci-fi threat to the level of metaphor, with the Krafayis becoming a symbol for Vincent’s mental illness.
And I also would applaud the portrayal of mental ill health in this episode too. Depression and other mental health conditions, although common, are still poorly understood by the general populace – when people think of mental ill health the first images that spring to mind are of the extremes, raving madmen in padded jackets and people who think they are Napoleon. And thankfully, rather than take the lazy ‘crazy artist’ route, depicting a man whose genius makes him act a bit weird, Vincent and the Doctor vividly illustrated the truth of depressive ailments; that sufferers are not gibbering loons but ordinary people who are subject to the disabling mood swings that can appear with frightening speed.
All too often depression is not taken seriously by those who have not experienced it and the concept that mental ill health is just the extremes of schizophrenia or psychosis is so ingrained that even sufferers may not consider that what they are experiencing is a form of illness. I sincere hope that the treatment of the subject in Vincent and the Doctor will open a few eyes to the realities of the condition.
However it is a telling measure of the ignorance and the stigma of mental illness that some people have complained about the inclusion of a help line message at the end of this episode. Now speaking as some one who has struggled with bouts of depression throughout my adult life, and have seen several friends go through it too, I can say that in my experience, depression is at its most dangerous when it is unacknowledged and unidentified. Now the scenes depicting Vincent’s mental troubles rang very true for me, and I firmly believe that there will be people out there who will have recognised themselves, just as I did, and having made this identification, rang the help line and hopefully now be on the road to forward towards better mental health. It may sound overly dramatic but the inclusion of that help line number may well have saved a few lives.
One of great things about Doctor Who everyone agrees upon is that it is a unique format where the characters can go anywhere at all and many different types of stories may be told. And while some may not have liked Vincent and the Doctor, feeling that Curtis’ experiments in biography may not have come off, surely credit must be given for attempting such a thing in the first place. For even if you judge this episode to have fallen where it should have soared, or even wished it had took flight in a completely different direction, the intentions to bring both an appreciation of Van Gogh and his work and foster an understanding of depression in a highly popular Saturday teatime show is still a distinguished and noble endeavour. If nothing else it shows the potential inherent in the Doctor Who format, opening the way for future stories that may be more widely appreciated across the board.
Personally speaking, I thought it was a triumph, achieving its lofty aims and delivering a solid Doctor Who story that can be appreciated on a variety of different levels. For me, this was the kind of important and profound television that positively affects and enriches the viewers who could get on board. And on a more trivial note, any episode that can have an old cynic like myself, who sat stonily faced through Love Actually and yawned through Notting Hill, misty eyed and on the verge of blubbing into my beard must be doing some thing not just right, but very remarkable.
Mr Curtis, thank you. You not only did Vincent and the Doctor proud but also many of us at home too.
* OLD JOKES HOME
- So, art thou saying Bacon wrote all of Shakespeare’ plays?
- Which bit of bacon?
- His hands!
JIM MOON, 9th June 2010 | <urn:uuid:15622db9-8f01-48fe-936b-89d05aca913b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hypnogoria.com/html/DW-vincent.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972489 | 3,405 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The budget proposal cuts defense spending in part by increasing health care cost-sharing for retired service members. Also in the news, USA Today reports that the Department of Veterans Affairs is short on psychiatrists as demand for mental health care continues to increase.
Politico: Hikes In Cost Of Veterans' Health Care Draw Fire
The Obama administration's budget proposal to cut defense spending, in part, by increasing the cost of health care for retired service members has riled veterans groups and members of Congress. "It's wrong to ask them to sacrifice more when Washington has not had the political courage to look at the big picture on the budget or the courage to address the big drivers of our debt," said Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), who sits on both the Senate Armed Services and Budget committees (Munsil, 4/4).
USA Today: VA Sees Shortfall Of Mental Health Specialists
As thousands of additional veterans seek mental health care every month, the Department of Veterans Affairs is short of psychiatrists, with 20 percent vacancy rates in much of the country served by VA hospitals, according to department data (Zoroya, 4/4). | <urn:uuid:828fd8b1-3423-4623-9fdb-253f661e3b1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2012/April/05/va-health-issues.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950554 | 236 | 1.664063 | 2 |
JULY 8, 2002
It is June 2005. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy goes on a fact-finding mission to Guantanamo Bay, where he meets with Al Qaeda prisoners of war. Furious over Leahy's refusal to confirm federal judges, President George W. Bush plots revenge. When Leahy arrives at Washington Dulles International Airport, he is arrested by military police on the grounds that he has passed information to the enemy and is therefore an enemy combatant. Leahy is imprisoned at the Naval Station Brig at Norfolk, Virginia, and is told he will remain there until the president decides that the war on terrorism has ended. Leahy files a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, demanding the government provide evidence that he is an enemy combatant or release him. But a federal judge refuses to grant Leahy a hearing. The judge agrees with the Bush administration that once the president has determined a citizen is an enemy combatant, the decision can't be reviewed in any court.
The scenario is imaginary, but the legal claim is not. It appears in a remarkable brief filed by the Bush administration last week in the case of Yaser Hamdi, an American citizen seized in Afghanistan, transferred to Guantanamo Bay, and now being detained in Virginia as an enemy combatant. "[C]ourts may not second-guess the military's determination that an individual is an enemy combatant and should be detained as such," the administration writes. This position is not only legally unprecedented; it is unnecessary. No court would second-guess the administration's conclusion that Hamdi, who was seized on the battlefield after his Taliban unit was defeated, is an enemy combatant. But if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit agrees with the administration in the Hamdi case, it could set a precedent that would give the president unreviewable power to imprison citizens indefinitely and exclude them from the legal system during a war that may last for decades.
Why would the administration stake out such an unnecessarily extreme position? Here is one possibility: In an unpublished ruling, the judge in the John Walker Lindh case recently held that the FBI's interrogation of Hamdi contained information that might prove exculpatory for Lindh. Therefore, ruled the judge, Lindh's lawyers had a right to interview Hamdi--subject to the consent of Hamdi's lawyer Frank Dunham, the able federal public defender in Virginia. But Dunham can't give his consent without first meeting with Hamdi or at least being present during the interview. Perhaps for this reason, the government has tried to prevent Dunham from meeting with his client at all costs. As part of the same strategy, when a judge ordered that Dunham be allowed to meet with Hamdi to challenge his detention, the government persuaded the appellate court that since Dunham had never met Hamdi, he couldn't properly represent him. Dunham tried to escape this catch-22 by filing another action with the approval of Hamdi's father, who clearly has standing to authorize Dunham to represent his son's interests. Despite the father's efforts, however, the government has asked the appellate court to block Dunham from meeting with Hamdi once more.
Another possibility is that the government is trying to preserve its flexibility in cases involving the detention of other citizens, such as Jose Padilla, whom the government accuses of plotting to build a dirty bomb. Padilla's classification as an enemy combatant is more debatable than Hamdi's: He was seized at O'Hare International Airport; and because the government didn't have enough evidence to try him for conspiracy, it initially held him in New York as a material witness before calling him an enemy combatant and transferring him to military prison in South Carolina. The government may want to avoid sharing the facts that led to Padilla's designation as an enemy combatant because that would reveal too much about its intelligence sources. By arguing for a blanket rule that citizens can never challenge their enemy- combatant designation in federal court, the administration might also be trying to avoid a debate about whether the information in cases like Padilla's should be classified and what the standard of proof should be.
Whatever its reasons, the government's claim is legally unconvincing. The administration cites two cases on behalf of its position; but neither settles the question, because there was never a dispute about whether or not the prisoners were enemy combatants. During World War II an American citizen fighting with the Italian army was among the aliens captured on the battlefields of Sicily, and a federal court held that he could be detained in the United States as a prisoner of war. But since the court found that he was wearing an Italian army uniform, his status as an enemy combatant, unlike Padilla's, was never in question. In another case from World War II, the Supreme Court held that German soldiers who were captured in China in 1945, tried by an American military commission, and serving sentences in Germany couldn't have their convictions reviewed in the United States. The Court was concerned that giving enemy aliens captured abroad the right to demand a hearing in the United States would disrupt the war effort. But the same logic doesn't apply to a captive whom the government has chosen voluntarily to bring to the United States. In fact, Hamdi may have been transported from Guantanamo Bay to Virginia precisely because the government feared that, as a citizen, he might be able to demand a review of his detention in Guantanamo, which could expose the entire camp to scrutiny by federal courts.
Unlike enemy combatants in World War II, who clearly identified themselves by wearing uniforms, our new enemies willfully violate the laws of war, making it harder to determine who is a combatant and who is not. This should lead courts to give the president substantial deference in identifying the enemy within, but it also raises a real danger that individual citizens might be wrongly detained. The way to resolve this conflict isn't by preventing judges from reviewing the president's determinations but by ensuring that hearings are conducted in ways that preserve national security interests.
The standard of proof in these hearings should be as deferential to the president as possible. In fact, most judges would uphold the president's designation of a citizen as an enemy combatant if there is any colorable evidence to support the claim. In Hamdi's case, once the government establishes that he was caught red-handed on the battlefield in Afghanistan, the hearing might well be over.
But in the case of Padilla, where the government may have legitimate concerns about revealing its intelligence sources even to Padilla's lawyers, more sensitive hearings might be necessary. Furthermore, ordinary federal judges may not be trained to evaluate intelligence information; or, in their eagerness to defer to the military, they might water down the standards of proof that apply in ordinary civil cases. For this reason, Ruth Wedgwood of Yale Law School has argued that Congress could authorize the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court to review all challenges to a citizen's designation as an enemy combatant. Hearings before this court are held outside the presence of the prisoner's lawyer, and the court could apply the same standard it applies in other foreign-intelligence surveillance cases, asking whether there is probable cause to believe that the accused is an enemy combatant.
In a forthcoming article in Constitutional Commentary, Jack Goldsmith and Cass R. Sunstein of the University of Chicago explore a paradox: Compared with Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt, they note, the Bush administration has diminished relatively few civil liberties. At the same time, opinionmakers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times have been far more critical of Bush's actions than they were of similar actions by FDR. One explanation, Goldsmith and Sunstein suggest, is that "the nation is now far less trusting of government, and far more solicitous of the accused, than it was sixty years ago." Another explanation, however, may have to do with the conduct of the administration itself. Having learned from Wilson's mistakes during World War I, Roosevelt went out of his way to give the appearance of caring about civil liberties. His attorney general, Francis Biddle, was a member of the ACLU; the administration didn't prosecute people who were critical of the war, as Wilson had, nor did it pursue the most aggressive legal claims in cases involving Nazi saboteurs. As a result, Roosevelt was treated far more tenderly than Wilson by this magazine and by others. By contrast, the Bush administration--while committing fewer actual abuses--has repeatedly asserted the most sweeping unilateral power to do whatever it likes in cases involving military tribunals and the detention of citizens. In addition to raising public suspicions, this risks creating bad legal precedents that could linger after the war is over.
The stakes in the Hamdi case are far greater than those presented by the recent debate about military tribunals. Indeed, the administration seems to have concluded that it doesn't need to try enemy combatants in military tribunals since it can detain them indefinitely instead. (The only advantage of a military trial as opposed to indefinite detention is the possibility of execution, but that is almost certainly outweighed by the risk of not being able to prove the case.) Now that citizens arrested in the United States may be detained indefinitely during the course of an undeclared war that could last decades, it would be politically--as well as legally--wise for the administration to seek Congress's support, which would almost certainly be granted. Together, the president and Congress should draft specific rules governing how long a citizen can be detained after being designated an enemy combatant and when a military review board must determine whether he is likely to be dangerous in the future. The procedure could be modeled on the process apparently going on now in Guantanamo Bay to decide whether to repatriate prisoners. Although the president may have the raw legal power to detain citizens indefinitely as long as their status as enemy combatants is confirmed by courts, he would be on far more solid political ground if he enlisted the support of Congress.
"The masses of any people, however intelligent, are very little moved by abstract principles of humanity and justice, until those principles are interpreted for them by the stinging commentary of some infringement upon their own rights," the critic James Russell Lowell wrote in an 1884 essay on Lincoln and civil liberties. In the short term, in fact, President Bush's detention of citizens may provoke little more public protest than his detention of aliens. But after the war is over, the legal precedents the administration is trying to establish will be seen as unnecessary as well as vulnerable to abuse. By rejecting this ill-advised claim, the federal appeals court in Virginia can give the president all the power he needs, while saving his administration from its worst impulses. | <urn:uuid:890f0f9a-17af-4d3d-8e28-b396fd4ed713> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newrepublic.com/article/private-enemy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972776 | 2,175 | 1.703125 | 2 |
*KPTV signed on the air September 20, 1952 on channel 27, as Oregon's first television station, as well as the world's first commercial TV station on the UHF band. It was owned by Empire Coil of New Rochelle, New York. As Portland's only TV station at the time, KPTV carried programming from all four networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and the now-defunct DuMont Television Network. CBS disappeared from KPTV's schedule when Portland's first VHF television station, KOIN on channel 6, signed on October 15, 1953; at that point, KPTV's primary affiliation became NBC. Empire Coil sold KPTV and its other broadcasting property, WXEL-TV (now WJW-TV) in Cleveland, to Storer Broadcasting on November 17, 1954.
The channel 12 allocation was at first occupied by KLOR-TV, which signed on March 8, 1955 as an ABC affiliate. The ABC affiliation on KLOR lasted a little over a year and a half. When KGW-TV (channel 8) signed on as a full-time ABC affiliate December 15, 1956, KLOR became an independent station.
On April 17, 1957, KPTV and KLOR came under common ownership when Detroit businessman George Haggerty purchased KPTV from Storer and KLOR from its local owners. Both KLOR channel 12 and KPTV channel 27 signed off the air April 30, 1957. The following day, the two stations merged under KPTV's license and call letters, using KLOR's channel 12 assignment. The channel 27 allocation was later used by an independent station with the call letters KHTV, which was on the air for less than four months, from July 6 to October 31, 1959. (The KHTV calls were later used on Houston's Channel 39, now KHCW, a CW affiliate. KOPB-TV, Portland’s PBS affiliate currently uses the channel 27 allocation to broadcast the digital signal of PBS programming in the metropolitan area.
On April 26, 1959, KPTV swapped affiliations with KGW, becoming an ABC affiliate. Later that year, on September 1, KPTV was sold to the NAFI Corporation, which then purchased Chris-Craft in early 1960; the merged NAFI/Chris-Craft companies became known as Chris-Craft Industries. On March 1, 1964, KPTV lost its ABC affiliation to previously independent KATU. The station sued ABC and Fisher Broadcasting for breach of contract. The proceeds from the settlement went to rebuild the station into a color facility. A color mobile unit was also purchased as well. Soon KPTV went on to become an independent station. The station's long-running news program, The 10 O'Clock News, launched in 1970.
KPTV was the first local station to broadcast the Portland Trail Blazers from 1971-1978. Jimmy Jones was the first play-by-play announcer. He was also KPTV sports director at the time.
KPTV was one of Fox network's original charter affiliates in 1986; however, the station disaffiliated from the network in 1988 and reverted to its independent status. The Fox affiliation ended up on upstart KPDX 49. KPTV once again gained a network affiliation in 1995, as Portland's UPN affiliate, (and the network O&O under United/Chris Craft's stake).
Chris-Craft sold most of its television holdings, including KPTV, to News Corporation in 2000. Instead of keeping KPTV, News Corp. decided to trade it to Meredith in exchange for WOFL in Orlando, Florida. This move gave Meredith, which already owned KPDX, the first "duopoly" operation in the Portland market.
Meredith decided to move the Fox affiliation to the higher-rated KPTV. As a result, an affiliation switch occurred in 2002, with KPDX becoming a UPN affiliate, and KPTV becoming a Fox affiliate once again. KPDX's news department was merged into KPTV's newsroom (although KPTV's operation actually moved into KPDX's newer facility, located in Beaverton), and KPDX's existing 10 pm newscast was cancelled. KPTV chose not to air Fox's children's programming (4Kids TV; formerly Fox Kids), which remains on KPDX.
On June 5, 2007, KPTV became the second Portland TV Station to broadcast its daily newscasts in widescreen.
*Information provided by Wikipedia.com | <urn:uuid:0429adfe-e7ea-4989-a501-9deb0cda42fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pdxhistory.com/html/kptv.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981115 | 922 | 1.640625 | 2 |
As he filled his car with gas Friday, Anthony Brosseau was feeling the same pinch that a lot of other motorists have been feeling lately. Gas prices are up a lot.
“I’m like everybody else,” said Brosseau, of Clay, explaining how he’s dealing with the 20-cent-a gallon rise in the price of gas in the Syracuse area over the past month. “I’m not different. Instead of buying an 18-pack of beer, I get the six-pack.”
Brosseau, the head baker at Harrison Bakery in Syracuse, paid $3.86 a gallon at Citgo Food Bag at Route 57 and Gaskin Road in Clay Friday morning. That’s very close to the $3.85 average price of regular gas in the Syracuse area today, according to GasBuddy.com. That’s 20 cents more per gallon than the average price a month ago, according to the website.
We’re not alone in our pain. Nationally, the average price of gasoline has jumped 27 cents to $3.54 a gallon during the same period.
“What you’re seeing in Syracuse is pretty consistent with what we’re seeing across the country,” said Gregg Laskoski, a senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.
Like a lot of other people, Brosseau can only guess what makes the price at the pump jump so much so fast.
“Somebody’s got a kid that needs to go to college, I guess,” he said.
Laskoski has a different explanation. This is the time of year when the nation’s refineries begin switching from a winter blend of gasoline to a summer blend, which contains special additives to reduce smog, he said.
During the transition, the refineries perform maintenance tasks that can only be done during these transition periods, he said.
While all that is going on, production at the refineries falls to 85 percent of capacity, reducing gasoline supplies. And that, in turn, pushes up the price of gas, Laskoski said. Adding to the spike is the fact that the special additives in the summer raise the cost of production, he said.
Laskoski said the refineries have no choice in the matter. The federal government requires the additives to fight air pollution, particularly in the major metropolitan areas, he said.
Don’t expect to see prices fall back for a while. Though prices will peak around early May, they probably won’t fall much until refineries switch back to the winter blend in October, Laskoski said.
“We expect prices to be pretty high this summer,” he said. | <urn:uuid:193293ca-0f24-4f79-9de6-af879642a03b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/02/gas_price_spike_hitting_where.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938777 | 582 | 1.648438 | 2 |
You've got to look really closely, but it is amazing to see this tiny sifaka (SEE-fah-kah) clinging to its mother's chest. The baby boy weighed just slightly more than three ounces when it was born September 3 to mother Wilhelmina and father Rinaldo at the Cincinnati Zoo.
The baby, which hasn't been named yet, will continue to cling to the front of its mother for the first few weeks, and eventually move onto her back for the next six months. It'll take a year for it to reach full maturity.
It’s time again for the Cincinnati Zoo’s largest fundraising event, Zoofari, and this time the theme is Wild India. Linnea Bonacci, one of the event organizers, joins Thane Maynard to talk about the event and how the dollars raised are used in support of the Zoo.
Two contributors in one segment! The Cincinnati Zoo’s Thane Maynard (heard Sunday mornings on Cincinnati Edition) is in The Front Row with Betsy Ross to discuss the September 2 Cheetah Run, a family friendly event at the Zoo to benefit their big cat programs. | <urn:uuid:0be27e2c-2bb5-468a-81fd-cf557e6a0171> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wvxu.org/term/cincinnati-zoo?page=8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957236 | 240 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Boulder's Manhattan Middle School has been awarded a grant from the Colorado Legacy Foundation that will boost its work to improve school climate.
Manhattan and Rangeview High School in Aurora will share $25,000 as part of the foundation's new Safe and Welcoming Schools Initiative. The one-year grant, awarded through a competitive process, will be used to expand existing programs, create new programs and provide staff professional development.
The foundation plans to collect data on the effectiveness of the schools' efforts and share information about challenges and lessons learned with schools statewide.
At Manhattan, Principal Robbyn Fernandez said the grant will help the school move its equity work forward. Manhattan recently became the first Colorado middle school to receive the Anti-Defamation League's "No Place for Hate" designation for five years in a row.
"This grant really takes us a step further," Fernandez said. "We're not stagnating on the path to making Manhattan safe for everybody."
She said the school has spent the last few years focusing on including students in its equity work. At the end of last school year, for example, the school created an eighth-grade equity advisory group to the principal.
"What we have found here is that meaningful change occurs when it comes from students," she said.
Librarian Barb Miller, who wrote the application for the grant, said one way the money will be used is to bring a national speaker to Manhattan to work with teachers on diversifying the curriculum.
"We're no longer focusing on heroes and holidays," she said. "It's imperative that all kids can see themselves reflected in the curriculum."
The money also will be used to create a lending library with class sets of books that cover contemporary issues, such as "Luna," a novel about a transgender child. The books could be checked out by any school in Boulder Valley.
Another component is creating a program that pairs typical seventh- and eighth-graders with students who have multiple disabilities.
"We want to develop best practices in creating inclusive, safe and welcome schools that can be used throughout the district and throughout the state," Miller said. | <urn:uuid:0f4cfa00-bdeb-4f6a-aecf-cad5d76e2cc5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-schools/ci_21176597/boulders-manhattan-middle-school-wins-equity-grant | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970694 | 433 | 1.8125 | 2 |
If you were hoping to sell counterfeit goods this holiday season, your efforts may have been stymied, if you were one of the 132 websites that were taken down today.
Combined efforts by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) group, the Homeland Security Investigations unit, Europol, along with resources from the United Kingdom, France, Romania, Belgium, and Denmark, took down more than one hundred websites as part of two programs: Project Cyber Monday 3, and Project Transatlantic.
According to ICE, the websites in question “were set up to dupe consumers into unknowingly buying counterfeit goods as part of the holiday shopping season.”
As you must have deduced from the Project Cyber Monday 3 moniker, this is the third edition of the yearly purge. Cyber Monday, the first Monday following thanksgiving, is a crafted holiday designed to induce consumer purchases online in response to the more traditional Black Friday event, a similarly crass day of blatant consumerism and credit card-fueled debauchery.
Naturally, as online shopping became a norm, it too needed a false day of guilt-fired profligacy.
Breaking the results into two groups, Project Cyber Monday took down 101 sites, while Project Transatlantic knocked 31 to the ground. An arrest was also reported. ICE also reported that it has “identified PayPal accounts utilized by the infringing websites” which contain more than $175,000 in illicit funds that are “being targeted for seizure.”
This, naturally, is the other side of copyright, patent, and other intellectual property law.
For fun, here is how ICE describes the process by which you are informed if you site is in the crosshairs:
The federal forfeiture process affords individuals who have an interest in seized domain names a period of time after a “Notice of Seizure” to file a petition with a federal court and additional time after a “Notice of Forfeiture” to contest the forfeiture. If no petitions or claims are filed, the domain names become the property of the U.S. government. Additionally, a public service announcement, launched in April 2011, is linked from the seizure banner on each of the 684 forfeited websites.
From the Operation In Our Sites program – of which Project Cyber Monday 3 was a part – some 1,630 sites have been seized since the program began in 2010. Nearly 700 have been forfeited to the U.S. government from that total.
Top Image Credit: Magnus D | <urn:uuid:317b279a-99c2-4a27-9942-9fd2116a1d20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/11/26/coordinated-u-s-and-european-efforts-take-down-132-counterfeit-websites-in-a-one-day/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965314 | 519 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Tom Pennington/Getty Images
IRVING, Texas -- The Boy Scouts of America's national executive board has delayed a decision on whether to lift its longstanding ban on gay scouts and leaders.
BSA says the organization will take action on the resolution at its national meeting in May. The organization is considering a shift of its policy, which has led officials to remove gay leaders and scouts. That consideration has pushed years of debate over the policy to an even higher level.
Early reaction to the delay from gay-rights supporters was harshly critical of the BSA.
An Ohio mother who was ousted from her post as a Cub Scout volunteer because she's a lesbian said the Scouts "failed to be brave." Jennifer Tyrrell said BSA had a chance to help children and parents who have been excluded.
The Associated Press | <urn:uuid:a5f7d4ef-c39c-4b02-9940-0e5b4262a90b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/282093/45/Boy-Scouts-delay-decision-on-admitting-gays?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Cbc%7Clarge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974769 | 166 | 1.75 | 2 |
About this design
Our Nagra SN t-shirt illustrated by Yukio Miyamoto.
The SN of Nagra SN stands for Series Noir - Being about the size of a smart phone, but wholly analogue, they were favoured by the dark side; creeps otherwise known as secret policemen. People who think they know best but whom the evidence shows know nothing. The Stasi and their ilk were among the few who could afford a reel to reel tape recorder that cost the same as a small car of its day: a Mini, less purchase tax and vat, was probably less than £575 in 1970.
The tape on the reel to reel was just 1/8th of an inch, 3.8mm deep. The motor was quartz regulated such that Newton's laws of angular momentum were controlled. Wow and flutter were all but eliminated regardless of how the oft concealed machine moved with the person or thing carrying it.
With the intricate circuitry and batteries there was no room for a motor to rewind the tape. This was accomplished through a small and exquisite hand crank driving through a gearbox. The audio quality was such that the taped sound could be applied directly to film. When they were not in the hands of the noire side of life they could be found on movie locations in the pockets of actors and sound men and no doubt women too.
Yukio Miyamoto's 3D images of this exquisite piece of miniature engineering match Nagra's precision and quality. Celebrate a great example of human ingenuity wear our Yukio Miyamoto Nagra Series Noire tape deck t-shirt. | <urn:uuid:021e0671-c8c9-4ae4-94ce-b3a3407b5801> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weadmire.net/tshirt/nagra-series-noir-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979085 | 324 | 1.554688 | 2 |
A new report Tuesday by state tax officials shows that Arizona consumers appear to be holding back on the pace of their spending.
Figures from the Department of Revenue show total retail sales for September, the most recent numbers available, totaled slightly more than $3.9 billion. That's an increase of just 2.5 percent from the same month a year earlier.
"These numbers are pretty lackluster,'' said economist Marshall Vest of the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. He said that sales should be growing in the range of 4 to 5 percent.
Economist Dennis Hoffman of the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, was equally unimpressed by the performance. He called the year-over-year increase "anemic.''
Of greater concern, Hoffman said, is that the September numbers are in line with the pattern he's seen for the past few months after signs of more rapid growth earlier in the year.
That, he said, raises the question of whether an annual growth rate of 2 to 3 percent is "the new world'' that Arizona will have to live with.
"Or is it maybe a summer doldrums or election related hesitation in consumer spending?'' Hoffman continued. "That's what we're going to have to determine.''
Vest said that it's not just consumer retail purchasing that appears off. He pointed out that contracting revenues are down after what had been record growth in the past several months.
But Vest also found some bright spots, especially in sales at bars and restaurants. He said spending there "has been surprisingly robust the past few months.''
Hoffman also noted that sales of cars and trucks are up more than 13 percent over the same time last year. But he said that is not the complete picture.
"The amount of sales today is still lower than it was in 2004,'' he said.
The September vehicle sales amounted to $530.8 million. But dealers were moving nearly $740 million worth of cars and trucks eight years ago, even when prices were lower.
"And there's more people here than in 2004,'' Hoffman said. "And the economy is bigger.''
He said, though, the increasing pace of vehicle sales could be a good barometer of consumer confidence.
"If people are not feeling good, they don't buy a car,'' Hoffman said. "They try to get by with a clunker.''
Both economists caution that the September numbers do not necessarily mean the recovery is stalling in Arizona.
"These data are volatile from month to month, so next month could look at lot stronger,'' Vest said.
Hoffman said there are some early indications that will be the case. He said preliminary numbers from the Department of Revenue show cash flow from sales taxes for October are higher, in the 7 percent range. But Hoffman said it will take the agency awhile to figure out what segments of the economy are contributing to that. | <urn:uuid:05e8176e-4aa1-4001-a85b-3d28bc314d2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/money/article_06bd3f3c-3ef3-11e2-80ed-001a4bcf887a.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976279 | 601 | 1.632813 | 2 |
I have no idea what that extra valve you describe is or is for, but I can tell you why your T/P valve on the water heater is leaking. You need a thermal expansion tank in the cold water line. The pressure regulator valve on the supply line has a check valve built into it. When the water heater heats, this causes the water in the tank to expand. In homes with no pressure regulator, this expansion is absorbed by the city water main. but in your case, the PRV stops this from happening. This build pressure in you water heater to the point that it trips the T/P valve. A thermal expansion tank absorbs this expansion. Perhaps one of the professional plumbers can identify that other "valve" or whatever it is, but I tend to think it can be eliminated. | <urn:uuid:76b2c59d-708c-4096-b65d-92e85b06019d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.terrylove.com/forums/showthread.php?25901-Gas-Hot-Water-Heater-Tank-and-Pressure-Relief-Valve | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95692 | 164 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Megastorm Sandy's march of destruction claimed at least 43 lives in the U.S. and left more than eight million people without electricity by late Tuesday, in one of the largest storms ever to strike the East Coast.
