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In August of 2010, the Martin County Traffic Division contacted Solar Electric Power Company (SEPCO) requesting a solution for a particular lighting application. In the recent past, the county had constructed a traffic circle on Salerno Road at the entrance to Indian River State College. The Traffic Division was worried that the newly constructed traffic circle would present an unexpected obstacle for nighttime drivers. There was virtually no lighting on the stretch of road involved; and there had never been any traffic lights, stop signs, or other traffic control devices present at that point on Salerno Road. A nighttime driver, who had not recently been on the same road during the daytime, could easily be unaware and crash into the traffic circle.
This page was originally made for the UK Big Brother TV series but I probably will not see many of those programs. "Big Brother is watching you" has always been a popular saying thanks to Orson Wells so I decided to elaborate on this theme. As a boy the idea that cameras would continually monitor you seemed like science fiction but as I grew older this science fiction became reality and CCTV cameras have sprung up everywhere, especially in the UK. Of course they are very handy and can capture images of criminals at work, people committing offences but do you sometimes wonder if all this information is being collected into a big database and that someone somewhere has this massive dossier on all your activities. How are you going to use these animations? Your guess is as good as mine but have fun in doing so Every day and in almost everything we do a CCTV camera will be peering at us from some obscure location or a concealed microphone may be listening. How can we be sure that the television in the corner of the living room is not watching us and sending video back to Big Brother and adding all information to a massive data base hidden in a Government research centre somewhere. Put these animations on your blogs and web sites and let people know.
Will chicken pox vaccine stop shingles? Published 7:43 pm, Tuesday, February 5, 2013 For the first time in history, a generation is growing up vaccinated against chicken pox - a childhood disease that more than 90 percent of Americans have had. But what does the vaccine mean for shingles, the disease caused by the same virus? The answer, doctors say, isn't clear, and it won't be for about 40 years, when the first of the vaccinated generation reach middle age. Shingles usually hits adults over 50, causing a rash and pain that can last for weeks or months. It occurs when the varicella virus reactivates. The virus can lie dormant in the body's nerves for years, but can spring into action when an aging adult's immune system proves too weak to fight it off. Shingles strikes more than 1 million Americans annually. The chicken pox vaccine, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1995, involves injecting children with a live but weakened varicella virus. The body can safely fight it off, producing chicken pox immunity. Dr. Ann Arvin, professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases at Stanford, says doctors aren't yet sure whether this weakened virus will produce shingles immunity, too, or whether it is strong enough to cause shingles years later. In the meantime, she offers advice to adults over 50 who fear shingles' wrath: Get the shingles vaccine. Zostavax, which is also created from a weakened form of varicella, boosts adults' ability to fight the existing virus if it reactivates. The FDA approved the vaccine for people 50 and over in 2011, after a study of 22,000 people showed that people who had the vaccine were 70 percent less likely to get shingles within a year than people who received a placebo. The vaccine's protection lasts at least six years, and research is under way to determine if it lasts longer. (Source: 1.usa.gov/dKiyWp)
Israel warns Syria on chemical weapons Updated 11:12 pm, Sunday, January 27, 2013 Israel could launch a pre-emptive strike to stop Syria's chemical weapons from reaching Lebanon's Hezbollah or al Qaeda inspired groups, officials said Sunday. The warning came as the military moved a rocket defense system to the northern city of Haifa, and Israel's premier warned of dangers from both Syria and Iran. Israel has long expressed concerns that Syrian President Bashar Assad, clinging to power during a 22-month civil war, could lose control over his chemical weapons. Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom said Sunday that Israel's top security officials held a special meeting last week to discuss Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. Shalom told the Army Radio station that the transfer of weapons to violent groups, particularly the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah, would be a game changer. "It would be crossing a line that would demand a different approach, including even action," he said. Asked whether this might mean a pre-emptive attack, he said: "We will have to make the decisions." Israel has kept out of the civil war that has engulfed Syria and killed more than 60,000 people, but it is concerned that violence could spill over from its northern border into Israel. Israel deployed its Iron Dome rocket defense system in Haifa on Sunday. The city was battered by Hezbollah rocket fire during a war in the summer of 2006. Yisrael Hasson, a lawmaker and former deputy head of Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency, said Israel was closely following developments in Syria to make sure chemical weapons don't "fall into the wrong hands." "Syria has a massive amount of chemical weapons, and if they fall into hands even more extreme than Syria like Hezbollah or global jihad groups it would completely transform the map of threats," Hasson told Army Radio. "Global jihad" is the term Israel uses for forces influenced by al Qaeda. Syria's rebels include al Qaeda-allied groups. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to threats from Syria and Iran at a Cabinet meeting Sunday. Iran is Syria's main regional ally. "We must look around us, at what is happening in Iran and its proxies and at what is happening in other areas, with the deadly weapons in Syria, which is increasingly coming apart," he said.
Soka Gakkai International Buddhism in Action for Peace History & Philosophy Stories and reflections on the Buddhist approach to life Updates and reports from around the world Humanity today lacks hope and vision for the future. It is for precisely this reason that the Bodhisattvas of the Earth have appeared. Without your presence, the future of humanity would be bleak and spiritual decline its destination. That is why you have been born in this age and are now playing an active role in society. This is the meaning of jiyu, or "emerging from the earth." Consequently, each of you will definitely become happy. Please be confident that you will lead lives overflowing with good fortune throughout the three existences of past, present and future. [Selected from published guidance]
- About Us - How We Help - News & Media - Get Involved - Donate Now As a Genetic Counselor, part of my job is to construct family trees with information about medical history, ages of onset of various conditions, etc. of family members going back several generations. It’s amazing how many people don’t know what Grandma Leah died of, how old sister Sarah was when she was diagnosed with cancer, what caused the death of cousin Jacob at age 7, how many children aunt Millie had, and so on. Why is this important? You ask. It’s important because your family history gives the best idea of whether a condition, such as breast cancer, may be inherited or is simply the result of sporadic, individual factors, which is the case in 90-95% of breast cancers. If it seems to be inherited, then genetic testing may be helpful. If it’s sporadic, genetic testing may be a waste of time plus a lot of money. So, here’s a plan. In just about every family, there’s a “family historian”, someone who knows all about everyone. If you sit down with her or him, you’ll probably get an earful and learn things you never knew, but along with the tidbits and the gossip, you’ll learn the useful, and sometimes surprising, information that can be important when you try to gauge whether there is a genetic susceptibility in your family. What have you learned about your family that you never knew? How did it help you? © 2016 Sharsheret: Your Jewish Community Facing Breast Cancer Sharsheret is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization ID# 13-4198529 Designed by Firefly Partners
Piano - SMP Level 7 (Late Intermediate) 11 of the Most Popular Praise and Worship Songs Masterfully Arranged for Solo Piano. Arranged by Mark Hayes. Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental; Worship Resources. Alfred's Sacred Performer Collections. Christian, Worship and Gospel. Collection. With chord names and lyrics. 60 pages. Published by Alfred Music (AP.25654). Item Number: AP.25654 ISBN 0739041258. 9x12 inches. This title has selections that range in difficulty from SMP Level 6-7. About SMP Level 7 (Late Intermediate) 4 to 5-note chords in both hands and scales in octaves in both hands.
If you've been using your parent's avocado-colored washing machine for the last 20 years, chances are you won't see an Energy Star seal within a 10-foot radius of the thing. It's going to cost a little money up front, but when you replace old washers and dryers with Energy Star appliances, you can reduce water usage by up to 50 percent while also reducing electricity and natural gas. According to Energy Star, if every American purchasing a washer this year chose an Energy Star appliance, the country would save 790 million kilowatts of electricity, 32 billion gallons of water and 2 trillion BTUs of natural gas. That's a lot of energy savings! Whether you have an Energy Star appliance or not, you need to take steps to conserve energy when doing your laundry. Simple changes, such as waiting until you have a full load before running the washer and washing clothing in cold water, can really pay off. Energy Star points out that 90 percent of the energy it takes to run the washing machine comes from heating the water. If you cringe a little at washing your duds in cold suds, pick up a laundry detergent such as Tide Coldwater to do the dirty work. Tide Coldwater gives you a brilliant clean at lower temperatures. Dryers are certainly convenient, but people got by without them for a long, long time. Ask yourself if you have what it takes to ditch the dryer altogether and dry your clothes on a drying rack or clothesline. You'll save energy and money, and your clothes will retain their color and feel softer for longer. Admittedly, doing away with the dryer isn't doable for everyone. If you just can't part ways, make over your routine with the following tips: If you're one of the 32 million Americans who live in apartment complexes, use the common-area laundry room whenever possible. According to Laundrywise, in-unit laundry washers use an average of 11,810 gallons of water each year, while common-area laundry rooms use an average of 3,595 gallons annually per apartment. Electricity and gas savings are also approximately five times higher when common-area laundry rooms are used. This is primarily because people do larger, more efficient loads in common-area laundry rooms than they do when using an in-unit machine. And you'll see personalized content just for you whenever you click the My Feed . SheKnows is making some changes!
Analysis: What's Up With the Epigraph? Epigraphs are like little appetizers to the great entrée of a story. They illuminate important aspects of the story, and they get us headed in the right direction. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light! – Dylan Thomas Like warm chocolate lava cake, Cat's epigraph is so rich and delicious, we almost want to ask for the check and call it a night. And that's before the curtain rises! Tennessee Williams employs Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' poem, "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" as the epigraph, or appetizer if you will, to Cat. He chooses the final stanza of this villanelle (see definition below), written in 1951, to set the tone for what's to come. In the first two lines, the speaker begs his dying father to either curse or bless him before leaving this earth. He uses the final two lines of the poem entreat his father to fight death at all costs. Actually, the last two lines implore his father to RAGE. Hardcore. The speaker wants his father to live life to the fullest until the very last moment. In Cat we see a father fighting against death and giving neither curse nor blessing to his son before disappearing from the play completely. Or so we think. You may disagree with us. The command, "rage, rage," is reminiscent of the naked Shakespearian King Lear, who wanders the heath (read: tundra) in the middle of a storm and commands the elements to "rage! blow!" When he says these words, Lear has been driven mad by the cruelty of his daughters who have turned against him after he's given them all of his riches. Cat commences with this royal ghost's words bellowing in our ears and the play tells the story of progeny laying claim to a dying father's riches. Lear's storm and Thomas' raging plea become the soundtrack for the play, and we know it to be a play about fighting death, even before we begin. Oh, and also, villanelles are pretty honkin' cool. A villanelle is a form of poetry in which there are only two rhyming sounds. "Booooring," you might say. Au contraire, we reply. Because of these forced and limited repetitions, a villanelle often possesses a cyclical motion that mirrors the guts or content of the poem. "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" is about fighting death and the poem itself seems to fight its own ending by continuing to repeat itself.
Mrs. Tess Hutchinson stands out right from the start: she arrives at the lottery late, having "clean forgot what day it was" (8). The town treats her tardiness lightly, but several people comment on it, "in voices just loud enough to be heard across the crowd" (9). So Tess Hutchinson has already been marked by the collective as one who's not entirely part of the group; she's eager (maybe even too eager, for an adult) to be at the lottery, but she's not so big on observing the rules that the lottery (and tradition in general) seems to be all about reinforcing. Obviously, this refusal to adhere to the rules gets kind of thematized with her constant objections once Bill Hutchinson draws the marked strip of paper: she protests that Bill "didn't [have] time enough to take any paper he wanted" (46) and that it "wasn't fair" (this one she repeats a lot). Beyond her rule breaking, there are further ways that Tess stands out. She seems really quite eager to join in the lottery. The narrator notes that "[the men] stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed" (3). Compare this relative solemnity (and promptness) with Tess Hutchinson, who "[comes] hurriedly along the path to the square" (8) and is reassured that she's "in time, though" (8). The other women wait and observe when their husbands draw; Tess says, "Get up there, Bill" (30). The people near her laugh, making her stand out once again. Tess's eagerness to see the lottery through is only paralleled by her desperation to get out of it once it turns out to be her turn. She goes so far as to try to substitute her daughter and son-in-law for herself, yelling, "There's Don and Eva [...] Make them take their chance!" Her extreme moral compromise, as she tries to offer up her daughter for the slaughter instead of herself, underlines that this ritual has nothing to do with virtuous martyrdom; Tess is no saint. Her murder is exactly that: a vicious, group killing of a frightened, antiheroic woman. In comparison to the heavily symbolic figures of Mr. Graves (Death), Mr. Summers (Progress), or Old Man Warner (Tradition), Tess is resolutely anti-symbolic. She's a woman in an apron with soapsuds on her hands, who cracks jokes and wants to join in her community – but, it turns out, they don't want her back. She's the sacrificial lamb for that year, an outsider that the village then violently excludes. Adding insult to injury, Tess's own husband tells her to "shut up" (48) when she starts to contest his selection – as the head of the household, Bill is shamed by Tess's behavior. When the community as a whole repudiates her protests, telling her that "they all took the same chance" (47), Bill must join in the repudiation. One might speculate that he fears being tarred with the same brush, but we think it's something more disturbing than that: the tradition of the lottery appears so natural, so inevitable, to its participants that they cannot imagine protest; to do so seems like a sin against the institution of the lottery rather than the understandable pleas of a woman who doesn't want to die.
Oct. 15, 2010 SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt The Alcohol and Drug Abuse Initiative will work to create awareness on the social, physical, mental, financial, and emotional aspects of alcohol use among college students during the seventh annual National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week beginning Monday (Oct. 18). The ADAI will kickoff the weeklong national endeavor by introducing a new “Be a GOOD SAM Program” and allowing students to be a part of it. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, students will be able to stop by tables set up in the Lowman Student Center Mall Area and help create logos and designs for the new program, which is a collaborative partnership between the ADAI, the University Police Department and Huntsville Memorial Hospital. Designs will be reviewed by the Student Alumni Association and the winning logo will be used on the “GOOD SAM” card. “Be a GOOD SAM” advocates medical amnesty on the part of Bearkat students serving as a “Good Samaritan” in life safety issues involving alcohol and drugs. “The program promotes our motto of ‘Kats taking care of Kats’ by providing students, who may be alcohol impaired and/or a minor, who take a fellow Kat who is experiencing an alcohol- or drug-related emergency to the hospital or who contacts UPD for assistance,” Keathley said. Students will receive a program card with local emergency phone numbers on the front of a card and will list the names and contact numbers of their “in case of emergencies” on the back. “When an incident occurs and the medical personnel at HMH deem the GOOD SAM student is safe to return home, the contact number will be called,” Keathley said. “The intent of the program is to motivate Bearkats to help fellow Kats who may be in a life threatening emergency, and know that they will not be reported to the authorities because they are impaired. This program has been a goal of the ADAI, the SH Counseling Center, and UPD in an effort to potentially save the lives of students.” Also during that time on Monday, agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission will host an informational booth in the LSC Mall Area detailing current alcohol laws relating to underage drinking, driving, and providing and selling alcohol to minors. Tuesday’s activities include a Those Against Drunk Driving informational table in the LSC Mall Area promoting their new “bail out” alcohol education program from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and “How to say NO to Alcohol” facilitated by Student Health Center intern Nicole Curlee, who will show Bearkats appropriate refusal skills for alcohol, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the LSC Mall Area. At 2 p.m., Emily Roper, assistant professor of kinesiology, will conduct an educational session entitled, “How to say NO to Hazing” in LSC Room 320. On Wednesday, advisers from Career Services will facilitate “Career Killers: Alcohol and Drugs in the Workplace” from 10 a.m. to noon in the LSC Mall Area. “The team will share workplace alcohol and drug use statistics with students and guide them to professional resources that can assist them when alcohol situations surface in the workplace environment,” Keathley said. UPD officer Candice Sherbenou also will teach protective maneuvers to students that could potentially help them in alcohol or drug life safety situations from 1-3 p.m. in the ADAI office, in Kirkley Hall Suite 320. On Thursday, members of the Huntsville Memorial Hospital will access “C.A.R.E. for You” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the LSC Mall Area. “The C.A.R.E. program focuses on chemical and addiction recovery through education and intervention,” Keathley said. That afternoon, Keathley will help students learn how to recognize and care for alcohol poisoning from 2-4 p.m. in the ADAI office, followed by “Vertical Happy Hour and Mock-tails” at the Health and Kinesiology Center’s Rock Climbing Wall area, during which students can climb the wall while wearing beer goggles and enjoy mock-tails. The week will end with the “Be a GOOD SAM: Keep your Buddies out of jail” event, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the LSC Mall Area. Students, faculty and staff can bail their friends and colleagues out of jail by correctly answering alcohol and drug questions. Once the questions are answered, students can draw for prizes donated by ADAI community partners. The carnival atmosphere will include popcorn, snow cones and support for the Bearkat football team as they get ready for the “Battle of the Piney Woods” against the Stephen F. Austin State Lumberjacks. Students participating in NCAAW activities can receive Six Weeks of Alcohol Awareness Training prizes and will be entered into drawings for restaurant coupons, gift cards, rounds of golf, SHSU apparel, and automotive items. - END - This page maintained by SHSU's Communications Office Director: Bruce Erickson Assistant Director: Julia May Writer: Jennifer Gauntt Located in the 115 Administration Building Telephone: 936.294.1836; Fax: 936.294.1834 Please send comments, corrections, news tips to [email protected].
- fantastic training in the fresh air; - perfect relax for the back, shoulders and neck after a working day stress and weariness; - takes stress off, might improve relations in the family and working team; - improves your posture and walking; - reduces strain in joints; - remarkably solves overweight problems with an adequate nutrition; - decreases blood pressure and cholesterol; - very good for those, who never had any exercises and do not like traditional sports or sport halls; - for athletes in complex trainings; - rehabilitation after traumas; - for everybody who’d like to try new things. Basic Nordic Walking inventory – special walking poles. They are of a hollow tube form, tapered down to the bottom, made of carbon and glass fiber using special technologies. The poles are of fixed or adjustable length (telescopic). They must be strong and light and should have a certain form strap. We kindly draw your attention that Nordic Walking poles differ from ordinary walking or skiing sticks. We’ve noticed that even large traders in the shops and internet very often do not make difference and ordinary trekking sticks or climbing sticks name as Nordic Walking poles. The main thing is to choose the right Nordic Walking poles! Below we present detailed information which will help you to choose yourself the suitable Nordic Walking poles. Requirements for Nordic Walking poles Whilst there are no European standards for Nordic Walking poles, European Association and Federation have defined minimum requirements for the poles. We present the most important criteria according to which you could choose Nordic Walking poles. - Choose nonadjustable (fixed) length poles. - Not to be made of aluminum. - The best choice – poles made of carbon and glass fiber; - Grips – light, made of plastic and covered with natural cork fiber or rubber. - Wrist straps – only of special design, specifically designed for Nordic Walking poles ( not basic loop shape strap!). - Tips of the poles made of tungsten, straight or curved. - Removable tips for walking on hard surfaces – only rubber, dissymmetric “shoe” form. - Length of poles should be suitably chosen. Further you’ll find the information about each requirement in detail 1. When nonadjustable (fixed) length and when adjustable (telescopic) poles? Adjustable length poles regulatory mechanism is the least reliable place of a pole. Even the mechanisms of poles of “expensive” companies earlier or later begin to fix the length worse. Forthermore, adjustable length poles are heavier. While choosing such a poles pay attention to vibration, which might occur because of regulatory mechanism and to the noise, which might spread while walking with such a poles. We are sure that such a vibrating and noise spreading poles are not acceptable for Nordic Walking. Therefore for individual use we recommend nonadjustable length poles. By the way, analogous quality nonadjustable length poles are always cheaper than telescopic. However good quality adjustable length poles are really suitable when one needs to apply the same poles for several persons, e.g. in groups, etc. 2. Not aluminium We can see in the market the poles made of aluminium tube, which , judging from the outside, do not differ from good fabric poles, but aluminium absorbs vibrations poorly which increases very quickly the risk of upper limb problems, such as 'tennis elbow'. Sometimes the so called spring-loaded mechanizm „anti-shock‘ is being installed. In reality it doesn‘t solve these problems, but makes the poles heavier. There is no such a problem in skiing, because the snow absorbs vibration very good. The advantage of aluminium poles – lower price, but treatment of disorders might cost considerably more expensive. Therefore we do not recommend or offer aluminium poles. 3. Glass or carbon fibre poles (recommended) Very light, strong, absorb vibration very good. To increase the strength of poles glass fiber is used in combination with carbon fiber.We recommend the poles containing 20%-60% of Carbon. The higher the carbon content, the stronger the pole will be, and lighter. But Carbon fiber increases not only the quality of poles, but the price as well. 4. Grips (with natural cork cover – recommended) Contrary to skiing or ordinary walking with a stick Nordic Walking requires constant gripping and releasing of the poles, therefore grip form is very important to the comfortability of walking. Most often walking is without gloves, thorefore grip ergonomy and surface quality is very important. Surface material might be plastic, rubber, artificial cork or natural cork. The most recommended are grips covered by natural cork. They flatten gently to the hand, warm , absorb humidity, rather durable. Grips, covered by rubber (particularly spongy) could be used as well. They are not of high quality, but much easier to clean, if neccessary. 5. Wrist straps: (only the form of „glove“) In order for the pole to return to the palm of the hand when released, a special fixation system is used called the 'wrist strap'. Wrist straps are attached to the grips with special locks, which allow to adjust the length of the straps. The straps are different for the right and left hands. Usually there are notes on the straps „L“ or „Left“, „R“ or „Right“. We‘d like to draw your particular attention that ordinary loop form straps are not suitable at all for Nordic Walking, it‘s simply impossible with such a poles to take the right Nordic Walking step. Sometimes the so called „Quick lock“ straps are used. They are convenient for the instructors. 6. Tips (only tungsten) This is the part of the pole which takes the brunt of the action when the pole is placed on the ground, therefore it‘s important the tips are made of particularly strong and non fragile material. While walking the tip experience a myriad of impacts on stones, gravel, concrete, asphalt and other hard surfaces. It’s very important that the lower part of the tip is made of especially hard metal – tungsten. All other tips made of ordinary metal are not acceptable because of short service period and a tip, made of hard carbide, is not recommended, though it’s hard, but fragile and significantly worse than the first variant, i.e. tungsten. The tip has a widening, the so called “basket”, which is necessary when walking through snow, sand or other loose surfaces and it prevent the pole from “sink” The above mentioned baskets are usually screwed up (umbrella form) and if necessary, can be replaced. Very often we can walk without them. It’s absolutely normal. Recently, especially in the fixed length poles, the basket is spilled along with the plastic part of the tip and they are irremovable. We’ve noticed that the market has not sufficiently hard irremovable tip baskets of the poles. They should be avoided, because it’s impossible to replace the broken ones. The form of the tips itself might be classic round straight or sharp-curved. The most common are classic type tips. The latter is more recommended while walking on the ice or wet asphalt. Because of it’s extreme sharpness walking with such a poles requires enhanced care to avoid injury of feet or shoe damage. 7. Removable tips (only rubber) Used only walking on hard surface (e.g. asphalt, concrete). Nordic Walking tips have special asymmetric form. Sometimes mixed with symmetric round shape form tips, which are used for mountain or ordinary walking sticks and they are often even plastic. They absolutely are not suitable for Nordic Walking. Removable rubber tips – the same as car tires, is a part that worns itself out while walking. It’s important that we could replace them if necessary. Therefore one should buy poles from the companies who undertake to provide service. In the future if you buy the poles in the market or supermarket you might have problems with the replacement of depreciated tip. 8. Length choice of the poles (pole’s length – important for the right Nordic Walking technique). If you want to feel pleasant and effective walk, you should take the right Nordic Walking technique and choose suitable length poles. Standard fixed length poles are manufactures from 100 cm till 135 cm., every 5 cm. The length of poles could be calculated according to the formula: length of pole = your height x 0,66. However, it’s necessary to take into consideration that human body has individual proportions, therefore an error is inevitable. If you want to be sure that the length of the pole is correctly adjusted for your height, stand up straight, take a pole by a grip and bend your elbow at a right angle, put a pole vertically in front of you. Standing in this position the end of pole must not reach the ground nearly 2-3 cm. To learn how to walk properly and get maximum benefit for your health it’s recommended to visit Nordic Walking trainings where you’ll have a possibility to try different length and model poles and choose the most suitable for yourself. V. Krėvės pr. 28a, Kaunas. Phone: +370 698 34381 Nordic walking poles TWIGO SHARP poles Fixed length high quality poles, containing 30 percent Carbon fiber.36,80 € High quality nordic walking poles „TWIGO SMART“, containing 50...45,50 € High-quality nordic walking poles TWIGO Original.36,80 € Nordic walking poles "TWIGO... High quality nordic walking poles " TWIGO ORIGINAL QL " with...36,80 € NWStyle gift card NWStyle gift card – ideal gift for You loved ones.20,00 € Sale Nordic walking poles EZEE Poles with carbon fiber are very reliable and light. At the same...22,00 €46,05 €
Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday proposed an outlay of Rs. 27,049 crore for the Ministry of Agriculture in the Union Budget 2013-14. The outlay is 22 per cent over the Revised Estimates of the year 2012-13. Out of this, Rs. 3415 crore will be provided for agricultural research. From the overall allocation of Rs. 27,049 crore, Rs. 307 crore is proposed to be provided for the National Livestock Mission which will be launched in 2013-14 to attract investment and to enhance productivity taking into account the local agro-climatic conditions. There will be sub Mission for increasing the availability of feed and fodder. The Finance Minister informed that the agricultural exports from April to December 2012 have crossed Rs. 1,38,403 crore. The increase in Minimum Support Price of every agricultural produce under the procurement programme have motivated the farmers to produce more. He hoped that in 2012-13, the foodgrain production will be over 250 million tonnes. Thanking the farmers for their hard work, the Finance Minister stated that the average annual growth rate of agriculture and allied sector during the 11th Plan was 3.6 per cent as against 2.5 per cent and 2.4 per cent in the 9th and 10th Plans respectively.
