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What is the role of school council? All government schools in Victoria have a school council, which is a legal entity in its own right. School councils operate under the framework of the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 and The Education Regulations 2007. • Establish the broad direction and vision of the school within the school's community • Develop and monitor the school strategic plan • Develop, review and update school policies • Develop, review and monitor the Student Code of Conduct and the School Dress Code • Raise funds for school related purposes • Approve the annual budget and monitor expenditure • Help to maintain the school’s grounds and facilities • Enter into contracts (e.g. cleaning, construction work) • Report annually to the school community and to DEECD • Stimulate interest in the school generally The sub-committees for 2018 are:- - Building & Grounds - Education & Policy There will also be an OSH Liaison and a PTA Liaison. The Sub-committees should: - have a nominated convenor who shall be a member of school council; - have a quorum of three members; - have written terms of reference that support the School’s Strategic Plan and attend to the School Council’s critical success factors of a clearly agreed and understood raison d’être, Academic Excellence, Community Involvement, Physical Environment and Population; - where a subcommittee is created for the first time, the initial membership will be asked to develop draft terms of reference for submission to and approval by School Council. Council may vary those terms of reference to meet particular needs; - have the power to co-opt membership from outside the school community; - meet as appropriate (but usually within 14 days of the next School Council meeting) and provide a report of activities to each council meeting; - provide a written report on its activities and any recommendations for each School Council meeting. If you would like to know more about the process of school council please download the following documents. 2018 Council Members Mic Wagner - School Council President - Parent Rep Mitul Bhargava - School Council Vice President - Parent Rep Cameron Ryan - Treasurer - Parent Rep Sonali Reid-Le Broque - Education & Policy Convenor - Parent Rep Matt Hawkins - Building & Grounds Convenor - Parent Rep Janine Arantes - Parent Rep Daman Shrivastav - Parent Rep Andrew Roach - Parent Rep Karen Overall - - Acting Principal Sally Marsh - Acting Assistant Principal Andrew Wood - DEECD Rep Laura Ellenby - DEECD Rep Clare Pentreath - DEECD Rep Belinda Wong-Barker - PTA Liaison
Google Hacking Week : Find webcams, mediacenters and more with InurlFeb 27 Today on our Google Hacking week, we continue to use the Google search engine as a source for interesting information. In our previous posts we talked about finding and downloading certain kinds of files but today we are on the lookout for “juicy devices”. The theory is quite simple : Most appliances like webcams, routers, copiers and more have web interfaces. A lot of different applications and services can also be controlled by a web interface. It’s easy and convenient when you can use the browser on your computer to configure and watch your webcam or change settings on your router while on your local lan. But what if those devices are hooked up directly to the internet ? Any device that gets connected directly to the internet is at some point scanned and indexed by Google and if you enter the right search term you will be able to find it. The way we are looking for those devices and services today is by using the INURL option. Some web interfaces (to your router or webcam) have a very specific way their URL looks. By searching for those specific url types with the INURL option.. you can find some very cool stuff. If people have done their homework most of these services will be blocked by a unique login or password. But some people just use the default password … or even none at all. Let us take you an a walk through the net with some very specific INURL Google Dorks. - This one will get you some interesting webcams (some you can even control with your mouse). Look around and see if you can find the Giraffe Cam. - More network camera’s here. This one is in some dorm/college. You can control the zoom and the direction of the camera. - inurl:”:10000″ intext:”webmin” - Remember we talked about WEBMIN ? This will give you a list of all webmin servers connected directly to the internet. most of them are protected by a password (we hope) .. but common usernames like ROOT and some generic passwords might get you in. - This will get you a list of PLEX media servers where people can store music and movies to watch on any device (even across the internet). Most of them are locked down with a login/password. Some of them … are not. Happy streaming. So you see : there are quite a few webservices out there that are inadvertently open to the indexing power of Google. Some clever searching and you can find them. We close off by going by to our camera in the student dorm. Where is this ? A simple ping of the url gives us the following IP : 220.127.116.11 and by going to Whereisthisip.net we find out that its Sydney Australia. Its THAT simple. Puzzling information together. This might all look like fun and games, but badly secured devices are dangerous. Whether you have weirdo’s peeking through your accidentally-publicly-connected Ip camera, or random people printing out documents on your www-connected printer.. its never good. Using the Domain name, the IP and the registration information of the domain people can quickly find out where and even WHO you are. If you skip good security and don’t use passwords (or default passwords) .. it does not bode well for you. Hackers even use the INURL search to find specific webservers/services with vulnerabilities. All they then need to do is run some code to take advantage of the exploit .. and they are in. Hackers don’t NEED to search for your open Webmin server with the buggy (and vulnerable) version of the http code .. Google did it for them.
In wake of the Philando Castile and Alton Sterling killings last week, there have been “Black Lives Matter” protests all across the country. Tensions between the black community and law enforcement are arguably at the highest they’ve been in a handful of years, especially considering the ambush-style shooting at a Dallas protest that left four cops dead following the Castile and Sterling incidents. On Monday night, members of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx addressed those tensions and called for an end to racial profiling. As a result, police officers assigned to work the team’s game quit on the spot. Four off-duty Minneapolis police officers working the Minnesota Lynx game at Target Center on Saturday night walked off the job after the players held a news conference denouncing racial profiling, then wore Black Lives Matter pregame warm-up jerseys. Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Minneapolis Police Federation, the union that represents rank-and-file officers, praised them for quitting. “I commend them for it,” he said. Prior to the game, Lynx players wore black T-shirts that read “Change starts with us, justice and accountability.” On the back, the shirts displayed Philando Castile’s and Alton Sterling’s names along with “Black Lives Matter” and a Dallas Police Department emblem. Law Officer is the only major law enforcement publication and website owned and operated by law enforcement. This unique facet makes Law Officer much more than just a publishing company but is a true advocate for the profession.
This interactive map displays locations and images for select gates, fences, and other decorative ironwork by Philip Simmons that can be found on the downtown Charleston peninsula in 2013-2014. This map is not comprehensive—many additional examples of Simmons’s ironwork, or work by apprentices such as his nephew Carlton Simmons, can be found both downtown and in the surrounding areas of metropolitan Charleston, including West Ashley, Daniel Island, and Mount Pleasant. Throughout his career, Simmons created over a thousand ironwork pieces that went to local, national, and international destinations. While he often kept records of the commissioned pieces he created through his own sketches (many of which can be found in the archives of the Avery Research Center), documentation of some pieces was either unrecorded or lost. In addition, a collection of early sketches is currently missing, which means that his craftwork cannot be confirmed in some cases. Also, while many of his sketches indicate specific locations for his ironwork, people who commissioned ironwork from Simmons often took the pieces with them if they moved away from downtown Charleston. Others simply left the ironwork and commissioned another gate from Simmons for their new homes or businesses. This map serves as a guide for locating some prominent pieces from Simmons’s ironwork career, which significantly influenced the aesthetic landscape of downtown Charleston. Interactive map created by Bradley Blankemeyer. All photographs courtesy of Bradley Blankemeyer and Daron Calhoun.
According to Statistica, 76% of the U.S. population has at least one social networking profile and by 2020 the number of worldwide users of social media is expected to reach 2.95 billion (650 million of these from China alone). Of the social media platforms, Facebook is by far the most dominant - as of the end of the second quarter of 2018 Facebook had approximately 2.23 billion active users worldwide (Statistica). Mobile devices have become the dominant platform for Facebook usage - 68% of time spent on Facebook originates from mobile devices. Web design is a very technical field that requires high literacy in many different kinds of software, including image editing and website architecture programs. A designer should be comfortable with computer “languages” like HTML and stay up to date on new technological developments. The designer is also an artist, so he or she should also have a firm grasp on aesthetics, visual continuity, and image composition. HubSpot Academy offers certification and training courses to teach people how inbound marketing and HubSpot software work. Classes are often taught by marketers at HubSpot and are made up of video lessons, quizzes, and tests. Most HubSpot Academy classes are available free of charge, and if you pass the certifications, such as the two below, you get a nifty certificate and badge to share on your social media profiles. Check out mine on LinkedIn: Our leadership philosophy is to both lead and be led. We derive guidance and strength from every team-member in the company no matter what rank or experience level. We invest a great deal of time and resources in recruiting and developing the best talent in the industry. Every team member at IMI is encouraged to be an emerging leader and take on responsibility outside of their normal role. That is what makes IMI great and why we continue to flourish. When writing this guide, we reached out to the marketer community to collect case studies and learnings about creative marketing strategies. Most of these examples are included throughout the guide, but some didn’t quite fit. So we included those loose ends here, from the perspective of four awesome marketers. What better way to wrap up this guide than with you, our community? The best way to become a digital marketing expert is to start practicing digital marketing from today. The best thing about digital marketing is that you can start doing it at a very small scale. All you need is a computer, an internet connection and a small amount of money to play with. You can learn digital marketing by applying the concepts in your own mini-project. Here are the things you can do right now: The Institute of Management Consultants USA offers the Certified Management Consultant (CMC) designation. This credential is available at three levels: basic for individuals with 3-9 years of management consulting experience, experienced for individuals with ten or more years of consulting experience and management for individuals with at least 20 years of experience. Typically, earning any of the three levels of this credential requires passing written and oral exams. These certifications may increase job prospects and create opportunities for career advancement. Much like SEO specialists, Internet marketers analyze their clientsâ€™ websites and use a variety of tools and sources to create effective marketing campaigns. They often manage various projects at one time and employ a variety of different marketing techniques, such as paid search marketing, email marketing, banner ads, blog implementation, organic optimization, and link building. Internet marketers must know which websites to place banner advertisements on and use various SEO and SEM techniques to make sure their implementation is effective. Some Internet marketers are also involved in managing everyday client relationships, both through casual correspondence and formal presentations. Others create and deliver training courses to a variety of client groups. As you are beginning to understand, Internet marketers are flexible and can work in a variety of industries and capacities. Being on the cutting edge of website design and development is critical to stay relevant as a leading agency which is why our expert team uses the latest technology to ensure your websites and lading pages are easily accessed and usable across all devices. We have vast experience in Ecommerce design and development, building well-optimized landing pages, conversion rate optimization, mobile websites, and responsive design. Our design team has experience in all things digital and the ability to create amazing websites, landing pages, creative for display advertising, infographics, typographic video, print ads, and much more. With offline marketing, it's very difficult to tell how people are interacting with your brand before they have an interaction with a salesperson or make a purchase. With digital marketing, you can identify trends and patterns in people's behavior before they've reached the final stage in their buyer's journey, meaning you can make more informed decisions about how to attract them to your website right at the top of the marketing funnel. Codeacademy offers free, interactive coding classes that take you from lesson one to building a fully-functioning website. The courses we've highlighted below are just a few of the courses; Codeacademy offers many more, depending on your organization's needs. Codeacademy classes feature lectures and a workspace in the same browser window so you can see the effect of your work live, as it's created. The majority of people that start down the enticing road of Internet marketing give up soon after their first promotion. An extraordinary amount of effort for little profit sees many retire from the game almost immediately. Both affiliate marketing and online product marketing may first appear as easy ways to make money, but people soon realize that the web is not an easily tapped goldmine. Internet marketing requires commitment and hard work and can quickly become overwhelming.
The Local Government Service is a public Service institution established by the Local Government Service Act, 2003 (Act 656) which has been repealed and replaced with the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936). The Service exists ‘’to secure effective administration and management of the decentralised local government system in the country’’. The functions summarizes the roles of the various structures of the LGS to ensure participation at the local level in mobilizing and utilising resources to ensure development. The functions of the Local Government Service generally are to: - provide technical assistance to MMDAs and RCCs to enable them to effectively perform their functions - conduct organizational and job analysis for RCCs and MMDAs - conduct management audits for RCCs and MMDAs in order to improve the overall management of the Service - design and co-ordinate management systems and processes for RCCs and MMDAs, and - assist the RCCs and MMDAs in the performance of their functions under Act 462, Act 480, and any other enactment, etc VISION : ‘A World Class Decentralized and Client Oriented Service’. MISSION : ‘To Support Local Government to deliver value for money services through the mobilization, harmonization and utilization of quality human capacity and material resources to promote local and national development’. MOTTO : Decentralization Democracy Development - Provide technical assistance to MMDAs to enable them effectively perform their functions - Conduct organizational and job analysis for MMDAs and RCCs - Design and coordinate management systems and processes for MMDAs and RCCs - Assist MMDAs and RCCs to perform their functions The local Government Service (LGS) which includes the Office of the Head of Local Government Service (OHLGS), MMDAs and the RCCs, has as its governing body a LGS Council which oversees governance issues and ensures effective functioning of the LGS.
Following the war, Elias Hasket Derby used part of his father’s fleet to become one of New England’s wealthiest merchants. During Salem’s “Great Age of Sail,” “King Derby”, as he came to be known, sent ships to China and India that returned with coveted silks, aromatic spices, and other fine goods and made him America’s first millionaire. Derby Wharf was formerly lined with roughly twenty structures, ranging from small sheds to three-story warehouses and including Derby’s counting house, the headquarters for the family’s international trading empire. By the mid-1800s, the shining success of Salem’s overseas trade had diminished, but its harbor remained important enough to local seagoing traffic that the Lighthouse Board recommended additional lights “to complete the lighting” of the harbor. The Board’s Annual Report for 1870 contains the following information on Salem Harbor. An appropriation was made at last session of Congress, for the establishment of three lights to mark the main channel leading into this anchorage, with the view to its becoming a harbor of refuge which may be safely entered at any time. Negotiations for the purchase of the proper sites have been in progress since the adjournment of Congress, and the works will be commenced as soon as the titles are perfected and approved by the Attorney General in conformity to law. On October 3, 1870, the Federal Government purchased 1190 ˝ square feet from the Derby Wharf Corporation on which to build a lighthouse, and the range formed by the lights at Derby Wharf and Fort Pickering went into operation on January 17, 1871. The government-sponsored light on Derby Wharf was initially displayed from an existing warehouse on the wharf, until the current twelve-foot-square brick tower was completed in the spring of 1871. A fifth-order Fresnel lens was used in the lantern to beam forth a red light, and Charles C. Pettergill served as the first keeper. Of the seven men who cared for the light, John Lynch’s tenure of twenty years, which started in 1885, was by far the longest. Due to the proximity of the light to town and the lack of space on the wharf, an official keeper’s dwelling was not built for the light. Rather, the keepers lived in their own homes and made regular treks out to the light. A tall cast-iron chimney-pipe was fitted to the tower in 1886 for ventilation, and a ship’s side-light was also installed that year. The railing around the lantern had to be repaired in 1892, after an errant schooner broke it. A sixth-order Fresnel lens was requested for Derby Wharf Lighthouse in 1892 to replace the fifth-order lens, but in 1904, the tower was equipped with a fourth-order lens. A fourth-order lantern was provided in 1906, and in 1910, the power of the light was reduced through the installation of a sixth-order lens. The last caretaker of the light was William M. Osgood, who walked from his nearby home to the light every morning and evening. When much of Salem was caught up trying to save their own homes and businesses in the devastating fire of 1914, Mrs. Osgood left her husband, who was trying to protect their home, and headed off to start the light on Derby Wharf. She barely made it out of the tower and back to town before smoke and flames engulfed the wharf. After the fire, Osgood needed a rowboat to reach the light. In 1916, Harbormaster William G. Peabody complained that it was hard to distinguish Derby Wharf Light from the lights of the mill operated by the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company. Rebuilding the light was considered but not carried out, and the following year the illuminant was changed from oil to acetylene allowing the light to be automated. The color of the tower was changed from red to white in 1922, and in 1930, Derby Wharf Light was electrified. In 1933, wire cloth was placed around the lantern room to prevent glass breakage and damage to the Fresnel lens. This photograph, which shows the wire cloth in place, has the following caption: Showing recently installed wire cloth protection for lantern glass. Spots on tower show where hoodlums have thrown stones, etc. defacing tower and breaking lantern glass. This light on end of wharf some distance from main street and police protection, and hoodlums frequent the place. Working with the Park Service, the Friends of Salem Maritime, a local volunteer organization, restored the tower in 1983 and had the beacon relit on October 4th of that year as a private aid to navigation. A solar-powered optic in the lantern room currently emits a red flash every six seconds. The tower was renovated again in 1989 using an $8,000 grant from the Massachusetts Historical Commission. Derby Wharf Lighthouse is no longer alone on the pier, as in 2007 the National Park Service began reassembling a historic warehouse on the wharf. The structure, known as the Pedrick Store House, was built in nearby Marblehead in 1770 and acquired by the Park Service in 2003. A replica of the merchant ship Friendship, launched by the Park Service in 1998, just over two hundred years after the original was completed in Salem Harbor, is normally tied up at Derby Wharf. Head Keepers: Charles C. Pettergill (1871 – 1873), Robert Peel, Jr. (1873 – 1885), John Lynch (1885 – 1905), Shepley Paul Sawyer (1905 – 1908), Charles L. Wales (1908 – 1911), Harold C. Tedford (1911 – 1913), William M. Osgood (1913 – 1917).
They are saying that so that you can win a fight, you must understand your enemy. This is correct too when you’re attempting to remove a trojan out of your computer. Consider adware and spyware as the enemy in fight-potentially harmful and hard to defeat. To be aware what a adware and spyware is let’s first define it. Adware and spyware is also referred to as malware it’s software designed to get into computers with no permission from the computer owner or user. Types of adware and spyware are computer infections, worms, trojan viruses horses, rootkits, malware, spy ware, along with other annoying undesirable programs. But let’s highlight the most typical type of adware and spyware: computer infections. Computer infections are dangerous, irritating stuff that could consume your whole hard disk. But don’t fret, because there are simple solutions towards the question, how you can eliminate computer infections. If you think when a trojan, or any adware and spyware for instance, has infected your pc, immediately run an anti-virus program. An anti-virus software has got the capacity to identify and delete any potentially undesirable programs. It may also safeguard your pc from the future adware and spyware infections. Anti-virus programs can be simply acquired online. However, not every one is free most anti-virus software need to be purchased. If you’re able to afford it, don’t choose the free software application. It is because compensated anti-virus programs frequently convey more features, have wider selection of protection, and therefore are more current than free anti-virus programs. Also, when selecting the very best anti-virus software, be aware of their consumer rating and browse reviews by reliable agencies and publications. Now that you’ve got an anti-virus software, you need to learn how it operates. Search for the assistance tab within the menu bar, and find out whether it there’s Manual, FAQ or Support within the menu. You might look into the website in which you downloaded your software and find out whether it has any FAQ or Help pages. Most most likely you will see helpful information or perhaps a manual that may help you know how the anti-virus program works. For those who have learned enough, make use of the software to operate a complete system scan on your pc. Checking will identify the herpes virus or adware and spyware present in your body. When a trojan is confirmed, you’ve got the choice to take it out of the body. But may deleting the herpes virus with an anti-virus software programs are insufficient. You will find persistent infections that resist deletion. Some infections even block the anti-virus software from running and checking. If this sounds like the situation, you have to continue reading the sorts of infections. It’s also preferred that you simply list lower all of the infections and adware and spyware that the anti-virus software includes in the reports. Also, contact anti-virus software firms they can help you in understanding how to eliminate computer infections. Knowing enough in regards to a virus you can delete its files from your folders. The final option, when the abovementioned suggestions fail to work, would be to seek the assistance of the computer specialist. This is actually the only solution when the virus has spread to many areas of the body. Exactly what the computer specialist will explain most likely is you need to replace your hard disk with a brand new one or you need to reformat your pc. If it’s far too late in order to save the body, you may as well just save your valuable important files, if they’re still retrievable. Just clean the body and begin once again.
How to make Goals Smartly: How to make SMART Goals Most of the time in our life every-one of us come in a position where we have to make a goal. It can be anything related from losing weight to win the world. Due to any reason it can trigger you to make a goal. But mostly we fail not because of our weakness bu because of our lack of potential in making smart goals. Here i studied and find out some of the specific reasons we fail and how we can overcome this by making a goal smartly or making smart goals. The word S.M.A.R.T here is used specifically for a particular reason. Because this is not a word these are the rules of making smart goals. S – specific M – measurable A – achievable R – realistic T – timely Some people say that “thinking more about desired results could make you keep moving” while on the other hand some say that “don’t focus on results just do your work and you will find the desired results”. I don’t know which one is right, But i do know that both of this works on different personalities. You know yourself best choose your motivation. It is the only thing that only you could do. Nobody will be able to do this for you. Remember pain is temporary achievement is forever. First let’s talk about how to make a smart goal after the reason why and how making a smart goal can make you successful. You need to be specific. Most of the people go wrong here. Let’s say you want to lose weight but how much you want to lose? and in how much time you want to lose? and how you want to lose? All you need to do is sharpen your focus Make it Measurable It should be measurable. If possible Add numbers to your results. This well help you to keep a record of yourself. Let’s say how much you have lost your weight? in how much time? Track your progress. Believe it or not but it can motivate you by seeing your small victories daily and can help you keep going for longer. Make it Achievable The goal must be achievable. It should be based on your Strengths and Weakness. It need to be adjusted accordingly. A goal that is hard to achieve will make you feel discomfort and demotivated and it will lead you to give up. So make a proper number based specific goal which can be achieved. Don’t make your goals based on your desires or your dreams. Don’t rely on them. Most people will think that i am wrong but it is almost impossible to achieve it, even if you think you can accomplish it. You need to choose more realistic approach. Be real and honest with yourself, Know what you are capable of doing and then make your decisions accordingly. Decide and Work Timely Last but not least. The most important aspect of making a smart goal. Secret behind a smart goal is Time. How much time you dedicate to your goal? with how much dedication? Most people give too much time or too less but how to know that? – It’s simple and easy Divide your task in intervals either on daily basis or weekly basis or monthly basis. (Depends on your type and nature of goal). Make it a habit by putting this task in your Daily routine. Work hard in short term for long term benefits. I wish all of you to achieve your goal. If you like this share it with your friends and loved ones. Tell us about your views and what you think about this in comment section. You can like us on Facebook by clicking here and follow us on Instagram by clicking
Published at Wednesday, January 09th, 2019 - 07:02:48 AM. Cabinet Finishes. By Oprah De Vries. Anyone who is trying to redesign a small and angular space will find the modern look helps the space out a lot.Painted cabinets are a rising trend in modern kitchen design, showing up in previously all-white kitchens. Paint is readily available in most home improvement stores at an affordable cost. In addition to that, paint can be easily applied and may be undertaken as a DIY project. Painting kitchen cabinets can either be done by hand application using a paintbrush or roller brush. Alternatively, it can also be applied by spraying using a paint compressor. Any content, trademark’s, or other material that might be found on the Macsrus website that is not Macsrus’s property remains the copyright of its respective owner/s. In no way does Macsrus claim ownership or responsibility for such items, and you should seek legal consent for any use of such materials from its owner.
Personally I like Class Based Views. They help me keep my views.py file short and free of logic. Granted, they are slightly unwieldy at first and do have a steeper learning curve than Function Based Views, but once you’ve learnt a few you’re most the way there. If you find the docs confusing check out CCBV for a better reference. Oftentimes I come across views that are simply doing too much. Views should be the glue that joins forms and models together with the request. Ask yourself: - Am I doing any data processing to get it ready to save? Move it to the form. - Am I doing anything with the ORM? - Can I use a class based view? Your views shouldn’t be doing anything on behalf of another component. If it is then move the functionality to the correct component. Yet sometimes your code just doesn’t really belong in any of the Django components. For example, if you are doing anything complex then do not be scared to break out of the Django world and create a standard Python package. This has the added benefit of decoupling your complex logic from Django, it can be treated as its own entity and interacted like any other library.
Long after his death, Kant gets a makeover: He has been famously portrayed as a bore, a man whose habits were so regular that housewives could set their watches by his legendary afternoon walk. But according to three new biographies, the celebrated German philosopher Immanuel Kant was not such a dry stick after all. Far from being a dour Prussian ascetic, the great metaphysician was a partygoer. He enjoyed drinking wine, playing billiards and wearing fine, colourful clothes.
This post was written by guest blogger Stephany Aulenback. From a Washington Post article about Lynne Cheney’s recommended reading list for American schoolchildren: The list was presented to 30 eight-and-nine-year-olds from Marie F. Reed School in Washington, at the residence of Vice President Richard Cheney. “Reading is power,” Lynne Cheney told the youngsters… She read a poem by Langston Hughes that begins “Hold fast to dreams” and asked the youngsters about their own dreams. One boy said he wanted to be an archaeologist. “That’s a great dream to have,” she said, “and you can find out how things were a long time ago.” Another said he wanted to be president. “I think you could be president,” she commented. “But I also think that even if you just have a high goal like that and maybe only get to be vice president, it’s OK.” Especially since, you know, the vice president is the one who actually runs the country anyway.
Lake Izabal is the largest lake in Guatemala. It is connected to the Atlantic ocean and the Caribbean by the wonderous body of water called Rio Dulce (sweet river). Rio Dulce is composed of the Golfette which eventually turns into the brackish water at the mouth of the river at the shores of Livingston, a unique Garifuna Village. The Maya inhabit the izabal region for at least 1000 years before the Spanish set foot on the shores of the new world. The Maya inhabited the Izabal region for probably a few thousand years before the first exploratory visits by the Spanish. The site of Quirigua is only an hour away from Rio Dulce. Quirigua was a satellite city-state to Copan (just across the border with Honduras). Quirigua flourished during the classical period of the Maya (300AD to 800AD) The written history of Rio Dulce is an intrique of Spanish conquests and priate invasions. The Castillo de San Felipe was built by the Spanish in
By Late Rabbi Michael Short of Blessed Memory The 'Bircas Kohanim (Priestly Blessing)' gives concise and beautiful expression to the thought that Israel and the Church, owes all to G_d who shields his people from all harm and grants them all things necessary for their welfare. The simple and threefold petition that is known as the 'Bircas Kohanim (Priestly Blessing)' has been said to be the Crown and Seal of the whole sacred order by which Israel was now fully organized as the people of G_d - with this sacred order they could now march into the Holy Land. Now it is interesting how the blessing is constructed. The Hebrew consists of three short verses, of three words for the first, five words for the second, and seven words for the third. If you add the 3, 5, and 7 together you get 15. We will cover this in a short while. The blessing mounts by gradual stages from the petition for material blessings and protection to that for Divine favor as a spiritual blessing, And in the beautiful climax culminates in the petition for G_d's most prized gift, Shalom, Peace, the welfare in which all material and spiritual well-being resides. Let's talk about the numbers 3, 5, 7 and 15; before we go into the explanation of the blessing. Folks, there is no way you can convince me that G_d wasn't the author of this blessing!!!! Three - means complete, Divine Completeness, G_d's attributes are three; Omniscience, Omnipresence, Omnipotent. Three denotes Divine perfection in scriptures Three persons in the Echad, etc. Five - is the number of Grace !!!! and of course grace means favor- Nearly all the measurements in the Tabernacle was a multiple of five! Seven - denotes spiritual perfection, this number occupies a great deal of space in scriptures in both testaments!! Fifteen - Add the numbers 3, 5 and 7 you get 15!!!; 3 denotes Divine perfection, 5 denotes Grace, so 3 X 5 equals Divine Grace is but one meaning. But the number of 15 means much more than that!!!; The Hebrew characters 'Yod' and 'Hey' equal 15 and that spells 'YAH' the name of G_d!!!! He has his name written all over this blessing with Divine Perfection, Grace, Spiritual Perfection and signed by Him, like a seal to say 'Yes I wrote this !'. Praise be his name!! It seems almost anti-climatic to talk about the blessing after all this, but G_d's word is never anti-climatic. The first blessing refers to material blessings, the second to the spiritual blessing of Torah knowledge and inspiration, and the last blessings to G_d's compassion above and beyond what one deserves, as expressed in forgiveness of sin and the giving of peace. So now let's look at the blessings and break them down to see what is in the cracks- Verse 24 - The guardianship of G_d The L_rd bless thee: with life , health, and prosperity May G_d give you the many blessings that are specified in the Torah (Deut 28:1-14) Thee: Why is the singular used? Because G_d was speaking of Israel as one, a unity, this is of course true for the Church, as we are to feel as one organic body. And keep thee: It could be stated 'Guard Thee'; grant thee his Divine protection against evil, sickness, poverty, calamity. The L_rd is the keeper of his people. The Rabbi's give this application to this by saying, " May G_d guard thee from sin, and shield thee from all destructive influences that so often follow in the wake of earthly prosperity". This is a blessing only G_d can guarantee. A King who sends a huge gift to his servant cannot guard it against robbers!!! Another interesting thing about this blessing is it doesn't clarify what sort of increase is meant, therefore, it is understood to be that it on an individual level and the blessings is whatever you NEED!!! Verse 25 - The Grace of G_d His face to shine upon thee: Light in scripture is the symbol not only of happiness and purity, but also of friendship. To cause the face to shine upon one is a Biblical idiom for to be friendly to him. When G_d's 'face' is said to be turned towards man and to shine upon him, it implies the outpouring of Divine love and salvation. Once again the Rabbi's add their words and I think they outdid themselves on this one, they interpret the words, "make his face shine upon thee" in a purely spiritual sense, to imply the gift of Knowledge and moral insight; as "may He give thee enlightenment of the eyes, the light of the Shechianh; may the fire of Prophecy burn in the souls of my children; may the light of Torah illuminate thy home". Gracious unto thee: This is more than 'keep thee' in the preceding verse. It's more like may He be generous unto thee, and graciously fulfill thy petition. The Rabbi's say that this means also 'may He give thee grace in the eyes of thy fellow man, may He make thee lovable, and beloved in the eyes of others'. Another thought here is, we now have received the blessing of prosperity, we have the peace of mind to go beyond the basic of living and can turn ourselves to study of Torah! Verse 26: The Peace of G_d: lift up his countenance upon thee: or 'turn his face unto thee'; turn his attention, his loving care unto thee. give thee: literally means 'set thee'; establish for thee. peace: 'peace in thy coming in, peace in thy going out, peace with all men. Great is peace, for it is the seal of all blessings'. The Hebrew Shalom means not only freedom from all disaster, but health, welfare serenity, and tranquillity; " the peace which alone reconciles and strengthens, which calms us and clears our vision, which frees us from restlessness and from the bondage of unsatisfied desire". The Rabbi's say that, " Peace is one of the pillars of the world; without it the social order could not exist:" Also 'may he who maketh peace in His high heavens grant peace unto us' . With this we have a two-fold duty, we are not only to be peaceful ourselves but we are also to help others to be peaceful too!!!! One may have prosperity, health, food , and drink, but if there is no peace it is all worthless. The Sages teach, "The Holy One Blessed is He, could find no container that would hold Israel's blessings as well as Peace". 1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the L-RD thy G-d, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the L-RD thy G-d will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: 2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the L-RD thy G-d. 3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. 5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. 6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. 7 The L-RD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. 8 The L-RD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the L-RD thy G-d giveth thee. 9 The L-RD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the L-RD thy G-d, and walk in his ways. 10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the L-RD; and they shall be afraid of thee. 11 And the L-RD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the L-RD sware unto thy fathers to give thee. 12 The L-RD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. 13 And the L-RD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the L-RD thy G-d, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: 14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. To hear a Messianic Rabbi give the Aaronic Blessing click the wav file to turn it on: Back to Part One Send your comments to: Mayim Hayim Ministries
What started with only three special needs children is now the only sports development program in the country that caters to the differently-abled. Since its inception in 2015, Exceptional Sports (E-Sports) has come a long way in providing a safe, aware, and inclusive community for children. Over 2,000 children—diagnosed with ADHD, Down Syndrome, Autism, etc.—around Metro Manila have become part of E-Sports’ four year run. Their in-depth programs develop each kid’s physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being. Here, E-Sports observes a buddy system, or a strict one-to-one ratio between the child and volunteer-coach. E-Sports currently integrates football and fitness in its sessions. Other sports programs in the works include basketball, swimming, cycling, dodgeball, triathlon, tennis, badminton, mixed martial arts, weightlifting, billiards, and gymnastics. “Our goal is to develop exceptional athletes for the Special Olympics, and earn a gold medal in the next 10 years,” says Paolo Enrile, E-Sports founder. Paolo laments the prevalent stigma for those with special needs. Citing a 2014 census, he shares that over 3.2 million people are diagnosed with a mental health condition, and there are less than 200 licensed Developmental Pediatricians in the Philippines. “The need is huge but the community that caters to that need is small,” says Paolo. Another challenge is the difficulty in finding empathetic coaches. “You can be as qualified as you are as a professional athlete, or have a license in coaching, but if you don’t have the patience and understanding to adapt to every child you’re partnered with, I don’t think you’re right for E-Sports,” Paolo explains. Anna Chua, an E-Sports healthcare professional who also is a mother of two with special needs, voices the same sentiment. “Our goal for our children is they become comfortable in their environment. So it’s important to find the right people who would make connections with them. You don’t need a degree to make that connection. A big part of it is attitude,” says Anna. This year, E-Sports becomes a part of the Exceptional Families Foundation. The establishment of a foundation, Paolo elaborates, is for them to gain more donors, partners, and scale on impact. E-Sports is a social enterprise of BPI Sinag, which is under the bank’s foundation. As such, they guarantee that only meaningful, professional, and impactful projects will be implemented for the progression, development, and growth of exceptional kids. Having been exposed to social entrepreneurship, Paolo makes sure that E-Sports conducts its programs professionally. “With everybody involved: our partners, the media, and the parents especially, we will continue to strive to reach the best for E-Sports. We believe that together, we can be exceptional,” Paolo concludes.
