text
stringlengths 211
22.9k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 14
371
| file_path
stringlengths 138
138
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.93
1
| token_count
int64 54
4.1k
| score
float64 1.5
1.84
| int_score
int64 2
2
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Herbert Marshall, born Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall, was an English actor.
His parents were Percy F. Marshall and Ethel May Turner. He graduated from St. Mary's College in Old Harlow, Essex and worked for a time as an accounting clerk. Marshall overcame the loss of a leg in World War I, where he served in the London Scottish Regiment with fellow actors Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman, and Claude Rains, to enjoy a long career.
His stage debut took place in 1911, and he entered motion pictures with Mumsie. Initially he played romantic leads and later character roles. The suave actor spent many years playing romantic leads opposite such stars as Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and Bette Davis, and starring in such classics as Trouble in Paradise, The Little Foxes, and The Razor's Edge. He was featured in both the 1929 and the more famous 1940 version of The Letter, first as the murdered lover, then the wronged husband. | <urn:uuid:0d32f8f4-d644-43a3-b3d2-a1f21b449990> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://walkoffame.com/herbert-marshall | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978744 | 203 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Since late June, Amal Hanano has been writing for Jadaliyya of her return to Aleppo in Syria --- this is the 12th and final installment of the diary:
There is always a certain acclimation period needed when moving from east to west or west to east, a few days to re-situate yourself. It disguises itself as jet lag, but it is more of a re-calibration of your inner compass. This time, my resetting lasted for weeks not days. The phone kept ringing, from family and friends in the U.S. making sure I was okay and asking endless details. I had to say, ma fi shi, so many times it irritated me. Even non-Arabs were shocked when they found out I had gone back, and my response was like a broken record, “Where I was, in Aleppo, there was nothing happening.” “Oh,” was their relieved but slightly disappointed reply. Tell me about it.
My few short weeks in Syria had felt like months, yet I returned to an America unchanged. Everything around me felt tired: tired tastes, tired radio, tired news about corrupt media moguls and dead pop stars, tired politics and an exhausted economy, a tired, mad world occupied with vampires and wizards. I was tired, living in black and white, any color existed only in this journal, and it was quickly fading. I lived through my words, extending my trip line by line, fighting, as always, against letting go.
I was disconnected from the Syrian-American community around me, the ones who could not go back this summer, the ones from Homs, Hama, Latakia, and Daraa. The ones who flew to D.C. for protests, drafted petitions, and posted videos on Facebook every five minutes. There was a split between us, they labeled me as the girl from Aleppo, the land of greedy merchants and silent masses. I expected the sentiment, but felt resentful and defensive at their hypocrisy. In their eyes, I was much closer to the silent Aleppo elite than I would like to admit. But in mine, they were acting like victims while living in their posh suburban bubbles. They demand Syrian ambassador, Imad Moustafa’s resignation now, but conveniently forget that they were honored to rub shoulders with him a few short years ago. And so, I came back to be treated as an outsider once more. In Aleppo I was a mundasseh, an infiltrator, and in America, I was apathetic.
I wondered if this confusion I felt about home and belonging, was not exclusively my own, as I had always believed. Have we all lost the sense of what home is, or what it should be? Are we searching for an elusive, utopian place that didn’t exist? Anthony Shadid wrote in my favorite article about the Arab Spring: “Across the region, the Arab revolution has inspired a rethinking of identity, even as older notions of self hang like a specter over the revolts’ success. In its most pristine, the revolution feels transnational, as demands of justice, freedom and dignity are expressed in a technology-driven globalism.” He believes a driving factor of the regional uprisings is what he calls a search for “a new sense of self.” Why are we searching for a new sense of self? When did we lose our selves? How did we let our selves slip away? It is sad, but the reality is for decades, all Syrians, there or here, by the sheer force of our brutal history, were robbed of our true selves.
This summer I was exposed to new realities and images, like the fact that I know people on the streets of Homs would scream for women on balconies to throw them cans of cola because it cools the burn of tear gas; or that I know exactly what a man looks like, still alive, struggling to breathe with half of his face missing; or that I know how a exploded human skull unfolds in sharp triangulations into a flat surface like a papier-mâché balloon which has burst open; or that I know what a dead toddler girl looks like after being shot in the eye while fleeing in her father’s car away from a burning Latakia; or that I know what a mother sounds like asshe says goodbye to her son, pharmacist Jamal al-Mufti after he died under torture. Those things I wish I never needed to know, see, or hear, but I did.
Other stories reinforced my pride and awe of my people, like the nightly takbeerat of defiance across Syrian cities and villages, chanted by women behind shaded windows, our modern mashrabiehs, the wooden lattices of traditional Arab homes, designed to allow the flow of air inside while protecting its privacy from the unwelcome gaze of the street, these shades now allow the chants of dissent to flow out to fill the space of the street while protecting those inside from bullets. Their chants are led by a few brave souls walking with a loudspeaker, breaking up every few Allahu akbars with a taunting yalli ma bi sharik ma fi namoos, he who doesn’t participate doesn’t have a conscience. That short sentence is the essence, what the entire revolution, its success or failure, boils down to, the existence of our conscience or its absence manifested in silence. And as someone dear to me often says, silence, not hate, is “the opposite of love.” Being silent against injustice is the opposite of having a conscience.
This summer, I was able to completely shed previous beliefs that had been slowly unraveling for years. Growing up in Syria, you learn to keep your eyes down when you walk in the street to avoid the catcalls, lewd remarks, and hissing that every girl is subjected to by men and boys. Keep your eyes down, your ears shut, and ignore. But after becoming old enough that I could care less (or perhaps should care more) about these harmless yet annoying practices, I began not only looking up but straight into the eyes of these men on the street. I saw them for the first time, there was pure pain in their idle desperation; they were doomed in the graveyard of dreams. Now, I watched them everyday on my laptop screen. Their painful beauty is unparalleled; they are driven by their conscience, driven by their belief in death before humiliation.
There are some who argue that technology did not play as big role as its media hype, that the revolutions would have happened on their own, like they have for centuries. While that may be true, there is an undeniable role of social media that activated and sustained the Arab Spring. In Egypt, it organized and rallied the masses. In Syria, it is our eyes and ears, our defense against the gags of silence we were forced to wear for forty years. Facebook, formerly a world of mundane, self-centered utterances, is now the social network of sadness, a place to witness our dead and count their bodies, to name our Fridays and “like” pages of martyrs. It is a cemetery of friendships and fertile ground to plant new alliances. Someone I met on Twitter, told me that he imagined Amal to be a woman in her 60s who wore hijab, both facts not true. I wondered why he would think that, until I caught myself imagining someone I was tweeting as somebody exactly like me, and that wasn’t true either. We project onto people the characteristics we would assume to be comfortable with in our real social world rather the virtual one. But the reality is we are so different, yet the same. It takes the mask of fake names and invented handles, to realize our principles and beliefs are so much closer than what separates us in class, religion, and ethnicity, than the sectarianism that the regime is desperate to feed us. True friendships, have nothing to do with your “real” social background, in fact, I learned the hard way, it is the first thing to disappear when the things that really matter in life are questioned.
After my Syrian YouTube detox, I watch each video with special care, I think about the people behind the cameras, the ones I now know if they are caught, they will never be released. They risk their lives to record the truth. They crowd together in smoky basements and spend hours uploading the videos over impossibly slow connections. And even in the basements they are not safe, like 28-year-old Adnan Abd Eldayem from Homs, who was shot in the head outside Omar bin al-Khattab Mosque after a night spent uploading. These videos have become our evidence, the ones the regime’s PR machines say are fabricated, are photoshopped, are lifted from other wars, from other cities; the ones which Western journalists must preface with the liability-protecting, offensive words “unable to verify.” These videos are Syria’s rays of light. Hafez concealed us in absolute darkness, but small cameras, smart phones, YouTube, and fearless thousands who press “record,” assured his son will not.
So, the Arab Spring of hope bloomed into a summer of blood, and now summer is fading into a tragic fall while the Ramadan moon slowly disappears. But before the end, a few words about the beginning, the fifteen young children from Daraa, our brave Bouazizis, who dared dream a bigger dream for all of Syria when in March, they wrote on their school walls, “the people want to topple the regime.” Possibly the truest words any Syrian child has written in 48 years. They were imprisoned, tortured, their fingernails pulled out, while their desperate parents begged for their children to be released. (And one child, Ahmad Abazid, until this day, still remains missing.) Their crime? Writing the words they had heard for weeks on television sets, echoed in Tunisia and Egypt, words they heard whispered by their parents behind closed doors and sealed windows. They knew the fake smiles they had to put on at school did not match these words. They knew Syria was no longer a place for acting “as if.” They refused to live in the world of “as if.” So they brought the words out of the dark, marking the stone walls forever. These beautiful children, our courageous heroes, sparked a revolution.
My journal ends here, the same place where the flowery compositions of my youth ended. When I wrote in Arabic. When we wrote words we did not understand, words we were forced to interpret the way they wanted. Words we spit out like parrots to please a teacher, for a high mark on a paper. When we wrote the verses of al-Shabbi, for a dramatic, emotional ending, manipulating our teachers and ourselves. Today’s children will remember these words in another context, the true context they were written for almost a hundred years ago. The words we wrote in blue ink, they write with the blood of their fathers and brothers, with the bitter tears of their mothers and sisters. They write as the whispers of the vanished and the spirits of the dead guide their small hands. They write as the chants and the songs swirl in protective clouds around them. They write, their words sharper than swords, while they face tear gas and bullets.
Al-Shabbi’s “One day, the people will...” is no longer about an abstract past, or an unknown future; not to fight enemies we no longer have, or enemies who do not exist. His once elusive “one day” is today. And for the victorious people of Libya it was yesterday. Destiny is written with blood, on shrouds wrapping charred and tortured bodies, across a landscape of destruction. And as the poet promised, destiny must respond, the night must brighten, the chains must break.
A final message from the great-grandchildren of Ibrahim Hanano, the grandchildren of Riyad al-Turk, the children of Bara Sarraj, the brothers and sisters of Tal al-Mallouhi, Ibrahim Kashoush and Rami Nakhle, the mothers and fathers of Hamza al-Khateeb and Oula Jiblawi, to all of those who have murdered, mutilated, tortured, raped, imprisoned, humiliated, and terrified the Syrian people, and to all of you who still say the Syrian people must be ruled by a ruthless tyrant, who still believe they are not “ready” for freedom: Listen.
Every drop of blood, every tear, every chant, every video, every tweet, every word, is the sound of another chain irreversibly breaking, one by one. The clanging, ringing sounds are louder than the guns and tanks, because they are the opposite of hate, the opposite of oppression, the opposite of silence. They are the sounds of truth, of justice, of love. They are the sounds of ourselves breaking free. | <urn:uuid:2a0d2dbc-73c6-4898-b241-30199aec728d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2011/8/25/syria-diary-return-to-aleppo-the-opposite-of-silence-hanano.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975765 | 2,706 | 1.648438 | 2 |
We were so excited to read the review of Controversy 2: Pieces We Don’t Talk About that we forgot to post it! Columnist Bob Duggan wrote about the exhibit, “the organizers don’t just dare to touch the third rail but dance along its length while inviting viewers to dance with them. By opening up the conversation about what we don’t talk about when we talk about art, Controversy 2 takes us to the dark side and sheds light not only on the pieces themselves but also on how to talk about them.”
This is exactly what we were hoping to accomplish with the exhibit. What do you think of Controversy 2? What conversations do the objects inspire you to have?
Read the full review on The Big Think. Controversy: Pieces You Don’t Normally See, will be on view at the Ohio History Center February 29 through December 30, 2012. Admission to this special exhibit is included with paid museum admission or free to Ohio Historical Society members. The Museum in the Ohio History Center is open Wed. through Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., Noon to 5 p.m. The Archives/Library is open Wed. through Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., (closed on Sunday). The Ohio Historic Preservation Office is open Mon. to Fri., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For general information about the Ohio Historical Society, call 614.297.2300 or 800.686.6124 or visit http://www.ohiohistory.org.
A.O’Neal (Dir. Collections Services) | <urn:uuid:60eba6f2-8f31-4803-857a-bf3145e57365> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ohiohistory.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/controversy-2-review-on-the-big-think/?like=1&_wpnonce=ad1ddc05d8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955109 | 343 | 1.765625 | 2 |
A few weeks ago, a local club invited me to speak on blogging, writing, and my own poetry journey. This was not a writer’s group, per se. And while they were avid readers and could easily be called lifelong learners (the whole point of having guest speakers, I understand, is not just to share in ample servings of the world’s most amazing pumpkin spice cheesecake, but to help the group explore something new), most of group would not consider themselves “writers.”
Yet, they asked me to guide them in a writing exercise of sorts.
While I pondered possibilities of dessert that might be on the menu that evening, I scratched my head over what sort of writing exercise that might be. As luck and good recipes would have it, I had recently downloaded a new e-book of poetry prompts (one of the many advantages of associating with a website and community committed to the best in poetry and poetic things). I asked the author if there might be a prompt in the book that would particularly suitable for a group of nonwriters, and while she said nothing about cheesecake, she did point me in the direction of a simple, nonthreatening writing prompt.
In fact, it doesn’t really even require writing (unless you count copying words from a book to a page).
In Chapter 2 of Inspired: 8 Ways to Write Poems You Can Love, you’ll find this simple prompt:
What is poetry? Some people think that making poems is as simple as breaking prose into lines. You can try this right now. Open any book and copy a few sentences, breaking them into lines as you copy. Does the prose seem any more “poetic”? It might. After all, you’ve added the “music” of multiple pauses.
To see how this might work, an hour before the meeting I pulled Adam Gopnik’s The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food off my stack, and thanks to Gopnik’s lyric prose, quickly found sentences that worked perfectly for the exercise.
of the cooking vessel–
the Dutch oven
the Tibetan kiln
the Inuit ice oven
seems to be over.
We have tried too many
other modish pots
and know that like Elvis’s
and Michael Jackson’s chimps,
after their hour is done
they will live out
their years forgotten
they’ll end up
on the floor of the closet
alongside the fondue forks
and the spice grinder
and the George Foreman grill.
I brought along a stash of books and passed them around the group, encouraging them all to give it a try. And try they did, mostly. A couple found themselves engrossed in the book in their hands instead of breaking a sentence into lines (lifelong learners, remember?), but soon enough we were sharing this prose-turned-poetry with one another until the lyrical call of pumpkin spice from the kitchen became too much.
Are you looking for a way to put a little pumpkin spice into your poetic efforts? Inspired by L.L. Barkat is the first title in T.S. Poetry Press’ new Creative Writers series, and offers a great collection of prompts as simple as the above all the way to helping you write form poetry. There are eight sections, including Catalog poems, What is Poetry, Why Poetry, Sonnets, Resolutions, Sestinas, Villanelles, and By Heart. (Yes, this delightful book can help you write a sestina.) No matter what you choose–the catalog or the cheesecake–you’ll be writing poems you can love, and having fun along the way.
The ebook is available on Kindle for just $2.99. | <urn:uuid:5bc8b90d-91bf-450c-a905-bb1bfa756550> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2013/01/23/inspired-8-ways-to-write-poetry-you-can-love/ | 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 | 0.958698 | 798 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Home insurance is rising with the tide
Buildings and contents cover is going up and some homeowners may be denied it altogether
The cost of decent cover for your home is set to soar, as climate change pushes up the twin risks of flooding and subsidence. But, even more frighteningly, around 200,000 homes in Britain could be left uninsurable within the next three months as an agreement that ensures flood-prone properties can continue to be insured comes to an end.
In fact the agreement – made between the insurance industry and the Government – expires at the end of June 2013. But with no sign of a new agreement to replace it, some insurers have warned that homeowners in flood-prone property might not be able to renew their cover later this year, because their new policy will then extend beyond June next year.
The current agreement says that insurers must include flood cover as standard for properties built before 1 January 2009, where the risk of flooding is low. But companies also agreed to cover at-risk households who already have flood cover to renew automatically with the same insurer, as long as flood defences are planned to be in place within five years.
It's confusion about Government investment in flood defences that is putting so many homeowners at risk. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) warned last week that the clock is ticking on the need to secure a new approach to flood insurance, but it needs Government commitment on flood defences.
James Dalton, the ABI's head of property insurance, said: "We are running out of time to ensure that people in high flood-risk areas can continue to get affordable insurance.
"The current industry agreement with the Government is unsustainable, has thwarted choice for consumers, and is past its 'best by' date."
He warned insurers would not be able to provide flood insurance to at-risk homes without a Government commitment, as happens in other countries.
Tom Woolgrove, managing director of Direct Line, which still has a dominant position in the home insurance market, said the firm has been working with the ABI in an attempt to influence the Government regarding the provision of a sustainable national plan for flood prevention.
"The current agreement is unfair to consumers and to insurers, as it does not offer the level playing field which we all expect," he said. "This situation needs urgent attention."
If you get turned down for cover for your home because of the flood risk, it could have a disastrous impact on the value of your property. This may make it unsaleable if potential buyers believe you've been turned down because the risk is so severe.
While insurers and the Government seem to be in a stand-off at the moment, homeowners are left helpless. If the Environment Agency classifies your home as being in a flood-risk area, there seems to be little you can do.
However, you may get help from one of the specialist insurance brokers which focus on finding cover for hard-to-insure properties. You can get details of these from the British Insurance Brokers' Association website at www.biba.org.uk or by calling its broker helpline on 0870 950 1790. But specialist insurance is likely to cost more than standard cover – and even the cost of this has started to rise dramatically.
Until recently, home cover costs have traditionally remained relatively flat while the cost of insuring a car has rocketed. Between 1994 and 2009, the average quoted premium for a contents policy rose by less than 1 per cent while buildings insurance climbed by less than 8 per cent. Over the same time period, motor policies increased more than 100 per cent, according to the AA.
But inflation has begun to affect home insurance prices, setting them on an upward trend. The latest Insurance Premium Index compiled by the AA, for instance, revealed that average buildings cover actually climbed by 9.5 per cent last year from £143.36 to £152.18. Meanwhile, contents premiums went up 11.2 per cent from £72.43 to £80.58 over the year.
The company said the increases were because of rising claims resulting from storm damage, flooding and burst pipes. It means that even homes far from flood plains are facing increased insurance bills because of the changing weather.
Are there ways to cut the costs of home cover? For starters if you haven't compared costs charged by different insurers, you could already be paying over the odds. The many cost-comparison sites online can help you shop around easily for the best-value deal for your home.
However, bear in mind that two of the biggest insurers – Direct Line and Aviva – don't use the sites, so it may be worth contacting them for a quote. It's also worth negotiating. Tell them what price you've found elsewhere and ask them if they can better it.
Check how much different cover is worth. Some insurers include a standard amount for contents, for instance, that may be more than you need. Others may be prepared to quote a lower premium for less cover. On the other hand, you don't want to be underinsured. If you want to cover a shed, for instance, it's probably worth paying the extra for it.
On the other hand, do you need accidental damage cover? Scrapping it could cut 25 per cent of the cost of your home insurance. You can also reduce monthly premiums by agreeing a higher excess – the amount of any claim you agree to pay.
With a £250 excess, for instance, you could cut the cost of home insurance by as much as 20 per cent. But don't let the excess be too high as it could make the policy relatively useless if claims mean no payout.
Improving security could also help reduce premiums.
- 1 Heading for America? Prepare for the longest US immigration queues ever
- 2 Notes from a small island: Is Sealand an independent 'micronation' or an illegal fortress?
- 3 You thought Ryanair's attendants had it bad? Wait 'til you hear about their pilots
- 4 'Swivel-gate': David Cameron goes to war with the press over 'swivel-eyed loons' slur
- 5 It’s official: thanks to Stephen Hawking's Israel boycott, anti-Semitism is no more
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
Find out what The Independent's resident travel expert has to say about one of the most beautiful small cities in the world
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
iJobs Money & Business
£550 - £600 per day: Orgtel: Fidessa Analyst / PM - Banking - London - Up to £...
£450 - £500 per day: Orgtel: Sourcing Manager - Banking - London - Up to £500p...
To be discussed at interview.: Queen Elizabeth's School: An experienced and ef...
£294.05 - £330.92 per day + 150 per day travel and accommodation: Orgtel: A le...
Day In a Page
A five-bedroom bungalow in Hoveton with riverside garden and mooring dock, £550,000
A refurbished one-bedroom flat with south-facing reception and high ceilings. £579,950
A four-bedroom Grade II-listed house in Nazeing with large gardens. £550,000
A modern four-bedroom house in a converted stable within walking distance to Peckham Rye. £695,000
Three-bedroom house in a quiet residential area within close distance to Battersea Park. £450,000
A three-bedroom cottage within commuting distance of London, Norwich and Cambridge. £250,000
A two-bedroom cottage with a sun room and gardens in South Chard. £350,000.
A three-bedroom semi-detached house with original features including fireplaces and wooden flooring. £399,950
A modern two-bedroom flat split across two floors and close to several public transport links. £595,000
A one-bedroom flat with an open-plan reception/kitchen and private balcony. £315,000.
A bright two-bedroom garden flat between South Acton and Chiswick Park. £499,950.
A listed four-bedroom farmhouse with stables, set in four acres. £500,000.
A three-storey family home with four bedrooms and an extended kitchen/diner. £995,000.
A three-bedroom Hamstone cottage in the rolling Somerset countryside. £430,000.
A luxury one-bedroom apartment on the first floor of a converted Victorian house. £425,000.
Three-bedroom semi-detached house with private parking and a rear garden. £249,995. | <urn:uuid:431b998b-9756-4e4f-9d45-4e42e26daab5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independent.co.uk/money/insurance/home-insurance-is-rising-with-the-tide-7575751.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956026 | 1,816 | 1.78125 | 2 |
OLR Bill Analysis
AN ACT CONCERNING MEDICAID ELIGIBILITY AND THE IDENTIFICATION AND RECOVERY OF ASSETS.
This bill :
1. allows institutionalized people to enroll in Medicaid in spite of having a “disqualifying asset” that puts them over the program's threshold ( $ 1,600 for a single person and $ 2,400 for couples),
2. in some circumstances, doubles the financial penalty the Department of Social Services (DSS) can collect when a debt collection proceeding is initiated against a Medicaid recipient;
3. allows DSS to provide financial relief when a resident is subject to a transfer of assets penalty to (a) long-term care (LTC) facilities, (b) medical institutions that provide services equivalent to those provided in LTC facilities, or (c) home and community-based service programs under a Medicaid waiver; and
4. by January 1, 2013, directs the DSS commissioner to issue a request for proposals form and contract with private entities to manage nursing home debt collection in a manner that maximizes collection efforts and minimizes state costs.
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2012
Medicaid is a means-tested program in which eligibility is contingent on the amount of an applicant's income and available assets. An available asset is one that is actually available to the applicant or one that the applicant has the legal right, authority, or power to obtain or to have applied for his or her general or medical support (CGS § 17b-261). The bill defines a “disqualifying asset” to mean one that makes the applicant ineligible for Medicaid because his or her assets exceed Medicaid's threshold.
When DSS determines that a single disqualifying asset makes an applicant ineligible for Medicaid, the bill requires the commissioner to notify the facility and applicant, any known guardian or conservator, legally liable relative, or other responsible party. The individual has 45 days from receipt of the notice to spend or liquidate the asset. If he or she does not, the bill requires DSS to grant his or her application. But the state then holds a lien against the asset that has priority over all other unsecured claims and encumbrances.
TRANSFER OF ASSET PENALTIES
By law, the Medicaid program imposes disqualification penalties on applicants who have transferred assets for less than fair market value in the five-year period before they apply for coverage. In such cases, DSS may disqualify the applicant from receiving Medicaid benefits to which he or she would otherwise be entitled. The penalty period is deemed a debt owed to DSS and is currently calculated as the amount of Medicaid provided to the transferor on or after the transfer date. It cannot exceed the fair market value of the assets at the time of the transfer. By law, the length of the disqualification period is calculated by dividing the state's average private pay nursing home charge by the value of the asset improperly transferred.
Under the current formula, no debt accrues to DSS during a penalty period because Medicaid does not pay for any services during these periods. Under the bill, the debt owed to DSS is the higher of (1) any payments for the cost of medical care made during the penalty period or (2) the fair market value of the assets at the time of the transfer. The bill authorizes the DSS and administrative services commissioners and the attorney general to recover payments made to or on behalf of the transferor during the penalty period. The DSS commissioner may assess a monetary fine of up to twice the amount of the debt if the assets were intentionally transferred to obtain or maintain Medicaid coverage.
FINANCIAL RELIEF TO NURSING FACILITIES
Upon the request of a nursing facility, the bill allows the commissioner of DSS to provide financial relief in the form of retroactive or continued Medicaid payments to the facility for any resident subject to the transfer of assets penalty. The facility must establish that:
1. the resident did not apply or qualify for an undue hardship waiver,
2. he or she has lived in the nursing facility for at least 90 days and no payment has been made on his or her account in that time, and
3. the facility has made every practicable effort permissible under state and federal law to recover the amount due.
The bill makes any payments made to a nursing facility in this situation a debt owed to DSS. It is unclear whether these payments qualify for the 50% federal match.
Human Services Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute | <urn:uuid:c8a5ab64-681a-45fe-a0e7-ca456284bbda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cga.ct.gov/2012/ba/2012SB-00394-R000338-BA.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945856 | 937 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Winning the battle against prescription drug abuse, Florida’s Attorney General and Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers released a report Wednesday showing a drop in prescription drug overdoses.
“Rarely do we see changes this radical,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The 2011 FDLE drug death report shows a 17% decline in deaths caused by Oxycodone. Overall prescription drug deaths are down six percent.
“We put in place tough penalties. We strengthened the regulation oversight,” said Bondi.
While the state is winning the battle against prescription drug abuse, it may be losing the war. Overall drug deaths rose from 9,001 in 2010, to 9,135 in 2011.
Even so, FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey still considers the decline in prescription drug deaths a victory for Florida. “Florida was recognized as a supplier state for a large part of our country. That particular problem was addressed and I’d call it an unqualified success.”
With the decline in painkiller deaths, comes an increase in overdoses from cocaine and alcohol. A combined 1,200 people died from those drugs last year. But is the crackdown on pills to blame? FDLE hasn’t found a link.
“There’s speculation that it’s a supply and demand issue that some of the addicts, if you will, that we’ve blocked from Oxycodone have turned to these other drugs but we don’t know that,” said Bailey.
Before the report was released, seven people a day were dying from prescription drug overdoses in Florida. While the overall percent has fallen, it hasn’t dropped enough to lower that statistic.
Since May of 2011 Florida’s Drug Strike Force teams have made 3,300 arrests, seized more than 700,000 pills and 10 million dollars in cash. They’ve also closed 254 illegal pain clinics. | <urn:uuid:8f966e54-3e45-4bd1-93fe-e88ddb34d472> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/Prescription-Drug-Deaths-Decline-While-Overall-Drug-Deaths-Rise-175666511.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956178 | 396 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Preschool students from Field Elementary School spent Thursday exploring Rock Bridge State Park. The students explored Devil's Icebox Cave and captured insects.
Advocacy groups have pointed to four members of Congress, including Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, who effectively use social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Tumblr to reach constituents. McCaskill is in the top 10 for the highest number of Twitter followers.
Rezwan Ferdaus, 26, was charged with plotting to blow up the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol using remote controlled airplanes packed with explosives. He was also charged with supporting al-Qaida.
Worldwide sales of counterfeit medicines totaled more than $75 billion last year. The company behind the pill Viagra is teaming up with a pharmacy standards group to educate people about the dangers of counterfeit drugs.
The Hickman softball team defeated New Franklin 13-2 Thursday.
Missouri Republicans were to discuss the Feb. 7, 2012, presidential primary elections. The early primary could cost Missouri Republicans half of their national convention delegates.
Interim repairs at three breached spots should be finished by Nov. 30, but officials are pushing for a full restoration of the levee, which would cost an additional $21 million.
The list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act is getting longer. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has until Friday to take action on more than 700 pending cases of potential wildlife protection.
The long-snouted bugs have been deployed to eat the flowers and seeds of spotted knapweed. The weed produces an herbicide that kills plants growing nearby.
Jeffrey Heckman, Jacob Norris and Alexia Baker, all of Macon, were indicted Thursday on charges in the July 8 robbery of Merchants & Farmers Bank in Columbia. The three were indicted earlier in Texas on charges stemming from a credit union robbery.
An outbreak of listeria has sickened people across the country and caused more than a dozen deaths in 18 states.
Local solutions, not a federal mandate, are the best way to achieve educational excellence for the nation's students.
The philosophy behind the failed act is sound, but its unrealistic standards can't be met and only hurt students in the process.
Southeast Missouri officials are pressuring the corp to rebuild the intentionally breached levee.
Schools and scholars have recently begun to dispute the university's claim to the first homecoming, and several other schools have risen to claim the title.
As part of a lease agreement between MU and the Missouri Symphony Society for the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts, ownership of more than 335 pieces of equipment will be transferred to MU, including more than 180 musical instruments and audio components.
The crowd of mostly students discussed the morality of having the death penalty in modern society.
Is Missouri in flight from the Big 12? To read about the curious case of the of the plane that went to Birmingham, go to the Missourian Sports Blog.
Since moving from forward to midfielder, Yudai Yamaguchi has led the Cougars with six assists in eight games.
Columbia police participated in a statewide crackdown on drunken driving during the week of Sept. 19 as part of the ongoing You Drink & Drive, You Lose campaign. | <urn:uuid:9b8134c4-57f4-41ad-aead-0f6e9a5e1010> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/09/?p=4 | 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 | 0.956115 | 664 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The women's track and field record book needs to be expunged.
In 1983, Jarmila Kratochvilova, a previously mediocre 32-year-old Czech middle distance runner, set a world record in the 800-meter run. Soon, Kratochvilova was the cover girl for Track & Field News and the subject of a profile in Sports Illustrated. It wasn't her fast time that attracted all the attention. Rather, it was her broad-shouldered, flat-chested physique, which looked more like a middleweight boxer's than that of a middle-distance runner.
"I've never seen a body like that," a Los Angeles chiropractor named Leroy Perry told SI. "I think there is something chemically different about her physiological makeup, and it had to happen in the last five years. And I'm sure it hasn't come from weightlifting." At the University of North Carolina, a young cross-country runner did a double take when she saw Kratochvilova's photo on a newsstand. "You had no idea it was a woman," recalls Joan Nesbit Mabe, who would go on to compete in the 10,000 meters in the Atlanta Olympics and, later, become a critic of drug use in athletics.
Before Kratochvilova's run, the 800-meter record had fallen 23 times since World War II. It has not been broken since, and now stands as the oldest world record in track and field. It won't be broken at the Track and Field World Championships, which begin Saturday in Daegu, South Korea. Neither will any of the women's sprint marks, which are all as dated as a Macintosh SE. Kratochvilova's rival, East German Marita Koch, set the 400-meter record in 1985. And no one has matched the 100- and 200-meter times Florence Griffith Joyner ran in 1988.
Meanwhile, the men's 100-meter record—currently held by the prodigious Usain Bolt—has been broken 15 times since the 1980s. As a result of his feats, Bolt is a global icon earning $10 million a year in endorsements and appearance fees. The last crossover star in women's track was Flo Jo, more than two decades ago. At the height of her fame, Griffith Joyner had a sportswear label and a fitness column in Parade magazine. The second-fastest woman in history, America's reigning sprint queen Carmelita Jeter, has no chance to attain those rewards.
Bolt's Jamaican countrywoman Veronica Campbell-Brown, who ran the fastest 200-meter time of the 21st century at the Beijing Olympics, also hasn't made it out of the agate type. The problem: She was two-fifths of a second slower than Florence Griffith Joyner. "It's a touchy subject, but if I should be honest, I really believe men get more attention in this sport," Campbell-Brown complained. "It's based on the fact that the world record in the 100 meter and 200 meter for men is reachable. … It is hard for me to even think about the world record."
While Bolt may have put the men's sprint records out of reach for anyone but himself, the larger point still stands. In the 11 Olympic running events contested by both sexes since the 1980s, the men's world records are an average of seven years old, the women's 20.* Even if you include the field events, in which the male and female throwing records are both suspiciously ancient, the gap is still 11 years versus 21 years. The classicism of the women's record book merits a radical response from track's governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations *: They should throw out the old records, and give today's runners realistic times to chase.
The sanctity of the record book is a touchy subject because of the implication that the sport's immortals used steroids. There's plenty of circumstantial evidence, beyond Kratochvilova's physique. East German secret police files contain a letter in which Koch complains that her performance-enhancing drugs aren't potent enough. In 1988, Griffith Joyner suddenly packed on muscle and improved her times by half a second. After the Olympics, she just as suddenly retired, right before international track and field expanded its drug testing procedures. Flo Jo did attempt a comeback in 1996, but quit after hurting her Achilles tendon. In 1998, she died after suffering an epileptic seizure.
Male sprinters aren't paragons of cleanliness. Ben Johnson lost his gold medal (and his world record) at the Seoul Olympics after testing positive for stanozolol. Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin also had world-record 100-meter marks thrown out after failing drug tests. No women's records have been expunged, but that's because there haven't been many to expunge since the sport got more aggressive about drug testing after the Johnson scandal.
So why have men's sprint records improved, while women's remain frozen in time? Perhaps because steroids have a more potent effect on women than men. BALCO founder Victor Conte, who is to steroids what Owsley Stanley was to acid, has estimated that drugs can help a man lower his 100-meter time by two-tenths of a second, compared to four-tenths of a second for a woman. When men take steroids, a pituitary-gonadal feedback loop limits excess production of testosterone. Women, by contrast, begin to show male characteristics: decreased body fat, leaner muscle, facial hair, deeper voices, clitoral enlargement, male pattern baldness.
"When you give women androgen, you're essentially masculinizing them," says Dr. Linn Goldberg, a sports medicine specialist at Oregon Health & Science University. (Goldberg spoke as a medical expert, and does not espouse any theories on the persistence of women's records.) As distance runner Joan Nesbit Mabe puts it, "a man can only become a faster man. A woman can become a man and get faster. They have a double boost. A woman who becomes more male, she's basically not a woman."
If the change in appearance was so obvious, then why didn't the record-setters of the 1980s get caught? Kratochvilova's critics were accused of holding her to an American standard of femininity—the Eastern Bloc version of the Caster Semenya controversy. When asked about Kratochvilova's physique by Sports Illustrated in 1984, Martina Navratilova noted "that there is no word for tomboy in the Czech language."
Because testing has improved in the last 20 years, athletes doping up on Cold War-strength drugs would get caught today. Marion Jones used "the clear," or tetrahydrogestrinone, before the 2000 Olympics—a "designer steroid" altered by chemists to make it undetectable. THG, though, wasn't powerful enough to produce a world record. Jones approached Griffith Joyner's times in the 100 and 200 but never surpassed them. | <urn:uuid:b0e9cc17-cf67-4326-a531-5fb2266ebfb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2011/08/unbreakable.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964148 | 1,468 | 1.796875 | 2 |
GENEVA – A consensus vote at the United Nations today recognized Kosovo’s right to after-hours, unsupervised socialization rights with consenting nations. This is only on condition that they be back by two and stay away from that awful Serbia.
‘I had to do a lot of soul searching,’ said cautious and self-confessed ‘classic smothering parent’, Swedish ambassador Lars Bergdorf. ‘But at the end of the day I realized that, you know, if we’ve taught them right, then I guess we should have faith that they’ll make the right choices.’
A red-faced and visibly emotional British delegate echoed the sentiments. ‘At least this way we can make sure they use protection when they…’ he said, before dissolving into tears. ‘Oh, my sweet little baby!’
The Russian ambassador provided a shoulder to cry on, and a reassuring voice. ‘I know, Honey, I know,” he said. “God, you know. One minute you’re officially recognizing its birth as a sovereign nation, the next minute, they’re asking you about international relations. It just all happens so fast.”
The decision came as a shock to some critics who allege that the international community is jumping the gun, allowing Kosovo to enter the dating game without a proper understanding of the rules.
In a statement, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon tried to deflect these criticisms. “We sat them down and had The Talk, so everything’s out in the open,” he said. “But you know, what with the internet and today’s movies being how they are and what have you, fledgling nation-states learn all these things a lot faster than we did when we were their age.” | <urn:uuid:a7850049-3cea-4415-8977-27ff8c008896> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weeklyworldnews.com/politics/6063/kosovo-now-old-enough-to-date/?like=1&_wpnonce=bee8dc37db | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961528 | 390 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The MA in Disaster and Emergency Management (MADEM) program is a two-year interdisciplinary degree dedicated to educating both aspiring and existing disaster and emergency management professionals. The program explores the theoretical foundations of disaster and emergency management as a growing field of practice and study. Integral to the design of the MA in Disaster and Emergency Management program is the understanding that disasters are more than hazards: rather they are a product of the inter-relationship and mutual construction of the environmental, social, economic, and political spheres. This approach supports the notion that disaster and emergency management processes and practices can and should contribute to risk reduction, community resilience and sustainable communities. The program design incorporates both individual and team-based learning strategies, and in the first year, offers students an applied skills course. In the second year of studies students conduct an applied research project on a topic of personal interest.
MA in Disaster and Emergency Management program streams:
Practitioner Stream (Start date April 09, 2012)
This stream is for those applicants who have at least five or more years of management experience in the disaster and emergency management field. Students without an undergraduate degree will be assessed under the flexible admission policy. Such individuals include local, provincial or federal government emergency response program planners and managers, Canadian military personnel, RCMP and municipal police officers, ambulance, paramedic and health sector professionals, firefighters, risk management and business continuity professionals, insurance and disaster recovery professionals, and international humanitarian assistance professionals.
General Stream (Start date: October 21, 2012)
This stream is geared to those with a relevant undergraduate degree who aspire to work in the field, but who have less than five years of relevant disaster or emergency management experience.
