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Tuscarawas News Detail
College Assisting Summit County Hospital Systems with Needs AssessmentPosted Jan. 31, 2013
The college has a major new assignment to provide consulting and technical assistance to the three Summit County hospital systems in performing a comprehensive community health needs assessment (CHNA), a new requirement in the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
“Nonprofit hospitals are now required by the Internal Revenue Service to conduct the CHNA and develop health improvement plans for all of the communities in which they have a presence,” explains Willie H. Oglesby, Ph.D., assistant professor of Health Policy & Management and leader of the three-year study involving Akron Children’s Hospital, Akron General Health System and Summa Health System. The overall goal is to help shape capacity for greater impact on community health, to make investments as efficient and effective as possible and to identify additional ways the hospital systems and other organizations can engage to solve community health problems.
“Kent State has a broad and growing base of expertise with health care reform, and we’re receiving lots of calls from throughout the region for assistance,” Oglesby says.
“The Kent State team was selected because it has the credibility and background to help develop a study we can stand by for implementation,” explains Bernett L. Williams, vice president of External Affairs, Akron Children’s Hospital. “This joint assessment will serve as a call to action,” she adds.
In Phase I of the project, the team will synthesize epidemiological data from some 60 sources and also conduct interviews and focus groups with local community stakeholders. In Phase II, Kent State will facilitate a dialogue with the three health systems to develop a prioritized action plan. A third phase will involve implementation assistance and a reassessment of community health needs after three years. “This major project will also provide opportunities for students to gain first-hand experience in developing, implementing and evaluating programs,” says Oglesby.
“The study will enable us to demonstrate that our program initiatives do, in fact, meet the identified needs,” says Roxia Boykin, vice president, Community Benefit and Diversity, Summa Health System. “The three institutions partnering also allows us to be great fiscal stewards of resources that are really the community’s,” Boykin says.
“Right away, the community will benefit,” says Suzanne Hobson, director, Community Health and Community Relations, Akron General Health System. “With the prioritized list of needs in hand, we’ll determine how to work collaboratively and individually to satisfy our mission to improve health and lives,” she adds.
“It’s a win-win-win for the community, partnership and the College of Public Health,” agrees Michael Wellendorf, government relations liaison, Akron Children’s Hospital. | <urn:uuid:0a0e40a3-c801-4cef-ba22-2e26abcb9502> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tusc.kent.edu/news/newsdetail.cfm?newsitem=91738AFE-F5AE-A0A1-8CF9F5908348C99E | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942663 | 598 | 1.546875 | 2 |
It occurred to me, while choosing music for my forthcoming Valentine’s Day Concert, that the process of programming a concert is not dissimilar to planning a menu.
One is constantly thinking of the audience (guests). Will they like and appreciate what they hear (taste)? What is the theme? Should there be one? What should we begin with? Something to warm up, open up their hearing (taste buds), etc. What’s the right balance of the familiar (safe) and unfamiliar (new but risky)? What should be the order? Alternating fast – slow – fast – slow (cold vs hot; salty vs sweet; wet vs dry). What is the right number of pieces (courses)? How long should each piece be?
As I ponder over the choice of work, I remember a research study I had conducted with a Swedish violinist on programming music for elderly audiences. It’s not about tempo but everything about mood. What kind of mood do we want to convey to the audience?
Does the chef think of evoking feelings or memories in the guests who taste his menu?
Once upon a time I was told to programme music chronologically, for that’s how music has evolved. Begin with a piece from the Baroque Era, move through the Classical Period, Romantic Era, before braving the new world with a contemporary piece of a living composer. This is the not only formula.
I have examined the order of pieces in the concerts I’ve attended. Sometimes it’s good to start with an unfamiliar piece, even one from an unknown, living composer. Enough unfamiliar pieces call for a resolution of the unknown to a convergence in the familiar. Take the audience back to their comfort zone.
Probably one of the most powerful concerts is one in which the pieces are connected, via a common thread or storyline following a theme.
I should speak to a chef whether programming music really is like planning a menu. | <urn:uuid:4f971dd1-805f-4473-ab86-adfb598e3861> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://concertblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/programming-music-like-planning-a-menu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93162 | 405 | 1.648438 | 2 |
As if she needed an introduction... Kimbo from A Girl and a Glue Gun is kind of a staple around the craft blog circuit. She has amazing felt crafts. She has frugal decorating ideas, like these cute cup pom poms. She has cute favor ideas (can you imagine handing out these Fancy Nancy Pens at a Fancy Nancy Party?? She sews like the dickens (having a beach themed party this summer? How about a cute cover up?) And you can wrap your birthday presents up cute, thanks to her. You know, along with the 50 billion other really cool things you can find over there.
|(The yellow birthday box. The rainbow-colored felt happy birthday banner. The paper happy birthday banner)|
Hani's blog, Craftionary, is full of creative ideas. There are her DIY felt hair clips, cute yarn rosettes, frugal mini jar banks from baby food jars (all of which would make fun favors, by the way...) and a whole lot more!
- Make a list of all important thingsThe most important part is not to forget anything you've planned for the party. With busy everyday life, I believe we should start working small at least 2 months before the party.2 months earlierMake a creative plan about the party, the theme and start listing important points that come into your mind.This helps keep your idea-flooded mind from mixing up old plans with new ones.1 month earlierWhen you get one month closer to the party, you will be glad and tension free. Why?
Because you already have a fore-plan to work on. And have plenty of time to make and create what you want.
Start first by listing the menu, that's the biggest decision, right? Once you are done with it, think about the party decorations and food serving things you need to buy and bring them first. I like to use disposable plates and cutlery, it helps keep the later work (unloaded and cleaning) easier.
Party City is my favorite place to buy all the stuff. But I usually go buy random things from random places that match my theme that I can find for a good price, because I have my theme decided way earlier, right?
- Have a bright photo booth
We all love beautiful pictures. We are so busy arranging the party that we sometimes forget this part. Happens with me all the time, so now I have learned my lesson and have kept this important part as the 2nd most important rank - before decorations.
You can see my baby boy's race car themed first birthday party here and see the mistake of not having a bright photo booth and a few special ideas I had for his party that I was happy to make.
Make sure you make a beautiful background in the most bright area of Your party location. So, you are done with worrying about not getting good pictures after a wonderful party that everyone enjoyed.
- Finally: Start Making Your own Creations
Now all the less time consuming work is done and food can only be prepared at the last moment.
You need to start making and customizing your party your way. I know we can not throw a party without that creative touch of handmade stuff you can't find elsewhere.
- Have fun entertaining. An organized and well-planned party always saves your time and keeps you tension-free. :) | <urn:uuid:5246de93-3a3b-4e26-8130-31f5961ec2e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bugaboominimrme.blogspot.com/2012/02/ask-experts-2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953769 | 692 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Hoof trimming is an acquired skill that takes quite a bit of practice to perfect. The tools you will need include a good pair of hoof shears. Do not try to save money on this particular tool. My favorite is called a “sheep foot rot shear”. Hoof trimming shears are available in any animal supply house and come in many shapes and designs. You will also need a hand held carpenter’s plane, the kind that looks a little like a cheese grater. Unfortunately for most goat farmers in East Malaysia we have little access to these tools and rely on favours from friends travelling to Australia or in some rare cases Ebay.
Sometimes, the heel is the part that seems to grow too fast, causing the goat to walk on the back of the hoof above the heel. In this case, be sure that you trim the hooves more often, and that you are not leaving the heel so long that the goat is walking on ‘high heels’. If the hoof was drastically overgrown, and you didn’t get it into the right shape, it is better to come back to it later than to make the goat lame, or risk serious bleeding and infection, by cutting too much at one time. Try again in one to three weeks. If it still isn’t right, come back in another two or three weeks. Sometimes it takes a while to whip a goat’s hooves into perfect shape.
Goat’s hooves need to be trimmed regularly (and don’t forget the bucks!). That will mean different things depending on your farm and conditions. If your goats have plenty of gravel to walk on, or are in a large herd that travels over many acres a day, you might be able to escape this chore for four to six months. Some people even build low platforms of rock and cement for the goats to play on to help them keep their hooves in shape. In most cases, when the goats are walking on grass or in pens, hooves should be trimmed every four to twelve weeks. Happy Trimming! | <urn:uuid:b80993a4-177e-4391-8225-c7240e51641b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thekebun.com/tag/how-to-trim-hoof/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960105 | 436 | 1.820313 | 2 |
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Fog reduced visibility to less than a quarter of a mile Saturday morning, according to National Weather Center Meteorologist Monica Traphagan.
"It's crazy weather out here like ice rain everywhere. Ice and fog combined, it's just hazardous conditions," said driver, Nonoa Aiono.
Fog is disrupting drivers from Cache County to Sevier County with the thickest layers resting in valleys. It blew through Arizona as a tropical storm and now hovers low over the Beehive State.
"I've almost been in a crash nearly three times," said Aiono.
Drivers often unconsciously speed up in foggy conditions, according to a study conducted by Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The school study concludes drivers speed up because they can't see what's ahead providing a false sense of security.
The story across Utah includes ice. Nonoa says he hit a patch in a low visibility area. "I slid into the sidewalk nearly hitting another person," said Ainon.
The fog will remain on the roads through Saturday night and into Sunday morning. Traphagan says the fog should clear out tomorrow afternoon when a snow storm is forecast to drop across the norther regions of Utah. | <urn:uuid:56c9f992-d661-4a5c-81df-cc99eb59f1f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top_stories/story/Fog-remaining-in-Utah/c_QbNm-poEC6Xr2XXsd9mg.cspx?rss=20 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955998 | 258 | 1.585938 | 2 |
In his commencement address at the University of South Carolina on May 9, 2003 President Bush affirmed his commitment to the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and praised the work of the initiative's pilot programs to promote literacy as well as business development and expanded its mandate to support a number of new efforts, including a U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Area and a regional Forum on Judicial Reform.
The U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), was established by then-Secretary Powell on December 12, 2002, to create educational opportunity at a grassroots level, promote economic opportunity and help foster private sector development, and to strengthen civil society and the rule of law throughout the region. The initiative is a partnership and works closely with governments in the Arab world, academic institutions, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations. The initiative provides a framework and funding for the United States to expand the four pillars of MEPI--economic, political, educational, and women's empowerment. As part of the initiative, we continually review existing U.S. assistance programs in the region to ensure our aid is reaching as many people as possible across the region.
The Administration committed $29 million for pilot education, economic, and political reform projects in 2002. In fiscal year 2003 we funded $100 million in programs, and we worked to award $89.5 million with fiscal year 2004 funds. In the Administration's fiscal year 2005 budget, Congress provided MEPI with $74.4 million. Every year, MEPI funds supplement the more than $1 billion in bilateral economic assistance we provide annually to the Arab world.
MEPI will continue to work with Congress to secure additional funding in future years. We will also be coordinating with other donors and the private sector to leverage U.S. Government resources. | <urn:uuid:86ccc6e3-5fcd-4ee6-9bc8-e2cd8304a56d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://2002-2009-mepi.state.gov/c10130.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947527 | 366 | 1.6875 | 2 |
(Photo: The Rock Church)
What is the fastest way to make a Christian squirm? Talk about tithing.
Yes, I do realize the national unemployment rate is 9 percent. Many people are upside down in houses they cannot afford, and gas prices and grocery bills keep climbing. We are watching our investments disappear and our retirement savings dwindle, and the pink slips keep rolling in.
So this is a lousy time to talk about finances, right? Wrong. It has never been more important for us to examine whether we are managing our finances with biblical perspective.
Personal finances are often the final frontier when it comes to godly conduct. You may be saved in your use of language, saved in the music you listen to, and saved in your consistent church attendance - but are you saved in your wallet?
Did you know that if you make $50,000 annually, you are in the top .02 percent of wealthy people in the world? Two-tenths of one percent! And if you make minimum wage in this country you are among the top 11 percent of wealthy people in the world. Let’s ‘fess up to this simple truth: if you live in the United States of America you are blessed by default. And each of us is accountable to God for the blessings He’s entrusted us with.
There are about 500 verses in the Bible about love. There are also about 500 verses about faith. Money, on the other hand, is addressed in more than 2,000 Bible verses. Two thousand! In fact, thirty percent of Jesus’ parables are about money. What do you think God is saying to us about the importance of this topic?
God addresses money frequently because He knows it’s what we treasure. How you treat your money says everything about your heart. Your heart follows your cash. Matthew 6:21 tells us, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Let’s be clear, God does not want your cash. He wants your heart; he wants you. Your giving is an indication of your surrender and obedience to Him. For those of you who do not tithe, God does not yet have your heart.
Tithe means ten percent. Tithing is taught inside and outside Old Testament law. People ask, “Do I give ten percent of my net income? Or ten percent of my gross? Can I give ten percent after I contribute to my manicure fund and my Starbucks habit?”
My answer is this: how much of your cash do you want God to bless? Do you want Him to bless your net income, your gross income, or the leftovers you toss His way when it’s convenient.
Do you want to receive all the blessings God has assigned for you? Not for personal, selfish gain but rather to fulfill God’s purpose for your life by sharing the gifts He has given to you? God blesses you so that you can bless others.
Take this simple money test:
* How are you being faithful with your finances today?
Your money is a tool that God has entrusted you with. Invest in the kingdom of God. Don’t waste your time with worldly accomplishments that bring personal gain and no eternal impact. When it comes to the blessings you have received, you are a conduit not a cul-de-sac.
*How can you be trusted with treasure in the future?
The amount of true riches that will be entrusted to you in the future is directly dependent upon how you handle your riches today. Luke 16:10, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.”
I challenge you to begin managing your finances with biblical perspective. I challenge you to remove the barriers that prevent you from receiving the multitude of blessings God has in store for your life.
Next, look for the blessings that will surely follow. I am not suggesting you’ll wake up to find a Bentley in your driveway. What I can say is that God will bless you. What does it mean to be blessed? Blessed equals happiness. And peace and happiness are two things that definitely cannot be bought. | <urn:uuid:7218ab77-241d-428a-8b00-95b0763eca6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.christianpost.com/news/got-blessings-pass-the-money-test-57038/print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954574 | 881 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Taiwan on Tuesday searched on for 10 Chinese crew members of a Belize-registered vessel that went missing off the island's southern coast during a killer typhoon, though hopes of finding survivors were fading, officials said. "After 72 hours, chances of finding any survivors are low," said Younger Wu of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
"The emergency task force
had been called off, but we will continue the search until all bodies are accounted for," Wu, who heads the ministry's Navigation & Aviation Department, told a news conference.
Typhoon Chebi lashed Taiwan and China over the weekend, killing at least 87 people and injuring 116.
The death toll in Taiwan rose to 14, including nine aboard the Belize-registered vessel, which had sent a distress signal before it went missing.
It was carrying 5,700 tons of iron sand and on its way to the south Taiwan city of Tainan from the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian. Four other crew members were rescued and taken to hospitals in Taiwan.
In China, the storm killed 73. All but two of the mainland victims were killed in the Fujian capital of Fuzhou, where 83 people were still missing on Sunday evening after the typhoon headed
back out to sea, the semi-official China News Service said. A total of 109 fishing boats and four yachts sank in worst-hit island of Penghu, also known as the Pescadores, off Taiwan's western coast. - (Reuters) | <urn:uuid:22cc2719-1c6d-4bde-be28-c3df2b8d9c17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marinelink.com/news/article/taiwan-searches-for-chinese-sailors/304537.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975762 | 308 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Last summer a rather kinky novel, named “50 Shades of Grey” was released, which is about a businessman, named Christian Grey, and his sadism/bondage obsession. His target was Anastasia Steele, who was required to sign a contract consenting to allowing Grey have complete control over her life, including fulfilling any of his sexual desires and fantasies. The book has been on the New York Times’ best seller list for 32 weeks, and it is the U.K.’s best- selling novel ever. Apparently, some women like to escape into a sadistic and masochistic imaginary world.
It is, however, unlikely that the book will appeal to Muslim women. They get enough of that in the real world – not "grey", but rather "black and blue". Their "contract" was a marriage to someone they didn't know, unless he happened to be a cousin, which was sealed with an exchange of money between her male "guardian" and the groom per Sharia Law. It gets worse.
Islamic ideology supporting domestic violence against women
The Quran and Sharia Law provide the “boundaries” for marital sex and violence:
- “Women are your fields; go, then, into your fields whence you please.” (Surah 2:223)
- It is obligatory for a woman to let her husband have sex with her immediately when a) he asks her, b) at home, c) she can physically endure it, and d) the husband has paid the marriage price. (Reliance of the Traveler, para. m5.1)
- A husband possesses full right to enjoy his wife’s person in what does not physically harm her. (R of T, para. m5.4)
- The husband is entitled to insist that his wife undertake both the measures necessary for having sex (like bathing) and those necessary to the full enjoyment of her (like shaving her private parts). (R of T, para. m5.6)
- Apart from providing her husband full lawful sexual enjoyment, if the wife cooks food or washes clothes for him, that is merely considered a “voluntary charity.” (R of T, para. m10.12(3))
A wife is in rebellion if she fails any of these obligations, and the sanction is first a warning, then banishment from the marital bed, and finally beating. This applies to daughters, as well. The Quran and Sharia Law are quite specific:
- “As for those [women] from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them.” (Surah 4:35)
- “If she commits rebelliousness, he . . . may hit her, but not in a way that injures her, meaning he may not break bones, wound her, or cause blood to flow.” (R of T, para. m10.12)
- "Umar reported the Prophet as saying: ‘A man will not be asked as to why he beat his wife.’" (Hadith of the Sunan of Abu Dawud, Chapter 709 - On Beating Women, #2142)
- There is no retaliation for a father or mother for killing their offspring or their offspring’s offspring. (R of T, para. o1.2(4))
- There is no indemnity for killing someone who has left Islam. (R of T, para. o4.17)
Violence against Women is a Crime
In most Western countries, wife-beating and sexual battery are against the law. Usually, the legal provisions are very specific and quite comprehensive. The California Civil Code, Section 1708, states:
Every person is bound, without contract, to abstain from injuring the person or property of another, or infringing upon any of his or her rights. A person commits a sexual battery who does any of the following: Acts with the intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact with an intimate part of another, and a sexually offensive contact with that person directly or indirectly results. For the purposes of this section "intimate part" means the sexual organ, anus, groin, or buttocks of any person, or the breast of a female. A person who commits a sexual battery upon another is liable to that person for criminal penalties as well as financial damages, including, but not limited to, general damages, special damages, and punitive damages.
Domestic violence includes injury, abuse, and offensive conduct and any credible threat to commit such acts. Injury or abuse includes a pattern of conduct by the abuser whereby the plaintiff reasonably feared for his or her safety, or the safety of an immediate family member. An immediate family means a spouse, parent, child, any person related by consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any person who regularly resides, or, within the six months preceding any portion of the pattern of conduct, regularly resided, in the plaintiff's household. Offensive contact means contact that offends a reasonable sense of personal dignity. A credible threat means a verbal or written threat, including that communicated by means of an electronic communication device, or a threat implied by a pattern of conduct or a combination of verbal, written, or electronically communicated statements and conduct, made with the intent and apparent ability to carry out the threat so as to cause the person who is the target of the threat to reasonably fear for his or her safety or the safety of his or her immediate family.
The criminal sanctions in California for domestic violence are outlined in the table below:
Misdemeanor (no injury involved)
Felony (violence includes injury)
Set forth below are a number of case studies of domestic violence in the United States presumed or known to be perpetrated by Muslims against Muslims. What is common in all of the cases is that the alleged perpetrators have been protected by the Muslim community and have not been charged or punished for the crimes.
Amina and Sarah Said
Name: Amina and Sarah Said
Age: 18 and 17
Location and Date of crime: Irving, TX, January 1, 2008
Suspected perpetrator: Yaser Said, their father
Reason for the violence: Shamed their father by adopting Western clothes and attitudes
Injuries sustained: The sisters had been brutally murdered. Amina had been shot twice, and autopsy reports revealed that she died almost instantly from a shattered spinal cord. Sarah had been shot nine times, and her death had been slow and painful. Still, Sarah managed to place a 911 call to police an hour before she died. She told a police dispatcher that she had been shot and that the perpetrator had been none other than her own father.
Disposition: Murderer is still at large
Name: Fatima Abdallah
Location and Date of crime: Tampa, FL, August 16, 2009
Suspected perpetrator: One or more family members
Reason for the violence: Shamed family by having no children after marriages to two cousins
Injuries sustained: First responder Paramedic Lt. Scott Ashley with Tampa Rescue #21 stated that ‘someone had beat the crap out of her.’ She had been dead for several hours by the time he arrived. Her face was cut and bleeding from her head being smashed into a coffee table repeatedly... The left cheek was swollen and there was a 1.5 x 1.5 centimeter red abrasion that formed an “L” – possibly the impression made by being hit by someone wearing a ring. On her right side, ribs 4 and 5 were fractured, and in the posterior, ribs 5 – 9 were fractured. The intercostal muscles showed signs of hemorrhage in the area of these broken ribs, consistent with blunt force trauma.
Disposition: Due to the insistence of the family member witnesses and intimidation of investigators, the autopsy report ruled the death to be a self-inflicted accident.
Name: Shaima Alawadi
Location and Date of crime: El Cajon, CA, March 21, 2012
Suspected perpetrator: Kassim Alhimidi, her husband who had been unemployed for 18 years due to kidney failure.
Reason for the violence: Shaima, a mother of five, had just filed for divorce and planned to move out.
Injuries sustained: Her assailant shattered Shaima Alawadi’s skull with a tire-iron-like weapon in the living room of her home. The autopsy noted that the assault was “extremely violent” and showed that Alawadi had suffered at least six hits to the head, with at least four skull fractures. She was taken off of life support on March 24.
Disposition: Police have not completed their investigations after 6 months
Name: S.D (name withheld in court records)
Location and Date of crime: Bayonne, NJ, from November 1, 2008, through January 24, 2009, when victim was granted a divorce
Suspected perpetrator: M.J.R. (name withheld in court records)
Reason for the violence: Sharia Law permits sex on demand and complete control of wife
Injuries sustained: (The following litany of physical abuse is from court records, viewable at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/mcs/case_law/sd_v_mjr.pdf .) S.D., age 17, was married in Morocco in an arranged marriage on July 31, 2008, to M.J.R., a man she did not know. In August, they moved to New Jersey where M.J.R. has employment. After being unable to prepare a meal for her husband and six invited guests on November 1, M.J.R. began pinching S.D. deeply with his fingers on her breasts, under her arms, and around her thighs, leaving bruises severe enough to be photographed by the police three weeks later. This abuse continued for approximately one hour.
A similar incident guest meal incident occurred on November 16. This time M.J.R. forced his wife to remove her clothes, pinching her breasts and grabbing her pubic hair. He told her, “You must do whatever I tell you to do. I want to hurt your flesh, I want to feel and know that you’re still my wife.” After that he forcibly raped her, even though her vagina very, very swollen and she was in pain.
On November 22, S.D. locked herself in the bedroom after another dispute, and M.J.R removed the latch from the door and engaged in non-consensual sex. Although she was crying, her mother-in-law and sister-in-law in the next room did not come to her assistance. When S.D. tried to escape from the apartment, M.J.R assaulted her by repeatedly slapping her face causing her lip to swell and bleed. She finally escaped through a broken window without shoes or proper clothing for the below-freezing temperatures and was rescued by a Pakistani woman who took her to the police. She found refuge with a Moroccan nurse from Christ Hospital. On December 22, S.D. learned she was pregnant.
On January 15, a reconciliation meeting was arranged involving the local mosque imam, the nurse, and the young couple. It was concluded with M.J.R. promising to stop mistreating and cursing his wife. The couple shared the same apartment that night, whereupon M.J.R. engaged in non-consensual sex three times and additionally in the following days. M.J.R. told his wife, “This is according to our religion. You are my wife. I can do anything to you. The woman, she should submit and do anything I ask her to do.” S.D. was imprisoned in the apartment and deprived of food or use of a telephone. Finally, on January 24, the imam granted a divorce, but the divorce could not be effective until the child was delivered – some eight months in the future.
Disposition: S.D. filed a civil complaint charge of marital rape (sexual battery) and obtained a temporary restraining order on January 25, 2009. The same complaints were filed in Superior Court on January 29. The defendant did not testify in the subsequent trial, but both his mother and the Imam testified in his defense. While the fact that marital rape and the other acts of domestic abuse documented in the complaint were against the law was not in dispute, the case hinged on whether the defendant acted with “criminal intent” – a necessary element for conviction. The judge ruled, “The court believes that [M.J.R.] was operating under his [religious] belief that it is, as the husband, his desire to have sex when and whether he wanted to, was something that was consistent with his practices and it was something that was not prohibited.” The judge found that the defendant did not act with a criminal intent when he repeatedly insisted upon intercourse, despite plaintiff’s contrary wishes. The judge also ruled that a final restraining order would not be necessary, as the couple had separated. (While he did acknowledge that there would have to be further litigation over custody of the baby and child support, the judge did not see that as a possible cause for further threats or violence.)
The court’s decision was appealed to the Superior Court of New Jersey, and on July 23, 2010, the court reversed the lower court’s decision. (Considering that probably only 1 in 100 court decisions are appealed, this one case may represent hundreds of domestic violence cases that are ruled in favor of the violent husband behaving according to Sharia Law.) The Superior Court found that the First Amendment’s guaranty of religious freedom was not intended to preclude compliance with statutes under State or Federal law. Quoting from Supreme Court decisions, “Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief or opinions, they may with practices.. [Otherwise, it would] make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself. Government would exist only in name under such circumstances… Ignorance of a fact may sometimes be taken as evidence of a want of criminal intent, but not ignorance of the law… It matters not that his belief was part of his professed religion; it was still a belief, and a belief only. [The First Amendment] embraces two concepts, -- freedom to believe and freedom to act. The first is absolute but, in the nature of things, the second cannot be. Conduct remains subject to regulation for the protection of society.”
S.D. was finally granted a restraining order long after her baby was born, but as far as could be determined, M.J.R. was never charged with sexual battery.
written by fineliving56 , October 17, 2012 | <urn:uuid:49716f2e-834f-4c3c-bbcb-37acbd9d6783> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.islam-watch.org/authors/139-louis-palme/1180-islam-50-shades-of-black-and-blue-for-muslim-women.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979917 | 3,100 | 1.75 | 2 |
After six months with little new information since the unveiling of the refined MVVA plan and accompanying traveling exhibits this past winter, the official environmental review process required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is set to begin. The National Park Service has announced it will begin a formal Environmental Assessment (EA) in September on the proposed plan and is seeking public comments though the end of this month to help guide the EA. As the NPS explains, this “public scoping” is intended to bring to its attention any issues that it may have missed and may need to address in the actual Assessment. If the EA concludes that there will be no adverse impacts from the plan, then that essentially concludes the review process. But if potentially adverse impacts are identified, an in-depth and potentially lengthy Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) must be conducted. The NPS release also indicated that a concurrent EA will be conducted by MODOT regarding I-70 and Memorial Drive, including the impacts of additional highway ramps. The timeline for this process is as yet unknown.
The NPS release seems to raise significant questions about where the project stands. All elements on the Illinois side (and apparently the proposed gondola) will not be part of the Assessment, suggesting that these elements either have been eliminated or are indefinitely postponed. City to River previously raised concerns about the apparent postponement or scaling back of key elements such as the Underpass Park and Beer Garden on the South grounds as well as the new appearance of additional highway infrastructure to the depressed lanes. With this new uncertainty the overall vision is, if anything, now a deeper mystery.
But back to the public scoping for the Environmental Assessment. Is something missing in the proposed EA that needs to be addressed? City to River firmly believes the answer is yes. Replacing the redundant I-70 and Memorial Drive with an attractive boulevard is a legitimate proposal that needs to be studied as part of the official process. Typically an Environmental Assessment looks at all viable alternatives for a proposed action. In that case, the environmental review normally would examine a range of alternatives to improve connections between downtown and the Arch grounds and nearby riverfront. However, this process is bears little semblance to normality. The rigorous NPS EA has been carefully limited to avoid the issue of connectivity entirely.
A year ago City to River was told by numerous parties that a boulevard could not be completed by 2015, the 50th Anniversary of the Arch. Thus, a potentially superior alternative to the more limited lid (and substantial elimination of Memorial Dr.) was left unstudied. This begs the question: should an environmental review of a 40-50 year infrastructure investment only consider alternatives that could be completed by an arbitrary deadline just a few years from now? In a grim irony many elements of the MVVA plan are now being scheduled beyond 2015.
The people of Saint Louis deserve the best project that can be completed in a reasonable amount of time. It is vital for the city’s identity and future. The National Park Service, MVVA and each of the other design finalists, and countless others have identified the overwhelming merits of removing the orphaned interstate. It would be extremely rare, if not unheard of, for such a widely admired proposal to not receive a thorough analysis.
City to River believes a boulevard could be completed by the end of the decade at the latest. We have also shown how the boulevard plan could be compatible with the existing proposal of the one-block lid seamlessly bridging The Old Court House and Ely Luther Park with the rest of the Arch grounds.
City to River encourages its supporters to submit a public scoping comment to the National Park Service by the end of the month. Comments should focus on the big issues of connectivity regardless of the self-imposed constraints of the process. With no public plan for the transportation infrastructure and no forseeable MoDOT Environmental Assessment process, the NPS EA is the only venue for public input. At minimum, the Environmental Assessment must address how the preferred plan may impact the future possibility of a boulevard. A full-blown follow-up study of the boulevard concept (which extends further north than the Arch study) can be separate from the immediate process. But it must begin.
Saint Louis will not be truly reconnected with its riverfront until the unnecessary barriers of a de-designated I-70 are removed. The sooner a full examination of the boulevard from the New Mississippi River Bridge to Choteau’s Landing can begin, the sooner we can fully achieve the admirable goals stated in the competition. | <urn:uuid:7718320e-68b5-46cc-9d31-279d07041330> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://citytoriver.org/blog/?p=569 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950902 | 929 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Congo postpones election results by two days
Congo was in limbo Wednesday after the government reported a 48-hour delay in announcing election results from last week's disputed presidential ballot. The government stated that returns had not been received from all polling stations.
Results in the Democratic Republic of Congo presidential election have been delayed for a further two days as returns have not been received from all polling stations, officials said on Tuesday.
The delay adds to problems in a vote marred by violence, logistical problems and allegations of fraud.
“Yes, there is a 48-hour delay,” Laurent Ndaye, a spokesman for Congo’s national election commission, told Reuters. “We have not receive all the official tallies from polling stations, that is the reason.”
Partial preliminary results from the Nov. 28 vote, representing 70 percent of the ballots cast, give President Joseph Kabila a 10-point lead over Etienne Tshisekedi.
Congo’s first locally organised and funded election since the official end in 2003 of years of war that killed 5.4 million people was meant to offer hope of greater stability.
But fears are rising that a rejection of the results will unleash bloodshed. Tshisekedi enjoys broad support in Kinshasa, a city of 10 million people, as well as the two southern Kasai provinces, which have seen security beefed up in recent days.
There was a heavy security presence on the streets of the capital on Tuesday, and some residents piled into boats to cross the Congo River into neighbouring Congo Republic, fearing renewed violence after the results.
Banks across Kinshasa shut early and the city’s normally chaotic central market was quiet, while the US embassy restricted staff to their homes until further notice.
“I have my normal clients, but they aren’t here. I don’t know if they are scared,” said Rose Nsele, sitting next to a pile of manioc leaves she had been unable to sell.
Opposition planning response
The electoral commission had set the deadline for a full count for Dec. 6, the fifth anniversary of Kabila’s inauguration, which the opposition says marks the end of Kabila’s constitutional term.
“They know perfectly well that President Kabila cannot have even one hour more of his mandate after midnight,” said Alexis Mutanda, president of Tshisekedi’s campaign, adding that opposition party leaders were planning on how to respond if results are not announced.
The constitution says a president’s mandate is five years, but a sitting president can stay until a new one is elected.
In Kinshasa, election workers scrambled to collate results ferried by helicopters from remote polling stations, while diplomats sought to defuse tensions that have been building in anticipation of a result.
Zambia’s former president Rupiah Banda has said he is ready to help mediate any dispute arising from the vote but Kabila’s camp has so far said he is not needed.
Hundreds of Tshisekedi supporters gathered outside his residence on Tuesday shouting slogans of support and many carrying machetes, stones and petrol bombs, a Reuters witness said. Security forces kept a distance.
At least 18 people have been killed in election-related violence, according to U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, and Kabila’s camp has warned the government would have to call in the army if protests become “too chaotic”.
“We are not going to fall into the trap of massacring our own people,” said Aubin Minaku, secretary-general of the ruling coalition backing Kabila. “The police will work to maintain peace, but they will not fall into that trap.”
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned on Tuesday that those responsible for the violence in Congo would face justice, adding that the court was closely watching the situation of the ground.
“Electoral violence is no longer a ticket to power, I assure you. It is a ticket to The Hague,” the office of the prosecutor said in a statement.