The first workshop (March 7, 2005): THE SITUATION OF YOUNG FACULTY AND RESEARCHERS IN ROMANIA Download poster (PDF release (in Romanian, and in PDF format) The University Solidarity, together with the Ad-Astra Association, and the Romanian Fulbright Alumni Association, organized on Monday, March 7, 2005, a workshop entitled The situation of young faculty and researchers in Romania. The theme of this workshop approached the difficulties faced by young faculty members and researchers who have chosen to work in Romania. The workshop participants were members of the University Solidarity, Ad-Astra Association and of the Romanian Fulbright Alumni Association, researchers and faculty based in Romania, students, observers, and The workshop was honored by the attendance of a series of officials: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Daniel David, Education & Research Minister's counselor, Prof. Dr. Ioan Dumitrache, Executive Director of CNCSIS, Prof. Dr. Adrian Curaj, Deputy Director of CNCSIS, Dr. Barbara Nelson, Executive Director of the Romanian Fulbright Commission, Mr. Mark Tauber, Cultural Attache - the US Embassy in Bucharest. The Romanian Academy was represented by Prof. Dr. Doc. Theodor Neagu, Member of the Romanian Academy, and by Prof. Dr. Nicolae Anastasiu, Corresponding Member of the Romanian Academy. The press joined and honored the workshop, as well as the American Fulbright grantees in Bucharest, the colleagues from University of Bucharest, Polytechnics University of Bucharest, "Carol Davila" Medical and Pharmacy University, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj Napoca, West University of Timisoara, private universities, and research institutes such as the National Institute of Mathematics, the National Institute for Space Sciences, and the "Grigore Antipa" National Museum of Natural History. The subjects discussed included the difficulties faced by young faculty and researchers in Romania: the low wages, the weak financing of scientific research, the arbitrary assessment of scientific and educational results, the informal hierarchies opposed to hierarchies based on value, the situation of PhD theses, the status-quo of young faculty or researcher, the age discrimination, the perspectives for future of talented young scientists, and many other topics. Discussions were very intense and valuable, triggerred by the short presentations which opened the workshop. Discussions ended at 8.00pm. The organizing group was represented by Prof. Dr. Octavian Duliu (University of Bucharest), Dr. Eng. Mircea Ignat (ICPE), and Lect. Dr. Eng. Mihai E. Popa (University of Bucharest) - University Solidarity and the Romanian Fulbright Alumni Association, Drd. Luminita Preoteasa (University of Bucharest) - Ad-Astra and Drd. Alexandra Zbuchea (SNSPA) - the Romanian Fulbright Alumni Association. The meeting was moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ion Stanomir (University of Bucharest, Political Sciences Faculty). The meeting was opened by Prof. Dr. Octavian Duliu (University of Bucharest, Physics Faculty), member of the University Solidarity, Dr. Roxana Bojariu (National Administration for Meteorology), member of the Ad-Astra Association, and by Dr. Marin Marian Balasa (National Institute for Ethnography and Folklore), member of the Romanian Fulbright Alumni Short presentations were given by the following (the texts are in Romanian language, and in PDF format): 1. Lect. Dr. Mihai E. Popa (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics): The situation of young faculty and researchers in Romania; 2. Lect. Dr. Virgil Iordache (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Biology): Options for dismantling the informal systems within the Romanian universities and research environments; 3. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cristina Vidulescu ("Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy): Renewing the institutional and ethical values in universities and research environments 4. Lect. Dr. Carol Capita (University of Bucharest, Faculty of History): About research and teaching activities; 5. Dr. Marius Echim (Space Sciences Institute): Difficulties of young researchers within the INCD system. 6. A material regarding young researchers was sent by Dr. Mariu Bazu (Institute for Microtechnologies): The
The past few years have been very troubling and trying times for law enforcement officers in our country. It is no secret that police officers have been the targets of murders and assaults. They have been accused of brutality and using excessive force by individuals and groups that have no regard for the rules of society. When the news media reports on these stories for their headlines, we often hear the phrase, “They knew what they signed up for!” Police officers very rarely “know” what lurks within a call for service. Officers respond to calls without hesitation or selfishness. Not because they have to, but because they choose to. They are confronted with some of the most unimaginable circumstances of chaos and disregard for civility. Officers must make many decisions that can change the lives of everyone involved at that time. Those decisions can bring peace to the circumstance at hand or create a chaotic chain of events. Police officers can never provide a perfect ending to any call for service. However, perfection is constantly sought, “knowing” it will never be achieved. Officers spend countless hours in their communities to make it better and safer for everyone who lives within it. They speak with everyone, young and old alike. Officers patrol the streets relentlessly, "knowing” that a call for help could happen at any given time. When officers leave their families to report for duty, they “know” it could be their last. They “know” that answering that “one call” could be the last time they speak to their wife, children or their mothers and fathers. Officers “know” that answering that “one call” could be the difference in someone’s life. They “know” that stopping a car for a violation, or stopping a person coming out of a window of a house on a burglary call, could be the last. Officers also “know” that putting on that uniform can make the difference in someone’s life. They “know” that finding a lost child has given a mother or father faith in what they do. They “know” that simply stopping and listening to what someone has to say can have influence on their opinions on policing as a whole. Police officers also “know” that their names may be engraved on a monument along with others who “knew” the same. Last year, 135 law enforcement officers “knew” what they had signed up for. So far this year, 48 officers “knew” the same. These officers “knew” what they wanted to do, just as I know every day I report for duty. I am a police officer, and I “know” what it means to me and the community I serve!
A Lifelong Love of Nursing Very often when items are offered to the Heritage Collection it provides collections staff with the chance to learn something new. Many times, additional information about local businesses is uncovered, and more often than not we hear the stories of people. Personal memories, narratives, and histories are definitely my favorites. It’s like sitting down and getting to know someone. You may laugh, you may cry, and more often than not you can definitely relate. Last year, Tom and Sheryl Galliher of Fort Wayne brought in a treasure trove of items. Upon first glance, it was obvious that the books, uniform pieces, and pins related to nursing. Then the magic happened. Tom explained that his mother, Lois Campbell Galliher, attended nursing school in Muncie. This photo of Lois Galliher was taken around 1942. In addition to their classes, all nursing students were required to put in work hours at Ball Memorial Hospital. In 1939, Lois headed out from her family’s home in Wabash for Muncie. Her destination—Ball State Teachers College. For many years, Ball Memorial Hospital had been training new nurses. The demand for these skilled professionals had grown so much, however, that Ball Memorial teamed up with Ball State Teachers College created a combined program to train these up-and-coming nurses more efficiently. Ball Memorial Hospital was training nurses even before the construction of their building was completed in 1929. By the 1940s they had partnered with Ball State Teachers College to provide their students with the best nurses training possible. When Lois arrived at Maria Bingham Hall on Ball State’s campus she was looking at her home away from home. For the next three years, the dormitory and Ball State’s campus were the center of her social world. Studies and an 8 p.m. curfew kept nursing students’ schedules very full, but they still found time to have fun. Between classes, work, and required chapel services, Lois found time to participate in the Delta Tau Sorority and attended numerous parties and dances. At their dorm, the student nurses celebrated holidays throughout the year. In 1940, the decorative snowman that they created in the living room even made the local newspaper. Nursing students living at Maria Bingham Hall found lots of ways to have fun. Lois Galliher, kneeling in the dark skirt, seems to be enjoying herself the holiday festivities in this photo from the Muncie Star Press in December of 1940. Graduating in 1942, Lois and her classmates parted ways. The following year Lois was licensed and began her role as a surgical nurse at the Moore-Hurley Clinic in Muncie. Outside of work, she was active with the Nurses Alumnae Association and the American Red Cross. In 2009 Lois retired from her long, but rewarding nursing career of 67 years. To find out more about the experience of nursing students in Muncie stop by Minnetrista’s main center. A display of Lois’s items will be on view in the Atrium through May 15, 2018.
Mizoram board of school education is an autonomous governmental body for academic administration in Mizoram having its jurisdiction from elementary to higher secondary education. The board of education was established in 1975 by the MBSE act. The act was essentially approved by the legislative assembly of Mizoram union territory and the board started its functioning from 2 December 1976. Regulation of examination and prescribing of syllabus is also one of the important functions of the board and also for both private and public schools. The examinations are usually held in the month of March-April and the results are announced after the successful completion of examination.
Healthy Living and Wellness According to the World Cancer Research Fund, about 20 percent of all cancers diagnosed in the U.S. are related to obesity, physical inactivity, excess alcohol consumption or poor nutrition. At Moncrief Cancer Institute, you can learn how to adopt a healthier lifestyle – even if you have already had cancer. Diet and Nutrition Healthy meals can taste great – just ask one of our dietitians, who offer nutrition counseling and free, hands-on cooking classes. Our professionals meet one-on-one with cancer survivors, sharing tips that make people feel better and reduce the risk of cancer coming back. They also help patients gain more energy during chemotherapy and other treatments. We even offer a “Good Eating Guide for Cancer Patients” that’s packed with useful tips, ways to relieve common symptoms during treatment, recipes for delicious shakes and much more. Exercise and Training Exercise is a proven way to lower your risk of cancer, but before starting any exercise program, obtain a doctor’s permission first. Once you’ve been cleared for exercise, we recommend that you choose an activity you enjoy. Walking is a great way to start – especially if you haven’t exercised in a while. Wear a pedometer (or use a mobile app on your phone) and set a goal of 10,000 steps a day – about 5 miles – as you go about your daily activities. We can help you develop an exercise program that’s ideal for your fitness level. We offer one-on-one consultations and sessions with a specialized fitness trainer for cancer patients and survivors. Find out more about our fitness programs. It’s a fact: smoking is the single most preventable cause of cancer. Moncrief Cancer Institute offers an eight-week program to help you quit cigarettes or other types of tobacco. The program has three parts: individual support sessions, medication to help you quit and an education and support group. If you stop smoking now, regardless of your age, you’ll begin to heal in several ways: • 20 minutes after quitting, the carbon monoxide level in your blood will drop to normal • 24 hours after quitting, your lungs will start to clear out the mucus and other debris caused by smoking • Two weeks to three months after quitting, your heart attack risk begins to drop and your lung function begins to improve • One year after quitting, your risk of heart attack decreases to about half that of a smoker Get the details about our Smoking Cessation Program by calling Jana Grimsley, RN, at 817.288.9799. Skin cancer is the most common form of all cancers in the United States – and the number of cases continues to rise. Physicians and professional medical organizations recommend that you take the following precautions: • Apply sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 or greater 30 minutes before sun exposure and every few hours thereafter • Wear sunglasses with total UV protection • Wear protective clothing and hats • Avoid direct sun exposure as much as possible during peak UV radiation hours between 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. • Perform self-exams regularly to become familiar with existing growths and to notice any changes or new growths. Contact your physician if you notice any changes • Be a good role model and foster skin cancer prevention habits in your children – 80% of a person's sun exposure is acquired by the age of 18
Educational method section Education method section Montessori is an educational method for children which was founded on the research and experience of the Italian physician and educator, Dr. Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952), a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee. This is the world’s only pre-school educational method that employs teaching aids in every lesson. The Montessori method values and recognizes a child’s uniqueness and allows him to develop his own abilities in his own time and space called his environment. The distinctiveness of Montessori’s method lies in its focus on the role of independence and autonomy (within acceptable boundaries) in shaping a child’s character. Also, the method very much respects the natural process of children’s physiological and psychological development, while empowerng its students with advanced and modern knowledge of science and technology. The Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and American Montessori Society (AMS) identified distinctive features of the Montessori method as below: • Mixed-age classrooms, usually from 2.5 or 3 to 6 years old. • Students choose their activities themselves (provided that these activities have been prescribed by the teachers) • Children are not interrupted or disturbed during their “work” • Students learn concepts and obtain knowledge through practical experience with explorative and facilitating learning tools and models rather than through direct instructions from teachers. • Specialised educational aids that have been thoroughly researched, created and developed by Dr. Montessori and her associates.
Until The Library of America announced that they were releasing a boxed set of his work, I had never heard of Loren Eiseley, who, during his tenure in the Anthropology Department of the University of Pennsylvania, produced a body of science writing so poetic Publisher’s Weekly rightly referred to him as “the modern Thoreau.” Now, though still thumbing my way through The Library of America’s 1,000+ page set, I’m confident that this set will make my annual year-end favorite reads list. It’s scientific writing, yes (and astute and interesting and wonderfully crafted as such), but it’s also a work of philosophy. So far, this is a profound body of work that, while exploring and reveling in the beautiful mysteries of the earth and the universe, touches on my own fascination with existential concerns. Eiseley was born in Nebraska in 1907. His fascination with nature started young. While in high school he already wanted to be a nature writer. It would take some time to find success — he was just a month shy of fifty when he published his first collection, The Immense Journey, though the earliest essays were originally published nearly a decade earlier — but when success came it was huge: this debut of science writing sold over one million copies. Over the next twenty years, Eiseley continued to publish works that found a large audience and critical acclaim. The two volumes in this set go through Eiseley’s output mostly in chronological order, starting with The Immense Journey and going to The Star Thrower, which was published posthumously in 1978, the year after Eiseley’s death. These are not his complete works, skipping, for example, Eiseley’s second book, Darwin’s Century. Not having read any of the works not collected here I cannot offer any opinion on their merit or lack thereof. I’m just happy with what we’ve got. Volume 1 contains three books and a selection of uncollected prose. As I mentioned above, Eiseley’s debut was the collection of essays called The Immense Journey, first published in 1957. In it, we quickly get a sense of Eiseley’s supreme skills as a raconteur, one filled with wonder at the story he’s telling. It begins with — naturally — an epigraph from Thoreau: Man can not afford to be a naturalist, to look at Nature directly, but only with the side of his eye. He must look through and beyond her. The second epigraph, from William Temple, when combined with the one from Thoreau, gives us a solid sense of how Eiseley is approaching his work: Unless all existence is a medium of revelation, no particular revelation is possible. Eiseley is an advocate for “seeing,” a concept that comes up often when one talks of Thoreau (indeed, I brought it up in my review of An American Childhood, by Annie Dillard, another disciple of Thoreau). In the first essay, “The Slit,” Eiseley takes us through the prairie on horseback to a slit in a sandstone wall where he comes to an animal skull. Yes, he looks closely at the skull itself, but he looks through it: The creature had never lived to see a man, and I, what was it that I was never going to see? This moment, imagining what it was he himself was never going to see, is fascinating as it also represents a moment of “seeing”; indeed, it encourages a lifelong quest to see, both the object and through the object. Not seeing has emboldened him to imagine, to overcome, and to see so much more than most of us will with our eyes alone. He encourages us to do the same: Once in a lifetime, perhaps, one escapes the actual confines of the flesh. Once in a lifetime, if one is lucky, one so merges with sunlight and air and running water that whole eons, the eons that mountains and deserts know, might pass in a single afternoon without discomfort. The next book, The Firmament of Time (1960), a finalist for the National Book Award, examines how different ways of “seeing” have influenced mankind. On the one hand, he shows how much we have changed to see the world more from a natural perspective than from a supernatural perspective. The human generations are short-lived. We have difficulty in visualizing the age-long processes involved in the upheaval of mountain systems, the advance of continental glaciations or the creation of life. In fact, scarcely two hundred years have passed since a few wary pioneers began to suspect that the earth might be older than the 4004 years B.C. assigned to it by the theologians. Still, Eiseley argues, mankind can never give up its belief in “unseen nature.” He’s not talking about this from a theological perspective but rather from a deeply humanist perspective. It’s looking through things again, not becoming complacent spectators, simply accepting the world as it appears to be at any given time. And science, he says, has a way of opening up “vaster mysteries to our gaze.” Or, if not always mystery then beauty and power: Time and raindrops! It took enormous effort to discover the potentialities of both those forces. It took centuries before the faint trickling from cottage eaves and gutters caught the ear of some inquiring scholar. Men who could visualize readily the horrors of a universal Flood were deaf to the roar of the invisible Niagara falling into the rain barrel outside their window. They could not hear it because they lived in a time span so short that the only way geologic change could be effected was by the convulsions of earthquakes, or the forty torrential days and nights that brought the Biblical Deluge. Things get a bit bleaker with The Unexpected Universe (1969), which was also a finalist for the National Book Award (in the “Philosophy and Religion” category). This retains much of the wonder and poetry of the first few books, but this books turns a bit more toward humanity, and Eiseley seems a bit terrified of what we will do with our potential. Ultimately, though, this is a hopeful collection. I’m still in the middle of it, and this is where I’ve really come to love what Eiseley is taking on. I think that Sebald read Eiseley. The final bit of this volume is a selection of previously uncollected prose. I haven’t read any of these yet, but it’s a nice way to round out this volume. I’ve only thumbed through the selections in volume two, so I can’t say exactly what each adds to Eiseley’s work, though I’m as excited to read them as anything else. At the beginning of The Invisible Pyramid (1971), Eiseley seems to reiterate some of his ambivalence toward humanity, with hope perhaps winning out: “But I dream, and because I dream, I severally condemn, fear, and salute the future.” The collection ends with The Night Country (1971) and then a selection of essays from the posthumously published The Star Thrower (1978). An essay from The Star Thrower is the most recent “Story of the Week” from The Library of America: “The Fifth Planet” (see here). Once again, all I can say is that I think Sebald read Eiseley. This strange story begins so innocently but with its final paragraph has us looking at the dust of our civilization. It’s a tremendous collection, a delightful surprise for someone like me who knew nothing of its contents or of its author until a few months ago but who now feels changed foreve. Products from Amazon.com Loren Eiseley: Collected Essays on Evolution, Nature, and the Cosmos: A Library of America Boxed SetPrice: $55.32Was: $70.00
Sound familiar? Cory Terry died while playing basketball of a heart attack. In 2012 a study in Miami admitted diet soda (which has aspartame in it) causes heart attack and strokes. http://news.yahoo.com/study-diet-soda-linked-increased-risk-heart-attack-172600831.html This has been known for decades and is discussed in H. J. Roberts, M.D. medical text, "Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic" - http://www.sunsentpress.com Another young man about the same age who played basketball several times a week, Charles Fleming, died and the hospital said it was methanol poisoning. This is common with aspartame. Dr. Roberts said aspartame is extremely addictive. The free methyl alcohol classified as a narcotic causes chronic methanol poisoning. This affects the dopamine system of the brain and causes the addiction. The chronic methanol poisoning was on his autopsy as well as cardiomegaly. The physician told his wife to call the police and she did and gave them the last thing he drank Gatorade where they had found methanol. It was interesting in talking to someone from GNC who told me their creatine has aspartame in it but is not labeled because of the amount. Fleming had added three times the amount, a creatine blast. Plus Fleming was addicted to aspartame and drank several diet drinks a diet and used aspartame in other products. It's a wonder he lived as long as he did. Diane Fleming, his wife, took three lie detector tests which found her to be innocent. The detective found a bottle of windshield wiper fluid in the garage that was sealed, the only prints, those of a detective. Their toxicologist had it tested and wrote it was not this product. Yet with full knowledge the prosecution used this in a case against his wife, and never showed the toxicologist's note. If the jury had known Diane Fleming would not be in a hardened prison in Virginia for over ten years with a 30 year sentence. When the movie "Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World" was being made, and Diane from prison is in it, I spoke to the detective. He said, "Diane Fleming is innocent but I was promoted and could not stop the indictment." Later a toxicologist studied the records and said the actual death was from the creatine. Several experts gave affidavits and said it was from aspartame. Today there has been more study and more opinion on the cause of death, but there is no doubt in my mind that if he had never used aspartame he would be alive today. About basketball, athletes keep dropping dead because of aspartame. World renowned neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.,D., author of "Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills", wrote an athlete alert to warn them. http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_msg_scd.htm This is also discussed in another of Dr. Blaylock's medical texts, "Health and Nutrition Secrets to Save Your Life", http://www.russellblaylockmd.com Dr. Roberts explains in his medical text and articles, that aspartame causes an irregular heart rhythm and interacts with "all" cardiac medication. It damages the cardiac conduction system and causes sudden death. Aspartame damages the mitochondria or powerhouse of the cell and interacts with drugs and vaccines. Here is one of Dr Roberts articles in these reports on aspartame and sudden cardiac death: http://www.mpwhi.com/aspartame_and_sudden_death.htm Now let's talk about the stimulants. Many may remember when the FDA took ephedra off the market when Steve Bechler (23 year old Baltimore Oriole pitcher) dropped dead in West Palm Beach. Dr. Roberts lived in West Palm Beach so he immediately called the medical examiner and asked him how many diet drinks was he using but the medical examiner didn't know. A later article explained because of his fluctuating weight he would fast one day and drink diet soda all day the next. Since Steve Bechler used some ephedra FDA gladly took it off the market. However, ephedra is perfectly safe. Who headed the ephedra association but the famed Dr. John Olney who with Attorney James Turner tried to prevent approval of aspartame and he studied the FDA records. Read the Ephedra Story: http://www.wnho.net/ephedrastory.htm I spoke to Dr. James Bowen about this case and he explained just like aspartame interacts with drugs and vaccines it could interact with ephedra, even though ephedra is safe and should be returned to the market. Athletes continue to die from aspartame. You may remember Flo Jo, the runner, and seen her running with a Diet Coke in hand. Aspartame is a seizure triggering drug proven by the manufacturer's own study, and four types of seizures are listed on the FDA's own report of 92 symptoms including death. Read it on my web site, http://www.mpwhi.com Her case is in Dr. Roberts medical text. She was running, Diet Coke in hand, and died of a grand mal seizure. Even student athletes have dropped dead. Will we ever know how many athletes aspartame has killed? When I was in Barcelona, Dr. Alemany who did the famous Trocho Study on aspartame, said, "Betty, aspartame will murder 200 million people!" Has it already? Here is Dr. Alemany's study showing aspartame embalms living tissue and damages DNA. When you damage DNA you can destroy humanity. http://www.mpwhi.com/formaldehyde_from_aspartame.pdf The aspartame industry tried to assassinate Dr. Alemany character because they could not rebut it. In 1986 the Community Nutrition Institute tried to have aspartame banned because so many had seizures and were going blind from the methanol. It was taken all the way to the Supreme Court but the aspartame industry has power. Just read the Aspartame Resource Guide below on how it got on the market after even the FDA revoked the petition for approval and tried to have the manufacturer indicted for fraud. I've even filed an imminent hazard amendment which the FDA has a week or ten days to answer. This was in 2007 and they wrote me a letter and said they had more important things to do. Even 12 toxicologists wrote the FDA to remove it because of all the studies showing it is a multipotential carcinogen. In 2009 FDA called me and when I said, "I lecture all over the world and people are sick and dying from aspartame." I was told, "So what, we have to depopulate." Recently, Coke has this campaign to convince the public aspartame is safe because their sales of diet Coke keep dropping. Look at the DVD in the Aspartame Resource Guide from the UK and notice they show me holding up Dr. Roberts’s medical text - 1000 pages! in front of probably 1000 stockholders of Coke when I addressed their CEO at a stockholder meeting. Coke was #1 of the National Soft Drink Association (now American Beverage) and wrote a 33 page protest against aspartame which is in the congressional record on a banner on my web site. They have always known how deadly it is. Their campaign is such a joke. I suspect a lot of their stockholders had questions noting if a product is safe physicians don't write medical texts on how it kills. Mission Possible has chapters in 43 countries and in 20 years you can be sure we have the facts around the world on aspartame. Today there are millions of hits with web sites, articles, studies and the facts. A big problem has been the front groups and trade organizations funded by the manufacturer and companies who use aspartame to convince the public this chemical poison is safe. There are so many cases. One attorney called when another woman died of methanol poisoning who used aspartame products. They had arrested her husband. Some years ago a man called who said he had an aspartame blackout and drove his car 6 blocks asleep and killed 3 people. He spent 5 years in prison. When is it going to stop? Dr. Roberts, world expert, died a few months ago, and he wanted so badly to see Diane Fleming released before his death: http://www.mpwhi.com/h_j_roberts_has_died.htmp> Look at the epidemics in this country so many wonder about, with huge medical bills. Take aspartame off the market and as Dr. James Bowen said, "The government could save billions if not a trillion dollars!" Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum. Founder, Mission Possible World Health International 9270 River Club Parkway Duluth, Georgia 30097 Aspartame Toxicity Center: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame
\|[audio:http://www.cornwarning.com/chaircrusher/Chaircrusher-2011-08-14-BeatRepeatLFO.mp3\|titles=Beat Repeat/LFO Experiment\|artist=Chaircrusher]\|\|http://www.cornwarning.com/chaircrusher/Chaircrusher-2011-08-14-BeatRepeatLFO.mp3\| It’s hard not to be an electronic musician without developing a fascination with random/stochastic processes as a compositional tool. Particularly because when you pay attention to e.g. a Max Roach Drum Solo he seems to be balancing random choices with intentional ones. While Roach knows what he wants in broad outlines, part of what makes his playing great is that he has learned to simply allow his muscle memory and hind brain take over and introduce surprises. By letting go of a score and conscious control he’s participating in randomness shaped by his will. Max spent a lifetime developing the skills as a musician to allow this sort of freedom in his playing. This demonstration clip is what happens when you set up many random Max For Live LFOs to modulate many, many different things. At the core, LFOs are modulating the Repeat and Grid parameters of a Beat Repeat effect. Then two more LFOS modulate the effect send levels, going to a reverb and delay. A third LFO is modulating the rate of the LFO modulating the Repeat parameters. Then more LFOs modulate the regeneration level and ‘echo reverse’ parameters of the delay, and the size and predelay on the reverb. One drum loop is the sole audio source for this. All this modulation introduces a currently fashionable sort of crackle where changing parameters introduces audio discontinuities.
This step by step diy project is about 8×10 gambrel shed roof plans. This is PART 2 of the small barn shed where I show you how to frame the roof and how to fit the decorative trims. You can even frame a small loft to the gambrel shed, so you can increase the storage space. Take a look over the rest of my woodworking plans, if you want to get more building inspiration. When buying the lumber, you should select the planks with great care, making sure they are straight and without any visible flaws (cracks, knots, twists, decay). Investing in cedar or other weather resistant lumber is a good idea, as it will pay off on the long run. Use a spirit level to plumb and align the components, before inserting the galvanized screws, otherwise the project won’t have a symmetrical look. If you have all the materials and tools required for the project, you could get the job done in about a day. Projects made from these plans 8×10 Gambrel Shed Roof Plans - G – 24 pieces of 2×4 lumber – 36 3/4″ long RAFTERS - G – 4 pieces of T1-11 siding – 48″x48″ long SIDING - H – 2 pieces of 2×4 lumber – 44 1/4″ long, 4 pieces – 32 3/4″ long SUPPORTS - I – 4 pieces of 3/4″ plywood – 36 3/4″x96″ long, 4 pieces – 36 3/4″x24″ long ROOF - J – 8 pieces of 1×6 lumber – 37″ long TRIMS - K – 150 sq ft of tar paper, 150 sq ft of asphalt shingles ROOFING - PART 1: 8×10 Barn Shed Plans - PART 2: 8×10 Barn Shed Roof Plans Plans - PART 3: 8×10 Double doors plans How to build a gambrel shed roof The first step of the project is to build the trusses for the gambrel shed. Cut the rafters from 2×4 lumber, by making 67.5 degree cuts to both ends, as shown in the diagram. Lay the rafters on a level surface, leaving no gaps between them. Afterwards, use 1/2″ plywood to make the gussets and lay them over the joints. Insert 1 5/8″ screws to secure the gussets into place tightly. After assembling the trusses you need to fit them to the top of the barn shed. Place the rafters equally-spaced, every 24″ on center and then lock them to the top plates with rafter ties. Use a spirit level to plumb the trusses. Fit 2×4 supports to the front and back gambrel end panels. Drill pocket holes at both ends of the supports and lock them into place with 2 1/2″ screws. Cut the gambrel end panels from T1-11 siding and then fit them to the front and to the back of the barn sheds. Leave no gaps between the sheets and then secure them into place with 6-8d nails. Fit the 3/4″ plywood sheets to the top of the barn shed. Cut the plywood sheets at the right dimensions and then secure them into place with 1 5/8″ screws, every 8″ along the rafters. Use 1×6 lumber for the front and back roof trims. Make 67.5 degrees to both ends of the trims and then secure them into place with 2″ nails. Cover the roof with tar paper and then install the asphalt shingles. Make sure you also install the appropriate drip edges, so you can seal the shed roof. Read the manufacturer’s instructions for a tight fit. Check out PART 1 of the barn shed, where I show you how to build the frame of the storage shed. Check out PART 3 of the barn shed, so you learn how to build the double doors and how to fit the decorative trims. This 8×10 barn shed is ideal for any homeowner, as you can protect your tools from bad weather. This shed is surprisingly roomy, as it can store tools, furniture and other items. This woodworking project was about 8×10 wood shed roof plans. If you want to see more outdoor plans, check out the rest of our step by step projects and follow the instructions to obtain a professional result.