The MA in Disaster and Emergency Management is designed for existing and aspiring disaster management and emergency services professionals. Students taking this program can select from one of two options - the Practitioner Stream (offered in the Spring), and the General Stream (offered in the Fall). Students require a degree and/or experience in disaster and emergency management. All applications are assessed based on an integrated and consolidated examination of academic credentials, work experience and personal experience. Applicants who do not have the formal academic education to qualify for admission may be assessed on the basis of both their formal education and their informal learning, in accordance with the Flexible Admission Policy. Applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Apply online at https://myadmin.royalroads.ca/Pages/application.aspx
General stream: September 20, 2012
Practitioner stream: March 08, 2012
22 Feb 2012
Tag This Document | <urn:uuid:43710ff4-08e2-4538-ac16-ce5a7a3541eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.preventionweb.net/english/professional/trainings-events/academics/v.php?id=25116&tid=106 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935272 | 530 | 1.554688 | 2 |
I just joined the forum to share a program I wrote for overlaying subtitles over any video on a computer.
A little back story:
My girlfriend has hearing aids and needs closed captions when she watches TV. We have a computer hooked up to the TV that we use to watch DVDs. We got "The Butterfly Effect" DVD on netflix, and, lo and behold, it does not have subtitles. It is possible to download subtitles online, and one of the most common formats is an .srt file.
I couldn't find a way to play the DVD on my computer, and at the same time make it play the subtitles from the .srt file. I didn't want to keep searching more and more. It seemed easier to just write a program that reads the subtitles from the .srt file and displays them on the screen. All I had to do was start the video and the program at the same time, and I had a video with subtitles!
This program also came in handy for watching a streaming movie on netflix which does not have subtitles. So since this program was already useful to me two times, I figured other people might like to have it.
I know about this forum because I came across it at some point when I was searching for how to enable subtitles on a DVR. So this seems like a good place to post.
I'd like to hear what you guys think about this:
Is this useful for anyone, or is there already a better way to do this?
Should I post this anywhere else?
Is it useful enough to make improvements to it/make it more formal?
And now, if anyone actually wants to run the program, YOU HAVE TO FIRST READ THIS
1. This program is written in the C# language. You must first download and install the latest version of the .NET framework from Microsoft. Many newer Windows computers might have it installed already, if not go to Download .NET Framework
2. This program is NOT user-friendly. I only spent enough time on it to get it to do what I wanted it to do and that's it. You have to read the README.TXT file all the way BEFORE using it. (It can be made a lot friendlier, but there's no point in doing that if no one actually needs it, right?
3. I've included the source code in case any programmers want to edit it.
4. The zip file with everything you need is here: Subtitles.zip - Windows Live
(I can't add it as an attachment, it's a little too big) | <urn:uuid:ec51b478-b77d-4492-9fb2-4b44264096cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.alldeaf.com/1636485-post1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968226 | 538 | 1.5 | 2 |
The Signs Something is WrongSome Common Signs That Your Child is Using Drugs or Alcohol
When children start using drugs they usually exhibit many different signs which parents need to watch out for. Unfortunately, many parents often write-off these signs as normal adolescent behavior and as a result they don't realize that their child is into drugs until it is too late. So how can you as a parent know for sure whether or not your child is in danger of falling into drugs? Simple ... by understanding that every child is in danger of this. The parent who says "not my kid" is the same parent who will miss all the signs that their child has started experimenting with drugs. Often they will stay in this state of denial till their son or daughter is arrested or overdoses -- and by then it is too late. So what should you as parents be looking for as signs that your child is experimenting with drugs or alcohol. Dramatic changes in style of clothes, hair, music
These outward signs of rebellion should be obvious to a parent. Has your child started listening to radically-different music such as heavy metal or punk rock? Is your kid coloring their hair some weird color just to fit in? Is your child dressing down to fit in with friends at school? All of these are outward signs that your child is succumbing to peer pressure and all these should serve as warning signs to you that your child is in danger of falling into the same kind of peer pressure when it comes to drugs. Hanging out with a bad crowd
Your child might try and tell you that his/her friends are cool kids. But you need to take a close look at the kinds of kids your child is hanging out with. Chances are the way these friends behave is the way your child behaves when you're not around. Do some of your child's friends smoke cigarettes? If so, odds are your child is smoking too. Your child's friends are like a mirror for your son or daughter -- they look at themselves in that mirror and try to conform to what they see there. One of the best ways to get a good idea of what your child is like is to look at there closest friends. Tardiness and/or truancies
You need to stay in touch with your child's school. Never assume that his/her school will be in touch with you if there is a problem. If your child is getting into drugs, odds are he/she will start ditching class from time to time. Kids who do this tend to take off during the middle of school and get stoned somewhere near the campus. Don't assume that their school will let you know about this kind of behavior. And you need to realize, kids are great at covering this kind of behavior up. Every kid knows how to forge their parent's signature -- no joke. Call your child's school from time to time and ask about your child attendance record. You need to take the initiative here! Isolating from family
Does your child act distant? When you ask your child what he/she has been up to, does your child give some vague reply? Does you child want to eat in their room all the time instead of with the family? Children are smart - they know that the easiest lie to tell is the one they can avoid having to tell. If you child doesn't tell you what he/she has been up to, there's a good chance your child is hiding something. Changes in attitude and personality
Does it seem like your child is suddenly a completely different person with a new personality which you don't like one bit? Has your child suddenly developed a tough guy/girl attitude? If your child is experimenting with drugs, there's a good chance you'll be seeing these kinds of attitude changes. Often parents just see this as normal teenage behavior and write it off. Don't make this mistake . . . otherwise you might overlook one of the most obvious signs of your child's drug problem. Changes in sleep patterns
These kinds of changes should be fairly obvious. Does your child stay up late (or even all night) frequently, refusing to get up in the morning at a decent time. Does your child sleep way too much or way too little. If your child isn't sleeping much, there's a good chance he/she is using . This is a frequent effect of this kind of stimulant. Excessive use of foul or obscene language Has your child suddenly developed a filthy mouth? This might indicate that your child is giving into peer pressure from their friends and should be a warning sign to you. If your child is trying to fit in with their friends by cussing, sooner or later your child will probably look for other ways to gain acceptance in his/her peer group. One of these ways is often drugs. Eating way too much or way too little
Here's another obvious sign of drug experimentation that is often overlooked as normal teenage behavior. Does your child come home in the afternoon after hanging out with friends and devour everything in the refrigerator? If your child is smoking pot with his/her friends, it wouldn't be unusual for your child to eat a bit more food than normal. Does your child skip quite a few consecutive meals, then speed use is a possibility. Paranoia - everyone is out to get me
Does your son or daughter treat everybody as if they were the enemy? Do they tend to express the idea that everybody is out to get them? Do they seem overly paranoid to you? This is not normal teenage behavior; you need to understand that. This is one of the most common signs of drug abuse. It's one of those signs you don't have to look hard to see. Dilated eyes - red eyes - glazed eyes
Do your son's or daughter's eyes look funny? Are the pupils real large or real small? Does your child wear sunglasses even at night and try and say their just trying to look cool? A person's eyes show the effects of the drugs their on. If you think your child is experimenting with drugs, watch his or her eyes. Are they red all the time? Glazed? If so, there's a real good chance your child is using drugs. Sudden bursts of anger
Has your child developed a violent side? Is he or she prone to sudden, uncontrollable fits of anger? This doesn't have to mean physically violent (though that is often the case) but can also be a teen who is always yelling or threatening people. Any of these things should be a warning sign to you that your child could be experimenting with drugs. Lies!
If your child is experimenting with drugs, he/she will be telling lots of lies to cover this up. Teens tend to be very good at covering things up. If you start wondering whether or not your child is telling you the truth there is a good chance that your instincts are right. Be persistent and learn what it is that they are trying to cover up. Drugs are an all-to-real possibility. Dramatic mood swings
Does your child seems real happy one day, then terribly depressed the next day? Do your child's emotions go up and down constantly? This is often confused with 'normal' teenage behavior, but it can also be an obvious sign of drug abuse. Don't simply write it off. Excessive money spending or money disappearing
Drugs cost money. If your child keeps coming to you needing money, or if money keeps coming up missing from your purse or your wallet, you need to have a serious talk with your child. Especially if they always seem to need 20 dollars or 50 dollars -- round amounts -- since that is often the price drugs cost. | <urn:uuid:19887cf8-b901-42ee-b9af-426696652ebb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teenchallenge.cc/plaintext/resources/parentsthesignssomethingiswrong.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972552 | 1,552 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The Checago Bright Foundation, a non-profit NGO has come to the rescue of Yelekula town, inhabited by some 2500 Town in a remote jungle for over 50 years without save drinking water, a clinic and...Read More...
With barely two months left for this year’s July 26 Independent’s Day celebration slated to take place in the three Western Counties of Grapemount, Bomi and Gbarpolu, the event could face a major...Read More...
The West African Journalists Association (WAJA) has warned President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to be mindful of the lives and security of Liberian journalists following threats made against them by the...Read More...
Following years of civil unrest, which damaged private and public infrastructure, the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) says it has successfully pumped pipe borne water into central Monrovia...Read More...
Uniforms present perceptions and distinctions, just as schools or football teams wear different uniforms to distinguish themselves from others.
A given set of uniforms leads to perceptions, so that one looking at the Nazi uniforms reaches a conclusion. A police uniform carries the perception of peace, or a peacemaker.
So when the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) Secretary General Acarous Gray decided to wear military uniforms at a press conference last week to threaten the National Elections Commission (NEC), he had one message to send: his intent to use force and to intimidate.
Here in Liberia, since the 1980s up to 2003, the military uniform has represented fear, arbitrariness, lawlessness, murder, rape, etc. The military uniform means the opposite of democratic engagement and the triumphalism of naked force. Thus a political party that opts for military uniform as its symbol, in the manner the CDC Secretary General has done, leaves not doubt that democratic engagement is dead, with force and its attributes as the options.
Hence, the CDC is now militarized party, poised seizes power by military means, that is it can, and it cannot. It is too feeble, petty and disorganized to benefit from Nazi tactics.
Defending his action, the man said there is no law forbidding anyone from wearing military uniforms, for that matter any uniform, including police, Immigration or SSS uniforms. And he said he would do it again because it is his right.
But the action goes beyond the law and right. It dwells on perception. The intent here is to sell the perception of violence, rebellion, force and intimidation because soldiers are not policemen. They use force and are used to fight wars. Thus the military uniform represents that mindset, that force is preeminent.
He said on radio in defense of his Gestapo uniforms that he had no weapon, except his so-called intellect. But does one need military uniforms, or any uniform to exercise intellect?
It is clear that the military uniforms were used as signals and symbols for intimidation and for good reasons because the uniforms, with the Liberian context, represent destruction, disorder and death.
From 1980 to 2003, the military uniform has stood as symbol of arbitrary death and state disintegration and what Mr. Gray and his party want to make known is their preparedness for disorder if power is not yielded through chaotic party split.
Selling the CDC as a feared gang prepared to recede into violence with its paramilitary attachments began in the last elections when the party security hands wore military uniforms. In Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County, they were spotted in military uniforms.
But, if fear is the intent, then the CDC has failed even before it can begin to dream of capturing power via force. This is because the landscape that made men who wore military uniforms—Samuel K. Doe, Charles Taylor and others—to succeed is no more.
The evidence is Mr. Taylor’s ordeal. Apart form that, the International Criminal Court, soon to have a Gambian woman as Chief Prosecutor, is extending its wings on violent African politicians. In this, leading Kenyan politicians, including Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, will soon stand trial for their roles in electoral violence that caused thousands of death.
Men like Acarous Gray have nothing to lose by throwing periodic threats that far surpass their capacity to implement. But threatening to hold society hostage for the failings of their party only exposes their unpreparedness for democratic governance.
It is the bitter power struggle within CDC, with its elected chair Senator Geraldine Doe Sherif, who, along with the party secretary General, had to sign the document nominating their candidate. Now, it is one thing for the love affair between Mrs. Sherif and the party owners to end, but she remains the officially recognized Chair without whose signature the document is invalid. And according to NEC, the CDC was 3 days late in meeting the requirements.
Mr. Gray hit a hard rock when the House plenary reminded him the legislature is not a court, and evidently the wrong place for his complaint.
It is a court issue, and the only court with jurisdiction over this issue is the Supreme Court.
The CDC has benefited from sweeping the rules under the carpet in the past. Now CDC believes that it’s privileged to violating the rules and be allowed to play the game because of its use of violence, which is feared. A clear example is the list of preconditions it presented for the October and November elections, with nonsensical demands such as the state paying for its poll watchers, amongst others. It has gone back on the drawing board, believing it is invincible and therefore suffering from the same disease that Charles Taylor suffered from.
But that the party is showing its feeble fangs of disorder this early is a blessing. The point is that should reserve its fear tactics, such as wearing military uniforms, for its gullible members. Fear is no longer useful in politics. Fear is self-defeating. | <urn:uuid:847f57ac-52b8-4bfb-9ce2-be5a3bbadb53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newdemocratnews.com/index.php/features/town-crier/1235-bent-on-rebellion-a-fear-as-virtues-for-power | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968895 | 1,211 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Clearcoil Cleaning of a Large Air Chiller Unit
Clearwater undertook the coil cleaning of a large roof top air chiller unit at an international airport. This was to assist our client with a major energy saving initiative, ensure HVAC equipment was properly maintained, improve system performance and make financial savings for the client.
Prior to the clean the coil was visibly contaminated with dust and debris. Contaminants within the coil can lead to loss of airflow and decreased energy efficiency.
Data of air flow and temperature measurements were taken from both sides of the coil pre and post cleaning works.
The coils and were initially jetted with compressed air and manually vacuuumed, before the coils were chemically deep cleaned with our ClearCoil product. The product is specifically formulated to move grease and debris without causing significant damage to the coils themselves.
Following cleaning, the coils were visibly cleaner, as pictured to the right.
The result was a clean and well maintained system with increased energy transfer rates and less energy required to achieve the desired temperature settings. This also meant that there were significant cost savings for the customer.
Air velocity was measured at 2.67m/s before the clean and 2.6m/s afterwards. The inlet air temperature into the coil was 3.7 degrees before the coil and 0.9 degrees after the clean. Outlet air temperature was measured at 22.7 degrees before the coil and 28.8 degrees after the coil. Based on the fan efficiency, the area of the coil, the cost of electricity and the hours online per year, the Energy Saving for one year was Estimated at £19,305. It should be noted that the fans work to a required duty load, hence a slower fan speed after the cleaning of the coils. | <urn:uuid:1baa5450-2ada-4180-bd77-23f672667a92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clearwater.eu.com/case_studies/clearcoil_cleaning_of_a_large_air_chiller_unit.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976537 | 360 | 1.59375 | 2 |
That's a form of local negative feedback. You see it on some MacIntosh amps. There has to be a cathode resistor somewhere though. Usually the 4 ohm tap is grounded or connected to the cathode bias resistor and the cathodes connect to the common and 16 ohm taps. Yes, the 4 ohm tap is the center tap, do the math. | <urn:uuid:22e77a3e-3324-48f3-9c81-083143dbf91d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://music-electronics-forum.com/t30365/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93133 | 76 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Traditionally college is a time to worry about classes, friends, part-time jobs and parental expectations. Yet in recent years, an increasing number of undergraduate students have added more to the equation – including families and full-time employment.
The presence of adult undergraduate students, those 25 and older, on traditional college campuses is felt throughout the nation.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, roughly 6.2 million college students in the United States are 25 or older.
“A lot of them got into the workforce early on and started up families,” said Elizabeth Ramirez, educational counselor for the Campus Accelerated Programs for Adults at the University of La Verne. “Then 10 to 15 years went by and they realized that they either wanted to go back to school to fulfill a personal goal or that they could advance in their current position.”
With a growing number of today’s undergraduate student body over the age of 25, universities are beginning to respond to this trend in the form of flexible class schedules and accelerated bachelor’s degree programs.
ULV has CAPA, a program which specializes in guiding adult students through their undergraduate work as swiftly and painlessly as possible.
“One thing our students don’t have is extra time, so we have to be as efficient as possible and make sure they are not taking classes they don’t need,” Ramirez said. “Every semester we take into consideration what their work schedule and personal commitments are, and then we create an academic plan.”
Other universities are answering the call as well. In 1992, Azusa Pacific University established the Center for Adult and Professional Studies, which offers six different degree programs. Both APU and ULV are similar in that they try to supply a student with everything they are going to need under one roof.
“We try to be a one-stop-shop here because we know our students don’t have time to be running all over campus,” Ramirez said. “We can help them with admissions, academic advising and even process their graduation paper work. We are here for them from beginning to end.”
These efforts do not go unnoticed by their recipients.
“CAPA advisers are always there to help us,” said Jessica Bohatch, a 29-year-old CAPA senior and mother of two.
Bohatch keeps busy as a local grocery store’s supervisor and the mother of a 17-month-old son and an 8-year-old daughter. But she managed to make time to continue her education when she decided to pursue her bachelor’s degree in English after graduating from Riverside Community College and spending some time at Cal Poly Pomona.
“My dad used to teach at ULV and I was supposed to go here straight out of high school, but I went elsewhere,” Bohatch said. “A couple of years ago, I decided to once again look into going to ULV and I was told about the CAPA program from the admissions office; after talking to CAPA, I knew this was the school for me.”
Monica Freitas, a 42-year-old CAPA senior and single mother of five, also shares the same sentiments.
The flexibility of CAPA is incredible,” Fretias said. “I can take classes and still pick my kids up from school.”
With the load Freitas carries, she needs all the flexibility she can get.
Freitas’ hectic schedule includes being the single mother of 18-year-old twin girls and three boys, ages 16, 13 and 11. She also works as an aerobics instructor and a substitute teacher.
I heard that they had night, weekend and accelerated classes,” Freitas said. “The program was perfect for me and where I’m at in my life.”
After graduating from Mount San Antonio College with her associate’s degree, Freitas began looking into Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly Pomona to finish her bachelor’s degree.
“I never dreamed in a million years that I could go to a private college, but I kept hearing 'La Verne, La Verne, La Verne,' from everyone,” Freitas said.
CAPA and similar programs aid adult students through their undergraduate experience by offering convenient alternatives to fit the demands of their jam packed lives.
“We really have to gear our program guide all of our services around their schedules, which is why we offer evening classes, weekend classes and online courses,” Ramirez said.
“You have to approach education so differently when you’re working with adult students because they’re dealing with full-time work schedules, children and other responsibilities,” Ramirez added.
Cal State Long Beach opted to have an “Adult Re-entry Workshop,” which assists students with admission to the university, informs them of the academic programs and student support services available, and helps them to develop an individual educational strategy.
Other schools offer specially designed programs and majors to support adult students on their journey to graduation as well.
Biola University currently has two degree programs for adults who have completed 50 to 60 transferable units.
While Pitzer College has had a “New Resources Program” set in place since 1974 to assist post-college age students.
Without programs like these, success in an undergraduate setting may have been near impossible for some adult students who are dealing with real life issues, such as raising a family.
“I can take classes at night or on the weekends and still work full time; if I were a traditional undergrad I probably couldn't have afforded to take quite as many classes,” Bohatch said. “That’s the only difficult aspect of being a traditional student and it’s why I‘m glad to be in CAPA.”
It’s because of students like Bohatch and Freitas that confronting these needs is so critical.
“When more and more adults are going back to college and starting college at a later age, programs are needed to address those students,” Bohatch said. “Why not support a major portion of the population at your school? It makes sense.”
Christine Collier can be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:424541c9-a289-408c-afe5-388a56ff979e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.laverne.edu/ctimes/040706/news_stories/capa.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973722 | 1,334 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Barefoot Cay is located in the Western Caribbean, on the island of Roatan. Roatan is about thirty miles north of the mainland of Central America. Roatan and the surrounding islands of Utila and Guanaja, collectively called the Bay Islands, were British colonies until the 1850s when they became a part of Honduras. Roatan, the largest of the Bay Islands, is about thirty miles long but only between two to three miles wide. There are numerous bays and fjords accessible through various cuts in the reef that surround the island. The reef drops off vertically to the deep ocean floor offering some of the most fabulous wall diving in the world. A modern international airport is located about 10 minutes from Barefoot Cay, near the town of Coxen Hole on the western side of the island, with daily direct flights from several U.S. cities.
Located about one third of the way from the west side, on the south shore of Roatan, is the town of French Harbour. Barefoot Cay is one bead of a necklace of cays between French Harbour and Brick Bay to the west. Situated between the reef entrances of French Harbour and Brick Bay, Barefoot Cay is 1.2 miles west of French Harbour. Barefoot Cay Resort has beachfront accommodations and amenities such as the dining service and pool on the cay, and additional amenities of dive shop, spa rooms, and retail shop, as well as our oceanview loft accommodations on the other side of the channel in the Barefoot Divers building. Boats and yachts with up to a 9 foot draft can travel through the 75-foot-wide channel that separates the island of Roatan and Barefoot Cay, and dock at our full-service luxury marina.
Continental, Delta and TACA Airlines fly directly from the U.S. to Roatan. Continental flies from/to Houston on Saturdays and Sundays. Continental flies from/to Newark on Saturdays. Delta flies from/to Atlanta on Saturdays. TACA flies from/to Miami on Sundays and from/to Houston on Saturdays. All three airlines, in addition to United, fly to San Pedro Sula on the mainland Honduras daily from various U.S. cities with commuter flights available to Roatan. Sunwing offers direct flights to Roatan from Toronto and Montreal, Canada, during the winter months. Current flight information and fares can be obtained through the links above or through travel agents. Barefoot Cay can also help to arrange your travel plans and car rental, if requested.
|Visa & passport requirements
All travelers need a passport with an expiry date which is at least six months from your arrival date in order to enter Honduras. Upon entering the country, you will be issued a ninety day "tourist" visa if you are traveling with a US or Canadian passport. Other nationalities please check with the Honduran consulate to see entry requirements. A yellow fever vaccination certificate if arriving from a country with a risk of yellow fever. There is a $37 airport tax charge when leaving the country.
The national language is Spanish, however since the Bay Islands were once British colonies, many people on Roatan speak or understand English.
Roatan offers a favorable tropical climate all year round, where the temperature generally ranges between 77°F and 84°F (25°C and 29°C). On the south shore of Roatan, Barefoot Cay benefits from the prevailing easterly trade winds.
All during the year, the weather patterns change frequently on Roatan. Mid-October to December or mid-January are the rainiest times on Roatan, but rainfall is often periodic and a typical day or week in the rainy season can include days that have full or partial sunshine, along with some occasional or continual rain. The tropical rain on Roatan often begins and ends abruptly. The island’s indigenous exotic trees and plants are kept healthy by ample annual rainfall.
The summer months are warmer and there typically is less breeze, however on Barefoot Cay, there is usually at least a light breeze, especially on the Palapa, which extends 260’ from the Cay itself. It’s easy to cool off on even the warmest days with a short swim in the pool or the Caribbean Sea. The heat in the mid to late summer months sometimes causes nighttime electrical storms on Roatan.
While Roatan’s median temperature is 80°F (26.7°C), its waters are equally warm. The average water temperature varies from approximately 78°F (25.5°C) in winter to 84°F (29°C) in summer.
Roatan lies to the south of the main hurricane track, which typically passes through the eastern Caribbean, then north through Cuba and to the United States.
How to Help Roatan
Some guests like to fill extra suitcases with supplies to be used by the schools or medical facilities on Roatan, or with extra clothing or toys for people the here. We will be pleased to distribute such donations brought to Roatan by guests.
What to Bring
The dress is casual on Roatan, with bathing suit, shorts, T shirts, tank tops being typical attire. Bring more than one bathing suit. The sun is intense, so a lightweight long sleeved shirt and pants are handy to have. Rubber thongs or TEVA's provide good footwear. CROCS are sold a Barefoot Cay.
Roatan uses the same electric voltage as the U.S.: AC (60Hz), 120/240 volts. The local electric provider, RECO, has outages from time to time but they typically do not last long. Barefoot Cay has a back-up generator that serves all buildings on the Cay during power outages.
The local currency is the Lempira. The exchange rate to U.S. dollars is approximately 19 Lempiras to one U.S. dollar. U.S. dollars are accepted at nearly all locations on Roatan. There are ATM machines in French Harbour and Coxen Hole. Credit cards are accepted at many places, however there is usually a fee for using a credit card. Travelers’ checks are not accepted everywhere, but we can usually make arrangements for cashing travelers’ checks in limited amounts.
All tap water on Barefoot Cay is filtered, sterilized and safe for drinking. It is best at other places in Honduras to request bottled water.
Eldon's in French Harbour stocks a wide variety of groceries, produce and liquor. In addition, there are numerous pulperias that offer grocery items and produce.
There are numerous restaurants on Roatan offering a variety of menu selections, in several price ranges. Barefoot Cay has the menus from many of our guests' favorite places to eat. There are three restaurants in close by French Harbour, one of which can be reached by small boat.
Meal and beverage services are available to guests of Barefoot Cay. Served in the Pool Cabana, Lookout Lounge or in your bungalow, villa or boat, you can select from yummy preparations of local or imported foods and beverages.
The Bay Islands are generally safe for visitors, however normal precaution should be taken, such as when walking at night or walking in remote areas. Barefoot Cay has full security. | <urn:uuid:5598df15-5140-457e-ab8a-777ba9c85cd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.barefootcay.com/Resort/Location/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944661 | 1,494 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Y-CAP (DAVIDSON County)
The YMCA Community Action Project, or Y-CAP, is a YMCA center dedicated to serving at-risk youth in East Nashville one heart, one mind and one spirit at a time.
The Y-CAP program began in 1986 and was formed as its own center in 1992 on the belief that the real solutions to the problems facing at-risk youth can only come through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Y-CAP programs are guided by the YMCA's core character values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.
Youth who come to Y-CAP are held accountable for their actions. In return, they receive a long-term commitment from caring staff members and volunteers dedicated to helping them learn from their past mistakes and supporting them as they learn to grow in spirit, mind and body.
Y-CAP (Williamson County)
Williamson County Y-CAP (YMCA Community Action Project) is an outreach program
that serves at-risk youth in Williamson County by offering dynamic opportunities
to grow in Spirit, Mind, and Body. Our mission is to offer new possibilities for
at-risk youth who would ordinarily be stuck in a cycle of negative choices but
because of Y-CAP, they establish positive principles to build healthy spirits,
minds, and bodies. Our values-based, holistic program provides these at-risk
youth a second chance, and we have seen many lives changed for the better.
Williamson County Y-CAP is housed at the Juvenile Courts and Service building
and works hand and hand with the Juvenile Court system and Alternative Learning
Center to challenge youth to become positive role models in their community.
This outreach program is designed to build a relationship with students based on
trust and accountability for their decisions and behavior. Y-CAP’s
Prevention-based program is operated out of Williamson County Alternative
Learning Center (ALC).
The ALC annually serves approximately 300 students. Students may be sent to the
ALC from their home schools for charges ranging from disorderly conduct and drug
and alcohol procession to gang related activity. The goal of Y-CAP is to
redirect a students’ focus from negative choices and friendships, to positive
choices and friendships, thereby interrupting the patterns that got them into | <urn:uuid:55d0d50d-746f-4df3-bc79-f10d999a4b5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ymcamidtn.org/locations/center.aspx?CenterId=10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95786 | 481 | 1.664063 | 2 |
A special membership application is uncovered in the AAVSO archives. (Updated at bottom)
Recently I've been analyzing the responses to the member demographic survey we conducted last November and December. One of the questions I have been trying to address is whether the "greying of astronomy" is real. That is, are variable star observers (and amateurs in general) getting older, on average. It's a complicated question that I'll save for a later post.
In the process of doing that research, I went into the AAVSO archives to compile the ages of random past members to see how ages may have changed over time. I looked at the original member applications kept since our founding in 1911 (we still have around 90% of them by my count). This was great fun as I ran across many famous observers (Leslier Peltier, Sir Patrick Moore). But one particular application caught my eye. It is below.
Note the day and the location of the application (click here or on the i mage for a higher resolution version if you cannot read it). A feeling of melancholy came over me as I read it. A young, American male on Guam 11 months prior to the Japanese invasion probably did not stand much chance of survival. I checked the AAVSO International Database to see if we had any post-World War Two observations by Mr. Brunton to confirm his survival. However, we had no observations from him from any time. He probably never had a chance to even make a first observation.
So, knowing the Internet is what it is, I thought to look for casualty lists from Guam in WW2 thinking that maybe we'll find his name on such a list. It only took about 10 minutes of Google-fu to find the truth. He worked for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks. And I'm happy to say that he survived. He was taken by the Japanese as a civilian prisoner in December 1941 and spent the rest of the war in an internment camp near Kobe, Japan. He was released in September 1945. You can see his name on the prisoner list here and get a description of the camp here . So the story ends well, but I'm sure not without hardship. And it's a reminder that behind every observation in our database, and every member application we receive, is a real human living a real life.
120227 Update: The AAVSO centennial book includes an entry about the experiences of other AAVSO members in World War Two including three other prisoners of war. Tom Rutherford (RTH) sent an e-mail pointing out that the December, 1941 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine has an article by Foster Brunton about the September 21, 1941 solar eclipse, which appears on page 5 of that issue (and is available on the Sky & Telescope DVD ). Also, Robert Hill, via the AAVSO Facebook page , says: "The gentleman appears to have returned to Guam after the war, as recorded in the ASP report of 1947: 1947PASP...59..101 ". | <urn:uuid:a6f36141-0687-4463-80a6-1d3352cc99a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aavso.org/print/3031 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978457 | 629 | 1.625 | 2 |
Paul Vitagliano Reclaims Gay Childhoods With Book & Blog
In January of 2011, Paul Vitagliano created a place online called (borngaybornthisway.blogspot.com) for "those gay adults (of all genders) to submit childhood pictures and stories (roughly ages 2 to 12), reflecting the memories and early beginnings of their innate LGBTQ selves.
"See how nurture allows what nature endows," writes Vitagliano on his blog’s homepage. "And it’s their nature, their truth!"
The popularity of his blog led him to create "Born This Way: Real Stories of Growing Up Gay," a book with which Vitagliano presents over 100 of these photos and accompanying thoughts on self-awareness and ultimate self-acceptance.
The stories and photos represent a cross-section of people from the United States, several foreign countries and even a few prominent members of the LGBT community such as Michael Musto, Andy Bell and Barney Frank and others. As he said of his book during our interview, "It’s another tool or another way to break down misconceptions, flat-out lies about our community and the negativity. We should not be judged on our sexuality. We should be judged on our deeds and our actions, just like straight people."
EDGE: Your book has an innovative concept, but I was curious as to its age-appropriateness. If you were asked to put an age-appropriate tag on ’Born This Way,’ what would you recommend?
Paul Vitagliano: That’s hard. Probably age seven and up. While this is a book for adults, I’m so hoping that it gets into the hands of kids. Those are the moments especially before puberty that most of the confusion, the worrying and the not knowing... and though I hate to say it, the dread of once you figure out that ’I’m different’ or ’What does that mean? Why am I not like other kids?’ So, the book can reach them and show them that other people had those feelings too and they made it through.
EDGE: Right. I think one of the most important facets of the book is for someone who is in their teens and discovering the feelings you mention and realizing that they are not alone.
Paul Vitagliano: This is an important message that I want people to realize is that our identity at a young age is really not about sexuality per say, it’s not about the knowledge of sex. It’s about this innate attraction and connection we have to the same gender. There is nothing explicit in the book. We purposely made it about cognizance of self-awareness.
I actually hope that younger kids will actually be able to read it themselves or have it read to them by parents or teachers. The thing is it needs to be normalized. It shouldn’t be thought of as ’Oh, we’re reading this taboo subject that is not really the ’norm.’’ It is the norm. We need to not treat homosexuality and gay people as the secret or the ’hush-hush’ topic. This is everyday life. I hope that little-by-little, it knocks those perceptions down.
Playing Dr. Phil
EDGE: The book is a great tool for parents who possibly have a gay or lesbian child and the fact that the parents might have to deal with the child being bullied or simply being different, or even a parent’s acceptance of having a gay child.
Paul Vitagliano: That’s right. In my introduction, the last thing I say is that my message is for parents. You need to realize that your child could be straight or they could be gay. It’s a fact and it is okay.
EDGE: The book is also entertaining as the photos are really just kids being ’kids.’ For those who have ’been there’ or older gays and lesbians who have found that core of self-acceptance within themselves, it also strikes an important message.
Paul Vitagliano: What I want to add to that is there is a ’cut-off’ point for the age of the person in the photo because what you see... for example, ’the cover boy in the plaid jumpsuit is three-years-old’ is that we don’t censor ourselves, the younger we are. That’s when our true nature shows through. One other person in the book said, ’Children don’t censor themselves. And you might as well not try because your photos are going to capture it anyway.’
EDGE: A gay adult might say of that plaid jumpsuit, ’Oh boy, he’s working it!’
Paul Vitagliano: And ’working it’ means I’m just me. You know what I mean? Yes, there are some silly-ass photos and some of them are stereotypes but there also are bunches that are school photos or don’t really say anything per se in a pose. Photos do capture our essence and even in a school photo sometimes... it’s all there.
EDGE: What was some of the feedback you received after initially starting the blog?
Paul Vitagliano: I would say and this was almost immediately that about 80 percent of the blind e-mails I got were from parents. The subject was either ’I have straight kids but I’m teaching them to be accepting and tolerant of all people’ or ’I have a seven-year-old boy and he loves the color ’pink’ and he doesn’t play sports, he’s sensitive and I’m not sure what this means. What do I do?’
I was playing Dr. Phil for a while but I was really glad to do it. Again, this is how things change. What I told all these parents was to accept their child exactly as they are and give them unconditional love and to ask their child, ’What makes you happy?’ Just to support those things and not to treat it as a freak-out moment or negative moment and to just treat it as a fact.
Talking to parents
EDGE: That’s phenomenal. As well as being a cute or entertaining book, there is also depth to it, if you look a little further, to helping parents or children. The fact that parents are contacting you is an excellent thing.
Paul Vitagliano: Yeah and I’m really floored by a lot of e-mails I got of how younger parents of today look at this as opposed to say, my parents or an older generation. It’s that we’re really getting to that place where it’s just another fact. It’s not a bad fact... it’s just a fact. The future is the acceptance of this.
EDGE: The dialogue on your blog and the book open a ’window’ for everyone.
Paul Vitagliano: The blog really took on a much larger purpose and had a much deeper impact. Instead of ’This is really silly and fun’ it went to ’I just feel really connected to this.’ I’m not going to brag but I knew it was a great idea. Let’s put it that way. To catch the way that it did and to get the support for the book, that support really was there from the very beginning. The blog is up to almost 3.9 million hits. All these people are finding it and taking the time to read it. I also am grateful to Quirk Books for publishing ’Born This Way: Real Stories of Growing Up Gay.’ They saw something in it and really believed in it. That’s really important to me.
"Born This Way: Real Stories of Growing Up Gay" by Paul Vitagliano is available at amazon.com and borngaybornthisway.blogspot.com | <urn:uuid:cca44acd-ee60-439b-ad4f-505cbb6bc5b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edgeatlanta.com/entertainment/books/138851/paul_vitagliano_reclaims_gay_childhoods_with_book_&_blog | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973851 | 1,709 | 1.8125 | 2 |
A question of legalization
Marijuana amendment leading in poll
Opinions differ among county residents and leaders on legalizing the use and possession of small amounts of marijuana which voters will decide on in the November election.
The latest poll shows the state’s marijuana amendment winning by a 47 to 38 percent margin. Amendment 64, which would legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, would allow residents to legally use or possess less than one ounce.
Public Policy Polling found these results in a survey of 1,001 likely voters from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percent.
A similar motion was rejected by Colorado voters in 2006, with 59 percent opposing the legalization to 41 percent in favor.
Will Furse, who is running unopposed for district attorney for the 22nd Judicial District, chose his words carefully when asked his opinion on the marijuana amendment.
He said whatever voters decide in November will be the laws and regulations that he, as the DA, will enforce.
Furse added that he is a big believer in sovereign states or states making their own laws.
He conceded that the case load could be lighter if possession of marijuana and usage were no longer crimes.
Montezuma County Sheriff Dennis Spruell offers strong opinions against legalizing marijuana. He said he hopes voters will not support the amendment that would make Colorado the only state in the union to legalize the drug.
Spruell said he was a little surprised to hear the latest poll numbers because he thought the majority of the state would realize the dangers of Amendment 64 being approved.
If the public votes in favor of the amendment, Spruell does not think federal law will trump state law. Possession or use of marijuana would still be illegal on the federal level.
He said what might happen is a loss of federal funding since Colorado would be doing something federal law opposes.
The sheriff said if the amendment passes, Colorado would be a stopping point for out-of-state residents who would be visiting for only one reason — to purchase marijuana — before traveling back to the state where they live.
Spruell said it would be extremely difficult to stop these people who would be breaking the law once they crossed into another state where possession of marijuana would be a crime.
He also pointed out that the approval of Amendment 64 could result in the drug being sold almost anywhere, including grocery and drug stores.
While the amendment would only allow people 21 and older to purchase marijuana, Spruell thinks children would be affected because parents would feel no need to hide it, which would make it more accessible to kids.
Spruell penned a guest opinion column on Sept. 4 in the Journal on his opposition to legalizing the drug. (Go to http://tinyurl.com/8ruhngx to read the article.)
Spruell said that he thinks marijuana is a gateway or a precursor to more dangerous drugs like methamphetamine and heroin. The Montezuma-Cortez School District is and will be watching to see what policy changes it may have to enact if the illegal drug becomes legal.
Superintendent Alex Carter has contacted the Colorado School Board Association to see what they would advise school districts to do about this possible change because any switch would result in a change in policy.
C.J. Murphy, owner of True Earth Medicine, a medical marijuana dispensary in Cortez, said he does not think the legalization of the drug would affect his business much, partly because the law would be so ambiguous with everything being clear.
Murphy said the people benefitting the most would be patients who don’t want to or do not have the money to visit doctors in order to obtain medical marijuana cards, which is the current law in the state.
He said people would be able to come to a facility to purchase the drug with or without a medical marijuana card, so he believes that his business could increase if the amendment passes.
Murphy believes if the amendment is approved the selling of the drug will be treated similar to how liquor stores operate.
“I think it will probably get passed, but it will not have the repercussions many think it will,” he said.
Part of the reasoning, he said, is because medical marijuana legalization is now in its third year, and this has given the government more information on how to get a handle on the drug.
