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Jump to content Christopher McLaughlin, DVM, DACVECC Amanda Benton, VMD Kelleigh Waters, DVM The Emergency and Critical Care Service at the Coral Springs Animal Hospital is staffed with experienced nurses and doctors 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Our intensive care unit is staffed by educated compassionate and experienced veterinary nurses. We have the ability to provide patients with oxygen, ventilator support, continuous heart and blood pressure monitoring, intravenous fluid therapy, digital radiology, and paint management if necessary. We stock a full supply of blood and plasma for dogs and cats should your pet need a blood transfusion. The Emergency and Critical Care Service works directly with all our specialty services to ensure that if your pet needs specialized care such as emergency surgery it will be readily available. We work together as a team, communicating with each other and your primary care veterinarian to ensure that your pet has the best and most technologically advanced care possible. Veterinary emergency and critical care is no different than emergency and critical care in humans. If your pet has an emergency or has a life threatening condition, such as shock or any other disease- this requires prompt medical attention. Many of these patients we see are critical, requiring ongoing care in the intensive care unit (ICU). Our team of critical care doctors and technicians are here to support your pet during this time. This specialized care improves the likelihood that your pet will have a better outcome when dealing with life threatening conditions. • Immune mediated disease (hemolytic anemia or low platelets) • Any trauma patients: motor vehicular trauma, bite wounds, gunshot or knife wounds • Burn injuries/house fires- carbon monoxide and smoke inhalation • Any animal that is having trouble breathing- heart disease, upper airway disease • Complications of diabetes (DKA-diabetic keto-acidosis) • Bloat/ GDV- gastric dilitation and volvulus • Animals that need a blood transfusion • Any patient that is in shock • Animals that have ingested toxic material (plants, drugs or prescription medication, grapes/raisins, chocolate, rat bait) • Animals that are having trouble urinating, or are not producing urine and require urinary catheterization • Dogs and cats that need specialized nutritional support because they are unwilling or unable to eat on their own (pancreatitis cases, post-operative cases) • Animals in which an abnormal heart rhythm of congestive heart failure • Animals with life-threatening neurologic disease such as coma or severe seizures that are not responding to medications • Patients that have had surgery and are not recovering well from anesthesia or are having trouble in the first few post-operative days • Patients with collapse (bleeding abdominal tumors) Triage – A screening process to sort medical cases and determine the priority of patient’s treatments based on the severity of their condition. This allows us to deal with the most life threatening cases immediately when dealing with life threatening conditions. • Respiratory and ventilator therapy • Decontamination for certain toxins with activated charcoal, Intralipid®, and other specific medications • A team of board certified specialists in surgery, dermatology, internal medicine, ophthalmology, oncology, cardiology for immediate consultation • Emergency surgery for GDV (bloat), hemoabdomen (from intra-abdominal bleeding tumors, post-op surgeries), intestinal obstructions, uterine infections, C-sections, and intervertebral disk disease. • Transfusion medicine; blood, plasma, human IVIG (intravenous immunoglobulin) • X-rays, MRI, CT, endoscopy, ultrasound, contrast studies, blood gas analysis, clotting times, cbc, chemistry, urinalysis, Blood pressure, ECG, and CO2 monitoring.. Tatiana De Oliveira,
In 2015, National Public Radio pointed its microphones at Connecticut, reporting on the unlikely success of Hartford's desegregation efforts. Ira Glass, host of "This American Life," described how other cities had given up on integration or seen their efforts fail. "And then, even more remarkable, in at least one city in Connecticut, it happened," Glass said in his trademark public-radio voice. "In Hartford, they went from 11 percent of their students in integrated schools, to nearly half." But that's not nearly right. While supporters have boasted frequently that half of Hartford's children now attend integrated schools, the negotiated settlements in the Sheff v. O'Neill case have allowed the state to count thousands of Hartford students who actually attend segregated — even hypersegregated — schools, a Courant analysis shows. Those students are included through waivers granted to a growing number of schools that fail to meet the desegregation standard, which requires that white and Asian students account for at least 25 percent of the student body. The settlements also allow the state to include Hartford students who attend segregated suburban schools or participate in interdistrict programs outside their segregated Hartford schools. And, years ago, the parties changed the definition of minority students to make it easier for schools to meet the compliance standard. Using a stricter definition of integration, the number of Hartford students attending truly integrated schools could be closer to half the figure publicly touted, according to The Courant's analysis. For the past two years, court settlements have required that 47.5 percent of black and Latino Hartford students receive a "reduced-isolation" education. With that nearly 50-50 figure, supporters of the Sheff desegregation lawsuit frequently use the familiar half-filled glass analogy when describing the status of the suit 20 years after their Supreme Court victory. It is a reflection of both their pride in the multitudes of students who have been helped, and their despair that a majority of Hartford students still attend unconstitutionally segregated neighborhood schools. "It's sort of the glass half-empty/half-full situation," said Kathleen Frederick, one of the original Sheff plaintiffs. "And it is just about half." But in reaching even for the 47.5 percent threshold, the court settlements have moved the goal posts repeatedly. The very first stipulated agreement allowed the state to count up to 3 percent of Hartford students as attending integrated schools even though they didn't, as long as the state spent a certain amount of money on cooperative interdistrict programs. Later agreements have allowed the state to add three percentage points to its compliance figures if a certain number of students participate in interdistrict extracurricular activities, even when their schools are segregated. Elizabeth Horton Sheff, whose son was the lead plaintiff in the suit that bears their name, calls the inclusion of that three percent "garbage." The agreements also have granted repeated waivers, allowing the state to count students who attend segregated schools if there is an expectation that the schools will become integrated some time in the future — or in one case, even if there is little hope of integration. Under a waiver granted to the Rawson Lighthouse School in Hartford, 250 city children are counted as receiving a "reduced-isolation" education, even though 97 percent of the students at Rawson are black and Latino. This school year, minority students attending five other magnet schools are counted as attending integrated magnet schools even though their schools missed the 25-percent minimum for white and Asian students by between two and 15 percentage points. Those waivers allow the state to take credit for nearly 700 Hartford students who don't attend integrated schools. In addition this year, any magnet school that missed the 25-percent minimum for white and Asian students by no more than one percentage point was considered a compliant school if it had a plan to attract more non-minority students. That change allowed the state to include more than 600 students who would not have been counted in any previous year. Philip Tegeler, one of the original Sheff lawyers, said that schools with no hope of becoming compliant should not be counted. But he defended including those schools that are on a path to integration. "Schools that are in the process of compliance should be counted. That's absolutely appropriate," Tegeler said. "Schools that are 15- to 20-percent white and half suburban … I think it's reasonable to say for the purposes of the legal definition, those are integrated schools." Overall, state officials touted in December that they had placed 49 percent of Hartford's black and Latino students in reduced-isolation settings this school year — up from 45.5 percent the year before. "The latest numbers show that more Hartford students than ever before are attending school in diverse settings," State Education Commissioner Dianna Wentzell said. But, in reality, the state lost ground compared to last year, with all of the reported gains coming from new waivers granted to schools that did not meet the Sheff integration standard. Had the state calculated its progress using the same rules in place last year, it would have reported 300 fewer Hartford students in integrated schools. Winner Take All In tallying the number of Hartford minority students in integrated schools, the state also counts every Hartford minority student bused to a suburban school through the Open Choice program — even if those students are placed in hyper-segregated white school districts. Nearly half the participating Open Choice schools have student bodies that are more than 85 percent white. And six out of seven Hartford students in the suburbs — about 1,800 last year — attend schools that are at least 75 percent white and Asian. Tiffany Glanville, a Hartford school board member, bristles at the fact that minority students from Hartford are deemed to be receiving a "reduced-isolation" education when they attend overwhelmingly white schools in the suburbs. "We don't talk about the racial isolation in Simsbury as being a negative thing the same way we talk about the isolation of Hartford," she said. But Tegeler strongly defends counting those students. "All of the Open Choice schools are integrated schools. They provide an integrated educational opportunity for the Hartford kids going into them," he said. "You're in a low-poverty school where there's a critical mass of other kids of color. It's small, not enough, but that's definitely an integrated educational opportunity in any desegregation case." In 2013, lawyers for the Sheff plaintiffs and the state also agreed to change the definition of minority students to include only blacks and Latinos. That meant Asian students and the small number of Native American and Pacific Islander students could be counted along with whites when trying to reach the 25-percent reduced-isolation figure. That instantly turned several schools from non-compliant to compliant and allowed the state to count hundreds of students as attending integrated schools who would not have been counted under the old rules. Robin Cecere, a state Department of Education lawyer, said the change was not a gimmick to boost the numbers. "Hartford is 95 percent black and Hispanic," she said. And given that concentration, "diversity is more than just bringing white students into the school and sitting next to a white student," she said. "It always makes me laugh when different people think we changed minority students to white. That's not what happened," she said. "It reflected the idea that bringing students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds into Hartford schools created a diverse environment." While the change made it easier to declare schools compliant, it also allowed Hartford magnets to enroll more minority students without losing that compliance. Cecere said that's one of the ways the parties have worked during the negotiations to give more opportunities to Hartford students without running afoul of the Sheff suit. The gravity of the state's effort to boost compliance numbers can be seen in the tumult that followed the belated realization last school year that the state had failed to meet the integration standard required in the court settlement. Although the state initially concluded it had met the mandate that 47.5 percent of minority Hartford children be counted as receiving a reduced-isolation education, the percentage dropped after updated figures showed that one Hartford school included in the calculations — the Dr. James H. Naylor/CCSU Leadership Academy — had fallen out of compliance in the opening weeks of school, by the smallest of margins. The formula for determining whether the state has met its desegregation goals has a decidedly winner-take-all approach: If a school's student body is at least 25 percent white and Asian, it is deemed to be an integrated school and every one of the Hartford minority students attending can be counted toward the goal. But if a school falls short of that 25 percent without a waiver, the state can count exactly zero students. When Naylor was found to have missed the integration standard by four students, the state lost the ability to count more than 500 Hartford minority students. That led to a months-long investigation over concerns that some minority students initially had been recorded as white in order to make the school appear compliant with the Sheff mandate. No wrongdoing was found and the discrepancies were chalked up to the variability of self-reporting. But it led to pointed exchanges between lawyers for Hartford and the state over a school's obligation to manage its enrollment for integration purposes. Although Naylor is not a magnet school and its diversity reflects its South End location four blocks from the Wethersfield border, a judge ruled that minority students in the neighborhood school could be counted as part of the Sheff compliance standard. Whether that obliged Hartford to manipulate the school's enrollment was less clear. In an email to city officials, Peter Haberlandt, director of legal affairs for the state Department of Education, noted the city's position that "Sheff compliance is not a factor" in placing students at Naylor. "I expect we may want to have some follow-up discussion about this," Haberlandt wrote. Jill Cutler Hodgman, chief labor and legal officer for Hartford schools, sharply wrote back that the city's obligation to pursue integrated schools has its limits. "We cannot seat students or choose to exclude students requesting placement in open seats based on their minority or non-minority status. It is our view that such a process would be illegal," she wrote. "If the State believes that Hartford has an affirmative obligation to make placements or deny students placements within our neighborhood schools based on race/ethnicity, a process that would leave available seats empty and/or favor certain racial/ethnic groups at certain schools, please let us know the legal basis for your position." The lawyers continued that dialogue outside of email. This school year, Naylor was no longer a topic of discussion, falling well below the threshold to be counted as an integrated school.
The Astronomy of Easter - Jay Ryan - 2003 4 Apr Most Christians know that Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover, and in this way became the perfect Passover sacrifice, "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Since the early centuries of the church, Christians have honored the death and resurrection of Jesus in the celebration of Easter. And while the observance of Easter has changed over the centuries, it is based on the Hebrew Passover. We read in the Book of Exodus how the LORD used Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt. In Exodus 12, the LORD sent the final plague, smiting the firstborn of all Egypt. The Israelites were saved by sacrificing a lamb and covering their doorframes with its blood, so that the LORD would "pass over" the house and not smite the firstborn of Israel. And the LORD commanded that the Israelites remember the Passover in a seven-day feast.... "And this day shall be unto you a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever." - Exodus 12:14. The LORD instructed Israel as to when the Passover should be kept: "In the first month, on the 14th day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and 20th day of the month at even." - Exodus 12:18. In the lunar calendar, the New Moon is the first day of the new month. The Full Moon is at mid-month, the 14th day of the month. So Israel was instructed to celebrate the Passover on the Full Moon of the first month. The LORD even tells us the name of the month.... "Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night." -Deuteronomy 16:1 The word "Abib" means "sprouting" or "budding" and is the first month of Spring, falling among our months of March and April. Abib is the only month of the year named by God in the books of Moses. The Bible doesn't clearly indicate the calendar method used to keep track of Passover and other Hebrew holidays. However, for centuries the Jewish calendar has been based on the well-known, 19-year cycle of the Sun and Moon. God in His providence established that 235 cycles of the Moon's phases is nearly equal to 19 solar years. This means that every 19 years, the Moon's phases will recur on the same dates of the solar year. This 19-year "luni-solar" cycle was the basis for the calendar used in Babylon. In the west, its discovery is attributed to the Greek philosopher Meton, who may have learned it from the Babylonians. The 19-year cycle was generally well known and understood in antiquity, and was apparently used by the Persian rulers of Babylon after the restoration of Israel. It appears that the modern Jewish calendar was directly influenced by the Babylonian calendar. In addition to using the 19-year cycle, the modern Jewish calendar uses months with names nearly identical to the Babylonian names. In the books of Nehemia, Ezra and Esther (which record events after the Babylonian exile) you can find the month names "Sivan," "Elui," and "Adar," nearly the same as their Babylonian counterparts. Most notable is the month "Nisan," the first month of Spring, corresponding to the Mosaic month of "Abib." In the modern Jewish calendar, Passover occurs on the fourteenth day of Nisan. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, writing in about 90 A.D., gives us an astronomical reference for the month of Nisan.... "In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called "Nisan," and is the beginning of our year, on the 14th day of the lunar month, when the Sun is in Aries (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians, the law ordained that we should every year slay the sacrific which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover....)" In the time of Josephus, the Sun was in the constellation Aries at the time of the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere. And so in the traditional Jewish observance, the Passover feast begins with the Full Moon during the month of the Equinox. What's in a Name? The early church celebrated Passover in a similar manner to Jewish observances, though the customs changed over time. But our Christian Easter observance is still based on the Hebrew Passover observance. For example, many churches observe the solemn, penitent "Holy Week" observance before Easter, based on the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread. Many people today argue that "Easter" is really a pagan holiday, with bunnies and eggs symbolizing heathen fertility rites, not the resurrection of Jesus. Entire books have been written to show that the name "Easter" is derived from the name of the Babylonian fertility goddess "Ishtar" or "Astarte." Eggs and bunnies are clearly not of Biblical origin. But the name issue is mostly a matter of the semantics of the English language since other European languages paint a different picture. The Hebrew word for "Passover" is "pesach." In Greek, the translated word is "pascha." Throughout church history, this name has been associated with the feast of Christ's resurrection. This name of this feast is translated in the following ways in the languages of the traditionally Christian nations of Europe: Spanish = Pascua Italian = Pasqua French = Paque Russian = Pascha Swedish = Pask Norwegian = Paske Dutch = Pasen However, in the English language, the feast of Christ's resurrection is commonly called "Easter." For example, in Acts 12:4 in the King James Bible, the word "Easter" is given as a translation of the word "pascha." If you read old-fashioned English writings, it's not uncommon to see the Easter feast called "The Pasch" (pronounced "pask") and Jesus often figuratively referred to as "the paschal lamb" and so forth. However, the word "Pasch" is out of style in our shallow generation of English speakers. It appears that the word "Easter" is derived from the name of an old Anglo-Saxon fertility goddess associated with the east who had a springtime festival. The German word is "Ostern," and since the Anglo-Saxons were originally a Germanic tribe, it's pretty clear that the words are related. While old habits apparently die hard in the English and German languages, it's pretty clear that most traditionally Christian nations name the Pasch as the proper name of the feast of Christ's resurrection. The Reckoning of the Pasch In the early days of the church, Christians kept the Pasch in the same manner as the Jews, beginning on the 14th of Nisan. But as time went by, Christianity developed distinctive observances that differed from Jewish practices. In the church at Rome, it became customary to celebrate the Pasch on the Sunday following 14 Nisan, in order to commemorate Jesus' rising on the first day of the week. This became a controversy in the late Second Century. Victor I, the bishop of Rome, argued that the churches of Asia Minor should follow the Roman practice, rather than celebrate the Passover on 14 Nisan in the Jewish manner. Since the early centuries, the Christian churches used the official Julian civil calendar of Rome to calculate the date of the Pasch. Since it was not always easy to know the date of the Equinox, calendar tables were prepared years in advance. The Roman method of calculating is explained here by the English scholar, the Venerable Bede, who wrote a definitive work on the subject around 700 A.D.: "The beginning of this month ought to be observed according to this rule, so that the 14th Moon of Easter never precedes the vernal equinox, but correctly appears either on the equinox itself (that is March 21) or after it has passed." In the early centuries, during persecution by the Roman Empire, Christianity was a loose collection of local churches each led by an independent bishop. Since there was no central authority, not every local church agreed with the Roman method. For centuries, the various churches squabbled about the correct time for celebrating the Pasch. A concord was finally established at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. The Council of Nicaea is best known for establishing and affirming the doctrine of the Trinity. Other proclamations were made, including the method of calculating the date of Easter. The synodical letter of the Nicene council reported, "We further proclaim to you the good news of the agreement concerning the holy Easter.... all our brethren in the east who formerly followed the custom of the Jews are henceforth to celebrate the said most sacred feast of Easter at the same time as the Romans...." The council emphasized that Easter should never occur during the Passover, due to antagonisms toward the Jewish people and some apparent inconsistencies in the Jewish calendar. In this way, the Council of Nicaea established a common celebration of the Pasch. In the centuries following Nicaea, the church became increasingly uniform in other doctrines and practices, and centralized in authority. Nevertheless, the issue of Easter had come up again and again throughout church history, and there remain differences to this day. A Slight Problem As established by Julius Caesar, the solar year was reckoned as 365 days with an extra day added during a "leap year" every four years. In this way, the natural period of the seasonal year was understood to be 365 1/4 days in length. As explained by the Venerable Bede, "The Sun's year is complete when it returns to the same place with respect to the fixed stars after 365 days and 6 hours, that is a quarter of a whole day." By this reckoning, the time from one Vernal Equinox to the next should have been 365 days, 6 hours. However, it was not known to either Julius Caesar or the Venerable Bede that in fact the solar year was precisely 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 42 seconds. As a result, the time from one Vernal Equinox to the next was overestimated by 11 minutes and 18 seconds. We might be tempted to say that this is a tiny amount, what difference can 11 minutes make over the span of a year? Very little difference, but over a century of time, it can add up. This minor annual discrepancy amounts up to about three extra days every 400 years. And over many centuries, the accumulated days became considerable. In the time of Caesar, the Vernal Equinox occurred on March 24. By the time of the Council of Nicaea, the Equinox was arriving on March 21. Throughout the Medieval period, the Equinox was arriving earlier and earlier. Consequently, the date of Easter was arriving earlier and earlier. Given enough centuries, Easter would regress backward through the calendar and begin to approach Christmas! By the 1500s the Julian calendar had slipped 10 days from the Council of Nicaea, and the Equinox was arriving on March 11. Calendar reform became a topic for discussion among church authorities, in part because the nature of the problem was poorly understood. The revolutionary work of Mikolaj Kopernik (a.k.a. "Copernicus") was inspired by the effort to reform the calendar. In 1543 he wrote, "When the Lateran Council was considering the question of reforming the Ecclesiastical Calendar, no decision was reached, for the sole reason that the magnitude of the year and the months and the movements of Sun and Moon had not yet been measured with sufficient accuracy." (Of course, Kopernik's solution included the novel idea of placing the Earth in orbit around the Sun, but that's another story.) The final solution was adopted 40 years later, in 1582. Upon consulting with the learned astronomers of the time, Pope Gregory XIII issued a proclamation that restored the calendar: "So thus that the Vernal Equinox, which was fixed by the fathers of the Nicene Council at March 21, is replaced on this date, we prescribe and order that there is removed, from October of the year 1582, the ten days which go from the 5th through the 14th inclusively. The day which follows the 4th, when one traditionally celebrates St. Francis of Assisi, shall be the 15th." In this way, the Equinox once again arrived on March 21, as it had in 325 A.D. To accommodate future drift in the calendar, Gregory made the following provision, "Then, lest the Equinox recede from March 21 in the future, we establish that a bissextile (a.k.a. "leap year") shall be inserted every four years (as with the present custom), except in centennial years.... Thus, the years 1700, 1800 and 1900 will not be bissextile, and then, as with the habit with which we are accustomed, the year 2000 will have a bissextile intercalation day, as the day February 29, and that the same order of intermittent intercalations in each 400 year period will be preserved in perpetuity." And so Gregory established that three out of four centennial years would not be leap years, so as to drop three days from every 400 years, and thus maintain the predictable order of Easter and the seasons. Remarkably, Gregory looked ahead from the Middle Ages to our lifetimes to establish that the year 2000 would be the first centennial leap year in 400 years. Sadly, our generation is so ignorant of classical astronomy that February 29, 2000 came and went with little or no notice, in the media or otherwise. The reformed Gregorian Calendar was immediately adopted in October, 1582 throughout the Roman Catholic nations of Europe. But the Protestant and Eastern Orthodox nations resisted this "popish innovation." One early Protestant proponent of the new calendar was the astronomer Johannes Kepler. In 1597, he argued with his superiors that it was "small-minded to demonstrate Protestant independence of thought by protesting against a most useful reform introduced by the Catholic Church." For a century and a half thereafter, the nations of Europe maintained an awkward system of keeping two dates for every notable event, one in the "Old Style" of the Julian Calendar, and another in the "New Style" of the Gregorian Calendar. For example, one might notice that George Washington's birthday is sometimes given as "February 11, 1732 O.S., February 22, 1732 N.S." Over time, the Protestant nations gradually accepted the Gregorian Calendar. In 1752, England finally adopted the New Style, and its American colonies followed at the same time. Here's how it was reported in "Poor Richard's Almanack" by "Richard Saunders," a.k.a. Benjamin Franklin: "...the King and Parliament have thought fit to alter our Year, by taking 11 days out of September, 1752, and directing us to begin our Account for the future on the first of January.... wishing withal, according to ancient Custom, that this New Year (which is indeed a New Year, such an one as we never saw before, and shall never see again) may be a happy Year to all my kind Readers." Nowadays, the Gregorian Calendar has become the civil calendar that regulates the affairs of the entire secular world, including nations far and wide that have no historical Christian roots. The Eastern Orthodox Church still retains the Julian Calendar for regulating its church calendar. By the 21st century, the seasons have slipped 13 days from the time of Nicaea. So the Vernal Equinox is now arriving on March 8, O.S. The Eastern Church celebrates Christmas on December 25 as reckoned by the Julian Calendar, which is January 7 on the Gregorian Calendar. One principle objection of the Eastern Orthodox Church is that the Gregorian Calendar did not reiterate the Nicene prohibition against celebrating Easter after the Jewish Passover. As a matter of fact, we can witness this now in the year 2003. This month, Passover is on April 17, and the Gregorian Easter is on April 20. However, the Orthodox Easter is one week later, on April 27, in accordance with the decree of Nicaea. So ironically, 1700 years after the Council of Nicaea established a common celebration of Easter, there is still disagreement over this very issue. Jay Ryan is a former Contributing Editor to Sky & Telescope magazine. Now he applies all his efforts to the glory of God, especially for the benefit of Christian homeschoolers and other Christian kids. You can drop Jay an email at [email protected]
Reverse 3-Up – What Is Affluence Network Software as a Service The sweetness of the cryptocurrencies is that scam was proved an impossibility: because of the dynamics of the protocol in which it is transacted. All deals on the crypto currency blockchain are permanent. As soon as you’re paid, you get paid. This isn’t anything shortterm wherever your web visitors could challenge or need a discounts, or use dishonest sleight of hand. In practice, most traders could be wise to work with a transaction processor, because of the permanent dynamics of crypto currency purchases, you must be sure that stability is hard. With any type of crypto currency whether it be a bitcoin, ether, litecoin, or any of the numerous different altcoins, thieves and hackers may potentially get access to your individual keys and therefore grab your cash. Unfortunately, you probably can never have it back. 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"The survival of the ethnic groups is the existence of the nation," he said this while speaking at the biennial conference of Bangladesh Puja Celebration Council in capital's Dakeswari Temple. The minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would not keep mum if minority people are tortured or harassed anyway, BSS reports. "The government is trying to ensure the full safety for the minority people all over the country in many ways," he added. The AL general secretary observed that he would not stay safe destroying the entity of ethnic groups from this territory. Referring to arson attacks on them, he categorically said, "If anyone is tortured anywhere, the Sheikh Hasina's government will not sit idle." Speaking on the occasion, former Railways Minister and AL Advisory Council member Suranjit Sengupta said the vested quarter destroyed the spirit of Liberation War by killing of Father of Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975 but they failed to do so ultimately. "Subsequently Awami League established a Secular Bangladesh," he added. Puja Celebration Committee President Kajol Debnath chaired the programme. State Minister for Youth and Sports Dr Biren Siker, State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Narayn Chandra Chanda , Swechchasebak League General Secretary Pankaj Debnath and General Secretary of Puja Celebration Committee Joyenta Kumar Deb, among others, were present. source : the daily sun
PHOENIX – President Barack Obama’s decision last year to allow young people living in the U.S. illegally to stay and work marked the biggest shift in immigration policy in decades, hailed as a landmark step toward the American dream for a generation of immigrants. But months later, many immigrants are having vastly different reactions to the change depending on where they live, and they aren’t flocking to the program at the levels the government originally expected. A handful of Republican-led states are blocking basic benefits for those in the program, denying beneficiaries identification cards, driver’s licenses, health care, in-state tuition, student financial aid, college admission or other privileges typically afforded to legal residents. Others have set out welcome signs for the immigrants, including 12 that grant resident tuition for immigrants who graduated from local high schools. The number of immigrants who signed up for the program has been smaller than envisioned. In the first eight months of the program, about 450,000 applications have been accepted. The government originally estimated that 1 million would enroll in the first year. Experts say the numbers have been surprisingly low in states with large immigrant populations like Florida, New Jersey and Arizona, where about 16,000 people have taken advantage of the program. Enrolling in a college or a university – a cornerstone of the new policy – hasn’t been easy either. With many states refusing to grant in-state tuition, immigrants who largely come from working-class families have to shell out upward of $40,000 a year to go to school – with no financial aid. “It’s really hard that now you have all these doors that you feel are going to be open to you and the doors are still closed,” said Reyna Avila, a Phoenix college student who received a work permit and Social Security card under the policy, but still cannot drive to work or school without risking criminal charges. In Michigan, high school senior Javier Contreras and his family considered moving to Illinois until his state came up with a solution allowing him to get a driver’s license. But because of his immigration status, he will have to pay the $20,000 for out-of-state tuition if he wants to attend his dream school, the University of Michigan. Under the so-called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, more than 1 million immigrants are eligible for work permits good for two years with no limits on how many times they can be renewed. Qualified applicants must be 30 or younger, prove they arrived in the U.S. before they turned 16, have been living in the country at least five years and are in school or graduated or served in the military. Immigrant advocates embraced the program when it was announced in June as a long-awaited, albeit temporary fix for young immigrants, many of whom were brought here as young children and grew up in America. Congress has failed for years to create a similar law in the form of the DREAM Act, so Obama bypassed the legislative process and implemented the change under the Department of Homeland Security. Republican critics note the Obama policy was passed only after Congress failed multiple times to pass the DREAM Act and could soon be found unconstitutional in court because it extends legal rights to people who are not legally in the country. “The Obama amnesty plan doesn’t make them legally here,” Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said shortly after the program was unveiled. The creation of the program set off a flurry of activity in statehouses, governor’s offices and in the courts, giving young immigrants different impressions of the policy from state to state. In Alabama, Florida, Idaho and dozens of other states, the young immigrants don’t qualify for resident tuition or financial aid. South Carolina and Georgia won’t let the students apply for admission to some public universities. Republican leaders in Arizona and Nebraska refuse to grant the young people driver’s licenses, though the vast majority of states allow those in the program to legally drive. In North Carolina, lawmakers briefly considered issuing licenses with bright pink stripes and the words “NO LAWFUL STATUS” on them. Until last month, immigrants benefiting from the policy couldn’t get a state identification card in Michigan. Some states have mixed policies, making it even more confusing for young people struggling to understand their new legal status. For example, in Arizona, some community colleges consider the immigrants lawful residents, but the state’s public university system does not. In some cases, the change has added to the climate of fear that is present in many communities. A complaint was filed with a Phoenix community college system this week alleging that staff members were asking students about their parents’ immigration status. A few states have embraced the immigrants. In Washington, the House of Representatives recently approved a measure making young immigrants eligible for state college financial aid. In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick announced in November that some children of immigrants living in the country illegally could attend public state colleges and universities at the in-state tuition rate, cutting costs by 50 percent or more. Avila was reminded of what she was missing out on as an Arizona resident when she recently visited an aunt in Illinois who was able to obtain her driver’s license because of the Obama policy. “She was showing it off to the family and it was like a slap in the face to me,” Avila recalled. The lack of uniformity means young immigrants who move often for work or school experience shifting benefits. Lucy Pinon is able to get a driver’s license in Idaho, where she attends college, but she can’t obtain an identification card in Arizona, where she has lived with her family since she was six years old. That means a relative has had to go with her and confirm that she is an Arizona resident when she applies for local jobs, she said. “It’s like, ‘Oh you’re documented, but you are still undocumented,’” she said. “When I’m in Idaho things are fine and dandy, but Arizona is my home state.” Civil rights advocates argue it’s unconstitutional under the federal equal protection clause for states to extend benefits to some immigrants with work permits but not others. They have challenged the Arizona ban on driver’s licenses in what is the first major legal battle over the policy change. “The federal government without question gets to decide who is allowed to be in the country or not,” said Michael Tan, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project. “It’s not up to the states to make up their own rules.”
HAMPTON — Archaeologists searching for evidence of a landmark Civil War refugee slave camp opened up a new trench last week, adding to the unexpectedly rich catalog of nearly 200 features that have been unearthed since the downtown dig began almost a month ago. Despite discovering that much of the 15-by-25-foot target area had been disrupted by a modern concrete drainage line and utility cables, they also exposed wide swaths of undisturbed ground — a find that suggests substantial parts of the historic contraband village may have survived intact nearly 2 feet below the surface more than 150 years after its inhabitants erected their first shanty houses. "That drainage line has wiped out a nearly 4-foot-wide strip right down the center of this trench — and something else wiped out everything else right up to the edge over here," said archaeologist Dave Hazzard, who is supervising the field work for the James River Institute for Archaeology. "But right over here we have another section about 5 feet wide that wasn't disturbed by the construction of the apartment complex that was here — or the earlier 19th- and 20th-century houses. And it looks like it's going to give us some new features that could be linked to the contrabands." Commissioned by the city, the excavation had previously opened up three other wide trenches near the corner of Lincoln Street and Armistead Avenue, revealing many more features of promise much more quickly than the archaeologists expected. Instead of being thwarted by a jumble of disturbances from later construction periods, they've not only uncovered dozens of intact targets that may date to the Civil War camp but have done so with surprising ease, JRIA historian Matthew Laird said. Finding yet another expanse of uncompromised soil suggests that such survivals may be spread widely through a 19-acre property most recently occupied by the Harbor Square apartment complex. "Even in an area that has been cut through with modern utilities, we're finding these intact features — and that's not what we expected," Laird says, referring to the short-lived and insubstantial construction of the structures erected by a refugee slave population that numbered in the thousands. "But what it demonstrates is the likelihood of finding numerous other patches here and there throughout this property that could be investigated for evidence of the contrabands — if that's what the city decides it wants." No decision has been made by the Hampton City Council about extending the dig, said Hampton spokeswoman Robin McCormick. In addition to opening up the new trench, the archaeologists are spending their last scheduled week of field work probing the excavation's most promising features, including what appears to be a fence line, a small barrel-lined well and numerous deposits of food remains tentatively dated to the Civil War era. They previously explored two separate features containing what are believed to be the remains of small dogs. Though the Williamsburg-based team should be able to zero in on the dates of the finds by careful analysis of any associated artifacts, it may be impossible to tell whether the ceramic, metal and other objects found were deposited by the contrabands during the war or the African-Americans who started to form a neighborhood on the site just a few years later. "Trying to get the dates fine-tuned between the early 1860s and 1871 is going to be difficult," Laird said. "But we'd like to get them tuned to the Civil War period if possible. That's important." Such slight differences in the age of the artifacts could make the directional orientation of any structural features crucial to determining whether they point to the refugee slave settlement and its notably haphazard layout or the much more regular street grid that emerged later. That's why the archaeologists have paid so much attention to an apparent fence line that runs on a skewed angle just a few feet from the northbound lane of Armistead Avenue, Hazzard said. It's also why they are using compasses and surveying equipment to puzzle out possible relationships between the street grid and other features. In recent days, Laird has talked to a descendant of the contrabands, too, finding a possible link between a family that recorded their first deed of ownership in Hampton in the early 1870s and the refugees who began forging their new life as freedmen in the pioneering camp during the Civil War. "They owned the corner here through 1968 — almost a hundred years after the contrabands began buying the property where they had lived," he said. "So we may be able to get some good information from them." Erickson can be reached at 757-247-4783. Find more Hampton Road history stories at dailypress.com/history and Facebook.com/hrhistory.
Rick Khalar is the chief pilot of the UT System’s Beechcraft King Air 350, a nine-passenger airplane with swiveling chairs, tinted windows and a toilet disguised as a seat. “I have the best office in the world,” Khalar said. “I sit up there, and I see the world go by, and it’s all mine. I take pride in what I do, and I think I do it well.” Khalar — who served in the U.S. Air Force flying B-52s for 30 years — has been the System’s chief pilot since December 2000. He said he misses the extreme nature of Air Force flights. “We’re in the other extreme [at the System],” Khalar said. “We’re in the safe world, doing things extremely carefully.” Khalar said his first time on an airplane was in the eighth grade. “They had this little air show,” Khalar said. “One guy was selling rides in a Cessna 172 for a penny a pound, and my buddy Dave and I got on a scale. I paid a $1.60 for my flight, and he paid a $1.30, and we took off with the pilot. We had a great time.” According to Randy Wallace, System associate vice chancellor, controller and chief budget officer, the System plane cannot be used for personal excursions. “Any of our administrators can actually reserve the plane, realizing that they could be bumped off by the chancellor or our executive officers,” Wallace said. “UT-Austin athletics makes up a fairly substantial amount of our business, but it’s primarily used for System administration.” Amy Mitchell, administrative associate in the System controller office, is responsible for scheduling flights and coordinating payments and maintenance. Mitchell said it costs approximately $1,000 to operate the plane for an hour, in addition to fuel and maintenance charges. According to Wallace, flight costs are built into the System’s budget. “The plane is funded centrally,” Wallace said. “[The System] budgets for the plane, so we pay the cost. … When people want to utilize our plane that are not in the core administration, then we charge them the fair going rate.” Mitchell said plane usage varies depending on the time of year, but most flights take place in Texas. “Sometimes there’s less usage during the summer, of course because the institutions are on a summer schedule,” Mitchell said. Photo by Amy Zhang / Daily Texan Staff The plane usage is closely monitored by the state and the UT System Board of Regents’ rules and regulations. Mitchell said Khalar is allowed to fly a maximum of six consecutive flights per week. Because the rules also stipulate two pilots must be present for each flight, peripheral pilots are hired at a daily rate to accompany Khalar on flights. The plane is located at the Texas Department of Transportation’s hangar at Austin–Bergstrom International Airport. According to Nancy Sutherland, Travel Program director, TxDOT employees handle all maintenance for the plane. Sutherland said, when the System’s plane is in use, state planes are available for the System’s use. Khalar said his long tenure at the System has turned his passengers into family. “I’ve actually seen weather coming towards an airport, and I’ve called the travellers and said, ‘You guys need to come back because we need to leave right away,’” Khalar said. “Our relationship is so great here that I don’t get questions. It’s like, ‘We’re on the way,’ and here they come.”
Drawing has always been an essential part of Hirst’s creative process. Whilst his sculptural works are initially thought out through detailed sketches – often including precise dimensions and fabrication notes – he also draws obsessively for the sake of drawing. Numbering over 1, 500, this body of work points to Hirst’s use of the medium as a means of refining and exploring the ideas that sit at the heart of his entire artistic output. He also describes it as a good way to explore complicated ideas without incurring the costs involved in the fabrication of new works. The importance of drawing to Hirst is affirmed by the three dedicated exhibitions he has presented. In 1994 he gave a show of spin drawings made by a spin machine crafted from an electric drill (illustrated in ‘Making Beautiful Drawings Machine’ (1993)). The exhibition, ‘making beautiful drawings’ at Bruno Brunnet Contemporary Fine Art in Berlin, invited visitors to buy Hirst’s or to make their own drawings for free as part of the installation. A decade later, Hirst was invited to show his first retrospective exhibition of drawings ‘From the Cradle to the Grave’ (2003) by the twenty-fifth Ljubljana International Biennale of Graphic Art after winning the Biennale Grand Prize for his print series ‘The Last Supper’. Following this exhibition, Gagosian Gallery, New York presented ‘Corpus’ in 2006: a large show of drawings spanning twenty-five years of the artist’s career, including works dating from Hirst’s teenage years, such as ‘Emma’ (1983) and ‘Study after Delacroix (the Orphan Girl in the Cemetery)’ (1981) – completed by the artist at the age of sixteen. Sketches dating from 1989 on beer mats and magazine clippings reveal the earliest formulation of Hirst’s idea for the shark sculpture, ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’ (1991). Whilst these rough drawings point to the conception of an idea, other plans such as those for the earliest ‘Natural History’ work ‘Isolated Elements Swimming in the Same Direction for the Purpose of Understanding’ (1991) reveal detailed workings for the dimensions and fabrication of the fish cabinet. Similarly, diagrams for early series of spot paintings, such as ‘Controlled Collage’ (1993), reveal the importance of the precise formulation of the grid structure and exact dimensions as conceived by Hirst. His vast catalogue of drawings includes not only plans for pieces realised, such as ‘Mother and Child Divided’ (1993), but also ambitious works as yet unrealised. For example, ‘The Last Supper with Skeletons’ (2003) is a drawing and notes for a large-scale sculptural re-imagining of Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ (late 1490s) made from human skeletons positioned around a table, divided by giant shards of broken glass. The conceptual importance of drawing for Hirst is revealed in works such as ‘The Acquired Inability to Escape’ (1992), in which a tiny ink sketch of the vitrine, floats amidst a large expanse of white paper. That this drawing post dates the sculpture it depicts (‘The Acquired Inability to Escape’ (1991)) reveals Hirst draws not only to plan works, but as part of his preoccupation to explore the themes of life, death and human experience. He also draws compulsively purely for the sake of drawing, frequently making rapid sketches as gifts or as portraits of friends. In 2002, for example, he made a rough pencil triptych of Michael Wojas, the owner of The Colony Room (a Soho bar frequented by Hirst in the 90’s), asleep on a train. In sketched plans for a cow dissected into quarters titled, ‘Can’t See the Wood for the Trees’ (1996), Hirst’s annotations point to the central role of the medium to his creative output and also as a means of constructing possible titles for works: “constructing spaces, drawings for sculptures, ideas become reality, making spaces, ideas made real, in search of reality, looking for Mr. Goodsex, nothing is problem for me, he tried to internalise everything, followed from a note, from head to paper.”
