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I don’t get enough non-fiction in my diet. If left to my own devices I’d probably end up solely devouring fiction titles that involve melodrama, dark humor, mild magic, and sentient cheese. That said, I am consistently grateful that National Geographic Kids has the wherewithal to pull me up out of my comfort zone, and to plop me into the potentially frightening world of facts and figures. It isn’t frightening, of course. Quite the opposite. And so the other day I sat down with Jeff Reynolds of National Geographic to see what they have on the table, and what they’re excited about.
A little bit of summer before we plunge into fall, eh? And what more appropriate title than Summer’s Bloodiest Days: The Battle of Gettysburg as Told from All Sides by Jenifer Weber? Here you have a book that does something that I’m a little shocked other folks haven’t picked up on yet. Seems to me that if you have a bunch of old Civil War era photographs lying about, the natural thing to do with them would be to give the little buggers speech balloons ala Monty Python. That’s what Weber has done here, along the usual artifact inserts, and interesting facts. Apparently this is the first in a series of other Civil War battles, each told from a variety of sides. Something to keep an eye out for, then.
If your children’s room is anything like mine then big tall books can be the bane of your existence. One library I worked in had its own Oversized section, slowly gathering cobwebs and mothballs for all that people visited it. One book that was always criminally huge was the National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers. Bloody gigantic, that thing is! Apparently someone noticed and made some adjustments. Shrunk down to “backpack size” (a pretty good designation) the new National Geographic Kids World Atlas has updated information and will apparently fit on your shelves better. Sweet.
The term “user-generated content” generally causes a range of personal opinions. For some it’s a derogatory term. For others, praiseworthy. In the case of Weird but True! 2: 300 Outrageous Facts, it’s just a description for what you’ll find inside. National Geographic’s kid magazine solicited its readers for facts and those tidbits then were then duly entered into this book. Everything from “There’s a one in a trillion chance that a piece of space junk will land on your house today” to “Chickens see daylight 45 minutes before humans do.” I’ve always liked the format of these books. Plus, you need to have something on hand when the fortieth kid comes up to you asking for your Guinness Book of World Records titles and they’re all checked out. To pays to be prepared.
Good old Karen Romano Young (author of this year’s very fun novel Doodlebug, doncha know) has a new series out that may be the update your library’s science fair section needs. The series is called Science Fair Winners, but it’s the individual titles I like. Particularly Experiments to do on Your Family (it was called Sibling Science but someone made the wise decision to make a change). I like the implications in the title. Like you’ll “test” the family’s taste buds by switching their salt for sugar. Not that it’s a prank book or anything. In one case it looks closer at things like figuring out what young siblings experience by figuring out how young children see. Just a fun variation on a common need.
Re: National Geographic Kids Animal Atlas; hubba hubba. The pictures in this are gorgeous. Just jaw-dropping.
This one’s neat. Robert B. Haas is a National Geographic photographer. He also has a tendency to climb into moving aerial vehicles and take photos. It’s a thing. Now a lot of his shots are being collected in the book I Dreamed of Flying Like a Bird: My Adventures Photographing Wild Animals from a Helicopter. Those of you who enjoyed his previous book, African Critters, will probably get a kick out of this look at flamingos, giraffes, and what the book describes as “one of the few ‘fair fights’ in the African wilderness.” He’s also really well known for this beautiful photo of a group of flamingos from above. Check it out:
Insane, right? That’s not digitally manipulated or anything either. They just happened to be moseying about in that position when he shot them.
Now every time I see a new mummy book I think of the person designing the cover. As far as I can ascertain, it’s a total faux pas to come out with a new mummy book with someone on the cover we’ve all seen before (Ice Man = passé). Mummies: Embalmed, Dried, Sealed, Drained, Frozen, Stuffed, Tanned, Wrapped, and Smoked and We’re Dead Serious has chosen to go with an open mouthed mummy with whom I am not familiar. Well played, NG. It’s a visual feast, this book, with enough “gore appeal” (new category?) for the kids who are into the freaky. By the way, author Chris Sloan spends much of his time making models of dinos. Perhaps he could switch focus and make some mummies too now, eh?
The other day a mom stopped into my library and wanted all the Science I Can Read books we had from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. They’ve never republished them, from what I can tell, but this mom loved how this series covered such a wide range of science topics for very early readers. Harper Collins would do well to revivify that series, but in the meantime National Geographic has taken steps to provide something similar. The National Geographic Little Kids Big Book of Animals isn’t a series, but rather a nice big book of different critters in the natural world with an easy text. It’s preschooler non-fiction for the four-year-old that’s animal crazy.
Another kind of book that librarians are constantly on the lookout for is the good non-fiction booktalk title. Something you can close with when you’re booktalking to a class of kids and you want to provide something for the students who like cold hard facts. Animal Pop!: With 5 Incredible, Life-Size Pop-Outs basically combines the pop-out (not up) technology that’s so hep with the kids today alongside the premise behind books like Actual Size by Steve Jenkins. Turn to the tiger page, for example, and out pops a tiger head that’s the size of a real tiger’s head in the wild. Very nice idea, if potentially heart attack inducing.
Now, as of press time, I was told that the National Geographic Kids: The Ultimate Dinopedia by Don Lessem is completely comprehensive. That said, no book of dinos can ever be completely comprehensive, since they keep finding new little dickens all the time. This, however, is something we’ve needed for a while. Sometimes I get a kid who wants a dino book, but the kind that names ALL the different dinosaurs out there. This book does that, along with cool pictures by one Franco Tempesta and additional fact boxes. This will complement our copy of Dr. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.’s Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-To-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages (circa 2007) quite nicely, if not supplant it altogether.
This fall the National Geographic channel will air a seven-hour miniseries called Great Migrations. Pretty much what it sounds like. To supplement this series, NG for kids is putting out the book Great Migrations: Whales, Wildebeests, Butterflies, Elephants, and Other Amazing Animals on the Move by Elizabeth Carney. Once in a while I’ll get a kid in my branch that is doing a migratory unit. And a lot of the time, they’ll want books on animals other than birds. Perfect then. This book is a longish sort. Comes in at 10 7/8″ by 7 1/2″, so make room on your shelves. It also appears to include animals that don’t often make migratory texts, like the red crabs on Christmas Island and the elephants in Mali. Fun notion.
We hear a fair amount about the Lost Boys of Sudan. Indeed, my library carries a couple copies of Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan by Mary Williams. But whatever happened to the girls? Lost Boy, Lost Girl: Escaping Civil War in Sudan is by John Bul Dau and Martha Akech, with Michael Sweeney and Karen Kostyal. John survived as a Lost Boy. Martha did too as a girl. Years later they’d meet and marry in America, and this book talks about their experiences both in Sudan and later adjusting in the United States. It’s a take I’ve not seen in children’s literature before. Give it a gander.
It’s not just kids that ask me in my library for books on gems and minerals. Adults come in wanting the same darn thing too. We like the sparkly, we humans. With that in mind, Steve Tomecek has added a new title to the Jump Into Science series, and it’s called Rocks and Minerals. Sounds like it would make a nice pairing with Rocks & Minerals by Simon Basher and Dan Green. You can never have too many.
I’m in a pairing kind of mood today. Sometimes I’ll hear about a title and instantly want to find it a mate. For example, I heard about Ann Bausum’s Unraveling Freedom: The Battle for Democracy on the Homefront During World War I and I instantly wanted to place it alongside Truce: The Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting by Jim Murphy. Yet while Murphy’s book looked more at the underpinnings to the war and the repercussions during the first few years of fighting, Bausum focuses squarely on the homefront and how freedoms were eroded there. The book contains information like the fact that 25% of the American population during WWI was of German descent and that prohibition was a result of a kind of German backlash. It’s a fascinating topic. One I’ve hardly seen addressed in the kid market.
Jeff wasn’t going to get too deeply into the ’11 season, and indeed there aren’t any cover images ready yet, but he did show me a couple things worth remembering.
First off, I have big plans in place for Sue Macy’s book Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (with a few flat tires along the way). Here’s how I figure it. There were at least two big middle grade novels in 2010 that dealt with bicycles (Crunch by Leslie Connor and The Boneshaker by Kate Milford). If either one of those wins some kind of a big award come Newbery time, then Macy’s book will be in the perfect position to latch onto our literary bicycle love. Plus it’s a fun topic. With an increase in folks opting for bikes rather than cars every year, what better time to have a look at its history in some manner?
Speaking of earth friendliness, consider Human Footprint: Everything You Will Eat, Use, Wear, Buy, and Throw Out in Your Lifetime. It’s by Ellen Kirk and it’s a fun concept book. What is the average American human footprint? With ridiculous photographs to complement the statistics, we learn how we’ll be eating 14,518 candy bars, take 28,433 showers, and purchase $52,972 worth of clothes. I’m really looking forward to this one. Consumption is best displayed in all its ghastly glory when it gets a little extreme.
I figure that planets are a lot like dinosaurs. Kids are often up on the latest data long before adults. In 13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System, David A. Aguilar looks at the theory that our planetary system includes not just the usual suspects, but also Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea, and MakeMake. MakeMake? Man oh geez. I guarantee, without a shadow of a doubt, that you’ve nothing like this on your shelves right now. MakeMake?
The story of Edith Eva Eger is known in some circles, but she’s hardly a household name. As a teenager, Eger was a ballet dancer selected to dance for Dr. Joseph Mengele. When her concentration camp was liberated, Eger’s body was amongst the dead. An American soldier saw her hand move, however, and had her rescued. The book Left for Dead: Growing Up in a Nazi Death Camp is by Eger and Claudia Metcalfe. It will certainly have readers.
And that, as they say, is that. A nice respectable little list and plenty of something for everyone. As per usual, let us end with the Meets:
Best Meets: The Dangerous Book for Boys meets Highlights Magazine -
The Classic Collection of Childhood Wonders: Favorite Adventures, Stories, Poems, and Songs for Making Lasting Memories by Susan Magsamen. | <urn:uuid:a3507aef-b12e-4ae7-a5fb-69a9abff3f29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2010/07/29/librarian-preview-national-geographic-fall-2010spring-2011/ | 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 | 0.942721 | 2,874 | 1.695313 | 2 |
A Turquoise March has a smooth, conical body that is predominantly blue with a thick, horizontal, sky blue stripe along its midsection. It also has a Heartless emblem emblazoned on its chest. The top of its body flares outward and forms a jagged "collar" below the Heartless's spherical, pitch black head. It also wears a conical, sky blue hat that has a blue-white, jagged brim and a thin, curled tip. Like many Heartless, the Turquoise March has glowing yellow eyes. Its seemingly useless feet sport three small, thin toes.
The Turquoise March's name follows the same pattern as other Heartless in its family. It refers to the color turquoise, a shade of blue, and a "march", a piece of music designed or fitted to accompany and guide the movement of troops.
Turquoise Marches are rather easy to defeat, as they do not possess a lot of HP. They do, however, possess a single potentially devastating attack in their arsenal. These Heartless fire spheres of water-based energy at the player, which will eventually erupt into a large water pillar. While this tactic is easily dodged by increasing or decreasing one's altitude while in the skies of Neverland, Dodge Roll can be used to avoid this attack when on the ground. Aerial combos serve as one's best chance of defeating a Turquoise March, but the player should take extreme caution not to be hit by the spheres of water energy. Should the attack of a Turquoise March make contact, the Damage Drain status effect shall be inflicted, and a small portion of its HP will be restored. | <urn:uuid:34fc0508-3fd9-4e77-a390-458effe8baef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.khwiki.net/Turquoise_March | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954581 | 342 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Freezing temps in NJ doesn't mean cold Super Bowl
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The NFL wanted a cold-weather Super Bowl and it would have had the coldest one had the game been played at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, when temperatures were below freezing in the New York-New Jersey area.
Was it really cold though?
Will Mahoney, 53, of Paramus didn't think so, even though most area residents woke to a dusting of snow on the ground. With little or no wind, the Giants' fan left his jacket in car and walked into the Meadowlands Racetrack wearing a light Kansas City Chiefs' sweatshirt. It was a gift, and the walk was pleasant.
"I love the idea of the Super Bowl coming here," Mahoney said. "Around the league there seems to be some flak because of the weather, the cold. But you know what? I think it's great for the area. It's nice out now, but it could be 10 degrees next year. I have no problem with that either. The elements are part of the game, so if it that's the way it is, that's the way it is. "
A couple of miles away in Carlstadt, restaurant owner John 'Red' Palsi sipped a beer and looked forward to a big day, and even bigger one next year for the 48th Super Bowl on Feb. 2, 2014.
"Football has always been good for us," said the 79-year-old Palsi, who turned his go-go bar into a restaurant 12 years ago. "When the Giants and Jets are here, it's always been good for us. Super Bowl, playoffs, no problem. There will be a crowd here tonight."
Roughly 1,300 miles away in New Orleans, Al Kelly wrapped up a week of work.
The chief executive and president of the organizing committee for the 2014 Super Bowl, Kelly has laid the groundwork for the first cold-weather Super Bowl and the first one to be played in a stadium that serves as the home for two teams, the Giants and Jets. The former American Express executive now has a year to make sure everything comes together.
The countdown has started on the game that many worry will return football to the old days, and whims of elements.
Meteorologist David Stark of the National Weather Service said mid-day temperatures in the area on Sunday were in the 20s and were not expected to top 30 degrees. Continued...
"For the date, that's a little below normal, but as far as being fairly cold, it's been much colder on this date in the past," Stark said.
Recent Super Bowl Sundays in New Jersey have been pleasant. Two years ago when the game was played in Dallas, temperatures at the Meadowlands were a pleasant 46 degrees. And it was 40 degrees — with no wind — a year ago when the game was in Indianapolis.
Despite the freezing temperatures on Sunday, Stark said the winds were 5 to 10 mph and calm in some area. But there was almost no wind at the Meadowlands three hours before kickoff of the title game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers, who played in New Orleans.
The coldest temperature for a Super Bowl played outdoors was 39 degrees on Jan. 16, 1972 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. Dallas beat Miami 24-3.
The job of getting the New York-Jersey area ready to handle all the events leading up to the game was given to Kelly a little less than two years ago.
Starting with little, he now has 29 full-time employees working in two offices in the Super Bowl organizing committee. The group is closing in on the $60 million needed to run the events surrounding the NFL title game, has signed on 12,000 volunteers and enlisted an impressive list of corporate sponsors. He still needs to enlist 6,000 volunteers and make sure all are trained.
"As a host committee, our Super Bowl is really Monday to Saturday," Kelly told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from New Orleans. "That's what we are all about. That's when the economic benefit that will come about for the local communities, the businesses and the government is going to happen with the large amount chiefly on Thursday, Friday and Saturday."
On game day next year, the only job the organizers have is to make sure the teams get to the stadium. The NFL then runs the show.
Kelly and 16 members of his team visited every Super Bowl site in New Orleans this past week, sat in on all the meetings and walked the streets to see how things were going. The goal is to be prepared for 200,000-plus people to descend on our NY-NJ area and to offer them the opportunity to have some fun, spend some money and benefit the region.
"My other hope is that with the extraordinary entertainment opportunities in the region that on Feb. 3, that Monday, people are thinking they only saw half of what they would have liked to have seen and it spurs them to make a return trip to the area," Kelly said. Continued...
Palsi, the owner of Redd's which is less than a mile from the 80,000-seat stadium, said the Super Bowl is going to bring droves people to the area, much like when the Meadowlands Racetrack opened in 1976. Nightly crowds at the track were in the tens of thousands and local businesses benefited.
Palsi was diplomatic about his favorite team.
"If I bet on the Jets, I'm a Jets' fans," he said. "If I bet on the Giants, I'm a Giants fan."
Outside the restaurant, Jim Clark of Little Ferry was taking a cigarette break. He wore his Jets' baseball cap and a Giants' shirt. He wasn't shy saying he would prefer the Jets played in the game.
"I think it will be a good turnout no matter what" the 56-year-old Clark said.
Back at the racetrack, Jeff Salerno, 56, of Franklin said most area residents wouldn't have a problem coming to watch a cold-weather game, and he felt the economic benefit would be good for the region.
"Me, I won't be nowhere near here on Super Bowl Sunday," Salerno said. "Sure it will be different. New Jersey wanted it. I'll watch it, like I am going to tonight, on TV."
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Join Rafi Topalian as he discusses the past, present and future Armenian news, stories and related issues that effect not only the Armenian Community in the Capital District but non-Armenian readers alike. | <urn:uuid:25d072d8-8e39-4a65-9a48-ff58ef901e1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://troyrecord.com/articles/2013/02/03/news/doc510f0ac82dd6b719790049.txt?viewmode=fullstory | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976309 | 1,593 | 1.5 | 2 |
As anyone who’s ever plunked down $100 for a bunch of long-stemmed roses quickly figures out, flowers are big business in this country—a $32.1 billion business, to be exact. And Valentine’s Day (psst, hey Romeo, it’s Thursday) is when floral brands do 40 percent of their dollar volume: the sweetest-smelling day of the fiscal year. But while most of the business goes to petal-pushers like 1-800-Flowers, an emerging coterie of politically correct purveyors are gaining market share. Yes, you guessed it, organic flowers are what the hip romancers are giving this year.
“Our catalog of eco-friendly flowers continues to grow, and the purchase of organic flowers will continue to increase,” said Jonathan Greene, president of online floral shop The Grower’s Box. “Affluent people who care about the environment is a $200 billion consumer base, and those are our core customers,” said Robert McLaughlin, CEO of Organic Bouquet, which just announced a partnership with celeb Kathy Ireland to sell a line of eco-responsible bouquets. McLaughlin’s business is up 2 percent over last year, and that’s not just from the Prius-driving crowd. “We’re definitely seeing interest with more mainstream consumers,” added Keriann Koeman, co-owner of organic bulb seller EcoTulips. “Just as consumers want to know their chocolate is fair-trade, flowers should also have a scale.”
Consumer awareness of product sourcing is only logical. Remember all that bad PR over the Chinese workhouses that make the iPad? Well, flowers aren’t a pretty picture either. An estimated 80 percent of flowers sold in the U.S. come from farms in Colombia and Ecuador, some of which have dismal records of pesticide use and exploitative labor practices. A 2012 story in The Atlantic estimated there’s a one in 12 chance the flowers you buy up here were cut by a child worker down there.
Organic Bouquet’s McLaughlin said that, while socially and ecologically responsible flower brands (most of which display a tag from a verifier such as Veriflora) cannot afford the marketing blitzes that the big outfits mount, his best marketing tool is the news. “Each time there’s a story about labor abuses and polluted milk from China, it raises awareness,” he said. “We find that consumers want to know about the products they buy.” And as far as the higher cost associated with most eco-friendly products, Organic Bouquet uses part of its proceeds to help Ecuadorian growers convert to responsible practices, both for the land and the people working it.
But according to the Organic Trade Organization, organic flowers were only a $48 million business in 2011, so awareness will need to grow a lot more before the big brands get nervous. “The organic concept has more hype than reality,” said floral marketing consultant Tom Prince. “Sure, consumers want environmentally friendly floral products, but they do not want insect-related blemishes on flower buds or fungus on foliage.”
Still, organic flowers from The Grower’s Box show no signs of that stuff, and Greene is still confident. “Valentine’s Day customers will be looking for eco-friendly origins of the flowers they purchase,” he said. | <urn:uuid:ad2d5134-fb84-45a7-8a7b-05c51b55de54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/hey-bud-buying-organic-valentines-day-147169 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95302 | 731 | 1.765625 | 2 |
SUPTS. MEMO. NO. 4
February 25, 2000
Acting Superintendent of Public Instruction
Regulations Establishing Standards for Accrediting Public Schools in Virginia contain provisions for awards for exemplary performance for students who meet the requirements for graduation as follows: 1. Students who complete the requirements for a standard diploma with an average grade of "B" or better in the required courses will receive a Board of Education Seal on the diploma. 2. Students who complete the requirements for an advanced studies diploma with an average grade of "B" or better and successfully complete at least one advanced placement course (AP) or one college-level course for credit will receive a Governor's Seal on the diploma. 3. Students may receive other seals or awards for exceptional academic, vocational, citizenship, or other exemplary performance in accordance with criteria defined by the local school board. Please note that, as in the past, the Board or Governor's Seals are not to be interchanged between diplomas and may only be used when the above conditions have been met. The seal should be placed in the lower left quarter of the diploma. Local school boards determine the design and use of other seals. Traditionally, seals have been purchased and stored at the Department of Education. School superintendents were required to submit a request for the number of seals of each type needed for that year's graduating class. A form is enclosed for your use to request seals for the 2000 school year graduates. In prior years, we provided you with a three-year supply of seals to alleviate the necessity of having to order each year. However, since the proposed revisions to the accrediting standards make provisions for new seals, we are asking that you order only what you will need for this year. To determine how many seals you should order, we are asking that you estimate the total number of seals you will need for this year and deduct the number you already have left from previous years. Your orders should be sent as soon as possible, but not later than March 31, 2000. Please also note that a new procedure for ordering seals is in place. Orders will be filled by the Office of Production Services, Division of Technology, in the Department of Education. For information regarding the awarding and use of the seals, please contact Charles Finley, director of accreditation, at 804-786-9421 or by e-mail to [email protected]. Orders for seals or questions regarding placing orders should be directed to Ms. Patricia Hicks, Office of Production Services, Division of Technology, at 804-225-2400. JLD/cwf Attachment: A hard copy of the attachment will be sent to the superintendent's office. | <urn:uuid:a42eb5fb-0892-4217-a839-8945e4ad091c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doe.virginia.gov/administrators/superintendents_memos/2000/adm004.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946651 | 555 | 1.71875 | 2 |
SOFIA, Bulgaria â?? Thousands of Bulgarians furious over eye-popping power bills forced Prime Minister Boiko Borisov to resign Wednesday, making the Bulgarian leader the latest casualty of austerity measures in Europe.
Borisov told voters that he was stepping down after the marches turned violent, which he said he could not take.
"I cannot stand looking at a bloody Eagles' Bridge," he said, referring to a downtown intersection in the capital of Sofia where police and protesters violently clashed. "Every drop of blood is a shame for us."
Those demonstrations pitted flare-wielding demonstrators against truncheon-carrying officers. Fourteen people were injured in the violence.
The demonstrations Wednesday were just the latest chaos in the Eastern European nation, the EU's poorest member, where average salaries are just 380 euros a month. On Sunday, 100,000 protesters took to the streets, pasting government buildings in downtown Sofia with eggs and tomatoes and lashing out at police.
The protesters burned power bills and they denounced Borisov's government for failing to improve living standards in the country.
Electricity bills have gone up 13% since July. For many protesters the rising cost brings back memories of Bulgaria's communist past and the poverty prevalent during that period. Borisov announced Tuesday that the Czech utility CEZ, which controls power distribution in western Bulgaria, would be stripped of its license. CEZ says rates were set by the Bulgarian government according to a contract with the utility.
"People feel they have been lied to time and again during the entire transition period (since 1989), said Petar Georgiev, who was protesting. "They are sick of the politicians."
Bulgaria, a former communist country of 7 million people, held its first free multiparty elections since World War II in 1990. Borisov began his post-communist career in the 1990s as a top bodyguard to the elites of Bulgarian politics, guarding former kings and communists. His center-right government won office in 2009 on promises to raise living standards and end corruption.
The government started off popular, but it lost voters as economic conditions worsened because of recession. On Tuesday he fired his deputy and finance minister Simeon Djankov after protests in Sofia. And Borisov promised to punish price-gouging foreign power companies.
"Firing Djankov was clearly a desperate move by Borisov to salvage his own reputation," said independent analyst Veselin Avraamov, who predicted the protests. "After that failed, the resignation can be seen as a similar move: (It aims to) avoid becoming the sole target of popular anger."
Protesters accused Bulgaria's political class of having ties to organized crime.
"Bulgaria has, unfortunately, become notorious for its contract killings, said Johanna Deimel, the deputy director of Southeast Europe Association, a research institute in Germany. "A lot of contract killings of prominent figures have never been solved."
With its prime minister gone, Bulgaria's elections, scheduled for July, will now be moved forward to April or May. Already, some analysts are predicting a "dirty" campaign. Protesters say that they won't be won over by the opposition â?? much less the government.
"Opposition parties are already trying to ride the wave (of anger) and use the demonstrations for their own gain," Georgiev said. "The electricity bills were just the spark."
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Bulgaria PM resigns after electric bill shock | <urn:uuid:05eeaf4c-412f-4814-81ef-9248abbdb2f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/usatoday/article/1933207 | 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 | 0.972185 | 725 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Merck (NYSE:MRK) has entered into a partnership with Ambrx, a development-stage biotechnology company, to design and develop antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) that deliver small molecules to specific parts of the body. ADC is a relatively new type of targeted therapy with lower side-effects and is usually used to target cancer. Merck will identify some specific targets other than oncology and use Ambrx’s site specific protein conjugation chemistry technology to develop ADCs.
The move represents Merck’s strategy to develop next generation therapeutics as many are predicting, that by 2014, biotech drugs will replace small molecule drugs to become the world’s largest drugs. This will also help the company fend off patent expiry of blockbuster drugs as it struggles with uncertain prospects for its new drugs.
Our price estimate for Merck Labs stands at $41, implying a premium of about 5% to the current market price.
Under the deal, Merck will make an upfront payment of $15 million to Ambrx while another $288 million will be paid in milestone payments. Ambrx will also receive royalties (royalty rate undisclosed) on global sales of drugs from the collaboration. Merck will retain rights to develop and commercialize the drugs worldwide.
While at this stage it may be difficult to judge the impact of the event on the company’s value, it certainly signifies Merck’s relentless focus on R&D over the years. Merck is among the largest R&D spenders and shows no signs of curtailing its R&D expense. However, of late, the drug maker has witnessed trial successes drying up significantly.Notes:
- Merck Bets $15M on Ambrx’s “Smart Bomb” Antibodies, Xconomy, June 18 2012 [↩] | <urn:uuid:14bf468e-f763-41e8-a336-2d10324d0a4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.trefis.com/stock/mrk/articles/127424/trupti-merck-collaborates-with-ambrex-to-develop-new-antibody-drug-conjugates/2012-06-19?from=artPopin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934965 | 389 | 1.601563 | 2 |
October 22, 2010: For the last two months, 12,000 NATO troops, and 7,000 Afghan soldiers and police, have been swarming all over Kandahar province, systematically taking down Taliban bases, safe houses, headquarters and bomb workshops. This culminated on the recent air-land assault on the Horn of Panjwai (a hilly, and heavily fortified Taliban base area, 30 kilometers long and 10 kilometers at its widest, shaped like a rhino horn). The Taliban have controlled this rural area for four years, but now admit they have been forced to abandon it. However, the Taliban also say they were return from their Pakistan sanctuaries when the foreign troops leave.
The successful offensive relied on several factors.
Intelligence was the biggest reason. The additional UAVs, intel aircraft and intelligence analysts reaching Afghanistan in the last year have made their mark. Much more is known about the enemy, and the foe can be monitored 24/7 when necessary. The Taliban were surprised at the speed and accuracy of the attacks, and how follow up raids, based on just captured information, were carried out. This was all possible because of good intelligence, that was constantly updated. All these operations were also carried out with little or no publicity. The troops, and the smart munitions, were just suddenly there. Few protracted firefights. Just a lot of initial noise, and then a systematic clean up.
Cell phones are very common throughout Kandahar province. While more tips are coming in from disgruntled Afghans (who are getting tired of the Taliban, even if they are the home team), the Taliban are also very reliant on them. Now the Taliban are well aware of the fact that the Americans can tap into cell phone networks, but too many Taliban use them freely anyway. Smart phones are particularly popular, and newly recruited Taliban will often blow their first month's pay on one, and then do all sorts of stuff with their new toy, providing American intel analysts with lots of useful information. This drives the Taliban leaders nuts, but you know how it is with kids and their toys.
Precision weapons are being used more often, even with the more restrictive ROE (Rules of Engagement). The better intel about Taliban hideouts made it more possible to hit targets that did not have local civilians rounded up as human shields. With NATO troops on the move a lot, more Taliban were flushed out into the open. Thus, last month, warplanes made 700 attacks with smart bombs, missiles or cannon fire (more than twice as many as were made in September 2009). Add to that hundred of attack helicopter and UAV attacks, and you have some three dozen attacks a day (and these were often at night). In addition, the American soldiers and marines fired hundreds of GPS guided rockets and 155mm artillery shells. These were particularly unnerving for the Taliban, because they came without any warning. You can often spot a warplane or UAV up in the sky, and head for cover. But the guided 227mm rockets just hit, within a few meters of the aiming point, and could take down an entire compound.
Air mobility allowed assault troops to bypass roads well covered with mines and roadside bombs. The Taliban planned on these roads to slow down approaching troops so that a proper getaway could be organized. Not so when the helicopters came in at night, sometimes after a few smart bombs or guided rockets had hit.
Defeat of the IED (Improvised Explosive Device, the bombs and mines) has deprived the Taliban of their main weapon. Last month, 1,320 IEDs were encountered by NATO and Afghan forces. Most were destroyed, disarmed or simply marked and avoided. Less than 14 percent of them went off, killing 24 foreign troops. It was a repeat of what happened in Iraq, with American troops neutralizing enemy IED tactics faster than those tactics could be modified and improved.
Kandahar has a population of 950,000, about half of it in the city of Kandahar. It's the homeland of the most important Taliban leaders, and many of their early followers. It's second to adjacent Helmand province in opium and heroin production. These two province produce most of the world's heroin.
The Taliban didn't just get hammered in Kandahar, but all across southern Afghanistan, and in those areas of the north where there has been some Taliban activity. A lot of this anti-Taliban activity has actually been aimed at the drug operations the Taliban guard. The heroin gangs have had a bad year, what with a fungus that wiped out half the opium crop, and more attacks on labs (that turn opium into heroin) and caches of drugs and smuggling operations in general. No wonder the Taliban are trying to negotiate a peace deal. | <urn:uuid:f066bb55-1a75-44e4-abbe-26ba35f43e1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://strategypage.com/htmw/htwin/articles/20101022.aspx?comments=Y | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978228 | 966 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Colonial Goose is the name for a surprisingly effective preparation of roast leg of lamb.
Early colonial pioneers in New Zealand had sheep aplenty, but goose was relatively scarce. To prepare dishes similar to those they had back home in England the pioneers were very inventive. Colonial Goose is now a recognised classic, with some restaurants featuring it as a main attraction at midwinter festivities (June 21 in NZ). It involves the careful boning out a leg of lamb, stuffing it with honey and dried apricots, and then marinating it in a red wine based marinade which even gives it the appearance of goose when cooked.
You need a large leg of mutton. If you don’t know how to bone it out, ask your butcher to do it, stressing that you need to be able to stuff it.
- For the stuffing
- 30g (2 Tbsp) butter
- 1 large tablespoon clear honey
- 125g (1/2 Cup) dried apricots, finely diced
- 1 medium sized onion, finely diced
- 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
- quarter teaspoon of salt
- quarter teaspoon of dried thyme
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 beaten egg
- For the marinade
- 250g (1 Cup) sliced carrots (about 1 or 2 medium carrots)
- two large onions, sliced
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 or 4 crushed parsley stalks
- not quite full cup of red wine such as claret
- To prepare the stuffing, melt the butter and honey over low heat, add the other ingredients and combine well.
- Force the stuffing into the cavity in the meat, and sew it up with fine string.
- Place the leg into a plastic bag (which sits in a large bowl), and add the marinade mixture.
- The meat is best prepared just after breakfast, so it can then be regularly turned over in the marinade throughout the day.
- Cook in oven at 180 °C for two hours but check on progress at 90 minutes. If the meat looks like over browning, it can be covered by foil.
- Remove the string before carving.
- Strain the marinade and use three or four tablespoons of the liquor to make gravy. | <urn:uuid:9e6cfecf-da25-45a5-9ca5-4cc6f489e511> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Colonial_Goose | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931529 | 471 | 1.75 | 2 |
Honestly, I'm a bit burned out on the privacy debate. It rages in all corners of our industry, from social, to display, to mobile, and everyone seems to be shocked at its ubiquity.
Privacy concerns are nothing new, not by a long shot. The idea of "privacy" is something that everyone, particularly Americans, holds dear.
Now some say that the notion of privacy in our modern world is nothing short of an illusion, but there's a middle ground here. Privacy and online aren't mutually exclusive -- we've seen this played out before.
The online world has a history of smashing privacy barriers, not by forcing people to give up their privacy, but by giving them ways to get what they want while maintaining an acceptable level of risk.
Just look at the early stages of e-commerce as an industry. In the beginning, no one would have dreamed of transmitting credit card information via the web. Eventually, after much fuss and security improvements, everyone got over it. The same will happen with the current crisis.
Developments like Facebook's Open Graph -- what they propose to do with it, not its current state -- promise to give people more of what they want. Some are willing to throw themselves willy-nilly into new frontiers, while others want proof that they're safe. Either way, digital has a way of eventually working things out so people get comfortable.
Facebook's Open Graph may not change everything, but rest assured, something will. The concept of companies relying solely on websites to communicate with potential customers is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. It's just too big not to happen.
The reality, however, is that clients are concerned and want to know where all of this is going and how they should prepare for whatever's to come. They look to us, as agency partners, to tell them, and while we're not psychics, we can help.
- Know that you don't own the customers -- the client does. They know more about their brand and customer than you ever will, and even if this isn't the case, this isn't a conversation you can own. Help cultivate the conversation, but be careful not to overstep boundaries.
- To quote one of my all-time favorite movies, "The Right Stuff," always "maintain an even strain." Especially in larger companies, client partners working within digital arms or more traditional companies get tons of panicky questions from outside their department. Help them field these questions and concerns by frequently communicating the latest developments and opportunities.
- Increase your client-side footprint. When it comes to this particular arena, there are more players than you might think. Be sure you're communicating to, and with, the right people.
While we can't predict the future, we as digital professionals have been down this road before and are in a unique position to help both meter and guide the conversation. Barring a massive legal intervention, have faith that the privacy dilemma will work out -- we just have to be patient and proactive.
Join us for SES San Francisco August 16-20, 2010 during ClickZ's Connected Marketing Week. The festival is packed with sessions covering PPC management, keyword research, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, ad networks and exchanges, e-mail marketing, the real time web, local search, mobile, duplicate content, multiple site issues, video optimization, site optimization and usability, while offering high-level strategy, keynotes, an expo floor with 100+ companies, networking events, parties and more!
Early Bird Rates have been extended!
June 12-14, 2013: Join industry experts at SES Toronto for a crash course in the latest strategies in Online Marketing and Advertising.
Save $300 when you register by Thursday, May 23. | <urn:uuid:ea19623a-d566-45a8-85a2-920d81263526> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2064626/Privacy-Shmivacy | 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 | 0.957768 | 779 | 1.710938 | 2 |
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Lovemaking never felt with anyone like what it did with Clark." ~ Joan Crawford
Some say that Clark Gable was the love of Joan Crawford`s life. Some even say that the two were close to being married. Some speculate the affair never happened at all. Whatever the case there was no denying the onscreen chemistry between Crawford and Gable. Their affair lasted off and on for over 20 years and they remained close right up until Gable`s death in 1960. The two stars were so much alike, cut from the same cloth and had both been huge stars at MGM. It is a shame they are not referred to as such big on screen duos like: Hepburn & Tracy and Rogers and Astaire. Crawford & Gable were just as big as any one-screen duo. Regardless of the lack of mention of their pairing on screen the two stars would go down in history as legends.
Let`s start in saying Crawford and Gable were two of a kind. They were both from mid to lower class families, both not very educated and both were extremely insecure people. Crawford first encountered Gable while watching him on the set at MGM and she predicted he would become a huge star. She was right. She requested him for their first picture together, "Dance, Fools, Dance" (1931). Joan hated this film but there was no denying that Crawford and Gable clicked in this movie. An affair had started almost immediately between the two stars. Everyone at MGM, especially Louis B. Mayer, saw this and he was anxious to get them teamed up in another picture. "Laughing Sinners" (1931) was already being filmed and Mayer fired Johnny Mack Brown and replaced him with Gable. "Laughing Sinners" was a hit for the two of them, mostly due to the amounting onscreen chemistry between them. It was in their next film that an onscreen explosion would erupt!
You would have to be blind not to notice the sparks and sexual chemistry between Crawford in Gable.
"Possessed" (1931) was probably one of Joan`s best pictures of the 1930`s. Her look had changed showing off a new hairstyle and makeup, it was a stunning look for Joan. Joan also fell in love while making "Possessed" with Clark Gable. Joan at the time was married to Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Gable was married at the time to a much older woman. It is rumored that the two talked about marriage but they both knew they were too much alike to get married. The affair was hot and heavy with trips and secret getaways planned. "Possessed" would go on to be one of the best films the two icons made together. In one scene in the film, Joan sings a song to Gable called "How Long Will it Last?" it was rather ironic that this song was used but it came across so very meaningful when Joan sang it...I believe she meant every word of it. In 1932 Joan wanted Gable to star opposite of her in the film "Letty Lynton" but Mayer flat out said "No", he was worried that the affair the two were having would ruin Joan`s career and her marriage to Fairbanks Jr., so Nils Asther starred with Joan in "Letty". The public was hungry for another Crawford/Gable combo and Mayer gave in, he knew their onscreen chemistry meant big box office dollars.
The next film the duo would make together was "Dancing Lady"(1933) by this time Joan and Gable had somewhat cooled, Joan had filed for divorce against Fairbanks Jr. and she had started a romantic relationship with her future second husband, Franchot Tone. Joan knew her and Gable would never be a true "couple" and on the set of her 1932 movie "Today We Live" she met Tone. Tone was very different than any man she had been with before; he was very educated and mature. He introduced Joan to new and exciting things and this attracted Joan. "Dancing Lady" teamed Joan up with her lover, Gable and her other lover Tone, she was enjoying both men while filming "Dancing Lady." Joan also was reported to have had several miscarriages with Fairbanks and Tone some even speculate with Gable. Some question the reason she was having miscarriages was because of a few abortions she had with Fairbanks Jr. child or was it Gables child? At any rate, Joan would never have any children of her own, we all know she adopted but a little Clark Jr. would have been nice:-) Joan originally did not want to star in the movie but reconsidered when she was challenged whether she could pull it off and was threatened to be replaced by Jean Harlow. "Dancing Lady" would go on to be one of MGM`s biggest blockbusters for many years to come. "Chained"(1934) soon followed and once again the Crawford/Gable sexual magnetism was alive on the screen. There was no denying that these two had feelings for each other and it showed in "Chained." Joan and Gable had cooled yes, but Joan still loved Gable even though she was ready to head down the aisle with Franchot Tone. In 1935, Joan did marry Tone and she also made another picture with Gable,
List of links to Clark Gable and Joan Crawford fansites:
Clark Gable and Joan Crawford Links » | <urn:uuid:9cf5c6ca-959c-48ca-be12-a7f3375085fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.whosdatedwho.com/tpx_1729445/clark-gable-and-joan-crawford/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990517 | 1,152 | 1.5 | 2 |
Is A Life Coach Right For You?
Since embarking upon what I now KNOW to be my Life purpose of working as a Life Coach, I am often asked, “what is a Life Coach or what does a Life Coach do?” As there is with most anything, there are many thoughts and interpretations around what a Life Coach is, but there is a consistent definition among Life Coaches themselves. Contrary to popular belief, a Life Coach is NOT one who provides answers, but one who provides guidance through offering perspective and motivation by which they are able to lead the Life Player to discover the answers that were present all along. A Life Coach works with groups or individuals to find the inner greatness that often eludes many of us. They help them to navigate Life issues that can snag us all, and can poke a hole in our balloons causing us to lose precious altitude. But what really matters most is what Life Coaching means to the Life Coach and to the Life Player who have chosen to unite and work together; it matters how they see the formation of their alliance as being mutually beneficial to both of their growth and transformations. They are only as good as they are together, so the chemistry they share is a huge factor in a successful Life transformation. So, in this post I will discuss with readers in more detail how I define a Life Coach, and why I have chosen this as a career – or better yet, why it has chosen me.
When we hear the word “coach”, most of us tend to think sports right away. And naturally the progression of thought moves on to players, which ultimately make up a team. But even in individual sports such as tennis and golf, there is still a team involved in the effort of competing. No one performing successfully at any level is truly playing alone. There are a number of other pieces behind the success we observe as an end result. Even the winning organisations seek to surround themselves with others whom they feel will contribute to their success – each person plays a crucial role. They will also tell you that they would not have been able to achieve such greatness without their TEAM, and the rest of their supporting cast. I have personally experienced this, and therefore know it to be true. Even the greatest of coaches have mentors/coaches in the background guiding them, and they will openly admit it. Many conversations take place offline (between coaches and their coaches) in between games, practices, and meetings, to compare and contrast notes and discuss challenges. There is a certain humility they typically have, knowing that they did not reach any pinnacle of success without some motivation and guidance along the way from someone who had a vested interest in seeing them achieve that greatness; without someone to help them stay focused on the prize until it was realised.
If we go back into recorded history, we will find that the concept of coaching has been around for as long as humanity has. There have always been these leaders who seemed to possess a certain quality for extracting the best out of others. They have this innate ability to take whatever natural gifts are present, and mold it into something no one (not even the player in many cases) knew or believed they were capable of. Perhaps they weren’t called “coaches” at that time, but the concept existed nonetheless. Example: The older or more skilled and experienced would teach the younger ones how hunt, fish, paint, cook, etc. They coached them to become contributors to their respective tribes. There was no room for pride. It was welcomed because having a “coach” was a means of survival.
In our modern society, we feel like asking someone to look at our Life, and work with us to sort through things and put together an effective road map to a desired destination, is an admission of weakness. We say: “It is too personal, and I don’t want anyone knowing my business and the stuff I am dealing with”. Oh, stop it! This could not be further from the truth. In my humble opinion, this sort of an admission, in fact, exhibits intelligence and savvy. It says that one realises the value of having a skilled and objective eye on the matters YOU deem important. While today not having a Life Coach won’t determine IF you live, it can surely determine how EFFECTIVE and INJOYEBLE of a Life you live. And why would you pass on a chance to enrich your own Life? I’m just sayin’.
So to me, a Coach is someone who has those intangible qualities to identify where improvements can be made in another’s Life, work WITH the Life Player to devise an effective game plan to drive those previously identified improvements. They help with making those ‘game-time adjustments” in, monitor practices, and provide the Life Player with clarity, motivation, and ongoing discipline and support to see the game plan through to fruition. A good Coach is able to push (without forcing) others to achieve that often-dormant greatness inside. Truth is, we can All BE great! All of us are born with the greatness gene, because we come from Greatness.
So don’t get caught up into the glitz and glam of the superstar players you see before you, and fail to notice the Coach and their critically important role in their success. The Coach is is the one who is up watching film until 2 AM, sizing up the upcoming opponents, drinking black coffee with no cream at 4:30 AM, while most of the players are still asleep. Only a handful of players are up with the coaches, and those are the ones who are consistently at the top of their games; these are the ones who become icons in their respective arenas. They are the elite, and are few and far between. So I ask, who is coaching you? Who is evaluating your Life Performance to ensure you are performing at the top of your game (of Life)? How would you feel about having this same unrelenting motivation, inspiration, and support in your life?…the same that a superstar athlete receives?
20 bradfordspoke 12 | <urn:uuid:366f1118-4184-4e41-86bc-877c3c73f809> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bradfordspeakslife.com/blog/is-a-life-coach-right-for-you/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981938 | 1,256 | 1.765625 | 2 |
BYD Auto has been a hot topic for green geeks and business savvy investors for the past few years. We started writing about them in 2008, pronouncing them the “sleeping giant” of China. There was strong interest from investors like Warren Buffet, and Portland, Oregon wanted to establish a BYD headquarters in their city. Several setbacks and slow starts later, BYD is still very much in a morning stupor.
The good news is in the technical details of BYD’s E6 crossover. BYD’s Fe battery gives the E6 a range of 186 miles per charge and the vehicle’s top speed of 87 MPH makes it highway capable. BYD touts their Fe lithium iron phosphate battery as fully recyclable and quick charging. they claim the battery can be fully charged in as little at 40 minutes. Field testing of their all-electric crossover E6 began in 2010, and sales to the general public in China have only just begun in October of 2011. Lackluster sales and lack of a charging infrastructure have delayed BYD’s electric takeover in the United States. In January 2011 BYD announced that the American version will be more powerful than the Chinese version, and it will have a 60 kwh battery pack with a 160 kW electric motor, capable of reaching 60 MPH in less than 8 seconds. The Chinese company plans to be able to sell the e in America for $35,000, before any government incentives.
