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Education Week recently had an article about challenged books (subscription only). I have never had any problems with parents disagreeing with reading selections I ask their child to read. One thing that seems clear to me after reading the article is that it might not be a bad idea for our department to come up with a procedure for challenging books, just in case a parent ever does have objections. I have to say that my experience of parents of my students at Weber is that they are well-educated, thoughtful, and want their children to be exposed to divergent thinking. They are open-minded and intelligent. I could be mistaken, and someone will surely correct this notion if I am, but it seems to be common in Jewish culture to test, to question, to learn, to expose one’s self to other viewpoints. Thus, I have not found that they concern themselves with challenging book choices; rather, they seem to embrace our curriculum, as they embrace their children’s intellectual freedom. At least, that is how it seems to me.
The article recounts an incident involving a school library and a concerned parent in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The parent apparently objected to a large number of books, most of which were not described in the article. The book she seems to be most upset about is It’s Perfectly Natural by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley. The article seems to imply that the parent, Laurie Taylor, only wanted to prevent her own children from being able to check out the book, as well as the other books on her list; however, a quick glance at Laurie Taylor’s website tells another story — what she really wanted was to remove the books.
I have always felt that it is the parent’s prerogative to decide whether or not their children should read certain books. My mother often read books she had concerns about, but I can only remember her telling me once that she didn’t want me to read something, and to be fair, it was a romance novel that was too old for me at the time I wanted to read it. On the other hand, I am vehemently opposed to removing books from a library because one or even the majority of parents feel the books are not appropriate for their own children. If this is the case, they have every right to ask that the library put some sort of block on the child’s library card. I do not think this is an unreasonable request at all. They do not have the right to tell other parents that certain books are not appropriate for the children of those other parents.
We all have different levels of tolerance for what we consider appropriate. I think Taylor’s labelling of the books as “pornography” is taking things too far, and she was apparently unhappy enough with the school system’s ultimate decision to remove her children from the school system and enroll them in a private Christian school. In the end, Fayetteville schools determined they needed a procedure in place for parents to challenge material:
Parents must first read the entire book, discuss it with a teacher or librarian, and outline their concerns in a written “request for reconsideration.” If the principal cannot resolve the parent’s concerns, the complaint works its way through the district administration, and could eventually be turned over to a review committee selected by the superintendent.
I think this is fair. One of the biggest problems I have with many parents who challenge books is that they haven’t read them, except for, of course, passages with which they have some objection. A perfect example is a local case involving Gwinnett County Public Schools and Laura Mallory, who wanted the Harry Potter books removed from GCPS libraries. The district decided against Mallory, who is appealing to the Georgia Department of Education. Mallory has not read the books herself; in her defense against the charge of wanting to ban something she doesn’t really even know much about, Mallory contended:
They’re [the Harry Potter books] really very long and I have four kids. I’ve put a lot of work into what I’ve studied and read. I think it would be hypocritical for me to read all the books, honestly. I don’t agree with what’s in them. I don’t have to read an entire pornographic magazine to know it’s obscene.
I’m not sure what I can add to that, except to say she has proven my point.
The State of Georgia will hear Mallory’s appeal on Tuesday, October 3. | <urn:uuid:11f65c8d-e52b-4d58-a6ed-3d908d58acec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffenglish.com/?p=181 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981263 | 950 | 1.765625 | 2 |
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Get our credit insurance... and get paid | <urn:uuid:46178e26-3b7d-41f8-8194-49024ecf97e5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.edc.ca/EN/Knowledge-Centre/Publications/Pages/financial-crime.aspx?frompage=eadv12cdnmanfincrime | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940557 | 201 | 1.71875 | 2 |
[mythtv] Use callsign for scheduling
bjm at lvcm.com
Thu Apr 15 22:25:40 EDT 2004
Ben Bucksch wrote:
> (quotes rearranged)
> Bruce Markey wrote:
>> This piece of information in the US is the call letters assigned by
>> the FCC .... callsign
>> the callsign is the field for the unique station identifier assigned
>> to a broadcaster by regulating authorities.
> US-based, false assumptions again.
Well, no it isn't false assumption. The FCC in the US does
regulate the callsigns assigned to broadcasters. I said nothing
about any other country because I do not live an another country
so I used the US as an example. However, every broadcaster
anywhere is identified by some name, number, acronym, or set of
When you tell a friend that a show is on a station, you don't
say "the one with the green background and a globe at an angle
with a line going through it" ;-). Every station has a name that
you know it as, even if it is not assigned by a government
agency. There is something that will fit in a varchar(20) that
tells you who the broadcaster is and that their listings are
associated with this channel. The field in the channel table
that contains the string to identify the broadcaster is the
"callsign" field. That is true even if you had previously
misunderstood and assumed that callsign was merely decoration.
This is a key piece of information that you need to fill in
if your grabber doesn't do it for you. If it's left blank then
myth will have to do what it needs to do to get the job done
which is to use the chanids in it's place.
> I don't think we have something like
> an authorative, official callsign in Europe, and if so, it's not used by
> consumers. I certainly don't know them, don't know how to get them, and
> don't want to see them in display. We are used to freely assign and
> change the short name (3-5 letters usually) of the station, e.g. "K1"
> vs. "KABEL", "Pro7" vs. "Pro 7" etc..
There you go. Those are exactly what you need. Fill them as
you see fit.
The chanid field that has always been used in the past but this
is the rowid and must be unique. This is no good for matching
the same broadcaster in two or more channel table entries.
xmltvid is controlled by xmltv. They don't have to match for the
same broadcaster and can't be changed because they are needed
as is by any grabber that uses it.
However, "callsign" is not required or checked by the grabber
and is not required to be unique by the schema. Therefore, you
are free to edit this field as you see fit. However, know that
this field is not just decoration but the field that is used
to determine that two or more channel table entries represent
the same broadcaster. While it is possible to add another
field to serve this purpose, no other field is required as
this one is perfectly suited for the job.
>> For the first point, The way to identify a unique station is to use a
>> piece of information that that station uses to identify themselves to
>> the rest of the world.
> You are presenting something as "The way", which is based on false
I assume you mean your assumptions about what you assume I'm
assuming even though I was assuming that you weren't going to
assume that I was making false assumptions. What I'm saying
is that if you were to get up from your computer and take a
walk around your neighborhood, you would see lots of people
that have no idea what MythTV is but every single one of them
knows with the "BBC" is!
The problem is that so many people look at the problem of
identifying a station for myth from inside myth and how can
myth figure out that two channels are really the same broadcast
source. However, this isn't a new problem for myth to solve.
Stations identify themselves quite nicely, thank you very much.
Myth merely needs to use the well known information rather
than making up something new or use something made up by a
> (and additionally goes against good old DB school, BTW).
Crufty and self-righteous, yes, but it doesn't parse as expressing
any cogent thought ;-)
> In fact, mixing data from this source with data from another source
>> would break channel matching. Switching from the regular grabber to
>> this source would also break the existing record rules.
> Agreed. You seem to generally agree on the DB stability argument, good.
Yay! Let's shake on it.
> If you consider that the callsign may indeed change arbitarily on this
> side of the world, it should follow that you can't use that either.
No, I don't understand that premise. Who is making you change
what you have entered into the callsign field of your channel
table? And when this unseen force does this to you, is it really
still the same station showing more episodes of the same shows?
In my experience, when the name of a station changes it is because
it has changed ownership or format so is it really the same station?
And, if there was another field in the channel table to use a contrived
number or something to identify a station, wouldn't it also suffer
if the station identification/ownership/format changed?
>> For any suggesting that there should be a integer that myth creates to
>> identify a broadcaster, this would be just an extra indirection that
>> serves no new purpose.
> I hope I showed that it does serve a purpose.
Nope =). In fact, you betrayed yourself in your previous post
when you posted a URL of your xmltvid's in an attempt to show
that these could be trusted to be unique. The page had two
columns, the ID and the Name that everyone knows the stations
as. It is these names that you should put in the callsign field.
If "Pro 7" is on a terrestrial channel as 576 line PAL at 50Hz and
you also get "Pro 7" from DVB (possibly anamorphic?) myth will
know that these share the same listings and the scheduler can
record your favorite Pro 7 show from either input.
More information about the mythtv-dev | <urn:uuid:15d246ee-9736-4fd1-8896-9cd823c691b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-dev/2004-April/021271.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964572 | 1,431 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Ice carvers chill and thrill at Middleburys Third Fridays
Posted: 12/22/2012 at 1:15 am
By: Miriam Nowak
Click here to view in a gallery.
Ice carver Alfredo Arroyo carves a tool box full of tools outside Varns and Hoover Hardware as part of Middlebury's Third Fridays event. (Truth Photo by Miriam Nowak)
Mike Evans uses a chainsaw to rough out the shape of an old-fashioned coffee grinder from a block of ice. (Truth photo by Miriam Nowak)
Ice carver Mike Evans puts the finishing touches on an old-fashioned coffee grinder he carved for Middlebury's Third Fridays event. (Truth photo by Miriam Nowak)
Randy Veldman carves a child's chair out of ice in front of Legacy Home Furniture. Behind him Mike Evans works on shaping an old-fashioned coffee grinder out of another block of ice. (Truth Photo by Miriam Nowak)
A child's chair and ottoman carved by ice carver Randy Veldman at Middlebury's Third Fridays. Truth Photo By Miriam Nowak)
“There are five or six of us here tonight,” said ice carver Mike Evans as he shaped a block of ice into an old-fashioned coffee grinder in front of The Legendary Grind. The carvers use chain saws, grinders, chisels and torches to make their creations.
“I’ve been doing this for 10 years,” Evans said. “There was an ice carving mini contest at the University of Notre Dame, and I tried it.”
Abby and Kyle Bontrager brought their children to see the ice sculptures.
“We were going to go sledding, but then there wasn’t enough snow, so we brought them to see the ice carvings,” said Abby Bontrager.
Friday night didn’t have much snow, but it did have cold temperatures, which is good for ice carving.
“Last weekend we were in Michigan City and it was raining, and we were out there carving. It didn’t last very long,” said carver Alfredo Arroyo. He carved a tool box full of tools in front of Varns and Hoover Hardware.
“This is the third year I’ve done the tool box. They assign it to me because they like the way I do it,” Arroyo said.
While the ice carvings brought people outside, the warm and welcoming shops beckoned people to go inside.
At The Cinnamnon Stick, Dick Schlatter with Dick’s Incredible Nuts came back from Battle Creek, Mich., to take part in this month’s Third Fridays event after a successful experience in November.
“It was packed last month for Third Fridays for the Hometown Holidays shopping event,” said Cinnamon Stick manager Cindy Miller. “It’s always our biggest shopping night.”
The theme for this month’s Third Fridays was “Caring is Sharing.” Merchants collected donations for the Middlebury Food Pantry. | <urn:uuid:53b8999f-cc38-4bf7-9a2f-c9169c3c4e21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elkharttruth.com/article/20121222/NEWS01/712229942 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936799 | 676 | 1.625 | 2 |
Despite the competitive employment outlook, certain individuals seem to remain employed no matter how dismal the job climate. These professionals are the first to receive offers when companies are in acquisition mode and are rarely laid off during lean times. Their seemingly “charmed” reality is far removed from the struggles experienced by the vast majority of their peers, and inevitably begs the question: What is the secret to their success? The answer is simple - they possess the skills that keep them in demand.
Career expert Bill van Steenis, frequent speaker at colleges and universities across the country and author of “In-Demand: How to Get Hired, Develop a Career and Always be Successful,” offers a three-part formula for staying in-demand:
1. Solve a problem. Every successful career begins with the critical understanding of why people are hired in the first place: to solve a problem that a company or organization doesn’t have the resources to solve from within. It is important to remember that filling an open position is about what’s best for the company, not you. “If you aren’t achieving results, they’ll find someone who will,” says van Steenis.
2. Be competent. Possessing competence in your field may sound obvious, but according to van Steenis, it’s imperative for individuals to stay current and remain relevant. “Employers don’t hire you for your ability to theorize. They hire you because they know you’re capable of doing what they need you to do,” says van Steenis. This is especially critical for those either pursuing or expecting to pursue a college degree.
When selecting a university, it is important to consider schools that can provide hands-on learning and experiences from professors working in fields related to the courses they teach. Ensuring you will be able to demonstrate competence upon graduation is vital during your job search.
“Colleges and universities are shifting their mentalities to career-focused educations in order to adapt to the changing job market and address America’s skills gap,” says van Steenis. “DeVry University, for example, works with Fortune 100 companies to develop curriculum that prepares its students for emerging job opportunities, to ensure that graduates are ready to add value from Day One of receiving their first career opportunities.”
3. Produce. “My father always told me – ‘the world pays for producers – be one,’” says van Steenis. “You may be able to solve a problem, you may be highly competent; however, the key to staying in-demand is to be a producer.”
Organizations look for all the signs of a good candidate when hiring, but once that employee begins the job, the only question is, “How are you helping the company?” Employees that produce are the least likely to be let go despite rough economic conditions, and the first to be recruited when openings become available.
Whether you are just starting your career fresh out of college or a mid-career professional, applying van Steenis’ formula can enable you to join the ranks of workplace ‘producers’ and remain in-demand throughout your career. | <urn:uuid:de570bd3-6fba-4df7-b395-225e48dd938f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.natchitochestimes.com/matchbin_businesses?state=NC&cat=Financial&ara=Money%20Finance | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954611 | 682 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Fit Pro magazine - Mind over Matter.
My article on the mental influences to success was recently published in Fit Pro magazine -The magazine for fitness professionals. Down load the article as it appeared in the magazine or read my original below:
Download Fit Pro's version of Mind over Matter
every trainer can relate with the frustration of wanting their clients
to lose weight. As you encourage and support your clients to the
best of your ability, they can often infuriate you by saying they
blew their nutrition over the last week and never made it to the
this happens, it is obvious that the problem does not lie in the
exercise program or nutrition plan but in the mind of your client.
The only solution for most personal trainers to this problem is
to continue offering encouragement and hope the client makes that
change in life brings both positive and negative consequences. Even
something such as winning $8 million on the lottery will bring some
negatives (e.g., people befriending you for the money, publicity,
etc). However, regardless of the negative aspects, not many people
would turn down this if given the choice.
weight is not as clear cut as choosing to win $8 million. For one,
it is not luck but an effort that will allow a client to achieve
his goal weight. The next major factor is that the benefits of not
achieving your goal weight often far outweigh the benefits of achieving
are a few examples of the pros and cons of losing weight:
Need to buy new clothes.
may judge me.
would I do if a freed up more time with extra energy.
It is the relative balance of the positive consequences versus the
negatives consequences that determines how much “motivation”
the client shows.
Key to the Mind: Your Subconscious
mind and how we think is very complicated, but it can be simplified
to being comprised of the conscious and the subconscious. The conscious
mind is the thoughts and things that come to your awareness. The
subconscious mind is the activity of the brain you not aware of.
It controls and processes all of the information you receive, and
it runs the body.
success in any endeavour, the subconscious mind must be in tune
with your conscious desires. It is the role of the subconscious
that will determine the outcome. If the conscious mind determined
success, then any goal you said you wanted to achieve you would
easily attain, provided you knew how. This is not the case.
subconscious is where all your previous experiences and beliefs
are held. These can be thought of as the writing on the wall of
your mind. Whenever you try and act consciously, the subconscious
first checks with the writing inside the mind to see that this is
something you really want to do. For example, if you thought, “I
am going to jump into that fire,” the subconscious would check
with what it has written down in your mind about fire and influence
your decision. This is obviously vital in this example, and the
writing in your mind on this subject is fairly clear, “Fire
burns, burns hurt... do not jump in.”
what happens when a more neutral thought occurs that has conflicting
writing on the wall? For example, if you said, “I want to
lose 10 pounds of fat,” the subconscious writing on the wall
may read, “You need to do this, you'll feel great,”
but at the same time, there may also be thoughts saying, “You
cannot lose weight,” beliefs saying, “You will become
unpopular among your friends at work” and memories saying,
“Thin people are arrogant” and “You don’t
deserve to be thin.” These would all conflict with the conscious,
and ultimately, these thoughts, beliefs and memories would determine
Subconscious and Losing Weight
someone is trying to lose weight, there are many factors influencing
his goal. For the majority of people looking to lose weight, especially
long term overweight people, you will find the subconscious has
a number of reasons why it feels it is best for them to stay overweight.
can be for all sorts of possible reasons, but they will mostly stem
from events in the past. An example could be if the client has experienced
a previous trauma with the opposite sex (e.g., divorce), they may
protect themselves in the future by staying overweight. Sometimes
people may be punishing themselves for something they did.
common factor is that people find an emotional comfort in foods,
which causes them to gain weight. If this is the case, you will
find they will struggle greatly when you take this food away, because
you have taken away their emotional support. This equates to taking
a smoker’s cigarette away.
the influence may be, and the list is almost endless, it is important
for you to not guess at the cause but to help clients identify it
for themselves, and then apply EFT and other strategies to resolve
Freedom Technique and Other Techniques
develop the mind set, first identify possible blocks. From this
point, the application of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is the
fastest way to removing these.
is a branch of energy psychology, the fastest growing aspect of
psychology today. It was discovered in 1980 when Dr. Roger Callaghan
was treating his patient for an intense water phobia. She complained
in the session of stomach pain, so he told her to tap under her
eye as knew the energy meridian of the stomach ended there (from
acupuncture theory). To his surprise, the lady’s fear of water
that point on, he began studying this phenomenon and went on to
create a new branch of therapy called energy psychology. A student
of Dr Callaghan, Gary Craig, a Stamford engineer, trained under
him and then advanced the theory and made it accessible to all by
is a system that involves tapping on certain acupuncture points
with your fingers while tuning into specific negative thoughts.
The system is based on the premise that “a disruption to the
electrical patterns of the body is the cause of negative emotion,”
so EFT works by realigning your electrical energy system associated
with different thoughts by tapping on the point of the body used
your electrical pattern is disturbed, you could talk about an issue
until you are blue in the face, and it will not resolve the problem.
Similarly, this explains why sometimes illogical thoughts can prevent
people from achieving their goals.
can be used on any thoughts and memories from the past that still
cause negative emotions when you think about it now. Using EFT,
you can now remove the emotional charge on those thoughts. As well
as using EFT for this, you can also apply it to present/future issues
and emotional connections. When the mind is cleared of these blocks,
your clients will be able to go on and lose weight.
success of EFT is due in part to the startling results that can
be achieved using the technique and also by the fact that the processes
involve no pain or need to bring up any painful memories.
Theory Behind EFT
premise of the theory is summed up by its discovery statement: “The
cause of all negative or unwanted emotion is a disruption to the
body’s electrical energy system.” This is inherently
different to the way traditional psychology would view emotions.
They would see it as: distressing memory -> negative emotion.
would say there is a vital intermediate step: distressing memory
-> disrupted electrical energy system -> negative emotion.
dissolve the negative emotion associated with the memory, you do
not need to treat your memory but instead realign the energy in
your body. In EFT, you are tapping on the meridian points on the
body (see below). The meridian points are where an electrical pathway
that runs through the body ends. Think of it like an electrical
lead going from one part to the other. This can be easily imagined
as if you bent your finger right now. To do this, an electrical
signal is sent through your nerves from the brain to move your finger.
EFT and Losing Weight
ensure the electrical system associated with the negative emotion/issue
is being balanced, you will need to say certain statements before
the tapping and during. To lose weight, your client must resolve
the emotional blocks. Picture the problem of losing weight as a
table top. The many blocks contributing to the problem can be thought
of as the legs to this table. The tabletop may have many table legs
underneath, which represent different emotional contributors. The
idea of EFT is to collapse the emotional issues, or the table legs,
to the point where there are not enough to support the table. In
other words, if you collapse enough emotional issues under your
problem, you will resolve it.
Some of the table legs are thicker than others and thus more important
to resolving the issue. Sometimes there may be just two or three
legs, and sometimes you may need to break down more than 20.
of the table legs to a problem are previous memories of events that
happened to you. These show up in your behavior today by influencing
your thought processes. These may be rational or irrational thoughts.
Being scared of a tiny spider that couldn’t hurt you is a
very real fear to many people, but it is also irrational. Your previous
memories (table legs) can also be irrational and will affect you
irrational thought is in your mind because there is a disturbed
electricity field associated with it. Therefore, you must use EFT
to resolve the issue as it will likely not respond very well to
conscious rationale because the cause of the problem is in the electrical
pattern within the body.
of the great benefits of EFT is that it can be done on your own,
and clients can often make great progress from just a few minutes
the negative blocks are removed, you can include techniques that
develop the positive aspects of success. This includes using visualization
techniques, positive self talk/language and activating the Law of
Attraction. Please note these techniques will be useless unless
the negative blocks have been broken down first. Only when this
is done will clients be able to successfully overcome them.
EFT with Clients
who are interested in ensuring their clients get results should
look to visit the referenced articles and websites below. This will
allow you to broaden your knowledge about the topics covered. It
is highly recommended to download the free EFT manual by Gary Craig.
immediate use with your clients, ask them the questions below. They
are designed to get clients thinking about their current situation
and their thought patterns. They are not intended to solve their
problems or unearth specific table legs but simply to get them thinking.
Please refer all of your clients to a suitably trained professional
for any sort of treatment or therapy.
did you gain your excess weight, and what was going on in your
life at that time?
is the downside of achieving your goal weight?
s the upside of staying where you are?
are you struggling to achieve your goal? Why are you letting this
this attitude further for great results.
you want to apply some of these techniques to achieve results yourself
then consider working with me through personal
training here in London or On | <urn:uuid:5e27cf6b-6557-4595-b298-960cce7b25c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.one2onenutrition.co.uk/Newsletter-2008/Fit-Pro-EFT-weight%20loss-article.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943005 | 2,418 | 1.625 | 2 |
|Short Name:||Lucy Evelina Akerman|
|Full Name:||Akerman, Lucy Evelina|
Akerman, Lucy Evelina, née Metcalf . An American Unitarian writer, daughter of Thomas Metcalf, born at Wrentham, Mass., Feb. 21, 1816, married to Charles Akerman, of Portsmouth, N.H, resided at Providence, R.I., and died there Feb. 21,1874. Mrs. Akerman is known as a hymn writer through her:—
Nothing but leaves, the Spirit grieves, which was suggested by a sermon by M. D. Conway, and first published in the N. Y. Christian Observer, cir. 1858. In the Scottish Family Treasury, 1859, p. 136, it is given without name or signature, and was thus introduced into Great Britain. In America it is chiefly in use amongst the Baptists. Its popularity in Great Britain arose out of its incorporation by Mr. Sankey, in his Sacred Songs & Solos, No. 34, and his rendering of it in the evangelistic services of Mr. Moody. The air to which it is sung is by an American composer, S. J. Vail.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) | <urn:uuid:6b4202bd-09e6-4d7f-80d8-d5669d1beb2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hymnary.org/person/Akerman_LE1 | 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 | 0.956592 | 277 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The Office of Multicultural and International Student Services will give students glimpses of different cultures with a number of events during UniDiversity Week April 6-9.
The week will kick off on Monday with “What is a minority?” in the Lowman Student Center Mall Area from noon to 2 p.m. This event will focus on educating students about UniDiversity Week. Give-a-ways and information about the week’s events will be handed out.
On Tuesday, the “MISSconceptions: Texas Culture” event will be held in the LSC Room 304 at 5 p.m.
During the event, history professor Caroline Crimm will present different stereotypes that are associated with Texas culture.
On Wednesday, students can learn about “Gender and Poverty” in the LSC Theater at 3 p.m.
Caron Cates, sociology pool faculty member who specializes in gender issues, will lead the discussion about students’ perceptions of gender and poverty during the event.
UniDiversity Week will end on Thursday with a “MISSconceptions: GLBT Presentation with Holly Miller” in the LSC Room 304 at 11 a.m.
Miller, a professor in the College of Criminal Justice, will be talking about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues and the stereotypes associated with the GLBT community.
“There are some really interesting discussions that take place during UniDiversity Week, and we encourage students to get engaged,” said Ashley McDonough, MISS program coordinator.
For more information about UniDiversity Week and the events, contact the Office of MISS at 936.294.3588.
Scott Cunningham, assistant professor of economics at Baylor University, will discuss "Parental Methamphetamine and Foster Care” on Wednesday (April 8).
The last spring Economics Seminar Series lecture for the semester will be held at 3:30 p.m. in Smith-Hutson Building Room 135.
Cunningham’s research looks at one factor to explain why America’s foster care caseloads have almost doubled over the past two decades—parental illicit drug use.
In the study, co-written by Greg Rafert, from The Analysis Group, the two posit with “robust evidence" that "methamphetamine use has led in part to the growth in foster care caseloads.
“Further, in identifying the precise mechanisms that translated growth in methamphetamine use to the observed increase in foster care caseloads, we find that parental incarceration and child neglect have played significant roles in bringing children into the U.S. foster care system,” the paper’s abstract said.
“These results suggest that child welfare policies should be designed specifically for the children of methamphetamine-using parents.”
Cunningham earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and his doctorate from the University of Georgia.
He has taught at Baylor since 2007.
All bets are on as SHSU students, faculty and staff walk across campus and stop by department booths for the annual Poker Walk on Wednesday (April 8).
Hosted by the Department of Recreational Sports, the walk is designed to increase fitness awareness.
Participants will be ‘dealt’ in from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Lowman Student Center Mall Area.
After stops at participating departmental and organizational booths, players will return to the beginning, where their hands will be revealed.
Prizes will be awarded for the best hand; the “High Roller Challenge,” in which departments may win a $50 coffee and chocolates basket; and the “Maverick Award.” The player with the best hand will win a professional set of poker chips.
In addition, prizes such as T-shirts, poker necklaces and goody bags will be raffled off.
Career Services' second annual Etiquette Dinner has been rescheduled for Wednesday (April 8), from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the Katy and E. Don Walker, Sr. Education Center.
The event was originally to take place on April 1 but was rescheduled due to the illness of the guest presenter.
For more information, call Career Services at 936.294.1713.
Students who anticipate attending graduate school in business can now take their Graduate Management Admission Test at SHSU’s Testing Center.
The center will offer the GMAT on the first and third Wednesday of each month. The first test was administered April 1.
“I felt it was very important to our students to be able to offer this opportunity here on campus without the prospective graduate students having to drive to Conroe or Houston in order to take this exam,” said Testing Center coordinator Terri Harvey.
“In the recent past, there was a commuter bus that would stop here on campus to administer the GMAT exams, but I wanted to offer the test here on campus on a more regular basis,” she said. “We provide administration for a variety of tests within our Testing Center and are always looking for ways to increase test offerings and opportunities to our students and to the outside community as well.”
The GMAT exam is a standardized assessment that helps business schools assess the qualifications of applicants for advanced study in business and management, according to the official GMAT Web site.
Students will still have to register and pay through the site, at www.mba.com.
The Testing Center is located in Academic Building IV Room 102.
For more information, contact the center at 936.294.1025 or [email protected].
The American Democracy Project will explore the legacies left by families in recognition of Holocaust Remembrance Day beginning Tuesday (April 7) with the “Burning Issues Film Series” showing of “Inheritance.”
The film will be presented at 3:30 p.m. that day in Academic Building IV Room 220.
“Inheritance,” a documentary, is the story of Monika Hertwig, the daughter of Nazi commander and mass murderer Amon Goeth, who spent her life in the shadow of her father’s sins, trying to come to terms with her “inheritance.”
Goeth was portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in the movie “Schindler’s List.”
She seeks out Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig, who was enslaved by Goeth and is one of the few living eyewitnesses to his unspeakable brutality.
“The women’s raw, emotional meeting unearths terrible truths and lingering questions about how the actions of our parents can continue to ripple through generations,” said Tracy Szymczak, SHSU VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) in charge of the series.
“This film is important because what happened should not be forgotten and it shows the journey of two women dealing with the same legacy and trying to come to terms with it,” she said.
Repeat viewings will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday (April 8) and at 6 p.m. on April 14, also in AB IV Room 220.
Admission is free and all showings are open to the public.
For more information, contact Szymczak at [email protected] or 936.294.1156.
New School of Music faculty member Javier Pinell will perform both masterworks and newer compositions on Monday (April 6).
Pinell will perform with assistant professor of piano Ilonka Rus for the faculty violin recital at 7:30 p.m. in the Recital Hall.
The program will include works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Cesar Franck, as well as newer compositions by French composer Lili Boulanger, Czech composer Ladislav Burlas, and Bolivian composer Gustavo Navarre.
Pinell, an assistant professor of violin and strings area coordinator, has been teaching at SHSU since the fall. He also serves on the violin faculty at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan.
As a performer, he has traveled extensively, appearing with orchestras in Bolivia, Venezuela, Japan, Germany, Luxembourg, Peru and throughout the U.S.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University, his master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, and his doctorate from Florida State University.
Admission is free.
For more information, call the School of Music at 936.294.1360.
The Student Advising and Mentoring Center will give students considering graduate school all of the information they need during an informational seminar on Tuesday (April 7).
The presentation, which will include a question-and-answer session, will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the SAM Center classroom, located in College of Humanities and Social Sciences Building Room 190.
Among the topics that will be discussed are financial aid, organizing applications and the grad school timeline.
Space is limited, and students should call or stop by the SAM Center to sign up.
For more information, or to register, contact Adrienne Langelier at [email protected] or call 936.294.4444.
Criminal justice professor Randy Garner recently was installed as the elected chair of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences: Police Section, the academy’s largest section.
Garner, who became chair in March, will serve a two-year term in the position. He previously served as vice chair for two years and secretary for three.
As chair, Garner said he hopes to institute a number of changes for the academy, including developing a dedicated “police section” Web site, converting the current “police forum” to a more Web-friendly and readable format, increasing section membership, offering membership scholarships for newly-minted doctoral recipients who have published in the area of policing, and several other recommended changes.
In addition, Garner recently has made three presentations: one on legacy leadership, at the Texas Municipal League’s annual convention in San Antonio, which was recorded on DVD; one on legacy leadership in city management, at the Texas City Management Association in Salado, Texas, in February; and one on “In Defense of Cop Shop Pedagogy,” presented at the 2009 annual conference of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.
His article on “Police Stress: Effects of Criticism Management Training on Health” was published in the Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice journal last year, and he also helped develop the curriculum for and participated in the instructional delivery for the first National Jail Leadership and Command Academy held in March 2009.
Information for the SHSU Update can be sent to the Office of Communications electronically at [email protected] or to any of the media contacts listed below.
Please include the date, location and time of the event, as well as a brief description and a contact person.
All information for news stories should be sent to the office at least a week in advance to give the staff ample time to make necessary contacts and write the story.
For electronic access to SHSU news see the Communications Web page Today@Sam.
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Brian Domitrovic, assistant professor of history, appeared on Book TV (C-SPAN) May 1-2, speaking about his recent book "Econoclasts: The Rebels Sparked the Supply Side Revolution and Restored American Prosperity" (www.econoclasts.net).
Houston Chronicle education writer Jeannie Kever recently turned to Regents Professor of English Paul Ruffin for his views on university presses moving toward "digital books" as opposed to traditional ink-on-paper."We're fulfilling the ancient role of the university press, and that is to produce books," said Paul Ruffin, the Texas poet laureate for 2009 and director of the Texas Review Press at Sam Houston State University. "I don't want to give up the book because it is an art."
Monday, May 3
Tuesday, May 4
"The measure of a Life is its Service." | <urn:uuid:0e6b4d9a-6306-4e59-b7cf-f545142456e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shsu.edu/~pin_www/T%40S/2009/apr0509up.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955191 | 2,642 | 1.710938 | 2 |
May 21st, 2013 World Day for Cultural Diversity May 22nd, 2013 National Maritime Day May 22nd, 2013 World Biological Diversity Day May 25th, 2013 African Liberation Day May 26th, 2013 Trinity Sunday May 27th, 2013 Memorial Day May 27th, 2013 Jefferson Davis Birthday May 29th, 2013 International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers May 30th, 2013 Corpus Christi May 31st, 2013 World No Tobacco Day June 1st, 2013 Statehood Day June 3rd, 2013 Jefferson Davis Birthday June 4th, 2013 World Day for Child Victims of Aggression June 5th, 2013 World Environment Day June 6th, 2013 Isra and Mi'raj June 8th, 2013 World Oceans Day June 11th, 2013 Kamehameha Day June 12th, 2013 World Day Against Child Labour June 14th, 2013 World Blood Donor Day June 14th, 2013 Flag Day June 16th, 2013 Father's Day June 17th, 2013 Bunker Hill Day June 17th, 2013 World Day to Combat Desertification June 19th, 2013 Juneteenth June 20th, 2013 World Refugee Day June 20th, 2013 West Virginia Day June 21st, 2013 June Solstice
Description:Two pieces from the 40s or 50s from Ghana. Smaller piece has had both arms repaired locally but bothseem well attached. Height : 12 inches for the larger figure.
Note: shipping amount is an estimate. Seller will provide buyer exact postage based on weight and location, from the U.S. Post Office. requires a weight to be listed in order to list items for sale. Shipping could be less (or more) shown but will be exact.
J. K. Rasmussen: Affordable, AuthenticWest Africanand Tribal Art(new websiteDarkshrine.com)
Selling to galleries and individual buyers since 1998. Based inWashington, D.C.
Exact postage always charged and no handling charges. Excellent response. | <urn:uuid:f2c4a14c-9424-4377-94d7-dc160bbef4f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.holidays.net/store/Old-Ghana-Figures-_290879168517.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937701 | 397 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The Bristol Historical Association Annual Christmas Buffet Luncheon is scheduled for Sunday, December 2 at 12:30pm at The Virginian Golf Club. The association is proud to announce that the program will be led by author Randell Jones on the topic “Trailing Daniel Boone”.
One hundred years ago, the Daughters of the American Revolution left for us all a legacy of patriotic commemoration — Daniel Boone’s Trail. During 1912-1915, the Daughters inNorth Carolina,Tennessee,Virginia, andKentucky erected 45 metal tablets across four hundred miles to honor the life of Daniel Boone and to mark for future generations his path through the Appalachian Mountain barrier, a path that enabledAmerica’s Western Movement.
The idea for such a trail sprang from the creative mind of the industrious Mrs. Lindsay Patterson ofWinston-Salem,North Carolina. She served as chairman of the trail-marking effort and ushered the private project to completion with the participation of Daughters, volunteers, and advisors. A patriotic public gathered to dedicate each marker, and newspapers eagerly wrote accounts of local ceremonies including the joint ceremony atCumberland Gapattended by thousands. But the world did not stand still during this project, and the effort took place against a backdrop of the Progressive Era, presidential elections, campaigns for temperance and equal suffrage, war in Europe, and the opening of thePanama Canal.
This is a story that has been too long forgotten, one resurrected now from the pages of century old newspapers, the annals of the DAR, and a diligent search across the countryside to find the remaining 27 markers and to discover what happened to those which have disappeared.
Randell Jones is the author of the award-winning book, In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone, and the award-winning companion DVD, On the Trail of Daniel Boone. His 2011 release, Before They Were Heroes at King’s Mountain, also received a Willie Parker Peace History Book Award. He lives inWinston-Salem,NC.
The public is invited to attend this special holiday luncheon. The cost is $28 per person and reservations will be received through November 26. Please mail your check made to the Bristol Historical Association to: Roxann Coulthard,140 Peachtree Circle,BristolVirginia24201.
The Bristol Historical Association was founded in 1979 and currently owns a number of historic properties, including the birthplace of Tennessee Ernie Ford and the Robert Preston house. The association recently purchased the acreage around the 200-plus year old residence and is firming up plans for fundraising and then renovation of the property. Contact Tim Buchanan, program chairman, for further details on this or other association programs, 276-669-3885. | <urn:uuid:1ba8f424-a332-4081-9f12-9ef7ac84cf46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesnews.net/article/9054229/author-to-discuss-daniel-boone-at-bristol-historical-association-luncheon | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930726 | 563 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The joint Senate-House resolution calling for a constitutional amendment on corporate personhood that has been rattling around the Legislature for some time finally passed in the House with a vote of 92-40.
Debate on the floor fell mostly down party lines, with several Republicans arguing against the bill and Democrats calling attention to similarly worded resolutions passed by 64 towns on Town Meeting Day.
Rep. Thomas Koch, R-Barre, argued the entire resolution infringed on First Amendment rights, while Rep. Brian Savage, R-Swanton, questioned the nature of the mandate given on Town Meeting Day because it represented less than half the state’s population.
“The U.S. government may not pick or choose those who are entitled to engage in public speech,” Koch said. “Just as Kennedy and Roberts in the majority opinion said that we find no basis for the proposition that in the context of political speech the government may impose restrictions on certain disfavored speakers, political speech does not lose First Amendment protection simply because its source is a corporation.”
Rep. Oliver Olsen, R-Jamaica, posed an amendment to the resolution that would have limited campaign contributions from the domestic subsidiaries of foreign corporations. Under current law, foreign corporations are barred from making contributions.
Olsen’s amendment alluded to Green Mountain Power’s close ties to the Shumlin administration and an inaugural party held for the new governor when he took office in 2010. Olsen expressed concern about the undue influence of foreign corporations and their governments on U.S. politics.
However, several representatives felt the amendment did not reflect the intention of Vermont towns that voted on resolutions similar to J.R.S. 11 on Town Meeting Day.
“I think it’s important that we honor the intent and specific requests of people who voted in those town meetings who so many of us in this body represent by asking us to do what they asked,” said Rep. Richard Marek, D-Windham.
Marek said that while it was unlikely the resolution would have a huge impact on Vermont, at least it reflected the will of the state.
Another amendment from Rep. Dustin Degree (R-Franklin) failed to add reference to unions in addition to corporations. | <urn:uuid:71469793-f21a-4b61-9974-b86e5110f28f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vtdigger.org/2012/04/19/constitutional-amendment-on-corporate-personhood-passes-on-party-line-vote-in-the-senate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958833 | 469 | 1.507813 | 2 |
May 23, 2011
Photo by Vicki Harris
Stories this photo appears in:
Let's face it, with the high costs of gas and food in addition to demanding schedules that include trying to balance any combination of work, school, family, and everyday responsibilities, it is not uncommon that a lot of people are short on cash and time. But, that doesn't mean that vacations have to be put out of mind altogether. It just might take a little more thought, an adjustment in perspective, and a little creativity.