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For this one, we have to go to the cynical version of The Golden Rule: Those who have the gold are the ones who make the rules. In our modern society, those gold keepers are the corporations. They have the money and the resources to set the legislative agendas of many nations, passing laws to suit their needs. In this sense, the corporation is more powerful than the country. These people, they're like ghosts, always hiding in the shadows, always hiding behind lies and proxy soldiers. A name won't mean much, they'll use whichever one suits their interests. Sometimes it's the Masons, sometimes the Bilderberg Group. They've had a finger in every corporation, organization, or government initiative that has defined modern society! Corporations have top government officials on their payroll and the government policies are dictated by corporations. So even if we see government taking action, it is the corporations who ask the government to do so in the first place. Corporations do everything behind the scenes, be it lobbying for change of policies to benefit them or asking higher ranking officials to lobby with other country officials. There are many reasons why I say yes, but I will only list two. 1. Money makes the world go round. Large corporations often are run by wealthy men and women. This is where the not outright comes into play. If you have a rich, charismatic, popular person, you can easily get them in a political seat, or fund someone who will get elected. People in power usually help the ones who help them get there. 2. Privatization. Security contracting and privatized space operations are already in place. For hundreds of years mercenaries have been used in warfare, but now large corporate entities are able to amass large armies of these private soldiers and equip them and sustain this without worry of public outrage for the erratic spending. Also with the new private satellites and space flights its not out of the question that their surveillance and communications would rival the governments. Many other aspects of life are privatized but are too numerous to list. Countries rely on big corporations to help bring in local and international business, which in turn affects how countries operate. If corporations branch out they provide more jobs for he country they're in and inflate their financial status. Countries are at the mercy of corporations because the corporations have more power to make their surroundings thrive or die, whereas countries can't operate efficiently without the ongoing business that corporations bring. First you have to define what power is. In many ways corporations are more powerful than many countries - they have more money and can use that weight to influence and lobby governments, however they still have to lobby those government to get their preferred laws through so ultimately the power lies in the states. Also from a realist perspective - power comes from the barrel of a gun - until corporations have their own armed forces (which may happen on some level in the future) controlled violence still rests within the state system. Another example against corporations being more powerful is China - they tightly control corporations and their activities in their country demonstrating that it is still possible for states to be more powerful. ~If a corporation influences policy it is because a state allows them to. Some large corporations have gross profits that are more than the gross national worth of some small countries. Those corporations are really just big companies. The government of a country holds the power. A country may look to its largest corporations to help with employment and trade, but the government has the power to make the laws. Just because corporations, and any associated downward financial spiral, that may trigger devastating effects for individual national and global economies, does not prove that these corporations are more powerful than those countries themselves. A corporation may be able to create an economic collapse, but to say that they can affect public policy, or directly control the government within the country, would certainly have shades of conspiracy theory written all over it. Corporations do present an ominous presence in our world, but to claim they are more powerful than any individual nation, might be met with swift and complete military résistance. While I would definitely agree that corporations are indeed entities in the world that hold a lot of power, I don't think I would go so far as to say that they are more powerful than countries. They cannot have their own economy, or a standing army of anything of that sort.
There's one thing that teens love, need and crave more than anything else and that's positive affirmation and attention from their peers. Getting that positive feedback can be as powerful as a hit of meth for some. By acting out on social media or coordinating it there, they get that rush, that approval, that feedback. We should do something about stopping that. It is a human being's instinct to copy someone they want to be or achieve their authority. If a movie star decides to smoke, a teen will then find smoking "cool". If teens see violence on the internet, they will want to achieve that status. Again, MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO. A a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a aa a a a a a a a a aa a a Teens react to their surrounds and environment. Most teens who have violet behavior have been exposed to it. Teens react to how they are raised. Social media is a good way to communicate and you have to let teens know whatever you post anyone can see it. Teens with violent behaviors need to get help on why do they have such behavior and anger. Some teens just don't know who they are. However, if you grew up in a nice neighborhood, using the Internet or other forms of social media won't give you a bad temperament that you see in other homes. So, it all depends on whether you use social media correctly and positively. There is nothing about social media, in and of itself, that creates violent behavior. It is simply a method of communication. It may make it easier for certain people to anonymously act like jackasses, but it doesn't cause anyone to be violent. Violence is a personal action that occurs due to the nature of the individual. Social media does not encourage violence anymore than regular interaction. Teens being bullied or committing suicide have been a fact of life for many year, long before the days of social media. With social media, it is just glorified and easier to see. Bullying has been around and cyber bulling is just another type of bullying. It doesn't encourage violent teen behavior any more than any other social interaction. Social media is really just a technological way for people to interact socially. The big difference between it and gathering down at the community center or the malt shop is that social media involves wires. Besides, it no more encourages violent teen behavior any more than violent video games, the constant violence on our televisions and in our books, or the way the military of various countries on this planet are constantly engaged in some kind of violence. There are some teens that will be violent no matter what. Social media does make it easier to socialize, and therefore may be more traumatic for those teens that are easily swayed. These same teens would easily be violent when confronted in any situation, even if social media wasn't a contributing factor. Social media does not encourage violence. Nothing about social media encourages conflict between individuals. It is a way for people to stay in touch with friend and family while gaining information. Anything that encourages violence is done by the users that are using the particular site. Many that own these social media outlets have spoken against violence and discrimination.
An advanced precision guided air/ground weapon - Armament Air-Sol Modulaire, is developed by Sagem for the French Air force. The weapon is designed in both glide and powered configurations, offering standoff capability exceeding 50 km when released from high altitude and 15km, in low altitude flight profile. AASM is designed to replace AS-30L laser guided missiles, and complement the Scalp EG, as a low cost weapon. The basic configuration uses a GPS/INS navigation kit, strapped to a standard 500 pound warhead (such as Mk 82 bomb). The initial configuration which will be fielded by early 2005, will offer JDAM-class precision, and all-weather capability, while follow on versions that are scheduled for fielding by 2007 will also include passive IR guidance which will offer an accuracy compatible with laser guided weapons. A laser-guided version of the AASM is also in development, enabling attack of targets of opportunity, including In a first operational test conducted December 1, 2006 GPS/INS guided AASM was dropped from a Mirage 2000 N at the Biscarosse Launch Missile Test Center in the southwest region of France. The weapon was dropped at low altitude, high speed and under strong load factor, thus validating the AASM's GPS/INS guided version's performance in difficult, tight maneuvers. In May 2008 MBDA France and Sagem Défense Sécurité signed a cooperation agreement shifting the sales and marketing of Sagem's modular air-to-ground weapon (AASM) to MBDA. and infrared guidance for tactical missiles. Under the terms of the agreement, MBDA France will be responsible for all sales and marketing of the AASM family developed by Sagem Défense Sécurité. The two companies will also combine their respective areas of expertise to form a close partnership for the joint development of future versions of the AASM family. Sagem has been awarded a contract to supply 3,400 AASM Air-to-Ground Weapons to equip the French Air Force Rafale aircraft. The order also covers the initial order of 680 weapons. This latest order follows the initial contract won by Sagem for 750 AASMs to be delivered to the French air force. The AASM has been deployed on Rafale fighters in Afghanistan for the last two years. The basic version will integrate an upgraded, GPS module and be prepared to receive an Inertial/GPS and laser terminal guidance systems. The new multi-sensor guided version expands the AASM family, which already includes two versions qualified on the Rafale multirole combat aircraft, with inertial/GPS or inertial/GPS/infrared guidance. In particular, the new version enables precision strikes against moving targets. The AASM weapon family comprises kits and augmentation kits fitting 1,000, 500, 250, and 125 kg bombs. Launched from standoff distance, day or night and in all weather conditions, the AASM offers a range exceeding 50 kilometers. The AASM can be released at low altitude, and can also be fired off-axis, in relation to the aircraft’s flight path. It offers very high precision and strikes its target vertically, a feature suited to asymmetrical conflicts. This makes it the perfect weapon for combat in difficult terrain or urban environments, for both planned missions and opportunity fire.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Jefferson County began the assembly phase on Tuesday for the spacecraft that will carry MAVEN — Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN —into orbit around the red planet. Set to launch in November 2013, NASA hopes the mission provides information into the relationship between the loss of Mars’ atmospheric gas and the changing Martian climate over time. During this crucial phase of assembly, test and launch operations (ALTO), the scientific instruments come together and the spacecraft begins to take its launch form. This is one in a series of Mars missions that Lockheed Martin has played a major role. Kristen Leigh Painter: 303-954-1638, [email protected] or twitter.com/kristenpainter
AUSTIN, Texas — To 15-year-old Andrea Hernandez, the tracking microchip embedded in her student identification card is a “mark of the beast,” sacrilege to her Christian faith — not to mention how it pinpoints her location, even in the school restroom. But to her budget-reeling San Antonio school district, those chips carry a potential $1.7 million in classroom funds. Starting this fall, the fourth-largest school district in Texas is experimenting with “locator” chips in student ID badges on two of its campuses, allowing administrators to track the whereabouts of 4,200 students with GPS-like precision. Hernandez’s refusal to participate isn’t a twist on teenage rebellion but has launched a debate over privacy and religion that has forged rare like-mindedness between typically opposing groups. When Hernandez and her parents balked at the so-called SmartID, the school agreed to remove the chip but still required her to wear the badge. The family refused on religious grounds, stating in a lawsuit that even wearing the badge was tantamount to “submission of a false god” because the card still indicated her participation. A state district judge had been expected to decide Wednesday whether Northside Independent School District could transfer Hernandez to a different campus. But the family’s attorney said late Tuesday that the hearing was canceled after the school district asked that the case be moved to federal court. “How often do you see an issue where the ACLU and Christian fundamentalists come together? It’s unusual,” said Chris Steinbach, chief of staff for a Republican state lawmaker who has filed a bill to outlaw the technology in Texas schools. The concept isn’t new but hasn’t exactly caught on nationwide. In 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union raised concerns about a similar initiative at a California school. That same year, a suburban Houston school district began putting the chips in its student IDs and served as the blueprint for Northside’s pilot program that began this fall. The Northside school district spent roughly $261,000 to equip students at one high school and one middle school with SmartIDs, a decision made with safety and efficiency in mind, district spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said. He cited quickly accounting for students in the event of a lockdown or cafeteria lines moving faster as scanners identify who’s picking up that lunch tray. Yet the biggest motivation was financial. In Texas, school funding is based on daily attendance. With the locator chips — the district doesn’t like to call them “tracking” — a clerk in the school office can account for each student and include them in the daily attendance count. Gonzalez said the district has estimated another $1.7 million in funding if the program delivers on expectations of an increased attendance count, somewhat lessening the sting of losing $61.5 million after state lawmakers cut public school funding by nearly $5 billion last year. “Nobody is sitting at a bank of monitors looking for the whereabouts of 3,000 students,” Gonzalez said. “We don’t have the personnel for it, nor do we have the need to do that. But when I need to find (a student), I can enter his random number and I can find him somewhere as a red dot on that computer screen. ‘Oh, there he is, in Science Room 22’ or whatever. So we can locate students, but it’s not about tracking them.” Hernandez’s family isn’t convinced. Nor is Virginia-based civil-rights group the Rutherford Institute, which took up Hernandez’s cause and filed the lawsuit against the district. The organization declined to make the Hernandez family available for an interview Tuesday. John Whitehead, the organization’s founder, says the religious component of the lawsuit makes it stronger than if it only objected on grounds of privacy. The lawsuit cites scriptures in the book of Revelation, stating that “acceptance of a certain code … from a secular ruling authority” is a form of idolatry. Gonzalez said that of 4,200 students, the Hernandez family is the only one who has asked out of the program.
Welsh MEP says devastating impact of Brexit on poorer people gives cause for a public vote on the final deal Labour MEP, Derek Vaughan’s message comes as think tank ‘The Resolution Foundation’ warns inflation and Brexit could see the poorest families £300 worse off in 2018. “It is now clearer than ever that voters were fed lies by the Leave campaign. Brexit isn’t solving any of our problems, its exacerbating them,” said Mr Vaughan “The pound is falling leading to higher prices in the shops, and we will lose vital EU funding for Wales which helps thousands of people into training and jobs. “As our economy falters and public finances worsen, the Chancellor has admitted a Brexit 'no deal' will mean less money for NHS and social care, and now we hear our poorest families will be worse off financially. “It is especially hard to stomach this news when the Tories have frozen pensions and we hear the PM is spending £250m on preparations for a possible ‘no deal’ EU result. “Voters were promised there would be an easy deal, with all the benefits of EU membership, without any of the responsibilities. It’s clear to everyone now that this was never going to be the case. We need a public vote on any deal that is reached, a vote with all the facts on the table.” Welsh MEP says devastating impact of Brexit on poorer people gives cause for a public vote on the final deal Labour MEP, Derek Vaughan’s message comes as think tank... Brexit threatens to quash plans to bring high-quality internet to public spaces across Wales The European Parliament today backed a scheme to bring WiFi connectivity to public spaces such as parks, squares and public buildings across Europe. The agreement, dubbed WiFi4EU, will bring high-quality internet to 6000-8000 communities across Europe. Labour MEP for Wales Derek Vaughan said he was pleased to see the Parliament vote in favour of the initiative, but is worried that Brexit will mean Wales misses out. “All Welsh people should have access to good-quality WiFi connections, no matter where they live or how much they earn. “This project would allow local communities to set up in state-of-the-art infrastructure in train stations, parks, libraries, hospitals or any other public spaces and would benefit both residents of and visitors to local communities across Wales. “Wales would benefit hugely from this initiative, but Brexit may render us ineligible. “This is just one example of what we stand to lose due to Brexit. Farmers stand to lose millions in CAP funds, universities stand to lose millions in research funding, Wales will lose EU funding for infrastructure, not to mention EU protections for workers’ rights and women’s rights. “That’s why the Tory Government has been stalling on providing details about the negotiations and exactly what they expect from any deal with the EU post Brexit. They know any deal will be worse than what we have now.” The first call for projects is expected to be launched towards the end of 2017 or early 2018. Brexit threatens to quash plans to bring high-quality internet to public spaces across Wales The European Parliament today backed a scheme to bring WiFi connectivity to public spaces such as... It is welcome that in that last year all of the major political parties have come to embrace the need for a proactive industrial strategy. Unfortunately, this has come because leaving the European Union, a huge hi-tech market place of 500 million people, now means that without Government intervention British manufacturing may suffer greatly without access to the Single Market and the customs union. News that Nissan is investing in its plant in Sunderland is excellent. Seven thousand jobs are at that plant and a further 30,000 jobs in the local supply chain. However, Nissan has been clear that they will stay if the Government will guarantee tariff free access to the Single Market or compensate them if tariffs are imposed. The Government says that may be able to get this access for specific industries, but the President of the Commission has said that he will not let the UK treat the Single Market like a “buffet”, suggesting there will not be opt-ins for individual industries. The upshot of this is that the Government may end up being in a position of paying Nissan’s tariffs for it. Which means that money that could be spent on teaching our kids, treating our elderly and defending our country will go to Nissan’s HQ in Tokyo. It also raises the question about whether this approach is sustainable, realistically the Government will not be able to do this for every business. We know that companies do not think that is a risk worth taken after the reduction of the number of engines made in the Ford plant in Bridgend down to 125,000 from 250,000 previously, showing that they are reducing their reliance on the UK. We need to make sure Airbus remain committed, not just for the next few years but for decades to come, with their factory in Broughton. The most likely outcome of a chaotic Brexit where we do not get the deal we need is steady decline. The big companies based here will slowly reduce their plants and reliance on a UK base will transfer to EU countries where they can boost their profit margins. The Government will try and stave this off with sweetheart deals that will be very expensive to the taxpayer, this will ensure that a few companies stay, but these will become more and more difficult to hold on to and the EU may begin to feel that our state help is undercutting EU industry and begin to raise tariffs. By staying in the Single Market and creating a proactive industrial strategy we would avoid this problem and be able to build a manufacturing base in the UK that not only survives but thrives. It is welcome that in that last year all of the major political parties have come to embrace the need for a proactive industrial strategy. Unfortunately, this has come because...
Our chosen theme was Eco Bag Art. By providing blank canvas bags and plenty of assorted art materials, we offered those taking part the chance to get creative and make a personalised bag, which they could take away and use again and again. All in all 18,265 visitors went along to New Designers 2013, making this year’s shows the busiest in its 28 year history. Having recently featured New Designer Week 1 we now turn our attentions to New Designers Week 2 for more wonderfully talented, newly qualified sustainable designers. The Week 2 show featured: - Furniture & Product Design - Graphic Design & Illustration - Spatial Design (inc. Architecture & Interior Design) - Motion Arts - One Year On Katarina Dimitrijevic, a graduate of Goldsmiths College London, is exploring recycling and up-cycling design strategies to promote design activism around waste. Through her company, KraalD, she’s striving to initiate debate by engaging people in ‘trash-aesthetics’, through design, craft making and workshops. Her point is that, no matter what we do or don’t do, we are all co-creating our future together. We want more, but, considering sustainability, we must consume less. Put simply, Katarina thinks we should reconsider the things we throw away. For instance, discarded plastic doesn’t degrade; instead, besides killing wildlife, it becomes smaller and smaller, and eventually microscopic, when it can enter the food chain. Ethical Corporation’s annual Responsible Business Summit London, May 7-8, brought together global experts to share their experience and discuss the latest sustainability challenges faced in 2013. Here’s more from that great gathering – the highlights from the sessions we joined on Day 2: INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO DEVELOPING NEW SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS In this session we learned how companies are driving sustainability into product design. Kimberly-Clark Tom Berry – Head of Sustainability, EMEA Kimberly-Clark make health and hygiene products, such as Kleenex, Andrex and Huggies. They operate in around 175 countries, so they have a big footprint. They essentially use wood fibre and oil to make products and, in their production, use a lot of energy and water. Also many of their products are disposable, so there’s a lot of waste associated with them.
I was standing in the Herbst Pavilion at San Francisco’s Fort Mason, with the Golden Gate Bridge looming in the background. I was also standing in the middle of Cave 220 in Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang, China, just a few feet ...Read More » On the second day at SolidWorks World 2015, author, futurist, and theoretical physicist Michio Kaku took the stage. With acerbic wit and humor, he recounted the time he agreed to test-drive a self-driving car for a TV documentary. “BBC put ...Read More » On Indiegogo, the campaign to fund Flow, described as “the world’s most magical controller,” has gone extremely well. The team — a group with a mix of electrical engineering and industrial design backgrounds — wanted to raise U.S. $50,000. Instead, ...Read More » Adding Cognition, Machine Learning, and Prediction to Products: a Far-Fetched Dream or Worthy Endeavor? Every year, at Congress on the Future of Engineering Software (COFES), industry leaders gather to discuss — and sometimes speculate on — characteristics and attributes of the tools and technologies next-generation engineers and designers might need. This year (COFES 2014, ...Read More » Sophi Leporte (age 17) first came in contact with CAD in a class at Terra Linda High School, San Rafael, California. The students were asked to design their own wind turbine, to be printed out later in a 3D printer. ...Read More »
In The Bedroom - Bed times falls and the owner kisses the cat good night and the cat simple finds a nice cozy spot in the room to curl and go sleep In The Bed - Lucky cat, the cat is allowed to snuggle close to his owner while absorbing every snore released. On The Pillow - Even closer than just a spot on the bed, the cat is given a head to head spot on the owners pillow. It's all good to have your cat snuggle up close to you at nights, but the cat does need its own sleeping space to enjoy. Don't you love it when you are nice and comfy in your bed?, your own little spot to stretch out, throw down or cuddle up? Guess what? Your cat feels the same way. Your cat likes to feel comfort and having the comfort in sleep is a bonus. Many humans allow their cats to share beds with them, which may be pretty cool for some. But cats do want to have their own space or bed to call theirs. Giving your cat a bed is probably one of the best things you could buy for your pet, here is why: Good Rest Is Crucial - If you want your cat to maintain a happy and healthy life, you must ensure that your cat gets the adequate and comfortable rest your companion deserves. In any mammal, good rest equates to good health. Comfort and Security - Cats love to have that little space they know is theirs. That nice place they can go to when they seek comfort on their own and not having you wait to open your room door to allow him/her to jump on the bed. Decreases Separation Anxiety - Why many cats experience separation anxiety is because they have no idea on what being apart from their owner feels like. They sleep in their owners bed, they go everywhere with their owner and that person becomes their total life. By giving your cat its own sleeping space gives that cat a sense of individuality and decreases separation anxiety. It does not make your cat loves you any less, but makes your cat learn to appreciate his own space. Our pets makes us happy, why not give them something which in return makes them happy. Give them comfort, give them a cat bed.
SySaver is a browser extension used for popping up advertisements by hijacking your browsers (it is compatible with Internet Explorer and Google Chrome) without knowledge and permission. However, it is always regard as virus by most of people since they have no idea where it comes from. Actually, SySaver should be classified as adware or adware platform inserting advertising into pages while browsing. SySaver adware claims that it enables you to save money passively while browsing the web on your favorite e-commerce sites. In fact, it is a Product Placement. This adware platform pops up ads of advertiser and collects advertising revenue from users as they are hijacked by this browser extension. It is worth mentioning that SySaver browser extension threatens your security and privacy. It will monitor your browsing activity, save your browsing history and your sensitive financial data such as logins, account as well as credit card. Instead of leave SySaver pop-up ads plague you, not as good as remove it immediately. How to Remove SySaver Pop-up Ads - Step 1: Uninstall SySaver adware from computer and optimize your PC - Step 2: Block spam ads, malicious websites including phishing websites automatically via Anvi Ad Blocker Step 1> Uninstall SySaver adware from computer and optimize your PC Please note, SySaver adware is installed on your PC alongside different free software you download from the internet. So you are suggested to uninstall this free software. By the way, you’d better consider the recent installed program tracing back to time of its pop-up ads appearing. Before uninstalling, please close all your browsers. 1. Please install Cloud System Booster first. Free version: http://dotfab.com/download_csb.html Pro version: http://www.dotfab.com/csbupgrade.php 2. After installing, open it and click Expert, and then click Toolbox to download Anvi Uninstaller within several senconds; and then run it. 3. Switch to the Recently Installed tab to remove SySaver adware. ( Please Skip “Create System Restore Points” when removing) 4. Please go back to Home, and click on Boost to scan junk files and invalid registry entries left in your computer; and then click Clean to optimize your PC. Please always use the tool like Cloud System Booster to clean up the leftovers in the computer to get a clean and optimized PC environment. Step 2> Block spam ads, malicious websites including phishing websites automatically via Anvi Ad Blocker To avoid being infected by adware and annoyed by popups, you are recommended to install internet ads blocker—Anvi Ad Blocker to give you a real-time protection. It protects Windows system from malicious URLs, phishing websites, pop-up/flash ads as well as your unwanted websites by blocking them all. Moreover, it also speed up your webpage loading meanwhile it blocks all risky or potentially risky things from the Internet. Install Anvi Ad Blocker to protect the browsers from various pop-up ads, malicious websites. Download and install free or pro version of Anvi Ad Blocker. Then open it and it will keep running to help you to protect your computer from various online risks and annoyance ranging from spam ads, pop up ads, flash ads to phishing, hacked websites and many other malicious websites. Download link: http://www.dotfab.com/download_adb.html Purchase link: http://www.anvisoft.com/product/adbupgrade.php After installing the spam ads and malicious URLs blocker, please click on the ON button to keep it running, so it will give you a real-time protect to help you out of the annoying of popup ads and attack of various malicious URLs. When appearing malicious or unwanted URL, Anvi Ad Blocker will popup this window to Remind you. If you are agree to block it, please click OK; if not, please select Add to the White list to let the URL never be blocked again. Besides, you can add malicious URLs to Black Lists to block them run and add URLs that you think aren’t annoying to White Lists to allow them to run. Tips for Avoiding Being Infected by SySaver Pop-up Ads To ensure be safe on in the further, we need to adopt necessary measures to get free from virus infections. Here we offer you some effective prevention tips and these tips are applied to all of browser hijacker, redirect virus, adware, toolbar and PUPs that share the common with distribution. 1. Be attentive to visit websites, especially those unknown and with strange looking. It is high recommended to install a protective tool like Anvi AD Blocker for blocking malicious websites and popups, for details, please read Easy Ads-free Surfing with Anvi Ad Blocker, or you can choose to Turn on Security Features of Internet Browsers for Safer Surfing Online to block malicious websites. 2. Always keep an eye on what you click and download, including music, movies, files, browser plug-ins or add-ons. When you do install software, make sure you’re getting the software from a trusted source 3. Keep your antivirus software and other security protect applications up to data. 4. Delete internet browsing history including the history of the websites you have visited and the history of the downloads you’ve performed to prevent you from getting malicious infections again. For any question, please feel free to send us your email below.
- Right-click on "My Computer" or "Computer". Left-click on "Manage". - When the window opens up then left-click on "Device Manager". You should now be able to see all the devices that is attached to your PC. - Find anything with a yellow exclamation point and Double-Click on it. A new box will pop up. - Left-click on the tab labeled "Driver". - Click on "Update Driver". - If the location of the driver is needed, show them the place where you downloaded the Sony Vaio Pcg-F560K drivers. - You may need to reboot the computer afterwards. Sony Vaio Pcg-F560K Drivers Instructions on how to download Sony Vaio Pcg-F560K drivers to a folder on your computer system in order to have your hardware device perform properly. Device drivers are basically just small text files that offers some code for the processor to process so that the system can utilize the particular piece of hardware that the file corresponds to. Sans accurate driver files installed the device is meaningless and cannot be used. You should have the proper driver files properly installed on your Windows operating system in order to operate the device within the operating system of your computer. Any device connected to your computer system need drivers installed on the computer in order for them to work correctly. These particular devices can be a sound card, hard drive, phone or a million other devices that can be connected to a Windows computer by use of a cable of some sort. - BRAND: Sony - MODEL: Vaio Pcg-F560K - SYSTEM TYPE: Personal Computer - OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 So as all devices are different from one another, all drivers are different, as well. This is the biggest reason why it is a mammoth task to find a Sony Vaio Pcg-F560K driver for a specific device. For example, each and every nVidia video card needs their own driver. That adds up to thousands and thousands of driver files to wade through in order to find the right one simply for a specific brand of devices. Finding your Vaio Pcg-F560K driver that you need in order to make your device work with your computer may be surprisingly hard to do. Here are a few things you need to know before you head out searching for your particular Vaio Pcg-F560K driver. - The manufacturer, or brand, of the device for which you are looking for drivers. (if it is built-in to the motherboard then use the computer brand) - Now you need the model number. - Version of Windows that you are running. (check out your Windows start menu in the lower left side of the desktop, open it and right-click on "My Computer" or "Computer" and then be sure to left-click on "Properties". All relevant info will be displayed) - You will have to know if you have a 32-bit system or a 64-bit system. (if it is a 64-bit system then it will show up in the Window that opens from right-clicking on "My Computer" or "Computer" and then left-clicking on "Properties". If it doesn't say that you are running a 64-bit system then it is safe to say that you are running a 32-version of Windows.) It is vital to know the manufacturer and model number of the device and OS type which the computer is running. After you have the correct information you should look online for your specific Sony Vaio Pcg-F560K drivers and download them in your Windows OS computer. The most recent types of Windows (7, 8, 8.1, and Windows 10) makes quick work of most of the difficult parts for you and will determine the correct drivers and install them onto the system for you. There might be a time or two in which you need to find on the Internet the Vaio Pcg-F560K driver because Windows could not find a suitable driver within its online database. Which is probably the reason why you are here! Most notable companies have their drivers listed on their website for use on desktop and laptop computers. Not all manufacturer's websites are quite easy to find and browse through. A few companies do not take time to think about the people that use the website and how little he or she knows about the world of computers, especially when trying to install Sony Vaio Pcg-F560K drivers on a laptop or desktop computer. Most people have a tough time knowing exactly what they are looking for and trying to navigate a poorly designed website can be extremely annoying , to say the least. Take a moment to think before you download Vaio Pcg-F560K drivers and other files from suspicious looking sites. For safety reasons, try to only download from a device manufacturer's website if all possible. Viruses and other malware can be contained within just about any type of file found on the Internet. Going to a bad website and installing the wrong file can be catastrophic if you ended up installing a virus. No anti-virus software can prevent ALL viruses. Because of the possibility of a virus download, we send you directly to the device manufacturer's. The device manufacturer's website is much more safer and less likely to get a virus than anywhere else. After you searched, found then downloaded from a reputable site the actual driver from online for the hardware you are looking to install, you should then install it. After obtaining it from the web you may need to uncompress the driver file if the extension is either .zip or .7z. Once the file is uncompressed you should run the program to install the driver. If, for some reason, the driver does not get installed you may need to install them manually. How to install a Sony Vaio Pcg-F560K driver manually: We make every effort to make sure every link is working as it should.
- Go ahead and Right-click on "My Computer" or "Computer". Then Left-click on "Manage". - After the window opens up, left-click on "Device Manager". You should now see all the hardware devices that is attached to your PC. - Find anything with a yellow exclamation point and Double-Click on it. Another box should pop up. - Look for a "Driver" tab and click on it. - Click on the button labeled "Update Driver". - If asked to browse for the location of the driver, tell the computer that the Sony Vaio Vgn-Fe650G driver is located in your downloads folder. - Once complete, a Reboot might be necessary. Sony Vaio Vgn-Fe650G Drivers How to guide about downloading Sony Vaio Vgn-Fe650G drivers directly to your hard drive so you can install hardware and make it perform properly. Drivers are just tiny little files that includes important instructions so that the PC can interpret it and understand it so that one may operate the hardware device that the tiny driver file relates to. Without accurate drivers downloaded and installed properly in the operating system the device is useless and can not be operated. You need the proper driver files downloaded and properly installed on your computer so you can use this piece of hardware. All hardware should have drivers associated with them and needs to be installed in order for the hardware to be utilized. These hardware devices can be a printer, hard disk drive, cell phone or a million other devices that can be connected to a Windows computer by way of directly plugging it in or by using a cable. - BRAND: Sony - MODEL: Vaio Vgn-Fe650G - SYSTEM TYPE: Personal Computer - OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 So as each device is specifically different from one another, every single driver file must be different, as well. It is because of this that it may be difficult to come across the correct driver. For example, every cell phone made by Samsung must have a particular driver downloaded and installed onto the Windows operating system in order to function correctly. That adds up to a great many drivers only for a specific brand of hardware devices. Finding the exact Vaio Vgn-Fe650G driver can be an excruciating experience, at best. Here are a few things you need to know in order to make finding Vaio Vgn-Fe650G drivers much easier and safer! - The brand of the device you are looking for. (if it is actually on the motherboard then the brand of the PC is what you should use) - Model of the device. - You operating system type. (click on Windows "Start" menu, right-click on "My Computer" or aka "Computer" and then left-click on "Properties". Your operating system version and type should be visible via the box that opened up on your desktop) - Is your operating system 32-bit or 64-bit? (if a 64-bit operating system is installed on your computer, then it will say so in the information window that opens from right-clicking on "My Computer" or "Computer" and left-clicking on "Properties". If is does not state 64-bit then go ahead and assume 32-bit.) To save yourself a lot of time and headaches you must be sure to know the brand as well as model number of the device as well as the version of Windows which the computer is running. After you have the correct information about the hardware, you may begin to search for drivers so that you can download and then install them correctly onto your desktop or laptop computer. A few of the most recent versions of Microsoft Windows (7, 8, 8.1, and 10) are capable of doing most of the work for you and will determine the correct drivers and install them onto the system for you. Sometimes a driver can not be installed automatically, so in that a person may have to locate the Vaio Vgn-Fe650G driver for a particular hardware device due to the fact that Microsoft Windows was unable to automatically install it. This is probably why you arrived at this page in the first place! A good portion of brand name devices and hardware have a listing of driver downloads available to the public for use on consumer computers. Some, but not all manufacturer websites are available all the time and use at all. Some manufacturers do not take the time to think of the basic consumer and the high blood pressure that arises stemming from attempting to install Sony Vaio Vgn-Fe650G drivers on a PC. A lot of people have a tough time figuring out what they are looking for and struggling to navigate through a poorly designed site can be stressful , to say the least. You can never be too careful when downloading Vaio Vgn-Fe650G drivers and files from random unknown websites. In order to lower your risk for malware, it would be best to only download drivers from the hardware maker's website. Malware can make their way into a lot of different unsuspected files. Downloading and installing a file that you think is a Vaio Vgn-Fe650G driver can be catastrophic if the file ends up to have a virus. There is no antivirus program that can prevent ALL viruses. This is why this site sends you to the maker's website. Their websites are safer for you and your computer than other random websites offering similar files. After you searched, found and downloaded the real driver for your hardware or peripheral device, you can locate the file on your hard drive and install it onto your computer system. After downloading you may need to uncompress the driver file if the file extension is either .zip or .rar. Once uncompressed you should install the driver. Unfortunately, in some instances it may be that you will need to install your Sony Vaio Vgn-Fe650G driver by hand. The best way to install Sony Vaio Vgn-Fe650G drivers: We make every effort to make sure every link is working as it should.
- Go ahead and Right-click on "My Computer". Then Left-click on "Manage". - When the window opens up then left-click on "Device Manager". You should now see all the hardware devices connected to your computer. - Double-click on the yellow exclamation point. Another box will open up. - Click on the "Driver" tab near the top of the box. - Next, click on "Update Driver" and proceed through the installation of your driver. - If asked to browse for the location of the driver, point the PC to look where you have downloaded your Sony Vaio Vpcse2Nfx driver. - Once complete, a Reboot might be necessary. Sony Vaio Vpcse2Nfx Drivers Feel free to download Sony Vaio Vpcse2Nfx drivers on your computer so that all of your hardware will run the way your device should run. Drivers are just tiny little files that includes necessary instructions about the device in order for the PC to utilize the particular device that the driver file corresponds to. If you do not install the proper driver files to the operating system the piece of hardware is of no use and will never work. You will need these files actually installed on your Windows computer so that the operating system may communicate properly with the particular hardware device. All devices have a specific driver file associated with it and it needs to be installed in Windows in order for them to work. These particular devices can be a system BUS, hard drive, cell phone or tons of other devices that are able to be connected to a desktop or laptop computer system in some form or another. - BRAND: Sony - MODEL: Vaio Vpcse2Nfx - SYSTEM TYPE: Personal Computer - OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 It is because each device is different from one another, every single driver file must be different, too. This is the reason why it may be hard to find a specific Sony Vaio Vpcse2Nfx driver that you are looking for. For instance, all the different ASUS motherboard components all needs its own individual driver in order to work. That adds up to thousands and thousands of driver files to wade through in order to find the right one only for a specific brand of hardware devices. Hunting down the correct Vaio Vpcse2Nfx driver for your particular device may feel like a never-ending experience. Browse the following helpful tips before you go looking. - The device maker (if it is a built-in device connected to the computer then the brand of the PC is what you should use) - You have the brand now you need the model. - The version of Windows. (for all types of Windows PCs, right-click on "My Computer" or aka "Computer" and then you should left-click on "Properties". The important information that you need will be displayed in a window that pops up) - Is your operating system 32-bit or 64-bit? (if your operating system is 64-bit it will be stated in the box that pops up from right-clicking on "My Computer" or aka "Computer" and then left-clicking on "Properties". If it doesn't state that it's 32-bit or 64-bit then you can assume it's 32-bit.) Make sure you know the make and device model as well as the Windows OS version that you are going to install the device driver files onto. Once you have accurate info about the hardware device, it is now possible to start finding the proper Sony Vaio Vpcse2Nfx drivers for the device you are looking to attach to your computer so you can install them onto your Windows operating system. It is a safe bet that most manufacturers of hardware devices have downloads available online for use on consumer computers. But, not all manufacturer's websites are real simple to locate and navigate. Some brand's websites do not like to contemplate the average computer user and how hard it is trying to manually install Sony Vaio Vpcse2Nfx drivers on a computer. A lot of people have a tough time knowing what driver they are searching for and attempting to navigate a poorly constructed website can be strenuous. Be attentive if you ever download Vaio Vpcse2Nfx driver and other files from random unknown websites. To save yourself a possible risk of infection, you should only download drivers from the hardware maker's website if all possible. Spyware and viruses can make their way into just about any type of file found on the Internet. Installing a Vaio Vpcse2Nfx driver onto Windows can be catastrophic if the file ends up to be a virus that you downloaded from the Internet. Even the best anti-virus can prevent ALL viruses. Because of the possibility of a virus download, we send you directly to the database on the device maker's website. Their websites are safer and therefore, better to download your drivers from. After you located and downloaded the driver for the device attached to your computer system, you should install it. After you have downloaded the file you may have to uncompress it if the file ends with .zip, .7z or .rar. After you have uncompressed the file you are able to install the driver. Unfortunately, if the driver fails to install properly you could have to install the Sony Vaio Vpcse2Nfx drivers manually. The old-school way to install Sony Vaio Vpcse2Nfx drivers onto your system: We make every effort to make sure every link is working as it should.
