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Most of you will remember the huge lawsuit that the US embarked on to bring Dotcom’s Megaupload. The unprecedented abuse of power, illegal warrants, improper seizure of evidence and even the original charges which enabled the seizure of all of Megauload and dotcom’s assets has become legendary (and not in a good way). We will not go into all of the gory detail, but if you are inclined you can read some of it using the links at the bottom of this article.
Needless to say having all of your money and your business closed down does throw a wrench into any legal defense you might try to offer against a major government. This is exactly why the charges were filed the way they were, they needed the ability to seize everything to that Dotcom would not be able to afford a proper defense. So far the move has backfires, but it cannot last forever. Dotcom knows that he will have to come up with money to keep things rolling. According to some of his tweets this could be as much as $50 Million US dollars before it is all over.
Getting back to the patent on two factor authentication and Dotcom’s ownership of it we have an interesting situation. TFA (Two Factor Authentication) is not new and predates the patent that Dotcom holds by a few years. There have been RSA keys, one-time-passwords and more for a long time. What is different in the Dotcom patent is that he specifically mentions cellphones in the description of the receiver as the second authentication device.
“a) a wireless receiver with a display or a monitor such as for example a mobile or cellular phone, a pager (for example a city-call receiver),
b) a specially constructed receiver card within the data input apparatus, which is accessed wirelessly or through a fixed wiring;
c) a mailbox;
d) a telefax apparatus; or
e) a language output apparatus such as a fixed installed audio speaker or a telephone for the language transmission.”
RSA keys are a different type of TFA and fall outside of this patent even though they appear to be references in item b. However the patent does cover the TFA used by Google, Microsoft, Blizzard, Twitter and many others. What might save them is a subtle difference in application of the authentication method. Instead of transmitting a number via wireless, as stated in the patent, they use an expiring key that is randomly generated based on a specific algorithm. This is setup when you link your account to the service. In many ways this is similar to how RSA keys work. In very basic terms when you attach them to a user account a random number sequence is created and that sequence is attached to that user. Attempting to log in to an account protected by this method causes a challenge phrase or number to be generated. You have to type that into your RSA key and it will give you back the proper response. With the TFA used by Google and others the authentication server and device continually change the challenge and response. The end user never sees the challenge, but they have to enter the response before it expires and moves to the next challenge. For most of these systems the challenge and response expire every 60-90 seconds. It makes copying the passcode useless as it will not work after 60-90 seconds. In this manner you eliminate certain steps in the process outlined in Dotcom’s patent. Nothing is transmitted between the device and the login servers after the initial setup is completed in the TFA used by Google and others. In Dotcom’s patent transmission is required from the login server to the receiver device.
“This transaction authorization number TAN, or a similar password, is transmitted to a receiver by the authorizing computer through another transmission path disposed parallel to the existing connection with the data-input apparatus.”
So while the methodologies are fundamentally similar they differ enough that Dotcom might not be able to apply them in court. This is probably why he chose not to sue (on top of not having the money to do so) and is asking for help. The question now is; will Google, Microsoft, Twitter and others come to the aid of Dotcom? We doubt Microsoft will bother to answer his call since they are one of the people that helped push for Megaupload to be taken down in the first place. Google and Twitter, on the other hand, might decide to help out. They have no love for the MPAA, RIAA or other members of the copyright lobby so there is a small chance there. We doubt that the $50 Million bill we be paid, but Dotcom might find a few extra dollars in his legal defense fund.
Of course there is one other possibility that we have to consider. We are certain that Kim Dotcom is aware of the ludicrous laws that govern US patents and it is possible that he is using this to show just how stupid the system is. The fact that a person who would be arrested the moment he set foot in the US can hold companies accountable for patent violation is sort of silly, but that is the way things are. US Patents are often interpreted in the broadest way to protect the patent holder. Items like obviousness, subtle differences in application and methodology are often overlooked by judges that have little to no technical understanding. Dotcom could be banking on this to get what he wants. Then again… he might just want to see if the threat will work to help pay for his legal bills…
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Definitions for accusedəˈkyuzd
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word accused
Random House Webster's College Dictionary
charged with a crime.
(n.)the accused, a person or persons charged with a crime.
Origin of accused:
a defendant in a criminal proceeding
The person charged with an offense; the defendant in a criminal case.
Having been accused; being the target of accusations.
Origin: * First attested in the 1590's.
charged with offense; as, an accused person
British National Corpus
Spoken Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'accused' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2627
Written Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'accused' in Written Corpus Frequency: #4631
Rank popularity for the word 'accused' in Adjectives Frequency: #995
Anagrams of accused
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Notary Public Code of
The Notary shall, as a government officer and public servant, serve all of the public in an honest, fair, and unbiased manner.
The Notary shall act as an impartial witness and not profit or gain from any document or transaction requiring a notarial act, apart from the fee allowed by statue.
The Notary shall require the present of each signer and oath-taker in order to carefully screen each for identity and willingness, and to observe that each appears aware of the significance of the transaction requiring a notarial act.
The Notary shall not execute a false or incomplete certificate, nor be involved with any document or transaction that is false, deceptive or fraudulent.
The Notary shall give precedence to the rules of law over the dictates or expectations of any person or entity.
The Notary shall act as a ministerial officer and not provide unauthorized advice or services.
The Notary shall affix a seal on every notarized document and not allow this universally recognized symbol of office to be used by another or in an endorsement or promotion.
The Notary shall record every notarial action in a bound journal or other secured recording device and safeguard it as an important public record.
The Notary shall respect the privacy of each signer and not divulge or use personal proprietary information disclosed during execution of a notarial act for other than an official purpose.
The Notary shall seek instruction on notarization, and keep current on the laws, practices and requirements of the notarial office.
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Love Your Unborn Neighbor
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two Denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
God has commanded us in his word, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). And he told us why. He said in Genesis 9:6, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” In other words, when you murder a human, you attack God who makes every human in his image. This is the fundamental mistake that Princeton professor Peter Singer makes when he argues that (quoting Richard John Neuhaus, who debated Singer) “the life of an adult pig deserves protection more than that of a new born human baby, and . . . the parents should be free to kill their young children already born if they deem them unacceptably disabled.”1 The reason he is wrong is that the human baby is created in the image of God, and the pig isn’t.
The psalmist describes how God is personally and meticulously involved in the creation of each person in the womb: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:13-14). And lest we think that somehow the children in the womb are not children—not human, not persons—God lets us read the words of the angel in Luke 1:15 to Zechariah concerning John the Baptist, “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb,” so that a few verses later his pregnant mother said to Mary, “Behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44).
And when we have heard all these things, God says to us in America in the 21st century stained with the blood of millions of unborn babies, these words from Proverbs 24:11-12, “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?”
What work? The work of mercy, the work of justice, the work of caring for the oppressed and defending the unborn. The good work of loving the unborn. Why after all did Jesus Christ come to redeem us from our sin and guilt? Paul tells us in Titus 2:14, “He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Among which is the glorious work of laboring and defending our unborn neighbor.
January 22 is the 33rd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision called Roe vs. Wade. That decree that made abortion legal in our country all the way up to birth, if the health of the mother is at stake; and the health of the mother has been construed to mean any discomfort that would come from an unwanted pregnancy. So what we have had for 33 years is virtually abortion on demand. In that time, the lives of 46 million unborn children have been ended by abortion in the United States. Women’s Issues web site estimates that worldwide that same number of abortions happen each year.
Abortion Closer to Home
The parable of the Good Samaritan, among other things, presses us from the global to the local. So let’s take a step closer to home. Since 1973 in our state, Minnesota, the lives of 490,000 unborn children have been ended by abortion. In 2004 there were 13,788 abortions in this state. (As tragic and as horrifying as that is, there is an encouraging side because this is the lowest number since 1975.)
But the parable of the Good Samaritan would press us still closer to home. Almost all the abortions in Minnesota are done here in the Twin Cities in five local clinics. I want to give you a glimpse into these clinics and then turn to the parable of the Good Samaritan and then come back to them at the end with a dream.
1. Midwest Health Center for Women is located downtown Minneapolis at 33 South Fifth Street, 4th Floor, Minneapolis, Minn., 55402. On their web site they state openly that they provide about 3,000 of those abortions each year and advocate for the sexual freedom that makes many of them feel so necessary.
Midwest Health Center for Women provides quality health care and advocates and promotes reproductive freedom and healthy sexuality. . . . Annually, Midwest provides abortion services for 3,000 patients. . . . We also seek to expand public awareness and gather support for reproductive rights and health care.
As an abortion provider we are prepared for a long political battle over reproductive rights. Continued attacks from the anti-choice minority threaten access to this legal and safe procedure through legislative action and regulatory burdens. For example, the so-called “Women’s Right to Know” which became Minnesota law in 2003 added $80,000 annually to the clinic’s operating budget.
2. Meadowbrook Women’s Clinic is located four blocks from our downtown campus at 825 South 8th Street, Suite 1018, Minneapolis, Minn., 55404. Here are a couple glimpses into their work. Question from their FAQ section: “Q: How long will the abortion take? A: If you are less than 14 weeks, the abortion will take approximately 5 to 10 minutes. If you are 14 to 21.6 weeks, the length of time will be somewhat longer (20 to 30 minutes).”
Twenty-one and a half weeks? Do you know what that baby looks like and experiences? He or she is about 11 inches long and weighs about a pound and is within two or three weeks of being able to live outside the womb. Steve Calvin, who works in the neonatal unit at Abbott hospital wrote in the Minneapolis StarTribune
Recently, I performed an amniocentesis on a patient at 21 weeks gestation because of a possible infection. On ultrasound, the fetus pulled away from the needle when it grazed her arm. It is clear to me that this fetus felt discomfort, and that she would feel horrible pain if she were dismembered in the exercise of an unjust constitutional right.2
The dismembering of a human being routinely in 30 minutes on an outpatient bases—or any other way—is barbaric. Four blocks from our church all year long—like churches within smelling distance of Auschwitz or Dachau or Buchenwald.
3. Robbinsdale Clinic, 3819 West Broadway, Robbinsdale, Minn., 55422. They strike a defensive political posture at their web site:
It is the responsibility of all American women and their families to work to keep abortion safe and legal by voting for Pro-Choice officials, and working with various organizations to ensure this basic fundamental right of reproductive freedom. Please remember, while over 70% of Americans believe in the right to choose, a small but vocal minority of narrow-minded anti-abortion forces, could make a major impact on the threat to women’s rights.
4. Mildred S. Hanson, M.D, 710 East 24th Street, Suite 403, Minneapolis, Minn., 55404. The web site calls her a “Late Abortion Specialist” and then boasts in this distinction: “First and second trimester abortions by a woman gynecologist, the first physician in Minnesota to perform the second trimester D&E procedure.” The business side is clear and simple at her site:
Fees for Office Abortions Through 20 Weeks
5-6 weeks $475 7-10.5 weeks $420 11-12 weeks $515 13-14 weeks $615 15th week $820 16th week $920 17-18 weeks $1,070 18-19.4 weeks $1,320 19-20 weeks $1,520
5. Planned Parenthood, Highland Park Clinic, 1965 Ford Parkway, St. Paul, Minn., 55116. Out of the 13,000+ abortions done in Minnesota each year about 23% are done at Planned Parenthood. Their web site describes how caring this is: “With many years of experience, our physicians and staff provide caring, confidential, and affordable abortion services.”
That’s the reality of abortion fairly close to home. Of course even closer are the abortions you have experienced personally: your girlfriend, your wife, your daughter, your granddaughter, yourself. Jesus hates abortion and he loves you. When you feel both of these truths the way he wants you to, you will weep with brokenhearted joy. I know women in this church who have walked through it, been broken by it, and emerged strong in the Lord and in the cause of life. Be patient with your healing. Your time for courage in the cause of life will come.
Who is my Neighbor?
O how many things we could observe from the parable of the Good Samaritan! But I have one main observation to make and apply to our situation. The parable begins with a lawyer trying to justify himself by asking the question “Who is my neighbor” (in verse 29), and ends with Jesus’ question in verse 36, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor?” Ten sermons could be preached on ten different issues raised by this parable. But I want you to see this one crucial thing: Jesus tells a story that changes the question from What kind of person is my neighbor? to What kind of person am I? He changes the question from What status of people are worthy of my love? to How can I become the kind of person whose compassion disregards status?
Let’s make sure we see this and then apply it. A lawyer asks in verse 25 about how to inherit eternal life. He is not sincere. It says he is testing Jesus. Jesus puts the question back to him in verse 26 to reveal the duplicity. What does the Law say? He answers in verse 27 that we should love God will all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus exposes him by saying in effect: So you already know the answer. He sees that he has been exposed and needs to cover up his hypocrisy and so verse 29 says, “Desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” In other words, it’s not so easy, Jesus. Life is complicated—like, which kind of people do we have to love? Who qualifies for being a neighbor in the command, “Love your neighbor”? Every race? Every age. The unborn?
Now how will Jesus answer? He does not like this question. Carving humanity up into groups some of whom are worthy of our love and others are not. Jesus does not answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” He tells a parable that changes the question.
Jesus Shifts the Focus
Between Jerusalem and Jericho a man falls among robbers and verse 30 says they “stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.” The first two people to pass by are a priest and a Levite—the most religious folks—and they both pass by on the other side (vv. 31, 32). Then came a Samaritan, not even a Jew, and the key phrase about this man is at the end of verse 33: “he had compassion.”
You see how the focus has shifted. The question about what kind of man is dying is not even in the story any more. The whole focus is now on the kind of people who are walking by. The first two felt no compassion. The Samaritan was a different kind of person. So when you get to the end, what’s the question Jesus asks? Was it, “So was the wounded man a neighbor?” No. That is not the question. Jesus asked the lawyer (v. 36), “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” The lawyer said in verse 37, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
No answer to his question: Who is my neighbor? Instead: Go become a new kind of person. Go get a compassionate heart. This is exactly what Jesus died for. This is the promise of the new covenant in Ezekiel 36:26, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” And Jesus said at the last supper, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). Those who follow Jesus all the way to the cross will see him there paying for their new heart.
What Kind of Person Am I?
So the point I believe I should make about abortion is this: When all the arguments are said and done about the status of pre-born human life and whether the unborn qualify for our compassion along with mommy and daddy and grandma and granddaddy—when we are done trying to establish, “Is this my neighbor?”—the decisive issue of love remains: What kind of person am I? Does compassion rise in my heart for both mommy and daddy and grandma and granddaddy and this unborn baby? Or do I just get another coke and change the channel?
Look at the practical compassion—the concrete, hands-on, get-messy compassion of verses 34-35. This is a huge part of the parable. Jesus belabors this to drive something home about the kind of person who follows him. Here it is (vv.34-35):
He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two Denarii [two days wages, maybe $300] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, “Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.”
That is amazing!
A Heart of Compassion
My prayer for us in response to this message is that we become like that. A heart of compassion leading to hands-on, messy, sacrificial, time-consuming, stressful action. I believe there is something everyone can do in the cause of defending and protecting and loving everyone involved in abortion.
Which takes us back to Midwest Health Center for Women, and Meadowbrook Women’s Clinic, and Robbinsdale Clinic, and Mildred Hanson, and Planned Parenthood. The people who own and operate and work there are real people. Above all, they need Christ. What might God be pleased to do if 4,000 concerned Christians committed ourselves to pray daily that Christ would manifest his saving grace in those places? What divine encounters of compassionate involvement might God create? Let there be no violence from our side. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. If the owners and administrators and employees of these five clinics met the living Christ and were saved, would abortion be offered in Minnesota any longer? There is more that you can do. But this much I ask you to do. Pray regularly that the owners, administrators, and employees of Midwest Health Center for Women, Meadowbrook Women’s Clinic, Robbinsdale Clinic, Mildred Hanson, and Planned Parenthood would be saved.
1 Richard John Neuhaus, “While We’re at It” in First Things (January, 2006, Issue 159), 74.
2 Steve Calvin, “Think Fetuses Can’t Feel Pain? Try Telling Them That” (Minneapolis StarTribune, August 30, 2005).
©2014 Desiring God Foundation. Used by Permission.
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in physical form, in its entirety or in unaltered excerpts, as long as you do not charge a fee. For posting online, please use only unaltered excerpts (not the content in its entirety) and provide a hyperlink to this page. For videos, please embed from the original source. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God.
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By John Piper. ©2014 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org
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Though Belize is just south of Mexico and a short flight from Florida, the striking and unusual beauty of this small country makes it feel so much farther from home than it really is. With some of the most distinct and extreme biodiversity in the world, you will likely find yourself face-to-face with plants, animals, and landscapes that you haven’t imagined to be possible. Home to the world’s most spectacular dive site— the Great Blue Hole—and a number of Mayan ruins like Altun Ha, there are infinite ways to explore Belize both on land and in the water.
Couples wishing to marry in Belize are required to provide copies of birth certificates and proof of citizenship. Divorce and death decrees are required if necessary. For more information, check with your Certified Destination Wedding Specialist.
Travel Documents, Language & Currency
Passports are required for entry into Belize. If you are a citizen of the US, visit travel.state.gov for more information on travel documents needed. For Canadian travelers, visit travel.gc.ca for relevant travel information.
English is the official language, though many locals also speak Kriol.
The official currency is the Belize dollar, but US dollars are widely accepted.
Climate & Beaches
Belize enjoys beautiful weather year round, with an average temperature of 84 degrees F. Belize’s dry season is between February and May and has significantly lower rainfall than the rest of the year. Belize is part of the hurricane belt, though statistically it does not attract many direct hits, but does experience intense tropical storms during this time.
Though not particularly well-known for their beaches, San Pedro, or “La Isla Bonita” is a tourist hub and known for its bright Caribbean waters and great snorkeling. Ambergris and Placencia are also popular beach towns in Belize with soft, white sand beaches.
Activities & Tourist Attractions
The Great Blue Hole of Belize is a must for divers, with diverse species of fish and reef sharks to marvel at. The country is also a living monument to the Mayan culture, with only a small percentage of its endless temples and shrines uncovered. In the north, Altun Ha and Lamanai are well-preserved and easily accessible. As a country with great eco-diversity, Belize is teeming with indigenous wildlife ranging from elusive and rare birds to curious howler monkeys and showy Toucans, so pay a visit to one of the country’s many wildlife preserves.
Let us help plan your perfect romantic celebration.
DestinationWeddings.com makes every effort to keep the travel information up to date on this website, however, resorts, wedding packages and laws do change and so we cannot guarantee that all information regarding rules, regulations, and marriage requirements at particular sites are completely accurate at the time of viewing. Before making marriage decisions on a particular destination, we highly recommend you speak with your specialist or wedding coordinator to verify rules at a particular destination before finalizing your travel plans.
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The WIC Nutrition Program food packages have changed in healthy ways to meet the nutrition needs of WIC mothers, infants, and children. The new food selections contain less fat and cholesterol, more fiber, and fruits and vegetables year round. The foods for breastfeeding mothers and infants are increased as well, to promote breastfeeding as the healthiest way to feed infants. Shopping tips are available to help families select the most economical foods with their WIC vouchers. All these healthy changes now allow WIC to match WIC foods with nutrition messages for healthy families!
How were the new WIC-eligible foods chosen?
The WIC food packages provide supplemental foods to meet the special nutritional needs of low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, non-breastfeeding postpartum women, infants and children up to five years of age who are at nutritional risk. In 2003, the US Department of Agriculture contracted with the Institute of Medicine to review the WIC Food Packages, to review the nutritional needs of the WIC population, and to recommend cost-neutral changes to the WIC food packages. A Committee of experts in nutrition, health, risk assessment, and economics considered nutrient intakes and dietary patterns, major diet-related health problems and risks faced by WIC’s target population, the characteristics of the WIC Program, and the diversity of its participants. The food packages align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and infant feeding guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
How do the food packages support breastfeeding?
The food packages for breastfeeding infants and mothers provide incentives for continued breastfeeding. For example, the food package for fully breastfeeding women provides greater amounts of foods, including a higher dollar value for fruits and vegetables. Fully breastfeeding infants receive baby food meats in addition to greater amounts of baby food fruits and vegetables. Less infant formula is provided to partially breastfeeding infants so that they may receive the benefits of breastmilk. A minimal amount of infant formula is provided to partially breastfeeding infants in the first month after birth in order to help mothers build and maintain their milk production.
The new foods now include:
- Fruits and vegetables, including fresh, frozen, and canned
- Whole grain cereals
- Whole grain breads
- Brown rice and oatmeal
- Soft corn and whole wheat tortillas
- Canned beans
- Canned tuna, salmon and sardines
- Soy beverages and tofu
- Baby food fruits, vegetables, and meats
Families also receive:
- Low fat and fat free milk
- Peanut butter
- Dried beans
- 100% Fruit juice
- Hot and cold cereals
- Iron fortified infant formula for non-breastfeeding infants
If you are a pregnant woman, new mother, or have a child less than 5 years old, please call the WIC Program to see if you are eligible. Call (800) 942-4321 or (603) 271-4546 today! NH WIC Approved Foods
For more information on how the US Department of Agriculture created the new WIC food packages go to: http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/benefitsandservices/foodpkg.HTM
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common name: Mole Cricket, Southern Mole Cricket
scientific name: Order Orthoptera, family Gryllotalpidae, Scapteriscus acletus
size: 1" to 1 1/4"
identification: Adults have large eyes. Grayish with mottled white spots on top of the area behind the head. Velvety bodies; broad, spadelike front legs adapted for digging.
biology and life cycle: Incomplete metamorphosis. Adults have wings.
habitat: Loose sandy soils such as golf course greens and vegetable gardens.
feeding habits: Feed on soil insects.
economic importance: Their tunneling damages bermudagrasses, ornamentals, and vegetables. In some case the damage is enough to cause the grass to die.
natural control: Insectivorous animals and beneficial nematodes.
organic control: Beneficial nematodes. Frequent thin applications of compost or sprayings of compost tea.
insight: There are other species of mole crickets that are grass feeders. The southern mole cricket is the only one known to be causing problems in Texas. These problems are caused while the cricket is actually doing some good in feeding on troublesome soil insects.
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|THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY||HOME||TEACHINGS||MESSAGES||RELIGIONS||DISCOURSE||SAINTS||SWAMI SIVANANDA|
This article is a chapter from the book Seek The Beyond.
See Yourself Impartially
Sri Swami Chidananda
Worshipful homage to the supreme, eternal, primal Being, the universal Spirit Divine, who is auspicious, beautiful, good, elevating, illuminating and liberating! To that Being, worshipful homage!
Loving adorations to revered and beloved Holy Master Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, whose central mission in his life of the Spirit was to bring sincere seeking souls nearer to this great Divine Reality by various means suited to people of different tastes and temperaments, abilities and capacities.
Knowing that there are diversities in human nature and abilities, knowing that not all are ready for the same highest teachings, accordingly the teacher gives. Let the Supreme Being bless us to have the right and proper understanding of the teachings of Guru Bhagavan Swami Sivanandaji.
There is a story in the Upanishads of the three da. Da is a letter in the Sanskrit alphabet. A human individual, a celestial and a demon all approached Brahma, the Creator, seeking knowledge of the Higher Self. Coming down from His deep meditation, He looks at each one of them and gives the same identical upadesa or spiritual instruction. And the upadesa is to look at their image and pronounce the word da. And each one understands the meaning according to his own nature and propensities, inclination.
A commentator upon this Upanishadic episode says, "Even though it was given to three types of beings, all three of these can equally apply to one human individual, because within the human individual all three propensities inhere. They are already there—celestial, demoniacal and human. So one should understand all these three aspects of one’s being and how to interpret and apply this knowledge for one’s own benefit. Mark you, one’s own benefit. Spiritual truths should be applied only for one’s own benefit.
It is here that clarity is necessary, discrimination is necessary. We all know the adage that the devil can quote scriptures to his own purpose. The best scriptural quotations can be made use of in the worst way also. They can be made use of in ways that are divine, that are demoniacal and in human ways as well.
For example, in my bathroom I have a little plastic picture of Mickey Mouse sitting in a one-man rowboat which is rapidly heading for a waterfall. The title on it is "Perseverance." We must persevere. How? When we reach a point and then say, "No, no, no, it’s no use me persevering, I am lost, I will be dashed against the rocks," –all these ideas will come—perseverance is the very last ounce of determined effort that you give. And that one last determined effort somehow or other may be able to save you from the terrible current that is drawing you to the depths. You should not simply give up.
But this not giving up has its own nuances. It does not always manifest in one way; it manifests in subtly varying ways—divine, demoniacal and human. For example, when after repeated efforts, Siddhartha, who became an ascetic and a muni and strove for Self-realisation through yoga was not able to do it after the most extreme austerities, he said this is not the way, there is a middle path. He took the middle path, but still nothing seemed to be of any avail.
Then a terrible determination comes in His mind. He goes to Bodhgaya, sits under the Bodhi tree, and takes a terrible resolution: "Now, here I seat myself. I shall not leave this seat until I attain illumination, no matter what the cost. Even if the body dries up, even if the flesh and skin wither, even if the bones become brittle and are reduced to powder, Siddhartha will not leave this seat until he attains what he has set his mind to attain."
Terrible resolve! Even the gods and celestials were astounded: "Siddhartha will not leave this seat until he attains illumination!" That is a great resolve. That is spiritual. That is sattvic. It is a divine resolve. It derives its strength from God Himself.
In the same way, there is a very dire and demoniacal tradition called vendetta in a part of Italy called Sicily. If one member of a family has been injured or killed by a member of another family, the first family will not rest until they have taken revenge. Then the other family retaliates; it can carry on from one generation to the next—an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This is also continuing perseverance, but it is dire, destructive in nature, tamasic. It is the same principle—never give up—but its results are destructive in nature.
Again, in the same way, the human too can also be persevering—in the pursuit of one’s desires, the circumstances one wishes to create for oneself. And they may say, "Whatever the gurus may say, whatever our ancestors said, whatever illumined sages and seers may have said, that may apply to some antiquated age, but now it no longer holds good. At that time it might have been very wise, but times have changed. Things are different, people are different. Therefore we must pursue what we feel is right."
Now, herein is a strange assertion which is deceptive in a very subtle way, because while it is one hundred per cent true that times have changed, one cannot say that human nature has changed. Human nature persists. What it was in the times of the Vedas and Upanishads, what it was in the times of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, human nature is even now. The outer way of living may have changed, but whatever we see in the Puranas we see the same thing unfolding before us today both on the individual subjective human level and in the collective human domestic, social and international levels. These things need to be observed and understood. A wise being seeing this, observing this, understanding this, becomes awake, becomes careful.
You must learn the art and science of being impartial and objective towards yourself, to be able to stand aside, see yourself as a witness. You must be able to objectively assess yourself and come to a definite conclusion. You must be able to impartially assess your thoughts, sentiments, moods, attitudes and actions. Are they divine, demoniacal or human? This is not very easy, because there is an inveterate trait in human nature called self-justification which you must rise above.
You need to take an impartial, objective attitude from a central point where you are neither self-justifying or self-condemning. You are neither this nor that. You put yourself upon neutral ground and take an impartial, objective look at yourself. Then you can come to a correct conclusion.
Lucifer was an angel. He came to certain conclusions. He refused to budge from his position when he was told that they were wrong. So Gabriel had to hurl him down to Hades, and he is now man’s greatest enemy. He is called Satan. Why? Because he refused to change. Therefore, refusing to change ground when it becomes necessary in the interest of higher ideals is a satanic tendency. It means that unknowing to yourself you are in the grip of Satan. You are not under the influence of God.
Satan’s presence is unseen, so subtle you cannot detect it. He vies with God for equal position. God’s presence may be subtle and unseen. Satan says, "I can also make myself like you—unseen, subtle." There is a word in Sanskrit that means: What you can do, I can also do. I am equal to you in every way.
Therefore, we must go within and earnestly and sincerely pray to God to show us the way with clarity. If one is persisting in a certain way of action, if one is justifying one’s action, saying that it is quite right, quite okay, then one must introspect and question oneself: "Why am I saying this? What is the hidden purpose in striking this attitude? In what way do I gain? Will the absence of this in any way be inimical to my spiritual progress?"
That is why Gurudev always use to say, "Scrutinise your inner motives," because they are inner and subtle; they are not very easy to see. Thus, God must help one to help oneself. God must help one to understand oneself. Otherwise, it is not easy. Therefore, may the Supreme Being and Holy Master Swami Sivanandaji help us to understand ourselves, and through such understanding evolve quickly and attain supreme blessedness!
Last Updated: Wednesday, 05-Nov-2008 09:16:53 EST
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Arts: Art History: Artists: E: Escher, M. C.
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Science: Math: Geometry: Polytopes
The 14 Different Types of Convex Pentagons that Tile the Plane
- Graphics and references.
17 Wall Paper Symmetry Groups to Create a Regular Division of the Plane
- Adobe Illustrator plug-in that automates creation of surface designs and ornaments based on seventeen wallpaper groups. On-line purchase.
Catalogue of Isohedral Tilings
- From the article "One Corona is Enough for the Euclidean Plane" by Doris Schattschneider and Nikolai Dolbilin.
- This chaotic tiling consists of two equilateral pentagons, with angles (80, 160, 60, 140, 100) and (40, 200, 60, 100, 140). Sets are for sale.
- Compiled by Yoshiaki Araki.
Escher Web Sketch
- Java applet drawing repeated patterns with selected symmetry.
The Geometry Junkyard: Tilings
- A collection of links.
- Andrew Crompton's tiling and tessellation images.
- Hans Kuiper's work. Tessellations and optical art. Also tessellation software with the 17 wallpaper groups.
Hop's Escher Tessellation Tiles
- Escher-like tessellations.
- Explanations and graphics.
Investigating Patterns: Symmetry and Tessellations
- Links to activities and other resources.
- A program for drawing symmetrical patterns based on any of the 17 wallpaper groups, as well as several frieze and rosette groups.
- Software for Macintosh and SGI to create and manipulate tessellations of the sphere, Euclidean plane and hyperbolic plane, and to see how the Platonic solids are related to tessellations.
- The graphic work of Chaim Goodman-Strauss, Arkansas.
- Links in the Geometry Junkyard.
The Penrose Tiling at Miami University
- A summary of the history behind the Penrose tiling in the math department at Miami university.
