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Recorded on 03/10/2007, uploaded on 12/06/2010
Musician's or Publisher's Notes
Performed by Adam Berkowitz ( A clarinet) and Nataliya Medvedovskaya, the composer of the piece (piano) from the New York Composers Circle concert at Symphony Space (New York, NY).These tiny human beings are invisible.At the first sight they seem very cute and kind but as long as they come from far away and get closer and closer to us, we realize how dangerous they are.
We at classicalconnect.com believe that classical music is a necessity of life. It is our pleasure to be your virtual concert hall and bring you this performance.
Copyright 2008-2010 Classical Connect, LLC | <urn:uuid:06f42ea2-91bc-48dc-ada2-cdce80e158c9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.classicalconnect.com/Medvedovskaya/Tiptoeing_Invisible_Beings/4201 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931484 | 155 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Last week AMD finally got shot of GlobalFoundaries and no longer had any connection with any fabrication plant. Instead, it has the option to shop where ever it liked.
But it is starting to seem that thefFabless chipmakers might not be getting the sorts of deals they expected and AMD might be joining a crowd of designers who can't get foundries to do what they are told.
Problems with yields at 28nm might have pushed AMD to lose patience with GloFlo but there are indications that other fabs are having the same problems.
While most have their fingers crossed that foundries which may deliver processes in time to meet their deadlines they have little control over the timing of their process transitions.
Electronics Weekly points out Intel started showing off 32nm in early 2010 and 28nm is supposed to use the same process. Yet the foundries seem unable to get 28nm, which is based on the same process, running properly.
Some of the problems have been caused by the fabless chipmakers listening to the cocaine nose jobsworths of Wall Street who have been saying for ages that real men don't need fabs and advanced digital CMOS didn't add value.
The fact that Intel did not fall for this advice means that it has a huge process lead. 32nm was a doddle too because they moved to hi-k a node earlier than the rest.
The next generation of development, 20nm planar at the foundries/22nm finfet at Intel, looks set to push Chipzilla even further into the lead. Intel deep throats have suggested that this will happen in July.
So this means that AMD sold its fab at the time that it needed process engineering to compete. It also means that Qualcomm will not bring terror to Chipzilla, as expected, until it starts making its own chips.
Electronics Weekly thinks that there could be a new player in the market. Apple has $100 billion in the bank, a few years of R&D and is finding that its access to 28nm is slowed. It might be better for Jobs' Mob to start fabbing its own chips.
It is also clear that if the fabless chip makers out there don't do something they will quickly become also rans to the likes of Intel and Samsung who have them. It is possible that the likes of Qualcomm would have to enter a consortium of companies made up of Xilinx, Altera, Nvidia and AMD to buy their own fabs.
It might be that last week's announcement that AMD paid Global Foundries (GloFo) $420 million to get out of their contractual relationships was the beginning of a shift towards such a consortium. With GloFo off its back AMD is free to play with whatever friends it wants. | <urn:uuid:932cf18c-9a9f-4b07-9add-cf25e0031c4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.techeye.net/business/amds-move-out-of-fabs-was-a-terrible-idea | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981035 | 568 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Tobacco Tax Petitions
Fri January 20, 2012
Tobacco tax petitions seek approval for circualtion
Reporting by KCUR's Elana Gordon was used in this story.
Two petitions that would affect taxes on tobacco products in Missouri are going through the approval process for circulation.
One would give cities and counties the ability to set and control tobacco taxes. The state has preempted local tobacco taxes since 1993.
Petitions supporters say local communities should have the right to determine how tobacco tax dollars are used. But Misty Snodgrass with the American Cancer Society says the proposal is problematic.
"It doesn't have any significant public health benefit to the state," Snodgrass said, " and it won't go towards all the activities that we're focused on."
Snodgrass is leading a separate petition effort by a coalition of health groups. Their proposal would raise the state cigarette tax by 73 cents. Half the additional revenue would be directed to elementary education, a third would go to higher education and the rest would go to tobacco prevention programs.
Both groups need to collect more than 90,000 signatures by May in order for the proposals to be brought up for a vote this year.
Missouri Cigarette Tax
Health - smoking | <urn:uuid:f53e62d8-d879-4ba2-87b6-8030c8fbdcfd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news.stlpublicradio.org/post/tobacco-tax-petitions-seek-approval-circualtion-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968678 | 255 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Before I begin with The Future of Books, this in house announcement - the new issue of MUSEA #177 is now on the musea.us website. PLUS we have a link to all the LOST TAPES (note the first song on the list, Walking in the Field, does not work, never has).
FUTURE OF BOOKS
What's happening to books? Is movable type a 550 year old fad that's about to end?
Here's the main stages of books and printing so far.
First there was one of a kind books.
Next came printing and mass marketing for the very rich.
Next paperbacks and pulps for the masses too.
Now, 'publishing' on computer and the net.
Computers and the internet are changing everything. Books are being supplanted by writing and reading on audio tape, or online, or downloaded to portable book devices. The future technology is not going to get worse or more expensive. It's going the other way. It's going to open up to more people at lower prices, IF not free to all!
Should book lovers be worried? Well perhaps not. The written word is an art form that stands apart from the spoken word. And it deserves to be preserved and carried forward. I see a sort of mixed future for books with mostly on line publishing, with some traditional publishing.
Net or downloaded books will be the bulk of writing. The bulk of writing is not worth wasting resources on. It takes massive amounts of paper to make a book. Then it has to be transported to stores, stored in buildings, etc. Then most of it is remaindered or returned for credit, or just trashed. So I won't miss most books if they are not in book form. These will consist of the mainstream junk that goes in and out of favor. Or it's info manuals, like phone books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, histories, newspapers, maps, science tracts, etc.
What will still be printed? Special publications that most likely will include art books, fringe tracts, and one person or small group journals.
1. Art books. Some books are works of art in themselves. Some of these are one of a kind publications, or made in limited runs like art prints. They range from handwritten, one person journals up to the most sophisticated of printed books.
2. Fringe tracts. Where there is freedom there will be new ideas that need to be expressed. They will often start small with a single person or small group. Or they are the expression of long standing fringe groups that have never and may never interest more than a small minority. We must make sure that our information world is open to all and an expression of all.
3. One person or Small Group Journals. The mainstream will have the majority of people supporting their works. Fringe groups will have their niches. but there is more. Each of us has a journal of experiences within us.. Those are important writings too. They include autobiographies, family histories, stories about friends, zines, journals, tracts, etc.
We book lovers, may loose the bulk of printing, but there should always be room between two covers for the best of writing. Let's make sure we protect and preserve that. | <urn:uuid:f79d6b88-4f1f-4ce6-9f8c-adf6f11ab9bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wemakezines.ning.com/profiles/blogs/future-of-books-musea-email | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962299 | 676 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Government must respect right of Catholic schools to teach their faith: QuinnTuesday, May 8th, 2012
The Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn (pictured), has said he does not believe the Catholic Church will agree to divest its schools if it feels that it is being curtailed in how it teaches Catholicism.
Speaking in the Seanad last week in a debate on the Report of the Advisory Group to the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism, Mr Quinn said that this was his own personal view and is, “not what is stated in the report.” He added that he would welcome a debate on the issue.
He said, “It is unreasonable for people - myself included - to want the Catholic church to voluntarily and in an orderly manner divest itself of churches (sic) which it owns, albeit paid for in many cases by the taxpayer and located on church or religious grounds, so that we can accommodate other demands in terms of gaelscoileanna and at the same time to tell it, in respect of its stand-alone schools, that its hands must be tied behind its back.
“That is my own personal view. It is not what is stated in the report. I would welcome a debate on this issue. I do not believe we will get agreement from the Catholic community on the divesting of schools if it believes it is to be curtailed in terms of how it celebrates and teaches Catholicism to its own community.”
The report made a number of recommendations about denominational schools that critics said would undermine the identity of those schools.
Among other proposals, the report recommends the abolition of Rule 68, which allows denominational schools to permeate their day with their own ethos, and the amendment of the Equal Status Act so that the right of such schools to admit children of their own faith first, will be curtailed.
In addition, it is suggested that denominational schools give equal prominence to the religious symbols of all faiths, and that prayers be, “respectful,” of the beliefs of all children.
Earlier in the debate, Fine Gael Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames said that the Government needs to, “hasten slowly,” in handling the divestment of Catholic schools.
She said that the big concern of those to whom she had spoken, “is that those who shout loudest will get what they want and that the views of the silent majority, who are happy with current patronage, will be ignored.” She also expressed concerns at moves being pursued by the Department of Education to amalgamate small rural schools.
“The gradual erosion of rural schools, through the process the Minister is engaged in following budget 2012, looks like it will lead to forced amalgamation in many cases. Is there a patronage agenda behind that process?
“The parish is the unit of belonging throughout the country. If these schools are amalgamated against their wishes out of necessity, is there a danger they will have a lesser identity?”
Senator Rónán Mullen said he took a critical view of the report. He said he agreed with much of what the report had to say about the divestment process, which, he said, was needed to facilitate greater diversity.
However he said that the report is, “imbued with a strong sense of the need to cater for those who wish to be free of any religious influence, but it is somewhat tone deaf when it comes to the great majority of people who are not only content with our school system as it is but who value the very denominational spirit that imbues the school to which they have chosen to send their children.”
He added, “In my view the report is not sufficiently respectful of the legitimate rights of a majority in Irish society. It is a strange thing that many people will agree that there needs to be more diversity, and most reasonable people will agree with that, but what is interesting is that there is strong support for the right of parents to choose schools that reflect the particular values.
“We need to avoid pandering excessively to extremes, whether it is the extreme view represented in the choice of a particular patron of a non-church school to exclude a person because she is pregnant, in violation of every time-honoured Judeo-Christian principle of respecting human dignity, to the minority in some cases who would resent that there would even be a crucifix on the wall of a school.
"They are a vocal minority in our society and it is important to respect their rights but not to pander excessively to their rights because if one does so, one will end up interfering with the rights of a greater number of people.”
by Tom O'Gorman | <urn:uuid:2a274689-8a5d-426e-a5fe-8ee573b58348> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cinews.ie/article.php?artid=10160 | 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 | 0.979916 | 969 | 1.5 | 2 |
Director Steve James' new documentary Head Games tackles the subject of sport-related head injuries and their long-term effects. Based at least in part on the book of the same title by Christopher Nowinksi, who plays a significant role in the film, Head Games is an engaging look at the possible dire consequences of participating in contact sports.
- Posted Dec. 13, 2012
- Head Games Film Review
The film opens with several quick shots of collisions in professional sports - not just football and hockey, as you might expect, but also basketball, soccer and even bicycling. There is footage of women's sports as well as men's, and children's as well as adults'. This documentary draws you in immediately. Its focus is on CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a structural brain disease that many athletes suffer from, a disease that has led to several suicides.
Christopher Nowinski is at the center of this film for at least the first half. He was a defensive tackle, a former All-Ivy football player and also a wrestler. He is quite candid about his love for the violence of football. "It's the closest thing to being a warrior without actually having to go to war," he says. He got into wrestling (through a reality television program, interestingly enough), and sustained a head injury, at which point he forgot what he was doing, forget the script of the match, and consequently put himself into a more dangerous situation.
The first section of the documentary focuses on football, and this is for me the best section of the film. Several doctors are interviewed including Robert Gantu, MD (a clinical professor of neurosurgery) and Douglas Smith, MD (director at the Center for Brain Injury and Repair) who talk about just what constitutes a concussion. They show that in a concussion your brain changes shape very quickly. All of the medical information is presented clearly. I have little background in science, and I was able to follow all of the information.
As interesting as the scientific information is, perhaps even more engaging are some of the interviews with football players and their families. Gene Atkins, a nine-year NFL veteran, had multiple suicide attempts. In the film he visits Robert Gantu, and the footage of Atkins unable to name the months is heartbreaking and frightening. The phone conversation with the wife of a boxer is likewise moving.
The documentary does highlight the changes in the game that were implemented after a report was leaked, linking professional football to dementia. So progress is being made to protect professional football players. The film then loses a little steam when it switches focus to hockey. But the interviews with the players are just as engaging, particularly those with Keith Primeau, a retired hockey player. What's also interesting is the interview with Keith's teenage son, who also plays hockey.
Soon the documentary switches to soccer. One thing that truly surprised me is that female soccer players suffer more concussions than male players. Cindy Parlow Cone, a three-time Olympic medalist, talks about her own memory loss after a head injury (and yes, the footage of the collision is included in the film). What is also interesting is that it is not just professional athletes who suffer from CTE. Owen Thomas, a college football player who committed suicide, never had any documented concussions, and yet when his brain was studied, it was found that he had the disease. The film focuses on younger athletes toward the end.
The footage of Nowinski giving a talk about head injuries is incredible. It will likely infuriate you, especially if you have teenage children playing sports.
By the way, this documentary does not take an anti-sports stance. I enjoy watching football and soccer, and I will continue to enjoy those sports after watching this film. And interestingly, most of the folks interviewed feel the same way. After all, Keith Primeau's son plays hockey, and Keith is nothing but supportive and encouraging. Other parents who are interviewed seem to have no intention of stopping their children from participating in sports even after those children have suffered some head injuries.
Director Steve James is best known for his 1994 film Hoop Dreams. He has directed several other films, including Reel Paradise (2005) and The Interrupters (2011).
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Illustration by Jonathan Zawada
Why China’s Heading for a Hard Landing, Part 5: A. Gary Shilling
The hard landing that I foresee for China will probably prick the global commodity bubble, which is already showing signs of topping out.
Agricultural product prices have jumped, the result of robust demand, bad weather last year in Russia, recent floods in Australia, and dry and hot La Nina conditions in Argentina.
Industrial metals such as copper were on a tear. So were precious metals, such as silver.
But much of the leap in commodity prices was due to investors and other speculators. Exchange-traded funds had already tied up much of the physical supplies of gold and other precious metals. Futures contracts held by speculators were up 12 percent in 2010 through October, with sharp increases in bullish bets on crude oil, copper and silver. Volatility forced futures exchanges to raise margin requirements on a number of commodities.
The confidence that China would continue to buy huge quantities of almost all commodities has been the bedrock belief of speculators. For example, there were rumors that China was again building its emergency petroleum reserve in the first half of this year.
I’ve studied many bubbles over the years, and concentrated on predicting their demises. Commodities show every sign of being in one.
China added to the commodity frenzy last year by slashing exports of rare-earth metals used in high-tech batteries, TV sets, mobile phones and defense products. China supplies 95 percent of these elements, and consumes 60 percent, exporting the rest. Its exports of rare earths fell 9 percent in 2010, but still exceeded the government’s quota by a third.
Chinese authorities cut the export quota for the first half of this year by 35 percent from a year earlier. Japanese manufacturers of high-tech gear are seeking alternative supplies. Of course, China maintains that its ongoing trade and political spats with Japan have nothing to do with the tighter quotas. They were necessary, Chinese leaders say, to sustain rare-earth development and deal with environmental damage caused by mining.
Speculators are starting to take stock of the evidence of a hard landing in China, and industrial commodity prices, including copper, are swooning. As in the past, warnings about shortages in key industrial inputs are magically being contradicted as unaccounted-for stockpiles materialize.
Agricultural producers are influenced by global demand and by weather-driven supply. I’ll leave it to others to forecast the weather. But note that ideal growing weather often follows the kind of bad weather we’ve seen lately, and bumper crops and surpluses often replace worrying shortages in a crop-year or two.
Furthermore, China imports (and might have stockpiled) soybeans and other agricultural products that would suffer from a slowing economy. Weakness in industrial commodities can easily spread to the agricultural area. Notice the close correlation among all commodity groups in recent years. The huge quantities of hot, highly leveraged money now sloshing around the world tend to end up on the same side of the same trade at the same time.
As speculators suffer setbacks in one area, they quickly bail out of other, fundamentally unrelated areas to preserve their capital.
The bursting of the commodities bubble will be bad news for developing-country producers such as Brazil, which has thus far largely escaped recent global economic and financial woes but is a major exporter of iron ore and other commodities to China. Developed commodity exporters -- Canada, New Zealand and Australia -- as well as their currencies, may also suffer.
I’ve long believed that a hard landing in China would be preceded by a price collapse in copper and other industrial commodities. Copper prices peaked in February, and Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX)’s agreement on April 25 to acquire copper producer Equinox Minerals Ltd. to gain mineral resources outside its area of specialization is a classic sign of a peak.
Another classic sign of a speculative price peak was the sudden appearance of copper inventories where none were thought to exist. As prices start to break, hoarded commodities suddenly become available for sale by highly leveraged owners. Copper in China was so abundant that bonded warehouses were full. In January and February, extra copper was sold abroad as Chinese exports were eight times the year-earlier total.
Falling Copper Prices
London Metal Exchange bonded warehouses saw copper inventories leap 17 percent in the first quarter. Furthermore, to circumvent tight bank lending in China, borrowers are relying more on available letters of credit to finance copper arbitrage trading and otherwise have the use of the borrowed money with copper purchases as their collateral. If copper prices continue to fall, those borrowers will have to sell their copper on the market to prevent further losses, resulting in still-lower prices.
Meanwhile, sugar topped out in February, and cotton in March. I pointed this out in a speech to an investor conference in April, and several people in the audience questioned my facts. I compared those who hadn’t noticed this peak to Wile E. Coyote of the “Road Runner” cartoons, who runs off the cliff and finds himself suspended in air before dropping to the valley floor.
Further confirmation came May 2, when silver prices, which had skyrocketed earlier, started to collapse and virtually all other commodities followed: crude oil, cotton, copper, grains and even gold.
Moving in Lockstep
As I noted earlier, there is so much leverage money floating around the world that regardless of how it’s managed -- by fundamental, momentum or technical strategies -- it tends to end up on the same side of the same trades at the same time. So, when one of these positions reverses, the effects spread rapidly as speculators bail out of their positions to reduce risk and preserve their capital. Keep in mind that the prices of the wide variety of commodities continue to move in lockstep.
Many commodity bulls see this trend as a short-lived midcourse price correction and have maintained their long positions in copper, crude oil, corn and even silver. But markets anticipate, and it now appears the declines in commodities are foreshadowing a hard landing in China, with the effects spreading globally.
(A. Gary Shilling is president of A. Gary Shilling & Co. and author of “The Age of Deleveraging: Investment Strategies for a Decade of Slow Growth and Deflation.” The opinions expressed are his own. This is the last of a five-part series.)
Read more Bloomberg View op-eds.
To contact the author of this column: A. Gary Shilling at [email protected].
To contact the editor responsible for this column: Max Berley at [email protected].
Bloomberg moderates all comments. Comments that are abusive or off-topic will not be posted to the site. Excessively long comments may be moderated as well. Bloomberg cannot facilitate requests to remove comments or explain individual moderation decisions. | <urn:uuid:10b2ae69-9001-4d38-a3db-13d6ffaf93c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-01/why-china-s-heading-for-a-hard-landing-part-5-a-gary-shilling.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95759 | 1,445 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Roberta Michnick Golinkoff holds the H. Rodney Sharp Chair in the School of Education at the University of Delaware and is also a member of the Departments of Psychology and Linguistics. An author of twelve books and numerous professional articles, she founded and directs the Infant Language Project, whose goal it is to understand how children tackle the amazing feat of learning language. The recipient of a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and a James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical award, she is frequently quoted in newspapers and magazines and has appeared on Good Morning America and many regional morning shows. Dr. Golinkoff also speaks at conferences and for organizations around the world about children’s development. To learn more, click here. | <urn:uuid:ce8ca98c-9466-4280-9777-a360f3a5c8ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://udel.edu/~roberta/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962364 | 150 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Hospital General de Occidente in Guadalajara, Mexico, where a 9-year-old girl gave birth to a healthy daughter weighing nearly 6 pounds. The baby was delivered by Caesarean section. / State of Jalisco, Mexico
A 9-year-old girl who was impregnated when she was 8 has given birth to a healthy girl weighing nearly 6 pounds in Guadalajara, Mexico, authorities say.
Police are seeking the 17-year-old father, who fled two months ago, when the girl realized she was pregnant, Lino Ginzalez Corona, spokesperson at Jalisco State Prosecutor's Office, told ABC News.
The 5-pound, 15-ounce baby girl was delivered by Caesarean section Jan. 27, Enrique Rabago, director of the Hospital General de Occidente, told a news conference Wednesday. The mother, identified only as Dafne, and child were released over the weekend.
"Due to her age, her body is not able (or) in the best shape to have a baby," he said.
She has been receiving psychological counseling and will be monitored closely. Her mother also approved a subcutaneous birth-control device.
For the skeptical, UPI offers this explanation for the hard-to-believe birth:
While giving birth at such a young age is obviously unusual, it is not impossible. The age when girls start menstruating is dropping -- although the average is still about 12 -- and even lower among Hispanic girls. Pregnancy can occur before a girl ever gets her first period, since the bleeding occurs at the end of the menstrual cycle after ovulation.
The girl is one of 11 children who live with their parents in a poor neighborhood 25 miles south of Guadalajara, ABC says. "Her parents work all day and were not watching after her, and therefore didn't realize what was about to happen," Corona said.
The girl told her mother she had been "dating" the teen believed to be the father. He fled after the girl's mother rejected his idea that the girl move in with him and raise the child, the Spanish news agency EFE says. (Milenio has the story in Spanish.)
"We are looking for the young man to get his story because the girl does not understand what has happened," said Jorge Villasenor, another representative from the prosecutor's office. "This is either rape or child sex abuse."
News reports say the youngest mother on record is a Peruvian girl who was 5-years, 7 months old when she delivered a boy by C-section in 1939.
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Girl, 9, gives birth in Mexico; teen father sought | <urn:uuid:f0784c54-9094-4274-bae0-7798d7b35cd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/usatoday/article/1897407 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977304 | 568 | 1.671875 | 2 |
More than 37,000 people have signed a petition to thank coffee giant Starbucks for its equal marriage support after marriage opponents called for an international boycott.
Tens of thousands have signed the petition to thank Starbucks so far, compared with 6,200 who have said they will boycott the coffee shops as suggested by the National Organization for Marriage’s Dump Starbucks campaign.
When the petition reaches 40,000 signatures, the website SumofUs.org says it will deliver a giant ‘thank you’ card to the company’s Seattle headquarters and give executives “moral support to keep standing up for equality”.
The petition page says: “NOM is targeting Starbucks because the company recently stood up publicly to support gay marriage legislation in their home state of Washington in the United States. When it passed, the bill’s lead sponsor said that support from business convinced moderate legislators to vote for it. Without support from companies like Starbucks, the gay marriage law might have failed.”
In January, the coffee giant said it was “proud” to join other Washington-based employers like Microsoft and Nike in supporting the equal marriage in the state.
Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, executive director for SumofUs.org said: “Starbucks customers are speaking loud and clear: Being for equality is good for business. We’re seeing almost unprecedented levels of interest from our members in this campaign. NOM is soon going to have to face the truth that it’s losing the culture war it’s been waging against LGBT people.”
The Dump Starbucks campaign asks coffee-drinkers to boycott the brand “because it has taken a corporate-wide position that the definition of marriage between one man and one woman should be eliminated and that same-sex marriage should become equally ‘normal’.” | <urn:uuid:8efb8b76-6944-462e-b19e-e3c0e83f5282> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/03/23/37000-sign-petition-to-thank-starbucks-for-marriage-support/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960397 | 391 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Considering the Epson Artisan 1430 is designed to produce unique projects such as greeting cards, invitations, and coloring books, the company chose the right name for their line of specialty printers. Traditionally, an artisan is someone who makes their living by making things by hand. In the past, artisans produced a slew of everyday goods such as shoes, clothes, furniture, and food. Today, the artisan is a relic of a bygone era, a throwback to a time when our means of production rested in the hands of humanity. With its ability to produce projects revolving around arts and crafts, the Epson Artisan 810 is Epson's attempt to remind us that nothing beats a pair of hands when it comes to making something close to the heart.
SuperMediaStore mourns the loss of the artisan, but Epson is keeping the memory alive with the Epson Artisan 1430. See our selection of Epson Artisan ink cartridges for the Epson Artisan 1430 below. | <urn:uuid:34d6b7b0-9611-42c3-b799-89f65f0f0ad6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.supermediastore.com/category/mo/epson-artisan-1430-ink-cartridges?max=15&modelid=26344&offset=15 | 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 | 0.951475 | 203 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Have you ever considered starting your own company while still in school? Have you wondered what it would be like to take an idea from inception to a real life product?
Join us every week for an inside look into the experiences of four students at The Next 36, giving you a glimpse of what it’s like to be a student entrepreneur.
The goal of The Next 36 is to help launch the careers of 36 of Canada’s most promising and innovative undergraduates.
“When I heard of The Next 36, I knew this was the program for me as it was a perfect opportunity to gain entrepreneurial skills through both a rigorous academic program, and through practical application – a blend which could not be found anywhere else.” —Salima Hirji, third year sociology student, University of British Columbia
The program identifies these students through a rigorous national selection process, and give them the academic foundation, practical skills, role models and networks to become Canada’s next generation of entrepreneurial leaders.
Students should expect to be pushed out of their comfort zone, gain skills vital to entrepreneurs and nation builders and have their expectations for themselves increased dramatically.
Every week at The Next 36 brings its own flavour of challenges and rewards. As a finance student, I was extremely excited for our classes this week on Entrepreneurial Finance, which was taught by Harvard MBA professor Ramana Nanda.
For those with a commerce degree, its really intriguing to see the difference between evaluating the success of a large, established company versus a new start-up.
While it seems exciting to raise capital from angels and venture capitalists, we have learned that you need to do a significant amount of due diligence to effectively navigate the world of venture-backed financing.
In parallel, Pilwon Huh, co-founder and Development Lead, has been managing a team of developers, leading to our completion of a major milestone in our development cycle.
Here are a few questions that our closest followers have been asking us throughout the summer. If you have a question that you would like to be answered that we haven’t covered, we would be happy to answer it if you leave it in a comment below!
Third year sociology student – University of British Columbia
When I heard of The Next 36, I knew this was the program for me as it was a perfect opportunity to gain entrepreneurial skills through both a rigorous academic program, and through practical application – a blend which could not be found anywhere else.
Further, I was excited to be placed in a team composed of individuals from different backgrounds, providing a chance to learn from their talents and unique points of view.
The addition of experienced mentorship to the program was also a huge draw, as rarely would I get an opportunity to interact with reputed Canadian business leaders on such a personal level.
Fourth year computer science student – University of Waterloo
Coming from a non-business background, I have been excited for every class as each one is teaching me something completely new.
The Economics of Entrepreneurship (taught by Professor Reza Satchu, co-founder of The Next 36), has been especially valuable to me as it focuses not only on studying successful entrepreneurial ventures but routinely exposes me to real life business leaders and entrepreneurs, allowing me to learn from their experiences to increase my probability of success in the future.
Fourth year finance and economics student – Rotman Commerce, University of Toronto
Sometimes it’s difficult to prevent one from spilling over to another, as our living room serves as both our primary meeting room and our place to socialize with one another. While it wouldn’t be surprising to see start-ups founded by roommates in university, this isn’t the norm within the start-up community today.
As a team, we have an understanding that as deadlines approach (which happens very frequently), we need to focus on driving results – but we also have made a conscious effort to ensure that each one of us enjoys our own personal time when necessary. Creating a balance between the two is necessary to ensure that our venture succeeds.
Fourth year marketing and public relations student – Thompson Rivers University
As students in The Next 36, we have all established a strong network of contacts through each of our activities. But the mentors we have access to through this program is an opportunity none of us would ever have experienced this early into our careers.
Our advisors are extremely successful Canadian entrepreneurs who bring guidance to our venture and a perspective that has helped us shape our vision. They have pushed us incredibly hard at times to see what we can accomplish, but they have also been our strongest advocates within The Next 36.
It is incredibly inspiring and humbling to work with such skilled individuals and be fortunate enough to receive their expertise and time as we create our first venture.
We can’t wait for next week! | <urn:uuid:224de62f-88d7-4cc0-a577-860df2394870> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://talentegg.ca/incubator/2011/06/20/behind-the-scenes-with-the-next-36s-student-entrepreneurs-week-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972223 | 987 | 1.578125 | 2 |
LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles City Council has adopted new rules making it harder for developers to gentrify low-income neighborhoods and tear down residential hotels.
The measures approved by the council also impose strict limits on the size of remodeled homes in an effort to prevent the spread of "McMansions," oversized new homes built on standard lots, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
Officials say the new rules were needed to protect the character of existing neighborhoods and see that the poor aren't driven from their homes.
"When certain neighborhoods have homes on steroids and others no longer have a place for the poor to sleep, the social fabric is torn," said City Council President Eric Garcetti.
The action by the council comes after years of criticism that Los Angeles has failed to preserve the look and character of its neighborhoods.
Activists also complained that replacing residential hotels with luxury lofts leaves many of the city's poorest residents with nowhere to live.
Copyright © 2008, by United Press International. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:6bfedeaa-78c3-4e7d-85d6-54bc253c1893> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bendweekly.com/Nationwide-News/15324.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969291 | 208 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Pittsburgh -- Women constitute 74 percent of the nonprofit workforce in western Pennsylvania, yet they are paid only 75 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.
What’s more, women hold few positions of senior leadership at large nonprofit organizations, according to the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University.
In response, the Bayer Center is launching “74%: Exploring the Lives of Women in Nonprofits,” a research and community awareness project that aims to narrow the wage gap and develop successful career models for women in nonprofits. The three-year project is being funded with grants from the Eden Hall Foundation and the Bayer USA Foundation.
The project grew out of the Bayer Center’s biennial nonprofit wage and benefit survey, conducted in conjunction with the United Way of Allegheny County. Nonprofits employ 300,000 people in the Pittsburgh region, representing approximately 10 percent of the local economy. The wage gap has narrowed since 2000, when it was 67 cents on the dollar. But it is still worse than the overall national wage gap of 80 cents.
“This reality exists in nonprofit organizations, which are supposed to be bastions of justice – a justice that seems too often attempted for those served, not the people who are serving,” said Peggy Outon, executive director of the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management.
The 74% initiative is being co-chaired by Sylvia Fields, executive director of the Eden Hall Foundation, and Rebecca Lucore, executive director of the Bayer USA Foundation, which is a major funder of the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management. Lucore is the chair of the Bayer Center advisory board.
The Bayer Center is recruiting a “Kitchen Cabinet” of corporate, nonprofit, academic, and government leaders to guide the 74% project. More than 100 people have signed on thus far, including Esther Bush, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto; Deborah Acklin, president and CEO of WQED Multimedia; and RMU President Gregory G. Dell’Omo.
“As the largest funder of organizations that are led by women and support women, it is important to the Eden Hall Foundation to do whatever we can to strengthen female leadership,” said Fields. “However, it is not an issue that is only important to women. A very diverse group of people is coming together to solve this problem. It is an issue that is not only important to women.”
The research component will be overseen by Darlene Motley, associate professor of human resources at RMU and head of the Department of Management. Research will probe the causes of the glass ceiling in the nonprofit sector, the implications of the wage gap on women’s careers and lives, and ways to remedy the situation.
The Bayer Center plans to publish its research in academic journals and share the results with the community, culminating in a symposium the final year of the project.
““This project represents a significant workforce issue for this region, and it reaches across all sectors. Nonprofits interact civically with volunteers from our communities and with leaders from the corporate sector who serve on their organization's boards," said Lucore.
ABOUT THE BAYER CENTER FOR NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT
The Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University was founded in 1999 to provide the necessary tools for nonprofit organizations to effectively manage and compete in today's society. The center works with clients to assure that the money invested from public and private sources is efficiently and effectively spent to advance their charitable mission. The center offers consulting services and workshops in many areas including: board development, business planning, collaboration and alliances, financial management, fund development, organizational effectiveness, technology planning, and other management topics. For more information, go to www.rmu.edu/bcnm.
ABOUT THE BAYER USA FOUNDATION
The Bayer USA Foundation is an endowed 501(c)(3) entity and is the primary source of Bayer Corporation’s philanthropy in the United States. With a programmatic focus on the environment and sustainability; education and workforce development; arts and culture; and health and human services, the foundation creates and supports organizations that improve communities in which Bayer employees live and work, as well as society at large. The Bayer USA Foundation is one of three Bayer corporate foundations worldwide, including the Bayer Science & Education Foundation and the Bayer Cares Foundation.
ABOUT THE EDEN HALL FOUNDATION
The Eden Hall Foundation is a private foundation established pursuant to the will of Sebastian Mueller, a Pittsburgh philanthropists and vice presidents and director of the H.J. Heinz Company. The Eden Hall Foundation seeks to improve the quality of life in southwestern Pennsylvania through support of organizations whose missions address the needs and concerns of the area. | <urn:uuid:5a2b7c0d-3a19-4b03-9f60-64bb4fff36ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rmu.edu/News.aspx?id=49 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94896 | 995 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Several weeks ago I received a call from Native American Public Telecommunicationsinviting me to attend the Media for Change workshop. The name alone was appealing, but then I learned it would be during Indian Market in Santa Fe. Would I want to join them? Hmmm…. Santa Fe during Indian Market, an event displaying fantastic Native ingenuity and creativity in art, film and music; a meeting to talk about how film can be used in education to inspire reflection and action among students. Hard decision…. Not. I wouldn’t miss it.
It was great to be able to put NAPT faces to voices and email relationships, to reconnect with filmmakers and educators who I have worked with, and to meet new people working in this field. I learned about NAPT films, education resources and upcoming projects. The conversation was free-flowing and stimulating.
During the morning we discussed how NAPT’s film-related education materials and the education section of their website might be enhanced. Filmmakers, college and high school educators and others working with film and Native American education initiatives shared ideas about how to make these incredible resources more accessible and better for users.
At the meeting was a high school educator who plans to screen some of the NAPT films in her classroom this year. I am looking forward to hearing how she presents the filmApache 8 to her class and how she uses the lesson plan guide I created to help inspire her students to reflect upon their own lives and actions. This will give me feedback on the work I did, always a challenge to get when creating education guides.
In the afternoon, I met filmmakers and heard about their projects. In my hand is a new film by Daniel Golding, Songs of the Colorado, exploring how cultural traditions are passed on through language and songs and how cultural knowledge is stored within these traditions. We spoke about having singers of this tradition perform at the Arizona State Museum’s Southwest Indian Art Fair in February. Perhaps we’ll screen the film at ASM’s annual Native Eyes Film Showcase as we did his wonderful film about Waila music.
At the meeting I also heard about teaching resources from PBS and inspiring campaigns led by Working Films linking film messages to social action in communities. I learned about involving teens in creating campaigns to bring awareness to issues, and how to evaluate success of social action initiatives.
It was an inspiring workshop whose information and ideas will weave through my thoughts as I plan and design programs for the Arizona State Museum. I look forward to staying in conversation with the other participants and hope our ideas help NAPT boost the impact of their insightful films in communities across the world.
Lisa Falk is director of education at Arizona State Museum and this blog’s editor. With Vicky Westover of the Hanson Film Institute she co-produces the annual Native Eyes Film Showcase, and she curates the performance programs for ASM’s annual Southwest Indian Art Fair. Native American Public Telecommunications is an organization dedicated to educational and public telecommunications programs and services by and for American Indians supporting tribal sovereignty. | <urn:uuid:0c3e5c47-cbc9-451d-8781-9d6ba5e097ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nativetelecom.org/blogs/lisaf | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964916 | 628 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Eighty-six people have drowned while 38 others were struck by lightning across the country since the beginning of the rainy season. The heavy rains have also destroyed 180 houses in Tsholotsho, leaving most of the families homeless. In Beitbridge district, the rains have caused widespread damage to roads leaving some areas impassable.
The Civil Protection Unit yesterday said major rivers in Gokwe such as Ume, Sesame and Sengwa were in flood. Several people were reportedly marooned on some of them.
It urged people in the areas to desist from water-related activities along the rivers.
"Gwayi River and its tributaries in Tsholotsho are in flood. The Tamuhla community is likely to be marooned if the rains continue. We advise them to monitor the river flow," the department said.
"Several homesteads in Tsholotsho (180 to date) have succumbed to excessive moisture and have collapsed and some families have been left homeless as a result. It is advised that communities monitor their houses to prevent injury and loss of life from collapsing structures."
According to police, most of the victims drowned after attempting to cross flooded rivers. Others have had vehicles they were travelling in swept away in flooded rivers and bridges.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Andrew Phiri said the incidents were recorded between September 1 and Wednesday.
He said Manicaland and Masvingo provinces recorded the highest number of casualties through drowning with 18 and 13 respectively. "Bulawayo had the lowest number with one person having drowned," he said.
He said Masvingo had the highest numbers of 12 people struck by lightning followed by Midlands with 11. No such cases were recorded in the other provinces.
Supt Phiri discouraged the public from crossing or encouraging drivers to cross flooded rivers and bridges.
He said motorists in cities should drive cautiously since most of the pot holes would be filled with water and this might cause accidents.
Four more people, including the driver, drowned when a Mercedes Benz they were travelling in was swept away at a flooded river bridge in Chiredzi on Wednesday.
This brought the total number to 14 people who drowned when their vehicles were swept away at flooded rivers and bridges in separate incidents this month. The incident occurred at around 8pm.