“Colorado is not entering into this (blind),” he said, adding that Colorado passed California as the one leading the charge on the drug initiative due to the laws and how it is controlled.
“There is more legislation here,” Murphy said. “We are leaps and bounds above California.” | <urn:uuid:a1ba09e5-fc68-4666-95bb-c9c1c718c8cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cortezjournal.com/article/20120913/NEWS01/709139983 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969645 | 967 | 1.703125 | 2 |
1 Jn 2:18-21
Children, it is the last hour;
and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming,
so now many antichrists have appeared.
Thus we know this is the last hour.
They went out from us, but they were not really of our number;
if they had been, they would have remained with us.
Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number.
But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One,
and you all have knowledge.
I write to you not because you do not know the truth
but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.
I quoted Cardinal Biffi recently, he suggests the antichrist is likely to be a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist. Dietrich Bonhoffer, the protestant theologian killed by the Nazis because of his involvement in the plot to kill Hitler, speaks about "cheap" or easy grace, I think it is the same thing, the ethical message of Christ without the Cross, or the embarassment of the person of Christ. St John identifies antichrists as those who reject part of the Truth, it is always a temptation for "good" reasons to tailor the Gospel to our audience, or our preferences. Being a Catholic and passing on the Faith in its entirety should guard against this.
If the church wants to reach young people today, it must avoid the temptation to "fudge" on core Catholic beliefs in an effort to make them more agreeable to contemporary tastes, a Vatican official said.
Instead, it should confront with courage the major barriers in modern evangelization, including cultural resistance to the proclamation of Christ as the unique savior, said Dominican Father Augustine DiNoia, undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
"No one in his or her right mind will be interested in a faith about which its exponents seem too embarrassed to communicate forthrightly," Father DiNoia said.
"We have to be convinced that the fullness of the truth and beauty of the message about Jesus Christ is powerfully attractive when it is communicated without apologies or compromise," he said.
Father DiNoia made the remarks in the Carl J. Peter lecture delivered Dec. 7 at Rome's Pontifical North American College. His speech took its theme from Pope Benedict XVI's talk to U.S. bishops last April, when the pope said they could best help people meet God by "clearing away some of the barriers to such an encounter."
Father DiNoia said these barriers are in part intellectual, and can be remedied by robust preaching and teaching that responds to the younger generation's openness to discussion and debate.
"In our conversations with young people, we have to avoid the temptation to fudge -- to adapt the Catholic faith so as to make it palatable to modern tastes and expectations," Father DiNoia said.
"This so-called 'accommodationist' approach generally fails, and it fails doubly with young people. There is a risk in this approach that the Christian message becomes indistinguishable from everything else on offer in the market stalls of secularized religious faith," he said.
Father DiNoia examined what he said were the three biggest obstacles to evangelizing young people today. The first, he said, is "the notion that it is arrogant to claim that Jesus Christ is the unique mediator of salvation."
He said that in confronting this barrier the church needs to first make clear that faith in Christ's uniqueness does not devalue other religions, which are worthy of respect and study as "monuments to the search for God."
But what makes Christianity different is that it is principally about "God's search for us" and God's desire to give human beings a share in divine life, he said.
"Given that salvation in the Christian sense of the term involves both reconciliation of sinners and the elevation of creaturely persons to a new kind of life, it cannot come from within this world. Saviors are a dime a dozen when one fails to grasp what's really at stake. We need to be delivered not just from error, or suffering, or desire, or injustice, or poverty," he said.
"God desires nothing less than to share his life with us," he said. Only Jesus Christ could accomplish that, he said, and Christians need to affirm that in bringing salvation for them and for others, Jesus is "not just any savior."
Father DiNoia identified a second barrier to the evangelization of young people in the mistaken and predominant belief that being a Christian means giving up one's freedom and replacing it with conformity to an external set of rules.
It is true that Christian faith requires conformity to Christ, he said. But this is not a "slavish conformity"; it presupposes the full realization of the unique human person, not his suppression, he said.
The third major barrier, Father DiNoia said, is the idea that the church's moral teachings are more or less arbitrary, allowing or forbidding certain things regardless of their real relationship with human goodness.
Young people need to know that the church rejects this "culture of legalism" in theology, and that Catholic teachings are aimed primarily at fostering virtue, not instilling obedience. Like an athlete's exercise and diet regime, which prepares him for a good performance, the church's moral teachings are designed to lead the person to goodness and happiness, he said. | <urn:uuid:300127c2-fab9-4b5b-944e-474a744b813f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marymagdalen.blogspot.co.uk/2008_12_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969684 | 1,132 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Submitted to: North Central Avian Disease Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: November 9, 2000
Publication Date: N/A
Turkey coryza is an highly contagious upper respiratory disease of turkeys caused by infection with Bordetella avium. The disease impairs growth and increases the susceptibility of young turkeys to other infections. In addition, it is associated with vaccine immunization failure well into the convalescent phase of the disease, perhaps due to immunosuppression. Depletion of thymic lymphocytes and decreased T-lymphocyte blastogenesis response to mitogen are reported features of immune-cell changes in coryza- affected turkeys. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether intraperitoneal administration of a purified dermonecrotic heat- labile toxin (DHLT) isolated from B. avium could produce lymphocyte depletion, as determined by quantitation of apoptosis in primary and secondary lymphoid organs of turkey poults. Sections each of bursa, thymus, and spleen were examined. Image processing, performed by Image Pro oPlusR version 4.0 for Windows (trademark) software, included color discrimination and area calculation. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine significant sources of variation contributing to treatment means. Exposure of poults to DHLT produced lesions indicative of mild lymphocyte necrosis or apoptosis in the thymus and bursa of Fabricius. However, computer-assisted image analysis of lymphocyte apoptosis in bursal tissue did not substantiate the subjective assessment of lymphocyte depletion. Considerable morphologic variation existed between individuals within treatment groups. The spectrum of appearances of healthy tissue from subject to subject commands caution in interpretation of subjective findings. | <urn:uuid:0e3304ea-941b-4616-a66b-e12ddcab9cc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=115199 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937311 | 373 | 1.554688 | 2 |
As someone from the West who is unacquainted with blood money, the article “Scholars express concern over exorbitant blood money demands” (Aug 5) was very interesting. It seems that diya or blood money was restricted to 100 camels fourteen hundred years ago. In those ancient times, people traveled by donkey, horse or camel, while today they would travel by bike, scooter or automobile. Perhaps blood money could be reassessed and restricted to the total price of one bike,one scooter and one fancy car.
I smiled while reading the editorial “Saudi Arabia’s Olympic moment” (Aug 5) in which it was said that the high noon drama of the use of headscarves in the Olympic Games could have been avoided. However, I would like to point out that this non-bloody drama filled the pages of newspapers and other media, diverting gloomy news about Myanmar, Syria, Timbuktu, floods in the Philippines, drought in India, etc.
Olga Pitcairn, US | <urn:uuid:f7fdd2dd-47e2-41b9-8a9a-35fcbc47b0b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20120807132404 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963897 | 215 | 1.789063 | 2 |
After we brought you news of Dyson's "revolutionary" new Airblade
hand-drying system yesterday, the comments that followed were pretty equally divided into two camps: about half of you were worried that the high-speed pressurized air would rip the skin and fingernails right off your hands, while the other half pointed out that similar devices have been available overseas for many years. Well sure enough, we just "caught wind" of another such dryer from Mitsubishi -- called the Jet Towel -- and not only does it offer similar guarantees of speedy drying and improved hygiene, it's actually shaped almost exactly like the Dyson model. Now there's nothing wrong with releasing a competing product onto the market -- hey, that's what capitalism is all about -- but we've got to take issue with Dyson's press release that states "The hand dryer: dirty, ineffective and expensive to run...so we reinvented it." Um, no you didn't -- you just took an existing dryer, added an iodine resin filter, and snazzed up the design quite a bit. Oh, and for the commenters concerned that those 400MPH air "blades" will ruin your expensive manicures, you'll be happy to learn that the Jet Towel is a much pokier machine: its blower can barely manage to break 200MPH. | <urn:uuid:9ffe949b-57ce-4a7b-922a-1da5b6598f23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/05/the-dyson-airblade-not-all-that-original/ | 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 | 0.972906 | 280 | 1.539063 | 2 |
fRank Takes on PageRank
Where have I been? That's the question that my readers (both of you, not including my brother) may have asked in the last couple of months. I've been where I've always been, but I've been reading much more than I've been writing. Some of that reading has been research papers of the sort put out by the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2) or the Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval (SIGIR).
One of these papers came out of Microsoft and is called Beyond PageRank: Machine Learning for Static Ranking. Ooh. Anything with PageRank in the title, must be good, right? Well, actually in this case yes. The paper was an excellent read and I highly recommend it despite it being from 2006. Because I have a memory like a sieve, I've decided to note some of the highlights for future reference.
A good query-independent ranking or static ranking algorithm is key for search engine success and provides:
- A general indication of the overall quality of a page.
- The ability for the search engine to quickly stop searching for results once a particular threshold of quality has been passed.
- A clue to setting the priority for what pages should be crawled first.
It's generally accepted that Google's PageRank is the best method for the static ranking of Web pages, but the authors of this page have set out to demonstrate otherwise. Their argument is stated as such:
"There are a number of simple URL- or page-based features that significantly outperform PageRank (for the purposes of statically ranking web pages) despite ignoring the structure of the web. We combine these and other static features using machine learning to achieve a ranking system that is significantly better than PageRank (in pairwise agreement with human labels)."
Pretty bold statement, right?
I won't attempt to describe what is meant by a machine learning approach, but some of the benefits cited by the authors include:
- Multiple measures that make it hard for malicious users to manipulate (especially of the measures are kept secret).
- An algorithm that learns allows for a feature to be de-emphasized should it become subject to manipulation.
- Taking advantage of advances in machine learning field e.g. it is apparently possible to adjust the ranking model ahead of the spammer's attempts to circumvent it.
And so RankNet was born -- the Microsoft researchers' implementation of a "modified standard neural network back-prop algorithm". And from it a new measure call fRank (for feature-based ranking).
The paper includes details of various experiments which are worth reading, but the gist the results is that fRank performs significantly better than PageRank despite a lack of information about the web graph. As a side benefit, fRank tends to bias pages that web users actually prefer rather than those preferred by web authors when compared to PageRank. I had to mull that one over for a while.
And what simple measures in combination beat the all mighty PageRank?
- Popularity as measured by the number of times it was visited by users over time. The MSN Toolbar provided this data. Yes, the MSN Toolbar, as with other toolbars, could very well be a factor in rankings.
- Anchor text length and number of unique words in that text. I'm not sure what length is optimal, but I guess the authors determine such a value.
- Page elements such as number of words in the body and the frequency of the most common term.
- PageRank as computed on 5 billion pages.
- Domain-level elements such as the number of outlinks on any page and the average PageRank. | <urn:uuid:4c043ddd-10da-419b-ab85-c39554f73fc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://infolific.com/technology/internet/seo/frank-takes-on-pagerank/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94415 | 762 | 1.570313 | 2 |
"I believe that it is vitally important to have our country's flag in our sanctuary. Many of us put our lives on the line for God and the country that flag represents and we are proud of it whether it is torn, tattered, or stained with our blood."
This statement was made recently by a member of St. Andrew UMC, following my discovery and announcement that the flag in the Sanctuary had come into disrepair, and that it needed to be replaced. I had the intent of rolling the flag up, disposing of it properly, and then replacing the flag when a new one became available. The response of the congregation was wonderful in their ability to pick up this concern and provide for a new flag for the Sanctuary at St. Andrew UMC.
I was struck by this message of passion and pride from this congregant because I have the same feelings about the Scriptures. I am reminded of the many stories of the Torah scrolls in Jewish Synagogues throughout Eastern Europe during the Nazi regime, and the destruction it took upon the scrolls. And yet, the remaining pieces were so sacred as to be held with care, and love. They loved it, for all the sacrifices that had been made, the blood shed, and the pride held.
I am also reminded of a story told several years ago about a Christian enclave, again in Eastern Europe if I remember correctly, that only had a fragment of a page of Scripture from the Gospel of Luke. For nearly 50 years this was all they had, and yet every time they gathered, which was most every Sunday, they would pull this worn page from the pocket of the Elder of the church, read it and meditate on the words therein.
Some things are just that precious. May we learn to treat one another with that same level of respect and care.
Labels: Congregational Care, Discipleship, Emerging Church | <urn:uuid:404de0ed-b51b-4801-8ed7-466fbac0c2a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://revcamp.blogspot.com/2009/08/passion-and-pride.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98142 | 385 | 1.671875 | 2 |
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
On February 22, 2000, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") instituted public administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings pursuant to Sections 15(b) and 21C of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ("Exchange Act") against All-Tech Direct, Inc. f/k/a All-Tech Investment Group, Inc. ("All-Tech"), Harry Lefkowitz ("Lefkowitz"), Mark Shefts ("Shefts"), Lisa Esposito ("Esposito"), Ralph Zulferino ("Zulferino"), David Waldman ("Waldman"), Adam Leeds ("Leeds"), and Barry Parish.
All-Tech has submitted an Offer of Settlement ("Offer"), which the Commission has determined to accept. Solely for the purpose of these proceedings and any other proceeding brought by or on behalf of the Commission, or in which the Commission is a party, and without admitting or denying the findings contained herein, except for the jurisdiction of the Commission over All-Tech and over the subject matter of these proceedings, which are admitted, All-Tech consents to the entry of the findings, a cease-and-desist order, compliance with undertakings and the imposition of the remedial sanctions set forth herein.
On the basis of this Order and the Offer submitted by All-Tech, the Commission finds that:1
A. All-Tech is, and was during the relevant period, a broker-dealer registered with the Commission and incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware. Ninety-six percent of All-Tech is owned by Rushmore Financial Services, Inc. ("Rushmore"), a company incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware. All-Tech offers day-trading services to customers through its principal office and fourteen branches throughout the United States and through direct line electronic access similar to an internet connection.
OTHER RELEVANT RESPONDENTS
B. Mark Shefts ("Shefts"), 42, is, and was during the relevant period, a registered representative and President of All-Tech. Shefts owns, and owned during the relevant period, two percent of All-Tech directly and another 48 percent of All-Tech indirectly through his ownership of Rushmore. Shefts works in All-Tech's headquarters in Montvale, New Jersey, and resides in Tuxedo Park, New York.
C. Harry Lefkowitz ("Lefkowitz"), 43, is, and was during the relevant period, Vice-President of Operations for All-Tech and supervisor of All-Tech's back office, including the margin department, and branch office operations. Lefkowitz works in All-Tech's headquarters in Montvale, New Jersey and resides in Goshen, New York.
D. Lisa Esposito ("Esposito"), 34, is, and was during the relevant period, employed by All-Tech as a supervisor of its margin department at the firm's headquarters in Montvale, New Jersey. She resides in Garnerville, New York.
E. Ralph Zulferino ("Zulferino"), 40, is, and was during the relevant period, an All-Tech registered representative, and the branch office manager of All-Tech's Edison, New Jersey, branch office. He resides in Marlboro, New Jersey.
F. David Waldman ("Waldman"), 58, resides in Monsey, New York and was employed by All-Tech from approximately February through August 14, 1998. During this period, Waldman was an associated person, although he did not have a formal title. Waldman is an attorney.
G. Adam Leeds ("Leeds"), 31, resides in San Diego, California and was a registered representative in All-Tech's San Diego branch office from January 20, 1998 until June 25, 1999.
ALL-TECH'S UNLAWFUL EXTENSION OF MARGIN CREDIT AND
H. Throughout 1998, when the equity in certain margin accounts held by day-trading customers fell below the minimum required by Regulation T ("Regulation T") promulgated by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve ("Federal Reserve"), 12 C.F.R. §§ 220.1 - 220.12, All-Tech, directly or indirectly, extended uncollateralized loans from the accounts of associated persons to those customers. The customers who received these loans could not otherwise cover the margin calls issued by All-Tech's clearing firm, Southwest Securities, Inc. ("Southwest"). Regulation T prohibited All-Tech from supplying those customers with additional extensions of credit absent additional collateral.
I. The accounts held by associated persons from which All-Tech extended credit in contravention of Regulation T included: (1) an account in Waldman's name at All-Tech's Montvale headquarters office; and (2) an account at All-Tech's Edison, New Jersey branch in the name of Z-Tech Investments, Inc. ("Z-Tech"), which Zulferino controlled.
J. All-Tech's margin department effected the transactions necessary for All-Tech to make loans out of the Waldman and Zulferino accounts to day-trading customers of All-Tech. Esposito instructed Southwest to transfer sufficient funds from either the Waldman or Zulferino accounts to the account of the customer that had received the margin call by preparing and sending standard "journal forms" to Southwest. Esposito filled in the recipient's account number and the amount to be transferred on the journal form, and Lefkowitz approved the journal form for each such margin call loan. Esposito then faxed the journal form to Southwest, which executed the journal instructions in reliance on Lefkowitz's signature. Before making any loans from the Waldman or Z-Tech accounts, All-Tech required each customer to sign a journal form authorizing Southwest to transfer the borrowed money back to the Waldman or Z-Tech account the next day.
K. In effecting the transactions set forth above, All-Tech's margin department exercised discretion and control over the margin call loans made out of the Waldman and Zulferino accounts. While Waldman and Zulferino owned and/or controlled the funds in the accounts and were sometimes compensated, by the customers who received the loans, for making the loans, they let All-Tech decide when, to whom and on what terms All-Tech could use their accounts to satisfy margin calls to customers. Waldman and Zulferino provided Esposito with pre-signed blank journal forms. Esposito photocopied the pre-signed forms and forwarded the photocopies to Southwest in the manner set forth above. Lefkowitz signed the journal forms authorizing the transfers even though they were obviously photocopies. Zulferino and Waldman thus did not authorize particular loans, learn the identities of borrowers, approve the creditworthiness of particular borrowers, or decide the amounts of any particular loans.
L. From in or about May through August 1998, while Waldman was employed by All-Tech, All-Tech loaned a total of $1,667,270 from Waldman's account to All-Tech customers to satisfy forty-eight margin calls issued under Regulation T. From August 14, through December 4, 1998, while Zulferino was a branch manager of All-Tech, All-Tech loaned a total of $1,941,155 from the Z-Tech account to All-Tech customers to satisfy forty-nine margin calls issued under Regulation T. In addition, an account in the San Diego office in Leeds's name extended six Regulation T margin call loans from April to September 1998.
M. The uncollateralized loans that All-Tech made in 1998 from the Z-Tech, Waldman and Leeds accounts contravened Regulation T and violated All-Tech's own internal written policies.
N. From in or about April through December 1998, All-Tech, while extending credit to customers in connection with securities transactions, failed to establish procedures to assure that for, each account in which credit was extended, the customer received a written statement or statements, at least quarterly, that complied with the requirements of Rule 10b-16 promulgated under the Exchange Act.
O. By reason of the foregoing, All-Tech willfully violated:
1. Regulation T and Section 7(c) of the Exchange Act in that it directly or indirectly extended uncollateralized margin call loans to customers in contravention of Regulation T; and
a. the balance at the beginning of the period; the date, amount and a brief description of each debit and credit entered during such period; the closing balance; and, if interest is charged for a period different from the period covered by the statement, the balance as of the last day of the interest period;
b. the total interest charge for the period during which interest is charged (or, if interest is charged separately for separate accounts, the total interest charge for each such account), itemized to show the dates on which the interest period began and ended; the annual rate or rates of interest charged and the interest charge for each such different annual rate of interest; and either each different debit balance on which an interest calculation was based or the average debit balance for the interest period, except that if an average debit balance is used, a separate average debit balance must be disclosed for each interest rate applied; and
c. all other charges resulting from the extension of credit in that account.
On the basis of the foregoing, the Commission deems it appropriate and in the public interest to impose the sanctions specified in the Offer submitted by Respondent All-Tech.
ACCORDINGLY, IT IS ORDERED that:
A. All-Tech be, and hereby is, censured.
B. All-Tech cease and desist, pursuant to Section 21C of the Exchange Act, from committing or causing any violations and any future violations of Regulation T, Section 7(c) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-16.
C. All-Tech shall, within thirty days of the entry of this Order, pay a civil money penalty, pursuant to Section 21B of the Exchange Act, in the amount of $225,000 to the United States Treasury. Such payment shall be: (A) made by United States postal money order, certified check, bank cashier's check or bank money order; (B) made payable to the Securities and Exchange Commission; (C) hand-delivered or mailed to the Comptroller, Securities and Exchange Commission, Operations Center, 6432 General Green Way, Stop 0-3, Alexandria, Virginia 22312; and (D) submitted under cover letter that identifies All-Tech as a Respondent in these proceedings, the file number of these proceedings, a copy of which cover letter and money order or check shall be sent to Zachary Brez, Northeast Regional Office, Securities and Exchange Commission, 7 World Trade Center, New York, NY 10048;
D. All-Tech shall comply with the following enumerated undertakings:
1. Within 60 days of the date of this Order, the Commission will select an independent consultant ("Independent Consultant"), knowledgeable in all aspects of broker-dealer operations, including, but not limited to, Section 7 of the Exchange Act, Exchange Act Rule 10b-16, Regulation T, applicable self-regulatory organization rules and regulations, and other laws, rules, and regulations applicable to margin issues ("Margin Regulations"), to conduct a comprehensive review of, and make findings regarding, All-Tech's internal controls, policies, practices, and procedures designed to achieve compliance with such Margin Regulations;
2. Within 30 days of the date of the selection of the Independent Consultant, All-Tech shall retain the Independent Consultant to: (a) conduct a comprehensive review of, and make findings regarding, All-Tech's internal controls, policies, practices, and procedures designed to achieve compliance with the Margin Regulations (including, but not limited to, policies, practices and procedures that relate to letters of authorization, supervisory review of correspondence and electronic correspondence, and the accuracy, appropriateness and methodology of training materials provided to employees, customers and prospective customers); (b) review any internal controls, policies, practices and procedures that All-Tech has adopted and implemented since the violations described in this Order; (c) determine whether and to what extent there is a need for new, additional or amended policies and procedures designed reasonably to detect and prevent, insofar as reasonably possible, such violations; and (d) make recommendations regarding any additional internal controls, policies or procedures which the Independent Consultant believes are necessary to provide reasonable assurance that All-Tech can detect and prevent the types of violations described in this Order;
3. In conjunction with the Independent Consultant's activities described above, All-Tech shall promptly provide the Independent Consultant upon his or her request with any and all non-privileged documents and other non-privileged information pertaining to All-Tech's brokerage operations, and permit the consultant to meet with any officer, agent, and employee of All-Tech;
4. The Independent Consultant shall promptly commence the duties specified in Paragraph IV.D.2. and, within 120 days of the date the Independent Consultant is retained by All-Tech, the Independent Consultant shall submit, in writing, to All-Tech, with a copy to the staff of the Commission's Division of Enforcement ("Division"), his or her report detailing his or her findings, determinations and recommendations with respect to the matters specified in Paragraph IV.D.2. ("Report");
5. Within 30 days after the transmittal of the Report, All-Tech shall in writing advise the Independent Consultant, with a copy to the staff of the Division, of the recommendations that it has determined to accept and the recommendations that it objects to because All-Tech considers them to be unduly burdensome, costly, or contrary to the Margin Regulations. With respect to any recommendation to which it objects, All-Tech may propose an alternative policy or procedure designed to achieve the same objective or purpose, and with the Independent Consultant's approval, which shall not be unreasonably withheld, implement that alternative in lieu of the Independent Consultant's recommended change or addition;
6. In the event that All-Tech and the Independent Consultant are unable to agree on an alternative proposal, All-Tech shall abide by the recommendation of the Independent Consultant. Within 60 days after the transmittal of the Report, the Independent Consultant shall in writing advise All-Tech, with a copy to the staff of the Division, of his or her decision with respect to any recommendation that All-Tech has proposed to modify;
7. Within 90 days after the transmittal of the Report, All-Tech shall: (a) take all necessary and appropriate steps to adopt and implement all recommendations set forth in the Report or any alternatives accepted by the Independent Consultant; and (b) submit an affidavit to the staff of the Division and the Independent Consultant stating: (i) that All-Tech has remedied any deficiencies in its internal controls, policies, practices, and procedures identified by the Independent Consultant; (ii) stating the means by which such remedy has been accomplished; and (iii) stating further that All-Tech has adopted, implemented, and will maintain any revised or additional internal controls, policies, practices, or procedures recommended in the Independent Consultant's report, or the alternatives acceptable to the Independent Consultant;
8. The Independent Consultant shall review All-Tech's implementation of the recommendations contained in the Report, or such alternatives proposed in writing by All-Tech and accepted in writing by the Independent Consultant or the staff of the Division. This review by the Independent Consultant shall take place on the following two occasions: (a) within 30 days after the passage of one year from the date of the affidavit described in Section IV.D.7.; and (b) within 30 days after the passage of two years from the date of such affidavit. Within 30 days after the completion of each such review, the Independent Consultant shall report in writing his or her findings to the staff of the Division and All-Tech;
9. For good cause shown, and upon receipt of a timely application from the Independent Consultant or All-Tech, the staff of the Division may extend any of the dates set forth above;
10. To ensure the independence of the Independent Consultant, All-Tech: (a) shall not have the authority to terminate the Independent Consultant without the prior written approval of the staff of the Division; (b) shall compensate the Independent Consultant, and persons engaged to assist the Independent Consultant, for services rendered pursuant to this Order at their reasonable and customary rates; (c) shall not have an attorney-client relationship with the Independent Consultant and shall not seek to invoke the attorney-client privilege or any other doctrine or privilege to prevent the Independent Consultant from transmitting any information, reports, or documents to the Commission or its staff;
11. To further ensure the independence of the Independent Consultant, for the period of engagement (including the follow-up reviews specified in Paragraph IV.D.8 above), and for a period of two years from completion of the engagement, the Independent Consultant shall not enter into any employment, consulting, attorney-client, auditing or other professional relationship with All-Tech, or any of its present or former affiliates, directors, officers, employees, or agents acting in their capacity as representatives of All-Tech. Any firm with which the Independent Consultant is affiliated or of which he/she is a member, and any person engaged to assist the Independent Consultant in performance of his/her duties under this Order shall not, without prior written consent of the staff of the Division, enter into any employment, consulting, attorney-client, auditing or other professional relationship with All-Tech, or any of its present or former affiliates, directors, officers, employees, or agents acting in their capacity as representatives of All-Tech for the period of the engagement and for a period of two years after the engagement is completed.
By the Commission.
1 The findings herein are made pursuant to the Offer submitted by All-Tech and are not binding on any other person or entity in this or any other proceeding. | <urn:uuid:66273987-fb32-4944-a6c0-2d118c088748> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/34-44415.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93689 | 3,787 | 1.695313 | 2 |
A modified version of the A50, the A51, was taken to the US series in 1973 but the moment had passed and the A51 was not competitive. Two further variants would follow over the next year but Matich retired after the 1974 Tasman and no further cars were built. The sole A51 was modified to A53 specification and was used regularly through to the end of the Australian F5000 series in 1982.
This car, and the two A52s that followed, were built on monocoques built by Commonweath Aircraft Corporation (Melborne, Australia) to drawings supplied by Frank Matich.
This research was originally conducted by Aaron Lewis but has been extensively reworked in May and June 2003 with the assistance of Bryan Miller in Australia and Milan Fistonic in New Zealand. Thanks also to Wolfgang Klopfer for spotting omissions and to Terry Walker for the picture.
All and any further help would be gratefully received. Please email Allen at [email protected] if you can add anything.
The A51 was designed for the 1973 US season but did not work well. The December 1974 edition of Racing Cars News carried an article about Matich's retirement and said this about the A51.
'No one in Australia saw the A51 run, although Matich regards the car as probably the best suited to an average local circuit. "It was the ultimate in development of our car as a front radiator car. It was the lightest car we built and it didn't behave on the bumpy American tracks as well as I would have liked. Our suspension didn't have sufficient movement, especially with heavy fuel loads." (We've seen it [the A51] recently, of course, in the hands of the brilliant Lella Lombardi.)'
John Goss later bought the A51 to join his A53 and raced it extensively.
Sources include Autosport 14 Feb 1974 p8 (Oran Park Tasman report) and 7 Mar 1974 p12 (Adelaide Tasman report). Added details taken from "The official 50-race history of the Australian Grand Prix" (R&T Publishing 1986) include pp402-403 (Matich 005 & 007 story), p383 (1974 GP report), p411,415 (1977 GP report). "The Formula 1 Register Fact Book: Formula 5000 1972-1981" (Paul Sheldon, 1994) has been used for most post-1977 race results.
These histories last updated on 16 July, 2012 . | <urn:uuid:ad133c60-795e-41a9-8b8a-cf97003d1d8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oldracingcars.com/matich/a51/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976595 | 510 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone
The pharmaceutical industry agreed Saturday to spend $80 billion over the next decade improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare and defraying the cost of President Barack Obama’s health care legislation, capping secretive negotiations involving key lawmakers and the White House.
"This new coverage means affordable prices on prescription drugs when Medicare benefits don’t cover the cost of prescriptions," Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement announcing the accord.
The deal marked a major triumph for Baucus as well as the administration. Obama praised the deal.
"The agreement by pharmaceutical companies to contribute to the health reform effort comes on the heels of the landmark pledge many health industry leaders made to me last month, when they offered to do their part to reduce health spending $2 trillion over the next decade," Obama said. "We are at a turning point in America’s journey toward health care reform."
Baucus, a Montana Democrat, has been negotiating with numerous industry groups for weeks as he tries to draft legislation that meets Obama’s goal of vastly expanding health coverage, has bipartisan support and does not add to the deficit.
Baucus’ announcement said drug companies would pay half of the cost of brand-name drugs for seniors in the so-called doughnut hole — a gap in coverage that is a feature of many of the plans providing prescription coverage under Medicare. Other officials said wealthier Medicare beneficiaries would not receive the same break, but there was no mention of that in the statement.
In addition, the entire cost of the drug would count toward a patient’s out-of-pocket costs, meaning their insurance coverage would cover more of their expenses than otherwise.
"The existence of this gap in coverage has been a continuing injustice that has placed a great burden on many seniors," Obama said. "This deal will provide significant relief from that burden for millions of American seniors.
"Key sectors of the health care industry acknowledge what American families and businesses already know — that the status quo is no longer sustainable," the president said.
Billy Tauzin, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), said, "Millions of uninsured and financially struggling Americans are depending on us to accomplish comprehensive health care reform this year. Today, America’s pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies are signaling their strong support for these critically important efforts."
While none of the changes in the prescription drug program would directly lower government costs, several officials also said the industry agreed to measures that would give the Treasury more money under federal health programs. In particular, officials said drug companies would likely wind up paying pay higher rebates for certain drugs under Medicaid, the program that provides health care for the poor.
Those funds would be used to help pay for legislation expanding health insurance for millions who now lack it.
One official said the deal was agreed to late Friday night when Tauzin called Baucus. The senator’s statement said the White House was involved in the agreement.
It was not clear what leverage the agreement would give Baucus with other health care providers with whom he is in negotiations.
But at a minimum, the agreement served as an effective counter to impression that the drive to enact health care legislation was sputtering.
The disclosure of negotiations came near the end of an up-and-down week for the administration and its allies on health care.
Congressional Budget Office estimates showed early versions of two major Senate bills were either too costly or failed to make a large enough dent in the ranks of the uninsured. Republicans seized on the reports as evidence that Democrats were losing traction.
They leapt again when it was disclosed that House Democrats were considering a wide array of tax increases to finance their legislation, including an income tax surcharge, a tax on employers based on the size of their payroll and a value-added tax, a form of a national sales tax.
House Democrats on Friday unveiled draft legislation they said would cover virtually all of the nation’s nearly 50 million uninsured but it came without a price tag or an indication of how it would be paid for.
Major provisions of the 850-page measure would impose new responsibilities on individuals to obtain coverage and on employers to provided it. It also would end insurance company practices that deny coverage to the sick and create a new government-sponsored plan to compete with private companies.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she hopes the legislation can clear the House before lawmakers leave for their annual August vacation. | <urn:uuid:7cf3e780-d523-473b-9a4e-6d74782b58b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/18223 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971635 | 941 | 1.625 | 2 |
Tucson is Arizona's second largest city and the home of the University of Arizona. Every year, Tucson hosts its Gem & Mineral Show that brings visitors and merchants from all over the world to witness the natural resource of the city. The best cup of coffee and the best soda in town are available at local restaurants and as long as you can put up with strange clientele and a funky, smoke-filled atmosphere, you're in for a treat. Stop at Oasis for an amazing fruity shaved ice treat on the way back, and watch cruisers take over 12th Avenue on a hot summer night from their outdoor patio. Visitors on less stringent budgets should be sure not to miss Café Poca Cosa, claimed by many natives to be the best restaurant in town. For souvenirs, head over to Picante on Broadway and Country Club. If you are looking for something to do, you must head down to the 4th Avenue and browse through the stores abound – you're sure to see something odd, even if it's only a troupe of hippies. For the adventurous kind, the Sabino Canyon, the spectacular desert canyon, cut into the south side of the Santa Catalina Mountains is the perfect place to trek. You can also head to Saguaro National Park, the densest forest of the iconic cactus of the American West, or the Tohono Chul Park, where extensive botanical exhibits explaining the native plants, and a wonderful plant-sale area are available for visitors.
Share your travel experiences! Write to us at
5 Upcoming Astronomical Events
Here is a list of five upcoming astronomical events that hopefully, we will all live to see. Some are coming very soon in months, and others will not happen for many, many years, but they are all worth anticipating.
1. Venus Transit
The first event and an incredibly rare astronomical phenomenon is something that can only be witnessed once or twice in a lifetime, if you are lucky to be born at the right time. The transit of Venus in front of the Sun will be visible on June 5-6 of this year.
2. 2015 – A Busy Year
The year 2015 is going to be an exciting year for astronomy buffs. The year kicks off with a total solar eclipse, which will take place on March 20, 2015. This eclipse will be seen in the centre of the North Atlantic Ocean, and move past Greenland before ending in northern Siberia. The best place to view the eclipse will be in the Norwegian Sea, east of Iceland, north of England, and west of Norway. Then on September 13, a partial solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Africa, Madagascar, and Antarctica. September 28 sends us our second total lunar eclipse of the year, which will be visible in most of North and South America, Africa, Europe and west Asia.
3. Mercury Transit
Not nearly as rare as Venus transits of the Sun are Mercury transits. The Mercury transits are more frequent as Mercury is closer to the Sun and orbits the Sun more rapidly. Like the Venus transit, from Earth, the viewer will see a small black dot (Mercury) pass from more or less right to left in front of the face of the Sun. Mercury transits will occur within a few days either side of May 8 and November 10. The next transit is in 2016. The full transit will be visible in western parts of Europe and Africa and eastern parts of North and South America.
4. James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the planned replacement for the highly successful and still operating Hubble Space telescope. The telescope is named after James Webb, the second NASA administrator and leading force in the Apollo space program. It will have the capability of taking visual images and infrared images. The JWST will continue the work of Hubble in looking for and viewing the most distant objects in the universe; objects too distant to be seen by Earth-based telescopes. Someday, hopefully soon, the JWST will be in space and taking even better and more amazing pictures of deep space than even the Hubble space telescope was able to achieve.
5. Betelgeuse Super Nova
Betelgeuse is a well-known star to even casual viewers of the night sky because of its size, colour, and placement. Betelgeuse is the eighth brightest star in the night sky and is easy to locate as it is the second brightest star in the constellation of Orion. It is about 640 light years away from our Sun. Astronomers believe Betelgeuse is a young star but because it is so massive, it is heading for extinction. It is expected to go super nova (explode, increasing its brightness to typically a billion times that of the sun) in less than one million years. Therefore, at its current distance from Earth, the Betelgeuse super nova explosion would be the brightest ever recorded in Earth's history. As viewed from Earth, the Betelgeuse super nova would be brighter than the moon and would easily be visible in the daytime sky for several months. | <urn:uuid:d4e4f5a7-560e-4ca9-877b-a6b6465d5d05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.magtheweekly.com/05-11may2012/collage.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930718 | 1,041 | 1.5625 | 2 |
By Anna Spydell
As Oct. 9 draws closer, voter registration for the November elections prepares to close. For Saint Mary-of-the-Woods students who find themselves still unregistered, however, options are still out there.
Perhaps the easiest option for residents of Indiana is the website http://www.indianavoters.com. With an Indiana driver’s license or an Indiana state issued I.D., residents will be able to submit a new Indiana voter’s registration or update an existing one.
Another option is to visit the Vigo County Voter Registration Office, located on the second floor of the county courthouse at 33 South 3rd Street in Terre Haute.
According to Ron Moore, who is currently teaching the Elections course at SMWC, the youth vote is consistently the lowest election after election, citing what he calls disillusionment with the seamy side of politics and the feeling that their vote won’t matter.
“In class, we’ve talked about how politicians don’t really do themselves any favors by trying to create these groups as monoliths, like Latinos only care about immigration or women only care about reproductive rights. These groups may care a little bit more about some of these issues than others, but I would argue that we are all affected by all of these issues,” said Moore. “At Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, we are trying to create students who are citizens; citizens of the College, citizens of Terre Haute, of Indiana, of the United States and hopefully of the world.” | <urn:uuid:0047ffa5-23f2-4166-99ee-a8e17a3a8614> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thewoodsnewspaper.com/archives/1066 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956847 | 331 | 1.710938 | 2 |
How to claim free school meals
Free School Meals is a benefit awarded in respect of children under the age of 19 where the parent or guardian is in receipt of one of the benefits shown below:
- Income Support;
- Income Based Jobseekers Allowance (IB JSA);
- Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999;
- Child Tax Credit
- The Guaranteed Element of State Pension Credit.
Note: Children in receipt of Income Support and Income Based Jobseekers Allowance (IBJSA) in their own right are also entitled to free school meals.
In the first two categories above, parents / carers should obtain a Free School Meals application form from their child's school, or from a Neighbourhood Office. When completed, the form should be sent / taken to the child's school. Parents / carers can ensure free meals are provided promptly by supplying evidence of entitlement to the school, for example Benefits Agency letter or income support payment book. Photocopies of any such documentation may be taken by the school and retained on file.