Pentagons that Tile the Plane
- Known solutions and a new recipe.
- Artist Eleni Mylonas uses tilings.
References about Tessellations
- Compiled by Doris Schattschneider, Moravian College.
SingSurf: Wallpaper Patterns
- A Java applet which shows interactive wallpaper patterns.
Squared Squares and Squared Rectangles
Symmetry and Pattern: The Art of Oriental Carpets
- Resources compiled by the Math Forum.
Symmetry and the Shape of Space
- With interactive demos using Geometer's Sketchpad (requires Macintosh).
- Tessellation software. 11 rosette, all 7 frieze and all 17 wallpaper groups included.
Tessellated, Interlocking Concrete Pavers and Molds
- Pictures of some concrete tilings.
- Compiled by Suzanne Alejandre for the Math Forum.
Tessellation Tutorials by Suzanne Alejandre
- Tutorials and templates for making tessellations using ClarisWorks, the Geometer's Sketchpad, HyperCard, HyperStudio, and straightedge and compass, including step-by-step instructions for classroom activities.
Tessellations Using Geometer's Sketchpad
- Description of a class project.
Tessellations with Java
- Examples and source code.
Tilings and Geometric Ornament
- Applying principles of computer graphics to the creation of geometric ornament, as a continuation of the tradition of ornamental design using modern tools and algorithms.
- Images and descriptions of the 17 plane symmetry groups.
William's Geometric Construction Page
- Activities to create patterns using simple resources, such as making equilateral triangle from a circle. Suitable for upper primary and lower secondary ages.
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Doctors Lounge - Gynecology Answers
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- Thu Feb 03, 2005 12:29 am
how much milk can a woman produce when she is 6 months pregnant? does it very? can a woman produce 6 to 12 ozs by then. whats normal and what is like the most?
| Kathy C, RN
- Sun Feb 06, 2005 4:00 pm
The amount of daily milk produced is related proportionately to the total duration and frequency of sucking - this pattern becomes established on about the third day of breast feeding.
Your milk supply is a matter of "supply and demand" -- the more your baby demands, the more your body will make. So you can feel comfortable nursing as often as your baby wants.
You can be sure your baby is eating well if baby if he\she has 6 or more wet diapers and 2-3 stools each day (after your milk comes in), shows a steady increase in weight (check baby's weight at 1 to 2 weeks following birth), has an alert, healthy appearance, and you can feel baby sucking and hear baby swallowing while feeding.
Your fuel supply for milk production comes from two sources: energy stored as body fat during pregnancy and extra energy from food choices. Adding an extra serving or so from each food group during the day provides the extra energy and nutrients you need.
Drink enough fluids to satisfy your thirst and prevent dehydration. As always, you need at least 8 to 12 cups of fluids daily -- more if you feel thirsty. Sip a glass of water, milk, or juice while nursing your baby. Milk and juice also supply some of the extra nutrients needed for breast-feeding.
Hope this helps.
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4 Questions, 4 Answers: Making Sense of the 50th Anniversary
Guest contributor James Bristow attempts to answer four of the bigger questions.
While many in the Who world are enthralled with what The Day of The Doctor has offered there are some who are confused with several parts of the 50th anniversary special. With such a complex plot in hand let’s dig a bit deeper and answer the four big questions that are leaving you a bit lost in the timey-wimey world of The Day of the Doctor.
What happened to the Zygons?
A big question that is seemingly on everyone’s lips. Although the answer to this frustrating question is answered quite clearly in the special… albeit quickly overshadowed by following events.
As we know the Doctors had mind-wiped the Zygons, Kate Stewart and the other U.N.I.T members (or scientists, if you prefer). The main purpose of this? To stop the whole of London being destroyed of course!
Although very cleverly with this mind wipe, in the words of the 11th Doctor, they would now sign the “most perfect treaty” of all time. Quite a throwaway line, especially when we have on our minds the impending ‘moment’. However the one thing that makes the treaty so clever is that there is no good vs. evil – U.N.I.T do not know who they are and the Zygons do not know who they are. They have a whole new world of their own to agree on and naturally both sides will want fair rules for the world they are living in.
The result is the “most perfect treaty of all time”. In terms of “The Day of the Doctor” this brings a rather sweet ending to the Zygons.
How many Doctors are there now… is Matt Smith the 12th Doctor?
This is one question that could be opened up for debate. Although if we’re to take the words spoken in The Day of the Doctor as gospel… Matt Smith is the 12th Doctor!
One Gallifreyan asks: “All twelve of them” Another replies: “No sir, all thirteen”
This (if we read it literally) confirms that Matt Smith is the 12th Doctor and Peter Capaldi will play the 13th Doctor, which we know would reach the Doctor’s apparent limits of 12 regenerations. Interestingly (again if we read this literally) the use of the word “all” certainly implies that the thirteenth incarnation is the limit.
This new figure is also strengthened by “The War Doctor” played by John Hurt going through a journey in the special, going from a person who never believed himself to be a ‘true’ Doctor to eventually being just as much of a Doctor as the rest.
As we know just because the Doctor has reached (or will reach rather, we’ve still got Christmas left with dear old Matt Smith!) the limit doesn’t mean the show will finish for good, be gone. However with Gallifrey now being lost could the eighth series of Doctor Who in 2014 surround the 13th Doctor finding Gallifrey and somehow gaining further regenerations to secure his future?
Only time will tell, although there’s no arguing the above quote from the 50th Special will no doubt play with our minds for a long while and mess up all those DVD sets out there!
Tom Baker’s role – Curator or Doctor?
This is another interesting one, while some may ask the question above the answer is given out straight onto the plate, so to speak. As many of those familiar with past Doctors will know, Tom Baker played the fourth incarnation of the Doctor from 1974 to 1981. While it was a delight to see dear Tom return as a surprise to our screens, it has left some wondering just how he could appear back (in terms of the storyline). To quote a section of the final scenes:
11th Doctor: “I never forget a face”
The Curator (played by Tom Baker): “I know you don’t, and in years to come you may find yourself revisiting a few, but just the old favourites, aye”
Putting aside the nice little nod of Baker being one of the most loved Doctors by fans of the show, this quote could lead us to believe that one day the Doctor may regenerate into one of his old incarnations, he may even have the ability to regenerate into a face he likes, or knew once (it could even be uncontrollable). Or maybe the Doctor develops the ability to change his face temporarily (a little more unlikely, but you never know).
The idea of regenerating into old faces the Doctor has seen in the past could even be a way of an explanation when Matt Smith regenerates this Christmas and Peter Capaldi takes the leading role (as Capaldi has appeared twice in the ‘Who universe as different characters).
It’s quite a unique idea. The curator we saw in the 50th Special may be the 15th Doctor, he might be the 40th Doctor – it’s an open ended mystery which will never need any form of closure.
Why did Bad Wolf Rose appear?
Another common question that has be asked. However one that can easily be explained.
The Moment is a weapon created by Ancients of Gallifrey. The operating system was so sophisticated that it become sentient, it developed a conscience and appeared to the War Doctor as a face from his future.
This is where people have gotten a little confused. The Moment did not chose to show itself as Rose, but to show itself as Bad Wolf Rose (series one, “The Parting of the Ways”). Why it chose itself to appear as Rose is a mystery (although one could be lead to believe it chose Rose as she was, arguably, the most powerful companion the Doctor ever had).
So why did The Moment actually appear? Well, it appeared in another form (the form of Rose) to give the War Doctor (John Hurt) a choice, a choice to either end the war by killing Daleks and Time Lords, or to find another way of ending the war. With the thanks of another twelve Doctors the latter is chosen and Gallifrey is saved.
It’s as simple as that!
While I know there will be 5 more, 10 more, 50 more, 200 more questions about the 50th Anniversary special I hope the above four (what seem to be common) questions answer the main brain scratchers of the 50th special.
Doctor Who has lived on for half a century and in 2013 it is the strongest it has ever been. Naturally with a show that has ran so long it will always be open to complexity. We should relish in this, Doctor Who isn’t simply a show you watch, know everything inside out within a second and get bored, it makes you think and makes you wonder just where it will take you in time and space next.
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“ Manufacturer: Wader / Plastic fruit shapes for sand play. „
These are a super simple toy that I love the children to play with as it encourages them to use their imagination rather than just mindlessly play. The little ones love these so much because they can play shopkeeper and the other child or children can be the customer. It is hilarious to watch them as they take on the roles of mummy, daddy and baby. It is so funny to watch them exaggerate the roles as they see them. It is also fantastic that they use numbers, amounts, colours and words as they "shop".
For example they say; I want two strawberries for dinner and one lemon for pudding (what a delicious meal that would be) but toys like these help with colour recognition and also social skills as the children interact with each other.
These hard plastic fruit shapes come in a mesh like bag just like vegetables such as onions would be in, in the supermarket. I however put this bag in the bin once I had opened it as I just emptied these fruits in to their play bucket with the rest of their food shaped toys. I did this for safety reasons as any bag could end up being a danger to the child.
Each toy is vividly coloured in a mix of deep blue, sun yellow, rich red, and grass green. The toys are hollow making them very light to play with and also have a textured / dimpled front to them to make them fun to touch and more realistic to look at. The only difference between each piece is the difference in colour as they all resemble a strawberry in appearance. This however goes unnoticed by the children and they soon begin to call them by their proper names in relation to their colour. They call the yellow a lemon, the green an apple, the blue a blueberry and the red a strawberry. These toys are made of a shiny plastic which makes them very easy to keep clean. I give them a wash in the sink in some warm soapy water every now and then just to keep them as clean as possible. These are also great when used with other food related toys such as tea and kitchen sets. The little ones love to pile these in to their pots and play like they are preparing the evening meal.
Another thing I have noticed is that the children like to pair up the fruits with their proper match. By this I mean they get two blueberries and hold them back to back to make a full fruit, they then use their play knives from their tea sets to cut the fruit in half. When you see a young child doing this rather clever move you can't help but be impressed. That's something worth adding these are perfect for indoor or outdoor play as they are very well made and quite sturdy. They have survived being stood on by children many times and only scuff if they are rubbed along the ground. I love how these help the children to learn all while having far more fun than they would by sitting in the house staring at the TV. So for that reason I give these toys five stars
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Mr. Ryujin Shimojo, boat builder, visible in white hat watching while a yuta, or female shaman, performs a ceremony blessing the new sabani.
Photograph by Sgt. Emery Ruffin, USMC.
I spent almost three months the winter of '09/'10 in Okinawa, on the little island of Iejima, working with an 81-year old boatbuilder, Mr. Ryujin Shimojo. He is one of the last three men, now all elderly, who can build the sabani, the traditional fishing boat of this region. This was my fifth apprenticeship with a Japanese boatbuilder. Shimojo san had built over 100 sabani in his career and, like most of my teachers, he used no drawings. He worked entirely from memory, and my job was to document his techniques and record his secret dimensions.
One of the most distinctive features of the sabani is the use of wooden dovetail keys for fastenings. Called huundu, these are commonly used by furnituremakers in the West, but the idea of fastening a boat with them has long fascinated me. I tried earlier to work with a river boat builder on Japan’s main island to learn this technique, but he became too ill to work, so I turned to Okinawa. The first step was raising money, and in 2008 I received an Edwin Monk Scholarship from the Center For Wooden Boats in Seattle. This was followed in 2009 by a grant from the Asian Cultural Council in New York. Late in 2009 the Nippon Foundation provided funding to the Museum of Maritime Science in Tokyo, and Chief Curator Nobuyuki Kobori helped me finalize arrangements with Mr. Shimojo.
I arrived on Okinawa mid-November, 2009 and we went straight to work. Though Shimojo has been slowed by a stroke, we worked at his normal schedule: seven days a week. Most days his son Tomio also helped us. In many ways the process of building a sabani was a revelation. The boats are semi-dugouts, featuring thick cedar side planking fastened to an enormous timber bottom. The major components of the boat are hollowed, including the planking, which started as 2-1/2 inch thick planks which we hollowed to about half their depth, leaving material for the rails, thwart risers and chines. The bottom timbers were nearly six inches thick in the rough; we would eventually remove almost half their volume shaping them inside and out. All parts of of the boat were fastened with a combination of huundu and bamboo nails. The only steel fastenings in the boat were the nails fastening the rubrails, but Shimojo san explained to me that in the old days these too had been bamboo nails.
Shimojo san had built his early sabani entirely with hand tools. Electric power did not come to Iejima until the mid-1960s, but he told me that in his prime he could build an eight meter sabani, entirely by hand, in forty working days. Now he relies on an electric hand plane and sander, since a stroke three years ago forces him to work one-handed. Despite these difficulties, Shimojo san has built two seven meter and one four meter sabani in the last three years.
Our boat was eight meters long, which represented a typical large fishing sabani of the immediate post-War era. Sabani were actually sized by their beam, and our boat was just over four feet wide, incredibly narrow given its length. It would have been sailed and paddled by up to six men, but Shimojo san enjoyed telling me stories of his time spent fishing in his youth, sailing alone in a four meter sabani, the steering paddle in one hand, the sheet in the other, and the fishing line held in his teeth!
Sabani are notoriously difficult to sail, and the region’s fishermen were adept at righting them, and sometimes capsizing them as well, to ride out storms under the hull. Shimojo san claimed that the sabani’s distinctive shape, with its high stern, was ideal for large ocean swells.
World War II changed everything on Okinawa, as the quiet pre-War years (when many fishermen were still sailing dugouts) were shattered by war and occupation. By the 1950’s builders like Shimojo san were installing small gasoline engines in sabani, and the boats were getting larger. By the 1970’s fishermen were switching to boats modeled on the hard chine designs common elsewhere in Japan, first in wood and then fiberglass. Shimojo san adapted with the times, opening a machine shop and later building glass boats. However, many times over the course of the project he told me the true test of a boat builder’s skill was the sabani. "Plank boats are easy," he would say, "Just set up some frames and bend planks around them. Fiberglass? Just spread the stuff and you have a boat."
Shimojo san’s chance to build these iconic boats again came ten years ago when a new generation of watersports enthusiasts began racing sabani. Now forty-five teams sail and paddle these boats in races, including an annual inter-island race of more than twenty-five miles. Okinawa’s three remaining builders have enjoyed second careers building racing sabani, though many of the boats in the fleet are restored fishing boats over forty years old.
Except for an extended New Year’s holiday we worked straight through to the boat’s completion in mid-January, a total of forty-eight working days. A few weeks later a yuta, or female shaman, blessed the boat, which is now on display at the Museum of Maritime Science in Tokyo. The Museum will publish my book - in Japanese - on building this sabani, complete with drawings and photographs.
During the building I posted to this blog.
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A Safe and Healthy Halloween is a Real Treat
                  If everything goes right, a child’s costume will be the scariest part of their Halloween. Adults can help by making sure there is a balance of fun and safety, and with a little imagination, you can even promote good health.
¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬† ‚ÄúThe excitement that comes with an evening of costumes and candy can make children forget what they need to do to stay safe,‚ÄĚ said Douglas County Health Director, Dr. Adi Pour. ‚ÄúThis also is a chance to replace sugary treats with healthy options like fresh fruit.‚ÄĚ
                The first thing to think of when choosing a costume is to consider how visible your child will be to passing drivers as darkness falls. Plan for an outfit that is bright, or make darker colors more noticeable with the simple addition of reflective tape. And, don’t overlook size says Lisa Reichter, trauma nurse coordinator at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center.
¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬† ‚ÄúIt‚Äôs important that a costume fits properly. ¬†Have the child try it on before buying, and make appropriate alterations or adjustments to borrowed costumes and hand-me-downs.¬† Wearing the right size is important in preventing trips and falls or accidental contact with a lighted jack-o-lantern,‚ÄĚ she says
Shoes that fit are also important, adds Reichter, along with flame resistant fabrics, wigs and accessories.
                Never let children trick or treat alone, and before Halloween night, talk to them about safety: 
·         Cross streets at corners and use crosswalks when available.
·         Look twice and look again before crossing.
·         Walk, never run, and use sidewalks and paths. Do not walk in the street.
·         Only visit well-lit houses and never enter the home of a stranger.
·         Avoid candles or luminaries and wear flame-resistant costumes.
·         Carry a flashlight or a glow stick to increase visibility.
            Halloween provides an opportunity for healthy activities. Walking around the neighborhood provides good exercise for children and parents alike.  If you will be sharing treats with young ghosts and goblins, consider apples, bananas, raisins, trail mix or pretzels.  Non-food treats, including small toys, pencils or other school supplies are another popular option.
                It’s also good for families to wrap up the night with a thorough check of treats.  Remove candy, foods or toys with small pieces that are not age appropriate and could be a choking hazard for young children.  Additionally, parents should closely examine all items and throw away anything that is unwrapped, spoiled or appears suspicious. 
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Courtesy Film Forum/Photofest
The late Klaus Kinski is in full evil flower in the new 35mm print of Werner Herzog’s great “Aguirre, the Wrath of God.”
Aguirre’ is back, with a vengeance
By JERRY TALLMER
Clouds so low that they mask the mountains. Mountains so high that they melt, hauntingly, into the clouds. And now, bit by bit, we perceive a line of ants working their slow, painful way down the very edge of a 600-meter vertical drop. But as our eye the camera’s eye moves in, we see these are not ants but men, human beings, many of them in helmets and breastplates, with either a crossbow or a harquebus (an ancient long rifle) bouncing against a shoulder; others, the slaves, the bearers, the Incas, all but naked, loaded down with baggage, crates, a huge wheel, a chicken coop, even a top-heavy sedan chair with one lone occupant, a dark-haired young woman. There is a cannon. There is a horse or two. There is a llama. There are snorting black pigs. One of the crates suddenly tumbles toward the furious river far below and explodes on impact like a fireball.
Thus opens a movie an idiosyncratic masterpiece which cut so deep when it first played here in the early1970s that even if you never saw it again you never forgot it. “Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes” (“Aguirre, the Wrath of God”) introduced its then already proficient 29-year-old German writer/director/producer to the rest of the world. His name was, and is, Werner Herzog, and he was and is just as obsessive in his own line of work as Don Lope de Aguirre, the would-be new conquistador of Peru, played with high-octane maniacal hubris by Klaus Kinski, in the new 35mm print of “Aguirre” now at Film Forum.
The year is 1560, 20 years after the death of Francisco Pizzaro, conqueror of Peru. What drives Aguirre to take over, by murder, the leadership of a small force sent to explore the lower Amazon is his hunger for gold and power, lured on by dreams of the Incas’ “golden city” El Dorado. The Spaniards did not know that El Dorado was a fiction, a lie, concocted by the Indians they’d conquered those same Indians who, terrified of horses and Negroes, “are useless as slaves because they die like flies.”
There is, by the way, for English-language moviegoers (i.e., us), a double-barreled surreal overlay to Herzog’s quite sufficiently surreal film. The characters are 16th-century Spaniards or Indians, the translations of what they’re saying are in English subtitles, but what they, the actors, are actually speaking is, of course, German, and good solid German at that.
“When I, Aquirre, want little birds to drop dead from the trees, then the little birds will drop from the trees!” Aguirre icily proclaims at the height of his madness. Reviewers in past years have not infrequently made the power connection from there to Adolf Hitler. Here is what Herzog himself has to say on that matter (in an interview in “Herzog on Herzog,” edited by Paul Cronin, Faber & Faber, 2002):
Of course I, like most Germans, am very conscious of my country’s history. I am even apprehensive about insecticide commercials, and know there is only one step from insecticide to genocide. Hitler’s heritage to the German people has made many of us hypersensitive, even today. But with “Aguirre” there was never any intention to create a metaphor of Hitler.
Well and good, but I, nevertheless, watching the picture this time around, could not keep the name “Hindenburg” from flashing through my mind the old war horse who was said to sign any paper Hitler put in front of his nose during the sequence on a raft when a fat old party named Don Fernando de Guzman (actor Peter Berling), appointed by Aquirre as “emperor of a land six times the size of Spain,” is guzzling away on a banquet of lobster and fruit while all around him are starving to death.
Rafts are very important in this movie altogether. They are especially important when, bearing horse, cannon, ammunition, armor, overloaded men, and a woman or two, they have to shoot some horrendous rapids. One such craft gets trapped against a canyon wall and can’t pull away. Comes the dawn, it is littered with dead bodies. The silent Indians of the jungle have done a night’s work with poisoned arrows.
Silence in fact is everywhere along that river, sort of a new twist well, an old twist on the SILENCE = DEATH of the AIDS era. Silence and silent arrows. When at last some shouting and drumming is heard as the rafts float down past a rudimentary village, one conquistador murmurs to another that the shout is a frustrated: “Fresh meat is floating by!”
The doom that is written in every frame here is not unlike the death that is waiting in every frame of another notable motion picture of transportation and obsession trucks instead of rafts Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1953 “Wages of Fear.” But instead of tough-guy stoical Yves Montand, we here have the late Klaus Kinski in full evil flower. You cannot take your eyes off his square jaw, rectangular skull, cheekbones to die for, herky-jerk Richard III posture and walk. When not screaming, not snarling, he spends much of his time brooding, brooding, and the camera broods, and keeps on brooding, right along with him. (One camera only, often operated by Herzog himself, for this entire “child of poverty” project that was brought in for 370,000 1972 dollars.)
The real Kinski was evidently not far off the mark of the semi-real Don Lope de Aguirre. “Working with Marlon Brando,” Herzog told Paul Cronin, “must have been like kindergarten compared to Kinski” who on the set would scream if he saw a mosquito, and on stage had once “hit someone so hard with a sword that the actor was in hospital for three months.”
That does not change the fact of his magnetism. Only adds to it.
Magnetism is a good word for “Aguirre, the Wrath of God.” It is in the name of God the Christian God that the conquistadors slaughtered their way to acquisition (seizure, theft) of countries like Peru. It is in the name of God that Aguirre would seize El Dorado the El Dorado that exists only in his head. “This is the Bible, the word of God,” says the expedition’s monk to an Indian who has been eying the book. The Indian picks the book up, puts it to his ear and is immediately killed for blasphemy.
But the same rough justice is applied Spaniard to Spaniard. When a dissident among the troops dares to voice a warning, Aguirre’s disposition of the matter Alice in Wonderland in the Andes is a terse “Try him and then kill him.” The commander Aguirre has deposed (Ruy Guerra) is finally taken out and hanged lynched on Aguirre’s order. The commander’s young wife, that cool cookie in the sedan chair in the opening passage on the mountainside (Helena Tojo), simply walks off into the jungle in her best gown and is never heard from again.
Not long later, after Aguirre’s blonde babyfaced daughter (Cecilia Rivera) has died in his arms from the poison of an unseen arrow, he will rave about starting a new dynasty by marrying that dead daughter. His madness in one of the most vivid closing, rotating, moments of any movie anywhere, alone on a raft with a horde of tiny monkeys is our madness. Hitler may not have been in this picture, or in the back of the back of Herzog’s mind, but Vietnam and Joseph Conrad certainly were. If I had to choose between Francis Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” and Werner Herzog’s “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” I know which one I’d have to choose.
AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD. Written, directed, produced (1972) by Werner Herzog. 93 minutes. In German, with English subtitles. A New Yorker Films release. On a varied schedule through October 31 at Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, (212) 727-8110.
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Washington- The US administration set new, largely symbolic, sanctions Friday on Syria's state-run oil company and the Hezbollah militant group, moves designed to underscore Iran's key role in propping up the Syrian regime over the span of its civil war.
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the penalties against energy firm Sytrol come after it delivered $36 million worth of gasoline to Iran in April. At the same time, Tehran was "actively advising, supplying, and assisting the Syrian security forces and regime-backed militias that are carrying out gross human rights abuses against the Syrian people."
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department targeted Hezbollah for "training, advice and extensive logistical support to the government of Syria's increasingly ruthless efforts to fight against the opposition." It also blamed the Lebanese Shiite militant group for coordinating Iranian assistance to the Syrian government.
The U.S. cited the Syrian state oil company Sytrol for trading with Iran, which already faces U.S. sanctions over is disputed nuclear program. Syria sent 33,000 metric tons of gasoline to Iran in April, a deal estimated at $36 million.
The announcements came as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was traveling to Turkey for weekend talks with top Turkish officials and Syrian opposition activists. The discussions will focus on forming a "common operational picture" to guide a democratic transition after President Bashar al-Assad leaves power, U.S. officials said.
"We will be tightening even further with additional sanctions that drive at both Syrian entities and those who are supporting the efforts of the Syrian government to oppress its own people," a U.S. official told reporters traveling with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Ghana.
Clinton will also boost humanitarian relief to tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing the country, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. They said the additional aid is expected to be worth $5.5 million. That brings total U.S. humanitarian relief to $82 million since the crisis began in March 2011.
The US officials said Clinton would take what she learns in Istanbul from the Turks and the Syrian activists she meets and begin to discuss points of agreement with European foreign ministers in the coming days. A new "Friends of Syria" meeting will be held in late August or early September.
In addition to the fresh American sanctions and humanitarian aid, Britain's government offered 5 million pounds (US$7.8 million) to Syria's rebel forces Friday to pay for communications equipment and medical supplies in an effort to bolster ties to the country's opposition.
The United States and its Western allies are stopping short of providing lethal assistance to the opposition, but it has become an open secret that several Arab countries are supplying weapons and ammunition
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Photo by Beth Terry.
Kahuku Point, the northern most tip of Oahu, on Coastal Cleanup Day, September, 2013.
Plastic continuously washes ashore from out in the ocean because of the nature of the currents. Cleaning it up is a Sisyphean task.
Could one photo change the course of your life forever? That’s what happened to me six years ago. Back then, I lived like the average American, living on processed foods in plastic packaging, drinking bottled water and tossing the bottles in the trash, and not really considering the consequences.
Oh, I had heard that microwaving in plastic probably wasn’t a good idea, but honestly, I did it anyway because frozen dinners were just so convenient.
And then, one night, sitting alone at my computer, I stumbled across an article about ocean plastic pollution and saw the photo that changed everything for me. In the photo was a baby bird, an albatross chick, on Midway Island, thousands of miles from civilization, that had died with its belly full of plastic. Even now, I tear up a little when I remember first seeing that image.
I learned that mama albatrosses fly many miles across the ocean to gather food for their chicks, but they mistake floating bits of plastic for food and feed that to their babies instead. My maternal instinct kicked in (even though I don’t have kids myself). I had to do something. The plastic inside those birds could have been my plastic. I had to change.
We Are the Albatross
Baby birds are not the only beings that are harmed by ingesting plastic. Many other animals (fish, sea turtles, whales, cows, even camels) have been documented with plastic trash in their bellies, including some of the fish we eat. And since plastic is not biodegradable, all that plastic trash lingers in the environment to create more harm after the animal has died.
But even scarier is the fact that most plastics contain toxic chemical that can leach out of food containers and kitchenware when subjected to stresses like heat or light or rough treatment. Some of these chemicals are hormone-disruptors that can affect our bodies and our children’s development. I’ll explain more about chemicals in plastics in another blog post this week.
Measuring Our Plastic Footprint
Six years ago, I decided to do an experiment to see if I could live without acquiring any new plastic products or packaging. And to figure out what my plastic footprint was, I set a bag under my kitchen table and started collecting all my plastic waste. Since then, I’ve been able to reduce it to about 2% of the national average… by going step by step.
Tomorrow I’ll give my Top 10 Tips for reducing your plastic footprint. But a great way to get started is to take a look at how much plastic we throw away every day. (And by “throw away,” I also mean plastics we toss in the recycling bin.) Check out the Show Your Plastic Challenge on my website for more information and a checklist of questions you can answer to help figure out plastic-free alternatives.
Have you been trying to reduce your plastic footprint? What do you think are the hardest areas to tackle?
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While many prescriptions are available in alternative forms, there are limitations due to the unique properties of some compounds. Those limitations include a medication's stability, solubility, palatability, absorption, and legality. Our pharmacy will only custom compound medications in forms that will be safe and effective for companion animals.
A medication is only useful if its ingredients are stable and effective. Depending upon the dosage form an active ingredient may not remain stable for the same length of time. For example, certain antibiotics may be stable for one year as a tablet or capsule, but may degrade and become ineffective after only fourteen days as a suspension.
Another factor that can affect stability is the interaction between active ingredients. A compounded dosage form's active ingredients may interact adversely with other ingredients, making that compounded dosage form unstable.
Solubility is an ingredient's ability to dissolve completely in a liquid. Some medications are very soluble allowing a large amount of the active ingredient powder to dissolve in a very small amount of liquid. Products of this nature can be easily formulated into a concentrated solution that can then be flavored to make the final preparation more palatable. Some medications are so insoluble that the medication would not be suitable for compounding into a liquid form. If, however, the active ingredient is stable in liquid, it can be compounded into a suspension instead of a solution. In a suspension, the medication is first coated, preventing the active ingredient from sticking together, then incorporated into the suspension. This process also aids in the even dispersion of the active ingredient throughout the entire volume making accurate doses of the medicated suspension.
Some medications are so bitter or metallic tasting that flavoring cannot cover the flavor. Even though they may be suitable for any oral dosage form such as a tablet, they would be difficult to administer due to the taste. In this case, the medication could be incorporated into a hard gelatin capsule to prevent oral contact with th active ingredient.
For pet owners that have difficulty given oral medications, transdermal gels offer a viable option. There are, however, limits on what medications can be administered transdermally depending upon their molecular size, solubility, and other chemical attributes.
Legal limitations exist that prohibit the compounding of certain medications. In most of these cases, the limitations are due to patents held by pharmaceutical manufacturers that prevent the use of the active ingredient or prevent the compounding of that particular medication in patented dosages or strengths.
Drs. Foster & Smith Pet Pharmacy will only compound prescription medications on a per order basis in forms that are safe and effective for companion pets. Drs. Foster & Smith is not a manufacturer of prescription medications.
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Originally Posted by mediocrefunkybeat
One definition of 'experimental' is the precedent. Is there a precedent for what you're hearing? If so, how ingrained is that precedent?
Let's take Beethoven as an example. I will argue that Beethoven - in his time - was largely experimental. He follows a level of tradition, but Beethoven's style of composition is actually radically different to anything before it. The differences are subtle to modern tastes, but they are profound and kickstarted the Romantic movement.