Have you ever held .364onto a favorite dress or pair of jeans that no longer fit you, but for one reason or another, you just couldn't bring yourself to let them go?
There's an old Chinese proverb that says "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
There is a quote by the poet Alexander Pope that says, "A man should never be ashamed to own when he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday."
Did the storm skip over you?As a child, I can remember hearing the grown-ups say, "If you ain't gone through nothing yet, just keep on living." It wasn't grammatically correct, but it was certainly a fact-a fact of life that reminds us that we all encounter storms in our lives.
A long time ago, one Sunday morning, I recall being in church where an old lady, I believe in her late eighties, made her way to the front of the congregation.
Sometimes in order to get the help you need, you must let someone know you need it. As easy a task as that sounds, it can be much more difficult to carry out.
I don't think I know of any faster way to set off a near tirade, beginning with the almost automatic "you do not ask me why; just do what I tell you to do" assertion, than for a child to ask a parent-"why?""Thou shall not ask a parent why" could have just as well been the eleventh commandment.
Dear shame,I am writing you this letter to let you know I no longer need you in my life. I admit it has taken me a long time to get to this place. You've been a part of me for so long that I thought we were friends.
What do you suppose is the number one rule in grocery shopping? I think it has to be- "Do not shop while hungry." Right?
Most of us have often heard the metaphoric saying "don't judge a book by its cover." It cautions us against forming presumptions about a person or thing's value.
I believe you can fly."Sometimes you have to pack light before you can take flight. When you are trying to go somewhere, you can't always pack your luggage to the max.
Although the month has passed, black history should be celebrated every day through the way in which we live our lives. So many paths have been pioneered for us, from athletics to medicine to the U.S. presidency.
You know that you were wrong. You realize that you made a mistake. It occurred to you that "this time" someone else was right or that they were telling the truth.
Have you ever been washing laundry or been around someone who was and heard the washer begin to make a loud thumping, bumping kind of noise? | <urn:uuid:2627f596-4646-45b3-8f0e-9cfbe57dc7ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albanyherald.com/photos/2011/may/23/6085/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985691 | 724 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Bose, R.N., Maurmann, L., Mishur, R.J., Yasui, L., Gupta, S., Grayburn, W.S., Hofstetter, H. and Salley, T.
Notes: The authors were interested in testing platinum (Pt) anticancer drugs that do not bind to DNA to see how they worked in cisplatin- and carboplatin-resistant cells. The human ovarian cancer cells, A2780 and A2780/C30, were seeded in T75 cm2 flasks with 1.0 × 107 cells. After 24 hours, the cells were treated with 0, 10, 20, 30 and 50µM Pt compounds for 24 hours. Medium was removed, the cells washed, trypsinized and centrifuged. Genomic DNA was isolated using the Wizard® SV Genomic DNA Purification System and quantitated using absorbance at 260nm. This DNA was using in DNA-Pt binding assessment. (4019) | <urn:uuid:59e4383e-1a2a-44ca-aadc-1848b7f2b0cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cn.promega.com/resources/tools/citations/?p=3b2f6c33-138d-44c6-ba3c-c287928721e3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9449 | 208 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Subject: Clinton Calls On Congress To Keep Politics Out Of Disaster Relief
Here is the full statement by President Bill Clinton calling on Congress to keep politics out of the disaster relief legislation:
"By attaching a political wish list to the much-needed disaster relief legislation, the congressional majority has chosen politics over the public interest.
"The people of the Dakotas and Minnesota have been hit hard by devastating floods. They, and the people in other states around the country that have suffered disasters, urgently need funds from the enactment of a straightforward disaster relief bill. I have asked the Congress for such legislation.
"Instead, the Republican majority in Congress has insisted on attaching to this vital legislation political provisions that they know are unacceptable. Among them, the bill would violate our balanced budget agreement, cutting critical investments in education and the environment, instead of providing important increases in investments in these and other areas. In addition, it would prohibit the Commerce Department from taking steps to improve the accuracy and cut the costs of the Year 2000 decennial census. There are other unacceptable provisions as well. None of them have any place in this legislation.
"Disaster relief legislation is neither the time nor the place for these matters. Congress needs to appropriate this disaster relief so communities can begin long-term recovery, and funds can continue for families to rebuild homes and businesses and farmers to dig out their fields to plant crops.
"I call on the Republican leaders of Congress to keep the politics off disaster relief legislation. They should now, without delay, send me straightforward legislation without provisions that are not in the interest of the American people and that they know I will not accept."
Copyright © 1997 AllPolitics All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this information is provided to you. | <urn:uuid:be637405-3d80-45da-b5af-9fa13b236df1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/06/06/email/clinton/index.html?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS | 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 | 0.941788 | 354 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Detecting lip service
Since opportunities for a public response are somewhat limited in Harrison I write prompted by the Winter 2013 Newsletter from the mayor and council of Harrison Hot Springs. I do not challenge the good hearts or intent of council but recollect the words of Thoreau: “There is no odour so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.”
I detect the aroma of lip service, tokenism and if not paternalism at the very least juvenilization.
This council may accomplish much that appears good but if achieved without following the principles of democracy, which can be contentious and tedious at times, these results are as Thoreau said tainted, and indeed the democracy that we value is threatened.
I am unsure who needs a louder wake-up call, we as citizens or our council. James Madison has said: “I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
Or as R.M. Hutchins has said: “The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush, it will be a slow extinction from apathy and indifference and undernourishment.”
I believe we all need to wake up, shake our heads and examine what is democracy and are we actively practicing its tenets in Harrison. I suggested that both we as citizens and our council are failing in this most vital task.
I will also quote Abraham Lincoln: “If by mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written right, it might in a moral point of view justify revolution, certainly would if such a right were vital one.”
I see the democratic right to publicly speak even at times in dissent being eroded and many of us as citizens are shirking our democratic responsibility if we remain silent. I am not advocating revolt but if I may paraphrase another of James Madison’s quotes: “a popular government without popular input or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or both.”
I do not wish either of these for Harrison but I fear both if we continue our apathy, indifference and lack of dialogue and transparency and accountability which are the foundations of democracy. | <urn:uuid:6083fc90-0dd7-4770-b89e-e7a9b6652a20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.agassizharrisonobserver.com/opinion/letters/192560101.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955649 | 478 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Changing weather conditions are to be blamed for three separate water main breaks along Hunt Road last week.
The first break came on Feb. 17 at Hunt Road and Southwestern Drive. The second happened on Thursday at Hunt Road and Howard Street. The third break was on Friday at Hunt Road and South Hanford Avenue. As a result, the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities has been busy repairing the breaks.
"The fact that three events happened on Hunt Road this week is a coincidence," said Becky Robbins, communications coordinator for the BPU. "They are not connected in any way that we know of."
Since the beginning of January through Feb. 22, the BPU reported 24 water main breaks. In comparison, for the same dates in 2012, only 20 breaks occurred.
"The reason we have main breaks at this time of year is, the temperature fluctuates from warm to cold and cold to warm again," Robbins said. "That causes the ground around the water mains to shift. Sometimes, the ground shifts into the water mains, causing the lines to break."
In order to repair the water main break, BPU water employees must turn off the water. Water may be turned off to one or two houses, or in some situations, water may be turned off to several streets at once.
The BPU notifies its customers when it plans to replace or repair a water line in advance. It does so by tagging doors, alerting media and posting alerts via social media. However, water main breaks are sudden and unexpected, which causes inconvenience.
"When water is restored after repairs are made, water direction in the water lines changes," Robbins said. "When water direction changes, the water stirs and discolors for 12-18 hours. When water is discolored, it is best not to run it. Check on the color now and then before starting laundry. Running the water until it 'runs clear' will only pull more of the discolored water into your home and cause more frustration and trouble with the color." | <urn:uuid:44fc335f-591c-4095-94d2-9a4214088f57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://post-journal.com/page/content.detail/id/618402/Weather-Causes-Water-Main-Breaks-In-City.html?nav=5057 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955645 | 419 | 1.570313 | 2 |
News tagged with students
Related topics: school , high school students , education , science , college students
(HealthDay)—When looking for ways to get a heavy child moving, soccer could prove a winner.
Overweight and Obesity Feb 26, 2013 | not rated yet | 0
A first-of-its kind national survey of medical students and residents finds that despite recent efforts by medical schools and academic medical centers to restrict access of pharmaceutical sales representatives ...
Other Feb 26, 2013 | not rated yet | 0
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a group of progenitor cells in the inner ear that can become the sensory hair cells and adjacent supporting cells that enable hearing. Studying these ...
Medical research Feb 26, 2013 | 5 / 5 (3) | 1 |
Giving back through volunteering is good for your heart, even at a young age, according to University of British Columbia researchers.
Pediatrics Feb 25, 2013 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0
For chronic pain sufferers, such as people who develop back pain after a car accident, avoiding the harmful effects of stress may be key to managing their condition. This is particularly important for people with a smaller-than-average ...
Neuroscience Feb 25, 2013 | not rated yet | 0
Reports from a new survey show Wyoming continues to see overall significant declines in junior high and high school students saying they use alcohol and tobacco.
Health Feb 22, 2013 | not rated yet | 0
High school students whose friends' average grade point average (GPA) is greater than their own have a tendency to increase their own GPA over the course of a year, according to research published February 13 in the open ...
Psychology & Psychiatry Feb 13, 2013 | 3 / 5 (1) | 0
(Medical Xpress)—The onset of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is unpredictable. Because it depends on the unforeseeable occurrence of traumatic events, it is difficult to identify preventative or ...
Psychology & Psychiatry Feb 13, 2013 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0
When is it time for parents to back away? A new study shows that college students with overcontrolling parents are more likely to be depressed and less satisfied with their lives. This so-called helicopter parenting style ...
Psychology & Psychiatry Feb 12, 2013 | not rated yet | 0
Children who are bullied online or by mobile phone are just as likely to skip school or consider suicide as kids who are physically bullied, according to a study led by a Michigan State University criminologist.
Psychology & Psychiatry Feb 11, 2013 | not rated yet | 0
(Medical Xpress)—Australians are being warned of a higher risk of stroke caused by the nation's most common heart rhythm disorder, atrial fibrillation.
Cardiology Feb 11, 2013 | not rated yet | 0 |
(Medical Xpress)—A study conducted in the University at Buffalo Department of Psychology has found that college students who drink to cope with anxiety may experience more negative alcohol-related consequences than peers ...
Psychology & Psychiatry Feb 07, 2013 | 1 / 5 (1) | 0
Deaf and hard of hearing (DHoH) people must overcome significant professional barriers, particularly in health care professions. A number of accommodations are available for hearing-impaired physicians, such as electronic ...
Health Feb 05, 2013 | 1 / 5 (1) | 0
(Medical Xpress)—A University of Michigan campus survey on attitudes and behaviors around eating found that students diet regularly, dislike their bodies, fear gaining weight and seldom seek help for eating ...
Health Feb 05, 2013 | not rated yet | 0
(HealthDay)—Roughly one-third of physician assistants (PAs) choose to work in primary care, according to a study published in the January/February issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.
Health Feb 01, 2013 | not rated yet | 0 | <urn:uuid:5ade15de-7642-4d5d-9fb2-59a1960cbc76> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://medicalxpress.com/tags/students/page6.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951974 | 815 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The university is gearing up to build a big student-housing complex on what it calls the “Anna Head West” parking lot. This project poses complex and vital issues, including ones regarding the UC-owned and historic Anna Head property itself and the project’s relationships with the also-historic surrounding neighborhood.
Within the large block that’s bounded by Bowditch Street, Channing Way, Haste Street, and Telegraph Avenue, UC now owns 2.79 acres. But for much of its history this acreage was in two significantly distinct parts. (The distinction has gotten blurred because parking now sprawls across much of the former lot line.) I’ll call them the “Anna Head campus” and the “Hinkel estate.”
The rectangular Anna Head campus occupies the block’s easternmost 300 feet, is landmarked, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Anna Head School, an important private facility for girls, operated here from 1892 till UC bought the property in the 1960s. That school developed the remarkable planned ensemble of Brown Shingle buildings that we see today, the Bay Region’s largest such grouping. These buildings were interspersed with diverse outdoor areas and landscaping that were used in the curriculum and contributed to the school’s image. The buildings are now occupied by various UC entities but decades of deferred maintenance have left much of their exterior fabric in poor condition. Most of the open space has been harmfully invaded by auto parking. Yet as emphasized in the pertinent HSR (Historic Structure Report) that was done this year for UC, the “spatial organization of the site” is still intact—and is both “character-defining” and “very significant.” One important feature of this layout is that there’s still continuous open space between the historic buildings and Channing Way.
The Hinkel estate is a rectangle comprising the western 150 feet of UC’s present landholding. On it, in about 1895, a large house was built for prominent Berkeleyan John Hinkel (for whom today’s park in north Berkeley is named). The house faced Channing and the estate also had generous landscaped grounds extending down to Haste. Later on, the house was for some years a noteworthy “approved” residence for women students, and called Casa Hispana. UC bought the property in 1948 and demolished the house about a decade later. The land is now paved over for parking, though several large trees remain.
UC says it’s preparing a “master plan” for all its property on the block. But it emphasizes that the imminent project per se “does not include renovation of the Anna Head buildings.”
The project as such is to build what a May 2008 RFQ anticipated as a “479-bed student housing complex”: a 134-bed freshman residence hall plus a 345-bed apartment building for upper-division students. The design process has already begun and construction supposedly will start in May 2010. Please note: UC says the project site covers not just the entire Hinkel estate but also the now-open northwest corner of the Anna Head campus per se.
Though the RFQ said the site’s present parking would be “partially replaced on-site,” a subsequent UC fact sheet apparently says none of it will be.
Unfortunately it seems that the new construction would extend into the Anna Head campus itself and thereby disrupt the latter’s historic spatial organization—which UC’s own HSR says “should be maintained.” Especially if there’s any such intrusion, project mitigation per se should include restoring the full original extent of the front lawn area along Channing. (The HSR recommends that restoration in any event.) Is the project’s density excessive? With 479 beds, it would be notably denser than UC’s present “Channing-Bowditch” housing across the street. An important concern here is livability for the project’s own future residents.
How will the new buildings be massed and oriented? This will of course signficantly affect the project’s livability—and its compatibility with the surroundings.
Indeed will the project be visually, and functionally, sensitive enough to the special context? It should conscientiously relate to, and take cues from, the Anna Head buildings—and the impressive larger cluster of historic structures that nearly surrounds People’s Park. Even more broadly, it should contribute importantly toward reknitting the badly frayed fabric of the general Southside neighborhood.
Will the new housing sufficiently provide “eyes on the street”? It would be good to have multiple doors adjoining the public sidewalk. Street-facing terraces or balconies would also help.
How will the housing relate to People’s Park? It should be so designed as to encourage wholesome recreational use of the park by students, and give perceived surveillance of what’s long been a pretty unsavory corner of the park.
How will the project acknowledge, such as with plaques, the Hinkel estate’s own interesting history?
The project site now offers public parking very close to Telegraph’s shops and restaurants. Even if UC replaces this with parking somewhere else, will that happen anytime soon and at a location similarly convenient for customers?
When will the historic Anna Head buildings ever get the rehab they sorely need? The master plan should include serious commitments and timelines for this. It should also include compatibly reusing some of these buildings’ upper floors as housing for faculty, staff, grad students, or visiting scholars.
UC hosted an “informal discussion” of the project on Dec. 17: miserable timing. when students were busy taking finals. Only 16 or 17 people showed up and about half of them were UC staff. Though attendees mentioned diverse relevant issues, none got discussed at any length. The whole thing was over in two hours: a typically unsatisfying UC gesture toward public involvement.
Meatier meetings are needed—and very soon, while the project’s design is still within the conceptual stage. In them, meaningful alternatives should be posed and seriously discussed. So should strong mitigation measures.
If UC is truly open and responsive, the result for town and gown could be a real win-win. But will the 800-pound gorilla listen?
John English is a very nearby longtime resident of the Southside neighborhood. | <urn:uuid:d4f30f9a-5c1c-4cd5-a758-7d19e1e3c8cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-01-08/article/31932?headline=Housing-and-History-at-Anna-Head--By-John-English | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957765 | 1,352 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Quotas for women: for or against?
For Twitter followers of the EU justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, it will be clear what has been on her mind recently. From 5 October until the middle of last week, she had tweeted 17 times. Apart from when she was distracted by the award of the Nobel peace prize to the EU and gave a single tweet to welcome it, the rest were about the vexed question as to how to advance women in the boardroom.
The recent political history is recited in her Twitter account in short bursts - ‘It's time to shatter the glass ceiling keeping women out of top jobs’; ‘Without women on board, European companies will lose the battle for the best and the brightest’; ‘All Commissioners w/ economic portfolios join me in this battle’; ‘This week, I will fight for a Directive to bring about gender equality in corporate boardrooms’; ‘Of course, there will be some opposition’; ‘Gender balance directive postponed’; ‘I will not give up. @BarrosoEU will put this on the Commission agenda again before the end of November’. So, battle will be resumed on 14 November over whether to have a quota of 40% by 2020 imposed on publicly-listed European companies.
Depending on the attitude you take to quotas, the UK government has played a shameful/heroic part in this delay, because Vince Cable – that famous woman who has succeeded against all odds in spite of her gender – led a group of nine governments in opposing the notion of quotas. Interestingly, in commissioner Reding’s efforts to persuade her fellow commissioners to back quotas, we are told that numerous powerful men joined her – Barroso himself, Michel Barnier (internal market), Antonio Tajani (industry), Olli Rehn (economic affairs), Joaquín Almunia (competition), László Andor (employment) and Andris Piebalgs (development) – while numerous powerful women apparently opposed her - Neelie Kroes (digital agenda), Cecilia Malmström (home affairs), our very own Catherine Ashton (external action), Connie Hedegaard (climate action) and Máire Geoghegan-Quinn (research).
A further interesting aspect of this dilemma is that the only directly-elected part of the EU institutions – the parliament – is in favour of quotas. The heads of the principal parties - EPP (conservatives), Socialist, Liberal and Greens, as well as the radical left - would prefer if quotas were not necessary, but point out that the percentage of women on the executive boards of big European companies is still too low. Within listed public enterprises, only 14% are at the highest level of decision-making, even though 60% of university graduates in the EU are women.
This saga has become intertwined with another taking place simultaneously, where the parliament has been able to use its limited muscle: the appointment of a new board member to the European Central Bank. A Luxembourg man, Yves Mersch, has been nominated. No one doubts his qualifications for the post, but he is the wrong gender for some, since the rest of the ECB’s board is made up of men, and there will not be the opportunity to appoint anyone new again until 2018. The European parliament, which has only a consultative (and not a blocking) role, has voted against his nomination by 325 votes to 300, with 49 abstentions. One MEP asked him to withdraw his candidacy, which he refused to do. There was a female ECB board member - Gertrude Tumpel Gugerell - until last year.
At the International Women in Law Summit 2012, hosted by the Law Society earlier this year to mark International Women’s Day, women lawyers opposed quotas as patronising, and preferred diversity targets. However, commissioner Reding would presumably say that she has tried that: she started by calling on enterprises to sign European pledges, but only 24 responded to her call. Norway is usually cited as the country where quotas for women in the boardroom have worked, and there is background information on the long-running debate.
This is a very difficult issue on which there are proper and reasonable arguments on both sides. Since it is cowardly to describe the issue in some detail and not take sides, I will say I support the Reding party.
Jonathan Goldsmith is secretary general of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, which represents about one million European lawyers through its member bars and law societies. He blogs weekly for the Gazette on European affairs
- Dealing with corruption in the UK
- Will ABSs be allowed to cross EU borders?
- The dilemma of small claims
- Model of a modern secretary general
- Promoting European legal values abroad
- Mrs Thatcher and me
- Catherine, the language warrior
- Oscars for the best EU legal system
- Would you earn more in France?
- Spotlight on the European courts | <urn:uuid:49c87849-0b9e-45e0-87ac-798754bac984> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/blogs/blogs/euro-blog/quotas-women-or-against | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96384 | 1,036 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Facebook in goldmine potential deficit
I know, shocking... bitch
Social networking sites will start going titsup in 2009, according to analysts, and may begin trying to charge users for the ability to publish videos of their cat playing the piano.
The wheels have been coming off the Web 2.0 bandwagon for a few months now. News that the "Long Tail" theory - an article of faith for True Believers - doesn't fit the real world was broken here in November. And now, on less philosophical ground, Deloitte has come to the stunning conclusion that providing unlimited online storage for everyone, forever, isn't necessarily the best idea for a business anyone ever had.
"The book value of some social networks may be written down and some companies may fail altogether if funding dries up," said Paul Lee, Deloitte director of research for technology and telecommunications, the Telegraph reports.
En Anglais, that means too much was paid for the social networks that have been acquired (see AOL's insane $850m purchase of Bebo, and CBS' $280m Last.fm punt), and the ones that haven't will struggle to get more cash from witless venture capitalists.
"Average revenue per user for some of the largest new media sites is measured in just pennies per month, not pounds," Lee said. "This compares with a typical average revenue per user of tens of dollars for a cable subscriber, a regular newspaper reader or a movie fan." Microsoft's investment in Facebook in October 2007 valued its then-50 million users at $300 each.
On a social network, you're the product rather than the customer. In fact that's completely true of all ad-supported websites including El Reg, and true to varying degrees for all media. But as it transpires, the difference is that on Facebook you and your friends just aren't worth very much at all.
The social networking boom (in users, not revenues, you understand) was fired by free software and cheap storage - it's just not cheap enough. We witnessed the early effects of that fact with the closure of also-ran video site Stage6 earlier this year.
"Many of the most popular social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, do not yet generate large profits," the Telegraph informs us.
That's technically accurate and very truthy, but here's a true version: Many of the popular social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, do not generate any profits, and perhaps never will. In fact, Twitter not only doesn't generate large profits, it doesn't generate any revenues. None at all.
Facebook meanwhile has revenues, thanks to ad deals cut as its buzz peaked in 2007. In net it is losing hundreds of millions of dollars to build the world's largest database of personal trivia. Its most likely fate is as the subject of a small acquisition in the next two years that ought to prompt blushes at Redmond over the $240m Microsoft paid for a mere 1.6 per cent of preferred Facebook stock. The likely buyer will be the owner of a web search business (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!), who will use Facebook as a loss leader to send queries through its contextual text ads system. To see this in action revisit Google's $1.6bn acquisition of YouTube. ® | <urn:uuid:5500a36c-061d-4747-82c5-544b1ffbadd2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/29/social_networking_deloitte/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956651 | 671 | 1.5 | 2 |
Orange, CA (PRWEB) February 18, 2013
More and more employees may need to provide their own health insurance coverage in the coming years.
According to the Wall Street Journal, many employers are seeking out private contractors to help them run their business as opposed to hiring part or full time employees.
The reason comes down to the Affordable Care Act’s requirement for businesses with 50 employees or more having to provide health insurance options or pay a hefty penalty.
And for small businesses, that penalty, nor providing health insurance, is an option. So to be able to push their businesses and stay within the law, most of them are choosing 1099 employees.
In turn, those 1099 employees need to find their own coverage. And HealthCompare provides the marketplace where contractors can find affordable coverage.
Contractors seeking their own health insurance should visit HealthCompare.com for a free health insurance quote today.
About Health Compare: HealthCompare was launched in 2009 to work with brokers and carriers to help individuals and families easily research, compare, buy, and enroll in the right health insurance plan at the right price. Based in Orange, Calif., it delivers accurate, customized, health insurance quotes for the country's diverse population.
Through a unique partnership with its sister company, CONEXIS, HealthCompare has the ability to quickly reach thousands of COBRA-qualifying consumers and provide them with COBRA alternatives at the moment they become eligible for COBRA benefits. This provides these consumers with an opportunity to enroll in individual or family plans and potentially save hundreds to thousands of dollars on COBRA premiums and, at the same time, rewards referring brokers with referral fee income for the life of each policy.
For more information, visit http://healthcompare.com/ or call 888.748.5152. | <urn:uuid:c5e79cad-8ffc-44f9-ad47-8299d0fefff4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2013/2/prweb10383520.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944049 | 373 | 1.515625 | 2 |
As the state budget debate enters its final weeks, Harrisburg faith leader Stephen Drachler is abstaining from solid foods to draw attention to the impact of budget decisions on Pennsylvania's most vulnerable — children, seniors, people with disabilities and families living in poverty.
Last week, Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Amy Worden profiled Drachler, who once served as a spokesman for state House Republicans and now leads United Methodist Advocacy in Pennsylvania:
Once the consummate political insider, Drachler has adopted the mantle of outsider, sending letters and e-mails to lawmakers, holding news conferences on the Capitol steps.
Most recently, he made a personal sacrifice, giving up solid food to protest proposed state budget cuts that he says will harm the most vulnerable citizens.
'People get so embroiled in the numbers they forget it's about people,' Drachler said of his fast. 'Those line items represent hundreds of moral decisions.'
Drachler explains in more detail on the United Methodist Advocacy web site the reason behind the "Fast for PA's Vulnerable":
Fast for PA’s Vulnerable is our expression of deep concern through prayer, for our elected leaders during the budget process. We believe these are moral decisions, moral choices they are making. We believe it is important to tell our leaders to enact a moral budget.
Government’s top priority must be caring for the most vulnerable in our midst. That means making sure they are not pawns in this highly politicized environment.
We pray for God to touch the hearts of our elected leaders. We pray they find solutions to protect the vulnerable. We pray they set side today’s extreme partisanship and do what is right for the poor, the sick, and the homeless.
We pray that concerned citizens will join us, and will contact their leaders to express their concerns.
The fast, now in its fourth week, will continue until a 2011-12 state budget is passed. It is punctuated each legislative session day with a one-hour prayer vigil from noon to 1 p.m. on the Capitol Steps or in the East Wing Rotunda. Everyone is welcome to join the prayer vigils. Here's the schedule:
Monday, June 6 – Top of Front Capitol Steps
Tuesday, June 7 – Top of Front Capitol Steps
Wednesday, June 8 – Top of Front Capitol Steps
Thursday, June 9 – East Wing Rotunda
Friday, June 10 – East Wing Rotunda
Monday, June 13 – East Wing Rotunda
Tuesday, June 14 – Top of Front Capitol Steps
Wednesday, June 15 – East Wing Rotunda
Thursday, June 16 – East Wing Rotunda
Friday, June 17 – East Wing Rotunda
Monday, June 20 – East Wing Rotunda
Tuesday, June 21 – East Wing Rotunda
Wednesday, June 22 – East Wing Rotunda
Thursday, June 23 – East Wing Rotunda
Friday, June 24 – East Wing Rotunda
Monday, June 27 – East Wing Rotunda
Tuesday, June 28 – East Wing Rotunda
Wednesday, June 29 – East Wing Rotunda
Thursday, June 30 – East Wing Rotunda | <urn:uuid:cd35d2c7-f693-4ee7-9a56-3d5b4c160e3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thirdandstate.org/2011/june/fasting-pennsylvanias-most-vulnerable | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947462 | 644 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Friday, Oct. 23, I was appalled to read an article in the West Central Tribune concerning the charges against Isidoro Martinez. He is charged with two felony counts for wrongfully obtaining assistance and for check forgery. This man obtained over $21,000 in assistance between Dec. 1, 2003, and Oct. 31, 2006. (Is that when he moved to North Dakota?) The article stated that Isidoro Martinez is "on the 'list'" for being in our country illegally and, therefore, not able to work.
So as I would understand it, the rules are: If you are in this country illegally, you are not able to work, but you can legally obtain assistance? Is this right? Wouldn't it be better to be here illegally and working and leave the assistance monies for those who really need it, such as legal American citizens who are working, but cannot make ends meet?
What will it take to get welfare reform? What will it take to make the process better to eliminate these errors in judgment? It seems that we have had several of these fraudulent cases lately where several thousand dollars has been given out to people who have received assistance illegally. | <urn:uuid:fb98368a-456c-4120-a1bf-b7a8e96427a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wctrib.com/content/letter-time-welfare-reform?qt-latest_trending_article_page=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984747 | 240 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Geographical Index > United States > Illinois > Jackson County > Article # 602
Media Article # 602
Article submitted by Stan Courtney
Article prepared and posted by Stan Courtney
Thursday, June 28, 1973
Monster watching popular
Carbondale Southern Illinoisan
No new sightings
There were no reports of new sightings of Murphysboro's Big Muddy Monster today, but it wasn't because no one was looking for him, or it, or whatever.
Murphysboro Police reported Riverside Park, the area of two sightings earlier this week, was a "beehive of cars."
Police said hundreds of cars drove through the park during the night and said there were several groups of overnight campers, some apparently trying to catch a glimpse of the city's latest mystery.
A creature described as seven feet tall, covered with white hair and mud, was reported seen by two people parked near the boat launching ramp near the east end of Riverside Park Monday night.
Tuesday night two teen-agers reported they saw a figure of identical description, near the back yard of a home in Westwood Hills Subdivision, just northwest of Riverside Park.
On July 25, 1972, Leroy Summers, Cairo, reported to Cairo Police that he saw what he described as a hairy, white, two-legged creature standing 10 feet tall. Summers reportedly spotted the creature near the Ohio River levee in Cairo.
Murphysboro police said several routine patrols were made through the Riverside Park area, but said no new reports were received of any unusual activity.
Murphysboro Police and Jackson County authorities found tracks in a grassy area near the Westwood home Tuesday night. A dog followed a trail to a barn on a vacant farm, but police found nothing in the barn. | <urn:uuid:34c0612c-38cc-43d4-8ab5-52795c7d622e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_article.asp?id=602 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976041 | 361 | 1.695313 | 2 |
fr michael ellias
More than sixty Antiochian Orthodox Christians travelled to Lebanon from December 7 through December 14, 2011, and three of them returned as newly consecrated auxiliary bishops Bishop John (Abdalah), Bishop Anthony (Michaels) and Bishop Nicholas (Ozone). The Vice Chairman of the Archdiocese Board of Trustees, Mr. Fawaz El Khoury, and Archpriest Thomas Zain together planned and directed an extraordinary itinerary for the North American pilgrims which provided an opportunity to witness the glories of Lebanon in addition to the overwhelmingly joyful consecrations themselves.
While others have chronicled both the details of the December trip greater detail, it occurred to me that at least one stop on our extensive travels provided an excellent metaphor both for the consecration of the new bishops and for the function of bishops in our Holy Tradition. Toward the end of the trip we were able to venture into the mountains to behold the glory of the famous Cedars of Lebanon.
This leg of the trip began from our hotel literally at sea level where it was warm and sunny and took us along winding highways to reach the snow covered mountains of northern Lebanon. Although the temperature was just above freezing, the sun was brilliant and the cedars soared majestically. The local guides and souvenir vendors provided fascinating details about their precious cedar forest. One guide claimed he could point to the very trees which adorned the Lebanese flag, the national coinage, and the airplanes of Middle East Airlines.
The Order of St. Ignatius of Antioch and International Christian Charities (IOCC)
In the parable of the Sower and the Seed (Matthew 13:1–23), Jesus explains to His disciples that the one “who receives the word on good ground is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Each year the Order of St. Ignatius of Antioch makes a grant to International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC). This annual grant of $25,000 is much like the seed or word which falls on good ground. IOCC uses this “seed money” and leverages it with grants from governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations and churchbased charities to bear fruit in abundance. Here are some examples: | <urn:uuid:2cd50c25-787d-48c7-a5e1-8e01a24433fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.antiochian.org/category/article-topics/fr-michael-ellias | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949844 | 478 | 1.695313 | 2 |
The seventeenth Sharpe novel sees Sharpe returning from India to London to join the newly formed Green Jackets.
Soldier, hero, rogue – Sharpe is the man you always want on your side. Born in poverty, he joined the army to escape jail and climbed the ranks by sheer brutal courage. He knows no other family than the regiment of the 95th Rifles whose green jacket he proudly wears.
In this adventure, Sharpe is on his way home from India. He is sailing with the Royal Navy, who are hunting a formidable French warship, the ‘Revenant’, carrying a secret treaty that may prove lethal to the British.
The ‘Revenant’ makes it to the safety of the French and Spanish fleets off Cadiz, and it seems Sharpe’s enemies have found safety. Yet over the horizon is another fleet, led by Nelson, and Sharpe’s revenge will come in a savage climax when the two armadas meet on a calm October day off Cape Trafalgar. | <urn:uuid:11361974-13c6-4878-a3bb-6f440760730d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sharpes-Trafalgar-Bernard-Cornwell/dp/0002261073 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957556 | 213 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Modern office for corporate company inspired by Polycrystalline minerals shows resilience in a tough environment
GUODIAN Ningxia Solar Co. Ltd Office Building is located in Shizuishan, Ningxia Province. Polycrystalline silicon is GUODIAN's key product, so they wanted the design to feature its high-tech image. Therefore, the architects' goal was to treat the corporate image and meet the needs of the office.
The architectural design was explored with the need for architectural and interior space and the shape as its starting points. Considering corporate features and combining the shape of Polycrystalline minerals with a modern aesthetic, the architects have created a unique architectural space experience. The efficient solar energy technology also introduces an 'eco-architecture' concept into design.
In the dry and dusty climate of Ningxia, anti-corrosion of wind or sand is the main concern. The façade was made of a series of galvanized corrugated plates of different colour and shape, also rendering a very strong impact of modernity. The red and white façade makes this building the landmark of the area, while the colourful metallic fabric also reflects the high-tech features of a modern corporation.
Because the exterior space in Ningxia area is not suitable for people to stay for hours on end, the architects applied green methods to penetrate different plants into the interior. By expanding the interior space and by means of a greenhouse effect, they have created a comfortable interior environment that diminishes the need for people to stay outside. | <urn:uuid:752496bf-be07-42ef-b1a1-2117a67229d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=17758 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949206 | 312 | 1.742188 | 2 |
- Manners and Fashion. [first Published In the Westminster Review For April 1854.]
- Railway Morals and Railway Policy. [first Published In the Edinburgh Review For October 1854.]
- The Morals of Trade. [first Published In the Westminster Review For April 1859.]
- Prison-ethics. [first Published In the British Quarterly Review For July 1860.]
- The Ethics of Kant. [from the Fortnightly Review For July 1888. This Essay Was Called Forth By Attacks On Me Made In Essays Published In Preceding Numbers of the Fortnightly Review—essays In Which the Kantian System of Ethics Was Lauded As Immensely Super
- Absolute Political Ethics. [originally Published In the Nineteenth Century For January 1890. The Writing of This Essay Was Consequent On a Controversy Carried On In the Times Between Nov. 7 and Nov. 27, 1889, and Was Made Needful By the Misapprehensions a
- Over-legislation.∗[first Published In the Westminster Review For July 1853.]
- Representative Government—what Is It Good For? [first Published In the Westminster Review For October 1857.]
- State-tamperings With Money and Banks. [first Published In the Westminster Review For January 1858.]
- Parliamentary Reform: the Dancers and the Safeguards. [first Published In the Westminster Review For April 1860.]
- “the Collective Wisdom.” [first Published In the Reader For April 15, 1865.]
- Political Fetichism. [first Published In the Reader For June 10, 1865.]
- Specialized Administration. [first Published In the Fortnightly Review For December 1871.]
- From Freedom to Bondage. [first Published As the Introduction to a Volume Entitled a Plea For Liberty, &c.: a Series of Anti-socialistic Essays, Issued At the Beginning of 1891.]
- The Americans: Aconversationand Aspeech, With Anaddition.
- I.—A Conversation: October 20, 1882.
- II.—A Speech: Delivered On the Occasion of a Complimentary Dinner In New York, On November 9, 1882.
“THE COLLECTIVE WISDOM.”
[First published in The Reader for April 15, 1865.]
A test of senatorial capacity is a desideratum. We rarely learn how near the mark or how wide of the mark the calculations of statesmen are: the slowness and complexity of social changes, hindering, as they do, the definite comparisons of results with anticipations. Occasionally, however, parliamentary decisions admit of being definitely valued. One which was arrived at a few weeks ago furnished a measure of legislative judgment too significant to be passed by.
On the edge of the Cotswolds, just above the valley of the Severn, occur certain springs, which, as they happen to be at the end of the longest of the hundred streams which join to form the Thames, have been called by a poetical fiction “the sources of the Thames.” Names, even when poetical fictions, suggest conclusions; and conclusions drawn from words instead of facts are equally apt to influence conduct. Thus it happened that when, recently, there was formed a company for supplying Cheltenham and some other places from these springs, great opposition arose. The Times published a paragraph headed “Threatened Absorption of the Thames,” stating that the application of this company to Parliament had “caused some little consternation in the city of Oxford, and will, doubtless, throughout the valley of the Thames;” and that “such a measure, if carried out, will diminish the water of that noble river a million of gallons per day.” A million is an alarming word—suggests something necessarily vast. Translating words into thoughts, however, would have calmed the fears of the Times paragraphist. Considering that a million gallons would be contained by a room fifty-six feet cube, the nobility of the Thames would not be much endangered by the deduction. The simple fact is, that the current of the Thames, above the point at which the tides influence it, discharges in twenty-four hours eight hundred times this amount!
When the bill of this proposed water-company was brought before the House of Commons for second reading, it became manifest that the imaginations of our rulers were affected by such expressions as the “sources of the Thames,” and “a million gallons daily,” in much the same way as the imaginations of the ignorant. Though the quantity of water proposed to be taken bears, to the quantity which runs over Teddington weir, about the same ratio that a yard bears to half a mile, it was thought by many members that its loss would be a serious evil. No method of measurement would be accurate enough to detect the difference between the Thames as it now is, and the Thames minus the Cerney springs; and yet it was gravely stated in the House that, were the Thames diminished in the proposed way, “the proportion of sewage to pure water would be seriously increased.” Taking a minute out of twelve hours, would be taking as large a proportion as the Cheltenham people wish to take from the Thames. Nevertheless, it was contended that to let Cheltenham have this quantity would be “to rob the towns along the banks of the Thames of their rights.” Though, of the Thames flowing by each of these towns, some 999 parts out of 1,000 pass by unused, it was held that a great injustice would be committed were one or two of these 999 parts appropriated by the inhabitants of a town who can now obtain daily but four gallons of foul water per head!