Some tools required for this project are hole saw, drilling machine, pencil, tape measure, clamps, etc. This tutorial explains every step properly with images so that anyone can make a wooden sofa sleeve easily. Those, who prefer a video tutorial, can visit the below link to a YouTube video that illustrates the process of building a DIY Sofa Sleeve Cupholder. Fir, also known as Douglas Fir, is very inexpensive and common at local home centers. It has a characteristic straight, pronounced grain with a red-brown tint. However, its grain pattern is relatively plain and it does not stain well, so Fir is commonly used when the finished product will be painted. While commonly used for building, this softwood would also be suitable for furniture-making as well. Boat building Bow and arrow Bush carpentry Cabinetry Caning Carpentry Certosina Chainsaw carving Chip carving Clogs Ébéniste Fretwork Intarsia Japanese carpentry Khatam Kohlrosing Log building Marquetry Millwork Parquetry Pyrography Relief carving Root carving Sawdust Segmented turning Shingle weaving Shipbuilding Spindle turning Timber framing Treen Whittling Wood carving Woodturning Wood flour Sanding curves is tricky. Sometimes you need a sanding pad that’s both firm and flexible. A small notepad works great. Just wrap sandpaper around the pad and bend the pad to whatever arc you need. Slip the one end of the sandpaper between the pages to help hold it in place on the pad. Give this a try the next time you’re working on a project that has curves and tough to reach spots. Instead of permanently mounting my 6-in. vise to a work-bench, I attached it to scrap plywood so I can clamp it wherever I need it. Stack two pieces of 3/4-in. plywood and screw them together with 1-1/4 in. drywall screws. Mark the vise-mounting holes on the plywood and drill 3/4-in. guide holes through both pieces. Recess the nut by drilling through the bottom sheet with a 1-in. spade bit using the 3/4-in. hole as a guide. Fasten the vise to the plywood with bolts sized to match the vise-mounting holes. If the bolt shafts are too long, cut them off with a hacksaw. — LuAnn Aiu. Plus: Learn how to use vise grips to pull nails. With an orbital sander and good sandpaper you can smooth wood evenly and easily with first-class results. When flush-sanding solid edge-banding, draw a squiggly line across the joint before sanding. The edge-banding will be slightly proud of the plywood veneer, so the pencil marks provide a visual aid to make sure that you’re sanding flat, and that you don’t sand through the plywood’s veneer. As you go, you can also test for a smooth, level transition by gently scraping your fingernails against the transition. If it’s smooth, your fingers will not catch on the seam between the two pieces You can also make one for elders and put it in your garden or terrace or anywhere in the house. Elders can use it to relax and kids can use it to play or sleep. Although this is a really beautiful piece of woodwork, it is not that easy to make. Only someone with good woodworking skill can think of making this swing set. Also, I couldn’t find a good tutorial that illustrates the process of building a wooden boat-shaped swing set. Most Probably, I will write one when I build mine.But if you really want this swing set like right now, I would suggest you hire a good woodworker, who can build something similar. Or just search the internet and maybe you get lucky enough to find a tutorial for this. Good luck either way. I built my first platform bed by following the steps mentioned in the tutorial and the end result was everything I expected. It was as beautiful as comfortable and strong. It only cost me around $60 to build this one from the scratch. And if I can build it, anyone can. What you need is a little bit of woodworking experience and a lot of confidence. Collect the items as suggested in the video and start working now. Finding a toolbox for a mechanic, for his hand tools, is not a big challenge at all - there are dozens of the tool boxes available on the market, from huge roll-around shop cases to small metal boxes. Plumbers, electricians, and farmers are well served, too, with everything from pickup-truck storage to toolboxes and belts. But, if you are a shop-bound woodworker then the case changes. You get to need a tool box that suits the range and variety of hand tools that most woodworkers like to have. For those who deny making do with second best, there's only one solution, you’ve to build a wooden toolbox that should be designed expressly for a woodworking shop. Every project needs some tools and material to build on. The tools and material you will need in this plan include Miter saw, jigsaw, measuring tape screws and screwdriver etc. We will suggest you take high-quality material for the plan. Read the source tutorial and watch the video tutorial below for more details. Follow all the steps properly to make a nice and strong Rustic cooler. The tutorial explains the procedure for building this awesome gift. Make sure to use the only high-quality material for any woodworking project. Here’s a safe and sound way to make long cuts with a circular saw on plywood clamped to a worktable. Cut about 12 in. into the plywood, then twist a piece of duct tape into a bow tie, with up-and-down adhesive faces. Slide it in the saw kerf and press the tape down above and under the plywood. Now as you finish the cut, the trailing end can’t curl down dangerously as you saw. Hats off to Mike Connelly for simplifying this job. Check out how to make this DIY duct tape wallet. There is significant evidence of advanced woodworking in ancient Egypt. Woodworking is depicted in many extant ancient Egyptian drawings, and a considerable amount of ancient Egyptian furniture (such as stools, chairs, tables, beds, chests) has been preserved. Tombs represent a large collection of these artefacts and the inner coffins found in the tombs were also made of wood. The metal used by the Egyptians for woodworking tools was originally copper and eventually, after 2000 BC bronze as ironworking was unknown until much later.
Museum embraces school's autism awareness program Coral Gables News - 3/22/2018 A profound statement is made when you are faced with the truth that 1 in 68 children are being diagnosed with autism. "I am 1 of you" is the inclusive message of Crystal Academy efforts to remind their neighborhood that their students are part of the Coral Gables community while educating the general public about autism. The Coral Gales Museum is dedicating its "Community Meeting Room" space, Apr. 2-9, to the Crystal Academy children at the museum event, where throughout the week they will have an Interactive Educational Expo, art exhibits with the main purpose of guiding visitors through the journey of autism. "It is an honor and a privilege for the Coral Gables Museum to be able to sponsor Crystal Academy with such a unique exhibition," said John Allen, executive director at the museum. "Our commitment to the community goes beyond the traditional arts and reflects the presence of this special segment of our society. Crystal Academy has been tailoring special programs for autism with trends in creativity getting magnificent results." Crystal Academy students range in age from 2 to 15 with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other developmental delays. "For many of the Crystal Academy students featured in the exhibition, creative expression represents something more than an outlet for an active imagination. Art can provide a source of decompression and a means of communication," said Mary Palacio-Pike, Crystal Academy founder and president, who is a mother of a 15-year-old with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The Coral Gables Museum and Crystal Academy invite the general public and families with children on the autism spectrum to join them for this sensory-friendly experience. It will be an encounter designed to better understand the journey of ASD life. The exhibition will include a unique peak into the souls of family members and their strong love for their siblings, sons and/or daughters with autism. The children at the museum event is part of the celebration of the Worldwide Autism Awareness Day during the month of April, For more information, visit online at www.coralgablesmuseum.org and www.crystalacademy.com.
Hearing misfortune is a concern gone through by folks everything becoming the same and may even attain a lot of difficulty in kinds professional and private existence. The career shows off is forceful which is important to help make you a radiant useful resource. The partnership you have together with your employer is manufactured on the understanding of requirements and interests. Our individual lifestyles necessitate that identical details and being attentive may be the primary way we obtain this info. In case you are encountering hearing misfortune, these connections are usually stressed out and get unfavorable outcomes on your everyday lifestyle yet backed up by the help of a hearing guide this may be remained from. Obtaining a hearing guideline is usually the complete greatest enterprise you will make to your personal and professional lifestyle. From a broad border one of the most productive organization affiliations are the types when the worker comprehends the prerequisites and requires of the manager and does tasks in order to meet them. It’s difficult to fix a scenario or play out a job in the event you are unconscious of what has been inquired of you. On the off opportunity that you will be encountering hearing misfortune, or don’t have the proper nutresin prezzo guideline, there could be quite a lot you are missing in discussions and get-togethers which can be activating discontentment for anyone. Our careers are completely stressful and moreover the absolute last thing some of us should get is to miss the mark at the office and frustrate all those inside and out us. We wish to be seen just like a useful aspect with the entire objective that people may possibly both continue being utilized or even is advanced. It can be ideal never to give something the opportunity to repress you reaching be gainful and particularly something as efficiently resolved as your hearing. Each of your theory detects we have which helps us inside our very own everyday life is our hearing. Wearer suit for hear our buddies uncover to us they venerate us, our little ones sing out and play, and loved ones chuckle and notify jokes. Over the amazing things, our hearing enables us to listen to our accomplices require that we obtain the junk, youngsters explain what accurately is troubling them, and so on the away from probability that someone has harmed themselves. Not hearing hampers our power to come across a piece of lifestyle and coming up quick on certain appears to be could cause contentions or extreme caution of serious scenarios. Every day daily life has a whole lot to provide you and besides the proven fact that hearing permits so that it is considerably more lively and joyful, it supplies us with fundamental romantic relationship and wellbeing data. No-one should move up a piece of lifestyle due to something regular hearing information could recognize.
Dermatologists. celebrities and beauty editors—everyone tells you the importance of a good sunscreen. It’s almost a sin to step out of your home without slathering one. But there are too many myths about sunscreens, here are some corrections for you. - Waterproof sunscreen protects skin in water. We generally happen to slather sunscreen just before take a dip in the pool or sea? Surely you emerge out with white and red patches. Waterproof sunscreen is never waterproof. Once wet, it will eventually rub off. Hence, one can opt for ‘water-resistant’ sunscreens, as they tend to stay on for longer. But it is still needed to reapplied every hour. - The higher the SPF the safer you are. Not exactly, the SPF number has nothing to do with the level of UV protection. It only helps you to be protected for a longer time before you start turning red. For example, SPF 30 means you have 30 times longer until you turn into a tomato than if you wore nothing. - SPF foundation is enough. There are many foundations and BB creams that come with SPF, but there still is need to wear a sunscreen underneath. Unless, you want to dab on your foundation to get enough SPF. You should avoid doing that blunder, nobody wants to look cakey. Keep it simple by applying sunscreen under makeup. - Expensive sunscreen means better protection. This one is completely untrue. To claim an SPF number, sunscreen has to pass through a strict regulation test. The only difference is that expensive sunscreen might use other ingredients for added skin benefits. But if you are only looking for sun protection, then an inexpensive sunscreen will work as good as the expensive one and solve your purpose.
Alii Shores Newfoundlands A brief history by Ursula Yee... My love and devotion to the Newfoundland breed began in 1970 when I purchased a male puppy from the first Newfoundland litter that was born in Hawaii. His parents were imported from the Shipshape and Dryad Kennels. Unfortunately, our pup, Leo, was dysplastic. He was neutered and lived comfortably to age 9. In 1972, a black female from Pouch Cove Kennels was acquired by Leo's breeder and lived with me after the mandatory 120 day quarantine period in Hawaii. It was decided to breed this female the Ch. Little Bear's Breakaway which resulted in a litter of 9 puppies in 1975. This was the beginning of Alii Shores Newfoundlands. Since then, other Newfs from kennels in Canada and the USA were imported and participated in the Alii Shores breeding program. In 1980, 4 year old Outtrail's Abi Gail Adams (OFA-535), a lovely black female joined the kennel. My Newfs today still possess many qualities from Abi Gail, whom I consider to be my foundation female. She passed her superb intelligence, water abilities, whelp nurturing, conformation, temperament and other good traits on to her offspring. My emphasis has always been to raise and keep the strongest females and breed them to carefully selected stud dogs. Considering that Hawaii is a remote place for breeding Newfoundlands, my foremost concern is the health aspect of the animals. Over the years, I fortunately have been successful in breeding sound dogs that conformed to the standard of the breed. Alii Shores Newfoundland breeding stock are hip and elbow radiographed, OFA certified, heart cleared by a Veterinarian Cardiologist, and eyes cleared. Colors available are black and Landseer. Among the outstanding dogs that contributed greatly to my breeding program was Ch. Topmast Hi Tide O' Alii Shores, a Landseer from Topmast Kennels in Canada, and Ch. Black Venture HMS Alii Shores, a dominant black male that gave his offspring a lot of style and elegance in graceful motion. Black Venture was the play buddy of the neighborhood's children until his final days at 12 years of age. Other great Newfs are Alii Shores Special Delivery (ROM), an Abi Gail daughter by Tribute to Piper Alii Shores (Landseer), and Ch. Alii Shores Madam Keeley (OFA, OFEL, Heart Cleared), now 5 years old. At age 3, Ch. Alii Shores Chief Eagle Plume, call name Linus, had an excellent show record in 1996. Linus was the number 1 Newfoundland and the number 5 working dog for 1996 in the Hawaii system of shows. His half brother, Shaquille, was the number nine working dog. Linus's half sister, Ch. Alii Shores Madam Keeley also showed well and took the Best of Breed title in the Hawaii Newfoundland Specialty among other awards in 1996. As of 1996, Alii Shores Kennels has 32 Champions and 6 obedience titled Newfoundlands on record. Newfoundlands, being family dogs are not usually kept in kennels. In order to provide proper attention and environment, I limit myself to maintaining only 8 adults at any time. This also includes retirees who have the time of their lives playing in the ocean and getting sunburnt. The upkeep of a Newf in Hawaii's warm climate is a challenge. Their coats do not grow as thick and long with very little undercoat. They shed twice a year with tufts blowing in the trade winds all year long. Fleas and brown dog ticks are a year round nuisance. Fortunately, newly developed products are available to keep these pests under control. To prepare and get a Newf in show condition means a bath every week and exercise during the cooler morning and evening hours. While I do let the dogs go swimming in the ocean, it does mean taking time out for a thorough fresh water rinse and drying. However, too much sun will burn the dog's coat and leave a reddish tinge. Show judges have complimented my dogs on their condition and quality. I exhibit my dogs at a number of All Breed Shows and at our annual Newfoundland Specialty. There are 20 All Breed Shows each year with 12 in Honolulu, Oahu, 6 on the island of Hawaii and 2 on Maui. Alii Shores Newfoundlands have traveled worldwide, from Singapore to Holland, to Paris and Japan. Several have gone to Australia and New Zealand and a promising youngster now lives in Buenos Aires. For me, breeding Newfoundlands has become a lifetime passion. I love and admire this noble breed that gives so much of themselves in return.
The US dollar is the pricing mechanism for almost all raw material prices around the globe. As the reserve currency of the world, the vast amount of liquid trading in commodity futures and forward markets is denominated in the US currency. While the US population represents less than 4.5% of the total people in the world, the nation's currency looms large in the world of raw material markets. There is an inverse relationship between the dollar and commodity prices. This is because when the dollar falls in value, prices for these staple assets become cheaper in other currencies, encouraging demand. Conversely, when the dollar rises against other currencies, commodity prices become more expensive in local currencies, which in turn encourages selling. Since May of 2014, the value of the dollar has increased and in July of 2015, commodity prices fell sharply. An Ugly Month for Commodities July was an ugly month for many commodity prices. Key industrial raw material prices, which have been in a protracted bear market since 2011, moved lower. In some cases, commodity prices are now approaching long-term support levels and in others, they are making new lows, breaking key support levels. Crude oil, which recovered from March through June, had its worst month in July since 2008, dropping 21% for the month. It now stands only $5.09 above the March lows. Copper, a bellwether commodity in terms of the global economy, broke through long-term support in July and traded down to $2.3375 - the lowest level in six years. Lumber, another diagnostic commodity in terms of housing and economic conditions, fell from $290 to $252, a decrease of 13% in July. Gold, the commodity that has a dual role as a raw material and a currency, broke key support at $1130 and is now trading at five-year lows. Meanwhile, the dollar did not even move significantly higher in July, it just continued the consolidation that began in March. Is Dollar Consolidation Ending? The dollar index rallied more than 27% between May 2014 and March 2015. As the weekly chart highlights, after making twelve-year highs in March, the dollar entered into a period of correction and consolidation. Longs took profits from the incredible rise in the greenback during the correction, and open interest dropped by over 45%. Just recently, the dollar momentum has turned positive and open interest has begun to rise, indicating that the dollar could be preparing for another leg to the upside. Higher Dollar and Lower Commodity Prices Ahead? When considering the relationship between the dollar and commodity prices, it is often a chicken and egg dilemma - which comes first? The bear market in commodity prices began when they peaked in 2011. The dollar rally began in May 2014. Last month, many key commodity prices fell once again, and some fell through support levels to multi-year lows. This is an ominous signal for dollar-based commodity prices. A continuation of the global economic slowdown has caused consumption of raw materials to fall. China, which is the demand side of the equation for many commodities, has experienced slower growth than in years past. Recent cracks in the Chinese equity market highlights a slowing economy. The Chinese government has cut interest rates four times in 2015; however, this has not helped to support commodity prices. The price action in copper alone is reflective of a weakening China. Lower energy prices have cut the cost of production for many other commodity prices. Meanwhile, a stronger dollar has cut labor costs in countries that are not dollar-based. As the cost of commodity production falls and demand is weak, the path of least resistance is likely to continue to be lower. Meanwhile, given the relative strength of the US economy and the prospect for rising US rates in a world where other interest rates are likely to remain low, the outlook for commodity prices and the dollar is that recent trends will continue. The dollar may begin another leg up to new highs in the coming months and, at the same time, commodity prices could continue to falter. Many commodity prices remain at levels today that are well above the prices in 2000, which means that there is still downside in these raw material values. Both commodity prices and the US dollar are feeding off each other these days. It is hard to say which is leading the charge but in both cases, the trend is your friend for the time being.
Leading Catholics in Germany have released an open letter calling for a “new start with sexual morality” that includes a call for a re-evaluation of the church’s approach to homosexuality. “[N]ine theologians and Catholics in leadership positions have called for reforms within the church. They call for a ‘new start with sexual morality’, including a ‘reasonable and equitable assessment of homosexuality,’ according to the letter in the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung (FAS). ‘If you put yourself at the head of the reform movement, you have us determinedly behind you,’ says the appeal, which is also addressed to all other bishops. ‘Open a new page, write “2019” on it, and start,’ write the signatories. . . “Furthermore, the theologians demand a ‘genuine separation of powers’ in the church: ‘This fits better with the humility of Christ and within the framework of the laws that apply to all.’ They also call for an opening of the ordination office for women and the abolition of compulsory celibacy for diocesan priests. . .The theologians also urged Marx to point out at the [Vatican] conference that abuse in the church ‘also has systemic reasons’. . .They also speak of a depressed mood in the parishes: ‘The sun of justice is no longer possible, and under a leaden sky the joy of faith withers away.’”
Internet security software giant McAfee recently released their Security Threat Predictions Report. McAfee predicts that the year 2013 will be the year of mobile security threat. Online technology is rapidly moving from computers to the mobile Smartphone and thus hackers and cybercriminals are evolving new methods accordingly. Internet Security Threats McAfee team has also compiled a list of probably security threats for the coming year: Mobile threats will increase noticeably in 2013 which include mobile worms buying malicious apps and malware kits allowing the hackers to extort your data and payments. Such malware is more common in unlocked and rooted Smartphones. SMS spam may also increase in 2013. Ryan Sherstobitoff, McAfee Threat Researcher says “”Mobile threats are starting to increase as we get closer to 2013. Windows 8 targeted Although new Windows is more secure, hackers and cybercriminals have targeted Windows covertly. Phishing would be the most commonly used mode of Hackers in 2013. Users are highly advised to keep the security software updated to circumvent these covert attacks. Businesses are on target Anonymous groups of hackers and their ‘Hacktivism’ will get more active in 2012 to attack the big companies and cause havoc there. The businesses are advised to use online backup services to keep their data safe. Report from McAfee explains “If attackers can install destructive malware on a large number of machines, then the result can be devastating.” Security Threat report by McAfee says that hackers will focus on HTML5 in 2013. Most of the users throughout the world today rely on HTML5 supporting browsers and thus it is a new challenge for the hackers. Armies and Nation States Nation States’ security systems will also be on target of hackers in 2013. Frequent cyber threats on Nation Armies might be seen in the coming year says report. Summarized Threats to Be Warned Of Some other threats supposed to increase in 2013 include Citadel Trojan and Snowshoe Spam. Citadel Trojan is based on Trojan Horse Zeus stealing the banking information of users and Snowshoe Spam which sends thousands of spam messages with malicious links. Trojan Citadel is expected to be prevalent in Western Europe, particularly in Germany. Talking about the spam messages McAfee researchers say- ” Though these annoying marketing campaigns that send hundreds of spam messages aren’t malicious like the other threats discussed in the report, they have been increasing over the past two years and are “currently one of the biggest problems in the spam world.” According to report the biggest threat to botmasters would be the unrecoverable loss of their botnets. International cooperation in child exploitation, policing spam, malware, and illegal pills will continue to threaten the increase of botnets. McAfee predicts that hacking would come up exponentially as a Service in 2013. Anonymous buyers and sellers trade malware kits and hacking services for money in underground forums. Conclusion Of McAfee Report The security threat report submitted by McAfee suggests that the cyber attacks will increase exponentially in 2013. The list compiled by McAfee includes some top priority security threats, but there might be more. Users are advised to keep their computer system up-to-date and keep a data backup. The complete 16 page report is available for download from the McAfee Website. You might want to also read Symantec’s Cybersecurity Report highlights Risks & Security Predictions for 2013.
When kids enter their teen years they often become more peer-connected than parent-connected. They may talk to their parents less and their social life often begins to be centered more on friends rather than family. For the parent this may add a new and uncomfortable air of mystery surrounding their children’s lives that they have never experienced before. Survey researchers often find teenagers just as mysterious as we rarely have the opportunity to interview people under the age of 18. This is unfortunate as much of the “churning” of religious identity and behavior begins in the teen years. As a recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found, “Almost half of Catholics who are now unaffiliated (48%) left Catholicism before reaching age 18” (...some of them return to the faith later in life). Recently, thanks to the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) we got the chance to interview teens about their religious faith in a national survey. The overall study focused on interest in vocations. A total of 1,609 respondents were interviewed (English and Spanish) in May and June 2012. Of this sample, 677 respondents were ages 14 to 17. If you are a Catholic parent of a teenager the study indicates that the first thing you might want to ask your child is if they consider themselves to be Catholic. Although all of the teens we interviewed had Catholic parents or a Catholic parent, some did not share this faith (...parents were presented with information about the vocations study and asked to give permission for their teen to respond. Presumably all or most these parents are raising their children as Catholic). As the figure below shows, only three in four of all teens interviewed (75%) self-identified as Catholic. Twelve percent said they did not have a religious affiliation, 6% indicated that they were affiliated with a Protestant denomination, and 7% noted an affiliation with some other religion. Ninety-two percent of the teens with two Catholic parents self-identified their faith as Catholic (Overall, 76% percent of the teens indicated they reside in a household with two Catholic parents). Only 55% of those with one Catholic parent self-identified their faith as Catholic. Thus, some teens may be adopting the affiliation of a non-Catholic parent. It is also the case that as they become more peer-connected they may be attending services or religious programs with friends of other faiths and this may alter their religious identities. Some are “falling away” from religion generally and losing any affiliation. All of the results presented from this point on isolate only those respondents who are ages 14 to 17 and who self-identify their religion as Catholic. This includes a total of 503 respondents resulting in a margin of error of ±4.4 percentage points for this group. Most Catholic teens report that they were baptized as infants (94%). Five percent indicated they entered the Church as a child and 2% as a teen. Sixteen percent indicated that they have only celebrated the Sacrament of Baptism. Twenty-two percent said that they have also celebrated their First Communion (Note: some of the younger teens may not be of an age where they could receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in their diocese). Many, 62%, reported that they have celebrated Baptism, First Communion, and Confirmation. Female teens are more likely than male teens to indicate they have celebrated their First Communion or Confirmation. Eighteen percent report that they have been enrolled in a Catholic school and parish-based religious education classes at some point. The largest group, 44% said they have been enrolled in parish-based religious education only. Fourteen percent indicated enrollment in a Catholic school without having ever been enrolled in a parish-based religious education program. Thus, about one in four Catholic teens (24%) said they have never been enrolled in a Catholic school or a parish-based religious education program. Catholic teens are a bit less likely than all adult Catholics to say they “rarely or never” attend Mass (The figure below compares teens to data from CARA’s most recent CARA Catholic Poll conducted in September 2012). This is not surprising as many Catholic teens are living with Catholic parents in their 40s and their Mass attendance mirrors their frequency (i.e., they often go to Mass with their parents). CARA research indicates many young Catholics begin to attend Mass less frequently once they leave the parental home and this often continues into their 20s before beginning to rise again in their 30s and 40s. Although many parents may express concerns about their teens not communicating enough with them in general, many Catholic teens say their parents rarely or never speak to them about religion. Only 8% report their parents talk to them about religion daily and 20% say their parents do so at least once a week. As shown below, 75% say their faith is important to them. A quarter (25%) say it is either not important at all or not too important to them. The largest sub-group, 45% say their faith is “important, but so are many other areas of my life.” Only 9% say it is “the most important part of my life.” The teens were also asked about the religious activities they take part in on a regular basis. Thirteen percent indicated regularly participating in retreats. Eight percent say they regularly participate in prayer groups, 7% in Eucharistic adoration, and 7% in Bible study. A quarter (25%) said they had participated in a parish youth group at some point. Fifteen percent said they had been an altar server and this percentage is the same for both males and females. Only 20% indicated that they read the Bible or pray with scripture at least once a month. Six in ten say they “rarely or never” do this. Fourteen percent indicate they pray the rosary at least monthly. At the same time, 71% say prayer is either “among the most important parts” of their lives (25%) or that it is “important, but so are many other areas of my life” (46%). Sixty-seven percent of Catholic teens agree that “God is one with whom people can have a relationship.” When presented with an “image of God” question, the teens were most likely to say (69%) the following description comes closest to their view: “God is a positive influence in the word that loves unconditionally, helping us in spite of our failings.” The teens were asked about how important a list of factors were to their sense of “what is means to be a Catholic.” They were most likely to say receiving the Eucharist (44%) and helping the poor (43%) were “very important” to their sense of this. These aspects were followed by protecting life (35%), attending Sunday Mass each week (32%), and having devotion to Mary (28%). Many of the aspects that are considered “very important” are things the teens can do outside of their parishes. In fact, only 12% said “being involved with my parish” was “very important” to their sense of what it means to be a Catholic. Overall, 61% percent of teens agree that “Jesus Christ is really present in the bread and wine of the Eucharist.” The other 39% agreed more with the statement, “Bread and wine are symbols of Jesus, but Jesus is not really present.” Among those stating a belief in the Real Presence, 61% said “receiving the Eucharist” is “very important” to their sense of what it means to be Catholic. By comparisons, only 17% of those who do not believe in the Real Presence consider receiving Holy Communion to be “very important” to their sense of what it means to be Catholic. Although use of new media and the internet is widespread and frequent among American youth, many Catholic teens do not indicate use of these tools yet to connect with content about their faith. When these teens seek out religious or spiritual content they are still more often looking to traditional media than new media. Television is the most popular choice for this. In terms of demographics, 49% of the Catholic teens self-identified their race and/or ethnicity as non-Hispanic white and 38% as Hispanic or Latino. Seven percent self-identified their race and/or ethnicity as Asian or Pacific Islander, 3% as Black or African American, and 2% as Native American. Eighteen percent indicated that they were born outside of the United States. Applying survey percentages to Census population data, CARA estimates that there are about 4 million Catholics between the ages of 14 and 17 in the United States today. Thus, in the survey results above each single percentage point of the Catholic teen sample represents about 40,000 individuals. Interviewed in 2012, these teens were born between 1995 and 1998. Nineteen Sixty-four is a research blog for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University edited by Mark M. Gray. CARA is a non-profit research center that conducts social scientific studies about the Catholic Church. Founded in 1964, CARA has three major dimensions to its mission: to increase the Catholic Church's self understanding; to serve the applied research needs of Church decision-makers; and to advance scholarly research on religion, particularly Catholicism. Follow CARA on Twitter at: caracatholic. - ► 2018 (10) - ► 2017 (12) - ► 2016 (15) - ► 2015 (21) - ► 2014 (19) - ▼ May (3) - ► 2012 (45) - ► 2011 (33) - ► 2010 (25)
Conceived following a conversation with Israeli artist Nir Harel, Miri Segal’s The New 25 (2019) continues her desire to decode systems of meaning in order to flip them and charge them with subtle autobiographical elements. Segal proposes a new currency, which literally consists of half of a 50-euro banknote. The artist invites people to tear banknotes and start using the two halves for the value they would have had “pre-Nixon Shock”, or as if the banknote were a piece of gold. If you cut a 50-euro banknote in two, you could use it to pay as if it were a 25-euro banknote (which of course doesn’t actually exist). In addition to this semi-illegal act, which is conceived, like bitcoin, as a peer-to-peer economy, the artist refers to the word ‘crisis’, both in the sense of a so-called ‘midlife crisis’, and in terms of ‘financial crisis’.