Photos: Sandy Hits East Coast
New York's Blackout Skyline
Compare New York's usual skyline with its blackout skyline
- New Jersey Sorts Through Wreckage
- Power Outages May Last Over a Week
- Millions Without Power After Storm
- Travelers Face Nightmare
- Buses Back, But Subways Could Take Days Longer
- Storm Prompts Shifts in Voting Procedures
- Darkness Has New Yorkers on the Move
- Heroes Shine Amid Storm's Destruction
- What Happens to All Those Swamped Cars?
- Sandy Exacts Toll on the Economy
- Filing a Claim? Here's What to Do
- FEMA in the Spotlight A Week Before Election
- New York Transit System Crippled by Floods
- Telecom Firms Skirt Worst Damage
- Broken Crane Looms Over Neighborhood
- 911 System Swamped
- After Blaze, Breezy Point Bands Together
Diminished but still dangerous, the storm churned across Pennsylvania on Tuesday in an arc toward Canada, and the northeastern U.S. began its slow process of recovery. In New York, financial markets were expected to resume trading Wednesday, though big chunks of the city are without electricity and its vast network of subways remains idled by historic flooding.
As dawn broke Tuesday on the storm's trail of wreckage, it began exposing stories of heroism and tragedy, bad decisions and lucky breaks.
New Jersey took a particularly severe hit. Portions of the famed Atlantic City boardwalk were reduced to splinters, the casino town itself all but submerged. The Seaside Park roller coaster lay twisted in the Atlantic Ocean. Countless homes were damaged or destroyed.
"The level of devastation at the Jersey Shore is unthinkable," Gov. Chris Christie said in a news conference.
In Broad Channel in New York City, a 29-year-old mother was forced to dive and swim out of her house's front window with her 8-year-old daughter. Parts of West Virginia were forced to dig out from three feet of snow. On Long Island, a man lit a firework that he mistook for a candle, and blew his hand off, police say. And in Freeport, N.Y., Nicole Smith evacuated and then returned home—to find a boat on her lawn. She asked passersby for $5 to take a snapshot.
The rubble told a tale of how elusive safety could be in the storm's path. A 13-year-old girl was found dead, in her pajamas, a block from her washed-out Staten Island home; an 11-year-old boy and a his 13-year-old friend were crushed under a tree that hit a home in New York's suburban Westchester County.
In New York's borough of Queens, once the winds had calmed Tuesday morning, Joe Jordan waded outside barefoot to assess just how badly the storm had damaged his longtime neighborhood, Breezy Point. Overnight, a fire had leveled more than 100 homes; dozens more were swept off their foundations by the storm surge.
Water was everywhere Mr. Jordan looked. Then came the cry for help.
It was his neighbor, 88-year-old William Norton, who had spent a harrowing night with his wife atop clothes stacked on a bed where they had fled the rising water in their home.
Mr. Jordan, along with other neighbors, pried a 12-foot sailboat from under another flooded home. The makeshift rescue crew loaded Mr. Norton and his wife in it, pushing them through the floodwaters. On Tuesday morning, the couple sat in a car, wet and barefoot, wearing borrowed clothing and awaiting relatives.
Watch WSJ Video Coverage on YouTube
The official warnings to evacuate were clear, the couple said. But staying home just seemed easier. "It's not their fault, it's ours," said a tired Mary Norton, 88, head in her hand. "We didn't leave."
In another New York City coastal neighborhood, Canarsie in Brooklyn, floods pushed around cars and left parking garages submerged. Many residents conceded that they underestimated Sandy's seriousness.
Howard Bennett, 47, said he was shocked Monday evening when a friend looked out the peephole of his front door and saw a reflection of a lamplight in water. As the waters rose, Mr. Bennett stashed his birdcage atop his refrigerator and waded to higher ground.
Returning to his apartment, the refrigerator was toppled, and his two lovebirds were dead. "We should have been smarter," Mr. Bennett said. Officials "should've really got us out of here, though," he added.
Canarsie resident Henroy Norman, 50, said he realized the scope of the crisis only when a neighbor started honking his horn around 8 p.m. He grabbed his niece and nephew and made a treacherous journey through the waist-high water to a relative's house on higher ground.
His 11-year-old niece Jelissa Norman said she felt the tide tugging at her. "I held on to my uncle and my dad," she said.
New York's extensive transit system, a lifeline for millions of commuters, suffered unprecedented damage as floodwaters swamped all seven subway tunnels connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn. Joseph Lhota, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, described it Tuesday as the most devastating in the 108-year history of the New York subway.
Department of Energy Situation Reports
Keep track of power outages by state, recovery efforts and more.
Video from WSJ reporters
Damage from Hurricane Sandy
As Sandy made landfall, the storm wreaked havoc across much of the Eastern Seaboard.
Track the latest Atlantic hurricanes and tropical storms, and look back over past seasons.
Officials feared the brackish storm water that poured into tunnels could corrode vulnerable signal and switching systems, complicating the task of reopening a bus and rail system that ferries 8.5 million passengers on a typical workday.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said John F. Kennedy Airport and Newark Liberty Airport would reopen Wednesday with limited service, but that LaGuardia Airport, where runways remained flooded, will be closed. Region-wide, the economic costs of the storm could total $50 billion to $70 billion, according to IHS Global Insight.
In Rhode Island's coastal fishing village of Jerusalem, John Eldridge, 38, stood outside his flooded, grey-shingled cottage, his pants tucked into rubber boots, recounting a long night. "I haven't slept yet," he said.
At the height of the storm, waves crashed across the road, "there were propane tanks floating by, the wind was just ripping chunks off roofs, decks were floating by, it was crazy," he said.
The southern coastal area known as South County—ranging from mansions in Westerly to the fishing bungalows of Narragansett—felt the brunt of the damage in the state. One of the more dramatic sights was in Matunuck, a village in South Kingstown where several beachfront dwellings at a historic 377-cottage summer colony were ripped apart by the storm.
"This is disastrous," said Gretchen Ross, whose family has summered at the community, called Roy Carpenter's Beach, for 60 years.
Forecasters said Sandy, which had maximum sustained winds of 45 miles an hour Tuesday afternoon, would cross western Pennsylvania on Tuesday night before moving into Canada on Wednesday as it melds with cold air fronts.
Another inch of rain was expected from the eastern Great Lakes across the mid-Atlantic and into southern New England, bringing total precipitation to as much as 12 inches.
"Due to strong and persistent northerly winds, coastal flooding along portions of the Great Lakes is possible," the National Weather Service warned. In northern Indiana on Tuesday, sand whipped by high winds spawned by the far-reaching storm forced cancellation of classes at one school, the Associated Press reported.
In Old Saybrook, Conn., Jeffrey Ratner says he was never able to fully repair his family's three-bedroom beach cottage from the damage from Irene, the storm that struck the Northeast only a year or so ago.
On Monday night, Sandy's waves ripped out the entire deck of his home, along with the back wall.
Still, Mr. Ratner said, he remains optimistic about the future. "We are going to rebuild," he said.—Dionne Searcey, Jennifer Maloney, Sharon Adarlo, Tamer El-Ghobashy, Tom Fowler and Mike Esterl contributed to this article. | <urn:uuid:1121a991-8a72-465e-9cd3-51014849878d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203880704578088391780439144.html?mod=WSJ_article_NewYorkPoliticsHeadlines | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971609 | 1,818 | 1.84375 | 2 |
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For those who have bad credit personal loans of little bit, obtained after a while, will assist you to lift up your financial standing. The earth economy is rather shaky presently. That year 2007 and 2008, the globe economy took a downward trend that saw biggest reason so many businesses power down although some laid off many of their employees. This resulted in many individuals did not have an origin of revenue bad credit personal loans.
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So, you'll want to devise a strategic prefer to enhance your financial scores and credit bad credit personal loans. Seeking and get small signature loans and paying them off in time will assist you in boosting your financial standing. | <urn:uuid:19ab7432-e665-46bb-997b-683b5f6e3f95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.design21sdn.com/people/68790 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979877 | 507 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Change seems to come in small steps. So it is with the use of photography and clip art in my conference material. It wasn't that long ago that I was sending my material to Molly (the freelance graphic designer I usually work with) by cab. The courier wasn't cheap. But even more costly was the time it took to deliver my raw material to her and then wait for her material to come back to me to proof.
Only two years ago I was sending her my copy by e-mail. Proofs would come back to me by courier. She would take photography to the print shop for color separation, with instructions as to where the images were to appear in the copy. This process was not only time-consuming; it also made last-minute changes difficult.
Last year, Molly started sending me proofs electronically in PDF (Portable Document Format). This was a significant technological step forward for us. I could forward the PDFs to the others in my department, or print them out on my color printer and route them around for quality control.
Most graphic designers have access to a number of CDs of clip art, and there is much available on the Web (both free and for a modest fee). However, it is difficult to find exactly what you want, and you often don't have the time or budget to manipulate the clip art to what you really need.
Meanwhile, photography has become more accessible and cheaper. Royalty-free photo disks can hold more than 200 images and cost about $400. Each disk has a theme, like European destinations or sports. We have about 100 disks in our “library,” most from Photodisc. Rather than buying a CD, you can download single images from the Web site (www.photodisc.com). Price depends on the resolution, which is usually expressed in image size or dpi. For example:
- Low resolution: 600K @ 72 dpi; 5×7; $29.95
- Medium: 10MB @ 300 dpi; 5×7; $99.95
- High: 28.5MB @ 300 dpi; 8.5×11; $179.95
Other sources with similar pricing include: www.eyewire.com, www.corbisimages.com, www.phototogo.com, and www.artville.com. Artville.com has not only photography, but illustrations and type fonts as well.
Ken Pickle, CPCU, CMP, is manager, incentives and conferences, for Safeco Insurance Companies, Seattle.
CVBs Go Digital
When we launch an incentive campaign, we often provide field offices with digitized conference logos, PowerPoint presentations, sleeves of slides, etc. — usually sent out piecemeal. With the technological improvements in creating your own CDs, it's worth consolidating these into a single CD — which the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau has done with its materials. The CCTB's new Digital Resource Kit contains a diskette and CD with city photographs, maps, icons, clip art, and articles to help planners promote a Chicago event. The kit is attractively packaged and contains good directions on how to use the material.
For more, visit www.choosechicago.com.
Portable Document Format is a unique type of cross-platform file format developed by Adobe. “Cross platform” means it can represent documents regardless of the software, hardware, or operating system on which it was created. One can read a PDF file in Windows 98 that was created on a Mac that you downloaded from a Web site running UNIX. It's also navigational, which allows users to expand the usefulness of a publication. On screen, PDF files have a precise color match regardless of the monitor used, and can be magnified up to 800% without a loss in clarity. Learn more at www.pdfzone.com. | <urn:uuid:1c526d90-2a08-4772-b4c5-ef67f19e9e95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://meetingsnet.com/financialinsurance-meetings/free-art-flexible-files-fewer-headaches | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95477 | 799 | 1.789063 | 2 |
BY QUANNAH LEONARD REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
PROSPECT -- Ash logs, ash materials, ash nursery stock and hardwood firewood can only leave New Haven County under strict conditions following the imposition of a state quarantine Thursday.
Any movement of ash logs or firewood from New Haven County now is regulated by the state.
New Haven is the only one of the state's eight counties to be quarantined to reduce the spread of the emerald ash borer -- a tiny green beetle that kills ash trees. The highly mobile, invasive insect has been found in Prospect, Beacon Falls, Naugatuck and Bethany.
The quarantine will mirror a federal quarantine that is expected to be imposed within the next four to six weeks, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection announced Thursday.
Proposed emergency regulations also took effect Thursday. Those will control the movement of firewood into Connecticut and within Connecticut.
Louis A. Magnarelli, the experiment station's director, signed the quarantine order Thursday, a day after a hearing in the Prospect firehouse. At least 150 people attended.
"We are trying to keep this beetle contained, but at the same time, we realize there are businesses out there and jobs," Magnarelli told the crowd Wednesday. "And so it's a balancing act. We have to be able allow commodities to move under certain conditions."
In time, the state will probably find the beetle in Litchfield County and probably in Fairfield County, which would expand the state quarantine, Magnarelli said.
Magnarelli and Kirby C. Stafford III, the experiment station's vice director, will review the applications for permits. The person who will move the wood should file the application, he said.
Magnarelli highlighted scenarios under the quarantine.
Firewood that is produced in New Haven County can be moved freely within the county without a permit, he said.
For firewood to leave the county, it must be treated by one of four methods -- the bark can be removed and a half-inch of wood taken away, kiln sterilization, heat treatment or fumigation.
If there are logs that need to leave the county -- and there is no ash among them -- they can go, he said. If there is ash mixed in, they would have to be moved under a permit at a time when the adult beetle is not flying around, from Oct. 1 to March 31.
In another example, if an arborist enters New Haven County to remove an ash tree, and it's chipped to one inch or less, the ash will be deregulated, he said. It can be used for mulch, moved out or left in the county.
If someone needs to transport material outside Connecticut, that will require a U.S. Department of Agriculture compliance agreement, Magnarelli said.
He said green ash grown in nurseries can be sold in the county, but there are no federal provisions for it to be moved from the county into another county or across state lines. As a result, he expected some impact to growers.
Magnarelli said he doesn't envision a major impact on the logging industry or arborists in the state. Firewood suppliers will have the strictest rules to follow, he said.
Ed Brasche, owner of Ed The Treeman in Prospect, said he met with his supervisor Thursday morning to discuss a firewood plan for this coming season -- to limit service to New Haven County. He does not see a major impact, and may lose 5 percent of his deliveries, he said.
If he were to go outside the county, there would have to be special permits and a deregulating process, Brasche said. For the expense to process, deliver and deregulate the wood, it makes no sense, he said.
Joseph Bernardi, a member of Brothers' Tree Service in Middlebury, said he expects to be able to treat a lot of the more valuable ash trees in a landscaping setting, and he will have to chip more material on site, which will be more labor intensive.
Bernardi, who is a licensed arborist, said research will have to be done on finding areas in New Haven County to dispose of bulky waste. That will be key to helping homeowners and business owners because they can't move this material as easily, he said.
"The easier it is for people to comply with regulations, the more effective it will be," Bernardi said.
Magnarelli said the experiment station does not have any sites for disposal, but will be exploring this with the DEEP.
Bud Neal, owner of Neal Tree Service in Woodbury -- which is in Litchfield County -- said if he does tree work in Southbury, or Middlebury -- both of which are in New Haven County -- he will have to adhere to the regulations.
That means he can bring chips back to his operation, if they're small enough, but no wood, he said.
"The state has to start somewhere," Neal said. "They are doing a good job of it by quarantining that area."
Anyone with questions about the quarantine can call the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station at 203-974-8500, or visit its website, www.ct.gov/caes
. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection also has information at www.ct.gov/deep | <urn:uuid:a185f7f2-ed03-4d15-9dc4-9e52f3dc4bb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2012/09/08/news/local/661756.prt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96074 | 1,120 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The City of Paden City applied for and was awarded a Work Zone Sign Package valued at approximately $3000. One of 12 municipalities awarded this package by the West Virginia Local Technical Assistance Program (WV LTAP),Paden City will use the package to improve work zone safety during road maintenance, utility operations, and incident management.
The City of Paden City was selected because of its demonstrated need of work zone traffic control devices and commitment to work zone safety. Other municipalities who received these sizeable packages were the Town of Albright, Town of Ansted, Town of Bancroft, Village of Beech Bottom, City of Hinton, Town of Masontown, City of McMechen, Paige Kincaid Public Service District, City of Point Pleasant, Town of Pratt, and the City of Smithers.
The Work Zone Sign Package Program is one of the many services offered by the WV LTAP to improve highway safety across the state. These packages consist of traffic control devices that communities can use to warn and guide traffic around and through road construction and maintenance zones.
Each package includes 18 portable work zone signs, six sign stands, four barricades, four drums with reflective tape, 16 cones, two reflective "Stop/Slow" paddles, four ANSI Class III full-coverage safety vests, and two whistles with lanyards. In addition to the package, each municipality receives a free, hands-on work zone safety training course.
The goal of this program is to help municipalities improve the quality of their work zone traffic control and, ultimately, improve traffic safety in the state. Including this year's group of recipients, West Virginia LTAP has awarded 75 sign packages to state municipalities since the program began in 1995.
Funded by the Federal Highway Administration and the West Virginia Department of Transportation and located at West Virginia University in Morgantown, LTAP provides training and technical assistance for the state and municipal surface transportation workforce.
To obtain additional information on the Center's services, contact Kim Carr at (304) 293-9924, or to speak directly with the city's representative, contact Tamra Billiter at 304-337-2295. | <urn:uuid:c3089ee6-68f2-4cc1-beae-3c7286d14b0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tylerstarnews.com/page/content.detail/id/508525/Paden-City-is-awarded-work-zone-sign-package.html?nav=5008 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948994 | 445 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The National Council for Gender-based Violence in South Africa, which will lead and monitor the implementation of a 365 Days Plan of Action against gender-based violence for Children and People with Disabilities, will be launched on Saturday.
The launch of the council, which is a high level, multi-sectoral national response to the scourge of gender-based violence, follows Cabinet approval for its establishment on 25 December 2011.
The council will be chaired by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Lulu Xingwana, will be its champion.
Announcing the launch on Wednesday during a post-Cabinet briefing, Xingwana said through the council, government was taking the war against gender-based violence to a higher level.
“As government, we acknowledge that the levels of gender-based violence in our country are unacceptably high and we are confident that the work of the council will lead to a significant reduction in the incidents of violence against women and children,” Xingwana said.
The council has been charged with the following responsibilities to drive the implementation of the 365 Days National Plan and advise government on policy and intervention programmes; strengthen national partnerships in the fight against gender-based violence; create and strengthen international partnerships on gender-based violence; and monitor and report progress on initiatives aimed at addressing gender-based violence.
According to the statistics announced last year by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, the combined figures of all sexual offences, including rape and indecent assault, indicate an upward trend of 2.1% in 2010/11 compared to 2009/10.
Cases of murder of women increased by 5.6% and sexual offences against children increased by 2.6% during this period.
Xingwana said the council is envisaged to have 45 members with a dedicated secretariat located in the department. The members will be appointed for a period of two to three years.
“We have ensured that council is as representative as possible to enable us to draw from the diverse expertise, views and experience of various stakeholders. There will also be observers from key organisations such as the Commission on Gender Equality, United Nations bodies, research institutions, donor partners and experts.”
Sectors represented in the council will include civil society organisations dealing with violence against women and children, religious organisations, traditional leadership, women's movement, academic and research institutions and government across all spheres and the South African Local Government Association. | <urn:uuid:37a5d382-fe3b-49d7-a34d-016148d0359c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nigeriaa2z.com/2012/08/22/south-africa-to-launch-gender-based-violence-council/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960401 | 511 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Workers went on strike in October in protest over conditions on the iPhone 5's production lines, a month after 40 people were injured in a protest that forced the temporary closure of another plant.
But in a notable shift, Foxconn said earlier this week it was giving employees more union rights. For the first time, employees have been promised a chance to vote for representatives free from management influence, and top officials will be elected by secret ballot.
Apple has instituted reforms of its own, and the company website highlights instances where audits have uncovered child labor at suppliers -- along with the steps taken to rectify the situation.
"When we discover suppliers with underage workers or find out about historical cases -- where workers had either left or reached legal working age by the time of the audit -- we demand immediate corrective action," Apple's website says. | <urn:uuid:d41433c9-343c-4740-b89a-2a2f2a62acf2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wptz.com/news/money/HP-to-limit-student-labor-in-China/-/8869718/18462946/-/item/1/-/c3cpsq/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974876 | 168 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Callprint Services Limited recognises that the environment is fundamental to existence. We strive for excellence, leadership, sustainability, and integrity through improvement in our environmental performance and management. An awareness of our environmental impact is a responsibility of all employees at every level in the company. All personnel have an obligation to apply operating practices and procedures which will ensure protection of the environment.
In accordance with the above Callprint has identified the following key objectives and actions to serve as guidelines in the implementation of its Environmental Policy.ISO 14001 accreditation
As part of our ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship we have achieved ISO 14001 accreditation (click here to see the certificate). This is the first part of a number of verifiable steps that Callprint is taking to minimise its environmental impact.compliance
Full compliance with all applicable environmental legislation and regulations that affect our activities throughout the company.environmental impact
Improve our environmental performance. We shall do this by using paper, energy, technology and other resources with increasing efficiency, and by reducing all forms of waste.recycling
Promote recycling and the use of recycled materials, whilst reducing the consumption of all materials wherever possible.materials
Establish standards which will promote the use of environmentally friendly processes and materials. We will strive to use eco-friendly, biodegradable materials as far as possible and viable. Where the use of new materials is the only viable option we will ensure that these are obtained from managed sustainable sources.efficiency
Design energy efficiency into services and facilities and manage energy in all areas of the business, promoting these services to our own employees and customers.suppliers
Place more of our business with suppliers who minimise the impact of their activities on the environment and adhere to an Environmental Policy.risk management
Continually identify, evaluate and control the environmental risks associated with our operations. We shall have procedures in place to prevent and respond to emergencies.innovation
Support pollution prevention and environmental research, and implement findings consistent with this policy.performance evaluation
Evaluate the environmental performance of our operations and personnel, and recognise achievements which support this policy. We shall provide our employees with information and training to fully integrate this policy into their responsibilities at work. | <urn:uuid:a30a5090-99ac-4319-b97e-3dd9abc2707d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.callprint.co.uk/environmental-policy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931596 | 445 | 1.6875 | 2 |
TOKYO: A second battery on a Boeing Dreamliner that made an emergency landing due to smoke linked to its main power unit had also expanded, a Japanese safety board official said Tuesday.
Detailed examination of the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) battery of the plane revealed that two of its eight cells were misshapen. An initial inspection found the unit to be intact after the All Nippon Airways (ANA) plane made an emergency landing last month.
"Details such as how much they bulged remains unknown," said the official from the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB).
In their probe, Japanese officials have focused on the ANA Dreamliner's main lithium-ion battery, which was severely damaged by what they believe to have been a build up of heat that resulted in uncontrollably high temperatures.
Investigators have released a picture showing the blackened remains of the main battery in the ANA plane.
In contrast, the APU battery was initially thought to be intact.
The APU on a Japan Airlines flight that had landed in Boston in the United States was badly damaged in an onboard fire in January, marking the beginning of a torrid period for Boeing's flagship aircraft, which is still grounded worldwide.
ANA and JAL, major customers of the aircraft with more than 100 combined orders, have been hit hard by the grounding, slashing hundreds of flights, affecting tens of thousands of passengers. (AFP) | <urn:uuid:58ec3898-60bf-403e-9571-83cf4c070cd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/latest-news/226252-japan-dreamliner-2nd-battery-also-affected.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976719 | 292 | 1.789063 | 2 |
We are a pet-intensive household. Currently we have three dogs and a cat, but we used to have two dogs and three cats. Having three cats teaches you that maintaining a litter box is an endless, thankless, hopeless, gross, stinky, unhealthy, unending chore. We used to use the LitterMaid, and went through three of them over the course of five years. They worked…okay. However, they had some significant engineering flaws, such as the fact that the rakes became caked with kitty poo, the receptacle filled up super quick when three cats were on the job, and they simply wore out after a year or so.
When we moved to our current house we decided to forego yet another LitterMaid and search for a newer, and hopefully better, solution. The search led us to the Litter-Robot, pictured to the right. It’s kind of space-age looking, and looks kind of big, and looks like it might freak out a cat or something, and maybe, just maybe, might refuse to open the pod bay doors.
The good news is that the Litter-Robot works, and it works extremely well. It’s hard to describe the mechanics of it, but the large, round part on the top is simply sitting in place by virtue of gravity, it’s not attached or connected to the base in any way. The orb has a couple of windows on the side (you can see one of them in the picture, it’s the black blotch on the side), and when in the normal position those windows are blocked by panels from the inside.
The orb sits on the base, and the base beneath the orb is open to the drawer below. Sensors in the unit determine when your cat has used the litter box, and seven minutes later little wheels (hidden from view underneath the orb) start turning and spin the orb counter-clockwise. Inside the orb is a mesh grate and retaining pocket for the litter, and as the orb rotates the litter flows through the mesh grate and into the retaining pocket. Anything a little bit bigger than a couple grains of litter can’t go through the mesh, so continue to roll along the inside of the orb as it rotates.
After the orb passes the rotation point where all the litter is contained in the pocket, the movement of the orb engages a lever that starts opening the panels that block the windows. When the orb is fully rotated, the windows are completely unblocked allowing free access for any dropping droppings to fall into the drawer below. After a short pause, the orb rotates back clockwise, the panels close the windows, and it eventually returns to the fully upright and locked position.
Note that on this return turn, it over-rotates by about 15-20 degrees, then comes back to completely vertical. This movement leaves the inside with perfectly level litter, but the first time it happens it doesn’t make sense and, if you’re like me, you might think the thing has slipped the chain and gone into rotational hell. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I guess that means a video must be worth a million, so here’s a video of what I just tried to describe:
It’s not nearly as noisy as the LitterMaids were, and there is zero, and I mean *zero*, smell of litterbox in our house. With two cats we had to empty the drawer twice a week, with one cat we empty it once a week. Standard garbage bags can be used as a liner for the drawer to make cleanup even easier. And it only uses a tiny bit of litter each changing, because you only have to replace the litter that falls out clinging to the refuse.
Some caveats – the floor must be level, and it works best on a hard floor as opposed to carpeting. Also, don’t overfill it with litter – the whole system works by sensing a cat’s weight stepping into and out of the litter box, and the whole unit rocks forward and back about a 1/2 inch during ingress/egress. If there’s too much litter it can falsely trigger the sensors, and carpeting can dampen the rocking motion and make the unit not sense usage.
Also, the people at Litter-Robot are very nice and their support is very helpful. When we first got ours I had a lot of trouble getting it working (due to unlevel floors and overfilling!), so I stuck it in the garage for a year. When I pulled it back out I realized I had lost a part of it that I had loosened while tinkering, and the Litter-Robot folks were happy to replace it, free of charge, even!
Our cats took the the Litter-Robot within a couple of minutes, no hassle at all. It takes up about as much floor space as a large litter box, but it’s about 2′ tall and requires the freedom to rotate, so you can’t smash it up against the wall or pull the drapes over it or anything.
The bottom line is that the Litter-Robot works great, it has a fabulous design, it’s easy to clean, our cats love it, there’s no smell, and it’s actually a conversation piece instead of being a sh*tbox. What’s not to like!?? | <urn:uuid:dc42a898-c0bc-43d6-8fff-872722767401> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cleverdonkey.com/789-engineerboys-review-of-the-litter-robot/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952624 | 1,145 | 1.585938 | 2 |
The Seau's Dilemma
The death of Junior Seau kicked me in the face. I met Junior a couple of times and had the opportunity to play against him. The results were not so opportune.
Junior's death made me think of a friend, a guy I got to know while playing football in Hawaii: Dave Duerson.
Dave Duerson was a friend, a peer and contemporary, but he was also one of the most squared-away individuals I have ever met. Duerson was big, strong, fast, athletic, the ladies loved him; but this is not what I remember most about Double-D. What I remember most about him was he was one of the smartest, level- headed, calculating, confident, in control people we as a species can or ever will generate.
Despite suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease that often develops into dementia, Duerson killed himself by shooting a bullet into his chest and left a note telling his family to have his brain examined.
Even with the horror of the circumstances, after months of sadness for Double-D and his family, this last act of defiance by my one- time friend made me smile.
Whatever the disease does to people, whatever the manifestations, whatever control it had over Dave Duerson, in the end the Warrior- Politician used his brain to retake control of his life. Although the doctors at Boston University and the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy confirmed Duerson had CTE, Double-D was still calculating to the very end. He wanted the very thing that was betraying his person, his brain, intact.
Now hear me well: I do not write these words to glorify or condone what my one-time friend did; I do not understand how he could do such a thing…not Double-D.
But you should know I do not judge him; nor will I judge Junior Seau.
Junior Seau's family is currently considering whether or not they should have Junior's brain examined. They do not wish to make a rash decision while flooded in grief. Of course there's no right or wrong answer to their dilemma.
And it is a dilemma.