But the apparent inability thus shown to think of causes and effects in something like their true quantitative relations, was still more conspicuously shown. It was stated by several members that the Thames Navigation Commissioners would have opposed the bill if the commission had not been bankrupt; and this hypothetical opposition appeared to have weight. If we may trust the reports, the House of Commons listened with gravity to the assertion of one of its members, that, if the Cerney springs were diverted, “shoals and flats would be created.” Not a laugh nor a cry of “Oh! oh,” appears to have been produced by the prophecy, that the volume and scouring power of the Thames would be seriously affected by taking away from it twelve gallons per second! The whole quantity which these springs supply would be delivered by a current moving through a pipe one foot in diameter at the rate of less than two miles per hour. Yet, when it was said that the navigability of the Thames would be injuriously affected by this deduction, there were no shouts of derision. On the contrary, the House rejected the Cheltenham Water Bill by a majority of one hundred and eighteen to eighty-eight. It is true that the data were not presented in the above shape. But the remarkable fact is that, even in the absence of a specific comparison, it should not have been at once seen that the water of springs which drain but a few square miles at most, can be but an inappreciable part of the water which runs out of the Thames basin, extending over several thousand square miles. In itself, this is a matter of small moment. It interests us here simply as an example of legislative judgment. The decision is one of those small holes through which a wide prospect may be seen, and a disheartening prospect it is. In a very simple case there is here displayed a scarcely credible inability to see how much effect will follow so much cause; and yet the business of the assembly exhibiting this inability is that of dealing with causes and effects of an extremely involved kind. All the processes going on in society arise from the concurrences and conflicts of human actions, which are determined in their nature and amounts by the human constitution as it now is—are as much results of natural causation as any other results, and equally imply definite quantitative relations between causes and effects. Every legislative act presupposes a diagnosis and a prognosis; both of them involving estimations of social forces and the work done by them. Before it can be remedied, an evil must be traced to its source in the motives and ideas of men as they are, living under the social conditions which exist—a problem requiring that the actions tending toward the result shall be identified, and that there shall be something like a true idea of the quantities of their effects as well as the qualities. A further estimation has then to be made of the kinds and degrees of influence that will be exerted by the additional factors which the proposed law will set in motion: what will be the resultants produced by the new forces co-öperating with preëxisting forces—a problem still more complicated than the other.
We are quite prepared to hear the unhesitating reply, that men incapable of forming an approximately true judgment on a matter of simple physical causation may yet be very good law-makers. So obvious will this be thought by most, that a tacit implication to the contrary will seem to them absurd; and that it will seem to them absurd is one of the many indications of the profound ignorance that prevails. It is true that mere empirical generalizations which men draw from their dealings with their fellows suffice to give them some ideas of the proximate effects which new enactments will work; and, seeing these, they think they see as far as needful. Discipline in physical science, however, would help to show them the futility of calculating consequences based on such simple data. And if there needs proof that calculations of consequences so based are futile, we have it in the enormous labour annually entailed on the Legislature in trying to undo the mischiefs it has previously done.
Should any say that it is useless to dwell on this incompetency, seeing that the House of Commons contains the select of the nation, than whose judgments no better are to be had, we reply that there may be drawn two inferences which have important practical bearings. In the first place, we are shown how completely the boasted intellectual discipline of our upper classes fails to give them the power of following out in thought, with any correctness, the sequences of even simple phenomena, much less those of complex phenomena. And, in the second place, we may draw the corollary, that if the sequences of those complex phenomena which societies display, difficult beyond all others to trace out, are so unlikely to be understood by them, they may advantageously be restricted in their interferences with such sequences.
In one direction, especially, shall we see reason to resist the extension of legislative action. There has of late been urged the proposal that the class contemptuously described as dividing its energies between business and bethels shall have its education regulated by the class which might, with equal justice, be described as dividing its energies between club-rooms and game preserves. This scheme does not seem to us a hopeful one. Considering that during the last half century our society has been remoulded by ideas that have come from the proposed pupil, and have had to overcome the dogged resistance of the proposed teacher, the propriety of the arrangement is not obvious. And if the propriety of the arrangement is not obvious on the face of it, still less obvious does it become when the competency of the proposed teacher comes to be measured. British intelligence, as distilled through the universities and redistilled into the House of Commons, is a product admitting of such great improvement in quality, that we should be sorry to see the present method of manufacture extended and permanently established. | <urn:uuid:57d40b55-d0a9-4a2d-a93f-958bff5d1ef1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=337&chapter=12305&layout=html&Itemid=27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970761 | 2,418 | 1.625 | 2 |
Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 4 /Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi will be departuring Iran for Afghanistan later today, for participation in the fourth Iran-Afghanistan economic commission meeting, Mehr reported.
Both countries are expected to sign a memorandum of mutual understanding in economic, business, tourism and other spheres soon.
Yesterday, some 30 Iranian experts have already left for Afghanistan to participate in the meeting.
Last week Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Musazai said Afghanistan welcomes the commission's gathering in Kabul and hope that it would result in further progress in bilateral cooperation.
Mosazai said Iran and Afghanistan, as next-door neighbors, share deep-seated lingual, cultural, religious and historic bonds, not to mention their political, economic and social cooperation.
"Cooperation between the two countries in the past ten years has been within the framework of this joint commission," the Afghan official said. "Trade between Iran and Afghanistan has grown in the past decade, mainly due to closer ties between the two countries."
Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in July Tehran has fulfilled its financial commitments for the reconstruction of war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Iran's aid to Afghanistan was provided in the form of infrastructure projects including the construction of 300 kilometers of roads, 207 kilometers of railways, supplying water and electricity and building clinics for special medical purposes, Salehi said earlier.
He also said Iran has invested more than USD 500 million in building roads, railroads, schools and hospitals in Afghanistan.
"We are hosting more than 3 million Afghan refugees in our country. More than 300,000 Afghan students attend our schools and over 8,000 students attend our universities," the Iranian minister said earlier.
Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:6f2e5d6c-7934-44ac-b915-9ca7613d8395> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.trend.az/regions/iran/2061587.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959091 | 388 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Running is both a competition and a type of training for sports that have running or endurance components. As a sport, it is split into events divided by distance and sometimes includes permutations such as the obstacles in steeplechase and hurdles. Running races are contests to determine which of the competitors is able to run a certain distance in the shortest time. Today, competitive running events make up the core of the sport of athletics. Events are usually grouped into several classes, each requiring substantially different athletic strengths and involving different tactics, training methods, and types of competitors.
Thorlos Running Mini Crew (2 Pairs) Best Socks EVER!
April 05, 2013
Reviewer: Dragonz Fyre from United States
I couldn't be happier with these socks...they are exactly what I've been looking for. They have just the right amount of support without adding bulk, and the comfort is unbeatable.
Thorlos Running Crew (2 Pairs) small
February 21, 2013
Reviewer: Bec from Boca, FL
Soft and cushioned socks. My last pairs of Thorlo's are 8 years old and are beginning to wear through. I wear them frequently as a floor nurse. These new ones are very soft and have a nice cushion. They do run small. I wear a size 6 shoe, never a 6.5. These size small socks (4-6) are very tight. | <urn:uuid:a6d4e36f-2cd4-4890-8056-d0a60ed03f69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shoebuy.com/thorlos-usa-running-clothing.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965956 | 284 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Welcome To Our World!At A World of Smiles, our mission is to provide anticipatory guidance, comprehensive care and a positive dental experience for children and parents alike. Extending dental care beyond the clinic through education of parents and children is the key to good dental habits. Knowledge of good dental hygiene practices as well as a thorough understanding of all services and options is essential to providing comprehensive care.
By providing a positive dental experience, we hope to instill a feeling of trust in both parent and child, establishing a rapport with each patient and family. It is important that children feel a sense of involvement and enthusiasm in their dental experience. This fosters a more enjoyable dental experience and allows children to feel more at ease as well as assume some responsibility in the maintenance of their own personal dental health. | <urn:uuid:f1b96bbd-e42f-4862-a537-763c0f0ebafc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aworldofsmiles.net/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949614 | 160 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Hey everyone, I recently sent a support e-mail regarding my current situation and thought why not try to interact with the community and maybe get some advise from people who are experienced. Sorry for the long post.
'To whoever this message goes to. First of all greetings from Malta. I recently started looking up for online schools which provide very good standard of teaching in my desired fields. I'm currently 16 (17 next week) and always looked to learn programming and web designing. The course I go to isn't really what I was looking for, containing many subjects such as Maths/Information System/Database Design etc. which quite honestly are no where near what I was looking for. I feel uncomfortable with certain lecturers as it's obvious that they don't enjoy teaching and just want to get paid €23/h.
I was wondering whether Code School is worth it. Worth dropping what I'm currently doing. I was signed up for a BTEC certificate but the marking system is simply (Sorry to say) stupid and does not make any sense whatsoever.
Does Code School provide examinations and maybe even feedback regarding my subject?
Both of us know that today you go nowhere without certificates. Proof of your knowledge depending on the standards. BTEC is known for very high standards which is pretty much the brand name to your career proving you know what you're doing.
I'm just very skeptical whether it's worth replacing. I know I would definitely obtain MUCH more with Code School as far as knowledge and maybe find a temporary job I could possibly work online (Everything is Internet oriented nowadays) but if I were to go for a job application and simply say 'Hey, I studied everything on the internet'. S/he'd pick someone with actual papers and I don't blame them, I'd probably do the same.
Also its the dedication and motivation a certain lecturer would emit towards to a student. Online, the lecturer would have to do everything once, or maybe a few times. That once he makes sure to cover everything possible and do it with passion and it's all set, whilst at school the lecturer must repeat over and over the same things making them miss alot of stuff and once again I don't blame them but I can't generally afford that.'
Page 1 of 1
1 Replies - 957 Views - Last Post: 07 February 2013 - 02:31 PM
Replies To: Online VS Real life education
Re: Online VS Real life education
Posted 07 February 2013 - 02:31 PM
The course I go to isn't really what I was looking for, containing many subjects such as Maths/Information System/Database Design etc. which quite honestly are no where near what I was looking for.
Universities try to encourage a broad education for many reasons, here are a few:
1) The goal of a University is to produce an educated person. While you may never use Calc in your life, I wouldn't consider someone to be educated in computer science without at least having taken calc II.
2) How do you know what you're interested in, if you're never exposed to many different things? I mean most people do not know what they actually want to do with their lives at 16, some think they do, ie, your goals and aspirations may change in time, do not cast them in stone now.
3) a broad base of learning will aid one in self-study/learning in the future. Go to University to learn how to learn.
That being said, you don't have to go to University. You don't have to do anything. Just don't be judgmental and/or unaccepting of new possibilities and/or opportunities.
... know I would definitely obtain MUCH more with Code School as far as knowledge
How do you know this? I mean from a brief examination of Code School courses, you could probably learn more with a torrent client.
comment: my first point may be overly harsh, but you get the idea.
Page 1 of 1 | <urn:uuid:9a5600f4-5978-4954-a4a0-f470b5c5ec7f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/310574-online-vs-real-life-education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982385 | 822 | 1.5 | 2 |
If we privatise the roads, the cost of motoring will soar
A new CBI report recommends the privitisation of major UK roads to fund improvements. Ashley Winston says a European-style pay-as-you-drive road network won’t work here…
Earlier in the year my company had a request to source a very special car. A classic Mercedes SL.
What made the request even more special was the client was buying the car as a golden wedding anniversary present for his parents. And what made it EVEN more special was where it needed to be delivered to: Bordeaux, France.
There were some passionate debates in the office about which of our team would get to deliver the car, and at the time I wondered why we don’t have similar conversation when we source cars for clients in Scotland. The answer is simple – French roads are better than UK roads.
I love the UK, but our roads are poorly maintained and severely congested when compared to those in much of Europe.
"...why can’t the UK government fund our much-needed road expansion?"
It looks as if the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) agrees with this. They have just announced that they feel road privatisation is the way forward. This will mean a lot more privately owned toll roads criss-crossing our country in a similar style to France.
The CBI’s reasoning behind this recommendation is that it claims UK businesses are losing £8 billion a year from road congestion. They think that this will rise to £22 billion by 2025.
The obvious question is why can’t the UK government fund our much-needed road expansion? Greener cars are the problem, it's claimed, as they need less fuel and cost less to tax. Over the next 18 years, fuel duty income for the government is expected to reduce by nearly 30% and Treasury income from road tax (VED) may well reduce to a quarter of what it currently is.
But 18 years is a long time, and are we really expected to believe that fuel duty and road tax costs will not rise during this time, or even that the government will not find another ingenious way of taxing the motorist?
My biggest problem with private companies running major roads in the UK and charging a toll to use them is that the UK is not like the rest of Europe.
"Look what happened when we privatised the railways."
Road tolls may be common elsewhere in Europe, but most of these countries have a much better and cheaper public transport service. They have a genuine alternative, which we don’t.
I am also concerned that we should learn our lessons from the past. Look what happened when we privatised the railways. Yes, the service improved, but at a massive increase in costs to commuters.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have the kind of roads that we see in Europe, but the big question is whether it is worth the additional cost. Our trip in the Mercedes SL to Bordeaux cost £52.94 in tolls… I’m not so sure it was worth the money.
Business wants tolls to improve roads
Ashley Winston runs the UK’s leading car-sourcing company. He’s also the world’s biggest car nut (self-proclaimed, of course).
Follow Ashley Winston on Twitter @thecarguru
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? WOULD YOU BE HAPPY TO PAY TOLLS IF THE ROADS IMPROVED? CAN ROAD PRIVITISATION BRING THE IMPROVEMENTS WE NEED? TELL US IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW AND JOIN THE DEBATE ON TWITTER WITH #SOCIALVOICES...
Welcome to #socialvoices. This is the home of sharp writing, opinion and social debate on MSN. Jump into the comments, tweet us with the hashtag. Join in.
What anti-social motoring behaviour do you most hate?
Thanks for being one of the first people to vote. Results will be available soon. Check for results
- Queue jumping
- Mobile phone use
- Middle lane hogging
- Forgetting to indicate
- Flashing headlights | <urn:uuid:11f79cae-f4df-45a8-ac4e-6d4899c4f90d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cars.uk.msn.com/socialvoices/blogpost.aspx?post=ab92d3e5-98c5-48ea-a42d-31d17b70647c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95258 | 877 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Jérôme Sessini March 7, 2011Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Cuba.
Santiago, Cuba 2009
Jérôme Sessini (b.1968, France) began to work for the GAMMA agency following the Kosovo war in 1999. Since then he has covered international events, the second intifada, the conflict in Iraq –where his has regularly returned since 2003, the Haitian crisis of 2004, the capture of Mogadishu by the Islamic courts in 2006 and the Lebanon War, which he covered in depth. At the same time he has been working long term on the violence in post civil war Central American countries. His work on the southern Mexican border “Mexico, the end of the American Dream” was nominated for a Visa d’or in the magazine category. His work is regularly published in the French and international press including: Paris-Match, le Monde 2, Elle, Figaro Magazine, L’espresso, Stern, Newsweek, Time and others. He was awarded the Grand Prize Calderon at the festival “Scoop” in Angers 2005.
About the Photograph:
“It was my second trip to Cuba. In January 1959 Fidel Castro was greeted by the Cubans as their liberator. Fifty years later, the Cuban people don’t have any more desire to celebrate anything. Cuban’s are tired and depressed by such hard daily life conditions. The average monthly salary is about 13 euros. Every day is a fight to provide for basics needs. For the 50th anniversary revolution day, the people were invited by the government to remain at home and watch Raul Castro speak on TV- a speech austere and widely turned toward the past, without future prospect and hope. I made this photograph while many young tourists from Argentina, wearing tee-shirts of Che were screaming slogans such as “Viva el Ché!! Viva Fidel! Viva la revolucion. They celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution while the Cubans themselves was sad, indifferent and suffering for this regime.”
Simon Hayter November 17, 2008Posted by Geoffrey Hiller in Cuba.
1 comment so far
Simon Hayter is an award-winning freelance photographer who divides his time between San Francisco and Toronto. He specializes in editorial photography; both reportage and portraiture. Clients include Macleans Magazine, The Sunday Observer, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Toronto Star, The Advocate, Report on Business, The Guardian and The San Francisco Chronicle among others. Awards include: 2008- Selected for the Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward, 2007- Missouri Photo Workshop, 2006- Winner, American Photography 23 Annual, 2006- Nominated for Picture of the Year, General News Category, NPAC, 2005- Winner, Picture Story of the Year, ECNPA, 2005- Selected for Eddie Adams Workshop, winner of Getty Images Portfolio Award
About the Photograph:
“An island unto itself, Cuba remains fiercely independent in the face of continued American hostility and international isolation. A land of contradictions, Cuba combines incredibly sophisticated and progressive social infrastructure with a troubled economy and political uncertainty. In the final days of Fidel Castro the future of Cuba is very much unknown. Will it remain an island unto itself or become a Caribbean Disney World? “ | <urn:uuid:c15408bd-78ac-4455-b779-16dfd0768ed0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vervephoto.wordpress.com/tag/cuba/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94389 | 687 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Obama: US 'Heartbroken' Over Sikh Temple Deaths
President Barack Obama says "all of us are heartbroken by what happened" this weekend during a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
Obama told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that Americans would "recoil" at the violence if ethnicity were a factor. The president says "we are all one people and we look after one another."
Obama spoke to reporters after he signed unrelated legislation at the White House.
A gunman killed six people Sunday before being shot to death by police. Police identified the gunman as Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old Army veteran and former leader of a white supremacist heavy metal band.
- First Responder at Sikh Temple Shooting to Retire
- Oak Creek Sikhs Among Guests at White House Event
- Man with Ammo Detained at Sikh Temple
- FBI Asked to Keep Data on Anti-Sikh Hate Crimes
- Officer Shot in Temple Rampage Attends Fundraiser
- Wis. Police to Release Video from Sikh Shooting
- First Lady Meets Sikh Shooting Victims' Families
- Sikh Temple Holds 1st Sunday Service Since Attack
- Obama: Attack at Sikh Temple Assails Religion
- Hundreds Gather for Sikh Temple Shooting Memorial | <urn:uuid:f29ddab6-3171-45d1-b6ab-ab82ec91f641> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kstp.com/news/stories/s2718608.shtml?cat=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946307 | 255 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Obama got the prize not for doing, but for being. Not for making peace, but for exemplifying something new on the world stage — the politics of dignity.
Home » Manifests
Charles Hayes: What 42 makes crystal clear is how shallow and superficial the strain of contempt is that enables and sustains racism as prejudice is handed down from one generation to the next.
Walter Moss: What unites us, as it did the early Progressives, is resistance to–in John Muir’s memorable phrase–“trying to make everything dollarable.” | <urn:uuid:ff204595-3c32-43fc-90b7-d7d48acb0b2b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.laprogressive.com/tag/manifests/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938604 | 120 | 1.734375 | 2 |
from the your-skills-are-now-complete dept
A month ago, we covered the news that Lucasfilm was threatening Wicked Lasers
over one of their recent lasers. The problem wasn't anything the company had done specifically, but the fact that various blogs, in talking about the laser, had compared it to the infamous lightsaber from Star Wars
. That didn't make much sense. It's not like if you make a fictional product that you get control over anything remotely like it in the real world. Lucasfilm was widely ridiculed for the C&D, and Wicked Lasers ended up auctioning off the C&D
to raise funds for a legal fight. However, after seeing all the negative publicity, Lucasfilm backed down
, amusingly pretending that Wicked Lasers had helped set the record straight:
"We are aware that, during this time you have made several statements to the media insisting that your product is not intended to resemble a lightsaber and is not marketed by your company as either a lightsaber or as having any connection with 'Star Wars' or Lucasfilm."
Yes, but it's also true that before the media storm Wicked Lasers still hadn't made any statements suggesting its laser resembled a lightsaber, and it was never marketed as being a lightsaber or having any connection to Star Wars
or Lucasfilm. This is just Lucasfilm's attempt at gracefully admitting it made a mistake, while pretending something had "changed." Either way, chalk one up for public ridicule getting a company to back down on a questionable legal attack. | <urn:uuid:b731b62e-32dd-4d42-82e4-be7c660aa817> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techdirt.com/blog/articles/?tag=lasers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977459 | 316 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Google has gone to great lengths to capture a virtual tour of some of the world’s most majestic and unique places for its Maps service. Today, it announced it has released the street view of some of the most famous mountains on earth, including Mount Everest and Kilimanjaro.
Now, users can get a rather complete and 360 degree view of these majestic landscapes all wherever they are without actually having to physically climb them. The images are accessible not only on the desktop, but also on mobile devices.
We should not discount those that have successfully climbed these mountains for they have experienced something many of us wish to do, but now millions of people can now have that same experience, albeit virtually. Google sent a team to four mountains, including the aforementioned Everest and Kilimanjaro, but also Aconcagua in South America, and Elbrus in Europe.
Google says that its imagery was collected using a simple lightweight tripod and digital camera with fisheye lens — something that it typically uses for its Business photos.
Google has also published a behind-the-scenes look at its latest addition to its special collection. The idea for this adventure started back in 2011 when Sara Pelosi, a People Programs Manager, was asked by colleagues if she wanted to go on a trip to Everest Base Camp. It was around that time when the expedition team learned that it could capture imagery of their trip for Google Maps without needing to lug around the rather large Trekker camera, which had been used in other notable journeys, including the Grand Canyon and Lucas Oil Stadium.
The street view imagery that the expedition team collected was not limited to just the mountains themselves, but also to what was around it, including monasteries, bazaars, and more.
Main header image: STR/AFP/Getty Images
Photo credit: Florian Nagl/Google | <urn:uuid:4fc5b81d-a99a-4d23-a5ee-6c23209aba84> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thenextweb.com/google/2013/03/18/wanna-explore-mount-everest-and-kilimanjaro-without-you-know-climbing-them-google-maps-to-the-rescue/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973746 | 378 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Local government faces reform
The Government is "extremely likely" to cut the number of councillors and local authorities under plans for local government reform to be announced in the autumn, Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has said.
Speaking at the MacGill summer school in Glenties, Co Donegal, Mr Hogan said he was mandated by a "reforming Government to drag the system of local government into the 21st century" so that it delivered more to the community and put people first.
He said the programme to be announced in the autumn would be called Putting People First.
"It will introduce significant changes to regional, county, city and town governance," he said.
Every aspect of local government would see change. Mr Hogan said that, where possible, public services should be delivered through locally based bodies rather than centralised agencies.
Local Government structures generally in Ireland had not been updated since the 19th century, the Minister said.
"I’m updating those structures to increase efficiency and give more value for money for the people they serve," he said. "It’s extremely likely that I will be cutting the number of councillors and the number of authorities."
He said he would certainly strengthen the role of the local authority audit committees to provide better oversight. "Clearly, also, local government must look to new income streams."
Mr Hogan faced jeers from protesters against the household charge when he arrived to speak at the summer school.
Arriving at about 4.15pm from Armagh, Mr Hogan avoided about 60 chanting protesters carrying placards at the front entrance to the Highlands Hotel. Protesters attempted to chase after him as he was driven through a side entrance, with some breaking past several gardaí at the gate.
Defending his decision to avoid the protest, Mr Hogan said he had not believed he was going to be greeted by such a big group and that he did not want anyone to be crushed. He said it was appropriate that people could have a protest but that local government services had to be paid for, otherwise such services would be put under pressure in Donegal.
The Minister urged the 52 per cent of people in the county who had not paid the charge to date to pay it. Mr Hogan said if they did not, the local council and its management would have "no option" but to reduce essential services by the end of the year.
He said he was charged with the "difficult responsibility" of implementing the EU-IMF reform programme because of the "irresponsible policies of my predecessors".
With regard to new income streams for local government, Mr Hogan said the proposed property tax to which those protesters outside the event objected was one such stream. He said it would be collected for local service and that "user charges" would become more a feature rather than taxation on work.
While he did not say what form the planned property tax might take, Mr Hogan said the Revenue Commissioners would be charged with collecting it. People would have the option of paying it through Revenue, or in "one lump" if they wished, he said.
The tax would be destined for local authorities for the provision of local services.
Insisting proposed reforms of local government had not been "kicked to touch" by the Cabinet yesterday, Mr Hogan said reforms he expects to announce in the autumn would result in fewer councillors and fewer local authorities.
Addressing an earlier session on reform of the electoral system, former Fianna Fáil minister Noel Dempsey advocated an immediate change from the current PR-STV system to a list-based system.
Mr Dempsey said he believed the Minister had "the courage and vision to deliver a greatly reformed local government system that could free up national politicians to do a real job for the country".
He said he strongly supported the current approach to reforming local government, especially the administrative amalgamation of local authorities "with consequent savings and increased efficiencies". | <urn:uuid:a6f6dfea-f200-469c-8a7c-63569554d72d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.irishtimes.com/news/local-government-faces-reform-1.727352?via=rel | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980307 | 798 | 1.726563 | 2 |
So Much Fun!
The Cloud and Fire Tutoring Center is an inviting, after school oasis where kids strengthen their academic skills and build friendships for a lifetime. CFM Staff and Volunteers offer homework assistance, skill enrichment, mentoring, and a wide variety of extracurricular activities that keep youth ages 7-18 years old engaged and learning. Optional faith activities also help develop character and provide a compass for youth who are trying to find their way.
In addition to important learning activities, Cloud and Fire is a place to have FUN! Crafts, music, dance, photography, field trips, and even camping are regular features of the amazing Cloud and Fire Tutoring Center experience. We want to equip others for life’s journey, and help young people experience life to the fullest.
Since 1999, Cloud and Fire has provided quality after-school programs to youth in North Hills, Panorama City, Arleta, and Van Nuys. These areas are known for low-performing schools and high dropout rates. In fact, recent figures place the dropout rate for Monroe High School at a shocking 76% (United States Department of Education, 2006).
We have a saying at CFM: “Once in Cloud and Fire, always in Cloud and Fire!” That’s because children and teens in our programs keep coming back for more. Cloud and Fire is like a second home—a place to come every day after school. Most of our students enter the program during elementary school and remain all the way through high school. Some even stay longer, and continue attending Cloud and Fire activities well into college. Many now volunteer their time to help build up the next generation, serving as leaders, board members, and even staff. This is strong evidence that what we are doing truly makes a difference! What is the secret of our success? Love—especially God’s love—really works!
Cloud and Fire prevents youth from joining gangs. How do we do it? We simply give youth a better alternative. Though gangs are abundant in our community, we find that youth really are looking for positive alternatives. They want a place where they can belong and a place where there is strength to withstand life’s challenges. CFM does all this, and youth respond.
As Woody Allen once said, “Showing up is half the battle.” Since 1999, Cloud and Fire has been in North Hills, showing up day after day to keep youth safe, build community, and ultimately, experience the love of God.
The Cloud and Fire Tutoring Center plays a key role in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Gang Reduction Youth Development (GRYD) Strategy. As the only service provider in North Hills for that program, we are the “go-to” place for youth ages 10-15 who are identified as at-risk of joining gangs. Our collaborators in that program are New Directions for Youth, LAPD Jeopardy, and El Centro de Amistad.
Cloud and Fire’s wide array of extracurricular activities help youth experience the beauty, opportunity, and possibilities around them. Performing arts workshops, sporting events, wilderness activities, and field trips of almost every imaginable kind are regular offerings for Cloud and Fire’s Tutoring Center youth. These activities enrich lives and foster a sense of adventure in youth who would otherwise be confined to the stifling confines of concrete urban neighborhoods.
Cloud & Fire and the Sierra Club
Did you know the Sierra Club has an Inner City Outreach? Every year, Sierra Club ICO groups throughout the country conduct outings that help youth learn how to enjoy the outdoors safely and responsibly. The Los Angeles Sierra Club ICO provides fantastic hikes and snow days for Cloud and Fire kids, and has provided scholarships for youth to attend their Wilderness Survival Course. The Sierra Club’s ICO program is helping inner city youth become wilderness explorers!
Find out more about upcoming Tutoring Center activities on our calendar. | <urn:uuid:a7c24f6f-5893-43cf-987b-7e5be7c9a7a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cloudandfire.org/tutoring?quicktabs_5=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94432 | 814 | 1.625 | 2 |
For most of his first term, President Obama successfully sold a line to the public that economists will tell you is, at least in part, intellectual snake oil. He managed to blame our historically slow economy almost entirely on President George W. Bush. Polls taken right after the 2012 election showed that one of Mitt Romney’s biggest failures—and the GOP presidential candidate had staked almost everything on this point—was persuading U.S. voters otherwise.
But this week’s dramatic economic news, timed with the start of Obama’s second term, suggests that the political debate, if not the actual economy, is at an important milestone. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average reached new levels, shooting well above 14,000 and exceeding the closing records set in October 2007 just before the Big Crash. On Friday, a new jobs report finally gave Obama what he's wanted for four years: an unemployment rate that's below where he started as president, 7.7 percent. The Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls vastly outpaced expectations by increasing 236,000 in February, dropping the unemployment rate to the lowest level since December 2008, from 7.9 percent in January. Also this week, the Federal Reserve Board reported that Americans have recovered the staggering $16 trillion lost in wealth since the recession.
So, let’s call it, folks: As of March 8, 2013, this has become Obama’s economy.
It’s been a good week, and his acolytes are crowing: ‘Damn is that a good jobs report,’ former chief economist Austan Goolsbee tweeted. ‘Woot woot!’ House Speaker John Boehner, struggling to put some bad spin on a bust-out week of economic news, reminded everyone, “Unemployment in America is still way above the levels the Obama White House projected when the trillion-dollar stimulus spending bill was enacted.” Shades of the Romney campaign! Pretty lame.
But the harshest truths about the Obama economy are not ones Republicans would be eager to highlight. First, things are not really as good as the numbers suggest, and they are all but certain to get worse. If the $85 billion in cuts in the federal budget sequester go through as planned, gross domestic product will slow 0.5 percent, and about 750,000 jobs could be lost by the end of the year, the Congressional Budget Office says. The big numbers on Wall Street are also deceiving, says Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff, who along with coauthor Carmen Reinhart tracked 800 years’ worth of economic recoveries in a landmark 2009 book, This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. “One of the paradoxes we point out in our book is that very often the equity markets reach and surpass previous levels within a few years, despite the fact that the economy takes decades to recover,” Rogoff said in an interview.
In addition, this is a very different American economy than the one we thought we had before the recession, and not in a good way. It’s not just that 7.7 percent unemployment is still very high and something of a grim new “normal,” along with still-high long-term unemployment. The problem is also that we’ve ended up with a far less equal economy. And there is little prospect of a consensus over tax reform or deficit reduction that will change that, no matter how many dinners Obama arranges with leading Republicans, like the one this week.
“The recovered wealth – most of it from higher stock prices – has been flowing mainly to richer Americans,” the Associated Press reported. This corroborates earlier data from prominent economists such as Emmanuel Saez of the University of California (Berkeley), whose work has shown that the wealthiest 1 percent of the country actually made out better, in percentage terms, during Obama's "recovery" than they did from 2002-07 under Bush.
Even the high Dow numbers conceal a darker truth about inequality and a still-ailing economy beset by bottomed-out interest rates that make bonds unattractive. “Those low interest rates are the sign of an economy that is nowhere near to a full recovery from the financial crisis of 2008, while the high level of stock prices shouldn’t be cause for celebration; it is, in large part, a reflection of the growing disconnect between productivity and wages,” Paul Krugman writes in The New York Tiimes. | <urn:uuid:ba0c1d4e-1a8d-4003-8cd3-43cf040bb88f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/it-s-obama-s-economy-at-last-20130308?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95957 | 926 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Ballot Initiative Results
November 13, 2009
The Initiative & Referendum Institute’s Ballotwatch: Election 2009
Only 26 propositions were on state ballots this November, far below the 153 in November 2008, but there was no shortage of heated contests. Gay rights and tax limits were in the spotlight, following recent trends. Overall, voters approved 19 of 23 new laws (initiatives and legislative measures), and agreed to repeal one of three existing laws that were put to a referendum.
The year’s most high-profile issue was Maine’s Question 1, which asked voters to repeal a May law legalizing same-sex marriage. Traditional marriage advocates were victorious, by a 53-47 margin. Following in the footsteps of California’s Proposition 8, this marks the second successive repeal of a same-sex marriage law by voters. Campaign spending on Question 1 was estimated to exceed $6.5 million, a large sum for Maine.
Gay marriage has now been rejected in 33 out of 34 ballot propositions (the only exception, in Arizona, was reversed two years after the initial vote). Gay marriage has been a hot issue since February 2004, when the Supreme Court of Massachusetts found a right to same-sex marriage in the state constitution, setting off a backlash across the country; citizen groups and legislatures rushed to place constitutional amendments on the ballot to head off similar rulings by courts in their states. (See the October 2008 Ballotwatch report Same-Sex Marriage: Breaking the Firewall in California?) So far, the only victories for gay-marriage supporters have come from courts and legislatures. The electorate continues to reject the idea of gay marriage.
Gay-rights supporters fared better in the state of Washington, where an attempt to repeal a state law that grants same-sex domestic partners essentially the same rights as married spouses (R-71) failed, with voters supporting the existing law 53-47. Supporters spent about $2 million during the campaign, while opponents spent only about $500,000.
Voters in Maine and Washington decisively rejected propositions that would have limited the growth of taxes and government spending by state and local governments, and would have required voter approval of future tax increases.
Maine’s Question 4, dubbed TABOR II, was rejected 40-60. The proposition was modeled after Colorado’s controversial Taxpayer Bill of Rights measure, approved in 1992. Question 4 would have restricted the growth of government spending to the rate of inflation plus the growth rate of the population (the state’s current spending limit is linked to income growth, which typically allows for a faster growth of spending). Revenue collected in excess of the limit would have been channeled to a rainy day fund (20 percent) and returned to citizens in the form of tax relief (80 percent). Maine voters rejected a similar measure in 2006, with 54 percent voting against.
Washington’s I-1033, also a TABOR-type measure, was rejected 45-55. It would have limited the growth of state and local government spending to the rate of inflation plus population growth, and required voter approval for tax increases. Revenue collected in excess of the limit was to have been returned in the form of property tax relief. Opposition to I-1033 was led by public employee groups, but also included Microsoft Corporation and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. The initiative’s supporters were heavily outspent by its opponents, with $3.5 million spent on the “no” campaign and $600,000 spent on the “yes” campaign.
Attitudes Toward Spending
Rejection of spending limits in the Maine and Washington hint that voters may not be overly concerned with growth in government spending, despite a huge expansion in federal spending over the last year. In addition, voters in Maine, New Jersey and Ohio approved bond propositions, which were also popular in November 2008. The electorate continues to be willing to borrow despite the ongoing economic recession.
- Two of five initiatives approved. Seventeen of 18 legislative measures approved. Referendums: one of three laws repealed.
- Headline issues: gay rights, and tax and expenditure limits
- Total for the year: 32 propositions, including five initiatives and three referendums
- 367 initiatives for the decade 2000-2009, short of the record 379 for 1990-1999; still the second-busiest decade ever
Following is a list of statewide ballot propositions and preliminary election results. An initiative is a citizen-sponsored law that is placed on the ballot by petition. A referendum is a proposal, placed on the ballot by petition, to repeal an existing law.
Questions 1 and 3 are referendums; 2, 4 and 5 are initiatives; and 6 and 7 were placed on the ballot by the legislature. All are statutory except for Question 7, a constitutional amendment.
- Question 1. Same-sex marriage. Referendum asking voters to repeal a new law permitting same-sex marriage. APPROVED 53-47
- Question 2. Car tax. Cuts taxes on newer and alternative-energy cars. FAILED 26-74
- Question 3. School district consolidation. Referendum asking voters to repeal a 2007 school district consolidation law. FAILED 41-59
- Question 4. Tax and expenditure limits. Limits state and local spending, requires voter approval for exceptions and tax increases. FAILED 40-60
- Question 5. Medical marijuana. Expands medical use of marijuana, and allows state-licensed dispensaries. APPROVED 59-41
- Question 6. $71.25 million bond issue for transportation projects. APPROVED 65-35
- Question 7. Initiative and referendum. Allows officials more time to certify petitions. FAILED 48-52
- Public Question. $400 million bond issue to acquire land for parks and conservation (legislative). APPROVED 52-48
Both propositions are constitutional amendments proposed by the legislature.
- Proposal 1. State forest preserve. Allows sale of state forest land for power lines. APPROVED 67-33
- Proposal 2. Inmates. Allows inmates to work for nonprofit organizations. APPROVED 68-32
Issues 1 and 2 were placed on the ballot by the legislature. Issue 3 is an initiative. All three measures propose to amend the constitution.
- Issue 1. $200 million bond issue to pay stipends to veterans. APPROVED 72-28
- Issue 2. Livestock Care Standards Board. To create board to regulate treatment of farm animals. Opposed by animal rights groups. APPROVED 64-36
- Issue 3. Casinos. Authorizes casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. APPROVED 53-47
All 11 measures are constitutional amendments placed on the ballot by the legislature.
- Proposition 1. Land near military bases. Allows tax-financed acquisition of open space near bases by local governments. APPROVED 55-45
- Proposition 2. Property tax. Property tax on residence to be based only on value as residence. APPROVED 68-32
- Proposition 3. Uniform standards for property tax appraisals. APPROVED 66-34
- Proposition 4. University research. Establishes fund to support research at state universities. APPROVED 57-43
- Proposition 5. Board of Equalization. Authorizes single board for adjoining appraisal entities. APPROVED 62-38
- Proposition 6. Veterans Land Board bonds. Allows state to issue replacement bonds without voter approval. APPROVED 66-34
- Proposition 7. Office holding by military. Allows state militia to hold civil offices. APPROVED 73-27
- Proposition 8. Veterans Hospitals. Allows state to contribute to veterans hospitals. APPROVED 75-25
- Proposition 9. Guarantees public access to certain beaches on Gulf of Mexico. APPROVED 77-23
- Proposition 10. Emergency service districts. Extends terms of board members from two to four years. APPROVED 73-27
- Proposition 11. Eminent domain. Prohibits use of eminent domain to transfer land to private entities, promote economic development, or increase tax revenue. APPROVED 81-29
- I-1033. Revenue limits. Initiative statute that limits government spending growth to inflation plus population growth, with excess revenue used to reduce property taxes. FAILED 45-55
- R-71. Domestic partners. Citizen referendum that asks voters if they want to uphold a law granting same-sex domestic partners the same rights as married spouses. APPROVED 53-47
The following propositions were decided by voters in an election held May 19.
All six measures were placed on the ballot by the legislature as part of a budget agreement. 1A, 1B and 1F were constitutional amendments, 1D and 1E were statutes, and 1C was an amendment and statute.