One thing that is drilled into you at an academic compositional level is precedent awareness. Can you talk about previous composers that have influenced you? Or concepts that have inspired you - and in doing so, can you differentiate yourself sufficiently and distinctly? Then there is the question of the naive. Are you naive? Can you not find a precedent? Can your music be approached naively?
All music at some point is experimental to a degree - but there are levels of importance within that. If we take a band like The Beatles whose later catalogue is experimental for the time, you can then look at that and trace roots of what they were doing to more avant-garde composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen (whether they were aware of it or not) and you finally arrive at somebody who was 'ahead of their time', i.e. with a less traceable precedent. Then you're usually in the grounds of the experimental proper.
And I can buy that.
But at the same time, you're making my point exactly.
It was experimental, with in a defined
context. After all, there are only 12 notes in Western Music. Near endless combinations of said notes, but still, (nearly) everyone in our culture from the dark ages to Rebecca Black are using the same 12 notes to create, be it "new" or "recycled" musical ideas.
Unless you're pulling sounds out of thin air, everything has some level of precedent. As you pointed out, how much precedent determines level of experimentation. But at the same, precedent IS STILL there.
As you very well explained (thank you for that), it is the level of precedent, which automatically makes it relative.
And because it is relative, there is no clear line in the sand. You can draw one, but it's still a relative line.
Pink Floyd had a relative level of experimentation. You can argue it was NOT the same level of experimentation as Beethoven, due to different levels of precedent, but you can't just say this is and this is not, when it is a relative measurement to be determined based on context. And different context gives you different results.
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Lincoln Combustion Turbine Station
- Capacity: 1,200 megawatts
- Location: Lincoln County, North Carolina
- Commercial Date: 1995
The Lincoln Combustion Turbine Station is a 1,200-megawatt natural gas-fired generating facility located in Lincoln County, N.C.
Lincoln operates as a simple-cycle peaking facility, generating electricity quickly during periods when customers’ electricity usage is greatest—typically hot summer afternoons and cold winter mornings.
The Lincoln facility consists of 16 natural gas-fired combustion turbines. Natural gas is the primary fuel for the plant, with fuel oil as a secondary fuel source.
In 1857, General Stonewall Jackson married at the spot where the Lincoln facility now stands.
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Boston Court, off Station Road, and adjacent to the Tennis Courts and the Public Park, has, at its entrance, a large bell with the following explanatory notice attached:
DRUMCLOG - the Boston Church Bell
Part of this site was formerly occupied by the Boston Church which was built in 1838 by the Duns Parish of the established Kirk as an extension charge to accommodate the swelling parish congregations of the day. Soon after its completion Buchan of Kelloe, having helped persuade the Kirk to build the Church, was instrumental in leading its congregation into the Free Church at the Disruption in 1843.
It is generally assumed that the Church took its name from Thomas Boston (1676 - 1732) who was born in a thatched house in Newtown Street and who became the minister at Simprim, in the presbytery of Duns and Chirnside, and later at Ettrick where he wrote the Calvinist treatise the 'Fourfold Estate'.
The bell for the new Church was named 'Drumclog' after the Battle of Drumclog (1679) near Strathaven, when Bonnie Dundee tried to disperse a large conventicle but found it to be an organised army, and was put to flight.
The bell had a sonorous note, lower in tone than the other bells in the town, which perhaps accounts for the lines in the song Duns Dings A' -
Rumm'le the drum and toot the trump,
Gaur Bouston's auld 'Drumclogger' thump.
Worship ceased in 1953 and when the Church was demolished prior to the building of Boston Court, the bell was saved by the Berwickshire District Council to be displayed here as a reminder of the town's history.
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The Lucky Road
Another page with the Roma family, although we’re almost done with this scene. Too bad; I love drawing mustaches, and the 18th century was otherwise a very clean-shaven era.
Now that election fever had passed (and thank heavens for that), it’s on to cheerier parts of the year. Coming up early on the world schedule of Festivals of Light is Diwali! It’s actually a little late this year – normally it falls in October. To celebrate, here’s my sixth goddess illustration – the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. Click to see her at full size!
Like many Hindu deities, Lakshmi has literally dozens of different forms, incarnations and names, has complex relationships with other deities (like Vishnu and Ganesh) and plays many roles. She’s probably best known for being a goddess of abundance – and that can mean simple good luck, personal fulfillment, or material wealth. Lakshmi is the one who fills your cup.
In most devotional images Lakshmi is depicted standing or sitting in a giant lotus blossom, floating on a tranquil sea – a bit like Aphrodite, she was born from the ocean. She has four arms (the better to distribute wealth!) and holds lotuses in two of them. She is sometimes attended by two white elephants. This is an illustration, not a traditional devotional image, so she is behaving a little less formally here! Lakshmi is generous of spirit, so hopefully she won’t hold it against me.
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Cholesteatoma is usually a manifestation of advanced retraction of the tympanic membrane that occurs when the sac advances into the tympanic cavity proper and then into its extensions such as the sinus tympani, the facial recess, the hypotympanum, and the attic. Only in advanced cases, which now occur rarely, does a cholesteatoma progress further to reach the mastoid cavity proper. Most surgical failures associated with a postauricular approach seem to occur within the tympanic cavity and its hard-to-reach extensions rather than in the mastoid. Therefore, the most logical approach to the excision of a cholesteatoma involves transcanal access to the tympanic membrane and tympanic cavity and the subsequent step-by-step pursuit of the sac as it passes through the middle ear. In the past, mainstream ear surgery has usually involved the mastoid and the postauricular approaches because operating with the microscope through the auditory canal is a very frustrating and almost impossible process, especially when the sac is excised from the mesotympanum. The view during microscopic surgery is defined and limited by the narrowest segment of the ear canal.
This basic limitation has forced surgeons to create a parallel port through the mastoid to gain keyhole access to the attic, the facial recess, and the hypotympanum.
In contrast, transcanal operative endoscopy bypasses the narrow segment of the ear canal and provides a wide view that enables surgeons to look "around the corner," even when a zero-degree endoscope is used (Figure 2). Another anatomic observation that supports transcanal access to the attic, which is the most frequent auricular site of cholesteatoma, is the orientation of the ear canal in relation to the attic. The image below shows a coronal computed tomographic section through the temporal bone, which reveals that an axis line drawn through the ear canal ends in the attic rather than the mesotympanum. The only structure that is in the way is the scutum, and its removal allows wide and open access to the attic, which is the natural cul de sac of the external auditory canal.
the surgeon to visualize past the shaft of larger surgical instruments, such as drills and curettes, and allows better visualization of structures that are parallel to the axis of the microscope. It is usually necessary to position structures such as the ear canal at a right angle to the axis of the microscope for adequate visualization. However, there are usually 2 issues of feasibility that raise the most questions about the use of the endoscope in ear surgery.
The first consideration is the use of an endoscope of 4 mm, which is large for the ear canal. During this author's 10 years of experience in performing endoscopic surgery on patients as young as 3 years, that concern proved unfounded. In addition, it is almost impossible to operate through a smaller scope because the field of view that is essential for orientation is lost. The second concern has arisen because during microscopic transcanal surgery, many otologists use one hand to hold the speculum and the other hand to operate. This type of one-handed surgery, the lack of suction, and the possibility of excessive bleeding can be problematic. Also, prior experience in performing postauricular procedures (in which many layers of tissue are violated and a tremendous amount of healthy bone is removed during cortical mastoidectomy) cannot be applied to the transcanal endoscopic approach, in which surgically induced trauma is quite limited, there is less bleeding, and the dead-end structure of the canal and cavity allows for the interim packing of certain areas to control bleeding. The amount of bone removed is also limited to a relatively thin scutum that is easily excised with a curette instead of a drill.
Some experts in the otologic community have stated that the transcanal approach to the removal of a cholesteatoma could be performed with the aid of a microscope. The limited view provided by the microscope is the main reason for which those making such an argument cannot recall excising a cholesteatoma via the transcanal approach over the last few years. However, this author uses primarily the transcanal approach for the removal of a cholesteatoma.
Two major safety concerns are associated with endoscopic ear surgery: excessive heat dissipation and secondary direct trauma from the tip of the endoscope, which is caused by unintentional movement of the patient. To avoid excessive heat dissipation that is associated with the size of the cavity, adequate illumination of the middle ear space can be accomplished with the use of lower settings on a Xenon light source to reduce heat. The tip of the endoscope also requires continual cleaning with an antifog solution, which may cool the endoscope. Although secondary direct trauma from the tip of the endoscope remains a concern, the diameter (4 mm) of the endoscope used by this author and the anatomy of the ear canal and middle-ear space usually prevent the introduction of the endoscope beyond the tympanic ring. Even during endoscopic stapedectomy, there is less need for curettage of the posterior and superior aspects of the canal to enable exposure. This provides a protective rim that prevents the advancement of the endoscope beyond the tympanic ring.
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Early Electronic Television
(click on picture for high resolution image)
DuMont introduced this set in 1938, months before RCA first sold sets. This is the early 1939 version of the DuMont 180. It has a 8 x 10 inch picture, and sold for $395. (Information courtesy of Tom Genova). Here are advertising literature, pictures of 180s being made, how the 14AP4 CRT was made, and technical data. Photos of a 1946 television repair shop show a DuMont pre-1945 set on the workbench.
This set is very similar to the Cossor 137T, made two years earlier. DuMont imported several Cossor sets in 1937, and apparently copied many of the features. The CRT is almost identical, with electrostatic deflection. The power supplies are very similar. DuMont did use more modern (octal) tubes (valves) than the Cossor, and the DuMont set has a 4 channel tuner, while the Cossor is a single channel set. It would be interesting to know if DuMont entered into a license agreement with Cossor, or simply "stole" the designs.
Recently, we received a letter from Jerry King, Director of the Dumont Project, which says:
A picture from the screen of the 180
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March is National Kidney Month, and National Kidney Foundation of Arizona is providing Arizonans with multiple resources from which to learn, participate, and educate themselves on kidney health.
National Kidney Month is the perfect time for Arizonans to make themselves aware of their kidney health. In addition to its direct patient aid programs, NKF AZ also holds several wonderful community events around March. Most appropriately within National Kidney Month will be a K.E.E.P (Kidney Early Evaluation Program) screening, NKF AZ's free community health screenings. The event, offered on March 26, is open to the public by RSVP and will be held at the Nishkam Seva Gurdwara Sahib Temple in Glendale. Also held around March will be the NKF Kidney Walk on Saturday, April 2, at Chase Field. This wonderful community event provides the opportunity for patients, families, community members and volunteers to come together in support of CKD patients within Arizona.
For more on Chronic Kidney Disease, these upcoming community events, or information on the programs and mission of National Kidney Foundation of Arizona, please visit www.azkidney.org or call (602) 840-1644.
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Environmental Code of Practice for Elimination of Fluorocarbon Emissions from Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Systems
- Commercial /Industrial Systems (sections 2.1 to 2.6)
- Commercial /Industrial Systems (sections 2.7 to 2.13)
- Residential Systems and Domestic Appliances
- Mobile Air Conditioners (Automobiles)
- Mobile Refrigeration
- Heavy Duty Mobile Air Conditioning Systems
- Strategic Planning
- List of Recognized Industry Standards
- Examples of Labels
The general principles found in Sections 2, 3, and 4 Commercial/Industrial, Residential Systems and Domestic Appliance and Mobile Air Conditioners (Automobiles) are also applicable to the Mobile Refrigeration section.
The scope of this section includes refrigerated transport trucks, trailers, refrigerated rail cars, intermodal containers, ships, and air transport.
The equipment manufacturer should ensure that the design of mobile refrigeration units incorporates a series of proven features that will eliminate emissions to the atmosphere and minimize servicing.
Compressors generally do not leak from design faults, but rather due to installation, vibration, and contamination.
Mobile refrigeration design should incorporate a high degree of physical protection of associated equipment attached to the compressor, e.g., gauge and cutout connections, oil return, oil drain, oil level sight glass, relief valve, condensing coils, and connecting pipe work. The physical environment that mobile refrigeration equipment must operate in is much more severe than for fixed systems like those found in buildings. It is essential that there is good access for cleaning.
Mechanical Seals (Open Drive) . The unique environmental, geographic, and extreme hot and cold temperature conditions that mobile refrigeration equipment is subjected to can damage mechanical seals and compressors. Adequate protection should be provided to prevent leaks and emissions.
Mechanical Shaft Seals. There are several factors that can lead to the premature failure of mechanical seals and result in leakage, such as the exposure of refrigerant and oil mixtures to various contaminants, and physical factors as previously mentioned.
High Head Pressure. High head pressure is caused by high [37 °C (98.6 °F)] outside ambient air temperatures, air in the system and/or condenser coils blocked with bugs, fluff, dirt, and debris. Higher than normal operating pressure can cause leaks, emissions, and premature equipment failure. In addition, the presence of air and moisture can cause acid generation and oil breakdown that can lead to premature equipment failure and refrigerant leakage.
Design features should include a method to alert the operator of potential problems before they occur, so that corrective actions can be taken before failure.
Seal Design . New replacement refrigerants and their oils have little or no ability to tolerate moisture.
Double-faced mechanical seals and single-carbon seals with improved features that keep the carbon in a oil-coated state help prevent leakage.
The mechanical shaft seal design should minimize oil seepage and work towards eliminating external refrigerant loss.
On larger systems, separate oil pumps are recommended to lubricate the seal before startup. On smaller open compressor refrigerant systems without an auxiliary oil pump, the lack of lubrication on shutdown can cause the faces of the seal to stick together. Subsequent damage on the next startup can be prevented by rotating the shaft by hand and lubricating the seal.
Vibration. Vibration stress leaks can be minimized by using:
- antivibration mountings,
- heavy-duty insulated clamps,
- proper maintenance to eliminate vibration,
- metal braided vibration eliminators between fixed piping and components that are subjected to movement, and
- a minimum number of soldered joints to reduce potential leaks.
Mobile Refrigeration Design Features . Design features should include:
- operator-friendly control panels with self-diagnostic abilities;
- self-reseating pressure-relief valves vented to the outside;
- the use of adequate isolation valves and access fittings to facilitate maintenance, repair, recovery, and recycling of refrigerant.
5.1.2 Condensers on Ships
The condensers found on ships are the same as those found in commercial and industrial applications. To prevent fouling and scaling of the primary refrigeration condenser, a secondary heat exchanger is used which uses sea water to absorb the heat being rejected and to cool the refrigerant condenser cooling water. Sacrificial anodes should be placed in the sea water heat exchanger to help prevent corrosion. Use of resistance alloys is also recommended. Both the condenser and the heat exchanger should incorporate designs to allow easy cleaning and maintenance.
Water Velocity. Excessive water velocity through the tubes of shell-and-tube units can cause vibration or erosion failures, and should be avoided.
Water Conditions. Proper water treatment and filtration will help minimize effects of corrosion or erosion that can cause failures too.
5.1.3 Pipelines and Connections
All pipelines should be designed so that the number of joints are minimal. Welded or flanged piping and fittings are preferred over screw connections.
5.2.1 Planned Preventative Maintenance
Particulate matter and other types of soiled materials (contaminants) can damage the refrigeration system and lead to leaks by allowing moisture into the system, resulting in contamination of refrigerant and oils.
Planned preventative maintenance is the key to minimizing breakdowns, down time, and increasing overall dependability. This is very important when at sea or on the road. System cleaning is a very important part of planned maintenance.
5.2.2 Regular Planned Preventative Inspections
Refrigerated transport should incorporate regularly planned preventative maintenance inspections into its vehicle maintenance safety inspection program.
As the production and importation of CFC is phased out and it is essential to have a leak-free system to avoid shut down due to lack of refrigerant, expenditure for retrofitting existing equipment, and possible premature capital for new equipment using alternative refrigerant
Only trained qualified certified service persons using the manufacturers service check sheets and service procedures can ensure that the unit is leak-free and is operating at peak efficiency.
An annual inspection check sheet should be developed by systems owners, that can travel with the unit. This annual inspection sheet will also verify that the equipment was leak-free as of a certain day and by whom it was serviced. Any repairs that were required to bring the system up to leak-free standards should be noted.
5.3 Equipment Conversions
The principles and procedures outlined in previous sections should be followed. See Sections 2.8 and 3.6 and the following sections.
5.4 Operator Education
The vehicle or system operator should understand the basic principles of how the refrigeration system works and the normal operating parameters of the unit. Parameters may include temperatures, pressures, oil levels, sight glass inspection, and/or visual inspection of the moisture indicator.
The operator should know the basic components that make up the unit, how to start and stop the unit, and how to pump it down and isolate the refrigerant charge if necessary.
Logs of inspections should be kept with each unit. These can be invaluable in helping the service person diagnose some types of problems.
A good operator knows his/her equipment and watches for oil leaks (a sign of refrigerant leaks) on the bottom of fittings and connections.
- Date Modified:
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Download the Code of Federal Regulations in XML.
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§1724.74 List of electric program standard contract forms.
(a) General. The following is a list of RUS electric program standard contract forms for architectural and engineering services. Paragraph (c) of this section contains the list of required contract forms, i.e., those forms of contracts that borrowers are required to use by the terms of their RUS loan agreements as implemented by the provisions of this part. Paragraph (d) of this section contains the list of guidance contract forms, i.e., those forms of contracts provided as guidance to borrowers in the planning, design, and construction of their systems. All of these forms are available from RUS. See §1724.72(b) for availability of these forms.
(b) Issuance date. Where required by this part to use a standard form of contract in connection with RUS financing, the borrower shall use that form identified by issuance date in the List of Required Contract Forms in paragraph (c) of this section, as most recently published as of the date the borrower executes the contract.
(c) List of required contract forms. (1) RUS Form 211, Rev. 4-04, Engineering Service Contract for the Design and Construction of a Generating Plant. This form is used for engineering services for generating plant construction.
(2) RUS Form 220, Rev. 6-98, Architectural Services Contract. This form is used for architectural services for building construction.
(3) RUS Form 236, Rev. 6-98, Engineering Service Contract—Electric System Design and Construction. This form is used for engineering services for distribution, transmission, substation, and communications and control facilities.
(d) List of guidance contract forms. (1) RUS Form 179, Rev. 9-66, Architects and Engineers Qualifications. This form is used to document architects and engineers qualifications.
(2) RUS Form 215, Rev. 5-67, Engineering Service Contract—System Planning. This form is used for engineering services for system planning.
(3) RUS Form 234, Rev. 3-57, Final Statement of Engineering Fee. This form is used for the closeout of engineering services contracts.
(4) RUS Form 241, Rev. 3-56, Amendment of Engineering Service Contract. This form is used for amending engineering service contracts.
(5) RUS Form 244, Rev. 12-55, Engineering Service Contract—Special Services. This form is used for miscellaneous engineering services.
(6) RUS Form 258, Rev. 4-58, Amendment of Engineering Service Contract—Additional Project. This form is used for amending engineering service contracts to add an additional project.
(7) RUS Form 284, Rev. 4-72, Final Statement of Cost for Architectural Service. This form is used for the closeout of architectural services contracts.
(8) RUS Form 297, Rev. 12-55, Engineering Service Contract—Retainer for Consultation Service. This form is used for engineering services for consultation service on a retainer basis.
(9) RUS Form 459, Rev. 9-58, Engineering Service Contract—Power Study. This form is used for engineering services for power studies.
[63 FR 58285, Oct. 30, 1998, as amended at 65 FR 63196, Oct. 23, 2000; 69 FR 52595, Aug. 27, 2004]
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A study being conducted by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has found Australia hosts enough renewable energy resources to generate well over 500 times its electricity consumption.
The AEMO has been tasked by the Commonwealth Government to model 100 per cent renewable electricity generation in the National Electricity Market (NEM) by 2030 and 2050.
As part of this task, AEMO and its consultants identified 43 regions across the NEM and examined the renewable resources available within each one.
Excluding land in national parks or areas with conflicting use, the AEMO believes the potential for energy generation is massive.
Currently, the national electricity market currently produces 200 terawatt hours of energy each year.
“The study shows there is potential to produce around 500 times that if all possible sources of renewable energy available across eastern and south eastern
Australia were tapped into,” says the body’s latest Energy Update.
Prior research conducted elsewhere has shown that even just utilising all available and suitable rooftops in Australia for solar panel installations would generate enough electricity to power the nation; assuming suitable energy storage facilities were in place.
The AEMO’s modelling incorporates two scenarios for both 2030 and 2050. One scenario examines a rapid transformation of the electricity sector, moderate economic and electricity demand growth with strong demand side participation. The other is based on moderate transformation of the energy sector, less demand side participation and robust economic and energy growth.
“This work will provide industry and governments with a comprehensive resource that can be used to develop and introduce new technologies to the national electricity market over the coming years,” says AEMO’s Chief Operating Officer Mike Cleary.
The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DCCEE) is due to release AEMO’s draft report in March 2013.
The AEMO was established to manage the NEM and gas markets; carrying out the electricity functions previously undertaken by the National Electricity Market Management Company (NEMMCO) with respect to the NEM.
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A wonderful baseball movie, Moneyball is also about economics.
Faced with a futile future, the Athletics general manager, Billy Beane, realized a good team need not be about star players. Instead of individuals, it was actually about the whole team’s ability to win. And that meant looking more closely at why teams win. Beane concluded that it meant getting on base. And that meant walking was as valuable as hitting. It meant recognizing the small stuff that most people ignored. It required processing countless stats and avoiding the human response on which baseball scouts depended. And it worked.
Listening to the “bean counters,” Beane put together a team of unknowns that together almost produced a championship.
In this fascinating NPR Fresh Air podcast, Michael Lewis talks about his book Moneyball.
The Economic Lesson
In the stock market, when buying a house, or when putting together a baseball team, price matters. People who identify a resource that is undervalued have the best chance of achieving success. For securities and home buyers, success means prices rise after you buy your asset. For Billy Beane, it was acquiring valuable players for a price he could afford.
Billy Beane soon faced the problem that his undervalued players would gain value. And then, again, he could not afford them.
An Economic Question: In addition to undervaluing an asset, sports economists have said that Moneyball is about Joseph Schumpeter’s creative destruction. Do you agree? Explain.
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As a supplement to Robert Wenzel's earlier post, there are plenty of reasons why Neocons like Max Boot advocate "Hard Wilsonianism," and why neocon Michael Gerson admires how Woodrow Wilson "skillfully made the transition to wartime leadership."
Robert is correct when he wrote that Wilson in many ways: "was the first neoconservative."
Take a gander below at what Wilson said on July 4th, 1918 to a gathering at George Washington's tomb on Mount Vernon:
“It has been left for us to see to it that it shall be understood that they [the Founders] spoke and acted, not for a single people only, but for all mankind. We are in this war to fulfill the promise of their vision; having achieved our own liberty we are to strive for the liberties of every other people as well.”Wow! Two significant observations from the above quote. First, is what Wilson said, and second is where he said it.
What Wilson said will give any war-hungry neocon that warm & fuzzy feeling.
Where Wilson made this statement is the real interesting part. For it was George Washington who said in his farewell address:
Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. [...]Wilson was proclaiming the polar opposite at Washington's tomb!
The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. [...]
So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. [...]
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. [...]
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course.
That's like a Federal Reserve Chairman announcing another round of QE and then thanking Ron Paul for the idea!
Considering the outrageous things that Neocons will say and do to go to war, it should be no surprise that some of them have a special place in their heart for Woodrow Wilson, who would lead "the war to end all war".
Follow @ChrisRossini on Twitter
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The Best Music for Toddlers
- Infants and Toddlers: Ages 0 - 2
- Make Some Music With Your Family
- Music Education for Kids: Does Music Make Kids Smarter?
- Healthy Snacks for Toddlers and Preschoolers
- Observation Guidelines: Noticing Temperament in Infants and Toddlers
- Four Important Reasons for Including Music in the Classroom
Young children are naturally drawn to music. Singing and dancing seem to be natural to little ones and toddlers participate willingly and without inhibition in music and movement activities. But how can parents help keep children interested in music over time? Here's what you need to know about the best music for toddlers and why are songs more appealing than others.
“What makes a really great toddler song is a tune that involves movement, puts a prop in a child's hand, or appeals to their sense of humor,” says Sheila Fitzgerald, owner of the children's music program, Crocodile Rock. “Young children love a song with a strong beat, and they are working on their listening skills, following directions, large motor skills, spatial awareness, and more while they enjoying the rhythm and having fun. Songs about animals, dinosaurs, transportation, and body parts are all favorite song topics of this age group.”
- Repetitive phrases help children chime in each time they hear the familiar words and tune.
- Songs with a slow to medium pace are easier for tots to sing with. If the song is too fast, it might be difficult for him to keep up.
- Find songs with simple vocabulary and a small number of words.
Make them move
Songs that involve movement are big hits with little musicians.
- Children’s favorites such as “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and “Where is Thumbkin?” are all great for toddlers.
- Find songs that help little ones learn the parts of their bodies such as “Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes” and “The Hokey Pokey”.
- Any song that involves jumping, twirling, crawling, shaking, running and dancing are great ways to work on gross motor skills and help get the wiggles out!
Find some songs that will give you both a belly laugh and your toddler is sure to be begging to sing them again and again.
- Songs that start slow and go faster and faster are big hits with toddlers. You can use this technique with any song your child likes to sing (such as Greg and Steve’s “Chicken Dance”).
- Songs that have animals doing silly things are lots of fun to sing (such as Raffi’s “Down by the Bay”).
- Songs that have him moving like an animal are perfect for participation (such as Hap Palmer’s “Sammy”).
Many popular children’s songs have been made into books. Ask your librarian for suggestions of favorite children’s books based on songs.
- Children will love seeing pictures of the songs they love to sing.
- Singing along with books will not only be fun, but will help children stay focused and build attention span.
- Children may pick up some early literacy skills such as an understanding that print goes from left to right (running your finger under the words as you sing will help with this) and that pictures go along with the written words.
Some popular children’s artists that have great songs for toddlers are listed below. Check some CDs out at the library and purchase your own copy of the ones your child loves.
- Greg and Steve
- Laurie Berkner
- Hap Palmer
- Jim Gill
- Parachute Express
- Imagination Workshop
- Cathy (Fink) and Marcy (Marxer)
While there are lots of children’s artists who have written great songs for children, there are also many old fashioned favorites that children have loved for generations. You don’t need to purchase anything to bring music into your child’s life.
Whether you are in the car, around the house or on a walk in your neighborhood, music is always easy to squeeze into your daily routine. Just clear your throat and sing some favorites from your childhood! (If you can’t remember the words or melodies for your favorite children’s songs, visit www.kididdles.com for help.)
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Adopt a Tree!
In science class, you have been learning about plants. Trees are important kinds of plants. Trees keep our air supply fresh. They provide shade and shelter for wildlife. They help improve water quality, and they help keep the soil in place and prevent erosion. In this activity, you will use your senses to study the life in and around a tree.
- pencils and crayons
- tape measure
- magnifying glass
With an adult, locate a nearby tree. Look at the tree and its surroundings. Write down what you see, hear, feel, and smell.
- Write down all the living things you see. Draw pictures.
- Listen to the tree. Can you hear branches moving? Are birds singing? Is a squirrel chattering? Write about it.
- Feel the bark of the tree and describe how it feels.
- Smell a piece of bark, a leaf, or any flowers on the tree. What do these things smell like? Write about what you smell.
- Make a tracing of a leaf from the tree.
- Wrap a tape measure around the tree trunk to measure it.
- Use a magnifying glass to look more closely at the tree. How do the tree and its leaves look different?
What did you learn about the tree? Did anything surprise you?
Would your observations be different if you observed a different tree?
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Studies Paint a Picture of Klein's Legacy
Often it’s left to the history books to judge the results of big-city education reform efforts years later, but outgoing New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein got a preview on Wednesday of the legacy of the far-reaching—and controversial—initiatives that he and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg have pushed over the past eight years.
At an invitation-only conference here on Nov. 10, the authors of 11 studies commissioned by the New York City Education Reform Retrospective Project held different facets of those initiatives, which are known collectively as Children First, up to the light. The studies, paid for by the Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Austin, Texas-based Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and the Salisbury, N.C.-based Robertson Foundation, found the initiative has led to some systemic improvements in student achievement and teacher quality, but also some capacity problems and resentment among some teacher, parent and community groups. The gathering came the day after the announcement that Mr. Klein will step down in mid-December.
“I think Joel Klein and his colleagues have gotten much more traction on reform than any previous leadership team,” said Robert B. Schwartz, the academic dean of the education and management program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “This is the most dramatic and thoughtful set of large-scale reforms going on anywhere in the country.”
Mayor Bloomberg appointed Mr. Klein as chancellor shortly after gaining control of the city’s school system in 2002 and replacing the board of education with a virtually toothless Public Education Panel. The Children First initiative, launched the same year, began with the elimination of 32 community districts —each with its own superintendent and board—and the creation of 10 regional systems that provide services and support while giving schools considerable autonomy.
Under the initiative, the Bloomberg administration negotiated a new teacher contract that did away with seniority-based teacher-transfer decisions and gave principals more authority to hire and fire teachers.
While changes in the hiring, transfer, and compensation systems for teachers were controversial, a study led by James H. Wyckoff, the director of the Center on Education Policy and Workforce Competitiveness at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, found they significantly improved the qualifications of teachers in the city’s highest-poverty schools. In particular, the gap in the average qualifications between teachers in the wealthiest and poorest 10 percent of schools shrank by half from 2000 to 2005. By 2008, the highest-poverty schools were actually hiring fewer teachers on temporary licenses than wealthy schools.
“There’s a really dramatic shift after 2003 to a really different workforce in New York City [schools] than there had been in place before that,” Mr. Wyckoff said.
Under Children First, the city also closed nearly 100 low-performing schools and replaced them with small schools and new “alternate path” high schools to recover students who had dropped out; developed a student-information data system accessible by parents; and assigned teacher mentors and parent coordinators, among other initiatives.
While researchers noted that it was next to impossible to tease out the effects of individual parts of Children First, James J. Kemple, the executive director of the Research Alliance for New York City Schools, compared the city’s school reform efforts as a whole against a “virtual” control group modeled from other urban districts in the state, including Buffalo, Yonkers, Syracuse, and Rochester. The study found New York City students improved significantly faster than the control group on both the New York state assessments and the National Assessment of Educational Progress during the reform period, from 2002 to 2010. The improvement trend continues even taking into account New York state’s recent recalibration of test scores, which showed little growth for New York City. Moreover, the improvement in test scores in the 8th grade was linked to an increased likelihood that those students would graduate from high school four years later.