There were several cars queuing at the flooded river but the driver of the Mercedes Benz overtook before plunging into the bridge.
Ten people had drowned when vehicles they were travelling in were swept away by flooded rivers and bridges in separate incidents by last week.
In Beitbridge, roads including those linking Tshikwalakwala, Chabili, Masera, Shashe and Swereki with Beitbridge town were destroyed by the heavy rains. This emerged during a tour by the Beitbridge Civil Protection Unit to assess the flood situation in low-lying areas around the district. | <urn:uuid:2d34d0a5-4cb9-4291-b8c5-22aa6462f46b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allafrica.com/stories/201301190063.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986805 | 601 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Even as we discuss the tremendous advancement happening in the online world, it is hard to believe that the small businesses have hardly entered the picture. Even as the number of businesses going online is increasing each passing day, there are still millions of small, brick-and-mortar store owners who are still depending largely upon the traditional word-of-mouth marketing methods. There is surprisingly a huge chunk of individual/small business owners who are reluctant to go in for a comprehensive digital strategy.
However, the picture is set to change. Individual professionals like doctors, lawyers, fitness experts, architects etc. are increasingly becoming aware of the power of making their presence online. According to Ely Dahan, professor of marketing at UCLA Anderson School of Management, this is a period of great transition for small businesses. Until now, small businesses owners relied on the Yellow Pages to get found. To get a larger stream of customers, entrepreneurs opted for bigger ads to be placed at the right spot. However, today even the most traditional business owners are now gearing to go online.
The Stage is Set
This transformation has been brought about largely due to the changing consumer trends. According to a study by BIA/Kelsey & ConStat, about 97% of the consumers depend on the online media to research about products and services in their local area. This is an unprecedented figure and calls for action even for the small business owner.
Apart from this, tech, digital and web design companies are also helping small businesses realize the online potential by presenting a whole lot of other statistics and analysis. Giant companies like Google are also getting into the fray and convincing small businesses and even offering them free websites.
It is the difference in sheer volumes of traffic and enquiries generated by the digital medium that is making the difference. Even a decent enough profile on a portal like Yelp can help in generating a steady stream of customers as compared to a newspaper classified. Consumers no longer refer to the Yellow Pages to look for the most reliable movers and packers in their neighborhood. They simply search online and if they don’t find your business, they simply move on to the one that gets found.
Though, it will still be too early to completely switch over to online, the smart thing to do would be to have the right mix of online and offline. Although most small businesses are not willing to have exhaustive online budgets, the fact that they feel convinced to have an online presence itself speaks volumes about the imminent change. | <urn:uuid:a56cef49-973a-4cad-896c-e938b80bbb03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbil360.com/blog/2012/02/17/small-businesses-ready-to-set-foot-online/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966192 | 502 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Les Troyens - review
Ambitious storytelling is vital to our culture, writes James Naughtie
Royal Opera House
Perhaps it is coincidence but I don’t think so. When I was limbering up for Les Troyens, the thundering epic for the operatic stage that makes the case for Berlioz on its own, I was also reading this year’s Orange Prize winner, The Song of Achilles. And, at the same time, a novel from Iceland – The Whispering Muse by Sjón – that fuses the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece with Nordic sagas, and retells them below deck on a ship in the 1940s, poetry reeking of oil and fish.
A happy conjunction of old stories, coming back all at once. Their grip is still there . . . classical fairy tales that draw you in and lift you up. Sadly they’ve had a bad press in recent times and have often been locked away for spurious and irritating reasons. First of all, that they are difficult – presumably because it all happened a long time ago and we have no need to be interested in all that Greek and Roman stuff – and, even worse, that they represent part of our culture that is divisive because it hints at elitism attached to a classical education, or awareness.
The arrival of Les Troyens at Covent Garden, in cinema relays and at the BBC Proms on 22 July – is a good moment to hit back at this nonsense. The Berlioz opera is vast, running to five and a half hours, and at times in its history has been thought unstageable because of its sheer scale. But no one now doubts that Berlioz did succeed in his adaption of parts of Virgil’s Aeneid in capturing the tragic sweep of one of the great sagas of the ancient world, ending with Dido’s suicide, the approaching doom for Carthage and the Roman triumph.
Anyone who submits to the richness of the score, and the composer’s understanding of the epic dimensions of the story, will understand why it matters that the case for this opera is made again and again. Despite the technical challenges – it rivals The Ring in that respect, with elephant traps waiting in every act for a timid director – Les Troyens, even in concert performances such as those given by Colin Davis, and his sublime recording in 2001, has the quality to lift you out of the world.
Thinking about this when I was reading Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles, which is her reworking of the story of the siege of Troy seen through the prism of the friendship between Achilles and the exiled, weakling prince Patroclus. Miller’s passion for the sweep of the story – its intimacy and its grandeur – means that she can render Homer in the form of a modern novel without seeming to hit a single wrong note. As a first book, it is a dazzling star turn.
In the course of it, she explains, simply by her poetic response to the story, why it is such an engrossing tale. Heroes tangle with the world’s weary ways and transform lesser lives – ecstasy and tragedy intertwined. A story from somewhere else, with a boldness that is thrilling.
We’ve talked a good deal about the recovery of storytelling in recent years. The explosion in good-quality writing for children has helped, with narrative invention much more cherished than it was a generation ago, but there is much more to be done. Schools where stories are read aloud – even to pupils with advanced reading skills, say at 10 or 11 – are doing everyone a service. The tilt back towards narrative history is another happy swing of the pendulum – so that it isn’t the Egyptians and the Nazis with nothing in between except Henry VIII’s wives. And what of poetry?
You couldn’t invent an odder couple than Michael Gove and Liz Lochhead, Scotland’s Makar or national poet. She is resolutely of the left (and neither is she a unionist, having performed at Alex Salmond’s launch of his pro-independence campaign) and by temperament and outlook she and the Education Secretary are in quite different orbits, separate Scots. Yet they share an objective: that schools should encourage young pupils to learn poetry, preferably by reading it aloud.
Why shouldn’t such an enthusiasm be common to people who might disagree about much education policy? Of course it should. She would like schools to throw some Byron and Shelley and Auden at kids, as well as Benjamin Zephaniah or Wendy Cope. For two generations “learning by rote” has been an insult, as if it guaranteed mindlessness. Sometimes it did but in the many schools where they haven’t allowed themselves to be distracted by that assumption, the results are extraordinary.
Not long ago I ran into a distinguished former BBC producer, who’d spent much of his working life with drama and who is now doing some university teaching. “They don’t know much, do they?” he said, wearily. He was confronted with big brains, considerable enthusiasm, but too often a cultural wasteland stretching behind them. They were trapped in a modern-day bubble. What had they read? What had they heard? What had they seen? Too often, not much – and it probably wasn’t their fault.
Bring back great poetry and the best stories. In Sjón’s terrific novel the protagonist Caeneus, who sailed with Jason and the Argonauts, tells stories below deck to a fishing inspector – and mega-bore – as they plough along. The skipper’s chief preoccupation is “the link between fish consumption and the superiority of the Nordic race,” about which he’s written 17 volumes. The real stories win.
They always do. Listen to Les Troyens and you will remember why; read Madeline Miller and recover a lost world and its heroes; pick up your favourite poems and read them again, preferably aloud. Isn’t it all so obvious? Think of what the Simón Bolívar Orchestra has done with Venezuelan child recruits by capturing their enthusiasm and talent, and then revealing the secret: that it’s all about quality.
It’s good to remind everyone at the start of the Cultural Olympiad that it’s no accident that the best stories, like the best music, last. The legacy? Just don’t forget it.
James Naughtie presents Today on BBC Radio 4
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- Eleanor Margolis | <urn:uuid:8f20414a-0a3d-4a1b-a7d8-3f650f2de0b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/culture/2012/07/les-troyens-review | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961301 | 1,495 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The product is developed, the site is designed, it has content, it works, and it is ready to go! Well, many websites that are in this stage are not actually ready to go, but are closer to being ready for public release or launch.
As many of us, we tend to forget to perform many precautionary or pre-launch tests because either the project is quite large and many things are forgotten, or we become too excited to introduce our new flavor to the internet that we do not think about precautionary elements, but rather getting it out to the public and fast.
In order to help prevent precautionary methods or tests from being skipped, it is generally a good idea to make a nice laundry list on all the steps and tests you need to go through before deeming your website ready for launch as with any tangible products and goods. With that said, we cover five things that you generally need to do before launching your website in hope we are reminding you of that you may have forgotten to add to your pre-launch list.
Cross-Browser and Platform Checks
We all have a favorite browser that we tend to love, adore, and recommend to anyone who is not using it. What this means is, we generally tend to test our website design in our favorite browser the most than any other browser out there. In fact, this is one of the major issues we see with new launched websites that the design is sometimes messed up in the browser we use versus the browser it was mostly tested in. Therefore, visiting the homepage of your website in different browsers is not enough to deem it” alt=”" />
Not having the browsers installed onto your working environment is not a good excuse to not testing your website across multiple browsers. If you do not want to download each browser individually, there are a plethora of cross-browser testing suits and tools to fulfill the proper testing environment.
If you do not have a proper testing environment, it is a good time to get started on setting one up before coding your design as it is generally helpful to fix bugs along the way, rather than leave them to the end for fixing, which may lead to more troubles and bugs that you may have not seen or that may have been caused due to fixing other bugs.
I admit, when I sometimes needed to link to dozens of tutorials or pages within my content I tended to get lazy on clicking every single link to assure they all work and lead to the correct location or page. However, I learned the hard way and faced having to spend more time going back and correcting the errors than just fixing them as I went along.
With that said, before launching your website, make sure you proofread your content and click on every link you provide within your website to assure they all link to the appropriate and intended locations as it will keep your website ranked higher, as well as you time in the long run.
Before launching a website you need to make sure you get some sort of analytical program working to keep track of traffic and “hot spots” on your website. If marketed properly, we all know the most traffic we will get for a while would be on the first few days of launch, and not having any analytical program to keep track of how many visitors landed or where they are going on your websites good be a success or fail situation for your website as these few days are vital for improving your website to keep as many visitors as you possibly can.
I cannot stress enough on how valid code is just a key aspect that you cannot disregard when launching your website. There are so many benefits to valid code such as professionalism, better search engine optimization, and others, so do not disregard it, and spend the time needed to get all the tidbits fixed and to have that code ready.
To give you an example of accepting invalid code as a solution, let us say you are creating a tangible coffee mug that you plan to use every day. As you are creating this coffee mug, you notice that around the handle that you attached, there some holes and imperfections within the clay.
You know that if you do not fix the imperfections and holes that you will have a leak of coffee, making the mug unusable, so you decide to opt in to fix the imperfections to enjoy your cups of coffee in the long run. Similarly, these imperfections in the mug are like having invalid code, and you know that if you do not fix them, you may have troubles in the future with the many aspects discussed earlier. Therefore, try your best to get your code validated to future proof your website.
If your website is content based such as articles, tutorials, and the likes, make sure you create a style sheet specific for printing. The worst thing anyone comes across is printing out a website to only get the header and some bits of text rather than the full text, and less the header and advertisements. Therefore, in order to have open arms to the growth of your website and to not face this printing issue later on, create the style sheet and test it out in many different case scenarios, long or short, wide or not to make sure the desired printing result is what you get every time.
Overall, getting your website prepared for launch may be a long task, but it is worthwhile. While we covered only a few important things you need to make sure you get right before launch, we hope this encouraged you to whip up your own list, and to stick to it when you launch your next website. | <urn:uuid:404db643-fca0-4719-91f5-a136145a0755> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.colourlessdesign.com/wp/2010/10/05/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965335 | 1,120 | 1.515625 | 2 |
At FSB, we understand a service members military service is not a solitary experience. It takes love, commitment, and support from a soldier's family and community to help him or her succeed. We celebrate this strength by sharing the soldiers and families experiences through a forum of media, arts and community outreach. Our "Shine the Light" Campaign will highlight the issues impacting our military and their families as we strive for collaboration between the civilian and military communities.
Every service member from each generation has a memory from boot camp or some other remembrance of military history to share; whether it's how the drill sergeants "smoke them" or the battle buddy who kept them going. It's a part of our history that families want to hear. The "Boots Before You" campaign and FSB will share your letters with new recruits, service members and families across the country; beyond the generations and through time; preserving the military experience and capturing the history that sustains our military and gives meaning to the community at home.
We will be starting a community "Wall of Heros" on Patch with your help. Each week we will post a picture of "your" hero with their branch of service, commitment etc to share with the community. We're bringing back our "Hometown Heros" and as we get to know our local heros, we'll start the discussion that helps them reintegrate back into their civilian worlds, reaching out to their families and bridging the gap military families feel between their communities and the military.
Sharing "your" heroes story can be as easy as commenting on this post, providing their picture, their information and a memory you want to share about their journey. You can also send us their information to our website email at [email protected]. FSB and "The Boots Before You" are proud members of Illinois Joining Forces. Together we can bring our men and women home and give them the opportunity to be the best they can be in the civilian world. It starts with just one...
Visit FSB and The Boots Before you on Facebook and at www.familysupportbrigade.org. | <urn:uuid:c192e4f1-1443-4d28-a8b3-4916cb6dc09a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://highlandpark.patch.com/blog_posts/the-boots-before-you-and-family-support-brigade-want-to-share-your-military-story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967266 | 440 | 1.507813 | 2 |
My daughter and I were introduced to Do·A·Dot Art markers (we call them “stampers” in our house) at her preschool when she was about two years old. One of the main reasons I wanted to write a blog post about these markers is that they are one of our very favorite art supplies and they are made in the USA too.
Do·A·Dot Art markers are basically washable marker ink in a bottle with a round sponge tip applicator. They are great for little hands because they don’t require much in the way of dexterity but kids of any age will have a good time using them. Adults will rejoice in the fact that they are virtually mess and spill proof. I also appreciated that they didn’t dry out and become unusable on those times that we forgot to recap them right away. The markers come in a few types of packs such as “Fluorescent” and “Shimmer” but we stuck with the regular six-pack of “Rainbow Colors.”
You can use Do·A·Dot Art markers on any normal weight paper without troubles but I do also recommend their own Do·A·Dot Art brand dot “coloring books” which are printed in the United States. They are a very heavy weight paper and come in a variety of themes. We have the “Discovering My World” and “Rainbow Trail” ones. The artwork on them is perfectly designed for the size of the marker head.
Do·A·Dot Art markers and coloring books make a really great birthday gift for children, especially because you can rest assured that the parents of the child won’t have a huge mess on their hands afterwards!
Bottom Line: As you can tell, I highly recommend these markers – You and your kids will have hours of fun…with no messes to clean.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, BJ Pinchbeck’s Homework Helper will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, we only recommend products or services we use personally and believe will add value to our readers. We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” | <urn:uuid:8c8317f0-9899-492e-ad1f-aa240d5f516c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bjpinchbeck.com/art-supply-review-do-a-dot-art-markers-and-coloring-books/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962971 | 513 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Alice Walker Refuses to Publish ‘The Color Purple’ in Israel
By Alex Panisch
Alice Walker, the author of the American classic “The Color Purple,” has refused to allow a Hebrew language version of her novel be published in Israel, according to an AP article from the Washington Post. Though her book has appeared in Hebrew before, Walker sent a letter to publisher Yediot Books, citing Israel’s “apartheid” against the Palestinian people as the basis for her decision. She wrote that Israel, where our staff at Out is currently on a fact-finding mission, will have to change its policies before she will allow her work to be published in the state.
Walker is a fervent pro-Palestinian activist: Last year she was a passenger on the second Turkish flotilla that tried to break through Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip (the first one was attacked by the Israeli government, resulting in nine passanger deaths. The second attempt was also unsuccessful.
“I would so like knowing my books are read by the people of your country, especially by the young and by the brave Israeli activists (Jewish and Palestinian) for justice and peace I have had the joy of working beside,” Walker wrote in the letter to Yediot Books. “I am hopeful that one day, maybe soon, this may happen. But now is not the time.”
Netta Gurevich, the chief editor of Yediot Books, says she regretted Walker’s choice, especially "...when talking about The Color Purple, a book that addresses discrimination, otherness and the importance of the individual’s struggle against injustice in general.” Gurevich says Walker isn’t the first writer to refuse to have works published in Israel. | <urn:uuid:b3823081-2c64-45eb-bb63-eac661c25b0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.out.com/entertainment/art-books/2012/06/20/alice-walker-color-purple-hebrew-israel-refusal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97508 | 374 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Within 12 hours of announcing an open contest to successfully create and deploy an "in the wild" active virus for Mac OS X, Mac and iPod peripheral maker DVForge Inc. canceled the campaign saying it was ill advised and fraught with legal concerns.
The contest -- titled the Mac OS X Virus Prize 2005 -- was to have awarded a US$25,000 prize to the first hacker who could infect two Macintosh computers owned by the company. Announced early the morning of March 26, the company canceled the program in less than 24 hours.
"During the first several hours after making the public announcement, I was contacted by a large number of Mac users and Mac software professionals who shared their thinking with me about the contest," said Jack Campbell, Chief Executive Officer of DVForge. "I have taken their advice very seriously, and have made the difficult decision to cancel our contest. I have been convinced that the risk of a virus on the OS X platform is not zero, although it is remarkably close to zero.
"More importantly, I have been convinced that there may be legality issues stemming from such a contest, beyond those determined by our own legal counsel, prior to announcing the contest. So, despite my personal distaste for what some companies have done to take advantage of virus fears among the Mac community, and my own inclination to make a bold statement in response to those fears, I have no responsible choice but to retract the contest, effective immediately."
The catalyst for the contest was a report released early last week by anti-virus software vendor Symantec Corp. that said the Mac and Mac OS X was becoming an increasingly bigger target for viruses and hacker attacks.
"It is now clear that the Mac OS is increasingly becoming a target for the malicious activity that is more commonly associated with Microsoft and various Unix-based operating systems," the report stated. "Symantec believes that as the popularity of Appleis new platform continues to grow, so too will the number of attacks directed at it."
The report was met with skepticism across the Internet. Mr. Campbell called the report "complete nonsense" and challenged "any malicious coder" to prove Symantecis claims.
"There are a number of fundamental safeguards against virus attacks that keep the OS X operating system without its first in-the-wild virus," Mr. Campbell wrote. "The ismall numberi of Macs has nothing to do with the lack of virus incidents. It is the architecture of Appleis operating system that protects its users from these bugs.
"I happen to believe that Apple should be offering this prize," he wrote. "But, since they have not, I will. On behalf of knowledgeable Mac users everywhere, I am putting my money where my mouth is."
To win the contest, the person coding the virus had to infect two G5 Powermac computer systems owned by the company and submit an e-mail notice with a transcript of at least 32 contiguous characters of code included in the virus, a brief description of the functionality and symptoms of the virus, and contact information. If the virus matched the description and actually worked, Mr. Campbell promised a $25,000 prize.
After canceling the contest, Mr. Campbell went out of his way to distance himself and his company from giving any impression that it was endorsing the development and distribution of computer viruses -- a U.S. federal crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
In a carefully worded statement, Mr. Campbell explained his reason for the contest and denied it was a publicity stunt.
"We have seen hundreds of people write to us condemning us for iputting the entire Mac world at risk,i" he wrote. "If an in-the-wild virus is coming, anyway, I say let it come...I believe that this overstated virus threat is costing our platform hundreds of thousands of new users."
Saying he still feels the contest was the right thing to do, Mr. Campbell said, "the contest was only canceled because I was convinced on Saturday morning that there was some minor risk of federal law violation in continuing." | <urn:uuid:ec5032b1-c2bd-48a2-bd41-7189a9f2ddb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/DVForge_Nixes_Virus_Prize_Contest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975466 | 836 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Rapid Skill Builder Booklet in Spanish! Now our most popular employee development booklets can be purchased in spanish language versions for use with a Spanish speaking populations. Below is info on the booklet contents.
Process re-engineering, process mapping, and process improvement have all become common terms in todays organisations, but few people really understand their full meaning.
A process comprises all the common tasks that individuals or teams of people undertake to achieve a particular outcome it is the way that a particular job gets done, broken down into discrete steps. Process improvement focuses on discovering the ways and means needed to change the way that things get done to be more efficient or effective than before. This booklet outlines a simple system for engaging in process improvement (to use in both small and large scale organisational change). It also outlines some of the tools and techniques that are most commonly used in the activity.
Now available in Spanish, Rapid Skill Builder Series Team Briefing Booklets are short, sharp and succinct resources provide best practice thinking on a range of key topics and are currently available in 50 titles. They are designed to provide a practical method for improving skills and focus on explaining the main steps in the process. On the back page of each booklet, a template illustrates how the process fits together for practical and immediate application.
These resources can be used in many settings, including: staff meetings or other group gatherings where time is limited and you want to discuss a specific skill or topic; pre-course work (to provide a brief and practical introduction to a topic); one-on-one or group coaching; self development; any other situation where a practical best practice process is required and time is limited.
This product is a downloadable PDF. By purchasing this product, you are entitled to print one copy for your use. Photocopying and distributing the booklet to others is a violation of the copyright. | <urn:uuid:d05a2d8a-955c-41c9-ae4c-a9a27b66b72d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://store.readytomanage.com/store/p/1305-Mejora-de-procesos-process-improvement-Un-RSB-Booklet-en-Espa-ol-PDF.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939315 | 380 | 1.796875 | 2 |
We all know that home is where the heart is. Unfortunately, this loving family’s health is being endangered by the house they live in.
This week it’s off to Ablert Lea, Michigan, for Ty and the EM:HE designers. It’s here that we meet Susan DeVries, who suffers from Ventricular Tachycardia—a disease that keeps her heart constantly moving at above 100 beats per minute. The life-threatening arrhythmia, we learn, could take her life at any second.
But despite feeling fatigued, none of this stops Susan from shining as a loving music teacher, band director, first grade reading specialist and bus driver for her school’s evening route. We can’t help but be moved by her unwavering spirit.
Meanwhile, we discover that Susan’s husband Dirk, a mechanic, suffers from severe arthritis in his only hand. This greatly limits his ability to make repairs on their house, which is literally falling apart at the seams. The roof is beyond repair, constantly leaking whenever it rains. Severe water damage and rotting wood are separating the unfinished walls from the ceilings.
It becomes obvious to us that the DeVries have worked to improve the lives of others, so that’s why Ty and his designers step in to give this selfless family a safer home that will improve their own quality of life. | <urn:uuid:9f916e29-8b66-41fb-9a85-05b40023e16a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abc.go.com/shows/extreme-makeover-home-edition/episode-detail/devries-family/156115 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965363 | 290 | 1.820313 | 2 |
You are buying one of the now-famous O2 (Objective2) headphone amplifiers designed by a US electrical engineer "NwAvGuy" and described on his blog at blogspot.com! The O2 headphone amplifier puts "CMOY" headphone amplifiers to shame as NwAvGuy shows on his blog. His stated goal is to "bust several audio myths" by showing from actual measurements that a very good headphone amplifier can be produced for a relatively low cost.
O2 Details on NwAvGuy blog
O2 Summary on NwAvGuy blog
O2 discussion thread on DIY Audio
He has designed all the parameters of the O2 with a $10,000 "dscope" professional audio analyzer and posted those results on his blog. The measurement graphs show extremely flat frequency response from 20Hz to 20kHz and extremely low levels of noise floor, total harmonic distortion, intermodulation distortion, plus parameters such as square wave response and many others.
The O2 headphone amplifier is capable of 70mA+ per channel and up to nearly a 10V peak voltage swing, plus battery charging, while running on the included 16VAC 400mA ac adapter, or 6V peak while running on batteries, insuring this headphone amplifier can handle both high and low impedance headphones. With a larger 16VAC 1000mA adapter (not included) the O2 is capable of over 120mA+ per channel. You won't find this with a CMOY! The O2 headphone amplifier runs either off wall power with the included AC adapter or off batteries with the two included 250mAh NiMH rechargeable cells. The O2 recharges the batteries when the AC adapter is plugged in along with powering the amplifier!
The O2 headphone amplifier has a "gain" switch on the front that allows selection between 2.5x and 6.5x gains, which allows the O2 to work with a wide variety of input audio source levels. One of the design points of the amplifier is making it two-stage for the lowest distortion. The first stage provides voltage gain using a NJM2068 op amp while the second stage provides current gain (unity voltage gain) using paralleled NJM4556 op amps. Each chip here does what it is designed to do best. The NJM2068 is a low noise, low distortion, audio-specific (bandwidth and frequency compensation) op amp. The NJM4556 is a low noise, high current, audio buffer op amp. A typical CMOY will have just one op amp wired for both voltage and current gain. NwAvGuy did extensive measurements of various popular "audio" op amps in one posting and found nothing beat the NJM chips for high performance for the lowest cost when tested with the dScope and a high-end Agilent digital oscilloscope.
Op Amp Measurements on NwAvGuy blog
The O2 is designed as a do-it-yourself amplifier build project with NwAvGuy giving specifications for the circuit design, PC board layout, and Bill Of Materials for all the parts but not actually selling the amplifier himself. You are buying a completed and tested O2 headphone amplifier consisting of a high quality PC board with all parts soldered and the completed unit tested and "burned in" for 24 hours powering headphones. Also included is a 16VAC 400mA AC wall transformer, a WAU16-400 unit listed by the designer in the Bill Of Materials (BOM).
The amplifier includes the black B2-080 metal case, which includes blank front and back panels and cover screws. Note that THIS AMPLIFIER DOES NOT COME WITH A FRONT PANEL. You will need to buy the front panel separately if you wish. A pre-drilled and etched front panel can be purchased from Front Panel Express. An information sheet will be included with the amplifier on where to find these parts and information on the internet. NwAvGuy also provides the measurements to drill the panel the comes with the case yourself. You will also need to drill a hole in the metal case at a location of your choosing to attach a ground wire, as NwAvGuy describes in the "details" post about the O2.
The parts used in the O2 you are buying all were purchased directly from Mouser Electronics in the US (except the batteries and case which Mouser does not carry), from the Mouser part numbers given by NwAvGuy in his blog for the O2's BOM. This particular O2 build includes several of the "upgrades" listed by NwAvGuy in the BOM including
* The super-quiet "DD" versions of the NJM2068 and NJM4556 amplifier chips
* The gold plated Tyco IC sockets
* The low noise ACTG versions of the voltage regulators
* Has the Bourns "pro audio" volume control option on the BOM.
* The compact and relatively light weight 16VAC 400mA AC adapter option on the BOM.
* The solder used is very high quality 62/36/2 "eutectic" silver-bearing rosin core solder. Eutectic solder does not develop grains on cooling like cheaper 60/40 tin/lead solder. The 2% silver in the solder prevents leaching of precious metals plated on device leads and produces greater joint strength. The rosin flux in the solder is electrically inert, unlike "no-clean" solders used commercially that have to be washed or will short. A temperature controlled soldering station was used for all the soldering work. The board was cleaned after soldering with a quality flux remover.
The amplifier comes with 2 of the blue Tenergy NiMH 8.4V (9V type) rechargable batteries, as shown on NwAvGuy's blog. This O2 is built with a blue "input" jack and a green "output" jack - the same color green as is used on PC sound cards for output jacks. The amplifier has the default specified gain switch settings of 2.5x on low and 6.5x on high. NwAvGuy describes how to change resistors on the board to change those gain settings in his blog article, but that would require unsoldering and soldering resistors. NwAvGuy has posted that the default gain settings here cover the vast majority of sound sources. The amplifier comes with the specified plastic knobs and caps from Mouser for the volume control and push buttons. Also included is an input audio connection cable with 3.5mm plugs on either end as shown in the photos. An adapter cable is included to convert one end of the 3.5mm / 3.5mm cable to RCA plugs for sources with RCA line out jacks rather than 3.5mm.
United States destinations only for this sale. Sorry but I will not ship to any international locations. For the 48 continental US states FREE FedEx ground shipping is included in the sale price, with a $10 additional surcharge added for Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico. FedEx ground usually delivers within 4-5 business days. If you want express shipping just message me via eBay before you purchase for a quote on the express shipping to your zip code. Full tracking is included and a tracking number will be sent after the sale. The shipment will also be fully insured against shipping loss. A SIGNATURE WILL BE REQUIRED UPON RECEIPT. You can make arrangements with FedEx to hold it at their local office for signature and pickup if nobody is home during the day to sign.
The unit comes with a 30 day warranty on construction defects. In the event of a warranty claim you will be required to pay the cost of returning the unit for service, but it will be sent back prepaid. The O2 headphone amplifier is fully tested prior to shipment and will be sent in an anti-static bag with anti-static packing. The amplifier can be returned for a full refund within 3 business days after receipt, if the amplifier is received in the original condition, with the AC power adapter, and is shipped back in the anti-static packaging. The buyer is responsible for the cost of return shipping.
Shipment will be within 2 business days from receiving cleared payment via paypal in US dollars.
Important! Only use the included AC adapter with the O2 headpone amplifier. It uses an adapter that outputs AC, rather than DC like many electronic items use. A DC adapter will not work correctly with the O2.
Don't pass up your chance to own one of the best headphone amplifiers out there right now! | <urn:uuid:b46776c9-cdb7-413e-b5c4-5a54998ab432> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ebay.com/itm/150707365610?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT | 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 | 0.933548 | 1,777 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Who will replace Mills remains unknown. The White House is making no personnel announcements today, according to an email from White House spokesperson Inouye Shin. Mills said in a letter to staff that she will stay on until the White House has named a replacement.
Mills served as the 23rd head of the government agency that is charged with representing small business interests in Washington. She was sworn into her position in April 2009.
In a nod to the important role small business plays in the economic recovery, Obama elevated the Administrator to a Cabinet-level position in January of 2012. The announcement was made as part of a larger proposal from the White House to merge the agency with five others in a bid to make government more efficient. The president would need Congress to sign off on his broader plan to streamline agencies, and since the announcement in January 2012, there has been no further action on the proposal.
Mills came into the SBA as the recession had choked off pipelines of credit to the nation's small businesses. During her time at the SBA, she worked to implement various stimulus measures to improve access to capital. In its 2011 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, the SBA supported more than $30 billion in lending to more than 60,000 small businesses throughout the U.S.
In her four years heading the agency, the SBA supported more than $106 billion in lending to over than 193,000 small businesses and entrepreneurs, Mills noted in her letter to staffers.
President Obama thanked Mills for her work in a written statement, noting her key role in passing the Small Business Jobs Act and her efforts to reduce paperwork and bureaucracy in the agency.
Before coming to the SBA, Mills was president of the private-equity firm MMP Group, which invested in businesses in the consumer products, food, textiles and industrial components industries. Also, in 2007, the governor of Maine appointed Mills to be the chair of Maine's Council on Competitiveness and the Economy where she worked to revive Maine's boatbuilding industry by helping the craftsmen cluster together. She was always a proponent and fan of clustering as a way to develop region economies.
Who would you like to see replace Mills as the next head of the SBA? Leave a note below and let us know. | <urn:uuid:7303a6fa-b5ad-435b-9ccc-84f1a8ea633b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/225752 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976018 | 466 | 1.523438 | 2 |
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This organisation helps commercial nuclear power plants ensure safety and reliability through independent peer reviews, technical support, access to information that allows operators to learn from others' experience, and sharing of professional development activities. The website outlines the organisation's main services and publishes relevant reports, including documents about nuclear power performance indicators. Some of the publications are also available in French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.
The World Nuclear University aims to improve training and leadership for those involved in the peaceful use of nuclear technologies by offering courses in current issues facing the nuclear industry. It is supported by governments, academia and industry. The website publishes information about available courses, which vary in length from one day to six weeks, as well as other training programmes, information about sponsorship for applicants from developing countries, and relevant publications. | <urn:uuid:c129a1a9-31c7-4906-9ebb-cec35221ed73> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scidev.net/en/new-technologies/nuclear-technology/links/nongovernmental-organisations/ | 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 | 0.939843 | 168 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Pay no mind to the groans that come with stretching, to hair that is gray or gone altogether. Ignore the cautiousness of their steps and the canes in their hands.
These seniors are ready to fight.
A rainbow of martial arts belts dangles above the mirror along one wall of this small dojo; swords, nunchuks and sickles hang near the front. Punching bags and torso targets line the room, but they'll need none of these. Their weapons are their canes.
At the helm of the class is one of the country's most recognized cane fighters, Mark Shuey, a slight man who, at 62, has hair and skin starting to show signs of age. He has traveled from Lake Tahoe, Nev., to teach this group of 16 how to protect themselves from attackers.
He calls it Cane-Fu.
Cane fighting classes have popped up all over the country, in part due to the influence of Cane Masters, the company Shuey founded that sells wood canes made of harder, thicker wood, to sustain wear and wider crooks to fit around an attacker's neck. Now, it's being offered at dojos and increasingly in senior centers and retirement communities.
"You don't have to be powerful, you don't have to be fast," said Gary Hernandez, who runs the dojo here northeast of Tampa where the session was held and where he teaches cane fighting classes himself. "It's a piece of hard wood. It hurts."
The session starts simply enough, with seniors gathered on the red and black mat twisting this way and that, stretching with their simple wooden canes over their heads and behind their backs. They combine long rubber tension bands with their canes to do bicep curls, leg presses and chest rows – exercises aimed at keeping the seniors fit.
Fitness alone won't ward off those who might hurt them, though, and Shuey talks briefly of recent attacks on elders. His hazel eyes look severe as he points to the cane and delivers his message.
"When you put this little crook around someone's neck, their whole attitude changes real fast," he said.
And in a moment, Shuey shows it. With another instructor, Merle McAlpin, playing the bad guy, Shuey hooks the cane around his neck and thrusts it. The result is a guttural groan of pain from McAlpin.
When it's time for the students to try a bit later, Shuey shouts: "Be gentle!"
In the two-hour session, participants are taught a sampling of moves to use in different situations. The cane can simply be swung in circles, used to grab a foot or neck, and fashioned into a bat or poker. Advanced techniques even show a senior how to use a cane to ward off someone with a gun or knife.
It takes years to master cane fighting like Hernandez or Shuey, but they say they can teach a senior several crucial moves in an hour. Perhaps more importantly, though, it gives them confidence that can help them escape a dangerous situation.
"You don't think about carrying it other than for somebody who needs help," said 63-year-old Joan Kirkman, a nurse from Zephyrhills. "But after taking this class, you realize you could do so much more with it." | <urn:uuid:527c2661-9898-428d-9d14-4e79332d1c5b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2009/mar/23/cane-fu-032309/?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968963 | 698 | 1.515625 | 2 |
I apologize for the lack of blog entries over the past few weeks. I am very proud to report that Interactive Weather has been such a success, that we are expanding to other newspapers, and I have been quite focused on that project, and the response has been exceptional. I have some very forward-thinking colleagues at the NDN, I'm also proud to announce we've won a statewide award for innovation.
As we get into July, it's important to remember that July is a transition month regarding our Tropical Season. In June, we focus mainly on the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean for Tropical System to form, but things start to change in July. Look at the attached graphics, showing where storms have formed historically.
The reason for this change is usually two-fold. First, the waters off of the coast of Africa are beginning to warm,…..secondly; the upper level winds tend to get a little lighter, favoring Tropical development. So far, it has been a quiet Tropical Season, and we all hope that continues, but historically, this have a tendency to get a bit more serious in July.
There is one thing to always remember during Tropical Season. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Do not over-analyze every tropical wave that develops. We have a long way to go in the 2008 hurricane season, and it’s most important to keep a level head and maintain proper perspective. | <urn:uuid:c20bd886-f9d8-493e-95c1-f43d774d9626> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marconews.com/blogs/weather/2008/jul/02/7_02/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975874 | 288 | 1.625 | 2 |
Do you know what a family tree is? If not, a family tree is a tree with all your family members on a tree. I told you that because at Christmas our tree is filled with our family pictures.
First my tree is green like every normal tree, except mine is a bit different because it is artificial. My tree was bought when I was born because the other one fell down. My father said that I always wanted to reach it. But it couldn’t fit it in our house so we had to cut it at the top. Usually it is my mom that decorates the trees. I forgot to say that I had two trees at my house. My sister does one down stairs and my mother upstairs.
The best year we did it was in 2008. I found it was the best year because I could go at the back of the tree. It smelled bad – I think like moth balls. At the back I found a picture of my great-great-grandfather. He had a long beard with no hair. He looked very funny. I find all the pictures look good on the tree.
We still have ornaments also on our tree. At the top of the tree there is an angel. It has a light built into it so it lights up. It is fun because at night we open the angel and it glows yellow. | <urn:uuid:a3a0cf2b-090c-4663-8e5a-9c9ca32564b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allthingsquebec.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/advent-calendar-family-tree-christmas-tree-by-sylvain-gr-6-history-making-kids/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=55bb07b550 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9908 | 278 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Iranian officials say the June 12 presidential vote was free and fair. But reformists are crying foul and some even say a "coup" took place in Iran. RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari spoke to a 29-year-old journalist who works for one of Iran's moderate daily newspapers. She did not want her named to be used because of security fears.
RFE/RL: What happened in Iran or what is happening in Iran? Some call it a coup, while others describe it as an epic and a “people’s election." What is your view as a journalist who is in Tehran?