BYD e6 Specifications graphic:
Unfortunately for excited electric car fans in America, BYD announced last October that there will be an 18 month delay of retail sales in the United States due to inadequate charging infrastructure. So it doesn’t look like we will see the all-electric e6 or range extended hybrid F3DM and F6DM until at least 2013. These types of setbacks are all too common in revolutionary industries such as electric vehicle manufacturing. It will take time for BYD to integrate but I’m confident they will do so in the future. | <urn:uuid:6fde5450-4835-4007-8fc0-97ffd8dbec0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.onelectriccars.com/tag/byd-electric-car/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95969 | 419 | 1.625 | 2 |
make a landscape solely out of dairy products.
That’s not quite as weird as it sounds.
Button has some experience creating and photographing food-based sculpture, as you can see in his show Cerealism
, open now through February 22 at Northwest Portland's Camerawork Gallery
Button’s breakfast cereal landscapes—fields of marshmallow clover and Egyptian pyramids made of Cherrios—have been a web hit, getting attention from Gawker
and Wired magazine
Button’s continual quest is to discover extraordinary inspiration in the mundane. Grocery shopping and dishwashing become works of art under his eye. Moving beyond bran flakes, Button’s new fascination is with patterns formed in the dried dregs of a Single Malt Scotch glass. He finds “terrestrial or extraterrestrial” landscapes, even “the celestial” in dirty dishes.
What we think: magically delicious.
WW: Cerealism has received a lot of media coverage—why do you think it's caught on?
Breakfast cereal seems to be one of those items that most of us remember fondly from our childhoods. This project tries to strike the right mix of a few things: the nostalgia of childhood memories, the playful nod to playing with your food, since most of us were told not to play with our food, and the absurd, out-of-context landscapes that look strikingly real.
How did you get into cereal as an art form?
The genesis for Cerealism was a trip to the grocery store; there sat King Vitamin (a popular cereal from the 70’s) next to a new version of Cap’n Crunch, Choco Donuts. Looking at the rest of the cereal aisle, it was clear that breakfast cereal had changed from when I was a child. The cereal aisle has become a cornucopia of colors with marshmallows that resemble people and objects and characters from movies. It’s apparent that cereal is not just food anymore; it’s playtime. In keeping with the playtime theme, I began to construct landscapes that would utilize the natural earth tones of certain cereals.
Being from Arizona, some of the more adult cereals that are mostly bran or fiber resemble the Southwestern desert. I placed enlarged photographs of actual Arizona skies (sunsets or monsoon clouds) in the background of the cereal landscapes giving the final image an odd sense of ‘reality’. Other cereals that were more vibrantly colored or made to resemble people and objects were calling out to have their portraits taken, to be the center of attention. Cereal has evolved into pop culture objects instead of just corn pops.
Even though I don’t consume cereal that much anymore, I still find breakfast cereal fascinating on an aesthetic level: is it food, is it entertainment, is it nourishment, is it really a dessert or is it all of the above?
What is your favorite childhood cereal?
Cap’n Crunch. Such a unique taste to that cereal.
What cereal mascot would you be if you could?
Even though it’d be cool to be the Cap’n, I’d probably go with Lucky from Lucky Charms; the pot of gold is very enticing. And being able to say Magically Delicious whenever I want would be cool too.
How did you wind up with a show here in Portland?
I met Scott Jones (who is the director at the Camerawork Gallery in Portland) at Photolucida in 2011. Photolucida occurs every other year in Portland and it’s an opportunity for photographers and galleries/curators, etc. to get together and review photography in the form of portfolio reviews. He appreciated the obvious humor and the more subtle subtext of nutrition and what we eat. Portland is a fantastic city for photography. This April will be the month of Photography in Portland and Photolucida will be occurring again during that month.
Do you have artistic interests in any other food group?
Ironically I do. I guess it would be more of a liquid though. There is a project that is gaining some popularity entitled “Vanishing Spirits: The Dried Remains of Single Malt Scotch.” The idea for this project occurred while putting a used Scotch glass into the dishwasher. I noted a film on the bottom of a glass and when I inspected closer, I noted these fine, lacey lines filling the bottom. What I found through some experimentation is that these patterns and images that you see can be created with the small residue of Single-Malt Scotch left in a glass after most of it has been consumed. The alcohol dries and leaves the sediment in various patterns. It’s a little like snowflakes in that every time the Scotch dries, the glass yields different patterns and results. I have used different color lights to add color to the bottom of the glass, creating the illusion of landscape, terrestrial or extraterrestrial. Some of the images reference the celestial, as if the image was taken of space; something that the Hubble telescope may have taken or an image taken from space looking down on Earth. The circular image references a drinking glass, typically circular, and what the consumer might see if they were to look at the bottom of the glass after the scotch has dried.
Has Cerealism changed the way you look at food?
Absolutely. A project like this makes me more aware of the beauty in the ordinary things surrounding me. Food is something that we see and consume on a daily basis. It’s easy to overlook anything that we do on a daily basis. It’s made me aware of texture & shape, trying to find the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Grocery store inspirations?
There was a project that I completed a few years ago entitled Back & Forth. The grocery store rides that many of us enjoyed as children are slowly disappearing from the urban landscape. That mechanical horse or the spaceship ride made a trip to the grocery store bearable as a child but now seems hard to find. On the surface, the thought of searching for and photographing coin-operated grocery store rides appears to be fun and superficial. But many economic and societal factors played into the absent rides. They seem to be very hard to find now, at least in the Phoenix area.
What do you do when not working on photography?
I have the privilege of working with the veteran population at a VA Hospital in Phoenix as a Speech-Language Pathologist. | <urn:uuid:daa675bc-9993-480d-ab26-571042462302> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-29743-marshmallow_fields_forever.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961011 | 1,346 | 1.765625 | 2 |
NEW COURSE IN SPANISH FOR HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS
Health care professionals know soothing words do little good if they are in the wrong language. Old Dominion University is offering a newly designed class in the coming fall semester -- Spanish for Health Professionals -- for majors in the health sciences and for practitioners in health and related fields. The course will be taught in the Batten Arts and Letters building on the main campus in Norfolk, Virginia on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 1:00 p.m.
Spanish for Health Professionals is intended for students who are pursuing careers in the health professions as well as for currently practicing health professionals. The course will also prove useful for first responders such as police officers and firefighters, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), emergency management specialists, communications specialists and others who frequently need to assist persons whose primary language is Spanish.
Spanish for Health Professionals will combine practical, hands-on instruction with active conversation and role playing situations. Standardized, non-dialectic form of contemporary Spanish, which can be understood by native Spanish speakers from any country of origin, will be used throughout. Special regional variations and everyday figures of speech will also be addressed. Textbooks and formal classroom instruction will be supplemented by special presentations, guest speakers, talks by community representatives and use of the ODU language laboratory. The course will also emphasize the acquisition of useful Hispanic cultural competencies by the participants.
Pre-requisites for the course include the successful completion of at least two semesters of college level Spanish, that is, Spanish 102 or its equivalent, or three years of successful Spanish course work at the high school level. Experience dealing with Spanish speaking persons and travel to Spanish speaking countries are also useful preparation for Spanish 296.
Spanish for Health Professionals has been developed and sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, with the support and cooperation of the College of Health Sciences. For additional information call 683-3973 or 301-8797.
This article was posted on: May 30, 2006
Old Dominion University
Office of University Relations
Room 100 Koch Hall Norfolk, Virginia 23529-0018
Old Dominion University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution. | <urn:uuid:284d109b-5754-4154-a5cd-99728f5e8af9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ww2.odu.edu/ao/news/index.php?todo=details&todo=details&id=4877 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935841 | 449 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Stanislaw Lem, author of Imaginary Magnitudes, source of the “eruntics” portion of this blog’s title, also wrote The Futurological Congress, which I am currently in the middle of. Here is a passage, from pretty late in the game. (If you’ve read any Lem, though, you know it’s impossible to be spoiled, so don’t worry.)
“[...] without a couple of good, stiff shots I couldn’t be a futurologian today!”
“That word means something different now. A futurologist makes profutes, prognoses, prophecies, while I deal exclusively with theory. This is a completely new field, unknown in our day. You might call it divination through linguistic derivation. Morphological forecasting! Projective etymology!”
“Never heard of it. How does it work?”
To tell the truth, I had asked more out of politeness than curiosity, but he didn’t seem to notice. Meanwhile the waiters brought our soup and, with it, a bottle of Chablis, vintage 1997. A good year.
“Linguistic futurology investigates the future through the transformational possibilities of language,” Trottelreiner explained.
“I don’t understand.”
“A man can only control what he comprehends, and comprehend only what he is able to put into words. The inexpressible therefore is unknowable. By examining future stages in the evolution of language we come to learn what discoveries, changes and social revolutions the language will be capable, some day, of reflecting.”
“Amazing. How exactly is this done?”
“Our research is conducted with the aid of the very largest computers, for man by himself could never keep track of all the variations. By variations of course I mean the syntagmatic-paradigmatic permutations of the language, but quantized…”
“Forgive me. The Chablis is excellent, by the way. A few examples ought to make the matter clear. Give me a word, any word.”
“Myself? H’m. Myself. All right. I’m not a computer, you understand, so this will have to be simple. Very well then–myself. My, self, mine, mind. Mynd. Thy mind–thynd. Like ego, theego. And we makes wego. Do you see?”
“I don’t see a thing.”
“But it’s perfectly obvious! We’re speaking, first, of the possibility of the merging of the mynd with the thynd, in other words the fusion of two psychic entities. Secondly, the wego. Most interesting. A collective consciousness. Produced perhaps by the multiple dissocation of the personality, a mygraine. Another word, please.”
[...]“But these words have no meaning!”
“At the moment, no, but they will. Or, rather, they may eventually acquire meaning, provided [they] catch on. The word ‘robot’ meant nothing in the fifteenth century, and yet if they had had futurolinguists then, they could have easily envisioned automata.”
A little deterministic, yes, but god I like that this is a thing. Wish I’d found this book when I was taking that cyberpunk class, I could write a million papers for it right now. | <urn:uuid:51df0216-0d0d-442e-be82-e5deb34c3694> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kconrod.wordpress.com/tag/linguistics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935702 | 773 | 1.773438 | 2 |
This week we look in our first hour at the origins of capitalism in USA, and in our second at what may turn out to be a pivotal event in its unraveling - the attacks of Sep 11th
. While regular listeners have heard a mound of compelling reasons to question the US government's official conspiracy theory, motives for the attacks have usually been limited to launching the War On Terror
and facilitating the overt fighting of Resource Wars
. This week we hear excerpts of a theory which relates 9/11 to the black budget and the need to cover up massive financial fraud. Like Susan Lindauer
's testimony in episode 589
, these ideas complement the existing evidence we have heard on 9/11. Does this mark the beginning of the end of capitalism?
In our first hour, we hear from Charles Post, author of "The American Road To Capitalism". Although speaking on the historical roots of capitalism in the USA, he tackles fairly similar themes to episode 619. He argues that while the merchant class tried to create a capitalist system in USA from the outset, they were prevented by the superabundance of land (since it was legal to murder Indians and take their land). This lead to a society of subsistence farmers until the 19th century, although capitalist values increasingly gained traction. Capitalism only really took off in USA, Post argues, with the rise of the large land companies and the end of free access to land. Once people had to go into debt to buy or rent land, they became subject to the 'compete in the marketplace or die' pressures which characterize capitalism, so they could no longer retreat from the market into local self-sufficiency. We then return to read a short extract of the final chapter of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years, which continues into our second hour.
After a quick music break, our second hour continues with two excerpts of Collateral Damage 911 Part 2
, an article which presents a new twist to our considerable archive of material on Sep 11th
. We only read a small fraction of this complex and multi-faceted article, which centers on the post-WW2 'war chest' (a.k.a. the black budget) used to fund illegal ventures by a select group who secured control over most of the world's large banks, intelligence agencies and governments. The article mentions $240 billion of 10 year bonds which were fraudulently created on Sep 11th, 1991
, a crime which was conveniently hidden by the timing of the attacks on exactly the places where records of the bonds were held, and where the fraud was being investigated. We conclude with some summary reflections on the lessons of the evidence presented and a personal call to move over to the Gift Economy
Billionaires Are In The House by Billionaires For BushThanks to Against The Grain for the Charles Post interview ★ Join the Discussion about this episode | <urn:uuid:228d2e71-ad8e-40cd-b42c-6013ce0ef5bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/621 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954858 | 586 | 1.835938 | 2 |
|President Barack Obama speaks at the Asheville Regional Airport, in Asheville, N.C., Monday, Oct. 17, 2011, during the kickoff off a bus tour. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)|
For a jobs bill in pieces, Obama hits road in NC
FLETCHER, N.C.—Rolling through small Southern towns in a campaign-style bus, President Barack Obama on Monday pressed lawmakers back in Washington to start taking up pieces of his rejected jobs bill and mocked the Republicans who had shot it down in total. The Senate moved to vote soon on one part, a plan to help states hire teachers, but the proposal seemed doomed.
Deep in the mountains of politically important North Carolina, Obama soaked up the region's autumn beauty at the same time he assailed foes of his jobs legislation, accusing them of failing to listen to the public.
Back at the Capitol, Senate Democrats announced they would act first on a single part of Obama's plan, a longshot bid to help states hire teachers and police. A Senate vote could come as soon as the end of the week. If not, it would probably fall into November because the Senate plans to take a break next week, even as Obama urges quick action.
In North Carolina, the president directed his most pointed remarks at Senate Republicans, who last week blocked action on his full $447 billion proposal combining tax cuts and new spending.
"Essentially they said no to you," Obama told a supportive crowd outside Asheville. Noting that Republicans will now get a chance to vote on elements of his jobs agenda one by one, he said: "Maybe they just couldn't understand the whole thing all at once. So we're going to break it up into bite-size pieces."
Republicans denounced the bus trip as nothing more than a taxpayer-funded campaign trip through two must-win states to try to bolster Obama's standing for the 2012 election.
As he traveled along on his imposing black bus, there was little denying the presidential politics at play at each stop. Over three days, Obama is covering the countryside of both North Carolina and Virginia, two traditionally GOP-leaning states that he won in 2008 on his campaign's ability to boost turnout among young people and black voters.
Senate Democrats unveiled the first individual bill, which would spend $30 billion to create or save education jobs and $5 billion to do the same for police and firefighters.
The money would come from a new half-percent tax on income over $1 million, a proposal vigorously opposed by GOP lawmakers.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised a vote "as soon as possible."
The outcome seemed clear: The plan is unlikely to gain the 60 votes it would need to proceed in the Senate. And it's a non-starter in the Republican House.
More broadly, some aspects of Obama's jobs agenda are expected to become law this fall.
The most likely include extending tax breaks for businesses that buy new equipment, and offering a $4,800 tax credit to companies that hire veterans. There's also bipartisan support for repealing a law that requires the withholding of 3 percent of payments to government contractors.
Democrats and the White House, meanwhile, are confident that Obama's call to extend cuts in Social Security payroll taxes will pass. A two percentage point payroll tax cut enacted last year expires at the end of the year; Obama has proposed cutting it by an additional percentage point and extending the cut to the first $5 million of a company's payroll.
That proposal is hugely expensive -- almost $250 billion by administration estimates -- and it is not clear how and whether the parties would agree on how to pay for it.
Happy to be back on the road, Obama found a friendly audience that broke into a chant of "four more years." Said the president in response: "I appreciate the four more years, but right now I'm thinking about the next thirteen months."
Still, his travel essentially doubles as his bid for another term. His jobs bill serves as a platform to contrast himself with Republicans on both the legislation and his vision for the nation.
Obama's poll numbers are down in both Virginia and North Carolina, languishing in the mid- to low-forties in recent polls. The numbers mirror his approval ratings nationally. Obama's campaign is pressing to hold both Southern states, even choosing to hold next year's Democratic convention in Charlotte.
The president's bus tour fit into that effort, giving Obama a chance to engage in some of the retail politics that is a staple of presidential campaigns.
Obama's sleek, $1.1 million bus rolled through North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains for more than four hours, an unusually long stretch that included unannounced stops.
At Countryside Barbeque in Marion, he shook hands and took photos, and he also had a chance of to talk to potential voters about his jobs bill. The tour took him through a blaze of bright red and orange fall colors. He later stopped at the Mast General Store in Boone, near the campus of Appalachian State University, for some Halloween candy.
Capping his public comments at a high school in Millers Creek, N.C., Obama chided Republicans again, this time in an apparent reference to the influence of the tea party. "It's way overdue for us to stop trying to satisfy some branch of the party and take some common-sense steps to help America," Obama said.
House Republicans were quick to point out that they originally proposed breaking Obama's jobs plan into pieces. House Speaker John Boehner's office said Monday that the Ohio Republican has offered to work the president on aspects of the bill Republicans agree with but the president opted for a bus trip instead.
However, Obama and his opponents on Capitol Hill don't agree on how much they have tried to agree. Obama insisted he would work with the GOP "in any way possible." Noting the angst within some in his own party about his willingness to compromise, Obama said: "I tried so hard to cooperate with Republicans, Democrats have been getting mad at me."
Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor, Ken Thomas and Ben Feller in Washington, Bob Lewis in Richmond, Va., and Tom Breen in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:d793076a-6e53-4541-a248-29ad07a26afa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2011/10/17/obama_gets_back_on_the_bus_for_trip_to_nc_va/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972952 | 1,267 | 1.726563 | 2 |
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only.
Taking a walk on a snowy white Christmas morning, kicking up powdery snow and watching it settle on the white surface, seeing your shadow and footsteps moving on the face of the earth in the traditional season of peace and good will. Wondering about the inner journey to realize the meaning and finite trajectory of our life. Realizing it’s an essential part of being human, this yearning and spiritual hunger for meaning. This soul, God, psyche or whatever it is.
But some People manage to avoid it. The Boy Emperor George W. Bush says he isn’t paid to "nuance." His job militarizing the petroleum economy and the political ecology of terrorism is too important for him to indulge in any serious self-reflection. Dubya shows no signs whatsoever of ever pursuing an actual thought outside the narrow confines of Karl Rove’s power points, or beyond anything Dick Cheney tells him he should do. The dynamics around Bush’s drive for World War IV with the Axis of Evil echo World War I, where the leadership of the imperial European powers slaughtered millions in the name of "democracy," "the war to end all wars," and Belgian sovereignty. Bush is deprived of the essential human need for authentic spiritual understanding. Nothing else corresponds to the psychic evidence of Bush’s born again "dry drunk" mental and verbal gaffes, combined with his bellicosity and clumsiness in foreign affairs, his utter ignorance of history (inability to comprehend People’s history), and meanness in his economic policy. Bush is evidence of what happens to a person deprived of self-knowledge. In his terms, he becomes a tool of "evil."
Meditating on the nature of evil, as illustrated by Bush’s atomic/petroleum empire and the next big war with Iraq, it’s easier than ever to see the power connections between corporate globalization, institutionalized racism, and beggaring workers; between the war on terror consuming resources, ethnically cleansing politics, and killing Third World Peoples living in strategic regions; and between Bush and evil. Virtually everything Bush’s officials say in public is a blatant psychic projection of their own infantile desires: US weapons of mass destruction, lies, terrorism and domination. They all flow from Washington, DC, the power center of the corporate global empire. The intellectual, moral, and physical resources of bin Laden’s rancid and murderous fundamentalism flow from fundamentalists in Virginia and throughout the US, massively perverting Thomas Jefferson’s ideals. The Mobilization for Global Justice stands in the noble shoes of the American revolutionaries, abolitionists, populists, labor, civil rights, feminist, peace, environment, GLBT, handicap and other social movements holding out alternatives to horrible policies. Education is almost always a crucial part of the answer to the question of what must be done. But education about, by and for what?
One of the strengths of the Mobilization for Global Justice has been its idea of "convergence" between movements, issues, communities, and Peoples. This continuing international grassroots "movement of movements," growing out of the protests and advocacy against corporate globalization and corporate-managed "free trade" policies, had its spectacular coming out party in the streets of Seattle in November 1999. It has largely succeeded in changing the subject of public discussions from "free trade" to global justice. But its roots and branches go much deeper and spread much wider than that. And they are still growing. In January 2003 many of them will convene in Porto Alegre, Brazil for the third annual World Social Forum (WSF), an inspiring new institutional expression of international grassroots democracy in the 21st century. If progressive Democrats who were humiliated by their leadership’s spineless performance in the 2002 midterm congressional elections can grasp the importance of Global Justice as a message, and find ways to help the international social movements run with it, this movement has the potential to change the balance of power in America and the world.
The slogan of "Teamsters to Turtles" doesn’t even begin to capture the historic grandeur of this convergence. It brings together union rights with environmental justice; opposition to sweatshops with support for international law as a guarantor of basic minimum environmental and labor standards; a spectacular array of activist organizations and movements throughout the Global South, with Washington, DC-based groups such as Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch and the AFL-CIO. Since September 11 it has reached out to other important US allies, like the living wage movement, the police accountability movement, and the peace movement. Mainstream corporate critics want to see only confusion. But the truth and the historic significance of convergence, which the corporate media "spins" as mixed messages, operates on multiple levels of politics, psychology, and culture. The Mobilization for Global Justice is today blazing the trail forward toward justice, human freedom, and democracy. Engaging the broadest possible range of People in this urgent conversation about power, resources, race, class, equity, survival, and hope must be a high priority for anyone concerned about finding a way out of the mess that corporate and US military and economic power have made of the world today.
Where power is so spectacularly unbalanced, public education must be a prime objective. We may not be able to change the systematic conditions of structural injustice, institutionalized racism, and undemocratic decision making that plague our world in the short run. But by taking responsibility for creating and expanding this historic multi-level dialog, we can mobilize many, many People and raise the costs of the US corporate empire. We can aspire to even further changing the subject of public discussions from "free trade" to global justice. We can change the world, if we dare to dream.
TOM STEPHENS is a lawyer in Detroit, Michigan. He can be reached at lebensbaum4@earthlink. | <urn:uuid:997d93d0-4149-4df5-a5d2-0319743d58d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.counterpunch.org/2002/12/28/a-meditation-on-the-nature-of-evil/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939374 | 1,222 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Further study and funding
There are many reasons for considering postgraduate study. For some, further qualifications are essential to access a particular career, for others the focus is on improving job prospects or allowing for a change in direction. Alternatively, it may represent academic challenge, specialisation or more time to decide on your career options. Whatever your motivation you should be clear in your own mind what you hope to achieve by continuing your studies and the opportunities further qualifications may or may not provide.
Taught Master's courses (MA, MSc, MRes, MBA)
Taught Master's are usually one year full-time or two year part-time courses. Successful completion often involves passing exams at the required level and submitting a dissertation on a relevant topic. Courses usually start in September/October and exams are often held at the end of each taught element. The dissertation is usually completed by the following September.
Having a Master's qualification may make you more employable. It is always advisable to undertake the work experience module of your course as this will increase not just your employability but also your knowledge of the employment world. Employers will always place emphasis on your employability skills, such as teamwork, problem solving and European languages, as requirements for the job. A Master's qualification can also be the first step to further research study qualifications such as an MPhil or PhD.
MBA courses enable you to study business related topics in depth, add formal qualifications to relevant practical experience and potentially improve your earning power.
Professional qualifications and conversion courses (PGCE, LPC)
Professional diplomas and certificates enable you to study a subject that is specifically vocational in order to enter a profession that requires specialist pre-entry training, eg Law or Teaching. Generally the course will include periods of practical work experience so that you can experience the job role at first hand.
Conversion courses allow you to change subject or your career direction. For example if you did not study an accredited undergraduate law degree and wish to become a solicitor or barrister you will need to take the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL).
There are many others and you should research your career ideas to find out if any vocational training is required. Some courses require applications to be made through a central clearing system, others direct to the individual university.
Research degrees (PhD, MPhil, EngD, EdD)
Postgraduate research can enable you to spend time researching a topic of particular interest to you, become expert in a specialist field, develop new ideas and research methods and take your first steps towards an academic career.
It represents two to four years of original research and you may be required to have completed a Master's qualification first. It represents a significant commitment and you should feel passionate about your subject and be able to write a convincing and articulate research proposal at the time of application. It is examined by thesis and viva.
Professional doctorates, eg in Education or Public Health, focus on real-world research and include taught modules to support your academic and professional development.
The New Route PhD is an integrated programme that combines research with a structured programme of advanced training in discipline specific and generic skills. | <urn:uuid:f4dd6566-8170-49e9-a1bb-03848ae93fdf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brunel.ac.uk/services/pcc/students-and-alumni/further-study-and-funding | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948739 | 646 | 1.5625 | 2 |
|Re: HP philosophy|
Message #4 Posted by Howard Owen on 30 Jan 2006, 10:55 p.m.,
in response to message #1 by Joe Edwards
The 41C documentation taught me how to program. I had seen an Apple ][ and a Commodore Pet, but I didn't know the first thing about BASIC. The excellent "Owner's Handbook and Programming Guide" was all I needed to break through from nearly complete ignorance into a fairly good grasp of how computers were programmed. (I actually didn't know what a good grounding it was until later, when assembly programming and FORTH on the Apple came easily to me.)
Documentation, or the lack of it, on the low-end machines notwithstanding, I don't fault HP for trying to produce good documentation for the RPL machines. The 28S manuals are pretty good. But the complexity of the machine had increased to the point where they couldn't give the same kind of general overview. The 48G saw the publication of the AUR, a fine piece of work. It even tries to reproduce that signature HP method of teaching programming through the use of examples. But the language is much, much harder, so the tutotial has to spend most of its time discussing the details rather than how they fit together.
That philosophy that Les says is lacking in the manuals is actually present in "HP-28 Insights" by William Wickes. It gives a designer's eye view of the machine. It's not particularly helpful in learning how to operate the machine, but it does give you an excellent idea of where the principle architect of RPL was coming from. But the HP-48 version of this work was two volumes, so you really ended up needing to read four volumes of not-so-easy prose to appreciate the attempt HP made to deliver documentation of a quality similar to the best of what had come before. And in my opinion, the attempt failed, precisely because the job was made so much harder by the explosion in complexity that RPL brought with it.
When I got my 41C, I spent at least six hours every day reading that manual and playing with the calculator. Inside a month, I had a pretty good grasp of what the basic machine was capable of. It's been seven months since I bought an HP-49g+. I haven't concentrated my time on it, or on the 48s I've bought, in the same way as for that first 41, but I've spent plenty of time nonetheless. I am nowhere close to knowing the whole machine the way I knew my first 41. That's not the documentation's fault, however. The new AUR for the 49G+ is built on the old 48 AUR, with lots of additions from the Metakernel manual and other places. There's a terrific little User's Guide by Dr. Gilberto Urroz that gives a methematical introduction to the operation of the machine, and a larger User's manual in PDF form that fleshes the guide out nicely. The documentation is well organized and comprehensive. But the machine is just too darn complicated to grasp in a short time. I keep learning new stuff the longer I play with the 49g+. This is a great delight for me, since I'm doing this as a hobby, i.e. for recreation. But I can certainly see why TI won the educational market with its simpler machines. HP probably got a lock on the mathematics and computer science geek market, but gave up the rest with these powerful, but difficult machines. I'm just glad I'm in the target demographic. 8)
P.S. Don't worry about being born "too late." You get to partake of the best of the past and the present. And you have a longer time to try to influence the future. Good luck! | <urn:uuid:70ebd40d-588d-4b49-9a7e-d6f08c2c4031> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv015.cgi?read=86454 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969367 | 780 | 1.804688 | 2 |
November 17, 2004 3:35 PM PST
More security hiccups for IE
This week, three more vulnerabilities were found in version 6 of the software giant's flagship Web browser, security information provider Secunia said on Wednesday. That brings the total number of IE vulnerabilities disclosed in the past two months to 19, including eight flaws fixed by Microsoft during its October patch cycle.
The latest flaws were found by two different researchers, Secunia said. Two could be used together to allow malicious content to bypass an mechanism in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 that alerts people about potentially harmful programs, Secunia stated. The third vulnerability could be used to overwrite the cookies of a trusted site to hijack a Web session, if the site handles authentication in an insecure manner, according to that advisory.
The flaws were rated "moderately critical" and "not critical," respectively, by Secunia.
"We have not been made aware of any active attacks against the reported vulnerabilities or customer impact at this time, but we are aggressively investigating the public reports," Microsoft said in a statement sent to CNET News.com.
The company said that customers who needed advice should visit its software security site and its PC Protect site for home users. Microsoft also criticized the researchers for publicizing the flaws without allowing it to work to solve the problems first.
"Microsoft is concerned that this new report of a vulnerability in Internet Explorer was not disclosed responsibly, potentially putting computer users at risk," the company said in the statement. "We believe the commonly accepted practice of reporting vulnerabilities directly to a vendor serves everyone's best interests."
Security researchers and hackers, however, are not paying heed to the software giant's standard chastisement of public disclosure. In the past two months, flaw finders have publicized critical Internet Explorer vulnerabilities and a slew of security issues in Service Pack 2, the company's latest update to Windows XP.
Already, viruses have started to use the critical Internet Explorer flaw to spread.
8 commentsJoin the conversation! Add your comment | <urn:uuid:fa6a3fff-a69c-4c82-b5ce-0265b8574df7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.cnet.com/More-security-hiccups-for-IE/2100-1002_3-5457105.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953554 | 411 | 1.59375 | 2 |
So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me." - John 2:15-17.
We live in a world where it is commonplace for one to get angry and subsequently become violent. Just the other day, I was driving along and cut in front of another car to get into the turning lane.
That person flew into a rage. He stopped alongside my car and gave me a tongue lashing. I did not do anything wrong. I needed to get in the turning lane and there was a wide gap between his car and the car in front.
He did not see it that way. What I had done made him angry. He was carrying on so badly, I turned up my window. Then he got out of his vehicle to check my license disk
That is the kind of people we meet on the street nowadays. They get angry about everything. All I can say is don't engage them because it can end up violently. We all get angry at times
However, our anger is normally about things that make us look bad. We often get angry because we can't have our own way. In the above text, we see Jesus in an unusual way. He became angry.
This is unusual because Jesus lived a gentle and humble life. However, in the lesson he became angry and drove people from the temple. Why did Jesus get angry? He got angry because the temple was a place to proclaim God's mercy and renew a right relationship with God.
Unfortunately in Jesus' time, it, instead, became a place of profanation. Worship had eroded into a self-serving activity. The religious authorities had permitted the temple area to be used for profiteering. During Passover, Jews from all over the world, converged on Jerusalem to take part in this most holy feast
While in the Holy City, they needed to offer sacrifices and to pay the temple fees. Consequently, merchants set up shop in the temple and transformed it into an international money exchange and a marketplace.
They, obviously, were making a fortune from this trade in the temple. The temple authorities also profited because they charged the merchants exorbitant rent. Instead of using the house of God as a place of worship, they used it to cheat and exploit people
Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time and noticed the chaos and marketplace atmosphere in the temple. This infuriated him, therefore, he acted. He got angry not because someone had crossed him.
He got angry because the authorities were making a mockery of God's house. Therefore, he used his anger to make a point. At the same time he demonstrated his authority. Jesus was not a maniac on the loose
He was the Son of God reclaiming his house as a place of prayer and for prayers. The text tells us that the disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal for your house will consume me. - Ps. 69:9. The message calls us to clean up our act, not only during our Lenten journey.
We are to do so during our life's walk. It is appropriate to get angry, but not because someone cut you off in traffic or that you are not able to have your own way. It is time to get angry and stand up for the things of God.
Yes, get angry, not for selfishness, but because you have a zeal for that which is of God. Amen.
oRev. Samuel M. Boodle, pastor at The Lutheran Church of Nassau, can be reached at P.O. Box N 4794, Nassau, Bahamas, or telephone 323-4107; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.nassaulutheranchurch.org.
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian | <urn:uuid:fe5ee2d2-18cb-4d20-b539-8fe284200e7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bahamaslocal.com/newsitem/45187/Clean_up_your_act.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982469 | 844 | 1.710938 | 2 |
SQL Server 2012: Column store indexes
Ever since the inception of SQL Server, its indexes have always been based on B-trees. With SQL Server 2012, that finally changes!
A new index type is introduced: the column store index. A completely different paradigm, that can offer huge performance increases for some workloads.
In this session, Hugo will give you a fascinating "under the hood" view of this new type of indexes. How are they built, how do they work, and why do they manage to have such a dramatic impact on performance? Attend this session, and you'll find out! | <urn:uuid:47d3426c-fe50-4998-8418-b6002d01dca2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sqlbits.com/(X(1)S(rvhw4svwhvv403unuasmdl45))/Sessions/Event10/SQL_Server_2012_Column_store_indexes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938097 | 124 | 1.671875 | 2 |
RINGOES, NJ. Isn’t it interesting how quickly speculation becomes conventional wisdom? Back in the fall, when we began to hear rumblings of economic catastrophe, things were a bit vague. Most agreed that something was wrong. Some argued that the problems would self-correct. Others insisted that massive government intrusion was necessary to stave off a world-wide disaster. While there were dissenters among us, the chorus of “experts” grew to a mighty din, and those in power did not hesitate to get involved. After all, they were the servants of the people, and the people must be saved. Now that we are in the process of being saved, I’d like to ask a few questions.
First, shouldn’t we be at least a little suspicious when the very people who helped create the economic meltdown are the ones clamoring for a massive government fix? If they are smart enough to know how to fix the mess, why were they not smart enough to see it coming and act more prudently? Try this for fun. Read a variety of economic “experts.” Does the fact that they disagree on both the causes and the solutions to our problems give you pause? Could it be that they are—God forbid—as clueless as the rest of us? Now, let’s throw our grandchildren’s money at the problem. After all, we have to do something.
Second, here’s a well known principle of power: times of crisis result in the consolidation, expansion, and centralization of power. When those with power employ the rhetoric of crisis, watch for ulterior motives. And even if the motives are pure, the movement of power will be toward the center. Should we be concerned? When the crisis is over, do we expect that the power will be yielded easily? The easy movement of power is a one-way street. Reversing the direction is far more difficult. Consider the long-term implications of this dynamic.
Third, is there really a crisis? Talking heads tell us so, but they simply revel in crisis-talk. It drives up ratings. Politicians tend to favor this rhetoric as well. Have you noticed how often political agendas are framed in terms of war? We have fought hot wars against fascism and cold wars against communism. We’ve also declared wars on poverty, drugs, illiteracy, climate change and terror. In other words, if you want to pass an agenda, you must create a sense of urgency, and one of the most effective ways of doing this is to speak in the language of war. The irony is that now the only undeclared wars are the ones fought by soldiers.
Fourth, would a crisis be the worst thing to happen? Please know I am not dismissing the suffering, the worry, the agony that unemployment and hardship would cause. Times could get very tough. But, in the back of my mind, I find myself asking whether difficult times somehow could bring out the best in us. Of course, this is not necessarily true, but there is opportunity. Could a difficult time help to reshape a culture that has become isolated in its individualism and distracted by the short-term pleasures of consumerism? If the choice is between fragmented communities, the frantic pursuit of wealth, and the indolence of easy consumption or a time of economic hardship that hones our character, strengthens community ties, and perhaps even sharpens our souls, is the latter to be avoided because it is difficult? Might our grandchildren admire us for the way we weathered the storm?
Finally, if an economic collapse is a distinct possibility, what will people do? A couple months ago, my wife and I went to New York City. As we strolled around the streets of Manhattan, we talked about living in a city (which we don’t) and the opportunities that are clearly available. But then the question: if serious economic troubles hit, what would all these people do? What would they eat? How could they survive? And here we see a significant difference between the Great Depression and the Great Depression II (if it occurs). Today, less than 1% of Americans live on farms. This single demographic shift makes all the difference. And it is not only the lack of land that is the issue. The skills necessary to cultivate a garden or to care for livestock have largely been forgotten. Or to put matters in a somewhat different light, who is better prepared: a) the urban-dweller who works for a wage and rents a flat on the 15th floor of a high-rise, or b) the person who owns a bit of land and has developed the skills to grow a significant portion of his own food? Jefferson’s yeoman farmer whispers from a forgotten time. Can you hear him?
Perhaps this crisis is overblown. Perhaps it is simply being used as cover for the consolidation of power. That much is obviously true. But if the sky really is falling, we need to be wise. We should not blindly trust the fixers to fix the problem. After all, they created the problems in the first place. They very well could make matters worse. What to do? In my worst moments, I’m tempted to move to a mountain with a stockpile of beans and bullets and ride it out. But with sober reflection, I think there are some simple steps that virtually anyone can take. The most pressing and obvious is to figure out ways to become more dependent on local food sources. Ideally, this means growing some of your own food. This will, obviously, involve plenty of hard work, a steep learning curve, and time. Even in cities, space can be found for cultivating gardens and small animal husbandry; although, we’re going to have to get over our aversion to manual labor, to dirt and blood, to dung and death.
Consider what could be produced if suburban families got rid of part (or all) of the chemically-induced swath of green around their homes and planted fruit trees and a garden. Q: “What? Plow up my front yard and plant potatoes?” A: “Potatoes are better for your kids than Chem-Lawn. And while you’re at it, how about some chickens in the back?” But (the obvious objection) what about the home-owner’s association? Here we can catch a glimpse of how our present culture runs counter to good sense. As long as serious efforts at food production are separated from the places we live, we are not taking the present crisis seriously. And if hard times do in fact arrive, our lack of preparation, our lack of any modicum of independence, will make our transformation into wards of the all-caring state a natural and necessary outcome. Could it be that a local food economy is a bulwark of freedom? | <urn:uuid:5c47f2f0-30a6-465a-9d2b-c1d04f79cdb2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2009/03/food-and-freedom/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966397 | 1,416 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Stephan Lewandowsky's conspiracy theory is metastasizing. Prof. L. has a paper in print base on an on line survey which was advertised in several blogs, but none denizened by those who deny humans are changing the global and local climates. He dropped a remark that he had asked five of the latter to post a link, and well, you can figure out the uproar by reading the three posts he has placed at Shaping Tomorrow's World.
Sou here, there and at Rabett Run has been dipping her stick in, and a great time is being had by all in spite of the absence of popcorn, which, thanks to the mid-west drought in the US is too expensive for popping. Sou points out that the survey's main point is that extreme free market types are attracted to climate change denial as moths to flames. Others think that the paper claims (right or wrong) to show that denial is a family business, with all types on sale in the same head. Many are speculating that the original survey was designed to poe the denialists.
The latest entry comes from John Cook at the Conversation. The interesting part about that one is how John threw down the gauntlet
To reduce the influence of those who reject the science, confirmation bias and misleading rhetorical arguments need to be exposed. Now is as good a time as any to start practising so I recommend beginning with the inevitable deluge of comments to this article. Look for cherry picking, conspiracy theories, comments magnifying the significance of dissenters (or non-experts) and logical fallacies such as non sequiturs.And sure enough, go read the comments, full of conspiracy theories, cherry picking, etc.
You might think those who reject climate science would refrain from employing these methods in such an obvious fashion. But consider the Arctic sea ice example. On one contrarian climate blog, a commenter predicted five ways that people would avoid the inevitable implications of the precipitous drop in Arctic sea ice. Climate sceptic blogger Anthony Watts fulfilled all five predictions.
So the question is why can't the poor dears help themselves, and the answer is subtle, but it explains why Prof. L's survey can not be dismissed. Conspiracy theories are important parts of the denialists' world view. Of course there are the few conspiracy examples as well as the all arounders but single conspiracy folk are rare on the ground. Chris Monckton can no more not be a birther than he can stop denying that humans have anything to do with climate change. It's his birthwrong. Libertarianism is not a longing for liberty, but a denial of obligation to other humans.
It may take a village, but there are plenty of arsonists for hire. | <urn:uuid:75f8a786-d482-4c10-99d4-a48745b3b2bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rabett.blogspot.com/2012/09/meta-lewandowsky.html?showComment=1347180766749 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966857 | 560 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Can you pull the plug?
photo by mykl roventine
No television. Does it seem possible? Many people are downgrading their TV channel packages or completely terminating TV services. Sure, there are options, such as watching shows on Hulu or renting from Netflix or Redbox. But what about temporarily or permanently cutting out all TV viewing? How did we ever get by without it? I’m not knocking television. But if you ever feel like you don’t have enough time to do things that you want to, this is one place you could be wasting it. Spring and summer are the best seasons to experiment with whether or not you’ll miss your TV time.
Here are a few ideas for even the most comfortable couch potatoes.
READING: Maybe you’ve missed reading but never seem to fit it in. Instead of flipping through 100 channels and not finding a thing to watch, pick up a book and read. Remember audio books? Yes, they’re still around. One reader, Donna from California, shares: “I’ve been force-weaned off TV several times, and it was always just a matter of days before I didn’t even miss it. Once it was reintroduced to my life, I found myself watching less of it than before. Now my TV is literally about a 14-inch teeny little thing in the living room that rarely gets switched on. People come over and look at my library shelves (full of books) and my dusty little TV and say, ‘TV doesn’t play a big part in your life, does it?’ I do have another, larger TV in my bedroom, but again, it goes for weeks without being switched on. You will love it. It’s like being taken off of narcotics.”
EXERCISE: Too busy to fit in daily exercise? Think again. You don’t have to join a gym. Start a walking or bicycling group. Or if you can’t live without TV, use it to play fitness DVDs, which can borrow from the library. Equipment such as dumbbells, a jump rope, stretch bands, aerobic step or resistance stretch bands can be bought cheaply, too.
TAKE A CLASS: Add to your frugal skill set. Examples of skills that are good to have are gardening, home repair, hair cutting, sewing, home and pressure canning, cake decorating, carpentry, upholstery, wild food foraging, cooking from scratch (cheese making, homemade yogurt or bread, grind grain, etc.), soap making and homemade cleaners. Call your local cooperative extension and see if they have any classes that interest you. Find community classes that are being offered or workshops that are available at your local home-improvement stores. Another reader, K.K. From Canada, shares: “There are many skills that our grandmothers knew that have been completely lost. I want to “know how,” not only to be more frugal but to be more self-sufficient, too. There’s a strength and a greater connection to things that you have done start to finish. Whether it’s planting a seed, canning the tomatoes and then serving them for dinner or being able to make a beautiful quilt from fabric (like jeans) that others would throw away.” You can learn an instrument or foreign language. Or enjoy an old hobby or start a new one, such as genealogy, too. If you already have an abundance of skills, teach them to someone else.
CONNECT: No, not to the Internet. Connect with friends and family or volunteer some of your time. Days pass so quickly. Time is a luxury. Use it wisely for something that’s meaningful to you. | <urn:uuid:7c327624-9539-496a-b6a5-0d75fb7cbf9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.frugalvillage.com/2010/04/29/can-you-pull-the-plug/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960753 | 789 | 1.65625 | 2 |
International media attention given to Lebanese censorship usually focuses on the banning of Western films, like The Da Vinci Code or the animated Persepolis. But the real victims of the Directorate for General Security (DGSG, from Direction Générale de la Sûreté Générale) and its zealous censors are local film and theater directors, who face an often arduous process to secure permits for filming, screening, or staging creative works. DGSG’s follows its owninternal mandate, and its directives can be stretched in any direction: censors decree that creative works should not “pose any danger or harm to Lebanon,” nor should they upset “political or military sensitivities” or incite “sectarian or factional discord.” Unlike cases of paper publications, the censorship process for local film and theater unfolds entirely outside the courts. While publications can only be censored if a lawsuit is brought against them (and authors and journalists can defend themselves in the Court of Publications), directors cannot question or appeal the General Directorate’s decision to bowdlerize or entirely ban their work.
In recent years, local civil society organizations have begun to speak up against this practice; these voices seek not only to curb censorship, but to limit the DGSG’s extensive powers and curb its considerable autonomy from even the ministers of the interior, who have thus far been unable to assert control over it, particularly in matters of censorship.
Last year, a coalition of the major cultural organizations in Lebanon (such as Metropolis DC,Ashkal Alwan, Né à Beyrouth, among others) grouped under Marsad al-Raqaba (“The Censorship Observatory”), and organized the first collective effort to provide a comprehensive assessment of censorship exercised by state institutions. Led by prominent human rights lawyer Nizar Saghieh, the Observatory’s research exposed the degree to which political and religious leaders are directly involved in censorship cases. It documented how the General Directorate’s censorship department routinely sends films and other creative works that might upset religious institutions to these bodies (like Dar al-Fatwa, the highest Sunni religious authority, or the Catholic Information Center), and almost always complies with their wishes on whether to excise scenes or ban a work altogether. In May, for example, following a request from the Catholic Information Center, the DGSG asked that Joe Bou Eid’s Tannoura Maxiremove certain scenes that were allegedly “offensive to Christianity.”