- Proposition 1A. Rainy day fund. Complicated and difficult-to-interpret proposition that, among other things, increased the state’s rainy day fund and imposed modest limits on spending. If the measure had been approved, certain emergency taxes would have been extended for several years. FAILED 35-65
- Proposition 1B. Education. Required supplemental spending on education after the end of the budget crisis. FAILED 38-62
- Proposition 1C. Lottery revenue. Allowed state to borrow against future lottery revenue. FAILED 36-64
- Proposition 1D. Tobacco tax revenue. Allowed state to divert tobacco tax revenue dedicated to early childhood development programs. FAILED 34-66
- Proposition 1E. Mental health revenue. Allowed state to divert revenue dedicated to mental health services. FAILED 34-66
- Proposition 1F. Elected officials’ salaries. Prohibited increase in legislature salaries if state has a deficit. APPROVED 72-26
For more on USC’s Initiative & Referendum Institute, go to www.iandrinstitute.org or call (213) 740-9690. To download a PDF version of this report, click here.
John G. Matsusaka, president of the institute, can be reached at [email protected].
Please direct media inquiries to Gilien Silsby, director of Public Relations, at (213) 740-9690 (office), (213) 500-8693 (cell) or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:3a2177ae-3a3d-42fb-bcdd-9998acd226e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://election2012.usc.edu/2009/11/ballotwatch-november-election.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939035 | 2,162 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Ever find yourself becoming a bit repetitive in the things you are doing? Yes, we hear repeatedly that you need to “get outside the box” – but how do you actually do that?
In Seth Godin’s new book, “Poke the Box,” he gives an easy to read and to-the-point treatment of how to do just that. As a corporate psychologist, I found his approach very motivational and psychological (while also being enjoyable – not an easy balance to strike).
Basically, he has greatly expanded on Nike’s theme of “Just Do It.” In essence, Godin notes that we are all regularly presented with opportunities to try new things. Yet, we can all too easily get caught in the habits and ruts that propel us through the day.
Taking that a step further, I find that many executives overly emphasize how their days are “productive” but don’t do enough to make sure their days are “effective.” When the day is done, it doesn’t matter how much you do, but how much of what you do – matters. And, that is Godin’s central point.
So, if you find you’re itching to try something new in your business or job, but feel the day-to-day work has got you in a rut, you might want to give “Poke the Box” a try. It will pleasantly open your eyes to new opportunities around you and get you outside your own box.
Happy reading!Email This Post | <urn:uuid:be7fcaa0-778b-4eea-b494-90eeee4880cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tsgdrjim.com/blog/2011/03/book-review-poke-the-box-by-seth-godin/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973789 | 330 | 1.6875 | 2 |
More than 1,000 Arrowmen gathered in Wyoming for brotherhood, great adventures, and one giant-size good turn at ArrowCorps5, the largest service project in U.S. Forest Service history.
Taking time off for good behavior, Arrowmen run the Big Kahuna on Snake River.
HERE IT COMES. Big Kahuna. The most aptly named rapid in this frothing section of Wyoming’s Snake River is less than a minute of light paddling away. A bald eagle hovers overhead, slicing between a pair of cliffs and an endless blue horizon in the heart of Big Sky Country. The raft shoots around a corner. The current gathers speed, sweeping toward a giant ledge. The first scream-inducing curlers of Big Kahuna are now dead ahead.
What better time for a little small talk among Order of the Arrow members enjoying a day of recreation during one of the greatest conservation projects in Scouting history?
Robbie Hirschmann of New Orleans Troop 60 swings his pick, helping prepare a trail in Bridger-Teton National Forest.
“So where’s everybody from?” the raft’s muscled guide asks the boatload of elite Scouts—a dozen life-jacketed Arrowmen converging from a dozen different corners of the country for this singular purpose.
“El Paso!” someone hollers back
“Upstate New York!” yells another.
“Astatula, Florida!” bellows a third, digging his paddle into the churning river.
“C’mon, boys. Let’s take this thing.”
A moment later, they’re in the spin cycle. The boat dives hard into the rapid’s first hole, soaking half of the elated crew. The raft rises and then nosedives again. Big Kahuna just got bigger.
It’s not a first for this set of rapids this week—a Scout getting more acquainted with the Snake River than planned. Today’s bucked-off passenger is Matthew Schulte, a former chief of Central New Jersey’s Sakuwit Lodge 2. He, along with more than a thousand other OA volunteers, has traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyo., to do something even more historic than shoot down Big Kahuna feet first.
A life buoy is tossed. Seconds later, Schulte is back on board—cold and disoriented but otherwise in good spirits.
“So that was Big Kahuna, huh?” sputters Schulte, catching his breath and grabbing a paddle. He grins, joining in the mirth of his fellow Arrowmen. “I thought this was supposed to be our day off.”
Leaving a legacy
Five national forests. Five weeks. Five thousand OA volunteers registering 280,000 work hours. The value is an estimated $5.6 million in what has been touted as the largest U.S. Forest Service volunteer project ever. In nearly a century of public service, Scouting took on its most ambitious undertaking yet and entered it into the history books last summer during ArrowCorps5.
Sweat equity: Tyler Linner from Minnesota Troop 9089 (right) digs working on this ATV trail.
Years in the making, ArrowCorps5’s epic partnership between the BSA and the Forest Service began auspiciously enough last June in Missouri’s Mark Twain National Forest. More than 500 Arrowmen and support staff conducted a week of wilderness restoration and invasive-species removal in 150 acres of remote backcountry.
Over the next two months, the work projects would move on to Utah’s Manti-La Sal, Virginia’s George Washington and Jefferson, and California’s Shasta-Trinity national forests before ArrowCorps5’s flagship week—at least for the 1,000-plus Arrowmen attending the project’s fifth, final, and largest phase—in western Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest.
“This was definitely my first choice of the five locations,” says Ben Parker, taking a breather beside a just-built, 40-foot off-road-vehicle closure gate in the heart of Bridger-Teton’s Gros Ventre region.
This mountainous corridor of pristine backcountry with a Teton Range backdrop could pass for a page from an Ansel Adams calendar.
“You don’t get mountains and scenery and meteor showers like this back in Flint,” notes the 18-year-old Eagle Scout from Michigan’s Cuwe Lodge. “It’s just indescribable to be working in a setting like this.”
Donning hardhats, safety glasses, and work gloves, Parker and a few of his squad members set down a large mattock, a rock bar, and a post-hole digger beside a pile of trail tools that have already gotten plenty of use this morning. Behind them, spread over a mile of mountainside, four busy squads of Arrowmen are covering an ugly track of unauthorized dirt road with sagebrush and grass seed. They are closing it down to off-road vehicles and healing the scar. An hour ago, the large wooden barrier at the base of this hard-packed hill was just one more job on the Forest Service’s endless to-do list. Now it’s up.
“Digging 27 inches into this dirt was worse than cutting into rock,” says Brian Meadows, a 15-year-old Arrowman from Birmingham, Ala. “But with three people working on each post hole, we got it knocked out pretty quick.” He grins. “And, hey, now I can come back here some day with my buddies and point to this thing and say ‘I did that.’”
“Mainly it’s been incredible to work with all of these great people from all over the country,” adds Parker. “And to see just how much we can accomplish in the time we have out here.”
As it turns out, a lot.
By Day 4, the 300 Arrowmen camped out in Gros Ventre have blazed through an entire week’s worth of conservation projects slated for them by the Forest Service. The most grueling job has been the fence removal project: pulling out miles of barbed wire range fences and a 15,000-foot-long, eight-foot-high exclusion fence winding through miles of steep, rugged terrain. For decades the fences have been impacting the natural migration routes of elk, moose, and antelope in one of the nation’s most vital wildlife habitats.
Chief Scout Executive Robert Mazzuca high-fives David Syfrett of Troop 504 from Destin, Fla., as workers enter History Trailhead from the parking lot.
“I’d done some fence work before, but nothing quite like this,” says Will Cole, an Eagle Scout from Boaz, Ala., who’d spent his first two days getting plenty of on-the-job training. “We’d be standing 30 feet apart in water up to our ankles in a thicket of willows pulling this stuff off the posts and down the mountain. Everything had to be packed out by horses and mules or by us.”
Bridger-Teton personnel were hoping—if not expecting—to get these fences out within a week. In the first three days, the entire fence removal project has been completed. Miles worth of old fence panels and barbed wire are stacked by the side of the road in neat bales.
“I was keeping my expectations kind of moderate when the Scouts first got here,” says David Wilkinson, a USFS forest technician working with ArrowCorps5 in the Gros Ventre region. “But I’m incredibly inspired by the attitudes and the work ethic they’ve demonstrated. And to pay to come out here and do this—that’s just above and beyond.”
A moment later, a pair of elk shows up near the new closure gate. Like timid foremen, they briefly survey the work and disappear down the hillside into a grove of aspens. It’s almost noon, and the Arrowmen are almost finished with their work here. In a matter of hours, the mountainside scar is nearly gone.
“We’re standing in one of the largest big-game wildlife habitats in the Lower 48,” says Wilkinson. “Every animal that was here 200 years ago still exists: grizzly bears, wolves, mountain lions, bighorn sheep, moose. It’s a huge deal for us, what these guys are doing, and I hope they know that.”
Introducing the Arrow Trail
Less than a week ago, it was just forest and overgrowth. Stumps, narrow ledges, and lonely red trail markers. But on a bright Thursday morning, 10 miles from Jackson Hole near Teton Pass, the signature trail of ArrowCorps5 is nearly a reality.
The Arrow Trail—five miles of new single-track, winding through flowering meadows and thick groves of towering pine trees at 8,000 feet in the heart of Teton country—is by any measure the flagship project of the summer. An encampment of more than 800 Arrowmen and support staff down the hill at Jackson Hole High School have been commuting up to this area every day to build the OA’s namesake mountain-bike trail from scratch, along with a network of neighboring hiking and equestrian paths in Teton Pass.
Next weekend, the Arrow Trail plans to officially open on schedule with an inaugural ride of 1,000 mountain bikers. But today, it’s still in the making—a well-oiled worksite buzzing with walkie-talkies, sledgehammers, mattocks, McLeods, fire rakes, and hundreds of relentless perfectionists on a joint mission.
“It’s got our name on it, so it better be perfect,” says Bob Dziemian, an Eagle Scout and veteran Arrowman from the North New Jersey Council. He took time off from his audio-engineering job in New York City to join the Arrow Trail effort.
“This is my vacation time, but I’m not complaining at all. It’s just phenomenal to be part of this.”
The Tetons’ snow-dusted peaks provide spectacular scenery for OA members from Boise, Idaho, Troop 1 on a short recreational mountain-bike ride.
Dziemian and his unit working along the Arrow Trail’s woodsy midsection are pounding out a few last rocks, filling in some holes, tamping a few more feet of tread, and securing one of the most hard-won pieces of broken trail this week—a 20-foot bridge hewn from a giant fallen tree trunk. Earlier this week, there were some doubts about whether the trail would get finished on time.
“On Monday, when we were training everybody, we weren’t sure,” says Dziemian. “But over the next few days everyone stepped into high gear and busted out so much trail that we’re now actually ahead of schedule. I think that’s pretty remarkable, especially given that this kind of trail work is a new experience for a lot of these guys.”
Up the path, volunteers, young and old, keep turning up along the Arrow Trail—working their tails off and voicing the same sentiments.
“This is a fantastic project for the OA,” says Ronald Morton, a council committee member with Georgia’s Ini-To Lodge and a 48-year veteran of Scouting. He lowers a sledgehammer beside a pile of fill-in rock along the path. “I don’t think they could’ve come up with a better one.”
“I just love giving back and letting people enjoy what we’ve worked on,” says Luke McCurry, a 14-year-old Scout from Bethel Park, Penn., fighting with a patch of deep-rooted grass in a sunny meadow.
“For a parent, this is an awesome experience,” says Michael Marks, a dad from Pittsburgh joining his Eagle Scout son, Robert, on The Arrow Trail. “It’s spiritual, life-changing, and maturing for all the youth who are involved—and they’ll truly be walking away from this with a sense of pride that they’ve done something that’s going to last for decades.”
“There’s definitely a great Forest Service-Boy Scout relationship coming out of this,” concludes Brad Ellis, a sector boss on the trail and OA lodge adviser from Southern Florida. He speaks while finishing a support wall along a narrow curve of the trail. “Especially now that they know what we can do.”
By mid-afternoon tomorrow, the Arrow Trail—all five miles of it—will be officially ready to roll. Hundreds of Arrowmen, exhausted and exhilarated, will head down the highway from Teton Pass one last time—their names and the fruits of their labor indelibly stamped on a job well done.
“I think I’d like to work for the Forest service or one of the national parks up here some day,” says Ian Cleghorn, musing aloud on a bus bound for Yellowstone National Park. “I know I’m gonna be back.”
Working Scouts take a walk on the wild side, crossing a log bridge on a portion of the Arrow Trail they’d been constructing.
After a week of heavy trail work in Bridger-Teton, the 16-year-old Life Scout from Trussville, Ala., is heading home tomorrow, but not before enjoying some Big Sky-style recreation. Choosing between whitewater rafting in the Snake River Canyon, hiking or mountain biking in the Tetons, or bus touring through Yellowstone was its own challenging task. But Yellowstone, 80 miles up the road from ArrowCorps5 headquarters in Jackson Hole, eventually won out.
“I figured I couldn’t come all the way out here without seeing it,” Ian says.
Today will just be a little taste of the nation’s first national park—home to more than half of the world’s hydrothermal features and the largest “super volcano” and alpine lake on the continent.
The tour makes its requisite stops at Old Faithful, a series of steaming and bubbling hotspots, and the all-important photo-op overlooking Yellowstone’s very own Grand Canyon.
Still, it would be fun to see something unexpected. Something to tell everyone about back in El Paso. Or New York. Or Astatula.
On the way out of the park, the first few buffalo appear, meandering on the grassy shoulder of the highway. Then, just down the road, a few more turn up. And a few more. And a few more… Suddenly, just outside the window, a vast open plain is teeming with herds of buffalo. Hundreds of them, charging across an open field on the far side of a glistening river.
The bus stops. Even the driver hasn’t quite seen anything like this before in the park’s lower valley.
“This is as good as it gets, folks.” The bus door swings open—for anyone who wants to get a slightly closer brush with history in the making.
Ian springs out of his seat—along with rows of excited Arrowmen—heading out to seize the moment.
This magical week, it turns out, isn’t quite over yet.
Journalist and author Jordan Rane has contributed features to Outside and Cowboys & Indiansmagazines, as well as to The Los Angeles Times. He is the author of The Fun Seeker’s Los Angeles(Greenline Publications, 2003).
Continuing the Legacy
Scouting families don’t have to wait for the next ArrowCorps5 to help our public lands.
“The point isn’t holding off until someone else plans something for you,” says Tim Beaty, national partnership coordinator of senior, youth, and volunteer Programs for the U.S. Forest Service, “but to take what’s been learned at ArrowCorps5 and figure out how to do it back home.” Here are four steps in the right direction:
This one-stop portal within a larger portal (USA Freedom Corps) connects people with public-sector volunteer opportunities. Federal agencies list them by keyword, state, activity, and date range.
MEET YOUR LAND MANAGER
Successful volunteer projects rely on building relationships with local land managers, whether they’re public or private. Where do you meet them? Start with the blue pages of the phone book, where agency contacts in parks and recreation, agriculture, and even public utilities can help hook up volunteers or point them in the right direction.
In order to find a solution, it’s important to first know what the problem is and how to handle it.
That’s exactly what training programs are designed to do: provide an all-important skill set.
DON’T STOP CARING
Here’s the most important element of all: passion for the well-being of the great outdoors. | <urn:uuid:b5119f8c-b26f-41ff-95e9-935c95786b6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scoutingmagazine.org/2009/05/as-good-as-it-gets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935354 | 3,718 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Back in July, I wrote an article titled "My Investment Advice: Do Nothing!" In that article, I stated that through many years of investing I had learned that holding a stock you have purchased, as long as the business is performing well, was the best strategy for long-term gains. I then cited a number of examples from my investing history where if I had held the stock I owned, I would have had exceptional gains, but for one reason or another, I sold the stock and missed out on much of the gain.
That article came to my mind, when this past Wednesday I was off work and happened to catch Warren Buffett on CNBC. Buffett was spending a couple hours fielding questions during the morning Squawk Box show. Near the end of the show, Becky Quick asked Warren to play a word association game with her and began the game by saying "buy." Warren responded by saying "hold." He went on to explain his answer as follows.
I say, basically, 'hold.' The idea that the European news or slowdown in this or that or anything like that, that would not cause you to, if you owned a good farm and had it run by a good tenant, you wouldn't sell it because somebody says, 'Here's a news item,' you know, 'This is happening in Greece' or something of the sort.
If you owned an apartment house and you got to raise the rents a little and it was well located and you had a good manager, you wouldn't dream of selling it.
If you had a good business personally, a local McDonald's franchise, you wouldn't think of buying or selling it every day.
If you own stocks, you own pieces of businesses, and they're wonderful businesses. You can pick the best businesses in the world."
And to buy or sell on current news is just crazy. You're in a wonderful business. You've got people running it for you. You know you're going to do well over five to ten years. And to think news events should cause you to dance in or out of something that's a wonderful game is a terrible mistake.
So, get into a bunch of wonderful businesses and stay with them...
By no means am I comparing myself to Warren Buffett; he is 10-times the investor I am. However, I will say that what he states in the above quote is what I have learned over 40 years of investing. When you invest in a stock, you are investing in a business, before I invest a dime, I review the business of the company I am thinking of investing in. I look to see if the company's business is currently performing well and determine the likelihood the company will continue to perform well. Only after I have assured myself that the business is performing well and will continue to perform well, do I look at other things like price, P/E, etc.
Buffett also stated during the interview that before he puts money into a new stock, he compares it against the best ideas he already owns. "I usually end up buying more of something I already know. Any new company, any new stock I look at, I measure it against the best idea I've got among the present ones. And I'm perfectly willing to just keep adding to the present ones. So it has to beat them."
Trading in and out of stocks because I thought I had a better idea today, than I had yesterday, is what I use to do. Although I have learned to control the urge, I still, on occasion, have to talk myself out of selling something to buy something else. Last week I was considering selling some of my Coke (KO) to buy some other stock. I actually pulled out the calculator to figure out how many shares I would have to sell to buy the company I was looking at. Fortunately, I realized what I was doing and asked myself, "What the heck am I doing." Coke is a wonderful business, performing very well, with years and years of growth ahead of it. Why would I sell any KO to take a chance on something else? Is the business I am buying better than the business I am selling? If not, I should do nothing.
I own five stocks I consider the pillars of my portfolio. These are stocks I plan to never sell unless their current business model goes off the rails. In just a few sentences I can tell you why I own each and where I see each business in 10 years.
Coca-Cola - World's largest beverage company, still growing sales with plans to double servings by 2020. Pays a nice growing dividend and has a moat like no other company. In 10 years' time, KO will be selling more drinks to more people throughout the world and will have increased its dividend by about 70%. (7% average increase x 10 years)
McDonald's (MCD) - World's leading food service retailer with more than 33,500 restaurants, just starting to grow in China and other countries. MCD pays a healthy 3+% dividend that it has been increasing at a rapid rate. In 10 years' time, MCD will have more restaurants in more parts of the world and will have increased its dividend by about 90%. (9% average increase x 10 years)
Walgreen (WAG) - Leading drug store chain in the United States with more than 8,000 stores, currently in the process of purchasing Alliance Boot, the leading European health and beauty store with over 3,000 stores. When completed, WAG will be, by far, the world's largest pharmacy led health and wellbeing store. WAG pays a healthy 3+% dividend, which it has been increasing for over 36 years. In 10 years' time, WAG will be the world's largest pharmacy/health and wellness store selling more products to an aging population and will be paying a dividend that is 90% higher than it is now. (9% annual increase x 10 years).
Exxon Mobil (XOM) - World's largest publicly traded energy company with more proven reserves than any other publicly traded energy company. World will need energy for as far as my eyes can see and XOM will be providing the energy. XOM is a dividend champion having raised its dividend 30 straight years. In 10 years' time, XOM will be providing energy to a world that will be demanding more energy than it is now. XOM will have bought back millions of shares and will be paying a dividend that is 80% higher than it is now. (8% annual increase x 10 years)
Kinder Morgan (KMI) - The largest mid-steam and third largest energy company in North America. KMI owns approximately 72,000 miles of pipelines and 180 product terminals. I believe natural gas will play a dominant role in America's energy future and KMI, with the largest natural gas pipeline network, will benefit. In addition, management has stated it intends to increase the current 4% dividend by double digits for the next several years. In 10 years' time, KMI will be transporting more product through its pipelines and will be the leading natural gas pipeline company in the United States. In addition, 10 years from now, KMI will be paying a dividend that is double what it is now. (10% average increase x 10 years)
Note - To determine the average dividend increase, I looked at the past few years' increase and then used what I believe to be a conservative forecast for future dividend increases. For the record, in 2012 the respective dividend increases were KO 7%, MCD 10%, WAG 22%, XOM 21% and KMI 17%.
The above companies all have successful leading businesses and all pay nice dividends that they raise every year. I believe 10 years from now, all these companies will still be the leaders in their field. Why would I sell?
As everyone knows, sequestration (the fiscal cliff) is on the horizon. If Congress and the President do not take some action to avert it, automatic steep cuts in government spending will take place starting January 2, 2013. The financial press is full of stories on how this will affect the economy and stocks. Most predict an economic slowdown and a large stock pull-back if an agreement is not reached. What do I plan to do with my portfolio to prepare for this possibility? Nothing at all, unless the prices drop to where I might decide to add shares. If the fiscal cliff is reached, the economy may slow down and stocks probably will drop, but it will only be temporary. I do not believe any of the above company's businesses will be affected over the long term by this event, so why should I sell. The chances of me exiting a stock and buying it back at the exact most opportune time are close to zero. Better I hold the stock and, if the price falls significantly, buy more.
I was invested in stocks on Black Monday 1987, when stocks dropped 22% in a day. I was invested during the lead up to the first Iraq War when stocks dropped almost every day. I was invested in stocks after 9/11 when the country seemingly came to a stop, and I was invested in stocks during the financial crisis of 2008/2009. All these events have one thing in common; the stock market came back from the sell-off. I did not sell during any of these events and actually bought during the 2008/2009 financial crisis. Do not let frightening financial headlines or some talking head proclaiming the end of the financial world scare you out of stocks when the going gets tough. If the company you own is financially strong and runs a great business, stick with it or maybe even buy more. Strong businesses survive and sometimes even thrive during bad times by taking business away from competitors that are not as strong.
I admit I am a conservative investor; I spend more time worrying about the downside than I do about the upside. When I select a stock for purchase, it will have a strong balance sheet, a dominant business with some moat to limit competition, a growing dividend and a sustainable product. Once I find a company with those requirements, I wait for an opportune time to buy it and then hold it for as long as the business performs well. There are a number of ways to make money in the market, but for me, buying companies with the above characteristics and holding them has worked best.
Warren Buffett has mentioned numerous times that the reason he continues to hold Coca-Cola is that, in his eyes, there is not a better business in the world. He does not look at the stock and say, "I have a big gain, I should sell some." He looks at the business and says, "the business is performing well, it is still growing and still raising the divided, I will continue to hold the stock." Look at the companies you hold stock in and review the business performance, if it is performing well, hold it. Resist the urge to sell good companies that are performing well. You are part owner of the business, if the business continues to perform well, the stock price will follow.
I know it may be boring, but in my opinion, buying and holding quality dividend-paying companies is the path to successful investing. Warren Buffett is not one of the most exciting people in the world, just one of the richest. | <urn:uuid:1d3309fa-6776-418a-98ac-d08726733ec9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seekingalpha.com/article/962561-buffett-agrees-doing-nothing-is-the-path-to-investment-success | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977961 | 2,309 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The first thing Al Gore mentioned in every speech last week was that his oldest daughter was past her due date and about to make him and his wife of 29 years grandparents. (Wyatt Gore Schiff, 6 pounds 3 ounces, finally arrived on the Fourth of July, timing that the Vice President will surely mention in future speeches.)
The second thing he told crowds was that he had been reared by a mother who grew up poor, got on a bus to Nashville with her blind sister in tow, waited tables for quarter tips and, in 1936, became one of the first women to graduate from Vanderbilt Law School.
When he listened as a child to the daily back and forth between his parents, ''it was clear to me that men and women were equal -- if not more so,'' Mr. Gore said, drawing whoops from his listeners at every stop.
In his run for the White House, the Vice President is aggressively pursuing female voters, the increasingly important bloc that so far seems to favor George W. Bush slightly. And the pitch is not terribly subtle.
Whenever possible, Mr. Gore is introduced to his audiences by a woman. (Christine Meyer, the mother of a 3-year-old cancer survivor, did the honors before his Philadelphia speech last week supporting cancer research. ''I said my husband is really the speaker,'' Ms. Meyer said in an interview, ''but they said no, we want you to do it. They wanted a mom's perspective.'')
Mr. Gore steps onstage to the tune of ''Rock This Country,'' a country song by a female vocalist, Shania Twain. A campaign video focuses primarily on him as husband and father, with his daughter Karenna Schiff repeatedly assuring viewers that her dad is so funny.
Then comes his standard stump speech, chock full of talk about day care, early-childhood education and gender equality. ''This pledge,'' he says, ''is in honor of my mother: an equal day's pay for an equal day's work.''
He promises also to ''fight for the ability to balance work and family'' and ''to shield our children from gun violence.'' And his biggest applause line is usually his vow to ''make sure we have high-quality preschool available for every child.''
This wildly woman-friendly agenda is not a poll-tested new focus for the Vice President. Mr. Gore has worked on these issues throughout his public life, co-sponsoring early versions of the Family and Medical Leave Act in the Senate and a series of bills on women's health in the House as far back as the early 1980's.
He opposed Federal financing of abortion early in his House career, but has been a supporter of abortion rights for many years and was a Senate co-sponsor of a bill that would have made a Federal statute of Roe v. Wade. He has surrounded himself with accomplished women who have become some of his closest aides, and he is considered by his staff to be an unusually family-friendly employer.
Still, his campaign is without question reacting to polls suggesting that at least at this early date, American women, who have heavily favored Democrats in recent elections, seem to prefer Mr. Bush, an opponent of abortion.
David Beckwith, a Bush spokesman, said the Governor's ''compassionate conservatism'' appealed to everybody. Even when Mr. Bush ran for governor in 1994 against a female incumbent, Ann Richards, there was virtually no gender gap, Mr. Beckwith noted: 49 percent of Texas women who went to the polls, like 53 percent of the men, supported Mr. Bush.
Though women favored Bill Clinton over Bob Dole by 16 percentage points in 1996, one recent CNN poll had them backing Mr. Bush over Mr. Gore by 11 points. (The Vice President was farther behind among men, by 21 points.) | <urn:uuid:41bc893f-2ff0-47be-a3d5-0b4995238fef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/06/us/gore-campaign-trailing-among-women-sharpens-its-pitch-to-them.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987458 | 781 | 1.546875 | 2 |
AcademyNew! Background, theory, interviews and cases on non-profit advertising and marketing for social causes.
I have been blogging about this topic, here and elsewhere, for almost four years. I started doing it as a form of professional development (I’m a Creative Director at a social issues marketing agency) and the process of researching and analyzing campaigns from around the world teaches me something new every day. Here are three themes that have been particularly evident in the past year:
1. Women know their own power, and they are organized
The words “slut” and “vagina” featured prominently in the run-up to the 2012 US election, and that conversation was controlled by women’s activist groups. They ended up being a major force in Barack Obama’s re-election, as his opponents held on to their policies of limiting reproductive choice: among unmarried women, who make up 23% of voters, President Obama was favoured by 67%.
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Onstuimig Interactive Communication | <urn:uuid:61b84951-d03e-42ee-994b-49c2504de2c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://osocio.org/academy/three_things_i_learned_while_blogging_about_cause_marketing_in_2012/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97777 | 218 | 1.734375 | 2 |
When Sam Puttick was struck by a car on a summer's day four years ago, doctors warned his parents that his injuries were catastrophic.
For nine months, Neil and Kazumi Puttick nursed their paralysed son in intensive care, driven by a single goal - to get him home and dedicate themselves to his recovery.
The depth of that dedication was extraordinary. The couple converted a Wiltshire farmhouse into a one-person hospital where Sam, who suffered the devastating spinal injury that paralysed him from the neck down when he was just 16 months old, could receive 24-hour care that included constant ventilation necessary to keep his lungs functioning.
Through a charity appeal, the family raised £30,000 ($77,500) to buy specialist equipment. Mr Puttick, a former finance manager who had worked in London and Tokyo, gave up his job two years ago to help his Japanese wife and two full-time nurses look after his son as he began school.
By January of this year, the family had settled into a new life in which Sam was thriving. Mr Puttick, 34, wrote on the appeal website stuff4sam: "I am a dad who just wants to see my son grow healthy and happy. You have given us as a family a chance to see our son grow, despite the accident, into the same person he would always have been."
Then the Putticks were once more robbed of hope and, ultimately, their will to live. Last Tuesday, Sam was admitted to intensive care at Bristol's Royal Hospital for Children with an infection diagnosed as pneumococcal meningitis. His parents were told the illness was so severe that there was no hope of recovery for their 5-year-old boy and the Putticks asked to be allowed to take him home to die.
At 8pm last Friday, a doctor was called to the family home at Wishing Well Farm in the hamlet of Brokerswood, 25 miles southeast of Bristol, and Sam was declared dead. Within 48 hours, his parents, grief-stricken beyond endurance, had joined him.
On Sunday evening, the family's silver Volkswagen people carrier, adapted to carry Sam's wheelchair, pulled into the car park about 180m from the cliff edge at Beachy Head in East Sussex, a notorious suicide spot 160km from the Putticks' home.
The couple had placed Sam's body inside a rucksack and carried another backpack which was filled with his favourite toys, a tractor and some teddy bears. It is likely they appeared to any passersby as another pair of hikers walking through the nature reserve on the South Downs.
They made it to the top of the 152m drop above the Belle Tout lighthouse without encountering members of the Beachy Head Chaplaincy Team, which regularly patrols the beauty spot to try to counsel anyone who seems at risk of jumping.
A Coastguard patrol spotted their bodies about 8pm on Sunday, lying on a ledge 121m from the cliff edge. It was only when a climbing team reached them on Monday morning that the rucksack containing Sam's body was found alongside them. Sussex Police said the deaths were nothing other than an awful tragedy.
Bath and North East Somerset NHS Trust said it was normal policy to allow parents of a terminally ill child to return home to allow the child to die with appropriate medical care.
Friends of the family spoke glowingly of the attention that the couple, who are understood to have met in Japan, gave to Sam, and their determination to minimise the impact of his disabilities on his life.
Sue Capon, the owner of the Brokerswood Country Park opposite the Putticks' large farmhouse, had become a close friend of the family since they moved in two years ago, giving them a pass so they could visit the park at any time.
Mrs Capon said: "We are all absolutely devastated. Sam was adorable, a delight and I feel privileged to have been close to him during his short life. He never complained, he was always happy and full of smiles. He loved tractors and the chickens.
"Neil and Kazumi gave 110 per cent to Sam. Their life was Sam and without him their life did not mean anything to them. They were devoted to one another as well as to their child and it's just such a sad ending."
In a website posting in September 2006, Mr Puttick wrote: "We are so very proud of how [Sam] has survived, who he now is and how he continues to smile and be so damn strong in spite of everything. He is simply amazing."
The fundraising programme co-ordinated by the Putticks and their friends, which ranged from a sponsored row along the length of the Thames to dog-sledding in the Arctic, was closed earlier this year after the family said they had proved to the authorities that the equipment it paid for was critical to Sam's ongoing care.
The Putticks said they would instead dedicate their efforts to raising awareness of spinal injuries.
In the stuff4sam website last night, family and friends paid tribute to the couple: "We are all better for knowing them and Sam could not have wished for better parents."
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This is my second year volunteering with the CBC Calgary Reads book sale. After seeing the humongous selection of books last year I was hooked. I’m an avid reader and this is right up my alley! If you haven’t been yet, and you live in or near Calgary, I highly recommend going. But if you need a bit more persuasion here are 5 reasons you should check it out.
1. There is a huge, and I mean ginormous, selection
I was awe struck when I saw how many books there are, and that’s after volunteers weed out all dirty/old/worn ones. The books are well categorized too. Fiction on one side, non fiction on the other, and then sorted into groups such as art, travel, humour, ect, ect. I can almost guarantee everyone can find a subject that would interest them.
2. Your supporting an amazing charity
All of the funds raised go to Calgary Reads which is an early literacy initiative devoted to changing the lives of struggling grade 1 and 2 readers and their families in Calgary and area schools. Increased literacy in Children can boost their confidence and academic achievement and also enables curiosity, creativity and critical thinking. Happier and healthier kids turn into happier and healthier adults. Yay!
3. You could meet that someone special
Ok, this one might seem a little far fetched but I heard a story on CBC Radio 1 about a couple that met at a Calgary Reads book sale, he asked her out for coffee and they ended up getting married! Maybe you might connect with someone over your shared love of sports trivia or vegetarian cooking. Maybe you might reach for the same book, your fingers touch, and sparks fly. Hey, you never know!
4. It will help you stay young
Confucius says “you cannot open a book without learning something.” Patty Berg, founding member of the LPGA says “Always keep learning. It keeps you young.” So therefore read a book and stay young!
and if reading doesn’t appeal to you….
5. Book crafts!
If the thought of cutting into a book send shivers down your spine skip this one. There are some books out there that might not get chosen to read but have very pretty covers or would be perfect for that craft project you’ve been meaning to try. Why not use a book to make a lamp, clutch, or table runner. there’s even a book all about making crafts using books!
So do I have you convinced that you should head down to the Calgary Curling Club from May 10-12? If you want more information about the hours, address, or how you can get involved next year check out the website. www.calgaryreads.com or follow them on facebook or twitter!
Looking at the haul I brought home I think I might be spending a lot of time on the deck this summer with a book and a cold beverage. | <urn:uuid:48da43f1-b1a9-4011-847a-b5b1f911a6fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://victoriadaytoday.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958102 | 615 | 1.5 | 2 |
Workers at the Regency Ceramics factory in India raided the home of their boss, and beat him senseless with lead pipes after a wage dispute turned ugly.
The workers were enraged enough to kill Regency’s president K. C. Chandrashekhar after their union leader, M. Murali Mohan, was killed by baton-wielding riot police on Thursday. The labor violence occurred in Yanam, a small city in Andra Pradesh state on India’s east coast. Police were called to the factory by management to quell a labor dispute. The workers had been calling for higher pay and reinstatement of previously laid off workers since October. Murali was fired a few hours after the police left the factory.
The next morning, at 06:00 on Friday, Murali went to the factory along with some workers and tried to obstruct the morning shift, local media reported. Long batons, known as lathis in India, were used by police who charged the workers, injuring at least 20 of them, including Murali. He died on the way to hospital, according to The Times of India. Hundreds of workers gathered outside the police station and demanded that officers be charged with homicide.
Curfew and other civil orders were imposed in Yanam because of the uprising that ultimately lead to the murder of the Regency president a few hours after being attacked with led pipes. Police reported that rioters also torched several vehicles outside the police station. Eight Regency Ceramics workers were injured in police firing that followed; the condition of two of them is critical. More than 100 protesters have been arrested.
India’s factory workers are the lowest paid within the big four emerging markets. Per capita income in India is under $4,000 a year, making it the poorest country in the BRICs despite its relatively booming economy.
At Regency Ceramics, workers went on strike Jan. 1 over the wage dispute. The management had reportedly decided to slap a restraining order on five workers and managed to obtain an order from a high court saying that the striking workers should not come within 220 yards, more than the size of two football fields, from the factory.
Once news of Murali’s death spread, the factory workers allegedly destroyed 50 company cars, buses and trucks and lit them on fire. They ransacked the factory. Residents joined hands with around 600 workers, while others were enroute to Chandrashekhar’s house. | <urn:uuid:5d557da5-e8b8-4153-b8cd-86d476370062> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012/01/27/india-factory-workers-revolt-kill-company-president/?commentId=comment_blogAndPostId/blog/comment/1383-6928-2622 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985015 | 517 | 1.8125 | 2 |
The new items are part of the hotel chain's plan to move toward offering more healthful, sustainable food
Hyatt Corp. on Tuesday began offering new kids' menu options that are part of a comprehensive plan to move toward offering more healthful and sustainable foodservice options throughout the chain’s hotel properties.
The Chicago-based hotel chain’s new initiative, dubbed “Food. Thoughtfully Sourced. Carefully Served,” includes ambitious mandates that take step-by-step shifts toward the use of all-natural meats, cage-free eggs and sustainable seafood throughout roughly 400 foodservice outlets in more than 300 full-service properties worldwide.
Susan Santiago, vice president of food and beverage for Hyatt Hotels & Resorts’ North America operations, said the company began developing the program about 18 months ago after hearing increasing requests from guests and meeting planners looking for better dining experiences.
Hyatt’s research included beta tests comparing the consumer response to various healthful or sustainable dishes when listed on menus next to a more conventionally prepared version. Santiago noted that guests choose the healthful or sustainable option 30 percent of the time — even when it was priced at a premium. “We would have considered it a success if they chose it 10 percent of the time,” she said.
As part of the program, new menu options for kids are available throughout Hyatt’s full-service hotels in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, which include about 115 properties.
Among the new kids' options is a three-course organic menu for kids developed by renowned restaurateur Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif. Waters’ menu includes a romaine hearts, carrot curls and a radish rose for dipping in a lemon vinaigrette; grilledwith pesto sauce, roasted potatoes and cherry tomatoes; and strawberry and orange slices served with a honey-sweetened juice in a cup made from a real orange.
The larger kids initiative, dubbed “For Kids, By Kids,” includes dishes developed with input from children, such as 11-year-old Haile Thomas, who hosts an online cooking show called “Kids Can Cook.”
Dishes include Top Your Own Taco atwith scrambled eggs and cheese in a whole-wheat tortilla with various toppings. At lunch, there’s a chopped salad with roasted chicken, vegetables, brown rice and a yogurt-basil dressing served in a container that kids can shake up themselves at the table.