“The increases in test scores over time is not just an artifact of test-taking strategies,” Mr. Kemple said. “This test score continues to be an indicator of higher likelihood of graduating from high school.”
Yet several studies also called into question the sustainability of community—and particularly parent—support for the initiatives.
For example, New York University researchers Leanna Stiefel and Amy Ellen Schwartz reported that during Mayor Bloomberg’s first six years in office, the city schools saw a funding increase, after adjusting for inflation, of about $5,000 per student, compared with a little more than $3,000 per student on average in the rest of the state during that time. The additional money helped grease the wheels for more-flexible teacher contracts with pay raises, deal with rising costs for special education, and support experimental initiatives in technology and models of schooling.
Though the state’s federal Race to the Top grant may provide some new funding, Ms. Steifel said, she didn’t think the revenue growth seen in those early years is likely to continue because of the troubled state and national economic picture. Tighter budgets could reduce willingness to go along with future changes, particularly in negotiating teacher contracts.
Mr. Klein admitted as much in a conversation with reporters late Wednesday after the conference, saying the most critical issue for sustaining the agenda would be to quickly eliminate the city’s policy of “last hired, first fired” before budget cuts begin, so that principals could protect younger teachers they recently had chosen, even at the expense of losing more expensive veteran teachers if staff cuts were needed.
Mr. Klein’s elimination of the old neighborhood districts was intended to reduce corruption, but it also closed down the lines of communication to which parents and community members were accustomed, according to a study led by Jeffrey R. Henig, the politics and education program coordinator at Teachers College, Columbia University. But “in our view, the administration may have failed to fully appreciate an alternative theory of community engagement as a means to sustain education reform,” Mr. Henig said.
He added that the administration’s approach “fueled resentment that went deeper and broader than the administration anticipated,” and that those “still festering” disagreements could force Mr. Bloomberg and Cathleen P. Black, the mayor’s choice as Mr. Klein’s successor, to backpedal on some initiatives in the future.
Monica Major, who represents the Bronx borough on the city’s Panel for Education Policy, said she believed the city education department “lost because they had the opportunity to build trust, to engage parents. You are not going to move forward until parents really feel they are being engaged, being listened to.”
Mr. Klein admitted that he “didn’t do as good a job as I should have in getting the buy-in we need.” Yet the chancellor ended his discussion with researchers defiant in response to suggestions that his team should have designed and implemented the Children First measures more collaboratively.
“I don’t think you can do school reform by plebiscite; it’s why I opposed school boards and why I fought for mayoral control,” Mr. Klein said. “Whether you agree or disagree, the most aggressive forms of school reform are going on in places like Chicago, D.C., and New York, and that’s not coincidentally because there was mayoral control and the ability to drive the system, and I think you need that in K-12.”
Vol. 30, Issue 12
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- Southeast Polk Community School District, Pleasant Hill, IA
- Program Officer, Teacher Development
- Knowles Science Teaching Foundation, Moorestown, NJ
- Eugene School District 4J, Eugene, OR
- Principal - Secondary (Pool)
- Jefferson County Public Schools, Golden, CO
- Multiple Positions
- Township High School District 113, IL
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Santa Clara, Calif. Optimized for space-constrained applications, Vishay Intertechnology Inc.'s new ESD protection diodes are packaged in an ultra-small SOD523 (SC79) package that measures 0.8 x 1.6 x 0.6 mm. The new devices provide designers with a choice of five working voltages from 1 V to 12 V and maximum clamping voltages from 9 V to 25 V.
Designed to provide ESD protection for data lines in mobile phone handsets and accessories, cordless phones, laptop computers, PDAs, digital cameras, modems, MP3 players, and other compact, handheld electronics, the new Vishay Semiconductors VESDxx-02V offers one-line transient protection of 15 kV (air) and 8 kV (contact) as per IEC 61000-4-2. The five new devices are packaged in a plastic case with a UL 94 V-0 flammability rating and are specified for an operating temperature range of -40°C to 125°C.
In addition to meeting the industry standard for ESD protection required by mobile phone manufacturers, the VESDxx02V series saves space compared to multi-line arrays. This gives designers the flexibility to add protection for sensitive electronics on compact circuit boards exactly where it's needed.
Available in tape and rail packaging, pricing for U.S. delivery is $7.00 per 100 pieces in quantities of 100,000. Delivery is eight to 12 weeks for large orders.
Call (619) 336-0860
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In policy news this month we report on the air quality situation in Europe and how two new EU proposals are aiming to improve the safety of medical devices produced here.
Launch of the 2012 EEA report on the air quality situation in Europe – the way forward to the 2013 EU Year of Air
On the 24th of September, the European Environment Agency (EEA) launched their 2012 report on the air quality situation in Europe with a presentation and discussion in the European Parliament featuring EEA Executive Director Jacqueline McGlade and EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik. The 2012 analysis confirms the air quality situation in Europe is grim: exposure to air pollution is actively harming Europeans’ health. It reduces life expectancy by more than eight months on average in the European Union and by more than two years in the most polluted cities and regions. In addition, it significantly affects the most vulnerable people, such as those suffering from asthma, COPD and respiratory allergies. Next year it will be the EU Year of Air and, together with the revision of the EU air legislation scheduled for 2013, it represents a wonderful opportunity to draw attention to the harmful consequences of air pollution.
European Commission proposes new EU medical devises regulation
On the 26th of September 2012, the European Commission adopted a package on innovation in health consisting of a communication and two new EU regulations on medical devises and in vitro diagnostic medical devises. The Commission believes patients will benefit even more from the provisions of these new legislative instruments since they prescribe that all devices will have to undergo thorough assessment of safety and performance before they can be sold on the European market. Control processes are strongly reinforced and will continue to ensure rapid access to innovative, cost-effective devices for European patients. The proposal is particularly important for people with allergy and airways diseases, as some of the devises used in their treatments (e.g. asthma inhalators and adrenaline injectors) will fall under the scope of the new rules.
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23. Trillium foetidissimum J. D. Freeman, Brittonia. 27: 31, fig. 7. 1975.
Stinking trillium, fetid trillium
Rhizomes horizontal, brownish, thick, short, praemorse, not brittle. Scapes 1–2, green to maroon, round in cross section, 0.8–2.8 dm, papillose basally. Bracts often carried quite horizontally, well above ground, sessile; blade light green or bronze-green, strongly mottled in dark green with central light green stripe, mottling becoming obscure with age but less so than in most species, elliptic-ovate, rarely ± orbicular, 6.7–12 × 3.8–6 cm, not glossy, base evenly tapered to broad attachment, apex obtuse-acute. Flower borne directly on bracts, odor of putrid meat, especially when in strong sunlight; sepals displayed above bracts, carried almost horizontally, green or green streaked with dark maroon, lanceolate, 16–40 × 4–6 mm, thick-textured, margins entire, apex acute; petals long-lasting, erect, very gradually incurved from base to apex, ± connivent, ± concealing stamens and ovary, pinkish purple, light to reddish purple, brownish purple, rarely yellow, fading to brownish tones with age, not spirally twisted, not inrolling with age, veins not engraved, narrowly elliptic to linear-lanceolate, 2–5 × 0.3–0.5 cm, thick-textured, not glossy, margins entire, flat, acute at apex; stamens relatively prominent, erect, 9–25 mm; filaments dark maroon, 3–6 mm, dilated basally; anthers straight, dark maroon-black, 8–15 mm, dehiscence introrse; connectives straight, extended 1–1.5 mm beyond anther sacs; ovary red-purple, ovoid, hexagonal in cross section, 5–12 mm, broadly attached; stigmas erect, divergent-recurved, distinct, dark purple, subulate, nearly as long as ovary, fleshy. Fruits purplish brown, ovoid, 6-angled at least apically, fleshy.
Flowering late winter--early spring (early Mar [rarely Feb]--early Apr). River bluffs, ravines, floodplains, low ground, rich woods, road shoulders, silts, sandy-alluvium, loess soils, drier upland oak and pine woods; 40--50 m; La., Miss.
Trillium foetidissimum seems tolerant of a wide range of soil moistures and types, from low, swampy woods to high, dry bluffs and ravine slopes. This is the only Trillium known to occur within its Louisiana range (J. D. Freeman 1975). Freeman considered it to be closely related to T. sessile.
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11. Swertia graciliflora Gontscharow, Trudy Bot. Inst. Acad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. 1, Fl. Sist. Vyssh. Rast. 1: 161. 1933.
细花獐牙菜 xi hua zhang ya cai
Perennials 10-20 cm tall. Rhizomes blackish, short, with few slightly fleshy rootlets. Stems erect, simple, base sheathed by blackish remains of old petioles. Basal leaves 3 or 4 pairs; petiole flattened, 2-2.5 cm; leaf blade linear-elliptic to oblanceolate, 2.5-6 × 0.6-1.7 cm, base narrowed, apex obtuse to rounded, veins 3-5. Stem leaves 1 or 2 pairs, sessile or short petiolate; leaf blade bractlike, ovate-elliptic, 1-2 cm × 4-7 mm, both ends obtuse, veins 1-3. Inflorescences narrow, interrupted, many-flowered thyrses 4-10 cm. Flowers 5merous. Pedicel suberect, 0.8-2 cm. Calyx lobes lanceolate, 7-8 mm, margin narrowly membranous, apex acuminate, veins indistinct. Corolla blue or blue-purple, tube 1.5-2 mm; lobes narrowly oblong, 8-11 mm, margin erose, apex obtuse to rounded. Nectaries 2 per corolla lobe, cupular, with pilose fimbriae 2-2.5 mm. Filaments 7-9 mm, base fimbriate-barbate; anthers blue, narrowly ellipsoid, 2-2.5 mm. Style indistinct; stigma lobes suborbicular. Capsules ovoid-ellipsoid, as long as persistent corolla. Seeds brown, ellipsoid, 1-1.3 mm, longitudinally rugose. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.
Valleys, beside streams, alpine meadows; 2500-4500 m. Xin-jiang [Tajikistan].
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536. Rhododendron obtusum (Lindley) Planchon, Fl. Serres Jard. Eur. 9: 80. 1853–1854. 1853.
钝叶杜鹃 dun ye du juan
Azalea obtusa Lindley, J. Hort. Soc. London 1: 152. 1846.
Low shrubs, 1(–4) m tall; branchlets slender, often pseudoverticillate, densely coarsely ferruginous-strigose. Leaves all similar. Petiole ca. 2 mm, coarsely gray-white-strigose; leaf blade membranous, elliptic to elliptic-ovate or oblong-oblanceolate to obovate, 1–2.5 × 0.4–1.2 cm; base broadly cuneate; margin ciliate; apex obtusely pointed or rounded, sometimes mucronate; both surfaces sparsely coarsely strigose, more conspicuously so along midrib. Inflorescence usually 2- or 3-flowered. Pedicel 0.4–0.8 cm, densely coarsely ferruginous-strigose, hairs flat; calyx lobes ovate, to 4 mm, coarsely strigose; corolla funnel-campanulate, red to pink or reddish, one lobe with dark flecks, ca. 1.5 × 2.5 cm; lobes oblong, ca. 1 × 0.5 cm, apex obtuse; stamens 5, ca. as long as corolla, filaments, glabrous; ovary densely coarsely brown-strigose; style ca. 2.5 cm, longer than stamens, glabrous. Capsule conical to broadly elliptic-ovoid, ca. 6 mm, densely coarsely ferruginous-strigose.
Cultivated in E and SE China [of cultivated origin].
There are many varieties and garden hybrids of this widely cultivated plant, the first form of which originated in Shanghai. It seems likely that Rhododendron obtusum was derived from a hybrid of the Japanese R. kiusianum Makino.
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This seriously cool clip from the early '80s of the addictive Liquid Liquid song "Cavern" embodies the dangerous atmosphere of NYC's yesteryear as water color figures by Michael Sporn make their way through an urban hell as best as they can. While this cut helped spawn the Melle Mel hit, "White Lines," this video brings to mind another song altogether, as we witness drawn-out New Yorkers you shouldn't push because they're close to the edge.
CLICK THE THUMBNAILS ABOVE TO SEE THE VIDEOS & IMAGES
Liquid Liquid – "Cavern" Music Video (1983).
Animated urban decay by Michael Sporn. Watercolors by Pam Williams.
(Props to freestylemusicvideos for the upload)
Grandmaster Melle Mel — "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" Unofficial Music Video (1983).
NYU Film student Spike Lee directs Laurence Fishburne in a way too grainy but striking clip for “White Lines,” which is based on the Liquid Liquid’s “Cavern” and that the Sugar Hill Records house band flipped lovely.
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What’s the difference between yours and your’s?
Yours is the second person possessive pronoun – it replaces "your" + noun.
Though you may see your’s written even by native speakers, it is incorrect. Yours should never have an apostrophe.
The Bottom Line
The idea that yours needs an apostrophe comes out of the fact that on virtually every other word, ‘s indicates possession, so English speakers sometimes think yours should be spelled your’s. However, this is always incorrect – yours is the only correct spelling.
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By Olga Sanchez Saltveit, El Hispanic News
“I was looking for community”, wrote Ana Consuelo Matiella, who produces fotonovelas for bilingual health education around the country. “I had just moved from New Mexico where you don’t have to look so hard for Latino-focused creative support.” Octaviano Merecias-Cuevas added, “I wanted to be part of a movement that can inspire the spark of writers/poets in the Northwest.” A trilingual (Spanish-Mixtec-English) spoken-word poet who works with Oregon State University students, he wanted “to provide the voice of an indigenous writer to the pool of local talents.”
Both Ana Consuelo and Octaviano have found what they were seeking in the company of a dozen writers who call themselves Los Porteños. Although Porteños—which can also be translated loosely as “The Portlanders”—is an affectionate nickname for the people of Buenos Aires, none of the members is from Argentina (yet!). The name is derived from Los Norteños, the Seattle Latino writers group that has been going strong for two decades. When three Norteñas, playwright Joann Farias, poet-dramatist Cindy Williams Gutierrez and writer Olga Sanchez moved to Portland, they found creative opportunities at Milagro (the Northwest’s premier arts and culture organization) but they longed for the literary focus, support and camaraderie of Los Norteños. In 2006, they met Finance Director and novelist Emma Oliver, and agreed it was time to start a new group.
“Writing in English is a little frustrating,” said Emma. “There are words I grew up with in Mexico that just don’t translate.” Emma prefers to keep these untranslatable words and phrases intact in her writing, but then finds it difficult to receive helpful feedback. “When I was in an English-only critique group,” she tells, “I had to explain meanings and translate expressions.” Fellow writer, dance ethnologist and choreographer Catherine Evleshin also wanted to receive informed responses to her work, which includes Latino characters, settings, and issues. “Los Porteños offers its members the opportunity for critique and feedback by a group who understands and feels the Latino experience,” says Ivonne Saed, a fiction writer and graphic designer. Catherine agrees, “I rely on the responses of Los Porteños to validate my ideas and my writing.”
The group began by meeting regularly at Milagro to share their work, receive constructive criticism, and learn more about the professional world of writing. It seems to be working; several of the writers have had their work published and now offer writing workshops for youth and adults. The group has expanded its public presence as well. Every year they produce at least two literary readings including the very popular Día de Muertos reading at Milagro, and more recently the Stafford Birthday Readings, in collaboration with Friends of William Stafford. “The group has become very active in the creative scene in Oregon,” says Merecias-Cuevas. “It has formed new partners and created a vision of change and innovation in what we call creative writing.”
Indeed, it is through collaborations with diverse community partners that Los Porteños is enjoying its most fruitful season yet. In January, the group reprised its NOCHE DE NERUDA program to a standing-room-only crowd at Literary Arts; Ivonne Saed created a stylish logo for the organization to match its new position as a fiscal entity that can now receive grants; and in July, the group collaborated with Congregation Ahavath Achim and the Oregon Jewish Museum to present a dramatic reading of MARRANO JUSTICE, a play that explores Ladino/Sephardic history. This coming September, Los Porteños will produce its most ambitious project to date, WORDS THAT BURN, created by Cindy Williams Gutierrez, a dramatization of the World War II experiences of William Stafford, Lawson Inada, and Guy Gabaldón, in their own words. With support from the Oregon Heritage Society and the Regional Arts & Culture Council, Los Porteños is hiring a professional director, actors, and a videographer to realize this staged reading during Milagro’s Luna Nueva festival.
“I think we are today at an interesting moment: we are engaging in more elaborate productions beyond literary readings,” writes Saed, “and we are partnering with other institutions in a way that positions ourselves as an important link in the Portland cultural chain.” Cindy concurs, “I think our biggest accomplishment is the bridge-building among communities through WORDS THAT BURN and MARRANO JUSTICE.”
What can the future hold for this unique group? Ana Consuelo Matiello envisions, “More writing in Spanish so we can reach out to the monolingual Spanish speaker, so we can honor the beauty of the Spanish language. I would love to see an event to mentor young Latino writers.” Cindy Williams Gutierrez’ vision for the group is “To continue to raise our voices throughout Oregon, build bridges with other communities and to bring major Latino writers to Portland to share with the community and to guide us in our development as writers”.
The success of Los Porteños is a success for the whole community. “As the public presence of Los Porteños grows in the Northwest, so does the awareness of literary contributions in the Spanish-speaking world,” states Evleshin. Merecias-Cuevas adds, “The Porteños are the much-needed voice that explores and represents the life and culture of Latina/os living in Oregon.”
No matter how big the group grows it will continue providing a haven for Latino literary talent. “It is so valuable for me to spend time with Latinos who love to read and write”, says Emma Oliver. “When we get together on Sundays we critique our work and talk about books, everything from Shakespeare to Cervantes, Steinbeck to Fuentes. I can’t think of anywhere else where I can find a combination such as this. Los Porteños understand what I am saying. My stories are in English, but when I use expressions in Spanish such as a lo que te truje Chencha or como panza de burro, Los Porteños all go, yep, we get it. I love saying I’m in a Latino writers group. It gives me a sense of pride and belonging.”
Los Porteños’ upcoming performance, WORDS THAT BURN will be presented for one week only, Thursday through Sunday, September 25-28, at Milagro. For more information visit www.milagro.org or call 503-236-7253. Los Porteños can also be found on Facebook.
Este artículo también está disponible en / This post is also available in: Spanish
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Granny's Gourmet Launches Healthier Coffee For Coffee Drinkers, The Farmer And The Economy
Granny's Gourmet Coffee is Organic Certified containing no pesticides, fertilizer or water and ground contaminants as certified by the National Organic Program. Where farmers are paid a fair price for their crops so they can bolster the communities th
A new brand of coffee has just been released to solve this problem called "Granny's Gourmet Coffee", choosing only the best Organic Fair Trade Coffee beans from around the world for distribution into the market. What does this mean? It means there is now a brand coffee drinkers can be confident knowing all of the coffee beans are Organic Certified, the product contains no pesticides, fertilizer or water and ground contaminants as certified by the National Organic Program.
Being organic is not the only criteria at Granny's Gourmet. The small coffee farmers must also be Fair Trade Certified by The Fair Trade Federation. Meaning the farmers receive a fair wage for their crops, and they meet specific standards like the enforcement of proper work and safety regulations. With fair pricing the farmers can invest in better equipment and machinery, pay their workers better wages so the workers can better provide for their families. Coffee drinkers can be assured that all of the products provided by Granny's Gourmet Coffee are healthier for consumption, better for the environment and help with global economic issues.
When someone chooses the organic fair trade coffee beans offered by Granny's Gourmet Coffee they will be helping the farmers receive a fair profit for their products while reducing workers exposure to toxins and other environmental hazards in their environment. They will be helping the workers obtain a better standard of living with sustainable wages that allow them to better provide for their families and they will be helping their own family by giving them a coffee free of toxins or leftover chemicals that are often found in products treated with pesticides and non organic fertilizer.
The Mission at Granny's Gourmet Coffee is to provide Organic Pesticide Free Coffee Beans to Coffee Concurs, Produced by Small Farmers around the world, Paid Fair Prices for their products.
Making a Difference One Cup At A Time.
About BMS Brands
Making a difference is what BMS Brands wants to accomplish. Launching Granny's Gourmet Coffee gives consumers a healthier product, farmers a better working environment and workers better means to provide for their families and community. Granny's Gourmet Coffee guarantees only the best Organic Coffee Pesticide Free Beans will be contained in every package.
This is a press release. Press release distribution and press release services by EmailWire.Com: http://www.emailwire.com/us-press-release-distribution.php.
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Jackson Daily News
August 25, 1985
EMMETT TILL: MORE THAN
World watched drama unfold in rural county courtroom
By TOM BRENNAN
Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer
SUMNER – The
courtroom, with its pastel walls and rich appointments, exudes elegance
– no scars from past battles.
Air conditioning has replaced the ceiling fans. Gilded chandeliers cast
a gentle glow; the glare of bare lightbulbs is a memory. The benches are
smooth and new, not the rough wood of old.
For five days in September 1955, people sweated in this room on the second
floor of the Tallahatchie County Courthouse, packed shoulder to shoulder,
riveted by the trial of two white men charged with slaying a black youth.
When it was over, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant sat wreathed in the smoke
of their victory cigars and kissed their wives for the newspaper photographers.
Powerful images remain with some of those who watched and participated
in the trial. They say today, with hindsight’s advantage, that the
Emmett Till trial portended the conflict to come.
The Great Uncle
“I will always
vividly remember Uncle Mose. That slight man in his white shirt and suspenders
rising from the witness stand and pointing his gnarled finger at Milam
and Bryant as they sat stone-faced” — John Herbers, reporter.
Moses Wright was Emmett
Till’s great-uncle, and it was from the 64-year-old sharecropper’s
cabin that Till was abducted at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 28, 1955.
Wright testified that he was awakened by shouts, and that when he went
to the door, a man’s voice said, “I want to talk with you.
I’m Mr. Bryant.”
Opening the door, he said he saw a big, balding man with a pistol in his
right hand and a flashlight in the other. The man told Wright, “I
want that boy who dirty-talked at Money.”
When Wright was asked to identify the man who spoke to him that night,
he straightened and pointed directly at Milam, saying, “There he
is. That’s the man.”
Uncle Mose, as he was called by prosecutors, said Milam was accompanied
that night by another man. Using the same gesture and speaking the same
words, Wright identified Bryant.
On cross-examination, Wright told defense attorney C. Sidney Carlton that
he identified Milam because of his “big bald head.”
Jurors seized upon those words to ignore Wright’s testimony.
“He said it was a baldheaded man and 95 percent of the jury was
baldheaded,” juror James Toole of Enid recalled in a recent interview.
“How could he pick out a bald man in the dark?”
But Wright’s testimony was reinforced by Leflore County Sheriff
George Smith and his deputy, John Edd Cathran, who each testified that
Milam and Bryant both admitted abducting Till. But the defendants claimed
they let “the little Negro boy go.”
J. W. Kellum, another of the five defense attorneys, today readily acknowledges
that Wright was the state’s strongest witness. “He was strong
because even if the boys were not the ones that did the murder, his testimony
showed they were the ones guilty of the kidnapping.”
Wright was lauded by journalists who covered the trial for the courage
he displayed on the witness stand.
“He was taking a tremendous risk by pointing that shaky finger at
them,” said Murray Kempton, who covered the trial for the New York
Post and is now a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist at Newsday on Long
Island, N. Y. “Any drunk could have burnt him out. It was odd that
he didn’t suffer for that.”
To prevent such retaliation, Wright was whisked by car to Memphis after
he testified. There, he caught a plane to Chicago. Wright later moved
to Albany N. Y., where he died.
“Medgar Evers told me that we needed to get Mose out of there,”
said Jimmy Hicks, now executive editor of the New York Voice. Hicks covered
the trial for the Amsterdam News of Chicago and the National Newspaper
Publishing Association, then a news wire service for about 35 black newspapers.
“It was such an electric moment that we all thought that the stuff
was going to really hit the fan. Blacks just didn’t testify against
Hicks said he drove Wright to a pecan grove about 15 miles outside Sumner
where he met Evers who, eight years later, was shot and killed in Jackson
while he was NAACP field secretary for Mississippi.
Hicks, now 70, said black reporters covering the trial feared for their
safety on the day Wright testified.
“We had a meeting the night before in Mound Bayou and many people
were telling us not to go to the trial. I told them I had a gun. There
was also a deputy who sat in front of me the whole trial who had a .45
strapped over him. The plan was: someone would take my gun and I would
snatch the deputy’s gun and provide cover while the rest escaped
out the window,” he said.
was the best judge I ever saw; before or after I never thought there was
one better. He ran the trial with complete informality and at the same
time gave it tremendous grace and gentility.” – Murray Kempton,
Curtis M. Swango,
then 47, presided over the trial. He had earned a reputation as one of
the state’s finest trial judges since his appointment to the Circuit
Court bench in 1950 by then Gov. Fielding Wright.
“You could search all of Mississippi and couldn’t put a better
balanced Circuit judge to try this case,” said defense attorney
John Whitten. “He was absolutely honest, incorruptible, and my idea
of a Southern gentleman.”
John Popham, who covered the trial for the New York Times, gave Swango
credit for keeping tight reins on a potentially explosive situation. “He
decided that the courtroom would be the center for the search for justice
and had the courage to step forward and say, "Look, the law is above
us all,’” he said.
If anything, observers said, Swango favored the prosecution. “The
atmosphere of the courtroom was such that it was a foregone conclusion
that they would be acquitted, so Swango did his best to hold up the standards
of justice,” said Bill Minor, a Jackson columnist who covered the
trial for the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
The soft-spoken Swango, frailer than his strong looks suggested because
of a childhood bout with tuberculosis, died in December 1968.
The task of convicting Milam and Bryant fell to District Attorney Gerald
Chatham. Gov. Hugh White and Attorney General J. P. Coleman, who had won
the Democratic primary for governor in June 1955, decided to appoint Robert
B. Smith III of Ripley as a special prosecutor to aid Chatham.
“Chatham had the case perfectly prepared; he presented everything
he could,” said defense lawyer Kellum. “He was quick to comprehend
the incompetency of the evidence we tried to get before the jury.”
Chatham, 49 at the time, died within a year after the trial. His family
believes the pressures it created were responsible for his fatal heart
“Mother always told me how it aged him and how his health deteriorated
after that,” said Gerald Chatham Jr., the prosecutor’s son
who also served two terms as district attorney in the same district. “I
remember him having violent nosebleeds and his blood pressure climbing
after the trial, and then he died at 50 with a massive heart attack.”
The younger Chatham was only 11 years old during the trial, but remembers
the media descending on his parents’ Hernando home and interviewing
the black field hands on the family’s farm in DeSoto County.
“I am very proud of the stand he took. It was a lot tougher then
than it would be now, but he did what was right,” Chatham said.
Chatham and Smith, a former FBI agent and Marine officer, shocked the
crowd on the second day of the trial when they abruptly sought and received
a recess from Swango after the final juror was selected.
The prosecutors said they needed additional time to locate and interview
new witnesses which Smith said “were of major importance.”
Willie Reed, 19, was the key witness discovered during that recess.
Reed testified that on the morning of the kidnapping he saw a boy, whom
he later identified as Till, in a pickup truck with six men. He saw the
same truck only minutes later, Reed testified, as he passed the farm of
J. W. Milam’s brother, Leslie Milam.
In words spoken so softly that Swango repeatedly interrupted to tell him
to speak up, Reed said he heard moans coming from the red barn and the
sounds of “some licks.” He said Milam, wearing a pistol, walked
from the building, got a drink of water from a nearby well, and returned
“The boys never
did admit to us that they were guilty of doing it. But it put a question
mark in your mind – that if they did not do it, then they did know
who did. I would ask, but they never would tell.” – J. W. Kellum, defense attorney.
It was Milam’s
idea to hire all five of the town’s lawyers to defend him and his
half-brother Bryant. “He thought that if the state was going to
get a special prosecutor, he would get all the lawyers in Sumner,”
Whitten, another member of the defense team, said the defense was built
around the testimony of Dr. L. B. Otken, a Greenwood physician.
Otken testified that the corpse pulled from the Tallahatchie River was
too decomposed to be identified. Till had been missing for three days
when two fishermen saw legs above the water. The rest of the body had
been kept submerged by a 70-pound cotton gin fan wrapped around the neck
with barbed wire.
But Otken said the body he examined appeared to have been in the water
for at least 10 days.
“Dr. Otken convinced me then that this can’t be and is not
the body of Emmett Till,” said Whitten. “I believe Dr. Otken
told the truth as he saw it. His reputation and veracity was never questioned,
and he certainly had no ties with the defendants.”
Tallahatchie County Sheriff Clarence Strider also testified that the body
couldn’t be Till’s.
But Kellum now says there is no doubt that Till was the victim pulled
from the muddy river. The key to the defense, he said, was the lack of
evidence tying Milam and Bryant to the killing.
“I knew it was Emmett Till,” Kellum said. “Our whole
case was that you got the wrong people; there was no evidence that either
one of these boys were the ones who killed him."
“We put Strider on the stand just for the psychological effect of
having the county’s law enforcement officer testifying for the defense,”
Whitten said he never confronted Milam or Bryant to determine their involvement
in the crime. “If I went to the moral heart of every case that came
to me, I’d starve to death,” he said.
The first defense decision, Kellum said, was to keep Milam and Bryant
“Our position was that anything they said might hurt them,”
“When I first
looked at Emmett’s body, my first reaction was, ‘My God! What
is this?’ It looked like it came from outer space. If there was
anything I could do to disclaim that body, I would have done it.”
– Mamie Till Mobley, Till’s mother.
It was through Mamie
Till Mobley’s testimony that prosecutors tried to refute the challenge
to the body’s identity. “I knew it (was Emmett) without a
shadow of a doubt,” she said on the stand.
Mobley also identified a ring removed from the body as belonging to her
ex-husband, Emmett’s father Louis Till, which she later gave to
her son. The silver band carried a simple inscription of May 25, 1943
and the initials “L. T.”
Whitten said that the ring caused a furor among defense attorneys. “We
didn’t know about it and she made such a good impression that the
ring was their (the state’s) key,” he said.