Iranian Journalist: The important event that took place in Iran is that it wasn’t an election; it was a coup d’etat. [They] stole 24 million votes of the nation and took them away for themselves. If there were really a winner, they would have to celebrate, but instead they beat people. They performed a coup, but they don’t call it a coup.
RFE/RL: What are the indications?
Journalist: Please don’t use the word "fraud" because it is mitigation of what has happened in Iran. Fraud is what was happening in the past 30 years. This is not fraud. They haven’t [counted ] people’s votes. Using the word fraud is like calling a deep cut a small scratch. There was no fraud; it was a coup.
RFE/RL: Please explain why you call it a coup. Based on what?
Journalist: Based on the military atmosphere that is now ruling [in the country], based on the threats against senior officials in the country. What are the elements of a coup in the world? Just now as we’re speaking, [Mahmud Ahmadinejad] said I’ll clean the Iranian establishment of all these corrupted elements. [If this isn’t] a coup, then what is it?
Coup means that right now they’re beating people in the streets. A coup means they didn’t even count people’s votes. They announced the results without opening the ballot boxes. It was sent as a circular to the state television, which announced it. Is it so difficult for the world to understand this?
RFE/RL: How do you think the world should react to what has happened in Iran and what is happening right now -- the protests and the crackdown?
Journalist: Recognizing Iran’s election as an election is a crime against democracy. The countries that have fought for democracy, countries that talk about democracy, if they accept this, they’re betraying themselves. This was not an election. If they accept this, it means they’ve put democracy under question. They’ve launched a coup under the cover of democracy.
This is a very important event. Just look at what the indications for a coup are. Last night, [cellphone] lines were cut; we can’t send SMSs. We can’t check our e-mails. We can’t keep in touch on Facebook. If this was a real election, then why [these measures]? [People] are responding to this in the streets. People were being beaten up in the streets until 4 a.m. They had gone out to be beaten. Everyone is upset and [holding back tears].
RFE/RL: Tehran today witnessed its second day of unrest. There’ve been violent protests in the capital and other cities. Do you expect people to continue protesting in the streets?
Journalist: The nation has been humiliated and this is the first time that they’ve been humiliated this much. People who had boycotted the election voted with eagerness for [Mir Hossein Musavi]. Now they’re hitting them in the face and telling them you have voted for Ahmadinejad. And because of this humiliation, people are out in the streets. They have to pay a price for it and I think they’re ready to pay the price. Even though they’re being beaten up, they don’t leave the streets -- not for a minute.
Today, while Ahamdinejad is lying to people during the celebration for his victory, women and children are being beaten up by the police. And this will continue. These [riot police forces] are terrified because of these lies. That’s why they’re using special forces [to crack down]. Last night I told one of them at the Interior Ministry, I said, "Haven’t you won? You got 24 million votes. You should be proud. Why do you beat people?"
In today’s issue of the [hardline] "Kayhan" daily, [editor Hossein Shariatmadari] has written, "You’ve been shocked by the results of the vote? This is just the beginning. Just wait."
RFE/RL: Dozens of people have been detained. Do you expect things to get worse? Do you expect more pressure?
Journalist: We’re sitting in our newsroom now. Three came from the Interior Ministry and took away a member of our newspaper staff. They just came and took away a journalist. Do you understand the depth of the tragedy? What happened in Iran is unprecedented. They've performed a coup under the cover of democracy, under the cover of elections. This has not happened before; they don’t say who they are. They don’t say it was a coup. Pakistan said it. Hitler would say he’s a Nazi. Mussolini would say, "I’m a fascist." You knew where you were standing.
A skin has been shed here. The Islamic republic has ended; from now on, it’s an Islamic regime. From now on, a republic doesn’t exist [in Iran] anymore; democracy doesn’t exist anymore. These people will not vote anymore, and [authorities] don’t need people’s votes anymore. It’s a turning point. Exactly 30 years and four months after the 1979 Revolution, the republicanism of the establishment was lost. I want you to show the depth of this tragedy. No one comes to detain you while you’re sitting in the newsroom. You don’t go to prison. Just show the depth of the tragedy. | <urn:uuid:8a1e9605-0193-479e-9e63-e3f36018c2d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rferl.org/content/Recognizing_Irans_Election_As_An_Election_Is_A_Crime_Against_Democracy/1754106.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974915 | 1,352 | 1.710938 | 2 |
More than a mascot
February 19, 2007
by Scott Jaschik
Inside Higher Ed
Last summer, Vernon Burton gave lectures on history and the use of computing in humanities research at meetings in Britain and France. When he finished each talk, the first question wasn’t about his research, but about Chief Illiniwek, the mascot at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and why the university would keep a symbol that is offensive to American Indians.
“What people knew about the university was the chief, not the research and teaching here,” said Burton, a critic of the mascot and president of the Faculty Senate. On Friday, the university announced that Chief Illiniwek would make a final appearance at a men’s basketball game Wednesday—and then would be retired.
“It’s a long nightmare that has ended at last,” Burton said.
For supporters of the chief mascot, of course, Friday was the nightmare, and the two sides dueled in press events, in court, and in the court of public opinion. But Burton and some others said that the issues for Illinois—by any academic measure a top public university—are much broader than the question of whether a student pretending to be an Indian dances for a few minutes at football and basketball games. The debate at Illinois, many say, has consumed time and attention of university leaders, influenced who is a university leader, hurt the institution’s reputation, and led to doubts about the role of shared governance.
“It’s long past time for this issue—and Illiniwek—to go away,” said a Chicago Tribune editorial on Saturday.
“Over the years, the debate has occupied the time and energy of students, university administrators and trustees, alumni, the Illinois General Assembly, the U.S. Senate and at least two governors. All of them have more important things to worry about, such as studying for finals or running the country. The squabble over the chief is a distraction and a poor reflection on the state’s flagship academic institution.”
The announcement from the university
—rumored for months to be imminent—walked a fine line between blaming the National Collegiate Athletic Association for the shift, and saying it was an independent decision. In 2005, the NCAA stunned Illinois and a group of other colleges
by announcing that institutions that continued to use Native American symbols or imagery in ways that were hostile to American Indians would be barred from being the hosts of postseason tournaments or from participating in NCAA championships if such images appeared on uniforms worn by athletes or others involved in athletics when they participated.
Illinois was among the institutions that blasted the NCAA, and appealed its findings—winning a limited victory when the NCAA said that the name “Illini” was not problematic (it could refer to the state, not just a tribe). But the NCAA rejected the contention of Illinois (as well as some other colleges that use Native American imagery) that Chief Illiniwek was an honor for Native Americans.
Much of the Illinois announcement stressed that the decision to end the use of the chief removed the university from NCAA sanctions. But at the same time, the university statement said that the decision was the natural result of a “consensus process” that the Illinois board had pledged to use to resolve the chief issue. And an FAQ released by the university answered the question “Did the university cave to the NCAA?” with the answer No, and yet the same answer went on to note the penalties paid by the university for not being in compliance with the association’s rules.
The official statement also included much praise for the Chief Illiniwek tradition, and didn’t include any acknowledgment that the NCAA or American Indian groups might have had legitimate reasons not to want pretend Indians entertaining largely white crowds with Indian imagery. “The Chief Illiniwek tradition inspired and thrilled members of the University of Illinois community for 80 years,” said Lawrence C. Eppley, the board chair, in a statement. “It was created, carried on, and enjoyed by people with great respect for tradition.”
The chief first started performing at Illinois athletic events in 1926, and is best known for appearing during the halftime shows at football games. Students are selected to play the chief and many of those who have done so consider it a high point of their college experience. But while some colleges with Indian names have accused the NCAA of making an issue where none existed, that would be hard to claim at Illinois. Protests have been taking place on the campus since 1989, the chief’s role has been the subject of a critical PBS documentary
and a scholarly book. At Illinois, criticism of the chief has been as strong as at any institution with an Indian name, but so too has been the activity of defenders of the tradition. (The University of North Dakota and Florida State University may have rallied with equal intensity, and the former is now in court with the NCAA while the latter won an appeal from the association.)
Carol Spindel, an adjunct in English at the university, has studied the Illinois mascot issue as much as anyone. Her book, Dancing at Halftime: Sports and the Controversy Over American Indian Mascots,
focused on Illinois, but also covered many other institutions. (It was originally going to be published by the University of Illinois Press, but the topic was too hot to handle there, and the work landed at New York University Press and won strong reviews upon publication.)
Spindel said that she wasn’t certain why the issue became so divisive at Illinois, while other places were able to work through the issue with relative civility. She said that there has been politicization of the issue and “inept leadership.” She particularly faulted the university’s board for letting pro-mascot groups appear to be speaking for the university over the years, in opposition to Native Americans and their supporters. People who are associated with the fight against the chief have received fairly constant insults on campus, and sometimes far worse, Spindel said.
Southeast Missouri State University
is among the many institutions that retired Indian names and Spindel attended a ceremony that marked the 2005 switch from “Indians” to “Redhawks,” and was struck by how many people mentioned the Illinois tensions. At the ceremony, Spindel said, “people were very upbeat and very positive about the future of their program, and they sad to me, ‘we’ve looked up the river at you, and we can’t afford to have our community divided and we can’t afford the lawsuits.’ “
While Spindel said that she was very pleased with the decision announced Friday, she wished there could have been more acknowledgment of the problems created by the chief over the years.
“It’s too bad the University of Illinois couldn’t have used the retirement as a teachable moment to stress the importance of respect for all. This would have been especially valuable for non-Native students and might have helped to establish the atmosphere of respect the campus lacks,” she said.
The backlash against critics of the chief has been “very real” and has frequently reached the point of harassment, Spindel said, noting the recent furor over Facebook entries
involving university students. One Facebook group that attracted over 110 members is titled “If They Get Rid of the Chief I’m Becoming a Racist.” One of its postings reads, “[W]hat they don’t realize is that there was never a racist problem before ... but now I hate redskins and hope all those drunk casino owning bums die.”
Another post states that one of the leaders of the movement to remove Chief Illiniwek is of Sioux descent. “I say we throw a tomohawk [sic] into her face.” The university is investigating the comments and—in an escalation typical of many of the Illiniwek debates—that inquiry has set off its own controversy. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
is calling on the university to end its inquiry, saying that the Facebook threats were “hyperbolic” but not real threats since it is unlikely that those writing them intended to actually attack Native American students “with an antiquated weapon.”
Many faculty members believe that Nancy Cantor, who left the chancellor’s position at Urbana-Champaign in 2004 after only three years in office, was in an untenable position at Illinois because of the chief issue. By the time she arrived, the chief issue was firmly in the control of the board and she did not speak out on the chief specifically. But Cantor is known for speaking regularly about the importance of inclusiveness and equity and outreach to minority students—values that were taken by some of the chief’s supporters as some kind of disloyalty. Some of those supporters put up anti-Cantor billboards around town. (Cantor has attributed her departure not to the chief issue, but to her desire to take the position as chancellor of Syracuse University.)
Burton, the Faculty Senate president and director of the director of the Illinois Center for Computing in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, was on the search committee that was created when Cantor left, and he said that some candidates who were approached declined to be considered because of the chief issue.
He also saw damage to the system of governance. The Faculty Senate repeatedly passed resolutions urging the board to drop the chief, but was largely ignored and moves for board action were aborted. “Shared governance fell down on the issue,” Burton said, although he also noted that he and other faculty leaders mentioned the question at meeting after meeting of the university board.
In the end, he said, the NCAA gave cover to the board to do the right thing, without fear of offending pro-chief alumni donors. “I know that there are many trustees who are great fans of the chief, and I appreciate their moral courage” in acting now, he added.
The chief has become a symbol for all kinds of things having nothing to do with education, Burton said. Many of those rallying around it saw the fight against the mascot as an issue of political correctness.
“There is so much going on in society. People feel that their lives are being controlled by other people,” he said. “So to people who are upset about affirmative action or other issues, the chief becomes a symbol to hold onto,” he said. “I think we have to be sympathetic to understand that other people will not see this as a moral decision and an important educational decision.... People have given up something that is very dear to them and that they care very much about.”
But while Burton is sympathetic to their feelings, he is also worried about the lack of effort to put the chief in the context of history, and about the university not acceptingthe responsibility—even after ending the chief’s role—to do more to recruit and welcome students of all kinds.
“Let’s not fool ourselves. This nightmare for the university is over, but there is a reality that is much more important,” he said. White Americans have decided how Native Americans (and other non-white Americans) should be seen (and controlled) since Columbus, he said, and that history isn’t understood as it should be. At a university, “we need to focus much more on diversity of all kinds—of having people with different points of view, on freedom of speech, and providing access for people from different groups, both minority groups and white with less income,” he said.
Burton wants chief critics to be “very cautious” now, and to avoid thinking they have won some great victory when what they have really won was the most visible, but not necessarily the most important, battle.
Native American groups—at Illinois and elsewhere—took a similar approach. A statement from the Native American House at Illinois
praised the decision, but added that “we know that retiring the performance of the mascot does not solve campus climate issues, and we will continue to work with the campus and the community to address misinformation and miseducation about indigenous peoples, histories, and cultures.”
The Oglala Sioux Tribe also praised the decision, but reiterated its demand
that the regalia used by Chief Illiniwek be returned. The university has said that it purchased or was given various Sioux items used in the mascot’s performances, but tribal leaders say that they originally thought the university was borrowing items for use in historically accurate portrayals of their tribe, not for what the tribal board has called “the antics of persons playing ‘Chief Illiniwek’ ” in a way that “perpetuates a degrading racial stereotype that reflects negatively on all American Indian people.” (The university says that it hasn’t decided what it will do with the regalia.)
Supporters of the chief are not giving up their fight. Students who portray the chief were in state court on Friday trying to obtain an injunction to prevent the university from ending use of the mascot or the NCAA from pressuring it to do so. The students won sympathy, but not their desired injunction. An account of the hearing
in a local paper quoted Judge Michael Jones as saying that the university had the option of suing the NCAA and made a decision not to. “Right or wrong, this is their call,” he said.
Where Jones was most sympathetic to the students was on their charge that the NCAA is hypocritical in permitting some institutions (such as Florida State University) to keep Indian mascots because they have backing from tribal leaders, while forcing Illinois and others to change.
“It’s an easy sell that enforcement of the policy is arbitrary and capricious,” the judge was quoted as saying. “They don’t wish to associate with members who use Native American imagery, unless, of course, they do.”
Supporters of the chief are studying additional legal options and standing by their tradition.
Pal Schmitt, a sophomore who is vice president of Students for Chief Illiniwek, grew up in central Illinois, coming to sporting events as a child and growing to love the tradition of the chief. “It’s something that outsiders of the university or people who aren’t of the state don’t understand,” he said. “Seeing the performance, you get the sense of dignity, of bravery, spirit, honor. It does really embody those things.”
Asked if the feelings of Native Americans should come into play, he said “of course,” but he said that “this is much bigger than race” and that both sides of the debate have ignored the issues raised by the other side. “Both sides are very guilty,” he said. “Those who are against it instantly brand anyone who would support it as a racist, and those who support it shrug off those concerns.”
Schmitt said that his message to an American Indian would be: “I’m sorry we can’t get the same inspiration out of it, but you need to look at the greater good that it is doing.”
Supporters of the chief stress that they love Native Americans and their culture. Jean Edwards, who graduated in 1953 and is treasurer of the Honor the Chief Society,
has been working on the issue for 18 years, ever since opposition to the mascot started to grow. She said Friday that she was “heartbroken” and didn’t understand how supporters of the chief were seen as insensitive to American Indians.
The chief “has been giving something to the Native Americans that they haven’t had before—all these people who were interested in learning more” after seeing a performance. She said that she and her colleagues all feel great respect for Indian culture. “I’ve always like Native Americans. I have lived in Illinois all my life. Every summer growing up I went to Wisconsin and lived next door to a wonderful Native American couple. I bought a lot of jewelry. We went to a lot of pow-wows together,” she said. “I never thought of anyone not accepting them at all.”
She blamed the controversy on efforts to recruit Native American students. “There was this professor who wanted to get more Native American students to come to school here, so every year it got more and more important” for faculty members to talk about the chief, she said.
Edwards predicted that many alumni will stop giving. “I think the impact will be financial. There are people who honest to goodness believe that they will not give again,” she said.
That belief is shared by many at Illinois, even some critics of Chief Illiniwek who have said over the years that the university needed to find a way to prevent an alumni revolt. The irony is that most available evidence suggests that universities that move away from Indian names or mascots end up doing well. At Stanford University, the name Indians was replaced with Cardinal
(the color, not the bird), in 1972, and officials are proud of having made the change early, based on complaints from a small group of Native American students, but not having been forced by the NCAA or anyone else.
The general pattern,
according to officials at Stanford and institutions that made similar decisions, is for the noise and anger to quickly subside, except for very small groups of alumni. Richard Little, a Miami University spokesman who organized a mascot switch in 1996 (from Redskins to Redhawks), noted in a 2005 interview that the university sells more clothing now than it did with the old name, notwithstanding those fans who were upset about the change. He said that there is at least once sure way to win over most alumni: “You’ll get support for any name if you win.”
View this article at Inside Higher Ed. | <urn:uuid:eec5dc97-aca9-4496-9789-4bb5709f8ddd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thefire.org/article/7750.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980065 | 3,775 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Bible (World English)/Titus
Chapter 1
1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's chosen ones, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who can't lie, promised before time began; 3 but in his own time revealed his word in the message with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior; 4 to Titus, my true child according to a common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
5 I left you in Crete for this reason, that you would set in order the things that were lacking, and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you; 6 if anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, who are not accused of loose or unruly behavior. 7 For the overseer must be blameless, as God's steward; not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain; 8 but given to hospitality, as a lover of good, sober minded, fair, holy, self-controlled; 9 holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those who contradict him. 10 For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain's sake. 12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons." 13 This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 16 They profess that they know God, but by their works they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.
Chapter 2
1 But say the things which fit sound doctrine, 2 that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in patience: 3 and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good; 4 that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sober minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that God's word may not be blasphemed. 6 Likewise, exhort the younger men to be sober minded; 7 in all things showing yourself an example of good works; in your teaching showing integrity, seriousness, incorruptibility, 8 and soundness of speech that can't be condemned; that he who opposes you may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about us. 9 Exhort servants to be in subjection to their own masters, and to be well-pleasing in all things; not contradicting; 10 not stealing, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things. 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; 13 looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ; 14 who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. 15 Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no man despise you.
Chapter 3
1 Remind them to be in subjection to rulers and to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all humility toward all men. 3 For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior; 7 that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 This saying is faithful, and concerning these things I desire that you affirm confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men; 9 but shun foolish questionings, genealogies, strife, and disputes about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. 10 Avoid a factious man after a first and second warning; 11 knowing that such a one is perverted, and sins, being self-condemned.
12 When I send Artemas to you, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me to Nicopolis, for I have determined to winter there. 13 Send Zenas, the lawyer, and Apollos on their journey speedily, that nothing may be lacking for them. 14 Let our people also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they may not be unfruitful.
15 All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in faith. Grace be with you all. Amen.
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Originally Posted Online: Nov. 07, 2012, 4:58 pm
Last Updated: Nov. 08, 2012, 10:25 am
Gay-marriage backers end losing streak, look ahead
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NEW YORK (AP) — For years, foes of same-sex marriage had a potent talking point: They'd won every time the issue went to a popular vote. That winning streak has now been shattered in a multi-state electoral sweep by gay marriage supporters — a historic tipping point likely to influence other states and possibly even the Supreme Court.
"It's an astounding day," said Kevin Cathcart of the gay-rights group Lambda Legal, recalling that in 2004 alone the gay-marriage movement went 0-13 in statewide elections and was 0-32 overall since 1998.
In Tuesday's voting, however, Maine and Maryland became the first states ever to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote. Washington state seemed poised to follow suit, although slow ballot-counting there continued Wednesday. And in Minnesota, voters rejected a proposal to place a ban on gay-marriage in the state constitution, a step taken in past elections in 30 other states.
"The anti-gay opposition kept moving the goal posts and had as their last talking point that we could not win a popular vote," said Evan Wolfson, president of the advocacy group Freedom to Marry. "Last night, voters in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and, all signs suggest, Washington proved them wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong."
Heading into the election, gay marriage was legal in six states and the District of Columbia, in each case due to legislation or court orders rather than popular vote.
Activists said Tuesday's results will likely spur pushes for same-sex marriage in states that already have established civil unions for gay couples — including Illinois, Rhode Island, Hawaii and Delaware.
Democratic takeovers of both legislative chambers in Colorado and Minnesota may also prompt moves there to extend legal recognition to same-sex couples. In each state, the Democratic governors, John Hickenlooper of Colorado and Mark Dayton of Minnesota, would support such efforts.
In Minnesota, state Sen. Scott Dibble, who is openly gay, is among several Democratic lawmakers uncertain if an immediate push for gay marriage makes political sense. But Dibble, who is 47, said of himself and his partner: "We'll be married in Minnesota in our lifetime."
Whatever happens at the statehouse level, the U.S. Supreme Court is also likely to become a pivotal battleground in the next phase of the gay-marriage debate.
The justices are expected to confront same-sex marriage in some form during the current term.
Several pending cases challenge a provision of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that deprives same-sex couples of federal benefits available to heterosexual couples. A separate appeal asks the justices to decide whether federal courts were correct in striking down California's Proposition 8, the amendment that outlawed gay marriage after it had been approved by courts in the nation's largest state.
"The justices now know America is with us. America is ready," said Brian Ellner, co-founder of a social-media initiative called TheFour.com that was active in the gay-marriage campaigns. He and other activists noted that nationwide polls prior to the election were showing, for the first time, that a majority of Americans now backed gay marriage.
James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project, termed the referendum results "an indisputable watershed moment" that almost certainly would influence the Supreme Court.
"When making decisions on civil rights issues, the court follows the country, rather than leading," he said. "They don't make decisions in a complete public-opinion vacuum."
He noted that if the high court struck down Prop 8, that would immediately add California — with its 37 million residents — to the list of states allowing same-sex marriage.
Had the four measures lost, said Evan Wolfson, justices might have been reluctant to wade in on the side of gay marriage. Now, he said, they could do so "knowing that their support will stand the test of time and, indeed, be true to where the American people already are."
The chairman of the leading advocacy group opposing same-sex marriage, John Eastman of the National Organization for Marriage, said it was possible that the referendum results might nudge the high court toward a ruling favoring gay marriage. But Eastman said it also was possible the justices would decide to let the political process play out a bit longer at the state level before intervening.
The National Organization for Marriage's president, Brian Brown, expressed disappointment at the unprecedented losses for gay marriage opponents, who were outspent by at least 3-to-1 in the four referendum states — all of them won easily by President Barack Obama..
The results "reflect the political and funding advantages our opponents enjoyed in these very liberal states," Brown said. "Our opponents and some in the media will attempt to portray the election results as a changing point in how Americans view gay marriage, but that is not the case."
For the gay-rights movement, the celebration extended far beyond the groundbreaking ballot measures.
In Wisconsin, veteran congresswoman Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay person elected to the U.S. Senate. At least five other openly gay Democrats were elected to House seats, while Kyrsten Sinema — vying to be the first openly bisexual member of Congress — was locked in a too-close-to-call race in Arizona.
In Iowa, gay-marriage opponents failed on two counts. They lost a bid to oust one of the state Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of gay marriage in 2009, and they were unable to take control of the state Senate, where Democratic Majority Leader Michael Gronstal has blocked a proposed amendment to overturn that ruling.
More broadly, gay-rights leaders celebrated the re-election of Obama, who had frustrated them early in his term with his sometimes cautious stances. Over the past two years, he's become a hero of the movement — playing a key role last year in enabling gays to serve openly in the military and this year becoming the first sitting president to endorse same sex-marriage.
Among the next agenda items at the federal level is the proposed Employment Nondiscrimination Act, which would protect gays and transgender people from workplace discrimination.
The gay-rights momentum even extended overseas. Spain's top court upheld the legality of the country's gay marriage law on Tuesday, and French President Francois Hollande's Cabinet was pushing ahead Wednesday with a controversial bill that could see gay marriage legalized early next year. | <urn:uuid:5874fa7a-ab88-491b-a5c7-29d1e1549a0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://qconline.com/archives/qco/print_display.php?id=615352 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970711 | 1,363 | 1.679688 | 2 |
An exhibition of digital art highlighting the role of surveillance in Lancaster and the world will be on view from Jan. 30 to April 7 in the Rothman and Curriculum galleries of the Phillips Museum of Art at Franklin & Marshall College.
"On the Observing of the Observer of the Observers," developed by artist and former F&M postdoctoral fellow James Coupe, comprises a network of 50 surveillance cameras programmed to extract a narrative from people's behaviors and activities. The resulting footage is reorganized through computer algorithms and displayed as a "multi-channel film" projected on screens much like a surveillance control room. One of the screens will broadcast live footage from the F&M Innovation Zone at the Harris Center. Other screens will show simulated and looped footage from the Martin Library of the Sciences, the dining hall, a room in a College House and other locations on the F&M campus.
A reception and gallery talk by the artist, who first became acquainted with F&M as an exchange student from England in the 1996-97 academic year, is planned for 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, at the museum, which is in the Steinman College Center.
Eliza Reilly, director of the Phillips Museum, said the Coupe exhibit fits in with an overall effort to enhance the museum's multimedia offerings, one of the goals of a recently completed renovation project.
"One of our ambitions for the renovated Phillips Museum was to incorporate digital art and new media into our exhibition program," Reilly said. "We also strive to engage the public by showcasing art that addresses critical contemporary issues, such as the role of surveillance in our civic and social lives. Coupe's project meets both of those goals."
Coupe said he draws his title from Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1986 experimental novella, "Der Aufrag," or "The Assignment." The installation is inspired by Dürrenmatt's consideration of the role of observation and surveillance in war, science, terrorism, marriage and religion.
"Today, observation is a pervasive feature of our lives, due to everyday technologies like social media, cell phone cameras, webcams and YouTube," Coupe said. "The question remains: Does being perpetually 'seen' add significance to our lives, or is it something to avoid and resist?"
Coupe developed the exhibition concept during his residency at F&M as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in 2011, after reading a Los Angeles Times story that described Lancaster, Pa., as one of the most-watched cities in the United States, with a network of more than 165 cameras observing its 55,000 residents. Commissioned by The Phillips Museum, "On the Observing" is the first of a series of four surveillance-themed installations that Coupe will exhibit in 2013. Other exhibitions are slated at Parsons The New School for Design in New York, the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto.
During the past decade, Coupe's work has been primarily installation-based, and has incorporated a range of contemporary media, including cell phone text messaging, email spam, Facebook and surveillance cameras. Coupe's work has been exhibited widely in Britain and North America. He has received numerous grants, including awards from Creative Capital, an artist-funding project of the Warhol Foundation in New York; the nonprofit Artist Trust in Seattle and the London-based Arts Council England. Coupe received master's degrees in fine art from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and in creative technology from the University of Salford in England. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Washington, where he is an associate professor at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media.
F&M's Phillips Museum of Art is open to the public and admission is free. Museum hours are 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. | <urn:uuid:67646ce0-b509-482f-a805-d72b8bd069b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fandm.edu/news/article/exhibition-exploring-role-of-surveillance-opens-jan-30-at-f-m-phillips-museum | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956625 | 819 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The recent ‘design’ direction taken by GNOME developers with their file manager ‘Nautilus’ has not been well received.
Indeed, over 4000 of you have expressed disappointment with the new ‘design’ for Files – the new name for Nautilus – in our recent poll.
So the following news will be music to 8,000 ears: Linux Mint have decided to fork it.
After giving their support to the GNOME 2 fork ‘Mate’; forking GNOME 3 into ‘Cinnamon’, and branching off their own version of GNOME compositor Mutter as ‘Muffin’, the terms ‘Linux Mint’ and ‘GNOME Fork’ have almost become interchangeable these days!
But their forking of Nautilus was to be expected: the new GNOME 3 design ideals are not the same as those shared by Cinnamon. And so Nemo - a play on the aquatic name of Nautilus, in much the same way that Marlin was – has been born.
It’s billed by its developers as simply a ‘file manager for Cinnamon’ (the default desktop in Linux Mint), and is very early on in its development.
So when can you expect to use it?
No indications thus far, but much like the desktop shell it’s aimed at chances are Nemo will find its way onto the desktops of Ubuntu users as soon as possible | <urn:uuid:75bd137a-7638-4860-b3c3-33f8b774d2a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/linux-mint-fork-nautilus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961743 | 302 | 1.523438 | 2 |
John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria
The Gospel of Matthew 5:14-19
The Lord said to his disciples, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
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The English Gospel text used is based on the Revised Standard Version from "The Holy and Sacred Gospel" by Holy Cross Press, Brookline, MA.
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is copyrighted 1946, 1952, 1971, and 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and used by permission. | <urn:uuid:60e7091e-fdb2-4495-8136-5dd2c5c633bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goarch.org/chapel/lectionary_view?date=11/12/2012&lang=en&code=402&type=gospel&event=288 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946096 | 310 | 1.710938 | 2 |
RALEIGH — The state’s February unemployment rate decreased to 9.4 percent from January’s revised rate of 9.5 percent. The national rate dropped to 7.7 percent from January’s 7.9 percent.
North Carolina’s February 2013 unemployment rate is 0.1 of a percentage point lower than a year ago.
The number of people employed (smoothed seasonally adjusted) decreased 4,964 to 4,317,958 over the month, and increased by 63,847 over the year. The number of people unemployed fell 6,585 to 446,840 over the month, and grew 997 over the year.
Seasonally adjusted total non-farm industry employment, as gathered through the monthly establishment survey, gained 3,300 to 4,049,700 in February. The major industry with the largest over-the-month increase was professional and business services at 2,600, followed by education and health services, 2,100; financial activities, 1,100; government, 1,100; information, 1,000; construction, 600; and mining and logging, 100. Major industries to experience decreases were leisure and hospitality services, 3,000; trade, transportation and utilities, 1,500; other services, 600; and manufacturing, 200.
Since February 2012, total non-farm jobs gained 81,300 with the total private sector growing by 78,400, and government, 2,900. The largest over-the-year increase of major industries was in leisure and hospitality services, 21,500, followed by trade, transportation and utilities, 17,700; professional and business services, 13,200; education and health services, 12,100; manufacturing, 9,500; financial activities, 3,400; government, 2,900; information, 2,000; and other services, 1,900. Major industries to experience decreases over the year were construction, 2,800; and mining and logging, 100.
The next unemployment update is scheduled for April 10, when the county unemployment rates for February 2013 will be released. | <urn:uuid:6aa1b8b5-1344-4b01-8501-711f226316b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ansonrecord.com/pages/home/push?rel=prev&per_page=5&class=prev_page&x_page=9 | 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 | 0.951774 | 434 | 1.679688 | 2 |
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A sporting chance saved Burnley man's life
A DAD-of two who spiralled into hooliganism and depression has told of how he transformed his life thanks to a sports-based programme.
Steve Dickinson, 38, from Rosegrove, Burnley, said he was almost driven to suicide by the breakdown of his relationship with his partner.
But he was later diagnosed with a bipolar disorder and brought back from the brink.
Sunday is World Mental Health Day and Steve now helps publicise the ‘It’s a Goal!’ course, which he says ‘saved his life’.
The course is based at Turf Moor and is supported by NHS East Lancashire and Burnley FC.
It teaches skills in motivation, assertiveness and communication, using the sport as the motivator.
Steve said: “Growing up, I didn’t seem to enjoy anything and I felt I never fit in.” He turned to drink and drugs as a teenager and went from a promising young footballer on Burnley’s books, to a hooligan.
After getting medication and seeing specialists in his 20s, Steve was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a form of depression which makes a person have extremely high energy levels, followed by extreme lows.
Then his relationship hit the rocks, causing Steve’s bipolar to worsen, and he was told he may need Lithium, a mood stabilising drug.
He said: “I felt like just ending my life. It all came to a head.”
It was during this difficult time, that Steve was referred to ‘It’s a Goal!’
He said: “The course literally changed my life. It gave me structure, taught me everything from how to cope with my condition, to how to manage my bills.
"Occasionally players would come and give motivational talks.
“As a lifelong supporter, this was a huge bonus. But most importantly, I met other men just like me, who had various forms of depression.”
Bringing up his two daughters, Charlotte, 14, and Hope, nine, on his own, Steve completed the 12-week course for men aged 16-35 and now volunteers for it.
Mark Hill, a Primary Care mental health worker and coach for ‘It’s a Goal’ said: “Steve has progressed enormously.
"He has really turned his life around.”
Click the link below for more information.
Comments are closed on this article. | <urn:uuid:89d36d12-6805-4dcb-b644-8458e7b1cc75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/burnley/rosegrove/8440897.A_sporting_chance_saved_Burnley_man_s_life/?ref=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986531 | 558 | 1.570313 | 2 |
This is not the story of a famous person. This is the story of a common man named Shakoor. I believe the stories of common people are worth sharing and you never know what inspiration you may get out of them.
Work related travel took me to Vancouver recently. The first thing I did after coming out of airport was to drive to my favorite Pakistani restaurant in the city. They make the best ‘nihari’ (a kind of beef curry) in town. The receptionist at the restaurant was no other than the central character of our story today, Shakoor saheb. He seated me and then without taking order from me shouted towards the kitchen ‘ek nihari, do naan’ (one plate curry and two pieces of flat bread). After a second or so he shouted again “And also a cup of teaâ€. This made me laugh and we shook hands. Shakoor saheb apparently remembered me from my last trip in August. Shakoor saheb was not busy and so we started chatting.
I must admit a weakness in me that I easily get impressed by anyone who can speak Urdu fluently and with perfect pronunciation. After an exchange of few sentences, I made a regrettably silly remark:
“Shakoor Saheb, you speak impeccable Urdu. When did you come from Pakistan?â€
I bit my tongue right after asking such an unnecessary question but my mouth went open wide when he replied:
“aray nahiN saheb, hum to Dhaka Bangladesh ke hain” (I come from Dhaka, Bangladesh).
I immediately said another wrong sentence, which I regretted immediately….again:
“Did your ancestry come from Bihar”?
“aray nahin bhai, hum bilkul Bangladeshi haiN” ( I was born and raised in Bangladesh), he replied smilingly.
“I don’t believe itâ€
I said. He just continued to smile and kept quiet. His eyes showed as if he was trying to say:
hum huNs diye, hum chup rahe
manzoor tha parda tera
One has to listen to this guy for few minutes to fully appreciate his command on spoken Urdu. I was almost going to say another silly sentence like “How come?†when he read my mind and told me that he used to work in PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) before the creation of Bangladesh. He was stationed in Karachi for few years and that is why he is able to speak such fluent Urdu even after 40 years. This is despite what Dagh had once said:
aati hai Urdu zubaaN aate aate
“What happened next�
I asked this question already knowing the answer in my heart and feeling a bit guilty. I don’t know why this feeling of unconscious guilt comes to me every time I talk to a Bangladeshi. This is despite the fact that I never saw the events leading to creation of Bangladesh. I was born in the same year when Bangladesh was created. The feeling of guilt probably comes from a collective national conscience that many Pakistanis feel after reading history of what happened in East Pakistan during 1970-71.
baad muddat ke galay milte hoay rukta hai dil
ab munasib hai yehi kuch meiN baRhooN kuch tu baRhe
Just as I had expected, Shakoor saheb started:
“Well, all Bengali staff stationed in West Pakistan and working at PIA was asked to leave. I was one of them. During my last days in Karachi, I literally used to work with 2 soldiers standing behind me. During the war, I was made to work 80 hours a week without pay and then let go offâ€
He then told me that all doors of employment were suddenly closed on East Pakistanis in West Pakistan. He had to flee Karachi to Kabul via Peshawar. In Kabul, he went to the Indian embassy who arranged for his transport to Delhi. In Delhi, the newly functioning Bangladeshi embassy then repatriated him to Dhaka. In Dhaka, Shakoor Saheb joined the Bangladeshi national carrier called Biman. Shakoor saheb now works at a Pakistani restaurant in Canada and makes a decent living. His children have either graduated or working towards professional degrees.
His life story was going on when a customer walked into the restaurant.
“can I get neeeeeehari“?
I found out that new customer was a Malaysian. It was another surprise for me to see that spicy ‘neeeeeehari’ had made inroads into Malaysian community. After Shakoor saheb took care of the new ‘nihari’ order, we continued our chat.
Then I asked Shakoor saheb the question I had on my mind for many years. I finally found a person to ask it.
“Do you think that current generation of Bangladeshis has forgiven Pakistan’s excesses, which by the way were not always intentional�
“No….but I agree that excesses committed by West Pakistanis were not always intentional. It was a screw-up of politicians. Bhutto should’ve allowed Mujib to form the government because Mujib had majority and that is what should happen in democracy. When Millitary moves in then what else do you expect? Millitary is only trained in war and they cannot provide the political solution. In such cases excesses happen. Millitary action also provided excuse to a third country to interfere in the fight of two brothers. Of course when two brothers fight, an outsider takes the advantageâ€.
Here I want to take a detour from our discussion and present to you this poem by Faiz Ahmend Faiz. He wrote this poem after his trip to Bangladesh in 1974. Nayyara Noor is the singer. Every word of this song goes right to my heart.