The Brothers Who Filmed the Earthquakelike A Collection of San Francisco Shorts Producer Miles Brothers Cinematographer Harry J. Miles Print Source The Library of Congress SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE, APRIL 18, 1906 Producer Unknown Cinematographer Unknown Lubin Film Company Cameraman Print Source The Library of Congress SCENES IN SAN FRANCISCO [NO. 1] (filmed May 9, 1906) Producer American Mutoscope & Biograph Company Cinematographer Otis M. Gove Print Source The Library of Congress MABEL AND FATTY VIEWING THE WORLD’S FAIR AT SAN FRANCISCO (1915) Director Roscoe Arbuckle Cast Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Mayor James Rolph Jr., Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heick Producer Keystone Film Company Print Source The Library of Congress TRIUMPH OVER DISASTER (filmed with a 1922 hand-cranked Bell & Howell 2709 35mm movie camera at the 1906 Earthquake Centennial Commemoration at Lotta’s Fountain on April 18, 2006) Producer George C. Hall Cinematographer L Sprague Anderson Editor David Kiehn Presented at SFSFF 2006 Print Source Niles Essanay Film Company Essay by David Kiehn The April 18, 1906 earthquake changed the fortunes of many businesses, including the movie industry. Many nickelodeon theaters in the city were destroyed, temporarily slowing the growth of this new kind of entertainment. The first movie studio on the West Coast, built and operated by the Miles brothers, was also destroyed, debilitating San Francisco as a film production center and forever changing the industry. The Miles Brothers facility was simply the latest link in San Francisco’s connection to the film business. Eadweard Muybridge had presented his "illustrated Photographs in Motion" at the San Francisco Art Association’s exhibition hall on May 4, 1880, to an audience that paid to see projected moving images for the first time. The demonstration inspired Thomas Edison to consult Muybridge before taking the next step in the evolution of motion pictures by recording photographic images on a strip of celluloid, rather than glass plates as Muybridge had done. The Edison laboratory in New Jersey produced a viewing device called the Kinetoscope for showing their films to the public, and on June 1, 1894 the first Edison machines west of Chicago were installed at Peter Bacigalupi’s San Francisco establishment in the Chronicle Building at Market and Kearny. After film projection was invented, William Furst opened the Cineograph movie theater at 747 Market Street in 1897. In those early days, films were sold outright to theaters, but it wasn’t until exhibitors could rent films that theaters became a profitable business. One of the first companies to establish a film rental exchange office was Miles Brothers. Harry, Herbert, Earle and Joe Miles set up shop in the spring of 1903, importing films from Europe and buying from the five film producers then in the United States. The Miles Brothers soon established a national reputation, expanding to New York later that year and becoming the first film exchange company to operate from coast to coast. When Miles Brothers opened an office in the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company building in New York, they produced a few films in San Francisco, copyrighted by Biograph. In 1905, the Miles Brothers moved the New York office across the street from Biograph, distancing themselves from that organization, to produce films on their own. That year they shot exclusive footage of the Nelson-Britt championship prize fight in Colma. In 1906, Miles Brothers built a studio at 1139 Market Street in San Francisco to produce narrative films. That spring, they finished two nonfiction movies for the popular Hale’s tours theaters: "Climbing Mt. Tamalpais" (copyrighted April 21 as "A Trip Down Mt. Tamalpais") and "A Trip Through Market Street" (known today as "A Trip Down Market Street"). The Market Street film, shot on April 14, was filmed on a cable car traveling from Eighth Street toward the Ferry Building. It provided a remarkable record of a moment in time - San Francisco four days before the disaster. Harry and Joe Miles left the city with their film footage on April 17 but heard of the tragedy en route by train to New York, and turned back with their equipment, sending the Market Street footage on to New York. Although the Miles Brothers studio survived the quake, it burned in the fire. The company set up a temporary office in Earle’s home at 790 Turk Street and during the next few weeks shot film of ruins, refugees and the beginnings of reconstruction. They vowed to rebuild their studio, but never did, and San Francisco’s early role in the film industry faded from memory. Miles Brothers continued to operate, but the business changed in December 1908 when Edison formed the Motion Picture Patents Company with film producers Biograph, Selig, Lubin, Essanay, Kalem, Vitagraph, Pathé and Méliès. The Patents Company tried to force independent film producers and film exchanges out of business, so it could control both production and distribution. They succeeded at first, and the Miles Brothers New York office was forced to close. Herbert Miles became a fierce opponent of the Patents Company, partnering with such like-minded businessmen as Carl Laemmle and William Fox (later the founders of Universal and Fox Film, respectively) to establish independent production companies and distributors. Joe Miles eventually founded a film storage company. Earle Miles ran the San Francisco office as an industrial film producer and non-theatrical distributor. Harry Miles, the oldest brother, did not live to carry on the fight. Suffering from insomnia and a series of epileptic fits that forced him to withdraw from the business, he killed himself in January, 1908 by jumping from the seventh floor of his apartment building.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y - For a while, last week, it looked as if a storm building along the southern end of the nation's Atlantic coast might turn into a nor'easter that would be blowing its worst here right around Thanksgiving Day. Bad weather is still out there, and it will be causing coastal flooding. But not in the greater New York City area. Instead of a blustery storm, forecasters now believe we will greet a dry Thanksgiving Day with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid to upper 50s. For this turn of events we can thank a large zone of high pressure over the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Predicting coastal weather more than a few days in advance often involves a large measure of guesswork, and it is not uncommon for the results to be imprecise. So it was with the expected coastal storm. This time the error was good news for us. The disturbance du jour is currently located off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The big low-pressure area associated with the storm had been moving steadily northward. It has since slowed its northward progress and is expected to blow itself out before it comes near Staten Island. Meteorologist Brian Edwards, of the commercial weather forecasting service Accuweather.com, says the counterclockwise spiral of the storm will indeed be delivering winds out of the northeast at up to 40 miles per hour along much of the Atlantic seaboard, but their effects are currently not expected to reach further north than Lewes, Delaware, south of Cape May, New Jersey, and as far south as Jacksonville, Florida. AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski notes that the storm will affect those areas with tides a couple of feet above normal. "Keep in mind that a lot of the beaches from Cape Hatteras on north were heavily damaged and eroded over the last month between Hurricane Sandy and the nor'easter," he said. Instead of weathering a new onslaught of wind and water, New Yorkers will be greeting visitors and turning out for the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The parade was nearly another victim of Hurricane Sandy. Parts of Moonachie, New Jersey were under 5 feet of water driven ashore by the storm. But the warehouse where the balloons of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade are stored was not damaged. It appears the annual parade will proceed, on Thursday, under sunny skies and balloon-manageably light winds. The parade will be special for some New Yorkers whose lives were upended by the pre-Halloween hurricane. Macy's and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have announced that 5,000 tickets have been set aside for New Yorkers impacted by Hurricane Sandy.--- Follow @siadvance on Twitter
McGuinness calls on Robinson to show leadership in promoting equality Joint First Minister Martin McGuinness has called on Peter Robinson to show leadership in promoting equality, tolerance and mutual respect for all. Martin McGuinness said: “All of us in positions of leadership have a responsibility to represent and stand up for all the people of our society. “We have a duty to promote equality, mutual respect and tolerance for all in our society based on the core principles contained in the Good Friday Agreement. “We must recognise and embrace the social, cultural and religious diversity of our society. "I value the diversity and multicultural nature of our society the significant and valuable contribution the Muslim community makes to this society day and daily. "There is a real need for all of us those in positions of responsibility to step out of our own political constituencies and religious groupings and show genuine political leadership for all."
B.S., 1979, Eastern Illinois University M.S., 1983, Stephen F. Austin State University Ph.D., 1989, St. Louis University Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences has been at SIUE since 1993. Before joining the School of Pharmacy, she served as Program Director of the Excellence in Learning and Teaching Initiative and instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences at SIUE, and as a microbiologist and histologist in industry prior to that. She received her BS degree in zoology from Eastern Illinois University in 1979, her MS in biology from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1983, and a PhD in biology in 1989 from St. Louis University. Cathy’s research interests are in medical entomology (tick and flea-borne diseases) as well as the scholarship of teaching and learning. My research interests have varied over the course of my career in the sciences. My Master's thesis, A Histological and Ultrastructural Study of the Nephrons of Perognathus hispidus, with Comparisons to Reithrodontomys fulvescens, was a project that entailed comparing the reabsorptive capabilities of the proximal convoluted tubules via the density of microvilli of the kidneys of two rodent species (one mesic and one xeric) of the southwestern U.S. The continued pursuit of my graduate work allowed me to study The Incidence of Pathogens of Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in Eastern Missouri. As a result of this research, I was able to identify and isolate the pathogenic Lyme disease bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, from two tick species in this region of the Midwest, and report the frequency of infectivity of local ticks with the Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Fever pathogens. Currently, the foci of my research projects have been on the prevalence of a newly discovered bacterium, Rickettsia amblyommii, in local tick vectors and well as Rickettsia felis in local cat fleas, both of which cause diseases in humans with variable pathogenicity. Additionally, the range of the Gulf Coast tick, Amblyomma maculatum, borders the St. Louis region so attempts to collect this tick vector and isolate its pathogens would add to the list of known vectors and pathogenic diseases with which medical practitioners should be aware. Another area of interest is pedagogical research, also known as the scholarship of teaching and learning. More specifically, how do we construct teaching and learning activities in science classrooms that optimize student learning outcomes? My main areas of interest include, but are not limited to, case study writing and teaching, learning outcomes of study abroad experiences, the implementation of classroom assessment techniques, and teaching large classes more effectively. Weiler, M., Santanello, C., Isaacs, D., Rahman, A., O’Donnell, P., & Peters, G. 2015. Pharmacy Students’ Attitudes about Social Media Use at Five Schools of Pharmacy. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, Vol. 7 (6). Santanello, C, & Pannirselvam, G. 2015. Student Profiles and Student-Professor Interactions. Book chapter, Sound Instruction, Vol. 6. Flanigan, C. & Santanello, C. 2014. Education Outreach: Raising Awareness of Diabetes and Pharmacy Careers. Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Vol. 5 (10). Santanello, C., Dow, A.C., & Bergman, S.J. 2014. Active Learning Strategies: Student Perceptions. Academic Exchange Quarterly, Vol. 18:1. Santanello, C. & Bergman, S.J. 2014. Sarah’s Sickness: The Diagnosis and Treatment of an Infectious Disease. The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science at State University of New York at Buffalo. http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/ubcase.htm. Immunofluorescent micrograph of the spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, isolated from the gut of a lone star tick. Deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) collected in the St. Louis area. Cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis) common in the St. Louis area.
When it comes to 3D printing, most people think of common objects, both large and small: houses, toys, tools, and such. But researchers have been busy at work using the technology for medical purposes, figuring out how to do things like print eye cells and create futuristic casts. TeVido BioDevices is counted amongst this latter category, working on 3D-printing skin grafts for patients. TeVido BioDevices is working on 3D-printing skin grafts specifically for breast cancer survivors, working on research that will use the patient's own cells to create the grafts. For now, the company has successfully printed a nipple for use in reconstructive surgery, and holds the promise of expanding that to aid in all sorts of procedures. The grafts can be used for both cosmetic and medical needs, being used to, for example, correct scars from surgery. The benefit of using skin grafts printed from one's own cells is how the body reacts to them: they're living and integrated, don't require future maintenance, and could, when the technology permits, be color-matched to the patient's skin. For now, the technology only supports creating small grafts, but work is being done to expand that for larger grafts, as well. It is estimated a final product will reach the market in five years, but for now everything continues onward as research.
As of Thursday afternoon, the nearly 400,000-acre Wallow fire in eastern Arizona was still 0-percent contained. The burn area, bigger than Chicago and New York City combined, is already the second-largest fire in the state's history. Arizona's largest blaze happened in 2002, making the state seem either particularly unlucky or part of a broader trend. Are large American wildfires becoming more common? Yes, at least in the West, home to most of the nation's largest wildfires. A 2006 paper in Science found a dramatic increase in large U.S. forest fires (defined as those larger than 988 acres) from 1970 to 2003 in an area roughly comprising the 11 western-most contiguous states. Not only were there almost four times as many fires from 1987 to 2003 than from 1970 to 1986, but the fires in the later period burned nearly seven times more land. The researchers also found that the average time between discovering a fire and containing it increased by almost a month, from 7.5 days to 37.1 days. The paper's authors attribute much of the increase in large conflagrations to longer and hotter fire seasons—with snow in the West melting earlier and temperatures rising higher than in the past. As a result, trees, shrubs, and grasses are drier for longer, meaning there's more opportunity for them to catch fire. The lengthening of the fire season has been drastic: The average time between a year's first reported wildfire and its last was 78 days longer during the years 1987 to 2003 than 1970 to 1986, an increase of 64 percent. A study of Canadian wildfires from 1920 to 1999 found similar results, with total burn area increasing over the last three decades. While shifts in temperature help explain the overall rise in mega-blazes, changes in population and land use might be more important in certain regions, including the Southwest. Broadly speaking, more humans mean more potential sources of ignition; indeed, the Forest Service says people (rather than lightning, sparks from rock falls, or other natural causes) started the Wallow fire, possibly via an unattended campfire. The urge to put out any uncontrolled fire may also share the blame. In certain landscapes, naturally occurring fires may burn grass, trees, and other combustibles in conveniently small sections, creating over time what ecologists call a "mosaic"—alternating patches of recently burned and unburned land. When a fire starts in one patch of the mosaic, it quickly runs out of fuel. But for much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, we tried to suppress even the smallest natural blazes, converting the mosaic into a more homogenous swath of flammable material. Though fire-management techniques are shifting toward a greater tolerance for small wildfires, aggressive fire suppression is still standard practice in populated regions. Ponderosa Pine forests, which have fueled the Wallow fire, are notoriously prone to the broken-mosaic problem. Historically, these forests experienced frequent, but low-intensity surface fires rather than severe canopy blazes. Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer. Explainer thanks Lisa Elenz of the U.S. Forest Service and Dr. Brian Oswald of the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture.
I should copyright the phrase, "Thierry Legault has done it again!" because he does keep seeming to do it again! He is an "amateur" astronomer in Europe, and takes phenomenal pictures of spacecraft from the ground. And this one is pretty incredible: it shows NASA astronaut Steve Bowen doing a spacewalk during Discovery's last flight to the space station! Wow. In space, you can orbit but you can't hide. [Click to enastronautenate.] Thierry helpfully annotated the picture. The body of the station is to the right, and the bent joint of the robotic arm is obvious. The big blob labeled ammonia pump is just that; a pump that has failed, which Bowen was moving to a storage location. Just next to it, on the left, is a blurry but distinct blob that is a living, breathing astronaut in space! Thierry included a still from a NASA video to provide further support that what you are seeing is actually a man orbiting the Earth at nearly 30,000 kph. [UPDATE: Thierry just informed me that as far as he can tell, this is the first clear shot of an astronaut ever seen from the ground. There have been claims in the past (like this one from 2009), but they have been very blurry and unable to be confirmed. Thierry's still frame from the NASA video makes it clear he truly did see Bowen in his image. I did a quick search and was unable to find any other pictures taken from the ground that unequivocally show an astronaut. So, to Thierry: congrats!] I am a rational person, or at least I try to be. I know the equipment Thierry used, the size of the space station, and the distance to it. It's a simple matter of math to understand that an object as small as a man in a spacesuit can be seen from the ground, and distinguished from other objects nearby. But to actually see it in a picture like this is thrilling. Simply wonderful. Image credit: Thierry Legault, used with permission.
In his speech following today's explosions at the Boston Marathon, President Obama noted that today is Patriot's Day in Massachusetts. "It's a day that celebrates the free and fiercely independent spirit that this great American city of Boston has reflected from the earliest days of our nation," the president said during a briefing where he made it clear that we don't yet know who was behind today's attack. But Obama wasn't the first to mention the holiday in the wake of the attack—speculation had already started swirling on Twitter about the possible significance of the Massachusetts Monday holiday on which the marathon is held every year. With that in mind, a quick primer on Patriot's Day: It commemorates the opening battles of the American Revolutionary War, the battles of Lexington and Concord, both held on April 19, 1775. The holiday has become best known for the marathon and is in fact also referred to as "Marathon Monday." (Patriot's Day, we should note, should not be confused with Patriot Day, established on Sept. 11 to mark the World Trade Center attacks.) So why were people so quick to speculate about the holiday's possible significance? Undoubtedly because they were inspired by the fact that this week does contain a number of unhappy anniversaries: the Oklahoma City Bombing (April 19, 1995), the Waco assault (April 19, 1993), the Columbine School Shooting (April 20, 1999), and the Virginia Tech massacre (April 16, 2007), for starters. Two of those tragedies—the Virginia Tech massacre and the Waco assault—were on Monday, the Patriot's Day of those years. The Waco tragedy, in particular, has inspired some anti-government activists to mark something of a shadow version of Patriot's Day, on April 19. Patriot's Day in Massachusetts used to be commemorated only on April 19, which is indeed the anniversary of the Oklahoma bombing and the Waco tragedy. But Massachusetts switched its timing from the 19th to the third Monday in April back in 1969, way before either tragedy occurred. In a way, there are actually two Patriot's Days, both marking the same original historical event, but on different days, and with different meanings. Until we know the who, what, and why behind the attack, it's best to take these sorts of symbolic connections with a healthy dose of skepticism. As Obama explained this evening, "We still do not know who did this or why, and people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts." This post has been updated with additional information from President Obama's evening press conference, and for clarity.
When Rachel Greenstein was a senior at Occidental, the Los Angeles liberal arts college “felt like home.” So when a fellow student sexually assaulted her on campus—then applied for an RA position in one of the college’s dorms—she felt the responsibility to report him to the administration to keep her community safe. “I believed the school would be there for me,” Greenstein says. But over the course of a drawn-out adjudication process, she came to believe that the school had other priorities. After testimony from accuser, accused, and witnesses, an Occidental disciplinary panel found the student responsible for rape. He was then sentenced to ten hours of community service and required to write a ten-page report on a book about destructive masculinity by Jackson Katz. On Facebook, fellow students complained that women who report rape at Occidental are tarnishing the school’s reputation and devaluing their degrees. When Greenstein tracked down a dean to discuss the outcome of her case, Greenstein says, “she said she couldn’t remember the case, a week after she had made the decision.” On Thursday, Greenstein teamed up with Gloria Allred and a group of other students to sue the school. According to the suit, at least 37 women were “raped, sexually assaulted, battered, harassed or retaliated against for speaking out against sexual violence” on campus. The suit also alleges that Occidental discouraged the reporting and prosecution of the crimes, failed to notify students of assaults committed on campus, and allowed students found responsible for rapes to remain in class without suspension. It’s been a big week for Title IX, the law that requires schools to take steps to protect students from gender discrimination on campus, including in the case of sexual harassment and assault. In addition to the Occidental suit, students at Swarthmore filed a complaint against their school for similarly downplaying reports of sex crimes. And a high school cheerleader filed a Title IX suit against her Michigan school after she and another girl were assaulted by a “star member of the high school basketball team,” an event she says her school brushed aside in an effort to protect its prized athlete. In the middle of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, students around the country are speaking out about rape on campus. And they’re not just raising awareness about the fellow students who attacked them—they’re calling out the administrators running institutions that fail to take action when they've been alerted to the problem. “For the entirety of my last year in college, I continued to live every day in fear,” one Occidental victim said at a press conference yesterday. “In May, I watched as my rapist shook the hand of our college’s president and received his diploma, and I wished I had not been discouraged by a dean from reporting the rape.” A Swarthmore sophomore told reporters that after “a fellow student repeatedly sexually harassed her and broke into her room in the middle of the night,” administrators “tried to dissuade her from making a formal complaint, made light of what had happened, said that she was partly to blame.” In Michigan, the National Women’s Law Center says, the principal of the cheerleader’s high school “discouraged the student and her parents from filing charges” and failed to “investigate the assault and protect the student” when she reported it to higher-ups. The victim dropped out of sports teams, spent two weeks in the counselor’s office to avoid attending class with her attacker, and ultimately transferred schools to get away. Her attacker was eventually sentenced to the county’s Adolescent Sexual Offender Treatment Program (his second appearance), but not before he assaulted another girl at the school. In the wake of Steubenville, awareness of sexual assaults in the nation’s high schools and colleges is at an all-time high. And while it’s easy to blame these assaults on the moral failings of teenagers, the adults who are running these institutions and ostensibly leading these communities share a portion of the blame. The judge in the Steubenville case warned teenagers to watch what they say on “the social media so prevalent today,” but a lax attitude toward sexual assault isn’t an Instagram issue. The high social positions held by some of these assailants—from star athlete to RA—rely on the endorsements of adults. Fighting rape on campus will require an attitude shift among men and women as well as teen boys and girls. This month, Occidental and Swarthmore have both pledged to bring in outside experts to overhaul their sexual assault policies. It can’t come soon enough. “At this point, I’m far removed from college. I live on the other side of the country, says Greenstein, now 23. “It’s not personal anymore. I know this is going to happen to other women unless things change.”
Most people have the illusion that phones are somehow impervious to viruses and that you are safe browsing virtually anything online. Not so. Mobile usage is growing fast, and it is only going to get bigger in 2014 and beyond. MOBILE PHONE USERS ARE AT LEAST 3X MORE LIKELY TO BECOME VICTIMS OF PHISHING ATTACKS THAN DESKTOP USERS. 15% of us store sensitive ﬁnancial information on our devices Show as a List 40% of smartphone users enter passwords into their phones at least once a day. 35% of U.S. adults have had a mobile device STOLEN OR LOST Yet, 2/3 of people DON’T USE MOBILE SECURITY APPLICATIONS that could help them protect data when someone else has the device. 0 01 0 1 00 1 0 01 0 01 00 1 00 1 01 1 0 1 1 01 1 01 1 0 01 0 01 00 1 1 01 1 01 1 01 1 0 1 00 1 01 1 0 1 01 1 69% of those surveyed DO NOT BACK UP THEIR PHONE DATA 64% of those surveyed DO NOT USE A SCREEN LOCK OR PASSWORD TO ACCESS THEIR DEVICE Although 73% of us are aware of the increased security risk of public WiFi, 66% still connect to public networks Show as a List Consumers who used mobile banking in 2012 by age 60+ USING A MOBILE PHONE IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS... 87% have checked an account balance or recent transaction 18-29 45-59 53% have transferred money between two accounts 30-44 27% SMARTPHONES USED FOR BANKING 2011 2012 made a bill payment 21% 42% 48% deposited a check using a mobile phone camera Show as a List Learn How to Secure Your Business Sources: https://blogs.rsa.com/rogue-mobile-apps-phishing-malware-and-fraud/ http://blogs.denverpost.com/techknowbytes/2013/02/27/varied-knowledge-of-mobile-security-means-many-users-are-at-risk/8591/ PRweb.com \| http://blogs.denverpost.com/techknowbytes/2013/02/27/varied-knowledge-of-mobile-security-means-many-users-are-at-risk/8591/ http://www.cettatech.com/blog/top-5-mobile-security-mistakes/ http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/07/13/mobile-apps-gain-popularity-banks-try-keep/qshfqhvKts7DlGZfAoF76K/story.html https://spideroak.com/privacypost/cloud-security/how-secure-are-mobile-banking-apps/ \| http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=221517
“Cutting Through theCommon Core”STANDARDS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS & STANDARDS FOR LITERACY IN HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES, SCIENCE, AND TECHNICAL SUBJECTS AGENDA Introduction to standards document Five strands of ELA Shifts in teaching literacy, vocabulary, teaching Common Core Claims For ELAGrades 3-8: Students can demonstrate progresstoward college and career readiness in ELAand LiteracyGrades 9-12: Students can demonstrate collegeand career readiness in ELAClaims are important in preparing for instructionand for assessment. The 4 major claims shoulddrive what you do in your classroom every dayin order to assure success for your students. Claim #1 - Students can read closely and analytically tocomprehend a range of increasingly complex literary andinformational text. (Reading Claim)Claim #2 – Students can produce effective and well-groundedwriting for a range of purposes and audiences. (Writing Claim)Claim #3 – Students can employ effective speaking and listeningskills for a range of purposes and audiences. (Speaking andListening Claim)Claim #4 - Students can engage in research/inquiry to investigatetopics, and to analyze, integrate, and present information.(Research Claim) ELA COMMON COREDocument organization Comprehensive K-5 Section Content Area 1: ELA Grades 6-12 Content Area 2: History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects 6-12 A Set of 3 Appendices Common Core has 2 sets ofStandards:COMMON CORE ANCHOR STANDARDS: * Broad * Transcends the grade levels * Heads each strand * Foundational standard for grade specific standard * Are the same for both content areasCOMMON CORE GRADE SPECIFIC STANDARDS: * More specific * Unique to each grade level * Corresponds to the anchor standard * Has grade appropriate end of year expectations Who is responsible forteaching these standards? ELA Content Area- English Language Arts Teacher History, Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects- Teachers of History, Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects The Common Core standards follow NAEP’s lead inbalancing the reading literature with informational texts,including texts in history/social studies, science andtechnical subjects.GRADE LITERARY TEXT INFORMATIONAL TEXT 4 50% 50% 8 45% 55% 12 30% 70% Reading Standards for Literacy(Fictional Works of Art) The expectation now moves to the expected learning outcome for a student, not how he arrived there. Literacy now becomes everyone’s job, not just the English teacher. Complex text must be read independently and proficiently in EVERY discipline. Reading Standards forInformational Text Focus on non-fiction and technical reading Integration of the subject matters in order to incorporate a rich exposure to a variety of informational text Growth of comprehension Increase the number of connections between the different texts Wide range of textual evidence required Sound judgments made after locating inconsistencies and logical fallacies in texts Speaking & Listening Must evaluate what they hear Integrate information from a variety of sources Use different visual and media presentation modes in order to communicate effectively Develop oral communication, interpersonal skills and listening skills The Role of VocabularyKey to student’s vocabulary development is building rich and flexible wordknowledge through multiple opportunities to use and respond to words theylearn through informal talk, discussion, listening, being read to and readingthemselves. Three Tiers of Vocabularyo Tier One Words: Common words of everyday speecho Tier Two Words: General Academico Tier Three Words: Domain Specific Words Academic VocabularyVocabulary that transcends specific disciplines but appears regularly in complex text.o Teaching must be intentional and purposeful and the vocabulary selected for use must be as well.o Silent Sustained Reading is invaluable in vocabulary building and should be done daily.o Reading 14 minutes per day means reading over 1,000,000 words per year.o Vocabulary is learned through both reading and talking. o Each teacher should generate their own word list for domain specific vocabulary and each school/district should have a specific list of Tier 2 academic vocabulary.o Word lists should not be used as a check list where students may define from rote memory but should be intentional and purposeful in an attempt to help them later comprehend written text.o Tier 2 words are critical to understanding academic texts.o Students may learn and comprehend deeply approximately 300 words per year, roughly 60 per subject area and 8 to 10 words per week. Reading Standards for Literacyin Social Studies and TechnicalSubjects It is important for ALL content area teachers to teach literacy Students will be expected to read all textbooks in a way that is both independent and proficient Students will be required to distinguish between primary and secondary sources along with providing evidence to support their analysis of these sources The standards will ultimately define literacy expectations in all classes in order to create a comprehensive school-wide literacy program which will lead to more career/college readiness for all students What students who meetCommon Core standards areable to do Demonstrate independence Comprehend as well as critique Build strong content knowledge Cite evidence Helpful documents that assistwith Common CoreStandards.. Appendix A * Contains supplementary information for the 5strands for ELA Appendix B * Shows examples of different text complexitiesfor the different grade level Appendix C * Shows examples of different writings that areadequate for the different grade levels ELA Connections Document * Shows the relation between the S.CCurriculum standards and the common corestandards
At 2:15 a.m. on December 16, 1811, residents of the frontier town of New Madrid, in what is now Missouri, were jolted from their beds by a violent earthquake. The ground heaved and pitched, hurling furniture, snapping trees and destroying barns and homesteads. The shaking rang church bells in Charleston, South Carolina, and toppled chimneys as far as Cincinnati, Ohio. From This Story “The screams of the affrighted inhabitants running to and fro, not knowing where to go, or what to do—the cries of the fowls and beasts of every species—the cracking of trees falling...formed a scene truly horrible,” wrote one resident. As people were starting to rebuild that winter, two more major quakes struck, on January 23 and February 7. Each New Madrid earthquake had a magnitude of 7.5 or greater, making them three of the most powerful in the continental United States and shaking an area ten times larger than that affected by the magnitude 7.8 San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The Midwest was sparsely populated, and deaths were few. But 8-year-old Godfrey Lesieur saw the ground “rolling in waves.” Michael Braunm observed the river suddenly rise up “like a great loaf of bread to the height of many feet.” Sections of riverbed below the Mississippi rose so high that part of the river ran backward. Thousands of fissures ripped open fields, and geysers burst from the earth, spewing sand, water, mud and coal high into the air. Geologists once assumed that the 1811-12 disaster was a one-time event and little cause for concern for the people who now live near the epicenter. Then, two decades ago, paleoseismology expert Martitia Tuttle and her colleagues began dissecting “sand blows” in the five states surrounding New Madrid. The sand blows were left by geysers when debris surged up through narrow dikes and landed in wide mounds. “Sand blows tell a dramatic story of the widespread shaking of these large earthquakes,” she says. Tuttle’s team excavated potsherds, spear points and corn kernels and realized that many of the sand blows were more than 200 years old. “Some had archaeological sites on top of them with 2,000-year-old artifacts,” Tuttle says. “There’s no way the New Madrid earthquakes were a one-time freak event.” The Midwest had been slammed by violent quakes around A.D. 1450 and 900 and 2350 B.C.—and probably more often. Most earthquakes occur at the edges of the earth’s 15 major tectonic plates; when they slide against each other, the ground gets a jolt. But New Madrid sits in the middle of a plate. Its seismic history—and the magnitude 5.8 Virginia quake that shook the East Coast earlier this year—is a reminder that earthquakes can strike in surprising places. Plate interiors are riddled with ancient faults. Beatrice Magnani wants to find out why some, like New Madrid’s, are still seismically active. Early one morning, Magnani, a seismologist at the University of Memphis, guided a steel cylindrical air gun from a tugboat into the silty waters of the Mississippi River and then tested it. Boom! Everyone onboard felt, more than heard, the shot. Muddy water rippled, and a bubble bigger than a coffee table rose to the surface. Sound waves from the air gun traveled to the bottom of the river, then through the sludge and sediment to bedrock and a mile deep into the earth’s crust. Magnani’s team dropped a large buoy off the tug with a splash. The buoy drifted downriver, dragging a 300-foot-long, two-inch-wide tube strung with microphones. A crane lifted what looked like a large yellow manta ray, an instrument called a Chirp, and lowered it into the water. The Chirp started pinging, five times every second. The air gun blasted every seven seconds. When data from the microphones reached the computers onboard, they beeped. Ping, ping, ping, ping, Boom!, beep. The racket would continue for eight hours as the boat floated ten miles downriver. Over the past three years, Magnani has used these tools to map the ground below the river in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, a fault system stretching about 150 miles from Cairo, Illinois, to Marked Tree, Arkansas. It’s the most active seismic area in the United States east of the Rockies, with about 200 small quakes a year. Magnani’s most startling discovery came south of the seismic zone: two faults, one near Memphis, both active in the past 10,000 years. Other researchers have recently identified faults near Commerce, Missouri, and other places outside the New Madrid Seismic Zone that have been active in the past few thousand to millions of years, suggesting that the middle of the country is less stable than it seems. Geologists have long blamed the New Madrid earthquakes on the Reelfoot Rift, a 500-million-year-old area of weakness in the crust. But the newfound faults lie outside the rift. “Maybe the reason we haven’t been able to solve the mystery of the New Madrid earthquakes is that we’ve been too focused on New Madrid,” Magnani says. “Maybe earthquake activity moves around systematically over time.” Tuttle has begun a four-year project to date sand blows inside and outside the New Madrid Seismic Zone. “We’ve got to get a solid understanding of what large earthquakes happened where and when,” she says. That’s the best way to estimate the hazard to the Midwest and its millions of people and countless highways, bridges, skyscrapers and crumble-prone brick buildings. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the risk of another New Madrid-scale catastrophe in the next 50 years is about 7 to 10 percent. The risk of a smaller, though still devastating, 6.0 earthquake in the next 50 years is 25 to 40 percent. Ongoing research should help identify which areas are most in danger. “We need a broader, yet clearer picture of all the networks of faults that have been active in the region,” says Magnani. “We need to find out how big they are and their underlying structures. That’s the only way we can hope to understand intraplate earthquakes—and ultimately keep people safe.” Elizabeth Rusch wrote about extracting energy from ocean waves for Smithsonian.