Many people don't understand why the Seaus would balk at allowing medical examiners to get to the truth; what's the problem?
Junior's the problem.
The dilemma for the Seaus might include the juxtaposition of Junior's life with his death. Within the context of the Bloodsport, Junior Seau was a warrior. According to medical reports, Junior Seau never suffered a concussion. In twenty years of playing one of the most brutal, physically demanding, high-impact positions on the field he never suffered a concussion…
Or maybe he just played through it. Junior's ex-wife, Gina, implied that he just played through it. She called him a "warrior" and that was part of the problem, one half of the dilemma.
If Junior never told trainers and doctors that he thought he was concussed and elected to just play through it, there must have been a reason why he didn't, right? Why didn't Junior Seau tell the medical staff that he was feeling weird or had symptoms consistent with a concussion? Why?
Enter the warrior…
Junior Seau didn't choose to inform the medical staff of his condition because something told him inside it was part of the game and overcoming such adversaries made him who he was; it was a badge of pride and honor. Today we can say with certitude it was an imprudent badge but back when Junior came into the league it was a badge most players coveted, valued and worked to wear.
After Junior's death the Seau family deliberated and mourned their loss, saying they were going to take some time to determine if they were going to allow Junior's brain to be tested; word came our they were going to allow the Brain Injury Research Institute to examine Junior's brain; then they changed their mind and said they didn't want to rush into any decision and wanted to rethink their position.
Why the change of heart? Why the hesitation? What could it possibly hurt?
I wonder if Junior's beautiful family knows what his feelings were - right or wrong - in regard to how the game was to be played and do not wish to smear what Junior valued so much by allowing his brain to be examined? Maybe they know Junior wouldn't have had it any other way? Maybe they know Junior wouldn't have changed a thing about how he played even if he were starting his career today? Maybe his family believes they would be indirectly attacking Junior, what he believed and the game he loved? Maybe the Seau family know who and what Junior was and are thankful the game of football afforded their son, brother, father, uncle, nephew a canvas in which to paint his masterpiece?
These suppositions may seem foreign and ridiculous to many. And that's okay; it's your prerogative to feel any way you want about this story. But I will promise you there are many other families and clans that have, can and will empathize with my musing.
Even if Junior's family comes out and allows his brain to be examined, even if they find nothing close to CTE, in the world of professional mercenaries the above questions remain and are real for families that can and do empathize with works of art from members of their clan.
I know mine does. | <urn:uuid:e08042aa-bce7-4f95-ab57-bbc9d98b089d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arizonasports.com/59/1537715/The-Seaus-Dilemma?nid=33 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989873 | 1,131 | 1.59375 | 2 |
This is an open question about web design: what is the most important thing for you when choosing a WordPress theme or a new design template for your website?
I was recently faced with having to choose a new WordPress theme for an online education project I was involved in. My task was to select a theme that would put content centre stage and allow viewers to get straight into the site.
As with most education projects, our budget was fairly minimal so we opted for a WordPress solution. I then set about trawling through premium WordPress themes. I must say, it’s quite a daunting task these days.
One of the consequences of an ever-increasing array of themes and options is that it becomes more difficult to find a correct fit. I like to think of this paradox as ‘the embarrassment of choice’.
To cut a long story short, the upshot of it all was that I ended up going with something very simple. In fact, the theme I chose is closer to an old school blog than anything else. The theme is called The Standard Theme and it was created by a company called 8bit.
The reason I went for this one really boils down to two things: simplicity | <urn:uuid:4a6ac600-8933-46f3-9992-9ef6d2a22332> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wpliving.net/whats-important-design-element-choosing-wordpress-theme/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978365 | 245 | 1.53125 | 2 |
- In Acts 9, Saul appears as the archenemy of the church. Why was he obsessed with hatred for Christians? They loved God and others and filled with joy and peace. What was the problem? It was their message. They were telling everybody that Jesus was alive, that He had risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven. Saul refused to believe that. He was convinced that the body of Jesus was rotting away in a hidden grave somewhere. Those lies about a resurrected Jesus had to be stopped and he was going to do that.
- But we know the rest of the story. Saul the Persecutor become Paul the Apostle. His life is an illustration of conversion. Chapter 9 shows his conversion. It can be outlined by the three people he encountered.
Paul & the Lord
On his way to Damascus, a bright light appeared, he fell to the ground, and the Lord Jesus appeared to Him (v. 3-6). Imagine Saul’s dilemma. If this was really Jesus, everything he believed was wrong. Everything he had done was misguided. The One whom he knew to be rotting away in a hidden grave had suddenly appeared to him from heaven, alive and well. He was blinded physically, just as he had been blind spiritually. In his physical blindness, he began to see clearly spiritually. If this was true, all his life would change. His encounter with the risen Lord would change his ambition, his family, his friends, his position, his prestige, his power, wealth, honor, comfort, even his understanding of God’s Word and religion. Finally, he settled the issue. He made his choice. Later he explained it to the Philippians (Phil. 3:7-9).
Paul & Ananias
As Saul was wrestling with his decision to follow Christ, the Lord was speaking to Ananias (v. 10-16). Who was Ananias? All we know is that he was a disciple. If we heard that the biggest enemy of Christianity was sitting in a hotel room in our city considering the claims of Christ, whom would we send to talk to him? In all likelihood we would select a well-known individual whose reputation and position in the church would be fitting for such a task. But not the Lord. His strategy is to use us all, from the least to the greatest. Ananias was apprehensive about the Lord’s command. He had heard much about Saul and his persecution of Christians. So naturally Ananias wanted to consider his assignment carefully to confirm what he Lord wanted and to be sure that he was the man for the job. Like Moses, he was hesitant to obey. Or Jonah, Jeremiah, and Gideon. But thank God for His love and patience with us. God knows our weakness, but if we are willing to obey, He is willing to use us as He used Ananias.
In chapter 9 is we find two ‘unknowns’(Ananias and Dorcas) in a chapter devoted to one of the greatest Christians who ever lived. At the close of chapter 9, Peter received an urgent message to go to Joppa because an important disciple had died – Dorcas. Why was she so important to the church? Because she served the believers. She made robes and clothing for them (v. 39). Here is an interesting lesson for us. Not everyone is called to be in the limelight – like Saul (Paul) and Peter. Some of us will work behind the scenes serving others. Why were the disciples in Joppa so upset over Dorcas’ death? Because it is hard to find someone like her. So god used Peter to raise Dorcas from the dead and she continued to minister to others. ‘This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord’ (v. 42).
Paul & Jews
After many days in Damascus Saul went to Jerusalem to join the disciples there, but ‘they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him in and brought him to the apostles’ (v. 26-27). It is interesting to observe that Saul’s first act was to go to the people who had stoned Stephen and take up the ministry of the man he had seen martyred. Saul ‘moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him’ (v. 28-29). Stephen’s ministry had made a lasting impression on Saul. So Saul went to this same group of Grecian Jews and resumed Stephen’s ministry. Saul returned to make amends for his past sin. He knew they would plan to kill him, but he was prepared to die.
How to Change…
Revelation (v. 1-5)
The Bible tells us that ‘everyone does that which is right in his own eyes.’ And until they hear God’s take on their life, they will continue to do life the best they can… just like Saul. That is why we all need to hear God’s Word and understand the truth of the direction of our life. Saul heard the truth straight from Jesus
Repentance (v. 6-7)
In his conversation with Jesus, Saul used the word ‘Lord’ twice. God had put Jesus on the throne of the universe; Saul put Him on the throne of his heart. From henceforth Jesus was Lord in Saul’s heart, mind, soul, and will. The old Saul died. The new Saul stood in Christ. Jesus was Savior and Lord of his life.
Resolution (v. 8-19)
Saul needed another believer to come to his aid during his early steps as a believer in Jesus Christ. This demonstrates for us the necessity of follow-up for new believers. Despite his concerns, Ananias was still obedient to God’s instruction to come to the spiritual aid of Saul. As a result, Saul took the first steps on the road that would lead him across the Roman Empire preaching the Gospel.
Revolution (v. 20)
Saul began to preach the Gospel. He went to the synagogue so that he might preach the truth about Jesus to his Jewish kinsmen. His message – Jesus is the Son of God. Describing Jesus as the ‘Son of god’ had 3 implications: (1) it spoke of Jesus’ intimate and unique relationship with God the Father; 92) it placed Jesus in the kingly line of David; 93) it identified Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. Saul knew that Jesus was alive, that Jesus was God’s Son, and that Jesus was the Messiah. Saul was completely changed.
Relentlessness (v. 21-22)
The change in Saul caused his hearers to be amazed. They had expected Saul to begin arresting followers of Jesus. But here was this enemy of Christianity preaching the Christian message. Saul continued to grow in his Christian life. His understanding of Jesus caused him to become even more powerful in his preaching.
God never changes but He is constantly calling for change in our lives.
Change is a natural thing in creation. Everything living is in constant change. We can change for the better or for the worse. Christians likewise need to change for the better. Some good reasons to continue to grow in our Christian life: to realize our full potential, to have fulfillment in life, to overcome and live a victorious life. | <urn:uuid:81c2788e-d614-4bc3-9e75-097ee07dc8e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gregburdine.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/conversion-acts-9/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988312 | 1,562 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Jewish World 5:15 AM 5/24/2013
Middle East 3:43 AM 5/24/2013
Defense/Security 2:14 AM 5/24/2013
Life Lessons with Judy Simon
Torah Tidbits Audio
Before making Aliyah to Israel, Tzvi Fishman was a Hollywood screenwriter. He has co-authored 4 books with Rabbi David Samson, based on the teachings of Rabbi Kook, Eretz Yisrael, Art of T'shuva, War and Peace, and Torat Eretz Yisrael.
Tishrei 26, 5772, 10/24/2011
If Eve had read www.jewishsexuality.com, she wouldn’t have followed after her eyes and got us all kicked out of the garden. If Adam had read jewishsexuality.com, he wouldn’t have eaten the “apple.” If Cain had read jewishsexuality.com, he wouldn’t have gotten angry at Abel. Today, we don’t have to make the same mistakes they did. We have the teachings of the Torah and the advice of the Sages to rely upon. While I won’t quote from the holy Zohar here, for people who enjoy the secrets of Torah, there’s a lot more to the snake than his pretty long tail.
Which brings us to Noach. If his generation had taken the time to read jewishsexuality.com, they could have avoided the flood. The Zohar teaches that the wanton sexual sin of the time was the cause of the flood. Measure for measure.
Concerning Noach himself, our Sages express a certain criticism. Yes, he righteously followed each and every order in building the ark, but he didn’t hurry around the countryside, from village to village, warning people what would be if they didn’t improve their ways. Maybe he felt they wouldn’t listen. After all, the sexual urge is a powerful passion, and people don’t like being told that they can’t do whatever they please, like they did in the days preceding the flood. Noach was a private tzaddik, minding his own business, unlike Avraham who traveled to and fro, teaching people about the godly way to live.
If a person sees that his fellow man is erring in his ways, he has the obligation to enlighten him, so that the transgressor can correct his wrongdoing. If he doesn’t, he himself becomes part of the sin. True, not everyone is on a level to rebuke others, and rebuke isn’t an easy thing to do, but the principle is clear that when you see someone heading for destruction, it is a good deed to endeavor to save him.
That is what I, and other INN bloggers, have been doing when writing about the mitzvah of aliyah. We don’t seek to harm anyone – rather to wake people up to the higher and holier reality which we enjoy here in the Land of Israel, living according to the guidelines of Torah. And this is why I urge readers to browse through the jewishsexuality.com website, to alert them of the dangers that brought on the flood. Whether it is the flood of assimilation that is devastating the Jewish People in the Diaspora, or the flood of immodesty and licentiousness in which the world is drowning, everyone must do his share to save not only himself, but also his fellow.
Put the two together and you get the Covenant of the Brit between G-d and the Jewish People, coming up in the Torah portion of Lech Lecha next week, where our sexual holiness and the gift of the Land of Israel are inseparably linked. | <urn:uuid:15f55401-b2c0-4466-a74c-95e4f201e9fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Message.aspx/4778 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965873 | 796 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Obama: Hill must make 'right decisions' on cuts
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama, intensifying pressure on congressional Republicans, said Friday that lawmakers still have "the opportunity to make the right decisions" and avert a series of mandatory budget cuts by March 1.
Despite little sign of a deal emerging with Republicans, Obama said he does not believe it is inevitable that the $85 billion in across-the-board budget cuts will take effect. He said finding a way to avert the cuts should be a "no-brainer" for congressional lawmakers.
Speaking in the Oval Office during a meeting with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Obama said that in contrast to earlier Washington fiscal fights, he didn't believe the economic impact of the cuts would threaten the world financial market. But he added that if the U.S. economy slows as a result of the cuts, the global economy could suffer as well.
Obama's statements continued an administration drumroll of warnings this week, with appeals from Cabinet members ranging from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State John Kerry to Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Even a slew of Democratic governors in the capital for their annual meeting picked up the cudgel, making arguments for Obama's position to reporters.
The fight between Obama and congressional Republicans has centered on a seemingly intractable issue: Obama says he wants a more methodical and restrained plan for budget-cutting and one that would necessitate an additional tax increase. GOP lawmakers and their leaders, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, for the most part have come together to oppose any new revenue measures.
Panetta last week said that the automatic cuts, known in Washington jargon as a sequester, would harm the readiness of U.S. fighting forces. And Kerry, less than a week into his new job, argued at the University of Virginia that the sequester could jeopardize America's standing in the world.
Duncan told reporters Thursday he was increasingly worried that deep spending cuts would harm students and teachers across the country, saying that "no one in their right mind would say this is good for kids or good for the country."
He also said that no one would have designed the automatic budget cuts on purpose.
LaHood, a Republican who served several terms in the House, joined White House press secretary Jay Carney in the briefing room to make an appeal Friday to the reporters gathered there.
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- 9805Oklahoma football: Sooners get pair of commitments | <urn:uuid:13b60a33-0322-4e8b-8beb-794d2fa4c818> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsok.com/obama-hill-must-make-right-decisions-on-cuts/article/feed/504586?custom_click=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952067 | 637 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Feb. 13, 2012
GILBERT, Ariz. – Cruise the tree-lined streets of Morrison Ranch with co-owner Howard Morrison, and he’ll likely tell you what crops grew here for generations before his family’s farms sprouted houses a few years ago.
And if he takes a short detour and stops next to his family’s four 80-foot-tall grain silos, Morrison can treat you to a short lesson in the history of his family’s farming in the East Valley. His grandfather, also named Howard, and then his father Marvin and uncle Kenneth have plowed this ground for cotton, corn and alfalfa east of Phoenix since the early 1930s. The new Morrison generation’s latest crops include neighborhoods.
Howard Morrison has many memories of growing up and working on the land surrounding his family’s grain silos. The silos – 80 feet high and in use until 2002 – are preserved as architectural centerpieces of Morrison Ranch. Copyright © photo by Mike Padgett
In March, the Morrison family plans to auction more of their farmland to homebuilders. The land to be sold is at the southeast corner of Recker and Elliot roads. A name for the new neighborhood is ready.
“This is where Elliot Groves will be, on this corn field that you see, 80 acres,” Morrison says from the driver’s seat of his Suburban. He grew up on this land.
Also this spring, possibly in March, Morrison expects an announcement for a multifamily development by P.B. Bell east of Recker and Elliot roads.
Crops give way to neighborhoods
Much has changed since the late 1990s when work first started on the 3,000-acre Morrison Ranch. For the next 15 years, homebuilders across the Valley saw annual increases in building permits and demand for new homes.
Then in about 2006, the homebuilding industry ran out of fuel. In most states, including Arizona, demand for new homes vaporized. Blame for the crashed economy and housing crisis was spread everywhere, from Wall Street to Main Street.
The financial pain was felt at all levels, from workers who lost their jobs, to cities, counties and states, which lost tax income from declining payroll, sales, property and corporate taxes. Many homebuilding companies went out of business or were merged into other corporations.
Those were painful years, Morrison says. “It was so crazy you couldn’t expect anything other than a crash. I mean a crash. We (the homebuilding industry) fell hard.”
At the metro Phoenix market’s peak in 2006, Morrison says, about 67,000 single-family home building permits were issued. Last year, there were maybe 7,000. A consensus of 13 metro Phoenix market analysts surveyed by Arizona State University estimates that 11,300 permits will be issued during 2012 and more than 18,000 permits in 2013.
Morrison says there were as many as 400 homebuilders, including many small mom-and-pop operations, during the high-octane years leading up to 2006. “Today, there are about 27 (builders) that are active,” he says.
Caution the new rule
Real estate analysts, after a few years of annual flubs in predicting a turnaround, in recent weeks began offering cautious estimates as to when (and how quickly) the stalled housing industry in metro Phoenix will rebound. They point to new and positive signs suggesting demand for new homes is returning.
Morrison turns his Suburban down a street lined with newer homes on large lots. Between the two one-way streets is a linear park about 40 feet wide. There is plenty of room for children and families to safely play football or enjoy picnics. The streets are lined with shade trees.
Before construction began, he says, “We’d be driving through an alfalfa field, Field 17.”
Despite operating in a struggling housing industry, Morrison Ranch in 2011 sold more homes than any other master-planned community of its type in Arizona and ranked 23rd in the nation. That announcement comes from John Burns Real Estate Consulting, a national housing analysis company in Irvine, Calif.
As farmers, the Morrison family knew they could coax higher yields from their fields by using improved farming methods.
In much the same way, the Morrisons held out for a better residential design in their planned community. They would sell land to builders if the builders’ designs set houses back from main arterials and included more shade trees, unique house plans, functional front porches, several miles of walking trails, and other family-friendly features.
Setting new houses in Morrison Ranch back from busy streets offers reduced traffic noise for homeowners as well as safer sidewalks. Copyright © photo by Mike Padgett
“We turned everything on its ear,” Morrison says. “Scott, my brother, likes to say, ‘You know, this isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but if this is what you want, this is the only place in Phoenix you’ll find it.’”
Reclaimed water for green space
The master plan includes using reclaimed water for green space. That design meant adding a second piping system throughout the community to handle the needed irrigation water for grassy areas and the forest of 28,000 trees planted so far.
In addition, homebuilders interested in buying Morrison land would have to agree to input from the Morrisons on the quality of housing. Some builders balked.
“We ran into a lot of skepticism,” Morrison says. “And a few of them (builders) went on down the street so they could do something else. Because what they wanted is, they wanted the land and then they wanted to do what they wanted on their own.”
“And we said, ‘No, this is what we’re going to do,” he says. “So we’ve always been slow and many have referred to us as stubborn. Hopefully not in character but stubborn in holding to our principles.
“The magic behind this wasn’t one thing,” Morrison continues. “The magic was putting all of these things together in one place.”
Stewardship of the land
Morrison credits much of the family’s success to Don Tompkins, the planner and “executive coach” the Morrisons recruited from Southern California.
Maybe it was their family’s stewardship of the land over three generations that fueled their dreams. Or maybe it was simply daring for a better design that pushed the Morrison family to set the community development bar a little higher.
So far, about 2,300 residences have been completed on 1,560 acres in Morrison Ranch.
Commercial space evolving
Also in the master plan are sites for retail, office and commercial space. The Arizona Farm Bureau recently moved its headquarters from a site near Sky Harbor International Airport into 50,000 square feet of new office space at Morrison Ranch.
Near the Arizona Farm Bureau is Lakeview Village, a 17-acre neighborhood shopping center anchored by a Bashas’ store at Higley and Eliott roads. Unlike most other corner centers, the exterior design of this shopping center offers unique facades for almost every store.
Morrison believes that the builders who win the land auction in March will begin adding streets, sidewalks, water lines and other utilities later this year. If demand for new homes increases in coming months, construction of homes in Elliot Groves could begin in 2013. It will be the first phase of the fifth neighborhood in Morrison Ranch.
The East Valley’s remaining farmland could vanish during the next wave or two of homebuilding. Already, plows and tractors are sitting idle longer. In the distance beyond the rusty plows are new homes. Copyright © photo by Mike Padgett
Farming chapter ending
Study the Morrison Ranch silos and it’s hard to avoid thinking about the years they were surrounded by hard work and family bonding.
The Morrisons once farmed more than 3,000 acres in the East Valley. They still operate a dairy, Arizona Dairy Co., in east Mesa. They also have a large ranch, Windmill Ranch, in Verde Valley.
The Morrison family’s influence stretches beyond agriculture. Howard’s parents, Marvin and June Morrison, became the benefactors of Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy. It was founded in 1982. Marvin Morrison died in 2007 at the age of 83.
The family name also graces the Morrison School of Agribusiness and Resource Management, a part of the W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU.
Writer’s note: I grew up in another state caring for my family’s cattle and horses, and I worked part time on neighbors’ farms. My formative years were filled with repairing barbed wire fences, milking cows (by hand), feeding and vaccinating cattle, irrigation chores and driving farm equipment. After graduation from high school, I enlisted in the military. It was the Vietnam era. Today, I watch economics at work as Arizona farms evolve into homes, schools, grocery stores and high-tech centers.
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(Ideas for interesting news stories about Arizona residents and businesses are welcome. Please send ideas and suggestions to [email protected].) | <urn:uuid:1536bf0e-e392-40be-ad44-a2cba966e7e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arizonanotebook.com/legacy-of-long-time-farming-family-includes-new-homes-with-unique-designs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963458 | 2,111 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Over and Out!: 2 Great Obstacle Courses
You don't need a sunny day to create an obstacle course. This one works just fine in the living room. Once you've set it up, make sure to demonstrate it at least once before giving your kid a crack at it. Keep in mind that you'll likely need to shout out reminders for the sections, since it will probably be too difficult for your child to remember the entire set of directions. Below is a sample course. If you don't have one of the items listed, feel free to substitute something else!
What You Need:
- A gang of energetic kids — 4 or more is ideal
- Obstacles! These can be anything from furniture to toys to sports equipment. See the instructions below for inspiration. | <urn:uuid:9a06c41c-2ace-490b-bce8-1f10138d7d6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.education.com/activity/article/overandout_preschool/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951931 | 158 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Grace emailed me almost immediately after I put out the question question and she's definitely been patient with me, so I think we should start with her query. Or queries, she actually had two. One was how to make puff sleeves and the other was about making a designing a circle yoke. To simply, I'll break them up into two posts.
Grace claims to be a novice sewer, at least on the garment end of things, and has a 10 month old baby girl, which explains the puff sleeve maddness. Puff sleeves, after my inital exploration of them, turns out to be my not so favorite thing to do. Maybe it's because I can not gather them with my favorite method (with clear elastic) and either must pull a gather on the serger (try to adjust your differencial feed as you serge the edge of the sleeve to gather up the appropriate portion) or with ye ol' baste and pull method (shutter, but most likely the best method for a small gather).
I know Grace you said you're not into patterns, but I'm going to show you how to adjust an 'easy' basic pattern (try New Look or Simplicity) with sleeves into the puff sleeve variety. This way you can make the pattern as is, getting the hang of its assembly, then have a go at the puff sleeves, learning a lot about how patterns are altered to create different looks and some simple gathering. The method is similar to adding gathers to pattern pieces, discussed here.
You've got your basic sleeve pattern piece, that you have traced onto a seperate sheet of tissue or regular paper from your pattern:
Use a ruler and pencil to divide the sleeve into four pieces, by drawing a straight line down from the top (often the top of the pattern piece isn't the the top of the arc, since the shoulder rolls forward slightly - use the top of the piece as indicated on the pattern piece if it is marked), and two more on either side as shown here:
Cut along the lines. Place your pattern pieces in their appropriate alignment onto another sheet of paper. Fan out the top pieces, while keeping the bottoms together. This is how you are going to get the extra fabric for the 'puff' part of the sleeve.Tape down the sleeve in the new orientation. With your pencil, redraw the top of the sleeve (use a french curve square if you've got one for smooth lines). The outside pieces will naturally lead you into a higher curve on the top. Go with it, using the original pieces as a curve guideline.
Cut out the new piece. When you sew in you sleeve, first gather between the two outside cut pieces until the gather is the same size as the armhole (use the original sleeve piece as a guide if it is helpful.)That will give you adequate puff, Grace, I believe.
Before I go, I would like to mention to new sewers that I tried very hard to use patterns when I first started out and failed miserably. I also found tutorials difficult to follow (too many words!) Still, patterns are still incredibly helpful when learning how a garment is created, what the various pieces look like, and how they are put together. I suggest to try a few, but before you buy one, look for the 'easy' varieties (which aren't actually any easier, but contain more explicit instructions) and open up the pattern in the store (ignoring the evil looks the notions sales associate will be giving you - actually, send you kids over to the zipper section, that'll give her something real to worry about) and check out the illustrations. Most of us are visual when putting together pattern. There has been many people who say they only look at illustrations on my tutorials and never read the instructions (can't say I blame them ;D). So, check out the pictures, see if you can understand what's going on there, before you take the pattern home. This should help lower the frustration level.
This is a free tutorial and I encourage you to use the information in any way you need to (check the disclaimer at the bottom of the page). If it works for you, please consider supporting my etsy shop by purchasing a Little Print Design pattern or toss a dollar or two in my paypal to show appreciation and to encourage me to offer up even more quality patterns and tutorials.
Questions about the Donation? FAQ here. | <urn:uuid:d432e7be-b40d-4362-9412-41e5cbf22025> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indietutes.blogspot.com/2009/08/pufffing-of-sleeves.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954018 | 908 | 1.53125 | 2 |
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Wed December 21, 2011
Mood In North Korean Capital Is 'Subdued But Calm,' U.K. Diplomat Says
While North Koreans in Pyongyang are "in a state of mourning and ... paying their respects at landmarks across the city," the overall mood is "subdued but calm" as people there react to Saturday's death of leader Kim Jong Il and the likelihood that his son Kim Jong Un is now in charge, according to one of Britain's diplomats in the capital city.
The Los Angeles Times reports this morning that those comments from Barnaby Jones, first secretary at Britain's embassy in Pyongyang, are the first such report from a diplomat "with a bird's-eye view of Pyongyang in the days after the death of Kim Jong Il."
The Korea Herald adds that Jones, in a telephone conversation with reporters, also said:
"In terms of what we have seen on the streets we have seen groups of schoolchildren going to and from locations where they have been standing in front of monuments or murals of Kim Il-sung or Kim Jong-il, as well as other groups of people. At the biggest monuments or the biggest locations where people can stand those groups get much, much larger.
"In most places across the city I would say that we are not seeing crowds, we are seeing large groups and it is all very orderly."
His descriptions conflict somewhat with the tone of reports and images being distributed by North Korea's official news agencies, which have described and shown weeping and anguished people. Whether such reports are in fact true and whether any such displays of emotion are in fact genuine are uncertain, however, in a police state such as North Korea.
Jones also told reporters that Kim Jong Un had been receiving visits from foreign diplomats. The BBC says hat would seem to confirm "that he is indeed now in charge."
Meanwhile, South Korea's Yonhap News reports that a group of North Korean defectors in Paju, South Korea, "launched balloons carrying leaflets into the North on Wednesday, criticizing a power succession in the communist country after the death of its leader last week. ... Some 50 members of an emergency committee comprising 37 of the country's human rights groups for North Korean defectors launched 10 balloons carrying millions of anti-North Korean leaflets from Imjingak pavilion just south of the inter-Korean border." | <urn:uuid:60cc2ce2-c7b4-48b5-afad-a40890a5b741> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whqr.org/post/mood-north-korean-capital-subdued-calm-uk-diplomat-says | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966164 | 486 | 1.8125 | 2 |
That is the philosophy of women in our culture today. Most of us have never even questioned it. And I have to completely agree that in the workplace – YES, respect must be earned by both men and women. My issue is that we have taken what is necessary in the workplace and adapted it to marriage in some detrimental ways.
WE ARE ALL ABOUT UNCONDITIONAL LOVE IN MARRIAGE
I find it fascinating that we as women are completely fine with expecting our men to love us unconditionally. We will stand for nothing less than being loved all the time – even when we don’t deserve it. But we (myself in the past included) choke on the idea of giving unconditional respect to our husbands. This is UNFAIR, ladies!
I guess we think they need love the same way we do and that marriage is all about love and not as much about respect. I was sure wrong on that one!
What if men decided across our entire culture that they would only love us if we earn their love. What if they said we had to always be in a good mood, never cry, never be upset, always look nice, always have the house perfectly clean, bring home a certain paycheck every month, have the children completely well-behaved at all times, be enthusiastic about sex every day, always have a gourmet dinner on the table at a certain time, dress a certain way, talk a certain way - always give them exactly what they want every minute of every day - and THEN they would love us.