Laurent Gbagbo, the former leader of Ivory Coast who refused to cede power after a presidential election last year, appeared in court at The Hague for the first time on Monday.
The election commission had defied the odds to hold the presidential and parliamentary vote on time on Nov. 28. Often chaotic and at times violent, voting had to be stretched over three days due to delays in places.
International observers say the various steps of the counting process after the initial tally at polling stations had been poorly organised, with ballots and result sheets often lost or destroyed in the process.
Joseph Kabila, who succeeded his father Laurent Kabila after he was shot dead in 2001, won U.N.-sponsored elections in 2006 promising he would bring an end to a decade of chaos.
But his government has struggled against local and foreign rebel groups in the east and Congo remains among the most risky countries in which to do business. | <urn:uuid:88094c58-3b91-4426-9cd1-3b9a2181d001> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.france24.com/en/20111207-dr-congo-postpones-election-results-two-days-helicopters-polling-stations | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972571 | 1,061 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Faces of Scholarship
Scholarship gifts open doors to the deserving and transform young lives.
Hailing from every imaginable background and pursuing a dazzling array of dreams, students at the University of Miami make distinctive contributions to the University’s dynamic, diverse environment.
When financial barriers prevent young people from attending or completing their educations at UM, it’s a loss to us all. While financial aid programs such as student loans certainly help to bridge the gap, not all students are able to take advantage of them—and those who do take on extensive debt to complete their educations must address significant financial obligations before they can truly begin building their lives and careers.
For everyone who believes in higher education, a gift to student scholarships is one of the most rewarding philanthropic opportunities of the Momentum2 campaign. Many of the University of Miami’s most dedicated supporters have endowed scholarships throughout the University. In addition, the University’s Annual Fund offers an easy, convenient way to put contributions toward student scholarships to immediate use. All scholarship gifts provide the satisfaction of knowing that your generosity is truly transformative in the best sense of the word.
Below, we invite you to meet just a few of the many bright, energetic, and ambitious University of Miami students who reap the wonderful benefits of this generosity—and will soon “pay it forward” in their career successes and contributions to society.
Amber Cotton, B.S.N. ’07
School of Nursing and Health Studies
Cotton managed a trauma ICU unit during her 2003 deployment to Iraq as a sergeant in the U.S. Army. She came back to UM for her master’s degree in nursing and wound up assisting in the University’s earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. “The School of Nursing and Health Studies has an exceptional facility and faculty that make you really want to go the extra mile to make a difference in the world,” she says. Historically a welcoming place for veterans seeking college degrees, the University recently increased its participation in the federal Yellow Ribbon Scholarship Program.
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
A doctoral student at the Rosenstiel School, Silverstein received graduate scholarships from both the University of Miami and the National Science Foundation for her studies of coral reefs, which “host a huge majority of known life forms,” she says. “I’m trying to answer major questions about the future of our marine environment.” Silverstein notes that the financial support she received was as vital as the Rosenstiel School’s unique location in her decision to come to UM: “Gifts to graduate students are often the key factor in determining what they study, what discoveries they make, and where they make them.” Silverstein discusses her research on coral survival in warming oceans.
School of Education and Human Development
When Accilien came from Haiti at the age of 6, attending college was not on his list of dreams and aspirations. No one in his family had ever studied beyond high school—and financial resources for college were far beyond them. Today, however, Accilien is a UM junior studying exercise physiology at the School of Education and Human Development on a premed track—thanks to a first-generation Ronald A. Hammond Scholarship made possible by the Coca-Cola Foundation. “Education,” Accilien says, “is the most important thing you can give to another person.”
School of Business Administration
Born into a family active in both entrepreneurship and education, scholarship student Desai, the recipient of a scholarship from the M. Hasan and Kokab Ghomeshi Scholarship Fund, plans to apply the expertise she is gaining at the University of Miami School of Business Administration to the marketing of creative enterprises in New York City. “The financial support I received is one of the main reasons I was able to attend the University of Miami,” she says. “It’s given me the opportunity to further my education not only in terms of academics, but through diverse learning experiences. Scholarships can make a world of a difference for a bright student who wants to build a strong future—one scholarship, one chance, one lifetime.”
Matt Pipho, B.S. ’11
Miller School of Medicine
Growing up in Iowa, Pipho always knew he wanted to become a physician. His first step on the path to achieving that goal was an Eldredge endowed athletic scholarship at the University, where he played various positions along the offensive line of UM’s football team while tackling a rigorous, science-heavy course load. Before completing his undergraduate studies, Pipho volunteered at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Now, after graduating with a major in biology, he is a scholarship student at the Miller School of Medicine and plans to become a radiologist.
Miller School of Medicine
For medical student Rimsky Denis, summer “vacation” is often more challenging than medical school. Denis recently traveled to rural Ghana with nine other medical volunteers to promote community health and conduct valuable field research. A stipend from the alumni-sponsored John K. Robinson Fund scholarship allowed him to present his experiences and results at two national conferences. “I had an amazing time in Africa. We provided health services directly to children, taught parents about practices to protect their children’s lives, and did assessments to help improve the community’s overall health,” he says. community” Denis says. “We de-wormed nearly 1,500 children and conducted interviews and assessments with their parents—vital information that could help improve and sustain health care for rural communities. Momentum2 offers an array of opportunities to support outstanding young medical students in their quest to build vital skills and make our world a healthier place. To support alumni-sponsored scholarships at the Miller School of Medicine, contact the Office of Alumni Relations at [email protected], or call 305-243-9387.
Frost School of Music
His entire life revolves around music—and that’s just Frost School of Music student Andrew McCormick likes it. A recipient of the Weeks Music Scholarship at the Frost School, where he is majoring in instrumental performance on the trumpet, he plans to be a professional trumpet player in a symphony orchestra. “I’m being exposed to a high level of performance in so many different genres,” he says. “Without this scholarship, I wouldn’t be here. It’s made it possible for me to move forward with my dream.” Established by philanthropist Marta S. Weeks in honor of her late husband, L. Austin Weeks, and the entire Weeks family, the program supports more than 20 students in the Frost School of Music each year. | <urn:uuid:b64b6f93-46bd-404a-9eca-aa746ba0a675> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www6.miami.edu/momentum2/feature_faces_of_scholarship.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960508 | 1,401 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Each week, WAMU 88.5's Metro Connection reaches across D.C., Maryland and Virginia to gather the sounds and stories that capture the current events, culture and personalities driving the Washington region.
Georgetown University's Language and Communication in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area Project is using hundreds of interviews to determine whether Washingtonians have their own special way of talking — and if so, what that says about our city's ever-changing social, cultural and racial landscapes.
Local artist Benjamin Bellas' uncle was lost at sea during the Vietnam War, ten years before Bellas was born. In a new exhibit, Bellas digs through maps, slides and his uncle's old uniforms to see what they can tell him about this man he never knew.
Hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre and music producer Jimmy Iovine recently donated $70 million to the University of Southern California. Many people are applauding their generosity, but some aren't so happy. Host Michel Martin speaks with Walter Kimbrough, President of Dillard University, about why he thinks an HBCU should have gotten the money.
What's more, when it comes to some nutrients, like vitamin C, canned peaches pack an even bigger punch than fresh, researchers say. The reasons have to do with how the canning process alters the fruit's cell walls. So eat 'em up!
Ohio Representative Marcia Fudge is still relatively new on the block. But she's established herself as the new head of the Congressional Black Congress. In the role, she's already been very vocal about whether the President is doing enough for people of color. Host Michel Martin talks with Congresswomen Fudge about her ideas for America.
A 3-D printer is being credited with helping to save an Ohio baby's life, after doctors "printed" a tube to support a weak airway that caused him to stop breathing. The innovative procedure has allowed Kaiba Gionfriddo, of Youngstown, Ohio, to stay off a ventilator for more than a year.
When you give to WAMU, your tax-deductible membership gift helps make possible award-winning programs such as Morning Edition, All Things Considered, The Diane Rehm Show, The Kojo Nnamdi Show, and other favorites. | <urn:uuid:647943d9-1ec0-402e-b093-26142d95bace> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wamu.org/programs/metro_connection?page=14&%253Bamp%253Bwidth=645&%253Bheight=370&%253Bamp%253Binline=true | 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 | 0.954786 | 473 | 1.5 | 2 |
I recently wrote a blog article on the misuse of CMMs to gain anti-competitive advantages in the parts aftermarket through tying arrangements.
In response to that article, we have been hearing a lot from people about restrictive ICA/CMM licensing agreements. These agreements condition access to the ICA or CMM on a licensing agreement that restricts the repair station or air carrier from using PMA parts. In some cases the restriction may be explicit, but in other cases it may be more subtle (like an agreement that forbids use of the OEM ICA for inspecting the PMA part, despite the fact that the FAA has already approved the PMA part with ICA provisions that require continued reliance on the OEM manual).
In essence, the repair station’s or air carrier’s access to necessary manuals is held hostage to an anticompetitive agreement that adversely affects their ability to purchase competitive products, and that undermines safety by preventing the use of maintenance manuals in contexts that have already been deemed appropriate by the FAA (and where there is no other FAA-acceptable alternative).
We have been shocked, already, at the number of examples of this sort of anti-competitive behavior that we’ve discovered.
We frequently speak with the media about PMA issues, and this is an issue that is attracting a great deal of media attention. I gave an interview to AIN and they published an article based on our work in this area.
This is an important issue for the entire industry. Repair stations and air carriers are being asked to sign ICA/CMM licenses that restrict their ability to purchase independent (competitive) PMAs. And they being coerced into doing so by the threat of losing access to the ICAs and CMMs.
An important point here is that agreements that tie a monopolized product (like a OEM CMM, which repair stations MUST have under 14 C.F.R. 145.109) to a competitive product (the OEM parts, which are in competition with PMA parts) may be violations of the U.S. antitrust laws (and may violate the latest European antitrust laws). Where an OEM requires the purchase of OEM parts as a condition of access to ICAs/CMMs, there are serious potential antitrust consequences.
We have already gotten copies of several examples of restrictive language that forbids or limits use of PMAs as a condition of obtaining the manuals. I would appreciate it if the reading audience could help me by sending me copies of any examples you might find of such restrictive language. | <urn:uuid:a5c7f079-2a7a-4f97-b492-fbb999f22a0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pmaparts.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/restrictive-icacmm-licensing-agreements-that-preclude-the-use-of-independent-pma-parts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956913 | 512 | 1.554688 | 2 |
CLEVENGER BROTHERS REPRODUCTIONS
©1998 By Digger Odell Publications
Among the better reproduction bottles are those made by the Clevenger Brother Glass Works. Following in their father's footsteps, Tom, Reno, and Allie Clevenger apprenticed at Moore Brothers Clayton Glass Works until it closed in 1912. They tried other work, but eventually decided to open their own glass works in the South Jersey Tradition. In 1930 they constructed a small furnace in the stable of their backyard in Clayton. Their intent was to produce affordable reproductions of early American glass. In the earliest surviving catalog (1934)of their products is found many types of South Jersey reproductions
|Bowls||$2.50 and 3.00||Listed in the earliest surviving catalog (1934) of their products are found many types of South Jersey reproductions. In the early days, they produced products in a limited number of colors mostly amber, blue and green. By 1939 however, they were also listing amethyst, along with several shades of blue and green. Eventually, they added other colors and other products to their line. By the 1940s reds, oranges, vaseline and rarely clear or milk glass. Most of the wares produced in 1940s and later were mold blown designs.|
|Water Bottles plain, footed and handled with lip||$2.50 and 3.00|
|Hats (3 sizes)||$1.50-2.50|
|Witch balls (3 sizes)||$1.50|
as well as the famous E.G. Booz whiskey bottle, which was blown in an iron mold patterned after an original Booz bottle. (the original Booz mold has been in the Philadelphia Museum of Art since 1906). The bottle was later offered in two styles the peaked roof and beveled roof. Much of their early work was free blown except for the few bottles and flasks.
By 1935, their product line was enlarged adding a number mold blown items and historical flasks including: Hay's Eagle and Grape Flask, Fislerville's Jenny Lind calabash,( cobalt blue and dark green) Dyott's Washington and Taylor (jersey green), a scroll flask (amber, amethyst, blue and green), a General MacArthur Flask, a Success to the Railroad (amber, amethyst, blue and green, aqua) an Eagle and Shield, My country flask (amber, amethyst, blue and green)and the Albany Flask (amber, amethyst, blue and green).
|This Jenny Lind Calabash was
produced in the 1930s. This
bottle might be difficult for
many collectors to distinguish
from an original. This repro
has a crudely finished neck
and a pretty good open pontil.
It is subtly different from the
Other bottles included the large and small violin bottles (amber, amethyst, blue and green) the metal bracket was extra, several sizes of the George Washington bottle (Simon's Centennial Bitters repro) (teal blue and amber), and elephant bottle (amber amethyst blue and green), a Seagrams Flask crown shaped (amber, amethyst, azure blue and green), a grandfather clock bottle, Statue of Liberty Bottle, banjo bottle (amber, amethyst, blue and green) metal bracket extra, diamond bottle (amber, amethyst, blue and green, milk glass), William Allen's Congress Bitters (amethyst).
At the same time, they introduced a wider variety of mold blown glassware in a variety of ribs, hobnails, thumbprint, diamond or quilted, and blown three part mold patterns. The factory operated from fall to spring and was usually closed during the summer time. Many of the workers were retired blowers, "old timers" who still wanted to be active in the industry.
In 1958 fire, a continuous hazard for glass factories, destroyed the original stable factory. A new building was erected and they wre back in business in January of 1958. Myrtle Clevenger struggled to keep the operation going after of the death of Allie. The business was sold in 1966 to James Travis of Millville, NJ. The business continued to produce limited edition and personalized bottles for clubs and organizations. Most of the current Clevenger products are well marked with the initials CB or Clevenger Brothers, Clayton, NJ embossed in the glass.
Some research material provided by Tom Haunton. | <urn:uuid:2188019b-4856-4d7b-bd14-ace1e0b098da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bottlebooks.com/clevenge.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94035 | 927 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The Cleveland Press Collection is located in the Special Collections area on the third floor (RT 320). The collection was the former editorial library, or "morgue," of The Cleveland Press and now includes approximately one million clippings from The Press, subject sorted and stored in envelopes or on microfiche and 500,000 8x10 black and white photographs.
The last of Cleveland's daily afternoon newspapers, The Cleveland Press was published from 1878 until 1982. Little survives from the first half-century and the collection's coverage of local and national history gets progressively stronger after 1920. The library was donated to the Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University in 1984 by the newspaper's owner, Joseph E. Cole, who was then a CSU Trustee.
Visit The Cleveland Press Collection web site.
For more information, contact William Barrows, the Special Collections Librarian via email or phone at (216) 687-2449 | <urn:uuid:b253cca4-d014-4d5d-8ae8-56043c2a2bd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ulib.csuohio.edu/services/clevepress.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933108 | 191 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The Dairymaster SmartFeeder is a standalone feeding system designed to accurately dispense specialised feeding supplements to cows during the dry period.The SmartFeeder is a technologically advanced management tool that allows you to easily feed your cows on an individual basis based on body condition score, stage of production and health status while allowing you the relax with the knowledge that each cow has been delivered her precise feeding requirements.
Alltech who are experts on nutrition have worked on developing the Cow Centric programme which is based on feeding cows with the correct balance of energy and mineral feed and in turn they needed to be able to ensure that this feed has been delivered to each cow. Dairymaster who are renowned experts in feeding systems designed the SmartFeeder as a solution to deliver each cow her precise feeding requirement.
Fewer health problems & improved fertility...
For years an issue that has been seen on farms is how to get the right nutrition and minerals into each cow and how to ensure that each cow has been delivered the correct feed. Research from all over the world shows us that over or under feeding cows during the dry period can result in health problems, body condition loss and fertility issues.
Information at your fingertips!
The SmartFeeder offers the ultimate in two way connectivity to the users mobile phone and to a central Internet server.
The system incorporates many advanced technologies including having built in diagnostics and also a GSM mobile phone interface which allows the system to communicate with external systems or a user's mobile phone.
You may communicate directly with the SmartFeeder by sending a text message from your mobile phone which allows information to be edited and retrieved. Furthermore the SmartFeeder may send you alerts if feed is low or you may receive a scheduled feeding report all directly on your mobile.
The SmartFeeder also communicates with a central server by using the mobile phone network to connect to the Internet. Cows individual records may be monitored centrally by a feeding or nutrition expert. Furthermore there is a backup each evening of all data on the SmartFeeder.
More Profitable Cows...
- Cows calve easier
- Less retained cleanings
- Less milk fever
- Cows milk better
- Cows cycle sooner
- Easy to use
- Saves time | <urn:uuid:b4c056a7-d4af-4dfb-87b9-559f3ac5c3e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dairymaster.com/feeding-equipment/dry-cow-feeding-system/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938028 | 462 | 1.5 | 2 |
Book Review: War Zone in America’s Heartland
Just finished reading Staley,The Fight for a New American Labor Movement by Steven K. Ashby and C.J. Hawking, University of Illinois Press, 2009. I heartily recommend it for young activists today. It is not a textbook. You are being told a story, much like a novel. Only this is fact not fiction.
The authors were leading solidarity activists in Chicago participating in the “labor war zone” that flared up 200-miles away in the unlikely small southern Illinois industrial city of Decatur in the early 1990s. Towns set in that rural area often shared conservative characteristics of the deeper south and Decatur was no exception. City politics had always been dominated by “Republicans, and whites held nearly every position of power in town….”
So then, how did it come to pass that there would be three big labor confrontations, not just one, in this small, isolated town – a lock out of employees by A.E Staley corn-processing and strikes against Caterpillar tractor and against Bridgestone/Firestone tires? The answers, sometimes described through heart-wrenching interviews, take the reader through the winding journey of how progressive consciousness develops.
This is especially revealing in contrast to the right-wing impulses seen today in small-town America.
The book largely focuses on the battle at Staley where workers were locked out by the employer, they did not actually go on strike. Having observed an earlier failed 1991-92 strike at Caterpillar, the membership voted instead to approve an extremely militant form of inside plant protest called “work to rule.”
These are completely legal tactics that utilize the power of workers on the shop floor to reject speed up and to adjust production according to basic safety standards. All this was done while working and getting a paycheck, a good alternative early in a struggle to actually going on strike.
It was immensely successful. Production was cut by 30%. The company ultimately reacted by locking the workers out. The battle was on, lasting another 30 months.
This early book chapter serves as a primer on this important strategy as developed by Jerry Tucker, the country’s best practitioner of this militant approach. Tucker is a much-admired retired United Auto Worker (UAW) mid-west district leader and former national executive board member. He was an experienced hand at organizing these innovative “work to rule” campaigns with an impressive record of important victories. Readers learn how he successfully advised Staley workers to implement a similar approach.
Having experienced such “inside” campaigns myself, I can say that it is much easier for workers, because of bad habits and conflicts with supervisors, to work harder and faster than it is to convince them to adopt safer work habits that would actually put the squeeze on the employer to pay attention to our demands.
Nonetheless, such a decision was made by hundreds of workers at Staley, but it did not come easily. Each family faced the possible loss of family income and benefits, along with nervous uncertainty about the future. Then, there was the social discomfort among friends, neighbors, church leaders and the political establishment that derives from conflict with an influential company. This was certainly true in Decatur where the three factories were the town’s top employers.
All is described, the arguments, people taking sides and the resulting polarization of the town.
A Strong Leadership Core Develops
Consciousness is not linear, nor do social movements always succeed and move forward. The authors display a great amount of empathy by describing the ebbs and flows of emotions in very human terms.
But this personal background also provides essential understanding of the complexities behind political decisions made by workers. Radicals and experienced union militants adopt an ideology of class struggle and solidarity and are willing to make personal sacrifices. But for the overwhelming majority of people, this is not the case.
Practical experience leads most Americans to make choices that produce immediate benefits, right here and right now. Most people are very reluctant to make choices that require sacrifices or offer only the long-term possibility of victory. This appears on its face to be eminently reasonable.
But, despite raised hopes, there are numerous examples of how these desperate short-term decisions only temporarily smooth over enduring long-term pain which often returns with a vengeance.
For example, hundreds of thousands of workers in the steel and auto industry made these seemingly practical choices by accepting major concessions during the plant shutdowns in the “rust belt” of the 1970s only to see them replayed again recently with even more exacting layoffs, wage and benefit cuts for auto workers. In both eras, enormous setbacks were begrudgingly accepted, mostly without a fight.
These hardship decisions were forced upon two generations of workers in one sense because their unions failed them. But, it must be acknowledged, the surrender was also made easier because working people chose to cut back rather than fight back.
Nothing has really changed in the last thirty years. Yet, for a moment, things were different in Decatur, especially at the Staley plant.
All the same concessionary attacks of the 1970s played out but the reaction of the workers took a different turn. Fluctuating moods of optimism and despair were certainly ever present but because there was a leadership always pointing outward toward goals of winning new allies, a sense of hope won out.
Until the very end and against all the odds, which Ashby and Hawking describe through very compelling interviews and dramatic personal experience, workers continually rebuffed efforts to get them to surrender.
They took on their multi-national employer, the police, the courts, their international union, the national AFL-CIO and, finally, faced off against a growing defeatism within their ranks. It was only after three long years that a demoralized back to work “surrender caucus” grew.
The difference was that a leadership core of Staley workers adopted a set of progressive ideas. The struggle had taught them hard lessons about the overpowering greed of corporate America, the hollow hypocrisy of politicians and cowardly weakness of national labor leaders. The result was that a more radical ideology emerged among this core of leaders.
As a result, hundreds of Staley striking “Road Warriors” were assigned to travel throughout the country speaking at local labor councils, in union halls, and before community and religious groups. The purpose was to organize a broad coalition to lobby investors, to boycott Staley suppliers like Miller Beer and Pepsi and to periodically plan large public protests. All this national support activity was designed to keep up the morale of local Decatur pickets for the long, hard bargaining fight to get a decent contract.
But these action proposals were in conflict with the entrenched conservatism of United Paperworkers International Union (UPIU) leaders who continually encouraged more vacillating sentiments of the exhausted local membership.
Nonetheless, the Staley union leadership persisted by offering a full array of imaginative tactics to keep the struggle going. All are described as they were applied.
Today’s generation talks a lot about “keeping it real.” They scorn phony platitudes suggesting “if you work hard, you can be anything you want.” This book does keep it real for young people. You have to organize together, be prepared for conflict from all sides and have ideas that are true to yourselves and the struggle for a better life.
In the course of standing up against the power from both the corporation and their international union, we observe ordinary workers becoming transformed into believers of something much larger than themselves – a broad and deep appreciation for justice and fair play for all.
Through all the suffering and setbacks, you get the idea that those who understood this dynamic felt better for having put up that good fight, despite the enormous toll it took on them personally.
This book should be in the library of those of us who desperately hope working people will soon awaken to their role as the true champions of the change that must ultimately come to this country. The treachery of the UPIU and the betrayal of some of the local union leaders ultimately prevailed but it is not they who produced examples and lessons worthy of being recorded and remembered by history.
This honorable distinction is reserved for the Staley workers whose courage, tenacity and strategy will be necessary for our future victories.
Carl Finamore knew Stephen Ashby as a young activist interested in learning how workers could win and doing everything he personally could to help. By participating in the Decatur fight and documenting its struggle, Ashby, now a Professor of Labor Studies, and Hawking have done just that. Finamore is a delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and can be reached at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:62e99c8e-339b-42a5-8ea3-b633fa8f555a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zcommunications.org/book-review-war-zone-in-america-s-heartland-by-carl-finamore | 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 | 0.971407 | 1,799 | 1.585938 | 2 |
“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
—Queen Gertrude in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
It’s a common human foible to say one thing, and then do the exact opposite. For example, a mother who smokes forbids her child to do so, or a father who watches violent television programs won’t let his child do so. In these cases, a double standard is perfectly defensible.
However, in a free society of consenting adult citizens, “live and let live” should remain the common baseline. I may not like what you do or believe, but as long as you’re not hurting anyone, destroying common property, or infringing on the rights or life of others, including myself, then it’s no problem. As the New Testament holds: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Unfortunately, petty demagogues of various religious faiths will claim that it’s their way to heaven, or the highway to hell—black and white, with no gray. If you disagree, you’re deemed to be a moral relativist who at the very least will be trivialized. At worst, like Joan of Arc in the Middle Ages, you’ll be burned at the stake by the Catholic Church as a crossdressing heretic. Or, in 21st-Century Iran, you’ll be hanged for being a gay teen under Islamic law.
Of course, these are extreme examples, but they caution that zealotry, too long unchecked, can be disastrous. They’re reminders that two of the world’s largest religions have barbaric cruelty in their legacies.
That said, the major religions and countless minor ones have adherents who contribute assiduously in myriad ways toward bettering the human condition. But the faithful of any sect or movement always should be on guard against demagoguery.
The Ethics of Outing
As cantankerous and varied as GLBT activism is, virtually everyone holds privacy sacred. The exception is if someone in a public position of political, social, or theological influence engages in homosexual or transgender activity while at the same time denouncing the basic civil rights of GLBT citizens. Former Senator Larry Craig’s restroom cruising and Dr. George Rekers’s Rentboy.com allegations come to mind.
The GLBT community and its allies have a wide variety of principled viewpoints, often conflicting, on just how out a GLBT person should or should not be, as well as what constitutes healthy sexuality or sexual excess. Both sides of these big philosophical questions are discussed and argued conscientiously every day.
However, it’s a universal consensus among GLBT individuals and straight allies that to bash GLBT persons physically and/or sociopolitically—but then turn around, and be homosexually active oneself—is hypocrisy.
Reverend Tom Brock Versus ELCA
Reverend Tom Brock is the Associate Pastor at Hope Lutheran Church in North Minneapolis. He is known for his denunciations of homosexuality and GLBT rights on his daily KKMS AM 980 radio program, The Pastor’s Study. His video series lambastes with outrage the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) for progressive attitudes toward women’s reproductive rights, racial equality, ecological stewardship—and, worst of all in his view, openly gay or lesbian pastors having the right to minister if they are in a committed monogamous relationship with a member of the same sex.
The latter breakthrough, which ELCA enacted last year, led to the Hope congregation’s breaking with ELCA, and affiliating with the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations (AFLC).
Last August, on the day ELCA began debate over whether gay and lesbian clergy in committed relationships would be ordained as pastors, a tornado that had not been forecast ripped off part of the roof at the Minneapolis Convention Center, where the national ELCA conference was being held, as well as the cross on the roof of Central Lutheran Church, the conference host, across the street. As put forth in his video series, Brock saw this as a sign from God that Lutherans must break away from ELCA.
Brock, who finds omens in any number of things, noted that what he calls the ELCA “sex statement” passed by 66.6 percent—a reference to 666, the “Number of the Beast” (the Antichrist) in the Bible’s Book of Revelation. The actual vote was 559 to 451.
Amid Brock’s panic over gays in the video series is a lower-intensity level of distress about Lutheran Church financial duress supposedly caused by liberal attitudes. He seems to doubt that God will provide.
Internalizing Homophobic Shame, Twelve-Step Style
In stunning contrast to all this homophobic vitriol, I observed firsthand that the words spoken by the 49-year-old, unmarried Brock from his ivory bully pulpits do not match his actions.
My first encounter with Brock was at a confidential meeting of gay men “struggling with chastity” at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in St. Anthony, a suburb northeast of Minneapolis. It’s not a Lutheran church, but rather a Catholic one. This group is sponsored by Faith in Action (FIA), Minnesota’s official arm of the global Catholic gay-chastity-maintenance organization called Courage. It models itself after the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
FIA holds a two-hour support group at St. Charles every Friday evening from 7 to 9 PM, facilitated by a Catholic priest. It sometimes starts a few minutes late, giving participants a chance to settle in, and grab a cup of coffee or a soda. The men gather around a long table. The priest begins with a scripturally inspired reading—which in one session was referred to as a homily—followed by recitations spoken by participants, and prayer.
Once this opening ritual concludes, the next phase commences, as each person directly shares how well or not he fared during the previous week, or since the last meeting he attended, in his struggle to maintain homosexual chastity. He reports any homosexual fantasies or feelings; any resistance or nonresistance to masturbation; any homosexual contact or activity experienced; and/or any encounter with homoerotic or arousal-inducing images of men. He also may digress to other topics triggered by his “sharing”—which is within permissible parameters.
A group for women meets separately. On one occasion, a middle-aged lesbian fondly regarded by members sat in with us.
After the first round, conversation continues, ranging from discussions about a particular homosexual rut one of the members was in, to financial worries, criticism of progay political efforts, and defenses of Catholicism. The term “gay” is eschewed in favor of words like “disorder” or “gender disorder.” However, very occasionally, unsquelched comments cropped up about homophobic bigotry, plus even grudging admiration for the tenacity of out gay men facing societal ridicule.
When Brock was in attendance, the conversation inevitably would turn political, focusing on gay and church issues, and beyond—not only during his first round, but also in his sharing time, and before the session commenced.
My First Meeting
I encountered Brock at my very first FIA meeting on April 16.
Having arrived 10 minutes early, I was greeted amicably outside St. Charles Church by its Pastor, Father Paul A. La Fontaine. He escorted me inside, down some stairs, through a kitchen, and into a meeting room.
At 7 PM, Brock entered with two younger men, who immediately swooped toward where I was seated. They grilled me to ferret out if I was Catholic, or at least Christian, and how I found out about the meeting. I was taken aback, as Father Jim Livingston, in my initial interview at North Memorial Hospital through which I was granted access to participate, gave the impression that the group was comparatively low-key and easygoing. I told the two that I was Baptist, not Catholic, but that I had great respect for Catholicism, having defended the Catholic Church to friends and family. I added that I had Googled to find the location.
One of the two younger men laughed, teasing that “now, Tom isn’t the only non-Catholic in the group.”
At one end of the table, Brock sat adjacent to me. At the opposite end was La Fontaine. After opening remarks, reading, recitation, and prayer, he asked how we had been faring—over the past week, since we last attended, or in my case since my interview—with what participants were calling a “gender disorder.”
Brock recounted that it had been “a good week.” He had been on a trip to the East Coast, and had kept his mind off men.
Following the first round were moments when attendees brought up feeling excluded and stigmatized as boys for being inept at sports.
Brock observed that he sometimes “feels effeminate” because he has no interest in the sports page, and that he feels deficient because he finds society’s mass interest in sports to be a bore.
On the other hand, most of the men, including Brock, expressed a deep love for opera and classical music. He related that he was especially fond of a Ralph Vaughan Williams composition.
When the topic of same-sex marriage came up, Brock stated, “The world needs [heterosexual] marriage.”
Another person chimed in, calling same-sex marriage “a cult of mutual masturbation”—oblivious to the unintentional humor.
At one point, Brock became very intense in talking about some recent statistics that the percentage of HIV/AIDS cases caused by homosexual contact had increased. He was accurate, which is why safer-sex information should be widely available—something the group certainly would oppose.
Brock Wrestles With “Weird” Demons
At the May 28 meeting, as usual, the priest facilitator—this time, Livingston—opened with a reading and prayer. The individual participants then shared how well or not their efforts to maintain chastity had been over the past week, or since their last attendance.
Brock looked buffer than previously, in a tight-fitting, short-sleeve shirt that accentuated biceps and triceps more ripped than the month before.
When it was Brock’s turn to share, he related that he recently had been on “a preaching mission to Slovakia,” where he met with other clergy.
Then, Brock admitted, “I fell into temptation. I was weak. That place has this really, really weird, demonic energy. I just got weak, and I had been so good for a long time. Things had been going so well for a long time. There’s a lot of gypsies there.”
According to Brock, he confessed the foregoing to someone at Hope Lutheran Church.
Brock clearly was put off by the gypsy presence in Slovakia, continuing with a sense of revulsion in his voice, “They’re toothless, filthy; they smell, stink; and the gypsies are trained in how to pick your pocket.”
In his video series, Brock slams ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson for his call to “combat racism” at a New Orleans youth conference.
However, Brock did clarify that as a pastor, he got to meet a group of Christian gypsies who “were so in love with God.”
Brock’s admission of his Slovakian sexual breakdown seemed to have had a subtly stunning effect on the group. Livingston made no comment.
Brock went on to tell about a side trip on to Salzburg and Vienna, Austria, then to Bavaria, Germany, where he visited Adolf Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest retreat at Berchtesgaden. He joked about a “fat woman tour guide,” and how the food was good, but heavy with meat and potatoes.
In what seemed like an effort to break the ice over the shock of Brock’s sexual stumbling in Slovakia, one fellow made a coy comment about German composer Richard Wagner, a favorite among the Nazis. He started intoning the notes of Flight of the Valkyries. A smiling Brock joined in wafting his hand as if he were a conductor with a baton.
Lutheran Pastor Picks Catholic Priest’s Brain
Before the May 28 meeting started, Brock wondered if Livingston ever got hostile feedback from seriously ill patients at North Memorial. Always on an even keel, Livingston responded that when it does occur, some patients will claim they are all right with God, and don’t really need a priest.
