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I have a review in the FT of Matthew Bishop and Michael Green’s book Philanthrocapitalism, a look at the growth of giving by rich people in recent years. This is how it starts:
This is not the ideal time to publish a book on how very wealthy people – including many bankers and business leaders – can do great things. Read more
Today being National Corporate Philanthropy Day in the US (the first I had heard of it, I have to admit), I went to a gathering of chief executives whose companies give money to good causes or encourage employees to volunteer.
I had a chance to quiz three of the CEOs there – Jim Rohr of PNC Financial Services, Ivan Seidenberg of Verizon and Sidney Taurel of Eli Lilly – about their companies’ involvement in something that, on the face of it, does not benefit shareholders.
Famously, Milton Friedman argued that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits” and that a lot of corporate philanthropy was at best misguided, although some could be justified if it served other corporate purposes, such as increasing the loyalty of customers. Read more
One thing that struck me at the Clinton Global Initiative conference last week was how its priorities – cleaning up the environment, eradicating poverty, improving education in developing countries etc – have been adopted seamlessly by many companies.
It is a stark contrast with a few years ago, when the anti-globalisation movement clashed with corporations over their lack of social and environmental standards. Many US corporations, for example, seem notably more enthusiastic than the US government about initiatives to halt global warming.
Michael Porter, the Harvard professor and management guru, turned up at the CGI with a theory to back this notion.
To the Clinton Global Initiative annual philanthropy summit, which is being held a block away from the FT office in New York, to see Angelina Jolie.
Ms Jolie was giving a press conference jointly with Gene Sperling of the Council on Foreign Relations about their initiative to promote education in conflict-hit regions of the world. They had assembled 18 projects that will place 350,000 children in school.
Quite a few others seemed to have had the same idea. As Mr Sperling introduced the event, he was lit by a battery of flashes from the cameras trained on Ms Jolie. "Boy, this happens to me everywhere I go," he remarked.
My impressions were, in the following order: | <urn:uuid:5ecb1017-fee5-4e75-8716-63da0d3406c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.ft.com/businessblog/category/philanthropy/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972971 | 504 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Fusing the topical satire of David Frost with the surreal outlandishness of The Goon Show, the
troupe formed in England in 1969. Comprised of British performers
, along with American animator Terry Gilliam, the group emerged as an international cult phenomenon, honing its singular blend of broad slapstick, edgy black comedy, and social commentary in a string of successful television programs, films, and albums.
After meeting during a taping of the British children's series Do Not Adjust Your Set, the Pythons
officially took shape in May 1969 when the BBC contracted the group to produce its own 13-week program. Monty Python's Flying Circus, a weekly sketch comedy series, premiered that October; after becoming a major hit throughout Europe, the troupe recorded 1970's Monty Python's Flying Circus
LP, a set of new performances of television material recorded in front of a live audience (including their legendary "dead parrot" sketch, "The Pet Shop"). Their film debut, And Now for Something Completely Different -- a collection of highlights from the series -- followed in 1971. Another Monty Python Record
, released in the U.K. in 1971, made its American debut the following year; for most U.S. fans, the album was their first exposure to the troupe -- the BBC series did not begin appearing on public television outlets for several more months. After 1972's Monty Python's Previous Record, a mixture of original routines and TV material featuring "Eric the Half a Bee," "The Argument Clinic," and "Embarrassment/A Bed-Time Book," the group issued 1973's Matching Tie and Handkerchief
, which featured a "trick track" gimmick whereby the second side contained separate grooves both featuring entirely different material; playing randomly depending upon where the needle dropped, the gimmick effectively created a "side three."
A 1973 British tour yielded Live at Drury Lane
, released in 1974 to coincide with the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail; the movie's companion record, The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a reprise of screen material along with new skits, did not appear until the next year. After 1976's Live! At City Center
, a long hiatus followed before the group reunited for the 1979 feature and soundtrack Monty Python's Life of Brian.Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album
appeared in 1980, followed by the 1982 concert film Live at the Hollywood Bowl. The 1983 feature Monty Python's the Meaning of Life was the last official group project, although the troupe members subsequently reunited on occasion; most famously, Cleese
teamed in the hit comedy A Fish Called Wanda, while Gilliam's directorial efforts like Time Bandits, Brazil, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen all prominently featured other Python
alumni. Sadly, Graham Chapman
died of cancer on October 4, 1989. | <urn:uuid:1687fb41-e04e-4ea8-ba98-55b3abceb8ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chom.com/Music/Artist.aspx?id=205 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93534 | 614 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Posted by: Anonymous
on September 24, 2008 09:08 PM
As for tracking dynamic IP addresses, that's a valid point, but I've always managed by having the machine simply ping a static machine, send an email, or use some other simple method.
Exactly! An email would would give internal IP and external IP. Only things missing would be a picture(a script could easily add this) and an overly complex and over engineered encryption and retrieval mechanism (that failed in the course of the article!).
None of this even bothers to mention the highly unlikely scenario of your local police department acting on the information provided, even if you were able to translate that IP address into a physical street address. This whole concept, including the LoJack for laptops snake oil is, well... Snake oil!!! | <urn:uuid:d8ca9724-584a-442e-bcf1-adf5c420aacb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive09.linux.com/?module=comments&func=display&cid=1199206 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953281 | 162 | 1.648438 | 2 |
In a late night vote on Thursday, the Berkeley City Council voted to support hybrid alternatives to AC Transit's Bus Rapid Transit proposal which eliminate dedicated bus lanes and bus boarding stations in the center of the street. According to AC Transit spokesperson Cory LaVigne this plan can’t be considered as part of the environmental impact study currently underway, making it effectively a "no build" alternative at this point.
But AC transit staff who attended the meeting told councilmembers that the alternative proposals, including the Reduced Impact Alternative advanced by Mayor Bates and Councilmembers Capitelli and Maio and the "Rapid Bus Plus" scheme hatched by a coalition of Berkeleyans including Michael Katz, Craig Becker and Vincent Casalaina, could not be included in the final environmental impact study since they had not been part of the draft study. The AC planners said that a parallel study of these alternatives could be done.
Councilmember Darryl Moore made a substitute motion to endorse studying the "full build", but it was rejected by a 4-2-2 vote.
Comments from many members of the public and by the council extended the meeting past 11 p.m.
The rumored blitz from construction union representatives didn't materialize.
Many of the speakers in favor of the full build alternative were students who wanted faster trips, while many opponents mentioned impacts on businesses and street vendors on Telegraph as well as hardships to senior and disabled users if local stops were eliminated as AC Transit's plan proposed. | <urn:uuid:22026efe-38f8-4f34-8e14-64641161e777> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2010-04-30/article/35183?headline=Berkeley-Council-Rejects-Full-Build-BRT-Votes-for-Hybrid-Solutions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969138 | 298 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Can I use Essential Oils for Cats?
Essential oils for cats is a highly controversial topic but it really is an argument that boils down to the quality of the oil once again. I can assure you that 90% of the oils I recommend and sell on this site have been used for cats on a daily basis.
But besides the fact that
therapeutic grade oils
must be used there are other precautions that can be taken to assure that your feline can use the oils safely. Dr. Melissa Shelton, DVM, a holistic veterinarian has used Young Living Oils for over 3 years in her practice safely and effectively. Her
book documents the uses of oils for animals.
So, please purchase it and read it if you have concerns.
Unfortunately, I can not stand behind other oils for essential oils for cats. Please do not use anything on your cat but therapeutic grade oils that can be taken internally!
Why are Cats sensitive to Synthetic Products?
Cats are sensitive to most synthetically made products and “natural products” as well as some essential oils. Even if we don’t know about it!
I say that because a lot of us have sensitivities to food, household cleaners and, hair and skin products. But we don’t recognize it because most of us are just not that tuned into our bodies and our environment. Often times, we only recognize a change, when we stop using a product or eating a particular food item!
Seriously, where is your pet when you bomb the house full of synthetic air fresheners, household cleaners or carpet cleaner?
They are right there with us breathing it in and taking it in! Honestly, this is not good for us and NOT good for our pets. Toxicity is a huge problem with us and OUR PETS! They are half our size or less, yet their bodies have to tolerate a huge amount of man made toxicity.
I seriously believe that many of the health problems we are having along with our pets is a toxicity issue. But there is something we can do about it!
Make a commitment to using
green cleaning supplies
and diffusing healthy essential oils in our home and work place for ourselves and our pets. Notice, I don’t say natural, because natural these days pretty much means anything goes! So, check what you are putting on your animal and make sure it’s not hurting them rather than helping them.
So what else can we do for our Animals?
Essential oils are a perfect solution for us and our animals. Use essential oils for cats, dogs, horses and any other living creature. There are certain oils that we can not use on certain animals, cats included, so please do be careful and learn the ins and outs.
Why can’t we use certain oils on Cats?
Cats metabolize and excrete things very differently than the rest of the animal family. The reason behind this is the cats liver. It does not have the liver enzymes to break down certain chemical as effectively as the rest of us, and sometimes it can’t do it at all!
So what Happens?
When the liver (and the body) does not recognize a substance, as with most synthetic compounds, it immediately stores it somewhere until it can figure out what to do with it! This leads to toxicity, tumors, disease and extreme imbalances of the body.
For cats it can be a slow build up over time and led to illness, or it can be so quick that it leads to death, so please be cautious. By the way, while humans and other animals do not have to be this cautious, the toxicity issues result in the same problems!
Animals can not tell us what they are feeling and they are constantly bombarded with our lifestyle choices. So we must learn to look for and recognize the signs and symptoms of toxicity in our animals!
What are the signs of Toxicity?
Here are some common signs -
• There is a change in their sleeping or eating habits
• Behavioral changes such as lethargy, lack of energy, or not wanting to be play
• Digestive imbalances such as vomiting, constipation or diarrhea, or
• Confusion and light headed.
There are several more as well. My dog, Lexie, has a hard time going up the stairs and doesn’t really want to eat when she has had a good dose of toxicity. I usually can trace it back to some kind person providing her with an unnatural treat or spraying her with a synthetic product unknowingly. But I know the signs and I know its time to detox her liver!
What else is different about Cats?
Cats seem to have a disregard for strong odors and definitely have thin skin. So again, when you are diffusing oils in your home, remember your pets. Also make sure you use the oil correctly and with high dilution.
So What Supports the Cat's Metabolism?
Supporting the cat with
Ninxgia Red Wolfberry Antioxidant Drink
and/or Enzymes is the best way to ensure that your cat can metabolize essential oils. This is not always necessary for most young or healthy cats, but it does help any cat so therefore it is recommended.
What Essential Oils for Cats can we Use?
First, let’s start with the essential oils for cats that we should use with caution. Meaning make sure these oils are diluted; and if you have a cat with liver issues, choose an oil that has similar properties that does not challenge the liver to such an extent.
Cats are particularly sensitive to a group of oxygenated compounds called ketones and phenols, and some monoterpenes. It is the thujone content in ketones and carvacal in phenols that seem to create most of the problems when not used with enzymes. Carvacrol is a byproduct of d-limonene which is found in all citrus fruits and in many tree oils.
Examples of essential oils for Cats that should should be used with caution meaning highly diluted are shown below. I say cautiously because all of single oils are fine when used in a professionally made therapeutic blends or supplements (more below); and when used correctly!
And just as with humans, each animal’s chemistry and blood type is different so the response is different!
Examples of Phenols – Wintergreen, Anise, Birch, Clove, Basil, Tarragon, Fennel, Oregano, Thyme, Mountain Savory, Peppermint, Tea Tree, Calamus, Cinnamon Bark, Citronella, Marjoram, Nutmeg, Eucalyptus citriodora, Parsley, Ylang Ylang. These all contain greater than 8% phenols.
Please note that I have performed Raindrop Technique on cats which include many of these oils---so there are many factors to evaluate when using essential oils for cats.
Examples of Ketones – Western Red Cedar, Idaho Tansy, Marigold, Spearmint, Thuja, Hyssop, Davana, Sage, Dill, Yarrow, Peppermint. All these oils contain greater than 20% ketones.
Example of Oils containing D-Limonene - Grapefruit, Bitter Orange, Orange, Tangerine, Mandarin, Lemon, Celery Seed, Lime, Bergamot, Angelica, Dill, Neroli, Blue Tansy, Citronella and Nutmeg.
Examples of Oils containing Alpha-pinene – Cypress, Cistus, Pine, Douglas fir, Juniper, Myrtle, Rosemary Verbenon, Silver Fir, Angelica, Nutmeg, Eucalyptus, Dill, Spruce. These are all monoterpenes that have alpha-pinene concentrations greater than 15%.
Here is a list of single oils that I use infrequently or not at all with cats in particular: Black Pepper, Cardamon, Carrot Seed, Celery Seed, Cinnamon Bark, Citronella, Clove, Galbanum, Ginger, Juniper, Melaleuca species (use with extreme caution and monitor cat), Palmarosa, Petitgrain and Western Red Cedar.
Once again, any blends that contain these oils I rarely avoid.
I did not give you that list to scare you, but to provide you with more information. When we have good information it is easier for us to make better choices for our self as well as our pet.
What Essential Oils for Cats can we definitely Use?
Here are the essential oils for cats that are very safe for cat use. Here is the list:
• Clary Sage Essential Oil
• Elemi Essential Oil
• Frankincense Essential Oil
• Geranium Essential Oil
• Helichrysum Essential Oil
• Idaho Balsam Fir Essential Oil
• Lavender Essential Oil
• Roman Chamomile Essential Oil
• Rosemary Essential Oil
• Valerian Essential Oil
And many more!
Can I use any Kind of Essential Oil for Cats?
Essential oils for cats need to be therapeutic grade essential oils. This is extremely important!
Most of the problems associated with essential oils whether they are for human or animal use stem from the fact that people use perfume quality oils in the same way that they use therapeutic grade oils. These are totally different and cause more harm than good! Particularly with cats!
For instance, there are many people who I know that use
(Melaleuca alternifolia) and
oils routinely on their cat and have no problems. But it is cited in most aromatherapy books not to use these essential oils for cats. And they give examples of where the cat is rushed to the vet!
Did you know that there are many veterinarians who recommend the professionally made blends on this website? Yes, they are used routinely in their practice and they contain many of the oils that are not for use on cats. One example is
Peace & Calming
blend which contains many different citrus oils. Another one is
that contains clove and tea tree oil that is excellent for cuts and disinfection.
If your animal has a serious medical condition or if you are not sure about applying any essential oil to your animal please consult your vet. There are holistic vets who routinely use essential oils in their practice with great success!
What is the Difference in Essential oils for Cats?
It is the quality of the oil. If the oil is adulterated which means cut with synthetics, of course your animal is going to have a reaction! I’m not saying that certain oils should not be used, but this should be the first factor when deciding to use an essential oil or not.
How do I use Essential Oils for Cats?
Essential oils for cats should be highly diluted with a high grade pure vegetable oil. Dilute essential oils for cats (and all other smaller animals) at least 50:1 (fifty drops of dilution oil to one drop of essential oil). Dr. Mary Hess, DVM, recommends that Peace & Calming be diluted at 80-90% for felines.
Place a drop of the diluted oil on the inside of the paw or location of say cut or injury. Place some in your hands and pet your cat gently ears to tail.
Diffusing oils is a great way to use essential oils for cats. Lastly, you could place a few drops in a sprayer with some water, shake it up and gently mist--but most cats usually don't like this method of application.
I heard of using Hydrosols, can I Use them? What are they?
Hydrosols are the water based byproduct of the essential oil distillation. They are also called hydrolats or floral waters. They are perfectly safe to use for cats. But again, just like with essential oils, it is NOT the oil or hydrosol; it is the quality or source of the essential oil!
My Cat has Canker of the Ear, what Oil do I use?
Use warm olive oil with lavender and clean the ear. Use it inside and outside of the ear. Dilute as described above.
My cat has Mange what Oil do I use?
Bath the cat in lavender and roman chamomile. Remember the dilution requirements!
My cat has Fleas what Oils do I use?
Make a dilution of
oil and brush it into the cat. If not to bad, make a spray mist with water and gently spray the cat to deter fleas. Go to the natural flea remedies section for more information.
My cat is Scared to go the Vet or the Groomer, what Oils do I use?
for courage and
Peace & Calming
blend for anxiety and fear!
These are just a few suggestions on how to use the oils. Browse through the site to select oils or blends for your cat as you would yourself. Remember to follow the instructions on the oils and enjoy a non-toxic way of living for you and your cat!
Return from Essential Oils for Cats to Experience Essential Oils | <urn:uuid:2f1c9151-1fe9-46eb-88ab-a4f7b60bbeac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.experience-essential-oils.com/essential-oils-for-cats.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938507 | 2,735 | 1.789063 | 2 |
UPDATE December 6, 2012: After issuing a binding declaration yesterday evening that would bring about the stoppage of construction of Mon Desir to Debe, Dr Kublalsingh began to receive an IV to reintroduce his body to food as soon as possible. This morning, however, reports stated that work on the highway was continuing. It is not clear at this time what action Dr. Kublalsingh has decided to take.
It has been three weeks since Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh has had a sip of water or a bite of food. He’s edging perilously close to death, but remains steadfast in his demand that a segment of new highway project that would bisect rich lagoon lands on the island of Trinidad be re-routed.
“In spirit he’s very strong, his eyes are bright, his voice is strong,” said Judy Kublalsingh, a practicing attorney who is also Wayne’s sister, in an interview from Port of Spain on Friday. By Tuesday, onlookers said his speech had slowed, that he was much weaker. Today, at 21 days into his strike, there is substantial risk that his heart or kidneys could fail without warning or that he slips into a coma.
Even though his health has deteriorated, Kublalsingh managed to reiterate his demands to supporters in Port of Spain yesterday.
“All he is asking for is accountability and transparency,” said Vandana Boodhai, a member of the Highway Re-route Movement of which Kublalsingh is part. “Today, he outlined the three main things he wanted from the government: he wanted a feasibility study done, he wanted a hydrology report, and he wanted a cost benefit analysis done on the highway, to show the social impacts and all the negative aspects,” she said.
Once the government produces those documents, Kublalsingh said he would stop his hunger strike. But it isn’t clear if Kublalsingh’s demands will be met in time to save his life. “[Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar] has made it very clear that she is not going to stop the project, and she has said he is refusing to meet with her, but that is not the case,” said Boodhai.
The section of road contested by the Highway Re-route movement is just over nine kilometers long. It is slated to run from Debe to Mon Desir, impacting hundreds of people who live and farm in the Oropouche Lagoon. During an interview this summer, Kublalsingh said that if built, the roadway would destroy 1,000 acres of farmland, 300 homes, and create permanent flooding.
Like many of Kublalsingh’s supporters, Boodhai’s house is slated for destruction if the contested portion of the highway is built.
“Presently where I reside there are five homes in this district, and these five homes would be demolished as well, so the entire family would be broken up, and we have a very close knit community,” she said. “Most of the people living here are old people and if you look at the human side of it, it is very unfair and inhumane to move these people from a place…where they have built a life, where lands are passed on from generation to generation.”
The flood embankments that would be constructed to allow the highway to be built could also result in harsh consequences for residents and the natural environment, according to the Highway Re-Route Movement.
Kublalsingh, an Oxford trained professor and the second of eight children, has the support of his family and of people around the world. He has declared that he will not die, and that as when he helped stop the construction of smelters on the island, this will be another victory for environmental and social movements in Trinidad.
The hunger strike “is really a critique of manner in which government is operated in this country in terms of the development decisions that they’ve made,” said Judy Kublalsingh. “Wayne’s position…the principle has remained the same, he’s saying that any decision that the government makes, especially as it relates to the development of a country must take into account how the persons around it are going to be directly impacted and what is best in the national interest as well as the environment.”
The matter of the highway is also currently in the courts, but the government has sent work crews to begin clearing land and bulldozing fruit trees in preparation for construction. Some members of Trinidad and Tobago’s government have made harsh statements against Kublalsingh’s strike, willing the government to let him die for the cause.
“Wayne has chosen to ignore what the doctor’s advice has been and to trust what he says is his own knowledge of his body,” Judy Kublalsingh, who acknowledged that her brother’s doctor is “a little bit bewildered” that he is so healthy after three weeks receiving nothing but the occasional IV drip, which he has since begun to refuse.
“He says he’s feeling cold and weak and you can see that he’s shaky, and the hunger strike is become more pronounced, the toll it’s taking on him is more pronounced,” said Boodhai in an interview with Upside Down World at the end of day 20 of the strike.
Kublalsingh continues to spend his days under a makeshift shelter in front of the Prime Minister’s office. Each day, his supporters – his students, people from the communities slated for destruction if the highway is built, environmentalists, musicians, and others – gather around Kublalsingh. They are forbidden from pitching tents or even bringing chairs, so they gather on the narrow shoulder of the road, holding umbrellas to keep off the sun, and wait.
Recently, the national transparency institute and the Construction Workers Association also came out in support of Kublalsingh’s demands.
“I support Wayne relentlessly in terms of the struggle that he has adopted, of course as a family we’re conflicted and we’re very fearful for his health,” said Judy Kublalsingh. “But Wayne has asked me to respect that he has adopted a particular position… and he has asked us to trust what he attempting to do.”
Kublalsingh’s decision to risk his life refusing food and water is all about putting pressure on the government. According to his supporters, international pressure on the government of Trinidad and Tobago to re-route the Debe to the Mon Desir portion of the highway project could prevent the displacement of over a dozen agricultural communities, as well as help save his life.
“What we’re asking is to put pressure on this government to make the right decision, to keep its promise to the people, they had promised these people that they would not build a segment of the highway before they came as a government and walked with the people and talked with the people, and they came as a government and they made this decision in breach of a promise that they made previously,” said Judy Kublalsingh. | <urn:uuid:7bc88069-1557-44bd-b2f8-27ff8efafcb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://upsidedownworld.org/main/caribbean-archives-45/4007-hunger-strike-against-trinidad-highway-continues | 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 | 0.981917 | 1,542 | 1.5 | 2 |
Seems to me the world is full of empty chairs. How is any given chair supposed to acquire the meaning intended if meaning is intended? And contrariwise, isn't it unfair to all the other chairs that are just hanging around being chairs and not meaning to say anything?
AND: This has got me thinking about horror vacui:
In visual art, horror vacui (/ˈhɔrər ˈvɑːkjuːaɪ/; from Latin "fear of empty space", which might be represented by white spots), also cenophobia (/sɛnəˈfoʊbɪə/, from Greek "fear of the empty"), is the filling of the entire surface of a space or an artwork with detail.Perhaps I'm letting my education and affluence show, but I think empty is good. An unfilled space is complete in itself and yet also an opportunity. I think the horror vacui is somewhat male, and I am speaking from a vagina'd perspective.
The term is associated with the Italian art critic and scholar Mario Praz, who used it to describe the suffocating atmosphere and clutter of interior design in the Victorian age....
Research suggests there is currently an inverse relationship between horror vacui and value perception, and commercial designers are advised to favour minimalism in shop window displays and advertising to appeal to affluent and well-educated consumers, on the premise that horror vacui appeals more to poorer and less-educated audiences. | <urn:uuid:6f86900f-4339-4f61-9fc6-fce9c02b3402> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.althouse.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-right-rallied-on-labor-day-to.html | 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 | 0.966949 | 311 | 1.75 | 2 |
Mon February 25, 2013
Kentucky Head Start, Child Care and Education Programs Facing Sequester Cuts, White House says
The automatic federal spending cuts set to take effect on Friday would pare several Kentucky programs that help families, including a child-care subsidy program that state officials have already cut back, says a state-by-state study from the White House.
The cuts—part of what officials call the sequester—would cause an estimated 1,100 Kentucky children to lose access to Head Start and Early Head Start, cut $7.7 million in funding for educating children with disabilities and cut $11.8 million for teachers in elementary, middle and high schools, the study said.
The report says that the Child Care Assistance Program—already facing drastic cuts because of a budget shortfall—would also lose funding, causing an estimated 500 additional children to lose access. But a spokeswoman for the Department for Community Based Services says the sequestration has already been factored into the program's budget, meaning no cuts further cuts are expected.
Still, children's advocate Terry Brooks said the sequester could be harmful for some children.
"For the vast majority of kids in Kentucky—let's just be honest—the sequester is not going to have a dramatic affect," said Brooks, executive director for Kentucky Youth Advocates.
"But for those kids who get impacted, I think they're going to hit in multiple levels in multiple ways in a very short time period. So you're really talking about a very traumatic timeframe for a small but highly vulnerable group of kids in Kentucky."
The federal spending cuts would also affect vaccination programs, job search assistance and funding for clean water and air quality, among other programs, the White House report said. The full report for Kentucky is posted below.
Congress has until Friday to act before the cuts become official.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement that the president's efforts on the automatic spending cuts are misdirected.
“What we still don’t know is whether the President has a plan for smarter, more commonsense cuts to the waste and endless growth in Washington," McConnell said. "Surely, he can put forward a plan to cut 2-to-3 percent from a $3.5 trillion budget. Rather than issuing last-minute press releases on cuts to first responders or troop training or airport security, he should propose smarter ways to cut Washington spending. After all, Washington spending, even with the sequester, is bigger than it was when he got here.
“There are smarter ways to reduce the size of government. And with the national debt well over $16 trillion dollars, it’s time for the White House to stop spending all its time campaigning, and start finding smarter ways to reduce the deficit.”
For their part, the White House says that Obama "has put forward a balanced plan to not only avoid the harmful effects of the sequester but also to reduce the deficit by more than $4 trillion."
Brooks said it's difficult to discern what's a true threat and what's rhetoric.
But, he added, the cuts outlined in the White House report would affect some children more than once.
The Child Care Assistance Program, for example, currently assists low-income, working families with childcare expenses for an average of 42,000 children per month. Recently announced state cuts are expected to cut by 14,000 the number of children served. The automatic federal cuts outlined in the White House report would drop another 500.
Those same children may also get government assistance for vaccination programs, Brooks said. The White House report said funding for those programs in Kentucky would be reduced by about $92,000, and about 1,350 Kentucky children would lose access to those programs.
"As is so often the case, the folks who stand to loose the most are vulnerable children," Brooks said.
We've reached out to Gov. Steve Beshear and others with questions on the White House report. We'll update with more once we hear back. Update: Here's a statement from the governor:
“Like many Americans, I am disgusted with D.C.’s continual dysfunction," Beshear said. "Sequestration carries real and negative impacts for Kentucky families if DC.. fails to address it, including serious cuts to Kentucky’s classrooms. I urge the parties to put aside these political games and address this before these devastating cuts are enacted.”
It's All Politics | <urn:uuid:6fb6f49c-7a26-4810-99a3-419560a902e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wfpl.org/post/kentucky-head-start-child-care-and-education-programs-facing-sequester-cuts-white-house-says | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956481 | 927 | 1.710938 | 2 |
August 25, 2012 (JUBA) - South Sudan on Saturday accused the government of neighbouring Sudan of "deliberately" keeping its troops in the contested area of Abyei, allegedly with intention to provoke return to war between the two sides..
- Edward Lino speaking in a electoral meeting held in Khartoum before Sudan’s presidential elections in April 2010 (ST)
"They continue to keep their troops in Abyei against international calls to withdraw from the area and are now talking of sending a committee to (administrate the area) without any basis," said Edward Lino, a leading member of South Sudan’s governing Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Lino, who is the chairperson of the South Sudan’s ruling SPLM in Abyei, made the remark in an interview with South Sudan Television on Friday during which he argued that the international community had shown reluctance to pressure Khartoum to pull out its remaining troops in the area.
"Sudan had deliberately defied United Nations resolution 2046 and African Union roadmap. It is now keeping more than three companies north of Abyei which are fully equipped. They have heavy artilleries and other modern weapons including tanks inside territorial jurisdiction of Abyei area”, said Lino explaining that "such behaviour shows that the government of Sudan is not ready for peaceful settlement".
Khartoum last week announced that the Sudanese presidency ordered a steering committee appointed last year to move to Abyei because Juba breached the 20 June agreement 2011 and appointed unilaterally a local administration there. Juba denied such allegations.
The two sides failed to implement a clause related to the formation of a temporary administration in last year deal because Juba refuses to give Khartoum the chairmanship of Abyei Legislative Assembly as it was agreed .
In return, Khartoum says the SPLM chaired administration cannot be established without the legislative council.
Sudan moved its troops from the area in accordance with the 2046 resolution of the UN Security Council as the Ethiopian troops control fully Abyei after the similar withdrawal of the South Sudanese forces.
However, Khartoum continues to maintain a small number of police forces in the Difra oil area, in northern Abyei arguing that the activities of rebel groups in South Kordofan justifies its presence there to protect oil facilities.
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet in a briefing to the Council on 29 June estimated that there were roughly between 100 to 130 lightly armed Sudanese police. "While these “oil police” do not have much force capacity, their presence is nonetheless a violation of resolution 2046, which demands that all Sudanese and South Sudanese security forces withdraw from the area," he pointed out.
The council in a presidential statement later asked Khartoum to move this force out of the area.
Lino called on the Sudanese people and political forces there not to accept being fooled by the country’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) to accept return to war.
"War is not in the interest of both countries. Sudanese people do not support war. People of South Sudan also do not have any interest in going back to war because it returns people to square one. We fought enough and we made peace, so why do we want to fight again," he asked.
Abyei, an oil producing and fertile border region is claimed by both sides. It was due to vote on its future in January 2011 together with another referendum organised on the independence of southern Sudan.
However, the failure of the two parties to agree on who can take part in this crucial vote created tensions between the local components and the volatile situation there led some to term it as Sudan’s Kashmir.
The African Union mediation will organise a meeting between presidents Omer Al-Bashir and Salva Kiir to discuss mainly this issue. The mediation might submit a compromise over this issue of eligibility in order to pave the way for a referendum there.
The senior SPLM member said war was not the best option and that they would continue to push for peaceful settlement of the dispute.
"Our people of Abyei, despite all difficulties and atrocities committed in the area by the Sudanese government, still stand together with our leadership under comrade Salva Kiir Mayardit in seeking peaceful settlement," he said.
"We have never changed this position. And we have always assured the people of Abyei who believe they are part of this nation to exercise courage and patience," he underscored.
An international arbitration in July 2009, redrew the boundaries of Abyei region and confirmed the findings of an experts’ committee on the land ownership by nine chiefdom of Dinka Ngok. The court also redefined the borders and ceded oil fields located in the northern part of the area to Sudan. | <urn:uuid:88306499-2eb1-4134-8a25-52b202a79c90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sudantribune.com/spip.php?article43702 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967936 | 1,016 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The manual street cleaning
The manual street cleaning will be done daily during non traffic hours and all areas will get enough time as per the requirements of the tender. Special care will be given to the main shopping areas, government buildings, municipality and other important areas.
The team will sweep all paved areas or any part, which the mechanical sweeper cannot reach. Litter will be picked up by the team from open areas, gardens, parks, areas covered with grass, roundabouts etc. They will remove sand, dust, and stones, paper and trash bags by hand. Big items such as furniture, tree branches etc. will be informed to the area in charge and it will be arranged to pick these items too.
Vehicles and Equipment such as wheel barrows, small tippers, trolling vehicles which are suitable for small streets will be distributed to each area as per the requirements. Tippers will be ready to collect the garbage from the manual labour and take it to the dumping areas. Area incharge will make sure that the equipment and vehicles under his supervision are always kept clean. | <urn:uuid:e2912fb0-9222-412a-9bd7-09c0eb2795c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tanzifco.com/docs/Feasibility/Manual_street_cleaning.html | 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 | 0.954857 | 218 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Translating a lucrative and sometimes scary proposition
- October 30, 2011
By Robert Jordan
Staff Writer, Contra Costa Times
PLEASANTON -- Jen Shelby uprooted from Texas last year to move to the Bay Area, committed to learning Pashto. It is a language spoken by few Americans, and Shelby hopes it will reunite her with her husband, who works in Afghanistan.
Shelby, 28, is taking free, full-time training with Mission Essential Personnel in Pleasanton, the military's largest supplier of translators in Afghanistan, to become a Pashto interpreter.
The Ohio-based contracting company says its Pashto and Dari interpreters from the United States earn between $125,000 to $275,000 for a year's work with the Army in Afghanistan.
It's high pay and can be dangerous work. Since 2007, when it began providing translators in Afghanistan, 77 of the firm's translators have been killed there, 335 have been wounded and 10 are missing.
"Our linguists risk their lives to support the American mission in Afghanistan," said Jared Whitley, company spokesman. "They're heroes who are enabling human freedom."
Mission Essential Personnel has more than 7,000 interpreters in Afghanistan -- mostly native Afghans. So far, just over 700 have been trained in America.
The danger isn't lost on the U.S. students, the vast majority with Afghan backgrounds, who didn't want to be interviewed or photographed for this story.
Naz Fazli, the Academy director, said many declined for security reasons, and others are taking the class without informing their families.
"I am not (fearful) right now," said Shelby. "My husband has been over there a couple of years, and I've heard about his experiences, but I am not right now. That might be different when I get on the plane."
Pashto and Dari have become big business for Mission Essential Personnel. It opened the Pleasanton language academy in 2008 because of the area's concentration of Afghans and the Army's shift of personnel from Iraq to Afghanistan. It has since opened four more schools -- one each in New York and Virginia and two in Southern California.
The largest concentrated population of Afghan descent -- 6,400 people -- is in Alameda County, according to U.S. census data. There are an estimated 79,000 people in the United States with Afghan ancestry. The company estimates only about 3,300 of those would be eligible to work as linguists in Afghanistan -- due either to security or age reasons.
Since 2005, the company has earned just under $1.3 billion from government contracts -- the majority for translation work -- said Whitley, the firm's spokesman.
The company is one of five that train and supply civilian contracted linguists to the Army, said Lt. Col. Tim Beninato, an Army spokesman in Washington, D.C.
"In a wartime environment, the requirement is high (for linguists) because they actively engage with the local population," Beninato said.
The Army employs two types of linguists, those it recruits and enlists as soldiers -- primarily native Afghans in the U.S. on permanent legal status -- and private civilian contracts, said Lt. Col. Frank Demith, an assistant deputy for foreign language and culture for the Army.
Despite the government's need for Dari and Pashto speakers, there are only a few dozen places around the country teaching the two most common languages of Afghanistan. The Bay Area is home to two institutions that have offered courses in Pashto and Dari.
A Google search and an offer from friends living in Dublin first landed Shelby, 28, at Cal State East Bay taking a Pashto course. But the pace of the course gave her only six hours a week of training. At the suggestion of a classmate, Shelby checked out Mission Essential Personnel, which offers Dari and Pashto at a more intense level and at no cost.
The program is aimed at Afghan natives and descendants and offers eight-hour classes five days a week.
"I am treating it like a full-time job," said Shelby, a Boston native.
Cal State East Bay began offering Dari and Pashto last fall and offered an immersion course this past summer but lost its grant from the Department of Education due to budget cuts, said program director Valerie Smith.
Mission Essential Personnel students take an entry test to determine ability. They set their own schedule and attend classes three to five days week.
Zuhal Yusufi, 22, said she and her sister are taking courses and have told their parents, who are supportive.
"I had a job but I quit to do this," said Yusufi, who came the United States 14 years ago and speaks Dari. "Since I am a beginner (in Pashto) and need this job, I need to learn it as fast I can."
"I am definitely the minority," said Shelby about being the only student at the Pleasanton academy without Afghan roots or ties. "Everyone was surprised trying to figure me out at first, but everyone realized I was there for the same reason -- to help me attain a job." | <urn:uuid:6cdbbee6-111c-4afd-b82c-fbd34e6e7e26> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www20.csueastbay.edu/news/2011/10/BayAreaNGDariPashto-103011.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965353 | 1,077 | 1.5 | 2 |
Tia the Tamandua Returns to the Wild
Wednesday, September 12th, 2012
Many readers of The San Pedro Sun will recall a story we printed in volume #22, issue #19 dated May 10, 2012 of a Collard Anteater or Tamandua that was rescued in the San Juan area of San Pedro on May 6th thanks to the quick response of wildlife specialists Vince and Cherie Rose, of ACES, the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary. The suffering tamandua, affectionately dubbed “Tia” (aunt in Spanish) was found in ill health and appeared dehydrated and injured. After contacting the Belize Forest Department and Dr. Isabelle-Paquet from the Belize Wildlife Conservation Network it was decided that the animal would be transported to the new Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Cayo where she was examined by wildlife veterinarian Dr. Isabelle Paquet-Durand. Dr. Paquet-Durand determined that the anteater had a broken middle finger on her left hand, which is the strongest one on the tamandua.
Following the anteaters’ health assessment Ella Baron from TAMANDUA World in the Cayo District took her under her care and on May 8th Baron reported to The Sun that the anteater had a good appetite, which was a good sign. Baron further observed that Tia had injuries to her back leg and major hair loss around her body most likely due to having rope around her body by people who illegally had her as a pet. In a Facebook post on May 11th Baron wrote, “….she [Tia] sleeps where she eats, wakes up periodically to get a few more termites and goes back to sleep…we finished a “fall proof” remodeling of the enclosure for the tamandua/anteater and managed to have her drink all her homeopathic medicines, vitamins – mixed with coconut water, but not in any container, she only drinks it straight from the coconut…from observing her for few days I can see how much damage was done to her, I finally understand where all the little wounds are from- she drags her dislocated leg a bit, and since it was not designed to be dragged- skin is very sensitive and breaks.. I can see a battered tamandua…but she has no anger in her.”
In early June, Baron posted, “…she has now been in our care for almost one month. The broken paw seems much better and a lot of other injuries are healing as well, including small wounds. She is very happy, active- spends her days tearing apart 40-50 lb. termite nests, and then sleeps guarding them and she started developing better movements with her legs.”
Over the next several months Baron remained committed to the rehabilitation of the injured anteater, even traveling as far as Columbia in mid-June to attend a seminar on the rehabilitation of sloth, armadillos and anteaters. Throughout this time Tia’s health continued to improve and slow steps were made to reacquaint her with life in the wild. Baron posted Tia’s progress on her Facebook page and included animated photos of the little anteater that had captured the hearts of many.
Four months later, on September fifth the fully recovered tamandua was released back into the jungle of Cayo where she demonstrated all of the traits a wild anteater needs to possess in order to survive. With photos on Facebook and videos posted on YouTube Baron documented the moment where Tia returned to her proper home, healthy and clearly adept at living in the wild.
Not only is the story of Tia a testimony to successful wildlife rehabilitation, but in the broader scope of things it demonstrates the success of The Belize Wildlife Conservation Network, who collectively work together in wildlife conservation, preservation and rescue. The San Pedro Sun applauds the efforts of ACES/ American Crocodile Education Sanctuary, The Belize Forest Department, Jazmin Anthony Ramos, The Belize Wildlife Conservation Network, the Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic, Dr. Isabelle Paquet-Durand, the Caves Branch Jungle Lodge and especially the one who had the hardest job caring and feeding this hungry little anteater for four months, Ella Baron.
The Collared Anteater is not commonly seen on the island but at times has been reported roaming the streets in the less traveled areas of town as well as the northern area of Ambergris Caye. It is a nocturnal, terrestrial and solitary creature which lives in trees and is found in Central and South America. As its name suggests, it feeds mainly on ants, termites and bees extracted after ripping apart their nests with their fore-claws. The average size of a Collard Anteater is around 23 inches in body length; while the tail would range around 19 inches with an average weight of about 13lbs.
Readers are reminded that it is illegal to keep ANY wildlife for a pet without a permit from the Belize Forest Department. For more information about The Belize Wildlife Conservation Network please visit their website at www.wildlifebelize.com or for information about TAMANDUA World visit www.tamanduafuge.org. | <urn:uuid:89f9bea2-6486-4b0c-b52d-99508f5cc82a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sanpedrosun.com/community-and-society/pets-and-animals/2012/09/12/tia-the-tamandua-returns-to-the-wild/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963596 | 1,074 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Because of the Cosmetic premise of our practice, minor-tooth movement is easy to attain with removable retainers. Although, we refer some cases to specialists, we do employ the technique, Invisalign®. This is a removable technique that uses clear, plastic trays that are fabricated from a model of your teeth and a computer scan.
Dr. Blau was recently interviewed for the following article which appeared in the New York Post on December 4, 2007:
“The Silent, See-Through Smile Makeover
What grown-up person would not be somewhat reluctant to be seen wearing dental braces, with those very visible bands or wires? Fortunately for adults, and for younger people from their late teens onward, there is an orthodontic treatment using an invisible method to straighten teeth and close gaps–and also avoiding the drilling entailed in tooth-straightening by means of veneers and caps. “This treatment even allows you to whiten your teeth while they straighten, without any interruption to your lifestyle,” says Manhattan cosmetic dentist Dr. Bruce B. Blau.
Dr. Blau is speaking of Invisalign®, a treatment that has already been chosen by over 500,000 people and has been approved by the FDA since 1998. It uses the latest 3-D computer technology to fabricate a series of precisely customized, removable aligners that your dentist installs at periodic visits during the course of treatment. At your initial consultation, several impressions are taken from which a series of aligners are created to be used at successive stages. Millimeter by millimeter, these aligners will move your teeth into their new positions. During the process, which lasts from 6 months to a year, you will visit your dentist every 6 to 8 weeks for adjustments and checks on your progress. Typically fees range from $4,500 to $7,000.
Invisalign® has minor disadvantages. It is not the quickest way to straighten teeth: you must remove the aligners before you eat, and thus they are not correcting your teeth 100 percent of the time. Also, after you eat you must carefully clean your teeth every time–a requirement that you may find tedious. (But some people are happy that as a result they indulge in far less casual snacking.)
There are also plenty of positives. As Dr. Blau points out, because you remove aligners before you eat there are no restrictions on the kinds of food you can eat, as might happen with conventional braces. And for the same reason there are no problems with flossing and brushing afterward. Best of all, when you put the aligners back on most people will never notice you’re wearing them.
Straightening your teeth, Dr. Blau reminds us, avoids many potential problems such as sleep disorders, TMD (disorders of the temporomandibular joint in the jaw), excessive wear to the teeth, gum disease, and even the development of wrinkles and lines in the face. A healthy, natural-appearing smile will have a good effect on your sense of self-worth and your interactions with others. It will subtly increase your feelings of youthful vitality, and, as we all know, a good smile has great aesthetic value.
Dr. Blau asks his patients the following questions when they wonder if they are candidates for dental realignment. You can ask them, too:
• Do you have crooked teeth?
• Do you have any noticeable spaces between your teeth?
• Are you missing one or more teeth?
• Does your smile seem too narrow?
• Does your upper lip droop over your teeth, making them appear smaller and darker then they are?
• Are your teeth worn down or flat because your bite is off?
To sum up, ask yourself this:
• What would you like to change about your smile?” | <urn:uuid:63620c7c-ccc9-45af-9dc4-428d14ff7626> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://brucebblaudds.com/invisalign%C2%AE/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955297 | 793 | 1.5 | 2 |
Romania takes steps to protect 250,000 ha of virgin forests
In eco news, Romania takes steps to enhance preservation of her forests. The Minister of Environment and Forests of Romania His Excellency László Borbély stated the Government plans to finalize a legislative act to safeguard 250,000 hectares of untouched woodlands which are home for up to 13,000 species. A Memorandum of Understanding between the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Minister of Environment and Forests is expected to be signed, ensuring the legal protection of the important forests. In addition, a new study of pristine or old growth forests in Romania will be completed by the middle of 2012, reports WWF. A respectful green salute, Your Excellency László Borbély, Romania, and World Wildlife Fund, for your joint efforts to conserve these important ecosystems. May all parts of the precious Earth be saved through our wise and compassionate choices.