We would be OUTRAGED! We would say, “He should ALWAYS love me no matter what!! He’s my HUSBAND! He is SUPPOSED to love me!”
We want love even when (maybe ESPECIALLY WHEN) we are tired, grumpy, hormonal, irritable, hostile, hateful, sinful, pregnant, sick, menopausal, mean, accusatory, disrespectful and unloving. We want our men to fall at our feet and cater to our every desire and love, adore and cherish us every minute.
How would women react if men tried to erase the concept of love from our society and marriages? I’m thinking there would be RIOTS in the streets! We would NOT stand for that! We NEED love! What is marriage for if not for us to feel loved?
Our husbands NEED respect. What is marriage for (in their view) if they don’t feel respected? What must it be like for men to have a deep God-created masculine need for respect in marriage and yet live in a society where respect has been almost wiped out of our collective consciousness?
I think God designed marriage to be very nicely balanced. Obviously men and women would both prefer to have both love AND respect from a spouse. That is how things should be. But, women tend to be great at giving love and not always as good with respect. Men tend to be great at giving respect and not always as good at giving love. God made women to need love. God made men to need respect. It’s very fair and balanced. We both have to stretch and grow beyond our own comfort zone to meet the needs of the other. This causes men and women to have to become more holy, to have to depend on God and have the help of His Spirit to make marriage work.
LET’S EVEN THINGS UP, LADIES!
The truth is that even though it’s not politically correct to say this - our husbands NEED our respect even when they don’t deserve it. They may even need it most when they least deserve it. Many of them will never ask for it. Some of them might try to demand it. Our respect is electric to them – it is what motivates them to love us and it is what motivates them to become better men in every area of life. If we withhold our respect, they are going to have a VERY hard time loving us – unless they are Spirit-filled, extremely mature believers. (Of course, if they are that godly, they’ll be pretty easy to respect!) Our respect and admiration is what turns ordinary guys into amazing heroes. Our faith and belief in our husbands, despite their failures, is what inspires them to soar and become more than they ever imagined they could be.
Our husbands do things that do not deserve respect. Yes. That is always true. And God does not call us to respect sin. Just like God does not call our husbands to love our sin. They are sinners, and they mess up daily. We also do things as wives that do not deserve love. We are sinners and we mess up daily, too.
We can look for what IS good in them and praise that. We can stop focusing on the negative things. (Yes there are times we must firmly, lovingly confront sin – but hopefully that is a fairly rare occurence.) We can build up the things we see that are godly. Every man has some good qualities in him. We can choose to focus on the good and affirm and build up our men or we can completely destroy them with our contempt, disdain and judgmental, critical spirits.
I DON’T WANT TO!
We may not like the fact that God commands us to respect our husbands and to follow their leadership (Ephesians 5:22-33), but that is how marriage works – it is God’s wise design.
If I decide I prefer to use apple juice as fuel for my mini-van, I am going to get some pretty miserable results when I try to start the car. The manufacturer made my car to need gasoline. When I obey the manufacturer’s instructions, things work beautifully. I turn the key and the car starts. I press the gas and the car goes.
If I decide I prefer to motivate my husband to love me with nagging, complaining, demanding, arguing, or something instead of respect – I am going to get some pretty miserable results, too. Husbands do not feel loved if they feel disrespected. And there are many things we do that smack of disrespect that we don’t even notice! Much of it is unintentional, but it still hurts and wounds our husbands. They may never say anything about it – they may just pull away and unplug and not open up to us anymore, or they might get very angry.
When I obey God’s instructions for me as a wife – my marriage purrs and roars to life the way God designed it to – even if I don’t understand why.
THE TIME FOR DISRESPECT
The main time to consider whether you can TRULY respect a guy and live with him even if he never changed at all is BEFORE you marry him. PLEASE understand that your love won’t change a man. You cannot change anyone but yourself. BEFORE marriage, you should have eyes wide open to this guy’s character, godliness, his walk with Christ, his habits, his faults, his weaknesses, his idols, his sin - you should see the negatives before you commit to him. Marriage will magnify his sin and yours. And parenting will magnify it even more. God can use this refining process to cleanse us and make us more like Christ if we let Him.
Once you are married - it is your God-ordained job to show respect to this guy, to build him up, to treat him well, to find the good in him, to forgive him, to be a godly wife to him even when he fails you. You are going to be held accountable by God for this!
Humbly ask your husband some things this week and be ready to prayerfully consider his answers – see if there are things God wants to change in you:
- What makes you feel very respected in our marriage?
- What makes you feel disrespected?
- How respected have you been feeling lately at home? | <urn:uuid:ed93f163-fc1a-45df-aaa5-17f662a32f8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://peacefulwife.com/2012/06/10/he-has-to-earn-my-respect/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974019 | 1,650 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Introduction to a Prayer
Two years ago I was listening to events as they were unfolding in troubled areas of our beloved country. There was loss of property and life. Our young, brave soldiers cut down in their youth defending this precious land.
With a sense of frustration I sat down and thought if only I could compose a prayer that I could offer to G-d. I didn’t know how to begin. But then I adopted the opening which initiates many prayers. I think it’s a prayer that can be said anywhere at any time of day. A prayer to be said by the young and the old.
I was at the Kotel the 2nd day of Rosh Chodesh Elul. The beginning of this new month, which precedes the New Year in Tishri, brought many people to the site. I stood behind women fervently praying, their faces pressed against the ancient stones. I was furtively looking for a crevice suitable to insert my five “kvitlin” (notes asking for G-d's intervention and blessing) for my friends. There were a great many such notes...but at last I elbowed my way through and inserted them suitably.
It would be wonderful if people were inspired to recite the prayer “A Prayer for our Time” at the Kotel during these holy days. Also people might like to add expressions of their own which would make the prayer even more meaningful and personal.
We should all be blessed for a Good, Healthy New Year!
A Prayer for our Time
We are standing before You, G-d of Abraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov as we once stood at the foot of Your holy mountain, Sinai. There You revealed Yourself as we stood in awe and trepidation to receive our most precious gift of all, the Ten Commandments by the hand of Moshe Rebeinu, Your chosen prophet.
We entered into a holy covenant affirming that You are our One And True G-d forever, for all time and to keep Your laws… as the earth trembled beneath our feet.
You have performed miracles in the past and present. No act is difficult for You to accomplish. There are those who wish to weaken and diminish us, to push us over the abyss. Their thoughts turn against us as they plot and scheme to achieve their purposes. Enter the portals of their minds to change their decisions for the good. Reveal to them that there is nothing greater in the universe than love, compassion and understanding. Keep our leaders strong in their faith and true to our cause.
from the September 2010 High Holyday Edition of the Jewish Magazine | <urn:uuid:576a2554-95ff-483e-89b5-60afb3a68866> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishmag.co.il/147mag/kotel_prayer/kotel_prayer.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974296 | 549 | 1.796875 | 2 |
More than my diagnosis – Youth and IBD
Written by Alyssa Zeldenrust, a 22-year-old Crohn’s patient, political science student and passionate blogger
My name is Alyssa Zeldenrust and my guts have been misbehaving since 2003, when I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. I am 22 years old and have had a permanent ileostomy since 2010.
My declaration: I am more than my disease! I am a Christian. I am a student. I am a lover of the earth, art, good food and good company. I love fighting pain and injustice with compassion. I am a hugger. I choose to have these statements to define who I am beyond my diagnosis.
I am empowered to manage my health, fight the stigma of gut disease and become a patient advocate because I have embraced a powerful community of empathetic friends. My exploration of the Crohn’s and colitis community yields new discoveries every year and my fabulous “gut buddies” are a welcome refuge from a world full of people who just don’t understand our health issues.
Since my diagnosis, life has been all kinds of crazy, which is why I got involved in various CCFA programs almost immediately. I have participated in Take Steps walks, Camp Oasis, and the annual Educational Symposium in Chicago. Whether you’re newly diagnosed or a veteran, I encourage you to take full advantage of everything this organization has to offer!
If you want to get involved, but don’t know where to start, you can browse the major events listed on this site or talk to your local CCFA chapter about upcoming opportunities. My chapter has a Facebook page where they post updates about local events and volunteer requests, so I always know what’s going on.
Fundraising events are fun, but they also provide an opportunity to educate your family, friends, classmates, and teachers about IBD. The Educational Symposium is a great place to pick up new information, swap stories, and check out new products.
My absolute favorite way to get involved in the IBD community is Camp Oasis. I went to the camp in Waupaca as a camper and as a junior counselor 6 years ago and I still keep in touch with my camp friends.
Aside from camp, I have met most of my IBD friends online through blogs and Facebook groups. In addition to sharing words of encouragement during rough times, we all understand each other.
My dear friends have taught me that you can offer and receive support no matter what physical or emotional issues trouble you. One of my personal aspirations is to use my voice for the benefit of people like me. My current focus is sharing information with others in order to combat the isolation we often feel.
I want everyone to know that they are not alone, and that they are more than their diagnosis.
Please visit my blog: http://loveformutantguts.wordpress.com/.
For further information, call CCFA at our Information Resource Center: 888.MY.GUT.PAIN (888.694.8872).
The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America provides information for educational purposes only. We encourage you to review this educational material with your health care professional. The Foundation does not provide medical or other health care opinions or services. The inclusion of another organization’s resources or referral to another organization does not represent an endorsement of a particular individual, group, company or product.
About this resource
Published: June 1, 2012 | <urn:uuid:82ddf5ee-8bd5-47d7-9c6b-dfddfce7a9b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ccfa.org/resources/more-than-my-diagnosis-youth-and-ibd.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943052 | 742 | 1.554688 | 2 |
What If the Kid I'm Babysitting Cries When His Parents Leave?
I took a babysitting course and I'll be babysitting my little cousin. But I'm afraid he will be sad and start screaming as soon as his parents walk out the door. What should I do if this happens? - Rosario*
Young kids can get something called separation anxiety when a parent leaves. This usually doesn't happen until a child is at least 6 months old and it can last until the child is around 2 years old. Separation anxiety happens because kids worry that a parent who is leaving might not come back.
Separation anxiety is a normal stage in a child's learning and development. It shows the child is advancing enough to grasp that mom or dad has gone away. But since little kids don't have a good concept of time, they don't understand if or when mommy or daddy will come back.
A child's worry at this stage is all about the person who is leaving, not the person who will be looking after them. So it's not a reflection on your skills as a babysitter. Still, it can be upsetting for a new babysitter to have a child start crying right away. The good news is, separation anxiety usually passes after a few minutes. Once you've been babysitting for a while, you will get used to it.
Here's what to do: If your cousin cries, soothe him for a minute after his parents leave. Then, even if he's still crying, try to distract him with an activity, toy, songs, games, or anything else that's fun. You may have to keep trying until something just clicks with the child.
Try not to mention mommy or daddy to your cousin, but do answer any questions about his parents in a simple and straightforward way. So if he asks, you might say: "Daddy [or Mommy] is going to be back as soon as he [she] is done running errands. Let's play with some toys!"
Of course, kids might not cry at all when their parents leave, especially if they're with someone who's been babysitting them regularly. It all depends on the age of the child and what kind of mood he or she is in at the time. A kid who is tired or hungry may be more likely to cry than a child who isn't. | <urn:uuid:e386d4a1-8ec8-41c4-a9cb-dd65393adc90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?dn=Nemours&lic=60&cat_id=20646&article_set=79711&ps=204 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980362 | 486 | 1.742188 | 2 |
May 18, 2012
Hillsborough County Libraries Receive Award For Youth & Homeschool Programs
Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System representatives Tanci Mishler (left) and Michelle Michaud (right) accepted the 2012 Betty Davis Miller Youth Services Award from the Florida Library Association for the libraries’ outstanding children’s programs for homeschooling families.
As the number of homeschooled children in the county grows, so does the demand for the necessary resources.
Recognizing this need, libraries became a source of information and research, leading to the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System’s recognition by the Florida Library Association (FLA).
Last month, the FLA presented the county with the 2012 Betty Davis Miller Youth Services Award for the libraries’ outstanding children’s programs.
According to Hillsborough County spokesperson Jennifer Hall, the award was part of the FLA’s annual conference in Orlando, and said that the FLA were impressed provided to local homeschooled students.
“Our libraries are major resources for students especially for the homeschooling families, so it is great to be recognized and hear that our programs help making a difference in our student’s lives,” Hall said.
The variety of homeschool programs included science topics for children ages 5-11, including observation, hypothesis and theory, moon and stars, gravity, properties of matter, plate tectonics, magnets, electrical circuits, robotics and tornadoes.
Consumer science programs for children ages 12 and up covered the topics of money and budgeting, banking and loans, career planning, leadership and nutrition and wellness.
The programs held at the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library, Riverview Branch Library, Seffner-Mango Branch Library, SouthShore Regional Library and Thonotosassa Branch Library are open to anyone who wanted to participate and included a short presentation on a learning topic, followed by hands-on experiments and activities.
Books on the topics were available for checkout at the end of each program, and handouts were available for follow-up at home.
Honored to receive the Betty Davis Miller Award, Hillsborough County’s Manager of Library Programming, Linda Gillon, said, “We are pleased to serve all local kids with educational and fun programs, and hope that these serve as inspiration for other library systems.”
For more information, call 273-3652. | <urn:uuid:31fedaf4-e48d-482e-ac8e-383a781aa899> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ospreyobserver.com/2012/05/hillsborough-county-libraries-receive-award-for-youth-homeschool-programs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938454 | 504 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Joy of a New Home for Earthquake-Affected Kiwi Families
HFH New Zealand also targets to repair 50 houses damaged by Christchurch earthquake
The Hyett family (top) and the Pollard family (center) at house dedications. Habitat volunteers (bottom) from Canada and the U.S. helped to build the houses.
CHRISTCHURCH, 29 November 2012: Two families affected by the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch can look forward to spending Christmas in their very own homes.
The first two houses to be completed under Habitat for Humanity New Zealand’s rebuilding project were dedicated in late September.
Construction on the houses in Kaiapoi, north of Christchurch, began in May with the help of more than 20 Habitat volunteers from Canada and the United States.
Richard and Miriam Hyett and their three teenaged sons had to live in a houseboat at a local beach after several post-earthquake moves. In an article published on a New Zealand news website, Richard Hyett said: “The chance to get back into a house is a great feeling. When people come together, good things come from it. You hear about so much pain and suffering, so it’s great to have a happy ending.”
The Pollard family, Hamish and Angela and their six children, had been living in a tent at a camping ground after losing their rented home.
Nearly 20 months after the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, Habitat for Humanity New Zealand has reaffirmed its commitment to help for as long as possible. Habitat responded quickly after the disaster, working with the local government, other non-governmental organizations and local churches to help affected families.
HFH New Zealand has repaired more than 30 damaged homes with the help of international volunteers from as far as Germany and The Netherlands and local volunteers.
Check out more updates on HFH New Zealand’s Facebook page. | <urn:uuid:b8b492e7-dfbc-48ee-9d09-3f6ed46f27b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.habitat.org/asiapacific/news/2012/11_29_2012_joy_for_kiwi_earthquake_hit_families.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967744 | 400 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Caltrans to begin removing trees at Highway 101 intersection in Petaluma
Published: Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 12:13 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 12:13 p.m.
Caltrans will begin removing trees along Highway 101 and Lakeville Highway on Saturday to clear the way for a sound wall and interchange improvements.
The work, which will be done at night and take two weeks, is part of the Highway 101 widening project that will add additional lanes through the Novato Narrows.
It will require the closing of the northbound on-ramp at Lakeville Highway from 7 p.m. to midnight each night.
One northbound lane of Highway 101 also will be closed from 6:30 p.m. to midnight on weekends and from 8 p.m. to midnight on weeknights.
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Submit your area events to encourage others in your community to attend. | <urn:uuid:9da21e1c-a63e-4e88-a2a1-9ed317daedb6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20130207/COMMUNITY/130209652/0/APA?Title=Caltrans-to-begin-removing-trees-at-Highway-101-intersection-in-Petaluma- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931247 | 309 | 1.507813 | 2 |
DENVER (AP) — It's settled. Pot is legal in Washington and Colorado. But how much is too much to drive?
That's what officials are trying to figure out, and it isn't as easy as measuring a driver's blood alcohol content.
Marijuana stays in the system long after its side effects wear off. And there is no widely available test to determine whether someone is driving while impaired.
Lawmakers in Colorado, which also allows medical marijuana, have failed to set a driving limit for THC — the psychoactive chemical in marijuana. They say they'll try again next year.
Washington's marijuana law sets a driving-while-intoxicated limit for THC. But that standard already is being criticized as arbitrary. | <urn:uuid:9b2003c7-f1c1-49bc-89e0-f7f9acfa1581> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/apexchange/2012/11/15/us--legal-marijuana-driving.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978266 | 150 | 1.546875 | 2 |
48 U.S. 646
7 How. 646
12 L.Ed. 855
WILLIAM AND FRANCIS SADLER, COMPLAINANTS,
THOMAS B. HOOVER, SYLVANUS CHAMBERS, AND SAMUEL H.
DINKINS, PARTNERS BY THE STYLE OF THOMAS B.
HOOVER AND COMPANY.
January Term, 1849
THIS case came up, on a certificate of division, from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Mississippi.
The following is the statement of facts agreed upon in the court below, by the counsel for the respective parties, and sent up with the record.
'WM. SADLER and FRANCIS SADLER,
THOMAS B. HOOVER and others.
'In the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Mississippi.
'The bill states that at May term, 1839, of the Circuit Court, the defendants, Thomas B. Hoover & Co., recovered judgment against them, and one Francis Ross, their surety, for $3,501.84 debt, and $383.65 damages, with interest thereon from the 17th of May, 1839, and costs of suit; and at the same term, another judgment against them, and one W. D. Henry, as their surety, for $7,881.66, with interest from the 17th of May, 1839, and costs of suit. That executions issued on said judgments, and forthcoming bonds have been given with one Robert Ridley, as security in each case, and that said bonds were returned forfeited to the November term, 1839, and executions about to issue thereon; that the instruments of writing on which these judgments are founded were given by complainants, in consideration of certain slaves sold by the firm of Thomas B. Hoover & Co. to them, on the 28th of October, 1836, and for which bills of sale were given; that complainants feel themselves greatly aggrieved by the conduct of Thomas B. Hoover & Co.; that they had an understanding with Hoover, by which they might have been relieved from the contract, but which was not reduced to writing with other parts of the contract, and complainants have thus been deprived of its benefit, and will be greatly injured if relief is not afforded to them on the grounds hereafter stated.
'The complainants allege that the said slaves were introduced into this State by the said Thomas B. Hoover, for himself and partners, but a few weeks previous to such sale, as merchandise, and for sale, without any certificate of character, and were sold without any record of certificate, contrary to the constitution and laws of the State of Mississippi; and that the causes of action, on which the said judgments are rendered, were given in direct exchange for said slaves. That complainants have been advised that this court will interfere to prevent the collection of these judgments if they will submit to act rightly, and not use the occasion to act fraudulently and unjustly. On this principle of equity, complainants submit to a rescission of the contract, offer to deliver up to defendants all the said negroes now alive, and to account for the hire of them, including, also, their increase, and to perform whatever they may be required by the court.
'Complainants aver that they were prevented from making this defence at law, by advice of counsel, on account of decisions adverse to it previously made by this court and the Circuit Courts of the State of Mississippi; and the current of decisions to this effect was not broken into until the decision of this court, at the late November term, (1839,) and until then complainants supposed they were not entitled to relief on this ground, and under this belief they entered into forthcoming bonds. That defendants, Hoover & Co., are unwilling to rescind said contract, and are about to enforce the collection of said judgments. The bill prays process, and a perpetual injunction against the judgments.
'On application to the district judge, he granted a fiat for an injunction on the 4th of January, 1840, and injunction was issued accordingly.
'Previous to the May term, 1840, the defendants, Thomas B. Hoover, Samuel H. Dinkins, and Sylvanus Chambers, members of the firm of Thomas B. Hoover & Co., answered.
'Thomas B. Hoover, in his answer, admits that, as a member of said firm, and on its behalf, a few weeks previous to the sale, he introduced into the State of Mississippi, as merchandise, and for sale, a number of slaves, without any certificate of character, or record of the same, and that he sold the slaves named in the bill to the complainants, and took their bill of exchange and note therefor, on which the said judgments were rendered. He denies, positively, any arrangement or understanding between him and complainants, by which they were to be relieved from their contract; that although these slaves were introduced for sale, the defendant insists on the validity of the contract; that even regarding the contract as illegal, the complainants having failed to make this defence on the trials at law, they are now precluded from availing themselves of this ground of relief in chancery; especially that complainants have given forthcoming bonds on which judgments have been rendered.
'As to complainants' offer to rescind the contract and to restore the slaves, this defendant states, that, on a dissolution of the partnership, he transferred the liabilities of complainants to his copartners; he has, therefore, no control of the judgments; that having made the contract of sale, he can state positively that no fraud or imposition of any kind was practised on complainants; that the contract was fair and honest on his part; that the negroes were, as he believes, sound and healthy, and were sold at the customary prices.
'Samuel H. Dinkins, in his answer, admits that he was a member of the firm of Thomas B. Hoover & Co. He knows nothing personally of the sale of the slaves, and on this point refers to the answer of Thomas B. Hoover, the trading partner. He admits, however, that the slaves were sold to complainants; that, after litigation on the instruments given for them, judgments were rendered against complainants for the sums agreed to be given. He insists on the legality and validity of the contract, and that the complainants, having failed to make this defence at law, cannot now avail themselves of it as a ground of relief. He rejects the offer of the bill to rescind the contract, as being manifestly unjust, since the great change in the value of this property, and because the complainants do not offer to account for the value of three slaves since dead.
'Sylvanus Chambers states in his answer, that, as to the introduction of the negroes into Mississippi, and their sale, he knows nothing personally. He insists on the validity of the contract, and that, whether originally legal or not, complainants cannot now avail themselves of this ground for relief, having failed to set it up as a defence at law. He rejects, also, the proposition to rescind the contract, for the reasons stated in the preceding answer, and insists that, as the contract was fairly entered into, without any wilful intent to violate the laws of Mississippi, should the court decree it to be void, he and his partners should be compensated also for the value of the three dead slaves, as there is no allegation of their unsoundness; and especially, as he charges, that they died from the cruel treatment of the complainants.
'At May term, 1840, a motion was made, on the part of defendants, to dissolve the injunction, which motion was afterwards overruled.
'At the May term, 1844, the cause came to a hearing on bill, answers, and replication, before their Honors, Peter V. Daniel, and Samuel J. Gholson, judges. And the court not being able to agree in opinion, one of the said judges being of opinion that a decree should be rendered for the complainants, and the other that a decree should be rendered for the defendants, it was ordered, at the request of counsel on both sides, that this difference of opinion be certified to the Supreme Court of the United States for their decision.
'The foregoing is a correct abstract of the material facts in the above-stated cause.
'LEA & LEA, Complainants' Sol.
W. R. HILL, Defendants' Sol.
'January 8, 1845.'
The case was argued (in print) by Mr. Hill, for the defendants, but the question of the jurisdiction of this court was not raised, and it is deemed unnecessary to insert the argument of the main point in the case.
Mr. Chief Justice TANEY delivered the opinion of the court.
This case comes before us on a certificate of division. But, upon inspecting the record, it appears that the particular point or points upon which the justices of the Circuit Court differed in opinion are not distinctly stated; and the case must therefore be dismissed for want of jurisdiction.
This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Mississippi, and on the point and question on which the judges of the said Circuit Court were opposed in opinion, and which was certified to this court for its opinion agreeably to the act of Congress in such case made and provided, and was argued by counsel. And it appearing to this court, upon an inspection of the said transcript that no point in the case, within the meaning of the act of Congress, has been certified to this court, it is thereupon now here ordered and decreed by this court, that this cause be and the same is hereby dismissed, and that this cause be and the same is hereby remanded to the said Circuit Court, to be proceeded in according to law. | <urn:uuid:d91d2605-c4bd-40c1-b4e9-f5b765fa3e29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://openjurist.org/48/us/646 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978958 | 2,085 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Plans for the International School of Nido de Águilas Theater and Scenic Arts complex
The Fine Arts Academy Complex project seeks to provide The International School Nido de Aguilas, with an emblematic building and a solid institutional image, that could bring together and articulate in one place, the different dispersed pieces that constitute the various existing buildings.
The project systematises the irregular shape of the terrain, with the work of two equilateral triangles that are defined in opposition to the fragmentary and random order of the school.
The Auditorium is the main reference of the group of buildings that make up the institution, constituted as a symbolic element that gives a recognisable image of the school building and an identity for the institution.
To carry out this commitment, it has been assigned a high value on the deck of the Theater, which will be central to the design and efforts were directed to make a surface based on a double-curved surface, coated in titanium.
A central element of the composition and applied technology have also been assigned to achieve a reading of great neatness and synthesis of form. Moreover, the application of a double-curved deck on a strictly triangular plan, in addition to formal power and roundness of the assembly, refers to its curvature - a sinuous seam with the topography of the foothills. Geography, landscape and topography that reject regular parallelepipeds and yet embrace this 'sculpted rock' from the vision of the foreshortening that generate triangular base and simultaneously, the variable reflecting the sky.
Finally, it articulates a dialogue between nature and the mountains, with an object-building, trying not avoid the artificial order to which it belongs, set clear and solidly through an elementary geometry. | <urn:uuid:d709a75d-1aa2-4465-8bf4-0511820a0c7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=13513 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941667 | 361 | 1.65625 | 2 |
AMERCIAN BEAUTY: The University of Washington is one of 31 institutions singled out on MSNBCs list of the most beautiful college campuses. Says MSNBC, “Americas most beautiful college campuses have the power not only to sway indecisive high school students, … but also to attract tourists. Their appeal comes through varying combinations of awe-inspiring architecture, landscaping, and surroundings. To choose among more than 2,600 four-year American colleges, we considered these three key factors as well as architects expert opinions.
A photo of the UW on the website was captioned as follows: “The eye-catching Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington’s Seattle campus has 35-foot-high stained-glass windows and elaborately gilded vaulted ceilings that soar 65 feet in the air. In the distance stands Mount Rainier.”
HAPPY FELLOW: Daniel Winterbottom, a professor of landscape architecture, has been named one of 40 new fellows by the American Society of Landscape Architecture. Fellowship recognizes contributions to both society and the profession over many years. Of the groups 16,000 members, 660 are fellows.
Winterbottom is known for therapeutic gardens. In the last several years, he and his students have created gardens in Guatemala, next to the largest garbage dump in Central America and in Seattle for military veterans in treatment at the Veterans Affairs Hospital and their families. Most recently, Winterbottom and his students created a series of therapeutic gardens for disabled children in Croatia. ASLA awarded the project a 2011 student award for community service.
GOLDEN CIRCLE: Landscape Architecture Chair Jeff Hou was one of three people receiving Golden Circle Awards from the Organization of Chinese Americans of Greater Seattle. The awards honor those who have made significant contributions to the social, political and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans. This years theme was Building Legacy, centering on community development. | <urn:uuid:1dedba5d-2430-4964-a9e4-92a10fc55eec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washington.edu/news/2011/10/05/etc-campus-news-notes-36/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952527 | 390 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Contributing Editor for The Master Skier
Steinar Mundal is a Level 4 coach in Norway. He has been a full time coach since 1992. He is the former head coach of the Canadian and Norwegian teams. He now coaches one of the top junior teams. He placed 25th in the Norwegian Championshipís 50 Km in 1978.
Classic technique has always been THE technique in Norway, and I still think this will be the situation for the near future.
Norway has many long, well prepared tracks for skiing long easy distance in classic style, but for skating that is not the situation.
Most of the skating courses are race courses and night loops with hard and steep uphills.
To be able to work on technique you need all kinds of terrain, but most of all you need to ski some long workouts in easy terrain.
I just came back from Val Senales, a glacier in Northern Italy, where all the best skiers in the world were training. Classic technique has changed quite a bit in the last few years and Iíve noted these latest innovations.
The main differences in classic technique are as follows:
2. Lower position.
3. Start the kick early.
4. Never stand up on a straight foot on the glide face.
5. The same angle for the upper body as the leg from the knee and down to the foot at the start position.
6. Very little rotation in the hip. You can see this in the best skiers from behind.
7. The upper body stays stable, not moving back with the kick, just let the knee bend a little bit more, so you can get a better and stronger kick.
All movements start in and around the hip, the mid-part of your body where you are strongest. All power should be used to bring you forward, not up and down.
Weight shift will come with keeping your upper body stable in a forward position. One good point on this is: Always keep you face in front of your knee. If you then also hang on your pole from the start, this will also help you get a good weight shift.