1st Photo escape route - 2nd photo Marcelle's Parents Pierre & Juliette - 3rd photo Marcelle aged 17 - 4th & 5th photos Marcelle in later life. Personal diary of Marcelle Lefrand (Translated by her son, Claude Lefrancois) From June 6th, 1944 to February 1st, 1946. During the Second World War, my mother Marcelle Lefrand, lived with her 5 sisters, mother and father, who was a police-officer, in the National Police Force in the town of Caen. In 1944, she was 16 years old. In this very simple story, you can feel their fears when they are looking for places where they could hide all together. They tried to take refuge from the bombs, it was a huge and dreadful moment. I discovered these writings after the death of my mother in January 2010. Always in her life, she expressed an unbounded and endless joy to be liberated by the Americans. In 2009, when she became the great-grandmother of a baby boy, Martin, born at St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital in Tampa (State of Florida USA) she thought that it was a sign of destiny. My mother wrote with her mother, Juliette Lefrand, a personal diary during the terrible events which occurred in Normandy in June 1944, especially when the bombing of Caen began:- “For a few days before Tuesday June 6th, 1944, the Allied fighter planes sprayed with bullets Caen railway station. We heard the shelling of bombs falling at Carpiquet airport. It was impossible for us to stay in our classroom longer than 2 hours a day. We tried continuously to protect our lives in the bomb shelters. At 10 minutes past midnight this June 6th, Mum awoke suddenly. The window panes vibrated strongly. What was happening? She stood up because she heard cannon shots far away. At 5am, Mum shouted a warning to the girls: stand up quickly, I think it is the Allies landing! At once, all the girls dressed very quickly, the windows shook terribly. We looked through the window and saw big suns of fire towards Ouistreham. At last! It was the landing so many times hoped for! But the little girls got dressed with great haste and difficulty, we were all in a hurry to go to the cellar. We didn’t know anything about the right situation but we were happy because we felt the smell of freedom. We prepared food in the cellar because we didn’t want to die of starvation. Early in the morning, with another police officer, Dad had to take a train from Caen to Paris with a prisoner! We all thought of Dad: How did he get to the station? It was impossible…… At 8am, the police officers and their families stood at the ready. We had to go downstairs to the cellar because we heard the terrible noise of the planes above us. Our hearts beat very strongly but a few minutes later the silence came. We needed some news! The wife of our lieutenant came downstairs with a radio and a portrait of her husband, who had been arrested and shot during the night before.” He was one of the most important French resistance workers against the Germans in the town of Caen and you can see a plaque to the memory of “Captain Martin” in front of the new building of the police station of Caen. “Time passed with a lot of emotion and fears. At night, the bombing appeared to be quite often at close intervals. On the radio, the authorities declared that the population of Caen must leave their homes quickly. So, at 3pm on June 7th, Mum decided to leave the town. During the bombing, as we tried to escape from the flames and the disaster and attempted the impossible to go to the “Chemin de la Prairie”, one of the young girls waved off a white signal with her handkerchief. We succeeded in making our way to the village of Louvigny and next in the direction of Eterville. But at the crossroads, planes fired with their machine guns against a German convoy, so we had to take refuge in a trench near a field. Despite our fear we restarted our path to Maltot and stayed at the Vauvrecy farm where we were helped and supplied with some food by Catholic sisters. Unfortunately, on June 8th, the Germans occupied the farm and we saw Canadian prisoners. Before leaving the farm, Mum wrote our names and address on the walls. She wanted to go and stay with our friends at Guilberville in case Dad should look for us in this direction. On June 9th, we arrived at Esquay-Notre-Dame and drank water on the stairs of the church. When in Evrecy, we had a snack and rest in a cheese dairy. We were all so tired. The cheesemonger and his wife were very friendly and they gave us a basin, soap and household linen to wash and clean ourselves. At 8pm, in the rain, we arrived at Epinay-sur-Odon and stayed in the farm owned by our relations. At last, we slept in beds! In the morning, once again, we endured a strafing attack from low flying airplanes which wanted to stop German troops on the road. We were all discouraged; one of my sisters, Jacqueline, didn’t want to go further. Mum cried too. She was completely exhausted from her 6 children. At last on June 10th at 4pm, we restarted on foot in the direction of Villers-Bocage, but we were stopped by the bombing and we took refuge in the workshop of a carpenter and next in a stable. The following day, we arrived at the crossroads of Saint-Pierre-du-Fresne. We saw a café, we entered the house and ate our canned goods. A plane flew at high speed and skimmed the house. We heard cannon shots in the direction of Caumont-L’Evente. At Saint-Martin-des-Besaces, the bombing of the railway bridge urged us to stay in a ditch. A lot of German soldiers seemed to be wounded, a few of them were bleeding; we were happy to see them injured! We arrived at the railway station of Guilberville and after having a drink of cider, downtown, Mum bought a piece of veal to roast and slippers for our feet!! At 9pm on June 11th, we arrived at the house of our friends, safe, with our painful feet. On June 13th, Dad arrived on foot with his colleague and his family. Because it was the only one direction to escape from the battle of Caen, they had walked southward to Maltot with only the clothes on their backs and by chance had seen our address written on the wall at the Vauvrecy farm (owned by the Vauvrecy family.) We heard the rumble of the cannons towards Saint-Lo; a bomb fell behind the house. On June 28th, the Germans expelled us from the house. We all cried but we had to get out quickly. At Pont-Farcy, many bombs fell around the bridge, the ground was full of holes. The Germans rampaged the houses. After climbing the slopes, we reached the Village of Landelles where we stayed 2 days in a barn because of the bad weather. We got some goods in the village. On June 30th, we stayed at Sept-Freres which had been vacated by the inhabitants. We met a friend of my Uncle Gustave who had been a soldier with him during the First World War. He gave us a gift: a bottle of wine! On July 2nd, we slept in a barn for pigs. The next day, Dad’s colleague, his wife and daughter – a friend of my sister, Blanche – went on their own way. On July 3rd, we were welcomed by the inhabitants of Saint-Aubin-des-Bois; a woman gave us soap. We found a chapel where we prayed. In a farm, we had some bread and in a mill some flour. Next time at Coulouvray-Boisbenatre, good people invited us to stay in their home. They were clog makers. The first night we slept on hay, the other nights in beds provided by the neighbours. We stayed here until the end of July in peace and tranquillity. Because we were in July, we enjoyed cutting the hay. They gave tiny clogs to my sister, Nicole. They were poor, but generous. On August 1st , bombs and shells fell all around again and the German troops tried to hide in the hedgerows and took shelter in the forest. It was not safe to stay near the Saint-Sever forest, so we took the direction of Saint-Pois but we discovered that we were encircled and had to walk on little paths to reach Le Mesnil-Gilbert at 6 kilometers from Saint-Pois. Good people invited us to stay in a little house where we slept. We dug trenches and stayed 5 days between the lines. Shells continued to fall around us. On Sunday August 6th, 1944, we were rescued by the American troops. They took a lot of prisoners in the neighbourhood. But, in the afternoon, a German counter-attack forced us to go in a trench. We were taken by the swirl of soldiers and tanks, blinded by the dust and entirely discouraged. The American troops exhorted us to go in another direction, so we had to walk under a blazing sun and a terrible dust. The road was full of dead cows riddled with holes and burnt farms all around. At night, we arrived in Saint-Pois and saw American troop reinforcements. It was unbelievable! They threw the first candies to us and we got them with an endless joy! Yes, and endless joy! We had never felt so happy. Candies seemed so good because our throats were so very dry! We slept in the Welcome Centre in Saint-Pois. On August 8th, we were driven by American trucks to Villedieu. On August 11th, despite the bombing of Isigny, we stayed in the police station. In Caen, the police station was entirely burnt and destroyed. Dad restarted work. Mum said: we have life! On the road, we saw poverty, destruction and devastation. At last, when we arrived at our aunt’s farm in Vouilly, where the sister of Juliette lived, we all cried. In 1945, Marcelle found a job as a typist in Deauville. In Vouilly, we met together for the first communion of our sister, Blanche, and our first cousin, Noel. Dad took his new appointment in the Police Force in Caumont-L’Evente. We all returned home in January 1946. Marcelle became a typist the next month in Caumont-L’Evente.” Unfortunately, in 1947, when she was on her bike, at the age of 41, my grandmother, Juliette, was killed by a reckless driver who was drunk. So, I never knew her, because I was born in May 1948. Claude Lefrancois, MD, former Anaesthesiologist at the University Hospital of Caen. All photographs are the copyright of Hand Maid Tours, please ask before you use them. For problems or questions regarding this web contact [email protected]
When someone tells you that you need to appreciate the simple things in life because there is a chance you could lose it all, you might probably think the following: “Lamest cliché ever…” “That will never happen to me…” “Seriously? Do I look that gullible to you?” “Someone grab a pizza to spread all this cheesiness on…” I bet you think that “I thought this too for a while until the truth was revealed to me…” and so forth, and that by now you probably know where this entire narrative is going. So I’m going to let you think you do, that is, until you realize that you in fact don’t. Let’s see what I would have said if hypothetically I was writing a blog post about myself. In the conventional blog post, this is where I would introduce myself as Anesu Ndoro. Here is where I would tell when I was born, perhaps where I was born, like if I said in Chegutu, and how my childhood was; perhaps it was wonderful, dreadful, or both. I would probably then go on to give a brief background of my education, because education is very important in Zimbabwe, and would then talk about my former school (e.g. Kutama College) my friends, my family (such as hypothetical parents and three hypothetical sisters). My goals and aspirations would possibly be here, followed closely by my struggles that propelled me to be where I am today, because who doesn’t love a good story? You are expecting me to write these things, and there is nothing wrong with that expectation. What if, however, I was to tell you a slightly different story? What if in a life changing experience I, a person who has lived in Zimbabwe all his life, suddenly find myself in a foreign nation 10,001 miles away from home? What if that nation happens to be the United States, and I happened to be living in what Americans themselves call “the whitest city in all America”: Portland, Oregon? Given that I have never once learnt in the same classroom with people outside my race, what if I am at a college campus in this state, like Reed College for instance, starting my freshman year in August 2017? Better yet, what if all my professors belong to different races? What if my roommate is a different race? Let’s pretend that this hypothetical situation is true. How do I feel? How do I react? How do I navigate between stereotypes I had of Americans while back in Zimbabwe, and the stereotypes people still have of me? How do I react to the new food, the new way of life and the new people? Imagine the hilarious confusion I showed in my first few weeks; a sitcom in which I barely understand at first what people are saying because they have a thick accent, and how they all tell me they think that I have a strong accent too. How do I cope with homesickness, a severe lack of my beloved staple food sadza in my diet and how do I survive speaking in English all the time. No one here knows what Shona is, how it sounds or how to respond to it. It is probably funny to imagine, a sad kind of comic relief. Can you take a minute to think how funny it would be to see me asking classmates questions like: “How does this device work?” “What does that phrase mean?” “Can you please repeat yourself? I didn’t quite get that.” “Who? I’ve never heard of him/her.” I find myself asking these questions to people who have seen, heard and known what I’m discovering for their whole lives, and for professors to give references to people I didn’t know existed. It can be disappointing, or at least discouraging. If one is not careful in such a situation, he/she could be quite unhappy for a very long time. But what if, faced by such ‘overwhelming’ circumstances, you decide to stop and realize how incredibly fortunate you are to be in such a place? What if you remember that the meals you ate today actually cost more than someone’s entire term’s schools fees back home, and that that someone couldn’t afford it either way? What if your hypothetical American friends complain about how dreadful their morning was and how their entire day is ruined because the hot water in the shower wasn’t hot enough, but you suddenly remember how, in winter, you woke up early to fetch water from a community borehole and heat the water on fire so you could go to school clean? You laugh to yourself at how the heat of your water was directly proportional to how much effort you put into the fire. And you remember how you sometimes bathed with water only because bath soap had become a luxury. How about if you realize how much more peaceful and tranquil your home was because although your Zimbabwean economy is crippled, at least you don’t have people being shot down seemingly randomly or unfairly simply because of their race? And you remember how people are more respectful to their elders back home when you witnessed students shouting profanities at the professor the other day. What if you recalled how people have respect for morality back home? How would you react? Would you study harder so that you make life better for your family, your community and your nation? Would you think about others you left behind back home who are looking up to you, or would you suddenly ask yourself whether there were in fact any people back home at all? Your pressures would motivate you, your frustrations would fuel. Indeed, you would work to your greatest potential. These are questions I’ve asked myself these past few weeks, because there’s something about leaving the land of your forefathers that makes you realize who you are and what you stand for. These are questions someone who wants to study in the United States might ask, and questions he/she must answer should they choose to do so. Nothing in life, or in this blog post, is ever clear or straight to the point, but whether we decide to cave under the boulders of life or use them as stepping stones is completely up to us. Whether our narrative will be predictable or not is in our hands. So when you finally finish reading this ‘blog’, please consider believing in yourself and while you’re at it, changing the world. Anesu Ndoro is a USAP alum and avid mbira player who hails from Chegutu and studied at Kutama College before starting in August on a scholarship at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.
A study of west coast forests in California, Oregon and Washington concludes that biofuel from forests could increase carbon dioxide emissions by at least 14 per cent. Oregon State University calls the study “the largest and most comprehensive yet done on the effect of biofuel” from the US west coast. A diagram from the Oregon State University shows how using biofuels would increase the carbon emissions by releasing more forest carbon, including the processing and transportation of biofuel. (Oregon State University) The study, published Sunday in Nature Climate Change, contradicts previous findings that suggest biofuel could be either carbon neutral or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is uncertain whether the conclusions of the study could apply to northwestern British Columbia, due to different ecological conditions, including pine beetle devastation and the effects of climate change. For four years, the Oregon State study examined 80 forest types in 19 ecological regions in the three states, ranging from temperate rainforests to semi-arid woodlands. It included both private and public lands and different forest management practices. Tara Hudiberg, a PhD candidate at Oregon State and lead author, said in an e-mail interview, “We applied thinning scenarios which would remove whole trees and use the merchantable portion for wood products and the rest for bio-energy use (tops, branches, smaller trees of less then five inch DBH (diameter at breast height ). “On the [US] West Coast, we found that projected forest biomass removal and use for bio-energy in any form will release more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than current forest management practices. “Most people assume that wood bio-energy will be carbon-neutral, because the forest re-grows and there’s also the chance of protecting forests from carbon emissions due to wildfire,” Hudiburg said. “However, our research showed that the emissions from these activities proved to be more than the savings.” The only exception was if forests in high fire-risk zones become weakened due to insect outbreaks or drought, which impairs their growth and carbon sequestration as well as increasing the potential for large forest fires (a situation prevalent through much of British Columbia due to the devastation caused by the pine beetle.) The study says in that situation, it is possible that some thinning for bio-energy production might result in lower emissions in such cases. “Until now there have been a lot of misconceptions about impacts of forest thinning, fire prevention and bio-fuels production as it relates to carbon emissions from forests,” said Beverly Law, a professor in the OSU Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society and co-author of this study. (Oregon State University) “If our ultimate goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, producing bio-energy from forests will be counterproductive,” Law said. “Some of these forest management practices may also have negative impacts on soils, biodiversity and habitat. These issues have not been thought out very fully.” The study examined thousands of forest plots with detailed data and observations, considering 27 parameters, including the role of forest fire, emissions savings from bio-energy use, wood product substitution, insect infestations, forest thinning, energy and processes needed to produce bio-fuels, and many others. It looked at four basic scenarios: “business as usual”; forest management primarily for fire prevention purposes; additional levels of harvest to prevent fire but also make such operations more economically feasible; and significant bio-energy production while contributing to fire reduction. Compared to “business as usual” or current forest management approaches, all of the other approaches increased carbon emissions, the study found. Under the most optimal levels of efficiency, management just for fire prevention increased it two percent; for better economic return, six percent; and for higher bio-energy production, 14 percent. “We looked at CHP (combined heat and power from combustion) and cellulosic ethanol and we accounted for all sources of Carbon emissions from harvest to use,” Hudiberg said. She added, “We don’t believe that an optimal efficiency of production is actually possible in real-world conditions. With levels of efficiency that are more realistic, we project that the use of these forests for high bio-energy production would increase carbon emissions 17 percent from their current level.” About 98 percent of the forests in the three western US states are now estimated to be a carbon sink, meaning that even with existing management approaches the forests sequester more carbon than they release to the atmosphere. Forests capture a large portion of the carbon emitted worldwide, and some of this carbon is stored in pools such as wood and soil that can last hundreds to thousands of years, the scientists said. The study suggests that increases in harvest volume on the US West Coast, for any reason, will instead result in average increases in emissions above current levels. “Energy policy implemented without full carbon accounting and an understanding of the underlying processes risks increasing rather than decreasing emissions,” they conclude. When asked about British Columbia, Hudiberg noted: “We are not aware of anything in particular, but we do know that BC forests may (or already are) be more susceptible to climate change impacts and insect outbreaks. So initially, it may be a more suitable region for bio-energy but the same analysis we did here would have to be done [in BC] to know for sure. She cautions, “The study conclusions are based on the regional conditions and current regional carbon uptake with current management practices For other areas, the current conditions need to be assessed before deciding if bio-energy will increase or decrease carbon emissions.” Biofuel in northwestern BC Biofuels are seen as a growth industry in northwestern British Columbia, with a number of companies are starting to work on various forms of biofuel investments including large corporations as well as medium and small business. - In Kitimat, Pytrade has proposed a biomass plant that would use pyrolysis to convert wood waste into liquid bio-fuels and also generate heat that can be used by green houses used to train people in horticulture in conjunction with North West Community College. Pytrade also plans to make money by selling carbon offsets for every tonne of C02 not emitted into the atmosphere they will make money by selling credits. An application by company for a provincial a one million dollar Innovative Clean Energy (ICE) grant has been approved. - General Biofuels Canada is planning a 500,000 metric tonne per year wood pellet facility in Terrace. This project would use hemlock fibre from “non-saw grade fibre” from area forest licence holders. - Toronto-based CORE BioFuel Inc. Wants to build a plant, likely in Houston, (and perhaps more plants) to turn forest waste fibre into gasoline. Each plant would cost $100 million and require 220,000 tons of fibre a year to produce 67 million litres of gas. As well as the College of Forestry at Oregon State University, the study involved institutions in Germany and France. It was supported by the US Dept. Of Energy.
Analysis: Did new tax deal lack transparency? When Governor Andrew Cuomo took office in January, he promised to bring a new era of openness and transparency to state government. At our Reporters' Roundtable, Bill Hammond of the Daily News says that the recent tax and budget deal that Gov. Cuomo struck with the legislature fell short of that pledge for increased transparency. 'It was the ultimate Albany insider deal,' Hammond says, pointing out that, within just a few days, Cuomo quietly went from opposing the millionaire's tax to extending it in a slightly modified form. The bill will cut taxes for 4.4 million New Yorkers, while raising taxes on those making more than $1 million (for single filers) or $2 million (for joint filers). The tax deal was struck as Cuomo waived the three-day requirement for a bill to undergo public inspection. Watch more analysis from Hammond above.
Part of this ideological structure is the institution of animal welfarism which teaches people that animal use is not the issue; animal treatment is, especially in relation to nonhuman individuals held as pets. Even though many people may say that they "do not care" about other animals, they rarely think we are free to do absolutely anything we want to do to them. It is not often, for example, that we'd meet a person who sees nothing wrong when they hear news that someone put a small animal into a microwave oven, or has slashed horses in fields, or likes to have sex with nonhuman animals until they die. People may suggest that their opposition to these things is based on indirect duties we have to other animals but many will recognise that we have some direct duties to them that would not allow such forms of use. The reality is that they'd prefer to keep the nuts and bolts of the way we use animals out of their consciousness. The very existence of vegans (and even vegetarians) reminds them of things they'd rather forget; things they go out of their way to "not know." We should recognise that we are still in the pioneer stage when it comes to veganism. The term only came into being in 1944 and veganism as the moral baseline of the movement is very new as an accepted idea (not forgetting that many animal advocates still do not accept it). This means that, at this stage, we need to reach those people most willing to consider new ideas and change. If we can get through to enough of them, the law of supply and demand will ensure that more vegan goods will be made available, making it easier for the next group of people to live vegan. The trick is knowing - or guessing - what would represent critical mass on this: 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%? The best way to respond to people who do not "care about animals" is to think that they are not ready yet, that they are thoroughly socialised speciesists, and that they are part of that percentage of the population who will need to be forced to go vegan by the weight of numbers of people already living vegan.
It was a critique of the duplication, and thus the wasted resources, in the then prevailing animal advocacy movement. In the booklet, lots of prominent British animal advocates were quoted saying, in effect, that the grassroots should be regarded as the backbone of the animal movement. I’m not sure that similar sentiments would be found as often in the 21st century. The “movement” seems to have more fully embraced the corporate model, dominated by competing national groups, than was the case 30 years ago. I cannot figure out why we persist with the financial structure of the movement which effectively enriches the national organisations and keeps the local and regional groups in poverty. One hears regularly of the, perhaps inactive, supporters of the animal movement giving substantial donations to national groups – but rarely of people deliberately going out of their way to fund their local organisations. And yet it really is the case that the local grassroots of many social movements are truly the backbone of the particular mobilisation in question. I’ve experienced this odd, faulty, funding tradition in recent times in Ireland. I regard the style of vegan education outreach pioneered by the Vegan Information Project (VIP) in Dublin to be a real mould breaker in terms of direct and regular contact with the general public. In effect, the VIP have brought together several elements of street advocacy under one roof – literally a roof - provided by a weather proof gazebo stall (see HERE, HERE, and HERE). The VIP are still yet to pay off the vegan animal sanctuary from which we bought a van to transport all our equipment – yet national group appeals will provoke single donations amounting to more than we asked for in total. The Internet Age: Why Are We Stuck in the Last Century? - Before the internet, there were some, but not many, persuasive reasons why people may have chosen to donate to national groups – but do they still stack up? Assuming that “looking professional” is important in today’s shallow, celebrity-drenched culture, it is often thought that the “professionals” in the movement, almost by definition, must produce the best campaign materials, and be the most “efficient.” This is not necessarily true, and even if it were, what’s being valued is the amount of money such people have at their disposal to improve, for example, video production values. In relation to videos, it should also be remembered that until the advent of micro-cameras and reliable batteries, a great deal of the footage used in national group videos were supplied to them, sometimes anonymously and at great personal risk, by grassroots activists. Designing literature and sales goods used to be the preserve of specialists not so long ago – this is no longer the case. There are numerous examples of software, often free, that can facilitate the production of these items now. Indeed, it must be rare to find a local group that does not have within their ranks people with the necessary computer skills for design, including website design. Easily updated, locally-relevant literature is far better than generic leaflets and posters from national groups. Sociologists suggest that many human beings fervently wish to leave behind some social legacy – some mark on the earth – after they are gone. The most common and socially-sanctioned means of this, of course, is through having children – but campaigners like to think that their financial (and perhaps written) contributions may go on helping causes they supported before their death. This is understandable on a human level – but well-funded local groups can provide that too. Continued grassroots advocacy on the local level can be a fitting memorial to those who fund local groups. Continuity and Waste. It has been suggested that people may prefer giving to national mobilisations with their duplicated staff because they are more “stable” than local groups. Some worry, furthermore, that the volunteer groups may “waste” the funds they receive. There is no guarantee that either will make all the right choices with regard to expenditure but the national group structure may well turn out to be the most wasteful. First, in terms of stability, and if stability in the sense of consistency of message is meant, then a local group may well provide that the most. There are social scientific reasons for this. Social movement theory teaches us that hitherto radical groups tend to moderate and may quickly lose sight of their original aims once “becoming professional” gets a hold of them: once the paying of wages and the funding of expensive offices become the priority. Social movement theorists use a concept known as goal displacement to illustrate this disempowering phenomenon. Once the notion of, “we’re in it for the long haul” kicks in, things may well slow down, and attention may well turn to organisation longevity and the building of lifelong career structures. How long have we simply assumed that the present international movement-wide structure of having many, many, waged staff: duplicated positions, duplicated jobs, duplicated stances, duplicated literature, duplicated materials, duplicated sales goods, duplicated salaries, is the correct and most “efficient” one? Those who worry about “waste” may well think that “the professionals” in a movement are almost inevitably the hardest working, most talented, and most sussed-out activists a movement has. They rarely appear to consider the waste of a great deal of money on duplicating paying people to do things small groups of volunteers with access to the Web could achieve with the same quality of equipment to hand. The (vegan) cream always rises to the top, right? Not necessarily. In my own experience, the hardest working activists have been grassroots campaigners. I would caution against anyone getting the impression that the lot of the paid “professionals” is grind and slog! I remember from my days in Vegan Ireland the frustrations the grassroots advocates felt dealing with national group staff who clocked off at 4.30pm and seemed forever on leave, often resulting in delays and missed deadlines. Time for Change (Again) I would like people reading this blog entry to seriously consider and assess how and what they give in terms of money and effort for the cause of animal liberation. Are you paying for multiple wages when you really want your gifts to go straight to educating the public? If so, consider who are best placed to reach the people in their own localities – who knows about animal use in their areas? – who knows and lives with the people, and who are keyed into the local cultural variables? Why fund the national group to make literature which is then handed back to the local activists for distribution? Why not simply go to the root of grassroots advocacy? Direct advocacy. Seek out your local group(s), see what they do; decide what type of campaigning it is that you want to finance – think what they can do with that extra support: it will not be spent of jetting around the world, that’s for sure. Better still, why not seek out your local group(s), help fund them, and get involved in the most important style of education there is – going direct to the public. There is nothing more important in terms of animal rights than to bring about an increase in the numbers of vegans in all localities. If you cannot be active – or that’s not your thing – you can still help to have a great impact of changing cultural attitudes about human relations with other sentient beings and their exploitative use through your local groups.
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Texas, a western-wannabe state, has the same problem. It's called the "right of capture" there, but it should be called the "right to steal from your neighbors, your children, their children, and all your relations." Bottled water comes from the most drought-ridden places in the country. Popular brands like Aquafina and Dasani source from catastrophically dry parts of the West. This article in the San Jose Mercury News talks about 17 communities in California that face an ever worsening drought situation. The drought there is the worst since statehood in 1850. Melissa and I are deeply saddened to report the sudden but apparently peaceful death of our real friend, Tom Knoblauch. Fun, funny, fascinatingly intelligent, totally generous, deeply caring, and completely committed to a much, much better world, his soul exuded an infectious goodness that was both highly creative and profoundly concerned for the future of our planet and our species. To say that he will be missed is the understatement of the millennium. Copyright TR Knoblauch, 2013 Here's a great resource for green research! Co-created by the ever-brilliant Steven Schmidt, of 1990s Green Party fame, the site gives me hope for the future. "GreenPolicy360 presents best practices -- practical and visionary green policy solutions," Schmidt says, "We are a database and go-to e-resource where a keyword can deliver multiple examples of green initiatives and projects, real-world models and templates from and for your location, town, village, city, state, country, or region." If you care, it's worth a like and a share. From a 2013 publication the UN concludes a switch to smaller scale organic farming may be the only way to feed the world’s population moving forward. "Pavement-heavy cities suffer from heat-island effect, lack of green space and poor drainage. The North Design Office has proposed one creative solution to this: redirect rainwater through a water-based, explorative, plant-filled educational element. Water running through the "Bio-Flume" will support plants and trees in different "biodiversity zones" that will change each season. Read more about this Homegrown Design Challenge proposal and others at http://www.davidsuzuki.org/homegrownchallenge." The GreenHouse vertical farm is a 48'x48' greenhouse that grows 135,000 plants a year in Tower Gardens, using 5% of the water used by outdoor farming. The farm supplies Walt Disney World resorts, along with Emeril’s Orlando, Ritz Carlton, Marriott World Center & the Hilton with fresh greens and herbs year round. "We also have incredibly small losses, and the consistency of growing allows us to be able to deliver the same quantities weekly to our restaurants, making us a lot more reliable than “traditional” farms."... Katherine Grandey, Co-Founder & Owner of The GreenHouse. I wonder though...about soil and nutrients...are these things as healthy as normal garden-grown veggies? Saw a version of this in the New Mexican a couple of weeks ago but passing it on via Keith D Johnson who publishes the ever-awesome Permaculture Activist Magazine. As we look to broaden and diversify our water portfolios, we need to look to the sky, too, especially since we seem to be drying up what's under our feet.
Background: Hari Singh Everest was a writer and educator who migrated from India to the United States in 1955, settling in California, working first as a farm laborer to earn money to pay for his graduate school tuition at Stanford University. Everest graduated with a Masters’ Degree in Communications from Stanford in 1957. He found it difficult to secure a university faculty position or work as a journalist in the US, despite his higher education degrees and other qualifications, because of his traditional Sikh appearance. Everest practiced Sikhism, a religion founded in 1469 in South Asia by Guru Nanak, a social reformer who challenged the authority of the Brahmins and the caste order. Guru Nanak taught that all human beings are equal and can realize the divine within them without any human intermediaries or priests. Sikhs believe that each individual can realize the divine on his or her own through devotion to God, truthful living, and service to humanity. The three basic principles of Sikhism are honest living, sharing with the needy, and praying to one God In 1961, Everest secured a teaching position in Yuba City, California, at Tierra Buena Elementary School, where he stayed for the next 20 years. A prolific writer, Everest’s articles and letters appeared frequently in the local press. He also served as a community leader in Yuba City, serving as a spokesman and community representative for the Tierra Buena Gurdwara (the Sikh place of worship). The story of Hari Singh Everest provides important insights into the lives of immigrants to the United States and the challenges faced by ethnic and religious minorities in the US in the 20th Century. Everest faced prejudice about his distinctive appearance that limited his ability to achieve many of his professional goals. His perseverance and work ethic, dedication to the ideals outlined in the US Constitution, and commitment both to his community and his adopted country serve as an important reminder of both the challenges faced and opportunities presented to immigrants to the United States in the late 20th Century.
In early December, 2011 I visited two farms in Kosciusko County Indiana (NE IN) where producers had intentionally planted cover crops after their wheat was harvested for the purpose of grazing cattle and improving soil. One of the producers planted a mixture that was featured in this blog. His Oats/Cereal Rye/Turnip mixture looked beautiful and it appears he will have more feed than he needs to get the cattle through December without feeding much hay! Only a severe ice storm or exceptionally wet soil would seem to prevent that from happening. Here is a video my wife and I took from this field. Just down the road a different farmer planted a different mixture. His pastures were decimated by the summer drought and over grazing. Frankly I would not have recommended the mixture he planted…only because I was not sure how the cattle would graze cover crop radishes. His mixture was 3# Appin turnips and 3# of GroundHog cover crop radishes. That was all…When my new farmer friend drove me by the field I did not see the cattle…and even then I was noticing a lot of bare soil (the area between all of the brassicas) and was longing to see oats or some grass species out in the field with the brassicas. Then we found the gent that planted the field. He was ecstatic! The cattle were grazing both the turnips and radishes very well. His cattle had great body condition and his feed bill was way down. My only recommendation was that he feed dry hay to the cattle along with the brassicas so that they would not end up with some health issues (acidosis, foundering, etc…). Brassicas should not make up more than 30-35% of the diet for cattle and he was at over 80%. Watch a video from this field. It is very important to include fiber in the diet of the cattle when grazing turnips and radishes. The forage quality of the brassica is too high for the cattle to have a healthy rumen. If the producer that planted only the brassicas had fed straw or lower quality dry grass hay the cattle would have been healthier. I believe that is why the cattle were eating so many bulbs…they needed more fiber.