UNICEF-supported sanitation and hygiene initiatives improving living conditions in Uganda
In humanitarian news, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) helps improve health in Uganda. The Kyangabukama Village in the Kyenjojo District in western Uganda is one of 16 model villages that have implemented hygiene and sanitation projects supported by UNICEF. These practices, which include careful storage of drinking water and harvesting rainwater, have led to notable improvements in the residents’ living conditions and well-being. Due to this success, the approach is being used in two more Ugandan districts. Our sincere thankfulness, United Nations Children’s Fund, for your commitment to the warm-hearted people of Uganda. May all the country’s citizens be blessed with vibrant and happy futures.
Cold wave claims 7 lives in north India
FN… Cold waves hit northern India. As of Tuesday, December 20, fatalities had risen to 39 as more people, primarily the elderly and the homeless, have succumbed to recent piercing cold in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. As places like Meerut city in Uttar Pradesh experienced a record low of 2.2 degrees Celsius, some schools are being closed until late December. Extremely heavy fog and cold winds have also disrupted both air and road travel, with trains also canceled or delayed. With the weather expected to persist indefinitely, India's Supreme Court has ordered states to provide shelters for the homeless at night during the winter.
Conveying all her love and prayers, Supreme Master Ching Hai asked that our nearby Association members please check to see if any help is needed, requesting that they also go if possible to offer assistance to the most desperate. She added that funds for emergency supplies are available.
With gratefulness for the concerned ruling of India's Supreme Court, we also thank Supreme Master Ching Hai for her attentive concern. Our condolences for the precious lives lost as we pray that such extreme events may be lessened as we strive for more caring stewardship of our environment.
5.0-magnitude quake hits south of the Fiji Islands -- USGS
FN… Earthquakes jolt South Sandwich Islands, Fiji, Indonesia, Nepal, Iran, Argentina, Kermadec Islands, and Peru. On Saturday, December 17, a 5.3-magnitude quake hit just 81 kilometers south of Bristol Island in the South Sandwich Islands, while a 5.0-magnitude temblor struck near Fiji, 290 kilometers southwest of Ndoi Island. On Monday morning, the Sandwich Islands were again rattled by a 5.4-magnitude tremor that hit 81 kilometers northwest of Visokoi Island, as Indonesia’s Sulawesi island was also shaken by an earthquake of magnitude-5.7, 199 kilometers northwest of Palopo. Also on Monday, a 4.6-magnitude quake was felt in Nepal’s Taplejung District as it hit near Mt. Kangchenjunga, and a magnitude-4.6 earthquake jolted Iran's town of Nosratabad in southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province. Meanwhile, Argentina’s northwestern province of Jujuy was rocked by a 4.7-magnitude temblor, which was reportedly felt in Salta Province, 72 kilometers northwest of the epicenter, and the Kermadec Islands were rattled by a 5.3-magnitude quake centered 164 kilometers east of Raoul Island. In central Peru on the same day, residents fled their homes in fear as a tremor measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale set off vehicle and home alarms with glass breaking in some buildings when it struck 18 kilometers east of Lima. Fortunately, there were no initial reports of injuries or damage for any of these seismic disturbances.
Thank Heaven for the safety of those in the affected regions. Our prayers that such potential disasters may be soon minimized through our kinder actions toward all beings as a vegan world.
Rescuers find raft with 15 people after Sea of Okhotsk oil rig wreck
FN... Crew members rescued from sinking oil rig. As a severe storm hit in the Sea of Okhotsk on Sunday, December 18, a Russian oil rig being towed from the Kamchatka Peninsula towards Sakhalin Island began sinking quickly after a 5-meter high wave hit the vessel. The rig's lifeboats were washed away in the waves as well, leaving 67 crew members without any way to escape. Despite the harsh weather conditions and stormy seas, Russia's State Sea Rescue Coordination Center dispatched teams immediately to begin search and rescue efforts. Although 11 have been confirmed perished, another 14 were saved from the icy waters, with searches still ongoing for the remaining crew members.
Our grateful thanks, all rescue team members, for your prompt and courageous efforts. With sincere sympathies for those who have lost loved ones, we pray for the safe recovery of the missing crew members and wish the survivors many cherished moments in the warm company of loved ones.
Russian, Belarusian, Kazakh leaders gather for Eurasian economic summit
FN... Eurasian leaders sign agreements to promote economic integration. As part of an overall goal to create a regional bloc modeled on the European Union, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev concluded a summit on Monday, December 19 with the formal establishment of the Eurasian Economic Commission, 2011. This new organization will be responsible for the next steps of integration to create a single economic space, and will be later tasked with establishing a Eurasian Economic Union. Following the summit, President Medvedev also said that the membership of additional countries would be encouraged.
We respectfully congratulate Your Excellencies on this fruitful meeting toward regional economic integration. May your continued endeavors bring ever more fulfillment, prosperity and peace to fellow citizens in your countries and across the globe.
Eritrea - Sudan - Eritrean journalist freed in Khartoum, Sudanese newspaperwoman detained
FN... Eritrean and Sudanese journalists freed. Editorial writer and Eritrean national Jamal Osman Hamad, who has also been running a political minority party website while working in Sudan, was released on Monday, December 19 following eight weeks in detention. Also released on Monday was Sudanese journalist Ms. Rashan Awshi, who had been working for the newspaper Altayar Arabic Daily.
We are glad for the freedom of both Mr. Hamad and Ms. Awshi. Wishing you many happy reunions with family, colleagues, and friends as we pray for the safety of all media members as they carry out their noble duties of sharing timely and up-to-date information for the good of the public.
Climate change blamed for dead trees in Africa
SAVE OUR PLANET... Rainfall that has diminished by as much as 48% in Africa's Sahel region, which is experiencing the world's most severe long-term drought, has resulted not only in significant tree losses but has led to the extinction of entire species, according to a study reported by US scientists on December 13, 2011.
Barcelona Soccer Star Carlos Puyol Steps Up to Save Orangutans
Spanish soccer champion Carles Puyol lends his support to a campaign on behalf of orangutans, sponsored by the United Nations Great Apes Survival Partnership and the International Animal Rescue, as he calls on the public to help save Indonesian rainforests, the primates' vital habitat.
Faster Than A Speeding Bullet: Photon Camera
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA develop a camera that can render slow-motion images of light waves recorded at the remarkable speed of one trillion frames per second, with the technology intended to benefit many areas of both medicine and industry.
Facebook 'unfriends' coal and 'likes' clean power
SAVE OUR PLANET... In response to a Greenpeace campaign calling on social media network Facebook to implement clean energy at its primarily coal-powered data centers, Facebook reported a partnership on December 15, 2011 to promote sustainable energy and to develop programs that encourage network users toward similar decisions locally.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to build Ethiopian AIDS clinic
Following the establishment of a charitable children's center in Cambodia, the birth country of their eldest son Maddox, award-winning Hollywood actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are now founding a medical clinic in Ethiopia, which is daughter Zahara's native land.
Rapid rise in wildfires in large parts of Canada?
SAVE OUR PLANET... In the December 2011 issue of American Naturalist, a study by US and German scientists concludes that continued climate change effects could cause regions of Canadian forests to reach a tipping point, after which the areas consumed by fires as well as the size of the blazes would become larger and larger.
UN ends sanctions on Libya central bank
The United Nations Security Council officially lifts previous sanctions on Libya's Central Bank, releasing more than US$30 billion in funds that will go toward rebuilding a peaceful nation.
Work starts on first international science and education centre
science and education center in Âu Lạc (Vietnam) is being constructed in the city of Quy Nhơn of Bình Định province, to serve as a hub for the country’s leading scientists in sharing knowledge and expanding networks of international cooperation.
Nebraska Firm Recalls Ground Beef Products Due To Possible E. Coli O157:H7 Contamination
WARNING NEWS... On December 16, 2011, the US Department of Agriculture's Food and Safety Inspection Service announced a Class I recall with high risk to human health for nearly 41,000 pounds of ground beef contaminated with E. coli, a bacteria that can cause kidney damage and even death.
Azerbaijani President awarded by Serbian foundation
The Serbian Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation honors Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with the Worthy Friend of Balkans award, in recognition of his contributions that include implementing humanitarian projects in the Balkan states as well as promoting intercultural and religious appreciation.
RSPCA: Handbag Dogs Born To Suffer
Wishing to address the physical problems found in all 50 of the UK's most popular purebred canines, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) launches a campaign to raise awareness about the suffering endured by pedigreed dogs that are bred for looks only.
Sino Pec donates funds to build up 19 clinics and 1 hospital in Myanmar
As part of China National Petroleum Corporation's US$6 million assistance program to Myanmar (Burma), the state-owned corporation donates US$750,000 for the construction of a hospital and 19 health clinics to serve the Burmese people. | <urn:uuid:0c9b34c5-664d-4a25-a58e-7913ea8206d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://suprememastertv.com/nwn/?wr_id=1582&page=1&url=link1_0&eps_no=1924&show=&flag= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946534 | 2,424 | 1.75 | 2 |
This guest review was contributed by J. Robert Parks.
It would be hard to find two more culturally distinct figures than J.M. Barrie and Alfred Kinsey. One was a Victorian, English dandy, the other was a 20th-century, Midwestern pragmatist. One was a playwright, the other a scientist and professor. One lived in the realm of the magical, the other in the laboratory of cold, somewhat hard facts. And while both were writers, Barrie is most famous for the enduringly popular Peter Pan tale, while Kinsey is best known for the popular-in-its-time Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Though the two men might be entirely different, their respective bio-pics provide an illuminating comparison on what makes a good film.
Finding Neverland is set in London 1903. Another of Barrie’s plays has opened disastrously, and his patron and impresario (played by Dustin Hoffman) is encouraging him (good naturedly) to find a hit. Barrie (Johnny Depp) is more interested in playing in the park, where he entertains children with his pantomime and by dancing with his dog. There, he meets the four Davies boys: George, Jack, Michael, and Peter. Peter is the most serious of them, not having gotten over the death of his father, but all of them, including their mother (played by the always enchanting Kate Winslet) are entranced by Barrie’s evocation of a fantastic place.
One of the great things about Finding Neverland is how it moves from the realistic to the magical. One moment, everyone’s playing Cowboys and Indians in the back yard, and the next moment director Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball) seamlessly places us in a gorgeous, artificial set. Forster does the same thing as we see Barrie writing Peter Pan from his experiences with the Davies boys. In a spectacularly gorgeous scene, a bedtime moment where the boys are jumping on their beds turns into the genesis of Peter Pan flying through the air. The movie relies on the old chestnut that writers find all their material from their own lives, but Forster and writers Allan Knee and David Magee use the device so naturally that it rings true.
The writing in Finding Neverland is sharp and witty, as you’d expect from a movie based on a play. In one scene, as Peter Davies has finally come out of his shell and written his own work, he remarks, “It’s a little bit of silliness,” and Barrie quickly responds, “I should hope so.” It helps enormously that Johnny Depp is the essence of charm. Imagine combining his Buster Keaton impersonation from Benny & Joon with his sashaying performance in Pirates of the Caribbean. And his tender scenes with Kate Winslet, who’s always fine as an alluring free spirit, are marvelous. The boys are perfectly played, and Julie Christie has a small role as the mean, old mother. Only an unnecessary coda breaks the spell. It’s as if Forster wanted to bring us back from Neverland, lest we never leave the theater.
I was anxious to leave the theater where Kinsey was playing. Not that the bio-pic is entirely wretched. Liam Neeson is strong as the famous sex researcher, and Laura Linney gives her usual fine performance as his long-suffering wife. And the supporting cast of Peter Sarsgaard, Chris O’Donnell, and Oliver Platt is up to the task. But Kinsey fails where Finding Neverland succeeds. It makes the mistake of trying to cover all of Kinsey’s life, from his childhood where he (of course) had issues with his domineering father (played as a straw man by John Lithgow) to his romance and marriage to his wife Clara to his discovery that there was (gasp) more to sex than he first realized to his fame and acclaim to his persecution by the powers that be (including the pompous, racist, homophobic Tim Curry) to his final and teary-eyed vindication. That’s a lot to cover in a two-hour movie, and so we glide along, hitting the high points and admiring Kinsey’s cavalier approach but never getting at the essence of the man.
Kinsey does not shy away from the controversial aspects of the man’s life–his testy relationship with his son, his researchers’ uncomfortable experiences with his own theories, and his apparent coddling of a pedophile-but it presents them in ways (briefly and out of context) that manipulate us into ignoring those facts. Yes, he didn’t get along with his son, but look at all these amazing things he did. True, his own “open” ideas on sexuality proved disastrous for his assistants, but look at the great things he did. Well, it does appear he used gross child sexual abuse as a research tool, but look at the marvelous things he did. It’s like when Fox News brings out the token liberal and then claims to be fair and balanced. This is not a fair and balanced portrayal.
“So what?” you might ask. Finding Neverland certainly isn’t revealing any of Barrie’s warts. But Finding Neverland isn’t trying to be a biographical portrait. It’s much more interested in the Peter Pan myth and how the fantastic in art can inspire us to dreams in our own lives. Kinsey, on the other hand, is an historical document, one that’s attempting to shape our understanding of a pivotal figure of the 20th-century. But director Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters) has an even broader agenda: to fire off a huge salvo in the culture wars by declaring Kinsey’s work “life saving.” Near the end of the film, after Neeson has enjoyed a Schindler’s List moment by crying over the people he couldn’t help, he meets an old lesbian, who declares (as if to the audience), “Things have gotten so much better since the publication of your book….You’ve saved my life, sir.” Now we do like our propaganda to be subtle, don’t we? As my friend Garth put it as we came out of the theater, “I feel like we should go watch Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm,” a movie that provides a more realistic assessment of Kinsey’s work.
On the other hand, as I came out of Finding Neverland, I wanted to write my own play or take a walk by the lake or have a long conversation with a friend. It’s a film that inspires you in the best ways. I heartily recommend it.
Finding Neverland, four stars; Kinsey, two stars | <urn:uuid:9b073e73-7158-4473-bb26-93cffff19e84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lookingcloser/2004/11/j-robert-parks-on-finding-neverland-and-kinsey/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972914 | 1,453 | 1.671875 | 2 |
September 29, 2011
PARENTS' APPEAL RIGHTS WHEN A CHILD PROTECTION AGENCY REMOVES A CHILD FROM THEIR HOME
By: Susan Price, Senior Attorney
You asked what states give parents a bill of rights or similar explanation of appeal rights at the beginning of an abuse or neglect investigation. You also asked (1) what appeal rights Connecticut parents have when the Department of Children and Families (DCF) removes a child from their home due to charges of parental abuse or neglect and (2) how these appellate procedures work.
Federal law requires state child protection agencies to have a process allowing appeals from a substantiated abuse or neglect complaint (1996 Child Abuse and Prevention Treatment Act of 1996, codified at 42 USC § § 5101 et seq.).
Based on our Internet search, we found two states – Maryland and Tennessee – whose child protection agencies provide suspected abusers, including parents, written notice of their appeal rights at the beginning of their investigation.
Maryland's Department of Social Services distributes fliers to those involved in child protection services cases. The fliers describe agency findings that can be challenged through an administrative process followed by a court appeal. Tennessee's Department of Children's Services gives parents a comprehensive handbook when it opens a case. Among other things, the handbook sets out the agency's administrative review process and specifies what rulings can be appealed and how to file a court challenge.
Connecticut is among the states, including Maine and Maryland, that provide handouts when a case is opened using a “Frequently Asked Questions” format that generally informs recipients that they have appeal rights. Each agency determination that can be appealed contains a description of the procedure for doing so.
An accused parent in Connecticut has several appeal options that he or she can pursue before a DCF finding of abuse or neglect becomes final. First, he or she may request an internal agency review of the case. If dissatisfied with its outcome, he or she can request an administrative hearing, and, if the hearing officer does not rule in his or her favor ask the DCF commissioner to reconsider. Alternatively, the accused may go directly to Superior Court to challenge the hearing officer's decision.
Except in extraordinary circumstances, the agency's decision becomes final if the accused misses any filing deadline.
APPEAL RIGHTS WHEN DCF REMOVES A CHILD FROM HOME
A parent alleged to have perpetrated abuse or neglect that results in DCF's removing a child from his or her home can take several steps to challenge that action. He or she is entitled to an internal agency review if a written request is filed within 15 days after DCF places its recommended finding in the mail or delivers it to the accused in person (Conn. Agency Reg. § 17a-101k-4). The accused has 30 days after the agency's ruling on the review request is mailed or received to file a written request for an administrative appeal (Conn. Agency Reg. § 17a-101k-6).
When DCF receives a timely appeal request, it undertakes a prehearing review, which the accused does not attend (CGS § 17a-101k-6). The department must reverse the investigator's recommended finding if it concludes that the charges have not been adequately substantiated. If so, it notifies the accused and the case goes no further. Otherwise, the agency assigns the case to a hearing officer and notifies the accused of the time and place of the hearing. The notice must include a written explanation of his or her rights and responsibilities.
The accused may review his or her file at any point before the hearing. Factual mistakes in such things as names and addresses can be corrected, but information about the nature of the case cannot The accused may submit documents for inclusion in the file to correct information he or she perceives to be untrue (CGS § 17a-28(m)).
The hearing officer has 30 days from the conclusion of the hearing to prepare a memorandum of decision. The memorandum must include the:
1. names of those present at the hearing;
2. provisions of law, regulation, and policy applicable to the case;
3. findings of fact and conclusions of law; and
4. hearing officer's reasoning for making the decision.
DCF has the burden of showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the abuse or neglect determination is supported by the case record as a whole (CGS § 17a-101k (j)). When the hearing officer reverses DCF's decision, he or she directs the department to revise its records to reflect the reversal. When the decision is to uphold the agency's position, DCF must provide the accused with the written decision and an explanation of how he or she can (1) request the commissioner to reconsider the decision or (2) appeal to the Superior Court.
REQUEST FOR RECONSIDERATION
Any party that participated in the substantiation hearing who is aggrieved by the hearing officer's decision can ask the commissioner to reconsider, but is not required to do so. If an aggrieved person wants to pursue this option, he or she must submit a written request within 15 days after the hearing officer's decision was mailed or personally delivered. The only grounds that can be raised are that:
1. an error of fact or law should be corrected;
2. new evidence has been discovered that materially affects the merits of the case, which for good reason was not presented at the substantiation hearing; or
3. there is other good cause for reconsideration.
The commissioner has 25 days to issue a ruling. If she does not act in the allotted time, the hearing officer's decision becomes final (Conn. Agencies Reg. § 17a-101k-11).
An accused parent (appellant) who disagrees with the agency's final decision can file an appeal in Superior Court within 30 days of the mailing or receipt of the decision. He or she can ask the court to block the implementation of the DCF hearing officer's decision until the court proceedings are concluded.
Appeal procedures and legal standards are governed by the state's Administrative Procedures Act (CGS § 17a-101k (13)). Under that law, the court can only consider material in the DCF hearing record. This consists of:
1. written notices related to the case;
2. all petitions, pleadings, motions, and intermediate rulings, if any;
3. evidence the hearing officer received or considered;
4. questions and offers of proof, objections, and rulings affecting both;
5. the official tape recording of the proceedings; and
6. the agency's final decision.
The court must uphold DCF's decision unless it finds that the appellant's substantial rights were prejudiced because the administrative findings, inferences, conclusions, or decisions are clearly erroneous in light of the reliable, probative, and substantial evidence contained in the record as a whole (CGS § 4-183(j)). | <urn:uuid:f741e1e0-27c5-4fb9-aa04-e82694004b2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cga.ct.gov/2011/rpt/2011-R-0332.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943569 | 1,429 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Managing Margins: Net Herd Replacement Costs
Nov 10, 2012
Many dairy managers are culling cows at a heavier rate to make room for heifers. Unfortunately, this strategy can backfire.
By Steve Bodart and Matt Lange, Lookout Ridge Consulting
Having a barn or pen full of heifers is a proud testament to your reproduction management and genetic selection. Having a barn or pen full of more heifers than your operation needs, however, is a drain on operational performance and profitability.
With strong cull prices nationwide and excess heifers, many managers are culling cows at a heavier rate to make room for all those heifers. Unfortunately, this strategy can increase an operation’s net herd replacement cost and decrease profitability.
Knowing and understanding your net herd replacement cost and managing this margin can help you improve your operation’s performance, improve cash flow and increase profitability. Net herd replacement cost/cwt. is the difference between the cost of a replacement heifer and the value of the replaced cull cow. If a dairy has a replacement cost of $2.50/cwt. with cull revenue of $1.10/cwt., the operation’s net herd replacement cost is $1.40/cwt. The herd replacement cost is not the cost of raising a heifer but rather her value as a replacement compared to her cull value. There are a number of ways to manage this margin and reduce its impact on total cost of production.
Establishing a target replacement rate will enable you to benchmark your performance based on a number of key areas. For a 1,000-cow dairy (dry cows included) with a calving interval of 24 months and a replacement rate of 30% with a 8% loss on heifers that do not make it into the milking stream, it needs approximately 648 heifers to maintain herd size. Heifers in excess of this number that enter the milking stream will increase the replacement rate. The first step in identifying ways to reduce additional heifers that can increase replacement costs is to establish a benchmark for your replacement rate and value your heifers for their productive life less their cull value.
Increasing milk production can also reduce net herd replacement costs, but this is just a small piece to realizing a true reduction in cost. Reducing the number of involuntary culls to a herd will provide greater opportunity for managers to determine when and what cows will be culled. Gaining control over culling decisions can increase overall milk production and ultimately decrease net herd replacement costs.
High cull prices can reduce net herd replacement costs as well. For over the last 20 months, cull prices have been strong, which has helped shield operations from high herd replacement costs, even in herds with over a 45% replacement rate. While future cull values look strong, managers have little control over the marketplace and values may decrease. Managers can, however, establish sound voluntarily cull protocols to reduce dead cow numbers. Proactively culling can convert death loss into a positive in the cull cow revenue stream, thus reducing net herd replacement costs.
Reducing your net herd replacement costs is critical to lowering your overall cost of production and improving your profitability. It is essential to establish a target replacement rate, identify those heifers destined for the milk line and those that can be sold, reducing your number of cull cows (especially those prior to second lactation and those less than 60 days in milk), increasing milk production, and turning death loss into cull revenue. Formulating a strategy that makes efficient use of your heifers, you will have a full barn that will be a testament to both your management and your profitability.
Steve Bodart’s dairy expertise began as a Livestock Production Specialist with the Co-op Equity Association, where he managed dairy rations and feed programs for Land O’Lakes. He continued his career with Land O’Lakes from 1989 to 1999 as the Dairy Business Trainer, and then the Dairy Business Specialist. Steve trained and provided dairy financial and consulting services and performed expansion and facility design, inventory, budget and operations management. In 1999, Steve became the CFO of Emerald Dairy, LLC, where he developed and managed several pieces of the operation and conducted direct consulting with select large dairy businesses.
In 2001 Steve joined Lookout Ridge Consulting (formerly AgStar Family Business Consulting) as a Senior Business Analyst, and in 2004 became a Senior Agribusiness Consultant and Dairy Industry Leader. Steve has a deep understanding of the family dairy business and large producer operations. Contact him at: Office: 715-688-6364; Cell: 715-928-2946 or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:82460db6-2979-4777-80f9-e1774a276239> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agweb.com/agday/blog/fiscal_fitness/managing_margins_net_herd_replacement_costs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935352 | 978 | 1.828125 | 2 |
The State of Transcription: Part 1
Should transcription functionality be fully automated, fully human-performed, or a hybrid of these approaches?
In an earlier No Jitter blog post, I discussed the potential benefits that transcription can provide for enterprise communications, such as helping us consume content more quickly (without compromising retention) and being able to better access and analyze the content.
In this and the following two posts, I discuss the state of transcription today. In the final post that I’ll write on this subject, I'll address where I believe the market is going and some key areas of innovation that can help us derive more benefit from recorded audio and video content.
First, let's consider the common use cases for transcription today: voicemail, meeting and medical transcription and closed captioning. The latter two don't directly relate to UC but I'll touch on each briefly because I think there are some interesting lessons to be learned.
Note that this isn't a completely exhaustive list, e.g., I don't address uses of transcription in surveillance applications.
A few years ago, voicemail transcription seemed to garner a fair amount of attention in the media (in UC industry press, anyway). Users touted the benefits of scanning message transcriptions received via SMS or email to get the gist of the original voicemail and determine the priority for required action.
As with speech recognition tasks in the contact center, there is a spectrum of automation applied to this task, enabling vendors to balance the trade-offs between the four key considerations in transcription: cost, accuracy, turnaround time and privacy.
* Fully automated: some providers, including, most notably, Google, use speech recognition and natural language processing algorithms to interpret voicemails. In Google's case, words are color-coded to indicate transcription confidence where lighter text indicates less confidence. While fast and inexpensive, at least on a marginal basis, this approach (somewhat famously) lacks accuracy. According to a recent study by industry analyst Bill Meisel, these fully-automated transcription engines tend to achieve accuracy percentages in the mid-to-high eighties (although these scores might be a bit pessimistic because of the way errors are counted).
* 100% human: another approach relies completely on humans to transcribe messages. Some vendors stream voicemails to transcriptionists as the messages are being left by the caller, allowing for near-real time conversion. While ostensibly solving for turnaround time and accuracy, the downside of this approach is the cost associated with so much human involvement.
* Semi-automated: some vendors (e.g., Nuance through their Jott and SpinVox acquisitions last year) offer a partially automated approach, akin to the agent-assisted IVR processes pioneered over the past few years by start-ups such as Unveil and Spoken. The goal with this approach, of course, is for humans to edit system-generated transcriptions. The human corrections are fed back into the speech recognition engine to improve its accuracy over time. This approach seems to provide the best balance of cost, accuracy and turn-around time for many enterprise use cases.
Although overall voicemail volumes are decreasing in some key enterprise segments, the interest in transcription of these messages is clearly on the rise. Over time, semi-automated transcription is most likely to win out for enterprise communications, where a few dollars a month per user can be easily justified for the productivity and response-time improvements. For consumer applications, the fully automated solutions such as Google Voice voicemail transcription will dominate, as these can scale at the price point that most consumers are comfortable with.
As analyst Dan Miller points out, to drive consumer adoption those marketing these services should attempt to redirect consumer focus from accuracy to usefulness. Consumers will come to accept that good enough is just that, rather than hoping for free or very low cost transcriptions that are 100% accurate.
Since fully-automated voicemail transcriptions won't be very accurate any time soon, marketers must reposition the services. Perhaps it makes more sense to describe these consumer-oriented services under a brand name that speaks to a message's gist or essence rather than a transcription, which implies a certain level of accuracy.
The evolution of the voicemail transcription market teaches us (once again) that managing user perceptions can be as important as the effectiveness of core technology itself.
(to be continued next week) | <urn:uuid:9b8607c6-6ac0-4bff-820c-37261ad88c80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nojitter.com/blog/225702864 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946542 | 899 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The Good Earth(1937)
The story of a farmer in China: a story of humility and bravery. His father gives Wang Lung a freed slave as wife. By diligence and frugality the two manage to enlarge their property. But then a famine forces them to leave their land and live in the town. However it turns out to be a blessing in disguise for them...
This is an early re-release trailer for the movie. | <urn:uuid:f6689e16-2669-45ce-a6ac-4d5dc43d5183> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.retrojunk.com/content/index/36669/the-good-earth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963317 | 90 | 1.59375 | 2 |
October 12, 2007 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Role of the Project Manager
Healthy Tension-building Between Project Managers and Architects
By Robert McIlree
A gentleman on my blogroll inquired about numerous topics, and since the issue of IT governance generally gives me a headache and temporarily causes me to rant, slobber, and develop unflattering facial tics, I’ll hold my fire on that topic for another time and work the issues between architects and project managers. Specifically, said individual is asking about developing a healthy tension between architects and PMs. Here’s my buck-and-a-half take:
Let’s begin from a simple premise: architects specify and design, and PMs have to plan and execute projects from them. Although I have functioned in both roles, I don’t to both simultaneously because its impossible to do both of them well in that mode. I also agree with other EA bloggers’ assertions that good IT PMs primarily have an IT background with significant business-facing exposure as a side skill.
Now, let’s look at this interaction of specify/design and plan/execute in a bit more detail. The architect has the following general responsibilities to the PM and project teams:
- The design and specifications have to be tactical and buildable. By that, I mean that the design must be clearly communicated and understandable such that action can be taken by others - the PM and project team.
- In whatever form architectural documentation takes, and this can range from prose, functional specs, UML models, tool-generated diagrams and documents, etc., the design and specifications must be clear and executable by project teams. I’ve seen too many ‘architectures’ that amounted to simply being ‘plans to do more planning.’
- Architects make themselves available to PMs and team leads for review, further explanation, and in some cases, defense of the design and specifications prior to the majority of the project substantially starting work.
- Designs and specifications adhere to existing standards within the organization and architects must petition for exceptions and approval from management when necessary. It is unwise to leave exception petitioning only to the PM, I’ll explain that in a minute.
- Architects avail themselves throughout projects executing their designs and specs to assist in scope changes or other technical issues that may arise. The interaction can vary widely depending on what PM methodologies are being used and the architect is assisting the project as a technical advisor, not as a development team member.
- Architects understand that they are responsible for design and specification, not project execution or outcome.
- Architects also understand that the PM is responsible for appropriate risk management and mitigation on the project, and assists with that (usually via design/specification) when necessary.
Those are the basics for the architect with respect to projects. Now let’s look at what the project manager buys into in this deal:
- The project manager engages the architect from the beginning, during the project charter phase, at a minimum as a subject matter expert (SME) and more often as the initial technical lead prior to development.
- Project managers are up-front with architects with the architect’s role in the project plan. No surprises or hidden agendas later on - PMs are factoring the architectural efforts into their formal plans or they don’t and are up front with architects about it.
- The PM engages the architects for all major exceptions to the architect’s design and specifications that arise during project execution. PMs are not empowered to make these decisions on their own, but partner with architects and team leads to evaluate and present exceptions to established technical standards to whatever organizational body makes the final decision.
- PMs utilize architects during the project for clarifications and review of project deliverables and other project work produced. Unless explicitly stated and agreed up-front, architects are not to be viewed or used as development or testing resources on projects.
- PMs do not unilaterally alter, or authorize the alteration, of design and specification during project execution without the architect’s input and recommendations.
- PMs ensure that their leads and project teams understand, and are comfortable with, the architect’s design and specifications before the majority of the project work begins. If they aren’t, the PM facilitates review of the architect’s work with the architect and project teams such that clarity to all is achieved.
From these two lists, the areas where architects and PMs intersect can breed a bit of tension, but the ‘healthy’ part of the tension is the intersection of accountability between the two..design/specify (and in some cases, defend) for the architect, and understand/execute/deliver for the project manager. If the two set and hold proper expectations for each other, the correct tension that develops is that each excels further at what they’re tasked to do, and can develop and maintain healthy respect for the other’s work.
Robert McIlree is a consultant and university lecturer/speaker specializing in enterprise architecture and project management. His blog can be found at http://enterprisearchitect.typepad.com/.
No comments yet. | <urn:uuid:d5d121e4-359f-4c3b-b893-526277a928bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pmhut.com/healthy-tension-building-between-project-managers-and-architects | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940761 | 1,085 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Media shouldn’t play judge: Omar
Jammu, March 23
He said this while addressing a distinguished audience at Royal Retreat after launching “Jammu Tribune”, a daily pull-out of The Tribune.
Omar said, “There are so many examples before us where media passes judgments and the facts ultimately prove differently. This is the point where the shoe pinches. I don’t think the truth gives us sleepless nights. It is the passing of judgments without ascertaining facts, and biased projection of reports that give us sleepless nights.”
The Chief Minister said the main reason for The Tribune’s fair and objective coverage was that it was managed by a trust and not by an individual or a family. “This is the reason that this newspaper has been able to withstand various pulls and pressures and any sort of individual desire to steer it in a particular direction,” he observed.
Governor NN Vohra said it was not the role of the media to become investigators, prosecutors or judges, all within half an hour.
Elaborating on the relevance of the print media in the age of TV and Internet, the Governor said a serious reader of a newspaper could expand the limits of his understanding and look into the near future, whether it was economic analysis, security analysis, commentary on defence or educational scene.
“The essential importance of the print media, notwithstanding what happens in the realm of electronic media in terms of speed, is that it provides serious, prudent, well-considered analysis and commentary on events, even on day-to-day events sometimes, but particularly on events that are not day-to-day,” he said.
He said it was not the job of the media to draw conclusions, tarnish anybody’s image, castigate personalities or run down institutions.
Justice (retd) SS Sodhi, Tribune Trustee, recounted the history of the newspaper and how it had shaped Independent India. He recalled how The Tribune was the favourite newspaper of Mahatma Gandhi.
Remembering the great visionary Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, founder of The Tribune, he said, “He conceived this newspaper. As a social and political reformer, he was far ahead of his time. The guiding principles he envisaged for The Tribune was of being an independent and fearless newspaper free from any sectarian, political or commercial bias.”
“Looking back, we can claim with pride that it has been an effective watchdog for the people at large,” he said.
Welcoming the dignitaries, Raj Chengappa, Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune, said the newspaper looked forward to expanding its coverage of the state and to cover major events without fear or favour.
He said his visits to the state and interaction with the people and leaders has revealed that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is on the cusp of a major transformation. “Its people are no more willing to be locked in the past. Now, there is a visible desire to move forward without looking back. An exciting future is opening out for the state and The Tribune, by expanding its coverage of Jammu and Kashmir, is committed to keeping the people of the state informed and updated on the trials and tribulations of this great movement forward. Indeed, there is a new dawn visible on the horizon,” he said.
Sanjay Hazari, General Manager of the Tribune Trust, offered a vote of thanks to the guests. SS Mehta and Naresh Mohan, Trustees of the Tribune Trust, also participated in the function.
First Lady Usha Vohra, Chairman of the Legislative Council Amrit Malhotra, ministers Abdul Rahim Rather, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Ghulam Hassan Mir, RS Chib, Sham Lal Sharma, Abdul Gani Malik, SS Slathia, Political Adviser to CM Devender Sing Rana, Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda, Vice-Chancellor of Jammu University Prof MPS Ishar, Chief Post Master General, J&K Circle, John Samuel, senior officers, leaders of various political leaders, mediapersons and prominent citizens attended the function. | <urn:uuid:275284be-076c-44ed-b9e9-21d098b11c36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120324/main1.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963212 | 874 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Historian Jack Lamar Mayfield takes us back to the days before the Civil War broke out when fights among students at the University of Mississippi became more common in the days leading up to the war as tensions began to rise. (January 21, 2011, Page 3B)
Concerns are growing over the time it takes for autopsies to be performed by the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Jackson. Some families are waiting more than a week to get their loved one’s body returned home for the funeral and 30 to 60 days for the report to be mailed so they can collect insurance money to help pay for the funeral. (January 14, 2011, Page 1A)
Harry Sneed, a local businessman and former president of both the local Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Foundation, writes a guest column calling on local officials to work quickly and efficiently so as not to miss an opportunity to expand local health care services through growth of Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi. (December 21, 2010, Page 4)
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is investigating an illegal dump in Lafayette County where asbestos was found in the rubble of several condemned duplexes that were dumped and buried on property located on County Road 303.
In November, Lafayette County Solid Waste manager Bobby Jones received a complaint the property was being used as an illegal dumping ground for five old condemned duplexes that were torn down and dumped on the property. When Jones went to the property to investigate, he also discovered other construction debris — mattresses, hundreds of tires, concrete, wood, shingles, pipes and other unknown chemical containers.
MDEQ sent a letter to the property owner, Braxton Comer, earlier this month advising him to cease dumping any solid waste at the site immediately and requested him to come to Jackson on Dec. 29 for administration hearing to discuss the allegations. (December 16, 2010, Page 1A)
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, heading into his final year in office, has submitted his annual Executive Budget Recommendations to members of the State Legislature. Editor Don Whitten notes that some of the numbers involving budget cuts are lower than anticipated, but there are expected to be battles in several areas before the FY 2012 budget is eventually adopted. (November 19, 2010, Page 4A)
Peter Kondos writes to give his take on why so many voters plan on voting for change in the Nov. 2 midterm elections, while Gloria Pettus writes to call for a No vote on the local bond issue to keep from increasing taxes. (October 21, 2010, Page 4)
More attorneys need to offer their time to provide pro bono — or free — services to the poor.
That’s just one of several recommendations outlines in the recently released report from the Access to Justice Commission which summarizes findings of five public hearings held around Mississippi.
Stories of courage and honor surround the Yankee’s occupation in the College Hill area after Gen. Ulysses S. Grant crossed the Tallahatchie River near Abbeville and went on to Oxford.
Grant’s second in command was Gen. William T. Sherman. He had crossed the Tallahatchie at Wyatt’s Crossing, just to the west of Abbeville, and had moved his 30,000 troops into the area around College Hill. (September 10, 2010, Page 3B)
William H. Morris isn’t a professional photographer. He’s just a man with a camera and a knack for taking pictures that capture the spirit of his alma mater, the University of Mississippi, Oxford and the people who call it home.
More than 20 years of photographs are what fills Morris’ new coffee-table book, “Ole Miss at Oxford.” The self-published hardcover book contains 300 full-color photographs on 232 pages. See a few of those photos in today’s Oxford Living. (September 3, 2010, Page 1B)
Assistant News Editor Anne Pringle recalls years and years of tailgating, whether outside Mississippi Memorial Stadium in Jackson, out of the backs of cars in the Grove at Ole Miss or in the current “tent city” style all over the UM campus as she and other family members get ready for another season of Rebel football – and tailgating. (August 26, 2010, Page 4) | <urn:uuid:4543abb0-7bcc-4746-b371-ed0cc3143cb6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oxfordeagle.com/places/jackson/page/4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960924 | 898 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Linguists within our midst will recognize the word “no” in several languages. I of course headed straight to the internet for clarification. Thus, we have no written in English, Spanish, Finish, Portuguese, Dutch, and German—not necessarily in that order. What sparked this little lesson in “no” today was a casual reading of the Financial Times; it appears the lack of a common political culture may be about to finally catch-up to that little experiment in centralizing control of people’s lives that is often referred to as the single currency. The serfs seem to be rising up against the all powerful politicos. How sweet it is!
We have been telling our clients for some time the fate of the euro rests as much or more now on politics, as it does on economics. But because of the monolithic singularity with which the political elites approach the future of the single currency experiment (SCE for short), the core political will and opposition to this multi-headed beast based in Brussels by the average sovereign citizen residing in Europe. The elites would have us believe there is no such thing as a sovereign citizen; we are all one big happy collective European family; or at least that be their dream. But there are such individuals out there—real rugged independent individualists alive and well in Europe; we know because we receive emails from them when they decide to leave bunkers now and then; seems now many are emerging from their bunkers at the same time and rising to the surface to be heard.
Ms Merkel is hearing their voices. According to the Financial Times, a recent poll in January showed that 68 percent of Germans lacked trust in the euro. Already, some within her own party have taken action to tie her hands on any proposed bailout. Her sovereign citizens seem to be making it quite clear for a political animal like Angela to hear: Feel free to continue to lead the eurozone, but that’s your goal, you won’t be leading Germany much longer.
It is not just Germany, a block seems to be forming among the three rich northern states of Europe—Germany, Netherlands, and Finland. The taxpayers in these countries have had enough and are making that clear. We often think about Germany’s views, but interestingly the Financial Times reported it this way today in a great piece written by Peter Spiegel and Quentin Peel [our emphasis]:
As nervous as Ms Merkel may be, her standing is relatively safe compared with that of her Dutch and Finnish counterparts, whom officials say have occasionally become even more strident than Germany in closed-door negotiations as their political fortunes have waned.
“The Finns and the Dutch have become terrible bedfellows,” says one person involved in the negotiations.
So, the guys that are funding this little experiment are becoming weary.
The Greeks—those left and unable to sail off scot free into the sunset—are in high dudgeon. To use the vernacular—they are really pissed off! Already they are sick of austerity, which looks to be the state of things as far as the eye can see. But they aren’t taking it sitting down, as you well know if you watch the news. Many Greek citizens are refusing to pay the exorbitant increase in fees levied upon them, effectively by the European Union and the IMF.
Soaring fees hit the Greek sovereign citizen just as average income there has plunged by around 20% and inflation has doubled since the recession started, as reported by the Financial Times. The big push not to pay highway tolls is now weaving its way into boycotting rising electricity bills. “Damn you Greeks’ tighten your belts and stop whining,” is the effective response from the Eurozone and IMF. Likely a prescription we all need to heed to a greater or lesser degree no matter where we live. But, that dog won’t hunt in Greece as evidenced by daily violent and powerful protest that show the country is very close to becoming ungovernable. Can you say anarchy? Commitments to contractual obligations and creepy anarchy don’t usually make for good bedfellows.
Ireland…Holy smoke! Is there any better example in history of how badly and rapidly a government (added by financial alchemy) can screw the pooch? Well maybe, if we think of the Darien scheme initiated in the 1690s next door in Scotland; a place where part of my ancestry flowed from. The scheme so weakened the country it allowed the stinking Redcoats (apologies given) to effectively pave it over, crushed the peeps, so taxes could be extracted on the world’s truly precious commodity—scotch.
Given the other part to my gene pool came from Ireland, I have some inkling about how they might feel. My Irish side is what leaks out into these pages each day—fight first and ask questions later. It has gotten me into much trouble over the years, as you can imagine, but as they say: “You can run from my gene pool but you cannot hide.” The average Irish citizen has to be spitting mad and likely searching continuously to find a banker that he can punch in the mouth. I know I would. This isn’t normally the breed that likes to be told what to do by the EU given the scorched earth policy left for them to deal with. Those left are likely regretting that “no” vote that Brussels so insidiously turned into a “yes.” Common culture? Yeah—sure!
[Note: Black Swan Capital will soon be conducting its distillery tour in Scotland and penning our daily tasting notes, sending a bottle of scotch each day to a lucky reader, and thinking about such minor things as economics along the way; if we can clear our heads of the wee drams we might imbibe. If there are any readers in the area, we would be more than happy to organize a small conference to meet you and discuss some of global macro views going forward; let us know. It would be great to meet you.]
Added to this nasty elixir of austerity pain, we wake to the downgrade of Spanish debt this morning. Just yesterday it seemed analysts far and wide were high on Spain as they were taking to ingesting the tough austerity medicine. Maybe so, but does it matter?
This Spain downgrade comes on the heels of Portugal’s effective announcement yesterday it will need a bailout in order to keep the game of musical chairs in play.