It’s a classic scene, found in nearly every television show and movie about crime and cops. There’s a good cop and a bad cop, and by combining brute force and gentle understanding, they get the criminal to confess to his crime. The problem is, this strategy might not actually work. New research from the University of Portsmouth recently reenacted a good cop, bad cop scenario with research subjects. Students were assigned groups—they would either be telling the truth about a job they really had, or assigned a fictional job that they were going to lie about. With three days to prepare, the students were then asked detailed questions about their job. For both groups, the person asking the questions was neutral. It was the person taking notes who varied. Sometimes they were the good cop, nodding and smiling as the person spoke. In other cases they were bad, frowning and shaking their head during the note taking. Christian Jarrett at Research Digest explains the results: Here’s the headline result – the truth-telling participants gave more detailed answers than the liars, but only when the second interviewer provided a supportive presence. This runs entirely counter to the aggressive questioning styles so often portrayed in fiction. By creating a reassuring atmosphere, the second interviewer encouraged the honest interviewees to open up more, which made the the lack of detail given by liars stand out. Of course, these are students, not criminals. Lives were not at stake, only a £5 reward for fooling the interviewers. Other studies have looked more directly at the good cop, bad cop dynamic and found a bit more support for the practice. And as we’ve covered before, undergrads respond very differently to classic psychology experiments than criminals do. But if the research stands, it could mean that bad cops aren’t helping anybody. More from Smithsonian.com:
This is a collection of School Admission and Discharges for schools in London. This collection contains more than a million students from 843 different schools. In 1833, Parliament started to provide money for the construction of schools for poor children, although it was still largely a private affair. Mandatory schooling was a local decision until 1870, when children were required to attend from age 5 to 10. By 1918, education was required up to the age of 14. These records are lists of children who were admitted to and discharged from schools. When education was required, children could be discharged from their schooling if they were needed to work to help support the family. The records vary by school and some are more detailed than others. The records available on Ancestry.co.uk include: · Admission Date · Parents’ names · Parents’ occupation · Birth date Ancestry.co.uk is available free to use in the Library of the Society of Genealogists
Solar Power Rebates, Tax Credits and Solar Panel Incentives in Maine; 2012 Update The incentives and rebates available for solar power in Maine are as follow. Maine's RPS or Renewable Portfolio Standard Maine's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) adopted rules for the state's Renewable Resource Portfolio Requirement. Maine has set a target of 30% of electricity to come from renewable power. Federal Tax Credit The single most significant financial incentive for your solar power system in Maine is the same Federal Tax Credit that applies right across the USA. This gives you a credit on your Federal Tax bill equivalent to 30% of the cost of your solar system For more information on this visit out page "The 30% federal tax credit for residential solar power systems" Because this is a tax credit you get the benefit of this when you do your next federal tax return, rather than getting a cheque on the day of installation. Still, it has a real value if you are in a position where you are paying annual federal income tax equivalent to 30% or more of the value of your solar panel system. Maine State Rebates Maine has a state based rebate system in operation for solar power, the rebate is available to a maximum of $2,000 . Funding restrictions apply and is on a first come first served basis. The total fund was increased from $500,00 to 1,000,000 in April 2012. The best way to see if funding is still available is to click "here" and get contacted by local solar professionals who knows the current state of play. Maine Net Metering All of Maine's electric utilities must offer net metering for individual customers. Net metering means that your Utility will monitor how much power you consume versus how much power you generate back to the grid. Net metering is available to owners of eligible, qualified facilities. Net excess generation (NEG) is credited to the following month for up to 12 months; after that any excess generated kilowatt hours or credits are granted back to the Utility. You need to contact you Utility for details of their Net metering programs. Maine Solar Incentives and investment case: Summary April 2012 Maine has a reasonable overall package of incentives to help meet its solar targets. It is not the best but it is not the worst. It seems that the Maine legislature are heading in the right direction as far as establishing the required incentives that will encourage the uptake of solar power in the state. A state funded rebate program is currently being reviewed (May 2012) and hopefully we will see a new program on offer soon.
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk California State Historic Landmark 983 #983 Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk A local landmark since 1907, this boardwalk was one of the first amusement parks in California. It is now the only oceanside amusement park operating on the west coast. The boardwalk is the site of two rare attractions, the 1911 carousel and the 1924 Giant Dipper roller coaster. Both were manufactured by members of the Looff family, some of the nation's earliest and most prominent makers of amusement rides. Plaque located near carousel, 400 Beach St, Santa Cruz. Return to other landmarks in Santa Cruz county. Send comments to:
J.D. Martin began his career in athletics at OU in 1958, competing in the pole vault. In 1960, Martin won the NCAA pole vault title and later set the world record when he cleared 159 3/4". Martins accomplishments as the Sooners head coach are just as impressive. As he enters his 33rd year at the helm, Martin continues to produce athletes that have been competitive not only in the conference, but at the national level as well. Martin has coached 171 All-Americans, both men and women. OU had only five other All-Americans before Martin took over, and two of those were won by Martin himself. Kay Gooch, arguably the greatest runner in school history, finished her career at OU in 1994. She was an eight-time All-American in both track & field and cross country as well as holding numerous school and national records. Her time of 8:58.85 in the 3,000-meter run finished the 1994 indoor season as the fastest time in the world. She is the only Sooner woman to ever win two NCAA titles; the 1993 outdoor 5,000 and the 1994 indoor 3,000. Nationally, the Sooners mile relay teams are always seen as a threat. OU has won the NCAA indoor mile relay championship five times (1967, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1996). The 96 team made up of Roxbert Martin, Ryan Kite, Justin Chapman and Danny McFarlane set an NCAA record at the NCAA national indoor meet in Indianapolis. Their time of 3:04.46 is the fourth fastest indoor time in the history of the world. OU has also had athletes competing at the international level. Tom Churchill was the Sooners first Olympian as he finished fifth in the decathlon in 1928 at Amsterdam. Glenn Dawson and Neville Price are the only two Sooners to ever place in the Olympics twice. Dawson finished sixth in the steeplechase in 1932 and eighth in the same event in 1936. Price finished 11th in the broad jump in 1952, but improved to seventh in 1956. More recently, Sooners Jason Rouser and Roxbert Martin competed at the centennial games in Atlanta. Martin ran in the 400 meter dash and Rouser was a member of the gold medal-winning 4x400-meter relay team.
Riotous Assembly of Locusts I was rereading some notes I’d made on locusts the other day and was immediately transported to the scenes of the recent London riots. Consider this: locusts are not born locusts. They are born grasshoppers. Gentle creatures, mostly timid and solitary. But put them in an overcrowded situation and they become locusts. Their colours turn garish, and they turn into overeating, rampaging hooligans. They come together in ever larger numbers. A few groups merge, then a few thousand more, then eventually a swarm so large they blacken the skies and make farmers panic. They are fearless. They strip the land, devouring every living green thing. It sounds uncannily familiar. I saw it all the other day on Sky TV. But what of the aftermath? Well, a locust plague sounds scary and is so for a while. On the other hand, predators like storks, small raptors and jackals love these times of plenty and (unless pesticides are sprayed - which happens less and less these days) they have a fine old time wolfing down all that protein. And apparently a locust swarm can leave up to 2 millions of tonnes of locust dung behind - great fertiliser. So a frightening locust swarm can have a long-term beneficial effect. I wonder if anyone can say the same of rioters?
The Department of Health and Environmental Control Board recently decided to hear appeals by two environmental groups challenging the permits issued by DHEC to Duke energy to operate five dams on the Catawba and Wateree Rivers. The hearing is scheduled for July 9 and will involve American Rivers and the Coastal Conservation League. The environmental groups are concerned that the flow requirement Duke Energy has proposed will only give South Carolina 25 percent of the water coming down the Catawba-Wateree and that will be inadequate for fish and wildlife as well as people who use the river. Duke spokesman Andy Thompson counters that the agreement under the new license is an actual upgrade from the current system.”We’ll actually release more water on a continuous basis under this new license than our current operations. This means there will be greater fish habitat, improved recreation, better water quality. A more balanced approach will provide more water for cites that need it for drinking water, water intakes, industrial uses, just a wide range of uses.” Thompson says the new comprehensive relicensing agreement is a culmination of extensive work over a a three year period with the participation of 85 stakeholders including the two challenging parties. Thompson says 70 of the stakeholders, which includes towns and cities along the river, signed off on the agreement. Members of the Coastal Conservation League have expressed concern that the agreement Duke Energy has secured says that the amount of water released from the dams is not predicated on seasonal conditions. Some environmentalists say the water release should be variable considering that the amount of rainfall varies depending on the time and season of the year. Thompson says Duke Energy uses a system call a “low inflow protocol” which the 70 stakeholders signed off on and has a proven track record of effectiveness. “That basically set parameters on how we would operate our lake releases, how we would use our lakes for generation so that we would have enough water available for drinking and other uses during the period of drought. As a result of this procedure that we developed and put in place, no water intake was uncovered and we got through the worse drought in this region’s history in very good shape.” Some environmentalists have expressed concern that the amount of water released from the dams would be inadequate for certain forms of fish and wildlife especially the federally endangered shortnose sturgeon. Thompson says according to recent studies, sturgeon have not existed in the river in quite some time if ever. “The South Carolina Marine Resources Research Institute, with support from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the National Marine Fishery Services, prepared a document in 1997 and they could not show any sign of sturgeon in the Wateree River going back as far as 1896, so we really don’t believe that’s an issue. The environmental groups charge that in its re-licensing agreement Duke Energy has dealt with the state in an exchange of minimum water flows with some protection of some areas of shore land along the river. Thompson says Duke Energy has developed, along with its stakeholders, a balanced plan to provide the energy that is needed for a growing population while maintaining the quality of life of the region. “We have people who have signed on with our agreement like the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the South Carolina Department of Recreation and Tourism, the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, and towns up and down the Catawba-Wateree River. This has been a monumental effort that has focused on the balanced use of these rivers so we can meet the needs of stakeholders up and down the Catawba River.”
- About Us - Local Savings - Green Editions - Legal Notices - Weekly Ads Connect with Us Code change will allow taller buildings in county A pair of building ordinances melded into one Monday will allow builders to put up taller houses in Island County. The ordinances were combined by the Board of Island County Commissioners, an action that Planning Director Phil Bakke called a "technical correction." That make it possible to build a house taller than normally allowed, if a homeowner is willing to have a smaller house footprint. Previously, the ordinance incorporating site coverage variance standards into the county's zoning code was independent of the ordinance that incorporated height variances into that code. Both ordinances were adopted Jan. 7. Bakke said the ordinances originally were taken under separate consideration because it was uncertain if both would pass. He said the amendment changes nothing, but only consolidates the two variance standards into one code. "The only reason why we did it is we had two ordinances under review concurrently," Bakke said Monday. "We had to write them independent of one another, and in order for the code to read appropriately, we had to merge it." The new code applies to height variances allowed for new houses if they have increased setbacks on all property lines or to all sideyards. This means that if a home is built farther from the property lines or if all sideyards are enlarged, the builder may exceed the height limit by a given measure. The requirements for height variation allowances regarding sideyard setbacks are as follows: Adding seven feet to all sideyards allows builders and homeowners an additional foot of building height. Nine feet earns two feet of additional height, 11-foot setbacks adds three feet to a variance, a 13- foot setback yields four feet, and 15 allows five extra feet of height. The requirements for height variation allowances regarding property line setbacks follow a similar progression. Twenty-foot setbacks on all property lines allows a one-foot building height increase, 35 feet allows two extra feet, 50 feet equals three feet; 65- foot setbacks allow four feet of added height, and 80-foot setbacks allow five feet.
by Staff Writers Paris, France (SPX) Aug 17, 2011 The ATV 'Edoardo Amaldi', designed and built by Astrium, is the third unmanned European freight spacecraft for the International Space Station (ISS). Following the extraordinary success of the ATV-1 'Jules Verne' and ATV-2 'Johannes Kepler' missions, 'Edoardo Amaldi' is on its way by sea to the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The cargo ship has undergone extensive system testing at Astrium's north German Bremen site over the last few months and has now been given the go-ahead for the final stage prior to the its flight to the ISS, scheduled for spring next year. The ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) is not only the biggest, most complex spacecraft ever developed and built in Europe, but is also the first vehicle in the world designed to execute rendez-vous and operational docking in fully automated mode. With the retirement of the US Space Shuttle, the ATV is the largest vehicle supplying the ISS. It ferries propellants, food, water and equipment to the ISS. Once docked, it uses its own engines to correct the station's orbit, compensating for a regular loss of altitude due to drag and contributes to collision and debris avoidance. At the end of its mission it is filled with waste, and burns up as it heads back into the Earth's atmosphere. This third ATV is named in honour of the renowned Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi (1908-1989). Astrium is industrial prime contractor for the ATV under contract to the European Space Agency (ESA). There's no time to rest for Astrium's integration team, as they are already hard at work on Edoardo Amaldi's successor - ATV-4 'Albert Einstein'! The latest information about the Commercial Satellite Industry \|The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement\|
Surface Plasmon Early Detection of Circulation Heat Shock Proteins (SPEDOC) SPEDOC is a recently started (January 2010) research initiative financially supported by the European Commission's 7th research Framework programme. SPEDOC aims at combining the latest advances of nano-optics, optical manipulation and microfluidics with recent discoveries about Heat shock Proteins (HSP) to develop the precursor of future individualized cancer diagnosis and treatment follow-up devices. The developed platform, integrated in a microfluidic environment, will exploit the surface plasmon resonances supported by micro and nano- gold nanostructures. (i) to track HSP70 proteins in the peripheral blood and (ii) monitor its over expression at the surface of cancer cells. This innovative platform should also permit providing treatment to cancer patients at an earlier stage and at lower doses with the consequent decrease of secondary effects. SPEDOC counts with the collaborative participation of five research institutions and companies from France, Switzerland and Spain; Institute of Photonic Sciences, Université de Bourgogne, Institut National de la Santé el de la Recherché Médicale, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and Imagine Optic Spain S.L.
Monday, July 25, 2011 abc Pocket Phonics App Review Cross Post From TherapyApp411.com App Name/Publisher: abcPocketPhonics: letter sounds & writing + first words/Published by Apps in My Pocket Ltd. Description: Phonics application that targets letter sounds for the 20 letters of the alphabet and letter diagraphs. Application demonstrates proper letter formation. Children can trace letters to practice their letter formation. Therapy Use: Therapists can use this app to target the following skills: literacy, phonemic awareness, letter identification, sound symbol relationships, diagraphs, letter formation, blending, decoding and spelling. App Benefits/Likes: App allows option to customize for individual children. App provides practice with both upper and lower case letters. The app provides a cursive writing option. The app has an option to turn on/off feedback for accuracy of letter formation. In addition to targeting letter formation, the app targets decoding of early words. Cautions: Children with fine motor needs may become frustrated unless the formation accuracy is turned off. Fine motor planning Fine motor control Age/Grade Levels Targeted Early Elementary (Grades 1 – 3) How to Activate Hold and drag Type of Device iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad Would you recommend this app? Deb Tomarakos, M.A. CCC/SLP
Ottawa starts year in better shape narrowing deficit to $1.15B in April-May Friday, Jul 25, 2014 01:30 pm OTTAWA - The federal government continues to show progress in its drive to eliminate the deficit by next year, the latest accounting from the Finance Department indicates. In the first report on its financial position for the new 2014-15 fiscal year, the department said it posted a combined $1.15-billion deficit for April and May, the first two months of the fiscal year. That compared with a $2.7-billion shortfall last year during the same period. The improvement was mostly on the revenue side as the government took in $1.6 billion, or 3.8 per cent, more than in the April-May months last year, while program expenses increased only $216 million, or 0.6 per cent. Debt charges fell by $167 million. By individual months, Ottawa said April produced a $1.4 billion deficit, while May brought a tiny surplus of $267 million. The April-May numbers slightly undershoot the pace required to achieve the budget goal of a $2.9-billion deficit in 2014-15, especially since the government is counting on making huge strides on the deficit during this fiscal period. The budget estimate for last year's deficit was $16.6 billion, meaning that Ottawa will need to shave about $13.7 billion from that number in one year to meet the target. Analysts caution, however, that the monthly tracking of the fiscal position can be "lumpy." Individual reports can show large swings that are not indicative of the underlying state of the country's finances. "It's a pretty respectable start, although it is early days yet," said Mary Webb, a senior economist with Scotiabank who specializes on fiscal policy. "The part I worry about is on the revenue side because employment has not been very strong and for the government personal income tax is very important." Employment growth has been weak in Canada the past 12 months with only 72,000 net new jobs created. However, the government has benefited from strong oil prices and higher inflation, which tends to increase tax revenues. Webb said attaining a balanced budget by 2015 is "important politically" for the Harper government, but not from a market perspective. "If Ottawa was able to reduce the deficit to below $5 billion, it will look very good and the deficit will be a fraction of GDP (gross domestic product)," she pointed out. Politically, however, the Conservatives need to balance the budget in order to fulfil a 2011 election promise to cut taxes for families through income splitting once the deficit is eliminated. Ottawa has a few aces in the sleeve toward achieving the target, even if economic and employment growth underperform expectations. Although the budget projected a $16.6-billion deficit for last year, the preliminary numbers point to a shortfall about $4 billion below that number. As well, Ottawa has built in a $3-billion contingency buffer it may not need. Finally, the government can sell assets, such as millions of General Motors shares, to reduce the deficit. Still, the expectation is that in the coming months Ottawa's books will be showing fewer and smaller monthly shortfalls, turning to surpluses by the end of the year.
The drum comes with an adjustable lanyard and toddler size drumsticks that are perfect for beating on the big drum. Children tend to be very receptive to music as it helps to enhance their sensory perception, auditory skill and cognitive development. Playing with the Big Drum that imitates a the real sound of musical instruments is a good way to get children involved with music. Enhances fine motor skill, hand-eye coordination and basic knowledge of music. Toys inspire children's imagination and help them to develop physically and intellectually. Babies can spend hours playing with (and chewing and sucking on!) their toys. Make sure you choose toys that are safe by investing in wood toys colored with natural dyes or organic plush toys instead of the usual plastic that clutters your home. If you must buy plastic, look for it to be BPA free, PVC free, and phthalate free. For more on the benefits of choosing an organic or wooden toy, see our Healthy Baby Guides. To learn about our visit to the factory where this toy was made, click here
The latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), reflecting the scientific consensus on global warming, came out last week with two seemingly at-odds conclusions. First, there has been a lot of warming since the mid-20th century that is “extremely likely” due to human influence. Second, the lower end of the projected range of future warming is lower than once thought, and there is a slight, unexplained lack of predicted warming over the past decade. (Yay?) But the report’s main message is certain: The world scientific community, represented by more than 250 authors and 1,000 reviewers from 39 countries, believes that “warming in the climate system is unequivocal” based on multiple lines of independent evidence. The oceans are warmer, there is less ice and snow, the atmosphere has more carbon and sea level has risen. Climate change is here. Like the IPCC’s four previous major assessments, dating back to 1990, the Fifth Assessment Report provides an in-depth (3,000-page) overview of the many observed changes in the climate system, relying on everything from model simulations, “instrumental era” data going back to the mid-19th century, and paleoclimate reconstructions from ice and sediment cores, which date back hundreds to millions of years. Helpfully, the IPCC also provides a Summary for Policymakers, which makes a number of overarching conclusions, assigns confidence levels for each one and provides clear summaries of the evidence presented in the full report. Here are some of the main points: - Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer than any preceding decade since 1850 (p. 3). - Over the last two decades, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been losing mass, glaciers have continued to shrink almost world wide, and Arctic sea ice and Northern Hemisphere snow cover have shrunk (p. 5). - The rate of sea level rise since the mid-19th century has been larger than the mean rate during the previous two millenia (p. 6). - The atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (CO2, N2O and CH4) have increased to levels unprecedented in the last 800,000 years. CO2 concentrations have increased by 40 percent since pre-industrial times. The ocean has absorbed 30 percent of this, and has acidified. (p. 7). - It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century (p. 12). - Most aspects of climate change will persist for many centuries even if further emissions of CO2 are stopped (p. 19). If that isn’t sobering enough, now consider that one of the main criticisms of the new assessment is that it is too conservative. Michael Mann, the climate scientist who invented the famous hockey stick graph, criticized the conclusion that the lower end of the range of uncertainty around future warming should be lowered, simply based on less-than-expected warming over the last decade. Mann also said the approach to sea level rise was too conservative, and it left out a credible study suggesting sea levels could rise twice as much by 2100 as the IPCC predicts. Other scientists have raised concerns that the report does not describe “positive feedbacks” (where nature amplifies man-made warming), such as what could occur if land-based ice in Greenland and Antarctica were to melt suddenly, possibly triggered by melting permafrost releasing tons of potent methane into the atmosphere. These scary scenarios suggest a much greater threat to the world’s coastal zones than the IPCC report does. The IPCC’s process will perhaps always run conservative, though, because the deadline for incorporating new research into models is several years before the assessment report comes out, and is thus always lagging the leading edge of scientific knowledge. What does all of this mean for the Bay Area? Our region (and our state) have done a lot to come up with responsible policy to reduce emissions (leading with the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act or AB 32 and continuing with Plan Bay Area), and also to beta-test adaptation approaches, such as SPUR’s Ocean Beach Master Plan and BCDC’s Adapting to Rising Tides project. However, with accelerating climate change on the way, we must hasten our efforts to plan ahead. Resiliency cannot be left to a wait-and-see approach: We must prepare for the full range of impacts we are likely to experience, seriously consider the threats at the upper boundary of uncertainty and start adapting. As the IPCC confirmed, it’s too late to stop some impacts: Past, present and future emissions of CO2 have triggered a “substantial multi-century climate change commitment.” What’s worse: Limiting the warming to less than 2 degrees C (the upper limit of “safe” climate change) would require the total cessation of emissions to the atmosphere of about 800 gigatons of carbon. As of 2011, we have already emitted two-thirds of this amount.
Extracting a string from between two delimiting characters I recently received correspondence from Denis Oliynik, IT manager at JSC 'Rise', Kiev in the Ukraine, who kindly provided me with a script improving on my previously published solution. Denis's solution removes the CASE statement for handling where a second delimiting character is not present. This simplified code explained below offers a clever trick to add to your SQL skills. Here is the DML and DDL to create a sample table and insert some data CREATE TABLE Sample_table (Particulars CHAR(120)) INSERT INTO Sample_table VALUES('LDR ; LUC20031026901 ; Vehicle') INSERT INTO Sample_table VALUES('LDR ; Consolidated') INSERT INTO Sample_table VALUES('LDR ; SUB35030172701 ; Building') INSERT INTO Sample_table VALUES('LDRR ; LIQ200310121 ; Liquor') /* <text>> / Particulars, / <start > / CHARINDEX(';',Particulars,1) + 1, / <length> */ CHARINDEX(';', SUBSTRING(Particulars, CHARINDEX(';', Particulars, 1) + 1, 99) + ';') - 1 ) ) ) AS Result_string How it works The problem previously was to identify the length from the first semi-colon to the second semi-colon. If the second semi-colon was absent there was no reference point to work with and unless tested for by a prior CASE statement, the solution failed. This solution overcomes the problem by adding in a semi-colon to the end of the string extracted by the SUBSTRING function. In our examples the results of the above SUBSTRING line will look as follows LUC20031026901 ; Vehicle; SUB35030172701 ; Building; LIQ200310121 ; Liquor; The original string for "Consolidated" did not have a semi-colon, which has now been added. This will be recognised by the second CHARINDEX to determine the end position. The other three already had their second semi-colon, which the CHARINDEX will recognise. In these instances the added semi-colon is not referenced. Subtracting 1 from the result gives us the length less the semi-colon, and the resulting sting can be extracted. Many thanks to Denis Oliynik, for showing that for every solution there is often a better one, and proving we are truly a global community. I hope the solution proves useful and feedback is welcomed.
Imagine going to a casino with $100 dollars to gamble. As you enter, you notice a vending machine that sells gambling insurance policies. For a small price, the insurance policy will guarantee to replace any losses that you may incur while gambling. So being a prudent person, you buy one. Now you can’t lose anymore than the cost of the insurance. But that was so easy, why not buy two (or more) insurance policies –then if you lose, you get back more than the amount you lost. There is nothing that stops you from buying multiple policies. Now you will be better off financially if you lose all of your money –the more you lose, the more you gain. At least to a lot of really, really smart people, it seemed that way… But you have just now lost any incentive to win, in fact, perversely, you want to lose, you need to lose. And even more perversely, there is no requirement that you have an 'insurable interest', so you buy an insurance policy (or two) against other folks losses. If they lose, you win. Maybe you even start betting against them, trying to help them lose, knowing full well that your own loses are insured. Sounds rather bizarre, doesn't it. That is how five trillion dollars of worldwide debt ballooned to 60 trillion dollars in contractual obgligations. In conversations this week, and in a Twitter thread, I was reminded that the weekly program, 'This American Life', broadcast on National Public Radio, has presented a series of discussions/explanations about the underlying causes of the current global economic crisis. I know, that for me, it has been a struggle to understand how so many really 'smart' folks made such profoundly 'dumb' mistakes. I wanted to blame it all on avarice or greed, or illegal activities. Not discounting those factors, I now understand this is a problem of unintended consequences when folks attempt to remove 'risk' from financial life. If you would like to get a better understanding, and perhaps learn what is a CDO, or CDS, or why your tax dollars are going to be used for decades to 'clean up' this debacle, I highly recommend these episodes. You can listen to them streaming online for free, or you can purchase the podcasts and download to your pod device. The Giant Pool of Money (2008/05/09) This American Life producer Alex Blumberg teams up with NPR's Adam Davidson for the entire hour to tell the story—the surprisingly entertaining story—of how the U.S. got itself into a housing crisis. They talk to people who were actually working in the housing, banking, finance and mortgage industries, about what they thought during the boom times, and why the bust happened. And they explain that a lot of it has to do with the giant global pool of money. Another Frightening Show About the Economy (2008/10/03) Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson recount the 36-hour period, when the credit markets froze. Plus, what it’s like now for businesses to get short-term loans, and how the hardship is spreading to every sector of the economy. One more confusing financial product that’s bringing down the global economy. And one of way to think about this product is this: If bad mortgages got the financial system sick, this next thing you’re about to hear about, helped spread the sickness into an epidemic. These are "credit default swaps." Ira Glass talks with Michael Greenberger, a former commodities regulator, who tells the story of when it was decided not to regulate credit default swaps. And how that decision was emblematic of the way we didn’t regulate a lot of the toxic financial products we’re hearing about now. Bad Bank (2009/02/27) The collapse of the banking system explained, in just 59 minutes. Alex Blumberg and NPR’s Adam Davidson—are back to help all of us understand the news. For instance, when we talk about an insolvent bank, what does it actually mean, and why are we giving hundreds of billions of dollars to rich bankers who screwed up their own businesses?