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Back Connect Proxy “One Way Glove” Purpose: One-time short-term use. For example, for data scraping or posting Advantages: A large number of IP addresses at a low price for each of them. Very less likely to receive the same IP address again. You will get just several IPs (so called Ports or Gateways) that don’t change and you will insert them in your software or bots. By each HTTP request or after a given period of time (usually 3, 5, 10 minutes) your bots will get new IPs. Besides, residential proxies are the most imperceptible of all the proxy types, i.e. can not be identified as a proxy, since their IP addresses are registered with the name of home Internet providers (mobile, cable or ADSL providers operating global and local like Verizon, T-mobile, Rostelecom, AT & T etc) Disadvantages: Due to the fact that each request is sent through a new IP address, there is some instability in speed and response time. Slow or even completely dead proxies could make it into the fastest proxies. Things to consider: The time it takes to obtain a new IP address may differ among packages from different providers. In some cases, it is a fixed time, e.g. 3 minutes, after which a new address is received. In other cases, there is no fixed time and a new address is obtained after refreshing the page or on each HTTP request. Solution: Select a package in accordance with its tasks. Pay attention to the Proxy Package Finder’s “Rotation Time” and “Adjustable” options
A great saint, this, whose feast falls this day: St Peter of Verona, Dominican preacher extraordinaire against heretical depravity and martyr, stedfastly adhering to our Most Holy Faith despite being born of Manichee parents, and being at length done to death by a hireling of the enemies of Catholic truth – but he had the victory as a second St Stephen, for his murder repented, himself joined the Dominicans and had a happy death. Blessed are they who die in the Lord! St Peter is an Easter saint: preaching the true resurrection of Christ, Who was just as surely true God and true Man, he had the Paschal Sequence Victimæ Paschali laudes immolent Christiani ("Christians, to the Paschal Victim offer sacrifice and praise") on his lips as he walked toward Milan the day of his martyrdom: thus he merited to follow in His Lord's footsteps, and to offer his body a holocaust in honour of the Paschal Victory of Christ, the King of Martyrs. Such was the popular acclaim that St Peter was canonized at Milan by the Pope only a year after his death; his skull, cruelly chopped by a billhook, is still exhibited as a holy relic there. As he lay dying, his last act was to write Credo in Deum with his own cerebral blood: surely an apt death for a true Preacher. Now, with the Lamb once slain, he lives for ever. Alleluia!
The Magnificat antiphon for the Feast of Our Lady's Nativity, Nativitas tua Dei Genitrix Virgo, is a translation of the Apolytikion of the Feast in the Byzantine Liturgy (Ἡ γέννησίς σου Θεοτόκε, χαρὰν ἐμήνυσε πάσῃ τῇ οικουμένῃ, ἐκ σοῦ γὰρ ἀνέτειλεν ὁ Ἥλιος τῆς δικαιοσύνης, Χριστὸς ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, καὶ λύσας τὴν κατάραν, ἔδωκε τὴν εὐλογίαν, καὶ καταργήσας τὸν θάνατον, ἐδωρήσατο ἡμῖν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον.). Its Gregorian chant melody is interesting to me because it resembles a very ornate psalm-tone (rather in the style of that of the Ambrosian Transitorium Te laudamus Domine omnipotens), which I transcribe as follows, breaking the chant into sense-lines to reveal the repeated motifs: Note that the first and fourth lines are all but identical as regards the chant, while the second, third and fifth lines are the same from the climacus (five descending notes) onwards, and after the quarter bar are all but the same as the first and fourth lines, just as the beginnings of the first and fourth (but for the climacus) resemble that of the second and to a lesser extent the fifth, while at the same time the beginnings of the third line is quite different in melody. In the Dominican Rite, this antiphon is (or was) used also for Our Lady's Visitation and Presentation, as well as for other Marian feasts, in each case changing the word Nativitas into, respectively, Visitatio, Præsentatio, and Solemnitas. Likewise, in the Monastic Breviary, the same is done for the feast of Our Lady's Maternity, changing Nativitas into Maternitas (and ending the chant at Christus Deus noster). We had a lovely OF parish Mass in the evening of the Feast yesterday; perhaps next year our schola can learn this chant and sing it either at Mass or Benediction.
[February 7 2017] Ceramist Makoto Orui uses a personal and sensitive method to develop new ways to transform clay. In 2007, Orui learned the basic technique for using the traditional kick wheel in a French ceramics atelier in Saint-Paul in Paris: “There are two methods to making ceramics as an individual. One is solely by your own hands and the other is by using a wheel (electric wheel or kick wheel).. Gradually, I became fascinated by the technique and process of my hands and emotions integrating with clay and the kick wheel to throw clay. Now, I’m in another atelier where I make ceramics using the electric wheel.” — Makoto Orui On view until February 14th, at Gallery Naruyama, 2 Chome-2-8 Kudanminami, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Photo Chikashi Suzuki
Before we dive in, we have to make sense of what it means to write computer code. Python is just one of many different languages, or ways to make computers do something that we want it to. And yes, computers really only do what we tell them to do… But gosh, sometimes it doesn’t feel like that, does it? A great way to start thinking about Python is with some easy exercises and reading material from the MIT OpenCourseWare course called “A Gentle Introduction to Programming Using Python”. Note: This course, which most of the exercises are taken from, was built for MIT students, who aren’t familiar with any programing and are first time coders, just like many of us. We will use a lot of their material throughout this course, but their rules do not apply to us. In short: Feel free to cheat as much as you like! Actually please, cheat! I am encouraging you to work with other people, ask them about how they solved the problems and converse as much or as little as you like. As our good friend Dave Cormier puts it: “I believe in cheating as learning”. Let your learning style be your guide with the materials. If you like to learn by trying, start with Codecademy’s exercises; if you are a reader, start with the text, or you can dive right into the exercises. It is completely up to you. Don’t worry, you will be quickly able to grasp the idea behind Like I said, you will get much more of this course if you interact with other folks in our discussions forums. There are no stupid questions over there, so do not be afraid to start some conversations with other people about this programing-thing-a-majiggy… or ice-cream, or cats, or anything, really. In short-make yourself at home. You can start by introducing yourself and telling a nice joke. I am a funny robot and I like funny jokes. Please come and help me with the exercises, I am just a robot who is learning too. I kindly invite you to do some reading about what a program actually is, the difference between formal and natural languages and what a very basic program look like. If you feel like you want to start out slowly and really get a very gentle introduction, then pop over to Codeacademy’s page and unleash your fingers at the keyboard. The chapter Python Units, Python Syntax and Strings and Console Output is enough for the first week. From the MIT OCW’s course A Gentle Introduction to Programming Using Python Please Note: The homework 1.pyfile referred to in the above handout is available on the assignments page of the MIT OCW’s course materials, and is labled “Code template (PY)” on that page. You can also download it here Let’s build something fun as our first project. When I was a young robot, I spent hours playing simple game called Tetris. I know that many of you know it very well, don’t you? I find it very amusing and also distracting, and as such I think it is a perfect fit for our first project. Now that we know how to make the .py files, I suggest that we create a file called tetris.py. In the file we can store the names of the shapes in different variables and print them out, something like: J_shape = "_\|" It may not look like much now, but in time we are going to be tetromaniacs again. The 80’s are back! If you have some creative ideas on how would you build this game, then don’t be a stranger, pop over to the discussion forums and blow our minds. See you soon! MOOC-E is leaving you with something of a chuckle… –Your mechanical friend MOOC-E
14 Professional Hallway Light Switch Wiring Diagram Photos Related photos in this diagram: Other recommended diagram ideas: 14 Professional Hallway Light Switch Wiring Diagram Photos - Dominick, my son thought he would assist out in replacing the old skool up-down toggle on-off wall switches to the brand new fancy big fascia switches. Right here in lies the problem. He and his mother went and purchased the wrong type transfer. (Was alleged to be a three-way switch) this for 2 locations in which they manipulate strength to (1) a mild within the center of an extended hallway and (2) a light managed by switches at pinnacle and bottom of staircase. They made the trade without me being gift so i couldn’t determine out the unique wiring connections. After burning up a few circuit breakers i placed a forestall to their attempt as i was afraid they might have carried out worse. Once i went returned to try to re-set up the authentic switches until i am getting the precise ones, i noticed the wiring to be exceptional and am looking to figure out the right way of re-connecting the wires to the on-off switches. The circuit to the hallway makes use of 2 pink wires and 1 black twine. The circuit to the staircase makes use of red and two black wires. In each circuits there are no white wires linked to any of the switches. Your help could be immensely liked. Thank you, george. Mr. Dominick, i apprehend the basic wiring for a 3-manner switch and your video facilitates to enhance my understanding. My wife requested me to install new led furnishings within the hallway. One is on a separate 2-way transfer (works first-class) and the opposite is attached to three-manner switches. However, i seem to be getting residual/inductive present day; the fixture glows whilst switched-off. The energy seems to be getting into the light and running into the switches. I'm able to’t seem to segregate the residual modern to maintain the light from glowing. Any thoughts?. Yeah certain it makes experience. But it's going to stilled be cord from the switches the identical manner. However in this video i simplest show one of the approaches to wire a three manner. Test my other video “how to twine a three way to present one manner” that can help clean things up a little.
#etvSunrise: Remembering the legacy of Nelson Mandela On Wednesday morning we find out more about the Nelson Mandela Debating Challenge. Sunrise, weekdays at 5:30AM. As part of the Nelson Mandela Foundation's efforts to educate people about the legacy of the late icon, they engaged with young people in a lively debate about Madiba’s life, times and legacy, in the year of his centenary. Learners from all nine provinces were brought together to debate about Mandela as the activist, the governor and Mandela the philanthropist. Later in the show, we’ll talk about testicular cancer and look at preventative measures and ways men can protect themselves after they’ve been diagnosed. Catch Sunrise Mondays to Fridays on OVHD Channel 104 and DStv channel 194 from 5:30AM -8:30AM.
Azalea Knight. home security. June 26th , 2018. The recommended distance is 30 feet apart. There should be a smoke detector on every level of the home. It is also highly recommended to have smoke detectors in the bedrooms. There are various other ways that security around a home can be organized. One of these ways is to install security gadgets and features. These include monitoring gadgets such as video cameras, CCTV, lasers, alarm systems, flash lights and all others. These can be installed at entry points, exits, the gates, windows and at strategic locations within a home. A good security official will be able to assess a property and recommend areas where these gadgets can be installed. They will identify the most vulnerable locations such as dark areas and open spaces. If your system is wireless then you can have a key fob programmed into the system. The key fob gives you the ability to arm, disarm and send a panic alarm into the control panel. There are also medical pendants available that will trigger a medical emergency alarm to the control panel. Each alarm that is sent to the central station is a unique type of alarm. They know that there is a medical emergency and will dispatch the correct authorities. These devices usually come with a variety of ways to attach the pendant such as a bracelet or wristband. They are also water resistant so they can be worn into the shower. Any content, trademark/s, or other material that might be found on this site that is not this site property remains the copyright of its respective owner/s. In no way does readandcook claim ownership or responsibility for such items a and you should seek legal consent for any use of such materials from its owner.
Scuba divers who visit Komodo National usually use wooden boats to take them to their destinations. However, based our experience, it’s not the best option. Therefore we recommend using speedboat instead. There are some good reasons why taking speedboat is better than wooden boats. Speedboats are a lot faster, thus saving a lot of your time Komodo National Park has a lot more to offer than just allowing you to observe the Komodo dragons in their habitat. It has several areas consisting of three main islands—Komodo Island, Rinca Island, and Padar Island—and 26 smaller islands. An archipelago that offers the beauty of nature in itself. In addition to observing the giant lizards, you can also have a fun time in other sites such as beaches, caves, and waterfalls. Not only does Komodo National Park offer a magnificent view of the land, but it also has a wonderful marine life. The underwater world of Komodo National Park is popular among international scuba divers and is one of the best in the world. The bright colored marine life makes a charm that captivates scuba divers and snorkeling enthusiasts. Diving in the waters around Komodo Island, you may find the biodiversity down there, including the mantas and stingrays, sharks, turtles, dolphins, dugongs, pelagic, sea horses, and many other fishes. Not to mention, the corals where these animals live is a beautiful view to behold. There are about 42 diving sites around Komodo National Park, with all its characteristics and uniqueness. The water temperature at the diving sites ranges from 20°C-28° C and warmer on southern part. The trip from Labuan Bajo (the transit port) to the Komodo Island using a wooden boat typically takes 3-4 hours. On the other hand, we have new 12 meter speedboats with Suzuki 4-stroke engines. With total 500 HP, we can go at an average speed of 25–27 knots, and reach the maximum speed of 31 knots. With us, using fast speedboats, you will be able to reach Komodo Island in less than an hour. We save your time by 2-3 hours! It means you will get a lot more time to enjoy your vacations rather than wasting it on the trip. By saving 2-3 hours, you can have a lot more fun diving with the fish underwater or observe the Komodo dragons already. Comfort at its finest Our speedboats are designed especially to provide comfort for divers. The speedboats can accommodate 15 snorkelers or 10 scuba divers (since the diving gear will take some space). We provide tank slots that can store up to 14 tanks, thus making it easier for you to put on your BCDs before jumping into the water. Your diving equipment can also be stored in compartments to keep it safe. Meanwhile, passengers have a lot of space for you to move around the boat. Our speedboats also have spacious sundeck where you can sunbathe. Our speedboats are ready on demand and flexible with itinerary schedule. There are about 42 diving sites in Komodo National Park. Among the most popular diving sites are: Whatever your plan and itinerary schedule is, we will be ready to take you around to see these beautiful places. Unlike the trip with a wooden boat or package tour, we are pretty flexible with the schedule. Team of professional divers Our team consists of professional divers with years of experience in diving. We have been in the business for a while, and we know very well the best destinations around Komodo National Park. Diving with us, your safety is guaranteed. Moreover, we can take you to peaceful and charming sites, in case you want to have a private place to enjoy the tranquility. Explore the beautiful waters around the Komodo National Park with our luxury speedboat. We are ready to take you on a cruise to the diving sites with comfort and style.
A few people have emailed me about this article in The Washington Post, U.S. pushes for more scientists, but the jobs aren’t there. Other people cover this area well (for example), so I’m not going to say much. But first, ignore the article in the paper, and read the original survey which the article is based on: Science & Engineering Labor Force. What the newspaper article added in terms of value was interviewing a small number of people. This is fine I suppose, but it adds no real substantive value, because you can’t really obtain a representative sample. Additionally, if you look at the employment data in the PDF I link to above you see that though things aren’t peachy for Ph.D.s, they are often far better than for people with less education. In other words you can’t just compare a science Ph.D. to some idealized full-employment world with 100% job satisfaction. In the real world everyone has to hustle now, and often it is better to hustle with a doctorate than not. What the PDF attached does illustrate is that the cost of forgone wages probably hits life science Ph.D.s in particular. The perpetual postdoc syndrome is probably what’s depressing wages for this subset. Ultimately the problem here is that you are taking the category, “STEM Ph.D.”, and collapsing it all together into one class. Institution matters. A Stanford Ph.D. is going to have a better prospect than a Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi. Field matters. Your lab matters. Your aims matter. If a tenure track position is your goal, and you aren’t going to be happy with anything else, then you should know that all things equal the odds are going to be against you. Of course all things aren’t equal. Some people get lucky, or are better placed by the end of their graduate education, or, they’re smarter and more talented to begin with. One thing in the article though that I was curious about was this: After earning her expensive doctorate in neuroscience over seven years, which she financed by working and drawing down her savings, Amaral spent a year counting blips on a computer screen for another scientist…. Salaries for university post-doc jobs start at about $39,000, according to the National Postdoctoral Association. They require a science PhD — which can leave the recipient buried in debt. Benefits are usually minimal and, until a decade ago, even health insurance was rare. How common is debt for those who get Ph.D.s? Most of the science Ph.D.s I know have stipends or are teaching assistants. When looking around for hard numbers, all I found was this, Graduate Student Debt Matters: But graduate students aren’t necessarily seeking financial return on an investment. Many of them are simply trying to pay for their studies in the only way they can. Only a small percentage of graduate students receive full financial aid. Even if we keep that in mind, graduate-student debt levels are startling: The 2004 median figures are $28,000 for those who have master’s degrees, and $45,000 for Ph.D.’s.Those totals don’t even include undergraduate loans. (Note, too, that those figures are medians, which are more telling than averages in this case. Some graduate students, especially those at wealthy universities, finish with little or no debt, while others might carry $75,000 or more.) Graduate students in the sciences receive the most financial support. They also finish their degrees the fastest. Humanities students receive lower levels of support and, thus, pay more dollars into the system. They finish more slowly and take on more debt. (They also work longer for the university at apprentice wages, paying sweat into the system—without receiving any “sweat equity” in return—before they start writing checks to the banks that issued their loans.) I’d like this issue clarified in regards to science graduate students. I don’t know much about this, and querying around doesn’t return specific results.
The exhibition Inside Out: Pompeian Interiors Exposed at the Italian Cultural Institute includes a virtual-reality model of the Villa dei Papiri (Villa of the Papyri) in Herculaneum that I recently developed at UCLA’s Experiential Technologies Center with support from the Friends of Herculaneum Society. The model presents a digital walkthrough of the grand ancient villa, which was located by the sea and decorated throughout with mosaics and frescoes. Named after the collection of papyrus scrolls found on its premises, the Villa dei Papiri is famous for inspiring the design for the Getty Villa, though the Getty Villa’s groundplan is adapted to its narrow canyon site. The VR model incorporates data from both past and recent excavations and proposes a scientifically documented reconstruction, as opposed to commercial reconstructions that are influenced by the Getty Villa. I developed the model in discussion with the excavators of the site with the purpose of making it available as a research tool for archaeological excavation. The Villa dei Papiri is located below ground level under layers of rock, and still has not been entirely excavated. My aim in creating the virtual-reality model of the Villa of the Papyri was threefold. First, I set out to create a digital architectural model that incorporates the architectural structures known from the 18th century as well as those found in recent excavations. Second, I wanted to present a reconstruction that distinguishes the structures known from Karl Weber’s groundplan made in 1758, when the villa still lay mostly underground, from the structures that have been unearthed in excavations conducted between 1986 and 1998, and again since 1999, as well as from proposed restorations. These areas are color-coded on the model: beige for areas known from the 18th century plan, gold for areas revealed during the recent excavations, and grey for reconstructed areas. My third aim in creating the VR model was to reincorporate the surviving known fragments of the finds from the villa, such as wall paintings, mosaics, sculptures, and papyri. In the model, visitors can see images of these artworks, which dot the site as shown in the diagrams below. Reinhard Förtsch and I are currently working together to publish the model online through the websites of the Archaeological Institute at the University of Cologne and the German Archaeological Institute, with the support of the Thyssen Foundation, so that people around the world can pay a virtual visit to this striking Roman villa. All Images © 2012 Mantha Zarmakoupi. Modeling undertaken at the Experiential Technologies Center, University of California, Los Angeles. The virtual reality model of the Villa dei Papiri was created at the Experiential Technologies Center, University of California, Los Angeles, with the support of the Friends of Herculaneum Society, University College London, and the Excellence Cluster Topoi (Freie Universität, Berlin). Special thanks to Diane Favro, Lisa Snyder, Chris Johanson, and Dean Abernathy.
The work is hard, long, grueling, often tedious and sometimes dangerous. That danger was broadcast once again to the nation by the deaths of 19 firefighters earlier this summer trying to save Yarnell, Arizona. It came home when Boise smokejumper Mark T. Urban died during in September when his chute didn’t open. There was a kind of poetry in the words of his fellow firefighters as they remembered his quiet leadership, his mandolin playing, his river-running and his smile. Their also was the recognition in the 600 people who turned out to remember him that the wildland firefighting fraternity is one of the closest-knit tribes in American society. If you want to understand them and you couldn’t make the ceremony the best way is in the words of poet-firefighter Jerry Mathes II. Mathes’ book “Ahead of the Flaming Front,” shows the reader what it like to cut a fire line with a Pulaski on an August afternoon as the humidity drops, the smoke turns dark and the fire builds. He puts you on a helicopter ready to jump out and rappel with 85 pounds of equipment on your back, Mathes remembers close calls, poor decisions, conflicts between agencies and great conversations “in a gritty cocoon of dried sweat and drift smoke” in places like Hayfork, Washington, Rebel Creek, Nevada and Krassel Idaho along the South Fork of the Salmon River. Mathes fought fires for 14 seasons from Idaho to the Mexico border and also wrote a book of poetry and taught writing at the University of Idaho and Antarctica. “Ahead of the Flaming Front” is his tale of life and death along the fire lines at a time when fires were growing fiercer and agencies were struggling to balance the need to manage fire, safety and the public. Mathes will read from his book Thursday at the Rediscovered Bookshop in Boise at 6 p.m. It’s published by Idaho’s own Caxton Press.
Leaders from Dunkin’ Brands, Mary Kay, MasterCard and Unilever share how they were able to drive strategic change through entrenched cultures. While we've all heard the tales of young geniuses creating billion dollar companies from their dorm rooms, the reality for most startups is far from that depiction. In order to grow and achieve an ideal vision for a business, here are some of the most vital sacrifices a founder and his or her team will need to make to succeed: 1. You have to give up complete control Diving into a startup requires you to embrace chaos. Whether you’re the founder or one of the first hires, expectations about what aspects of your job you control should immediately go out the window. Invariably, most startups have too many things to do with too few people to complete them. This means you’ll need to exit your comfort zone, lest you quickly fall to the wayside. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is often quoted, “Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.” Members of startups need to be able to sacrifice their desire to have complete control over their day-to-day responsibilities and embrace the collective needs of the company. 2. Sacrificing your ego, and sometimes, your idea All startups start out as ideas. However, for a startup to truly grow,... Read more Things go in cycles. We all know that – from the dredging up of retro fashions, the inheritance of music, to the rapid cyclical nature of business; in particular online business. Everything seems to follow the same path. As all tech believers know, when man invented the web: Saviour of the Geeks, Creator of Unnecessary Job Titles and Deliverer of LOLCats, like the Garden of Eden, at first things went jolly well – we all lived in peace, harmony and believed in universal access, freedom of information, net neutrality, and that when given the choice of publicising the bare truth on Wikipedia, we (from celebrities and companies to politicians and lobbying groups) of course would not seek to alter that... oh yes. Of course, our lovely new Netopia began to change to reflect the true realities of our world – i.e. capitalism. Yet, even so – the level of change from open platforms, open source, open access mentality of the early days to the competitive, closed, fixed business model trend we now see, surprises me. When AOL (or America Online as it was then) first presented the world with the idea of a digital gated community – it was a unique step.... Read more
7.30am Lucy, a modern foreign languages teacher, leaves for work. Her school is only 30 minutes away, however, this morning there has been an accident on the motorway and ten minutes after leaving home she is stuck in traffic. Half an hour passes and she has moved no more than 50 yards. Accepting that she is unlikely to make it into school for her first lesson at 8.30am, she exits the motorway and pulls into a service station. 8.10am Once inside, she orders herself a coffee, turns on her Microsoft Surface RT and connects to the internet. She calls her head of department through Lync and lets her know that she is having problems getting in. Lucy opens OneNote creates a lesson plan including videos, images and a PowerPoint presentation. Meanwhile at school the substitute teacher is given a Windows To Go USB so that she can securely access all the applications and resources she will need to cover the lesson. Lucy shares the lesson plan with the substitute teacher and with the information on screen, talks through it with her on Lync. While Lucy finishes her coffee and waits for the traffic to clear, she checks SkyDrive to see which of her students have submitted their homework. In OneNote she creates a list of those who haven’t and sends them an audio note letting them know that she must have it by the end of the day. 8.30am The traffic has cleared and she leaves the service station and continues her journey to school. She arrives twenty minutes later and is able to join her first class mid-way through the lesson, picking up from the substitute teacher. 10.30am After her first lesson she has two free periods. The following week she is taking 30 students to Rome on a school trip. Lucy uses the time to log onto the Learning Gateway and checks which parents have submitted their children’s dietary requirements. While she is there she responds to parents’ questions about the planned activities for the trip, uploading copies of the itinerary and links to landmarks they will be visiting. 2.00pm After lunch she has one lesson. Two days earlier she created a lesson overview in OneNote including videos and links to relevant websites and shared it with the class. The students arrive for the lesson having already reviewed most of the content the lesson will be based on. Rather than standing at the front of the class lecturing them, she opens with a discussion on the teaching materials and takes questions from the students. This technology-enabled ‘flipped learning’ experience gets them actively engaged straight away and makes for a more productive lesson. 3.30pm The lesson overruns slightly, so rather than shouting homework instructions at the students’ backs as they leave the classroom, she turns on her computer and opens OneNote. She details what needs to be completed ahead of the next lesson and adds links to relevant videos and websites. She also attaches the presentation from the lesson and shares the note with her class asking them to reply with any questions they may have. To learn more about Windows 8 in education, our new eBook titled ‘Enabling and inspiring students and teachers with Windows 8’ can be viewed/downloaded below. Additionally, an exclusive UK institution offer, £133 + VAT, on the Surface RT (32GB) is now available until the 31st August, 2013. Please note, this offer is exclusively available to institutions, and not to students or educators directly. If you have any questions regarding the offer, or would like to place an order, please contact [email protected] The order form can be viewed/downloaded below:
Helen Thomas, Christopher Hitchens, and being wrong The forced retirement of Helen Thomas is further proof, if any were needed, that it’s still unacceptable, in public discourse, to be wrong in one’s opinions. I find that sad. Thomas gave voice to an opinion which she then, almost immediately, retracted; no one, in the subsequent debate, defended the substance of her remarks. She was wrong; everybody, including Thomas, agrees on that point, and no real harm was done to anyone but Thomas when the video of her remarks surfaced. But if you turn out to be wrong, even temporarily, even only once, on a hot-button issue, that’s enough for effective excommunication from polite society. That, to me, is chilling: I’d much rather live in a world where people should be able to change their minds and should be allowed to be wrong on occasion. For surely we are all wrong, much more often than we like to think. A couple of years ago, Tyler Cowen, in conversation with Wil Wilkinson, said something quite profound: Take whatever your political beliefs happen to be. Obviously the view you hold you think is most likely to be true, but I think you should give that something like 60-40, whereas in reality most people will give it 95 to 5 or 99 to 1 in terms of probability that it is correct. Or if you ask people what is the chance this view of yours is wrong, very few people are willing to assign it any number at all. Or if you ask people who believe in God or are atheists, what’s the chance you’re wrong – I’ve asked atheists what’s the chance you’re wrong and they’ll say something like a trillion to one, and that to me is absurd, that even if you think all of the strongest arguments for atheism are correct, your estimate that atheism is in fact the correct point of view shouldn’t be that high, maybe you know 90-10 or 95 to 5, at most. My view at at the time was that this was not only true, but was much more true of men than of women, and that women, being more rational and more sensible than men, tend to be less sure of their own opinions. This morning, I had an interesting conversation with Christopher Hitchens, who’s in town plugging his memoir. He professed to be a man of few beliefs, political or otherwise: “my only commitment is to a group of skeptics who are not sure of anything,” he said. But when I asked him what he wasn’t sure about, he started talking about galaxy formation, of all things. He said that “my greatest delight is being proved right in my own lifetime”, and said that he couldn’t think of the last time that he was wrong about anything. In other words, he’s highly skeptical of others, but utterly incapable of interrogating his own opinions with the same kind of approach. Hitchens, in other words, would make an atrociously bad trader. He has the cocky-and-arrogant bit down, to be sure — in order to beat the market you have to think that you’re smarter than the market. But you also have to be incredibly insecure, willing to change your mind and your opinions very quickly. At the beginning of the conversation, Hitchens expressed a certain amount of intellectual pleasure in noting that the statement “Christopher Hitchens is dead” is false now, but will be true in the future. But that’s trivial. When it comes to the opinions he expresses in his columns and books, he’s much less willing to admit that any of them are anything but certainly and timelessly true. I try hard to believe the opposite: that many if not most of my opinions are wrong (although of course I have no idea which they are), and that many of the most interesting and useful things I write come out of my being wrong rather than being right. This is not, as Wilkinson noted to Cowen, an easy intellectual stance to hold: he calls it “a weird violation of the actual computational constraints of the human mind”. But I think it’s undoubtedly worth working on, and, as I say, I think it’s one which is more common in women than in men. And I think it’s a serious weakness of Hitchens’ that he places so much importance on his being right.
The perfect light bulb arrives Back in September 2009, I got very excited about dimmable LED bulbs. They cost $40 apiece, they were only 7W — a 40W equivalent, in terms of brightness — and it wasn’t obvious how dimmable they were. But back then and for a long time afterwards it seemed as though Philips were the only real player in the dimmable-LED-bulbs game. But now Farhad Manjoo has found something even better, from a startup called Switch Lighting. Its brighter: Switch offers both 60W and 75W equivalents in the warm-white color of incandescents. And they’re only $20 apiece, compared to $45 for something similar from Philips. What’s more, that price is falling: it should come down to $15 next year. For a bulb with a lifespan of 20,000 hours, as Manjoo says, that’s a great deal. These bulbs are perfect replacements for any incandescents, even ones on dimmer switches: Switch bulbs work beautifully with any dimmer, and they dim without flicker. The powerful driver enables instant-on lighting, so there’s no lag as the bulb warms up. I’m now officially not in the slightest bit worried about the fact that old-fashioned incandescents are going to be outlawed by 2014. Better, cheaper replacements are already here — just as you’d expect. Laws like this are a bit like laws governing fuel economy or NOx emissions: you set an ambitious target, the industry says it can’t be done, you stick to it, and then it turns out it’s eminently possible after all. I just stocked up on a large number of reflectors, which contribute enormously to my massive electricity bill. By the time this bunch of bulbs runs out, I’m confident that dimmable LEDs will be plentiful and cheap — and quite possibly available in reflector format, too. The age of the incandescent bulb is coming to an end, and I for one won’t mourn it.