Spain 10-year Benchmark Yield:
Portugal 10-year Benchmark Yield:
Greece 10-year Benchmark Yield:
Ireland 10-year Benchmark Yield:
Because of my call on the dollar rallying this year, and the euro getting hit again, many have written to tell me how stupid and idiotic I am. The US is slipping down the rat hole, is the effective nature of their missives. “And by the way Jack, the euro is soaring too in case you didn’t notice.” Well, I did notice. And my clients have noticed and are not happy about that—rightly so.
But, keep in mind, successful investing isn’t a sprint; it is a marathon. Making good money “over time” is what it’s all about; it seems to me. Unfortunately, during that “over time” period one may likely get hammered for a while. But if one stays in the game, continues to do his homework, refocuses to the market orientation, and trades with discipline, it will turn out okay.
I plead guilty to being stupid and idiotic about many things (don’t even ask my wife, she doesn’t have enough time). Long time readers have seen many such examples over the years, unfortunately. But my retort to those that write to criticize my views on the US and dollar (and I must admit most of the feedback I receive is very valid and reasonable and written in such a way; I learn much from that in fact) of late has been this; “Would you rather be in charge of managing the US economy right now or Europe’s or the UK’s or Japan’s? I will take the US today and twice on Sunday given the problems the others face.”
I say that not because the US is in any great shakes. But this is and always will be a relative game—currency investing. And on that basis the US is in relatively better shape on most measures quantitatively and qualitatively, as far as I can see. Thus, the slide down the rat hole of history may be indeed inevitable for the world’s developed nations, if so the US will likely be the last of the competitors I mentioned to disappear.
Now run out and buy all the dollars you can hold! …just kidding on that one. But you may want to go out and buy a few dollars against the euro because we think Milton Friedman was right.
- Can't we all just get along? 12:46 12 July 2011
- It's a banking crisis too... 23:24 04 April 2011
- The Other Safe-Haven Currency. And ... PLAY BALL! 23:52 31 March 2011
- The "tail" risk of two Eurozones that wags the dogs ... 11:27 30 November 2010
- Did someone say "global recovery"? 11:31 05 January 2011 | <urn:uuid:c792c4ae-ec02-4af4-a73e-8c5ce7814cca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.babypips.com/blogs/currency_currents/a_common_political_culture_no.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966647 | 1,956 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The Marine Science Center Outreach Program goes far beyond "show n' tell" science education.
The Outreach Program offers multiple educational activities at our campus in Nahant as well as in the community. We strive to assist teachers in using marine science as a platform to meet Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Frameworks through hands-on, research based activities. We also aspire to engage adult audiences in the community in meaningful education and stewardship experiences.
Our program is committed to helping people acquire a better understanding and appreciation of the coastal marine environment in Massachusetts and beyond.
Learn more about our: | <urn:uuid:00769c7e-e50c-47d5-9e97-c64b986a2d15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northeastern.edu/marinescience/visiting_the_msc/programs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939798 | 124 | 1.828125 | 2 |
CASPER, Wyo. — Maggie bowed her head, covered by a leather hood. Her talons pulsed open and closed with hundreds of pounds of pressure on the perch in the back of Scott Simpson's truck. In her blindness, the golden eagle reached out to grab at the human voices. She was daring someone, anyone, to put a hand out, Scott said.
He spoke to her softly. "We're working on her manners."
She pushed his thumbnail with her talon as she climbed on his fist. Even through three layers of buffalo hide, the nail would turn purple. Scott removed Maggie's hood and she shook her golden head.
She doesn't like strangers. Sunglasses and camera lenses look like eyes of predators.
She raised the feathers on the back of her head and rolled the top of her wings forward like a boxer preparing for a fight.
This was mid-October, the first release of their hunting season. Scott stood in a field and cast Maggie off of his arm.
Golden eagles are arguably the sky's most effective hunters. Their long tails give them maneuverability. Their razor sharp beaks and talons are deadly to prey. Their thick, downy undercoat allows them to withstand piercing winds and temperatures 40 degrees below zero. They prefer jackrabbits, but stories tell of eagles killing coyotes, antelope and Mongolian wolves.
Scott watched Maggie fly away, on the hunt. She didn't have to come back. Scott couldn't make her.
Soon, he would find out if all of the training and obsessing had built the trust he knew he needed, if he had convinced a purely wild animal that she was better off with him than without him.
Scott likens falconry to advanced bird watching.
"They do what they're going to do, and I help them a little bit and get to be part of it," he said.
The raptors — eagles, falcons and hawks — let you help them. They won't be your pet. They won't be your friend, and they won't love you unconditionally. You think you've trained them to work like a well-oiled machine. They think they've trained you to find food.
Five years ago, Scott and his wife packed up their house in North Carolina, quit their jobs, sold their land and moved to a wind-blown spot on a hill in the prairie outside of Casper.
"You know how you can read a person? There are a lot of people who are very intuitive about other people," said friend and fellow falconer, Larry Dickerson. "Scott is that way about birds."
Scott had already flown red-tailed hawks, peregrine falcons, Cooper's hawks and others. He'd watched them chase squirrels through trees so thick he couldn't see daylight. One cold, hungry goshawk split his lip in two. It required 16 stitches to fix.
He'd seen what hawks could do. It was time to focus on eagles.
Only about 60 falconers in the country have permits to fly eagles and perhaps only a dozen actually do. They are scary, legally the hardest bird to fly and require wide, open spaces to hunt.
Aspiring falconers must first build a facility that passes state regulations. They must pass an arduous exam, spend at least two years as an apprentice and at least five as a general falconer.
For eagles, falconers must build bigger facilities, prove they have worked with eagles in some structured setting, and find two letters of recommendation from other falconers with eagles, rehabilitation facilities or zoos.
It can be tough to even find an eagle. As a protected species, they can't be bred in captivity and can only be trapped in federally declared areas.
"It is a lot easier to get pregnant and have a kid," said Casper falconer Sam Crowe. "But to have a falcon and be responsible for that, you have to take tests and have your facilities examined."
Scott trapped his third eagle, Bubba, just outside of Kemmerer. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave him permission because eagles were killing lambs in the area. Bubba was 2 years old, 10 pounds and smart. He was the best hunting eagle Scott had ever had.
But Bubba did what Bubba wanted.
Once, Bubba barreled straight up instead of out to chase a rabbit, shooting back at Scott's face like a bullet. Scott knocked him aside and Bubba snuck through the sage brush with his chest puffed.
"It looked like two gunfighters trying to get the sun behind them," Scott said.
Bubba thought he'd trained Scott to give him a piece of meat each time he came back. When Scott realized he'd been trained, he stopped. Bubba reacted.
"Eagles can be the gentlest of birds out there, but if you screw up and create a problem like that, number one, you better be quick, but you also better be able to recognize your mistake and figure out how to correct it," Scott said.
Two years ago, Bubba went to Kansas with Scott for a falconry convention. He fell sick with avian pneumonia and died 30 minutes later.
"Every now and again something happens that makes you want to burn your license. When Bubba died, that's how I felt."
Maggie was four years old when Scott trapped her in the wild. It was 2008 and he'd caught wind of possible changes in regulations that could reduce the number of eagles falconers could trap.
He worked with her and gained her trust. He obsessed over ounces of fat and broken feathers.
The difference between Maggie at 10 pounds and 9 pounds is the difference between a fat, lazy bird with sharp claws and a sleek, powerful killing machine.
For falconers, summer is a runner's winter. The birds, and their trainers, fatten up. Come fall, they start to work harder. Winter is their season.
"They're like an athlete. We want to cut their weight down to where there's nothing left of the fat and they are 100 percent muscle," Scott said. "They need to be fast, and they need to be hungry enough to be fierce."
Scott worked with Maggie on drills, flying between his fist and a pile of tires. At the beginning of each season she would fly with a long leash attached to a small dumbbell. It kept her from heading for Nebraska.
Some days he worked with her for hours. Other days he simply weighed and fed her.
But then Bubba died and Scott's interest, patience and heart waned. He still worked with Maggie, but not as much as he should have.
His wake-up call came on Christmas day last year.
The wind was blowing 35 miles per hour and Scott waded through snowbanks thigh deep. Maggie was soaring above and then took off after a jackrabbit toward the sun as it set. He looked for her until dark, then long after dark.
He wondered if he'd ever see her again.
The next morning he drove larger and larger circles around the area where they'd hunted.
"There she was, sitting in the middle of the road waiting for me," he said. "She'd seen my truck from a mile or more away and flown to where she'd last seen me."
She'd eaten a jackrabbit, he could tell from the ball of food stuck in her crop, an area near her throat where eagles keep food. Eagles rarely return with a full crop. He climbed out of his truck, waived a handful of food and she flew to his arm.
"I can't describe the bond. I just don't know what it is."
He didn't expect her to come back.
That trust he'd created, the bond that made Maggie come back, he knew he'd have to keep building. Next time she might not return.
For most of September, Maggie vacillated between tolerating Scott's presence and wanting to kill and eat him.
He spent hours talking to her and rubbing her feet. He waited for her to molt and tracked her weight. He let her watch TV with him, tear apart toys on his living room floor and stare at him in anger.
In the field for her first hunt this season, Scott attached a telemetry device to her ankle. He doesn't usually use them because he says they make falconers lazy. Confidence tells him his birds will return.
That day, he was less self-assured.
She stood on his fist, braced against 20 mph winds, and took off. From a sage brush perch she watched him.
He walked slowly away with his hunting dog named Tasha, looking for rabbits to scare up. Finally, Scott turned and called.
Maggie looked at him.
He held a piece of meat in his glove.
She looked around.
He called again and she stared back.
And then for reasons he'll never quite understand, she spread her massive wings and flew to his fist. That day at least, she came back.
Information from: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, http://www.trib.com | <urn:uuid:c0ab7302-c96d-4c08-a891-ccc836cdf7de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gillettenewsrecord.com/stories/Casper-man-hunts-with-a-golden-eagle-,81735?category_id=4&list_type=mostread&content_class=1&sub_type=stories,maps | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985858 | 1,944 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Snow Report: Austria's welcome still warm... after 50 years
I'm proud to say that my mother was one of the first package holiday tourists to venture abroad soon after the Second World War, when leisure travel began to lower its costs and thus widen its appeal beyond the upper classes.
In summer 1951 she booked with two other young female friends, then in their late teens, to travel for some 24 hours by rail to the Austrian resort of St Johann in Tyrol with Swan's Tours (now absorbed into modern-day Inghams).
A little over 60 years on, my mother turned 80 last week. My sisters and I decided she might enjoy a return to St Johann to see what had changed and what hadn't, this time going by air and travelling with the UK's biggest ski tour operator, Crystal (0871 231 2256; crystalski.co.uk).
So what had changed? "It's bigger!" was not a great surprise, nor that travel comfort was much improved over the wooden benches of post-war European trains. But the fact that the original journey had taken longer than expected due to a French railway workers' strike seemed a timeless state of affairs.
"It's still beautiful," she said, which was a relief. St Johann, with its attractive decorated chalets and impressive church, is a delightful small town. My mother informed me that the men were all dressed in lederhosen back in the 1950s. This was no longer the case, possibly because it was -2C and Gore-Tex has now been invented.
The food was still good, though, both at the Hotel Park (00 43 5352 62226, park.at) where we stayed, and at the Gasthof zum Dampfl (00 43 5352 61659; zumdampfl.at), where my mother had stayed on that first visit and which, she reports, also seemed largely unchanged. We visited for lunch on our final day, discovering utterly delicious homemade food, but also that the owners had been in place only since last October so had no memories of the Swans Tours visitors of the 1950s. My mother recalled being amazed by how good the food had been back then too, coming from post-War Britain where rationing was still in place.
The young men who were keen to teach her to ski in the 1950s were less excited by the good food and all had dreams of travelling to America, my mother recalled. Many young Austrians did, and helped to found some of Colorado's now famous ski areas such as Breckenridge and Vail.
Those that chose to remain in St Johann didn't do badly. The resort is thriving and has overtaken neighbouring Kitzbühel in terms of population size. It's full of great shops and restaurants as well as a ski area that attracts many Brits back year after year – although perhaps not many that have been coming since 1951.
- 1 Diary of Second World War German teenager reveals young lives untroubled by Nazi Holocaust in wartime Berlin
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- 3 Uri Geller psychic spy? The spoon-bender's secret life as a Mossad and CIA agent revealed
- 4 Viral video straps colt .45 handgun to a home-use drone
- 5 Vice pulls 'breathtakingly tasteless' fashion shoot glorifying the suicides of famous female authors from Sylvia Plath to Virginia Woolf
£20,000 - £45,000 OTE: Co-Venture: Working for this company will give you a ch...
£40000 - £60000 Per Annum: The Green Recruitment Company: The Green Recruitmen...
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Negotiable: Capita Education Resourcing Permanent Team: Cruise Ship Seasonal W... | <urn:uuid:0dfeec59-016f-461e-900e-e5727df8e904> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/skiing/snow-report-austrias-welcome-still-warm-after-50-years-6292791.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977286 | 819 | 1.5625 | 2 |
I'm remodeling my master bath and plan to put in a curbless shower with the tile from the bedroom running through the doorless bathroom and shower.
So i've been researching trench or linear drains, and holy sheeeit it appears they are made of gold and not stainless steel because they are hundreds of dollars for a freaken drain.
So I am looking into building one DIY style. I have found this during my countless hours of searching, http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/...ad.php?t=90967
but the pros declined to comment (of course, they say $600 is cheap for a drain..)
My plan is to do pretty much as described in the link above. It is just taking a normal drain and sinking it into a trough, and then add a removable piece that makes it level with the floor. It would be a piece of tile, so there is just a small gap that looks like a grout line around the tile drain cover.
Seems simple and effective, yet the link above is ALL i've found regarding any DIY trench shower drain.
Also, since you've read this far, I'm wondering about the dirt under my concrete slab. The old shower pan leaked badly and its been years since I've been able to get to this project, and ants had already taken up residence EVERYWHERE in this bathroom, but particularly around the drain under the concrete there are millions of them as the dirt is always damp. I'm wondering if I need to remove the damp dirt and replace it with sand or rocks, or if it will just dry eventually and make the ants go elsewhere (i've killed billions already, but they will come back I suspect unless it dries out).
Thanks for your input, JackB | <urn:uuid:3528e9ea-1067-4f35-a872-094bdd66ccb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.diychatroom.com/f7/diy-trench-drain-170500/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961181 | 366 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The Feeding of the 4,000
Matthew 15:32-38 - Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. 33 And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude? 34 And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes. 35 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. 36 And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. 37 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full. 38 And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children.
Mark 8:1-9 - In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, 2 I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: 3 And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. 4 And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? 5 And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. 6 And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. 7 And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. 8 So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. 9 And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.
I. Does this miracle seem familiar?
A. Note similarities to the feeding of the 5,000.
1. The multitude needed food.
2. The number of the multitude was approximate.
3. There was nothing to eat in the wilderness.
4. Jesus wanted to feed the people because they had faithfully followed him.
5. The disciple had no money to buy food.
6. The disciples had no food to distribute.
7. Jesus asked the disciples to take inventory of how much food was available.
8. The disciples took inventory and told Christ how much food they had.
9. The inventory revealed there was not enough food.
10. Christ instructed the disciples to prepare the people to eat.
11. Christ prayed, giving thanks for the supply.
12. Christ distributed the food to the disciples who distributed the food to the multitude.
13. Everybody had plenty to eat.
14. The leftovers were carefully collected and an inventory taken of the amount.
15. There is no Biblical record of what happened to the leftovers.
16. The multitude was sent away – Jesus did not continually fed them.
B. There was a lesson Jesus intended the disciple to understand, therefore the miracle is “repeated”.
1. After the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus sent the multitude away, send the disciples to a ship, where they were to cross the Sea of Galilee that night, and himself departed into a mountain apart to pray.
a. The disciples had trouble in obedience, and Jesus came to them, walking on the water.
b. The disciples did not understand the power of Christ when they participated in the feeding of the 5,000, but they understood the power of Christ only when it directly related to them, as revealed in mark 6:52: The disciples did not consider the miracle of the loaves because their hearts were hardened.
2. After the feeding of the 4,000 Jesus makes a point about false doctrine.
C. Notice the background to this miracle.
1. Mark 6:34-44 – Jesus feeds the 5,000.
2. Mark 6:45-53 – Jesus walks on the water, coming to the obedient disciples as they toiled in rowing.
3. Mark 6:54-56 – Jesus came into the land of Gennesaret, where many people brought their sick and afflicted to Christ for healing. (The obedience of the demon possessed man of Matthew 8:28-34, mark 5:1-20 and Luke 8:26-39 is evident.)
4. Mark 7:1-23 – the Pharisees came from Jerusalem to harass Christ concerning the disciples not washing their hands when they eat bread.
5. Christ leave the Pharisees and goes to Tyre and Sidon, desiring to hide himself, but could not because of two miracles.
6. Mark 7:24-30 – The healing of the Syrophenician’s daughter.
7. Mark 7:31-37 – Jesus leaves Tyre and Sidon, returning to the Sea of Galilee, traveling through Decapolis, where he heals a deaf man who has an impediment in his speech.
8. Mark 8:1-10 – Jesus feeds the 4,000.
9. Mark 8:11-21 – Christ then goes to Dalmanutha, (a town on the west of the Sea of Galilee, in the border of Magdala) where the Pharisees come to him, tempting Christ to give them a sign.
a. There is no Bible record, of course, that the Pharisees saw any of the miracles Christ performed, but they might have heard of them.
b. They are seeking more to criticize than understand.
c. The disciples have “forgotten” to take bread, therefore they think Christ is talking out of his head when he tells them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, but Christ informs them he means to beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees.
d. John 4:32 – On another occasion when the disciples go away to purchase bread, Christ speaks to the woman at the well, and she is converted.
1.) When the disciples return with food, Christ tells them he has meat to eat they know not of.
2.) Spiritual food satisfies so completely the body needs no food.
II. Points concerning this miracle.
A. Jesus had compassion on the multitude.
1. He knew their faithfulness in being with him for three days with little food.
2. He understood they had willingly forsaken all their business and homes to be with him.
B. Jesus knew they were hungry.
1. Christ must have also been hungry.
a. John 4:32 - …I have meat to eat that ye know not of.
b. While this is true, the body still requires food to exist.
2. The disciples were probably also hungry.
3. Jesus would not send the people away hungry, because he understood the limitations of the flesh.
C. Jesus knew the people came from afar.
1. This indicates he had conversed with them, had gotten acquainted with them.
2. He was personal with them, doing more than just healing their sicknesses and illnesses.
3. God is a personal God, aware of our personal sacrifices, and desires.
D. The lessons Christ wants his disciples to understand.
1. Matthew 6:33 – He can supply all their needs if they will only trust him, and put him first.
2. Matthew 15:11-12 – Beware of the false doctrine of the Pharisees.
a. The disciples were thinking one thing, while Christ was thinking another.
b. The disciples reasoned together, but all their human reasoning was error.
c. Christ desires us to think as he thinks, not as we think.
d. It is good that the disciples were willing to listen to Christ and change the way they were thinking. | <urn:uuid:31d8de2d-1cbd-4869-8749-71c505eca7a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.independencebaptist.org/Bible%20Outlines/Miracles%20of%20Christ/23%20feeding_of_the_4.htm | 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 | 0.980243 | 1,708 | 1.78125 | 2 |
As homework assignments go, its a tough one: create courses in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities to meet a proposed new quantitative reasoning requirement for all LS&A students.
The courses must be intellectually rigorous yet attractive enough to entice the 25 percent of LS&A students who systematically avoid math.
The assignment is due January 1994.
In a voice vote last Monday, LS&A faculty members took on the assignment by approving in principle a graduation requirement in quantitative reasoning that will require each student seeking a B.S., A.B. or B.G.S. degree to complete successfully one course (of three credits or more) in quantitative reasoning. The requirement would apply to all students entering LS&A starting in fall 1994. The requirement will be resubmitted to the faculty for final approval in January 1994.
Noting that developing attractive courses in a variety of disciplines that could be used to fill a quantitative reasoning requirement would require many faculty hours, Michael M. Martin, LS&A associate dean for undergraduate education, asked his colleagues to endorse the proposal only if they believe the concept of a quantitative reasoning requirement is sound.
Faculty members who think such a requirement is flawed in concept or that LS&A already has too many requirements were asked to vote against it now rather than waiting until January.
Before the vote, a number of faculty members voiced some reservations about yet-to-be-worked-out details.
J. David Singer, professor of political science, favors such a requirement, but said he would like to see it more broadly understood as scientific reasoning. He also would like to see faculty in general embed a greater emphasis on scientific reasoning in their courses.
Chemistry Prof. Billy J. Evans concurred, saying Students should be enmeshed in studies here that require them to do quantitative reasoning.
If the College seriously hopes to enhance students quantitative abilities, such a course should be required in their first or second year at the U-M, Evans added.
A quantitative reasoning requirement is a logical and fit companion to the Colleges writing requirement, according to Robert A. Weisbuch, professor and chair of the Department of English Language and Literature.
However, Weisbuch described a list of possible course titles culled from quantitative reasoning course offerings at other universities and at the U-M as a scary list, much too eclectic. He said the list of 22 courses, ranging from Technology of Ancient Architecture to The Electrification of Los Angeles and The Industrial Revolution in America, includes courses that could border on shams.
Weisbuch and others would prefer a much narrower list of courses as options to meet the quantitative reasoning requirement.
Michael W. Traugott, professor of communication and a member of the Task Force on a Quantitative Reasoning Requirement, said the list was only meant to demonstrate the diversity of courses possible, particularly in the social sciences and humanities.
Howard Schuman, professor and chair of sociology, asked if there are any plans for additional funding for teaching assistants in courses designed to meet the quantitative reasoning requirement because, he said, it sounds like such courses would require a great deal of faculty-student interaction.
Dean Edie N. Goldenberg said no funding proposal has been developed yet.
English Prof. Ralph Williams would prefer to see a quantitative reasoning requirement presented in the larger context of LS&A curricular reform. He added he would be more comfortable if he saw names attached to the arduous project of developing courses, an effort he predicted will require a large intellectual effort.
History Prof. Nicholas H. Steneck, who supported the idea of voting in principle for a quantitative reasoning requirement, added, It is a tremendous challenge to be addressed. It had better be a substantial proposal when it comes back in January. | <urn:uuid:a783bab2-8dee-43be-91b0-62f06da54645> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ur.umich.edu/9293/Apr19_93/2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957526 | 774 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Mt. Hei-Tou is more of a valley with intertwining streams than it is a mountain. It is located between Budehuc Castle, Zexen, and Grasslands. When a young resident of Nor named Thomas wandered into the Hei-Tou region, his mother pleaded with the castle lord Thomas to get him back to safety. Thomas and his party located the young boy, but fought off an enraged wild boar before they could reunite the child with his mother.
Mt. Hei-Tou is also an interesting location for explorers. Those brave enough to venture into the woods may encouter giant crablike organisms that leave behind ample Potch and several free items, common and rare alike. | <urn:uuid:deac6572-c81b-4666-8e7f-966aa8de0e3c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://suikoden.wikia.com/wiki/Mt._Hei-Tou | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98374 | 150 | 1.601563 | 2 |
From 8 May, the Rijksmuseum
is exhibiting a selection of 30 works from two new donations of Japanese prints. Luxury, subtlety, technical perfection, expressiveness and, of course, beautiful Japanese women all feature prominently in these new collections, recently donated by two leading collectors.
Jan Willem Goslings (1943-2011) and his wife brought together an extraordinary collection of surimono prints. Printed on expensive paper with luxurious decorations in gold and silver, these prints were traditionally given as exclusive gifts to a select group of friends and relations, on special occasions such as the Japanese New Year. The Goslings were attracted to the prints by their technical perfection and fascination with 'an unfathomable world of subtlety and external beauty'. They have donated their collection of almost 400 pieces to the Rijksmuseum, along with a generous fund to ensure the collection's future expansion, the Goslings NieuwBeerta Fonds, a Rijksmuseum named fund. The acquisitions presentation showcases the highlights of their donation.
Collector H.C. Bos (1926-2007) had a penchant for classical depictions of luxuriously dressed Japanese women from the late 19th century. He also brought together a stunning collection of actors, portrayed on paper in characteristic poses and with vivid facial expressions. Clear colours and powerful compositions, many appearing remarkably freshly printed, set the tone. On his death, Mr Bos bequeathed 180 Japanese prints to the Rijksmuseum.
Menno Fitski, conservator of Asian Art: I am especially pleased with these substantial donations, which truly enhance the collection. The Goslings donation in particular will make the Rijkmuseum's surimono collection one of the foremost worldwide.
8 May - 9 July 2012: New at the Rijksmuseum: Pure luxury on paper: the most beautiful Japanese surimono prints from private donations. | <urn:uuid:d2d66253-c64b-4a5c-a863-ae1225808c0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=55254&int_modo=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936288 | 394 | 1.640625 | 2 |
USF's 4th Annual "Formula for Life" Most Successful Yet
Held annually at USF to generate funds for the purchase of baby formula and other food for Haitian orphans, this year's "Formula for Life" 5k Run/Walk and Silent Auction was the most successful so far.
The fourth annual event raised over $11,000, enough for a year's worth of food and nutritional supplements for Our Lady of Perpetual Help Orphanage and other orphanages, plus funds to drill a well for safe drinking water in the future. (Of the total funds raised, $2,600 was donated from USF instructor Sister Anita Holzmer's water project.)
A highlight of this year's event was the visit by professional drummer and former Haitian child slave Bill Nathan, who visited USF classrooms as a speaker on April 12 and performed at the event on April 15. Nathan, who fell into slavery as an orphaned child, became a musician who now performs at churches and universities throughout the United States. He directs the St. Joseph's Home for Boys in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as well as another home for 16 former street children.
Organizing the annual run/walk and silent auction to support Formula for Life's mission "to improve the nutrition of poor and sick infants of Haiti" is a yearlong effort by University of Saint Francis students. The effort began in 2009 when former USF student Cortney Shepard founded the service-based, student-led campaign.
In May, Formula for Life student leader Amanda Pedro traveled to Haiti with faculty event adviser Dr. Amy Obringer. The purpose of their trip was to visit Haitian orphanages, determine unmet needs and to assess continued funding to the most critical areas. | <urn:uuid:d10cf5c8-2f74-4394-a767-4fb0e79945c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sf.edu/blasts/alumni_newsletters/june2012/formula.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973302 | 359 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The Fugees were a critically acclaimed New Jersey hip hop group that rose to fame in the mid-1990s, whose repertoire included elements of soul and Caribbean music, particularly reggae. The members of the group are rapper/singer/producer Wyclef Jean, rapper/singer Lauryn Hill, and rapper Pras Michel. Deriving their name from the term refugee, Jean and Michel are Haitian Americans, while Hill is African American. The group recorded two albums — one of which, The Score (1996), was a multi-platinum and Grammy-winning success — before disbanding in 1997. Hill and Jean each went on to successful solo recording careers; Michel focused on soundtrack recordings and acting, though he found commercial success with his song "Ghetto Supastar". | <urn:uuid:5df4e8bc-27d9-4161-b10f-5f9fde248b72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://977music.com/index.php?p=sn_view_group&id=679&page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963574 | 161 | 1.5 | 2 |
Star Born, Andre Norton (1957)
Review by Carl Vincent
Star Born packs quite a lot of storytelling punch in its brief 187 pages. Andre Norton’s 1957 story examines such issues as slavery, racial prejudice, apocalyptic warfare and governmental oppression and wraps it all up in the kind of adventure-filled story that was a pleasure to read as and adult and would have had me gazing heavenward as a child. Star Born is an example of fine world-building and classic space adventure that remains accessible and surprisingly relevant 55 years after its release.
At the beginning of Norton’s novel we are introduced to Dalgard, the progeny of members of a generation ship who escaped an oppressive government on Earth (Terra) and fled to the planet Astra in hopes to make a new start. Dalgard is traveling with Sssuri, a member of a sea-born race affectionately referred to as mermen, and merwomen. Dalgard and Sssuri are traveling together, examining the ruins of a race of beings who at one time brought destructive warfare to Astra and who are rumored to be returning to reclaim the advanced technology that would once again make them a formidable enemy. Through the buddy story of Dalgard and Sssuri the reader learns much of the history of both Terra and Astra as well as learning about the culture of the people indigenous to Astra and that of the colonists who long ago landed there.
Alternately the reader is treated to the story of Raf, a Terran pilot who is a member of a larger party of explorers sent out to explore the stars to see if they could discover any remnants of those long-ago missions now that the oppressive Pax government was dead. Through Raf’s eyes the reader is able to experience Astra as if we too were landing on a strange planet for the first time. The excitement and fear of the unknown is an interesting contrast to the journey that Dalgard and Sssuri are undertaking and Norton’s story alternates back and forth between these two viewpoints. In so doing the reader gets a picture of the mysterious Others who are the alleged warmongers of Astra.
While reading Star Born I really appreciated the cleverness of Andre Norton. In reading classic science fiction stories like this there is always a chance that the story will not only feel dated but that the storytelling choices that were perhaps brilliant at the time will have a ‘been there, done that’ feel because of the decades of stories they have inspired since their release. Certainly some of the outcomes of Star Born were a foregone conclusion, but the manner in which Norton gets the story there and the surprising amount of social and political relevance for today allows Star Born to feel fresh despite the now well-worn tropes. In particular the examination of the Terran government’s views on racial prejudice and how that informs the actions of the space travelers as their adventure unfolds gave me pause as I thought about what goes on in our world today coupled with the imminent election of our President here in the United States.
But lest you think political and social commentary make for a boring work of fiction, let me assure you that Andre Norton keeps the story moving with the kind of action, suspense and sense of wonder that makes science fiction such a pleasure to read. Star Born ratchets up the tension right to the very end. Despite being well past my bed time I could not stop turning the pages as I was alternately curious about how the story would end and also how it could be possible for Norton to come to a satisfying end given the rapid disappearance of pages left to read. Without spoiling anything I will say that this reader was particularly satisfied with her execution and the choices she made as an author. She truly knew her audience and she delivered.
Star Born contains a nice mixture of Lost World fantasy and space-faring science fiction and Andre Norton manages to compare and contrast the two worlds without passing judgment on either. Critics could point out that the science is beyond iffy in Norton’s book. Unlike some of the Heinlein juveniles to which Star Born could and should be favourably compared, there is little attempt at explaining anything from the telepathic ability of the mermen and colonists to the advanced technology of the Others. The emphasis is firmly placed on the examination of the way in which mankind, or various intelligent species in this case, treats one another and given the time period in which this was written could and would have applicability across a wide range of historical events.
In the end I enjoyed Star Born because it was fun. Some of my favorite classic science fiction reading experiences have been thanks to the efforts of authors aiming science fiction at young people, providing them exciting adventures of space exploration while not talking down to them with his writing. Andre Norton too refuses to talk down to her readers, examining with maturity subject matter that is important to get a handle on early in life while at the same time providing the kid of page-turning adventure that recalls the novels that hooked me as a young adult. I am glad that I chose this as my first experience with Andre Norton. It will be the first of many, I assure you.
This review originally appeared on Stainless Steel Droppings. | <urn:uuid:6a54038f-700c-4a34-b856-ca58c85cb817> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sfmistressworks.wordpress.com/2012/11/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968646 | 1,059 | 1.507813 | 2 |
New International Version (NIV)
1 Now when Jesus
saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His
disciples came to him, 2
and he began to teach them.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called
children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of
11 “Blessed are you when people insult
you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you
because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great
is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted
the prophets who were before you.
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But
if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and
14 “You are the light of the world. A
town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people
light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its
stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In
the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may
see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
17 “Do not think that I have come to
abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them
but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell
you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter,
not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from
the Law until everything is accomplished. 19
Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands
and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom
of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will
be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I
tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not
enter the kingdom of heaven.
21 “You have heard that it was said to
the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders
will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that
anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to
judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is
answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be
in danger of the fire of hell.
23 “Therefore, if you are offering
your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or
sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift
there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them;
then come and offer your gift.
25 “Settle matters quickly with your
adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still
together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the
judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you
may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you,
you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
27 “You have heard that it was said,
‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I
tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already
committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If
your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it
away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for
your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right
hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is
better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole
body to go into hell.
31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who
divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’
But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for
sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone
who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
33 “Again, you have heard that it was
said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill
to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do
not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s
throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his
footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.
And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair
white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’
or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
38 “You have heard that it was said,
‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I
tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the
right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And
if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your
coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile,
go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who
asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow
43 “You have heard that it was said,
‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I
tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his
sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the
righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those
who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax
collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet
only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not
even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect,
therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in
front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no
reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do
not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the
synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I
tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But
when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what
your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving
may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in
secret, will reward you.
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the
hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and
on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they
have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go
into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is
unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will
reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on
babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of
their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father
knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil
14 For if you forgive other people
when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others
their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as
the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others
they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their
reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your
head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not
be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your
Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in
secret, will reward you.
19 “Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where
thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not
destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For
where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body.
If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full
of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full
of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great
is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters.
Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be
devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both
God and money.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry
about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body,
what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more
than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do
not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about
clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not
labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even
Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here
today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much
more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry,
saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What
shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these
things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not
worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each
day has enough trouble of its own.
1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in
the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the
measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of
sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank
in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother,
‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there
is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite,
first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see
clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do
not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them
under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek
and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to
the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for
bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for
a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then,
though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good
gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything,
do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums
up the Law and the Prophets.
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For
wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction,
and many enter through it. 14 But small is the
gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They
come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious
wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize
them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from
thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good
fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot
bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every
tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does
the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me
on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in
your name drive out demons and in your name perform many
miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I
never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these
words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who
built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down,
the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house;
yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them
into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat
against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus
had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his
because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their
teachers of the law. | <urn:uuid:c4360c0d-2262-4c53-be40-fc3d6c7c62f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doesgodexist.org/Scriptures/Matthew.5-7.NIV.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959374 | 3,326 | 1.507813 | 2 |
By TAMMIE TOLER
PRINCETON — An estimated 92 percent of West Virginia child support orders are issued against the father during custody negotiations. But, members of Men And Women Against Discrimination (MAWAD) said Saturday that simply securing a father’s paycheck isn’t good enough for their kids.
Instead, they said Family Court judges and officials ought to do more to make sure fathers are substantial parts of their sons’ and daughters’ lives.
“Children need a father more than they need money,” Tim Fittro said Saturday during the first Princeton meeting conducted by the group that strives for the theme “Truth, Justice and Equality in Family Law.”
The grassroots group, formerly Men Against Discrimination, started in the Parkersburg/Vienna area and is stretching across the state in an effort to change the West Virginia Family Court culture and atmosphere members say rob children of half of themselves — their fathers and extended families.
Fittro, the group’s state director, said statistics show women receive primary custody of children 83 percent of the time when couples divorce, and the National Center for Health Statistics estimates that 4 out of every 10 American children wake up each morning without a father in the home.
Married couples enjoy the presumption of law that both partners are caring for their children. When a couple divorces, Fittro said one half of the couple, usually the man, loses that benefit of the doubt.
“By no fault of their own, one parent loses the presumption that they’re taking care of their kids,” he said.
In light of those statistics and the difficult custody battles of some members, MAWAD organized to help men fight for the right to be parents. Since its inception, however, Fittro said second wives, grandmothers, sisters, aunts and more have joined the cause to keep both parents in kids’ lives.
Recently, enough women became part of the effort that the group was compelled to officially change its name to include the women in the fight to make sure both parents have hands in raising today’s children.
“You can’t be a father to your child if you only see that child every other weekend,” Fittro said.
For the last two years, MAWAD has drafted and propelled legislation into the West Virginia Legislature that would require Family Court judges to begin all custody negotiations with 50-50 shared parenting.
Although critics argue the 50-50 standard is unrealistic and aims to fit all families into a single custody mold, Fittro said the 50-50 agreement is only a starting point.
“It’s not a cookie-cutter solution,” he said, explaining that the proposed legislation would only enforce a 50-50 shared parenting agreement if the parents are unable to reach another solution.
Currently, most custody negotiation determines which parent is the primary caregiver and awards primary custody to that person. That’s particularly unfair to men, according to MAWAD leaders, because courts typically see mothers as caregivers, even if the fathers work so the mother may stay at home with the kids.
“We’re creating a situation that makes parents adversaries, and most of the time, they’re fighting over their own children. It’s creating a recipe for more destruction,” he said. “... What incentive does the custodial parent have to work with their spouse to work out a custody agreement if they’re already going to get custody?”
Members said the legislation would even the odds in a system that currently favors mothers heavily.
“If you start with a level playing field, you’re more apt to play fair,” Kevin Summers, MAWAD Region 5 director and a father of two girls, said. “We’re not asking for any preferential treatment at all. We just want everything to be fair.”
Frustration among the organization’s members was evident Saturday.
“No one, no one, will do anything for a man,” an unidentified man who was attending his first MAWAD meeting, said.
He said he had fought for custody for three years and was not giving up.
Another member said Family Court officials “hide behind locked doors and will not talk to you.”
In addition to the 50-50 parenting bill, MAWAD has also dedicated itself to promoting the creation and enforcement of stiffer penalties for people who withhold one parent’s court-ordered visitation and anyone who knowingly and willingly make false allegations of domestic violence or child abuse, particularly in order to gain an advantage in a custody situation.
Fittro was quick to point out the legislation would not target mandated reporters or anyone who makes a good-faith report of suspected violence or abuse.
“We don’t want anybody prosecuted for just saying they suspect abuse is going on,” he said.
Another project MAWAD is pursuing is a program that Fittro said would curtail child support fraud by requiring both parents to deposit funds into a common account to pay for the child’s necessities. The adults could then use a state-monitored debit card to access those monies, thereby guaranteeing both parents financially support their kids.
Although group members said they invited a wide array of legislators, court officials and representatives from human resources agencies, Del. Thomas “Mike” Porter, R-Mercer, was the only one who attended the Saturday meeting.
He was supportive of the cause, but cautioned MAWAD members that a push toward the floor of the Legislature and new laws could be difficult.
“Everybody casts a vote up there (Charleston) thinking about whether they’ll get re-elected. It’s hard up there when you’re trying to do what’s right, but sometimes what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong,” he said.
After the meeting, Porter said he believed the MAWAD goals were worthy, particularly if they would help provide children a more balanced environment.
“It really does deprive the whole family, and what’s so sad is what the kids miss out on,” he said.
MAWAD representatives hope to develop relationships with members and officials statewide. They plan to attend a national rally in Washington, D.C., Aug. 18. Representatives will also be on hand Saturday and Sunday at the Brushfork National Guard Armory for the Princeton-Mercer County Chamber of Commerce’s Men’s Expo.
For more information on MAWAD or its initiatives, visit www.mawadwv.org, or call (304) 295-0053.
— Contact Tammie Toler at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:3a9b0565-33d9-450c-9a26-5b659053d459> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bdtonline.com/princeton/x519505132/MAWAD-Dads-deserve-to-raise-kids-not-just-write-checks/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961024 | 1,430 | 1.679688 | 2 |
(UPDATED COVERAGE, March 8) Low temperatures have damaged as much as a quarter of south Florida’ spring sweet corn and harmed the region’s green beans.
The temperatures sunk into the mid-20s during the overnight hours of March 4 affected demand and sent bean prices soaring.
Doug OhlemeierFreezing temperatures damaged as much as a 25% of south Florida’ spring sweet corn crop. These plantings are shown in early February south of Belle Glade, Fla. “There are no beans on the lake (Lake Okeechobee region),” Gary Stafford, salesman and green beans manager with Hugh H. Branch Inc., South Bay, Fla., said March 7. “We’re hearing $35 for beans. We have had weather events that knocked out our productivity. The wind we had a couple of weeks ago and heavy rains accompanied by freeze events this week, they have eliminated our production.”
While prices increased for beans, early March saw little initial movement on corn.
On March 6, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said white corn was in light supply and reported wirebound crates of 4-4 1/2 dozen yellow and bicolor corn selling for $10.35-12.35 while white fetched $12.35-14.35.
For beans, the USDA on March 6 reported supply was insufficient to establish a market, but the day before reported bushel cartons/crates of handpicked round green beans from central and south Florida at $24.85-26.85 with machine-picked selling for $24.85-26.95.
That’s higher than in mid-February when handpicked cartons sold for $14.85, rising to $20-22.85 in late February.
Stafford on March 7 quoted similar prices for corn.
“We have damage and are looking at 20%-25% of the corn crop being lost,” Arthur Kirstein, coordinator for the office of agricultural economic development for the Palm Beach County Extension Service, West Palm Beach, Fla., said on March 6. “It got to 25 degrees in some specific areas for quite a while.”
“It seems like there was quite a bit of damage around but we’re not sure on the acreage,” said Jon Browder, sales manager for Pioneer Growers Co-op, Belle Glade, on March 6. “Temperatures hit as low as 27-28 degrees in some areas where there were pockets of cold and we had 30-35 degrees in general temperatures for a couple hours.”
Kirstein said he expects growers to replant some of Palm Beach County’s 20,000-24,000 acres of corn, which typically is harvested starting in early April.
Other vegetables, berries and citrus escaped damage. | <urn:uuid:912ae88a-efa9-4f47-a69c-f5cd1c1b49d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thepacker.com/fruit-vegetable-enewsletter/Week_In_Review/195689451.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967689 | 599 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Syria banned Turkish passenger flights from its airspace from Sunday in a retaliatory move after Turkey confiscated a cargo of what Russia said was radar equipment en route from Moscow to Damascus last week.
The reprisal, just weeks before the annual hajj when thousands of Turkish pilgrims head to the Muslim holy places in Saudi Arabia on a route that would normally take them through Syrian airspace, came despite a flurry of diplomacy on Saturday intended to calm soaring tensions between the neighbours.
Syria accuses Turkey of channeling arms from Gulf Arab states to rebels fighting its troops, who have been under mounting pressure across large swathes of the north, including second city Aleppo.
The flight ban went into force from midnight (2100 GMT Saturday) "in accordance with the principle of reciprocity", SANA state news agency said, although Turkey has said its airspace remains open to Syrian civilian flights.
Since last Wednesday, Turkey had warned its airlines to avoid Syrian airspace for fear of retaliation for that day's interception of the Syrian Air flight by Turkish jets on the allegation it was carrying military equipment.
The United States backed its NATO ally's confiscation of what Russia said was radar spare parts, saying they constituted "serious military equipment".
Russia, traditional ally of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, insisted the cargo broke no international rules.
Turkey has taken an increasingly strident line towards its southern neighbour since a shell fired from the Syrian side of the border killed five of its nationals on October 3.
It has since repeatedly retaliated for cross-border fire, prompting growing UN concern and a flurry of diplomatic contacts.
After talks with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle on Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reiterated that Ankara would not tolerate any further border incidents.
"We will hit back without hesitation if we believe Turkey's national security is in danger," he said.
Westerwelle renewed Germany's support for its NATO ally while at the same time appealing for restraint. "We are on Turkey's side but we also call on Turkey to show moderation," he said.
Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, a veteran Algerian diplomat who is the envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League, headed to Iran, the Syria government's closest ally, after holding talks in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the leading backers of the opposition.