My ‘naan’ was fast disappearing, so Shakoor Saheb went into the kitchen and brought me another right-off-the-oven hot naan. I continued doing justice to ‘nihari’ and continued to chat.
“I think the old generation of Bangladesh has already started to heal. They have started to forgive and forget Pakistani excesses but the new generation does not have any affinity to Pakistan and why should they? All the history of Bangladesh is based on Pakistani excessesâ€.
“But this can’t be all trueâ€, I interjected. “Whatever happened in Bangladesh is not a black and white thing and it cannot be. There is always a gray area where both parties are guilty. What happened to Bihari community in Bangladesh is equally horrendous to the ‘zulm’ that happened to Bengalis. You can not plainly declare one party evil and other innocent. Excesses were committed from both sides and I believe the political leadership of that time failed to clear misunderstandings and did not have will to keep the country united.â€
Shakoor saheb had a long thought and he seemed to agree with me.
“I guess yes” he said. “Anyways Bangladesh is a reality and lets hope they and Pakistan both grow up to become prosperous and strong countriesâ€.
I agreed to that.
“Shakoor saheb, Chai†(I requested a cup of tea)
He went into the kitchen and I continued to think about what he had just said. He came out with a cup of very strong tea. I started sipping and our conversation wandered off on many topics but deep in my heart, I kept thinking:
“What if East Pakistan and West Pakistan were still together�
I know very well what the current reality is but there is no control on ones thoughts and wishes that come from the heart. I wonder if Shakoor Saheb and other Bangladeshis also think the same way. Perhaps they do sometimes.
After finishing my cup of tea, I shook hands with Shakoor saheb and quietly drove to the hotel. Abid Ali Abid‘s sher comes to mind:
waqt-e-rukhsat wo chup rahe Khwaja
aaNkh meiN phelta gaya kaajal
ATP’s Related Posts: | <urn:uuid:e54ae706-95d4-47fd-8130-44daed2d3107> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pakistaniat.com/2008/11/12/shakoor-kaun-hai/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977102 | 1,842 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Allison Amend is the author of a story collection, “Things That Pass for Love,” and a novel, “Stations West.”
Asking me to blog about music is like asking a parking meter about foreign policy: it may have an opinion, but it won’t be worth much. You see, I don’t listen to music. O.K., a little bit when jogging, but it’s the same 10 songs in the same order that I’ve listened to on various machines (from yellow sports Walkman, to skipping CD-player, to minidisc player, to Zune — yes, Zune — to iPods) for years. At the gym I watch reality television (like every writer, I love “Hoarders”). At home, I listen to NPR. So there’s no way I can impress with obscure Laplandic bands or neologistic sub-genres. Instead, I’d like to share some songs I came across as I was doing research for “Stations West,” my novel about Jewish immigrants in Oklahoma in the 19th century. One of the subplots surrounds the construction and subsequent development of the intercontinental railroad. The railroad was the original information superhighway, bringing mail and newspapers, other cultures and foods to the remote West; railroad songs are the viral videos of the 19th century. Studying them I learned about attitudes and motivations particular to that time and place. If history is written by the winners, then songs are written by the disenfranchised, and literature is mostly about the latter.
1) Big Rock Candy Mountain, Various. O.K., this one is no secret, seeing as it’s on the “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” soundtrack. I love it, though, for its basic premise — it reveals the bums’ love of the railroading lifestyle. The author doesn’t imagine a world without railroad cops, just ones with wooden legs who can’t run fast enough to catch him and whose dogs have ineffective rubber teeth. He doesn’t want a world without jails, just ones that are made of easily broken tin. Evasion of the law and the uncertainty of the next meal are revealed to be what is so wonderful about the life of a railroad hobo. It’s a game, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.
2) Di Ban/The Train, Traditional. This is not a good song. But it’s a song about a train. In Yiddish. It concludes with the haunting (in retrospect) line “Oh Dearest Lord, preserve us from the devil,/ And do not let unpious Jews upon the Sabbath travel.”
3) Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill, Traditional. This is a song about building the railroad under the thumb of evil management. I love that work songs tell complete stories — narratives set to music (think “Casey Jones”). In this tune, explosives meant to blow a hole through a mountain go off prematurely, sending one of the Irish workers into the air. When he lands, miraculously alive, he’s docked pay for the time he spent catapulting through the stratosphere. I also love the coda: “And blast. And fire.” It seems musically inappropriate.
4) She Caught the Katy, Taj Mahal. Great blues song that incorporates the KATY (Missouri, Kansas, Texas Railway). His girl takes the train to get away from him, leaving him only a mule. The KATY was one of the first railroads to go through Oklahoma Territory. It pretty much put the Chisholm Trail and cowboys out of business, as that was the route they used to drive the cattle from Texas north to Kansas and on to the Chicago slaughterhouses. On cattle cars, you could get the cows there in a fraction of the time, feeding them a fraction of the food, and losing only a couple of heads on the trip. A vast improvement over walking the herd there. Technology killed the cowboy.
5) Oh I’m a Good Old Rebel, Traditional. This has nothing to do with railroads, but it’s a song about a Southerner who still loves the Confederacy even after it’s lost the Civil War. It’s a very catchy tune, and is interesting to me for the ways song helps those who have lost maintain their self-esteem, confidence and loyalty.
6) Hog of the Forsaken, Michael Hurley. I found this one on the “Deadwood” soundtrack and love it. First of all Hurley sounds like a bar-mitzvah boy singing karaoke; you have to admire his complete disdain for getting anywhere near the correct pitch for the high notes. Also, it includes the lyrics, “He is the pork of crime.” I’m not sure what the song means, but I think it has something to do with not waiting around for something to happen to you, carpe diem, Je ne regrette rien, etc.
7) I’m Gonna Sit Right Down, Fats Waller. The scratchy recording, Waller’s cigarette/bear voice, the clinky piano keys, the Dixieland /Ragtime bop… What’s not to love about this song? Oh the delusions of love and its eternal hope! Emotions like this that fly in the face of reality or possibility provide oodles of character motivation (and fodder for therapy).
8) Another World, Crystal Gayle and Gary Morris. This is definitely not a train song; it’s the theme song from “Another World.” I used to love soap operas. Through middle and high school I followed all three NBC soaps religiously, which resulted in my getting voted “Most Likely to Write for Soap Operas” my senior year. My brother and I used to sing the theme song from “Another World” together in a beautiful daily tuneless duet. It was the first soap opera theme song to hit the Billboard 100. How’s that for trivia? And not that I’m looking for depth in shallow waters, but I still find the show’s epigram inspiring, even as I write literary fiction instead of soap operas: “We do not live in this world alone, but in a thousand other worlds.” | <urn:uuid:0981cc76-7454-4947-93b2-ae3cd0f49b9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/living-with-music-a-playlist-by-allison-amend/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939941 | 1,371 | 1.601563 | 2 |
A lady bug mysteriously appeared on the arm of my old ratty-green music-listening chair in the cold, raw throes of November, just as I was getting to know Joni Mitchell's new album. The lady bug is a friend of man; back when I had a garden and other trappings of a fixed address, I used to order them through the mail and they would arrive and presumably eat up some of my enemies. This one was in such a wrong place at such a wrong time that I looked at it more closely than I once would have. What it looked like was a tiny pre-Rabbit Volkswagen, down to and including the orange paint job that has been available on those for several years. Where it came from is still a mystery, but what I hope is that it came in the mail, in the packaging with Joni Mitchell's album, for it is fitting that this tiny little live reminder of an automobile should accompany Mitchell's latest searching examination of wanderlust.
When Mitchell wrote *Urge for Going* years ago, she wasn't kidding. She has dealt with travel again and again in her music, travel and love, travel because of love, travel to sort out love, and even travel to escape love. Here, though, she has refined or distilled certain aspects of this into a seemingly irreducible poetry; she's articulated this connection between love and travel as she sees it, and she has gently fostered an acceptance of the white-line fever in her soul, seeing the highway not as a place she is exiled to (as in "Hit the road, Jack, and don't you come back no more, no more") but as a place of refuge.
"Hejira," the word Mitchell chose as the name of the album and of an important song in it, is a word rich enough in connotation to suggest she is talking about running away *with* her troubles and faith instead of *from* them. Specifically, the word, usually spelled "hegira," means the start of the Mohammedan era, A.D. 622, when Mohammed, trying to escape persecution, migrated from Mecca to Medina. The word is applied more generally to emigrations of the faithful; the Koran calls such emigrants *Muhajirun* and tells them they are honored persons. The idea of there being honor and dignity in being a refugee from one's home - one's love-nest in the case of this album, one's Mecca you might call it if the one you're dealing with loves love as much as Joni Mitchell has told us she does - adds a certain distinction to the album. Mitchell's way of writing about travel as a person rather than as a performer is subtler than most of her colleagues can manage. Her lyrics are more direct and frontal than they've been recently and the lines are ear-catching. You may wonder what in blazes she's trying to do with *sound*, this time not because the melodies are difficult to track but because the arrangements seem so...well, unpremeditated. The instruments make sounds unlike themselves, almost random sometimes, except they do go together, and maybe this is what travelling music *should* sound like when the travel is for its own sake, rather than toward or away from something. We've been conditioned to think
of travelling music as having a bee-line quality, with eight-wheel drivers heard through rhythm guitars, train whistles in harmonicas, and so forth. Mitchell's travels in the album are meandering, and her goals lie not at the end but in the process: "I've gone coast to coast just to contemplate."
A couple of times she seems to be writing to friends, putting down what she thinks to capture it for herself (as writers do) in *Amelia* and *Song for Sharon*. And what she thinks about a lot is the old urge for going: "I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust...I dreamed of 747's over geometric farms...Dreams, Amelia, dreams and false alarms."..."Sharon, I left my man at a North Dakota junction, and I came to the Big Apple here to face the dream's malfunction." She unburdens herself quite a lot to Sharon, in fact, even to the point of facing what a temptation it is to stop, to settle down with a husband and the kind of life Sharon appears to have. That song runs for eight and a half minutes and doesn't seem long at all, it deals so well with doubts and longings that go with this nomadic state. "There's a wide, wide world of noble causes," she says, "and lovely landscapes to discover...but all I really want to do right now is find another lover."
Images of herself travelling haunt every song in the album, in any case. Mitchell senses that movement symbolizes freedom down deep in the genes of the culture, and threatening freedom is one of the things love does. The culture, however, in its development, has conditioned and browbeaten us to put security ahead of both freedom *and* love, and this - since we also need security to *some* degree - has confused our contemplation of the old conflicting yens to be autonomous and yet to attach ourselves to others. One can have a little of all three, but the question is, what are the proportions that will work? Let us go and seek the answer, Mitchell says, not go *somewhere*, just go - which means, first of all, we have to think positively about the going. A hejira is a flight from something, but not a panic-driven mad rush with one's mind, one's faith, in a shambles; it is an emigration, a dignified process with hope in it. Most people, their security needs culturally inflated, don't do it. "...It made most people nervous," Joni says. "They just didn't want to know what I was seeing in the refuge in [sic] the roads."
Well, doing what makes other people nervous, being brave and seeing what she can learn from what ensues, is Joni Mitchell's job as she has defined it. She's stood up well to her own tough standards here, producing not answers or platitudes or advice but a way of grappling with the questions - and producing literature, poetry, and, in the bargain, pushing back the frontiers of the sound of travel music a little.
Which reminds me: I wonder what kind of car she drives (probably not a Volkswagen; "I'm rich and I'm fey," she tells the ghost of W.C. Handy, and if *I* were those I wouldn't drive a VW). And *that* reminds me that I haven't seen the out-of-season lady bug for a couple of days. | <urn:uuid:41e43c0f-b265-41d8-abb2-f7d801b08aa0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=362 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97788 | 1,406 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Another piece of mine has been published the Psychology Today blog called Psychoanalysis 3.0 Building a Practical Philosophy of Self-Knowledge for the 21st Century (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/psychoanalysis-30
My piece is called Stepping out from the shadows:
Senator Brown speaks about childhood sexual abuse. It can be accessed at:http://tinyurl.com/4bdy6s5
This is the text:
Stepping out from the shadows:
Senator Brown speaks about childhood sexual abuse
Talking about childhood sexual abuse helps self and others
Published on February 20, 2011
When Senator Scott Brown came forward on 60 Minutes to reveal his history of boyhood sexual abuse, he joined a group of prominent men who have bravely told the world about their childhood experiences of sexual molestation, assault, and/or abuse. At one time it was virtually unheard of for any man, not to mention a prominent one, to acknowledge having been sexually abused.
But over the years a number of well known men have done so. Who are these men?
* Musicians like Carlos Santana, Jonathan Davis of Korn, Axl Rose of Guns and Roses, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, and Mike Patton of Faith No More.
* Athletes like NFL player Laveranues Coles, former Stanley Cup champion Theoren Fleury, 3-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, NHL player Sheldon Kennedy, and Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis.
* Performers and actors like Gabriel Byrne, Derek Luke, Tom Arnold, and British comedian Billy Connolly.
* Actor/directors like Antwone Fisher and Tyler Perry.
* Newscasters like CNN anchor Don Lemon and NBC anchor Thomas Roberts.
Each of these men must have lived in a private hell for many years before disclosing his trauma. Being silent about sexual abuse can be even more devastating than the physical acts themselves. Senator Brown recalls that the camp counselor who molested him said, '"If you tell anybody...I'll kill you. I will make sure that nobody believes you." When impressionable, isolated children and youths are told they will never be believed or that a predator will kill them or a family member, they are frightened into silence. This is a story I have heard far too many times from men whose sad stories will never appear on a television show or a newspaper headline. (When Oprah Winfrey had two programs recently about male sexual abuse, she had in her audience hundreds of men from every walk of life who were given a chance, however briefly, to stand up and say they had been sexually victimized.)
Even without overt threats, many young boys believe that if they disclose their abuse their peers or the adults in their lives will assume they encouraged their abusers, that they are "damaged goods," or that if they were truly manly they would have died rather than succumb to a sexual assault, especially by a man. These are the myths about male sexual victimization that still pervade our society.
The great majority of sexual abusers of children are known to the child, and many are in positions of power and responsibility in relation to him or her. In Senator Brown's case, the predator was a camp counselor, but coaches, teachers, clergy, and a host of others, including family members, have been known to molest those in their charge. So, every time a man who is a role model for boys—a musician, athlete, performer, actor, director, newscaster, or politician—comes forward to tell his story, it has an impact on troubled youths trying to find a way to integrate and move beyond betrayal by a trusted caretaker.
I therefore salute those who have come forward about their boyhood traumas and hope that Senator Brown's disclosure, like those of the others, will empower other men and boys to disclose their own histories.
What they all must understand, however, is that disclosing sexual abuse is only a first step toward healing from it.
For most boys and men, particularly those who have held on to their secret for years or even decades, the battle to overcome the effects of sexual abuse is a long and arduous one. It may involve overcoming a lifetime of habitual secrecy about important matters, since there can be a spread of effect once he stays silent about one crucial part of his life. It may involve learning to give his emotional life a voice and a language, something many men have never learned to do. It may involve facing a myriad of possible addictions and compulsions: alcohol, drugs, gambling, shopping, eating, pornography, and casual sexual encounters, to name only a few. It may involve mourning a childhood that was prematurely ended when he was hurried into sexual acts for which he was not ready. It may involve learning how to live intimately with another human being, since the distrust that sexual betrayal engenders stops many men from being able to maintain intimate relationships with friends, authorities, lovers, and spouses. It may involve facing and experiencing sadness, isolation, anxiety, depression, and a host of other emotions that have been kept at bay in order to function even minimally, and to find new ways to handle these emotions.
For many boys and men, the first step is to look on the Internet at sites like MaleSurvivor.org, 1in6.org, and RAINN.org. It may involve reading some of the books written for them that may help them understand they are not alone, even as their specific experience is unique. Or it may involve finding a therapist to help find a way to a new life. (Those who do not know how to find a therapist are invited to look on my own website for a guide about what to look for.)
Thank you, Senator Brown, for demonstrating that a man may succeed in establishing a good life despite the trauma of sexual abuse, and for also showing that talking about what happened is not shameful. I hope it leads you to face your own demons, and that others take courage from you and do the same.
About the author:
Richard Gartner, PhD, is Training and Supervising Analyst, faculty and Founding Director of the Sexual Abuse Program at the William Alanson White Institute. He wrote Betrayed as Boys: Psychodynamic Treatment of Sexually Abused Men, for professionals, and Beyond Betrayal: Taking Charge of Your Life after Boyhood Sexual Abuse, for the general public. Dr. Gartner was a founder and is a Past President of MaleSurvivor: the National Organization against Male Sexual Victimization (malesurvivor.org). He has been quoted widely about male sexual victimization and was the subject of a full-length interview in the Science Times section of the New York Times. Seewww.richardgartner.com.
© 2011 Richard Gartner, All Rights Reserved[size:17pt][/size] | <urn:uuid:777e6cda-8c8a-4050-a3e4-aae089c8a262> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.malesurvivor.org/board/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=354276 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96701 | 1,428 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Tyler Better Business Bureau
The holiday giving season is in full swing and the current economy has not been kind to charities.
BBB offers these tips to giving to your favorite causes.
- GIVE WISELY: Make sure to check any charity you plan to donate to with BBB at www.bbb.org.
- SOUND-A-LIKE SCAMS: The holiday season is prime time for unethical individuals to take advantage of your giving spirit. Make sure you are donating to the right charity, not one you think sounds like a reputable charity.
- HIGH PRESSURE PITCHES: Don’t fall for them. A reputable charity will answer questions and inform you about their operations. They know an informed donor is a loyal donor.
- DONATING GOODS: If you donate goods, make sure they are in good condition. Giving a charity something they cannot use because it is in poor condition creates an undue burden on the charity you are trying to help.
- TEXT DONATIONS: This option took off after the earthquake in Haiti. After you text message a certain number, the donation is added to your cell phone bill. While this is fast and easy, the donation can take months to reach the charity.
- DO NOT GIVE CASH: Instead of cash, give in the form of a check or money order made out to the charity, never an individual.
- CAUSE MARKETING: You will see many products out there that claim some proceeds will go to a certain cause. Make sure there is a disclosure of the actual or anticipated amount of purchase that will go to charity.
- EMBEDDED GIVING: Many retail stores give you the option to donate to a charity by adding that amount to your receipt. Make sure you know exactly which charity will be benefitting from your donation.
- ONLINE DONATIONS: One-third of the entire years online donations are made during the holiday season. Make sure you are giving through a secure website with “https” in the browser.
- VOLUNTEER: If you don’t have the money to give to your favorite charity, consider donating your time. Few charities will turn down someone willing to volunteer.
- TELEMARKETING: When giving over the phone, make sure you are giving directly to the charity and not to a third party. In some cases a for-profit telemarketing company may be taking a sizable portion of the donation you make.
- ADVOCATE: Along with donating money and time, you can also help local charities by becoming a vocal advocate for its cause.
For more tips on how to be a savvy consumer, go to www. bbb.org. To report a fraud or scam, call the BBB Hotline at 903-581-8373. | <urn:uuid:7a28a0a8-5c77-46c6-94e0-b108a47bba91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20121216/OPINION0317/121219851/-1/FEATURES1202 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932204 | 583 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Giving Christ to Everyone: Lent 2011
by David Webb
"Gather as much of it as each of you needs.... Let no one leave any of it over until morning. But they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul...." Exodus 16:16b-20a (NRSV)
Honestly, it's been a long time since I really thought about the story of God providing manna to the children of Israel as they wandered throughout the desert. I admit that I really don't pay as much attention to the Old Testament as I do the New Testament. It took my daughter, who's only three, to help me understand the connection between God's promise given in both the Old and New Testaments.
Within the past couple of months in particular, Noelle has become very interested in Communion. "Daddy, I want some," she said one Sunday, so I shared mine with her. I asked my pastor what he thought about allowing her to receive. As a baptized member of the church, she was welcome to receive Communion at my wife's and my discretion.
I began working with her on proper Communion etiquette, and the next Sunday, she was ready. We went to the altar rail, positioned our hands, received the bread, held it in anticipation of the cup, dipped it without letting our fingers touch the wine, ate, and said, "Thank you, God."
She was enthralled. Besides saying, "Next time, can we dip it in chocolate?" she seemed satisfied.
Within a few days of receiving Communion the second time, she began going around our home, with her make-believe Communion bread and sharing it. "Given for you," she said, the same way our pastor says those words to us. From there, a play muffin pan became the bread basket, and a small blanket became its cover. A tea cup is the chalice. My wife and I, our Pomeranians and cats, and just about every stuffed toy in our home have been offered Christ's presence with the assurance, "Given for you."
One recent morning, as I was trying to put Noelle's coat and cold-weather garments on so we could go to preschool, she picked up her "bread basket." "Come on, Sweet, we're running late," I said. She looked at me with an expression of innocence and seriousness. "Daddy, wait!" she said, "I have to give a piece of Christ to everyone."
How could I not laugh? And then it hit me. This sweet beautiful little girl of mine expressed one of our Christian duties--and opportunities. Not just during Lent. Every day. We're supposed to give a piece of Christ to everyone.
When the Hebrew children tried to hoard the manna, it spoiled. God provided for them each day. Christ does the same for us, but if we try to hoard God's love, it may not necessarily spoil, but it doesn't nourish us. For us to truly receive the love of God, we need to give a piece of Christ to everyone.
Date posted: Apr 04, 2011 | <urn:uuid:f68a5ffc-61f9-406e-a443-a468f8e45758> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gbgm-umc.org/global_news/full_article.cfm?articleid=6006 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987677 | 656 | 1.75 | 2 |
Ninety years ago, on the 2nd of January 1923, 12 good men and true gathered at Westbourne Street Methodist Church in High Wycombe with one desire: to form a choir. The main objective was to create and deliver high quality singing entertainment for the town and the villages of South Buckinghamshire.
Today, 90 years later the Choir, now named the Wycombe Orpheus Male Voice Choir, has grown to over 80 members – more than six times its original singing roster – and continues to provide entertaining music of all kinds to the South Bucks area (and well beyond).
And in those intervening years, the Orpheus has notched up more than 60 festival awards by projecting a warm, friendly atmosphere, a sense of fun in what they are singing while maintaining very high standards of vocal music and a distinctive Orpheus “sound.”
It has raised many thousands of pounds for charities and good causes in its home area. However, its activities are not confined to South Buckinghamshire. Over the years, the choir has performed in Germany and in Jersey as well as in many places across the UK.
It has even presented its magical music at Wales’ internationally famous Eisteddfod, as well as the Eden Project in Cornwall, Cardiff’s Millennium Centre and Llandaff Cathedral, Peterborough Cathedral, Magdalen College, Oxford and the Royal Albert Hall as one of the choirs singing at the Festival of Male Choirs, organised by the London Welsh Male Voice Choir.
A link has been forged with show biz and the choir has in the past appeared at London’s Guildhall and the Grosvenor Hotel as part of the entertainment for the Miss World charity dinner.
In addition, its Festival of Young Musicians each March promotes musical excellence by talented youngsters from local schools, many of whom are helped by the choir’s bursary scheme.
Its latest CD is “You Raise Me Up” and a new recording is being planned for next year. Every year, the choir strives to update its repertoire with new music (including items in such languages as Xhosa (South Africa), Maori (New Zealand) and, of course, Welsh.
It’s been 90 years of musical progress culminating in a choir which can hold its own against any other in the land by high musical standards, attention to detail and promoting a warm bonhomie from choristers to audiences. | <urn:uuid:686ceefa-c805-4c8c-b6ee-077c232aea91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wycombeorpheus.org.uk/aboutus.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968516 | 501 | 1.507813 | 2 |
publisher: Knox Robinson Publishing
Received from the publisher for an honest review
In the dead of night, a band of Vikings ravage a lonely convent on the Brittany coast –and their fearsome leader makes a decision that will eventually lead to his downfall. Ranulf de Lannion is fifteen years old. Crippled, deformed and abandoned by his family to the charity of the convent, he is seized by the Vikings during a midnight raid. Contemptuously nicknamed 'The Scraeling" by his captors, his future appears grim. Harald Sigurdsson, or 'Hardrada' as he will come to be known, is the leader of the Viking band. A violent mercenary with designs on the throne of Norway, Hardrada abducts The Scraeling on a whim. Ranulf grows into an invaluable asset, smoothing Hardrada's path over their thirty-five years together from mercenary to commander of the Varangian Guard, all the way to king of Norway. But all is not as it seems in the heart of Ranulf de Lannion. Having sworn secret revenge upon Hardrada for the murders at the convent, he vows to end the day of the Viking forever. When the king of Norway launches an attack against the Anglo-Saxon throne of England in 1066, what role will The Scraeling play in bringing the age of the Viking to an end?I found the historical aspect of this book quite fascinating, as I know little of the Viking period. I'd heard of their reputations of ruthlessness and skilled warriors, and this certainly did not lack any of those episodes. The story is told through the eyes of The Scraeling. His voice is the first we hear, and his declaration in the prologue that really hooked me into the story. The reader is quickly inserted into the account of how The Scraeling came to be serving Harald Hardrada, in the account of the viking's violent pillaging of the convent where he lived. The episode is described in detail, and for any who find it hard reading violent episodes, including rape, will likely have difficulties getting past the story of how The Scraeling came to be a trusted secretary. However, this was one of the most, if not the most violent episode depicted in the novel, so if you can get through it, you are in for an interesting read. Harald traveled greatly, working as a mercenary for his kin in Kiev and for Empress Zoe of Constantinople. The reader also gets treated to excerpts of the Heimskringla, the famous Norse saga, during the section breaks.
My biggest criticism was the use of some modern sounding slang terms. These are terms in use today, and having them in a story in the time before William the Bastard claimed the English throne to become William the Conqueror made what seemed like a jarring contrast to the more period sounding voice of the rest of the novel. More authentic sounding terms would have maintained the mood better throughout the book. However, I found most of slang seemed to centered around the attack on the convent at the start, and later in Harald's relations with Empress Zoe. Once I realized that most of that sort of language was past, I was left to enjoy Scraeling's schemeings. The story gets told between the first person, where Scraeling is validating or commenting on the events well after they happened, then in the third person depicting the events as it happened. I found this to be effective, and gave the feeling of reading the memoirs of Scraeling.
I found it to be an interesting read, and if not for the language issue, I would have given it a full four stars | <urn:uuid:4b97b8ba-24fa-4304-a6c9-6ac225393c96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sawcat.blogspot.com/2011/12/review-harald-hardrada-last-viking-by.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97527 | 754 | 1.625 | 2 |
EDU 422 Student Teaching
The purpose of student teaching is to bridge the gap in teacher education between theory and practice. It will be an eleven week, full-time experience in classroom teaching at the secondary school level under the supervision of a public school teacher. At the end of the student teaching experience, the student teacher will devote time to reflection and consultation with field supervisors and education faculty as he finalizes his classroom based research project, program portfolio, and other program exit requirements. Two-and-one-half credits, spring or fall semesters (fall semester for Ninth Semester Program students only).
Prerequisite: All previous education courses and admission to program and acceptance to Student Teaching.
Credits: 2 1/2 | <urn:uuid:188a4d5f-fb19-4f27-94ea-75863a134121> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wabash.edu/bulletin/home.cfm?this_year=2012&course_id=5906 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951502 | 146 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Energy - Jan 2
Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage.
White House, GOP Battle for Supremacy on Tar Sands Pipeline
Andrew Restuccia, The Hill
With President Obama’s decision on the Keystone XL pipeline looming, the White House and Republicans will spend the next several weeks trying to win the messaging war over the controversial project.
The stakes are high for both sides. Obama risks backlash from key union supporters if he rejects the project, but faces the ire of environmental groups if he approves it.
... Both sides are mobilizing to win the messaging war. White House and Obama administration officials have said they will have little choice but to reject the pipeline under the 60-day timeline that was outlined in the payroll tax package that passed in December.
By arguing that the GOP-backed measure will force the administration to reject Keystone on a technicality, the White House can avoid having to weigh in on the substantive issues raised by the pipeline — including whether it will boost the economy or harm the environment.
(2 January 2012)
Talking to peak oil journalist and novelist Kurt Cobb (interview)
The Smoking POET
Kurt Cobb is an author and columnist who writes frequently on energy and the environment. His novel Prelude is a romantic thriller and cautionary tale that offers a startling reinterpretation of contemporary events and a window onto our energy future. He is a columnist for the Paris-based science news site Scitizen. His work has been featured on Energy Bulletin, The Oil Drum, 321energy, Common Dreams, Le Monde Diplomatique, EV World, and many other sites. He writes a widely followed blog on energy and the environment called Resource Insights. He is a founding member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas—USA and serves on its board. He also serves on the board of the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions. He is a graduate of Stanford University and lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
... Zinta for The Smoking Poet: Welcome to our pages, Kurt. Yours is a message that goes beyond an interesting storyline in your first novel, Prelude: A Novel About Secrets, Treachery and the Arrival of Peak Oil. Interesting, yes, but it’s also frightening long after you turn the last page. How much is the premise of this novel—running short on oil supplies—based in reality? Could you give our readers a brief synopsis of your novel?
Kurt Cobb: I might use the hackneyed phrase “ripped from the headlines” if only there were any headlines in major news outlets about peak oil. The issue has been covered a bit here and there. But given the gravity of the topic, one would expect a huge amount of discussion. Oil is, after all, the lifeblood of modern civilization. And, while it is not running out—that’s a typical straw man argument used to discredit those who write and speak on this issue—world production has not grown in the past six years despite record prices.
Some major players within the industry are warning that we will run up against limits in oil production within this decade and then see a decline. Just the failure of production to grow has been traumatic already with prices regularly floating above $100 a barrel for the second time since 2008. So dependent are we on oil in all facets of our life that a near-term decline in production would inflict untold damage on the world economy and our society.
As for the story of Prelude, it revolves around a female energy analyst who is a rising star at a prominent Washington, D.C. energy consulting firm. She meets a former oil trader who tries to persuade her that peak oil production is near. She dismisses his concern as alarmist until she uncovers evidence that convinces her he is right. That evidence makes her a target for those who desperately want to keep an unknowing world in the dark. She soon finds herself locked in a game of cat and mouse that places her career and ultimately her life on the line.
(? January 2012)
Hunt for Gas Hits Fragile Soil, and South Africans Fear Risks
Ian Urbina, New York Times
KAROO, South Africa — When a drought dried up their wells last year, hundreds of farmers and their families flocked to local fairgrounds here to pray for rain, and a call went out on the regional radio station imploring South Africans to donate bottled water
Covering much of the roughly 800 miles between Johannesburg and Cape Town, this arid expanse — its name means “thirsty land” — sees less rain in some parts than the Mojave Desert.
Even so, Shell and several other large energy companies hope to drill thousands of natural gas wells in the region, using a new drilling technology that can require a million gallons of water or more for each well. Companies will also have to find a way to dispose of all the toxic wastewater or sludge that each well produces, since the closest landfill or industrial-waste facility that can handle the waste is hundreds of miles away.
(30 December 2011)
In conversation with peak oil pioneer Dr. Colin J Campbell (video)
Local Campus, West Cork, Ireland
In conversation with Dr. Colin J Campbell, Ballydehob, West Cork, Ireland. by LocalCampus
Founder - The Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO)
(? January 2012)
Suggested by Post Carbon Institute, who writes, "No thumbnail, but nice video interview of PCI advisor and legend Colin Campbell."
I'm always impressed with Colin's calm, matter-of-fact approach. -BA
Oil and the Glory: End-of-year edition
Steve LeVine, The Oil and the Glory, Foreign Policy
... Year of the pipeline: Time magazine's Person of the Year is the protester, and that is probably valid, but we think that the editors missed an important also-ran -- the pipeline. Few care to stop and notice the elegance in unsung lengths of steel cylinders stirring fierce passions such as nationalism, greed and tear-inducing anger. We are talking the 24- and 36-inch steel cylinders that carry oil and gas across continents, under bodies of water and over mountains to the 7 billion people of the Earth. Who for instance considered nominating the Keystone Pipeline as political instrument of the year for how it threatened to shut down the whole of the U.S. government, and may yet in the coming couple of months? Then there is Nabucco, a proposed natural gas line that has much of Europe, Russia along with the U.S. tied up in sanctimonious knots over who will exercise geopolitical and economic leverage in Europe. This week Russia notched up the temperature by securing crucial support from Turkey for its repost to Nabucco, a pipeline that it calls South Stream. That battle also will carry over into the new year. And who can forget the proposed trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline, known by the acronym TAPI? A powerful and high-kicking chorus is backing TAPI, led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and CIA director David Petraeus, who embraced the line when he was running the ground game as a general in Afghanistan. Observers, including this blog, have cast doubt on TAPI's feasibility given Afghanistan's chaos. Yet we celebrate it as a worthy addition to this improbable pantheon -- inanimate objects that somehow transmogrify into organic, breathing beings capable of arousing high-stakes emotion in humans.
... Let freedom ring! For years, a leading mantra in energy has been Peak Oil, a theory that the world has either already reached, or will soon, the highest daily volume of oil production that it possibly can, and will imminently experience a long drop in output, along with an ugly war for the remaining supplies. In recent months, a competing theory has begun to take hold -- that the western hemisphere is actually on the brink of oil abundance; the U.S. specifically, it is said by some of our most prominent oil experts and writers, is on the way to independence from foreign oil.
In concrete numbers, these sources suggest that the U.S. will produce a sustained 19 million barrels of oil a day, more than double its current output, or in another scenario, supplement U.S. domestic supplies with a bit of Canadian oil sands (as a comparison, petroleum king Saudi Arabia can produce 12 million barrels a day, or 63 percent of the volume forecast for the U.S.). The trouble is that the numbers do not add up -- there is no credible scenario in which, when accounting for the natural decline of existing fields, that North America produces an additional 10 million barrels of oil a day to add up to the total of 19. So what is going on with this bad call? My own inkling is that we are witnessing a natural inclination to get carried away with new trends. In this case, more oil is coming out of the ground in North Dakota and Texas; Alberta's oil sands do seem poised to produce a lot more oil. Elsewhere in the western hemisphere, Brazil also is on the way to a big uptick in production. Combine these field developments with exuberent new projections published by industry-affiliated experts and think tanks, fed by lobbying interests, and at once the only worry is how fast can we drill. O&G's call: The United States, alone or with Canada, will never produce a sustained volume of 19 million barrels of oil a day.
(30 December 2011)
Steve LeVine is a long-time EB contributor. -BA | <urn:uuid:2c6bccd2-e8c2-4809-b87b-9fcfd464983a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.resilience.org/stories/2012-01-02/energy-jan-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949627 | 1,993 | 1.5 | 2 |
Staff Picks: Books
Staff-recommended reading from the
Caution: This blog contains information that just may be too cute for your reading pleasure. If you are disturbed or irritated by anything cute, STOP IMMEDIATELY and avoid any potential future exposure.
Even though I don’t watch much television, one of my favorite shows is Too Cute! on the Animal Planet channel. This program showcases mostly puppies and kittens, (but also occasionally exotic pets), as they are born and develop for the first two to three months of life in various, usually for-profit husbandry households. Each show culminates in the members of the new generation being adopted by their “forever” families. Even though I have watched some episodes numerous times and know that they are slanted toward the “And they lived happily ever after” ending, I still can’t help myself. There’s something about the newborn, no mater what species (well maybe not snakes), that draws me in. Especially so if the producers contrive and manipulate the action to hyper boost the cloyingly sweet “cute quotient.”
But then, a little over one month ago I came upon a book that was “too cute” without the hype. I’m referring to A Little Book of Sloth, written and photographed by Lucy Cooke, a zoologist and founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society. It documents the activities of the real-life sanctuary of Slothville, located in the wilds of Costa Rica, which is devoted to saving these sleepy-looking, engaging, and mellow creatures. The book features some of the “cutest” inhabitants of Slothville, from the orphan Buttercup to Mateo, Sunshine and Sammy, Ubu, as well as numerous other endearing two and three fingered sloths.
Thanks to a uniquely slow nervous system, sloths are known for their lethargic, unhurried movements. They epitomize a lazy, laid back, and ultra chilled lifestyle. But while sloths may look sluggish, they are also quite acrobatic and have the ability to turn their heads around up to 270 degrees, due to an extra neck vertebrae.
Although they appear to be huggable cuddle-bugs as depicted in this volume, sloths do not make good pets and definitely belong in the wild. In captivity, they require special care. For instance, at the Sanctuary, the sloths are given regular baths in a specifically formulated, green leaf tea solution to keep their skin in good physical condition. They also appreciate hibiscus flowers being part of their standard diet.
But don’t despair at your inability to have one of these creatures hang around your home. You can always visit slothsanctuary.com to help an orphaned sloth in need by making a donation, or go to slothville.com to join the Sloth Appreciation Society.
And don’t forget to check out this book. The pictures alone are adorable, precious and may very well lead to you having an absolutely slothful “too cute” day!
A Little Book of Sloth
If you have ever appreciated the incongruity of a little house amisdst high-rise city buildings you will enjoy Mrs. Noodlekugel by Daniel Pinkwater. When two siblings, Maxine and Nick, move into a new apartment, Maxine discovers a cute little house set in the backyard of the their tall apartment building. Meet Mrs. Noodlekugel, her piano playing cat Mr. Fuzzface, and four farsighted mice.