The jury never heard the defense’s cross-examination of Mobley;
Swango ruled it had no bearing on what happened on Aug. 28. During the
cross-examination, Mobley said she warned her son before he left Chicago
to “be humble to white people and watch your step” during
the Mississippi visit.
“She was extraordinarily constrained with a majestic maternal dignity,”
recalls columnist Kempton. “But she certainly caused resentment
because she was anything but a country colored; she was very sophisticated.”
was such a pretty young woman, so sure and confident but so shy and retiring.
She knew how to handle herself and how to deal with people, both black
and white. It came from working in those stores.” -- John Whitten,
It had been four years
since Carolyn Holloway, as a 17-year-old, had left high school in Indianola
to marry Bryant.
Bryant supplemented his income driving trucks and was off on a run to
Brownsville, Texas, when Till and his cousins visited the store in Money
on Aug. 24. Carolyn Bryant was alone behind the counter.
She said that at about 8 p. m., a “Negro man” with a “Northern
brogue” entered the store. Mrs. Bryant never identified the man.
After the customer bought some candy, Mrs. Bryant testified, he grabbed
her hand. She said she struggled to get free, but he followed her to the
cash register and grabbed her waist and said, “How abut a date.
I’ve been with white women before.”
Mrs. Bryant said another black then came into the store and dragged the
man outside by the arm. She said she went to her sister-in-law’s
car, parked in front of the store, to get a gun she knew was kept under
the seat. Then, she said, the person who had grabbed her whistled. Mrs.
Bryant recreated the whistle – a wolf-whistle – for those
in the packed courtroom.
The jury did not hear her account. Swango refused to admit it as evidence,
saying it was not directly related to Till’s death.
“The defense was built on emotion and Mrs. Bryant was the key,”
said Bill Sorrels, now a professor at Mississippi University for Women
but then a reporter covering the trial for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.
“In the context of those days, no attractive woman was going to
be whistled at by a young Chicago black in Mississippi.”
“The whole thing
is closed and shut and it should stay that way. The prosecutors didn’t
bring in any proof and didn’t prove nothing.” – Jim
Milam and Bryant were
acquitted after 65 minutes of deliberation by the all-white male jury.
“I was sitting close to the jury room and heard them inside laughing
and talking,” columnist Minor recalls. “The hour was just
for show. They reached their verdict in five minutes.”
Juror Toole today agrees that it was easy to reach the verdict. “We
took what came across and they never proved them boys were at that place
at that time, “ he says.
Both Toole and Jim Pennington of Webb, another juror, said they do not
regret the decision they helped to make 30 years ago: “We were just
doing our civic duty. There was no pressure,” Pennington says.
Jimmy Hicks, one of the leading black reporters of the time, said that,
despite the high expectations of his colleagues, the acquittal came as
no surprise. “It was just one of those things where blacks lost
another one, but it would have been pretty hard to convict anyone on the
evidence brought out during the trial. They just didn’t have the
smoking gun,” he said.
John Herbers, who covered the trial for United Press, thought the state
proved its case but understood why Milam and Bryant were acquitted. “It
was a simple case that an all-white-male jury wasn’t going to convict
two of their neighbors for killing a black,” he said.
Defense lawyer Whitten said the verdict must be understood in the context
of the times.
“Under the system as it then existed, these people got a fair trial.
Nobody was threatened and nobody was bribed.”
“It was not a
morality play of good vs. evil as it is often made out to be. The evil
is in the act, the tragedy of a young boy’s death, and whatever
cover-up occurred.” – John Popham, reporter.
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Beyond.com uncovers potential reasons why so many Americans are not getting hired
Beyond, The Career Network, today announced that there may be a significant disconnect during the hiring process. Following a national survey of nearly 4,000 job seekers and HR professionals, 75% of the HR respondents said they were having trouble filling open positions because too many of the candidates were unqualified. Meanwhile, the same survey found that 55% of job seekers felt they were not getting those open positions because they were competing with too many qualified candidates.
One reason why HR professionals might not think candidates are qualified is because of their resumes. 73% of HR professionals feel that job applicants do a "bad job" of tailoring their resumes to specific positions. In fact, only 28% of candidates said they always customize their resumes for a position, which means the majority of candidates may not be taking advantage of the opportunity to highlight their most relevant experience.
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While the last decade has shown improvement in terms of compassion, awareness and action for America's mentally ill, there have also been obvious and drastic failures.
Mental health patients without financial or family support are still being turfed out of hospitals, treated like criminals and being put on buses to other cities and states with nothing more than 24 hours worth of medication and a packed lunch.
The New York Times reported on Sept. 21, 2013 about the story of a mentally ill man named David Theisen.
Theisen was living in Las Vegas until he was picked up by authorities after he threatened suicide with a knife. He was sent to a psychiatric center for treatment.
But Theisen received no treatment. He was put on a bus with a small amount of medication and some food, bound for San Francisco. He was out of sight and out of mind, as far as the Nevada health system was concerned.
Once he got off the bus, he was homeless, with no source of income and no medication. He somehow survived with help from a shelter and miniscule welfare payments.
And now, with the help of San Francisco attorney Dennis Herrera, he and 24 others just like him are suing the state of Nevada for their actions. These twenty five mental health patients are not alone.
According to Herrera, in the last few years about 1500 mentally ill men and women were bussed all over the country by the Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Center in Nevada -- which is a State run facility -- as well as by other mental health centers. Herrera estimates that one-third of these people were shipped to California.
"“It’s horrifying,” Herrera said.
“I think we can all agree that our most vulnerable and at-risk people don’t deserve this sort of treatment: no meds, no medical care, a destination where they have no contacts and know no one.”
But what makes it “even more tragic,” Herrera said, “is that on top of the inhumane treatment, the State of Nevada was trying to have another jurisdiction shoulder the financial responsibility for caring for these people.”
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Engineering Camps for Kids Begin June 18
By Gary Galluzzo
The University of Iowa College of Engineering K-12 Outreach program will present three summer camp programs for children beginning June 18.
The programs, to be held at the Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences on the UI Campus in Iowa City, will use interactive learning and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) to engage children of all ages in robotics. They are:
- LEGO Learners, for students completing grades 1, 2, or 3, June 18-22, June 25-29, and July 30-Aug. 3.
- LEGO Robotics, for students completing grades 4-6, June 25-29 and July 16-20.
- TETRIX Robotics, for students completing grades 7-9, July 9-13, July 23-27, and July 30-Aug. 3.
For more information or to register, visit k-12.engineering.uiowa.edu/camps-and-programs.php or call Rebecca Whitaker, director of K-12 outreach programs, at 319-335-5706.
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In this equation how do I determine how many large postcards and small cards can be printed when large postcards are 2 cents and small postcards are 1 cents?
1 Answer | Add Yours
If the number of large postcards to be printed is x, and the total number of postcards to be printed is 5000, the number of small postcards that is printed is (5000 - x).
As it costs 2 cents to print a large postcard and 1 cent to print a small postcard and the total amount to be spent is $88, the equation that is arrived at is:
Open the brackets
=> 0.01*x + 50 = 88
Subtract 50 from both the sides
=> 0.01*x = 38
Divide both the sides by 0.01
=> x = 3800
This gives the number of large postcards printed as 3800 and 1200 small postcards are printed.
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What signs are there that attitudes in the community may be changing in To Kill a Mockingbird?
In Chapter 22 when Atticus lost the case and the people's attitude about the case when it ended...
2 Answers | Add Yours
There is in fact a character in TKAM that embodies this time of transition perfectly. Dolphus Raymond is a key example of this change as he actually prefers to sit (and live) with the "Negros" as opposed to the white people in Maycomb. He has a black mistress and many mixed race children.
Another example is the period of time that it too the jury in Tom Robinson's case to deliberate. Normally a case like this would be decided in a few minutes but this verdict took several hours.
Atticus Finch is yet another attestaion that the times are changing. The fact that he not only took Tom Robinsons case but also stood in between and angry crowd and Tom in order to protect him. Mr. B.B Underwood who was said to hate Negros and couldn't stand to have them near him also protected Atticus from the crowd even though he was protecting a black man through that action.
Indications that this transition won't go smothly are shown in the towns attitude towards Mr. Raymonds life style, the fact that Tom was pronounced guilty even though there was solid evidence that he didn't rape Mayella Ewells and the fact that Atticus was badmouthed all over town and almost got mugged by an angry crowd.
Maycomb's progress is discussed specifically with reference to the jury's deliberation. After the closing arguments of Tom Robinson's trial, the jury exits the court room to deliberate.
When Jem and Atticus discuss the verdict later, Atticus tells Jem two things that suggest changes in the town's attitudes.
- One juror actually argued for Tom's acquittal.
- The jury was out for hours. In the past a case like Tom Robinson's would have kept the jury in deliberation for minutes, not hours.
In these examples, Atticus attempts to show that progress is being made, slowly, in Maycomb's attitudes.
Old notions of right and wrong are challenged.
Another character, Miss Maudie, suggests that the jury's extended deliberation is proof that "baby steps" are being made in Maycomb. The fact that the verdict was not produced immediately, for her, represents a step toward maturity in Maycomb.
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Why would people, like the Chavin people of South America, settle in a difficult environment?
3 Answers | Add Yours
In general, if a culture settles in an inhospitable environment (assuming it has other choices), it is because that environment offers something that is not available in other places where that culture might choose to settle.
In the case of the Chavin, it is believed that they settled in the high mountains by choice and not because they were forced to live there. The most usual explanation for why they chose to settle there is that it was centrally located along trading routes. People traveling from the coast to the eastern slopes of the Andes would have needed to go through the Chavin territory. This would make their territory a good place to be, just as modern towns often grow up around highways and towns that are bypassed by highways shrink.
Generally, it is because the place offers benefits which their original place of origin did not have, and also because the benefits or the pros of the place outweigh the cons.
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The Eco-Drop is a concept to use the liquids that worms produce from breaking down waste food as a fertilizer for a garden. The concept helps to prevent harmful chemicals entering the food chain and to prevent water contamination. It also helps to recycle a households food waste into an effective fertilizer for a garden.
Articles tagged with ‘composting’
The CompoSphere is a composting tumbler system which can be rolled around to aerate the composting materials within to help it to decompose quicker into compost. This ability to roll it around also means it can be easily moved to where it is needed for you to place cuttings and such like within it.
The Panasonic RISAIKURA MS-N53 Indoor Composter is an expensive but fast indoor composter that will turn waste into high-grade compost in just hours. Otherwise known as the “recycler”, the platinum-palladium catalyst greatly increases the rate of breakdown of food matter. (more…)
If you live in a flat (apartment to our US friends), you might want to compost your food waste, but you don’t have a garden to compost the waste in. The NatureMill Pro is an indoor composting gadget that will efficiently breakdown your food leftovers into a useful and nitrogen rich composting soil. (more…)
Most western societies have a very throw-away nature, one of many reasons our landfill sites are filling up fast. I applaud this use of eco friendly technology, a biodegradable picnic set, as it means it doesn’t matter if the plates, etc get left around in a field after a festival or picnic, as it’s all 100% eco friendly. If you want to keep the kit, you just wash it after use (as water is a vital part of the breakdown process). (more…)
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The atmosphere is focus of Dragon training course
Sixty doctoral-level Chinese scientists gathered at Nanjing University in the People’s Republic of China to attend a weeklong advanced training course devoted to monitoring the atmosphere over China with instruments on ESA’s Earth observation satellites.
The objectives of the course, held from 19 to 24 October, were to train young scientists to use state-of-the-art techniques in space-based atmospheric science, provide a better understanding of the key concepts of ESA’s ERS and Envisat missions and offer hands-on experience with tools and methods used for data exploitation.
ESA and the National Remote Sensing Centre of China (NRSCC) sponsored the event under the Dragon 2 programme – a wide-ranging research initiative designed to encourage increased exploitation of ESA remote sensing satellite data within China as well as stimulate increased scientific co-operation in the field of Earth observation (EO) science and applications between China and Europe.
Throughout the week, nine leading European and Chinese scientists presented topics ranging from the use of current ESA satellite instruments for observing trace gases in the stratosphere and troposphere and air quality monitoring to ground-based instruments, retrieval techniques, validation, data assimilation and modelling.
The students were able to exchange their scientific concepts and present the projects they are working on during a poster session.
"The course was especially useful for me as I got to hear more about trace gas retrieval algorithms and tools to handle the ESA atmospheric data products," said Yong Wang from the Institute of Atmospheric Science, Beijing.
Wang, who currently uses data from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) instrument on ERS-2 to investigate ozone variability over China, attended the course to learn more about other trace gases involved in ozone chemistry, based on satellite data.
"The lectures and tutorials on data assimilation were special highlights for me, as I plan to apply assimilation techniques in my future work to study stratospheric and tropospheric dynamical exchange processes," he said.
Wang Ke from Nanjing University, who is using data from the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) instrument on Envisat to study carbon monoxide emissions over China, said she was "very impressed with the high level and quality of the scientific lectures."
Space-based sensors are a very good way to carry out effective global and regional monitoring of the atmosphere and are especially useful tools for analysing trends and seasonal variations in atmospheric gases.
The Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars (GOMOS), Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) and SCIAMACHY instruments on Envisat have significantly enriched the scope of observational capabilities by making use of a variety of novel measurement techniques and enhanced spectral coverage.
These instruments also represent a continuation of GOME on ERS-2. Together, these data give users unprecedented insight into the atmosphere’s chemical and physical processes.
Satellite instruments in spotlight
The GOME instrument, launched aboard ERS-2 in April 1995, has enabled scientists to make long-term measurements of ozone. Data from the GOME instrument show how the ozone in Earth's atmosphere changes with time. A key feature of GOME is its ability to detect other chemically active atmospheric trace-gases as well as aerosol distribution.
By using different measurement geometries, SCIAMACHY can identify multiple trace gases in the stratosphere all the way down to the surface level. These include greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, as well as air pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide, that are created artificially by human activity.
GOMOS is an ESA instrument aimed at ozone monitoring by measuring occultation of stars. It provides altitude-resolved global ozone mapping and trend monitoring with very high accuracy, as needed for the understanding of ozone chemistry and for model validation.
MIPAS is a Michelson interferometer that detects the Earth’s limb emission in the mid-infrared. MIPAS provides accurate vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature and a number of key trace gases and covers a height range from the upper troposphere to the lower mesosphere.
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Decided to go out and get some more photos, on Fuji 1600. It was hard to get well dark-adapted early because there was a surprising amount of traffic. The sky wasn't nearly as transparent as it can be, and the limiting magnitude was worse near the comet than near Polaris. Hyakutake was very near Algol (which was not in eclipse!) and seemed a little fainter (perhaps +2.5 for the comet). In binoculars, the tail was at least 7 degrees long, possibly extending to Delta Persei, which would be about 10 degrees. The bright part of the tail was only a few degrees long. I couldn't see any structure in the tail, but it's still a pretty object in binocs. When I quit, the comet was only about 10 degrees above the horizon.
Posted the following evening:
Just to add some more information to my posting from last night, I got my pictures back this afternoon, and the 50mm shots show an obvious broad tail extending a few degrees, growing fainter and extending a few more degrees. However, on my best three minute exposure, there is also a faint, thin plasma tail extending through Del Per, and continuing through the open cluster NGC 1502 and reaching the edge of the frame about 20 degrees out. The 135mm frames show a little structure in the first part of the tail.
Back to observing report index
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ESO's Very Large Telescope has been used to create the first ever map of the weather on the surface of the nearest brown dwarf to Earth. An international team has made a chart of the dark and light features on WISE J104915.57-531906.1B, which is informally known as Luhman 16B and is one of two recently discovered brown dwarfs forming a pair only six light-years from the Sun. The new results are being published in the 30 January 2014 issue of the journal Nature.
The release, images and videos are available on:
Translations are available on other countries page: Shqipëria, Österreich, België—Belgique—Belgien, Brasil, Chile, Česko, Suomi, France, Deutschland, Ísland, Italia, Nederland, Norge, Polska, Portugal, Россия, España, Sverige, Suisse—Schweiz—Svizzera, Türkiye, International English
Space Scoop - the children's version of this release is available at: http://www.eso.org/public/unitedkingdom/news/eso1404/kids/
The ESO Education and Public Outreach Department
29 January 2014
27 January 2014: ESO has launched a pioneering expedition into the Ultra High Definition Universe. This campaign will document the travels and work of four world-renowned astrophotographers and ESO Photo Ambassadors as ...
22 January 2014: ESO first introduced HD video as a format for its public videos in 2008 and we now have over 1600 videos in this format in our video archive. The ...
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Some of my SAS program examples. Just samples. They are not really intended to be understood.
But they show what SAS can do to get results.
I still sometimes wonder how other people program. We just don't look at others' program that often.
Maybe it is useful if people sit together and see how other people approach things. Once I sat with a person proficient
with PHOTOSHOP. That really did it for me and helped me greatly.
I think my way of doing things is fine. But it is hard to tell because I don't have a chance to look
at other people's work. What I try to do is this:
a) never use default outputs of statistics procedure because it is hard to see statistics across different
models. Instead I use ODS to manipulate the result data, to the point where things are easy to see.
b) try to make everything dynamic instead of static
c) never save any permanent data (fresh each time)
d) do everything in one syntax file (so I know where things are)
One thing that I am working on right now is that I have not yet used the macro statements that involves
%s, such as %if or %then. I am working on it now.
Descriptive Statistics of data
This is what I wrote for my paper with Charles Bidwell, our study of social organiaztion in school using
NELS data. One particular variable of our interest had a lot of missing cases because it was collected from teachers
who had to evaluate NELS students (something extra like this usually have a high level of missing cases). So In addition
to get descriptive statistics separately for boys and girls, I added columns of statsitics for complete NELS data, again separately
for boys and girls. In this way, a reader can see if our analytical samples are different from the full NELS data.
I often do this when getting descriptive statistics. One thing to be careful about is the presence
of categorical variables and interval variables. I think it is better to convert categorical variables into 1-or-0 numeric
variable and then use proc means to get means, which correspond to proportions.
I use standard errors that come from PROC MEANS only for continuous variables. For categorical
variables, I derive a standard error using SD and N that come from PROC means--because proportions use different algorithm
for getting standard errors. I identify which variables are categorical variables by the max and min value
of a variable. That is:
if minimum=0 and maximum=1 then do;
Compare Subgroup Means
This combine the results of PROC GLM, PROC MEANS, and PROC TIMEPLOT
Run lots of PROC MIXED (multilevel linear model) or GLIMMIX (multilevel logistics model)
When the outcome measure is an interval one, this program runs PROC MIXED. If the outcome is dichotomous,
then it runs GLIMMIX. It creates a table that contains the results while also saving the table in Excel.
Read data from excel tables (tables rather than data that are neatly stored by straight forward
rows and colums) and create tons of graphics.
Run PROC NLMIXED, while at the same time checking descriptive statistics of the variables used in
- Results: Excel workbook will be populated with results.
RUN WINSTEPS from within SAS
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90 in Peru (2000 SIL), decreasing. Population total all countries: 310. 20 monolinguals. Ethnic population: 500. 300 in Peru; 200 in Brazil; perhaps 50 not contacted in border areas. L2 users: A few women by reason of intermarriage with Amahuaca men use the language at home.
Southeast Amazon basin, Ucayali and Madre de Dios regions scattered on Sepahua, Curiuja, Curanja, Upper Ucayali, Inuya, Mapuya, Purus, Aguaytía, Yuruá, and Las Piedras rivers.
Group disintegrating and losing its identity due to intermarriage with others. No bilingual education program (2007). Home, village. Mainly older adults; only children in the most distant communities still acquire the language. Negative attitudes. Also use Sharanahua [mcd], Spanish [spa], Yaminahua [yaa].
Latin script [Latn].
Christian (Protestant), Christian (Roman Catholic), traditional religion.
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This Lady Aint Kiddin
History mixes with unflinching memoir in Never In My Wildest Dreams
by Brit McGinnis
There is a rising trend in the world of memoir, and its simple to explain: The ladies are getting cynical. Perhaps as a backlash to the labeling of Eat Pray Love as Chick Lit, the women working in this genre have grown angrier, more stylistically ornate and less dependant on emotional transformation as a hook. These writers have stories to tell, damn it, and theyre not to be lumped into some arbitrary category because they possess two X chromosomes. The gloves are off. The historical references are frequent and spot-on. The character development has more details than ever. And girl, it makes for great reading.
The latest wave of this trend is Never In My Wildest Dreams, written by Belva Davis. The first female black news anchor to be seen on West Coast television, Davis describes a life where breaking social norms was necessary for survival, if not always intended.
The story of Davis life has all the elements of classically successful memoirs: a troubled childhood, rising above obstacles both personal and societal and an eventual reconciliation between past and future selves. Davis describes growing up as a young child in the Jim Crow-era South, flitting from home to home whenever work was scarce or a relative was threatened with tarring and feathering. She runs from an abusive husband, poverty and even journalistic trends with which she did not agree. Her nerve, and her unwillingness to be spoken for, earned her respect from the world.
But Davis role as a deliverer of news pervades the storytelling, with fantastic results. Historical references are peppered in with personal anecdotes. Davis first trip to Washington D.C. is complemented by a quote from a speech by the Truman Committee on Civil Rights. The gritty details of UC Berkeleys student protests and incidents of police brutality during 1969s "Bloody Thursday” goes hand in hand with Davis quest not to ever look like an oversensitive "girl” to her macho colleagues. Nothing is ever without context. The books title itself includes the subheading "A Black Womans Life In Journalism,” and it fulfills that classification to the end.
Davis nearly falls into some of the traps of womens memoirs ã mentioning weight, maternal or other insecurities at unnecessary moments ã but her shrewd timing prevents such blips from hurting the work. The only time body size is mentioned is when Davis describes sleeping on kitchen floors as a child or appearing on television next to white anchors. Insecurities regarding motherhood are analyzed in a quasi-Freudian manner, with no dramatic screaming. Sure, she mentions crying on the job because of pre-exclusive interviewing jitters, but none other than her interviewee, Fidel Castro, gives her comfort.
The picture on the cover of Dreams is undoubtedly that of Davis while on the air, with her hair in a perfectly flipped bob, her •70s-era rosy blouse loose but unwrinkled. Her face engages you, her eyes warm but also distant, mouth parted in what is either a laugh or a sob. And perhaps that is the point of this book: We arent supposed to know if Davis is laughing or crying. Thats not our place. We are the audience, and she is the journalist. The entire book has a cold, fourth-wall distance between author and audience. It doesnt carry a cozy, sweater-and-coffee vibe.
Dreams is ushering in a new era of autobiography: the historical memoir. You dont read a book of this type to get an emotional pick-me-up. After all, subjects like the Black Panthers and the Peoples Temple suicides are tucked into this slim hardback. Davis story shows that no person is an island, that huge social movements do indeed affect people all over a nation regardless of location.
Overall, Davis book is an unabashed lesson in the progress of the nation. It is a shrewd, intelligent story of a life in America during a period where people like Davis were not expected to succeed. She is black, female, a single mother at certain points in her career, and was economically disadvantaged and without a college education. But succeed she did, to an incredible degree. Her final words, however, are humble, and she happily states during her time spent reporting of the 2008 presidential election, "Dont ever let anyone tell you history doesnt have a sense of humor.”
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Overlaying the woodland camouflage pattern on her T-shirt, thin pink lines swirl together into a scene of butterflies hovering over cowering riot police and flames rising in the background. Ariel Howland, a recent graduate of the University of Oregon’s Department of Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS), has some major beefs with the establishment — patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism, etc.
Howland, a transwoman, actually identified as a straight boy through puberty and had no gay or trans friends to speak of. Still, hearing the all-too-common “That’s so gay,” she would retort, “What’s wrong with being gay?” In high school, only just finding herself, she took great interest in politics and social movements and dreamed of being a demonstrator.
As a university freshman, Howland went through a protracted discovery process. She was bisexual, pansexual and finally transgender. WGS education confirmed her long-running subconscious gender dispute. “At first it came out of nowhere,” she says. “Then I thought more about my childhood and inner self and saw the connection with other trans experiences.”
In November 2012, Howland organized a benefit at Lorax Manor to aid grand jury resisters she knew, who were temporarily imprisoned for refusing to testify. A May Day anti-capitalist protest last year in Seattle saw clashes between police and protesters, and the FBI had been dragnetting potential anarchists. “All were very good, principled people,” says Howland, whose event educated young activists about dangers they face.
This summer, hosting a workshop at the local Trans and Womyn’s Action Camp (TWAC), Howland taught fellow activists about transmisogyny, the practice of denying a transwoman her femaleness. “Before I met Ariel, I didn’t realize there was so much commonality between being mixed race and being trans,” says Ceslie Garza, fellow TWAC organizer. “You feel like, ‘I don’t belong here, but I don’t belong there either.’”
The transgendered, Howland says, are largely exotified in popular culture, and employers discriminate against them, especially while transitioning. “The only industry where there’s a big demand for trans people is porn,” says Howland, who despises inequity, but loves sex.
After taking the yearlong Sexual Wellness Advocacy Team (SWAT) course at the university, which enhanced her confidence as a public speaker, Howland founded Beautiful, Lovely, Intelligent and Super Sexy (BLISS), a sex-positive collective, through which she challenged her peers’ sexual expectations and desires. Howland has thrown several “genderfuck” birthday parties, which she says are about “having an androgynous presentation on purpose — making gender expression a game.” People often arrive in such whimsical combinations as a corset and moustache.
With SWAT, Howland also worked to promote consent, shifting the focus of sexual violence to perpetrators and bystanders. “If there was more accountability in communities in general,” she says, “we would have a smaller problem.” Sarah Greene, a former Lorax dweller, recalls that, “At weekly consensus meetings, if something intense was going on in the house and people felt unsafe, Ariel would come and talk about it.” Howland, who completed volunteer training with Sexual Assault Support Services of Lane County, offered asides from meetings to deal with harassment and other issues.
“Ariel’s activism is on a very personal level,” says Greene, who constantly discusses her identity with Howland. “My family loves me and I’m glad they do, but I don’t have either of their experiences,” she says. Greene, like Garza, is both biracial and queer. Greene says that if her parents argue in public on occasion, as most couples do, “That puts my [African-American] father at risk of being [profiled] for yelling at a white woman.” Garza adds that, “I’ve had to experience being in a grocery store with my dad, who [is much darker than me], and people accused him of kidnapping me.”
“I take into account what I think I can contribute,” says Howland, who has focused on gender because of its familiarity, but hopes to get wiser on issues of racism and ableism, in order to be a better ally. She is also the founder of Transgender Oregon Network on Facebook.
We should “take an intersectional approach and tackle more than one issue at a time,” Howland says. “I don’t think any kind of oppression is more important than any other.”
Part of a series of profiles of trans people in the community.
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*America appears to be undergoing an asthma epidemic. A report released Tuesday shows roughly 25 million Americans – one in every 12 people – have asthma.
The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) covers the period from 2001 to 2009 and reveals that children, especially African American children, are hardest hit by the life-long ailment which causes wheezing, tightness in the chest, coughing and shortness of breath.
Researchers have been unable to identify the reasons; but the largest increase in asthma rates is taking place among Black children who saw a 50 percent rise in the ailment from 2001 to 2009. In fact, as of 2009, 17 percent of all Black children were asthma sufferers. That percentage is the highest rate in the nation.
Indoor smoking had been thought to be a major asthma trigger. But even though the nation is experiencing some success in reducing indoor smoking, asthma is still rising. Asthma triggers are usually environmental, such as tobacco smoke, mold, outdoor air pollution and infections linked to flu, cold-like symptoms, and other viruses.
CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden issued a statement along with the report saying “Asthma is a serious, lifelong disease that unfortunately kills thousands of people each year and adds billions to our nation’s healthcare costs.” (source: Taylor Media Services)
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IT Needs New Terminology
The vocabulary of the tech industrycovering such concepts as disaster recovery, groupware, search engines and digital entertainmentis due for a change. The reasons for the change include a range of economic, social and environmental factors, but the need to find words and phrases that really fit the task at hand is upon us.
Disaster recovery in technology was once measured in seconds or minutes. If the power failed or surged, data was expected to be recovered and available without a noticeable interruption. With the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the concept of disaster recovery took on a time frame of days and weeks as big financial and insurance institutions made sure (and were mandated) that their recovery systems could resume operations after an attack.
The disaster recovery process after Hurricane Katrina and the resulting flooding lengthen the time frame and widen the scope of businesses involved and computing requirements. Disaster recovery (or business continuity, as it is often called) hardly covers the concept of when you, your home, your business and your employees are evacuated, dispersed and uncertain whenor ifyou will be able to resume operations in your old location. While large business operations can devise plans for remote data centers, those operations are often out of reach for small and midsize businesses.
Disaster recovery and business continuity will have to become part of a businesss technology operations rather than distinct projects that may or may not be funded in any given year. Building a business information infrastructure that is as dispersed and as resilient as the Internet will take a new approach and terminology that has not yet been developed.
Groupware also needs to be rethoughtand renamed. Groupware is too often a bucket where you throw in communication technologies such as e-mail, scheduling, instant messaging and, more recently, voice. Vendors like to claim that as you throw more stuff in the bucket or make the bucket bigger, your business will become more productive. This makes no sense.
What makes sense is adding elements to the group that were never considered part of a businesss computing infrastructure. Energy and fuel usage and expenditures, as well as security services, are much higher on the business-needs list than the ability to include IM with e-mail. The ability to IM your employees is far less important than knowing what an additional 5 cents (and much more lately) in fuel costs will mean to your companys bottom line. Yet those essential business statistics are not part of the groupware lexicon. Advice to vendors: If you want to sell more groupware, make sure you include the information your customers really need.
Search engines are another area where the name is a bit of a misnomer. Thinking of Google as essentially a search engine is essentially wrong. Google is a media company that relies on the chaos of the Internet to build revenues by matching searches with advertiser pitches.
When you are writing an e-mail, you are not searching for anything, but Google will be happy to place an ad that relates to the content of your e-mail near the related text. The same will happen with IM and VOIP (voice over IP). When Microsoft vows to beat Google in search, it is missing the point. When Google says it will never use all the information it is collecting in a harmful manner, Internet users are putting a lot of faith in the current and future management of the company. Google is much more than a highly efficient search engine operation, and users would do well to think of the company in a much larger context.