Brahimi is on his second tour of the region after taking up his post at the beginning of September, replacing former UN chief Kofi Annan who quit complaining that he had not received sufficient support from the major powers to see through his abortive April peace plan.
On the ground, fierce fighting raged between the army and rebel fighters on the main highway between Damascus and Aleppo.
The rebels' capture of the strategic crossroads town of Maaret al-Numan last Tuesday has threatened the army's ability to reinforce its beleaguered troops in the northern metropolis.
One rebel fighter was killed and 18 wounded as fighting raged for a second day around the nearby Wadi Daif base, which remains in government hands, the Syrian Observatory for Human Right said.
Air strikes targeted the rebels in the village of Marshurin and in Hish in the same region, the Britain-based watchdog added.
The clashes came after fierce fighting in the heart of Aleppo on Saturday which saw rebels attack army positions inside the city's landmark Umayyad Mosque for the second time in a week.
The commercial capital has been the key battleground of the 19-month conflict since mid-July.
Its ancient covered market or souk has also been damaged in the fighting as rebels and troops have exchanged mortar and grenade fire in the UNESCO-listed Old City.
Rebels entered the mosque complex by planting an explosive device at the southern entrance,
Nationwide at least 181 people were killed on Saturday -- 71 civilians, 63 soldiers and 47 rebels, according to the Observatory's figures.
More than 33,000 people have now been killed since the uprising against Assad's rule erupted in March last year, the watchdog says. | <urn:uuid:3bb450f3-9a46-4bf0-802c-58e0d7a4d0f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessinsider.com/syria-has-shut-down-its-airspace-to-all-turkish-aircraft-2012-10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96975 | 821 | 1.539063 | 2 |
HAVANA (AP) - Tropical Storm Isaac has pushed into Cuba after sweeping across Haiti's southern peninsula, where it caused flooding and at least three deaths.
Isaac's center made landfall just before midday near the far-eastern tip of Cuba, downing trees and power lines. The storm's surge caused some flooding in the picturesque city of Baracoa.
Forecasters say the storm is likely to grow into a hurricane as it moves northwest in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida's west coast. It could eventually hit the Florida Panhandle as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of nearly 100 mph.
Gov. Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency in Florida as officials prepare for possible bridge closures, flooding and other problems that could arise.
Vacationers are being urged to leave the Florida Keys. A hurricane warning has been posted for the Keys as well as the west coast of Florida from Bonita Beach south to Ocean Reef and for Florida Bay.
Isaac could bring stormy weather to Tampa, where the Republican National Convention gets under way on Monday. | <urn:uuid:edd4b641-6dc9-4d0b-b4f1-d4d023fd67b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wben.com/pages/14076894.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968817 | 219 | 1.8125 | 2 |
February 28, 2007
EVENDALE, Ohio -- The Qantas Group has selected the GEnx engine as the powerplant for its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet of up to 115 aircraft.
The initial order is for 90 installed engines. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2008.
"This selection of the GEnx engine to power Qantas' 787 fleet is exciting news for our business," said Scott Donnelly, president and CEO of GE Aviation. "We look forward to working with the airline to ensure the entry into service of the GEnx-powered 787 aircraft is flawless."
The GEnx began flight-testing on GE's 747 flying testbed last week and has been undergoing ground tests since March 2006. Engine certification is scheduled for September 2007.
The GEnx engine will power the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 747-8 Intercontinental and Freighter aircraft.
Based on the highly successful GE90 architecture, the GEnx engine will succeed GE's CF6 engine family, which is the most reliable and best-selling engine on wide-body aircraft. It provides significantly better specific fuel consumption and payload performance than GE's CF6 engines.
The GEnx engine is the world's only jet engine with both a front fan case and fan blades made of composites, which provide for greater engine durability, weight reduction and lower operating costs. The fan blades will utilize GE90 composite technology that has performed extremely well, with no routine on-wing maintenance required and no in-service issues for more than a decade.
The GEnx is part of GE's "ecomagination" product portfolio--GE's commitment to develop new, cost-effective technologies that enhance customers' environmental and operating performance.
GE Aviation, an operating unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), is one of the world's leading manufacturers of jet engines for civil and military aircraft. GE also is a world-leading provider of maintenance and support services for jet engines. | <urn:uuid:5eb7ec75-2b6b-4b37-b36e-baf2202868c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geaviation.com/press/genx/genx_20070228.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950737 | 409 | 1.554688 | 2 |
BBC world service radio reported that the US even blocked a paragraph in the Security Council's statement concerning the killing of four unarmed UN peacekeepers by Israel that stated "any attacks on UN peacekeepers are unacceptable".
The UN Security Council on Thursday passed a statement expressing shock at Israel's attack on a UN observer post in Lebanon which killed four peacekeepers but making no condemnation.
"The security council is deeply shocked and distressed by the firing by the Israeli Defense Forces on a United Nations observer post in southern Lebanon on July 25, which caused the death of four UN military observers," said the statement passed unanimously by the 15 nation council after two days of stormy negotiations.
Diplomats said the United States had refused to agree any statement which criticised Israel or condemned the attack, which killed peacekeepers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland.
China had sought a stronger motion which condemned the attack. Link | <urn:uuid:6e7b0583-53df-4c8a-acfb-3ed5e7a26e87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://deficientbrain.blogspot.com/2006/07/us-blocks-security-council.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953527 | 181 | 1.726563 | 2 |
|Bernanke's Biggest Folly Yet|
The Commerce Department reported today that despite record low borrowing costs, Housing starts fell 1.5% to a 604,000 annual rate in July from June’s 613,000 pace, while building permits also dropped to a 597,000 annual rate. It seems that even though money is nearly free, job stability and income growth are still elusive enough to keep the real estate market in a depression.
Yesterday saw the release of the Empire State Manufacturing Survey for August. The general business conditions index fell four points to -7.7, its third consecutive negative reading and the new orders index also remained below zero at -7.8. The future indexes offered no ray of hope either. The future general business conditions index plummeted twenty-four points to 8.7, which was its lowest level since February 2009, and the future new orders and shipments indexes fell to near-record lows, exceeded only by their September 2001 readings. The capital expenditures index was also down significantly.
But even though housing remains in a depression and the manufacturing sector is pointing towards another recession--one that actually never really ended-- money supply growth is indicating we are headed into a significant battle with inflation. Money supply growth as measured by MZM is rising at a 15% annualized rate in the last quarter and M2 has gone parabolic, rising at an 18% annualized pace in the last three months. So GDP is barely positive, yet money supply growth is soaring; and there is your stagflation.
Just because banks are making loans and increasing the money supply through the fractional reserve system doesn’t necessarily equate to a booming economy. Banks can loan money for consumption or to increase production. If banks make loans for consumption or to the government, it doesn’t have a direct correlation to an increase in the quantity of goods and services available for consumption. Therefore, money supply growth occurs in an inefficient manner. A far better form of money creation occurs when banks make loans to build factories, mines, utilities and to create capital goods.
We can only hope that commercial banks use their excess reserves this time to increase commercial and industrial loans rather than to just purchase U.S. Treasuries. Loans that are made to inflate asset prices or to consumer foreign products as occurred in the middle of the last decade will only further exacerbate inflation and get us even deeper into this multi-year recession.
This is where Bernanke has made perhaps his biggest blunder yet—and that is saying much given his follies over the past several years. By promising markets that his zero interest rate policy would remain in effect for what will amount to be at least four years in duration, he has handcuffed the Fed from draining reserves and curtailing money supply growth. Since money supply growth is already soaring we can only wonder what the rate of inflation will be and how low the dollar will go in the next few years. | <urn:uuid:6bdeb6cc-03ff-440c-b041-8a7a645dbd4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.europac.ca/pentonomics/bernankes_biggest_folly_yet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971436 | 600 | 1.671875 | 2 |
As Trikke Tech President and CEO, John Simpson, told Discovery News at CES, "Originally, [co-founder Gildo Beleski] was looking for something stable just to bomb hills. He had no idea that this design would propel using your body. And now that the motor and battery technology has gotten so good, it was just a natural to plug them into our frame system."
That need for downhill stability led to a three-wheel design, which eventually lent itself to either a great workout or just a great ride. To exercise the upper body more, push off with a simple leg pump or the cooler looking rock forward method. Weave the handlebars back and forth until you build enough momentum. Then evolve the quick swiveling into a rhythmic swaying motion that mimicks carving like a downhill skier.
Or if like a certain lazy reporter (see video below) you're looking for the less strenuous version, twist the hand throttle to let the 36-volt battery and 180-watt motor give you that initial push. And after that jumpstart, rock it yourself the rest of the way. Or some combination thereof.
Whether you're into training or just blasting around, the Trikke Tribred is a fun, super smooth way to travel 6 to 10 miles at 9 to 13 MPH. The 36v Lite weighs just 38 pounds — incuding the battery. And its frame folds down so that two can fit in the trunk of a Prius. But based on how cool (not to mention green) it is to ride, you'll want to minimize the amount of time you're transporting it without actually being on it.
Credit: Trikke Tech
This article is part of our ongoing coverage of this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Find more CES articles here. | <urn:uuid:aa6fbfae-d4c6-4f35-8d34-ca3072dd6bca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.discovery.com/tech/the-hybrid-three-wheeled-electricfitness-scooter-120117.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949439 | 368 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Queen Victoria is deeply depressed after the death of her husband, disappearing from public. Her servant Brown, who adores her, through caress and admiration brings her back to life, but ... See full summary »
The death of King Henry VIII throws his kingdom into chaos because of succession disputes. His weak son Edward, is on his deathbed. Anxious to keep England true to the Reformation, a ... See full summary »
Helena Bonham Carter,
Young Queen Margot finds herself trapped in an arranged marriage amidst a religious war between Catholics and Protestants. She hopes to escape with a new lover, but finds herself imprisoned by her powerful and ruthless family.
This movie tells the true story of John Reed, a radical American journalist around the time of World War I. He soon meets Louise Bryant, a respectable married woman, who dumps her husband for Reed and becomes an important feminist and radical in her own right. After involvement with labor and political disputes in the US, they go to Russia in time for the October Revolution in 1917, when the Communists siezed power. Inspired, they return to the US, hoping to lead a similar revolution. A particularly fascinating aspect of the movie is the inclusion of interviews with "witnesses", the real-life surviving participants in the events of the movie. Written by
The role of Eugene O'Neill was always intended for Jack Nicholson. According to Warren Beatty, he believed that Nicholson was the only person who "could take her girl" (Diane Keaton) away from him. See more »
In the scene of the Booster's dinner in Portland is in 1915 and the announcer says that he's ready to make the world safe for democracy. In 1915 the United States was still neutral and the phrase "make the world safe for democracy," was actually part of Woodrow Wilson's war message to Congress which he gave on April 2, 1917, two years after the Portland event. See more »
Was that in 1913 or 17? I can't remember now. Uh, I'm, uh, beginning to forget all the people that I used to know, see?
Do I remember Louise Bryant? Why, of course, I couldn't forget her if I tried.
See more »
As the credits roll, additional interviews with the 'witnesses' play. See more »
A great companion piece to 1965's 'Doctor Zhivago'.
Warren Beatty's 'Reds' is a terrific film that is not only great story telling in the conventional Hollywood way but also has an original style of narration told in many ways from the point of view of witnesses to the real story who lived during the days the film is centred around.
The film is especially significant to view since the iron curtain in Russia has come down and 'Reds' is a movie that never looks dated and stresses the fact that morals at the early part of the 20th century were about the same as they are now. It's just that no one discussed it back then and it emphasizes that times change but people don't.
With top notch performances from the entire cast, it is one of the few films to be nominated for an Oscar in all four acting categories and was victorious in the Best Supporting Actress category for Maureen Stapleton although the film's best performance comes from Diane Keaton who should have won her second Oscar.
To date, Beatty is the only film maker to be Oscar nominated for Best Director, Actor, Screenwriter and Producer twice for the same film. The other time was for 1978's 'Heaven Can Wait'.
31 of 46 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you? | <urn:uuid:6261a052-0811-409c-8d9a-545ffa2c07b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082979/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957927 | 748 | 1.507813 | 2 |
A year after the beginning of Occupy London Stock Exchange, Symon Hill gives a personal reflection on the response from St Paul's Cathedral. Symon was dragged from the cathedral steps as he prayed during the eviction of the camp. He marked the anniversary by joining an act of witness and protest at St Paul's by Christianity Uncut.
As we approach the first anniversary of the St Paul's protests it saddens Giles Fraser, former canon there, that the Church of England's reaction to Occupy was so reminiscent of its reaction to Chartism. In both cases, popular protest was dismissed as incoherent and unsuccessful, as the Archbishop of canterbury recently suggested about Occupy.
There's more than three months to go until the Greenbelt Festival gets underway, but a pre-Greenbelt event will take place this Sunday in London. I'm really pleased to be one of ten speakers who will talk for 8-10 minutes each on an aspect of the theme of Greenbelt 2012, ?Paradise: Lost & Found.
I was dragged by police from the steps of St Paul's Cathedral as I knelt in prayer during the eviction of Occupy London Stock Exchange. The occupiers had arrived on the cathedral's doorstep after they were prevented from protesting closer to the Stock Exchange. The Occupy movement attracted a surprising degree of public sympathy and Christians, like others, were challenged to choose sides.
Tammy Semede, part of the Occupy movement, who met regularly with representatives from St Paul's prior to the recent eviction in London, reflects on the way the cathedral behaved and illustrates the disillusionment that this has caused among a good number of people who had hoped for properly Christian behaviour from a Christian institution. | <urn:uuid:157e0a7a-a1d0-4b7c-b75f-f9f9ec3e3439> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/taxonomy/term/8850 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973733 | 342 | 1.578125 | 2 |
That opposition came after the city council, in a 3-2 vote, agreed to raise the property tax — or millage — rate from 9.035 mills to 12.69 mills.
Following the vote Monday, the council held the first of three public hearings on the proposed hike.
Two more public hearings, in which residents can ask questions and voice their opinions, must be held before the council can go ahead with the rate hike. The final two public hearings will be held Sept. 10.
The higher property tax rate is a measure to balance the city’s budget; to fund Rossville Public Library; and to eliminate an unpopular monthly administration fee of $6.50, which isn’t being paid by all Rossville residents.
“It has not been a popular tax at all,” Harris said about the administration fee. “There has been a lot of controversy over it.”
The largest portion of the rate increase — 2 mills — is to offset the elimination of the administration fee, which appears on residents’ water bills.
If Rossville continued the $6.50 fee, it would require a new billing company, since Tennessee American Water Co. will no longer collect any fees for municipalities.
One vendor being considered for billing will charge $1.42 for each resident’s bill.
While each homeowner has paid $78 annually to the city for the administration fee, that isn’t the same case for apartment tenants throughout the city or for homeowners with their own septic systems.
Many rental properties receive only one water bill, including Rossville Apartments on Walker Avenue, which has 110 units, according to council member Joyce Wall.
According to the water company statistics, 1,500 residents (of 4,100 total) paid the monthly fee to the city.
The administration fee was intended to apply to all city residents equally, but failed to do so upon being initiated nine years ago by then-mayor Johnny Baker, according to Harris.
Under the new property tax rate, a home worth $53,000 would pay an increase of property tax equivalent to the former administration fee ($78 in one year), while a $200,000 home would increase by $214 more in taxes annually, according to Harris.
Council members Rick Buff and Cindy Bradshaw voted against the proposed tax rate increase.
Buff explained how the administration fee helped the city’s reserve fund while avoiding tax increases. It is the first millage rate increase since 2000.
“The property tax (rate) increase is not a fair tax because not all of the people are going to be taxed the same,” Buff said. He said he prefers to use reserve funds for the upcoming year.
“It (a millage rate increase) is not going to be popular, but once you break it down it should be understandable,” Harris said.
Harris quickly called for a vote on the proposed rate hike after Buff’s statement, which drew the ire of the crowd, which sought more discussion. One citizen interrupted and challenged the mayor with a “point of order” for discussion, which was vigorously denied by Harris after hammering his gavel 15 times.
Upon a second motion on the issue, Bradshaw focused on the library portion of the proposed millage increase.
She questioned state funding mandates and the library’s loss of support from the Walker County school board.
Bradshaw also asked Cherokee Regional Library director Lecia Eubanks a host of questions that were contentious at times, ranging from Eubanks’ earnings to a $200 line item for travel in the budget.
The city contributes one-quarter of a $16,000 supplement to Eubanks, in addition to her $74,000 salary, set by the state. Her secretary, for 20 hours a week, has been eliminated due to budget cuts, becoming another responsibility for Eubanks. The state will not allow libraries to furlough employees as a temporary measure in the matter, according to Eubanks.
Eubanks explained county-level funding cuts and the massive increase ($700 monthly per employee) required in local contributions to employee health-care imposed by legislators.
“Times are tough and we can’t give you this money unless we go up on property taxes,” Bradshaw said. “We’re not earmarking that and never would I agree to do that.”
The city does provide maintenance for the library, which was built with state funding, and property that was donated to Rossville, according to Eubanks.
Eubanks reminded council members of the importance that libraries provide for citizens seeking forms during tax season and for the unemployed seeking jobs who would become taxpayers.
“I am one-hundred percent for supporting the library,” Buff said, describing it as an “important asset for kids” at a time when the recreation department was ended.
According to library data cards, 4,219 residents in the city are among the 10,742 users at the Rossville library, which had more than 45,000 visitors last year.
Concerns from crowd
Following the initial vote on the proposed property tax rate hike, citizens were allowed to voice concerns.
The speakers included two groups: library supporters with concerns for the next generation; and those in opposition to additional taxes, which were mostly retirees.
One resident questioned if more county residents utilized the Rossville library than those who live in the city.
“Passing a tax increase is the easiest thing in the world. …. Any idiot can do it,” a former council member said. “Why should we fund it for those in the county, if the county isn’t going to fund it?”
Another person asked, “What would we have left to attract potential residents and for our own children” if the loss of both a recreation department and the library occurred?
“We need to think about the children before we think of anything else,” Barbara Moore said.
A number of the residents were from Mission Ridge Road, an area that overlooks downtown Rossville, including a resident who claimed to be on a “fixed income” and that Mission Ridge residents paid approximately 80 percent of the city’s taxes.
Former mayor Johnny Baker, whose administration created the administration fee, spoke against the tax increase. He also criticized city officials for not giving a salary raise to law enforcement.
Baker categorized the fee elimination as a “successful campaign pledge” for his successor Teddy Harris. “We’re a proud city and we’re messing with the wrong people,” Baker said about imposing a greater tax burden on property owners.
Cindy Sharrock spoke about the community impact of libraries. Prior to receiving a home from the TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” she did not have a computer and frequently utilized resources at the library, including faxing 300 pages of her application to the reality show that built her Rossville home in February 2011.
The smallest portion of the property tax rate increase — 0.655 mills — is to balance the city’s budget, which was reduced by $57,000, according to Sherry Foster, city clerk.
The city’s reserve fund stood at nearly $1 million dollars in 2006, but has been utilized continuously as revenues have fallen in recent years and currently stands at $660,000.
An additional 1-mill increase has also been added to “fully fund” the Rossville Public Library, which will provide $67,000 without using reserve funds, according to Harris.
Council member Hal Gray said the first cuts were internal departments. All budgets were affected, except the library funding, according to Foster.
That level of support by the city has only recently returned from 2001, which provided $64,475 that year. The following year mayor Baker cut the library budget to $30,000 from the previous year, according to Eubanks, which threatened to close the library while city reserve funds were growing.
“Fortunately, that same year, Dade County increased their contribution by $30,000,” Eubanks said, which offset the funding cut in Rossville.
“Last year was the first that (Rossville) funding returned to the 2001 level,” Eubanks said.
The city’s funding increased to $47,000 the following two years and slowly increased during the eight years that followed.
Any raises for all city employees were also eliminated from the current budget.
Municipal court collections are down by more than $100,000 over the past two years, according to Harris.
“We also lost the biggest taxpayer (Brockway Plastic Container) in the city two years ago,” which paid $47,000 annually in taxes, Harris said.
Nearly 25 percent of the delinquent property taxes in Rossville (which total $101,000) are in bankruptcy, which significantly delays tax collection, according to Foster.
The largest amounts of back-taxes due are on the Peerless Mill property. The Hutcheson family, which had the property returned to its ownership on July 3, has recently paid $23,000 of those back-taxes to Rossville, half the amount owed, according to Harris. | <urn:uuid:ddb1603a-b90e-46ee-ba02-cf71fc54b9e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.walkermessenger.com/view/full_story/19829714/article-Rossville-residents-voice-opposition-to-proposed-property-tax-rate-hike-?instance=home_local_bullet_news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973059 | 1,949 | 1.5625 | 2 |
nr. 2 i den internationale ROADEF-konkurrence
IMADA's group of PhD students finishes second in the 2010 ROADEF Challenge. A large-scale energy management problem with varied constraints July 2010.
An IMADA team of four PhD students made it up to the second place in the category reserved to young scientists in the 2010 ROADEF Challenge.
The ROADEF Challenge is an international competition dedicated to industrial applications. The object of this year's edition was a decision-making problem in the energy sector: planning the maintenance and the production levels of power plants. Nineteen teams from eleven countries worldwide took up the challenge and submitted their algorithms and computer programs. Steffen Godskesen, Niels Kjeldsen, Rune Larsen and Thomas Sejr-Jensen from IMADA ranked second among their peers and seventh overall.
The competition represents an opportunity for the Department to strengthen its position in the field of operations research. The group working on practical applications of combinatorial optimization and effective algorithms has already experience in high-level analyses and has solved industrial problems in a number of areas, including transportation, work scheduling, production management and timetabling.
Organized by the Societe Francaise de Recherche Operationnelle et d'Aide la Decision, the ROADEF Challenge looks at the development of optimization tools for industrial problem solving. The teams are required to develop and submit, in the form of a computer program, a method to solve an industrial problem. These methods are then tested and compared using actual industrial data. The winners of the 2010 competition were announced at the recent EURO conference, held in Lisbon from July 11 to 14.
The problem to be solved this year was suggested by EDF (Electricite de France), the leading company in power generation in France. The varied range of EDF facilities mixes all forms of energy: thermal (nuclear, coal, fuel oil and gas), hydraulic and other renewable energies. The management of thermal power plants is particularly complex, especially for those that have to be repeatedly shut down for refuelling and maintenance, e.g. the nuclear ones. The scheduling of outages has to comply with various constraints, regarding safety, maintenance, logistics and plant operation while it must lead to production programs with minimum costs. The plan extends over at least one year and has to and take into account the forecasts of future electricity demands. EDF was not satisfied with the way they currently handle this decision-making situation and it was only logical to involve the main experts from the field.
The method developed by IMADA team combines, ingeniously, known techniques, such as constraint programming and heuristics. It attains effective solutions and further research will make it more robust against particularly uncommon data.
17.08.2010Tilbage til nyhedsoversigten | <urn:uuid:c132c50e-348a-4a3c-806e-2ba2cce5c889> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sdu.dk/Om_SDU/Institutter_centre/Imada_matematik_og_datalogi/Nyt_fra_IMADA/Roadef | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937212 | 582 | 1.820313 | 2 |
It was a Thursday, around 6:00 pm, and I was sitting in my office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, located along a tree-lined stretch of Alewife Brook Parkway, a few miles outside of Harvard Square.
The four-story brick building, an annex of Massachusetts General Hospital's psychiatry department, is where I see patients as part of my research and teaching responsibilities at Harvard Medical School. They span the age and occupation spectrumelementary-school children, grandparents, lawyers, salesmen, housewives and house-husbandsbut they have one thing in common: they are coming to see me and my colleagues with familiar complaints and concerns. "I know I could be doing better" is a common one; as is, "I can't go on like this."
While the complaints may vary slightly, the symptoms they describe are the sameand consistent with the condition we treat. You've probably heard of it: attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
One of those patients, we'll call her Jill, is late for her appointment.
As I sit catching up on e-mails, the door bursts open and in she flies, out of breath from climbing the two flights of stairs to my second-floor office. She is flustered and clearly upset.
"Sorry I'm late!" Jill says, as she plops down on the chair facing my desk. "You wouldn't believe my day."
"Try me," I say. "Take a deep breath and tell me what's going on."
Jill is in her late thirties and a highly educated research scientist, one of the many "knowledge workers" who labor in Cambridge, home of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She takes a moment and launches into her story, which begins a few weeks earlier when she temporarily moved into a friend's apartment while her own house was being renovated.
"Last night, when I came in," she says, "I put my keys down somewhere, and this morning, I had not a clue where they could be."
I nod. I have a feeling I know where this is going.
"I looked everywherethe usual places, which of course are not the usual places, as it's not my place. My friend, she really is a good friend, but I am wondering if she has more trouble than I do. You think I am disorganized, you should see her place
I know this is the right time to jump in and direct our conversation back to the issue at hand orlike this morningJill could continue running in verbal circles and not getting anywhere. "Okay, so, you were looking for your keys
?" Jill smiles. "Oh, right, yes, I was flipping out. I spent thirty minutes trying to find my car keys."
Jill then stops, shaking her head.
"Well, did you find them?" I ask.
She nods ruefully. "Eventually."
"Where were they?"
"Right on my friend's kitchen table! And, of course, I'd walked back and forth through the kitchen ten times while I was looking for them. All that time they were right there
right there in front of me. Unbelievable!"
"Sounds very frustrating
but pretty believable, as those keys have eluded you before." Jill smiles ruefully, and I press on. "Then what happened?"
"My day was in shambles from that point on." Jill went on to relate how the half hour she'd spent looking for the keys set off a domino effect of tardiness and inefficiencyproblems galore. She arrived at work late for a meeting and opened the door to the conference room just in time to interrupt an important point that one of her company's head honchos was making. Embarrassed and angry at herself, she returned from the meeting and finally got in front of her computer to find a barrage of e-mail reminders that further annoyed and overwhelmed her. She sent out a flurry of responses, including a snippy reply to the wrong person, who was not happy to get it (neither was the correct recipient, when she eventually cleared up the mistake). Dealing with her e-mail gaffe kept her from attending to a project due by noon. Her deadline blown, she skipped lunch, scrambling to get her work done, and what she did hand intwo hours latewas subpar and received with something less than an enthusiastic response by her supervisor.
In other words, it was a crummy day for Jill. It wasn't the first time such a day had begun with something misplaced or by an episode of forgetfulness, but the snowball effect of losing her keys still surprised and upset her.
"This happens all the time," Jill says, teary-eyed, angry and ashamed. "At this rate, I could lose my job
just because I can't keep track of stupid things like keys."
I'm sorry to hear that Jill is upset, but her story is not unusual. Jill has ADHDand she is certainly not alone. It's estimated that about 4 percent of adults and 57 percent of children in this country meet the medical criteria for ADHD. It's equally safe to estimate that at some point in their lives almost everyone has felt as if they have ADHD, too. The symptoms of ADHD include forgetfulness, impulsiveness, losing items, making careless errors, being easily distracted and lacking focus. Who hasn't exhibited one of these symptoms in the last few days
or even hours? Who hasn't lost their car keys? Who hasn't been distracted in the car (once the keys are located), on the job or at homeby a text, a tweet, an e-mail, a cell phone ring? Who hasn't been late for a meeting or missed a deadline or made a mistake because they were disorganized that day, lost focus that morning or were distracted that minute? That doesn't necessarily mean you have ADHD, but it does suggest you might be part of the distracted masses that now make up such a large part of our society. If so, you've come to the right place because we're going to show you how to get back on track.
Whether or not you have ADHDand chances are, you probably don'tthe purpose of this book is to inform, inspire and organize your brain. Whether forgetfulness is a "symptom" of a disorder for a person like Jill or an "issue" for someone else who doesn't have the same degree of severity, this book will approach it in a straightforward wayand with equally straightforward and effective solutions.
What was first labeled the "Distraction Epidemic" by Slate magazine in 2005 has now reached epic proportions, right up there with the obesity epidemic and is of no less import than that or other public health crises that have befallen modern society. In a 2009 New York magazine story on the attention crisis, David Meyer of the University of Michigan described it as nothing less than "a cognitive plague that has the potential to wipe out an entire generation of focused and productive thought" and has drawn comparisons to the insidious damage of nicotine addiction.
"People aren't aware of what's happening to their mental processes," says Meyer, "in the same way that people years ago couldn't look into their lungs and see the residual deposits." The difference here is that unlike the "mad men" of the 1950s and 1960s who went around merrily sucking up packs of unfiltered Camels, seemingly oblivious to the harmful effects, most of us today know that we are having problems staying focused, paying attention and maintaining some sense of order in our lives.
Unlike smoking (which you either do or don't do), it's not just the people afflicted by the most serious and definable form of distraction and disorganizationADHDwho are affected by this epidemic. Ask friends, family members and colleagues how they're doing, and chances are, the responses will usually include words like "frazzled," "stressed," "overwhelmed" and "trying to keep my head above water." In casual conversation, you often hear people talking about "brain freezes," "blanking out" on something or suffering "senior moments" (often, when they really aren't very senior). All of them
all of us
are affected to some degree by the epidemic.
To get back to my patient Jill in the four-story brick building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I knew that the woman with the lost keys and the lousy day was not one of the millions complaining to each other about how crazed their lives have become. She has a clinical disorder; most do not. But, as I listened to Jill's story, I also knew the potential power of a rather simple solution that could help her and many others.
A couple of weeks earlier, during one of our regular sessions, Jill and I had somehow gotten on to the topic of the Apollo lunar landing. We talked about the coverage of the fortieth anniversary of that historic moment, the spectacle of the great Saturn rocket that hurled the astronauts into space, how exciting it still was to see the old black-and-white images of Aldrin and Armstrong on the moon and hear their voices crackling over the television from Tranquility Base and about whether we'd ever go back.
The memory of that conversation about the space program and her interest in it gave me the language needed to help frame the solution for Jill.
"So, I have a thought about how to start your day tomorrow," I say. "As we've been talking about, we are working on bringing order into your life, changing old patterns that don't work with new ones that do."
"Right, that sounds good," she says attentively. "What's your idea?"
"You need a launch pad for your keys."
Her eyebrows raise quizzically.
"A launch pad," I repeat. "A place where you always put your keys and maybe your ID and glasses, too. That way, you'll know that's the place they're always going to be
and every morning, that's where you'll launch your day."
Slowly, as if an unseen hand was drawing it methodically, a smile etches itself across her face.
"A launch pad," Jill says, starr... | <urn:uuid:2ebe9810-a4d0-4ba3-9176-521f17e48ec8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.ca/Organize-Your-Mind-Life-Train/dp/0373892446 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981342 | 2,120 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Legislative Analyst's Office
Analysis of the 2001-02 Budget Bill
The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is responsible for protecting the public interest in vehicle ownership by registering vehicles, and for promoting public safety on California's roads and highways by issuing driver licenses. Additionally, the department licenses and regulates vehicle-related businesses such as automobile dealers and driver training schools, and also collects certain fee and tax revenues for state and local agencies.
The budget proposes total expenditures of $680.6 million for support of DMV in 2001-02. This represents an increase of $18.5 million, or 2.8 percent, above estimated current-year expenditures.
About $344 million (51 percent) of the department's total support will come from the Motor Vehicle Account and $269 million (40 percent) from the Motor Vehicle License Fee Account. The remaining support will be funded primarily from the State Highway Account and reimbursements.
Over the past several years, evidence of potentially widespread fraud in the Department of Motor Vehicles' (DMV's) issuance of driver licenses has come to the attention of the Legislature. Despite attempts to curb this fraud through legislation and administrative measures, recent reports indicate that the problem persists. The department now requests an additional $13.3 million for driver license fraud prevention and investigation. While we believe that new efforts are needed, we find that the department's proposal fails to justify the particular solutions identified over various alternatives. Accordingly, we recommend that the Legislature delete the proposed augmentation at this time, and direct the department to develop and present at the May Revision a fuller and more cohesive solution that takes into account additional information expected to become available this spring. (Reduce various items by $13.3 million.)
The California Driver License (CDL) is statutorily recognized as the primary form of identification used in the state. Besides conveying evidence of one's driving privilege, the CDL is commonly used to cash checks, secure credit, obtain social services, register to vote, and perform various other financial, governmental, and legal transactions that require certain evidence of one's identity. It is therefore critical that the integrity of the license as a positive form of identification be protected. Unfortunately, the value and importance of the CDL have made it a popular target for fraud.
Different Types of Fraud. There are three main types of fraud connected with driver licenses:
The full extent of these types of fraud is unknown. Estimates for the total number of fraudulent licenses range well over 100,000 per year.
Fraud Facilitated by Lax DMV Procedures. Although it is unrealistic to expect that fraud could be entirely prevented, lax procedures by DMV have made fraud relatively easy to commit. The main entry points for fraud are:
While there are other entry points for fraud, we believe that the three listed above account for the substantial majority of fraudulent licenses issued by DMV.
Recent Efforts to Address Fraud. A series of newspaper reports in September and October 2000 drew attention to the problems with driver license and vehicle registration fraud at DMV. In response, the Senate Transportation Committee held an interim hearing in November which investigated the extent and cause of fraud, and which sought to identify opportunities to mitigate these problems. As a result of the hearing, legislation has been introduced to address certain facets of DMV's license issuance procedures, such as its use of thumb prints and license photographs to verify identity. Further, the Legislature recently requested an audit of DMV's license issuance procedures by the Bureau of State Audits (BSA). In addition, DMV has instituted a number of procedural changes such as requiring that social security numbers be verified with the Social Security Administration and requiring that file photographs be matched against persons requesting a replacement license. The department has also convened an antifraud task force, and has undertaken a pilot project with the state Department of Justice (DOJ) to determine the adequacy of DMV's thumb print database for verifying identity.
Department Requests $13.3 Million for Reforms. The department now requests $13.3 million in the budget year to expand its fraud prevention activities. Specifically, the department requests:
In sum, the DMV's proposal attempts to address problems with confirming the identity of license applicants, and, to a lesser extent, monitoring DMV employees and improving document verification. We believe that the proposal contains a number of elements which, taken individually, might be useful to address specific facets of DMV's license fraud problems. However, we conclude that the elements of the proposal taken together are not sufficiently comprehensive and integrated. Specifically, we have the following two concerns.
Proposal Insufficiently Developed. The largest component of the proposal involves biometric verification of a person's physical characteristicsnamely facial features and thumb prints. By using computer technology to make these comparisons, the department can avoid the human error inherent in having DMV clerks visually confirm identity.
Biometric technology is changing rapidly, and it is not clear whether the best approach would be to compare thumb prints, fingerprints, facial characteristics, or some other feature or combination of features. Moreover, the department notes that its proposal is only a first step, and that to more fully combat fraud, additional data-searching capabilities will have to be added. Estimates for the expanded system range up to $50 million, and the time required to fully implement such a system and obtain necessary data files could exceed a decade. In addition, the use of biometric technologies raises legal and privacy issues. It is unclear, for example, whether DMV is statutorily authorized to use biometric data to combat crimes not directly related to the Vehicle Code. In summary, while we believe that biometrics holds promise for DMV's efforts to combat fraud, we believe that the current proposal is insufficiently developed, raising questions that require further review.
Proposal Does Not Address Employee Oversight Issues. The budget proposal also fails to adequately address employee oversight. While DMV continues to develop procedures and policies that combat fraud, it is unclear how DMV plans to ensure that its employees actually observe those procedures and policies. As noted earlier, recent reports have highlighted how DMV employees sometimes ignore procedures to save time or commit fraud. We believe it will be necessary for DMV to improve its screening of employees for sensitive positions, as well as its identification of and response to employee misconduct. Further, the extent and adequacy of the department's proposal to improve employee training is not clear.
Impacts on Privacy and Efficiency Should Be Considered. In addition to the concerns discussed above, we note that DMV's response to its fraud problems raises policy questions about the potential trade-off between fraud prevention and customer convenience. The department notes in its proposal that some of its reforms have increased the time required to perform certain transactions. The Legislature has expressed concern about wait times for DMV customers, expressing in statute its intent that average wait times should not exceed 30 minutes. The projected benefits of DMV's fraud prevention activities will need to be weighed against their effect on customer convenience, including lengthened wait times and intrusions on privacy.
A More Integrated and Comprehensive Approach Needed. For the reasons discussed above, we cannot determine the degree to which DMV's proposal can be expected to reduce license fraud. Given the multifaceted nature of the license fraud problem, we believe that an appropriate response would be to draw together a comprehensive, integrated set of solutions. We believe such a response should include:
Recommendation: New Investments in Fraud Prevention Should Await Audit and Pilot Results. As noted above, several studies currently under way should be able to provide a fuller evaluation of DMV's problems with license fraud. An audit by BSA is expected to examine the extent and nature of these problems, evaluate the appropriateness of DMV's recent reforms, and recommend administrative, statutory, and budgetary solutions. In addition, a pilot project by DMV and the state DOJ is expected to evaluate how different biometric solutions (involving facial recognition and fingerprint technologies) might be able to reduce fraud.
Both of these projects are expected to be completed this spring. We believe it is prudent to await the results of those projects before investing in a particular reform package. Accordingly, we recommend that the Legislature (1) delete the proposed augmentation at this time, and (2) direct DMV to develop and provide at the May Revision a comprehensive reform package that responds to the fraud issues listed above. The reform package should take into account findings from the BSA audit, DOJ pilot, and other available information. The package should include budget proposals, legislative proposals, and further administrative changes, as appropriate.
Over the past three fiscal years, the department has received $3.5 million to replace computer terminals in its field offices. At the time this analysis was prepared, the department had not begun the replacement. We recommend that the funding be redirected to the Department of Motor Vehicles' financial system replacement project and new funding for that project be reduced by a like amount. (Reduce various items by $3.5 million.)
The DMV performs a number of vehicle-related transactions at its 170 field offices throughout the state. Most of these transactions, including driver license issuance, vehicle registration and renewal, and occupational licensing, take place at computer terminals operated by DMV staff.
The department conducted a study in 1997 and 1998 which indicated that the field office terminals were "old, wearing out, and technologically obsolete." It noted that the terminals were failing with increasing frequency; replacement parts were no longer available; and the vendor would not renew the maintenance contract past 1998. The report maintained that equipment failures would cause business disruptions. The report concluded "It is imperative that replacement [of the terminals] start in July 1998 . . . ."
In the May Revision of the Governor's 1998-99 budget proposal, DMV requested a total of $3.5 million over three years to replace the terminals. It cited the study as justification for the budget request. The requested funds were approved by the Legislature, and were included in the 1998-99, 1999-00, and 2000-01 budgets.
Terminals Not Replaced; Funds Remain. Discussions with the department indicate that, as of January 2001, DMV still had not expended the funds to replace its field office terminals. The department informed us that it has reevaluated its needs, and is considering using the appropriated funds to purchase different equipment than that which was identified in its original budget request.
Funds Should Be Directed to Other Activities. Because the department has not made use of the funding provided to it for replacement terminals, we believe the funds should be redirected to the department's current activities. Specifically, we recommend that DMV redirect these funds to the replacement of its administrative and financial systems, which is currently under way. Doing so will reduce the department's request of $8.1 million to complete this project in the budget year by a like amount. Accordingly, we recommend that the Legislature reduce DMV's budget request by $3.5 million.
Department Should Report on Terminal Needs. Judging from the department's continued use of its old terminals two and one half years past the "imperative" replacement date specified in its 1998 report, it appears that the department's evaluation of its terminal needs was severely flawed. Moreover, the 1998 report is now significantly out of date.
Accordingly, we recommend that the Legislature adopt the following supplemental report language to direct the department to provide a new report on its field office terminal needs. Any new effort to replace the terminals should be based on information detailed in that report.
Item 2740-001-0044Department of Motor Vehicles
On or before January 10, 2002, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) shall provide the Legislature with a report that evaluates the department's use of computer terminals in its field offices. The report shall (1) describe the department's current equipment, (2) evaluate its suitability for the tasks for which it is used, and (3) recommend actions, including terminal replacement if warranted, which the department believes are necessary to ensure the reliability and efficiency of DMV's legislatively mandated activities.
We recommend the South Sacramento replacement office be procured by state capital outlay, not by lease with purchase option with a private developer.
(Please see discussion in the "Capital Outlay" chapter.) | <urn:uuid:9b46e227-3d41-4b57-a334-7682025ea76c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lao.ca.gov/analysis_2001/transportation/tran_07_2740_anl01.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954064 | 2,481 | 1.6875 | 2 |
America’s Great Outdoors InitiativeWritten by Giles Morris
Recreation, conservation and preservation-minded environmentalists from all over Western North Carolina streamed into the Ferguson Auditorium at Asheville-Buncombe Technical College for a chance to influence federal policy.
“They’re calling it a listening session,” said Abe Nail, 56, of Globe. “I can’t imagine the Bush administration doing anything like that.”
Judi Parker, 63, also of Globe –– which is tucked into the middle of the Pisgah National Forest just south of Blowing Rock –– marveled at the crowd of people swarming around her.
“I’m just glad so many people came,” she said.
Nail and Parker were two of more than 500 people who came to participate in a project inaugurated by President Barack Obama in April. Administration officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Department of Interior –– all of which have a stake in overseeing America’s public lands –– have joined together for a road show to listen to the people their policies impact.
Paul Carlson, executive director of the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee based in Franklin, said the administration’s willingness to send senior officials to the listening sessions showed it was serious about supporting locally-based conservation efforts.
“Those are pretty senior guys and for them to be out there taking that kind of time to listen to us is pretty impressive,” Carlson said.
The group has toured a dozen cities already to meet with stakeholder groups and talk about how the federal government can do a better job expanding access to outdoor recreation and land conservation in everything from city parks to national forests.
Will Shafroth, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, is one of a handful of officials who have been to every city so far. Shafroth said the trip has given him a lift during a trying period.
“It’s invigorating because with the dark cloud of the oil spill in the Gulf, which has been a real drag on our sense of what’s happening, you come into a place like this and it’s just full of energy,” Shafroth said.
The strain of the past months showed on Shafroth’s face, and during his opening remarks he managed to forget where he was, thanking the people of “Asheville, Tennessee” for the turnout.
Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy handled the slip graciously and led the audience –– which was made up of a wide range of characters from AmeriCorps volunteers to non-profit executive directors to local politicians –– in a rousing call and response that confirmed the real venue for the event.
The value of the listening session as a policy tool may not yet be determined, but its worth as a morale building exercise was evident from the start.
Tom Strickland, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, invoked the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt in his remarks and set the tone for the dialogue later in the day.
“We know now that the solutions are not going to come from Washington, if they ever did,” Strickland said.
The room buzzed as Julie Judkins of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, a facilitator in the morning’s youth event, offered some feedback direct from the young people to the big bosses.
“Even though we love Smoky [the Bear], maybe it’s time to get him on the iPhone,” Judkins said.
John Jarvis, head of the National Park Service, offered a succinct summation of the aim of the event in his address.
“We need your ideas so we can spread them around to other parts of the country,” Jarvis said.
The listening sessions have been organized to inform a report that will be on President Barack Obama’s desk by November 15. After the hour-long introductory session that included an eight-minute inspirational video invoking the nation’s relationship with its public lands, the participants headed to breakout sessions in classroom settings to discuss their own experiences.