You have to decide how deep you will bend the knee following the kick and letting the hip go down.
This will vary with the terrain.
Make sure you do not reach too far with the arm before pole plant. The best in the world plant the poles with a bent arm, where you are strongest. Then you can lean on the arm and use the body weight to move forward.
The best also finish the pole push a lot earlier than before. You are not strong in a position where your arms are behind the body. That is just to loosen up the arm and shoulder, but with high speed you are not really strong with the arm almost straight.
That is also about speed and frequency. The kick should start with a little bend in the knee and your full weight on the glide ski.
A good point is to start the kick by using the hamstrings at the beginning, and then start to push.
I work with my provincial team, but also with Anders Aukland, Tore Bjonviken and Espen Bjervig, all of them on the national team. Itís possible you will see all three in Salt Lake.
For more articles like this one, subscribe today to The Master Skier. | <urn:uuid:2a133cfe-333e-4568-adb1-293890242bc9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.masterskier.com/article.asp?aid=102 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945982 | 691 | 1.570313 | 2 |
27 Mr Torao Wakamatsu, Japanese Consul-General in Sydney, to Mr J.A. Lyons, Prime Minister
Letter SYDNEY, 17 February 1939
I have the honour to bring under your notice certain events that have occurred recently and certain influences prevailing here, which are having a disturbing effect upon my functioning as a representative of a country in amicable relationship with the Commonwealth of Australia, and which may, if allowed to continue unchecked, give rise to fears as to the future relations of our two countries.
Quite recently-as you will see from a report entitled 'X39 DROPS MORE DARK HINTS', in the Sydney 'Sun' (Final Edition) of February 10th (cf. attached cutting No. 1) -an alleged threat to assassinate me was notified to the newspapers in Sydney on several occasions. Whilst I appreciate the fact that immediate steps were taken by the police authorities here to investigate the matter, as well as to afford me personal protection, for which I am grateful, and whilst the action may be proved to be the work of a fanatic, you will quite realise that, if such untoward incidents are to continue, I shall be placed in such a position that I shall find it difficult to fulfil with confidence and a sense of security my duty of fostering the friendly relations between Japan and Australia.
The most remarkable fact in connection with the above-mentioned incident is that the Sydney 'Daily News', in its issue of February 9th (cf. attached cutting No.
2), reported a conversation between myself and a member of its editorial staff which actually had at no time taken place. This may possibly be indicative of the origin of the whole affair, particularly in view of the entirely prejudiced manner in which this newspaper has, in the past, treated reports concerning Japan.
Furthermore, anti-Japanese feeling and Japanophobia have spread so widely among the Australian people-even among school children-that, according to the enclosed cuttings (Nos. 3 and 4) from the Sydney 'Daily Telegraph' of November 18th, 1938, a correspondent received an unanimous reply that 'Japan is Australia's greatest enemy', as one of the answers to a questionnaire put to school children in Sydney.
It seems to me quite evident that the state of affairs to which I have referred has been brought about by the various factors to be mentioned hereunder:
(1) The manner in which most of the newspapers in Australia have handled reports or articles concerning the Sino-Japanese conflict has been decidedly prejudiced. In most cases the only reports published by them have been those calculated to give readers an impression unreasonably unfavourable to Japan, while the tone of their leading articles has seemed intentionally biased. Furthermore, not only preposterous views of irresponsible persons, but also misleading or unfounded statements of certain responsible persons, have often been published, whilst most of the press, particularly the 'Sydney Morning Herald' and the 'Daily News', have been disinclined to print our statements refuting or criticising such misleading reports or statements.
(2) Certain newspapers have even gone to the extreme length of explicitly designating Japan as the potential enemy of Australia. For examples, I refer you to articles in the 'Daily News' of January 10th and 11th last, entitled, respectively, 'Snobs Reject Wharfinen' and 'Helping Japan against Britain' (cf. attached cuttings Nos. 5 and 6).
(3) At times, responsible Australian Ministers or Government officials-even those who are in charge of external affairs-have been reported in newspapers to have implied in their speeches or articles that Japan has aggressive designs on Australia: for example, The Right Honourable W.M. Hughes' broadcast address on 'Democracy and War'on January 22nd, 1939 , and Lt Col Hodgson's address to the Empire Parliamentary Association on December 1st, 1938 (cf. cuttings Nos. 7, 8 and 9 herewith).
(4) In schools, ill-feeling toward Japan is being instilled into the minds of the children either consciously or unconsciously. I cite the case where, according to information received by me, the following questions were put to a class of boys in a Sydney High School last winter:
(i) In case Japan comes to Australia in about 15 years' time, should Australia defend herself mainly by naval force or aerial force? and (ii) Should Australia adopt conscription or voluntary military service to meet this emergency? (5) Among the cinema news-reels imported to Australia are some, such as the 'March of Time' series, which have been produced with the sole intention of stimulating ill-feeling against certain foreign countries by depicting scenes of alleged terrorism. In this connection I must specially mention that, when I imported from japan, last May, some news-reels concerning the Sino-Japanese hostilities, the Board of Censors in Sydney insisted that certain parts, showing the actual results of Chinese atrocities, be cut, whereas, in Melbourne, films imported by the Victorian section of the Australian League for Peace and Democracy, and showing alleged Japanese atrocities, were allowed last October to be shown after the scenes of the actual committal of the alleged brutalities had alone been deleted, the results of such alleged brutalities being permitted to be screened.
(6) Australian magazines, such as 'Pix', often contain photographs of alleged Japanese brutalities, some of which bear unmistakable evidences of having been forged. Even were they not forged, they should, for the sake of consistency, also be subject to censorship, as was the case with the cinema films imported by me. I refer you to the undermentioned issues of 'Pix'- May 21st, 1938 P. 3 September 17th, 1938 P. 22 December 10th, 1938 PP. 3/5 Further, foreign magazines, such as the American 'Ken' and 'Life', often contain photographs and articles of a nature similar to those in the above-mentioned 'Pix'. This type of publication also frequently contains cartoons of a type extremely disrespectful and even insulting to the Sovereign of a foreign country. In this connection I wish to emphasise that the fact that such cartoons are freely circulated among the Australian people is intolerable to Japanese subjects, who are traditionally loyal to, and hold in the highest esteem, their Imperial Family. For examples, I refer confidentially to 'Ken'- issues of April 21st, 1938 (p. 67), June 16th, 1938 (P. 53) and September 8th, 1938 (pp. 2012 1). Cartoons in the 'Daily News' of January 4th and 6th last were of a similar nature (cuttings Nos. 10 and 11).
Although control over speech, publications and education is generally a matter of domestic concern, in which I have naturally neither the right nor the intention to intervene, it comes within the range of international affairs when it affects international courtesy and the amicable relations between two nations.
Nevertheless, I have refrained from making any comment on the situation described above, lest 1, as the representative of a foreign country, should be involved in undesirable issues that might ensue and cause embarrassment to Governmental authorities concerned in this country, and, as a matter of fact, I have long hoped and expected that sound judgment would some day voluntarily prevail, or be advocated by the Governmental authorities, to arrest the development of such an undesirable state of affairs as above- mentioned. However, the further gradual aggravation of this tendency compels me to ask for your serious consideration of the matter.
At this point it will not be inopportune to mention that not only are the general public in Australia influenced by what appears in their newspapers, but also a number of Australian newspapers, including even the 'Daily News', are carefully read in certain of the Government Bureaux in Tokio, and the attitude of the Australian press as above-mentioned is having a disturbing effect. Further, the political and economic relations between Japan and Australia being an object of keen attention on the part of the Japanese people, such occurrences as I have referred to-in conjunction with events such as the anti- Japanese shipping boycott by Australian workers, the embargo on the export of iron ore from Australia, and the refusal by the State of New South Wales (cf. cuttings Nos. 12 and 13 attached) of the invitation issued by the Board of Tourist Industry, Department of Railways of the Japanese Government, to women High School teachers to visit Japan (although the States of Victoria and Queensland accepted the invitation) -are engendering a bitterness of feeling on the part of the Japanese people towards Australia.
In view of this deplorable situation, I cannot but be sincerely anxious about the future relations between our two countries, especially when I am reminded of the fact that the combined results of anti-Japanese education, propaganda and boycotting in China were the fundamental factors which led to the present Sino- Japanese hostilities.
It is for this reason that I am requesting you to be good enough to give serious consideration to the deplorable phenomena in the relations of our two countries, and their causes, and to take steps to correct such an undesirable trend of affairs, for the sake of the maintenance of friendship and the promotion of economic co-operation between Japan and Australia. | <urn:uuid:bb0f7a41-5125-4447-93db-b19249e6d9e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dfat.gov.au/publications/historical/volume-02/historical-document-02-27.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969927 | 1,905 | 1.640625 | 2 |
I am hoping to do something somehow to help prevent those one-way head-on collisions that seem to be happening more frequently. It seems that Route 8 is one of the worst offenders, followed by I-84.
What I think might help would be to have sensors on the exit ramps of the most common areas for head-on collisions. I am thinking that there must be a way to put a sensor on the exit ramp and have it notify the police when a vehicle is on there. Maybe even a camera. I do not know the cost of this idea. I do think that in our state, since we seem able to pull money out of the air, that this safety issue would be a concern for us all.
I am not sure how far these people go from when they get on, but if we can put some sort of sensor on those areas, and put up more lights on the entrance and exit ramps and the areas leading up to those points, I think that we might be able to prevent any number of accidents.
I haven't pulled any old newspaper articles yet to calculate it, but I am wondering if these accidents really are becoming more and more frequent, and if so, we need to do something about it.
Another recent one was on I-84; I believe it was one nun going home from somewhere and two young people were driving the wrong way on the highway, and hit the nun.
The nun was OK, but the driver of the other car died. It appalls me that in this state, we have the money to throw at a busway that no one wants and even fewer will use, when we could do something about an issue that can affect all of us. | <urn:uuid:a6d7b693-cd42-4805-b08a-fee6e806ddad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://woodbury-middlebury.patch.com/groups/suzanne-spinellis-blog/p/bp--wrong-way-drivers-what-can-we-do-about-it-i-have-an-idea | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98401 | 348 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Rules thus far:
- You can only link to a picture of a cow that you find. Don't post it in here as an image. I don't want to have to deal with loops and loops of cow sightings. "HERPADERP, I SAW A COW IN THIS FORUM POSTED IN THIS THREAD."
- No. Fatties do not count as cows. Fatties only count as cows if they are wearing cow pattern, have a cow on their clothes, or are actually dressed as a cow.
- Cows that you eat only count if it still resembles a cow.
- Bulls count, apparently. This might as well be "Daily Cattle Theory".
Cows seen so far:
- Cows for May 2011
This post has been edited by Kaxbe: 09 May 2011 - 07:56 PM | <urn:uuid:58b30002-4ded-43a7-987f-8dd43b44c86c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/forum/topic/1189-daily-cow-theory/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973847 | 179 | 1.617188 | 2 |
A storm over southwestern Mexico weakened further Saturday to a tropical depression, the National Hurricane Center said.
Carlotta was expected to continue to drench the area for another day or two, but all warnings and watches were discontinued.
The tropical depression was located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north-northeast of the resort town of Acapulco, the center said in its 11 a.m ET advisory.
It was moving toward the northwest at about 12 mph (19 kph), and the depression or its remnants would "meander" in the area for up to two days, the hurricane center said.
At least two children were killed when Carlotta slammed southern Mexico at hurricane strength, unleashing fierce winds and dumping intense rains over Oaxaca state.
The storm destroyed a clay house Friday night in Pluma Hidalgo, killing a 13-year-old girl and her 7-year-old sister, said Cynthia Tobar, a spokeswoman for Mexico's civil protection agency.
The girls' mother was seriously injured and taken to a hospital in the city of Huatulco, Tobar said.
According to preliminary reports, Carlotta ripped off the roofs of homes and caused widespread power outages and small landslides, Tobar said. Authorities will survey the area once daylight comes and and the weather conditions are favorable.
In the mountain community of Pluma Hidalgo, about 1,200 people are in shelters, Tobar said. Many more evacuated to stay with relatives or friends, she said.
Carlotta is expected to leave total rainfall accumulations of 4 to 8 inches through Monday over parts of southern Mexico, with as much as 15 inches of rain in isolated areas, the hurricane center said.
"These rains could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the hurricane center said. | <urn:uuid:32b62a35-ebd8-4bdc-9f08-82b42e473295> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ksat.com/news/Carlotta-weakens-to-tropical-depression-over-Mexican-mountains/-/478452/15128796/-/12qwmjz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969442 | 375 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Georgia legislators are wrapping up their work redrawing the state's political boundaries.
Redistricting is expected to be completed on Wednesday as the state Senate votes on a new congressional map that adds a 14th district in northeast Georgia. The House has already approved the map.
Gov. Nathan Deal has signed new state Senate and House maps. All the plans must be approved by either the U.S. Department of Justice or the federal courts under the Voting Rights Act.
Legislators have been at the state Capitol for a special session to redraw district lines to line up with new U.S. Census data.
It's the first time Republicans in the state have controlled reapportionment from start to finish. Democrats are expected to challenge the maps in court. | <urn:uuid:9e728c6e-56f0-4195-877e-9ce2bb56765b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gpb.org/news/2011/08/31/congressional-map-nears-approval | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954065 | 156 | 1.515625 | 2 |
India's interior minister says bomb explosions in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad have killed at least 11 and wounded about 50 people.
Federal Home Minister Sushil Shinde said the bombs were placed on bicycles and went off minutes apart in a crowded area of the city on February 21.
He was speaking to reporters in the Indian capital New Delhi.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the bombings "a dastardly attack," and vowed that the perpetrators would be punished.
He appealed to the public to remain calm and maintain peace.
Television channels said all major cities in the country were placed on high alert.
Hyderabad -- a city of 6.8 million people -- is one of southern India's main commercial hubs.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP | <urn:uuid:78be32e9-e01f-44fc-beec-d87f8c99dfc2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rferl.org/content/bomb-india-hyderabad/24909100.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977958 | 164 | 1.5 | 2 |
Cultural icon, Jackie Chan (成龍), is well known all over the world for his countless action movies. However, Jackie has reached this level of success at the expense of his family. Jackie has a reputation of being an absent father and husband, but remains unapologetic over his self-confessed chauvinistic views.
Does Not Celebrate Wife’s Birthday
Even when he is wrong, he will never apologize to his wife. “I am a chauvinist. I never remember my wife’s birthday. Once the annual birthday celebration tradition is started, she will expect you to celebrate it every year. If you never celebrate with her, she will be upset once or twice at most, but she will later get used to it.”
One time, Jackie broke his habit and organized a large birthday celebration for Joan. She was very happy, but Jackie asked her, “Do you want me to treat you nicely only on your birthday or do you prefer that I treat you well everyday of your life?” Of course, Joan chose the latter one.
Father and Son Relations
Jackie recalled how one year his son Jaycee Chan (房祖名) called him to wish him a Happy Father’s Day, but he scolded Jaycee instead. Jackie told him, “I am not into celebrating any holidays as we should be nice to each other and treasure our family everyday.” Jackie told his son to call him more often and not only on Father’s Day. Afterwards, Jaycee, who used to call him at least twice a year ended up not even calling him once a year.
After Jackie’s father die, Jackie never visited his father’s grave to pay respects. He also told Jaycee not to even bother to visit him in the cemetery, as long as his son is good to him while he is still alive. Jackie said there is no reason to offer (burn) any fake money to the dead. The person is gone and he or she is not going to be there to accept anything. Jackie believes that the most important value is to be filial to your parents while they are still alive.
No Money for Illegitimate Daughter
Contrary to his belief in treating his family well everyday, Jackie had an affair with actress, Elaine Ng (吳綺莉), which resulted in the birth of his illegitimate daughter, Etta, in 1999. Jackie explained that the reason for not leaving any money for Etta is that his will was written 15 years ago, before Etta’s birth. His will has not been changed since, thus it is not unusual for Etta to be left out of his will.
End of Dangerous Stunts
Avoiding further discussion about his illegitimate daughter, Jackie enthusiastically spoke about his upcoming movie, CZ12 <十二生肖> instead which he directed and starred in. This will be the last movie where he personally performs all of the dangerous stunts.
“I decided to film such an action-packed movie to leave a good ending to my career as an action hero, allowing me to become a legend,” Jackie revealed.
In an attempt to leave a lasting and memorable impression of his movie, Jackie appears in many difficult stunts in CZ12. He will roll down hills, escape from German shepherds, run on the top to a moving container truck, parachutes into a live volcano, and much more.
To surprise the audience, Jackie’s wife, Joan, also makes a cameo appearance at the end of the movie. It was not easy for Jackie to convince Joan to do so since she had retired from acting for thirty years. Jackie begged her many times and guaranteed that only her back profile is required, which will only last less than one second.
With her unwillingness to even show up in the studio, Jackie lied to Joan by convincing her to simply show up for casting, and after a few shots, her parts were already filmed.
Jackie seemed to like making his own rules.
Note: This article is written for JayneStars.com. DO NOT re-post this article on any other websites. No part of this article may be copied, reproduced, rearranged, redistributed, modified by any means or in any form whatsoever without prior written permission. You may use the content online and for your non-commercial, personal use only. Copying these materials for anything other than your personal use is a violation of copyright laws.
Should you wish to share this article, we recommend that you: (i) link directly to the article at JayneStars.com on your website; or (ii) share this article link via social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. | <urn:uuid:9f9101e3-1c03-4ffd-979c-491d22df2fdd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jaynestars.com/news/jackie-chan-reveals-controversial-family-values/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978947 | 991 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Commandeering Applications by Replicating APIs
One of the items Jesse directed my attention toward was the recent implementations of the Twitter API by three different sites: WordPress.com (the host of this blog), Tumblr (another popular blog hosting service), and identi.ca (a prominent Twitter alternative which has supported the Twitter API since 2008). By providing 100% API compatibility with Twitter, people can use any application built for Twitter with these other services (as long as the app allows you to modify the service URI/endpoint it uses). Because services survive or wither based on use, supporting a popular and relevant API can instantly yield a slew of applications to support users better. As a result of their work, WordPress.com has gained applications like the iPhone application Tweetie. Although many of the applications for Twitter currently do not allow you to modify the API endpoint (Tweetdeck, for example), most developers want more users, and API-level compatibility makes it short work for developers to support your service. I suspect that soon, nearly all applications created for Twitter will let you modify or add to the default API endpoint.
This got me to thinking about GroupWise, Novell’s strong alternative to Microsoft Exchange.
Novell: Align with Google for Developers
Novell GroupWise has a complete web API, and has for quite some time. Unfortunately, Novell seems to neglect developers these days–especially in their legacy products (as evidenced by GroupWise having only a SOAP API). Aside from their list of close partners, few developers use the GroupWise API.
Meanwhile, with Google’s enormous cachet with developers, numerous applications support Google’s collaboration-related APIs (such as Contacts). Perhaps even more importantly, developers can easily integrate Google’s API into new and existing apps through the numerous source code libraries available for Google’s various API’s (again, see Contacts, this time for the list of libs). Google’s Atom-based REST API’s are popular, well-understood, and widely used.
Consequently, Novell has an opportunity to serve their dwindling fan base better: replicate the Google API’s that are most relevant to GroupWise. Make it so that developers can easily adapt their apps to serve GroupWise, and so that end users can select from a wider assortment of 3rd party apps. This would give nothing over to Google that they don’t already have. It can only increase the relevance and extend the life of Novell’s venerable old product.
It also makes it possible for Novell to get on board with the biggest technology trend of the latter half of the last decade…
GroupWise in the Cloud
Since my time at Bungee Labs, I have been considering how Novell could offer GroupWise as a hosted SaaS offering as a way of acquiring aspiring new companies. As Salesforce has shown well, small is beautiful, and there is big business in the “No Software” proposition. This is where GroupWise competes (entirely ineffectively) with Gmail (“Google Mail,” actually) and its related collaboration components. It’s very easy to set up a Gmail account that uses your own company’s mail@domain. You can’t do that with GroupWise today.
But GroupWise does have something that Google lacks: a rich client. With all the apps that Google enjoys, none do a complete enough job of unifying all the typical collaboration features of an enterprise collaboration suite. With legacy collaboration being such an unsexy subject in the age of the social web, it seems unlikely that Google will re-solve some of these relatively mundane features. Finally, although there is a de facto rule about “everything through the web,” that does not mean “everything in the browser.” GroupWise has browser-based access, but it also has a full client that works online as well as offline, giving Novell a complete end-to-end advantage.
So put it all together–SaaS + Google API compatibility–and Novell has a viable technical path for GroupWise. All that remains is to figure out a freemium model that can viably compete with Google. (This is where I clock out.)
Note I realize that it’s kind of cheap to sit back and throw out directives for how some other company should manage its API strategy while sparing any mention of the company over which I may have actual influence. Some of the above thinking applies to our planning at Mozy. However, we do not offer a public API (yet), so it’s a challenge to directly discuss this subject without getting mired in caveats and cautionary or indefinite statements. If you have any more than a casual interest in where Mozy is heading with our API, please contact me by commenting on this post. | <urn:uuid:e683381b-e333-4f9e-acbd-bb7bd514d300> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reverendted.wordpress.com/category/yesterdays-news/novell/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939698 | 1,034 | 1.515625 | 2 |
by Yasuaki S.
(Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan)
An example of the Cymraeg language
In Japan, Wales is not a famous country. Actually, many of my friends don't know about Wales. So, I searched Wales on the internet. Wales' native language is Cymraeg, not English.
In Wales' schools, students study Cymraeg to preserve their language. They are proud of their country. They hate to be seen as British.
I don't think Japanese people have much patriotism. I think that the Welsh patriotism is wonderful. I love the culture of Japan, but I think that I should leave the culture of Japan. | <urn:uuid:04bf83a9-15e2-4413-8bc4-72026f1a76a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.garyjwolff.com/welsh-patriotism.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974439 | 145 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Sculpture and 3D Studies BFA
124 credits, four-year program of study
Fine Arts faculty are committed to helping students develop respect for learning and for the creative process, and to enable them to contribute to human culture with confidence and authority.
Students in the BFA Sculpture / 3D Studies program are exposed to a range of three-dimensional art making genres including object-making, non-objective abstraction, figurative sculpture, and site-based work. Students learn skills and processes including welding, woodworking, lost-wax bronze casting, clay, and plaster media, as well as less traditional multi-media, installation, and environmental work. In addition to the program's comprehensive technical foundation, equal emphasis is placed on each student's abilities to develop concepts and content.
The program provides educational field trips to galleries, museums, and artists' studios along with presentations by visiting artists and a lecture series. Students in Sculpture/3D Studies create a thesis body of work in their final year and explore employment opportunities and/or graduate studies.
Requirements for Admission
All applicants must meet portfolio requirements as an element in the department's admission decision. Additional materials may be required. All applicants must also follow UMass Dartmouth admissions procedures detailed in the University Catalogue. | <urn:uuid:a1caf2a4-e4e8-4d05-a273-fa69641e6867> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.umassd.edu/cvpa/undergraduate/finearts/sculptureand3dstudies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94439 | 264 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Though no motive has been revealed, according to media commentators, Pistorius may have been caught off guard by Steenkamp. He possibly shot her in their home in South Africa, believing she was an intruder when she tried to surprise him on the special holiday.
Pistorius is a Paralympic champion and was the first double-amputee to take part in the Olympics track and field competition in 2012.
Pistorius is not the only athlete who has gotten in trouble with the law for murder.
NFL superstar O.J. Simpson was involved in perhaps history's most publicized trial, after allegedly killing ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. He stood trial for the double-murder in 1995 but was later acquitted.
Leonard Little, a Rams linebacker, was charged with murder for killing Susan Gutweiler after celebrating his 24th birthday. In 1998, Little got behind the wheel while intoxicated, running a red light and ramming into Gutweiler’s car.
“I think about it all the time," Little told CNN.
"I mean, every day I wake up in the morning, I think about it. It's always in the back of my mind no matter if you're at the Super Bowl or anything bigger than that. It's always there, and I always think about it."
Little was later sentenced to 90 days in a work house and 1,000 hours of community service.
A year later, former Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth shot his pregnant 24-year-old girlfriend four times in the back. Cherica Adams was seven-months pregnant with Carruth’s child, and Carruth was not interested in paying child support due to financial issues.
Adams was taken to the hospital but did not make it. Her son, Chancellor Lee, survived, though he was born 10 weeks premature and now suffers from cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair.
Carruth was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in 2001 and was sentenced to 18 to 24 years in prison.
In 2000, Super Bowl champion Ray Lewis, who retired after playing 17 seasons for the Baltimore Ravens, was charged with two counts of murder and felony murder after Richard Lollar and Jacinth Baker were stabbed to death outside a nightclub in Atlanta hours after the Super Bowl.
His charges were later reduced in exchange for his testifying against two of his friends, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting.
Lewis was later fined $250,000 by the NFL and served one year of probation.
Back in 2002, Former New Jersey Nets star basketball player Jayson Williams was charged with "reckless manslaughter" in the shooting death of limo driver Contas Christofi. He was found guilty and served an 18-month prison sentence before being released in April 2012.
In 2004, NHL player Mike Danton was charged with conspiracy to commit murder after hiring a hit man to murder his agent, David Frost. The murder was not executed as the hit man was an undercover officer.
Danton reached an agreement with prosecutors, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. He served a little more than five years in prison and now plays hockey in the Swedish Division 1 league.
Also in 2004, English footballer Lee Hughes was imprisoned for three years after being found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. Hughes fled the scene after hitting Douglas Graham, a father of four.
"In running away, you showed a callous disregard for others who were in the other car, one of whom was dead, another of whom was seriously injured and two others who were injured. I am quite certain that in running away you were thinking of yourself and you were attempting to avoid the legal consequences of driving having consumed alcohol," the judge told Hughes after the verdict was read. Hughes now plays for the Oldham Athletics.
In 2005, former pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies Ugueth Urbina was charged with attempted murder after employees at his farm said he attacked them with a machete. Urbina was sentenced to 14 years in prison and served 7 years before being released in December 2012. | <urn:uuid:8eb6f864-aa69-4a1b-b8e6-cbfab41e9981> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ibtimes.com/athletes-charged-murder-oscar-pistorius-ray-lewis-oj-simpson-rae-carruth-more-photos-1085726 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989471 | 854 | 1.539063 | 2 |
LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012), known by the stage name Donna Summer, was an American singer-songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She had a mezzo-soprano vocal range, and was a five-timeGrammy Award winner. Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the U.S.Billboard chart, and she also charted four number-one singles in the United States within a 13-month period.
Summer died on May 17, 2012. The Associated Press reports that she died in the morning at her home in Key West, Florida at age 63 following a battle with cancer. The Bradenton Herald quotes "Sarasota County records" stating that she lived in Englewood, Florida at the time of her death. The reference did not state the place of her death.
While singing background for the hit-making 1970s trio Three Dog Night, Summer met producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. She eventually signed a deal with the European label Groovy Records and issued her first album, Lady of the Night, in 1974. The album was not released in America, but found some limited European success on the strength of the song "The Hostage", which reached number one in Belgium and number two in the Netherlands.
In 1975, Summer approached Moroder with an idea for a song she and Bellotte were working on for another singer. She had come up with the lyric "love to love you, baby". Moroder was interested in developing the new sound that was becoming popular and used Summer's lyric to develop the song. Moroder persuaded Summer to record what was to be a demo track for another performer. She later said that she had thought of how the song might sound if Marilyn Monroe had sung it and began cooing the lyrics. To get into the mood of recording the song, she requested Moroder turn off the lights while they sat on a sofa with him inducing her moans and groans. After hearing playback of the song, Moroder felt Summer's version should actually be released.
The song was then sent to Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart in hopes of getting an American release. Bogart informed Summer and Moroder he would release the song (now called "Love to Love You Baby") but requested that Moroder produce a longer version for discothèques. Moroder, Bellotte, and Summer returned with a 17 minute version and Casablanca signed Summer and released the single in November 1975. The shorter version of the single was promoted to radio stations while clubs regularly played the 17 minute version (the longer version would also appear on the album). Casablanca became one of the first record labels to popularize the 12" single format. By early 1976, "Love To Love You Baby" had reached #2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while the parent album of the same name sold over a million copies. The song generated controversy due to Summer's moans and groans and some American and European radio stations, including the BBC, refused to play it. "Love to Love You Baby" found chart success in several European countries, and made the Top 5 in the United Kingdom despite the BBC ban. Other upcoming singles included "Try Me, I Know We can Make It", US #80; "Could It Be Magic", US #52; "Spring Affair", US #58; and "Winter Melody", US #43. The subsequent albums Love Trilogy and Four Seasons of Love both went gold in the US.