In a new report, Janney Capital Markets analyst Tom Kozlik calls out Standard & Poor’s for credit ratings on local governments that he says are too liberal. Kozlik claims that S&P is inflating ratings. I think his analysis is solid, but inconclusive given the size of his claim. Kozlik opens the door to more critical analysis of the comparability of ratings. As the debate continues over public pension funding levels, we have this headline from the Financial Times this week: “US States need $980 billion to fill pension gap, says Moody’s.” This is not exactly news. A number of studies, including ones from the Pew Trust and the Public Fund Survey, have identified a massive shortfall for public pension funds. In fact, the Pew Trust said that the shortfall in 2010 was $1.38 trillion, so perhaps we should be applauding state legislatures for improving the gap since then. The credit rating agency Moody’s is in a very delicate position. Its arch rival, Standard & Poor’s, was recently charged by the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that S&P committed mail and wire fraud by defrauding investors with faulty ratings. Moody’s was not charged, but there are a lot of questions about why it was left out of the investigation. At the same time, Moody’s is responsible for judging the creditworthiness of the U.S. government’s debt. There is little wonder that the rating agency is being very transparent in the benchmarks it is using. Moody’s released a summary of its third-quarter rating actions today and the downgrade grinder continues to turn in muniland. Downgrades across U.S. public finance sectors totaled about $75 billion in the third quarter of 2012, with four issuers accounting for over 70% of the debt downgraded: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Chicago O’Hare Airport Enterprise. One of the most common complaints in muniland is over a lack of disclosure. Public officials often say too little too late about fiscal matters. That is why it was a pleasant surprise to come across the proactive response of Joseph Calabrigo, the town manager of Danville, California, to Moody’s announcement that it is reviewing credit ratings associated with lease-backed and/or general obligation debts issued by 32 cities in California. My Thomson Reuters colleague at Municipal Market Data, Daniel Berger, published an excellent report on the debt of the 40 poorest U.S. cities. His work is exclusively for MMD subscribers, but I excerpted the high-level part where he summarizes the general view the credit rating agencies have about municipalities. Here is what Dan had to say: After polluting the global financial system with hundreds of billions of dollars of overrated mortgage-backed securities and helping bring down the world economy, the credit rating agencies have been struggling mightily to repair their reputations. It’s been an uphill climb, and they were dealt another blow on Friday when a Bloomberg piece detailed academic research showing how fees influenced the assignment of higher ratings. Municipal issuers got the harshest ratings because they paid the lowest fees, according to the article. The debt of the United States was downgraded by Standard & Poor’s several weeks ago, but the price of U.S. Treasuries have skyrocketed since then. This confuses many people because a baseline relationship in the fixed-income markets is that lower-rated, less-creditworthy bonds will be relatively cheap and investors will demand higher interest rates to compensate for additional risk.
California is still growing, adding just over a quarter-million people during the year that ended June 30, according to the state's annual population survey, but is not attracting immigrants from other states and nations as it once did. In fact, the state Department of Finance's demographers concluded, the state had a net outmigration of 22,000 persons during the year - 132,000 immigrants from other countries minus 154,000 Californians who moved out. Or to put it another way, births (511,000) and deaths (228,000) accounted for all of the state's net population growth of 260,000. In numerical terms, that's less than half of what the state experienced during the 1980s, but it still means that California, with an estimated 37.6 million people as of July 1, is likely to approach 40 million by 2020. Previous state estimates put California's population about one million higher, but demographers have adjusted the number downward to comport with the 2010 census. Riverside was easily the fastest growing California county during the 2010-11 period, both in numbers (34,752) and percentage (1.59 percent), while 18 rural California counties lost population. Los Angeles, with 9.9 million residents, remains California's largest by a wide margin, with more than a quarter of the state's population, but its growth, just 30,497 during the period, was less than a third of the state's growth rate.
Freebee Friday: The Book on School Tech Need to brush up on the latest school technology? Atomic Learning has a new ebook that covers the basics. The 19-page ebook “Proven Approaches to Effective Tech Integration: Strategies & Solutions for School Leaders” has everything from the SAMR model to differentiated learning, but each section can be nothing more than a brief introduction with few details. There are links to more info, however. It’s available for iPads or as a .pdf file that can be viewed on just about any device and only requires that you register.
Anne Beaubien of the University of Michigan was the keynote speaker at the TENN-SHARE conference. The theme was “Smarter, Faster, Cheaper.” Anne shared with us A Manifesto for Resource Sharing that I am still deeply exploring. Anne mentioned that Rethinking Resource Sharing began as an ad hoc group that advocated for a complete RETHINK of the way libraries conduct resource sharing to put the patron at the center, not the staff. Their mission was to be a catalyst for systemic change , to be a think tank, to inspire a change in provision of services, and to offer people options. Anne noted Marshall Breeding reminds us that Amazon.com does not need library instruction to use, yet our Interlibrary Loan policies and procedures for sharing resources of all types often does in a library. Anne shared how 1) the internet has changed user expectations, that people can shop for obscure things, and that the Google settlement will be impacting libraries. Anne discussed OCLC’s studies and the PEW studies to note (not surprisingly) that 15-21 year olds want instant gratification and wonder why libraries don’t work like ATM’s. (Hmmm, I’m thinking to myself of those easy to use RedBoxes in front of McDonald’s, the grocery store, and even the pharmacy. Have a sick child? While you pick up meds, pick up a movie quick to keep them in bed… Hmmm, why are we afraid of book vending machines?) 2) People work outside the library context. 3) The publishing world is changing. You won’t be able to receive telephone white pages unless you request them. 4) There’s more use of mobile devices. Wired magazine issued their cover story “The Web is Dead” with 51% of web traffic involving video streaming. Did you know that social networking counts for one of every 11 minutes online? I want to see that stat in print. Anyone help me out here? By 2015 every student will own a mobile device and by 2020 mobile devices will be the primary connection to the web. That’s not far away. The Manifest was affirmed by the - ALA/RUSA/STARS Executive Committee, January 2007 - ALA/RUSA/STARS Rethinking Resource Sharing Policies Committee, January 2007 - Rethinking Resource Sharing Steering Committee, February 2007 - IFLA Document Delivery and Resource Sharing Standing Committee, May 2007 - MAILL (Maryland Interlibrary Loan), October 18, 2007 - Forum for Interlending, Danish Research Library Association, September 10. 2009 - DELNET-Developing Library Network (India), January 2009 - Tenn-Share, February 2010 Here are the big 7 principles from the Rethinking Resource Sharing dot org website and their handout with my notes in italics: - Restrictions shall only be imposed as necessary by individual institutions with the goal that the lowest-possible-barriers-to-fulfillment are presented to the user. - fewer restrictions, imposed only as necessary, lowest possible barriers to fulfillment - Library users shall be given appropriate options for delivery format (paper, electronic, etc.), method of delivery, and fulfillment type, including loan, copy, digital copy, and purchase. - Global access to sharable resources shall be encouraged through formal and informal networking agreements with the goal towards lowest-barrier-to-fulfillment. - Sharable resources shall include those held in cultural institutions of all sorts: libraries, archives, museums, and the expertise of those employed in such places. - expertise included checking out LIVING BOOKS which are people who would make appointments to meet at the library to assist and share expertise, experience, and resources - Reference services are a vital component to resource sharing and delivery and shall be made readily accessible from any initial “can’t supply this” response. No material that is findable should be totally unattainable. - Libraries should offer service at a fair price rather than refuse but should strive to achieve services that are not more expensive than commercial services, e.g. bookshops. - Library registration should be as easy as signing up for commercial web based services. Everyone can be a library user. - WOW! This is a big issue with me. I HATE public library policies that make you feel like a criminal for trying to sign up and get a simple card. I have to have my paystub with me and a home utility bill every single year to renew my educator’s library card for example in Nashville. WHY? I have my teacher ID, my teaching license, etc. What business of yours is my pay? And for that matter, they don’t put my name on the stub anymore, just my identification number. Why should I show you that? As for a home utility bill? I do all that online. I live out of county. If I lived in county and was paying taxes, then I would need to show you where I lived, but this is an educator’s privilege in our community, so why are they making it more difficult for teachers? I think that school libraries should be able to work with public libraries to issue public library cards to teachers, staff, and students. If you are under the age required and have to have a parent’s signature, we know how to collect signatures. With electronic delivery, many of our students don’t actually go into the public library branch, but have things sent to them or have their parents pick up the things they want during their lunch break at a convenient branch. Why should we keep CONTROLLING the sign-up and distribution of library cards? Last year during a field trip, one of my teachers wanted to renew her card but didn’t have a pay stuff. We were on a freaking FIELD TRIP FOR THE SCHOOL LIBRARY CLUB. Couldn’t they see we were teachers, see her teacher shirt, her school id, and just issue her card? It was very annoying and anti-service friendly. I had to check out the books in my name for her. These type of knee-jerk policies #$%% me off. There, I said it online. I need to find out more about this whole MANIFESTO thing and get involved. It is time to rethink resource sharing. Anyone want to explore with me?
This week, the governments of India, Ethiopia and the United States will host a Child Survival Call to Action summit, with the participation of country and global leaders. This is a timely and critical event, aimed at further strengthening global and country commitment and country accountability for MDG4, to reduce child mortality. Though we’ve seen substantial improvement on this goal, the countries that need our support and partnership most may not reach it by 2015. In the last decade, we’ve witnessed impressive efforts in ensuring children reach age 5 healthy and happy. Initiatives to expand cost-effective vaccines and prevent and treat malaria have greatly contributed to saving children’s lives. But more than 7.2 million children still die each year, the vast majority in developing countries, and reducing infant and, in particular, neonatal mortality, has become a formidable challenge. Reaching MDG 4 will require strong political and policy commitment, which this week’s summit will contribute to. It will also require a decisive scale-up on nutrition (for pregnant women and children around the first 1000 days, from conception to age 2), health systems (in perinatology in particular), and other sector contributors including sanitation, girls’ education, and clean energy. Elevating these priorities, across sectors and in the context of strong health systems, means the global community needs to consolidate efforts on MDG 1c, 4 and 5 – the “orphan MDGs” relative to overall international aid for health. Without expanding health systems strengthening, we won’t be able to address the critical needs of reproductive, maternal and newborn health, all crucial for child survival. At the World Bank, we’re committed to improving maternal and child health through strengthening national health systems, linking financing to performance, and protecting the poor from ill health and unaffordable costs and treatment. Our results-based financing approach in particular has helped country leaders yield impressive results in saving children’s lives. Rwanda is one shining example: incentives for increasing the quantity and quality of health facility services led to a 21% increase in institutional deliveries; a 64% increase in preventive visits for children under age 2; and a 133% increase in visits for children ages 2-5. Countries like Argentina and Afghanistan have also seen significant improvements. How do we know that the world is making progress in saving the lives of mothers and children? How do we ensure that there is full transparency in resource allocation and policy decisions so that all stakeholders, including women and children in need, will have a voice? The answer is strong evidence, open information, and a shared accountability, one that captures the full range of policy and investments along the maternal/child health service delivery value chain. Investing in commodities is necessary. Investing in effective and equitable health systems is imperative. This week’s Child Survival Call to Action summit is a key step in the right direction.
The global policy community seems unlikely to take drastic steps with regard to climate change any time soon. Politicians remain hesitant about taking action, although scientific consensus on climate change is overwhelming. It’s happening, it’s happening now, and it will cause massive damage. And it’s mostly caused by humans. Public opinion, on the other hand, is far behind the science. Are politicians unwilling to impose dramatic measures to slow down climate change because the public is unwilling to pay the cost – yet? Are they kicking the can down the road because the people are not yet willing to fully embrace the fact and the consequences of climate change? Different studies show that over 90% of climate researchers agree that climate change is happening and that it's mostly caused by human behavior. A 2008 survey among climate scientists in 34 different countries shows that about 93% agreed very much or to a large extent that climate change was occurring right now. Close to 84% agreed that the change is caused by humans. A newer study from the US shows an agreement of 97% on rising temperatures and 84% on human causes of climate change. In sharp contrast, only about two thirds of the American public think that global temperatures are indeed rising. Less than half believe that it's our fault. How can there be such a huge discrepancy between what scientists know and what everybody else believes? Actually, this is not unusual. It tends to happen with most scientific revolutions. As Steven Sherwood points out in an article in Physics Today, the public discussion about climate change is rather similar to another paradigm change that rocked the world and everybody in it: When Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus published his heliocentric model of the solar system in 1543, showing that the earth revolves around the sun and not the other way round, he caused a massive backlash from political and religious powers, and from the public. Vested interests, religious and political, as well as public opinion clung to the paradigm that the earth is the center of the universe, as Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus had suggested in the second century. Then, as today with climate change, core beliefs of mankind were being questioned, with massive consequences for the way we live. Now and then, a big part of the paradigm shift is communication. Comparing the process of scientific understanding and public acceptance of climate change to the Copernican revolution, Sherwood finds rather similar patterns: Empirical observations shake long-held scientific believes. A consensus about a new theory or model forms within the scientific community - that in itself can take a hundred years, give or take. Scientific consensus is greeted with disbelief and even outrage by the public, political, economic, and religious powers. According to Sherwood, it took about 200 years until heliocentrism was accepted broadly by the public and the ruling powers. Well, global warming was first documented in 1864 by John Tyndall. Scientific consensus has been achieved in the past, say, 10 years or so. Now it's the public's turn - but we don't have another 100 years. This is where communication comes in. In the same Physics Today edition, Richard Somerville and Susan Joy Hassol argue that the lack of political and public consensus on climate change is partly due to a lack of effective communication of the science. Scientists are used to communicating with their peers, presenting background information first, followed by supporting details, and only then they talk about their results and conclusions. By that time, lay people usually are fast asleep. Scientists also "typically fail to craft simple, clear messages and repeat them often." They are also not definite enough. To say that human activity "contributes" to climate change does not emphasize the urgency of behavior change. When scientists say something is "likely" or "very likely" they are talking about very high levels of confidence, but in the public's ears a "likely" is not a given. It’s good form to point out that there is much that we don’t know - at academic conferences. In a public forum, this is confusing. We do know that climate change will dramatically change the way we live and already does significant damage. We do know that we bear a large part of the responsibility for all the damage that climate change is causing and will cause. If we don't dramatically change our behavior, our lives will change drastically and we will probably not like it. Somerville and Hassol suggest that scientists "use metaphors, analogies, and points of reference to make mathematical concepts and numerical results more meaningful". The amount of melt water from the Greenland ice sheet has more than doubled between 1995 and 2005, from 100 to 220 cubic kilometers. So what? The amount of water melted is now more than 200 times as large as the entire city of Los Angeles uses in one year. Oh! Imagine that amount of excess water flowing into your bathtub – what do you think would happen to your home? Ouch! We need to slow down the melting of the ice sheet! While the belief that the earth is at the center of the universe might not have killed anyone directly, climate change will, and probably already has. We can't afford waiting out another course of scientific revolution and paradigm change. The consequences of accepting the reality of climate change and adjusting our beliefs and behavior accordingly may well be as fundamental as accepting that the earth revolves around the sun. Communication techniques have advanced some since Copernicus published his heliocentric model in the mid-16th century. We have to make full use of all communication channels, techniques, and tricks that we can think of to hasten public consensus. Development agencies are at the forefront of this challenge - we have the know-how, the means, and the mandate. Now let's do it. - The World Region - Susan Joy Hassol - Steven Sherwood - Scientific Revolutions - Science Communication - Richard Somerville - Public Opinion - Physics Today - Paradigm Change - John Tyndall - Global Warming - Development Agencies - Communication Techniques - Climate Change
Flight surgeon always struck the Health Blog as one of the coolest titles in medicine, invoking images of emergency operations in the back of a plane at 30,000 feet. But these days, coolness doesn’t appear to be enough: Flight surgeons and other docs are in short supply for the Air National Guard, the Associated Press reports. “This is very much a national situation,” a Minneapolis recruiter told the AP. “We’re not getting the interest we once did. It’s very challenging for us.” The Air National Guard is 377 people short of the 2,500 health-care professionals its supposed to have. Doctors are shying away because they worry that if they join up they’ll be shipped to Iraq. (Of course, for a rare few docs that’s actually an attractive proposition — see this Health Blog post from Friday.) The Guard is trying to make the gig a more appealing proposition, offering $75,000 cash and help with student loan repayments for flight surgeons, internists, emergency service physicians, dentists and optometrists. Eyes must be a big issue, because they’re also throwing in a $45,000 bonus for optometrists.
Small businesses may not be bound to stock-market ebbs and flows, but the recent shake-up on Wall Street may actually end up hurting them even more than their big-company counterparts. The Dow’s sixth-biggest point drop in history on Monday, the downgrade of the U.S. government’s credit Standard & Poor’s rating, and any further turmoil — could prompt consumers to tighten their purse strings even more than they have already. While big companies have lots of options to cope with the decline in demand, smaller operations typically don’t, says Jeff Stibel, chairman and chief executive officer of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp., a business credit-reporting agency headquartered in Los Angeles. … America’s entrepeneurs are executives who build companies from the ground up. In Charge provides news, analysis and in-the-trenches commentary about small-business management. Produced by Sarah E. Needleman, Emily Maltby and Angus Loten, with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Have a comment or tip? Write to [email protected].
If a U.S. broker-dealer investing in what European officials touted as secure and fully backed sovereign debt can go under, where does that leave Europe’s largest institutions? Officially at least, Europe’s largest banks do not have the same exposure to risky euro-zone debt as MF Global , whose $3.2 billion portfolio of Italian bonds was worth three time its equity capital. France’s’ BNP Paribas SA , for example, holds EUR21 billion of the Mediterranean country’s debt, Credit Agricole SA EUR8.5 billion, and Societe Generale SA EUR5.0 billion. As a percentage of each of the three French banks’ shareholder equity, that represents 29.9%, 15.99% and 9.59%, respectively. But these numbers are not insignificant and for various reasons do not accurately capture the risks they face. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the French banking system’s total exposure to the riskiest euro-zone countries was EUR489.9 billion as of March 2011. That’s a whopping 7% of all banking assets in France, more than a quarter of the country’s GDP, and more than three times the combined equity of France’s three largest banks. These numbers tell the same story of the structural and regulatory failures that helped get MF into its mess, especially the Basel III regulatory rules, which still give sovereign debt a zero weight for measuring the adequacy of Tier One capital — as if it were risk-free. What’s more, the speed with which MF Global collapsed is partly due to its otherwise commendable practice of marking its book to market. That’s something many European institutions do not do, which means their exposure relative to equity could be more troubled than their financials suggest. It’s not clear how much of the three French banks’ Italian debt portfolios have been written down to reflect depleted market values, but in general French banks have been among the most criticized for not promptly recognizing market losses. MF Global, by contrast, traded almost entirely on exchanges and kept its sovereign debt in a trading account. As the debt declined in value, the firm faced a liquidity crunch. As one trader put it, MF held an asset at a price that no one wanted. European banks have often taken the option of declaring that they are holding an asset to maturity, which relieves them of a regulatory demand that they mark their assets to market. But this accounting trick does not absolve an institution of risk, however, and could exacerbate it. If Greece were to go through a disorderly default — unlike the orderly restructuring conceived by euro-zone leaders — those assets will immediately be written down and to a level that cannot be currently predicted. The more disorderly the process, the worse it will be for European banks’ balance sheets. With Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou now facing the prospect of both a referendum on the terms of its euro-zone bailout and a no-confidence vote, that risk is amplified. Luxembourg Prime Minister and Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker warned on Tuesday that a “no” vote on a Greek referendum would risk a Greek bankruptcy. In fact, a country cannot legally go bankrupt, as there is no international court for handling such claims, but the use of the term implies a disorderly process in which creditors must first write off their loans and then fight with others to recover what they are owed. No one has even dreamed of a 100% Greek default. There is no precedent for such an event within a monetary union, so we have no idea what the contagion effect might be in other countries such as Italy. And all of that raises serious questions about the banks’ balance sheets. Italian 10-year yields trading Wednesday at 6.2% are already threatening that country’s funding. Any further increases could severely impair Italy’s ability to fund a whopping EUR300 billion plus debt maturing in 2012. Between them, Spain and Italy have EUR420 billion of debt maturing in 2012 and over EUR1 trillion maturing over the next four years. Already there are serious misgivings about the workability of the euro-zone plan to use the European Financial Stability Facility to backstop the region’s debt markets. And if confidence in that program dries up before it is even started, the region’s sovereign bond market could go into a tailspin. In other words, MF Global ‘s collapse could just be the opening act. And whereas that bank’s demise has so far been a relatively contained affair, triggering none of the systemic problems associated with Lehman Brothers ‘ collapse in 2008, the same result for a big French, German, Italian or Spanish bank could be far more troublesome.
Some conservation groups are calling on the public to make their voices heard about a Forest Service proposal to log an area near the popular Devil’s Courthouse area of Pisgah National Forest, while the federal agency says the logging project is necessary for habitat improvement and forest health. The public has until Jan. 18 to comment on the Courthouse Creek Project Environmental Assessment, which outlines a plan to log 472 acres of what biologists call high quality forest in the headwaters of the French Broad River and adjacent to popular hiking trails including the Art Loeb and Mountains-to-Sea trails. “My main objection personally is that I love to go up there and hike and fish. It is a beautiful area and has excellent fishing and scenic values,” said Josh Kelly, public lands field biologist with the WNC Alliance. “Professionally, my objection to logging this area is that it has been noted by many biologists, including state biologists, as the highest quality forest – it has many rare species present. It doesn’t make sense why, when the Forest Service is logging so little of its land base, to log timber of such high scenic, recreational and biological value.” The Courthouse Creek Project is located about nine miles west of the Pisgah Ranger Station on U.S. 276 in Transylvania Countyand is within the 7,120 acre Forest Plan Analysis Area 13. In general, the area is bounded by N.C. 215 to the west and south, the Blue Ridge Parkway to the north and the Art Loeb Trail to the east. To comment, email: [email protected] and put “Courthouse Project” in the subject line. Or mail to Appalachian Ranger District, Attn: Jason Herron, 632 Manor Road, Mars Hill, NC 28754; fax to 689-9762; or call Jason Herron, interdisciplinary team leader, at 689-9694 ext. 112.
Sequence of Operation 1) Thermostat calls for heat. 2) Thermostat supplies 24 volts to damper. 3) Damper opens supplying 24 volts to the ignition module. 4) Ignition control module sends 24 volts to the pilot valve allowing gas to flow to pilot. Simultaneously, the ignition control module sends high voltage low current electricity through the electrode wire to pilot electrode causing sparking at the pilot assembly. (If the pilot fails to ignite within 90 seconds, the ignition control stops the pilot gas as well as the sparking for 15 seconds to allow gas to dissipate. The ignition control will then attempt two (2) more ignition trials.) 5) Once the pilot is lit, it is then recognized by the sensor in the pilot assembly and sends a signal back to the module acknowledging the pilot flame. The sparking stops, 24 volts is sent to the main gas valve to open. 6) The main burner fires until the thermostat is satisfied. The 24-volt circuit is then interrupted to the gas valve, closing both the main and pilot valves. The damper closes, the thermostat monitors the tank awaiting a call for heat. Duplication and use of any content or images from www.bradfordwhite.com without the express written consent of Bradford White Corporation is strictly prohibited.
International professor teaches international professionalism April 29, 2011 ETE professor Dr. Heljä Antola Crowe knows the struggles and opportunities of studying and working in an unfamiliar country. She grew up in Finland and traveled to the United States as an exchange student at age 17. She moved to the U.S. permanently 24 years ago. As a Bradley professor, she has helped foreign exchange students adjust to life in the U.S., and she has been a host mother for exchange students for nine years. These experiences have given Dr. Antola Crowe a deep level of understanding of other cultures and make her uniquely suited to teach EHS 300, “Professionalism Across Cultures.” The course, first offered five years ago, teaches students in the EHS Global Scholar programs how to work with others across cultural boundaries. Dr. Antola Crowe collaborates on the course with four other EHS professors: from family and consumer sciences, Professor Kendra Brandes; from nursing, Dr. Deborah Erickson; from leadership in education, human services and counseling, Dr. Robert Davison Avilés; and from physical therapy, Dr. Dawn Hall. Bradley students interact with a panel of international student visitors and engage in a wide variety of activities designed to enhance the students’ cultural awareness and their ability to work with diverse groups of people. The students meet with foreign visitors on campus and present their findings from study abroad courses. They learn the different aspects of cultural identity through unusual events like a cultural potluck dinner, where each student is challenged to bring in a dish of food that defines his or her background. “We’re creating a venue for them to share their experiences,” said Dr. Antola Crowe. The course helps students to put their own cultural background in an international context. They learn from each other and gain knowledge and opportunities that most students never pursue. Dr. Antola Crowe noted the personal growth the students develop and the new understanding of the world they gain through the course. “The most valuable learning they do involves themselves,” she said. “Where you expect differences, you find similarities.”
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Irish Rose Motif – Free Crochet Pattern \| Best Free Crochet I created this beautiful Victorian Irish Rose Motif years ago. “Irish crochet” is a type of lace that originated during Ireland’s famine years of the 19th century. Granny Squares-Motifs-Applique – Free Patterns Embossed Crochet Flower – Circle to Square 4 Written by Teresa Richardson Video Tutorial: Embossed Crochet Flower – Circle to Square 4 Video Tutorial: Left Hand Embossed Over 50 Free Crocheted Motif Patterns at AllCrafts! Over 50 Free Crocheted Motif Patterns at AllCrafts.net – Free Crafts Network Free Crafts projects! Your guide for all types of crafts. Holiday crafts, Kids crafts Crochet It: Free Sunflower Motif Crochet Pattern Rnd 1: With brown, ch 4, join w sl st in 1st ch to form ring, ch 3, 11 dc in ring, join w sl st in top of ch 3 (12 dc). Crochet It: Free Star Motif Crochet Pattern I've published the pattern for this star here: http://www.bukisa.com/articles/221127_free-star-motif-crochet-pattern. Enjoy !! Free Crochet Patterns How to get your Crochet Patterns Simply take our sponsors' surveys with opportunities to receive coupons and savings on products and services! Free Crochet Patterns Baby Afghans. Delicate Lace Baby Afghan. Many people learn how to crochet because they want to make an extra-special baby blanket to celebrate the arrival of a newborn baby. Free Crochet Thread Motifs \| Pan American Collision Center Free Crochet Thread Motifs Free Crochet Thread Motifs Free MOTIF NO. Crochet Chair Set Pattern – Free Crochet Motif Pattern for Chair Free Crochet Chair Set Pattern Easy Motif Pattern for a Chair This free crochet chair set pattern was originally published in the 1940s in the American Thread Company's Free Crochet Pattern: Sprocket Motif « Speckless Blog Motifs are excellent for many applications: coasters, patches, embellishments—and when combined together—blankets, table runners, doilies, or window Crochet Galore: Victorian Motif – free pattern Six easy and simple crochet rows for a lovely motif. I did starch and block one, another one I just shaped by pulling it into shape so it doesn't even have to
I have been sick of hearing the meme that British and American foreign policy led to the terrorist plots carried out recently and foiled last week in the U.K. I hear it from Muslims and their leaders quoted in the media. I heard it yesterday in an appalling report on the BBC’s World Service European show, with a reporter leading young people to say that our foreign policy and seeing their “brothers blown up” in Afghanistan led to this (let’s remember who’s really blowing up Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq: Muslims). Well, the Observer of London — yes, the Observer — has a rousing response to that thread in an editorial today: This was hardly a Western war against Islam. Britain and America spent much of the Nineties trying to prevent conflicts or to resolve them. At worst, as shamefully in Rwanda, they simply ignored them. They were transparently not running a conspiracy to trample the Muslim faithful underfoot. The people who depicted it that way were a tiny minority telling lies to justify murder. But things have changed. The argument that terrorism is, in fact, a response to Western actions overseas has gained currency. It was voiced most recently on Saturday in an open letter by a number of influential British Muslim leaders to Tony Blair. The Prime Minister’s policy in the Middle East, they said, puts British lives at risk. The implication is that the young Britons who last week were accused of plotting to blow up passenger planes in mid-air would have been less susceptible to al-Qaeda recruitment had Britain not fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Policy should be changed, they said, to avoid giving ideological ‘ammunition to extremists’. . . . It is also a logical and moral absurdity to imply, as some critics of British policy have done, that mass murder is somehow less atrocious when it is motivated by an elaborate narrative of political grievance. If young British Muslims are alienated, that is sad and their anger should be addressed. But anyone whose alienation leads them to want to kill indiscriminately has crossed a line into psychopathic criminality. Policy cannot be dictated by the need to placate such people. British Muslim leaders are entitled, along with everybody else, to raise questions about the conduct and consequences of Mr Blair’s foreign policy. But they have a more immediate responsibility to promote the truth: that Britain is not the aggressor in a war against Islam; that no such war exists; that there is no glory in murder dressed as martyrdom and that terrorism is never excused by bogus accounts of historical victimisation. : In Australia, Tanveer Ahmed says Islam is the news Marxism. The 20th century saw the demise of communism, despite its attraction to millions of people who felt poor or downtrodden. It was exposed as a totalitarian system that stifled the aspirations of man. But its stain is spreading within the casing of Islamic fundamentalism. . . . Like communism, Islamism promises a better life for the poor, oppressed and alienated. It is cloaked in God, but its essence is strongly secular. Unless the West fights the war of ideas at this level, offering a competing vision of morality as well as economics and technology, the lure of Islamic extremism will continue to flourish. : The Independent reports that the plots were bigger than we know: Suspected terrorists were planning to unleash a wave of “apocalyptic” attacks on land and air, using an arsenal of bombs and weaponry, including firearms, investigators have discovered. . . . One Whitehall source said “many dozens” of plots were under investigation, involving “hundreds” of suspects. According to one report last night, al-Qa’ida’s leader in Britain could have been held in the raids. But security sources estimate that as many as 1,200 people here are actively involved with terrorism, and that the country is still under “very severe” threat from other potential terrorist plots. : The Telegraph reports that five of those arrested in London trained in al Qaeda camps.
Variables allow you to store values that can be recalled later. Variables can have names with multiple words so you can keep your math understandable. Functions are your means of quickly doing lots of calculations. Functions can also be inverted so that you can solve for their parameters. Note how we were able to use the one equation for Fahrenheit temperatures f to calculate a Celsius temperature Functions can even be recursive. Linear equations can be solved simply by referencing a variable. In this example, we want to solve for x when we already know x + 5x. Next, we solve for the frequency of a simple cos signal. Matrices up to two dimensions with arithmetic, indexing, determinates, and inverses (symbolic and numeric) are supported. Matrices can also be used with the solver to calculate solutions to linear equations. In this example, we solve the simultaneous equations: 1x0 + twox1 = 5 3x0 + 4x1 = 6 We can use Calca's understanding of De Morgan's Law to unravel some very sketchy logic.