The sessions were organized to record what strategies were working, what challenges organizations were facing, how the federal government could better facilitate change, and what existing tools could be used to create improvements in the system.
In a breakout session focused on outdoor recreation, participants affiliated with trail clubs, mountain biking groups, paddling groups, tourism offices and scout troops piled into a room.
Mark Singleton, executive director of Sylva-based American Whitewater, participated in the president’s kickoff conference in Washington, D.C., back in April. Two months later he was telling the facilitator that the government had to work to create better and more accessible options for recreation on public land so the younger generation would grow up with a conservation ethic.
“It’s hard to protect something if you don’t love it,” Singleton said. “There can’t be a disconnect with the younger generation.”
Eric Woolridge, the Wautauga County Tourism and Development Authority’s outdoor recreation planner, hailed the new cooperative model in Boone that uses a local tax on overnight lodging to fund outdoor recreation infrastructure projects.
Woolridge oversees an outdoor recreation infrastructure budget of $250,000 derived from proceeds of a 6 percent occupancy tax.
“The key is that we have a revenue stream, and it always stays there,” Woolridge said.
There were specific asks for cooperation from the Feds, too. A woman from North Georgia wanted to know how to get memorandums of understanding with various agencies to help her youth orienteering program.
Don Walton, a board member with the Friends of the Mountain To Sea Trail, asked that the U.S. Park Service to consider allowing more camping opportunities on land owned by the Blue Ridge Parkway.
While each set of stakeholders had their own pet issues, nearly everyone was urging the Feds to ramp up their contribution to the Land And Water Conservation Fund, which uses revenues from off-shore oil leases to benefit outdoor recreation projects across the country.
Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar authorized $38 million for state projects through the fund this year, but the administration has announced its aim to authorize the full funding level of $900 million for the LWCF by 2014.
Woolridge, Singleton and many other outdoor recreation stakeholders also waned to emphasize that their work isn’t just about playing, it’s about economic development.
“Outdoor recreation and conservation is a legitimate development strategy,” Woolridge said. “In fact, it may be the only development strategy for rural communities.”
For Shafroth, who ran a non-profit in Colorado before taking his job at the Department of Interior, the economic challenges of the moment are an ever-present reality.
“With the shortfalls with resources we have right now and the size of people’s goals… in some cases, there’s a pretty big gulf right now,” Shafroth said.
But more than just dollars and cents, the listening tour is an organizing effort, a way to get conservation-minded people in front of their government to start a long-overdue conversation.
Abe Nail said his attendance at the event wasn’t about money.
“You can’t buy conservation. Conservation is passion driven,” Nail said. | <urn:uuid:bf3ded34-a595-4631-b3e8-8a35f8c385e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/350-america%E2%80%99s-great-outdoors-initiative | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956275 | 1,570 | 1.796875 | 2 |
National Clearinghouse on
Marital and Date Rape
mirror site: http://members.aol.com/ncmdr
ACT Globally! Mexico
News: Spousal Rape Is Not Rape
20 Jul 1997
To everyone reading this: Please repost/resend everywhere! We need energy, suggestions, strategic ideas, more outrage and contacts worldwide. Let us know if we may quote you with or without your name or email address.
At the end of this email is a news article about a supreme court ruling in Mexico. We were recently made aware of it and are absolutely outraged! Currently, we're trying to network as many people together for a pressure campaign to support the women in Mexico. Indeed all women have been violated by this ruling. It is very dangerous, internationally as well. We hope you can help, especially with how we can find the women mentioned in the article who are protesting in Mexico.
The court has condemned women to sexual slavery in marriage. The definition of slavery and involuntary servitude in the U.S. Constitution (13th amendment) is if you can require a specific service of someone and back it up by force. In this situation of cohabitation, the threat of the force is omnipresent. We wonder if Amnesty International would consider the point that these women are political prisoners, victims of repellent, unconscionable government abrogation of individual rights. Mexico and every other UN country specifically signed on to the resolution in Beijing that every woman had a right to say no to every sex act. This specifically included wives (NY Times, dateline Sept. 10, 1995.)
It is a crime in all fifty states to rape one's wife in the USA, but more importantly, in New York in 1984, the highest court, in the LIBERTA decision, struck down the marital rape exemption as an unconstitutional denial of equal protection and of a wife's right to privacy and bodily integrity.
We have not been able to get through to the Mexican Supreme Court's homepage (the page is being moved and connection is constantly being refused). Do you have a copy of the decision yet?
We need to move quickly (has the press picked this up yet where you are?).
Please also email your reply to Vera Britto (see her email)
Thank you, Kokoi and Laura
Vera! These are marvelous suggestions...will do all today and tomorrow and call the Center for Global Women's Leadership, but I hope people on ABIGAILS will have more and specifically about what kind of pressure. A boycott by married women going there (as tourists or workers) with their husbands would be interesting. Anyone want to sign on to a statement?
Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 07:42:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Vera M. Britto" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Mexico:News Spousal Rape Is Not Rape (fwd)
On Sat, 19 Jul 1997, Laura X wrote:
This is the worst I've ever seen it because it upfront talks about an actual right to another person's body. This is worse than just the right not to be prosecuted when you rape--this is what we always knew it was about, in our hearts and bodies, and from Andrea Dworkin's writing about men's entitlement to access to our bodies. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Who does anyone know in Mexico? We need to support the women protesting: how do we find them?
Can anyone get a copy for Abigail's of the actual decision? (The Supreme Court website is http://184.108.40.206)
Vera, thank you so much. How is it that you have access to that news service that this was printed on? Has anyone else seen this anywhere else?
This was posted to a Latin American general newsgroup. I personally do not know any of the groups mentioned or other groups in Mexico. But I have contacted IPS (the wire service) in the past, although regarding a different issue, and they were very nice. [Their email is [email protected] and their website is http://www.ips.org.]
You may also want to call PAHO (Pan-American Health Organization -- in Washington DC) -- World Health Organization's branch for the Americas, because I know they are very concerned with issues of violence against women and they have contacts all over Latin America.
There is also a NY non-profit -- is it Equality Now? -- that works primarily with women's human rights violations, I'm sure they'd be a good starting point contact.
Human Rights Watch (NY/Washington DC) has a program also for women. their number is 202- 371-6592 -- email [email protected]. In 1995 Dorothy Thomas was directing the women's program, don't know if she still is.
Thanks for your interest and concern, and keep us posted if you are able to hook up with anyone in Mexico to organize an international or bi-national pressure campaign. | <urn:uuid:88030d56-6a5c-402b-9162-b4c60c74536b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ncmdr.org/press20jul.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958359 | 1,048 | 1.609375 | 2 |
On Saturday, April 19th a ceremony was held to officially commence construction of a new U.S. Land Port of Entry for Calais, Maine. The new $48.3 million facility will be built next to the new third bridge on the outskirt of Calais. The new international bridge across the St. Croix river is already under-construction and should be completed later this Fall. The new U.S. building is expected to be completed by November 2009. Many dignitaries from both Canada and the USA were present for the groundbreaking including Senator Susan Collins (Maine) and Charlotte-Campobello MLA Tony Huntjens.
Calais - St. Stephen is the 8th busiest border crossing between Canada and the USA. By 2030 it is projected that 2,000 truck per day will cross the new bridge. | <urn:uuid:1ff3f2e6-e150-4014-8ceb-a20d9b8be2dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blairheritageinn.com/wp/2008/04/20/groundbreaking-ceremony-to-start-new-us-border-inspection-building/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954083 | 170 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Silver Surfer, the former herald of Galactus, was a native of Zenn-La. His birth name was Norrin Radd.
Infinity Crusade: Silver Surfer was one of 33 characters who were identified as the most religious superheroes in the Marvel Universe in Infinity Crusade (June 1993). In this issue, a powerful being who identified herself as "the Goddess" kidnapped the superheroes she had identified as being the most religious active superheroes at the time. The Goddess was a manifestation of the "benevolent" side of Adam Warlock, and she planned to use these heroes in her crusade to rid the galaxy of evil and usher in a new golden age of peace. After these 33 characters had been kidnapped by the Goddess, the remaining superheroes gathered to try to figure out what was going on. The Vision analyzed data about who had been taken and who had not, and explained his analysis (Infinity Crusade #1, page 32):
Now that the appropriate files have been examined I believe I have sufficient hard data to put forth that theory I mentioned earlier. I feel confident I know why these particular paranormals were abducted. All the missing share a common trait or experience... An event or attitude that might be categorized as religious. Many among the missing hold deeply felt moral stands or intense spiritual belief systems. Those who do not fit that profile have all had after-death experiences... My theory does not hold that these attitudes aided in the missing individual's abduction, only that these traits may have determined who would be taken.
Silver Surfer: Requiem #3 (September 2007) features an explicitly religious Silver Surfer story. The Silver Surfer intervenes in a religious war between two devoutly religious alien races - the Rumati and the Linneas. The Silver Surfer destroys the military starships of the two races, and then destroys their religious shrines. The Silver Surfer thus established what the two now-united species called the "Sacred Peace." The two races erected massive statues in honor of the Surfer himself, their new prophet. The Surfer gave these two species a new revelation that became the basis for their new belief system:
If sacred places are spared the ravages of war, then make all places sacred. And if the holy people are to be kept harmless from war, then make all peoples holy.
In addition to this story's obvious echoes of the New Testament story of Jesus Christ, this story also contains strong pacifistic and secular humanist themes. It is worth noting that the Silver Surfer in this story forcibly establishes peace between two foreign worlds he has heretofore never known about. Thus, the Surfer's actions simultaneously reflect both interventionist and pacifistic impulses. The Surfer used force in his unilateral, wholesale destruction of armies and religious organizations. But he capped off his successful destructive campaign with inspirational words of peace and harmony. In this story it is easy to see the Silver Surfer as a single person embodying the spirit of both U.S. President George W. Bush and Quaker founder/radical pacifist philosopher George Fox.
From: "Catholic Clix - Comic info needed!" forum discussion started 3 May 2003 on HCRealms website (http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-40338.html; viewed 24 May 2007):
Ok, so in recent films it's been apparent that Daredevil and Nightcrawler are Catholic...
So, who else out there could be fielded in a "Catholic" Heroclix team?
...Silver Surfer would be difficult to figure. Maybe he believes his god gave him the strength to save his world or he is actually working 9 to 5 for him...
From: "Religion in comic books", posted 14 June 2006 on "Get Religion" blog website (http://www.getreligion.org/?p=1679; viewed 14 June 2006):
[Comments section for this page]
Posted by Jason S. Evans at 1:28 pm on June 14, 2006
I really appreciated the portrayal of Nightcrawler in X-Men 2 [X-Men: United]. He was never shown as being hypocritical or evil, but instead, he was penitential and devout.
I don't care for movies that are overtly "Christian" but it is nice when directors "Get Religion."
Posted by Avram at 1:41 pm on June 14, 2006:
...Jack Kirby's Galactus and the Silver Surfer were inspired by the Christian story of God and the fall of Satan; Kirby just turned the story around. Galactus is an inverted God, destroying worlds instead of saving them, and the Surfer an inverted Satan, barred from the heavens for defying his master's will and saving the world...
From: "Religious Inclinations of heroes" message board, started 1 March 2005 on StarDestroyer.net website (http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?t=63632&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=25; viewed 8 June 2006):
Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 6:38 pm
Post subject: Religious Inclinations of heroes
What about other heroes? I notice religion rarely plays a part in mainstream superhero comics (absent things like the Vertigo line) but have you ever picked up on hints or outright admissions by some heroes as to their religious inclinations?
Seems that atheistic heroes are as rare in comics as in real life. If they are religious it's a sort Judaeo-Christian wishy washy sort of religion... Any other examples of guesses?
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 3:49 am
I remembered also the Graphic [Novel] of Silver Sufer that tells about Galactus coming to earth and getting worshipers (he was still bound to the promise to not devour us, so that was his "vengeance")... of course that was Moebius's art...
From: "Religious Beliefs of Marvel Characters" discussion board started 20 October 2004 on Comic-Forum.com website (http://www.comic-forum.com/marvel/Religious_beliefs_of_Marvel_characters_397905.html; viewed 8 June 2006):
Date: 20 Oct 2004 21:55:56
Subject: Religious beliefs of Marvel characters?
Does anybody know the religious beliefs of various characters?
Date: 20 Oct 2004 23:16:20
From: Samy Merchi
Barring any actual solid evidence in the characters' own books, you could always fall back on the Infinity Crusade and see which sides the characters were on in that conflict. Anybody feel like whipping those issues out and checking these specific characters?
Date: 21 Oct 2004 03:52:34
From: The Black Guardian
Anyway, here's the list of those who "faithfully served" the Goddess: Captain America, Jamie Madrox the Multiple Man, Jean Grey, Namorita, Silhouette, Spider-Man, Puck, Archangel, the Inhuman Crystal, Firelord, Hercules, Shaman, Talisman, Moondragon, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, the Silver Surfer, Sersi, the Living Lightning, Thor, the Invisible Woman, USAgent, Moon Knight, Wolfsbane, Doctor Strange, Wonder Man, Daredevil, the Black Knight, Windshear, Sasquatch, Storm, Gamora, Sleepwalker.
IIRC, even if you read the crossover, it's still pretty vague in what religions the heroes believed.
Date: 21 Oct 2004 03:57:48
From: Samy Merchi
In many cases, it [Infinity Crusade] is the strongest canonical reference to many of the characters' religious stance. Some lucky ones have been dealt with at more depth in their own books (DD, Rahne, Storm et al.) but for many characters Infinity Crusade is the biggest canonical reference. If we want to go by canon rather than sheer postulation.
David Thompson, "Secret Knowledge, Revealed", posted 1 March 2007 on "David Thompson: Culture, Ideas and Comic Books" blog website (http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/comic_books/index.html; viewed 15 May 2007):
Zounds! The religious affiliations of your favourite comic book heroes have finally been documented in a disturbingly thorough database. This improbable cataloguing project may well define a whole new stratum of nerdish preoccupation. But, given the effort involved, it's hard not to be impressed and, dare I say it, just a little curious. I was vaguely aware that Spider-Man is sort-of Protestant, that Ben Grimm is Jewish and that Bruce Wayne seems to have that whole lapsed Catholic thing lurking in the background...
But, shamefully, I didn't know the names of every prominent Hindu, Sikh or Muslim character, or the issues in which their faith plays a prominent role. And, even worse, I'd forgotten all about Moshe Chomsky, the Acidic Jew. Thankfully, these oversights can now be corrected, complete with sources, discussions and extensive supporting material. Ditto Shintoists, Taoists, Wiccans and adherents of Teutonic Paganism. Naturally, the database also includes extraterrestrial belief systems (e.g. Kryptonian metaphysics and Apokolipsian Darkseid Worship), along with characters who, via circumstances far too involved to relate here, came to meet God Himself...
[User comments posted on this page]
Posted by: David Thompson | March 01, 2007 at 15:40
What about the Watchers? Galactus and the Silver Surfer? How do they fit in to this model? Are they dieties? Galactus certainly has god-like power and the Watchers seem angelic in some sense.
From: "Comics and Religion Discussion (DC/Marvel)" forum discussion, started 30 May 2007 on "Killer Movies" website (http://www.killermovies.com/forums/453153_1-successful-religion-based-comics-dc-marvel; viewed 6 June 2007):
May 30th, 2007 11:42 PM
Thor believes in the Norse religion... Hercules believes in the Greek religion...
But how come no one in the MU has started a religion based on the Celestials, or Eternity/Infinity, etc?
May 31st, 2007 12:47 AM
They kinda did in the Ultimate Universe were they had a religion/cult for Galactus/Silver Surfer.
May 31st, 2007 03:38 AM
It seems like seeing Galactus would be a real Faith-Shaking experience.
May 31st, 2007 03:45 AM
Representation of the devil.
May 31st, 2007 08:06 AM
re: Representation of the devil
Wouldn't Mephisto or Dormammu be closer to that than Galactus? [emoticon: "confused"
From: "Here, God exists in Four Colors and Two Dimensions", posted 7 March 2006 by grabbingsand on Metafilter website (http://www.metafilter.com/49827/Here-God-exists-in-Four-Colors-and-Two-Dimensions; viewed 11 June 2007):
Jimmy Olsen is a Lutheran. Really. And Clark Kent? Methodist, it seems. Daredevil, Gambit, Huntress and The Punisher? Catholics, all of them, though I have to wonder when Frank Castle last went to Confession. With about half of DC Comic's line-up heading to church in the latest issue of Infinite Crisis and knowing that Civil War is imminent in the House of Marvel, what better time than now to contemplate the particular faiths of our two-dimensional heroes.
Silver Surfer - Zenn-la religion?
Ok, I buy some of the off planet concessions, but what the hell is "occult?" [referring to other listings, such as for Doctor Strange]
And for Thanos - nihilism is a religion?
But I wonder what Galactus would be? He's certainly "God" class, but he's pretty secular.
posted by Smedleyman at 2:11 PM on March 7
posted by klangklangston at 5:57 PM on March 7
Silver Surfer? Some sort of hippie, LSD-based religion. Arguably, had he been born on earth, he would have been Tex Watson [link to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tex_Watson.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:04 PM on March 7
From: message posted 14 July 2004 on "The Bleat" blog website (http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/04/0704/071404.html; viewed 2 August 2007):
Finally, I give you a comic that didn't last very long:
[Scanned cover of Strange Tales #174, featuring "The Golem."]
A "Note from the Bullpen" said this was the first Jewish superhero in comics, but now we know that's not true. Ben Grimm (the Thing) is Jewish [link to: http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.07.26/fast1.html/]. Reed Richards? Episcopalian, I'd bet. Silver Surfer? Unitarian.
From: Tom R., "It's Kabbalah-in' Time!", posted 24 July 2006 on "Father McKenzie" website (http://fathermckenzie.blogspot.com/2006/07/its-kabbalah-in-time.html; viewed 10 August 2007):
IT'S KABBALAH-IN' TIME! [updated]... It's official: Ben Grimm, a.k.a "The Thing" in Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, is Jewish. And devoutly so [link to: http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.07.26/fast1.html/]. Link via James Lileks [link to: http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/04/0704/071404.html], who comments: "Reed Richards? Episcopalian, I'd bet. Silver Surfer? Unitarian"... | <urn:uuid:139dec91-a61b-4c1d-9a15-ce6dd05ba638> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://adherents.com/lit/comics/SilverSurfer.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939812 | 2,999 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Standard and GTS Cars until 1976+1981
Touring Cars and GTS, more than 1300cc up to 1976 – Danish Championship
The larger capacity cars from 1971 to 1976 are the class for the big boys and among spectators they are extremely popular. It may be due to the fact that the touring cars present themselves almost as ordinary 4-door saloons. However, they are heavily modified with cages, highly tuned motors and refined geometry.
The dominant cars are the Opel Kadett GT-E, Ford Escort RS 1600 and the 2000 with the famous BDA engine. In Denmark, Erik Høyer holds many legendary victories. Among the GT cars the most iconic is the Porsche 911, presented for the first time in 1963 and still for more than forty years in production, with a 6 cylinder boxer delivering 130HP. As it weighed in at only 1080 kg it had a pretty good acceleration.
Another legendary car is the Lotus Elan. 8,500 Lotus Elans were produced in the period 1964-1973. With a highly effective twin-cam 1600 liter engine and a low weight glass fiber body it had and still has lot to give its driver. | <urn:uuid:f3a45434-6c12-478e-aabd-a8bcf4e7ea4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chgp.dk/en/classes/standard-and-gts-cars-until-1976/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96245 | 236 | 1.671875 | 2 |
MUMBAI: While devout Hindus wait for up to 90 hours to see their favourite deity at Ganesh Chaturthi, one of India’s major festivals, others are opting to dodge the queues this year and say a virtual prayer instead.
The 11-day celebration of the birth of elephant-headed Lord Ganesha draws millions to worship at decorated venues, but the statues are increasingly available to followers via live Internet streams.
“Every year people were requesting it, so this year we decided to go online,” said Uday Salian, committee spokesman at the Andhericha Raja, a popular Ganesha idol in Mumbai.
The colourful figure can be watched for free on their website during the twice daily “aarti” ritual, when offerings of light are made to the deity, meaning devotees can receive their blessings through the net.
The move was largely meant for overseas followers, but religious domestic markets are also being tapped.
The Lalbaugcha Raja, Mumbai’s favourite statue, gets about ten million visitors during the festival. It also appears on YouTube and television, and is being live streamed around the clock to mobile phones - for a fee.
Live streaming is just one way content providers, telecom firms and mobile app makers are latching onto Hindu traditions as the online Indian market grows, especially on phones.
During the ongoing festival, which runs until Saturday, people can download Ganesha puzzle games, perform a ceremony known as “pooja” with the help of a mobile instead of a priest, and listen to chanting applications.
Vistaas Digital Media, which has acquired the live mobile rights to the Lalbaugcha Raja, started the “Divine India” website three months ago and so far has 50,000 paid subscribers, paying 200 rupees ($3.75) a month.
The site offers live streaming from more than 60 holy sites of different religions practised across the country, along with footage from more than 1,500 shrines. The firm aims for half a million subscribers by the year’s end.
“I saw people travel for a long time and stand in long queues and they didn’t get a single second in front of the god. I wanted a way for people to pray peacefully at home,” said Vistaas founder Rajiv K. Sanghvi.
Making money from religion is nothing new in India, observers say.
“All the Ganesha pandals (religious structures) in the city have become more and more commercial,” Anil Dharker, a Mumbai-based columnist on social issues, told AFP.
But he doubted that Internet schemes would win over physical visitors.
“It’s not just a religious experience, it’s also a social occasion,” he said.
Much of the online demand unsurprisingly comes from the global Indian diaspora, but entrepreneurs still see potential gaps within India itself.
“There’s so much demand on the priest’s time that he might not be available at the time you want,” said Rajendra Vaishampayan, whose company provided audio content for a series of iChants and iPooja mobile applications.
The apps for the pooja ceremony, including one tailored for Ganesha, assist in a do-it-yourself version of the elaborate ritual so that a family member can take on the role of the priest.
The rise in religion-to-mobiles fits the Indian pattern more generally. The mobile apps market generated $28 million in revenue in 2011, a four-fold rise from the previous year, according to research firm Analysys Mason.
Sourabh Kaushal, lead consultant at the group, expects revenue to reach $80-100 million this year.
Smartphone users now number 25 to 30 million, but this is still a fraction of India’s 550 million or so unique mobile users - almost half the population - who mostly use cheaper “feature” phones, Kaushal said.
“Mobile Internet usage is primarily driven by feature phones,” he told AFP, adding that about 40 million Indians have had their first online experience via their handset, accessible for five rupees (nine US cents) a day.
Chirag Shah, of mobile games developer Nazara Technologies, agreed feature phones “are still the dominant share and can’t really be ignored”.
A new Ganesha game released for the festival by Nazara, downloadable for 50 rupees on Android and feature phones, had a few thousand downloads in the first few days.
“It has a short shelf life but the acceptance is high. It goes with the whole occasion,” said Shah, whose company makes products to match other religious events such as Diwali, the Hindu festival of light.
For some, virtual prayer will never rival the real thing.
Undeterred by the chaos and the afternoon sun, 28-year-old Chetan Lad joined the jostling hours-long queue in Mumbai to see his beloved Lalbaugcha Raja, despite having access on his phone.
“I watch ‘aarti’ online as well, but on one day I have to come and visit,” he said. | <urn:uuid:cb4207af-fd4d-4edf-9ddb-138a0ef2e605> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gulfnews.com/news/world/india/indian-festivals-stream-to-mobile-web-worshippers-1.1079870 | 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 | 0.943922 | 1,115 | 1.578125 | 2 |
By Alexander Smoltczyk in Doha
The Islamic cultural center Fanar stands on Doha's Corniche waterfront promenade, beyond the skyscraper construction sites. Its tower, spiraling into the pale sky, is designed to give "humanity a guiding light." Ahmed Ijas, the director of the center, suggested that deeply religious people book a trip to Mecca during the weeks of the World Cup. Ijas says that his remark was misunderstood, and adds: "We are pleased that the World Cup is coming to Qatar." It's just that certain rules will have be observed, he points out.
Doha's luxury hotels have been serving alcohol for a long time. The government is considering expanding the area where alcohol consumption is permitted for the duration of the World Cup. For four weeks, the holy Koran will be suspended in specially marked "fan zones," where beer and bratwurst will be served. This is what FIFA expects from Qatar.
One of the party zones is in Al-Rumaila Park, within sight of the Fanar center. Ijas doesn't have a problem with this. "Islam doesn't prohibit men from taking their shirts off. But they should be covered from the navel to the knees." But Ijas, who lived in England for many years, knows that after 16 pints, few fans can tell where their navels or knees are.
The country's clerics seem to have adjusted to the idea of being lenient for four weeks. There had been concerns over how Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi would react to the FIFA decision. The president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars lives in Doha and is known as a hardliner and an anti-Semite. But in his Friday prayer, the sheikh expressed his delight over the World Cup decision -- even after the ruling family had made it clear that a team from Israel, complete with its fans, would also be welcome.
Qatar's overall level of counterterrorism cooperation with the United States is "considered the worst in the region," the US State Department writes in one of the leaked embassy cables. But Qatar is one of the Arab countries that have issued visas to Israeli athletes, including 3,000-meter runner Gezachw Yossef, who attended the World Indoor Track & Field championships in Doha in March.
Too Much Cash
Allah has given the faithful of this tiny nation one of the world's largest reserves of natural gas. This is an even more attractive asset than oil wealth, because liquid gas burns more cleanly than oil, and demand is expected to grow.
Qatar has only one problem: what to do with its money. Qatar Holding, a subsidiary of one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, already owns Harrods, the London high-end department store, and parts of Volkswagen. The Qatar Foundation will soon be advertising on the jerseys of FC Barcelona, a deal which will cost it 165 million between now and 2016.
Last week, the German construction company Hochtief announced that the Qataris would acquire about 10 percent of its shares. As a result of the investment, it is clear that Hochtief will be building most of the World Cup stadiums and the world's longest link between countries, a bridge from Qatar to the island nation of Bahrain.
Deutsche Bahn AG, the German national railway, has been awarded the contract to build Doha's new 320-kilometer metro system, and a southwestern German company will apparently supply the air-conditioning systems for the World Cup stadiums.
As an exporting nation, Germany stands to make more money on the desert World Cup than it did on its own World Cup in 2006. Qatar's bid book, weighing in at five kilograms (11 pounds), was the work of the Frankfurt architecture firm Albert Speer & Partners and two German project development companies. Speer has designed eight of the nine new stadiums. If it goes well, "Qatar 2022" could trigger a wave of modernization throughout the region by the time the first match begins.
'I Wouldn't Bet on Qatar Being Eliminated'
The Aspire Zone sports complex on the outskirts of Doha includes the Khalifa Stadium, performance laboratories, a sports clinic, the Aspire Mosque, a swimming pool and a towering hotel that looks like an Olympic torch. It also has the world's largest covered sports arena, which cost $1 billion alone. It took less than 22 months to build the entire complex on the desert floor.
For Qatar's ruling family, the Thanis, Aspire is its strongest asset in the international business of sports. Financially strapped national teams, the Iraqis, for example, can train there for free. Since 2004, talented young football players have been trained there on a global scale. Most are Qataris and other local residents, but 5 percent are scholarship holders, mainly from Africa. The facility's 300 experts come from 60 countries, and there is also a branch in Senegal.
Andreas Bleicher is the sports director at the Aspire academy. A native of Germany's southwestern Swabia region, Bleicher once headed the German Olympic base in Leverkusen near Cologne. "I wouldn't bet on Qatar's team being eliminated in the group round in 2022," he says. "A player who got started five years ago as an eight-year-old will be of an ideal age by then."
Qatar pays for "Football Dreams," a worldwide talent-search program. Bleicher objects to the charge that the program is merely an excuse for Qatar to snap up African talent. "The boys have all gone back to their countries, where they are now playing on the under-17 teams in Ghana, Mali and the Ivory Coast," he says. The program generates goodwill for Qatar, which translates into votes in the relevant committees.
---Quote (Originally by Macadore)--- What is to keep the World Cup in Qatar from becoming a terrorist magnet? Remember Munich? ---End Quote--- Body scanners? Will Israel be permitted to take part when its team qualifies? Can [...] more...
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Reproduction only allowed with the permission of SPIEGELnet GmbH | <urn:uuid:d1390b4a-02a6-4534-96f4-76c83d227e67> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/gulf-goals-qatar-has-high-hopes-for-2022-world-cup-a-734610-2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958108 | 1,311 | 1.570313 | 2 |
For a long time I had been labouring under the misaprehension that only a select few WW1 war diaries had been made available for download via The National Archives Documents Online service. In such a manner I had downloaded a copy of the 1st Hampshire’s War Diary some time ago, and not long ago I posted up a summary of their activities from Le Cateau in August 1914 until the beginning of 1918. It’s a thread that I’m sure I will pick up again some time in the future.
But thanks to browsing on the Grear War Forum, I have discovered that more War Diaries are available than I had originally thought. It works like this – for many Battalions, in particular territorial or hostilities only, the Battalion diaries have been grouped by brigade, hence by a cursory glance, it appears that it is only the Brigade HQ War Diary that is available. But, and here’s the golden bit, they are actually consolidated – so in reality you get four for the price of one!
Of course I have a very keen interest in the Portsmouth Pals, as I will be carrying out a lot of research into their formation, their membership, their battles and their losses. Sadly the war diary for the 1st Portsmouth Pals (14th Hampshires) is not available, and will necessitate a trip to Kew, but that of the 2nd Portsmouth Pals (15th Hampshires) is.
I’ve downloaded a couple of hundred page PDF’s, and although I have only had a quick flick through, it seems like it is unusually detailed for a war diary. Not necessarily in terms of grid references, maps or operational matters, but it does seem to give an unusually high amount of attention to other ranks rather than just officers. Of course this will be priceless for finding out about when Private X died, or when Sergeant Z won his Military Medal.
Let the transcribing begin! | <urn:uuid:a1159a20-233c-48f5-aa12-f188842e77c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dalyhistory.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/2nd-portsmouth-pals-battalion-war-diary-located/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=57db9114c5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969398 | 407 | 1.632813 | 2 |
U.S. Bankruptcy Filings Fall to Second-Highest Level Since 2005 Changes
U.S. bankruptcy filings by individuals and businesses fell in April to the second-highest level since changes to the law in 2005 made it harder for individuals to seek protection from creditors.
Filings totaled almost 146,000 in April, according to data compiled by Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, a service of Oklahoma City-based Jupiter ESources LLC. March filings were about 158,000. Based on the number of business days on the court calendar in each month, filings fell by 4 percent on a daily basis.
“It’s interesting that rates fell a bit, but I’m still waiting for commercial mortgages to reset and cause a little more disruption in the market,” Nancy Rapoport, a law professor at the University of Nevada, said in a telephone message. “I’m going to guess that commercial bankruptcies are the ones that are falling slightly and consumer bankruptcies are still on the rise, which makes sense because people are still in personal financial distress.”
The record for bankruptcy filings was 2.1 million in 2005. About 630,000 sought protection from creditors in U.S. courts in the two weeks before changes to federal bankruptcy laws took effect in October of that year. Filings by individuals and businesses in 2009 jumped 32 percent over the previous year to 1.44 million.
Chapter 11 filings by companies seeking to reorganize or liquidate totaled 1,214 in April. Through the end of last month, Chapter 11 cases this year totaled 4,933. If that rate holds for the rest of the year, there will be about 3 percent fewer such cases filed in 2010 than in 2009. Including Chapter 7 liquidations, business bankruptcy filings totaled about 29,250 this year through April.
The states with the largest increases in average monthly filings over last year were Hawaii, California, Virginia and Vermont, according to Automated Access. Nevada, Tennessee, Georgia and Michigan had the most filings per capita. | <urn:uuid:ae09678d-bf5e-474a-ae2b-9d42c6765064> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2010-05-03/u-s-bankruptcy-filings-are-at-second-highest-level-since-2005-law-change.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94777 | 422 | 1.5 | 2 |
Before some Lehigh finance students start their first job on Wall Street, they’ve already got experience managing investment portfolios.
By investing actual money in three real investment portfolios, students in the Investment Management Group (IMG) learn investment strategies, performance and compliance review and basic technical analysis firsthand.
“No class or trading simulation gives the real-world impact of gaining and losing money as managing an actual portfolio,” says David Myers, professor of practice in the finance department and the IMG’s adviser.
“The impact of good and bad decisions hits home in a way they cannot when actual dollars are not involved. We pride ourselves in preparing our students to work on Wall Street and these portfolios are one key way we do that.”
The largest of the three funds, the Dreyfus Portfolio, began in 1962 with a gift from Jack Dreyfus ’35, the financial expert who pioneered mutual funds. It’s governed by a constitution that restricts investment activities and minimizes risk.
Student managers of this fund are elected and oversee the other two funds—the FSL Value and Rights portfolios—and lead the compliance review for the entire investment portfolio. In addition, they follow an industry sector and research and pitch investment opportunities.
For example, in the energy sector, they analyze the cash flow, management and background of 50 to 60 companies on a daily basis. They also do proxy voting in companies in which they own shares.
“I enjoy investing real money with the group and feeling the satisfaction of making a good stock pick,” says Sam Luftig ’12, a finance major who is on the Dreyfus Portfolio Board of Directors. “I couldn't think of a better way to learn about the markets than to actually invest in them.”
While most students in the IMG are business majors, the group is open to any student interested in finance. Peter Mauric ’12 is a political science major who has been involved in the IMG since his first year—he was president of the Rights Portfolio and is now on the Dreyfus Portfolio’s Board of Directors.
“My experience as president of Rights was wonderful,” he says. “Managing money, people and the inner workings of the club was so much fun. And we managed a decent return in post-2008 markets. I think it is a unique thing for a college graduate to be able to say he managed a $200,000 portfolio in one of the most volatile markets in history.” | <urn:uuid:3b4e83d3-c7c1-4d08-92d2-42df5ee86383> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www4.lehigh.edu/news/newsarticle.aspx?Channel=%2FChannels%2FNews%3A+2011&WorkflowItemID=f15bfb8d-a5c2-4a13-906a-260fd3caab1a | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950058 | 534 | 1.632813 | 2 |
In the pre-dawn hours of a recent morning, the RCMP counter-terrorism unit descended upon the yard of wrecked cars at Sonshine Auto Parts in Cumberland. Snipers came from all directions, across farmers' fields on Innes, Dunning and French Hill roads, hoping their intervention in a kidnapping would end successfully. They brought with them a small remote-controlled drone, and weaponry capable of inflicting considerable damage from great distances. Shots were fired.
Any neighbours whose sleep was disturbed by the commotion that morning might have looked at their bedside clock, gathered their bearings and returned to sleep. After all, they'd seen this before.
The RCMP conducts training exercises in Denis Desjardins' car yard five or six times a year. Much more common are the firefighters from various regional departments, whom he lets use the lot's junkers -there are approximately 2,500 of them in the yard at any given time -each week to simulate accidents and practise extraction techniques.
It all seems like the ideal playground for a young boy's imagination, and in fact if you ask Desjardins what his childhood ambition was for himself, he spreads his arms to embrace the 100 acres of cars, crushers and parts, and says simply, "Exactly what you're looking at. This is all I wanted to do."
Denis Desjardins' car lot is a testament to bad driving. Row after row of neatly aligned cars, trucks and SUVs -the majority of them insurance writeoffs -face south, each perched on wheel rims to provide easy access and keep them from freezing into the ground in the winter. Most are victims of rear-end collisions, the front or back staved in and bumpers crumpled. Others have been T-boned. Deployed but now deflated airbags offer the hope that passengers and drivers escaped unharmed. Shattered windshields and melted steering columns suggest others may not have been so lucky.
"Every car has a story to tell," says Desjardins. "On a full moon, you see the yard and I'm sure there are some stories coming out of those cars.
"Hopefully there are no injuries involved, but I'm sure that from the back seat to everywhere else, there are stories to be told. It's fascinating, it is."
Each year, Desjardins and his staff of 40 process more than 3,000 automobiles, draining hazardous fluids, inventorying and removing parts, and eventually crushing what remains for scrap. When your mechanic or body shop tells you they'll try to save you some money by tracking down a used alternator or fender, Sonshine -named for Desjardin's nickname of "Sonny" -is one of the places they'll likely look. His parts business extends to Cornwall and Brockville, to Maniwaki and Montreal.
The parts he most popularly sells are those damaged in front and rear-end collisions: bumpers, hoods, tail lights and headlights. He's one of those people for whom bad weather is good business.
"When you hear in a morning in the middle of February of 365 accidents in town, that's white gold to us," he says. "That's white gold. This is good to us."
Winter is their busiest season, but Desjardins notes that fair weather can also be a boon. "Say a long weekend in May, everyone's gone camping or they want to do their flowers. Everybody's out in full force -lots of accidents.
"And very warm weather, in July and August, cars overheat. That's good for us, too."
Desjardins, 47, was born and raised in Orléans. He loved cars as a youth, tinkering with antiques and hot rods when he was in high school.
After graduation, he turned down scholarship offers and started his own business -Cumberland Towing -which he eventually built into an eight-truck empire.
But he always wanted a recycling yard, and recalls that when he and his wife, Josée, were dating, they'd sometimes drive by Cumberland Auto Parts on Dunning Road, and Denis would tell her that he intended to one day buy the business. She promised to leave him if he did.
In 1993, he lived up to his word and she didn't. Their son, Shawn, was born that fall.
The business grew, starting with about 15 acres of cars and eventually reaching the 80 acres it currently uses.
In 2000, the Ford Motor Company, believing a cradle-to-grave program -making auto manufacturers responsible for the entire life of their products -was headed to North America from Europe, bought his business. Desjardins, who retained title to the land, managed it for them.
When Ford got out of the usedparts business two years later and sold the business to a third party, Desjardins retired to a life of golf and pickup hockey. A year later, bored with his new-found freedom, he bought a parcel of land on Herbert Drive and started again. In 2006, the original business was put up for sale and Desjardins returned to Dunning Road.
His house, located on a two acre lot severed from the original 100, overlooks his car yard.
"It's my passion," he says. "It always will be. I enjoy doing it. I must spend 70 or 80 hours a week here.
"You're probably going to say I don't have a life. This is my life."
Bruce Deachman uncovers the people who bring Ottawa to life; people who exhibit an unusual passion or obsession. Do you know someone who is one in a million?
E-mail the details to [email protected] | <urn:uuid:0e4767dd-fb71-4436-a6e3-a325e5136e41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.driving.ca/mapleridge/research-car/Auto+Recycler/4900528/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978978 | 1,202 | 1.671875 | 2 |
This page gives the instructions for the puff or biscuit doll quilt. If you didn't come from Doll Biscuit or Puff Quilt Pattern From the 1970s go there for the introduction to this pattern including it's history.
This is a quilt as you go technique with a twist. You will make each puff individually then sew them together. You can choose any fabrics, you don't have to stick to the period. I used orange, red, brown and avacado as they were the popular earthy colors of the 1970s.
Cut out your solid colored squares at 6½ inches square. This includes the fabric for the seam allowance. Because of the puffiness they will measure less than 6 inches when you are done.
Go to the Puff Flower PDF to get the template for the posy that will be appliqued to the center of each block. I hand appliqued mine with the blanket stitch but you could machine quilt it with the zigzag stitch on your sewing machine. In the 1970s women didn't have all of the lovely decorative machine stitches we have today but they did have the zigzag stitch!
Once you have appliqued the flowers you are ready to sew together the back and front. Put them right sides together and sew leaving enough space to turn the squares and put in the batting. Normally the square would be stuffed with filling of some sort but we are working small with a doll quilt so I just used a doubled square of fluffy batting. You can experiment to see what comes out right for you. We just don't want the quilt to be stuffed so tight it will bounce right off of the doll! Then stitch the rest of the seam together.
You can either vary the backing fabric using different fabrics for the squares or you can make them all the same fabric. I had some 70s fabric I've been wanting to use and it was perfect for the back of my puff quilt. There just aren't many projects that call for 70s colors.
When each square pillow is done sew a button through center of each posy. Be sure to stitch the front and back together as you sew on the button.
You can leave the squares as little pillows with just the button hilding the middle together or you can quilt along the edges of each posy to give an added dimension.
Once the squares are done whipstitch them together and your quilt is finished.
Go to the PRINTABLE VERSION OF BABY AND DOLL BISCUIT QUILTS if you want an easy way to print out this free quilt pattern. | <urn:uuid:af9e15ff-6f9b-4293-bc2e-80ed7b0f4cb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.womenfolk.com/baby_quilts/biscuitpattern.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954224 | 541 | 1.71875 | 2 |
MYSORE: The 'Raitha Dasara' has received a thumbs up from farmers in the district who said it was educative. A section of farmers were introduced to government schemes and to various agricultural technologies to overcome labour problems, at the Raitha Dasara at Kalamandira on Thursday.
Government departments and farm equipment companies have opened stalls to educate farmers about the latest equipment used in agriculture, horticulture, sericulture and plantation.
Mahadevappa from Talkad told TOI that he had little knowledge about the latest farming methods but Raitha Dasara provided him with ample information.
Another farmer Prasad from T Narasipura said it was a useful programme but suggested that it would have been better to conduct them at the taluk headquarters to benefit the entire farming community.
Shashidar, a representative of private firm, which had displayed various equipment including tree cutter, power tiller, weed cutter and chaff cutter to create awareness among farmers, said that less than 50pc of the farmers had knowledge about these equipment and they were also clueless about subsidy given by the government.
Another dealer Jayakumar said they were exhibiting sprinklers and micro irrigation equipment and pointed that less than 20pc of farmers used sprinklers.
Afsar Pasha from K R Nagar is exhibiting Bandur breed sheep which is in great demand. Each sheep fetches a price of up to Rs 30,000.
In a bid to encourage the use of alternative energy, KREDL has solar lamps on display. KREDL project engineer Dinesh said though the lamps are expensive, the government is offering subsidy to farmers for its purchase.
Like KREDL, departments of animal husbandry, veterinary sciences and fisheries too have opened stalls to educate farmers about the various government schemes and programmes.
Raitha Dasara subcommittee vice president Devaraju said: "We are bringing 100 farmers from each assembly constituency to the event and also taking them to Chamundi Hills as part of the programme." | <urn:uuid:1098c1b3-0965-4c68-9c30-fbd88f112764> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-19/mysore/34583269_1_farmers-solar-lamps-cutter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976844 | 417 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Yesterday, contemplating Paul Krugman’s fiscal policy prescriptions, I wondered whether liberal governance is starting to exceed our institutional capacities. I was thinking of that primarily as a matter of public policy, suggesting that liberals should consider rethinking their policy agenda in light of a more realistic appraisal of how congressional decision-making really works. But the issue of governmental dysfunction has an important political dimension as well.
Here’s the new hero of the Republican right, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, making political hay out of the disparity between the promise and the performance of government in a blue state:
That’s a potent political message, expertly delivered. But why should it be exclusively a Republican message?