Summer in the recording studio, 1977
In 1977, Summer released the concept album I Remember Yesterday. This album included her second top ten single, "I Feel Love", which reached number six in the US and number one in the UK. Another concept album, also released in 1977, was Once Upon a Time, a double album which told of a modern-day Cinderella "rags to riches" story through the elements of orchestral disco and ballads. This album would also attain gold status. In 1978, Summer released her version of the Jimmy Webb ballad, "MacArthur Park", which became her first US number one hit. The song was featured on Summer's first live album, Live and More, which also became her first album to hit number one on the US Billboard 200chart, and went platinum selling over a million copies. Other studio tracks included the top ten hit, "Heaven Knows", which featured the groupBrooklyn Dreams accompanying her on background and Joe "Bean" Esposito singing alongside her on the verses. Summer would later be romantically involved with Brooklyn Dreams singer Bruce Sudano and the couple married two years after the song's release. Also in 1978, Summer acted in the film, Thank God It's Friday, playing a singer determined to perform at a hot disco club. The film met modest success, but a song from the film, titled "Last Dance", reached number three on the Hot 100 and resulted in Summer winning her first Grammy Award. Its writer,Paul Jabara, won an Academy Award for the composition.
In 1979, Summer performed at the world-televised Music for UNICEF Concert, joining contemporaries such as Abba, Olivia Newton-John, the Bee Gees, Andy Gibb, Rod Stewart, John Denver, Earth, Wind and Fire, Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson for an hour's TV special that raised funds and awareness for the world's children. Artists donated royalties of certain songs, some in perpetuity, to benefit the cause.
After the release of the greatest hits album, Summer wanted to branch out into other musical styles in addition to disco, which led to tensions between her and Casablanca Records. Sensing that they could no longer come to terms, Summer and the label parted ways in 1980, and she signed with Geffen Records, the new label started by David Geffen.
Summer's first release on Geffen Records was The Wanderer, which replaced the disco sound of Summer's previous releases with more of the burgeoning New Wave sound and elements of rock, such as the material being recorded at this time by Pat Benatar. The album achieved gold status in the US, and the title track (released as the first single) peaked at #3 in the US, though subsequent singles were only moderate hits.
Summer's projected second Geffen release, entitled I'm a Rainbow, was shelved by Geffen Records (though two of the album's songs would surface in soundtracks of the 1980s films Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Flashdance). Summer reluctantly parted company with Moroder after seven years working together as Geffen had recruited Quincy Jones to produce her next album, 1982's Donna Summer. The album had taken a lengthy six months to record. The album's first single, "Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)", became an American top ten hit on the Hot 100, followed by more moderate hits "State of Independence"(#41 pop) and "The Woman In Me"(#33 pop). Problems then increased between Summer and Geffen Records after they were notified by Polygram Records, Summer's former label Casablanca was by then a wholly owned subsidiary, that she needed to deliver them one more album to fulfill her contract with them. Summer delivered the album, She Works Hard for the Money, and Polygram released it on its Mercury imprint in 1983. The title song became a hit reaching number three on the US Hot 100, and would provide Summer with a Grammy nomination. The album also featured the reggae-flavored UK Top 20 hit "Unconditional Love", which featured the British group Musical Youth who were riding high from the success of their single "Pass the Dutchie". The third US single, "Love Has A Mind of Its Own", reached the top forty of the Billboard R&B chart. The album itself was certified gold.
In late 1984, with her obligation to Polygram complete, Summer returned on Geffen Records with her next release. Geffen, wanting to keep the momentum going, enlisted She Works Hard For the Money's producer Michael Omartian to produce Cats Without Claws. The album, however, was not as successful as She Works Hard For the Money and failed to attain gold status of 500,000 copies sold in the US, becoming her first album since her 1974 debut not to do so. It did include a moderate hit in "There Goes My Baby", which peaked at #21.
Summer continued to score top ten hits on Billboard's Dance Chart in the new millennium. In 2000, she also appeared on the third annual Divas special, dedicated to Diana Ross, though Summer sang her own material for the show.
One month before the September 11 Attacks Summer who was living in Manhattan at the time had a premonition that they would occur. For a period of time after the attacks she was unable to leave her bedroom. She was reported to have blamed her lung cancer on inhaling toxic dust from the fallen towers.
In 2004, Summer was inducted to the Dance Music Hall of Fame alongside The Bee Gees and Barry Gibb as an artist. Her classic song, "I Feel Love", was also inducted that night.
In 2008, Summer released her first studio album of fully original material in 17 years, entitled Crayons. Released on the Sony BMG label Burgundy Records, it peaked at #17 on the US Top 200 Album Chart (her highest placing on the chart since 1983), and achieved modest international success. The songs "I'm a Fire", "Stamp Your Feet", and "Fame (The Game)" reached number one on the US Billboard Dance Chart. The ballad "Sand on My Feet" was released to adult contemporary stations and reached number thirty on that chart. While commenting on the album, Summer said "I wanted this album to have a lot of different directions on it. I did not want it to be any one baby. I just wanted it to be a sampler of flavors and influences from all over the world. There's a touch of this, a little smidgeon of that, a dash of something else...like when you're cooking." On the song "The Queen Is Back", Summer reveals her wry and witty self-awareness of her musical legacy and her public persona. "I'm making fun of myself," she admits. "There's irony, it's poking fun at the idea of being called a queen. That's a title that has followed me, followed me, and followed me. We were sitting and writing and that title kept popping up in my mind and I'm thinking, ‘Am I supposed to write this? Is this too arrogant to write?' But people call me ‘the queen,' so I guess it's ok to refer to myself as what everybody else refers to me as. We started writing the song and thought it was kind of cute and funny." Summer wrote "The Queen Is Back" and "Mr. Music" with J.R. Rotem and Evan Bogart, the son of Casablanca Records founder, Neil Bogart.
On December 11, 2009, Summer performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway, in honor of United States President Barack Obama. She was backed by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.
In August 2010, she released the single "To Paris With Love", co-written with Bruce Roberts and produced by Peter Stengaard. In October 2010, the single reached #1 on the US Billboard Dance Chart (it would be her last charted single). Also that month, Summer appeared in the PBS Television Special Hitman Returns: David Foster and Friends. In it, Summer performed with Seal on a medley of the songs "Unbreak My Heart / Crazy / On the Radio", before Summer closed the show with "Last Dance".
On July 29, 2010, Summer gave an interview with allvoices.com where she was asked if she would consider doing an album of standards. She replied:
"I actually am, probably in September. I will begin work on a standards album. I will probably do an all-out dance album and a standards album. I'm gonna do both, and we will release them however were gonna release them. We are not sure which is going first."
On September 15, 2010, Summer appeared as a guest celebrity singing alongside rising star Prince Poppycock on the television show America's Got Talent.
On October 16, 2010, she performed at a benefit concert at the Phoenix Symphony.
On June 6, 2011, Summer was a guest judge on the show, Platinum Hit in week two titled, Dance Floor Royalty. Platinum Hit is a reality competition series on Bravo launched in 2011 in which 12 singer-songwriters compete through innovative songwriting challenges that will test their creativity, patience and drive. Every episode features a different topic from a dance track to a love ballad, that require the contestants to write and perform lyrics from a multiple of genres, for a cash prize of $100,000, a publishing deal with songwriting collective The Writing Camp, and a recording deal with RCA/Jive label.
In July 2011, Summer was working at Paramount Recording Studios in Los Angeles with her nephew, the rapper and producer O'Mega Red. Together they worked on a track entitled "Angel".
Find more on wikipedia | <urn:uuid:6c52ef61-bd48-4fad-a628-209eca8fcc3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://youzeek.com/?pc=blog&lng=EN | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973539 | 2,749 | 1.726563 | 2 |
We have this expression in the U.S., to do something "like it's your job." The slang dictionary has a
To show extreme dexterity at a certain skill, such as "That guy at KFC ate chicken like it was his job."
OK, so the example was a little weak, considering depending on why the guy was at KFC, eating chicken might actually have been his job.
But why are we using our jobs as the marker of effort and ability? Stop. Now.
Don't get me wrong. I work my ass off at my job. Someone else is paying me money to do so. I know if I were paying someone to do something, I'd want them to work their ass off at it.
But I'm pretty fucking awesome outside of my job, too. I work just as hard to be an amazing person and enjoy my life outside of work. There are things that are more important than work, even if you have a really important job, like firefighter or something.
Proposal: Start doing things like they're your life. If you think your life is drab, boring, not important or less than your work, reconsider your priorities and start living better, harder, faster, more. Like your life depends on it, because it does.
Do it like it's your fucking life. | <urn:uuid:cb51a47d-aa49-4737-9154-090ad2ed8ddd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://joshshear.com/2012/08/life-job/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987679 | 274 | 1.789063 | 2 |
The works of William Shakespeare are a staple of the theater—just as are the various reimaginings of his work which arrive like clockwork to the stages of New York City. Any actor or director of significance has taken a crack at reinterpreting the Bard; this autumn alone, we've ushered in new takes on Hamlet
But few Shakespearean reinventions can match the creativity or spontaneity on display at the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater
's production of Twelfth Night
(through November 29), part of La Mama's "Puppet Series 3
." This three-tea-tray production, featuring 16 eight-inch marionettes and three live actors, has been conceived, adapted and directed by Vit Horejs. He spoke with The L Magazine
about what it takes to rethink Shakespeare at the two-foot level, and why he prefers marionettes to the wacky world of muppets.
The L: What ever made you think Twelfth Night could work as puppet theater—how do you even begin to rework Shakespeare at such a small scale?
It's been in the works for some time, actually. We did Hamlet
a while back, and when I was working with another company we did Richard III
. There's some extensive editing involved, and in some ways our works become a summary of the larger play. When we did Hamlet
, it was only 1 hour and 37 minutes long. So it counts on people already knowing the play a little bit, but even though it's for adults we had people bring kids to Hamlet
and it still worked. They could sit through it and got something out of it. Many people think puppets are for kids, but what we're trying to show with things like Shakespeare is that you can get a whole lot more out of it.
But it can't be easy, to edit Shakespeare.
The biggest challenge here is doing a Shakespeare production with only 3 people. We have 16 marionettes but only three live performers. So sometimes one person is doing a scene where he's two different characters, and then in another moment he's three different characters. It's quite challenging, to keep it all straight, but ironically it's these different levels and layers that actually make it more enriching in a way.
Enriching in a way different than "regular" theater?
There's a mixture of things that makes puppet theater far more engaging. When you have a live performance with marionettes, it allows for this whole array of different levels of interaction. You have the interaction from puppet to puppet, from the puppet to the puppeteer, and then between the puppeteers. There are even short moments when the action is transmitted to the puppeteers, and you find yourself going back and forth. So there's three levels of performance going on at once.
But does that ever get distracting? For anyone who's never seen a full-length puppet performance, I imagine this sounds pretty out there. Does this limited cast take away from something like Twelfth Night?
It actually enhances Twelfth Night
. There are moments where you're surprised by how well it works. The story has this theme of confused identities, and there are some great moments when you're confused in our play as to who is performing—is it the puppet or the puppeteer who's making the choices. It also helps with casting. Its much easier to have one puppeteer be both Belch and Sebastian, and there are moments when both are on stage at the same time and the same puppeteer is holding both and it works right into the themes of the story.
And beyond Shakespeare, puppets often can bring more to a piece. It's true that they can't do some things that live people can do, but they can also do some things that live people can't do. They can express themselves in different ways, jump in the air and then hold that position for just a second and express a sense of exuberance. Puppets can express a state of mind in ways that live person couldn't, which can really draw in an audience. | <urn:uuid:e3a0ef43-0a4a-4afe-9413-02e2c16e3e17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thelmagazine.com/newyork/the-puppets-the-thing/Content?oid=1396616 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972085 | 851 | 1.828125 | 2 |
In the wake of last year's stock market meltdown, some retirees are looking to real estate to supplement their income.
Monthly rent payments or income from a reverse mortgage can help support a lifestyle otherwise out of reach for those with small nest eggs.
But is it wise to try to tap the earning power of real estate so late in life?
Over the long term, stock market returns historically have trumped those of other asset classes, including real estate. Between 1978 and 2008, stocks averaged an annual return of 12.33 percent compared to 5.92 percent for residential real estate, according to a recent study in the Journal of Portfolio Management.
While stocks may seem like a better investment for retirees, real estate has advantages, too, says Carrie Coghill-Kuntz, a Certified Financial Planner and president of Pittsburgh-based D.B. Root & Co.
"When you look at the risks inherent in real estate, the difference between real estate and almost any other asset is that real estate is a physical asset that never goes away until you decide you don't want it anymore," Coghill-Kuntz says.
"Conversely, company stock is represented by people running a company and you never really know when and if they'll close the door."
Before trying to extract income from real estate, retirees must do a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether the effort is worthwhile, says Michael Fitzgerald, a Certified Financial Planner and president of Fitzgerald Financial Partners in Houston.
3 real estate income options
- Buy a home or apartment building.
- Rent a room in your home.
- Consider a reverse mortgage.
"You have to be able to utilize the asset correctly to produce the right amount of cash flow," Fitzgerald says.
Following are three suggestions for making cash "flow" from real estate.
Buy a home or apartment buildingOwnership of land and property long has been a key part of the American dream. Buying a home or apartment building can be part of that vision, even in retirement.
Recent dramatic price declines in some markets have created new opportunities that didn't exist during the housing boom.
However, retirees shopping for real estate must check their emotions at the door and instead focus on the cold, hard facts about whether the investment is likely to generate positive returns.
"With real estate it's still all about location and it's all about the marketplace," says Coghill-Kuntz.
For starters, retirees who invest in property face challenges unique to their age group and life situation. Real estate is not a liquid asset, an important fact for retirees who someday may need access to quick cash, yet no longer can tap monthly employment income.
In addition, rental properties can drain cash quickly in periods where it's difficult to find renters. This, too, can be more dangerous to a retiree without employment income.
Retirees shopping for rental units also should gauge how long they are likely to hold the property.
"Either your price or your interest rate are the most important components, depending on how long you're going to hold the asset," Fitzgerald says.
Retirees who plan on holding the asset for a long time may find that interest costs become more important than the initial purchase price. Remember that over time, you're going to pay two or three times the original purchase price in interest, Fitzgerald says.
On the other hand, price is more important than mortgage interest costs for retirees who look at their investment from a short-term horizon.
Investors also should calculate how much they can earn in gross rental income, and understand how factors such as annual maintenance and real estate taxes affect their rate of return. | <urn:uuid:a3f252a6-f753-4f33-bab7-60b0a1cb3d96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bankrate.com/finance/financial-literacy/3-ways-real-estate-can-help-retirees-1.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957501 | 754 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Last Updated: 6:12 AM, October 11, 2012
Posted: 12:56 AM, October 11, 2012
Surgeons removed a bullet from a courageous 14-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by a would-be assassin from the Taliban in a crime that shocked the world.
Malala Yousafzai, who became an international symbol of resistance to terrorist cruelty, underwent a delicate, three-hour operation, officials said.
Pakistani doctors said she remained in critical condition and her outlook was uncertain because she may have suffered brain damage from the attack in her town of Mingora in the dangerous Swat Valley on Tuesday.
Several Pakistani schools shut their doors yesterday to protest the targeting of Malala, who had campaigned to reopen girls’ schools after they were ordered shut by the Taliban.
The Taliban made no secret of its responsibility, saying its gunman targeted Malala because of her “obscenity” in trying to allow girls to attend school and because of her pro-West attitudes. | <urn:uuid:7c40e7d0-974e-4c2d-a976-b1280df937d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/international/op_for_shot_pak_teen_fNXrorKfdVBUPYLnWV8UvN | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984236 | 212 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Everything that’s wrong the way fundamentalists think can be understood by a quick glance at Bristol Palin’s blog. She insults our President and essentially all of the world by saying: “Is anyone really surprised by the fact that President Obama came out of the closet for gay marriage? What was most surprising is when he explained how his position (supposedly) “evolved,” by talking to his wife and daughters.” I’m sorry Jesus, er, I mean Bristol, Christian women aren’t to speak, they’re to be spoken to, right? So, if Sasha and Malia’s dad spoke to them they aren’t allowed to talk back? Or even intelligently dialogue with their father? (For the record, the Obama’s are Christians. Just not the Palin-version.) While it’s true that the Bible does teach men that women shouldn’t speak or instruct men, some Christians move past the oppressive texts and don’t treat women as property. It’s probably time everyone sees women, even young women, as intelligent human beings.
As if that wasn’t gross enough, she’s also writing about the 1950′s by saying “shacking up” hurts men, women and children. Bristol, 1950 called. They want their ideals back. STAT. | <urn:uuid:dec87d85-3fb3-4b9c-8022-e8667e951b24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mycultlife.com/tag/intelligent-human-beings/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969528 | 289 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) issued the following statement criticizing the alteration of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), stating that the bill passed on Wednesday afternoon put women’s lives in jeopardy.
“For almost 20 years, Democrats and Republicans have worked together to reauthorize VAWA – setting aside partisanship to do what is right. Unfortunately, that has changed with the VAWA reauthorization passed by the House today.
“I would like my colleagues to explain why it is ok to commit violence against LGBT women or immigrant women. Regardless where you stand on immigration issues, a border fence, amnesty, etc., or on same-sex marriage and equal rights for LGBT citizens, how can you be in favor of making it easier to commit violence against LGBT or immigrant women? I cannot believe our national debate has come to this point – where we are singling out parts of the population and making them more vulnerable to violence.
“The revised reauthorization also puts Native American women in a more vulnerable position. I find incredible that in the 21st Century we are still voting on laws that single out Native Americans in a negative way. I believe our country, and our government is better than that, and we should be seeking to raise the level of protection of our citizens. I implore my colleagues in the Majority to stop putting their political agenda into every single piece of legislation. Some of you may think bipartisanship is a bad word, but the American people deserve a government willing to debate the issues but stand together whenever possible. This is a time to stand together.” | <urn:uuid:6592e6f6-f07a-4581-84a6-3de2a0e007eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ramapotimes.com/local-news/local-news/rockland-news/2022-rep-engel--violence-against-women-should-not-be-politicized | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956633 | 338 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Sending a Hanukkah card to a friend or family member is a special way to celebrate with them, whether or not you keep the holiday yourself. Tiny Prints makes this easy with a unique assortment of personalized Hanukkah cards. Multiple color and design options allow you to create a card that is completely unique. Family photos can be uploaded and added to the card. What better way to wish a loved one Happy Hanukkah than with a new family photo and a personal note? Looking for individual cards you can personalize for a special recipient?
The History of Hanukkah
Every winter, Jewish families spend eight days in celebration of a miraculous time in history. We know it today as Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, and we often see Hanukkah cards out next to other holiday cards. But amidst the traditional foods and beautiful menorah- what is Hanukkah really about?
In the second century, a man named Judah the Maccabee led a group to boldly reclaim the temple in Jerusalem after having been taken in foreign occupation. They began preparation to rededicate the temple, but soon found that there was only enough oil to burn the temple candles- the Menorah- for one day. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight full days, until they were able to reach more purified oil.
The Meaning of Hanukkah
Hanukkah, meaning "dedication," commemorates each of these eight days with the lighting of candles and a celebration of miraculous provision. Children play dreidel games, Hanukkah songs are sung, and everyone looks forward to the delicious Hanukkah food – baked or fried in oil, symbolizing the oil that lasted the eight days. Everything holds rich meaning, like the Hanukkah song Rock of Ages, recounting the events in celebration.
When is Hanukkah?
You might have noticed that Hanukkah is never quite at the same time each year. So, when is Hanukkah? Because the Jewish calendar is different than ours today, you must check against the Jewish calendar to know when to celebrate. Hanukkah 2011 begins on December 20.
As you look ahead in your holiday preparations, check out the Tiny Prints collection of Hanukkah cards. Put a visit to Tiny Prints on your Hanukkah 2011 calendar, and you might find a new family tradition along the way. Happy Hanukkah, and L'Chaim!
Studio Basics offers an easily affordable option for Tiny Prints shoppers. Each card features:
Coated 100 lb cardstock (NOT photo paper)
Artwork by Tiny Prints designers
Available in 4x5, 4x9 and 3.5x5 flat card formats
Everyday low prices starting at $.59 for certain formats
Look for Studio Basics products in our birthday party invitation and our baby shower invitation collections.
» Learn More | <urn:uuid:3b01d4ea-6bdb-49b6-b6d4-b6ba131ccab5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/hanukkah_cards.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94412 | 609 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Best Known For
Whoopi Goldberg is a Grammy-Award winning comedienne, an actress, a human rights advocate, and TV host of the daytime talk show The View.
Whoopi Goldberg - Ghost (4:05)
An inside look at the life of Whoopi Goldberg as told by Whoopi herself.
After working in stand up comedy, Whoopi Goldberg wanted to try her hand at film acting and was given her first major role by Steven Spielberg in the film "The Color Purple."
At the age of 20 Whoopi Goldberg, then Caryn Johnson, decided to move out to California to try and break into show business.
In 1990 Whoopi Goldberg starred in "Ghost" as Oda Mae Brown, a role for which she won the Academy Award for best Actress in a Supporting Role.
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Actress, comedienne, TV host, human rights advocate. Born Caryn Elaine Johnson on November 13, 1955, in New York City. Goldberg and her younger brother Clyde were raised by their mother Emma in a housing project in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.
Goldberg's father abandoned the family, and her single mother worked at a variety of jobs--including teaching and nursing--to make ends meet. Goldberg changed her name when she decided that her given name was too boring. She claims to be half Jewish and half Catholic, and "Goldberg" is attributed to her family history.
With her trademark dreadlocks, wide impish grin, and piercing humor, Goldberg is best known for her adept portrayals in both comedic and dramatic roles, as well as her groundbreaking work in the Hollywood film industry as an African-American woman. Goldberg unknowingly suffered from dyslexia, which affected her studies and ultimately induced her to drop out of high school at the age of 17.
In 1974, Goldberg moved to California, living variously for the next seven years in Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. At one point during this time, she worked as a mortuary beautician while pursuing a career in show business. During her stay in San Francisco, Whoopie Goldberg won a Bay Area Theatre Award for her portrayal of comedienne Moms Mabley in a one-woman show.
Shortly after receiving this honor, she returned to New York. In 1983, she starred in the enormously popular The Spook Show. The one-woman Off-Broadway production featured her own original comedy material that addressed the issue of race in America with unique profundity, style, and wit. Among her most poignant and typically contradictory creations are "Little Girl," an African-American child obsessed with having blond hair; and "Fontaine," a junkie who also happens to hold a doctorate in literature.
By 1984, director Mike Nichols had moved The Spook Show to a Broadway stage, and in 1985, Goldberg won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for the recording of skits taken from the show. At the same time, she began to receive significant attention from Hollywood insiders. Director Steven Spielberg cast Goldberg in the leading female role of his 1985 production of The Color Purple (adapted from the novel by Alice Walker), a film that went on to earn 10 Academy Award and five Golden Globe nominations. Goldberg herself received an Oscar nomination and her first Golden Globe for Best Actress.
Goldberg's success with The Color Purple launched a highly visible acting career.
profile name: Whoopi Goldberg profile occupation:
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From the early comedy of Nipsey Russell, Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby to the contemporary routines of Steve Harvey, Mo'Nique, Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes and Dave Chappelle, black comedians have often used their wit to become the voice and face of the African-American experience. These legendary comedians have also set a very high bar—not only for African Americans, but for all comics trying to make it in show business. Learn more about these famous jokesters, from their early days to their comic beginnings, to their side-splitting performances and more.
Black Comedians 33 people in this group
United Nations Goodwill Ambassadors are prominent individuals who volunteer to highlight important areas of the U.N.'s work. Actors, athletes, authors and musicians use their celebrity to raise awareness of the issues faced by victims of poverty, famine, and violence worldwide. Goodwill ambassadors make widely publicized visits to the world's most troubled locales, and make appeals on behalf of their people. Here are some of the stars who use their famous names to promote causes close to their hearts.
U.N. Goodwill Ambassadors 38 people in this group
Taking on topics of politics, entertainment, women's issues and more, female talk show hosts have proven to be every bit as engaging, intelligent, and funny as their male counterparts. Oprah Winfrey's 25-year-reign as the queen of talk is unparalleled, but many other female talk show hosts have come into their own as well, including Tyra Banks, Ellen DeGeneres, Sally Jessy Raphael and Kelly Ripa.
Visit Biography.com's Women's History group to explore more biographies, photos and videos of some the world's most fascinating women.
Female Talk Show Hosts 26 people in this group | <urn:uuid:f35e051b-01d3-4741-95ac-cd49ca1a467e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biography.com/people/whoopi-goldberg-9314384 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963666 | 1,124 | 1.8125 | 2 |
I have a thoughtful 17 year old... I can't imagine he would be a problem in
class and he lives, eats and breathes art - but even he is goofy right now.
He just completed his AP portfolio and was so stressed labeling, packaging
and bar coding ... he said he felt like a huge weight was lifted from his
shoulders and went straight to bed. It wasn't last minute, he was well
prepared - just mentally stressed and exhausted.
He is beginning a weaving in textile class and I wondered how the kids would
stay focused - I tried to gather a bunch of different materials for him to
weave - hoping he would catch on and start to look for nontraditional
objects - thinking if he were challenged, like a game for the unusual, he
would stay interested.
I have shifted my class activities to collaborative work, they are going
to talk anyway (think quilting bees with wood and paint)..and small
competitions - kind of like junkyard wars for the art room (for my 2- 7
grades).... we just finished two weeks of testing, so were are all batty - | <urn:uuid:0603f107-5a98-4257-9143-73d618b74ee9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.getty.edu/education/teacherartexchange/archive/May03/0407.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984281 | 241 | 1.789063 | 2 |
In Israel, a new five month scholarship program being offered to young aspiring athletes – one of them could be you.
A Jewish farmer went to harvest olives Tuesday morning from an olive grove he owns in the Shilo region, but on arrival he found that the grove had been stripped of olives, and dozens of trees had been destroyed.
All that farmer Erez Ben-Saadon was left with were broken branches, cloth olive sacks with Arabic writing on them, and spilled olives on the ground.
“We don’t know what to do now,” he said. “We’re talking about tens of thousands of shekels lost, and serious damage to the grove.”
This is not the first time Ben-Saadon has fallen victim to theft and vandalism at the hands of his Arab neighbors. “Last Sabbath, Arabs harvested from my trees and stole olives from 40 other trees in the same area,” he reported.
“A few years ago, they planted three bombs in our vineyard in Har Bracha,” he added. “It was a miracle that nobody was hurt.”
“Uprooting trees, theft, and throwing rocks at farmers are not rare, unfortunately,” he said. “Every year we suffer from assaults and thefts, both from the Arabs and from anarchists and leftists from around the world.”
“It’s outrageous that next to my home in Rechelim, Arabs harvest olives without being disturbed, and yet they attack us in the media, as if we’re plotting against them, while Arab attacks and thefts targeting Jewish farmers in Samaria are met with silence,” he declared.
Samaria Residents’ Committee head Benny Katzover confirmed that farmers in the region have faced frequent harassment, theft and vandalism during the olive harvest season, as well as attempted libel. “Unfortunately, this serious issue is met with a lack of proper response,” he said.
“I call on the legal authorities to take Arab and far-left attacks as seriously as they take Jewish attacks on Arabs,” he added.
About the Author: As a child David Ha'ivri made Aliya with his family from the US in 1978. Married, with 8 children, he lives in a small town in Samaria. He is the director of public diplomacy and communications for the Shomron Liaison Office. He works with GatherIsrael.com to promote Aliyah. He is social media master and strategic consultant. Follow David Ha'ivri's daily activity on Twitter @haivri.
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American Friends of Soroka Medical Center are giving an award at their gala to Mandy Patinkin, an American Jewish celebrity who supports economic warfare against Jews living and working in Judea and Samaria.
In the All Star Israel Softball League, Ziontours takes the number one spot.
The committee did not invite even one, single Haredi woman to testify.
Major General Gilad says that the Syrian president controls his country’s weapons systems.
You must read the IDF Spokesperson’s response, it is a doozy!
Russia maintains a military base in the port of Tartous, Syria.
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are walking to Church with their daughters Sasha and Malia, Sunday, March 31, 2013. – Hello, Mr. President, how does the country? – The country does fine. Trust in your government. That’s the message of this image. It’s the best possible message of any picture of the [...]
The demonstrators rallied “against the evil decree of conscription.”
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Religious Affairs Minister Yair Lapid, who doubles as Finance Minister, are arguing via Facebook over the issue of a women’s minyan at the Western Wall. Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky has proposed that a Women of the Wall demand for the minyan be allowed at the southern part of the [...]