Shaking his head with condescending affirmation, Brock declared, “Yeah, they think they can do it all on their own, and don’t need anyone to help them.”
Later on, Brock told of a Catholic priest in St. Michael, Minnesota, who recently officiated the funeral of a man who had lived with a longtime same-sex partner. Brock questioned the rightness of this situation, pointing out if he were in the priest’s shoes, he would have been reluctant to conduct the funeral.
Livingston countered that it could be done as “an act of charity.”
Brock on Women
Later in the session, Brock remarked that even though he is “against the ordination of women pastors,” he presented a workshop to female Lutheran pastors in Slovakia. But, in his words, “I didn’t tell these women that I actually don’t believe in women being pastors.” However, he learned that many women pastors there were “assistant pastors to their husband, who was the head pastor,” and that ultimately, “nature takes over, when they have children, and they then assume their role as mother and leave ministry behind.”
That very day, on The Pastor’s Study, in describing the plight of an abused wife, Brock asserted that one “is to suffer for Christ. Her husband was a stinker, but she stuck it out for the sake of Christ.” In the same episode, he also railed against ELCA’s GLBT tolerance.
Homophobia or Heterosexism?
When I asked Dr. Steve Burns, a Licensed Psychologist, about the internalized homophobia of closeted gay and bisexual men, he explained that it was not homophobia, but rather “heterosexism—that the only truly normal way to believe is heterosexual. So, it follows, then, that if you were anything other than heterosexual—gay, for instance—growing up in the culture, then every image you get is that there’s something wrong with you, and you need to hide it.”
Burns stressed that help is available at every level of being closeted, and that capable therapists will not push anyone toward some agenda.
One thing I noticed is that all FIA participants held a sweepingly generalized caricature view of how they thought gay men interacted and lived in general. The myth of the so-called “gay agenda,” along with a basic ignorance of myriad differences between gay men, was intrinsic.
Lutheran Rupture/Lutheran Healing
In his video series, seething with disgust, Brock stirs his viewers to leave ELCA because of its inclusion of gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships. He exhorts his flock: “Game over!”
The fourth stated AFLC principle is: “It is therefore the sacred obligation of the congregation to purify itself by the quickening preaching of the Word of God, by earnest admonition and exhortation, and by expelling the openly sinful and perverse.”
This grim, abject theology is echoed in two films, Fanny and Alexander and The White Ribbon. In both, the internalized horror of Lutheran pastors over eternal damnation is projected unmercifully onto those they deem foul. And in doing so, they actually contradict themselves—because if God is perfect, He does not make mistakes.
French novelist Romain Gary once remarked about the Iowa Lutheran upbringing of his tormented ex-wife, actress Jean Seberg, that it indoctrinated her with “its inbred poison of original sin.”
ELCA wisely and urgently has intuited this contradiction between spiritual colonialism and spiritual wholeness. The GLBT controversies are only symptomatic of a larger obstinacy that seems more fitting not in a free society, but in a fear-based culture where adherents congregate in secret to ward off Satanic spirits. ELCA’s loving moral courage and serious efforts toward restoring compassion, as well as a concept maligned a lot lately by reactionary rhetoric—“justice”—serve to rescue Christianity from the pre-Enlightenment crowd. It’s cause for optimism.
The Twelve Steps of Courage
(taken from the Courage Handbook)
We admitted that we were powerless over homosexuality and our lives had become unmanageable.*
We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
We made a decision to turn our will and our lives to the care of God as we understood Him.
We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of our character.
We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make direct amends to them all.
We made the direct amends to such people whenever possible except when to do so would injure them or others.
We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for the knowledge of God’s Will for us and the power to carry it out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs. | <urn:uuid:5444e98d-4640-4eaa-833d-b30a06d788b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lavendermagazine.com/our-affairs/antigay-lutheran-pastor-protests-too-much/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969643 | 3,857 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Personally, I believe that tracking the journey of public data in social networks is going to be a big trend in the near future. We will be able to track a piece of content (posts, images, videos, etc.), from its genesis to its multiple paths on public platforms like Twitter and Google Plus, seeing who connects with it, changes it or spreads it. TinEye, Google’s Search by Image, YouTube’s “this video was seen on” notice and now Google Ripples are great ways to track the path of a popular idea.
Using these new tools, people were able to track down who tweeted the first civilian message in Pakistan when Seal Team 6 took down Osama Bin Ladin. Similarly, using the soon to be released Google+ Ripples, we can track just how influential Sergey Brin is on the screen captures below, starting with his message and seeing it ‘ripple’ out into the social world of Google+. With Ripples we may start to clearly see how less public figures are having a lot of influence on the community at large or at least planting the seed to big things.
Soon to be released: explore Google+ Ripples here. | <urn:uuid:9af7e95b-0f04-45ba-b047-7fb583c369c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.visualnews.com/2011/10/27/google-shows-the-ripples-in-the-social-pond/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947677 | 243 | 1.835938 | 2 |
At last, the Googlephone has appeared. Forget the Droid, the G1 and all those other Android wannabees. Google will begin to sell its own reference Android 2.1 handset, designed by Google, made by hardware partner HTC, and called the Nexus One. The phone will be sold online by Google itself.
The Nexus One will, crucially, be sold unlocked, giving Google complete control over the hardware and software with no pesky carrier interference. Even the iPhone, which has had almost unprecedented autonomy in its functionality is still constrained by carriers: excessive tethering charges being a good example.
Although not yet officially announced, Google has coyly admitted that the phone is real and will be on sale early in the new year. In fact, it has provided the handset to its employees in order to test it out in the wild. The Google Mobile Blog explains, somewhat cryptically:
"We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.
Unfortunately, because dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees, we cannot share specific product details. We hope to share more after our dogfood diet."
The phone is already in use. Nerdy John Gruber of Daring Fireball found this user agent string in his site's logs:
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1; en-us; Nexus One Build/ERD56C) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17
It makes sense to identify yourself as Mobile Safari, if only to get proper mobile Webkit pages served to you.
Characteristically, and in contrast to Apple's secrecy, photos of the Googlephone are already being posted openly by Googlers, or being handed to their friends. The picture above, posted on Twitpic by blogger Cory O'Brien, shows the handset (taken on an iPhone and with a BlackBerry in the background). According to O'Brien, "Google Phone = iPhone + a little extra screen and a scroll wheel. Great touch screen, and Android".
The hardware specs are also leaking. Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch says that the Nexus will run on Qualcomm's speedy Snapdragon chip, sport an OLED display, be thinner than the iPhone (with no physical keyboard) and feature two microphones along with a "weirdly large" camera.
The big question is whether Google choice to release its own phone will turn out to be a Zune-like move, where Microsoft alienated hardware makers by ignoring PlaysForSure in favour of its own new DRM scheme. Or the Nexus could be a light that burns twice as bright as all the existing confusion of Android handsets combined, thus building a brand that can rival the iPhone. Either way, we won't have to wait for long to see. The Nexus should be on sale in early January, and if these last two days are any indication, then Googlers will have "leaked" all the hardware and software well before the launch. | <urn:uuid:7a685e64-317b-4710-ab7a-abfe7bbed300> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-12/14/elusive-google-phone-spotted-in-the-wild | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939778 | 677 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Copyright ©2012 The Associated Press. Produced by NewsOK.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
"These policies are not based on laws enacted by Congress or the State Legislature, but on proposals of the liberal, pro-homosexual American Bar Association,” District Judge Bill Graves wrote in a letter dated April 8 to Oklahoma Bar Association members. Graves accused an Oklahoma Bar Association committee of promoting the homosexual agenda because it proposes offering additional protection based on "sexual orientation.” In the letter, Graves stated the current code of conduct already prohibits discrimination on that basis, but the new proposal could forbid judges from refusing to award children in custody and adoption cases because a person is homosexual. "Studies have shown that is detrimental to children,” he wrote, adding that such issues should be determined by the Legislature. Arizona attorney Mark Harrison, who headed the American Bar Association committee that came up with the model code of conduct, denied Graves' suggestion the group is trying to advance an agenda. He said the anti-discrimination provision won unanimous support from a diverse group of judges, lawyers and academics. Graves contends the proposal also would prevent judges from being members of groups that discriminate based on "race, sex, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity or sexual orientation.” He also objected to the addition of "gender” and "ethnicity,” but his biggest complaint was "sexual orientation.” "Sexual orientation” would protect pedophiles, polygamists and homosexuals who practice anal sodomy, defined in state law as "the detestable and abominable crime against nature,” the judge wrote. "Since homosexual groups cannot succeed in persuading the Legislature to provide such protection, they are making an end run around the constitutional lawmaking processes,” Graves wrote.
'Sexual orientation' clause draws judge's ire
Suggested changes regarding language on "sexual orientation” in the state's Code of Judicial Conduct are inconsistent with the beliefs of Oklahomans, according to an Oklahoma County judge.
Model code•The American Bar Association adopted its model code of judicial conduct in February 2007, but no states have approved a revised code. Oklahoma is one of only seven states to complete a report based on that model. | <urn:uuid:06e5289d-24ca-4885-8b91-41d1838bff32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsok.com/article/3252659 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954152 | 468 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Today most of the magazine’s staff spent the day with Ron Herman, a seventh-generation housewright in Columbus, Ohio, who has spent the last 29 years building, remodeling and restoring homes and historic sites , in many cases using only traditional tools.
His small shop north of the city is one of the wonders of the Western world. Amongst the machinery (much of it converted from a line-shaft system) are more hand tools than your eye can possibly take in. If this were a tool collection, it would be stupendous. The fact that Herman sets up all these tools and uses them is mind-blowing.
Herman spoke on handsaws at out last Woodworking in America Conference. But he knows about a lot more than saws.
I’m still trying to process all my notes and photos for a future article. Herman can talk. And his shop is a feast for the camera. In the meantime, I’ve pulled out a few good quotes from my notebook and some of the photos I took during our visit.
“You have to have good mojo. You don’t screw widders and orphans for tools. Some guys will come in here and say, ‘I got this saw for $1 and it’s worth $500.’ I tell them to get it out of here. It’s bad mojo. That saw won’t cut straight or hold an edge. I believe in that stuff. Bad mojo will follow you around.”
“Tools all have life left in them if they fit your hand. Strip the handle. Salvage the parts. Whatever you do, don’t s*&tcan a tool.”
“We don’t own these. We are their stewards for the next generation. We keep them and prepare them for the next generation.”
“The more tools you have the more problems you can solve.”
“I drive tool collectors nuts. They bring me something mint in the box and I give them the box back. I have no problems using a tool from the 1700s. I say to (the tool), ‘How does that feel to have wood in your mouth again?’ “
“The earth’s gravity is a constant. I haven’t seen it change. It doesn’t run out of batteries. You can’t kick it down a hill by accident. It’s doesn’t lie. It can’t.”
- Christopher Schwarz | <urn:uuid:a563472d-9c26-4abe-af9e-949b1e24348c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/chris-schwarz-blog/ron-herman-mojo-and-thousands-of-hand-tools/comment-page-1?wpfpaction=add&postid=1582 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945614 | 544 | 1.5 | 2 |
The question before the Court was whether the amendment complied with a requirement in the state constitution that voters must be able to vote separately on separate amendments.
Justice Michael Gableman wrote that the legislature may "submit several distinct propositions as one amendment if they relate to the same subject matter and are designed to accomplish one general purpose." The marriage amendment, in the view of the Court, had one general purpose:
"The first sentence preserves the one man-one woman character of marriage by so limiting marriages entered into or recognized in Wisconsin. The second sentence, by its plain terms, ensures that no legislature, court, or any other government entity can get around the first sentence by creating or recognizing "a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage."
By way of full disclosure, I filed an amicus brief supporting the state's position.
Having said that, the decision seems fully consistent with the (admittedly few) prior cases that have addressed the issue and with our constitutional practice. Our state consitution is full of amendments that consist of multiple propositions aimed at accomplishing a general purposes. That a voter may agree with some, but not all, of these propositions has not rendered these amendments improper.
It is important to keep in mind, however, that this was a decision about the procedure by which the amendment was passed. It did not address the consistency or inconsistency of the Amendment with the federal constitution (McConkey lacked standing to bring such a claim) and did not address the proper interpretation of the amendment.
Cross posted at Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog. | <urn:uuid:8c440fb5-47eb-4676-af31-096d290c2275> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sharkandshepherd.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970118 | 319 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Cornell University is home to 20,000 students and 2,600 faculty members. It's a city unto itself. The sprawling college campus encompasses some 260 buildings on a lush 745-acre landscaped hilltop.
Start your visit to Cornell University with a campus tour, offered daily starting from Day Hall. Other must-see campus locations include the I.M. Pei-designed Johnson Museum of Art, the 4,000+ acre gardens and natural areas of Cornell Plantations, and some of the most dramatic gorges in New York near Bebe Lake and Triphammer Falls. When you are done touring, visit Cornell Dairy Bar to enjoy fresh homemade ice cream right in the city that invented the ice cream sundae!
Day and night, Cornell's event calendar is always full, offering a wide array of films, lectures, exhibits, sports and arts events year ‘round:
- Slope day music and festivities
- Lectures and discussions with leaders of industries and nations
- World-class art exhibitions and displays
- On-campus cinema
Visiting the School
If you're visiting the school, there are a variety of hotels in Ithaca are available in the area to accommodate visits to this world-renowned campus in the Finger Lakes Region.
More about Cornell University
America's first electric streetlights were lit on the Cornell Campus in December 1875, making Ithaca the first city in North America with outdoor electric lighting.
Novelist Vladimir Nabokov was a little known émigré professor when wrote "Lolita" between semesters at Cornell—and he almost destroyed the novel here in a fiery case of writers block prior to publication. His wife Vera changed literary history when she rescued the manuscript from the incinerator at their rental house on East Seneca St.
Cornell Creations & Discoveries
The chicken nugget, invented by poultry scientist Bob Baker; the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, rediscovered (maybe) by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in 2005; the song "Puff the Magic Dragon," penned by Cornell Student Lenny Lipton and popularized by classmate Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary.
Brainy on the Hill
Cornell boasts 40 Nobel Prize winners including Pearl S. Buck, Richard Feynman, Hans Bethe and Toni Morrison. Other well-known Cornellians include Carl Sagan, E.B. White, Jane Lynch, Keith Olbermann and Ann Coulter.
Be sure to take a journey across town to the South Hill and visit Ithaca College, where concerts, theater productions, or lectures are scheduled nearly every day throughout the school year. | <urn:uuid:dab98181-1655-437b-8fe5-eac94f1b74e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.visitithaca.com/colleges-universities/cornell.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933137 | 549 | 1.71875 | 2 |
State cars are an easy target.
To many, they are an obvious example of a state government with too much money to spend - our money.
But last week, the state Senate Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee wisely held a bill designed to reduce the number of cars in the state fleet by 10 percent a year for five years (with the exception of State Police, gaming-enforcement, construction and emergency-service vehicles).
The bill is sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland - the Legislature's most prolific bill filer. As we said, state cars are easy targets.
But the state has, in fact, trimmed its vehicle fleet - now 9,018 passenger vehicles, including 2,199 State Police cars - under previous administrations, and a representative of the Communications Workers of America told the committee that the state has too few vehicles already. State Sen. Sam Thompson, R-Monmouth, said the 50 percent reduction in the state fleet sounds rather arbitrary. State Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, said that if the state was going to cut the number of cars, it should raise the mileage reimbursement for state workers who use their own cars.
Good points all.
Van Drew's bill does set up a seemingly careful process: The Treasury Department would hire a firm to do a cost analysis of the state's fleet; a panel made up of the state treasurer, a representative of the governor and representatives of the three departments with the most cars would then decide whether to approve or modify the recommendations.
But there is an important distinction to make. The state cars driven by rank and file workers who need vehicles to do their jobs - parole officers, social workers, various kinds of inspectors - are a necessary part of government.
What's repugnant are the elected officials, the commissioners of various departments and authorities and other assorted bigwigs who get state cars - and sometimes drivers, too - simply to make themselves feel important. That is outrageous, and that's what needs to be reined in.
It isn't so much the expense - these perks don't amount to that much in relation to the total state budget. It's the attitude - that public service is about who gets a car and who doesn't.
If Van Drew can figure out how to write a bill that will lead to a 50 percent reduction in that kind of arrogance, we'll be all for it. | <urn:uuid:845d803e-bb71-421b-8c31-c7b4f73072b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/editorials/state-cars-important-distinction/article_3fbbbc45-8359-5826-9cca-8d26b89960c0.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963464 | 499 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Sindh crop hit by water shortage
COTTON picking has started in some districts of Sindh though currently the pace is slow. Market price of phutti per maund is between Rs2,600 and Rs2,700, which, farmers say, does not commensurate with the rising cost of production.
A few ginning factories have started purchasing cotton in Sanghar district and according to a local ginner Meero Mal they are offering Rs2,700 per maund for phutti (raw cotton) to growers. The ginners are selling a maund of fresh cotton crop for Rs6,100-Rs6,200 to textile mills, but prices largely hinge on international market trends.
Cotton crop luckily has not been hit by any major pest or viral attack. Farmers say they should get at least Rs3,600 per maund
for their cotton crop given the cost of production which ranges between Rs3,100 and Rs3,200. For growers, the current price is not encouraging. A proper mechanism should be put in place to enable the farmers get a fair price.
Growers estimate that “At least 15 per cent less cotton was grown in Sanghar district alone,” as a result of low phutti prices and water shortage.
If the crop receives normal rains during the monsoon there are chances of improvement in its yield.
The Sindh agriculture department estimates 12 to 13 per cent less sowing of cotton crop during the season against the initial target of 650,000 hectares and attributes the drop in acreage to water shortage.
It claims that reports of late sowing are still coming.
“I fear 30 per cent less cotton output this year mainly due to shortage of irrigation water. We will be having around 3.2 million bales or say 3.5 million bales at the most if the weather goes farmers’ way or the monsoon season does not get rough to the detriment of standing crop which looks quite good in fields,” points out Abdul Majeed Nizamani, president Sindh Abadgar Board.
The growers of tail-reaches of the entire Nara Canal system of Sukkur barrage and in the command area of the Kotri barrage were hit by water shortage. Even those who grew the crop did not get water subsequently.
General Secretary of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture Nabi Bux Sathio says in his home district Tando Mohammad Khan, the area under cotton cultivation has dropped by 50 per cent.
Provincial agriculture secretary Aijaz Ali Khan says, “I am confident 80 per cent target of cotton sowing has been achieved and reports about sowing taking place in areas where irrigation water is available is still pouring in.” | <urn:uuid:8b6752f7-4831-4763-8059-9ca51da8e4ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dawn.com/2012/07/16/sindh-crop-hit-by-water-shortage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949204 | 570 | 1.601563 | 2 |
College presidents endorse gun safety measures
- Presidents struggle with messaging, practicality in campus gun debate
- College presidents urge Obama to act on gun violence, pledge support
- Presidents in hot seat for not signing gun letter
- Compilation of articles on guns and higher education
- Oberlin says context was key in canceling classes after KKK report
WASHINGTON -- “We cannot urge students to have the courage to speak out unless we are willing to do so ourselves.”
Those are the words of the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, invoked Monday by Oglethorpe University President Lawrence M. Schall. Hesburgh was lamenting what he saw as a loss of willingness among college presidents to speak out on important public issues.
Schall agrees, but is leading a charge that bucks that trend. On one issue, at least.
While America’s commander-in-chief was in Minneapolis pushing for stricter gun laws on Monday, Schall and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan -- with the help of two dozen other college presidents -- had him covered in the nation’s capital.
In town for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities annual conference, the presidents stood alongside Duncan to demand that Congress address gun violence, reiterating a message that they and more than 300 other college leaders sent to the nation’s policy makers in an open letter in December.
“I don’t know of a time when so many college and university presidents have spoken collectively with one voice on any issue of such public importance,” said Schall, a co-author of the letter. “On most issues, we wouldn’t agree. But on this one ... we do agree and we have chosen to speak. We believe that more guns make us less safe, not more safe.”
Schall also announced a new “partnership” between his colleagues -- calling themselves College Presidents for Gun Safety -- and Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the coalition of nearly 900 city leaders founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to clamp down on gun violence and get like-minded politicians into office.
The presidents endorsed “common-sense reforms” previously reported when Schall’s letter and another one by Emerson College President Lee Pelton circulated throughout academe in December: reinstate the ban on semi-automatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines; require that every gun purchaser pass a criminal background check; require consumer safety standards for all guns; make gun trafficking a federal crime; and oppose legislation that allows guns on campuses.
The presidents, along with the United States Student Association and the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA), were pushing for tighter regulation for the sake of all young people across the country. But as the letter’s signatories come from more than 40 states, many either have faced or are facing legislation that would allow concealed carry on their campuses.
The Executive Committee of the Association of American Universities issued its own statement recently calling for new steps to prevent gun violence.
While the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus reports that legislation in 14 states either died, stalled or was deferred or vetoed after being introduced in 2012, some recent court rulings – in Colorado, Oregon, Wisconsin and Mississippi – declared that colleges may not regulate firearms on campus.
In interviews after the news conference, presidents scoffed at the assertions by concealed carry advocates that students must have guns to protect themselves on campuses.
In Georgia, where Oglethorpe is located, one 2012 bill that would have allowed concealed carry on campuses died in committee and another was deferred.
“They have no idea what it’s like to manage a campus,” Schall said. “You don’t want guns in the hands of 18-year-olds.”
Beverly Tatum, a signatory of the letter and president of Spelman College, which is also in Atlanta, said the push for concealed campus carry is “terrible.” She added that presidents in Georgia and at Monday’s news conference were completely united in their opposition to it.
“Every single one of them would object to having guns on campus,” she said.
Pelton said the idea that more guns would make campuses safer is “absolutely ridiculous.” But he said the presidents would continue to push against such legislation, and won't let up.
Michael Webster of IACLEA noted that there is no “credible statistical evidence” showing that concealed carry reduces crime, but there are studies suggesting it increases it. For any college president who does find him or herself in a state that prohibits firearms prohibition on campuses, Webster offered up a piece of advice.
“Go back to the legislature to try to carve out an exemption in the legislation.” | <urn:uuid:5264f57a-e1eb-47b9-879d-f34b9397b04f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/05/college-presidents-endorse-gun-safety-measures | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961746 | 1,010 | 1.71875 | 2 |
'In lending himself to the role of public figure, the novelist endangers his work; it risks being considered a mere appendage to his actions, to his declarations, to his statements of a position." So argued the Czech novelist Milan Kundera, picking up the Jerusalem Prize for Literature in 1985. It's a piece of advice that another great novelist, Salman Rushdie, ought to ponder when he shifts into the writing voice of the columnist.
Over the last weeks, Rushdie the columnist has accelerated a debate that diagnoses Islam as morally sick and asks what medicine is needed to heal its ills. In his first attempt he offered the Reformation as the answer to what he calls "mosque-based, faith-determined, radical Islam" (though I scratch my head as to why faith-determined is deemed a suitable criticism of a religion). In these pages I had a go at Rushdie's appeal to the Reformation as simplistic, arguing that reforming zeal often leads to the sort of bad religion of which he rightly complains. Taking the point, he has now changed tack: "Not so much a reformation, as several people said in response to my first piece, as an Enlightenment. Very well then: let there be light."
But this won't do either. Certainly Enlightenment thought offers a challenge to the moral poison that often oozes from superstition. Even so, secular rationality is no fail-safe prophylactic against murderous ideology. The 20th century offered up enough genocidal "isms" to make that point. Hatred has the capacity to nestle within the most enlightened breast. So far, so obvious. But what's apparently not so obvious to Rushdie is that the most effective answer to bad religion is under his very nose: the novel itself.
The genius of the novel, according to Kundera, is that it is able to accommodate multiple moral universes, each interacting with the other, without the need to subjugate any one of them to some all-encompassing conclusion. The novel is pluralism in action. As Kundera puts it: the novel is "the imaginary paradise ... where no one possesses the truth, neither Anna nor Karenin, but where everyone has the right to be understood, both Anna and Karenin".
Admittedly, Kundera's advice was uttered pre-9/11. But these dangerous times require the moral imagination of the novel as much as ever. And this in two specific respects: first, in the capacity of the novel to be more humble than the pamphleteer with regard to ideology; and second, in its capacity to listen to and be affected by moral worlds very different from one's own.
Picking up an old Jewish proverb, "Man thinks, God laughs", Kundera proposes that the novel was born out of the laughter of God. What's God laughing at? At the hubris of human attempts to deliver a single knockdown answer to the problems of the world. The novel can never be a cheerleader for Islam or Christianity or Modernist or Enlightenment. Those who believe that the exclusive truth of any of these is obvious and self-evident can never have heard the laughter of God.
But more important still, the novel has the rare capacity to nudge us out of our ideological trenches into a more sympathetic engagement with the moral universe of those we consider the enemy. "When Tolstoy sketched the first draft of Anna Karenina, Anna was a most unsympathetic woman, and her tragic end was entirely deserved and justified. The final version of this novel is very different, but I do not believe that Tolstoy had revised his moral ideas in the meantime; I would say, rather, that in the course of writing he was listening to another voice than that of his personal moral conviction. He was listening to what I would call the wisdom of the novel."
Columnists are often too busy attacking their opponents to make the time to inhabit their space. Mea culpa. It's a failing in a priest, but even more so in a novelist. Back in 1990, in that famous lecture that had to be ventriloquised by Harold Pinter, Rushdie laid out the vocation of the novelist as resisting the "true believer ... who knows that he is simply right and you are wrong". The novel is a sacred space where all voices need to be heard. Which is why he proposed that even "the most secular of authors ought to be capable of presenting a sympathetic portrait of a devout believer". This is something Rushdie now seems increasingly incapable of achieving. He has become a true believer himself.
The tragedy is that Rushdie the novelist has increasingly been overtaken by his public crusading. The vocation of the novelist is to pluralism. That's why the novel is sacred. Unfortunately, it's a sanctity in which Rushdie now seems to have lost his faith.
· Giles Fraser is the vicar of Putney and a lecturer in philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford [email protected] | <urn:uuid:ec9c52f1-22c6-46a2-afb2-8d98423ed25a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/sep/21/fiction.comment/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978801 | 1,035 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Augusten Burroughs (via whimsyatteatime)
“ There is no shame in being hungry for another person. There is no shame in wanting very much to share your life with somebody. ”
“ It’s scary how people leave scars on you; how certain people will never really vanish from the thoughts in your mind. I mean, I don’t think I will ever get over you. It’s not that I’m sad about us; but, sometimes in the middle of the day, out of nowhere, I hear your sentence quoted. I hear one of your phrases, loud in my mind, and I feel the way it goes all the way down to my heart again, destroying me like a tsunami. It overcomes you slowly. It’s like I get thrown back into the sea, and waves of my thoughts are crashing over me. I don’t know how I am supposed to get over a person, and you don’t have to. You can still cry after months about it. Even when you’re married and endlessly happy with that person, you should be able to cry about your first love. Not because you’re still in love with them, even if a little part still is, but because you will always love what you once loved. You learn to understand it. With every new moment and experience in your life, you start to understand, piece by piece, what was happening back then. ”
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’
The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.The students laughed..
‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—-your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—-and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.. The sand is everything else—-the small stuff.
‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.
Take care of the golf balls first—-the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’ The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.
“Go find another lover,
To bring a-, To string a long.
With all your lies,
you’re still very lovable.
I toured the land,
So many foreign roads.
For Emma. Forever ago.”
You’re going to discover that conversations are best at 4am. The heavier the eyelids, the sincerer the words. Those are the talks you’ll remember. It’s ok not to know the answer and silence is not awkward.
It’s shared, so share it more often than not.”
Jeff Stuckel (via winterwools)
“ Sometimes we need to stop analyzing the past, stop planning the future, stop figuring out precisely how we feel, stop deciding exactly what we want, and just see what happens. ”
“ Without patience, magic would be undiscovered - in rushing everything, we would never hear its whisper inside. ”
Tamora Pierce (via misswallflower) | <urn:uuid:2db28d96-03f0-4c8b-b662-76f42eb863ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vmibe.tumblr.com/tagged/life | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950382 | 1,038 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Monday, October 13, 2008
Footloose in Elmore City
Elmore City is a town in Garvin County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 756 at the 2000 census. It was named after J. O. Elmore. I went to high school in Elmore City. Even though I've long since moved away it still holds many fond memories and some not so fond.
Sometimes on Saturday nights a group of religious fanatics would gather at the four way stop sign, the intersection of state highways 29 and 74. They would beat a drum, rattle tambourines and shout things like "Sinner repent! or suffer eternal damnation in hell!"
I was in the class of 1978. I'm proud to say our class started the fight for the right to dance. I remember a group of us going before the board of education, a Baptist preacher and a Church of Christ preacher. They crucified us, there would be no dancing but we could go bowling on prom night. I guess they thought that would be the end of it, they were wrong.
The plot of the 1984 movie, Footloose, is loosely based on events in Elmore City since dancing was banned for almost 100 years in this city. This ban was lifted in 1980. In 1980, the graduating class made history by getting permission to dance at the prom. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
P.S. I just notice the bowling shoes on the video, probably just a coincidence but still, wow.
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Meprobamate (marketed under the brand names Miltown® by Wallace Laboratories, Equanil® by Wyeth, and Meprospan®) is a carbamate derivative which is used as an anxiolytic drug. It was the best-selling minor tranquilizer for a time, but has largely been replaced by the benzodiazepines.
Meprobamate was first synthesized by Bernard John Ludwig at Carter Products in May 1950. Wallace Laboratories bought the license and named it Miltown after the village Milltown in New Jersey. Launched in 1955, it rapidly became a best seller and famous in the popular media as "Happy Pills".
A December 1955 study of 101 patients at the Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield, Mississippi, found Meprobamate useful in the alleviation of mental symptoms. 3% of the patients made a complete recovery, 29% were greatly improved, and 50% were somewhat better. 18% realized little change. Self-destructive patients became cooperative and calmer, and experienced a resumption of logical thinking. In 50% of the cases relaxation brought about more favorable sleep habits. Hydrotherapy and all types of shock treatment were halted. Meprobamate was found to help in the treatment of alcoholics by 1956. Dr. Frank Berger, clinical director of Wallace Laboratories, described it as a relaxer of the central nervous system, whereas other tranquilizers suppressed it. A University of Michigan study found that Meprobamate affected driving skills. Patients reported being able to relax more even though they continued to feel tense. The disclosures came at a special scientific meeting at the Barbizon Plaza Hotel in New York City. Aldous Huxley addressed an evening session. He predicted the development of many chemicals capable of changing the quality of human consciousness, in the next few years.
In January 1960 Carter Products, Inc., makers of Miltown and American Home Products Corporation, which marketed Equanil, were charged with having conspired to monopolize the market in mild tranquilizers. It was revealed that in 1948 the sale of Meprobamate earned $40,000,000 for the defendants. Of this amount American Home Products accounted for approximately 2/3 and Carter about 1/3. The U.S. Government sought an order mandating that Carter make its Meprobamate patent available at no charge to any company desiring to use it.
In April 1965 Meprobamate was removed from the list of tranquilizers when experts ruled that the drug was a sedative instead. U.S. Pharmacopoeia published the ruling. At the same time the Medical Letter disclosed that Meprobamate could be addictive at dosage levels not much above recommended. In December 1967 Meprobamate was placed under abuse control amendments to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Records on production and distribution were required to be kept. Limits were placed on prescription duration and refills.
Production continued throughout the 1960s but by 1970 it was listed as a controlled substance after it was discovered to cause physical and psychological dependence.
Although it was marketed as being safer, meprobamate has most of the pharmacological effects and dangers of the barbiturates (though it is less sedating at effective doses). It is reported to have some anticonvulsant properties against absence seizures, but can exacerbate generalized tonic-clonic seizures.
Meprobamate's mechanism of action is not known. It has been shown in animal studies to have effects at multiple sites in the central nervous system, including the thalamus and limbic system. Meprobamate binds to GABA A receptors which interrupt neuronal communication in the reticular formation and spinal cord, causing sedation and altered perception of pain.
Meprobamate is used for treatment of anxiety disorders or for short-term relief of anxiety.
It has also been used off-label as a sedative. However, it is currently only licensed as an anxiolytic, and is not used as often as the benzodiazepines for this purpose.
Meprobamate is available in 200mg and 400mg tablets for oral administration. Meprobamate is also a component of the combination drug Equagesic (discontinued in the UK in 2002) acting as a muscle relaxant.
Symptoms of meprobamate overdose include: coma, drowsiness, loss of muscle control, severely impaired breathing, shock, sluggishness, and unresponsiveness. Death has been reported with ingestion of as little as 12g of meprobamate and survival with as much as 40g.
Meprobamate is a Schedule IV drug under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Meprobamate may cause GI concretions in overdose; therefore, charcoal should be considered even after 4 hours or if levels are rising.
Outed CIA Russian spy Aldrich H. Ames was reported in the Feb. 27, 1994 edition of The Washington Post as saying that taking 400mg of Meprobamate was an effective method for 'cheating' a polygraph (lie detector) test.