Continued from page 1
Dinner might include a small, all-natural grilled beef fillet with mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables and a salad; or vegetables and sesame rice noodles with marinated tofu — a nod to the increasing sophistication of the hotel’s young guests.
Kids can also order half portions off the adult menu. And, to make mealtimes more fun, kids with smartphones can use QR codes on the menu to link to a website with activities.
Notably not on the menu are the typical kid menu standards: chicken nuggets, hot dogs and burgers — and kids no longer get free refills on soda.
“Parents love it,” said Santiago. “They don’t have to tell their kids they can’t order the chicken nuggets because it’s not even on the menu.”
Hyatt’s menu moves come as a growing number of hotel chains are taking steps toward offering better-for-you and better-for-the-planet dining options in response to customer demand.
Santiago said Hyatt wanted to take its initiative further by installing a more holistic program that would eventually be woven into every aspect of the chain’s dining operations. The challenge, however, was finding suppliers that could meet the demand for products like cage-free eggs, organic produce and all-natural meats, she said.
Because of those sourcing challenges, noted Santiago, the expectations for compliance from hotels within the system will vary by brand even though the mandates are in place. Hyatt’s higher-end Andaz and Park Hyatt brands, for example, will be expected to meet all of the foodservice mandates by the end of the year. By then, most hotels systemwide should be able to say all eggs used throughout foodservice operations are cage-free, for example, and all restaurants and in-room dining menus should offer an all-natural beef burger.
Though the mandates won’t apply to existing restaurants not operated by Hyatt within the hotels, future contracts will require restaurant partners to comply with the standards, Santiago said.
Susan Terry, Hyatt’s vice president of culinary operations for North America, said the mandates are considered a starting point. “Some of our hotels are doing more,” she said. “It’s the beginning of a journey.”
The hotel chain has also set goals for reducing calories, sodium and sugars on foodservice menus over the next decade as part of a program associated with anti-obesity group Partnership for a Healthier America. | <urn:uuid:c0263c1b-2f68-4b2f-ba2b-e9ebb66b1a99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nrn.com/latest-headlines/hyatt-debuts-healthful-kids-menu-items | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932908 | 1,058 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Though I wouldn’t quite call breakfast the most important meal of the day — I think all daily meals are important! — I do think that a nourishing morning meal sets a good tone for all of the hours that follow. I know that many people don’t have much of a morning appetite, and I would hesitate to suggest that anyone disobey his or her natural hunger signals, but I personally can’t imagine skipping breakfast! It gives me the energy to go about my day, and beyond that, some of my favorite foods are breakfast foods: smoothies, granola, hot porridge, pancakes, and chia pudding, among them. If you flip through the “breakfast” tag on my blog, you’ll get a sampling of the many delicious morning meals that I make and enjoy regularly.
As you can gather from that sampling of breakfast favorites, there’s a huge variety in the kind of breakfasts I like to eat. On some days it’s a smoothie or an all-raw breakfast salad; on others it’s warm grains with walnuts and dried fruit. My breakfast choices depend upon whether or not I need my food to be portable, weather, how soon I’ll be eating lunch, how hungry I am, and what I’m craving. During these summer months, however, I take my breakfast to class and eat it in class every day (my class starts early), which means that breakfast is nearly always the exact same thing: superfood overnight oats, which is my little name for the mixture of chia seeds, soaked oats, hemp protein, gojis, and goldenberries I pack up every morning.
In the first two years of blogging, one of the questions I was asked most often was “what do raw/high-raw foodists eat for breakfast??” Of course, my breakfast choices are not always all raw, but if they were, I’d still have plenty of options: smoothies galore, chia puddings, soaked and pulverized oat groats, buckwheat cereal, raw snack bars and fresh fruit, breakfast salads, and much more! This particular breakfast is ideal for me during summer school because it’s easy to pack and transport, it’s delicious, and it’s very filling: I love chia pudding on its own, but I find that adding oats keeps me satiated longer. I relied on it last summer, and I rely on it still, and it never disappoints me!
Superfood Overnight Oats (high raw, vegan, gluten free, soy free)
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/3 cup dry rolled oats (purchase certified GF oats if you’re a GF eater)
2 tbsp hemp protein (I use Tempt)
1 tbsp dried goji berries
1 tbsp dried mulberries
1 cup homemade or storebought nut milk (+ extra if needed)
2 tbsp date paste, agave, or stevia to taste
Mix all ingredients in a portable container. Allow to sit for at least 20 minutes at room temperature, and then refrigerate till ready to use.
What’s so wonderful about this recipe is the ease: every night before I go to bed, I mix it, allow it to sit for a while as I do my homework, and then move it to the fridge when I go to bed. In the morning, my breakfast is 100% ready to go: all I need add is some fresh fruit as a “side dish.” Sometimes I add fresh blueberries to the original mix, which makes it a one-dish meal.
When you take the overnight oats out of the fridge in the morning, you may find that you need to add more nut milk. Go for it! Different brands of chia seeds (and oats, for that matter) absorb different amounts of liquid, so use your judgment. If you like, you can create a “master mix” by quadrupling the dry components of this recipe, sealing them up, and using 1/4 of the mix at a time with 1 cup of almond milk. Think of it as a bag of muesli–just a lot more interesting!
If you’re curious about my metal container, by the way, that’s a Tiffin: adorable, eco-friendly, portable containers for lunches or breakfasts on the go. You can find these guys at Whole Foods now, or via their website, but I really like to purchase them through Herbivore, which is where I originally found them (and because I love that business, and want to support it as often as I can). They last for ages, and they’re incredibly convenient!
So there you have it: a glimpse into my daily morning meal! I hope that you guys find this quick, on-the-go breakfast to be as tasty and satisfying as I do. If you’re looking for more high raw, vegan breakfast options, please check out any of the following (and all of the other breakfast ideas on my recipe page!):
Enjoy them all!
What are your favorite raw and vegan breakfasts on the go? I’d love to hear about them. | <urn:uuid:c4512b4a-ea76-42ce-84cb-30585444bcf5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.choosingraw.com/my-favorite-portable-breakfast-high-raw-vegan-superfood-overnight-oats/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949091 | 1,100 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Elad Nehorai, an orthodox Jewish blogger, has an inane article at the Huffington Post arguing that atheism is a religion. But he blatantly distorts what atheism is in the process. And to make it even more annoying, he writes with a cloying faux-intimacy.
OK, atheists. Let’s have a talk. Pull up a chair, sit down, relax.
There’s so much I want to say to you in so little time, so let’s just get straight to it.
We’re not so different, you and I. Me, an Orthodox Jew. You, a non-believer. We both argue vehemently for our points of view, we both have a certain vision for the world, we both think we know the truth about life.
Sure, just start right out by showing that you’re a moron. “We both have beliefs about things, so we’re a lot alike.” Well yes, and we both breathe oxygen too; that hardly makes us alike when it comes to the substance of our positions.
Let’s look at the arguments atheists make: they say there’s absolutely no evidence for the existence of G-d, and that the burden of proof is on the believers, etc., etc. Now, these are great arguments, and I will be the first to admit that my belief is beyond logic.
But atheism is not agnosticism. It doesn’t claim to simply point out the fallacies of belief. Instead, it has created a belief system out of not believing. It takes a defiant stance, saying that there is absolutely 100 percent no chance there is a god in the world.
So, let’s be honest, dear atheists. Do you really believe that your argument is based around science, around logic, when you say that there is absolutely no chance there is an intelligent design behind the universe?
Yes, by all means, let’s look at the arguments atheists make. Can you name any atheist who takes the position that there is “absolutely no chance there is an intelligent design behind the universe”? I can’t either. Even Richard Dawkins, the most famous and influential atheist in the entire world, emphatically does not take such a position. What he would say, and what nearly all atheists do say, is that there is no evidence to compel such a belief. Isn’t it fascinating that he says he wants to look at the arguments atheists make but doesn’t bother to actually cite any such arguments?
As soon as anyone makes such a stance, and makes it unequivocal, they are going from the world of logic to the world of belief. We’re both religious, you and I. The only difference is that your belief is based on the assumption that everything you see and touch and feel is real. I base my belief on the assumption that not only is the tangible world not real, but that books thousands of years old and men with beards know more about the universe and spirituality than I do. Yeah, I get it, that’s a bit crazy, and easily argued against in the world of logic and science. But so can yours, my friend, so can yours.
Quantum physics, ironically, has already made a good case that all we see and touch and feel isn’t real. So, even science disagrees with you. Now, I know you’ll be able to bring about a bunch of scientific evidence to prove me wrong even in that respect, but the truth is that that argument would end up being circular. We would continue to debate and debate and get nowhere, just like every debate between religion and atheism.
Except this debate isn’t between religion and atheism; it’s between your religion and the cartoonish version of atheism you carry around in your head, which you prefer because it’s so much easier to argue with than what atheists actually say and believe.
Because at the end of the day, no belief will ever be 100 percent validated by evidence. That’s why there are democrats and there are republicans. That’s why some people like Pink Floyd and some people like Justin Bieber (G-d help us).
Holy shit, what a fucking idiot. | <urn:uuid:9484b94a-04fe-4ad9-b89b-f26cca144ef3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2012/07/13/no-atheism-is-not-a-religion/ | 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 | 0.954167 | 898 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Posted on 31 October 2011 by Sustainability Digest
One of the downsides of public transportation is that you can’t always expect a free seat, and you can’t save a place for yourself or a friend. But Jaymi showed us a novel solution — fake spilled ice cream cups and coffee to keep potential seat thieves at bay. They’re of dubious morality (and taste), but sometimes, you just need to sit down.
We also have sharks invading a golf course lake, a whale making friends with a motorboat, amazing night sky photography, and more in our roundup of the most popular stories on TreeHugger this month.
Read the full story on TreeHugger
Posted on 29 October 2011 by Sustainability Digest
Courtesy of Audubon /Promo image
Birding can be fun. Except when you have to get up early and it’s cold. That’s why Birding the Net may be so appealing to Internet surfers out there, especially those still wearing pajamas late into the afternoon. Just tongue in cheek, folks, this is about a new social media campaign by Audubon called Birding the Net. Virtual birds have been released all over the series of tubes, and being the first one to catch all of them could net you a grand prize trip to the Read the full story on TreeHugger
Posted on 27 October 2011 by Sustainability Digest
The Once-ler, a clear-cutting industrial polluter. Images courtesy of Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures
The Lorax, champion of the environment, is coming to the big screen in an animated 3D (or rather “Tree-D”) movie featuring Danny DeVito as the grumpy forest creature. Seuss took on consumerism with How the Grinch Stole Christmas and environmental concerns with The Lorax, which has had its share of controversy. What better way to get the message across than in a fantasy land losing its colorful cotton candy-esq…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Posted on 20 October 2011 by Sustainability Digest
Chef Christian Escribà making sugar hair… an alternative to nylon? Photo Credit: oh!BCN
Bored of conferences? Looking for inspiration? Then oh!BCN might just be your thing. It is a new kind of happening based around the unusual association of glass and food. We listened to chef Albert Adrià (brother of Ferran from El Bulli), and his …Read the full story on TreeHugger
Posted on 13 October 2011 by Sustainability Digest
Photo: margaret atwood
Margaret Atwood, writer and Canada’s National Treasure, is issuing a limited edition of her latest book on straw paper. The paper is made solely of straw leftover after the grain harvest. Her new book, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, will be the first in North America to be printed on this energy saving paper….Read the full story on TreeHugger
Posted on 28 September 2011 by Sustainability Digest
Photo credit: D Guisinger/Creative Commons
Every year salmon swim up the Snake river, struggling over 900 miles and up 7,000 vertical feet to their spawning grounds—the highest in the world and among the most important in North America. Before the construction of dams down the length of the river, as many as 30 million fish made the annual journey.
This year, two runners will acco…Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Posted on 12 September 2011 by Sustainability Digest
Photo by Dave Morris/CC
Do you have music guilt? Music glut? Rows and rows of old CDs that haven’t been played in years? If you’re like a lot of people, you rip a CD to your mp3 player or smartphone as soon as you buy it. That’s if you buy the CD at all, since music is available digitally from places like iTunes and Amazon. Not to mention the (illegal) downloading and sharing that goes on online. Still, what do…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Posted on 19 August 2011 by Sustainability Digest
The production of petroleum, of metals, and of fertilizer–seen here–result in polluted runoff that, when captured in the right moment, are as beautiful as they are troubling. Photographer J Henry Fair has captured these moments for his new book The Day After Tomorrow and to open viewers to a vision of a cleaner future.
We also have the most incredible edible gardens, 10 gorgeous new bikes we want now, and more, in our photo roun…Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Posted on 16 August 2011 by Sustainability Digest
Finally some of the great heroes of American design are being honoured by the US Postal Service. The twelve designers (one lone female) that have been chosen represent the most important and, dare we say it, iconic designs of the twentiet…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Posted on 15 August 2011 by Sustainability Digest
The Sock Summit 2011 was a purl of an event. Held in Portland, Oregon, it was a “one of a kind conference for hand-knitters that explores the humble art form known as the sock.”
Why socks, one might well ask. Well, these thousand or so women have the answer to that one, and it’s not simple.
…Read the full story on TreeHugger
- Related Blogs on art form
- Related Blogs on hand knitters | <urn:uuid:50ab7c51-4a49-4fec-8f34-98e18403eeef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sustainabilitydigest.com/category/culture-celebrity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93958 | 1,178 | 1.6875 | 2 |
When this question is asked, what is being referred to are the first- and second-round groupings. (Third- and fourth-round pairings are determined solely by golfers' scores.) At the U.S. Open, golfers play in the same groups of three for the first 36 holes. Are those pairings random? Are they computer-generated? Is there a specific formula the USGA follows? Written guidelines to which the pairings must adhere?
The U.S. Open pairings are made by a small group of USGA officials (sometimes even just a single individual), and those officials set the pairings at their sole discretion, any way they want. There is no formalized set of rules that the USGA officials are bound to follow; however, there are informal guidelines and traditions that the pairings-makers keep in mind.
The Basic US Open Pairings ProcessThe basic process is this: When the U.S. Open field is known, the USGA officials in charge of pairings for Rounds 1 and 2 get together, sit down and hash out the groupings. That's it. At the 2012 U.S. Open, for example, USGA Executive Director Mike Davis and USGA Rules & Competitions Director Jeff Hall were solely responsible for deciding which golfers played together the first two rounds, and what their tee times would be. Davis and Hall met, kicked around ideas, and came up with the groups and start times during a single, lengthy meeting.
What are the "informal guidelines" that these USGA officials are considering? They look at things such as world rankings (they tend to group higher-ranked players together, although sometimes, due to the makeup of the field, it's impossible to avoid putting a highly credentialed golfer into the same group as a club pro who made it in through qualifying); playing history (both recent history and U.S. Open history); and pace of play (the preference is not to stick a very fast player with a couple of very slow players).
They also consider fan interest, both the excitement of the fans at the tournament site, and the excitement of fans watching from home on television. In other words, are there groupings that will generate high interest and high ratings? At the 2012 U.S. Open, for example, the USGA pairings poo-bahs placed superstars Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the same group for the first two rounds with the also very popular and reigning Masters champion Bubba Watson. Now that's a grouping that generates fan interest!
Another example of such a pairing from the 2012 U.S. Open: Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood - the then-Nos. 1, 2 and 3 players in the world rankings - played together the first two rounds. All three are also U.K. golfers, which pleases the USGA's British broadcast partners. Yes, that's another thing that USGA officials might consider; placing three golfers of the same nationality in the same group is not an uncommon sight when U.S. Open pairings are unveiled each year.
So as you can see, the U.S. Open pairings are not random, but they are definitely not auto-generated or generated according to some set-in-stone formula. USGA officials meet, discuss, mix and match, and producing groupings that try to honor multiple informal guidelines while also generating fan excitement.
Having Fun with the US Open PairingsAnd the USGA likes to have some fun with the U.S. Open pairings, too. That's another factor in the process of producing groupings: USGA officials' sense of mirth.
What do we mean? Consider what might be called the "Three C's" or "Charles in Charge" grouping at the 2012 U.S. Open: Charl Schwartzel, Carl Pettersen, Charles Howell III. Or the "Korean Initials" group: K.J. Choi, K.T. Kim, Y.E. Yang (also a pairing that Korean TV would appreciate).
There is sometimes a "Heartthrob Group" or "Hunk Group," three golfers who are popular with female fans. At the 2009 U.S. Open, for example, Sergio Garcia, Camilo Villegas and Adam Scott were grouped.
Or a "Long Bombers" group consisting of three of the longest drivers.
A group might consist of three former U.S. Amateur winners; of three golfers who went to the same college; of three golfers with the same first or last names; of three golfers from the same country or same state; of three 40-plus stars or of three "young guns" - or a combination, such as in a 2010 group when Ryo Ishikawa and McIlroy played the first two rounds with Tom Watson.
Former USGA president David Fay even once admitted to writer John Feinstein grouping three golfers because he knew all three were in therapy (that actually happened in a U.S. Women's Open, where the same pairings process is used). Fay also admitted to the existence of a grouping whose nickname we can't print, but it begins with "p" and rhymes with "crick." The "p**** pairing." Three golfers who are considered (by some, anyway), well, jerks. (Trying to spot that pairing - it doesn't happen every tournament - is a popular game each year when pairings are announced.)
Summing UpObviously, not every pairing at the U.S. Open carries any special meaning or significance - in fact, most do not. Most are just your average, ordinary groupings of tour players. Plus, every U.S. Open includes a significant number of little-known amateurs and club pros and mini-tour pros, and the USGA officials tend to group those players together.
As for tee times? That's the same as in most other golf tournaments: USGA officials want to evenly split up their marquee groups between morning and afternoon times, ensuring that each of the first two days of television coverage includes one of the star groupings. And the groups made up of lesser-known golfers are the ones most likely to go off first thing in the morning or among the last groups in the afternoon.
So, to summarize, and repeat what we stated at the top: The first-and second-round U.S. Open pairings are determined in a manual process involving a very small number of USGA officials who meet, discuss and group golfers, without any hard-and-fast rules but with informal guidelines, plus a healthy dose of fun.
Return to US Open FAQ index | <urn:uuid:4f3e40cf-766f-4a3d-a3b6-f96c29774560> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://golf.about.com/od/majorchampionships/f/how-are-us-open-pairings-determined.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956141 | 1,387 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Into the Woods
The voice on the phone was heavy and slow, with a sadness that retired General Jack Keane had not heard from Petraeus before.
“I really screwed up,” Petraeus told his old mentor over the weekend as the scandal swelled around him. That was something of an understatement, as his 37-year career, the future leadership of the CIA, the performance of the FBI and the Attorney General and the career of a top U.S. combatant commander were all suddenly thrown into jeopardy. “This is my fault, and I’m devastated by the pain and suffering that I’ve caused,” Petraeus told Peter Mansoor, one of his old brain-trust colonels. He said that “what he did was a morally reprehensible action,” Mansoor says.
Mistakes have not been a Petraeus hallmark. After graduating from West Point in 1974, Petraeus clambered up the Army’s greasy pole, moving from field assignments to graduate school—he earned a Ph.D. from Princeton in 1987—and serving as an aide to powerful generals, including an Army chief of staff, a NATO military chief and a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He began to lap his comrades in 2003, when he led the 101st Airborne into Iraq and north to Mosul. His star rose even higher in 2007–’08, when he returned to Iraq and shifted, midwar, to a counterinsurgency strategy based on protecting civilians with help from a 30,000-strong U.S. troop surge. His success in aborting an Iraqi civil war prompted President Bush to put him in charge of the entire U.S. Central Command in 2008, where he oversaw the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But in military circles, Petraeus had always been a more controversial figure than his reputation suggested. He developed a cultlike staff, which isn’t unusual among generals, though Petraeus’ retinue seemed excessively devoted to their boss. He was as adept at cultivating politicians and reporters as he was at engaging the enemy. Neoconservatives saw him as their standard bearer as the Iraq conflict they had championed bogged down. “Petraeus is a remarkable piece of fiction created and promoted by neocons in government, the media and academia,” argues Douglas Macgregor, an outspoken retired Army colonel. “How does an officer with no personal experience of direct-fire combat in Panama or Desert Storm become a division commander?”
Petraeus’ move from rock-star four-star to head of the CIA in 2011 came as a surprise in Washington. He had served only a year in Afghanistan and seemed destined to rise to the top of the military at the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But former CIA director Bob Gates told him otherwise: Obama’s White House did not want him in that role. It was Petraeus’ idea, in response, to move to Langley, a close friend says. That solved a lot of problems for Obama, allowing him good use of the general’s talents and diverting him from a possible presidential bid. Cashing in the uniform he had worn since West Point to decamp to the wooded enclave of Ph.D. analysts and hardened spy runners at Langley was not just a dramatic career shift for Petraeus; it was also a move that had little precedent in recent agency history. Gates told Petraeus before he arrived to leave his boarding party behind: past directors who had arrived with an entourage, like Porter Goss and John Deutch, had not been well received. At his confirmation hearings, Petraeus said he’d use his star status to recruit the best agents and analysts available for the agency. He also suggested he would lose his posse: “If confirmed, I will, in short, get out of my vehicle alone on the day that I report to Langley.”
But many senior officers, even those who aren’t as accustomed to aides and horse holders as Petraeus was, can find leaving the Army a challenge, and Petraeus seems to have had some trouble adjusting to the CIA. The agency is strange, rigorous and demanding, as moody as it is secretive. “The agency is not a militaristic organization,” says a senior former intelligence official. “They don’t welcome people barking orders without debate.” Petraeus turned up at one event in a suit with his Army medals pinned to his jacket.
“The Election Played No Role”
By the time Petraeus got to the CIA, Broadwell had been working closely with him for years. Her sugary biography of him, titled All In, came out in January 2012. She allowed herself more freedom than most to use nicknames for Petraeus that others might not have chosen to write down: Dangerous Dave, even Peaches. But she was careful to position herself as a serious biographer, not a fan. In a February appearance with celebrity interviewer Arthur Kade, she volunteered, unprompted, “You know, it’s not a hagiography. I’m not in love with David Petraeus, but I think he does present a terrific role model for young people, for executives, for men and women.” Former Petraeus aide and Army Brigadier General Peter DeLuca thinks he understands what happened. “The guy is supergifted, superdetermined, supercommitted. He’s the closest thing most of us have ever met to a superman, but he’s still a man.”
Nor was Broadwell without a larger plan. After running with Lance Armstrong in July, she volunteered her secret purpose to at least six new acquaintances at the Aspen conference. That evening, over drinks, she told a small group that she had been arguing with her mentor about the direction of her career. Republican moneymen, she said, had approached her about a Senate run in North Carolina. She was tempted. Petraeus, she said in an irritated tone, rejected the idea out of hand. What was her position, he asked, on abortion? Climate change? Gun control? Gay marriage? Tax cuts? Social Security vouchers? Her answers, he told her, would not fit either party, and she should not sell herself out. | <urn:uuid:a866f2ac-6439-43fa-a279-53278fb37b42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://swampland.time.com/2012/11/15/spyfall/3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9834 | 1,294 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
Using GTD To Tame The Beast Inside Of Me
Derrick Bostrom | Nov 13 2007
It's the central contradiction at the heart of our all-too-finite existence that we cannot reconcile the uncontainability of our dreams with the futile limitation of our resources. It's no wonder we've come rely on strategies to get through the day. In David Allen's world, the metaphor is the overloaded information-driven workplace. For Merlin, it's the in-box. Much like baseball, which employs elaborate rules to "score" the uncontrollable moment when pine touches horse-hide, or Civil War reenactments, which apply a comforting tactical grid to our nation's most chaotic psychic trauma, GTD derives its power from our need to impose our will on random events. No matter what fate has in store, all we have to do is write it down and throw it in a box.
But some situations require us to think outside the box.
I've never been very good at handling demands from the outside world. I haven't answered my telephone in decades. When it comes to something like getting a haircut, visiting the dentist or changing the oil in my car, I'll either lie awake all night worrying about it or forget about it altogether. So I desperately wanted to believe in any strategy that could help me dispatch unpleasant tasks without the need to obsess over them. Once I made that initial leap of faith, the rest came surprisingly easy. Sure enough, I was amazed to discover how quickly I could swat down those hated chores with my very first trusted system.
As self-loathing abated, I looked forward to the promise of projects that might actually cause me personal satisfaction upon completion, and not merely relief. But external obligations sprout all by themselves, like weeds. I found myself spending far too much time whacking tedious projects off my plate and not nearly enough on the ones I truly loved. I came to understand that if my only motivation was avoidance of the pain from open loops, I'd do nothing but battle these impositions for the rest of my life. I knew I'd have to rethink my system.
Some stubborn projects defy the equation: the pain of doing them far outweighs the pain of leaving them undone. For these tasks, I've created an entirely new type of context, which I've set just above and slightly to the right of "deferred." I call it "punishment." Tasks falling into this category include certain home plumbing repairs, financial drudgery which I haven't figured out how to automate yet, or anything that tends to remind me of my inevitable demise (such as pruning photo albums of recently deceased pets or trying to read anything set below 12-point type). In other words, this context would include any task that would tend to ruin my day if attempted.
I save those tasks for when my day is already ruined. Whether I've overplayed my hand somehow and allowed my demons to surface, or just simply made the colossal miscalculation of allowing myself to "believe" (whatever that means), that's when I pull out the punishment list. Suddenly, the tasks on this list don't look so foreboding -- that's when I know its time to jump on them. The benefits to this approach are threefold: first, I receive my self-administered comeuppance, second, I move a dreaded project forward, and third, if the project truly belonged on the list in the first place, then it 's likely I've banged my knuckles against the pipes hard enough to restore emotional equilibrium.
This may sound a little extreme, but it works. The last time I tried this method, I was hoarse from screaming at my tools and there was a pile of broken pipes and kitchen paneling out behind the house. But my newly-installed under-the-sink reverse osmosis unit worked like a charm! Furthermore, I'd completely forgotten whatever was bothering me in the first place.
Give it a try, but make sure you have plenty of band-aids on hand.
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WHAT IS RED DAY?
RED Day (Renew, Energize and Donate) is an initiative dedicated to celebrating Keller Williams Realty’s year-round commitment to improving our local communities. Each year, on the second Thursday in May, tens of thousands of associates from across the United States and Canada participate in a wide range of projects, devoting their time to renewing and energizing aspects of the neighborhoods in which they serve.
RED Day initiatives run the gamut: From rebuilding homes, refurbishing local parks, giving to local food shelters, hosting blood drives, beautifying beaches and so much more. Projects are chosen by each individual market center based on a need they see within its community.
Recognizing her leadership in guiding the culture of our company, RED Day is held in honor of Mo Anderson, Vice Chairman of the Board, Keller Williams Realty. (Read more about Mo here)
This event is an entrenched part of Keller Williams Realty’s culture and displays the extraordinary effect a company can have when individuals come together to work as a team for the greater good of everyone. As Mark Ozman, associate with the Indianapolis/Carmel Market Center, wrote:
“RED Day isn’t about cleaning up a park. It is a one-day expression of what happens 24/7 in the Keller Williams culture. It is seeing a need, discovering who can meet that need and then getting it done."
More RED Day Articles | <urn:uuid:c6896c03-b893-442f-9a9c-8d8d9dcfaa6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kw.com/kw/whatisredday.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942705 | 303 | 1.5 | 2 |
As the Lunar New Year festival (Tet) is coming, the interest rate for mobilizing US dollars is approaching six percent annually, nearly equal to the peak in 2008.
The Phuong Tay Bank has raised the rate to 5.3 percent per year for terms of three months or more.
The corresponding figures for other banks are 5.7 percent (Viet Nam Tin Nghia), SCB (5.48 percent), and ABBank (5.6 percent).
These increases are attributed to the rising demands of borrowing in US dollars for imports at the end of the year.
The annual interest rate for the US dollar loans has also reached 8 percent.
Some banks are giving priority to short term loans, but most offer higher interest rates for longer terms. Deposits for more than 12 months enjoy interest rates exceeding 5.5 percent per year.
Japanese investors praise Vietnam’s renovation achievements
Many Japanese people admire Vietnam’s achievements in its renovation process which started 25 ago.
Susumu Igarashi, Director of the Social Innovation Company, dealing in securities and financial investment in Vietnam and other ASEAN countries, said he first heard of Vietnam’s renovation in 1995 when the first wave of Japanese investment hit Vietnam.
At the time, Japanese newspapers often emphasized the words “doi moi” (renovation), but nowadays, these words simply imply Vietnam.
“Japan’s media new deserible Vietnam as a powerfully growing economy. Many Japanese admire Vietnam’s renovation achievements, and I am one of them”, Igarashi said.
“Only when I came to Vietnam, I really understand the significant of innovation in the country. It was a nice surprise to witness new things occuring everyday as in Phu My Hung urban area. I was very impressed by investment opportunities opening up in Vietnam”, he added.
Akira Shiraishi, Chief Executive Officers of the Social Innovation was interested in Vietnam’s innovation since its beginning. He said he had been in Vietnam before 1975, and was closely following Vietnam’s economic development.
Shiraishi attributed that the success to Vietnam’s successful mobilization of all resources available, including remittances from overseas. “After the war, many Vietnamese left the country, but now they have returned. Vietnam’s policy regarding overseas Vietnamese is wonderful, because the homeland always forgive and encourage them to come back”, he said.
According to Shiraishi, another reason for Vietnam’s achievements is its policy of harmonious development among regions in the country. This has led to social stability and helped attract many foreign investors.
Tomio Iwasaki, an expert in securities investment was also impressed by Vietnam’s efforts to preserve and promote its traditional values.
Iwasaki highly spoke of Vietnam’s economic development in spite of many challenges. He said past is the time Japan’s investment was its assistance to Vietnam. Now on the contrary Vietnam’s acceptance of Japanese investment is promoting Japan’s economic development.
Vietnam’s monetary market to face difficulties in 2011
Vietnam’s monetary market will continue to face major challenges in 2011, according to economic experts.
Last year, the monetary market experienced fluctuations caused by high interest and foreign exchange rates. This year, bank interest rates will remain high as a result of inflation in 2010.
However, experts said the current deposit interest rate of 14 percent per year and lending interest rate of 17-18 percent per year will not increase.
In the first quarter of 2011, the monetary market will continue to face difficulties in terms of capital and liquidity. It is expected that in the second quarter, commercial banks will reduce interest rates to 15-16 percent per year, experts forecast.
This year, the State Bank of Vietnam aims to keep the credit growth target of 23 percent, two percent lower than last year. It focus will be more on the production sector and less on non-production areas.
SBV’s monetary policies should be more flexible to meet unexpected developments in the world market this year.
Waste energy to be used for cement production
Holcim Vietnam Cement Ltd., Co will develop a facility which produces electricity from waste energy for cement production at its Hon Chong cement plant, located in the Mekong delta province of Kien Giang, in early February, 2011.
Holcim Vietnam’s Director General Gerhard Schutz told at a press briefing in HCM City on January 10 the 6.3 MW facility will use heat of exhaust fumes from the cement kiln system to produce electricity.
The facility is expected to help reduce power consumption from the national power grid, harmful impacts to environment as well as production costs, Gerhard Schutz said.
The project will be constructed at a total cost of US$28 million, of which US$10 million will be used for maintenance.
Once operational, slated for August, 2012, the facility will churn out about 44 million kWh per year, sufficient to ensure electricity for 88 days of operation of Hon Chong cement plant, saving more than 9,000 tonnes of coal and reducing 25,300 tonnes of CO2 discharged each year.
State Treasury reviews activities
The State Treasury held a meeting in Hanoi on January 10 to review activities in 2010 and implement tasks for 2011.
Last year, the State Treasury fulfilled its tasks by modernizing state budget collection to create favourable conditions for tax payers nationwide, as well as assisting businesses to surpass their state budget revenue estimates. This is a breakthrough in administrative reform in the management of the state budget’s revenues.
Regarding management over state budget’s spending, last year, the State Treasury controlled nearly VND380 trillion, discovered 43, 000 cases of illegal spending, and refused payments of nearly VND280 billion. In addition, the disbursement rate reached more than 90 percent regarding spending for capital construction investment.
Ta Anh Tuan, the State Treasury’s deputy director said that in 2011, the agency will cooperate with the financial sector to implement tasks on state budget management and carry out some major reforms, including the building of an information system on the state budget management.
24,650 people in rural areas buy Vietnamese goods
The first fair of Vietnamese goods in rural areas this year was held in Lap Vo district, Dong Thap province from January 7-9.
The event drew the participation of 46 businesses in the fields of electronics, cosmetics, food, garment and textile and pharmaceutical products.
The fair attracted 24,650 visitors to buy Vietnamese goods at reasonable prices, with a total turnover of VND1.45 billion.
Coal and mineral industry fetches VND70,000 billion in 2010 revenue
The Vietnam National Coal Mineral Industries Group (VINACOMIN) earned nearly VND70,000 billion in 2010 revenue, 11 percent more than in 2009, in which coal exports reached VND21,000 billion, up by 21 percent over 2009.
On January 8, VINACOMIN organised a conference to review business and production activities in 2010 and worked out the 2011 plan.
Despite facing a lot of difficulties due to the impact of the global economic crisis, VINACOMIN still perform well, carrying out its business plans. As a result, in 2011, VINACOMIN contributed more than VND8,000 billion to the State budget, 25 percent more than in 2009 while its mineral exploration hit VND2,500 billion, up by 31 percent; electricity production reached VND2,300 billion, up by 131 percent over 2009.
Asides from this, the group restructured its enterprises and production management while implementing key projects on mining, thermal-electric power and exploring new coal mines.
Last year, VINANCOMIN ensured job provision and stable incomes for more than 1.3 million workers with a monthly average salary of VND6 million each, 5 percent more than the level of the year before.
In 2011, the group will continue to implement measures to gain more than VND72,000 billion in revenue, apply advanced technology to increase production efficiency and reduce workplace accidents.
The group will also ensure social welfare for workers as well as adopt measures for sustainable environmental protection in its exploration process.
Second chain of But Son cement factory inaugurated
But Son Cement Joint Stock Company in Ha Nam province on January 9 inaugurated the second chain of But Son cement factory with the capacity of 1.6 million tonnes per year.
The total investment capital is over VND3,000 billion.
The construction of the chain began in 2007, and was conducted with the use of Japanese technology. The project belongs to the Government’s plan to develop Vietnam’s cement industry by 2010, with a vision to 2020.
The first tonne of cement was officially produced in late 2009.
By December 2010, the second chain had produced over 710,000 tonnes of clinker, grinded 511,800 tonnes of cement and packed more than 450,000 tonnes.
The chain was built by prestigious domestic and foreign units to manufacture good-quality cement products.
NA agrees to issue VND45 trillion in gov’t bonds
The National Assembly (NA) has agreed on the issuance of government bonds worth VND45 trillion in 2011 to mobilise capital for the country’s socio-economic development projects.
This information was announced at the closing session of the NA Standing Committee’s 37th meeting in Hanoi on January 7.
This is the first year of the national socio-economic development plan in the 2011-2015 period, however, the NA is yet to decide on the government bond issuance programme for the entire five-year period.
The majority of Standing Committee members agreed to prioritise the allocation of government bond capital for urgent transport, irrigation projects, healthcare and educational facilities, especially in poor and less-developed localities and flood-hit areas, and projects that are likely to be completed in 2011 and 2012.
NA Vice Chairman Nguyen Duc Kien proposed government bond capital should be prioritised for the northern mountainous region, provinces hard hit by floods, central provinces with difficulties, remote areas in the Central Highlands, localities being separated in the southwestern region, and key economic zones.
The NA has decided to carry out 15 national target programmes in 2011 and requested relevant agencies to work out criteria and plans to allocate capital for those programmes by January 31.
At the session, the NA Standing Committee made an initial review of the implementation of its plan No. 900 UBTVQH pertaining to the execution of the Party Political Bureau’s resolution No. 48-NQTW on a strategy to build and perfect the Vietnamese legal system in 2010 and orientations to 2020.
It oversaw preparations for the 12th Legislature’s ninth session and gave comments on the draft resolution on the election date and the establishment of the election council for the 13th Legislature and the people’s councils at all levels.
Vietnam ICT Awards 2010
The Ministry of Information and Communications announced regulations on Vietnam Information, Communication and Technology Awards (VICTA 2010) in Hanoi on January 6.
Thirty-two awards will be presented to six main sectors of information and technology (IT), including telecommunications, IT industry, IT human resources training, IT application, digital information security, and also to foreign businesses for their active contribution to the development of Vietnam’s ICT and to those domestic ones for the benefit of community development.
This year’s awards will honour new businesses credited with high growth rates and good services. Two awards will be given for the first time to those providing best security services and solutions.
There are also prizes for units of ministries and departments which have best applied IT in their work.
VICTA 2010 is focused on the quality, growth and effective operation of businesses involved in mobile telecommunications, Internet, software and digital information sources.
The deadline for businesses and units send in their dossiers is March 6. | <urn:uuid:5c5b0283-4942-457e-8870-2fbca7860a21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.baomoi.com/Info/BUSINESS-IN-BRIEF-151/5/102932.epi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941886 | 2,492 | 1.546875 | 2 |
love and hate quotes- 4 of
The lovely loving and the hateful hates.
Where neither love nor hatred plays a part, a woman plays indifferently.
Heavy, heavy-hearted people grow lighter and rise occasionally to their surface through precisely that which makes others heavier,
Love and hatred are not blind, but are blinded by the fire they bear within themselves.
The Columbia World of Quotations © 1996, Columbia University Press.
Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted by written agreement, the following are prohibited: copying substantial portions or the entirety of the work in machine readable form, making multiple printouts thereof, and other uses of the work inconsistent with U.S. and applicable foreign copyright and related laws.
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The rise and fall of your favorite movie star or the most reviled CEO - in fact, all our destinies - reflects chance as much as planning and innate abilities. Even Roger Maris, who beat Babe Ruth's single season home-run record, was in all likelihood not great but just lucky.
How could it have happened that a wine was given five out of five stars by one journal and called the worst wine of the decade by another? Wine ratings, school grades, political polls, and many other things in daily life are less reliable than we believe. By showing us the true nature of chance and revealing the psychological illusions that cause us to misjudge the world around us, Mlodinow gives fresh insight into what is really meaningful and how we can make decisions based on a deeper truth. From the classroom to the courtroom, from financial markets to supermarkets, from the doctor's office to the Oval Office, Mlodinow's insights will intrigue, awe, and inspire.