Mrs. Noodlekugel is a short chapter book that’s perfect for early elementary students who are ready to move on from early readers to chapter books. Loaded with Daniel Pinkwater whimsy, this is a book that adults will also enjoy.
What Can a Crane Pick Up? is a perfect read aloud for young children. Author Rebecca Kai Dotlich has written an easy to share book about a high-interest topic for young children. The rhymes in the book perfectly flow from one to the next and even have some unexpected surprises that will have your toddler or preschooler giggling. And then of course you will be giggling too! It's silly in some parts and at the same time kids will know just a little bit about cranes and their many uses after reading this book. I predict it will be one they'll want to read again and again as they study the engaging and colorful illustrations by Mike Lowery. This book is definitely a gem to add to your story rotation!
See the adorable book trailer here.
What Can a Crane Pick Up?
Just when Sunrise Elementary thought the library dragon was gone for good – disaster strikes again.
Return of the Library Dragon by Carmen Agra Deedy continues the story of the library dragon.
Miss Lotta Scales, a dragon also known as Miss Lotty, the beloved librarian, is retiring. She devoted 557 years to her job as the Sunset Elementary School Librarian. On her final day Mike Krochip arrives but he brings disaster.
Mike Krochip brings cartons of MePods along with much high-tech enthusiasm. The disaster is that the books are doomed—Mike Krochip wants them all in storage, no need for books he is creating the children’s cybrary! What? Miss Lotty is mad—fire breathing smoking mad and the Library Dragon returns with a fiery vengeance!
The final battle: Mike Krochip vs. the Library Dragon – who will survive?
A very fun read for preschoolers and early elementary readers on a subject very close to my heart. No question about it, I’m rooting for Library Dragon – GO BOOKS! GO LIBRARY
Return of the Library Dragon
This book is the story of Sam Lewis and the events that unfold during the 33 Minutes until Morgan Sturtz kicks his butt at recess (and then around 60 more minutes of aftermath). The author speaks directly to his tween audience, and gets it right. The voice of middle school is heard loud and clear over food fights, fire alarms and friendships. It’s funny, fast paced, heart-warming and breaking all at once. It’s the perfect book to recommend to kids that are starting to outgrow the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. The lessons in 33 Minutes on friendship and staying true to one’s self will stick with the reader long after the worst day of Sam’s life and his middle school years have passed. I think it would be awesome to have a teacher like Ms. Z who can say: “This sucks….Wait. Be patient. You’re not going to be here forever. And in the meantime, even though you and this place don’t fit together so great all the time, be you.” Now, a sigh of relief from me that middle school has passed and that authors like Todd Hasak-Lowy are writing realistic books for tweens to read during the transition of middle school. Meet Todd at Bookbug in Kalamazoo on May 5 at 4 pm!
The Dark is a brand new picture book from two children's books luminaries: Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen. Laszlo is a boy who is afraid of the dark until he actually gets to know it. The dark lives in the basement but comes to visit Laszlo upstairs in his room one night. Then Laszlo goes down to the basement. All of this sounds terribly foreboding but is refreshingly resolved.
The Dark could be helpful with those ever common afraid of the dark childhood fears. But the way that the dark and Laszlo are presented with language and illustration is well worth the read for any age.
It's no secret that I love Amy Krouse Rosenthal's books. At least it's no secret in the Children's Room. I just love her charming characters and the way she plays with words and typography. My favorites are the books she has done with Tom Lichtenheld. With Amy and Tom together, it's sure to be a great book. The newest is called Exclamation Mark! and it's a great story about the importance of celebrating our differences and being happy about what makes us special. I love that this book teaches such an important concept in a fun way and that in the end the differences between Exclamation Mark and his friends, make the entire group stronger! You can find more of Amy's books here. And more Tom Lichtenheld books here.
Hilary McKay is one of my favorite authors (her series that includes Saffy’s Angel is terrific) and now she’s written a couple of stories for kids who are ready to read short chapter books. Lulu and the Dog from the Sea is her newest. Lulu is certain that the stray dog living on the beach just needs a friend . . and it could be her!
Lulu and the Dog from the Sea
Every time I stumble across a book like Kathleen O'Dell's The Aviary, I'm amazed that more readers - of all ages - don't read middle grade. The Aviary is very Gothic in setting and tone and simultaneously bursting with colorful characters, a unique combination. There are secrets and magic, plus a good dose of realism and a lesson or two as well. It actually reminded me a bit of Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
The main character, Clara, is a delightful character: headstrong, adventurous, and incurably curious. I would have enjoyed The Aviary based solely on the premise and setting, but Clara made me love it. Her curiosity was engaging and infectious, ensuring that the reader was never plagued by a dull moment or stale passage, simply because Clara herself was always plotting her next move and going off on some adventure.
Since The Aviary is in many respects a mystery, there are many great elements I feel I can't really comment on in much depth. I can, however, say that every detail in The Aviary comes together quite elegantly and I was left completely satisfied by the ending. I spent much of the novel hypothesizing about how everything fit together... I liked that the mystery wasn't ridiculously easy to solve, but all the pieces of the puzzle were there, waiting to be put together by the reader and the intrepid Clara.
The Aviary is one of wonderful titles that can be enjoyed by a wide variety of readers. It is, plain and simple, a wonderfully written and imagined novel and didn't feel at all confined to one specific reading level. It could easily be a read for the whole family and will appeal to those who usually read young adult or adult titles.
There are 2 things I can say about Dan Gutman he must be big on baseball and he has found a great way to tell historical stories about baseball. He takes a very youthful and imaginative approach to telling Jackie Robinson’s story in Jackie & Me. What kid couldn’t relate to time travel, baseball cards and getting to meet a famous player like Jackie Robinson. Jackie & Me is one of Gutman’s baseball card adventures and it's a great way for a young person to take a look at what it must have been like for Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier back in 1947.
There are several other books in the Baseball Card Adventures like Shoeless Joe and Me, Ray and Me, Babe and Me, and Honus and Me.
Jackie & Me | <urn:uuid:022c46c1-4868-4903-a103-e177e76fe1a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kpl.gov/blog/default.aspx?category=Kids&blogid=1766 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958838 | 2,397 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Sep 28, 2011
Boeing has completed an important review of its KC-46 aerial-refueling tanker program with the U.S. Air Force, the company announced Wednesday.
Integrated Baseline Review, completed Aug. 24 at Boeing program headquarters in Mukilteo, Wash., “validated the program’s technical scope and finalized key milestones for the design and development phase” of the tanker, Boeing said.
A depiction of a future U.S. Air Force Boeing KC-46 Tanker. (Boeing)
May 17, 2011
The first KC-767 tanker for the Italian Air Force leaves Boeing's tanker modification facility in Wichita, Kan., in January 2010 on its ferry flight to Italy. (Boeing)
Boeing’s first two KC-767 aerial refueling tankers for the Italian Air Force formally entered into service Tuesday.
Apr 07, 2011
A Boeing image of its proposed NewGen Tanker, prominently featuring winglets. (Boeing)
All of the images Boeing put out to promote the NewGen Tanker it offered to the U.S. Air Force, and accompanying its announcement that it won the contract, featured fuel-saving winglets.
But the winglets are missing from new images of the plane, which the Air Force renamed KC-46A. And the company confirmed to Aviation Week that there will be no winglets.
Mar 31, 2011
Thursday’s World Trade Organization ruling on illegal subsidies to Boeing affirmed that the U.S. plane maker got way less than Airbus and won the Air Force’s $35 billion tanker contract despite that handicap, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., declared Thursday.
“This final ruling confirms what we already knew: Airbus has had a massive illegal advantage over Boeing for years,” Cantwell said, adding:
Illegal subsidies to foreign competitors harm the U.S. aerospace industry and its workers, and they must come to an end. The results of today’s ruling stand in stark contrast to what the WTO ruled in the Boeing vs. EU case last June: that Airbus had received $20 billion in illegal subsidies, the majority of which came in the form of aircraft-specific launch aid. The EU should put a stop to launch aid, which distorts the true price of products and creates unfair competition in the global marketplace.
Today’s ruling reaffirms that American sweat equity beat out massive illegal subsidies for the Air Force’s tanker contract. American workers will win every time, if given a fair playing field. The deck was stacked in favor of Airbus – and American ingenuity won anyway.
Gov. Chris Gregoire said:
This panel report reflects a broad win for the United States and for Boeing, essentially reinforcing what we have long said – that European subsidies to Airbus are far larger than anything the United States does for Boeing. In Washington state, we are still reviewing the panel report and will be consulting with federal trade officials on our next steps. It’s important to remember that these panel findings could change as a result of the appeals process. Given that – it’s unclear what the effect of the panel report will be on Washington state at this time.
Read more aerospace news. Visit seattlepi.com’s home page for more Seattle news.
Mar 25, 2011
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., speaks during a celebration on Friday, March 25, 2011 in Boeing's Everett, Wash., wide-body factory of the company's win of a U.S. Air Force contract to build 179 aerial refueling tankers. (Aubrey Cohen/seattlepi.com) | Click picture for photo gallery
The Air Force’s recent choice of Boeing’s 767-based aerial refueling tanker for a 179-plane contract isn’t necessarily the last triumph for the 767, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and Chief Executive Jim Albaugh said Friday.
“We’re not done. We’re going to build 179 of these, and then we’ll build another 179 for the U.S. Air Force,” he said after a celebration of the company’s tanker win with U.S. Reps. Norm Dicks and Rick Larsen, both D-Wash. “My guess is there are a hundred (orders) out there internationally.”
Just as the new tankers will replace Boeing 707-based KC-135 Stratotankers, there are other 707-based military aircraft still in operation, such as the E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system (AWACS) and E-8 Joint STARS, Albaugh added. “They all need to be re-platformed and I think this is a great airplane to do it on.” | <urn:uuid:05a0d334-b123-48dd-a96e-80af4d963667> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.seattlepi.com/aerospace/category/tanker/?blogID=23&category=2382 | 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 | 0.933695 | 1,024 | 1.734375 | 2 |
It is interesting now to see the Financial Services Authority (FSA) identify the weaknesses in its structure but little is being said about how the then Labour Government, its Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and later his successor Alistair Darling "danced around their handbags" whilst the entire financial edifice they created came crashing down ("Sir Fred was on radar as early as 2003", The Herald, December 13).
Back in 1997, having given the Bank of England operational independence in monetary policy (responsible, through its Monetary Policy Committee, for interest rates), Gordon Brown then proceeded, under the Bank of England Act of 1998, to strip the bank of any formal powers to intervene to save the banks and failed to define what its role would be in the event of any crisis. These actions almost precipitated the resignation of Eddie George, its then Governor, and this general level of animosity or resentment would have been apparent during the subsequent events.
What was put in place, under a Memorandum of Understanding, was a committee known in Whitehall as T3 and comprising the Treasury, Bank of England (BoE), and the FSA. This committee was charged with the responsibility of increasing financial stability but Gordon Brown did not attend any of its meetings and Alistair Darling, who steered the enabling legislation through Parliament, attended only one committee meeting.
According to Andrew Rawnsley in his book The End of the Party, the principals in this tripartite system, namely the Chancellor, the Governor of the BoE and the head of the FSA never met and the monthly meetings of the standing committee were being attended by deputies.
To test the robustness of the new system, the Treasury undertook a "war game" and this raised "serious questions about the structure created by Brown"and, although there was little in the way of communication between the Treasury and the FSA, the latter "did flag as many as 30 warnings about individual banks". The BoE conducted only one war game (2004/5) with one participant commenting "no-one acted on any of the suggestions that came out of it" and another war game, undertaken by the FSA in late 2006, "concluded that the deposit guarantee scheme was not adequate to prevent bank runs, a gaping deficiency which would be a critical element of the crisis that broke nine months later".
These extracts show that the system was tested, found to be flawed and, prior to its collapse, nothing was done. Whilst it is laudable for the FSA to recognise its weaknesses and failings, there is a deafening silence from Gordon Brown.
10 Beauchamp Road,
Time and time again we are informed that it is necessary to pay extravagant salaries and outrageous bonuses to senior bankers in order to ensure that we get the best people at the top.
It has now been revealed by the FSA that a major cause of the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2008 was "poor management".
If that is the result of paying people like Sir Fred Goodwin annual sums that many working-class people don't manage to accumulate in a lifetime, perhaps that old chestnut needs to be consigned to the fire of history – and even the so-called top people paid according to results obtained, rather than those expected.
This becomes especially relevant in light of reports of Sir Fred's relationship with the board of RBS, taking account of the FSA not always having regarded the dialogue with RBS's executive management as constructive.
Rev C Brian Ross,
253 Shields Road,
THE Herald gives us an interesting picture of the world we are living in. On Page 4 (December 13) we read that the country "cannot take enforcement action" against the RBS directors whose "challenging management culture" bankrupted the country, or against the members of the authority who were paid to oversee them but were "not as tenacious as they should have been". On Page 2 we see a sheriff sentencing boys aged 16 and 18 to three years' detention each for "the crime committed by each accused", amounting to silly entries on Facebook which had no effect on anybody.
It really does seem that it is who you are, not what you do, that matters in this country.
18 Bonar Crescent, Bridge of Weir.
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Wheel of Fortune: Question About The Short-Lived "Buy A Vowel" Wedge
How did the "Buy A Vowel" wedge work when it appeared on the wheel during the pilot and in 1975?
Makes it sound like you just spin the wheel, land on it, and you have to buy a vowel for a fixed price.
If this was the case, what if a contestant landed on such space, and all the vowels in play were called?
Because there are no circulating episodes with the Buy a Vowel space on the wheel, most of what we know about it is based on conjecture and the fading memories of those who actually saw those episodes. Based on anecdotal evidence, it seems it worked like this:
You could always choose to buy a vowel at any time once you had the money for it, just as you can now. If you spun Buy a Vowel, however, you had to buy one whether you liked it or not, at the normal $250 price. If you couldn't afford it, or there were no vowels remaining, you lost your turn. (Unknown at this late date: If you still had to pay even if there were no more vowels.)
That wasn't air fair piece on the puzzle at all. I would have hated that, and whoever added that was out of their mind.
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Let's Take a Trip to New York City
January 24, 2010
This is a Trip that I've been postponing for a while, because it's a tough one. New York City is, undoubtedly, the world's primary example of the Heroic Materialist style in City Design, in the pre-World War II format. I've been calling this 19th Century Hypertrophism.
The Heroic Materialist era began with the Industrial Revolution, around 1780 or so. This also coincides exactly with the beginning of the United States, in 1776 (Declaration of Independence) or 1789 (Constitution), depending on how you want to count it. Thus, the United States is also overwhelmingly dominated by the Heroic Materialist style in all things, whether the earlier version that we are calling 19th Century Hypertrophism, or the later version, 20th Century Hypertrophism.
Like all things Heroic Materialist, the 19th Century Hypertrophic City exemplifies certain repetitive thought processes. At some point, I'll have to have a separate piece on Heroic Materialism. However, we can begin by summarizing some of the basic attributes.
To make things very simple, Heroic Materialism is the basic aesthetic of a mechanical or civil engineer. First, it is an aesthetic. It is not actually practical, it is a sort of artistic style. However, it is the artistic style of an engineer -- a gearhead guy who likes machines. For example, let's say you wanted to show up at a party and make a big impression. A mechanical engineer would probably want to show up in something like this:
However, a mechanical engineer probably wouldn't even think about showing up on something like this -- a thoroughbred stallion. It's not that he doesn't like it, it just isn't something that crosses his mind.
And this? Just plain weird to a mechanical engineer.
Only a euro-poofter would want to show up to a party in a gondola.
Of course, it doesn't really matter what you show up in to a party. There is no actual need we are fulfilling here. It's all just fun and games. That's why I call it an aesthetic. The Heroic Materialist aesthetic is an aesthetic of practicality, while actually being often absurdly impractical. I mentioned the Rolex watch. It represents an aesthetic of practcality -- "it helps you get to the top of Everest" -- but actually, it is expensive, breaks easily, is heavy (mountaineers are nuts about weight), and doesn't have the digital alarm that wakes you up at 3am so you can start your trip to the top of Everest. (Digital alarms are very important to mountaineers who need to get up early.)
This aesthetic stems largely from the realities of industrialization itself. The fact of the matter is, the mechanical engineers, and those that employed them, were getting rich! The thoroughbred stallion represents landed gentry, the aesthetic of the aristocrats who gained their wealth from the land. The gondola represents Old Europe, centuries of tradition and artistic subtlely and handmade craft, all quaintly anachronistic and increasingly irrelevant in a world then powered by coal and made by machines and out of steel.
Thus, we see that the Heroic Materialist style is very masculine. There's little in the way of feminine attributes. Things that are soft, comfortable, colorful, decorative. Where are the flowers and kitty cats? Luxe? Calme? Volupte? Gone, gone, all gone. The Heroic Materialist style, in City Design, looks a lot like our mechanical engineer's bachelor apartment. In other words, it looks like shit. (Naturally, our young engineer is completely oblivious.)
Like this. Practical. Utilitarian. Not a teeny whiff of decoration, or anything soft, living, gentle.
Jean Honore Fragonard, The Swing, 1766.
This painting is often used as a representation of the ideals of the 18th century, which were replaced by Heroic Materialism. See what I mean? Can you see how this expresses a different aesthetic? We are in nature -- and not a managed, controlled, dominated nature; a mechanical engineer's version of nature, like a cornfield -- but nature that is wild and mysterious. The nature of unicorns, devas and fairies. We see that everyone is dressed, not in workmans' overalls, or miner's clothes (jeans and a t-shirt), but the most fanciful and impractical clothing you could imagine. Along with nature, we have a sculpture, the addition of a beautiful (and completely useless) human-made thing to mesh harmoniously with the natural beauty of the forest. The people here have lots of leisure time, with nothing to do except enjoy the process of life in all of its splendor, which, in this case, means looking up a young woman's skirt.
We'll dwell on Heroic Materialism more at a later date. What I want to consider now is how this Heroic Materialist style was translated into City Design.
The primary characteristic of 19th Century Hyptertrophism is that it is hypertrophic. That's a fancy word that means big, really big. Big big big. Everything is goddamn big. Is there any reason for things to be so much bigger? No. Humans are the same size as always. But, BIG BIG BIG is one of the core themes (i.e., repetitive thought processes) of Heroic Materialism. Bigger houses. Bigger TVs. Bigger cars. Bigger hamburgers. Bigger boobs.
Big it up baby!
Since cities are mostly made of streets and buildings, we find that the 19th Century Hypertrophic City has really big streets, and really big buildings.
Manhattan. 19th Century Hypertrophism at its most Hypertrophic.
Siena, Italy. The Traditional City, in the normal scale that cities around the world were built in before they all became Hypertrophied.
OK, you are probably thinking: "hmmmm, looks kinda similar to me."
I did that on purpose.
Look a little more closely. How wide is the street in Manhattan? We see a pretty wide sidewalk, of perhaps ten feet on either side of the street. Then, there's a roadway in the middle, with a row of cars parked on either side. Then, there's at least one lane of traffic in the middle of the street. All in all, the Manhattan street is about forty or fifty feet wide. Considering that this is about the narrowest that streets get in Manhattan, that is pretty wide! We saw earlier that Traditional City streets all around the world are often 12-16 feet wide.
November 15, 2009: Let's Kick Around Carfree.com
Here's a busy commercial street in Venice, a wonderful Traditional City. This is not some tiny back alley, or even an unusually narrow street for Venice. However, it is only one-third the width of our Manhattan street! The Hypertrophic City's street are not just "a little" larger, they are three times larger, or more than three times! If we were to take a bustling commercial street in Manhattan, like Madison Avenue, how wide is that?
Here we have five lanes of traffic, and 12-15 foot sidewalks on either side. Just one sidewalk on Madison Avenue is as wide as the whole street in Venice!
I suppose you could say: "OK, but Madison Avenue has to be wide because of all the cars."
But Madison Avenue was created 100 years before cars!
What actually happened, was that we needed to create cars to have something to fill up Madison Avenue.
This is a large commercial street in Lisbon, Portugal. Lisbon is a major European capital. Portugal used to have an empire that spanned the globe. Can you see the difference in scale between the Hypertrophic City and the Traditional City? Note that there are no cars here, even today. That's because there isn't a big space in the middle devoted to cars. Get it?
The second Hypertrophic thing you should notice, from our first picture of Manhattan, is that the buildings are much taller. The buildings are about fifteen stories high. That is much taller than the Traditional City, which tends to top out around six stories, the limits of practical use without elevators. Look at the buildings in Siena again. They are about 4-5 stories tall. So, along with a street that is about three times wider, we have buildings that are about three times taller. Everything is three times bigger! That's why the Manhattan photo and the Siena photo looked similar at first glance. The relationship between width and height was about the same. In the case of Madison Avenue, the street is more like five times wider, and the buildings more like five or eight times taller.
Of course, nobody started with the idea of "let's make a city, but, just for fun, let's make everything three times bigger." It didn't work like that at all. Actually, they made the Hypertrophic Streets first. Only much later did they get around to making some Really Tall Buildings to go with the Really Wide Streets. The first "skyscraper" in Manhattan was of course the Flatiron Building:
See the 3-7 story Traditional City style buildings all around the base? Also, we can see what the streets of Manhattan looked like in 1902, before cars.
See the guy walking right in the middle of the street? He doesn't even have to wait for a traffic light (not yet invented) because there's no traffic.
No murderous machinery in the middle of people's living spaces. Yet.
There are some more people in the middle of the street on the left.
The Flatiron building was completed in 1902. It is 22 stories high.
This period image gives an idea of what kind of impression the Flatiron Building made when it was completed.
Woo hoo! Finally, after a hundred years, we now have some super-big buildings to go with our super-big streets!
Actually, I like Manhattan. The funny thing is, it is OK (not that great, but OK) because the big buildings and the big streets match, to a certain degree. The 19th Century Hypertrophic City is, strangely enough, worse when it is only sort-of-Hypertrophic. Remember this picture?
This is the main street in Norwich, New York. It is a small town of about 7,000 people, and never had too much more than that. The town was established in 1793, so the street width we're looking at here comes from the very earliest days of 19th Century Hypertrophism.
As we can see, it is just about the same width as Madison Avenue. However, Madison Avenue is fun because the super-big street also comes with some super-big buildings, and all the excitement and big business implied by that. Here we have the Really Big Street, but some rather modest Traditional City-style buildings. There's absolutely no reason for this at all. No benefit, either. It would be much better to have proper Traditional City-type avenue, like the one in Lisbon.
Unfortunately, there's only one Manhattan. Pretty much all the cities built in the U.S. during the 19th century -- and also most of New York City outside of Midtown -- look much more like Norwich. This includes, for example, Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.
Thus, when I talk about the Traditional City, I absolutely do not mean what is often taken as "traditional" in the United States. It doesn't exist here. It only exists in Europe and Asia.
Actually, the Traditional Cty does exist in the United States, but only in the oldest parts of the oldest cities, which were built in the Colonial period before the advent of Heroic Materialism around 1780. Places like the oldest, Colonial-era bits of Lower Manhattan, Boston, Philadelphia, and Newport, Rhode Island.
Look, it's a Really Narrow Street!
In the United States!
And no cars!
Newport, Rhode Island.
So, we see that there was a change in City Design even in the United States, from the Traditional City to 19th Century Hypertrophism, around 1780.
Other comments in this series:
January 10, 2010: We Could
All Be Wizards
December 27, 2009: What a Real Train System Looks Like
December 13, 2009: Life Without Cars: 2009 Edition
November 22, 2009: What Comes After Heroic Materialism?
November 15, 2009: Let's Kick Around Carfree.com
November 8, 2009: The Future Stinks
October 18, 2009: Let's Take Another Trip to Venice
October 10, 2009: Place and Non-Place
September 28, 2009: Let's Take a Trip to Barcelona
September 20, 2009: The Problem of Scarcity 2: It's All In Your Head
September 13, 2009: The Problem of Scarcity
July 26, 2009: Let's Take a Trip to an American Village 3: How the Suburbs Came to Be
July 19, 2009: Let's Take a Trip to an American Village 2: Downtown
July 12, 2009: Let's Take a Trip to an American Village
May 3, 2009: A Bazillion Windmills
April 19, 2009: Let's Kick Around the "Sustainability" Types
March 3, 2009: Let's Visit Some More Villages
February 15, 2009: Let's Take a Trip to the French Village
February 1, 2009: Let's Take a Trip to the English Village
January 25, 2009: How to Buy Gold on the Comex (scroll down)
January 4, 2009: Currency Management for Little Countries (scroll down)
December 28, 2008: Currencies are Causes, not Effects (scroll down)
December 21, 2008: Life Without Cars
August 10, 2008: Visions of Future Cities
July 20, 2008: The Traditional City vs. the "Radiant City"
December 2, 2007: Let's Take a Trip to Tokyo
October 7, 2007: Let's Take a Trip to Venice
June 17, 2007: Recipe for Florence
July 9, 2007: No Growth Economics
March 26, 2006: The Eco-Metropolis | <urn:uuid:ac775abf-7d8b-4cee-9567-96f9a8428c59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newworldeconomics.com/archives/2010/012410.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958409 | 2,986 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The rich speak up
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that money is speech, it created a self-fulfilling prophecy. The voice of the rich and powerful few was and remains enormously amplified. Although it is said that their demands failed in the White House and Senate, they succeeded down the ballot. We know this very well in North Carolina.
We now have a Republican governor and veto-proof GOP legislature for the first time in many decades, thanks to huge funds from our home-grown Koch-style donor, Art Pope. As part of his reward, he and his priorities now not only will help decide the future of the University of North Carolina, which we prize as the oldest public university in the country, but also help shape the new state administration on the governor’s transition team.
Will the court reconsider its judgment and the Congress take responsibility for mitigating it in light of that decision’s impact on our democracy?
I will be the first person to applaud the new state government if it promotes education and health care for all North Carolinians, safe environments and secure housing, and narrowing the ever-growing gaps in wealth and opportunity. | <urn:uuid:3836b160-27b9-4125-b984-ba17dadec177> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/11/30/2516617/nancy-milio-the-rich-speak-up.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968753 | 238 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Today a tiny miracle is taking place. About 210 new immigrants will depart the United States on El-Al flight 3022 for their new homes in Israel.
Real miracles are mundane. The restoration of the Jews to our homeland is not occurring to the sound of trumpet flourishes and heavenly visions. It is a day to day occurrence, accompanied by bureaucracy, disappointments, the smell of jet fuel, crying babies and frustrations, as well as pleasant surprises and solid achievement. In the past it was accompanied by tent cities and the misery of ma'abarot slums as well. That is generally the stuff of real miracles. Usually it has been a tiny trickle, rather than the dramatic influx envisioned by the prophets and Theodor Herzl. Every immigrant and every wave of immigration has its problems. But together they have all added up to produce the modern State of Israel, a miracle that keeps on happening. There is no Moses and no Ezra
and no Nehemia
to lead this return from exile, or maybe there are many Ezras and Nehemiahs and Zerubavels.
This little group marks the last of several flights organized by Nefesh b'Nefesh
. These flights have brought over 3,000 immigrants to Israel this year from North America. This is what real Zionism is all about after all.
Contrary to anti-Zionist fantasies, the immigrants are not all religious, don't all come from Brooklyn, and aren't all headed for the West Bank. They come from everywhere: USA: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington
Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal. They are going to a large variety of destinations in Israel: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Netanya, Raanana, Petach Tikva, Modiin, Ramat Gan, Zichron Yaakov, Holon, Nof Ayalon, Bet Shemesh, Giv'at Shmuel, Maale Adumim, Kfar Saba, and various Kibbutzim. They are aged 5 weeks to 93 years old, and they include about 50 children in 29 families, 96 single people, and 16 who are destined for service in the IDF.
They bring a variety of skills to Israel: Teachers, paralegals, computer network administrators, optometrists, lawyers, journalists, media/film, sales, engineers, physical therapists, artists, dietitians, graphic designers, physicians, fashion, hair stylists, businessmen, rabbis, hospitality, writers, special education, computer programmers, bankers, researchers, occupational therapists, editors, pharmaceutical industries, consultants.
Aliya - immigration to Israel - is vital both for Israel, and for the American Jewish community. Maintaining strong ties with Israel is probably the best and most realistic way to ensure continuity of Jewish life in the United States.
Every new immigrant is a cause for celebration, and all the people and organizations who made this immigration possible, as well as the immigrants, deserve our praise and encouragement. The work that Nefesh b'nefesh is doing rises above petty quarrels about politics. Everyone who is a Zionist should be supporting Aliya, and there should be a hundred organizations like Nefesh b'nefesh. We need them all.
The truth is, that this effort is only a tiny start. In balance, many more Israelis have gone to live in the United States and Canada, than have come to live in Israel. Among them are our best and brightest. Israel has to do some hard thinking about what made those people leave, and how we can create a strong, secure and vital society that will hold our people here. The 3,000 or so who came to Israel from North America this year, a record number it seems, are less than one tenth of 1 percent of the population of North American Jews. This Aliya will still have to grow in order for it to be more than negligible. But the same could be said of the Aliyot
of a hundred years ago. Like all beginnings, it is a difficult one. Like everything that has been done by the Zionist movement and the state of Israel, it is an "impossible" project. It is impossible, but like most things connected with Israel, it is necessary, so it is happening. If you will, it is no legend.
If the new immigrants have good experiences here, they will write home, and bring others, and the stream of immigrants will grow. If they have problems here, and almost inevitably they will, they will hopefully make it their business to be agents of change in Israeli society, to help make Israel a better place to live, and a better place for immigrants.
As for the Jews of North America, Australia, UK and other Diaspora communities, at least some of whom may be reading this, Israel affords you a unique opportunity. Usually, when Jews got to be part of history, we were part of someone else's history, and it was not pleasant at all. For the first time in two thousand years, Jews have a chance to make their own history. Israel isn't just a nice place to visit. It is, in balance, a pretty good place to live and to raise children. Come and join us! Ami Isseroff
Original content is Copyright by the author 2007. Posted at ZioNation-Zionism and Israel Web Log, http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000412.html where your intelligent and constructive comments are welcome. Disributed by ZNN list. Subscribe by sending a message to [email protected]. Please forward by e-mail with this notice, cite this article and link to it. Other uses by permission only. | <urn:uuid:6ca7b6a0-f021-40ff-a859-9090e359dec6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000412.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945614 | 1,223 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The Salem News
---- — WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, arrived in New Zealand Saturday for a six-day visit marking the Diamond Jubilee of his mother, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.
The couple, who flew from Australia on the last leg of their three-nation Pacific tour, arrived at a New Zealand Air Force base near Auckland to a welcome from a brass band and Prime Minister John Key, accompanied by his wife, Bronagh.
Elizabeth is head of state of the country, a former British colony. Support for the monarchy remains strong in New Zealand, according to a survey of 1,000 people taken by Television New Zealand on the eve of the visit.
It found only 19 percent of those surveyed favored the country ditching the monarchy to become a republic, down from 25 percent in a similar poll four years ago. An overwhelming 74 percent want to retain the queen as head of state. The remaining 7 percent were unsure.
Although Charles has been to New Zealand a number of times — including with his former wife, Princess Diana, and their first-born son, William, when he was a baby — it is Camilla’s first visit.
Their first official engagement was to attend a service commemorating Armistice Day 1918, which ended hostilities in World War I.
More than 100,000 New Zealanders served overseas during World War I, at a time when the population was about 1 million. More than 18,000 died and 41,000 were wounded.
The royal couple laid a wreath on behalf of the queen and then met New Zealand veterans of World War II and later conflicts, including Vietnam, at the museum.
Their tour will also take them to Wellington, the small agricultural town of Feilding and the earthquake-ravaged South Island city, Christchurch. | <urn:uuid:bd69a4ec-8c67-4078-9670-d89407381db6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.salemnews.com/lifestyle/x121544664/Prince-Charles-and-Camilla-arrive-in-New-Zealand-for-six-day-visit/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978858 | 380 | 1.570313 | 2 |
It was the little idea that could: Create a virtual space where Jewish women from across denominational, ideological and generational spectra, women living in the United States, Israel and beyond, could come together to discuss the issues and ideas impacting their lives.
In April 2009, The Sisterhood was born. Debra Nussbaum Cohen was the first contributor, and scores of other writers followed. It is thanks to their thoughtful, provocative, brave and funny posts that The Sisterhood has become an integral part of the Forward’s website, the women’s blogosphere and the “shtetlsphere.”
Our writers have argued passionately for and against traditional hair coverings, for and against gender neutrality in Jewish liturgy, for and against using political pressure to free agunot from unwanted marriages.
The Sisterhood has discussed the implications of being Jewish and childless by choice, the challenges of being a Jew of color and the perils of ethnic fetishism. It has taken to task thought-leading magazines for the lack of female bylines on their pages and charted Jon Stewart’s burgeoning feminism.
It compiled a first-of-its kind list of the nation’s 50 most influential women rabbis and brought you that viral video of Paul Rudd emceeing a 1990s bat mitzvah (mine).
The Sisterhood has been home to an ongoing series exploring Jewish feminism and an original online exhibit, featuring artist Jacqueline Nicholls’ “Kittel Collection.” It has partnered with the Jewish Women’s Archive and podcasted with Lilith.
Why the retrospective?
Well, after more than three years at the helm of The Sisterhood, I have accepted another position and will be leaving the Forward. But rest assured, The Sisterhood isn’t going anywhere. Until the Forward names a permanent replacement, Elissa Strauss, a longtime blog contributor and a tremendous talent, will be overseeing The Sisterhood. She can be reached at [email protected].
I am enormously proud of the role that the Sisterhood has played — and will continue to play — in shaping the communal conversation about Judaism and gender. I will be forever grateful to Forward editor Jane Eisner for her support, and to all of the Sisterhood contributors for their smart and ever-inspiring work. | <urn:uuid:72bcf56d-7360-44e8-8974-5a37836f39d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/156916/goodbye-sisters/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948503 | 484 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Letter to the House of Representatives regarding the impact of immigration raids on children
May 27, 2008
Dear Chairman Miller:
On behalf of the National Education Association's (NEA) 3.2 million members, we would like to submit the following comments for the record in conjunction with the recent Workforce Protections Subcommittee Hearing: "ICE Workplace Raids: Their Impact on U.S. Children, Families, and Communities." We thank the Subcommittee for holding a hearing on this important issue.
NEA members have long been concerned about the impact of immigration raids on children and staff in public schools. We have been working closely with our affiliates and other groups to ensure that states and school districts adopt and vigorously enforce policies that protect the right of undocumented immigrant children and the children of undocumented immigrant parents to obtain a free public education in a safe and supportive environment.
Recent enforcement efforts by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) have resulted in the arrest, confinement, and deportation of many undocumented workers. Unfortunately, these raids have created challenges for the children left behind and the public schools they attend. For example:
The raids have resulted in a significant drop in school attendance. School administrators report that children of parents affected by the raids missed between one-third and one-half of the week following a raid.
Although attendance increases within two or three weeks, the initial absenteeism can have a long-term negative impact. A longitudinal study conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation indicates that school absence in kindergarten is associated with lower academic performance in first grade among all children, and more significantly for English Language Learners and poor children. The longer term relationship to academic performance depends upon income. Research indicates that chronic absence in kindergarten is associated with low fifth grade achievement for poor children but not their better-off peers.
Teachers and school officials report that some of the children displayed emotional trauma signs of distress upon their return to school particularly if their parents, relatives, or acquaintance were directly involved in the raid. In such instances, school personnel are reporting difficulty in maintaining the students' attention on class work.
NEA members are working with parents and school administrators to develop systems to help ensure a safe place for children in the event of a raid. We are also working to identify and provide the additional academic and counseling services necessary to address the disruption the children are likely to experience.
NEA supports the Families First Enforcement Act (H.R. 3980) introduced by Congresswoman Solis (D-CA). This legislation will ensure that ICE raids are humane and include protections for children. Specifically, the bill:
Requires ICE to afford access to state social service agencies to screen and interview detainees;
Ensures that when possible those who have been detained are within the jurisdiction of the local ICE field office; and
Addresses humanitarian needs of pregnant women, nursing mothers, caretakers of special needs children and sole caretakers of minor children.
Companion legislation (S. 2074) has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Kerry (D-MA). Neither the House nor Senate Judiciary Committee has taken any action on these bills.
We thank you again for holding a hearing on these very important issues. We look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure maximum protection for children impacted by ICE raids.
Diane Shust, Director of Government Relations
Randall Moody, Manager of Federal Advocacy | <urn:uuid:285f3b9f-c020-4983-ae30-6a6f6054664c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nea.org/home/Letter-to-the-House-of-Representatives-on-comments-regarding-the-impact-of-immigration-raids-on-chil.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95518 | 690 | 1.710938 | 2 |
During pregnancy, few subjects will become as important as your physical and emotional well-being. Not only will you visit your obstetrician with startling regularity and frequency, but -- perhaps to your surprise -- your growing midsection may also become the topic of polite conversation as those around you become more and more interested in how you're doing.
Along with all the changes you'll experience, your health (and by association, your baby's health) deserves to be protected and nurtured during this unforgettable time. But once you discover that nearly everything you do affects your baby, you'll probably feel a lot of pressure to get it right and ensure you carry a healthy baby to term.