Similarly, individual political figures are also routinely consulted on creative works that mention them or their parties. Films on the civil war have been routinely censored since the nineties on the basis that references to the conflict “threatens civil peace.” In actuality, however, it only threatens the peace of mind of the warlords who are still in power. For example, Randa Shahal, who represents an older generation of Lebanese directors who tackled the civil war, saw many of her films brutally cut—the most famous of which is A Civilized People (1999). Simon El Habre was forced to excise six minutes of his 2009 documentary One Man Village(the banned scene can be viewed here) because it mentioned the role of the Progressive Socialist Party during the civil war. Last year, Danielle Arbid’s film Beirut Hotel was banned because it referred to the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Marsad Al-Raqaba’s efforts have been followed by others. Encouraged by the region’s year of uprisings, activists have acquired an increasingly diminishing tolerance for security forces’ control over creative expression. Only last week, the Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom (SKeyes)—an organization established in 2007 by the Samir Kassir Foundation to monitor and publicize violations of freedom of the press and artistic expression in the Levant—launched Mamnou3 (“Prohibited”), a mockumentary series that parodies the internal workings of the DGSG’s censorship department. In one clip, an officer of the Directorate smiles smugly as he edits a famous theater director’s script, pleased with his own creativity in altering the text to suit “public morals.” Since Lebanon lacks Internet regulation, SKeyes hopes to avoid a possible ban by focusing the campaign online and promoting it via social media platforms. Although it is too early to gauge whether Mamnou3 will provoke a backlash from the General Directorate, the campaign has already received considerable media attention in Lebanon andbeyond, and the first three episodes released on YouTube have already attracted almost 11,000 views in the week since their release. Seven additional episodes are planned.
Both SKeyes and Marsad Al-Raqaba call for ending the General Directorate’s lack of oversight and establishing instead an independent regulatory body to apply a rating system for films or plays. The new body would also receive complaints after works have been screened or staged and rule on whether or not the work should be censored—rather than the current practice of censoring a film or play while still under production.
Daunting challenges remain, and a number of forces impede progress: an intransigent political class, aggressive security forces unwilling to surrender arbitrary powers, and conservative citizens who worry about uncensored creative expression. Civil society organizations will have to put aside their differences and work harder at coordinating their efforts—much like the defenders of censorship have; in the early 2000s, religious leaders established the Commission to Preserve Values in an effort to monitor media ethics and morals. The organization has made a number of complaints to the office of the public prosecutor regarding scantily clad women in TV programs and on billboards, and has called on the state to preserve “people’s dignity” and to censor TV programs, films and publications. In its most recent statement on May 23, the commission called on the media to practice self-censorship and on the government to ensure media compliance with ethical standards. Significantly, the statement began by describing the military establishment as the “custodian” of Lebanon—linking between censorship and the security forces.
Despite this, there remains much hope. In the past two years, thanks to Marsad al-Raqaba’s efforts, the previously-opaque censoring process is much clearer—and knowledge of it is half the battle. A number of government officials have lent their support; former Minister of Culture Tarek Mitri’s pressure helped to reverse the ban on the film version of Persepolis (which had been banned because it allegedly displeased the head of DGSG General Wafiq Jizzini—who is purportedly close to Hizbullah). Former Minister of the Interior Ziad Baroud also tried to stop the DGSG from cutting the scene mentioned above from One Man Village. Mitri has also been a vocal supporter of abolishing pre-production censorship to allow films and all cultural products to circulate freely.
And as the ongoing Mamnou3 campaign itself shows, creative expression is alive and kicking in Lebanon—as are creative ways around the censors’ excisions. | <urn:uuid:4e21e42d-0036-44aa-a24d-0a80503d234e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.skeyesmedia.org/en/a/Mamnou3/Cut-It-Out-Censorship-in-Lebanon | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947625 | 1,487 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 9:17 pm Post subject: Visual tools for work instructions
We're busy describing our work processes using Visio and creating a handbook and work instructions to go with that. I'm looking for a tool that allows me to take this work on-line. I would like e.g. to have the flow chart as part of a page interactively: clicking an element brings up a description. Publish work instructions along side the flow chart. I would also bring the material "alive" by allowing easy editing features, perhaps even a "suggestions for improvement" function. I want the tool to be relatively low end and affordable. This does not have to be a mega do-it-all tool, just a practical help.
you can buy tools (ITIL in a can style tools) I am not a big fan of these. though they genarally have what you want. However the licensing can be high for for you get (my thoughts only).
or you can take you proceses and give them to a web disigner to put them into HTML which should not cost too much to do and then you have what you want. Be aware that any changes will require html changes just like the 3rd party offerings that are available. _________________ Mark O'Loughlin
ITSM / ITIL Consultant
Generally speaking ECMs tend to give a lot of functionality nowadays for building 'rooms'/forums and basic workflow management. If you have one already then take another look. I could mention some other products but you might as well flick through the main IT periodicals for some adverts/ideas.
So although not entirely helpful... I hope this helps!
Try Visio 2007, it has better capabilities to link to spreadsheets/databases so that you can combine the process graphics with underlying links to structured data such as instructions, attributes etc. Visio 2007 capability to display this underlying data surpasses previous versions.
We use it linked to CMDB and data centre tools to show service mapping and construction, with each Visio shape containing CI data from the CMDB. The technique works with network diagrams, flow charts, rack diagrams etc.
Saving a visio diagram as a web page also publishes all the embedded data and enables searching and hyperlinking. It doesn't even cost alot
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum | <urn:uuid:48e5d627-e807-4e49-8cc5-de3692da201b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://itilcommunity.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=16098 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944773 | 524 | 1.609375 | 2 |
WORLD MARCH 20, 2011
Over the past few days, President Obama has surprised us. For weeks, he seemed committed to avoiding military action against Libya—even though Libyans were imploring America and the West to come to their aid. But at the very last minute, when Muammar Qaddafi seemed to be only days and perhaps hours away from retaking the remainder of his country by force, Obama decided to act. It was a decision we wish he would have arrived at weeks ago. But it was the right decision. And Obama deserves credit for having made it.
(Join Richard Just and Jonathan Chait for a Livestream discussion about Libya at 4 p.m. EDT on Monday, March 21.)
To understand why Obama’s decision was not only correct but really the only decent one that was available to him, it is necessary to contemplate what would be taking place in Libya right now if we had not intervened. Late last week, Qaddafi announced that his forces, having reestablished control over most of the country, were closing in on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, and issued his now infamous warning to those who refused to give up. “We are coming tonight,” he said. “We will find you in your closets. We will have no mercy and no pity.” Had we not intervened to cripple his forces, it seems likely that, by now, Qaddafi would be in Benghazi and, undoubtedly, carrying out bloody reprisals against his opponents. The rebellion, moreover, would effectively be over, and any hopes of freedom that the Libyan people had been entertaining would be dead, at least in the near term.
Skeptics of the intervention (including TNR contributing editor Michael Walzer, whose thoughtful analysis can be found here) have argued that one of the mission’s flaws is that its goals are woefully unclear. Are we trying to topple Qaddafi? Are we merely trying to create a safe-haven for rebels in the east? These are fair questions, but it seems to us that the most immediate goals of the mission were quite clear: first, to prevent a slaughter in Benghazi, a slaughter that Qaddafi himself had promised was only hours away; and second, to tip the balance of power in the rebellion away from Qaddafi, so that his forces were unable to retake any more of the country, thus extinguishing the resistance for good. On these terms, the intervention has already been a success.
As for what comes next: It is difficult to say whether Western airpower can tip the balance of power toward the rebels so dramatically that they will be able to topple Qaddafi. We certainly hope so. But even if it does not, an intervention that at least allows the rebels to maintain a free zone in Libya will certainly be a better outcome than the alternative—a Libya reunited under Qaddafi’s iron control.
In making this argument we are mindful of the lessons of Iraq. We supported that war, which has exacted an enormous human cost on Iraqis and Americans alike, and we long ago came to the conclusion that our support was a grave mistake. But we are also mindful of recent instances where Western power has been necessary to head off mass killing and to help oppressed people achieve their liberation. In some of these instances—Bosnia, Kosovo—we acted, and the outcomes have been generally positive. In other instances—Rwanda, Darfur—we did not act, and the results were hundreds of thousands of dead. The point is that Iraq alone cannot be used as a basis for determining the morality or predicting the efficacy of any given intervention.
Many skeptics have also pointed to the events unfolding in Bahrain, where a Sunni minority government allied with the United States has (with the help of another U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia) violently suppressed an uprising by the Shia majority. Isn’t Obama a hypocrite, many liberals have asked, for intervening to stop an autocrat in Libya but not in Bahrain? It is a legitimate point. Bahrain is said to be a difficult case for American policymakers because a revolution by the Shia majority would be a major victory for Iran. And it is true that anything which advances the interests of a brutal Iranian government in the Middle East must be seen as a setback to the cause of liberal democracy.
At the same time, the events of the last few months show that aligning oneself with autocrats is never a wise course. We spent decades paralyzed with fear about what the fall of Mubarak would mean for our strategic interests. And yet, looking back, would we not have been better off cutting Mubarak loose a generation ago, and siding forthrightly with the Egyptian people? By helping to postpone the arrival of democracy, we did not fortify our long-term strategic position one bit.
We must now think about Bahrain (and Saudi Arabia and our other repressive clients in the region) in the same terms. If our backing allows the Al Khalifa family to remain in power for a few more years, and in the process causes the Bahraini people to conclude that the United States is fundamentally hypocritical, we will in fact be helping Iran. The message of the Obama administration to the Al Khalifas and to Saudi Arabia’s rulers must now be unequivocal: You cannot rule forever, and you must begin the process of opening up your societies and paving the way for liberal democracy.
Should we have intervened diplomatically to stop the repression in Bahrain? Absolutely. But for those offering our failure in Bahrain as a reason not to intervene in Libya, here is a simple question: Would our failure in Bahrain have been in any way ameliorated by allowing Qaddafi to move into Benghazi late last week? We think the answer is a clear no.
Of course, no one knows what will happen from here forward. But this much we do know: Four days ago, a cruel dictator appeared to be on the verge of initiating a bloodbath in one of the last free zones of his country. Today, the free zone he was threatening to attack remains free. And his ability to wage war against a justified rebellion seems to have been at least somewhat compromised. Without Western intervention—that is, without Obama’s decision to finally do the right thing—there is little doubt that the situation would have been worse. | <urn:uuid:a29ec75c-306b-4099-b1e1-fed33dcdc78a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newrepublic.com/article/world/85511/in-libya-obama-finally-did-the-right-thing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976053 | 1,294 | 1.6875 | 2 |
The Tesla S hype has me interested. So now I’m curious, what does it really cost to run per mile? The Tesla site has a decent calculator, here’s some numbers derived from it.
Tesla says they get 283Wh/mile. Electricity in San Francisco costs $0.35/kWh. So that works out to $0.10/mile in a Tesla. Tesla compares itself to 22 MPG cars. Gas in San Francisco is roughly $4/gal, so it’s $0.18/mile in a gas car. By that math, a Tesla is roughly half the cost of a gas car in San Francisco.
San Francisco has outrageously high electricity costs. At the national average of $0.11/kWH a Tesla is more like $0.031/mile, or six times better than a gas car.
On the other hand, batteries wear out. Tesla is offering to replace the battery after the 8 year warranty at a prepaid cost of $10,000 – $12,000. Assuming 12,500 miles a year that adds $0.10/mi to the cost of driving a Tesla, dwarfing the cost of the electricity! The Tesla ends up being $0.13 – $0.20 / mile compared to $0.18/mi for the 22 MPG gas car (and roughly $0.12 – $0.20 / mile for gas cars in general).
Update: Ken points out the battery lasts another 8 years, so battery replacement really adds $0.05/mi. Our SF Tesla then is $0.15/mi. Also Dan asks if some part of drivetrain maintenance should factor in to gas car operating costs.
If you think of the battery as another form of “fuel” that needs replacing every eight years, then the Tesla costs about the same per mile to drive as a gas car no matter what electricity rates you pay. But maybe the battery will last longer; no one really knows. Also, I suspect most Tesla customers think of the battery cost as depreciation and not a consumable.
Another argument for Tesla is that electricity is somehow more environmentally friendly than gas. Not really; a Tesla is metaphorically spewing 44% coal emissions out its tailpipe. It's 20% nuclear though, I think that's a win.
I finally made good on last year’s New Year’s resolution and transferred domain names away from GoDaddy (registered via Google) to Hover. Hover is a humane registrar, the evolution of Tucows, and they have a good service. Getting out of the clutches of GoDaddy is not easy but Hover has put a lot of effort into helping you. Their docs are thorough and the webapp is good. Even so, I was starting to wish I’d used their free valet service. The steps are roughly:
Step 7 has a race condition; Hover has to have received your domain name before you’re allowed to edit the name server authority in the whois data. And various things cache whois and root DNS information for minutes to hours. My site was offline for about 10 minutes while this sorted itself out. The right thing would be to edit the name server authority for your domain first, before initiating the transfer. Hover seemed happy to provide DNS service before the transfer was complete, I just couldn’t update the whois info.
Another glitch was that some of my names weren’t registered directly by me, but instead via Google Sites or AppEngine. That extra step causes a big mess; here’s a detailed description of the solution. In brief, you have to go to Google Admin Control Panel. That has a link for Domain Settings / Advanced DNS settings that gives you login credentials at GoDaddy that Google made and never told you about. There’s a “Sign in to DNS console” link right there that leads you to GoDaddy management, you can unlock the name and get the authorization code there. But that site has been broken for a year and you can’t disable domain privacy with it. Instead log in to this other GoDaddy site; you have to recover the username (a different random number), but the password Google gave you will work. The “cancel private registration” button works there. It’s almost like GoDaddy doesn’t want this transfer to be easy.
Yahoo shut Delicious down. (Well, they sold it to a new owner who made a mess of it.) A bunch of Delicious users jumped ship and signed up for Pinboard which was a lot like Delicious only better, cleaner, faster. It costs $10 (once!) and now Maciej is making a nice living running this little service for his loyal users. He’s not rolling in VC dough, he doesn’t have a staff of hundreds, I’m guessing he grosses roughly $100,000 a year. But he runs a great service for a dedicated, smart community. Pinboard is a success.
Before Google Reader dominated the scene there were a lot of competing feed readers that were little one man shops. But then Google launched something really excellent, and free, and that was the end of the feed reader market.
Now Google is shutting down Google Reader. It doesn’t make them the hundreds of millions of dollars they measure products by. There’s a large, vocal community of distraught users who are looking for somewhere, anywhere to go. There’s a few products that might fill that niche. Commercial products, cost a few bucks, could pay for the living of a couple of developers. Google Reader shutting down may be the best thing that could happen for them. It could make them a success.
Well I rewrote the easy parts. I left out the zoom, although that would be pretty straightforward using D3 transitions. And I left out the color transitions; the simple way I’m doing this in SVG it’s too slow to animate. I should rewrite it using Canvas to match the speed of the 2004 Java applet.
D3 makes this kind of visualization very easy. Particularly the projection; Ben’s online example uses a janky Platte Carrée, I imagine because he didn’t want to do the math. (The version in his book is more georesponsible.) I don’t want to do the math either, but with D3 I can just use the provided AlbersUSA. The source is on GitHub and is quite readable, I think.
I had a bit of email drama this week; Gmail started classifying half of my incoming legitimate email as spam. I got some great help from Gmail support who explained the problem and taught me how to properly forward email.
In detail, what happened… I get all my email to [email protected], which I forward via procmail and SMTP to my gmail account. For some reason monkey.org recently got branded a possibly spammy domain. Because of my forwarding Gmail was under the impression that all my email was coming from monkey.org, so a bunch of it started getting marked as spam. The Gmail UI is a bit buggy in this circumstance; it was misidentifying which domain was the problem, telling me “we’ve found that lots of messages from gmail.com are spam” and the like when the real problem was monkey.org.
I fixed the problem by forwarding my mail properly. Gmail doesn’t just use the From: email header to identify the sender, it also uses the (normally invisible) From⎵ SMTP envelope. And because I misconfigured procmail, that header was always being set to [email protected] (since I was sending the mail). You can spoof the envelope too via -f, you just have to set it up that way. (Which makes me wonder why the spam filter pays any attention to it.)
It's a subtle problem; I only noticed it after several years. If you use procmail to forward to Gmail, you may want to look into your configuration. I believe most more ordinary forwarding mechanisms don’t have the envelope problem. Procmail is weird in that it’s generating new emails, not forwarding existing ones.
The zero width space is a useful Unicode character. It's white space but renders with zero width. Useful for hinting where a line break could go if a browser needs to wrap a long line. It's also good for faking out Twitter's annoying URL rewriter; if you stick a ZWS in the middle of a domain name then Twitter won't rewrite your text with a t.co redirect.
The zero width space is Unicode character U+200B. (HTML ). It's remarkably hard to type. On Windows you can type Alt-8203. On Linux you apparently can type Ctrl-Shift-U 8203. On a Mac you need Character Viewer; search for "zero" and double click the invisible character on row 4, column 1 to insert a ZWS.
ZWS >< ZWSOr you can just cut and paste it. I put one up there for you, between the left and right angle brackets. Of course being zero width you can't easily select it; best bet is to copy the angle brackets too, all 3 characters. Then paste and delete the brackets. You can verify the ZWS is still there by using the arrow keys to move the cursor; it should get "stuck" on the ZWS and require two movements to pass.
I love this graph. JUPOS, a crowd-sourced astronomy program to track atmospheric features on Jupiter. Specifically it's a graph of the width and center of the Great Red Spot since 2010, taken from observations from hundreds of astronomers. The project was started in 1975 by an East German astronomer. Over time they've collected historical data back to 1785 and built a network of observers using webcams (!) to take pictures of Jupiter. This graph is a quick view of a well known feature, they also track much more detailed numerical data about Jupiter's atmosphere.
The router is the most important computer in your home but most consumer routers are junk hardware with terrible software. For years my Linksys WRT54GL + Tomato firmware has been doing me well but Tomato hasn’t had an update in two years and the WRT54GL doesn’t do 802.11n.
The modern equivalent is an ASUS RT-N16 running Toastman’s Tomato build. Good stuff. The RT-N16 does 802.11n well and is overpowered hardware. The Toastman builds have all the goodness of stock Tomato along with nice features like USB drives and file serving. And my favorite feature, per-device network monitoring; perfect for figuring out what the heck is using all your bandwidth.
The stock ASUS firmware is garbage. Replacing it is a bit tricky; your choices are using their weird Windows software, installing a signed DD-WRT build first, or doing it by hand with tftp. I did the tftp trick and it worked fine. Unfortunately Toastman distributes his builds on a server that requires a login, but it does actually work. I used build tomato-K26USB 1.28.7500 4MIPSR2Toastman-RT-Ext.
Some alternatives.. The ASUS RT-N66U is fancier hardware that does 5GHz 802.11n for more wireless speed. But it’s about twice the price. The Shibby Tomato builds are also under active development and popular. And some people like OpenWRT or DD-WRT firmware; I prefer Tomato’s simplicity.
This recommendation mostly comes from Jeff Atwood
The elections are over and the visualizations of the vote have come out. The red/blue maps, the warpy cartogram maps, the pointillist map, and the eye searing purple map. All well intentioned, many with awful colors.
Above are eight options for red / blue color scales. The top 4 interpolate between the sedate party logo colors (from NYTimes), the bottom are fully saturated red to blue. Each set of 4 bars represents four different interpolation functions: the simplistic RGB and HSV scales and the perceptual LAB and HCL scales.
Which is best? It depends on your goal. But RGB and HSL interpolation are almost always wrong, they’re very misleading. And for everyone’s eyeball safety, please don’t use fully saturated colors.
My new house in Grass Valley really makes me miss wired broadband. I’m only 3 miles from the middle of town but there’s no wired broadband options, no cable or DSL. So everyone uses wireless Internet.
Fixed Wireless is the new hotness. Remember all those nerds throwing WiFi over a mile with Pringles can waveguides and Yagi directional antennas? Fixed Wireless is that idea made commercial with hardware like Motorola Canopy. It’s a peer to peer network; my house has a directional antenna pointed north with an always on 900MHz link to some other house. That house links to another house, which in turn links at 2.4GHz to a tower with wired bandwidth.
The good news is the latency is very low, about 30ms before I reach the edge of my ISP. Compared to satellite’s 250ms+ that’s terrific. Bandwidth is not great; I’m paying $70/mo for 768kbps download. That’s about twice the price and one tenth the speed of my sonic.net DSL, but given the limitations of wireless it seems reasonable. Here’s a roundup of ISP prices in western Nevada County; fixed wireless comes in the middle between DSL/cable and cellular service.
The big bummer is the peer to peer network with houses sharing bandwidth. It’s like a return to party lines! My ISP heavily manages things. My 768kbps is actually more like 2000kbps but only in a burst for the first 15 seconds; just perfect for loading web pages and other quick interactive stuff. I also have a monthly download cap of 15GB. That seems terribly restrictive and I don’t like it, but they tell me they need it to manage shared bandwidth. It’s too bad, a single HD movie or game download is about 5GB. So I’m closely monitoring usage and doing things like bringing my Mac back to SF just to upgrade Xcode.
Internet access is such a vital resource for our culture and economy, bringing good broadband to rural areas is important. There is a fiber backbone project being built now that will bring a lot more bandwidth to Grass Valley mid-2013, but the last mile problem is real. And getting worse; AT&T has actually removed service in Nevada County and Comcast isn’t even trying. It’s not profitable for them to run cable to customers, so they just don’t bother. Wireless seems to be the only option for the future, but there are fundamental limitations that mean it will never be as good as wired broadband. | <urn:uuid:2b35e506-ac58-4c84-92a7-4fdd88ca0cab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.somebits.com/weblog/tech/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937141 | 3,145 | 1.539063 | 2 |
In a community of active volunteers, those who contribute quietly behind the scenes are sometimes overlooked. Such a one is Phil "Bunk" Griffin who, since 1994, has made an immense contribution to the preservation of village history.
Many people, newer residents especially, are unaware of just who Bunk is and what he has accomplished. An Adirondack native, he has worked as a cook at Adirondack Medical Center for the last 39 years while, at the same time, working at home to put together an historical treasure trove of area stories and photos.
Bunk grew up in Saranac Lake, attending local schools where, to his teachers' dismay, he devoted a considerable portion of class time doodling on his lesson books. Though sketching was his favorite pastime, he nevertheless managed to get thrown out of the only art class he ever took. He had refused to draw as instructed.
Phil ‘Bunk’ Griffin
(Photo — Caperton Tissot)
After graduating, he worked as a cook for MarMac's (the bowling alley), Mt. Pisgah's snack bar and Dew Drop Inn. He was just 20 years old when first introduced to bobsledding by Dew Drop Morgan and his colleagues. Bunk loved it, became a certified, officially trained bobsledder and called it a "fun sport with good guys."
In 1973, as a joke, Bunk slid a cartoon under the door at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, signing it "Bunky." It was immediately published and received such reader enthusiasm that he was hired to sketch a cartoon a day for the paper. The plump, somewhat abstract figures his cartoons have featured, among others, "Mountain Al," based on the hermit Noah Rondeau, and "Scoop Wryley," a gentle characterization of former Enterprise reporter, Howard Riley.
Bunk used to put his head together with columnist Bill McLaughin. Together they came up with local issues as subjects for Bunk's s satiric sketches.
When Bunk's approach became too controversial for the editor at the time, Bill Doolittle (but not advertisers who boycotted the paper in support of Bunk), he moved on to the Enterprise's sister paper, the Lake Placid News, where he provided weekly cartoons up through the 1980 Olympics.
Weary of the routine, he retired from the paper shortly thereafter. He still draws his insightful cartoons, occasionally submitting them to the paper as he did recently to illustrate the plight of curator Mike Delahant threatened with eviction from the Stevenson Cottage.
"My cartoons are seasoned with a touch of Bunk," he says, by way of warning the reader not to take them too seriously.
In 1993, with the advent of the World Wide Web, Bunk had the idea of developing a Web site where Saranac Lakers who had moved away could reconnect with their hometown. Knowing little about computers, but with self-discipline and determination, Bunk bought scores of books and settled down to teach himself the complex system of hyper-text mark-up lines. He learned the skills needed to program and after many long hours of study, became an accomplished Webmaster.
When he first set up www.Bunksplace.com some 15 years ago, he found a lot of old friends who had since moved away and contacted him via his Web site. They sent so many photographs that he added a category called "The Way We Were."
More and more former residents began writing to him, recalling their times together in the good old days. This inspired Bunk to set up a section called "Your Memories of Saranac Lake" for their recollections.
As his interest in history developed, so did his collection of historic postcards, which he also shares on his Web site.
No description of the Web site can do justice to his creation. It has won awards from Schnibco's List of Best Websites and Nik's Nooks. It is a sophisticated source of information, which includes, among other things, updated local weather reports, news links, live area Web cams, event announcements and 85 pages, bursting with unusual local stories and more than 2,000 historical photos.
Bunk said his purpose is to save the history that does not make it into official documents; the history that is the fabric of our community, the oral and written recollections of the "plumbers, carpenters, loggers, waiters, waitresses and everyday workers" who make up the backbone of the community.
Many, recognizing the value of his project, have sent photo and story contributions. The better part of Bunk's days are spent gathering together this material; researching, editing and scanning it into a well-organized format. He pays all the costs of Web site hosting, is constantly reaching out to find more history, frequently bids on eBay for any relevant material, and helps other researchers with information.
"I try to save things nobody has ever heard of," he explained, "like the Wildman of Rainbow Lake." Stay tuned for that upcoming story. "Research is like detective work; you take little clues and use those to go on searching." He spends hours tracking tidbits of information, piecing them together to discover never before told stories. One of the most intriguing is that of the Saranac Lake bootlegger Pete Tanzini. Bunk was equally fascinated by the accounts he received via his Web site and e-mail, of former Saranac Lakers who had moved to New Orleans and struggled to survive Katrina.
Now semi-retired, Bunk works two days a week, spending most of the remaining time salvaging what would otherwise be lost history. He and his wife Paula, married in 1969, have two grown daughters, Karry and Kelly, and one 17-year old grandson, Chris.
Bunk said he is delighted that Chris is following in his "bobsled footsteps," actively pursuing not only this sport, but luge and skeleton as well.
When it comes to travel, Bunk says "Where would I go? I like it right here." Referring to his avocation, he says, "I'll never be through."
He said he does hope to find someone to carry on his work when he no longer can. He also hopes to find the funds to create a hard copy of the Web site, which he would donate to the Saranac Lake Free Library.
For all his diligence and enthusiastic research, there are days when he suddenly feels swamped by all the material, tosses it in the air and yells "OK, I'm out of here" (as demonstrated in the photo above). Then he heads to the Waterhole for a brew and some company before returning home once more to archive more historical treasures.
Based on an interview with Phil "Bunk" Griffin. Caperton Tissot can be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:dae5d27b-18cf-450d-a097-45f249ea95c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://adirondackdailyenterprise.com/page/content.detail/id/505171/Cartoons--seasoned-with-a-touch-of-Bunk-.html?nav=5048 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97676 | 1,436 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Kirkland, 49, heads the Carroll Drunk Driving Monitor Program. His job is to help drunken-driving convicts stick to the terms of theirprobation by having them report to his office once a week.
A defendant who is convicted of drunken driving often is sent by a judge tothe county Health Department to be evaluated. If that evaluation reveals a drug or alcohol problem, the judge often will place the personin the monitor program.
Those convicted of drunken driving -- offenders, as Kirkland calls them -- are ordered to report to Kirkland'scourthouse office once a week. He asks them whether they are attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and whether they have had a drink lately.
Everyone in the monitor program must remain abstinent, Kirkland said.
Kirkland and fellow Carroll monitor Laura Beeker also check to see whether offenders are complying with other probation terms, which can include volunteer community service and completion of a alcohol- or drug-rehab program.
The monitors also can order urinalysis tests to see whether offenders are telling the truth.
If Kirkland or Beeker determine an offender has violated probation, the judgeis notified. If the judge decides a violation has been made, probation is often revoked and the offender sent to jail.
Many credit thestrict requirements of Carroll's monitor program with its success, but most court officials say kudos also is in order for Kirkland.
Circuit Judge Francis M. Arnold was on the District Court bench when the monitor program began in 1983. Thanks to Kirkland and his personaltouch, the judge said, the program has been useful in keeping tabs on drunken drivers serving probation.
"I have never met a more dedicated person, and he's also a great guy," Arnold said. "He handles a tremendous amount of cases and he seems to know each one individually."
While there are no court statistics available on the percentageof drunken-driving offenders who are sentenced to the program, Kirkland says more than 900 come through his office each week.
Arnold said that while it is impossible for Kirkland to know what each offender is doing 24 hours a day, he doesn't seem to let any get away with anything.
"He seems to have an intuition to know if someone has been sober or if they've been drinking," Arnold said.
Kirkland says he understands the plight of offenders because he, too, is a recovering alcoholic.
"I know what it's like to want to be able to look atyour face in the mirror and not be disgusted," said Kirkland, who lives in Sparks, Baltimore County, with his wife, Doris, and two children, Arthur, 22, and Robin, 20.
"I know what it's like to want to hide every time the phone rings and the bill collector comes."
Before becoming a monitor, Kirkland worked as a custom cabinetmaker in Timonium, Baltimore County. He broke his back and went out on disability.
He was told he'd never work again but refused to believe it.
"Nobody would hire me," he said. "So I started using alcohol as a medicine to get me through my depression."
Kirkland said he was drinking a case of beer a day at first, before moving to a quart of vodkadaily.
After attending Alcoholics Anonymous for one year, he decided to start a group for young people with alcohol problems and beganspeaking at meetings.
That's when he came to the attention of theBaltimore County monitor program and was asked whether he would liketo be trained as a monitor for Carroll.
Gordon Miller, supervisorof the monitoring programs in Carroll and Howard counties, said Kirkland is effective because he knows the tricks of self-deception that are part of alcoholism.
"You can't con an ex-conner," Miller said.
But Kirkland attributes the success of his program to tenacity.
"We're the best because we care about people," said Kirkland, who estimates the program's success rate at 90 percent. "If there is one little fraction of some desire (to stop drinking) in somebody, we'll keep working with them."
Kirkland and Beeker acknowledge that is not always easy. Offenders who are sent to the program rarely want to check in every week and often come with a bad attitude.
But the monitors say they don't give up easily.
"People who fail to keep up with the program at the beginning come back to do well," said Beeker, who has worked with Kirkland at the Carroll office for the past five years. "We see the unwilling become the grateful."
One of the grateful people is Bob, a 35-year-old construction worker who completed the program several months ago.
"When I first came here, I thought it was a bunch of bull," said Bob, who asked that his last name not be used.
Offenders find that if they stay sober during their probation, Kirkland can be a valuable asset. He often testifies in court onbehalf of offenders trying to get their sentences reduced.
"We all have a lot of respect and admiration for Bob Kirkland," Miller said. "He is very dedicated. When he speaks in court, everybody listens."
Kirkland's dedication is not limited to his job. Early this year he was named Elk of the Year at the Westminster Elks Club. In March he persuaded the Elks to donate $400 to a child abuse seminar sponsored by the Westminster Police Department and the Carroll State's Attorneys Office.
Then he took four days of his vacation time to attend the seminar.
He also works with the Elks to donate $2,000 each year to the county's Youth Drug Summit.
But of all the things he does, he seems to enjoy his job the most.
"Seeing somebody get their life together, that's the best thing," he said. | <urn:uuid:623fa1bc-2116-49c7-af09-3aac1f67d3db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-10-13/news/9113010755_1_kirkland-monitor-program-convicted-of-drunken | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980756 | 1,219 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Schork Oil Outlook: IEA… Having it Both Ways?
“Oil prices are entering a dangerous zone for the global economy,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA's chief economist. “The oil import bills are becoming a threat to the economic recovery. This is a wake-up call to the oil consuming countries and to the oil producers.”
—Financial Times (January 04, 2011)
Since Mr. Birol was quoted three months ago, spot Brent crude oil on the ICE has rallied by 36% through Monday; from $93.53 to $127.02… or from £60.00 to an all-time high (in pound sterling) of £77.64. As a result, the retail cost of automotive diesel in the U.K. has jumped from £1.291 a liter to £1.395 (+8%) and the cost in Germany has risen from €1.312 to €1.425 a liter (+8½%). Meanwhile in the U.S., the largest consumer of oil in the world, retail gasoline this spring has jumped to an all-time real high (adjusted for inflation) of $3.791 a gallon.
Along this backdrop we have the latest observation from the IEA:
“There are real risks that a sustained $100-plus price environment will prove incompatible with the currently expected pace of economic recovery… preliminary January and February data suggest that persistently high oil prices may have already started to dent demand growth”.
—IEA Monthly Oil Market Report, Bloomberg (April 12th)
Oddly enough however, the current spike in oil did not behoove the IEA to alter its view that global oil consumption will increase by 1.6% to 89.4 MMbbl/d.
We think the incongruity in the IEA’s stance glaring… if not disingenuous. Oil prices have spiked more than 30% from whence the IEA first cautioned that oil had entered “… a dangerous zone for the global economy”.
Today’s issue of The Schork Report highlights this inconsistency… exactly how high do oil prices have to go before the IEA thinks global oil consumption will respond?
- Read CNBC's Guest Blogs- Great People, Great Ideas...
- CNBC's Energy Page - Trends, Trades & Hot Topics
- Energy Market Overview
Stephen Schork is the Editor of The Schork Reportand has more than 17 years experience in physical commodity and derivatives trading, risk systems modeling and structured commodity finance. | <urn:uuid:2c5525e0-50a6-4e2d-84eb-edfb4062908b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnbc.com/id/42571421 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946426 | 531 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Here are some recommendations - something new and something old - for your listening pleasure.
Stop the Train! by Geraldine McCaughrean is set during the Oklahoma Land Rush in 1889, in this full cast audio production. It shows the perseverance of one town to become one of the stops on the Red Rock Railroad. They will do almost anything to stop the train!
If you are fans of Peter and the Starcatchers in the Never Land Series, you will be intrigued by The Bridge to Never Land by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. It intertwines the lives of two teens in the present with their modern day conveniences like cell phones and an iPad along with Albert Einstein’s work and the fictional story of Peter Pan and Captain Hook. The non-stop adventure filled with puzzles to solve and dangers around every corner will keep you listening intently. | <urn:uuid:fab9c91c-ac00-494f-940c-dd01bbf658f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sccl.org/locations/hours-and-locations/cupertino/news/387629--don-t-miss-these-audio-books | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95066 | 174 | 1.523438 | 2 |
WIND RIVER DANCERS
On Jan. 21, eight dancers and three drummers from the Wind River Indian Reservation represented Wyoming in President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Parade. They were the state’s only representatives.
On the left is Dean Littleshield, 20. He has danced since he could walk and went to D.C. with his dad, Fergie, and brother, Patrick. He wears a Superman symbol around his neck, hand-beaded by his mom.
Why Superman? “I have like six more at the house. I go all over and people say, just like what you did, ‘Ah, I love that.’ It just makes me feel good because I have something to represent my mom. She did all the bead work on my outfit. It feels so good to see how much she cares, how much she loves all of us.”
On the right is Christie Wildcat, 14. She wears 365 jingles on her dress. When she dances the Medicine Dance, the jingles “sing” a healing song for every day of the year. The jingles are cut from Skoll cans, folded into cones and sewn on one by one.
For whom do you dance? ”I dance for the people who can’t dance, like the elders, the disabled, for my family, for the non-natives who would like to dance. I don’t dance for myself or the contest money. I dance for my culture to keep it alive. It’s like a passion. When I’m out there I always think of my family. I dance like I’m one with the drum.”
(Ed. note: This is an excerpt from a longer feature on the Wind River Dancers in the Casper Star-Tribune. The Wind River Dancers are still trying to raise $10,000 to pay for their trip to D.C. For more on making a donation and to see a portrait gallery of other dancers, click here.)
— Interview by Kristy Gray, Star-Tribune Features Editor; Portraits by Dan Cepeda, Star-Tribune Photographer
* * *
The features staff of the Casper Star-Tribune — editor Kristy Gray, outdoors reporter Christine Peterson and reporter Benjamin Storrow — are State Guides to Wyoming. The Star-Tribune is Wyoming’s only statewide newspaper and you can follow the adventures of the features folks at tribfeatures.tumblr.com and find the Star-Tribune at www.trib.com. | <urn:uuid:03d23963-66e6-400a-8160-215194fd2fd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theamericanguide.org/tagged/native-american | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954548 | 547 | 1.507813 | 2 |
John L. Allen Jr. is the prize-winning Vatican writer for the National Catholic Reporter, a U.S. Catholic weekly.
In 2000, Allen established the Rome office of the National Catholic Reporter. From that position, he broke stories on Rome's response to the American sexual abuse crisis, the Vatican's opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq, the death of John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI, and a wide variety of other important Vatican events.
In the summer of 2006, Allen returned to the United States, allowing him to expand his coverage of both the American church and the global Catholic scene, while continuing to keep his eye on Rome.
Allen is the author of many books on the Catholic Church, including All the Pope's Men, The Rise of Benedict XVI, Opus Dei, and A People of Hope, and serves as senior Vatican analyst for CNN.
- Opus Dei: The First Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church
Last Updated: May 17, 2013 | <urn:uuid:54944aad-e287-462b-953a-0841a43cfeb2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/people/data/john_l__allen.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94939 | 219 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Book Review: Machine Learning in Action by Peter Harrington
A couple months ago I briefly reviewed Machine Learning for Hackers by Drew Conway and John Myles White. Today I’m looking at Machine Learning in Action by Peter Harrington and comparing the two books.
Both books are about the same size and many of the same topics. One difference between the two books is choice of programming language: ML for Hackers uses R for its examples, ML in Action uses Python.
ML in Action doesn’t lean heavily on Python libraries. It mostly implements its algorithms from scratch, with a little help from NumPy for linear algebra, but it does not use ML libraries such as scikit-learn. It sometimes uses Matplotlib for plotting and uses Tkinter for building a simple GUI in one chapter. The final chapter introduces Hadoop and Amazon Web Services.
ML for Hackers is a little more of a general introduction to machine learning. ML in Action contains a brief introduction to machine learning in general, but quickly moves on to specific algorithms. ML for Hackers spends a good number of pages discussing data cleaning. ML in Action starts with clean data in order to spend more time on algorithms.
ML in Action takes 8 of the top 10 algorithms in machine learning (as selected by this paper) and organizes around these algorithms. (The two algorithms out of the top 1o that didn’t make it into ML for Hackers were PageRank, because it has been covered well elsewhere, and EM, because its explanation requires too much mathematics.) The algorithms come first in ML in Action, illustrations second. ML for Hackers puts more emphasis on its examples and reads a bit more like a story. ML in Action reads a little more like a reference book.
(Note: Opinions expressed in this article and its replies are the opinions of their respective authors and not those of DZone, Inc.) | <urn:uuid:d0792081-770d-4dd6-b558-bfa7619e8ef8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://architects.dzone.com/articles/book-review-machine-learning | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934814 | 391 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Lights, Camera -- Entrapment! Homeland Security Theater in Portlandby William Norman Grigg
Osman Barre, a Somali-born software engineer living in Portland, Oregon, was concerned that his teenage son Mohamed Osman Mohamud was being radicalized by exposure to jihadist literature. Barre expressed his concerns to the FBI, which quite helpfully arranged for two of its “terrorism facilitators” to take charge of the 18-year-old’s indoctrination. As a result, Mohamud, now 21 years old, is on trial for involvement in a terrorism “plot” that was entirely scripted and controlled by the FBI.
Mohamud was born in Somalia shortly before the U.S. invaded that country as part of a UN-mandated mission to impose a central government on that anfractuous tribal culture. That mission disintegrated in 1994 after it became clear that the Somalis weren’t interested in living under a UN-designed government. Thirteen years later, the administration of George W. Bush resumed the assault on Somalia by arranging for Ethiopian to invade and occupy the country. Since then, Washington has continued its war against Somalia, which involves the use of troops from a coalition of regional proxies and drone strikes against “suspected militants.”
Like many other native Somalis, Mohamud is aware of the violence being waged against his homeland – and other Muslim countries – by Washington. As a teenager he expressed an interest in traveling to Saudi Arabia, immersing himself in the study of Islam, and then enlisting in a defensive jihad in Afghanistan or Yemen.
By the time his father contacted the FBI in 2009, Mohamud had struck up an e-mail correspondence with militants abroad, and had written essays on physical fitness for jihad-oriented online publications. He had also made plans to work in Alaska in order to raise funds for his anticipated travels abroad.
According to the criminal complaint filed after his arrest, Mohamud attempted to board a flight to Kodiak, Alaska at Portland International Airport on June 14, 2010, but was detained at the gate and questioned by FBI agents. Not aware that he had been under FBI surveillance for several months, Mohamud was open about his plans. He said that he had found a fishing job, and that he intended to travel to Yemen if he could raise the money and obtain a visa.
The ingenuous candor displayed by Mohamud in dealing with the FBI makes it difficult to believe that he was an aspiring terrorist. The purpose of the airport interview was not to determine if the recent high school graduate was a criminal, but rather to assess his suitability as a subject for the FBI’s radicalization program.
A little more than a week after the FBI had questioned Mohamud, the Bureau dispatched two members of its traveling Homeland Security Theater Troupe to act as “terrorism facilitators.” The FBI’s terrorist recruitment program is an atypically efficient government enterprise: In the case of Mohamed Mohamud it took the agency five months to transform a misguided but not criminally inclined teenager into a fully realized jihadist.
The indoctrination and manipulation of Mohamud followed the familiar script.
The FBI’s undercover operatives had lengthy conversations intended to identify and accentuate the subject’s grievances, all of which focused on the U.S. government’s bloody aggression against Muslims living abroad. They enticed the impressionable youngster by playing to his religious idealism, his outrage over the violence committed against his fellow Muslims, and his adolescent desire to prove his worthiness and valor. Then they presented him with an opportunity to become “operational” by conducting a large-scale terrorist attack against Portland’s municipal Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the day after Thanksgiving – an event that would attract a large and vulnerable crowd.
As one of the FBI’s terrorism tutors discussed the attack, he mentioned that “there’s gonna be a lot of children there.” Mohamud replied that the bombing would make Americans understand what it’s like “to be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays,” and that such a horrifying incident might prompt them “to refrain from killing our children, women…. [I]t’s not fair they should do that to people and not [be] feeling it.”
This admittedly horrifying sentiment differs little from the opinions expressed by Americans who treated the carnage inflicted by their government against Afghan and Iraqi populations as “payback” for the 9/11 atrocity.
Mohamud reiterated that view in a propaganda video staged by the FBI’s “terrorism facilitators” just before the end of the sting operation:
“This is a message … to those who have wronged themselves and the rights of others. [For] the Americans and others. A dark day is coming your way….. As your soldiers target our civilians, we will not help you to do so. Did you think that you could invade a Muslim land, and we would not invade you?”
The operation ended as FBI-scripted melodramas of this kind almost always do – with the patsy being arrested after trying to detonate a phony bomb, and the local Special Agent in Charge issuing a self-exalting press release boasting that the agency had heroically thwarted its own terrorist “plot.”
It’s important to recognize, once again, that prior to his contact with the FBI, Mohamud had never expressed any interest in staging a terrorist attack in the United States, or in attacking civilians anywhere. Every detail of the supposed bombing plot was dictated by the FBI’s provocateurs.
The Feds insist that Mohamud had been given repeated opportunities to withdraw from the plot. But once Mohamud had earned the Bureau’s malignant attention, his fate was sealed: He would either become a patsy in a bogus plot or an informant on the agency’s behalf. On previous performance there’s no reason to believe that the FBI would be willing to walk away from a young Muslim man who had become the target of one of the agency’s terrorism campaigns.
In at least one case, the Feds have actually attempted to prosecute Muslims who refused to take the bait when they were approached by an FBI provocateur. Afghan immigrant Ahmadullah Sais Niazi was arrested on terrorism-related charges in 2009 after he complained that an odd fellow calling himself Farouk Aziz had tried to recruit him as a terrorist.
Aziz was actually a petty criminal-turned-informant named Craig Monteilh, who was part of an FBI initiative called “Operation Flex” that targeted Muslims in California’s Orange County.
As Montielh would later recount in a lawsuit he filed against the Bureau, the FBI recruited him “to infiltrate and spy on the activities of the members of the [Irvine] Mosque in an effort to uncover potential terrorists and plots against the Government. He was instructed by his handlers to act in a manner that suggested that he was a terrorist.... His actions made many of the members of the Mosque uncomfortable and the Attorney for the Mosque … contacted him in an effort to get him to stop attending regular prayers." (Emphasis added.)
While driving to a Friday night worship service in June 2007, Montielh offered Niazi and another member of the mosque an opportunity to become “operational.” The offended Muslims went to Hussan Ayloush, director of the Southern California chapter of CAIR, to express concerns that the fellow they knew as Aziz had “gone crazy or is about to do something – and they would be considered accomplices since they knew him.”
Ayloush contacted J. Stephen Tidwell, assistant FBI Director in Los Angeles, to “report a possible terrorist – a white convert in Irvine.”
“Okay – thanks for letting us know,” Tidwell replied – and then hung up.