Goldenrod crab spider one sneaky customer Wednesday, Jul 23, 2014 06:00 am Goldenrod crab spider Misumena vatia, a.k.a. flower crab spider. Small yellow or white spider with long front legs and a crab-like body. Females have red or pink racing stripes on the sides of their body. Sitting on a small yellow or white flower, front legs outstretched. Occasionally confused with: Flowers, or bees (if you only see their lunch). Carl Alexander Clerck first identified this spider as Araneus vaitus (“bowlegged spider”) in 1757. Its current name roughly translates as “bowlegged object of hate.”
No British prime minister can abdicate from the continuous negotiating process that is the reality of EU membership. After the German elections in September, any German chancellor will find it essential to start negotiating with David Cameron and not wait until 2017. The eurozone crisis still hovers in the background. The EU, the second-largest trading bloc in the world after the US, will not reverse its depressed economic state with the UK uncertain for four years as to whether it will remain a member. Commercial, business and financial interests dictate that negotiations are brought forward. It is time the present political leaders in Britain recognised that on this issue past leaders have often acted across party lines. All parties are split on many of these questions. The status quo is no longer an option. By October this year, Cameron must have hammered out a negotiating position within the Coalition — or the Coalition should cease to exist. The minority Coalition partner is not entitled to stop the UK negotiating in the EU. The Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer must be able to negotiate within the EU and put the result fairly to the British people through a referendum. The Liberal Democrats will still be free to recommend a “yes” or “no” vote in that referendum. It is hard to deny that there is now a settled will among the British people to decide on our future relationship with Europe. They do not want this to be decided through a general election that leaves it solely to the politicians. It would be best to hold an EU referendum alongside the June 2014 European parliamentary elections. If the negotiations are not completed by then, the next window of opportunity would be September to December 2014, with a referendum before the end of February 2015. The good news for an October 2013-April 2014 negotiation is that there is now, for the first time, a procedure available for making quick treaty changes, provided there is unanimity in the European Council. One set of treaty amendments should, since Germany insists they are necessary, involve the eurozone. Such changes would not involve a significant transfer of sovereignty from the UK and therefore will not need a referendum under the 2011 referendum legislation. The second set of treaty amendments is where the UK would ask as a quid pro quo for acquiescing in eurozone treaty amendments to restructure the Single Market. It is simply unacceptable for the UK to facilitate a more integrated eurozone with, in effect, a block vote controlling all Single Market legislation. Both sets of treaty amendments would then be ready to be put in place depending on the outcome of a UK referendum. Those parliamentarians in every party who believe there is no negotiation to be had within the EU will see their views tested. But that issue must be tested and Britain must genuinely be seen to try. If it fails, then regrettably a simple In/Out referendum must be held. I find it hard to conceive that many Liberal Democrat or Labour MPs would vote against the necessary legislation for a referendum once negotiations have been completed. The anger of the British people would be so strong that few MPs at that stage would risk such voters’ rebuff in the 2015 general election. The UK negotiating position would be for a Single Market that is designed for the whole of Europe. It would follow the existing Economic Area Agreement (EEA), to which all EU countries are signatories. The EEA already separates out Single Market policies from all the complex EU treaties. Signatory countries outside the EU, such as Norway and Iceland, would immediately become full voting members. All European non-EU countries would be eligible to apply to join. A country such as Turkey, already in a customs union with the EU, should be welcomed into the EEA. There would be no commitment to free movement of labour for new members. Free movement of labour is not essential to a Single Market; it would stay, however, for those EU members who are already in or aspire to be in the eurozone. The EU has not hitherto treated Turkey well and it is not in our long-term interests to turn Turkey away from Europe. A restructured EEA would also provide a useful stepping stone to full EU membership for countries in the Balkans who are many years away from joining. The rest of the EU may well be persuaded to make other sensible changes, such as dropping or radically changing the working time directives, helping to satisfy some EU critics, not just in the UK but elsewhere in Europe. There will not be a readiness to offer repatriation of powers to only the UK. If early agreement is possible — by next spring — the UK should choose to have a referendum well in advance of the September 2014 referendum on Scottish independence. No negotiation works unless both sides gain. What would the EU get out of this? First and foremost, it would get continued eurozone reform without UK obstruction or holding back. Eurozone members would be heading for a more integrated Europe at a pace which they would set by the end of June 2014. Meanwhile, the UK would get clarity over its relationship with the EU. As after the 1975 referendum, a period of stability should follow. It might be necessary, in fairness, to offer three choices in a UK referendum: to stay in the EU and modified EEA, retaining the option of entering the eurozone at some future stage; to stay in the EU/EEA but opt out of aspects of the existing EU that are identified in the negotiations as not being essential for countries that do not wish to ever join the eurozone, such as the Common Fisheries Policy; or to withdraw completely from the EU within two years, using Article 50. No one can be sure but I believe the British people would choose the second option.Reuse content
Snowmass Village A hairy, prehistoric elephant brought the circus to Snowmass Village on Wednesday. A Snowmass Water and Sanitation board meeting drew a packed crowd to a room at the Snowmass Club, where a selection of bones from a prehistoric mammoth were put on display for curious onlookers. Fascinated kids and adults, a class of schoolchildren, reporters and television news crews filed past the collection of giant, coffee-colored bones, recently unearthed from a reservoir excavation project just west of town. The board has not yet decided what to do with the remains of the creature; another meeting is scheduled Monday, but the Denver Museum of Nature and Science appears to be the most likely repository for the bones. The museum has offered to handle excavation of the sensitive site, and take the bones to Denver where they can be preserved in a controlled atmosphere. The bones have not been fossilized — turned to stone, in other words — but remain soft and porous, in much the same shape they were in when the mammoth was encased in a peat bog some 10,000-plus years ago. On Wednesday, Water and Sanitation employees were spraying the specimens on display with distilled water from time to time to keep them moist. For now, they are being stored in dark plastic and kept damp, in a cool place. Yet to be determined is whether the animal is a Columbian mammoth or the much rarer woolly mammoth, according to Ian Miller, paleontologist and chairman of the museum’s Earth Sciences Department. “There are no known woolly mammoths from Colorado yet,” he said. The museum’s mammoth expert, Steve Holen, is expected to return to Denver from the Yukon on Saturday and then will head to Snowmass Village if the museum takes on the project, Miller said. Holen will be able to determine which type of mammoth it is by examining its teeth and bone structure. Either way, the discovery of a mammoth is a “significant scientific find,” said Bob Mutaw, cultural resources team leader for URS, the engineering firm involved in the reservoir project.
Time to Prune Fruit Trees by Don Trotter Hello fellow Earthlings and welcome to the documentary "George Washington, America's first fruit tree pruning expert". I'm not sure how good he was at running the country, but he gave that cherry tree hell. This is the third and final installment on deciduous fruit trees. We have covered feeding, dormant spraying, and this installment is pruning for tree health as well as maximum fruiting. So let's take a stroll down to the fruit trees with all our pruning weapons in hand... Don't forget your gloves. Fruit tree pruning is an art form that is not at all difficult to excel at, and it is very easy to mess up as well. The wonderful part about a messed up pruning job is that it only lasts for one year. The tree forgives you and gives you another chance the following year. I'm here to help you avoid those mishaps and to help you to help your tree be happy and fruitful in the spring and summer. In this column we will be covering basic techniques for the most common types of fruit trees grown residentially. First we will touch on the pruning tasks that are universal to each of the fruit types we will cover here. If you have any questions that require a more detailed response e-mail or call me with your question at the numbers at that always appear at the end of my column. When pruning deciduous fruit trees it is always helpful to remember three steps to a good basic pruning job. - Eliminate all dead or diseased wood. - Eliminate crossing or touching branches in favor of the stronger growth when possible. - Keep the center of the tree clear of branches for good air circulation. These three steps will assure you of a pruning job that keeps your fruit to the outside of the tree for easy picking, keeps the center of the tree open for air circulation that will reduce pest and disease problems, and keep the tree tidy and free of decaying wood that serves no purpose. Some specific information regarding the most often grown fruit trees is as follows and speaks of the age of "fruiting" wood. For example, wood that was formed during last year's growing season will be considered second year wood and wood that was formed two seasons ago is referred to as third year wood. Wood that will be formed during the growing season coming will be call first year wood. Apples and pears; Most fruit is formed on second and third year wood. Apples and pears produce a type of fruiting wood called a spur. Spurs are where a lot of fruit can be produced, they look exactly like stunted branchlets and should be saved unless dead or in a spot where they conflict (cross) with other growth. Apples and pears also produce fruit along the middle section of second year wood. Apples and pears do best when pruning is limited to cleaning and shaping. No more than 25% of the previous year's growth should be removed to maximize fruit production. Apricot, Peach. Plum, Nectarine; Due to the briefness of this column, I must group these trees together. Most of the fruit for all of these fruit varieties is formed on second and third year wood. Plums can also form spurs like Apples and this growth formation should be saved whenever possible. Crossing branches should always be eliminated and the long whip-like growth that was formed last year on some branches can be reduced up to 60%. Apricots also produce these whips and they can be treated similarly. Most of the fruit is produced in the middle third of the growth that was formed last season (second year wood). All precaution should be taken to preserve this wood whenever possible. Having an open center is very important to all of these varieties of trees to reduce the possibility of disease and pest infestations. It is always a good thing to apply a dormant spray immediately after pruning to seal and disinfect and open cuts in the tree before next year's growth begins. My favorite pruning sealer is good old Elmer's white glue. Rub it or brush it on the open cults in your tree to seal out bad guys. Pruning your fruit trees is not nearly as daunting a task as many like to make it. Simply cleaning your tree of dead wood, elimination of crossing branches, and shaping your tree is often enough for residential fruit trees so they maintain their shape and attractiveness in the garden. Next we will be spending the entire month of January on roses. I'll see you in the Garden! More Money-Saving Tips for Your Home - Should I use a HELOC for home remodeling and repairs - Find the best mortgage rates in your area - 3 ways to use a mortgage calculator - Mortgage calculator: Calculate your payment and more - Home equity calculator: HELOC vs. line of credit - How much can additional payments save me on my mortgage? - Who offers the most home insurance discounts?
Amazed by Necessary Facts : Swinburne's Teleological Arguments by Francois Tremblay Teleological arguments are argument seeking to establish a proof using the evidence from natural order and patterns. While cosmological arguments are arguments about the universe as a whole, teleological arguments use specific order or patterns in nature. In this article, I will look over Swinburne’s Teleological Arguments as presented in his article ‘Argument from Design’. Swinburne’s arguments, and his amazement at facts of nature, displays very well the difference between the theological and rational-scientific worldviews. As we will see, he finds things such as the existence of natural law to be quite incredible. Why should he feel this way ? Because, of course, he assumes that the only alternative is chance, like most theologians , and does not acknowledge that an ordered universe is a necessary fact. In the place of a theologian, I would be quite vexed. If only God was a necessary fact, and not the very universe I lived in, I would have no grounds for principles, laws of nature, absolutes. Every single fact in the universe would be contingent to a supernatural being. So Swinburne, when he invokes natural law as evidence, presupposes the rational-scientific worldview. As I get into each argument, I will repeat these two points – that Swinburne’s arguments assume a false dichotomy by rejecting the necessity of the universe, and that his arguments are self-defeating. They are crucial flaws of any theistic teleological argument. I will also examine other problems when they arise. Swinburne’s two arguments use temporal order (natural law, uniformity of nature) and beauty. 1. Teleological Argument from Temporal Order Swinburne introduces the topic by describing the two forms of order, spatial order (the arrangement of things) and temporal order (their succession by virtue of natural law). A good example of a teleological argument based on the former would be Paley’s Watchmaker Argument, where the complex arrangement of parts in a watch is considered proof of a Creator. Swinburne, however, is correct in pointing out that evolution elegantly disproves this category of arguments. Instead, he argues from temporal order. He claims that the existence of natural laws, and the corollary of the uniformity of nature, are surprising facts which demand an explanation :The temporal order of the universe is, to the man who bothers to give it a moment’s thought, an overwhelmingly striking fact about it. Regularities of succession are allpervasive. For simple laws govern almost all successions of events. In books of physics, chemistry, and biology we can learn how almost everything in the world behaves. (...) The orderliness of the universe in this respect is a very striking fact about it. The universe might so naturally have been chaotic, but it is not-it is very orderly. Is it such a surprising fact ? What else does Swinburne expect exactly ? As he says himself, a “chaotic” universe. But why should we expect a chaotic universe to be a metaphysical default ? Of course, to the theologian, who rejects the necessary nature of the universe, it is a valid question. God could have created a chaotic universe just as well as an ordered one. But from our perspective, his amazement is about as absurd as God being amazed about its own existence. We can see that Swinburne is positing a false dichotomy between chance and design. We can identify his hidden reasoning as such : (1) Without a Creator, the universe should be chaotic, since the only alternative to design is chance. He also uses this assertion of chance when he compares the facts of the universe with a “card-shuffling machine”. But we must reject (1) as a false dichotomy. Natural law is a consequence of the existence of various identities belonging to a number of particles that compose the matter of the universe. As such, Swinburne thinks he poses us a problem by saying “natural law explains what we see, but what explains natural law ?”. He thinks this is a big “stumper”, when in fact he has walked right into the trap of necessity. We should ask him what explains God’s existence, and see how he sees that question. No doubt he would consider it trivial, and we should consider his point to be just as trivial. His false dichotomy can also be seen, in this case, as an argument from fine-tuning, but in a more fundamental form. As for any other fine-tuning argument, we have to point out that the assumption that the constants of the universe could be different is unproven, and scientific evidence tells us that the unconditional probability of our universe existing as it is, is extremely high. Having established this, Swinburne gets into his argument proper, which we can formalize using his own words. (1) “So the universe is characterized by vast, allpervasive temporal order, the conformity of nature to formula, recorded in the scientific laws formulated by men.” I have already addressed why premise 2 is false – because it posits that a chaotic universe is the metaphysical default But we now have to ask the really tough questions. As Swinburne points out quite gracefully, we found natural law by the use of science. He may very well argue that the existence of natural law is “too big” to be explained by science – a point being increasingly disproven by cosmological discoveries – but it does not alleviate the fact that any examination of natural phenomena can only start from the premise of methodological naturalism. I make this argument in my article “The Impossibility of Divine Intervention”. But most importantly, we have to ask Swinburne, or any other theologian, why they are invoking something they do not believe in as evidence ! Belief in divine causation commits the theologian to uphold that all facts of nature are contingent on a god’s subjective will. If these facts are not necessary but contingent, we cannot count on the “temporal order” to remain allpervasive and on the “conformity of nature” to be maintained. These facts, which are necessary from the rational-scientific worldview, are contingent for the theologian. He therefore cannot admit (1), because doing so contradicts his own worldview. Furthermore, since we do not, and cannot, know the will of a transcendent being, it is functionally similar to chance. Finally, can we agree with Swinburne in (3) that the singular infinite Creator hypothesis is simpler than any other ? To prove this, he tries to argue against Hume’s notion of many gods working together by objecting that his hypothesis is simpler, and that it has more explanatory power because we would expect a universe with many gods to be more chaotic. There is a problem with each objection. How are we to know which hypothesis is simpler ? The substrate of the god-concept is indefinite, and therefore tells us nothing about the ontological status of a god or gods. We have no grounds to declare any god-based hypothesis simpler than any other god-based hypothesis on a numerical basis alone. We also cannot declare all many-gods hypotheses to be insufficient as explanations, since we can imagine a system where each god is “in charge” of a specific natural law. This system would have as much explanatory power as Swinburne’s hypothesis. Therefore we cannot conclude that, even if the syllogism is correct, that the singular infinite Creator hypothesis is the simplest solution, and that Christianity is correct. 2. Teleological Argument from Beauty Swinburne uses a very similar argument, this time for beauty. He seems to be arguing that the non-man-made is necessarily beautiful, or at least that there is a principle similar to this regulating esthetics, when he says :We saw that God has reason, apparently overriding reason, for making, not merely any orderly world (which we have been considering so far) but a beautiful world-at any rate to the extent to which it lies outside the control of creatures. (And he has reason too, I would suggest, even in whatever respects the world does lie within the control of creatures, to give them experience of beauty to develop, and perhaps also some ugliness to annihilate.) (...) Few, however, would deny that our universe (apart from its animal and human inhabitants, and aspects subject to their immediate control) has that beauty. We must ask Swinburne, how did he conclude this ? Presumably, by observing nature and drawing his own conclusions from what he imagines his god wants. Dare we say, that he found what he thinks is a principle regulating the universe ? But he is not allowed to believe in principles, since all natural facts are contingent in his worldview. He cannot argue from regularity in nature because such regularity would have to arise from necessity. His belief in this “principle of beauty”, so to speak, is a concession to the rational-scientific worldview and its justification of principles. And in his deduction he also commits the same false dichotomy. He says :A priori, however, there is no particular reason for expecting a basically beautiful rather than a basically ugly world. In consequence, if the world is beautiful, that fact would be evidence for God’s existence. We can once again rephrase this as : (1) Without a Creator, the universe should be basically ugly, since the only alternative to design is chance. Once again, we have to reject this presupposition as trivially false. From a naturalistic standpoint, Swinburne should know why beauty exists, since he is already aware of the truth of biological evolution. Beauty is a mental operation based on percepts, not only an inherent property of objects. We know that people find symmetry, averageness, and hormone markers attractive in other people’s faces, because they are outwards signs of health. This is not a mystery of cosmic proportions : it is a fact of human nature. The main feature of teleological and fine-tuning arguments is the theologian’s inane awe at the facts of nature. Some theologians make a living out of listing impressive-sounding numbers and scientific facts. But the theologian’s awe stops at “God did it”. Once this conclusion is reached, no more discussion is possible. No principles can be supported, no science can be used, only faith. Swinburne displays the fundamental problems of theism by sweeping aside any naturalistic possibility and stealing concepts that are not part of his worldview. By accepting the necessary nature of reality, and acknowledging that all is material cause and effect, the rational atheist can go beyond such presuppositions and gain real understanding of the universe. No other way ! Last updated: August 2, 2004
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (M.B.B.S) or in Latin, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae,is the;first professional degree awarded upon graduation from Medical school in medicine and surgery by universities in various countries. The naming suggests that they are two separate degrees; however, in practice, they are usually treated as one and awarded together. In many countries, the degrees are awarded after an undergraduate course lasting five or six years. In some cases, a graduate in another discipline may subsequently enter a special graduate-entry medical course, reduced in duration to account for relevant material covered or learning skills acquired during the first degree. In some cases the old first year courses (for six year degrees) in the basic sciences of physics, chemistry and biology have been abolished, and that standard has to be reached by means of school examinations before entry. However, in most countries a newly-graduated Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery must spend a specified period in internship before they can obtain full qualification as a medical practitioner. +2 (Higher Secondary students) with Biology group as the majors can choose Bachelor's Degree in medical Science as their career. Training in this field is available at a number of colleges and institutes all over India. These courses are offered at the levels of The course duration for the various programs is as follows: The Total expense for doing Bachelor's Degree in Dental Science and its related fields are as follows. M.B.B.S - Rs.60000/ per year - (5+ Years) M.S - Rs.75000/ per year - (2 Years) Bank loans and private loans can be easily arranged by directly contacting the banks through the college administrative. A Doctor should also develop qualities like After successful completion of the Bachelor degree, the options for higher education are plenty. A person with the above degree can opt for higher education in the following fields. Almost all the universities and institutes involving Medicine offer Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery programs. Apart from these there are many colleges offering these courses in Abroad. The fresh graduates/post graduates of Dental Science are generally employed in Hospitals/clinics (Both private and Govt.) as The salary can be from Rs.10, 000 to Rs.23, 000 for fresh graduates and increases with the persons experience and knowledge. The Society of Internet Doctors is a consortium of physicians, dentists, mental health care providers, veterinarians, and medical service providers who recognize the importance of the role that the Internet and Medical Websites play in the education of their patients and effective medical practice building. Web site link:http://internetdoctors.org/
SUBWAY® SHAPES UP WITH HEALTH AND WELLBEING COMMITMENTS 10 Mar 2011 The SUBWAY® chain has announced plans to continue its commitment to the health and wellbeing of its customers. The chain has developed new initiatives for 2011 to promote healthier lifestyles. The SUBWAY® chain has provided healthier options for many years. Over the last two years, the chain has made significant progress to introduce improvements and ensure its sandwich and salad menu continues to provide plenty of choice for customers and forms part of a healthy balanced diet. The chain, which first unveiled its Health and Wellbeing commitments in 2008, has published an update on achievements to-date and its ongoing commitments for 2011. Key highlights of the SUBWAY® chain's successes so far include: • Salt reduction - the SUBWAY® chain has significantly reduced salt levels across all products by an average of 33% - and work continues to make further reductions in 2011 and 2012 • Calorie information - nutritional information, including calorie, fat and salt levels, is provided in all stores on the glass counter front as well as on the website • No artificial trans fats - all products have been free from partially hydrogenated vegetable fats and oils (pHVOs) and therefore artificial trans fats since 2009 • Providing 5-a-day - a Garden Side Salad has been added to the snacking menu - this provides one of the 5-a day portions of fruit and vegetables recommended by the Department of Health. In addition, if a customer chooses to have all the salad options with their tailor-made Sub, this will also provide them with one of their 5-a-day • Promoting healthy choices - a Healthy Heart symbol has been added to the menu panels in stores to highlight the Low Fat range of Subs (eight Subs with less than 3g of fat per 100g and less than 347 calories per portion). The customers' choice of any of the eight Low Fat Subs is also supported by the chain's national charity partner, Heart Research UK • Funding for healthy heart programmes - along with the chain's charity partner, Heart Research UK, an initiative was launched to provide 'Healthy Heart Grants' to organisations across the UK who are committed to improving heart health. So far, grants have been awarded to some deserving projects, including a £7,000 grant to fund healthy heart workshops in a youth club in Leicester, a £9,000 grant to Sunderland Football Club to help them deliver interactive healthy heart coaching sessions to 14 schools and a £4,000 grant to the Lancashire Sea Cadets to offer an 'Eatwell 4 Less' course • Working with the Department of Health - the SUBWAY® chain has been actively involved in the Food Network Group as part of the Government's Responsibility Deal - helping to make improvements across the food industry To continue the impressive progress the brand has made to-date, it has set the following commitments for 2011: • Further salt reductions - the SUBWAY® chain is working towards further reductions in salt, in-line with Government targets for 2012 • Reduced fat - the chain is working closely with suppliers to develop meat products with reduced fat, whilst maintaining quality and taste • Calorie information - the SUBWAY® chain is committed to providing transparent nutritional information for customers and, as such, 50 stores are currently conducting in-depth research to pinpoint how and where customers wish information, including calories, to be presented - the results of this research will shape the provision of calorie information in all stores • Healthier bread -new healthier bread options will be tested • Promoting healthy choices - the SUBWAY® chain will use posters in stores to communicate healthy lifestyle messages to customers. The chain is also investigating the use of stickers on the Sub wrapper to highlight these messages • Developing partnership with Heart Research UK - as well as the ongoing Healthy Heart Grants for organisations promoting heart health, the chain is planning a promotional campaign to encourage healthy heart choices, called 'Love your Heart' month Commenting on the SUBWAY® chain's commitments, Professor David Haslam, Chair of the National Obesity Forum said: "It's encouraging to see a big brand like the SUBWAY® chain publicly announcing its commitment to help improve the health of the nation. The chain has made some impressive progress to-date, especially around salt reduction and we are delighted to see they are not resting on their laurels and have committed to introducing further improvements." « Back to news
Other black politicians had run for the office of Chicago mayor before. In fact, even Harold Washington had. Most of those past campaigns had been quixotic, symbolic, and, in the end, futile. But things were different in 1983. Black community leaders and politicians sensed that the combination of dissatisfaction with Mayor Jane Byrne and unusually high numbers of newly registered black voters had made the time right for a major campaign for the mayor's office in a city that was about evenly divided between black and white residents.Washington, a United States congressman who had once done prison time for failing to file federal income tax returns, was a reluctant candidate. He demanded financial backing, and he got it. He demanded even more new voter registrants, and he got them. Finally, he agreed to challenge Byrne and join the field, which included Cook County State's Atty. Richard M. Daley, son of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley. As a Daley Democrat, Washington had been elected to six terms in the Illinois House, but he had broken with the Democratic machine in 1977, when he first ran for mayor. Because of that, he had support in white liberal wards along the lakefront, where he was seen as the reform candidate. Because Byrne and Daley split the remaining white vote and Washington got nearly all of the black vote, the mathematics were simple. Washington won. Although winning the Democratic nomination historically was tantamount to election, racial tensions were so high in Chicago that Republican candidate Bernard Epton, a liberal former state legislator, became the favored son in blue collar and white ethnic neighborhoods. A poorly conceived and quickly withdrawn Epton campaign slogan, "Before it's too late," fueled racial strife. But Chicago was still a Democratic city, and on April 12, 1983, Harold Washington was elected to become the first black mayor of Chicago. In his inaugural address at Navy Pier, Washington was not conciliatory. "Business as usual will not be accepted by the people of this city," he said. "Business as usual will not be accepted by this chief executive of this great city." The battle was joined. Ald. Edward Vrdolyak quickly solidified a majority bloc of 29 anti-Washington aldermen, and "Council Wars" had begun. The "Vrdolyak 29" blocked much of the Washington agenda. His appointments were held up for months, even years. Every issue was hard-fought, with stalemate often the result. But in April 1986, court-ordered special elections resulted in a Washington majority in the City Council for the first time. The Washington administration was ready to begin its work.
TUPPER LAKE - "Recreator," a much-anticipated science fiction adventure thriller filmed in the greater Tupper Lake area last fall, will premier in the Tri-Lakes later this month. The film's director, Gregory Orr, announced last week he'll premier the flick in the Wild Center's Flammer Theater Thursday, Aug. 19, at 7 p.m. Tickets for the screening, which includes a reception and appearances by some of the film's stars, cost $25. Funds raised at the premier will benefit the Big Tupper Ski Area. Recreator is the story of three teenage hikers who discover an abandoned laboratory in the woods and accidentally trigger a deadly experiment that creates their duplicates - clones who are stronger, faster, smarter, and plot to kill the teenagers and assume their identities. Orr said he chose the Adirondacks because of its unique and dramatic landscape - as well as its distinctive architecture. "I had production advisors arguing with me to keep the film closer to the resources of New York City," he said. "But I chose beauty over convenience and now everyone remarks on how stunning it looks." The Wild Center's executive director Stephanie Ratcliffe saw an early version of the film and asked Orr if he'd be interested in screening it at the Tupper Lake museum. "It's a locally-produced movie that will show off the region to a global audience," Ratcliffe said. Saranac Lake twins Kean and Kasey Riley make a cameo during a pivotal scene. They appear on-screen driving their father's 1974 Ford pickup truck. Numerous locals were hired to work on the movie and Orr used the former Oval Wood Dish factory to shoot several scenes set in an abandoned laboratory. Jim LaValley, president of ARISE - Adirondack Residents Intent on Saving their Economy, said his group helped organize efforts to reopen the Big Tupper Ski Area. "It'll be fun for all of us to see Tupper Lake and Bog River Falls on the big screen," he said. The film stars Stella Maeve of Gossip Girls fame. She also appeared with Twilight star Kristen Stewart in the Runaways. The film also features Alexander Nifong, J. Mal McCree and John de Lancie. The movie is not-yet-rated, but Orr said it's in the PG-13 realm.