Gaza and Syrian Arabs on Wednesday marked Nakba Day, the English date of the re-establishment of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948, with a Kassam rocket attack on the Negev and two mortar shells on the Golan Heights. The mortar shells may have been unintentionally fallen on the Israeli side of the border [...]
The Jewish Community of Prague documented a tripling of online instances of anti-Semitic hate speech last year. The increase, which the community links to a Jewish politician’s presidential bid, among other factors, was documented in an annual report on anti-Semitism published Tuesday. The community documented 82 instances of online hate speech on Czech websites in [...]
Pamela Geller, a controversial critic of radical Islam, has accused the Toronto Board of Rabbis for “loshon hara” in response to the clerics charging that she “is known for her extreme criticism of Muslims in language that is intended to shock and ridicule.” The Toronto rabbis had criticized the Jewish Defense League of Canada for [...]
Everyone knows Abbas wants to make peace with Israel, which wants to drive all Arabs into the sea, right? And how many know that Abbas’ Fatah party condemned the crime of a Jewish-Arab soccer game?
Millions of Americans this week are mourning Dr. Joyce Brothers, the Jewish psychologist and media start who died Monday in Fort Lee, New Jersey Monday at the age of 85. She was buried at the Beth David Cemetery on Long Island. Born in Brooklyn, she earned degrees in psychology from Cornell and Columbia. She broke [...]
On Wednesday, the holiday of Shavuot, a crowd of thousands attended the early Shachrit service by the Kotel. At the same time, smaller crowds of Arabs clashed with police in their commemoration of the declaration of the state of Israel, May 15, 1948, 65 years ago, which the call the “Nakba” (Arabic for catastrophe). Let’s [...]
Your children will look back and thank you for moving them to Israel now.
A new blog about Aliya and living in the land of Israel.
Many people would rather be ignorant of the truth than change their views and biases.
Purim is a good opportunity to speak with our teenagers about the dangers of alcohol and substance abuse.
Arabs steal olives from Jewish-owned grove, then destroy trees. Victim
asks why the media makes Jews the villain.
David Ha’ivri, director of the Shomron Liaison Office, responds to a Jewishpress.com story about Jewish groups that expressed concern over Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s efforts to uncover the relationship between Huma Abedin, top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and leading figures in the Muslim Brotherhood.
A few years ago, I happened to be in Los Angeles for the fast of Tisha B’Av. Towards the end of the fast, between afternoon and evening prayers, the rabbi of the shul asked if I could say a few words to the congregation to explain the significance of the holy day and the fast.
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No related posts. | <urn:uuid:b2ba1d93-06cb-414a-9e47-cb305a710959> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishpress.com/news/theft-and-destruction-at-jewish-owned-olive-grove/2012/10/25/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952349 | 1,556 | 1.507813 | 2 |
"You don't have that problem anymore. It's a lot more fun to farm," Georgetti said, since he has been able to buy newer equipment that's bigger, faster and more fuel-efficient. The drilling hasn't caused any problems for the farm, he said.
Range spokesman Matt Pitzarella said the Oklahoma-based company has paid "well over" $1 billion to Pennsylvania landowners, with most of that coming since 2008.
One economist noted that the windfall payments from the natural gas boom are wonderful for individuals, but that they represent just a tiny portion of total economic activity.
For example, the $1 billion for Pennsylvania landowners sounds like a lot, but "it's just not going to have a big impact on the overall vitality of the overall economy," said Robert Inman, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton business school. "I think the issue is, what difference does it make for the individual families?"
7/87/87/8Pennsylvania's total gross domestic product in 2011 was about $500 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Inman noted that total gas industry hiring and investment can have a far bigger effect on a state or region, and companies have invested tens of billions of dollars just in Pennsylvania on pipelines, infrastructure, and drilling in recent years.
For example, in North Dakota the shale oil and minerals boom contributed 2.8 percent of GDP growth to the entire state economy in 2011, according to Commerce Department data.
Another variable in how much royalty owners actually receive is the wholesale price of gas. That has dropped significantly over the past two years even as production has boomed in Pennsylvania and many other states. Average wholesale prices went from about $4.50 per unit of gas in 2010 to about $3 in 2012. For many leaseholders, that meant a decline in royalties.
The boom in natural gas royalties has even led to niche spinoff companies that look for lease heirs who don't even know they're owed money.
Michael Zwick is president of Assets International, a Michigan company that searches for missing heirs.
"It was an underserved niche," Zwick said of oil and gas leases. When a company can't find an heir to lease royalties, the money often goes to state unclaimed property funds.
Zwick said he has found a few dozen people whose gas lease money was being held in escrow, including one who was owed about $250,000 in drilling royalties. But the average amount, he said, is far lower. | <urn:uuid:129a7338-da1d-4d00-8b4a-0b801c1008c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailymail.com/Business/201301270018?page=2&build=cache | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978108 | 527 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The Convention between the Kingdom of Netherlands and the Republic of India for the avoidance of double taxation and for the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and on capital was signed on 30th July, 1988 (DTAC). Both India and Netherlands have concluded a Protocol to amend the Article 26 of the DTAC concerning Exchange of Information to bring it in line with the international standards.
On 10th May, 2012, India and Netherlands have signed the Protocol at The Hague, Netherlands. The protocol was signed by Ms. Bhaswati Mukherjee, Ambassador of India to The Netherlands and Mr. F.H.H.Weekers, state Secretary of Finance, Netherlands. The Protocol will replace the Article concerning Exchange of Information in the existing DTAC between India and Netherlands and will allow exchange of banking information as well as information without domestic interest. It will, now, allow use of information for non-tax purpose if allowed under the domestic laws of both the countries, after the approval of the supplying state.
25 May 2012 | <urn:uuid:8eb8a66d-8308-4265-8613-d4e60f6da7ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.investinindia.com/node/5154 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949973 | 209 | 1.632813 | 2 |
I have found similar things from architects too. One the other day was a pull down ladder unit into a roof space was located against an outside wall where the roof pitch was 22 degrees. Even a child could not have crawled into the roof, let alone the ladder be retracted into it.
In another incident, I was involved in the electrical inspection of a house some years ago. In the Laundry there was a washing machine on one wall and two doors on the wall opposite, one to the Kitchen and the other going ouside to the closes line. The doors were six inches apart and where was the power outlet for the washing machine? You guessed it - on the sliver of wall between the two doors!
The house did not pass the inspection!
When I saw the first plans for our own house (before I got into doing plans myself) they showed a wall floor to ceiling half way along the stairwell. How they expected us to get up the stairs I don't know. They also had a ballustrade along the side of the stairwell to stop anyone walking over the edge into the stairwell - fair enough but how could they fall over - there was a solid wall there, so why have a ballustrade?
Sometimes I don't think they live in the real world - its all on paper and no visualisation! They need Envisioneer! | <urn:uuid:d113b7b5-c95f-40dd-8fe9-268d76ecb7a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cadsoft.com/forum/index.php?topic=7989.0;prev_next=next | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981381 | 280 | 1.75 | 2 |
A modest proposal for replacing Guantánamo
just a thought... Submit To Propeller
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Just a year after the global downturn derailed Dubai's explosive growth, the city is now so swamped in debt that it's asking for a six-month reprieve on paying its bills — causing a drop on world markets Thursday and raising questions about Dubai's reputation as a magnet for international investment.
The fallout came swiftly and was felt globally after Wednesday statement that Dubai's main development engine, Dubai World, would ask creditors for a "standstill" on paying back its $60 billion debt until at least May. The company's real estate arm, Nakheel — whose projects include the palm-shaped island in the Gulf — shoulders the bulk of money due to banks, investment houses and outside development contractors.
In total, the state-backed networks nicknamed Dubai Inc. are $80 billion in the red and the emirate needed a bailout earlier this year from its oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
I was recently passed this link by John Owen at London's City University journalism school and thought it might be of interest to others.
The 'Hum News' posting considers what it calls the "Geographic Gap" of the contemporary news environment. That is, world news is covered by a very small number of news organisations and those organisations choose to only cover a small portion of the world's news. I know it sounds like a riddle, but it is the reality of international news.
Although there is now a proliferation of news outlets, particularly online, there are in fact fewer reliable, independent organisations actually gathering the information and delivering it in a balanced fashion.
Hum News points out that while there are 237 countries or territories in the world, the four biggest news organisations only report from 121 countries. This means there are 116 countries not covered. By Hum's calculations that is:
"almost half the world, and 4 billion people"
Of course, it would be foolish for us to expect that news organisations cover every single thing that happens everywhere in the world. But just how important are the 116 countries not covered by the big news organisations?
63 of these ignored countries and territories are desperately poor.
All this has security implications for the United States. What do you want to bet that in the late 1990s, Afghanistan was in the 116? Hard to know an attack was being planned out there if you don't know the place exists.
What HUM does not say is that the ignoring of the 116 comes from the news corporations' profit motive, which is increasingly driving them to ignore most real news in favor of infotainment. Desperately poor 4th world countries? Not entertaining.
Aljazeera's model, being backed by the Qatar Foundation, may be one of the few ways out of this information gap. Aljazeera English does a better job covering subsaharan Africa and Latin American than any other Anglophone news service, and they pay attention to the poor and working people.
A mile-long trail of cars and trucks curves through my neighborhood. As we greet each other at the frontdoor of the Greenwood bodega, we glance over at the motorists, sitting there. In one way or another we know – that traffic jam is corrupt. We look over at the stack of newspapers inside the front door. The news is corrupt. We look up at the jetliner descending into La Guardia. That flight is corrupt.
We live in this era of corruption, hiding in plain sight. All public activities are controlled by players who pay for control. The public has no role except as consumers. Many of us would say, “It’s always been like this.” But I think corruption has changed in recent years. It has become so general that it wraps around us. It activates, engages and surrounds our senses like a powerful movie in the shape of a shell. The industries, celebrities and public agencies overlap their corruption on this shell.
The corruption is ambient now. A shell with a dazzling, pixilated surface. It’s like a Diamondvision in the shape of wind-tunnel. Products, celebrities, Christmas, gunships and candy appear and do their vaudeville routine. We live in this shell of unaccountably and secretly managed – well, what is it? It succeeds because we don’t notice it, we don’t know how to describe it. I can flail at it with phrases like “the great fake community” or the “privatized commons.” I don’t have it in words that work down here on the corner. Oh yes - we all know about the government bail-outs. We know about the insurance lobbyists writing the congressmens’ speeches. We look at the papers, up at the jet, and out at the glowing faces on the highway.
What would I say if I had the words? That shell! It is the slippery and vast high alter of Consumerism! It expertly mimics us, but more than that – the professionals who control it anticipate what we WILL do, because they study our habits, our desires, our human-ness. Sadly, the shell broadcasts a completely believable Democracy. Has anything so universal ever been so hidden? The shell is un-locatable. It is as close as the radio in the dashboard of the citizens in traffic; it is as far as the Afghani war. The shell is bounding with young families made happy by Big Pharma, bubble credit, the hallucinating momentum of American greatness…
We see ourselves in the shell and we continue to wait, to waste our lives. That’s the trouble. The true cost of corruption is that we sit in traffic. A lot of us aren’t within reach anymore, so we cannot be creative as a community. That is what, for modern western culture, Americans invented. But it has gone up onto the shell now and performs brilliantly back at us, sitting in our cars, or in our drugs, or in our Christmas. Ultimately the violence of this present kind of corruption is our silence. We can no longer reach around the product-shell to address each other directly. But I’m repeating myself.
Breaking through the shell is illegal, but it is the necessary interruption of our time. We must walk into the traffic and try to say hello. I’m writing this after I walked back to my home from the bodega. The traffic citizens are still sitting out there. I could go back down and… what? …start the revolutionary season’s greetings. What if our Christmas this year was completely different?
bankersbanksters have much to be thankful for as they sit down to their turkey dinners on Thursday.
At this time last year, the American financial system was near collapse, rescued only by hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. Now the system has stabilized, and the industry is on the verge of a coup that many would have thought impossible a year ago: an escape from any major reform of financial regulations.
On Tuesday, the American Financial Services Association even held a conference call with reporters to update them on its efforts -- successful so far -- to torpedo plans for a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which would protect people from the sort of lending abuses that led to last year's implosion.
The ASFA, a trade group of credit card issuers, auto-finance companies, mortgage lenders and others leading the fight against the CFPA, took the unusual approach on Tuesday of publicly celebrating the reform's fading prospects.
"This was supposed to be a slam-dunk," crowed Bill Hempler, the group's top lobbyist. But instead, he said, "Democratic members are increasingly having heartburn over CFPA and maybe second thoughts."
Now these same companies [CIT, CitiFinancial, Countrywide, EquiFirst, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo Financial and GMAC], suffering from some combination of amnesia and ingratitude, are determined to fight off regulatory efforts to prevent a repeat of the same cycle of bubble, collapse and bailout. Big firms such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America -- direct or indirect beneficiaries of federal bailouts -- are all battling efforts to rein in derivatives. And credit card issuers, facing new regulations scheduled to take effect in February, have responded by increasing their rates and fees.
[T]he argument most likely to prevail for the financial firms on Capitol Hill was offered by Chris Stinebert, the trade group's chief. "Especially now, when we're in a very, very sensitive time, when the capital markets are just starting to recover," he said, "introducing a high level of uncertainty in the marketplace could be very detrimental."
Or, to put it another way: Don't regulate us now because the economy is still suffering from the mess we made because we weren't regulated the last time. Chutzpah, it appears, is recession-proof.
At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.
The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater's involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so "compartmentalized" that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.
The previously unreported program, the military intelligence source said, is distinct from the CIA assassination program that the agency's director, Leon Panetta, announced he had canceled in June 2009. "This is a parallel operation to the CIA," said the source. "They are two separate beasts." The program puts Blackwater at the epicenter of a US military operation within the borders of a nation against which the United States has not declared war--knowledge that could further strain the already tense relations between the United States and Pakistan.
A former senior executive at Blackwater confirmed the military intelligence source's claim that the company is working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC, the premier counterterrorism and covert operations force within the military. He said that Blackwater is also working for the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabad-based security firm that puts US Blackwater operatives on the ground with Pakistani forces in counter-terrorism operations, including house raids and border interdictions, in the North-West Frontier Province and elsewhere in Pakistan. This arrangement, the former executive said, allows the Pakistani government to utilize former US Special Operations forces who now work for Blackwater while denying an official US military presence in the country. He also confirmed that Blackwater has a facility in Karachi and has personnel deployed elsewhere in Pakistan. The former executive spoke on condition of anonymity.
His account and that of the military intelligence source were borne out by a US military source who has knowledge of Special Forces actions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. When asked about Blackwater's covert work for JSOC in Pakistan, this source, who also asked for anonymity, told The Nation, "From my information that I have, that is absolutely correct," adding, "There's no question that's occurring."
"It wouldn't surprise me because we've outsourced nearly everything," said Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, when told of Blackwater's role in Pakistan. Wilkerson said that during his time in the Bush administration, he saw the beginnings of Blackwater's involvement with the sensitive operations of the military and CIA. "Part of this, of course, is an attempt to get around the constraints the Congress has placed on DoD. If you don't have sufficient soldiers to do it, you hire civilians to do it. I mean, it's that simple. It would not surprise me."
The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.’s on terms that seem too good to be true.
Treasury officials now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed.
Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today’s low rates by exchanging short-term borrowings for long-term bonds, the government faces a payment shock similar to those that sent legions of overstretched homeowners into default on their mortgages.
With the national debt now topping $12 trillion, the White House estimates that the government’s tab for servicing the debt will exceed $700 billion a year in 2019, up from $202 billion this year, even if annual budget deficits shrink drastically. Other forecasters say the figure could be much higher.
The surge in borrowing over the last year or two is widely judged to have been a necessary response to the financial crisis and the deep recession, and there is still a raging debate over how aggressively to bring down deficits over the next few years. But there is little doubt that the United States’ long-term budget crisis is becoming too big to postpone.
A variety of factors — some transitory, like the spike in food prices, and others intractable, like global population growth and water scarcity — have created a market for farmland, as rich but resource-deprived nations in the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere seek to outsource their food production to places where fields are cheap and abundant.
Foreign investors — some of them representing governments, some of them private interests — are promising to construct infrastructure, bring new technologies, create jobs and boost the productivity of underused land so that it not only feeds overseas markets but also feeds more Africans. (More than a third of the continent’s population is malnourished.) They’ve found that impoverished governments are often only too welcoming, offering land at giveaway prices. A few transactions have received significant publicity, like Kenya’s deal to lease nearly 100,000 acres to the Qatari government in return for financing a new port, or South Korea’s agreement to develop almost 400 square miles in Tanzania. But many other land deals, of near-unprecedented size, have been sealed with little fanfare.
Investors who are taking part in the land rush say they are confronting a primal fear, a situation in which food is unavailable at any price.
“When some governments stop exporting rice or wheat, it becomes a real, serious problem for people that don’t have full self-sufficiency,” said Al Arabi Mohammed Hamdi, an economic adviser to the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development. Sitting in his office in Dubai, overlooking the cargo-laden wooden boats moored along the city’s creek, Hamdi told me his view, that the only way to assure food security is to control the means of production.
“There is no problem about money,” Hamdi said. “It’s about where and how.” | <urn:uuid:95f75735-c73c-4928-900e-342bad83cc53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/2009_11_22_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961796 | 3,241 | 1.835938 | 2 |
If you’re going to carry out a major art heist, perhaps you should do a little research first. That’s presumably what the thieves who robbed South Africa’s Pretoria Art Museum learned on Sunday. Although the burglars successfully stole five paintings worth more than $2 million collectively, they ditched a sixth piece that would have been the most valuable in their pilfered collection, ABC News reported.
When the three criminals discovered that one painting was too large to fit in their getaway car, a Toyota Avanza, they dropped it on the ground and sped off without it, according to the Los Angeles Times. Unfortunately for them, the abandoned piece was “Two Malay Musicians” by Irma Stern—a famous work worth around $1.5 million.
The robbers entered the museum, which houses some of South Africa’s most treasured art, paid the admission fee and pretended to be an art lecturer and two students. Then, they pulled out guns and a list of works they forced an employee to find. They fled with five paintings by such prominent South African artists as Gerard Sekoto and J.H. Pierneef, as well as with another painting by Stern, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“All the artists they took are artists who are doing brilliantly in South Africa and internationally,” Imre Lamprecht, head of the art department at South African art auction house Stephan Welz & Co., told ABC. “These works are some of the best works they would have produced.”
Although Lamprecht was horrified to learn of the raid, she said the tossing of “Two Malay Musicians” was undoubtedly a mistake on the part of the burglars, ABC reported.
“Obviously these thieves didn’t know anything about art because that is not the painting whoever hired them would want them to leave behind,” Lamprecht said.
Stern is the museum’s most famous artist, Lamprecht said; her expressionist work “Arab Priest” sold for close to $5 million last year.
The burglary has called attention to security problems in South Africa’s public museums, which often have outdated systems and no guards, ABC News reported. At the time of Pretoria’s robbery, the museum’s closed-circuit television security system was broken, but three private security guards were keeping watch over the collection, the Los Angeles Times noted.
According to the Associated Press, South African authorities are still investigating the burglary at Pretoria.
“I hope the government learns a lesson and puts in security structures that keep our art and heritage safe,” Lamprecht reportedly said.
Indeed, the Los Angeles Times found that several other critics have taken Pretoria’s misfortune as an opportunity to air their long-standing grievances. Johan Welmans, a spokesman for South Africa’s Democratic Alliance party, said he has been vocal about the museum’s security flaws.
“I have alerted the Tshwane metro about the lack of commitment toward this institution for a long time. The impression I got is that the Pretoria Art Museum is simply not a priority for the ANC-led Tshwane metro,” he said in a statement quoted by the L.A. Times.
Pieter de Necker, a spokesman for the Twashne mayor, reportedly told the South African Press Association that several other museums across the country have similar safety worries. According to the Associated Press, de Necker said art thefts remain uncommon, but he has recently noticed that South African works have become more prized in the international art market.
Although unusual, this is not South Africa’s first experience with museum heists. The AP noted that four limited-edition prints by artist William Kentridge were stolen from a Johannesburg gallery in February 2011, and bronze statues have been targeted in other South African museums.
Using statistics from Interpol and the FBI, the AP reported that art theft is the third most lucrative crime in the world, beat out only by drugs and illicit arms sales. The Pretoria heist, however, would have been more profitable for the robbers if they had maybe just taken a moment to prioritize.
Update: BBC News has reported that four of the five stolen paintings have been recovered. Police found the pieces under a bench at a local cemetery, but are still looking for the fifth painting by Gerard Sekoto. No arrests have been made. | <urn:uuid:48a78dcd-d4bb-4ad7-8fb1-59c56ba998d2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/13/art-museum-robbers-accidentally-ditch-their-most-valuable-stolen-painting/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973806 | 931 | 1.835938 | 2 |
NEW YORK — Bill Gates remains the richest person in the United States with a fortune of $66 billion in 2012, up 10 percent from last year, Forbes magazine said Wednesday.
Behind the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist come investment guru Warren Buffett with $46 billion, then Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison with $41 billion.
White Gates fattened his net worth by seven billion dollars, Ellison sweetened his wealth by eight billion dollars, an increase of more than 20 percent from 2011.
Not so lucky was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. He lost $8.1 billion and has dropped to 36th place on the Forbes ranking with a net worth of $9.4 billion.
Actually, Zuckerberg is tied with two other people in that spot: pipeline magnate Richard Kindler and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Financier George Soros dropped from the top ten of the Forbes ranking to 15th place, with $19 billion. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg returned to the top ten as he increased his fortune by $5.5 billion to $25 billion.
Forbes said the combined net worth of the 400 richest Americans was $1.7 trillion, up 200 billion from 2011, thanks to a recovery in share prices, a rise in real estate prices, especially in Los Angeles and New York, and a jump in the value of artworks, Forbes said. | <urn:uuid:872eaacd-0e06-468a-906e-b18011118bc5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/19/bill-gates-still-richest-person-in-u-s-says-forbes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947236 | 280 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Western Connecticut State University is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc., the Board of Governors of Higher Education, State of Connecticut; the Connecticut State Department of Education; the American Chemical Society, the Collegiate Commission on Nursing Education; the Council on Social Work Education (Baccalaureate level); the Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs; and the National Association of Schools of Music.
The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. is a nongovernmental, nationally recognized organization whose affiliated institutions include elementary schools through collegiate institutions offering postgraduate instruction. Accreditation of an institution by the New England Association indicates that it meets or exceeds criteria for the assessment of institutional quality periodically applied through a peer group review process. An accredited school or college is one which has available the necessary resources to achieve its stated purposes through appropriate educational programs, is substantially doing so, and gives reasonable evidence that it will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Institutional integrity and public disclosure are also addressed through accreditation.
Accreditation by the New England Association applies to the institution as a whole. As such, it is not a guarantee of the quality of every course or program offered, or the competence of individual graduates. Rather, it provides reasonable assurance about the quality of opportunities available to students who attend the institution.
Inquiries regarding the status of an institution's accreditation by the New England Association should be directed to the administrative staff of the school or college. Individuals may also contact the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, New England Association of Schools and Colleges, 209 Burlington Road, Bedford, MA 01730-1433, Tel: (617) 271-0022. | <urn:uuid:42538394-893e-40e8-abd5-dc23db43853e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://[email protected]/graduate/accreditations.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934292 | 346 | 1.546875 | 2 |
We Got It For Free: Anderson & Sheppard’s A Style is Born
Anderson & Sheppard’s new book, A Style is Born, is being released today. The 296-page volume is special in that it’s part of Anderson & Sheppard’s evolutionary shift, but to understand that, we should start with some history.
The company was founded in 1906, and originally called Anderson & Simmons. It changed to its current name, however, when Mr. Simmons sold his stake to Sidney Horatio Sheppard, a trouser cutter at the firm. Per Anderson, one of the original co-founders, was a Swedish expatriate who learned his trade from an innovative Dutch tailor named Frederick Scholte. Scholte is credited with creating the London cut (also known as the English drape), which is a term that refers to the way a jacket hangs (or “drapes”) from the shoulders. There is more room over the chest and shoulder blades, which results in conspicuous, but graceful, folds of cloth that gently descend from the collarbone. The uppersleeves are built generously, but the armholes are cut high, so that that jacket’s collar never lifts off of the wearer’s neck. The shoulders are also unpadded, which leaves them to slope naturally along the body’s lines. The combination of all these things make the English drape cut extremely comfortable and easy to move around in, but still adheres to many of the basic standards of fit that make a suit well tailored.
This cut was popularized by the Duke of Windsor, who wanted to rebel against his “buttoned up” childhood. The Duke longed for a more comfortable way of dressing - he often found himself removing his coat, ripping off his tie, loosening his collar, and rolling up his sleeves. It was a gesture not just for comfort, but also, in a symbolic sense, freedom. In Scholte, he found the perfect simpatico - a man who would make him a softly constructed jacket that would be as much about comfort as it would be about elegance.
Since the Duke set much of the early- to mid-20th century mens’ fashion trends, his implicit endorsement led to a boom in the cut’s popularity, which reached all the way across the Atlantic. Many Hollywood stars became enamored with the look, and since Per Anderson trained under Scholte, they naturally went to Anderson & Sheppard.
While Per Anderson built the house’s silhouette, his partner, Sidney Horatio Sheppard (better known as SHS), set its tone. In his introduction to the book, David Kamp uses a line from American satirist and Anglophile SJ Peterman. Peterman said of the British: “The expression ‘It’s not done’ pretty well sums up not only the state of mind of the more solvent class, but the attitude of people in shops and businesses.” SHS was apparently an “it’s not done” kind of fellow. He was a schoolmaster’s son, well educated, socially connected, and somewhat of a country squire. He was said to be very autocratic, not one to mix with the tailoring fraternity, and worked hard to build the firm’s reputation, but without making it seemed like the firm sought attention to itself. In fact, this was done to such an extent that the firm seemed almost secretive. While other tailors such as Henry Poole and Kilgour joined associations and guilds, Anderson & Sheppard never joined anything at all. Save for a single advertisement published once in an outdoorsman magazine, the firm also never advertised. SHS eschewed publicity of any sort and thought it was vulgar.
SHS’s reticence and strict sense of propriety filtered down to the staff, and this transmuted into a kind of hardedge severity. Women weren’t allowed into the fitting areas, unless they promised to keep quiet. Cutters were known to storm out of rooms if wives offered a suggestion or critiqued a husband’s suit-in-progress. They also refused to deviate from the house’s famous English-drape style. One cutter, Mr. Hallbury, would respond to such requests by saying, “Are you asking me to make a Rolls-Royce with the front of a Mercedes, sir?” A fierier cutter, Mr. Cameron, would simply show customers the door, saying, “You’re in the wrong shop!”
In 2004, Anda Rowland became Anderson & Sheppard’s vice chairman, and now manages it along with John Hitchcock. She has overseen somewhat of a glasnost there. The famously secretive house, once closed to writers and journalists, is now opening up. There is a website, a blog, and cutters and tailors who don’t mind your paying them a visit in the back rooms. The tailors are much friendlier, and no one is ever thrown out anymore (though they still won’t deviate from their cut). This book, then, is part of that evolution. The handsome photographs give a glimpse into inner workings and everyday details of life at Anderson & Sheppard, from the sturdily woven fabrics to the tailors’ and cutters’ workrooms. There are also sublime archival images of legendary clients of yore, not least of which includes Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Gary Cooper, and Laurence Oliver. Nearly all of these men are photographed in their natural settings, and the elegance they portray is quite inspiring.
The volume is available for purchase on Amazon’s UK site, and I think it makes for a great addition to any library. It is part fashion history and part social history, and gives a near tactile immersion in one of the best tailoring shops in the world. I strongly recommend getting a copy. | <urn:uuid:ebf43bc0-89d3-40c6-ad2f-50185caa1468> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://putthison.com/post/11994091684/we-got-it-for-free-anderson-sheppards-a-style | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975758 | 1,253 | 1.578125 | 2 |
I am sure that I am not alone when I say that I love "I Love Rock'n Roll," the song popularized by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, who released it from the album of the same name in 1981. The hugely successful record went to number one on the Billboard singles chart and #2 on the Billboard albums chart.
Distingushed by its irrisistable handclap and beat and killer guitar lick, "I Love Rock'n Roll"'s writing and first recording is often mistakenly credited to Jett. But it was Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker of the Mickie Most produced, British based group The Arrows who wrote the song and first recorded it six years earlier in 1975 (originally as a B-side on RAK Records). Their version is below in a clip from their weekly Granada Television program The Arrows Show.