Two Special Agents were sent to interview Niazi and others who had met with Monteilh. This wasn’t to learn about the details of a “plot” that the FBI controlled, of course, but to find out how badly their provocateur had been compromised – and to determine which of the innocent targets might be blackmailed into becoming an informant.
It was discovered that Niazi was distantly related to an Afghan figure with an indirect and trivial connection to the Taliban. The Feds eagerly seized on this trivial “offense” by threatening to charge the young man with “perjury” because he had not mentioned that attenuated relationship in his immigration paperwork.
Ironically, in 2009 Montielh – who spent some time in prison for fraud – rescued Niazi by filing his lawsuit against the FBI, which laid bare the corrupt and criminal tactics used by the Bureau in targeting the Irvine-area Muslim population. The former snitch’s change of heart proved to be Niazi’s salvation: The terrified and disillusioned refugee was told that if he didn’t cooperate with the Feds, he faced 30 years in prison.
That’s how the FBI treats Muslims who do what is described as their civic duty by reporting suspected terrorist who are on the federal payroll. And it’s reasonable to expect that something similar would have happened to Mohamud had he told the FBI’s “terrorism facilitators” to go to hell.
Attorney General Eric Holder claims that Mohamud "chose at every step to continue" with the bombing plot orchestrated by the Feds. But this happened after the FBI had cut off his access to a legitimate job in Alaska by putting him on a no-fly list.
Dr. Marc Sageman, a former CIA case officer who interviewed Mohamud extensively following his arrest, has testified that being forbidden to travel to Alaska was a “pivot point” in the young man’s life. He had wanted to “make a lot of money,” and when that opportunity was foreclosed the young man became severely depressed.
“Prior to his meeting” with the FBI’s terrorism recruiters, Sageman concluded, Mohamud “had a low probability of turning to violence.”
Rather than leaving the teenager alone, or – dare we imagine – warning him against resorting to violent crime, the FBI identified him as a troubled young man who was alienated from his father (“I have been betrayed by my family,” he lamented in an early conversation with an FBI informant) and burdened with a useful sense of grievance. So they isolated him, indoctrinated him, gave him thousands of dollars in cash, and then deployed him against the civilian population in Portland.
While it was true that – unlike its murderous debacles in Oklahoma City and the first World Trade Center attack -- the bomb rigged up by the FBI didn’t go off, the Bureau’s scripted plot was a successful terrorist operation: It generated public fears that led to a desired change in policy.
In 2005, the City of Portland quite sensibly withdrew from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, an entity that apparently exists for the sole purpose of recruiting credulous people to take part in manufactured terrorism plots. The Bureau ardently desired to demonstrate the supposed need to reinstate the Portland-area JTTF.
By busting its own manufactured terrorist plot in Portland, the FBI was able to demonstrate its purported indispensability. Less than a week after Mohamud was arrested, FBI commissar Arthur Balizan -- who had orchestrated the ersatz bombing plot -- joined Portland Mayor Sam Adams in a ground-breaking ceremony for the Bureau’s new $60 million field office. A few days later, Mayor Adams announced that he was reconsidering Portland’s involvement in the JTTF.
Significantly, the FBI – in violation of an existing agreement with the city government -- didn’t bother to inform Mayor Adams about the supposed threat to bomb the November 2010 Christmas tree lighting ceremony until after Mohamud’s arrest.
What this means is that the Bureau considered the Mayor to be a security risk, because he and other critics of the FBI in the municipal government were the chief targets of the operation. The Bureau’s objective was to make it politically impossible to resist the reinstatement of the Portland-area JTTF, so that the local branch of the American Cheka can continue its vital work of spying on political dissidents and turning troubled but redeemable people into fodder for the contemporary gulag.
William Norman Grigg [send him mail] publishes the Pro Libertate blog and hosts the Pro Libertate radio program.
- The Re-Education of Lauryn Hill
- Think Progress? Ha!
- It's Time for Private Defense
- Round the Clock Surveillance: Is This the Price of Living in a 'Free, Safe' Society?
- U.S. Government vs. DEFCAD: You Can't Fix Stupid
- The Government's Us? Not Last Time I Checked
- The State Is A Religious Institution
- The Draft Is And Always Will Be Slavery
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Obama's Guantanamo? Bush's Living Legacy at Bagram Prison
Just when you think you've woken up from a bad dream...
When it comes to offshore injustice and secret prisons, especially our notorious but little known prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, let's hope the Obama years mean never having to complete that sentence.
In the Bush era, those of us who followed his administration's torture, detention, and interrogation policies often felt like we were unwilling participants in a perverse game of hide-and-seek. Whenever one of us stumbled upon a startling new document, a horrific new practice, a dismal new prison environment, or yet another individual implicated in torture policy, the feeling of revelation would soon be superseded by a sneaking suspicion that we were once again looking in the wrong direction, that the Bush administration was playing a Machiavellian game of distraction with us.
Okay, call it paranoia -- a state of mind well suited to the Age of Cheney -- but when Abu Ghraib finally came to light, it turned out that our real focus should have been on the administration's program of "extraordinary rendition" and the CIA secret flights to the foreign countries that were serving as proxy torturers for the United States. And when one case of torture by proxy, that of Maher Arar, achieved some prominence, we began looking at proxy torturers for the United States, when we should have been looking at legalized policies of torture by the U.S.
Several years ago, British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith placed that jewel in the Bush administration's offshore crown of injustice, Guantanamo, in the category of distraction as well -- distraction, that is, from the far grimmer and more important American detention facility at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
Distracted or not, for at least five years some of us have been seeking the hidden outlines of the torture story. Now, President Obama has given it a visible shape by providing a potential endpoint if not to our investigations, then to our focus. Much of what we focused on in these last years he's declared to be history. Guantanamo will be closed within a year and the American role in the war in Iraq will end as well; torture will once again be banned; a new task force, already assembled, will review all the Bush administration's detention policies; and people like me will, assumedly, finally be out of work and able to write those novels we used to dream about. For us, no more unwelcome obsessions with detention, abuse, and torture.
Bad Times at Bagram
Still, ever since the Oval Office changed hands in January, I've had a nagging feeling that something was amiss. And when I finally focused on it, a single question kept coming to mind: Whatever happened to the U.S. prison at Bagram?
I knew that it had been opened in 2002 on an abandoned Soviet air base the U.S. had occupied and was being massively upgraded after the invasion of Afghanistan, and that its purpose was to hold prisoners in the Global War on Terror at a place as far removed as possible from the prying eyes of American courts or international oversight bodies of any sort. In fact, many of those eventually transported to Guantanamo were originally held under even worse conditions at Bagram and, from early on, they had reported beatings, abuse, and a startlingly wide range of other forms of mistreatment there.
But what else did I know? Thanks to New York Times reporters Carlotta Gall, David Rohde, Tim Golden, and Eric Schmitt, as well as to Alex Gibney's documentary film Taxi to the Dark Side, I knew that two Afghans, Dilawar and Jullah Habibullah, had been beaten to death by U.S. Army interrogators at the prison in December 2002. I also knew that the use of such beatings, as well as various other forms of torture, had been normalized at Bagram at the very beginning of the Bush administration's long march of pain that led to Guantanamo and then on to Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq as well as foreign torture chambers.
From the 2004 Church Report (written by Naval Inspector General Admiral T. Church), I knew that military interrogators and guards at Bagram had been given next to no relevant training for the mission of detention and interrogation. I knew as well that a secret CIA prison was allegedly located apart from the regular detention cells at Bagram. I knew that military officials had declared that the interrogation techniques at Bagram seemed to work better than those being used at Guantanamo in the same period. And that, after the Supreme Court issued a decision in 2004 to allow prisoners at Guantanamo to challenge their detentions, the prison population at Bagram began to grow.
What We Don't Know About a Prison Nightmare
But that was the past. What did I know about the situation in the first weeks of the Obama era?
The unnerving answer was precious little. So, as I had done with Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, I began by asking the simple questions that had once been so difficult to answer about so many offshore detention facilities of the Bush era: Who was being held at Bagram? How many prisoners were there and from which countries? What status did they have? Were they currently classified as "enemy prisoners of war" or -- in the phrase the Bush administration had so favored in an attempt to confound U.S. courts -- "unlawful enemy combatants"? How were they being treated? What reports on prison conditions had either the U.S. government or interested non-governmental organizations released?
Setting aside the frustrations of the past seven years, I naively tried a basic Google search to see just what was instantly available, only to discover that the answer was essentially nothing.
It turns out that we can say very little with precision or confidence about that prison facility or even the exact number of prisoners there. News sources had often reported approximately 500-600 prisoners in custody at Bagram, but an accurate count is not available. A federal judge recently asked for "the number of detainees held at Bagram Air Base; the number of Bagram detainees who were captured outside Afghanistan; and the number of Bagram detainees who are Afghan citizens," but the information the Obama administration offered the court in response remains classified and redacted from the public record.
We don't even know the exact size of the prison or much about the conditions there, although they have been described as more spartan and far cruder than Guantanamo's in its worst days. The International Committee of the Red Cross has visited the prison, but it remains unclear whether they were able to inspect all of it. A confidential Red Cross report from 2008 supposedly highlighted overcrowding, the use of extreme isolation as a punishment technique, and various violations of the Geneva Convention.
We do know that a planned expansion of the facility is underway and will -- if President Obama chooses to continue the Bush project there -- enable up to 1,100 prisoners to be held (a step which will grimly complement the "surge" in American troops now underway in Afghanistan). There are no figures available on how long most of Bagram's prisoners have been held -- although some, it seems, have been imprisoned without charges or recourse for years -- or how legal processes are being applied there, if at all. Last spring, the International Herald Tribune reported that Afghans from Bagram were sometimes tried in Afghan criminal proceedings where little evidence and no witnesses were presented.
To students of Guantanamo, this sounds uncomfortably familiar. And there's more that's eerily reminiscent of Gitmo's bleak history. According to the New York Times, even four years after Bagram was established, wire cages were being used as cells, with buckets for toilets -- as was also true of the original conditions at Camp X-Ray, the first holding facility at Guantanamo. Similarly, as with Guantanamo, the U.S. has no status of forces agreement with Afghanistan, and so the base and prison can be closed or turned over to the Afghans only on U.S. say-so. Above all, while some Bagram detainees do have lawyers, most do not.
The Prison Where It All Began
While I was wondering about the state of our black hole of incarceration in Afghanistan, the Obama administration issued its first terse statement on the subject. When it came to granting Bagram detainees habeas rights (that is, the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts), the administration simply stated that it "adheres to [the Justice Department's] previously articulated position": habeas would not be granted.
After all, reasoned the new government lawyers (like their predecessors), Bagram is in an indisputable war zone and different legal considerations should apply. But here's the catch neither the Bush administration, nor evidently the Obama administration, has cared to consider: It's quite possible that these four individuals, like others at Bagram, were not captured on an Afghan battlefield (as the prisoners claim), but elsewhere on what Bush officials liked to think of as the "global battlefield" of the War on Terror, and then conveniently transported to Bagram to be held indefinitely.
The U.S. government refuses to make public any documentation that would support its case and the new court documents, submitted by the lawyers of the Obama Justice Department, are frustratingly blacked out just as those of the Bush era Justice Department always were. At least for the moment then, when it comes to Bagram, tactics and arguments remain unchanged from the Bush years. No wonder journalists and human rights lawyers have lately taken to referring to that prison as the "other Guantanamo," or "Guantanamo II," or more combatively, "Obama's Guantanamo."
Sadly, however, even this is inaccurate. From the get-go, Guantanamo was actually the "other Bagram." The obvious question now is: How will the Obama administration deal with this facility and, in particular, with matters of detention, "enforced disappearance," and coerced testimony? Will these be allowed to continue into the future, Bush-style, or will the Obama administration extend its first executive orders on Guantanamo and torture practices to deal in new ways with the prison where it all began?
Facing Crimes of the Bush Era
President Obama has given a newly convened task force six months -- a long time when people are being held in harsh conditions without charges or recourse -- to consider the matter of Bush administration detention practices and formulate new policies (or, of course, retain old ones). Here are some guidelines that may prove helpful when it comes to Bagram:
1. On secrecy: The appeal to secrecy and national security has been an all-purpose refuge of official rogues for the last seven years. Reconsider it. A sunshine policy should apply, above all else, to detention practices. Ideally, the U.S. should simply release full information on Bagram and the prisoners being held there. When, in specific cases, information is not divulged, the reasons for not doing so should be fully revealed. Otherwise, the suspicion will always arise that such withheld information might be part of a cover-up of government incompetence or illegality. That must be ruled out. It is imperative that President Obama's administration not double down on the Bush administration's secrecy policy from a desire not to look back and so to avoid future prosecutions of Bush officials.
2. On classification of prisoners: The Obama administration should seriously consider declaring the prisoners at Bagram to be "prisoners of war," and so subject to the Geneva Conventions. Currently, they are classified as enemy combatants, as are the prisoners at Guantanamo, and so, in the perverse universe of the Bush administration, free from any of the constraints of international law. The idea that the Conventions are too "rigid" for our moment and need to be put aside for this new extra-legal category has always been false and pernicious, primarily paving the way for the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques."
3. On "ghost prisoners": The Obama administration should reject out of hand the idea that prisoner invisibility is acceptable anywhere, including at Bagram. The International Committee of the Red Cross must be granted access to all of the prisons or prison areas at Bagram, while conditions of detention there should be brought into accordance with humane treatment and standards. No "ghost prisoners" should be allowed to exist there.
4. On guilt and innocence: The belief that there is a categorical difference between guilt and innocence, which went by the wayside in the last seven years, must be restored. All too often, the military brass still assumes that if you were rounded up by U.S. forces, you are, by definition, guilty. It's time to change this attitude and return to legal standards of guilt.
In the Bush years, we taught the world a series of harmful lessons: Americans can be as cruel as others. Americans can turn their backs on law and reciprocity among nations as efficiently as any tribally organized dictatorship. Americans, relying on fear and the human impulse toward vengeance, can dehumanize other human beings with a fervor equal to that of others on this planet.
It's time for a change. It's time, in fact, to face the first and last legacy of Bush detention era, our prison at Bagram Air Base, and deal with it.
Call me a perpetual optimist, but President Obama has the right team in place to address this nightmarish legacy in a wise and timely way. We should expect no less from them than a full restoration of a government responsible to the law, and confident of its power to deter enemies legally -- be it on the battlefield or in the courtroom. So, too, we must expect them to possess the courage to confront truths, even if those truths mean heading down the path towards the prosecution of crimes of the Bush years. | <urn:uuid:9fb39e9f-f446-4148-a4b4-18aa72613ba2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/06-4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967669 | 2,850 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assembly Ways and Means Chairman Herman D. Farrell, Jr. today announced the Assembly passed the SFY 2009-2010 budget, before the start of the fiscal year, April 1.
Noting the extraordinary economic challenges facing the nation, the lawmakers said the $132 billion spending plan closes a projected a $17.65 billion General Fund gap by implementing $5.1 billion in necessary spending cuts, raising $5.2 billion in revenue, utilizing $1.1 in non-recurring revenues and maximizing $6.2 billion in federal stimulus dollars.
"Faced with the largest deficit in New York's history, our plan makes $6 billion in spending cuts - including $800 million dollars through the Deficit Reduction Package. These cuts include historic reforms to Medicaid that will save $1.6 billion this year and billions more in future years - while leveraging $5 billion in federal Medicaid dollars. In order to balance the budget and prevent deep cuts to schools, healthcare, seniors, child welfare and the environment this budget temporarily increases income taxes on high earners," said Silver.
"In addition, this budget advances two long held Assembly priorities: reform of the Rockefeller drug laws to emphasize treatment and prevention over incarceration and an expansion of New York's nickel deposit law to bottled water - a move that will clean up New York's environment and raise an additional $115 million," Silver continued.
"Our state is on schedule to implement the 2009-2010 state spending plan. This budget is a sound, fiscally prudent plan that reflects the economic realities of our state," Farrell said.
The budget also lifts the freeze on reimbursable expense-based aids, including transportation, building aid and BOCES - ensuring school districts have access to the funds they need. Overall, schools will benefit from an estimated increase of $403 million with these aids over the 2008-09 school year. Foundation aid for the 2009-2010 school year will remain at current levels. The Assembly continues its historic commitment to foundation aid by phasing in full funding over three years, a year earlier than the executive's proposal, starting in 2011-12.
The budget also uses the federal funds to help local school districts over the next two years. The federal stimulus funding provides $906 million in Title 1 funds, which is financial assistance for schools with high percentages of disadvantaged children to help ensure all children meet the state's academic standards. Additionally, $794 million is allocated for the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), ensuring that additonal financial support for, special education and related services is provided to children with disabilities.
The budget also rejects the Preschool Special Education cost shift onto school districts, which will save school districts $185 million in the 2009-10 school year.
The Assembly continues its commitment to universal pre-kindergarten by maintaining funding at $376 million. In addition, the budget accepts the executive's proposal to allow for the mid-year expansion of programs that started in the 2008-09 school year.
The budget will continue the Contract for Excellence program for the 2009-10 school year. School districts that are required to prepare a Contract for Excellence will maintain the same level of funding as last year, ensuring schools will not have to reduce spending on allowable programs, including class size reduction, academic after-school programs and full-day kindergarten or pre-kindergarten.
In addition, the budget creates new reporting requirements for New York City regarding its Five Year Class Size Reduction Plan to include detailed information by school on the number of classrooms and teachers that existed prior to receiving CFE funds and the number of new classrooms and new teachers created with funds; actual average class sizes for each year funding was received; and those that received CFE funds and did not reach class size reduction goals and the actions to be taken in those schools to reduce class sizes.
The budget restores $30 million in funding for non public schools and $10.6 million in funding for libraries. The budget also provides $40 million for Teacher Centers, restores Adult Literacy Education programs and continues Bilingual Education at $12.5 million.
The budget rejects the $49.9 million cut to the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), a program that provides eligible New York residents annual grants of up to $5,000, based on income, that students do not have to pay back. The cut would have based TAP awards on the number of credits a student takes, reducing TAP grants for full time students who take less than 15 credit hours.The spending plan also adds the following restorations to TAP:
The budget calls for a three-year temporary PIT increase for those earning over $300,000 married filing jointly to increase to the rate of 7.85 percent and for those earning $500,000 the rate would go up to 8.97 percent.
The budget also provides $3.5 billion in property tax relief by preserving the STAR exemption. The Assembly rejected proposals in the Executive Budget to raise the sales tax on clothing, increase the gas tax, and impose dozens of small taxes and fees on services that middle class families depend on.
The budget restores millions of dollars to New York's health care facilities by rejecting $332.6 million in executive cuts to hospitals and $195.6 million to nursing homes.
The budget restores $49.9 million to the Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) program - which is designed to lower prescription drug costs for seniors with fixed incomes - and $2.8 million to the Medicaid program to restore coverage for drugs denied by Medicare Part D. This "wrap around" coverage is essential in ensuring that EPIC beneficiaries do not leave the pharmacy without their needed drugs.
In order to ensure infants and toddlers with disabilities or developmental delays receive needed services and treatments, the budget rejects all executive changes to Early Intervention Program (EIP) - including changes that would have exempted children with certain speech-only delays from participation and established parental and provider fees for participation.
Public protection items included in the SFY 2009-10 include:
The budget accepts a savings of $11.5 million to be realized through the closure or downsizing of 11 youth facilities and restores $64.7 million in funding for local detention services. The budget also covers local detention costs at 49 percent. The budget fully restores detention services, as well as 90 percent of youth programs funding, while providing additional funds for alternatives to detention and community reinvestment.
The budget also directs $914.2 million to the Child Care Block Grant. To keep children safe, the spending plan makes it less costly for child care providers to check the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment by rejecting the executive's proposed $25 fee. And the final budget rejects the executive's proposal to eliminate state funding for Community Optional Preventive Services (COPS), restoring $29 million to an initiative that preserves family stability and prevents troubled youths from sliding into foster care or juvenile justice. | <urn:uuid:5e5a0fd8-117e-4c8d-89fe-32c24ccdd04c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://assembly.state.ny.us/Press/20090330a/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945281 | 1,422 | 1.609375 | 2 |
A ministerial meeting to discuss the possibility of a quick deployment of the Neutral International Force (NIF) in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will be held on January 8, 2013 in Addis Ababa under the auspices of the African Union (AU).
This decision was made at the December 28-29 advisory meeting of the pan-African organization on the security arrangements to put in place in the DRC, the Maghreb Arab Press (MAP) reported.
Participants in the meeting adopted a series of recommendations, dealing particularly with the best ways to speed up the deployment of the Neutral International Force and strengthen the Extended Joint Verification Mechanism (JVM) launched by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), the AU said in a statement published on Sunday in Addis Ababa.
According to the same source, participants also decided that the Neutral International Force (NIF) could be deployed either as a distinct or a force integrated into the UN Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO), while preserving its identity and capacity to fulfill its mandate.
As for the Joint Verification Mechanism, the meeting agreed that it could be maintained in its current form, as it is poised to receive additional financial and logistical resources, or turned into a special mechanism of the AU, the same source added.
In addition, participants insisted on the necessity to adapt the Concept of Operations (CONOPS) to take into account the recent developments on the ground.
According the AU statement, the January 8 meeting, which will gather together all stakeholders, will be held in the light of the ongoing discussions between the UN and the countries of the region on the pending issues.
Participants will also review all the possible options before making a final decision on the way forward.
Source African Press Agency
African News from NetNewsPublisher.com | <urn:uuid:54054a1d-c1f4-412a-80ff-c813c1b396e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netnewspublisher.com/african-union-ministers-to-discuss-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-troop-deployment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930716 | 385 | 1.75 | 2 |
The following is from: http://www.greatbiblestudy.com/spiritual_warfare.php
The difference between deliverance and spiritual warfare is that deliverance is dealing with demonic bondages, and getting a person set free, whereas spiritual warfare is resisting, overcoming and defeating the enemy's lies (in the form of deception, temptations and accusations) that he sends our way. Deliverance involves the breaking up of legal grounds, the tearing down of strongholds (offensive spiritual warfare), and the casting out of demons. Spiritual warfare on the other hand, is dealing with three key things the enemy sends at us: temptations, deception and accusations.
This teaching will give you an idea of how spiritual warfare works. There are other teachings on this site that will go into more detail on certain areas of spiritual warfare.
Offensive vs. defensive warfare
Spiritual warfare comes in two ways: offensive and defensive. Offensive warfare is tearing down the strongholds the enemy has formed in your mind through deception and accusations, and defensive warfare is guarding yourself against the tactics or schemes of the devil.
The enemy's three primary weapons
There are three things that we can expect from the devil. The Bible tells us that we struggle not against flesh and blood, but against demonic forces. Ephesians 6:12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." The three primary things we struggle against include:
#1 Deception: To deceive somebody means to make another person believe a lie or something that is not true. When the enemy sends deception your way, it is an attempt to deceive you into believing something that is not true, so you will fall into error. Strongholds are built through deception. A stronghold is formed when deception takes hold in a person's mind. A stronghold is an incorrect thinking pattern that stems from believing something that is not true.
From the very beginning, Satan deceived Eve into believing that God's Word was not true. In Genesis 3:4, the devil told her that she will not surely die as God said she would in Genesis 2:17.
#2 Temptation: Temptation often follows deception. First the enemy tells us, "You won't surely die!", then he makes the fruit on the forbidden tree look good to us. Since Eve accepted Satan's deception (his lie), now the tree that she was not supposed to touch looked good to her. She was tempted (enticed) to sin, because she allowed herself to first be deceived. Temptation is when we are enticed or encouraged to sin in one way or another.
In Matthew 4, Jesus was led out in the desert to be tempted by the devil. The devil tried to convince Jesus that it would be harmless to jump off a building. Often people will be so drawn to sex with their boyfriend/girlfriend when the enemy tries to convince them that it is all harmless and fun, when it's not harmless at all, but an open door to the devil. Jesus saw through Satan's deception, and resisted the temptation by speaking God's Word. King David said in Psalms 119:11, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."
When the enemy tempts you, he's showing you the worm... but behind that worm is a hook. The Word of God helps you see the hook behind the worm.
#3 Accusations: The devil is known as the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10). He is known to take a believer who has done an embarrassing or gross sin in their past, and continue to rub it in their faces and beat them down with guilt and condemnation over their past.
Dealing with deception
We have two weapons to deal with deceptions: the belt of truth (Ephesians 6:14) and the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17) which is the Word of God. Both are truth, which is found in God's Word, so why are they given two different names (a sword and a belt)? Because one is meant to be defensive (the belt), while the other is meant to be offensive (the sword). This means that the Word of God is both an offensive and a defensive weapon. A belt is something you wear to guard against an attack, while a sword is used to slaughter the enemy.
You use the belt of truth (God's Word) to guard against the enemy's deception (lies) he sends your way, while you use the sword of the Spirit (also God's Word) to tear down existing strongholds (deception that took hold) in your mind.
In Romans 12:2, we are told to "be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." How do we renew our minds? By getting in God's Word! In Ephesians 5:26, this process is referred to as washing of water by the Word: "That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word."
Dealing with temptation
In James 4:7, we are told to resist the devil and he will flee from us. But it's not that simple; in the same verse, we are also told to draw near to God. Dealing with temptation is a two fold process of resisting the devil and drawing near to God. The closer you get to God and the more you become aware of His love, the less power temptation will have over you.
James 4:7, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (The context of those verse is clearly speaking of temptation).
In the teaching Forgiven Sinner or Saint?, it shows you how the power of sin (temptation) can be broken in our lives.
Dealing with accusations
The fiery darts of the enemy in Ephesians 6:16 are accusations sent our way. For example, when the devil tries to accuse us of our past sins, we are to have faith in the work of the cross and know that they are forgiven and not to look back. Faith is what we use to put out the fiery darts of the enemy (Ephesians 6:16). We are not to meditate about our pasts, because they have passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17), and our sins have been forgotten (Hebrews 10:17).
Ephesians 6:14, "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth (knowing your sins have been forgiven through your faith in the work on the cross), and having on the breastplate of righteousness (not our righteousness obviously, but the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus);"
Our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), but because of the work of the cross, we can receive the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus (Romans 3:22, Galatians 3:6). Therefore when the enemy tries to remind you of your past, tell him it's been washed away (2 Corinthians 5:17), your sins have been forgotten (Hebrews 10:17) and you have the righteousness of God (Romans 3:22)!
There are other teachings on this site that will specifically help you wage war against the enemy's accusations. They include Condemnation versus Conviction, The Power of Your Thoughts and Dealing with Guilt.
The tearing down of strongholds
A stronghold is deception that's taken hold in a person's mind. It's an incorrect thinking pattern based on a believed lie. People can get incorrect perceptions of God by listening to Satan as he tells them how God doesn't love them, etc. People can feel like dirty old sinners when they believe Satan's accusations as he continually reminds them of their past (which has been washed away!). Strongholds are based on lies from the devil. They can come in the form of deception or accusations. Accusations always lead to guilt and the feeling of unworthiness, which weighs you down and tears you apart spiritually.
Since strongholds are built upon lies that we have been fed, the way we tear down strongholds is by feeding on the truth (in God's Word), which is the opposite of what the enemy has been feeding us. If the enemy has been feeding us a lie, we need to stop eating the lie and start feeding ourselves the truth. The weapon we use to tear down strongholds is found in Ephesians 6:17, "...the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." A sword is an offensive weapon and is meant to tear down and kill the enemy's troops. Strongholds are the devil's assets in war, and he uses them against us. Take up the sword of the Spirit (God's Word) today, and start slaughtering the enemy's assets that he's been using against you!
The teaching on Strongholds will give you a much better understanding of how strongholds work and how to tear them down.
Some good spiritual warfare books
Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer
Basic Training by Kim Freeman
Spiritual Warfare by Derek Prince | <urn:uuid:9b24dc67-585a-4f1e-b482-51d61385d577> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bibleforums.org/showthread.php/227925-Spiritual-Warfare?p=2714569 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963419 | 1,904 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Middle East hubs are driving force of change in aviation industry
- United Arab Emirates: Wednesday, October 17 - 2012 at 11:30
- PRESS RELEASE
Middle East hubs and airlines are leading the way to confront and overcome the serious challenges to global aviation growth and stability and bring about positive change in the industry.
Mr Hogan spoke in depth about the positive impact the Middle East is having on the global economy and how the focus is shifting from the traditional, more established markets to the emerging economic powerhouses in the Middle East, Asia, South America and Africa.
'In an uncertain world', Mr Hogan said, "The Middle East is one of the 'strong pockets' for growth in aviation."
In addition to capitalising on its strategic geographical location, Mr Hogan explained that the Middle East region works because of a new approach - highlighting Abu Dhabi as a prime example of a new aviation hub.
"There's an unprecedented focus on service, we are able to work from a new cost control template and there's no 'legacy' airline baggage," he said.
Mr Hogan said, "The connectivity provided by Etihad Airways is key to Abu Dhabi's regional competitiveness and we relish our integral role in inbound tourism and the promotion of Abu Dhabi as a leading global destination."
"Abu Dhabi has a growing, diversifying economy - backed by a Government with the vision, the will and ability to invest in the future," he added.
"The double-digit growth we are seeing is largely supported by the government's vision for the future which is backed by considerable investment in tourism infrastructure and Abu Dhabi's willingness to embrace best practice and knowledge in other key areas including manufacturing, education and health," he concluded.
"Our blueprint for the future is shaped by our commitment to continue our integral and definitive role in the prodigious growth and economic development in the UAE," he added.
Mr Hogan also described the Etihad Airways journey as one of the fastest-growing airlines in aviation history. In less than 10 years since the airline began operations in November 2003, the company has grown to 10,000 employees from 125 nationalities, with 67 aircraft and 86 direct destinations and 10 million passengers.
Articles in this section are primarily provided directly by the companies appearing or PR agencies which are solely responsible for the content. The companies concerned may use the above content on their respective web sites provided they link back to http://www.ameinfo.com
Any opinions, advice, statements, offers or other information expressed in this section of the AMEinfo.com Web site are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of AME Info FZ LLC / 4C. AME Info FZ LLC / 4C is not responsible or liable for the content, accuracy or reliability of any material, advice, opinion or statement in this section of the AMEinfo.com Web site. | <urn:uuid:7d78aa69-4281-484b-bea7-c7ae5b6bede9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ameinfo.com/middle-east-hubs-driving-force-change-315646 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946852 | 587 | 1.507813 | 2 |
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Is There Space for Space in the Senate?
January 11, 2009 - Joselyn King
The Associated Press is reporting that U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, will announce Monday he won't run for re-election in 2010.
The next question . . .just who will be in the race.
Democrats whose names are coming up for the job are Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.
And yet another one is that of U.S. Rep. Zack Space, D-Ohio, who currently represents Ohio's 18th District that includes St. Clairsville and Harrison County.
Space was just elected to just his second two-year term in the House in 2008. Prior to that, he served as law director for the city of New Philadelphia.
It might seem that he doesn't yet have the experience. But then again, our new president spent just two years in the U.S. Senate before seeking executive office.
And that's probably a good thing. Officials in positions of power who havenát yet become an integral part of the Washington beltway probably still remember just what it was like to live back in their old neighborhood before they came to D.C.
They haven't accrued 20 years of political favors, and perhaps many of the tempations of the Washington environment have yet to find their freshmen office doors.
And Space, who turns 48 this month, would be a young senator. The average age in the U.S. Senate is now 61.7; in the House, 55.9.
Among Republicans, the only name to thus far surface is that of former U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who has served as director of the Office of Management and Budget and as U.S. trade represenative.
The number of those sitting on Ohio's GOP bench isnát particularly thick at this point in time.
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Post a Comment | <urn:uuid:7b48acb0-5685-4185-91cb-12d774725b90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/blogs.detail/display/710/Is-There-Space-for-Space-in-the-Senate-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974283 | 418 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Gov. Walker touts new, more accurate jobs numbers
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Gov. Scott Walker is touting new positive jobs numbers he says is a more accurate reflection of how the state’s economy is turning around. Democratic challenger Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says Walker is cooking the books by releasing the figures before they have been reviewed by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The figures based on a census of businesses released Wednesday, May 16th show Wisconsin gained 23,300 public and private jobs in 2011. Previous totals based on a smaller survey of businesses showed the state lost 33,900 jobs over the year.
Walker said the move to release these new jobs numbers 20 days prior to the June 5th recall election was not a typical, but he says Wisconsin voters are getting the wrong idea and he had to correct it. Barrett says the timing is clearly a political ploy.
Barrett says he has no idea whether the new figures are accurate. “What we’re seeing is a very cynical attempt by the governor to change the subject. He knows his job performance numbers are the worst in the nation,” Barrett said.
“The narrative goes from having many people talking about losing jobs to now saying ‘no, we gained jobs.’ It’s a great foundation for the future,” Walker said.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics survey is more widely used, but Walker points out it is a poll, whereas the Department of Workforce Development figures are hard numbers. However, it is highly unusual to use the DWD numbers, according to Marquette University’s Economics Department chairman Abdur Chowdhury.
“No other state in the union uses that data. Usually what states do is go with the Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The reason Scott Walker wants to use this data is it’s obviously more favorable to his administration,” Chowdhury said.
“This is not a typical thing to be done, but it’s not inconsistent with what other states have done, if they felt the estimates were very different. The irony is, you’re going to hear the mayor — and this is why I say it isn’t political — the mayor of Milwaukee and his campaign people will talk about anything except the raw data,” Walker said.
“He’s singing out of many, many different parts of his mouth on this. No one can verify the data. He’s putting out the data and this is data that is normally verified by the federal government,” Barrett said.
Walker’s preferred DWD numbers haven’t yet been verified, but economists say they don’t expect Walker’s numbers to change much. “It’s more reliable in the sense that it is the actual jobs that have been created, whereas the Bureau of Labor Statistics is sort of a survey,” Chowdhury said.
The Wisconsin Democratic Party is alleging Walker illegally coordinated with the Department of Workforce Development and essentially used a state agency as a campaign tool. The Department of Workforce Development director says the news was released to share a more accurate economic picture with the state’s employers.
Gov. Walker promised to create 250,00 private sector jobs over four years. That amounts to 62,500 a year.
The recall election is June 5th. | <urn:uuid:61eea102-4566-4a53-82e2-6b212c3c85da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fox6now.com/2012/05/16/gov-walker-says-updated-job-numbers-brighter-than-original-estimates/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964907 | 701 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The Fall 2011 MATLAB® Programming Contest has come to an end. Thanks to all the participants and spectators who have helped make the Vines Contest a success.
Congratulations to all of our prize winners!
Alfonso Nieto-Castañón is a returning player to the MATLAB Programming Contest. He was the Grand Prize Winner of the Color Bridge Contest .
This has been a very interesting contest. The problem was complex and very well designed to take advantage to the ‘intelligence of the crowd’, where many different approaches were possible, and each contributed to improving the score on a subset of board types. There was a big collaborative feeling throughout the contest, and while I was only able to participate in the beginning and end stages of the contest I was very lucky to have an impact on the incremental development of the winning entry both with an early stage general algorithm that solved reasonably well many boards, as well as some last day tweaks and new ideas complementing the existing solvers.
Darkness-prize algorithm: First I considered an algorithm that did not use any tile movements. If there are no adjacent same-valued tiles on the board, the optimal vine can be computed using a standard Bellman-Ford algorithm. When adjacent same-valued tiles are present on the board this introduces closed loops on the previous approach and computing the optimal solution becomes considerably harder. For these cases, I divided the problem into two somewhat separate problems. First I computed all clusters of connected same-valued tiles, and computed an optimal between-clusters trajectory using the same Bellman-Ford algorithm as before. Once the optimal between-clusters path was defined, then, within-clusters, I used Dijkstra algorithm to compute the (shortest-path) trajectory between the entry tile and all possible exit tiles within each cluster (and chose the furthest exit tile possible). This was followed by a Peano-style recursion to grow the previous path into a longer path trying to flood each entire cluster. After all of this I added some additional post-processing steps to further grow the resulting vine now aided by tile movements. The approach was very simple: first I used the same Peano-style recursion as before to grow the vine using tile movements to bring compatible tiles adjacent to the current vine. This was followed by a method that extended the two end-points of the vine using a greedy approach that moved the next lowest/highest-valued tile on the board to a position adjacent to the end/begin- endpoint of the current vine. The combined algorithm performed reasonably well on most boards, and it allowed me to win the Darkness phase, followed closely by Robert Macrae and Nicholas Howe’s entries. Nevertheless my algorithm produced clearly suboptimal solutions for those cases where there were a lot of available tile movements where more structured tile-movement strategies clearly dominated (as Nicholas Howe showed with his effective Twilight entry).
Grand-prize algorithm: After some real-world interruptions I was again able to come back to the problem for the last days of the contest and I was happy to see that the original algorithm had survived with relatively few changes within the currently leading entries of the competition. This algorithm was mixed with a plethora of other algorithms (from Nicholas Howe, Robert Macrae, Kurt Janssens, and Michael C., among many others) many focusing on solving individual sub-types of high-scoring boards. In addition Sebastian Ullmann and Wesley had introduced the SimpleLongestPath function which offered an order of magnitude speed improvement over my original Bellman-Ford algorithm as well as other similar implementations solving the no-tile-movement problem. I adapted this function to work as well on the between-clusters problem and that gave me a very nice speed improvement, so I decided to see if I could squeeze a few more points from my previous algorithm simply by increasing the complexity of the tile-movement post-processing strategy (which on many boards seemed to be ‘wasting’movements on low-gain vine-growing strategies while other higher-gain growth strategies were visually apparent). The new version used a single method that precomputed a list of all individual vine-growth choices (among Peano-style and end-point growth methods), and then chose sequentially the next individual vine-growth step using a greedy maximization of the expected score-gain by number-of-tile-movements ratio (updating the list after each step). In addition to this improved ‘baseline’ method, and motivated by Robert and Nick discussion about a potential new method based on spiral patterns, I also created a new ‘spiral’ solver, which would simply try to move sequentially the next highest-valued tile into a vine forming a predetermined spiral pattern starting from the center and fitted to the shape of the board (and limiting the choice of next tiles candidate to those within a given radius of the vine end-tile at each step). Last I added both of these methods to a very competitive mix of solvers created by Amit Rajora (rsk-red vs tm). On the testsuite, the ‘baseline’ method was the best method on 80% of the boards, and the ‘spiral’ method was the best method on 10% of the boards (the remaining 10% of the boards were solved best by some of the other solvers present in Amit’s entry). I was happy to see that on the contest suite the combination of Amit’s solver with my ‘baseline’ solver (lasttry01 entry) improved the score by 6197 points, and adding the ‘spiral’ solver to the mix (lasttry03 entry) got to further improve the results by an additional 5659 points, which sufficed to place my entry on the top position, followed by Nicholas Howe (implementing a very competitive and somewhat similarly-spirited set of algorithmic improvements), and Magnus S (the best-among-tweakers entry with a smart selective board-rotation tweak).
As always this contest has been a very stimulating experience, and I would like to thank the Matlab team for making it happen. I learned a lot from the multiple approaches brought to the table, and I remain hooked waiting to see the next problem that the Matlab team comes up with!
I am currently working at Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, MA after completing my M.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Drexel University in 2009. At MBL, I work as a Software Developer in support of developing state-of-the-art imaging systems, microscopy applications and techniques. MATLAB has been an integral part throughout my graduate studies and at my current work place. I primarily use MATLAB for algorithm development, image processing, instrumentation and signal processing. I also enjoy using MATLAB for its versatility and interacting with Java and C# to develop quick customizable solutions.
For The Saturday Leap prize, I followed my previous contest experience and that was to add a new solver to the code. However, Alfonso's and Nick's solver worked well on most of the boards which left less room for improvement. To gain a significant leap I decided to focus on high value boards which would yield significant improvement and to further reduce the net, targeted boards that showed some sort of trending. The result was implementing Robert's solver to the mix focusing on boards that had a continuous back and forth gradient with scattered speckles. The filter tried to eliminate the upward turns in a trial vine by overwriting the speckle with unused values and thus extending the vines significantly. The submission also yielded a significant improvement in score and held its lead through Saturday.
The Best Result prize was an interesting one since one of the key to attain the best result would be to utilize the maximum time being just shy of the timeout limit. At the time of my submission Sergey's entry had been leading strong and I wasn't sure adding any more solvers would do much good to get a healthy lead. My best bet I believed was to utilize more time and try board variation on the primary solver by Alfonso which worked best on majority of the boards. Using that basic idea I went along with my submission and in the words of Ned Gulley "cruised limbo-style beneath the timeout limit" and maintained the best result lead till the deadline.
Many thanks to the MATLAB team, and all the participants, for another enjoyable contest and looking forward to the next one!
Sergey Yurgenson has a Ph.D. in physics from Leningrad State University (Russia). His previous wins in the MATLAB Central Contest include the Tuesday Leap and the 10000 Character Challenge Winner in Peg Solitaire (May 2007). Currently Sergey works at Harvard Medical School. He uses MATLAB for data analysis and control of data acquisition in Neurobiology research.
I am participating in MATLAB competition from 2006. Usually, one or two days after the end of Twilight phase competing algorithms are converged together, combining all best ideas of first days of the competition. It is good time to spend several hours studying code line by line to better understand it and find areas of possible improvement. During Vine contest I had relatively free weekend and was able to dedicate some time to code "proofreading". One of my "finds" was in postprocess function. That function was trying to improve result by moving board elements to extend existing vine. It was looking for best element to move using only value of that element. I realized that that optimization is correct only if we have significant number of available moves. If we have small number of moves available then optimization needs to take into account how many moves is necessary it position element into place punishing elements that require a lot of moves to position. I created new optimization function and tried to determine parameter space where that function is better than original. I made my submissions during "slow time" to have more time to optimize my submission without interference of other submissions. At the end that idea generated more than 200 points score gain. Together with some other code modifications it gives me enough lead to finish first in Sunday Push.
Nick Howe teaches computer science at Smith College in western Massachusetts. He uses MATLAB extensively to conduct research on problems in computer vision. The Gerrymandering contest (April 2004) was his first MATLAB Central Contest. He has been participating on and off ever since.
Like many people, I began with a vine builder that searched for the best sequence possible without moving any tiles. This scored pretty well in Darkness, but since it didn't move any tiles around it couldn't beat Alfonso's entry which did. For Twilight I decided to go in the opposite direction and create a solver that would build a solution from scratch by moving tiles as much as necessary to form a snake at the edge of the board. A few other people had this idea, but I was able to amplify its effectiveness by applying it to transposed and flipped versions of the original board in an attempt to find an orientation that required fewer moves to build the snake. I also added collision-avoidance so that high-value tiles would move out of the way of other tiles being moved.
By now it was clear that the contest suite included a number of different board categories, and that one way to improve the result was to write a specialized solver just for one category of board. Although I was tempted to work on the plateau levels for aesthetic reasons, their weights were such that they contributed only a negligible amount to the final score. So I instead looked at the levels that had almost-complete snakes in them, interrupted by occasional noise tiles. I wrote a specialized solver that identified the noise tiles and shifted the remaining ones to cover them up. The process made me think of separating wheat from chaff, and so I titled my Twilight winner the "Revenge of Antichaff".
For the Early Bird, I set out to build another specialized solver that dealt with levels where every other column of numbers needed to be reversed. After several hours of work, I realized that the general snake-building method I had already written did a better job than the new approach I was trying, but that given the typical orientation of boards in the testsuite it could do even better when I flipped the board vertically first. So that observation formed the basis for my "Cheap Reverse" entry.
During the rest of the contest I worked on more ways to solve the high-value boards, mostly by limiting the number of moves required to construct a vine. Like Alfonso, I developed a spiral vine builder. I wanted to work on something that would build better vines on boards where only a few moves were allowed, by joining partial viable vine sections, but in the end I didn't have time to finish it. Alfonso's winning code made some nice improvements in this area and he justly deserves the grand prize for his efforts.
My name is Alexander Pesch, I live in Jena, a small town in Thuringia, Germany, but with big history in optics. Also my live is characterized by the work in the field of micro-structured optics.
In the darkness of the contest I developed my own algorithms to solve the problem, first looking for the best chain of numbers, later also using the possibility to move squares, which brings really a big progress in score.
Sunday I studied the algorithms, created some charts about the behavior of the parameters and optimized the algorithm for the given board at start. But the parameters and best algorithm choice are usually optimal for only one set of boards and a specific machine, caused by the time dependence. I decided to participate in the sub contest of the Square One Challenge, where the chain has to begin in the upper left corner. First I changed my algorithms and some of the others to got a solution, but saw another one some minutes before the end. A short check showed it uses not the best parameters and this was the chance to do a little hopeful tweak.