Listening Note-Taking & Using Visual Organizers Strand Union Building, Room 177 Preview text and list questions to help focus your listening during lectures. Use Cornell notes or mapping for class notes depending on the style in which information is presented. Annotate-make margin notes in the text to label information; circle important terms and concepts, underline important details; summarize, and note questions you have about the material. Use graphic organizers to show relationships between concepts (i.e., Venn diagram, fishbone diagram, feature analysis, etc.). Map your ideas to organize writing for papers and tests. Discover websites on listening, note-taking, and using visual organizers. For questions regarding this event, please contact:
WWF-Cambodia provides many opportunities to those looking to further their career and protect Cambodian wildlife, landscapes, and communities. [Apply here...] WWF was established in Cambodia in 1995. As a part of the WWF Greater Mekong Programme, WWF-Cambodia is one of 4 Country Offices coordinating conservation efforts across Indochina, including Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam. WWF’s mission in Cambodia is to ensure that there will be strong participation and support from all people to conserve the country’s rich biological diversity. [Read more…] Offices in Cambodia WWF-Cambodia's is based in Phnom Penh, though conservation efforts are conducted through our offices at two field sites. [Read more…]
Financial wizards vs. scientific geniuses I wrote this post to dispel the notion that you can simply put money in stocks and expect 7% on average other the years, be buy and hold and not worry about the thing. This is a look under the hood of things that are taken as axioms and are not questioned. When we talk about some outstanding person of science we’d say he is a genius. But in finance the high achievers are often referred as wizards – the wizards of finance. Soros, one of said wizards, has a book “Alchemy of finance”. Why the magical connotations when it comes to finance? Finance is a sort of modern alchemy where the wizards produce something from nothing. Huge wealth is produces by shuffling money around. Money produces more money, huge amounts of it, seemingly all on its own. At least, this is what the financial press will have you believe. Just put your money in the stocks index fund, no worries buy and hold and the money magically grows by 7% each year. On the other hand science is the opposite of magic. Science explains the order of things and science can be replicated. Having background in science I almost never accept anything without questioning it. So, let’s look under the hood of financial magic. First of all, I think this subconscious treatment of finance as magic is deliberate. Otherwise, how do you get non-sophisticated people who don’t know much about finance to put their hard earned money in stocks or bonds, something they don’t understand? Another deliberate attempt is focusing on the money instead of the process of the wealth creation instead. This one is pretty recent phenomena and I think it is rooted in bubblenomics. If you can’t logically explain why this or that stock should go up 10% a day, when clearly the company couldn’t have increased the underlying profits at that pace just in one day, you focus on intangibles such as information and money flow. Yes, it is possible that new information came in today and we think a company will produce 10% more profits for the foreseeable future. But this explanation doesn’t hold water when 90% of stocks in the market move up and down together. What it really comes down to is the money flow in and out of the markets, and has really little to do with the underlying process of wealth creation on short term basis. If there an abrupt stop of money flow like in fall 2008 you see a situation where even solid stocks go crashing 60-80% in just one month. When there is a sudden rush of money into the market, like at the start of QE in spring of 2009, stocks all go up together. In normal times it works the same, it is just the effects are more muted. So what we see is that the price of financial assets is not only a matter of fundamentals, but also very much influence by the money flow and supply of money in the economy. For this reason, fundamental analysis in itself can only work on multiyear timeframes where the results of money flow gyrations are smoothed out. You need technical analysis on short term. It also doesn’t help that money supply is yanked here and there by the FED whenever they feel like it. To me FED is not a smoothing out force, Fed is a destructive entity because they can never get it exactly right and they interfere with natural flow of things. My point here is, you can do all fundamental analysis you want but without understanding the role of the money flow you are hosed. Money was originally invented as medium of exchange, a standard contract for - goods for goods or goods for labor. Without money commerce is pretty much is impossible. The money in itself cannot produce wealth, putting the money here or there can produce wealth in itself. Money is a representation of resources and behind all the money shuffling the movement and usage of resources has to take place. In short, money can be capital but it doesn’t necessarily always is. To be wealth producing it has to be purposeful and profitable. When you invest in a stock and expect return, you need to make sure that the company is profitable, yet you don’t overpay for profits. Some blue chip stocks are at the same price now they were 10 years ago, it is just today their P/E is at 15 and 10 years ago it was at 50. Clearly, 10 years ago people’ expectations of growth were unrealistic and they overpaid for stocks. In my experience, high P/E stocks are almost never worth it because growth projections end up being too rosy. With one exception in my experience – Google. But let’s get back to the original discussion of financial wizardry. Investing in a stock, in a simplified way, you let the company to use your resources for future growth. In return you get a share of that future growth. Of course, you expect that return to respectable, may 5-7%. Another way is to put money in bank and let the bank invest it for you. The bank is a middleman and will want to take a cut. Bank takes a cut from you, the lender and also from the borrower. It is a sweet business, being a middle man in finance, if you manage risk correctly. And that is where we enter the world of finance. At the bank level or stock exchange the money becomes a resource. The money literally produces money in layman’s terms, but really it is resources/ capital producing profits which are represented as money. As the financial progress goes on, all kinds of financial instruments are created, which produce even more money with leverage if you guess the direction correctly. However, step back and think - money represents resources, which could be put to use to do something productive. But it is not being used that way; it is being used to place financial bets. This money is tied up at the financial level and is not going back into industry or agriculture. So, as investments are taken away from the real world and put in the financial limbo, wealth creation slows down. Huge fortunes are created, but they are not value adding. They take the money /resources from others, who didn’t place their bets correctly. As much as 20% of UK and US industry is financials. Now, back to the question of the 7% average return. My argument is that past performance is no guarantee of future results and this is why - last several years we got addicted to easy money, low interest rates. Looking at Japan, I think we are never going to give it up. Our politicians and Congress will never give it up. It used to be that bank’s CDs paid 5-7% interest on your money, not anymore. Why? Because FEDs easy money is crowding you out. Now, if you can’t get 5% at the bank anymore for putting your capital at work why do you think you should expect 7% in the stocks? It seems that easy money policies basically destroyed fixed income instruments, when interest rates can’t go any lower why invest in bond funds? It makes no sense. It might make some sense to buy actual bonds if you plan to hold them to maturity, but who’d want to do that? Because fixed money instruments are not attractive, the money flows elsewhere right now – emerging markets, commodities, stocks. It is not fear of inflation that drives them, I think, it is the fact that there are no alternatives and all this new money needs to find home. Still, to keep the remaining markets – stocks, commodities, going you need to have constant money flow. And here is the thing – if there is little new real wealth creation, only financial alchemy, there is little new capital to invest. FED will keep interest rates low now forever unless there is a full blown currency crisis. But they can’t keep printing money at the same rate as last year or we’ll really get the currency crisis. So, they will restrict the flow somewhat. That is not going to be good for stocks either. Now, you may agree and disagree with my thoughts, they are still work in progress. And I didn’t even talk here about risk and leverage, just the money flow. This is just an attempt to illustrate you how incredibly complicated markets are. You can analyze them to death and still come up with a wrong answer. That is why most advisors rely on statistics. But to me statistics don’t mean anything if the prerequisites are no longer the same. And I’d say the markets today are very different from markets 20 years ago. So, what good these statistics from 20 years ago are? They are not measuring the same thing.
The Wisconsin Cartters - Chapter Thirteen James Bruce Cartter and Isadora Swift were married in Black River Falls, Wisconsin July 7, 1855 not long after arriving there from Kenosha County. Their first home was made in the village on property purchased July 23, 1855 from Oliver Swift. Oliver had preceded the other family members to Black River Falls. An additional lot of about one-eighth acre, adjacent to the first property, was purchased March 25, 1856 from Jacob Spaulding. It was on these properties that James and Isadora began their married life and started out to select the farm land which was to serve them as a home for the rest of their lives. Now that Isadora has become a part of the Cartter family it may be well to know more about her own family, the Swifts. The reader will remember that John Swift and his family had arrived at Wheatland, in Racine County in 1845 just two years after James had settled there. The Swift family, like the Cartters, trace back to New England, their arrival dating to about 1634. Their movement westward is interesting to follow. From George Henry Swift's book The Swift Family written in 1820 we have constructed the following abbreviated sketch of the first six generations of Swifts in America. THE SWIFT FAMILY WILLIAM SWIFT of Sandwich, Massachusetts came from England to America in the great ‘Boston Immigrations’ of 1630-1631. Savage says that he ‘probably came from Bocking County, Essex, England or its vicinity. He was in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1634 – had been there some time. Sold his property in Watertown in 1637 and probably moved to Sandwich, where he died January 1644.’ His wife Joan _______ survived him 20 years. They had brought three children with them from England, Hannah, Easter or Ester, and William Jr. WILLIAM JR. – born in England, lived all of his life in Sandwich. He married Ruth _____ and they had eleven children. EPHRIAM, 1st son of William Jr. b. 6-6-1656 – married Sarah _____ who died before him. They lived their entire lives in Sandwich where he was a carpenter and cooper by trade, d. 1742. They had seven children. MOSES, youngest son of Ephriam b. 9-15-1699 – married Mary Foster of Sandwich b. 9-1-1697. They had nine children and lived in Sandwich. CAPT. WARD, youngest son of Moses b. 12-1-1735. He married Remember Troy of Sandwich 1-9-1755. He was a prominent man in the town and took active part in raising men and serving his country during the Revolutionary war. They had nine children. WARD JR., second son of Capt. Ward, married Fear Nye of Falmouth, Massachusetts 1-1-1799. They too lived in Sandwich and had three sons. JOHN FREEMAN, second son of Ward Jr. and Fear Nye was born 10-27-1802 ‘went west and is heard of no more.’” This last entry in George Henry Swift’s genealogical account was evidently made by a New Englander whose world was wrapped up in Massachusetts. It is interesting to note that for six generations the direct line of descendants had not moved away from Sandwich or Falmouth at the base of Cape Cod. Some pioneering influence must have played upon John to direct his attentions westward. He married Chloe Price in 1827. She was born at North Falmouth on 5-24-1803. They with their four children broke the family record of 211 continuous years of residence in the Sandwich-Falmouth area and started a long westward trek in 1838. Their migration took them first to Cayuga County in the Finger lakes region of New York State. Their second move in 1854 was to Wheatland in Racine County, Wisconsin. When traveling on the Erie Canal they had quite a scare. The youngest child, Maria Jeanette, fell out of a port-hole on one of the canal boats. She was rescued however and the family continued its journey, no doubt by lake-boat, from Buffalo, N.Y. to Kenosha in Wis. They next moved to Black River Falls as related in the last chapter. All of these moves, ending at Black River Falls in 1855, had been made in a period of seventeen years. For some members of the family this was still not the end, for the Dakota Territory and California were later to beckon sons Charles and Oliver. John died 6-11-1867 at Black River Falls; Chloe died 4-27-1884 at Castlewood in Dakota Territory. Their four children will be introduced later in this story. Back now with our attention on James and Isadora as their search for land is rewarded. It is quite evident that James wasted no time in exploring the countryside located in Jackson County. His fancy seemed to be satisfied as he explored that area of land later known as “Disco Valley.” It was a relatively flat to rolling area, surrounded by hard-wood ridges and occupying approximately thirty-six sections of land fairly adaptable to agricultural use. This land was being made available through the U. S. land office at La Crosse for the uniform price of $1.25 per acre. The location was a little south of west from Black River Falls, a matter of about 10 miles and located in parts of Towns 20 and 21 N. in Range 5 W. Interest seemed to center in the area located in Town 21 for it had fairly level land. A small stream, fed by springs, ran through it and a reasonable amount of marsh land was available which could be depended upon for marsh hay in case of drought years. There existed a few small groves of white pine but most of the wooded area was covered in hard wood, good for fuel, fence posts, and timbers for building. There already existed, through the center of this valley, a trail leading easterly to Black River Falls and one at right angles leading to what later became Melrose and Irving at the south and to Hixton, Sechlerville, and Taylor on the north. All of these villages were just being settled and were within a distance of ten to twelve miles. The cross-roads area looked like a logical trading site and in fact became known as Disco Corners. At the same time a block of government land was made available in Town 20 N Range 5 W lying almost directly south form the above-mentioned crossroads. Here the land became more rolling, with less open areas and with heavier growth of hardwoods meaning richer soil but harder work to bring it into agricultural production. James did not hesitate long, for at $1.25 per acre and with an influx of settlers coming, land was a good investment. By 1857 James had secured 460 acres of land in his name and Isadora had 160 in her own name for a total of 620 acres. 280 acres of this land was in T. 20 and the balance in T. 21 at the Disco Corners and north. Isadora’s 160 acres was located 80 acres on each side of the Black River Falls road, one forty deep, and extending to the east of the four corners. We can well imagine James’ insistence that Isadora hold property in her own name, for you will remember that a clause in the first Wisconsin constitution, which he helped to frame, had favored this right for women to hold property in their own name. Though voted down, it had become an amendment very soon after the state was formed. The author has in his possession the “Cash Patent” issued Mar. 10-1857 for certificate No. 7847 issued to Isadora F. Cartter and described as follows: “The S W 1/4 of the S W 1/4 of Sec. 28 and the N W 1/4 of the N W 1/4 of Sec. 33 in Township 21, N. – Range 5 W in the district of lands subject to sale at La Crosse, Wis. containing 80 acres Signed: Isadora F. Cartter James Buchanan – President of the U.S. J. N. Granger – Recorder of the General Land Office.” The years 1855 through 1857 saw an almost complete settlement of lands in the Disco valley. The possessors of names that were to be common well into the 1900’s, when the author was growing up there, had newly arrived. The first to come to the valley and settle were Mr. and Mrs. Charles Harmer and Miss Harriet Harmer. They had come over from England in 1848. Theirs was a trying voyage, for the two children of Mr. and Mrs. Harmer died enroute and were buried at sea. They arrived in 1855, after a short sojourn in Fond du Lac County and chose land west of the Disco Corners. James Bruce and Isadora were the second settlers to acquire property in this location and adjacent to the Harmers. They were to be joined during the next two or three years by the Kimballs, Caldwells, Swifts, Vincents, Deuels, Crawleys, Caves, Dunns, and others. Chester Daniels entered seven forties in 1855 as did Charles Ryder. Chester Daniels Jr. was drowned while crossing the river at Irving. Mr. Ryder was killed during the siege of Vicksburg. Both properties were acquired by D. J. Spaulding and operated as the largest single farm in the valley. The Swift family, John and son Oliver, acquired 400 acres in one block about one and a half miles north from the Cartters. Here Oliver settled with his family. John settled in Black River Falls where he made his home for the remainder of his life. Charles, the other son, was a carpenter. He lived in Black River Falls. We can imagine that he was kept busy at house and barn building both in the rural and village area. Lumber was plentiful so most houses were of frame construction although occasionally a log house was still being built. Turning our attention back to Black River Falls we find that James in the short period that he lived there while building a farm home, was making sound acquaintance of men with whom he associated all through his remaining years. He was one of the members to organize and sign the charter for Masonic Lodge No. 74 on June 12, 1856. He remained an active member until his death. Isadora became a member of the Eastern Star. The first newspaper in the county was started in 1856 by Frank Cooper under the name Badger State Banner. Carl C. Pope, a pioneer lawyer, was a specially close friend of the family. He arrived in 1856 and was later to serve as district judge and a member of both the State Assembly and Senate. The Republican Party, having been organized in 1856 was increasing in membership and the push was being exerted in Black River Falls under the leadership of William T. Price. He secured many converts but was never able to move James Bruce from his Democratic views. Price referred to James Cartter, James Davis, and James McLoughlin as “The three immaculate Jims” for taking this steadfast stand against growing odds. Although James showed a keen interest in political issues and was free to express himself, he avoided any involvement in elective office. He was a great reader and student of history. There were interesting years at home for James and Isadora. Julie Elizabeth, their first child, was born April 27-1856, followed by a son David Kellogg on January first-1857. These were to be their only children. Together they had reviewed the layout of their new property in order to determine the site of their first real home. The site they selected could hardly have been better for it was on a slightly raised piece of ground near two of the springs which helped feed the marsh areas. The first section of the new home was to be built facing south thus affording an unobstructed view of Disco Corners and areas both east and west. The home was to be only one-half mile from the Corners where a cluster of their nearby neighbors would live. In a spacious yard were three Burr Oak trees which were allowed to remain. Those oaks seemed ageless to a little boy looking at them some fifty years later and even more so now that 118 years have come and gone since the Cartter home was established. The three oaks are still standing as if to keep watch over the occupants. Between the house and the springs was an area which would allow ample space for James to build his own fully equipped blacksmith shop, and to provide for a spacious home garden in which he was to take much pride. Back of the house and away from the road was a north-easterly slope which would be ideal for an apple, plum, and cherry orchard. The woods northwest of the proposed barn site would provide winter protection for the building site as well as a very adequate patch of wild blackberries. At the north end of the farm was a row of hills on which blueberries grew in abundance. These hills also were to supply the building stones for the future basement barn. Time flew by with but little in the way of recorded information to relate. James Davis who operated the Davis ferry across the Black River at a point later known as Irving was instrumental in laying out the road from Sparta, over Davis Ferry and on to Eau Claire. This road passed through Disco; in front of the Cartter homestead; past the Swift home, and on northward. Until the time that the railroad came through Black River Falls in 1869, this road was to carry a large amount of traffic, bringing supplies to the settlers and in turn hauling farm produce to the nearest railroad which was then at Sparta. Oliver Swift built a large house on his farm, which, as traffic increased, was used as a stop-over place for travelers. Such a place was then called a “tavern.” If numbers were too large to be accommodated in the house, room could be made for travelers in the barn. In 1860 the Disco Valley saw its first two barn raisings both accomplished in one day. The Cartter barn was raised in the forenoon and the one at Charles Harmer’s in the afternoon. The end of the day was of course celebrated with the aid of a keg of beer. Much community cooperation was observed. The degree to which this cooperation was expressed is illustrated by the way in which James and Isadora sensed the needs which nearby neighbors had for more strategic blocks of land in order to provide economic units for farm operation, or to gain direct access to the highways. As examples, can be sighted first the sale of 100 acres of land to the Kimball family as a homestead site on the highway and acreage large enough for good operation. Kimballs were the nearest neighbors to the north. They lived with the Cartters until their new house was built. The Charles Harmers’ original holdings at Disco were also too small for economic operation so Isadora sold them 120 acres of her property that they might have a compact block of land and access to the main highway. These sales were made in T 21 N. The Cartter farm was at that time reduced to 400 acres of which one forty belonged to Isadora who held it until near the time of her death. In T 20 N – R 5 W similar sales were made from the 280 acres located there. These were made to F. A. Caldwell, James Harmer, and Charles Harmer. This left the Cartter holdings at that location 120 acres as shown in the 1870 plat book. Little had James and Isadora realized when they secured this 280 acres that the area in which it was located would later be recognized as providing to archeologists and the public in general “The best collection of well preserved Indian rock-carvings (petroglyphs) in the middle west.” Gullickson’s Glen in which these carvings were found is less than one-fourth mile from the early Cartter holdings. The Winnebago Indians living in the region at the time of early settlement seemed to have no knowledge as to which tribe of Indians made the carvings. An archeological dig was made in 1958 by Dr. Warren L. Witty, Curator of Anthropology at the State Historical Society. His findings suggested that although Indians were occupying the cave as long as two thousand years ago, the petroglyphs probably do not date back further than 800 years to the early Iowas and Winnebagos. The Wisconsin Trails Magazine in its summer issue 1971 carried a good description of this cave along with picture of the petroglyphs. The following is their word picture. “The figures on the cave wall include about three cozen carvings, including humans with arms outstretched, chunky elk with large antlers, deer, wild turkey in flight, eagles, a buffalo cow with an arrow in her side nursing a calf, swans, a trio of geese with long curved necks, a huge fish with a formidable set of jagged teeth, a comical catfish with drooping whiskers, even what looks like a pet dog.” The archeological dig mentioned above also uncovered a large number of arrow heads, pottery pieces, stone knives, scrapers and rills left by the early Indians and covered up by the years’ accumulation from erosion. This glen is today part of the County Park System thanks to a gift of the land made by Miss Florence Gullickson, descendant of one of the early settlers.
Last spring, Andrew Greenspon thought his lottery number was exactly what he needed to get an on-campus apartment. When his number was finally called in Bemis, Greenspon was under the impression he would be living in the last available, highly sought after campus housing. Greenspon, now a junior, thought wrong. An error in the process meant that the apartment he thought he was about to get was actually gone. “I was given a high lottery number and assumed I would get an apartment—what the school presents as ‘junior housing,’” he said. “I was livid.” The campus apartments are known for their privacy and proximity to campus amenities, and are considered a right of passage for juniors to adjust to the lifestyle of off-campus living in senior year. But more and more seniors are deciding that apartment life is too good to abandon, and juniors are stuck with less-than-ideal living conditions. Since CC is a self-claimed “residential” campus, students are required to live on campus for three years, which places stress on the lottery system for the overwhelmingly popular apartments available beginning junior year. Instead of having the opportunity to find off-campus housing with freedoms similar to those offered by the apartments, which most other colleges and universities offer, the fate of CC juniors’ housing lies in the lottery system. Andrew Greenspon lost that lottery. “Often the school tries to say that living on campus for three years isn’t so bad because junior year you get to live in the new apartments,” Greenspon said. “Unfortunately that’s not true for everyone.” However, Assistant Director for Residential Life Sara Rotunno sees the three-year, on-campus requirement as an “opportunity” for underclassmen. “A main idea behind juniors living on campus is how they contribute back to their community and [serve as] role-model[s] for other students,” Rotunno said. “Juniors often can share insightful and very meaningful information with younger class students.” But Greenspon, who now lives in what he calls a “cramped” Bemis single, sees it differently. “If juniors were allowed the option to go off campus, many of these problems would dissolve,” Greenspon said. “Our campus is small enough and tight enough that making an argument for demanding students to live on campus for three years due to these reasons is ridiculous.” With the added bonus of the apartments’ proximity to campus, it is understandable why seniors would want to stay for a fourth year. Senior Adam Dickerson is one of those students who saw the positives of continuing to live on campus. “My schedule keeps me wound up on campus, sometimes from very early in the morning until late at night,” Dickerson said. “I knew that if I had a house off campus I would rarely ever be there. I’m running back and forth between my place and work/class/extracurriculars enough as it is.” “If living in apartments is better, then it makes sense for the seniors to have first pick,” Dickerson said. The lottery to get into an apartment gives the most preference to seniority. “I definitely feel like I earned it,” Dickerson said, “but if living off-campus is so great, then it shouldn’t be a problem for juniors.” But it is a problem. Juniors cannot live off campus unless they have senior standing or have a petition accepted by Res Life. The apartments are the most popular place to reside on campus, and because juniors can’t live off campus and the lottery favors seniors, juniors are stuck in a sort of housing limbo between apartments and other, less desirable housing. “I actually was planning on going off campus; the people I am rooming with kept saying ‘apartment’,” Nick Johnson, a senior, said. “If it weren’t for the fact that one of my roommates is a junior, I would have completely forgotten that juniors could live in the apartments on campus.” Johnson and Dickerson both agree that their seniority has given them the right to choose where they live, whether on or off campus. Greenspon expected that same ability in his senior year, but hoped he would have had more freedom in his current junior year. “CC students should be able to live [in the apartments] as a rite of passage,” Greenspon said. The apartments can house 240 students, and though there is not enough room to house all juniors and seniors in the apartments, the other housing options are at least a step up from dorm life. “There are enough beds between small houses and apartments that all juniors and seniors can have housing and not live in Loomis, Slocum, and Mathias,” Rotunno said. Though Greenspon, and other juniors like him, find the three-year campus residential requirement nonsensical, Rotunno articulated that juniors’ presence in on-campus housing is beneficial to the greater student body. “We love that juniors mingle with others in the housing system, and [we] are very intentional about providing this opportunity as part of a four-year plan for our students,” Rotunno said. But for those like Greenspon, it will be another year before the option of freedom and increased living space become a reality.
Martyrs, born probably Rome; died Soissons, France, c.285. According to legend, they were Romans of distinguished lineage who were sent as missionaries to Gaul. Having escaped various tortures unscathed, they were finally beheaded. Patrons of cobblers, tanners, and saddlers. Emblems: instruments of their trade, and strips of leather. Relics in San Lorenzo at Rome, and at Osnabruck. Feast, 25 October.
Weather Camera on Caye Caulker Our Caye Caulker Weather Web Camera is programed to take a new photo every 2 minutes, day and night. This image of the current weather is then uploaded to our Weather server and then displayed on this page. A new weather camera image will be shown soon… The weather camera is mounted just below the anemometer and wind direction sensor, about 38 feet above ground level. It is directed towards the North-East, the direction where most on our significant weather comes from. \|Caye Caulker Weather Camera\|
Portrait of William Dougald MacMillan from a Morning Star newspaper clipping. William Dougald MacMillan, Jr. (1872-1960) was born in Wilmington. He attended public schools in Magnolia, North Carolina and was employed by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad for eight years. When MacMillan returned to Wilmington, he established a livery stable and in later an automobile sales agency. He was appointed to the Board of New Hanover County Commissioners in 1916 and became chairman of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board in 1935. MacMillan married Katherine Gaston deRosset in 1896 and the couple had four children. After the death of Katherine, he married Emma Woodward, head librarian of the Wilmington Public Library. MacMillan is buried in Oakdale cemetery. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company New Hanover County (N.C.). Board of Commissioners North Carolina. Board of Alcoholic Control Bill Reaves Collection, Series II, "MacMillan" File New Hanover County Public Library Donated to New Hanover County Public Library by Bill Reaves in 1999 Copyright is owned by the New Hanover County Public Library. For commercial or other use, permission must be granted.
Spam-fighting organization Spamhaus has experienced a large-scale DDoS attack over the past weekend and extending into this week. Security experts claim that it was one of the largest cyber attacks ever seen. Although the organization's web site and its mail were knocked down for a while, the data systems continued to work normally throughout the attack. While the origin of the attacks has not been identified, some experts pointed the finger at Cyberbunker, possibly in coordination with Eastern European cyber-criminals. Security firm CloudFlare, said the attackers changed tactics after the first layer of protection was implemented last week. "Rather than attacking our customers directly, they started going after the network providers CloudFlare uses for bandwidth," Prince said. "Once the attackers realized they couldn't knock CloudFlare itself offline... they went after our direct peers." Prince said the so-called denial of service attack, which essentially bombards sites with traffic in an effort to disrupt, was "one of the largest ever reported." "If the Internet felt a bit more sluggish for you over the last few days in Europe, this may be part of the reason why," he said in a blog post. Prince noted that these attacks "are like bazookas and the events of the last week have shown the damage they can cause." . "What's troubling is that, compared with what is possible, this attack may prove to be relatively modest." "Based on the reported scale of the attack, which was evaluated at 300 Gigabits per second, we can confirm that this is one of the largest DDoS operations to date," online security firm Kaspersky Lab said in a statement. Spamhaus carries a constantly-updated blacklist of service providers suspected of offering refuge for spammers. CloudFlare estimates that Spamhaus "is directly or indirectly responsible for filtering as much as 80 percent of daily spam messages."
Fabless semiconductor company Mediatek has acquired a broad license to Cortex-A50 Series processor cores and the next generation of ARM Mali graphics processing Unit (GPU) solutions. ARM provides an optimized compute platform that uses ARM Cortex processors, Mali GPU and ARM CoreLink CCI-400 technologies. Alongside technologies such as big.LITTLE and MediaTek?s SoC and system expertise, this heterogeneous approach means that the broad range of applications needed in mobile devices can be processed faster and more efficiently when divided between the CPUs and the GPUs. The ARM Cortex-A57 and ARM Cortex-A53 support the ARMv8-A Architecture with both 64-bit and 32-bit execution. These processors extend the available performance range with a focus on power-efficient implementation while maintaining compatibility with the existing 32-bit software ecosystem around ARM processors. The ARM Mali GPU family scales to deliver graphics on entry level smartphones, through to more advanced graphics for top-end superphones, tablets and Smart TVs.
In the last five years, China has brought 20 state-of-the-art, super-quiet, diesel-electric submarines on line, increasing its fleet of modern subs to 55. Now there is speculation the Chinese are developing Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells that allow their subs to stay submerged far longer and eliminate any detectable mechanical noise. This would explain how a Chinese submarine was able to surprise the USS Kitty Hawk battle group last October by popping up in its midst and immediately disappearing without a trace. Apparently, the U.S. Navy can't track China's newest submarines.And why would they want to do that? U.S. intelligence predicted none of this. Last year, Assistant Defense Secretary Peter Rodman admitted, "We are caught by surprise by the appearance of new systems that suddenly appear fully developed." Former Clinton administration defense expert Kurt Campbell has noted, "You look back on those studies, and it's only been a decade, China has exceeded in every area military modernization that even the far-off estimates of the mid-1990s predicted." With the Soviet Union's collapse in 1992, America cut its defense budget by more than 10 percent during the Clinton years while China boosted arms spending by 10 percent to 20 percent every year since 1992. The Central Intelligence Agency calculates Beijing now spends 4.3 percent of its gross domestic product on the military. China's military sectors will get about $430 billion -- in purchasing power parity terms -- this year. Humoring threats from dictatorships invariably results in catastrophic miscalculations. And Taiwan is not Beijing's only illicit territorial claim.Amen. Oh, and a note to my WESTPAC friends - plan on your own security. If I was you - I would. Last November, the Chinese ambassador in New Delhi informed a surprised Indian television audience that "the whole of what you call the state of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory." This February, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said "China will not accept any representations by Japan on the premise of territorial claim" over the Senkaku Islands. No Chinese live in Arunachal Pradesh, and Japan has administered the Senkakus for 112 years. All Asia is watching to see if the U.S. is committed to President Bush's vision of "the global expansion of democracy." If Washington won't stand up for democracy in Taiwan, where would it? And how would Beijing know Washington was serious? No responsible person wants war in the Taiwan Strait. But the best way to avoid war, to keep our legal commitment to defend Taiwan's democracy and to maintain Asia's stability is to demonstrate steadfast resolve against Beijing's territorial demands. The United States may no longer be strong enough to defend freedom beyond our shores. The "global expansion of democracy" may not be feasible as we face a Chinese Superpower intent on legitimizing illiberal forces lurking in the shadows of Asia's fragile new democracies. If so, Washington should admit it, so our allies and friends can start making other plans for their security.