In a comment to the above-referenced post, reader Uncle Albert, reminds us that Bill Clinton spent a lot of political capital in the 1990s trying to persuade voters that he was “reinventing government.” At most, he succeeded in modestly streamlining a few executive agencies. There’s only so much a president can do in this connection when the governmental institution that stands most urgently in need of reinvention, Congress, is a coequal branch of government.
But "reinventing government" was still a shrewd political message for Clinton to transmit. Liberal politicians, of all people, should be reassuring voters that the government is working hard on what’s important, that Democratic congressmen know what’s in the bills that they’re passing and have thought long and hard about whether they’ll work. I don’t think you can overestimate how much doubts on this score are costing Democrats politically in this election cycle and the political price they’ll continuing paying as long as they surrender these issues to the Republicans.
If you ask me, now that he’s likely to be confronting a Republican House and will have less of a stake in soothing the egos of powerful congressional Democrats, Obama should open shop in the "reinventing government" business himself. | <urn:uuid:abdff962-e56d-438d-8224-5c73229af435> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ronreplogle.com/2010/10/re-reinventing-government.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949274 | 417 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Until her final years, Lucia Sutera — a retired ultrasonongrapher — never checked the cardboard barrels in her padlocked storage bin in her Brooklyn apartment building’s basement. A neighbor, the daughter-in-law of Stinson Records’ late owner Herbert Harris, had left them to her, mentioning that they contained unissued recordings by America’s populist poet laureate, Oklahoma-born Woody Guthrie (1912-67). These metal masters of 1944 sessions — done amid the heat of World War II — became the source of his new four-CD, 158-minute box My Dusty Road (Rounder).
Many of the 54 tracks enjoy accompaniment by Cisco Houston on guitar and Sonny Terry on harp. Six numbers — his country blues “Bad Repetation,” three traditional pieces and two war songs — found on no other Guthrie recording are strong but not earth-shaking.
The four CDs are titled topically: Woody’s Greatest Hits (“This Land Is Your Land,” “Hard Travelin’”), Woody’s Roots (folk, country blues and cowboy songs including several Carter Family standards), Woody The Agitator (union songs, two-part “Harriet Tubman’s Ballad”) and Woody, Cisco and Sonny (trad songs, a square-dance medley and wild-fire harp foray “Sonny’s Flight”). Ever one to adapt existing songs for new purposes, Guthrie turned the gospel number “When The Saints Go Marching In” into war-era “When The Yanks Go Marching In.”
Guthrie and friends were clearly enjoying themselves at these exuberant sessions. Occasional stretches when they’re out of sync with each other make the performances sound all the more human.
Actually, these tapes boast brighter and more personal-sounding audio than their later pressings. As engineer Doug Pomeroy says in the box’s booklet (which includes Guthrie’s bright-hued art and some typewritten lyrics), “Metal masters transferred directly via a high-resolution analog-to-digital converter, then straight to a CD are going to sound superior to any pressed record.” A cool, dry basement was a fortuitous place to preserve the nickel-plated copper master recordings (much of the material by the likes of Leadbelly, Mary Lou Williams and Art Tatum was released long ago on Stinson and sometimes Folkways).
Nora Guthrie, head of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives, states, “There’s been an acceptance that my father only sang three notes and played three chords, which often was true. With these restorations, we’re finding his wider range and hearing how much more melodic he was. It’s not the Bob Dylan version of Woody, which was three notes Bob picked up. He turns out to have been a much better singer and guitar player than we’d thought.”
MORE RESOURCES FOR MUSIC COLLECTORS | <urn:uuid:09fe0711-470a-4846-b98d-126ae13e8ba1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goldminemag.com/article/woodie-guthrie-box-set-full-of-treasures | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950082 | 653 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Reports and Campaigns
Workplace and TU campaigns tags:
Reports and campaigns:
28 June 2012
There was a huge tail back of traffic outside the Esso Oil Refinery at Fawley in Hampshire this morning (27 June) where Unite staged a protest in defence of the NAECI/Blue Book agreement on wages and conditions
28 September 2011
On 26 September around 400 electricians from the West Burton power station site in Nottinghamshire walked out on strike for the day, writes Alistair Tice.
7 July 2010
Tragically, a 24 year old pipefitter was killed in a fire and explosion at Lindsey Oil Refinery (LOR) near Immingham, South Humberside, on 29 June...
15 December 2009
Over 30 people turned up to the Northern Shop Stewards Network public meeting in Middlesborough over the Closure of Corus steel plant, demanding "Defend Every Job! Nationalise Corus Steel!"...
9 December 2009
Get someone a subscription to The Socialist for Christmas and they will receive a socialist seasonal card telling them about their present...
11 November 2009
A thousand people came to Socialism 2009 over the weekend to participate in the various discussions and to be inspired by the two rallies. From long-standing Socialist Party activists to those attending their first ever meeting, everyone got something out of it.
"This event allowed me to really understand what the Socialist Party is actually about," said Jessica from Peckham in south London. "I joined the Socialist Party at the event."
22 September 2009
Ste Jones from Lindsey Oil Refinery construction site attended the national shop stewards forum for engineering construction on 17 September...
12 August 2009
On 11 August a strike ballot of engineering construction workers will begin. It will include workers on sites in Grangemouth, Sellafield, Stanlow, Staythorpe, and Aberthaw, all members of Unite and GMB.
30 June 2009
Lindsey Oil Refinery workers victory: Lindsey Oil Refinery (LOR) construction workers have won a stunning victory. All the workers' demands have been met. The 647 dismissals have been withdrawn, the 51 redundancies rescinded and all employees...
30 June 2009
THE CONSTRUCTION workers at Lindsey won a magnificent battle for the working class. They managed to turn back the cost-cutting plans of Total, the multinational energy giant rated as one of the world's...
Search entire database: | <urn:uuid:8aef3f47-2081-4c52-9db7-afab60ed5d0f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/keyword/Lindsey | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949111 | 503 | 1.515625 | 2 |
James Bond III
Review by Adam Balz
Posted on 18 October 2012
Source Troma DVD
Categories 31 Days of Horror IX
When Bram Stoker’s Dracula was published in 1897 it introduced the world to what would become one of literature’s – and cinema’s – most iconic monsters. The monster drew immediate comparisons to historical figures like Elizabeth Bathory and Vlad the Impaler, but Stoker’s inspirations for the archetypical vampire seem to have been more contemporaneous: immigrants from continental Europe and epidemics that followed in their wake.
Stoker, however insensitively, was adapting social conditions in turn-of-the-century Britain for use in his novel, investing in his many characters, especially Dracula himself, a complex and touchy metaphorical utility. This utility, over the last few decades, has made its way into Dracula’s cinematic depictions, used extensively by writers and directors of all creeds and colors, including – to much variety and entertainment – African-Americans. On Thursdays throughout the month, we will examine the role of vampires as metaphors, as well as how those metaphors have shifted and changed according to evolving American social mores.
During the 1984 presidential election, Ronald Reagan’s campaign released the now legendary “Morning in America” ad, in which the incumbent president’s first term is depicted as one of peace and prosperity, of blue-collar optimism. Reagan, of course, won reelection by an unthinkably wide margin—a victory often attributed, in part, to the ad. But the irony is that, during Reagan’s sunrise presidency, the African-American vampires of Crain and Gunn and Kelljan disappeared from sight, having taken refuge in their coffins while Reagan’s home-spun confidence shined bright.
When Reagan’s less popular, less charismatic second-in-command took the Oath of Office in January, 1989, the vampires – and corresponding metaphors – reemerged, only now they were different. Still mindful of racial identity – Bush’s campaign had, after all, created the notorious ad linking Democratic challenger Michael Dukakis with convicted black rapist and murderer Willie Horton – the African-American vampires of post-Reagan America had new concerns: socioeconomics, homosexuality, and AIDS.
During Reagan’s eight-year presidency, as white America rose to “morning again” on the horizon, African-Americans witnessed the gap between themselves and the rest of the country widen. The Civil Rights bills of the last two decades may have worked to make African-Americans equal under the laws of voting and proportional representation, but it did not to stem the social and cultural inequality that had risen up to take its place. By the end of his second term, Reagan had become remarkably distant from the African-American community, an uncharacteristically unusual legacy for a modern American president:
Had Reagan met black Americans halfway on a few issues or paid more attention to the black community, most blacks would not have been left with only one choice in every election from Goldwater to Bush. Instead, they got a president who appointed almost no blacks to high office and who did not recognize his only black cabinet appointee in one of the rare moments that they actually met… [B]lacks, in the face of Reagan’s relentless insensitivity to their history, achievements, and leaders, were left to be demonized or at best ignored by one party and often taken for granted by the other.1
There was also the sudden appearance of AIDS which, according to Cheryl Cole, acquired “the status of the extraordinary in popular consciousness”1. Reagan’s seeming disregard towards the plight of gay men and women made the epidemic grow all the more massive, leading to 100,000 “AIDS-related deaths” by Winter of 19912, with 75-percent of AIDS sufferers the year before identified as “homosexual or bisexual men”3. In only “his second major speech on AIDS”4, delivered less than 15 months before leaving office, Reagan said, “I’ve asked the Department of Health and Human Services to determine as soon as possible the extent to which the AIDS virus has penetrated our society and to predict its future dimensions. I’ve also asked HHS to add the AIDS virus to the list of contagious diseases for which immigrants and aliens seeking permanent residence in the United States can be denied entry.” By this point in time, the death count was more than 25,0003.
When Def by Temptation was released in 1990, the film’s revolutionary focus – on the unspoken taboos of homosexuality, addiction, and AIDS in the African-American community – could be attributed to only one man: James Bond III5. In addition to starring in the film, Bond wrote, produced, and directed Def by Temptation, the story of a black seductress named Temptation who preys on men in bars, luring them back to her apartment for sex and, eventually, a bite in the neck.
But Temptation is far from the tradition of vampires established by Blacula and Dr. Pride, or even Dracula himself; instead, she seems derived more from Gunn’s Ganja, as both women can walk in daylight (albeit in sunglasses for Temptation) and are visible in mirrors. Similarly, because Def by Temptation and its nearest predecessor, Kelljan’s Scream, Blacula, Scream, were released seventeen years apart, Bond’s film is far from what could be considered a traditional horror film at the time.
Def by Temptation is the story of Joel, a seminary student who visits his brother K in New York against the wishes of his grandmother, a religious woman who has watched over both boys since the death of their parents in a car accident. The trip, according to Joel, is his attempt to make sure the life of a preacher is what he truly wants.
K is the opposite of Joel. A successful actor, he lives in a swanky New York apartment where he’s surrounded by ostentatious luxuries, including a kitschy, life-sized dummy of Ronald Reagan. With over-accentuated, almost caricature-like features – wrinkled face, squinty eyes, jagged cheeks and chin – the dummy is seated in K’s living room behind a TV-set that also doubles as a makeshift Oval Office desk. The prop has only slight metaphorical powers at first, presiding over K’s embodiment of success – an apartment with the latest technology, a full wardrobe, flashy knickknacks – and watching from the corner as the brothers talk; near the end of the film, as Temptation tries to seduce Joel into becoming both her next lover and victim, the dummy is brought to life, leaning forward in a fit of possession as the television screen on his desk swallows up Joel and, only seconds later, regurgitates a puddle of flesh and blood on the living-room floor. Reagan, both the dummy and the real-life person, are treated as puppets of AIDS—complicit in the devouring and destruction of a successful black man.
Unlike prominent national figures, who chose to demonize homosexuals by blaming them almost entirely for the AIDS epidemic—Cynthia Cole opens her article with quotes by two men, Gory Servaas and Jerry Falwell, who portray AIDS as both treasonous (“It’s patriotic to have the test and be negative”) and sinful (“AIDS is God’s judgment of a society that does not live by His rules”), respectively3—Bond uses vampirism as a metaphor for AIDS as it pertains to promiscuous men and women, regardless of orientation. The fact that Bond chose to name the antagonist Temptation is telling, especially during flashbacks to Joel’s childhood, in which his father stands at the pulpit of his church sermonizing against small-t temptation in all its forms. He is condemning all those who would engage in any form of self-satisfaction with little regard for others, or even the health of their own soul, whether they are men or women, white or black, gay or straight.
In fact, Bond does not depict AIDS as a punishment for promiscuity, or as a deserved outcome, but rather as a disease crippling the African-American community; he doesn’t lay blame, pointing the finger at one group of people over the other as men like Servass and Falwell did, but uses the film to remind his viewers that AIDS is an epidemic affecting everyone. The balance between both – AIDS as punishment and as a problem in need of a solution – is delicate, as McKinnon notes when discussing how other academics write about the epidemic:
An obvious problem for exponents of AIDS-as-divine-retribution is that nonmembers of the punished group also fall ill. Examples of such “undeserving” sufferers are children and hemophiliacs who are known not to be drug abusers or homosexuals. Hancock and Carim… fall into a trap when they ask, reasonably, “What have they done, these ill-starred infants, to deserve such a bleak future?” Their question summons up the likelihood that there are others facing a bleak future who have done something by reason of which they deserve that future.3
In fact, Bond’s depictions of homosexuality, though infrequent, are mostly sympathetic. All of Temptation’s victims are adamantly straight – a bartender, an unfaithful husband – with the exception of one man, who Temptation identifies as gay (“With a woman, it’s much better”); while she has to use little energy in seducing her other victims – they often come to her – she actively seeks out this man, even slipping him her address and phone number rather than trying to escort him home. When the scene cuts to them in her apartment, Temptation is visibly dominant over him in bed, penetrating him sexually with something unseen before violently killing him. This man appeared earlier in the film as a lone figure sitting at the bar. When another man approaches and asks if he’d like a drink, Temptation’s future victim responds
Tell me something—with all the men in this bar, am I really that obvious?
Well, excuse me, honey! I go to more sophisticated gay bars than this and you look [snaps fingers] somewhat familiar to me.
Really, no offense. I’m just here for some conversation, I’m really not looking for anything tonight…
The second man eventually walks away, and the first remains alone until his fateful rendezvous with Temptation, which begins interestingly enough with him being sexually dominant but her frustrated, angry; when she rolls alongside him on the bed and he asks if he did anything wrong, she responds, “Yes.” If Bond levels any condemnation at gay men in his film, it’s not because of their gay-bar lifestyle or the stigma surrounding them—he criticizes them, as personified by this one lone man, for not accepting who they truly are, for trying to pass themselves off as straight. If this man hadn’t come to Temptation’s door willingly, he would never have become a vampire—that is, in the metaphor of this film, he would never have contracted AIDS.
Bond’s film also carries a strong message about faith—an unusual choice when you consider how his predecessors portrayed the cure for vampirism as voodoo rather than Western religions; even Ganja and Hess, which has the most ambiguous depiction of religion of all the vampire films examined herein, leaves the possibility for Christianity to be viewed as the cause of vampirism. Def by Temptation, however, contains little ambiguity on the topic of religion—it is the overriding good of Bond’s film, more than brotherhood or even community. The further Joel moves away from his faith, the more he falls into Temptation’s trap, and in increasingly dramatic and straightforward dreams we see Joel’s dead father returning to fight against Temptation for his son’s soul. When Joel finally kills Temptation, he does so not with a stake or rope of garlic but rather by shining the light of a cross on her and rebuking her.
Bond illustrates the dominance of religion over all else by slowly stripping away everything Joel could possibly rely on to fight Temptation. K is sucked into the television, while his grandmother’s attempts late in the film to stop Temptation are futile at best; Temptation pins the old woman against the walls of her apartment, choking her. And Joel’s best hope, a government agent named Doug who specializes in the supernatural and teams up with K, is quickly dispatched by Temptation and a cab-full of her fellow victims. Even Joel’s father, dead for years, is shown in flashback – or dream, we’re never sure – in a car with his wife, speeding towards the shadowy figure of Temptation as she stands motionless in the middle of the road; he recognizes her, and his goal is to run her down, to remove her for good, but the car veers off the road and crashes.
In their search for answers, K and Doug visit Madame Sonja, a seer whose religious identity seems to be split between traditional voodoo practices – she begins their meeting by sprinkling particles over her table – and Christian ideology, as personified by the large cross behind her. She tells both men, “There is only one way that ‘it’ can be completely destroyed, and that is for man’s total being and spirit to remain focused upon, and to be completely submissive to the utmost reality, which of course is God.” At a later mention of Temptation’s name, Sonja becomes possessed by her, and through her Temptation warns both K and Doug that any attempt to fight her will end in their deaths, which is ultimately what happens.
Madame Sonja’s words about the “utmost reality” are especially important when considering the role of religion, and especially the “Black church,” in the fight against AIDS. In her article, Cole writes that
Although racial differences in regard to HIV infection are acknowledged, the higher rate of infection among African Americans is narrated through a logic of addiction… that simultaneously structures and makes visible the failed authority of the black community through the figure of the Black church. As the most prominent surrogate for the black community, the Black church is positioned as having neglected its authoritative role, allowing homophobia to interfere with its education of the black communit6.
Joel’s grandmother refers to his battle with Temptation as a “test of faith,” as there are scenes that make blatant visual allusions to Christian theology, including Temptation playing with snakes (temptation as it pertains to Genesis) and K and Doug’s attempt at weakening Temptation by having a bartender mix holy water with an alcoholic drink, which is then served to her. The concoction works for only a minute, during which both men attempt to stake her with little success; almost immediately afterwards, both men are killed.
The DVD of Def by Temptation, released by legendary Troma Studios, contains an open letter from Bond to Troma founder Lloyd Kaufmann, as well as his staff, that precedes the actual film. In it, Bond writes “DEF BY TEMPTATION is an historical endeavor in that it is the first contemporary all-black horror film of its kind. Both cast and crew worked very hard to insure that we were creating a monumental event.” Because the entire vampire culture began with an epidemic in 1897 England, it seems only appropriate that the topic of AIDS should be covered, at least as it pertains to the African-American community, by a film comprised entirely of black actors and crew-members. Two years after Bond’s film, when Francis Ford Coppola released Dracula to theaters, the outbreak of venereal diseases that had originally inspired Bram Stoker’s novel were replaced by AIDS as the foundation for the narrative’s larger metaphor.
Wake in Fright1971
Invasion from Inner Earth1974
In the Company of Men1997
Happy Birthday to Me1981
I Drink Your Blood1970
The Legend of Boggy Creek1972
The Giant Spider Invasion1975
Ganja & Hess1973
Not of This Earth1957
Let’s Scare Jessica to Death1971
Next of Kin1982
Def by Temptation1990
Shriek of the Mutilated1974
The Alpha Incident1978
Planet of the Vampires1965
Vampire in Brooklyn1995
Sasquatch: the Legend of Bigfoot1977
The Demons of Ludlow1983
The Blair Witch Project1999 | <urn:uuid:d30fe8d9-793e-4171-baca-2b518d284ae0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.notcoming.com/reviews/defbytemptation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968088 | 3,552 | 1.765625 | 2 |
My Daily Visitor Home
I will bless the Lord at all times. — Psalm 34:2
Mass Readings:Leviticus 23:1,4-11,15-16,27,34-37 / John 11:19-27 or Luke 10:38-42
St. Martha was clearly a friend of Jesus and spoke to Him as one. In the Luke’s Gospel story about Mary and Martha (10:38-42), she approaches Our Lord and complains that her sister is leaving all the work of serving to her. In today’s reading from John, she reproaches Jesus: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Martha is portrayed as a busy woman, worried about many things, but also as someone who spent time with Jesus and came to know Him. She developed the faith to say, “I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.” In my life I need to spend time in service and time with the Lord so that I, too, can grow in my faith.
Prayer: St. Martha, pray for me that I may both serve and listen.
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Catholic Faith Resources | For Catholic Parishes | Order OSV Products | RSS | Advertise | About Us | Contact Us | Jobs | <urn:uuid:54446460-85ac-47d2-9bf7-bd6f755a0203> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.osv.com/tabid/7627/itemid/7913/July-29-St-Martha.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969767 | 285 | 1.664063 | 2 |
|Awesome new command logo !!|
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Improved - My Former Command
On 15 December 1945, the first Communications Supplementary Activity Detachment (COMSUPACT Det) was established in Ohminato, Japan. When the Army evacuated the area in April 1946 the detachment was relocated to Yokosuka, and was redesignated as Communications supplementary Activity (COMSUPACT) Yokosuka. On 22 November 1948, NAVCOMMUNIT 35 was established and added a direction finding capability to COMSUPACT Yokosuka. A full rhombic antenna field was constructed in February 1949 to make the HFDF site fully operational. In 1950, Naval Security Group (NAVSECGRU) decided to shift net control of the Pacific HFDF net to Yokosuka from Wahiawa, Hawaii.
To accommodate this change NAVCOMMUNIT 35 was expanded to 38 officers and 392 enlisted and was located in renovated building F-68. The HFDF net was activated in Yokosuka on 2 October 1950. On 15 January 1960, the Naval Security Department (NSG) was commissioned as the US Naval Security Group Activity (NSGA) Kami Seya. NAVCOMMFAC at Kami Seya was relocated back to Yokosuka as Naval Communications Station (NCS) Yokosuka. On 23 January 1968, the USS PUEBLO (AGER-2) was captured by the North Koreans. At the time of the attack NSGA Kami Seya was in communication with the ship.
There were six Sailors who were deployed on the USS Pueblo, they returned to NSGA Kami Seya 11 months later. On 1 August 1969, all NAVSECGRU elements at Yokosuka were consolidated under one command structure. Naval Security Group Detachment Yokosuka, Japan, a detachment of NSGA Kami Seya, was established. In March 1971 most of the operational functions were moved from NSGA Kami Seya to NSG Detachment Misawa, Japan. On 30 June 1971, NSGA Kami Seya was downgraded to NSG Detachment Kami Seya and NSG Detachment Misawa was commissioned as NSGA Misawa. Activities at Kami Seya and Yokosuka became detachments of NSGA Misawa. On 23 May 1984, NSG Detachment Kami Seya was recommissioned as an NSGA. In January of 1989 NSG Detachment Yokosuka became a detachment of Kami Seya again.
On 1 June 1995, NSGA Kami Seya was closed permanently and NSG Detachment Yokosuka was recommissioned as a Naval Security Group Activity under the command of Lieutenant Commander Kevin McTaggart. On 30 September 2005, Naval Security Group Command was disestablished and many NSG Activities were disestablished as well. Those that remained operational were recommissioned as Navy Information Operations Commands (NIOC) on 1 October 2005, including NIOC Yokosuka. On 29 January 2010, the US TENTH Fleet was recommissioned for Fleet Cyber Command. NIOC Yokosuka is currently subordinate to TENTH Fleet. | <urn:uuid:c31fa9c6-ac4c-40ff-ab04-7bc778330e41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://navycaptain-therealnavy.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-and-improved-my-former-command.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974292 | 645 | 1.757813 | 2 |
in reply to
Top 11 (GOOD) reasons not to use someone else's Modules
It's nice that you're willing to share, but a few of them seem counter productive to me.
- Most of us have jobs that are about getting things done, not specifically about learning. If we have free time once things are done, we can take the time to learn, so code re-use means stuff can get done more quickly, and we can use code that's already been used/tested by at least one other person, reducing the time needed for maintenance ... which may free up time for learning.
- This may be contradicted by your 'learning' and 'complexity' comments. After all, if you don't write Perl that often, are you going to be as familiar with all of the possible optimizations as someone who does?
- It depends on the complexity of what it is that you're trying to do. And sometimes it's easier to subclass something to override the output than try to parse it after the fact.
- I can see part of that argument ... the bigger problem I would think would be those cases where you don't have shell access. (every tried debugging via e-mail? )
- There was a talk at the DC-Baltimore Perl Workshop last weekend on 'Hooking @INC' that covered how get details of what's required to run something and what still needs to be installed on a given system.
- If you can't SFTP or SCP a tarball in, you may be able to send it to the sysadmin to place on the machine for it. If you're copy & pasting in each file, something is horribly wrong.
- A valid argument -- I've worked plenty of places where the production systems had no compilers ... but in every case, there was a development server that did, and you were expected to build there, test, and then push the updates to the production server.
- If you never do it, you'll never get in the habit of doing it ... once you do it a bit, it's second nature. (or, you just set up templates so you don't have to remember)
- Might be a valid argument, as I don't know your exact system. But memory *is* cheaper than programming time for anything but trivial work when you start counting overhead (assuming the machine has a slot free).
- You have to get a review *every* time? Something's wrong with your contract if they can't give you clear guidelines on what you are or aren't allowed to do. (eg, are you selling them the code, which may be a form of distribution, or are you creating the code for them as an employee or contractor?) The only time it's ever been a problem for me (as a contractor) was when the ExtJS folks changed from BSD to LGPL to GPL3, and then gave their interpretation of GPL in which they claimed the backend CGIs that interacted with their code was bound by GPL ... but you make an interesting point. Anyone know of any CPANTS reports that show which modules are GPL3 only and not also releases under a more permissive license?
- But yet you're paid to learn on the job? I'm guessing that you're like most of us -- you're given the end task and maybe some restrictions in how to implement it You may set some other limitations for whatever reason, but 'being paid to write code' is a flawed argument. If we took it far enough, we could also say that you're cheating by using a high level language like Perl, and not having written your own language.
(and I'm not being paid to post on here, so I'm going to have to reflect that on my timesheet ... blah) | <urn:uuid:16a896fd-badd-4179-b69c-db56ebed4649> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.perlmonks.org/bare/?node_id=966626 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974196 | 778 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Question: Our 10-year-old Shih Tzu recently started snoring, and now it's getting worse. She snores just about every time she sleeps. If we wake her when she begins snoring, she just starts up again.
Is there something wrong? We're not getting any sleep! — K.E., Combined Locks, Wis.
Answer: If you haven't already done so, see your veterinarian to rule out an obstruction in the dog's throat, such as a growth, or even a toy.
"Maybe the problem has worsened as your dog has gained weight," says Dr. Mark Russak, of Berlin, Conn., president-elect of the American Animal Hospital Assn. "Just as weight gain may be associated with snoring in people, the same is true for dogs. Snoring is also more common in dogs, such as Pugs, with short snouts."
"If your dog is overweight, the snoring will likely decline as your dog takes off the pounds. Your veterinarian can advise you on a weight-loss strategy," says Russak. "Otherwise, consider moving your dog out of the bedroom so you can sleep. But I understand that is not likely advice you'll consider. After all, my wife would more likely move me out of the bedroom before she moves the dog. Have you tried ear plugs?"
Q: Four years ago, my sister adopted Molly, a 6-month-old German Shepherd who had suffered from severe injuries inflicted by previous owners. Molly joined my sister's two other large dogs. Molly has been very high maintenance; my sister has already shelled out about $20,000 for vet bills due to the dog's previous injuries. Molly is now scheduled for hip replacement, which will cost $10,000 to $15,000.
Two years ago, my sister's oldest dog was euthanized, and last month, her other dog was put down. Now, Molly is acting depressed. She sniffs around seeking the other dog. Her appetite has also decreased. My sister leaves the TV on when she's gone, and leaves the dead dogs' blankets out. These tactics haven't helped.
My sister plans to pick out another dog as a friend for Molly. I have responsibility for walking Molly when my sister can't and when she travels. I was actually relieved when the other dogs were gone. I'm old and tired. What do you think about my sister getting another dog? —S.C., Richmond, Va.
A: Dr. Nancy Kay, of Greenville, S.C., says many dogs do grieve loss. And just as people seem to improve over time, so do most dogs. Your sister could help out by giving Molly a little extra TLC (she totally deserves it after going through so much).
However, there's also a possibility that the pain Molly is experiencing (you mention she requires hip surgery) or another illness may be the root cause of her lackadaisical attitude and loss of appetite. Please, see your veterinarian.
One more possibility: Molly acts mopey, and your sister offers attention. It may be that Molly has trained your sister to respond.
Kay, winner of the 2009 American Animal Hospital Assn. Humane Ethics Award and author of "Your Dog's Best Health: A Dozen Reasonable Things to Expect From Your Vet" (Create Space Publishing, 2011; $10.99), notes that "in reality, another dog might or might not pull Molly out of her funk. It doesn't sound as though this is a good idea, given the overall family dynamics."
"If it's a companion Molly needs, a cat might be as effective as a dog. And you won't need to walk the kitty (though you might need to clean the litter box and feed the pet when your sister is traveling)," Kay notes.
"Assuming your sister's dog is social with other dogs, frequent dog park visits or periodic doggy day care might be a good idea," Kay adds. "Or perhaps, instead of you coming over to walk Molly, maybe there's a friend with a dog who can do this, giving Molly a new canine buddy."
Molly sounds wonderful, and your sister's commitment to her is inspiring.
Q: Pierre is not a lap cat. He rarely meows. He's finicky about his food, but he loves bacon. When my wife cooks bacon, Pierre can smell it from two rooms away and comes running. We do give him some bacon. (Pierre also loves to chew on plastic bags.) Have you heard of such behavior? — R.F., Cyberspace
A: While I'm not a fan of leaving food out 24/7, your case may be an exception.
"If Pierre always has food readily available, that might be more appealing than the plastic bags," says Gainesville, Fla.-based veterinary behaviorist Dr. Terry Curtis. "Also, leave some treats in food puzzles; maybe bacon treats. Don't overdo this, though; you don't want an overweight cat. Also, I suppose some (real) bacon is just fine (as a treat)."
Be careful, however. Too much bacon can cause serious problems. The best way to prevent your cat from chewing on plastic bags is to store them out of sight.
Q: My cat is about 6 years old. We want to visit a friend with a 4-year-old cat. Both pets are fixed. How can I bring these cats together so as we visit, the cats can, too? — G.J., Cyberspace
A: The protocol for bringing cats together can take several days to several weeks. I get the impression you're talking about bringing the cats together for several hours, or maybe a weekend. Veterinary behaviorist Dr. Martin Godbout, of Quebec City, says, "If you must travel with your cat, then keep the cat in a room (of the house you're visiting) with the door closed and a Feliway diffuser plugged in (to lessen anxiety). Unless your visit is longer than two or three days, it's simply not worth the effort needed to introduce these cats, and both cats will be happier."
Unless your cat enjoys travel, consider leaving the cat at home with a pet sitter.
STEVE DALE welcomes questions/comments from readers. Send email to [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:aa18654d-dad8-4567-bde0-0dc52619a824> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/tn-dpt-0208-petcolumn-20120207,0,6719014.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971063 | 1,318 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Foursquare-like Location-Based Service (LBS) is hot these days.
However, as also noticed by other people, one of the big problems with current LBS is how to provide more value than simply asking people to “check-in”. Once the novelty of checkin for badge wears off, people get bored to use Foursquare-like LBS.
There is still room for innovation in LBS.
Ideally, at first, LBS should provide users with value-added information, such as nearby breaking news, deal, promotions, interesting people, places recommended by others, and the like, at the right time at the right place. Secondly, LBS should NOT overwhelm the user with lots of information of little interest to the users (for example, twitter’s user usually receives many tweets of little interest to him from their following users), in another word, LBS needs to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, so that users can easily focus on information of interest to them (in particular, user has different interest, one information may be interesting to user A, but may be no interest at all to user B).
To achieve this goal, I think categorize the information/place and geotag it when user post it are the right ways to both provide value-added information to user and improve the signal-to-noise ratio. In this way, different local business (e.g., restaurant, store, etc) and different users (e.g., who want to sale something, who what to make friend, who want to share news or deal with others) can post categorized information to their targeted users. And other users can find out the information/people/places of interest to them efficiently by simply selecting a radius and category, without wasting time to filter out the information one-by-one by themselves .
To implement the above idea, I developed an innovative LBS service called NearbyFeed (iPhone, Android app and website). It is a foursquare-like location-based platform for advertising, social networking and microblogging. The core value of NearbyFeed is to make it easier for user to “Discover what’s happening around me and everywhere”.
The main differences between NearbyFeed and other LBS (e.g., foursquare) are:
1. the status posted by the user is categorized (e.g., status, photo, news, deal, food, entertainment, fashion, housing, marketplace, etc) and geo-tagged, in order to both improve the signal-to-noise ratio for the viewer and increase the visibility of the status shared to others. For example, user A posts a status of deal category at place A in San Francisco, this will be broadcasted to both user A’s followers and nearby users. Let us say, nearby user B who is interested in recent deals at San Francisco may checkin at place B in San Francisco, then select a radius (e.g., < 50km) and deal category to ONLY explore the deals within 50 km. As long as the distance between place A and B is less than 50km, the status posted by user A is visible to user B even if user B is not the follower of user A. In this way, the information may be broadcasted to the interested people more efficiently and faster, since the viewer do not need to go over all categories of status update to find out the deal of interest to him. As shown below:
2. NearbyFeed uses the twitter-like one-way follow model, rather than the facebook-like bi-direction friend model, to make it easier for user to obtain information from other people without waiting for anyone accepting your friend request, and to make it possible for user/business to interact with lots of people who follow him as well as a limited set of people who he is interested in. And user can edit privacy setting to limit access to all the information (e.g., status, location, checkins, profile, followers) about him to a limited set of users.
3. Any status posted by the user has its own profile page to aggregate relevant information, such as related status (e.g., which status this status is replying directly to, which statuses commented this status, to which topic/conversion all the related status/comments belong), ratings to this status, map of the place where the status is posted, author, followers of the author, etc, as well as to let other people interact with this status (e.g., rate, favorite, comment, etc). And any comment to this status will be treated just as a normal status with its own profile page and be automatically broadcasted to all the followers of the commenting user and nearby users. When his follower receives this comment, they can very easily understand the history, context, and origin of this comment, what other people are saying about the related statuses, how they rated the related statuses (their opinions), by navigating among the profile pages of the related statuses. As shown below:
4. multiple checkin methods. User can checkin at a place by GPS (coordinate → address), or by searching address on map (address → coordinate), or by moving the red pin on the map for new address (coordinate on map → address). As shown below:
iPhone screenshot: Android screenshot:
webpage (need to log in): http://www.nearbyfeed.com/me/place/add_venue
5. User can rate, favorite, comment and recommend any place to his followers and nearby users. And this kind of aggregated social recommendation for a place provide a good reference for himself, his followers and nearby users. As shown below:
iPhone screenshot: Android screenshot:
6. User can attach photo to any status update, and optionally also add photo to an album. The photos in album may be shown as list view, grid view, map view and gallery view. As shown below:
7. Map view of stream (public, nearby, favorited, categorized), nearby people and nearby categorized places, in addition to list view. As shown below:
8. Different from twitter like service, the character limit for status update in nearbyfeed is 1000, rather than 140, to make it easier to exchange information. This is because many information can not be represented within 140 characters.
iTune App Store Download: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nearbyfeed/id402345573?mt=8
Android App: Android Market, keyword “Nearbyfeed”
In short, NearbyFeed’s iPhone, Android application and website make it easier for user to
- discover what’s happening around me in realtime from anywhere and at anytime, by selecting a radius (e.g. < 50km) and a category (e.g. status, photo, deal, news, restaurant, housing, travel, sport, fashion, etc) after checkin at a place.
- explore nearby interesting places, such as, restaurant, store, entertainment, sport, etc.
- follow nearby people and see what they are doing, where they are and who they are with.
- favorite any information and place for future reference
- share information (e.g., deal, photo, event, news, health, etc), places and opinions with followers and nearby people.
- overlay nearby information, places and people on map to have a intuitive view of where the information is from, where the place/person is, how far from me, and how to get to the place.
Apps at AppStoreHQ | <urn:uuid:dddd7cc5-f6f8-40bd-a193-ee3e71b520ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nearbyfeed.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/opportunities-and-problems-of-foursquare-like-lbs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935018 | 1,592 | 1.820313 | 2 |
What’s the HC Pool?
Established in 2009, the IASC Humanitarian Coordination Pool is a roster of high caliber humanitarian professionals from UN agencies, the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement, IOM, and NGOs who are considered by the IASC to be qualified for humanitarian coordination leadership positions:
• Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator (RC/HC); Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General/ Resident Coordinator / Humanitarian Coordinator (DSRSG/RC/HC); and RC in disaster-prone countries.
• Stand-alone HC/RHC and Deputy HC (long or short-term).
How does the HC Pool work?
A call for applications is issued twice a year and disseminated widely. Rigorous screening and interview processes are carried out by senior-level IASC panels comprising of UN and non-UN representatives. HC Pool members are encouraged to pass the Resident Coordinator Assessment Centre (RCAC) examination, which is a prerequisite for applying for RC, RC/HC, and DSRSG/RC/HC positions. For non-UN candidates, OCHA has limited funds to cover the costs of the RCAC examination. Once a vacancy arises, HC Pool members are either:
• Proposed by their agency (or OCHA) to the UN Inter-Agency Advisory Panel (IAAP) as candidates for RC/HC, DSRSG/RC/HC, or RC positions; or Nominated by the Emergency Relief Coordinator as stand-alone HC or DHC for short or long-term assignments. Who’s in the HC Pool? As of March 2013, the HC Pool includes 65 members from 22 different agencies:
• 13 HC Pool members (20%) are from a non-UN organization.
• 19 HC Pool members (29%) are currently posted as DSRSG/RC/HC, DSRSG/RC, Deputy Special Coordinator/RC (DSC/RC), RC/HC, DHC or RC.
• 37 HC Pool members (56%) are at Director (D1 or D2) and Assistant Secretary-General (ASG) level.
• 43 HC Pool members (66%) have passed the Resident Coordinator Assessment Centre (RCAC). The gender and geographical balance remains unsatisfactory, with only 14 women (19%) and 13 individuals from non-OECD countries (21%).
How has the HC Pool been used?
In 2012, 12 HC Pool members were selected for RC, RC/HC, DSRSG/RC/HC positions (out of 31 advertised positions). Out of 28 HC Pool members who applied for RC, RC/HC and DSRSG/RC/HC, HC, RHC or DHC posts since 2009, 24 (85%) were selected by the United Nations Secretary-General. One HC Pool member was deployed as stand-alone HC in Libya (April-October 2011).
Why join the HC Pool?
HC Pool members enjoy the full support of the IASC, as they are considered qualified by the humanitarian community to perform humanitarian coordination leadership functions. HC Pool members are provided with tailored career counseling to enhance competencies and knowledge relevant to humanitarian coordination. The HC Pool secretariat may also identify relevant training to meet the specific learning needs of individual members. HC Pool members are regularly informed of upcoming vacancies for humanitarian coordination leadership posts and provided career advice.
Who should apply?
Humanitarian leaders with:
• extensive field-based humanitarian experience (at least 10 years managing or coordinating operations);
• significant representative experience (at least five years as a country director or representative); and
• development experience.
Anyone can apply to the HC Pool, whether a staff member of an IASC organization, an NGO not affiliated with the IASC, the UN Secretariat, a UN Specialized Agency, international organization, a Government, a private sector organization, or an independently employed individual. Candidates must be nominated, however, by an IASC organization. OCHA, as a member of the IASC, is willing and ready to nominate qualified candidates who are not currently staff members of an IASC organization.
How to apply?
1. If you do not already have one, download from the website and complete the Personal History Profile (PHP) and Supplementary Sheet.
2. Download the Nomination Letter; fill it out and have it signed by the HR Director of your parent organization, and/or the delegate officer or an IASC affiliated organization.
3. Write a cover letter outlining your motivation for being part of the HC Pool.
4. If you wish to be nominated by OCHA send your PHP and a cover letter to the HC Pool Manager at [email protected] . Senior management in OCHA will review your application and if you are considered qualified, nominate you for the selection process.
5. If you are nominated by an IASC organization send your cover letter, the PHP, the supplementary sheet and the nomination letter to the HC Pool Manager at [email protected].
When to apply?
Current and former DSRSG/RC/HCs, RC/HCs, HCs, and DHCs should simply send a recently updated P11, PHP or CV along with a cover letter to the HC Pool Manager. When to apply? Current and former DSRSG/RC/HCs, RC/HCs, HCs, and DHCs can apply at any time. All other applicants can contact the HC Pool Manager at any time to request information on the next call for applications – issued twice a year. | <urn:uuid:795d3d38-d77a-4478-8a2a-37621c38b525> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.humanitarianresponse.info/coordination/humanitarian-leadership/hc-pool | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932925 | 1,140 | 1.773438 | 2 |
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS
Admission Requirements and Deadlines
Fall: December 15
Applications are evaluated together after the deadline date.
APPLY ONLINE to this graduate program.
Letters of Reference:
Number Required: 2
From Whom: Letters of recommendation should be obtained from instructors or other individuals who are familiar with the applicant's academic work.
Coursework Required for Admission Consideration:
Applicants are expected to have majored or minored in History at the undergraduate level. Those applicants lacking that qualification are considered on a case-by-case basis.
Master's Degree in Discipline/Related Discipline:
Bachelor's Degree in Discipline/Related Discipline:
All applicants must present credentials that are the equivalent of the appropriate baccalaureate degree at Temple University.
Statement of Goals:
The Statement of Goals should be approximately 500-750 words in length, and should include the following elements: a clear statement of your interest in the doctoral program in History at Temple University and how the program meets your needs; your major historical interests; your career goals; and your academic and research achievements, if applicable.
Standardized Test Scores:
The GRE is required. In general, the applicant's combined scores on the verbal and quantitative sections should exceed 1,100.
Minimum TOEFL score needed to be accepted:
550 paper-based, 213 computer-based, and 79 internet-based.
The writing sample should demonstrate an applicant's ability to research and write a scholarly paper. It should be fully referenced according to a professional, scholarly style manual and should not exceed 30 pages in length.
General Program Requirements:
Number of Didactic Credits Required Beyond the Master's: 0
Doctoral students must take at least 11 courses in the History Department, and may elect to take courses outside the department with the permission of the Director of Graduate Studies. A minimum of 10 courses must be completed before the preliminary examination can be taken. The following courses are required:
- 2 research seminars in which a substantial piece of original research is produced: one must be taken in the first year, preferably in the second semester; at least one of the two research papers must be based on primary research in a language other than English (students writing dissertations on the history of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, or another Anglophone country are exempt from this requirement).
- 1 methodology seminar, normally to be taken in the first year of study.
- 2 historiographical or thematic seminars that address a series of methodological and interpretive debates in the given field: one must be taken in the first year.
- for students pursuing the U.S. field, a 2-course sequence of U.S. History, which must be selected in close consultation with the advisor.
View all COURSE OFFERINGS in History.
Internship: No internship is required.
Language Examination: The History Department requires Ph.D. students to demonstrate a reading knowledge of one language other than English. This requirement usually is fulfilled by passing a reading comprehension examination administered by appropriate language departments or by designated History Department faculty. This requirement must be satisfied before the student takes her/his preliminary examination.
The preliminary examination is a take-home exam. Examinees have up to two weeks in which to complete it. During that time, they are expected to write an original essay approximately 2,500 to 3,500 words in length for each of the three fields on the examination. Examinees should obtain the questions for the examination from the Graduate Secretary and return the completed examination to that individual. Examinees are expected to provide the Graduate Secretary with both a disk that contains their completed examination and a hard copy.
The written examination tests the student's factual knowledge, her/his ability to explain and evaluate interpretations, and her/his ability to defend her/his own interpretation. More generally, the student is expected to produce essays that demonstrate her/his mastery of the field. Bibliographic citation to specific interpretations is expected.
Satisfactory completion of the Ph.D. comprehensive examination requires receiving passing grades in all three fields ("general," "dissertation," and "distinct"). Two examiners evaluate the general field examination.