Parents / carers who are asylum seekers must provide a letter, from either the Birmingham City Council Asylum Seekers Team or the National Asylum Support Service (Home Office) NASS, stating that they are receiving support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, in order to receive free school meals. Schools should keep photocopies of such letters. For audit purposes, schools are advised that the following information should also be recorded:
- The name of the office providing support.
- Date of the official letter verifying the parent status.
- For Child Tax Credit, HM Revenue and Customs will provide proof of entitlement to each applicant. The form is called Tax Credit Award Notice (TC602). Applicants are told that it must be retained by them and presented to schools as proof of entitlement to free meals.
For those in receipt of the 'Guaranteed' element of Pension Credit it is suggested that parents produce their 'Pension Credit M1000 Award Notice' as proof of entitlement. The 'How Pension Credit has been worked out for ...' section of this form clearly shows details of any Guaranteed Pension Credit in payment.
All claim forms and copies of proofs supporting a claim for Free School Meals are to be retained by the school.
Further information can be obtained from:
- School secretaries;
- Neighbourhood offices;
- Birmingham City Council Asylum Seekers Team : 0121 303 4003;
- Birmingham City Council Housing. Lead Officer, Asylum Seeker & Refugee Team : 0121 464 2795 | <urn:uuid:999945ea-cd45-4b15-a79a-fc4ae84a92ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite?c=Page&childpagename=SystemAdmin%2FCFPageLayout&cid=1223092746251&packedargs=website%3D4&pagename=BCC%2FCommon%2FWrapper%2FCFWrapper&rendermode=liv | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941686 | 535 | 1.585938 | 2 |
December 14, 2011
Looking Back, Focusing Forward: The Year in Hep News
by Tim Horn
The approval of two hepatitis C protease inhibitors, the first evidence of interferon-free regimens curing hep C, and a handful of studies touting the potential health benefits of coffee all make the top 20 list of viral hepatitis news in 2011.
Hep C Infection Rates Slow to Decline Among Injection Drug Users
The substantial decline in new HIV cases among injection drug users (IDUs) in Baltimore has not been matched by reductions in the number of new hepatitis C cases, according to a study published in the March issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases. Likely reasons? The prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is four times that of HIV in the United States—roughly 4 million compared with 1.2 million living with HIV—and the fact that the risk of passing along HCV is roughly 10 times that of HIV. Sharing needles even once can be enough to transmit hep C, making it a much greater threat to those who make only intermittent use of sterile needles and needle exchange programs. Adding insult to injury, experts note, is that harm reduction measures such as needle exchange and opioid substitution treatment don’t get enough support and aren’t sufficiently accessible to drug users.
Treatment for Depression Increases Hep C Adherence
Depression isn’t just feeling blue—it can be debilitating, and it can seriously sabotage efforts to effectively treat hepatitis C. New data confirm what experts have long suspected, that antidepressants can significantly boost treatment adherence rates in people living with hepatitis C, notably those being treated with interferon—a drug known to cause and exacerbate depression. “All health care professionals, including pharmacists, need to know how to detect depression and work together to support safe, effective and affordable treatments,” the researchers conclude.
Breakthrough: Non-Interferon/Ribavirin Regimen Can Cure Hep C
In what was heralded as a research breakthrough, preliminary data reported in April suggested that at least some cases of chronic HCV infection can be cured without the use of either pegylated interferon or ribavirin. The study combined Bristol-Myers Squibb’s protease inhibitor asunaprevir (BMS-650032) and NS5A inhibitor daclatasvir (BMS-790052), without interferon and ribavirin, and managed to cure four of 11 people with otherwise difficult-to-treat genotype 1 HCV and who had not responded favorably to earlier therapy attempts. It was the first study to indicate that interferon- and ribavirin-free regimens could work—findings that raised the stakes for all other drug companies with promising HCV agents in development.
FDA Approves Merck’s Hep C Drug Victrelis (Boceprevir)
FDA Approves Incivek (Telaprevir), Second New Hep C Drug
The era of “direct acting antivirals” was officially ushered in with the May 12 and May 23 approvals of two long-awaited hep C protease inhibitors: Victrelis (boceprevir) and Incivek (telaprevir). When they’re used in combination with pegylated interferon and ribavirin, people with genotype 1 HCV stand a 70 percent chance of clearing the virus, sometimes with as little as six months of treatment.
“With the approval of [Victrelis and Incivek], there are now two important new treatment options for hepatitis C that offer a greater chance at a cure for some patients with this serious condition,” said Edward Cox, MD, MPH, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “The availability of new therapies that significantly increase responses while potentially decreasing the overall duration of treatment is a major step forward in the battle against chronic hepatitis C infection.”
Fair Pricing Coalition Voices Concern About High Cost of Merck’s Victrelis
Fair Pricing Coalition Says Vertex’s Incivek Price “Outrageous”
Soon after Victrelis and Incivek were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, activists sounded the alarm regarding the drugs prices. In separate statements five days apart, the Fair Pricing Coalition (FPC) said that Incivek’s price tag of $49,200 per 12-week course and Victrelis’s $1,100 weekly cost would adversely affect the ability of people with HCV to access the drugs, while also setting an excessively unreasonable future price point for the many hepatitis C drugs in the pipeline. “If each of the new drugs costs $50,000, we are looking at regimens that will ultimately cost between $150,000 and $200,000 in the very near future,” said FPC member Murray Penner. “This is unsustainable and will unacceptably limit access to the regimens.”
HHS Launches Viral Hepatitis Action Plan
In May, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its long-awaited Combating the Silent Epidemic of Viral Hepatitis: Action Plan for the Prevention, Care and Treatment of Viral Hepatitis—the government’s blueprint outlining plans to fight viral hepatitis in the United States. By 2020, the goals of the plan include: increase the number of people who are aware they have hepatitis B from 33 percent to 66 percent; increase the number of people who are aware they have hepatitis C from 45 percent to 66 percent; reduce new cases of hep C by 25 percent; and eliminate mother-to-child transmission of hep B.
Drinking Coffee Doubles Hep C Treatment Responses
Coffee Helps Minimize Hepatitis C Treatment Side Effects
Coffee Slows Progression of Hep C Liver Disease
Is there anything a good cup of coffee (or three) can’t do? Not only does coffee consumption slow liver disease progression and increase the chances of success while undergoing treatment for chronic hepatitis C infection, but drinking three or more cups a day also appears to reduce the incidence of hep C treatment side effects by more than 80 percent.
Curing Hepatitis C Reduces Death From Any Cause
Higher Rates of Non-Liver-Related Deaths in Chronic Hep C
People who have been treated for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection—and cured—are not only much less likely to die of liver failure or liver cancer, but they are also less likely to die from non-liver-related health problems, according to June 2011 research findings. The drop in death rates from any cause is an unexpected benefit from curing hepatitis C, especially because another study published this summer found that chronic hepatitis C doubles the risk of death from all causes.
Hepatitis C in the U.S. May Be Underestimated by Over a Million
The number of people who have been infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) may have been undercounted by a whopping 1.1 million, according to new estimates from a paper published in the September 2011 edition of Liver International. Epidemiologists believe that at least 5.2 million people in the United States are HCV antibody positive—meaning that they were infected at one time, although they may not have developed chronic hepatitis C—an increase of 1.1 million over The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) estimate of 4.1 million cases.
Hep C Inhibitor PSI-7977 Goes Interferon-Free in Phase III Studies
HIV Drug Giant Gilead Acquires Pharmasset, a Hep C Drug Development Leader
12 Weeks Interferon-Free PSI-7977 Regimen Cures 100 Percent Hep C Genotype 2/3
Princeton, New Jersey–based Pharmasset—recently acquired by pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences—announced in November that it is putting its lead experimental hepatitis C nucleotide inhibitor PSI-7977 to the test in three late-stage clinical trials exploring the drug’s safety and efficacy as a component of a regimen that only needs to be taken for three months and that doesn’t include pegylated interferon. The high-stakes decision is based, in part, on preliminary results from a Phase II study in which 10 out of 10 people with genotype 2 or 3 HCV infection were cured after 12 weeks of treatment with a regimen that included PSI-7977 and ribavirin, but not pegylated interferon. If all goes well in the studies, the company will petition the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin the process of reviewing PSI-7977 for approval sometime in the second half of 2013.
Five-Year Viread Follow-Up: Long-Term Hep B Suppression, Plus Fibrosis and Cirrhosis Improvements
Data continue to mount, indicating that not only can hepatitis B virus (HBV) medications work for many years, but they can also help reverse liver fibrosis and even cirrhosis in people living with the infection. According to new study results presented at the 62nd annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), held in San Francisco in November, Viread (tenofovir) maintained long-term viral suppression of HBV—over a period of five years for the majority of participants enrolled in two clinical trials—with 88 percent experiencing improvements in liver health measurements.
Testing All Baby Boomers for Hep C Would Find 86% of Infections
Testing all U.S. baby boomers—individuals born between 1945 and 1965—for hep C infection would help identify more than 800,000 people living with the virus, or roughly 86 percent of those who are infected and at risk for potentially fatal liver disease but don’t yet know it. This idea is based on data reported at AASLD, along with the suggestion that testing all baby boomers is a cost-effective first step in the prevention of serious HCV-related disease.
OraQuick HCV Test Gets Clearance for Wider Use
Good news for doctor’s offices, outreach clinics and community-based organizations looking to use OraSure Technologies’ rapid test for hepatitis C virus (HCV): According to a December announcement, the test has been granted a CLIA waiver, meaning that its use is no longer limited to professionals who have received laboratory certification from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. OraQuick’s assay remains the only U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved rapid test to detect antibodies to HCV, which causes liver disease. The test, using fingerstick or vein-drawn blood specimens, provides results in 20 minutes. “The CLIA waiver will enable health care providers, those on the front lines of fighting this devastating disease, to use this simple and accurate test in physician offices and outreach settings so more individuals infected with hepatitis C can be diagnosed and treated,” said Douglas Michels, president and chief executive officer of OraSure Technologies.
Search: hepatitis, 2011, 2012, review, Victrelis, boceprevir, Incivek, telaprevir, baby boomers, coffee, adherence, testing, treatment, action plan, pricing, prevalence, PSI-7977, Pharmasset, Gilead
Scroll down to comment on this story. Click here to visit the Hep Forums and ask questions about this story.
Show comments (0 total)
[Go to top] | <urn:uuid:f2b5bdb4-a31e-403f-b684-0a691d146e93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hepmag.com/articles/hepatitis_2011_review_2502_21622.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934971 | 2,428 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Moreno has been the victim of several travesties at the hands of government. While his girlfriend was the one who was actually asasulted and thus bears the vast majority of the resulting trauma herself, the secondary trauma of watching another person, especially one who you deeply care about, be sexually assaulted is also very real and not to be dismissed. While the impact that the assault undoubtedly had on Moreno is not the reason that the assault was wrong, it is one of the outcomes of it. After Moreno’s girlfriend faced the trauma of being sexually assaulted and Moreno faced the trauma of watching it happen, both then were subjected to false arrest by the assailant. And now, Moreno must undergo further victimization at the hands of a government that sees fit to deport him (and his girlfriend faces the secondary victimization of watching it happen while she deals with her own trauma from the assault).
This case is about how we treat sexual assault because Moreno’s girlfriend never should have been assaulted, and Moreno never should have had to call for help at all. As has been admitted, Marcus Jackson should have never been admitted to the police force, due to a history of giving women reason to fear him. It’s about how we treat sexual assault because most who are victims of sexual assault are too afraid to report it. It’s about how we treat sexual assault because fear of police and the (repeatedly proven to be!) reasonable belief that police officers will usually stand by each other before standing by justice means that police officers feel free to both commit sexual assault with impunity and use their state power as a means to hiding their crimes. It’s about how we treat sexual assault because apparently not even 911 operators can be expected to give a shit when such an assault is reported.
The goal of the march, according to UFW president Arturo Rodriguez, is to raise awareness for farm worker issues and gain the support needed from Gov. Jerry Brown and the State Legislature to make much needed changes.
“It’s important for (Gov. Brown) to do what the farm workers are expecting him to do — respond to our needs. Do what’s necessary, make the changes. Do what’s right for farm workers,” Rodriguez said.
The top issues the UFW want Sacramento to face: the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act and the right to be paid overtime after eight hours a day and 40 hours a week.
In June Brown vetoed the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act, a bill that would have made it easier for farm workers to join a union and speak up for their rights; and farm workers are currently exempt from federal overtime labor laws.
“We needn’t give up just because he vetoed that law,” said Jose Cerritos, 23, one of the six Salinas-area farm workers who joined the march on Friday. “We must continue to fight, even harder.
Governor, do you actually think that you’ve gained favor with a group of people who still call you Governor Moonbeam behind your back by vetoing that bill? | <urn:uuid:7b4cf1ed-3e46-4db0-a81d-6cab3b641ed9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://diegueno.tumblr.com/tagged/Latino | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977176 | 640 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Time has named Mark Zuckerberg Person of the Year for supposedly making the world a more open and better place. But wait — isn’t that what Julian Assange just did?
Time Magazine has named Mark Zuckerberg Time Person of the Year 2010. Zuckerberg’s Facebook climbed past 500 million users in 2010, while Aaron Sorkin’s depiction of the company’s beginnings in “The Social Network” captured our imaginations with modest box office numbers and tons of press. 2010 was indeed the year of Zuckerberg, especially after the 26-year-old genius announced he would be giving away billions of dollars to philanthropic initiatives.
Yet his mission to make the world a more open and better place seems far from realization. Facebook is a great way to keep up with people you normally wouldn’t keep up with while being bombarded by advertising. Malcolm Gladwell challenged its social utility in an engrossing essay, reducing Facebook to a weak-tie time waste. NY Times tech writer Nick Bilton this morning questioned whether we’ve hit social media overload, and if our romance with Twitter and Facebook is not unlike a summer tryst: intense but short-lived.
Julian Assange, however, actually has made the world a more open place. He masterfully pulled back the curtain on high-level democratic discourse, which, as it turns out, involves as much teenage backbiting and shit-talking as a John Hughes film. Assange is the Toto to our Dorothy, the one brave enough to pull back the curtain and show the world the wizard isn’t there.
For his efforts, we’ve awarded Assange with an international arrest warrant, public disgrace, humiliation, and a pending indictment for the United States Department of Justice. We’ve awarded Zuckerberg with billions of dollars and a hall pass to raid our privacy. What a world — especially to be in Person of the Year in. | <urn:uuid:d97e9159-d674-4602-8d59-eb0290282d84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/40830/mark-zuckerberg-vs-julian-assange-who-deserves-person-of-the-year/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943392 | 394 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Preventing Tire Problems
Tips courtesy of Good Sam Roadside Assistance
Most RV owners know how important it is to check our tires, yet only 14% of U.S. drivers properly check their tire pressure on a regular basis.* Proper tire care can prevent breakdowns, crashes, improve handling, give you better fuel economy and extend the life of your tires.
We know that accidents do happen and even the most safety-conscious RV owners get flat tires – even in their own garage! In fact,Good Sam Roadside Assistance discovered that 40% of disablements on autos and RVS were due to tire problems. To help get our members back on the road after a flat, Good Sam Roadside Assistance includes an essential benefit: Flat Tire Service.
If you have a tire problem while out on the road, a service technician will come out to replace the flat tire with your inflated spare. If you need a replacement, they will call our network of providers to find a proper replacement, have it delivered & install it on the spot so you can continue your travels. Service is available 24 hours a day and if no tires are available, Good Sam Roadside Assistance will tow your vehicle to the nearest professional service center (with no mileage limits). No other Roadside Assistance service offers a network that can “bring the shop to you.”
Don’t forget, household vehicles are also at risk for tire failure, and fortunately Good Sam Roadside Assistance covers all vehicles you own. Roadside Assistance combined with checking tire pressure and these other inspections can help you prevent tire troubles and trip interruptions. Before getting on the road:
1- Make sure all of the lug nuts are secure and your tire valves have valve caps.
2- Inspect tires for uneven wear patterns on the tread, cracks, foreign objects, or other signs of wear or trauma – pay particular attention to sidewalls for cuts or abrasions.
3- Remove bits of glass and other foreign objects wedged in the tread.
4- Set inflation pressures (Note: the amount of air pressure you need depends on the weight of your fully loaded vehicle. Use the vehicle’s recommended pressure, not the pressure indicated on the tire which is usually the MAXIMUM allowable pressure)
5- It is a good idea to own more than one tire pressure gauge. It is not uncommon for gauges to be off by several pounds.
6- Do not overload your vehicle. (Check the tire information placard or owner’s manual for the maximum recommended load for the vehicle).
7- It may seem like an inconvenience, but it is extremely important to get your loaded vehicle weighed before you leave.
8- If you are towing a trailer, remember that some of the weight of the loaded trailer is transferred to the towing vehicle.
9- Trailers should have the wheel bearings repacked after being in storage.
10-Consider nitrogen, an insert gas that is less affected by temperature. Make sure to use green valve stem covers so that you don’t accidentally re-fill with regular air!
Even with proper tire care, you never know what the road may bring. A tire replacement service as part of your roadside assistance plan can really minimize the burden on your trip.
*Study by the Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA)
For more information on Good Sam Services, click here. | <urn:uuid:1ab7a733-67b9-49b7-a3f1-790efb92c412> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.goodsamclub.com/2011/11/preventing-tire-problems/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936198 | 692 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Here is the epitome of labor arbitrage and the obvious inhuman view IBM has on it's employees.
IBM is telling soon to be fired U.S. and Canadian workers they can have a job, but only if they move to India or China and work for Indian and Chinese wages. (It is yet to be seen what India and China have to say about this with foreigners coming in and taking jobs!).
Information Week has the details:
The climate is warm, there's no shortage of exotic food, and the cost of living is rock bottom. That's IBM's pitch to the laid-off American workers it's offering to place in India. The catch: Wages in the country are pennies-on-the-dollar compared to U.S. salaries.
Under a program called Project Match, IBM will help workers laid off from domestic sites obtain travel and visa assistance for countries in which Big Blue has openings. Mostly that's developing markets like India, China, and Brazil.
"IBM has established Project Match to help you locate potential job opportunities in growth markets where your skills are in demand," IBM says in an internal notice on the initiative. "Should you accept a position in one of these countries, IBM offers financial assistance to offset moving costs, provides immigration support, such as visa assistance, and other support to help ease the transition of an international move."
The document states that the program is limited to "satisfactory performers who have been notified of separation from IBM U.S. or Canada and are willing to work on local terms and conditions." The latter indicates that workers will be paid according to prevailing norms in the countries to which they relocate. In many cases, that could be substantially less than what they earned in North America.
IBM has laid off more than 4,000 workers in the United States since the beginning of January, according to an employee group. The company has confirmed layoffs but won't comment on specific numbers.
Can you imagine this? Rip your kids out of school, abandon your relatives, leave your entire country....just to be able to eat? By the way, you know that retirement you've been saving for or that U.S. debt you have? Oh no problem? We're going to pay you pennies on the dollar and I guess your mortgage, MasterCard and Visa will just have to understand. Sorry you will later not be able to afford to retire in your own country.
This is the ultimate example of just how IBM looks at it's labor force. Tt's quite frightening for IBM should actually need that little minor detail called talent and skills! Ah, but no, they look at workers simply as an expense and are telling loyal employees that they should work for 3rd world wages and leave their entire cultural identity and home.
Do Professionals, especially technical professionals need to organize as a labor force? It certainly appears so! | <urn:uuid:7611709e-caa1-43e7-aad5-fad3acab47bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/ibm-fired-us-workers-offshore-outsource-yourself | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974272 | 591 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Tue October 23, 2012
Qatari Emir First World Leader To Visit Gaza In Years
Originally published on Sun October 28, 2012 8:48 am
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And I'm Melissa Block.
The Emir of Qatar visited the Gaza Strip today. He's the first world leader to do so since 2007, when the Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the Palestinian territory and Israel responded with a blockade. The emir called on Hamas to reconcile with the rival Fatah movement. He also promised some $400 million in reconstruction projects, as NPR's Peter Kenyon reports from Gaza.
PETER KENYON, BYLINE: The day began ominously for the visit with a Palestinian roadside bomb gravely wounding an Israeli soldier near the border fence. But Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani arrived in the north Sinai town of El Arish as scheduled and was soon whisked into Gaza via the Rafah crossing, the only one not under Israeli control.
Speaking under a tent in southern Gaza where a Jewish settlement once stood, Gaza's Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, heaped praise on the emir for, in his words, breaking Israel's blockade on Gaza.
ISMAIL HANIYEH: (Through translator) We are today smashing the wall of the siege through this blessed visit of yours. Today, we are saying: Thank you, Your Highness. Thank you, Qatar.
KENYON: The emir came loaded with pledges to help rebuild Gaza, including an entirely new town called Hamad City with 1,000 housing units, schools, clinics and more. New roads, a hospital specializing in prosthetic limbs and agricultural aid were also promised.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)
KENYON: As the emir's delegation motored along Gaza's streets, people cheered and carried posters bearing his picture. They were well aware that Sheikh Hamad is the first Arab leader to visit Gaza since Jordan's King Abdullah came in 1999. One man, Mustafa Zeinati(ph), said the emir had brought to Gazans something he thought might never come: hope.
MUSTAFA ZEINATI: (Foreign language spoken)
KENYON: We hope he's an example that will bring other Arab leaders here, he said. They all need to see the desperate people here.
ZEINATI: (Foreign language spoken)
KENYON: Gazans were also aware that this visit would not have been possible without Egypt. After years of disappointment at the hands of former leader Hosni Mubarak, Palestinians say perhaps Egypt's new president, the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, who sent his education minister along with the Qatari delegation, is serious about changing Egypt's approach to the Rafah border crossing.
The visit did have its critics. An Israeli spokesman said Qatar had thrown peace under the bus by making the visit. The Palestinian Fatah movement, which runs the West Bank, did not publicly complain about the emir's embrace of Hamas in Gaza, but the visit was seen as a blow to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, despite the emir's call for reconciliation.
In fact, Gazans themselves were not all riveted by the visit. A big event at a stadium bedecked with Qatari flags had to be canceled, officially because of a scheduling conflict, but some pointed to the less than half-full stadium as another likely cause.
Sitting outside his near-empty shop in Gaza City, owner Naji Douema(ph) said he does hope today's pledges become real jobs for Gazans soon. But he said his own view of the future was dimmed by last night's U.S. presidential debate. He said listening to President Obama and Mitt Romney compete to promise more military support to Israel left him depressed and angry.
NAJI DOUEMA: (Through translator) Don't use us to win your campaigns. Don't climb to the top on the skulls of Palestinian children.
KENYON: Some in Israel have been actively debating the need for another military operation in Gaza to quell rockets and mortars launched at Israeli towns. After today's Palestinian bombing critically wounded an Israeli soldier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to strike back, quote, "very, very hard." Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Gaza. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio. | <urn:uuid:9f651dc9-01cc-4a19-86c6-82a5aff44476> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kwit.org/post/qatari-emir-first-world-leader-visit-gaza-years | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964756 | 939 | 1.609375 | 2 |
If past presidential elections are any guide, by the time this one is over, it will have been said that this economy is the worst economy since the Great Depression. W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm of the Dallas Fed write a fabulous article in the American putting current US economic conditions in historic context:
When a presidential election year collides
with iffy economic times, the public's view of the U.S. economy turns
gloomy. Perspective shrinks in favor of short-term assessments that
focus on such unpleasant realities as falling job counts, sluggish GDP
growth, uncertain incomes, rising oil and food prices, subprime
mortgage woes, and wobbly financial markets.
Taken together, it's enough to shake our
faith in American progress. The best path to reviving that faith lies
in gaining some perspective"” getting out of the short-term rut, casting
off the blinders that focus us on what will turn out to be mere
footnotes in a longer-term march of progress. Once we do that, we see
the U.S. economy, a $14 trillion behemoth, is doing quite well, thank you very much.
I can't really excerpt the article and do it justice, but suffice it to say that you won't see much of this in any Obama speeches this year. Here are two charts from the article I particularly liked:
Of course, the rejoinder will be, but what about the poor? Well...
Go read it all in advance of the campaign season. | <urn:uuid:6d877fd2-94ef-4504-bbab-967230c163c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2008/07/keeping-some-pe.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942329 | 321 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Are you planning to bring your family with you, or to start a family in the UK? Find out about pregnancy and maternity rights, childcare, schools, and family rights.
Find out about tax credits and child benefit.
If you are planning to bring your children to the UK find out about the types of childcare available and how you can determine their quality.
If you are pregnant or are planning to start a family, find out what rights you have during your pregnancy and after your child is born.
Find out whether you would be able to bring your family with you to the UK.
Find out about the education system in the UK and how to get information about schools. | <urn:uuid:5037465b-64cd-4070-b7ea-0c17b758d4ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britishcouncil.org/new/Euraxess/euraxess-living/Euraxess-Living-Family/?fs=medium | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971074 | 138 | 1.804688 | 2 |
By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON For some states, the message to the federal government is clear: Back off.
The largely Republican backers say the federal government has overstepped its constitutional bounds by meddling in local matters ranging from education to drunken driving. "It's telling the federal government, 'Guys, you really need to back off,' " said Judy Burges, a
Oklahoma's Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to a sovereignty resolution, in defiance of a veto from the state's Democratic governor,
Similar measures are under consideration in at least two dozen other states. State sovereignty efforts have won the endorsement of two GOP gubernatorial candidates, one of whom — Gov.
The last time that happened, when
Some authors of sovereignty resolutions insist it is slander to paint them as secessionists.
"That's ludicrous. That's not what we're trying to do," said
Jeff Breedlove, chief strategist for
"We love our country," Breedlove said. "The whole point of this is to honor the founding fathers by honoring the 10th Amendment of the Constitution."
Others aren't so definite. "Why would I want to rule anything out?" said state Rep. Charles Key, R-Okla. "Why would we take a position that says 'We really don't like this but we're only going to go so far?' "
The effort seems to have its biggest impetus in states that President
Supporters insist this isn't a red state rebellion and that they are trying to take a stand against federal encroachment on state authority that has been going on for decades.
"It has nothing to do with the Obama administration," said Key. He first introduced a state sovereignty resolution last year, when Republican
Like a number of other state lawmakers, Key said it was a law backed by the Bush administration establishing expensive security measures when issuing drivers' licenses — known as the Real ID Act — that prompted his action.
Michael Boldin, a Los Angeles-based web marketer said he started the Tenth Amendment Center website "as a response to George Bush and
Even so, there's no question that some Obama administration moves are fueling some of these resolutions. Arizona's Burges doesn't like requirements that union labor be used for projects funded by federal stimulus funds.
"We're a right-to-work state," she said, using shorthand for laws designed to limit the influence of labor unions at the workplace.
The resolutions that have passed have no legal effect, but Key and Steele said they hope to organize a summit where state lawmakers could plan their next move.
One possibility: organizing civil disobedience where states agree to defy a federal rule. That could trigger a legal case going all the way to the Supreme Court, now dominated by GOP appointees.
"It's not off the wall," said
Contributing: Mimi Hall
Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more. | <urn:uuid:1061db5e-5a43-4498-b3b8-7a2df4927d9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-05-14-secede_N.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966555 | 631 | 1.695313 | 2 |
US President Barack Obama says India’s investment climate is unsatisfactory and limits foreign direct investment in too many sectors. Time magazine has run a cover story calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh an ‘underachiever’. The outraged reaction of many Indians can only be called juvenile.
Such criticisms are so commonplace — most Indian critics have been saying the same thing for years — that they should not be news at all. Yet, many Indians have responded with an outpouring of angst, outrage and conspiracy theories. These are like the angry tears of a spoiled child. Come on, grow up.
Indian analysts and columnists have cried themselves hoarse about policy paralysis. So why get hot under the collar at the belated American discovery of India? Too many Indians yawn at criticism by their countrymen but go ballistic if a foreigner repeats the same criticism. This suggests a deep inferiority complex, a hangover from colonial times.
The government came out with an official reaction trashing Obama. Whatever for? Corporate affairs minister Veerappa Moily said international lobbies like Vodafone were spreading false stories, and Obama was not properly informed about India’s strong economic fundamentals.
Ridiculous! Capital goods production has been plummeting in India for a year, clear proof that not even Indian industrialists are investing. Many of them have said they are investing abroad because conditions are easier there. When such complaints are pouring in from every corner of India, it is hilarious for Moily to claim it is all a plot of Vodafone.
Industry minister Anand Sharma declared, “policymaking is a sovereign right,” and claimed that India actually had a very good investment climate that was attracting foreigners in a big way.
This will induce many sniggers, because Sharma himself was foiled by his coalition colleagues last year while trying to promote foreign investment in multi-brand retail. Instances like Sharma’s humiliation are precisely what Obama is complaining about.
Suppose Manmohan Singh gives an interview to an American journalist, and suppose he repeats the criticisms Indian businessmen routinely make about the US. The American media would ignore Singh’s remarks as old hat. Obama’s remarks merit the same treatment.
US businessmen say the US corporate tax rate at 35% is one of the highest in the OECD, and hurts their competitiveness. US income tax, capital gains tax and estate duty are so high that some US businessmen — like Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook — have migrated to Singapore, which has far lower taxes. Recent US legislation (including the healthcare law) has hugely increased the regulatory and financial burden of US corporations.
For instance, compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley law costs corporations $2 billion per year, and results in annual reports hundreds of pages long. Indian companies like TCS originally aimed to list their shares in the US, but found Sarbanes-Oxley so burdensome that they decided to list instead in Europe.
Indian businessmen have other gripes. US protectionism is one of them. The US has started squeezing IT companies badly in the issue of visas to Indian software engineers. The US imposes social security taxes on Indian engineers on deputation to the US, but refuses to refund these when they return home.
State Bank of India and ICICI Bank will tell you how difficult it is to get additional bank branch licences in the US. If Manmohan Singh gives an interview to US business journalists, he will surely mention some of these grievances. Yet, there will be no reaction from US politicians or media. We should be just as mature.
Most bizarre has been the India reaction to Time magazine’s cover story on Manmohan Singh. Once a great magazine, Time is now dying and has rapidly declining US readership. Its cover story on Singh was limited to its Asian edition — it was not considered important enough for other editions. Yet, many Indian readers reacted as though this was a major US foreign policy move against India.
A certain ex-Major general wrote, “I see the US as annoyed with India in an election year at having missed [out] on huge business in arms and nuclear reactor supply. US and Europe are in serious recession. The US has backed a wrong horse in Pakistan and its Af-Pak policy is in shambles.
Iran is beyond their ken and Israel demands action that the US isn’t really keen on — the military option… China is causing grave unhappiness to the US policy think tanks and is challenging US suzerainty… It is difficult to believe that a major article like this could have happened without tacit US approval.”
Many others also see some sort of American political plot behind the Time cover story. I am astounded at so much ’ bhav’ being given to a dying American magazine that was once a big name. This reminds me of Simranjit Singh Mann’s demands during the Khalistani agitation in Punjab.
As part of the greater autonomy for Punjab that he sought, he demanded that Amritsar should be made a major international airport receiving flights from Pan American Airways. He did not know that Pan American Airways, once the spearhead of US civil aviation, had gone bust and died!
Foreign politicians and magazines are merely mirroring what many Indian critics have been saying for years. If you do not like the image that you see in the mirror, do not blame the mirror. Blame yourself. | <urn:uuid:9dd61b4e-fce5-4787-90af-28bed65eadb2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/indians-getting-outraged-criticism-abroad-shows-immaturity-inferiority-complex | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964512 | 1,130 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The news that Synopsys wants to bring together the R&D teams and EDA software products from its recent and proposed acquisitions of Magma, Ciranova and SpringSoft
puts me in mind of an intriguing and market-changing perspective.
It looks like EDA is going back to where it came from – but with a twist. Synopsys has said it is making its consolidation move, in part, to offer higher levels of automation in custom tools. Custom in-house tools is where EDA started about 50 years ago.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s both chip making, and the EDA tools that enabled it, were the internal R&D activities of the large OEMs; companies like IBM, AT&T, Motorola, Siemens, Philips, Hitachi, NEC and so on.
With the creation of specialist chip firms like Intel and National Semiconductor, a first level of disaggregation occurred. For a long time that disaggregation was only partial and some OEMs kept on competing with the chip firms, gradually spinning out their chip operations while fabbed and then fabless chip companies sprung up like weeds. The fabless trend, starting in the 1980s, was another disaggregation that separated chip manufacture from design.
Meanwhile, and slightly behind this trend, EDA was separating from chip fabrication, giving rise to a series of EDA leaders to sell to those chip makers. Of course just as some OEMs never disaggregated, some chip companies continued to keep a lot of EDA tool development in-house seeing it as a point of differentiation and added value. Intel is perhaps the best known example. But most chip companies, especially the fabless startups, were happy to use third-party EDA software to get chips designed and get to market quickly. | <urn:uuid:f753a8ad-f34d-42e5-bda5-787a83ceafcb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4391672/Is-Synopsys-helping-chip-making-return-to-its-roots- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97498 | 367 | 1.796875 | 2 |
If anyone read the review of Irving Kristol’s posthumous collection of essays The Neoconservative Persuasion, they may have also noticed the strict line that neoconservatism draws between the dynamics of the material world and the “moral” and “religious” considerations. It never occurred to me before, but it seems like a great number of the larger ideological debates of the modern era can be drawn along these lines. To quote from the review, most of Kristol’s essays
add up to an extended tirade against American liberalism, which I think should figure as still another of neoconservatism’s principles — the largest and most energetic principle of all, judging by the evidence here. The tirade rested on two main inspirations, neither of which can be dismissed out of hand. Kristol repeatedly argued that American liberalism, in its domestic programs, has relied on a parched and narrow vision of human nature, which attributes too much importance to material conditions and not enough to moral and religious considerations.
Such dogmatism and rabid anti-materialist sentiments (in both the capitalist and the philosophical senses of the word), of course, are the cornerstones of modern American religion, and the dogmatism, at least, carries over to the American right. It’s not outlandish that American religion and conservatism make for such wonderful bedfellows.
The main sticking point for me, the one thing I cannot get past, is this reactionary attempt to deny what is so obviously true about the world: things change quickly and dogmatic rules prove to be inadequate to them as soon as they’re printed or typed. What’s so bad about admitting this fact and trying to deal with it rather than taking the conservative path by closing one’s eyes, plugging one’s ears, and yelling as loudly as possible. Wanting to believe something doesn’t make it true, and attempting to strong-arm materialist (or realist) considerations in the name of morals, dogmas, and static, proscriptive ideals won’t make it go away.
That this is an accepted and acceptable route is something I just cannot fathom. | <urn:uuid:3e758658-cc4a-438d-8a74-74acd83ee3ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ghostisland.wordpress.com/tag/conservatives/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954053 | 454 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Some regions show stronger home sales than others
California was among the hardest hit by the housing crisis, which many see as still going on.
Steve Chiotakis: The S&P Case-Schiller Index is out today, and it shows home prices in October fell in 19 out of 20 major cities. It's the second drop in a row, and a sign the housing crisis continues in one form or another. How have cities in the West been faring given how hard they were hit in the last few years?
Paul Habibi is a lecturer on faculty at UCLA. He's with us now from Los Angeles. Good morning, sir.
Paul Habibi: Good morning.
Chiotakis: I know states like California, Nevada, were hammered during the housing crisis, that some argue is still going on, obviously. Housing prices drop -- does that mean homes are more affordable -- people can get in them? Or does that mean that people are just taking a licking right now?
Habibi: Absolutely, home prices are more affordable. And certainly people who are well positioned and have the ability to purchase a home, now is a pretty good time to do it. However, if you look at the overall picture, in many of the at least coastal markets, the cost to rent a house is still significantly less than the cost to own that same house.
But then, you know, the other way to look at it is really not dividing the West coast versus the East coast, versus the Midwest so to speak -- but also looking at the West coast as having its coastal real estate as well as its interior real estate. And certainly, the coastal real estate has been more resilient and seems to be faring much better.
Chiotakis: Any other signs, do you think, in the housing market that perhaps it's picking up?
Habibi: Well, I think the little bit of good news we have is that delinquencies are falling. But I think frankly, it's going to be a very tumultuous but stable market, kind of sitting at the bottom for several months on end until we see actually some really good economic news that's going to bring us up.
Chiotakis: Paul Habibi, on the faculty over at UCLA. Paul thanks.
Habibi: My pleasure. | <urn:uuid:d227fac2-fa99-40a1-8aee-f735f0b1dd4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/some-regions-show-stronger-home-sales-others | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984288 | 473 | 1.617188 | 2 |
There's nothing worse than already running late and having to compete with hundreds of other people for that last spot on the subway car. That's why CountMe!, a new crowd-counting app that's in the works at MIT, could eventually become on the most frequented apps on your smartphone.
Developed by MIT Professor Li-Shiuan Peh (pictured), CountMe! provides an estimation of how many people are in a particular location by gauging audio levels through smartphones' built-in microphones. Peh noted that the app could become especially useful for transportation companies and event planners. Taxi drives, for instance, could identify places in cities where demand may be particularly high, while event planners could use the app to better estimate how many attendees they have on hand.
The app is being designed to work in both indoor and outdoor locations, and it has been tested on more than 25 smartphones with a 90 percent accuracy rate. | <urn:uuid:6bc3ad2b-d854-4f3b-9f9a-0c88f7c73d34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/networking/240009031/the-mit-research-vault-7-wireless-technologies-of-the-future.htm?pgno=4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974056 | 189 | 1.804688 | 2 |
In just about every part of the country, people are losing their jobs. The recession knows no boundaries. But there are places that are hit even harder. Just take a trip to Yuma and you’ll see.
Yuma job fairs and unemployment offices are packed. People are dealing with almost triple the state's unemployment rate. While Arizona has an unemployment rate of 6.9 percent, Yuma’s is almost 20 percent.
The Arizona Department of Commerce says the main reason is Yuma’s agricultural workforce. It varies throughout the year, changing with the picking season. “When they are off they file unemployment claims, therefore the unemployment rate goes up, “ says Cheri Levenson from the Commerce Department.