Unfortunately missed the final spurt due to professional activity. But I was really impressed which progress it does in the last hours of the contest. | <urn:uuid:042fff77-6aee-4b46-ac4d-8c2dfc0f9ae5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mathworks.co.kr/matlabcentral/contest/contests/34/winners | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96744 | 2,895 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Police Presence Beefed Up At NY Airports, World Trade Center Site
A U.S. Park Police officer is handed a flag as crowds celebrate on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House in Washington, early Monday, May 2, 2011, after President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed (AP Photo/Charles Dhar
May 02, 2011
NEW YORK (AP) — Some local law enforcement agencies in the U.S. were adding security measures Monday following Osama bin Laden’s death, out of what one called “an abundance of caution.”
In Los Angeles, police were stepping up intelligence monitoring, and New Yorkers will see extra police at their airports, bridges and the World Trade Center site itself.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it will add more police at the facilities it runs, which include the airports, the George Washington Bridge and ground zero. The measures aren’t response to any current threat and all the facilities will operate normally otherwise, the Port Authority said.
“This response is not based on a current threat, but out of an abundance of caution until we have the chance to learn more,” the agency said.
Eighty-four Port Authority employees died in the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly issued a message to all police commands reminding them that while there’s no information indicating a specific threat to the nation’s biggest city, officers should remain alert.
In Los Angeles, a top counterterrorism commander said police will be stepping up intelligence monitoring.
Assistant Commanding Officer Blake Chow, who heads the department’s counterterrorism and special operations bureau, said Sunday night that officers will be keeping a close ear on intelligence buzz to develop immediate response plans accordingly.
Police in Philadelphia were on heightened alert, checking on mosques and synagogues every hour, Lt. Raymond J. Evers said.
Airports have issues travel alerts and heightened security nationwide after the news of Osama bin Laden’s death.
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:283d550b-dba4-4042-bae0-ffd64d6cdbe2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://policelink.monster.com/news/articles/153832-police-presence-beefed-up-at-ny-airports-world-trade-center-site | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94539 | 436 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Vanity sizing: the consumer spending edition
Yes, it’s another installment in my pet theory series, the myth of vanity sizing (links to previous entries appear at close); this one being a discussion of the influence of the evolution of consumer spending. Described most succinctly:
Manufacturers don’t know who their customers are anymore.
I concede this broad generalization is at least the size of the side of a barn. Humor me, let’s just say most large apparel firms have less an idea of who the end consumer is than at any other point in history. The reasons they don’t know anymore are influences that can be attributed to:
- The average clothes buying consumer is changing where and how they buy.
- How the windfall of low cost off-shore manufactured apparel has contributed to evolving expectations and subsequent disappointments.
- Why the unintended consequences of consumer credit to finance apparel purchases has created an apparel sizing problem for all concerned.
1. Explaining this first influence -the change in the average clothes buying consumer- is easy. The shocker is that older women are buying more clothes -at least on the internet but there’s no reason to presume this will not spread to Real Life. Yep, women aged 36-45 are the biggest online purchasers of apparel. That WSJ entry is gated so here’s the redux:
…traditional apparel marketing focus is owing to a disconnect between evolving spending and lifestyle habits. The majority of apparel purchasers had previously been younger women with more active social lives, partially attributable to attracting a mate. Simply put, it had been that the younger you are, the more clothes you bought. The move to marketing online seemed complimentary to the concept; it was supposed online buyers were the most progressive buyers (younger) but it turns out, neither are true.
The cut to chase summary being that older people are heavier. If the average consumer is heavier, then so will the average size of a given manufacturer increase. The problem being, there’s no bright line, it’s all so soft and well, evolutionary. There’s no pivotal event signaling that manufacturers need to change and when. Change too late and you die. Change ahead of the curve and you die too.
Pinpointing changes in sizing for online customers is difficult for a couple of reasons. First, many companies still haven’t embraced web selling, they make it difficult for internet retailers to represent their products unless you’re someone like Zappos. Second, most retailers don’t collect customer age demography so they don’t have any useful information to pass upstream. Most of the data are collected from respondents who participate in studies and claim to purchase x goods on the web. Age is collected in these surveys.
2. How the windfall of low cost off-shore manufactured apparel contributed to evolving expectations is also soft and requires a bit of reminiscing.
Do you recall the very first time you were in a store and noticed a great top name brand that was being sold for an uncustomary low price? Perhaps you noticed because it was a brand you coveted (confirmation bias). This would have been about 15 to 20 years ago, give or take five years. In the beginning, people were very excited about it. They were happy to buy big names they previously could only have aspired to own. These products were the first of the big push coming in from off shore. Product landed at the loading dock with the 40% hang tags already attached. People were so excited, they didn’t care that the fit was a little off. Between price and the anticipation of acquisition, they were willing to overlook a small defect (like fit or diminished product complexity) because they wanted The Brand so badly. I remember that. It was exciting. Nobody cared that the back neck was cut too deeply so the front rode up into the neckline, it had a horsie dammit! And everybody wanted one. Me too.
Then other manufacturers saw how good that worked for The Brand and they wanted more market share so they did it too. That made people even more excited and happy. Malls and outlet malls became a veritable smorgasbord of brands they’d never been able to own before. After awhile, competing brands and lower pricing became the new norm. People acclimated to its cost but not its value. With all the brands being pretty much the same, people slowly became disillusioned at the lack of differentiation between them and so, expectations were raised. Namely because buying The Brand became commonplace and not special anymore, dissatisfaction increased. In the heady early days, fit didn’t matter so much and it was roomier than before to fit all those new customers manufacturers hadn’t had before but increasingly, consumers weren’t as willing to overlook the sacrifice of fit and good sizing anymore.
Some people, younger people, never knew any other way. For them it’s always been about brands. Young people today assume they have relationships with commercial entities, they think they are friends with stores. Or rather, perhaps it is more accurate to say that the boundaries of what relationships mean, are stretching. For many old schoolers, a relationship is a one to one construct of reciprocity. They understand what “nurture people, not products” means. For younger people, these can be one and the same.
So what does this tell a manufacturer? I’m not saying it’s right or wrong but they were structured to give consumers what they wanted and fit and well developed sizing wasn’t their priority at the time. It was brand and its price. So, many manufacturers got rid of their pattern departments and let the offshore contractor handle it all. Why would they continue to spend for features their customers did not care about? In part manufacturers couldn’t size to fit their customers well because their customer changed, it was somebody else now. People who shop on price tend to be lower income. Lower income people are heavier so it only makes sense a manufacturer’s average size would increase to meet their new market demands.
The other casualty other than fit was decreasing product complexity and its affect on retail marketing. Since people were buying the manifestation of the brand -signaling with a logo- it was more important to buy a product of which the most salient feature was that bit of embroidery. Because the logo was the only differentiation, it is only logical that spending priorities were reorganized to promote the brand, burning the image of its logo into the consciousness of the consumer. The lowered cost of offshore production permitted spending being pulled from product development -reducing product complexity- and being allocated to marketing. Consumers are entirely missing the point if they think manufacturers have healthier margins with offshore production; they’re spending the same money or more than before. The only difference is the division of expenditures and which department gets it, namely marketing budgets could be increased with the reduction in production costs. Unfortunately, this priority on marketing has also created its own marvelous compendium of evolved expectations. Firms today are expected to spend more on marketing like everyone else does even if they’re producing domestically and with higher costs in product development.
3. That the unintended consequences of consumer credit to finance apparel purchases to create an apparel sizing problem, is the most pivotal and least discussed of all these influences.
When brands became more commonplace and anyone could buy The Brand, it wasn’t as special anymore -and they’d gotten used to feeling special. So, people traded up and bought still better brands their friends didn’t have (yet). A lot of people went into hock for it. People started buying too many clothes. They used their homes like ATMs. Up and down the chain, the symptoms of this last influence were felt and manifest in a variety of ways.
The effect of easy credit permitting people to spend beyond their means cannot be negated. Easy credit has thrown the entire sizing construct into disarray if people want to buy products that were never intended for their demography. With the recession, the economy is undergoing a correction which continues to contribute to manufacturer confusion in the opposite direction as to who their customer really is and how to size for them. It’s not coincidental that handbag sales have skyrocketed. The typical value minded Wal-Mart consumer cannot wear a Chanel jacket but she can buy a Chanel bag courtesy of Visa and MasterCard.
The increasing protests of plus sized women who could not fit into the brands they coveted was another consequence of easy credit. Before, not having the money was the effective barrier. Once the limitation of budget was removed or was diminished, they felt they should be able to buy anything so they were upset they couldn’t. They were upset because not finding clothing in their size was a personal affront they interpreted to be directed against their size (sizeism). At best, lack of product was interpreted as a passive aggressive gesture on the part of the manufacturer to avoid this consumer segment. But truly, the manufacturer never made these sizes previously because this segment had not been a customer before. Again, there is no bright line telling manufacturers it is necessary to evolve to meet an increasing trend.
These are but a few reasons why manufacturers don’t know who their customer is anymore. If they can’t define their customer as neatly as they once did, fit and sizing entropy is the only rational expected outcome. Today, it’s not limited to certain lifestyles or income as much as it once was. The only damper on the acquisitive cycle is smaller sizing in bridge and designer brands. The most exclusive brands aren’t cutting larger sizes that the unintended consumer wears. And that again is why there is increasing resentment among larger size customers. They have the desire, they have the money, they feel they should be able to buy that stuff too. If manufacturers are having to cut for broad swathes of the market now, when they didn’t do that before, what are they to do? A consumer wants what they want. They don’t care that they were not the market segment in mind when a manufacturer made that dress.
Minimally, one could be left with the conclusion that manufacturers should expand their offerings to include more plus sizes. That is easier said than done -and a topic for another day. One could also suggest that manufacturers should improve sizing and fit and increase product complexity but again, this is not likely to improve any time soon. Manufacturers dismantled their product development departments. Rebuilding that infrastructure and allocating the costs commensurate to it are seen as a step backwards -and where is the money going to come from? As I said above, the consumer has acclimated to a new norm of lower cost but not lower value because their expectations are raised with everything being so much the same. They don’t want to pay more, they want more value for what they’re spending.
Please refer to the other articles in this series which offer substantive supporting material. Add to the discussion rather than backtracking to topics discussed elsewhere. It is likely that the exceptions you’ve thought of have been dissected in depth. For your convenience, links open in a new window or tab.
The Myth of Vanity Sizing
Fit and Sizing Entropy
Push manufacturing; subverting the fit feedback loop
Shrinkage and fit
Alternatives in Women’s sizing
Tyranny of tiny sizes?
The history of women’s sizing pt 1
The history of women’s sizing pt 2
The history of women’s sizing pt 3
Sizing is a variety problem
The birth of size 10?
Vanity sizing shoes
Tyranny of tiny sizes pt.2
Vanity sizing: generational edition
Vanity sizing: generational edition pt.2 | <urn:uuid:e476490a-fee5-4c9b-b603-bbd2836ce80b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/vanity-sizing-the-consumer-spending-edition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9778 | 2,459 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is three months into an interactive SMS service with its Radio Azadi service in Afghanistan that allows listeners to access content and participate in the program via mobile phone.
Through the interactive SMS service, Radio Azadi is now able to send and receive SMS messages from subscribers. As a news organization, the main goal of RFE/RL is reaching an audience, according to Julian Knapp, RFE/RL's deputy communications director.
"We want to make sure our content is available on whatever platform Afghans want to consume it on," Knapp said. The service allows listeners to become texters, and people around the country have sent in messages to the radio station. Roughly 200 messages are now flowing in per day.
RFE/RL is a private, non-profit corporation funded by the U.S. Congress. RFE/RL currently reaches 21 countries, and Radio Azadi, the Afghan station, has been broadcasting for 10 years and is the most popular media outlet in the country. It has a weekly audience of 7.9 million and a market share of about 50 percent.
How it works
Outgoing messages -- those sent by Radio Azadi -- include breaking news headlines and emergency alerts. The headlines are sent about twice daily and there are currently 50,000 subscribers since the launch in late October.
RFE/RL partnered with mobile provider Etisalat for the interactive SMS service; it's free for users. Knapp said it was important to go with a major regional player with a large subscriber base. However, only Etisalat customers can join the service for now. To sign up to the bilingual SMS headline service (there is one code for Dari and one for Pashto), people send an SMS message to a shortcode.
Another facet of the service supports citizen journalism in Afghanistan by allowing subscribers to text in reports and opinions. Radio Azadi receives 150 to 200 messages a day from Afghans with messages ranging from music requests, comments on programming, and information about local stories and issues. Subscribers can also send in MMS and photos. Knapp said the majority of incoming texts are substantial news messages and a selection of these messages are read over the air. In some cases, RFE/RL reporters follow up to verify details, or are tipped off about a story which they then investigate themselves.
Radio Azadi provides the headline text to Etisalat via a web interface, and the provider, in turn, sends the SMS message to subscribers via a bulk distribution. For incoming messages, Etisalat helps advertise the short code via bulk ads to the base, and messages and pictures sent in are then forwarded to the radio station.
Using New Tech to Reach New Audiences
Though the service is in the early days, Knapp said it has proved important for rural areas of Afghanistan. The majority of incoming SMS messages come from small villages or rural areas where people don't have as much access to officials or media.
"People's habits are developing as we speak," Knapp said. "Which seems to suggest that people there feel more disconnected and like the idea of having a new outlet for their concerns and observations."
As elsewhere, mobile penetration is on the rise in Afghanistan, where up to 60 percent of Afghans have access to a mobile phone, Knapp said. In addition, the mobile environment is modern.
"Infrastructure was so destroyed," Knapp said, "that Afghanistan started pretty much from scratch. Development skipped the infrastructure-heavy broadband and telephone lines and went straight to mobile."
Which is why mobile infrastructure -- where it's available -- is modern and advanced.
Radio in Afghanistan is still the main means to reach a wide audience especially outside of urban centers. "SMS is a complement for us because we are aware of how crucial radio is," Knapp said.
This month, Radio Azadi moves into mobile audio with the launch of an IVR (interactive voice response) component. People will be able to call a number and choose a language and category (sports, entertainment, news, and so on). The audio recordings will be updated several times a day.
The above image shows free solar-powered radios being distributed by RFE/RL in Afghanistan, to promote access to information where people lack access to electricity. Mobile phones can be charged via the radios. Photo courtesy of RFE/RL. | <urn:uuid:f0d1a406-cacd-4b3a-a897-a760d33521ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2011/01/radio-azadi-in-afghanistan-delivers-news-to-mobile-phones007.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942559 | 900 | 1.578125 | 2 |
China should not worry about stalled US talks over the debt limit, an academic adviser to the People's Bank of China said on Monday, predicting that politicians will ultimately reach a deal to avert a crisis.
Xia Bin, a member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee, played down near-term risks to China's economy since Washington has little choice but to continue pursuing loose monetary policy in a bid to spur the world's biggest economy.
“Don’t worry too much about it. The United States will have to issue more debt and issue more currency,” Mr. Xia told Reuters in an interview.
Mr. Xia said the debt talks have gained too much media attention as US politicians try to maneuver on the debt issue to score strategic points before the next presidential election in November 2012.
“They won’t betray the national interest. They are now playing with politics,” Mr. Xia said.
“They will definitely reach a compromise,” he said.
As a central bank adviser, Mr.Xia is an influential economist but is not directly involved in policymaking.
Prospects of a budget breakthrough faded as lawmakers missed a self-imposed deadline to produce a deal by the time Asian markets opened for the new week. They still plan to outline proposals on Monday, but both sides appear further apart than ever. For details, see.
Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch have said they will downgrade the US credit rating if failure to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling leaves the Treasury without cash to service its debt obligations in August.
Mr. Xia reiterated his earlier views that China should speed up diversification of its rapidly accumulating foreign exchange reserves away from dollar assets to hedge against risks from what he predicted would be a long-term decline for the US currency.
China’s reserves, the world’s largest, swelled by $152.8 billion in the second quarter to a record $3.2 trillion, driven by sustained capital inflows and its large trade surplus.
Chinese officials have pledged to diversify the huge reserves − as much as 70 percent of which are now in US dollar assets, according to analyst estimates − but the process has been gradual.
China faces “pressures and challenges” in managing its huge foreign reserves, but the holdings may also present the country with an “unprecedented” opportunity to help its long-term development, Mr. Xia told Reuters in an interview on July 14. | <urn:uuid:c07e71a4-5f26-467f-964c-c52ed55fb170> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/07/26/159356.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964408 | 527 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Here is a very nice passage from Vivian Gornick's "At the University: Little Murders of the Soul" posted by Amitava Kumar. It ties in nicely with some previous speculations I posted on academia as a culture of conflict. Concerning the professors inhabiting an English Department she visits, Gornick writes:
I soon discovered that each of them held the place they found themselves in at a discount. One and all thought they belonged somewhere better. The atmosphere reeked of brooding courtesies and subterranean tensions. I did not for a long time understand exactly what it was I was looking at. I had never before encountered mass depression.I like the term "mass depression." It seems to capture the dispirited feeling one so often encounters at committee meetings, conferences and other venues where academics congregate. I think that cases of mass depression like the one described by Gornick are extremely common in academia. The solution to this malady that is usually imagined, though, is an individual one. It consists of moving on to a better department and a better institution where one's talents will be appreciated and where the mass depression of "brooding courtesies and subterranean tensions" do not hold sway. This grass-is-greener solution doesn't seem a likely one to me. Aside from the real difficulties in job mobility, the problems in the academy are structural, not just personal. There is little reason to think that as one moves into more and more competitive academic environments that the tensions will lessen -- this is something each of us should have learned simply from watching the various dysfunctional relationships between the faculty on our own dissertation committees play themselves out.
Changing the system from the current one of ever escalating competition and conflict over publications, teaching loads, and service obligations to one where our work loads are predictable and tenure, raises, and promotions are also predictable outcomes that can be looked forward to, rather than battles that have to be fought would help create the conditions for ending this mass depression. Collective bargaining could replace the multitude of individual labor disputes now taking place on a case by case basis in a predictable cycle that moves from open and bitter hostilities to "subterranean tensions" and back again in a boring and endless repetition of the same. | <urn:uuid:0b764163-c400-4423-abd9-8670adfff057> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lumpenprofessoriat.blogspot.com/2007/04/mass-depression.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963489 | 458 | 1.6875 | 2 |
April 2, 2003 - The Academy Award winning film "The Pianist" not only won over audiences in theaters, but now holds the top spot on Billboard's classical chart after 13 weeks in release.
Sony Classical's original soundtrack features Janusz Olejniczak performing eight pieces by Chopin, including the one heard in the pivotal scene in the film - Nocturne in C Sharp Minor, Op. Posth. The soundtrack also features a remastered recording of the man himself, Wladyslaw Szpilman, playing Chopin's Mazurka, Op. 17, No. 4, in Warsaw in 1948.
The touching dramatic film told the story of composer/pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew whose autobiography serves as the source material for Roman Polanski's movie. The film follows Szpilman as he tries to survive World War II in Warsaw Ghetto. Szpilman holds a place in history as the man who played the last live music heard over Polish radio airwaves before Nazi artillery hit.
In a press release announcing "The Pianist's" number one spot on the Billboard chart, director Polanski was quoted as saying, "Fryderyk Chopin's music was an essential part of Wladyslaw Szpilman's repertoire. For us Poles, Chopin symbolizes revolution. It is not surprising that his monument in Warsaw was pulled down during World War II, nor that the wartime struggles led to his music being banned in Poland. His music is our music - it's like mother's milk. It is what gave Szpilman strength and courage. I am proud to be able to reunite them for this soundtrack. I needed a great pianist from Poland to play authentically and honor both men's memories, and Janusz Olejniczak does that."
Sony Classical's "The Pianist" soundtrack also includes Olejniczak performing five other works by Chopin. They are: the Nocturne in E Minor, Op. Posth.; Nocturne in C Minor, Op. 48, No. 1; Ballade No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 38; Waltz in A Minor, Op. 34, No. 2; and Prelude in E Minor, Op. 28, No. 4.
Interested in purchasing the soundtrack? Compare prices here.
Source: Sony Classics | <urn:uuid:4a60b451-6a56-473c-827a-47af550fc4b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://movies.about.com/cs/thepianist/a/pianistsound.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956567 | 499 | 1.671875 | 2 |
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I’m coming to believe that Gregor von Rezzori (1914-1998) was one of the greatest postwar German-language writers. His work has a sensitivity and more significantly an intelligence stronger than so many of his contemporaries. His socio-intellectual analysis, in particular, stands respectively close to that of his avowed hero Robert Musil, even though Rezzori implicitly acknowledges that he can’t match him. (Rezzori even wrote a long unfinished two-part novel, The Death of My Brother Abel/Cain, just as Musil did. I have yet to read it)
He outdoes many other notables: Heinrich Boll, Wolfgang Koeppen, Peter Weiss, Arno Schmidt, W.G. Sebald, Stefan Heym, Gunter Grass, Christa Wolf, Heimito von Doderer. And I think his work approaches what I consider the upper echelon of postwar Germanic letters: Ingeborg Bachmann, Uwe Johnson, Thomas Bernhard, Adelheid Duvanel, Alexander Kluge. And going back a bit, he leaves Stefan Zweig in the dust and outdoes Hermann Broch‘s The Sleepwalkers.
I’m listing all these names not to show off but because Rezzori still seems like an odd figure to place in their company. Why? Because from all I’ve read, he was quite the bon vivant and well-adjusted man who wrote popular trashy books like The Idiot’s Guide to German Society and even more bizarrely, hosted a tv show called Jolly Joker, which seems to have been an Austrian version of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
That all apparently damaged his standing with critics a bit, and even I find it difficult to reconcile with the sheer sensitivity in the writing I’ve read. His memoir The Snows of Yesteryear (inferior to its German title Blumen im Schnee) and his non-memoir Memoirs of an Anti-Semite are both remarkable works, suffused with a great deal of sympathy and very carefully observed. This wonderful passage from Snows, about his childhood maid, captures his talent:
Cassandra’s superstitious awe of the reality of letters, and her ultimate and voluntary rejection of their decipherment, originated in a much more archaic insight. The serried rows of books on the shelves of my father’s library were truly demonic for her. That certain things had been recorded between the covers of these books which could be grasped mentally and transformed into speech and knowledge by initiates in the shamanic craft of coding and decoding those runic symbols–this could be understood only as a supernatural phenomenon. It irritated her to see that we had lost the sense of its terrifying uncanniness and that reading was an everyday custom, publicly performed, nay, that it could even become a vice, as exemplified by my sister. With the instinctive certainty of the creature being, she felt that such casual handling of the irrational was bound in turn to generate irrationality.
She realized that for those who had acquired it, the ability to read conferred power over those to whom the written or printed word remained a sealed mystery. But she also knew that this was a power pertaining to black magic–that it turns against its own practitioners and transforms them into slaves of the abstract. She saw in it a truly devilish power, since its manipulators, who also were its most immediate victims, were not even aware of its nefarious effects.
Gregor von Rezzori, The Snows of Yesteryear
So now comes An Ermine in Czernopol (1966) in a new translation from New York Review Books, an apparently autobiographical novel set in the 1920s in a fictionalized version of Czernowitz, a cosmopolitan city which belonged to Austria-Hungary until 1918, then to Romania until 1940, when it was captured by the Soviets. Today it is part of the Ukraine and is known as Chernivtsi (it has had other names). The name “Czernopol” may be an attempt to capture the city’s essential statelessness.
All this background is somewhat necessary because although the back describes the novel as the story of the anachronistic military officer Tildy, his story only makes up one of many in the novel, which is intentionally fragmented and prodigal. The construction may be the most remarkable aspect. The individual pieces are inconsistent, some characters making a stronger impression than others, but the overall flow is quite unusual and striking. While assembling a portrait of the city in the 1920s, when a pluralistic culture is thriving but dark forces quietly swell in the shadows, the organizing principle is the sense of growing up from child through the teenage years, as seen by a set of siblings.
For much of the novel the siblings are undifferentiated: the narrator is the collective “we.” Only in the latter half does the eldest, Tanya, come into her own and separate from them, and “I” begins to assert himself as well. Tanya will die at 20, we are told, just as Rezzori’s own sister did; he tells of her death in Snows and how much he has missed her for the past 50 years. That sense of breakup, and the sense of youths diverging in tandem with the fracture of the city, is the true center of the novel, and it is deeply affecting.
In keeping with the strange, disorganized time-flow of childhood, other characters make abrupt entrances and exits and recurrences. Tildy, the haplessly chivalric and obstreperous officer who is far too eager to challenge people to duels, disappears for the bulk of the middle of the novel. Mostly we hear of the tutors and prefects and schoolmasters who provide the siblings with what sounds like a damn fine liberal education. We also begin to hear of the casual anti-semitism of the siblings’ parents and extended family, and their aunt’s association with a group of proto-fascists who rail against the sarcastic, urbane liberal press (who are friends and fans of Karl Kraus) and of course the Jewish presence in the liberal press and in the city in general. The proto-fascists come off as uncivilized, sinister buffoons rather than violent menaces, but it’s fairly clear where the line leads, even as it’s also clear why none of the characters are able to anticipate how deadly it will become. For all its idiocies and disasters, urban civilization seems so robust and tolerant, doesn’t it?
The children come to gain this perspective from those around them: The Great War happened; it was the folly of the educated, civilized world; as civilized people we have learned from it; such gruesome folly can never happen again. The novel begins just as the Great War is ending:
We were particularly taken by the young noncommissioned officers: slight, gangly figures so completely bloodless they might have sprung from the soil of the trenches and crater-fields instead of a mother. But because we had been assured that they wrote the most beautiful poems, or at least carried the same with them in little volumes—because they fought to purify the soul more than merely to win the war—and hence their rather certain death was not only a casualty of enemy fire but a sanctified sacrifice on the altar of the highest human values, we felt obliged to somehow square this spirit with the horror. (92)
And this sort of romanticism is something that indeed disappears from the rest of the novel. (Tildy remains its sole exponent.) That is not the future threat.
As to that future threat: there are a fair number of Jewish characters, from the sensitive student Blanche Schlesinger to the Brill family, and the children spend a good deal of time attending Madame Fiokla Aritonovich’s Institute until their quietly anti-semitic parents pull them out. The children know of the anti-semitism but they never quite comprehend what exactly it is or exactly where these mostly assimilated Jews fit into the picture of society. Even among adults, the sense is that anti-semitism isn’t something that was ignored so much as not understood, not even by the anti-semites themselves. This is arguably more depressing, since the implication is that even if we were to look for the dangerous signs of hatred and intolerance, even the intelligent among us would be too stupid to recognize them.
Long after we had left Czernopol, whenever we thought about the Jews in those surroundings, what always came to mind, from all the myriad faces and figures, was the otherness of that gaze. The Jews were many eyes. We told ourselves that for them we were probably also many eyes. Because nothing gives a more painful demonstration of how far apart we humans truly are than eyes peering out at us from the mask of a different race.
Their gaze hits us like that of a prisoner looking through the bars of his cell. We consider ourselves free, and view others as free as long as we can see through their faces, because they have been shaped in the same way that our face, which we cannot see, has been shaped. But where a different world has left its imprint to obstruct our vision, we recognize just how much we are trapped behind our own masks.
In fact, we never truly love the other, but merely the different world he represents. (310)
Rezzori would later refine this message to a sharper point in Memoirs of an Anti-Semite, where the main character remains a stand-in for Rezzori himself and is not spared condemnation.
Rezzori reaches for Musil-esque levels of societal observation with a higher success rate than most. Speaking of the archaic character of Tildy and his hellbent intention on molding his destiny, Rezzori writes:
Destinies have become as rare as people with character, and they are becoming harder and harder to find, the more we insist on replacing the concept of character with that of personality. (33)
Which is a fairly pithy summary of the psychological modernist shift. And indeed many of the more intellectual characters are both more multifaceted and more amorphous. Some still make a strong impression. Tutor Herr Alexianu, who raves about the ideas of his cynical, cod-Nietzschean friend Herr Nastase, is hysterical:
“He talks about all this in front of women without the slightest embarrassment. And they love him. They all love him. But as far as he himself is concerned, he refrains from any kind of reciprocity in love. And he does this consciously and intentionally. He calls it his form of monastic asceticism. It is part of his purity, his chastity, not to love. He despites the idea of si vis amari, ama. He says, and correctly, that it is the expression of a half-intellectual, an amateur poet courting the favor of the masses.” (67)
But such humor fades away later on in the novel, when the petty fascism of Herr Adamowski replaces the decadent self-indulgence of Alexianu and the severe skepticism of Herr Tarangolian. Tildy stands somewhat apart from him because he has a story and his story is reasonably self-contained, but his time has passed too, and in fact passed before the novel even began. His miserable fate signals only that old-fashioned Burkean values will not step in where urban liberalism has failed.
Still, all these characters are chiefly part of a background, overshadowed by a very deliberate attempt to portray the process of maturation in a modernist technique that draws heavily on Musil and Proust. (In an interview with Andre Aciman, he cites those two as well as Broch and Joyce as his primary models.) It is an attempt to project their method onto the postwar years, to prove that critical, sensitive, patient portrayals of psychology and civilization still have something to offer despite the increasing noise of industrial and popular culture. I think Rezzori makes his case rather well, but admittedly I’m already in his corner.
Nonetheless, assessing the novel as fundamentally realistic will make it seem like a failure. It was never meant to be; it is fundamentally an internal novel, but the internals are those of children and so are only obtained through retrospection and the jumbling imposition of clumsy, post-hoc systems of narration on them. And depicting this compellingly is a very significant achievement.
Rezzori’s work has touches of affectionate sentiment, but it is primarily bleak. Rezzori declared his utter pessimism and despair with humanity in interviews. How to square this with the host of Jolly Joker and the seemingly comfortable life he lived out, even the comfort with which he gave such interviews? It is one thing to be a Franzen or a McEwan and fail completely to live up to the pretense one has taken on of diagnosing the problems of our time: any complacency then seems perfectly in keeping with the pose. But Rezzori’s sensitivity to pain seems too much like something that would cause him genuine angst. Perhaps it did and he could only show it in the most refractory way. Perhaps it just didn’t.
And what to make of this passage in his author bio—present in every back cover bio I have seen—full of sinister import but not (as far as I can find) something whose details have been publicized:
During World War II, he lived in Berlin, where he worked as a radio broadcaster and published his first novel.
In Memoirs of an Anti-Semite, Rezzori describes his fictionalized self as “the hideous fop who, under the hail of bombs on Berlin in 1943, leads an idler’s life, cynically watching a world in flames, millions of people dying.” No mention of the radio broadcasting though, as though he purposefully left mention of it in his biography in order to raise suspicion. I call out the detail here not because I have any conclusive assessment of it, but because I think this unease is at the very center of his work. | <urn:uuid:ea9c7bbb-ad5d-49ab-87a9-77ef85cd6fef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.waggish.org/2012/gregor-von-rezzori-an-ermine-in-czernopol/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975084 | 2,995 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Klickitat County Senior Programs
Klickitat County Senior Services
Description of Programs
Information and Assistance
‘Information and Assistance’ (I&A) is the entry point of the Senior Services network. Our telephones are answered "Senior Services, Information and Assistance."
‘Information’ gives you just that – information. What do you need to know? Van schedules? What’s for dinner at the Senior Center? How to find information about Medicare or Social Security? How to apply for food stamps or the P.U.D. discount? If we don’t already know the answer, we can direct you to someone who does.
The ‘Assistance’ part of Information and Assistance is actually doing something for you. We may call and make an appointment for you, help you figure out your insurance billings or fill out your application for a benefit, or, if you wish, accompany you at an eligibility review or fair hearing of another agency.
The purpose of Information & Assistance is to help seniors access information and services needed to live independently in the community.
Information and Assistance is available to all senior citizens (over 60) regardless of income. Of course some of the programs we tell you about or assist you in applying for may have income or age guidelines of their own. There is no charge for Information and Assistance, but we welcome donations.
‘Case Management’ is another step beyond ‘Assistance.’ A better name might be "Care Management" because it provides help in arranging for Long Term Care needs.
Case Management may be called for when a person is released from the hospital after an illness or accident. It may be needed because a family caregiver is unable to handle increasing care needs. Case Management may be called because a family wants to know what options they have in caring for an elder, or because a person needing care wants to talk to someone about their options.
Case Management helps to identify what care needs a person has by performing an Assessment of their needs and resources. Then the Case Manager works with the individual or family to determine their options for getting needed care. Finally a ‘Plan of Care’ or ‘Service Plan’ is drawn up which reflects the person’s choices for receiving care. The plan details what problems must be solved, what activities will solve the problems, and who is responsible for each activity. Most Service Plans are a mix of services provided by family members, outside agencies and sometimes the person themselves. Services from outside agencies may be state supported or privately paid.
Case Management has three guiding principles: 1) The best plan is the one that allows the most independence and self-care, 2) Outside services should supplement, not replace, care being provided by families and friends. 3) The person needing care or authorized to represent them makes the decisions about their care. Case Management is there to help develop a plan of care that suits the individual and his/her situation. This includes a person’s preferences as well as needs. Case Management stays involved to assure that the plan is implemented properly. Sometimes changes are made to reflect changes in the client’s condition or because the plan does not work as anticipated. The Case Manager helps solve problems that come up as the plan is implemented.
Case Management as described above is available without regard to income. Donations are gratefully accepted.
Ongoing Case Management
Recent changes at the state level have changed the way that we work with the state offices. The local state worker (in Home and Community Services) is now considered the ‘Front Door’ for people who will be receiving state-funded services. The HCS worker will do the case management described above and authorize state services. Our Case Managers receive the case when the service plan has been substantially implemented, and are responsible for ongoing case management and re-authorization of services. Case Management remains in effect for as long as state services are received.
People who privately employ caregivers as a part of their service plan have an option to purchase Private Case Management from Senior Services. In Private Case Management the case manager selects and provides supervision for the person hired. Case Management makes sure that the worker understands what tasks are to be provided and knows how to competently perform them. Case Management makes sure that service is provided in accordance with the client’s wishes and disciplines or discharges the worker as needed. This service protects a vulnerable person from being manipulated and exploited by persons that they hire to provide care. The person receiving care, or their representative, remains responsible for paying the worker and any legally required withholding for taxes and benefits. They may hire a bookkeeper to perform these functions or rely on family or others.
Private Case Management is billed on a per hour basis, based on the actual cost of the Case Manager’s time. The recipient of the service signs an agreement with Senior Services.
In –Home Services
Senior Services provides Personal Care and Housekeeping services through a number of different programs. In general, housekeeping is provided only to those also needing personal care services. For state funded services, initial authorization is by Home and Community Services. The file is transferred to our Case Mangers for ongoing case management and re-authorization once the Service Plan has been put into place. Each of the In-Home programs has slightly different guidelines both for financial eligibility and what kinds of services can be provided.
Medicaid Personal Care – is available to those who are Categorically Eligible for Medicaid, and who need help with at least one Personal Care task such as bathing, eating, dressing, toileting, personal hygiene, or body care. Assistance with household tasks may be provided only if personal care assistance is needed.
C.O.P.E.S. – is available to persons who would be expected to need nursing home care without the availability of services. The person must need substantial or total assistance with two or more personal care tasks OR need minimal, substantial, or total assistance with three or more tasks. C.O.P.E.S. is available to those who earn more than the Medicaid standard, but they must contribute to the cost of care.
Chore Services – the original in-home program, is no longer available to new clients. The Chore program was available to those with higher incomes and more resources and it provided household help to people who might not need help with their personal care. It was funded only with state money. Only a few long time clients who could not be moved to Medicaid programs still receive Chore Services.
The cost of providing Medicaid services (including Medicaid Personal Care and C.O.P.E.S.) or Chore Services may, in some circumstances, be recovered from the estates of program participants. The details are complicated and individualized advice should be obtained.
Senior Personal Care – is a small state funded program that is available to some whose resources or income are too high for federally supported programs. Participation in cost is on a sliding fee scale.
Private Pay Chore Services – is available to those not eligible for other programs. Since the recipient of the service pays the cost, an agreement is negotiated for the services they wish to purchase.
Respite – provides time off for unpaid caregivers. The cost is on a sliding fee scale based on the income of the person needing care (not the caregiver’s income.)
Family Caregiver Support
Family Caregiver Support - is a new program that was added when the Older Americans Act was reauthorized in 2001. It is a flexible program designed to help meet the needs of unpaid family caregivers. It can provide assistive supplies and tools, support and consultation, homemaker services, a personal care companion, and/or respite for the caregiver.
Congregate Meals – are served at four "meal sites" in Klickitat County. A hot nutritious meal containing at least one third of the Recommended Daily Amount (RDA) of nutrients needed by the elderly is served at 12:00 Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Goldendale Senior Center, Mondays and Wednesdays at the Pioneer Center in White Salmon, and Tuesdays at the Lyle Community Center. A meal is served once a month on the 4th Tuesday in Bickleton at 11:00 at the Grange hall. A donation of $3.00 is requested from those over 60. Those under 60 must pay the full cost of the meal (currently $6.00). Those under 60 who volunteer at the meal site are treated as seniors.
The Congregate Meal Program is based on the knowledge that people do not eat well in the absence of other people. We are social beings, and mealtime is an important social event in our lives. Seniors who may have become isolated are encouraged to take part in the meal program as a step towards getting involved with people again. Eating at the meal site helps prevent seniors, especially those living alone, from drifting into isolation. A recent study confirms that seniors who attend meal sites are healthier and more independent than their counterparts who do not attend.
Home Delivered Meals – are delivered to a senior’s home when attendance at a meal site is not practical. Home Delivered Meals participants are generally homebound. Often HD meals are sent out after a hospital stay or when the spouse that usually prepares the meals becomes ill or dies. The goal is to encourage the senior to attend the mealsite if and when it is possible, but HD meals provide nutrition when the senior is unable or unwilling to attend mealsite. An Assistance worker visits the home and does a short assessment before Home Delivered Meals can be provided. HD meals recipients are often at high risk for becoming isolated. Participation in the program assures that the recipient will have some contact with others.
Hot meals are delivered when the meal sites operate. Delivery is limited to the area that can be served while the meals remain at a safe temperature. Frozen meals are available to those who need them on other days or who live too far from the meal sites. As with other programs funded by the Older Americans Act, Home Delivered Meals participants are asked for a confidential donation. The requested donation is $3.00.
C.O.P.E.S. program recipients may receive Home Delivered Meals as a part of that program.
Transportation – has always been at the top of the list of Senior Citizen priorities in Klickitat County. At every planning meeting it is always made clear. Seniors feel that loss of transportation is the biggest threat to their independence in our big rural county. Getting older means facing the inevitable time when we can no longer drive safely. At first night driving, busy traffic, and long trips become difficult. Eventually, if we live long enough, the safety of others and ourselves demands that we give up driving altogether. Those who have never had strong driving skills face this time sooner than those with a lifetime of safe driving habits to fall back on.
We provide transportation in vans when practical. Vans are perfect for taking seniors to the meal site and shopping. All of our vans are now equipped with wheelchair lifts so that people who depend on wheelchairs can be comfortably and safely transported. We often use Volunteer Drivers to provide trips to medical appointments or whenever it is more cost-effective. These volunteers use their own vehicle and are reimbursed for mileage.
All of our drivers, paid and volunteer, are screened for suitability and safe driving skills. They receive training in assisting passengers, defensive driving, and CPR certification. Volunteer vehicles are required to be in good repair. Paid drivers receive additional training and are covered by mandatory drug testing requirements.
The goal of Senior Transportation is to make sure that alternative means of transportation are available so that no one is prevented from living independently because of the lack of basic transportation. We can’t match the independence provided by a car in the driveway ‘raring to go’, but we can make sure that basic transportation needs are met. Many enjoy the sociability of riding in our vans as they do their shopping and errands.
The terms of our contract with the South West Agency on Aging (SWAA) define "essential transportation" as trips to our meal sites, trips to medical destinations, shopping, and social/financial trips to banks, the post office, etc. Trips to other destinations are possible through grants from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and support from the Klickitat County Commissioners.
Medicaid Transportation – is provided to those who are eligible for Medical Assistance through the Medicaid Program. Since many Medicaid recipients are senior citizens, providing service to them under Medicaid Transportation makes our other funding sources stretch further.
Date of Source Material: 10/22/2008
Source: Klickitat County Senior Services
Senior Services Home Mission Statement and Goals Senior Programs Senior Programs Contacts Senior Newsletter MATS Transportation MATS Fares MATS Transportation Contacts Advisory Board Helpful Links This & That
Sharon Carter: Director
Office Hours: 8am-5pm
Annex II 115 W. Court
Goldendale, WA 98620
Phone: (509) 773-3757
or 800 447-7858
Fax: (509) 773-6965
White Salmon Office:
P.O. Box 1877
501 NE Washington Street
White Salmon, WA 98672
Phone: (509) 493-3068
or 800 447-7858
Fax: (509) 493-4109 | <urn:uuid:1ce65cd9-0079-41c8-b7c8-61cedae3dad6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.klickitatcounty.org/Senior/ContentROne.asp?fContentIdSelected=200321028&fCategoryIdSelected=-1418536091&fX=X | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952331 | 2,772 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and Pioneer Corporation have entered into an alliance on their organic OLED Lighting business as well as capital alliance strengthening their company relations.
Mitsubishi Chemical has decided to enter the OLED Lighting business, and is aiming to begin full-scale mass production and launch in 2011. Target sales for the OLED Lighting business are 30 billion Japanese yen for 2015, and 100 billion Japanese yen for 2020.
With this business move, Mitsubishi Chemical will use OLED Lighting panels supplied by Pioneer. It is also looking into performing joint research on printable OLED Lighting development, as well as their commercialization.
Both companies are currently performing joint research on OLED Lighting panels that use printable hole injecting material (HIM) and new emitting materials . In line with its goal to start early mass production and marketing of new printable emitting materials, Mitsubishi Chemical is moving on with research and development, as well as looking into the commercialization of printable OLED Lighting.
OLED Lighting does not create a spot of light or strip of light like electric bulbs and fluorescent lights, the whole body emits light in a way that is easy on the eyes. Brightness and color can be freely controlled (dimness/tone), it can be made transparent (can see through to the other side like a glass window), and it can be made flexible (light surface can be flat or curved, shapes can be freely formed). Also, the fact that it does not use mercury and uses low amounts of energy makes it an environmental-friendly next-generation lighting that is receiving high expectations.
Currently, OLED Lighting panels are commonly created through a vapor deposition process, which makes it difficult to mass-produce no-defects, large, uniform surfaces. However, Mitsubishi Chemical's printable materials realize the mass production of the world's largest class of lighting area, about 14cm square, with Pioneer's commercial lines.
Mitsubishi Chemical will be supplied OLED Lighting panels by Pioneer, then launch illumination appliances that make use of the benefits of OLED across Verbatim's worldwide sales network starting in 2011. Verbatim, a Mitsubishi Chemical company, will sell the first LED lighting products in Europe later this year.
Verbatim is also expecting to market lamps with a near-daylight colour rendering index (CRI) of 98 during 2011. Initially, the company plans to sell lamps with many of the most common shapes and base fittings including A-lamps, candle lamps and directional MR16s, with a choice of E14, E27, GU5.3 and GU10 bases to follow later. The products will be suitable for direct replacement of incandescent and halogen lamps. Typical energy savings will be 80%, compared with conventional lighting, and the products will have much longer life of around 35,000 hours, equivalent to 10 years at 10 hours per day, depending on operating conditions, Verbatim claims. The first family of lamps will be based on a blue light-emitting chip LED technology. They will be competitively priced, available in cool and warm white, and have a typical colour rendering index (CRI) similar to that of other products currently in the market. The next generation of lamps, planned for 2011, will use a violet light emitting chip with red, green and blue phosphors. These products, also in warm white, will offer further improvements in CRI with a typical average value of 98. This is very close to natural light.
Also in relation to Mitsubishi Chemical's OLED illumination appliances, the company plans to display the world's first dimmable/tone adjustable prototype this year from April 11th - 16th in Frankfurt, Germany at Light+Building 2010, the world's largest international lighting exhibition.
Both Mitsubichi Chemical and Pioneer are also continuing their joint research on OLED Lighting panels not only printable HIM, but also new printable emitting materials. These new printable materials enables a emitting layer to be low-cost application process that has achieved a characteristic illumination life time (the time it takes for the brightness to reduce to 70% of its starting value) of 10,000 hours in the laboratory. | <urn:uuid:9d7759fd-7be6-435f-8cde-a5d7e1e07f6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Print.aspx?NewsId=27300 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938664 | 850 | 1.585938 | 2 |
DENVER — Gray-bearded Leon Uris, grandfatherly James Michener and tweedy Gerald Ford gaze out from the slick magazine ads sponsored by this city`s Chamber of Commerce, seeking to lure still more Americans to move here.
``Denver is my Big Apple,`` the ad quotes Uris, best known as the author of Exodus, the epic novel of modern Israel`s birth.
``Denver became my Athens, my Rome, my London . . . ,`` says Michener, whose works from ``Tales of the South Pacific`` through his current novel,
``Texas,`` have made him one of the biggest-selling authors in world history.
Former President Ford`s quotes advise Americans that if Denver and its airport weren`t here most of us would be deprived of the joys of visiting the nearby mountains.