Maude Findlay, played by Bea Arthur in the 1970's sitcom Maude announced that she had taken two Miltown before giving a dinner party during an episode in the first season of the program.
Tin Man: in the 2007 SciFi network mini-series Tin Man, DG's mellow parents came from an idyllic place called Milltown.
|This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Meprobamate". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.| | <urn:uuid:6f003a35-3714-418c-8398-12a4fc7dbec5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chemeurope.com/en/encyclopedia/Meprobamate.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959658 | 1,227 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The Requisite Olympics Post
I love the Olympics. This is the first time in my life that I haven’t been able to watch the games regularly due to technical difficulties (ie, the streaming is causing problems on my computer and I don’t have a TV). The identity nerd in me is fascinated by the nationalism that pulls through during major sporting events like this; I’m blown away by the talent that we are able to bring out, and by how young some of our athletes are-~-how driven they are, and how successful. There are a lot of things to love about the Olympics, for sure, but there are also a lot of things that deserve some pause.
Let’s start with Gabby Douglas. Remember Gabby Douglas? First US woman ever to win both team gold and all around gold in gymnastics at the Olympics? She’s sixteen and she just kicked everyone’s butts? Gabby Douglas deserves all the praise we’ve got for her performance in the Olympics, and for what it took to get there. She has been living away from home for two years training, and her dad, a member of the US military, is less a part of her life than one might have hoped. And she’s been a champ.
So how is she repaid for being a champ? First, the media decided to vilify her mother for being a single mom. There’s no real evidence that this was a bad choice, but the media LOVES to vilify single mothers, and they jumped on it. As news sources such as the Christian Science Monitor have pointed out, a lot of it has to do with pervasive but “subtle” racism: America loves to paint the narrative of the dysfunctional, Black single mother and the absent or otherwise failed Black father, and uses this narrative for everything from justifying the differential in incarceration rates to vilifying the African-American community in general. As if that weren’t enough, people have been so quick to praise Douglas’ host family in Iowa, and while I’m sure they are fantastic people who genuinely care about Gabby, her mother also made some incredible sacrifices in letting her daughter move to Iowa to train. On top of that, this is just another fine example of our inability as a society to accept that something other than a traditional heterosexual two-parent household could be stable and functional. It’s a load of crap, and that’s half of what Gabby Douglas got.
But let’s not just harp on the white community. I’m white, and I halfway don’t want to touch this with a stick, but it’s time to face the facts: no one should have been fixated on Gabby Douglas’ hair when she was busy, I don’t know, winning the Olympics. She did something incredible, something that deserved to be celebrated, and what she got in return was a bunch of people going on about her hair wasn’t “kept” and how she needed to “represent”. You can read more about this here and here.
But Gabby Douglas isn’t the only athlete worth mentioning, and gymnastics certainly isn’t the only sport worth discussing if we’re going to talk about gender issues and failure to properly recognize female athletes at the Olympics this year. Let’s talk about beach volleyball, shall we? Misty May-Treaner and Kerri Walsh Jennings just won their third Olympic gold in beach volleyball. That’s freaking impressive. And what are people hung up on? Photos of their butts? Beach volleyball was honestly added because people liked watching women in bikinis, and this gave them an excuse. Never mind that it’s a great sport, and May-Treaner and Walsh Jennings are incredibly athletes, the best the sport has ever seen. Bathing suits. That’s where people’s heads are at.
Then of course there’s weightlifting. US female weightlifter Zoe Smith had to shut down her Twitter because of the sexist comments she was receiving. Why? Because being strong isn’t feminine? Because having muscles isn’t “sexy”? People need to get over themselves.
It’s not just a sport to sport issue though. Sexism in sports is a systemic issue, and the media is a big part of it. And it’s not just that they fixate on butts or hair or what girls wear when they are performing; it’s the way that female athletes are discussed, too. When female athletes succeed, it’s attributed to luck, and when they fail, it’s attributed to lesser ability, but the opposite is true when men are discussed (sound familiar? Sheryl Sandburg made a similar argument about gender and success in the workplace). That’s a huge problem, because it devalues the achievements of female athletes who work and train hard to get where they are today; it says that women can’t actually be good, the way that men are.
If we’re going to glorify and celebrate sports, then we need to celebrate what the Games are really about: achievement, dedication, hard work, success…and these are all things that can and should be attributed to female athletes. Instead of hypersexualizing them or fixating on how they look as opposed to what they can do, we should be focused instead on the sacrifices they’ve made and all they’ve accomplished, the same way we do with men. Our women are accomplishing incredible things, and they deserve to be celebrated for it. Strength is beautiful, success is beautiful. It’s time we started acting like it. | <urn:uuid:76cf4fc9-2952-4804-90d8-8203813e7719> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theradicalidea.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/the-requisite-olympics-post/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967009 | 1,209 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Popular Band Claims Music Is Better Because Of Piracy
from the helping-to-define-a-sound dept
We just wrote about the Harvard economists who noted that, despite claims that file sharing would decrease the incentive to create content, more music than ever before is being made, and the trends keep going up. That report did note that it couldn't necessarily judge quality, but was simply focused on quantity. However, according to at least one well known band, unauthorized file sharing is absolutely improving the quality of music -- especially the band's own music. This is according to the lead singer of the Fleet Foxes, Robin Pecknold. He points out that his own musical tastes were heavily influenced by what he could download online, and that wide variety of influences has made him a much better musician:
"As much music as musicians can hear, that will only make music richer as an artform.... I think we're seeing that now with tons of new bands that are amazing, and are doing way better music now than was being made pre-Napster."Now, obviously, this is anecdotal and a single data point -- but the critics (and fans) sure do seem to like the Fleet Foxes' music. Its debut album was named "Best of 2008" by Billboard, The Times, Mojo, Pitchfork and Uncut and hit number 3 on the UK charts (not sure about the US). And, of course, not surprisingly, Pecknold is fine if you want to download his album:
"I've downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records - why would I care if somebody downloads ours? That's such a petty thing to care about." | <urn:uuid:b437db64-d099-40e0-bdad-111ddc63bff3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090618/0324415277.shtml?threaded=true&sp=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986415 | 339 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The rendering of the hotel, which was first announced last year, accompanying last Thursday's press release on SLU's website shows a part of the project that is a refreshing surprise: the re-opening of a street that was closed off nearly 25 years ago. The block of Josephine Baker (historically known as Channing) between Olive and Locust was vacated as part of a historic renovation project in the mid 1980's which transformed the former Drake Plaza Hotel into apartments. SLU must have struck a deal with Kohner Properties, owner of the Drake Plaza Apartments to purchase the portion of the street which had been turned into parking for the apartments.
The former Interiors Unlimited building at left will be transformed into the hotel. East of the building is a parking lot that SLU has been using as a through street to access the sea of parking to the north. This space will become the hotel's front door and drop-off. Next east, blocked by a couple of planters is the original street that will re-open.
The opening of this long closed street now is sadly ironic since SLU closed the next block north of the same street between Locust and Washington in 2008 after demolishing the adjacent Locust Livery Stable in 2007. SLU apparently has no intension of re-opening this more recently closed section of Josephine Baker, as the hotel rendering shows what appears to be a sculpture garden and possibly a pavilion at the north end of this block. In essance, SLU will be trading one block of the street for another.
East of the to-be re-opened street is the Drake Plaza Apartments which is composed of the former Drake Plaza Hotel and what is commonly known as "the pink building". Between these two was a strange angled one-block mini boulevard known as the Lindell Cut-off that was constructed in 1915 (photo from The Problems of St. Louis by Harland Bartholomew of the City Plan Commission.) Unfortunately the mid-1980's renovation project also resulted in the closure and vacation of Leonard Avenue between Olive and Locust.
Also mentioned in the press release is another positive development, the rehabilitation of two buildings on Locust just east of Josephine Baker into 25 apartment lofts and flats (rendering above). After the demolition of the Livery Stable, many feared that these buildings would be next to fall for additional parking lots. Like the hotel, this project also is the result of a partnership between SLU and the Lawrence Group. Both the hotel and apartment building will contain leasable tenant spaces which with the Hotel and apartments will add to the vitality of the Midtown Alley district. Steve Smith of the Lawrence Group was already well invested in the block that will contain the new hotel with the Triumph Grill and the Moto Museum, which houses Smith's amazing collection of motorcycles.
On the east end of the block where the new apartments will be located SLU had made a major investment in a large one story building at 3301 Locust. The building had apparently been in poor condition for some time, and the entire roof structure and front wall were re-built in 2008. Unfortunately, the entire front wall is solid stucco with no windows and only a couple of garage doors. As the pre-construction photo above shows, the storefronts had already been bricked-in, but instead of opening up the front and creating commercial lease spaces which would have helped extend the amazing transformation of Locust that has occurred along several blocks to the east. Instead, the building is apparently used only for storage.
The lifeless re-built facade of 3301 Locust. Take another look at the historic photo above. The storefront building with awnings at the right edge of the photo is the same building.
It is strangely ironic that SLU spent so much money literally re-building this building after demolishing the Livery Stable just one block west which was in fairly good condition.
A close-up of the facade at 3301 Locust. Fortunately, it would be fairly easy for SLU to reverse the decision to create a solid wall here, continue what is hopefully a radical shift in development strategy and put in new storefronts to enliven the street. | <urn:uuid:14486a82-bcc6-46ff-95ca-bd225ab84b9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vanishingstl.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975791 | 861 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Well LawDog, seems my parents taught me that one a long long time ago and it's corollary that popularity ain't all it's cracked up to be and a man's friends should be few, but good.Vaya con Dios! Que se vaya bien!BlueMntCeltic
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." - Plato (427-347 B.C.)"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
St. Augustine knew this from his own experience.Ulises from California
The more time you spend reading those RC thinkers, (like Shakespeare, for example), the more you understand the real world.
Good quote and good points LD... Sadly, the younger generation doesn't seem to understand it.
Old NFO,- no, the younger generation don't understand because they've been *taught* not to understand it.
I tend to agree.However what is "right" and what is "wrong" can be interpreted in many different ways.LD thanks for the quote!
Post a Comment | <urn:uuid:0dafb10f-a81d-4601-990b-59bf3ea3c4b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/2010/11/thought-for-day.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935461 | 284 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Meet a Few of our Grant Recipients
Healthy Smiles $30,000
More than one-third of Spartanburg County elementary and middle school students need immediate dental care or have conditions that will result in future dental problems if left unchecked. Healthy Smiles of Spartanburg seeks to improve this unfortunate situation. Healthy Smiles dentists see children with decay and infections that could spread throughout the body and which could require oral surgery. This grant allows the organization to continue to serve the oral health needs of children in our community.
Regional Pediatric Rehabilitation Services $29,000
This grant helps fund a highly specialized, continuing education course for 10 physical therapists in the Spartanburg Regional Pediatric Rehabilitation department. The advanced training in Neuro-Developmental Treatment will benefit approximately 75 percent of the children served by the department. The team of trainers consists of occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech-language pathologists with advanced pediatric training by providing a high-quality continuum of care for all children and their families. | <urn:uuid:fa16a4ac-22ff-4a33-b5c5-e9b8652b6d3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.regionalfoundation.com/grants/Pages/HighlightedGrantRecipients.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943395 | 205 | 1.695313 | 2 |
When I put a DVD into the DVD drive, it appears in Nautilus Places, but is not automatically mounted. (this is by personal choice).
In this unmounted state,
mount (of course) reports nothing, and likewise for
but Nautilus is aware of the DVD hardware unit and has read the Label; which it shows in Places
So it seems to me that Nautilus has already accessed the DVD devices (Did it temporarily mount it?)...
The main point of my question was to determine how to find the device Id of an unmounted device .. but as I've been writing this, I now think it may not be as simple as that...
This issue came up because I wanted to test this command
cat iso-pieces.* | growisofs -Z /dev/dvd=/dev/stdin,
but then realized that I didn't know how to get my DVD's device Id.
... and does the above command requires a mounted device, or does it write directly to the device? ... as you can see, I'm a bit vague about devices :)
Come to think of it maybe Nautalus read the DVD device directly, because when all is said and done, something has to read/write directly to it.
info growisofs says:
Under Linux it will most likely be an ide-scsi device such as "/dev/scd0
How can I find this Id via a script? | <urn:uuid:f1de7fab-96db-4f74-ba36-85ed1290cdf1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://askubuntu.com/questions/26571/how-can-find-out-the-device-id-of-my-unmounted-dvd/26681 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972051 | 303 | 1.835938 | 2 |
As Mood Media retires its most famous brand name, Muzak, let's pause to recall that the operation was responsible for more than just the sonic custard that people associate with the Muzak label. Theodore "Arwulf" Grenier, host of an excellent jazz show on WCBN-FM, points out that
Muzak was one of many transcription services for which musicians—many of them now regarded as legendary jazz artists—regularly cut recordings that weren't peddled to the public in stores. The only time anyone heard these sides (which often exceeded the 3.5 minute limitations of the ten inch 78 rpm record) was when they were aired over radio waves as filler. Transcription recordings by Duke Ellington, Claude Thornhill and dozens more have been reissued and often represent some of the best material we have from that period (30s & 40s). I believe this was largely due to the fact that the A&R directors usually associated with commercial recording sessions were absent or "defanged" for the transcription sessions, which weren't geared towards selling units in stores.
That's right: The company that has probably received more sneers from music lovers than any other corporation not only recorded some of the greatest jazz artists of the last century, it often gave them more time and freedom than the major labels did. Arwulf goes on to describe Fats Waller's Muzak sessions, "which underline perhaps the most important and least recognized aspect of Thomas Waller—his subtlety." There's a link to one of Waller's Muzak recordings too. Read the whole thing.
Bonus link: In recent years, Muzak moved away from elevator music and into elaborate experiments with niche-targeted "audio architecture." David Owen describes the results here. | <urn:uuid:3ea83595-02aa-4c34-bc01-3805aa2a7f3f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reason.com/blog/2013/02/06/the-secret-history-of-muzak/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976531 | 368 | 1.648438 | 2 |
One of the new features that will be coming in the new Apple iOS 6 release is what Apple is calling ‘iCloud tabs’. What this will do is allow the user to browse a web page and jump from device to device and have that same content follow them. That is, if they are using Safari and the devices are setup to sync with iCloud.
This is a pretty cool feature. I know I often start looking at something on my computer and then for some odd reason I need to get up and go into another room to take care of something. With iCloud tabs, I can now take my tablet or my phone with me and continue consuming that content while I’m taking care of whatever other things I need to take care of.
For example, I could be browsing online dating profiles on my phone while commuting home from work, either in heavy traffic or on the train, whichever sounds safer to you. Then when I get home I can use a larger keyboard to compose an ever so eloquent, “Hey, how is your week going? -Aaron,” as opposed to using the small keyboard on my phone to compose such a long lengthy tedious message.
What this means for developers.
Well now that we know how useful this feature can be, what does it mean for us developers? I think it’s going to raise some questions and figure out how it’s going to have an impact on 1) mobile site design and 2) analytics tracking.
Essentially what I think this will lead to is a rise in responsive site design. If a company has a separate mobile and desktop sites, each with different content, this idea of iCloud tabs isn’t going to work well because the page that you were reading on your mobile device won’t necessarily exist on the site on the desktop version. Which brings up the question, how exactly does the switching take place?
Let’s say I am looking at a page on my mobile device, what I am guessing happens is that when I access the iCloud tab in Safari on my mac, the page will reload. If there is a redirect in place to take me to a desktop version, I will be redirected. If the page is responsive, it will be reformatted and resized. This will probably work in most cases, but what if there is no desktop version? In that case, would I just only have access to the mobile version on my desktop? What would this mean for analytics tracking? Will it be tracking access to the mobile site using the desktop user agent? Will this muddy up all the analytics? I think this would ultimately lead to confusion because you will see mobile pages being accessed by desktop user agents and vice-versa. In order to track usage accurately, we would have to determine when the switch was made and tie the two together.
iOS 6 will be out soon enough and when it’s released, I will be checking into this further. | <urn:uuid:3f103d51-77bd-4583-81b4-2c1b45e22a52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blueboltsolutions.com/web-development-projects-by-industry-2.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954418 | 606 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The Ostomy Book Store
Ostomy Book: Living Comfortably With Colostomies, Ileostomies, and Urostomies *Highly Recommended!
by Barbara Dorr Mullen, Kerry Anne McGinn (Contributor)
Description: This is an update/revision of the award-winning classic for the person who has or will undergo surgery for a colostomy, ileostomy or urinary diverson
(urostomy), as well as for family, friends and health professionals. The Ostomy Book is both a complete reference ook on the subject, and a moving, often funny and heartwarming account of the experience of having an ostomy - and the good life that can follow it.
Don't Die of Embarrassment: Life After Colostomy and Other Adventures
By Barbara Barrie
Description: A remarkably candid and informative first-person account of surviving colon cancer and living after a colostomy. A helpful guide for anyone facing
this life-altering surgery.
Every year 70,000 people in the United States and Canada undergo colostomies. In 1994, Barbara Barrie became one of them. When the successful actress received the diagnosis of colorectal cancer, she knew that this was the greatest crisis she and her family would face. But it also became an adventure that, through courage and humour, brought new joys and a greater appreciation to her life.
More than just a memoir, Don't Die of Embarrassment provides valuable information about the ostomy experience. She gives essential information about the occurrence of colon cancer, its symptoms, and treatment options. A valuable guide for people learning to adjust to an altered lifestyle after surgery.
Includes a new afterword, written by Dr. Otis W. Brawley.
Alive & Kicking *Highly Recommended!
By Rolf Benirschke with Mike Yorkey
Description: He was an up-and-coming placekicker for the San Diego Chargers, earning a
reputation as one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history. But then a little-understood intestinal illness (UC) turned Rolf Benirschke's life upside down.
Alive & Kicking is the remarkable account of a young man who battled back against insurmountable odds. Despite four major abdominal surgerihim near death and wearing a ostomy pouch, he surprised his medical doctors and his Charger teammates by returning to the NFL for seven more seasons.
This is a story of fear and faith, of courage and the love of family members. But most of all, it is a story about the indomitable human spirit that lives in all of us. If you are looking for encouragement - especially if you have Crohns Disease or Ulcerative Colitis or are struggling wth ostomy surgery - Alive &
Kicking is just the book for you.
Living Well With An Ostomy *Highly Recommended!
By Elizabeth Raynor
Description: About the Author
Elizabeth Rayson has an MA in professional writing from the University of Waterloo. After working for several years as a technical writer, she decided to pursue her passion for consumer health writing and alternative approaches to health and healing. Now, in addition to her work as a writer, Rayson also teaches yoga and runs a small aromatherapy business. She currently lives in Toronto, Canada.
Excerpted from Living Well With an Ostomy by Elizabeth Rayson. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
If you have or will be getting an ostomy, this book is for you. The first part of the book covers basic information about the different types of ostomies, including the different surgical options available today. It also lets you know what to expect from ostomy surgery and provides advice on how to ease your recovery from ostomy surgery. Later chapters focus on some of the psycho/social issues that may surface as a result of ostomy surgery, including those unique to certain groups
If you've been told you are going to need an ostomy, you are about to make some dramatic changes in your life. And while there is no doubt that getting an ostomy is a life-changing experience, it doesn't have to define your life. In Living Well with an Ostomy, Elizabeth Rayson explains that, ultimately, your ostomy is only a small part of the essential person that is you. And that essential person hasn't changed or become less active, adventurous, stylish or romantic just because she or he now has an ostomy. On the contrary, many people who've had ostomy surgery will tell you that their surgery marked the start of a new, more expansive phase in their lives.
This comprehensive and easy-to-understand guide covers the practical aspects of ostomy care. You will also learn how to cope with the significant changes to your body that affect everything from traveling, dressing, playing sports, eating favorite foods and enjoying romantic and sexual relationships. And you will also easily relate to the personal narratives throughout that illuminate many of the challenges people with ostomies face.
Living Well with an Ostomy covers basic information about the various types of ostomies, what to expect from ostomy surgery, as well as psycho/social issues that may surface as a result of ostomy surgery, including those unique to certain groups, such as children, young adults and seniors. The book also includes new information on homeopathic and natural remedies for dealing with the ongoing care of an ostomy, and a substantial Resources section that contains a host of references to additional sources.
Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Shaz's Ostomy Pages. All rights reserved.
If you would like to use any of the images in these pages, please email me to get permission. Thanks. | <urn:uuid:756d4cdc-f478-47b8-8669-439edd88d817> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ostomates.org/books/review.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 | 0.955823 | 1,202 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Haral has made available a copy of his slides.
Major companies and government agencies commonly use system accounting data to bill individual departments for their users' time on common servers. At the May meeting of UUASC-OC, our own security expert, Haral Tsitsivas, will show us how that collected data can be used to enhance system security.
Haral will discuss the availability of system, accounting, and chargeback data on various platforms, and how maintaining a high level of system security is an on-going process that requires understanding of the computing environment and proactive administrative policies that constantly monitor for unusual events that may signal a potential security breach.
Haral is a principal consultant with UniSolutions Associates, and has 23 years of UNIX experience, including systems administration, software development, and security. He has worked on chargeback systems and implementations for 17 years, and holds a GIAC GSEC security certification. | <urn:uuid:d6e6d889-e0f8-44b7-ad2a-cf97e7d16218> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uuasc.org/p0505.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947104 | 187 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Vietnam is a friendly and safe place to travel. With a sprinkling of common sense, your trip should be smooth and trouble free. Tourists usually complain about over-aggressive street vendors, tour operators with a bad attitude and dangerous driving. However, with a cool head and sensible planning, one can avoid these problems.
- Greetings are no different to western countries, there are no cultural formalities that as a foreigner you would be expected to know or practice.
- Store your cash, credit cards, airline tickets and other valuables in a safe place. Most 4-star hotels have in-room safes, otherwise ask the reception to –keep your valuable things in their deposit facility.
- Take a hotel business card from the reception desk before venturing out from your hotel. This will make your return to the hotel in a taxi or cyclo much easier.
- Carry a roll of toilet paper in your daypack on long excursions from your base hotel. You never know when you might need it!
- Dress appropriately. Not only for the prevailing weather, but also not to cause offense to the local people. Vietnamese have conservative dress codes, and it is only in larger cities that these codes are a little more relaxed. Do not wear revealing clothing.
- If invited into a home, always remove your shoes at the front door when entering.
- Ask for permission when taking a photograph of someone. If they indicate that they do not want you to, then abide by their wishes. DO NOT offer money or push the issue.
- Drink plenty of bottled water. During the summer months you should be drinking a minimum of two liters per day. If you drink tea, coffee & alcohol you should increase you water intake accordingly as these will help to dehydrate you.
- Never carry more money than you need when walking around the streets. Do not wear large amounts of jewelry. There are two reasons for not doing this:
(1) It is considered impolite to flaunt wealth in public;
(2) It is more likely that you may become a victim of a pickpocket or drive-by bag snatcher.
- Don’t be paranoid about your security, just be aware of your surroundings.
- Don’t wear singlets, shorts, dresses or skirts, or tops with low-neck lines and bare shoulders to Temples and Pagodas. To do this is considered extremely rude and offensive.
- Avoid giving empty water bottles, sweets and candies or pens to the local people when trekking through ethnic minority villages. You cannot guarantee that the empty bottles will be disposed of in a correct manner, and the people have no access to dental health. If you want to give pens, ask your guide to introduce you to the local teacher and donate them to the whole community.
- Never sleep or sit with the soles of your feet pointing towards the family altar when in someone’s house.
- Never lose your temper in public or when bargaining for a purchase. This is considered a serious loss of face for both parties. Always maintain a cool and happy demeanor and you will be reciprocated with the same.
- Do not try to take photographs of military installations or anything to do with the military. This can be seen as a breach of national security.
- Never take video cameras into the ethnic minority villages. They are considered to be too intrusive by the local people.
* The above advice is meant to help you have a perfect trip to Vietnam. Do not be overly paranoid though. Generally, Vietnamese people are very appreciative if they see you trying to abide by the customs, and very forgiving if you get it wrong or forget. If you make the effort, you will be rewarded. | <urn:uuid:815360b0-7760-4c19-a9fc-c98959e131cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://luxorhotelgroup.blogspot.com/2011/05/vietnam-is-friendly-and-safe-place-to.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940819 | 771 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Why we love Padmasana
Recall your first Yoga class. The Yoga teacher begins with series of warm-up exercises. Now, you are told to cross your legs over your thighs. Oh! a cakewalk for me. Your right foot over your left thigh. Now, your left foot over…… God! I am dying with pain. Your ankle is disobeying your order. The ligaments start aching. Padmasana is the first asana that makes you experience resistance. Your first resolve comes. I will master that.
Gradually, as you progress in your practice, you begin to sit longer and longer until you reach a stage where your muscles and ligaments start obeying you. The first indication of success is here. You have mastered the Padmasana. You are Lotus.
Padmasana is the first stepping stone in the life of a practitioner. Padmasana opens the door to years of practice to perfection.
You have read several benefits of sitting in Padmasana but here we are talking about that first feeling. I cannot, you cannot or any yoga practitioner cannot describe that in words.
Wish love and happiness to all of you. | <urn:uuid:f9f24808-07d3-449f-b735-2195359716a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://learningdays.tumblr.com/tagged/lotus-pose | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959101 | 241 | 1.648438 | 2 |
The president should direct agencies that when they outsource any of their duties, not limited to records management duties, the contracts should contain provisions specifying that the records produced by the company in its function as a government surrogate belong to the agency and available, as agency records, under FOIA.
On Dec. 31, 2007, President Bush signed the OPEN Government Act of 2007 (S. 2488), which includes long-sought reforms of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In response to the outsourcing of so many federal government functions, one provision of the OPEN Government Act extended FOIA to include any information that "would be an agency record" that is maintained by "an entity under Government contract, for the purposes of record management." Currently, the breadth and implementation of this important provision remain untested. The president should clarify the records management responsibility that contractors must abide by and better establish the level of access agencies will provide to contractor produced records.
- From the 21st Century RTK Agenda | <urn:uuid:7a778a71-7d1e-44c2-a25e-b16782e82a3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://opengov.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Make-documents-produced-by-government-contractors-in-their-role-as-gov-t-surrogates-subject-to-FOIA/2750-4049 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949445 | 199 | 1.75 | 2 |
'Food 'n Fun' kicks off summer at Kistler Pool
WILKES-BARRE - The Wilkes-Barre Family YMCA along with the City of Wilkes-Barre and the Commission on Economic Development held a conference Thursday at Kistler Pool in Wilkes-Barre to kick off the "Food 'n Fun @ the Park" program.
The program offers healthy lunches to children under age 18 throughout the summer. Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton urged all children to participate.
"This is truly a great program put on by great people. I encourage people to take part because it is open to everyone and there are so many different activities and opportunities," he said.
The program offers healthy meals and activities to all interested families at eight different locations throughout the city of Wilkes-Barre. All children are eligible even if they do not live in Wilkes-Barre and there is no sign-up obligation.
Walmart and the Walmart Foundation helped to make this program possible. The company provided $6.5 million in funding to help the YMCA of the USA and the National Recreation and Park Association. The Wilkes-Barre Family YMCA was among many across the country to receive this funding.
Meghan Davis, marketing and communications director of the Wilkes-Barre YMCA, credits Walmart with helping to get the program started.
"The Wilkes-Barre Family YMCA is ecstatic to have received funding from the Walmart Foundation," she said. "Thankfully, no child in the city of Wilkes-Barre has to go hungry this summer thanks to our program."
Donna Hines of Wilkes-Barre, a mother of three, says the "Food 'n Fun" program is "such a benefit."
"I can't think of anything better," Hines said. "We absolutely love the program and it is such a blessing to have it go throughout the entire summer."
Hines said her children rave about the supervised activities provided before and after lunch. City and park employees make arts and crafts projects and play games in the park in order to keep the kids healthy and active. Educational speakers contribute to the program as well providing kids with information about bullying and drugs and alcohol.
Hines also stressed how the children have choices in the meal options. A typical meal includes a protein with a fruit or vegetable as well as their choice of white or chocolate milk. Lunches can vary from a taco salad with corn chips to peanut butter and jelly on graham crackers. Meals are scheduled to run until Aug. 17.
In 2011, the program served more than 6,000 lunches to 500 kids. Officials say their goal for 2012 is to serve 700 children.
Leighton stressed the importance of the program during the conference. He said he has seen the park program grow so much since it started four years ago.
"In today's culture dominated by social media and other electronic distractions, it is vital for the health of our children that we get them involved in physical activities, offer healthy meal options and bring them together with other children they may not ordinarily meet," he said. | <urn:uuid:fe3c425f-f2d6-4768-856d-2aa20f6df88f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://citizensvoice.com/news/food-n-fun-kicks-off-summer-at-kistler-pool-1.1333269 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964918 | 656 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Eat Drink Man Woman. What a wonderful movie! This Taiwanese movie is about a father who tries to show his love for his family through the food he takes the time to select and prepare for them. He is a poor oral communicator in the traditional sense, he struggles to show feelings and emotion, so he tries make up for this trait by showing love for his family through food. Yet, initially his children are too self absorbed to notice his love for them in this regard; but in time they come around and unite as a family. And, of course, they eat some amazing food along the way.
The opening scene from this movie is the father preparing a meal (click HERE to watch the clip). This opening scene is also a metaphor for part of the business world in China.
How, you say? Notice how many different things and tasks he takes on to prepare the meal. Also notice that during much of the scene he uses the same, big knife, to do the chopping, basic cutting, then the fine cutting and mincing, etc.
When we visit China you may see that many (not all, to be sure) Chinese business people tend to be more generalists and a “jack of all trades” than their counterparts in western firms. In the West, we tend to focus on what we specialize in (e.g., “Go talk to marketing, I only handle finance”, or “Look, I just do _____[fill in the blank], you tech guys needs to fix the problem with the product” or “That’s not my area, I deal with the SEO stuff”).
Your thoughts and experiences on this issue? The same? Different? What have you seen and experienced out there? | <urn:uuid:f7c3dbc4-44da-4e19-b27b-165a70854620> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://calpolymbatrip.com/2011/uncategorized/eat-drink-man-woman/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976752 | 362 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Thanksgiving can be the scariest time of year if you're a turkey. More than 45 million of these fascinating birds are killed to disgrace Thanksgiving tables each year.
In hopes of empowering kids everywhere to speak out as their families adorn their Thanksgiving tables with dead birds, PETA offers its Thanskgiving ad, 'Grace.' In the ad, you hear from one straightforward little girl as she tells it exactly like it is for turkeys who are killed for holiday meals when asked to say grace around her family's dinner table.
Despite the fact that it contains nothing graphic, NBC has rejected the ad, which was submitted to air during the iconic Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
When not forced to live on filthy factory farms, turkeys spend their days caring for their young, building nests, foraging for food, taking dust baths, preening themselves, and roosting high in trees.
Regarded by many as little more than a holiday centerpiece, turkeys are as varied in personality as dogs and cats. They relish having their feathers stroked and like to chirp, cluck, and gobble along to their favorite tunes. This year, give turkeys something to be thankful for—pledge to go vegan and leave them off your plate.
For a festive centerpiece that is more appealing than a stuffed avian body cavity, go faux! Turkey alternatives are available at many national grocery store chains or you can make your own faux-turkey at home. You can also tempt your taste buds with vegan versions of all of your favorites, like green bean casserole and sweet potato biscuits. Find delicious vegan recipes here.
Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights? Read more. | <urn:uuid:bab807b0-53dc-42f4-b3ee-cd9ff1b5465e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peta.org/features/Thanksgiving-Grace.aspx?PageIndex=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96809 | 392 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks gain ground
A diplomatic push to end Israel's nearly week-long offensive in the Gaza Strip has gained momentum, with Egypt's president predicting that airstrikes will soon end.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is rushing to the region and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country would be a "willing partner" to a ceasefire with the Islamic militant group Hamas.
As international diplomats worked on Tuesday to cement a deal, senior Hamas officials said some sticking points remained even as relentless airstrikes and rocket attacks between the two sides continued.
The Israeli death toll rose to five with the deaths on Tuesday of a soldier and a civilian contractor. More than 130 Palestinians have been killed.
Clinton held a late-night meeting with Netanyahu after rushing to the region from Cambodia, where she had accompanied President Barack Obama on a visit.
"The goal must be a durable outcome that promotes regional stability and advances the security and legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike," she said at a news conference with Netanyahu.
Netanyahu said Israel would welcome a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but threatened further military activity, saying he was ready to take "whatever action" is necessary.
Top Hamas officials in Cairo, where ceasefire talks were being held, said no deal had been reached by Tuesday night.
"Most likely the deal will be struck tomorrow. Israel has not responded to some demands which delayed the deal," Hamas official Izzat Risheq said.
Israeli officials said only that "intensive efforts" were under way to end the fighting.
Israeli media quoted Defence Minister Ehud Barak as telling a closed meeting that Israel wanted a 24-hour test period of no rocket fire to see if Hamas could enforce a truce.