Yuma normally has a higher than average unemployment rate, but advisors say this is a level they've never seen. People looking for work say even though Yuma is a tough place to land a job, they have to remain hopeful. Many believe being positive is a major factor.
The Arizona Department of Commerce says, even after the economy rebounds, Yuma's unemployment rate will probably hover around 15 percent.
View subscription options | <urn:uuid:bbee9ba3-fd5d-4a2c-95f7-5d9598879498> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/2009/02/09/20090209yumaunemploy020909-CR.html | 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 | 0.961986 | 240 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Need a job? Try Greece, Swedish youth told
Sweden's government-funded employment agency on Monday launched a campaign encouraging unemployed Swedish youths to look for summer jobs in crisis-stricken Mediterranean countries including Spain and Greece.
The jobs, most of them in the hotel and entertainment sectors, will mainly serve Swedish tourists.
"We hope our Swedish youths will get every single one of these jobs. These companies have had good experience of young Swedish workers," said Kristina Gaerdebro Johansson, a European Employment Services (EURES) advisor at the Swedish agency.
Hundreds of jobs in Greece, Spain, Italy and Cyprus -- all popular tourist destinations for Swedes -- will be marketed at a special event organised by the country's employment agency and EURES in the southern city of Malmoe next week.
The positions include football coaches, aerobics instructors and dancers at hotels and resorts around the Mediterranean. Some of the jobs require Scandinavian language skills, but not all of them, said Gaerdebro Johansson.
Youth unemployment in Greece and Spain currently stands at more than 50 percent.
Although Sweden's export-driven economy is beginning to feel the effects of Europe's economic woes, it has posted strong growth since making a quick recovery from the 2008 recession. It also has a low level of government debt.
But youth unemployment has remained above the European average, reaching a seasonally adjusted 23.9 per cent in December.
Sweden's employment agency is offering to reimburse those who want to travel to the Mediterranean job fair from other parts of the country.
"This is a great opportunity if you want to enter the job market," Gaerdebro Johansson said. | <urn:uuid:5ec8ee1c-f98d-4582-80fc-106862ee3c13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/need-a-job-try-greece-swedish-youth-told-20130130-2dktg.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949082 | 345 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Ipso Facto
July 20, 2012
Last fall, I posed the following question: Is there a black market in victimization -- an underground crime industry that is neither reported to police nor disclosed in a victimization survey? Can a culture of not cooperating with police have an impact on crime rates?
The question seemed relevant -- what we heard about crime rates did not jibe with what we were feeling in neighborhoods across the country.
The FBI's Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report for 2011 found that violent crime declined for the fifth consecutive year. Despite the reports, a majority of Americans continued to believe that the nation's crime problem was getting worse. In 2011, sixty-eight percent of Americans said that crime increased over the previous year.
There is an unsettling influence on crime rates; it’s not a seamy underground crime industry, but rather law enforcement itself.
In New York City, an anonymous survey of nearly 2,000 retired police officers found that the manipulation of crime reports -- downgrading crimes to lesser offenses and discouraging victims from filing complaints to make crime statistics look better -- has long been part of the department’s culture.
“I think our survey clearly debunks the Police Department’s rotten-apple theory,” Eli B. Silverman, one of the survey’s authors told the New York Times. The rotten-apple theory was the argument that very few officers manipulated crime statistics. “This really demonstrates a rotten barrel,” added Silverman.
Crime reporting manipulation is not new, nor is it isolated to a few big city police departments. In the last 15 years crime reporting issues have surfaced in Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Broward County, FL and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Some law enforcement practitioners blame the “fudge factor.” Politicians cajole police chiefs and supervisory staff to get crime numbers down. The practice invites precinct commanders to make it appear as though crime has dropped when in fact crime actually increased. Fudging an aggravated assault down to criminal mischief or robbery down to theft can have a dramatic impact on violent crime rates.
In Milwaukee, a Journal-Sentinel investigation found rampant police under-reporting of violent crime. A subsequent internal police department audit showed more than 5,300 violent assaults were misreported since 2006. The audit revealed that 20 percent of aggravated assaults were under-reported as lesser crimes and were not counted in Milwaukee’s violent crime rate during that period.
Police Chief Edward Flynn contends the errors in reporting violent crime were bureaucratic mistakes and not an effort to manipulate data. Flynn said the coding errors will be sent to the FBI for revision, meaning last year’s touted decrease in violent crime was actually an increase.
Visit Ipso Facto | <urn:uuid:8d75ef9f-9de9-4fe4-8f3a-ad16105aa49e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mattmangino.com/2012/07/the-cautionary-instruction-crime-rates.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953003 | 588 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Our park is an exciting aerial forest adventure that provides a variety of courses that are fun for all ability levels. After participants are fitted with harnesses, they are led through a safety and park usage demonstration, fitted with gloves and are then free to navigate their chosen treetop courses. With twelve courses of varying difficulties (think ski trails; yellow, green, blue, black and double black), you are challenged to cross bridges, climb ladders, obstacles and zip lines. The park is built to meet the standards of the Association of Challenge Course Technology (ACCT)
- For ages 7 and up...teens...adults....seniors
- No previous experience is needed
- 12 separate courses and over 170 platforms
- Over 50 zip lines
- 2 courses feature 2000' zip lines
Is there a height, weight or age restriction?
Participants must weigh less than 265 pounds. We suggest that participants are a minimum of 48" tall for the ropes courses and zip lines and that participants have the ability to utilize the safety equipment and navigate the courses independently. This activity is not recommended for women who are pregnant. The courses are for ages 7 to adult. However for ages 7-9, 10-11, and 12-13 there are restrictions on specific courses available for their use. (see the above chart) Whenever adult participation is required the 1:2 adult/child ratio must be met.
Do I have to be really fit to do the course?
Most people that lead an active lifestyle and are in good health should not have any difficulty in completing many of the ropes courses. You are able to proceed at a pace that is comfortable to you, and you can exit the course at many locations. You are also welcome to leave the ropes course and take a break. Unlike the yellow and green courses, the blue and black courses are very challenging.
What clothing should I wear?
Wear well fitting clothing that does not allow anything to hang loose or get tangled in cables and rope. Long hair and jewelry should not be left loose. Sneakers or hiking shoes are recommended. Flip-flops and sandles are not appropriate and will not be allowed.
More questions? We've got answers here
Now to June 10 Sat./Sun./Memorial Day ONLY
June 16 to Sept. 3; Daily
Sept. 8 to Oct. 28; Sat./Sun./Columbus Day ONLY
Adults: Age 12 & older $51
Junior: Ages 10-11 $42
Child: Ages 7-9 $33
Groups* of 15 or more:
(518) 325-3200 or (413) 528-1262 | <urn:uuid:be215935-98fc-4412-a302-7149230f02c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ctstaycation.com/pages/catamount-adventure-park-2012.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934645 | 545 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Dennis E. Discher is Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and in Graduate Groups in Cell & Molecular Biology and Physics. He received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1993 for studies in cell and molecular biophysics, and was a US National Science Foundation International Fellow at the University of British Columbia until 1996.
He has coauthored more than 150 publications with over 7000 citations that range in topic from matrix effects on stem cells and biochemical physics of protein folding to self-assembling polymers applied to disease, with papers appearing in Cell, Science, Journal of Cell Biology, Nature Materials, and Nature Physics. Honors and Service include a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the US- National Science Foundation, the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award from the Humboldt Foundation of Germany, and membership on the editorial board for Science.
BSc (Med), MBBS (Hons), PhD, MAICD, FRCPA, FRACP
Professor Rasko is a Haematologist who directs Cell and Molecular Therapies at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and heads the Gene and Stem Cell Therapy Program at the Centenary Institute, University of Sydney. His was the first formal appointment in clinical gene therapy in Australia.
Professor Rasko is a past President of the Australasian Gene Therapy Society, Chairs the International Committee of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy and is Vice President of the International Society for Cellular Therapy. He is a member of the editorial boards of Pathology, Human Gene Therapy and The Journal of Gene Medicine. He serves on Hospital, philanthropic, state and national bodies including Chair of the Gene Technology Technical Advisory Committee of the federal Office of the Gene Technology Regulator.
Professor Rasko has a productive track record in gene therapy, experimental haematology and cell biology. His research has been successful in uncovering new mechanisms of leukemia, understanding blood hormones and their mechanisms of action, and clinical trials of new biological therapies for cancer and bleeding disorders. He has authored approximately 100 publications including a book published by Cambridge University Press on the ethics of inheritable genetic modification. In landmark papers in Nature Medicine in 2006 and 2007, with collaborators in the USA he reported the short-term clinical success and immunology of AAV-mediated liver-directed gene therapy for the treatment of haemophilia.
Assistant Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Princeton University
Dr. Celeste Nelson did her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, studying intercellular-mediated mechanotransduction. She joined the Chemical & Biological Engineering department at Princeton University in 2007 after completing postdoctoral research with Mina Bissell at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she worked on mammary branching morphogenesis. Dr. Nelson’s group is highly interdisciplinary and focuses on pattern formation during normal and abnormal development of the mammary gland and lung.
Heiko Methe is currently an interventional cardiologist at the University Hospital Grosshadern and Associate Professor at the School of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany. In 1998 he obtained his medical degree at the Georg-August University Göttingen, Germany. After a post-doctoral research sabbatical at The Scripps Research Institute in LaJolla, California he spent 2.5 years at the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
His research focus is on the potential of endothelial tissue engineered constructs to influence vascular repair processes without endangering a host immune response. Heiko Methe currently is a research affiliate with the Biomedical Engineering Center. After returning to Munich he is now involved in both clinical practice and laboratory research. Heiko Methe received the Daniel Steinberg New Investigator Award in Arteriosclerosis/Lipoproteins by the American Heart Association.
Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University, where she directs the Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, the Bioreactor Core of the NIH Tissue Engineering Resource Center, and the Stem Cell Imaging Core. Her lab is working on engineering of human tissues, for use in regenerative medicine and stem cell research. Gordana published 2 books, 45 book chapters, 210 peer-reviewed articles and 34 patents.
She is a frequent advisor to governmental organizations on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and the chair of her NIH study section. In 2002, she was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2007, she gave the Director’ lecture at the NIH, as the first woman engineer to receive this distinction.
In 2008, she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame "for developing biological substitutes to restore, maintain or improve tissue function". In 2009, she was elected to the New York Academy of Sciences. In 2010, she received the Clemson Award of the Biomaterials Society “for contributions to literature”. Her talk is on engineering human tissues (such as heart and bone), by an integrated use of biomaterial scaffolds and bioreactors.
Professor Jürgen Götz is an internationally renowned expert in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). He generated the first tau transgenic mouse model with an early AD phenotype (EMBO J 1995).
Together with Dr. Hutton, he published the first mouse model with NFT formation (JBC 2001a). He provided long-sought evidence for the amyloid cascade hypothesis by combining a transgenic and a transplantation approach (Science 2001). This highly cited work was accompanied by an Editorial in the same issue of Science, and selected as 2001 Milestone Paper by the Alzheimer Research Forum (alzforum.org).
Jürgen Götz further provided a role for FGF5 in the hair growth cycle (Cell 1994), worked on prions (Cell 1998), and showed that the catalytic subunit of PP2A is essential for development (PNAS 1998) and that PP2A is a key enzyme in tau phosphorylation (JBC 2001b, AmJPathol 2003). He established the first in vitro model of Aß-induced tau filament formation (JBC 2003). Using transcriptomics and proteomics he provided evidence for mitochondrial dysfunction and a role for glyoxalase I in AD (PNAS 2003, JBC 2005, Proteomics 2006, PNAS 2009). His review articles are highly cited (e.g., BRR 2001, MolPsych 2004, NatRevNeurosci 2008).
Jürgen Götz has been a continuous member of the GRP (Grant Review Panel) of the NHMRC since arriving in Australia in 2005, and a Chair in 2009.In 2005, Jürgen Götz received the BioFirst (NSW) award; and in 2009 he was awarded NSW Scientist of the Year (Category: Biomedical Sciences).
Current research: Jürgen Götz continues to develop new transgenic animal models and to work on pathological functions of tau, with a focus on tau-targeted treatment approaches and on understanding how tau mediates Abeta toxicity. Another major interest is the commonality of type 2 diabetes and AD and what determines selective vulnerability in AD. In addition to primary neuronal cultures, C. elegans has been established as a model organism in the laboratory.
Recent publications: Rhein V et al (2009) Aß and tau synergistically impair the oxidative phosphorylation system in triple transgenic Alzheimer’s disease mice, PNAS 106: 20057 [Highlighted in Nat Rev Neurosci Jan 2010] • Ittner LM et al (2008) Parkinsonism and impaired axonal transport in a mouse model of frontotemporal dementia, PNAS 105: 15997 • Götz J & Ittner LM (2008) Animal models of Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia, Nat Rev Neurosci 9: 532 • Habicht G et al (2007) Directed selection of a conformational antibody domain that prevents mature amyloid fibril formation by stabilizing Aß protofibrils, PNAS, 104: • Ittner LM et al. (2010) Dendritic Function of Tau Mediates Amyloid-ß Toxicity in Alzheimer's Disease Mouse Models, Cell, in press
Dr. Niklason is a Professor at Yale University in Biomedical Engineering and Anesthesia, and also serves as Vice-Chair for Anesthesia at Yale. She received her PhD in Biophysics from the University of Chicago in 1988, and her MD from the University of Michigan in 1991. She completed her residency training in anesthesia and intensive care unit medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and completed post-doctoral scientific training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From there she went onto a faculty position at Duke University, where she remained from 1998-2005.
During that time, Dr. Niklason founded a biotechnology company (“Humacyte, Inc.”), which is working to bring engineered tissue replacements to patients. In 2006, Niklason moved to Yale University, where she continues to teach, maintain a vigorous scientific laboratory, and works to expand novel cellular therapies.
During her scientific career, Dr. Niklason has become recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in cellular therapies and regenerative medicine. She has become a world-leader in the development of engineered blood vessels for implantation, and other cellular therapies.
Dr. Niklason’s research focuses primarily on regenerative strategies for cardiovascular tissues, and the impact of biomechanical and biochemical signals of tissue differentiation and development. Niklason speaks nationally and internationally on her research, and has received numerous national awards for scientific excellence, and was named one of only 19 “Innovators for the Next Century” by US News and World Report in 2001.
Dr. Garrett was born and raised in Sydney, Australia but moved to Adelaide, Australia in 1969 and attended the University of Adelaide there. He obtained a degree in Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry from the University of Adelaide and a Graduate Diploma in Medical Technology from the South Australian Institute of Technology. In 1979 he was employed by the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science in the Tissue Pathology Department studying the host response to prosthetic wear debris. He then earned his Ph.D. from the University of Adelaide studying metal containing anti-inflammatory drugs.
In 1985 he moved to San Antonio to the University of Texas Science Center at San Antonio to do a Ph.D. fellowship with Dr. Gregory Mundy in bone and cartilage metabolism and then in 1988 joined OsteoSA at its inception. At OsteoSA he was responsible for the identification of bone growth peptides, which would stimulate bone formation.
In 1982 he joined OsteoScreen and in 2001 was made Scientific Director responsible for developing novel assays and approaches for determining the effects of drugs on bone formation.
In 2007 he joined Zimmer as Director of Bone and Drug Device at Zimmer Orthobiologics in Austin Texas. In 2010 he was promoted to Senior Director at Zimmer Orthobiologics.
Dr. Garrett has over 22 years of experience in the area of cell biology and animal models of disease particularly in the field of bone and cartilage research and is adept at identifying novel drugs that work with disease states involving these tissues.
Stephen Hunyor is a Cardiologist, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Cardiac Technology Centre in the Kolling Institute, University of Sydney at Royal North Shore Hospital.
His principal interest has been in translational research, studying heart damage and repair with a focus on heart failure and its treatment with devices and more recently cellular therapy. His group specialises in “whole heart” response in terms of hemodynamics and cardiac mechanics and energetics. He was Director of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Cardiac Technology (1992-99) which had a major program in Polymer research and which involved highly effective collaboration between hospitals, Universities, CSIRO and industry.
Professor Hunyor was co-Founder of the North Shore Heart Research Foundation, and a Member of Scientific/Research Advisory Committees to that Foundation and to the Heart Research Institute - Sydney (2007- ), NHMRC Project Grants Review Panel Member (2006- ) and Founder and former Chairman (2005-2007) Heart Assist Technologies Pty Ltd – a “start-up” company to develop a unique implantable heart assist device. He advised government on R&D policy; was Chair of Australia’s 1st “Commercializing Health Innovations Forum” (CHIF ’97), and established the Intellectual Property Unit within the NSW State Health Department. He has published > 180 papers, edited 4 books, and is co-inventor of 4 Patents (USA, China, Australia, Hungary, Canada).
Associate Professor Nick Di Girolamo is the Director of the Ocular Diseases Research Unit at the University of New South Wales, Australia.He is a Science graduate from the University of Sydney with over 20-years experience in ocular disease that completed his PhD on the “Mechanisms of Tissue Destruction in Inflammatory Eye Disease” in 1998.
His research interests include anterior segment disorders including, uveitis, pterygia, ocular surface neoplasia, and limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD). He has published over 60 articles in peer reviewed medical journals and has attracted over $3M in funds to support his research program. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, a panel member that reviews grants for the National Health & Medical Research Council of Australia and reviewer of manuscripts for over 30 medical journals.
He has a national and international reputation for his knowledge and expertise in matrix metalloproteinase and stem cell biology and was recently awarded ‘Inventor of the Year’ in 2009 by the ABCs New Inventors for developing a novel technique to treat partially blind patients with insufficient corneal stem cells.
Professor in Paediatrics and Molecular Medicine
BMedSci, MBBS (Hons), PhD, FRACP (paeds), HGSA certified clinical geneticist
Professor Alexander is head of the Gene Therapy Research Unit, a joint initiative of the The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Children’s Medical Research Institute in Sydney. Within the hospital he also holds appointments as a senior staff specialist and Director of laboratory research.
His training and day-to-day activities in both clinical medicine and laboratory research reflect his interest in translating research progress into improved health outcomes for children. After completing specialty training in paediatrics at Prince of Wales Children’s Hospital he obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology from the Garvan Institute in Sydney before completing clinical genetics training at the Murdoch Institute in Melbourne. He then undertook postdoctoral studies at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in Seattle before returning to Australia to take up his current position. He has since established a translational research program and developed the specialised infrastructure and skill sets required to take promising novel therapies through to clinical application.
His specific expertise and interests include virus-mediated gene transfer with a focus on organs including the liver and bone marrow, both of which have immense promise as targets for the treatment genetic disease in children. His team became the first in Australia to treat a genetic disease (SCID-X1) by gene therapy and are recognised leaders in the establishment of this exciting field in Australia. This is evidenced by his election as the inaugural president of the Australasian Gene Therapy Society in 2001, his recent award of Life membership of the Society and his appointment in 2007 as Chair of the NHMRC Cellular Therapies Advisory Committee.
He was also recently appointed to the position of Professor in Paediatrics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Sydney.
International recognition includes membership of the gene therapy sub-committee of the International Society for Cellular Therapy, Associate Editorship on the Journal of Gene Medicine and membership of the editorial board of Human Gene Therapy.
In 2008 a Chair of Burn Injury and Reconstructive Surgery has been created at the University of Sydney and Peter Maitz is the inaugural Professor.
Professor Maitz is Medical Director of the Burns Unit at Concord Hospital a teaching hospital of the University of Sydney since 2000.
Prof. Maitz is a Plastic Surgeon trained at the University of Vienna/Austria and Harvard University Boston/USA and was awarded the Order of Australia in 2002 for his services to the Bali victims.
Prof. Maitz designed and commissioned the Burns Unit at Concord Hospital, which offers state of the art equipment and techniques for the care of burned patients. His clinical work includes all areas of burn surgery with special interest in burn reconstruction especially in the head and neck area.
In addition to his clinical work Prof. Maitz established the tissue culturing laboratory at Concord Hospital, which supplies cultured skin substitutes to all patients in NSW and serves as a research basis. Main research areas include skin substitutes, cell technology and microsurgery.
Prof. Maitz is the Chairman of the Education Committee of ANZBA and is heavily involved in teaching. The Emergency Management of Severe Burns course (EMSB) is now being administered under Prof Maitz’s leadership in Australia, New Zealand, England, Holland, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, and Bangladesh. Prof. Maitz published extensively in peer reviewed journals and is member of numerous surgical societies worldwide.
Rutledge Ellis-Behnke is a Professor at Heidelberg University Mannheim Faculty of Medicine where he is the Director of the Nanomedicine Translational Think Tank. In addition, he is a Research Affiliate in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously he was Associate Director of the Technology Transfer Office and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. His primary research interest is using nanotechnology to reconnect the disconnected parts of the brain in order to restore function.
Ellis-Behnke received his PhD from MIT in Neuroscience, BSci from Rutgers University and graduated from Harvard Business School’s International Senior Manager’s Program (AMP/ISMP).
Prior to returning to school to pursue his PhD, Ellis-Behnke held various management positions including Senior Vice President of Huntingdon, a public company for testing and consulting services and Co-founder/CEO in 1995 of one of the first internet companies to do online commerce.
Ellis-Behnke is Associate Editor/Neurology for the journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine; member of both the Executive and Scientific Advisory Boards for the Glaucoma Foundation; member of the Executive Board of the Asia Foundation for Cancer Research; member of the China Spinal Cord Clinical Trial Network, Society for Neuroscience, American Chemical Society, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology and Sigma Xi, the scientific research society.
Technology Review named his “Nanohealing” discoveries one of the “Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2007.” His “Nano Neuro Knitting” and “Immediate Hemostasis” technologies have each been licensed for translation to humans.
In addition to his work in neuroscience and nanomedicine Ellis-Behnke introduced the TabletPC to MIT and the University of Hong Kong as part of the migration to the paperless classroom to deliver all course material and texts to the students digitally. | <urn:uuid:1a3176a8-932f-4e61-a62c-62a0623c13b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sydney.edu.au/engineering/aeromech/SuTEN/speakers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940446 | 4,033 | 1.507813 | 2 |
- William Shatner.
"The importance of musical theory and thesis, small rodents and the affect of psychoactive keyboards in creative songwriting."
1. Seemingly, too much coffee can actually affect songwriting.
Two weeks ago, I made a quite fast start for a new song (or rather, "the first minute until the ideas ran out and I didn´t feel like forcing myself to continue") . That fast that when I played it to Tundra and Routa, they just shook their heads and exhaled slowly while looking at me with the "are you fucking serious"- expression.
"What´s this, a goddamn Red Bull- sponsorship you´re looking for?", Tundra said, while Routa was just trying to figure out what just passed on his ears. "Well, I accidentally five coffees", I responded.
-The whole coffees?
I don´t normally do that much caffeine, but yesterday "I accidentally four coffees and a can of Battery" again. The result? For some reason, I knew exactly at the afternoon how I´d continue with that adrenaline rush of a song even though I hadn´t touched it for two weeks. After adding banjos and making it even more faster with blastbeats, Tundra came to visit my office. Needless to say, he started sweating immediately again, so I knew I was on the right track still. I offered him some coffee and we started to work on other stuff.
2. A riff is a riff. A song is a song. An ostrich is an ostrich. And so on.
You probably get the point what´s the difference between a random riff and something that clearly is an upcoming song, right? Today, were talking about those songs. You have clearly made a main riff, then maybe a verse, even a random hook already figured out....but then somethingsomethingandmaybeamelodyhereandyouknow. It´s just not ready yet. Just like that abovementioned "Nexro" which just ends abruptly. That kind of stuff, you know.
Yes, you do know. The stuff that really, really messes your head while you´re trying to fall asleep.
"Should it go like this? What if I continue it with this other riff? Or what if I combine it with....argh, now I started to think of that riff with the ticking beat of the alarm clock. Tick- tock- bam- bam- click- clickety- i- am -go- ing- sligh- tly- maaaaaaaaaad MAKE IT STOP, MAKE IT STOP, PLEASE" Then you hop out of the bed to get a glass of water to clear your head, realize it´s 2:15 AM and you haven´t slept at all yet and as a bonus you just woke your wife up too. Congratulations!)
3. Don´t treat your songs and riffs like babies but more like guinea pigs, dead human experiments and weird science. We´re building a musical version of a human centipede here. Kill your ideas and give them birth again.
So, there were also four clear ideas for upcoming songs- "Rivfader", "Rocklolbster", "Ministry" and "Tonttuparaati". The problem was that they were so close to each other making them four separate songs would just be a musical suicide. Then Tundra brought "Svekjävlare" and "Tomboijohnson" with him and I noticed we could start doing some serious combining of stuff.
So, first of all, "Ministry" had good ideas but only one really good riff. Even the main melody sucked. So I decided to use it´s arrangement and some modulational ideas (I´d really love to try a hook here where the so- called "chorus" goes actually in a different key than the rest of the song) but combine it with "Rivfader"´s main riff. "Rocklolbster" can be put on hold for now, it´s good until the point it´s finished for now. "Tomboijohnson" we´ll save for later. It had some awesome stuff but somehow it didn´t feel like a song, which Tundra also though as well.
And then, "Svekjävlare" and "Tonttuparaati". The other had awesome parts but not really a good main "theme", be it a melody or a riff (or an ostrich). The other had an awesome main riff but everything else was kinda....uhm, lame. So, Sväk got transposed into E minor from D minor and a tempo change from 126 to 150 BPM- and then we started to experiment with combining and mangling stuff. In the end we actually used even half-a-bar snippets as hooks from Sväk in Tonttu´s first verse only to drop into Sväk´s verse riff which uses a half-a-bar snippet from Tonttu.
Weird, or what?
We spent about three hours of testing, layering, cuttinpastin´, experimenting and trying different ideas. With modern musical software, it´s a blessing you can actually try out transposing, tempo changes and whatnot in a couple of seconds instead of having to play everything again from a scratch. Which we also did. A lot. "Hey, what it you could do this?" "Use A here instead of G before the break?". "Fuck, it sounded awful. Undo it, let´s try something else". "Wait, I have an idea, gimme a guitar, fast". That was so fun and awesome I got home so late I didn´t make it to the store to buy food for the rest of the week. That meant that I drove to the supermarket this morning 7:50 AM before going to the office. (Which I left yesterday only 11 hours earlier, having been there for 11 hours.Would someone please just hand me that prize for being "Husband and Father of the Year 2012"?)
4. Houston, we have a song. Quite. I guess.
We aren´t still completely satisfied with that one "middle- part" of that completely new and facelifted "Tonttujävlare".... But as we put it with Tundra, "I wouldn´t maybe record this song as it is for now, but we´re not really far from that point". Minor tweaks and maybe one riff switched with another we didn´t use and that´s about it. We both decided to think about the arrangement today and get back to each other later with the decision. It´s 150 BPM, E- minor, a bit less than four minutes and I personally think it´s a very, very strong song. Good hooks, not too complicated yet not too boring either and full of energy. Now if we´d only get the lyrics to match the ideas we thought how they would be sung. That´s another part of the story. Fingers crossed, ladies!
"To err is human, to arr is pirate." | <urn:uuid:53f912b9-531c-48b6-b698-3dca0ca00f42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yersiniafestis.blogspot.de/2012_03_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959876 | 1,507 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Multiple local, state and federal scholarships are available for Southeast Tech students.
Southeast Tech Foundation Scholarships: The Southeast Tech Foundation awarded over 193 scholarships last year so be sure to check out the Southeast Tech Foundation Scholarships page for more information!
Scholarship Search Engines:
free scholarship search includes more than 600,000 scholarships worth more than $1 billion. FastWeb also offers expert advice and how-tos on financial aid, scholarships, selecting a major, choosing a career and more. FastWeb is provided completely free and Southeast Tech is a proud FastWeb member school.
Available External Scholarships:
Engineering Technology Students:
ASHRAE is an organization that students should be involved with in order to be qualified for an ASHRAE scholarship. For more information visit their website: http://www.ashrae.org/students
Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation Scholarships:
There are several scholarships available online for students attending technical schools. Please review the applications at www.sfacf.org
South Dakota Opportunity Scholarship
This scholarship is designated for the most academically accomplished high school graduates to receive an affordable education at any university, college, or technical school in South Dakota that is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The South Dakota Opportunity Scholarship provides $5,000 over four years to a qualifying student who attends an eligible higher education institution in South Dakota. Recipients may participate in the South Dakota Opportunity Scholarship Program for the equivalent of four academic years (eight consecutive fall and spring terms), or until attaining a baccalaureate degree. During each academic year, one-half of the annual scholarship award will be distributed at the beginning of the fall semester and the other half distributed at the beginning of the spring semester. Scholarship requirements can be found here.
Completed applications and high school transcripts should be forwarded to:
Director of Students
Southeast Technical Institute
2320 N Career Ave
Sioux Falls, SD 57107
Nursing Education Assistance Loan Program
The 1989 South Dakota Legislature authorized a nursing education loan program to provide assistance to qualified South Dakota residents who are admitted into an educational program for preparation of licensed practical nurses or registered nurses, or a nursing degree enhancement program. Funding for the loan program is generated through a $10 fee charged to LPNs and RNs at the time of licensure. The number and amount of each loan is determined annually by South Dakota Board of Nursing, not to exceed $1,000 per academic year.
Loan monies may be used only for direct education expenses such as tuition, books, and fees. Room and board are not considered direct educational expenses.
A promissory note for the amount of the loan plus accrued interest is required before loan monies are disbursed. If multiple awards are granted to an individual, the awards will be consolidated into one total amount for purposes of establishing terms of repayment. Equal portions of the student's loan amount will be disbursed directly to the educational institution at the beginning of each academic term.
The student borrower may elect to repay the loan either by:
- employment in nursing in South Dakota at a conversion rate of $1 per hour, or,
- remitting monetary payments
- within the required time period of five years.
Information is available at this site on the board of nursing web page:http://doh.sd.gov/boards/nursing/loan.aspx
Deadline for RN students in May 31, for LPN it is September 30 of each year. | <urn:uuid:54af24ea-5fd6-46f9-8f6f-ea39531d4d57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.southeasttech.edu/currentstudents/financialaid/scholarships/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937785 | 732 | 1.5 | 2 |
About the authors
Photojournalist Daniel Holzer first became interested in Stromboli thanks to fascinating reports by famous volcanologist Haroun Tazieff. In 1952 Holzer travelled to Stromboli for the first time. Then a freelance photographer with several journals. he was determined to get some high quality photographic coverage of the volcano. In those days colour photos of erupting volcanoes were still very rare. In addition he was interested in the life and customs of the island's population.
|A first visit to Stromboli turned out to be too short. Therefore he returned in 1953, now in company of his friend Denis Bertholet, photographer and mountain guide. They also planned to produce a documentary movie on 16mm-film. The result of these expeditions are numerous photos and film footage of which samples are presented here.| | <urn:uuid:82e825a0-2e83-4797-8238-ed2e7c128b4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.swisseduc.ch/stromboli/volcano/historical-1953/about-en.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973641 | 175 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Finding books with Google Books is as easy as finding websites with Google Web Search; just enter the keyword or phrase you're looking for into the Google Books box. For example, when you search for [rock climbing] or for a phrase like [one small step for man], we'll find all the books whose contents match your search terms.
Click on a book title and you'll see basic info about the book just like you'd see in a card catalog. You might also see a few snippets — sentences of your search term in context. If a publisher or author has given us permission, you'll see a full page and be able to browse within the book to see more pages. If the book is out of copyright, you'll see a full page and you can page forward or back to see the full book. Clicking on Search within this book allows you to perform more searches within the book you've selected.
You can click on any of the Buy this Book links to go straight to an online bookstore where you can buy the book. In many cases, you can also click Find this book in a library to find a local library where you can borrow it. If the book is available as a Google eBook, you'll also see a buy button for purchasing the digital edition. | <urn:uuid:234e98e6-62f7-4a70-b16f-af9592ae6155> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://support.google.com/books/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=43724&ctx=cb&src=cb&cbid=-1g1vbhzrvtfso&cbrank=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956419 | 259 | 1.8125 | 2 |
UK unemployment falls by 51,000
Unemployment in the UK fell by 51,000 to 2.61 million in the three months to April, official figures have shown.
The jobless rate fell to 8.2%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
But the claimant count - the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance - increased by 8,100 in May compared with April, to 1.60 million.
The ONS said the unemployment level in the UK overall was "showing some improvement".
Hugh Pym reports.
This report features Chris Grayling, employment minister and Paul Bagwell, director of Vax. | <urn:uuid:3ad088aa-ff19-4c6f-8832-f9c555a64c09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18519017 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937188 | 137 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Haytown Nursery School was founded in 1974 as a non-profit school, based on the philosophy that a child’s first pre-school experience should be in a friendly, loving and compassionate environment. Haytown is a place where children grow not only academically, but also socially and emotionally. It is a place where they learn to love learning.
The school was founded on these premises and continues to grow with a highly experienced, highly educated, and very caring staff. Most of our staff’s children went to Haytown, so there is an emotional attachment to and an acknowledgement of the rich educational atmosphere at the school.
While the location of our school has changed since 1974, the core values are the same. To this end, the staff does continuing education hours yearly, participating in workshops, attending seminars and bringing back new skills and ideas to the school. Their new experiences broaden our curriculum, understanding and environment.
We invite you to explore the uniqueness of our school and its programs. Then we invite you to visit Haytown and see first hand how the growth of your child can be nurtured.
I look forward to seeing you and your child!
Marge Moore, Director
HAYTOWN NURSERY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER MAY 6, 2013 SPRING OPEN HOUSE The Spring Open House is on Tuesday, May 21, 2013. This is a family night – siblings are welcome, as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles… The children should be dropped [...]
Haytown’s Earth Day community projects were featured in a recent article in the Hunterdon County Democrat : Haytown Nursery School Celebrates Earth Day Haytown Nursery School in Tewksbury Township celebrated Earth Day this year with some special earth-frie | <urn:uuid:07fed627-6f04-43e2-b31c-8651df7e1b22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.haytownnurseryschool.org/page/2/ | 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 | 0.958633 | 359 | 1.53125 | 2 |
CHESTERMERE — Fifty-per-cent tax hikes tend to be unpopular in Alberta.
But that’s the single-year hit the Redford government will deliver to Chestermere residents on this summer’s education property tax bill.
The abnormally sharp increase is part of the province’s move in this year’s budget to end a tax measure that sheltered some communities at the expense of others.
It’s stunned the mayor of Chestermere, who is irked she’ll have to deliver the bad news to residents: about $400 more on the average home.
“Nobody absorbs $400 without a blink,” Patricia Matthews said. “And we’re asking the province that because this is their tax, we think they shouldn’t hide behind municipalities to collect it, but they should be the ones to collect it themselves.”
She agrees with Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths’ argument that a Calgary homeowner should pay the same provincial property tax rate as a Chestermere resident. But Matthews said the government should not correct this disparity so quickly.
“I would have expected that if you were looking at a massive increase, you would be doing it over at least three to four years,” the mayor said.
Half the province’s 349 municipalities were part of this “mitigation formula,” which was designed to shield high-growth communities from jolts in assessment and education property tax. The province’s budget announced the end of this complex formula.
The province is, in fact, offering a phase-out period for the four municipalities most drastically affected by this change, so that the change isn’t all in one year. That $400 hike for the average homeowner is the cap Alberta Municipal Affairs set, which means the increase will be only $100 next year, ministry spokesman Cam Traynor said.
Chestermere’s town council has long tried to keep increases to the civic side of the tax bill in line with the inflation rate, and providing the best services it can afford with that amount, Matthews said. So the 50 per cent increase on the provincial side is a bit of a shock.
She’ll take to YouTube and her weekly “Mocha with the Mayor” coffee house to explain the hike isn’t her government’s fault.
The mayor found out about the big tax hike after the budget came out last week.
“I’m just shocked they did it with this kind of increase and no notification for residents,” she said.
Griffiths held a conference call with civic leaders on the tax changes last Friday. An aide said late Wednesday the minister would be willing to consider Matthews’ plea for a longer phase-out period, but he’s firm on ending the mitigation formula.
Chestermere resident Peter Meyer deemed the steep tax hike “very ridiculous” and echoed the mayor’s call for a gentler bump.
Meyer mentioned lower taxes were a major reason why he was drawn to the bedroom community more than a decade ago. His wife, Kalin, added she’s heard neighbours talk about moving if taxes continue to climb.
The Meyers, however, agreed with longtime local Jen Peddlesden, who said she doesn’t mind giving more to the provincial coffers — as long as that money gets funnelled back in the form of badly needed services such as seniors’ care, new schools and maintenance projects.
“If Chestermere was buffered, maybe that was a mistake,” Peddlesden said. “This is just pulling us up to speed with the rest of the province.”
Theresa Olson, meanwhile, expects “things to get better when you get your taxes raised.”
“I don’t know that’s the case in Chestermere,” Olson said.
The changes this year translate to a lower provincial property tax take from Calgary and Edmonton residents. But the province’s residential property tax requisition from Airdrie is 22 per cent higher, and the Fort McMurray take is up 96 per cent.
Bruce McAllister, the Wildrose MLA for Chestermere-Rockyview, said the government has been so desperate to shore up its deficit-laden books that it’s scoured for savings in every nook and cranny.
“Everywhere we look they’re downloading their poor fiscal management onto Albertans,” he said.
McAllister said he isn’t sure the buffering formula needed to go, if it was sheltering taxpayers in those high-growth communities. | <urn:uuid:dc642c9a-7cde-44a5-ad0d-014e7b0c0cde> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/alberta/Chestermere+homeowners+brace+cent+hike/8093135/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953873 | 987 | 1.789063 | 2 |
CREDIT: Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce
Economic impact study affirms boost to personal, local and state revenues over past decade
Fort Worth, Tex (Sept. 27, 2011) -- Robust even in the face of recession, the Barnett Shale play has emerged after 10 years as an immense, resilient and growing economic engine in the 24-county North Texas region and Texas, an economic and financial analysis has found.
Commissioned by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and conducted by The Perryman Group (TPG) of Waco, “A Decade of Drilling” examined Barnett Shale activity and impact on local, regional and state business activity during 2001-2011.