Offering listeners not only a tour of randomness, chance and probability but also a new way of looking at the world, this original, unexpected journey reminds us that much in our lives is about as predictable as the steps of a stumbling man afresh from a night at a bar.
©2008 Leonard Mlodinow; (P)2008 Gildan Media Corp
"A wonderful guide to how the mathematical laws of randomness affect our lives." (Stephen Hawking)
"If you're strong enough to have some of your favorite assumptions challenged, please listen to The Drunkard's Walk....a history, explanation, and exaltation of probability theory....The results are mind-bending." (Fortune)
This is a really great book. A much more in depth and fascinating look at how our lives are governed by chance than any of the recent popular titles that claim to be about the subject. It's read beautifully too with just the right tone of sardonic humour. Some of the ideas did not sink in as I have it on while I am working...I am just going to have to listen to it again
This is another book that discusses how randomness, or nonrandomness surrounds us and makes the case it might be in our best interest to know when certain events are random and when they are not.
The book discusses the use and basic principles of probabillity without getting into the mathematical details - although there are 1 or 2 sections where he explains things in some detail (with words, not equations). He also provides a bit of interesting background on the people that developed the concepts. I am a PhD scientist and found this background information delightful and felt it added something to the principles that were discovered.
There are some very interesting examples that he supplies...for instance, if you are told a family has 2 children and one of them is a girl, what are the odds that the other is a girl...this seems straight forward but what if you are told one of the girls is named 'Florida' -- does that change the odd? The answer is yes - but you need to read the book to find out why...Many other interesting examples and lessons were taught.
A good book for those who want to know when to attribute the good performance of a company to the CEO or if it's just chance...if you're team is losing, should you change managers? Which is the more effective teaching tool, the carrot or the stick? These any other questions are approached from the view of randomness.
If you have ANY interest in events, how and why they happen, and how are (mis)understanding of the forces that shape those events occur then you will LOVE this book!
A part-time buffoon and ersatz scholar specializing in BS, pedantry, schmaltz and cultural coprophagia.
Sits on my shelf next to all those other soft-serve pop economics, behavioral economics, science and statistics books (think Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics, Predicitably Irrational, Gang Leader for a Day & Sway). From my perspective Drunkard's Walk is more coherent in theme and better written than most (the ones I named are all ones I feel are top shelf, pop soft-science). Anyway, a very good narrative introduction to both randomness and statistics.
This book is an excellent history lesson into the foundation and principles of probability and statistics. Great applications of randomness including a section on Charles Perrow's Natural Accident Theory which is very well done. Highly recommended for anyone interested in statistics.
mostly nonfiction listener
The author, a physicist at Cal Tech, is among those rare academics who both write beautifully, and can manage to make complex explanations understandable. This book definitely changed how I understand some fundamental aspects of my life and the lives of those around me, as getting a handle on randomness and probability (which again, our brains don't seem to be built easily to accomplish), helps illuminate some of the fundamental errors in judgment that I seem to make all too often.
I picked this up because it was featured on the Audible home page and I had a couple of extra credits. I was looking for something different to listen to when walking the dog and waiting in airports. I had taken advanced math in high school, but, to be honest, I only excelled in the courses due to an excellent teacher (Thank you, Mrs. Claybrook), and then I stopped doing any kind of real algebra, trig, or calculus. At this point in my life, my brain stops working as soon as I hear numbers being tossed around.
However, this book dealt with theory and history rather than functions and numbers. In the end, it was a very entertaining listen; chronicling the development of random theory from probability theory. Living in the Vegas area, I found the passages on gambling very engaging and interesting. I'll grant that the subject matter is not one that everyone will embrace, but this "math" book has changed a few notions of this "non-math" person.
Longtime Audible enthusiast!
I found this an enjoyable listen. It was not too obtuse, although there were times I would have preferred to see some of the problems on the written page and I found myself rewinding the audio to listen to certain paragraphs several times.
Yes, it is about probability theory, the history thereof and some current applications, but there is more. The author attempts to humanize the effects of randomness, statistics, accidents of fate by using examples from life, like the OJ trial, Roger Maris' record, Bill Gate's success, etc.
Easy to listen to, not too heavy. You don't have to be a statistics or calculus expert to appreciate this book.
Only a few audiobooks are so good that I'll circle the block continuously at the end of a drive home, unwilling to end the "read" by parking in the driveway. This is one. The material is so good, so well read, and so germane to the current world that it should practically be required (and pleasurable) reading for all.
As someone who has never liked math or found it particularly applicable to my own daily life, I wish I had read this book a long time ago. Not only did it clarify some of the concepts of probability and statistics that never really made sense to me, it also planted seeds of interest in fields of study I'd never heard of, such as forensic statistics. Mlodinow does a fantastic job of exploring the balance between order and randomness in popular arenas like Hollywood and the sports world, and somehow manages to make the history of these branches of mathematics interesting and humorous. I plan to revisit this book in the future to see whether its lessons will hold a different meaning at a different point in my life and in the world.
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Alright, from part 1 of our hiking boot guide, you now know the different types of hiking boots, as well as the differences in the materials used and how they are put together. Now let’s jump into the most important aspect of choosing a hiking boot – the fit.
Hiking Boot Fit Guide
I have been on too many hiking trips in the past with improper footwear, and let me tell you, this can sabotage a hike faster than just about anything else. Blisters, black toenails, and rolled ankles are the common side effects of an improper fit or of improper footwear on the trail. To minimize these effects, not only do you need to choose the right type of footwear (high-cut boot for rough and uneven terrain hiking, for example), but the fit needs to be as close to perfect as possible.
Before You Shop
To achieve the right boot fit, you need to do a few things before you go to the store or start shopping online. Take a good look at your bare foot. What features do you see? Do you have runners toe (second toe longer than your big toe)? What about your foot’s arch? Is it flat or is it a sharp arch? Do you have a chronic sensitivity in one part of your foot (ie neuroma or plantar fasciitis)? Remember these features or sensitivities when you start trying on shoes.
Measure your feet before shopping. The process of trying on several different shoes will take a lot of time. Having a good idea what your shoe size will be will help narrow down the search. Measure your foot’s length, width (at widest point, usually just behind the toes), and arch height. Below is a good sizing chart to use, with instructions on measuring your feet correctly.
Another great way to measure your feet and have an accurate guess of your shoe size is to use a Brannock Foot Measuring Device (pictured below). If you don’t have access to one, you can do this when you go to the store. If you are shopping online, it might be a good idea to go to a shoe store and use their measuring device to know your measurements.
Finding The Perfect Fit
Now you are ready to head to the store to try on some boots. This is going to take some time. You might get lucky and find the perfect fit on the first pair of shoes you try on, but not likely. So plan for a couple hours of fitting, and make sure you are shopping somewhere that you can ask questions. The first thing you will want to do (if you haven’t at home) is take your measurements on one of those foot measurement things, called Brannock foot measuring devices (pictured above). But remember to do this with the socks that you will be hiking with, along with any other inserts you plan to use (such as a liner or gel sole insert). It’s OK to just measure your feet at home (since you are getting an estimate of your measurements), but when you are actually fitting your boots, you MUST include these other items.
Have a plan when you go to the store. For example, I bring a notebook with me and take notes as I go. This is especially helpful if you are switching between several different brands. Sizes aren’t usually consistent across brands, which can get confusing and hard to remember. While trying on each pair, walk around the store, and if possible, go up and down stairs and up and down inclines. Spend some time in the shoes. Move on if you feel any pinching, squeezing, or discomfort anywhere. Be sure to lace each pair up like you would on the trail. Remember that your toes shouldn’t hit the end of the toe box, especially while coming down the inclines. Adjust the laces to see if that helps.
Here are a few good fitting tips to consider when sizing your hiking boot:
- Your toes should wiggle freely at the end of the boot with your heel against the back of the boot. This ensures that you have the right length.
- Your feet should not slide side to side while walking in the boot. This ensures that you have the proper width.
- The space all around your foot (top, bottom, sides, front, and back) should be snug, remembering that your toes should be able to wiggle freely. This ensures that you have the proper volume.
- If your foot slips around while you are on the trail, you will develop blisters and jam your toenails when going down hill (black toenails). The fit should be snug, but not squeezing your foot at any point.
Try on several different pairs, and don’t settle on a pair because they look cool, fit your budget, or because the sales rep likes them the best. You are looking for the perfect fit, and that is the most important reason to choose one boot over another. Sure, if you are looking for a full-grain leather boot over a synthetic boot, or low-cut over high-cut boots, those are important considerations as well. So to narrow down your choices, only try on boots of the specific type you are looking for rather than every boot in the store. This will prevent you from choosing a boot for any other reason other than the fit.
Narrow Your Options
After you have tested several pairs of shoes in the store, make a list of 3 or 4 pairs that could be winners based on the fit. Once you have that list, you can narrow down your list based on the features you like from the boots on your list and based on your budget. Just make sure you aren’t sacrificing fit and comfort for anything else, especially for something that is purely cosmetic. You’re not walking down the runway of a fashion show. Comfort is key.
When you decide on a pair, be sure to wear them at home for several hours. Walk around your home (keep them clean, of course, so you don’t mess them up so much that the store won’t allow a return). Make sure after a day or two that they are still the most comfortable they can be. If not, don’t hesitate to take them back and try a different pair. Let me reiterate that point again – don’t hesitate to take them back and try a different pair if they don’t fit perfectly. This is really important.
What if you are not fond of shopping in stores? Buying hiking boots online is a little bit more complex than buying any other pair of shoes online, especially since the fit needs to be as close to perfect as possible. But it can be done. What I recommend is taking exact measurements of your feet. Be sure to shop with retailers that allow returns, and purchase a few pairs that are close to your measurements to try out. Wear them around for several hours until you find the pair that fits you the best. Don’t be afraid to send a pair back and request a different size. Remember, the key is to find the best fit possible.
Another tip for online shoppers is to stick with a brand you have used and liked in the past, as many brands will have consistent sizing between models. If all else fails, have your foot measured at a local shoe store, and use those measurements in your online shopping. I have even tried on hiking boots at my local outdoor shop (which has very high prices) to find the boot and size I like, and then found the same boot online for much less.
The Bottom Line
“Be good to your feet and your feet will be good to you.” Remember this saying as you go about finding the hiking boot that best fits your hiking needs. It is not uncommon to have tired feet after a long, rough hike. But a good pair of hiking boots will make it so you spend more time enjoying the hike, nature, and your friends and family than you do noticing the aches and pains on your feet.
This wraps up our two part hiking boot guide. This guide will be made available in the form of a free downloadable E-book, so keep an eye out for it. What did we miss? What has helped you find your perfect pair of hiking boots? Any suggestions for our readers? Please feel free to leave feedback or ask questions in the comment section below. Happy trails! | <urn:uuid:d7e6a95f-2993-4ebe-b60c-f12e27c6298d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://backpackingsamurai.com/hiking-boot-guide-part-2/ | 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 | 0.95256 | 1,728 | 1.84375 | 2 |
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Two turns off the alley and I was hopelessly lost.
In less than five minutes, I couldn't see the guest house where I had been staying for a week, even though it was one of the taller buildings in Haiti. With a few quick turns, my guide led me and a friend into a world we couldn't possibly imagine, much less navigate.
For four hours, we traversed Petionville, one of the towns that makes up the sprawling metropolis of Port-au-Prince. It was all narrow passages and stairs between concrete buildings that cascade off one another, spilling down the ubiquitous hills of Haiti before hitting bottom and starting the climb back up.
We would be so deep in the maze we could barely see sunlight, then we would duck through a passage and find ourselves on a spit of openness with 6-foot cornstalks sprouting through the garbage-strewn ground.
When we ran out of sidewalk, we hopped in a tap-tap, the colorful, crowded taxis that are the backbone of the country's public transportation system, and we headed deeper into the city. Then the route ended and we were dropped at the edge of a blocks-long open-air market, where vendors were selling wares as diverse as eggplants, brooms and individual doses of medicine of uncertain type and vintage.
We made it back to the guest house on foot, passing a vigorously physical soccer match played on a concrete pad, street-side mattress dealers, hawkers with their wheelbarrows full of raw, red sugar cane and a beautiful image of the Virgin Mary painted on the wall outside an auto parts shop.
The trip had been punctuated by dust, smog and smoldering something — always, in Haiti, something is smoldering — and a soundtrack of endless horns, voices and hip-hop.
For $25 and half a day, I had seen a Haiti most people miss.
Indeed, many people miss Haiti altogether — on purpose. It isn't a great tourist draw. But it has unbelievable beauty and a deep, rich culture worth the effort it takes to find it.
The world that turned other Caribbean islands into all-inclusive themed resorts never took hold in Haiti. If you like your traveling planned and predictable, your food familiar and your sheets changed every day, Haiti is not your place. The locals live on "Haitian time," a concept in patience foreign to most of us.
Some visitors just show up and wing it, but they're rare. I met two backpackers on my trip in November, but they were the first I had seen in four visits.
Many people show up with mission groups or nonprofit organizations and head from the airport to wherever they're going with barely a stop in between.
The tourist infrastructure shows that indifference to life off the planned path. Accommodations are substandard. Hot water is a luxury in most places, transportation is a nightmare and eating can be an adventure. Outside Port-au-Prince, finding a room is a challenge.
But if you do a little homework, check your expectations at the immigration counter and hire some help, you can find an amazing country.
"Haiti has so much to offer the visitor," said Jacqui Lebrom, a British expat who has run a tourism business in Port-au-Prince since the 1990s. "Yes, we have wonderful beaches, but we also have beautiful mountains for hiking, sea activities such as diving and interesting cities."
The big draw is Port-au-Prince because it's home to a quarter of the country's population and many of its most notable sites. The Presidential Palace, the Catholic and Episcopal cathedrals, and a small but important collection of colonial-era gingerbread houses are in varying stages of disrepair since the January 2010 earthquake, but other nearby attractions are going strong.
The village of Croix-des-Bouquets, where much of the country's decorative metalwork is made, draws a steady crowd and offers an unexpected sight: a lone rail from a long-abandoned railway that once connected the village to ports.
In the hills above the city, Ft. Jacques offers a stunning, if surprisingly distant, view of the harbor it was built to protect. And the famed Baptist Haiti Mission spreads across a hillside, its doors — and kitchen —open to all who come through.
Outside Port-au-Prince, the big draws include Jacmel, on the southern coast, and Cap-Haïtien, on the north. The former features stunning beaches and scenery that remind you that you're in the Caribbean. The latter is home to the Citadel, a 200-year-old fortress built by former slaves to help them fend off their French masters.
In November, construction was well under way on a couple of new luxury hotels in Port-au-Prince, but don't count on much comfort if you're heading there soon. Haiti's not a place to relax; there's too much to see to really clear your mind for long. But you'll come home with memories of a place you might not have expected. | <urn:uuid:bada7e0b-653b-4fbe-b7e8-b12e287bb1da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailyamerican.com/topic/la-tr-haiti-20130203,0,5912917.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971705 | 1,062 | 1.601563 | 2 |
June 28, 2012
Recap of GLSEN’s Involvment in Today’s Congressional Anti-Bullying Caucus Launch Event
GLSEN Executive Director Dr. Eliza Byard took part in the launch of the Congressional Anti-Bullying Caucus (CABC), “a bipartisan caucus comprised of Members of Congress committed to the belief that all communities deserve a safe environment to thrive, and that our nation is in urgent need of solutions that stop bullying – both offline and online – now and forever,” today in Washington, D.C. The Caucus is chaired by Rep. Mike Honda, who is joined by 40 other legislators from both parties.
In the opening press conference, speeches were given by Rep. Honda and several other SSIA cosponsors, including lead sponsor Rep. Linda Sanchez.
One of the Republican cosponsors of SSIA, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said, “we may be from different sides of the aisle, but we all believe that it is time to stand up and stop bullying both offline and online. Every American deserves the right to live a life that is free from persecution and harassment. No one has the right to victimize others because of their gender or their age or their race or creed, ethnicity or sexual orientation.”
SSIA promises to be a focal point for the CABC. As Rep. Sanchez said during her speech, “there is no reason that the Safe Schools Improvement Act should not make it to the President’s desk.” All but five of the CABC members are SSIA cosponsors.
During the event, Katy Butler, the teen activist who started the campaign to have the Motion Picture Association of America lower the rating of the documentary Bully, from R to PG-13, spoke in support of SSIA, passionately calling for an enumerated anti-bullying law, saying “let’s do this and let’s do it right.”
At the launch event, Dr. Byard moderated a panel on Adult Roles and Responsibilities that included Lee Hirsh, the director of Bully, Tina Long, a parent featured in the film, Robert Gebbia, Executive Director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and Kelly Vaillancourt from the National Association of School Psychologists. Some topics of conversation included the lack of anti-bullying regulation in schools and the need for mental health professionals in schools to help address bullying.
Dr. Byard addressed the importance of adults in combatting bullying, saying, “GLSEN’s research indicates that the presence of supportive staff in a school is one of the most important factors in the quality of a student’s life. One supportive adult can save a life. Six or more can change a culture.” You can read Dr. Byard’s opening remarks in their entirety here.
A majority of experts on the day’s panel, including PFLAG Executive Director Jody Huckaby, represented organizations that make up the GLSEN-led National Safe Schools Partnership (SSP), a coalition of over 90 organizations advocating for federal legislations to create safe schools for all students. PFLAG’s partnership with GLSEN continues to expand beyond their leadership role in the SSP by helping to distribute GLSEN’s K-12 curriculums to schools across the country. GLSEN’s involvement in the day’s events continued into the evening, as Dr. Byard introduced Russlynn Ali, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, before a screening of Bully. | <urn:uuid:b31e51d6-74b2-43e6-a1c1-929b5f0d2d04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.glsen.org/recap-of-glsens-involvment-in-todays-congressional-anti-bullying-caucus-launch-event/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955102 | 756 | 1.789063 | 2 |
If you were a famous musician what would you do to help out the community that you grew up in? Would you think twice about where you came from? Many people leave their hometowns in the dust once they get a taste of the rock star lifestyle, but for Robby Takac, Buffalo native and founding member of the Goo Goo Dolls, staying here and encouraging involvement in the arts is his way of giving back.
NeXt recently had an opportunity to talk with Takac about his commitment to music and the arts in Buffalo.
The Music is Art Festival took place last Saturday in Delaware Park. Nine years ago, Takac, along with some friends, founded Music is Art (MiA).
Originally, the plan was to put on a concert that would span two days and include 70 local artists. Allentown Art Festival would be the location so as to expose Buffalo's music scene to the thousands that visit the festival every year. Several visual artists were looking to get involved as well and by the end of the first year, "we ended up with a full-blown festival on our hands," says Takac, adding, "there is now a full board of directors, programming committees, a staff, amazing organizations and so many volunteers and others who make MiA live and breathe."
Each year MiA accepts artist submissions online, sorts through them, and chooses a unique and diverse group of performances and exhibitions for the festival. When asked about the locality of the artists, Takac responds emphatically with "99 percent homegrown!"
The MiA Festival is meant to showcase the sometimes hidden talents of the Western New York community.
Music is Art is much more than a festival though. It is a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to "promote participation in music and the arts in our community."
Something that many people take for granted is the ability to learn and play an instrument in school. A lot of schools do not get the proper funding or support for a music program. By holding regular instrument drives, MiA collects and repairs instruments and sends them to local schools.
"There are so many stories we hear of folks being involved with our programs, maybe getting an instrument, it's awesome and we love hearing these amazing stories," says Takac.
MiA also puts on a show every year called the Big Easy in Buffalo. Jazz musicians from New Orleans come to Buffalo to work with students in the area. They put on performances and hold mentoring workshops, as well as putting on a concert called the Mardi Gras Jam that features student bands.
MiA also has created the Music in Action program, a full school year course that teaches students the business and skills involved in working in the music industry. There is anincreasing number of teenagers who dream of being involved in music. They may not want to be the person standing on the stage in front of a crowd of people, but there are countless other jobs that must be executed to get those people on stage every night. By taking this course, teens can learn what it's like to work behind the scenes.
Takac says what makes the MiA Festival and the Buffalo arts scene so cool is "the diversity of people, music and ideas.
"It takes all kinds and there are certainly all kinds involved with the Music is Art family," he added.
Young adults who are interested in music as a career can learn a lot from MiA. There are many ways to get involved. People can volunteer, donate money or an instrument, or simply shoot some ideas MiA's way.
Takac's advice is simple: "Do what you love, be smart and be happy."
For more information on Music is Art, visit musicisart.org.
Mary Hartrich is a senior at Kenmore West High School. | <urn:uuid:67d4e3fa-d616-4ad4-a198-557a85b881bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110922/LIFE04/309229960/1306 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976683 | 778 | 1.617188 | 2 |
About this Article
Federal safety officials said Monday they are ordering additional inspections of some Boeing 737 jets after a hole tore open in a Southwest Airlines plane during flight in 2009. The Federal Aviation Administration said that it will seek more detailed inspections for cracks along the tops of the planes. The FAA estimated that the cost of inspecting 109 older Boeing 737s will be about $5.2 million. The agency said it has no idea how many planes will need repairs.The order will cover 737-300, -400 and -500 models of the popular passenger aircraft. Southwest's entire fleet is Boeing 737s, although many are newer -700 and -800 models. The agency said repairs could cost up to $17,765 per plane, or $1.94 million for all 109 U.S.-registered planes covered by the order. | <urn:uuid:b2bfd7ff-07c8-4ce7-9e2d-3e4eed2a2779> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20130101/business/130109997/photos/AR/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942797 | 166 | 1.664063 | 2 |
For a woman who has had countless biographies written about her, Queen Victoria has always been misunderstood. Most people come away with the feeling that she was a small, stout woman dressed in black---a sad figure shut away in a castle somewhere---sort of priggish. Obviously, when she lost the love of her life, Prince Albert of Saxe-Gotha-Coburg, it destroyed her. She didn't want to go on and felt that the burden of the Monarchy was too much. And not only that---there were her many children left fatherless. Her eldest daughter, Vicky, was married to the heir to the Prussian Throne; her eldest son Bertie was living in England, but he had many flaws in her opinion. Then there was 5 year old baby Beatrice...and many others in between.
But before the Prince died in 1861 (at only 42 years old) Victoria had led an active life, and was much in love with her husband. She was very busy with the affairs of state and relied heavy on Albert for help. Together they took the Monarchy which was almost laughable, and restored a sense of dignity to the crown. The young couple were much imitated and sought after. They built several homes, Osborne House on the Isle of Wight---right on the water--which was their haven and also Balmoral in Scotland, with it's fresh, clean air. They had a life to be envied. Their life was filled with purpose and love. It wasn't until after her Prince Consort had died that the full magnitude and brilliance of his contribution to her reign were realized.
For years this woman has fascinated me. Was it her beauty? No. Obviously, she wasn't extremely attractive, but she had many nice features...silky hair, peaches and cream complexion with a touch of blush when she was young, a sweet bell like voice---very clear and distinct, a pleasing countenance, (as they said in those days) a caring nature, an extremely regal bearing and she was a prolific writer. She also loved sketching and watercolors, she enjoyed her food and ate quickly. She loved the cold bracing air, candles, and fires made with a certain kind of wood, usually birch. She loved animals, and her dolls. She also had an iron will.
She was also conceived to be a Queen. From the minute of her birth, there was a strong possibility that she would be Queen. It wasn't definite. But her father was hopeful.
She had her negative qualities, of course. She derived some sort of comfort and satisfaction from deep mourning rituals, and she worried about her own health excessively. She also worried about the health and welfare of others very much. She was will full and stubborn, at times much too much. She was of the opinion that she was right about most things. Albert was one of the only ones who could, well---knock her down to size---if you must know. And as strong as she was, there was also another side of her, the one riddled with anxieties and sadness.
Her childhood was sheltered--she never went anywhere in the house without someone else. Her friends were limited. Her food was bland---meat, potatoes, milk and bread--nothing special. She got her exercise, and adored her governess, the Baroness Lehzen. She was taught German and English, but spoke English most of the time. And she was lonely. She had a half older sister named Feodora who married and left England when Victoria was young. She also had a half brother. And when she reached her teens, the tension between she and her mother was becoming...well, serious. Her mother, the Duchess of Kent, a widow, did her best, I must say--in her defense. However, her late husband's secretary, Mr. Conroy, stayed with the Duchess after the death of the Duke and acted as her advisor. There is much to Conroy--he did spend a lifetime protecting Victoria, but she hated him. He hurt her and treated her quite harshly and loved to make it seem as if she was stupid. Victoria was somewhat kept prisoner in the years before she became Queen at 18. What she did was monitored and she wasn't free to do what she pleased. There was a system in place to keep her busy with her studies, and what she heard and saw was controlled by her mother and Mr. Conroy. There's much more to the story, but those are the highlights. Victoria hated Conroy and his control. And she resented her mother for listening to him. When she became Queen, she pulled away from them, and let me say it was not easy. A lesser young woman would have crumbled from nerves. Victoria did indeed suffer. She and her mother had a real rift because of Sir John Conroy which lasted many, many years.
The first half of her reign was brilliant for the most part--the latter half, at least from the view of her subjects, was somewhat distant and hidden. Never for a moment did she stop being Queen, but she could not tolerate the crowds and travel and she needed rest. It took most of her energy just to take care of her family and read through the important correspondence that came her way, meet with her prime ministers and contemplate affairs and make decisions. So yes, she did stay somewhat secluded. But she did bounce back in her own Victoria sort of way. Most people just don't know what an interesting life she had as a young woman, a mother and a sovereign. Even the latter part of her reign was borne with a mature wisdom and outlook, with confidence, with the help and support of one of her daughters.
Her diaries are priceless, her letters informative. The control she had over her children and grandchildren was quite amazing. In many ways she controlled Europe for a time. She couldn't be intimate with many people. What I mean by intimate is that she was royal, and above them in rank so-to-speak, and she did not confide her feelings to them. She had a few trusted confidants--mostly close family of royal blood. She reigned from 1837 until 1901. She really is a lifetime of study.
I write all this from memory. On some posts I do consult books for quotes and dates and things like that, and sometimes my memory does fail me, but on Victoria at least, her life is very clear to me. I've read all the important biographies of her, consulted them and compared them against each other to check fact for fact, and read primary sources such as diaries and letters. I just learn more and more. Why am I fascinated? I don't know! Of all the Queens and royals I study, I'd have to say that my favorite by far is Victoria. I'm not trying to say what I write is a perfect portrait. It is just mine.
I've said it before...I won't be happy till I get permission from Her Majesty to go to the Royal Archives, someday. There are many books on Victoria, and much on the internet, but I can't find a site that is JUST ABOUT HER and her alone. So, I've started one. When I do my Writer of Queens blog which I enjoy, I am often tempted to start writing about Victoria or Albert, or one of her children or grandchildren and I think: you don't want to bore them. Thus, I'm starting this blog, and maybe someday...a website. Who knows.
Oh, and that famous comment of hers, "I am not amused"...well, yeah, she said it once or twice, but she really didn't say it much. Believe me, if she didn't like something, her face would reveal it in an instant and no words were necessary. She could make grown men tremble. This is a woman who ruled her court with an iron hand. She controlled what would happen, who came and visited, the etiquette, the schedule. There was no court intrigue--except for the fact that she wrote her staff so many notes that it drove them crazy and there was much whispering behind closed doors by the servants. But even her servants were devoted to her. They loved her very much. Sometimes they were shivering with cold at Balmoral, or bored because Victoria's routines rarely changed, yet they truly loved her. Sometimes her court could be...um, boring.
I also wanted to start writing about her because...well, I have my sources...and I "predict" there will be much more interest in this particular Queen in the future. And so I want to begin to reveal her to you, as she really was. | <urn:uuid:c2c80aeb-91bc-400c-8d4f-d46bd9cb6e14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://queenvictoriarevealed.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-lifetime-of-study.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.994535 | 1,788 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Urban Farm Empowerment
Will Allen, the face of urban farming today, makes his case for local, sustainable foods at Idea Festival.
By Lisa Munniksma, Managing Editor, Urban Farm
October 6, 2009
Urban Farm managing editor Lisa Munniksma and Growing Power founder Will Allen met at the Idea Festival booth for Heine Brothers' Coffee, a locally owned business that provides coffee grounds for Louisville's Breaking New Grounds compost project.
What gets me out of bed at 5 a.m. on a Saturday? Nothing that doesn’t have to do with agriculture, horses or urban farming. So when I found out Will Allen, founder of Growing Power and urban farmer extraordinaire, would be speaking on a Saturday morning at Idea Festival in Louisville, Ky., I knew I’d be there, bright and early.
Allen spoke to the crowd about Growing Power’s work to train urban farmers and educate people around the world about sustainable agriculture and nutritious foods.
“It’s not a good food movement anymore. It’s a revolution,” he says. “We all have a responsibility to make sure our neighbors, our friends and especially our young ones are eating nutritious food.”
By 2050, Allen says, 80 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. “We’re losing land as we speak. We’re losing farmers as we speak.”
Learning to grow food in urban environments is more important than ever for feeding people good food. Allen points out that within one week of being taken from the vine, vegetables lose 50 percent of their nutrients. “That’s why local food is so important.”
After his session, Allen took a few minutes to talk to me—making him late for a workshop with Breaking New Grounds (Sorry, folks!), an urban- and sustainable-farming training organization in Louisville—about the urban-farming movement. Here’s a sampling from our conversation:
LM:What are some of the biggest challenges facing people involved with urban farming?
WA: You can go out and get all the land you want, build up all the infrastructure you want, and that really doesn’t mean very much if you haven’t done the first thing, and that’s to engage the community—to get the community on board—and that sometimes takes a long time. I think that is the key piece. Every community is different; some communities are easier to engage than others.
I hear people say, “The city is offering me 200 vacant lots.”
And I look at them and say, “OK. So, what are you going to do with it?”
And they say, “Oh, we can grow food.”
No, you can’t. “How many people do you have working?”
“It’s just me and somebody else.”
“So how are you going to grow on 200 vacant lots?”
It’s OK to take one vacant lot and put a demonstration there of what [an urban farm] can look like. Bring people there from parts of the community, and show them that this is what you have done, and they can say, “I want one of those on this vacant lot over here.”
To me, that makes sense. It also provides you with a place where you can take politicos, funders and other people to get them on board, because words are just cheap. You can say anything. The reason I show those images [in the presentations] is because that’s the work we do; it’s concrete. People can’t deny it. …
I think that’s really important—the engagement. If you can’t do that piece, you can’t move forward. You can spend all the money in the world. I’ve seen projects where people get $200,000 for a 100- by 100-foot lot, but a year later, it’s all in weeds. What does that mean? You’ve got to have passionate people; you’ve got to have more than one person. See, I was one person starting this group (Growing Power), but I always tell people to get more than one person because I wouldn’t want anybody to do what I did.
Get yourself some passionate partners. … You’ve got to have somebody who’s going to hang in there.
LM:In some cities, ordinances are preventing people from keeping bees, chickens or goats. Do you have any advice for working with government bodies?
WA: That demonstration farm that I was talking about, bring the politicos there. They’re more likely to make policy change when they see something is an asset to the city.
Politicians react to what’s going to give them votes. They don’t react to the right thing, because the right thing might not get them reelected. But if you’re able to garner enough support and you have something that people want to see and you can demonstrate that, they’re going to support it. I move policy further along with our demonstration project than I do with just getting in a line to talk to them like I’m a lobbyist.
LM:How can people who are just getting started in urban farming find the resources they need?
WA: Come to workshops. At Breaking New Grounds [in Louisville, Ky.], we’ll be doing a series of workshops as a regional training center. They can come to Milwaukee for hands-on training from the ground up. That’s how you get started. [Additional Growing Power Regional Outreach Training Centers are listed at www.growingpower.org, and other organizations hold workshops in communities nationwide.]
At those workshops, you meet other people. Many times, people come to a workshop and they meet people in their own region who are doing similar work that they didn’t even know about. That’s another way for them to get engaged, because you need partnerships to do this work. You can’t do it in isolation. … This is communal stuff.
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Logitech Quick Cam Pro for Notebooks ReviewPropane - September 18, 2007
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The included software installs very simply. All that is needed to get the process rolling, is to insert the CD. The CD has an auto-run that comes up when you first insert the disc. Once you choose to install the hardware, the software will prompt you to check for updates.
The install will prompt you to accept a EULA and also prompt you to activate your product.
When the software is completely installed, it will ask you to plug in the webcam. When it sees that the webcam is pluged in, it will give you the view from it, to make sure that it is the correct one (if you have more than one attached) and will then let you know that the process is complete and that you can use your webcam. | <urn:uuid:d311d997-d933-43c2-8a54-d73d6e3409cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/quickcamnotebook/3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936316 | 178 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Anyone reading the news these days might be tempted to believe that journalists are entirely above the law as they race around in search of their latest scoops. What with the usual accusations of invasion of personal privacy, persecution of the Royal Family and harrassment of reality TV disposable stars, it's surprising how infrequently our scions of the press find themselves in court, let alone behind bars. The reason why so many of them are walking free today is not, however, because they are above the law - it's because they're on top of it. And the best way to get on top of the law is to read McNae's Essential Law for Journalists, the nineteenth edition of which has recently been published by Oxford University Press.
Right: Oh, the shame of it. The IPKat was searching for an image that would combine "cat" with the journalistic concept "scoop" - and this is what he ended up with.
Written by Media Lawyer editor Tom Welsh, Press Association Training consultant Walter Greenwood and University of Sunderland Media Law Senior Lecturer David Banks, this edition is packed with valuable advice for the journalist - and not just the reporter desperately seeking his scoop but the cerebral variety too - who needs to know how far he can go, and how cautious he needs to be when executing the broad range of functions of his profession that might attract legal consequences.
What the publisher says:
The IPKat likes the two-tone colour scheme of the pages. More importantly, the addition of a new chapter, 'The Online Journalist', gives the book a highly topical dimension and makes it much more relevant to current use. But it would be nice for us bloggers to see terms like (we)blog in the index ...
"The authors' non-technical language, engaging writing style and use of topical examples makes the law clear and brings it to life. The nineteenth edition of this acclaimed book has been made even more user-friendly with a two colour text design and the inclusion of summaries and practical checklists to meet the needs of students and busy journalists who need quick answers to the questions they face in their day-to-day work".
Bibliographic detail: Paperback, £18.99 (US35). xxiii + 585 pages. ISBN-13 978-0-19-921154-8. No danger of a hernia. Small pages, large print. Written by journalists, for journalists, and actually reads like a dream. If only books written by lawyers for lawyers were so accessible. | <urn:uuid:2c662e9a-9b8a-4ca3-9113-665ff11ffa46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ipkitten.blogspot.co.uk/2007_08_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960649 | 515 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Down on the farm in Bay View
July 31, 2009
By Casey Twanow
Fish, sprouts, and veggies
In the open, light-filled space of a repurposed factory, Will Allen, a towering urban farmer and CEO in a sleeveless hoodie, declared, “Urban farming has gone from a movement to a revolution.” Allen made this observation July 8, when he was present to watch the newest members of the revolution-1,200 small yellow perch-arrive at Sweet Water Organics.
Sweet Water is a nascent commercial fish farm opening at 2121 S. Robinson Ave. in a complex of industrial buildings tucked away in northwestern Bay View. The owners, Josh Fraundorf, Steve Lindner, and James Godsil, intend to sell yellow perch and tilapia to local restaurants and grocers. On July 22 another 1,200 perch and 33,000 tilapia swam into Sweet Water’s tanks. In all, 5,000 perch will be fattened up for the farm’s first winter harvest. The tilapia should reach market-size in nine months.
Leading Edge of Change
Sweet Water is evidence of the changes rippling through the way we eat. Milwaukeeans are looking for local, sustainable foods, frequenting farmers markets, and counting the “miles to market” at Outpost Natural Foods.
At the epicenter of local change is Growing Power, the two-acre urban farm on Silver Spring Drive that Allen founded in 1993. Growing Power inspires school kids and entrepreneurs alike with the fresh produce, meat, and fish it grows in the heart of the city. Growing Power now has satellite farms and community gardens around Milwaukee and Chicago. In 2008 Allen was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship (aka genius grant) and he was recently featured in the New York Times.
Fraundorf, Lindner, and Godsil are following Allen’s lead, growing fish and plants in a three-tiered aquaponic system. In aquaponics, fish and plants are grown in one integrated structure. Fish waste fertilizes the plants, and plants and bacteria clean the water for the fish. Aquaponic systems mimic the natural water purification that takes place in streams and wetlands.
On July 8, Sweet Water’s owners ceremonially poured the first yellow perch into an 11,000-gallon raceway, a long channel cut six feet into the building’s concrete floor. The four-inch-long fish made a short trip that morning from UWM’s Great Lakes WATER Institute in large buckets in the back of a truck. Allen arrived to applause, and a dozen other community partners and friends were gathered, some wearing Sweet Water T-shirts. Godsil made sure everyone hefted a bucket of perch; pictures were snapped and backs patted. “We’re going to have some serious fish fries between here, the WATER Institute, and Growing Power,” laughed Allen. “We should never be without fish.”
Sweet Water’s perch swim in one of the fish farm’s four parallel raceways. Two raceways house tilapia, and another is currently empty. Additional raceways are planned in the future. Water from each raceway is pumped up to two stacked beds of pea gravel. Water flows across the gravel, where hard-working bacteria break down extra food and ammonia from fish wastes, converting it into nitrates that plants can absorb. In the middle bed this nutrient-rich water is filtered by tiny watercress plants, and in the top bed it fertilizes potted herbs, sprouts, and vegetables. Then the naturally cleaned water pours back down to the fish.
“This is actually a simple, easy way to grow fish. Most of the work is done for you by the system itself,” said Rick Mueller, Growing Power’s Milwaukee projects assistant who focuses on aquaponics. The only regular inputs are oxygen (through an aeration system), commercial fish food, and heat. Tilapia, hardy fish native to Africa but farmed worldwide, thrive in warm waters so Sweet Water will use pool heaters to maintain their raceways at 84 degrees. Water for the yellow perch, a Great Lakes native, will be warmed to 71 degrees.
Allen said small aquaponic systems are perfect for urban backyards and basements, with “sweat equity” being the major capital investment. But, he said smiling, “There are more parts of it than meet the eye.”