In what appeared to be a last-minute burst of heavy fire, Israeli tanks and gunboats shelled targets late on Tuesday, and an airstrike killed two brothers riding on a motorcycle. The men were not identified.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, perhaps the most important interlocutor between Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory, and the Israelis, said the negotiations between the two sides would soon yield "positive results".
Israel demands an end to rocket fire from Gaza and a halt to weapons smuggling into the area through tunnels under the border with Egypt.
It also wants international guarantees that Hamas will not rearm or use Egypt's Sinai region, which abuts both Gaza and southern Israel, to attack Israelis.
Hamas wants Israel to halt all attacks on Gaza and lift tight restrictions on trade and movement in and out of the territory that have been in place since Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007.
Israel has rejected such demands in the past.
In Brussels, a senior official of the European Union's foreign service said a ceasefire would include an end of Israeli airstrikes and targeted killings in Gaza, the opening of Gaza crossing points and an end to rocket attacks on Israel. | <urn:uuid:fd4df3be-39a9-49ac-8a9b-616f8f4add4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/israelhamas-ceasefire-talks-gain-ground-20121121-29p60.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970726 | 590 | 1.570313 | 2 |
As we noted earlier, there are now major questions about the accuracy of news reports from last week stating that a high school teacher in Fort Worth suspended a student simply for stating his belief that homosexuality is wrong. Needless to say, those questions haven’t stopped the religious right from running full speed ahead with the story, which was largely concocted by an attorney from the Liberty Institute in the first place.
During his radio show on Friday, American Family Association spokesman Bryan Fischer called the teacher in the case a “pro-homosexual bigot” who committed “a hate crime” against the student. Fischer also seized upon the fact that the incident took place in a German class — launching into a rant about his infamous theory that Hitler was gay and the Nazi party was started by homosexuals. Here’s a partial transcript of Fischer’s remarks, which you can watch below.
“What in the world is a German teacher doing talking about homosexuality in his classroom in the first place?” Fischer said. “Apparently the tenuous link was that the teacher brought up the subject of homosexuality in Germany. And this brings up what I mentioned to Matt Krause [the Liberty Institute attorney who's representing the student], does this German teacher tells his students in German class that Adolf Hitler was a homosexual, that he developed a police record as a homosexual prostitute on the streets of Vienna? Doe this German teacher, when the subject of homosexuality in Germany comes up, does he tell his students that the the Nazi party started in a homosexual bar in Munich? Does this teacher tell his students that virtually all of the brown shirts — the storm troopers who were Hitler’s thugs and enforcers — that virtually all of them were homosexuals? Does he tells his students that students in German schools today are taught these things because they never want a repeat of the Nazi horror? And that’s why I say this illustrates a point that I’ve often made, that we have to come to grips with the simple truth that we’re going to have to choose between the homosexual agenda and freedom, because we cannot have both.” | <urn:uuid:05792d8c-d86d-44f7-a4c3-ba24e76b910b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dallasvoice.com/tag/adolf-hitler | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98238 | 436 | 1.710938 | 2 |
He applied the “Page 99 Test” to his new book, A Nation Forged in War: How World War II Taught Americans to Get Along, and reported the following:
So imagine my delight at applying the Page 99 Test and finding a full page about vomit and toilet facilities. Among the lovely phrases found on my page 99 are "sick to our stomachs," "nauseating stench," "residue of caustic GI soap lather," "a not too peaceful crap," "vomit covered the floors and fixtures," and "cold sea-water douche." Well.Learn more about the book at the publisher's website.
It could be worse—page 99 might have been one of those blank pages in between chapters. Then I would have had to ramble about the irony of the meaninglessness of war, since my book was an attempt to find a larger meaning in World War II. Instead, I got “a not too peaceful crap.” So let’s talk about what that means.
The reason why everyone is so sick and uncomfortable on page 99 in A Nation Forged in War is because they are soldiers on ships, headed overseas to war. Over 10 million made the trip, most of whom had never been more than 100 miles from home, and the army and navy crammed them in. Page 99 begins with the story of a soldier who won a bet by standing in one place in the hold and touching forty-two individual bunks with his rifle. That would be tough enough, but then seasickness kicked in and the troops started getting ill in those tight spaces, which had a horrible multiplying effect. And the toilet facilities were no help, as they often consisted of long troughs that the men had to straddle in full view of each other, and with their activities occasionally punctuated by splashes of sea water running through the trough. Showers, if the men got a chance to shower at all, also consisted of cold sea water, and were less than refreshing.
The troops could distract themselves by messing with the ship crew, gambling, and reading, but it was a still nasty experience. The only real comfort was that they were in it together. That was a big deal, because they came from widely different ethnic and religious backgrounds in an era when those differences meant they weren’t supposed to get along.
But they suffered together in the service in World War II, and in so doing learned to get along. Then they came home from war and taught the rest of the country to do the same. A Nation Forged in War tells that story—where it went and where it did not go.
Sometimes it got a little disgusting. Like page 99. | <urn:uuid:8d3a74ac-fab7-4987-973e-721cc788b5a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://page99test.blogspot.com/2010/04/thomas-bruscinos-nation-forged-in-war.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986677 | 560 | 1.789063 | 2 |
400 Pro-Choice Letters Written
A tabing campaign to garner support for the "pro-choice" movement this week yielded more than 400 letters for a national lobby attempting to protect women's rights to obtain abortions.
The letters written at Harvard will be added to nationwide pool accumulated by the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) in preparation for a series of state-wide protests and a national vigil in Washington next month, organizers said earlier this week.
The two students who coordinated the tabling, Jennifer Landeau '87 and Ashley C. Thompson '87, said they did so in response to the recent proliferation of campus "pro-life" activity, including the last month's screening of the anti abortion movie "Silent Scream."
Pro-life events at Harvard have centered on abortion as a "fetus" issue rather than a "woman's" issue, Landean said. "We want to counter the I pro-life movement and shift the terms of the debate from the fetus to the woman," she added.
Thompson said the campus pro-choice movement balanced the pralife efforts with a movie of their own, "Different Voices," in addition to accumulating support for the national campaign.
The importance of the issue at Harvard and in Massachusetts has increased since the preliminary passage of a bill which would completely prohibit abortions in the state if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 case legalizing abortion, Thompson said.
As of Thursday night county, the freshman Union yielded the most letters, a total of 196, with Adams House's 77 a distant second, I andean said. Pliot House had produced no letters-17 Lowell residents had written to congressmen and nearly 40 students in both Dunster and in Quincy did so, she added. | <urn:uuid:64412c65-b42f-44dc-a0c5-87858783b373> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1985/4/13/400-pro-choice-letters-written-pa-tabing/ | 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 | 0.95608 | 367 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Chart: Venture capital funding, Q4 2005
When Jim Breyer, venture capitalist at Accel Partners, courted Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg last year to make an investment in his start-up, he couldn't buy Zuckerberg a drink because he hadn't turned 21.
``I had a glass of pinot noir and he had a Sprite,'' says Breyer, recalling the dinner they had at the Woodside Pub in Woodside.
But Breyer still managed to beat out a competing offer from Don Graham, chief executive of the Washington Post. And his firm pumped $12 million into Zuckerberg's Palo Alto-based Facebook, a social networking site for students.
Zuckerberg's fundraising, and the little bidding war he enjoyed, is mirrored by scores of other twentysomething entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. The youthful founders are thriving in their efforts amid a swing by venture capitalists in favor of young talent. Silicon Valley is hopping with novice CEOs.
That's because of a recent uptick in the market for tech stocks, particularly for Internet businesses, pushing venture capitalists to make some risky bets again. And it's also because new Web software tools are making it easy and cheap for novices to launch businesses.
Venture capitalists are prowling everywhere for young talent and brains, who they say are best-placed to absorb it all -- and to exploit the
``Twentysomethings have their pulse on the sweet spot of the Internet, much better than others,'' says Mark Kvamme, a venture capitalist with Sequoia Capital, which has invested in several companies with young founders. ``They are able to put together a product or service that speaks better to that generation -- and do it without enormous amounts of capital.''
It's not nearly as frothy as the dot-com era. But it's also a distinct comeback from the post-bubble era of 2002 and 2003, when few twentysomething entrepreneurs got venture backing. After the bubble burst, many venture capitalists felt the need to return to maturity and experience, seeking to avoid what they saw as the excesses of youth.
No precise data exists on the number of twentysomething entrepreneurs backed by venture capitalists, but anecdotal evidence suggests it's rising. They're ``popping up left and right,'' said Sean Parker, 26, who had been chief executive of Plaxo, a company that lets users update their contact information online, but who also lost his job during the dark year of 2003.
``Being a young entrepreneur post-bubble quickly became one of the loneliest jobs in America,'' he recalls. ``The young entrepreneur went from being an exotic to an endangered species.''
So Parker decided to create a support network in Silicon Valley for young entrepreneurs. The group's members, meeting at each other's homes, faced similar challenges, such as managing executives older than themselves, and being so busy that having a normal social life is difficult, Parker said. Lately, he's considering calling the group ``Valley Brats.''
``We plan to systematically invade the toniest and crustiest of the old hangouts where VCs meet to talk and do deals. Our first target: The Village Pub in Woodside,'' Parker said. It's a watering hole not far from the VC epicenter on Sand Hill Road.
There's even a Stanford University group, called Entrepreneur27, launched by Stanford students to help them network while building their own companies. The group did research and found entrepreneurs younger than 27 are the most successful in launching businesses. Microsoft's Bill Gates, Apple Computer's Steve Jobs and the co-founders of Google and Yahoo, are a few that come to mind.
Betting on young people who are straight out of school, and who have never had a real job before, is a risky endeavor. They face management challenges they've never seen before, let alone the added stress that comes from the bewildering pace of hiring often required by a start-up.
Just two years ago, Zuckerberg, now 21, was put on probation for playing pranks at Harvard -- one of them being his creation of facemash.com, a site that popped up two student photos and asked people to choose who was more attractive. Now, he is managing a company that has more than 75 employees.
To help bring discipline to management at Facebook, Accel helped bring in fiftysomething Jeff Rothschild, co-founder of software company Veritas and an ``executive in residence'' at Accel. Zuckerberg liked his experience, and hired him to lead the engineering team.
``There's lots of stuff none of us have ever seen before,'' said Zuckerberg. ``That's good in some ways, but limiting in other ways.''
Experienced executives can recognize patterns and avoid mistakes they've made in the past, he said in an interview last year.
Indeed, even the most successful executives, including Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, have had mentors to help them along the way. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt was considered ``adult supervision'' at Google.
Accel's Breyer says he's careful to protect the creativity and passion of Facebook's young founders. In Facebook's offices, there are weekly poker nights, and a room with a couch and video games, once known as the ``Dorm Room.'' Meals and high-octane Red Bull drinks are brought in.
Most VC firms shunned young companies after the bubble burst, and some moved to fund companies made up mostly of managers in their 50s or 60s.
Wes Raffel, a venture capitalist with Advanced Technology Ventures, avoided inexperienced entrepreneurs after the bubble burst. But now Raffel, 50, is back in the hunt for younger teams. ``You're drinking from a fire hose of information, and need to able to adapt to that without any preconceived notions -- you need someone who hasn't done it yet,'' he says.
Raffel's firm has hired two associates, both 29, to help it network in younger circles, even encouraging them to frequent parties South of Market in San Francisco. ``That's something I'm not going to be doing,'' he said.
One of the associates is Bong Koh, who regularly meets young founders of promising companies at parties. ``At bars and clubs, you meet people,'' he explains, reeling off examples of how he helped his firm vet companies by knowing the founders.
In one recent example, Advanced Technology Ventures invested in Browster, a start-up that augments the presentation of search results, where Koh knew friends of the founders.
Sequoia Capital, meanwhile, has made a number of bets on young teams. Sequoia partner Michael Moritz has long trumpeted the ``magic'' of youth as one of the best recipes for a successful fast-growth company. His firm bet on Google co-founders Page and Brin when they were in their mid-20s; Yahoo founders Jerry Yang and David Filo in 1995; and more recently the young founders of instant messaging company Meebo; YouTube, a video-sharing company; and Parker's former company, Plaxo.
YouTube's founders, who snared $3.5 million in funding from Sequoia, say the VC firm has been hands off.
At YouTube's offices in San Mateo, employees shout across the room to each other when they see a cool new video on the network. Music plays out from employees' terminals and the air hockey games are loud.
Founders Chad Hurley, 29, and Steve Chen, 27, have been busy hiring even younger people than themselves -- including a 23-year-old just out of college.
Hurley and Chen started building their company the same night last year they came up with the idea -- when they realized how hard it was to share videos they took at a party. Now, YouTube is hosting 10 million videos being viewed each day. ``There's a fervor, a willingness to take a risk -- to throw two or three months into something to see if it works,'' explains Chen of their fast start.
Over at Meebo of Palo Alto, CEO Seth Sternberg, 27, said he has hired his first thirtysomething employee, as an office assistant. Sternberg said his previous experience at IBM, where he worked in corporate development, sets him apart from the much younger generation of early twentysomethings who are straight out of school.
Greg Tseng, 26, chief executive of Tagged.com, a new social networking site in San Francisco, said he created numerous businesses while in college during the Internet boom. But he and co-founder Johann Schleier-Smith, also 26, weren't able to raise venture capital initially.
After Internet stocks came back to life in early 2004, venture capitalists started opening their wallets, he said. Now Tagged.com has just received its first venture capital: $7 million from Mayfield Fund.
In fact, Tseng said his company raised money in ``record time'' -- 30 days from the first meeting to a signed offer. In part, though, Tseng says the funding came because he is relatively experienced. At 26, he says, ``we're like middle-aged men in Internet time.''
Contact Matt Marshall at (408) 920-5920 or via his blog at www.siliconbeat.com. | <urn:uuid:83bb5f18-f409-4648-9e32-6ff11c319e95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.siliconvalley.com/venture-capital-survey/ci_5186421 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971194 | 1,915 | 1.578125 | 2 |
|Dangerous D.C. Gun Amendment Expected at House Judiciary Committee Markup Tomorrow|
October 12, 2011
Washington, DC—The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) learned tonight that Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) has filed an amendment with the House Judiciary Committee to allow people with concealed carry permits issued by a state to carry concealed guns in the District of Columbia, notwithstanding the District’s prohibition on carrying concealed weapons. On Thursday, October 13, 2011, at 10:00 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn HOB, the House Judiciary Committee will markup the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011 (H.R. 822), which would allow people with concealed carry permits to carry concealed guns in any jurisdiction that allows concealed carry, but not in those jurisdictions that prohibit concealed carry. However, the Gohmert amendment would create a unique exception for D.C. and allow people with state-issued permits to carry concealed guns here, even though D.C. bans carrying concealed guns. Not only does the amendment violate home rule, it also endangers homeland security in the nation’s capital and the safety of federal employees, officials and D.C. residents. Federal and local police officials have testified repeatedly before Congress that the gun-lobby-backed D.C. gun bill (H.R. 645), which would, among other things, permit concealed carry in D.C., threatens the security of federal officials and foreign dignitaries in the nation’s capital.
“This is not the first time that House Judiciary Committee Republicans have taken the lead in attacking the District’s home rule,” Norton said. “Earlier this year, they denied me the right to testify at a hearing on a bill to make the D.C. abortion rider permanent. Now they are trying to undo D.C.’s local gun laws only days after a federal appeals court upheld the constitutionality of the city’s laws. We do not intend to let this happen. We will work with Senate Democratic leadership to eliminate the Gohmert amendment and with gun safety allies in the Senate, whose states will be affected by the dangerous underlying bill. However, if the Senate passes the bill with the Gohmert amendment included in it, we will ask the President to veto the bill.”
The Gohmert amendment is part of the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) efforts to undo D.C.’s gun laws, even though two federal courts have upheld them. Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the constitutionality of the District’s prohibition of assault weapons, prohibition of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, and basic registration requirements for handguns, undermining much of the rationale for the pending D.C. gun bill. Despite a March 2010 federal district court ruling upholding the constitutionality of D.C.’s revised gun laws, the NRA continued to insist that its D.C. gun bill be attached to the D.C. House Voting Rights Act (DCVRA), which forced the congresswoman to pull the DCVRA from the House floor in April 2010.
Last Congress, the Senate fell only two votes short of the 60 needed to pass a similar national reciprocity bill, although that bill did not include the Gohmert provision. | <urn:uuid:0e327abc-f021-4753-a639-076b025ec71a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.norton.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3015:dangerous-dc-gun-amendment-expected-at-house-judiciary-committee-markup-tomorrow&catid=2&Itemid=88 | 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 | 0.947969 | 720 | 1.507813 | 2 |
|Imagine being part of an organization that fills your heart and your mind with the joyof giving to others and the feeling that comes with making a difference.|
|Knights are Catholic men, 18 years of age and older, who are committed to making their community a better place, while supporting their Church. Being a Knight is more than camaraderie; it is being involved with your community; it is supporting your local Catholic Church, while enhancing your own faith; it is about protecting and enhancing your family life. Come see just what we are all about and take the first steps to enhance your personal life by viewing the segment, “Why Join?”|
For an inspiring look at what it means to be part of the Knights of Columbus, see the video introduction, “In Service to One. In Service to All” (running time, 32 seconds).
Our eight-page Overview Booklet (pdf, 415k) gives additional information about what it means to be a member of the Knights of Columbus.
Hear what Knights have to say in their own words about their membership in the world’s largest Catholic family service organization. “Experience of a Lifetime” (running time, 10:59 min.).
Be our guest at our next meeting, to meet our membership and learn more about St. Annas Knight of Columbus Council #14425, by contacting Ed Barefoot, our Grank Knight at 678-227-9397, or e-mail at [email protected] [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:07962938-ffd5-4141-b0d9-7e06849fb379> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.st-annaskofc.com/?page_id=44 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946431 | 328 | 1.625 | 2 |
Improving access to and consumption of produce is an important component in improving the health of employees. By creating a garden market at your worksite you will give employees the opportunity to purchase produce on a break or during their lunch hour.
Below we will answer the following questions and help get you started on your Garden Market:
What Would We Like To Have For Sale?
First you must decide what you would like the market to provide. There are many varieties of produce and some farmers will sell homemade treats, jam, cheese, butter, etc. Since the purpose of this program is to improve the health of employees you may want to discourage the vendor from providing any unhealthy items. We recommend keeping it simple, just local produce.
What Dates and Times Would My Employees Prefer?
You may want to send out an email survey to determine the best days and times to provide the market. It has been shown that most employees prefer mid and late week markets to supplement their weekend shopping with fresh items.
Having a market open during lunch time is a great way to connect with most employees. You may adjust the amount of time the market is open depending on the number of employees in your building. If there are only a few hundred, a few hours should suffice. Larger companies may need to leave the market open all day, with recommended times for each department, division or floor. This will help the vendor to serve everyone well and avoid the lunchtime rush.
Where Do I Find Farmers?
To locate an existing farmers market in your area visit www.localharvest.org to search for a nearby market. You may call or email the farmers listed on this site to find a local farmer to visit your worksite during the week.
They will need to know:
- How many customers they can expect (estimate).
- What you want them to sell.
- When they should arrive to set up.
- What time they need pack up.
- How often would you like them to come. (ie. Every Wednesday for 3 months)
- How payment will be made (usually cash only).
Questions you should ask the vendor:
- Does the vendor carry the appropriate liability insurance?
- Does the vendor have the appropriate business license and is it current?
- How much space does the vendor need to set up and begin selling?
- Is the vendor willing to commit or sign a contract to continue selling at your location for a specified period of time? What is the cancellation policy?
How Do I Get The Word Out?
Begin advertising the market a month or so in advance to ensure everyone is anticipating the coming of the new market. Post flyers, send out emails, encourage management to get on board and encourage their employees to participate. Let employees know what kinds of produce will be sold and if the vendor will accept credit cards or checks.
Encourage neighboring businesses to participate, deliver flyers to nearby businesses to encourage participation.
Important Things To Consider Before You Start:
The first day of the garden market will be a learning experience for all involved. Document lessons learned the first day and apply solutions to future sales days. The following suggestions will help you get the most from the opening day.
Work with the vendor in these ways:
- Encourage vendor to provide signs for displaying produce prices.
- Encourage the vendor to arrive early to set up and help you anticipate potential delays or other issues.
- Inquire if the vendor will provide their own tent or if they will need one provided for them. They can also set up in a shady area. This is especially important in the summer months.
- Vendor should be reminded to bring their own water if none is available at their location.
Work with your garden market support staff in these ways:
- Have an alternate date in mind in case of unexpected problems, such as bad weather.
- Plan for the weather. For example, do you need sunscreen, umbrellas, or drinking water?
- Have one or more of your support staff arrive early to help the vendor with setup.
- Have extra supplies, especially tape, markers, and paper.
- Plan for lunch and bathroom breaks for the staff and vendor.
Source: Centers for Disease Control, Healthier Worksite Initiative, Garden Market Pilot Program | <urn:uuid:50aebc84-2b43-49fd-be51-0866a4ca360f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://charmeck.org/mecklenburg/county/HealthDepartment/wtw/nutrition/Pages/BeginaCompanyFarmer'sMarket.aspx | 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 | 0.934275 | 878 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Romney's magic act in Iowa yesterday.
Mitt Romney delivered a curious speech in Iowa yesterday, presenting his thoughts on the budget deficit, the debt and debt reduction, which is worth reading if you missed it. We often talk about the problem of the left and right working from entirely different sets of facts, and how the discourse breaks down when there's no shared foundation of reality, and the Republican's remarks offered a timely peek into an alternate reality where facts have no meaning.
Even the topic itself is a strange choice for Romney. If the former governor is elected, he'll inherit a $1 trillion deficit and a $15 debt, which he'll respond to by approving massive new tax cuts and increasing Pentagon spending. How will he pay for this? No one has the foggiest idea.
In other words, the guy who intends to add trillions to the debt gave a speech yesterday on the dangers of adding trillions to the debt.
More importantly, though, Romney presented a vision of the last few years that bears absolutely no resemblance to reality at any level. Jon Chait had a good piece on the remarks.
Mitt Romney delivered a speech today about the budget deficit. It’s hard to wrap your arms around Romney’s argument, because it’s an amalgamation of free-floating conservative rage and anxiety, completely untethered to any facts, as agreed upon by the relevant experts.
In the real world, the following things are true: The budget deficit was projected to top $1 trillion even before President Obama took office, and that was when forecasters were still radically underestimating the depth of the 2008 crash. Obama did propose temporary deficit-increasing measures, an economic approach endorsed in its general contours, if not its particulars, by Romney’s economists. These measures contributed a relatively small proportion to the deficit, and their effect is short-lived. Obama instead focused on longer-term measures to reduce the deficit, including comprehensive health-care reform projected to reduce deficits by a trillion dollars in its second decade. Obama put forward a budget plan that would stabilize the debt as a percentage of the economy. Obama has hoped to achieve deeper long-term deficit reduction by striking bipartisan deals with Congress, and he has tried to achieve this goal by openly endorsing a bipartisan deficit plan in the Senate and privately agreeing to a more conservative plan with John Boehner, both of which were killed by Republican opposition to any higher revenue.
The story told by Romney is one in which all of these things are either untrue or could not possibly be true.
I don't think Mitt Romney is stupid. I do think Romney is operating from the assumption that voters are stupid.
In Romney's speech, the deficit is responsible for a tepid economic recovery. That doesn't make any sense -- and I suspect the former governor knows that -- but he's counting on you not knowing the difference. What's more, he's avoiding interviews with journalists who might ask him to explain why on earth such arguments should be taken seriously.
In Romney's speech, the deficit can be dramatically reduced magically, even while cutting taxes on the wealthy and increasing spending on defense. How? Apparently, we're not supposed to ask.
In Romney's speech, "spending" has created a "financial crisis" (that's gibberish). In Romney's speech, the size of government has exploded to new heights (the opposite is true). In Romney's speech, the deficit is growing (it's actually shrinking). In Romney's speech, President Obama doesn't care about fiscal responsibility (Obama offered Republicans an overly-generous $4 trillion debt-reduction package, which the GOP rejected). In Romney's speech, Bush-era policies have absolutely nothing to do with Obama-era deficits (ahem).
In Romney's speech, everything we know about the Recovery Act should be replaced with talking points that don't make sense.
Watching the Republican's remarks, I was annoyed by the breathtaking dishonesty, but I was also struck by something that seemed rather new to me: Romney's immaturity. His arguments weren't just wrong; they were silly. If the political discourse were in any way grounded in fact, this was the kind of speech that would laugh Romney off the national stage, with sensible people agreeing that the guy just isn't ready for the big kids' table. Grown-ups don't feel the need to create fantasy lands where their wishes are true.
The speech seemed like it had been written by a high-school student who's preoccupied with Rush Limbaugh's radio show and assorted right-wing Twitter feeds. I couldn't take Romney seriously yesterday because Romney no longer cares enough to take himself seriously.
We got a peek into an alternate reality yesterday, and it appears that Romney Land is a deeply foolish place. | <urn:uuid:236ef341-5672-4417-bb15-ad8089de0299> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/05/16/11731503-a-peek-into-an-alternate-reality | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976126 | 984 | 1.617188 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — The United States is expanding its role in Mexico's bloody fight against drug trafficking organizations, sending new CIA operatives and retired military personnel to the country and considering plans to deploy private security contractors in hopes of turning around a multibillion-dollar effort that so far has shown few results.
In recent weeks, small numbers of CIA operatives and U.S. civilian military employees have been posted at a Mexican military base, where, for the first time, security officials from both countries are working side by side in collecting information about drug cartels and helping plan operations. Officials are also looking into embedding a team of U.S. contractors inside a specially vetted Mexican counternarcotics police unit.
Officials on both sides of the border said the new efforts have been designed to get around Mexican laws that prohibit foreign military and police from operating on its soil and to prevent advanced U.S. surveillance technology from falling under the control of Mexican security agencies with long histories of corruption.
"A sea change has occurred over the past years in how effective Mexico and U.S. intelligence exchanges have become," said Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the United States.
"It is underpinned by the understanding that transnational organized crime can only be successfully confronted by working hand in hand and that the outcome is as simple as it is compelling: we will together succeed or together fail."
The latest steps come three years after the United States began increasing its security assistance to Mexico with the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative and tens of millions of dollars from the Defense Department.
They also come a year before elections in both countries. President Barack Obama may face questions about the threat of violence spilling over the border. And Mexican President Felipe Calderon's political party faces an electorate that is almost certainly going to ask why it should stick with a fight that has left nearly 45,000 people dead.
In the last three years, officials said, exchanges of intelligence between the United States and Mexico have helped security forces there capture or kill some 30 mid- to high-level drug traffickers, compared with just two such arrests in the previous five years.
The United States has trained nearly 4,500 new federal police agents and assisted in conducting wiretaps, running informants and interrogating suspects. The Pentagon has provided sophisticated equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters, and in recent months it has begun flying unarmed surveillance drones over Mexican soil to track drug kingpins.
Still, it is hard to say much real progress has been made in crippling the brutal cartels or stemming the flow of drugs and guns across the border. Mexico's justice system remains so weakened by corruption that even the most notorious criminals have not been successfully prosecuted.
"The government has argued that the number of deaths in Mexico is proof positive that the strategy is working and that the cartels are being weakened," said Nik Steinberg, a specialist on Mexico at Human Rights Watch.
"But the data is indisputable: The violence is increasing, human rights abuses have skyrocketed, and accountability both for officials who commit abuses and alleged criminals is at rock bottom."
Mexican and U.S. officials involved in the fight against organized crime do not see it that way. They say the efforts begun under Obama are only a few years old and that it is too soon for final judgments.
Dan Restrepo, Obama's senior Latin American adviser, refused to talk about operational changes in the security relationship but said, "I think we are in a fundamentally different place than we were three years ago." | <urn:uuid:152b8597-df06-44ef-9842-f971f5cf5390> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/07/1396129/us-widens-its-role-in-mexicos.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968498 | 715 | 1.570313 | 2 |
One of the biggest complaints I hear from people is that they just don’t have enough time to do their strength workout. Believe me, with three kids, a full-time job and a hectic travel schedule, I know that time is a commodity. In addition, another typical and frequent complaint is lack of equipment either at home or at the office.
Well, forget the excuses. You don’t need a lot of time or equipment to get some muscle work in your day. As a matter of fact, one of the best tools is your own body weight.
Try a few sets of each of these “up” exercises for a quick, total-body strength training workout that can be done almost anywhere and anytime. Remember, just because you can’t make it to the gym or don’t have a basement full of weight equipment doesn’t mean you have to forgo “upping” your strength!
Find a bench, a step or even just a phone book and step up, step down, up and down, squeezing your buns and engaging your quads.
Get down on the floor or use the wall for a beginner option. Either way, keep your abs tight and your back straight. You can start on your knees and graduate up to full push-ups as you practice.
Do this one while you shop! Keeping your elbow tight to your body, lift your bags or grocery basket several times with each arm while you decide on purchases.
Get down on all fours and lift your leg behind you. Squeeze your buns as you lower and lift for maximum benefits. Make sure to do reps with both legs.
If you don’t have a built-in bar at home, find a local playground jungle gym. Just like your gym teacher used to say, no arched backs allowed!
Bend your knees, hands behind your head, and curl up, folding like an accordion and engaging your abdominal muscles (like a crunch). Move slowly and don’t use the momentum of your body curl up. It’s quality, not quantity, that counts.
Full body roll-ups
Lie flat on your back with your arms extended overhead. Inhale your arms to the sky, exhale and slowly roll up into a “C” curve, reaching for your toes. Inhale and exhale as you uncurl your body one vertebra at a time, “dripping” your back into the floor.
Now you know how to use your body as a strength machine — so get UP and get GOING! | <urn:uuid:e277e772-79fe-4db2-89fa-5bcd6e2f7875> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.gaiam.com/up-your-strength/?TB_inline=true&width=660&height=490&inlineId=emailsignupwrap&modal=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94593 | 543 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Toyota Speeds Up Plug-In Prius, Chevy Counter-Punches
page 2 of 2
The difference lies in how the two vehicles trade off between their electric motors and combustion engines. A plug-in Prius alters the balance between using its engine and running in pure electric mode—more electric, less engine compared to a standard Prius—but still swaps frequently between the two.
The Volt, on the other hand, is a pure electric vehicle for its first 40 miles. The gasoline engine only kicks in after that, but never powers the wheels. Instead, it turns a generator that recharges the battery pack—which powers the car through its electric motor, the sole way to make the car move. (GM incessantly points out that two-thirds of Americans drive less than 40 miles a day, inferring that many Volt owners might never get to the point where the car switches on its engine.)
In the run-up to sales of the Volt—which GM has now started to hint could happen sooner than late 2010—you should expect to hear a lot more about why the Volt isn’t a “plug-in hybrid” but an “extended-range electric car.” GM has already publicized the vehicle more than any other upcoming vehicle. Its goal is to garner green points from a public that associates Toyota with good fuel economy… and Chevrolet with huge SUVs and pickup trucks.
But it’s an interesting PR challenge. Given that Toyota spent several years saying you didn’t have to plug in the Prius, how ready are consumers to hear about the differences among different types of cars that all have power cords? Stay tuned. | <urn:uuid:95b7c0d7-34dc-41d0-9ffb-04c7d8e19f5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hybridcars.com/toyota-speeds-plug-prius-chevy-counter-punches-24917/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96013 | 346 | 1.742188 | 2 |
I posted this on the main page as well.
Bill Polian (former NFL General Manager for the Bills, Panthers and Colts) was on Sportsnet 590 last night talking about evaluation criteria when scouting potential draft picks. And one of the factors he mentioned is a player's ability to scan the field, absorb/process all information in a split second, and react/make the right decision accordingly. I loosely interpret this to mean intelligence (not "football IQ", but general intelligence). He said that he has seen hundreds of players over the years who have all the physical gifts in the world, combined with a strong/dedicated work ethic, who have failed on the field because of their inability to process information quickly. He was mainly speaking of quarterbacks, but reiterated that it applies to all other positions as well.
Long story short, I wonder how true this is in basketball. Is general intelligence what truly separates good players from the all-time greats? Should general IQ tests be used as part of the scouting process? Do the Raptors currently have players that appear to be of high IQ (again, not "basketball IQ", but general intelligence)? | <urn:uuid:84c047e9-89f1-4b50-bf62-824a20f964d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.raptorsrepublic.com/forums/showthread.php?9002-Intelligence-in-players&p=162891&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967473 | 232 | 1.523438 | 2 |
I could spend all my time lecturing new inventors about how their own work attitudes and behaviors influence the success of their inventions more than any other factor. They would continue to think that invention success happens magically, or worse, from an "invention success" company.
But every once in awhile, I run into a three-dimensional, walking, talking and, most of all, hard-working soul, who embodies the qualities that make inventors successful. This time it's Robert ("Bobby") Amore who, with his "Toner Belt," made it to the round-of-twelve in season one of American Inventor (ABC, 2006). Bobby just happens to be one of the few contestants from season one and two who has reached the mass market with his product... now being sold as the "Walk n' Burn."