The study found massive past, present and future economic impact and billions of dollars generated in local and state tax revenue. TPG estimates that the cumulative economic benefits during the 2001-2011 period include $65.4 billion in output (gross product) for the region, and $80.7 billion in output for the state.
Approximately 38.5 percent of the region’s economic growth since 2001 stems from Barnett Shale activity. And that activity constitutes about 8.5 percent of the local business complex.
“It is truly an amazing story,” said Ray Perryman, TPG founder and president. “Even though the level of drilling activity in the Barnett Shale started declining in late 2008, TPG found that the economic impact of the Barnett Shale activities has continued to grow.”
“We commissioned the study to see how or if the economic downturn had impacted past projections about the industry,” said Bill Thornton, president and CEO of the Chamber. “What we found was that it’s a bulwark of our economy. Here’s an activity that was virtually non-existent a decade ago and now -- thanks to new technology developed here – is generating huge benefits in terms of tax revenues, payroll and personal income for our region and the state.
A winning play
The Barnett Shale has yielded more than 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Although a difficult economy slowed exploration, production from the Barnett Shale has continued to rise, topping 1.8 trillion cubic feet in 2010. More than 70 rigs in 24 counties are currently drilling.
TPG estimated the 2011 total regional effect of Barnett Shale activity to include $11.1 billion in annual output. For Texas as a whole, Barnett Shale-related activity leads to estimated 2011 gains in output (gross product) of almost $13.7 billion.
Such stimulus, the Perryman Group found, flows from (1) exploration, drilling, and related activity; (2) pipeline investments and related operations; (3) royalties and lease bonuses; (4) local and state tax revenues; and (5) direct/indirect jobs and increased business in the private sector.
“The economic impact of the Barnett Shale activities goes far beyond just the drilling of new wells,” Perryman said, “which says that these economic benefits will continue as long as the wells produce, which can be 40 or 50 years or longer. There are obviously challenges to drilling in an urban environment, but efforts to work cooperatively to overcome them will pay handsome dividends.”
Jobs and income
Regionally, Barnett Shale-related activity has created 100,268 jobs, the Perryman Group found. For Texas as a whole, more than 119,200 jobs have been created. (This figure includes direct employment by the energy industry as well as related jobs.)
Wage and salary employment in the region is about 8.7 percent higher than it would be without the Barnett Shale. Personal income in the region is almost 8.5 percent higher than it would be in the absence of Barnett Shale-related activity.
In terms of the number of jobs created directly and in related sectors, the report states, “the Barnett Shale’s effects are now larger than other, long-time sources of economic success in the Metroplex: about 5 percent higher than that of aircraft manufacturing, 10 percent larger than air transportation (including Dallas Love Field, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and Fort Worth Alliance Airport), and 83 percent larger than motor vehicles (manufacturing).”
Tax revenues and philanthropy
At a time when most government entities, on local and state levels, and schools must contend with difficult budgetary conditions, the Barnett Shale delivers an important source of additional revenues. Over the 2001-2011 period, local taxing entities received an estimated $5.3 billion in tax receipts. The state received $5.8 billion.
This year, the Barnett Shale and related activity will generate around $730 million in additional revenues for counties, cities and school districts in the region. The state will likely receive another $911.8 million, for a total gain in local and state taxes of an estimated $1.6 billion.
Barnett Shale activity also benefits both state and local governments through property taxes, severance tax, enhanced retail sales and real estate development, permits and fees, and other types of levies such as hotel/motel occupancy taxes and receipts stemming from various taxable activities.
In 2010, independent school districts in the Barnett Shale region received approximately $2.7 million in royalty payments, $2.5 million in bonuses, and $45.8 million in tax revenue from natural gas and mineral rights. Indirect revenues from collateral development are even higher. At the University of Texas at Arlington, $5 million in royalties has been paid since wells on campus started production in 2008.
Impact extends to revenue-challenged area charities, which have received millions of dollars in donations from oil and gas companies, TPG found. In 2010 alone, companies donated at least $9 million to organizations in the Barnett Shale region.
To view or download a copy of the complete study, go to
Andra Bennett House, APR
Senior Director of Communications
Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce | <urn:uuid:e7b82622-54f6-4d93-a71f-47af29659b7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bseec.org/content/study-decade-drilling-has-expanded-barnett-shale-regional-economy-38-654-billion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95108 | 1,235 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Enterprise Investment Scheme - The Rules Condensed
We are all acutely aware of the difficulties that businesses are currently facing in accessing finance. On the one hand, we have the government proclamations that the UK massively reliant on small businesses and entrepreneurial spirit but, on the other hand, banks are still not lending sufficiently, as their main focus is to build up their capital reserves. Small business and the economy are suffering as a direct consequence of the banks’ unwillingness or inability to lend.
The government is in ongoing dialogue with the banks regarding their lending policies but is also encouraging businesses to explore alternative means of finance, one of which is the 'Business Angel'. A business angel is defined as a wealthy individual who provides finance to companies in exchange for a share of the companies’ equity.
As far as tax breaks go for this type of investor, the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is targeted at precisely this kind of financing arrangement. EIS has been with us for a long time now but, due the current reluctance of the banks to lend, is of considerable more relevance now than it was maybe ten years ago.
The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has identified EIS as one of the main reliefs requiring urgent simplification.
The tax reliefs available under EIS are actually very generous and these are considered in our separate guidance.
However, many businesses and investors have been reluctant to use it…….which brings us to the main problem with the EIS. The scheme is so complex and full of traps, that it is an immediate turn-off for many would-be investors and businesses alike. In the early days of EIS (and its predecessors, the Business Start-Up Scheme and Business Expansion Scheme) the system was quite open to abuse and so, over the years, more and more anti-avoidance legislation has been thrown into the mix, making for a really complicated set of rules.
It has also historically been an extremely high-risk area for accountants and tax advisers and HMRC have historically been fastidious in applying the rules to the letter which can often result in difficulties.
What the business community is crying out for is a radically simplified set of rules to make EIS a far more attractive proposition for investors and businesses alike.
EIS in Outline
Due to the complex and sprawling nature of the EIS legislation, which runs to 69 pages, it is difficult to condense the rules easily but let us try. These are the rules that apply following the changes as a result of the 2011 and 2012 Budgets.
The EIS scheme allows a company which meets certain conditions (a qualifying company) to raise funds by issuing full-risk ordinary shares to individual investors previously unconnected with the company.
The funds raised must be used to finance a qualifying trade carried on in the UK or for research and development. The funds must be used within 12 months of the commencement of the trade, and this must take place within two years of the share issue.
The trades which qualify are severely restricted so as to exclude trades where the investors' capital is at little or no risk.
In general, an individual who is or has been connected with the company or its trade will not qualify for relief, but business angels may receive a reasonable remuneration as a director.
Although there is no statutory clearance procedure, HMRC will, on application, give an advance opinion on whether a proposed share issue will qualify for relief.
To qualify for the tax reliefs, an investment needs to be made by a qualifying individual in a qualifying company.
An individual is eligible for EIS relief if he subscribes for relevant shares in a qualifying company with which he is not connected.
For the purposes of establishing whether an individual is connected with a company, a 30% test applies. If an individual, together his associates, holds more than 30% of the share capital, loan capital, voting rights or rights on winding-up, they will be 'connected' and therefore not eligible for relief under the scheme.
'Associates' are any partner or relative of the investor and, in certain circumstances, trustees and personal representatives of trusts/estates in which the investor was either settler or had an interest.
Irrespective of the 30 per cent test, an individual is connected with the issuing company if he, or any associate, is an employee or partner of the issuing company or any of its subsidiaries at the time of issue.
An individual is also connected with the issuing company if he is a director (unless unpaid) of that company or of a subsidiary or partner of that company. Business angels, who have had no previous connection with the EIS company, may receive a 'reasonable remuneration' for their services as a director. However, new companies are not excluded in the legislation. It would therefore appear to be acceptable for a small group of individuals to set up a new company, be paid reasonable remuneration for the services they provide to the company and claim EIS relief for their investment. However, care must be taken that at the time of the issue of their EIS shares they are not already connected with the company or its trade.
The annual maximum amount that an individual investor may invest under the EIS scheme is £1,000,000 per tax year from 6 April 2012 (£500,00 previously), although if the investor has also made an investment into a Venture Capital Trust (VCT), the amount of investment would need to deducted from the £1,000,000 maximum limit, since it is a combined EIS/VCT limit.
The rules start to get really complicated when looking at the requirements for a qualifying company. The main rules are outlined below are an 'in a nutshell' version of the rules, which run to many pages of legislation.
For shares to be eligible for EIS relief, the company must
• be unquoted at the time of issue of the shares, with no arrangements in place for the company to become quoted
• not be under the control of another company, nor must there be arrangements in place at the time of the share issue
• meet certain conditions in respect of subsidiaries that it may have
• be a 'small' company. The definition of small or these purposes does not follow the Companies Act definition of a small company. To qualify as small for EIS purposes, the company (or group, if there are subsidiaries), the gross asset value of the company must not exceed £15,000,000 before the issue of the EIS shares and £16,000,000 afterwards
• carry on a qualifying trade either itself or through a qualifying subsidiary
• raise no more than £10,000,000 per annum by way of EIS and venture capital trust subscriptions combined
• apply the funds for qualifying trading purposes within 2 years of the share issue
• have less than 250 employees.
Most trades will qualify as a 'qualifying trade'. However, certain trades are excluded by legislation. The excluded, non-qualifying trades are as follows:
• dealing in land, in commodities or futures in shares, securities or other financial instruments
• dealing in goods, other than in an ordinary trade of retail or wholesale distribution
• financial activities such as banking, insurance, money-lending, debt-factoring, hire-purchase financing or any other financial activities
• leasing or letting assets on hire, except in the case of certain ship-chartering activities
• receiving royalties or licence fees (though if these arise from the exploitation of an intangible asset which the company itself has created, that is not an excluded activity)
• providing legal or accountancy services
• property development
• farming or market gardening
• holding, managing or occupying woodlands, any other forestry activities or timber production
• coal production
• steel production
• operating or managing hotels or comparable establishments or managing property used as an hotel or comparable establishment
• operating or managing nursing homes or residential care homes, or managing property used as a nursing home or residential care home
• providing services to another person where that person's trade consists, to a substantial extent, of excluded activities, and the person controlling that trade also controls the company providing the services.
A company can carry on some excluded activities, but these must not be 'substantial' part of the company’s trade. HMRC take 'substantial' to mean more than 20 per cent of the company’s activities.
There is no requirement that the qualifying company is resident in the UK, but for shares issued on or after 6 April 2011, the company must have a ‘permanent establishment’ in the UK.
HMRC Clearance Procedure
The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is administered in HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) by the Small Company Enterprise Centre (SCEC).
The SCEC decides if a company and a share issue qualifies. If they do, the SCEC then takes responsibility for checking the accounts etc of the company to ensure that it continues to meet the requirements of the Scheme.
Companies are not required to obtain such an assurance, but companies, particularly those using the EIS for the first time, may consider it prudent to do so. It gives an opportunity to spot any problems before shares are issued, and an assurance from the SCEC is also useful for companies to show to potential investors.
Full guidance on the Advanced Assurance application can be found on the HMRC website.
Office of Tax Simplification (OTS)
The OTS, in its Review of Tax Reliefs – Final Report (March 2011), identified EIS as being complex, expensive to set up and administratively burdensome. Due to the requirement for the conditions to be met for a three year qualifying period, the scheme is fraught with traps for would-be investors. The OTS identified several areas of concern. Some of these were addressed by the government in the 2011 and 2012 Budgets but the following still remain areas of concern:
• the legislation governing EIS runs to 69 pages and is found at different parts of tax legislation, making the rules difficult to read and to apply
• the cost of obtaining professional advice to ensure compliance with the rules may make the scheme prohibitive for many
• there is general confusion as to whether the relief is available to directors and employees of the company
• the clearance procedure can provide assurance for investors but can take up to a month to obtain. OTS has suggested that an electronic online clearance procedure would be useful
• one of the requirements is that shares are subscribed for wholly in cash and are fully paid up at the time they are issued. This condition (which was designed at a time when investors generally paid by cheque) causes complexities in the procedures undertaken during funding. Generally investors prefer to pay by electronic transfers, but if they pay prior to the shares being issued, it results in EIS relief being denied; transfers after the shares have been issued results in the shares not being fully paid up (and thus the relief is denied)
• further funds. This condition also means that the proceeds from larger share issues, with some non-EIS funding, must be separately tracked.
The OTS have made the following suggestions for simplifying the scheme:
• the complex and sprawling rules be rewritten into a checklist or flowchart that makes it easy to follow to determine eligibility. Such an approach is likely to be in a Practice Note or HMRC guidance and such guidance should be binding;
• in particular, to simplify the administrative side of the relief, consideration could be given to clarifying the position surrounding the eligibility of directors and employees to address some of the confusion that still exists;
• a potential grace period for the shares to be fully paid up (of perhaps a few days) to ease the administration of electronic cash transfers; and
• implementing an electronic certification process to streamline applications. | <urn:uuid:5947c5eb-6972-4459-83eb-d043bd02ad92> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.accaglobal.com/uk/members/technical/advice_support/tax/capital_gains_tax/2012/eisrules | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959507 | 2,431 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Scrum provides a simple set of rules that have proven to work in thousands of projects. I am an advocate for the benefits of the prescriptive framework of rules that Scrum provides because it is easily understood and repeatable in many different situations. However, I don’t think this set of rules is sufficient and I don’t agree with the premise that additional rules should be discovered by the team solely through Scrum’s inspect and adapt mechanisms. I have observed too many obvious cases where teams first have to experience the same problems and then either adapt to add practices which are well known to the agile community or just get stuck. Initially their biggest challenge is often learning to work as a team so this blog will suggest adding some explicit rules from the beginning that reinforce and enable teamwork.
New Scrum teams frequently experience the following pattern in their first Sprint:
- A five to seven person team has committed to about five stories
- On day two of the Sprint work has started working on all stories
- On the last day of the Sprint the team has completed maybe one story and are scrambling to complete the rest
There are numerous opportunities for discovery during the retrospective from a sprint like this and I have heard Agile coaches claim this to be a constructive opportunity for the team to learn how they can work together as a cross functional team. That may be true if an experienced Agile coach is in place to guide the team to recognize and address the root causes, then get them to take actions that limit work in process and engage more of the team in each story. Consider how this makes a new team member feel about their first sprint experience. They are likely starting with a disappointing feeling that perhaps Scrum doesn’t work that well after all, or may ask, ‘why didn’t someone just warn me about this before we made these mistakes?’
Let’s explore this initial example a bit further and see what additional rules we could start with to help avoid this situation. What is wrong with starting work on all of the stories early in the sprint? In other words, what are the consequences and root causes?
- There is a high risk that most stories will not be completed and fully tested to meet the definition of done
- The top one or two most important stories may not get done
- Testers complain they were overwhelmed with testing at the end of the sprint but didn’t have anything to do at the beginning
- Coders were busy at the beginning but didn’t have much to do at the end of the sprint
- Increased pressure to tradeoff quality and accept stories that aren’t really “done”
- Once committed in a sprint, the top ranked story is no longer a priority to work on first
- Individuals are working separately on each story
- There is no concurrent team work on a story
- Naïve tasking where each story has two tasks: “code it”, “test it”
- Definition of Done way too comprehensive and complicated to start with
In this example people are still working as individuals and haven’t learned how to coordinate working together as a team to accomplish a shared deliverable. Developers may claim, “it’s ineffective to have more than one coder work on a story at the same time because we would be stepping on each other’s toes”. A scrumudgeonly coach may ask, “What does that say about the design of the code?”
Possible Practices and Rules that might help avoid this situation:
- Swarming is an agile practice where the entire team tackles one story at a time. While this may not be the ideal approach for every sprint, it does help a team learn how to work together effectively.
- Task stories to include test planning and setup concurrent with design and coding; testers can then be prepared to more quickly perform tests and provide quicker feedback when coding is ready. If testers and coders share a tasking plan, some testing may commence before all coding is complete.
- Include time to design code for each story and reflect it in tasking
- Work-In-Process Limit Rule: No more than half the stories in a sprint may be open at one time.
This strikes a balance between the two extremes of swarming on one story at a time or having everyone working on separate stories. This rule could also express that only a given number of stories may be open; no more than 3 for example.
- Maximum Task Size Rule: If estimate for an Individual Task is more than 4 hours then the task needs to be broken down further
- Test Planning Rule: Any story to add new feature functionality must have a separate task for acceptance test planning and preparation in addition to post code testing
- Coding Design Rule: Any story with more than 8 hours of coding work needs to have a separate design task
- Initial DoD Rule: A team’s initial Defintion of Done should be short, simple, and unambiguous. It should have no more than 6 or 7 criteria including these three:
1. Accepted by the Product Owner
2. No known defects in a story
3. Each story has a persistent repeatable acceptance test
Definition of Done
Scrum includes the Definition of Done . This should make it clear that quality is not negotiable when counting completed work at the end of a sprint. A common problem is that many organizations make their Definition of Done way too comprehensive and complicated to start with. Combine an exhaustive Definition of Done with the situation in our initial example and people will be tempted to relax acceptance against the Definition of Done or slide defects in new code until later so that they can count their coded but not quite “done” stories as complete in the sprint. People will be tempted to do this anyway. I think this breaks the fundamental Scrum framework when it happens. See Chris Sterling’s post on Building a Definition of Done for advice on creating a DoD for your team.
A popular misconception is that Agile discourages process rules. This may be because the Agile Manifesto states, “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” I think there is value in stating more explicit rules both as a starting point and as a continuous improvement tool. These rules should be adaptable. They are first intended to improve teamwork and the flow of work through each sprint. Then making rules more explicit helps the team become more aware of the agile mechanisms at work in their Scrum system so that they can experiment and change them. I want to recognize that Kanban has built in the concept of explicit policies for this purpose and I appreciate how it embraces them for continuous improvement.
If you want to get faster results from Scrum and help your teams to become highly productive sooner you may consider hiring an experienced Agile coach as a new team’s initial ScrumMaster. An experienced agile coach brings a deep set of heuristics about what they and others in the Agile community have seen work in past situations along with the insistent mentoring to challenge teams to make adaptive changes more rapidly. A lot of their value added comes from priming the initial conditions with suggestions like these rules to help new teams avoid common pitfalls. Jeff Sutherlands post about RapidScrum’s Scrum"Shock Therapy" How To Change Teams FAST gives a good example
My goal for this blog posting is to elicit more rules for Scrum teams to consider adding to their working agreement without necessarily having to go through the pain of repeating common mistakes. I think this can be especially valuable for larger organizations that are repeatedly launching new Scrum teams. Having more consistent rules across different Scrum teams can significantly accelerate their ramp up with faster wins for new teams. I will add future posts with more rule ideas that can help people work as a team to deliver high quality, working products faster. | <urn:uuid:09c6a9ed-860f-43c3-8ab7-6ffd9ff5a9d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.brucewinegarden.com/2012_03_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959223 | 1,624 | 1.835938 | 2 |
On Wednesday, April 27, 2011, for the very first time in history, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve held a press conference and took open questions from journalists representing prominent news organizations and prestigious financial publications.
During his opening statement, the Chairman denied that the liquidity being added through the quantitative easing program and the purchase of hundreds of billions in Treasury debt has contributed to inflation. He further asserted that the current rise in prices was a temporary phenomenon and that they would revert to historical norms in due time. The Chairman also reiterated the Federal Reserve’s commitment to maintaining a strong dollar. When Treasury Secretary Geithner made a similar statement in 2009 during an address to students at Beijing University, he elicited loud bursts of laughter from the audience.
These rosy predictions fly in the face of what ordinary consumers are experiencing on a daily basis when they shop for basic necessities. Just as the US Department of Agriculture predicted in October of last year, retail prices for fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, dairy products and meat have gone up dramatically, some of these registering annualized increases of as much as 14%.
The Consumer Price Index published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics concedes a 3.6% inflation rate over the last 12 months for food purchased for consumption at home, and this is likely to be understated. Even McDonald’s Corporation announced last week that it expects inflation in food costs this year, and everybody knows that when the clown speaks, people listen.
Also, people need to get to the store and to their place of employment, assuming they are lucky enough to have a steady job. Over the last six months, gasoline has increased at a rate of more than 6% per month from $2.82 to $3.87 per gallon and there is no relief in sight from the destructive impact wrought upon budgets of families already stressed by the long recession the country has been experiencing.
Maybe the government really does have inflation under control as we’re being told, but more likely, the wooden man with the nicely trimmed beard and the prominent nose hasn’t filled up his car or been to the grocery store lately. | <urn:uuid:71a1531f-5195-4077-8a62-46dd9ac75e52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fullfrogmoon.com/2011/04/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970475 | 431 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The Best of Both Worlds
FOOD FOR THOUGHT - May 28, 2008 - Mark R. Vogel - [email protected] - Mark’s Article Archive
Ask the average layman what’s the best cut of beef and they’re likely to reply “fillet mignon.” Even people who don’t cook have heard of fillet mignon. Coupled with its high price, the combination of its popularity and notable cost shroud it in an illusion of superiority. Much like oenophilic amateurs assume that Dom Perignon is the best champagne simply because the name is so commonplace in our culture, (and again, the price tag adds to the mystique). Well there’s much more to steak than fillet mignon (and much more to champagne than Dom Perignon but that’s another story).
Let’s begin with what fillet mignon is. Fillet mignon is merely the slices, (individual steaks) of a larger cut of meat known as the tenderloin. The tenderloin in turn, is part of an even larger section called the short loin. Adjacent to the tenderloin is a cut known as the top loin. The top loin, in conjunction with the tenderloin forms the short loin. If you examine a T-bone or porterhouse steak, the large side is the top loin and the small side is the tenderloin. The tenderloin is so popular because, as its name implies, it is tender. Indeed, the tenderloin is the most tender cut on the animal. But everything in life has its cost, although this one is not a monetary one. This exchange costs flavor. The more tenderness you get, the more it’ll cost you in taste.
Just like a human being, muscles that are not regularly exercised become soft. In steak-land we call that tender. On a cow, the muscles in the center of the animal, specifically the upper mid-center, do the least work. The muscles nearest the front and back of the animal have a busier agenda. Comprising the legs and adjacent structures like the hips and shoulders, these muscles are responsible for walking. Even at rest they must bare the weight of the animal. Thus, they are in a nearly constant state of tension. Similarly, so are the muscles of the lower center surrounding the diaphragm. Incessant breathing causes these muscles to be in perpetual motion.
The cuts from the mid-center up include the rib, the aforementioned short loin, and the sirloin. These are the least exercised muscles and therefore produce the tenderest steaks. But back to the catch: The more tender the cut, generally speaking, the less flavor. Highly worked muscles receive more nutrients. Moreover, the exercise develops more complex flavor. Conversely, stagnation breeds banality. This is particularly true of the tenderloin and hence the fillet mignon.
But there’s always a way to beat the system and beef connoisseurs figured out a long time ago how to get the best of both worlds: the rib. The rib, or rib-eye is the steak of choice for beef purists, (a rib-eye is simply a rib steak without the bone). The rib is almost as tender as the fillet mignon, but the difference in suppleness is more than compensated by a disproportionally increased flavor and succulence. But wait a minute. I just finished telling you that tender cuts are low in flavor. So how is the rib so tasty? Health freakers won’t like this but the answer is the fat baby! Fat is what saves the day. (If you’re starting to get chest pain, stop reading and go eat some broccoli). The rib meat has far more intramuscular fat than the tenderloin which is virtually barren of unctuousness. Indeed, intramuscular fat is the primary criteria differentiating the highest grades of beef. The more fat, the higher the grade. Why? Because fat tastes good baby! Fat makes the meat juicier and more succulent. The bone also helps. If you want to push the taste curve to the max, enjoy your rib steak on the bone.
If you have three or more ribs together in one mass you have a rib roast, also called a standing rib roast. After roasting it in the oven, slice individual steaks by cutting between the bones. These are then called rib steaks, and again, if the bone is removed, a rib-eye steak.
We also need to clear up the term “prime” rib. Prime rib refers to the rib meat nearest the spine. However, prime can also refer to the grade of beef. Prime is the highest grade of beef and usually not found in standard supermarkets. Prime has the highest degree of the aforementioned intramuscular fat. Most prime beef is sold to upscale restaurants and hotels. You need to go to a real butcher shop to acquire prime meat. Most of the “prime” rib out there, especially at those American chain restaurants is actually “choice,” the second highest grade of beef. If you’re rib cut was actually a prime grade you’d technically have a prime, prime rib.
GRILLED RIB-EYE STEAK
• 1 lb. rib-eye steak
• Olive oil as needed
• Onion powder to taste
• Garlic powder to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste
Brush the steak with olive oil and liberally season it with the onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Don’t bother trimming any of the fat. Much of it melts while cooking and what doesn’t helps flavor the meat. Wipe your grill grates with oil and get your grill smoking hot. Add the steak and leave it untouched, and the grill covered, until the one side is completely seared, approximately 4-5 minutes. Flip and sear the other side. For a 1-lb. steak, once each side is fully seared you should be close to medium-rare. If you must cook it longer place the steak on the rack above the grates, cover the grill and cook until the desired degree of doneness.
Also Visit Mark’s website: Food for Thought Online | <urn:uuid:5b6635f2-aa6e-4681-b38c-e51fcec86ff1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foodreference.com/html/a-best-2worlds.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931991 | 1,339 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Dec. 24, 2012 ElcaMedia
, Interview with the President & CEO of the Arabia CSR Network
"The Arabs have traditionally been experts at resource conservation.
When you live in the desert, you respect the few oases that you have; you use your water responsibly, you treat your flora and fauna well.
But a growing city, with oil-wealth impacting every aspect of its life, changes things; which is why I felt that there was a need for a concerted effort to bring people back to those traditional values.... http://www.elcamedia.com/blog/?p=310 | <urn:uuid:259271ac-feb0-4712-a9cb-0ba97924b5a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scoop.it/t/environmental-and-human-health/p/3852576255/raising-the-bar-of-csr-in-the-arab-region-arabia-csr-network | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954571 | 126 | 1.625 | 2 |
I’d love to hear your remembrances of this great man. Here is mine.
The last of the great journalists has died. Walter Cronkite never let his popularity lead him to believe that he was bigger than the story or that he didn’t have to do the hard work of serious reporting. A young Cronkite probably couldn’t even get a job with a major news network today.
But the purpose of this post is not to critique the MSM, but remember the man. I met him once, a decade ago. He was keynoting a conference I was speaking at. I managed to introduce myself and shake his hand. He is as classy, humble, and generous in person as he seems on TV.
Several moderate Democrats, including Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, have voiced opposition to card check, convinced that elections were a fairer way for workers to unionize. They were swayed partly by business’s vigorous campaign, arguing that card check would remove confidentiality from unionization drives and enable union organizers to bully workers into signing union cards.
You have to read almost to the end of the Times piece before learning that lawmakers continue to discuss various details of the bill — it’s not a done deal. There are details to be worked out in the legislative process, and meaningful labor law reform must include the three principles underlying the Employee Free Choice Act:
– Workers must have a free choice and a fair path to choose to form a union, free from intimidation.
– Real penalties must exist for employers who break the law.
– Workers who choose a union must be able to get a fair first contract
– Companies must not be able to engage in endless delays and stalling tactics to deny workers a collective bargaining agreement.
With President Obama’s backing — reiterated on Monday — and the support of the majority in Congress, this is the year to pass the most significant labor law reform since the 1930s. And let’s not forget that 73 percent of the public supports the Employee Free Choice Act, which would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions.
The reason for such support is understandable. Corporate abuses are all too common, and companies can act with impunity against employees who are trying to form unions. Workers who try to exercise their basic freedom to form a union are faced with mandatory meetings, threats of wage or benefit cuts, threats of firings or plant closings and even illegal firings, because of weak law and negligible penalties. That matters to the lives of workers across the country. And even when workers do get through the company-dominated process, more than half wait more than a year for a first contract, and nearly one-third don’t have a contract two years later.
The Employee Free Choice Act has earned the support of small businesses, faith groups, civil rights groups, leading economists and a wide variety of community organizations, who all agree that a strong, progressive country with a healthy economy depends on the ability of workers to bargain for a fair share. Three-quarters of Americans support legislation to make it easier for workers to bargain collectively.
We can and will pass meaningful labor law reform this year. America’s workers can’t wait.
Some compared Obama to O.J. Simpson while others suggested that “n[*****] rigs” should now be called “presidential solutions.”
Perhaps the most overboard e-mail was sent on Jan. 15. It read: “Breaking News Playboy just offered Sarah Palin $1 million to pose nude in the January issue. Michelle Obama got the same offer from National Geographic.”
Frago admitted sending the e-mails, but showed no regret. “If they’re from me, then I sent them,” he said. “I have no disrespect for the president or anybody, they weren’t meant in any bad way or harm.”
When given an opportunity to explain himself, Frago somehow managed to dig himself a deeper hole by saying: “I don’t see where there’s a story, I’m not the only one that does it. … I didn’t originate them, they came to me and I just passed them on.”
Earlier today, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Mel Martinez (R-FL) each announced that they would vote to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the next justice on the Supreme Court. The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz tweeted the news, but was only surprised that two of the Republicans were backing Sotomayor:
The implication of Kurtz’ tweet appears to be that it is obvious Martinez would support Sotomayor because they are both Hispanic. This kind of thinking is reminiscent to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) criticizing Sotomayor for disagreeing with another judge of “Puerto Rican ancestry.”
Kurtz responds in a follow-up tweet: “Didn’t mean to dis Senator Martinez. I just question whether he would have come out so early for a Democrat’s non-Hispanic nominee.”
A $2 million border camera project started by Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has yielded just 11 arrests and 8 drug busts. That’s 1,189 fewer arrests than what Perry anticipated. Only 300 undocumented immigrants were reported to the U.S. Border Patrol, compared to the 4,500 that were expected.
125,000 people registered to serve as “virtual Texas deputies” and monitor the border cameras on the website “BlueServo.” Camera watchers found it difficult to determine the difference between animals and undocumented immigrants crossing the border. One vigilante wrote:
“Just a word of warning: A moment ago I saw a spider crawl across the top of the camera…You might want to try and prevent any webs from being spun across the lens area by treating with repellent or taking other measures.”
That’s a bit different from the picture Perry excitedly painted in 2006:
“Under the watchful eyes of law enforcement and the American people, criminals who smuggle drugs and human beings, predators who commit violent crimes against citizen and immigrant alike, and terror groups looking to exploit our border will all lose their greatest strategic asset: the cloak of secrecy. Enforcing the border is the federal government’s responsibility, but Texas will not wait to act.”
“The grim reality is that with regard to the budget we have entered a zero-sum game. Every defense dollar diverted to fund excess or unneeded capacity… is a dollar that will be unavailable to take care of our people, to win the wars we are in, to deter potential adversaries, and to improve capabilities in areas where America is underinvested and potentially vulnerable. That is a risk that I will not take and one that I cannot accept,” he said.
This is fundamentally what the F-22 debate is all about. Barack Obama and Robert Gates are trying to bring an end to years of magical thinking about defense spending. George Bush took a federal budget that was in short-term equilibrium but facing large long-term deficits, and decided that the thing to do was to cut taxes dramatically and simultaneously scale up defense spending. Ronald Reagan did the same thing. That’s conservative governance. But in the real world, you have to make decisions. If the country is going to fix its budgetary problems then the Pentagon is going to have to live on a budget. That means choices have to be made.
Like me, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities hadn’t really been looking toward a surtax on high-income Americans as the way to finance health care expansion. But that’s what the House of Representatives legislation would do, and CPBB deems it “a reasonable approach”. For one thing, this is a measure that would leave the vast majority of Americans completely unscathed. The richest 1.2 percent of the population would be the ones bearing the burden. That’s something opponents are going to try to obscure, but it’s the reality.
The other point is the one I was making here, the richest Americans have managed to acquire a much larger share of overall income than they used to have. Under the circumstances, ratcheting-up their taxes is a way of ensuring that the GDP growth of the past 25 years redounds to the benefit of everyone. And in particular redounds the benefit of people who could really use some help:
All things considered, I think there’s a reasonably compelling logic behind the idea that it makes more sense to finance health reform through health-related tax measures like curbing the exclusion or taxes on alcohol and other public health hazards. But taxing the incomes of high earners is a reasonable alternative.
Our guest blogger is Krisila Benson, Director of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities Action, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
The debate over the future of the F-22 is turning out to be a marathon, not a sprint. After three days of debate this week on the amendment to the Defense Authorization bill proposed by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ) to strip the $1.75 billion for the purchase of seven additional planes, the amendment was temporarily withdrawn because Republicans were unwilling to agree to cloture on the debate.
The Republicans appear committed to stretching out debate on the Defense Authorization bill as along as possible, as part of a larger stall strategy to avoid getting to healthcare, and other issues critical to the agenda of the Obama administration before the August recess. The F-22 is a great stall tactic – from their perspective it is more politically savvy to pontificate on the full floor of the Senate at great length in support of the F-22 than against the Hate Crimes amendment, the other big amendment debated this week.
To raise the stakes, earlier this week President Obama made a pointed veto threat if the Defense Authorization bill (pdf) winds up on his desk with any F-22. This debate is no longer one based on the merits of the case, and it is unclear whether Levin and McCain have the votes they need, even after the threatened veto. Senators hear the “Jobs, jobs, jobs” arguments made by Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and others supporting the F-22, in spite of the fact that future production of the F-35 will offset job losses created by the end of the F-22. And unfortunately many Democrats continue to be reluctant to vote against any defense initiative for fear of appearing soft on national security.
The top civilian and military leaders of the Pentagon have spoken at great length about how additional F-22s are not needed, and continuing production of the line comes at the expense of other initiatives that are far more important for our national security.
Secretary of Defense Gates can only be characterized as exasperated on this issue. Last night in Chicago he said, “with regard to something like the F-22, irrespective of whether the number of aircraft at issue is 12 planes or 200, if we can’t bring ourselves to make this tough but straightforward decision – reflecting the judgment of two very different presidents, two different secretaries of defense, two chairmen of the joint chiefs of staff, and the current Air Force Secretary and Chief of Staff, where do we draw the line? And if not now, when? If we can’t get this right — what on earth can we get right?”
Earlier today on Fox News, RNC Chairman Michael Steele was asked whether Republicans would borrow from President Clinton’s famous catch-phrase during the 1992 campaign, “it’s the economy stupid,” in the run-up to the 2010 election. Steele proceeded to launch into a rambling answer that used fuzzy math to assert that, in only six months, President Obama has added “10 trillion dollars” to the national deficit, while President Bush is to blame for only “a trillion”:
STEELE: They love going back to George Bush and his deficit that was inherited. Great. I’ll take George Bush’s deficit right now of a trillion dollars over the 10 trillion dollars that this administration has created in just six months.
About 33 percent of the swing stems from new legislation signed by Mr. Bush. That legislation, like his tax cuts and the Medicare prescription drug benefit, not only continue to cost the government but have also increased interest payments on the national debt.
Mr. Obama’s main contribution to the deficit is his extension of several Bush policies, like the Iraq war and tax cuts for households making less than $250,000. Such policies — together with the Wall Street bailout, which was signed by Mr. Bush and supported by Mr. Obama — account for 20 percent of the swing.
About 7 percent comes from the stimulus bill that Mr. Obama signed in February. And only 3 percent comes from Mr. Obama’s agenda on health care, education, energy and other areas.
Try as Steele might, this is blame shifting that just won’t work — especially after the Bush administration made it clear that “deficits don’t matter.” | <urn:uuid:6daefd47-af84-4b86-a6d0-9a00f7eea7ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/?m=20090717&mobile=nc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961226 | 2,765 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Today we have a guest article written by Adeline Cid who is an enthusiastic survival specialist and has extensive training on disaster preparation. She is a strong advocate of quality readiness and have tried and tested Daily Bread and believes it provides the highest quality food storage products.
Food Storage for Outdoor Cooking
Food storage is a very efficient way to feed your family during a weekend camping, hiking or mountain biking trip. Using your storage during your outing is a good way to practice rotating your foods for longer shelf life. This is also an opportunity for you to learn various ways to cook your foods outdoors.
4 Conveniences of Food Storage for Outdoor Cooking
There are a few hassles that come with cooking outdoors. Some of them include:
- No refrigeration
- Excessive weight of packed foods
- Lack of kitchen facilities
- Lack of cooking utensils
Many of these inconveniences can be overcome as long as you’re prepared. Here are four reasons why food storage is very convenient during camping and other outdoor outings:
- No Refrigeration Needed – Food storage doesn’t require refrigeration or freezing. This eliminates the need to pack multiple coolers with massive amounts of ice to store your foods. Dehydrated foods stay safe even in extreme temperatures. All the require is re-hydration using hot water, and they’re ready for consumption.
- Just Add Water – Imagine cooking a tasty, homemade meal without having to measure spices and chopping vegetables. Dehydrated food products can be pre-assembled before you leave on your trip. Now, all you need to bring with you is one cooking pot, one measuring cup and a supply of water. For best results, boil the water first before using it to re-hydrate your food storage.
- Lightweight – Many camping trips take place in remote areas that vehicles can’t access. That means that you’ll be carrying your entire food supply to your camping grounds. In this case, every single ounce counts. You already have to tote all your camping gear and emergency supplies. Just imagine how much easier it will be if your food is lightweight. When compared to canned foods, dehydrated food weigh much less. Be sure to bring along some resealable plastic bags for your leftovers.
- Less Space Needed for Larger Meals – There are occasions when camping trips include large groups of people. This means storing and preparing large amounts of foods at one time. Dehydrated food supplies make it much more convenient to store foods needed to cook meals for large groups. Many of these foods come in one-gallon cans, making it convenient to take with you as you hike to your camping grounds.