Cautionary tales aside, pregnancy can pack joy, fear and excitement into a nine-month time frame. While you're busy getting prepared, embarking on a renewed exercise routine or kicking your caffeine craving, be sure to carve out some "zen-like" time for you. After all, making time for yourself is all part of preparing for parenthood.
So, as you ponder pregnancy -- or your due date -- here are 10 tips you'll want to peruse. Wondering just how to get prepped for pregnancy? Read on to learn about an action plan. | <urn:uuid:b62ec491-9bd2-441c-a898-8ef46cee26a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://health.howstuffworks.com/pregnancy-and-parenting/pregnancy/issues/10-tips-for-healthy-pregnancy.htm | 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 | 0.967017 | 255 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Happy birthday, Mother Teresa! If you were alive, you would be 100 years old—not that anyone’s counting. In fact, instead of talking about how you spent your life helping people in India, everyone is busy either celebrating you or protesting the fact that you’re not being celebrated. Right now, there’s a rally organized by the Catholic League being held at the base of the Empire State Building to protest building owner Anthony Malkin’s decision to reject the league’s request for blue and white lights in your honor! Instead, tonight Mr. Malkin is illuminating his prime piece of real estate in a red, white and blue lighting scheme to honor Women’s Equality Day. Since the Catholic League’s proposal failed, the group has amassed a petition that is 40,000 signatures strong decrying the lack of your favorite colors on New York’s tallest skyscraper. The League’s birthday bash will feature speakers from within the organization, the State Senate, the City Council, and elsewhere.
You’d love it.
Besides, we have other buildings and stuff. Times Square, the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum and Borough Hall will be draped in blue and white. There was a Mass earlier today for you at St. Patrick’s (you probably know that?). And City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has asked New Yorkers to place battery-operated blue and white candles in their windows. So there’s that, too.
Why exactly did Mr. Malkin refuse to light up his historic skyscraper on your behalf? His response to the debate came in a press release: ”As a privately owned building, ESB has a specific policy against any other lighting for religious figures or requests by religions and religious organizations.” There is no such prohibition involving smokin’ hot pop songstresses, such as Mariah Carey in 2008. Perhaps Mr. Malkin places himself in the same camp as Christopher Hitchens, the guy who in 2003 announced in his typically bombastic style that you were a “fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud.” Zing!
For New Yorkers wanting to celebrate your birthday, there are two major options then: bask in blue and white in Times Square or Borough Hall, or release some anger protesting at the lack of blue and white at the Empire State Building. Choices, choices… | <urn:uuid:81076827-eaff-417c-bf05-24bd321ad6ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://commercialobserver.com/2010/08/parts-of-new-york-not-called-the-empire-state-building-are-celebrating-mother-teresa-right-now/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954401 | 496 | 1.59375 | 2 |
[JURIST] The Detroit Free Press has posted a partial transcript of Tuesday's oral arguments before the US Supreme Court in the Grutter v. Bollinger [UM case materials] University of Michigan law school affirmative action admissions case.
[JURIST] C-SPAN [official website] has just posted recorded audio of oral arguments made Tuesday before the US Supreme Court in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases. The arguments run for slightly more than 2 hours. For purposes of convenience, JURIST has separated the recordings of Grutter v. Bollinger (the law school admissions case) and Gratz v. Bollinger (the undergraduate admissions case).
[JURIST] Tuesday's agency reports on humanitarian conditions in Iraq, generally governed by the terms of the Geneva Conventions and other instruments of international humanitarian law, are now online. The International Committee of the Red Cross [official website] says that its team of 15 delegates is visiting Iraqi prisoners of war held by Coalition forces: "This first visit is continuing and will probably last a number of days. Contacts with the Iraqi authorities on visits to coalition POWs held by them are being actively pursued." Read the full ICRC daily report, and learn more from the Red Cross about prisoners of war and humanitarian law [ICRC backgrounder] and the general practice of Red Cross prisoner visitation [ICRC backgrounder]. Recorded audio of Tuesday's UN humanitarian briefing from its field office in Amman, Jordan is also available.
[JURIST] Several reports out of Iraq since the outbreak of war have claimed that Iraqi forces have used civilians as involuntary "human shields" - see, for instance, this story from the Voice of America. Summing up the relevant law, a February 2003 briefing paper [text] by Human Rights Watch noted:
The use of civilians, including a state's own citizens, as human shields to protect military objectives from attack is a violation of international humanitarian law amounting to a war crime. The forcible use of civilians or other non-combatants as human shields also violates the prohibition on the taking of hostages. Customary humanitarian law and Protocol I [to the Geneva Conventions] prohibit encouraging or making use of volunteers as human shields.
The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations.
Article 58 of the Protocol additionally obliges parties to a conflict to take all necessary precautions to protect civilians under their control against the dangers resulting from military operations, including by removing civilians from the vicinity of military objectives and avoiding locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas.
[JURIST] The New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] says that feigning civilian or noncombatant status to deceive the enemy is a violation of the laws of war. In a statement released Monday following a weekend suicide bombing of American troops and a declaration by Iraq's Vice-President that such attacks would become "routine military policy", HRW noted that they constituted "perfidy" and were illegal under internationally-recognized legal norms:
International law prohibits attacking, killing, injuring, capturing or deceiving the enemy by resorting to what is called perfidy. A perfidious attack is one launched by combatants who have led opposing forces to believe that the attackers are really noncombatants. Acts of perfidy include pretending to be a civilian (who cannot be attacked) or feigning surrender (surrendering soldiers also cannot be attacked) so that opposing forces will let down their guard at the moment of attack. Other examples include feigning protective status by the misuse of emblems of the United Nations or the red cross and red crescent. Perfidy poses particular dangers because it blurs the distinction between enemy soldiers, who are a valid target, and civilians and other noncombatants, who are not. Soldiers fearful of perfidious attacks are more likely to fire upon civilians and surrendering soldiers, however unlawfully.
[JURIST] The Daily Pennsylvanian reports that law students from the University of Pennsylvania Law School [official website] and from other law schools across the country have headed to Washington DC to demonstrate [Daily Pennsylvanian report] - and perhaps get a seat in the courtroom - at today's Supreme Court oral arguments in the University of Michigan affirmative action admissions cases. Meanwhile, the Tallahassee Democrat says that Florida's public law schools are working to stay diverse [Tallahassee Democrat report] in a state legal environment that doesn't permit them to take race into account in admissions.
Feedroll provides free Paper Chase news boxes with headlines or digests precisely tailored to your website's look and feel, with content updated every 15 minutes. Customize and get the code.
Paper Chase is JURIST's real-time legal news service, powered by a team of 30 law student reporters and editors led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. As an educational service, Paper Chase is dedicated to presenting important legal news and materials rapidly, objectively and intelligibly in an accessible, ad-free format. | <urn:uuid:ae575492-a878-4c56-8f2d-625246337a38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jurist.org/paperchase/2003/04/index_2003_04_01.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936378 | 1,065 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Matchmaker, Matchmaker: Teenage Hassidic Vizhnitz Cousins to Wed
Even longtime Hassidim are raising their eyebrows: A 16-year-old young man is engaged to his 15-year-old second cousin, both great grandchildren from ‘Hassidei Vizhnitz.” Thousands of members of the Vizhnitz Hassidic sect, one of the largest and wealthiest in the world, are expected to attend the festive wedding ceremony, which will take place in approximately another year.
The engagement ceremony in Bnei Brak attracted more attention than usual. Both sides are great-grandchildren of the same “Admor,” the title of the leader of a Hassidic group. But their ages also were a center of interest. The groom-to-be is Chaim Meir Hagar, who learns in a Vizhnitz yeshiva, and his future wife is 10th grader Hinda Rosenbaum, who learns in a hareidi-religious school in Rehovot.
Although the young man and woman will be a year older next year, the engagement ceremony was held Wednesday night, an unusually long period before a hareidi religious wedding, due to the importance of the families.
“We have a tradition of marrying at a young age, but we usually mean 19-22, although there have been occasions of marriages before the age of 18," one Vizhnitz member told the Hebrew-language daily Yisrael HaYom. “However, marrying at the age of 15 is definitely exceptional.”
In the “Ethics of the Fathers" (Pirkei Avot), part of the Talmud, the rabbis teach that people should be mature and ready for marriage at the age of 18, but the rabbis also teach that this is a generalization and does not necessarily apply to every individual. | <urn:uuid:31bc0f91-9cfd-4c27-8ab7-531891bcf327> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133130 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968615 | 390 | 1.78125 | 2 |
AKP Reacts to US Criticism of Turkey
By: Tulin Daloglu for Al-Monitor Turkey Pulse Posted on February 8.
The particulars of Turkish democracy sometimes test the relationship between the United States and Turkey. Without a doubt, among government institutions the judiciary has always had the weakest bond with the Turkish people, who question its independence and thus its legitimacy. Many wonder if equal treatment and fair trials are possible in Turkey. Given the track record of the Turkish judiciary, U.S. ambassadors to Ankara have occasionally been moved to comment on issues concerning the machinations of this branch of government. As everything starts with a point of view, their remarks are sometimes welcomed, but as one might expect, are also sometimes slammed. What makes the difference? Whether they side with or against the ruling party.
About This Article
Take for instance the differing experiences of Francis J. Ricciardone Jr. and Ross Wilson, current and former U.S. ambassadors to Ankara, respectively, after they made comments on issues concerning the judiciary. In May 2008, Ambassador Wilson remarked on the Constitutional Court case filed by state prosecutors against the Justice and Development Party (AKP), in which they alleged that the party was fomenting anti-secular activities and asked that it be banned from politics. In Ankara, Wilson had said, “We’re also following the case with great interest and a bit of worry. Turkey has strong democratic institutions and traditions. I hope and expect that this case will be resolved in the context of these strong democratic institutions and traditions.” Wilson’s comments were interpreted by some as concern that the verdict might go against the AKP.
Secretary of the State Condoleezza Rice had not publicly urged the court to reject the prosecution’s argument against the AKP, but her constant praise of the AKP government was, not surprisingly, perceived in Ankara as a clear sign of U.S. support for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At the time, the AKP had been noncommittal about Wilson’s remarks, but the opposition parties criticized the ambassador, accusing him of attempting to influence the court.
At the same time, Rice distanced herself from Turkey’s other notable court case — an (ongoing) effort by state prosecutors to expose the ultra-nationalist, so-called Ergenekon, which they alleged was trying to bring down the government. The state legally designated the group a “terrorist” organization and, to date, has arrested nearly 400 military personnel as well as several high-level civilian government bureaucrats.
Time has moved on. In a speech to Ankara bureau chiefs of the Turkish media on Feb. 5 — four days after the U.S. Embassy had been the target of a suicide bomb attack — Ambassador Ricciardone brought attention to the importance of determining who should be branded a “terrorist” and how the misuse of such labeling can create confusion abroad.
“I do not mean to sound critical, but there is a reality and your leaders have spoken to this reality. The prime minister, the speaker of parliament, the president of Turkey in recent days have spoken to the outcomes from your judicial system that do not seem right to them,” said Ricciardone. In this passage, the ambassador was referring to a Feb. 2 statement by Prime Minister Erdogan, in which he said, “This nation won’t forgive those judges who call [former chief of the general staff Ilker] Basbug a terrorist.” Basbug had been arrested and sent to Silivri prison in January 2012 after being charged with “forming and leading a terrorist organization.” Many in the opposition argue that Erdogan does not believe in what he himself said, but rather, it is what his reading of opinion polls told him he had to say. Had Erdogan been sincere, he would have spoken up immediately in Basbug’s defense.
Ambassador Ricciardone also noted in his speech, “You have members of parliament who have been behind bars for a long time, sometimes on unclear charges. You have your military leaders, who were entrusted with the protection of this country, behind bars as if they were terrorists. You have professors. You have the former head of YOK [High Education Board], who is behind bars on unclear charges evidently relating to him upholding the law when he was a government official 16 years ago. You have non-violent student protestors protesting tuition hikes behind bars. When a legal system produces such results and confuses people like that for terrorists, it makes it hard for American and European courts to match up. We are working to reconcile our legal processes in both countries.”
Turkish government authorities slammed Ricciardone, but steered clear of declaring him a persona non grata. Recalling that Erdogan had called Ricciardone an “amateur diplomat” after similar remarks he made in support of freedom of the press, AKP spokesperson Huseyin Celik asserted on Feb. 6 that the ambassador was attempting to intervene in Turkey’s domestic affairs and that such behavior is neither diplomatic or acceptable. “We are requesting Ricciardone to remain within his boundaries and limits. We’re not pleased with his remarks. We condemn and denounce them,” said Celik. “He should know his place.”
Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag also weighed in with strong criticism of Ricciardone. “These statements are not in accordance with his job description,” he said. Another deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, added his two cents: “There is a problem here related to the ambassador’s personality. ... What’s wrong is this: The ambassador should have known that he is living in Turkey, representing the U.S., and therefore should not have expressed his views on political issues concerning this country. He might have lost the balance in his criticism. In brief, he should not have put himself in a position where we are forced to warn him to know his place.”
Two days after his speech, on Feb. 7, Ricciardone visited the Foreign Ministry and met with Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu. “There is nothing out of the ordinary about this meeting,” T.J. Grubisha, the U.S. Embassy spokesperson in Ankara, told Al-Monitor. “We requested the meeting. They discussed a wide range of issues of interest for both countries. This [situation surrounding his speech] was one of the issues.”
Celik, however, told reporters that Ricciardone had been made aware that his remarks were not well-received and that such an incident should not be repeated. The ambassador sent the AKP spokesman a note along with a copy of the transcript of his speech to the bureau chiefs so his remarks could be read in context.
At the State Department daily briefing on Feb. 7, spokewoman Victoria Nuland did not shy away from the Ricciardone kerfuffle, asserting, “Ambassador Ricciardone was simply repeating what Secretary [Hillary Rodham] Clinton had said, what I’m sure Secretary [John] Kerry will say when he has a chance to speak publicly on these things, that it’s incumbent on Turkey’s friends and allies to continue to respectfully point out the importance of Turkey making steady progress in strengthening the rule of law, strengthening protection of human rights, and of protecting free expression for journalists, for bloggers,” she said. “This is not new from us. We have been quite open, both publicly and privately, in Turkey.”
While a bad taste lingers, the fact is the AKP’s case and the Ergenekon trials are indeed within the realm of Turkish domestic affairs. There should be trust among all Turks that the country’s court system is capable of fairly administering justice, but regardless, the United States should not be attacked for the judiciary’s failures. It would be more meaningful for Turks to debate why Ricciardone and Wilson were met with such different responses over similar court proceedings.
Tulin Daloglu is a columnist for Al-Monitor's Turkey Pulse. She has written extensively for various Turkish and American publications, including The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, The Middle East Times, Foreign Policy, The Daily Star (Lebanon) and the SAIS Turkey Analyst Report. She also had a regular column at The Washington Times for almost four years.
|Back to news list| | <urn:uuid:64e8a668-adbe-4134-b68c-8d13e4486769> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/02/turkish-judiciary-akp-us-relations.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975673 | 1,778 | 1.53125 | 2 |
William Adams, a son of Robert Adams, Sr., and his wife Martha, was born in Londonderry, Ireland, October 17, 1838. He came to America with his parents in 1847, and lived and was educated in Buffalo. He came to New York with his mother and younger brothers in 1859 and soon entered the firm of Beadle and Company, becoming superintendent in 1864. Upon the death of his brother Robert, in 1866, he became one of the partners in the firm, and after the death of his brother David, became its sole owner. His first published article was a short sketch in The Home. Beginning about 1876, he made annual visits to Europe and described his tours in letters to the Brooklyn Eagle and the Banner Weekly. After his death, some of these letters were published in a volume entitled "Across the Ocean Ferry, or, Europe to American Eyes." He died of heart failure, unmarried, in Brooklyn, December 19, 1896. For further details of his life and a portrait,(1) see Part II of this book.
His European letters appeared in The Saturday Journal, with interruptions, from No. 441 to 490, and in the Banner Weekly from No. 262 to 644.
|1||A portrait is given in Part II, Fig. 14.| | <urn:uuid:06eab332-05dc-4ed8-8490-1fa979373895> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ulib.niu.edu/badndp/adams_william_f.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988237 | 272 | 1.734375 | 2 |
What do you think of when you see a sister who isn’t wearing hijab? How about a brother who is laughing with many girls?
Ever look down on them? Think you’re better than them? It’s easy to be self-righteous. It’s even easier to fall prey to this attitude if you sport the ‘righteous’ look.
But let’s ask ourselves this question: has Allah written us amongst His righteous servants? Or is that a title we have only given ourselves?
I was once sitting at the table for my on-campus Muslim Students Association (MSA) and a female student, dressed in typical jeans and a t-shirt approached me. I was decked out in my hijab and jilbab and I really had no idea what she was thinking as she made the move to speak to me. She asked if she could have a Qur’an, and of course, I was happy to give one to her. Then she said, “Can I ask you a question?” “Sure,” I answered. The question sounded kind of deep, so I invited her to sit next to me on the empty chair. She took up the offer.
“Please don’t judge me,” she began. Allah Akbar (God is the greatest)! I had a feeling this was a Muslim sister. SubhanAllah, the courage it must have taken for her to come and speak to me, considering that we were dressed so differently from each other.
After reassuring her, how could I judge her?, she began—
She told me that she became involved in a relationship for the first time in her life with a Muslim guy. Her intention was to eventually get married, but she felt so terrible doing it, even though she was supposed to feel good. She told me that she knew her relationship was a big sin and that she wanted to stop, but she explained that it was just too hard. And she asked me…Can Allah forgive me? Subhan’Allah (glorified is Allah).
While this girl was speaking, I was looking at her thinking: look at the jihad (struggle) she is going through for Allah. She hates what she is doing, she asks Allah to forgive her, but it is so hard for her to leave the sin. Her desire to repent became so intense that she came to a girl she has never met before, who could easily judge her, and poured out her heart. And the most amazing part is that she wanted to know, can Allah forgive her? Could He subhanahu wa ta’ala (glorious and exalted is He) really forgive such a sin?
I told her, Allah is Ghafurun Raheem! Allah is the Most Forgiving and Especially Merciful! He will forgive ANYTHING. Even if a person commits fornication Allah will forgive this person if they repent and leave it. I kept telling her about Allah’s Mercy, about how Allah is so, so happy to turn and accept the repentance of His slaves.
We kept talking about how Allah must be pleased with her struggle – that she was making jihad (inner struggle) everyday. She was like, YEAH! What I loved so much from this conversation is that we looked at Sayyidul Istighfar (the chief du`a’ (supplication) for seeking forgiveness). This is the du`a’ in which the Prophet ﷺ has told us, “If somebody recites it during the day with firm faith in it and dies on the same day before the evening, he will be from the people of Paradise and if somebody recites it at night with firm faith in it and dies before the morning he will be from the people of Paradise.”
Allahumma anta rabbee la ilaha illa ant, khalaqtanee wa-ana `abduk, wa-ana `ala `ahdika wawa`dika mas-tata`t, `Aoothu bika min sharri ma sana`t, aboo-o laka bini`matika `alay, wa-aboo-o bithanbee, faghfir lee fa-innahu la yaghfiruth-thunooba illa ant.
‘O Allah, You are my Lord, none has the right to be worshipped except You, You created me and I am Your servant and I abide to Your covenant and promise as best I can, I take refuge in You from the evil of which I committed. I acknowledge Your favor upon me and I acknowledge my sin, so forgive me, for verily none can forgive sin except You.’
I told her to keep strong with her salah (prayer), because of course, Allah is Forgiving, but He is also strong in punishment, and we have to be careful not to do things that make us eligible to be punished. After some time we departed and I’m still in wonderment. I was not supposed to be at the da`wah table at that time; we were looking for someone to sit there but no one was available, so we pushed back what we had planned to do and Allah destined for me to be there. How Allah knows, while we know not.
While the sister and I were sitting and talking, another female student walked up to the da`wah table. She was considerably unclothed, and she came up and asked for a copy of the Qur’an. “I’m Muslim,” she told me. ALLAHU AKBAR. Look at the good in the Muslims. Look at how intensely the Muslims desire, seek, need and want Allah; the woman who comes to the MSA table could be wearing practically nothing but is still affirming her identity as a Muslim woman, as an individual – albeit struggling, just like all of us—who submits to Allah. Before she left she asked me, “Does Ramadan start on this date?” Look how the people are seeking this Month of Mercy.
Let us go back to the original question. What would you think of a Muslim brother or sister who is wearing basically nothing? What about a brother or sister who is hanging out with a bunch of people from the opposite gender?
Perhaps an individual may be outwardly committing mistakes, but perhaps internally such an individual is struggling and fighting every time he or she makes those errors. Perhaps in some people’s eyes, such individuals are ‘sinners.’ But perhaps in the Sight of Allah, these individuals are more beloved to Allah because of their struggle; more beloved to Him than of us who can easily fall into feeling arrogant about our Islamic activism, our Islamic appearance, or our ‘hard-core’ connection with the Rabb al-`alameen (Lord, Master, Provider and Sustainer of all the worlds). We need to be careful. Are we really connected? Am I really connected?
And do not get me wrong: the struggle of those who are trying to stay straight, to dress properly, to please Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala is a weighty, honorable and noble one. May Allah make us amongst those He uses to spread His deen (way of life), those whom He guides and keeps guided, and those who wear the dress that pleases Him, both externally and internally, ameen.
But for those of us who might have ‘been there’ and left it, and then feel arrogant that we’re no longer involved in the “ways of the sinners,” and perhaps even might feel better than others because we’re so pure and special, then my advice to myself is what Umar ibn al Khattab used to say, “Take account of yourselves before you are audited.”
Put in our language it is what I’ve heard Ustadh Suhaib say numerous times:
“Check yourself before you wreck yourself.”
May Allah help us and guide us to perpetually, continually, sincerely, and endlessly please Him, and may He make it easy for all of us to eagerly and continually turn back to Him, and leave whatever sins we are committing and replace them with good works for His Sake. Ameen.
The author would greatly appreciate if you all would give some advice on how we can humble ourselves [in our hearts] and renew our sincerity for His Sake. | <urn:uuid:35702396-cfcd-4f7c-a93b-11f58488afbe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.suhaibwebb.com/personaldvlpt/check-yourself-before-you-wreck-yourself/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976942 | 1,777 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Are Maple Bats the True Bad Guys ?
This is the 2nd installment of my little blog series on the epidemic of bat breakage in the MLB. If you did not read the first installment, I wrote it on 1/20/2008, and please feel free to check the archive for the blog.
Susan Rhodes is not a usual attendee to a baseball game. But why is it that on May 25, 2008, she was in the wrong place and the wrong time and met the barrel end of a tomahawking bat that shattered more than her jaw that day. She was sitting 4 rows behind the Los Angeles Dodgers dugout, usually a safe place for everything but the occasional foul ball. She ever saw the shard coming towards her, she was instead watching the play develop as the ball headed into the outfield. She suffered a concussion and the force of the bat fractured her jaw in two places.
Broker bats have been commonplace ever since the advent of baseball, but the Rhodes accident along with Rick Hellings impalement and both players and fans injuries have brought a new danger to the game of baseball. Even the men behind the plate, the umpires have not been ruled out as victims in this saga of wood and pressure. So has America;s favorite pastime been invaded by a new dangerous trend, and is the maple bat the sole item responsible for this trend?
Babe Ruth’s hickory bats are long gone and now it seems that the old memory of those heavy and cumbersome pieces of lumber show a simpler time in the era of baseball. It now seems that the obsession with ash bats for the last couple of decades has dwindled and is almost a forgotten bat material to most major leaguers’. Thanks to the popularity of the maple bat during Barry Bond’s run to the home run title more and more players are opting for this potentially lethal bat type. But we are not blaming Bonds for the recent problems, he did not design, test or even manufacture bat for a living, he just used them as a tool for his trade.
Atlanta Braves Manager Bobby Cox got a first hand account of the danger on June 19, 2008. While Cox was sitting in the dugout, like Rhodes, he was watching the ball and did not see second baseman Kelly Johnson’s bat shard coming towards him in the dugout. The bat ended up going above his head, but like Rhodes, he never saw the bat coming his way at any moment before it struck the dugout wall.
On June 24, players like Mariners’ pitcher Aaron Heilman and Royals catcher John Buck were members of a Major League Baseball committee to look into this new danger and try to decide what should be done for the safety of everyone in baseball. Scientists and engineers have also been consulted on the ever growing problem. By using the basics of science, they know the ways that according to MLB standards, a baseball bat should be shaped and hit. And they have studied the way it can react and also break under pressure.
Early in the annuals of baseball, bats also broke, but not at the regularity that they do today. The maple versus ash bat controversy did not exist because neither bat was developed at the time for use by baseball players. As we mentioned before, at the time Babe Ruth was swatting balls into the grandstands, players used hickory bats every time up to the plate. During those days hickory was a common wood and it is still known today as a truly strong wood to use in industry. But though time, batters wanted a lighter, more fluid wood to use for hitting, and the hickory bat became a dinosaur of modern bats.
Even though ash was not as strong as hickory, it did possess that lighter feeling in your hands, and could be sanded down easier to conform the handle to your touch and liking with simple sandpaper. The problem with most wood is that its overall strength can be totally compatible with weight. So if you desire a strong wood to produce your bats, you will get a heavier model because of the weight. And in simple contrast, if you go lighter wood, you get lighter overall weight, but you give up some levels of durability under pressure.
It is said that in the 1990′s, Toronto outfielder Joe Carter might have swung the first maple bat, and his shot to win the World Series for the Blue Jays might have been viewed by opponents as the key to power in that decade. Because he was using a maple bat, players began to look into its cost and usage and began to request them by the dozens. With maple now as an alternative, it was appealing because it showcased more strength without the cumbersome bother of weight . And because of it strength, it quickly got a reputation as the tool that would let you hit farther and longer in games.
Ash had a tendency to produce flakes of ash that came off the bat like snow, but it held together better and did not separate at the barrel end. Because of the flaking, players did not go through bats as often, and that was the main reason they stuck to them for so long. But in 2001, during Bond’s display of power and strength, players became obsessed and craved this new bat type, and quickly put ash bats in the dark recesses of the locker room or garages of the players.
For 50 years, white ash was the preferred wood for baseball bats, but with over 50 percent of all players using maple now, it was a quick and revolutionary change for the game. Maple and ash bats all break a certain way because of their unique characteristics. Ash tends to flake or chip in smaller chunks and do not propel through the air, while maple has a tendency to break into larger jagged shards that are propelled by the stored up energy of the bat. But can the change in breakage patterns be attributed to their cell difference and the size of their pores within the wood.
Scientists agree that the tree pores, which transports moisture inside the trees before they become bats shows that ash has more flexibility to it than maple samples. Ash wood has what is considered a ring porous character. within its grains you will find more avenues and pores that can carry moisture throughout the wood. And of you went into the region of its growth ring, where the grain doesn’t exist, you would see that it is more or less solid fiber.
Because the voids in wood are confined to certain areas, the growth planes are considered a weak area of the wood. When an ash bat hits an object, its cell walls would collapse, and that would produce the chipping and the flaking experienced with ash bats. The barrel would just begin to soften and small flaking pieces would begin to fall off the bat. It makes for a great indicator of the lessen density of the wood and its possibility of breakage and snapping while hitting.
Maple on the other hand is considered ring diffuse, meaning that its pore are more evenly distributed throughout the piece of wood. that makes the bat barrel more durable than any other part of the wood, and you do not get the cautionary flaking or chipping warning that ash bats give you before they break apart while hitting.
Cracks form in both types of wood as a bat is used to hit a ball after ball after ball. But the same pore structure that makes a ash bat flake also produces cracks along the channel of the bat. Meaning that it has a long way to go before a crack can materialize to actually crack a bat in half. And batters can see these cracks beforehand and exchange the bat before the process results in an explosion of the bat upon contact.
I know we have all seen a hitter take the barrel end of the bat and bounce it off the ground or the plate to see if they get vibrations out of the bat that will be a sure sign of it breaking. It was an early warning sign of sorts for the wood to let the batter know it was about to take its last swing, or break apart during the hitting process. That made the ash bat a lot safer and more predictable before danger could happen. But it also could happen multiple times during a game, and the cost of replacing a box of bats might have been the deciding factor in hitters looking for alternatives.
Because of the maple bats diffuse pores, cracks in the wood can grow in any number of directions. This could make them more apt to hide the cracks and breaks as they break out towards the barrel. That is the main reason that maple bats produce such a large chunk or shard when they finally do explode after cracking. And sine they do not flake or ship, they do not ever send a warning sign to the batter that his bat is cracking or might end up in the stands or in the infield barely missing a opposing player.
But a culprit that might go unnoticed even by the hitter is that fact that the wood can take on different characteristics considering how the bat was cut from the wood. A billet of misaligned wood can affect it subjectivity to breakage as well as force upon the wood. A bat is considered stronger when the grain lines up with the length of the bat. Because of its dark nature, this grain is considerably harder to see in maple than in the light tones of the ash bat. Maple also has a tendency to not have as straight a grain as ash, which can be instrumental in fatigue and breakage when used to extremes.
If you do not have a bat that is cut with the grain, you will have a weaker bat. That might not be a scientific phasing for you, but it is a stark reality with baseball bats. But can that be one of the multitude of reasons that a maple bat and explode and send shards throughout the stands or infield. Another factor take take into consideration is the fact that the batter could hit the ball in a bad position and make the bat break upon his swing. Which would have nothing to do with the bats chemistry, or it’s compounds or porous material.
The bat comes into contact with the ball in a small area for only one thousandth of a second in most swings. The short time it takes to make that impact can sends upwards of 5,000 pounds of force through the wood. If you hit the ball badly, or not within the are of the “sweet spot” of the bat, you could get this stinging sensation in your hands. That is a visual sign from the bat that it is bending and vibrating to release the force without breaking in your hands.
If the bending is compacted into enough of an area, it can produce a bat break in any type of bat. The bending of the bat can lead to its breaking usually in ash bats at the point of the least material, which on an ash bat, is its handle. The bat that Todd Helton had in his hand on the day that Susan Rhodes got injured broke at the handle and sent the barrel tomahawking into the stands towards her. This leads to another concern about today’s bats. Could a narrower handle on the bat be a reason for the increase in bats breaking and exploding all over the ballpark.
Over 100 years ago, bat handles were a lot more thicker and more bulky than today’s bats used by every level of baseball. Some say the advent of these small handles is a compliance to metal bats that are used at lower levels before players become professionals. Because the metal bats do not possess a thick, rugged handle players are unaccustomed to hitting with the extra meat on the handle. As time progressed, the handle also went through a series a changes to become more streamlined and comfortable to today’s players.
The narrow handle makes a baseball bat made out of wood more prone to breaking and take away the sturdiness of the bat. To make modern bats more accustom to metal bats, did we make the breakage problem worse, or just provide another avenue for the bats to break upon force. Because of the numerous injuries and episodes during 2008, the issue of the bats has come again into the limelight.
Again, another episode that happened in 2008, was on June 24, in Kansas City, as MLB umpire Brian O’Nora was hit in the head, while wearing his protective gear behind the plate during a game. Think about this for a second. Here is a guy less than 3 feet from the epicenter of the bats explosion who had his protective gear popped off his forehead and sustained a gash upon his forehead.
You do not want to think of the repercussions of him maybe not even having a safety device on and getting clobbered with that bat shard. I would love to have a poll done of MLB catchers to see how many of them have to have trainers or medical personnel during or after the game take out splinters or small sharp wood chips from their equipment or their bodies. I think that kind of poll would not help the bat situation, because most catcher see that as part of the game, like a foul ball getting your fingers or cracking you in the inner thighs.
You have to wonder if engineers and scientists have a good theory on why bats crack and break. I know we see multitudes of bats breaking during games today, but is there any true data outsides of the hands of the MLB that can tell us . We know that the MLB has collected bats from 2008 and have analyzed and categorized their breakage and the bats type of wood. So is there real evidence that we have not seen yet that would show that bats are breaking now at alarming rates compared to the past. And to what extent does the maple bat hold either a advantage or a danger as a bat of choice by the MLB players.
Could there be a variable that since ash bats show their breakage points before breaking fully, that the safety factor of these types of bats provide more protection to hitters and others around the batter’s box. Whereas maple bats only show their weakness when struck and will not give any visual sign of breakage before the audible sign of the crack of the bat during a swing. There are probable a dozen of ways to reduce the number of broken bats that have either been suggested or advised throughout the years.
Maybe the action of thicker handles, and the compliance of players to not shave down handles and make them customized after manufacture could be another solution. Maybe the MLB has to provide a maximum diameter for the handles of bats by the manufacturers. But would a thicker handle minimize the shards flying still throughout the stands and the playing surface. If you thicken the handle you will make it safer. But alone will this help some of the problem.
Or is the fact that wood bats fail, that it is a part of the game to see bats splinter and crack. But some of today’s bats do not make a simple splintering or cracking, but produce a missile that takes on speed as it leaves the batters box. So with that in mind, we have to face the reality that bats fail, and that maple bats will fail far more times than ash bat in the future. MLB could be doing a study right now on wood types and maybe implementing restrictions on certain wood types that display more brittle properties in them. Or maybe even think of implementing a specification on the grain alignment to help them stopping breaking in alarming rates in 2009or beyond.
Individually, the teams could set up more protective netting in front of the lower level infield seats in stadiums with the premise to protect their fans. I know that Detroit Tigers center fielder Curtis Granderson suggested such a measure on his ESPN.com blog. Because players have their attention and eye towards the batter, they have more ample time to dodge and even see the shards coming towards them. While spectators in those front rows have a tendency to look in other directions because of the multiple attention getting sights and sounds of the game.
That might be a way of protecting the fans, but those people pay good money to sit in those sections and most know the dangers firsthand from foul balls and errant throws to first or third base. To suggest that they are the only ones in the ball park to be protected might not be viewed as well by fans above the dugout, or further down the foul lines in stadiums. And anyways, who want to sit there on the front row and have to look through a net the entire game. If I wanted to look through glass or netting, I would go to an NHL game, not want to watch the greatest game on dirt. | <urn:uuid:e279c513-ceda-4bee-bab3-6976c03ed393> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://raysrenegade.mlblogs.com/2009/01/21/are-maple-bats-the-true-bad-guys/?like=1&_wpnonce=d4bcd79e45 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973592 | 3,379 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Carolyn Smallbone, Karen Staniland
British Journal of Community Nursing, Vol. 16, Iss. 7, 01 Jul 2011, pp 342 - 346
This article reports on a student nurse project carried out on a community placement in respect to patients dependent on medical devices in the event of power cuts. The project was designed to identify relevant literature to establish what emergency and preparatory procedures and protocols are in place in a primary care trust for this type of emergency and to identify what action a nurse in the community should take to ensure the safety and welfare of their patients if a there was a prolonged power failure.
The literature and knowledge of community staff for the correct procedures to follow in the event of a power cut in the community established that there was some cause for concern, and identified that a loss of power to a patient with a medical device poses a serious risk. Recommendations are that an initial risk assessment of power failure needs to be undertaken and included in the appropriate documentation and guidance plans prepared for community staff and should include the listing of the patient as vulnerable. The limited research identified within this project also indicates that contingency plans to ensure the safety and well-being of patients in the community clearly need to be included in disaster and emergency planning. | <urn:uuid:01259eb3-0f08-47b7-83f3-3f5d9016774d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.internurse.com/cgi-bin/go.pl/library/abstract.html?uid=84932 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9565 | 249 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Another Banned Books Week is coming to a close, and once again, my RSS feed has been filled with arguments for and against this most well-known library tradition. I’ve always been a supporter of Banned Books Week, even organizing events around it for the Simmons College community when I was chair of the Simmons Progressive Librarians Guild chapter. But I’ve never heard a better articulation for why it’s still important than the one Andy Woodworth at Agnostic, Maybe gives in his recent post.
The ALA estimates that one in four book challenges in libraries goes unreported, and in these cases, the librarians dealing with these challenges are also unsupported. There are many reasons a librarian might choose not to report a book challenge, and some of them might be perfectly reasonable. But the worst of these reasons is fear: Fear of losing a job, fear of bad publicity, fear of loss of funding. In these cases, a librarian might choose to simply remove the item in question, without consideration for what the loss of that material might mean for the community. It doesn’t mean that’s a bad librarian, it means that’s a fearful librarian.
Banned Books Week exists so that we can bring attention to the reasons to stand up for your community, and your library’s collection. It exists so that, in the future, those librarians might be able to find more support than they thought they could expect. I think that’s as good a reason as any to continue holding Banned Book Week events every year.
Andy articulates this much more clearly than I, so please, go read his excellent editorial on Banned Books Week. | <urn:uuid:f9041e0f-823a-44d5-91d0-04d891af49ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lauraek.net/2011/09/30/banned-books-week-a-defense/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960333 | 356 | 1.789063 | 2 |
My monthly trip to the jazz section in one of the better-known bookstores was quite productive last week. Fascinated with jazz trivia, I came across "Jazz Anecdotes" by bassist and writer, Bill Crow, 1990 Oxford University Press.