Tips for Behavior-based Interviews - Analyze the position. What skills are required? - Analyze your own background. What skills and qualities have you demonstrated that relate to the position? - Identify examples from your experience where you demonstrated these skills. - Develop and rehearse brief “stories” about how you used those skills using the STAR formula described below. - Use numbers to quantify your results and to help illustrate the scope of your responsibility. - Identify three to five top selling points and convey them during the interview. - Examples can come from a variety of your experiences: part-time jobs, internships, class projects, volunteer experience, activities, student leadership, life experiences etc. Sample behavior-based questions - Tell me about a time when you worked in a group to accomplish a task. - Describe a time you faced a challenge in your last job and how you handled it. - Give me an example of a time you set a goal and reached it. - Tell me about a situation where you had to persuade someone to accept your idea. - Give me an example of a time when you had to keep a positive attitude in a difficult situation. Sample STAR answer Question: Describe a time you demonstrated leadership in a difficult situation. Situation or Task All of my fraternity brothers had left for spring break when one brother was involved in an car accident. None of our officers were available, so I went to the hospital with him, called his parents in Greensburg, and made arrangements for them to stay at the Hospital Hospitality House. His parents appreciated my time & efforts. Our advisor complimented me on keeping a cool head & handling all of the details. I’ve since decided to run for a chapter office position.
Collaboration is crucial for any kind of organization that wants to be productive, adaptable, and creative. When people are collaborating, profits increase and things get done. When they’re not, your organization loses time and energy. Why, then, do many organizations struggle to provide collaboration tools their employees will actually use? Dynamic Collaboration shows how leaders can harness the power of Web 2.0 and use it to tap into the collective intelligence of their organization. Dynamic Collaboration offers practical advice to help you answer questions like these: - What tools does your organization need to help facilitate collaboration? - How do you ensure that your personnel will use those tools? - How can you protect your privileged information from unauthorized users? Whether you are a leader in the public or private sector or a technologist, you’ll discover ways to help your team solve problems they wouldn’t otherwise have solved, get work done quicker than ever before, and feel connected because they are working together toward a common goal. Based on their years of experience helping organizations of all kinds–both private enterprises and government agencies–Ray Schwemmer and Rick Havrilla offer practical advice to help readers choose the right tools to facilitate collaboration and integrate them into the existing tools that employees are already using so that there is a seamless transition between working independently and working collaboratively.
Definition of 'so' - the syllable naming the fifth (dominant) note of any musical scale in solmization Synonyms: sol soh - to a very great extent or degree; "the idea is so obvious"; "never been so happy"; "I love you so"; "my head aches so!" - in a manner that facilitates; "he observed the snakes so he could describe their behavior"; "he stooped down so he could pick up his hat" - in such a condition or manner, especially as expressed or implied; "They're happy and I hope they will remain so"; "so live your life that old age will bring no regrets" - to a certain unspecified extent or degree; "I can only go so far with this student"; "can do only so much in a day" - in the same way; also; "I was offended and so was he"; "worked hard and so did she" - in the way indicated; "hold the brush so"; "set up the pieces thus"; (`thusly' is a nonstandard variant) Synonyms: thus thusly - (usually followed by `that') to an extent or degree as expressed; "he was so tired he could hardly stand"; "so dirty that it smells" - subsequently or soon afterward (often used as sentence connectors); "then he left"; "go left first, then right"; "first came lightning, then thunder"; "we watched the late movie and then went to bed"; "and so home and to bed" Synonyms: then and so and then - in truth (often tends to intensify); "they said the car would break down and indeed it did"; "it is very cold indeed"; "was indeed grateful"; "indeed, the rain may still come"; "he did so do it!"
Definition of 'solicit' You searched for solicited - make a solicitation or entreaty for something; request urgently or persistently; "Henry IV solicited the Pope for a divorce"; "My neighbor keeps soliciting money for different charities" Synonyms: beg tap - make amorous advances towards; "John is courting Mary" Synonyms: woo court romance - approach with an offer of sexual favors; "he was solicited by a prostitute"; "The young man was caught soliciting in the park" Synonyms: hook accost - incite, move, or persuade to some act of lawlessness or insubordination; "He was accused of soliciting his colleagues to destroy the documents" - make a solicitation or petition for something desired; "She is too shy to solicit"
You may be debating whether you should attend classes on campus or online. Compare Contrast Men and WomenI have listed a few pros and cons of online education and the traditional. is a ton of writing involved. easy as compare to traditional education. Online Digital Learning Compare and Contrast Lesson How Music Affects Teens BehaviorFree Essays on Compare And Contrast Online Classes With Traditional Classes. Compare And Contrast Online Classes With. Compare and Contrast Essay TitleFree Essays on Compare And Contrast Online Classes. Compare and Contrast Essay Traditional College vs. Compare and Contrast Essay On Online EducationLesson Two: Comparing Traditional and Online Classrooms Key differences between the traditional classroom and the online classroom.Notable Differences Between Online and Traditional. particularly in content areas and classes that.Similarities Between Taking Classes Online and on Campus by Neil Kokemuller, Demand Media. Online Classes vs Traditional Classes Online classes and traditional.Compare And Contrast Essay A Traditional Class Vs Online Comparison And Contrast Essay Block Method. Compare and Contrast Essay ThesisDifferences between online and traditional education, in terms of instruction and social. What are the main factors to consider before applying for any online degree.Traditional classes provide interaction between students and. Online Shopping EssayCompare And Contrast Essay Online Classes Vs Traditional. Vs Traditional Use comparison and contrast essay type. in compare and contrast essay.The Differences Between Online and Traditional Classroom Educations. Traditional Class Compare and Contrast Online Vs. Class Key Success Education Essay Online Vs. Traditional Classes Essay Difference Between College MoneyThese online courses allow them to. enroll in only traditional courses,.The purpose of this research is to expand on previous research and to compare.To get an compare and contrast essay online classes vs traditional thperiodic recurrencin pellagra what.Get access to Compare And Contrast Online Schools Vs Traditional Essays. Online College at the UOP: A Compare and Contrast Essay James B.Some people really enjoy shopping while others hate the whole process of buying things. Online Vs. Traditional Education Essay Online courses often substitute. 202 Journal of Public Affairs Education Table 1.Online Education. This paper will compare and contrast online vs. traditional education and what each has to offer you.The similarities between a classroom and distance learning, which include quality of education and degree programs, are discussed on DegreeGo. Essay On Online Vs Traditional Education. Login. Site Map. Free Essay Reviews. So if you want to compare online education with traditional education,. Best Buy Store Shopping ... your compare and contrast essay include the following elements in yourThese days, the internet has grown into a veritable wealth of information for college seekers. Example Compare and Contrast Essay Block Pattern Ideas for Compare and Contrast Essay Ideas for Compare and Contrast Essay: Get Your Ones To write a good compare and contrast essay, you have to possess at least two. Online Classroom Learning to Compare and Contrast Essay A Comparative Analysis of Online and Traditional Education Settings. A comparison of the online versus the traditional classroom environments in relation to. Children should interact and to work with one another in order to build real...Everything from applying for financial aid to taking a course can be.Online vs Traditional Education.THE SIMILARITIES OF ONLINE EDUCATION VS TRADITIONAL EDUCATION There are two different.
Jane Fonda's Ranch Inspired Michael Jackson To Buy Neverland Jane Fonda has revealed for the first time that a fateful visit by Michael Jackson to her California ranch in 1981 inspired the late pop singer to eventually purchase his own. “I had a ranch in Santa Barbara,” the 73-year-old fitness guru and actress told CNN’s Piers Morgan . “And he came and visited me once. And I was walking him around. It’s how he was introduced to that area — where he eventually bought Neverland — is when I had him to my ranch.” That ranch, I believe, is Laurel Springs – a 160-acre property located on a ridgetop in the Santa Ynez Mountain range. Fonda bought it with her husband Tom Hayden, later turning it into a workout studio spa and a camp for disadvantaged children. She later sold the property in the late 90s. It now serves as a retreat center for those groups “dedicated to conscious ways of living.” Fonda recalled a moment from Jackson’s visit where the young pop star recoiled after she pointed out the spot where she intended to be buried. She said he declared that he was never going to die. “He talked about how he would get into an oxygen tank and he thought that was going to keep him, you know, alive forever.” As for Jackson’s own famous 2,800 acre Neverland Ranch, from what we know, work is still underway to preserve it. An update back in March from Colony Capital’s Tom Barrack, whose firm owns part of the rights to the property, indicate as such. “Our plans have been to work to restore it to its original greatness,” he told Bloomberg TV. “The place is amazing. It has not only the beautiful spirit and softness of Michael, but a legacy of a thousand years of Indian culture that had transacted upon it. We have just been restoring it, renovating it.”
MY HUSBAND HAS BEEN COLLECTING OLD TIME RADIO SHOWS FOR A LONG TIME NOW. HE LISTENS TO THEM WHILE HE IS WORKING IN THE DARKROOM. WE THOUGHT WE WOULD SHARE THEM WITH OTHERS SO THEY COULD ENJOY THEM ALSO. The show is often regarded as an example of the conservative and paternalistic nature of American family life in the 1950s and it is also cited as an overly rosy portrayal of American family life. On the radio program, the character of Jim differs from the later television character. The radio Jim is far more sarcastic and shows he really "rules" over his family. Jim also calls his children names, something common on radio but lost in the TV series; for example, Jim says, "What a bunch of stupid children I have." Margaret is portrayed as a paragon of solid reason and patience, unless the plot calls for her to act a bit off. For example, in a Halloween episode, Margaret cannot understand how the table floats in the air, but that is a rare exception. Betty, on radio, is portrayed as a status seeking, boy-crazy teenage girl. To her, every little thing is "The worst thing that could ever happen." Bud, on radio, is portrayed as an "all-American" boy who always seems to need "just a bit more" money, though he gets $1.25 per week in allowance. The actor had an affected 'R.' (Similar to Elmer Fudd, but not quite as pronounced.) Bud is in charge of always having to answer the front door, which he hates. He is portrayed as a somewhat dim boy who takes everything literally; for example, Jim might say "Go jump in the lake," to which Bud would reply "OK, Dad — which lake should I go jump into?" On radio Kathy often is portrayed as a source of irritation. She whines and cries and complains about her status in the family as overlooked. She often is the source of money to her brother and sister, although she is in hock several years on her own allowance. THERE ARE 73 Episodes ON 1 CD AND THEY ARE IN MP3 FORMAT. THEY WILL PLAY ON ANY COMPUTER AND SOME CD PLAYERS THAT ARE MARKED PLAYS MP3s. YOU CAN EASILY BURN THEM TO A CD SO YOU CAN PLAY ON YOUR CAR SYSTEM. I HAVE THEM ON MY ZUNE AND ONE OF MY FRIENDS HAS THEM ON HIS I-POD. REMEMBER THEY ARE IN MP3 FORMAT AND WILL NOT PLAY ON MOST CD PLAYERS. SHIP TO CANADA AND UK Any questions please email [email protected] or call 702-824-0454
Assist Robots for Industrial Use Power assist suits for industrial use have been developed by Activelink Co., Ltd., one of Panasonic's in-house venture companies. “Our mission is to help realize a Power Barrier-less Society by offering a helping hand during manual labor and at other worksites" said Hiromichi Fujimoto, President of Activelink Co., Ltd. “We are proposing robotics to help at these worksites, because there will always be a certain level of work that must be done by people, and these power assist suits can help reduce the physical strain during such work." AWN-03: Back support offering Assist Suit The AWN-03 was especially developed to provide lower back support. It automatically senses the user's motion when lifting and holding heavy objects, and sends a signal to the motors to rotate the gears. It also raises the user's upper body while pushing on their thighs, and as a result reduces stress on the user's lower back by 15kg. By mimicking human motion, the PLN-01 named “Ninja” assists the user's motion while walking and running, for instance hiking up steep mountain paths during afforestation. An upper body unit of the “Ninja” is currently being developed, which will help lift and carry heavy items. The Power Loader is a powerful suit that can be used during disaster relief, construction, and public works. It has 4 sensors in the hands and feet that control 20 motors. Assist Robots for Elderly Care Panasonic has been in the nursing business for over 18 years in Japan running elderly care facilities and developing devices that contribute to elderly care. Elderly care may be mentally and physically straining for people who give and receive care, so Panasonic is providing solutions that improve the quality of life of both the elderly and caregivers. “As Japan has becomes an aging-society, Panasonic is aspiring to make its contribution by supporting the elderly and their families lead a comfortable life full of smiling faces and laughter” explained Hitoshi Sasaki, Assistant Director of Sincere Kourien, an elderly care facility run by Panasonic AGE-FREE. "There are many instances that can be straining to both caregivers and care recipients. Just moving from the bed to a wheelchair can be a very energy consuming both parties." Panasonic developed Resyone, a combination of electric nursing care bed and an electric full reclining wheelchair. Resyone's bed splits in half and one half transforms into a reclining wheelchair. Caregivers no longer have to lift residents from the bed to the wheelchair, so it reduces the strain on both the caregiver and residents and also helps maintains residents’ dignity. Resyone became the world’s first product to receive the ISO13482 certification, the new global safety standard for personal care robots. Self-Reliance Support Robot The Self-Reliance Support Robot assists the elderly when moving from the bed to the restroom, chairs etc. and empowers them to perform everyday tasks, such as using the restroom and watching television. This robot senses the slightest of movement and can predict how the elderly is doing based on the information gathered by the sensors. The motors in this robot only provide the level of power necessary, that is lacking, allowing residents to use their own remaining muscle strength and thereby prevents unnecessary muscle atrophy and strain. The robot also reduces strain for the caregiver as well, because they will no longer have to use their own physical strength. To help realize a better life, Panasonic will continue to develop robots that provide assistance in a wide range of fields that are safe to use and offers peace of mind.
UK prompt power prices were unchanged Friday, close to a seven-week low, following the restart of two nuclear reactors on Thursday, said traders. GBP53/MWh in peak, up a mere 15 pence and 35 pence, respectively. “Margins are very comfortable, there’s no pressure on the system,” a trader a large UK utility said. “It doesn’t get cold until the back end of next week,” he added. The 220 MW Oldbury-2 nuclear reactor in southwest England restarted early Thursday morning, and the 480 MW Hinkley B8 reactor restarted in the afternoon, boosting supply margins. Output from the UK’s nuclear reactors increased above 8 GW for the first time in a week on Friday as a result, data from National Grid showed. Wind output will remain high on Friday and Saturday, according to National Grid. It was unclear whether this would be sustained into next week.
In this article, steam turbine and cooling tower technologies for power sector have been discussed in detail. Arguably, electricity is one of the greatest inventions ever. It has given a quantum leap to the mankind. It has brought light to darkest regions of the world, enabled invention of many path breaking technologies and changed the way we live. Electricity can be produced from various fuel sources. These sources are broadly divided under four categories: - Thermal Power – Coal, natural gas and oil - Hydro power - Nuclear power - Renewable power – Solar, wind, biomass, waste etc. In a thermal power plant, heat energy produced from burning of Coal, Natural Gas or Oil is converted to electricity. A turbine or an engine is used which converts the heat energy into mechanical energy and an alternator is used to convert the mechanical energy into electricity. Thermal turbines can be split into steam turbine and gas turbine. Other than thermal power plants, steam turbine is also used in nuclear power plant, biomass or waste based power plant and solar thermal power plant. About 80 per cent of all electricity generation in the world is by use of steam turbines. In steam turbine based power plants, various fuel sources are burnt to generate steam which is then used to run the steam turbine. On the other hand, in a gas turbine based power plant, a mixture of gas and air is burnt to generate hot flue gas which is then used to run a gas turbine. Image 1 depicts diagram of a coal based power plant and its various components. In a coal based power plant, coal is burnt to generate high pressure steam in a boiler which is then used to run a steam turbine. An alternator, also known as generator is connected to the turbine which generates electricity due to rotating motion of the turbine. Steam after hitting the turbine blades loses its pressure and enters into a condenser. Condenser condenses the steam into hot water to allow it to be pumped back to the boiler through a boiler feed water pump. If the condenser can be made cooler, the pressure of the exhaust steam is reduced and efficiency of the cycle increases. To cool the condenser, a cooling tower is used in a thermal power plant. In the subsequent sections of this article, steam turbine and cooling tower technologies have been discussed in detail. A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Because the turbine generates rotary motion, it is particularly suited to be used to drive an electrical generator or rotary equipment like pumps, compressors, and blowers etc. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884. The invention of Parson’s steam turbine made cheap and plentiful electricity possible and revolutionized marine transport and naval warfare. Parsons had the satisfaction of seeing his invention adopted for all major world power stations, and the size of generators had increased from his first 7.5 kW set up to units of 50,000 kW capacity. Steam turbines are made in a variety of sizes ranging from small <1 hp (<0.75 kW) units (rare) used as mechanical drives for pumps, compressors and other shaft driven equipment, to 2,000,000 hp (1,500,000 kW) turbines used to generate electricity. There are several classifications for modern steam turbines. These types include condensing, non-condensing, reheat, extraction and induction. Non-condensing or backpressure turbines are most widely used for process steam applications. The exhaust pressure is controlled by a regulating valve to suit the needs of the process steam pressure. These are commonly found at refineries, district heating units, pulp and paper plants, sugar plants and desalination facilities where large amounts of low pressure process steam are available. Condensing turbines are most commonly found in electrical power plants. These turbines exhaust steam in a partially condensed state, typically of a quality near 90 per cent, at a pressure well below atmospheric to a condenser. Reheat turbines are also used almost exclusively in electrical power plants. In a reheat turbine, steam flow exits from a high pressure section of the turbine and is returned to the boiler where additional superheat is added. The steam then goes back into an intermediate pressure section of the turbine and continues its expansion. Extracting type turbines are common in all applications. In an extracting type turbine, steam is released from various stages of the turbine, and used for industrial process needs or sent to boiler feedwater heaters to improve overall cycle efficiency. Extraction flows may be controlled with a valve, or left uncontrolled. Induction turbines introduce low pressure steam at an intermediate stage to produce additional power. Conventional steam power plants operate at a steam pressures in the range of 170 bar. These are Subcritical power plants. The new generation of power plants operate at pressures higher than the critical pressure. These are Supercritical power plants. The operating pressures are in the range of 230 to 265 bar. The concept of Supercritical technology has been explained below. Water is converted to steam in three stages: As the heating continues, the temperature of water increases till it reaches 100 C. This is the sensible heat addition. Further heating does not increase the temperature; instead small bubbles of steam start to form. The temperature remains constant at 100 C till all the water becomes steam. The water absorbs the heat without temperature change for conversion to steam. At atmospheric pressure, the Latent Heat of vaporization is 2,256 kJ/kg. Further heating called superheating increases the temperature of the steam. How high the temperature can go depends on the withstanding capacity of the vessel. As the pressure increases, the boiling temperature increases and the latent heat of vaporization decreases. When the pressure say at 100 bar, the boiling takes place at 311 C and the latent heat of vaporization is 1318 kJ/kg. If the water pressure is 200 bar then the boiling takes place at 366 C and the latent heat of vaporization is 584 kJ/kg. A further increase in pressure and temperature leads us to a point at which the latent heat of vaporization is zero, or there is no boiling. Water directly becomes steam. This is the Critical Pressure and the Critical Temperature. For steam, this occurs at 374 C and 220.6 bar. Capacity of a Supercritical steam turbine is 660 or above MW. Cooling tower is a heat transfer or heat rejection equipment which is widely being used across Power plants and Industries for process and space cooling. Cooling tower is a special type of heat exchanger that allows water and air to come in contact with each other to lower the temperature of the hot water. During the cooling tower working process, small volumes of water evaporate, lowering the temperature of the water that’s being circulated throughout the cooling tower. Cooling towers are considered as a better means of removing low grade heat in the system. Cooling towers are classified as: By type of equipment: It is classified as natural draft and mechanical/ induced draft. Based on construction: It is classified into RCC (reinforced cement concrete), FRP (fibre reinforced plastic) and Timber. FRP cooling towers are factory assembled and RCC and timber cooling towers are field erected units. Based on design and mode: It is classified as packaged, field erected and industrial. By application: Power plant is the major end-user, followed by industrial process cooling and other HVAC&R applications. Thermal power plants predominantly use cooling towers to cool the circulating water used for condenser cooling. As water supply is limited, power plants have adopted the closed cooling system. With fresh water resources depleting and increase in population with more requirement of power, efficiency of water usage in cooling towers has become a major focus. Cooling towers help by reusing the cooling water, making power plants economical and more environmentally friendly. Large utility scale power plants use natural draft cooling towers whereas mechanical or induced draft cooling towers are used in small capacity captive power plants and for industrial and HVAC applications. Natural draft-cooling tower is a large hyperbolic tower, which pulls in air due to the stack effect, which is highly preferred in large Power plants. This type of cooling tower utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney. Warm, moist air naturally rises due to the density differential compared to the dry, cooler outside air. This moist air buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower. Even though the capital costs of these cooling towers are high, operating costs are less, as there is no fan to create the air flow. Mechanical or forced draft-cooling tower is most commonly used across industries. A fan forces or sucks air through the cooling tower where the water falls through a packed heat transfer media. Operating costs are high for operating this, but they are simple and quick for construction. Technologies are very much necessary in every sector. The new technologies that have been introduced in cooling tower includes minimum water evaporation and drift losses, pultruded FRP structure usage and energy efficiency in equipment like fans, blowers, etc. across cooling towers. All major cooling tower manufacturers are focusing on product development through R&D and have a tie-up/ collaboration with global players. GM & Senior Consultant – Energy Vertical Feedback Business Consulting Services Pvt Ltd Consultant – Energy Vertical Feedback Business Consulting Services Pvt Ltd
We’ve beaten this issue to death on this blog, but this latest study out of the University of Chicago does a neat job of summarizing the conundrum faced by women who earn more than men. Sure enough, marriages are threatened by a higher-earning wife. “The evidence suggests that while men tend to applaud their spouses when they help to bring home the bacon, husbands aren’t always as enthusiastic when women start bringing home the filet mignon…While women prefer men to be intelligent and ambitious, men have these preferences for women only to the point where women threaten to earn more than they do.” It’s not merely that the man is threatened; it’s that the woman looks down on the husband who earns less. “What happens when a man marries a woman who has the education and skills to earn more than him? The couple can avoid violating the “man earns more” social norm if the woman works part time or leaves the labor force altogether. The authors found evidence of both choices. But what if the woman stays in the labor force and does earn more than her spouse? How does this affect the marriage? The findings here are striking. In such couples, surveys show, both wife and husband generally report being less happy about the marriage…The divorce rate rose by half, to about 18 percent, for couples in which the wife earned more than the husband.” So what we have here is clear evidence of one thing at this point in time: marriages where the woman earns more are less stable. But that doesn’t begin to answer WHY. If you’re inclined to side with women on everything, the answer is clear: men are threatened by smart, strong, successful women. Just look at the study! However, if you have the ability to see things from the other side, you’ll get a much more objective picture. Are women earning more than their husbands because their husbands are unemployed? Because an unemployed husband is a depressed and emasculated husband and that has to put a strain on a marriage. Then there’s the other explanation for the dissolution of these marriages – it’s not merely that the man is threatened; it’s that the woman looks down on the husband who earns less. It would be hard to be in a marriage where your biggest fan looks down on you, no? The article acknowledges this as well, saying, “Is there any way to tell whether it’s the wife or the husband who becomes unhappy when the wife earns more? Does he think that she is threatening his manliness, or does she think that he’s a slacker?” In equilibrium, it’s impossible for you to be happier than your spouse. That may be impossible to answer, but, it doesn’t really matter. In equilibrium, it’s impossible for you to be happier than your spouse. If you and your spouse both understand that rule, you’re both likely to be happier — regardless of how much money either of you make. What I coach women is to a) avoid men who are threatened by your success and b) not look down on men who make less than you or worry about dating a guy who makes as much as you. Because if two people make $300K combined, it doesn’t matter if you make $200K and he makes $100K. Really. Read the article here and share your comments below.
Kin Groups and Descent. The structure of Vietnamese kinship involves logical opposition and functional complementarity between two models. Especially in northern and central Vietnam, patrilineage has been the dominant form, with emphasis on hierarchy and solidarity. But bilateral tendencies, with greater egalitarian emphasis, have always been present, most strongly in the south. In recent years Socialist policies have reinforced bilateral tendencies, weakened patrilineage, and strengthened the nuclear family. Descent is patrilineal, but with increasingly strong bilateral tendencies. Kinship Terminology. Vietnamese kinship terminology is of the Sudanese type, highly descriptive. There are different terms for father's siblings and mother's siblings, and father's older brother is terminologically distinguished from his younger brother.
At Microsoft’s recent GameFest conference held in Seattle, they showed a quick demonstration of one of several ways the Xbox 360 Kinect and Windows Phone will interact. With updates releasing in the next coming months for both the Windows Phone and Xbox 360, they will allow interaction between the two devices. In the Microsoft demo shown at the event, they showed how, using QR codes, the Windows Phone can easily import/export your Kinectimals through both the Xbox 360 Kinect game and the Windows Phone game (releasing later this year). Of course, this is only one of several ways that the Windows Phone will allow users to communicate with the Xbox 360, some of the others include turn based games and perhaps even real time multiplayer gaming. Also, as shown in other conferences the Windows Phone can even be used to manipulate objects of certain Kinect games as another user actually plays. Microsoft stated in the demonstration that the Kinectimals interaction is an example of “connected companion experiences” that are being planned for the future.
Founded in 1879, FAMILYConnections is a non-profit community based counseling and family service agency. Every day, we help children, adults and families transform their lives for the better through the provision of innovative counseling, skills-building, training and prevention services. No other agency offers our wide range of specialized services for all ages. Our goal is to serve the complex needs of our communities. This includes early childhood social and emotional development, adolescent development and safety, trauma, mental illness, addiction, unemployment, poverty, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect. We are guided by ten Core Values that insure every day that our work is: - Culturally Competent - Family Centered - Goal Driven - Quality Driven - Barrier Free, and We are constantly seeking and developing new strategies for the best client outcomes; for example: - We continually update our professional skills in mental health treatment – currently focusing in the area of trauma informed treatment – and also offer innovative therapeutic in-home and in-school programs. - We have a rigorous Quality Assurance (QA) program which calls for all of our programs to track outcome data, so that we can systematically monitor and improve our performance. - We have developed an extensive Cultural Competence program to insure that all staff perform their duties with cultural competence – both towards each other and towards our consumers. In this effort, we have been recognized as a model agency by the International Institute of New Jersey. - We have garnered a state-wide reputation for developing highly successful models of early childhood social and emotional development (PrePARE and Rise&Shine) as well as family reunification services (Reunity House). - And, to supplement all this therapeutic work, we offer case management, advocacy and linkage to concrete services through many of our programs – all free of charge to our consumers. In the past decade, FAMILYConnections has tripled in size and quadrupled the number of children and families we serve. We have succeeded because of the commitment and passion of our staff, and our highly dedicated Board of Trustees and our donors. FAMILYConnections, Inc., formerly Family Service and Child Guidance Center is the result of the merger of two organizations. The Family and Children’s Service Agency, which was established in 1959, was originally founded in 1879 as the Registry Society. The Child Guidance Clinic was established in 1948. The mission of both of these agencies was similar; to serve the needs of children and families in the communities of the Oranges, Maplewood, and Millburn-Short Hills. The merger of these two agencies in 1969, created the Family Service and Child Guidance Center, which provided the community with a rich array of programs and services. The primary focus of the agency continued to be on strengthening family life and supporting the family system. Thus, in 1997, the Board of Trustees changed the name of the agency to FAMILYConnections, Inc.
Question about IBM ThinkPad T30 2366 Notebook If you really need lots more space, install or have someone else install a new, bigger hard drive. You'll need a pata interface 2.5" hard drive. I installed a 160g and use the 40g that came with it as an external drive now. Souped it up to 2g memory and it's running great. Posted on Aug 10, 2010 1- Do hard disk cleanup - This will help you remove hidden files and folders 2- Move or delete old videos and pictures 3- Compress some old files Posted on Aug 03, 2010 a 6ya expert can help you resolve that issue over the phone in a minute or two. best thing about this new service is that you are never placed on hold and get to talk to real repairmen in the US. the service is completely free and covers almost anything you can think of (from cars to computers, handyman, and even drones). click here to download the app (for users in the US for now) and get all the help you need. Posted on Jan 02, 2017 Tips for a great answer: Aug 14, 2014 \| Computers & Internet If you do a factory default you will lose everything you have in there including all your Programs. The best way to empty your hard drive is throw out everything you DO NOT WANT in to the Recycle Bin and then EMPTY IT. You will gain back all that space. Something you can do to help you gain more space is to run Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter. These 2 Programs could really help you gain more space. You can find then by going to START then in to ALL PROGRAMS then in to Accessories then in to System Tools and then Click on Disk Cleanup first after it Runs, a Window will appear in the Window under Files to Delete Check off all the Boxes then Click OK. Don't Worry you will not Delete anything important. Now doing the same steps by going to START then in to ALL PROGRAMS then in to Accessories then in to System Tools and then Click on Disk Defragmenter this program will tighten up your Hard Drive by striating out your files and fixing them. To me this is the best way to do it and safest way! Mar 24, 2013 \| Computers & Internet May 15, 2011 \| Computers & Internet Jan 31, 2011 \| Sony VAIO PCV-RS510 PC Desktop Nov 26, 2010 \| Apple MacBook Air Mar 15, 2009 \| Toshiba Satellite A215-S7444 Notebook Jan 08, 2009 \| HP Pavilion dv6000z Notebook Nov 24, 2008 \| Buffalo Technology 250GB MINISTATION TURBO... 52 people viewed this question Usually answered in minutes!
Submitted by Food Democracy Now on March 22, 2013 - 2:50pm Over 100,000 Americans Take Action in 24 Hours WASHINGTON, DC - Food Democracy Now!, a national grassroots movement to build a safe, sustainable food system is urging President Obama to veto HR. 933 the short-term funding measure that Congress passed Tuesday morning by a vote of 318 to 109. Tucked deep inside the Congressional spending bill is a poison bill, Section 735, known as the Monsanto Protection Act, that gives biotech companies like Monsanto, DuPont and Dow Chemical a blank check on the approval of new genetically engineered crops. Since the bill’s passage in Congress, more than 100,000 Food Democracy Now! members have taken action to stop the Monsanto Protection Act from being signed into law. The so-called "biotech rider" was included in legislation that won final approval from the House, avoiding a shutdown of the federal government on March 27, when the current funding was set to expire. The provision was slipped into the legislation anonymously. It explicitly grants the U.S. Department of Agriculture the authority to override a judicial ruling stopping the planting of a genetically modified crop. “Americans are outraged that Congress has once again brokered a backroom deal that undermines our basic democratic rights to favor irresponsible chemical and biotech seed companies like Monsanto,” said Dave Murphy, Founder and Executive Director of Food Democracy Now!, a grassroots movement of more than 400,000 farmers and citizens dedicated to protecting family farm agriculture and the environment. “For the past 20 years, Americans have been kept in the dark about the food they eat and the science behind it because our elected officials and regulatory agencies would rather cozy up to biotech giants like Monsanto and DuPont than work faithfully represent the will of their constituents.” “Passing the Monsanto Protection Act is the last straw for millions of Americans who are tired of being betrayed by their elected officials,” continued Murphy. “We’re calling on President Obama to stand up for family farmers and the Constitution and veto the Monsanto Protection Act.” For the past year, family farm advocates and legal experts have fought to stop the biotech rider, another special interest corporate giveaway the fundamentally undermines federal courts’ ability to protect family farmers and the environment from potentially hazardous genetically engineered (GMO) crops that have not been proven safe.
Originally published: CNN Christine Sheppard fantasizes about her life before cancer. Before she had to take painkillers "all the time." Before she had to seriously worry about when she might die. "I found out something was wrong because my right leg swelled up enormously," Sheppard said. "They did an ultrasound and found I was completely full of these lymph nodes. It was stage IV large-cell lymphoma." Grueling chemotherapy treatments have started robbing her of mobility. "It's a strange nerve thing," she said. "I don't always know where my feet are. I have to look down to see where they are." And the symptoms "will be progressively worse. There's no cure. Eventually, I will probably end up fairly immobilized." For 12 years, Sheppard had no idea what might have caused her non-Hodgkin's lymphoma -- until a group of cancer researchers reported (PDF) that glyphosate, the key ingredient in the popular weed killer Roundup, is "probably carcinogenic to humans" (PDF). That's the same herbicide Sheppard said she sprayed on her coffee farm in Hawaii for five years. "I was incensed," said Sheppard, 67. "We had no idea." Sheppard is one of more than 800 cancer patients suing Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, claiming the company failed to warn consumers about the risk of cancer associated with Roundup products. Monsanto says there's no proof that glyphosate is carcinogenic. In fact, it cites a report by the Environmental Protection Agency's Cancer Assessment Review Committee that said glyphosate is "not likely to be carcinogenic to humans" (PDF). But the former chairman of that committee offered to stop an independent review on whether glyphosate could cause cancer, according to a plaintffs' motion to compel his deposition. And that has left Sheppard even more incensed. Health agency: Glyphosate is 'probably carcinogenic' The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer caused a stir in March 2015 when it said glyphosate is "probably carcinogenic to humans" (PDF), meaning it can lead to cancer. "For the herbicide glyphosate, there was limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans for non-Hodgkin lymphoma," the report states. "The evidence in humans is from studies of exposures, mostly agricultural, in the USA, Canada, and Sweden published since 2001. In addition, there is convincing evidence that glyphosate also can cause cancer in laboratory animals." That report spurred hundreds of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients to sue Monsanto. Timothy Litzenburg's law firm represents more than 500 of them. He said most of the patients didn't know about a possible link between Roundup and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma until the report came out. "It would not surprise me in the least if there are 2,000 to 3,000 cases by the end of the year," Litzenburg said. "This is the most-used herbicide in the world ... from the largest farm operations to backyard gardens. It's ubiquitous." But many other companies also sell products containing glyphosate. Why aren't they targeted in these lawsuits? "This is an oversimplistic answer, but Monsanto invented/discovered it, they held the patent for many years, they are the EPA registrant for glyphosate, and they continue to dominate the market," the attorney said. "Furthermore, we are not alleging that our clients got cancer from glyphosate alone. We are suing because our clients got cancer from Roundup. ... Roundup contains animal fats and other ingredients that increase the carcinogenicity of the glyphosate." Monsanto spokeswoman Charla Lord flatly denied those accusations. "Glyphosate-based herbicides, including Roundup-brand formulated products with surfactants, all have a long history of safe use and do not pose any unreasonable risk to human health when used according to label directions," Lord said. "The safety of each labeled use of a pesticide formulation must be evaluated and approved by regulatory authorities before it is authorized for sale." Sheppard said she knows skeptics will say she can't prove that her cancer came from using Roundup. But she said the hundreds of plaintiffs with similar stories -- combined with the report -- show "such strong circumstantial evidence that the total adds up." "In fact, since IARC classified glyphosate, regulatory authorities in the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Australia have publicly reaffirmed that glyphosate does not cause cancer," Lord said. For example, the European Chemicals Agency said last month that glyphosate is "not classified as a carcinogen." Monsanto stressed that the International Agency for Research on Cancer report does not establish a link between glyphosate and an increase in cancer. Scott Partridge, Monsanto's vice president of global strategy, said plaintiffs' attorneys "are attempting to tie the IARC classification to individual cases of cancer, and they have been running advertisements to recruit plaintiffs. These lawsuits have no merit." But recently unsealed court documents appear to show Monsanto mounting its effort to discredit the IARC report before it was even released. Company executive suggests 'ghostwrite' A month before the IARC report came out in 2015, Monsanto executive William F. Heydens sent an internal email to company toxicologist Donna Farmer with the subject line "RE: IARC planning," according to court documents. In that email, he suggested ghostwriting parts of an "overall plausibility paper" to save money. "If we went full-bore (with experts), we could be pushing $250K or maybe even more," Heydens wrote. He said a "less expensive/more palatable approach" might be to involve experts only for some of the less contentious parts of the report. Then, Monsanto would "ghost-write the Exposure Tox & Genetox sections." "[W]e would be keeping the cost down by us doing the writing," the email said. Afterward, scientists outside Monsanto "would just edit & sign their names so to speak." "Recall that is how we handled Williams Kroes & Munro, 2000," Heydens wrote, referring to a previous report on glyphosate. Monsanto executive William Heydens sent an email with the subject "RE: IARC Planning" one month before the IARC's glyphosate report came out. In it, he suggested ghostwriting parts of a plausibility paper. After the emails were unsealed in March, Monsanto said in a statement that the 2000 report was not ghostwritten and that Heydens' email was taken out of context. "Recently, in the context of personal injury litigation filed against Monsanto, plaintiffs' attorneys have cherry picked a single email -- out of more than 10 million pages of documents produced -- to allege that Monsanto scientists ghostwrote 'Safety Evaluation and Risk Assessment of the Herbicide Roundup and Its Active Ingredient, Glyphosate, for Humans,' " the company said. "These allegations are false. Monsanto scientists did not ghostwrite the paper." The company added that the report, published in 2000 in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, went through that journal's "rigorous peer review process before it was published." But what about the 2015 glyphosate paper -- the one that Heydens suggest his company "ghost-write," according to the recently unsealed emails? Did Monsanto actually "ghost-write" parts of that report? "No," Monsanto spokeswoman Camille Scott told CNN. "The paper and its conclusions are the work of the glyphosate expert panel. The paper also underwent (a) rigorous peer review process before it was published." Scott said Monsanto retained a scientific consultant to convene the panel to review the international agency's assessment that glyphosate was "probably carcinogenic to humans." The experts were asked to examine the agency's data and assess the scope of the research included or excluded, Scott said. They concluded that "the data do not support IARC's conclusion that glyphosate is a 'probable human carcinogen.'" Email: EPA official offered to 'kill' study on glyphosate A month after the report said glyphosate could cause cancer, Heydens sent an email to Monsanto's US agency lead -- the liaison to agencies such as the EPA -- about the possibility of "doing more work to help us deal with the IARC fallout." Dan Jenkins, Monsanto's US agency lead at the time, replied and suggested talking to Jess Rowland, then chairman of the EPA's Cancer Assessment Review Committee. "He'll give us straight talk," Jenkins wrote in an April 27, 2015, email. Dan Jenkins replied to William Heydens' email about how to deal with "IARC fallout." But the next day, Jenkins said Rowland called him "out of the blue." "Jess [Rowland] called to ask for a contact name at ATSDR," Jenkins wrote, referring to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. At the time, the registry -- part of the US Department of Health and Human Services -- was working on its own investigation into glyphosate (PDF). "(Rowland) told me no coordination is going on and he wanted to establish some saying 'If I can kill this I should get a medal,' " Jenkins wrote, as shown in the plaintiffs' motion to compel the deposition of Rowland. "However, don't get your hopes up, I doubt EPA and Jess can kill this; but its good to know they are going to actually make the effort now to coordinate due to our pressing and their shared concern that ATSDR is consistent in its conclusions w EPA." According to a Monsanto email, a Monsanto employee said EPA official Jess Rowland said he "should get a medal" if he could kill a different government agency's investigation into glyphosate. Rowland, who is now retired from the EPA, has not returned requests for comment. The report on glyphosate by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry was never killed. In fact, researchers are still working on it, registry spokesman Larry Furphy said Friday. "ATSDR is in the process of developing a Toxicological Profile for glyphosate," Furphy wrote in an email to CNN. "For glyphosate, much of the scientific literature is continuing to emerge, and the agency wants to ensure that we have all the evidence from recent and pending literature reviews." Furphy said the agency expects to release a draft of the report by the end of the year. In a separate Monsanto email, dated September 3, 2015, Jenkins told colleagues that Rowland was planning to retire in about five to six months "and could be useful as we move forward with ongoing glyphosate defense." Rowland has since retired from the EPA and has not responded to requests for comment. When asked about the litigation, an EPA representative said it is "a dispute between private litigants, and EPA is not a party to the case. Beyond that, the Agency does not comment on active litigation." Litzenburg said the court documents "seem to show an inappropriately close relationship" between Monsanto and the former EPA official. But Monsanto spokeswoman Lord said the company has never paid, given gifts to or done anything else to curry favor with anyone from the EPA. "As part of a highly regulated industry, Monsanto routinely responds to EPA requests for data and information about our products," she said. "Monsanto fully respects the EPA's role in regulating pesticides, and we work to provide accurate information and answer questions to ensure that the agency can make decisions based on thorough and complete science." Conflicting research on glyphosate The National Pesticide Information Center acknowledges conflicting reports about the risk of cancer with glyphosate. "Studies on cancer rates in people have provided conflicting results on whether the use of glyphosate containing products is associated with cancer. Some studies have associated glyphosate use with non-Hodgkin lymphoma." Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is a common cancer that starts in the lymphatic system. About 72,000 people are expected to be diagnosed this year, according to the American Cancer Society. An estimated 20,000 people will die from it in 2017. 'They took away our dreams, our savings' While the lawsuits work their way through court -- the next phase of discovery is expected in October -- Sheppard said she's trying to manage her illness the best she can. That means avoiding planes and any crowded place. "My immune system doesn't allow me to travel much," she said. "If I get sick, I get sick for a long, long time.” She and her husband had to sell their coffee farm in Hawaii and move to California for cancer treatment. Sheppard said she has depleted her 401(k) to pay for medical bills. "They didn't take away my life, thank goodness, but they took away our dreams, our savings," she said. Sheppard said she now wants two things: Monsanto to stop selling Roundup, and an apology from the company. She said she doesn't think she'll get the latter. "I think Monsanto is going to fight this to the bitter end." Editor's note: This article has been updated to add a response from Scott Partridge, Monsanto's vice president of global strategy.