The interest in Microsoft's newest operating system is quite high with many people anxious to try the newly-released Windows 7. Before running out and plunking down some hard-earned cash, consider how others are getting the new operating system. One thing to decide is whether its time for a PC. If the system is more than 3 years old and currently has Windows XP, it may be time for a new one. Up to 3 years old and running Vista makes the PC much more of a candidate. The question is whether to put money toward a new system with Windows 7 preloaded makes more sense than upgrading an older system. Once the decision is made to upgrade the current computer to Windows 7, know there are a few options. For users in a hurry, the first option is to buy a retail copy off the shelf. If upgrading multiple computers is the goal, keep an eye open for the "Windows 7 Family Pack." This option allows users the ability to upgrade three computers at home for $149.99, which is still a good price for upgrading only two computers. The family pack, available at retailers and on-line at the Microsoft Store - http://store.microsoft.com - has discs for both 32-bit and 64-bit computers so system compatibility is not an issue. A sweet deal is available for eligible students who can get a copy of Windows 7 for a mere $29.99. The offer can be found on-line at www.win741.com with a current expiration date of Jan. 3, 2010. If upgrading a current PC is the route, research the system to ensure the required device drivers are available. Vista introduced a new driver model Windows 7 followed, which is the main reason Vista owners are in a better position to upgrade than XP owners. Ron Poland is a professor in the Computer Information Systems AAS program at Clinton Community College. Poland is certified in company repair and networking by the Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). He is also a Cisco certified network assistant. Questions may be sent to him via e-mail at [email protected].
Here's a question from the forum; I follow on the next blog entry with a response from the hospital: As you probably know, SUNY Upstate went "smoke free" in August. They say they are doing it "for your health", and have forbidden any smoking anywhere on the grounds. Patients have to go out to Adams Street to smoke. It looks horrible to see people in wheelchairs, with IV's teetering on the curb on Adams Street in the rain and cold... it's a tragedy and lawsuit waiting to happen. The new rules are punitive, discriminatory, demeaning, and oppressive... reminds me of the days of making blacks drink from separate drinking fountains. We question the legality of an administration making rules for public facilities like this. Certainly, no smoking in the building or at the entrance is appropriate. No one should have to breathe second-hand smoke. But there is no reason why there can't be a few places set aside (outside but out of the elements) for smokers. After all, our tax dollars pay for SUNY facilities... can they discriminate against us this way? While I'm on the subject of SUNY's "For Your Health" campaign, why can they legally discriminate against only one group of people? Why not do drug screens and alcohol breathalizers on doctors and medical staff as they come thru the doors? Why don't they get rid of all the potato chips, candy, sugary sodas, donuts, pastries, icecream, etc. in the institution? Those are all very unhealthy. How about allowing obese people at SUNY to only eat salad, lean meat, and water for lunch rather than the high fat meals, desserts, and sodas? It would be "For their health". Maybe they should have scales outside the cafeteria and BMI meters so they can determine what and how much people can eat. Obviously all these suggestions are "over the line", but are they really? Where do you draw the line in terms of forcing adults to have healthy habits? SUNY has chosen to focus on smokers because they think they can get away with it; plus anti-smoking is popular at this time. SUNY purchased a modular building for smokers awhile back, which would have been great. But it sits in storage, unused. There is a place outside Weiskotten Hall that is at least 40 feet from anyone walking by, but smokers are now forced to go out beyond the fence, in the street behind the building. This treatment is demeaning, discriminatory, and uncalled for. Can your staff check into the legality of discriminating against one lifestyle choice and not requiring the same for others that choose unhealthy lifestyles? We sure would appreciate it... Before anyone jumps all over me about smoking, don't waste your energy. I'm an adult and it's my informed choice to smoke a few cigarettes a day. I don't need lectures about how unhealthy it is. I'm a very considerate smoker that doesn't think anyone should have to breathe 2nd hand smoke, so I don't smoke around others, and it makes me angry when smokers do subject others to their smoke. Sean, any info you can post for us would be greatly appreciated. Whatsnexxt, forum correspondent
Gilbert is a school psychologist at Meachem Elementary School in Syracuse. By Michael Gilbert Albert Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. A good example of this is the education reform policies that have been dictated by No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top legislation. The premise of both has been built on a false narrative for the past two decades. The recent announcement that five new schools will be added to "I Zone" is certainly not a reason for optimism for obtaining different results. At the core of this process is the requirement that half of the staff is replaced along with the administrator. Not only is this extremely disruptive to a school building, there is no evidence that the poor state test scores were a result of "ineffective" staff and administration. At the recent education forum in Syracuse, state Education Commissioner John King spoke favorably of the funding the state awarded to the current "I Zone" project. What he failed to note was what a disaster these "turnaround" efforts have been. Has he visited these schools? Innovation Zone? In addition to the turnover of staff, the awarded funds don't seem to have been utilized in meaningful ways. As far as I can tell there has been an extension of school day, additional staff development, pep rallies, and first day of school welcoming committees. Millions of dollars were spent for this creative, out-of-the-box thinking? Well-meaning perhaps, but hardly innovative. These schools employ the same top-down approach that has been shown to be ineffective elsewhere. There doesn't appear to be anything unique among the schools within "I Zone," as all adopted many of the same programs. Possible suggestions for the new "I Zone" buildings include Saturday school, extended school year and time sample studies. Doing things that don't work for longer periods of time simply makes no sense. It's not about quantity of instruction; it's about quality of instruction. We need to establish classroom environments that are engaging and promote the development of the teacher-student relationship. Why not increase opportunities for the arts, for project-based learning, for movement, for mindfulness activities, and for more teacher autonomy? How about smaller class sizes? Unfortunately, the goal of these efforts continues to be about increasing performance on state tests. In response to the pressures of state exams, many districts employ practices geared toward increasing their overall state testing scores in order demonstrate "growth" in creative, yet potentially damaging ways. For example, the targeting of "bubble" students has become an alarming trend to meet goals for improvement on state exams. This is where schools identify students who scored on the cusp of proficiency, for example, a high 2, on the previous year's state assessments and then provide support and resources to these students specifically with the hope of moving those students to the next level, 3, in order to show "improvement." Hardly an example of the innovation that is desperately needed. Perhaps it will result in the illusion of progress, but the truth is that the growth of all will be sacrificed for a few, as resources are funneled away from both low- and high-achieving students. Most students will not be challenged in meaningful ways, nor will they be given the supports they require or deserve. The fallout is that many children are losing their love of learning, their curiosity, and their interest in school. Behaviors continue to escalate. More teachers are losing their passion for teaching as they continued to be set up for failure. The bottom line is that we need to drastically change course if we are going to hope for different, more positive results. That would be the reasonable thing to do.
Not to be outdone by India's $35 tablet, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization has shared new details about its upcoming slate. Originally announced in 2009, the XO-3 is supposedly on track for release sometime early next year and will serve as budget computing solution for lesser-privileged children. When OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte initially shared the concept, it was expected to cost less than $100. Although the organization hasn't settled on an exact figure yet, it still believes the sub-$100 bracket is feasible. Based on the latest information shared with PCWorld, the XO-3 will feature a protective rubber cover that could house an integrated solar panel, satellite Internet connectivity or an external hardware keyboard. The top of the slate's bezel will don a webcam, the bottom will carry a microphone and USB 2.0 ports, while a headphone jack will be on the side. Unsurprisingly, the device is expected to be powered by an ARM-based processor, though a specific chip isn't mentioned, and it will run Google's Android or Chrome OS. The interview revealed an interesting exchange between OLPC and Microsoft. In March 2009, the organization urged Microsoft to add support for ARM's microarchitecture to Windows. Redmond refused at the time, but during CES this year, the software giant announced that its next desktop OS, Windows 8, would be fully compatible with ARM processors. "Microsoft had to make that move. I told Craig Mundie he would have to do it in two years," Negroponte said. "He said 'absolutely no, never.' It was two years to the week." Apparently, the decision came too late as OLPC isn't interested in offering the XO-3 with Windows. The slate's development process is reportedly in limbo as the organization settles on a display technology. The organization wants to use a transflective screen (suitable for use in sunlight and other bright environments), except with richer visuals in e-ink and transmissive modes. A spin-off of Pixel Qi's hybrid screen is a likely candidate because it can operate in an both e-ink and normal LCD modes. The former would use ambient light to illuminate the display, thereby reducing the device's power consumption. Meanwhile, the latter mode would be less power-conscious, but ideal for watching full-motion video and other media formats.
Savers are at risk of losing thousands of pounds because of bad advice given by banks on a financial compensation scheme, the consumer group Which? has warned. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is designed to compensate savers if a bank or building society goes bust, but Which? found that bank staff were "routinely" giving wrong information about the scheme, meaning savings might not be fully protected. The consumer group tested staff in 13 providers, posing as new customers with £100,000 to deposit into a savings account. Not a single member of staff mentioned that only £85,000 of the total was protected in the event of a bank's collapse. Many bank staff did not know the amount protected by the FSCS, Which? said, with a third of HSBC staff stating the wrong figure. "In the event of a collapse, this bad advice could cost people many thousands of pounds from their life savings," said Richard Lloyd, the Which? executive director. "We hope this is a wake-up call to the banks that they need to improve staff training." In addition, staff did not explain that savings with members of the same banking group could mean the full amount was not covered. For example, the Co-operative Bank, Britannia and Smile share the same authorisation, meaning the total amount protected across savings with all three brands is £85,000. Which? called on the FSCS to cover individual banking brands rather than the authorised provider. Savings accounts, cash Isas and current account deposits are all protected under the FSCS, with joint accounts protected up to £170,000. The protection limit for investments is £50,000. Mark Oakes, head of communications at the FSCS, said: "It is important that firms give people accurate information about FSCS and the protection it provides. "The industry has come a long way in the last few years, but as the research suggests, there is still more to do. We will continue to work with the industry to tell people about FSCS protection." A spokesman for HSBC, which recorded the lowest score, said: "Since this mystery shop we have initiated a new learning programme for all our customer-facing employees specifically on the FSCS and the valuable level of protection it affords savers."
Asks the hard questions about partnerships between big business and American universities Universities in the Age of Corporate Science The UC Berkeley-Novartis Controversy Search the full text of this book Alan P. Rudy, Dawn Coppin, Jason Konefal, Bradley T. Shaw, Toby Ten Eyck, Craig Harris and Lawrence Busch As a result of widespread financial pressures, U.S. research universities increasingly stress the pursuit of funding beyond that available from government grants and contracts. Concomitantly, recent legal changes have encouraged universities to develop closer ties to the private business sector. This book represents the most thorough review ever undertaken of a major collaboration between industry and academe. A professional evaluation team obtained authorization for unprecedented access to those associated with the landmark $25 million contract entered into by the Plant and Microbial Biology Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute, a subsidiary of Novartis, an international pharmaceutical and agribusiness conglomerate. This model study presents the inside story of the partnership itself, places it in the context of contemporary university-industry relationships, and provides a larger theoretical framework for evaluating such collaborations in the future. "The book provides fascinating details of the deal, the players and the controversy, and does an admirable job of empirically and qualitatively measuring the effects of the agreement on scientific research. It succeeds in its aim of analyzing the UCB-N deal...In short, Universities in the Age of Corporate Science is a compelling and detailed description of the events surrounding the UCB-N deal. It should be enjoyed by all those who follow the evolution of university-industry relations, offering as it does a unique look at how the collaboration was made." "The [book] does deliver on its promote of a thorough review of how the UCB-Novartis agreement emerged, justifications for moving it forward, and its ultimate impact." "[T]he book explores the uproar surrounding the Berkeley-Novartis agreement....Although no misconduct was uncovered by the study, the dealís scrutiny calls for a multilevel and ongoing dialogue on the future of land grant and research universities, the authors note." "Universities in the Age of Corporate Science would be of interest to students and faculty in a variety of disciplines and degree levels. Agricultural science students and faculty should be most encouraged to read this study, as it contains much information on where these fields have been and in what directions the research is going. This would also be good reading for those in the social sciences studying the conflicts that arise from the interaction of private interests and public good." Alan P. Rudy teaches in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at Central Michigan University Dawn Coppin is the Executive Director of the Homeless Garden Project. Jason Konefal is a Doctoral Candidate, Department of Sociology, Michigan State University. Bradley T. Shaw is Licensing and Marketing Manager in the Office of Intellectual Property at Michigan State University. Toby Ten Eyck is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and the National Food Safety and Toxicology Center, Michigan State University. Craig Harris is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Food Safety Policy Center at Michigan State University. Lawrence Busch is Director, Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards and University Distinguished Professor, Michigan State University.
Consumers Continue To Spend As Inflation Stays Under Control; Federal Reserve To Raise Short-Term Rates The most recent economic reports show that the U.S. economy is still strong. Consumers continued to spend freely, while inflation is still well under control. Despite zero inflation in May, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise short-term rates by a The unemployment rate fell in May to 4.2 percent, matching the March rate, which was the lowest in 29 years. Despite the drop in the jobless rate, the U.S. economy created 11,000 non-farm jobs, following April’s surge of 343,000. Employment continued to shrink in manufacturing falling by 45,000 jobs in May. Moreover, the new data show that job growth is moderating. In the first five months of this year the average monthly gain has slowed down to 196,000 jobs, falling short nearly 50,000 from the pace in the second half of 1998. The Producer Price Index for finished goods rose 0.2 percent in May after surging 0.5 percent in April. The index for finished goods, excluding food and energy prices, was up just 0.1 percent Consumer prices were unchanged in May, after jumping 0.7 percent in April. The core inflation rate, which excludes the volatile food and energy prices, was up just 0.1 percent, allaying fears of a buildup in inflationary pressures created after April’s 0.4-percent surge. Industrial Production Rises; Housing Starts Rebound; U.S. Trade Industrial production rose 0.2 percent in May following gains of 0.4 percent in April and 0.7 percent in March. Output of utilities dropped 2.2 percent after rebounding 4.9 percent in April. Factory output grew 0.4 percent in May in line with growth of the previous three months. The operating rate held steady at 80.5 percent for the third month in a row. The utilization rate for factories was 79.7 percent in May, up slightly from 79.6 percent in April. Despite a tight labor market, with an operating rate well below its long-term average of 82.1 percent, and with downward price pressures coming from imports, there is no threat for higher inflation. Housing starts rebounded 6.3 percent in May, to an annual rate of 1.676 million units, but remained below the March 1.746 million level. The strength was in single-family units, which jumped to 1.409 million from 1.249 million in April. The U.S. trade deficit of $18.94 billion in April was virtually unchanged from a record $18.95 billion in March. Exports rose 1.2 percent to $78.01 billion the first in six months, while imports increased 1 percent to $96.95 billion. Business inventories grew 0.2 percent in April, while business sales slipped 0.1 percent in April. As a result, the inventory-to-sales ratio edged up to 1.36 in April from 1.35 in March. Textile Payrolls Continue To Come Down; Sales By Textile Producers Soar; Inventories Rise Results for textiles and apparel were mixed. The industry’s payrolls continued to come down falling 0.5 percent in May and 0.3 percent in April. The jobless rate for textile mill workers jumped to 4.7 percent in May from 3.6 percent in April. Sales by textile producers soared 3.3 percent in April, after easing 1.0 percent in March. In the meantime, inventories rose only 0.3 percent in April. Thus, the ratio of inventory-to-sales dropped to 1.54 in March from 1.58 in March. Textile output tumbled 1.1 percent in May, after rising 2.3 percent in April. The operating rate for textiles dipped to 80.9 percent from 81.7 percent in April. With a strong job market, still low interest rates and rising overall stock prices, consumers have no reason to slow down spending. Retail sales surged 1.0 percent in May after gaining 0.4 percent in April. Without autos, spending was up 0.5 percent in May. Apparel and accessory stores sales gained 0.5 percent after advancing 1.9 percent in April. Producer prices of textiles and apparel edged up 0.1 percent in May. Also, prices inched up 0.1 percent for synthetic fibers. Prices fell 0.2 percent for finished fabrics and for carpets, declined 0.3 percent for processed yarns and threads, dropped 0.4 percent for gray fabrics and took a 0.6-percent dive for
Anti-whaling activists have slammed the federal government for breaking a pre-election promise to send a ship to monitor Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean. Environment Minister Greg Hunt said on Sunday an A319 aircraft staffed by customs would instead be sent to observe whalers and environmental activists. The Coalition's whale and dolphin protection plan, released two weeks before September's election, stated: ''Should the whaling season continue, the Coalition commits to sending a customs vessel to the Southern Ocean.'' Sea Shepherd Australian director Jeff Hansen, whose conservation society last week sent three vessels to intercept the Japanese whaling fleet, said that a plane was of no use. ''It's a broken promise. The promise was - to the whales and to the Australian public - to send a vessel. Sending a plane is really a waste of taxpayers' money. Speaking on Frankston pier on Sunday, Mr Hunt said the purpose of using a plane was: ''Firstly, to ensure that there is observation and oversight and recording of any whaling which does occur; secondly, to ensure that there is a record and a chronicle if there is any conflict; and thirdly and most significantly, to ensure that the fact that we will be overhead and observing means that both whalers and protesters know they cannot breach the rules, they have to behave properly, they cannot put life and limb at risk and that there's an independent party to observe that,'' he said.
Black, White and Gray shows how past and present realities combine to illustrate the fact that racial struggles are not black or white, just human. This new musical brings the honesty of Norman Lear to the glorious 1940s Hollywood musical, with a contemporary score of rock and R & B. The concert reading is directed by Ilesa Duncan with musical direction by Jeffrey A. Bouthiette. Black, White and Gray features a book by Luther Goins, lyrics by Myrna Petlicki, and music by Craig Wilson; authors Petlicki and Wilson are members of Theatre Building Chicago's Musical Theatre Writers Workshop. Later in the season, Black, White and Gray will be presented in a more realized studio presentation.
In an article yesterday, I argued that Miley Cyrus's twerking and Janis Joplin's blues singing were both examples of a kind of racial minstrelsy. Cyrus wants to shed her good-white-girl image, so she adopts the stereotypical image of black women as ultra-sexual to make herself seem edgy and sexual. Joplin, similarly, adopts the stereotypical image of black blues women as earthy, authentic, and enduring to give her performance a depth that (by sexist convention) isn't usually associated with white women. The process, I argued, is broadly the same, and broadly racist. Joplin's talent means that the racism is easier to ignore, or look past, but it doesn't change the basic dynamic of how black women are being used. The piece generated a lot of resistance, and I'm not surprised. Joplin is very popular, as she deserves to be. As a white person, and as someone who enjoys her music a great deal, I find it painful to talk about and think about the aspects of racism in her work, both because I admire her, and because they reflect on me. Several commenters, of various backgrounds, raised an objection that I think goes to the heart of my argument, and that I therefore wanted to respond to at some length. These commenters argued that calling Joplin racist cheapens the charge of racism, and weakens our ability to call out real racism when we see it. Joplin's appropriation of black voices is clearly moving, sincere, and in good faith. If you're going to call that racism, the argument seems to imply, you won't have anything left to call Miley Cyrus, much less the KKK. I think this argument has things the wrong way round. People aren't too eager to find racism. On the contrary, they tend to be way, way too shy about pointing it out. When people talk about racism, they tend, in my experience, to want to look for intent, or, as with Cyrus, for stupidity. David Duke is a racist; Hitler is a racist; evil people (or very dumb people) are racist. Folks like Joplin, who are clearly well-intentioned, smart, thoughtful, and talented, are not. But that's the whole point of comparing Cyrus and Joplin. Joplin is an amazing artist; Cyrus is an embarrassment. And yet, they're doing the same thing, because they are working in the same systems. Both are white, Southern women. Both want to get out of the bind of stereotypical white, Southern, passive femininity—which codes white women as vulnerable, desirable but not desiring, pretty, fragile, and frivolous. Both want instead to be aggressive, independent, sexual, and authentic. And both so this by deploying stereotypes of black women. In short, racism isn't something you overcome by being an exemplary white person. Even with all her talent, even with all her skill, Joplin still ends up being racist, because the culture, and the pop milieu she exists in, is racist. In defining herself, in creating her image, she uses the materials at hand, and many of those materials are racist stereotypes. So she ends up underlining and validating those stereotypes — a fact made painfully clear (as I mentioned in the piece yesterday) by the Cheap Thrills album cover, which uses the racist caricature of a black mammy in order to situate Joplin's "Summertime" as deriving from authentic black sources. Similarly, Cyrus's equation of black females with sex is a way for her to declare herself more sexual—but it also reinforces stereotypes that have racist effects on actual black women, as Tressie McMillan Cottom outlines in some detail. So does that mean that all white musicians, or all white people, are automatically racist? No, it doesn't. It just means that there are tropes and systems in place that are easy to use, and that lots and lots of performers have used. But if America's great blight is racism, its great saving grace is anti-racism, and there have been a number of really inspiring examples in popular music. One example is the great duet between country star Jimmie Rodgers and jazz giant Louis Armstrong, in which Rodgers treats Armstrong not as a touchstone of authenticity but as a peer, both in artistry and in the experience of being victims of the police. Another is, perhaps, Danity Kane, an integrated pop group in which black women are treated as band members rather than (a la "Scary Spice") as occasions for stereotype. I like Danity Kane's first album, but even I, the unapologetic pop fan I am, wouldn't claim that the group is more talented than Janis Joplin. But that's the point. There isn't a direct relationship between talent and racism. This is actually fairly obvious, but—speaking as a white guy—it can be a hard lesson to accept. The dream of the exemplary white person dies hard, as does the belief that the racists are all as transparently soulless and avaricious as Miley Cyrus or Robin Thicke. The reason to call out the racist elements of Joplin's performance is not to shame her or pull her down—she's past shame now, and she's too great an artist for criticism to knock her out of the pop canon. Rather, the point is to remind folks, and especially white folks, that racism is a system that can subvert good intentions, and even genius. Which doesn't mean we should despair, but does mean we should spend more time paying attention, and perhaps less time patting ourselves on the back. As James Loewen said of another figure famous for his relationship with the black tradition, "[I]f Lincoln could be racist, then so might the rest of us be. And if Lincoln could transcend racism, as he did on occasion, then so might the rest of us."
Sanding, cleaning, painting and degreasing boats can pose major threats to our waters. Dust and paint particles can block life-giving sunlight, and toxic substances from cleaners and antifouling compounds can sicken or kill marine life. You can help protect the marine environment by following repair and maintenance tips from Ocean Conservancy’s Good Mate program. Washing & cleaning your boat - Use non-hazardous materials; if it’s hazardous to you, it’s hazardous to the environment. - Rinse your boat with fresh water after each use. - Look for catch basins or other collection systems at the posted wash areas of your marina. These systems stop paint resins, chips and other hazardous products from entering the aquatic environment. If your marina does not have one of these systems, encourage the owner to get one. - Look for the words “phosphate-free” and “biodegradable” on labels. - Keep open cleaning-product containers away from the open deck where spills can flow into the water easily. - Use a cleaning rag to absorb any spills, and dispose of the rag safely. Don’t hose spills from the deck into the water. Sanding & scraping your boat - Sand and scrape away from the water, preferably in a dedicated work area. - Use a vacuum sander that collects and stores paint particles to keep them out of the water. - Lay tarps to catch loose particles when scraping or sanding, and sweep or vacuum frequently. Painting your hull - Dry-docking or hauling your boat after each use may eliminate the need for antifouling paints. - When you paint your hull, use environmentally friendly products. Maintaining boat operations - Tune the engine regularly. It will operate more cleanly, increase fuel efficiency and last longer. - Steam clean the engine in a dedicated service area instead of using harmful engine cleaners. - Regularly inspect through-hull fittings, such as the depth finder transponder and cooling water intakes, for leakage. A sinking vessel not only poses a great safety risk to passengers but can also introduce a substantial amount of fuel, oil and chemicals into the water. Help promote safe environmental practices in your area; order Ocean Conservancy’s Good Mate brochure or CD at [email protected] or visit the organization’s Good Mate website for more information.