Not many jazz enthusiasts would be disappointed with the delightful vignettes Crow has gathered from various interviews, biographies, autobiographies and the collection of oral histories compiled by the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers. More than an insightful look into the personalities and humor of the giants of jazz, Crow delights the reader with a verbal photograph of their humorous camaraderie. As Crow states, "most jazz musicians are good laughers. If you want to play jazz for a living you either learn to laugh or you cry a lot." As a bass player, Crow knows what it's like, and the tales jazz players pass on to one another are the stuff legends are made of.
The banter is laughable throughout the entire 350 pages with cutting contests, goofs, pranks and put-ons. From King Oliver to Miles Davis, from sideman to leader, Jazz Anecdotes
spans 70 years of outrageous little tales about jazz musicians, their agents, club owners, hiring, firing, inventions, radio gigs and long forgotten jazz clubsùa perfect, entertaining little book to brighten the day of any jazz fan or musician.
The author, Bill Crow, is a free-lance musician and writer. He is the author of From Birdland to Broadway
and his articles and reviews have appeared in Downbeat
, The Jazz Review
and Gene Lee's Jazzletter
.More than an insightful look into the personalities and humor of the giants of jazz, author Bill Crow delights the reader with a verbal photograph of their humorous camaraderie. | <urn:uuid:99aaba18-f43c-48fa-943c-fa8d05e5e48d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jazzreview.com/index.php/reviews/book-reviews/item/27258- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940485 | 372 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Or safety - check your smoke detector.
Some promote social well-being and engagement - encourage a woman you know to get a checkup; give high-fives to three coworkers; visit a website to learn more about volunteering.
Accompanying the challenge is an explanation of how and why to do it as well as a "fun fact."
"It's a mix of everything, and that's what makes it interesting," says Perseghin (pronounced PURSE-agin), 27, who recently began working as the social media coordinator in the admissions department at the University of the Arts.
"It's today, just this once, do this. You don't have to commit to it for a week. And it usually takes less than five to 10 minutes. So if you don't do it, it's because you've chosen not to."
The challenges are provided free by a Boston-based company called MeYou Health, which calls itself "the social well-being company."
The Daily Challenge (www.dailychallenge.com) includes elements of gaming and a reward system. By accomplishing challenges, you earn points and online stamps and keys that unlock more than 30 different premium tracks, such as Stress Relief, Fit at Work, Money Matters, and Rich Relationships. (The company makes money by offering these premium tracks to employers and health plans for a fee and then monitoring the ensuing well-being of participants.)
Like others who sign up, Perseghin has a personal profile that charts his progress, displays his stamps and shows how many points he's accumulated (91,132!).
He can describe how he tackled that day's challenge and share his achievement with family, friends and, if he chooses, the entire online community. That, in turn, may prompt comments, suggestions, tips, virtual smiles, and pats on the back.
"We're leveraging social connection theory," says Christine Fiske, head of marketing for MeYou Health, which is a subsidiary of Healthways, a disease-management company based in Nashville. "Essentially, we're all connected, and your habits affect my habits."
If you're trying to lose weight, for example, or you're about to make a significant change, "there's a whole community you can rely on for help," Perseghin says.
By enlisting in a community, you're enlisting the encouragement of others as well as the motivation that derives from virtual peer pressure. Perseghin, for one, appreciates the friendly, gentle, nonjudgmental tone of the challenges.
"They're not necessarily asking you to change what you're doing, but to augment what you're doing," he says. "They're getting you to think about things you can do to make your life better without chastising you about it or being overbearing."
The social aspect of the Daily Challenge "creates a rich discussion" about methods and benefits, Fiske says. No one checks, of course, whether you've really completed the challenge. It's all based on self-reporting, a sort of honor system.
"Even if you don't do it, we're still creating a moment of mindfulness," Fiske says, "and that's almost as important as doing the act itself. In the behavior-change process, that is a very meaningful act, just begin mindful."
A pillar of the company's philosophy is that small actions are more effective in fostering long-term behavior change than big goals, a notion rooted in the research of social scientists such as B.J. Fogg at Stanford.
It's a stance that's particularly timely because MeYou Health is resolutely opposed to New Year's resolutions. In fact, it has created a website (www.antiresolution.com) that encourages folks to pledge not to make resolutions.
"Stop the cycle of shame," the website declares. "Eighty-eight percent of resolutions fail."
Most resolutions are too ambitious and unrealistic, the website continues. "Instead of making a huge year-long goal, we believe in the power of small daily actions."
Hence, the Daily Challenge.
Nearly 200,000 people around the world are participating in the Daily Challenge, mostly in the United States, Fiske reports, and Perseghin is among only a handful who have completed the daily tasks every day for more than a year.
"It's become an automatic part of my life," he says.
Perseghin calls the challenges "little pieces of wisdom that will help me not only today but in the future."
"It's just made me more aware of how small things can really add up, so that I focus on them instead of the big picture," he says. "I haven't used it to lose weight or anything like that. It's more of a changing mindset that little stuff can come together to make a big difference."
Plus, he says, "they're fun."
"Well Being" appears every other week, alternating with Sandy Bauers' "GreenSpace" column. Contact Art Carey at [email protected]. Read his recent columns at www.philly.com/wellbeing. | <urn:uuid:b8a65033-0464-4c72-820b-ae5cb49b3015> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.philly.com/2012-01-02/news/30581445_1_challenges-money-matters-stamps | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966781 | 1,073 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Essential Elements of a Successful Trader
All the foreign exchange trading knowledge in the world is not going to help, unless you have the nerve to buy and sell currencies and put your money at risk. As with the lottery “You gotta be in it to win it”. Trust me when I say that the simple task of hitting the buy or sell key is extremely difficult to do when your own real money is put at risk.
You will feel anxiety, even fear. Here lies the moment of truth. Do you have the courage to be afraid and act anyway? When a fireman runs into a burning building I assume he is afraid but he does it anyway and achieves the desired result. Unless you can overcome or accept your fear and do it anyway, you will not be a successful trader.
However, once you learn to control your fear, it gets easier and easier and in time there is no fear. The opposite reaction can become an issue – you’re overconfident and not focused enough on the risk you're taking.
Both the inability to initiate a trade, or close a losing trade can create serious psychological issues for a trader going forward. By calling attention to these potential stumbling blocks beforehand, you can properly prepare prior to your first real trade and develop good trading habits from day one.
Start by analyzing yourself. Are you the type of person that can control their emotions and flawlessly execute trades, oftentimes under extremely stressful conditions? Are you the type of person who’s overconfident and prone to take more risk than they should? Before your first real trade you need to look inside yourself and get the answers. We can correct any deficiencies before they result in paralysis (not pulling the trigger) or a huge loss (overconfidence). A huge loss can prematurely end your trading career, or prolong your success until you can raise additional capital.
The difficulty doesn’t end with “pulling the trigger”. In fact what comes next is equally or perhaps more difficult. Once you are in the trade the next hurdle is staying in the trade. When trading foreign exchange you exit the trade as soon as possible after entry when it is not working. Most people who have been successful in non-trading ventures find this concept difficult to implement.
For example, real estate tycoons make their fortune riding out the bad times and selling during the boom periods. The problem with trying to adapt a 'hold on until it comes back' strategy in foreign exchange is that most of the time the currencies are in long-term persistent, directional trends and your equity will be wiped out before the currency comes back.
The other side of the coin is staying in a trade that is working. The most common pitfall is closing out a winning position without a valid reason. Once again, fear is the culprit. Your subconscious demons will be scaring you non-stop with questions like “what if news comes out and you wind up with a loss”. The reality is if news comes out in a currency that is going up, the news has a higher probability of being positive than negative (more on why that is so in a later article).
So your fear is just a baseless annoyance. Don’t try and fight the fear. Accept it. Have a laugh about it and then move on to the task at hand, which is determining an exit strategy based on actual price movement. As Garth says in Waynesworld “Live in the now man”. Worrying about what could be is irrational. Studying your chart and determining an objective exit point is reality based and rational.
Another common pitfall is closing a winning position because you are bored with it; its not moving. In Football, after a star running back breaks free for a 50-yard gain, he comes out of the game temporarily for a breather. When he reenters the game he is a serious threat to gain more yards – this is indisputable. So when your position takes a breather after a winning move, the next likely event is further gains – so why close it?
If you can be courageous under fire and strategically patient, foreign exchange trading may be for you. If you’re a natural gunslinger and reckless you will need to tone your act down a notch or two and we can help you make the necessary adjustments. If putting your money at risk makes you a nervous wreck its because you lack the knowledge base to be confident in your decision making.
Patience to Gain Knowledge through Study and Focus
Many new traders believe all you need to profitably trade foreign currencies are charts, technical indicators and a small bankroll. Most of them blow up (lose all their money) within a few weeks or months; some are initially successful and it takes as long as a year before they blow up. A tiny minority with good money management skills, patience, and a market niche go on to be successful traders. Armed with charts, technical indicators, and a small bankroll, the chance of succeeding is probably 500 to 1.
To increase your chances of success to near certainty requires knowledge; acquiring knowledge takes hard work, study, dedication and focus. Compile your knowledge base without taking any shortcuts, thereby assuring a solid foundation to build upon. | <urn:uuid:302f67bc-574b-40ec-8e84-88fad2aa564e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tli.tl/article/576 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948782 | 1,079 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Australian Bureau of Statistics
8412.0 - Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Australia, Mar 2004
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 16/06/2004
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CHANGES TO THIS ISSUE
All states recorded slight increases this quarter except for NSW which had a small decrease. Western Australia had the largest increase of $2.7m (2.4%).
Mineral Exploration Expenditure, Original series
MINERAL EXPLORATION (OTHER THAN FOR PETROLEUM)
In original terms, total metres drilled decreased by 16.7% in the March quarter 2004 (down 0.6% in seasonally adjusted terms).
METRES DRILLED, Original series
PETROLEUM EXPLORATION EXPENDITURE
A number of petroleum exploration licences came to a close in 2003, resulting in a lower than usual March quarter. Expectations for the six months to June 2004 (as recorded in the December 2003 survey) were relatively high, suggesting the March quarter downturn may only be temporary. Expenditure on petroleum exploration for the March quarter 2004 fell by $119.3m (41.4%) to $168.8m, the lowest level since the June quarter 2000. Petroleum expenditure is now $97.7m (36.7%) lower than in the March quarter 2003. Expenditure on exploration on both production leases and all other areas fell this quarter, with production leases falling by $14.4m (40.2%), and all other areas falling by $104.9m (41.6%).
In the March quarter 2004 all states recorded decreases or had little change. Western Australia had the largest decrease, down $81.3m (43.2%), whilst Victoria and Queensland decreased by $14.5m(48.2%) and $16.8m (46.0%), respectively.
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This page last updated 20 June 2006 | <urn:uuid:9d60afac-0a9f-4be6-9e5e-8c958b0f0c59> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/allprimarymainfeatures/6D6F4D81C85DED10CA256F0F007B0FDA?opendocument | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936952 | 419 | 1.59375 | 2 |
I am trying to figure out how to open the solenoid valve properly. I switched my lab's power supply to 12V and hooked up the solenoid valve with a 12 fl oz bottle 3/4's full of water to create enough pressure, but the valve still doesn't open. Only a few drips of water come out and the power supply drops to about 7V. What is it that I am doing incorrectly? Is this amount of fluid enough pressure to open the valve? | <urn:uuid:514cb037-bba2-4625-98eb-829af976ffb0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://adafruit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=34429&p=170366 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965178 | 100 | 1.757813 | 2 |
I'm getting a classic example of printing out a linked list but all nodes contain the value of the last inserted node. I've seen some information about this , but I still cannot figure out how to apply it to my situation. I've attached my code and the test file I've been using. The output I've been getting when I print the linked list is something along the line of:
markets -> markets -> markets -> markets -> (ad nauseum)
It would be greatly appreciated if someone could take a look. I've been stuck on this issue for hours. | <urn:uuid:356badc7-4af7-41f0-92d2-710b0289ff8a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cboard.cprogramming.com/c-programming/95071-memory-allocation-linked-lists.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967035 | 116 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Sometimes I think life would be a lot easier if people in my family knew how to apologize. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of good times together and are there for each other, but it seems like whenever we run up against any little conflicts, we crumble immediately. I don't understand it.
The problem is something I observe more easily in others than in myself -- it seems to happen with my 14-year-old daughter and her dad. I know they love each other, but it seems as if they have no ability to address any conflict between them -- most irritations go unspoken and are smoothed over by time and life's inevitable distraction. Pushing things under the rug would be fine if it worked ... but the other day after one of their spats, my daughter was so upset. She probably had the right to be upset, because her dad was belittling her, (he honestly doesn't know that calling someone "the peanut gallery" is belittling).
She had tried in a nice way to ask him not to put her in a box like that, but he couldn't hear her and gave her a huffy "I'm sorry" and then left the room. She was seething and I tried to explain to her that dad is a good dad, he really is, he'll do anything for her, but for whatever reason he's just not that great at saying he's sorry. Then she said, "well, that's too bad, because it's probably the most important thing to be good at, Mom, it's like the glue that holds everything together." I need help here.
If there is some art or science to saying I'm sorry I need to know it.
-- Sincerely Sorry Mom
Dear Sincerely Sorry Mom:
You are so right on. Life is easier when people know how to apologize. Not knowing how to repair the damage we do in relationships puts us at risk of not having relationships at all. And the truth is, we all do hurt each other, not because we are bad people, but because we can never truly know the heart of another.
Many avoid apologizing because they mistakenly believe that hurting others means they are bad in some way. But it is a given we will sooner or later wound those we love the most. Because of this eventuality, it is critical we all learn the art of patching things up.
The good news is, the better we become at saying we're sorry, the stronger our relationships become. There is strength in flexibility, in knowing we can bend without breaking.
A good apology requires a number of things, but these are the most important: A detailed account of the situation, acknowledgement of the offense and taking responsibility for it. Next comes recognition of your role in the event and a statement of regret, such as "I'm sorry I made you feel small." In the end we ask for forgiveness and promise to try not to repeat the offense. Then we top off the apology by offering some sort of amends to show we mean business.
Ask Mom is a weekly feature in the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. If you have a question you would like to submit to the Ask Mom panel, send it to [email protected]. This week's column was written by Patrice Janda, MSW therapist with Cocoon Project SAFE. Cocoon Project SAFE serves Walla Walla parents of teens. For free consultation and support, call 1-877-339-4179. | <urn:uuid:c3894bba-edbb-438b-96d0-d0ce3bd7d2db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://union-bulletin.com/news/2010/may/10/real-love-means-learning-how-to-say-im-sorry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979071 | 726 | 1.578125 | 2 |
LARGE HOLES, LARGER SAVINGS
Big holes don’t mean big bottlenecks anymore, even though some shops still don’t believe a hole can be milled right through solid steel. But this small fabricator of large parts proves it by producing big holes faster than twist drilling and with much better tolerances than flame or plasma cutting – and making sure there is an independent way to expel the chips.
R&R Machine (Talladega, AL) is a six-man job shop that doesn’t take retooling casually and can’t afford to be wrong. Most of their jobs are in the 150-piece range with some, but not necessarily all, expected to repeat. “We have to get it right – and make our margins – on the job at hand,” notes Chris Barnes, the lead machinist in the shop. “We can’t necessarily ‘invest’ in tooling based on a return with the third reorder. We need versatility as well as productivity. For a tool to get in here, we have to believe it will pay off both immediately and in the long run.”
They typically handle a variety of machining work where large-scale holemaking is a big part of the diet on hefty parts that go into chemical processing and off-road equipment. This work taught Barnes something about better ways to open big holes with a light-duty CNC machine. “We are talking about corkscrew milling two-inch holes in thick steel plate on a Fadal 40 taper vertical machining center,” he says. “Twist drilling holes like these could easily stall the spindle or warp the frame.”
By using this vertical corkscrew milling technique, R&R has cut its cycle times on some holes from days to hours and dramatically reduced its tooling costs when compared with either twist drilling or orbital milling of pre-opened holes with a solid carbide endmill.
Before this, the standard shop practice had been to corkscrew mill with a three-flute indexable cutter from Ingersoll Cutting Tools (Rockford, IL). “It was working fine as far as I was concerned,” recalls Barnes. Then, thanks to a drop-in retooling, holemaking that once took ten minutes apiece are now done in just one minute.
Triggering this change was Ingersoll field engineer James Wilson who, during a plant walk-through, believed the shop could do better with a later-generation High Feed Mini Mill. Barnes was already sold on corkscrew milling, but the question was how to do it better.
Side-by-side trials on mild steel proved to him how a High Feed Mini Mill could reduce the cycle time to open a 2 in x 2 in hole from nearly 6 minutes down to 90 seconds. Wilson and Jimmy Roszell of local distributor Industrial Tooling & Supply (Anniston, AL) ran the trials and optimized the settings. Feed rates increased to 220 ipm from 50 ipm and feed per revolution rose to 0.072 in from 0.019 in.
In another trial the tool reduced the cycle time for large holes by ten to one – and did it with the same absolutely reliable chip clearance and insert life that R&R had gotten with the previous cutter. When Wilson and Roszell were done, the operation proved totally stable at 800 sfm with a 0.025 in depth of cut. The shop quickly adopted the new cutter with these parameters for all holes 1½ in diameter and larger.
From that point forward cycle time savings have averaged 10 to 1 on a wide mix of work and insert edge life has averaged 50 holes, with predictable edge wear the only failure mode, never anything like catastrophic chipping or rupture.
What physical differences between the two indexable mills accounted for R&R’s big gain? “The main difference is insert geometry,” explains Wilson. The new inserts are curved with a large radius, are seated with a backtaper, and have a helical cutting edge. This combination enables higher feed rates, creates a gentler entry and adds more axial cutting forces. The tool can plow ahead with virtually no risk of lateral deflection.” He adds that the insert’s fourth flute (vs. the previous three-flute design on the other insert) spreads the cutting forces more widely, permitting higher material removal rates without raising chip loads.
“One caution, especially in a vertical setup, is to be certain of a very high flow of coolant or compressed air,” advises Wilson. “The cutter geometry itself may cut fast and reduce cutting forces, but it does nothing about chip clearance.”
Unlike orbital milling, corkscrew milling involves simultaneously feeding on all three axes: advance on the Z-axis while simultaneously interpolating on the X- and Y-axes to enlarge the hole. This requires a machine with interpolating capability. By contrast, orbital milling uses a step-and-orbit cycle.
Since there is only a small contact area between the tool and the workpiece at any instant, cutting forces with corkscrew milling are much lower than in twist drilling. Completely absent is the friction between drill flutes, chips and sidewall of the hole.
R&R estimates that retooling the corkscrew milling operation will save approximately $49,000 a year. Not a week goes by that this process isn’t running on some job. Accordingly, the High Feed Mini has a permanent place in the Fadal tool magazine on the shop floor. “We’ve stayed pretty close to Ingersoll’s recommended machine settings,” adds Barnes. “We practice continuous improvement, but as a small shop we have to rely on the experience of trusted vendors. We’re just too small and too busy to experiment a lot on our own.”
R&R Machine, 1221 Cochran Avenue, Talladega, AL 35160-3650, 256-375-9845.
Deering Machine, 194 Asa Cash Road, Bremen, GA 30110, 770-574-9950. | <urn:uuid:2453e1e8-b60b-4acf-b5de-48a151620495> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fabricatingandmetalworking.com/2013/03/large-holes-larger-savings/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944753 | 1,303 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Home team(s) Scarlets
Time 06:59, Sat May 25, 2013 (UTC +0100)
Stradey Park was opened in 1879 as the home of Llanelli, hosting its first international eight years later when Wales played England. It was an inauspicious debut. The England side refused to play on a frozen pitch, so the game was moved to an adjacent cricket field and thousands of spectators in temporary stands were left disappointed. In 1891 the second international, against Ireland, went off without a hitch. The venue hosted many memorable matches, including defeats for Australia (1967) and the All Blacks (1972). It staged one match in the 1999 World Cup. The professionalisation of rugby caused Llanelli financial problems, and in 1997 the ground was sold to the Welsh RFU. In 2008, Stradey Park was sold to developers, ending 129 years of rugby on the site. Llanelli moved to a new purpose-built $45 million venue on the outskirts of town. | <urn:uuid:3954e937-6c8c-458b-ac7f-d13951aab397> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.espnscrum.com/scrum/rugby/ground/16114.html | 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 | 0.967637 | 207 | 1.828125 | 2 |
If you’re going to be the best, you have to be mentally tougher than your opponent.
“Elite athletes do mental training, overcome obstacles, learn lessons and align themselves with resources that are beneficial to their long-term goals and their emotional well-being,” says Dr. Dan Vitchoff, a mental training and performance coach and president of the Pennsylvania Hypnosis Center. “If you’re not doing mental training and not doing it deliberately and properly, then you’re being mentally trained and programmed by whatever is going on around you."
Vitchoff recommends getting a jumpstart on mental training prior to a competition so that you’re prepared.
“You don’t go into an event expecting to get second, or third or fourth,” says Vincent Hancock, a 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist for the U.S. Shooting Team. “If you’re confident and you’re thinking positive, then you can expect to win every time. You can’t expect anything less.”
Vitchoff worked with Hancock and fellow Olympian Glenn Eller in preparation for the 2008 Games. He also served as the team’s mental training coach in Beijing. Both U.S. Army Marksmen used Vitchoff’s 33 Method—a complex form of mental training designed to help athletes prepare for competition.
Hancock won the Gold Medal in the Men’s Skeet event in a sudden-death shootout, while Eller fired his way to gold in the Men’s Double Trap event.
“I know when I’m shooting, everything that I need is already perfect,” Hancock says. “There’s no need to think about anything else other than the task at hand.”
Another tool, according to Vitchoff, is to emulate successful people.
“When you watch athletes over and over and emulate them, you’re unconsciously learning what their habits and mannerisms are,” Vitchoff says. “That’s a great way to learn, by watching people that have great technique and are consistent, because you automatically will pick up on their style.”
That’s how Hancock approached his shot at gold.
“I try to go to every event with the mental being of ‘I’m going to win.’ I expect to win every time,” Hancock says. “I got that saying from Tiger Woods. Every time he sets foot on the golf course, he expects to win. And he’s done a pretty good job of it. If he’s the best in his sport and has that mentality, then I can try to be the best in my sport and have that same mentality.” | <urn:uuid:7dea0dbe-4a78-491c-bb46-88c29e64de7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stack.com/2009/02/01/great-expectations/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962903 | 588 | 1.65625 | 2 |
NASCAR helps an NMSU student rev up for life after school
Writer: Justin Bannister, 575-646-5981, [email protected]
Driving nearly 200 miles an hour on a racetrack takes a lot of guts, but so does getting your degree at the age of 48. That is what New Mexico State University student Stella Lucero is doing. She is a student in NMSU’s School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management and is confident the experience she gained during a recent internship with NASCAR will help her land a job once she is through with school.
“I was thrilled. I’ve been a race fan for four years now,” said Lucero, one of 14 people chosen from 340 applicants across the country to intern for the NASCAR Diversity Internship Program. She was assigned to the NASCAR SpeedPark, in St. Louis. Lucero said she is proud to be the oldest ever picked for the internship, and the first picked from NMSU.
Lucero is a retired middle school office manager who said she always wanted to get her degree.
“I was always too busy being a mom to go to college,” she said. “Now, I’ll be the first in my family to have a degree. My mother, who passed away last year, was my biggest fan and inspiration, always supporting my efforts at school.”
At the NASCAR SpeedPark Lucero worked to write proposals for businesses looking to use the park for corporate outings. She also assisted with several marketing and sales strategies for the SpeedPark. Lucero said her work resulted in increased revenue for the park.
“We put together proposals for companies like Boeing, Xerox and Blue Cross and Blue Shield,” she said. “Our biggest accomplishment was writing the proposal for SBS. During their 2008 conference, 500 of their employees will visit the park.”
One of Lucero’s favorite projects was to help coordinate an appearance to the park for Elliot Sadler, a popular NASCAR driver.
“We did all the footwork for the visit,” she said. “Later I got to ride in the limo to meet him and bring him to the park.”
During the internship, Lucero also participated in a three-day NASCAR orientation in Charlotte, N.C. While there she and other interns toured Hendrick Motor Sports and Lowe’s Motor Speedway, attended a truck race and learned about the Car of Tomorrow Research and Development Center. Later in the program, NASCAR flew her and other interns to Daytona, Fla., for the Pepsi 400 race. They each received “pit passes” to go into the garages and watch crews work on the cars.
“I feel very lucky to have been picked for this internship. Meeting new people and learning how to network are so important in this business,” she said.
Lucero will graduate in May 2008. She would like to continue in the sports marketing industry or something involving ecotourism. | <urn:uuid:78af92d3-c1b2-4d46-891f-fdab809ce8f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newscenter.nmsu.edu/news/article/7700/about.php/?page=article&action=show&id=3481 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973914 | 641 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Teach Yourself Foursquare in 10 Minutes came out January 17 of this year, and at the time Betabeat thought the tome was a milestone in the life of the startup. The 224-page book, written by the creator of Using WordPress, Create Your Own Blog and Daddy Wears Slippers To Work, offered instructions on how to create an account, how to earn badges and “how to have fun with Foursquare.” But it wasn’t the first book to do so.
Author and CBS12 tech correspondent Craig Agranoff co-authored a book with Herbert Tabin five months earlier, Mr. Agranoff wrote in to correct us. The paperback Checked-In: How To Use Gowalla, Foursquare and Other Geo-Location Applications For Fun and Profit came out August 2, 2010, and clocked in at 174 pages.
From the book’s description:
Geo-location services–mobile applications that allow users to share their physical whereabouts with their networks–are quickly gaining momentum. Checked-In gives you what you need to know to both have fun with geo-location and profit with front-runners in this race Foursquare and Gowalla. Jammed with useful and easy to follow information, Checked-In covers how other new players in the game (as well as some old hats) will likely change the landscape and what you can do to stay ahead of that curve. We take you from start-to-finish, showing how to begin with these applications and how to make them work for your bottom line. See how these new social media powerhouses can propel your local and national marketing forward and keep you ahead of the pack.
Mr. Agranoff is also the author of Do It Yourself: Online Reputation Management and the founder of WorstPizza.com.
Anyone else write a Foursquare book we don’t know about? | <urn:uuid:dae623c3-a774-453d-83d0-b0bfb3b96f22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://betabeat.com/2011/10/remember-when-we-said-january-was-when-the-first-book-about-foursquare-was-published-oops-we-were-wrong/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936773 | 402 | 1.53125 | 2 |
In a speech to the House of Lords, Baroness Andrews, Chair of English Heritage, spoke about the devastating impact heritage crime has on communities, and made an impassioned plea for the newly elected Police and Crime Commissioners to take these crimes seriously and ensure activities to tackle them are embedded within existing practices at a local level.
Speaking in support of the second reading of the Scrap Metal Dealer's Bill on 30 November, Baroness Andrews said: "Heritage crime is not just a financial crime where profits and insurance companies suffer the only loss, although there is often a very significant financial cost as well. This is crime that erases history, threatens the viability of churches, defiles the memory of our war heroes and melts away our great art and artefacts.
"The bill is therefore a public service and we welcome it. It will provide a proper regulatory framework which will identify the decent traders and protect them - and will make it much more difficult for the rogue thief to function."
Baroness Andrews went on to say; "Legitimising and regulating lawful scrap metal dealing will certainly help reduce the temptation to steal, but to make much needed further inroads into the problem, we need to increase general vigilance, use the best preventative measures…and execute law enforcement in a way that properly reflects the value to society of the sites that have been damaged.
"The Bill is a significant step forward and I am cheering it on heartily. But I would also ask the Government, local authorities and Police and Crime Commissioners in particular to complete the task and ensure heritage crime prevention is embedded in all their relevant law enforcement activities.
"We are very pleased that Chief Constable Andrew Bliss of Hertfordshire Police has agreed to be the Association of Chief Police Officers' national lead for heritage crime. I know it is his view that this is a matter of real importance and one that can be tackled very well within existing resources and patterns of working at a local level. I will shortly be writing to all Police and Crime Commissioners to bring these issues to their attention."
English Heritage's own research shows that around 6% of all listed buildings were harmed by metal theft last year. That is around 22,000 of our nationally important historic buildings suffering damage every year from metal theft alone.
Churches and war memorials are the worst hit. According to the research 14% of churches suffered metal theft in 2011. Ecclesiastical Insurance says it has received some 9,000 claims from churches for metal theft in the last four years alone, at a cost of over £25m. Claims on their policies reached a new high of 2,500 in 2011.
English Heritage has received a very positive response from the police, local authorities, the Church of England and other partners that it has engaged in its heritage crime programme. Representatives from more than 150 organisations are now members of the Alliance to Reduce Crime against Heritage (ARCH), a voluntary national network that is being used to take forward the initiatives and galvanise local action.
Mike Harlow, Governance and Legal Director of English Heritage, said: "Combating heritage crime will be a perennial task, but it is already bearing fruit. We have worked with Lincolnshire police, for example, in bringing to justice a gang who have admitted stealing lead from 22 churches across the county - a case which shows the industrial and organised scale of the threat, as well as the benefits of conservation and law enforcement professionals working together."
New Set of Guidance
English Heritage has just published a new set of guidance documents to help the public and police prevent and tackle heritage crime more effectively:
- Heritage Crime Prevention: A Guide for Owners, Tenants and Managers of Heritage Assets
- Preventative Measures: Quick Assessment Tools
- Heritage Crime Impact Statements
- Interventions: Prosecutions and alternative disposals
Find out more about the heritage crime prevention programme and download these guidance documents at www.english-heritage.org.uk/heritagecrime. | <urn:uuid:a9ca0a8c-705a-4e7f-9a56-1baecb13a845> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/eh-supports-scrap-metal-dealers-bill/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952919 | 806 | 1.664063 | 2 |
When HMOs deny life-saving care to their patients, members of Congress fulminate. Recently, 275 of them, including 29 Republicans, voted for a patients' bill of rights. "Deny American citizens effective, life-saving treatments or palliatives for pain?" I imagine them saying indignantly to the HMOs. "That's our job."
In the past few months, Congress and the Justice Department have been busy malpracticing medicine, callously violating patients' rights. The House passed a bill effectively criminalizing physician-assisted suicide in Oregon, despite its endorsement in two statewide referenda. The Senate passed an anti-abortion law that prohibits doctors from employing particular surgical techniques, even if they're necessary to preserve the woman's health. The Justice Department proceeded with the prosecution of two men, one stricken with cancer and the other with AIDS, who used marijuana to alleviate nausea and pain. The department relied on congressional declarations of the medical uselessness of marijuana.
Playing doctor (without regard for the Hippocratic oath), Congress makes it easy for even liberal social engineers to hate the government. Sometimes it seems dedicated to increasing human suffering. Imagine yourself terminally ill and in unrelenting pain, desirous of ending your now unwanted life. Then imagine Congress threatening your doctor with imprisonment if he or she prescribes a lethal dose of drugs at your request. All you can say is "How dare they," especially if you're a citizen in a state that has twice passed a death-with-dignity referendum. Shouldn't your wish to end your life prevail over Henry Hyde's compulsion to prolong it?
There is, after all, no evidence that Oregon's law has been abused by unscrupulous doctors, murderous families, or deranged patients. The Death with Dignity Act has safeguards aimed at ensuring that patients who choose death do so knowingly and willingly, and it applies only to terminally ill patients facing death within six months. In 1998 only 15 people took advantage of the law.
Still, Henry Hyde, who sponsored the congressional override of Oregon's right-to-die law, charged that it was turning doctors into "executioners." Not exactly a nuanced thinker, Hyde apparently doesn't understand the difference between murdering people who wish to remain alive and facilitating the suicides of terminally ill people seeking more merciful deaths than their diseases will allow.
This heartless bill could also deter doctors from administering effective doses of pain medication, although it is deceptively entitled the Pain Relief Promotion Act. On its face, the bill prohibits the use of federally controlled substances intended to hasten death and includes exceptions for drugs intended only to alleviate pain. (Doctors would face up to 20 years in prison for assisting suicides.) But who determines the intent of a doctor in prescribing pain medication that facilitates the death of a terminally ill patient? As the bill's opponents pointed out, we may not want federal drug agents and prosecutors hovering over our death beds, monitoring our doctors.
People who seek physician and patient autonomy from HMO bureaucrats may not welcome the medical interventions of Congressunless they believe that Congress is acting at the behest of God, seeking a higher good. Opposition to right-to-die laws is fueled partly by the religious fervor of anti-abortion activists. In their view, laws prohibiting assisted suicides or abortions aren't violations of individual liberty; they're restrictions on sinful individual license. Laws restricting or prohibiting abortions may even be framed by their supporters as patients' rights bills: To abortion opponents, the fetus is the primary patient; the pregnant woman deserves medical care only when it enhances fetal development or, at least, poses the fetus no harm.
During the recent Senate debate on a bill purporting to limit late-term abortions, the bill's supporters cast themselves as patient-advocates intent on protecting the most vulnerable patients from unscrupulous doctors. Doctors who perform abortions are "executioners," Pennsylvania Republican Rick Santorum charged, echoing Henry Hyde. The apparently demented New Hampshire Senator Bob Smith claimed that abortion clinics house "harvesters" in their back rooms who "take [the] baby, cut it into pieces and sell it."
Is this the man you want making medical decisions for you or your family? Late-term abortion laws, which have been adopted in some 30 states, tend to be drafted vaguely so as to prohibit common procedures that may be used any time during a pregnancy. Because of their breadth and their interference with doctor-patient relationships, late-term abortion prohibitions have been enjoined or limited judicially in a majority of states where they've been enacted. There are conflicting federal court opinions on the constitutionality of these laws, which are likely to be reviewed eventually by the Supreme Court.
Whether you view abortion prohibitions like this as malicious or benevolent government acts usually depends on whether or not you consider the fetus an equal to a human being who's actually been born. But even some who consider abortion sinful are bound to be troubled when women are killed or maimed by illegal abortions during periods of prohibition. People ambivalent about abortion may worry when women are deprived by legislative fiat of the safest, most appropriate abortion techniques. Whether or not abortions are cruel, congressional controls on abortion procedures, in their disdain for women's health, are hardly kind.
Cruelty doesn't always come naturally to people. Federal prosecutors must be selected for their callousness, or perhaps they enter training programs designed to purge them of compassion. How else can we explain the prosecution of Peter McWilliams and Todd McCormick?
Both men were among a group of nine defendants charged with growing and distributing marijuana, after a federal raid uncovered more than 4,000 marijuana plants. McCormick explains that he has smoked marijuana to alleviate pain from cancer treatments that fused several of his vertebrae. McWilliams says he has used marijuana to treat nausea caused by the AIDS drugs that have kept him alive. It is not hyperbole to suggest that the federal prosecution is killing him. Prohibited from using marijuana while awaiting trial for the past year, McWilliams has been vomiting frequently and not absorbing his AIDS medication; as a result, The Los Angeles Times has reported, his virus is no longer under control.
This is one case in which the defendants' side of the story is compelling, so the prosecutors didn't want jurors to hear it. The government successfully moved to prohibit McCormick and McWilliams from raising a medical-necessity defense and thus from telling their stories. The defendants were also prohibited from citing the federal government's own research into the medical uses of marijuana or explaining that their actions were permitted by state law: In 1996 California passed a referendum, Proposition 215, allowing for medical use of marijuana. Prosecutors were so anxious to exclude testimony explaining the medical reasons for using marijuana that they agreed to limit the case against McWilliams and McCormick to a charge of growing marijuana. (Charging them with distribution would have made their intent, or state of mind, an element of the case.) Deprived of their ability to defend themselves in court, both McWilliams and McCormick pled guilty to conspriracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana and face prison terms of up to five years.
According to prosecutors, medical-necessity defenses were simply irrelevant. "It doesn't matter if they say, 'I'm doing this to save my life,'" a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney explained. "It's illegal to manufacture or cultivate marijuana under federal law." In fact, it matters a great deal if a defendant engages in otherwise criminal behavior in order to save his life or the life of another. Haven't federal prosecutors heard of self-defense? The law allows you to kill someone who is poised to kill you. Surely, in defense of your life, it should allow you to grow marijuana plants.
But Washington's drug warriors seem to think Americans are better off dead than smoking dope. Federal law classifies marijuana as a class A substance, along with heroin and LSD, and prosecutors argued that Congress has decided it has no acceptable medical uses. District Court Judge George King agreed that Congress knows best: The medical-necessity defense proposed by defendants would "explicitly contradict a Congressional determination," Judge King ruled. He prohibited McCormick and McWilliams from telling their stories by invoking a doctrine of congressional infallibility.
Sometimes it's hard to know if the government is playing doctor or God. Armed with faith in its own omniscience and absolute rectitude, and assisted by federal prosecutors, a majority in Congress has assumed the power to deprive people of essential medical care, in order to enforce a particular moral code. In the majority's view, marijuana use, abortion, and suicide are so evil that they must be prohibited at any cost to individuals. Americans, it seems, must be prepared to sacrifice themselves to this congressional vision of the good.
That is the logic of terrorists, demagogues, and other absolutists who perceive no moral dilemmas. For them, the right path is always clear. Fearful of falling into the pit of moral relativism, many members of Congress and the Justice Department have cultivated a dangerous sense of self-righteousness, unleavened by self-doubt. They need lessons in moral modesty. It is a great civilizer. People not troubled by uncertainty are not hampered by compassion.