ATLANTA - Dressing up in costumes, pumpkin carving, and ghost hunting is what you might expect around Halloween. For paranormal investigators Clint Brownlee, Heather Dobson, and Kyl Cobb Jr. encounters with ghosts are a common occurrence all year round. The group is constantly getting videos and e-mails from people who think they may have something paranormal in their home or business. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NTZnjxV0pic “It gets pretty crazy. We have to limit ourselves to two investigations a month,” said Brownlee. “We use all our own funding and we fill up every month.” One of the reasons the group offers their time is because they want to help people overcome their fears. Cobb has been studying paranormal activity for over 30 years. He doesn’t really get scared, as much as he gets shocked by what he sees. “You never know what you are going to get.” Every investigation is totally different,” he explained. He has also worked on local poltergeist cases in Atlanta. “The first time you see a ball thrown across a room, or a voice with no one there, those are all amazing thing,” said Cobb. “It’s like fishing, we go out and try to find the evidence,” he explained. “Then we review it over and over again.” His team was one of the first to investigate Atlanta’s Masquerade. The venue has a history of many people dying, but that never happened. People were injured, but only one death is on record. Ghosts can be perceived by the living in a number of ways through sight, sound, smell, and touch. This is why both groups bring equipment along to each investigation. Investigation tools Include: Infrared Cameras allow them to monitor our surroundings through a level of light that our naked eyes cannot see during the dark/nighttime hours. Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) enable investigators to simultaneously monitor and record multiple cameras throughout the investigation. Electromagnetic Field Meters (EMF) allows them to look for natural and unnatural fluctuations in the electromagnetic field in the surrounding areas. Digital Voice Recorders are used to capture EVP’s (Electronic Voice Phenomena) said to be the disembodied voices of spirits/residual energy. It’s important to know, paranormal groups should never charge you for an investigation. “Anyone who charges you for an investigation is putting on entertainment,” warns Cobb. If you are looking to scope out locations famous for activity, be sure to check out Oakland Cemetery, Roswell’s historic homes, and The Ellis Hotel, formerly known as the Winecoff Hotel. If you have any questions, don’t be scared to reach out to the investigators. Click here for the PGI website. Click here for the GASP website.
AUGUSTA, Maine – Building more affordable housing for Maine seniors and boosting Medicaid reimbursements to home care workers were among several policy ideas rolled out by House Speaker Mark Eves on Wednesday. The proposals are designed as a way to tackle challenges facing the state with the country's oldest population. Continue Reading Below The Democrat from North Berwick said the package of bills, which he plans to formally introduce this winter if he's re-elected, is part of a comprehensive effort that Maine must take to ensure more seniors can remain in their homes and communities. "It's an enormous need now and it's just going to escalate in future years," said Eves, who has been working with a group of stakeholders on aging issues for the last year. Officials estimate that one in four Maine residents will be older than 65 by 2030. The median age in Maine of 43.5 is the highest in the country and is six years older than the U.S. median age of 37.4 years. One of Eves' proposals would create a $65 million bond, which would go toward building 1,000 energy-efficient apartments for seniors across the state. Housing options for older adults in the state are expensive and scarce, forcing thousands of Mainers to languish on waiting lists, Eves said. Continue Reading Below Another measure would increase Medicaid reimbursements to workers who provide care to seniors in their homes, which hasn't happened in almost a decade. While the demand for such services is expected to spike as Maine's population ages, home care groups are struggling to find people to work in the low-paying field, Eves' office said. Dave Moreau, of the Direct Care Alliance in Maine, said in a statement that the industry will be in jeopardy if the state does not begin committing resources there. "By boosting reimbursement rates, the state will stave off a crisis for seniors, while also putting more money in the pockets of workers. It is a win for our seniors, our workers, and our economy," he said. The final proposal seeks to further increase a property tax credit for some low-and-middle income seniors. Under a bill the Legislature approved last session, the credit will rise from $400 to $900 for Mainers ages 65 and older. Eves said the amount that the bill will seek to raise the tax credit by hasn't yet been determined. Follow Alanna Durkin at http://www.twitter.com/aedurkin
The newest family of breast cancer drugs is ready for prime time, a major cancer organization now says. The new drugs are Arimidex, Aromasin, and Femara. Doctors call them third-generation aromatase inhibitors (search). For increasing numbers of postmenopausal breast cancer patients, they're taking the place of tamoxifen (search) for after-surgery treatment. Until now, the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has recommended tamoxifen to reduce the risk of recurrent breast cancer after surgery. Now, an ASCO blue-ribbon panel says doctors may also choose Arimidex, Aromasin, or Femara. Like tamoxifen, the new breast cancer drugs are for postmenopausal women only. They are used after breast cancer surgery to prevent breast cancer from coming back. The drugs keep the body from making the sex hormone estrogen, which makes many breast cancers grow faster. Therefore, the drugs are useful only in women with hormone-sensitive breast cancers. ASCO's new guidelines say postmenopausal women should consider after-surgery treatment with aromatase inhibitors: —If their breast cancers tested positive for hormone receptors —If they cannot take tamoxifen —If they already have taken tamoxifen for two to three years, or for five years The guidelines — released today — will appear in the Jan. 20, 2005 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Lower Recurrent Breast Cancer, Side Effect Risk The new breast cancer drugs work better than tamoxifen — and they have less dangerous side effects, says Aman Buzdar, MD, deputy chair of the department of breast and medical oncology at University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. "All new postmenopausal breast cancer patients should be offered aromatase inhibitors," Buzdar tells WebMD. "The evidence suggests they lower the risk of breast cancer recurrence, and they have lower-risk side effects." In studies, Arimidex, Aromasin, and Femara carry a lower risk of potentially deadly blood clots and uterine cancer than tamoxifen. However, the breast cancer drugs do increase the risk of bone loss and fracture — a major concern for women after menopause. Buzdar says this risk can be minimized by bone-loss-preventing drugs. And risk is the name of the game, says breast cancer specialist Pamela N. Munster, MD, of H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Fla. "Any benefit of [post-surgery] breast cancer chemotherapy is a matter of risk reduction," Munster tells WebMD. "The higher a woman's risk, the more the benefit. First, we need to know if a patient needs chemotherapy. If a woman has a hormone-sensitive tumor, the choice becomes which treatment to use. So since the aromatase inhibitors seem better, most doctors would use them first." Are Arimidex, Aromasin, and Femara interchangeable? Nobody knows yet. It will be years before definitive information is available. Munster says doctors now have to make their decisions based on limited evidence. "Based on the information that is out there, if a patient came to me to get started, I would use Arimidex," Munster says. "If the patient has been on tamoxifen for two to three years, I would use Aromasin. But if she were on tamoxifen for five years, I would switch her to Femara." Some doctors, Buzdar says, think there may be a long-term benefit to starting with tamoxifen, then switching to one of the new breast cancer drugs. But he believes the new drugs offer a woman her best chance of remaining cancer-free after surgery. "The most important thing breast cancer patients should ask their doctors is why they are on tamoxifen and not on aromatase inhibitors," Buzdar says. But there still are very good reasons to start with tamoxifen, says Carl Kardinal, MD, director of clinical research at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans. "Tamoxifen has been around for more than 30 years. We know the side effects. The newer aromatase drugs, we don't really know yet," Kardinal tells WebMD. "Another issue which is very important is the cost. Tamoxifen is now available as a generic drug, and costs in the range of $40-$45 a month. Aromatase inhibitors like Arimidex and Femara cost more than $200 a month." SOURCES: Winer, E.P. Journal of Clinical Oncology, Jan. 20, 2005; vol 23. News release, American Society for Clinical Oncology. ASCO web site. Aman Buzdar, MD, professor of medicine and deputy chair of the department of breast and medical oncology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. Pamela N. Munster, MD, assistant professor H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, University of South Florida, Tampa. Carl Kardinal, MD, director, clinical research, Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans.
Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has received federal approval for a vaccine to stop the leading cause of diarrhea in infants, a market dominated by rival Merck. The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the company's Rotarix vaccine to prevent the rotavirus in infants, the company said in a statement. Rotarix is given in a two-dose oral regimen that can be completed by the fourth month after birth. Merck already markets a similar product, Rotateq, which is usually given in three doses over the course of six months. Rotateq was Merck's second-best selling vaccine last year with revenue of $525 million. Len Friedland, Glaxo's clinical director for vaccines, suggested Thursday its vaccine would be more convenient for parents than Merck's because it can be completed in fewer visits to the doctor's office. FDA cleared the vaccine, which is made from a weakened strain of the virus, based on testing in 75,000 infants. Those results showed no evidence of life-threatening intestinal problems seen with the first rotavirus vaccine approved in the U.S. That vaccine, RotaShield from Wyeth, was pulled from the U.S. market in 1999 after it was linked to an increase in intussusception, a twisting of the intestines. Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck added language about intussusception to Rotateq's label last year after receiving 28 reports of children developing the disorder. The FDA said the reports did not exceed the number expected to occur naturally each year. While Glaxo's vaccine currently contains no language about intussusception, Friedland said that may change after it has been on the market. "This is a disease that occurs naturally in children and I expect there will be reports of it with our vaccine as there have been with Merck's," Friedland said. Glaxo is currently negotiating terms of a follow-up study with FDA to track the vacinne's safety in the U.S. The FDA based its approval of Rotarix on studies in South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. About 55,000 U.S. children are hospitalized each year due to the rotavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Controls. The U.S. government and several medical societies recommend vaccination for all infants. Despite FDA's approval Thursday, Glaxo does not expect the vaccine to gain widespread use until June, when the government's committee on immunization meets to recommend new vaccines. Shares of London-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC rose 21 cents to close at $44.72 on Thursday.
Individualized college counseling guides students to their best fit college or university. The purpose of Fredericksburg Academy's College Counseling Office is to help students find the college or university that is the right fit for their individual interests and aspirations. College admission is a process of reflection and discovery, one that often challenges preconceived notions and ideas. Our Director of College Counseling knows each student and family in depth, which leads to meaningful dialogue, powerful advice, and a truly personalized letter of recommendation. Parents in all divisions are encouraged to contact the College Counseling Office at any time and invited to attend parent nights and admission panels throughout the year. Contacting the College Counseling Office: Corey Fischer, Director of College Counseling 540-898-0020, ext. 230
As there was no significant difference in improvement of diet score, dysphagia score, or quality-of-life scores between study and control groups, our results do not support the empiric use of large-diameter dilation to relieve nonobstructive esophageal dysphagia. To our knowledge, our study is the first to provide epidemiologic data on the relative prevalence of different kinds of dysphagia among patients evaluated for presumed esophageal dysphagia at a community-based tertiary care medical center. Further studies specifically designed to assess the impact of aggressive acid suppression to relieve nonobstructive esophageal dysphagia are warranted. Empiric esophageal dilation with large-diameter dilators is of no benefit for patients with nonobstructive esophageal dysphagia. Objectives: The role of empiric esophageal dilation in improving esophageal dysphagia with nonobstructive esophageal lumen is not clear.
HAVANA - Hurricane Dennis slammed Cuba's southern coast with 135 mph winds Friday before slicing across the Caribbean's largest island, killing at least 10 people. The powerful storm headed toward a U.S. landfall, prompting thousands to flee the Florida Keys. Strong winds and surf buffeted the U.S. detention camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, on the island's eastern end, where a guard tower was washed into the sea. There were no reports of casualties. "It's arrived, with all its diabolical force," President Fidel Castro said on state television. He said 10 people died in southeastern Cuba, including one child who fell into roiling waters its mother tried to cross an old bridge. Another five were killed in Haiti, bringing the storm's overall death toll to 15. Castro and other authorities were alarmed by the storm's projected track near the nation's capital, home to more than 2 million people. "It is getting dangerously close to the city of Havana," said meteorologist Jose Rubiera. An evacuation order was in effect in the Florida Keys, where officials feared Dennis could hit the island chain over the weekend on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. The storm's center made landfall on central Cuba's southern coast in the early afternoon. Civil defense officials said more than 1.5 million people left their homes to take shelter with family or friends or in government refuges. The storm had strengthened Friday morning to a Category 4 with winds reaching 150 mph but had weakened by evening, though its winds were at a still potent 125 mph. It was the earliest Category 4 hurricane on record in the Caribbean, according to Colin McAdie, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami. At 8 p.m. EDT, the center was near the central city of Colon, about 65 miles east-southeast of Havana and about 130 miles south-southeast of Key West. Hours before Cuba, Dennis struck Haiti and killed five people as it collapsed bridges, triggered landslides, inundated homes and blocked roads with downed power lines and trees. In Jamaica, a rescue helicopter was to airlift food and emergency supplies to hundreds of stranded islanders in at least seven eastern towns cut off by knee-deep floodwaters, said Nadene Newsome, spokeswoman for the country's emergency management office. "Flooding has affected every parish of the island and it will increase as long as the rain continues throughout the day" Friday, she said. Although Dennis was losing some strength as it passed over Cuba, it was expected to remain a major hurricane as it emerged over the Florida Straits and into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico later Friday evening. Forecasters predict the storm will hit the United States anywhere from Florida to Louisiana by Sunday or Monday, the fourth storm in as many weeks to disrupt oil production. The lower Florida Keys, including Key West, were on hurricane warning, while the southern part of the state, including Miami and Naples, were on tropical storm warning. A hurricane watch was issued for portions of the northeastern U.S. Gulf Coast from the Steinhatchee River westward to the mouth of the Pearl River. The U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo escaped the brunt of the storm. Heaving surf tore away a lifeguard tower at Windmill Beach and winds destroyed a bus shelter. A few power lines and tree branches were knocked down and there was minor flooding. "Actually, everybody fared real well," said Navy Cmdr. Anne Reese. American troops fixed metal shutters over the steel mesh windows of some prison cells overlooking the sea at Camp Delta, which is just 150 yards from the ocean. In Haiti, young men were charging $2 to carry travelers and their possessions across the Grand Goave River, which overflowed Thursday and collapsed a 300-foot bridge, killing four people and cutting off Haiti's southwestern peninsula. Another person was killed by a falling tree. Fristino Fleurinon, 18, said he carried at least 10 people across the river on his shoulders. "People have to sell their things, and they have to come and go back to where they came from," he said. In Jamaica, floods and debris blocked the road leading from the capital, Kingston, to the storm-battered east around Yallahs town. The largest and most populous Caribbean island with 11.2 million people, Cuba suffers few hurricane casualties because the government cautiously evacuates people en masse, sometimes forcefully. The hurricane center's lead forecaster, Martin Nelson, said it was the first time the Atlantic hurricane season had four named storms this early since record-keeping began in 1851. The season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Last year, four catastrophic hurricanes - Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne - tore through the Caribbean with a collective ferocity not seen in years, causing hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars in damage. Associated Press writers Stevenson Jacobs in Morant Bay, Jamaica, Leonardo Aldridge in Les Cayes, Haiti, Ben Fox at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba, and Vanessa Arrington in Cienfuegos, Cuba contributed to this report.
Generation Xers were brought up on television, video games and personal computers. We were the generation that was raised in the 1970s and 1980s, and saw our country undergo a selfish phase of destruction that we do not want to see repeated. Hundreds of studies have been conducted on the subject of TV and unfortunately, parents today have reached new heights in laziness and many children are literally growing up in front of the television set. According to many statistics, a typical American home has the television set on for nearly 7 hours each day, and the average child spends twice as much time watching TV than going to school. Children today spend more time watching TV than any other activity besides sleeping. Watching TV has replaced most physical activity, playing outdoors with friends, sports and there appears to be a strong relationship between time spent in front of the television and being overweight (Hmmm??). Activities, which engage the mind such as reading, doing homework, chores, or spending time with family, are also insufficient compared to time spent watching TV. Even more disturbing, is by the time the average child reaches the age of five, he will have spent more time watching television than having conversations with his father throughout his entire life. In homes all across America a TV is placed in the central location of the home, the family room. Television sets are idolized and worshiped and most American’s cannot imagine their life without one. In fact, over half of all American homes have three or more television sets. In addition to the family room, a TV is placed in each bedroom, the kitchen, basement, garage and sometimes even the bathrooms. What in the heck is wrong with parents today? Watching television has become the ultimate American crutch. Without effort, parents mindlessly place their children in front of strangers to be “baby-sat” for hours while the child’s mind is polluted and infected will all sorts of filth. TV essentially allows parents to forsake their role and surrender their children over to murderers, rapists and fornicators, while parents selfishly go about their business. Without carefully monitoring the amount of television that children watch, parents foolishly allow their children to view all sorts of violence, vulgarity, and sexual content, which will filtrate into the child's brain and cause numerous problems in the future. Each year the average American child will observe tens of thousands of commercials, thousands of ads for alcohol and countless scenes of violence and inappropriate sexual exposure. Too much consumption of TV affects brain development in young children, is linked to ADD and ADHD, can contribute to poor grades, behavior problems and early sexual activity along with childhood obesity…Big surprise there! Children who watch violence on TV are prone to more aggressive behavior. TV glamorizes violence and often promotes violent acts as a fun and as an effective way to get what you want. Most violent acts go unpunished on TV and are often accompanied by humor and praise. The amount of sexual material on TV has dramatically increased over past decade. Studies show that about two-thirds of television entertainment programs contain sexual content in one form or another. The Kaiser Foundation reported that "family hour" television contains more than eight sexual incidents per hour. Researchers also found that adolescents who watched the most television with sexual content were twice as likely to initiate sexual intercourse over the next year. Additionally, the study found that youths who watch large amounts of TV with sexual content are more likely to initiate sexual activities other than intercourse, such as “making out” and oral sex. No big surprise there either! Of course the main problem is not with the mass media. The main problem is with the parents! We can blame Hollywood and cable TV all day long, but it remains the parent’s role and responsibility to teach, nurture and protect their children from harm. TV viewing should be strictly monitored or eliminated all together!
Truth be told, I’m usually a cartoon humbug. But from the opening frame of this summer’s Disney/Pixar movie Wall-E — a view of Earth from space, but not our familiar blue and green home, instead the planet is brown and gray and orbited by a thick ring of galactic trash — I realized that this movie had a message above and beyond the usual gooey, goofy animated fare. It’s the year 2775 and Earth has been abandoned by everyone and everything except for a lone robot and a swarm of immortal cockroaches. The iconic New York City skyline is dwarfed by skyscrapers of trash and Wall-E, short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth-Class, is the architect. He spends his days scooping waste into his trash-compactor stomach, burping out cubes and stacking them into towering piles. Humans may have been heinous waste-mongers (encouraged by the ubiquitously advertised “Buy N Large” bulk empire), but not Wall-E. Every morning the oddly endearing robot recharges using solar power (the familiar Mac power-on chime when he’s fully charged got a lot of laughs during my screening) and he’s also a diligent recycler, reusing tire treads and parts from other defunct robots when he needs repairs. In this manner, Wall-E has lived sustainably while cleaning up our mess for more than 700 years. All that time alone has made Wall-E sentimental. As he sifts through our trash he finds treasures — a rubber ducky, an iPod, bubble wrap, a Rubik’s cube — and takes them back to his Christmas-light-lit lair. Wall-E’s nostalgia sparked my own, not for the things he finds but for the healthy blue sky and growing green Earth missing from Wall-E’s bleak world. But one day everything changes. Wall-E is joined by a visitor from space, a sleek robot named Eve. Wall-E falls instantly in robot-love and when Eve departs on her spaceship, he hitches a ride. After the rocket punches through Earth’s orbiting trash into space, it flies by a montage of space icons — sputnik, the golden LEM and Neil Armstrong’s unwaving lunar flag — on its way to the Axiom, the colossal spaceship home to the even more colossal human race. Thanks to hover chairs — “No need to walk!” — and liquid meals like cupcake-in-a-cup, this version of mankind has become grotesquely obese and mentally more robotic than the heroic Wall-E. Wall-E’s nonstop adventure and superb Charlie Chaplin-style physical comedy (there’s almost no dialogue) will certainly appeal to kids, but the flick has a lot for adults too. Wall-E’s commentary on our waste woes and the cultural quirks that contribute to our environmental problems is razor-sharp: In an old clip from 2110, the world’s head waste-monger dismisses the need to become more sustainable, stubbornly declaring, “We must stay the course!” In fact, Wall-E is so sharp that by the end, I was relieved to be watching a cartoon where a robot’s love and eternal optimism can save Earth from a bleak future that is all too real. Wall-E opened in theaters June 27; the DVD release has not been scheduled yet. The years have not been kind to Africa’s wilderness. Over the past three decades, forests have disappeared, lakes have shrunk and glaciers have melted. But because such changes happen gradually, they’re often overlooked. A new book released in June by the United Nations Environment Programme, however, aims to drive home the message that Africa’s landscape is drastically changing. Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment presents 316 stunning satellite images spanning 36 years. These “before” and “after” shots highlight how development, population growth, climate change and conflicts have changed the face of Africa. The picture that emerges isn’t pretty: Africa is losing 40,000 square kilometers of forest every year, 60 percent of its farmlands are degraded and 300 million people face water shortages. An influx of refugees has damaged the delicate ecosystems of the Jebel Marra foothills of western Sudan. In Rwanda, much of the Gishwati Forest Reserve has been harvested for charcoal, timber, medicine and food. Over the past 35 years, Lake Chad — which is bordered by eight African countries and supports roughly 20 million people — has shrunk to just a tenth of its former size. Still, success stories do exist. In Tunisia, for example, grasslands have rebounded dramatically inside Sidi Toui National Park, which is protected from grazing cattle. The entire atlas is available for download at www.unep.org/dewa/africa/AfricaAtlas. Space travel may seem routine today, but it hasn’t always been that way. That’s one message of the Discovery Channel’s recent documentary, “When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions,” which chronicles NASA’s 50 years of manned space exploration. The documentary was born last year, when NASA gave the Discovery Channel access to its film vault. After screening 500 hours of footage, the Discovery Channel transferred more than 150 hours of film to high definition and selected six hours, including rarely seen recordings, for its six-part miniseries, “When We Left Earth.” The miniseries debuted in June and is available — along with four extra hours of footage — on DVD and Blue-ray Disc at http://shopping.discovery.com. “When We Left Earth” weaves its images with interviews from astronauts, flight directors and astronaut spouses to tell its tale. The usual players — John Glenn, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong — are all there. But some of the documentary’s most captivating, entertaining perspectives come from astronauts who may not be household names, such as John Young, a prolific, quirky astronaut who flew the first manned Gemini spacecraft, walked on the moon and piloted the space shuttle’s first trip to space. The on-the-ground viewpoint of retired flight director Gene Kranz, who sat in Mission Control for more than 30 years, serves as a source of continuity as the series progresses from the early days of manned space exploration with the Mercury and Gemini projects to the Apollo moon missions to the current age of the space shuttle and the International Space Station. The documentary also reminds viewers that NASA has provided the world with some of the most iconic images of the 20th century. Watching Neil Armstrong touch the moon’s surface is still amazing and seeing the Challenger explode is still shocking. Some of the documentary’s best footage is less dramatic and gives viewers a new perspective on space — a cockpit view of John Glenn as he talks with Mission Control during his orbit around Earth or liftoff from the space shuttle’s perspective. Space buffs will likely enjoy this touched-up look at a familiar subject, but “When We Left Earth” may be most appreciated by younger viewers who are not old enough to remember NASA’s exploration milestones. However, the film’s footage clearly drives the documentary’s story. Some viewers may yearn for more details and development of the cultural and historical context in which NASA’s missions emerged. For example, the documentary dives right into the Mercury project with little explanation of why the United States formed NASA in the first place. But in an age when remotely operated rovers beam down images of the Martian landscape to Earth and astronauts live in space for months at a time, “When We Left Earth” reminds viewers of the reality of space exploration: Although space travel seems routine, traveling through space is anything but ordinary. In the discussion about climate change, melting ice sheets, sea-level rise and extreme weather take center stage. But archaeologist Brian Fagan says that our preoccupation with these dramatic events has led us to ignore a much greater threat: drought. We need only look at history to see the enormous power droughts have over the fate of humans, he says. In his new book, The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations, Fagan takes readers on a journey through the Medieval Warm Period, a time of unusually warm weather between about A.D. 800 and 1300. Linking historical events with climate clues that scientists gathered from sea and lakebeds, ice cores and tree rings, Fagan shows us how drought contributed to the struggle and collapse of ancient societies, such as the Maya civilization. Fagan devotes almost the entire book to exploring what happened at various parts of the planet during the Medieval Warm Period, but the last chapter delves into future predictions of drought conditions. His narrative style makes The Great Warming an interesting read and the book provides the lay reader with an engaging account of not only what has happened, but also what may lie in store for us in the future. Fagan spoke with freelance writer Nicole Branan about the Medieval Warm Period and the lessons it holds for today’s societies. NB: When you set out to research this book, did you expect to see that drought played such an important role in the fate of ancient civilizations? NB: Are we more vulnerable to drought today than human societies were a millennium ago? NB: But our scientific knowledge and our water treatment technologies are much more advanced today than they were during the Medieval Warm Period. Isn’t that going to make a difference? NB: In coming decades, who is going to get hit hardest by drought? NB: What do we need to do in order to avoid a catastrophe? NB: Is there anything else you would like to add?
UN Working Group publish report on reflections from the 2014 Third Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights This report presented at the 29th session of the UN Human Rights Council focuses on the actions that business enterprises have taken to meet their corporate responsibility to respect human rights. It is based on the presentations and key lessons from the thematic session entitled ‘Respect in practice: progress and challenges in implementing the corporate responsibility to respect’ held during the third annual Forum on Business and Human Rights in December 2014. The session was convened by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights and was organised by GBI and the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC). The report draws on the session report prepared by GBI and BHRRC and further includes the Working Group’s observations and recommendations for the consideration of stakeholders. Read the full report here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session29/Documents/A_HRC_29_28_Add_3_ENG.DOCX Read the GBI and BHHRC Respect in Practice report here: http://www.global-business-initiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Respect-in-Practice-Report.pdf The fourth Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights will be held in November 2015. Find out more here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Forum/Pages/ForumonBusinessandHumanRights.aspx
To become healthy, you have to eat a multitude of vitamin-wealthy foods. However with the growing number of individuals consuming junk food today, most would most likely prefer it over homemade food that is a far better healthier choice. This daily use of junk food and unhealthy foods is struggling that it’s putting the healthiness of lots of people in danger. To avoid serious health issues and keep the kitchen connoisseur, you need to consume foods which are wealthy in antioxidant minerals and vitamins. Eating a number of antioxidant minerals and vitamin enriched foods can lead to enhancing your quality of health for years to come. Now, this is a listing of some superfoods to help you achieve better health: - Berries including Blue Berries All sorts of berries are wealthy in fiber that will help promote weight reduction. Raspberries contain ellagic acidity with a compound that stops cancer. Avocados provide Vitamins A, B, C, E and K which are several important antioxidants together with glutathione. It’s a supply of iron that transports oxygen in the lung area to any or all cells within your body. It’s a highly alkalining nutritious superfood which contains the very best causes of potassium that really help to maintain heart function and normal bloodstream pressure. Superfoods are not only seen categorized as vegetables and fruit. This sort of fish contains Vitamin D and omega-3 essential fatty acids. It’s anti-inflammatory and may alleviate joint discomfort and prevent heart-disease. Broccoli is among the healthiest leafy eco-friendly vegetables that is wealthy in vitamins A, C and folate. Additionally, it has sulforaphane that’s considered a cancer-fighting agent. - Sweet taters Sweet taters are full of alpha and beta carotenoids that are changed into an energetic functional type of Vit A from your body. These compounds might help keep the eyes, bones, and defense mechanisms healthy. - Cacao (Ought to be greater than 60% Chocolates) Cacao has elevated levels of essential minerals that many people don’t enter their diet program. It’s magnesium which is often used in additional than 275 biochemical reactions in your body. Cacao also includes manganese, zinc and iron. Attempt to consume a minimum of 3 to 4 servings daily of a number of superfoods (much more is much better) for optimal health and wellness.