One in six mobile phones have faecal germs'Nationwide problem' One in six mobile phones in Britain is contaminated with faecal matter, according to new research. Experts say the most likely reason for the potentially harmful bacteria festering on so many gadgets is people failing to wash their hands properly with soap after going to the toilet. The findings of the UK-wide study by scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London, also reveal a tendency among Britons to lie about their hygiene habits. Although 95 per cent of people said they washed their hands with soap where possible, 92 per cent of phones and 82 per cent of hands had bacteria on them. Some 16 per cent of hands and 16 per cent of phones were found to harbour E. coli – bacteria of a faecal origin. Harmful E. coli (Escherichia coli) is associated with stomach upsets and has been implicated in serious cases of food poisoning such as the fatal O157 outbreak in Germany in June. The researchers carried out the study to mark Global Handwashing Day. Researchers travelled to 12 cities and took 390 samples from mobile phones and hands which were analysed in the lab to find out the type and number of germs lurking there. Participants were also asked a series of questions about their handwashing habits. They found the largest proportion of contaminated phones was in Birmingham (41%) while Londoners had the highest proportion of E. coli present on their hands (28%). However, actual levels of bacteria increased the further north the scientists went; the dirtiest city being Glasgow, where average bacterial levels on phones and hands were found to be nine times higher than in Brighton, reinforcing a North/South divide. The scientists also found those who had bacteria on their hands were three times as likely to have bacteria on their phone. Faecal bacteria can survive on hands and surfaces for hours at a time, especially in warmer temperatures away from sunlight, and are easily transferred by touch to door handles, food and even mobile phones. From there, the germs can be picked up by other people. Dr Ron Cutler of Queen Mary said: "Our analysis revealed some interesting results from around the UK. While some cities did much better than others, the fact that E. coli was present on phones and hands in every location shows this is a nationwide problem. People may claim they wash their hands regularly but the science shows otherwise." This article was published on Fri 14 October 2011 Image © edbockstock - Fotolia.com Use this story Link to this page Printer friendly version
Mapsource from garmin doessn't give topo maps because; topo maps have to have been created by a source such as the DNR who do the surface research which would very unlikley be inclued in Mapsource. What you are looking for in a GPS, is one that reads the 3 formats of Co-ordinates used to find location by satelite. I'll give you an example of a GPS that does this and its the Garmin Nuvi. You can be in the middle of a lake have your Nuvi on and want to mark that spot as a good fishing location. You can hit save and go back the next day and find the exact GPS co-ordinate locations and fish the same spot. This is something commercial fisherman have been doing for years, if i'm not mistaken Lowance came out with the original technology after Pres. Reagan released the private use of the satellites put in space after the Star wars Program. GPS itself can't give you topo readings of a lake. Use a depth finder on you boat, co-ordinate and mark the depth yourself to create a map for yourself. No DNR is going to take the time to mark an ever changing surface for your use. SO; use a depth finder for bottom topo and a Nuvi (I mention this model because I know it does co-ordinates) to mark the spot. You need to do a paper makeup of the location you just charted then go back in a month and see how much it has changed to see how futile it would be to try to make a map for your convenience. Sign up to this link to learn from the best about GPS use; Layin' down tracks - ADVrider PS, that GPS, Cadillac put in their car to pimp the item off as a great idea to get your old lady to have you spend way more than you make for nothing is not what you're looking for (it'll more than likely lead her and the kids down some street they shouldn't be on in reality). Great GPS technology is a tool to be used with other tools that take work to get results. Gettin your kid to soccer isn't one of them that rate high on the charts :-)
Christian van Dijk is unflappably Dutch. He wears slim European suits tailored to his slender runner’s frame. His hair, thin on top, is a carefully managed stubble. When a visitor spills a full cup of coffee on his company furniture, he just smiles and continues with a story as if nothing happened. But seven red binders sitting upright on his desk pose a clear source of consternation. They contain thousands of pages, each emblazoned with swarms of disorderly digits, impenetrable to all but the most tech-savvy of readers. Mr. van Dijk has read and reread each binder several times as he prepares to defend Aydin Coban, the 35-year-old Dutch man charged in relation to the online torment of Vancouver teen Amanda Todd, but even he strains to describe exactly what all the numbers mean and how they fit together. “In the beginning, none of this made sense to me,” he says, thumbing through the pages in his Utrecht office. “There are so many numbers, abbreviations and difficult words. Now I understand it, but I need the help of a computer expert to help make sense of everything.” He’s hardly alone in his puzzlement. The British police agency involved with the case called it “extremely complex” and alleges Mr. Coban used some of “the most advanced techniques available to target his victims and in an attempt to hide himself.” But somewhere in the digital labyrinth is the story of two lives, both lived largely online, that entwined briefly and, for one, ended tragically. Amanda Todd sought affection and treated her onscreen realm like a stage and a confessional. Aydin Coban, according to police, traded in deception and anonymity, something he would succeed at for years before his arrest in January. Both online and around the southern Netherlands city where he grew up, the name Aydin Coban draws little recognition. Until last year, he was an unknown entity among police as well. The Globe and Mail has learned that it was the security team in charge of safeguarding the world’s largest online social network, Facebook, that finally led investigators to Mr. Coban. “I don’t think the police made this case,” says Mr. van Dijk, staring at evidence bearing Facebook Security letterhead. “I think Facebook made this case. They put it all together.” Facebook declined to comment on any involvement in the Todd case, offering only a general statement. “In the rare instance when this illegal behaviour is detected in our community,” says a spokesman, “we have strict guidelines for working with law enforcement to bring suspected criminals to justice and keep Facebook a safe place." If Mr. Coban committed the crimes of which he’s accused in Holland – production and distribution of child pornography, indecent assault, fraud, computer intrusion and others – the involvement of Facebook in his arrest would seem fitting. It was on the social network in late 2010 that Amanda Todd’s life first began to unravel. She was in Grade 7 at the time and lived life through her laptop, singing Adele and Christina Aguilera songs for friends and admirers, sometimes dancing. She was playful, talkative. During one ill-fated session in her webcam chat room hosted on BlogTV, a user convinced her to expose her breasts. Somewhere among the more than 150 users in the chat room that day was a ‘capper’. Cappers are an insidious strain of online lurker who lie in wait in chat rooms and social networks and incite other users to expose flesh so they can save the images for posterity. They use the saved image to extort more images or information or even money from their targets. Some do it for a thrill, others for money, yet others for bragging rights among the tight-knit capper community. On this day, someone capped Amanda’s topless image. Soon the images were posted to a porn site and a link sent to her Facebook friends. Over the next two years, the tormentors would return. The documents on Mr. van Dijk’s desk point to one Facebook user in particular, Tyler Boo, who threatened to distribute more images of her unless she provided more “shows” onscreen. By the fall of 2011, partially nude images of Amanda re-emerged online. The RCMP warned her parents she should be kept off Facebook and other sites for her own safety. Their restrictions didn’t stick.Report Typo/Error
The retail transformation of physical stores into e-commerce enablers is picking up in Canada, forcing chains to rethink how they use their space and even close some outlets completely. The domestic divisions of retailers ranging from Staples Inc. to Toys “R” Us Inc. and Best Buy Co. Inc. are shrinking their store space, expanding stock rooms for e-commerce distribution or shutting outlets altogether. Toys “R” Us Canada is shifting more store space to backrooms to fulfill its growing number of cyberorders; by later this year, it will begin allowing customers to pick up their online orders at its stores. “We’re using different skills in the stores,” Kevin Macnab, president of Toys “R” Us Canada, said in an interview. In the digital age, retailers are starting to invest differently in their bricks-and-mortar stores, raising questions about how malls will use excess space in future years. Traditional retailers need to move quickly to adapt or risk losing business to e-commerce players such as Amazon.com. Canadian retailers have been rushing to catch up to their counterparts in the United States, where e-commerce is far more prevalent. David Ian Gray of retail consultancy DIG360 in Vancouver said his clients are quietly contemplating how they will use or shrink their real estate footprint in the coming years. Retailers are anxious about closing stores because the optics may not look good, suggesting their business is sagging, he said. But ultimately, retailers can operate more efficiently with fewer stores, or less space overall, as they ramp up their e-commerce. “This [store] footprint issue is on everyone’s mind,” Mr. Gray said. At a Retail Council of Canada conference on Tuesday, retail executives on a panel said they have already begun to reinvent their physical stores to prepare for the expanding e-commerce era. At the same time, they insist their bricks-and-mortar stores play a critical role in enticing customers to make purchases. They try to ensure shoppers don’t use their stores as showrooms and then head to Amazon.com or another low-cost web seller to order the same items. Mr. Macnab said Toys “R” Us sets up play areas and inviting displays to draw children who come with adults. “The experience in the store is important.” Indeed, Sport Chek, whose parent was acquired by Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. in 2011, is adding more stores and dressing them up with digital screens and interactive displays to keep customers in the stores longer – and spending more. “The death of bricks and mortar, I’m here to say, is greatly exaggerated,” Michael Medline, president of Canadian Tire, told the conference. “But we need to be good at both. We have to put huge resources, time and money behind [e-commerce] and the new world.” Mr. Macnab and Steve Matyas, president of Staples Canada, said they envision that their overall bricks-and-mortar store space will shrink over the next five years, although the number of stores will stay relatively constant. At Staples, whose U.S. parent is shutting stores, the Canadian chain will probably have 20 per cent less space in the next five years, Mr. Matyas predicted. Retailers’ future need for mall space is “the really hot question,” Mr. Macnab added. In an interview, he said Toys “R” Us now devotes about 20 per cent of its stores’ space to storage rooms and that may rise to 30 per cent in five years. Anna Martini, president of fashion chain Group Dynamite of Montreal, said it is beginning to test reducing inventory levels in its stores and using them more as showrooms, with customers able to order products online instead and have them shipped to their homes. “The experience in the stores will change in the next five years.” But she said flagship stores in bigger markets will remain larger.Report Typo/Error
Caring for Curly Hair Ask any person with naturally curly hair what they think of it and unfortunately most will probably say they hate it. Notorious for its dryness, unpredictability and lack of control, curly hair is one of the most difficult to manage hair types. But before you reach for that straightening iron, remember that the key to great hair is not how you style it, but how you care for it. The best way to achieve shiny, healthy, frizz-free curls is by looking after your locks and tailoring your hair care routine so it works for your curls, not against them. Cutting curly hair every 4 to 6 weeks will not only keep your tresses in top shape, it will also stop the ends from losing their curl and going straight. Layering curly hair can make it easier to handle and achieve hairstyles, but make sure the hairdresser doing the layering understands curly hair and how your curls will fall when layered. A good stylist will be able to advise you on a haircut that will make the most of your curls. To care for curly hair, washing is important, but washing everyday can strip the hair of its natural oils, which are the best way to keep your curls healthy. It is a good idea to use a shampoo and a conditioner that is designed specifically for curly hair and that is full of moisturizers but also has frizz reducers. - Work shampoo through your scalp and let the suds run through the rest of your hair. - Apply conditioner to the mid lengths of your hair and then work it down to the ends. If your hair is especially dry, apply more conditioner to the ends and comb it through the hair. - Always use warm water to wash your hair. Hot water will dry curls out. - Using a deep moisturizing treatment once a week will keep curls strong without going frizzy and a hot oil treatment once a month will add vitality and shine. Blotting the hair with paper towels to soak up excess water is a great way to dry without causing frizz and a wide-tooth comb is the best styling tool. Never brush curly hair as it will promote frizz and damage the cuticle. Instead, use a wide-tooth comb or your fingers to gently detangle the hair. Avoid any styling products that contain alcohol or ones that will weigh the hair down. It is a good idea to only use hair-dryers when absolutely necessary as the heat will zap curly hair of moisture and is the fastest way to create frizz and fly-aways. - Whenever styling, always moisturize the hair first with a simple body moisturizer before applying styling products. The moisturizer will keep the hair protected from damage and reduce static and frizz. - To get your hair to fall into its natural curly shape, style when wet and then leave your hair to air dry and try to resist scrunching or touching. - Sleeping in wet hair will guarantee out-of-control curls. Combat this by braiding or plaiting your hair in three separate sections and by resting your head on a satin pillowcase so that your hair doesn’t rub. - Wear your hair with a soft side parting that is not too defined for a flattering look. - Using a sea salt spray is a great way to redefine curls and texture and revitalize styling products. Common Curl Types Afro: The most fragile curl type, Afro curls have fewer cuticles in the hair shaft and are more prone to damage. The curls are very tight, coiled curls that cause the strand to have an almost wire like appearance. Boticelli: This curl type is "S" shaped in appearance and will vary in size. Boticelli curls fall flat and form in hair that usually has a fine to medium texture. Corkscrew: Have the appearance of small, tightly wound, coils. People with corkscrew curls generally tend to have hair that is frizzy and dry and will find it hard to get the curls to lie flat. Wavy: These are the loosest curls and may appear more wavy than curly. Humid weather will automatically frizz wavy curls Common Curl Patterns Curly: In short hair these classic looking curls will form tight spirals. In longer hair the curl will transform into longer spirals that are loose in appearance. A curly curl pattern usually comes with lots of volume. Loose: The trademarks with loose curls are slight waves that look straighter when the hair is cut short and curlier when the hair is grown into a long style. The curl of loose patterns is less defined than with other curl patterns. Kinky: Kinky curls are usually tight ringlets that come in a firmly coiled shape that may look like an "S" or a "Z" when pulled straight. A kinky curl pattern is very fragile and more prone to dryness and damage. Common Curl Textures Coarse: A coarse curl texture will keep hair free of moisture and frizz, but is usually found on straighter curls that don’t actually hold the curl that well. Fine: Although a head full of thick curls may actually appear to be a coarse curl texture, most naturally curly hair types have a fine hair texture and will benefit from using lightweight products when trying to care for the curls.
Recent reports from Somalia have described a helicopter attack on al-Shabaab fighters near Kismayo. Originally reporting the death of two fighters, it now appears that 15 died in the missile attack. Kismayo is an al-Shabaab stronghold where a great deal of fighting has taken place. A quick look at the city on Google Images reveals a large section of the city blackened by explosions and fires. The pattern of scorched buildings is consistent with the major transportation corridors highlighted in red. As the conflict in Somalia is highly mobile and fast moving, gains are established by taking hold of the roadways, thereby assuming control of the neighborhoods pinned between roads. If one isolates the individual locations of attack, a subtle collection of patterns emerge. The largest areas of combat often take place at transportation intersections. This provides the largest variety of logistical and operational input/outputs, such as improved range of vision and horizontal expansion of battle space. Yet further analysis also reveals two primary bands of conflict. Both bands are curvilenear, suggesting 2-3 primary points of entry for troops. The band on the left, situated on city limits, shows on large point of conflict followed by a series of smaller points. Either the conflict began at a fever pitch and tapered off, or it built to a climax in the first band. As the conflict continued and forces swept into the city, the second band emerged. They traveled most likely from the lower corridor which contains clear horizontal roadways and is less entangled in the labyrinth of smaller, internal side-streets. Al Shabaab would have likely traveled northward, continuing to take advantage of major transportation arteries and as the land came under their control, the intensity of conflict would subside.
Puma reveals plans for compostable sports clothes The Local · 12 Nov 2011, 15:13 Published: 12 Nov 2011 15:13 GMT+01:00 “We are confident that in the near future we will be able to launch the first shoes, T-shirts and bags, that will be either compostable or recyclable,” Puma boss Franz Koch told the Wirtschaftswoche business magazine. He explained that the company is working with partners on product development based on the principle of eco-effectiveness or so-called “Cradle-to-Cradle” design. “That follows two cycles, the technical and the biological: I can use old shoes to make new ones or something completely different like car tires,” he said. “For the biological cycle, I can produce shoes and shirts that are compostable. So I can shred them and bury them in the garden. We are working with products that fulfil both of these criteria.” Koch, who has been at the helm of Puma since last July, also told the magazine that he wants the company to concentrate more on sports products. “We want to focus a bit more on sport and the goal is for sports products to account for 40 percent of profits by 2015 and lifestyle products 60 percent.”
State provides grant for mental health first aid training Training and Treatment Innovations, Inc., of Oxford (TTI) was awarded a $500,734 Mental Health First Aid grant from the Michigan Department of Community Health to coordinate and deliver free Mental Health First Aid training in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties. The program, aimed at eventually reaching groups beyond southeastern Michigan, is an internationally recognized one that teaches people about mental health issues and instructs them in what to do if they encounter someone having a mental health issue or crisis. The grant program is designed to increase the number of individuals trained in Michigan with the hopes that mental health first aid skills will become a common training statewide, in much the same way as regular CPR and first aid training. With the grant money, TTI will work with other collaborating and coordinating entities to provide free training to interested parties in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties. Community groups and organizations such as churches, primary/first responders, teachers, and community programs that work with children and teens, recreation programs and any other groups interested in the training are encouraged to contact TTI, a nonprofit, provides a range of services for persons with developmental disabilities, emotional impairments, and mental illness and co-occurring substance abuse disorders. To arrange for mental health first aid training for a group or organization, call the TTI Training Department at 248-524-8801 or MORC-affiliate, The Center for Positive Living Supports, at 586-263-8748. — By Jerry Wolffe, Special to The Oakland Press Registration for youth soccer is taking place now for Farmington Hills, ending March 7. Practice starts the week of April 14 with games beginning April 26. For more information, call 248-473-1800 or visit [email protected]. The city of Novi will offer a hunter safety course from 6 - 9 p.m., Tuesday, March 4,Thursday, March 6 and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, March 8 at Novi Civic Center, 45175 West 10 Mile Road, Novi. Participants must be 11 yers of age or older and complete all ten hours to receive the DNR Hunter’s Safety Course Certificate. Cost is $7 for residents, $9 for non-residents. The fee includes lunch on the final day of class along with all necessary materials to complete the course. A written test will be administered at the end of the course. Register online, cityofnovi.org, in person or call 248-347-0400. There is limited seating. White Lake Citizens Academy is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 5 at White Lake Police Department, 7525 Highland Road, White Lake. This program is 13 week program for residents and business persone to experience the inner-workings of Police, Fire and Township Operations. The first class is on Wednesday but will change to Thursday and will be approximately 3 hours. The program includes presentations by township officials along with police and fire personnel. Hands-on training in these areas are also included. There is no cost but pre-registration is mandatory and these classes do fill up quickly. To register, call 248-698-1042 — Special writer Pamela Smith The Holocaust Memorial Center Zekleman Family Campus announces that it will host an address focusing on the most current and key issues facing the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community starting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March. 5 at Holocaust Memorial Center, 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills. Be in the Know: A Briefing on the Rights of the Worldwide LGBT Community will take place. This program is open to the public at no charge. — Special writer Pamela Smith
Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/21/family_net_aol/ Women rule the internet roost At home, mum's the word Suspension of internet privileges has become the new way to discipline a unruly children, AOL UK has found, following a six month anthropological study of five British families. The research, which was backed with a quantitative poll of more than 4,000 net subscribers, reveals how the PC is affecting family life in the UK. AOL says that mums in particular are emerging as the new guardians of the internet, with almost half of those surveyed moving the PC into the family room, and a third spending time online with their children. Four fifths said they used the PC as a substitute for the phone, to help them keep in touch with family and friends. Two thirds of women are also using the net to research and diagnose family illnesses. AOL cites a case of one man who went to hospital with notes and observations compiled by his wife, that suggested he was suffering from a particular form of heart arrhythmia. The researchers do not say whether the at-home diagnosis was correct. Slightly more worryingly, a fifth of women report getting up in the middle of the night to check things online, and half report logging on before breakfast. Checking auction sites and keeping up with gossip are to blame for this slightly obsessive behaviour. John Craig, author of the Demos report, argues that ordinary people rather than geeks are now shaping the internet, and that computers are becomming less important than the connections they enable. ®
Today the appeals court in Sweden upheld the copyright convictions of the operators The Pirate Bay in Sweden. They were announcing the judgement of an appeal that happened in October, which found them guilty of copyright infringement. So in the latest installment of Pirate Bay news, Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstrom were found guilty of breaking copyright law by using Pirate Bay to assist in the downloading of copyrighted files, had their jail time reduced, and fines raised. ‘The Pirate Bay Four’ will each serve between four to 10 months of prison time and raised the amount they have to pay in damages to 46 million kronor ($6.5 million), up from 32 million kronor ($4.5 million) in the previous ruling. Each person will serve a different length of time, with Neij doing 10 months, Sunde eight months and Lundström four months. Svartholm Warg, the fourth member of Pirate Bay, fell ill in Cambodia and could not participate in the trial. His time will come later. “This is wrong, this is just really wrong. Now it’s time for the Swedish legal system to shape up a little bit about what they think and believe about the world. This is just reprehensible, totally and utterly reprehensible”, Sunde said when speaking to Sweden's TT News Agency. It's expected that they'll appeal the decision again, all the way to the Supreme Court if they have to. The Pirate Bay legal defense revolved around the theory that because they did not host any copyrighted material, they were not guilty of breaking any laws. This is a legal precedent used by ISPs, web service providers and email services because they would have a logistical nightmare trying to keep up with the flow of digital goods passing through their hands. It's also part of the DMCA, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the U.S.
One of the issues candidates in the upcoming byelection in St. George’s-Stephenville East will have to take a position on will be hydraulic fracturing. On Monday, Progressive Conservative candidate Wally Childs found out what his party’s next steps are going to be in dealing with the controversial issue. Natural Resources Minister Derrick Dalley was in Stephenville and, during his visit, announced the provincial government is commissioning an independent external review of the controversial method of fracturing underground rock to facilitate the extraction of oil and gas resources. Last November, the province effectively instituted a moratorium on the practice commonly referred to as fracking by not accepting any proposals to do such projects. At the time, Dalley also announced his department would do an internal review of fracking as it impacts the geology of the province and review how other jurisdictions have been handling the issue. That wasn’t good enough for opponents of fracking, including the Newfoundland and Labrador Fracking Awareness Network, a coalition of 20 organizations that collectively demanded an independent, external review. Before making his announcement Monday, Dalley met with the network which he said welcomed the news. The government is going to appoint between three and five experts who will form a panel that will carry out the external review. Dalley did not give a time frame for when the panel will be appointed or when it will begin its work, noting government is still early in the process of drawing up the terms of reference for the panel. “Sooner, rather than later would be my preference,” said Dalley. “What’s important here is that we find the right people and the right balance for the panel and have the right approach to the issue.” That balance, said Dalley, must involve weighing the health, safety and environmental concerns raised about fracking, the science involved in the process and the potential economic impact it could have. The review, he said, will be done from a Newfoundland and Labrador perspective, with a specific focus on western Newfoundland, where fracking is likely to occur if ever permitted. “First and foremost will be the health and safety of the people from the region,” said the minister. The review will also include continued consultations with other jurisdictions that have gone through their own independent reviews. With the byelection looming, Dalley said government and the PC party felt it important to let Childs and the electorate know government’s direction when it comes to the controversial subject. “(The fracking awareness group) are engaged in the byelection over here and want the candidates to clarify their positions,” said Dalley. The Western Star
Daily Mail – January 5, 2011 Archaeologists have discovered a set of tools they believe prove that man sailed the sea tens of thousands of years earlier than previously thought. Rough axes and other tools thought to be between 130,000 and 700,000 years old were found close to shelters on the south coast of the Mediterranean island of Crete. Crete has been separated from the mainland of Greece for about five million years, so whoever made the tools must have travelled there by sea, a distance of at least 40 miles. The previous earliest evidence was of sea travel was 60,000 years ago; in Greece it was 11,000 years ago. The findings upset the current view that human ancestors migrated to Europe from Africa by land alone. The Greek Culture Ministry said in a statement yesterday: ‘The results of the survey not only provide evidence of sea voyages in the Mediterranean tens of thousands of years earlier than we were aware of so far, but also change our understanding of early hominids’ cognitive abilities.’ The previous earliest evidence of open-sea travel in Greece dates back 11,000 years. The tools were found during a survey of caves and rock shelters near the village of Plakias by archaeologists from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Culture Ministry. Such rough stone implements are associated with Heidelberg Man and Homo Erectus, extinct precursors of the modern human race, which evolved from Africa about 200,000 years ago. Maria Vlazaki, senior ministry archaeologist, said: ‘Up to now we had no proof of Early Stone Age presence on Crete.’ She said it was unclear where the hominids had sailed from, or whether the settlements were permanent. ‘They may have come from Africa or from the east,’ she said. ‘Future study should help.’ The team of archaeologists has applied for permission to conduct a more thorough excavation of the area, which Greek authorities are expected to approve later this year.
by Ryan Hope — (Pen name of a Colorado Therapist) (henrymakow.com) Jan 11, 2014 Contrary to popular belief that once a sex offender, he will always be a sex offender, recidivism rates are quite low for offenders that get counselling. At about 6%, they are much lower than many other types of criminal recidivism. That means 94% don’t re-offend. This is compared to only 30% in the case of other offences. Yes, a minority of sex offenders are sociopaths or psychopaths. They are violent re-offender types, serial rapists and those that get sadistic pleasure torturing or killing. These people should never be trusted to reenter into society. But the majority of sex offenders can be reformed, but the law won’t let them or anybody else forget. Some of my colleagues work with ex-offenders and they report a high degree of depression, homelessness and suicide. When they return home from prison, they may not be allowed to move into their own homes because it is too close to a school or park. However, 98% of molestations happen with somebody they know and not because of the proximity of schools or parks. Supportive relatives prefer not to allow ex-offenders to live in their homes because their address is posted on sites like Megan’s Law. Families can be ripped apart; the very people the ex-offender needs for healing are placed out of reach. I have heard of several cases of ex-offenders receiving death threats from strangers knocking on their doors. Ex-offenders do get murdered. Since sex offender registration is required for life, an ex-offender can be harassed or violently assaulted decades after he had overcome his problem.
What is a reversible bench vise? This is a bench vise that allows you to dislodge the movable jaw from its position and fix it on the other side of the fixed jaw. In simple perception, the bench vise has three jaws but only two can be used at a time. This mechanism is supposed to give you a wider jaw on one side so that you can work on bigger materials if the other side ill not fit. We are going to focus on the Wilton 8” reversible bench vice which offers you a great value for the money you pay for it; The jaws of the Wilton bench vise can extend up to 9¾ inches when reversed. This means that out of the 8-inch size of the normal jaw size, you can still get 13/4 more if you reverse it. The reversibility of these jaws is not the only quality that is good about them; The jaws are also replaceable. Whenever the jaws get worn out, you can replace them with new ones. You can therefore use the jaws for a really long time and rest assured the problem that will make this product to be thrown in the archives will not relate to the jaws’ malfunction. The jaws are also made of hardened steel. The hardened steel enables you to tighten the grip on any material until the time that you feel like the grip is powerful enough for you to work with. The swivel can be rotated at an angle of 360 degrees. This 360-degree rotation does not mean that you will be barred from rotating the top part more than that. You can still make other 360-degree rotations continuously, giving you a better chance with materials that require constant turning. The swivel base is also secured with two lockdown bolts. The lockdown bolts ensure that the top part will stabilize as the user is cutting the material. The grip that the lockdown bolts have is so tight that the base will not alternate in angles even when the force applied is large. If you have always used that one anvil on the common types of vises until it gets worn out, you should have better luck with this vise. The vise has not one, but two anvils for you to use. The good thing about the anvils is that they are long lasting, enabling you to use them for as long as the tool is in one piece. To have all these features, the vise needs to pack up some weight. The best bench vise in the market weighs roughly 71 pounds. This weight is due to the massive size of the vise and the high quality construction it has. The vise may not be that easy to handle for everyone, but adults who have a fixed workshop should not have any problems using it. So far, all of the people who have purchased the product have not shown any remorse to their decision to purchase it. This Wilton vise has shown great potential to be one of the best sellers in the stores.
Helping hand from Ireland Heavily Irish Breezy Point gets aid from across the Atlantic as it rebuilds after superstorm Published 10:59 pm, Sunday, February 17, 2013 NEW YORK — For generations the residents of Breezy Point, Queens, have clung to their emerald roots. The gated community they called the Irish Riviera — or to those who prefer the language of the old world, "cois farraige," Gaelic for "beside the sea" — has remained one of the most proudly Irish communities in America. So when Superstorm Sandy tore through the coastal enclave, sparking one of the most destructive residential fires in the city's history and leaving behind hundreds of charred or flooded houses, all that love for the homeland was suddenly reciprocated, roaring back from across the Atlantic. Breezy Point has become something of a cause celebre in Ireland, its plight an urgent topic in newspaper headlines and radio dispatches more than three months since the storm. Gaelic rock stars threw fundraisers, Irish companies sent money and other donations, the country's consulate bused thousands of volunteers through Breezy Point's gates for "Irish Days of Action" and pop stars made pilgrimages. "It has become a huge Irish-American issue," said Aine Sheridan, 53, the executive producer of the Adrian Flannelly show on the Irish Radio Network USA, which has covered the recovery of Breezy Point and the city's Irish nonstop since October. "It's another county of Ireland." The government has pledged a total of $320,000 in aid to places across the region that were hit by the storm. "The Irish connection is so strong, it's totally appropriate," said Brian Hayes, a minister of state in Ireland's government, while touring burnt-out sections of Breezy Point in early February. "This isn't a hard sell at home." Hayes was accompanied that day by a convoy of strapping present and former players in the country's beloved Gaelic Games. The 18 athletes spent several days sawing joists in the damaged Catholic Club and sleeping on cots in the Rockaway Point Volunteer Fire Department's firehouse. In a ceremony heralded by bagpipers of the Breezy Point Catholic Club Pipes and Drums in spats and tufted beanies, the area's athletic center, the St. Thomas More Parish Center, which had been destroyed by the storm, was officially reopened. The basketball court, paid for in part by a $50,000 gift from the Irish government, is emblazoned with a giant shamrock. "It makes you feel very wanted," said Tim Devlin, 50, a contractor and former Gaelic Games athlete who lives in Breezy Point and organized the players' trip. "We don't feel so alone after the storm."
Read it before you eat it! Food Manufacturers are required by law to disclose certain information about their products through standardized Nutrition Facts panels. Although we see them every day, not everyone would agree that they are easy to understand. Here is some guidance: Every panel is divided into several sections. The top section contains product specific information, such as serving size, calories, and nutrients. This varies with each product. The bottom part is basically a footnote and provides general dietary data about nutrients. Serving sizes are estimates of how much of a particular food item an average person would consume in one meal. They are measured in cups or pieces as well as in grams and milligrams. The servings determine all other values listed on the label. Our sample panel only counts for a quarter of what is in the container. Make sure you compare those numbers with what you actually use. Calories are the units that measure the energy produced when food is consumed. It differs with the content of carbohydrate, protein, and fat. In our example, one third of the total amount of calories comes from fat alone. Fat, particularly saturated fat and trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium are all nutrients with potentially negative effects on your health. While it would be nearly impossible to avoid them altogether, you ought to limit their consumption as much as you can. Observe your sodium intake, especially if you suffer from high blood pressure or heart disease. This section of the panel informs you about the percentage each nutrient has in your diet, based on a recommendation of a 2,000 calorie diet. The %DV is a useful tool if you are uncertain about saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium limits. Try to keep your total daily intake under 100% DV. On the other hand, make sure you get enough complex carbohydrates as well as soluble and insoluble fiber. This is the good stuff. Sufficient amounts of fiber enhance regularity. Calcium can reduce the risk of osteoporosis. Iron is good for your blood. Vitamins A and C are antioxidants that decrease the risk of heart disease and strengthen the immune system. As you can see, food labels not only warn you about certain nutrients that are potentially detrimental to your health, but also inform you about the benefits from others. Daily values in this section of the Food Label are based on 2,000 and 2,500 calories. This is an average estimate and may vary based on your age, gender, activity level, or during times of pregnancy and lactation.