Bobby's a guy who has never taken "no" for an answer; not when something mattered to him. He played varsity ice hockey at Power Memorial Academy, a NYC high school that groomed athletes the likes of NBA's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Chris Mullen, and NHL players, Brian and Joe Mullen. In his senior year, Division A hockey recruiters told Bobby he "hadn't grown enough," for Division A. He was five feet, six inches tall, but he went on to become of the best players in Division B.
When Bobby wasn't taken by the pros after college, again because he wasn't tall enough, he became a sports diplomat with a People to People program to the then "Soviet block" countries. It turned out to be the best job in the world for Bobby: a life of travel, hockey playing, and diplomacy in other countries.
Curiosity, diligence, optimism, and perseverance are Bobby Amore's trademarks, and these characteristics can be seen in everything he does. These traits were no less obvious to commodity traders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange where Bobby, knowing nothing about trading or commodities, went from a floor runner to highly-paid trader, than they are to his invention partners.
Like most inventors, Bobby's first invention, a skate brake called SKIDS, didn't just hop from his frontal lobe to every pair of inline skates. SKIDS had its ups and downs. When financing fell through the first go-around, Bobby spent a year looking elsewhere, got his product patented, produced, licensed, and then he collected royalties on it for eight years.
When his first movie role with his friend, actor/director Tim Robbins, wasn't going too well, Bobby graciously bowed out and went to acting school until he got the confidence to get behind a camera again. To date, Robert Amore has had five other movie roles.
So what did Robert Amore do when the judges on American Inventor said 'sorry Bobby?' After months away from home, devoting almost every waking moment to creating packaging prototypes for the Toner Belt and scenarios for his TV appearances, after commiserating with all the other hopeful inventors on the American Inventor show day in and day out, after his family was misled by the producers into believing that Bobby would make it to the round of four.... What did Bobby do? He went out and made his product a success without American Inventor.
Bobby says he doesn't know exactly why the Toner Belt didn't progress further on American Inventor, but his disappointment didn't hang around for long. After all, he had received a U.S. patent for it, the Toner Belt was needed (especially by couch potatoes!), and he was determined to make it a winner.
Contacts with his patent attorney and others involved in the development of Toner Belt - now Walk n' Burn - introduced Bobby to licensing companies. Last summer, Bobby spent four entire days making connections with big licensing companies at the NYC Licensing Show. Bobby talked to a few companies before settling on a license deal with one of them. Now that his Walk n' Burn is off the ground, selling through infomercial and website, other licensing companies are asking Bobby to bring them more inventions.
Who's the winner of American Inventor? I say it's the guy who has thousands, maybe soon-to-be millions, of people buying his product. Bobby Amore only made it to the round-of-twelve on American Inventor Season 1, but that didn't keep him from making it to Number One in the real world.
If you want Bobby's help...
With an already full plate of his own inventions, a large new website venture, and weekly hockey coaching, Bobby is helping other inventors present their inventions to potential licensees If you want him to help you get your invention licensed, you'd better have your homework done ahead of time! He needs you to prepare a good drawing and/or prototype, a statement of purpose, marketing research, and a preliminary patent search. If Bobby thinks your invention will make a good fit with one of his contacts, he'll present it for you. Write him a note through Toner Belt.
(Another personal hero is Roger Brown, a successful inventor who writes for InventorSpot.com and participates often in the Forums. His interview can be read here.) | <urn:uuid:b1b70c73-005f-466f-a65f-c38c670f42bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inventorspot.com/articles/american_inventor_who_real_winne_9692 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983058 | 1,086 | 1.570313 | 2 |
After marching with over 30,000 people from Bryant Park through lower Manhattan yesterday, a Daily News reporter suddenly asked me what I thought America could learn from this march.
Images of hundreds of signs I’d seen that day passed through my head. I quickly tried to think of which one to talk about. Almost all of these concerns are deeply connected. Was there a way I could sum them up in my own words?
All I could say was what popped into my head. That I don’t think people should be ashamed of being poor, unemployed, hungry or homeless. Or working two jobs and still not being able to pay the bills. Join the club, it’s a big one. 150 million of us are struggling with poverty in this country right now. I think the first step towards working to solve this problem is to acknowledge it and talk about it.
Coming out and talking to other people about their challenges has been tremendously empowering and humbling. Marching with this huge crowd and talking to people individually was one of the most moving things I’ve ever done. Knowing that hundreds of May Day marches were taking place all over the world involving hundreds of thousands of people gave me a deep sense of international community. | <urn:uuid:471227c5-9f47-43eb-b71b-083edef08f6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://westhampton-hamptonbays.patch.com/groups/patti-robinsons-blog/p/bp--my-new-favorite-holiday-may-day | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981964 | 252 | 1.648438 | 2 |
John grew up with model steam trains as a child, then read some of the cyberpunk classic novels in his later formative years so it is perhaps no surprise that he would one day transform into Prof. Uncle Festa, Steampunk inventor and ‘upcycler’ extraordinaire. The good Professor is not just going to show off a range of wood and brass steampunk extravaganzas, he is going to turning ordinary household junk into "useful and/or beautiful objects" right before your very eyes at the Faire.
The quixotically creative Uncle Festa will also be holding workshops where he will discuss the philosophy of upcycling as a way of life and the practical challenges of forging works of varying forms and functions. Watch and be amazed as every day waste is transformed into the exotic such as an airship desk light, fairy shadow box (pictured), steampunk walking stick and the obligatory steampunk raygun. We can’t wait. | <urn:uuid:e3b7fb5b-22c0-468f-be62-e44e5d5f23b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://makerfairemelbourne.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/featured-maker-john-dalton/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=671450efa2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952468 | 201 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Manuscripts acquired by the University Library in 1950 (along with a large number of printed books incorporated into the general collection). Formerly part of the personal collection of James Heyworth-Dunne (d.1974), a senior reader in Arabic at SOAS, University of London from 1928-1948, who thereafter became a member of the staff at the Middle East Institute Washington, D.C. A collection of his personal papers is found at the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University.
Carrying almost exclusively Arabic texts (with one text in Arabic and Persian), the vast majority of these manuscripts were copied on lined paper in the early part of the 20th century and address philosophy and mysticism. Several texts are found in multiple copies, often incomplete or deliberately abridged or excerpted with commentary. They may represent modern manuscript facsimiles and notes, perhaps produced for a scholar's archive. They were eventually bound for James Heyworth-Dunne, likely in Egypt.
Inventory cataloguing for the Heyworth-Dunne Collection was completed over the course of three weeks in late May - early June of 1993 by Roberta L. Dougherty. Full cataloguing for the collection has been realized by project staff and contributors to the "Collaboration in Cataloging: Islamic Manuscripts at Michigan" project.
Language: Chiefly in Arabic with one title in Arabic and Persian.
References: University of Michigan. The President's report for 1950-1951. Ann Arbor, MI: The University, 1951, p.261 ; Dougherty, R. "Michigan Islamic Manuscripts Unaccessioned vols.," p.16 ; Behn, W. Concise Biographical Companion to Index Islamicus. Leiden, 2004-2006, p.75 ; Jajko, E. "Preliminary inventory to the James Heyworth-Dunne Papers, 1860-1949." Hoover Institution Archives, 1999.
View descriptions for the manuscripts of the Heyworth-Dunne Collection currently posted to the site here. | <urn:uuid:9bc3e35f-bd7f-48bf-a9f5-4edfe731b954> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lib.umich.edu/islamic/manuscript-collections/heyworth-dunne-collection | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940771 | 414 | 1.648438 | 2 |
A good way to fill the tank completely with water that has no strange currents is to place a layer of dirt (or something) one meter below where the top layer of water is, then cover the top layer with a smooth sheet of water that has no strange currents. Now remove every single block of dirt under it and the water will fall straight down and fill the tank. The layers below the top aren't source blocks, but this won't make a difference.
If you want to legit-fill the whole tank with source blocks, I suggest filling the bottom layer, then carefully building a dirt floor above it, then remove the dirt blocks one at a time and replace them with water by emptying a bucket against the dirt block next to the block you just removed once you've got the second layer done, repeat at the third layer. This will suck.
Alternately you could try using MCedit, as mentioned in a different solution.
Finally, you could use get a bunch of ice blocks and fill the pool entirely with them (one way to do that would be to use seedscope.net to swap your game into creative mode, fill it, then swap back) then punch the ice until it breaks. Ice blocks will turn into water when broken if they're on top of a solid block or a water block.s | <urn:uuid:b5e39406-ee21-49c2-bbe9-abfa700d28ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/64252/how-should-i-fill-a-tank | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9393 | 269 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Outdoor IP Camera or outdoor Internet protocol camera, is a central piece of equipment in creating an effective, functional, and wide range surveillance system. The outdoor camera is a type of digital video camera that sends and receives video footage through a computer network and the Internet which can be viewed remotely from any location. Just as a webcam streams videos to your family and friends the outdoor security camera streams outdoor surveillance video footage to any location you determine.
There are many benefits to using the outdoor internet protocol camera as part of your complete surveillance system. This camera has a high image resolution of at least 640X480 and can supply multi-megapixel resolution for clear video quality. It is designed to be very easy to install and relocate on an IP network. There is even an outdoor wireless camera variety available. With its encryption and authentication methods, the outdoor security camera system provides secure data transmission
Another important aspect of the outdoor safety camera is the live video streaming it provides to any computer with a web browser anywhere in the world. Remote accessibility is even possible from many mobile smartphones and other devices. This gives you confidence and flexibility to go about your daily tasks knowing the circumference of your business, home, and valuables are protected and secure.
Not only does the outdoor safety camera produce excellent video footage and imaging with versatile adjustment capabilities it also is discreet and vandal-resistant. Built-in heaters and fans protect the IP camera from the harsh elements it encounters outside.
All IP Security Solutions (AIPSS), believes in providing the best security systems and products available in the surveillance market today. Therefore, we are pleased to say that all our products are top brand names; such as, Brickcom, Acti, Samsung, and many more. We make sure our customers walk away knowing they have the most dependable, reliable, and quality outdoor protection camera and video surveillance system available in the security market today.
As your premier provider, AIPSS takes pride in supplying a variety of quality surveillance equipment and providing expert customer service to fulfill all your outdoor IP camera needs. | <urn:uuid:689a42df-9c7c-4187-8a54-c14c62ab4fbc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.allipsecuritysolutions.com/outdoor-ip-camera/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935845 | 415 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Stubbs Tower Implosion - Savannah, Georgia - 2007-12-15
WSAV - Savannah, Georgia Hilton Head, South Carolina NBC affiliate station.
Stubbs Tower on Bee Road in Savannah came down around 8 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 15, with a series of controlled explosions. 400-500 pounds of explosives were used to create a twenty five foot tall pile of debris from the former fifteen-story low-income housing highrise.
Sorry. No video to embed here. You must visit this link to see the disgustingly poor quality teevee station videos:
Long lead-in by television news talking heads and a brief discussion of the implosion methodology by a spokesman for D.H. Griffin, the company responsible for the implosion. D.H. Griffin has been in the implosion business for several decades and also managed the implosion of the old Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. There are several videos of the implosion from different angles and a computer simulation created by N.C. State University' Department of Applied Science International.
There aren't very many tall buildings in the low country. So, this is an exciting event for people in the area. The dust generated was one of the chief concerns that justified city officials keeping spectators a significant distance from the implosion.
The videos can be captured by using the very useful and free Orbit Downloader in conjunction with the internal utility called Grab++.
[Not a paid advertisement.] | <urn:uuid:a8a8574c-520e-41d0-a306-6585246e1a46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://911blogger.com/news/2007-12-17/stubbs-tower-implosion-savannah-georgia-2007-12-15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946716 | 301 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The president "should have stuck to his guns" on Mideast peace, says Zbigniew Brzezinski, former NSC advisor
The unorthodox Zbigniew Brzezinski (Credit: AP)
Zbigniew Brzezinski’s new book, “Strategic Vision,” imagines a world without American power. He envisions profound instability, faltering international cooperation and weak states falling prey to their more dominant neighbors. Describing the dystopia that would emerge if America goes under is a trick British historian Niall Ferguson pioneered. Unlike the jingoistic Ferguson, however, Brzezinski is able to envision China replacing America as the stabilizing force in world affairs. “I don’t think liberal states are more restrained or stabilizing,” he says. “The United States’ actions in the last 20 years, especially with the war in Iraq, do not give reassurance on that score.”
Such unorthodox thinking has made the Polish-born Brzezinski arguably the greatest living scholar-practitioner in Democratic Party ranks. As a scholar, he was erratic but he also foresaw the Soviet Union’s crack-up long before it occurred. As Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor, he was controversial and even reckless, but he imbued the president with strong doses of reality concerning the Soviet Union and the Middle East. Since the end of the Cold War, he stayed relevant presciently opposing the Iraq War and supporting presidential candidate Barack Obama at a crucial, early date.
In a telephone interview from his office at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., Brzezinski has both praise and criticism for the president: “He was an improvement by a very large score over his predecessor, but he could have been better.” He thinks the Obama administration “should have stuck to its guns in promoting a fair settlement” in the Middle East. A longtime foe of Israel’s partisans in the United States, he says the Obama team “fumbled by getting outmaneuvered by the Israelis.” Then he gets blunter: “Domestic politics interceded: The Israelis have a lot of influence with Congress, and in some cases they are able to buy influence.”
Brzezinski is still a believer in the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and is hopeful that Obama will again take up the cause if he gets a second term. “He would have time and the historical immunity to do so, because he wouldn’t be facing an election.” He also thinks space has opened up in the United States to be more critical of Israel. “The American public is becoming more discriminating, and the Jewish public in America is becoming more discriminating,” he says. “They realize that extremist sloganeering and warmongering are not the most helpful approaches.” Brzezinski is careful to note that he was never an official advisor to either candidate or President Obama but lets it be known they are still in touch: “I have a relationship where from time to time I am able to share my views with him,” he says.
The focus of “Strategic Vision” is not on the Middle East, but further to the east. Unlike other adherents to the foreign-policy school known as realism, Brzezinski does not see war between China and the United States as inevitable. Conflict, yes, but war, no. “You can have conflicts but avoid a real collision,” he says, arguing there is only a “remote possibility” of war between China and the U.S. over the next 10 to 15 years.
What makes Brzezinski relatively optimistic for the chances of Sino-American cooperation are his views on history. Many times when great powers have shifted positions in the international hierarchy, they have gone to war. Those predicting China and the United States will inevitably come to blows are relying on history and international relations theory, Brzezinski says. “That’s fine as long as there is historical continuity,” he says, but he thinks the world has changed. “I think major wars have become too prohibitively costly for both sides” for states to want to engage in them, he says.
Two things could potentially ruin the chances for good relations between China and the United States, he suggests: a technological-military revolution, and ineffective leadership. “If there are fantastic breakthroughs in military capabilities that allow one side to neutralize each other’s,” Brzezinski says, the delicate balance necessary to maintain stability would be thrown off. Fortunately, there isn’t much chance of such a technology developing in the foreseeable future, he believes.
The quality of leadership is Brzezinski’s real wild card. Prudent leaders from both countries that prepare their respective publics for the compromises that will inevitably have to be made are badly needed. But the “mindless hypocrisy” of the Republican presidential candidates gives little ground for hope. He won’t single out any of them, finding all of them deeply flawed and uninspiring. Noting the Republican names attached to the blurbs for ”Strategic Vision” — among them former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft — Brzezinski believes there still is the “possibility for consensus.” But men like Scowcroft and Gates, who come from the center-right of the political spectrum, are no longer much welcomed in today’s Republican Party. “That is part of the problem,” he laughed, not sounding entirely amused. | <urn:uuid:02015040-ae3e-488b-aa65-0cbf35465155> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.salon.com/2012/01/20/zbig_israelis_bought_influence_and_outmaneuvered_obama/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965188 | 1,185 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Sep 6th 2008 5:46PM Yep, London can be quite expensive to the untrained eye. There are plenty of ways to “beat the system” if you are willing to listen and explore new ideas. Hundreds of tourists have been forced to use the tube (underground network) to travel one or two stops when they can walk it or take the bus to get there. You get to see much more about London by bus and to top it off; they do stop every 100-150m’s anyway, so it is not that far if you missed your stop.
Plenty of busses in Central London now have a system installed that calls out the stops and some of them even mention a tourist attraction which is ideal for any tourist trying to see a bit more of the city. There are a few more ways you can make technology work for you to help you save money around London, you just got to keep an open mind. | <urn:uuid:142368d0-a35f-4408-b9fd-82e6c61e2c3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gadling.com/profile/2197901/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962964 | 210 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Name: Shrink It
100 based on
Objective: Shrink It is a physics-based puzzle game where your goal is to shrink and grow different objects in each level to get the smiley to the exit.
Try to complete all 20 levels!
This game has no available trophies for the moment. Here are a few games that currently have trophies that you can win. | <urn:uuid:25b6e952-54ce-434f-8ad4-8b0f83aa88e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gamesheep.com/game/shrink-it/ | 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 | 0.962443 | 80 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Migrant children omitted in health statistics
Children migrating to WA from the Eastern states and from overseas are excluded from government planning for child health nurses. By Linda Belardi.
Hundreds of children migrating to Western Australia each year are being ignored in regard to government planning for child health services, a parliamentary report has revealed. An interim report on early childhood development, said despite the state's huge population boom, the Department of Health did not keep statistics on the children of migrants aged from birth to five years. The Education and Health Standing Committee said it was surprised by the finding and recommended an agreement be immediately developed with federal agencies to collect this data. "Given these children form a...
Note: your email address will not be displayed | <urn:uuid:7f801fdb-4f3c-4950-814d-0f3c400f8e9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nursingreview.com.au/pages/section/article.php?s=News&idArticle=23404 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953561 | 145 | 1.726563 | 2 |
June 29, 2012
An America's Cup sailing event is being held to Newport, R.I., for the first time in 29 years. Sailors began arriving in Newport last week for the final leg of the America's Cup World Series regatta, which has been held at stops all across the world to gin up excitement for the official America's Cup next year in San Francisco.
No longer the sleepy, tactical event of old, the race now features a revolutionary new boat — the AC45 catamaran, made of carbon fiber and powered by a giant vertical wing. The high-tech boats are smaller versions of the vessels that sailors will be skippering in next year's big race.
"The boats are relentless," says Australian sailor James Spithill, who races for Oracle Team USA. "They are the most physical thing we've ever sailed and the most exciting thing we've ever sailed, and then probably the most demanding."
Spithill, also known as "James Pitbull," was a childhood boxer from Australia who left the ring for the sea. The youngest man ever to win the America's Cup, Spithill arrived in Newport skippering a class boat that's reinventing the game.
'Something That They've Never Seen Before'
These catamarans have also piqued the interest of Newport's residents. Even though this week's regatta is not the finals, Brad Read, chairman of the local host committee, says that with the right sailing conditions, the event just might knock the Topsiders off the locals.
"I'm really hoping it's windy because the people are going to just see something that they've never seen before," Read says.
Newport resident Halsey Herreshoff is excited to show off his backyard to a new generation of international sailors. Though their name is often mispronounced, the Herreshoffs are like royalty in sailing. Herreshoff's grandfather designed and built the first catamaran back in the 1870s.
Halsey Herreshoff has sailed all across the world from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, but he says, "I come back here, and I look out at my window and I see Narragansett Bay, and I think to myself, 'Yeah, those places were all great, but this is the best.' "
Like NASCAR On Water
Sailors like Spithill want to show people that sailboat racing has moved past the days of Ted Turner in a blazer. The regatta also allows sailors to get comfy with the high-tech craft because, as Spithill says, they're dangerous.
On a recent ride, the boat kicked up to 24 knots or so on Narragansett Bay. One hull lifted out of the water, and Spithill and his Oracle teammates leaned their bodies over its side. The boat balanced at a 40-degree angle, slicing through waters crowded with pleasure boats.
Unlike in the past, this new breed of sailing does not permit dead weight. Navigators, tacticians and other non-athletes can no longer just sit onboard during races. "If you can't put some serious horsepower into the boat, the guys [onboard] aren't going to carry you around," Spithill says.
Still, Spithill hopes the new boats will increase the sport's popularity. He wants people to view sailboat racing like NASCAR on the water. And as he threads his racing machine through waters off Newport, leaving the pleasure boats in his wake, you can't help but think he might get his wish. As every NASCAR fan knows, speed sells.
Comment on This Article
From The World's Science podcast to Nova, we'll deliver updates from these cutting edge programs. See a sample » | <urn:uuid:b8ef67e4-575d-453f-b31c-e2ed72c53cc5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wgbh.org/articles/Ready-Set-Sail-Americas-Cup-Back-In-Rhode-Island-6640 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972665 | 773 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Working in Retirement: Intentions vs. Reality
According to a recent Retirement Confidence Survey, Americans are now shedding their false confidence about their retirement futures and accepting that their meager retirement savings won’t last very long. But the benefits of accepting that they have a retirement problem may be short-lived.
The real problems with this intention to work in retirement are two-fold. First, it means that in combination with not having saved enough, our fellow workers aren’t mentally prepared to cut back on their current lifestyle when they retire. The only solution for them is to keep earning a paycheck.
That brings us to the second – and more severe – problem: Intention – meet reality. This is from the survey commentary:
The Retirement Confidence Survey has consistently found that workers are far more likely to expect to work for pay in retirement than retirees are to have actually worked. Only 23 percent of retirees report they worked for pay in retirement. So intentions may be one thing and reality another.
Compare those numbers: 74% of workers today “intend” to work in retirement, to compensate for their failure to save enough. However, only 23% of retirees actually do work.
Something has to give, don’t you agree? I think it will be the “working” part. So you had better put a Retirement Plan B in place, such as more saving and less spending.
Here is a link to a Forbes article about the Retirement Confidence Survey: Trouble on the High Seas of Retirement?
FREE UPDATES: If you enjoy what you read here, please consider subscribing to receive free updates automatically by RSS feed or by email. (I promise that your email address will not be shared or used for any other purpose.) | <urn:uuid:cda800ec-21a3-4b91-976b-eb891ea99b9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gotoretirement.com/2011/03/working-retirement-intentions-reality/ | 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 | 0.96919 | 361 | 1.640625 | 2 |
It is difficult to overstate the potential significance of this little book to the education of young people. It represents a paradigm-shift in terms of beliefs and practices about what can be achieved in terms of quality of work by all students. Its alluring charm is its simplicity and self-evident authenticity; its warmth and generosity; its conviction and passion for student success. Having visited schools in the states that have modelled their practices on Ron Berger's approaches, I have seen levels of student engagement, achievement and self-esteem beyond anything I thought possible in mainstream schooling systems. Those involved in running our schools should take note; those who work in them, who really care about students, should devour this book. | <urn:uuid:96f4ebfe-bb54-492b-a0ca-22ef2af4ab8c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.co.uk/An-Ethic-Excellence-Building-Craftsmanship/dp/0325005966 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97776 | 143 | 1.523438 | 2 |
I'm putting together an overview on decertification and how it applies in the context of these NHL CBA talks.
Before I get that out, here's a real quick hit on the bottom line as it relates to decertification.
It’s unlawful for competitors to get together and fix the marketplace. If they do so, they open themselves up to antitrust lawsuits. This applies to the NHL, because the 30 team owners are competitors and they get together and place restrictions on the NHL marketplace. Things like a salary cap, free agency restrictions and rookie pay are all on their face antitrust violations. Another thing that is an antitrust violation: the owners getting together and agreeing to lockout the players.
However, since these restrictions are inside the protective bubble that is the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the NHL is protected and the players can’t sue for these antitrust violations.
That all changes though if the players decertify. By decertifying, the NHL players blow up the NHLPA and revoke the NHLPA’s authority to bargain on their behalf.
Suddenly, the CBA exception protecting the NHL against antitrust lawsuits may no longer apply and players are now free to sue the NHL for its antitrust violations. The first antitrust violation they would tackle in court is to have the illegal boycott that is the NHL lockout declared unlawful and lifted.
The players hope that the threat of antitrust litigation will encourage the NHL to settle on more favourable terms. | <urn:uuid:f1b3e394-966b-4a83-af7f-4087f1219d28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://offsidesportsblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/nhl-decertification-in-206-words.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947717 | 297 | 1.710938 | 2 |
UFA – When the players of the 2013 Czech and Slovak U20 national teams were born, they were born in separate countries. On this day 20 years ago, the Velvet Divorce – the split-up of Czechoslovakia – became reality.
Because the countries were split during the 1993 IIHF Ice Hockey U20 World Championship in Sweden, it caused the organizers, the team and its players a trivia-worthy situation.
The team went into the tournament representing Czechoslovakia, with juniors coming from both parts.
The offence was led by David Vyborny, born in the Czech city of Jihlava, and the late Pavol Demitra from the Slovak city of Dubnica, who died in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash in September 2011.
The team’s top defenceman was Jan Vopat from the Czech city of Most. His promising career in the NHL ended early due to a rare skin illness. He has worked as an NHL scout since 2005. Frantisek Kaberle just had one point, but kickstarted a long and successful career on the blueline. Igor Murin from the Slovak city of Trencin was the goalie.
After losing to Finland 5-2 and defeating the United States 6-5, the Czechoslovaks lost the third game in Gävle to host Sweden 7-2. A 1-1 tie against Russia on 30 December 1992 was the last international hockey game for Czechoslovakia.
When the players gathered for New Year’s Eve, it was not a normal celebration. Although they continued the tournament as one team, the players were from two different countries from then on.
“That was very tough. At that time, we had a very tight group,” the late Demitra told IIHF.com in an interview published in May 2011. “I remember after the New Year, we’d won a couple of games, and then they didn’t play our national song anymore. That was very weird.”
With the Velvet Divorce, politicians from then-Czechoslovakia wanted to separate the two brotherly nations and leave the Czechoslovak past behind them. It had brought glory in hockey, but it was also mentally connected with tough decades for the people under communism and Soviet control.
It was a self-determined separation that ended the more-than-six-decades-long history of a country that was created following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The peaceful way it was done makes the people speak proudly about the separation, especially in comparison with other post-communism break-ups like the wars in former Yugoslavia or the casualties during the Baltic nations’ movement to restore independence from the Soviet Union.
On January 1, 1993 the same team called “Czech and Slovak Republics,” as of that day, defeated Japan 14-2. It continued with wins over Germany (6-3) and Canada (7-4) to end the round-robin event in third place and claim the bronze medals behind Canada with Paul Kariya and Sweden with a record-setting Peter Forsberg.
But something was different. The Czechoslovak anthem was not played anymore. Instead the Czech/Slovak team was honoured without a flag and the IIHF anthem was played.
“I remember that after we won the bronze medal, everybody sang the Czechoslovakian national anthem all together, and that was very special,” Demitra said.
While the 1993 World Juniors in Sweden marked the beginning of a professional career for many players, it was also a kickstart for two new countries that have caught up in prosperity and openness in the two decades.
Not all players became superstars, but eight Czechs and four Slovaks from the 1993 U20 team went on to represent their new nations at least once in another IIHF tournament.
Their national teams went in different directions from then on. The Czech Republic was the formal successor of Czechoslovakia in the sporting world, while Slovakia started as a new country.
The Slovaks had to start from bottom in the World Championship system in ice hockey and work their way up. They did so with success. At the 2000 World Championship in St. Petersburg, the two brotherly nations even met in the gold medal game, which the Czechs won 5-3.
Two years later the Slovaks won their first and so far only gold medal at the 2002 World Championship in Sweden. And just last year in Helsinki, Slovakia ousted the Czechs 3-1 in the semi-finals before settling for silver against Russia, followed by a huge welcome by tens of thousands of fans at home in Bratislava.
Over the last 20 years, life in the two countries has become different. Daily news doesn’t alternate in the two related languages anymore like it did in the past, which was leading to passive bilingualism.
While many Slovaks still understand Czech nowadays, it’s more difficult the other way around. It’s that kind of drifting apart that led politicians in 1992 to believe that a separation would be better than a closer federation.
But many things have stayed the same. Products are still traded a lot between the countries and brands are shared across the border. For four years following the dissolution, the countries even continued to share the same country code, before phone calls between the Czech Republic and Slovakia became international in 1997.
Long after the split, there have also been initiatives for closer co-operation, mostly from the side of Slovakia. With roughly five million people, its population is half that of the Czech Republic.
For example, the countries’ version of the casting show “Pop Idol” was merged in 2009 to determine the “Cesko Slovenska SuperStar”.
Similar things have happened in sports, where, for instance, the Slovak hockey league lacks in competitiveness and money compared to the big European leagues. But plans for a merged Czech-Slovak hockey league fell through in the very early stages due to lack of interest from the Czech clubs. As a result, the famous Slovak team Slovan Bratislava turned towards Russia and joined the KHL this season.
The Slovaks also proposed a co-hosted World Championship in Prague and in Bratislava, just like during the Czechoslovakian era in 1959 and 1992. But a few weeks ago the Czechs said “ne,” and they will host the 2015 tourney within their borders in Prague and Ostrava as proposed in the original bid.
In hockey terms, the rivalry will continue without a closer partnership off the ice. But for the Czech and Slovak players in Ufa born in 1993 and later, that’s exactly what they have known for their whole life: a brotherly rivalry between two neighbours. It’s one that will not be celebrated on the ice in Ufa this time, since the Czechs made it to the quarter-finals, while the Slovaks have to play in the Relegation Round.
Both the Czechs and Slovaks were able to win World Championships over the last two decades with their men’s national teams. But at the junior level, they haven’t been able to repeat their past success in the last few years.
In the 17 years that Czechoslovakia played in the U20 World Championship, it won 11 medals. In the 20 years since, the Czech Republic has medalled only three times (although it won two golds in 2000 and 2001, a colour Czechoslovak U20 teams never achieved), and Slovakia has won one U20 medal, the bronze in 1999.
A downward spiral of decreasing competitiveness in domestic junior leagues and juniors leaving the country has hurt the two nations’ programs. It’s a crucial time, since veteran stars like Jaromir Jagr or Miroslav Satan will need to be succeeded by new Czech and Slovak superstars.
But unlike in pop music, in hockey a casting show won’t be enough. | <urn:uuid:e7b46e6b-20be-4aae-957d-ed5547a96b5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iihf.com/se/home-of-hockey/news/news-singleview/browse/5/recap/7445.html?tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=187&cHash=9dec8f9170 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978457 | 1,685 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Tripp Hudgins' First Thoughts: SOPA and the Wisdom of Creative Freedom
"Wisdom wants to be free. As a Christian, I believe there is actually some theology to this....Wisdom is a woman and she stands at the gates of the city and she cries out to the people, 'Be free. Be free to love and be free to share.'...What if we understood creativity to be wisdom?"
Tripp Hudgins is a doctoral student in liturgical studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., and associate pastor of First Baptist Church of Palo Alto, Calif. You can read more of his writings on his longtime blog, "Conjectural Navel Gazing; Jesus in Lint Form" at AngloBaptist.org. | <urn:uuid:c3f6f74a-231a-40da-a1b9-9c914e734d86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sojo.net/blogs/2012/01/19/tripp-hudgins-first-thoughts-sopa-and-wisdom-creative-freedom | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938844 | 157 | 1.5 | 2 |
By Pat SangiminoFree speech is alive and well. But it's not actually free. It's really just a misconception. A myth. An urban legend.
Example: My First Amendment right gives me the power to call you an idiot. But the right to my speaking might come with consequences. Maybe a sock in the nose.
You see? Free speech isn't necessarily free.
So the student newspaper is correct when it claims to have every right to do a hatchet job on the down-and-out football team on campus. It can refer to the team it covers as road kill. It is allowed to run a cartoon that belittles the locals and it can even publish hundreds of words making it clear that this team has no chance of beating its rival.
It's the student paper's constitutional right.
But there are ramifications to this freedom.
There are consequences to taking this kind of hard-line approach. It's no mystery. There's nothing esoteric about it. There very well could be a response. The players on that team may stop talking to you. The coaches, too. And, in this day of the social media, the head coach might just tweet his displeasure for the world to see.
By now we've all heard about Charlie Weis' feud with members of the University Daily Kansan. Heck, every paper in the land has taken the opportunity to rip on Weis and his 1-5 football program for the way it has treated a group of student journalists.
But as crazy as this might sound, I side with Weis.
The same right afforded to the student journalists who ripped the Kansas Jayhawks through cartoons, numerous columns and other opinion pieces made it permissible for Weis to tweet.Team slammed by our own school newspaper. Amazing! No problem with opponents (sic) paper or local media. You deserve what you get! But not home!
A mild criticism to the school paper, but it caused the UDK into circle-the-wagons mode. In a column, one student journalist spoke of his First Amendment rights, and that "students at this university deserve better than a pom-pom squad of a newspaper. They deserve to get the truth."
Unfortunately, the truth is not compelling.