We all have ingrown hairs, but not all of us know that those ugly, little, red or dark bumps under the skin are called “ingrown hairs”. Therefore, what exactly are ingrown hairs and why they appear? Ingrown hairs are hairs which curl back into your skin instead of rising up from it. Some hairs can be seen under the skin, how they try to grow and find their way outside the skin, but other are like little black or red bumps under your skin. Some of these ingrown hairs can infect or near them a pimple can appear. The main reason why ingrown hairs appear is because you use a type of hair removal method, like waxing, sugaring, tweezing, epilating, shaving or threading and force the hair to grow back, penetrating the skin. But they also appear because you wear tight clothing items, which create friction, putting pressure on your hair follicles and making hairs more likely to curl down into the skin instead of growing normally, up. The hair is blocked at the opening of the follicle by dead skin cells, which weren't removed properly. It is important to know what are ingrown hairs and how they appear, because, only in this way, you will be able to find the best solutions to reduce their growth. To be honest, you can not get rid of them once and for all, but you definitely can reduce them, using some specific processes and/or special creams and products. Ingrown hairs can appear on every part of your body and the next solutions can be applied everywhere on the body, with some care, if the area is sensitive, like pubic area or underarms. But, you shouldn't use these methods on your face. There are special products for this area, like special scrub mixtures and a good pair of tweezers. Not all the time ingrown hairs get infected, most of them clear up on themselves. Besides this, they look unappealing, some people feel discomfort and itching in that area. How to avoid ingrown hairs? I don't want to stress you more than it is necessary, but exfoliation is a very important process in your beauty routine, not only to reduce the chance to have ingrown hairs, but also, to have a clean, soft skin all the time. You should always exfoliate the area before a hair removal method, to remove the dead skin cells. Also, either you want to remove your hair or not, you should exfoliate at least twice a week or every two days if you can not exfoliate daily. Nowadays, there are a few methods of exfoliation, but basically, there is physical and chemical exfoliation. 1.1. Physical Exfoliation DIY Exfoliation (Do-It-Yourself Exfoliation) The easiest one is to make yourself at home a scrub and exfoliate your skin. Baking soda or normal salt are often used to get rid of the dead skin cells. Mix one of these products with your shower gel or soap and rub it all over your body, applying more or less pressure, depending on the body area you scrub. There are many products available for this process, but cheap spa exfoliating gloves, like the Earth Therapeutics Hydro Exfoliating Gloves, are amazing. They should be used in the shower/bath to have better results because the wet dead skin cells are removed easier in this way. People with sensitive skin should use a product which kills bacteria, like the PanOxyl, a great acne wash. Use the gloves up and down the skin, in circular motions and focus on knees, heels, ankles, and elbows. Do not forget to moisturize your skin after every exfoliation to have a smooth skin. Besides these exfoliating gloves, a dry brushing is another option, if you don't have time to shower. Also, there are persons who like very much the special soaps or exfoliating scrubs, that contain different types of ingredients, like oil, sugar, salt, oatmeal. Exfoliate every time before an epilation or any other type of hair removal method. In this way, the period for dead skin cells to build over the newly hair is longer and the soft tip of the hair will be able to penetrate the skin. Now, for the facial exfoliation, everyone should use a mild scrub, but also a facial cleansing brush. If someone doesn't like to use commercial products, she can easily prepare a homemade scrub. 1.2. Chemical Exfoliation There are two types of chemical exfoliation: AHA- alpha hydroxy acids, and BHA- beta hydroxy acids. The main effect of these two types is to penetrate the upper layer of the skin and dislodge and dissolve dead skin cells. What is different is that the BHA also penetrate into the pores, making it a great treatment for people who have oily or breakout prone skin. The substances used in the chemical exfoliating mixtures aren't harmful for your health even though they “eat” the dead layer of skin. Don't use them often because these products can irritate your skin. Also, because they are made from chemicals, you should test the product on a small patch of skin before you start using it all over your body. If you have an allergy, you should read the label of the product to see from which ingredients is made. This being said, I am not going to give any advice what type of chemical exfoliation you should use because I've never used this method. The only product that I would like to use in the near future is the PFB Vanish Hair Remover, which can be used daily and it works great on women and men as well. Also, before I will begin to use it, I will search the most relevant reviews for it. But, at this time, it has already great reviews on Amazon. 2. Don't wear too tight clothing items Yes, you look amazing in tight clothing items, but you should choose something that it is suitable for you, not with two sizes smaller. Your health is at stake here, you can develop varices, not only ingrown hairs. 3. Use a pair of tweezers If you don't have too many and deep ingrown hairs, you can use a pair of tweezers to bring them to the skin surface. Don't pull them out with the tweezers. Use this method before an epilation, shaving, waxing. If they are deeper in the skin, you can use a needle, if you aren't scared of this method. Because you will introduce the needle in the first skin layer, you won't feel any pain. 4. Remove the hair correctly Many persons who used for a long time an epilator consider that a certain type of epilator is guilty for the number of ingrown hairs. This may be true because the way that the tweezers are placed on the epilator's head influence how well the epilator pull out the hairs or broke them. Some of the hairs that are broken will be covered by the skin, preventing them from resurfacing. First of all, if you shave, use a sharp blade and get rid of any dull blade, that can also cause skin irritations. If you are a man and you shave your beard, you should shave in the direction of the hair growth. If you are a woman you can shave the legs in any direction. If you use an epilator, you should buy a quality one. Also, the technique of epilating is important. Use short strokes with a slow speed, control better the epilator head and epilate against the hair growth. Shorten your hair if you want to epilate because only in this way the epilator can pull out all the hairs. You can read more advice how to epilate correctly in a previous article of mine. Bottom line, all people have ingrown hairs, although they may not notice them because they are superficial. But we all can do some things to reduce their appearance. Only electrolysis and laser hair removal methods can eliminate ingrown hairs because with these methods, the hair doesn't grow back or grow after a few years. But ingrown hairs shouldn't be your main reason why you would want to have an electrolysis or laser hair removal process. These are very effective tips how to prevent and to treat ingrown hairs. Increasingly more women and men use specialized ingrown hair products even though they don't have a serious problem. They can easily find them in beauty shops and in online stores, like Amazon. And when they have discounts or unique offers, people buy more than one product.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the States acquisition of 69,000 acres of the former Finch Pruyn and other Nature Conservancy lands throughout the Adirondacks. This acquisition is the largest single addition to the Adirondack State Forest Preserve in more than a century. Adding these properties to the Forest Preserve protects the incomparable and breathtaking natural resources of this region and preserves a significant portion of the Upper Hudson River watershed, Governor Cuomo said. Todays agreement will make the Adirondack Park one of the most sought after destinations for paddlers, hikers, hunters, sportspeople and snowmobilers. Opening these lands to public use and enjoyment for the first time in 150 years will provide extraordinary new outdoor recreational opportunities, increase the number of visitors to the North Country and generate additional tourism revenue. The future of the Adirondack Park depends upon clean water and air, abundant forests, rivers, streams, wetlands, wildlife and spectacular scenery, DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said. Its future is also intertwined with the ability of communities and residents to thrive, and todays agreement provides for the continued vitality of the Park, its communities and residents. DEC will work with North Country communities, sportspeople and environmental groups to pursue a balanced approach to managing these lands. This acquisition complements the 2010 acquisition of 89,000 acres of conservation easements on former Finch Pruyn lands that protect working forests in communities across the North Country. Together, these lands will also allow for the completion of critical links between local communities in the Adirondack snowmobile trail system, providing four seasons of tourism opportunities, which will benefit local businesses. In 2007, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) purchased the entire 161,000 acre property from Finch Pruyn. TNC has managed the 65,000-acre non-easement portion of the property and 4,000 acres of other landholdings with the intent to ensure their protection. Under the agreement reached today by the State and The Nature Conservancy, the property will be sold to the State in a phased five-year contract beginning this year. Using funds dedicated for these purposes in the Environmental Protection Fund, the State will pay a total of $49.8 million for the property over five years with $13 million to be paid in this fiscal year. The balance of the funds will be paid in each fiscal year through 2016-17. The State will pay full local property and school taxes on the land. Environmental, Recreational & Economic Development Opportunities This agreement will provide abundant opportunities for premier hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, mountain biking and cross-country skiing for a broad array of recreational users in a manner supported by local communities. Public access to these lands will draw visitors to population centers that rely on year-round tourism opportunities. Paddling opportunities will be opened up on some of the wildest stretches of rivers and pristine ponds and lakes in the eastern United States. In addition, this agreement will allow for the creation of a snowmobile trail connection between Newcomb and North Hudson, completing an important linkage to snowmobile networks to the west through Long Lake and Indian Lake and to the east through Lake Champlain communities. These new and free snowmobile community connectors are important for the winter economy of the Adirondacks. The entire 69,000 acres will become part of the forever wild Forest Preserve. As the properties come into state ownership, the State will develop recreational plans and determine classifications of the lands to encourage public access and appropriate use of the properties while also protecting their outstanding natural resource values. The Adirondack Park Agency will work with DEC to propose land use classifications under the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan. As properties are acquired by the State, DEC will work with local governments and Park stakeholders to open these lands for public use. It is anticipated that the more remote, interior areas suitable for backcountry activities will be classified as Wilderness while the more accessible areas appropriate for greater levels of public use, including snowmobiling and vehicular access, will be classified as Wild Forest. Public hearings will be held on the draft classifications before they are sent to the Governor for approval. Once the classifications are approved, DEC will develop Unit Management Plans that will improve local economies through increased tourism. A public comment period will be held for each UMP Unit Management Plan. Also, as part of the overall agreement, several thousand acres of land were sold to communities such as Indian Lake and Newcomb for future economic development opportunities. For example, the Town of Newcomb has purchased parcels of land to complete its golf course and to make way for future economic development along the main travel corridor in the town. Similarly, the Town of Indian Lake also acquired property for future economic development opportunities, including possibly a new community forest. Features of the Land The former Finch lands contain some of the most important recreational and environmental assets in the Adirondack Park which will be opened to public use for the first time in more than 150 years. The lands contain an astounding variety of mountains, cliffs, wilderness lakes, ponds, bogs, fens, swamps, alluvial forests, and flat and white-water rivers. The parcels contain extensive habitat for mammals, such as moose, bobcat and black bear, and aquatic habitat for brook trout, landlocked salmon, and small and largemouth bass. The 69,000-acre lands property includes 180 miles of rivers and streams, 175 lakes and ponds, 465 miles of undeveloped shoreline along rivers, streams, lakes and ponds, six mountains taller than 2,000 feet and countless smaller hills. It also includes 5 percent of the Upper Hudson River watershed. In total, the 161,000-acre former Finch property constitutes 12 percent of the Upper Hudson watershed. The majority of these lands are concentrated within the central lake and tourist region of the Adirondack Park in the towns of Newcomb, Indian Lake, North Hudson and Minerva. Key parcels slated for acquisition in fee include the Essex Chain of Lakes, which features the Hudson River and, Boreas Ponds, the Macintyre Tract, OK Slip Falls, including part of the Hudson Gorge, and several smaller pieces throughout the southeast portion of the Park. Opportunities will be provided for the able bodied as well as those requiring universal access. These unique assets include: - The Essex Chain of Lakes and Hudson River: With 11 lakes and ponds interconnected or within portaging distance of each other, the Essex Chain will provide a seven-mile canoe route, and a much anticipated paddling experience within easy reach of the traveling public. A long history of fish stocking that includes brook trout and landlocked salmon will provide outstanding fishing. A 5-mile stretch of the Hudson River runs along the east side of the Essex Chain Parcel, completing an uninterrupted, forever wild stretch of river over 20 miles in length. The river provides a premier opportunity for day rafting, canoeing, kayaking, fishing and overnight river trips. Along with the area including the Cedar River, which runs through the southern portion of the Essex Chain Tract, and a portion of the popular Indian River, a new Wild Rivers Area encompassing the wildest and among the most scenic stretches of the Hudson River will be created. The area continues for nearly 15 miles down the Hudson Gorge, past the OK Slip Falls, one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the Adirondack Park, and part of a 2,800-acre property that will be made available to the public for hiking and other outdoor activities. This magnificent stretch of the Hudson River will become an incredible destination for visitors seeking this unique and limited wild rivers experience, bringing people to the communities of Indian Lake, Blue Mountain Lake, Long Lake, Newcomb and Minerva to seek accommodations and supplies. - The Boreas ponds: Located in the Town of North Hudson and bordering the High Peaks and Dix Mountain Wilderness Areas along the northern boundary and accessible to other public recreation areas to the south, this spectacular 22,000-acre property includes as its centerpiece the beautiful Boreas Ponds and provides abundant opportunities for hiking, paddling, hunting, trapping, camping, fishing, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. - The McIntyre Tract: This strategically situated property borders the Southern High Peaks area. Acquiring these lands restores historic access to many popular destinations in the High Peaks, including Santanoni and Panther Mountains, hiking access from Newcomb Lake to Lake Andrew, and access to Mount Allen in the High Peaks Wilderness Area from a parking area and trailhead leading from the neighboring Conservation Easement Lands. It also includes a large portion of the beautiful Opalescent River. - Southern Tracts: These four tracts in Northern Saratoga and Fulton counties have been identified by local municipalities as having high recreational value for their communities. The Thousand Acre Swamp Tract in Edinburgh provides habitat for moose and a host of other wildlife, and will provide an important snowmobile connector trail linking the area to the popular Mulleyville snowmobile trail system. Proposed multiple-use trails on the Pennyork Lumber Tract and Daniels Road Tract, both in Greenfield, will help Saratoga County complete the proposed Palmertown Range Trail and connect Moreau Lake State Park with Saratoga State Park. The 3,800-acre Benson Road Tract in Mayfield will provide opportunities for two snowmobile connector trails, fishing access to Stony Creek and a network of non-motorized multiple-use trails. Completes Acquisition of Former Finch Properties The agreement reached today by Governor Cuomo is the signature phase of a two-phase project with the State on 161,000 acres of the former Finch lands, which was approved by the 27 Adirondack host communities. In the first phase, DEC completed an 89,000-acre working forest conservation easement on another portion of the former Finch Pruyn lands, which guaranteed a long-term supply of wood fiber to the Finch paper mill at Glens Falls and kept the majority of the productive timberlands on the property in active forest management, employing local contractors and on local tax rolls. The mill at Glens Falls employs more than 700 people. The States investment in the future of the Adirondacks includes the creation of the Adirondack Forest Preserve and Park in the 19th century, the promotion of outdoor recreation and the Olympics, and the creation of the Olympic Regional Development Authority in the 20th century to capitalize on the regions Olympic venues and tremendous outdoor recreational assets framed by world renowned scenery. Todays agreement adds another chapter in the outdoor legacy of the Adirondacks, and promises to make the communities of this central part of the Adirondacks a draw for outdoor enthusiasts, including hikers, hunters, snowmobilers and nature lovers. Bill Ulfelder, Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy in New York, said, The Nature Conservancy is proud to work with New York State under the leadership of Governor Andrew Cuomo and Commissioner Joe Martens and to celebrate such a historic conservation project. Conserving these spectacular lands and waters as part of the publicly owned Forest Preserve will make some of the most beautiful places in the Adirondacks open to the public for the first time in 150 years. New York is doing more than conserving lands and waters, it is investing in the recreation and tourism economy that is so vital to the North Country and its future. Today's announcement helps to preserve some of the most spectacular natural resources and scenery in the Adirondacks while also promising the people of the Adirondacks that they are going to be able to use these lands and help derive economic benefits from their increased public use, Adirondack Park Agency Chairwoman Leilani Ulrich. The APA is working closely with DEC to ensure access and classifications suggested by Commissioner Martens and his team are ratified by the APA and approved by Governor Cuomo. We recognize that as actions are taken to protect the environment of the Park, efforts also need to focus on improving the communities of the Park. The classifications will reflect opportunities to boost the regional economy.
\|A pilot study was carried out to evaluate the design and performance of an innovative green roof system installed on a two-storey ?green construction site office? for Gammon Skanska in Hong Kong. To allow the components and materials to be re-usable, the green roof system was modular by design and was constructed on the ground before putting and fixing onto the roof. To enable comparison of thermal performance, a typical site office adjacent to the green site office was selected as the baseline.\| The "Green Roof for Construction Site Office" received the Considerate Contractor Award Eco-business Award -WasteWise Scheme Skanka's Internal Environmental Prize: "Skanska's ambition to environmentally improve all steps in the production process includes an attention to our own site offices. Using established conservation methods, Gammon Skanska showed an innovative and systematic approach to implementing green design at a site office. The results include a reduction in energy consumption by 72 kW/sq.m per year, and the reuse of old site offices and structural steel. Office parts have also been designed for easy reuse of components and water tanks are used to harvest rainwater to reduce the use of freshwater." \|The green roof design is adopted in the Tsing Yi Green Site Office to enhance thermal insulation. It is found that the temperature inside the ceiling void of the CED office nearby has a high temperature up to 52oC at 2:00 under sunshine on a day with 33oC, while for the green site office, the temperature of the ceiling void is around 33oC under sunshine at 3:00p.m. Thus, it can be concluded that the green roof has made significant effect to the thermal loading of the site office building. Moreover, when using green roof, its shallow soil reduces rainwater run off to less than 50% of normal amounts, reducing the pressure on the ground level drainage system. The rainwater retained in the soil supports the plants, reduces the temperature, and through evaporation, it can humidifies the air and reduces the dust levels. The green roof also acts a buffer to attenuate the stormwater and allows some rainwater to be harvested and recycled for other uses. For example, drainage gutters were installed at the edge of the roof of the green site office to collect rainwater, some of which was being used for watering of the green roof. To make the watering more convenient to do, a water sprinkler and pipework was installed on the green roof and the system can be controlled remotely on the ground level.\| In terms of biodiversity, the green roof has attracted some inserts and birds which are not common in a normal roof system. During the operation of the green site office, the weeds problem did affect the growth of vegetation and the appearance of the green roof. In order to avoid weeds growing too fast and covering the whole roof, the original plant species (sedum) on one half of the green roof has been changed to keep weeds under control. But for the purpose of biodiversity study, we have allowed the other half of the roof area to have weeds. Construction Cost: With the information provided by the site staff, the material of the green roof cost around HK$160,000. With the addition of the labour cost of around HK$40,000, it could be concluded that the approximate cost of the green roof of the site office is around HK$20,000. Maintenance Cost: The green roof had been installed with automatic sprinkler system. Very little supervision is required to provide to maintain the green roof. Only very minimal reed removing work has to be done to the roof and the maintenance work would only involve a person around a few hours each time. Operational Cost: The reduced power consumption of the Green Site Office is seen from charts available on the website (see below). Comparisons of the energy consumption of the Green Site Office with the other two types of site offices can be seen very clearly from the shape of the lines. It is very obvious that the power consumption of the Green Site Office is much lower than the other two kinds, especially during hot summer days around May and June. Additional thumbnail photos: \|Please refer to the full report conducted by Dr. Sam Hui of Hong Kong University "Benefits and potential applications of green roof systems in Hong Kong," In Proceedings of the 2nd Megacities International Conference 2006, 1-2 December 2006, Guangzhou, China, pp. 351-360, here, as well as numerous other papers. Visit a large Photo Gallery, too. You'll also find a huge array of thermal infrared photos under "Reference Drawings" Plans / Section / Elevations. The office is open to visit by appointment only.\| \|The International Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database is published, designed, and maintained by\| Greenroofs.com, LLC, Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.
\|Content Forum List\| To foster future leaders of unfolding automobiles market and self-driving cars, Hanyang University (HYU) hosted its 15th Smart Model Car Competition at the Olympic Gymnasium on the 14th of July. Applause of encouragement and cheers were heard here and there with shout outs of supports being made each time a team took their turn to run their cars. Of the 20 teams that made it to the final, team Future Automotive Engineering (FAE) won the first place. All five members of the team are students of the Department of Automotive Engineering: Park Sung-woo (4th year), Shin Hyun-ki (4th year), Park Soo-hyun (4th year), Byun Hyo-seok (2nd year), and Byeon Moo-kyung (4th year). Participants were required to develop an embedded control system (a smart computer system enabling machines to operate on their own) and run their cars on the track, which was readily set in the Olympic Gymnasium, waiting for the entrants to come. Each team was to bring their cars to the start line and present its ability when called upon. The missions were as follows: cars must drive in the middle of the lane, must avoid obstacles, must speed down in the school zone and go back to the original speed after leaving the zone, should be able to go over the hill, and must make curves without departing the lane. Now, ready, set, go! The finished work of team FAE, the only one to complete the whole track. (Photo courtesy of FAE) Prize of 10,000,000 given to team FAE! Unforeseen and unforgettable “None of us expected to win the competition. Since all five of us has no experience of participating in a contest like this, we thought we would barely make it to the final,” began Byun. About 100 teams were present for the preliminary round, after which 20 teams were selected for the final. Much to their surprise, when team FAE passed the preliminary round ranking the 4th place, their goal changed to complete the track and make it to the finish line in the final. What was surprising was not only the fact that they have won the competition but also that they were the only team who made it to the finish line. “We were happy with the result, of course, but at the same time, we were quite shook from such unexpected outcome. We didn’t expect to be the only team to complete the track,” remarked Byun. The most essential requisite for the car was to keep itself in the middle of the lane, not crossing over to the other or departing it. When the car was free to drive, it had to maintain its speed and make curves as the track demanded. Then at some point, school zone was marked by thick, black lines in which the car had to slow down and avoid the obstacles. Marking the end of the school zone with another set of thick black lines, the car was to go back to its original speed and finish the track, passing a hill and stopping at the finish line without bumping into the blockage. FAE’s car has successfully fulfilled all these requirements and confidently marched to the end. Sung-woo, who was the team leader, was looking for fellow students who would join his team. The members came together as one team through acquaintance, since they took the same course. The team first gathered around April, in the middle of the semester, and met up from time to time to work on their automobile. It was after the semester was over that they deeply got down to their business and invested more time on constructing the car. They even got access to the 3D printer thanks to professor Yoon Soo-kyung and tested their designs, by mapping out where each part should lie. Nonetheless, they received no particular help from any of their professors to be fair. “This course named 'Microprocessor' we took was quite helpful in a way that it taught us about the parts we used for this competition.” Byeon Moo-kyung (left), Byeon Hyo-seok (middle), Park Soo-hyun (right) Fix it till you make it “Finding the right angle of the camera, which will be the eye of the car, was one of the most difficult tasks,” recalled Park. It was crucial to adjust the camera at the perfect angle because the car has to sense and move according to what it observes. If it is too short-sighted, the car will fail to perceive the other lane and if it is too far-sighted, the car will easily depart the lane. “We had to remove and adjust the camera countless times to find the perfect spot. Everything will go into nothing if the camera fails to observe the area correctly in the first place,” explained Byeon. In addition, more than ten parts had to be replaced because they were burned during the process. If one part goes wrong, the whole thing fails to function. Therefore, it was crucial that each part maintained its good condition. Overall, the process was not so smooth, as the members struggled to “Our team name was uninteresting, our car wasn’t that flashy, and we even had to fix it until the last minute. However, our car presented the best performance and eventually became the only car that finished the whole track. This was unexpected, but we’re very happy with how it all turned out,” said the members unanimously. "Small changes and corrections lead to a big difference!" Jeon Chae-yun [email protected] Photos by Choi Min-ju “Two heads are better than one” is a phrase often used to describe a situation where a task is better carried when more than one person is involved. While some people prefer to study alone and concentrate to the full, others like to study in a group and exchange mutual help. The Smart Learning and Learning Center is running a 'Global Learning Community' program that supports community learning activities and cultural experience activities for major courses since 2014. The program, which allows 4 to 6 team members to study as well as cultural exchanges, is paid up to 500,000 won. We are actively conducting this semester, and we have looked into the Global Learning Community 7 activity, which is about a week before the final evaluation. Consistent and diligent studying Lee Ji-yeon, the principal researcher, is overseeing the overall progress. The global learning community is a program developed to develop creative learning methods and improve communication and collaboration skills through self-directed, community learning. It is also possible to develop global communication skills through exchange of learning and cultural exchange with foreign students. At the beginning of each semester, a team member who submits a detailed application plan will be selected by the Smart Teaching and Learning Center. Most students who apply for team are required to work with students who attend classes in the same major, but international students who are having difficulties in studying their major or those who want to study hard with other friends are more than welcomed to apply. The aim of the Global Learning Community Program is to provide an opportunity for Korean students and foreign students to study together in harmony and to share their knowledge and culture for better learning, obtaining mutual benefits from one another. The program intends to give a helping hand to those foreign students who are struggling to follow along with their class content due to language barrier. By having weekly meetings to review their class contents, students can stay away from procrastination and keep up with their learnings. On top of this academic pursuits, students are expected to experience different cultures from each other and broaden their cultural knowledge. Starting from this semester, supporter system has been adopted, in response to participant students’ feedback that it would be helpful to have a more thorough check-up system that manages the communication and difficulties among members of each team. There are total three assistant teachers, all of whom are graduate students. Each assistant teacher is in charge of helping students in different languages: Chinese, English, and Korean. "We have added a feedback system to support students' learning activities in depth and detail. For example, we have been using the supporter system since this semester to help foreign students understand how much they are learning, whether there is a need for learning support, or to facilitate communication between team members," commented Lee. Assistant teacher Noh Ah-young (Department of Education, Master’s Program) and one team leader, Ahn Jae-won (Division of Business Administration, 4th year) Outstanding team of exemplary work The 'Friends Management' team was conducted at the beginning of the 'Project Management' class in Business Administration. The group did not simply took the program as an opportunity for themselves to come together and help each other, but further extended to create a project in which they embraced other fellow students to join in. They created a culture exchange program where 20 students joined Korean traditional clothes hanbok experience and tea-house field trip. “When submitting the monthly report, a lot of students put the focus on what they studied and how they kept up with it. However, Ahn’s team showed innovativeness and creativity in their project and demonstrated perfectly for what this program aims to achieve,” commented Lee. Ahn’s team did a great job in bringing about a cultural exchange not only among its team members but to those outside the group, which makes its achievement even more outstanding. “This program provided me with an opportunity to get closer with people who I may have simply regarded as a temporary group project teammate.” Jeon Chae-yun [email protected] Photos by Choi Min-ju “Until all 3,600,000 university students are happy” is a slogan adopted by Pop Monster, an enterprise that works to divert wasted advertisement costs to students’ benefit. Just as a monster would pop up in front of its prey and leave an unforgettable impression, Pop Monster wants to present university students with monster-like support. Choi Ji-eun (Department of Biomedical Engineering, 4th year), the founder of the enterprise, has developed the idea of acting as a link between corporates and students to create a win-win situation out of the understanding that majority of university students go through financial hard times and enormous amount of money is going into waste from advertisements. From inventing in high school to business in university When Choi was in high school, she showed extraordinary talent in inventing. In fact, her admission type to Hanyang was inventors selection. She has fostered a great interest in devising innovative ideas since she was a high-schooler, proving her talent by winning numerous awards in inventing competitions. The entries she contributed included traffic light for red-greed blind and wheelchairs for paraplegia and paralysis, both of which won her big awards. Because she decided to attend inventing classes offered by a teacher she met from one of the inventing competitions, Choi had little time to invest in her school study. This was a big concern for her parents, since she needed to put her best effort in studying as a high school student but her talent showed otherwise. "I wanted to turn what was wasted into something that was beneficial." “I knew I had to set my career path and study hard to get a high score on the Korean SAT, I was much more drawn into other things than studying. I just wanted to do what I felt like doing.” Choi neither studied for nor took the Korean SAT and devoted her time in inventing, which eventually ended up becoming her career route. Her interest and passion for inventing did not lessen a bit but grew even more ardently during her university years. In 2014, Choi entered the School of Youth Startup run by Small and Medium Business Corporation, which aims to cultivate innovative thinkers under the age 39. When applying to the school with an inventive idea as a requirement, Choi only had vague sketches of ideas for Pop Monster, but still gave it a shot. Unsurprisingly, she got accepted to the school and has been receiving training for startup ideas, preparing her to complete her startup business, Pop Monster. As a university student, she wanted to target university students as her business’s main beneficiary. Pop! Here’s your share! Since Choi wants to deal with the wasted non-targeted advertisement costs, she knew the first thing she had to do was to solidly set her target—university students—because only then the efficiency of an advertisement will improve. Thinking about what university students would like the most, she has worked with various companies to benefit both the students and the companies. One of the projects she worked on was handing out commodities of those companies to students and extracting surveys, ideas, and reviews of those items from the students in return, which could help improve those items. Positive response had been obtained from both students and companies. Pop Monster’s main role is to interact with and intervene in the relations among advertisements and its targeted audience. With some profit made from the business, she generates programs in which university students could participate and earn scholarship. Students are required to write their situation story of why they need funding and how they are going to use it. Those selected students then have to send a review to Pop Monster on how they spent the fund they have received. Themes of funding vary from transportation fee and monthly rent to back-to-school celebration and home-trip expenses. Choi is working on more projects and programs that could result in win-win situation for both companies and students. “Until all 3,600,000 university students are happy!" Jeon Chae-yun [email protected] Photos by Choi Min-ju This week's top news Frames that Capture the Beautiful World [Researcher of the Month] Producing Energy Through a Single Thread Hanyang University Hosted a 'Chuseok Event' for Foreign Students Hanyang Ranked 23rd Worldwide for Its Influence on Industry and Innovation [Researcher of the Month] How ‘Fit' Are You With Your Boss? [Researcher of the Month] Scientific Integration Approach to Programmable Nuclease [Researcher of the Month] Blue Ocean of Materials Science [Researcher of the Month] What Makes People Pro-Environment? [Researcher of the Month] Detecting Ultra-Sensitive Benzene This year Hanyang University taking 351-400th place in 'THE world university ranking'
Is the Mind a Sixth Sense? As everybody knows, the five conventional senses are sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Their associated organs–eyes, ears, nose, tongue and the neuronal receptors located in the skin and other parts of the body–provide sensory signals, both from outside and within the body, that are transmitted to the brain where they are perceived and processed, or ignored. Seeing is what our eyes do, hearing is what our ears do, smelling is what our nose does… And so on. "The mind is what our brain does," says Canadian-American evolutionary scientist Steven Pinker. This sentence needs further qualification: The mind is what our brain does–more precisely, what our prefrontal cortex does–and the brains of other animals do not. Mind is the complex of elements in our brain that feels, perceives, wills, remembers, reasons and is conscious of the self that owns that brain. Is the mind a sixth sense? The Buddha thinks so. The answer to this question invites controversy since there is no agreement on the number of 'senses' we possess. However, the statement that the mind is indeed a sense implies that, as the other five, it is also a biological phenomenon and a product of evolution by natural selection. Regarding its biological nature, says the English philosopher Gilbert Ryle, "minds are not ghosts harnessed to bodily machines". There are no separate workings of the mind and workings of the body. Without metaphysical interventions, mind 'occurs' in the brain, which is a part of the body. With respect to evolution, the five traditional senses preceded the hypothetical sixth one by eons. Likely smell was first. Millions of years ago, one of the things that rudimentary live entities did, besides copying themselves, was learning to perceive the odors of the molecules they would seize for their organisms; current plants, which lack sensory organs, do smell one another. In an extremely slow sequence, living beings were able to taste, touch, hear and see. Then, a few moments ago in the 3,500-million-year timeline of life, our hominid ancestors, able to ponder and recognize their existence, made their unexpected appearance. How could this happen? At some point, as a result of genetic mutations, some distant ancestors developed a rudimentary consciousness the progress of which became an evolutionary reward to a number of qualities that favored survival. In a thought experiment, Portuguese-American neurobiologist Antonio Damasio compares the potential for survival of two remote anthropoid apes, one with some elementary hints of a mental function, a bit of personal history or a very simple grasp of individuality, and a second one with no trace of mind, memory or sense of identity. The first ape, when facing a certain threat, not only experienced fear and made instinctive fight-or-flight decisions, as would any mammal, but also he or she could recall previous similar circumstances and reproduce actions that had already proved helpful. The odds of survival of that first anthropoid were certainly higher than those of the second primate; every success of the latter, the 'oblivious' one, was exclusively random. Whether or not a sense, it is clear that mental faculties, including the recognition of the self, are the result of evolution by natural selection; alternatives to this line of thought require metaphysical assumptions. With no notion of the evolution of species, the Buddha is very specific about the material nature of the sense of identity. The Sage declares that "there is no supernatural expression in the body, the sensory signals, the perceptions, the mental formations (conditionings) or the consciousness of a human being". Twenty four centuries later, naturalist Charles Darwin, the first person ever to speak about evolution and evolutionary psychology, shows how species transformed to reach modern man, the top bough of the hierarchy of life. All our mental faculties, including the construction of our identity, are biological phenomena improved through time by natural selection. The acceptance of this fact puts our feet on the ground; this is what is important. The acceptance or rejection of the mind as a sixth sense is a secondary issue. Atlanta, September 18, 2014 Please leave your comments at this link (<--- Click here)
Lyric can. Able to be worn 24/7, Lyric is one of the first extended wear hearing aids in the world. It can last up to four months without changing batteries, and can withstand showering, sleeping, exercise, and more. This hearing device delivers exceptional sound quality by working with your ears natural anatomy. It does all of this while staying completely out of sight.The contact lens for your ear. The world's first and only 100% invisible hearing device that delivers natural sound A revolution in hearing technology Lyric’s inventors had an original mission to create the best possible hearing solution. They knew that amazing sound quality was key, and that the closer a device could get to the ear drum, the more natural the sound quality would be. But to achieve incredible sound quality and comfort, Lyric’s team of ENTs and engineers had to break past the existing limits of acoustics, processing and power supply. Today, Lyric uses advanced micro-engineering that leverages the ear’s organic shape to capture sound and amplify it with minimal processing. Lyric invisible hearing aid is designed to be worn 24/7 for months at a time. With Lyric, sound enters the outer ear and flows naturally toward the ear drum, so it delivers pure, beautiful sound. And it does all this for months at a time without the need for battery replacements or daily maintenance thanks to patented moisture protection mechanisms and breathable materials –all while staying completely out of sight. To learn more about invisible, incredible hearing with Lyric, make a Lyric appointment.
Want to buy a heat pump package in the near future? These combination systems aren’t cheap. You should know what to look for in an affordable heat pump package. What Is a Heat Pump Package Unit? A packaged heat pump system is comprised of a self contained unit that has two separate functions: a heat pump and an air handler unit. Together they create a closed heating and cooling system. In some situations, you may be have been able get away with just replacing a bad air handler or upgrading to more efficient heat pump without having to buy both. But not with a heat pump package; you either repair or replace the whole unit. But when it comes to doing a complete remodel on an older home or one gutted by fire or flood, you might be forced to buy a heat pump package in order to get both units cheaply. Or you move into a house with using a traditional fossil-fuel burning furnace, that you need to replace, a completely new heat pump package can be your best bet in saving money during times of high fuel costs. Selecting a packaged heat pump while not difficult can be very confusing to the average layperson on the street. Below are some things you need to take under consideration when buying a heat pump package. Efficiency Ratings – In the US the SEER or HSPF Ratings are used. SEER stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio and it describes how well the air conditioning function of heat pump unit works. The HSPF stands for Heating Seasonal Performance Factor and it describes how well heating functions work in cold weather. With both rating the higher the less energy it uses and the more money you should save. But don’t let the concept using high efficiency heat pump package units blind you to the importance of long term low operating costs. If the air handler or any part of a heat pump package is prone to frequent breakdowns or repairs, you will quickly outpace any energy savings you might gain. Another point to think about is how your heat pump package looks. First you need to be aware how the outside heat pump unit affects the overall look and style of your home. Nothing can lower a home’s curb appeal like an ugly or poorly placed exterior heat pump. Look for cabinets that are made to protect the condenser from wind blown hazards or flooding as well as having a pleasing appearance. Another element that most people overlook when selecting a heat pump package is the pipelines for the evaporator and condensing coils. Most coils are made from cheap but easily damaged aluminum tubing. To get the maximum heating and cooling rates along with increased durability, you may want to investigate systems that use copper tubing instead. And finally you need to investigate the issue of noise. Many cheap heat pump packages may use an outside unit that has poor noise reduction qualities because it is a poor seller as a standalone product. Also get references about the air handler too. Nothing is more annoying than having to turn up the volume on the music system or the television because you can’t hear them over the noise that the air blower makes! Now that you know a little bit more about what’s including a heat pump package and what to look for, you will are ready to do more in depth research and start talking to HVAC contractors.
Become a certified Business Analyst : SAS Certified Young Potentials program Enseignant-pilote: Stéphanie Aerts Become a certified Business Analyst / Data Scientist! This is the job of the future! Nowadays, a company must be able to collect, analyze and handle huge volume of data in order to answer managerial questions and/or offer new top value services. Amazon, Google, Facebook are obvious successful stories confirming the importance of data management. The main question is: "How to transform raw "stupid" data into valuable "actionable" information?" This is the job of the Business Analyst. In order to achieve such a result, the Business Analyst needs powerful tools. SAS Base and SAS Enterprise Guide are the platforms used by leading companies. This portfolio aims to prepare you for the official external certification SAS Certified Base Programmer. Many companies use SAS for their internal analysis, which makes this certification an undeniable added-value to your CV and helps you to secure jobs. Beside, this training should help you for other courses and projects: Statistics, Business Analytics, Marketing Analytics, master thesis... In this learning, you will not learn new data analysis techniques but you’ll become familiar with SAS programming language, the cornerstone of all SAS platforms, to be able to write your own SAS data analysis codes. More precisely, with this certification in hand, you’ll be able to write your own code to: - Import and export raw data files - Manipulate and transform data - Combines SAS datasets - Create basic detail and summary reports using SAS procedures - Identify and correct data, syntax and programming logic errors There is no prerequisite in computer programming needed for this portfolio: indeed, the SCYP program walks you through the steps of learning to write code, which could also help for other courses. But, obviously, you have to be a minimum computer enthusiast to get the best of it.
Soviet scientist and well-known human rights activist Andrei Sakharov begins a two-week visit to the United States. During his visit, he pleaded with the American government and people to support Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost (political openness) and perestroika (economic reforms), and so ensure the success of a new, more democratic, and friendlier Soviet system.Sakharov had not always been a favorite of the Soviet government. During the late-1930s and 1940s, he was a respected physicist in the Soviet Union, and was part of the group of scientists who worked to develop Russia’s first hydrogen bomb in the 1950s. By the late 1950s, however, he began to have serious doubts about Russia’s open-air testing of nuclear weapons. He also began to protest for more scientific freedom in the Soviet Union. By the mid-1960s, he was openly criticizing the Stalinist legacy and current laws designed to muzzle political opponents. In 1968, he had an essay published in the New York Times calling for a system that merged socialism and capitalism. Because of this, Sakharov was stripped of his security clearance and job. In 1970, he co-founded the Moscow Committee for Human Rights. His work resulted in his winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.Sakharov also urged the United States to pressure the Soviet Union concerning the latter’s human rights policies, and harshly criticized Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. He and his wife were arrested and sentenced to internal exile. Despite his isolation, his supporters continued to smuggle his writings out of the country. In December 1986, Gorbachev released Sakharov and his wife from exile. It was a pragmatic move on Gorbachev’s part: He desired closer relations with the West, and Sakharov had become a hero to many in the United States and elsewhere. Sakharov became a spokesman for the reforms Gorbachev was trying to push through, and praised the construction of the new Soviet Union. His November 1988 trip to the United States was part of this effort. Nevertheless, he continued to press for more democracy in the Soviet Union. On December 14, 1989, shortly after delivering a speech denouncing Russia’s one-party rule, Sakharov suffered a heart attack and died.
Have you ever wondered how feed blocks and mineral licks are made? There are three main methods used to manufacture feeds blocks and mineral licks; these are pressed, chemically hardened and cooking/dehydration. Pressed – The ingredients and binders are blended and pressed into the finished block. These are the traditional, brick shaped, salt licks. Chemically Hardened – Chemical hardening agents are added to a liquid, this produces an exothermic reaction causing the finished product to become hard and brittle – these are not normally weatherproof and also palatability can be a problem due to the smell (ammonia/fishy smell). Cooking/dehydration – This unique patented process is exclusive to Horslyx and contains no chemical binders, fillers or hardeners. This method involves cooking and dehydrating the base ingredients molasses and oil, crystallizing the sugar. As the mixture cools the vitamin, mineral and trace element package is added, along with good quality proteins (and the extra ingredients for Respiratory, Mobility and Garlic Horslyx). When the product fully cools down and it sets and becomes hard, this process is very similar to making Treacle Toffee at home! Horslyx (Caltech) are the only company in Europe who are able to produce licks using this unique process. The benefits of this unique cooking/dehydration process are… - No chemical hardeners, No unwanted fillers or binders, No artificial colours, preservatives or flavourings! - Very low moisture content (buying product not water) – some chemically hardened licks can be over 20% water! Horslyx is less than 5% (so you are buying product not water!) - Weatherproof – all products can be used outside - The lick will soften at the horse’s body temperature, ensuring that Horslyx is easily broken down in the gut and readily digested, thus safeguarding against the possibility of undigested matter blocking the digestive tract and causing colic. So next time you are looking at feed blocks and mineral licks remember… Not all licks are the same!
In the 2014 celebration of Nutrition Month in July, HLC's School Administrator and science teachers demonstrated through a simple experiment the average sugar content of a liter of cola. To heighten the students' and parents' awareness of the negative effects of excessive amounts of sugar in children's diets, the school's nurse and science teacher explained how sugar is a contributing factor to many diseases including obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, and high blood pressure, and has many harmful effects on the health of growing children. According to research, the recommended maximum allowable daily intake of sugar for children ages 3 to 8 should be 3 teaspoons. For teenagers, the maximum amount of sugar added to their daily diet should be 5 to 8 teaspoons. The truth is, however, that most Filipino children, teenagers, and adults consume at least twice the recommended allowable intake. To demonstrate the levels of sugar content in a liter of soda, the science teacher and the School Administrator boiled a liter of Coca-Cola in front of the curious students (see photos below). Everyone took a stab at how many teaspoons of sugar could be found in a bottle of Coke. Most guessed 2 or 1. In actuality, a liter of Coke has 108 grams of sugar and adds 400 calories from sugar to your diet. That's equivalent to 25 teaspoons of sugar! A 12-oz serving of Coke has 9 1/3 teaspoons of sugar. Imagine what that looks like. Unfortunately, soft drinks are a very common staple in the Filipino diet - you can find it served during merienda, lunch, and dinner. All soft drinks, whether regular or diet, have little or no nutritional value and contain plenty of additives, such as caffeine or phosphoric acid, which could potentially cause health problems.
By Mike Snyder GALVESTON - When you live on a narrow strip of sand next to the ocean, resilience isn't optional. But even storm-toughened Galvestonians weren't prepared for a second wave of tragedy that washed over them some six months after Hurricane Ike struck the city in September 2008. Many of the trees that blanketed the island were not leafing out in the spring of 2009. Saltwater from the hurricane's storm surge was killing the great live oaks on the esplanade of Broadway Boulevard. Enormous trees that had shaded elegant Victorian homes for 100 years were meeting the same fate. "When everything went brown, it was like going to Mars," said Rebecca Jaworski, who has lived in an East End home since 1995. "There was a canopy of oaks that shaded about three-quarters of our side of the block - the houses as well as the yards. They all were lost." Like many others around the city, the Jaworskis turned the remains of a beloved tree into a shrine. A sculpture fashioned from the trunk of a live oak stands on a pedestal in their front yard with an inscription: "In Memoriam - Galveston's Lost Oaks." More than 40,000 trees were lost to Ike, according to the nonprofit Galveston Island Tree Conservancy. A replanting campaign that began in 2010 has made significant progress: Volunteers have spent more than 17,000 hours planting more than 16,000 trees, including 250 live oaks and 60 palm trees on Broadway. Now this effort faces a new threat - not from nature, but from politicians in the state Capitol. Gov. Greg Abbott wants the Legislature to strip cities of the authority to regulate - and essentially protect - trees on private property. It's one of 21 items the Republican governor has placed on the agenda for a special session that begins July 18. This action would weaken tree-protection ordinances in more than 50 Texas cities. Local leaders across the state oppose the idea, but the issue has particular resonance in Galveston because of Ike's devastating effect on its tree canopy. In the storm's aftermath, trees became precious jewels. Homeowners agonized for months, hoping in vain that their treasured oak or magnolia would somehow recover, before accepting the inevitable. Every dead tree that was felled and hauled away left the island a little barer, its people a little more sorrowful. "Everyone was just so devastated by the loss," said Jackie Cole, president of the nonprofit Galveston Island Tree Conservancy. To bolster the recovery effort, the City Council passed a tree-protection ordinance in 2015. The measure requires property owners to seek a permit before removing trees considered significant based on their size or other factors. Trees that are unhealthy, that pose a hazard or that meet certain other criteria may be removed without penalty; others may be cut down only if the owner replaces them with trees of a specified size or pays into a local tree fund. To read this article in one of Houston's most-spoken languages, click on the button below. Issue of property rights Many of the large trees that survived Ike stand on private property. Most qualify for protection under the ordinance, but they would be at risk if Abbott gets his way. The current owners might be devoted to the trees, but property is often sold and redeveloped. "With the huge loss of trees that Galveston suffered, the idea that these magnificent trees would be lost because a developer wants to save some money makes me very sad," Jaworski said. Abbott and his supporters say laws like Galveston's trample on property rights. Abbott, who has complained about his personal experience with Austin's tree regulations, has called such rules "socialistic." "I feel like those who own their trees have the right to do with their trees what they want," state Sen. Konni Burton, R-Colleyville, told the Texas Tribune. Comments like those push the right buttons among Abbott's conservative base. But property rights must be balanced against broader community interests. That tree in your front yard belongs not only to you, but also to your neighbors; its roots and its shade don't recognize property boundaries. Jackie Cole makes a persuasive case that trees should be regarded as essential urban infrastructure, like streets and sewers. Trees absorb massive quantities of water that otherwise might rush into people's houses during floods. They improve air quality. They cool off everything around them. They increase property values. They make people healthier. And, of course, they're pretty. Galveston is grieving its lost trees. Now its leaders must worry about losing an important tool to help replace them and maintain those standing. Greater Houston columnist © 2017 Hearst Newspapers, LLC.