Digital entertainment goes beyond being a misnomer into the realm of oxymoron. What is entertaining about trying to get a lot of flaky, incompatible products to work together? Why do I want to see music videos in every room when I cant stand to see the video in even one room? Why do I want more media choices on bigger displays playing louder sounds when the current offerings are already bigger and louder than anyone needs? Thats entertainment? I dont think so.
Editor in Chief Eric Lundquist can be reached at [email protected].
Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, reviews and analysis on IT management from CIOInsight.com.
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Protection Of Transmission Lines Using Gps Full Report & Paper Presentation
A century has passed since the application of the first electro chemical over current relays in power system protection. The majority of protection principles where developed with in the first three decades of century .a rough guide to there development .
Distance protection has played an important role in power line protection since it was first introduced in the early part of the century. it has many advantages over the power line protection techniques and can be adopted for fault location and back up protection. however , like other power frequency based protection techniques it suffers from limitation due to power system frequency wave form , fault path resistance , line loading and source parameter variations. In particular , the response speed of the relay cannot meet the reqirements when very high speed fault clearance is required .
Please find the attached file along with this
If You have any query regarding the files.Please feel free to ask .I'll be glad to answer them
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PEORIA, Ill. — When Max and Nancy Carson got married at St. Ann Catholic Church in 1974, the organ music was accompanied by the unmistakable sound of balls crashing into bowling pins.
“I said ‘I do’ and bowling balls were flying,” said Max Carson, 62, who didn’t know then that the St. Boniface Bowling Alley, built in 1945, was housed in the church basement. Now he plays in the Has-Beens League every Wednesday morning in the four-lane alley.
“I always joke that if I preach too long, people go downstairs and start bowling,” said St. Ann’s pastor, the Rev. Terry Cassidy.
St. Ann’s little bowling alley is almost as popular now as it was after parishioners created the hideaway, which has a bar and dining room. It was rebuilt after a fire in the 1960s. Two leagues, one for men and another for women, play on Wednesdays, and parties are booked for almost every Friday and Saturday night, manager Jim Seppelt said.
Church bowling alleys are disappearing fast. There are probably fewer than 200 left, said Neil Stremmel, of the U.S. Bowling Congress.
Doug Schmidt, author of the 2007 book “They Came to Bowl: How Milwaukee Became America’s Tenpin Capital,” said that city once had at least 13 church bowling alleys.
“They came with German immigrants in the 1860s,” Schmidt said. “Most closed in the 1980s or ‘90s.”
Milwaukee’s St. Martini Lutheran Church built its eight-lane alley in 1954, said church secretary Trudi Groth. In 2004, four lanes were dismantled to make space for a lunchroom. Two years ago, the final four lanes were replaced by classrooms.
The last time Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in New Haven, Conn., organized a bowling night at the four lanes in its basement, nobody showed up.
“I don’t know if it’s the times, the location,” parish administrator Pat Sundermann said.
It’s particularly sad, she said, because the bowling alley was refurbished a few years ago in memory of Eddie Vanacore, who grew up in the church and died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
The space is used mostly for meetings now, Sundermann said. She isn’t certain when the bowling alley was built, but by the 1950s it was hopping, she said.
“Everybody wants to go down and look and smile and joke, but nobody wants to bowl,” Sundermann said.
It’s a different story at the Church of St. Francis de Sales in St. Paul, Minn. Its six-lane bowling alley, built in 1939, is in the basement of a school building it rents out and is used for gym classes, league play and parties.
After another church bowling alley in St. Paul closed recently, church administrative assistant Pam Gripman said, “I think we’re the only one left in the area. It’s kind of a legend.”
The six-lane bowling alley operated by St. John’s Catholic Club at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Kansas City, Kan., also is prospering, president Kenny Yarnevich said.
The lanes, built below a church gym in 1923, are used by four leagues and for parties and fundraising events. “We have cheap sandwiches and beer … and we’re family oriented,” he said.
Many of the 20 or so retired men who gather for Wednesday morning league play at St. Boniface Bowling Alley don’t belong to St. Ann Catholic Church. They come for the good company and the relaxed atmosphere.
“Everybody roots for everybody,” said Gary Heinz, 63, a former Caterpillar Inc. worker. “Despite age, aches and pains, everybody comes,” he said. The two oldest participants are 85.
Billy Purcell, 69, and George Rothan, 70, bowled here together in high school, then lost touch for a half-century. Now they bowl together again in the Has-Beens League.
“It’s the camaraderie that keeps people coming back,” said Purcell, a retired railroad engineer.
If he had $22,000, Seppelt, the manager, said he’d install new synthetic lanes and approaches, which could bring scores up. The alley, which charges $75 for parties, won’t be able to afford that any time soon, he said.
Sharon Bailey, 68, who helps run the women’s league, long called the St. Boniface Mother’s Club, has been bowling here for 43 years — though, like many bowlers here, she also plays at big commercial alleys.
“It’s all women, talking about kids and now grandkids,” she said. “We have some younger ones in the league. I hope they’ll continue the tradition.”
(Judy Keen writes for USA Today.)
Copyright: For copyright information, please check with the distributor of this item, Universal Uclick.
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In order to improve our reading, we need to learn to ask the right questions in the right order.
Don’t forget, reading a book, for any reason other than entertainment, is essentially an effort on your part to ask the book questions (and to answer them to the best of your ability).
There are four main questions you must ask about any book:
1. What is the book about as a whole? You must try to discover the leading theme of the book, and how the author develops this theme in an orderly way by subdividing it into its essential subordinate themes or topics.
2. What is being said in detail and how? You must try to discover the main ideas, assertions, and arguments that constitute the author’s particular message.
3. Is the book true, in whole or part? You cannot answer this question until you have answered the first two. You have to know what is being said before you can decide whether it is true or not. When you understand a book, however, you are obligated, if you are reading seriously, to make up your own mind. Knowing the author’s mind is not enough.
4. What of it? If the book has given you information, you must ask about its significance. Why does the author think it is important to know these things? Is it important to you to know them? And if the book has not only informed you, but also enlightened you, it is necessary to seek further enlightenment by asking
How to Make a Book Your Own
Asking a book questions as you read makes you a better reader. But you must do more. You must attempt to answer the questions you are asking. While you could do this in your mind, Adler argues that it’s much easier to do with a pencil in your hand. “The pencil,” he argues, “becomes the sign of your alertness while you read.”
When you buy a book, you establish a property right in it, just as you do in clothes or furniture when you buy and pay for them. But the act of purchase is actually only the prelude to possession in the case of a book. Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it— which comes to the same thing— is by writing in it.
Why is marking a book indispensable to reading it? First, it keeps you awake— not merely conscious, but wide awake. Second, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks. Third, writing your reactions down helps you to remember the thoughts of the author.
Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author. Presumably he knows more about the subject than you do; if not, you probably should not be bothering with his book. But understanding is a two-way operation; the learner has to question himself and question the teacher. He even has to be willing to argue with the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying. Marking a book is literally an expression of your differences or your agreements with the author. It is the highest respect you can pay him.
Adler goes on to argue that there are many ways to mark a book. He recommends you underline major points, draw vertical lines at the margin to emphasize a passage too long to be underlined, place a star, asterisk, or other “doodad” in the margin to emphasize the most important statements in the book, place numbers in the margin to indicate a sequence of points made in the natural development of an argument, place page numbers of other pages in the margin to remind you where else in the book the author makes the same points, circle keywords or phrases, and write your questions (and perhaps answers) in the margin (or at the top or bottom of the pages).
When you are giving a book an inspectional reading, you won’t have much time to make notes. Yet you, as a demanding reader, are still asking questions about the book. Primarily 1) what kind of book is it? 2) what is it about as a whole? and 3) what is the blueprint the author lays down to develop our understanding of the subject matter?
These answers should be recorded when they are fresh in your mind.
At this point your notes primarily concern the structure of the book and not its contents or the strength of its argument. You know the general idea and the blueprint.
Reading is like skiing. When done well, when done by an expert, both reading and skiing are graceful, harmonious activities. When done by a beginner, both are awkward, frustrating, and slow.
This is the third part in the how to read a book series.
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Child obesity is one of the serious threats faced by the nations through out the world. Obesity rate among the children is increasing continuously. A recent study has proved that the number of children suffering from obesity have almost tripled from the past thirty years. This epidemic is spreading even in the rural areas. Even rural kids are becoming the victims of obesity these days. Almost 2 out of 5 kids are overweight. According to a recent study conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) most of the kids are suffering from several diseases that generally affect the adults. And the culprit behind this is found out to be child obesity.
What is child obesity and why is it caused?
Obesity is another name for the extra fat in the body. This obesity is seen among children also and this is called as child obesity. Children who have greater body mass index (BMI) are known to suffer from child obesity. Basically, a part of the food is stored in the body. Fats are also stored in the body in special cells called adipocytes. These fats are important for the body as they help in a process called thermogenesis, that is production of heat. This process is important to maintain the body temperature. These fat cells also act as a source of energy during starving. But extra fat in the body is also dangerous. Fat cells have a tendency to release certain hormones and chemicals that are responsible for several diseases. These chemicals when present in smaller quantities are not harmful but when present in large amounts trigger several diseases like cancers.
Children who are obese are also vulnerable to several other diseases like Pickwickian syndrome, Sleep apnea, Osteoarthritis, Gout and gouty arthritis, Gallstones, Cancer, Congestive heart failure, Heart attack, Stroke (cerebrovascular accident or CVA), High cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia), High blood pressure (hypertension), Type II (adult-onset diabetes), Insulin Resistance, etc. Most of these diseases are also life threatening.
The two main reasons for the causal of child obesity are unhealthy diet and irregular life style. Unhealthy diet which includes high calorie foods like burgers, diet cokes and fried foods are consumed by the kids. These foods have no nutritious value. All these calories consumed are stored as fat in the body. Since most of the kids are not involved in any kind of physical activities all these extra calories that are consumed are not shed. Other possible reasons for child obesity are heredity and internal health problems.
How can fitness help in preventing child obesity?
Every person knew that to lead a healthy life one has to be physically fit. Fitness can ward off any kind of disease. Fitness solutions can also help in preventing obesity. To remain fit one must inculcate good eating habits and also should participate in the physical activities. Parents should take care of the diet of the kid. A good diet which would help to remain fit should contain the following things.
Vegetables and fruits having low calories and necessary nutrients that are required by the body must be a part of the diet.
Lots of water should be also included in the child obesity diet. Water helps in flushing out the toxins from the body. It also hydrates the skin and reduces hunger by giving a feeling of satiety or hunger.
Diet should not include Soft drinks or aerated drinks, Fruit juices, sports drinks, chips, crackers and other fried foods.
Small frequent meals must be given to the kids that contain fewer calories.
Parents should be aware of the food portion sizes consuming by their kids.
Another important thing to be followed to remain fit is to exercise. Children must be encouraged to exercise daily to remain fit and to prevent obesity. Cardiac exercises listed below are effective in shedding the extra calories gained by the children.
- Brisk walking
- Aerobic Dancing
- Playing outdoor games
- Rock climbing
Apart from this, children must also be encouraged to participate in activities like sports. This way they will enjoy and at the same time burn all the extra fat present in the body.
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As we previously discussed, Massive Health stumbled upon a goldmine of data about the world’s eating habits (or at least the eating habits of iPhone users) with the Eatery, an app that allows people to snap photos of their food and rate other people’s pictures based on their perceived healthiness. In the infographic below, we can see just how off base our perceptions are about what we eat.
Based on data from Massive Health’s hundreds of thousands of users, we now know what we probably all realized anyway: All that bacon and pizza you eat is worse for you than you’re willing to admit. The data shows that 72% of foods on the Eatery are rated as being healthier by the user that’s eating them than by everyone else. And apparently, one-tenth of people think bacon is healthy and one-fifth of people think diet soda is healthy.
People also tend to get starry-eyed when they eat anything with the word salad in it. But, remember, all salads are not created equal (and users rate them differently, too):
Interestingly, users who self-identified as being on any sort of restricted diet (vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, low-carb) ate healthier foods overall than everyone else. When you think about the foods you eat, you also think more about how healthy they are.
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The Commission has a number of programs and rules designed to enhance the accessibility of communications technologies to individuals with disabilities. For example, the Commission:
- requires video programming distributors to provide most programming with closed captions;
- has established a fund that supports various forms of Telecommunications
Relay Services - a service that allows individuals with hearing or speech
disabilities to use communications technologies at the same cost as
individuals without such disabilities - and requires providers of the service to comply with certain rules in order to qualify for reimbursement from the fund for their service; and
- requires most wireless carriers to make available a minimum number of hearing aid compatible (HAC) handsets and to make periodic status reports and to post certain information at their websites, in order to ensure that consumers have access to up-to-date information and to ensure that the Commission can monitor compliance.
Because compliance with these rules ensures that all Americans benefit from developments in communications technologies, the Bureau has been and remains active in enforcing their requirements and those in other disabilities-related rules. Recently, the Bureau entered into a
with the nation's largest cable operator to resolve alleged violations of the closed captioning rules, requiring it to pay 00,000 to the U.S. Treasury as part of the settlement and to adopt a compliance plan to minimize the occurrence of similar problems in the future; has issued an
to remind Internet-based relay service providers of the rules for handling emergency calls; and has taken a number of
as well as released an
involving compliance with the HAC rules.
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James B. Stewart, left, arguably America's finest business writer, has looked at the Tyson FCPA case for the New York Times. And he's asked some tough questions about enforcement.
In February, Tyson Foods settled FCPA violations with the DOJ and SEC for $5.2 million. Tyson had made illegal payments to government-employed inspectors in Mexico, and covered-up the payments.
The SEC said it was "not until two years after Tyson Foods officials first learned about the illicit payments that its counsel instructed Tyson de Mexico to cease making the payments." That fact was curious. It showed that people at the company decided to continue the bribery after it was discovered.
Yet no individuals were prosecuted.
On Friday, from his new perch at the Times, Stewart (BA DePauw University, JD Harvard Law, former associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, and winner of a Pulitzer Prize) picked up the story:
When I called this week, press officers for both the Justice Department and SEC said the investigation was over and no one would be named or charged. This seems to reflect the belief that the deferred prosecution agreement, penalty and SEC settlement largely achieved the government’s objectives, which were to stop the illegal conduct at Tyson and deter future instances. The decision not to pursue cases against individuals seems also to reflect budgetary constraints at both agencies (cases involving foreign witnesses can be especially costly) and, for the Justice Department, the burden in a criminal case of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. But surely bribery, not to mention other forms of corporate wrongdoing, would be more effectively deterred if someone was actually held accountable for it.
As we reported last year, more than sixty percent of the companies that have settled FCPA enforcement actions since 2005 had no individual employees or agents who were charged.
The DOJ has consistently said individuals are still a target. As examples, it cites the shot-show prosecutions -- 22 individuals indicted for FCPA violations -- and the mass FCPA indictment of eight CCI executives, six at one time. It also prosecuted Frederic Bourke, Gerald and Patricia Green, and Keith Lindsey and Steve Lee of Lindsey Manufacturing, among others.
But then there's Siemens, an $800 million enforcement action. The DOJ's Lanny Breuer called it "arguably the most egregious example of systemic foreign corruption ever prosecuted." Yet no one from the company was ever indicted in the U.S.
U.K.-based BAE paid $400 million to settle an FCPA case. No one from BAE has faced U.S. charges. Again, Daimler AG from Germany paid $185 million in penalties, and so far no one from that company has been charged here.
The pattern is broken, but only slightly, by the biggest enforcement action of them all. From the four companies that made up the TSKJ Nigeria consortium -- Technip, Saipem, KBR, and JGC -- just one U.S. executive and two Britons have been charged. Meanwhile, the four TSKJ companies have paid $1.5 billion to settle with the DOJ and SEC.
Unlike the foreign executives from Siemens, BAE, and Daimler, the Tyson executives responsible for the Mexican bribery were in the U.S. The DOJ and SEC didn't name them but Stewart did.
As Stewart wrote, "Companies seem all too willing to go along with this, passing settlement costs on to the shareholders while sweeping the details — and names — under the rug."
Do current FCPA enforcement practices really deter bribery? Or do they weaken the rule of law and encourage cynicism?
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This expansive work combines history, halacha, hashkafa, and Ta'amei HaMitzvos into one magnificent pattern that stretches brilliantly across all of Chamisha Chumshai Torah. And underlying the commentary is Rav Hirsch's unique approach to Lashon HaKrah: his profound analysis of the letters, root words, and structure of words found in Chumash.
To better accommodate today's English speaking public, we proudly present this new translation, published in conjunction with Judaica Press, designed to clearly and accurately convey the meaning of the original text, in its entirety.
We invite you to open the new Hirsch Chumash and experience the length and breadth of this magnificent work as never before.
Now available with a beautifully redesigned cover in a deluxe gift box!
To honor the completion of the new English edition of the Hirsch Chumash, Rabbi Yissocher Frand presented a special shiur, The Hirsch Chumash: An Appreciation of the Wisdom and Timelessness of His Classic Commentary. Click on the link below.
- ITEM #: 339
- ISBN: 339
- Published by: Feldheim Publishers
The best of the best. You will find everything here. Yoshi
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As a faculty member you can use audio and video to enhance both on- and off-campus courses, using a DVD, YouTube, iTunes U, and more. The following are only a few of the services our Video Production Specialist, Andy Tincknell, can help you with:
- Shooting and editing course and promotional materials
- Recording guest lectures
- Using video to take your students on a virtual field trip or create vignettes to help them understand different scenarios
- Scripting and pre-production
- Training in videography
CTELT can assist with your videoconferencing needs using Adobe Connect, WebEx, or Polycom/IPTV for real-time, two-way video connections with guest lecturers, prospective students, or potential faculty hires. Videoconferencing can also be a dynamic addition to an online course that provides groups of students the chance to share their ideas in a robust, “face-to-face” environment that enables screen sharing, group document annotation, and much more. Call us to get started!
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"Lilly effect" helps drive a life sciences boom in Indiana
Call it the "Lilly effect." The Wall Street Journal mapped out several places in America which have thrived in spite of a sour economy and quickly zeroed in on Indiana's booming life sciences industry. Crediting Eli Lilly's millions in seed and venture funds for helping bankroll a lineup of drug development companies, a host of new biopharma shops have been lured to the state, creating 8,800 new life sciences jobs at more than 800 companies.
As anyone in the biotech business will tell you, success at building a hub breeds further success at growing a hub. Now that there are a host of drug developers and support operations in the state, new startups are finding significant help available for realizing and achieving their own dreams.
"We have access to companies in Indiana where we can outsource functions like toxicology, analytics and clinical supply," Endocyte CEO Ron Ellis tells the Journal. BioCritica's CEO says he was drawn to Indiana by the pioneering spirit that had taken hold of the area. "It's all new and exciting here for these folks," he says, "so there is a hunger for doing this type of thing."
The Journal's gung-ho review for Indiana offers the kind of high-profile recognition most state economic development officials can only dream of. No doubt there are several state officials--and a few Lilly workers--who are pinching themselves this morning.
- read the WSJ article
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InVivo targets quick path to market through FDA exemption
InVivo Therapeutics ($NVIV) is seeking FDA approval for its spinal scaffolding device, and the company is appealing to the agency for a Humanitarian Use Device designation, which would speed up the regulatory process.
InVivo's tech is a biopolymer scaffold designed to treat acute spinal cord injuries, and the company contends that its product is a fit for the FDA's humanitarian pathway, which is designed to fill unmet patient needs by speeding devices to market.
The company, founded in 2005 with technology co-invented by MIT's Robert Langer, is eyeing an approval-oriented clinical trial to start in 2013, and the humanitarian route would be faster than a traditional PMA, CEO Frank Reynolds said.
"HUD designation is not only important for speed-to-market but also represents a benchmark in InVivo's commitment to patients with spinal cord injuries and other neurotrauma conditions," Reynolds said in a statement. "Our GMP team is ready to go, and our clean room is humming. We expect 2013 to be a breakout year for InVivo stakeholders as we advance additional products into the FDA process."
At the moment, there is no effective treatment for paralysis caused by spinal cord injury, InVivo says, and its scaffolding, once approved, would enter a market the company estimates at $10 billion a year. In the meantime, InVivo has been steadily growing its bottom line, pulling in $8 million in net income last quarter, compared to $3 million in the same period in 2011.
- read InVivo's release
InVivo looks to get gel-delivered pain drug on U.S. market
FDA dramatically limits use of Stryker's Wingspan brain stent
Berlin Heart pediatric offering could soon help U.S. patients
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My youngest son is graduating from college this spring — I can’t tell you how excited I am. Not only as a proud mother who gets to see her son accomplish a goal that is important to him and that he has worked very hard for, but because soon I will be free! I’ll be free from paying tuition and room and board! His tuition at the University of California has nearly doubled in four years so my husband and I have been paying out of pocket for his expenses each month. We are feeling the same way many people feel when they are close to paying off a car, their house or any other recurring bill — very excited AND since he is the last one, this is a bill that won’t be coming back.
So the question is what to do with the extra money? What would you do in this situation? You certainly don’t want to just use up the extra money on your lifestyle then years later, find yourself scratching your head wondering where it all went. Here are some ideas on how to put extra funds to good use:
Boost your emergency savings. This is probably the very first place to start because it is a cornerstone of family finances. Financial planners recommend having three months at minimum and up to twelve months of expenses in a liquid emergency fund. The amount depends on your position; a head of household or a single paycheck household may want to have a minimum of six months. An employee with a long tenure with a company and a secure job may only need three months expenses liquid and available.
Become debt free. Consider setting up an automatic payment to pay off a high interest credit card or loan with the extra funds. Make a list of all your debts (using this debt inventory chart) and take the extra funds and pay them toward the debt with the highest interest rate and when that one is paid off, take the whole payment and add it to the next one and so on and so on until you are debt free. Use the Debt Blaster calculator to determine when you’ll be debt free using this method.
Own your home free and clear. Adding extra principal payments to your house payment can take years off your mortgage and make your dream of owning your home free and clear into a reality. Take those extra funds. Use an amortization calculator to determine the effect of those extra payments. Click here. This is probably what my husband and I are going to do because we’d like to have our condo paid off in ten years. Since a mortgage payment if often up to 30% of a household budget, owning a house free and clear would make retirement income dollars stretch much further.
Increase your retirement savings. If you aren’t saving the maximum allowed in your 401(k), bump up your savings each month in your company plan. In 2012, the IRS allows you to save a maximum of $17,000 in your 401(k) and if you are over 50, you are allowed an additional $5,500 contribution for a maximum of $22,500. Saving extra funds may allow you to retire earlier or “in style” when you do. Imagine how happy you’ll be years later when you have a larger retirement nest egg because you made the decision to increase your savings today.
Start or increase an investment. Set up an automatic payment to your favorite mutual fund. Systematic investments are a great way to invest in mutual funds since your investment is deducted directly from your checking account every month. This is a great “out of sight- out of mind” investment that can be used for any type of goal.
The monthly payment we made to our son was a promise we made to help him get an excellent education and a good start in life. Now my husband and I need to “re-up” and make another promise to ourselves – choose another goal. We may put all of it toward the house payment or split it between that a systematic monthly investment. Whatever we end up doing, we want to make the most of our upcoming monthly windfall!
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A good fine art giclée print begins its life as a good scan
Since fine art giclée prints tend to be digital prints, this fact requires that the originals come from recording the digital image with a digital camera or a scanner. Of course if the original is created on a computer in the first place, you don't need to scan or photograph anything. But if you are reproducing Old Masters paintings, then you need a large format digital camera such as BetterLight, Anagramm, a professional prepress flatbed scanner or a repro stand scanner such as Cruse.
People are so eager to buy a wide format printer that they forget to invest in a correspondingly good scanner. Everyone presumes they can scan 35mm slides on a cheap flatbed (mistake #1) or that scanning 35mm slides on a Nikon or Epson film scanner is enough (mistake #2).
Creo EverSmart Supreme arriving at FLAAR evaluation facility
The next mistake is to set the original art object on a wall and attempt to take a photo with a camera. There is virtually no way for the picture to be perfectly parallel with the camera (unless you have a professional system).
The painful reality is that a good scanner should cost many times more than your printer. The FLAAR Digital Imaging Resource Center uses a $14,000 color printer but a $45,950 scanner (the Kodak (CreoScitex) EverSmart Supreme) or ICG drum scanner of about the same price. We also have a Cruse reprographic scanner and ttwo BetterLight scans back for doing 4x5 large format photography to provide images for the large format printer.
A complete large format digital camera system costs more than two of our large format printers but is worth it over the long run. Your printer can only reproduce the quality of the digital image that you give it. If you feed an Iris a cheap scan you get a lousy giclée. If you feed an Encad printer a professional quality scan or an image from a BetterLight camera you can hang it in a museum with pride (we do this all the time). Thus whereas you don't need to buy an Iris to get beautiful fine art prints, you do need to be careful with what scanner you select. It you try to squeak by with a cheap scanner the results will not compare favorably with the work of other artists or photographers who use a better scanner.
If you need a scanner for an art museum or a professional fine art giclée studio, then one of the models from Cruse GmbH would be appropriate. Engineer Hermann-A Cruse is Europe's most experienced designer of reprographic copy stand equipment.
We definitely don't recommend any Encad printer for fine art giclée printing, but we do have five our our 300 dpi Encad prints hanging in the museum because the original images were museum-quality before they even reached the printer. Of course if we rendered the same images on an HP Designjet 5500 they would appear better. Again, we know this because we also use the HP DesignJet 2800. It is remarkable what you can tweak from this traditional inkjet printer, if, if your original image is outstanding to begin with.
Of course every several years new technology makes older inkjet printers a bit obsolete, so by 2004 we preferred the six colors and 1200 x 600 dpi of the newer HP 5000ps (or the nearly identical HP Designjet 5500ps). In those same years we found that the ColorSpan DisplayMaker Mach 12 produced outstanding prints of these same TIFF files. Today in 2009 you would consider an HP Z3200, Epson 9900, or Canon iPF printer with a minimum of eight ink lines (HP and Canon offer 12 ink lines=.
The moral of this true story is that it sure helps if you start off with a really good scan of your negatives or slides. Even better, don't use old-fashioned film (because you end up with gritty pattern due to the scanner seeing into the structure of the grain of the film). To escape this, and get a grain-less image, you need a large format scan back.
For information on the Cruse scanner system, contact Michael Lind, Reprographic Designs, e-mail
, fax (281) 492-0307.
For information on the Kodak (formerly CreoScitex) flatbed scanners consult their Master Distributor.
If you are in the USA, and have general questions about Scitex, Creo or Kodak scanners, you can obtain further information from Hanan Gelbendorf
. These are not contacts for repairs or that kind of question. These are not contacts for scanner software. These contacts are to allow you to learn and understand the differences between an average scanner and a superb scanner. Hanan is still associated with the Scitex scanners still today in 2009. He knows these scanners during their Scitex period, during the CreoScitex period and now with Kodak.
The Master Distributor for the US for Kodak scanners (so for CreoScitex EverSmart Supreme and iQsmart series) is Don Bobenhouse, Smartstuff Graphics Distribution, 155 Chesterfield Industrial Blvd (St Louis, Missouri). Office 636 532-6131, Cell 314 616-1509.
If you are outside USA, so anywhere else in the world, prime contact for information on new and used Kodak (CreoScitex) scanners is Ron Beery
. This contact information is valid for 2009 onward.
Of all the scanners we have tested in the last four years, the best for fine art printing purposes are :
this is the most reasonably priced of the really good drum scanners. However ICG separated from Global Graphics about 2003. Then (summer 2004) they have acquired the rights to ICG as a brand and model designation. As soon as we know more about their new model from actual tests, we will update our pages. We have neither seen results nor have we tested any of our FLAAR Photo Archive on an ICG scanner, but we have tested on the Creo. You can acquire our FLAAR test results of the Creo scanner.
Scitex (CreoScitex, now owned by Kodak)
CreoScitex EverSmart Pro II, EverSmart Select, EverSmart Supreme, top quality flatbed scanners. These are still available from Kodak.
The Creo Eversmart flatbed scanner range included the Jazz, Jazz+, Pro II, Select, and Supreme. We recommend the top three models of these scanners because they were good from the beginning. We are not very enthusiastic about the Jazz or Jazz+. Also, all the other professional high-end flatbed scanners (Heidelberg, Fuji, Agfa, etc) are no longer manufactured.. Even with the brand name change from Scitex to Creo-Scitex to Creo to Koday, the Pro II and Eversmart scanners are the same (now with better software). Here are the first results; a longer report with more description will follow, but the first edition is available now as a photo essay.
Overhead scanners (repro scanners with a copy stand)
less costly solution; equipment from other lesser copy stand companies is not sufficient. You need to use a BetterLight or Anagramm scan back.
Cruse is the best of the best; German technology and engineering all the way. If you need to reproduce rare books, paintings, any kind of artwork, check out the Cruse system.
Large format digital cameras for scanning the artwork directly (don't try to use a point-and-shoot digital camera)
at several PMA trade shows the BetterLight was recognized as providing a higher quality than PhaseOne. An added benefit is that BetterLight does not cost as much and is American made. Plus there are not really any more manufacturers of tri-linear scan backs in the US any more. And in Europe only Anagramm is still fully functional as a manufacturer of significant size.
Last updated June 22, 2009.
Previews updates:July 29, 2004, April 14, 2004 Jan. 15, 2003, updated Aug. 1, 2002, checked Nov. 15, 2002
Join the over one thousand wide-format inkjet, digital imaging, signage, and related individuals worldwide who are linked to FLAAR Reports via Dr Nicholas Hellmuth.
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Mayan studies tweets (archaeology, ethnobotany, ethnozoology of Guatemala)
Visit Other FLAAR Sites:
error, omission, or have a different opinion on a review, please contact the editor
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If you are a woman business owner, you’re going to love to hear this news! The Web.com and National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) national survey of women business owners (WBOs) found a pervasive sense of economic optimism – including a prediction by 85 percent of WBOs that more women will become entrepreneurs in 2013 than in past years.