Upon passing the written exam, students are orally examined by their committee. The oral exam lasts two hours. Students may be asked to defend or expand upon their written exams; students may also be asked to discuss other issues pertinent to their prepared fields of study. To pass the exam, all members of the committee must approve of the student’s performance.
University-wide regulations governing examinations when a Ph.D. student matriculated apply throughout her/his career until the degree is received. If departmental or college regulations change, the student similarly follows the rules in place at the time of her/his matriculation unless s/he obtains approval of the advisory committee and written permission from the Graduate Council to follow more recent requirements.
Ideally, students in the doctoral program complete their coursework by the end of the fourth semester. In all cases, doctoral students must complete their preliminary examinations no later than March 1 of their sixth semester in the doctoral program. Those doctoral students who have been granted a leave of absence must complete their preliminary examinations no later than the sixth week of the sixth semester in the doctoral program. Failure to complete the coursework and take the preliminary examination within six semesters is considered grounds for dismissal from the program.
Students preparing to take their preliminary examination should confirm times and dates with their Preliminary Examination Committee Chair, other committee members, and the Graduate Secretary. All parties involved receive confirmation of the times, dates, and rooms for the examination.
All doctoral candidates must prepare a dissertation prospectus in close consultation with the advisor prior to advancing to Ph.D. candidacy. This document, usually about 15 pages in length, must achieve the following goals:
- identify the major research question of the dissertation.
- situate the dissertation in the existing scholarly literature.
- lay out a coherent research strategy that identifies the archives and sources that will be used.
- include a timeline for research and writing of the dissertation.
The prospectus defense is a public event, open to History Department faculty and doctoral students. At this event, the doctoral candidate makes a brief presentation lasting approximately 20 to 30 minutes, outlining the contents of the prospectus. A copy of the dissertation prospectus is made available at least one week before the defense for examination by the faculty. During the defense, faculty and students engage the candidate in vigorous conversation about the proposed project.
At the end of the defense, the candidate's Doctoral Advisory Committee meets privately to vote on advancing the student to Ph.D. candidacy. The Doctoral Advisory Committee is formed to oversee the student's doctoral research and is comprised of at least three Graduate Faculty members from the History Department. The student's primary advisor functions as the Chair of this committee and is responsible for overseeing and guiding the student's progress, coordinating the responses of committee members, and informing the student of her/his academic progress.
The doctoral dissertation is an original scholarly study that makes a significant contribution to the field of History. It should expand existing knowledge and demonstrate the student's familiarity with research methods and a mastery of her/his primary area of interest. Dissertations should be rigorously investigated; uphold the ethics and standards of the historical profession; and demonstrate the student's ability to place discoveries in her/his primary field in a broader context. All dissertations must be prepared in accordance with the guidelines of the Dissertation Handbook, which is available from the Graduate School.
The student should arrange with her/his primary advisor (i.e., the Chair of the Doctoral Advisory Committee) and the other members of the Doctoral Advisory Committee a procedure for submitting draft chapters for review. Further, either during the process of writing the dissertation prospectus, or at some time following its approval, the student, again in consultation with her/his primary advisor, should select a qualified outside reader of the dissertation. The outside reader may either be on the faculty of a Temple University department other than History or a member of the faculty of a college/university other than Temple. Once s/he has agreed to serve in the capacity, s/he will be added to the Doctoral Advisory Committee, which then becomes the Dissertation Examining Committee. The total membership of the Dissertation Examining Committee may exceed four faculty: the minimum being the three Temple Department of History Graduate Faculty who approved the prospectus plus the outside reader. Regardless of the size of the Dissertation Examining Committee, however, a majority of its members must be Temple University History Department Graduate Faculty.
From time to time, the roster of a committee has to be changed. However, changing the composition of a committee is not a routine action. Students who wish to change the composition of their committee should send a letter to the Director of Graduate Studies requesting that such change be made and providing the rationale.
Once a majority of the Dissertation Examining Committee, including its Chair, agrees that the written dissertation is of sufficient quality to be defended, the student should arrange with the Committee a time for the oral defense to be held. S/he should then notify the Graduate Secretary when the oral defense will be scheduled. The oral defense must be publicly announced in writing at least 10 days in advance of the date of the defense and must be open to the academic community.
The Chair of the oral defense, who presides at the oral defense, must be identified. This person must be a Temple University presidential faculty member and may not be the chair of the student's Dissertation Examining Committee.
The dissertation defense is a public event, open to History Department faculty and doctoral students. At this event, the doctoral candidate makes a brief presentation of perhaps 20 to 30 minutes, outlining the main argument of the dissertation. A copy of the dissertation is made available at least one week before the defense for examination by the faculty. During the defense, faculty and students engage the candidate in vigorous conversation about the project.
Students must provide the Chair of the History Department with a bound copy of the final draft of the dissertation before they can receive their Ph.D. The Chair ensures that graduate students in the Department of History have access to the department’s collection of dissertations.
Students must apply to graduate in the Dean's Office of their college by the announced deadline date. Those who do not apply in time must reapply to graduate at the next commencement. Master's and doctoral degrees are conferred in August, January, and May. Students should note that there are graduation fees, as well as additional fees, associated with the handling and publication of dissertations.
Program Contact Information:
Dept. of History
Gladfelter Hall (025-24)
1115 W. Berks Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122-6080
Director of Graduate Studies:
About the Program
Temple University offers a varied and flexible program for graduate training in History on the Ph.D. level. While general requirements ensure that every graduate is familiar with the basic issues of History and the latest approaches of professional historians, students are encouraged to tailor their programs to suit their own particular interests. To enrich their appreciation of History, students are also welcome to study in other disciplines. The thrust of the Ph.D. program is to prepare professional historians who are equipped to function in either academia or in public history. The Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy, Center for African-American History and Culture, The Myer and Rosaline Feinstein Center for American Jewish History, and Biographical Dictionary of Pennsylvania Legislators, which are all based at Temple, provide important support for the History Department's doctoral program. In addition, the Philadelphia area is rich in historical archives and museums.
Time Limit for Degree Completion: 7 years
Main Campus, Center City
Students take most of their courses at the Center City Campus, while preliminary examinations and dissertation defenses are conducted on Main Campus.
Students are required to complete the Ph.D. program on a full-time basis.
Dept. of History
Gladfelter Hall (025-24)
1115 W. Berks Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122-6080
The program encourages interdisciplinary coursework, research, and interactions among faculty and students.
The History program at Temple is affiliated with the Biographical Dictionary of Pennsylvania Legislators, Center for African-American History and Culture, Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy, The Myer and Rosaline Feinstein Center for American Jewish History, Social Science Data Library, and Temple's Urban Archives. The History Department is also a member of the American Historical Association.
Areas of Specialization:
Faculty members specialize and offer substantial coursework in the following areas: anti-colonial movements, cultural history, diplomatic history, gender, imperialism, international history, military history, political history, race and ethnicity, religious history, sexuality, and social history. The Department offers training in many different historical eras; most of its doctoral students, however, write dissertations that focus on the eighteenth, nineteenth, or twentieth century. Most, but certainly not all, of the Department's doctoral students focus on the history of North America.
The program is primarily dedicated to producing well-trained historians who work in academia, including four-year colleges and universities as well as two-year community colleges.
Non-Degree Student Policy:
Non-matriculated students are permitted to take up to 9 credit hours of coursework. These courses can be transferred into the degree program after their admission only if they earn a grade of "B" or higher.
Teaching Assistants (TA) are required to teach or assist in teaching at Temple. Their duties include 20 hours of service per week. Holders receive tuition waivers for all courses taken during the fall and spring semesters (up to 9 credits) that contribute to the student's program, plus a stipend. All TAs are doctoral students.
Most TAs are assigned to large core courses in which they are given the responsibility to lead discussion sections, grade papers and examinations, prepare and deliver formal lectures, and contribute to structuring the syllabus for the course. On occasion, a TA is provided the opportunity to teach her/his own course; serve as a Research Assistant for one of the faculty in the department; or take on some administrative responsibillity consistent with the student's program. The normal tenure for an assistantship is three years.
Teaching Assistants are assigned according to the following criteria:
1. Size of class and number of discussion sections.
2. Relationship of class to core curriculum.
3. Student's previous assignments/fields.
4. Student's program of study.
5. Student's and/or faculty's requests.
Presidential, University, and Future Faculty Fellowships are administered by the Graduate School and provide support for a maximum of four calendar years with stipends higher than those of assistantships. They are intended as part of a four-year program that includes two years' experience as a Teaching/Research Assistant. In addition to free tuition, these fellowships carry a stipend for a 12-month year. (The stipend is reduced if the student is not at Temple in the summer.) Normally, the student is on fellowship her/his first two years in the program, and serves as an assistant in the third and fourth years. While on fellowship, the student must take a minimum of 9 academic credits each semester during the academic year. Students are nominated for Presidential, University, and Future Faculty Fellowships by the department.
Dissertation Completion Grant:
Each semester the Graduate Council nominates between one and three Ph.D. students to receive a University Dissertation Completion Grant. Departmental nomination does not guarantee the nominee receipt of the Dissertation Completion Grant. Receipt of this grant disqualifies a student from receiving additional financial support from Temple University.
Appointment as Part-Time Instructor:
Ph.D. candidates are eligible for appointment as part-time instructors. The Department Chair, after consulting with the Director of Graduate Studies, is responsible for these appointments. S/he will consider whether the candidate has assisted in the course, and if so, consult the faculty whom s/he has assisted. Priority will be given to those qualified students who have not had the opportunity previously to teach independently. | <urn:uuid:7a36ffcd-0252-4f58-9c42-6b40cc2fb02c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.temple.edu/gradarchives/07-08/cla/hist_phd.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93673 | 3,384 | 1.578125 | 2 |
I was making the following call:
result = RegOpenKeyEx(key, s, 0, KEY_READ, &key);
(C++, Visual Studio 5, Vista 64bit).
It is failing with error code 2 ("File not found") even though "
regedit" shows that the key exists. This code has always worked on 32bit XP. Why is it "file not found" when it clearly is there? | <urn:uuid:9eeb9c55-dde0-46f2-9e55-c00faa40da46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stackoverflow.com/questions/252297/why-is-regopenkeyex-returning-error-code-2-on-vista-64bit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956365 | 92 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Rural gays and lesbians still long for affirmation
By Melanie Hoffert
Melanie Hoffert, Minneapolis, works for Teach For America and is the author of the forthcoming memoir, "Prairie Silence: A Rural Expatriate's Journey to Reconcile Love, Home, and Faith."
On Election Day, many of us huddled together in anticipation of the Minnesota Marriage Amendment results. And while we were ecstatic to see the amendment defeated, for some of us, there was something beyond the question of marriage equity at stake.
Our minds were far from the city. Our thoughts traveled past the suburbs, down empty highways, onto gravel roads, over fields, and into the small towns and rural lands of our childhoods. We wondered about farmers' conversations, and people talking at cafes, and the discussions at potlucks in the Lutheran and Catholic churches.
Up to the vote, we couldn't shake the faces of the people who had changed our diapers, who had given us our first communions, who had watched our every basketball game, who had sat through our squeaky band performances, who had came to our proms and homecomings, and who had cheered us on as we went into the larger world.
We wanted to know how the people with whom we spent the beginning of our lives voted. We wanted to know whether they cared.
For many of us who are gay, the Twin Cities is our home of refuge. We — rural expatriates from farms and small towns in Minnesota, and the borderland states of North Dakota and Wisconsin — came here seeking people with similar stories and an escape from our silences. And while we have made new homes, created new communities and matured into adulthood, we are forever connected to the people of our childhood.
And, so, while we took great comfort in the orange "Vote No" signs that stretched for blocks, and rested easy in the supportive voices of our neighbors, and ultimately sighed with relief when the amendment was defeated, we will only find full relief when those from our homelands come to our sides and finally say, "We support you."
The world has changed since I left my home state of North Dakota. Today people hardly blink when they find out I happen to be a lesbian; in fact, people are much more shocked to learn I grew up in the middle of nowhere. "You're from where?" they'll ask, and I'll immediately explain how breathtaking the prairie is and how I am from a world where neighbors come to each other's side in ways city people can't imagine.
"Well — why didn't you stay?" some will ask.
"Because I can't," I will say. And with these words, my heart always breaks.
The vote is over and a large victory has been won. But, unfortunately, the breakdown of the vote by precinct tells us that the extended communities of people who raised us, who loved us, have not yet fully welcomed us home. | <urn:uuid:3b5a2511-4b06-4e44-961e-b1de90fd941c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/11/16/hoffert | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980528 | 607 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Service Mediation: The Role of an Enterprise Service Bus in an SOA
Click here to download now
Overview: An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is a distributed, message-based integration solution based on open standards. The role of an ESB is to facilitate reliable communications between IT resources such as applications, platforms and services that are distributed in multiple systems throughout an enterprise. As IT departments increasingly focus on designing SOAs to lower development costs and increase business agility, ESBs are a key first step in setting up an enterprise SOA. ESBs form the foundation of the SOA. This paper briefs about the requirements for an ESB that can address the needs of an enterprise-ready SOA. | <urn:uuid:509b267d-b362-4d54-9e40-0d3d63095f63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.informationweek.com/whitepaper/Internet/wp905410?articleID=905410 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947688 | 143 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Feb-24-09 NJRA Redevelopment Training Institute Offers Courser to Aid Developers
NJRA Redevelopment Training Institute Offers Courser to Aid Developers
TRENTON - New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Joseph Doria today announced that the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority (NJRA) has new training dates available for its Redevelopment Training Institute (RTI). The RTI focuses on redevelopment in New Jersey. This training benefits those whose redevelopment and revitalization efforts may have been negatively impacted during these difficult economic times.
"The NJRA, by extending its technical assistance arm to offer this valuable redevelopment training, is playing a major role in Governor Corzine's efforts to revitalize the state's economy," said Commissioner Doria, who also serves as Chair of the NJRA. "Anyone with an interest in redevelopment should take advantage of these courses to become better informed and make smarter redevelopment decisions."
The NJRA RTI offers intensive intermediate-level training courses that focus on the redevelopment of New Jersey's communities. Economic development practitioners, planners, nonprofit and for-profit developers, professional consultants, entrepreneurs and elected and local government officials are encouraged to participate.
The goal of the NJRA RTI is to provide classroom instruction resulting in enhanced knowledge of New Jersey's redevelopment process and project financing. Each highly interactive course combines lectures, interactive discussions, small group activities and workshops, questions and answer sessions and case studies through multiple learning techniques.
"The Institute complements and enhances NJRA's mission," said NJRA Executive Director Leslie A. Anderson. "Our line of work is to finance redevelopment projects throughout New Jersey’s cities. We have found that although many people want to take redevelopment projects, there is still a segment of the population that needs training to become better informed about the process. Now, more than ever, is the time to learn from leading experts in the field on how to avoid pitfalls during these turbulent times."
The NJRA RTI, which is open to the public, offers three different training courses on the Redevelopment Planning Process, Real Estate Development and Project Finance, all taught by industrial leaders. In addition, core courses are enhanced with supplemental one-day workshops that address key issues pertaining to redevelopment. Workshops keep participants up-to-date on what is taking place in the development world.
The first offering, a one-day workshop being held on March 9, 2009 in Trenton, will focus on the financing tools used in redevelopment areas in New Jersey. This workshop is designed to provide a balanced perspective and encourages participants to apply these resources to finance redevelopment projects, where appropriate. Attendees will learn from experienced attorneys and practitioners who will provide timely and relevant information on RAB's, RAD's, and other financing options.
Other scheduled courses include the Redevelopment Planning Process being held from April 6-9, 2009 in Newark; Real Estate Development taking place from May 4-7, 2009 in Atlantic City; and Project Finance taking place from June 9-12, 2009 at a to be determined location. NJRA RTI has made scholarships available to both nonprofits and municipalities for those wishing to attend.
The NJRA, a DCA affiliate, is a state redevelopment financing authority committed to revitalizing urban New Jersey. As urban experts, the NJRA customizes project financing to invest financial resources into redevelopment projects that enhance New Jersey's cities. The NJRA offers a host of financial resources to support urban redevelopment.
For further information on the NJRA RTI, including application information, please call 609-292-1071, or log on to http://www.njra.us/njra/site/default.asp. | <urn:uuid:b4f78c8a-cba7-4dcc-886d-b0049cde73cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.state.nj.us/dca/news/news/2009/approved/090224.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948137 | 762 | 1.5 | 2 |
Posted by barbara johnson
on May 11, 2000 at 16:59:56:
In Reply to: Re: Bowel problems(someone reply to this please!!) posted by Denise on May 11, 2000 at 09:03:04:
I saw your message several days ago but was hesitant in answering because my symptoms in the past have been somewhat different. I have Crohn's (hospitalize 4 times). Nevertheless, in approaching any health problems, it would help to look at several factors that may be triggering your body responses. Some factors to consider include unresolved emotional conflicts, allergies (you could be allergic to the fiber, dairy, eggs, soy, etc.), heavy metal toxicity, nutritional defiencies, poor liver function, glandular problems, poor digestive process (you may be taking the wrong kind of enyzmes), chemical toxicity, poor diet, parasites, and silver/mercury fillings. Over the years I have worked on the above factors. This year I finally addressed some major unsolved emotional problems, which has helped. Now, I am working on detoxing my body of heavy metals (lead, cadmuim, nickel,and mercury).
In your case, also consider that the fiber may be actually clogging your system. For information on enzymes, The ENZYME CURE by Lita Lee is good.
I cannot take acidphilious for long periods of time. I do better with a product called Primal Defense, which contains soil-based organisms (another form of good bacteria). You could have low stomach acid. There are many things to look at. Hopefully, you can find a health professional or doctor who knows more about nutrition. If you are near the Washington DC area, I could give you some names. | <urn:uuid:c042e441-337a-4545-820f-29d091f7f74a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthboards.com/digestive-disorders/631.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958881 | 358 | 1.515625 | 2 |
This is all very interesting, but allowing all members of the population equal access to marriage has nothing to do with whether it will make money, or whether not doing so is psychologically damaging. This is an equality issue, a human rights issue. The only thing that should matter in making this decision is the justice of it, and it offends me deeply that anyone could even think there is a case for not giving full equality to everyone.
I always find it interesting when the anti-gay lobby are reduced to making fiscal arguments for perpetuating inequality. I mean, we all know they are sleaze-bags with no moral justification for their views, but this throws it into sharp relief.
I agree and proof (if needed) that America is a mad house. It’s what happenes when one country has soo much. That’s is why Dogma assimilation syndrome is wide spread
This is a human rights issue, a justice issue. It is not an economic issue.
Perhaps if we looked at slavery again, we would say that keeping slaves would offer cheaper employment, therefore higher profit margins. Whatever is said, that should never be a reason for protecting a person’s basic human rights.
It just seems to prove that if you can make a buck, you can justify anything. That is wrong. Unless the USA wants to modify it’s slogan – “Liberty for all, as long as you are profitable!”
The argument presented was that barring gays from marrying is costing California money, i.e., it is not based upon opponents interests but upon their hatred. The US judicial system is no about equality it is about law. Because gays are not a “suspect class” in the eyes of US law, opponents of Prop 8 must prove that the ONLY motivation for the law is hatred and discrimination.
I sincerely hope the common sense and the sense of justice are going to prevail in this trial and the Supreme Court will make the decision that should have been taken some time ago. The law that discriminates and does not reflect the reality of life is no good law. By the way, there is a very interesting comparative study of America and Europe on the subject in the most recent issue of Time.
As usual the singular thing you can always depend upon is that the rabid followers of Jesus the mythical is that they will tell any barefaced lie to promote their profound hate of other human beings they regard as different to themselves. | <urn:uuid:84475e64-9fcf-4b57-a94a-e176f7b1464d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/01/15/california-trial-hears-gay-marriage-would-increase-health-and-revenue/comments/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966526 | 506 | 1.71875 | 2 |
7/31/2012 11:30:00 AMGreat school choices remain for District students
The Cleveland Metropolitan School District has more than three dozen “high-performing schools” that still have slots to fill for parents who want their child enrolled in a 21st-century academic program this fall.
No matter what their child’s interests might be, parents can choose a school or an academic program from the District’s portfolio of offerings that can satisfy those interests.
Schools like MC2STEM, Riverside School, Watterson-Lake School, Tremont Montessori, Kenneth W. Clement Boys Leadership Academy, John Hay Architecture and Design Academy, Business Careers Academy at Jane Addams and Whitney M. Young Leadership Academy can put a student into innovative learning environments that connect classrooms with real-life experiences.
To make getting to those school buildings easier, the District provides yellow bus transportation for eligible elementary students; and for eligible high school students, RTA bus tickets.
Administrators, principals, teachers and staff are committed to preparing all District students for college, careers and life through the academic choices available in CMSD schools.
For information about these high-performing schools, call Student Assignment Office at 216.574.8035 or New & Innovative Schools at 216.348.3651. For information about transportation options, call 216.634.7021. | <urn:uuid:a8fba32f-3e81-4807-9188-151c9e66ff49> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cmsdnet.net/en/News/Featured%20Stories/7-31-12%20Great%20school%20choices%20remain%20for%20District%20students.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9337 | 283 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Home of Hope creates an opportunity for sustained physical, educational and holistic wellbeing for exploited girls in Hillbrow and solace for all children in the surrounding community.
Berea-Hillbrow Home of Hope is an organisation that offers mercy, compassion and acceptance to sexually exploited, trafficked, orphaned and vulnerable girls. And those who may be infected or affected by HIV / AIDS. However dire their situation, we believe we can help them take control of their lives, if given the tools and guidance, and be integrated into society. Not merely to survive, but in their individual way, to thrive. In this sense, our rehabilitation approach is holistic and sustainable. One that’s core focus is to improve the day-to-day and in turn, the ultimate quality of life of our beneficiaries.
Our rehabilitation programme is based on the spiritual tenants of MERCY, or the value of rehabilitation in providing choice; COMPASSION, which teaches love for our fellows irrespective of status and reason; and thirdly, SERVICE, a practice that instills self-worth and purpose.
Together these pillars work to ensure a great human truth – that as we give to others, so we receive even more. | <urn:uuid:bc7599a7-9afb-4602-9702-ec44c2dcffc2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hopehome.org.za/about.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951608 | 244 | 1.539063 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 393,000 last week. It was the second straight drop after Superstorm Sandy had driven applications much higher earlier this month.
A Labor Department analyst said Thursday that the storm had little effect on last week's data. Applications had spiked to 451,000 three weeks ago after Sandy battered the East Coast, closing businesses in the Northeast and cutting off power to 8 million homes in 10 states.
People can claim unemployment benefits if their workplaces are forced to close and they aren't paid.
The four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, rose to 405,250 last week. That figure has been elevated by the storm.
Superstorm Sandy made landfall on Oct. 29. The government reported last week that the storm caused benefit applications to jump by 75,000 in just New York and New Jersey in the week that ended Nov. 10. Applications also rose in Connecticut in Pennsylvania because of Sandy.
Before the storm, weekly applications had fluctuated this year between 360,000 and 390,000. Meanwhile, employers have added an average of nearly 157,000 jobs a month. That's barely enough to lower the unemployment rate, which was 7.9 percent in October.
There are some signs that the job market is improving. Employers added 171,000 jobs in October, a step up from September's gain of 148,000. Hiring in August and September was also stronger than first estimated.
The economy gained an average of 174,000 jobs a month in the July-September quarter. That's up from 67,000 a month in April through June.
The unemployment rate rose slightly in October because more Americans began looking for work. That suggests some felt their chances of finding a job had improved. Not all of them were hired, which pushed up the unemployment rate. The government only counts people as unemployed if they are actively searching for work.
Superstorm Sandy may also slow growth in the current October-December quarter. Economists forecast that growth may drop to an annual rate below 2 percent in the final three months of the year. On Thursday, the government revised its estimate of third-quarter growth to 2.7 percent, from an original estimate of 2 percent.
Concerns about the "fiscal cliff," the package of tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to take effect early next year, may also drag on growth in the current quarter. But if Congress and the White House reach a deal to replace the fiscal cliff, growth could accelerate next year. | <urn:uuid:beb7af44-a202-4ec1-8a33-8c3acd96b2b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wcnc.com/news/business/Applications-for-US-jobless-aid-fall-to-393000--181356281.html?ref=next | 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 | 0.973207 | 525 | 1.664063 | 2 |
When working with small businesses we are often asked two questions: (1) if social networking makes sense for them, and (2) what the “best” social networks to be on are. The short answer is yes, social networking absolutely makes sense for small businesses, and the “best” networks depend on a number of factors.
Social networking is perfect for small businesses
Social networks are practically tailor-made for small businesses. After all, a social network is really about connecting, communicating and sharing with people. Real people. Not faceless “users”, not email addresses. People. Social networks simply enable people to do what they like to do naturally, just in a digital form and without the physical constraints of face-to-face contact. Real people can communicate with other real people anywhere in the world on any topic anytime.
So what is social media? It is the new word of mouth, but with a massive megaphone.
This is perfect for small businesses, who have historically relied heavily on word of mouth to “get the word out” about their products and services. In fact, as outlined in an infographic from Crowdspring, in many cases social media works better for small businesses than for larger organizations:
Furthermore, as outlined in the same infographic, small businesses are reporting that social media is helping them retain existing customers and gain new ones:
With strong results like this, it’s not surprising that the majority of small businesses have jumped on social media, with Facebook being the main area of focus:
Sources: OfficeArrow and Social Strategy 1
And best of all, research has found that there is a relationship between people “liking” or “following” a brand and purchasing products or services from that company:
As an added benefit, social media is also cost effective. Notice I didn’t say “free.” Social media, like anything else of value, has a cost. It may be the cost of hiring someone to set up your social pages, the cost of engaging a professional community manager, or perhaps just the cost of your own time to set up and manage your social account(s).
Because there is a cost, it is important that you are aware of the various options available so you spend your time and dollars wisely. Which leads into the inevitable question: “what are the best social networks to be on?”
The “best” social networks
As for what the “best” social networks are, the answer really depends on:
1) The nature of your business
2) Who you are attempting to reach
3) What your marketing objectives are
4) Your resources / budget
We will address these questions in a moment, but first a quick overview of some of the big networks is in order.
FACEBOOK – the behemoth
Facebook is generally a good idea for most businesses, as it is the largest social network and has value for almost every type of industry. Some brief facts:
- Facebook just passed 1 billion users, half of whom log on for a daily average session time is 55 minutes
- The average user has 200+ friends
- It’s the best all-round network to engage with people
‒ Strong photo & multimedia sharing capabilities
‒ Ability to create custom “widgets” to bring in your own content and functionality
- Facebook gets results
‒ 33% of consumers have made a purchase based on Facebook recommendations
‒ 76% of people have never ‘unliked’ a brand
‒ 56% of fans say they are more likely to recommend a brand to a friend after becoming a fan
No matter what you may personally think about Facebook, it’s by far the biggest social network and can’t be ignored. In addition, the network is generally pretty business-friendly with reasonable built-in tools and analytics.
Depending on the nature of your business, other networks may be more pertinent. However, when in doubt going with Facebook is a pretty safe bet.
TWITTER – great for customer service but a lot of work
The other social network many companies jump into (often with knowing why) is Twitter. I’m a big fan of Twitter, but it doesn’t make sense for every business. Twitter is extremely useful if your objective is customer service, positioning the business as a thought leader by providing useful information, or engaging in ongoing dialogue with customers for a specific purpose – like building relationships or exploring product enhancements.
But if a business jumps into Twitter just to “try it,” watch out! Without a specific purpose a Twitter account can quickly become a strange and fairly useless mess. Or worse yet, it turns into:
- Random personal posts like “was late for a doctor’s appointment today” or “lost my car keys LOL”. This does not help your brand and is generally annoying to your customers.
- A constant stream of non-value-added advertising. Done well, targeted offers can be very effective (depending on the type of business). Done poorly, the company’s Twitter stream turns into a useless torrent of noise which not only turns off your customers, but could even drive them away.
- A dead wasteland. Sometimes companies tire of their Twitter account and just stop updating it. The result is an outdated, stagnant feed which reflects poorly on the business. Customers can still find the Twitter page, but upon arriving there they see that the company has abandoned it, leaving a poor impression.
So before deciding to start a Twitter account, businesses should be clear on their objectives and should be willing to put in the energy to keep the page current. Twitter is a very active platform, so customers expect at least several posts a week (depending on your industry). Those posts need to be interesting and aligned with your brand’s personality and core messages.
On the plus side, Twitter can be a tremendous resource for businesses:
- Twitter represents an opportunity to have a real-time conversation with customers quickly and easily
‒ 500 million users, 750 tweets per second
‒ Able to convey a “personality” for your brand
- It’s a good opportunity to interact with customers and build loyalty
‒ 83% of people who received an answer to their Twitter question/complaint “liked” or “loved” the fact that the company took time to respond to them
Many brands use Twitter to position themselves as an “expert” or “thought leader” in their field by sharing informative articles. Others use Twitter as a portion of their customer service strategy. As shown above, people who receive an answer to their question can become strong advocates – but be careful! People who don’t receive an answer can be very negative. And their expectations are high; on average, consumers expect an answer on social media within 60 minutes.
Twitter is a great resource for real-time conversations with your customers if you can commit the time and energy to do it well.
GOOGLE+ / GOOGLE+ LOCAL – the hidden opportunity
Many small businesses we speak to haven’t heard about Google+ Business pages or Google+ Local. There is not enough room in this post to explain the intricacies of Google+ and Google+ Local (yes, those are two different things), so instead here is the 100,000 foot view:
- Google+ business pages include the usual “social networking” type of functions. Example of a Google+ Business page: https://plus.google.com/u/1/100488659626512206590/posts
- Google+ Local pages are like a business listing. They were previously called “Google Places” if you are familiar with that product. Example Google+ Local page: https://plus.google.com/u/1/117968005326753949587/about
I know – it’s totally confusing and uncharacteristically complicated for Google. There is quite a bit of additional detail which I won’t attempt to cover here. If you are interested in finding out more, Google has quite a bit of information on their help pages.
Here’s where it gets interesting – the Business and Local pages can also be merged, which has been done very nicely by the Chicago Music Exchange. As you can see, merging the two pages results in a sort of “super” business listing which has all the social networking functions plus the in-depth business information.
So now you’re probably wondering “why would I do this in addition to Facebook – aren’t they just the same thing?” The answer is one word: search.
Because of the social functions available, many people think of Google+ as a social network – and it is – but the real point of building a Google+ page from a small business perspective is to improve search engine optimization. A well-done Google+ page acts as a powerful business listing which Google indexes very well in its search results – in essence, you are teaching Google about your business. The end result is improved visibility in search, particularly when someone conducts a search with a local parameter such as postal code, city or neighborhood name.
97% of consumers search online for local businesses, 20% of searches on Google are related to location
Google+ Local is an opportunity to create a “super” business listing which shows up really well in search – and it is free.
PINTEREST – the new kid
In a nutshell, it is essentially a virtual pinboard that lets users organize and share interesting things they find on the web. It is very photo-heavy, which lends itself well to businesses that have strong visual elements like restaurants, travel agencies or retailers. It has come on very strong in an amazingly short period of time, surpassing other, better known social networks practically overnight. And best of all – it drives results:
- Pinterest has surpassed Twitter, Bing, StumbleUpon in traffic referrals
- 21% of users say they’ve purchased something they’ve seen on the site
There are a slew of statistics posted on Pinterest if you’re interested in finding out more.
Pinterest is not for everyone, but if your business has a highly visual element then it should be under strong consideration, if for no other reason than its success at converting “pins” to sales. Professional sports teams have been quick to jump on Pinterest to sell merchandise and connect with fans. The Pittsburgh Penguins do a pretty nice job, as an example. (Visually rich brands should also consider Instagram and Youtube as part of their social strategy.)
The nice thing about Pinterest is that it is less labor-intensive than many of the other networks. It needs to be actively managed, but not in the same “real-time” way as Facebook or Twitter. The consumer experience on Pinterest is much more relaxed from a community management perspective. However, this also means that Pinterest is not as useful for building a real “community” around your brand.
So – which one is “the best”?
The answer is that there is no “best” social network for all brands. Your business goals and the habits of your customers will dictate what social network(s) may be most useful for you.
To recap, the main considerations when deciding on your social networking strategy include:
1) The nature of your business
- If you are in a business that lends itself to photos / video then Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube should be under consideration for you.
- If, however, your business is more news/information driven, Facebook and Twitter are strong contenders.
- If you focus on B2B, LinkedIn may be your ideal platform.
2) Who you are attempting to reach
- If you are a B2C company targeting a wide range of consumers, Facebook is as likely option.
- If you are targeting a technical crowd, Twitter is a possibility.
- If you are a B2B company, consider LinkedIn.
- If seeking a youth audience, consider smaller or niched networks such as Instagram.
3) What your marketing objectives are
- Brand yourself as a thought-leader in your sector by using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Solicit product feedback through Facebook and Twitter.
- Sell merchandise using Pinterest.
4) Your resources / budget
- If your budget is limited, you can try to get the most bang for your buck with one or two large networks such as Facebook or Twitter. However, the challenge with this approach can be that there is a lot of competition for attention – you become a dribble in the ocean. So in some cases it might make sense (depending on your answers to the above questions), to focus on having a larger presence in smaller networks such as Google+ to make a bigger impact.
- If you have a bit more budget, consider pursuing smaller and/or niche networks such as Pinterest or Instagram in addition to Facebook, Twitter and other large networks to gain greater overall scale.
There is no doubt that social networks provide a valuable resource to small businesses. Never before has it been easier or more cost-efficient for businesses to have a direct conversation with their customers on a one-to-one basis. With that ease of access, it is important that your business is clear on its brand personality, core messages and objectives. Managed poorly, social media can hurt your business more than help it.
With this in mind, it is important that as you consider your options that you are sure to:
- Have a clear picture of your goals and objectives going in. Don’t jump into social networking just to “do it and see”. Know what you want to achieve so you can set goals and targets.
- Actively manage your network – don’t leave it to stagnate, as this can hurt your brand in the long term. If you do not have a professional community manager on your team source one, or at least ensure your team has adequate training to be effective.
- Stay current. As social media evolves so will your opportunities. Be sure to stay abreast of new opportunities to engage with your customers and pursue sales. | <urn:uuid:667759a8-7bc0-48af-ba30-17c1df27ab91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.smallbusinesscentr.com/small-business-blog/picking-the-best-social-networks-for-small-business/ | 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 | 0.946278 | 2,970 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Despite tough calls Thursday from President Bush for Chinese President Hu Jintao and his country's administration to work with the United States on trade, human rights and other issues, Hu gave no concrete assurances.
Hu's visit began with an official welcoming ceremony on the White House South Lawn, which was interrupted by a protester in the press pool who began yelling about China's repression of religion before being escorted away by Secret Service agents.
The incident wasn't the only gaffe at the elaborate arrival ceremony. Before the playing of the two countries' national anthems, a White House announcer referred to China as the "Republic of China," the formal name of Taiwan.
Beijing claims sovereignty over the self-governing island, which split from the mainland when communists took over in 1949, and threatens to use force should Taiwan move toward formal independence. With the United States legally bound to defend Taiwan, but officially not in support of independence, Hu indicated that the issue was a major item of discussion for him with Bush.
During a dinner sponsored by U.S. business interests Thursday night, Hu said China would never allow forces to split Taiwan from China in any way.
Addressing critics of China's human rights record, Hu told the crowd of Washington luminaries that "China takes human rights seriously."
At the welcoming ceremony, Bush lept directly into outlining official business that was on the table between the two men. Just a few hours later during the picture-taking session in the Oval Office, Bush and Hu pledged cooperation toward their common goals but acknowledged that much work remained to be done.
"We would hope there would be more appreciation" of the yuan, Bush said of his concerns over the Chinese currency. The United States views the Chinese yuan as undervalued; officials say a more powerful yuan would encourage more spending on American goods.
Hu made some general promises about taking steps to further open the country to American products in an effort to stave off the widening trade gap.
"We have taken measures and will continue to take steps to resolve the issue," he said.
But those comments were likely to do little to cool calls in Congress for punitive tariffs on Chinese products.
Hu is aware of the growing U.S. impatience with America's record $202 billion trade deficit with China and critics' arguments that the unfair imbalance has contributed to the loss of nearly 3 million U.S. manufacturing jobs since 2001.
"I appreciate his statement very much, because all American people want is to be treated fairly in the international marketplace," Bush told reporters. "He [Hu] recognizes that a trade deficit with the United States is substantial and it is unsustainable ... Obviously the Chinese government takes the currency issue seriously, and so do I."
On Iran, China has resisted the approach favored by the United States and Europe — pursuing sanctions if Tehran does not comply with demands that it halt uranium enrichment, and there appeared to be no movement on that issue.
Bush said the two sides agree on the goal of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons or the having the capability to produce them and are in a position to "work on tactics" to achieve it.
Bush also had been hoping to get Beijing to take on more than a mediator's role in efforts to bring North Korea back to six-nation talks aimed at halting its nuclear weapons programs. Asked what more his country could do to resolve that dispute, Hu asserted that China "has always been making constructive efforts to de-nuclearize the Korean peninsula."
But the American president put a good face on the meeting.
"We don't agree on everything but we are able to discuss our disagreements in friendship and cooperation," Bush said.
'Mr. Hu, Your Days Are Numbered'
During the welcoming ceremony Thursday morning marking the Chinese leader's first visit as president to the United States, Bush and the first lady greeted Hu and his wife, Liu Yongqing.
Hu then walked by visiting press corps and top officials from both countries, and he reviewed a group of military troops in dress uniform. Then he and Bush stood on a red platform adorned in bunting as military bands performed before they delivered their remarks.
Bush said it is imperative the two countries work on the U.S.-China trade gap, nuclear proliferation, the War on Terror, human rights and other issues of common interest.
"The United States and China are two nations divided by a vast ocean, yet connected through a global economy that has created opportunity for both our peoples. The United States welcomes the emergence of a China that is peaceful and prosperous, and supports international institutions," Bush said, adding that he wants to be "candid" about the two leaders' disagreements.
"Our two nations have many strategic interests," Bush continued.
Bush said he would continue to press for China to move "toward a flexible market exchange rate for its currency" and called for more cooperation on addressing the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.
When it was Hu's turn at the podium, the Chinese leader said: "I'm glad to visit the United States ... I have come to enhance dialogue ... and promote the overall growth of constructive and cooperative" relations between China and the United States.
The visit was not considered an official state visit by the Bush administration due to concerns over human rights abuses, an administration official told FOX News. Bush has hosted few full state visits.
During Hu's remarks, a protester began screaming and was led away by security. The woman was a credentialed member of the media and member of the Falun Gong. In Chinese, the woman said: "Bush, stop him from persecuting" Falun Gong and, "Mr. Hu, your days are numbered."
After a brief pause, and a whisper from Bush, Hu continued: "The Chinese people have always cherished goodwill toward the American people."
Bush later apologized to Hu for the incident during their meeting in the Oval Office, said said Dennis Wilder, acting senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council staff.
"He just said this was unfortunate and I'm sorry it happened," Wilder said.
A group of religious and human rights protesters also gathered near the White House to bring to light criticism of China.
Hu pledged China's help in working diplomatically to ease nuclear tensions with both North Korea and Iran and vowed in general terms to work to promote human rights.
"We should respect each other as equals and promote closer exchanges and cooperation," Hu said, speaking through a translator, adding that closer U.S.-Chinese cooperation would "bring more benefits to our two people and to the people of the world."
Dems Black Bush Economic Policy
Democrats, meanwhile, took the opportunity to blast Bush for what they called a "failed economic policy."
"Let's hope that President Bush and Republicans in Congress stand up for American jobs, American workers and the American economy. It's time to put the needs of hard working Americans ahead of politics," Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Karen Finney said in a statement Thursday.
"Having stood idly by as our trade deficit with China has hit record levels, as fair trading rules that would ensure American workers can compete on a level playing field have been abused, and as our debt to China has increased, President Bush and his administration have undermined the economic security of our Nation and our working families," Finney continued.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley said he welcomed Hu's recognition that steps are needed toward better trade relations.
"Now we'll see what comes of those remarks. Good words need to be followed by concrete action," said Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, in a prepared statement.
Hu's visit attracted high-profile attention both inside and outside the White House gates. The spiritual movement Falun Gong condemned by the Chinese government as an evil cult, gathered hundreds of demonstrators on street corners near the White House in the early morning. Marchers banged gongs, chanted and waved American and Chinese flags. Banners denounced Hu as a "Chinese dictator" responsible for genocide and other "crimes in Chinese labor camps and prisons."
The Chinese government had its say as well. In a median in front of the Chinese embassy, the Falun Gong protesters that are nearly always there had been replaced by Chinese supporters holding huge red-and-yellow banners offering to "warmly welcome" Hu on his American visit.
FOX News' Wendell Goler and The Associated Press contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:92db8221-df21-486a-82d1-66d53da345a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,192380,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974907 | 1,719 | 1.625 | 2 |
IT certainly can be a fatal problem if all of the group agrees that some incorrect choice is the correct one. This was a very big problem in some companies where the senior members decisions were never challenged. It is also a problem in companies where the person in charge will challenge the skills of all who offer alternative ideas.
My method for handling things that don't seem to be correct is to ask for a more detailed explanation, since I don't completely understand how the proposed plan will work. If there is an explanation as a result, the error may become obvious to the one offering the explanation, or, if my understanding was incorrect, it is corrected. The benefit of this approach is that most of the time it does not place the other party in a defensive position, since it is not seen as a challenge.
For those times when unrealistic completion times are chosen, I generally ask about the details of how the required assets and resources will be made available. On many occasions it becomes clear that some aspect of the project has been overlooked and left out. So pointing out the additional efforts required will tend to make the completion time estimates more rational. But sometimes the completion time is not based on reality, but simply on whims of those running the show, in which case rational thinking is useless.
I think some of the responses to this article are becoming "groupthink". There isn't usually just one problem but many. Yes, most of us think we can solve any problem. And maybe some of us can (not just engineering problems). But sometimes we get the question wrong. If there are multiple problems and we identify one, such as groupthink, then we are already on our way to at least partial failure.
Most of the time the "leaders" are simply bureaucrats, or even worse, engineers that have become bureaucrats. Even independent engineers have been conditioned over the years to give in to these leaders for survival. I think it's gotten worse over the years. We need to become the new leaders without becoming part of the problem. That is the next challenge for engineers whether they go into the field or not. I believe we are the best thinkers. And group thinking is not bad as long as you know why and what you are thinking, both the pros and the cons.
I had to attend meetings and participate in group activies that were designed to impress upon us how a group will invariably make better decisions than an individual. Now you're saying that could be wrong?
Next you'll be saying it was a waste when we were forced to read "Who moved my cheese?" and write a report on it (expecting it to be praise for the book and the management that had the foresight to make us read it).
Not to mention the required reading of "Faster, Better, Cheaper" about the Mars Pathfinder mission, where we learned that it was expected to fire 10% of your staff so you could achieve your goals. Although it seemed the next two missions were failures and made the success of the first a statistical fluke...BUT I WAS EXPECTED TO EMBRACE THAT MANTRA!