Jan 29, 2015 - 02:01 am .- Effectively exiled from his friary in Mosul by the Islamic State last year, Fr. Najeeb Michaeel, O.P. is working to preserve Christian manuscripts through digitization, recording a memory of Iraq's Christian past. Jan 28, 2015 - 05:09 pm .- “Most of them were students at the university, young people who had not left the city. So what sort of message does this attack send out now? I believe they were deliberately targeted.” Jan 28, 2015 - 02:04 am .- A national symposium of Catholic communicators set out to explore pathways in new media to build unity in Malawi and to connect people to the faith in the small southern African nation. Jan 26, 2015 - 05:02 pm .- Against the background of continuing attacks by radical Islamist group Boko Haram, bishops in Nigeria are appealing for military aid from Western governments, as well as solidarity and prayer from around the world. Jan 23, 2015 - 02:04 am .- The Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon has encouraged Iraqi Muslims to confront violent extremists, stressing the need to return to peaceful coexistence despite present threats in the country. Jan 22, 2015 - 04:32 pm .- The bishops of Niger have canceled Masses and activities at Catholic schools, health care facilities and charity outreaches after Muslim extremists set fire to dozens of churches across the country. Jan 22, 2015 - 02:01 am .- From providing spiritual support to ensuring preventive care, the Diocese of Kenema in the eastern part of Sierra Leone is deeply involved in the country’s fight against the Ebola virus. Jan 15, 2015 - 02:30 pm .- Catholics in Malawi are mourning the death of Bishop Joseph Mukasa Zuza of Mzuzu, who died in a car crash on Thursday at the age of 59. Jan 14, 2015 - 04:07 pm .- In 2014, more than 120,000 Christians in Iraq, among them dozens of priests and religious, had to flee from the Islamic State. Many have found refuge in the autonomous Kurdish regions of Iraq after having lost everything, among them Sister Sanaa Hana. Jan 14, 2015 - 03:12 pm .- A Libyan affiliate of the Islamic State claimed the abduction of 21 Coptic Christians on Monday, releasing pictures of those they had captured. Jan 13, 2015 - 12:27 pm .- The publication of the Farsi language edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church may foster further interreligious dialogue in Iran, although this will depend on the commitment of local communities, a Vatican official said. Jan 12, 2015 - 02:56 pm .- Boko Haram having killed as many as 2,000 in an attack on the town of Baga last week, Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos hopes that Nigeria will see demonstrations of solidarity and unity in the face of such violence. Jan 11, 2015 - 06:01 am .- “Thank you, thank you, thank you:” Suheila, an elderly Christian woman from Mosul was effusive in expressing her gratitude to a group of European visitors. "May God make things easy for you in your lives." Jan 9, 2015 - 12:00 pm .- Archbishop Emil Nona is the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, the Iraqi city overrun by the Islamic State last summer. Since then, he has brought the voice of the Christians of Iraq to the West. Jan 8, 2015 - 02:01 am .- For years the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has been a haven for refugees from Iraq. However, a critical limit is in view as the country is also forced to accommodate a huge, and growing, influx of refugees fleeing ongoing war and violence in Syria. Jan 7, 2015 - 04:02 am .- Christians lived in Iraq for nearly two thousand years, but the violent rise of the Islamic State has convinced many Christian refugees they must forever leave their homeland. Dec 30, 2014 - 06:02 am .- Father Felix Tachiona Mukaro is disappointed in his country’s politicians, as many Zimbabweans are, saying they are more concerned with power than the peoples' poverty. Dec 29, 2014 - 06:01 am .- Threatened by forced conversion or death at the hands of the Islamic State, many Iraqi Christians have had to flee their homes – but one refugee family sheltered at a Jordanian church has declared their continued faith. Dec 26, 2014 - 06:02 am .- Catholic participation in refugee and humanitarian relief in the Syrian civil war is strengthening a foundation for future peace despite the great difficulties of the region, says an official of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. Dec 23, 2014 - 09:35 am .- Catholic leaders in Uganda and Malawi have issued largely positive informal progress reports on local Church efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in the African nations. Page 1 of 63 Next »
Democracy is supposed to be rule of the people, by the people, and for the people. But in order to rule effectively, the people need political knowledge. If they know little or nothing about government, it becomes difficult to hold political leaders accountable for their performance. Unfortunately, public knowledge about politics is disturbingly low. In addition, the public also often does a poor job of evaluating the political information they do know. This state of affairs has persisted despite rising education levels, increased availability of information thanks to modern technology, and even rising IQ scores. It is mostly the result of rational behavior, not stupidity. Such widespread and persistent political ignorance and irrationality strengthens the case for limiting and decentralizing the power of government. The Extent of Ignorance Political ignorance in America is deep and widespread. The current government shutdown fight provides some good examples. Although Obamacare is at the center of that fight and much other recent political controversy, 44% percent of the public do not even realize it is still the law. Some 80 percent, according to a recent Kaiser survey, say they have heard “nothing at all” or “only a little” about the controversial insurance exchanges that are a major part of the law. The shutdown controversy is also just the latest manifestation of a longstanding political struggle over federal spending. But most of the public has very little idea of how federal spending is actually distributed. They greatly underestimate the percentage that goes to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security, and vastly overestimate that spent on foreign aid. Public ignorance is not limited to information about specific policies. It also extends to the basic structure of government and how it operates. A 2006 survey found that only 42 percent can even name the three branches of the federal government: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. There is also much ignorance and confusion about such matters as which government officials are responsible for which issues. I give many more examples of public ignorance in my book.1 Widespread ignorance is not a new phenomenon. Political knowledge has been at roughly the same low level for decades. But it is striking that knowledge levels have risen very little, if at all, despite rising educational attainment and the increased availability of information through the internet, cable news, and other modern technologies. Some people react to data like the above by thinking that the voters must be stupid. Butpolitical ignorance is actually rational for most of the public, including most smart people. If your only reason to follow politics is to be a better voter, that turns out not be much of a reason at all. That is because there is very little chance that your vote will actually make a difference to the outcome of an election (about 1 in 60 million in a presidential race, for example).2 For most of us, it is rational to devote very little time to learning about politics, and instead focus on other activities that are more interesting or more likely to be useful. As former British Prime Minister Tony Blair puts it, “[t]he single hardest thing for a practising politician to understand is that most people, most of the time, don’t give politics a first thought all day long. Or if they do, it is with a sigh…. before going back to worrying about the kids, the parents, the mortgage, the boss, their friends, their weight, their health, sex and rock ‘n’ roll.”3 Most people don’t precisely calculate the odds that their vote will make a difference. But they probably have an intuitive sense that the chances are very small, and act accordingly. In the book, I also consider why many rationally ignorant people often still bother to vote.4 The key factor is that voting is a lot cheaper and less time-consuming than studying political issues. For many, it is rational to take the time to vote, but without learning much about the issues at stake. The Rational Irrationality of Political Fans There are people who learn political information for reasons other than becoming better voters. Just as sports fans love to follow their favorite teams even if they cannot influence the outcomes of games, so there are also “political fans” who enjoy following political issues and cheering for their favorite candidates, parties, or ideologies. Unfortunately, much like sports fans, political fans tend to evaluate new information in a highly biased way. They overvalue anything that supports their preexisting views, and to undervalue or ignore new data that cuts against them, even to the extent of misinterpreting simple data that they could easily interpret correctly in other contexts. Moreover, those most interested in politics are also particularly prone to discuss it only with others who agree with their views, and to follow politics only through like-minded media.5 All of this makes little sense if the goal is truth-seeking. A truth-seeker should actively seek out defenders of views opposed to their own. Those are the people most likely to present you arguments and evidence of which you were previously unaware. But such bias makes perfect sense if the goal is not so much truth as enhancing the fan experience. Economist Bryan Caplan calls this approach to information “rational irrationality”: when your purpose is something other than truth-seeking, it is often rational to be highly biased in the way you evaluate new information and also in your selection of information sources.6Unlike Caplan, I contend that widespread political ignorance would be a menace even if voters were always rational in their evaluation of what they know. The problems of political ignorance and irrationality are accentuated by the enormous size and scope of modern government. In the United States, government spending accounts for close to 40% of GDP, according OECD estimates.7 And that does not include numerous other government policies that function through regulation of the private sector. Even if voters followed political issues more closely than they do, and even if they were more rational in their evaluation of political information, they still could not effectively monitor more than a fraction of the activities of the modern state. Increasing Knowledge through Education The most obvious way to overcome political ignorance is by increasing knowledge through education. Unfortunately, political knowledge levels have increased very little over the last fifty to sixty years, even as educational attainment has risen enormously. Rising IQ scores have also failed to increase political knowledge. This suggests that increasing political knowledge through education is a lot harder than it seems. Perhaps the solution is a better public school curriculum that puts more emphasis on civic education. The difficulty is that governments have very little incentive to ensure that public schools really do adopt curricula that increase knowledge. If the voters effectively monitored education policy and rewarded elected officials for using public schools to increase political knowledge, things might be different. But if the voters were that knowledgeable, we probably wouldn’t have a political ignorance problem to begin with. Moreover, political leaders and influential interest groups often use public education to indoctrinate students in their own preferred ideology rather than increase knowledge. In both Europe (where it was established in large part to inculcate nationalism) and the United States (where a major objective was indoctrinating Catholic immigrants in true “American” values), indoctrination was one of the major motives for the establishment of public education in the first place. Even if public schools did begin to do a better job of teaching political knowledge and minimized indoctrination, it is hard to see how students could learn enough to understand and monitor more than a small fraction of the many complex activities of modern government. This is not to say that we shouldn’t try to use education to increase knowledge. Incremental improvements are probably possible. But if history is any guide, they are unlikely to be very large. Shortcomings of Information Shortcuts Some scholars argue that voters don’t need to know much about politics and government because they can rely on “information shortcuts” to make good decisions. Information shortcuts are small bits of information that we can use as proxies for larger bodies of knowledge of which we may be ignorant. In Chapter 4 of my book, I discuss many different types of shortcuts and explain why they are usually not as effective as advocates suggest. Shortcuts can indeed be useful, and political ignorance would be an even more serious problem without them. But they also have serious limitations, and sometimes they make the problem of ignorance worse rather than better. The major flaws are that shortcuts often require preexisting knowledge to use effectively, and many people choose information shortcuts for reasons unrelated to truth-seeking. Perhaps the most popular shortcut is “retrospective voting”: the idea that voters don’t need to follow the details of policy, but only need to know whether things are going well or badly. If things are looking up, they can reward the incumbents at election time. If not, they can vote the bums out, and the new set of bums will have a strong incentive to adopt better policies, lest they be voted out in turn. Unfortunately, effective retrospective voting requires more knowledge than we might think. In order to reward or punish incumbents for their performance, it’s important to know what events they actually caused, and which ones were beyond their control. Studies show that voters routinely reward and punish political leaders for events they have little control over, particularly short-term economic trends. Incumbents also get rewarded or blamed for such things as droughts, shark attacks, and victories by local sports teams. The second common shortcoming of shortcuts is that we often choose them for reasons other than getting at the truth. For example, some argue that “opinion leaders” are useful shortcuts. Instead of learning about government policy themselves, voters can follow the directions of opinion leaders who share similar values but know more than the voters themselves do. Unfortunately, if we look at the most popular opinion leaders, most of them are not people notable for their impressive knowledge of public policy issues. They are people like Rush Limbaugh or Jon Stewart, whose main asset is their skill at entertaining their audience and validating its preexisting biases. Because there is so little incentive to actually seek the truth about political issues, it is often rational for “political fans” to choose their opinion leaders largely based on how entertaining they are, and whether they make us feel good about the views we already hold. When we choose information shortcuts in this way, it increases the likelihood that they will mislead rather than inform. In the book, I also criticize arguments that voter errors caused by ignorance can cancel each other out through a “miracle of aggregation,” thereby creating collective wisdom out of individual ignorance. Such a happy outcome is theoretically possible, but highly unlikely in the real world.8 Foot Voting vs. Ballot Box Voting There is no easy solution to the problem of political ignorance. But we can significantly mitigate it by making more of our decisions by “voting with our feet” and fewer at the ballot box. Two types of foot voting have important informational advantages over ballot box voting. The first is when we vote with our feet in the private sector, by choosing which products to buy or which civil society organizations to join. The other is choosing what state or local government to live under in a federal system - a decision often influenced by the quality of those jurisdictions’ public policy. If you are like most people, you probably spent more time and effort acquiring information the last time you decided which car or TV to buy than the last time you decided who to support for president. Is that because the presidency is less important than your TV, or deals with less complicated issues? More likely, it’s because when people choose a TV, they intuitively realize that the decision is likely to make a difference, whereas ballot box decisions are highly likely not to. The key difference between foot voting and ballot box voting is that foot voters don’t have the same incentive to be rationally ignorant as ballot box voters do. In fact, they have strong incentives to seek out useful information. They also have much better incentives to objectively evaluate what they do learn. Unlike political fans, foot voters know they will pay a real price if they do a poor job of evaluating the information they get. That doesn’t mean that foot voters are always well-informed or perfectly unbiased. Far from it. But, on average, they do a much better job than ballot box voters do. In the book, I discuss some dramatic cases of foot voters acquiring and effectively using information even under highly adverse conditions.9 For example, millions of poorly educated and sometimes illiterate African-Americans in the early 20th century Jim Crow South determined that conditions were relatively less oppressive in the North (and also in some parts of the South compared to others) and migrated accordingly. This, despite the fact that southern state governments deliberately tried to keep them ignorant by impeding the flow of information about opportunities in the North. Foot voting certainly did not solve all the problems of oppressed African-Americans in the Jim Crow era. Nothing could in a society as racist as early 20th century America. But it did significantly improve their situation. And it is an important example of how foot voters can effectively acquire and make use of information even under highly unfavorable conditions. The informational advantages of foot voting over ballot box voting strengthen the case for limiting and decentralizing government. The more decentralized government is, the more issues can be decided through foot voting. It is usually much easier to vote with your feet against a local government than a state government, and much easier to do it against a state than against the federal government. It is also usually easier to foot vote in the private sector than the public. A given region is likely to have far more private planned communities and other private sector organizations than local governments. Choosing among the former usually requires far less in the way of moving costs than choosing among the latter. Reducing the size of government could also alleviate the problem of ignorance by making it easier for rationally ignorant voters to monitor its activities. A smaller, less complicated government is easier to keep track of. Foot voting has downsides as well as upsides. In the book, I cover several standard objections, such as the problem of moving costs, the danger of “races to the bottom,” and the likelihood that political decentralization might harm unpopular racial and ethnic minorities.10 Each of these concerns is sometimes a genuine problem. But I suggest that each is a less severe challenge than commonly believed. For example, moving costs can be reduced by decentralizing to lower levels of government or to the private sector, and such costs are in any case declining thanks to modern technology. Political ignorance is far from the only factor that must be considered in deciding the appropriate size, scope, and centralization of government. For example, some large-scale issues, such as global warming, are simply too big to be effectively addressed by lower-level governments or private organizations. Democracy and Political Ignorance is not a complete theory of the proper role of government in society. But it does suggest that the problem of political ignorance should lead us to limit and decentralize government more than we would otherwise. 1 Ilya Somin, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013), ch. 1. 2 See Andrew Gelman, Nate Silver, and Aaron Edlin, “What is the Probability that Your Vote Will Make a Difference?” Economic Inquiry 50 (2012): 321-26. 3 Tony Blair, A Journey: My Political Life, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), 70-71. 4 Somin, Democracy and Political Ignorance, 66-72. 5 Ibid., 78-82. 6 Bryan Caplan, The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007). 7 Somin, Democracy and Political Ignorance, 163. 8 Ibid. 110-17. For an important recent defense of this kind of argument, see Hélène Landemore, Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence and the Rule of the Many, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012). 9 Ibid., ch. 5. 10 Ibid, pp. 144-50.
Last summer, I stumbled across a clever 1993 paper by education statisticians Mark Dynarski and Philip Gleason that proved it was possible to adjust average state SAT scores for variations in the test participation rate and demographic factors, making them comparable to one another. Barely able to contain my excitement (hey, don’t judge), I set about extending their method so that it could discern trends in state SAT scores over time, and improving the validity of its estimates by using more data, fewer assumptions, and more exhaustive methods. Last week, I released the technical paper presenting those extensions. Yesterday, I released a paper that uses them to chart academic achievement and spending trends, for every state, back to 1972. How did your state do? Find out here. To pique your interest, here’s the chart for Masschusetts:
This election year the AFL-CIO, under the direction of its president John Sweeney, will spend more than $35 million lobbying on behalf of candidates who wish to expand the size and scope of government. It is the most ambitious political program that the AFL-CIO has ever undertaken. And it is also one that is at odds with the vision that Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor from 1886 to 1924, had for the labor movement. Gompers — rated the greatest labor leader in American history by the presidents of the nation’s leading unions — believed that government activism was harmful to the working man. In 1915 he wrote, “Doing for people what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment. In the last analysis the welfare of the workers depends upon their own private initiative.” He applied that belief consistently to issue after issue. Gompers opposed the creation of state health and unemployment insurance programs, welfare initiatives and minimum wage and eight-hour-day legislation. That is a far cry from the sentiments of Sweeney, who wishes to see government’s role increased in virtually every area. During the budget debate last year he boasted that the AFL-CIO had “generated over 500,000 telephone calls to members of Congress carrying our core message,” which included a call for “no cuts in Medicare.” He might have believed that was the right thing to do, but it is unlikely that Gompers would have. In 1916 Gompers stated that “compulsory sickness insurance for workers is based upon the theory that they are unable to look after their own interests and the state must interpose its authority and wisdom and assume the relation of parent or guardian. There is something in the very suggestion of this relationship and this policy that is repugnant to free-born citizens.” As for unemployment insurance, Gompers argued that “when the government undertakes the payment of money to those who are unemployed, it places in the power of the government the lives and the work and the freedom of the workers.” State unemployment insurance programs, Gompers concluded, “are not advocated for the good of the workers. They are advocated by persons who know nothing of the hopes and aspirations of labor which desires opportunities for work, not for compulsory unemployment insurance.” Gompers similarly opposed the creation of welfare programs — programs that, in a 1995 statement entitled “The Attack on Working Americans,” the AFL-CIO Executive Council argued “have proved their worth in protecting the most vulnerable Americans against hunger and starvation.” Gompers believed that “social insurance cannot remove or prevent poverty.” Moreover, he argued that welfare is “undemocratic” because it tends “to fix the citizens of the country into two classes, and a long established system would tend to make these classes rigid.” In addition to lobbying for increased funding for social programs, the AFL-CIO is currently pushing for greater economic and social regulation. On Sweeney’s wish list are stricter health and safety laws, air quality standards and waste disposal regulations. Gompers undoubtedly would have questioned the wisdom of those desires. To him, most state regulation was not only futile but also counterproductive. In a 1923 address he stated, “The continuing clamor for extension of state regulatory powers under the guise of reform and deliverance from evil can but lead into greater confusion and more hopeless entanglements.” He struck a similar note in an article for the American Federationist, where he argued that “regulation of industrial relations is not a policy to be entered upon lightly — establishment of regulation for one type of relation necessitates regulating of another and then another, until finally all industrial life grows rigid with regulations.” And when asked in 1916 if he favored an eight-hour-day law he remarked, “Do you know where the eight-hour law in California originated? It was started by the Socialist Party of California.” For Gompers, a lifelong critic of the American Socialist and Communist Parties, that seemed to be a more than sufficient response. Sweeney and other AFL-CIO leaders may believe that big government is the solution to all of America’s ills. But Samuel Gompers, whose tireless efforts established labor as a permanent force in this country, certainly did not.
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Scientific and technical cooperation and the clearing-house mechanism X/15.Scientific and technical cooperation and the clearing-house mechanism The Conference of the Parties, Having considered the report and recommendations prepared by the Executive Secretary in consultation with the informal advisory committee of the clearing-house mechanism, 44Appreciating the progress made so far by the Parties and the Executive Secretary in the implementation of the clearing-house mechanism,Taking into account the updated Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 which reaffirms the important supporting role of the clearing-house mechanism in the implementation of the Convention, 1.Adopts the mission, goals, and objectives of the clearing-house mechanism for the period 2011-2020 annexed to this decision, and welcomes the priority activities for the intersessional period in annex II to the progress report of the Executive Secretary as well as other suggestions for further development; 45 2.Encourages Parties to: (a)Continue to take the necessary steps to establish, strengthen, and ensure the sustainability of, national clearing-house mechanisms (goal 2), and to implement, as appropriate, the activities mentioned in annex II to document UNEP/CBD/COP/10/15; (b)Contribute, whenever possible, to cooperation initiatives aiming at developing regional, subregional, thematic, or national clearing-house mechanisms; (c)Include support for the clearing-house mechanism when requesting funding from the Global Environment Facility for updating and implementing national biodiversity strategies and action plans; 3.Encourages relevant partners to further contribute to the expansion of the clearing-house mechanism network and services (goal 3); 4.Requests that the Executive Secretary and the Global Environment Facility cooperate to facilitate access to funding for the clearing-house mechanism as a key component to support the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, as well as the implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans; 5.Requests the Executive Secretary, subject to available resources, to: (a)Further develop the information services provided by the central clearing-house mechanism (goal 1); (b)Prepare, in consultation with the informal advisory committee and interested Parties, a realistic work programme for the clearing-house mechanism, in line with the adopted Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020; (c)Explore, in collaboration with Parties, other Governments, relevant partners and members of the Conservation Commons, ways to promote free and open access to data and information for conservation purposes, and report back on progress at the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties; (d)Further improve the Convention's website, and make this website readable in all United Nations languages. MISSION, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE CLEARING-HOUSE MECHANISM FOR THE PERIOD 2011-2020 MISSIONTo contribute significantly to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, through effective information services and other appropriate means in order to promote and facilitate scientific and technical cooperation, knowledge sharing, and information exchange, and to establish a fully operational network of Parties and partners. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Goal 1:The central clearing-house mechanism provides effective global information services to facilitate the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. 1.1.The CBD Secretariat has the capacity to sustain an effective central clearing-house mechanism. 1.2.A high-quality CBD website is available in all United Nations languages. 1.3.Effective information exchange services are fully operational. 1.4.The CBD Secretariat facilitates the development of a network of experts and practitioners among Parties and partners. 1.5.Guidance is available for Parties and partners to exchange information through the clearing-house mechanism network. Goal 2:National clearing-house mechanisms provide effective information services to facilitate the implementation of the national biodiversity strategies and action plans. 2.1.All Parties have the capacity to sustain effective national clearing-house mechanisms. 2.2.High-quality national clearing-house mechanism websites are available. 2.3.National information is exchanged through the clearing-house mechanism network. 2.4.Parties collaborate and share knowledge through the clearing-house mechanism network. 2.5.Partners and the CBD Secretariat have contributed to the development of national clearing-house mechanisms. Goal 3:Partners significantly expand the clearing-house mechanism network and services. 3.1.Partners can sustain their participation in the clearing-house mechanism. 3.2.High-quality regional and thematic clearing-house mechanism websites are available. 3.3.Partner information is exchanged through the clearing-house mechanism network. 3.4.Partners collaborate and share knowledge through the clearing-house mechanism network. 45 The following additional suggestions will be included in the list of priority activities: (a)Promote networking of Parties and partners by linking the central and national clearing-house mechanisms; (b)Analyse and disseminate concrete and practical information as well as best practices on ongoing activities that support, facilitate, or promote technology transfer as well as scientific and technological cooperation; (c)Enhance the accessibility of national clearing-house mechanism websites through the involvement of inter institutional steering committees with the participation of relevant organizations and stakeholders; (d)Evaluate the effectiveness of information services contributing to the implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans.
Composite Building Structures, Ltd. Stronger, Safer, Longer Lasting, cost effective support framing for homes and buildings Since Hurricane Katrina created an overnight housing shortage in the New Orleans area, residents have been introduced to an array of new housing options: FEMA trailers, Katrina cottages, modular housing and the modular shotgun hybrid, the “Modgun.” A Florida businessman now wants to introduce yet another type of housing to the area: fiberglass. James Antonic, president of Composite Building Structures of Fort Myers, Fla., plans to build a roughly $7-million operation in New Orleans to manufacture studs and other building materials out of composite fiberglass. The operation would also build exterior walls or panels. His vision includes a “construction technology campus” employing roughly 180 people and operating by December. But it’s not a done deal yet. Antonic is still looking for a site although he has considered property along the Industrial Canal. He also needs to build the machines to make his product in New Orleans. He wants to open plants in three or four Louisiana cities to build external walls. Antonic, whose 5-year-old business has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, claims his company is the only one in the world using fiberglass to build houses. He sees fiberglass and panelized homes as the wave of the future. His company has built 23 houses in Florida and one in the Dominican Republic. Since Katrina, Antonic has visited Louisiana every month to meet industry officials and gain support for his product. “We don’t want to come in and tell people what they ought to do,” he said. Built-in savings Fiberglass is 20 percent cheaper than other building materials such as concrete block in part because less material is wasted and fewer workers are needed. A 2,000-square-foot home takes $3,800 worth of 2-by-6-inch lumber. Materials for a fiberglass home would cost the same, he said. But less labor is needed with a fiberglass home. The four exterior walls of a 2,000-square-foot fiberglass home, including a one-car garage, can be built in 48 minutes rather than four to five days in traditional construction, he said. Fiberglass homes can endure at least 350-mph winds, he said. Toni Wendel, president of the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans, said this is the first time she’s heard of fiberglass building materials coming to New Orleans. “I would love to meet with him and check on it. I see nothing wrong with new materials and ways to do construction in New Orleans,” she said. Antonic said he is not in the building business and he intends to team with local builders — not compete with them. Two weeks after a builder gives Antonic building plans, the prebuilt walls are installed in one day using five workers, he said. Antonic said each plant is designed to handle 400 builders. He also wants to partner with window suppliers and other industry professionals to provide materials needed to build the wall panels. The challenge remains finding a site. “We’re still looking,” Antonic said. He wants to maximize available incentives and investigate property designations such as brownfields. Last year, Antonic negotiated with Johnny Housey, president of Orleans Materials, a 200,000-square-foot steel fabrication business near the Industrial Canal. Housey said he last spoke with Antonic six months ago after New Orleans investment banker Mike Hammer introduced them. Housey said he would be interested in housing the machines to build fiberglass housing but he doubts Antonic can find enough investors and workers to make the deal work. “My end was strictly he needed a place to build these things. It still could happen. But I think he’s got to get the money, got to get all that stuff approved. I think it’s got a long way to go,” Housey said. Hammer, who connects businesses with venture capital, also questions Antonic’s claims of how much wind the homes could tolerate. Hammer said he suggested Antonic license his product to builders of prefabricated homes because venture capitalists are more comfortable with simple business plans. Hammer said he has met with 30 people in the prefabricated and manufactured home business since Katrina, and did not find one he would finance. Antonic said Hammer was unhappy with the way Antonic was raising capital. “I said, ‘Of course you won’t, like it Mike. The only way you’d make money is by investing in it, not being a vulture capitalist,’” Antonic said.• THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT AN OFFER TO SELL NOR AN OFFER TO SOLICIT THE PURCHASE OF ANY UNITS IN ANY ONE OR ALL OF THE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANIES IN THE CBS ENTERPRISE GROUP
Major Severe T-Storm Outbreak Four years ago to the day, May 31, 1998, one of the most violent outbreaks of severe Thunderstorms and tornadoes to develop in the Northeast hammered all of eastern New York and western New England with widespread severe thunderstorms and several damaging tornadoes including the Mechanicville/Stillwater storm. Although, not as intense as the 1998 event, a substantial severe weather outbreak comprised of multiple lines and clusters of storms rampaged through eastern New York and western New England from 1:30pm through 7:30pm on Friday, May 31. The Albany National Weather Service office issued thirty nine severe thunderstorm and two tornado warnings during this event. In 1998, the office issued a total of forty six warnings, most of which were tornado. It became apparent several days in advance of the outbreak that many of the necessary parameters to create and sustain severe weather would be evident over the Northeast on the 31st. Very warm and moist air had been entrenched over the region for much of the week preceding the event with dewpoint temperatures in the mid 60's. On the 31st, a very strong upper air low pressure system moved into the region on a northwest steering flow. The upper level low brought both spin, or wind shear to the region, as well as cold air aloft to create significant instability. A surface cold front and low pressure trough preceding the front acted as the low level convergence boundaries for the eighty degree humid air to rise, thus forming the updrafts that created the thunderstorms. Low level winds gusted to 25 mph from the south. Mid and upper level winds veered with height into the west and increased in speed to approximately 80 knots at about the 20,000 foot level. The veering of 45 to 50 degrees was sufficient to produce the necessary shear for a few discrete supercell thunderstorms (rotating storms) to form ahead of and in conjunction with the two main lines of severe T'storms. The first line of thunderstorms developed on the pre-frontal low pressure trough during the early afternoon and rapidly became severe. Strong bow echo structures were noted on radar in conjunction with widespread damaging straight line winds and a weak, short lived F-0 tornado in Johnstown, NY. (F-0 winds range from 40-73 mph) A supercell (rotating) thunderstorm formed immediately ahead of the line in Rutland county, Vermont, where 60 mph straight line winds and hail occurred. Another discrete supercell formed in advance of this line and produced 1.75" diameter hail at New Paltz in Ulster county at 2:23pm. Damaging thunderstorms from this first round moved through the remainder of eastern New York and into western New England through 3:30pm. Not even before the first line of storms had exited the Channel 6 coverage area, did the second line of severe T'storms enter from the west. This line, closer to the parent upper level low and thus fueled and driven by the upper level winds and therefore more greatly influenced by a wind sheared environment, was comprised, especially on it's southern end, of discretely rotating supercell storms. (Supercells form in highly wind sheared environments) These supercells produced primarily hail and damaging straight line winds. However, several F-0/F-1 tornadoes, winds of approximately 75 mph, did touch down in Otsego county, near Cooperstown, southern Delaware county in the town of Lordville, and in southern Dutchess county over Whaley lake near Wingdale. The last storm with this line exited Litchfield county, CT by 7:30pm ending the multiple round extended severe weather outbreak over eastern New York and western New England. The cold front passed through the region around midnight with nothing more than a few clouds and a noticeable drop in the dewpoints through the pre-dawn hours of June 1. The following table is a listing of reported storm damage from this outbreak.
Tuesday’s episode of Impact the World—a Big Ten Network program dedicated to university breakthroughs—turns its focus on the University of Iowa Virtual Soldier Research (VSR) program, which is helping scientists and military planners understand life on the battlefield. The show premieres Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 9:30 p.m. central time. Additional broadcasts are scheduled for 10 p.m., Thursday, March 1; 3 p.m., Friday, March 2; and 10:30 a.m., Sunday, March 4. It’s the concluding episode in an eight-part original series hosted by actor Dennis Haysbert. VSR last year received an $8.6 million U.S. Navy contract to evaluate how equipment loads affect mobility and physical stress. Researchers hope to determine how much weight soldiers can carry on missions without compromising their safety. The research utilizes the SANTOS digital human modeling and simulation environment, which features a computerized avatar that duplicates human anatomy and realistically responds to environmental stimuli. In development since 2003, SANTOS has leveraged more than $23 million in research support by the U.S. Department of Defense and industry partners. It’s also led to the launch of Santos Human Inc., a spin-off company that commercializes related software.
In a bid to protect the Alaskan coastline from oil drilling, Actor Lucy Lawless and six Greenpeace New Zealand activists have settled in for an overnight stay onboard Shell’s Arctic-bound drillship the Noble Discoverer in the port of Taranaki, New Zealand. The activists scaled the drillship at 7 a.m. Friday morning in New Zealand, and set-up camp on the top of the ship’s 53 metre drilling tower. They vowed to stay for as long as possible. "We are prepared to stay here as long as we can — every hour delay is an hour's less drilling in the Arctic," said Lawless. The climbers occupied the drillship to prevent it from departing on a 6,000 nautical mile journey from New Zealand to the remote Arctic, to start an exploratory oil drilling programme that threatens to devastate the Alaskan coastline. The action has already inspired more than 48,000 people worldwide over the course of today’s protest to email Shell CEO Peter Voser asking him to drop plans to open up the Arctic to oil drilling.You can do so here Responding to Shell’s press statements that its Arctic drilling plans are ‘safe’ and ‘environmentally responsible’ Greenpeace Campaigner Nathan Argent said, “I think Shell must have a different definition of safe and responsible from the rest of the planet because there’s nothing either safe or responsible about drilling in the pristine Arctic.” “The company itself admits that most of the technology it will use to deal with a spill either hasn’t even been built or won’t work properly in ice. Bizarrely, the central role in Shell’s spill response will be played by a Dachshund called Tara. You couldn’t make it up. The truth is that Shell is being reckless in the extreme. A spill in the Frozen North would be devastating because there is simply no effective way of cleaning up spilled oil in ice.” The New Zealand police issued a press release at 6 p.m. local time saying they would leave the activists “in situ at this stage. Police will continue to monitor the situation and will be ready to respond to any development or to the protestors coming down from the drilling tower.”
Electric Power News Read news articles, blogs and press releases about the electric power industry and sustainability issues such as water scarcity, climate change, energy efficiency and renewable energy. New Report Reveals States and Utilities with Highest and Lowest Power Plant Emissions; Overall U.S. Emissions Decline May 15, 2013 - A new report on U.S. power plant emissions from the top 100 power producers shows that the electric industry cut emissions of NOx, SO2 and CO2 in 2011 even as overall electricity generation increased, largely due to increased use of natural gas and growing reliance on renewable energy.