Sweet Water, like Growing Power, also grows worms. Twenty-six wooden worm bins are shelved along one wall and the worms are fed from a large compost pile behind the building. Worm castings (excrement) are essential to the system, a rich source of minerals and nutrients for the potted plants. During an earlier tour, Godsil dug into a bin and produced handfuls of black compost with a few thin, wriggling worms. “They’re not as gloriously throbbing with worms as Growing Power’s yet,” he said of the bins, but the worms will double in just a few months. Growing Power sometimes feeds surplus worms to their yellow perch.
Sweet Water seeded sprouts and arugula greens in worm castings in late June, and on the tour Godsil picked a few to pass around. The tiny leaves packed a lot of flavor; the radish sprouts had a spicy kick, the sunflower sprouts a nutty taste.
Lindner said they’ve thus far invested approximately $110,000 or $120,000 in the endeavor. Nearly everything at Sweet Water has the potential to earn profit. The owners are talking with Beans & Barley about selling the fish and with Outpost Natural Foods about selling the herbs. Roundy’s has expressed interested in Sweet Water too, Fraundorf said. Ideally, the watercress, sprouts, and veggies will be harvested and sold. Even the worm castings and the worms themselves can be sold to gardeners.
The owners expect their first harvest and sales in November or December. Right now, local restaurants such as Rip Tide will pay $6 or $7 per pound for fresh yellow perch, and about $4 per pound for fresh tilapia, but seafood prices fluctuate. Barnacle Bud’s has not stocked high-priced yellow perch in years, but kitchen manager Dennis Stukel said they would buy the Wisconsin favorite at a reasonable price.
According to the Sweet Water website, the farm’s annual production will reach 100,000 fish in two years, and Lindner said they will soon have seven raceways in operation. He said that operating costs and profit will fluctuate as the owners tweak the system. Godsil considers the early stages of their venture experimental, a learning process.
Sweet Water’s profit margins may depend on its light and heat requirements. At Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), students in professor Michael Swedish’s class studied the conversion of an existing warehouse into a tilapia farm. They created a computer model to analyze production costs and profits for an aquaponic system. One finding was that a large operation depending entirely on artificial light was not feasible. “You need to pull in as much natural light as you can get,” Swedish summarized.
Light floods Sweet Water’s plant beds from windows near the 50-foot ceiling, but if the plants need supplementary light during part or all of the year, operating costs will rise. Swedish’s students also found that the scale of an aquaponic system is limited by the nutrients plants can uptake. Large-scale fish farms might require partial treatment to deal with fish wastes.
Swedish and Godsil have discussed alternative heating strategies to reduce the cost and energy of keeping the fish raceways warm. One of their most intriguing ideas is transferring heat from Sweet Water’s compost pile to the water. Swedish may assign a group of MSOE students to study the idea this fall.
Of building their urban fish farm, Lindner said, “It’s been a lot of work-more than I anticipated.” The biggest challenge was finding time. He already works long hours as a home-builder and landlord-he owns the building that Sweet Water leases-and Godsil and Fraundorf run a roofing company.
Originally, Fraundorf, an outdoorsman and gardener, hoped to raise fish in a smaller space he and Godsil were renting from Lindner. He took Lindner to Growing Power (where Godsil serves on the board of directors) to illustrate his idea. Five minutes into that tour, Lindner said, “You’re in the wrong space.”
He showed Fraundorf the high-ceilinged former factory in the same complex as their smaller rental space. Most recently, a tulip bulb business had rented the 11,000 square feet from Lindner as cold storage but they needed to downsize. “The windows were boarded up, but you could see it had the potential,” Fraundorf said.
He, Lindner, and Godsil decided to collaborate and bring Fraundorf’s plan to life. Fraundorf said of his partners, “Godsil, being Godsil, is a PR genius. And Steve is kind of a MacGyver.”
Godsil generated buzz through his numerous email lists and contacts. All three men applied their skills, with help from friends, to the renovations and construction. They repaired the roof, replaced the windows, broke out concrete floors, and constructed the raceways and plant beds. Fraundorf obtained permits for the tilapia (because it’s a non-native species) from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and registered the fish farm with the DNR and the city of Milwaukee.
When they were ready for plants and fish, the Sweet Water owners looked to Allen and UWM Great Lakes WATER Institute scientist Fred Binkowski for guidance.
Allen shared lessons from designing and tweaking his aquaponic system at Growing Power as well as his expertise in composting and worm culture. At Sweet Water on July 8 Allen remarked, indicating the old factory building, “A total transformation-it’s beautiful.” He looked over the system, and gave casual advice. “You might want to lower those grow lights,” he said as he looked at plant bed.
Binkowski offered research results from raising yellow perch in a commercial-size recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) at WATER. He coordinates aquaculture outreach programs through WATER’s Great Lakes Aquaculture Center and the UW Sea Grant Advisory Program (Wisconsin Sea Grant is a statewide research and education program focused on the Great Lakes). Binkowski has also studied perch in Growing Power’s aquaponic system for the past two years and has visited Sweet Water weekly to monitor water quality and teach the owners testing procedures.
To stock the raceways, Sweet Water ordered tilapia fingerlings (young fish) for 11 cents a piece from AmeriCulture, Inc. in New Mexico. Binkowski is providing the 5,000 perch as part of a cooperative research agreement between Sweet Water and WATER’s Aquaculture Center. “We’re adding them in smaller batches to make sure we don’t overload the system.”
Other community partners fuel Sweet Water’s steaming pile of compost. Godsil picks up several 50-gallon barrels of fruit and vegetable waste from the Holt Avenue Pick ‘n Save daily. Roast Coffee Company and the Great Lakes Distillery contribute organic waste, and the city of Milwaukee, Hawks Nursery, and Asplundh Tree Experts add woodchips and leaves. In turn, these partners avoid disposal costs and reduce their landfill waste.
Godsil said Sweet Water will continue forming these local cooperative links. These links will contribute to his big vision of Sweet Water as a place for residents to meet, learn skills, and build community self-reliance. Already, people stop in daily to tour and ask questions, and a “Sweet Water Guild School” that will teach composting, woodworking, coppersmithing, and other skills is in the planning stages. With boundless and contagious idealism, Godsil describes his vision of Sweet Water in a few years: guild classes, a farmers market, adjoining spaces filled with food co-ops, restaurants, and workshops for urban artists and artisans. “I want to energize Milwaukee with arugula,” he said smiling.
Milwaukee Leads the World
Milwaukee is emerging as a leader in the urban farming revolution, especially in aquaculture. “We are absolutely the leader of urban agriculture in the nation if not the world,” said Allen. Local organizations are recruiting more urban agrarians through education. Growing Power has regular workshops, and a nonprofit Urban Aquaculture Center (featured in a February Compass H20 column) that will include an education center as well as a production facility that is in development. This winter, Wisconsin Sea Grant will launch an Urban Aquaculture Initiative to help fish farmers in cities. “What we want to do is give them the tools they need,” said Binkowski, who is helping develop a work plan. The program will not offer direct funding for farmers, but will bolster the regional urban aquaculture industry by providing education and technical support. “I see it as a huge step in the right direction,” Binkowski said.
Aquaculture has been increasing around the country, and urban fish farms like Sweet Water are on the cutting edge. Purdue University’s Kwamena Quagrainie, who specializes in aquaculture marketing, does not know of any other commercial urban fish farms. Brooklyn College professor Martin Schreibman, who has developed a model RAS for urban fish farms, has noticed “a sudden surge of energy, interest, and activity” related to urban aquaculture. Schreibman, who cannot sell his fish because of academic rules at his college, donates them to homeless shelters.
So far, U.S. aquaculture doesn’t come close to meeting domestic demand for fish. According to the Department of Agriculture, in 2005 the United States imported 300 million pounds of tilapia but produced only 17 million. The North Central Regional Aquaculture Center estimates that the yellow perch market could absorb at least 50 million more pounds per year.
Urban fish farms may help fill these gaps, with Milwaukee and other cities reaping economic, health, and environmental benefits. Urban agriculture and aquaculture provide jobs near a ready workforce, fresh foods for underserved populations, reductions in fossil fuels for food transport, and a use for empty industrial buildings.
If Sweet Water succeeds, it will provide a valuable business model for entrepreneurs in Milwaukee and other cities. It will also strengthen the current of change that is reshaping how we grow our food. “We’re not only growing fish but growing knowledge,” said Godsil.
Email James Godsil for Sweet Water samples or tours: [email protected].
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January 22, 2009
Rob A. Rutenbar, Jatras Professor of ECE and CS, was elected a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Class of 2008 for contributions to computer-aided design tools for mixed-signal integrated circuits.
Rutenbar is widely known for his contributions to computer-aided design (CAD) algorithms and software for mixed-signal integrated circuits and for the contributions that his company, Neolinear, has made to the industry. He has also been recognized numerous times for his contributions to education.
Rutenbar is one of 44 ACM Fellows named this year, three from Carnegie Mellon.
Headshot of Rob Rutenbar | <urn:uuid:fa92e5ba-3b08-4c32-b1ce-a56e8988bf96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ece.cmu.edu/news/story/2009/01/rob_rutenbar_elected.html | 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 | 0.964051 | 147 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Firefighters encounter dangerous situations every time they battle a house fire or rescue someone from a burning building. So, it helps to be in top physical condition and the Brookshire's Firefighter Combat Challenge tests that and more.
Firefighters train year-round, sometimes five days a week, all for two short minutes.
“It helps make us stronger by making us in better physical condition and helps make our air bags last longer,” Tyler firefighter Terry Hawkins said.
Hawkins represents the over-40 team with the Tyler Fire Department. He's been taking on the firefighter challenge for 19 years. “If you come off the course and you are not completely drained, you didn't push hard enough,” Hawkins said.
In that two minutes, individual firefighters and the relay teams tackle five grueling tasks that mimic a live fire scene.
That includes a high-rise hose drag, hoisting a 50-pound roll of hose and driving a 165-pound sled 5 feet to simulate cutting a hole in a roof.
They also pull a charged hose line and drag a weighted rescue dummy 100 feet to safety.
“I just want to go as fast as I can go and give our team a chance to post a good time,” Tyler firefighter Stuart Weatherford said.
To make the competition even more difficult, they lugged around about 30 pounds in gear and they'll also attach another 30 pounds on their back for their air pack.
Although Hawkins and Weatherford are in the over-40 group, they still like being competitive with the younger guys.
“If everybody stays in good shape and is healthy, we don't have to worry about our fellow firefighters. We can focus our energy and attention on putting out the fire and rescuing any victims that could be in a house.”
In the end that benefits the entire fire department and those they protect.
Watch Dana Hughey's “Fit City Success” stories each Thursday during KYTX CBS19's 10 p.m. news. | <urn:uuid:ee3b28f7-de6e-43f7-ada4-7b0b8a58218e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20121014/NEWS09/121019866/-1/section/section/OPINION033001 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95929 | 416 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Consciousness - The Audacity Of Hope
by Dipankar Das
Obama's global appeal lies in
his promise of universal values
of inclusion, fraternity, and compassion for all More than two million people waited patiently in the sub-zero temperatures of Washington DC to witness history, to witness the swearing-in ceremony of President Barack Obama. It was to be the grandest home-run for a man who had begun this improbable journey two years ago as a little known Senator with a foreign-sounding name. Obama moved into the Oval Office as the nation’s fourth youngest president at 47, and the first African-American, a barrier-breaking feat believed impossible by generations of blacks in America.
As Barack Obama stepped up to the inaugural platform to take the oath, the crowd basking in the warmth of a bright midday sun and rubbing shoulders with history, broke into a mighty chorus of cheers. It was not just the spontaneous endorsement of an excited people, but the ring of hope over despair, of expectation over dejection of the millions gathered in Washington, the multitudes glued to their TV across the great nation of America, and the billions across the globe, eagerly awaiting, what Abraham Lincoln had elegantly described as a ‘new birth of freedom’.
From a log cabin
One may then ask what is it about Barack Obama that excites so much hope, so much expectation of change? For one, Barack Hussain Obama is truly an exception in the width and depth of his personal experiences. Unlike most previous US presidents, he does not see the world through the gilded prism of privilege and patronage. He contains so much of the world within him; having grown up in the distant outpost of the US – Hawaii, then in Indonesia, and with roots in one of the major tribes of Kenya. Obama was just six when he arrived in Jakarta, along with his mother and Indonesian stepfather. “I went to local Indonesian schools and ran on the streets with the children of farmers, servants, tailors and clerks,” he would recollect later.
He never had the opportunity to frequent the corridors of elite educational institutes until he truly deserved to walk across them. When he arrived in New York for the first time, not finding his host, he spent his first night in New York, on a pavement, propped against his luggage and next morning bathed using water from a hydrant in the august company of other homeless people.
Change we can believe in
The telling punch line of Obama’s long drawn, 24-month campaign before his election win on November 4, 2008, was ‘Change we can believe in’. His composure against odds, his refusal to sink to base politicking during the campaign trail reflecting a subliminal maturity gave the punchline a ring of truth and swelled the ranks of his supporters. However, it was not just these personal traits that contributed to his popularity.
Obama’s win is deeply telling on the history and self-perception of America. America has been a Janus-faced nation, like many western nations. It has sworn by democracy and individual rights, while resting on the plinth of Black slavery and denial, a modern-day Athens, deeply democratic, yet propped up by slavery. America’s founding fathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, proclaimed individual rights to the world while African slaves laboured in their backyards. This original ambiguity has haunted the US for over two centuries. The election of Barack Obama, an African American, as president substantially liberates America from its basic contradiction. What impact it will have on the fortunes of African Americans in general is still to be seen, but it is undoubtedly a shining moment in the historical journey of American nationhood and a landmark for world history. Few societies have elected someone from their deeper subaltern trenches to the highest office of the nation.
A beacon of hope
Obama’s appeal is global and extends well beyond the borders of the western world, and his promise extends beyond the confines of racial redemption. The reason behind his global appeal is perhaps that so much of the world is entwined in him and his promise of universal values of inclusion, fraternity, and compassion for all.
Never have those values been more valued than today. Barack Obama has been elected to the most powerful office in the world at a time when the world is deeply bruised by the powers of politicians. His predecessor George Bush, often described as the worst President in the history of the United States, exited with the lowest ratings of any President in recent times. His most conspicuous legacy has been thousands of deaths in Iraq and a raging war in Afghanistan. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, along with Hurricane Katrina’s ravages under the nose of a comatose administration, remain the abiding images of the moral forfeit of the Bush years.
Light in the darkness
The most powerful decision makers in the world, the politicians seem to have abdicated their responsibilities in favour of tunnel visions of exclusion and personal gain. Nowhere was its exhibition starker than in the aftermath of the Mumbai killings in November. Overprotected politicians descended in their assorted BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes, vulture-like to see the damage done by a handful of terrorists – tourists absorbing the novelty of a sight.
Such are the depths that the Indian political world can plumb, that it has already internalised Obama and caricatured him into irrelevance. Obama has also spawned an army of Obama wannabes. The BJP is said to have frozen a Rs 250-crore kitty to present LK Advani in an Obama mould. Mayavati has claimed her lowly birth to be credentials for Obama’s platform in India, her retributive politics and zooming bank balance notwithstanding. Rahul baba is yet another contender. Nevertheless, in the worn tradition of Indian politics it will be yet another triumph of symbol over substance, of grand visions backed only by rhetoric, of editorials and speeches, signifying nothing.
It is from this whirligig of such remorseless amorality and despair that engulfs not just India, but the world that Obama emerges as an exception, bearing expectation and hope to redeem the core and not just tinker with the periphery. At the heart of the stratospheric expectations that Obama prompts, lies the anticipation that politics will regain its lost ethical soul.
Can Obama enable politics to regain its lost ethical soul? The implications of Obama
During his presidential campaign, Obama had assailed Washington’s “entire culture” in which “our leaders have thrown open the doors of Congress and the White House to an army of Washington lobbyists who have turned our government into a game only they can afford to play.” He vowed to “close the revolving door” and “clean up both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue” with “the most sweeping ethics reform in history.”
Obama on his first day in office imposed perhaps the toughest ethics rules of any president in modern times. Sceptics have mocked that he will join the legions of politicians over-promising and under-delivering. They have sniggered, he will not change the way Washington works, but change the way political parties work it. Will Obama be able to reconcile change we can believe in with business as usual?
If the first few days of his office are anything to go by, then the world’s hopes are not misplaced. Day one, he ordered the closure of the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison. Within a few days, he capped the salaries of the top executives of conglomerates who now rely on the US government’s bailout and their top executives feed on fat paycheques doled out from the taxpayer’s money. In sharp contrast to most politicians, Obama has a time-bound and action-oriented approach to issues. While approving the $ 850 billion bailout package for the US economy, he wanted the papers to come to his desk for closure by February 16.
The expectation that Obama has raised is a tall order. It is not just to raise living standards, or improve the economy but an even more difficult task of shifting the moral paradigm of public life.
There is no gainsaying that Obama has been a monumental hit. The power of Obama lies in his simple genuineness. His appeal is not vacuously charismatic as it is with most popular political leaders, but held up by an ethos, which is at variance with what politics has come to mean today. His well articulated multi-cultural universal values promise to leave no one on the sidelines, and be the foil on whose barometer all politics will be measured in future.
Dipankar Das started his career at Life Positive. He now works as a Training and Development specialist and in his spare time lives on the margins of other worlds.
We welcome your comments and suggestions on this article. Mail us at [email protected]
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Easier Said Than DoneJune 25, 2012 by Karess | Filed under Musings.
Sometimes, God’s Word is easier said than done.
Is it just me, or can anyone else relate with that?
Truth is, it’s easier to post a Facebook status update or a tweet about an encouraging verse we read this morning, than actually appropriating it in our lives.
I like that word, appropriate. I hear it often in church. Apple Dictionary says it means to “take (something) for one’s own use.”
It isn’t always the easiest route to take, given that I am a creature of comfort and habit. Yet God’s Word, no matter how I try to intellectualize or justify my way out of it, is crystal clear:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
James 1:22-25 NIV
These words are a fitting reminder to me, something to keep me grounded and reminded.
I will falter and fall. But at the end of the day, it is not about me, or my limitations, or how many times I failed and screwed up. It’s about Christ’s strength being perfected in me. It’s about how deep, long, wide, and high His love is. It’s about my sin being taken away as far as the east is from the west.
Thank You, Jesus, for Your unconditional love for me. | <urn:uuid:f14f95cf-d900-49f6-b324-dd85d4c4ec52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://karessrubrico.com/2012/06/easier-said-than-done/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958906 | 404 | 1.554688 | 2 |
University of Wyoming
200 S. 10th Street
Red House, Room 103
Laramie, WY (307)766-3005
The mission of the Summer High School Institute is to provide a place where some the state's most intellectually talented sophomores could gather before their junior and senior years, live and study in an environment with no pressure for grades, and share ideas and friendship with other gifted students.
The primary purpose of the program is to draw talented high school sophomore students to the university for an intensive examination of unanswered questions and unresolved challenges. Among the areas that will be probed are: world hunger, plants and people, knights and cowboys, drama, ethics and society, communicating with computers, understand cultural development, pharmacy, and the links between life and the arts.
The goal is not to require student's to learn another body of knowledge and pass yet another test. It is, rather, to challenge imaginations, focus diverse disciplines on specific issues or problems, and integrate various individual talents into a larger perspective. In the process we hope: to help selected high school students achieve their academic and personal potential and cultivate their leadership capabilities; to expand the students' horizons, develop their adaptability, creativity, and critical thinking abilities, and to heighten their sensitivity to future possibilities for themselves, Wyoming and society; and to stimulate and reward excellence in Wyoming schools. | <urn:uuid:71b6bb55-8bc3-40af-8b36-28ca62648f61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uwyo.edu/hsi/about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935401 | 283 | 1.65625 | 2 |
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Just talking about his eight-year-old German schnauzer brings tears to Tom Bell's eye.
"Rommel is my world basically. He's like my son ... He's all I live for. ... I just start thinking about him and I fall apart," Bell said.
Bell has a lung disease and cerebral palsy. Because he can't walk, he trained Rommel to be his service dog.
"I've basically trained him to help me pick up certain things like spoons and how to take my socks off, my pant legs ... I trained him myself. He would bring me his leash, my hat, my sunglasses."
On Monday, Bell said his world was turned upside down. A delivery man left the gate in his front yard open and that night. Not knowing the gate was open, his sister let Rommel outside.
"He wouldn't have ran off and we think somebody might have picked him up or basically just took him."
While relatives and neighbors have combed the streets and plastered missing dog signs around the Marietta area, Bell says he had to anxiously sit inside because his electric wheelchair is broken.
But a group of friends who he met on Facebook who all follow an author who wrote a book about a German Schnauzer are giving him hope...helping him get the word out online.
"There are people in Ireland. There are people in Brazil. They are everywhere. This is the story of Rommel it just blew out. I've got friends in Scotland that are just posting and pasting everyone. ... My God it is priceless."
Without Rommel by his side, Bell says he doesn't know what to do.
"This dog has been the greatest joy in my life. I'm lost without him."
First Coast News | <urn:uuid:64e7010c-9eb4-4b9f-9dcf-8479de17943f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.firstcoastnews.com/rss/article/296851/483/Man-seeking-his-missing-guide-dog | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991015 | 378 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Published June 26, 2012
WARSAW, Poland (AP) – UEFA has fined the German soccer association $31,200 after fans displayed a neo-Nazi flag at a European Championship match.
Germany has now been disciplined for fans' behavior at all three Euro 2012 group-stage matches, and paid fines totaling $50,000.
UEFA says fans were guilty of ''improper conduct'' at the match against Denmark on June 17.
Monitors from the Europe-wide FARE fans' group identified the neo-Nazi symbol after being appointed to help find offensive flags, chants and behavior in Euro 2012 stadiums.
UEFA previously said Germany fans in the Arena Lviv in Ukraine also sang ''inappropriate'' chants and set off fireworks.
German fans also threw paper missiles at Portugal and Netherlands players at earlier matches. | <urn:uuid:df3ed450-5576-4235-91af-e0786cdfce7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/sports/2012/06/26/uefa-fines-germany-31-for-fans-neo-nazi-flag/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930127 | 169 | 1.554688 | 2 |
I also read 100 quotes of Lincoln’s on the Internet and conclude one can pick out whatever suits one’s view and use it to demean a conservative. (Sadly, the liberal press can even use a bottle of water.)
All any of us really want is to stand on our own two feet and not depend on the government.
Why don’t won’t people stop fighting the Civil War and use the equal opportunities afforded us and enjoy the freedoms we still have? That way, Nikita Khruschev’s 1953 statement that “We will bury you without firing a shot” will not be fulfilled.
I simply can’t say regarding emotions, except that most of the current proposals for gun control make me emotional. Reduce crime? It’s rather strange that places in the U.S. with strict gun control have higher crime rates than those areas with looser gun control. That can apply to countries. Look at Mexico. How about the U.K. — very difficult for a citizen to own a firearm and, yet, crime is rising alarmingly.
How about the “reasonable” measure of registering firearms and their owners? History clearly shows that governments use that stepping stone to ultimately disarm their citizenry via confiscation. Sadly, Canada and Australia are heading in that direction, now. What if that confiscating government has (or develops) bad intent? Look at Nazi Germany and the USSR for an answer.
What about our Constitution? Some politicians loudly declare that their gun control proposals won’t restrict our Constitutional “right of hunting and self-defense.” But that simply is not what the Constitution is about. Just a little review of the Federalist Papers recording the development of our Constitution shows that the drafters intended an armed citizenry — in part, to prevent our country from becoming a Nazi Germany or U.S.S.R.
So, how to achieve crime control? How about assuring an armed citizenry and demanding serious, swift, thorough prosecution of criminal misuse of firearms? Interestingly, there are many such laws on the books. And there is clear evidence in parts of the U.S. that when these are prosecuted, crime drops.
Holly Lake Ranch
Bigger government means more power for him and greater control over every American. Ironically the worse he makes things for the average American, the easier it is for him to buy their group votes with more and bigger spending programs.
It is a vicious, growing cycle as more and more voters are dependent on more and bigger government.
All this is at the expense and reduction of our liberty, freedom and prosperity. | <urn:uuid:fa6d7d6a-f553-47b0-bf55-417bc0294239> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tylerpaper.com/article/20130303/NEWS01/130309950/0/BUSINESS04 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942724 | 547 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) stands with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi (L) in Moscow on April 13, 2012.
China says a political dialogue is the only solution to the ongoing crisis in Syria as Russia calls it “naive” for the West to expect Syrian leader to withdraw his troops from conflict-ridden cities.
In a telephone conversation with the new UN Arab League special envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi urged the international community to seek a political solution to Syria crisis and vowed that his country would continue cooperation with the international community over the issue.
The Chinese top diplomat reiterated that his country has been deeply concerned about the humanitarian conditions in Syria, saying Beijing expected Brahimi to play an active role in resolving the Syria crisis.
The UN Arab League envoy, for his part, attached great importance to China’s role in putting an end to the ongoing crisis in Syria.
China has been critical of Western powers for undermining peace efforts of the UN and has vowed to cooperate with the new UN Syria envoy to help bring an end to the violence inside Syria.
Meanwhile, pointing to the recent developments in the crisis-hit Arab state, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also described as naive and untenable any plans to withdraw Syrian government troops as long as fighting with the insurgents continues.
“There are different attitudes towards the Syrian regime. But while fighting in the streets continues, it is absolutely unrealistic to say that the only way out is for one side to unilaterally capitulate,” the official said during a public appearance at the Moscow State University of Foreign Affairs.
China along with Russia vetoed a Western-backed draft resolution in July, which called for new sanctions against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
Syria has been the scene of deadly unrest since mid-March, 2011 and many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
Damascus says outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists are the driving factor behind the unrest and deadly violence while the opposition accuses the security forces of being behind the killings. | <urn:uuid:1933df5a-0e40-4bc2-a569-084ca91df31b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/09/01/259301/china-russia-against-west-syria-plans/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962273 | 444 | 1.6875 | 2 |
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FEW NURSES GET EXCITED about working on Christmas. As dedicated as we are to our patients and coworkers, we yearn to be home for the holiday. Yet, as so often happens in nursing, we receive unexpected blessings when we answer the call to duty, as this nurse's story shows.
Nearly 30 years ago, I took a job at a hospice in Milwaukee, Wis., and found my niche. As the autumn leaves began to fall, this holiday schedule was posted:
December 24 3-11 Barbara
December 25 3-11 Barbara
I was devastated. Newly engaged, I was having my first Christmas back home with my family after many years. But as a new employee, I didn't have the seniority to get Christmas off.
While lamenting my predicament, I came up with an idea. If I couldn't be with my family, I'd bring my family to the hospice. My family thought it was a wonderful plan, and so did the staff. Several invited their relatives to participate too.
As we brainstormed ideas for Christmas, we remembered the annual Christmas Eve service in the hospice chapel, normally attended by staff and members of the public.
"Why don't we take the patients to the service?" I suggested.
It never occurred to me that this great idea might not fly with my nurse manager.
"Surely you're not serious," she said. "It's never been done. Seldom do you see any patients at this service, and the ones that do go are ambulatory and dressed. Most of our patients are too sick to go. I can't authorize additional staff. What about the liability?"
But I kept trying to convince her until she grudgingly gave approval.
Christmas Eve arrived. Family members gathered in the lounge and decorated a small tree. Then we implemented our plan to transport the patients to the chapel.
Sandy, 19, dying of liver cancer, never had visitors. Her mother had died 3 years earlier and her father stopped visiting long before, so my family took charge of her. My sister combed her hair while my mother applied lipstick. They laughed and joked like three old friends as she was helped onto a stretcher. Meanwhile, my coworkers prepared other patients for the move. Then, with patients in wheelchairs and on stretchers, we paraded our group into the chapel.
We arrived just in time to hear the end of "Joy to the World," with the organ and bells ringing out in perfect harmony. Silence overcame the startled congregation as we rolled slowly down the aisle. Everyone turned to look at us as our steps echoed in the large, crowded chapel.
Then the magic began. One by one, people stood up, filed into the aisle, and began to help us. They handed out hymnals and distributed programs. They wheeled patients to the front so they could see. One woman adjusted Sandy's pillow and stroked her hair. Throughout the service, the congregation catered to our patients, guiding them through the service.
The beautiful service closed with a candlelight recessional to "Silent Night." Voices rang in disrupted harmony as the congregation helped us leave the chapel and return our charges to their rooms.
As I got Sandy ready for bed, she whispered, "This was one of the nicest Christmases I've ever had."
Since that Christmas, my family has been blessed with many Christmases together, but that one was the best. Like author Bill Shore, I, too, believe that when you give to others and to the community, you create something within yourself that's important and lasting. He called it "the cathedral within."
All these years later, our family cathedral is still a little stronger for the privilege of giving that Christmas.
Barbara Bartlein, RN, CSP
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Back to Top | <urn:uuid:afd155ec-96bf-4f0c-bb49-442d3c147b7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/JournalArticle?Article_ID=828362&Journal_ID=54016&Issue_ID=828347 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966694 | 910 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Please login to rate this movie.Overall Rating :
This story revolves around a few families of diverse religious backgrounds, namely, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Parsi, located in Lahore, British India. While the Parsi family, a known minority in present day India, are prosperous, the rest of the families are shown as struggling to make a livelihood. Things change for the worse during 1947, the time the British decide to grant independence to India, and that's when law and order break down, and chaos, anarchy, and destruction take over, ...
If You are a member of India-forums, Then You can use quick login. | <urn:uuid:942b02f8-c586-46ac-8ea9-c14c2ed83c8d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.india-forums.com/movie/2877/earth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933173 | 132 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Ben Elton’s brilliant recent novel ‘Blind Faith’ describes a dystopian post-apocalyptic world with frightening similarities to our own.
The following conversation is, I think, fascinating:
‘Let me put it differently. Don’t you ever want to understand something?’
‘I’m going to sleep.;
‘The Lord made Heaven and Earth. The Lord made us. The Lord does this, the Lord wants that. We don’t know how or why, we don’t need to know, it just happens. There’s never any explanation, it’s all a miracle. Children are born, some die, it’s God’s will, we can’t change it. Don’t you think that, in a way, that’s sort of . . . sort of . . .?’
‘Sort of what?’
Whatever else Chantorria had expected him to say, it clearly wasn’t this.
‘Well, to just . . . give up . . . leave everything to God. I mean why did he bother making us in the first place if the only function we serve is to believe in him and then die. Isn’t that a bit pointless?’
‘I wish you wouldn’t talk this way, Trafford. It’s weird. Our job here on Earth is to have faith. Faith is an acknowledgement that there is something bigger and more important than us, which I certainly hope there is. What’s pathetic about that?’
‘Well, perhaps I want something else in my life, something other than faith.’
‘What could there be other than faith?’
Trafford struggled to think of the word. He knew there was one, he had heard it used in different contexts, but this was the context for which the word had been coined.
‘Reason,’ he replied.
‘A reason? … Isn’t your daughter a reason? Aren’t I a reason?’
‘No, not a reason. Reason itself. I want to work something out in my own mind. I want to arrive at a conclusion because I’ve thought it through, not because I’ve been told to believe it. I want to take part of my life back from God.’
‘Trafford,’ Chantorria replied, and there was fear in her eyes, ‘you can’t deny God! They’ll burn you!’
‘I’m not denying God!’ Trafford said hurriedly. For all his brave words, he was a long way from wishing people to think him a heretic. ‘Surely you can act independently without denying God? I would have thought that any God with half a brain would expect that of his children.’
‘I mean wouldn’t faith itself be more valuable if it was arrived at through question and doubt? What’s the use of blind faith? Seriously, it’s not difficult saying you have faith if the alternative is being burned alive. But does that mean you really have faith? That man this evening, the Chris-lam. He had faith.’
‘Trafford, he very nearly got beaten to death. You want to get us both beaten to death? Is that it? That man was mad.’
‘Of course he was mad to do what he did. To risk dying for his faith. You wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t do that. Faith to us is anything we’re told to believe. If Confessor Bailey told us that a cherry alcopop represented the blood of Diana we’d worship it without a thought. But that man tonight –’
‘Who could have been killed –’
‘That man had arrived at his faith despite what he has been told. His faith was personal. He’d thought about something and decided to act upon the conclusions he’d drawn. I’d like to do that.’
‘You want to get beaten to death?’
‘You’re not listening to me! What I’m saying is, wouldn’t it be an astonishing thing to act independently? To think something through? Decide upon a course of action and then follow it. Wouldn’t that feel good?’
‘How would I know? Who’s ever done that?’ | <urn:uuid:898cc7da-0626-46ff-bdc8-69ca88d71fa4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://baptistbookworm.blogspot.com/2009/01/blind-faith.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97047 | 986 | 1.523438 | 2 |
One of the biggest draws of the information technology scene is that, unlike nearly any other sector of civic life, it does not tend to attract argumentative people in the twilight of their careers debating aimlessly in closed rooms without having the first notion of what they're talking about, just because they've come to feel very lonely when not accompanied by the sound of their own voice. If technology has one central piece of lore, it is find it, fix it. But times they are a-changing. Take a ringside seat at WSIS round two, starting this week, and you can say you were there when the tides turned.
Instead of getting down to the real business of pondering why, if this info-juice is so wonderful and free and everything, whilst I'm timestamping my political satire .mp3 downloads on the bus, there's a whole village in east Africa sharing one mobile phone, at the UN's World Summit for the Information Society in Tunis on 16-18 November we'll be asking: who controls the net? That's right, it looks like after all this time why, we nearly had Mr Murdoch in a sweat back there the world wide web was something that could be controlled after all.
Also by Becky Hogge, managing editor of openDemocracy:
Patents for profit: dystopian visions of the new economy (March 2005)
Democracy and dissent at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (April 2005)
The great firewall of China (May 2005)
Mozillas magic pixie dust (with Hamza Khan-Cheema, September 2005)
Open source nation (interview with Geoff Mulgan, September 2005)
If you find this material valuable please consider supporting openDemocracy by sending us a donation so that we can continue our work for democratic dialogue
The question being put to the floor is, should the US government cede its control of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) to the UN? To most of global civil society, the answer seems clear. Of course the internet, a global phenomenon, should be controlled by a global organisation, no matter what we might think of the UN right now. Why leave it up to the Americans? What have they done for world peace recently?
But to every point comes a counterpoint. Will the internet become the Unternet? screeched Tech Central Station last month. The headline (which, however misguided, possesses a beauty to make your average sub weep) captures perfectly American fears that its homegrown, freedom-delivering invention will become bogged down in geopolitical grey goo the moment it cedes control to the UN.
The minute you scrutinse what control Icann currently exerts over the net, both these arguments start to look a little premature. Because the holy grail of internet governance about to be debated at WSIS is a little thing called the root zone file the system which controls the distribution of top-level domains (like .com, .org and .net) that make up the majority of the World Wide Web. Icann maintains the root zone file by virtue of a very tight, exclusive contract with the United States department of commerce. And the reason the DoC exerts control over the root zone file is because it bought it from a geek called Jon seven years ago.
As the Internet Governance Project so rightly point out in their recent report The political oversight of ICANN (no pun intended), this knotty arrangement with Jon (now deceased, who's company, VeriSign, currently owns the largest domain-name registry business in the world) means that wresting control of the root zone file from the US commerce department would most likely involve a Congressional debate. US law and technology do not happy bedfellows make (the US Supreme Court recently outlawed the photocopier) and the prospect of a nationally-lobbied US Congress having ultimate say in the future of the root zone file is almost as haunting as that of a conglomerate of techophobe heads of state working out what to do with it.
A debate about the governance of Icann is long overdue. But what that debate is not about is freedom of speech, human rights, spam, or any other of the motley crew of concerns that have been brought to the negotiating table at WSIS. Icann may be an opaque and cumbersome organisation, but the root zone file is not the internet. George W Bush cannot delete it in a fit of neo-conservative pique.
True, religious lobbying of the DoC did result in severe delays in the assignment of a dedicated top-level domain name for pornographic material, .xxx. Further, accusations have been levelled at Icann that (rather unsurprisingly) it favours US business interests and has been slow to move on multilingual top-level domains.
Also in openDemocracy on democracy and cyberspace:
Esther Dyson, Defending ICANN an interview (August 2002)
Solana Larsen, The WSIS: whose freedom, whose information? (December 2003)
James Cowling, The internets future in an aircraft hangar (December 2003)
Bill Thompson, Dump the World wide Web! (December 2004)
But Icann is not watching you, nor is it scanning your correspondence for keywords like democracy. Icann is not partitioning off the bit of the web that tells you the meaning of life, or tomorrow's outcome at the horse races. Just as American liberals are wrong when they opine that ceding control of the internet to an international body would allow repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia and China to cripple the net overnight, so civil society is misguided when it looks to UN control of the internet to bridge the digital divide (and in this respect it might well like to look at the UN-sponsored International Telecommunication Unions record on competitive internet service provision in the developing world)
Throughout its short history, Icann has tried to find ways to control the web beyond the assignment of top-level domains, and Icann has failed. Now it's the UN's turn to fail. Strong feelings about protecting the internet are to be expected wrote Kofi Annan in a tempered Washington Post editorial comment (The U.N. isnt a threat to the net, 5 November 2005), his attempt at calming everyone down. But feelings, no matter how passionately felt and how eloquently debated in Tunis, will not change the internet.
Whether we rent our space in the virtual world from a US-controlled Icann or a UN-controlled Icann, in the end we, the users of the internet, are the ones in control. And the World Summit on the Information Society would better spend its time this week working out how to get the next 5 billion users onto the information superhighway, rather than wasting our time erecting the kind of top-down policy roadblocks that the find it, fix it web has categorically demonstrated it can easily route around. | <urn:uuid:0b30989c-65df-4685-825c-19f48b41eb4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.opendemocracy.net/media-internetgovernance/wsis_3029.jsp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941306 | 1,416 | 1.6875 | 2 |
The recently announced proposed closure of Kingsboro Psychiatric Hospital in Brooklyn, is the latest step by the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) to get out of the business of providing treatment to people with serious mental illness and spurred a massive demonstration in Albany on Thursday. In the last 12 months, OMH announced they are "reducing census"--i.e., kicking the mentally ill out of -- Bronx, Mohawk Valley and Sagmore Psychiatric Center.These came on top of previously announced closings at Rockland Psychiatric Center, Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychiatric Center, Hudson River Psychiatric Center, and Buffalo Psychiatric Center. Unions and families of people with serious mental illness are mad.