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(If there's one thing we know about comment trolls, it's that they're lazy) | <urn:uuid:91447197-7505-4ba6-837e-89264aa8c79c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://prospect.org/article/when-congress-plays-doctor | 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 | 0.958645 | 1,920 | 1.601563 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — President Bush, in a sharp confrontation with Congress, on Wednesday vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children's health insurance.
It was only the fourth veto of Bush's presidency, and one that some Republicans feared could carry steep risks for their party in next year's elections. The Senate approved the bill with enough votes to override the veto, but the margin in the House fell short of the required number.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., decried Bush's action as a "heartless veto."
"Never has it been clearer how detached President Bush is from the priorities of the American people," Reid said in a statement. "By vetoing a bipartisan bill to renew the successful Children's Health Insurance Program, President Bush is denying health care to millions of low-income kids in America. "
The White House sought little attention, with Bush casting his veto behind closed doors without any fanfare or news coverage. He was discussing it later Wednesday during a budget speech in Lancaster, Pa.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program is a joint state-federal effort that subsidizes health coverage for 6.6 million people, mostly children, from families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford their own private coverage.
The Democrats who control Congress, with significant support from Republicans, passed the legislation to add $35 billion over five years to allow an additional 4 million children into the program. It would be funded by raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 per pack.
The president had promised to veto it, saying the Democratic bill was too costly, took the program too far from its original intent of helping the poor, and would entice people now covered in the private sector to switch to government coverage. He wants only a $5 billion increase in funding.
Bush argued that the congressional plan would be a move toward socialized medicine by expanding the program to higher-income families.
Democrats deny that, saying their goal is to cover more of the millions of uninsured children and noting that the bill provides financial incentives for states to cover their lowest-income children first. Of the over 43 million people nationwide who lack health insurance, over 6 million are under 18 years old. That's over 9 percent of all children.
Veto override considerations
Eighteen Republicans joined Democrats in the Senate, enough to override Bush's veto. But this was not the case in the House, where despite sizable Republican support, supporters of the bill are about two dozen votes short of a successful override.
Other political news of note
White House defends IRS handling, McConnell asserts 'culture of intimidation'
President Barack Obama's team emerged on Sunday to defend his handling of revelations that the IRS had targeted conservative groups for scrutiny, as senior Republicans conceded they lacked evidence — so far — that the president directed the abuses.
- Ax hovers over food stamp program as costs grow
- Capping week of scandal management, Obama says focus remains on jobs
- 2016 notebook: Republicans try to dent Clinton's armor?
- Issa issues subpoena to Benghazi review board leader
- White House defends IRS handling, McConnell asserts 'culture of intimidation'
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Democrats were imploring 15 House Republicans to switch positions but had received no agreements so far.
House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said he was "absolutely confident" that the House would be able to sustain Bush's expected veto.
Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Congress should be able to reach a compromise with Bush once he vetoes the bill. "We should not allow it to be expanded to higher and higher income levels, and to adults. This is about poor children," he said. "But we can work it out."
It took Bush six years to veto his first bill, when he blocked expanded federal research using embryonic stem cells last summer. In May, he vetoed a spending bill that would have required troop withdrawals from Iraq. In June, he vetoed another bill to ease restraints on federally funded stem cell research.
In the case of the health insurance program, the veto is a bit of a high-stakes gambit for Bush, pitting him against both the Democrats who have controlled both houses of Congress since January, but also many members of his own party and the public.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched radio ads Monday attacking eight GOP House members who voted against the bill and face potentially tough re-election campaigns next year.
And Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, said a coalition of liberal groups planned more than 200 events throughout the nation to highlight the issue.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:4c15be8e-b40d-4b33-acc5-cdc060d1ac7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21111931/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965952 | 984 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Morning North | Feb 8, 2013 | 6:29
Cheese curd shortage serious business
Poutine lovers are worried. Cheese curds used to make poutine could be in short supply. The factory that is the main supplier of cheese curds to the area has been hit by fire. The CBC's Hilary Duff tells us more about the impact of a possible cheese curd shortage. | <urn:uuid:9009821d-7f79-48e0-9082-f78951e7b209> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Local+Shows/Ontario/ID/2333253475/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943602 | 80 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Prefab Place Houses
This beautiful prefab home was built just up the road from the CabinZoom corporate compound in Kirkland, Washington, and was built out of prefabricated SIP panels. (SIP panels are computer designed, pre-made structural insulated panels that are shipped to the building site and then built together like jigsaw puzzle to form the skeleton of the house.)
This house was designed by architect Heather Johnston as part of her PLACE Houses collection, and has a laundry-list of green amenities, including rainwater collection, solar heating, low-VOC paints and cabinetry, and even passive solar design. And they look great! | <urn:uuid:7ece5eb5-4a86-4e9a-82a4-9aed2c54d446> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cabinzoom.com/2010/05/prefab-place-houses/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978139 | 135 | 1.546875 | 2 |
|Posted by Curt on September 01, 19100 at 12:27:32:|
|In response to Re: My Husband, The Toilet and Food...Please Advise|
The toilet and the septic system are designed to handle food that has been preprocessed by the human body. Uses outside of this are a bad idea.
People do allow garbage to go to a septic system *after* it has been through a garbage disposal, though some feel even this is not good for residential septic systems.
|Replies to this post|
|There are none.| | <urn:uuid:ce1961ba-0c3b-47b5-9c2d-8f76352f6f51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://terrylove.com/wwwboard/messages/12259.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95672 | 124 | 1.664063 | 2 |
University of Oklahoma Libraries Western History Collections
GENERAL NATIVE AMERICAN MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS
Stith, Ruth Brewer Papers 1863-1931 .10 foot
Collector. Correspondence (1911, 1931) relating to the works of Theodore F. Brewer, and short manuscripts by Brewer concerning Methodism in Indian Territory, entitled "The Indians of Oklahoma," "Muskogee Ministerial Association," "Work Among the Indians," "A Historical Sketch of our Work in Oklahoma," "Meeting of the General Board of Education," and "Spaulding Female College." Also included is a manuscript poem (1863) entitled "Red Shiloh," attributed to Brewer, and purportedly written after his participation in the Battle of Shiloh. | <urn:uuid:6c1fae39-671a-4407-839c-d73a7e8ac9d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://digital.libraries.ou.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/NAMfinding/id/1894/rec/3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935499 | 153 | 1.765625 | 2 |
by John Moe // Posted: 06/30/10 08:07 AM
Dell used to be one of the best selling PCs on the market. Their computers were thought to be well made, affordable, and backed by outstanding customer service. But that was several years ago and Dell has fallen from grace quite a bit since then, amid charges of irregular accounting practices, terrible customer service, and computers that break. New York Times reporter Ashlee Vance wrote about documents that were recently made public as part of a lawsuit against Dell. The documents indicate that Dell employees knowingly shipped out millions of computers from 2003 to 2005 that were likely to break, spill chemicals, and even cause small fires.
When the computers were returned for repair or replacement, they were given new faulty equipment and shipped right back out again to customers like Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, and the Mayo Clinic. We speak with Vance about the story. We also check in with Matt Wold of Geek Squad about the specific problems at issue, how you can see if your own computer is affected, and what you can do about it.
By Larissa Anderson // Posted: 05/31/10 09:28 AM
We’ve been following the story of the Foxconn suicides closely. Someone passed along this link to us about how the media is misrepresenting the figures. The story mentions the suicide rate in China, and suggests that the Foxconn suicides are not out of proportion.
In our report over a week ago, Alexandra Harney said that while the working conditions are very difficult, people line up every morning at dawn to get a job there.
There are a lot of numbers that are hard to get nailed down - the number of employees at Foxconn in addition to the number of suicides, the number of suicide attempts. It’s important to keep these suicides in perspective. One of the guests on our show helps do that. Dr. Eric Caine worked on suicide prevention in China. He China is the only country in the world in which women commit more suicide than men. He also says that suicides happen more often in rural areas, as opposed to urban areas. They also often are the result of women consuming agricultural pesticide.
From all the people we talked with, it’s clear that having a number of suicides in a row, this close in proximity, this close in time, with such similarity (jumping off their dormitory roofs, is worth examining. Dr. Caine said the Foxconn suicides have all the earmarks of cluster suicide, in which case the way to stem the rash of suicides is to confront the issue head on.
Posted: 05/28/10 08:31 AM
We last talked about the suicides at the Foxconn facilities in China only a week ago. But since that time the death toll has risen and Foxconn has been scrambling to respond and prevent future fatalities. Foxconn is the company that assembles many of the consumer electronics you may own, like smart phones, tablets, video game consoles. We follow up with Endgadget’s Laura June about reports of workers being asked to sign a pledge not to commit suicide (a pledge the company later retracted and apologized for). Laura also tells us of the increased number of counselors on site and the reported installation of nets being placed beneath the tall dormitories from which many workers have been jumping.
For understanding of how the phenomenon of suicide is different in China than in the United States, we speak to Dr. Eric Caine. chair of Department of Psychiatry at University of Rochester Medical Center and co-director of Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide.
Apple, HP, and Dell are all major partners with Foxconn and have all recently said that they would be investigating conditions there. We asked each company what specifically they planned to do. Here are their responses:
09/26/10 11:15 AM
There’s a vote coming up this week in Washington that will have a big impact on how you use the internet, what’s available to you, how much faster you’ll be able to get things online. On Thursday, the FCC is expected to open up unused parts of the broadcast spectrum, a lot of people call it “white space”. This is space that was positioned to be something of a buffer between television stations but such padding is proving less essential since the conversion to digital TV.
On today’s show, we talk to Glenn Fleishman from Wi-Fi Networking News and The Economist about how the spectrum works and what kind of new space we’re talking about. We also check in with Tim Wu from Columbia Law School about the companies that will look to use the space and what it all might mean for you and me as internet consumers.
- Can social networks help prevent the flu?
09/20/10 02:43 AM
- The Wikipedia entry on the Iraq War in 12 handy bound volumes
09/17/10 01:02 AM
- Free public domain classical music on the way
09/16/10 06:00 AM
- Microsoft and political repression in Russia
09/15/10 06:00 AM | <urn:uuid:ad759d08-d4ef-4560-a422-40d7152d9be7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://futuretense.publicradio.org/tags/?tag=dell | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965316 | 1,058 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs are payment models that reward workers for meeting certain performance measures for quality and efficiency. In the healthcare setting, P4P programs use a variety of methods to reward physicians financially for achieving targets, including fee differentials and bonuses.
A new study in the Journal for Healthcare Quality reveals that P4P programs appear to be effective in incentivizing low performing physicians. The article is part of the January/February 2010 special issue on pay-for-performance in the health care system.
Judy Ying Chen, Ning Kang, Deborah Taira Juraez, Krista A. Hodges, and Richard S. Chung investigated the impact of P4P in a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) on low performing physicians over a four year period.
Results found that a P4P program in a PPO setting can improve quality of care. This was true especially for selected quality measures, such as mammography, cervical cancer screening, and childhood immunization measures. The low performing physicians using P4Pimproved significantly more than the comparison group (which did not implement a P4P program) for many measures. In addition, the study found that the positive benefit of the P4P program may not be realized until the 3rd or 4th year, highlighting the importance of sustaining P4P over longer periods of time..
"Our findings reveal that a P4P program appears to be effective in incentivizing low performing physicians to sustain improvement," the authors note.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system. | <urn:uuid:dd667774-2525-445a-a2de-1471cfe8e56f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/w-pfp021910.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939363 | 352 | 1.804688 | 2 |
What is GraphicsNet? GraphicsNet is the electronic communications backbone of SIGGRAPH Asia 2009. Its high-bandwidth infrastructure serves as the link among the many conference programs and events, and as the gateway to the global graphics community.
GraphicsNet is constantly evolving to adapt to emerging networking technologies, and the SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 conference programs take advantage of some of these newest technologies, from wireless infrastructure to multimedia streams and gigabit transfers of graphics and visualization data.Who is GraphicsNet?
The GraphicsNet team engineers, creates, and maintains a reliable, efficient, and fast network infrastructure that meets the needs of SIGGRAPH Asia 2009's many and diverse technical programs and exhibits. This team of volunteers is vital to the actual operation of the network.
There is no individual who is capable of effectively performing every task necessary to build such a large network in such a short period of time. The GraphicsNet committee will include people with diverse technical skills. Members may have technical specialties that benefit the committee, but they must also have adequate knowledge of computer networking in general so that each member can act as "a jack of all trades". Members of the GraphicsNet committee must be hard workers who perform well under stress, both alone and with others. They must also be trustworthy, knowledgeable, dependable, and most importantly technically astute and aware.
Key roles and skills of the committee:
- Router and VLAN expertise (especially CISCO)
- Wireless network design
- Visio expertise
- Server setup and administration (especially Linux)
- Workstation (Win2k, XP, NT, Mac, Linux) networking expertise
- Network security expertise
- Services expertise (DHCP, DNS, Sendmail, WINS, MRTG)
- Logistics skills
The GraphicsNet team has openings for a few dedicated, experienced, congenial systems experts. If you would like to become part of the team, please contact: | <urn:uuid:3fb58cde-884d-43e6-9932-539b8b8f896c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.siggraph.org/asia2009/for_volunteers/graphicsnet/index.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93835 | 394 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The group at the Institute of Clinical physiology of the National Research Council in Pisa, Italy, has been working with Blender for 1.5 years now, working primarily on two aspects of cellular visualization:
the elaboration of protein motion using the Game engine and
the use of special effects for the representation of chemical and physical properties of biological molecules.
We have been able to make a 3 minutes movie, and have presented both the movie and some details of its making during the Blender Conference 2009 and 2008.
Most of our work is presently carried out through scripting, however on the top of the todo list is the preparation of an interface that will enable both Blender users and biologists to make your own molecular movie.
On our website it is possible to see the movies, to read and download the papers (readable formats of the Blender presentation and published papers, when they will be accepted in scientific journals) and to download scenes containing molecules and scripts .
Comments and suggestions are welcome
I am glad to see that other programs are making their way in the biological and medical field. I am a biology major and it is nice to see a way to further thinking and creativity through Blender's service. I like to see advancement. Finally | <urn:uuid:251fc172-2a8a-45e0-83cb-64d7db8174c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blender.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17222&view=previous | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9387 | 252 | 1.625 | 2 |
(Source image: "Forbidden Embrace" by Igor Vasiliadis)
"It's hopeless, then?"
"Oh, I wouldn't say that. The Chancellor may have forbidden it, but as long as we're careful to not reveal anything in public, we should be all right."
"I don't know. I love you, but I don't want to get popped into one of Creedy's black bags, either."
Valerie smiled. "Then we'll just have to be sure we do all of our loving here at home, where we're safe from prying eyes."
They sank down on the bed, clothes already falling free, and met in a tender, bruising embrace. Superheated skin met silken skin; fingers explored, caressed; tongues twined and danced. They molded together, melting and merging, casting caution and fear to the wind.
Forbidden or not, there was just no way they could deny this intensity, this connection.
Your challenge for today was to use the picture above and write a flash fiction of not more than 160 words. Additionally, I provided a key word I wanted to see used somewhere in the submission:
Nobody's checking word counts, or for the key phrase, but you're only cheating yourself if you break the rules. Unless you're doing it to earn a spanking (in which case, see me after class).
Special Bonus Director's Commentary Track:
The title of the picture determined where I went with this one. "Forbidden Embrace" gave me an idea, and then I took inspiration from elsewhere. Readers of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's seminal graphic novel "V for Vendetta", or for that matter viewers of the Wachowski Brothers' excellent film adaptation, will no doubt recognize where I got Valerie and her lover. If you haven't read the graphic novel or seen the movie, do so. Both are well worth taking in; although the story's crackdown on lesbians and gays is only a small part of the greater picture, I think it says a lot that when we start taking away rights from gays and lesbians and telling them they aren't free to love who they choose, it's only a short couple of steps from there to a totalitarian regime where no one is safe and nothing is allowed without the consent of the government. Fuck that.
If you are playing along this week, please leave your link below using the widget. It will appear in the text of the post itself, not in the comments, so everyone that's playing will be listed here. This frees me from having to chase people down to find out if they're playing or update the Friday post several times for late entries. Your cooperation is appreciated.
In any case, the participants list is below. Go check them out, and thanks to all who played along.
Please note: This will be the last FFF challenge (and probably the last post) from me for some time until probably mid- or possibly late April. I have some personal issues to deal with as well as severe crunch time at my workplace and can't devote any spare time to larking about as I might wish. Thanks for your understanding. | <urn:uuid:8eabc663-e6c4-4b66-a3c5-6e7402241ead> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://insatiabear.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967273 | 653 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Winning Wordsmiths: Our Favorite Uncommon Haiku
When we announced our haiku contest, we knew our clever readers would present some great poetry, but we were blown away by the number (more than 250!) of uncommonly creative submissions we received!
The winners earned spots in our most recent email and took home the products they praised in their 17-syllable poems. Only one poet could win in each category, but we’re pleased to share some amusing honorable mentions.
We’re glad MaryAnne Kate took a moment to show off her haiku skills, even though she wasn’t interested in any of the prizes!
We also received this haiku by Carol Thurman after the contest.
Love Uncommon Goods
Always worth a second look
I missed the contest?!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We’re sorry to hear that Carol didn’t know about the contest. As you can see, she definitely has haiku skills! But, you never know, she may get another chance. We had so much fun reading everyone’s haiku, we might just have to hold another contest in the future.
As bloggers for The Goods, we also got a chuckle out of Nate Biddick’s clever name drop in his poem about the Tipping Teacups.
Uncommon tea cup
swings and steeps and swings and steeps
and you sip the goods.
And Diana McCartney’s haiku made us thirsty.
One cup black or white.
Hot, green, black or chamomile.
I like mine at night.
But Reanna Reiner took the prize by making us long for tea time.
While Reanna will have a new cup at her table the next time she sits down for tea, the winner of a new set of building blocks, Amanda Francis, is enjoying another table. She submitted this very uncommon entry:
Flourine Uranium Nitrogen – Carbon Uranium Boron Einsteinium – Sulfur Helium – Tungsten Hydrogen Iodine Sulfure Phospherous Erbium Sulfur
Yitrium Oxygen Uranium Thorium – Phosphorous Lanthanum Yitrium – Tungsten Iodine Thorium – Boron Arsenic Iodine Carbon Sulfur – Oxygen Flourine – Lithium Irone
Carbon Rhenium Astatine Electron – Germanium Nickel Uranium Sulfur Einsteinium
“Yes! That’s a haiku!” She explained. “Here it is translated into the elemental symbols:”
The last line of Amanda’s haiku is quite encouraging, but some folks chose to end their poems with punchlines. Kelly Brooks’ Owl Nightlight haiku started deep, but made us laugh in the end.
Oh, wise one who hoots
Light the pathway to the truth.
Or to the bathroom.
And Eve Schuyler’s winning words made us thankful for safe, well-lit walkways.
We also received some humorous entries for the coveted Stump Ring, but many poets took the sentimental route.
Farida Doblado’s rhyming haiku might also work as pop love song.
This stump may not grow
But my love for you does so
This I always know…
And Darla DeNyse’s haiku captures why the ring makes a great gift for a loved one.
Tree mighty and tall
Deep grows the roots in the earth
What a stable life
But Kat McNally’s winning haiku really captures what this beautiful design is all about.
Kat’s salute to the Stump Ring and the other winning haiku are just a few of the clever poems featured in our latest email. You can click here to read a variety of verses, or sign-up to have our uncommon emails sent right to your inbox. | <urn:uuid:deb18d11-415e-437f-a08a-2201a486f08d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.uncommongoods.com/2012/winning-wordsmiths-favorite-uncommon-haiku/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930995 | 821 | 1.625 | 2 |
Super Bowl celebrations don’t have to mean an evening of gluttony resulting in a “food hangover” the next day, the result of consuming too much fat, sugar or salt.
Rose Reisman, a registered nutritional consultant based in Toronto, has some ideas on which foods to minimize during your football-watching soiree.
If you’re planning to dine out or order in, she has plenty of tips for helping make smarter choices in her book “Rose Reisman’s Choose It and Lose It” (Whitecap Books, 2012).
The main reason she wrote the book — her 17th — “is because I watch the obesity epidemic.” She was part of a panel convened by Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews that just handed in a proposal on how to reduce obesity in kids. Reisman is also an adjunct professor at York University’s department of health.
“I realized this is a real problem. And the problem is that you can’t tell people not to eat out because our lifestyle is such that people don’t have the time to be preparing food at home, so I stopped barking up that tree and I said, ’You know what? It’s like the old line — if you can’t beat them join them.”’
Reisman says fast food is a reality of our busy lives. But in her book she explains how to make informed decisions about “better-for-you” options at more than 60 fast-food restaurants, coffee shops and restaurant chains. She lays out which menu items to avoid, which to indulge in and explains why one choice may be better than another.
“You can still have everything you want — just the better choice, is all,” Reisman explained in a telephone interview.
If you’re hosting a gathering to watch this Sunday’s big game in New Orleans, you can control the calories, fat, sugar and sodium in homemade food and offer healthy choices in takeout or prepared items.
“People feel obligated at Super Bowl or big parties to bring the most fattening, disgusting foods ever and you can really try to make up some fabulous foods,” said Reisman. “You can take a flank steak and drizzle on a teriyaki sauce and serve it as a main course and it’s way better for you than the deep-fried wings.”
Many football fans think the day wouldn’t be complete without wings. Opt for a barbecued version rather than breaded and deep-fried, which adds more calories and fat.
Reisman suggests a sandwich buffet with a variety of rolls, roasted turkey, meatballs and lots of veggies. “Let people make their own rolls up. That’s always fun for people to do.”
Most guests will enjoy a bowl of hearty chili. Make it with lean turkey or chicken or extra-lean beef.
“It’s really shocking the difference when you have a medium-ground beef versus lean or extra lean,” said Reisman. “You can jazz it up by adding a little extra cheese at the end, a little low-fat sour cream, some avocado. You won’t notice the missing fat in the beef if you choose a leaner cut. Also you’ll see when you’re serving your chili an inch of oil on the top if you’re serving a fatty meat.”
A lot of people can’t tell the difference between ground beef and ground soy, which doesn’t contain saturated fat, an unhealthy fat that’s naturally found in foods from animals such as fatty cuts of meat, poultry with the skin on and higher-fat milk, cheese and yogurt, according to the EatRight Ontario website.
“The foods you want to minimize are piggies in a blanket, anything that’s made with puff pastry — that’s usually a form of lard. Little hotdogs — it’s really not even made of real meat,” Reisman noted.
Salami is not only high in fat but contains nitrates, a type of preservative.
Ranch or cheese-based dips are a killer in calories, Reisman said. Instead, put out hummus, salsa or a light salad dressing with crudites and baked rather than fried chips.
Learn the lingo on menus.
“When you see lightly breaded, that always means deep-fried. When you see the words creamy, puree, ask whether it has butter or cream in it,” she said. “Lightly sauteed” also usually means deep-fried.
Reisman found when researching the book that much of the online information can be deceiving and some websites are easier to decipher than others.
“They won’t tell you they’re not counting the sides or the salad dressing or the roll, so people will eat that meal in a restaurant and have no clue that those extra things aren’t what the calories are showing or the fat.”
The real shocker, she found, was salads. “We were all led to believe, ’Have salads and you’ll be healthier.”’
But the moment a “crispy something” or cheese or eggs are added, that raises the unhealthy quotient.
“The other thing I learned: you never allow them to control your dressing,” Reisman said. Always ask for it on the side so that you can moderate how much you use.
A main-meal salad such as romaine lettuce with vegetables, chicken and croutons can have up to 75 millilitres (1/3 cup) of dressing.
“When it’s a caesar-type dressing most of that is all fat. You’re putting 600 or 700 calories away of nothing food and that’s one of the reasons you’re having trouble with your weight.” | <urn:uuid:8ca2af38-3d9e-4e91-a0b9-eb68e2d0377a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vancouversun.com/health/diet-fitness/cookbook+author+rose+reisman+offers+winning+tips/7893790/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942158 | 1,276 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Paul Ryan gets a lot of attention for his budget proposals, but his monetary policy ideas are no less consequential. Like several of his Republican compatriots on Capitol Hill, the new running mate to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants the Federal Reserve to focus solely on inflation, abandoning its mandate to bolster employment. And though the job market is persistently weak, it could be a winning policy for Romney to adopt onto his platform.
The equation is simple: Ryan's past fiscal proposals, which have included steep cuts to popular entitlement programs like Medicare, will be a key target for Democrats as November approaches. That means less time for debating Ryan's controversial positions on the nation's central bank. Meanwhile, Ryan's position on the Fed could further energize some Republican voters.
"The position he took on the Fed resonates with the conservative base, and that's certainly grist for their mill. I'm not sure it's going to be a top political target for Democrats. If Democrats don't make an issue of it, it simply consolidates and fires up the base of the GOP," says Steven Schier, professor of political science at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn.
Currently, the Fed operates under what is called the dual mandate, with simultaneous goals of keeping prices stable and fostering maximum employment. In 2008, Ryan sponsored a bill to repeal that dual mandate, reducing the Fed's responsibility to simply keeping prices stable.
Proponents of this point of view argue that accommodative monetary policy, exemplified in the Fed's two rounds of quantitative easing, could lead to excessive inflation and a weaker dollar.
Ryan has maintained the pressure on the Federal Reserve. At a February hearing, Ryan criticized the Fed's tools for promoting jobs, telling Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that such tactics "are limited, imprecise, and can have highly undesirable unintended consequences."
He isn't alone; several of his conservative congressional colleagues are in the single-mandate camp. Texas Republican Rep. Kevin Brady introduced a bill earlier this year that would also have eliminated the dual mandate.
It's not as extreme a position as Texas Rep. Ron Paul took in his run for the Republican nomination—Paul has advocated ending the Fed—but it could give far-right conservatives more enthusiasm for Romney.
"GOP activists might be aware of it, and it might produce more volunteers, more voters, more contributions. It's all part of the Ryan picture," says Schier.
While many partisans have a firm opinion on the Fed's dual goals, piecing out exactly how the central bank's mandate has affected the economy during the downturn is next to impossible.
Having a dual mandate means that the Fed pushes harder to speed job market recovery, says Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at forecasting firm IHS Global Insight.
In a situation where unemployment is high, "that means that the Fed effectively becomes more activist and tries to get the employment rate back towards full employment more quickly than if it just let the natural forces of recovery, which I think in this case are pretty weak, operate," he says.
He adds that having a central bank fighting unemployment could arguably bolster longer-term employment, as people who are jobless for longer are increasingly likely to remain jobless.
Then again, there is still the spectre of inflation. Opponents of the dual mandate have long feared that accommodative policies would lead to massive price spikes.
"It doesn't mean it will never happen, but so far those fears haven't come to pass," says Gault.
Those fears are likely to be raised again in coming weeks, as speculation grows that the Federal Reserve will potentially announce a third round of quantitative easing at its September meeting. | <urn:uuid:67bc7e81-eec0-4637-923a-4969b320f77e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/08/13/paul-ryan-would-have-fed-forget-jobs-and-focus-on-inflation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971868 | 755 | 1.648438 | 2 |
After talking to Dad, Fynn changes the marks in all the boxes from Native American/American Indian to white. Why do you think he does this?
What does Mrs. Owen's home tell you about her as a person?
When Rain finds out that the rumor about her and Galen involves them at least making out, she says, “I wonder if this was how it felt to be Lorelei.” Why does Rain make this connection? What does it suggest about Lorelei's reputation and gossip about girls in general? Have you ever had a particularly hard time with gossip before? How did Rain or Lorelei's situation compare to yours?
When Rain talks to Fynn, she tells him, “It's your fiancée and the baby you never bothered to tell me about.” Is Rain just upset, worried about Natalie? Or has she been angry with her brother for some reason? Why do you think she feels this way? Does she really know what's been happening between Fynn and Natalie? Is she tired of change? Does she feel left out? Or protective? What do you think?
Because of their talk in this chapter, Rain says, “For all the land and ocean between us, Dad had understood more than I ever would've guessed.” Does this father-daughter connection come as any kind of surprise to you? Why or why not? | <urn:uuid:46c6cef5-6853-45e5-bcde-14f9f5ed16d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/cyn_books_forkids/rain/rain_chapters/12_didsomebodysay.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986042 | 293 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPCO), the leading North American provider of midstream energy services, processes rail cars filled with expensive raw materials used in the petroleum industry. In an effort to validate the weights of incoming goods without slowing down the business, company leaders sought a new rail scale that would do much more than just weigh.
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (EPCO), the leading North American provider of midstream energy services, processes rail cars filled with expensive raw materials used in the petroleum industry. In an effort to validate the weights of incoming goods without slowing down the business, company leaders sought a new rail scale that would do much more than just weigh. They found a new scale that met all of their criteria; not only is it able to keep up with traffic flow, but it also manages all critical data.
EPCO operates propylene fractionation facilities in Texas and Louisiana. Propylene is a chemical compound used to make everything from fiber for carpets to molded plastic parts for various products. EPCO weighs the raw material when it enters its facility and then feeds the compound to fractionation facilities through its nearly 680 miles of propylene pipeline systems.
For EPCO, scales act as a sort of cash register, providing critical incoming and out going raw material data on which charges are based. Obtaining that information is very important to the business because the raw materials are rather expensive. A static rail weighing system requires positioning and uncoupling each rail car, costing valuable time. With its new rail scale with Coupled In-Motion (CIM) technology, EPCO is meeting the demands of its customers and the needs of its business.
EPCO’s CIM rail weighing system from METTLER TOLEDO allows rail cars to be weighed as they are moving across the scale at speeds up to 8 km/h (5 mph). As a quality measure, operators then take a sample from each rail car that enters the Mont Belvieu, Texas facility to determine the product mix in the car. Finally, a serial tag is applied for tracking and routing the material to the appropriate location based on the sample.
Before installing its new CIM rail scale, EPCO assumed that supplier invoices were accurate. However, company leaders determined it was necessary to validate the weights on those invoices to ensure accurate weight information is used for transactions and operations. EPCO now has reliable data to challenge bills of lading based on the weight of the mix.
When selecting a new rail road scale, EPCO had several critical data integration requirements in mind. Although EPCO Terminal Automation Manager Jerry Buckman says he was skeptical that a solution existed to meet them all, he was pleased to find that METTLER TOLEDO would customize its existing solution to meet EPCO’s criteria. Some of those criteria included the ability to view transactions remotely and watch the scale capture weight information in real time.
“The ability to manage weighing data is really important to us. This solution offered customized data management capabilities and so much more,” he says. It’s made all the difference.”
Once weighed, each incoming rail car takes 8 hours to be emptied. “It is a slow process to get all of the materials out. That is why we didn’t want a static weighing solution that would slow things down even more,” he says. Though multiple cars can be processed at once, the lengthy unloading process means time is valuable. Buckman says that that thanks to the speed of CIM technology, EPCO effectively processes about 40 rail cars a day. METTLER TOLEDO’s in-motion weighing system now helps EPCO avoid delays while effectively managing critical data.
For more information. please visit http://us.mt.com/us/en/home/products/Transport_and_Logistics_Solutions/rail_scales/cim_rail_scale.html?crel=ePR_PP_EN
Mettler-Toledo International Inc.
Im Langacher, Zip Code 8606
E-Mail : [email protected]
Phone : +41-44-944 33 85
Website : www.mt.com
ListFree.org: Embedded data.
|Contact us at :|
|Issued By:||Marie-Louise Hupert|
|Tags:||CIM technology, Coupled In-Motion technology, in-motion weighing system, manages all critical data, petroleum industry, propylene fractionation facilities| | <urn:uuid:f168904a-23db-4bb7-b41a-893eb8ac3aac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.listfree.org/65999-dynamic-rail-weighing-keeps-business-moving.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930724 | 959 | 1.820313 | 2 |
By J. M. Reep
Copyright © 2009
$13.95 - Paperback
Free - Download
Have you ever been in a situation in which you have been uncomfortable? Where you don't know what to say? Or, when faced with a new task tend to panic? If you understand any of those feelings, think how Leah Nells feels, because every minute of every day is a struggle for her to get through. Not even comfortable spending time with her own mother and father, after all, they are probably going to ask her questions that she won't be able to answer, Leah lives a very isolated existence. And things are about to get worse. She is 14 years old and will be starting high school. She'll have to contend with a new campus, new classes, new teachers, and perhaps worst of all, more students. The thing that Leah clings to are her books. Even the books Leah reads are different from the norm. She won't read novels, and tends to like lengthy, non-fiction books with very few pictures. For example, some of the titles Leah picked out were The Little Book of Earthquakes and Volcanoes, The Biomechanics of Insect Flight, Attracting Birds to Your Backyard, and The Social Construction of the Ocean. Now, don't get any ideas about Leah being a top student, because she isn't. When she has read all of the books she has on hand, her mother will take her to garage sales and Leah can pick out any books she wants, and her mother will buy them for her. Or at least that's how things used to be.
As she approaches high school, Leah's mother becomes more and more frustrated with her socially awkward daughter. It is her greatest wish that Leah fit in and make a friend or two. Her wish is so great, that she pushes Leah in ways that are in some respects cruel. For example, at the start of Leah, Leah and her mother are cruising garage sales, and at the last one they visited, Leah found a book she wanted and her mother handed her the money and told Leah she would wait for her in the car. Now Leah, thrown into an unexpected situation, was unable to cope with the expectation that she pay for the book instead of her mother, and was unable to face it, so she put the book down and returned to the car in shame. Her mother was upset that Leah couldn't make a simple purchase at a garage sale.
Mrs. Nells clearly comes through as one of the biggest antagonists in Leah, and I'll admit that Mrs. Nells was the character I disliked the most in the book. I understand wanting her daughter to achieve more, and I understand Leah is a difficult child in many respects, but having a mother who has been my champion my whole life, I found Mrs. Nells animosity toward her daughter disturbing.
At the mention of her name, Leah stood up and started to go downstairs, but she stopped when her mother said, "No, I'm OK. Cooking helps me take my mind off things, and that's what I need right now. And leave Leah in her room. I don't want to see her right now."
"I'm still upset with her."
Leah sat back down on the stairs.
"Because of what happened on Saturday?" Mr. Nells asked.
"Partly. I know it's not the first time she's behaved like that, and it sure won't be the last time, but I just hate it when she's so difficult in public. I can't help but wonder what other people must think. Like I told her, she's fourteen already, but she still doesn't even have the courage to buy a book unless I'm standing right there holding her hand."
"She'll learn. It'll take time, but she'll learn. She just needs some help."
"Well," Mrs. Nells said with conviction, "I don't know who's gonna help her, but it's not gonna be me! I've had it with her. If she wants to hide in her bedroom forever, then that's fine with me. We've done all we can for her—it's up to her now."
I know several parents who are unable to sever the cord with their children and continue to enable them well into their adulthood. But at 14, I believe a mother should still be there to support her child. If the statement was made right after the incident, I could even discount it as letting off steam, but to still be angry with your child for the inability to make a purchase on their own two days after the fact is carrying the animosity to a degree of disproportion. Most parents would be delighted that their 14 year old had difficulty in taking money from them and spending it. Antagonists in literature are necessary, and Mrs. Nells is certainly not the worst mother in the world, just not very likable. The primary antagonist in this piece is Leah's silence itself. Her inability to communicate verbally except for on a minimal basis is Leah's deepest shame, and her greatest desire is to overcome her silence.
So many questions filled her mind. Why did she have to be the only girl at school who was shy? No one else had any trouble talking to people or making friends. It didn't seem fair. Why me? she asked herself. Was this what her life would always be like? Was this moment, alone in her bedroom, unhappy, not only her present and her past but her future as well? She had so many questions, but here in the isolation of her room, there were no answers. Only silence surrounded her and offered itself—the same silence that had been her lone companion throughout her life. Only silence; always silence.
J. M. Reep gives us a calm and thoughtful novel bringing us into the mind of Leah and her struggle against herself. The quality of Reep's writing is excellent, and the characters are clearly drawn and realistic. Leah is a detailed character study of shyness and introversion. One of the concepts I found to be most unique was the use of Leah's books, many of which she didn't even like, as a way to pass time. Leah liked to read them slowly, because if she read too quickly, then she would have to suffer through another trip with her mother through garage sales to pick out some more. She didn't really enjoy reading the books though, and this concept seemed especially foreign to me. Of course, like Leah, I read avidly as a youngster, and still do to this day, but unlike Leah, I enjoy the books I read, and if a book bores me, I move on to the next. Life is too short to read boring books. I thought it a strange twist to have a character clinging to books like a toddler clings to a security blanket, and have the character not really enjoy the books she clings to. Leah brings to those of us who are not crippled by shyness an understanding of those who are, and for those who identify with Leah Nells a sense of relief from the knowledge that there are others who struggle against debilitating introversion.
Preview Leah at Lulu
Originally reviewed for the LL Book Review
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To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The LL Book Review | <urn:uuid:b10a61db-345e-44f6-8e63-5a88dbff9b81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?AuthorID=75291&id=50290 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985027 | 1,583 | 1.8125 | 2 |
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