The standard graphical subsystem for UNIX and Linux, called X, has its own libraries for GUI development. They provide a low-level programming interface to X, but tend to be hard to use. Old end-user applications and other toolkits of course make good use of them. Nowadays the Linux GUI scene is dominated by GTK+ and Qt, since two popular, complete user environments - GNOME and KDE - are based on them. Common name or abbreviation of the toolkit. Whether the toolkit is suitable for a newbie programmer. Different licenses for different GUI toolkits have practical significance. GTK+, TK and GNUstep licenses allow you to develop both open source and closed source applications without paying for a license. Motif license requires payment, while the QT license requires payment only if you write closed source programs. The language that is most often used with the toolkit. Other languages which can use the toolkit. Applications that use the toolkit. Additional information on the toolkit. \|TK\|\|Yes\|\|Free\|\|TCL\|\|Perl, Python, others\|\|make xconfig, TKDesk\| \|GTK+\|\|No\|\|Free (LGPL)\|\|C\|\|Perl, C++, Python, many others\|\|GNOME, Gimp\|\|Very popular\| \|QT\|\|No\|\|Free for open source\|\|C++\|\|Python, Perl, C, others?\|\|KDE\|\|Very popular\| \|Motif\|\|No\|\|Non-free\|\|C/C++\|\|Python, others?\|\|Netscape, Wordperfect\|\|Lesstif isa free replacement\| \|GNUstep\|\|No\|\|Free (LGPL)\|\|Objective C\|\|Guile, Java?\|\|None widely known, but see the application list\|\|GNUstep is still under development\|
\|[August 28, 2014] ChildFund, in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, launches nurse-training program for Zambian youth RICHMOND, Va. --(Business Wire)-- 6,000 Zambian youth will receive nursing training through an e-learning program developed by ChildFund International, a global child development and protection organization, and the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), in partnership with The MasterCard (News - Alert) Foundation. The Zambia Nurse and Life Skills Training Program will offer Zambian youth the opportunity to train in the field of nursing through e-learning and help address the shortage of trained health professionals in the country. Currently, Zambia does not have enough human resources to meet health care demands. At present, the nurse population ratio stands at 1 nurse for every 1,500 people, which is far lower than the World Health Organization's recommended nurse-to-population ratio of 1 to 700. The major cause for the shortage is the limited capacity of nursing schools that can train students to meet the growing health care needs of the Within five years, the project is expected to train 6,000 young people as nurses and midwives, and expand the capacity of nursing schools in Zambia. Additionally, 1,631 financially disadvantaged young people will have access to full and partial scholarships. "We want to tap into the potential that is inherent in young people - the energy, the curiosity and exploration," said Doras Chirwa, program director with ChildFund Zambia. "I think the use of e-learning provides a fantastic platform to reach more youth at any time with lower costs, and it facilitates self-learning." The e-learning component will allow nursing and midwife training schools in Zambia to reach more students through technology and will integrate a life skills curriculum that will give students the intrpersonal skills needed for the workplace. Students will be able to access study materials and complete assignments at e-learning centers or at home. "We are excited to partner with ChildFund on this innovative program that will help address some of the human resource challenges faced by the health care system in Zambia," said Deepali Khanna, director of youth learning at The MasterCard Foundation. "Through the use of technology, the e-learning model has the potential to reach disadvantaged young people, particularly young women, so they can gain the skills they need to become nurses and midwives." In June 2014, the program introduced the first intake of 131 student nurses - 72 percent of whom are female - into the newly designed Maureen Bwalya, a 19-year-old who lost both her parents when she was a child, is one of the first students enrolled in the e-learning program and is a recipient of a partial scholarship. With a limited income, Bwalya is excited about the prospect of a brighter future. "Thank you so much for awarding me with this scholarship," Bwalya says. "I am very grateful. The scholarship that you have given me will help me a lot. I promise to work hard and not disappoint." As valued stakeholders integral to the development and adoption of this program, ChildFund and AMREF engage and work alongside colleagues with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and General Nursing Council (GNC) to increase the number of students enrolled in health training institutions ChildFund International is a global child development and protection agency serving more than 18.1 million children and family members in 30 countries. For 75 years, we have helped the world's deprived, excluded and vulnerable children survive and thrive to reach their full potential and become leaders of enduring change. As a member of ChildFund Alliance, we create supportive environments in which children can flourish. For more information about ChildFund visit www.ChildFund.org. About The MasterCard Foundation The MasterCard Foundation is an independent, global organization based in Toronto, Canada, with more than $9 billion in assets. Through collaboration with partner organizations in 46 countries, it is creating opportunities for all people to learn and prosper. The Foundation's programs promote financial inclusion and advance youth learning, mostly in Africa. Established in 2006 through the generosity of MasterCard Worldwide when it became a public company, the Foundation is a separate and independent entity. The policies, operations and funding decisions of the Foundation are determined by its own Board of Directors and President and CEO. For more information on the Foundation, please visit www.mastercardfdn.org. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[[File::María Lombide Ezpeleta - Eöl's Swords.jpg\|thumb\|Eol's Swords by María Lombide Ezpeleta]] Anglachel was the sword forged by Eöl the Dark Elf from a meteorite. Its mate was Anguirel. The blade glowed and could easily slice through iron. Eöl gave Anglachel to his lord, King Thingol of Doriath, as payment for letting him dwell in the Forest of Nan Elmoth. Thingol would not bear it, declaring that there was malice in the blade. In F.A. 487 Beleg Strongbow took Anglachel from Thingol's armoury and went to rescue his friend Túrin Turambar. He tracked down the Orcs holding Túrin and in the dead of night slew them. But when he tried to cut Túrin's bonds, his friend thought the Orcs had returned to torture him, and during the struggle he slew Beleg with the blade. After the fight, Anglachel turned a dead black and would no longer glow. Túrin later reforged the sword with the help of the smiths of Nargothrond. The blade remained black, however, and Túrin renamed it Gurthang. Anglachel was the sword that Túrin used to kill Glaurung. Christopher Tolkien notes that Anglachel contains the Sindarin word ang ("iron") and probably the element lhach ("leaping flame"). This would give the meaning "Flaming Iron". The last element in Anglachel could be êl ("star"). - ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Quenta Silmarillion: Of Túrin Turambar" - ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Silmarillion, "Appendix: Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names", entries ang and lhach - ↑ Compound Sindarin Names in Middle-earth at Tolkiendil.com (accessed 20 July 2011) \|Weapons of Middle-earth\| \|Aeglos · Andúril · Anglachel · Angrist · Anguirel · Aranrúth · Belthronding · Black Arrow · Bow of Bregor · Daggers of Westernesse · Dagmor · Dailir · Dramborleg · Durin's Axe · Glamdring · Grond · Gúthwinë · Gurthang · Herugrim · Morgul-knife · Narsil · Orcrist · Red Arrow · Ringil · Sting\|
Page 1:The Next Generation Of Windows Page 2:Installing Windows 8 Page 3:Diving In: Splash Screen And Application Navigation Page 4:A Tour Of Tiles: Internet Explorer 10, News, Stocks, And Weather Page 5:A Tour Of Tiles: Social Media And Entertainment Page 6:Behind The Metro Mask: Desktop And Windows Explorer Page 7:Interacting With Metro And Vanilla Page 8:Windows Store: Drumming Up App Support Page 9:Tablet And Smartphone: Keyboard Page 10:Tablet And Smartphone: Gestures Page 11:Windows 8: Our Initial Impressions Tablet And Smartphone: Keyboard Metro really shines on tablets and smartphones. We’re specifically referring to the touch keyboard, which comes in three modes: thumb-only, full, and handwriting recognition. No matter what mode you're using, the virtual keyboard (or writing panel) appears docked at the bottom of the screen. But you can move it around as a floating window. The color scheme is similar to Honeycomb, but that’s just one similarity to Android. For mixed input, you still need to use a function key to alternate the layout because there’s no dedicated row for numbers. The awesome part of the interface comes from the innovative thumbs-only keyboard layout. It’s undoubtedly intended for tablets and smartphones, and in our opinion, the keyboard will speed up typing compared to the hunt-and-peck approach encouraged by virtual keyboards. There is one slight quirk. Unless you have the Samsung developer tablet handed out at BUILD, the touch keyboard doesn’t appear in Metro mode. On our Asus Eee Slate EP121, we can only access the touch keyboard in the Vanilla UI. This also holds true for our desktop equipped with Wacom’s Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch. If you're using a regular desktop or notebook, there’s no way to access the virtual interface. This is a bummer for developers because they can't test their programs as they'd appear on more mobile devices. The only thing you can use is the On-Screen Keyboard, which is intended to provide accessibility for those with visual disabilities, but it lacks touch functionality. - The Next Generation Of Windows - Installing Windows 8 - Diving In: Splash Screen And Application Navigation - A Tour Of Tiles: Internet Explorer 10, News, Stocks, And Weather - A Tour Of Tiles: Social Media And Entertainment - Behind The Metro Mask: Desktop And Windows Explorer - Interacting With Metro And Vanilla - Windows Store: Drumming Up App Support - Tablet And Smartphone: Keyboard - Tablet And Smartphone: Gestures - Windows 8: Our Initial Impressions
Museums near Katra Travelers are voting Amar Mahal Palace as the best museum near Katra. There are 4 museums in Chamba a city just 257 km from Katra and 1 museum in Amritsar which is 267 km distant. The most popular of these are Bhuri Singh Museum in Chamba and Maharaja Ranjit Singh Museum in Amritsar. You can find 4 museums in Jammu and Kashmir and 340 museums in the country of India. Our members favorite in Jammu and Kashmir is Amar Mahal Palace and Namgyal Research Institute Of Tibetology is the top pick in India. Want more? Check out our map of museums near Katra.
The Potts Valley Rail Trail is built upon an abandoned corridor of the Norfolk and Western Branch rail line. Called the Potts Valley Branch, it operated between 1909 and 1932 and was built to haul iron ore, then timber, out of the lush mountain region. Much of the 5-mile rail-trail lies within the George Washington and Jefferson national forests, while a small portion is on a private property right-of-way. Along the trail you will find interpretive signs about Potts Valley's history as well as benches to stop and take in the scenery or the quiet solitude of the forest. The southwest trailhead lies a few hundred yards from the Eastern Continental Divide, which at that location separates the headwaters of Stony Creek (a New River tributary) and Potts Creek (a James River tributary). Mountain ridges on each side of the valley trail reach elevations of between 3,700 and 4,100 feet, and the trail overlooks the South Fork of Potts Creek, a brook trout stream. The trailhead begins in West Virginia, just shy of the border with Virginia, on State Secondary Route 17 (Waiteville Road). The trail traverses a forest of mixed pine and hardwood, with rhododendron in the understory. Because it was a former railroad grade, the slopes along the Potts Valley Rail Trail are gentle. Beginning at the southwest trailhead, you will follow the border of the Mountain Lake Wilderness, the largest wilderness area in the Jefferson National Forest. Take one of the side trails and view the handiwork of stone masons, who carved culverts for the forest's ubiquitous streams to run underneath the former rail line. At about the 3-mile point, you arrive at the site of the former Crosier trestle. The wooden bridge, once 98 feet tall and 600 feet long, carried trains across the stream. Unfortunately, rebuilding it for foot traffic was unfeasible, so the rail-trail detours here down slope away from the rail bed. Notice the hand-cut stone pillars that once supported the railroad bridge. About 0.75 mile beyond Crosier Branch (a stream you must cross), the trail enters private property and continues for another 0.5 mile to the northwest trailhead. A bench just before the trailhead provides a great location for enjoying the pastoral scenery. The trail ends about a mile or so above Waiteville, but if you continue on (following public roads), you come across the old Waiteville depot then the Paint Bank, another former depot (now a lodge). In the nearby brick building, you'll find a general store and restaurant. Mountain bikers can do a loop ride by using State Secondary Route 17 (Waiteville Road) and State Secondary Route 15/5 (Rays Siding Road) to reach the trailheads of the Potts Valley Rail Trail. From US 219 at Union: follow State Route 3 east for 9 miles to Gap Mills, and turn right onto Zenith Road. After 3.5 miles, turn left onto Limestone Hill (Waiteville) Road. Follow for 5.5 miles across Peter's Mountain. At the bottom of the mountain, turn right onto County Route 17. Follow CR 17 for 1 mile to Waiteville, and then for another 4.5 miles to the SW trailhead, on the left, not far from the Giles County line. From US 460: about 4 miles east of Pearisburg, VA, turn onto SR 635 (Forest Service Sign for White Rocks Campground). After 5.5 miles, turn left to stay on SR 635. Continue for another 12 miles. At the Monroe County line, SR 635 becomes CR 17. The SW trailhead will be on the right, roughly 0.25 mile in from the border. From SR 311 at Paint Bank: follow SR 600 (CR 17 at the Monroe County line) for 12 miles to Waiteville. Continue on CR 17 for another 4.5 miles to the SW trailhead. From Mountain Lake: follow SR 613 north, past the War Spur and Wind Rock trailheads, and the road to White Rocks Campground. At the bottom of the mountain, turn right on SR 635 (CR 17), and follow 1.5 miles to the SW trailhead. NE trailhead from SW Trailhead: follow CR 17 to the northeast for 3 miles. Turn right on CR 15/5, Ray Siding Rd. Follow for 0.75 mile to the trailhead, on right. NE trailhead from Waiteville: follow CR 17 to the SW for 1.5 miles. Turn left on CR 15/5, Ray Siding Rd. Follow for 0.75 mile to the trailhead on right.
Most Energy Efficient Transportation Mode? Did you know that the bicycle is the most energy efficient transportation mode? It is 3 times more efficient than walking, 5 times more efficient than using the train and 15 to 20 times more efficient than driving a car. Transport & Mobility Leuven (TML), Belgium, studies the problems that occur with mobility and logistics. TML research focuses on traffic management, transport economics, environment, traffic safety and the consequences for society. This quote is taken from their October 2007 Newsletter. ::Transport & Mobility Leuven
The Lamborghini Egoista concept car is a mean-looking machine that embraces a tough aesthetic to better convey its thrilling driving capabilities. Although it was inspired by the Apache helicopter, an advanced attach flyer used by the military, the Lamborghini Egoista concept car could easily be likened to the technologically impressive Batmobile or other similar fictional ride. Designed by Walter de Silva, Italian designer and current head of Volkswagen Group Design, the Lamborghini Egoista concept car continues the brand's 50 year anniversary celebrations. Aggressively lightweight, its sculpted exterior is predominantly made out of carbon fiber. The cockpit canopy can also be removed for further weight savings. Powered by a 600 horsepower V10 engine, it is a one-of-a-kind creation. Helicopter-Inspired Concept Cars More Stats +/- Child Imagined Car Concepts Sharply Angular Autos Metallic Luxury Vehicles Featherweight Track Car Concepts Cold War Sportscar Revivals
The N300 Mini Wireless USB Adapter, model TEW-624UB, networks a laptop or desktop computer to a high performance 300Mbps wireless network. Quickly connect to a wireless router at the touch of a button with the convenience of one-touch Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). Realize up to 50% energy savings with GREENnet techonology. Advanced Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna technology delivers superior wireless coverage and reduces dead spots. WMM® Quality of Service (QoS) technology prioritizes gaming, Internet calls, and video streams. Computers purchased with integrated wireless most often come with either 150 Mbps or even slower 54 Mbps Wireless technology. Upgrade your laptop or desktop today to high speed 300 Mbps Wireless N. Enjoy proven high performance speed and reliability in an ultra compact design that is slightly larger than a US penny. - Wi-Fi compliant with IEEE 802.11n standard - Backwards compatible with IEEE 802.11g and IEEE 802.11b - Supports Ad-Hoc (Peer-to-Peer b/g only) or Infrastructure (AP-Client) mode - High-speed data rates up to 300Mbps using an IEEE 802.11n connection - Compact form factor - Supports MIMO technology with 2 high performance internal antennas - Dynamic Data Rate Scaling from 300Mbps to 1Mbps - Maximum reliability, throughput and connectivity with Automatic Data Rate Switching - Supports advanced wireless encryption up to WPA/WPA2-RADIUS - One-touch network connection with Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button - Easy user setup & diagnostic utilities - Coverage of up to 100 meters indoor and 300 meters outdoor * - 3-year limited warranty * Maximum wireless signal rates are referenced from IEEE 802.11 theoretical specifications. Actual data throughput and coverage will vary depending on interference, network traffic, building materials and other conditions.
By Hilary Corrigan Triplicate staff writer Al Young wonders if the plants near his window will fare better with sunlight filtering in between the blinds instead of pouring in unscreened. andquot;I could easily sit and write a poem about these plants who are tired of this guy who is always messing with them,andquot; Young said. Lately, though, the 67-year-old poet has focused his craft on the state of the world war, environmental, societal and political problems ignored by a culture that markets and sells. andquot;All this manufacturing and consuming is eating up the planet,andquot; Young said. andquot;We're surrounded by things that are about to disappear.andquot; The public no longer can trust TV, magazines, newspapers and books that seek to make money by selling something. andquot;But they can trust a humble poem,andquot; Young said. andquot;There's no one between them and who's saying it.andquot; The California poet laureate will read his own work during a stop in Crescent City on Friday, part of a statewide tour that lets Young perform with other poets and musicians, meet with the public, visit students and lead workshops. It also spotlights the craft that can elucidate world issues and connect communities. andquot;It's an old art, and it's a universal language, and people need to be reminded of this,andquot; Young said. andquot;It can be dull, dead language or it can be one of wonder and awe.andquot; For the last couple of centuries, poets have tended to use first-person narratives to relate personal accounts. andquot;But poetry is much bigger than that,andquot; Young said, noting its use in sacred texts and to narrate historical events or explain scientific theories. Students who may never write a sociological essay might craft a poem on critical issues, instead. For instance, Young's andquot;Coastal Nights and Inland Afternoonsandquot; the title poem of his recent collection details the need for Mexican immigrants to work in America after American imports degraded the farming jobs in their homeland. Another poem follows the falling value of the U.S. dollar. andquot;We've become such a spectator culture that it doesn't occur to us that there was a time when we didn't have all this high-tech communication,andquot; Young said. andquot;We talked to each other.andquot; The poetry medium can be used to discuss anything, and Young finds that children best understand it. He once visited 12- and 13-year-old boys and girls at San Leandro Juvenile Hall near Freemont. Surprised by their excitement over poetry, he asked how many of the approximately 100 students knew loved ones who had died in violent acts. They all raised their hands. andquot;And then you understood that they were looking to poetry for some meaning,andquot; Young said. He finds similar reactions in children from rich suburbs who lack family attention. andquot;People get the false idea that they are alone,andquot; Young said, calling the idea a dangerous one that ignores humans' dependency. andquot;We are inextricably linked to one another.andquot; Politicians and advertisers understand poetry's power, though, using it to sell and persuade the public. andquot;We get very confused,andquot; Young said of the impact. He points to the political talk shows that split TV screens between arguing conservatives and liberals. andquot;These are terms that are just meaningless,andquot; Young said, noting Republicans' failure to conserve and Democrats' failure to remain liberal. He recites a litany of public relations phrases and White House jargon andquot;collateral damage,andquot; andquot;enemy combatant,andquot; andquot;damage was estimated atandquot; that cloud truth. Young wants readers and listeners to remember that they can turn off computers and TVs, and that if film, graphics, paintings and dance all disappeared, poetry would remain. andquot;They would all be intact in poetry,andquot; Young said, pointing to the imagination. andquot;It's nice sometimes to be the one who has to come up with the picture.andquot; When Young speaks, he replaces harsh words likeandquot;constantandquot; with the more melodious andquot;continuously.andquot; He uses andquot;nose-diveandquot; as a verb. His voice lifts and falls slowly. While readers may see words on a page as poetry, Young views them as entombed until a voice breathes them to life. A Mississippi native who played tuba, trumpet and guitar through school, Young now sings. He grew up in Detroit, Mich., after his musician father moved for a job with General Motors. Music streams through Young's poems that refer to Yo-Yo Ma, Elvis, James Brown, andquot;Ring of Fireandquot; and andquot;My Girl.andquot; andquot;The two are very close to each other,andquot; he said of the art forms that use rhythym, melody, intensity, playfulness. andquot;They're both sonic phenomena.andquot; Both are formed with frequencies and vibrations. andquot;That's what poetry is and that's what music is,andquot; Young said. andquot;You're back with the original theater.andquot; Reach Hilary Corrigan at [email protected] . Poetry Jam Plan With a bass player collaborating, California Poet Laureate Al Young and others will read pieces on Friday. The Top to Bottom Tour through the state celebrates April as poetry month. Among the public events: ?Free social mixer and book signing at 5:30 p.m. at the Del Norte County ?Poetry reading in the library at 7 p.m., with a $2 donation and limited Read samples of Young's poetry with this story online at www.triplicate.com .
November 07, 2012 A study has confirmed what many in trucking already believed -- that there's a direct connection between a truck driver's crash risk and his or her body mass index. Obese truckers, during their first two years on the road, are 43% to 55% more likely to be involved in a crash when compared against those truckers with a normal BMI.Stephen Burks of the University of Minnesota-Morris, a former truck driver and behavioral economist, has been working with Schneider National for more than a decade to study truck driver health and safety. According to an article by Science Now, it was two years ago that Burks and his team decided to study drivers' BMI numbers and see how that related to crash rates.They asked 744 rookie drivers with Schneider National for their height and weight, and from that information calculated the each driver's individual BMI. Those with a BMI higher than 25 are considered overweight, while those with a BMI greater than 30 were considered obese. The study followed the drivers for two years."That's when the data stood up and shouted at us," Jon Anderson, a biostatistician at the University of Minnesota-Morris told Science Now. "We found really clear evidence that the highest-BMI drivers are at higher risk of having an accident."During their first two years on the road, drivers with a BMI higher than 35 ("severely obese") were 43% to 55% more likely to crash than were drivers with a normal BMI, the team reports in the November issue of Accident Analysis & Prevention. Drivers who are overweight or obese, but not severely, did not appear to be at higher risk. The study does not indicate why. "The relationship held even when the researchers corrected for number of miles on the road, geographic location, age, and other crash risk factors," stated the article by Science Now.Some ideas behind the increased risk may include sleep apnea, limited agility, or fatigue associated with obesity, according to the article.
In the three years since Panasonic and Olympus launched their jointly-developed Micro Four Thirds standard, the interchangeable-lens compact system camera (CSC) market has gone from strength to strength and delivered some really interesting, high-performance cameras. One of the main reasons the compact system market has proven so interesting is that there’s no over-arching standard for manufacturers to conform to, meaning they are free to develop their own interchangeable-lens mirrorless systems as they see fit. This has resulted in a number of different approaches, all of which use differently sized sensors: Micro Four Thirds cameras from Panasonic and Olympus use a 17.3 x 14mm chip; Pentax has recently announced it will be using a 5.7 x 4.2mm (1/2.3in) compact-sized sensor for its new Q camera; Samsung and Sony, meanwhile, use 23.6 x 15.8mm APS-C-sized sensors for their respective compact system offerings. Quite what Nikon and Canon will come up with when they finally decide to enter the mirrorless market is anyone's guess. Why does any of this matter? Simply because larger sensors have a greater potential to deliver better image quality than smaller ones do. Of course that doesn’t mean that they always do as there are other factors involved, but more often than not when faced with the same scene the camera with the biggest sensor will get the best shot, especially if light levels are low. That’s not to say that anything less than Full Frame (24 x 36mm) will deliver poor image quality – far from it. Indeed, our endorsement of the Lumix G3 shows that Four Thirds sensors can more than hold their own against APS-C. Crucially though, there’s a huge leap in quality between regular 1/2.3in compact-sized sensors and the larger Four Thirds and APS-C sensors sported by compact system cameras.
Many articles and books have been published on the contrast and competition between the present Western and the Asian-style economic models. Western countries are said to have the free-market model based on competition among private firms, with the government taking a hands-off approach. East Asian countries are branded as practising “state capitalism” in which the government plays a major role in helping the local private sector and the state also fully or partially owns many enterprises. The Western countries are increasingly attacking the Asian model, claiming that state-owned companies or state-aided commercial firms have an unfair advantage vis-à-vis the foreign firms competing with them. In our region, countries with a substantial role of the state include China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore. Of course, in Japan and Korea their domestic firms grew to become world-beaters with the systematic backing of their governments. For these countries, the so-called state capitalism (or in the case of socialist countries, market-oriented socialism) have worked well through industrial development and relatively high and sustained economic growth. Some Western countries have been trying to curb or even eventually eliminate the Asian model of state-owned or state-aided capitalism. Of course this is largely hypocritical because the America, European and Japanese agricultural sectors are highly subsidised and protected; many of their farms could not survive without massive state aid and high import tariffs. Many of their banks and industrial firms are also subsidised in various ways, including through the recent multi-billion dollar bailouts in the wake of the recent financial crises. This has not stopped these countries from attacking the Asian model. The latest attempt to curb this model is through the negotiations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), a trade and investment treaty involving the United States, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Peru, Chile, Australia and New Zealand. The TPPA contains an important section on State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), championed by the U.S. and Australia. The TPPA drafts are secret, so the text of the SOE section is not known. However, it can be anticipated that the section will contain disciplines to curb and shape the behaviour of three types of SOEs. The recently concluded United States bilateral FTAs contain a competition chapter that deals with two types of SOEs. For example, the US-Peru FTA has disciplines on designated monopolies and state enterprises, and it is likely that the US will propose something similar in the TPPA. That FTA says that government monopolies shall act solely in accordance with commercial considerations, including with regard to price, quality, availability, transportation, when buying or selling the monopoly good or service. They shall provide non-discriminatory treatment to investments, goods and services of other TPPA members. And they shall not use their monopoly position to engage in anticompetitive practices through its dealings with its parents, subsidiaries or other enterprises with common ownership in a non-monopolised market that adversely affect the investments of other countries. State enterprises shall similarly provide non-discriminatory treatment in sale of goods or services to investments of other countries. More importantly, the US and Australia are proposing a third type of SOE to be subject to disciplines. According to press reports, Australia has also introduced the principle of “competitive neutrality” to discipline the SOEs. How this principle will apply can be anticipated from the Australian government’s competitive neutrality guidelines. This is based on the concept of a “government-owned business”. The state-owned business enterprise which competes with private companies may obtain advantages, impeding the ability of the private sector to compete on equal terms. According to the Australian guidelines, these advantages include exemptions from taxes; cheaper debt financing (because of the low-risk classification or government guarantees); absence of need to make a commercial rate of return; and exemption from regulatory constraints or costs. To offset these advantages, the Australian guidelines cover how government businesses should pay taxes in full; pay back to the central government the difference in their loan costs vis-à-visprivate sector loan costs; pay license fees equivalent to the central government; and ensure that they obtain a commercial rate of return. It is likely therefore that the draft of the TPPA will have disciplines along the lines above on a third category of SOEs, government-linked business entities involved in commercial activities that compete with the private sector. The proposed disciplines could be along the line that “advantages” enjoyed by government-linked businesses such as those mentioned in the Australian guidelines be disallowed. The implications for Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore would be serious because their national economies are characterised by important roles of state owned enterprises or government linked companies. The countries would have to move away from their successful development model and economic structure. Moreover, SOEs have many functions including providing social services to the public, ensuring that poor and vulnerable groups are given special consideration. This often means that SOEs cannot operate on solely commercial grounds; and that several of them depend on government subsidies and assistance, and there are also cross-subsidies in that the profitable aspect of an SOE may finance non-profitable (but socially important) activities. There is a danger that the TPPA section on SOEs will prevent or hinder the socially useful functions of SOEs. The proponents of the SOE section argue that foreign companies are not able to compete fairly with SOEs. They want the TPPA to remove or reduce the “advantages” of the SOEs. But that could threaten the survival of the system that has helped propel the East Asian model, a creative and dynamically changing mixture of state and market. The TPPA negotiations are still going on, and a text on the SOEs section is not yet final, so there is scope for the different views to be expressed. Much is at stake, and it is important for more information to be made available on the negotiations, including on SOEs. This Piece First Appeared on the Third World Network
Lo dejo acá para que no les cueste configurarlos: Switch Configuration and Network Setup The 3Com 4226T switch comes with a default IP address which is 169.254.100.100. You will start by changing this IP address to 10.10.10.10 using a Web interface (HTML GUI + HTTP protocol). The 3Com 4226T runs an HTTP Server. You will connect to this HTTP Server from the Windows machine using Internet Explorer browser. 5.1 Explain why the IP address of the Windows machine should be set to 169.254.x.y. (169.254.100.99 for example). Fill in the answer sheet. 5.2 Connect the Windows machine to 3Com 4226T switch using RJ-45 cable and any port on the switch (see figure1). 5.3 Launch Internet Explorer and type in the address field: http://169.254.100.100 5.4 Enter admin as username and leave the password blank. Don’t change the admin password 5.5 Use the Web interface to change the IP address of the switch to 10.10.10.10. 5.6 Change the network parameters of the Windows machine to the following: IP address: 10.10.10.2 Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 (24 bits) 5.7 Setup a LAN using the architecture shown in figure 1. Use port 1 for Linux machine and port 2 for Windows machine. (Off course you can use any port of the switch). 5.8 Report the link state described by the LED on each port. Fill in the answer sheet. 5.9 Make sure that machines are well connected by issuing a ping from one machine to the other one. 5.10 Use IPRoute utility to disable ARP on Linux machine. Fill in the answer sheet with the command issued. 5.11 Delete ARP cache on Windows machine by issuing: arp –d * Issue a ping from Windows machine to Linux machine. This later should be unreachable. Explain. Fill in the answer sheet. 5.12 Use IPRoute utility to re-enable ARP on Linux machine.