``Denver--By a Mile,`` reads the caption on each ad.
Actually all three of these famous men live far more than a mile away from the ``Mile High City`` that they urge others to make their homes.
Michener lives in Austin, Tex., while Ford`s main residence is in Palm Springs, Calif., and Uris`s home is in Aspen, the jet-set watering hole on the other side of the state from Denver.
Nevertheless, local leaders from Mayor Federico Pena down are hoping the VIP endorsements will help bring some badly needed growth to a community battered, if not yet bloodied, by recent nationwide downturns in the energy and high technology industries.
``We want to use the endorsement of successful people with close ties to Denver to dramatize the fact to everybody that this is still a very, very good place to live and run a business,`` said Chamber of Commerce spokesman Sharon Linhart.
To be sure, Michener, Ford and Uris all have played roles in creating the Colorado mystique that did so much to fuel the fires of growth during the 1970s and early 1980s, transforming a sleepy cow town into a mile-high mecca of commerce and industry.
Ford brought his Western White House to the ski slopes above Denver at Vail and Beaver Creek, while Michener`s blockbuster novel about the roots and glorious future of the Western energy boom, ``Centennial,`` seemed a blueprint for ever-growing affluence.
Within the decade, John Denver`s ``Rocky Mountain High`` music became an anthem for aging hippies looking for a place to settle down, and an unprecedented energy boom lured hundreds of thousands of more buttoned-down Americans to Colorado.
Denver`s once modest skyline sprouted what seemed like as many construction cranes as there were derricks poking into the skies above oil fields throughout the Rocky Mountain region.
Brooks Brothers and Bloomingdales jammed in with new stores to rub shoulders with such frontier-era department stores as the May Co. and Daniels and Fishers. Men in Gucci shoes and women clutching businesslike briefcases from the same designer clogged the city`s 17th Street financial district, making oil and stock deals that never seemed to fail.
The only discouraging words seemed to come from the office of Gov. Richard Lamm. Development was moving ahead of needs, Lamm warned. ``We`re overbuilding and underplanning,`` he cautioned. He was saddled with the nickname ``Governor Gloom`` because of his dismal predictions for the future. Lamm`s friend, Sen. Gary Hart, sounded far more optimistic as he transformed upwardly mobile young comers from all the 17th Streets, Wall Streets and LaSalle Streets of America into his ``Yuppie Revolution`` that briefly challenged President Reagan and brought still more national attention to Denver`s affluence.
Last week Lamm announced that he is departing Colorado, if only for a year or so, to become a visiting professor at Dartmouth College in Frost Belt New Hampshire. He wasn`t the only Coloradan with travel plans. Last year, for the first time in more than two decades, more people moved out of Colorado than moved in.
Although state demographers noted that the difference between in-migration and out-migration was only 1,000 people while the birth rate among Colorado`s 3 million residents assured net population growth, the development was widely cited by economic analysts eager to spot trends.
Throughout the year numerous energy companies had announced cutbacks or the outright closing of their Denver branches as dropping foreign crude-oil prices forced major reductions in domestic exploration and pumping activities. The Denver Petroleum Club, housed in a downtown bank penthouse that was once among the city`s most posh meeting places, closed its doors last year.
At the end of 1985 only Houston, which depends upon the energy industry far more than Denver does, had a worse high-rise vacancy rate than the one here. Houston`s rate was 27.6 per cent and 27.1 per cent in Denver.
Today, however, Denver`s vacancy rate has dropped to 25 per cent and, said the Chamber`s Linhart, ``the trend seems to point toward steady improvement.``
Ironically, a study released recently by the Denver brokerage firm of Hanifen Imhoff Inc., indicates that Colorado, although hurt in the past, now stands to benefit from future drops in oil prices rather than to suffer from them.
The company predicted that, because of sharp drops in the wellhead prices for crude oil and natural gas, Colorado will enjoy an annual economic gain of $800 million or $249 per person because the state itself is a net importer of both commodities.
By contrast, the study found that Texas would suffer a net loss of $12.5 billion and Louisiana $10.5 billion because those states are net exporters of oil and gas.
With Denver apparently past the worst it`s going to suffer from the energy slump, the high office-vacancy rates should offer a lure to companies looking to relocate where rents are cheap, Linhart speculated.
Perhaps the governor will find a nice deal on a law office when he comes back. | <urn:uuid:d115c4ae-48dd-4554-8743-629d7721ffb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-04-29/news/8601310024_1_mile-high-city-rocky-mountain-high-james-michener | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957235 | 1,256 | 1.609375 | 2 |
What might the Nabateans be able to do for us?
PATH turned into waterway.
WE had a power cut round my way which lasted most of Sunday, and was caused by heavy rain, and water getting into a sub-station. What began as seasonal April showers endes in the wettest April since records began, with swollen rivers bursting their banks, fields and racecourses flooded, a man killed trying to ford a stream in his car, thousands told to evacuate their homes to avoid floods, and ...no end to the drought alarm and hosepipe ban.
"Be proud to be dirty," said a message on the Thames' water website urging vigilance in the drought that officially covers most of England and Wales. "A dirty car shows you are doing your bit to save water. Installing a water butt ... will help new plants survive without using precious tap water." But it added that anyone needing sandbags should ask their local authority.
Today in Trafalgar Square myself and a colleague helping to guard the lions, that is controlling access to the plinth for the May Day rally, were just agreeing that we'd felt spots of rain when, lo, the sun came out, and it remained sunny and warm for the rest of the afternoon.
But thinking about the weather, which is something not even we socialists can claim to control, I could not help mentally adding this combination of scarcity and flood to some of the other contrasts mentioned by speakers - such building workers being unemployed while thousands of people need homes, and decent schools; or millions of people around the world suffering hunger when we have the ability to produce vast surpluses of food.
Seeing scenes on telly of streams in torrent and the town of Tewkesbury once more an island, taken from the air, and listening to explanations as to why this rain was still not enough, I found myself thinking about the Nabateans. Or as they are referred to in Arabic, al Anbat.
Living in the few centuries either side of BCE/CE, or old style BC/AD, in the southern parts of what are now Israel and Jordan, this Semitic people, speaking Aramean with a mix of Arabic names and words, built Petra, the "rose red city half as old as time", in the words of the poet, and are said to have controlled the trade routes between Arabia and Syria, and even the longer route between Egypt and China when it ran across their lands. But though they had once had a reputation as warriors, this control was not just a matter of taking tolls.
What the Nabateans did was to dig out underground cisterns, and carefully channel and conserve each drop of rain in what was even then a dry region, so they not only had drinking water but could keep animals and raise crops, sufficient to maintain khans, or caravanserais where travellers and caravans travelling the trade routes could rest safely overnight and be fed and watered. The Nabateans themselves had begun as nomadic pastoralists, coming via Edom from Arabia, but become great traders. The spices and incense of the East came via the Gulf to Petra, and thence to the Mediterranean coast where they could be shipped to Rome.
I have not been to Petra, with its rock-hewn temples and palaces, but in 1960 I visited Avdat, further West along the spice route, standing on a hillide in the northern Negev. Here I marvelled at the channels cut into rock which fed into cisterns, and the dams which made sure flash floods in wadis were not wasted. Below the ancient town a small group of modern Bedouin were camped, with camels, perhaps revisiting the home of their grander ancestors?
"In the mid-1950s, a research team headed by M. Evenari set up a research station near Avdat (Evenari, Shenan and Tadmor 1971). He focused on the relevance of runoff rainwater management in explaining the mechanism of the ancient agricultural features, such as: terraced wadis, channels for collecting runoff rainwater, and the enigmatic phenomenon of "Tuleilat el-Anab". Evenari showed that the runoff rainwater collection systems concentrate water from an area that is five times larger than the area in which the water actually drains.
"Another study was conducted by Y. Kedar in 1957, which also focused on the mechanism of the agriculture systems, but he studied soil management, and claimed that the ancient agriculture systems were intended to increase the accumulation of loess in wadis and create an infrastructure for agricultural activity. This theory has also been explored by Prof. E. Mazor, of the Weizmann Institute of Science."
Tuleilat el Anab are piles of stones perhaps designed to increase water flow to terraces. The name means "grape mounds". Besides evidence of goats and sheep being raised at Avdat, the archaeologists have found grape presses and wine vats. Evidently travellers who stayed at this place were well looked after.
I can't help thinking how remarkable it is, that two thousand years after the Nabateans were so skilled at using limited water supplies they could keep vineyards in the Negev(Naqb), overlooking desert, we Brits are so cackhanded we have trouble growing spuds while floodwaters sweep away drivers, as well as topsoil.
But of course there are two aspects to any society, technology and social organisation, or in another word, politics. It is one thing learning how to make best use of resources, and another being so organised to do so. Even in ancient times those civilisations which had to conserve water and irrigate crops tended to be state planned. But in modern rainy Britain, so clever in the Thatcher years, even water has been privatised.
Engineers said today that water privateers have drained Britain dry despite the recent wet weather. The GMB union, which represents utilities workers, urged MPs to call companies to account for selling off the country's reservoirs - infrastructure that could have helped ease this winter's drought.
Enviroment Agency officials warned in April that the south-west of England and Midlands were in drought, with it likely to continue at least until next year.
Yet this week's spate of flash floods are ironically a symptom of the drought, with hard-baked soil unable to soak up the sudden downpour. GMB blamed water profiteers for the crisis, saying less than one per cent of Britain's rainfall actually ended up in tanks.
Thames Water has closed 25 storage facilities in England's south-east, the union said, leaving rainfall to run off into the sea - in a region where hosepipes have been banned twice in six years.
National secretary for water Gary Smith said he could not stress enough that Britain had no shortage of water, just a shortage of competent management.
"Storage and transfer are two of the main elements of water resource management - one to move water from times of plenty to times of shortage, the other to convey water from places where it is plentiful to areas where it is in short supply."
Water was a natural monopoly, Mr Smith said, but the government insisted on a "nonsense policy" of privatisation.
"Since 1990 Thames Water has paid out £5 billion in dividends to shareholders, raised from households, that should have been used to divert water into south-east and eastern England."
He urged Parliament's environment selcet committee to call Thames Water, its competitors and regulators to account.
A Thames Water spokesman said many closed sites had stored only small amounts of treated water, while others were only treatment plants. The sites had been shut down because they weren't needed, he claimed. | <urn:uuid:5fbe9e74-ac7b-4a6a-a70c-661b3c74c189> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://randompottins.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-might-nabateans-be-able-to-do-for.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974573 | 1,595 | 1.773438 | 2 |
By Josh Kramer
It was once said, “All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.” Learning is a major part of a society. One should strive to learn something new each and every day. It is a prerequisite towards success in life. This applies to all people. Even those that are referred to as the “King.”
I am of course referring to none other than the most tantalizing figure in sports, LeBron James. Sure “Tebow Mania” and ”Linsanity“ are big draws, but neither can sustain the media craze the way that LBJ can. Well it appears LeBron James has learned a valuable lesson. People love heroics. People also love courage. Courage is looked at as a major positive no matter who you talk to. Sure LeBron still will have to get the monkey of his back come June in showing late game heroics at NBA Finals time, but he is currently demonstrating toughness. James will play through the pain of a dislocated ring finger on his non-shooting hand.
LeBron was quoted as saying, “I’ll be ready. I hate using injuries as an excuse. If I’m in uniform, then I should be good to go. The only recovery for it, the doctors told me, was rest. And I think we all know I’m having none of that (courtesy of ESPN.com)” Continue reading | <urn:uuid:a4161cc3-5888-4096-999c-084f5b42acbc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sportskraze.wordpress.com/tag/willis-reed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977309 | 301 | 1.507813 | 2 |
There's no excuse not to climb the world's tallest mountain anymore. Mount Everest just got an upgrade — a 3G one, courtesy of Nepali mobile network operator Ncell. Ncell claims to have a base station that reaches up to the mountain's summit.
According to Mashable, visitors of Mount Everest can now surf the web or place calls through a standard GSM 3G network. This means that visitors are no longer limited to satellite phones to communicate with those at the bottom of the mountain who were too chicken to make the vertical hike.
We can see it now: mountain climbers using iPhones to tweet "Lost!" or "Avalanche!" Video calling is even possible, so FaceTiming your beloved ones while you're overcoming frostbite will soon be a reality. To show off its new station, Ncell even made the world's highest video call at a height of 17,388 feet.
With all the time spent on just surviving the climb up Everest, we're not sure browsing Dvice while mid-way up is such a brilliant idea. | <urn:uuid:65ddbea0-350c-4184-93ab-0fce70905418> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dvice.com/archives/2010/10/mountain-climbe.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93534 | 216 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Continuing & Community Education
Central School District is pleased to offer a variety of classes and programs to the adults and youth of our community.
Learning is a life-long journey
and we are happy
to be part of that. We are always striving for improvement and are open to
suggestions and ideas from the community.
The Spring 2013 Program is now posted. The session will run from the end of April through mid-June. Click here to see that flyer. Please remember to look at Changes and Corrections as the year progresses for up-to-date class information including make up dates and cancellations.
To register for a class, please fill out a registration form (see list of links to the left)
and mail it in. If you have questions, please email Continuing Ed. at
The current program with descriptions and details will always be available online. If you would like to receive an email notifying you when the program has been posted, please sign up via the following link: Automatic Email List.
If you have an idea for a class that you do not see in the current program please contact the Continuing Education Office. We are always open to suggestions!
Please check out our Changes and Corrections page to see whether a class is full or has been cancelled. Just click on the link on the black column to the left.
Enrollment is open to all on a first-come, first-served basis. You do not have to be a resident of our school district to participate in this program. Non-resident fees apply.
Registration by mail is preferred and the easiest way to register. You can click on the Registration Form link to the left and then print from your home computer. Mail to: Continuing Education, 1239 Van Antwerp Rd., Niskayuna NY 12309. Registrants can also always stop by the District Office during office hours.
of our classes are intergenerational while others
are specific to youth or adult.
|This page is maintained by Pamela Ober according to web publishing guidelines used by the Niskayuna Central School District. All rights reserved. This web site was produced in cooperation with the Capital Region BOCES Communications Service. © 2003.|
Back to District Home Page | <urn:uuid:687b7b9c-5d7f-4d8d-b26f-bb2811f00268> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.niskayunaschools.org/district/CommunityEducation/commedumain.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932982 | 458 | 1.617188 | 2 |
We may not be able to get everybody in the United States covered with health insurance while reducing our total health care costs, balancing our federal budget, and extending our life expectancy to the highest in the world without giving up some lower priority things and disrupting our rather comfortable and often unhealthy lifestyles, but there are simple health care problems we can solve at a nominal cost.
We may not be able to or even have any desire at all to "fundamentally transform America," but we can, with the help of a willing doctor, fundamentally transform the lives of individuals suffering from easily correctable medical problems that would never be left untreated in the United States, with or without insurance.
Nicholas Kristof writes about one group of such persons and an organization founded to assist them, Worldwide Fistula Fund, in today's column in the NYTimes. Give Well, an organization that evaluates charities says they don't have enough information about Worldwide Fistula Fund to recommend donations to it. It is not listed at all on Charity Navigator.
Turns out Kristof wrote about a similar organization, The Fistula Foundation, in 2003 and in 2005 and that organization was also featured on Oprah Winfrey's show in 2004 and 2005. It gets a four star rating by Charity Navigator, and it's Executive Director is paid only $104,650 as of 2007.
Here is another organization working on the same problem, The Fistula Care Project. It is part of EngenderHealth which has been around since 1943 and which also emphasizes family planning, "reproductive services," etc. They get a three star rating from Charity Navigator, and the director makes about a quarter million dollars.
I'm sending my donation to The Fistula Foundation today. | <urn:uuid:e3adc1ec-631a-4084-a254-6a3cd5b7c151> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.permanentfixes.com/2009/11/really-serious-health-care-problems-we.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960474 | 350 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Bartram Trail Branch
Wednesday, February 20 @ 10:10 am and 11 am
Join us during our regular storytimes for extra special mystery themed storytimes! You can take home a super secret craft to make!!
Wednesday, May 1 @ 4pm
Check or Checkmate? Do you play chess? Do you want to learn how to play chess? Wondering what the terms pins, ranks and skittles mean? If you're in 5th through 12th grades and would like to be part of a chess club, we have the right one for you. We're meeting at 4pm -- join us.
Wednesday, February 20 @ 3 pm
If you like art and you're in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade, come to the Bartram Trail Library on Wednesday at 3 pm where we'll be looking at actual paintings created by the Florida Highwaymen. Did you know that there were 26 self-taught artists and that their works are an important part of Florida's history? You'll leave with your own art project inspired by the art of the Highwaymen!
Saturday, February 9 @ 2 pm
Looking for fun for the whole family? Come on in and play Bingo for Books from 2 to 3 pm today. Everyone is guaranteed to go home with at least one free book. Books are generously donated by the Friends of the Bartram Trail Branch Library!
Saturday, February 23 @ 2 pm
Not only do black sheep in the family tree add some excitement, they also tend to leave a paper trail. Certified genealogist, C. Ann Staley, will show us how to identify what types of court records might be associated with our ancestral criminal masterminds and where to find them. This program is free and open to the public. No registration necessary.
Wednesday, February 27 @ 4 pm
Have you ever wanted to see how a Crime Scene Investigator does their job in the real world? Or, are you considering Crime Scene Investigation as a career? If so, please join us for this interesting look into the world of a CSI.
Wednesday, February 13 @ 3 pm
Children of all ages are invited to make a craft to take and share with a special Valentine. Treats will be provided by the Bartram Trail Branch Friends of the Library.
Wednesday, May 22 @ 4 pm
The library is a great place to get your volunteer hours! Orientation is mandatory and counts as your first service hour. Class size is limited; please call 827-6960 for registration information.
Tuesday, May 21 @ 6pm
Teens, grades 6 -12, are you looking for something different to do tonight? We're showing a popular anime movie on our big screen. Refreshments will be provided.
Tuesday, May 7 @ 6pm
Teens, are you looking for something different to do tonight? We're showing a popular anime movie on our big screen. Refreshments will be provided. | <urn:uuid:379ca04e-d300-4825-9539-693ed5588947> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sjcpls.org/category/topics/bartram-trail-branch?page=10 | 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 | 0.964589 | 602 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Egyptians need to know just what happened on the last day of Hosni Mubarak's time in office
For the Egyptian revolution to be complete, Egyptians must know what happened exactly on Hosni Mubarak's last day in power, wrote Maamoun Fandi, a columnist with the London-based newspaper Asharq Al Awsat, in a two-part article.
"What happened between Mubarak and the Field Marshal [Hussein Tantawi] in the last few days of the revolution must be disclosed with the utmost transparency. It is a necessity for legitimacy to be instilled in Egypt."
Many Egyptians still view the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), the ruling authority in Egypt ever since street protests unseated President Mubarak last February, as a remnant of the fallen regime. Field Marshal Tantawi is the chief of Scaf, making him the de facto head of the Egyptian state.
"So for the revolution to really be called a success, the remnants of the old regime must be removed," the writer added.
Other Egyptians, conversely, maintain that the army "protected" the revolution from the "bloodbath" that Mr Mubarak was going to unleash.
In other words, the Scaf stands with one foot in the legacy of the old regime, and the other in the Egyptian revolution, the writer observed.
Until the day Field Marshal Tantawi decides to speak out on everything that happened in the early days of February leading up to Mr Mubarak's stepping down on February 11, the Egyptian people will remain suspicious about how their country's affairs are run, he noted.
"All we've been hearing so far is a bunch of conflicting anecdotes and leaks, and the resulting uncertainty causes the current regime's legitimacy to fray - and with it the legitimacy of the cabinet, the forthcoming elections and the country's constitution."
One such anecdote says that Omar Suleiman, Mr Mubarak's top aide and intelligence chief, informed President Mubarak on February 4 that a large crowd of protesters was headed from Tahrir Square to the presidential palace, and advised him that standing down would spare Egypt "a disaster scenario", the writer reported.
In this version of events, Mr Mubarak purportedly agreed to resign and said he needed to coordinate everything with "Hussein" (Field Marshal Tantawi) to make sure chaos did not ensue.
Another version, from a "very close source", says that Field Marshal Tantawi was the one who got in touch with Mr Suleiman: "Hey Omar," he ostensibly said, "the people will be moving in on the palace and you ought to tell the man that it's over and that he must give up power."
In the disparity between these two stories, and many others versions thereof, the Egyptian people are left to doubt what the actual position of the army was on that February 11 when Mr Mubarak relinquished his 30-year-grip on the presidency.
Bullying is natural in totalitarian regimes
Youssef Al Ahmed, Syria's ambassador to the Arab League, appeared frantic during the press conference he held on Saturday in the wake of the League's decision to suspend his country's membership, Abdulrahman Al Rashid commented in the London-based daily Al Sharq Al Awsat.
He showered the League and those who voted against Syria with offensive language and accusations in a tirade delivered shortly after he spat at the Arab ministers at the end of the ministerial meeting and called them "traitors".
"This sums up the behaviour of the Syrian regime that doesn't stop at murdering children. It adopts a policy of defamatory statements and terrorisation media against officials and Arab governments, just as the Qaddafi regime did before it."
"We realise that the Syrian ambassador and all other Syrian government officials feel that they are sinking ever deeper and the only response they know is to intimidate their opponents, a method that may have worked in the past but not anymore."
Representatives of oppressive, totalitarian regimes often resort to derogatory speech because this is exactly how they operate internally. These are regimes that recruit people whose main skill is bullying. It is for this reason that the representatives of these authorities exaggerate in defending them and criticise others, lest they be accused of negligence.
Syrian crisis remains in Arab boundaries
The West will not consider the Arab League's decision to suspend Syria's membership as an invitation to prepare for interference to resolve the stubborn crisis, columnist Satea Noureddin suggested in the Lebanese daily Assafir.
It will however seize the opportunity to exercise maximum pressure on Damascus, which could embarrass Moscow and Beijing and lead to an extraordinary international consensus that the Arabs could use to get to their objective of ending the bloodshed.
"The crisis is still within Arab boundaries and it can still be resolved among Arabs, although time is running short and the possibility of civil war is getting ever bigger.
"As for the threat that the crisis poses to stability in the region, it is still virtual, limited and doesn't call for tensions or foreign mobilisation, contrary to what the Syrian regime and its allies would have us believe."
The hours leading to the Arab ministerial meeting in Rabat today will gauge the Arabs' readiness to press ahead with isolating and de-legitimising the Syrian authority as well as Syria's preparedness to accept its ousting from the pan-Arab body.
"There are many alternatives to military interference that can be more potent than any no-fly zone or raids on military positions."
* Digest compiled by The Translation Desk | <urn:uuid:4ac4c05f-3b5b-4790-ab92-1566e0d8506b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/full-disclosure-of-egypt-revolution-needed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965707 | 1,123 | 1.8125 | 2 |
An Illustrated Life
by Dick Johnson and Glenn Stout
Buy it from Amazon from Barnes & Noble
In the National League, the Brooklyn Dodgers fought a different kind of pennant race, edging St. Louis in the final week to finish 100-54 and win their first pennant since 1920, creating the first all-New York World Series since 1937.
The Dodgers were a powerful club, paced by hard-hitting first baseman Dolf Camilli, who led the NL in home runs and RBI, and an outfield of Joe Medwick, Dixie Walker, and Pete Reiser, all of whom hit over .300, with Reiser's .343 best in the NL. Their pitching was paced by Kirby Higbe and Whitlow Wyatt, each of whom won 22 games.
Still, the Yankees were 2-to-1 favorites, a betting line that seemed appropriate when New York beat Brooklyn 3-2 before a record crowd of 68,540 fans at Yankee Stadium on October 1 in game one. DiMaggio went hitless, but was robbed by Joe Medwick of a home run in the fourth, as Medwick leaned far over the left-field fence to catch DiMaggio's drive. Joe Gordon was the Yankee hitting star with a home run and two RBI, and Red Ruffing pitched a complete game.
Brooklyn evened the series the next day, winning 3-2 behind Whit Wyatt. DiMaggio again went hitless. He seemed to be embarking on another streak, one somewhat less impressive.
Game three in Brooklyn was scoreless through seven innings. DiMaggio finally came through in the second with a single but was left stranded. Both the Yankees' Marius Russo and the Dodgers' Freddie Fitzsimmons pitched magnificently.
In the Yankee seventh, Russo drove Fitzsimmons from the game with a line drive off the pitcher's left leg that was caught by Pee Wee Reese for the third out. Hugh Casey took over for Brooklyn in the eighth.
Johnny Sturm flied out to center before Red Rolfe singled to right. Henrich then reached on an infield hit when Casey neglected to cover the bag. DiMaggio stepped up with two on.
Casey's gaff proved costly. DiMaggio worked the count to 3 and 2, then drove a single to center, scoring Rolfe. Keller singled home Henrich and the Yankees led 2-0. Brooklyn managed to score once in the bottom of the inning, but Russo held on to put the Yankees up two games to one.
From DiMaggio: An Illustrated Life by Dick Johnson and Glenn Stout.
text Copyright © 1995 by Glenn Stout. Reprinted with permission. | <urn:uuid:f62a39ba-6463-4563-9a6f-f606f87ecd78> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baseballlibrary.com/excerpts/excerpt.php?book=dimaggio_illustrated&page=18 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963919 | 561 | 1.6875 | 2 |
The online retailing giant hasn't been collecting sales taxes from customers in Texas (and in many other states), citing a provision in the law that exempts companies without a physical presence in the state from taking part. The comptroller filed a $269 million tax lien against the company, pointing to a warehouse operation in Irving and saying it should have been collecting and remitting taxes from December 2005 to December 2009.
That's been in dispute for more than a year.
The company said its Irving operation wasn't the sort of presence that triggers sales tax collections. The Legislature changed the law to clarify that -- forcing the company to either close its Texas operations or start collecting the taxes. Amazon offered to open five or six warehouses and create thousands of jobs in return for a four-and-a-half-year moratorium on collecting Texas sales taxes, but that deal fell through during the legislative session.
With the new deal, the company will start collecting sales taxes on July 1.
Both Combs and the company pressed Congress to work on a federal solution that would ease collections of state sales taxes for online sellers like Amazon that operate nationally.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/texas-taxes/budget/amazon-state-settle-sales-tax-fight/. | <urn:uuid:8ce30949-1bf5-4617-981f-3a09764fd706> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bigcountryhomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=493662&nxd_237113_start=15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959396 | 272 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Delayed project finally set to begin
Published: Sunday, January 13, 2013 at 5:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, January 12, 2013 at 3:00 p.m.
When Daytona Beach developer Jack White completed his 24-unit Wall Street Lofts condominium complex in 2006, the success of that project, which quickly sold out, encouraged him to immediately make plans to build a second lofts-style condo project on the corner of that same block.
He told The News-Journal in an interview that year that he expected to begin construction on his proposed seven-story 38-unit complex, dubbed The William, by summer 2007.
Little did he, or anyone else for that matter, know that the nation would soon plunge into the worst economic recession since the Great Depression — one that would last until June 2009, but whose lingering effects continue to be felt today.
That recession forced White and developers everywhere to shelve their plans for new projects, in some cases permanently.
Nearly seven years later, White says he believes his long-delayed project may finally be close to breaking ground — albeit with a new name and somewhat altered concept.
The "William Square" project, on the southeast corner of Palmetto and Magnolia avenues in downtown Daytona Beach, is now slated to be a 15-unit townhouse complex, featuring "brownstone" homes ranging in height from two to four stories, complete with rooftop gardens and parking garages with rear alley entrances.
If all goes as planned, White wrote in an email that construction could begin on William Square this spring.
"We are getting final pricing on the site work and working on financing," he wrote.
CHANGING WITH TIMES
"Since the market changed since 2007, so did our model," White wrote in explaining why he and his partners at White Challis Redevelopment decided to veer away from the original concept, which called for construction of loft-style condos above ground-floor retail.
"We are developing what we now call New Urban Subdivisions," White wrote. "It's a concept where we sell urban lots to home buyers who can build their own unique townhome/brownstone. We already have a buyer who is designing their unit right now."
"What makes this site so unique is the opportunity to build live/work units ... where you can have your own office on the ground floor and live above," he added.
For more information on William Square, visit williamsquare.com/ on the Web.
Adams, Cameron & Co. Realtors, the Volusia-Flagler area's largest real estate brokerage with more than 300 agents and six offices, is preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding in March, said Robert Adams, the Daytona Beach-based company's president and CEO.
"It's going to be a fun day for children and adults at an outdoor venue," said Adams, who added invitations will be sent soon to the company's agents, friends and customers.
The company has not yet announced the date or location for its 50th anniversary gala.
Adams, Cameron was founded in 1963 as Adams Realty by Adams' mother, Helen, who continues to hold the title of company chairwoman.
Other family members involved in the company include Robert Adams' sons John, general manager, and Ryan, a Realtor who specializes in luxury, waterfront homes.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:08264302-6679-4c13-a869-30935e1c90b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20130113/COLUMNS/301119971/1006/columns?Title=Delayed-project-finally-set-to-begin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964589 | 738 | 1.546875 | 2 |
BOOKS DECEMBER 19, 2012
by Daniel Tudor
Tuttle, 336 pp., $22.95
SOUTH KOREA HOLDS its presidential elections today, and given North Korea’s brinkmanship last Wednesday when it launched a surveillance satellite—widely seen as a step toward greater nuclear capability—Americans would be wise to watch.
Though North Korea has reneged on most hopes of reconciliation, the right-of-center frontrunner, Park Geun-hye—the stern daughter of the country’s former strongman dictator, Park Chung-hee—has promised to moderate the current president’s stance toward the North. Park Geun-hye has put forward a foreign policy doctrine that she calls trustpolitik, a plan that will open the door to greater engagement with the North while retaining a degree of toughness. She has said that “unconditional aid”—that is, aid without the stringent conditions usually required by the South—“is fake peace.” With this practical but strict mindset, she may just be able to stitch up relations with the North. Another somewhat hopeful note: she dined with Kim Jong-il in as part of a diplomatic meeting in 2002. A fellow child of politics, Kim Jong-il told her that both of them had to live up to the goals of their great fathers. The left, meanwhile, has thrown its weight behind human rights lawyer Moon Jae-in, a relative political newcomer who was imprisoned in the mid-’70s for his activism against the elder Park. The race is close, and there is much antagonism on either side.
The eccentric meeting of candidates, split between the old right and the scions of the student protest movement, sums up the dramatic and rapid evolution of this 25-year-old democracy. This former anti-communist fiefdom was once poorer on a per-capita basis than Liberia and Zimbabwe; now it is one of the world’s most high-tech and cacophonous democracies. Forty years ago, the opposition candidates would have been sued, jailed, or kidnapped while abroad (as happened to Nobel Peace Prize winner Kim Dae-jung in 1973). It is a nation, writes the British journalist Daniel Tudor in Korea: The Impossible Country, where antiquity and history have outlasted the economic development of today: where shamans meet Samsung, an American-modeled presidential system collides with paternalistic Confucian hierarchies, and a capitalist focal point sits just south of one of the world’s most isolated military regimes.
Readers might assume that Tudor should have labeled the country’s northern neighbor the “impossible” country. (Coincidentally, Victor Cha, a former Bush administration official, recently published a book called The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future.) But Tudor seems to deploy “impossible” as a stand-in for “incredibly unlikely.” South Korea, he writes, has shown the most “impressive story of nation building of the last century.” The “impossible” of the title also has direct bearing on South Koreans’ lives: “This is a country that puts too much pressure on its citizens to conform to impossible standards of education, reputation, physical appearance, and career progress.” He opens the book by pointing out that the “economic miracle” is both a blessing and a curse; while the economic growth led the resource-barren country out of poverty, “genuine contentment largely eludes the people of South Korea, despite all their material success and stability.”
Democracy can come about quickly and with little foresight, Korea: The Impossible Country shows. Throughout most of its history, South Korea was not democratic, even though it has always possessed a fiery tradition of protest against repressive rulers. From 1910 to 1945, the entire peninsula was brutally colonized by Japan; after World War II, leading up to one of the bloodiest civil wars of the twentieth century, it was divided into Soviet and American-backed sectors. In the South, Washington lent its support to a Princeton-educated, autocratic Anglophile named Syngman Rhee. He fled the country in 1960 following protests over a rigged election. A frail parliamentary republic wobbled along for a brief time, until General Park Chung-hee (Park Geun-hye’s father) launched a coup d’etat and set the country on a draconian path toward development. He held sole power until 1979, when he was assassinated by his intelligence chief. A democratic protest movement gained momentum under his military successor, Chun Doo-hwan, and culminated with the first elections held in 1987.
The book also demonstrates that development, like democracy, can take root in a very short period if the entire state is behind it. The South Korea that we know today is the result of a constant self-improving impulse that has dominated the country even amid political turmoil. There is a good chance your television, smart phone, or computer monitor came from South Korea—because, starting in the 1960s, South Korean companies spent decades copying, tinkering with, and improving other countries’ goods. Conglomerates like Samsung benefited from close relationships with the government, allowing them access to easy loans that pushed them into expansion. Samsung has made its mark with the Galaxy, but your Apple iPhone and iPad probably contain a Samsung chipset—the network of chips that makes your device function. Japan is now old news as far as gadgets go; in the mid-2000s, Samsung Electronics overtook Sony in both yearly sales and brand popularity, as measured by the company InterBrand.
Tudor does not shy away from the more oppressive effects of all this forward motion. This culturally ingrained ambition—which he calls a value of striving toward self-perfection—means that pressures run high. Students cram into the night to gain admittance to one of the country’s three elite universities in Seoul (or, as a more prestigious option, get into the Ivy League); The Economist even reports that the South Korean people are the most cosmetically enhanced group in the world. With standards like these, it is understandable why they also have the highest suicide rate of any developed country.
Despite the compelling story of democratic transformation and extraordinarily fast economic development, most Americans are generally oblivious to the general shape and character of the country. Compare that to the global profile Japan earned during its development boom, marked overseas by the prominence of Nintendo, Sony, and anime shows throughout the 1980s and ’90s. Open any newspaper, and it is South Korea’s neighbors that get nearly all the coverage, with the typical taglines: an ascendant China, a pugnacious North Korea, and a culturally stylish but economically stagnant Japan.
But South Korea has enormous strategic importance: some 28,000 American servicemen are stationed there, holding off the North Korean military threat and a rising Chinese one. This year, Seoul slid into the news when a rapper’s music video went viral. But despite a few wrong-headed attempts to find cultural commentary in “Gangnam Style,” illumination of the fascinating country was limited. Tudor has demonstrated that South Korea has far more going on that is worth exploring.
Geoffrey Cain, a freelance writer, formerly covered South Korea for Time. Follow: @geoffrey_cain | <urn:uuid:6a841187-8b36-402d-b86c-7a19ffcc8f94> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newrepublic.com/book/review/shamans-and-samsung-south-koreas-rise | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960766 | 1,541 | 1.765625 | 2 |
MANATEE COUNTY - There are many hidden treasures here on the Suncoast; amazing sights of beauty we may sometimes miss entirely unless someone points them out for us – like St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church on Lockwood Ridge Road at Tallevast Road.
Experts say the Greek Orthodox church in Tarpon Springs may be more historic than St. Barbara, but St. Barbara is by far the most beautiful around. It'll be open for public tours this weekend.
Outside St. Barbara doesn't look unusual. But step inside, and look up.
Every Greek Orthodox church has a dome. "In the main dome of the church you always have Jesus Christ represented. You don't have to look up, you know Christ is watching over us," says Rev. Father John Bociu.
This dome is spectacular and huge. Jesus' face is more than 6 feet tall.
Every Greek Orthodox church also has icons...sacred depictions of holy figures. Those at St. Barbara are special. The icon of the Virgin Mary is a mosaic made of tiny pieces of colored stone.
You'll also see a lot of gold there. "In using the gold we want to represent the richness of the kingdom of God."
375 families make up the congregation. The first Greek settlers came to Sarasota at the end of the 19th century from Tarpon Springs, and the Rev. Father says to preserve their way of life and their heritage, they established St. Barbara in 1976.
Parishioners say the life of their community revolves around this church. "It’s integrated into the way we're brought up…the culture, the customs, the language, the religions...it’s all part of us," says Paree Gardner.
Some members of the congregation immigrated here from Greece, others are 2nd and 3rd generation, some are new -- like Constantine Kontonickas and his wife, who chose to move here because of this church. "The church is both a cultural and spiritual anchor in both our lives, and probably if this church had not been here we would have sought out another town that had a Greek Orthodox church in it."
There will be tours of the church during the Greek Glendi Festival this weekend. Don't miss this opportunity to see something truly beautiful. The glendi also features authentic Greek food, dancing, games, arts and crafts. | <urn:uuid:cd34a48c-44d8-4105-80d1-e384dfd9488d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mysuncoast.com/news/manatee_newsroom/hidden-treasures-st-barbara-greek-orthodox-church/article_9854a338-6f39-11e2-9069-001a4bcf6878.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970125 | 491 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The RCIA Process
--by Vickie Shepherd
The RCIA Process
There have been a few requests to address some of the customs, traditions and customs of the Catholic faith and Church. Since this is a part of our lives each and every day, I felt compelled to touch on some of the subjects that seem to be requested most often in our parish. As I might have mentioned before, we have a wonderful person in our parish who continues to meet with our group after Pentecost. She offers our newest members a chance to explore their newfound faith and helps them to discover a part of their lives that was missing or needing revitalization. The first practice or tradition of the Catholic Church I will touch on is the Rosary. This is a tradition that has been embraced by the faithful for centuries. I hope to help you understand more about the Rosary and why this devotion is so important to our Catholic faith.
Rosary: meaning crown of roses.
It is believed that each time the rosary is recited devoutly, crowns of heavenly roses are placed on the heads of Mary and Jesus. The crown contains 153 white and 16 white roses. Mary has approved the name of the rosary, referring to each ‘Hail Mary’ as a rose presented to her. It is said that when Mary is present, the scent of roses permeates the atmosphere around her.
The rosary has taken on many forms in the past and still does. The most popular form that is used universally is the five-decade rosary. Mary presented the rosary to St. Dominic, in an apparition. The story is as follows.
The year was 1214, and St. Dominic had been praying incessantly for a particular group of people. He felt his intercessions for salvation went unanswered by God -- so he continued to pray and do brutal forms of penance to gain His attention. St. Dominic was so intent on his mission that he continued to pray and fast, he began to grow physically weak and fell into a coma.
While in his coma, Mary and three angels appeared to St. Dominic and presented him with the rosary. She conveyed this message to him from the Triune Godhead: “ The weapon you are to use in this struggle is (and always has been) the ‘Angelic Psalter’. This prayer is the foundation of the New Testament. In the event you reach these sinners and win them over to Me, preach the ‘Angelic Psalter’”.
St. Dominic rose immediately, on fire with the ‘knowledge’ that had been given to him and he headed for the Cathedral. As he approached the Church, unseen angels rang the bells to summon the townspeople. He directly began to preach as Mary had instructed, and as he spoke an intense storm broke out. The earth began to quake, the sun was blotted out, and thunder and lightening encompassed them. The people looked on as a prominent picture of the Blessed Mother began to come to life. She raised her arms to the heavens three times to call down the wrath of God. She informed them that if they continued to ignore their call to conversion they would suffer the consequences. God revealed to them that they should show their devotion through the prayers of the Holy Rosary.
St. Dominic enthusiastically preached and taught the townspeople the importance of praying the rosary. Finally most of the people Dominic had prayed for, embraced the practice of meditating on the prayers of the rosary. They were eager to renounce their former sinfulness and live out the promises of a Christian lifestyle.
St. Dominic was inspired through the power of the Holy Spirit to continue preaching the promises of the rosary and the importance of meditating on the mysteries, throughout his lifetime. He would pray the rosary in preparation for each of his sermons and before Mary would visit him after each assembly of the faithful.
©Copyright 2000 Vickie Shepherd all rights reserved.
No portion of this article or web page may
be used without written permission from the author.
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You want heritage? Meath has heritage. The Royal County was the former seat of the High Kings of Ireland; offered up the 12th-century Trim Castle as a key location in Mel Gibson’s epic movie, Braveheart; and is home to a Unesco World Heritage site (one of only two in Ireland) at Brú na Bóinne.
Brú na Bóinne is where you’ll find the Neolithic passage tombs at Knowth, Dowth and Newgrange, together with an interpretative centre. Newgrange is the best known of the trio, famous for the spectacular shaft of light that spills through its roof-box every year at winter solstice.
Amazingly, this alignment, which coaxes the sunlight 19 metres into the heart of the chamber, was engineered some 5,000 years ago. How can you see the alignment? Lady Luck has the answer. A lottery system gives ordinary folk a chance to be present in the corbelled chamber on the days around 21 December.
But don’t worry – all visitors are treated to a simulation.
Horses for courses
Perhaps it’s the heft it gets from all that heritage, but Meath does “old-school” very well indeed. Rivers such as the Boyne, the Blackwater and the Deel, together with the Royal Canal are havens for the angler, while its flat, rich pastureland is perfect fodder for the horses that are so successfully bred and raced there.
Once a year that racing tradition extends to the sandy stretches of Laytown Strand for the spectacle race meet. Europe’s only officially approved beach racing has been thronged since it was first staged in 1868.
Its unique, heady atmosphere means it’s a magnet for horse lovers and the curious alike.
Running up those hills
Meath’s history is laced with hidden surprises...and lots of hills.
You may know that monster rock acts like U2, REM, Bruce Springsteen and Queen have played Slane Castle, for instance, but did you know Ireland’s great liberator, Daniel O’Connell, once spoke before a rally of one million people at the Hill of Tara?
Or that another historic hill, the Hill of Ward, was where the Celtic festival of Halloween (Samhain) was first celebrated?
At the nearby Loughcrew Cairns (mound of stones), local folklore dubs the hills the Mountain of the Sorceress, after a witch who believed she would become mistress of all Ireland if she could leap from hill to hill while carrying an apron full of rocks.
Legend has it that she failed, rather like the ancient sun worshippers who once used the stones in their rituals…
This is Ireland after all – even centuries of prayers won’t guarantee sunshine. | <urn:uuid:330d2433-8f4c-4860-abb5-25056e6ac8b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ireland.com/destinations/articles/meath | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948024 | 595 | 1.75 | 2 |
Kirk Douglas Theatre’s production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Phylicia Rashad, is a wonderful, masterful theatrical event not to be missed!
Georja: When you have a piece such as Raisin, you can see why it is a classic – the depth of character and the sociological portrait of a time. Oh yes, then there are the spiritual and human values played out before our eyes. This is what theater is all about. And in this case, you leave the theater with your head held high, knowing that the triumph of spirit of these characters is a potential in us all.
Gerald: Raisin has been incredibly popular for decades, having been made into three films, a musical, and with countless stage performances, including a Broadway revival. This is razor-tongued verbal mayhem, fast-paced and tightly cued, reminiscent of the edgy family and working-class political dramas of Clifford Odets during the Great Depression.
Georja: Raisin is set in Chicago in the early '50s and centers on a black family of meager means, the Youngers, who are in the process of inheriting a $10,000 life insurance benefit due to the death of grandfather Walter. The money goes to his wife, Lena (Kim Staunton), the matriarch. Her dream is to buy a house, but other family members have strong hopes and dreams revolving around the spending of the windfall. Her son Walter Lee (Kevin T. Carroll) wants to invest in a business, and her daughter Beneatha (Kenya Alexander) wants to go to medical school.
Gerald: Historically, this postwar period was an economic boom, but many people got left behind. Still others got ahead only after struggle and grief, breaking out of the ghetto only to find new and different barriers of prejudice and discrimination. The desperate sense of economic hardship seems sharply relevant today. There are the familiar notions here that a sudden windfall could solve everything, and that a single bad investment could totally wipe you out. (In the early 1940s, Hansberry's own family was involved in a lawsuit in Chicago involving housing discrimination.)
Georja: Phylicia Rashad is an accomplished, award winning theater actress, best remembered for her role as the lovable wife of Bill on The Cosby Show. She has put all her many talents into the casting and directing of this production. The performances were very well modulated. There are no weak links in the ensemble, and every one of them excelled and brought a rich life to their characters.
Gerald: When Raisin was revived on Broadway in 2004, Rashad played the Lena role, and that experience informs her masterful direction this time around.
Georja: Kim Staunton rules as the wise and engaging grandmother Lena Younger. Kevin T. Carroll hits it out of the park with his riveting portrayal of the mercurial Walter Lee. His powerful performance is worth the price of admission. Brandon David Brown is adorable as his young son Travis, and Diedrie Henry does not miss a beat as the dutiful and pregnant wife Ruth. Kenya Alexandra is a sassy and saucy Beneatha, who is fun to watch, and her two beaux are very well drawn by Amad Jackson as Joseph Asagai, a very inspirational Nigerian admirer, and Jason Dirden as George, her more uptight conservative boyfriend. These roles would be easy to become stereotypes, but the actors made them their own and let their own souls come through. Scott Mosenson had the unlikeable role of Mr. Karl Linder, the bringer of bad news and racism to the family, and he managed to pull it off with grace and humor while not going over the top.