It's dog-bites-man stuff. Kansas is bad in football this season. We knew that already. You can write that once and be done with it. But a hometown paper has an obligation to dig deeper than that. What's it going to take to get better? Is Weis, the high-profile coach formerly from Notre Dame, frustrated? Can one great recruiting class provide immediate improvement?
All valid stories. And all within the boundaries of good journalism. You can report and write these stories without waiving your pompons, without appearing to be a booster to the program.
And it's what your readership wants. That's the biggest mistake made this week by the UDK. It has not taken into account the wants and needs of the readers. In the coverage area that is the KU campus, the readers want coverage of the KU football team - not the inside-baseball drama that this newspaper has instead provided.
Cover your team professionally. Don't take cheap shots, especially since the Jayhawks entered this season with little expectation of winning consistently.
The UDK chose to pile on in the days leading up to the Jayhawks' game with nationally ranked rival Kansas State. Piling on does nothing but harbor bad blood and potentially puts roadblocks on future coverage.
The UDK staff learned that this week when it was invited to Weis' weekly press conference, but was urged by the sports information staff not to ask any questions during Weis' presentation.
Again, that was well within the football department's rights.
Weis isn't required to field questions from all media members - especially from those who he believes have an axe to grind with his program.
Perhaps what makes this story most unsavory is that the UDK made itself the story and - as a result - thrust itself into the national spotlight.
The tenor of this story is that Weis bullied a group of student journalists. But let's be accurate here, Weis exercised his right not to speak freely to a group of student journalists who didn't weigh the consequences of free speech.
Ripping the local team is seldom advised. In doing so, one might find himself with the difficult challenge of covering the home team from the outside.
Weis might have provided these young journalists with a great lesson, should they choose to continue their journalistic endeavors in the real world. Journalistic success, like in life itself, is predicated on one's ability to build trust and grow relationships.
You can write the slam piece on a coach, a player or a team, but think hard before writing that story - especially if there is any plan on covering this team, this coach or these sources in the long term.
Chances are the UDK is going to have to do some fence mending with Weis. The good news is that a new staff will be along in another year. New editors. New reporters. And new columnists. It will be a fresh start for all.
Still, I wish them luck covering this program for the remainder of the football season - and maybe past that.
Yes, this is something that could go beyond football.
What if Bill Self were a huge Charlie Weis fan? What is Self didn't like the way the new coach was being treated by the UDK and chose to freeze out student reporters during basketball season?
It could happen.
Coaches tend to stick together.
The moral of this tale is simple: Ripping the local team isn't advised. It's simply not good for long-term job success.
Pat Sangimino is the sports editor for The Hutchinson News. Email: [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:60d6db29-f01e-4acd-bb93-557e0d6cac97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hutchnews.com/Print/1014-Pat-s-Sunday-column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968751 | 1,224 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Filed under: Uncategorized
Katia Opalka, a Montreal-based environmental lawyer and professor at the School of Environment, gave a talk recently entitled “What a fool believes (in 2012): Journalists, Scientists and End of the World-ists.” I interviewed her shortly afterward to talk about environmental protection, education, faith, and Canadian politics.
MSE: Your talk opened with a contrast between knowledge and belief, and one of your big themes was the fact that the empirical evidence supporting phenomena like climate change seem powerless in the face of industry and politics. Might we need more faith in science along with pure scientific knowledge?
KO: Anyone in the scientific community will tell you that science is just as political as anything else: who gets funded, what they research, who gets published, what the information gets used for.
I think that in order for there to be a public shift in the direction of [not] just believing stuff because we don’t know whom to believe and believing science, there needs to be a framework, which is honest, and which says to the public: “Look, we understand why you are just as wary of science and scientists as of any other claim that someone has made. It’s reasonable for you to be distrustful, you’re not stupid.”
One of the things is that you need to promise is that the disagreements that scientists have over the interpretations of findings [will be made public]. A lot is being asked of the public – major shifts in consumption, in transportation, and not only that. The public as a whole is getting worried with the storms that have been going on. People I think are rapidly going to move into a state of serious worry, and once people are afraid for their personal safety and personal livelihood, it’s not going to be hard for them to say, “forget science altogether, I’m going for God.”
MSE: As someone who teaches, what kind of role do you think education might have in getting a way out of the situation we’re in?
KO: Much more attention needs to be focused on the factors that affect how theory gets translated into practice. People need to be able to list off those factors the way kids sing the alphabet song.
In universities, while it may be difficult for students who haven’t been out there in the market or in the world and maybe can’t appreciate these real world factors, it’s amazing to be taught them because it helps you see afterwards when you’re out doing things, what’s going on.
I think that McGill could do a better job in trying to do what the MSE has started to try and do, which is to say: “If you have an environmental objective – say trying to preserve biodiversity in Canada – there are very clear answers to what’s going to prevent that from happening.”
Maybe in other fields, it’s okay for things to remain at a theory level, but in environmental protection, my measure of success for any environmental document is to ask “is it better for the environment that you wrote this thing?”
MSE: A lot of your talk was about Canada, and one of the things you mentioned is that you’d like to see the next election play out between a renewed Liberal party and moderate Conservatives. Do you think that could be enough to get us out of the quite dark picture you painted?
KO: Really, really far. I believe that to understand Stephen Harper’s agenda for oil and gas and the environment, you need to look at George Bush and Dick Cheney. And it’s exactly the same, except that it’s much harder for an American president to just ditch all environmental laws and get rid of the EPA, as I said in my speech. As we saw in Canada, it’s really easy for a Canadian prime minister to do that.
-Emilio Comay del Junco | <urn:uuid:90dc0ffe-d974-4b9a-9233-16718ef3b1d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.mcgill.ca/mse/2013/02/05/do-you-believe-in-science-an-interview-with-katia-opalka/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97354 | 832 | 1.632813 | 2 |
East Africa famine: Ikea makes record $62m aid pledge
The charitable arm of the furniture giant Ikea is donating $62m (£38m) over the next three years for people in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.
The funds will go through the UN refugee agency, which said it was the largest private donation it had received in its 60-year history.
Dadaab, which mainly houses Somalis, is the biggest refugee camp in the world.
Its population has swollen by 150,000 in past months, following drought and famine in the Horn of Africa.
It now holds some 440,000 people, despite only being designed for 90,000.
The money from the Ikea Foundation will be used to expand emergency relief and assist up to 120,000 people, said the UNHCR.
"This humanitarian gesture by the Ikea Foundation comes at a critical time," said Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
"The crisis in the Horn of Africa continues to deepen with thousands of people fleeing Somalia every week. We are extremely grateful. Help like this can't come a moment too soon."
A spokesman said said the UN had examined the donation with "due diligence" before it was accepted, news agency AP reported.'Bold'
The UN says tens of thousands of people have already died in Somalia alone, and some 3.2m others are thought to be on the brink of starvation.
In a statement, chief executive officer of the Ikea Foundation Per Heggenes said the donation was a "bold but natural extension of Ikea Foundation's longstanding commitment to making a better everyday life for children and families in need throughout the developing world".
Ikea spokesman Jonathan Spanpinata told the BBC that the donations would not include any flatpack furniture - though it has previously sent mattresses and duvets to Tunisian refugees.
The furniture chain is the world's largest and published financial results for the first time last year, showing that total sales were 23.1bn euros ($31.7bn; £20bn) for the year ending in August.
It did not provide profit figures. | <urn:uuid:e78a6243-1dbe-482c-beb8-4b9e8e57ff07> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14721253 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966806 | 440 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Travel and Teach Abroad
Trade Your Concrete Jungle for a Real One
By T.J. Fournier
As I gather my books for my day at school, I look out the window at the snow-capped Andes. Smoke curls from the chimneys of houses some 1,000 feet below and church bells ring in the barrio. On the bus to work I eat a warm, buttered arepa while we twist through the hills.
Trading my U.S. classroom in the concrete jungle for one in mountainous Colombia was not a hard choice for me. For many educators, though, teaching abroad seems only something to dream about because they may not be aware of the real opportunities to travel and teach.
“Many foreign schools have a very significant need for well-trained North American teachers,” says Joe Fuchillo of International Educators Cooperative (IEC), an agency whose goal is to match teachers and administrators with South American schools. “Most U.S. teachers are unaware of the opportunities available worldwide for both short- and long-term contracts.”
“Traditionally, the contracts for foreign teachers run from two to five years,” he notes, “so there is constant turnover, a constant demand for new staffing.”
IEC is one of the smaller headhunting agencies serving international schools. (See list of recruitment agencies and fairs.) Most fairs are held in late February while large numbers of North American schools are closed for vacation. Attendees include administrators, teachers, and school service professionals. Many are veterans of international education. Others, like my wife and I were, are novices.
Just recently married, my wife and I began our journey over a cup of coffee. We are both former Peace Corps volunteers and perpetually afflicted with wanderlust; we were discussing whether to continue teaching in the Detroit public schools or to take a leave of absence and travel. It was evident before the coffee got cold what we were going to do.
We began by canvassing university schools of education, the Peace Corps office in Washington, and our colleagues for information regarding international schools: where they are, who hires, who gets hired, the average salary, etc. We were sent brochures, pamphlets, and applications.
The choices seemed endless. Instead of pursuing every lead, we decided what region of the world we wanted to focus on and what type of population we wanted to work with (urban or rural, native or expatriate, poor or wealthy). Our choice was South America, partly because I am fluent in Spanish. We were determined not to teach in a capital city as we were already accustomed to large populations in small spaces. Finally, we preferred teaching a native population.
Selecting an Agency
These criteria allowed us to hone our choices to a few selected agencies that deal specifically with South American schools. IEC, as a small agency, was very accommodating in responding to our questions and concerns. With our resumes and dossiers in hand, we flew to Houston for a weekend of interviewing, trading information with other applicants, and undergoing intense soul searching.
The fair began on Friday evening with an ice-breaking cocktail hour. We mingled with teachers, administrators, and conference coordinators. We were fascinated with our competition—attendees came from all parts of the world. On Saturday morning we met in a large conference room in which each school had its own table. The school directors had already reviewed our applications and posted the names of potential applicants at their stations. We were to find our names and wait in line to be interviewed. If our names were not posted anywhere, or if the school in which we were interested didn’t post our names, we became second priority and were to stand in line until the preliminary interviews were finished. We were each given six interviews and received as many job offers.
Upon deciding on the Colegio Granadino in Manizales, Colombia, we returned to Detroit with new contracts in hand. Our principals accepted our announcement with good cheer, pleased that their staff members were looking to broaden their experiences. We were both offered unconditional leaves of absence and support in linking our schools in Detroit with Colombia through email pen pal exchanges.
As we begin our second term teaching at elementary schools in Manizales, we can hardly believe our luck. New experiences, new challenges, and a new perspective are benefits we find here that even the strongest of unions back home could not bargain into our contracts. Do yourselves and your classrooms a favor. Take a risk and do what few dare to do: teach abroad.
T.J. Fournier writes from Manizales, Colombia. | <urn:uuid:3ff85765-18d3-46c1-912b-ac1258aac465> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/work/teachingk12university/articles/travelandteach.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978898 | 960 | 1.507813 | 2 |
5 Simple Ways to Cut Your Car Expenses
Transportation today can be considered a basic need. We need it for work, gathering resources, and basic improvement of our lives. That being said, it can also be a major cost that has the potential to break budgets. With ever-rising gas prices, it's important to do what we can to cut back vehicle expenses. Here are five simple things you can do to keep that cash in your wallet! (See also: How to Save Money Buying a New Car and Be Happy.)
1. Drive Older, Reliable Vehicles
According to Money-Zine.com, a vehicle bought for $25,000 will on average depreciate by $3,750.00 within the first year. Ouch! That's a 15% drop in value in just 12 short months! After five years, the vehicle would have dropped nearly 55% of its value and be worth $11,093. Unless you're a millionaire, it's unwise to take this financial hit. Let someone else buy the car new!
With that being said, you want to make sure that you don't buy an unreliable vehicle. Purchase something that will stand the test of time. Read Consumer Reports and find the vehicle that is right for you!
2. Perform Routine Maintenance
Lack of routine maintenance can be the difference between low repair costs and outrageous repair charges. It is vital to keep a regular maintenance schedule. Every vehicle is different, so it is best to refer to your owner's manual. However, here is a general service schedule you could follow:
- At time of gas fill: Check fluid levels and tire condition and pressure.
- Every 3,000 miles or three months: Change oil, check hoses, wipers, tread depth, and battery.
- Every 7,500 miles or six months: Service battery, rotate and balance tires, and check brake pad wear.
- Every 15,000 miles or one year: Replace transmission fluid and air filters, and have a mechanic do a thorough check on entire vehicle.
- Every 60,000 miles or four years: Replace and refill power steering fluid and replace timing belt.
It'll feel like you're spending more money and time, but if regular maintenance prevents an accident or major repair, you'll be glad you put in the extra effort!
3. Get Another Car Insurance Quote
It's easy to buy car insurance and just forget about it. However, it's not always the best thing for our billfolds! Here are three strategies you can use to lower your car insurance expenses:
- Get a quote from another insurance agency. Unless you are with one of the top rated insurance companies and are getting a fantastic deal, you might want to shop the competition occasionally. When I first shopped around, I found that by switching companies I was able to save over $500 a year for the same coverage.
- Ask your current insurance company for discounts. Sometimes a simple phone call to your insurance agent will uncover discounts you can use. Look for discounts for students, seniors, cars that have passive restraint systems, anti-lock brakes, and anti-theft devices. Also, by grouping home insurance with auto insurance, many companies offer a bundle discount!
- Raise your deductible if you have a healthy savings account. You'll be amazed at how much money you can save if you simply raise your deductible. If you can write a check for a $1,000 deductible, why not save money on the premium?
4. Drive Less, Save More
Of course, if you're going to drive less, you'll save money on fuel. But you'll save money at more places than the pump! Think about oil changes, tire wear and tear, and general part replacement. Driving your vehicle lowers its value. Try consolidating your trips. Only drive if absolutely necessary!
Consider taking the bus, a bicycle, or other forms of transportation. Owning and operating a vehicle is an expensive endeavor. The more we can utilize low cost or free transportation options, the more money we'll save.
Some insurance companies offer a device you can attach to your car that records your speed, time of operation, etc. After a specified amount of time, you plug the device into your computer and upload the information to their website. Progressive is one such company that offers this program. As long as you're not concerned about big brother tracking your every movement, this is a great option to consider!
5. Get the Best Deal on Repairs
When it comes time to make repairs, shop around! Not every mechanic will give you a fair deal. One website to try is RepairPal.com. There, you find a range of costs for your particular repair. Having pricing information is vital to getting the best deal. Simply select your car make, model, year, and service type. You'll get an estimate by which you can judge the bids of mechanics in your area.
You CAN save money on car expenses!
The key to saving money is research and diligence. Make sure you're keeping up with routine maintenance, obtaining the best car insurance quote, and driving smart. Soon, you'll be saving money without having to think about it. You CAN save money on car expenses, so why not get started? | <urn:uuid:8f76fb7f-4bcc-4bb4-b448-239a70db97e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wisebread.com/5-simple-ways-to-cut-your-car-expenses | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951068 | 1,086 | 1.617188 | 2 |
On June 22nd, the Chinese state media reported that the contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei had been released. Updates throughout the day offered conflicting reports of his reappearance, but it now seems certain that he has indeed been released conditionally. A great relief for the artist’s friends, family and those who stood in solidarity with Ai Weiwei, his release from prison is a cause for reflection and celebration.
For nearly three months, Ai Weiwei has been detained in an undisclosed location by authorities. Under the auspices of economic crimes relating to taxes owed by the company that owns his studio (to which his name is not legally attached), his detention inspired international condemnation from the artistic and human rights community. Ai Weiwei was most certainly incarcerated as punishment for his outspoken and overtly critical voice on the international stage.
On June 23rd, Sean Martindale will be unveiling his new sculptural installation at Whippersnapper Gallery titled Love The Future / Free Ai Weiwei. The work is inspired by the artist’s unjustified detention in concert with a global movement of solidarity to free the artist. More broadly, Marindale’s piece is meant to shed light on the consequences that face artists and political dissidents globally.
Martindale’s artistic practice is closely connected to the politics of public space and as a result his work is constantly subject to –and within the parameters of – the overarching politics of how we regulate freedoms of expression, mobility, association and so on, in public space.
As the exhibition progresses over the course of the next month, Martindale will be presenting accumulated and ongoing press clippings as a public document of Weiwei’s detention as seen through the lens of the international media. This chronicling of the ordeal will help to extend the conversation beyond Weiwei’s detention and subsequent release towards the fundamental criticisms and concerns that are thrust into the spotlight whenever a public figure faces persecution for their beliefs.
Ultimately, Love The Future / Free Ai Weiwei uses the spotlight focused on Ai Weiwei to call attention to the plight of those who suffer injustices in response to their actions and expressions of conscience. Weiwei is a poignant symbol, but by no means does his release represent the conclusion or satiation of these criticisms. Through his exploration of the Weiwei’s detainment, Martindale makes a bold statement while asking Toronto audiences to consider the space –both physical and political – that they reside within. | <urn:uuid:9102f070-8d0a-489c-a93c-7a5147598949> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whippersnapper.ca/?portfolio=sean-martindale-4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966536 | 502 | 1.515625 | 2 |
WEST YELLOWSTINE- A grizzly sow was euthanized last summer after DNA evidence tied her to two separate fatal attacks and those cubs were taken to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone.
"When the cubs first came in, we really take a lot time to let them... more »
BOZEMAN - A Billings woman was rescued after crashing her snowmobile into a tree near West Yellowstone over the weekend.
The West Yellowstone Police Department received a report of an injured snowmobiler on the Two Top snowmobile trail just before 11 a.m. on Saturday according to a news release... more »
WEST YELLOWSTONE - The Gallatin County Sheriff's Department reports that two snowmobilers were rescued after crashing into a tree on the Two Top trail near West Yellowstone on Thursday.
Authorities say that the West Yellowstone Police Department received a report of an injured snowmobiler on the trail at 9:07... more »
(CNN) -- Lots of people may be cursing the early arrival of winter this year, but the blast of snow is translating into a blast for skiers and snowboarders.
"White gold" -- as snow is sometimes called in regions where winter sports are a lucrative part of the economy... more »
WEST YELLOWSTONE - National Geographic has named West Yellowstone to its list of Top 10 Winter Towns.
The article in next month's issue of National Geographic Traveler ranks West Yellowstone at number 8, right behind Dortmund, Germany.
We spoke with resident and Three Bear Lodge owner Clyde Seely... more »
WEST YELLOWSTONE - Yellowstone National Park has already broken last year's record level of visitors and there's still three months to go in 2010.
Park officials say that through September, 3.41 million people visited the park as compared to 3.14 million in all of last year. And for the... more »
A young grizzly bear has been killed after being hit by a car in Yellowstone National Park.
The accident occurred Sunday night on US Highway 191 near the Fawn Pass trailhead, about 22 miles north of the community of West Yellowstone.
The body of the one-year-old male bear... more »
WEST YELLOWSTONE - Bison are migrating across popular highways near West Yellowstone.
More than 50 bison, including some newborn calves clogged Highway 191 just north of town Saturday.
Drivers stopped to watch the animals while others just waited for a chance to continue on their way. Large lighted... more » | <urn:uuid:8e96a2c0-6867-4b34-9c8a-8513c89a21ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kpax.com/tags/west_yellowstone/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954262 | 532 | 1.515625 | 2 |
PARIS (AP) -- "London," the title of Vivienne Westwood's costume-design inspired fall-winter collection, had it all: Elizabethan corsets, Sherlock Holmes tweed, scholars gowns and even a model cycling down the catwalk.
With such dizzying allusions it's hard to know where to start in describing the rebellious ready-to-wear show. It was said to channel 17th century Britain but saw models stomping around some 400 years of fashion history -- all in contemporary black moon boots.
The highly structured silhouettes included some rigid corset bustiers that recalled embellished crinoline of the Restoration epoch.
Rectangles were also a motif, in small peplum lapels or as a flat patterned square Beefeater dress, whose shape resembled that of the poster boys that stand in London's Leicester Square.
At times, there was an element of couture-meets-school-play as draped silks sported rough edges or theatrical embroidered beading.
If the show were a play, it would probably have been a Sherlock Holmes murder mystery with several tweed looks channeling the fashion of the fictional 19th century detective, in deconstructed coats with a flat cap.
When quizzed backstage, the 70-year-old designer, who often makes political statements in her work, said she looked to the past to get away from the current "terrible, crashing times."
It's an artistic escapism that many designers say they've taken up this fall whether in Paris, New York or Milan. But of all of them, Westwood has had the most fun: the fashion crowd giggled when a model nearly crashed riding a bike in 4-inch platforms.
Westwood quipped she loves "to put women on a pedestal." | <urn:uuid:e3640226-203c-4420-b0fd-efebee61d9b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.recordpub.com/ap%20lifestyle/2012/03/03/it-s-rule-brittania-for-vivienne-westwood | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961728 | 372 | 1.5 | 2 |
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PSN 2011 Immigration Roundup: AZ Copycat Bills Fail, Common-Sense Policies Advance, State Economies Hang in Balance
Suman Raghunathan on July 28, 2011 - 2:21pm
(Note: With legislative sessions largely adjourned in statehouses across the nation, this week’s Dispatch is the third in a series of issue-specific session roundups from Progressive States Network highlighting trends in different critical policy areas across the fifty states.)
As comprehensive immigration reform remained stalled in Washington, D.C. in the first half of 2011, common-sense state legislators across the nation took up the fight in their legislative sessions, defeating expensive and misguided enforcement bills that targeted undocumented immigrants and their families. Despite the deluge of SB 1070 copycat bills promised by anti-immigrant groups, attempts to mimic Arizona’s anti-immigrant law largely failed, as did a far-right effort to rewrite the U.S. Constitution by revoking citizenship for children born in the United States. Encouragingly, state legislative sessions saw a wide variety of innovative and common-sense proposals that sought to expand opportunity for all residents, both immigrant and native-born, through approaches emphasizing access to education, workforce development, and community policing.
The business community in several states stepped up their opposition to broad anti-immigrant proposals this session, citing the devastating impact of enforcement-only bills on their states’reputations, tourism industries, workforces, and agricultural sectors. One main galvanizing factor behind this increased activism from the business community has been the realization that it is extremely expensive to be anti-immigrant — and that an enforcement-only approach has been shown to wreak havoc on state economies and workforces. In fact, recent studies and news reports have estimated that at least 100,000 Latino families (many of which include U.S. citizen children and legal permanent residents in addition to undocumented workers) departed Arizona after the passage of SB 1070 in 2010 for more welcoming states such as New Mexico — which will likely benefit from increased sales and income tax receipts due to immigrant consumers’ purchasing power. According to economic projections, similar “attrition through enforcement” policies will only serve to further decimate the economies of the states that adopt them, depriving them of desperately-needed revenue in addition to a stable workforce.
From the widespread rejection of Arizona copycat bills and newer anti-immigrant attacks in the states to the growing momentum behind providing opportunity through tuition equity for students, ensuring safer communities through community policing, and withdrawal from the flawed federal E-Verify program, states made fateful choices on the future prosperity of their economies as they wrestled with immigration policy in 2011 sessions.
Promised Deluge of Arizona Copycat Bills Largely Defeated
Despite a predicted influx of state bills modeled upon SB 1070, Arizona’s 2010 “show me your papers” law, an overwhelming majority of state legislatures defeated or refused to advance similarly broad anti-immigrant bills during 2011 sessions.
Of the 22 states where such measures were introduced this year, 16 defeated their proposals outright (a few remain pending in committee in legislatures with year-round sessions, but are not expected to advance). Only 4 states of the 22 — Utah, Indiana, Alabama, and South Carolina — actually enacted SB 1070 copycat bills this session, and all immediately saw legal challenges. Preliminary court injunctions barred implementation of the laws passed in both Utah and Indiana, following the same path as Arizona, where an injunction continues to be in effect as the Obama Administration and U.S. Department of Justice lead the charge against SB 1070 in court. Lawsuits are currently pending in both Alabama and South Carolina.
Utah passed a trio of well-intentioned but misguided bills in the last few days of its legislative session, which included some troubling provisions such as a statewide guest worker program, and would also confer state residency on undocumented workers who meet a stringent set of criteria. Many of the provisions included in Utah’s trio of bills are either legally questionable, or would first need a federal waiver in order to be implemented.
While Arizona’s law continues to be the most renowned and maligned, Alabama’s recently passed bill is certainly the most expansive and troubling, with provisions that include immigration status checks on students enrolled in the state’s public schools. These basic rights are already enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark 1983 decision, Plyer v. Doe, which affirmed the rights of all children, including undocumented students, to a public school education. (Alabama’s law, which is scheduled to go into effect on September 1st, will be challenged in court by a broad spectrum of legal groups including the ACLU, the National Immigration Law Center, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund on August 24th.)
Legislative sessions this year also saw the overwhelming defeat of attacks against the 14th amendment and U.S. citizenship. These legally questionable proposals, advanced by an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-affiliated group called State Legislators for Legal Immigration (SLLI) were introduced in roughly 16 states and were not enacted in any state, with Arizona coming closest to passing a law. They sought to bar the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants from obtaining U.S. citizenship and to rewrite a part of the Constitution that first gave citizenship to African American slaves and their children after the Civil War.
State Compacts: Advancing Common-Sense Conversations
One popular effort pursued by many states to convene common-sense, solutions-based conversations on immigration policy were the development of state compacts. Compacts essentially aim to develop a set of principles on immigration policy and define what makes sense for a specific state, and in doing so bring together members of the business, faith, and law enforcement sectors along with members of state government and community leaders.
Utah was the first to develop such a state compact on immigration, which included a progressive set of principles that: emphasized that immigration policy remained squarely under the purview of the federal government; underlined that law enforcement should focus on enforcing the state’s laws and not serve as de factoimmigration agents; emphasized the need to keep families together, including immigrant families; acknowledged the critical role immigrant workers play in the state’s economy; and emphasized the need to integrate and welcome immigrants in society.
Unfortunately, despite the progressive and forward-looking principles articulated in the Utah Compact, these principles were transformed into a trio of misguided bills that largely focused on immigration enforcement and bestowed the doubtful distinction on the state of being the nation’s first SB 1070 copycat law. Still, several other states (see map below) continue to consider their own compacts, largely as key organizing tools to bring together a set of key and diverse constituencies critical to advancing state conversations on immigration.
States Take up the DREAM: Tuition Equity Advances
With immigration reform stalled in Congress, states played an increasingly prominent role in the national policy debate in 2011. One proposal that saw significant action this year has been tuition equity — legislation that allows qualifying undocumented students to attend public colleges and universities at in-state tuition rates. In a reflection of widespread voter support for the federal DREAM Act, which Congress again failed to pass last winter, state proposals to ensure tuition equity for all in-state students gained significant momentum this session. Tuition equity bills were introduced in 10 states, and were signed into law in Connecticut and Maryland while passing one chamber in Colorado and Oregon. In addition, California passed a bill that builds upon and further expands financial access to higher education for undocumented students by allowing them to receive privately-funded scholarships. (Unfortunately, Maryland’s bill will be challenged in a ballot initiative the fall of 2012 after anti-immigrant activists obtained enough signatures to put the issue before the state’s voters.)
These efforts to expand educational access and affordability are often critical to immigrant working families because out-of-state tuition costs are significantly higher — up to 450% more than in-state tuition rates — and usually apply to undocumented students as well as others who have not lived in-state long enough to qualify. Broad support from the business community was critical to advancing state tuition equity proposals. In both Colorado and Oregon, coalitions of executives from high-tech companies stressed their current and growing need for college-educated workers, and emphasized that tuition equity proposals would help them meet their future workforce development needs.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, two-thirds of the occupations that are expected to grow the most rapidly by 2018 will require a college degree or some form of post-secondary education. Tuition equity proposals allow state education systems to prepare students to meet this need by getting an affordable college education. State tuition equity laws are not new ideas, and have been tried and tested in state legislatures as well as affirmed in the courts. California was the first to pass its tuition equity law in 2001, which was unanimously upheld by the California Supreme Court in November 2010. This spring, the US Supreme Court declined to hear, without comment, yet another challenge to California’s tuition equity laws brought by anti-immigrant legislators and activists.
Colorado’s ASSET bill (“Advancing Students for a Stronger Economy Tomorrow”) was passed by the Senate this session but failed to receive enough support in the House, where it lost a vote along partisan lines. In addition to receiving support from business groups, the bill received strong support from immigrant and education advocates and is well-positioned for a strong push next session. Despite not being enacted this year, Oregon’s effort was notable for the fact that the primary co-sponsors included a bipartisan group of legislators.
As the DREAM Act’s ultimate fate remained uncertain, state tuition equity laws continued to gain momentum late in sessions this year — just last month, a bill was introduced in Pennsylvania. In total, 13 states have passed laws granting greater educational access and opportunity to talented and aspiring undocumented students.
Community Policing: Partnering with Law Enforcement for Safer Communities
The introduction of community policing legislation in many states in 2011 reflected a growing trend of state lawmakers and law enforcement officials alike questioning the value and impact of immigration enforcement proposals. This year, strong and promising models to strengthen the security of communities emerged in California (AB 1081) and Illinois (HB 929). In addition, anti-racial profiling legislation was introduced in Rhode Island and other states that added immigration status to the list of characteristics included in racial profiling by law enforcement.
In California, the TRUST Act (“Transparency and Responsibility Using State Tools”) aims to chart a more sensible course on immigration enforcement while strengthening local community policing efforts that have proven to be successful. The bill passed the Assembly earlier this year, and has cleared initial hurdles in the upper chamber. Most notably, it would allow local governments to decide whether to opt in to participate in the federal “Secure Communities” enforcement initiative, or to tailor their participation to meet local needs. It would also prevent racial profiling, protect children and victims of domestic violence from being deported, and ensure access to due process and representation for individuals who are accused but never convicted of a crime.
Illinois’ Smart Enforcement Act, which passed the state’s House in May, also allows local sheriffs and law enforcement more discretion to opt out of participation in the Secure Communities program, while requiring the program to focus on apprehending violent criminals. It would also mandate data collection on all immigrants and other individuals picked up through the program.
Finally, Rhode Island introduced an innovative bill aimed at discouraging racial profiling and traffic stops by law enforcement based on perceived immigration status. Their proposal requires police to document the “reasonable suspicion” behind a decision to conduct a traffic stop, bars law enforcement from using a traffic stop as a pretext to inquire about individuals’ immigration status, and limits the ability of police to question passengers in a vehicle when there are no grounds to suspect illegal activity.
As efforts to strengthen community policing efforts gained traction in many states thanks to support from law enforcement, the Secure Communities program has come under immense pressure for negatively impacting community policing efforts. State and local elected leaders from around the country have voiced opposition to the controversial initiative responsible for annually deporting over 400,000 non-criminal undocumented immigrants, costing states millions in the process.
A growing understanding emerged of the high cost of flawed immigration enforcement initiatives to communities and to state budgets alike as the governors of Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts all withdrew their states’ participation in Secure Communities this year, and as governors in other states (including Colorado) considered doing the same. This growing number of governors leading the push to opt out of the program came amid widespread and growing alarm about its fundamental inaccuracy and impact, splitting families and deporting record numbers of people — a total of nearly 1 million over the past two years, roughly 450,000 annually under the Obama administration.
Lawmakers Fight Flawed, Costly E-Verify Programs
Unfortunately, state legislatures saw a growing number of state “E-Verify” proposals even as yet another flawed federal bill was introduced in Congress this summer. Despite being intended to flag undocumented workers, the E-Verify system actually fails to identify over half of all ineligible applicants run through the system. In addition, studies have shown that requiring employers to use E-Verify is extremely costly to local businesses and state economies.
States and state legislators are fighting back hard against mandatory E-Verify, citing its negative impact on states’ economies, its crippling effect on small businesses, and its ultimate impact as a job killer at a time when states continue to grapple with large budget deficits. State Senator Luz Robles (D-Utah) critiqued a bill which required businesses to use E-Verify in her state by warning its supporters they would “be creating a mess and a more complicated system for small businesses,” and that it would “not solve the problem of illegal immigration.”
Still, eight states passed some form of mandatory E-Verify legislation this session: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. (States such as North Carolina and Alabama expanded mandatory use of E-Verify to all employers, and South Carolina and Alabama included E-Verify portions in their broad SB 1070 copycat proposals.)
These state and federal bills came as the U.S. Supreme Court issued a disappointing decision upholding Arizona’s employer sanctions law, originally passed in 2007. In a May 2011 decision in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting, the court upheld Arizona’s law that strips state licenses away from businesses that knowingly hire undocumented workers and requires all employers to use E-Verify. However, the decision did not address other egregious and intrusive state immigration laws such as Arizona’s SB 1070.
The Outlook for 2012 and Beyond
With state-level attacks on workers sweeping the nation as a central priority of the right wing, fewer states than expected passed wage enforcement legislation in 2011 ― proposals that seek to enforce wage and hour laws, enhance workplace protections, and crack down on employers seeking to duck paying payroll taxes by misclassifying full-time workers as independent contractors. However, some progress was made. Thirteen states introduced wage enforcement proposals in 2011, and both Iowa and California passed wage enforcement bills in one chamber. Iowa’s proposal focused on wage theft; California’s would have increased the State Department of Labor’s ability to crack down on employers who defraud workers. It is likely wage enforcement proposals will continue to be introduced in 2012.