Yes - it look awhile, but this is how it is done right. Take a core of proven technology and fold in new potential. You minimize technology risk and cost. After more than a decade of development, the Pentagon’s finally sending its newest laser-guided rocket into battle. First stop for the relatively svelte weapon: Afghanistan.Yep, your friend and mine - the 2.75" Hydra rocket. The Navy on Tuesday confirmed that they’ve deployed the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) to several Marine Corps units in Afghanistan. Right now, the weapons are integrated with two different helicopters — the AH-1W Super Cobra and the UH-1Y Super Huey — but they’ve got the capability to be fired off from pretty much any aerial vehicle. With a pricetag that’s around $10,000 per missile, the systems are an order of magnitude less expensive than Hellfire missiles, the military standbys that run around $100,000 each. And it’s not just the cost. At 35 pounds, the APKWS is a third as heavy as the Hellfire, Low collateral damage and can be carried by almost everything, including toys. The APKWS could also aid another star-crossed military endeavor. The Navy’s Fire Scout robotic helicopters, which were grounded last week after recent mishaps and crash-landings, are expected to be armed with the APKWS missiles when they next hit the skies.Well done.
Upon successful completion of this course the student will be able to: - Define food faddism, cultism, and quackery. - Identify the four different categories of nutrition quackery victims. - Describe the placebo effect. - Discuss why food faddism persists. - Define vitalism and identify three nonscientific health care practices that are rooted in vitalism. - Discuss why homeopathy violates scientific principles. - Describe the potential dangers of naturopathy. - Discuss two clinical tricks commonly used by unscientific practitioners. - Describe three nonscientific tests for nutritional deficiencies and why they are not valid. - Describe the components of a scientific assessment of nutritional status. - List ten ways to recognize nutrition quackery. - Describe methods for evaluating nutrition claims that are read and heard. - Identify three different categories of harm done by quackery and give an example of each category. - Discuss the medical hazards of low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets, fasting, and food combining. - Describe how to evaluate weight-loss programs. - Discuss five ineffective weight-loss aids. - List two reasons why protein and amino acid supplements are not needed to increase muscle mass. - Identify five ineffective ergogenic aids and why they don't work. - Identify the three federal agencies that can act against nutrition fraud and their areas of jurisdiction. - Describe two weaknesses in our consumer protection laws. - Provide three tips for combating nutrition quackery. Course content may take a take a few minutes to display fully. This course is intended for an interprofessional audience, including dietitians, health educators, and fitness professionals. Dietitians: Take this version of the course to ensure you receive appropriate credit. For the version accredited or approved for another profession, go to your specific profession at www.continuingeducation.com . If you have a CE Direct login ID and password (generally provided by your employer), please log in as you normally would at cedirect.continuingeducation.com and search for this topic title. ContinuingEducation.com is a Continuing Professional Education (CPE) Accredited Provider (#GD001) with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). This course is a Level 2 course. Suggested CDR Learning Codes: 2010, 3100, 4000, 4060, 4100, 4110, 6010, 6030, 7100 ContinuingEducation.com is also accredited by the Florida Council of Dietetics and Nutrition (provider # FBN 50-1489). This program has been approved for fulfilling the continuing education requirements of the Certifying Board for Dietary Managers (CBDM). Granting prior approval does not constitute endorsement of the program content or its program sponsor.
To recognize the contributions of the pioneers of the consumer electronics industry, CEA announced the first 50 inductees into its Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame at the 2000 International CES. Each year a new group of inventors, engineers, business leaders, retailers and journalists are inducted into the CE Hall of Fame. The CE Hall of Fame is an opportunity to honor the visionaries who have paved the way for the products and services that are changing the way we live. Individually, and in some cases together, these leaders have made significant contributions to the industry. Without them, the world would be a very different place.
HHMI and Duke Celebrate the Lefkowitz Chemistry Nobel As discussed in my previous post, I took a personal day off from work yesterday to bask in the excitement of a university community celebrating a Nobel prize for one of its most beloved researchers, Dr. Robert “Bob” Lefkowitz, MD. He joined Duke in 1973 when, he says, “it was not the powerhouse it is today.” Lefkowitz will share the prize with his former trainee, Brian Kobilka, MD, now at Stanford University. I had the honor of joining his laboratory’s champagne celebration in the morning and the Duke University press conference in the early afternoon. (The full 47-minute press conference streamed live and is archived here at Duke.). I live barely three miles from Duke and had no idea when or if I’d ever have the chance to be so close to such an event. The Lefkowitz prize is particularly meaningful to me as he is a biochemist physician-scientist who also considers himself a pharmacologist. So, I write this not so much as a journalist but rather — as Duke Research Communications Director Karl Leif Bates put it — a fan boy. Dr. Lefkowitz is officially designated as an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Duke University Medical Center. The New York City-born-and-bred Lefkowitz is an exceedingly proud graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, which counts him as the eighth graduate to receive a Nobel prize. The vast majority of universities cannot count that many graduates and faculty put together as Nobel laureates. After earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1962 from what was called Columbia College, trained originally as a physician at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons where he received his MD in 1966. He stayed there for a year each of internship and general medical residency. But he was bitten by the research bug while at the National Institutes of Health during the final third of the Vietnam War (1968-1970), with a reamrkable group of physician-scientists. During the Duke news conference, Lefkowitz remarked that among his NIH class of eight fellows, “four or five” have since won Nobel prizes. “I was the schlep of the group,” quipped Lefkowitz. Lefkowitz then moved to Massachusetts General Hospital, the Harvard University affiliate, for his cardiology training. He wasn’t looking to leave Harvard. But while giving talks at the American Heart Association annual meeting and other national cardiology conferences, he caught the eye of Dr. Andy Wallace, then chief of Duke’s cardiology division and later CEO of the hospital. When Wallace and other Duke administrators tried aggressively to recruit him, Lefkowitz said that he really had no particular desire to leave Harvard. The proposed annual salary of $24,000 would certainly go farther in Durham, NC, than in Cambridge and Boston. So, he put together a list of demands that, he says, were well beyond what one should expect at that early stage of an academic career. Duke responded with agreement to all of his terms and resource requests. And while he hadn’t objected to the salary, they increased it by a third to $32,000. Lefkowitz has been at Duke for the last 39 years, training over 200 scientists and fellows, many who have gone on to stellar research careers, department chairs, and deanships. Lefkowitz is also the longest standing investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (since 1976), whom he credits immensely for their support. While the HHMI is well-recognized, less known is the fact that its flagship program is an organization of 330 investigators spread of 70 universities, medical schools, hospitals, and other research entities. While HHMI investigators maintain their institutional appointments, the Hughes aspect operates independently of the administration of the host institution. Currently, HHMI investigators support over 700 postdoctoral fellows and 1,000 graduate students. (This is not the only HHMI program – see here for details.) The chemistry prize Much hullabaloo has transpired as to whether the work of Lefkowitz and Kobilka is deserving this chemistry Nobel. One could argue that since work on the natural ligands that bind to G-protein-coupled receptors have historically garnered Nobel prizes in Physiology or Medicine that this one should have followed similarly. The father of the chemblogosphere, Derek Lowe, held forth yesterday on why this is a chemistry prize. Indeed, the X-ray crystallographic work of Brian Kobilka is clearly a chemical technique use for all manner of so-called biological research. But there is one aspect to the GPCR work that I believe also qualifies these two gentlemen for the chemistry prize. During the news conference, someone beat me to the question of how his cardiology training led Lefkowitz to pursue this avenue of research. His most obvious answer was that the adrenergic receptors — those that bind epinephrine and norepinephrine — are the most critical receptors and neurotransmitters in cardiology. But in the early 1970s, some scientists were still unconvinced that receptors could be these specific entities that bound these chemicals and triggered some reaction in cells to get them to do something. So, it was the second answer from Lefkowitz that most acutely caught my attention. And this is the section that you should cut-and-paste for your blog: Lefkowitz noted that adrenergic receptors were the group of receptors most amenable to laboratory research because the chemical probes and biological tools were most readily available. Remember, he started doing this research as a NIH fellow in 1968. We did not have the ability to clone the genes encoding receptors and determine their structural similarity and differences. We couldn’t just use degenerate PCR primers to amplify from the genome the relatives of these so-called alpha and beta receptors. In fact, how did physiologists ever define α and β receptors in the first place? In work leading to a legendary 1948 paper in the American Journal of Physiology, Raymond Ahlquist at the University of Georgia used structurally similar chemicals to demonstrate that some had better stimulating or inhibiting activity in isolated organ systems. Yes, this physiological advance required biologists to have access to specifically-designed small molecules. Ahlquist’s stroke of genius was observing that the ranking of their order of potency in each tissue system seemed to differ. Specifically, these chemicals fell into two groups. Some of these chemical probes were superb at stimulating heart rate but less active in causing constriction of blood vessels, both effects of epinephrine and norepinephrine (remember, these were originally called adrenaline and noradrenaline, respectively). This different “rank order of potency” led Ahlquist to conclude that tissues whose chemical responses grouped with blood vessels had one type of adrenergic receptors, or “adrenoceptors,” which he called α. Those tissues whose potency order of chemical responses grouped with the beating heart had another type that he called β. Alhquist passed away in 1983, precisely on the date of Dr. Lefkowitz’s 40th birthday. In contrast, Alhquist never won a Nobel prize although he did received the Albert Lasker Award in 1976, a US honor also bestowed on Lefkowitz that often precedes a Nobel. Ahlquist left a couple of nice reminiscences on this and his subsequent work, here in the Journal of Autonomic Pharmacology and here in the old ISI Citation Classics. We don’t need no stinkin’ cloning; we have chemicals! But stay with me now, especially the chemists. Ahlquist lamented that he didn’t have access to any compounds that blocked the effect of norepinephrine on beta-receptors. Sir James Black, later a 1988 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, seized upon the value of chemistry and took a chemical structure-activity approach in coming up with the first beta-blocker, propranolol. Propranolol (Inderal) marked a new era in the treatment of hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases. We now know that multiple subtypes of beta-receptors exist but, again, we knew it long before gene cloning was possible. But discerning between beta1- and beta2-receptors took until 1967-1968, almost another 20 years after Alhquist’s 1948 work. Why? Because the compounds necessary to discriminate between beta1 and beta2 receptors did not yet exist. It took physiologists and pharmacologists working with chemists to make this happen. By the way, Sir James took the same chemical approach when he was at SmithKline in the UK to find receptor-selective histamine antagonists to block gastric acid secretion for the treatment of gastric ulcers. He seized on the observation that the effects of histamine could be blocked by diphenhydramine (Benadryl) in every tissue except the stomach and the uterus. He had his chemists start with histamine itself to work up to chemicals such as cimetidine (Tagamet) that had the selectivity to block histamine at this second type of receptor, the histamine H2 receptor. (You’ll not be surprised that when Sir James received the Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award, he shared it with Ahlquist!) Remember that this was now about the time that Lefkowitz came into his NIH research training about this time (1968-1970). Again, he remarked yesterday chose cardiology research because the tools existed for him to embark on his work. Those tools were chemical tools. As Dr. Lefkowitz works on his autobiography and Nobel lecture leading up to the December ceremony in Stockholm, I hope that he reflects on that era – he’ll certainly remember it far better than I can piece together from the literature. More later. . . I’m still not done – I’ll have another blogpost on this Nobel prize tomorrow, a bit more of the personal side. In the meantime, my Duke News & Communications colleagues, many who’ve contributed to the upcoming annual meeting of the National Association of Science Writers later this month, have set up this portal to six features on Dr. Lefkowitz and the Nobel prize. Well done, folks!
In an interesting and cogent article in the June 2007 issue of the National Society of Professional Engineers’ (NSPE) PE: The Magazine for Professional Engineers —"The future of professional engineering licensure"—Jon D. Nelson, P.E., and Bobby E. Price, Ph.D., P.E., posed eight questions for consideration. Inspired by the authors’ discussion, here, and continued next month, are my thoughts on these important questions. How will the continuing proliferation of disciplines and sub-disciplines affect the [P.E.] examination process? I think it will adversely affect our profession. When I became licensed almost 50 years ago, the discipline known as stormwater management, which is my specialty, barely existed. Computers were not available to the average civil engineer or P.E. applicant, and software that could solve complex problems simply by entering numbers with a keyboard did not exist. In those days, the engineer had to know what was going on in the discipline of his or her choice. My own discipline of civil engineering was not subdivided into many other sub-disciplines as it is today. Now, there are so many variations on the theme of civil engineering that it would not be recognizable to a practitioner of the 1950s who awoke after a 50-year slumber—and it is getting worse (better?) every day. I’m not so sure that this is desirable and, in my opinion, it certainly is not necessary. You must keep up with changes to be viable in our profession, but I don’t think all of the changes are for the better. Will the number and type of examinations change? As the PE article mentions, licensure examinations may have to be restructured. Today, some of the exams offered by states are very limited in scope; they cover narrow areas of engineering disciplines. Some may not even have a single question on the test covering the narrow discipline you may have chosen for your future career. Among other options, the authors propose "to drop the P.E. exam altogether and replace it with a new practice exam that would be taken only after satisfying the experience requirement." I’m not sure I like that idea. It could result in fostering the need for types of exams in a manner very different from the way we are presently required to be grilled during the licensure process. The non-technical aspects of practice, such as ethics, environmental concerns, and dealing with other licensed and unlicensed practitioners, would be covered in a separate part of the exam. It is too early to prognosticate on the directions various states will take on this subject. The ultimate outcome may be vastly different from what even the most prescient of us can foresee at this time. Too many different kinds of examinations could result in creating narrow-minded robots who would no longer have the ability to broaden their engineering concepts, which have served society so well until now. What about the maintenance or renewal of licenses? When I started out in my professional career, this question was not even thought of, much less given serious consideration by NSPE. The normal track was that you went to college and earned an engineering degree. Then you got a job in almost any of the very limited numbers of specialties (civil, electrical, or mechanical engineering) and you kept doggedly at what you expected would become your lifetime profession. Then you took two tests—one concerning general engineering subjects and one limited to civil, mechanical, or electrical engineering. If you passed the two tests, you became licensed and permitted by the state to practice "professional engineering." It was up to you to practice only in areas of your expertise. It was self-limiting and you were supposed to be sure that as a Professional Engineer you did not practice disciplines outside of your own area of professional knowledge and expertise. That worked pretty well. Most of us confined our practice to those areas within our personal expertise. I don’t remember seeing much, if anything, in professional journals about civil engineers encroaching into the field of electrical engineering. What we did was not only self-limiting, but it was also self-enforcing. You couldn’t get me to infringe on the practice of electrical engineering under any circumstances. (We had a family joke: "I never saw an electron, so they probably don’t exist." Later, one of my sons earned two degrees in electrical engineering!) I and my fellow professional engineers were aware of the (sometimes) unwritten rules about professional practice—and we worked diligently within the guidelines. The rules did not require that we keep up with innovations in engineering. We kept up on such things without being required to do so. How will university faculty members be treated? One of the primary problems with licensure, or lack of same, in our engineering colleges is the fact that the administrators, until recently, did not emphasize registration of the engineering faculty. This was, and continues to be, a serious problem. My unofficial count and memory reveal that professors in the civil engineering discipline were much more likely to be registered engineers than those in the two other major disciplines (mechanical and electrical engineering). In fact, I don’t recall many P.E.s who were licensed in those areas of expertise back in the 1950s. One of the best, and my favorite, teacher at Rutgers University was Tony Del Mastro. He was not only a Professional Engineer, but he also always encouraged his students to join the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Later he became president of both the Raritan Valley (N.J.) Chapter and the state society of NJSPE. He was my role model, even though he was relatively young when I took my first course in Strength of Materials—one of the core requirements for graduation with a B.S. in civil engineering in those days. Next month’s column will offer my thoughts on the last four questions posed in the PE article. Alfred R. Pagan, P.E., P.L.S., is a consulting engineer in Hackensack, N.J. He can be contacted [email protected].
Welcome to Central Union Elementary School Welcome to the Central Union School District. Central Union Elementary is a rural school with over 70 years of serving our local families. There is much tradition, school culture, and community pride on the campus. We are a K-8th grade school with a student population of 385 students. Central School also serves 24 preschool students through a state preschool program. Student diversity is a strength on the Central campus. Educating all students at Central School to their highest potential and instilling a commitment to further education remains the mission of our staff. Supporting our mission and motto, “Together We Achieve,” Central School in partnership with parents and community members will continue to give our children a school that is safe, secure, and where maximum potential and success are promoted. Our partnership is committed to the full development of our children as lifelong learners and future leaders. Our common school-wide goals include: - closing the achievement gap for those students who are in our focus groups - continuing to promote our character program and curriculum - providing school environment where all students are safe and secure - continue to teach the California State Learning Standards at all grade levels
Elizabeth J. Opila Opila obtained her BS in Ceramic Engineering at the University of Illinois, her MS in Materials Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and her PhD in Materials Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before joining the faculty at UVa, Opila was a materials research scientist at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, OH for 19 years. Opila has published more than 80 technical papers, has six patents, and is co-author on five book chapters. She is a fellow of the Electrochemical Society and has chaired the Gordon Conference on High Temperature Materials, Processes, and Diagnostics. A member of the ACerS Basic Science Division since 1982, Opila has served on committees for the Richard and Patricia Spriggs Phase Equilibria Award and Robert L. Coble Award for Young Scholars. She was co-editor on a special topical issue of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society, “Water Vapor Effects on High-Temperature Oxidation and Volatilization of Ceramics.” Opila’s career has focused on thermochemical stability of structural ceramics and coatings for power, propulsion, and thermal protection systems. Her research interests include thermodynamics and kinetics of high temperature water vapor interactions with metals and ceramics as well as oxidation mechanisms of silicon based ceramics, ceramic matrix composites, and ultra-high temperature ceramics.
The Keystone XL Pipeline has been part of a controversy-filled discussion among lawmakers over the last few years. And the new Republican-led Congress is looking to move on passing approval of the pipeline among their first orders of business. Jeff Danner writes the “Common Science” blog at chapelboro.com and says the XL in the name of the pipeline is important. “There already is a Keystone pipeline, and there has been for years,” he says. “The Keystone XL Pipeline is, essentially, two additions to that preexisting network.” Danner says an oil-sand mixture would be coming down the pipeline from Canada, with the ultimate goal of rendering out gasoline or diesel as a final product. He says there are several environmental issues that have been causing concern during the planning process for the pipeline. “One is on the global-warming front,” Danner says. “We keep resetting a new normal. We used to wish we could keep carbon dioxide in the atmosphere below 400 [parts per million]. Now, the environmental community and the international diplomatic community are trying to settle around a limit of 450.” Danner adds remaining below the new limits would include leaving at least half of the known deposits of fossil fuels around the world in the ground. Exploiting the oil sands in Alberta would be a huge step toward exceeding the new goals, according to Danner. The other major environmental concern has been the actual route of the XL pipeline. “The new pipeline would go over the Ogallala Aquifer,” he says, “which is responsible for the fact that we are able to do things like grow wheat and raise cattle in places like Arizona, Kansas, and Oklahoma.” Danner says concern is coming from environmentalists over contaminating that aquifer. But he adds the aquifer has not been damaged by some of the more than 2.5 million miles of pipeline that currently run across the United States. “Hundreds of thousands of miles of that pipeline are already on top of the Ogallala Aquifer,” he says. “That aquifer is deep underground and the land there in not porous, unlike Alberta. It’s so nonporous that it’s hard for the water to get there.” Danner says these pipelines eliminate the need for trucks or trains to haul the raw material needed to produce fuel, which would come at an even higher financial and environmental cost. According to Danner, another issue concerning the pipeline is the value. He says once all things are considered, there is concern over whether the expected output of the pipeline is worth the infrastructure necessary for it to operate. “It’s exceedingly more difficult and more energy intensive than if you had petroleum,” he says. “You have to pull it out of the ground, heat it up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit to get the sand and oil to come out of it. You’ve got to remove the nitrogen. You remove the metals. “Even when you’re done, you’ve still got this semi-solid mass that you have to process further.” Danner adds to solve the long-term environmental concerns associated with this project, the solution would be for the pipeline to not go forward – which is why the fight over the pipeline has been so intense. “If you could stall it, it does buy you some more time if you have hopes that we’ll convince the world to leave the oil sands in the ground,” he says. The newly-minted GOP-led Congress will likely pass the bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline. But the White House announced, on Tuesday, that President Obama would veto the bill, if it is passed through the legislature. President Obama and Congressional leaders are slated to meet, next Tuesday, for the first time since the 114th Congress convened and discuss their priorities for the upcoming term – one of which is sure to be the Keystone XL Pipeline.http://chapelboro.com/news/national/science-behind-hotly-debated-keystone-xl-pipeline/ The UNC Institute for the Environment is a collaborative, cross-departmental organization which focuses its research on critical issues that lie at the heart of our most pressing environmental challenges. Specific areas of focus include: sustainable communities, energy and the environment, watershed science and management, and environmental modeling. This week the Institute is hosting 28 local high school students who will spend a week on the campus of UNC exploring topics related to current energy use, climate change, alternative energy and sustainability as part of the Climate Leadership and Energy Awareness Program (Climate LEAP). Science educators from the UNC Institute for the Environment (IE) and the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center (MPSC) along with scientists from UNC will contribute to programming and lead hands-on sessions and lab tours. The program will enable students to take part in hands-on STEM activities such as the construction and testing of dye-sensitized solar cells and wind turbines. Students will take field trips to locations such as the UNC co-generation plant, chemistry laboratories at the UNC-based Energy Frontier Research Center and the Carolina Campus Community Garden. Funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, this student science enrichment program is free and participants are paid a $500 stipend for attending the summer program and participating in at least four follow-up activities during the academic year. In addition, students are asked to conduct a community outreach project to educate others about energy, climate change, and/or sustainability. The program is lead by Dana Haine, K-12 Science Education Manager for the Institute and proud member of Chapel Hill High School’s class of 1991. Haine credits her outstanding CHHS science teachers for inspiring her to pursue a career in science. In the five years that the Environmental Institute has been running the program, she has seen how it inspires students to seek out more science classes in high school and select STEM related majors in college. When not running the Climate LEAP program Haine and her colleague hold workshops for K-12 science teachers and are available as a resource for educators across the state. The Environmental Institute provides yet another example of the broad, positive reach of UNC in our education community. It’s good to know that our aspiring scientists have programs like this one available to encourage their ambitions.http://chapelboro.com/news/unc/unc-program-promotes-energy-awareness-among-local-hs-students/ Willingham first said she had made the decision to leave on April 21 after an hour-long meeting with Chancellor Carol Folt. She said the conversation made her realize there was no more she could do at UNC and that she wanted to continue her fight to correct problems with intercollegiate athletics elsewhere. In an email, Willingham told WCHL that she’s currently in Washington, D.C. and will return next week. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported Wednesday that Willingham, as well as former UCLA basketball standout Ed O’Bannon, will testify to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The hearing takes place Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. and is titled “Promoting the Well-Being and Academic Success of College Athletes“. Willingham is also a key witness in the O’Bannon lawsuit in which he and a number of other plaintiffs are suing the NCAA for not allowing the players to profit from their image or likeness. That trial is scheduled to begin on June 9, but two weeks ago the NCAA asked U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken to either separate the video game portion of the lawsuit with the rest of it or delay the case by 15 months. USA Today reports that the lawyers of former Arizona State and Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller said they supported the NCAAs request for separation and that they are looking for close to $100 million in statutory penalties, loss of profits and punitive damages.http://chapelboro.com/news/unc/willingham-resigns/ CHAPEL HILL – A dog in Chapel Hill tested positive for rabies, making it the eighth rabies case in Orange County this year. The dog in question already had a rabies vaccine and received a booster shot shortly after the attack, pursuant to North Carolina’s rabies law that animals suspected of exposure must receive a booster within five days of potential exposure. Orange County Animal Control reiterates the importance of giving all pets rabies vaccinations. Last year, Orange County had 12 confirmed cases of rabies. A new sushi bar and Asian fusion restaurant will soon be added to the new 140 West Franklin development in downtown Chapel Hill. Spicy Nine is scheduled to open next year. The owner, Tony Zikitsreth, who also owns Sushi Thai Raleigh, Sushi Nine and Sushi Love, will manage the new store with his son. Spicy Nine will join the already-open Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, Gigi’s Cupcakes which will open at the end of August, and Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom which is scheduled for early 2014. Two UNC doctoral students won second place in the National Science Foundation’s Innovation in Graduate Education Challenge. The competition invited graduate students across the nation to submit ideas with the potential to improve graduate education and professional development. UNC’s Clare Fieseler and Justin Ridge submitted their proposal, called Stories Project, to the Duke/UNC Scientists. The project creates videos, photography, and storytelling affiliated with the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences and the Duke University Marine Laboratory, and it intends to bridge the gap between scientists and the public. On July 17, the Chatham County Board of Commissioners approved a strategic direction for a conceptual land use plan. The goal for the strategic growth plan is to position Chatham County for sustainable, balanced job growth. New growth will be aimed away from environmentally-sensitive lands and toward existing towns and economic development areas.http://chapelboro.com/news/news-around-time/eighth-rabies-case-new-restaurant-unc-students-win-chatham-county-approves-plan/
Seth Godin’s predictions about printed newspapers and traditional advertising do an interesting thing. By declaring that these business models have lost their relevance (forget about whether or not the exact dates are right), he forces you to think past the distraction of collapsing quarterly revenues. We all know how it will end, eventually. So start thinking about _why_ these models have lost their ability to support businesses: They’re not working for consumers. Focus on them and the rest will work itself out. “Prediction: there will be no significant newspapers printed on newsprint in the US by 2012. So, you’ve got two and a half years before the newspaper industry is going to be doing something else with the news and the ads, or not be there at all. Does that change what you do today if you work in this business?” “Not powder or chemicals or rubber or steel or silicon or talk or installations or even sugary water. What marketers sell is hope. The reason is simple: people need more. We run out. We need it replenished. Hope is almost always in short supply.” Exactly. Watch how Mad Men’s Don Draper sells the Kodak client on his idea to help them sell the Carousel — give your customers hope that the new thing will soothe the ache of nostalgia: I agree with Godin that traditional advertising doesn’t and won’t work in Facebook or Twitter. Operative word: traditional. But I don’t agree that Twitter and Facebook — just because they’re designed for connecting communities rather than distributing traditional media content — won’t devise native experiences that will work well for their communities and for brand marketers at the same time. Brand marketing doesn’t need to operate like “traditional advertising.” For example, with its OPEN Forum blog, American Express is using marketing dollars to create a credible small business publication, replete with editorial contributions from the leading names in business advice. Based on repeat visitor rates and links from other sites that recommend it to their readers, the SMB community is finding value in the OPEN Forum blog even though its content is funded by ad dollars. And because the contributors to the site, such as Guy Kawasaki and Anita Campbell, are given license to create real, editorial content (they wouldn’t participate otherwise), they’re alerting their Twitter followers each time they post something new. They are not paid to post these stories to Twitter; they’re doing it because they always Twitter new stuff they publish, whether the content appears on their own sites or at someone else’s publication. I’d argue that American Express is using Twitter for brand marketing right now, and it’s working as well for Guy’s and Anita’s followers as it is for American Express. Certain applications within Facebook, like Graffiti, have done the same: Developing ad-supported experiences that allow brands to enter the conversation without spoiling the conversation. Here are some exmples. (Disclosure of sorts: Seth Godin is not officially affiliated with FM, unless you count our informal Seth Godin Fan Club. He is, however, a sometime contributor to the OPEN Forum site, the content of which FM manages.) “The juxtaposition of the third sentence with the second just highlighted the inanity of the entire enterprise. It’s a high-quality network, but 500 people a day are being asked to join, and it’s okay to spam people but do I want to join anyway?” “The end result of spam (email spam, blog spam, Twitter spam, Squidoo spam, comment spam, phone spam, politician spam) is that it eats away at your brand. If you don’t have a brand, you might make some short term cash but it gets tiresome creating annoyance everywhere you go. If you do have a brand, a brand like Forbes, say, you don’t notice the brand erosion… until it’s too late.” Needless to say, brand marketers don’t want to be associated with distressed brands — so what’s the point of this approach? “Sure, 1% of your customers blog or post or just plain talk. They’re louder than ever before. But the other 99% represent a real opportunity for you. Figure out how to get them out there. Cajole them to go to a caucus.” I know it worked for Obama yesterday — get of them to caucus — but that might be the harder path, getting your quiet fans to alter their personalities so they become talkative fans. An alternative suggestion: Find talkative folks, and see if you can deliver a noteworthy experience with your brand. “Word of mouth is a decaying function. A marketer does something and a consumer tells five or ten friends. And that’s it. It amplifies the marketing action and then fades, usually quickly. A lousy flight on United Airlines is word of mouth. A great meal at Momofuku is word of mouth. “Viral marketing is a compounding function. A marketer does something and then a consumer tells five or ten people. Then then they tell five or ten people. And it repeats. And grows and grows. Like a virus spreading through a population. The marketer doesn’t have to actually do anything else. (They can help by making it easier for the word to spread, but in the classic examples, the marketer is out of the loop.) The Mona Lisa is an ideavirus.”
Topkapi palace or as it’s in Turkish – Topkapi Sarayi is large palace and fortress in Istanbul, Turkey. It was residence of the Ottomans sultans for about 4 centuries. As the Ottoman Empire was ruling over the whole Minor Asia and big part of Europe for many years in that palace many precious relics have been preserved from the time. Some of the most valuable items are the Prophet Muhammed’s cloak and sword. Nowadays the place is one of the most popular tourist attractions. You are not only able to enjoy the ancient spirit of the area but also see many interesting things in the museum. Since 1985 the palace is part of the UNESCO world heritage. It’s actually considered as the “best example of ensembles palace from Ottoman period”. Many words could be said about the importance in the past and now of the Topkapi palace but they won’t be enough. The building of this palace started in 1459 as a wish of Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople. The complex consists of 4 courtyards and many other smaller buildings. There were times when in this place lived more than 4000 people. During the Ottoman period the Topkapi palace was consistently expanding. However it experience two major difficulties- an earthquake in 1509 and a fire in 1665. Both of these happenings required a lot of renovations as the place was seriously damaged. The palace by itself is a small town. In its territory there are hospitals, mosques, bakeries and mints. The significance of Topkapi palace decreased since the beginning of 17th century. By that time many of the sultans prefer the other palaces on the Bosporus as the empire was somehow protected by the sudden attack. If you are planning to visit this exceptional place keep in mind that it requires a lot of time. Each of the four courtyards is very interesting and demanding time, even only the main buildings to be seen. If you have only a little time then make sure that you see the Imperial Gate, The Imperial Mint, Church of Hagia Eirene, Gate of Salutation, the palace kitchens, Imperial Divan, Tower of Justice, Imperial Council hall, former Imperial Treasury, The Gate of Felicity, Audience Chamber, Library of Sultan and the Conqueror’s Pavilion. All of those buildings excite both from inside and outside. There are perfect examples of the Ottoman period and Muslim culture.

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