MA Religious Studies: Myth, Narrative and Theory Pathway (MA) The MA in Religious Studies: Myth, Narrative and Theory Pathway gives students opportunities to study a wide range of myths in textual, visual, cinematic, and oral forms. The degree also develops analytical skills in numerous disciplines, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, history and literary studies. The course is delivered via a range of core and subject-specific optional modules, with an emphasis placed on flexibility and student choice. Students taking the MA in Religious Studies: Myth, Narrative and Theory Pathway will complete modules comprising a total of 180 credits, including: - 40 credits worth of core study skills: a 20-credit module that offers generic postgraduate research and study skills training in the Humanities, and a further 20-credit module that offers subject-specific training in the field of Myth, Narrative and Theory. - 80 credits from a range of 20-credit thematic module options. - 60 credit dissertation module, on a topic agreed between the student and tutor/s. Students have opportunities to choose from a range of topics within each module, for further focus and study. They may, for example, wish to focus on ‘myths of masculinity’, ‘performance, mythology, and the politics of the family’, ‘myth in Greece and Rome’, ‘myth, sexuality and gender’, ‘Myth and mysticism’, ‘Gnostic myth’ or ‘African myths in Africa and diaspora traditions’ . HST900: Skills and Methods for Postgraduate Study RTT503: Approaches to Myth Narrative and Theory Myth is one of the most prolific products of social, religious and cultural activity. It can be transmitted orally, in art, through performance, in contemporary cinema, and in a wide range of literary genres including epic literature and tragedy. Myth is often closely associated with other aspects of the transmission and transformation of social identities, for example in dreams, visions, initiation rites and morality tales. For this reason myth has held an enduring fascination for scholars from a wide range of different perspectives and has been both studied in its own right and utilized in the creation of scholarly disciplines such as psychology (arguably a mythical system itself). In this module students will have the opportunity to explore a variety of important contributions to social, psychological and critical theory through their engagement with anthropological, literary, artistic and cinematic mythological materials. They will be encouraged to explore ways in which myths provide frameworks for considering many of the most important and troubling questions that human beings in society face, including the nature and exercise of power, the implications of gender and sexuality, the uses and limits of violence, and conflicts between different aspects of personhood, such as the intellect and emotions. RTT512: Myth, Religion, and Culture This module will give students the opportunity to consider ways in which mythology and debates about it have influenced culture in a number of social and historical contexts. Mythology has been transmitted and utilized in a wide range of mediums and cultural products, including oral traditions, art, poetry, performance, and texts such as tragedy and epic literature. While on the one hand myth is associated with collective tradition, on the other mythic motifs can form the basis of new religious movements and cultural innovations such as, for example, African diaspora religions, goddess spirituality or surrealist literature and art. Moreover, myth has not simply been analysed by scholars, it has also been utilized in the formation of psychological and sociological theories that have in turn contributed to contemporary culture. Myth also permeates and shapes religious and social behaviour in a variety of ways, including structuring and justifying ethical codes, providing narratives of origin, and the interpretation of dreams and visions. In this module students will be introduced to theories about myth, together with its expression in a range of contexts and have the opportunity to focus on and develop their understanding of a specific chosen topic related to myth and culture RTT510: Myth and Sacrifice This module will give students the opportunity to consider the ways in which myth is thought to be related to ritual action, and in particular initiation rituals, secret rituals and ritual sacrifice. Ritual is a source of fascination within and beyond the societies in which it has been practiced, not least because of the degree of uncertainty about whether myths give rise to ritual traditions or explain already existing practices. Myths also play an important role in debates about the ethics of killing humans and animals, submission to religious authority, the politics of gender and sexuality, the assertions of pagan or monotheistic traditions, and the relationship of religion to social classes. The relationship between myth and ritual is also important to scholarly understandings of performance and the arts more broadly, for example, in Greek tragedy. This module offers a grounding in the study of myth and ritual, including the ways in which these themes have influenced social and psychological theory, and then proceeds to an in depth study of a chosen topic that may include an examination of archaeological or anthropological studies of myth and initiation or sacrifice, ritual within specific religious traditions, sacrifice in specific bodies of literature and drama or the ways in which images of sacrifice influence contemporary film, including for example, the bullfight in Spanish cinema and the 'ritual' behaviour of the serial killers as constructed by fictional media. RTT509: Myth and Film This module gives students the opportunity to explore religious and mythical themes and motifs in films and television programmes, ranging from engagements with established religious traditions to portrayals of supernatural phenomena. In addition to critical perspectives derived from psychological theory, gender, and cultural studies, the module suggests ways in which insights from the anthropology of religion can be utilized to explore issues related to collective and social identity. Film both borrows from mythological material and creates mythical worlds inhabited by ghosts, witches, aliens, vampires, spirits and deities. These worlds can reflect contemporary social structures, but can also be a site of imaginative questions about the nature of personhood, emotion, communication and power. While some of these questions refer to conceptions of the sacred in the contemporary west, there are also important developments in world cinema that reflect complex interactions between conceptions of indigenous religions and the challenges of post colonial cultures. RTT511: Myth and Narrative This module will give students the opportunity to conduct an in depth study of myth within a chosen religious or cultural tradition. Examples of expertise within the School include Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Gnosticism, Greek and Roman Classical religions, indigenous religions, and Christian and pagan religions of Late Antiquity. Myth has permeated and shaped a wide range of textual sources and material culture, including philosophy, biographies, letters, ritual texts, legal documents, speeches, epic and tragic literature, and statues and monuments, and has thereby been central to creation, development and change in religions and cultures. Students will be given opportunities to examine primary sources, explore ways in which they can be historically and socially situated and analyse debates that they have, and continue to, express and raise, both within and beyond the boundaries of the religious culture in which they were born. Practitioners, philosophers, scholars, politicians and scholars all draw from, revise and contest myth in order to build social structures, consider ethical questions, and transmit pedagogy, and myth has therefore been central to the imaginative exploration of questions such as the nature of evil, the social position of women and men, the politics of public life and family relationships, and the inclusion or exclusion of social groups (including those based on geography, ethnicity and class). Moreover, mythology often explores ideas about deities, spirits, monsters, elemental forces, and extraordinary or supernatural events that suggest an imaginative engagement with conceptions of personhood and communication that both set and exceed boundaries and students will have the opportunity to analyse such collective representations from text historical, anthropological and psychological scholarly approaches. Students may also take other optional modules offered within the School including: HST533: The Early Celts HST534: Celtic Mythology and Religion HST033: Special Topic: Ethnicity in Ancient World HST906: Epic Warriors: Achilles, Beowulf and Beyond HST018: Gender, Sexuality and Society Greece/Rome HST607: Self, Family and Nation 1 HST608: Self, Family and Nation 2 The Myth, Narrative and Theory Pathway provides an introduction to postgraduate research and study skills with an emphasis on theory and method in the study of religion. Students have opportunities to draw on a wide range of approaches to the study of religion, including psychological and social theory, gender and critical studies, history, anthropology, and philosophy. A unique feature of the pathway is the opportunity to examine a variety of cultural products including texts, oral mythology, and film. Students who successfully complete the MA in Religious Studies: Myth, Narrative and Theory Pathway will be able to demonstrate self-direction and originality in planning and implementing research at a professional level. This is in addition to an ability to communicate ideas and arguments effectively, in speech or in writing, in an accurate, succinct and lucid manner. By the end of the programme, it is expected that students will be able to formulate and justify arguments and conclusions about a range of issues, and participate in postgraduate-level scholarly discourse. The Pathway also offers a distinctive opportunity to develop and propose independent research projects, and articulate achievements and progress with clarity and accuracy. Students are prepared for further postgraduate study at PhD level, but the course offers many transferable skills that are recognized and would be useful for careers in teaching, media, NGOs and charitable organisations, and government posts. 1st or upper 2nd class UK Honours degree in an appropriate subject. The course is suitable for graduates in a wide variety of Humanities disciplines and Social Sciences. Students whose first language is not English will be required to pass an IELTS test (minimum 6.5) or equivalent. Note: International students pursuing part-time programmes of study are not eligible for Tier 4 (General Student) visas and must have alternative leave to remain in the UK if they intend to study at the University in person.
Nobody calls Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin. Now in his second stint as Israel's Prime Minister, he is Bibi; as with Bono, a single name suffices. His challenges, likewise, are singular. Israel is an economic success; its citizens feel relatively safe behind a security wall. But it is increasingly isolated. Most of the world views Israel as the principal obstacle to Middle East peace. Momentum is mounting in the U.N. to declare a Palestinian state this fall. Many Israelis fear the terms and consequences.
More than ever, some of the hardest places for Christians to live are fragile or failed states where militant Islamist movements flourish, according to an annual report on Christian religious freedom. Pressure on Christians intensified worldwide in 2013, according to Open Doors International, a charity that provides support to Christians who are harassed, jailed or attacked because of their faith. The situation deteriorated most rapidly across northern Africa, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, in countries where Open Doors says sectarian violence has advanced unchecked by impotent central governments. The findings are contained in the 2014 World Watch List, released Jan. 8 by Open Doors. The list ranks the 50 countries the charity considers to be most hostile to believers during the 12-month period ending Oct. 31. Since 2003, the No. 1 spot has been held by North Korea, where exposed Christians face long prison terms or execution. For most of the world’s Christians, however, the more comprehensive story is revealed down the list. Among the top 10 on the list are six countries where Open Doors says “the government has little or no control”: Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. Of those six, four are ranked as high, or higher, than in the 2013 World Watch List. Syria is No. 3, up from No. 11 a year ago. The continuing civil war has afflicted all segments of society, but Christians have paid an especially high price, often at the hands of imported jihadists. In October, Islamist militias killed 46 Christians in Sadad. Pakistan, at No. 8, does little to control local politicians who provide room for anti-Christian pressure to grow, Open Doors says. In October, two suicide bombers killed 96 Christians at a church in Peshawar, believed to be the worst single act of anti-Christian violence since Pakistan was created in 1947. Not even on the list a year ago, the Central African Republic now sits at No. 16, having spiraled into anarchy since the March overthrow of the government by an Islamist-dominated rebel coalition. In the months since, rebel attacks on Christian villages have killed thousands and driven up to 1 million people from their homes. The United Nations in December ordered an expanded force of African Union and French soldiers into lawless CAR to restore security. Of the top 10 countries on the list, all but North Korea are majority Muslim. Continuing a 15-year trend, militant Islam is a growing source of pressure on Christians, Open Doors says, and has become the primary driver of persecution in 36 of the 50 countries on the list. The result is especially violent in sub-Saharan Africa. Four sub-Saharan countries rank among the 10 most-violent countries for Christians in 2013: Central African Republic, Nigeria, Eritrea and Sudan. Though somewhat less violent than those four countries, No. 2 Somalia is the first sub-Saharan nation to rank at the top of the World Watch List—or as high on the list as is possible, given North Korea’s perennial No. 1 position. Somalia is largely governed by militia-backed clans, not a central government, and prominent Islamic leaders regularly proclaim there is no place for Christians in the country. “In this country, a Christian cannot trust anyone,” Open Doors quoted a Somali Christian in its report. “One false confidence and you literally lose your head.” Rising on the List Beyond Africa and the Middle East, several Asian countries climbed the list. In India, which rose from No. 31 in 2013 to No. 28 in the current list, the Hindu nationalist movement behind the Bharatiya Janata Party broadened its reach. Two Asian countries not included on the 2013 list are included in 2014: Sri Lanka ranked No. 29, due largely to increased violence and the emergence of a Buddhist extremist movement that has targeted Christians and Muslims. Bangladesh is No. 48, primarily because of a new Islamic extremist group demanding the imposition of shariah, or Islamic law. No country rose further on the World Watch List than Colombia, which ranked 46th a year ago and is No. 25 on the current list. Open Doors says the higher ranking is due partly to improving research methods, and partly to a greater number of reports of violence toward Christians in 2013. A common source of violence is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which has become more involved in the drug trade and has attacked Christians who oppose the illegal activity, according to Open Doors. The World Watch List is the only annual global survey of Christian religious freedom, Open Doors says. It measures freedom in five areas of life: private; family; community; national; the church; and also the degree of violence. For the first time, the methodology behind the annual list has been audited by an outside group: the International Institute for Religious Freedom, a network of academics around the world that seeks “reliable data on the violation of religious freedom worldwide.” Open Doors said it sought the audit “to make the information-gathering and calculation process transparent.” The Good News Overall, the 2014 list determines that pressure on Christians increased in 34 countries, decreased in five, and remained about the same in the remaining 14. The total is greater than 50 because three countries—Azerbaijan, Uganda and Kyrgyzstan—that were included in the 2013 list dropped off the list in 2014. If the numbers tell a sobering story, they also help to drive a more positive narrative, said Brian Grim, senior researcher and director of cross-national data for the Religion & Public Life Project at the Pew Research Center, in Washington, D.C. “Reports like the World Watch List, and those we produce at Pew Research Center, stimulate discussion and action among groups such as the United Nations, the European Parliament and the U.S. Congress,” Grim told World Watch Monitor via email. “In 2011 alone, the sources used in the latest Pew Research study reported that 76 percent of countries had government or societal initiatives to reduce religious restrictions or hostilities.”
World champion at 19... One of the first black athletes to become world champion in any sport... 1-mile record holder... American sprint champion in 1898, 1899, 1900... triumphant tours of Europe and Australia... Victories against all European champions...Until now a forgotten, shadowy figure, Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor is here revealed as one of the early sports world's most stylish, entertaining, and gentlemanly personalities. Born in 1878 in Indianapolis, the son of poor rural parents, Taylor worked in a bike shop until prominent bicycle racer "Birdie" Munger coached him for his first professional racing successes in 1896. Despite continuous bureaucratic—and, at times, physical—opposition, he won his first national championship two years later and became world champion in 1899 in Montreal. This beautifully illustrated, vividly narrated, and scrupulously researched biography recreates the life of a great international athlete at the turn of the century. Based on ten years of research—including extensive interviews with Major Taylor's 91-year old daughter—this is the dramatic story of a young black man who, against prodigious odds, rose to fame and stardom in the tempestuous world of international professional bicycle racing a century ago. Back to top Rent Major Taylor 1st edition today, or search our site for Andrew textbooks. Every textbook comes with a 21-day "Any Reason" guarantee. Published by Johns Hopkins University Press.
OSHA Cites Cheese Factory for Chemical Safety BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Federal safety inspectors have cited a Buffalo cheese factory for 13 violations of workplace safety standards and proposed $241,000 in fines. The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration says Sorrento Lactalis Inc.'s plans for managing potentially hazardous ammonia at the facility are inadequate. The company says it will contest the findings. OSHA says inspectors found that Sorrento, which uses the ammonia in its refrigeration process, lacked procedures and tests to maintain the integrity of its equipment. OSHA says the company's been cited for the same issues in the past, at an Idaho plant. Sorrento Lactalis says in a statement Tuesday it's committed to employee safety and compliance with federal and state laws. The company says it will work with OSHA to resolve the allegations.
In a clean workshop sits a man in a blue frock holding his leg bent as a doctor kneeling before him places a leech on his foot. A woman in red and a young assistant observe the treatment. In the right foreground are three large vessels, and in the background is a small fire. Listen to the latest episodes of CHF’s award-winning science podcast. Help us preserve and share the history of chemistry and related sciences. Make a tax-deductible donation online. Soviet Union excellent worker badge ©2010 Chemical Heritage Foundation
A common algae commercially grown to make fish food holds promise as a source for both biodiesel and jet fuel according to a new study published in the journal Energy & amp Fuels The researchers ... - Read More The JRC has released a new strategy on how to replace reduce and refine the use of fish in testing of chemicals' effect on flora and fauna in water aquatic toxicity and chemicals' uptake and ... - Read More Two miles below the surface of the ocean researchers have discovered new microbes that breathe sulfate The microbes which have yet to be classified and named exist in massive undersea aquifers networks of channels in ... - Read More Almost half of the processes that are crucial to maintaining the stability of the planet have become dangerously compromised by human activity That is the view of an international team of 18 researchers who provide ... - Read More Computer simulations at OIST suggest new applications in industry by harnessing active microscopic particles in fluids Previous research has already demonstrated that substantial quantities of self motile or active agents such as bacteria in a ... - Read More Fertilizers are known to promote the growth of toxic cyanobacterial blooms in freshwater and oceans worldwide but a new multi institution study shows the aquatic microbes themselves can drive nitrogen and phosphorus cycling in a ... - Read More Carnivorous plants catch and digest tiny animals in order and derive benefits for their nutrition Interestingly the trend towards vegetarianism seems to overcome carnivorous plants as well The aquatic carnivorous bladderwort which can be found ... - Read More Windows that change their light permeability at the touch of a button façades whose color can be changed according to the sunlight façades and window parts in which transparent photovoltaic modules are integrated or in ... - Read More A new study on tropical shallow water soft corals known as gorgonians found that the species were able to calcify and grow under elevated carbon dioxide concentrations These results suggest that Caribbean gorgonian corals may ... - Read More Diatoms play an important role in water quality and in the global climate They generate about one fourth of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere and perform around one quarter of the global CO2 assimilation i ... - Read More The discovery of a cellular snooze button has allowed a team of Michigan State University scientists to potentially improve biofuel production and offer insight on the early stages of cancer The discovery that the protein ... - Read More Pollution in urban and farm runoff in Hawaii is causing tumors in endangered sea turtles a new study finds The study published Tuesday in the peer reviewed open access journal PeerJ shows that nitrogen in ... - Read More The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new record high in 2013 propelled by a surge in levels of carbon dioxide This is according to the World Meteorological Organization's annual Greenhouse Gas ... - Read More The sea grass beds of Long Island's Great South Bay once teemed with shellfish Clams scallops and oysters filtered nutrients from the water and flushed money through the local economy But three decades after the ... - Read More Some species of marine phytoplankton such as the prolific bloomer Emiliania huxleyi can grow without consuming vitamin B1 thiamine researchers have discovered The finding contradicts the common view that E huxleyi and many other eukaryotic ... - Read More Chemists and biologists at the University of Konstanz have succeeded in transforming algae oil into high quality chemical raw materials via so called isomerizing alkoxycarbonylation This provides the foundation for the use of algae as ... - Read More New research reveals how the algae behind red tide thoroughly disables but doesn't kill other species of algae The study shows how chemical signaling between algae can trigger big changes in the marine ecosystem Marine ... - Read More Forget about positioning giant mirrors in space to reduce the amount of sunlight being trapped in Earth's atmosphere or seeding clouds to reduce the amount of light entering earth's atmosphere Those approaches to climate engineering ... - Read More Tell us what you think of Chemistry 2011 -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions? Chemistry2011 is an informational resource for students, educators and the self-taught in the field of chemistry. We offer resources such as course materials, chemistry department listings, activities, events, projects and more along with current news releases. The history of the domain extends back to 2008 when it was selected to be used as the host domain for the International Year of Chemistry 2011 as designated by UNESCO and as an initiative of IUPAC that celebrated the achievements of chemistry. You can learn more about IYC2011 by clicking here. With IYC 2011 now over, the domain is currently under redevelopment by The Equipment Leasing Company Ltd. Are you interested in listing an event or sharing an activity or idea? Perhaps you are coordinating an event and are in need of additional resources? Within our site you will find a variety of activities and projects your peers have previously submitted or which have been freely shared through creative commons licenses. Here are some highlights: Featured Idea 1, Featured Idea 2. Ready to get involved? The first step is to sign up by following the link: Join Here. Also don’t forget to fill out your profile including any professional designations.
Due to the fluctuating availability of solar energy storage solutions are urgently needed One option is to use the electrical energy generated inside solar cells to split water by means of electrolysis in the process ... - Read More Researchers working to design new materials that are durable lightweight and environmentally sustainable are increasingly looking to natural composites such as bone for inspiration Bone is strong and tough because its two constituent materials soft ... - Read More Chemists at Indiana University Bloomington have created a symmetrical five sided macrocycle that is easy to synthesize and has characteristics that may help expand the molecular tool box available to researchers in biology chemistry and ... - Read More Out in the wilds or anywhere off the grid sophisticated instruments small enough to fit in a shirt pocket will one day scavenge power from sunlight body heat or other sources to monitor water quality ... - Read More With prefabricated houses the dream of having one's own home can quickly become a reality Until now nails have been used to hold the individual components together Now an adhesive tape has been developed to ... - Read More Researchers at Rice University have come up with a new way to boost the efficiency of the ubiquitous lithium ion LI battery by employing ribbons of graphene that start as carbon nanotubes Proof of concept ... - Read More New technology developed by the Research Group in Carbon Materials and Environmental prevents nitrous oxide decomposing it into nontoxic products The catalytic system is active efficient and stable over time and can purify gases emitted ... - Read More Cheaper clean energy technologies could be made possible thanks to a new discovery Led by Raymond Schaak a professor of chemistry at Penn State University research team members have found that an important chemical reaction ... - Read More Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a method for creating nano volcanoes by shining various colors of light through a nanoscale crystal ball made of a synthetic polymer These nano volcanoes can store ... - Read More A colloid is a substance spread out evenly inside another substance Everyday examples include milk styrofoam hair sprays paints shaving foam gels and even dust mud and fog One of the most interesting properties of ... - Read More Light emitting diodes or LEDs are the most efficient and environmentally friendly light bulbs on the market But they come at a higher up front price than other bulbs especially the ones with warmer and ... - Read More When you squeeze something it gets smaller Unless you're at Argonne National Laboratory At the suburban Chicago laboratory a group of scientists has seemingly defied the laws of physics and found a way to apply ... - Read More New research shows that exposing polymer molecular sieve membranes to ultraviolet UV irradiation in the presence of oxygen produces highly permeable and selective membranes for more efficient molecular level separation an essential process in everything ... - Read More The teeth of a kangaroo and other extinct marsupials reveal that southeastern Queensland 2.5 5 million years ago was a mosaic of tropical forests wetlands and grasslands and much less arid than previously thought The ... - Read More While residual medications don't belong in the water trace metals from industrial process waters handled by the recycling industry are in contrast valuable resources Scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf HZDR have developed a ... - Read More In findings that could help overcome a major technological hurdle in the road toward smaller and more powerful electronics an international research team involving University of Michigan engineering researchers has shown the unique ways in ... - Read More To World War II soldiers The White Cliffs of Dover was a morale boosting song that lifted spirits in dark times To geographers the white cliffs mark the point at which England is closest to ... - Read More Gold bars may signify great wealth but the precious metal packs a much more practical punch when shrunk down to just billionths of a meter Unfortunately unlocking gold's potential often requires complex synthesis techniques that ... - Read More Using star shaped block co polymer structures as tiny reaction vessels researchers have developed an improved technique for producing nanocrystals with consistent sizes compositions and architectures including metallic ferroelectric magnetic semiconductor and luminescent nanocrystals The ... - Read More Today's technological innovation enables smartphone users to diagnose serious diseases such as diabetes or lung cancer quickly and effectively by simply breathing into a small gadget a nanofiber breathing sensor mounted on the phones Il ... - Read More Tell us what you think of Chemistry 2011 -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions? Chemistry2011 is an informational resource for students, educators and the self-taught in the field of chemistry. We offer resources such as course materials, chemistry department listings, activities, events, projects and more along with current news releases. The history of the domain extends back to 2008 when it was selected to be used as the host domain for the International Year of Chemistry 2011 as designated by UNESCO and as an initiative of IUPAC that celebrated the achievements of chemistry. You can learn more about IYC2011 by clicking here. With IYC 2011 now over, the domain is currently under redevelopment by The Equipment Leasing Company Ltd. Are you interested in listing an event or sharing an activity or idea? Perhaps you are coordinating an event and are in need of additional resources? Within our site you will find a variety of activities and projects your peers have previously submitted or which have been freely shared through creative commons licenses. Here are some highlights: Featured Idea 1, Featured Idea 2. Ready to get involved? The first step is to sign up by following the link: Join Here. Also don’t forget to fill out your profile including any professional designations.
by Emily Vanneman As one of the “greenest” areas of Philadelphia, Chestnut Hill has a reputation for promoting sustainable living and educational programs relating to the environment. Aiming to build on this tradition are the Friends of J.S Jenks, a support group for the J. S. Jenks Elementary School, which is hoping to raise $1,800 for the project. Last year, Jenks installed a vegetable garden to help educate students about plant life and sustainability. Because of the success of the vegetable garden, Friends of J.S Jenks hopes to expand the area to create an outdoor educational center for the students. “We are proposing to create a student-operated native plant garden that will complement an ongoing green curriculum led by grades 4-5 to benefit the entire school,” said Haviva Goldman, president of the Friends of J.S. Jenks. “Working together with the school’s Beautification Committee, the classes will convert several plots to native plant gardens, document plant and wildlife characteristics through the seasons, while learning about the importance of the plants to the ecosystem.” Friends of J.S. Jenks is aiming to involve the community in the garden sustainability program, as well. The Friends group is a combined school and community organization that strives to support the school. It is comprised of Jenks parents, grandparents, alumni parents, teachers and other community members. Parents and staff of the school are automatically members of the organization, and community members who are interested in the well-being of the school are free to join. Goldman hopes the new garden will be as successful as last year’s. The fifth-grade students of Jenks were the primary caretakers of the garden when it was installed. The students worked on caring for the tomato seedlings while some parents provided help over the summer months. “In the fall, we had a school-wide picnic at which we served foods derived from the produce of our garden,” said Goldman. Amy Edelman, of Night Kitchen Bakery, and Brenda Board, of Oliver and Company Tea Room, volunteered their skills to prepare the menu for the picnic. The new efforts made by the school and Friends of J.S. Jenks involves expanding the outdoor classroom and resources that have already been put in place. “The garden will be accessible to the community, as it will be located nearby pathways that lead to the school’s playground which is heavily utilized by families from throughout Northwest Philadelphia,” Goldman said. The garden will be expanded to two areas of the schools campus: one on the corner of Southampton and Ardleigh streets and the other bordering the edge of the Ardleigh Street side of the playground. “We have also applied to the Chestnut Hill Community Fund for grant funds to purchase outdoor tables with benches to add to the utility of the outdoor classroom,” said Adam Eyring, vice president of Friends of J.S. Jenks. To donate to the cause, anyone who already has a Recyclebank account can go to www.recyclebank.com/contest/index/school/id/112/. Each 250 points donated is worth one dollar. Participants can earn additional points by recycling each week. “We have already raised over $500, but are trying to raise $1,800 so that we can complete the project. The deadline for donating points is March 16, 2014,” Goldman said.
California is home to one of the largest Armenian populations in the world, from the fertile farmlands of the Central Valley to Southern California. The Armenian Genocide and subsequent diaspora affect the community's sense of identity and perseverance to this day, since these tumultuous events are still recent history to many Armenians. Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as the state religion, with the Armenian Apostolic Church serving as the religious and cultural focus of the people. Woven into this shared history is the love of storytelling, food and family. William Saroyan remains the most celebrated author chronicling the Armenian-American experience in the Central Valley. "My Name Is Aram," a work of fiction, presents the story of a young boy exploring his Armenian identity and heritage amid the farms of Fresno. The Central Valley drew Armenian immigrants because of agricultural conditions that are similar their homeland, and his many other works explore the immigrant and first-generation experience of his people. "Apples of Immortality: Folk Tales of Armenia," by Leon Surmelian, contains classic stories of Armenian ingenuity, logic and ethos. The text is rich in religious symbolism and tales of morality that reveal the deep faith of the people. On DVD, explore the life and times of one of Armenia's most celebrated figures. "The Color of Pomegranates" presents a stylized biography of noted 18th-century Armenian poet and troubadour Sayat Nova, based on his writings. It depicts the poet's life in eight sections, from childhood to death, and is rich with symbols of sacred and secular Armenian life. Celebrated local chef Zov Karamardian continues to draw large, enthusiastic audiences to the library's "What's Cooking" events, and she will return in the fall for another cooking demonstration. Her Armenian-inspired recipes are perfect for home cooks wanting to learn her techniques. Check out "Simply Zov: Rustic Classics with a Mediterranean Twist" and "Zov: Recipes and Memories from the Heart." "The Armenian Table: More than 165 Treasured Recipes that Bring Together Ancient Flavors and 21st-Century Style," by Victoria Jenanyan Wise, and "The Cuisine of Armenia," by Sonia Uvezian, present classic Armenian food interwoven with family traditions. Vartan Gregorian, a decorated Armenian academic who emigrated to the United States to attend Stanford University, most famously restored the venerable New York Public Library to a cultural landmark. "The Road to Home: My Life and Times" chronicles his many successes and endeavors. "Children of Armenia: A Forgotten Genocide and the Century-Long Struggle for Justice," by Michael Bobelian, presents a well-documented, harrowing examination of the effects of war and diaspora on the Armenian people, including the challenges and politics facing immigrants to the United States. "An Armenian Sketchbook," by Vasily Grossman, is an enthralling travel narrative set in Armenia in 1962. Grossman's impressions of the ancient churches, welcoming people and stunning landscape take the reader to a faraway place. "The Crossing Place: A Journey among the Armenians," by Philip Marsden, is part travel essay, part history lesson. It explores the effect of the genocide and Soviet rule in the region. "Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir," by Peter Balakian, recounts the duality of growing up American in suburban New Jersey in the 1960s with the haunting family secrets of the genocide looming in his home life. He deftly presents the normalcy of riding bicycles with his friends and attending school with the foods of Armenia packed in his lunchbox. CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public Library. All titles may be reserved from home or office computers by accessing the catalog at http://www.newportbeachlibrary.org. For more information on the Central Library or any of the branches, please contact the Newport Beach Public Library at (949) 717-3800, option 2.Copyright © 2015, Chicago Tribune
- Language Tips An unmanned drone developed by a research team of the People's Liberation Army will soon undergo its first test. The drone's functions include automatic tracing and surveillance, and key attack technologies will be tested, according to a report by Science and Technology Daily on Dec 27. China's Air Force displayed eight types of unmanned drones at the ninth China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition held in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, in November. Although progress has been made in recent years, China still lags behind in drone technology compared to some other countries, according to reports.
A photo taken on Jul 21 shows a part of the former residence of the late Liang Sicheng and his wife Lin Huiyin, both distinguished architecture experts, has been demolished. The residence is located in downtown Beijing and is ordained an old city heritage by local authorities. Wu Changqing / for China Daily BEIJING - China's top cultural heritage administrator has condemned the massive reconstruction of old cities across the country as a "disaster" for the protection of historical cultural relics. "Bulldozers have razed many historical blocks," lamented Shan Jixiang, head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) in an online speech on Monday. "Much traditional architecture that could have been passed down for generations as the most valuable memories of a city," he said, "has been relentlessly torn down." Shan said that many Chinese cities are heading in the wrong direction by massively demolishing architectural gems even as urbanization is causing development problems in urban and rural areas alike. Official figures underscore Shan's assertion. The most recent data issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development indicates that China has built 2 billion square meters of new houses every year -- consuming 40 percent of the world's building materials. "The protection of cultural heritage in China has entered the most difficult, grave and critical period," Shan warned. No official statistics exist as to the number of potential cultural heritage sites destroyed in demolition across the country. But an official surnamed Peng with the SACH said the number of immovable relics, such as buildings and gardens, have been decreasing sharply since the 1980s, when an extensive urbanization campaign began nationwide. In Beijing, for instance, 4.43 million meters of old courtyards have been demolished since 1990, covering some 40 percent of Beijing's old downtown area. Even Nanluoguxiang, a once flourishing commercial street during the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368), has not escaped the fate of urban erosion. The statistics paint a stark picture. In the 1950s, Beijing was home to 7,000 hutongs. But by the 1980s, their numbers had shrunk to 3,900, and they have been vanishing at annual rate of 600 ever since, according to a report by the China Architecture News. In a similar vein, the Dali municipal government of southwest China's Yunnan province destroyed a segment of a 1,300-year-old city wall to make place for a new expressway this May. The administrator said he is strongly opposed to the notions of "revamping old city" and "revamping old and endangered housing" in urban development. Such development, he added, often comes at the expense of architecture that dates back "hundreds even thousands of years". Shan said some small- and medium-sized Chinese cities have been blindly transforming their urban landscapes in favor of high-rises and skyscrapers as futuristic symbols of urbanization and modernization. But this push has rendered all too many cityscapes "rigid, superficial and dull", he said. Shan also criticized the wasted of resources caused by the short-lived nature of many buildings in China. The average lifespan of a Chinese building is 30 years, as opposed to 132 years in Britain and 74 years in the United States, according to statistics. "Many buildings have been demolished while still remaining useful," he added, blaming the situation on a lack of vision by urban administrators. "And that is a disaster for both the environment and resources." (China Daily 08/04/2010 page4)
Summer in a Chinese city is generally a time to stifle. These are days when any destination south of the Yellow River seems as enticing as a steam bath to a man who’s just spent too long in a sauna. These are the ninety-odd days when it’s safe and pleasant for the modest of constitution to visit Inner Mongolia. But we’re not taking you on another predictable trip to the boundless grasslands. Even the mighty Genghis got the blahs from his native steppes. Not until he reached the northeastern crook, where field gives way to forest, in the lee of the Xing’an mountains, was he inspired to join all his truculent people under one formidable banner. “Moerdaoga!”, “On your horses – to battle!”, he yawped. The world would never be the same. But the forests of Moerdaoga are, as far as can be expected in an age when money speaks louder than khans. So if you can make it out to Eerguna city, then secure passage to Moerdaoga forest, you will have left China and its vernal discomforts far behind without needing a visa. Words fall short of describing the peace, the lack of bipedal creatures such as thou – common words, anyway. The poems of the Mongols, however, more than suffice, as large-spirited yet little-known as a half-million-hectare forest in Inner Mongolia. I look at a mountain and know that I am mountain I observe mist and perceive that I am cloud After rain sprinkles I sense that I am grass As soon as the sparrow’s twittering begins, I remember that I am morning I am not merely human When a star flares up I know that I am darkness As soon as girls shed their thick winter clothes, I remember that I am spring When I smell only longing from every person in the universe My ever more tranquil heart understands that it is a fish’s I am not merely human Under a multi-colored sky the immense VOID, From today on I, only… This is my native land Mongolia the beautiful! And as this fine country and I Have the same luck I love this my native country As my own body I was born in a herdsman’s abode Where cattle dung smoke use to whirl, So I imagine my virgin land As my own babyhood cradle. Looking at the distant view Where rises asure mist, Gazing at my spacious country I always feel boundless happiness. And I compare my transparent rivers To my mother’s milk. For in this country I am a Lord For my part I’m its child. When you plant a spreading tree, From each branch the fruits will come. When you have friendship with a good person, Brightness and wisdom will appear. The sky and the earth gaze at each other, Losing patience, they meet through a fog. The sky, open all day, to guard people, Rests his lashes with shadow, so jealous is he.
* Editors Geivett and Spiegel along with contributors such as Dallas Willard, Kelly James Clark, Sara Shady, and James Sennett apply classic and current movies to the exploration of major theological themes. Examine the human condition (Citizen Kane); mind and knowledge (The Truman Show); the moral life (Bowling for Columbine); faith and religion (Contact); and more. 320 pages, softcover from InterVarsity. "Those who tell stories rule society." Plato So who today are our principal storytellers? Not philosophers, but filmmakers. For those who know both the enormous entertainment potential and the culture-shaping power of film, this book will stir mind and imagination. For great stories freight world-sized ideas, ideas worthy of contemplation and conversation. Great cinema inspires wonder. But another philosopher, Aristotle, reminds us that wonder is the true source of philosophy. So perhaps Plato or Aristotle might have a shot at ruling society, even today--if they took an interest in film. These fourteen essays consider classic and current films together with several major philosophical themes, all within the context of Christian faith: (1) the human condition, (2) the human mind and the nature of knowing, (3) the moral life, and (4) faith and religion. Citizen Kane, Big Fish and Pretty Woman contribute to an in-depth consideration of the human condition. The Truman Show, The Matrix, Being John Malkovich and It's a Wonderful Life, among others, illuminate reflection on the human mind and the nature of knowing. Looking at the moral life, contributors interact with such notable films as Pleasantville, Bowling for Columbine, Mystic River and The Silence of the Lambs. The final section pursues the theme of faith and religion traced through a number of Hong Kong martial arts films, Contact, 2001: A Space Odyssey and U2's music documentary Rattle and Hum. A veritable film festival for all those who want to nurture the wonder of philosophical inquiry and the love of Christian theology through an engagement with the big ideas on the big screen. R. Douglas Geivett is professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, in La Mirada, California. His previous books include (Temple University Press) and (coedited with Brendan Sweetman) (Oxford University Press). James S. Spiegel is a professor of philosophy and religion at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. He is the author of (Baker), (Kregel) and (Crossway). Spiegel is active in many professional organizations and runs a music recording studio, where he records his own music and others'. Have a question about this product? Ask us here.
Dr. Clark H. Pinnock, one of the leading proponents of Open Theism, took some time to speak to the Christian Post on June 2, 2005. What is Open Theism(OT)? OT is a fresh branch on the tree of Free will theism. Its a theological model, which takes a libertarian stance on freedom. Libertarian stance on freedom denies middle knowledge, and therefore, believes that God manages the world without the degree of control and foreknowledge of contingent events that have been traditionally ascribed to Him. You can also say that OT is a form of a relational theism, which sees God as entering a reciprocal relationship with His creature and experiencing genuine give and take relation. God is the one who interacts with us and to whom we make a difference. Thats what makes it special and thats why people like it. Because God does not force His love on us, but even makes Himself vulnerable to the risk of being rejected. If humans reject Him, then God is frustrated. He wants to love them but He cant because they dont want it. We can reject God and that affects God and He doesnt like that. That makes Him sad, whereas in traditional theism, nothing can make God sad because its been decided. So why would you be sad? OT is a doctrine of a limited providence - the idea that He could control everything, but chooses not to. Instead, He restrains himself of the autonomy which is granted to human agency. What OT does in a nutshell is to add one feature to Free will theism. It states mainly that if aspects of the future remain unsettled, owing to human freedom, then a proportion of future does not exist yet to be known by anyone, even God. It doesnt seem much of a limitation on God to say He cannot know what cannot be known. People say that OT doesnt do justice to Gods complete foreknowledge, but that aspect of the future, which hasnt been decided for your future and also the decisions youll make means that there are some things not there to know. Nobody knows exactly what youll do in the future. Even He [God] doesnt know exactly what you may decide to do and we dont think its a limitation. Thats just the way He made the world. He made the world with an open future so that people might choose freely and be responsible. Thus, His knowledge is complete. He knows everything that could be and might be but not everything that will be. Thats the thing that gets people the goat, that last part. But, I think its perfectly reasonable. If it isnt known today what you will be doing next Thursday, no one can know it because it isnt knowable. You havent made that choice. God looks at the world the same way. Namely, He knows that youll make a decision next Thursday that Hes not entirely sure of. Though He may know a great deal about it more than anyone else, you can still surprise Him. So the element of surprise is another element or a feature or a risk. God took a risk in creating a world that could go wrong. Thats also the nice thing to the problem of evil because we have an answer to evil in a sense that it arises from people choosing against what God wills for them, which He gave the power to do, but didnt want them to do. How did you come to take stance in Open Theism (OT)? Was there a particular incident that led you to it? Im sure there are always factors that lead us to believe what we do. For example, my experience with prayer and whether that can affect God - thats a natural thing to think of and that leads to Open theism. But mainly its been more of my thinking about God and Gods character over the years that I kind of shifted over to this view. It was actually in 1971 when I had decided on this. Basically, it was a matter of rethinking. I was rethinking that Gods sovereignty was so much a meticulous; all controlling-sovereignty was more of a general direction and guidance in the world which left room for us. So Im opposed to a deterministic approach in favor of relational one. Of course, for lot of people OT is really very common. People dont call it that, but when you explain that means I have something to contribute to the world history and I say yes, that is exactly right. Whereas if all was decided, it is hard to see why youd put so much effort because you cant change anything anyway. With OT, youre in a position to change the world to at least some small degree. Early this year, a professor in Huntington University, a Christian liberal arts school, was dismissed from the college due to his position in OT. Can you explain about the conflict involved? Yes, his name is John Sanders and Huntington was famous and well known for this [OT] and some of the members of the board, not the faculty, felt it hurts us to have him here. The faculty liked him and so did the president, but the board disagreed and eventually they got the vote and gave him a good settlement. I think he has two more years of being paid, supported by them but he has finished teaching. Another person taught at Huntington named William Hasker. He taught there for forty years and had exactly the same view as Sanders, but because he was a philosopher and not a theologian and because he was not going around talking about it as much as John did . I think John suffered for being successful. John was successful in getting this out and I think thats what these people dont want you to be good at. If youre holding it, thats bad enough, but if youre successful in disseminating, that cannot be tolerated. What are some major criticisms about OT coming from the opposite end of the theological spectrum? The sharpest critics are the Reformed of Calvinistic critics who hold a strong view of predestination. Therefore, they dislike all this talk about the human freedom and Gods relationality. Theyre the most vociferous of all. However, in the world today many people who are reformed or Presbyterian dont particularly criticize it [OT] so its a certain group of conservatives who got their feathers ruffled. I expect that because they should be for we did stick it to them a bit. This is an old debate - Arminians and Calvinists have been at each other. Arminian theology can be called Wesleyan Arminianism or Free will Theism. The two groups have always debated over this topic and the debate is still happening, Yet, this is a new outburst of FWT, because we had a new way of putting it - we put it in a new way that struck them as dangerous and a little worse than earlier versions because we put in this foreknowledge aspect, which wasnt a part of it before. Although it is a version of Free will theism, Open theism adds a feature which sets it apart. It has something different to say about the divine omniscience. We speak of the present knowledge of God where we believe that God knows everything that can be known, but that the future free acts of human beings are not yet reality and (therefore) cannot be known. Of course it is no defect for God not to know what is unknowable! God made a world with free creatures in it, creatures that can make a difference. How could they possess libertarian freedom, if God knew ahead of time exactly what they would do. God could know the future exhaustively if everything was determined. This is the position of Calvinism. But the biblical narrative is dynamic and cannot be interpreted in a deterministic framework. We see the future as something still being worked out. In your book Most Moved Mover, you cite that prophecies often go unfulfilled. This statement seems to have irked some scholars who even requested revision for future editions. What do you mean by this statement? A lot of prophecies are conditional, meaning that this will happen, if this other thing happens. So the prophecies are often very open and they can be conditional where if people repented, God wouldnt do what He was going to do. In the case of Nineveh, He predicted that Hes going destroy Nineveh, period. But He didnt in fact do it because they repented. So in other words, prophecies may be falsified by something happening that would change it. There are some good examples where a prophet would predict some things that didnt happen because something else happened first. There are a lot of different kinds of prophecies and its a complicated matter, so Im not sure I can explain everything, but often prophecies are what Gods stating what He will do, not what He knows. He says Im going to bring this to pass and Hell do that not because he knows it, but because He intends it. Thus, a lot of prophecies are intentional. I will cause this to happen in this way and its not a question of knowing so much as determining. Hes going to do it in any case. There is also a conditional kind where in Jeremiah, God says If you continue to disobey me, you will perish, but if you repent, you wont. So God gives them a choice and why would this be a real choice? If its all settled, it wont be a real choice because one or the other is going to happen. Obviously, God is trying to get them to repent and in effect saying that the future is open, you can go this way or that way. There are different kinds of prophecies and a few of them would be hard for us to answer but for the most part we can, because of their conditional nature - this will happen if that happens. Jonah is a great idea of this because you see that God promises one thing and doesnt do it. In fact, Jonah complains that He wasnt consistent and he says I know youre going to change your mind on this, so Im not going. If I go to Nineveh and they repent youre going to forgive them and I dont want you to so, Im not even going. Its a great book that has that element in it. He [God] doesnt want to judge them because thats not in His heart so Hell change His mind. Moses tells God to not destroy the people because if he does, what would the Egyptians think and hell look bad. So God relents of the evil that He said Hell do and didnt do it because Moses prayed. This is a perfect example where a prophecy is altered because someone did something that made it inexplicable. Thats in Exodus 32. In a way the predictions werent solid, but conditional. Most of them apply conditionality but they dont say it. Its an objection to us on how we handle the stuff because weve made a little problem with it. Determinists can handle that stuff so easily because theyre determinists anyway so all of these things can be just as they are. But, the Bible text doesnt support that because Jeremiah says no situation is that God is working with some play and if it gets spoiled He will just start over. It wasnt His idea that it goes wrong, but if something does goes wrong, Hell start all over. So its very much free will. We have a lot of scriptures that support it, but not all because no position has everything on its side. Even Calvinists have some verses. OT has been an issue debated over the past decade since it was first introduced by the book Openness of God a collection of five essays, one of which you have written, advocating OT. Most of the attention brought to this issue came from the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), which some of its members charged you and Sanders denial of biblical inerrancy in your books. Can you comment on this? There was an attempt to reject me at ETS, but it failed because of the nature of argument. I got 400 votes in favor of and 200 against. The society runs a business meeting and anyone can stand up theoretically and say Im going to bring a charge to a fellow member and thats what happened so they had to have a process whereby they had me interviewed by the committee. The society is meant to be where different kinds of evangelicals can gather and talk about things and it really wasnt a good idea to charge me with that [biblical inerrancy] because this is not a church. Were at a society where we talk about things. So I think most people felt this was a bad thing to do and Im glad it didnt work. The reason inerrancy comes up is because the society has a very brief statement of principles to join and one of them is the inerrancy of the Bible and the only way to get anyone out is by proving that they dont hold it. Since I could show that my interpretation of the Bible in this way is reasonable and they saw that theres no reason to throw me out, it didnt work. It [statement] is a pretty blunt instrument. What does it really tell you? It tells you that you really trust the Bible but what else? It doesnt tell you whats going to be in there. So it doesnt work and a part of it is because they dont have a creed and if they had a big creed where they had all these things in it like you cant believe that God doesnt have foreknowledge then of course we can be kicked out. But if they want to do that, they have to change their constitution and I dont think theyll do that. Some conservatives like to keep the group smaller or more like themselves and most of us like to see it more open and not less. Its a bit of a struggle within the society mainly to decide whether they want to persecute the views that are kind of novel or let them be and keep to themselves. The native Canadian Clark H. Pinnock is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at McMaster Divinity College, member of the Faculty of Theology at McMaster University. He had previously taught in the U.S. at Trinity Evangelical Seminary, Regent College, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary before coming to McMaster. He says he belongs to a wonderful charismatic Baptist church where he has found a good group with great ethnic diversity. He is also an author of over a dozen theological monographs including A Wideness in God's Mercy: the Finality of Jesus Christ in a World of Religions (Zondervan, 1992), Unbounded Love: a Good News Theology for the 21st Century (InterVarsity/Paternoster, 1994; co-authored with Robert Brow), Flame of Love: a Theology of the Holy Spirit (InterVarsity, 1996), and Most Moved Mover (InterVarsity, 2001).