More broadly, states will continue to grapple with immigration in 2012 sessions, particularly given the dim prospects for large-scale comprehensive immigration in Congress in a major Presidential election year. In the meantime, many progressive and forward-looking states and legislators are already preparing to introduce and re-introduce proposals that focus on real solutions and that expand opportunity for all residents, both immigrant and native-born.
This article is part of PSN's email newsletter, The Stateside Dispatch.
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In The News | <urn:uuid:cba7ed26-daab-499e-b170-85d9085adb2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.progressivestates.org/news/dispatch/psn-2011-immigration-roundup-az-copycat-bills-fail-common-sense-policies-advance-state | 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 | 0.956014 | 3,350 | 1.507813 | 2 |
rachmiel wrote:Apologies for getting a bit analytical. I'm trying to avoid doing something that feels like vivid awareness, but is not. To do this, I need to know if I'm on the right track.
Let's say there are two main types of awareness: awareness of objects (physical and mental) and pure awareness (no objects).
Awareness of objects can be very obvious: I see a tree, name it (tree/maple), and think about that time as a kid when I climbed a maple tree and found a bird nest in it. Or it can be subtler: I see a tree, name it (tree), but I don't go beyond that in interpretation/storytelling. Or it can be even subtler: I see colors and shapes, but don't name them.
Pure awareness is awareness with no objects, no subject/object division. One simply IS awareness.
My question: Which of these types of awareness is vivid awareness? Specifically, is it the subtlest form of awareness of objects, in which one perceives sensations without naming them? Or is it pure awareness, in which there are no objects, just awareness itself?
First of all, an awareness without object is a fiction, it is only a theory, a false concept of self. When there is no duality of subject and object it means that one does not reify a self and a thing, and by grasping on one there is always the other, that's why Buddhism is not a monism nor a dualism. The emptiness of self and appearances means that there is no clinging to an inherently existing essence. But, it doesn't negate any ordinary phenomenon, the six faculties work perfectly well, but one knows and sees that all are dependently arisen and without substance. That's why in Dzogchen you don't create any special state, don't make any effort in achieving something, but simply let things come and go without attaching to them any importance. You are aware of everything but don't get stuck by anything. So, if you are wondering about what pure awareness, vivid awareness or anything like that is, just see how the thought appears, stays and goes, but don't try to hold on to it, solve it, respond to it or remove it. Also, look at the preliminaries given by Gangshar on how to analyse appearances, since that can help you clarify some difficult points. | <urn:uuid:3663680b-5678-48be-9ab5-ded57dcdd239> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?p=150308 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967762 | 499 | 1.765625 | 2 |
If Melbourne had not outbid Adelaide for the Australian Grand Prix nearly 20 years ago, the formula one race would have been long gone from these shores.
The South Australian capital would inevitably have lost the event because it was becoming too expensive and too big.
As popular and much loved as the Adelaide GP was from 1985-95, the move to Melbourne secured Australia's place on the F1 world championship calendar for at least another two decades.
The Australian Grand Prix's future is coming to another crossroads with Melbourne's existing contract finishing with the 2015 race and the decision to keep or quit is once again about whether this nation wants to remain a part of the world's biggest annual sporting competition. If the Victorian government does not renew the race, Melbourne will not just lose an iconic - if challenging - event that has become one of the pillars of the city's international fame.
Should Victoria abandon its problem sporting child rather than support its transition to maturity in what would be a symbolic 21st running in 2016, Australia's F1 round would almost certainly be lost forever.
There is no obvious viable alternative to Melbourne and several other countries are prepared to pay much, much more to take its place.
Even in the unlikely event of Sydney, Brisbane or Perth stepping up with a takeover or replacement bid, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone would only consider the most spectacular and financially impractical proposals.
He wants an Australian race that portrays Aussie chic. Albert Park fulfils the criteria.
While Ecclestone has a soft spot for Australia, it is not soft enough to ignore fatter fees from elsewhere if another city here cannot match the setting of Albert Park.
So we come back to Melbourne as not only the established home of the Australian Grand Prix, but our best and probably only hope of keeping the event.
But the argument about whether the Melbourne GP should be renewed after 2015 comes down to its value to the city and the state. And that is very much more than about what the race costs each year.
You can, of course, argue that $57 million last year and likely rising again this year is not the best use of public money.
But the greater argument is that it is an important and cost-effective investment in maintaining Melbourne's international brand.
Forget claims of direct economic benefits derived from spending by visitors. What the grand prix at Albert Park does is promote Melbourne to the world, further reinforcing its visibility and status as a sporting and cultural centre.
Along with the AFL grand final, Melbourne Cup and Australian Open, the race underpins the city's international profile and awareness.
After 17 years, the Albert Park GP has enhanced - and become synonymous with - Melbourne's image overseas as an attractive and sophisticated destination.
While it is difficult to put a price on perception, it does not take a leap of faith to accept that losing it would harm the city's international standing, which has a tangible commercial benefit. You don't know what you have until it's gone and if the grand prix goes in a few years, it will leave a gaping hole that would be impossible to fill on an annual basis as far as big international events go.
Ironically, it has a local image problem that is inconsistent with its popularity. Born in controversy and dogged by it ever since, the race nevertheless continues to attract more than an estimated 100,000 people in a bad year - and more than 110,000 the past two years.
There are signs next month's event could attract closer to 120,000 on race day.
The Melbourne GP is big and popular by any measure locally, and its attendance is among the largest of any F1 race.
Criticism of the cost of the race has been unrelenting since 1996 and that it has persisted is the fault of previous Australian Grand Prix Corporation managements.
The organisation long ago lost the PR war with its intransigent, arrogant and defensive attitude to critics, which persisted until relatively recently.
Instead of quoting spurious global television audience figures and rubbery economic benefit data, they should have hammered home the most relevant justification.
Staging the race at Albert Park is an extension of the branding and promotion of Melbourne that is very much cheaper than a conventional advertising campaign.
Like the Australian Open, the Australian Grand Prix is a jewel in Melbourne's sporting crown that comes with a price. It's just calculated differently.
When the Victorian government begins renewal talks with Ecclestone last next year, it will be a clear-cut choice. Use it - or lose it.
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Egyptian authorities are preventing several U.S. citizens from leaving the country because of ongoing investigations into the work of civil society groups supporting the country's legislative elections.
State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says U.S. officials are “very actively involved” with their Egyptian counterparts to lift the travel ban.
"We have several U.S. citizens working at various international, nongovernmental organizations in Egypt that have been questioned by judges in Egypt, and they are currently not being allowed to depart Egypt in connection with the government's investigation of NGOs," said Nuland.
Nuland says “four or five” Americans who are being prevented from leaving Egypt have contacted the U.S. embassy in Cairo, but that privacy rights prevent her from identifying them by name.
One of those caught up in the travel ban is Sam LaHood, son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Sam LaHood directs the Egyptian program of the Washington-based civil society group International Republican Institute.
He and his staff, along with members of the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, were questioned repeatedly by Egyptian authorities after they shut down their local offices last month, accusing the three U.S. groups of using foreign funds to support popular unrest.
Nuland says that after being prevented from boarding their flights, all of the Americans were allowed to keep their passports and that none were detained.
"We are urging the government of Egypt to lift these restrictions immediately and allow folks to come home as soon as possible," she said. "And we're hopeful this issue will be resolved in nearest days."
Treatment of international and domestic NGOs in Egypt has been a major point of disagreement between Egypt's new leaders and the Obama administration. Washington has called repeatedly for the return of computer equipment and documents seized from NGO offices during police raids.
As Egypt marks the one-year anniversary of its popular democratic uprising, Nuland said there have been positive steps and areas of concern. Successful parliamentary elections and the lifting of most emergency laws have been encouraging, she said.
"This is a relatively new thing for Egyptian bureaucrats and for the Egyptian judicial system," she said, explaining that Egyptian officials have been slow to adjust to all of the elements that surround democratic voting. "We have not had open elections of this kind in Egypt, so we've got new NGOs on the Egyptian side. We've got NGOs on the international side wanting to do what we do in countries around the world, which is to support the process, not to support any individual candidate."
Nuland says the Obama administration will continue to promote freedoms for civil society groups to support the electoral process, and that the administration is working with Egyptian authorities to improve bureaucratic procedures for properly registering those groups. | <urn:uuid:93353020-a02c-423e-a77c-19816b2aadb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.voanews.com/content/egypt-blocks-departure-of-us-ngo-workers-138152604/151187.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975073 | 572 | 1.765625 | 2 |
I never liked the town I grew up in. Fortuna is just a short hop from where I live, but childhood memories kept me from venturing there. I remembered it as a dumpy, cloud-hung, hind-end-of-nowhere place filled with tired, overworked sawyers and loggers. There was a mill made up of corrugated tin buildings, surrounded by wood smoke, teepee burners, and a sea of lumber. I didn't want to stay in that little town. And I certainly didn't want to work at the mill. I ran off when I was 17 years old and disappeared.
I returned 40 years later for a high school reunion and found that Fortuna was nothing like the weary, backwards dive I once thought it was.
While driving through town I noticed that things looked the same, but felt oddly different. On that day I watched the local fire department roll by with a truck load of gifts for needy children. I saw a donation bin at a grocery store filled with coats to keep others warm. Wherever I went, I encountered upbeat, community-minded people with plenty of kindness in their hearts.
Anyone who thinks that our country's values are dying should pay a visit to Fortuna. The town is caught in a kind of peaceful “Mayberry RFD” time warp. It remains virtually untouched by rudeness or corruption. Fortuna embraces hard work, diversity, and new ideas. It has a population of 11,900 (17 percent Hispanic or Latino), and something you don't often find in the city -- empathy for others and open-mindedness for all.
It's my belief that the finest part of traditional America can still be found in places like Fortuna: the one-chair barber shop, the old-time movie theater with one screen, the mom and pop café that serves meatloaf for lunch, and people who don't step over the homeless or ignore a plea for help. Whether this country is booming or not, you will always find compassion in our small towns. It's a place where the American Dream is alive and well.
The citizens of Fortuna, along with 18,500 other small towns, have weathered the toughest of times. They've lived through the unchecked greed of the plutocrats, Reaganomics, and a Soylent Green attitude toward veterans, seniors, and the poor. They've survived foreign wars, home foreclosures, expensive groceries, fuel and utilities, an increasing share of taxes, and cheap Chinese knockoffs. Our small towns have endured the insidious exporting of jobs that closed their industries, factories, and mill towns, and politicians who absolutely don't give a tinker's damn about the country or the people.
Our small communities have suffered a thousand sacrifices and somehow come back stronger each time. They've remained largely untouched by racism, homophobia, or xenophobia. They've also gotten wise to special interest groups who like to call the shots and buy our votes. Much like all of us, small town people value the traditions of freedom, liberty and individual opportunity. But they also realize that not everything new is better. They know that to preserve the old American dream, one must first abandon the new American dream, which is to get rich quick and at any cost. This is the dream that's presently ruining our country. It's called Capitalism Gone Wild.
We could learn a thing or two from small town America. So could our leaders and representatives. We must make them understand that Americans are not stupid, clueless or impotent, and that we will actually hold them accountable for how they treat the working people of this country. We need to hold them responsible to their word, too. After all, if a person isn't trustworthy, if their word means nothing, they're of no earthly use to anyone and will do more harm than good.
I'm happy to report that the American we know and love has not gone the way of the 8-track tape. It's alive and well in our small communities. That's why I'm proud to say I grew up in a town like Fortuna.
Tim Martin resides in McKinleyville. | <urn:uuid:dbf540a4-0314-4c37-ab4d-8f92d8ebd174> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.times-standard.com/opinion/ci_22579807/american-dream-is-alive-fortuna?source=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969936 | 858 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Dáil Éireann - Volume 630 - 31 January, 2007
Written Answers. - Commonage Division.
Mr. Ring Mr. Ring
Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason shares on a commonage have not been attributed to a person (details supplied) in County Mayo by the Land Commission in view of the fact that they should be rightfully theirs. [1857/07]
Mary Coughlan Mary Coughlan
Mary Coughlan: The commonage in question relates to a migration and voluntary re-arrangement scheme undertaken by the former Land Commission and for which I now have responsibility. According to the records in my Department there are three 1/16th shares on hands to be allotted and the person named has been offered one of these but has refused. Examination of the records does not support his contention that he is entitled to the three 1/16th shares.
A scheme to dispose of the three shares is currently being prepared and it is envisaged that this will be completed within the next few months.
Dáil Éireann 630 Written Answers. Commonage Division. | <urn:uuid:e9b1bdd4-b318-40d1-ae7d-1756a772a573> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0630/D.0630.200701310902.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971022 | 230 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Learning environment pondered
District 200 board member Sharon Patchak-Layman and parent Jane Townley make a formal record of their group's discussion. | Rebecca Bibbs~for Sun-Times Media
Updated: March 8, 2013 6:18AM
OAK PARK — The chicks are running the roost.
At least, that’s the perception some people reported as a new five-year strategic plan for Oak Park-River Forest High School was being developed.
Those feelings surfaced in a series of focus groups and an online survey conducted in preparation for developing the plan.
That perception calls for changes in communications and developing consistent discipline policies that lead to a supportive learning environment, participants said.
“You want to try and connect with the students in a way that is elevating them and connecting them in society rather than connecting in a way that is ultimately going to destroy them,” said District 200 board member Sharon Patchak-Layman. She was joined in the discussion by parent Jane Townley; Tina Halliman, director of special education at the high school; and Chief Rick C. Tanksley of the Oak Park Police Department.
Creating a supportive learning environment is one of five themes members of the Oak Park River Forest High School Strategic Planning Committee are exploring as they build goals for the five-year plan. The other themes include equity; holistic education; transformational teaching, learning and leadership; and financial planning.
“If you want someone to be a contributor, if you want someone to be a responsible contributor to society, they need to know what they need to do in ninth grade to build toward that,” Patchak-Layman said.
But facilitators, stakeholders and members of the Strategic Planning Committee admit one barrier may be student mobility. For instance, students transferring from other school systems, especially Chicago Public Schools, haven’t had the benefit of learning things the Oak Park way.
“The transition kids can’t really concentrate on content. We have to teach them behavior,” said facilitator Pat Maunsell.
If the educational base isn’t solidified, unsupported students will find their reinforcement elsewhere, often in gangs, committee members asserted.
Townley said she believes part of the problem is a lack of a common sense of community.
“In a public school, you don’t really have anything that holds you together. In a religious school, you have the religion,” she said. “We’re at a disadvantage.”
The district also has inconsistent or inadequate policies for dealing with behavioral issues, some focus group and survey members reported. Some of the problems, faculty and support staff said, stem from inadequate communication and support from the administrators.
Townley said the issue of teacher burnout also needs to be addressed.
“What I also see is there are a lot of people who have been here 25 years, and they’re tired. They’re just going through the motions because they’re tired,” she said.
To explore the OPRF strategic planning process in-depth, visit www.oprfhs.org and click on the “Strategic Planning” panel on the left side of the page.
Next week’s topic: Facilities and Finance. | <urn:uuid:d80a08fe-f70c-4380-8279-72f8e1e02fbd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://riverforest.suntimes.com/news/17929669-418/learning-environment-pondered.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961151 | 684 | 1.578125 | 2 |
bush, the elder took over. she was there in 1985, president reagan's re-election. she was there in 1981, the first reagan inaugural. that's andrea mitchell. if i end up doing these for as long as andrea mitchell has done these, i will be covering every inauguration from now until 2041, by which time i will be coming to you, presumably, as a hologram. so help me god. second inaugural, as opposed to a first inaugural when one president is leaving and another is starting, and we're covering a second inauguration, like we will be this year there's something different. governing is already under way. the president has started some things that he intends to finish in his second term. sort of a sense of continuity, well informed expectation about what kind of president this is going to be and where he is likely to go. when president obama was inaugurated. first time, there was none of that certainty and expectation, right? the country and all of us were caught up in the historical enormity of the fact that the united states of america was about to swear in our first african-american president. | <urn:uuid:8f350ea3-d8da-4fb4-a10d-a14b5e362df6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive.org/details/tv?time=20130117-20130125&q=election&fq=topic:%22ronald+reagan%22&fq=topic:%22intermezzo%22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988277 | 240 | 1.609375 | 2 |
There Will Be War In The Middle East
The Economic Collapse
November 15th, 2012
Reader Views: 1,212
The military action that we are watching in the Middle East right now is just a preview of coming attractions.¬† Tensions in the region are rising with each passing day, and all sides have been anticipating future conflicts and preparing for war for decades.¬† It would be wonderful if everyone could sit down, forgive each other and agree to quit fighting, but that is not going to happen.¬† Most of us that live in the western world have a very difficult time understanding the mindset of those immersed in these conflicts.¬† In the Middle East, there are vendettas and grudges that go back literally thousands of years.¬† Children are raised in schools where they are taught to bitterly hate their enemies from the time that they are first able to speak.¬† As Americans, we have forgiven former enemies such as Germany and Japan and we just expect that everyone else should be able to forgive as well.¬† But that is simply not the way that it works over there, and there is no long-term solution in the Middle East that is going to be acceptable to all sides.¬† Right now, Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, Syria and Iran are all preparing for war.¬† Hopefully cooler heads will prevail in this current crisis, but that will only delay the inevitable.¬† There will be war in the Middle East.¬† Yes, politicians such as Barack Obama will do their best to broker more “peace agreements”, but even the declaration of a “Palestinian state” will never stop the fighting.¬† In fact, it would just set the stage for more war.¬† I don’t mean to sound pessimistic about the region, but the truth is that there will be more war until it is not possible to fight any longer.¬† Any “peace plan” will just be a pause in the warfare.
But hopefully the current crisis in the Middle East will not immediately erupt into a full-blown regional war.  That would not be good for the global economy.  In fact, that would not be good for anyone at all.
Here are some of the most recent developments…
-Hamas has launched dozens of rockets into Israel since Saturday.  At one point, the IDF estimated that at least 130 rockets had been fired from Gaza.  Other estimates have put the number of rocket attacks much higher.
-In response, the IDF launched a military operation in Gaza on Wednesday.  This involved the killing of the head of the military wing of Hamas, Ahmed Jabari, in an airstrike that was captured on video.  You can see video of the airstrike right here.
-The IDF also attacked more than 20 underground rocket launchers in Gaza.  The goal was to stop them from launching more rockets into Israel.  Apparently those rocket launchers were capable of hitting targets 25 miles over the border into Israel.
-In response to the Wednesday attacks by the IDF, a substantial number of rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel.  The IDF says that the Iron Dome missile defense system was able to intercept 13 of the rockets.
-The IDF says that the military operations they conducted on Wednesday were part of a “major offensive” and that a ground attack may also be coming.
-”Operation Pillar of Defense” is the code name that has been given to this campaign.
-The IDF is not taking any options off the table.¬† The following is from a message posted¬†on the IDF Twitter account…
“All options are on the table. If necessary, the IDF is ready to initiate a ground operation in Gaza.”
-In particular, the IDF is being very open about the fact that top Hamas leaders will be targeted.¬† The following is from another message posted¬†on the IDF Twitter account…
“We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.”
-The U.S. State Department has denounced Hamas for the rocket attacks against Israel and is saying that Israel has the right to self-defense.
-The military wing of Hamas says that Israel “has opened the gates of hell.”
-One top Hamas official,¬†Khalil al-Haya, is very clear about what his goal is…
“The battle between us and the occupation is open and it will end only with the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem”
-Islamic Jihad¬†has released a statement that is very critical of the IDF attack on Wednesday…
“Israel has declared war on Gaza and they will bear the responsibility for the consequences.”
In Egypt, the head of the most important political party is warning that Egypt may have to get involved if the fighting continues.¬† The following is from a¬†Breitbart report…
Today, Egypt‚Äôs Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood ‚Äď a party formerly headed by current President Mohammed Morsi ‚Äď announced that Egypt would get involved if Israel continued to kill terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Such Israeli action, said the party, would prompt ‚Äúswift Arab and international action to stop the massacres.‚ÄĚ The party also warned that Israel ‚Äúmust take into account the changes in the Arab region and especially Egypt ‚Ķ [Egypt] will not allow the Palestinians to be subjected to Israeli aggression, as in the past.‚ÄĚ
-Things also continue to get more tense with Syria.  Israel has fired tank shells into Syria twice since Sunday.  They did this in response to Syrian shells which struck the Golan Heights.  This marked the first time that Israel had fired tank shells into Syria since the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
-Syrian rebels are receiving a massive influx of arms and assistance.¬† The following is from a recent article¬†in the Washington Post…
Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials.
Obama administration officials emphasized that the United States is neither supplying nor funding the lethal material, which includes antitank weaponry. Instead, they said, the administration has expanded contacts with opposition military forces to provide the gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.
-It is being reported that UK troops may soon be deployed to areas near the border with Syria.
-NATO¬†has announced¬†that it is prepared to defend Turkey if necessary…
NATO will defend alliance member Turkey, which struck back after mortar rounds fired from Syria landed inside its border, the alliance’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a meeting in Prague on Monday.
‚ÄúNATO as an organization will do what it takes to protect and defend Turkey, our ally. We have more plans in place to make sure that we can protect and defend Turkey and hopefully that way also deter so that attacks on Turkey will not take place,‚ÄĚ he said.
Once again, hopefully all of this will settle down in a few days.
But it is never easy to predict what is going to happen next in the Middle East.  There is so much hate and anger and things could literally explode over there at any time.
In the months and years to come, I expect the Middle East to become a major issue for the global economy and a major political issue inside the United States.
When war does erupt in the Middle East, it is going to dramatically affect the price of oil, and there will also be a tremendous amount of debate about whether the U.S. military should intervene or not.
Let us hope for peace, but let us also be very realistic about the situation over there.  Our world is becoming more unstable with each passing day, and the times that are coming are going to be very challenging.
So what do you think?
Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below…
Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
Contributed by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse.
Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream , The Truth and Economic Collapse Blog.
Leave A Comment...
The Daily Sheeple Home Page | <urn:uuid:86b251aa-524b-45fa-81be-930a57754358> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedailysheeple.com/there-will-be-war-in-the-middle-east_112012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958116 | 1,887 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Domainmonster.com Domain Editorials
Nominet and the .uk TLD
Nominet UK is the registry of the ".uk" country-code top-level domain (ccTLD). It was founded in 1996, to replace the original registry, the "Naming Committee", which was unable to cope with the increasing demand for Domain Names. It is a non-profit company limited by guarantee. With the start of Nominet UK's authority as the .uk registry, fees for registering and renewing .uk domain names were introduced, to the chagrin of some .uk domain name owners.
Nominet manages a variety of second-level domains, including .co.uk, .net.uk and .org.uk. However, there are also several second-level .uk domains which it is not responsible for, including .gov.uk domains (which can only be registered by government bodies) or .ac.uk domains (which are only available to UK academic organisations).
One of Nominet's responsibilities is to arbitrate disputes over domain names due to trade mark infringement or alleged theft. Nominet itself does not usually administrate the .uk Whois database or register domain names itself; while it is possible to directly register a domain name with Nominet, the task is usually left to Nominet-accredited registrars such as DomainMonster.com, who then pay the registration fee to Nominet on the registrant's behalf. Registering a domain name through a registrar is faster and cheaper than going direct to Nominet.
Initially, the .uk ccTLD was intended to be replaced by .gb, but the use of .uk has now become entrenched and is unlikely ever to change. It is prohibited to register a domain name directly under .uk; a second-level domain must be used, as in ".co.uk". You do not need to have any connection with the United Kingdom to register a .uk domain name.
By Natalie Catchpole | <urn:uuid:8be5c4d4-3bbd-4253-95ce-fcf0cc0d3269> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.domainmonster.com/editorials/dot_uk_nominet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937626 | 416 | 1.617188 | 2 |
K.l. Fogg Visits Book Cliff Elementary
|K.L. Fogg talks with children while signing authographs.|
Author of Serpent Tide, K.L. Fogg visited with the children at Book Cliff Elementary on April 6.
Fogg started by telling the children a little bit about herself. It was around five years old when she realized she wanted to be an author. She would always make her mother little books with drawings in them. She said, " And then I actually grow up and became an author." She asked the students if they knew what they wanted to become.
After college Fogg moved to Japan with her husband. She became an English teacher there for about two years. They moved all over and now have three kids. Fogg went back to school and received her masters degree in journalism. She became a news anchor for the Missouri morning news where she able to cover some exciting things like riding in a hot air balloon, riding jet skis down and Mississippi river and covering tornado's. Fogg and her family then moved to Salt Lake City where she really started to miss writing. That's how the writing began.
Fogg had the children watch a movie where she interviews one of the characters Jack Mackie from her book. She then asked them questions about the movie where they received a snake pen for a correct answer. Following that Fogg answered questions for the children.
Fogg said she is already started on the second book and she thinks there will be three books in the series. | <urn:uuid:7d85f34d-7243-496b-abdb-8e16ebeb20f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecprogress.com/index.php?tier=1&article_id=3980 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988095 | 311 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Private Memories in Public Places
The roadside memorials that dot our highways and city streets are a recent addition
to the landscape. In 2005, while on one of my many road trips, I became acutely
aware of the crosses that had been placed along the side of the road, memorializing
loved ones who had died there. Since then, I have driven more than 20,000 miles
in pursuit of them. Most of us barely notice them as we drive along, but these
memorials have become an integral part of the national landscape. They have
evolved into a folk art that is not limited to a particular ethnicity or region. Perhaps we
don't notice them because they have become so common that they no longer arrest
our attention. And perhaps it's because they often fit so naturally into the landscape.
I see the monuments as something primarily joyful and celebratory; they are more
about honoring a life than mourning a death. As I look at them, I am struck by
the obvious care, time and work that went into their creation. They are intended
to be permanent and to be visited again and again. Their care and beauty are
evidence of the love the person aroused in their families and friends. Sometimes the
memorial appears to have been abandoned, reminding us that life moves on.
There has been much debate over whether these monuments are a nuisance that
should be removed, or whether they are sacred items to be respected. While people
are usually blamed for blighting the scenery, I see these as little works of art that
enhance the scenery.
The compelling question to me is why the survivors need to memorialize the place the
person died. Some have suggested a belief that the soul still hovers at the sight. But
I believe it's because the death was so sudden, violent and unexpected. Perhaps the
survivors want to remember that life stopped right here. | <urn:uuid:f3572695-6d23-4157-8d3c-f1bfb5a81cf1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.susanbergerphotographs.com/Text_page.cfm?pID=3072 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977238 | 395 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Gabriel Anate was in 200 Level when he joined a cult group. Speaking to LEADERSHIP WEEKEND he said, “Harassment and intimidation by cult guys got to me. I never set out to join them though I had friends who were members. And because I promised my mum that I wasn’t going to join them, I rejected the temptation and pressure for two years.
“The first confrontation with cultists started the day I wore new shoes. The Capone of Vikings sent his guys to collect it. They came the second time to collect my leather jacket, but I refused to give them. That night I had strange ‘visitors’ who beat me up, packed my best clothes and left me with a broken nose.
Another time one of them went after my babe. I didn’t even know anything about it until they stopped us one day and asked her to follow him. She refused and I wanted to prove my manhood and challenge them. It was only God that saved me that day. They almost killed me but for the intervention of Isaac Omoghenehi, the Capone of Black Eye. It was after that second attack that I decided to join the Black Eye.
“I gradually rose to be the second in command. People respect me, lecturers dare not fail me. People would hire us to do ‘jobs’ for them outside the campus. But my mother still didn't know that I am a strong cult member. Being a cultist has given me respect and power.”
Tochukwu Chinedu, also known as Don T, is another cultist who said, “People condemn us for being in the cult. Some insult us. But being in the cult gives you power, a sense of belonging and brotherhood. My ‘brothers' will give their lives for me. We look out for our own. Nobody messes with us in school and outside school. Our names bring fear to people.
That is the power of being in the cult. Even our parents are protected. You will be surprised to see the kind of friends we have in high places. Some were in the cult while they were in school. They contribute financially and assist those who graduate after them by getting jobs for them. We defend ourselves and those close to us. People are only afraid of initiation.’’
Dr. Edgar Adegoke , a psychologist is a lecturer and counsellor. Speaking on cultism, he said, ”A cult is a group of people who worship or believe in a ‘being’, ’deity.‘ They do this through rituals, praise songs, chants and worship. Once they get committed to this ‘being’, getting them to stop or quit is always difficult. They tend to defend their beliefs with their lives. They hold their meetings in secret and intruders are dealt with decisively.
“A secret cult could therefore be defined as a set of practices, belief system and concept which value is known only to the inner caucus. Most times it is their resilience and strong conviction that draw new members.’’
“In Nigeria we have popular cults like The Reformed Ogboni Fraternity, Oboni Society, Ekpo Society, The Odumu Masquerade, The Akujane Society, The Ejalekwu, The Eyo Society and so many others that are not popular.
Although cultism was first started by Professor Wole Soyinka with a good intention, which was to abolish convention, to revive the age chivalry and end tribalism and elitism in the campus, miscreants and selfish people have distorted its concept and turned it to an instrument of wickedness.
“Cults are being used to intimidate, harass, maim and kill perceived enemies. It has also contributed to the destruction of the educational system as cultists use their ‘privileged’ position to secure marks from lecturers. Cult activities have also led to the death, incarceration and rustication of many bright students from the universities. Cult wars have led to destruction of infrastructure. Cultism has brought an atmosphere of fear and insecurity in universities.”
Similarly, a lecturer in a state university who wished to be anonymous said, “We can stamp out cultism if we want. All the authorities need is the will and determination.
The problems have persisted because both lecturers and students turn to the cultists when they want help. So indirectly we are legitimising them. We need to create a framework for social justice, fairness and security in the system.
“It is not enough for vice chancellors to come out and denounce cultists, what concrete steps have they taken to stop it once and for all? Measures must be put in place that will make cultism unattractive to students.
Government must also solve the myriad of problems that bedevil the educational sector. I will advise them to create a course of study on values and ethics for first year students. A conducive environment must also be created for students while sporting activities must be revived.
Rustication is not enough for student cultists; they should be made to face the law for their crimes against the school and fellow students. This will deter others from participation.” | <urn:uuid:4245c37a-774b-4cd3-a665-43a74cc3efff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://leadership.ng/nga/articles/23144/2012/04/28/rustication_not_enough_student_cultists.html?quicktabs_1=0&quicktabs_2=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979237 | 1,092 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Have humans become more 'Bulletproof'
Well on the midwatch last night I had some time alone with my thoughts, I know, it was pretty scary:mrgreen: Anyway, I was composing a wishlist of handguns that I want to own and grouping them by caliber. A good bunch of them are military guns that have been used by various countries in many wars and battles. I also noticed that as time went on, the "military" caliber has changed from as small as .32ACP (7.65mm) in such platforms as the Walther PP to .38 spl to .380 and to 9mm and .45 I think some countries used to not let civilians own guns over a certain caliber due to being a military round. What defines it as a military round? And if it is good enough for the military in the '30s to use with ball ammo, why is .32auto these days looked down upon as being too small and not having enough 'stopping power'? Is it due to advances in medicine? Did people die more often back in the day from smaller bullets? It seemed to work 50 years ago for the German Police and other countries, why is it obselete now? Is the increase in caliber due to narcotics being more common in recent years so therefore we need 'more powerful' bullets to stop a threat. Do we need more powerful handguns these days for CCW to ensure our attackers cannot testify and win against us in court due to the legal system giving more rights to our assailants than to the average Joe trying to protect himself? Are we going to carry larger caliber guns in the next 50 years? Back in the day pocket guns were .25Auto like the Colt vest pocket model 1908 (another on my list) It may also be because of increases in technology and metallurgy that we can make more powerful weapons.
Conversely, I noticed Rifle calibers are on the fall. WWI and WWII saw us using the .30-06 in the Springfield 1903 and the M1 Garand. The caliber went down to .308 with the M-14 and M1A during the Korean war and early Vietnam. Middle and late Vietnam to present, we adopted the .223 in the M-16. Is the caliber going to drop again in the future? It seems we are trading velocity and caliber for more ammo. Is this because the military standards for marksmanship are going down so now the average soldier needs more ammo to hit his target? What about penetration through cover. Especially in todays modern urban combat, I've heard stories of troops shooting at the enemy who were behind brick walls and not being able to do any damage. Give those guys a .30-06 and that fight would be over fast.
Does all of this sound funny to you? I know, I was bored and asked myself a lot of questions, but it's curious isn't it. What are your thoughts? :smt1099 | <urn:uuid:c1a6a569-1702-4245-a8aa-10a830701ad7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.handgunforum.net/general-semi-auto/8950-have-humans-become-more-bulletproof-print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98191 | 600 | 1.695313 | 2 |
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