Gerald: Carroll's performance in particular was very rich. His character's range of actions and emotions go from despicable to admirable, and he has your attention through it all, without ever completely losing your sympathy. And Mosenson would make a fine mortician - I mean that in the best way! And Ellis E. Williams is a soulful and solid, but hardly solvent, friend to Walter Lee, as the sorrowful Bobo. Brandon David Brown, who played young Travis, is a trouper in the making!
Georja: The themes are familiar and have been explored in many works: the difficulties of African-Americans to fulfill themselves as minorities in our society. The play takes place sixty years ago, and yet unfortunately today there are still many instances of the same old problems and prejudices affecting peoples’ lives. Like other great classic works it shows that what is old is still relevant today. The Center Theatre Group is simultaneously producing the Pulitzer-prize winning play Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris at the Mark Taper Forum, a play which takes place fifty years after A Raisin in the Sun and continues the conversation. The audience is strongly encouraged to see both (Raisin, first, if possible), and we are looking forward to doing just that.
Gerald: This play hits home, and it's not just about race. These days, even if you're coping financially, lots of people are anxious and insecure. We're all raisins afraid we could shrivel in the sun.
Georja: If you are a theater lover, you must go to see Raisin, and if you don’t see much theater, this is one to check out.
Photos by Craig Schwartz
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
January 19 - February 19, 2012 (Tuesday - Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2 and 8pm, Sunday at 1 and 6:30pm, no performance Mondays)
THE KIRK DOUGLAS THEATRE
9820 Washington Bl.
Culver City, CA 90232
(213) 628 2772 (Audience Services)
In-person sales are available at CTG Music Center downtown, as well as at Kirk Douglas box office 2 hours prior to performances.
Ticket prices $20 - 50 (Ticket prices are subject to change.) | <urn:uuid:34377217-346c-40d1-8d1c-58a17eb78bee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lasplash.com/publish/Los_Angeles_Performances_116/kirk-douglas-a-raisin-in-the-sun-review.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96796 | 1,268 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Issa: Obama administration conducted propaganda campaigns for agenda
posted at 8:45 am on August 16, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, will release a report today that claims that the Obama administration has created propaganda using federal funds to promote the agenda of Barack Obama and the Democrats. The charges would violate laws intended to separate politics from governance, which if substantiated would create a big problem for President Obama — assuming Congress wants to take this up as an issue. The report’s summary lays out the charges clearly:
Since the beginning of the Obama Administration on January 20, 2009, ordinary Americans have financed and been exposed to an unprecedented number of public relations and propaganda efforts. Federal spending for public relations contracts rose to historically-high levels during the Bush Administration. Under one-party rule in 2009, the White House used the machinery of the Obama campaign to tout the President’s agenda through inappropriate and sometimes unlawful public relations and propaganda initiatives. Congress buoyed the Administration’s propaganda efforts by increasing federal spending on public relations for the first time since 2005.
The Obama Administration frequently used federal resources to promote the President’s agenda. In many cases, the Administration relied on the reach and resources of federal agencies and their personnel to promote certain of the President’s favorite programs. The White House also leveraged ties to the arts and entertainment community to embed propaganda in the content of television programming and artwork. These propaganda efforts violated appropriations riders and federal law prohibiting the use of appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda purposes.
The White House also used its inherent visibility advantages to multiply the effectiveness of websites containing misleading and controversial information. The White House used its resources to push visitors to websites that urge grassroots activism based on false and misleading information. The President’s right to sell his policy recommendations to Congress and the public is not disputed; however, using the resources of the federal government to activate a sophisticated propaganda and lobbying campaign is an abuse of office and a betrayal of the President’s pledge to create “an unprecedented level of openness in Government.”
Instead of facilitating openness, the public relations and propaganda activities of the White House have had precisely the opposite effect. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has historically deemed activities involving “covert propaganda” to be unlawful. In those cases, the source of the public relations or propaganda materials did not disclose his or her identity as a federal employee or contractor. Many of the Obama Administration’s propaganda activities are unlawful because they are covert. Furthermore, several programs closely resemble those decried by Democrats and ruled unlawful by GAO during the Bush Administration.
This report examines several of the most visible public relations and propaganda efforts during the first year of the Obama Administration. Viewed collectively, these activities reveal an Administration better suited to campaign-style self-promotion than to providing transparent and honest leadership.
Issa’s report looks at past propaganda from Republican and Democratic administrations, including those of Ronald Reagan, FDR, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, and concludes that the scope of Obama’s efforts far outstrip anything seen in modern administrations. He starts with the NEA controversy, which blew up last year and ended with Yosi Sargent’s resignation as NEA Communications Director. But Issa doesn’t stop there; he also specifies charges of propaganda from the Department of Justice:
In October 2008, the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs (OPA) added Tracy Russo to direct the Department’s “new media efforts.” Russo, the Chief Blogger and Deputy Director of Online Communications for the John Edwards for President Campaign,58 was given the title “New Media Specialist.”59 Since October, Russo has served as the author of the Justice Department’s official blog.60
Shortly after Russo was hired, reports surfaced that indicated she was covertly attempting to shape public opinion by searching online for articles, blogs or other entries critical of the Administration and then anonymously, or through the use of a pseudonym, posting comments to those sites attacking the author or contents.61
The blogging and campaign communities refer to this propaganda tactic as “astroturfing.”62 Astroturfing is the action of using fake and anonymous postings on message boards and blogs to push a point of view or to create the appearance of grassroots support for a particular agenda.63
On that score, the problem may be more of a waste of taxpayer funds than propaganda, although clearly this would qualify as both. Bloggers and blog readers know what a ridiculous exercise this would be in any event. It would have been better to build relationships with sympathetic bloggers and feed them information for rebuttals rather than spend time entering comments that front-page-only readers would be unlikely to ever read.
Issa also specifies an effort at the Department of Education to turn DoE workers into shills for the White House:
On the morning of April 24, 2009, U.S. Department of Education (DoEd) Deputy Assistant Secretary for External Affairs and Outreach Massie Ritsch distributed an e-mail to colleagues notifying them of President Obama’s intention to promote his Direct Loan student financial aid program during a meeting later that day. Ritsch explained the rationale for the President’s timing by noting that Congress was beginning to work to resolve differences between House and Senate versions of the Fiscal Year 2010 Concurrent Budget Resolution.
The stated purpose of the e-mail was to help recipients “communicate the merits of the President’s proposal with your members and other audiences….” To help recipients do so, Ritsch attached a two-page white paper to the body of the e-mail message. The document included promotional information highlighting DoEd’s reasons for supporting the President’s plan.
Ritsch’s “colleagues,” to whom the message was sent, are not identified. The information provided to them by Ritsch includes eight bullet points, each touting the President’s direct federal student loan plan. Ritsch tells recipients to tell their “members and other audiences” that the President is “trying to eliminate a wasteful program that only benefits the banking industry” and that the President’s plan “will help the middle class, stimulate our economy over the long term and provide an appropriately trained workforce for essential public-service industries.”
That wasn’t entirely unusual for this administration, Issa claims, because the Obama White House has repeatedly attempted to use its connection to the federal bureaucracy in an attempt to transform them into political activists for Obama’s big-government agenda:
In March 2010, media reports surfaced that revealed White House Office for Health Reform Director Nancy-Ann DeParle sent overtly partisan, unsolicited health reform e-mails to career civil servants in Executive Branch agencies. The DeParle e-mails were not transmitted by the ordinary official White House staff e-mail handle “who.eop.gov” but through the mass mailing handle “messages.whitehouse.gov.”
At least three emails were objectionable: 1) an e-mail dated March 11, 2010 that begins with the line: “625 – that’s the number who lost health insurance every hour in 2009;” 2) an e-mail dated March 12, 2010 railing against the perils of “do[ing] nothing to reform our broken health care system;” and 3) a March 16, 2010, e-mail subject line: “There but for the grace of God go any one of us.”66
These e-mails implored recipients to “help raise awareness by sharing this e-mail with your friends, family and online networks.”67 According to one report posted online by CBS News.com, several career federal employees at the U.S. Department of State received these e-mails and believed they required them to take some sort of action to further the President’s agenda.68 DeParle’s e-mails featured raw partisan rhetoric in an apparent attempt to stoke the fears of recipients.
Bob Owens at Pajamas Media notes that the worst of it comes from the use of Obama’s campaign website for official business:
The worst abuse of propaganda is directly connected to the White House. BarackObama.com, run by the Democratic National Committee, has been featured during the president’s speeches. It has been used by the administration and the DNC as a mechanism to lobby Congress, again apparently illegally, and to use the president’s high profile to solicit funds for the DNC as part of what has been mocked by some as the president’s “permanent campaign.” Additional efforts by First Lady Michelle Obama, detailed in the report’s reporting on the “iParticipate” initiative, find that the administration skirted the Hatch Act and and federal anti-lobbying laws by using Mrs. Obama to support the presidents social and health care agendas with $240 million worth of free advertising.
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s report contains enough information to warrant an official investigation of inappropriate and sometimes unlawful use of propaganda by the Obama administration. A committee spokesman indicates that they will be requesting a GAO investigation of the report’s findings.
Democrats could block that request — but probably not for long. If the Democrats lose control of the House, Issa will hold the chair of the Oversight Committee and will have subpoena power. He then will also have the ability to ask for a formal GAO investigation of the White House’s activities in politicking rather than governing, and that will put a dent in Obama’s allegedly-illegal reach for his re-election campaign. It’s one of the ways that losing these midterms will mean difficult days ahead for this administration, which will be entirely self-inflicted.
Breaking on Hot Air | <urn:uuid:95cf37a8-e655-4692-9878-803a876f11df> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hotair.com/archives/2010/08/16/issa-obama-administration-conducted-propaganda-campaigns-for-agenda/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951905 | 2,066 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Which ones do you most want to recommend?
You could do a top 10, a top 3, or whatever you like. Tangentially political is fine: To Kill a Mockingbird, or Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, e.g., as long as the value you're seeing in it is political.
Here's my 12 (!) Top Ten political books:
Lies My Teacher Told Me: how everything you learned in public school about American history is wrong. Told me things I surely didn't know. What was the War of 1812 about? When did the first slaves cross the Atlantic? What was the number one budget item in Pres. Washington's administration?
How Civilizations Die (And Why Islam Is Dying Too), David Goldman. Fear not the hordes of Islamic terrorists (or Islamic non-terrorists) outpopulating and conquering us; fear the instability in the region as they give up hope and enter demographic and economic collapse. Egypt first.
Destiny Disrupted. How Moslems view world history.
America Alone/After America. Wag Mark Steyn details how first Europe, and now America, have decided to give up freedom and prosperity for infighting and bureaucracy.
Infidel. The life story of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali woman raised as a devout Muslim, who fled a forced marriage to the Netherlands, became a citizen, then an MP (!), and then found that her friend Theo van Gogh was murdered with a note stabbed into his chest that said, basically, "Ayaan Hirsi Ali, you're next."
The Enemy Within. Dinesh D'Souza argues that the failings of the American left and right render us incapable of not pushing peaceful Moslems toward support for terrorists.
The Roots of Obama's Rage. D'Souza uses Dreams from My Father and Obama's history to show the influence of Obama Sr. on Obama's political plans.
Rules for Radicals. Self-proclaimed 60's radical Saul Alinksy shows how to effectively push for what you want, with tactics I now see from both sides of the aisle.
The Fourth Turning. Cycles in US history, especially the last one starting around 1945, that lead to crisis, resolution, and change -- and how they affect the character of the generations within them.
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. Using examples from the US, Mexico, Ethiopia, Argentina, the Dutch East Indies, and southern Africa, this book shows how successful economies are built or prevented -- and makes the interesting claim that our freedom is partly the accident that when colonies like Virginia got started, it was easy for the oppressed to run away.
Economics in One Lesson. Why all economic policies cost money, including the ones that are supposed to make us rich.
Agreed with your first, really enjoyed Lies My Teacher Told Me
For me a lot of them are on the other end of the political spectrum and usually involve more humor.
Enjoyed most of Frankin's books, like Lieing Liars as well as Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot
Years and years ago I picked up for dirt cheap a great one from James Carville called Fighting Back
Also the New Rules books from Bill Maher both humor and some good insights.
Created Equal: Why Gay Rights Matter to America. Makes the case I shouldn't have to beg others for my rights. Opened my eyes.
The Cross in the Closet. Straight conservative man who lived a year pretending to be a gay man to learn empathy. It transformed him as a man and as a Christian.
Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians and Gays in Black
Churches. Shows the hypocrisy of the black church with it's displays of homophobia.
Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin. The gay man behind Martin Luther King that history tried to wipe out.
End the Fed by Ron Paul
The Constitution in Exile by Judge Andrew Napolitano
A Patriots history of the United States by Larry Schweikart
Liberty Defined by Ron Paul
Also a lot of war books, such as Lone Survivor, No Easy Day, American Sniper, Marine Sniper, Outlaw Platoon, they are very informative about foreign policy and military engagements overseas
Most of the political reading I've done is for college. So most of the members of my list I will only have read in part, and they will also be well-known to you all.
"Is There a Duty to Obey the Law" co-authored by Christopher Wellman and A. John Simmons. Wellman's 'Samaritan' theory for legitmate state coercion interests me. Simmons' scholarship impresses me, but I found his 'philosophical anarchism' unpersuasive.
"The Federalist Papers" by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay. The essays are both historically significant and philosophically weighty. These men were geniuses
"Leviathan" by Thomas Hobbes. A few things I enjoyed about reading Hobbes were his clarity and his occasional humor. One portion of Leviathan that made me chuckle was his argument for the equality of mental capacities. He states something to the effect that there is no better sign of an equal distrubtion among persons than each being content with his own share, suggesting that men tend to think of themselves as being just so smart. Also, reading Hobbes (or at least those most famous portions) was helpful in having a richer understanding of the Federalist Papers. I was able to read a definite Hobbesian strain into Publius, particularly those essays attributed to Hamilton.
"Two Treatises of Government" by John Locke. Here's an important work. I don't think anyone could understand the theorectical underpinnings of the Declaration aright without having read this first. I think Locke's theory paints a rosier picture of human nature and restrains more the power of government than does Hobbes. Also, inherent natural rights is much more appealing than rights by convention. These ideas, along with our liberal heritage, make Locke's theory teneble to modern readers. So, it's not suprising to see Locke invoked in political arguments still, though perhaps a little ironically given the rise of natuaralism. I wonder how it is that naturalists can account for natural rights? I'll have to ask my atheist libertarian friend where he thinks his rights come from.
I might add more later.
PJ O'Rourke: On the Wealth of Nations (gives a good overview of Smith's famous book)
PJ O'Rourke: Don't Vote, It just encourages the bastards (good look into American politics without taking itself too serious)
I have not read enough political books to comment fully I think. | <urn:uuid:37e4c085-30ae-47e9-a3b8-211ff2ffe70a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://community.artofmanliness.com/group/thebiblicalparadigm/forum/topics/political-books | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954553 | 1,409 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Tip: How to put your iPhone or iPad into DFU mode
Interested in Jailbreak or having trouble updating to the latest iOS release and need to put your iPhone or iPad into DFU (Device Firmware Update) mode? Some Jailbreaks don't do this automatically, you're often required to do it to downgrade your iOS, and sometimes iTunes gives your errors when trying to update from beta or GM firmware to final release. While DFU mode is straight forward it can also be a little tricky. We'll go over the steps after the break.
(And yes, we really should have made this for Georgia before last week's iPhone Live! podcast. Our bad...!)
DFU mode as opposed to Recovery Mode, requires a bit of timing and can take practice so if at first you don't succeed, don't be afraid to keep trying.
- Plug your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad into your Mac or Windows PC and make sure iTunes is running.
- Hold down both the Sleep Button (on top of your device) and the Home Button (on the front underneath the screen).
- Keep them both held down from about 10 seconds. (If you see the Apple logo, you've held them too long and will need to start again.)
- Let go of the Sleep Button but keep holding the Home Button for about 5 seconds. (If you see the "Plus into iTunes" screen than you held it too long and will need to start again.)
- If the screen stays black, that's it! Your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad should now be in DFU mode.
At this point your Jailbreak should take over, or iTunes should be showing you an alert saying it's detected your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and it needs to be restored.
If you're curious as to the difference between DFU mode and and Recovery Mode, our own Ally Kazmucha explains:
Recovery mode will implement iBoot (basically a portion of the bootloader than runs an integrity check) which will not allow you to downgrade your device. DFU mode will still talk to iTunes but it bypasses iBoot which will then allow you to downgrade firmware.
If you're having trouble and need any extra help, check out our Jailbreak Forum.
Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you'd like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to [email protected]. (If it's especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we'll even give ya a reward...) | <urn:uuid:cd36aefa-6429-497b-bb49-bb07db6ddb6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imore.com/comment/164192 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949679 | 558 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Florida's unemployment rate rose slightly to 8.8 percent in July, as the state lost about 3,300 jobs, according to data released Friday.
The statewide rate represents about 816,000 people out of a labor force of about 9.3 million. It was two-tenths of a percentage point higher than June's rate of 8.6 percent.
"We're still just bumping along," said Rollins College economist Bill Seyfried. "The July report is weak."
In Metro Orlando, the jobless rate climbed to 9.1 percent – up from 8.8 percent in June – as growth in the local labor pool outpaced the creation of new jobs. State figures show the region added about 2,000 new positions month-over-month, while the labor force grew by about 6,200 people.
Compared with the same time last year, the Orlando metro area has added 10,200 jobs, the second biggest increase in the state. Tampa-St. Petersburg posted the best year-over-year growth, with 20,500 new jobs.
The labor market has spun its wheels recently after several months in which the jobless rate declined. Unemployment fell to 8.6 percent in May and remained stuck there in June before heading back up a bit in July.
Gov. Rick Scott on Friday downplayed the month-to-month changes, highlighting instead progress made in the past year. In July 2011, statewide unemployment stood at 10.6 percent.
In a statement, Scott pointed out that Florida has seen year-over-year job growth for 24 months in a row. Since Scott became governor, Florida has added almost 131,000 private-sector jobs.
"While the unemployment rate can vary month to month," the statement said, "Florida continues to see positive private-sector job growth."
While true, the impact that growth has had on the state unemployment rate has been exaggerated by a shrinking labor market, experts say. When people stop looking for work, they are no longer considered unemployed, so they are not factored into the jobless rate.
Moreover, private-sector job growth in 2012 has been relatively modest and offset by public-sector layoffs. Seyfried said Florida has added about 7,800 private-sector jobs so far this year while cutting about 9,600 government positions.
The bulk of the private-sector growth cited by Scott occurred last year, said University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith. This year, the labor market has sputtered as the national recovery slowed.
"Things really decelerated at the national level," Snaith said. "That's hurt an already struggling market here."
Friday's report showed the industry gaining the most jobs over the year was professional and business services, up 41,600 jobs or 4 percent. Leisure and hospitality, which accounts for about 21 percent of all jobs in Metro Orlando, gained almost 15,000 jobs over the year.
The construction sector continues to suffer, shedding 16,900 jobs over the year. Government jobs have declined by 10,700 in the past year, a drop of 1 percent.
[email protected] or 407-420-5379 | <urn:uuid:b5e06686-af82-422a-a91c-93c6ae3eec15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-08-17/news/os-unemployment-florida-july-20120817_1_florida-unemployment-unemployment-rate-statewide-unemployment | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96819 | 656 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged afghanistan, bluegrass, culture, folk music, gary green, hindu kush, music, musician, peyton tochterman, Radoslav Lorkovic, Utne on July 19, 2012 |
3 Comments »
The bimonthly magazine called the Utne Reader likes to showcase alternative and contrarian views on the news. Here’s a sort of hands-across-the world story about taking bluegrass music to Afghanistan.
“My name is Peyton Tochterman. I’m a musician from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I make my living writing, teaching and performing American Folk music—the music that tells stories in notes, chords and verse about who we are and what we Americans are all about. And I’m now in war-torn Afghanistan. …
“In little more than a week we have already met thousands of Afghans and found them to be kind, generous, hospitable, talented and honorable. They take great pride in their heritage and culture, but they also have a thirst for American Folk Music, for the stories we tell, our instruments and the way we play. The Afghan musicians with whom we played are some of the best in the world and were eager to share their masterful techniques and songs.
“Some might ask, ‘What difference can a folk singer from the Blue Ridge Mountains make in a tortured place like Afghanistan?’ It’s a valid question—partly answered by one of the State Department officers who said our visit did ‘more for diplomacy between Afghanistan and the United States than any diplomat had done, more then any road that was built, or any power plant that was constructed in the last year.’ ” Read more.
Photograph of Peyton Tochterman: The Utne Reader
Read Full Post »
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged ahmadinejad, arab spring, Good Men Project magazine, green revolution, iran election, israeli, jerusalem, June 20 2009, noam galai, photo, photographer, photography, Rachel Kadish, Utne, Utne Reader on November 28, 2011 |
2 Comments »
My sister buys a subscription to the Utne Reader even though you can read much of it online. She loves the variety of articles it reprints and thinks she should support the effort.
At Thanksgiving she told us about an article Rachel Kadish wrote that originally appeared in The Good Men Project Magazine. It’s about Kadish’s Israeli cousin, Noam Galai, and a photo he took of himself screaming up at the sky. It’s about how the photo struck a chord with Iranians and with Arabs working to overthrow oppressive regimes and how they used the photo widely, knowing nothing about the photographer.
Rachel Kadish writes that people originally lifted the photo from Flickr, and soon it went viral. “Shortly after Noam began investigating the spread of his scream photograph around the globe, he discovered something completely unexpected. Images of his face were turning up graffitied on walls in Tehran. In Tabriz City.
“His portrait, it turned out, had been picked up by some antigovernment protesters in Iran. In the year following the Green Movement’s first open clashes with Ahmadinejad’s government—a violent [June 2009] confrontation watched anxiously by the world—images of Noam’s face were reproduced by activist graffiti artists, sometimes veiled in red-painted blood. His anonymous face was rendered by anonymous Iranians on metal fuse-boxes and walls, alone or amid a crowd of other spray-painted images: part of a mute but vociferous message dangerous to utter aloud. …
“When Noam learned that his self-portrait was being used by anti-Ahmadinejad protesters, he emailed some of the Iranian graffiti artists through Flickr, where they’d posted images of their work under aliases.
“ ‘I told them, “It’s me. It’s cool. I’ll be happy to see more of what you do.’ ” ‘
“One of the Iranian graffiti artists wrote back. It was a two-line exchange.
“ ‘He was cool,’ Noam said. ‘He was “Nice to meet you, I like your picture.” I didn’t tell him I’m from Jerusalem.’ ”
Read Full Post » | <urn:uuid:fb5fba44-ea08-4c99-bb97-440bc6ec6a3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://suzannesmomsblog.com/tag/utne/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965051 | 945 | 1.796875 | 2 |
I have been watching closely as President Obama reviews NCLB and makes revisions. The part I am particularly concerned about is Title 1 as it relates to parental involvement. So far, he has left it alone and I am hopeful that he will continue to be hands off, because it has several components that could actually give schools some help in making a difference in increasing parental involvement.
ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS (for NCLB accountability purposes, charter schools are treated like all other public schools, as they are public schools) are required to have Title I services that include meaningful parental involvement policies (agreed upon by a parental advisory group) and school practices that lead to increased student achievement. I personally believe that development of parental advisory groups are important in urban (inner city) schools, because middle class parents are usually in governance roles (e.g. PTO), even though the larger population is low-income parents, who for what ever reason, are more than likely not inclined to be members of a school's PTO.
State: Channing violates federal parental involvement law
ELGIN — Channing Memorial Elementary School in Elgin is in violation of the parent involvement requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
ISBE’s findings were presented to the Elgin School District U46 Board of Education by Channing parent Krista Badani at Monday night’s regular board meeting.
They joined the U46 Citizens Advisory Council’s Committee for Family and Community Engagement; spoke to the district’s director of communication, chief of family and community engagement and school board; and sent emails and copies of Title I requirements for parent involvement to Gonzalez and U46 Superintendent Jose Torres. They also met with officials from the Kane County Regional Office of Education and sought guidance from ISBE, according to Badani.
“What astounds us most is that even when parents follow protocol and the chain of command, remain polite, and bring forth data and evidence of wrongdoing, this administration and the school board continue to fail by their inaction. … Somehow along the way, the administration has forgotten that this is about what is best for the children and families at Channing, the lowest-performing school in the district,” she said.
Knew about concerns - Torres admitted Monday, “We had heard concerns about Title I parent involvement. We believed they had been addressed.”
No Child Left Behind makes Title I funding available to provide supplemental instructional services for specific students — or entire schools — who have been identified as failing, or most at risk of failing, to met state standards, according to the ISBE website.
30-day deadline - Those findings give the school and district 30 days to ensure parents are part of the school support team, develop a written parental involvement policy with parents and revise its parent-school compact to include input from parents. The document also gives U46 three months to prove a Title I meeting was held at the school and that parents were involved. | <urn:uuid:40074e3d-bad0-41c7-8a5b-c97b2567843d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://emergepeoria.blogspot.jp/search/label/Elgin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973772 | 618 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Bank of America this week announced it is severely cutting back sales of loans to Fannie Mae. The move is part of Bank of America's (BAC) ongoing efforts to undo the damage of its ill-fated acquisition of Countrywide Financial in 2008, but could have broader implications if other big banks follow suit.
To date, Bank of America has paid Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac $2.6 billion to settle demands from the GSEs that the bank buy back mortgages that have gone sour, or were wrongly underwritten. Bank of America cited "ongoing differences" with Fannie Mae over these repurchase claims as a rationale for severely curtailing its dealings with Fannie. In December, the bank underwrote just $3.5 billion of loans backed by Fannie, Freddie or Ginnie Mae vs. $21.9 billion in December 2010, The WSJ reports.
The practical implications of this decision is it will be harder for consumers to get a home loan from Bank of America, which has already stopped buying loans from third-party mortgage lenders. Citigroup is moving in the same direction, according to a source in the mortgage industry. While other banks -- like Wells Fargo (WFC), Sun Trust (STI), BB&T (BBT) and US Bancorp (USB)-- are stepping into the void, the decisions by BofA and Citi (C) are exacerbating the problems many Americans are having trying to secure a loan, even those with good credit scores and money for down payments. (See: Getting a Mortgage Shouldn't Be This Hard: Housing Finance Gets 'Taken to Task')
In Search of...Life Beyond Fannie & Freddie
By ending its activity in the so-called correspondent lending channel, Bank of America is effectively saying it will only underwrite mortgages that are originated in house. By stopping the sale of most loans to Fannie, the bank will either be forced to hold those loans in its portfolio or seek an alternative buyer.
Since 2008, the private secondary market for mortgage loans has effectively dried up. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA and other government-sponsored enterprises back more than 90% of all home loans originated since the crisis.
Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner laid out a plan to significantly reduce the government's role in the mortgage market, based on three options, as The NY Times reports:
- Eliminate any government guarantee for middle-class mortgages.
- The government would only back loans during times of financial distress.
- The government still would only guarantee mortgages if lenders first purchase a guarantee from a private insurer.
Bank of America's decision to stop selling loans to Fannie appears to be the case of one firm being fed up dealing with Uncle Sam's minions and the story may end here. Still, BofA may have unwittingly opened the window to a fourth, private-sector solution.
If Bank of America is able to successfully originate loans and find a private secondary market to sell them into, other banks may want of a piece of the action too. Private firms like Goldman Sachs (GS), as well as hedge fund and private equity investors might be interested in creating an alternative secondary market, if the price is right, of course. This could take years to develop, if it ever gets off the ground, but Geithner put a 5-to-7 year timetable on his exit plan so there is plenty of time for the private market to test the economics of such a scenario.
Ultimately, a private-based secondary market will almost certainly mean higher fees and higher mortgage rates for consumers, and banks will almost certainly continue to tighten lending standards in the hypothetical post-Fannie era. Many will argue that'll be money well spent if we can really kick the GSE habit.
There's a price to be paid for unwinding the current system and, one way or another, U.S. taxpayers -- the ones who bailed out the big banks and are still on the hook for Fannie and Freddie -- will almost certainly end up with the bill. | <urn:uuid:de60e72e-7953-4810-b424-71e1dd81fbba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/bofa-stops-selling-loans-fannie-mae-first-step-184033379.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955928 | 833 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Here's a slightly different take on the matter: Of the users who would bother to crack your game's data format or decompile it and change it, how many do you think are actually willing to pay for these things? In other words, if these users were to try and fail to cheat your game, do you think they would then give up and pay you money for the items?
Furthermore, are these people going to influence other users elsewhere?
If this is a game where users interact with each other (e.g. a MMO), and these paid items give users an advantage over other users, then the items, purchases, and player interactions need to be tracked on your server, so that your server can verify all interactions involving items, that the items were paid for and not yet used. The client side cannot be trusted; there's no way to definitively prevent hacking.
If this is not the case (e.g. Temple Run), why waste your effort trying to stop users who probably wouldn't pay you anyway, and who aren't affecting other paying users?
As for your other two sub-questions, just store them however you want to store your data. You already found the different ways to store data, as you posted in your answer, so read through them, figure out which ones will satisfy your requirements, and then pick whichever one you think would be best and go with it. All of them survive shutdown and reboot (thus the concept of "storage", versus just an in-memory variable), and the ability to extend them is up to you to engineer. | <urn:uuid:36b92336-b357-4357-a64c-490de678d323> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/38633/saving-virtual-goods-balance-in-android-game/38731 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970356 | 322 | 1.5 | 2 |
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Red Tails Report Card
Hollywood titans have always enjoyed varying degrees of success or failure vis a vis the amount of creative control they have over their films. Charlie Chaplin's success skyrocketed when he began directing his own comedies. Contemporary silent clown Harold Lloyd crashed and burned when he was given directorial control. Or so I've read. George Lucas's ascension from California film school nerd into the Hollywood pantheon happened because of two films: American Graffiti and Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope).
Despite his debut, the box-office flop THX1138, he was given a chance at another feature. American Graffiti did so well, having such a great return on the investment, that the studios let him shoot his fairy-tale space opera despite a consensus that it would be a colossal failure. In fact, he funded much of the production with his profits from American Graffiti (creating Industrial Light and Magic in the process). Well, he proved everyone wrong with the phenomenal success of Star Wars, obviously.
I want to point out that Lucas's screenplays for these great films were tuned up by other writers. The first two Star Wars sequels were box office smashes, too (despite the annoying Ewoks and growing obsession with grotesque aliens), written and directed by someone other than Lucas. As evident in More American Graffiti, when left with sole creative control of a film, Lucas's cinematic efforts were forgettable.
A generation later, his Star Wars prequel trilogy was a special effects bonanza (soon to be re-released in 3D), but the storytelling had lost a whole lot of zing. Surprise surprise: his creative control over the projects was as unquestionable as the Pope's decrees are to Catholicism. Detect a pattern yet?
So, as I blogged before, I was invited to see Red Tails with some friends, and jumped at the chance since it's about the Tuskeegee Airmen in WWII. We just went last night.
Lucas is credited as the producer, not the director, but his fingerprints are all over this flick. Deep, deep fingerprints, as in "dictatorial control" fingerprints. Unfortunately, it conforms to the pattern of the Lucas canon. I've decided to review this flick via letter grade, based on a few different aspects.
TECHNICAL ACCURACY: C-
Hey, they seem to have gotten the superficial aircraft details right. Also, they did have a broad-brush grasp of the air campaign in Europe.
But the bulk of the research to fill in the military details seems to have been done, not by consulting technical advisors with military experience or studying military history, but by watching old war movies. Writers should know something about what the military is like. Actors should be taught how to wear the uniform, how to throw a friggin' salute, when to have their headgear on and when not, etc.
I've never been a fighter pilot, but it seems to me the air combat sequences were comic-book fanciful. No biggie--it was fun to watch...with one irritating caveat: No P-40 or P-51 pilot in the film dropped a single bomb, yet their guns seemed to have the same effect that bombs would have. Whatever they strafed exploded as if the Germans had coated all the equipment in their entire war machine with C-4 rigged with gunfire-triggered detonators. I mean, if a pilot's machineguns scored a hit on a sheet of plywood, it would have caused a half-kiloton explosion.
"90% of directing is casting." So goes the old sage's axiom in Tinseltown. All the actors in this film are either talented or at least competent, though I grudgingly agree with other critics that the characters they were given to play were little more than types (stereotypes, archetypes--call them what you will).
SPECIAL EFFECTS: A-
The dogfight scenes are terrific. About as good as CGI is presently capable of.
This didn't become a big hairy political diatribe, and I'm grateful for that. But the dialog, while not horrible, was pretty hackneyed--something you'd expect from a WWII film shot in 1942. There were some transitions that gave nice understatement to the thematic stream. But significant plot points struck me as contrived. And the romantic subplot seemed tacked on merely to make one character's fate more poignant. It was underdeveloped, overplayed, not very honest considering the geo-historic backdrop, and ultimately pointless.
OTHER ELEMENTS: D+
I don't normally include criticism of the musical score, and never before have criticized credits. When those elements are bad enough to draw attention to themselves, let alone merit mention in a review, they're pretty bad. Lucas financed this film all with his own money, and these are two aspects in which it shows. The credits looked like what you'd see in a low budget TV show--like they were added by a vintage video toaster at an access cable station. The score wasn't as bad; but it was unremarkable. I did like the inclusion of America the Beautiful, but I can't help thinking it was added due to its public domain status, not because the musicians had any passion for the music. There were points in the film where the maker(s) were trying to pull my heartstrings, or at least generate some kind of emotional response. A good composer can help them do that, even when the writing and acting don't carry their fair share of the load. Whoever this composer was did not. This was most disappointing, since other Lucas films were so spot-on in this regard (think of John Williams' Star Wars theme--it was absolutely perfect).
My overall assessment of Red Tails is a "C." Wait for Red Box, then watch it with your 13-or-older kids on a family day with lots of popcorn. Loud, crunchy popcorn. | <urn:uuid:5d2356a7-cd30-48f1-b9cf-ca48212ccf6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://twofistedblogger.blogspot.com/2012/01/red-tails-report-card.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982665 | 1,244 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Few animated characters have been as influential or as long lived as Mickey Mouse. If you’re going to be in the Bay Area on November 18, you’re encouraged to make an appointment to visit The Walt Disney Family Museum and celebrate Mickey Mouse’s birthday.
Although he had appeared in the animated short Plane Crazy six months earlier, November 18, 1928 is widely recognized as Mickey Mouse’s birthday as it was the day that Steamboat Willie—the first Mickey Mouse cartoon with synchronized sound—was released.
Explore the galleries and discover the Earliest Known Drawings of Mickey Mouse and so much more, including vintage Mickey merchandise, the creation of Mickey’s friends, an interactive station that demonstrates how sound is synchronized to animation, and a special section dedicated to the Mickey Mouse Club. Come celebrate and learn about the birth, history and life of the leader of the club that’s made for you and me: M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!
The Museum is open from 10AM to 6PM, Wednesday through Monday. For more information, visit www.waltdisney.org or call 415-345-6800. | <urn:uuid:4ffe0edf-15e7-4a7f-9522-c889550d803a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thedisneyblog.com/2009/11/15/come-celebrate-mickey-mouses-birthday-at-the-walt-disney-family-museum/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941205 | 250 | 1.648438 | 2 |
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Successful Selling on Ebay
EBay has been round for over 10 years but there are lots of individuals on the market that are nonetheless afraid to make use of it or don't have an opportunity to experience selling on eBay because of some unhealthy experiences they might have heard from different people. There are advices on how you can make your selling on eBay expertise profitable as you want it to be. If you want to start on earning profits on the web, selling on eBay is one of the common methods to realize this goal.
Tens and 1000′s of individuals actually make their living on selling on eBay. It's a maximum opportunity that anyone can take benefit of. As you get started on selling on eBay it's a just about of a learning experience. If you're a newbie in eBay, it might be higher to start out promoting something that may be easy selling on eBay at a really low starting price.
The foundation of eBay is trust and the way in which belief manifests itself on eBay is through feedback systems. Feedbacks are the comments that the consumers go away in your profile that would later mirror your reliability as a seller. The more good feedbacks you get, the more people will belief in buying your merchandise lists. Feedbacks might be positive or adverse and even neutral. The extra optimistic feedbacks you get the more reliable you're and more enticing you might be for buyers.
By selling good products at a great value basing from your customers views will earn your enterprise a good reputation. The key on the way to make selling on eBay click is to assume and really feel like a customer would do. Attempt to understand how a customer would really feel if they have been taking a look at your product.
If you want to start earning cash by selling on eBay you need to use dropshippers to make your business problem free. Dropshipping is one of the best methods to start getting cash on-line because they make it simple so that you can begin promoting merchandise on the net. Many people who are selling their merchandise on eBay start utilizing dropshippers.
If you are offering a refund coverage, it's actually essential that you make the coverage very exact in any other case prospects might abuse the coverage returning the products they bought from you even when they're in good condition. Encourage your prospects to go away a feedback. When you have a very good feedback on eBay many individuals will likely be confident in shopping for from you. The last thing you must remember is to be patient in your selling on eBay business.
Back to listings of articles about Money | <urn:uuid:c8beb539-1f30-4a7a-9936-ce0e896932ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://momsonthemove.com/articles/detail.asp?id=753&category=Money | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954711 | 622 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Sergeant Terry Young is shown above with his rescued war dog, Target, at his home in Arizona. Target was mistakenly euthanized at a dog pound in that state last month, which has devastated Terry and his family.
The Chief has learned of a tragic mistake, which cost a war hero her life.
Her name was Target - a shepherd mix dog who traveled all the way to the United States from Afghanistan. On Nov. 15, a county employee in Arizona mistakenly euthanized Target - an error that cost that employee their job and outraged a nation.
It is a story we have been following for months, beginning in February 2010, when the Chief had the privilege of sharing with our readers the heartwarming story of three dogs credited with saving the lives of countless U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. The story was told by Sergeant Terry Young, a medic with HHC 1-158th Infantry based out of Mesa, Ariz.
Terry lived in Broken Bow from birth through 5th grade, and graduated from Valentine Rural High School in 1992. He and wife, Melissa (Farr), both lived in Broken Bow for a while during the mid 1990s.
The story was unfolded of how these three dogs - Target, Rufus and Sasha - attacked a suicide bomber on the base in Afghanistan where Terry and his unit were stationed. Because of the dogs’ instincts and relentless efforts to protect their American friends, the bomber was the only human life lost in the incident. Unfortunately, Sasha also lost her life.
The soldiers spent weeks nursing the injured Target and Rufus back to health. Terry put into words the story of the heroic dogs that he and the other soldiers credited with saving their lives, and shared the story with the Chief as well as several national media sources.
“We were staged and ready to leave Afghanistan, just waiting for the Chinooks to arrive to carry us out of the hell we knew as Dand Aw Patan,” Terry says as he recalls preparing to head home. “It was bittersweet because I knew in just a few more weeks, I would be sitting in my own living room, watching my own TV and playing with my children trying to forget this place.
“I was excited and hurt at the same time. I couldn’t help but think of Target and Rufus being left behind, but I was somewhat consoled by the fact that there was another US Army unit falling in behind us and they knew of the heroics of Target and Rufus. There was still that part of me that knew that they were still in a lot of danger just because of the area itself.”
Terry continues, remembering that day he left Afghanistan. “I gave Target lots of love and an extra long petting, wishing her the best of luck and hoping that somehow God would find a way to help her stay safe.”
Terry returned home to his family, but the dogs were never far from his mind. As their story continued to circulate, The Puppy Rescue Mission was formed with the sole purpose of rescuing these “war hero” dogs.
“It was July 18th, and it was just another day of getting adjusted at work and at home. I was tracking what was going on with the dogs on Facebook,” Terry says as he vividly remembers the events of that day. “Since they had used my article, I was caught up in what was going on and the Puppy Rescue Mission considered me one of the main contributing factors in all of this happening. I was checking Facebook to see what the latest was when I received the message, “Hi Terry, I am Cecilia Pinters daughter-in-law and I am writing in regards to Target. I was wondering if you wanted to take her into your family. I think with the history you all have with her she would be well placed. She flies in Thursday to JFK with Rufus, please let me know asap if your interested.”
Terry continues, “I couldn’t believe it! I thought I was dreaming! I knew for sure that last day in Dand Patan was the last time I would ever see Target, but because of a little article I wrote and the help of some wonderful people, Target was going to actually be coming to be part of my family. I responded right away letting the Puppy Rescue Mission know I absolutely wanted Target.”
On Aug. 4, Target and Terry were finally reunited and began their life together at home in the Phoenix area. Terry’s three children - Trenedy, 14, Mahala, 7 and Travius, 4 - also bonded with Target.
Then on a Friday night, Nov. 12, Target escaped from the family’s back yard. Because she did not have a tag or microchip, she eventually wound up in the county pound.
In his desperate search to find her, Terry saw a picture of Target on a website used by county dog catchers to help owners track lost pets. Terry says he figured the shelter was closed for the weekend, and went in Monday to get Target back. However, instead of retrieving his pet Terry was informed that she was dead.
According to Fox News, county officials at the shelter in Casa Grande say the employee mistakenly took Target out of her pen Monday morning and euthanized her. The dog was not scheduled for euthanasia.
Fox News reports that employee has been fired, and county officials are declining to release the name of the employee because of threats made to that person and angry telephone calls to the shelter. Lisa Garcia, assistant county manager for Health and Human Services in Casa Grande, says they are looking into management practices and procedures to make sure something like this cannot happen again.
Terry explains that Target was not accustomed to being confined, but since coming to live with him has gotten used to eating dog food and learned to use the doggie door to go to the bathroom.
Target was given a celebrity reception in the U.S., appearing on Oprah, and virtually all the major television news channels. She was also honored with a local Hero Award as dog of the year.
Terry says Target’s loss has been a devastating blow to the family, especially 4-year-old Travius, who keeps asking his dad to take the poison out and bring Target home.
A candlelight vigil for Target was held Friday, Dec. 3. Terry says he plans to spread Target’s ashes, perhaps at the park where she used to play, at a memorial service. | <urn:uuid:eb03ea77-1a07-4cbe-ba6f-d579ba22e0aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.custercountychief.com/content/war-hero-dog-mistakenly-put-sleep?quicktabs_4=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988528 | 1,398 | 1.625 | 2 |
Four Bucks Flies You Over LA During Carmageddon
It's a 40 mile drive from Long Beach To Burbank, and you don't even have to drive the 405. But this weekend they are closing that highway down for repairs, and it's going to be Carmageddon in Los Angeles. But don't worry; JetBlue to the rescue.
"This will be our shortest commercial flight," JetBlue spokewoman Sharon Jones told The Times. "We thought this would be a fun and unique idea. We looked at it as a way to introduce our product to customers who have never joined JetBlue."
On Reuters, Tim Kenneally writes that "JetBlue's environmental blueprint will grow to Godzilla-like proportions with the stunt." And, after JetBlue's marketing manager suggests that it is all about helping Angelenos to get to the beach,
The nice thing is, should customers take advantage of the offer to hit up the beach, they will likely be able to actually see the damage being done to L.A.'s already imperiled air in real time while they soak up rays.
The two flights sold out in three hours.
More at Reuters
More on why Flying is dying
UK Ambassadors to Fly Economy Class to Cut Carbon
Skipping One Cross-Country Flight = Going Vegetarian for a Year
That Cross Country Flight You Just Took Emitted as Much Carbon as the Rest of Your Life
Greener Flying: Not All Flights are Created Equal (Part 1 of 3) | <urn:uuid:7f6a949b-cd80-42e1-ace5-bab01ef06b2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.treehugger.com/aviation/four-bucks-flies-you-over-la-during-carmageddon.html | 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 | 0.941472 | 308 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Applied Learning Center
In fall 2011, Metropolitan State University of Denver introduced the Applied Learning Center. The center houses the unit formerly called The Internship Center, along with the Service Learning Program, and a newly developed Undergraduate Research Program.
These programs represent 3 of the 10 "high impact educational practices" documented by George Kuh and the Association of American Colleges and Universities. They each provide opportunities for student learning through experiences outside of the classroom. Creating a single center enhances the work of all three programs and highlights the commitment of MSU Denver to developing a variety of learning experiences for students.
The Internship Program has existed at MSU Denver since 1977. First called the Cooperative Education Internship Center, then The Internship Center, the program mission and activities have not changed. Students from most majors can use the program to find internships. The program also administers academic credit for many academic departments.
Internships enhance the education of MSU Denver students by placing students in work experiences related to their academic major or minor. The staff of The Internship Program works closely with students and employers to match students' skills and theoretical training with positions in businesses, governmental agencies and non-profit organizations. The Internship Program also works directly with faculty to ensure that internships meet the educational needs of our students.