Cooking Outdoors Using Your Food Storage
During a camping, bike riding or hiking trip, part of the fun is enjoying the great outdoors. Cooking outdoors can be used a family-fun time, but only if you’re prepared. Remember, you won’t have access to electricity or gas for cooking your foods the traditional way. However, there are a variety of other ways that you can prepare your foods outdoors:
- Camp stoves: kerosene, butane, propane
- Dutch ovens
- Bar-b-cue grills
- Cooking over an open campfire
The key to packing your food storage for your outing is to pack foods you actually enjoy eating. Daily Bread carries gourmet meal plans, emergency supplies and cooking kits for your camping needs. Buy stored food online from Daily Bread. | <urn:uuid:6d4c854d-0e69-4eeb-95cf-f2abd2932327> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://preparedchristian.net/food-storage-for-outdoor-cooking/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958796 | 725 | 1.789063 | 2 |
ISTANBUL — Clashes between Syrian Kurdish forces and Syrian rebels have been on the rise the past few weeks. Concentrating control in their own areas of northwestern Syria, Kurdish leaders have been slow to join the broader rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, prefering to seek greater regional autonomy. This is a big concern for neighboring Turkey.
When Syrian rebels seized the border post at Ras al-Ain on November 8, they celebrated the victory and went on to "liberate" the town, a place where both Arabs and Kurds live on Syria's northeastern border with Turkey.
But the Kurdish inhabitants quickly saw the perils of the move. Within days, dozens of people were dead in clashes between Kurdish militias and the rebels.
Ankara is worried about the clashes in the region, fearing that Syria's Kurdish Party, the PYD, is supporting Kurdish insurgents in Turkey, known as the PKK, with encouragement from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Diplomatic correspondent Semih Idiz of the Hurriyet daily said, "If there is an overt PKK connection with the PYD, and there is a Turkey-friendly outfit that seems to be combating this, I can see how there are people in Turkey who might see this as being to Turkey's advantage. But I don't know that there is a direct Turkish involvement in this."
The PKK has been fighting for greater autonomy against Turkish security forces since the 1980s. The Syrian crisis has reopened the question of regional Kurdish autonomy, rekindling hope among some Kurds that their 30-million-strong flock - divided between Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran - could emerge with their own state.
Ankara fears an autonomous Syrian Kurdish region on its border would further strengthen the PKK insurgency.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this month warned that Turkey would never allow it.
International relations analyst Cengiz Aktar of Bahcesehir University said Ankara's increasingly tough language convinces him that Turkey could be involved in fueling the clashes.
"According to reports, the clashes are not between the Syrian opposition and the Kurds but between the Kurds and al-Qaida-like militia directly and indirectly supported by the Turkish authorities. If that is true, it means Turkey is implementing its policy towards the Kurdish-populated areas of Syria where, as the prime minister has indicated, it won't tolerate any sort of autonomy," Aktar said.
Gultan Kisanak is the leader of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party, the Peace and Democracy Party. She also accuses Turkish security forces of being behind the clashes. Similar claims were made in a press release Tuesday by the Kurdistan National Congress, a coalition of Kurdish groups across Europe.
But Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal dismissed the notion. He said, "We don't have any kind of place in such an internal clash. It's not in the interest of anybody to continue clashes while [they] are fighting an oppressive regime," he said.
According to Turkish media reports, the leader of the Iraqi Kurdish regional government, Masoud Barzani, is seeking to mediate between the Syrian Kurds and the Syrian opposition.
In recent years, Ankara has developed good economic and political relations with the neighboring Iraqi Kurds after a decade of mistrust.
International relations analyst Aktar said Turkey needs to develop similar relations with Syrian Kurds, but may need help.
"When a semi-autonomous region appeared in the north of Iraq, Turkey did not like it. But it was convinced by the Americans," said Aktar. "So Turkey needs again the good office of the U.S. to create the same type of working relationship with the Syrian Kurds."
Aktar warned the alternative will be increasing tensions between Ankara and Syrian Kurds. He said that would result in further clashes and confrontations. | <urn:uuid:3f048295-dd00-4fbd-8f44-10dc45a7ff75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.voanews.com/content/clashes-between-syrian-kurds-rebels-worry-turkey/1554155.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972295 | 780 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Benefits of Camping
In a world where everything is so busy and fast paced getting away for a weekend camping trip can be just what the doctor would order. There are quite a number of benefits of camping. One of advantages is you can get away from all the hustle and bustle of the noise and stress from your daily routine. You get to just relax, alone or with your family and friends.
You'll get to spend your time outdoor, in nature. How often do you get to hear the sounds of nature in the open? And how long ago did you manage to breathe fresh air and see the stars above? If you enjoy peace and serenity, camping is one of the ways to experience them.
You will also get the chance to do other fun and adventurous activities at the same time such as hiking, mountain climbing and fishing. You will also meet and get to know other campers and expand your network of friends. And if you bring along your children, it is one of the best ways to spend quality time with them and get to know one another better.
Another one of the benefits of camping is that you won't feel tempted to shop. There isn't any shopping mall.
Here are some great camping tips for your next foray into the great outdoors.
The first thing you want to determine is the type of camping trip you want to plan. There are many ways you can enjoy the great outdoors in several different ways and though you may think a tent is the "real" camping experience. When the goal is to relax you want to be comfortable right? You can rent cabins in many of the national parks, purchase a recreational vehicle or go old school with a simple tent.
Once upon a time tents were small one-room affairs that you had to practically crawl into, today however there are tents that would rival the size of some homes. Well maybe they are not that big, but you can purchase tents with two or three rooms and windows as well. You can get a great deal many times by buying a tent used.
However, make sure you set the tent up before your camping trip to ensure all the parts are there. This is a good idea even if you have purchased it new since essential parts can be forgotten, plus you want to have a good idea of how to set it up before you arrive at the campsite.
This is perhaps the most important decision of all for your camping trip. Choosing the correct camping site will determine just how many benefits of camping you will enjoy. You should take into account several things.
To enjoy the benefits of camping bring the necessary things that you need. The basics are things such as personal care products, blankets, sleeping bags, boots, insect repellents, umbrella, hand-held spotlight, food and beverages and whatever else you think are useful during your camping trip.
If this is your first camping trip ever you want to take some basic precautions. You should include a first aid kit in your camping gear. Cuts, bites, scrapes and bruises can happen anywhere and it is better to be prepared. You may also want to do a little research about potential snakes, bugs, poisonous plants and animals that could interrupt your wilderness experience. When you are well prepared, you will find that the benefits of camping are many and how it helps rejuvenate your body, mind and soul. | <urn:uuid:23ee8374-c50d-4646-a362-d8aa8ccf93be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.the-ibenefits.com/benefits-of-camping.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971083 | 686 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Outpost's Buy A Bag for the hungry is taking place now through December 31. This is the twelfth year for the community program.
Outpost Natural Foods is working hard to offset that trend that donations to the Hunger Task Force are down this holiday season compaed to 2010 with its annual holiday food drive.
Buy A Bag is simple: for each $20 donation a shopper makes, Outpost provides $40 worth of natural and organic foods for the hungry including bags of fresh potatoes, carrots and apples, which is enough to fill a standard grocery bag.
- The 2011 goal is 1,800 bags of groceries
- For a $20 donation, Outpost provides $40 worth of natural and organic foods
- Outpost partners with Hunger Task Force to deliver to food pantries in need in January
- With Buy A Bag donations in 2010, Outpost provided over $64,000 worth of food, or over 1,600 bags of groceries
- Since its inception, Buy A Bag has donated over $377,000 worth of food to Hunger Task Force | <urn:uuid:c2f8962f-0ca6-4a74-b6bd-0b7c4aa91dbb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whitefishbay.patch.com/announcements/buy-a-bag-to-help-the-hungry | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950532 | 217 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Cops bill would help our schools
Published: Sunday, February 24, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, February 22, 2013 at 5:44 p.m.
Congress should support legislation proposed by our new representative, U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, to put more law officers in public schools to help keep students safe.
The Cashiers Republican introduced the Protect America’s Schools Act to resurrect the “Cops in Schools” program started by President Bill Clinton in 1998. Officers from more than 12 law enforcement agencies across the 11th Congressional District gathered Wednesday at Hendersonville Elementary School to show their support for the legislation.
Meadows is right when he says this bill should transcend party lines. Republicans and Democrats should support it as part of efforts to curb gun violence in the wake of the December slaughter of 20 first-graders and seven adults in Newtown, Conn.
Cops in Schools, originally funded with a $60 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, was cut in 2005 after putting more than 6,500 officers in schools. Meadows says he has found $134 million in “unobligated” funds in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration budget. He wants to use the funds to provide $30 million annually for law enforcement agencies to hire more school resource officers.
There are several reasons lawmakers should support the legislation, which already has eight co-sponsors. First and foremost, putting trained law enforcement officers in schools could help save lives and halt at least some of the horrible school shootings that have plagued our nation. School resource officers also build relationships with students and serve as role models.
Secondly, as Meadows notes, the legislation reconstitutes a program with a strong track record. The fact that it was started by Clinton should draw Democratic support. It might also help counteract gun-control activists who may oppose the measure because it is similar to the National Rifle Association’s call for armed officers in all schools. The fact that officers from across the mountains strongly support the idea bodes well for such support nationwide.
Finally, increasing the number of trained officers in schools makes a lot more sense than loopy proposals to arm teachers or principals. These folks have enough to do trying to educate students and run schools. They should not be expected to engage in gun battles with armed assailants.
Putting more officers in schools is not a panacea, as Henderson County Sheriff Charlie McDonald noted. “It’s not enough money to put officers in every school, and even if it was, I don’t know that that’s the fix-all that we’d like to think it is,” he said.
Here’s an idea that could make the legislation more effective and increase its chances of becoming law: The NRA, which has a budget reported to be in the neighborhood of $300 million, could match the federal dollars Meadows wants to put into this effort. This would show that the NRA is serious about improving school safety and not just trying to change the subject from President Barack Obama’s call for a renewed assault weapons ban, universal background checks and limits on high-capacity ammunition clips.
Putting more cops in schools should be part of a comprehensive plan, not just a reaction to “do something” after a tragic school shooting. That plan should include a clear-eyed look at all proposals to effectively reduce gun violence, not just in schools but across society. Restrictions on military-style weapons and ammunition, safeguards to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill and better enforcement of existing laws should all be on the table.
All sides should be willing to compromise to find ways to effectively reduce America’s epidemic of violence. Meadows’ proposal to put more cops in schools is a good start.
Speaking of reducing violence, it is good news that District Attorney Jeff Hunt is seeking grant money to hire an assistant district attorney to focus primarily on domestic violence in Judicial District 29B, which includes Henderson County.
Hunt says he has been reluctant in the past to seek grant-funded positions because the grants run out after two years. But domestic violence, he says, “seems to be a particularly virulent problem” in the district. Having an assistant prosecutor dedicated to the problem will help assure that domestic violence cases get the attention they deserve. | <urn:uuid:b0c1957c-2bd9-4a79-ba47-5245b473e326> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20130224/ARTICLES/302241013/1016/OPINION04?Title=Cops-bill-would-help-our-schools | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969621 | 900 | 1.804688 | 2 |
We always kept alert in the back seat. A drive to Stonestown or Serramonte or down to the Peninsula for some family holiday event would mean a glimpse of the jet standing in the grass of Larsen Park. My brother and I would beg our parents to stop, just for a little bit, so we could go climb on it, through it, pretend to be pilots or “bad guys” crawling along the wings.
From the 1950s to the early 1990s, three different retired Navy jets served as playground equipment. In 1993, the last, an F-8 Crusader, graffitti-covered and leaking lead, was removed for restoration at the Pacific Coast Air Museum (a continuing effort).
San Francisco Chronicle writer Peter Hartlaub has recently done a very nice piece on the jets.
Now after 20 jet-less years at Larsen Park, a small community group is working to bring a new jet for the climbing pleasure of future generations of Parkside kids (and those traveling through who convince their parents to pull over).
Getting a real Navy jet, and making it playground-safe, is impractical in these more complicated days, so a new structure in the form of a jet with netting fanning out behind like exhaust has been designed. (I declare it pretty cool.) Grants are being found, money still needs to be raised, but Supervisor Carmen Chu and her staff are working hard to get this done.
Join me at a informational meeting Tuesday, May 22, 2012 from 6:00pm to 7:30pm at the Wawona Clubhouse, 901 Wawona Street at 20th Avenue. We’ll hear more about the plan, see the sketches, and maybe I will bring some old photos of the previous planes (anyone have some to share?). | <urn:uuid:d3d69a41-db3d-4895-b398-a0987aad2f06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inside.outsidelands.org/category/uncategorized/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959726 | 370 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The 10 researchers were chosen from 130 applicants at 53 institutions across the country, including Harvard and Stanford universities. They will be announced Wednesday morning as the first class of Harrington Scholars. The physician-researchers from Duke, Johns Hopkins and other prominent schools will receive up to $200,000 each from the new Cleveland-based institute.
In addition, the scholars can tap into the Institute's Innovation Support Center, which will help them turn their discoveries into marketable products. Experienced biotech professionals at the center will advise the researchers on how to conduct business, find strategic partners and obtain additional funding.
And the scholars will share their work with other doctors and researchers from across the country at a symposium on the CWRU campus in May.
"In supporting these terrific new innovative ideas across many, many different areas and diseases we have been able to bring a high level of drug-development capability to Cleveland, to University Hospitals Case Medical Center," said Jonathan Stamler director of the Institute.
That drug-development talent, Stamler said, will help a national initiative to create breakthrough medicine.
"We now have a world-class, top drug-development infrastructure on par with, if not better than, any other academic institution in the country.
"My hope is that we will contribute to the process of developing better drugs and new medicines for unmet needs."
The Institute is designed to fund the development of new drugs at a time when government, private investors and pharmaceutical companies have pulled back support.
It's part of the Harrington Project for Discovery and Development, a $250 million, not-for-profit program that was launched in February with a $50 million donation -- the largest in University Hospitals' history -- from the Harrington family.
The Harrington Project also includes the for-profit development company, BioMotiv, which was announced in June to help get the new drugs to market.
The 2012 scholars and their projects, chosen in November by the Institute's scientific advisory board, are:
• Marc Diamond, MD, Washington University in St. Louis, development of new treatments for Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia.
• Roger Greenberg, MD/PhD, University of Pennsylvania, creation of a new class of drugs to prevent breast and ovarian cancer.
• Geoffrey Gurtner, MD, Stanford University, development of a topical drug to heal wounds, particularly in people with diabetes.
• Richard Kitsis, MD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, creation of a first-in-class drug to reduce heart cell damage from heart attacks.
• Wolfgang Liedtke, MD/PhD, Duke University, development of a new class of drugs that inhibit the pain response in skin.
• Sanford Markowitz, MD/PhD, Case Western Reserve University, discovery of a compound that increases natural protective substances in tissues to help with liver regeneration and number of human diseases including pulmonary hypertension and cancer.
• Scott Oakes, MD, University of California, San Francisco, discovery of a novel life-death switch that has led to new drugs for Lou Gehrig's disease, diabetes and multiple myeloma.
• Jonathan Powell, MD/PhD, Johns Hopkins University, development of a class of drugs to treat diabetes and obesity by lowering bad cholesterol and glucose and generating good fat.
• Larry Schlesinger, MD, Ohio State University, a new class of anti-tuberculosis drugs that will prevent the development of drug resistance.
• Robert Wilson, MD/PhD, University of Pennsylvania, identification of a new class of drugs that treat all types of cancer. | <urn:uuid:75006699-f9c8-48ec-93a5-16b3c9d0d55d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2012/12/harrington_discovery_institute.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931736 | 737 | 1.578125 | 2 |
-- ZENIT.org News Agency
"The Meaning of Marriage Matters"
UK Prelates Speak Out on Government Response to Same-Sex Marriage Consultation
LONDON, DECEMBER 12, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Archbishop Peter Smith, president and vice-president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales respectively, released a joint statement following the British government's response to the same-sex marriage consultation.
The government yesterday released its response to the "Equal Civil Marriage" consultation, announcing that the government would be pushing forward legislation in 2013 to legally redefine marriage in such a way as to allow same-sex couples to marry.
In their statement, also released yesterday, Archbishops Nichols and Smith asserted: "The meaning of marriage matters. It derives that meaning from its function as the foundation of the family. The union of one man and one woman for love and mutual support and open to procreation has over the centuries formed a stable unit we call the family. Marriage is the enduring public recognition of this commitment and has been rightly recognized as unique and worthy of legal protection."
The statement notes that, although 600,000 people signed a petition to legally preserve the current definition of marriage, "legislation to change the definition of marriage will now come to Parliament."
"We strongly oppose such a Bill," the statement reads, saying that "the process by which this has happened can only be described as shambolic. There was no electoral mandate in any manifesto; no mention in the Queen's speech; no serious or thorough consultation through a Green or White paper, and a constant shifting of policy before even the government response to the consultation was published today."
The statement concludes by urging "everyone who cares about upholding the meaning of marriage in civil law to make their views known to their MPs clearly, calmly and forcefully, and without impugning the motives of others. We urge all parties to ensure their Members have a free vote."
"It is not too late to stop this Bill."
here to share this news story with a friend. | <urn:uuid:c9c8f622-17fd-40bd-9383-224a511bf68b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=122941 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968014 | 427 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Gold biscuits are much more convenient to buy and sell then traditional gold bars, as they are much thinner and flatter, and as a result are a very popular gold bar to invest in.
The primary difference between a gold biscuit and a traditional gold bar is in the manufacturing process. Gold biscuits are manufactured by a mint or gold refinery in a similar manner to coins in that they are stamped out of a sheet of gold, rather than being cast like an ingot.
Gold biscuit manufacturers include Johnson and Matthey, Credit Suisse and the Perth Mint, amongst many others.
Most gold biscuits are purchased by people wishing to store their assets in gold rather than manufacturers of products who will buy their gold in bars. Buying gold biscuits and bars is almost always cheaper than buying the equivalent weight in coins, and the bigger your purchase, the cheaper it should be. In many countries, you can also avoid paying sales tax or VAT, when buying gold biscuits rather than many coins.
Gold biscuits are sometimes also known as wafers, but will also simply be referred to, by most, as gold bars. | <urn:uuid:3bbfea21-c0a1-4b9e-a0e5-81722e13fd6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goldbiscuit.net/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981645 | 226 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Remember that 3,300-pound piece of steel recovered from the North Tower of the World Trade Center site after September 11, 2001 and donated to the Grand Traverse Metro Firefighters? Yesterday morning a crane from Elmer’s set the artifact onto its final resting place in the Grand Traverse 911 Memorial Park, located behind the Grand Traverse Metro Fire Department at 897 Parsons Road in Traverse City. The 3,300 pound beam has been welded in place at an angle tilted toward New York City. A 911 Remembrance Ceremony will be held at the memorial park on September 11 at 8:30 a.m. The park will be open to the public 24 hours a day in honor of all the firefighters, emergency services personnel and citizens who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. Donations are still needed to complete the park. Want to help? Consider buying a brick ($75) enscribed with the name of a NYFD firefighter or emergency services workers who lost his or her life that morning. | <urn:uuid:3f33392a-c8b8-42aa-8490-fb2d6b30507c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theticker.tc/story/wtc-beam | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958581 | 206 | 1.8125 | 2 |
In Their Own Words: Treasure What You Have
This is a blog post by Lena Rivkin, M.F.A., is an artist and graphologist living in Los Angeles.
Saturday was the Pumpkin Festival. As my brother and I wandered around looking at the colorful, wildly shaped pumpkins and gourds, I realized that Halloween is the harbinger for the upcoming holiday season. While other families carve pumpkins and scheme over costume ideas and how to keep the sugar intake to a minimum- my brother will be needlepointing his heart out. While other families excavate Halloween and holiday decorations from boxes in the attic, Phillip will be obsessively crossing days off of his large collection of calendars. While we all ramp up our already hectic schedules to include gift ideas, holiday outfits and double-book numerous get-togethers, it is slightly different for those of us who have special-needs family members.
My brother, Phillip, is a severely autistic adult and lives in a group home in North Hills, California, administered by New Horizons, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping adults with developmental disabilities. Phillip also attends a day school called Tierra Del Sol Foundation. The 9th Annual Fall Festival was a fun way to raise funds for Phillip’s day school. Among the great line-up of entertainment was Murphy’s Flaw Band- a terrific bluegrass group and gorgeous Aztec dancers that dazzled the eyes and ears.
Phillip really loved looking at the ceramic crafts hand-made by him and his classmates. It takes a subtle eye to recognize what Phillip really enjoys since he doesn’t speak and willingly goes along with pretty much everything I suggest. Sometimes I feel like the narrator of his life. “Isn’t this a beautiful mask, Phillip?” or “Phillip, are you ready for lunch?” He’ll nod a sort of yes to everything I ask him, especially if it relates to food! Or I can tell by another look in his eye that he appreciates what I am seeing or is ready to see something else. When I am with Phillip, if I still my inner voice and erase any personal agenda, I can hear him with my eyes and appreciate exactly who he is, not wish him to be who he simply will never be.
The holidays matter to us as well, just a little differently than everyone else. When you have a sibling who cannot speak, make direct eye contact or give a hug, a Gap Gift Certificate doesn’t quite manage to bridge the gap. Phillip would be far happier watching me draw a pattern for him to needlepoint or baking cupcakes with him or simply being with him. For those who are uncomfortable with developmentally delayed people, when it comes to birthdays or holidays, doing nothing appears easier than wondering whether a gift or card would even resonate.
But focusing on what simple acts delight our autistic family members is the kind of holiday gift that money cannot buy. I have dear friends who make a point of including Phillip in their life because they recognize he is an important part of my life. They mail him postcards regularly from anywhere in the world, even from home, because they know he is thrilled to receive them. As Edmund Burke said, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” The greatest gestures can also be the smallest.
Holidays nowadays are more likely to resemble high stakes poker games or full impact sporting events or high spending reality shows than simple exchanges of love and friendship. Holidays can be hallmarks of tiny gestures. In our fast paced and recession-tired current times, holidays prove to be challenging for all families.
Almost every American has grown up with Norman Rockwell’s cheerfully chaotic portraits of large joyful families crowded around a Thanksgiving table. For many of us, Rockwell’s iconic paintings hold up a beautiful ideal of family life. As a child, I truly admired Rockwell’s incredibly warm-hearted realistic paintings. As I studied art at UCLA and became an Expressionist painter, I grew to reject Rockwell’s idyllic utopia as sugarcoated and corny. I’ve come full circle with Rockwell, and now can truly appreciate his extraordinary talent as an illustrator, especially as I now know more about Rockwell’s life. He grew up in a silent, working class family in New York City, married three times, and struggled with depression. A telling quote of his was that he painted his happiness but did not live it. Not that I am trying to celebrate the woes of those who famously appear happy, I merely appreciate knowing that not even Norman Rockwell had the Norman Rockwell fantasy holiday season.
We are all fraught with unfair expectations that every holiday season must be the perfect embodiment of familial bliss. As soon as Halloween is over we brace ourselves for the marketing onslaught in stores and on inundating us with endlessly perfect present suggestions and spectacularly decorated homes, trees and stunning meals. It seems every year the goal gets higher, more expensive and sadly more elusive. But perhaps we can all jump off the holiday hamster wheel if we simply re-adjust and redefine our values. Find the gift that isn’t the mall. Look deeper at the act of giving.
For Phillip, the best presents are silent, handmade gestures from the heart. The best gift I can give my beloved brother is myself; I design the needlepoints he stitches. Our gift to each other is how we communicate via our creative collaborations. His endless gift to me is to treasure the present moment. Perhaps determining how best to give of ourselves can be the most rewarding New Year’s Resolution we can make. | <urn:uuid:d086d34f-18e8-42e5-8b59-1e46e2de65e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2011/11/21/itow-treasure-what-you-have/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965182 | 1,178 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Fully transformative installations are always impressive, but ones that involve a full-360 illustrative experience are something we don't see often. Here we have a view of an installation from Japanese artist, Yosuke Goda
, creating an immersive environment.
Armed with black markers, Goda has no mercy for the surrounding white walls, floor, and ceiling. A pychedelic organism is born, with a body that looks similar to the roots and vines of an old, tall tree. The monster appears to constantly grow, as if it has no self-control and needs to furiously feed itself...
If you like this article Subscribe to MediaDump new content, follow us on Facebook and Twitter and check most popular posts from around the web: | <urn:uuid:ddcfdc95-a259-4289-ac31-dc052bcec191> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mediadump.com/hosted-id222-psychedelic-room-drawings.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958815 | 151 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Jack Kelly: Fault analysis
Share with others:
When David Kay, the just-resigned head of the Iraq Survey Group, said he had found no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and didn't think there were any there to be found, many editorial writers and columnists concluded that President Bush had misled the nation.
Jack Kelly is national security writer for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio ([email protected], 412-263-1476).
"Iraq Posed No WMD Threat," headlined the Seattle Post-Intelligencer over its editorial. "Weasel Wording to Justify War" said the Palm Beach Post. "Kay Report Makes French Look Good," headlined the Dayton Daily News.
But Kay also said there was ample evidence of ongoing WMD programs in Iraq, and programs to build missiles with longer ranges than permitted by U.N. resolutions. There were indications, he said, that some weapons of mass destruction may have been moved to Syria. These statements received little attention from journalists.
"We have discovered hundreds of cases, based on both documents, physical evidence and the testimony of Iraqis, of activities that were prohibited under the initial U.N. resolution 687 and that should have been reported under 1441, with Iraqi testimony that not only did they not tell the U.N. about this, they were instructed not to do it and they hid the material," Kay told the Senate Armed Services committee Jan. 28.
U.S. intelligence agencies badly overestimated the amount of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and were wrong to think the Iraqi nuclear program had been restarted, Kay said. Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Ted Kennedy D-Mass., charged that President Bush had exaggerated the intelligence given him, or pressured intelligence analysts to exaggerate the threat. But Kay politely rebuffed them. Not only did the Clinton administration share the Bush view of the Iraqi WMD threat, so did the intelligence services of Britain, France, and Germany, Kay said.
"I actually think the intelligence community owes the president [an apology] rather than the president owing [one to] the American people," he said. "We were almost all wrong. I had innumerable analysts who came to me in apology that the world we were finding was not the world they had thought existed. ... Never -- not in a single case -- was the explanation 'I was pressured to do this.' "
Though Bush has never said Iraq posed an "imminent" threat, Kay told the senators he thought Saddam's regime had. "I think it was reasonable to conclude Iraq posed an imminent threat," Kay told the senators. "What we learned in the inspection made Iraq a more dangerous place, potentially, than we thought it was even before the war." Though Kay doubts large stocks of banned weapons will be found, Iraq's foreign minister expressed confidence Jan. 29 that they would be.
What Kay called a "fundamental fault analysis" needs to be undertaken to find out why U.S. intelligence was apparently so far off base on Iraq. But it can't be a partisan witch hunt.
The first thing to do is to put the failure of the CIA, NSA, et al. in perspective. The job of intelligence agencies is to ferret out secrets that other countries want to keep hidden. Dictatorships are awfully good at keeping things hidden. Kay suspects that Saddam thought he had a more robust WMD program than he did. Subordinates were lying to him and pocketing money. But if the dictator of Iraq didn't have a clue about Iraq's WMD programs, how reasonable is it to expect that the CIA would?
The first thing not to do is to hunt for scapegoats. In the wake of Kay's comments, some conservatives have been howling for the head of CIA Director George Tenet. But lopping off its head does little to change dysfunction in a large bureaucracy, and the CIA's problems long predate Tenet's arrival at Langley.
But if Tenet were to be fired, it's hard to disagree with former Assistant Defense Secretary Frank Gaffney that his replacement should be Kay. "Dr. Kay could be relied on to do what he has been doing ever since he got back from Iraq -- speaking truth to power," Gaffney said.
First Published February 1, 2004 12:00 am | <urn:uuid:8a3732b3-1cf7-4f33-81fd-d769fb5e6593> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/columnists/jack-kelly-fault-analysis-526805/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982174 | 907 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Mexican citizens will soon be eligible to apply for a "trusted traveler" status that will allow them to bypass some elements of airport security when they fly into the United States — a U.S. government-approved program that critics say could be exploited by violent drug cartels.
Under the program, Mexicans who have undergone background checks and are deemed low security risks will be able to fly into major U.S. cities and breeze through customs without being questioned by U.S. Customs agents.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and her Mexican counterparts announced their intent to roll out the program two weeks ago, trumpeting it as evidence of increased information sharing and law enforcement collaboration between the countries.
The program is an expansion of an existing trusted traveler program, the Global Entry Program, which was launched in 2008 and expedites pre-approved passengers through the airport customs and security process when they arrive in the U.S.
The program is designed to weed out low-risk passengers and enable authorities to zero in on those who may be more likely to pose a threat. | <urn:uuid:61c63a73-0d11-45fc-b9a0-e33c4da2c76c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.conservativeunderground.com/forum505/showthread.php?35090-Trusted-Traveler-Program-Sparks-Fears-That-Mexican-Drug-Cartels-Could-Bypass-U-S-Air | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957026 | 218 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Over at the Diplomat, I share my “meh” about ballistic missile proliferation:
Cooperation between North Korea and Iran has become a great concern, especially with the relative success of North Korea’s latest launch. Syrian missile use has raised fears that Assad’s government might take further escalatory steps, such as using chemical weapons. These efforts have highlighted ongoing multilateral and domestic steps to manage ballistic missile proliferation, and particularly to stop “problem” states from further developing their missile capabilities. This attention has elevated ballistic missiles to the illicit plateau normally inhabited by chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. It is unclear, however, that ballistic missiles deserve this attention; the historical record of ballistic missile effectiveness is mixed at best. | <urn:uuid:4d7b3e6f-88f1-46dc-b566-3c113d727828> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2012/12/ballistic-missiles-dont-kill-people-people-kill-people-but-only-rarely-with-ballistic-missiles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945749 | 152 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Remember to enter Amazon via the VDARE.com link and we get a commission on any purchases you make—at no cost to you!
A Reader Says 245(I) Really Is As Bad As Painted
NOTE: PLEASE say if you DON'T want your name and/or email address published when sending VDARE email.
From: John Miano
As is typical with the mainstream media's typical superficial coverage of immigration issues, coverage on the 245(i) extension has been dominated by what politicians say 245(i) does rather than what the bill and law says it does. In spite of the bill and law being readily available on the Internet, few in the media (and apparently in the Congress and White House) have bothered to actually read it.
A Bush statement to the press described the bill this way.
"Many immigrants who are otherwise eligible to become legal residents will be forced to leave the United States and their families unless a temporary extension is granted."
House Majority Leader Dick Armey, as quoted by Reuters, emphasized the family aspect of the bill:
"What you have is an awful lot of families that are here in this country that do everything humanly possible to comply with the law in the face of an agency (Immigration and Naturalization Service) that doesn't keep pace with its workload."
Let me paraphrase the Bush Administration's and Republican leadership's message on 245(i). It is a measure that allows people who entered the country legally but who have simply overstayed their visas, to apply for green cards. By allowing these otherwise law abiding people to apply without leaving the country, it helps keep families together.
An examination of the bill itself and the applicable law shows the Republican "leadership's" description of 245(i) is utter nonsense.
A little background: 245(i) refers to a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Section 245 in the bill corresponds to 8 USC 1255 in the law code. 8 USC 1255 describes how people who have legally entered the U.S. on a non-immigrant visa may adjust status to a green card. In addition to the requirement that one must have entered the country legally to be eligible, 8 USC 1255(c) lists eight categories of people who entered the country legally who are ineligible.
8 USC 1255(c)(2) is of interest: It bars people who accept illegal employment or those who have not maintained a legal status. But it includes a provision saying that if the violation is not a fault of their own, they are not disqualified. Thus people who entered the country legally and who fell out of status due to INS delays are not prevented from applying. In other words, the protection that Dick Armey claimed is needed is already in the law.
So what does 245(i) do? Read the bill and law and you will find that it allows people who meet residency and sponsorship requirements and who have either entered the country illegally or are in the eight categories listed in 1255(c) to apply for a green card if they pay a $1,000 fine.
In other words, this is an immigration lawyer's dream law. Everyone that would normally be ineligible becomes eligible.
So 245(i) does not cover those blocked by INS delays or some minor technicality but rather illegal aliens and people excluded because of sound policy.
The Bush Administration's claim that 245(i) covers people who would "otherwise be eligible" shows it is either not telling the truth or has no idea what the truth is.
Take a look at some of the categories that may not apply for green cards under 1255(c) but become eligible under 245(i). 1255(c)(1) covers sailors who jump ship. It was only a couple of weeks ago that the Bush administration was up in arms over the INS admitting four Pakistani sailors who promptly jumped ship.
How ironic - the administration is simultaneously pushing to allow people who did the same thing to apply for green cards.
1255(c)(6) is the item that should make your blood boil and demonstrates the ineptitude of the Bush administration with regards to immigration policy. 1255(c)(6) is the provision that normally bans terrorists from applying for green cards. 245(i) makes terrorists eligible to apply for green cards.
That's right. Exactly six months and a day after the September 11th terrorist attacks, two thirds of the U.S. House of Representatives, at the urging of the President, voted for a bill explicitly allowing terrorists to get green cards.
What does it say about the state of America's border security when the main item on the President's legislative agenda is a bill permitting terrorists to get green cards?
April 18, 2002 | <urn:uuid:42619ad2-8e9b-473b-af8d-5fbdccb1a0ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vdare.com/letters/a-reader-says-245i-really-is-as-bad-as-painted | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950339 | 977 | 1.742188 | 2 |
With November’s presidential election drawing close, the tickets are now set, with President Obama and Vice President Biden set to take on Gov. Mitt Romney and newly named Vice President nominee, Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan.
According to a report last year by National Public Radio, the 42-year-old Representative from Wisconsin has a few ties to the automotive world.
Ryan hails from Janesville, Wisconsin, the former home of a GM assembly plant that once built big trucks and SUVs. The plant, which had been assembling machinery of some kind since the early part of the 20th century, was closed at the end of 2008 as GM prepared to enter bankruptcy.Earlier in that year, Ryan had voted in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, a $700 billion spending program authorized by Congress to stabilize the banking industry as the nation plunged into financial crisis in the same year. Some of the TARP monies were used to invest in General Motors and Chrysler–and much of that money remains locked up in GM shares today. At current share prices, the GM shares would represent a loss of more than $17 billion–and some pundits credit the TARP program with creating the Tea Party conservative movement within Ryan’s own Republican party.
But Ryan’s deepest connection to the world of cars could be from his teenage years, when the Republican nominee for Vice President worked for Oscar Meyer. Ryan drove the Wienermobile–and as only NPR could observe from that remote province of America called Washington, D.C., “for those who’ve never seen it, it’s a car shaped like a hot dog on a bun.”
The Wienermobile was created in 1936 by the Oscar Meyer company, and an example sits in Michigan’s The Henry Ford museum. Today, Oscar Meyer runs eight Wienermobiles around the country, six full-size vehicles and two Vienna Sausage-sized models, one a conversion of a MINI Cooper.
Ryan is a father of three, a Led Zeppelin fan, and is a fitness buff.
This story originally appeared at The Car Connection. | <urn:uuid:3ce5392a-633a-4967-8ae8-6e1ef5f9ab6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/08/15/paul-ryan-former-wienermobile-driver-future-vice-president/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967143 | 440 | 1.75 | 2 |
Virginia entrepreneur Earl Stafford explains why he spent nearly $2 million to bring hundreds of people to Barack Obama's inauguration.
In the true spirit of hope and change -- two terms that have come to characterize Barack Obama's historic presidential campaign -- Virginia businessman Earl Stafford is bringing the inauguration to those who would rarely glimpse such a star-studded, political event.
The former CEO of Centreville, Virginia-based UNITECH, a defense contracting firm with earnings around $140 million, has invited more than 400 disadvantaged citizens to Washington, D.C., including disabled veterans, indigent children, the terminally ill, the chronically unemployed, the homeless, battered women, and the elderly, to take part in the festivities. Attendees will join some 600 business people, celebrities, and politicians at four events, including a prayer breakfast and a luncheon where Martin Luther King III will speak on Monday, and two Inaugural balls on Tuesday.
Stafford will be housing his guests at the JW Marriott Washington where they will have unobstructed views of Tuesday's Inaugural parade from a glass-enclosed, heated terrace, providing formal attire for the balls, and even picking up the tab for hair and makeup. Guests will also have a chance to attend seminars on topics ranging from budgeting to life and work skills to health care, as well as to seek assistance from counselors, doctors, social workers and business people.
The event, called the People's Inaugural Project, organized by The Stafford Foundation, a non-profit organization Stafford founded in 2002 to help improve and lift up the lives of the nation's underprivileged, comes with a hefty price tag of $2 million. A small price to pay, Stafford says, for bringing together people from all walks of life to witness history. Inc.com recently caught up with Stafford.
It's my faith and the values that I was raised with. I believe that if you're blessed with much then you have an expectation and obligation to look around you and see how you can bless others. I don't think that's unusual; there are many businesspeople that have done great things in society and in their communities. But we're hoping that with this effort, it will encourage others to do so.
We're hoping that through this experience, people will not only be inspired but re-inspired to see what good they can do in the community. I'm hoping that this experience will remind us that we are in fact our brother's keeper and that we have a responsibility to others.
We decided to do this before the election, but I think it's great because it parallels the message of Barack Obama. This event will inspire people; it shares the message of hope and optimism about tomorrow. We think that people all across America -- those with means and those without means -- are getting excited about the future.
Well, I hope it doesn't go over $2 million! It's approaching $2 million right now. It was funded through my family and the family foundation. We've taken the brunt share of this. But one of the great things that's happening is we're getting a lot of contributions -- $100 here and $200 there -- from the grassroots level. There are so many people that want to be a part of this and that want to contribute in some way. We have a foundation website, TheStaffordFoundation.org, where people can log on and find out about the events. We're going to post pictures and videos of the events. And if more people want to be a part of this, even going forward, they can make a donation.
It's critically important that we can contribute to those who are hurting in America. I think that's the rent that we have to pay for doing business here in this country. There's an obligation that we have, not just to give, but to help teach others to help themselves. There has to be accountability and expectations when you give -- there has to be a return on your philanthropic dollar.
Want to become a better, smarter, more effective team builder and communicator? Join us at Inc.'s upcoming Leadership Forum June 10 to June 12 in San Diego. Visit leadership.inc.com for details.