MobiMOOC: #m4d, community, expanding definitions of developing, FrontlineSMS Introduction to M4D and Plea for Expanding the Definition I just wanted to post this before I commence packing in earnest for my upcoming relocation to London. It is no small feat to perpetually stick your life in one small suitcase, one carry-on, and one bike bag. I might miss a bit of the discussion for Week 2 of MobiMOOC, which is a shame as I was quite curious to learn more about mobile learning frameworks/curriculum and participate in the session on global issues in mlearning, including a discussion (I hope) on the ethics of technological intervention. If you have never considered the ethics of using technology in particular communities, particularly in light of how disruptive it can be (both good and bad), then I urge you to join in. I am facilitating the Week 3 session on using (mobile) technology for development. In that week, I want to explore some of the trends, the lessons learned, and even the tools being used by some of the better projects. I struggled to include too much on the ethics of technological intervention, but I can see that becoming a separate discussion all by itself. In my introductory video (below), I make the assertion (and feel free to disagree) that M4D (mobiles for development) can be used in developing regions and developing pockets of developed nations. I don’t like those terms (developed/developing), but that is the hand I have been dealt so I will run with it. My argument is that developing is too broad a context in which to extract consistent patterns or best practices. So I think including developing pockets of developed regions is warranted. I am thinking situations where technology (namely the communities that are enabled by technology) can alleviate socioeconomic realities, or empower participants, or both. That, however, is my opinion. Feel free to disagree on the discussion board. FrontlineSMS: Context through the prism of a tool Once we work through the introductory materials on what mobile projects in developing regions might look like, I wanted to drive through a discussion on that same process as told through the lens of a particular tool. In this case, I am going to focus on FrontlineSMS because it is accessible, open, free, etc. and because it is flexible enough to allow for some creative applications across a few different walks of like (medicine, agriculture, education, finance). I hesitated to focus too much energy on particular tools as the real focus is about the context first, a disciplined needs assessment, and a thorough analysis of the cultural receptiveness of the project in question (is this how people in this community interact? learn? will this run without outside motivation?). But I would be doing a disservice if I didn’t introduce a tool and how it is being used. I also have a wonderful speaker from Malawi, Limbanazo Kapindula, discussing several mhealth projects there and it should make for some interesting discussion. What I want to demonstrate, perhaps more than anything else, is the relentless creativity that is taking place in these regions for improving the socioeconomic condition. You would be hard pressed to find more creative approaches and workarounds towards pressing issues anywhere in the world. In this video, I introduce FrontlineSMS briefly mostly to highlight some of its current and potential applications. The video is designed as a conversation starter and will hopefully spur a dialogue on the discussion board.
Weil-Felix is a nonspecific agglutination test which detects anti-rickettsial antibodies in patient’s serum. Weil-Felix test is based on cross-reactions which occur between antibodies produced in acute rickettsial infections with antigens of OX (OX 19, OX 2, and OXK) strains of Proteus species. Dilution of patient’s serum are tested against suspensions of the different Proteus strains. Several rickettsiae, such as Rickettsia prowazekii, Rickettsia tsutsugamushi, and R. rickettsii, posses antigens that cross-react with antigens of OX strains of Proteus vulgaris. Proteus OXK strain agglutinins are produced in scrub typhus and OX 2 and OX 19 agglutinins in other rickettsial diseases, see the table below \|OX 19\|\|OX 2\|\|OXK\| \|R. prowazekii (Epidemic typhus)\|\|+ + +\|\|+/-\|\|–\| \|R. typhi (Murine typhus)\|\|+ + +\|\|+/-\|\|–\| \|R. tsutsugamushi (Scrub typhus)\|\|–\|\|–\|\|+ + +\| \|R. rickettsii (Rocky Mountain Spotted fever)\|\|+/ + + +\|\|+/ + + +\|\|–\| Limitation of Weil Felix test: Both Sensitivity and specificity of weil-felix test is low, but its predictive value can be increased by testing both acute and convalescent phase samples and observing rise in antibody titre. Weil-felix test has low sensitivity, i.e. its gives high percentage of false negative results. This is common in case of Scrub Typhus. It also shows low specificity, i.e. false positive results are obtained in other diseases such as leptospirosis, and relapsing fever (diseases which require differentiating from rickettsial infections), in Proteus infections, brucellosis and acute febrile illness.
Suppose Don, the Bible professor at the African seminary, returned to his host country from his year of home ministry assignment with some new ideas. In addition to visiting supporters and raising funds, he had taken some graduate level Bible courses to broaden his perspective. His former seminary students, about to graduate, immediately noticed that he had changed in some very basic ways. Rather than talking about humanity's need of salvation from sin, he emphasized that God is a god of love. He pointed out that 2 Peter 3:9 states that God is not willing that anyone should perish but wants everyone to repent. Since it is God's will that everyone repent, the students did not need to preach repentance because it would happen without them. Instead, they needed to emphasize that human beings are to rule over the earth and care for it, as Adam did in the early chapters of Genesis. He suggested that they organize their future congregations to pick up trash along roads and paths as well as other such things to care for the earth. At first his students were quite confused, but soon some of them agreed and began to pick up trash themselves. Other missionaries felt quite uneasy about this, and several urged the field director to confront the professor. However, the field director was a math major in college and had taught at the international school for years. He did not feel qualified to challenge a theologian when it came to the Bible. What should be done in such a case? What does the Bible say? The Bible has a clear case of one missionary confronting another in Galatians 2. In Acts 10-11 God appeared to have clarified to the apostles that Jews and Gentiles should be treated equally. Peter was the major one to take that position, and he explained what God had revealed to him. In fact, Peter, one of the twelve, became known as "an apostle to the Jews," which today would probably be called something like the "Director of Home Missions" (Galatians 2:8). Unlike Peter, Paul had not been a follower of Jesus while Jesus lived on earth. In fact, Paul had persecuted Jesus' followers until Jesus confronted him on his way to Damascus. This led to Paul's conversion when God sent Ananias to restore his sight. At that time God told Ananias that Paul was the one chosen to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 9). In fact, Paul became known as "an apostle to the Gentiles," which today would probably be something like the "Director of Cross-Cultural Missions" (Galatians 2:8). Peter treated Jews and Gentiles alike until some men from Jerusalem, now often called Judaizers, influenced him. These men maintained that the converted Gentiles had to follow all Jewish customs. Peter had been eating with the Gentiles, but when the Judiazers came, Peter began to separate from the Gentiles for fear of the Judiazers (Galatians 2:12). This was clearly wrong, so Paul confronted Peter about it. Isn't it hard to confront missionaries? Yes, confronting other missionaries is probably the most difficult thing missionaries do. In the early 1980s Dorothy Gish surveyed 547 missionaries serving in many countries with many agencies to rate how stressful 65 items were to them. The most stressful thing was "Confronting Others When Necessary." This was more stressful than such things as communicating across language and cultural barriers, amount of work, or frequent moving. This study was published as "Sources of Missionary Stress" in the 1983 Journal of Psychology and Theology. In the 1990s Joan Carter asked 306 CMA missionaries serving on 13 fields during an 8-year period to rate sources of stress. This data was collected through on-site visits and included additional possible stressors. The top dozen stressors were consistent with those Gish found, and the stress rating was even higher than Gish had found a decade earlier. "Confronting Others When Necessary" tied for the top rating. This study was published in the Journal of Psychology and Theology in 1999 as "Missionary Stressors and Implications for Care." There is no question that confronting other missionaries is very difficult and generates much stress. When should missionaries be confronted? Confrontation may lead to serious interpersonal problems, so it is best to do it over only very serious issues. The person confronting must judge whether or not it is worth the risk. Paul specified two reasons for his confrontation with Peter. - First: "He (Peter) was clearly in the wrong" (Galatians 2:11). God had made it clear to Peter that Jews and Gentiles must be treated equally. Peter had made a strong defense of this to others, so he not only knew about it but also he had clearly explained it to others (Acts 10-11). Today we also have the New Testament with clear statements about what is right and wrong - Second: "The other Jews joined him (Peter)" (Galatians 2:13). Not only was Peter doing something wrong but also he was influencing others to do it. Even Barnabas (Paul's missionary colleague during their first term of service) was led astray. When a person is influencing others to do wrong, he or she must be confronted. These are situations which clearly call for confrontation. Much of the time things are not as evident. Should a missionary be confronted about his dog's behavior? What about if his dog barks too much? What about if her dog has bitten several TCKs? Should a teacher be confronted about his behavior? What if she is grading too hard? What if he has molested a student? Who should confront missionaries? Most agencies have a hierarchy in which it is clear where each member "ranks." That is, usually the administrators at headquarters are above people serving on the field. Among missionaries serving in other countries there may be one person responsible for a continent, then other persons responsible for each country, and even persons responsible for regions within the country. There may be field directors over city coordinators, and so forth. In these cases, the persons at the higher level are responsible for the people they supervise, and these leaders should be the ones to confront those below them when needed. Unfortunately, this does not always work as planned. In such cases, it is appropriate for missionaries to confront others at their own level. Note that Paul and Peter were both at the same level. Peter was "an apostle to the Jews" and Paul was "an apostle to the Gentiles. Confrontation was appropriate. Of course, there are some "wrongs" that must be reported on moral grounds even if not legally required. For example, sexual molestation of a child or adolescent, child abuse, and spouse abuse must be stopped. Such behavior is very likely to be repeated, and it must be halted immediately. How does one confront missionaries? One time when Peter came to Antioch, Paul said, "I opposed him to his face" (Galatians 2:11). This is still the best way to confront another missionary. When people talk face-to-face, they are the most likely to communicate correctly because they have the most cues that give information. They can hear each other, including the volume, tone, any tremor, and so forth. They can see each other including motions of the body, facial expressions, eyes, and so forth. Replies take place immediately. Today we have many means of communication, but none of them are as good as face-to-face. Missionaries can communicate via telephone, texting, Skype, twitter, Facebook, and so forth. Some of these means of communication are better than others. For instance, with Skype the two people can see and hear to some extent, with the phone one can hear the voice, but not see. With email replies may take some time, texting gives only a brief written message, and twitter allows only 140 characters. None of these can match the face-to-face method Paul used to confront Peter. Where does one confront missionaries? When Paul saw that they (Peter, Barnabas, and the Jews) were not acting in line with the gospel truth, he confronted Peter "in front of them all" (Galatians 2:14). All of those present, including Barnabas, were clearly in the wrong. Although some missionaries react negatively to Paul confronting Peter in front of the others, this was probably appropriate for the situation. This was essentially a confrontation of everyone there. All were offenders, and all needed to hear what Paul said because they were as guilty as Peter. If Peter were the only one that had been shunning the Gentiles, Paul probably would have used something similar to what Jesus commanded in Matthew 18:15-17. This was how Jesus said individuals were to confront each other about sin. - First. One person was to confront the other alone, and no one else knew. - Second. If the first step was not successful, then the person was to take two other people along and talk to the offender, and the only others who knew about the problem were the two witnesses. - Third. If the second step was not successful, then the whole issue could be brought before the whole church. Then everyone in the church knew. - Finally. If the third step was not successful, then the church would treat the offender as a pagan. Although confrontation is very difficult, sometimes it is absolutely necessary. When such confrontation is needed, someone who is sensitive must do it. About the Author Ron and Bonnie Koteskey are Member Care Consultants with Go International. They have provided member care for missionaries since 1997.
People around here don’t talk about Plainfield or Bueno any more. Occasionally, you hear it referred to as Poverty Flat, another old name, but not so much. La Sal used to be called Coyote. Names change over time. Almost every geographic feature on the North American continent changed names as white settlers moved west. When was the last time you referred to the mountains outside of Flagstaff as Doko’o’osliid? For most, those mountains are now called the San Francisco Peaks. Changing the name from Negro Bill Canyon to Grandstaff Canyon is going to be okay. An interpretive sign will be at the trailhead explaining the history. We are halfway there. The name of the campground adjacent to the canyon is called Grandstaff. Names change, they always have and always will. It’s okay.
By Akram Fouad Khater This certain basic resource reader offers first-hand debts of the occasions defined in heart jap background survey texts. The textual content is equipped into ten chapters that includes bankruptcy introductions and headnotes. the first resource files conceal the overdue 18th century during the starting of the twenty first, exploring political, social, monetary, and cultural historical past and infusing the quantity with the voices of actual humans. Quick preview of Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East (2nd Edition) PDF Best Textbook books Basics of pollution is a crucial and popular textbook within the environmental technological know-how and engineering neighborhood. This completely revised 5th variation of basics of pollution has been up to date all through and is still the main whole textual content on hand, delivering a better structures point of view and extra assurance of overseas concerns in relation to pollution. 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That package deal comprises ISBN-10: 0133856461/ISBN-13: 9780133856460 and ISBN-10: 0133876802/ISBN-13: 9780133876802. - Learning From Data - Management: Challenges for Tomorrow's Leaders (5th Edition) - Algorithms for VLSI Design Automation - Pocket Guide to the Operating Room (3rd Edition) Additional resources for Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East (2nd Edition) I can be thankful for those who might deliver this assertion to the data of the Zionist Federation. Yours in actual fact, Arthur James Balfour 1. Cambon Letter to Sokolow, four June 1917 You have been more than enough to offer the venture to that you are devoting your efforts, which has for its item the advance of Jewish colonization in Palestine. you think about that, conditions allowing, and the independence of the Holy locations being safeguarded nonetheless, it'd be a deed of justice and of reparation to help, via the security of the Allied Powers, within the renaissance of the Jewish nationality in that Land from which the folks of Israel have been exiled such a lot of centuries in the past. The French govt, which entered this current struggle to shield a humans wrongfully attacked, and which keeps the fight to guarantee the victory of correct over may, can yet suppose sympathy in your reason, the triumph of that's sure up with that of the Allies. i'm chuffed to offer you herewith such insurance. bankruptcy four rules of Nationalism 109 2. Ofﬁcial Zionist formulation, 18 July 1917 H. M. executive, after contemplating the goals of the Zionist organization, accepts the primary of recognising Palestine because the nationwide domestic of the Jewish humans and the perfect of the Jewish humans to accumulate its nationwide lifestyles in Palestine lower than a safeguard to be verified on the end of Peace, following upon the winning factor of the conflict. H. M. executive regards as crucial for the realisation of this precept the furnish of inner autonomy to the Jewish nationality in Palestine, freedom of immigration for Jews, and the institution of a Jewish nationwide Colonising company for the re-settlement and monetary improvement of the rustic. The stipulations and types of the inner autonomy and a constitution for the Jewish nationwide Colonising company may still, within the view of H. M. executive, be elaborated intimately and made up our minds with the representatives of the Zionist enterprise. three. mins of conflict cupboard assembly No. 227, Minute No. 2, three September 1917 The conflict cupboard had into account correspondence which had handed among the Secretary of kingdom for international Affairs and Lord Rothschild at the query of the coverage to be followed in the direction of the Zionist flow. as well as the draft statement of coverage integrated within the above correspondence, that they had prior to them an alternate draft ready by means of Lord Milner. they'd additionally ahead of them a Memorandum through Mr. Montagu entitled “The Anti-Semitism of the current govt. ” It used to be steered query elevating such very important concerns as to the way forward for Palestine ought, within the ﬁrst example, to be mentioned with our Allies, and extra fairly with the USA. at the query of filing Lord Milner’s draft for the respect of the U.S. govt, Mr. Montagu recommended that using the word “the domestic of the Jewish humans” could vitally prejudice the placement of each Jew in different places and extend the argument contained in his Memorandum.
By Mihalis Mentinis "The Zapatista military for nationwide Liberation burst onto the area level on 1 January 1994. Zapatista commander Subcomandante Marcos introduced a revolution, and declared conflict at the Mexican govt and worldwide capitalism. on the grounds that then, the Zapatistas have encouraged hundreds of thousands of activists the world over. they've got attracted a lot awareness from political theorists and analysts. regardless of this, there's little consensus concerning the actual nature and efficacy of the circulation. Zapatistas presents a daring new method of realizing the insurrection. Mentinis spent 9 months traveling the Zapatista self sufficient quarter, and the result's this specified exploration of the indigenous political thought rising in the stream. Combining this with an research of the integrity of the Zaptista undertaking, Mentinis attracts at the suggestion of the 'event' from Badiou, principles from Situationism, the 'project of autonomy' of Cornelius Castoriadis and the 'constituent strength' of Antonio Negri, to give a rigourous account of the circulation and the impression it has had on radical political theory." Preview of Zapatistas: The Chiapas Revolt and What It Means For Radical Politics PDF Similar Political Theory books An creation to the paintings of the best German sociologist and a key determine within the improvement of present-day sociological proposal. This is often the 1st full-length presentation of a republican replacement to the liberal and communitarian theories that experience ruled political philosophy lately. the newest addition to the acclaimed Oxford Political conception sequence, Pettit's eloquent and compelling account opens with an exam of the normal republican notion of freedom as non-domination, contrasting this with tested unfavourable and optimistic perspectives of liberty. We are living in a world age, an age of tremendous scale and pace, an age of significant technological and monetary and environmental switch, in stipulations our ancestors may well rarely have imagined. What does this compression of geographical and temporal scale suggest for our political pondering? can we want new modes of political concept or a brand new form of political mind's eye? Until eventually lately, struggles for justice proceeded opposed to the history of a taken-for-granted body: the bounded territorial country. With that "Westphalian" photograph of political area assumed via default, the scope of justice was once hardly topic to open dispute. at the present time, although, human-rights activists and overseas feminists sign up for critics of structural adjustment and the area exchange association in demanding the view that justice can basically be a family relation between fellow voters. - Liberty and Property: A Social History of Western Political Thought from Renaissance to Enlightenment - The Utopia of Film: Cinema and Its Futures in Godard, Kluge, and Tahimik (Film and Culture) - How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa - Pluralism, Justice, and Equality Extra resources for Zapatistas: The Chiapas Revolt and What It Means For Radical Politics Having performed this my subsequent step should be to explain the current order of items which I name, after Hardt and Negri (2001), Empire, because the historic context during which the Zapatista fight is located. sixty four Mentinis 01 chap01 sixty four 3/3/06 17:18:26 The undertaking of Autonomy, Constituent energy and Empire sixty five ONTOLOGICAL THESES I commence via offering the most ontological theses in Castoriadis’s paintings and elucidating a few easy techniques that may allow us to know the assumption of the undertaking of autonomy and support us in realizing the political techniques offered later during this bankruptcy. ‘Being’ as production ‘Being’, Castoriadis (1986) argues, not just is ‘in time’ but in addition ‘in essence’ is time, and time is both not anything or construction, the selfdeployment of a being-for-itself. while Castoriadis talks approximately production he skill actual, ontological construction, the production of latest kinds, of recent eide in platonic terminology, and this, after all, implies destruction, the destruction of outdated types. The emergence of latest varieties is production ex nihilo and it truly is neither producible nor reducible from the other shape, from what used to be already there. Society itself is a kind of being-for-itself, a brand new ontological shape, and it creates in every one case its personal international, the realm of social imaginary significations (1994). the very fact, even though, that society is production ex nihilo doesn't suggest that the sort of construction happens in a vacuum. The Greek democratic polis, Castoriadis (1991) explains, was once created less than convinced stipulations, with convinced capacity, in a distinct surroundings, with given people, a previous embodied within the Greek mythology and language, and so forth. these kinds of, even though, didn't make sure whatsoever the production of the polis yet in basic terms conditioned it. in brief, not like the rationalist, and as a result closed, Hegelian dialectic the place the total of expertise is exhaustively reducible to rational determinations (Castoriadis, 1975), the belief of construction involves that the determinations over what there's are by no means closed in a fashion fighting the emergence of alternative determinations. the unconventional imaginary the driver of the method of production is the novel imaginary. the novel imaginary will be extensively outlined because the ‘unmotivated positing of latest types’ (quoted in Curtis, 1997, p. xxxiii), and exists as ‘psyche/soma’ and ‘the socio-historical’, with the latter having its personal mode of being that's irreducible to actual, organic or psycho-corporeal lifestyles. As ‘psyche/soma’ it manifests itself within the type of the ‘capacity to posit that which isn't, to determine in whatever that which isn't there’ (quoted in Curtis, 1997, p. xxxiii), an openended inventive and representational ability or, in different phrases, Mentinis 01 chap01 sixty five 3/3/06 17:18:27 66 Zapatistas what he calls radical mind's eye, which exists indissolubly in either historic doing and the structure of an international of significations; an old doing and a global of significations that aren't the made of any linear or dialectic procedure, yet fairly are the results of natural, real production.
(Note: the following is one of various posts that were copied here from the Moonwards.com forum for the sake of preserving the early days of the project. It was originally posted there on Feb 11th, 2016.) I suffer from a severe rabbit-in-headlights reaction when i open the Lunar Sourcebook. Yes, i know it is a venerable tome that contains about everything i need. But it is also extremely detailed and dense and designed for people who are trained in the field. David Kring's Powerpoint summary of its information on the nature of the regolith is much more my speed. I was musing over it again this morning. It tells a tale of regolith density at depths over a meter that (once again) is not the idea i had. There are so many things to know, you see, and though i've scanned a lot of material, some things take a lot longer to register clearly than others. So, alright, as we can see on slide 22 of that presentation, below the first foot of regolith, relative density rises to over 90 percent. And on slide 27 we see that there it conducts heat as well as porcelain does. So forget what i said about it being a good insulator. It will suck up heat like crazy. However, we are still okay, in fact this could be regarded as a good thing - as long as you think more long term. Let us talk about heat islands. Heat diffuses outwards in all directions based purely on the statistical likelihood of a particle with more kinetic energy striking one with less and thus transferring some of its energy in the collision. We experience that kinetic energy of molecules as heat (well, unless a very large number of them are moving in the same way at the same time). When you pour heat energy into a medium, the heat moves away more slowly the closer the temperature of the surrounding material is to the temperature at the heat source. So the longer heat is poured into the ground around the sunken hall we are building, the slower it will move away. At night the heat closest to the hall is just as likely to move towards it as away from it. When dawn arrives, heat starts pouring in again, and at first it will sink in to the ground faster than it did at sunset, because the ground is cooler than it was then. The regolith deeper than 80 cm remains at a pretty constant temperature all day and all night. That temperature is about -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Farenheit). Once you expose that layer to the heat of the sun, it will start warming up for the first time in maybe a billion years. Then at night you want to limit heat loss with reflective insulation so that heat builds up. Thus we seek a recipe in which enough sunlight pours in during the day, into the right geometry of material, to create a heat island where the temperature stays reasonably close to something pleasant all the time. And we'd like to reach that temperature within a few years, so that people can arrive to a temperate clime. To get that done we are talking about dumping in a lot of heat, but it should be possible to achieve a desirable balance in a few years with a good design and possibly a few tweaks. On Earth this approach to temperature control has probably best been explored as Passive Annual Heat Storage. The rule of thumb in that method is that if you thermally isolate a volume of dry soil extending 6 m from an underground home and heat it to the desired temperature, the temperature in the home will stay within a degree or two of that year-round using only the passive heat of the sun, through south-facing windows in a normal-looking house, other than that the rest of it is buried under a thick layer of soil. Beyond that 6 m point the temperature slowly falls to the annual average, which on Earth in mid-latitudes is 5 or 6 Celsius. If you look at the 'Look Inside' preview of the book at the Amazon link above, there is a case study where such a home's earthen thermal store reached a good temperature within 2 years, and was close after only a year. On the Moon the temperature gradient we have to deal with is much steeper, -20 to 20 Celsius, 40 degrees instead of 15 or so. But the conditions for doing that are very favorable. Sun that averaged over time is twice as strong as what most places on Earth receive, the ability to control heat loss quite precisely and completely with just a few sheets of reflective foil. My guess - and i say this with 68 arbitrary units more confidence than i've said other things - is that even the smallish sunken hall planned in Phase 1 can have a pleasant area of windows (or, you know, window-like objects) and be kept at a pleasant, even temperature using only reflective shutters. A set of them hooked up to a simple program that opens and closes them on some schedule would be enough, and at least a couple could always be open for that key view of the full Earth bounced into the hall from a mirror.
Inside Out Parenting: How to Build Strong Children from a Core of Self-Esteem By Dr Holan Liang Raising confident children starts from understanding who they are, not what they do. With the experience of being a mother of two, Dr Liang provides parents with strategies to nurture in children – from the inside out – a healthy self-esteem so they grow up to be self-assured individuals. Karung Guni Boy By Lorraine Tan & Eric Wong Not having enough money to buy materials for his inventions, Ming decides to become a karung guni man. He sets out collecting lots of unwanted things from his neighbours, and finally invents something that will help his neighbours too. What could it be? Toddler’s World: ABC by Pat-a-Cake With its colourful illustrations, this alphabet book makes learning the A to Zs fun for your little one. Plus, look forward to a foldout surprise at the end of the book! Love Always Everywhere By Sarah Massini “Love quiet, love loud. Love shy, love proud.” Love is all around in this pictorial book! With its brightly-coloured illustrations, your little one can learn all the different kinds of love out there. The Boy in the Whale Suit By Marie Toh This is one for the kids who feel a little out of place in this world. Kai doesn’t fit in anywhere, and nobody notices him either, despite him always being in a whale suit. But this doesn’t make Kai sad because he knows he’s unique in his own way.
Michael P. Maslanka 2017-12-20 05:23:14 The biggest news in employment law was the en banc decision by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College. The decision: sexual orientation is a protected classification under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Why? Because when you take an adverse employment action against a man or a woman because he or she is in a same-sex relationship, you are taking an action because of the employee’s sex. The Texas Supreme Court is currently considering whether the Texas Labor Code prohibits same-sex harassment. The court conducted oral argument in September. The U.S. Supreme Court emphatically said “yes” to this question; it is unlikely that the Texas Supreme Court will follow a different path. Keep a lookout for the decision in Clark v. Alamo Heights Independent School District.1 In Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Rincones,2 the court determined that compelled defamation is not a claim in Texas, there is no protected activity and thus no retaliation claim when an employee (here: Hispanic) asks a supervisor why another employee (here: white) was treated differently than he was, and for a plaintiff to prove unlawful discrimination through disparate treatment, the plaintiff must establish that the comparator had the same job responsibilities, supervisors, capabilities, and disciplinary records and that there were no mitigating factors for the employees to be treated differently. In Horizon Health Corp. v. Acadia Healthcare, the court ruled on whether evidence supported the damages award for lost profits. The court determined that concrete evidence is needed to base these assumptions. Non-competes continue to be hot with two major developments. The 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin dismissed a cookie-cutter suit for breach of a non-compete based on the defendant’s assertion that the lawsuit violated the Texas Citizens Participation Act, which prohibits a lawsuit against a citizen who seeks to exercise the right of free speech and association. The defendants in Elite Auto Body et al. v. Autocraft Bodywerks framed their leaving one company to set up another as engaging in freedom of speech and association and won. Finally, an important case from the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston—employee claw back provisions are a restraint of trade and thus are an invalid non-compete. Kelley Rieves v. Buc-ee’s Ltd. was a victory for employees and for competition. Notes 1) Case No. 16-0244. 2) 520 S.W. 3d 572 ( Tex. 2017). MICHAEL P. MASLANKA is an assistant professor of law at UNT Dallas College of Law and is publishing two books this year, Maslanka’s Field Guide to Texas Employment Law and Learning Employment Law, of which he is a co-author. Published by State Bar of Texas. View All Articles. This page can be found at http://mydigimag.rrd.com/article/Labor+and+Employment+Law/2967594/463027/article.html.

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