Click to learn more about the Internship Program
Undergraduate Research Program
The Undergraduate Research Program promotes, supports, and celebrates faculty and student engagement in undergraduate research activities. These undergraduate research experiences enhance students’ preparedness and competitiveness for future employment and the pursuit of advanced degrees.
Join us MAY 3, 2013 for the 2nd Annual MSU Denver Undergraduate Research Conference in the North Classroom from 8:30am - 5pm.
If you would like to learn more about the conference, please see Undergraduate Research Conference for details.
Undergraduate Research Grants
The fall 2012 grant program is closed. The next application period will be in the 2013/14 academic year. See MSU Denver Undergraduate Research Grants for information.
If you have any questions about the Undergraduate Research Program, please contact [email protected] or call us at 303-556-4260.
Service Learning Program
The goal of the Service Learning Program is to provide mentoring and support to faculty considering integrating service learning into their courses. Faculty considering integrating service learning into their courses should contact Dr. Sheila Rucki at [email protected]
Are you currently engaged in Service Learning:
Faculty who are engaging in service learning activities are strongly encouraged to let us know what you are doing. In addition to tracking your projects, we can offer support, and advice on issues like Worker's Compensation and Liability Insurance. Please Report Your Service Learning Activities.
Are you looking for a community partner for a Service Learning project?
If you are looking for a community partner go to Find Communty Partners.
** Announcing the MSU Denver Service Learning Grant **
Would you like to have a service learning project for a class, but are concerned that the project will involve a cost? The Service Learning Program is pleased to announce a limited number of $500 grants designed just for you. Go to the Service Learning Grant link for the application instructions.
Center for Urban Connections
The Center for Urban Connnections administers the Compact Service Corps - an Americorps program that provides money for your education in exchange for community service. The Center for Urban Connections also has resources for students or groups seeking partnerships with community agencies and volunteer opportunities.
Go to http://www.msudenver.edu/urbanconnect/ for more information. | <urn:uuid:4ed893e2-5a8b-4baa-b5e2-d67540b7c2a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://[email protected]/appliedlearningcenter/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930458 | 744 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Hint: It’s a bit more complicated than you might think!
By my reckoning 25% of people buying solar power systems want to save the planet as a priority. The other 75% want to save their bottom line and saving the planet is a nice side-effect.
I get a lot of emails saying: “Help! My bills are [insert large number here] dolars a quarter – what size solar system do I need?”
The answer to this question is quite longwinded – but if you want to understand whether a solar system is worthwhile for you financially – you need to understand this stuff! So I made a video to help explain. If you are considering buying a solar system I strongly recommend watching this:
[Note: Since I made this video the Victorian and QLD Feed In tariffs are no longer more generous than the rest of the country - they are both 8c per kWh at time of writing!] | <urn:uuid:9fb44e54-e4fc-4a41-ac60-8fed42326303> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/category/solar-policy/feed-in-tariffs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946771 | 194 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Added: March 24, 2004 05:00:00 AM | Views: 657 |
The Georgia Equine Rescue League Organized in 1992 in order to Rescue Equines from neglect and abuse, and to help rehabilitate those equines who had suffered from that neglect and/or abuse.
More listings in this category:
Organizations: Rescue & Retirement
Search this site in Google | <urn:uuid:34303f51-755e-4c66-9f1a-e6401cf988de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.horsesites.com/detail/link-2202.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938568 | 79 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Back when Social Security was widely regarded as a rock-solid and faultless institution, reform advocates used to phrase their critique in terms of "myths." The idea was to expose as fictions what defenders of the status quo were passing off as facts.
Perhaps it's a sign of the public's growing skepticism that the status quoists are now talking about myths too. What myths? The arguments made by reform advocates, which have persuaded a majority of Americans that the current Social Security system is neither economically sustainable nor generationally equitable.
Yet even recast as a myth-busting exposé, the views of the status quoists are just as fictional as before. A case in point is the recent Atlantic Monthly article by Economic Policy Institute economist Dean Baker. Here are nine myths that Baker claims reform advocates have concocted--and why they aren't myths at all:
* One: The Social Security trust fund is an accounting fiction. Indeed it is--a fact long recognized by most economists, including the Social Security Administration's former research director John Hambor, who has written in the Social Security Bulletin that "the trust fund more accurately represents a stack of IOUs to be presented to future generations for payment, rather than a build-up of resources to fund future benefits." Baker does not dispute that the Social Security trust fund contains nothing but Treasury IOUs. What he seems to argue is that running up the public debt to pay back these IOUs will not be a burden. Why? Because the extra public debt that Treasury will incur tomorrow is debt that, thanks to the trust fund, it isn't incurring today.
Although this is an interesting argument, there is no evidence to support it. (See our alert of January 10, 1997.) Far from reducing the federal deficit, today's trust-fund surpluses have simply allowed Congress to tax less and spend more. This is why Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who in 1983 helped legislate the trust-fund build-up, concludes that trust-fund accounting is "thievery"--and has disowned his own handiwork.
* Two: The government uses overly optimistic numbers to convince people that Social Security will be there for them. The fiscal optimism of the Trustees' cost projections seems incontestable. The Trustees assume that productivity, which determines the payroll tax base, will grow 20 percent faster in the future than it has averaged over the past quarter-century. And they assume that longevity at age sixty-five, which determines the number of beneficiaries, will grow 60 percent slower--meaning that Americans fifty years from now would have a life expectancy no greater than Japanese today.
It's true that the Trustees project that real GDP growth will slow substantially in the next century. But this is due entirely to the projected slowdown in workforce growth as Boomers retire, from 1.6 percent annually since 1973 to just 0.1 percent annually by the 2020s. Unless soaring productivity growth makes up the difference--or immigration surges massively--slower GDP growth is inevitable. (See our alert of March 18, 1998.) This is not pessimism, but simple arithmetic.
* Three: The demographics of the Baby Boom will place an unbearable burden on the Social Security system. Baker's objection is that paying off Boomers isn't the only challenge. He's right: It's worse than that. Rising life spans and lower birth rates mean that America will permanently shift to a much older age structure. This is why--as Baker himself stresses--Social Security's operating deficits are due to keep rising throughout the next century, even after the Boomers pass on.
Even so, Baker reassures us that the extra cost of supporting more elders will be "largely offset" by a relative decline in the number of children. This is nonsense. For one thing, Baker ignores the vastly greater public cost of supporting each elder. (See our alert of May 2, 1996.) For another, he makes no distinction between rewarding the past and investing in the future. By Baker's logic, we could entirely solve America's aging challenge by having no children at all.
* Four: Future generations will experience declining living standards because of the government debt and the burden created by Social Security. To our knowledge, no one claims this. But if we take into account all senior benefit programs, it is plausible. According to a study by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, raising taxes enough to pay for the growth in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid long-term care would, under the official Trustees' scenario, erase all growth in after-tax worker earnings over the next forty years. Under an alternative "high-cost" scenario, whose demographic and economic assumptions more closely reflect historical experience, real after-tax earnings would suffer a catastrophic decline.
* Five: By 2030 federal spending on entitlement programs for the elderly will consume all the revenue collected by the government. This finding was first widely publicized by the Kerrey-Danforth Entitlement Commission in 1994. Subsequent official projections by the Congressional Budget Office and the General Accounting Office came to a similar conclusion.
Baker does not try to refute any of this. Instead he complains that it's "very deceptive" to total up the costs of Social Security with senior health-benefit programs, which, he points out, account for most of the projected growth in entitlement spending. We disagree. These programs tax the same people (working taxpayers) to pay benefits to the same people (nonworking pensioners). To the extent that cost growth in health-benefit programs is intractable, moreover, it simply makes achieving cost savings in Social Security all the more important. These points are lost on Baker, who apparently believes that future workers won't mind paying a stupefying total tax burden so long as many different federal agencies are collecting and spending the money.
* Six: If Social Security were privatized, it would lead to a higher national saving rate and more growth. "Privatization" is a strawman: No one seriously proposes turning Social Security into a private institution. By privatization, Baker apparently means any plan to introduce mandatory and personally owned savings accounts. Such a reform might or might not raise savings. It probably wouldn't if it did nothing but divert current payroll tax revenue into personal accounts. But it certainly would if it raised new contributions and reduced current-law benefits to fund the transition.
In the end, Baker agrees that a plan which raises total contributions would raise savings. But, he insists, this is tantamount to raising taxes--and there are plenty of ways to raise taxes without personal accounts. Baker errs here: These extra contributions would not be taxes (or at least would not function like taxes), since they would be put into personally owned accounts. And precisely because they would be personal property, which is constitutionally protected, they would be more likely to raise savings than extra tax revenue, which Congress can always choose to spend at some future date.
* Seven: If people invest their money themselves, they will get a higher return than if they leave it with the government. This is undoubtedly true, since the return on contributions in a mature pay-as-you-go system is equal to the average growth rate of the economy, whereas the return in a funded system is equal to the rate of return on capital, which is typically much higher.
Oddly, Baker ends up admitting as much. After asserting that corporate earnings grow just as fast as the economy, he acknowledges that the total rate of return on stocks is historically about 3 percentage points higher once you add in dividends distributed to stock owners. With the Trustees projecting economic growth at 1.2 percent in the next century, this means, according to his own figures, that the rate of return on a personal investment in stocks would be more than three times greater than on payroll taxes collected by a pay-as-you-go system. The difference is actually larger than this. In fact, the historical dividend payout rate is at least 4 percent. Baker also neglects to point out that all of these numbers refer to the total return to stock holders. He thus ignores the extra 3 or 4 percentage points in the return to corporate equity that is received in taxes by federal, state, and local governments--and this also increases national income and raises living standards.
* Eight: The Consumer Price Index overstates the true rate of increase in the cost of living. The vast majority of economists agree. This is why Concord supports CPI reform, though it is not persuaded that the overstatement is large--and it has always cautioned against big, across-the-board COLA cuts that would inevitably hit the oldest and poorest the hardest.
* Nine: Social Security gives tens of billions of dollars each year to senior citizens who don't need it. This money could be better used to support poor children. Both of these propositions seem beyond debate. Baker's real disagreement is with people who infer from these facts that an affluence test would make sense.
Baker's argument against an affluence test is contradictory. On the one hand, citing self-reported Census income data, he implies that the elderly are so poor that a test would be pointless. On the other, he warns that much elderly asset income is unreported, which might make a test impossible to enforce. It's hard to see how all this adds up. Or why it would be "foolish" to trim the largess of a program whose original purpose, as FDR put it, was to establish a "floor of protection."
FACING FACTS AUTHORS: Neil Howe and Richard Jackson CONCORD COALITION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Martha Phillips | <urn:uuid:d085cc7b-d63a-459f-9ebf-82394fcaaffc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.concordcoalition.org/publications/facing-facts/1998/0814/battle-myths | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958507 | 1,974 | 1.804688 | 2 |
PATNA: The Bihar government has distributed about six lakh radio sets among mahadalits, a sub-group of poor dalit castes, across the state to make them aware of government welfare schemes, the state Assembly was informed today.
The government has set a target to distribute 21 lakh radio sets among mahadalits by 2014, SC/ST Welfare minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said in reply to a question by JD-U's Manjit Kumar Singh.
The minister said radio distribution was being carried out district-wise with the government choosing two brands - Phillips and Santosh.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had launched the Mahadalit radio scheme under the Bihar Mahadalit Vikas mission on February 25 this year.
Kumar had said radios would make this section aware of popular government schemes like free distribution of uniforms, cycles and mid-day meals started for their socio-economic upliftment. | <urn:uuid:aed6d7cd-0e09-4799-a3c9-e40a69558d09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.timesofindia.com/india/Nitish-govt-distributes-6-lakh-radios-among-mahadalits/articleshow/17477221.cms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970566 | 188 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The measure is among several aimed at loosening gun laws that are expected to win legislative approval after Republicans won control of the House and Senate in last year's election. The push for looser gun laws in Arkansas comes as Congress is considering tighter gun control laws in the wake of a school shooting in Connecticut last year.
The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee endorsed by a voice vote legislation that would exempt the concealed carry information from the state's Freedom of Information Act. Current law allows the names and ZIP codes of permit holders to be released.
Sen. Bruce Holland, R-Greenwood, said he proposed making the list secret after a constituent said he was worried by a New York newspaper's decision to publish the names and addresses of concealed carry permit holders in the wake of last year's Connecticut school shooting.
"I'm very sensitive to the Freedom of Information Act and believe it should be protected, but this is more of a privacy issue," Holland said.
News organizations, however, argued that the move would go against a compromise struck with the Legislature in 2009 after lawmakers then proposed making the list secret. The current law was the result of that compromise.
"This bill would eliminate a balance between personal privacy and open government," said Dennis Byrd, executive editor of Stephens Media's Central Arkansas newspapers.
Byrd and David Bailey, managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, said they weren't interested in publishing the entire list of Arkansas residents allowed to have concealed handguns but said the public has an interest in accessing the information.
Bailey said his newspaper can use the list to "spot check" and cross-reference it with other lists, such as convicted felons.
Two concealed carry permit holders told the panel they worried that keeping the list public would jeopardize their safety.
"If I have to protect myself, I would certainly not want somebody coming into my house expecting a gun," said Scotty Keller, a retiree from Faulkner County who said she recently received her concealed carry permit. "I want to be the person with a surprise, not him."
Sen. David Johnson, the only lawmaker on the panel who could be heard voting against the measure, said he believed the public has a right to know who has concealed weapons. Republicans hold 5 of the 8 seats on the panel.
"Homeowners and citizens of the state have an interest in knowing who of their neighbors may possess concealed weapons and the press has a legitimate interest in it too, I believe," Johnson, D-Little Rock, told reporters after the vote. "I think Arkansas so far has been very responsible in the use and access of the list."
A spokesman for Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, who signed into law the 2009 compromise legislation, said the governor opposed Holland's bill but declined to say whether he'd veto the legislation if it reached his desk.
It only takes a simple majority to override a governor's veto in Arkansas. Republicans hold 51 of the 100 House seats and 21 of the 35 Senate seats.
"Governor Beebe feels that a good compromise was reached in 2009 that protected the privacy of permit holders while preserving the State's FOI act," Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said. "Setting aside that compromise now would deteriorate the FOIA, and the governor opposes the bill."
Beebe earlier said he opposed new restrictions to the FOI in general.
"I've never been for FOI restrictions, never been for them," Beebe said.
The Senate on Tuesday was expected to give final approval to a measure that would allow concealed handguns in churches and other places of worship if the institutions OK it.
Beebe has said he plans to sign that measure into law, but wants to work with legislators to develop another bill to address concerns that insurers could raise the premiums of churches that opt to allow concealed handguns.
Other measures pending in the Legislature include a proposal to allow faculty and staff at colleges and universities to carry concealed handguns. A House panel is expected to consider that measure next week. | <urn:uuid:6ad8829f-8e13-4ef3-a247-45df4abb7311> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.couriernews.com/view/full_story/21619098/article-Committee-advances-bill-on-gun-list- | 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 | 0.974932 | 821 | 1.664063 | 2 |
A bit behind the curve on this one, but a couple of great photos from the day of the first viewing of the prototype Shuttle USS Enterprise on 17th September 1976.
Great story from Walter Koenig (Chekov) from his autobiography:
"We were called to attention and the air force band began to play the national anthem.
"The music subsided and we resumed our seats. Mr. John F. Yardley, the associate administrator, Office of Space Flight, NASA, called for the roll-out to begin. The order was passed through the ranks. The taxiing vehicle appeared around the corner of a building. In tow was Orbiter 101. It began its approach. I noticed in passing that the air force band leader had raised his baton. The carrier was closer now and then closer still. Then it happened. The band leader moved his hands with an emphatic gesture and suddenly we were standing and shaking hands and embracing each other. The space craft was approaching to the theme music from "Star Trek." The same chill ran down all our spines. I can't remember seeing a group of people so moved as those in the row beside me. I felt myself close to tears and wasn't the least embarrassed by it. Orbiter 101 was now directly in front of us. Across the nose of the ship was the word 'Enterprise.'" | <urn:uuid:f0f96f15-c341-4573-9599-29f78f4ef6c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mammon.typepad.com/root_of_all_evil/2011/07/uss-enterprise-unveiling-17th-september-1976.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985829 | 276 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Damien Hirst’s Mother and Child Divided, Steel, GRP composites, glass, silicone sealants, cow, calf, and formaldehyde solution, 1993, may be seen at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo.
An acquaintance once asked me what I make of Hirst’s Mother and Child Divided. Here’s one way to think about it: much of Damien Hirst’s art is rooted in a happy intersection of Conceptualism and Arte Povera.
Conceptualism dispenses with the material artifact as the primary site of “artfulness” (or whatever) in favor of finding art in abstracta such as a concept or a nexus of reponses. For example, one famous instance of conceptual art is Weiner’s 1968 piece, One standard dye marker thrown into the sea, which consists simply the phrase “One standard dye marker thrown into the sea”. Note that the “artifact” in this instance isn’t the sea, and it isn’t any such dye marker, and it isn’t any ballistic gesture; the artifact is the concept arising from those linguistic tokens when regarded by a linguistically and conceptually competent agent (such as you).
For another example, Kosuth’s 1965 One and Three Chairs juxtaposes an unremarkable chair with a dictionary definition of “chair” and a photo of the chair. The artifact is neither the chair nor the Platonic chairness that someone like Meinong would find transcending the chair, nor the photo, nor the linguistic elements that denote the chair and its definition. The artifact, rather, is a nexus of concepts instantiating something that (later) Wittgenstein said about the assignment of meaning within linguistic communities– an assignment that occurs, among other places, when a viewer (such as you) confronts the chair, its definition, its visual (mis)representation, and all the unstated baggage thereunto appertaining.
Arte Povera is a child of Conceptualism that joins this preoccupation with artfully valuated abstracta to a similarly strong preoccupation with allusive, connotatively charged physical debris of various kinds and calibres. The physical components of a work of Arte Povera are not the “work of art”, but are in various ways ancillary, and in other ways necessary, to its presentation or propositionality.
Hirst exhibits both interests in the half-calf piece.
What does he give us? Two pairs of rectilinear, glass-walled cases stand in parallel, each containing the suspended half of a lengthwise-bisected cow or calf.
From a vantage to one side, a viewer (such as you) sees only the case nearest him, and sees only the outside of that particular calf-half. Likewise, viewing the pair from the exactly opposite vantage also yields the appearance of a single case showing only the exterior of some real veal.
Already, Hirst raises a host of interesting issues: what role does a canonical or approved vantage point play in the process of interpretation? How does the restriction of information qualify and potentially mislead during that process? What is the relationship between three-dimensional plasticity (as with a sculpture) and the viewer’s own mobility or immobility?
Issues multiply as we consider the piece further. Moving away from a vantage perpendicular to one case or the other, we come to recognize that the innermost part of the cow or calf when it was intact and alive now stands as a newly exposed exterior. Here, Hirst draws attention to the relationship between interiority and exteriority by confusing categories that we normally regard as antonymous. He not only raises the question of how our binary concept, (interior/exterior), relates to actual matter, but also makes that theme relative to our own dynamic, iterative process of sizing up, traipsing around, and actively interpreting the work. For as we walk toward and around the paired half-calves, or calf-halves, the balance of exterior to interior within our field of vision shifts, one outweighing the other or vice versa according to our own navigational choices. The more we learn through this empirical procedure, the more our activity itself emphasizes the thematic differences between life as we embody it and death as the immobile, immersed, bisected beef does.
Remarkably, the proximity of one case to another poses a problem (for the interpretation of this artifact) that we’re able to generalize. The closer one moves to the space between the cabinets, the more one can see of the gory face-to-face of exposed interiors. However, the cases (as shown in the photo), are too close for a viewer to enter between them and comfortably view the exposed innards on either side. Nevertheless, thinking about the scenario makes clear that if the viewer were able to stand exactly between the cases (and adjust his height), he would be able to see only one half-calf at a time. There is a central position from which it is no longer possible to see both halves. In this way, the work illustrates that, relative to stance and the spatial relationships that obtain in a given domain, the field of human vision potentially brackets out two-ness or plurality in favor of the singular focus.
Different perspectives on the outside of an object, person, or problem might yield different impressions of an object’s (person’s, problem’s) integrity and composition. Likewise, but perhaps less obviously, different perspectives on the symmetrical, compositionally exposed, ordinarily inaccessible interior of an object (potentially metaphorical) might also yield different impressions of that object’s integrity and composition.
From dead center, the pelt, eyes, and other exterior features we normally associate with an animal are wholly masked by the guts and bones. The beast has been cut lengthwise at its broadest point. Perhaps division is a quality not only of bifurcated beef, but also of human consciousness and conceptualization themselves, and perhaps this is so in all interpretation, not just in this instance.
Of course, thematizing our limited information about physical objects is nothing new, and generalizing about the limits of human perception and conception well beyond such an object is also nothing new. Consider the “Blind Men and the Elephant” for one common instance of the theme. Surplus interest here lies in the fact that Damien Hirst makes that timeworn point by alluding to an ongoing intra-artistic dialogue. Hirst is invoking points made both by Rembrandt and by Francis Bacon.
Hirst makes the same sort of point, but in a clean, antiseptic, white-frame-encased, curatorially austere manner, with none of the hysteria and angst typical of Modernistic lamentations like those of Bacon. The Postmodern, in this case (or quartet of cases), may be seen as a place where the shattered sense of self and the fragmented master narrative of art historical discourse intersect the coldly formal technological and institutional environment of contemporary advanced art. And, for Hirst, perhaps the qualities of that intersection can be generalized over various aspects of human experience– aspects such as motherhood.
Human experience meets bovine experience where spatial disposition meets title. There’s a position within the museum from which the side-on view of the half-calf makes it look like a whole-calf. There’s also a single position within the museum from which the demi-cow looks entire.
These points are different.
There’s also a single sideward position from which both the cow and the calf look misleadingly whole. However, that position requires some distance; that position is outside the museum. What does this tell us about the effects of staging on the limits of possible interpretation?
The work’s title stands in an awkward relationship with the elements of the work, as titles mostly do and mostly have done. (Most of the titles of well known artworks were assigned after the fact by art historians, curators, dealers, and collectors.) “A Mother and Child Divided” suggests a relationship and a status. The relationship is one of parenthood and childhood– a matrilineal, meiotic stunt, but also a suggestion of value since “mother” carries broader and deeper connotations than “parent” (which is itself broader and deeper than “zygotic source”).
The status is division, and that division is unambiguously material, but problematically social. Materially, the cow is divided in halves and the calf is divided in halves. Socially, the cow is separate from the calf, the mother from the child. But what makes this separation a “division” rather than “togetherness”? At what degree of proximity does a spatial relationship’s meaning invert? When does “with” become “adjacent to” and when does the latter become “near”, and that become “far from”?
Carrying forward the metaphorical substratum noted in my earlier comments, the work prompts me to wonder about the extent to which an individual’s inner bifurcation informs her sense of social separation. How does a house or human divided against himself stand in relation to his neighbor(hood)?
“Divided” is a participle– a verbal form used as an adjective. The cow as “Mother” is divided from her calf as “Child”. But then, this locution removes agency from the cow; division is something that has been done to her. What has divided the one from the other, and each from itself? Materially, each has been divided from itself by a saw blade. Socially, however, the matter is unclear. What is it, if anything, that divides Mother from Child in that respect? And when the viewer meanders into the perimeter defined by all four cabinets, is the viewer thereby implicated in the latter, divisive social disintegration?
Organic forms thus divided stand suspended in inorganic presentational devices. To what extent is our own identity constructed or deconstructed by inorganic framing devices that determine and delimit the range of our own possible meanings?
Consider, by way of comparison, Rodin’s Burghers of Calais. Is the group on the left divided from the group on the right?
And finally, what is the relationship between the experience of considering this work and the experience of considering lunch in the museum’s cafe afterward? Are you torn in your desire for a roast beef sandwich, cut neatly in half, that now stands as both compelling and repugnant?
More could be said, especially by making reference to Hirst’s and critics’ comments about Mother and Child Divided, but these remarks illustrate one fruitful way to make an initial approach. | <urn:uuid:691985fd-e95c-47bd-868d-ed138e75b4cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baroquepotion.com/2008/01/hbp-damien-hirst%e2%80%99s-mother-and-child-divided/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94769 | 2,294 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a final rule ordering that the land and sea requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative go into effect June 1, 2009.
On and after that date, U.S. citizens entering the U.S. by sea or land from within the Western Hemisphere will have to present acceptable documentation, such as a passport or a U.S. passport card, to get back into the country.
In a release, DHS announced it was issuing the rule a year before its implementation to “give the public ample notice and time to obtain the WHTI-compliant documents they will need to enter or re-enter the United States on or after June 1, 2009.”
The department also announced that over the next 14 months, it will hold public information campaigns to inform U.S. and Canadian citizens about the new document requirements, including special outreach campaigns to border communities that will be most affected.
The WHTI regulations called for DHS to implement the final rule on or before June 1, 2009, but left the final date up to the secretary of DHS. In a statement responding to the DHS announcement, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that while he was gratified DHS has delayed the implementation of the land and sea requirements until the last possible date, he believes DHS is still unprepared.
“The Homeland Security Department’s record does not instill confidence in how they will handle the remaining steps in implementing WHTI,” said Leahy. “There is no indication that they will be ready with the appropriate technology infrastructure at our borders to handle new documents. There is no reason to believe border upgrades will be ready. There is no signal they will reconsider using problematic RFID technology that poses security and privacy concerns. There is no assurance that they will have enough time to hire and train the border agents who will be needed to implement the passport requirement. And there is no reason to believe that adequate consultations with Canada are under way, even now.” | <urn:uuid:d1d1dc0b-2c0e-4ddb-b516-2ac4fa2ca2c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://meetingsnet.com/corporatemeetingsincentives/news/homeland_security_passport_date_0401 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951825 | 414 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Music by Richard Rodgers, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, based on "Liliom" by Ferenc Molnar, adapted by Benjamin F. Glazer.
Majestic Theatre, New York - 19 April, 1945 (890 perfs)
with John Raitt (Billy) and Jan Clayton (Julie).
Opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, 7 June 1950 with Stephen Douglass and Iva Withers.
A film version was produced by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1956 with Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones.
From the magical evocation of the carousel in the overture to the majestic and moving strains of the immortal "You'll Never Walk Alone", this giant of the musical stage remains timeless and starbright. The poignant story of the faithful Julie and her brutish husband Billy is one of the most powerful books of the musical theatre and perfectly matches its extraordinary score. Recently revived by the Royal National Theatre to immense critical acclaim. Famous songs include "Mister Snow", "If I Loved You", "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and "When The Children Are Asleep".
The opening scene is an amusement part on the coast of New England around the year 1873. A feature of the park is Mrs Mullin's carousel with its gaily painted horses and its jack-the-lad barker, Billy Bigelow. Mrs. Mullin likes Billy and she likes the amount of feminine business he brings to the carousel, but she is clearly jealous of the girls whom he picks out for his special attention. She gets sourly steamed up when he pays a little attention to a mill girl called Julie Jordan and she vehemently warns the surprised Julie aways fromthe carousel.
Her timing is bad, for Billy himself catches the end of the warning. He turns on his employer and tells her that she has no control over what girls he sees and, when the quarrel raises itself a tone, Mrs Mullin, not for the first time, sacks the barker. Julie and her friend Carrie are aghast at the scene, and even more worried when it turns out that Billy probably doesn't have the price of a beer to his name, but the man shrugs off such worries. He's going to get his things and then one of them can go and have a drink with him. He doesn't mind which.
Carrie is open-mouthed with amazement at Billy, and the girls are quite fazed at the fact that he is paying attention them. The quiet, introspective Julie has never had a boyfriend ('You're a Queer One, Julie Jordan') and Carrie's experience of men is in a very different field. She's going to marry the respectable and reliable fisherman, `Mister Snow'. When Billy returns and asks which one of them is going to spend the evening with him, Julie volunteers without hesitation. She faces dismissal from the mill for doing so, for Mr Bascombe, the mill owner, insists that his girls are in their dormitory on time and when the two of them are seen together by Bascombe and a policeman, her fate is settled. She is as much out of a job as Billy is.
Although she is warned of Billy's reputation as a layabout, a sponger and a ladies' man, Julie declares firmly that she will spend the evening with him. She's a strange one: nothing like any of the women Billy has known before. She says she isn't ever going to marry and when he asks her, teasing, if she would marry him, the layabout and sponger, Julie has only one simple response-'If I Loved You'. At the end of the evening they kiss, and the kiss is not the usual kiss Billy gets from his women.
When they are married, Julie and Billy move in with Julie's cousin Nettie Fowler who runs a snack bar on the beach. Billy is unable to get a job, and he becomes more and snore sombre and difficult as the workless days go by. He takes his frustration out on Julie and, one day, a one-sided row ends with his hitting her. Immediately the tale goes round town that Bigelow beats his wife. But if things are not as happy as they should be with the Bigelows, the rest of the folk are lively enough. `June Is Bustin' out All Over' and there is to be a big clambake on the beach. As for Carrie, she is still awaiting her wedding day and she and Enoch Snow pass the time in dreaming of their future together in the rosiest way ('When the Children Are Asleep').
Billy has taken to hanging around with a known evildoer called jigger Craigin, and jigger is heading him for trouble ('Blow High, Blow Low'). He has a plan to rob the mill owner of the payroll he brings each week to the captain of jigger's ship-three thousand dollars. Billy would never have to worry about a job again. He is tempted, but when Mrs Mullin comes to try and woo him back to her employ and the carousel he realises that his old life is better and safer than crime. Only there's a catch: Mrs Mullin insists that he leave Julie. What's the use to her of a barker whom all the girls chase and who goes home to his wife? He'd better talk to Julie and see whom she puts first.
When Billy goes to talk to Julie, however, she has something very different to tell him: she's going to have a baby. For Billy, that changes everything. Life has a future (Soliloquy). Now he has to make something of himself, he has to make money. There is no other way he knows of to do it: he will have to tkae part in Jigger's plan.
Anxious to provide for the coming child, Billy has been persuaded by Jigger, a shiftless sailor, to take part in a hold-up. They plan it for the night that the rest of the town is on the beach at A REAL NICE CLAMBAKE. Julie is troubled by Billy, who she knows has something on his mind. The other girls sense her unhappiness, but Julie bravely shrugs it off (WHAT'S THE USE OF WOND'RIN').
Billy and Jigger attempt the robbery. They are thwarted; Jigger escapes, but Billy is caught by Mr. Bascombe, the would-be victim, who vows to hand him over to the police with the prospect of a long prison term. Cornered, disgraced and terrified for Julie and their unborn child, Billy kills himself. Julie cradles Billy as he dies in her arms and is comforted by an old saying the students used to recite in school (YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE).
Fifteen years pass. Billy, escorted by a Heavenly Friend, arrives in the backyard of Heaven. Here he meets The Starkeeper, who informs him that he will never get into Heaven until he redeems himself. After some argument, Billy is given a chance.
He is allowed to return to Earth for one day, during which he must perform one good deed. Afforded a glimpse of Louise, his lonely and unhappy fifteen-year-old daughter, Billy steals a star to give to her at their first meeting. But back on Earth, he is still the rough blunderer. Louise is shy and won't accept his gift. Unable to reach her in any other way, Billy slaps his daughter - but the sting feels miraculously like a kiss to the girl. Louise explains this to her mother, Julie, who also sees the star that Billy has left behind and, instinctively, Julie understands.
Nevertheless, Billy has not yet performed his good deed, and the slap should have been the last straw. But Billy persuades the Starkeeper to give him one last chance. Unseen, Billy watches Louise and her high school graduation. He observes his daughter's self-doubts, her insecurities.
Invisibly, spiritually, Billy reaches out to her; he urges her to believe in herself, and he is filled with pride as he watches his daughter blossom with confidence. Turning to Julie, Billy says simply, "I loved you, Julie. Know that I loved you." And Julie, somehow, hears him. She joins Louise and the rest of the townsfolk in singing YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE ... as Billy heads towards Heaven.
5 women, 5 men, chorus
- JULIE JORDAN - A real New England village girl,
but 'deeper', quieter and more complex than her friends. Her
infatuation for Billy turns to a love which is proof against
his fatal character weaknesses and lives on many years after
- BILLY BIGELOW - An earthy anti-hero with a reputation for being
a lay-about and a ladies' man. He is a deeply troubled character
ultimately redeemed by the love he could not communicate to his
wife and unborn child.
- CARRIE PIPPERIDGE - As the stage direction says, 'a naive, direct
and normal young woman of the period'. Julie's friend, her horizon
is no further than domestic bliss with be-whiskered Mr. Snow.
- MRS. MULLIN - The carousel owner; a middle-aged woman who believes
that Billy is not only her employee, but her property.
- ENOCH SNOW - Dour, respectable and ambitious in a small-town
sort of way, he is an affectionate family-type too.
- JIGGER CRAIGIN - A real 'bad lot' who plays on Billy's weaknesses,
and deserts him when things go horribly wrong.
- NETTIE FOWLER - The motherly soul of the village.
- MR. BASCOMBE - The self-important millionaire and richest man
- HEAVENLY FRIEND / STARKEEPER - Billy's guides and mentors, who tell him the home-truths he really needs.
- PROLOGUE The Carousel Waltz
- CHANGE OF SCENE
- OPENING ACT 1
- DUET - Mister Snow - (Julie and Carrie) -
"You're a queer one, Julie Jordan"
- SONG - If I Loved You (Julie with Billy) - "If
I loved you, time and again I would try to say"
- SCENE CHANGE
- CHORUS - June Is Bustin' Out All Over (Girls,
Men, with Carrie) - "March went out like a lion"
- ENCORE - June Is Bustin' Out All Over
- GIRLS' DANCE
- JULIE'S ENTRANCE
- REPRISE - Mr Snow - (Girls and Carrie) - "When
you walk down the aisle"
- SEQUENCE - When the Children Are Asleep - (Carrie
and Mr. Snow) - "I own a little house"
- CHORUS - Blow High, Blow Low - (Men with Jigger)
- "Blow high, blow low, a-whalin' we will go!"
- DANCE - Hornpipe
- SOLO - Soliloquy - (Billy) - "I wonder what
he'll think of me"
- FINALE - ACT I
- OPENING ACT II
- CHORUS - A Real Nice Clambake - (Nettie and chorus)
- "This was a real nice clambake"
- ENSEMBLE - Geraniums in the Winder - (Snow, Jigger,
Chorus) - "Geraniums in the winder"
- SONG - What's the Use of Wond'rin' - (Julie) -
"What's the use of wond'rin'"
- CHANGE OF SCENE
- SONG - You'll Never Walk Alone" - (Nettie)
- "When you walk through a storm"
- INCIDENTAL MUSIC - Entrance of Heavenly Friend
- SONG - The Highest Judge of All - (Billy) - "Take
me beyond the pearly gates"
- EXIT MUSIC - CHANGE OF SCENE
- REPRISE - My Little Girl"
- INCIDENTAL MUSIC - (Carrie) - "I'm just a tom-boy"
- PORCH SCENE
- GRADUATION SCENE (Finale Ultimo)
Scenes and Settings:
Time 1873 - 1888
- Scene 1: - Prelude - An Amusement Park on the New England Coast. May
- Scene 2: - A tree-lined path along the shore. A few minutes later
- Scene 3: - Nettie Fowler's Spa on the ocean front. June
- Scene 1: - On an island across the bay. That night
- Scene 2: - Mainland waterfront. An hour later
- Scene 3: - Up there
- Scene 4: - Down here. On a beach. Fifteen years later
- Scene 5: - Outside Julie's cottage
- Scene 6: - Outside a schoolhouse. Same day.
2 flutes db. piccolo, oboe db. cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 3 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, percussion, harp, piano, strings | <urn:uuid:9a678c02-d7cb-475e-9a36-3c07891f4097> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_c/carousel.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957032 | 2,823 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Experience the wildlife, glaciers and rainforest of Whistler Valley with their furry inhabitants: the bears! Mountain ecology tours allow you to go bear and wildlife viewing.
A unique wildlife experience
Bears are part of the life in Whistler. There are many dens and families leaving on Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains and each springs new cubs take their first steps on the slopes of your favorite ski hills. With a bear viewing tour, you will experience a unique visit into the wildlife and vegetation of the Coastal Mountains and get a chance to meet majestic black bears in their natural habitat.
Michael Allen will be your guide for the day. He has spent the last 25 years studying bears studying bears and will show you active bear dens, daybeds and feeding sites. Wander through alpine meadows, marvel at old growth forest and enjoy one of the most spectacular alpine settings in company of the bears and learn about their habits and rich lives. So embark for a memorable experience in a 4×4 vehicle and enjoy the best sunset of your life.
- Tours run from mid-May to the end of October
- Children must be at least 7-year old
- Viewer safety and avoiding disturbance to the bears always come first
- Group size is limited to 6
- Don’t forget your camera! | <urn:uuid:d75a6445-06f8-4a32-8ff6-25203caea7f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://summitlodge.com/whistler-canada/summer-activities/bear-viewing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934788 | 270 | 1.742188 | 2 |
This is the last installment of a four-part excerpt from Richard Miniter's new book Losing Bin Laden, which is available for $20 from the FrontPage Magazine Bookstore. Read parts one, two and three.
President Clinton's first opportunity to defeat Osama bin Laden came late in the afternoon of March 3, 1996, in an Arlington, Virginia, hotel suite. It was the first attempt by the Clinton Administration to deal decisively with the arch-terrorist. It lasted less than 30 minutes.
Sudan's then-Minister of State for Defense Elfatih Erwa flew in for a secret meeting with Timothy M. Carney, the U.S. ambassador to Sudan, and David Shinn, Director of East African Affairs at the State Department. Both Carney and Shinn were State Department veterans. Also present was a middle-aged man who was a member of the CIA's Directorate of Operations (Africa division) at the time and is still active with the agency today. . . The CIA believed, and its representative told Erwa at the time, that some 200 al-Qaeda terrorists were holed up in Sudan. (The actual number, the author learned in Khartoum in 2002, was as high as 583. . . .)
Five days later, Erwa again met with the CIA operative. This time, the two State Department officials were not present. Erwa and the CIA officer were alone as they decided the fate of Osama bin Laden.
Sudan offered to arrest and turn over bin Laden at this meeting, according to Erwa. He brought up bin Laden directly. "Where should we send him?" he asked. This was the key question. When Sudan turned over the infamous Carlos the Jackal to French intelligence in 1994, the CIA covertly provided satellite intelligence that allowed Sudanese intelligence to capture him on a pretext and escort him to the VIP lounge at the Khartoum airport. There, he was met by armed members of French intelligence and flown to Paris in a special plane. Would the CIA pick up bin Laden in Khartoum and fly him back to Washington,D.C.? Or would bin Laden go to a third country?
The CIA officer was silent. It was obvious to Erwa that a decision had not yet been made. Or perhaps his offer was not quite believed. Yet, the Sudanese official was still hoping for a repeat of the French scenario. Finally, the CIA official spoke. "We have nothing we can hold him on," he carefully said. Erwa was surprised by this, but he didn't let on. He was still hoping for a repeat of the French scenario, a silent and quick operation to seize bin Laden and bring him to justice. . . .
Sudan's files on bin Laden and his network were extensive. Sudan had dossiers on all of bin Laden's financial transactions, every fax he sent (the Mukhabarat had even bugged his fax machines), and every one of bin Laden's terrorist associates and his dubious visitors. If Sudan's surveillance was as good as Erwa claimed, bin Laden's entire global terrorist network would be laid bare. And the CIA would be able to track the movements of his foot soldiers and lieutenants across the Middle East.
There were good reasons to believe that Sudan was serious about taking action against bin Laden. . . His terrorist activities had isolated Sudan from the United States and much of the developed world. Sudan's internal politics were moving against the terror master, too. President Bashir was in the midst of a power struggle against Hassan al-Turabi, the Islamist leader. Bin Laden supported Turabi with cash and a potential armed cadre of Muslim militants. If Bashir could rid himself of bin Laden, he could simultaneously restart Sudan's relationship with the United States and vanquish his chief internal political rival.
Over the next few months and years, Sudan would repeatedly try to provide its voluminous intelligence files on bin Laden to the CIA, the FBI, and senior Clinton Administration officials — and would be repeatedly rebuffed through both formal and informal channels. This was one of the greatest intelligence failures of the Clinton years — the result of orders that came from the Clinton White House.
As the Clinton Administration was weighing whether to seize bin Laden or take the opportunity to obtain valuable intelligence on his global network, the CIA's own intelligence on bin Laden was shockingly poor.
Human intelligence on al-Qaeda was virtually nonexistent. Washington Times investigative reporter Bill Gertz uncovered a memo written only a few months after Sudan offered its intelligence on bin Laden. The July 1, 1996, CIA memo was marked "TOP SECRET UMBRA," meaning only the case officers, analysts, and officials specifically cleared to read the documents marked "UMBRA" could have access to this sensitive document. The July 1996 memo reveals how ignorant America was about its emerging nemesis. "We have no unilateral sources close to bin Laden, nor any reliable way of intercepting his communications," the report said. "We must rely on foreign intelligence services to confirm his movements and activities."
This frank report reveals that as early as 1996 — five years before the September 11 attacks — the CIA and other senior policymakers knew about bin Laden-related intelligence failures. When it came to rectifying the cause of these failures, however, little was done.
Richard Miniter's new book Losing Bin Laden is available for $20 from the FrontPage Magazine Bookstore. | <urn:uuid:5d0d410c-0c03-43f6-a408-cd31250c8b10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=16479 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98063 | 1,114 | 1.75 | 2 |
From: January 28, 2011 11:00 AM
To: January 28, 2011 12:30 PM
Friday, January 28, 2011
TIME: 11:00 AM
- 12:30 PM
Professor Shekhar Garde from RPI will be discussing water structure and dynamics at nano and bio interfaces.
Dr. Shekhar Garde is the Elaine and Jack Parker Chaired Professor and Head of Rensselaer's Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He received his BS (University of Bombay, 1992) and Ph.D. (U. Delaware, 1997) degrees in Chemical Engineering. He received the prestigious Director's post-doctoral fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he performed research from 1997 to 1999. He Joined Rensselaer as an Assistant Professor in 1999. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2004 and to Full Professor in 2006. He was appointed Parker Chaired Professor in 2006 and as the Head of Chemical and Biological Engineering Department in 2007.
His research focuses broadly on understanding the role of water in biological structure-function, and specifically on hydration and water-mediated interactions using statistical mechanical theory and molecular modeling and simulation tools. He has received several awards including the prestigious NSF CAREER Award (2001), School of Engineering Research Award (2003), and Rensselaer Early Career Award (2004). Garde is also one of the leaders of the one-of-a-kind animation movie project called Molecularium, which aims to excite the next generation about the world of atoms and molecules. He has pioneered integration of large-scale molecular dynamics simulations into Disney-Pixar style animation world. He is an executive producer of the Molecularium I-MAX/3-D movies - Molecules to the MAX, which are currently being distributed nationwide.
Molecular theory and simulations of biological systems; hydration phenomena at interfaces and nanosystems; protein hydration, thermodynamics, and interactions; hydrophobicity.
More on Dr. Gharde:
Location: College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering
Name: Robert Brainard Email: [email protected] to previous page | <urn:uuid:8560579e-52a9-4ff0-bb2e-03f1a4dabb7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cnse.albany.edu/e2tac/newsevents/events/details/11-08-11/CNSE_Colloquium_Series_Presents_Professor_Shekhar_Garde.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93622 | 447 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Logan Hicks is a New York-based stencil artist whose work explores the dynamics of the urban environment. Originally a screenprinter, Logan’s work has gained notoriety due to his ability to capture the sometimes mundane cycle of city life in a haunting, yet refined way with his hand-sprayed stencils.
Stenciling started as a substitution for screenprinting, but quickly morphed into Logan’s medium of choice. A perfect union was formed through stencils: the dirty and gritty nature of the spraypaint showcasing the decay of the city while the muted shine of metallic paint mirrored the faint glimmer of hope and life within it. It is this symbiotic relationship with the city that fuels his work.
With his photorealistic style, Logan draws a parallel between the cold, harsh city and a warm, vibrant organism. It is alive; a breathing creature where the ebb and flow of people washing over its sidewalks act as cells circulating through its veins. Buildings block passageways, walls block views, doors hide openings. The outside world is effectively shut out while the city creates its own reality. Confined spaces on subways, honeycomb living structures; it is a labyrinth of working systems limited only by its border, its ‘skin’.
Logan uses his art to explore the microcosm in which he is a cell, just part of a whole. The nuances of city life that epitomize the urban existence are what he dwells upon. | <urn:uuid:46808de9-96c3-4def-9fc0-1b60eff613f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://workhorsevisuals.com/new/?page_id=110 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964198 | 308 | 1.789063 | 2 |
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