(Photo: Reuters/Alexsey Druginyn/RIA Novosti/Pool) Russia has defended a bill that seeks to outlaw what it calls "homosexual propaganda," arguing that the country should not be expected to comply with the European Union or international views on tolerance. "We don't have a single international or common European commitment to allow propaganda of homosexuality," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. Russia is currently considering a bill that would make public events in support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community illegal, with those deemed to be targeting minors subject to fines of up to $16,000. Unlike most other European nations, the Russian government has remained conservative in its views on same-sex relationships, supporting traditional relationships as defined between a man and a woman. It officially decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, but authorities continue cracking down on gay rallies and parades. Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans has spoken out against the bill, insisting that Russia needs to follow international human right laws. "Discrimination against homosexuals is unacceptable. Gay rights are human rights and Russia must adhere to its international obligations," Timmermans had said, urging the Russian parliament to drop the bill. The debate stems from what the opposing sides define as "human rights" and "homosexual propaganda." Lavrov rejected claims that the law seeking to protect children from being exposed to gay events is infringing on anyone's human rights, saying that since 1993 LGBT people have been able to "go about their business absolutely freely and unpunished." The Russian foreign minister explained that his country has its own moral, religious and historical values, and that other organizations should not seek to impose their values on them. Lavrov added that a different form of discrimination arises "when one group of citizens gets the right to aggressively promote their own values that run against those shared by the majority of the society and impose them on children." Not all Russians are in support of the bill, however, and gay right supporters have been protesting in front of the parliament building, trying to raise awareness for the problems LGBT people face in Russia. Tensions between gay rights activists and the Russian government were notably high last year, when activists in Saint Petersburg released rainbow balloons in a city park and tried to hold a demonstration, only to have their efforts broken apart by police. In May, 40 people in Moscow were arrested when two protesting groups clashed, one advocating for a gay pride parade in the Russian capital, the other – comprised of Orthodox Christians, the largest religious group in the nation – protesting against homosexuality.
How do we inspire the UK church to engage in religious freedom? "How do we inspire the UK church to get engaged in issues of worldwide religious freedom?" was a question asked at this week's Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) church leaders' forum. It's a question that, as a church leader, I have asked myself, which is why I was keen to attend. CSW is in the unique position of solely specialising in advocacy work – being a voice for the voiceless in regions such as North Korea, Indonesia, Burma, North Africa and the Middle East, seeking to bring about lasting cultural, social and political change. However advocacy work isn't as attention grabbing as relief aid, often results are far less immediate and often not so quantifiable – yet advocacy is just as vital. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously once said: "We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself." CSW sees its role very much as a spoke in the wheel of increasing religious intolerance and hatred. Which takes us back to our question – how do we get our churches engaged? Firstly, I hadn't appreciated the impact advocacy can have on issues of religious freedom worldwide. I'm not sure how many individuals within churches are clued up on this matter either. Do we feel equipped, and suitably inspired, to get involved? During the forum we had a chance as leaders to brainstorm ways in which we can ensure our churches get more engaged. Top of the list was communication, and we recognised that social media can have a huge impact on this. There is, of course, always going to be the difficult balancing act of getting the facts out to those around the world while maintaining the safety of those in the midst of dangerous situations of persecution. Surely organisations involved and more informed than the general public would have to make the call on that. There does seem to be a lack of coverage by national presses on matters of religious persecution, and when there is coverage it can often be ill-informed. The work of Lapido Media is to be applauded, which exists to promote an increase of understanding among journalists of how religion "shapes world affairs". Faith of all types impacts society in so many ways that we in the West really don't understand but surely it should be the job of those committed to reporting the news to find out more? Those of us who are probably never going to be 'on the ground' as it were may be left feeling somewhat helpless – after all, what can we do that would have a dramatic impact on issues of religious persecution? Well, far from being a cop out answer, at the forum CSW Communications Director, Daniel Sinclair, encouraged us to view prayer as our main form of advocacy. Our prayers are powerful and effective in bringing clear change and justice to those who are persecuted. Much of CSW's work includes on-the-ground research and analysis of situations so we can pray for those going into very fragile situations to sift out the truth from much propaganda. We can also pray for research to be taken seriously at the highest level. We may not be involved directly but our prayers can be. Daniel explained that the cycle of violence against religious groups really canbe broken if hate speech is drowned out by compassion and understanding. This is where the church can really rise up and shine. CSW actually gives people the opportunity to write directly to those suffering for their faith. Their campaign Operation 18 is also a way people can add their voice to this international issue of religious freedom. It is based on article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance." While this is, in theory, part of many countryies' constitutions the reality is often quite different. For more information on how you can get involved in each of these visit their website: http://www.csw.org.uk What I took away from the forum was the urgent need to keep the plight of our brothers and sisters suffering around the world for their faith right at the top of our daily agendas. In doing so maybe we can chip away at the apathy and self-centredness that all too often pervade our western churches. I wonder what would happen if we turned up one Sunday to find our church building had been locked or even destroyed by the authorities? Would we, like Christians in Indonesia, simply hold the service in the street? I think so often the problem is that it is totally beyond our experience to suffer real physical persecution for our faith and, unless you have done so (or seen it up close), it is easy to allow news of persecution to 'wash' over you without having a lasting effect. If we make a conscious effort to engage in some way – either through setting realistic prayer targets to ensure a new habit is formed, or perhaps taking up the suggestion to either write to persecuted Christians or petition on their behalf – then maybe we will begin to understand it more. On 29 March, CSW are holding their Pursue Justice 2014 conference at the Emmanuel Centre in Central London. Open to all, this free event is designed to "equip you and other Christians you know in your biblical role of encouraging the persecuted Church and speaking up for religious freedom". If, like me, you are wondering exactly how you can help those currently being persecuted internationally why not consider going along to learn more?
Welcome To The Birthplace Of Hip-Hop Hip hop first emerged in the South Bronx in the early 1970s. The New York Times has identified 1520 Sedgwick Avenue as the starting point for Hip-Hop and rap music worldwide. It's where DJ Kool Herc presided over parties in the basement community room. Beginning with the advent of beat match DJing, in which Bronx DJs including Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Kool Herc extended the breaks of funk records, a major new musical genre emerged that sought to isolate the percussion breaks of hit funk, disco and soul songs. As hip hop's popularity grew, performers began speaking ("rapping") in sync with the beats, and became known as MCs or emcees. The Herculoids, made up of Herc, Coke La Rock, and Clark Kent, were the earliest to gain major fame. The Bronx is referred to in hip-hop slang as "The Boogie Down Bronx", or just "The Boogie Down". This was hip-hop pioneer KRS-One's inspiration for his thought provoking group BDP, or Boogie Down Productions, which included DJ Scott La Rock. Kool DJ Herc DJ Kool Herc is the originator of break-beat DJing, where the breaks of funk songs—being the most danceable part, often featuring percussion—were isolated and repeated for the purpose of all-night dance parties. Later DJs such as Grandmaster Flash refined and developed the use of breakbeats, including cutting. While growing up in Kingston he saw and heard the sound systems firsthand at neighborhood parties called dancehalls. He moved to the Bronx, New York at the age of 12 and began to throw free neighborhood parties. He is also well known for his massive, high-quality, high-volume sound system, against which even superior DJs could not compete. Herc first used reggae records and was toasting to the music like Jamaican artists U-Roy and I-Roy. But he started using funk records due to popular demand. Kool Herc and his MC crew The Herculords "started a movement which recycled the creativity of black American jive jocks back into the USA". The relationship between hip hop and reggae became more important again with reggae artists and rappers collaborating with each other, from Yellowman and Afrika Bambaataa to KRS-One and Shabba Ranks. Hip hop and reggae still influence each other in both directions. During the later part of the decade, Herc was stabbed at one of his own parties, sidelining him during most of the 1980s as hip hop spread throughout the country. During the 1990s, he made several appearances, gave interviews, and appeared on The Godfathers of Threat by Terminator X (a DJ with Public Enemy). He still DJs around the world. Herc is featured in Jin's music video, Top 5 (Dead or Alive) In an 1989 interview with Davey D, Herc said, "Hip Hop, the whole chemistry of that came from Jamaica." In the interview, Herc talked about the first modern day rappers and the lyrics they had. He said "Well the rhyming came about..because I liked playing lyrics that were saying something. I figured people would pick it up by me playing those records, but at the same time I would say something myself with a meaningful message to it.". DJ Kool Herc is mentioned in the song "It Dosen't Matter" by Wyclef jean in the llyrics: "Foundation like Kool Herc, or DJ Red Alert goes bezerk, The needle ain't skip the record jerked, Cause y'all jumpin' too hard" NY Times Article - 1520 Sedgwick Ave. Will Gentrification Spoil the Birthplace of Hip-Hop? Clive Campbell, known as D.J. Kool Herc, at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the west Bronx. He wants the apartment building to be declared a landmark for its role in hip-hop culture. “This is where it came from,” he said. Hip-hop was born in the west Bronx. Not the South Bronx, not Harlem and most definitely not Queens. Just ask anybody at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue — an otherwise unremarkable high-rise just north of the Cross Bronx and hard along the Major Deegan. “This is where it came from,” said Clive Campbell, pointing to the building’s first-floor community room. “This is it. The culture started here and went around the world. But this is where it came from. Not anyplace else.” O.K., Mr. Campbell is not just anybody — he is the alpha D.J. of hip-hop. As D.J. Kool Herc, he presided over the turntables at parties in that community room in 1973 that spilled into nearby parks before turning into a global assault. Playing snippets of the choicest beats from James Brown, Jimmy Castor, Babe Ruth and anything else that piqued his considerable musical curiosity, he provided the soundtrack savored by loose-limbed b-boys (a term he takes credit for creating, too). Mr. Campbell thinks the building should be declared a landmark in recognition of its role in American popular culture. Its residents agree, but for more practical reasons. They want to have the building placed on the National Register of Historic Places so that it might be protected from any change that would affect its character — in this case, a building for poor and working-class families. Throughout the city, housing advocates said, buildings like 1520 Sedgwick are becoming harder to find as owners opt out of subsidy programs so they can eventually charge higher rents on the open market. The Sedgwick building is part of the state’s Mitchell-Lama program, in which private landlords who receive tax breaks and subsidized mortgages agree to limit their return on equity and rent to people who meet modest income limits. The contracts allow owners to leave the program and prepay their mortgage loan after 20 years. Rent regulations can protect tenants from increases, but not always. While Mitchell-Lama buildings in parts of Manhattan, like the Lower East Side, were among the first to leave the program, housing experts say that the trend has spread far beyond, from the Rockaways to the west Bronx. Tom Waters, a housing policy analyst at the Community Service Society of New York, said there are about 40,000 Mitchell-Lama units in the city, down from 66,000 in 1990. The rate of buildings leaving the program has accelerated since 2001, he said, as landlords find they can do better on the open market. Labor groups and housing advocates have called for safeguards on moderate-income housing, which they said was essential for the city’s economic health. While the groups have lauded Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for his commitment to building such housing, they said the State Legislature should address policies that affect the city’s housing market. “There is no single solution,” said Ed Ott, executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council. “Preservation of currently affordable housing is something we need to look at. Working people are going to have no place to go.” In February, tenants of the Sedgwick Avenue building, which has 100 units, were told that the owners planned to leave the Mitchell-Lama program. The building’s owners did not respond to several requests for comment for this article. Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said landlords were entitled by contract to opt out after a set period. He said that if there were concerns about keeping the buildings in the program, the government should consider better incentives. “Contracts should still mean something,” Mr. Spinola said. “Affordable housing is clearly a problem in the city. I do not believe the social concerns for citizens of the city of New York should fall on the backs of one particular owner when it is a citywide problem.” The problem has been widespread enough to keep Dina Levy of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board looking for new strategies to slow it down. The group, a nonprofit housing advocacy organization, is advising the Sedgwick tenants. “The market is so out of control in every corner of every borough,” said Ms. Levy, director of organizing and policy for the group. “We have run out of land, so anywhere in the boroughs can be the next hot real estate market. That’s why we’re scrambling to find preservation opportunities to keep them affordable.” That usually involves seeing if there are mortgage requirements or land covenants that mandate the property be used for moderate-income housing, she said. But when tenants of 1520 Sedgwick came to her group in February, organizers stumbled on an interesting fact when they searched for the address online. “The first hundred hits said ‘birthplace of hip-hop,’ ” said Dan DeSloover, an organizer for the group. “Kool Herc had lived there. That was a great coincidence to have this building be part of that history.” The idea to have the building declared a landmark as a way of keeping it affordable for moderate-income families developed slowly, as organizers discussed it with tenants and elected officials’ staff members. Preservationists doubted it would stop the building’s owners from leaving the subsidy program, since the landmark distinction would apply to the structure and not necessarily its use. And there is another obstacle: to be eligible for the National Register, a building normally has to be at least 50 years old. The Sedgwick building falls short of that by 12 years. Exceptions are made for extraordinary cultural significance. “It is complicated when you try to preserve some other feature of a building besides its architecture,” said Lisa Kersavage, a preservationist at the Municipal Art Society of New York. “But this is a very important cultural touchstone for New York, and awareness should be raised.” Cindy Campbell, who promoted the first party where her brother spun the tunes, is intent on doing at least that. She hopes that by highlighting the history of the building, where her family lived for nine years, she might be able to enlist big-name rappers to Mayor Bloomberg in her campaign to help the tenants. She still recalls the first party — on Aug. 11, 1973, she says — which she dreamed up as a way for her to get some extra money for back-to-school clothes. “I didn’t want to go to Fordham Road to buy clothes because you’d go to school and see everybody with the same thing on,” she said. “I wanted to go to Delancey Street and get something unusual.” Her brother wound up giving the neighborhood something unusual, too, inside the packed and sweaty community room. Drawing on his wide-ranging musical tastes, he combined sounds and in time those sounds were combined in new ways as he extended the beats to the delight of the dancers. “It wasn’t a black thing, it was a we thing,” said Mr. Campbell, now 52. “We played everything. Gary Glitter? We rocked that. We schooled people about music.” Since leaving 1520 Sedgwick, Mr. Campbell has moved to Long Island and has continued spinning tunes. (On Sunday, he was the D.J. for the city’s first Dance Parade, which traveled from Midtown to Lower Manhattan.) Some old-timers rushed up to him last week when he and his sister visited the building. They told him — to his dismay — that the community room has been closed for renovations since last year. “All of it came from here,” he said. “From this building. It should be respected.” Curtis Brown, who was a teenager living a few blocks away during Kool Herc’s heyday, agreed. Mr. Brown went from being a fan to becoming Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers, an early and influential rap group. “That place means everything,” he said. “You can look at it objectively and say it could have happened somewhere else. Maybe. But this is where it did happen.” To him it is already a landmark. “As far as government and what they consider important, who knows?” he said. “But for something that saturated the world culture, that went from one building to the world, I would want to hold on to the historical significance of that building.”
Nine Security Apps to Keep Your iPhone, iPad Safe Mobile devices are all the rage in the enterprise nowadays. Companies around the globe are adopting smartphones and tablets, and CIOs have warmed to the idea of allowing iOS and Android into the office. Part of that is due to the popularity of BYOD, but it's also due to the decline of the BlackBerry and the realization that touchscreen-based devices like the iPhone and iPad can improve productivity in the enterprise. However, that's not necessarily the end of the road for most CIOs. As several recent studies have proven, mobile products are being attacked at a torrid pace by malicious cybercriminals hoping to infiltrate corporate networks and steal sensitive data. The future is by no means certain and there's a chance that things will change and malicious hackers will modify their focus. But most security analysts believe that at least over the next several years, mobile devices will be heavily targeted. Realizing that, it might be a good time to offer a refresher on security apps designed for iOS devices. In the following nine slides, we will examine nine security programs running on iPhones and iPads, and help CIOs figure out which programs will do the best job of keeping their corporate data safe.
Alexandria slave pen This Alexandria slave pen was the establishment of Price, Birch & Co., dealers in slaves. The occupation of Alexandria by Union soldiers on May 24, 1861, terminated this business immediately. Many Yankees from the far North, in the South for the first time, had never before seen an African American. The slave pen became a curiosity and tourist attraction for thousands of soldiers who passed through Alexandria during the war. This wartime photograph was taken in August 1863. Library of Congress
The Republic of Equatorial Guinea is a member of the United Nations and the African Union. It has ratified many UN Human Rights Conventions (compare list on the right) and thus has made binding international commitments to adhere to the standards laid down in these universal human rights documents. Equatorial Guinea is a Spanish- and French-speaking country in Central Africa. With an area of 28,051 square km it borders the Atlantic Ocean. On a global scale, its population density is low. The capital of the country, which became independent on 12 October 1968 from Spain, is Malabo. Equatorial Guinea is a member of the regional economic community ECCAS. With a Human Development Index of 0.72 Equatorial Guinea ranks 118th of 182 countries ranked in the UNDP Human Development Report of 2009. Life expectancy of the 700,000 inhabitants at birth is 50 years, population growth is 2.6 percent per year. GNI is 14,980 US-$ per capita. Primary school enrolment is 67.1 percent. In as far as Equatorial Guinea has ratified the Optional Protocols for UN Human Rights Conventions or has accepted the Competence of the corresponding UN Treaty Bodies (compare list on the right), the inhabitants of Equatorial Guinea and their representatives are able to invoke their human rights through these bodies. All inhabitants of Equatorial Guinea may turn to the UN Human Rights Committee through procedure 1503, to the Special Rapporteurs for violations of specific human rights or to ECOSOC for women's rights violations. Since Egypt is a member state of UNESCO, its citizens may use the UNESCO procedure for human rights violations in UNESCO's fields of mandate. Employers' or workers' and certain other organizations (not individuals) of Equatorial Guinea may file complaints through the ILO procedure in the cases of those conventions which Equatorial Guinea has ratified. Since Equatorial Guinea is an AU member, its citizens and NGOs may file complaints to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. They may also file complaints according to the EU guidelines (on Human Rights Defenders, Death Penalty and Torture) to Embassies of EU Member States and the Delegations of the European Commission. In cases of human rights violations by multinational enterprises, they may also invoke the National Contact Point in an OECD member state. Equatorial Guinea has not yet joined the International Criminal Court.
- Students at Clark's Hadwen Arboretum The Hadwen Arboretum, bequeathed to Clark University in 1907, contains 6.4 acres of unspoiled woodland green space in the heart of Worcester city. The Arboretum's network of trails and beautiful scenery offer a delightful sanctuary for hiking, picnicking, photography, quiet contemplation or even dog-walking. With over 40 types of plants, including unusual species and many 'heritage' trees over 100 years old, the Hadwen Arboretum invites nature study and applied research opportunities in the sciences, while recent issues with invasive species offer ecological research opportunities. A Regional Environmental Council community garden is also in the Arboretum. The surrounding area, accessed by a walk through the Arboretum, includes Coes Reservoir. This beautiful space provides water-front access for swimming and enjoying the natural setting. In all seasons, the Hadwen Arboretum is a little-known gem for to explore and enjoy! The interdisiplinary Hadwen Project was created by students in Botanical Diversity (Biology 110) with Prof. David Hibbett and Drawing a Sense of Place (Arts 128) with Prof. Elli Crocker. The Hadwen Project website "is devoted to the natural history, biodiversity, and human affairs of the Hadwen Arboretum. At present, the major content of the site concerns selected plants of the Arboretum, as described and illustrated by Clark University students. As the site develops, we hope to include information on fungi and other organisms, historical notes, and artworks, as well as maps and other resources to encourage exploration of this unique resource".Their work is rich in scope and interest. The Hadwen Project, begun in fall 2014, will continue to bring students to the Arboretum and hopefully also increase awareness across the community. You can also find the Hadwen Arboretum on Facebook. A short 20-minute walk from Clark University campus, the Hadwen Arboretum is located on Lovell and Willow Streets. Directions from Clark: Downing St. toward Park Ave., right on Park Ave., left on May St. past the Big Y supermarket, left on Lovell St., right on Willow St.
Birth Date: January 21, 1925 Birth Place: Frankfort, Indiana, USA Also Credited as: Charlie Aidman Date of Death: November 7, 1993 / Age: 68 Location of Death: Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA Cause of Death: cancer Biography: Charles Aidman originally planned a career as an attorney, but was sidetracked during World War II and naval officer training at DePaul university. During a speech class the instructor, who also headed the drama department, saw Aidman as ideal for a role in an upcoming play. "I did the play and enjoyed it. It was the first play I was in, in my life...I've been acting ever since." Actor, author, director and composer, educated at the University of Indiana and the Neighborhood Playhouse. His New York off-Broadway stage work inluded parts in "Career", "The Cretan Woman", and others. He conceived, directed and acted in "Spoon River Anthology". Joining ASCAP in 1963, he collaborated with Naomi Caryl Hirshhorn in the songs "Spoon River" and "I Am, I Am".
Did you know that the leaves of one large shade tree can be worth big bucks in terms of plant food and humus? Pound for pound, the leaves of most trees contain twice as many minerals as manure. For example, the mineral content of a sugar maple leaf is over five percent, while even common pine needles have 2.5 percent of their weight in calcium, magnesium, nitrogen and phosphorus, plus other trace elements. So come fall, perhaps you should mix your leaves with nitrogen and manure for terrific mulch for your garden. If you aren't too keen on recycling your leaves, try hay mulch. The method of mulching heavily with hay has enjoyed widespread if unpublicized use for many years. For example, if you grow sweet corn, you can flatten harvested stalks to the ground and then cover the flattened mess with hay. By springtime, any kind of plants can be set with a trowel through this cover. What's more, hay mulch can facilitate your weeding, tilling and transplanting tasks. For example, instead of pulling unwanted plants out of the ground and disturbing the roots of others, bend the weeds flat and pull hay over them. Tomatoes also can easily be set through thin hay If you're not interested in hay mulch, you have another option: make humus, which is also known as finished compost. Humus is the loose, crumbly material that results from the decay of organic matter such as grass clippings, garden waste or kitchen scraps. If you are using a pile, it can reach a height of 4 or 5 feet, but keep the top flat or indented so that it catches rainwater and stays moist enough to continue breaking down. If the season is dry, you can wet the pile now and then with the hose. You can speed up the process of composting by turning your compost pile, or tumbling your compost bin. When the compost is loose and crumbly and the materials that went into it have lost their identity, then the compost is ready to go in your soil. For more tips on mulching and composting, see: How to Use Mulch
Note: The novel does not have normal chapter divisions; instead, the story is told through various correspondences between the characters. Therefore, this literature note has been divided by timeframe to more easily convey the action and analysis of the story. The novel opens in January 1946, as London recovers from World War II and much of London lies in rubble. Juliet Ashton, a 32-year-old writer, has lost her home and now resides in a borrowed flat. During the war, she wrote a humor column for The London Times under the pseudonym of Izzy Bickerstaff. Her amusing war observations were eventually compiled into a book entitled Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War, published by Stephens & Stark Publishing Co. Through Juliet's early correspondence with Sidney Stark and his sister Sophie Strachan, parts of her life story are revealed. Juliet has known the sibling pair since attending boarding school and becoming best friends with Sophie. Sidney, 10 years Sophie's senior, eventually became Juliet's publisher and close friend. After school, Juliet and Sophie moved to London and worked together in a secondhand book shop. Juliet had been engaged to Lieutenant Rob Dartry, but she left him at the altar. In mid-January 1946, controversy arises when Juliet slaps a reporter named Gilly Gilbert while on a book tour for Izzy — he publicly chastises her for jilting her former fiancé. Juliet worries that she has forever disgraced the name of Stephens & Stark. In the midst of this media uproar, Juliet receives a mysterious bouquet of flowers from an American publisher named Mark Reynolds. A letter from Sidney reveals Mark to be a suave womanizer known for beguiling England's authors with visions of prosperity in America. Juliet also receives word that The Times wishes for Juliet to write a long supplement to Izzy under her own name. Also mid-month, Juliet unexpectedly receives her first letter from the island of Guernsey — an island located in the English Channel between England and France. She knows little of Guernsey except that it had come under control of the Germans during the war. Dawsey Adams, a native of the small farming community, had come across Juliet's name in a book by Charles Lamb. He writes to her in hopes of attaining more books, a rarity on the island. Through her early letters with Dawsey, Juliet learns that the islanders formed a book club during the occupation called the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. She garners an overview of the club's premise: One night during the occupation, islander Elizabeth McKenna concocted a tale about a literary club meeting when German officers caught a group of islanders illegally sharing a pig roast feast after curfew. The club continued to meet since. Juliet is immediately intrigued and begins corresponding with several Guernsey islanders to learn more about their experience during the war and the role of the society. She feels she may have finally found a topic for her Times supplement. Although Juliet's early correspondence with her friends Sidney and Sophie establishes the novel's timeframe as post-World War II Europe, the novel does not fall under the category of historical fiction. The novel's back drop of war merely allows for greater themes to unfold — most notably, the triumph of the human spirit and survival in times of great strife. World War II acts only as the milieu by which the strengths of the characters shine. The novel's epistolary form personalizes the characters, allowing for multiple perspectives to unfold and highlighting significant character tones and quirks. The epistolary form is also convenient for longer stories about the past, enabling the characters to tell those stories in their own words. Characters' stories dating back to 1940 are just as commanding as the present events of post-World War II life in 1946. Juliet's character is almost instantly appealing through the sardonic tone in her early communication with her publisher and other friends. As further correspondences unfold, the most honest versions of the characters are revealed. Prior to Juliet's correspondence with the Guernsey islanders, she finds herself quite discontent with London life. Surprisingly enough, her unhappiness surfaces through discussion with Sidney about the commercial success of Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War — she even mentions that she is gloomier than she had been during the war. Although her dedicated readers appreciate her column for its humor and wit in a horrific time, she longs to write something more serious and under her own name. Juliet's desire for others to take her seriously will be an underlying theme for much of the novel, although her humor and unceasing optimism ultimately prove to be her greatest strengths. Juliet's frequent mention of how she wishes her first book, an autobiography of the frequently overlooked Anne Brontë, highlights how seriously she takes literature and writing. Her success as a writer certainly did not blossom overnight, and she does not wish to make her mark in the world with humor alone. Although unaware of her true emotions at this point, Juliet is torn between the glamour and superficiality of being a writer in London and the excitement of an unknown new adventure. This internal struggle is especially highlighted with the introduction of American publisher Mark Reynolds. Suave, debonair, and utterly flattering, Mark represents the greater social status and recognition that Juliet could choose to attain in London. She is certainly intrigued by Mark's advances, but slow to trust. The development of Juliet's love life is an important object of speculation throughout the novel. Early on, Juliet and her publisher Sidney are clearly close friends, but the author seemingly leaves open the possibility of romantic involvement between them. Furthermore, Juliet and Sidney speak of her failed engagement to Lieutenant Rob Dartry. Rob had loaded up Juliet's beloved books to be packed away in a basement — a seemingly harmless gesture — but enough of an offense for her to abandon the engagement. Juliet's refusal to commit to a man who cannot accept her truest self highlights her unbending independence. She is thoroughly averted to putting a relationship before her happiness, a quality that certainly holds her back in reciprocating the advances of Mark Reynolds throughout the novel. January's most notable correspondence is Juliet's unexpected letter from Guernsey islander Dawsey Adams. Beyond requesting more reading material, it introduces the development of a literary society during World War II. Such a society and the literature that its members came to love provided an escape from the horrors of German occupation. His brief explanation essentially introduces the novel's most central theme: the strength of human nature in trying times. The Guernsey islanders demonstrate the survival and humanity than can be maintained in the worst of circumstances. The letter acts as a turning point for Juliet: an invitation to a new interest away from the bleak normalcy of London life.
There exist serious concerns regarding the production of plantation crops on lands cleared of ancient rainforests for production of biodiesel in Europe in particular. For example, remaining natural orangutan habitat and their rainforest ecosystems in Southeast Asia are threatened by the unsustainable harvesting of palm oil for the use of biofuels. Ecological Internet has been instrumental in highlighting the threat to rainforests posed by biofuel crops, and as a result many groups are now campaigning on the issue. This alert supports the efforts of Regenwald in Germany and Biofuelwatch in the The campaign to stop Europe's "Deforestation Biofuel" Energy Policy is now at an important decision point, as the European Commission is expected to finalize the "Biomass Action Plan" policy by January 10th for biofuels sourced from plantations cleared from ancient rainforests. Earlier the European Parliament voted on the plan, and though they acknowledged a lack of clear environmental standards and safeguards could have significant negative effects, such as an increase in tropical deforestation and agriculture intensification and biodiversity losses in Europe and abroad, while failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly; they still voted for rapid market expansion before safeguards are put in place. The European Parliament also voted to abolish compulsory conservation set-asides in Europe - even though it has been shown that agricultural intensification for biofuels will cause a large-scale decline in biodiversity across Europe. Finally, the European Parliament reportedly voted to class peat as a long-term renewable form of energy and biomass. Peat has as much or more carbon per ton as other fossil fuels, and clearly should not be classed as renewable energy. Please tell the European Commission now that they must prevent biofuels from causing ever greater deforestation, biodiversity losses, and evictions and impoverishment of local communities both in tropical rainforests and Europe. Unrestrained industrial biofuel expansion will accelerate, not slow down climate change, as peatlands, rainforests, forests and croplands across the world are converted to energy crop monocultures and release their carbon in the Your message is going to may receive out of office or other emailed replies from protest email recipients. Review and Edit Message Biofuels from Cleared Rainforests Harm the Climate Message Title - please edit title and personalize message below (no URLs) YOUR NAME, EMAIL & COUNTRY ADDED AUTOMATICALLY
Ethicists Seek to Improve Risk/Benefit Estimates in Translational Trials By Deborah Borfitz March 21, 2011 \| Two ethics experts posit that drug developers, research funding agencies, and would-be trial participants could all make more informed decisions about clinical drug testing if pre-clinical studies routinely controlled for bias, and if risk/benefit estimates in new drug trials tempered enthusiasm about a compound with past findings about similar interventions. The all-too-familiar scenario is that researchers announce the discovery of a new drug that eradicates disease in animals and then, a few years later, the drug bombs in human trials, says Alex John London, associate professor of philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Three ethical concerns motivated the pair to write the paper. One is that the informed consent process may be hampered by unrealistic expectations of therapeutic outcomes on the part of clinical trial participants, say London. Factoring in past failures of like compounds would effectively re-define the benefit of participation from finding relief or a cure to altruistically helping advance medical knowledge. Secondly, institutional review boards (IRBs) are charged with ensuring study risks are reasonable in proportion to study benefits, continues London. “The more accurate and realistic [researchers] can be about likely results, the more [IRBs] are able to make a conscientious risk assessment.” Finally, it’s imperative that clinical studies have scientific value because of the scarcity of resources—participants as well as funding—within the research enterprise. Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer candidate semagacestet is but one in a string of recurrent failures in clinical translation, London and Kimmelman report. In cancer, only 5% of highly promising products ever get clinically translated. Neuroprotective stroke treatments have also consistently failed randomized trials. The current pattern of “boom and bust” drug development may be related to the way researchers predict clinical outcomes of their work, says London. Preclinical studies of semegacestat have yet to be published, although the drug was first tested in human beings more than five years ago. As reported in the PLoS Medicine article, eight other anti-amyloid drugs have failed randomized trials or been abandoned. A more accurate risk/benefit calculation might have been made had the previous failed attempts to intercept the same disease pathway factored into corporate decision making. Little if any scientific literature speaks to the importance of setting expectations for a drug in the context of how past studies with drugs in the same reference class has fared, or how to do that. But drug developers might logically do so based on an intervention’s targeted pathological process, the authors argue. Possible methods for correcting myopic interpretation of pre-clinical results cannot be identified, let alone assessed and improved upon, without open discussion on the matter. Current policies of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the International Council on Harmonization, among others, reflect a tendency to rely on an overly narrow pre-clinical evidence base that the authors term “evidential conservatism.” Another concern is “variation in who uses which methods [such as randomization and blind testing] to reduce bias,” says London. Treatments may also get applied in significantly different ways in clinical and preclinical studies. Preclinical studies might further neglect to test the robustness of cause-and-effect relationships, such as how well an agent performs in rodents versus higher order species. How data from animal studies gets reported may not be standardized even within individual research organizations, says London. Professional guidelines, if uniformly adopted in the pre-clinical phase, would improve study reporting and design for the “next link in the chain of investigation.” Kimmelman says policies might be considered to reduce bias in the evidence base upon which trials are designed and approved. Specifically: ● Journal editors could mandate the use of reporting guidelines for pre-clinical research as a condition of publication. The recently proposed Animals in Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments Guidelines (ARRIVE) is a good starting point, says Kimmelman. ● Prospective registration of pre-clinical research could be required as it now is for clinical studies, ensuring all results—bad as well as good—get published. ● IRBs could require investigators to do a systematic review of any drug being used for the first time in humans to assess how similar agents have fared in translational studies, and publish the information in trial brochures. ● The Food and Drug Administration could “pay more careful attention to claims about clinical promise in early phase research,” continues Kimmelman, so drug candidates might get more vigilantly vetted. ● Trial sponsors and investigators could develop therapeutically specific research practice guidelines. Stroke research is “light years” ahead of other research areas, notably oncology, because of efforts by the Stroke Academic Industry Roundtable (STAIR) to address threats to validating pre-clinical research, says Kimmelman. “Disappointingly, some of the first drug candidates that met STAIR criteria have not translated,” he adds. Pre-clinical researchers seem receptive to the notion of practice guidelines, Kimmelman says. “They’re as frustrated as the rest of us that results [of their work] don’t make it to the bedside.” Under a second, three-year grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research, Kimmelman and London are now examining a large cohort of drugs introduced in human trials to determine the relationship between practices at the pre-clinical level and outcomes of translational research. Click here to log in. Text Only 2000 character limit Page 1 of 1

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