Women start their own businesses for a variety of reasons, including: having a business idea or a passion for solving a specific industry problem and wanting a more flexible work-life (family friendly) balance. Their biggest motivation for starting their own business? Most said they were following their vision (28 percent), followed by finding an idea that allowed them to become an entrepreneur (21 percent). The most important traits for running any successful business are that you must have passion for your idea, a vision to succeed long-term, a willingness to accept failure before real success comes, and to take risks.
With any business there are going to be challenges. Nearly two in five WBOs said the primary challenge they faced was gaining new customers. In order to gain new customers, 73 percent said they plan to invest in marketing in 2013. Social media marketing was at the top of the list – a close second was search engine optimization.
As for their favorite social media platforms? 27 percent indicated that LinkedIn was the most valuable social media platform to them, followed by Facebook (26 percent), YouTube (18 percent) and Twitter (17 percent).
“Women business owners are laser focused on reaching new customers, and their strategy for doing so is focused on improving their businesses’ online presence,” said Web.com Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, Roseann Duran. “This is great news for time-strapped consumers, as they can expect to have an improved and more socially engaged online experience with many of their favorite businesses in 2013.”
If you have a dream or thought to yourself “I should do this,” 2013 sounds like the perfect year to start!
See the infographic below for more findings from The 2013 State of Women-Owned Business Survey.
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While rummaging through a used book store several years ago, I bought a book based on the cover alone. It was a great read, well written, well researched and really dug into what makes humans tick.
When I finished, I recommended it to several friends. My book shelves were full, I'd read it, "just keep it, you'll love it," I told my friends. It came back, unread. I even went as far as to slyly leave it behind at a holiday party — yes, it found its way home.
So yesterday as I read about yet another fire truck crash, this one involving a motorist who blew a red light, there sat my 'bad penny' of a book staring back at me.
"Traffic: Why we Drive the Way we do (and What It Says About Us)" was written by Tom Vanderbilt in 2008. I dusted it off and was grateful it was still hanging around my bookcase.
In the book, Vanderbilt cites four-way stoplight- or stop sign-controlled intersections as accounting for half of the vehicle crashes in the United States. He advocates the roundabout intersection, seen in many European countries, as the safer alternative.
He goes on to cite a study that converted 24 four-way intersections into roundabouts. Those intersections saw a drop of 40 percent for all crashes, 76 percent for injury crashes and 90 percent for fatal crashes.
And reducing overall crashes reduces the number of crashes involving fire trucks, ambulances and chief's buggies. That's a good thing.
It's counterintuitive to think that a free-flowing roundabout would be safer than a stoplight-controlled intersection. But as Vanderbilt points out, and my experience driving in England confirms, navigating a roundabout requires drivers to drive — in other words, pay attention to what they are doing and what's going on around them. Throw in manual transmissions and much of a driver's "free time" will be eliminated.
Going further down the path of driver behavior, Vanderbilt looked at a case study in a Danish community that switched a busy pedestrian, bicycle and auto intersection to a roundabout and removed all barriers and signs. They too found the new set up to be safer and speculated that cultural norms are stronger behavior regulators than signs. One example he used was that you never see a sign at a fast-food restaurant telling people not to cut in line. It's the same principal with motorists yielding to pedestrians and bikes — it would be interesting to see if that extended to emergency vehicles.
Would more roundabouts in the United States improve firefighter safety?
It's not a question I expect to see garner national attention or dominate the fire service dialogue. I can imagine those opposing the idea saying it treats the symptom not the cause, and that large, capital projects are slow, expensive and hyper-local.
Yet, I think there's a place for the roundabout in U.S. towns and cities. I think they would improve firefighter safety not just while en route, but because fewer vehicle crashes reduces firefighters' exposure to roadside risks.
The notion of redesigned intersections warrants discussion with local and state officials when road projects are planned — that's the time to get involved.
Like the European fire helmet I wear, a European intersection may look odd, but brings added safety. It certainly warrants more discussion among fire service leaders. So please, tell me what you think.
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Fire ants made their way to Florida from South America in the 1930s, and have since laid claim to more than 260 million acres of land – stretching across most of the southeastern United States.
These small, yet powerful, insects bite and sting approximately 14 million people each year. And for those hypersensitive to bug stings, the venom from these ants can be life threatening.
Fire ant stings can be very painful, as they clamp down with their jaws to hold themselves in place and then sting multiple times.
Usually large and irregularly shaped, fire ant mounds should not be disturbed without proper preparation and care.
When threatened, these ferocious pests defend their mounds and colonies in swarms, biting and stinging any perceived attacker.
Florida Pest Control can provide you relief from these unwanted guests.
TopChoice® – a granular product made with the same ingredient found in Frontline and Termidor – is one of our most effective treatments to help you take your lawn back from the persistent fire ant. In fact, it’s so effective that Florida Pest Control offers a one-year guarantee on all properties treated with TopChoice®.
Give us a call or contact us online today to schedule your no cost inspection and estimate.
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Icon: George Smathers
Born: Nov. 14, 1913; Died: Jan. 20, 2007 — U.S. senator from Florida, 1951-1969
I went to Miami High School and then the University of Florida. I was president of the student body there in 1938. That was when I managed Pepper's campaign (Claude Pepper, U.S. Senate, 1936-1951, U.S. House of Representatives, 1963-1989) ... in the county, Alachua County, and in Dixie County and a couple counties around there.
When you are 25 and 26, as I was (while assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida), there is not much gray area. The way you convicted people was to get on the jury only very young (people) who had not made many mistakes in life and were very unforgiving about people who did make mistakes. Or very old people who had forgotten about them, had no joys. If you got those two on the jury, you could convict most anybody. So we put a lot of people in jail. I mean nobody was safe.
I think that Claude (Pepper) wanted to be president, that was his problem. And when (Harry) Truman became vice president, apparently Truman and Claude just did not get along at all. Claude had no use for Truman, and Truman had no use for Claude.
When Truman was going to Key West for his vacation ... they used to play a lot of poker and have a lot of fun on the airplane going down, Air Force One. And Truman would always say, 'Well, congressman, stay over and have dinner with us.' So, I got to know him fairly well during the years that I was in the Congress. But I had never been to the White House. So now it is 1949 and Truman has got the nomination and despises Claude. He calls me over one day ... into the Oval Office. The door opens and here comes Truman, businesslike and right to the point. So he said, 'Sit down. Take it easy. I want you to do me a big favor.' And I said, 'Yes, sir, yes, Mr. President, what is it?' (Truman said,) 'I want you to beat that son of a bitch Claude Pepper.' Just like that.
You know, you get here (Washington, D.C.) and you are in the swing of things and you begin to look at these guys and they are not all that they have been written about.
When I was campaigning, I was going into the end of Polk County there, there was a unionized group and the unions hated my guts. They had already taken the nut loose, a bolt on my car, so we ran off the road and turned over and damned near got killed. It was rough. I went to Fort Meade, I was supposed to speak there and they had blocked me out with cars and people. So I went on in anyway. I got the microphone and I started saying, 'I think you want to listen -- at least be fair and listen to both sides.' Pretty soon, heckling started, and they just threw things, all over the place. I walked down, and a lady had a mouthful of tobacco juice or something and spit it right in my eyes. And everybody was applauding the lady and saying, 'Give it to him again; give it to him.' I never did get to make a speech. It was a rough campaign.
The Bible says you must forgive seven times seven. And while I am not the greatest follower of the Bible, I nonetheless believe it. I do not want to go through life being bitter at anybody.
I was the best man at his (John F. Kennedy's) wedding. It was just chemistry in a way, mostly chemistry I would say with Jack Kennedy, because he was more liberal than I was. But we got along great, and we hit it off well.
Kennedy decided that he wanted to run in Florida. At the same time, Johnson also decided that he would run in that Democratic primary down there against Kennedy. So here I was caught between Johnson on the one side, who was my leader -- I was his whip -- and here was my dear friend, personal friend, Kennedy, and they're going to go into my state and ruin it. So I decided that I was going to run, and I announced that I was going to run for president in Florida. I would be the favorite son from Florida, and that would stop Johnson and Kennedy from dividing up the state.
A lot of joy and pleasure went out of my life when Kennedy was assassinated. He was a guy who made life better for me and for a lot of other people. Not his politics particularly, but himself, his person. And after Kennedy left, Johnson was there, and I knew Johnson intimately. But you could not get close to Johnson and feel like he was your buddy and your friend.
I never quite will ever forgive Johnson for it. He talked Kennedy into making the vice president the head of the satellite program, the head of exploring space. And the first thing that Johnson did was he took half of what we had at Cape Kennedy -- we called it Cape Canaveral at that time -- and moved it over to Texas. It never has made sense to have a big operation at Cape Canaveral and another great big operation in Texas.
Johnson turned me off in a way, personally, that I could not accept. So that was when I decided
I was going to retire four or five years before I announced it.
I knew Nixon as well, I guess, as anybody. Nixon was a very hard fellow to know. I introduced Nixon to Bebe Rebozo, and Rebozo and Nixon became the best of best friends.
I enjoyed it. It is a hard life, and it is much harder than people really understand. You cannot believe unless you have actually been in it and had all the demands made on you. I mean, there is never a weekend that you can really call your own and even when you finally escape and tell people that you are going to Italy or somewhere, you feel guilty, because you have been invited to 20 different things that you know damn well you ought to be at if you are going to have an easy re-election.
| The Complete Interview
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This is a fluid site aligned with both master planning efforts and the campus aesthetic guidelines to give visitors a brief overview of the architectural character of Main Campus, Colorado State University. Over the years, dating back to the founding in 1870, the campus has evolved in many different directions. The eclectic nature of this progression is demonstrated using some of the more compelling examples of campus architecture on the following pages. This diverse vernacular can be embraced and through a selective process with collaborative dialog, promote design opportunities and thus serve as a template for future development. The site is organized with compelling examples of architecture from five distinct eras with a photographic eye for select design details. Details can then also be assembled into a kit-of-parts and begin to influence future design and development. In the subsequent pages, the dialog is illustrative and intentionally left open in an effort to promote discussion.
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Embrace “Do-It-Yourself” Lifestyle
According to research released today by Chase Card Services, a division of JPMorgan Chase & Co. [NYSE: JPM], 2012 is shaping up to be the year of “do-it-yourself” among American consumers. From travel to fitness to managing money, the What’s on Your Slate? poll from Chase SlateSM with Blueprint® reveals that people are taking steps to achieve their goals – and have fun – on their own terms this year. For example, 46 percent will exercise at home or outdoors instead of at a gym or health club, and 59 percent will pamper themselves at home rather than making visits to a spa or salon.
“Starting the year off with a resolution to better manage spending and borrowing is one way for self-sufficient consumers to take control of their financial well-being,” said Tom O’Donnell, general manager, Chase Slate. “Whether to save money, achieve a greater sense of personal accomplishment or maybe both, Americans prefer to ‘do it themselves’ in 2012.”
New Strategies for Keeping Classic Resolutions
In keeping with past years, losing weight and getting in shape tops the list of New Year’s resolutions, with 35 percent of Americans citing it as their number one goal for 2012. When it comes to exercising, nearly half (46 percent) of survey respondents prefer to run or walk outside or work out in a home gym, compared to only 28 percent who choose a local gym or health club.
Nineteen percent of consumers report that managing their personal finances more effectively is their top priority in 2012, and many will consult web-based resources in their efforts to achieve this goal:
•56% will take advantage of online coupons from retailers
•49% will use online banking or bill-pay
•41% will cash in on offers from online group deals
“Taking advantage of tools like Blueprint that help with tracking expenses is a simple way to stay in control of your finances,” said Caryn Kaiser, general manager, Chase Blueprint. “When you’re informed about where your money is going, it’s easier to create a plan you can stick to – and avoid surprises when it’s time to pay the bills.”
Chase Blueprint is a free set of features available on most Chase credit cards that dramatically improves the way customers manage their spending and borrowing. Blueprint helps consumers take charge of their credit card finances, pay down balances faster and avoid interest on everyday purchases – even when they carry a balance.
When it comes to making purchase decisions, web-based user reviews surpassed social networking sites and personal conversations as the preferred source of advice: 47 percent of consumers said they most often used online reviews to inform their choices, compared to 28 percent who ask a friend and five percent who turn to social networks.
Do-it-Yourself Fun and Leisure in 2012
American consumers are also taking matters into their own hands when it comes to leisure activities, including vacations. Among the two-thirds of respondents planning getaways during the new year, 41 percent will be packing up the car to head out for a road trip. The recession-friendly concept of an at-home vacation or “staycation” was selected by only 18 percent of vacationers for the coming year, and thirty-four percent of people surveyed said they had no vacation plans for 2012 at all.
As far as other indulgences, 59 percent of those surveyed plan to keep up appearances using at-home beauty products like nail polish or self-tanner. In comparison, 22 percent will make regular salon visits, and only two percent will utilize full-service salon packages. And, nearly one-third of respondents (29 percent) prefer to celebrate a special occasion with a home-cooked meal as opposed to dining in a restaurant.
Embracing the Simple Life?
Despite advances in technology, a number of those polled for the What’s on Your Slate? survey expressed a desire to get “back to basics” in 2012. Thirty-one percent of consumers cite an old-fashioned phone call as the tool they use most frequently for communicating with friends, although text messaging came in a close second with 30 percent. Email ranked third with 26 percent, and only 13 percent of respondents cited social networks as their primary method of keeping in touch.
When asked about their next big technology purchase, laptop computers topped the list with 21 percent of those polled citing this item. Twenty percent are planning to purchase smartphones, 18 percent will invest in tablets, and 12 percent will go for interactive TVs. However, 29 percent of consumers were not planning to purchase any of these gadgets in the near future.
Finally, in terms of shopping destinations, almost half of respondents said they make most of their purchases at a department store (48 percent). Online shopping came in second with 29 percent of the vote, followed by big box retailers (17 percent) and local boutiques or specialty stores (seven percent).
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On May 29th, 2009, Shakeel Ahmad Ahanger, a Kashmiri man living in the town of Shopian, returned home from work to find his wife and sister missing. After notifying the police and searching through the night, he discovered their battered bodies in a nearby river. Although the initial post-mortem stipulated that they had been gang-raped and murdered, the Indian Government’s Central Bureau of Investigation later changed the ruling to death by accidental drowning. The incident immediately sparked massive strikes and protests against the Indian occupation, and continues to be a rallying cry for human rights and Kashmiri independence activism.
Filmed in 2010, In Shopian presents a firshand account of Shakeel’s story amidst the current state of social unrest in the capital of Srinagar and outlying rural areas. It features rare on-site interviews with separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Yasin Malik, and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, as well as street battles between local youths and security forces. Shakeel’s story is a contextualized example of the plight of ordinary Kashmiris, and an aesthetic portrait of present-day Kashmir as a torn paradise.
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Why Is Big Corn Continuing to Run ‘Corn Sugar’ Ads Even After FDA Denial?
By Dr. Mercola
In 2010, the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow manufacturers the option of using the term "corn sugar" instead of "high fructose corn syrup" (HFCS) on food labels.
This renaming was a clever marketing ploy that would have easily hidden HFCS on labels, which is precisely what CRA wanted since so many people are now aware of the risks of consuming HFCS, and are seeking to avoid it in droves.
Fortunately, at the end of May, the FDA finally took a stand and told CRA they weren't going to allow the re-naming of HFCS to "corn sugar" ... but somehow CRA is still getting away with advertising it as such on TV ...
No Corn Sugar on Labels, But OK on TV Commercials?
You have probably seen CRA's marketing campaign on television. The commercials try to reduce shopper confusion and anxiety, showing actors who say they now understand that "whether it's corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can't tell the difference".
The claim that all sugars are metabolized by your body in the same way is an outdated belief that has been shattered in more recent years by a growing body of scientific research, which I'll get to shortly. However, the main issue is that while the FDA has stepped in to say that calling HFCS "corn sugar" is not acceptable, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), whose job it is to decide whether or not ads aired on television are deceptive, has not.
The Consumerist asked the FTC to comment on the issue, but they refused, saying they would only issue a statement after an investigation had been conducted. But as The Consumerist pointed out, this doesn't necessarily mean they are conducting one on this issue currently, or plan to in the future ... For now, while the FDA says HFCS cannot be called corn sugar on food labels, the FTC still allows them to advertise it as such on TV!
Why the FDA Denied the "Corn Sugar" Naming Petition
In a letter response to CRA's petition, the FDA gave salient reasons for denying the use of "corn sugar" to refer to HFCS,i the first being that HFCS is a liquid syrup, not a granular, dried, crystalized food as the word "sugar" implies:
"FDA's regulatory approach for the nomenclature of sugar and syrups is that sugar is a solid, dried, and crystallized food; whereas syrup is an aqueous solution or liquid food ... FDA's approach is consistent with the common understanding of sugar and syrup as referenced in a dictionary ...," they state.
"Consequently, the use of the term "corn sugar" for HFCS would suggest that HFCS is a solid, dried, and crystallized sweetener obtained from corn. Instead, HFCS is an aqueous solution sweetener derived from corn after enzymatic hydrolysis of cornstarch, followed by enzymatic conversion of glucose (dextrose) to fructose. Thus, the use of the term "sugar" to describe HFCS, a product that is a syrup, would not accurately identify or describe the basic nature of the food or its characterizing properties."
The FDA also took issue with CRA's attempts to eliminate the term corn sugar as an alternative name for dextrose, for which it is often used. For those who aren't aware, dextrose is pure glucose and contains no fructose. For this reason, I recommend it as a safer alternative to most other sugars on the market. Even the FDA acknowledged that swapping corn sugar, which is often taken to mean "dextrose," for HFCS could put people who are sensitive to fructose at risk:
"Moreover, "corn sugar" has been known to be an allowed ingredient for individuals with hereditary fructose intolerance or fructose malabsorption, who have been advised to avoid ingredients that contain fructose. Because such individuals have associated "corn sugar" to be an acceptable ingredient to their health when "high fructose corn syrup" is not, changing the name for HFCS to "corn sugar" could put these individuals at risk and pose a public health concern."
It's the Fructose, in Excess, That's the Problem
It's important to note that both sugar and HFCS are problematic, as they both contain similar amounts of fructose, the true culprit.
Sucrose (table sugar) is 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is anywhere from 42 to 55 percent fructose depending on which type is used. Glucose is the form of energy your body is designed to run on. Every cell in your body uses glucose for energy, and it's metabolized in every organ of your body; about 20 percent of glucose is metabolized in your liver. Fructose, on the other hand, can only be metabolized by your liver, because your liver is the only organ that has the transporter for it.
Since all fructose gets shuttled to your liver, and, if you eat a typical Western-style diet, you consume high amounts of it, fructose ends up taxing and damaging your liver in the same way alcohol and other toxins do. In fact, fructose is virtually identical to alcohol with regards to the metabolic havoc it wreaks. According to Dr. Robert Lustig, professor of pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, fructose is a "chronic, dose-dependent liver toxin." And just like alcohol, fructose is metabolized directly intofat—not cellular energy, like glucose. When you compare the health outcomes of fructose versus alcohol consumption, you end up seeing a very familiar pattern—the diseases they cause are virtually identical, according to Dr. Lustig and colleagues.
Chronic Ethanol Consumption Chronic Fructose Consumption Hypertension Hypertension Cardiomyopathy Myocardial infarction Dyslipidemia Dyslipidemia Pancreatitis Pancreatitis Obesity Obesity Hepatic dysfunction (ASH) Hepatic dysfunction (NASH) Fetal alcohol syndrome Fetal insulin resistance Addiction Habituation, if not addiction
The reason why HFCS may, in fact, be even worse than table sugar, despite having similar fructose content, is due to its liquid form. When you consume fructose in liquid form, such as drinking a soda, it places even more of a burden on your liver. The effect on your liver is not only sped up but also magnified.
"Sugar is sugar" no matter what form it's in, is a misstatement that can, quite literally, kill you—albeit slowly.
Is Coca-Cola's Chief Scientific Officer in Touch with Reality?
In a commentary that would be almost comical if it weren't true, the vice president and chief scientific and regulatory officer at Coca-Cola lashed out at critics who blame the soda industry for the obesity epidemic, and offered the perfect recipe for slimming down: exercise and low-calorie, no-calorie Coke, or full-calorie in smaller cans.
"Coca-Cola clearly has a role to play in developing solutions," Applebaum said.ii "Helping people manage their calories is nothing new to us. ... But it's not just about options?it's also about information. In 2009 we added calorie amounts on the front of nearly all of our packages to make it easier for people to choose beverages that are right for them."
Applebaum added that Michelle Obama did the right thing by tapping celebrities like Beyonce to remind children that activities like dance can be just as entertaining as a video game.
Coca-Cola is not the sole cause of the obesity epidemic ... but it's certainly a major contributor. There's no getting around the fact that, from a health perspective, drinking Coke or any soft drink is a disaster. Just one extra can of soda per day can add as much as 15 pounds to your weight over the course of a single year,iii not to mention increase your risk of diabetes by 85 percent.iv
Is Any Amount of Fructose Safe?
Fructose per se is not necessarily toxic – in small amounts, and especially when complexed with the vital food factors found within whole, organic and raw fruit There are instances when your body can use it. The problem is that people consume so MUCH of it, and in such a highly processed form, that it turns toxic by virtue of the fact that your body cannot use it. It simply gets shuttled into your cells and stored as fat.
So it's mainly the MASSIVE DOSES you're exposed to that make it dangerous.
If you want to shed excess pounds and maintain a healthy weight long-term, and RADICALLY reduce (and in many cases virtually eliminate) your risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer, then start getting serious about restricting your consumption of fructose to no more than 25 grams per day. If you're already overweight, or have any of these diseases or are at high risk of any of them, then you're probably better off cutting that down to 10-15 grams per day.
I've also included a chart below of fructose levels in fruit to give you an idea of what 25 grams a day looks like.
Graphic courtesy of Caitlin Covington for Greatist.comv
Just remember, fruit is only one source, as fructose is a staple ingredient in the vast majority of sweetened beverages and processed foods of all kinds, from pre-packaged meals to baked goods and condiments. Fructose is in HFCS, yes, but it's also in table sugar and these other sweeteners below, which are typically considered "healthy." You've got to pay attention to all of them, as they are all adding to your fructose load.
Honey Date sugar Coconut sugar Brown rice syrup Fruit juice Molasses Maple syrup Sucanat Sorghum Turbinado Agave syrup
(Send your news to [email protected], Foodconsumer.org is part of the Infoplus.com ™ news and information network)
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Here at the Koke-Long house we’re in the market for some furniture. Our living room is currently semi-furnished with a comfortable but deteriorating Ikea couch and some leftover dining chairs; we’d like a nice armchair or two and some tables.
I’ve mostly gone for Ikea ‘cheap and new’ furniture in the past, but I’ve been disappointed by its (understatement alert!) lack of durability. This time I’d like to try buying used but higher-quality. As I began to look around, though, I realized that I knew very little about what makes for a strong, long-lasting piece of furniture.
Anyone can identify a rip, scratch, or stain, or decide whether they like a certain color, without special knowledge. But judging whether a piece is likely to last two years or twenty — just by looking at it — is harder stuff. Time to research! Here’s an overview of what I learned, with a checklist at the end.
Wood furniture — composition
I used to think hardwoods were hard and softwoods were soft. Silly me! Actually, hardwood just means ‘from a deciduous tree’ and softwood means ‘from a coniferous tree’, and some hardwoods (like aspen) are softer than some softwoods. What you want on exposed surfaces is a wood that’s reasonably scratch-resistant. You can test this easily enough by attempting to draw a thin line with your fingernail across the wood; if it makes a visible dent (use a flashlight here if necessary) you know it won’t stand up to much use.
Structurally, any kind of solid wood or sturdy plywood will do the trick. If plywood, look for at least nine layers. Check the wood for knots, even on unexposed pieces; all knots are susceptible to cracks. Some woods, like pine, are ‘knottier’ than others, and therefore less desirable. Avoid particleboard, pressed wood, or fiberboard.
Veneers — a thin piece of premium wood covering a lower-quality piece of wood — are often used even in very high-quality furniture. As long as the base piece is solid wood or plywood, the only drawback to veneer is that it limits the number of times an item can be refinished.
Wood furniture — construction
Joint construction is the main determinant of quality furniture. Anything held together with staples or nails is shoddy construction. Ditto if it’s glued and you can see the glue. Dowels (wooden pegs slotted into two opposing holes) are good, as are screws. The best joints are either dovetail (interlocking squarish ‘teeth’ — see photo) or mortise-and-tenon (narrowed end of one piece inserted into a hole in the other). Corners should have a reinforcing block attached at an angle.
Look for thin sheets of wood between drawers in a chest of drawers or desk. While not necessary, these ‘dust panels’ improve structural strength as well as protect drawer contents. Drawers should run smoothly on glides and have stops to prevent accidentally pulling them all the way out. The best drawers have bottoms that are not affixed to the sides but ‘float’ in a groove, allowing for minor expansion and contraction caused by changes in humidity and providing extra strength.
Lift the piece at one corner — it should not twist or squeak. Check that all legs are touching the floor. Press on various corners to see if the piece rocks or wobbles.
Upholstered furniture — composition
For a sofa or chair with removable cushions, unzip a seat cover and have a look inside. You should see a block of foam wrapped with dacron, cotton, or (for very high-end cushions) down, preferably with a protective inner cover (usually muslin). Foam-only cushions are both less durable and less comfortable. If you’re buying new furniture, inquire after the density rating of the seat foam: you’re looking for 1.8 pounds or higher.
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The Truth About the Arab Street
Do Friendlier Policies Mean Friendlier Ties?
Amaney Jamal is a careful scholar, and her book has advanced the discussion about the drivers of Arab views of the United States in important ways. But her response to my review of it misses my major critiques and raises new questions about how to interpret her evidence.
Jamal insists that her data prove the existence of pro-American views among Arab publics before the Arab Spring and that such attitudes were more frequent among the aspirational middle class, which received economic benefits from the U.S.-backed status quo. This is true, as far as it goes, but is also unsurprising. No opinion surveys in the years before the Arab Spring, even in the darkest days of the George W. Bush administration, showed 100 percent hostility toward the United States. It stands to reason that the strongest bastions of pro-American attitudes would overlap with the better-off sectors of society.
But the implications of that finding are not what Jamal seems to believe. Those middle-class constituencies approved of the United States in spite of all the unpopular policies that Jamal would like to see changed. In fact, the patterns that she uncovered suggest that as long as the relationship makes economic sense for them, the Arab “haves” will continue to support the United States regardless of what it does elsewhere. Similarly, the Obama administration’s decision to support democratic change in some Arab countries, however tepidly, actually seems to have hurt the United States’ image with those previously supportive groups. What is more, Barack Obama’s policy does not seem to have won any new support among those Arabs who were previously hostile to the United States. Indeed, Jamal’s detailed, empirically driven analysis makes all the more glaring the complete absence of hard evidence that any U.S. policy shifts in the direction of Arab popular preferences have changed Arab views of the United States for the better.
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The Philosophy of Religion
A Critical and Speculative Treatise of Man's Religious Experience and Development in the Light of Modern Science and Reflective Thinking, Vol. 1
by George Trumbull Ladd
The following computer-generated description may contain errors and does not represent the quality of the book:
The nature of this work and its relation to the other treatises by the same author make desirable a somewhat more detailed and personal explanation of its sources, growth, and purpose than would otherwise seem appropriate. It is now nearly forty years since the study of mans religious experience and religious development became for him an absorbing interest. Meantime, the investigation has been as diligently pursued as circumstances permitted, from various points of view. Biblical religion, as considered from the critical and theological standpoint, received at first his chief attention; and this, with the intent to discover how much of essential truth there was in it, when regarded from those more advanced positions of race-culture, to the attainment of which the religion itself has made so important contributions. In 1879 a somewhat abrupt change in professional requirements compelled the concentration of all his energies upon questions which the new psychological science of Europe was at that time pressing upon the attention of students of mans mental life and mental development. For a number of years, his time was almost completely given to psychological studies, by a method then quite new in America, namely, the physiological and experimental. But even then the possible bearing of the phenomena, which were under examination, upon the religious life of man was never lost out of sight. And when the broader and more fruitful fields of psychology and philosophy were entered by paths already made somewhat clearer, it became a daily business and delightful duty to examine afresh all the greater problems of the spiritual life and development of humanity.
APA: Ladd, George Trumbull. (2013). The Philosophy of Religion (Vol. 1). London: Forgotten Books. (Original work published 1906)
MLA: Ladd, George Trumbull. The Philosophy of Religion. Vol. 1. 1906. Reprint. London: Forgotten Books, 2013. Print.
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Did you know you can create eclectic furniture using pallets? Yes, pallets! Add personality to your apartment space by creating pallet furniture that is simple, fun, and inexpensive! One of the easiest pieces of pallet furniture to create is shelving. Follow these six simple steps to create your very own pallet shelves:
1. First and foremost, search for a few pallets. You can visit your local hardware or grocery store to see if they have any spare pallets they plan on tossing. Make sure the wood is still in somewhat decent shape for you to work with.
2. Once you have your pallets and have set up shop, start taking the nails out of all of the boards. You can use a claw hammer, but be careful not to split the wood when removing the nails.
3. Next, measure out your boards and cut them to a length that works just right for you. Once you have cut each piece, prep your wood by sanding the boards so they are smooth and ready to be painted.
4. Now that your boards are now ready to be stained, using the color of your choice, paint each board and let them dry completely.
5. Once the paint is completely dry, place two or three boards together, depending on how wide you want your shelves to be. Next, place two pieces of wood vertically underneath your shelf, one at each end, and nail your pieces together.
6. Lastly, screw in one hanging bracket at each end of your shelf, or use keyhole hangers to create floating shelves. Add a few photos or knick-knacks to your shelves and your project is complete!
Do you have any plans to create pallet shelves, or have you designed any furniture pieces using pallets? If so, share a few photos with us on Instagram using @AptsForRent.
Category: Apartment Life
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Why Bio Based?
Four All Seasons (FAS) Bio-Source Natural fertilizers are made from a combination of all natural ingredients, Four All Seasons 100% Bio-Based fertilizers will satisfy all of your turf building needs while being economical, easy to use, and environmentally friendly.
Four All Season Benefits
- The water insolubility of a natural fertilizer like FAS provides for a slow release so that the lawn has time to benefit from a complete and continuous application. Another advantage of slow release is that there is no rapid growth spurt to deplete the lawn's carbohydrate reserves.