Golly. Now you're saying I was right all along... :-)
I think one of the issues is that Engineers typically work at solving a single problem rather than developing an entire project. With Navistar, the Engineers were solving each problem as it occurred , rather than looking at the entire project and seeing that it was never going to succeed.
I think that was a smart person. Of course, it takes a lot as a manager to allow people to make mistakes. they can be costly. They will delay the end result. But you are right because they can be turned into a positive.
I've worked at a company where unreasonable deadlines were set knowing that the team would fail with the idea that they would finish faster with an aggressive target that could not be met than with a realistic one that could be met. I left that company. Basically for silly policies like that. I think giving people a reasonable target with a nice pat on the back will get better results.
I think there's a lot to be said for creating a healthy environment that will allow for a little friction while working on projects. Sometimes managment can create groupthink by shutting down those that don't tow the line.
Great article, Dave. I used to know a high-level executive who often said "I like positive people." I suppose that's true of all of us, but in his case, he really meant, "Dont disagree with me." Not surpisingly, his meetings were always filled with positive comments, even when he was clearly wrong.
When troubleshooting, it is necessary to make a lot of mistakes. There are many times that trial and error is all that you have. Some of the smartest people that I know learned from past mistakes to make new designs better.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution. | <urn:uuid:8102103b-f3a6-4ca0-8bbb-c943adf41502> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.designnews.com/messages.asp?piddl_msgthreadid=256221&piddl_msgid=794270 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981313 | 1,190 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Every organization needs at least one. But it looks like the U.S. Air Force Museum is coming up one short. I'll get to the adult part in a moment, but first the reprise.
Earlier this week we reported that the Commemorative Air Force lost a court fight with the Air Force Museum over custody of one of the rarest of warbirds, an F-82 Twin Mustang. The CAF got its F-82 from the Air Force free and clear back in the 1960s and evidently had the paper work to prove it. But now the Air Force Museum wants the F-82 back. The CAF sued to keep it, but a district court in Ohio sided with the Air Force. During the court case, the CAF produced an unambiguous paper trail suggesting that all of this was legit. In other words, they didn't exactly swipe it in the middle of night from the pole on which it was perched at Lackland Air Force Base.
But the court didn't buy it. There's apparently a reversionary clause somewhere that says the government owns everything forever.
The CAF pledged to appeal the case, but in the meantime, they offered to drop the case if the Air Force would allow CAF to keep the F-82 as a static display. No deal, says the Air Force. Ship it back. So, at the moment, the CAF says it will comply, but it's pursuing the appeal.
Here's the adult part: Wasn't there someoneanyonein the Air Force Museum who could hold both palms up and say not only is this not worth the expense of a court case, it is a PR disaster to boot. The irony is that the Air Force already has an F-82 in its collection. Here's a picture of it.
So what's going on here? Nothing but a bureaucratic turf war by the heavy hands of the Air Force museum. They can, so they are. Since they already have an F-82, they don't need two. There's no discernible national interest for the Air Force to waste taxpayer money on retrieving an airplane that they clearly transferred to private owners but now want back solely because they don't like former military airplanes to be flown out of their control.
The Air Force's position isn't entirely without merit. There's always a real risk that an irreplaceable military aircraft that flies could be lost in a crash. On the other hand, seeing an airplane actually fly rather than reposing in some dusty static display has a raw appeal and that's what the CAF is all about. Here, the Air Force seeks to deny the airplane-interested public the choice of seeing botha museum piece and a flying example. More troubling, are they now going to go after every warbird owner out there with giveback claims?
So, I dunno
with my usual solomonic dispassion as a neutral bystander, I would just say this to the Air Force: Grow up. Get over it. Move on. Stop being a bully and wasting taxpayer money on stupid stuff like this. Let the CAF keep the F-82 and if they rebuild the thing and are unlikely enough to drive it into a smoking hole, that's their business. With reward comes risk.
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United States – Inducted 1991
Jack Collins is recognized by the U.S. Chess Federation as America’s top chess teacher of the 20th century. After becoming a master in the 1930s, he rose through the ranks to become a major figure in the early years of organized American chess. He was a skilled correspondence chess player, serving as the first editor on the subject for Chess Review and winning the U.S. Correspondence Chess Championship. However, he also ranked as one of the top over-the-board players in the country. An active tournament player through the 1960s, he would turn his talents to instruction during the next decade.
He personally taught many top U.S. players including Bobby Fischer, William Lombardy, and Robert Byrne. Perhaps his most lasting legacy is his Collins Kids organization, which pitted a group of young American competitors against foreign teams. Collins Kids were regular fixtures at the U.S. Team Championships and at various international competitions, and the group’s alumni represented the next generation of chess talent. Confined to a wheelchair and assisted by his sister Ethel, Collins taught thousands more through his books and articles, authoring My Seven Chess Prodigies in 1975 and co-editing the 9th edition of Modern Chess Openings in 1957. | <urn:uuid:6d5770f1-3087-4682-96ae-d5d0c422d64f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldchesshof.org/hall-of-fame/us-chess/jack-collins/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982364 | 264 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The Tax Man
My next step in setting up my photography business, Saguaro Shadows, was understanding the tax system. This will vary from state to state, and often city to city. But I think the steps I had to go through will be similar in most areas of the U.S. Federal Income Tax was pretty straight forward.
After talking to my accountant, he explained that my income drawn from photography could be reported on my normal income taxes, since at this point, photography was a side business, and not my primary income. I will not have to report estimate income tax on the photography business on a quarterly basis until it reaches a significant percentage of my regular income. He gave me a target figure to keep in mind.
Next, I had to come to an understanding of the state and local sales taxes. The state of Arizona is unique from most other states in this regard. Rather than a strict "sales" tax, Arizona has a Transaction Privilege Tax (TPT). The easiest way to explain the difference between sales tax and TPT is to refer to the Wikipedia definition:
"Transaction privilege tax (TPT) refers to a gross receipts tax levied by the State of Arizona on certain persons for the privilege of conducting business in the state. TPT differs from the ?true? sales tax imposed by many other U.S. states as it is imposed upon the seller or lessor rather than the purchaser or lessee. The seller/lessor may pass the burden of the tax on to the purchaser/lessee, but the seller or lessor is the party that remains ultimately liable to Arizona for the tax."
Thus in Arizona, you have a choice. As an example, you can charge someone $100 for a service, and $8.20 in TPT. Or you charge them a straight $100, and then pay 8.2% of your $100 as TPT to the city and state, hiding the "sales tax" from your customer's bill. I also discovered that the city of Tucson and the State of Arizona collected the TPT income separately. This varies in Arizona depending on what city you live in, but it holds the same for most of the larger cities in Arizona. In addition to registering my business as an LLC with the state of Arizona, I also needed to register as a business with the State of Arizona, and the City of Tucson. For the city, I contacted the Business License office through their website for help. They responded by email and recommended I come down to their city hall offices for assistance. They were quite helpful in the process. After registering with the city, I now automatically receive a form every month in the mail that I fill out and return with a check for what I owe the city in TPT income. The State of Arizona was quite similar. Through the state's Department of Revenue website, I was able to register for a state business license. The state also sends me a form each month, but I can also pay online through their website. Before starting your own business, you should consider doing the following:
• Visit a tax accountant
• Contact your city's business license office for information.
• Contact your state government for information.
Most cities and states have websites that can provide you with much of the required information. If you still have questions, the people in the government offices are generally very willing to help. After all, it's in their best interests to encourage new business and bring in more tax dollars!
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: The Tax Man.
TrackBack URL for this entry: | <urn:uuid:5bd5ace2-7e23-42e4-8568-a3ce48bbc091> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.nikonians.org/rickpaul/2009/02/the-tax-man.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971544 | 737 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Are you an original? OK, so I am sure you will say “yes”. No two of us are the same, and these days movies, songs and personal development blog posts drum into our heads the importance of individuality.
But this is not a personal development blog post. This is a blog post about your blog posts and your articles. The question is, “Are you an original…blogger.”
A lot of emphasis has been placed on “original” and “unique” content recently, mostly because people believe (partly correctly) that Google robots will storm your website and emasculate it in the SERPs if they discover that you are publishing duplicate content.
The bad news is that blog owners and blog writers have reduced “originality” to “Can this article pass Copyscape?” You hear ghost writers constantly promising that their copy is original and unique, just because it is not “duplicate content”.
If you or someone you are guest blogging for is even asking this question, you are not only missing the point – you are missing the boat.
Originality is not about rewording a sentence and adding bullet points. Originality is about thinking new thoughts.
Now that’s a new thought!
How can I be original?
Let’s be fair. Not everybody is a creative thinker, not everybody is a born writer, and not everybody is meant to be. So how can someone be original? Here are three prompts to help you.
Prompt Number One: Read three or four articles or blog posts on the topic you want to write about. As you read them, make notes about what you agree about – and, more importantly, take notes about what you disagree about.
If there is something that more than one article says that you disagree with, you have the foundation for a truly original article. Playing Devil’s Advocate is always a great way to be original.
If there is no common theme you disagree with, review your list of points you disagree with. Maybe there are three points in the four blog posts. Maybe just one. In either case, you have at least one, and perhaps three, blog topics to write about that are your own original thoughts.
Prompt Number Two: Pick a topic you like – the topic might not be original, nor your opinion – and wrap it in a brand-new analogy. In the case, your idea or topic is not unique, but your presentation of it is very unique.  Here are a few ideas of analogy themes you can use:
- Animals: Replace people with animals that display characteristics you are writing about.
- Food: describe your topic as a meal.
- Recipe: Write a recipe for the advice you are giving.
- Geography. I am sure you have seen the maps called “The United States of…”. You can put just about anything into map form, and you can do so in writing, too.
- Geology. Every topic has a hard-to-scale mountain, a vast uncrossable dessert, an ocean, an abyss, etc.
- Clothes. How can you dress up your topic? Underwear (you can’t leave those off), regular clothing, outer wear, accessories… now write it.
There are countless other analogies possible.
Prompt Number Three: Interview somebody. Sure, this is cheating, but when you can’t come up with your own original thoughts, pull them from someone else. Try to be as creative as you can with your questions, and make sure to ask for original content:
“Can you share with our readers one tip you have not included in your course?”
“Can you give an example of when this has happened to you recently?”
“What was the most successful [whatever] you ever did?”
Originality pays off
There are hundreds of blogs and thousands of articles on almost every topic. I don’t have time to read most of them. I will read those that are not just the same old, same old rechurned slop they served up at the last dozen blogs I have visited.
I am not saying it is easy to come up with truly original content, especially in well-trampled niches like personal finance, blogging, nutrition and such. But the payoff will be a loyal readership that spreads the word for you – a growing audience of engaged fans.
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Avigdor Lieberman's Chutzpah
The right to return cannot confer the right to expel.
A reliable friend and colleague swears that he saw the following incident in the Israeli-occupied territories a couple of years ago. A Palestinian physician, in urgent need of permission to travel, was trying to persuade a soldier at a roadblock to allow him to hurry on to the next town. He first tried the stone-faced guard in Hebrew, in which many Arabs are fluent, but he received no response. He then made an attempt in English, which is something of a local lingua franca, yet he fared no better. After an unpleasant interval of mutual noncommunication, it transpired that the only word the Israeli soldier knew was no, and the only language in which he could speak it was Russian.
The words occupation and dispossession are flung around pretty freely, but I invite you to picture a life under occupation in which your unfriendly neighborhood cop did not even speak the language of the state that he served, let alone any tongue known to you. There is, by the way, a fair likelihood that the soldier was not even Jewish; it's an open secret in Israel that tens of thousands of Russian immigrants used forged papers as a means of exiting their country of birth, pretending to exercise the "right of return." So here is yet another insult to heap on those whose great-great-grandparents were born in Palestine yet are treated as if they live there only on sufferance.
Yet if you are a former bouncer born in former Soviet Moldova, like Avigdor Lieberman, you can come to live in the Holy Land as of right and become the leader of a party that proposes to institute a "loyalty oath" not just to the Arab citizens of the state of Israel but to all Jewish members of religious Orthodox sects that do not declare themselves Zionist. And this grotesque party, named Israel Beiteinu or "Israel Is Our Home," is now the power broker, and its leader is the kingmaker in the Israeli electoral process.
In his early days as an immigrant in Israel, Lieberman was briefly a member of Kach, the hysterical group led by Rabbi Meir Kahane that was morbidly obsessed with the sex lives of Arabs and that yelled for their mass expulsion or—to employ the common euphemism—"transfer." He has now somewhat refined his position, calling for an exchange of territories and people that would more nearly approximate partition or even a two-state solution. But as with every such proposal, this still leaves a large number of Arabs under Israeli sovereignty, either on the West Bank or in Israel "proper." I doubt that Lieberman is really serious about any "land for peace" negotiations—he quarreled even with Ariel Sharon about disengagement from Gaza, so if it were up to him, there would presumably still be Israeli settlers in the strip. He has changed the whole tone of the argument by deciding to question the presence of Israeli Arabs who, unlike their cousins under occupation, enjoy the right of citizenship and voting as well as the privilege of living under the Israeli flag.
The best book about this highly interesting and neglected community was written by the Israeli novelist David Grossman in 1993 and is called Sleeping on a Wire. It contains micro-flashes of illumination (such as the probability that more Israeli Arabs than American Jews speak Hebrew) and also some memorable reflections on language and its relationship to literature and culture. We all remember that Maimonides wrote in fluent Arabic, but it's perhaps less well-known that:
The everyday conversation of Palestinian Israelis sparkles with expressions from the Bible and the Talmud, from Bialik and Rabbi Yehuda Halevy and Agnon. Poet Naim Araideh effuses: "Do you know what it means for me to write in Hebrew? Do you know what it's like to write in the language in which the world was created?"
One might not wish to go that far, but it remains the case that the Israeli-Arab Marxist Emile Habibi, author of the classic novel The Pessoptimist (sometimes calledThe Opsimist) was once awarded the annual Israeli prize for best Hebrew writing.
One might add that the rockets of Hamas and Hezbollah fall upon these people, too, in Jaffa and other towns, just as they fall upon the Israeli Druze and Armenians. The threads and imbrications that bind and layer the discrepant claimants to the land of Palestine are strong as well as subtle, ancient as well as modern. This is why Grossman was so depressed to discover, at the end of his book, that the memory of 1948 was still vivid among even the most successful and prosperous Israeli Arabs and that all of them felt unsafe and secretly feared a renewal of the demand for their expulsion. In 1993, he felt able to some extent to reassure them about this.
Now we have to watch the rise of a thug and a demagogue who has called with relish for the execution of elected Arab members of Israel's parliament if they meet with Hamas, who has demanded the drowning of Palestinian prisoners in the Dead Sea, whose supporters chant "Death to the Arabs" at their rallies, and who has materialized the worst fears of those Arabs who have made the longest-lasting accommodation with the Jewish state. Avigdor Lieberman's essentially totalitarian and Inquisitionist style, though, may be even more manifest in his insistence that non-Zionist haredim, or pious Jews, also either take an oath of loyalty or forfeit their citizenship. This takes the ax to the root of the idea that Jews have a presence in Jerusalem from time immemorial and that their resulting rights are not derived from, or dependent on, any state or any ideology. Shame on Benjamin Netanyahu if he makes even a temporary alliance with Lieberman. As questionable as the "right to return" may already be, it certainly cannot confer the right to expel.
Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) was a columnist for Vanity Fair and the author, most recently, of Arguably, a collection of essays.
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Narrative:A Cessna 501 Citation I/SP corporate jet, registered G-VUEM, was damaged beyond repair in a landing accident at Birmingham International Airport (BHX), U.K.. Both crew members survived.
The airplane was parked at Liverpool Airport on the accident day. The original objective was to fly to Belfast City Airport, collect a transplant organ, and take it to Cambridge Airport. However, on the arrival at Belfast the transfer was no longer required, so the crew members were given a new task to fly to Belfast International Airport (BFS) and collect an organ to carry to Birmingham Airport (BHX).
The aircraft departed Belfast-BFS at 14:50 with the co-pilot as pilot flying. The flight was uneventful and the aircraft was given a radar vector to intercept the ILS for a straight-in approach to runway 15 at Birmingham.
The runway 15 ILS course is 149░M. The autopilot was engaged and the aircraft was flying on a track of 135░M, 13 nm from the touchdown zone and at a groundspeed of 254 kt, when it crossed the localiser centreline. The aircraft then turned right onto a corrective track but once again passed through the localiser course. Further corrections were made and the aircraft passed through the localiser once more before becoming established at 5 nm. The co-pilot later reported that, because the autopilot was not capturing the localiser, he had disconnected it and flown the approach manually.
When the aircraft was at 10 nm, the radar controller broadcast a message advising of the presence of a fog bank on final approach and giving RVRs of 1,400 m at touchdown and in excess of 1,500 m at both the mid-point and stop end. The airfield was sighted by the commander during the approach but not by the co-pilot. A handover to the tower frequency was made at around 8 nm. When the aircraft was at 6 nm, landing clearance was given and acknowledged. The tower controller then advised the aircraft that there was a fog bank over the airfield boundary, together with the information that the touchdown RVR was 1,400 m. The commander responded, saying: "We've got one end of the runway".
The aircraft was correctly on the localiser and the glideslope at 4 nm. The Decision Altitude (DA) of 503 ft amsl (200 ft aal) for the approach was written on a bug card mounted centrally above the glareshield.
Both pilots recollected that the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) calls of "500 above" and "100 above" DA were made by the commander. However, neither pilot could recall a call of 'decision' or 'go-around' being made. At between 1.1 nm and 0.9 nm, and 400 ft to 300 ft aal, the aircraft turned slightly to the right, onto a track of 152░M. This track was maintained until the aircraft struck the glideslope antenna to the right of the runway some 30 seconds later. The aircraft came to rest in an upright position on the grass with a fire on the left side. The co-pilot evacuated through the main cabin door, which is located on the left side of the fuselage, and suffered flash burns as he passed through the fire. The commander was trapped in the cockpit for a time.
PROBABLE CAUSE: The investigation report did not contain a probable cause paragraph as recommended in ICAO Annex 13.
» Birmingham Airport shut as transplant aircraft crashes (BBC, 19-11-2010)
» Pilot critical after donor liver plane crashes at airport (Belfast Telegraph, 20-11-2010)
Official accident investigation report
|investigating agency: ||Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) - U.K. |
|report status: ||Final|
|report number: ||AAIB Bulletin: 8/2011|
|duration of investigation:||265 days (8.8 months)|
|download report: ||
Cessna 501 Citation, G-VUEM
(AAIB Bulletin: 8/2011)
Runway 15 ILS glideslope antenna tower after the accident.
Frame from CCTV footage showing the fog bank and mushroom cloud from the post-crash fire.
The position and height of G-VUEM relative to the glideslope and localiser (based on radar information) during the approach to runway 15.
This map shows the airport of departure and the intended destination of the flight. The line between the airports does not
display the exact flight path.
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Ethics in the corner office
Recently the head of American Airlines resigned because he didn't agree with the company's decision to file for bankruptcy. When he walked out the door he left his lucrative bonus package on the table. It's a rare story and it got us wondering -- what makes some leaders forego the perks of the job while others become the face of corporate greed.
- Mary Gentile: Researcher at Babson College in Boston and author of giving "Voice to Values."
- Bill George: Professor of Management Practice at Harvard and former CEO of Medtronic. His most recent book is "True North Groups." | <urn:uuid:93226eb0-c6a0-4ec8-8b47-f6ecd74cb575> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/12/13/midmorning2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960274 | 128 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Portland is next as the plastic dominos start to fall
Earlier this month news came out of Washington that the City of Bellingham banned plastic bags and put a fee on paper bags. Last week a similar story is coming out of Portland, Oregon. After state legislators failed to act on SB 536 this year, which would have enacted a statewide bill, Portland Mayor Sam Adams was quick to get his city committed to a plastic reduction effort. On Thursday, Portland City Council voted 5-0 to ban plastic carryout bags at retailers and allow them to charge a fee for paper bags.
This is a big victory, four years in the making, for the environment, Mayor Sam Adams, the Surfrider Foundation Portland Chapter and many others. After Oregon lawmakers failed to act on SB 536, a statewide carryout bag bill, Portland and Mayor Sam Adams declared this an emergency ordinance to move it forward quickly since state legislators fumbled the ball. Since it was an emergeny ordinace it required a unanimous vote from city council and luckily they all saw the value of this bag ordinance.
Council chambers were filled last week as 'bag monsters' and lots of 'Ban The Bag' supporters filed in to let their voices be heard. Out on the streets activists raised awareness with signs and bullhorns while recruiting more people to attend the hearing in the middle of the day. Click Here for great testimony from uber-activist Stiv Wilson.
The Surfrider Foundation Portland Chapter activists have been working long and hard to plan this campaign and finally saw it come to an end after four long years. Now it's on to other cities in Oregon then back to the capitol for a statwide bill! | <urn:uuid:e2f42813-5bee-4ff7-ae15-282406f9220b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.surfrider.org/coastal-blog/entry/portland-is-next-as-the-plastic-dominos-start-to-fall | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957437 | 345 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Good Point--Washington fruit industry scholarships change lives
Education is an investment that provides returns to individuals and society.
Yadira Castaneda recently received the Jacque McDougall Memorial Scholarship, funded by McDougall and Sons of Wenatchee, and Cecelia Guzman received a CCM scholarship funded by Columbia Marketing International, Columbia Fruit Packing, and McDougall & Sons. Both scholarships are equivalent to 85 percent of the cost of tuition, books, room and board at a Washington public university ($17,000) and can be renewed for four years. Castaneda will use her award at Stanford University, California, while Guzman will attend the University of Washington. Castaneda’s mother and Guzman’s parents are employees at McDougall and Sons, Wenatchee. Pictured are: Back row—Scott McDougall, Stuart McDougall, Brian McDougall, Albino Guzman. Front row—Jennifer Witherbee, Maria Castaneda, Yadira Castaneda, Cecilia Guzman, Carmen Guzman.
Washington Apple Education Foundation scholarships change lives. This year in Washington State, students will receive over $400,000 in scholarship aid from members of the tree fruit industry through WAEF. Achieving a college degree leads to employment stability, higher earning potential, and increased job-related fulfillment for the recipient. Just as great are the benefits to society: with increased incomes come higher tax contributions and fewer demands on social programs; increased knowledge leads to higher civic engagement and voter involvement; and college success for parents correlates with higher scholastic achievements for their children.
How does a scholarship application become an award? More than 50 volunteers serve on the WAEF scholarship selection committee. Their job is to thoroughly review each application, matching students with donor-developed criteria unique to each scholarship. This is how the process works:
Promotion begins in the fall with distribution of applications and promotional posters to schools, warehouses, and industry employers.
Throughout the months of September through February WAEF staff members visit high schools providing scholarship training to students.
March 1 marks the deadline when all applications must be postmarked. Each application is reviewed by the foundation to identify which awards a student may qualify for consideration. This is based on criteria provided by the scholarship donor such as the student’s high school, college, parents’ employer, etc.
Once students are allocated to various award categories, selection committee members take over.
The WAEF scholarship committee is divided into 11 selection committees, each consisting of three to five members. Ideally, each committee is assigned 60 or fewer applications to review. On average, each application requires 15 to 20 minutes of review by each member of the committee.
Committee members use established criteria to evaluate each applicant. This information is then compared by each selection committee member individually with donors’ stated selection priorities.
Once each member establishes his or her top candidates, the selection committees meet. Collectively, members determine recipients for the scholarship awards assigned to their selection committee along with alternates for each scholarship.
Before award decisions become final, representatives from each selection committee assemble and compare results. If it is determined one or more students have dominated the awards, this group redistributes awards to increase the number of students receiving industry scholarships.
By mid-May, we have our final slate of recipients. Personal announcements occur at the students’ high schools or by mail to students at college.
The selection process is fine-tuned annually to ensure the best students are selected for each donor-sponsored scholarship. This year, 358 students applied for scholarship assistance. In mid-May, we’ll know how many of these bright students we get to help, and we will also know how many we need to refuse. Likely more than 200 students will be turned away this year. Numbers don’t communicate the impact this could potentially make for an individual student. With tuition rates increasing at such an alarming rate, ensuring that young people from our communities achieve access to higher education is a real concern.
Tuition alone at Washington State University for the 2009-2010 school year was $8,488. Add in books and on-campus room and board, and students needed almost $19,000 for one year’s enrollment. Community colleges have traditionally been an inexpensive, yet very effective, alternative. Inexpensive is, of course, relative. A full-time student at Wenatchee Valley College paid $2,925 in tuition last year. To achieve $2,925 in earnings, students must work over 30 hours each week during their three-month summer break and save every dollar earned. Assuming lodging was provided by parents, expenses for books, transportation, and food would need to be covered by students’ in-school jobs. At one time, a student could earn enough money each summer to cover costs for one year at a four-year institution. For now at least, students are barely able to achieve that at a community college.
Scholarships are created through voluntary contributions from individuals who find this an effective tool to make a difference in student lives. This form of social giving is tax-deductible and allows the donor to target funds within one’s own community and to the programs of highest value to the giver. Education is an investment that provides impressive returns for the recipient and for society. If you’re interested in learning more about helping students through the Washington Apple Education Foundation, please contact me at (509) 663-7713 or check the Web site at www.waef.org. It’s never too late to help turn a student’s dream of a college education into reality. | <urn:uuid:ed1fc2b6-6638-4ae3-a25d-249dd860a3e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goodfruit.com/Good-Fruit-Grower/May-1st-2010/Good-Point-Washington-fruit-industry-scholarships-change-lives/ | 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 | 0.95427 | 1,170 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Now in her fourth year as a professional glass artist, Sue has her own studio in the Midlands and has exhibited both nationally and internationally. Sue's first tentative steps into glass began at Richmond, where she got the 'bug' gave up her job, moved to the Midlands, and studied full time at the International Glass Centre.
Sue's work continues to grow and develop, she works in a variety of techniques, but predominately in sand casting and kiln formed glass. Her first love is creating dramatic sand cast pieces, these Sue often combines with other materials, such as sandstone, slate and recently ceramic. Her work is predominately influenced by her up bringing in the West Country, the strong coastal influences and the dramatic underlying geological formations, which led her to initially study Geology to degree level. However her family now live in the Caribbean, and having learnt to dive, the lush landscape and brilliant underwater reefs have influenced her work, which has become increasing colourful and bold.
Although Sue loves to create one-off statement pieces, Sue also creates decorative production glass which she supplies to galleries throughout the country. She also teaches part-time at the Ruskin Glasshouse College.
Our environment is ever changing, due not only to the forces of nature, but also our interaction with it. For me the textures found in nature and the interaction of the arising contrasts play a key part in my work. In particular how the powers of nature have created these textures, and the relationship between such disparities. I am interested in how these forces have created them. How wind can erode rock faces, water shape coral reefs. How volcanic eruptions can lift and upturn strata of rock. How the process of degradation continues, with the elements carving out these formations, creating interesting and contrasting rhythms and patterns with the earth’s surfaces. Most of my pieces are sand cast sculptures; the forces of nature, and its impact on the earth’s surface have inspired them. The balance between the sandstone and glass further portrays this fragile relationship
Trail of Glass, Kew, 2005 | <urn:uuid:56f10405-3156-41b7-a2a1-84131b0cc511> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.just-glass.co.uk/sue-parry/4529773488 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96578 | 421 | 1.5 | 2 |
Tom, the RAW recording off the sensor of the sensor data has 16 bits of precision according to what red has said. Whether that equates to the same amount of color depth and variation as say a 16 bit negative scan in RGB is probably questionable, because after debayering you are arriving at 16 bit values which have been derived via other calculations, including compression and decompression, rather than 16 bit values which have been measured directly as they would be from a scan.
From a RAW point of view what is true according to RED is that REDCODE RAW from Epic and Scarlet offers 4 more bits of precision than REDCODE RAW from a Red ONE. Gunliek is the only person I have seen talking about this in particular with his regular assertion that Epic and Scarlet have a much thicker neg than Red One MX.
How that stacks up to other cameras bit depth on a technical level is difficult to tell, because there aren't other compressed RAW cameras out there to do comparisons against, although at 3:1 compression on Epic you are going to be close to mathematically lossless, so comparing that to a camera that did say 16 bit Camera RAW stills with a bayer sensor would give you a good indication of the bit depth advantage of Epic. AFAIK there are no other 16 bit motion cameras out there.
I'd wager you have to dig pretty deep to visually see the difference between say 16bit linear and 10bit log from a visual point of view, especially given the bit depth limitations of current display devices, and you'd be digging into a purely maths arena to do comparisons of say 16bit linear RGB outputs from two cameras, unless you were doing developmental work on a compositing app where that levl of precision may help more complicated transforms hold up (the idea when compositing being numbers with larger precision plugged in to big complicated equations means more accurate results out the other end).
Bit depth at recording in RAW is a measure of precision. How good the color science in the RED SDK is at using that precision to derive RGB images of whatever bit depth is ultimately all that matters when you are comparing to most other comparable codecs and camera recording bit depths I think. | <urn:uuid:95adf509-ae6f-4ba9-bb07-cc100506f556> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?77510-4K-NAB-WAR-SUMMARY&p=991920&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957528 | 443 | 1.835938 | 2 |
MISS BEARDSLEE’S AMAZING TIGER STORY
by Mariane Holbrook
I was beyond afraid.
I gripped the edge of the church pew until the white knuckles of my thin, eight-year-old hands threatened to burst through my taut skin.
Miss Harriet Beardslee, a Christian missionary to India, was retelling her well-known “Tiger Story.” As frightening and true as it was, I had to hear it again. I had even invited two school friends to join me in listening to this amazing tale that thrilled and chilled me at the same time.
Miss Beardslee, a master storyteller, leaned forward with great drama and loudly whispered, “There we were, another single missionary and I, sleeping in a canvas-covered wagon with an open slit in the back. Outside, the fire we had built earlier, was still burning bright enough to cast an eerie glow over the blackness of the night there near a small village at the edge of the jungle. We had come to tell people about God’s love for them.
“Suddenly, we felt our wagon shake violently! A huge, man-eating tiger from the jungle slammed his heavy front paws on the end of our wagon and thrust his massive, furry head inside the canvas curtain. He bared his 7-inch-long fangs and uttered an unearthly growl deep in his throat.
“We were terrified. He was only feet from us, ready to spring! And this species of tiger, when hungry, is known to savagely tear into human flesh, kill around the throat, then eat his prey until satisfied.”
“What would you do if you’d been there?” she asked the sixty children sitting rigidly in fear before her.
One small boy’s hand shot up. “I’d run and get in bed with my mother!” he gasped.
Miss Beardslee smiled, then carefully explained that they had been alone with no houses and no other people around. And this was before cars were available in India for easy travel.
She continued on.
“Suddenly, I remembered a book I’d read in grade school many years before in America which explained how you can stare down a tiger . You must appear unafraid to the tiger. You can’t take your eyes from his, no matter how long it takes.
“Then I remembered something else. Just before I boarded the ship from America to India as a missionary, a little girl prayed aloud for me. “Dear God,” she prayed fervently, squeezing her little eyes tightly shut, “Don’t let the tigers eat Miss Beardslee.” I knew that God had brought these two things to my remembrance to comfort me and give me courage!
“I whispered to my companion in the semi-darkness of the wagon, “You pray and I’ll stare.” I would explain the staring part to her later.
“She quickly began to pray silently while I began to stare. Straight into the tiger’s forbidding eyes which were only a leap away from me.
“I stared and stared. I stared until my eyes hurt and tears streamed down my cheeks. The tiger didn't move. In my mind, I recited every Scripture verse I knew about God’s promise of protection. And still we continued to stare unblinking into each other’s eyes.”
By this time, the tension in the church was palpable. Every child was intently focused on Miss Beardslee as she opened her eyes wider and wider for effect. We knew she was a godly woman and would never invent such a tale or embellish it in any way.
“Finally,” she continued, “After about a half hour, the tiger lowered one giant paw to the ground, but kept on staring. Then he slowly lowered the other paw to the ground and began to back slowly, slowly away. When he was at the edge of the clearing, he turned and ran into the jungle, disappearing from our view.”
Sixty children exhaled loudly and simultaneously with profound relief.
Miss Beardslee then told us of the wonderful protecting power of God, how we can trust Him but that we must also exercise watchful care over ourselves. She thanked God over and over for sparing their lives, allowing them to spend many more years in India, working in the dreaded leprosariums and telling people that Jesus loves them.
She ended her story with this heart-stopper:
“In the morning when we had enough light to move our wagon to a safer spot, a guard at the nearby village cautioned us to be careful. A man-eating tiger had attacked someone in the small village during the night, had killed him and dragged his ripped and torn body into the jungle to feast on. It had happened near us, about one hour after God had helped me stare down the tiger in our covered wagon at the edge of the jungle in India.”
Mariane Holbrook is a retired teacher, an author of two books a musician and artist. She lives with her husband on coastal
North Carolina. She maintains a personal website
www.marianholbrook.com and welcomes your
Emails at [email protected].
Read more articles by Mariane Holbrook or search for articles on the same topic or others. | <urn:uuid:72ee9420-65e0-48c5-9745-78b965100d74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=55647 | 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 | 0.979273 | 1,156 | 1.796875 | 2 |
UK's Savile abused hundreds over 6 decades, report claims
ReutersLONDON -- The late British TV presenter Jimmy Savile physically abused hundreds of people over six decades, according to a police-led report on Friday which said he carried out attacks at the BBC and at hospitals where he did voluntary work.
January 12, 2013, 12:00 am TWN
Of his victims, 73 percent were under 18 and 82 percent were female. The oldest was 47 and the youngest just 8.
“Savile's offending footprint was vast, predatory and opportunistic,” Commander Peter Spindler told reporters.
Savile, one of the BBC's biggest stars of the 1970s and 80s received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth for charity work. He died in 2011, aged 84, a year before allegations about his abusive behavior emerged in a TV documentary.
Friday's report said he had committed 214 criminal offences including 34 rapes or serious sexual assaults across the country.
His offending first occurred in 1955 in the northern English city of Manchester and the last attack was in 2009, the report said. He abused people at the BBC from 1965 including in 2006 at the last recording of popular weekly show Top of the Pops.
He also targeted people at hospitals over 30 years from 1965, including at the renowned Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London.
“It is now clear that Savile was hiding in plain sight and using his celebrity status and fund-raising activity to gain uncontrolled access to vulnerable people across six decades,” the report said.
In all, 600 people had come forward to police with information of which 450 related to Savile.
The report, issued jointly by London police and the NSPCC children's charity, said it was likely there would be more victims who did not feel able to come forward.
Friday's report is one of 14 launched since the allegations about Savile emerged, including four at the BBC.
The revelations about Savile plunged the BBC into weeks of turmoil and led to resignation of the publicly funded broadcaster's director general just 54 days into his job. | <urn:uuid:3fc6614c-bd3f-447a-9483-d4d8c8c475e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/europe/2013/01/12/367144/UKs-Savile.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98014 | 431 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Hong Kong Budget 2013
Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah delivered his sixth budget speech on February 27, 2013, in which he unveiled HK$33 billion worth of relief measures and forecasted a surplus of about HK$64.9 billion for the 2012-13 financial year. Economic growth was expected to come in 1.5 to 3.5 per cent in 2013.
Price of entry to middle class? Coffee and tickets to French movies - finance secretary
It's not how much you earn, says financial chief John Tsang
Kenji Fujimoto was accepted into Kim Jong-il's inner circle during a 13-year stint serving North Korea's first family. The Japanese sushi chef gives Julian Ryall his take on the communist dynasty'...
Never mind how much you earn - even if it is more than HK$300,000 a month as a top government official - if you drink coffee and watch French movies, you're middle class.
That was the definition offered yesterday by John Tsang Chun-wah, under fire for his claim a day earlier to understand the middle class because he was "also middle class".
The financial secretary was speaking on a radio programme in which he faced criticism for doing too little in his new budget to ease pressure on the "sandwich class" - people who are too well off to qualify for subsidised housing but too poor to buy private flats.
"It may not be necessary to set a salary limit [in defining the middle class]," said Tsang, whose salary of HK$302,205 a month is six times the earnings of the highest-paid middle-income earners in the city.
"In fact it is a lifestyle … I have read articles that say the middle class are people who drink coffee and like French movies. I like movies and tea, so there's not much difference with the lives of the middle class."
Tsang said he grew up in a middle-class family and tended to associate with people from the middle class.
In 2011, the government found in a census that - excluding the poorest one-fifth and richest one-fifth - 60 per cent, or 1.2 million, of households earned HK$12,300 to HK$48,850 a month.
The Census and Statistics Department said it did not consider the 60 per cent as the middle class, for which the government did not have an official definition.
During the race for the city's top job last year, Leung Chun-ying's rival Henry Tang Ying-yen suggested that families with monthly household incomes of HK$20,000 to HK$80,000 be defined as middle class.
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who earns HK$312,785 a month, declined to say if she was middle class.
Lam recalled that when she was sent to Cambridge University to study in her early days in the government, "it was the first time I had travelled abroad, because I came from a grass-roots family". Asked if she drank coffee at home, she shook her head.
University of Hong Kong social work expert Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai suggested that the government should give a clearer classification of the workforce in order to meet their needs.
Tsang's budget received a mixed reception from the public on Wednesday, the day it was unveiled, the HKU public opinion programme found in a poll.
The average rating was 53.6 points, a 3.4-point drop from the budget last year and the second-lowest of his six budgets since 2008.
Of the 1,024 poll respondents, 30 per cent said they were satisfied with the budget. Another 31 per were dissatisfied, while 37 per cent described their level of satisfaction as "half-half". Tsang recorded 56.6 points in his popularity rating after his budget, 1.2 points lower than in a survey conducted early last month.
The sampling error of the poll is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
"Why middle class benefits little from budget relief", Video by Hedy Bok | <urn:uuid:c1352066-b217-4a55-be11-9630ab27f664> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1163799/price-entry-middle-class-coffee-and-tickets-french-movies-finance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973866 | 832 | 1.625 | 2 |
The Benefits of Wrestling: Why You Should Wrestle
There are plenty of benefits awarded to the wrestlers who dedicate themselves to the sport. It’s obvious that wrestling develops a physically strong base, but it also teaches lessons that can be translated into other aspects of life once a wrestler’s career is over. If you’re uncertain about whether or not you or your child should wrestle, this guide offers a few reasons that should help you make your final decision.
It’s Universally Understood
Wrestling is one of the only sports that everyone in the world can understand. There probably aren’t many people in the world who haven’t wrestled around or roughhoused with siblings and friends. The desire to test one’s strength and physical ability is innate — kids everywhere do it for fun! Competitive wrestling, in a formal setting, is a sport understood at its most primal level.
Anybody Can Wrestle
Wrestling doesn’t discriminate. No matter your body type — height or weight — there is a place for you in wrestling. In some sports, only certain body types are able to succeed. In wrestling, as long as you are tough and have the desire to win, nothing else matters. Weight classes ensure fairness amongst the competitors, so you’re never too small or too big to participate.
Most wrestling teams don’t even cut their athletes from participating for lack of skill or talent. Rather, it’s more common for a wrestler to get cut from a team for not meeting academic, citizenship, or other (nonphysical) requirements. As long as you have the desire to be a member of the team, that’s where you belong.
Hot Tip: Female Grapplers
The popularity of women’s wrestling has grown exponentially in the last decade. Today, women compete against other women at every level from youth competition to the Olympic Games. Because of the recent laws put into place to ensure equality between male and female athletes, women may now choose to practice and compete on men’s wrestling teams if a separate women’s program does not exist
Personal Growth & Development
Sports are a great way to establish and reinforce positive personality traits and characteristics. Wrestling, in particular, embraces and teaches an array of life lessons that may not be as strongly promoted in other sports:
When you wrestle, you can’t rely on anyone but yourself. You have to be accountable for your own successes and failures. For this reason, wrestlers must be confident. Without a positive attitude, there will be no success. From the onset, wrestlers learn to count on themselves, gaining confidence on and off the wrestling mats.
Waking up before the sun rises for early morning runs, fasting to meet a desired weight, sacrificing a social life in order to train and compete —these are only a few of a wrestler’s duties. One of the most beneficial lessons a wrestler will learn is that this sport requires an insane work ethic. Sometimes, you have to do things that aren’t that “fun” to reach your goals.
Wrestlers learn to be both physically and mentally tough. It takes a tremendous amount of toughness to pick yourself up off of the mat when you’re losing, and it takes incredible will power to lose that last pound before a weigh-in. You’ll never be able to name a successful wrestler with a weak mind because, well, there isn’t one.
People who have never wrestled have a hard time understanding how mentally and physically taxing it is on competitors. Because of this, wrestlers develop more than just a sense of respect for each other — they develop an admiration. They know how difficult it is to win.
Opponents are always required to shake hands before and after each match. Nevertheless, it’s not uncommon to see foes turn into friends after the final whistle blows. Matches often end with embraces, and sometimes the loser will even raise the winner’s hand!
Every sport teaches its athletes to be competitive. However, wrestling is different because your team essentially becomes your opponent. In order to stay on the team, you must survive the practices. In order to compete for the team, you’ll need to beat everyone on your team who is in your weight class. To win in competition, you need to train harder than your opponent. You need to want it more. No matter how you look at it, the odds are going to be stacked against you. Relax! You’ll soon thrive on good competition.
Faces of Wrestling ...
Place of Birth: Novosibirsk, Russia
Title: Deputy of Stavropol Krai
Getting to know Alexander: Alexander Karelin is regarded as the best wrestler in world history, having garnered three Olympic Gold medals in Greco-Roman wrestling while on a 13-year winning streak. Since his retirement, he has channeled all that he’s learned from wrestling into becoming an influential member in Russian politics, serving as a representative of the State Duma.
The degree of athleticism it takes to succeed in wrestling is second to none. Although many wrestlers don’t start out as “natural athletes,” wrestling improves balance, reflexes, strength, endurance, and agility. Wrestlers are often very lean and strong for their body weight. A wrestler’s physique is further reinforced by the body fat and hydration tests that are enforced at the scholastic and collegiate level.
The knowledge they’ll gain about proper dieting and weight maintenance will benefit wrestlers long after their competitive careers are over. Wrestling will undoubtedly improve an athlete’s capabilities in other sports as well.
Wrestling teaches the basic skills about how to protect yourself on the event of a physical altercation:
- Body positioning
- How to control an opponent
- How to defend against different types of attacks
If anything, basic wrestling skills will help you better understand how to keep yourself safe in some of the most undesirable situations.
Making It Count
You are going to be faced with many decisions in your life and getting involved with wrestling is, perhaps, one of the best decisions you could make! What you learn in wrestling can be translated into nearly any endeavor. Keep in mind that, like anything, what you’ll get out of wrestling is determined by how much effort you’re willing to put in. In order to grasp its maximum benefit, be prepared to put forth 110 percent in training and competitions. Now, get on the mat and make it count! | <urn:uuid:ac02f759-d183-4604-8605-e10c7eaa7941> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wrestling.isport.com/wrestling-guides/the-benefits-of-wrestling-why-you-should-wrestle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951012 | 1,354 | 1.828125 | 2 |
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