New York State Office of Mental Health Commissioner Michael Hogan and Governor Andrew Cuomo say patients will get the same services elsewhere. Some will. Most won't.
The impact of this insane let-em-lose-to-fend-for-themselves policy is cruel to people with mental illness who desperately need and want treatment. But it's also dangerous to the public. According to the Daily News, late last month, "A 25-year-old mentally ill Brooklyn man stabbed his mother and kid brother and beat them with a hammer." Near where Buffalo Psychiatric Center reduced beds, 6,300 homes experienced a blackout when a recently released allegedly mentally ill man used a chain saw to cut down utility poles. Near where Rockland Psychiatric Center reduced beds, police rescued a suicidal mentally ill man who was off medications, barricaded in his home and brandishing a pellet gun. And earlier this month, between where Rockland County Psychiatric Center and Hudson River Psychiatric Center reduced beds police shot and killed allegedly mentally ill Tim Mulqeen who brought a loaded shotgun and 50 rounds of ammunition to a city court.
When will this madness end? New York went from 599 psychiatric beds per 100,000 citizens down to twenty eight. And the new closures take us even lower. OMH is simply transferring the seriously ill to the criminal justice system. New York incarcerated 14,000 people with serious mental illness largely because OMH only has beds for 3,600. There are more mentally ill in a single jail, Riker's Island, than all state hospitals combined. The most conservative estimates are that if New York had the best community services available -- and we don't -- it would still need 4,311 more hospital beds to meet the minimum needs of seriously mentally ill New Yorkers.
A new study on "Homeland Security and Mental Illness" by Chief Michael Biasotti, vice-president of the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police found law enforcement is being overwhelmed by this "policy change that in effect removed the daily care of our nation's severely mentally ill population from the medical community and placed it with the criminal justice system." Families of people with serious mental illness are up in arms. In New York, hospital closures mean you are now more likely to be arrested for having a serious mental illness than hospitalized.
One would think ensuring the seriously mentally ill get treatment would be the core mission of the Office of Mental Health. But it hasn't been ever since Michael Hogan was appointed commissioner. His stated goal is to "create hope filled, humanized environments and relationships in which people can grow" not getting medications to the seriously mentally ill. One can understand what drives his hospital closure policy -- "Hey Gov., look how much money I'm saving!" But it's harder to understand how Cuomo doesn't recognize the impact on people with serious mental illness, public safety, and how Hogan's efforts to save OMH money are costing the criminal justice system and the state much more.
OMH should not be kicking patients out of hospitals. It should be sending its sickest citizens to the front of the line for services, not the rear.
A version of this post was previously published in the New York Daily News.
Follow DJ Jaffe on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MentalIllPolicy | <urn:uuid:444ea666-d761-406c-bec0-2da78bc97619> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dj-jaffe/kingsboro-psychiatric-center-closing_b_1342887.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953346 | 812 | 1.828125 | 2 |
OTTAWA — Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren? Martha Stewart or Donald Trump?
In the world of branding, it turns out that your couch says a lot about you.
If you're all about a palatial Park Avenue room with opulent twists, you probably fancy yourself something like The Donald. If your pad is filled with slick, modern pieces that look like they've stepped out of the pages of Architectural Digest, you're likely also wearing Calvin Klein underwear. And scalloped chair backs in a pretty robin's egg blue? Hello, Martha.
Like it or not, everything from your perfume to the kitchen sink says something about you and where you see yourself in the world, says Howard Pulchin, general manager of consumer marketing practice with Edelman, the world's largest independent public relations firm.
According to Pulchin, that's largely because consumers themselves are demanding more than just a good deal.
"Having a powerful brand is really important things days," he says.
"People used to go looking for value, but now there is a rise of what I call the savvy shopper who also wants high quality. People have increased access to information before they make major purchases. So getting them to identify with a brand is more critical than ever."
Whether it's a store brand, including Loblaws' President's Choice, a designer dress or a locally crafted boutique beer, he says consumers have even more control than ever over what is produced and purchased. "Ten years ago, you didn't have everything at your fingertips in terms of information. That's increased incredibly through the Internet and it puts enormous power in the hands of consumers.
"A company can carefully construct your brand image, but consumers still can take a positive action and buy into it, or a negative action and speak against it. Word of mouth is still the most powerful tool, it has more pull than an ad. Branding hasn't changed, but the environment has changed in terms of how we get information. So the role of the consumer in sustaining a brand has changed. Companies have had to let go of some control and let their intended audience have a role, too."
Overlaying that is the power of personality in branding, particularly evident in furniture styles, says Suanne DeBoer, general manager of DeBoer's Furniture. "Personality is very important. If you get the right brand associated with it, it doesn't matter if they're believable as designers. People, who like these people or the brands they represent or the lifestyle they lead, will just buy it.
"That is particularly true of the Trump Home collection, which features exactly the kind of furniture you'd expect to find in The Donald's New York home atop Fifth Avenue's golden Trump Tower: traditional button-upholstered dark leather couches, luxurious granite-topped sideboards and graciously curved chairs. Even the names are evocative of wealth - the Westchester Cocktail Table, the Bryant Park Dining Table and the King Hastings Panel Bed."
Whether Trump actually designed anything is unlikely, says DeBoer, but "he puts out the message of success and power. Even the Trump pillows have his crest on it. There's something about him as North American royalty that has struck a chord with people. By buying into his brand, you're associating yourself more closely with success; you're making your house look more palatial."
Or maybe you're more Martha. Featuring scalloped chair backs, graceful and warm settees and serpentine lines, Martha Stewart Furniture is "not over the top; it's very creative. It's a fairly eclectic collection in that you wouldn't put matching things together. She wants you to personalize it."
Driving the collection is Stewart's own hands-on approach in marketing and design, which is instantly recognizable for its attention to form, detail and setting. "When you buy her products," says DeBoer, "you are buying into the idea of this nice old house with pasture, horses and a calm, serene lifestyle."
The same is mostly true of Ralph Lauren's horsey brand, although his three lines are also sophisticated and chic. Mahogany and antique brass, polished nickel details and refined Art Deco flourishes sell "the old money lifestyle, the weathered jeans, the Irish Setters and the tweed jacket with the leather elbow patches," observes DeBoer. "People who like his furniture like his fashions. If you buy his clothes, you'd fit into any one of his furniture collections because his style is across the entire brand."
Slick, modern and clean, the Calvin Klein Home furniture is for those who love simple, elegant lines and a look only high-end designer esthetics can deliver, says DeBoer. Although the most expensive of the four - a sofa can cost up to $6,000 - they are "the haute couture of them all. You can't get that from just anyone. His furniture reflects a very strong design ethic. He's selling exclusivity."
Much of that is in the sheer quality of the fabrics, like Belgian wool and the solid construction. Overall, she says, the Calvin Klein brand is just that: something that will last.
"Branding in furniture helps customers express something about themselves," she says.
"It's a way of creating awareness of a product without knowing too much about it.
"When it has a certain brand," she adds, "it creates a level of awareness and trust." | <urn:uuid:fe4b6512-df2a-4c9e-b7c1-b778115a0b4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.househunting.ca/delta-optimist/Condos/power+designer+brands/3969713/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973593 | 1,132 | 1.625 | 2 |
LOS ANGELES — In 1988, Elvy Musikka (pictured, left) became the first woman in the United States to be legally permitted by the federal government to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes, due to a case of Glaucoma that threatened to render her blind.
Armed with a mountain of paperwork, a dedicated doctor and a savvy attorney, she managed to get both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to sign off on her right to access the only medicine that alleviated her symptoms, joining a tiny, exclusive group who have successfully used the legal system to gain access to medical marijuana grown by the feds.
To this day, reform advocates point to the Compassionate Investigational New Drugs program as a glaring hypocrisy. After all: How can the government continue to insist that marijuana has no medicinal value when it is also producing it as a medicine for this select group of patients?
Each and every month, Musikka eligible to receive 300 marijuana cigarettes, grown, rolled, packed and shipped by employees of the U.S. government, as part of a program that officially stopped accepting patients on orders of President George Bush, Sr. in 1992.
And if that sounds incredible to you, well, you’re not the only one. Every so often, Musikka has a run in with police, who’re usually incredulous at her explanation of why she possesses marijuana at virtually all times. That’s exactly what happened in Sept. when Musikka was pulled over by police in Oregon. They did not believe her, but after a few phone calls, police returned her stash and apologized.
“[Over the years] several doctors have said I have to smoke marijuana or I would go blind,” Musikka told Raw Story in an exclusive interview. “Some even gave me recipes for brownies and the like, because they saw that I was not psychologically oriented to smoke marijuana. I was scared to death of it. I believed every lie I have ever heard. And that made it very difficult because I was dealing with problems that I couldn’t solve with the conventional meds.”
But before she could legally use marijuana, Musikka was arrested in 1988 and charged with growing four plants on her property, and could have faced serious jail time.
“When I was arrested, I didn’t hire an attorney: I went straight to the press,” she said. “That is how [my attorney] found me … I didn’t have any money, so he did it totally pro-bono. So, between him and a wonderful doctor and a stack of medical records that would stagger your imagination, and my story, which the public followed faithfully in the media, the judge [sided with me]… That’s how I became the first woman in the United States to receive marijuana legally.”
Due to her unique status as one of just four federal medical marijuana patients still alive today, Elvy has spent the last two decades dedicated to study and activism, traveling the world to share her story and educate people on how she’s benefited from cannabis.
“When I tried it the first time, it was miraculous,” she said. “Long story short, I ate some brownies and went back to my [eye doctor]. My pressures came down from 56 in the right eye and 49 in the left eye, to 12 and 14. Nothing short of a miracle… I never needed the surgeries, as I have proved with my left eye which has actually improved thanks to marijuana.”
Her activism is also what brought Musikka to this year’s Drug Policy Alliance conference in Los Angeles, which she attends every time it’s held.
“I’ve been studying this now for 35 years and I can find no trace of sanity in arresting, criminalizing over 25 million of us over the last 40 years,” she concluded. “[So], I’m joining the occupations. I don’t know where else to take these problems anymore.
“After all my activism, I’ve come to the conclusion that unless you can have an awful lot of money so these people can get elected, even if these people speak about marijuana, we’re not going to get anywhere with any of our issues as long as corporate America owns all of us, especially the seriously ill.”
Raw Story is a progressive news site that focuses on stories often ignored in the mainstream media. While giving coverage to the big stories of the day, we also bring our readers' attention to policy, politics, legal and human rights stories that get ignored in an infotainment culture driven solely by pageviews.
Founded in 2004, Raw Story reaches 5 million unique readers per month and serves more than 19 million pageviews. | <urn:uuid:77f3af05-27f0-4e99-82a3-9d81e6dcb8cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/04/federal-medical-marijuana-patient-cannabis-worked-a-miracle-for-me/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969517 | 1,014 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The ambient noise of common machines and the unexpected sounds that come from familiar objects have been a part of music for some time, but over the last fifteen years French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot has been joining the two, using instruments and objects to construct complex, apparently self-sufficient systems that play music without any beginnings, endings, or performers. Videodrones (2001) isolates and amplifies the hum that all video signals make when hooked into audio systems. From Here to Ear (1999) now showing at the Barbican in London, is an aviary that resonates when its finches alight on electric guitars. In Harmonichaos, which was on view at Paula Cooper Gallery until this weekend, Boursier-Mougenot affixes the grooves of harmonicas to the mouths of vacuum cleaners, and the staggered grid of thirteen pairs produces an undulating, reedy drone.
The set-up of Harmonichaos could only be the product of a playful mind, even though its appearance deflects suggestions of human involvement. Both the vacuums and harmonicas have an assembly-line sameness, and while they perform according to design, their functions have been diverted away from the needs for clean homes and entertaining song that they were intended to meet. As a viewer and listener, you're made to feel like a confused outsider: a system of switches modulates the intensity of the air flow, as well as the sound emanating from the vacuum cleaners, but it's nearly impossible to identify the source of these fluctuations. False clues are sent by a randomized blinking of bulbs on the vacuums' bodies. As usual, Boursier-Mougenot brings a sense of humor to his work, from the irony of the hokey harmonica becoming eerie when forced to drone (like the accordion in the music of Pauline Oliveros) to the punning title. He finds both harmony and chaos in ...
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey upset the purpose of portraiture--rather than preserving the memory of its subject in his best light, the painting of the title grew gradually uglier to record Grey's sins, even as he kept the beauty that facilitated his sinning--but left intact art's status as an attribute of rich, leisured living. The arch moral tale is invoked twice in "Virtuoso Illusion: Cross-Dressing and the New Media Avant-Garde," an exhibition currently on view at MIT's List Visual Arts Center. Michelle Handelman's hour-long, four-channel video Dorian, 2009, loosely retells Wilde's novel with club kids standing in for opium eaters. In her ghoulishly lit self-portrait Dorian Grey, Manon appears messily caked in makeup, wearing a baggy gray suit, like the corporate conscience of a hedonist spirit. Both of these works introduce to drag a story about beauty, representation, and pleasure, and the anxieties that attend them. This suggests there's more to "Virtuoso Illusion" than an exercise in gender studies; as exhibition curator Michael Rush writes, "[i]n each major historical advancement of experimental art, cross dressing has been present as a strategy that has expanded the possibilities of the perception-bending intentions of artists (as opposed to merely gender-bending)."
Google's mission "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" centers around faith in the power of the keyword to unlock its bottomless treasure chest and put the right answer in one window. Years have passed since the company's ranking algorithm outpaced the approach of human navigators filing information into channels -- an approach that Yahoo has been trying to keep alive by farming the digital labor to users themselves. But even as search algorithms make dinosaurs of the Dewey decimal and other brain-powered systems, it might be worth considering the benefits of staying open to a plurality of variously scaled methods.
These issues converge in Danny Snelson's work as a writer, editor, and archivist. His titles increasingly overlap in the internet's library without walls--an environment that often embodies the Foucauldian idea that "one never archives without editorial frames and 'writerly' narratives (or designs)," as Snelson put it in an email. As an archivist, he has made substantial efforts to preserve endangered cultural artifacts -- making them universally accessible and useful, you might say -- on behalf of PennSound, an audio archive specializing in recorded poetry, and UbuWeb, where, at the suggestion of founder Kenneth Goldsmith, he scanned out-of-print titles and reformatted them as PDFs for free distribution via the site's /ubu channel. The PennSounds and UbuWebs of the internet undertake preservation projects that small presses and recording labels can't touch due to financial reasons, thus ensuring that experimental work will continue to reach audiences in years to come. Distribution networks like these matter in an environment where the internet (for those without access to academic libraries, at least) is often the first and last stop for research -- a realization that impelled Goldsmith to formulate a radical ontology in the title of his 2005 essay, "If it doesn't exist on the internet, it doesn't exist."
Brian Droitcour is a writer, curator, and Russian-to-English translator. From 2002 to 2007 he lived in Moscow, where he covered art for The Moscow Times and Artchronika, a Russian monthly magazine. In 2008 he moved to New York, where he started working for Rhizome, first as curatorial fellow, then as staff writer. As a translator he's worked on several exhibition catalogues and art anthologies.
Jon Rafman's Google Street Views and the accompanying essay he wrote for Art Fag City's IMG MGMT series are sure to get several well-deserved mentions in end-of-the-year lists. Tom Moody on Google Street Views: "Jon Rafman's gathering of images from Google Street Views isn't really collecting at all but solid, groundbreaking journalism. Obviously untold hours were spent perusing this recent-but-everyday tool for images in very specific, focused categories. Photos that look like art photos, photos of mishaps, photos showing the success and failure of Google's face-blurring software, photos that show class issues in a supposedly 'universal' product (the down and out are more likely to be photographed unsympathetically than the up and in). As much as one hates to see more attention paid to the monopoly that aspires to put the happy face on Big Brother, this is worthwhile, thoughtful research." Kool-Aid Man in Second Life is a distorted twin to Google Street Views, another set of screen captures singling out accidental beauty and quirks of surveillance, only this time in a fantasy world that lets Rafman personify his searching gaze in a pitcher of fruit drink.
кремль.рф (kremlin.rf) won't go live until early next year, but the Russian presidential administration's new Cyrillic URL already made waves last month, when Russia became the first country to register top-level ...
The stage at St. Petersburg's Sergey Kuryokhin Modern Art Center was set for a blast of live electronic music, with seating for ten performers, each station equipped with samplers, laptops, and electric guitars. As the audience arrived the musicians tinkered with the controls; one stood near a huge glass jug, adjusting wires submerged in its murky liquid. But when the appointed time for the concert's start arrived, the performers retreated to the wings, and recorded music came up and continued for the next twenty minutes. It seemed almost like a wry comment on the detachment of the physical presence of the performer from the source of sound in electronic music. But in fact it was an unannounced presentation of past issues of Tellus, the 1980s journal of experimental sound produced by Harvestworks, selected by director Carol Parkinson. As it faded, the musicians took their places, at last, to perform Third Eye Orchestra, a piece written and conducted by Hans Tammen. It was a controlled improvisation, where Tammen lifted numbered cards indicating which of the score's instructions should be read at that moment. The musicians, all local recruits, visibly relished both the spontaneity and the monstrously loud sound that only an ensemble of many amplified electronic instruments can produce.
The Harvestworks evening was part of the program of the third edition of Cyberfest, an annual festival conceived and organized by Anna Frants, a New York-based artist and gallerist, Marina Koldobskaya, director of the St. Petersburg branch of Russia's National Center for Contemporary Art. | <urn:uuid:52603578-6229-4e1f-a3c0-5fc1ffbb7127> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rhizome.org/profiles/briandroitcour/?page=1&posts=8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953214 | 1,791 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The city of Acapulco also brought in roughly half a million tourists last year. Most of them were Mexicans, including residents from the capital and Cuernavaca who flocked to beaches a four-hour drive away.
But the U.S. State Department said resort city bars, including those in Acapulco, can be "havens for drug dealers and petty criminals."
The agency said "resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region and in areas along major trafficking routes."
Spain's Foreign Ministry also advised travelers that "while foreign tourists rarely are victims of kidnapping or extortion, they can be victims of assaults and robberies."
It said Guerrero "should especially be avoided," or travelers should proceed with "extreme caution."
An estimated 107,000 Spaniards live in Mexico. They reside mostly in the capital. | <urn:uuid:8a9572da-14be-417d-8e5e-8c8ed887fb7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wyff4.com/news/national/Gunmen-rape-6-tourists-near-Acapulco/-/9324256/18413828/-/item/2/-/v0y25y/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9555 | 187 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Getting His Message Out by Hook or by Crook
October 16, 2009
No one will ever mistake Dwyane Lawson-Brown for just another AIDS educator. He is the after-school coordinator for Metro TeenAIDS in Washington, D.C., yes, but there is also his dreadlocks and after-hours careers in break-dancing and poetry reading.
And then there is the hobby that consumes him, his self-proclaimed "side hustle," crocheting. It is not his only way of connecting with inner-city teens and others with his AIDS prevention message, but it is definitely his most disarming. The hobby helps put at ease people who might be frightened by, as he puts it, "a black man with dreadlocks." "Really, how hard are you? You're crocheting," he explained.
Lawson-Brown can turn out a scarf in a few days of commuting on Washington's Metro. Hats and bowties are in his repertoire as well. But reaching the city's youth is his passion. He started with Metro TeenAIDS ten years ago as a volunteer peer educator, and now nurtures the next generation of teens to carry on the AIDS prevention fight. He has a cadre of peer educators who urge teens to get screened for HIV, use condoms, and think about their futures.
"They remind me of me," Lawson-Brown says.
With the District having some of the highest HIV infection rates in the nation, "I'm starting to realize that some people think it's not their issue," Lawson-Brown said. "That it's only gay people or young people. Everybody puts it off their plate."
10.12.2009; John Kelly
This article was provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a part of the publication CDC HIV/Hepatitis/STD/TB Prevention News Update. Visit the CDC's website to find out more about their activities, publications and services. | <urn:uuid:78d3208d-709a-495f-9c69-3ac745483c34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebody.com/content/art54090.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981408 | 404 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Since media is such a big part of our lives, it is important to look at what your daughter sees in the media. And it's even more important to influence her life by surrounding her (as often as you can) with strong female role models - in the media AND in real life.
In addition - TALK about female roles in the media. TALK about what real women do, what they look like, and how they take care of themselves.
Here's a list of movies from 2012 that featured strong female roles, from womensenews.org. Look at the ratings on these movies; some are for kids and others are more adult.
AND - for you adult women, keep your eye out for Eve Ensler's new play, Emotional Creature. It promises to be provocative and important as it addresses issues girls face as they grow up. The play is in New York right now; I hope it does a long cross-country tour. You may have seen Eve's Vagina Monologues; if so, you know she's not afraid to tackle uncomfortable issues - with wit and with wisdom. Read this article about the play and if you have a chance to see it let me know what you think! | <urn:uuid:42afeca8-b42d-42f7-8fd7-a98b719ffc96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fab2bfem.com/blog/tags/media/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97528 | 249 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Education opens doors for alumna Carol Dugan
Photo of Indiana Tech Alum, Carol Dugan
Ambition and education have opened new opportunities in the career of alumna Carol Dugan. While serving as administrative coordinator and assistant to a general manager at Citizens Energy Group, one day Carol noticed the Indiana Tech sign on the side of the Indianapolis Pyramids campus. She went to the website to explore, and she liked what she learned about Indiana Tech. Her employer offered educational assistance, so she decided to take advantage and enroll in classes.
Less than four years later, Carol had completed the requirements to earn her bachelor’s degree. “It was a wonderful experience. In fact, I loved Indiana Tech so much I decided to continue with my Master’s degree!” Carol shared. And the MSOL program delivered just what she needed.
Because of her demonstrated ambition and desire to learn through her classes at Indiana Tech, Carol was selected to participate in two major company initiatives. She proved herself to be a valued contributor to these important projects. Carol stated, “I’ve been able to meld my work experiences with my learning which made me more successful in both areas.”
Currently, Carol is excited to be working in a new department where she has used her education to develop efficient work processes. Another important aspect of her job is communicating effectively with various departments while coordinating tasks and activities to meet schedules. In addition, she has been selected to participate in smaller teams within the organization where she continues to use her education as a means to successfully support the company.
Carol really enjoys collaborating between groups to more effectively accomplish common goals. “It requires the purposeful practice of leadership and communication skills,” Carol said. “I have also found myself applying some of the project management skills that I learned from my Indiana Tech courses.”
Carol encourages others to seek ways to achieve academic ambitions even when it may seem that their current position at work won’t allow for career advancement. “Others in the organization may recognize your desire to improve yourself,” she stated. “And it could provide opportunities that you might not have considered or even knew existed.” Carol’s own journey is proof that taking the steps available to grow personally through education can open new doors of opportunity.
Another area of excitement for Carol is that she is currently hosting a German, high school exchange student for the 2012-2013 school year. “We’re having a great time getting to know each other, and I get to experience our country through her eyes as she learns what it’s like to live here,” Carol commented. The student will be in the United States living with Carol until June, 2013.
Also, Carol was recently the guest speaker at our alumni networking breakfast in Indianapolis. If you would like to share your story or help host a regional networking breakfast, please contact Mike Peterson, director of alumni relations, at 260-399-2847 or [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:9ba79f7e-56cb-479e-a750-3d52f282417d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indianatech.edu/alumni/stories/Pages/082012-Dugan.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97087 | 627 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Binghamton, NY (WBNG Binghamton) Many people spend their Thanksgiving giving back to the community.
Volunteers by the dozens join Meals on Wheels of Broome County to deliver meals this holiday.
Meals on Wheels delivered around 150 Thanksgiving lunches and dinners to clients all over the County.
Veteran volunteers and a few new ones joined at their location on Walnut Street. They waited for the truck to pull up and then loaded boxes into their cars to drop them off to seniors in Broome County.
"I do it twice a week for seven months, October to May. I've been doing it for 18 years," said Arden Young, Binghamton, "It's an enjoyable job. That's why I keep coming back. When I go home to my Thanksgiving, I feel I've done something."
"They make my day. You get so much more out of it than you ever give," said Mary Jane Westbrook of Binghamton. Westbrook has been volunteering for six years.
"I do it just to give back to the community. It's a great program," said Art Lester, a volunteer for 14 years from Binghamton, "I've been doing it long enough so I know the routes and most of the people."
There were 18 routes on Thanksgiving Day. Meals on Wheels of Broome County delivers in Binghamton, Chenango Bridge, Conklin, Kirkwood, Harpursville, Windsor, and Whitney Point.
The Meals on Wheels program is ran through the Broome County Office for Aging. You can contact them at (607) 778- 6205
People living in Endicott, Endwell, Johnson City, Vestal or Maine can contact Meals on Wheels of Western Broome at (607) 754-7856
You are eligible for Meals on Wheels if all of the following apply:
1.You are age 60 or older and live in Broome County; and
2.You are incapacitated due to accident, illness, or frailty; and
3.You are unable to prepare meals for yourself; and
4.You have no one available on a regular basis to prepare meals for you.
Eligibility for Meals on Wheels will be determined by trained, professional staff who will visit you at your home. Reassessment for eligibility will occur yearly or more frequently if needed.
Each weekday Meals on Wheels clients receive a hot meal for lunch and cold food items for dinner. | <urn:uuid:a333648a-6393-48c2-a0e0-7aa0e6d43c8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wbng.com/news/video/Delivering-Meals-and-Smiles-180529101.html?vid=a | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961328 | 517 | 1.523438 | 2 |
DNR to Host Oct 15 Meeting on Chronic Wasting Disease for David and Wapello County Landowners
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is holding a meeting for landowners in Davis and Wapello counties to discuss chronic wasting disease and its plan to collect additional samples for testing during the upcoming deer hunting season.
The meeting is Oct. 15, at 6:30 p.m., at the UFCW Local 230, 1301 East Mary Street, in Ottumwa. The DNR will give an overview of chronic wasting disease, present its statewide testing plan for the 2012 deer hunting season, and discuss proper sampling procedures and protocols.
Chronic wasting disease was confirmed in a Davis County hunting preserve earlier this summer.
“We hope to have as many Davis and Wapello County landowners attend as possible as they will be a vital component to our overall CWD containment plan,” said Dr. Dale Garner, chief of the Iowa DNR’s Wildlife Bureau.
“We need to collect additional samples in the county and in the area surrounding the facility to ascertain if anything is happening in the wild deer herd,” Garner said.
The majority of samples are collected during the shotgun deer seasons from hunters and the lockers where deer are processed.
Iowa has tested 42,557 wild deer and more than 4,000 captive deer and elk as part of the surveillance program since 2002 when CWD was found in Wisconsin. | <urn:uuid:78873e11-c85f-4913-88ac-cd2fd2b40e2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iowadnr.gov/destinations/ctl/detail/mid/2810/itemid/1019 | 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 | 0.955634 | 294 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Amtrak released a new plan Monday that outlines its vision for the future of the Northeast Corridor rail network.
The infrastructure improvements in “The Amtrak Vision for the Northeast Corridor: 2012 Update Report” include building a third track for a four-mile stretch in Groton between Palmer’s Cove in Noank and the Thames River bridge. The vision also calls for replacing the rail bridge over the Connecticut River.
The $151 billion proposal is the result of Amtrak combining and updating its previous reports on the plans for next generation high-speed rail service for the corridor and improvements to current infrastructure.
Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm said having two plans previously “sort of missed the point” since the corridor is a single entity and Amtrak needs to both improve existing services and develop and implement the high-speed rail service.
While neither project is funded yet, Amtrak’s goal is to have both completed by 2025. The third track would allow more trains to pass through the area and the bridge is nearing the end of its useful life, Kulm said.
Amtrak is also seeking to add 40 additional passenger cars to the Acela Express trains to increase seating capacity by 2015.
The cost of the plan does not include the $140 million bridge Amtrak is currently building across the Niantic River between East Lyme and Waterford because that project is already funded, Kulm said.
The new track, stations and systems between New York City and Boston are the last phase of the project and are scheduled to be operational in 2040. In Connecticut, stations are planned for Danbury, Waterbury and Hartford, Kulm said.
About 2,100 passenger and 50 freight trains travel through the Northeast Corridor daily.
“The region is too important to basically come to a standstill if we don’t grow the transportation system,” Kulm added. “This is how we believe the rail piece of this can and should grow for the future.”
To view the full report, visit http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am%2FLayout&p=1237608345018&cid=1241245669222. | <urn:uuid:836655f4-7f69-4a79-b6d4-3a20c6ca14f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theday.com/article/20120709/NWS01/120709789/-1/NWS | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947294 | 460 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Join us as we progress on an education revolution!
3D GameLab, a quest-based online learning platform re-opens our closed beta on August 1st, as we kick off with a 3 week synchronous online summer camp for teachers and instructional designers, providing you the tools and the training to turn your class into a living game, or just a very cool place to learn! After it’s over, you’ll have a teacher dashboard and can invite up to 60 students to play their way through the curriculum! You choose which quest strands and synchronous events you’d like to participate in (any or all), fully facilitated by our Guild Officers:
Minecraft in Schools: Lucas Gillispie
21st Century Tech Integration: Mark Suter
Mobile Learning In and Out of the Classroom: Liz Kolb
Making Machinima and/or Alternate Reality Games: Kae Novak | <urn:uuid:bc9be872-ff8b-48f6-8063-21b451eeaea5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gogolabs.net/3d-gamelab-august-online-teacher-camp-2012/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937498 | 186 | 1.601563 | 2 |
December 20, 2012
The U.S. Navy’s next-generation destroyer — the DDG-1000 USS Zumwalt — took a major step closer to becoming a proper ship this month when the composite deckhouse was mated to the hull.
The Navy touts the vessel as the technological future for the service. It features not only the unique deckhouse but also a new destroyer design and propulsion system.
Tailored for sustained operations in the littorals and land attack, the multimission destroyer will provide independent forward presence and deterrence, support special operations forces, and operate as an integral part of joint and combined expeditionary forces, according to the Navy.
Fabricated by Huntington Ingalls Industries in Gulfport, Miss., the 1,000-ton deckhouse was transported to Bath, Maine for integration with the ship’s hull, which is under construction at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works.
The deckhouse is built from steel and composite materials and measures 155 ft. long and more than 60 ft. high, housing the ship’s bridge, radars, antennas and intake and exhaust systems.
“This is a major milestone for the program as this ship construction progresses,” says Capt. Jim Downey, DDG-1000 class program manager at Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships. “The successful integration of the deckhouse and hull is a testament to the tremendous design and planning efforts that were instrumental to this program.”
With the successful lift and integration of the deckhouse, nine of nine ship “ultra units” are now on land level at BIW.
“The industry/government team meticulously planned the 100-ft. static lift of the deckhouse and translation of the 610-ft. hull into position under the deckhouse,” Downey says. “The deckhouse was then lowered into position and the resulting ship moved back into the construction position on the land level facility.”
Construction on DDG-1000 began in February 2009 and is currently 80% complete, with ship launch and christening planned for 2013. The ship is scheduled for delivery in 2014 with an initial operating capability in 2016. | <urn:uuid:baa6ed0b-b5cf-4058-8fef-2f99184b99f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_12_20_2012_p04-02-530812.xml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947462 | 453 | 1.742188 | 2 |
House intel chair: U.S. TV ad in Pakistan a 'horrible idea'
Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said, “I think it was a horrible idea. It gave credibility and it gave a permission slip to al-Qaida, to Pakistani officials.” He added that, “I don’t know who gave them the advice. It was horrible advice. It has exacerbated the situation.”
The ad featured both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denouncing the film, made by a U.S. filmmaker and called “The Innocence of Muslims.” The State Department paid $70,000 to seven Pakistani stations to run the ad.
Last week, the administration described the attack on U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens as an act of terrorism, but insisted that the attack had not been preplanned. The administration's account differs from some Republicans in Congress, who characterize the attack as both deliberate and planned.
Rogers said that he sat in on briefings from the administration on the matter, and that “not a lot came out of it,” but noted that, “It seemed that they doubled down. They doubled down. I think they thought they were boxed in a corner, and they had to double down on their information. It was -- it was a little confusing to me. I didn't understand why they chose to do that.” | <urn:uuid:ce89bc74-51ce-4e70-b476-ebf1e09a7168> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.govexec.com/defense/2012/09/house-intel-chair-us-tv-ad-pakistan-horrible-idea/58300/?oref=dropdown | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990045 | 308 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Our guest blogger is Brian Katulis, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Eight years after the September 11th attacks, we have an opportunity to reflect on that tragic day and the lives that were lost in the attacks. It’s also a time to think about where we stand on national security and what threats the terror networks that attacked us eight years ago pose today and how we can best address them.
And I have to say that I’ve seen some worrisome signs in how we’re debating Afghanistan these days that maybe we haven’t learned to move beyond the raw emotionalism and simplistic debates to assess what the stakes are and how we as a country can most effectively keep our country safe.
It struck me in some of the reactions I got to this brief appearance I had on NPR’s “Morning Edition” this week, in which I reiterated a lot of the points I made with Hardin Lang in this article for Foreign Policy.com.
One Hill staffer, who shall remain nameless, wrote: “Aren’t we in or out?” That question was perhaps the stupidest question I have seen in a long time on Afghanistan, and it comes from an intelligent, informed person.
The reaction reminded me of one important point I took away from the Iraq debates of 2005-2008. One sign that the wheels are really coming off for a particular national security policy question is when the wise women and men of national security start discussing a particular question in terms one would use at a pep rally for football game. When you start seeing a certain set of terms on your op-ed pages like “win,” “lose,” ‘victory,” or “defeat” in talking about conflicts like Afghanistan, you know pretty much that the person has crossed the line from doing policy analysis to policy advocacy.
When you see people debating things like whether Afghanistan is a “war of choice” versus a “war of necessity,” you know that we’re for the most part just dabbling in rhetoric and not engaging in a clear argument that defines what it is that we are trying to do, whether we have the means to achieve those goals, and at what cost.
Somehow editors of many leading newspapers have allowed analysts to avoid defining clear policy objectives for Afghanistan and arguments that make the case for employing available resources to achieve those objectives.
Afghanistan is not a football game, and policy analysts and public servants should avoid the “rah-rah” pep rally approach to debating national security. The current debate, to the extent that we’ve even had one, leaves the impression that it’s either full blown nation-building counterinsurgency in Afghanistan with the maximum number of troops or get them all out.
The range of policy options in Afghanistan is much broader than that –- and the variables are much more numerous than the number of troops the United States has on the ground, such as:
- What is the current nature of the threats posed by terror networks from Afghanistan? What are the most effective and efficient means to address those threats?
- How do Afghan leaders gain legitimacy and power to govern? What are ways Afghan leaders can work to settle their differences on sharing power – both the Afghan actors that participated in the political processes like elections and the actors that reject those processes and seek to exert influence by other means (like the Taliban)?
- What are the most effective ways to enhance the capacity and willingness of Afghan leaders and institutions to govern justly and effectively? What is the capacity of the U.S. and other actors from outside Afghanistan to achieve tangible gains in Afghanistan, and at what cost?
- How much should the United States versus other actors around the world shoulder the burden in Afghanistan? Why isn’t Afghanistan viewed by more countries as a global security challenge, as opposed to just a national security issue for the United States and some other countries? (A few months ago, for example, I asked the question – where is the Muslim world on Afghanistan in this piece)
That’s just a start at some of the questions, but it’s rare to find discussions in the op-ed pages of the leading newspapers. Les Gelb did a few months ago in the New York Times, and Chuck Hagel’s recent piece raised important points, and Nicholas Kristof did a fine job this past weekend, but the main debate as thus far centered on the important, but not the only question, of U.S. troop levels.
At this point in Afghanistan policy, my view is that it would be extremely unwise -– actually foolish -– to send more troops or money without a stronger commitment from Afghan partners to fight the narco-trafficking that fuels the insurgency and deal with the corruption that makes Transparency International give Afghanistan such a poor ranking, among other problems.
I don’t think it’s such a radical position -– we need Afghan partners with the same sorts of commitment to the objectives –- if we are going to have any hope of achieving progress in Afghanistan. And it would be unwise for us at this stage to send more U.S. taxpayer money and troops without Afghan leaders making a stronger commitment to us. Given what I heard from Stuart Bowen and General Arnold Fields, the special inspectors general for Iraq and Afghanistan respectively, in this panel I moderated here at the Center this spring, I have serious concerns about our government’s capacity to use these resources wisely in Afghanistan, even before we consider the problems associated with possible partners in Afghanistan who might not have the same commitment.
But the reaction I got from some people to what I thought was a sensible proposition – that we need partners in Afghanistan as committed to the sorts of things we want to achieve – if we’re going to have any hope of seeing our investments achieve progress.
As the Obama administration moves towards making its next decisions on Afghanistan, here’s a plea: let’s move beyond the cheerleading pep rally sort of debate that we’ve seen in the op-ed pages and media, a debate that barely rise above the ‘less filling/tastes great” dialectic seen in this classic commercial. | <urn:uuid:e825101b-7631-4c62-ab30-98bb7edbdf32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thinkprogress.org/security/2009/09/11/175637/911-time-to-remember-and-to-reflect-on-where-we-stand-on-national-security/?mobile=nc | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952822 | 1,302 | 1.796875 | 2 |
An indelible portrait of a woman who through great toughness of character blazes her own trailAn uncommonly beautiful, haunting book. The writing is like prose poetry, ethereal and earthy at the same time . . . Henderson has managed to create one of the most arresting female literary characters in quite some time. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Novelist William Haywod Henderson has won acclaim for his depictions of land and nature and his ability to bring the American West to vivid life. Of his most recent novel, The Rest of the Earth, Annie Proulx remarked that Henderson writes some of the most evocative and transcendently beautiful prose in contemporary American literature. Redolent with myth, humor, strange landscapes, and stark reality, Hendersons new novel tells the story of Augusta Locke, a troubled yet spirited woman, as she raises her daughter in the deserts of Wyoming. Spanning the twentieth century, Augustas extraordinary challenges play out themes of love and loss, home and family, redemption and reconciliation.
Colorful and memorable . . . Henderson creates a world that is both epic and universal and, perhaps above all, eminently readable. (Rocky Mountain News)
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Please alert me via email when: | <urn:uuid:049e156f-db83-4bb8-a347-c998bd1c0f38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780143038290,00.html?sym=REV | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939448 | 272 | 1.570313 | 2 |
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