- In contrast, the water solubility of chemical fertilizers leads to quick release. The lawn only receives the chemical's benefit of about half of the application. The half that is received causes a spring growth spurt that depletes the lawn's stored energy necessary for mid-season times of stress.
- With FAS, the application of a more moderate percentage of nitrogen, in proportion to other nutrients in the fertilizer, lets the lawn remain independent with strong root systems.
- The application of excessive nitrogen through chemical products tends to lessen the lawn's natural self-sufficiency because the lawn grows short roots and relies on the fertilizer to sustain itself.
- A natural fertilizer like FAS will maintain or increase the rate of decomposition by adding beneficial micro-organisms.
- Chemical applications, on the other hand, can slow or halt natural decomposition processes so that thatch can accumulate.
- Natural fertilizers and top-dressing create little or no pH change (no acidity increase). Therefore, earthworms and microorganisms remain to maintain the soil, assisting in aeration and decomposition processes.
- Chemical applications increase soil acidity and force earthworms and micro-organisms to emigrate from the soil.
- Grasses will thrive at neutral pH levels that are created by eliminating chemical applications from lawn maintenance.
- Most grasses do not take well to the high acidity levels in chemically maintained soils.
- Natural fertilizers and chemical-free control measures will not harm you, your family, your friends, your pets, or your lawn. You can sleep soundly knowing that your lawn is healthy and those you care about are safe.
- Did you know that the EPA registration of a chemical does not imply that the chemical has been proven to be safe? Many chemicals used regularly by lawn-maintenance companies are possible carcinogens and could also cause nervous system damage.
- Because FAS is a natural fertilizer, don't be disappointed if your lawn isn't immediately lush and green in the spring. Within a few weeks after application, the grass's response to FAS is noticeable. Additionally its slow release provides continuous nutrition throughout the growing season, requiring fewer applications per year. This will save time and money in the long run.
- Chemical-free control measures do not completely eradicate weeds and pests. However FAS's 11-1-1 formula does have measurable weed retention capabilities. An organic approach to lawn care is the safest way to fertilize and suppress weeds over time. A strong, healthy root system is the best defense in keeping weeds at bay. Rely on FAS to keep your lawn both child and pet safe. Use an environmentally friendly fertilizer and enjoy a lush green lawn all season long.
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Small tourist village located on the largest artificial lake in France (second in Europe): the Der lake, with an area of 4800 hectares. With its 77 km of shoreline, biking is a treat, young and old, the whole family can enjoy.
The lake was impounded in 1974, engulfing much of the beautiful forest and three villages Chantecoq Nuisement aux Bois and Champaubert this to regulate the course of the Marne. For years, people have fought to defend their village, but the lake has won, as tears shed. Avoid large floods had known in Paris in 1910 was essential. Der was chosen to seal the clay soil. The lake fills during the winter and empty in autumn, but there is still enough water for boats.
Today, the lake and its famous revive the region. In summer, the show boat rocked by a lapping wavelets, gives an impression of the sea this is that it takes more and more important the lake, it can accommodate 500 boats, and its shores rival 6 beautiful beaches. Sand, very many games for children and adults, ski skating, mountain biking ... The church erected Champaubert alone in the middle of the water, looking at his sunken village. Visitors can visit the small peninsula.
The village itself, keeps its simple authenticity in wood framed houses it maintains without distorting the work of elders and laundries, small Droye the river still winds through meadows, humming to its poplar less air, its plot, its church and its three turrets breath.
Just out of the village, beautiful countryside spread out before you, with its plains of Champagne grove, groves, its Droye river that winds through the reeds. Further, the forest, where the oak is king, "Der" oak Celtic, gave its name to the region so rich in beauty created by men. Churches, as well as the houses are built in timber. These are small wonders to visit!
It is imperative to witness the passage of the living clouds, if they arrive, you can not miss them, they yelp, trompettent, craquettent, they do an incredible sound! Is that they come from afar, they crossed the Mediterranean, France and we arrived in Africa. These clouds are formed by a battalion of cranes which shows his joy at finding his favorite lake.
Nautical Station Giffaumont:
Space ride and relaxation.
Clubs sailing, motor boats, fishing.
School waterskiing and wakeboard, towed buoys, initiation and development for all sports fans and lovers of water sports, the Der lake: Sundays, Mondays and holidays on the site Champaubert and Tuesday Saturday at the Stade Nautique.
Possibility to rent bikes and boats.
Mini Park 'Toon's Land' for children from mid-May to mid-September.
Flower walk: route through the village to discover the typical architecture of the Champagne and flower beds.
In July and August: Summer Market every Sunday from 9am to 13pm.
In August, Flea & Fireworks.
ATTRACTIONS, LEISURES AND ACTIVITES AROUND
The tourist route of timber-framed churches and stained glass from the 16th century circuit 60 km revealing the charm of the architecture of the villages and their churches.
Ride your bike, you can go to Montier-en-Der. At the end of the village, you enter the department of Haute-Marne, the big terminal planted left tells you, and that's the beautiful forest of Der, which will not impress you the mysterious sounds. Continue on the right farm Bersillière has become a very interesting museum of agricultural machinery and implements.
To discover: the small village of Droyes, a few kilometers from Giffaumont for those who enjoy visiting monuments. Upon entering the village you will see the church from the 12th century and which was partly rebuilt in 1647. Inside, the baptismal font but also the windows to discover. Those 16th depict scenes from the life of Saint Nicolas and "stoning of St. Stephen." The five windows of the choir date from 1873 and are the work of glassmakers school Troyes, they represent the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and the four Gospels. When you leave, when you return to the D12 road to Giffaumont instead turn left, turn right. A few meters away is the farm Berzillières, now a museum, which presents the old machines and agricultural practices.
It will also provide a visit to the extraordinary museum Pays du Der in Sainte-Marie-du-Lac-Nuisement. Young and old will be delighted. Scenes from the life of yesteryear are represented, the characters made by a resident of the area are very successful. The small school is very interesting. The church has been rebuilt Nuisement before the lake water. It is an open museum, where children do not get bored for a second!
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Latest from chaparral
June 18, 2012 by Judith Larner Lowry
Chaparral and scrublands are often overlooked, dismissed even, as valuable habitat in places like Point Reyes National Seashore. But the unassuming assemblage of low-lying shrubs and herbs are the right tools for the job in many difficult landscape situations, and hold a beauty of their own. Perhaps it's time to rethink scrublands as a rightful native habitat, good in the wild and garden.
April 01, 2003 by Gordy Slack
Though it's the most extensive natural habitat in California, chaparral's brambly ways discourage human visitors. Still, plenty of wildlife finds sanctuary in its tangled, brushy universe, as do the dormant seeds of wildflowers as they await the inevitable next fire, forceful sculptor of this complex landscape.
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A groin, often at the end of a littoral cell or at the updrift side of an inlet, intended to prevent sediment passage into the channel beyond. As with other shoreline structures there are often unintended consequences, primarily downdrift erosion on adjacent beaches. Terminal groins are typically used as part of a beach fill program to help contain the placed sand and reduce erosional loss.
The State of North Carolina recently passed legislation that would allow the use of terminal groins despite the state's long standing ban on hardened shoreline structures. See more discussion on the history of this issue and the legislation here.
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Cool image time! As expected, the New Horizons team has made its weekly press announcement, though on Thursday instead of Friday, releasing new images taken by the spacecraft during its July 14 flyby.
The image above has been cropped and reduced by me to fit. Make sure you look at the full resolution image.
Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured a near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto’s horizon. The smooth expanse of the informally named Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to the west (left) by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) high, including the informally named Norgay Montes in the foreground and Hillary Montes on the skyline. The backlighting highlights more than a dozen layers of haze in Pluto’s tenuous but distended atmosphere. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) to Pluto; the scene is 230 miles (380 kilometers) across.
The mountains are made of ice, the glacier flows of nitrogen.
The main takeaway so far is that Pluto might have a “hydrological” cycle like Earth’s, but instead of water cycling from ice to water to gas to rain, it appears it is nitrogen and other strange materials.
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Berkeley Today Stories
Berkeley College Alumnus and Instructor Makes Student Success a Personal Responsibility
When Linval Frazer began his studies at Berkeley College in 2001, he was a shy student who dreaded public speaking. Today, he holds a Ph.D. in Accounting and stands in front of a class five days a week at his alma mater.
"Berkeley College is where I was able to hone and develop the skills to speak and teach, and I have used these skills at many colleges and conferences," said Dr. Frazer. "The environment was conducive for learning, with the most remarkable instructors and employees who assisted me in tailoring my career."
Now an Accounting and Finance instructor in the Larry L. Luing School of Business® at Berkeley College, Dr. Frazer works to make significant contributions to the growth and development of each student, and to change lives in the way his life was changed.
"I always tell my students that as an instructor and past student of Berkeley College, teaching them is not a job, but a personal responsibility," he said. "I am aware of students' different experiences and temperaments, and I work hard to help them improve their strengths and overcome their weaknesses."
Dr. Frazer recalls a shy student who refused to make a presentation in class. After telling the student about his own experiences with public speaking, she was impressed with his story and went on to make the presentation. When Dr. Frazer saw the student later, she expressed gratitude for the challenge and for the encouragement he provided.
"She told me that she is more involved at her job in meetings and is now responsible for training new employees," Dr. Frazer said. "Her role requires a lot of speaking and presentations, and she said she was very happy she took my class. These are the things that make me want to continue and do more for my students."
Dr. Frazer said that his classroom presents a rare situation — that one day both the instructor and the students will share an alma mater.
"We have something in common — Berkeley College will be on both our transcripts — so we need to be the best that we can at what we do," he said. "For me, that means giving the most that I can possibly give them as a teacher in preparation for their careers."
Dr. Frazer graduated from Berkeley College in 2004 with a B.B.A. degree in International Business, before going on to receive two graduate certificates, two master's degrees, and a doctorate. He said that he returned to Berkeley College as an instructor because the College has changed many lives, including his.
"I just want to contribute in my little way to this organization's goal, which is to provide excellent teaching to a diverse population so that they can acquire knowledge, improve their lives, and have a positive impact on society."
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Using XML file on Excel, and working further on it is quite simple, and we are going to use Microsoft Excel to use XML, but first you need an XML file.
This would look like this, in assumption that you use notepad to create it:
Important note: you must save this file in an xml format.
Open Microsoft Excel, and press open on top.
Browse to the XML file, and click on the arrow under or side of "file name", and choose XML files.
Choose the XML file.
Click on the open as XML table, and press ok.
Just click ok.
Click on the last cell in the table, and press tab on your keyboard.
Keep filling the XML table with details.
In conclusion, only use the tab button on your keyboard at the last cell of the row. Everything you input must be in the XML table. You should always save it as XML if you wish to keep the format, otherwise Excel would save it as Excel worksheet.
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Density Part 3: Calculating Density of Cubes
Lesson 3 of 8
Objective: SWBAT measure the mass and volume of objects to calculate density.
In this lesson students are deepening their understanding of MS-PS1-1 and developing mathematical reasoning skills (MP 2). I utilize the Do Now to have kids recall the definition that we started to develop yesterday, asking students to continue to define density, based on our previous classroom activities' learning outcomes. Even if they cannot define density clearly, I want them to at least acknowledge that mass and density are involved.
We will then review as a class and I introduce today's station activity and how it will run.
I set up 6 stations (that's the number of groups that I have established in my classes) with one cube at each station. Each station also has a triple beam balance and a metric ruler. Students are asked to determine the cube's mass and measure it to calculate the volume of each cube. They use the information to calculate the density of the cube present at each station.
I then state that each group has approximately 5 minutes at each station, and I will let them know when it is time to transition to the next group. As they are generally slower on the first station rotation, I tend to give them a bit more time as they are getting started. I tell them that their signal to let me know that their group is done is to sit quietly reading their independent reading book. At the very least, their goal is to measure the 3 sides and mass of the cube. Later, they can use that information to calculate the density of each cube.
Students are expected to complete pages 164-165 from the What is Density? Activity Sheet. Note: I pick 6 of the 8 cubes.
Students Calculate Density
Now that students have the required data to calculate density, I ask them to recall what the activity where they constructed fictitious matter inside of a cube. I then ask, "Based on the mass and volume measurements that you have on your paper, why do you think that some objects will be more or less dense than others?"
I am trying to elicit student thinking to connect that the amount of matter in a volume determines the density of an object. To help them to make that connection, I have them predict which cubes will be more dense than the other before they actually calculate density.
I then tell them that to use the formula D=M/V to calculate density and model the calculation steps as an example.
This is one way to help your students remember the formula for calculating density:
Mass=10 grams and Volume=2 cm cubed
10/2=5 g/cm cubed
To help connect to yesterday's lesson, I demonstrate how you can visually model what our calculations show with models. I proceed to state that if each cube is 1 cubic centimeter then there would be 5 grams worth of matter in each cube.
Check for Understanding
As students are wrapping up their lab and beginning to clean up, I am circulating around the room and checking student progress. I want to begin hearing them discuss the relationship of volume and mass in determining density, in addition to hearing them explain what the matter might look like at the molecular level. I ask questions that get them thinking about the relationship between mass and volume for the different samples.
I may ask: "What might explain why cube 1 is more dense than cube 3?" In their response, I can quickly determine where they may be faulting--are they struggling with the density calculation itself? Are they struggling with the visual representation aspect of explaining density? Some students are still struggling to grasp volume versus mass, so this is a great time to have discussions with groups or individuals within a group who may need some help.
This is a great opportunity to tie in the Crosscutting Concepts of patterns and structure and function. As you walk around the room ask groups to rank the cubes from highest to lowest mass. They can then see if there are any patterns with high mass to higher density. They can then explain this from a structure and function standpoint. In that, students will see that the higher the density, the more mass it will have, which most likely means the matter that makes it up either has a lot of mass per unit and/or the matter is tightly packed.
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I wonder what Arthur Koestler would think of Google.
The Hungarian writer’s 1967 book, The Ghost in the Machine, is an elegant takedown of Cartesian philosophy. Koestler believed the feeling of dualism arises from what he termed a holon—the mind is, simultaneously, a part and a whole. The brain, he argues, is the outcome of an array of forces, including the environment, habitual patterns, and language. For the holon to function, he writes, it must be self-regulated:
In other words, its operations must be guided, on the one hand, by its own fixed canon of rules and on the other hand by points from a variable environment. Thus there must be a constant flow of information concerning the progress of the operation back to the centre which controls it; and the controlling centre must constantly adjust the course of the operation according to the information fed back to it.
Koestler was alive long enough—he committed suicide in 1983, following a fight with Parkinson’s disease and terminal leukemia—to contemplate the role of computers. Yet our dependency on automation is changing not only the ways we interact; outsourcing memory to Google is changing the physical structure of our brains. How would the holon fare in this new world?
Koestler might not be able to speculate, but we do have Nicholas Carr. The author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Shallows has just released a collection of blog posts, essays, and articles called Utopia is Creepy. While he is in no way anti-technology, he recently told me that we have come to an “intersection of technology with human nature in a way that technology has not been designed to deal with.”
That comes down to how the chemical reactions and motor properties of our physical bodies are not attuned to the attentional demands placed on us by the algorithms on our devices. We don’t even have, he says:
a very good language for talking about the physical nature of existence. And so when a computer comes along—a screen—that presents us with a two-dimensional world that isn’t very physically engaging and starves many of our senses, we nevertheless rush to do things through it. We don’t think about the subtle physical qualities, the tactile qualities we might be losing.
Take Google, a company Carr covers extensively. Have a question? The answer is always seconds away. It’s not convenience factor that’s the major problem; it’s co-dependency. This process began, Carr says, when we started using computers as mediums instead of tools. Our media encloses us, creating a new environment to navigate. Yet this environment, the one Koestler knew necessary for interaction, is virtual. And when the algorithms behind the software are invisible, our consciousness is subjected to the companies writing the code.
Consider exploration, one of humanity’s great evolutionary triumphs. Our brain’s seeking system, as coined by Estonian-born neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp, is responsible for the motivation behind exploring our environment. This, of course, involves getting lost. Interacting with foreign territories is both exciting and educational, including the fear that tags along. Navigating while staring at a screen (or listening to directions) strips away the tactile sense of place. Carr told me,
When we navigate with our senses, we’re engaging our entire body. We’re learning very deeply about the place we’re in. When we simply turn on Google Maps or our dashboard GPS, we can get from one place to another very quickly but we’re starving ourselves of the rich physical quality of being in a place and figuring out how to go from one place to another—figuring out the terrain that we’re in.
Dealing with the environment is only one duty of the holon. Patterns are another; habit formation involves memory. This is where Carr’s writing is most eloquent. At the end of The Shallows he realized that offloading memory and information to his computer was stripping away an ability to develop higher-order emotions such as empathy and compassion. It also damages intelligence. Reaching into our pocket for every question, he says,
does not free us to have deeper thoughts. It’s pretty clear that the way we gain the ability to think deeply and have creative and interesting thoughts is by knowing a lot of stuff. The better stocked your own mind is with lots of knowledge, that’s within you and you’ve made your own through long-term memory consolidation—the more of that you have, then when you get a new piece of information, you can fit it into this much broader context.
Technology companies are resistant to skepticism, however. One of Carr’s scariest findings during his research of his book, The Glass Cage, is automation bias: the speed with which humans grant authority to computers. With specialized media feeds catering to personal tastes and filtering trigger warnings, the online world is very unlike the actual world, in which confrontation is inevitable, and more like, well, utopia. What’s creepy is how little utopia conforms to the reality of biology.
One of my favorite posts in his collection, which was amassed from over a decade of writing on his site, Rough Type, discusses Facebook’s first television advertisement. What is absent is loudest: computers. The ad—which Carr writes in characteristically humorous fashion: “If Terrence Malick were given a lobotomy, forced to smoke seven joints in rapid succession, and ordered to make the worst TV advertisement the world has ever seen, this is the ad he would have produced”—is focused purely on real world phenomena. Everything is bright, shining…illusory, like a swing set in a late-night erectile dysfunction infomercial.
This is what happens when a tool becomes a medium. Carr is fond of quoting Marshall McLuhan, a man who understood how various forms of media act as extensions of our physical bodies. When driving, for example, the contour and textures of road are ‘felt’ by the boundaries of your car; a pencil becomes an extension of your arm, which is an extension of your mind. When the media becomes invisible—when Facebook and Google are so woven into the fabric of everyday life that functioning without them seems impossible—you’re susceptible to the will of software designers and the products and ideas they peddle.
This, Carr believes, has the potential to make life less fulfilling. Humans evolved as “physical creatures adapted to a physical world.” When our sense of social proprioception dissipates—when the map becomes the territory—we not only lose structural and intellectual talents, we also lose the satisfaction that arises from actively engaging with our environment. In other words, he concludes, we become “supplicants to the company writing the software.”
And that loss is not only individual. One big question regarding artificial intelligence is morality. Take self-driving cars. Who writes the moral code of this new driving environment? The car companies, the insurance companies, the government? Religions are structured like corporate institutions, in part, due to their monopoly on ethics. Even the bombastic debate between Tim Kaine and Mike Pence fell to a hush when religious ethics were discussed, such reverence do we pay to the supposed overseers of human morality.
Obviously there is no easy solution. Avoiding tough questions is not going to facilitate active engagement in deciding how we move forward from here, however. Carr has written an incredible body of work pondering such topics; Utopia is Creepy is a wonderful collection of what happens when our humanness collides with the illusory notion of perpetual progress—what occurs when these “meat sacks,” as Vedic philosophers like to call our bodies, get lost in the dazzling Net of Indra. Everywhere we turn we see ourselves reflected in the jewels. We take an infinite stream of selfies while never stopping to realize the entire web is nothing but a dream.
Derek Beres is working on his new book, Whole Motion: Training Your Brain and Body For Optimal Health (Carrel/Skyhorse, Spring 2017). He is based in Los Angeles. Stay in touch on Facebook and Twitter.
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A new study by economists Mark Zandi and Alan Blinder says the U.S. economic stimulus averted a worse downturn, says The Guardian. Conservatives maintain the spending was ineffective. "Using historical statistical relationships and a focus on the government's impact on narrowing credit spreads, the pair found that the downturn would have continued into 2011, with unemployment peaking at 16.5% rather than last year's actual high of 10.1%. They believe U.S. gross domestic product would have slumped by 7.4% in 2009 and by 3.7% in 2010, producing a "peak to trough" decline of 12%, rather than the anticipated 4%. Starved of demand, shops and employers would be cutting prices and wages."
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Back in 2010, Nurullah Akkaya published his implementation of John McCarthy’s “Micro-manual for Lisp” paper. I thought it might be interesting to port this implementation into Go as a learning exercise. This is my first non-hello-world Go program, so inevitably there’ll be a fair bit of non-idiomatic code here. Bear with me; I’ll update it at some point in the future when I’ve got more Go under my belt.
I won’t go into too much detail; the full source is here.
The interesting part of this for me was being able to replace the
idiomatic but, to me, ungainly enum-tagged structs and
references with Go’s interfaces to be able to take advantage of Go’s
more powerful type system.
Here’s the common interface for all the moving parts of my lisp:
1 2 3
The contents of the interface aren’t really important - I’m really
using this to convince the type system that I know what I’m doing.
I’m defining the String() function to make
print() work, mainly so
that I can just drop my Objects into
fmt.Print* and have it Just
Work. I did consider adding a function to print to a stream, but I
don’t need that yet.
The four basic object types - atoms, cons cells, functions and lambdas - are implemented in the obvious way:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
ObjFunc, needed by FuncObject, will be our basic “callable” function type, taking two Objects and returning an Object:
LambdaObjects and FuncObjects both also implement the Evaler interface, which simplifies the implementation of eval() slightly:
1 2 3
One other major difference between Go and C is in string
handling. Go’s creators have obviously learnt a lot about how to fix
C’s shortcomings in that area. You can see this at work in my
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
Everything here is done in terms of the
rune type, which is
completely distinct from the
byte type, has different reader and
writer functions, and is generally geared up for unicode input in a
way that would have been more cumbersome - and crucially, easier to
get wrong - in the original. Also note the gotcha in the comment at
the end: if you don’t manage your string lengths explicitly, string
comparisons break. I can understand why this was done, but it caught
me completely off-guard and I spent a good couple of hours trying to
find a mistake I’d made elsewhere.
Obviously not. I think this was an excellent introduction to Go, and I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on the ecosystem to see how it evolves. I can certainly see Go becoming a tool in my daily toolbelt. My experience with the toolchain in getting this to work has been nothing but pleasant.
I’m going to keep working on this interpreter as well. There are many, many directions it could go in, but only so many hours in the day. Most importantly, if you’re reading this and you can see anything I can do to improve this code, have at it. Post a gist, and let me know.
Edited to add
I didn’t put a license on the code when I originally posted it. Oops. I’ve added one now; it’s MIT’d.
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The Consumer Public Safety Commission announced a recall for the 2013 Husqvarna CR125, WR125, WR250 and WR300 off-road models because of a problem with the throttle cable.
According to the CPSC, the throttle cables on the affected units may malfunction, causing the rider to lose control of the motorcycle’s speed, posing a crash hazard.
No further details about the problem were announced by the CPSC, but a similar recall on the same models was announced for Australia in May.
According to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, the throttle cables may jump the cable wheel and become pinched against the upper throttle housing. In such a situation, the throttle may be stuck in the open position. Accompanying photographs (below) show the original throttle housing (left) and an updated part (right) with a grove to guide the throttle cable.
A similar throttle housing recall was announced in April for several KTM and Husaberg two-stroke models. The KTM and Husaberg models use a similar part as Husqvarna, supplied by Italian company Domino.
The CPSC recall affects 260 units in the U.S.
[Source: CPSC, Australian Competition & Consumer Commission]
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The medical staff at the King County Jail and, to a lesser degree, at the Regional Justice Center in Kent, have received their share of criticism.
In late 2007, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division issued a scathing assessment of medical care at the King County Jail. The feds and King County officials are currently in talks to resolve the issues raised by the report.
An inquest is beginning soon on the death of one inmate who died of a perforated ulcer while at the jail last year. And MRSA remains an ongoing health problem for the medical staff there.
But Thursday, there was good news for Jail Health Services, which provides medical care for the county lockups.
It was announced that the program receieved national accreditation by the Chicago-based National Commission on Correctional Health Care, something not easy to obtain.
The commission’s mission, according to its Web site, is ” to improve the quality of health care in jails, prisons and juvenile confinement facilities.”
To that end, the team examined inmate care and treatment at the jail, disease prevention, training, health records maintenance and other aspects of Jail Health Services.
Out of 35 standards, the downtown jail met 33 of them. The RJC met 32 out of 34 standards that applied to that facility.
County officials are clearly pleased with the results.
“Accreditation is difficult to achieve and only a fraction of jails receive it,” said County Executive Ron Sims in a statement.
Public Health of Seattle and King County, which oversees jail medical operations, attributed the passing grades it received to recent improvements at the jail.
These include an electronic health record system, new guidelines on managing disease and treating skin infections, and improved training for medical staff.
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Ex-President George W. Bush, onetime managing partner of the Texas Rangers, bounced one in the dirt as he threw out the ceremonial first pitch Tuesday in a Japan Series baseball game between the Yomiuri Giants and Nippon Ham Fighters.
The 43rd president was wearing a Yomiuri warmup jacket as he took the mound at the Tokyo Dome, according to The Associated Press. He later adjourned to a private box and watched the game with former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
The Giants, perennial powers in Japanese baseball, won the game 7-4 and lead 2-1 in the best of seven series, Japan’s answer to our World Series.
Bush does know how to draw a crowd.
Protesters marched outside the stadium protesting the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, launched during Bush’s presidency, with a big banner reading “Arrest Bush.” Another sign denounced Bush as “The King of War.”
A history-conscious protester threw his shoes at a picture of No. 43, imitating the Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who tossed shoes at Bush during a Baghdad news conference a month before the president left office.
Bush has a lengthy attachment to baseball.
He parlayed an investment of less than $1 million, as part of the Rangers’ ownership group, into a $16 million windfall when the team was sold.
A man reluctant to fess up to past mistakes, Bush has admitted to one pre-White House whopper – trading away slugger Sammy Sosa.
Bush’s office, as governor of Texas, prominently featured two glass cases filled with autographed baseballs.
Front-and-center in one case was a ball autographed by St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson, who dominated a pair of World Series in the late 1960’s. Alongside it was a ball signed by presidential wife-and-mother Barbara Bush, famous for her smoking comebacks.
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A group called the Washington Religious Campaign Against Torture is taking a visible stand against what some have charged are human rights abuses by the U.S. government.
That includes alleged abuses that have taken place at Guantanamo Bay and the practice of extraordinary rendition, when the United States moves prisoners from one country to another – often a country where torture is accepted practice. Critics have called this “torture by proxy.”
The interfaith group, which is part of a larger national campaign, has recruited several Washington churches and a Jewish organization to display banners decrying torture outside their buildings.
But, though members of the congregations where the banners are displayed seem to appreciate them, campaign spokesman Rob Crawford says others argue that the group is just playing partisan politics.
Here’s how campaign Crawford explains his group’s position:
“Jesus went to visit prisoners, not to torture them. We so strongly believe that the best traditions of the faiths has been activism. Churches were a part of the civil rights movement, for instance. Taking a moral stand is a political stand ,but it’s not a partisan stand.”
Is your church putting up an “anti-torture banner”? Should churches be taking a position on this sort of issue?
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Today I was part of the Job Fair at the Times Union Center on the SUNY Campus. The rain was a little scary; I thought I might have to swim in. I was fortunate enough to miss the rain on my way in and on my way out.
My topic: How to get in the door.
I often hear people talking about ‘cold calling.’ Basically this means going into a business without knowing anyone. Why in the world would anyone want to do this; cold calling sounds like suicide to me. It is also defeating, and you’re likely to go away feeling worse than when you walked in the door, particularly if you take all of this seriously. Unfortunately, if you really need a job, this is serious. If you take it too seriously, you will be anxious about the interview and not be able to think straight. You might also come off as desperate. You may be desperate, but it would be better if you can be relaxed. Check out Elizabeth Freedman’s article on getting in the door. It’s many of the things I talked about today with some interesting additions.
So how do you get your foot in the door? Tory Johnson has some simple ideas as well as elaborate ones. Sometimes you can be too clever or just ridiculous. I heard about a guy who sent his shoe to the interview with a note that said, “I’m only trying to get my foot in the door.” I think if he was trying to get a job as a comedy writer this might work but not for an engineer—which he was. I actually thought it was funny but maybe not appropriate.
Here’re my thoughts. Make a short list of your favorite companies and begin your investigation. Find them on the social media sites, follow them and post contacts. Keep of a list of your ideas; what makes this company one you want to work for, what good things do they do in the community? Check out the corporate culture, what are their norms?
Keep your posts positive and supportive of the business As you’re connecting with them on line, be cautious about your posts. Watch your language and your photos. I know we seem to be a more open society, but in many ways we are very provincial. When it comes to interviewing, you need to look good and be squeaky clean. Give yourself the once over like your mom would!
Remember that most candidates applying for jobs are qualified. The difference in the people is their ‘likability. People like to do business with people they like and people who are like them. To continue this train of thought, people like people who think like them and who they think, think like them. We’re comfortable with people we have something in common with.
I remember calling on general contractor years ago. I couldn’t find out very much about the person, but the secretary left me alone in his office. I kept looking around to get some clues about him. The big clue was several major league baseball bats and photos of him pitching. Since my cousin had played for the Baltimore Orioles, and I was fortunate to have gone to college with two major league players, I knew I had my in. I was right, and I got the floor covering contract. Today the Internet would have made it much easier. You’ve got to do your homework and find a way to build a connection before you get there. Work your facts into the conversation and you won’t be forgotten. It doesn’t always mean you’ll get the job but it show’s your ability to build connections.
Spend your time knowing the company and finding ways to build connections. Instead of feeling like a cold call, it will feel like you’re going to meet an old friend.
Lisbeth helps businesses build loyal relationships with their customers through customer service and sales training. To have her speak at your business, reach her at [email protected] or 518.495.5380. Her web site is www.lisbethcalandrino.com.
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