Nicole Marie Richardson is the executive editor for special projects at Inc.com. She manages the website's largest projects, including the Inc. 5000, an annual list of the fastest-growing, privately-held companies in America. @nicole_marie79
Will the Ledbetter Law affect your business?
No, I already hang on to all my employee paperwork and I pay workers fairly.
Yes, I'll have to keep employee paperwork longer and be more detailed.
Yes, I'm being sued.
What do you think of President Obama's decision to increase federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research?
I don't approve.
SEE MORE POLLS | <urn:uuid:aec39d1a-393a-4091-a3ac-a71bb723c839> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.inc.com/articles/2009/01/peoples-party.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96843 | 999 | 1.703125 | 2 |
By Michelle Pelletier Marshall
BYFIELD — When Sylvia Jordan came to Newbury Elementary School as principal three years ago, Triton Superintendent Sandra Halloran asked her to envision what it would look like if Triton had a program for gifted students.
Imagining a gifted program for the district was an exciting vision for Jordan, who has an extensive background in creating and overseeing gifted and talented programs, including serving as chairwoman of the Massachusetts Department of Education Gifted and Talented Program.
Then, in 2007, one of the state Department of Education grants Jordan applied for came through to help plant the seeds for a gifted program. The $35,000 grant funded the costs of creating professional development for teachers, administrators and parents about the various aspects of gifted education; purchasing curriculum, software and screening materials; setting up a district task force for the gifted; and setting up a process to identify gifted students.
In the summer of 2007, Triton elementary school principals, along with Halloran and Assistant Superintendent Kathleen Willis and a few teachers, spent a week at the University of Connecticut learning about gifted programs and how to implement and manage them and identify gifted students.
A Gifted/Talented Education Program was put in place for students in grades four through six for this school year at the Newbury, Rowley and Salisbury elementary schools. In addition, some third-graders are now being identified for the program and some after-school math programs for the gifted are taking place at the middle school.
Identifying the gifted student
According to the U.S. federal definition, a student who is gifted and talented is: one who gives evidence of high performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who requires services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop such capabilities.
Finding the gifted student within Triton begins with a student being nominated, either by a parent, teacher, community member, administrator or by the student himself or herself. A nomination form is filled out, outlining the student's special skills and/or talents.
Students are then tested using best the practices models from the National Association for Gifted Children, which includes the Naglieri nonverbal test and the Otis Lennon School Ability Test.
Students are then instructed to complete a portfolio for review that includes three pieces of their most creative works. Then the admissions, review and exit (ARE) committee at each school decides whose work qualifies for the gifted program.
"Nationwide, the gifted population is the top 2 to 5 percent," said Jordan. "With this program we target the top 5 to 10 percent, which equals between six and eight children per grade." There are currently 89 students participating in Triton's program: 42 at Newbury Elementary, 26 at Pine Grove in Rowley and 21 at Salisbury Elementary.
How does the program work?
For one hour a week, students in the gifted program meet during school hours with their instructor, Ellie Nove, formerly a fourth-grade teacher from the Pine Grove School. Every three weeks, they get three hours of instruction with Nove, who serves as coordinator of the continuing student projects at all three schools.
Keeping the curriculum being taught in the classroom as a subject guideline, Nove helps the students identify key projects and guides them through the various stages of work. The students also work independently on their projects, during class time when they've finished all their required work and outside of class. Ultimately, they present their findings or creative ideas to the other students in their class.
"The concept of the program is to take anything that the students are currently studying in the classroom and bring it to the highest level of thinking and creative problem-solving," said Jordan. "For example, the students were studying animals and how they adapt. The student in the gifted program expanded on the topic by creating his own unique animal and inventing its habitat and way of life, complete with making a three-dimensional image of the animal from clay."
Other projects students in the program have worked on include working the topic of space into a detailed examination of the phases of the moon and the benefits of solar energy.
Another student went out on field visits with the Audubon Society to local salt marshes to study the devastating effects of invasive plants such as phragmites and purple loosestrife. And yet another organized and participated in a mock trial.
Students who are in the gifted program leave their regular classes when it is time to meet with Nove and are expected to make up on their own time what they missed in the classroom. Lynda Kubik, a fifth-grade teacher at Pine Grove School who has three students who participate in the gifted program, finds the program has gone very smoothly thus far.
She noted that since students already leave class regularly for other studies, such as instrumental music lessons or school council, the students' leaving class causes no additional disruption.
"I've always tried to provide for these students within the regular classroom setting," said Kubik. "But it's nice to have this program where the small group and individualized attention can foster their education while enhancing the curriculum for them and for the rest of the class when they present to us what they have learned. It's great to see children who need such a challenge, get the challenge."
Lori Flodman, who sits on the ARE committee at Pine Grove and whose daughter Kiersten is in the gifted program, said the program has allowed her daughter to supplement her learning at her own level and excel at what she is good at, all at her own pace.
The future looks bright for the gifted students in the Triton district. While the grant money has been depleted, the school budget includes paying for a stipend for three people to help with the program at each school, in addition to funding the current needs of the program.
"We've reviewed a program like this for many years," said Halloran, "but budget was an issue. Now that we are back on track, we plan to continue with the program and expand and enhance it." | <urn:uuid:14b8de33-cb2a-4836-b473-777da2d76476> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newburyportnews.com/local/x845836949/Triton-launches-program-for-gifted-talented-students/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971632 | 1,256 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Both President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are active on social media, but neither engages much with other users. / AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, Mary Altaffer
They tweet, but they don’t listen.
And Obama tweets a lot more.
But both President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are essentially one-way users of social media; neither makes much of its interactive capabilities.
That’s a quick summary of a report released this week by the Pew Research Center’s Project for excellence in Journalism. Pew analyzed the content and volume of the candidates’ digital communications — on their websites and on platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — from June 4-17.
Among the findings:
•The biggest gap between them is on Twitter; Obama averaged 29 tweets a day, 17 from @BarackObama (his presidential account) and 12 from @Obama2012, the campaign account; Romney averaged one tweet per day.
•The Obama campaign posted nearly four times as much content on twice as many platforms compared to the Romney campaign, and drew twice as many shares, views and comments.
•Both candidates “are using their direct messaging mainly as a way to push their message out” rather than interact. “ Rarely did either candidate reply to, comment or ‘retweet’ something from a citizen or anyone else outside the campaign.”
•Romney’s social media has twice as much content about Obama than Obama’s does about Romney.
•Both candidates talk most often about the economy, 24% of Romney’s content, 19% of Obama’s. But Romney generally focuses on jobs, or the lack of, while Obama leans toward economic philosophy, vision and the middle class.
•Obama’s website has dropped a “news” section that it featured in 2008 to share media reports on the then-Democratic candidate. Romney’s campaign site still has a page dedicated to mainstream media coverage of the campaign.
•Four years ago, Obama’s campaign website spelled out the candidate’s positions in 22 areas; this year, it is only eight, with foreign policy not among them. Romney has 24 issue pages, eight of them tied to foreign policy.
•The biggest single draw across all platforms during the study period was a YouTube video of First Lady Michelle Obama and the Obama daughters wishing the president a happy Father’s Day. It was viewed 211,663 times and shared 2,265 times on Facebook. | <urn:uuid:ec4dee7d-0570-43ba-842c-ad3a872859ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freep.com/article/20120816/COL32/308160194 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943475 | 522 | 1.695313 | 2 |
November 1, 2012
Don't some horror movies start with an execution on Halloween?
The silly question in the title of this post is prompted by the fact that two states had executions go forward over the last few spooky days: as reported here by the AP, "Donnie Lee Roberts, convicted in his girlfriend's 2003 slaying in Texas, was executed Wednesday for fatally shooting the woman and taking items from her home to sell or trade to support his drug habit"; as reported here by Reuters, a "man convicted of the 1990 rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl was put to death on Tuesday night in a South Dakota execution witnessed by the victim's parents, who drove 1,400 miles from their New York home to watch him die."
I believe that there have now been 36 executions throughout the United States in 2012, and DPIC indicates here that eight more serious execution dates are on the scheduled for the next two months. If all these executions go forward, there could be a slight uptick (from 43 to 44) in the number of executions this year compared to 2011.
November 1, 2012 at 10:15 AM | Permalink
TrackBack URL for this entry:
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Don't some horror movies start with an execution on Halloween?:
That's really cute, professor.
Posted by: anon | Nov 1, 2012 11:18:27 AM
Another date was set in Florida. My guess is that the 11th Circuit will jerk the state around again due to the psychological claims that will be made. The Ferguson stay was atrocious.
Posted by: federalist | Nov 1, 2012 12:13:09 PM | <urn:uuid:5931c8dc-2c41-4480-9fd8-9d25304cd17a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2012/11/dont-some-horror-movies-start-with-an-execution-on-halloween.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967138 | 346 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Pak-US ties based on mutual respect: Punjab governor
30 January, 2013
LAHORE: The relationship between Pakistan and the United States is based upon mutual respect, cooperation and a spirit of goodwill, said Punjab Governor Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood while talking to US Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson at the Governor's House.
The two officials discussed political and national security issues related to the war on terror.
According to a press note issued by the Governor's House, the governor said that Pakistan was the front-runner ally of the US in the war against terrorism as well as restoring peace in this region, and added that the country had made valiant sacrifices for this cause and was continuing to do so.
He said that the Pakistani government was a firm believer in democracy and empowerment of its people, and its first priority was to hold free and fair elections in the stipulated time. He further emphasised that "we need to obliterate mismanagement and corruption from this nation in order to advance towards national prosperity".
Olson stated that the US was a staunch supporter of democracy and was looking forward to timely and transparent elections to bring forth a credible leadership. He further said that his country was not a supporter of any single political party, but was a supporter of the Pakistani nation. | <urn:uuid:d5e03ea0-ee68-44b5-9a23-2d36f05715ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://paktribune.com/news/Pak-US-ties-based-on-mutual-respect-Punjab-governor-256974.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984291 | 261 | 1.765625 | 2 |
‘The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been before.
“Creativity in living is not without its attendant difficulties, for peculiarity breeds contempt. And the unfortunate thing about being ahead of your time is that when people finally realize you were right, they’ll say it was obvious all along.” Alan Ashley-Pitt as quoted in “The Wonderful Crisis of Middle Age” by Eda LeShan
And so we find on Page 46 of 109 in the Apple-Samsung jury instructions this rather concerning issue: “Obviousness”. Specifically:
“A utility patent claim is invalid if the claimed invention would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the field at the time of invention”
Now I’m no expert in the specifics of this trial. But this fundamental idea concerns me. Because there’s a strange relationship between what’s obvious today and what would have been obvious before a product was released.
Copying Apple makes it far easier to introduce new phones and give them the appearance of “exciting”.
Read more of this post | <urn:uuid:e5cc7a16-e6fd-4817-92de-cb66a5a78a55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dsgarnett.wordpress.com/category/human-tech/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966606 | 258 | 1.820313 | 2 |
A grassroots Brooklyn based non-profit, Life Vest Inside, has orchestrated a WorldWide Dance for Kindness event on Nov 18th as part of the Global Celebrations that take place during World Kindness Week. The event will take place on the same day, to the same song and dance in Countries across the Globe: from the US to Australia, Chile to India, England to Canada and more countries being added daily.
Life Vest Inside is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and a new member of the World Kindness Movement dedicated to spreading kindness, empowering people, and building self-esteem and self-value. Life Vest Inside seeks to utilize the power of kindness to empower individuals with the strength and self-esteem needed to rise with dignity to their utmost potential.
The purpose of World Kindness Day is to look beyond ourselves, beyond the boundaries of our country, beyond our culture, our race, our religion; and realize we are citizens of the world.
Founder, Orly Wahba, states, “To some, the world is filled with war, hatred, violence and hopelessness but we firmly believe that we have the power to fill this world with kindness, trust, hope and love.”
The goal of Dance for Kindness is to promote kindness, positive human interaction and to help increase people’s awareness and sensitivity to others. At the event viewers will have the opportunity to see time STOP for kindness and take part in a dance uniting those around the globe under the banner of kindness. LVI Acts of Kindness cards will be distributed in each location to illustrate that kindness can create a ripple effect whose reach has no boundaries. The effect of the dance doesn’t end with the day but rather continues to live on through the video montage that will be created showcasing the Countries around the Globe Dancing for Kindness.
In response to the disaster brought about by Hurricane Sandy, Life Vest Inside is declaring a Call to Action and launching a fundraising campaign through ROCKETHUB on the day of event. Funds raised will be distributed directly to the families in the Queens area who have lost their homes to fire. Wahba, who lost her home to a fire at the age of 15 years old, is dedicated to giving back and helping families cope with their pain and loss. Wahba states, “The day will no longer be a day solely about Dancing for Kindness, but more importantly ACTING in Kindness! World Kindness Day will become a day in which we celebrate the power we have to make a difference when we are united through the common cause of Kindness. This campaign represents Life Vest Inside’s efforts at throwing a life vest to those who are drowning in a sea of troubles; a reminder that they are not alone and while it may take time to get their lives back in order we will help keep them afloat.”
Describe will be launching his single, We R 1, on the day of the event during the FreezeMob to kick off the event. Describe will be making an appearance as well and will be releasing the song as a free download starting on November 18th.
To learn more about Dance for Kindness:
Register at: http://bit.ly/StzIQB
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: @lifevestinside
Download the banner: http://cl.ly/image/3x1e18033L43 | <urn:uuid:60fc8d06-eb9c-4f82-a650-9e028626004c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peaceissexy.net/worldwide-flashmob-dance-for-kindness/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94015 | 696 | 1.617188 | 2 |
By Jim Schutze
By Rachel Watts
By Lauren Drewes Daniels
By Anna Merlan
By Lee Escobedo
By Eric Nicholson
The first plane: There is a factual error in "Rough Skies" (November 21) that got past the writer and editor. Several female employees had not "just watched a plane fly into the North Tower of New York's World Trade Center."
They might have been reacting to the start of TV news coverage, or to the realization that people were jumping. Everyone watched as the second plane hit the South Tower, but the footage of the first crash did not appear until much later.
Be wary of how the assault of repeated media messages can tend to influence how you think.
Editor's note: Mr. Christenson is correct. American Airlines security director Larry Wansley admits he didn't have much time for TV-watching on September 11. In all likelihood, the reaction he heard from the adjacent conference room that morning was to broadcast news that a plane had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, with the corresponding images of billowing smoke. Only later was actual footage shown of the plane hitting the building.
The Original Crusaders
Rapacious Christians: Mr. Korosec's "Crusaders" brought forth many interesting and intelligent letters. That is, except for one written by Mr. Anonymous who claimed that Islam is the world's biggest cult that believes it is "OK to kill nonbelievers." Obviously, Mr. Anonymous has overlooked the Spanish Inquisition (1476) and the Crusades: 1095-1101, 1145-1148, 1188-1192, 1202-1204, 1212, 1228-1229, 1248-1254 and 1267-1270.
Rushing to my Catholic encyclopedia (although I am not Catholic, they must be considered the authority on such things), I noted that "The" Church's definition of a cult is the worship of "a thing or person." One would suppose that the Christian faith would meet the definition of a cult in that it was decided by the Council of Nicaea that "Jesus Christ [was] the only Son of God" (from the Nicene Creed). I've never heard a Muslim make the claim that Mohammed was God. It is on this point that the conflict of the two religious systems is centered. Islam believes that Christians are infidels because they believe a man (Jesus) is God. In fact, according to Eliphas Levi, Mohammad used to utter, when speaking of Christians, the following remarkable words: "Jesus of Nazareth was verily a true prophet of Allah and a grand man; but lo! His disciples all went insane one day, and made a god of him." Then, as history demonstrates, Christians went more insane by trying to kill everyone on the planet who didn't believe as they did.
All of this proves one simple thing--we can't judge the validity of a religion by looking at its followers. If we did, one look at Jerry Falwell or Mr. Anonymous would have cleared all the churches.
Richard E. Finlan
Suffering your sacrifice: C.R. (Bob) Hefner Jr. of Dallas wrote: "Muhammad's teachings stand against all that those men who knew Jesus and wrote about their years with him have to tell us about him. Either they were liars--and in many cases willing to die for their lie--or Muhammad 400 years after Jesus' death was a liar. It does not surprise us too much to find that there are those among us who are willing to make great sacrifices and undertake great risk to set the record straight" (Letters, November 28).
What if both parties are wrong or are liars? Do the rest of us have to suffer because of your sacrifices and risks?
Out, Damned Potholes
Haven for the homeless: Damn the Pothole/Central Park in downtown ("Big-Ticket Laura," November 28)! What about a home for the homeless in downtown Dallas? The park is where the homeless will end up, anyway.
Rose Mary Henderson
And it isn't Scott Savage: Having been in radio, I know almost everyone mentioned in this article ("Hot Air," October 31). They are, to the person, good people with fine talents, and Scott Savage is one of the most decent, honest persons I have ever known or worked with.
I don't know, nor have I ever heard of, Dave Schum, but if Scott Savage says Mr. Schum told him to launch KCAF and Mr. Schum denies it, then Mr. Schum is not telling the truth.
Thanks for the article. Good reporting!
A Very Ignorant Man
Thousand points of light: I am responding to Robert Wilonsky's criticism of people interested in the JFK assassination (Full Frontal, November 28). Wilonsky is a very ignorant man, and I challenge this ignoramus to explain the following:
5. Who George De Mohrenschildt was and why he is important to the JFK assassination investigation;
6. Why Mrs. George De Mohrenschildt (a.k.a. Jeanne Le Gon), Abraham Zapruder and Olga Fehmer (daughter was LBJ's secretary) all worked together at Nardis of Dallas, a clothing company in 1953-'54. They all belonged to the CIA;
Find everything you're looking for in your city
Find the best happy hour deals in your city
Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%
Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city | <urn:uuid:e6896bdc-5c24-4570-8af3-76504f8c8d96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dallasobserver.com/2002-12-05/news/deadly-skies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960862 | 1,170 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Homeschooling in Hard Times: An Introduction
Raylene M. Hunt
Veteran homeschooling, single mom of two blessings, Helen & Matthew.
Homeschooling is undoubtedly a growing trend in education. Trends, however, tend to change with the tide of popular culture. As our economy continues in this downturn, I wonder if homeschooling will be strong enough to maintain itself, becoming more than just a trend. Homeschoolers today, have ridden on the waves of the pioneers. We’ve become complacent and assume that it has always been and will always be as easy as it is right now.
There is however, a cost to homeschooling. It isn’t just one option for many families, it is the only option. There is more involved than just the monetary cost of the curriculum and extra curricula lessons. For many families, the cost is much higher. It can mean sacrificing family ties because relatives don’t understand. It may even mean sacrificing ties in the Christian community, as churches (especially those with their own schools) do not understand. Families may have to sacrifice luxuries that they’ve grown to consider necessities. It may mean giving up internet at home all together or downscaling from DSL to dial-up. It may mean that there is no cable, or that the family has only one car instead of two. It may even mean downsizing the family home. There are families who are willing to sacrifice, but what about those who haven’t had to? Will the turn in the economy change their minds? Will families be willing to make further sacrifices to be able to continue to home educate?
My fear is that there will be families who think it simply can no longer be done, and that the sacrifice just isn’t worth it. After all public education is free, and then both parents can work. It seems easier to sacrifice our children to the government schools than to sacrifice the conveniences we enjoy daily.
There are others I know that will sacrifice without hesitation or second thought. I know this because they already are. Weekly, I encounter families in difficult situations who are, against all odds, continuing to home educate. There are growing numbers of single parents who are joining the ranks of seasoned homeschooling families. There are parents with limited incomes who are doing it. They are being discouraged from it on all fronts including family, friends and other Christians. Everyone promotes the easy path. Put the children into the government schools, and get a job. I’m not sure they understand the reality of what they are recommending. Take a wife whose husband has been incarcerated as an example. Their family has been torn apart and its stability threatened. Put their children into the public school system, and send mom to work 8 – 10 hours a day. The result is a recipe for disaster not just for the children, but for the entire family unit. When mom comes home at the end of the day, she is too exhausted to provide for the most basic needs of her family. What would it really cost to support that family through their difficult season? What would it teach the children to see others sacrificing to help their mother?
As with most all things, those who could benefit the most from homeschooling have the least amount of resources available to them. Based on my own years of experience, if you are a family in a difficult situation, homeschooling may be the thing that makes the difficult time a little easier to bear. Count the cost, but also weigh it against the worth. It can be done. | <urn:uuid:9b59c611-b6c1-4229-b5ef-98ffb2a3dfdd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.homeschoolersofmaine.org/public/index.cfm?fuseaction=articles.view&id=9693 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978786 | 733 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Courtland Gardens Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, formerly Jewish Convalescent & Nursing Home, is home to many Russian-speaking residents. Because they do not speak English, we have put together a program to help them enjoy their time at Courtland Gardens and to be able to be understood.
Our efforts include:
- A Russian translator who is on-site and works Mondays through Thursdays from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
- A nurse who speaks fluent Russian works from 3 p.m. - 11 p.m.
- Communication books are placed in every room with a Russian resident.
- Pocket communications were developed so they can be carried with staff members all the time. Those books and booklets have different ways to communicate...with words and pictures.
- Activities calendars are translated into Russian.
- Courtland Gardens has a subscription to a Russian television station.
- Courtland Gardens tries to place Russian speaking residents in the same wing so they can have people to talk to there.
- On-site, there are a Russian speaking therapeutic recreational therapist, a speech therapist, a nurse and a maintenance worker.
- A language line available that Courtland Gardens residents can call to help them with anything that needs translation 24 hours a day seven days a week. | <urn:uuid:6df716c2-642d-47be-8bf7-6745035bbe41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.savealimbride.org/CourtlandGardens/RussianLanguage.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962364 | 264 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Tropical Depression Isaac continues to push into Iowa Friday afternoon.
Clouds from the system started entering southern Iowa Friday morning, but forecasters said rain is expected to stay south most of Friday.
Isaac continues to spin north and east away from the Gulf Coast.
It's expected to bring rain into southern Iowa on Saturday. The precipitation is expected to stay south of Interstate 80.
Isaac is expected to drop about an inch of rain or less in the Kansas City metro Friday with more significant accumulations in eastern Missouri.
The latest forecast shows mostly cloudy conditions with a 40 percent chance of showers in the Des Moines metro for Saturday.
The National Weather Service said the southeast corner of Iowa is expected to see between 2 to 4 inches of rain over the weekend from Isaac.
Meteorologist David Sheets, based with the weather service at Davenport, said weather models show the storm system taking more of a turn east, which would take rain away from southeastern Iowa and more toward Illinois.
Sheets said the system won't bring thunderstorms to southeast Iowa, but steady rains will fall over the area through Sunday. He said there could be some short periods of heavy rain, and that some low-lying and urban areas could see minor flooding. | <urn:uuid:2a6cbd74-89b2-42d1-855f-65a3a5f021a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/Isaac-continues-push-into-Iowa/-/9357080/16440526/-/si7pm2z/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96367 | 256 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Nell - All the Way
18 September 2008
Nell - Happy Ending
26 May 2005
Nell – Who Made Who
1 July 2004
Nell – No Mountain, No River
21 November 2002
Nell – Who Made Who
1 July 2004
Nell’s Who Made Who is an exhibition of sculptures, installations and gouaches which explore identity, the imaginary and the contemplative discipline of Zen Buddhism through the ever-present fact of mortality. The cycles of birth and death are not only the literal beginning and endpoints of life. The lightning-flash clarity of any given moment marks the death of our old self. Each moment is independent of the past and future. Just as one’s identity and conception of self does not remain fixed, so there exists in this life the possibility for endless renewal.
The exhibition title is taken from an AC/DC song which ends with the question… “Who made YOU?” The repetition of the phrase ‘who made who’ co-opts a logic similar to the problem about the ‘Chicken and the Egg’ –- what came first is ultimately unanswerable. The circularity of this problem undermines the validity of there being a supposed ‘original’ source. Along with references to rock n’ roll lyrics, Nell engages various spiritual and pictorial traditions. With sources ranging from Fra Angelico’s frescoes, to Australian Aboriginal art, Indian miniature painting, Zen Buddhism and western mythology, Nell incorporates into her idiosyncratic lexicon of signs – the now familiar drips, eggs and flies – a new vocabulary including gold, a strange grey ‘goo,’ reptiles and rodents.
A recurring theme throughout Nell’s works is the tension between attraction and repulsion. The sculpture Not Without My Tail includes a taxidermied crocodile’s tail - gutted, painted enamel-white and laid on a plush black velvet support. From the cavity of the once powerful, muscular tail leaks a viscous hand-gilded spill. The high-gloss white egg, Each Song Particular, bleeds gold leaf from a gash, gaping slightly, in its surface. In Open-ended, the epidermis of a slick black egg whirlpools into itself. At its innermost point we encounter a perfectly spherical pearl. The wound in Nell’s work is the site of the puncture, or ‘gap’ in consciousness that allows insight into personal trauma. The wound is where the inner and outer world coincide. The vulnerable and precious matter of the inner self is discernable in Nell’s sculpture because of the violence that the exterior sustains. The seductive, brittle surfaces or the obsessively constructed armatures are designed both to attract and protect. Nell has written that, “accessibility to transformation and beauty inevitably arise out of suffering and pain… they are, indeed the very same place.”
The reptilian, scaled surface of Many Little Decisions is made up off 17,000 brass-plated upholstery pins that have been pressed into an egg-form, measuring 160cm vertically. Nell has written that, “The placement of each pin marks a tiny decision that has been made. Each seemingly insignificant action when repeated thousands of times becomes substantial and in this case, manifests itself as an object… Without exception each individual pin/mosaic-tile/element has its own personality, perfect in and of itself but is an inseparable part of the whole.” Referring to her own ‘scale,’ as in Fly as High as Me (2002) exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Self-portrait also spans the artist’s height. The artist’s name is written in a cursive script across the gallery wall. This work plays on the arbitrariness of one’s name in relation to real self. Reflected throughout the exhibition is the desire to reconcile independence and interdependence. The letters are constructed by a seething mass of grey plastic mice. Each individual mouse is also representative of the species, simultaneously creating and consuming the artist’s name. Nell has also created her own gravestone in this exhibition. It is a personal momento mori, both coagulating from primordial materials and subsiding back into the earth.
Nell was born 1975 in Maitland and moved to Sydney in 1993 to study Visual Arts at the Sydney College of the Arts. She completed her honours in visual arts at the UCLA in the USA in 1996. Nell was a founding director of Sydney artist-run space, Rubyare. In 1999 she was included in the Primavera exhibition of young art at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney curated by Rachel Kent. Newcastle Region Art Gallery held a solo exhibition of her work in 2002 and in the same year she exhibited the work Fly as High as Me (2002)at the Art Gallery of New South Wales Contemporary Project Space, and travelled Tibet and Nepal to further explore her practice of Zen Buddhism. In 2003 she was selected by Maitland Regional Art Gallery for the inaugural exhibition of the new Contemporary Gallery, attended a mosaic school in Ravenna and was awarded the Rome Studio by the Australia Council for the Arts. Who Made Who will be Nellšs third solo exhibition with Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.
Exhibition opening: Thursday 1 July, 6-8pm
Exhibition dates: 1 July – 24 July, 2004
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Friday 10am - 6pm, Saturday 11am - 6pm
All images from the exhibition are available for viewing at: | <urn:uuid:bf8732c8-ea7c-43d4-94df-7f3fcc02bca5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/news/releases/2004/07/01/73/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9453 | 1,172 | 1.554688 | 2 |
CSearchResult:RecentComments:kjv@Psalms:4:2 kjv@Psalms:4:2@ @ RandyP comments: Reprobate Mind - This sums up what our mind is attempting to do. It brings the glory of God down to improve it's outlook upon itself. It seeks to deceive its own self. Peter put it as "the corruption that is in the world through lust kjv@2Peter:1:4".
RecentComments:kjv@Ecclesiastes:3 kjv@Ecclesiastes:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Peter kjv@2Peter:1:4 described this world as a corruption that is in this world because of lust. Corruption can mean death and decay as it does for the sons of the lusting to be wise Adam/Eve. The thought of this death makes us to lust for all that we might have and make out of this short time which brings us to a corruption of all that is good and intended; lust upon lust and it's many other corruptions. What God has done by putting us through this is to be looked at in terms of forever that men should fear Him; a tremendously good and righteous work of making us righteous within the righteousness of His Son; raising us up from this corruption much as His Son a new spiritual creature. From this nothing can be put to nor taken away.
RecentComments:kjv@Ecclesiastes:7 kjv@Ecclesiastes:7 @ @ RandyP comments: Solomon has spent a great deal of time considering the ends of things. Sure they seem right to us here and now but, what of it in the end? He concludes that while somethings are better, some are wiser, all things are temporary, that they all end as vanity. Not everyone goes as far as to consider these things, the thought being "what does it matter?". It matters to the life to come and the abundant entrance ministered unto us into Christ's eternal kingdom kjv@2Peter:1:11.
RecentComments:kjv@Titus:3 kjv@Titus:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The necessity of maintaining good works; all of us. It is not just having an intention to do them, it is not just us studying to know how they might be done, it is us stepping forward into them and adapting within them to get them done. It is not just beginning them, it is us maintaining them for the long run. Notice how many people Paul has involved in his good works. They are part of his, he is part of theirs, we are part of the Lord's; small works, large works, works we don't even know are being done we are striving to be fruitful in. Peter shared a similar vision of being fruitful in the knowledge of Christ kjv@2Peter:1. See also kjv@Romans:12. In fuller context, these works are to be done yet with an eye on reasonable subjection to the civic and legal principalities that govern all.
RecentComments:kjv@2Peter:2 kjv@2Peter:2 @ @ RandyP comments: The righteous souls are vexed by the ungodliness surrounding them. This is much of our tribulation. In particular are a type of godless that once knew of the Lord's righteousness yet returned to their own vomit becoming more unrighteous than before. They seem to elevate themselves to positions of influence in the secular community and cause great anguish with purpose upon the remaining faithful. This may or may not include a host of false teachers also. There is swift judgment upon them though perhaps not as swift as we might sometimes hope. They do however unwittingly perform a function of solidifying and growing our truer faith and resolve.
RecentComments:kjv@2Peter:3:15-16 kjv@2Peter:3:15-16@ @ RandyP comments: It has been the doctrine of some cults (even the universal church at times) that the unlearned masses must be kept from the holy scrip based on the possible misinterpretation and destruction it might cause them identified by this passage. The context however of this passage in light of kjv@2Peter:2 is more properly of those who once knew of the Gospel/Grace of Christ but chose not to continue, turned to oppress and afflict and teach falsely after their own increased unrighteousness and gain. Paul's writings in particular are targeted by these cherry picking wicked souls as points of fierce contention, points of apparent contradiction, points to slander and attack. Peter here stands up for Paul in uncompromising fashion and therefore endorses the distribution of his works. The general masses are greatly helped rather by the availability of unfiltered scripture, their trust in leadership deeply enhanced in the things that are not easily understood by the things that are. Those who are going to fall away are going to fall away any way. Disputes and factions may arise amongst us over certain points as we try to become learned, but, even that is used to challenge and stir and put essential truths into our remembrance. Challenge does not mean destruction, challenge means hunger and thirst and utter trust in the most certain hope of an eventual divinely revealed answer.
RecentComments:kjv@2Peter:3 kjv@2Peter:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The mass distribution/reading of the Holy Scriptures to the unlearned is also our church's only security besides the Holy Spirit that those proclaiming themselves as being 'the learned' are in fact 'The Learned'. Otherwise the door is opened wide for those wicked apostates to whom this passage and context alerts us to. We see this very thing occur through out the history of our church. To get to the essentials of falsehood one must bypass the essentials of truth. Truth number one = Scripture!
RecentComments:kjv@Jude:1 kjv@Jude:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Compare this with 2Peter. In kjv@2Petter:1:5-8 contenders for the like precious faith begin by adding to their faith virtue (valor towards excellence) knowledge (revealed, spiritual) temperance (against similar brute knowledge) patience (persistence) godliness (living forward, spiritual obedience) brotherly kindness (striving for the unity of the Spirit) and charity (Agape love).
RecentComments:kjv@Zechariah:10 kjv@Zechariah:10 @ @ RandyP comments: Idols don't speak, men hear what they want to here from them and over the years they have heard plenty, all of it vanity. The signs are plain for all to see, but, what the diviners take from it is a lie, they see what they want to see, all of it vanity. Men are troubled because there is no shepherd or so they think, they comfort each other in vain. These were the shepherds they thought missing and the Lord's anger was kindled against them. Shepherds must stand for what is true, often a most difficult and sacrificial task. Instead, as a whole they lead the flock away and so the Lord dispersed them. Faithful leaders need to add to their faith virtue (Valor/Excellence), knowledge (revealed), temperance (physical/spiritual), patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity (agape) in order to be fruitful in the knowledge of Christ kjv@2Peter:1:5-8 . There are leaders amongst us today that need much of the same. We have one Shepherd but several pastors.
RecentComments Discussion Board:
Discuss this passage:
bible RecentComments - 2Peter
2012 - pBiblx2 Field Wise Bible System Version 2.0.9d - GPL3 | <urn:uuid:f72e0049-2970-4606-b8cc-ad847ce085e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shepherdpuplinux.us/cgi-bin/pbiblx-pcarr.cgi?X=x&Css=1&Mode=csearch&Version=kjv&Index=bible&File=RecentComments&String=2Peter | 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 | 0.953614 | 1,631 | 1.5 | 2 |
Jerry Thomas' 1862 cocktail text mentioned in another thread today and available in online form contains an interesting section on juleps and "The Real Georgia Mint Julep". In his discussion of the Georgia version, one can see, first, that the mint julep was mythologised and eulogised as early as around 1860. That is, people even then were bemoaning the disappearance ("decadence" as it was quaintly termed) of the "real" julep of the old South. Things aren't what they used to be - even in 1862 - or, weren't what they used to be. (I can't get my tenses right these days). Anyway, SB-ers will be pleased to learn that while Thomas' recipe for the real Georgia version used cognac and peach brandy not whiskey, Thomas appended to that recipe a note on what might be termed the "real real" mint julep. It is a quotation from a Georgia newspaper which called for a julep to be made not just with "whiskey", but "mellow whiskey"! This was Jerry's way of telling us THAT was the original version. And, as the newspaper piece revealed, even then arguments coursed about whether to crush the mint. The Georgia journal advised without equivocation to insert the sprigs in the crevices of the ice and dismissed airily any version made with crushed mint and shaken. So, I give you the real original julep, at the brink of oblivion in 1862 but preserved and sped to us via the miracle of electronic communications in 2006. Only thing is, the real real Georgia version sounds pretty modern: reports of its "decadence" were, um, exaggerated.
As I say, Thomas gives recipes for cognac juleps and other julep-type drinks, including a whiskey version, which call for crushing the mint (the whiskey example appears under the strange name, "crustas") but one can see he had his eye on tradition and gave direction to those who would preserve it.
Jerry would have been an ace at Gazebo. | <urn:uuid:628f2bc3-5743-4cea-8681-af4567c52098> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showthread.php?5275-Mint-Julep&p=86486&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959017 | 438 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Many of us on various occasions would have wished to see a ‘Dislike’ button on Facebook along with the ‘like’ button. There’s a good news and a bad won for those wishing to show their disagreement or disliking towards a post, picture or a video on Facebook. The good news is that there is a way to ‘Enable the ‘Dislike’ button’ on Facebook but the bad news is, this is a scam.
Messages claiming to offer the opposite to a like button have been appearing on many Facebook users’ walls:
Facebook now has a dislike button! Click 'Enable Dislike Button' to turn on the new feature!
“Like the ”Preventing Spam / Verify my account” scam which went before it, the scammers have managed to waltz past Facebook’s security to replace the standard “Share” option with a link labelled “Enable Dislike Button”,” explains Graham Cluley, Senior Technology Consultant at Sophos.
The fact that the “Enable Dislike Button” link does not appear in the main part of the message, but lower down alongside “Link” and “Comment”, is likely to fool some users into believing that it is genuine.
There is no official dislike button provided by Facebook and there isn’t ever likely to be. But it remains something that many Facebook users would like, and so scammers have often used the offer of a “Dislike button” as bait for the unwary. | <urn:uuid:d72fb20d-a8de-4e60-bc9b-d430dafd229b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://infosecindia.com/2011/05/16/scam-message-offers-you-to-enable-a-dislike-button-on-facebook/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937606 | 333 | 1.578125 | 2 |
SuperSpy wrote:Hmmmm I have a GS105 at home that's flaking out a little lately. How hard is it to recap these things? I'm still somewhat of a novice with soldering on machine assembled hardware, although I have a good bit of time under my belt working with a bread board.
Piece of cake, since the caps that need replacing are "old school" through-hole devices (not surface mount), and large enough that you don't need tweezers and a magnifying glass to work with them.
On the GS108 (I assume the GS105 is similar) there are six screws (two holding the case together and four holding the board in place). There are 5 electrolytic caps in there -- 2 1000uF ones and 3 330uF ones. I only replaced the 1000uF ones as the 330s were not bulging and I didn't have any suitable replacements for those anyway.
I used a 25 watt pencil-style soldering iron; a slightly higher wattage one would've probably worked better, as the power planes of the PCB act as heat sinks and make it somewhat difficult to melt the old solder.
Removing the old caps --
Electrolytic caps have a "+" and "-" side. Note the orientation of the old caps before removing them, as the replacements will need to be installed with the same polarity.
Apply heat to one of the capacitor leads from the underside of the board, while gently pushing on the top of the capacitor can on the same side of the can as the lead you're heating. When the solder softens, the other lead will bend and the one you're heating will pull partway out of the hole. Switch to the other lead, and repeat. After 2 or 3 cycles of this you'll have "walked" the capacitor out of the mounting holes.
Clear the holes of old solder using your soldering iron and a solder-sucker type tool.
Installing the new caps --
Put the leads through the holes, observing proper polarity. Push the leads all the way through so that the cap is flush with the PCB, and bend the leads apart slightly on the underside of the board to hold the cap in place while you solder.
Solder the new caps in place, trim the leads.
That's about it... | <urn:uuid:8f03a736-137f-43e9-89f5-77bd4254f137> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1037694 | 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 | 0.957868 | 482 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.