I am curious to know which version people think is better, so if you have a moment, please write which version you prefer in the comments below. Note that songwriter Alan Merrill of The Arrows is an American who moved to London, hence the original line he wrote is "put another dime," whereas if he had been British born, it probably would have been something like "Put another 10 pence in the jukebox baby."
Over the years "I Love Rock'n Roll" has been covered by many artists. Britney Spears covered the song for the 2002 movie Crossroads (movie clip below), and it has been used in many other movies too, including the 2006 film The Covenant, which featured the Joan Jett version in a bar with jukebox scene. | <urn:uuid:9e40db4a-1b1d-4054-a47c-58dc4cb8817c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amoeba.com/blog/tags/the-arrows/page1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974566 | 335 | 1.5 | 2 |
Well, it was a Monday. Maybe it's my lack of caffeine during the Lenten season or my new diet (I am in a wedding and going on a beach vacay all in the month of June!)- but Mrs. King was just a little bit cranky today. Really-I should be a in great mood- my students were very good and they knocked the socks of their Money Assessment (thanks in part to my *Mega Money Unit* I think!). So what better way to make an attitude adjustment than to host a giveaway.
As I told you all a week or so again, I love teaching about the Desert. Today I used this FANTASTIC book to talk to my students about the animal and plant adaptations. The book is full of children's tunes with a "desert twist." My students' favorite was the one about the Javelinas set to the tune of "I'm a little teapot," and I guarantee it had NOTHING to do with Mrs. King's singing!
Anyway- the best part of the book is the pages of resources in the back. There was a great little game that my kids really enjoyed where they had to guess the Desert Animal based on the adaptation listed. Back to the point of the rambling- **Sylvan Dell** said they would give one *E Book* version to one of my followers! Winner will be announced Thursday evening!
Please leave me 1 comment below and tell me that you follow Sylvan Dell on *facebook*!
And then another comment that you are a follower of me and my TPT store!
If you haven't gotten a chance to download my Desert Learning Log, you can do so below. I also made a document where my students record facts that they learned about the Desert during their independent reading.
Just for fun, here is one of my sweeties reading the great book!
Aaaand just in case you missed it, I posted Spring Literacy and Math Centers on TPT last night. The Spring Centers and my Money Packet are on sale for tonight only! Go check it out!
Off to tuck my kids in and watch The Voice! | <urn:uuid:790192d2-2acc-4ee6-978a-b7e38555edc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://queenofthefirstgradejungle.blogspot.com/2012/03/desert-text-and-e-book-giveaway.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974195 | 444 | 1.640625 | 2 |
LONGMONT -- The economic recession of 2008 cost Dick Siceloff his part-time job and more than one-third of his annuity. Charlotte Overby cashed in three retirement accounts to fund around-the-clock care for her husband after he suffered a stroke. Divorce forced former stay-at-home mom Gloria Kammerer to start over.
The three seniors didn't plan to live their golden years in affordable housing. Life happened.
Now, all three rent units at The Lodge at Hover Crossing, a 50-unit building for low-income seniors at 18th Avenue and Cook Street in northwest Longmont.
Right now, The Lodge has 54 tenants, including four couples. The average age of tenants is 62, and most are former professionals, said Lodge manager Jennivee Lawrence.
"These are people who had savings and lost them in the economy," Lawrence said. "They're not here because they planned to be here. They're here because of the economy."
The Lodge has a waiting list of 220 seniors, some dating back to 2009, waiting for an affordable housing unit to open up.
"Almost every day, I get a new application," Lawrence said.
And that number is only going to increase as baby boomers retire, many with far fewer dollars in savings than they'd like. By 2030, the number of people 65 and older nationwide is expected to climb to 72 million, or 20 percent of the country's population. By that same year, Boulder County population estimates place adults 65 and older at nearly 27 percent of the community.
When a friend told Siceloff about affordable housing, the retired instructional designer for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, conjured up images of peeling yellow paint and cinderblocks.
But what the 69-year-old found at The Lodge was different. The location, the price, the amenities all suited his needs. Plus, the way he looks at it, it's a way to get back some of the tax dollars he's paid over the years.
With the economic dip of 2008, Siceloff was laid off from a part-time video-editing job. His annuity lost 35 to 40 percent of its value, he said.
"It's starting to come back, but it's not coming back nearly as fast it went away," said Siceloff, who has been living at The Lodge since August 2009.
He's not alone.
According to a May 2009 Pew Research Center study, two-third of adults ages 50 to 64 reported that they lost money over the past year in mutual funds, individual stocks or 401(k)-type retirement accounts. In another 2010 Pew study, six of 10 baby boomers ages 50 to 61 who are approaching the end of their working years said they may have to delay retirement.
A continuing trend
Longmont Housing Authority operates three low-income senior housing sites in Longmont, including The Lodge. Village Place, 600 Coffman St., has 72 units for low-income seniors, and Aspen Meadows, 70 21st Ave., has 50.
At The Lodge, tenants can earn no more than 50 percent
Since The Lodge at Hover Crossing opened in August 2009, only 12 units have opened up; two people died and 10 moved in with family members.
The seniors who are moving into vacant units are typically earning 2 to 3 percent less each year than the tenant they replace, said Michael Reis, executive director of the Longmont Housing Authority.
"There's a great need for senior affordable housing. The population is growing. The population is aging. And their incomes are down," Reis said.
Next door to The Lodge, an identical senior housing facility is under construction. Called Hearthstone, it will be the Lodge's sister building and also will have 50 units. It is scheduled to open in November.
In July and August, staff will start evaluating the waiting list to fill units at Hearthstone on a first-come, first-served basis.
That's only a chip to the waiting list.
"Every year, more folks are hitting elderly age brackets, and their resources are strained. It's a trend that will continue for some time, we think," Reis said.
Charlotte Overby loves her 540-square-foot, west-facing unit at The Lodge. Like many of the building's tenants, she had been saving for retirement when disaster struck.
Her late husband, a former hospital administrator, suffered a stroke at age 56 that left him unable to speak or swallow. Medical bills and full-time care for her husband deflated the couple's three retirement accounts and other savings, said Overby, 76, who herself had a stroke 15 years ago. She had to quit her job as an office manager to help care for him.
"That was about five years of basically no income, and it just wiped us out," she said.
The couple left Dallas and moved to Boulder in 1991 to be closer to their daughter, a nurse in Boulder. She moved into her current unit in August 2009.
Overby gets emotional when she talks about what it's been like to live in Longmont.
"It's the most generous town that I have ever seen. It really is," she said, wiping away tears.
More housing, fewer dollars
Construction of both The Lodge and Hearthstone were funded primarily through senior housing grants from the federal Housing and Urban Development Section 202 program for low-income elderly housing -- a program whose funding has been cut drastically.
This year, all capital grants for buildings through the program have been cut. Typically, the program financed two metropolitan area projects and several rural ones, according to LHA staff. In the six-state Rocky Mountain region that includes Colorado, only one new project was funded this year, and that was in North Dakota.
HUD provided more than $6.7 million of the $7.4 million for The Lodge, and about $7.2 million of the $8.2 million for Hearthstone.
HUD's contract with the Longmont Housing Development Corp. also provides $160,000 in annual rent subsidies for 40 years to help operate The Lodge. The HUD contract will provide that same amount for Hearthstone once residents move in.
In 2005, four acres in northeast Longmont in the Prairie Village subdivision were donated to the Longmont Housing Authority. The land, southwest of Colo. Highway 66 and Alpine Street, is zoned for senior housing.
Ideally, LHA would like to build a facility that would support 60 affordable senior housing units, Reis said, but the challenge is financing.
"We would love the opportunity to apply for another HUD 202 at the location, but the funds are not available," he said.
Home at last
A divorce in 1991 prompted Gloria Kammerer, 75, a former singer and stay-at-home mother, into the work force.
"Unfortunately, I was one of those wives that let her husband do everything. I didn't even have a checkbook," she said.
The self-taught chef worked as a cook and caterer before retiring at age 63. She sold her townhouse in Michigan City, Ind., and moved to Colorado to be with her daughter and her family.
Two very different personalities under one roof led to clashes, and Kammerer said she felt like she was walking on eggshells. Independence, she said, was a huge selling point for The Lodge.
"I just love it because I walk through that door and I don't feel like I'm in an apartment. I feel like I'm in my home," she said.
Magdalena Wegrzyn can be reached at 303-684-5274 or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:125015d7-67e1-4af0-8610-d64aa2103245> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.denverpost.com/viewpoints/ci_20504656/need-affordable-senior-housing-longmont-expected-increase | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978938 | 1,598 | 1.609375 | 2 |
A new peace and security framework agreement to stabilize the eastern part of DR Congo was finally signed on Sunday in Addis Ababa by heads of states of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).
President Paul Kagame, who also signed the framework, described it an important step and opportunity in reaffirming their commitment to regional peace.
"I unreservedly welcome it," he pointed out. "Nothing would be of greater benefit to Rwanda than real progress to our regional peace and stability."
The agreement calls on countries in the region to abstain from interfering in the internal affairs of neighboring countries and to structurally reform institutions in the DRC.
"This agreement presents a valuable opportunity for all parties to build on the work started by the region and the wider continent, and focus seriously on addressing the real problems as clearly identified," Kagame noted. "It is crucial that the signing of this agreement not be seen as the end result of a peace process, but as a big step in the right direction."
The agreement was signed by eleven countries of the ICGLR namely Zambia, Congo Brazza, Rwanda, Burundi, Central African Republic, Angola, Uganda, South Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania and the Republic of Congo. It was also officiated by Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission.
President Kagame also noted that the pursuit of durable peace requires the collaborative engagement of the entire region and international community, adding that the framework that recognizes holistic approach to address the multifaceted root causes is the only way to end instability.
"Any meaning for contribution towards peace stability in DRC and in the great lakes region has to abandon the self defeating practice of selectivity in both memory and responsibility regarding the known long standing causes of recurring conflict," he noted.
The UN secretary general said that his body will soon announce the appointment of a Special Envoy to support the implementation of the framework together with stakeholders concerned. He also mentioned that his special report on the DR Congo and the Great Lakes region will be issued in the coming days.
"It will outline my proposal for a new comprehensive approach to addressing the underlying causes of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region, which encompasses the various components of the Framework but also a strengthened political and security role for MONUSCO, including the deployment of an Intervention Brigade with a peace enforcement mandate," announced Ki-Moon.
The eastern DR Congo has been highly destabilized by groups of rebels including M23 which a UN report released last year alleged Rwanda and Uganda to support; though both countries categorically rejected the allegations.
The signing ceremony of the agreement was planned for last January during the AU summit, but the deal was postponed in the last minutes after that some of the countries requested more time for consultations. | <urn:uuid:5b4e9a67-06ca-4b8e-af0b-021a4bca738c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allafrica.com/stories/201302260748.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965333 | 589 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The Sultan’s Eyes is the sequel to Act of Faith.
It will be published by HarperCollins in August 2013.
Where Act of Faith took place in a strife-torn Europe of the seventeenth century, in The Sultan’s Eyes, the action moves from Venice to Istanbul, to an empire ruled by a seven-year old Sultan and the women of his royal household.
It’s 1648, and Isabella has made a home for herself in Venice, safe from the clutches of the Inquisition. She, her friend Willem, and their mentor, the irascible Signora Contarini, work together as printers and publishers. Their publishing house is famous throughout Europe for one title: The Sum of All Knowledge, a revolutionary book of history and philosophy that has brought them – yet again – to the attention of the authorities.
Then Isabella’s nemesis, Fra Clement, is appointed Inquisitor in Venice, and vows to stamp out heretical printing. Isabella knows she will no longer be safe in the city, and, guided by their learned cartographer Al-Qasim, the three friends make their escape to the one place they feel sure Fra Clement will never follow: the fabled city of Constantinople. | <urn:uuid:f5478671-2931-47a5-9373-9e772ac123d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kellygardiner.com/fiction/books/the-sultans-eyes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95704 | 257 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Puerto Rican Statehood - The Vote No
Every once in a while, the question comes up in a formal way, and Puerto Ricans on the island are asked to vote to voice their opinion. Usually the vote goes something like 49% for statehood, 49% for status quo and 2% for independence. It seems that the question is going to be called again.
What would I vote?
Well, first I'd say I should have absolutely no right to vote because I don't have a primary residence on the island. I live in Connecticut. People who aren't on the island shouldn't have a vote. Period. Why? Aren't they just as Puerto Rican as those on the island? Sure. But they won't be living with the decision. I'm just as American as any Texan, but I don't live there and shouldn't have a vote on what affects them only.
But what advice would I give my friends and family who do live there? I have two pieces of advice:
1 - The citizens of Puerto Rico should look at the history of what has happened to native populations in each of the 50 states. For instance, did native Hawaiians maintain control of their island in 1959? Are the Eskimo people (Inuits?) the powers of Alaska? Puerto Ricans should ask whether Native Americans or even Mexican descendants benefitted by the statehood votes in California or Texas or New Mexico or Arizona or Colorado or Nevada or any other state. Will Puerto Ricans be able to retain control of the island upon becoming a state? If the answer is yes, then go for it. It would be lovely to be the first state out of 51 to have the native population retain control after statehood.
2 - Realize that as soon as Puerto Rico becomes the 51st state, there will be a big push (bigger than in previous years) to make English the official language of the United States. Only a tiny percentage of Puerto Rico's 4 million residents speak English fluently enough to do well if, for instance, court proceedings and contracts were all in English. Of course, the 1st amendment might protect the right of Puerto Ricans to have their contracts and laws be in whatever language they choose, but I'd rather see an amendment to the US Constitution that says that "Congress shall make no law concerning an official language for the United States." When that happens, there will be a real protection for Puerto Ricans.
Notice that Puerto Rico would be one of the bottom three states in terms of economics. There's a benefit, then for the people of Puerto Rico. For the first time, they'd be eligible for welfare. There'd also be some more monies poured into the island to bring their schools and infrastructure up to par (though they're generally not so bad now).
Right now, I'd be for the status quo. Hopefully, with one more generation, Puerto Rico will be ready to hold its own.
I love the island and I love America. Just not sure they're right for each other at this time. | <urn:uuid:bd21da10-f24c-4f23-bec3-49dbda7a0c24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://crimetimecafe.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970583 | 625 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Paris (CNN) -- After a week of deadly international protests against an anti-Islam film, a French satirical magazine is pouring oil on the fiery debate between freedom of expression and offensive provocation.
The magazine Charlie Hebdo, which is known for outrageous humor, published cartoons featuring a figure resembling the Prophet Mohammed on Wednesday.
The issue hit the stands eight days after a video mocking the Muslim prophet triggered angry protests, including one that led to the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya.
Stephane Charbonnier, director of the French magazine, said his staff is "not really fueling the fire" but rather using its freedom of expression "to comment (on) the news in a satirical way."
"It happens that the news this week is Mohammed and this lousy film, so we are drawing cartoons about this subject," Charbonnier told CNN affiliate BFM-TV on Wednesday.
The magazine was directing its derision at "this grotesque film," Charbonnier said, not the Muslim prophet.
That "grotesque film" is "Innocence of Muslims," a video that sat obscure on the Internet until September 11 when rioters, seizing on it, attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Protesters also breached the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, the same day, and protests over the video have erupted in at least 20 countries since then.
There has been no violence reported as a result of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons.
But France will close embassies and schools in about 20 countries on Friday, the main Muslim day of prayer, as a precaution, the French Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
It is already boosting security in some locations, including its embassies, and police vehicles were parked outside the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo late Tuesday.
Any depiction of Islam's prophet is considered blasphemy by many Muslims. France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, with an estimated 4.7 million followers of the faith.
The Charlie Hebdo cartoons are not labeled Mohammed, but several, including one that appears to show a man's naked rear end, could easily be interpreted as being depictions of Islam's prophet.
Charlie Hebdo journalist Laurent Leger said the magazine did not intend to provoke anger or violence.
"The aim is to laugh," Leger said. "We want to laugh at the extremists -- every extremist. They can be Muslim, Jewish, Catholic. Everyone can be religious, but extremist thoughts and acts we cannot accept."
Leger defended the magazine, saying it was within its rights and not responsible for people's reactions.
"In France, we always have the right to write and draw. And if some people are not happy with this, they can sue us and we can defend ourselves. That's democracy. You don't throw bombs; you discuss, you debate. But you don't act violently. We have to stand and resist pressure from extremism."
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault expressed his support for the freedom of press, but he said there are limits.
"We have a free press that can express itself right up to the point of caricature," Ayrault said Tuesday. "But there is also a question of responsibility."
He assured the public that "all the precautions will be taken" to maintain order.
The cartoons are provoking outrage among the French Muslim community, while other Muslims have accused the magazine of pandering for attention.
Wednesday's cartoons were published a day after hundreds of Muslims took to Twitter to satirize the U.S. magazine Newsweek's cover story on "Muslim Rage" in which the Somali-born writer and former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali said the recent protests represented mainstream Muslim opinion worldwide.
Muslims shot back with tongue-in-cheek tweets about what really enrages them, such as having a really good hair day but no one notices because they're wearing hijabs.
Hend Amry, who posted that tweet as @LibyaLiberty, said Charlie Hebdo's latest cartoons were a cynical attempt to inflate sales. She disputed the magazine's position that it just wants to provoke laughter and express its right to free speech.
"No it isn't. It's for ratings," she said.
She compared it to the French magazine that printed topless photos of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
"Like printing tawdry pics of (Catherine) Middleton -- lowbrow rating booster," she said.
"If we're going to chart it on the Muslim insult-o-meter, it is less inflammatory than the 'film' but does continue the East/West divide we see," she told CNN.
A South African student -- who said that what really enraged her was the release of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" during Ramadan -- said she had no intention of looking at the Charlie Hebdo cartoons.
Tweeting as @oh_my_golly, she said: "Refuse to be a pawn in a game where people deliberately insult beliefs&wish to incite hate/anger/violence citing 'free speech'"
Dalil Boubakeur, head of the Grand Mosque in Paris, condemned the cartoons "in the strongest possible terms" and expressed surprise that the magazine was running new Mohammed cartoons after its offices were attacked the last time it did so.
"To repeat the same stupidity, the same idiocy and the same calumnies, the same ignominy seems to us to be nearly psychotic action," he said.
The magazine's offices were the scene of an attack in November when they were burned on the day the magazine was due to publish an issue with a cover appearing to make fun of Islamic law.
The cover featured a bearded and turbaned cartoon figure of Mohammed saying, "100 lashes if you're not dying of laughter."
The cartoonist known as Luz, who drew the cover, has been under police protection since then.
Wednesday's issue does not have a Mohammed cartoon on the cover.
"We learned our lesson," Luz said.
France has seen rising tensions over its rapidly growing Muslim minority. Last year, the country banned the wearing of Islamic veils and other face coverings, claiming they were both degrading and a security risk.
Belgium has passed similar legislation, and Switzerland banned the building of minarets, the tall spires that often stand next to mosques.
CNN's Dheepthi Namasivayam, Richard Allen Greene, Ana Bickford, Susannah Palk and Alex Felton contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:87769903-93bb-431c-bd6f-cf7754be5d29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/19/world/europe/france-mohammed-cartoon/index.html?on.cnn=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971024 | 1,363 | 1.640625 | 2 |
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Entries since January 2011Page Previous 1 • 2 • 3 • 4
January 6, 2011 · By Emira Woods
Earlier this week, the AP reported that Obama is
[Q]uietly but strategically stepping up his outreach to Africa, using this year to increase his engagement with a continent that is personally meaningful to him and important to U.S. interests.
This story and the statement from Obama represent an opening for progressives in the United States. and in Africa to begin to push the Obama Administration on its short-sighted Africa policy. The last two years have been more or less a honeymoon where folks were so enthralled by a son of Africa in the White House that there was not enough hard criticism of the Administration’s policies, which continued rather seamlessly from Bush.
As you know, extractive industries - oil, gas and mining remain the dominant lens through which U.S.-Africa policy is set. AFRICOM and the expansion of U.S. militarism in Africa is a tool through which the United States can secure its narrow interests in Africa’s resources. In addition, the Obama Administration is pushing hard on its “Feed the Future” Initiative – which translates on the ground into land grabs for biofuels and genetically modified foods.
The key in the coming year will be the degree to which progressives can position ourselves to challenge harmful policies while pushing forward alternatives on food sovereignty (local food), land rights, human rights, environmental justice, economic justice (debt cancellation) and peace (stop the flow of weapons and military contractors). Many of these themes will be featured at the World Social Forum in Senegal next month.
The article focuses on elections noting that,
The administration is monitoring more than 30 elections expected across Africa this year, including critical contests in Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
Out of the 30, there will be 12 key elections in Africa this year (including the referendum in Sudan and Presidential elections in Nigeria, Uganda, Liberia – all of whom now have oil). This will bring more sustained mainstream media coverage to Africa than in other years.
An Obama trip to Africa will intensify that coverage. Rumors are flying as to where Obama will go and when. My bet is on the UNFCCC which will be in South Africa in December.
But Big Oil and other powerful U.S. companies and the negative impact of U.S. guns and training will remain a serious challenge to peace and stability on the continent.
January 5, 2011 · By Tiffany Williams
In yet another waste of their own time, and ours (seriously, have these people heard of the unemployment crisis or what?), some eager lawmakers took to the National Press Club in DC today to unveil a fresh attack on immigrants, this time dragging the US Constitution down into the dirt with them. The 14th Amendment, which guarantees that kids who are born in America are American citizens (something we all take for granted with our children), is their target.
It would be a logistical and bureaucratic nightmare of epic proportions, requiring a bigger government (I am sure the tea partiers would LOVE that!) to manage it, and folks to dig up proof of grandpa's citizenship (my great-grandmother was Cherokee, do you think they would count that?), yet this scary proposal does little to address what Americans are really asking for: sensible immigration reform.
Immigration reform, you've heard of it... a real plan to value the economic and social contributions of immigrants, helping to preserve the unique cultures they bring to the melting pot while at the same time helping them assimilate, learn English, pay taxes, and become citizens. Other than riling up some anti-brown people hatred, what is the goal of this proposal? All we're doing here is distracting lawmakers from existing, constructive ideas for reform and improvement of our immigration system.
While the idea probably doesn’t stand a chance of getting the 2/3 majority in Congress required to alter the Constitution (despite the popularity of racist laws like Arizona’s SB1070), it still takes away time and attention from the real issues that Americans care about… like the economy (stupid). We don't have time for this stuff!
And now for a fun video of some activists interrupting the press conference, via ABC News. I particularly liked the woman chanting “sit down” so no one could hear the protesters speak, and then saying they, the protesters, needed to respect First Amendment rights:
You can find information about the history and importance of the 14th Amendment via the Congressional Research Service | <urn:uuid:da937c87-0219-41fb-b985-6e7121490b82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ips-dc.org/blog?since=01%2F01%2F2011&until=01%2F31%2F2011&type=Blog&start=15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93531 | 1,130 | 1.546875 | 2 |
During the past few posts, I have been examining who owns the genealogy companies. What I find is a mixture of huge multinational corporations and family owned businesses. I did have an ulterior motive in examining the ownership however, I had several larger issues to discuss and needed to know a little background before I jumped into the controversial arena. When you realize the diversity of the ownership of the larger genealogy companies, you can imagine extending the diversity to the hundreds of smaller business organizations in today's genealogy marketplace.
The first question is this: Who owns the genealogy? If I do some research and identify my grandparents, do I own that information? I mean, not in the copyright sense, but in the real down-to-earth personal control type ownership. If you have ever thought about the subject of ownership, you probably realize that the whole concept is defined by the society you live in. The whole concept of private ownership is societal based. Now, let's think about owning genealogy. Do I own my research? What rights do I have as a result of having done the research? Again, I am not talking about the statutorily created concept of "copyright" but the idea of ownership. In my experience, most people would claim ownership of anything they felt they had either personally created or obtained through purchase or as a gift. In contrast, what if you were hired to do the research? Would you feel the same sense of ownership, or would you acknowledge that the person that hired you owned the research?
This idea of ownership is at the core of many of today's genealogy issues. Who owns and idea or information? I commonly hear the mantra that no one owns an idea. But, in the U.S. we have an elaborate system of copyright/trademark/patents to the contrary. I may not own the information about my Grandfather's life, but if I put it into a book, the book is automatically copyrighted under the current U.S. law. Copyright law gives me a whole bundle of rights to my work. But let's go back to the core. Can anyone really own an idea? Not under any present law in the U.S. What about information in the sense of facts and figures? Once again, under our laws, no one really owns information. Then what am I talking about? I am talking about a real phenomena, ownership of work product. I have found again and again, that people believe they own their genealogy.
Now let's scale this up a bit. What if my great Aunt does a lot of genealogical research and manages to identify six generations on my father's line. Does she own the research? What if she gives me a copy of the file? Do I now own that research or does she retain some kind of ownership? What if I don't believe anything she gave me and go out and do the same research over again? Do I now own the research assuming that my conclusions are exactly the same as my Aunt's? What if my conclusions are different? What if one of my cousins goes out and does the same research over? Does he now own the research? At this point, you can probably see that the idea of ownership of information is fundamentally different than the concept of ownership of either real or personal property. If I own a car, for example, even if it is a common make or model, I still have a unique item which can be identified. If someone else goes out and purchases exactly the same make and model of car that I own, I still have my own car and it is completely distinct from that of someone else. No one would argue that by purchasing a similar car that anyone would somehow obtain an ownership interest in my car. But, in the world of genealogy (and other information based disciplines) I venture to say that most practitioners would believe they had an ownership interest in the information in their own file, especially if they spent the time to do the research.
The example of the car ownership points out that the idea of ownership of information or ideas is an illusion. Physical objects (at least in the common experience sense) can only be in one place at one time. But the same exact information can be in multiple locations at the same time. Whether my relatives share their information with me or not, if I do the research, theoretically, I can reproduce anything they have.
Here is another issue with the concept of the ownership of information. What happens to our "ownership" when we die? It is a sad fact that every day, every hour, every minute we are losing valuable genealogical information as people die all over the world. When you last living sibling of your father or mother dies, that may be the last time anyone could have identified all of the people in those old photographs. So, in addition to the challenge of the illusion of ownership, information and ideas are ephemeral. Have you ever thought about what will happen to all of your genealogical research, papers, books, records, files etc. when you die? Who will own the information when you die?
It looks like I am going to have to break this down into smaller units. So I guess the next post will continue the discussion.
Here is the question for the next post; Who owns the genealogy I post online in a database? | <urn:uuid:81a89eea-e44f-43ac-87f9-3922d9249f50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2010/06/who-owns-genealogy.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968619 | 1,090 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Biblical allegories are a staple of pop culture, but the best ones — typically, films like TheGreen Pasturesor Jesus of Montreal — have a good time at it. Fun, however, is the last thing on McNally’s mind. There’s never any doubt, watching Corpus Christi, that Joshua is a clear-eyed visionary and not, possibly, some deluded neurotic whose followers are hallucinating cultists. This is because Corpus Christiis not an attack on faith, but a calculated defense of it, and because McNally is not interested in raising questions, only in answering an oppressive choir of bigots that thunders inside his head.
No one can deny the seriousness of homophobia, but there’s something creepily self-serving about a play that uses the founder of a major religion to sanctify a contemporary issue like gay marriage — not because this is sacrilege, but because it’s just plain silly. By play’s end, Joshua and his followers seem less a cadre of holy seekers and more like the weekend idlers of McNally’s Love! Valour! Compassion!
When Corpus Christi’s world premiere was announced in 1998 by the Manhattan Theater Club, there was a firestorm of criticism and threats against the theater. So much so that MTC briefly canceled the play, until an even louder outcry from offended liberals forced the company to open it as scheduled. When it did, MTC, no doubt, became the first off-Broadway theater to require patrons to pass through a metal detector to see a play.
The tumult over Corpus Christi seems overblown today. Of course, its most fervent critics hadn’t seen or read the play. They were instead reacting to their worst fears — that the play would horridly mock their religion by equating Jesus with sodomy. But, as everyone would discover, Corpus Christi’s real shock value lay in its being a gay play without nudity, as well as a mushy defense of Christianity and the veracity of Scripture. When it comes to attacking the status quo, you won’t find Terrence McNally casting the first stone.
CORPUS CHRISTI | By TERRENCE McNALLY At the LILLIAN THEATER, 1078 N. Lillian Way, Hollywood | Through October 21 | <urn:uuid:cf74451a-32d8-49f3-9d33-3ba9fa9967d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.laweekly.com/2001-09-13/stage/love-valour-crucifixion/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961328 | 488 | 1.601563 | 2 |
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