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Special to the Daily Times The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has posted the state’s application for flexibility under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, which was reauthorized in 2001 as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. KDE welcomes public comment on the state’s application, which is posted on KDE’s Unbridled Learning page. Comments and feedback may be sent to [email protected]. Comments will be accepted until Tuesday, Nov. 8. To help states move forward with education reforms designed to improve academic achievement and increase the quality of instruction for all students, in September, President Barack Obama and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan outlined how states can get relief from provisions of NCLB in exchange for serious state-led efforts to close achievement gaps, promote rigorous accountability and ensure that all students are on track to graduate college- and career-ready. Since the passage of NCLB, Kentucky has used a two-tiered accountability model for its public schools and districts that provides both state- and federal-level designations. If the state’s application for flexibility is accepted, the Unbridled Learning Accountability Model would provide a single designation for both state and federal purposes. The proposed accountability model also may be seen on the Unbridled Learning page. The deadline for submission of the flexibility request is Nov. 14 and the U.S. Department of Education will review applications in December. As of Oct. 20, a total of 42 states have indicated that they will request flexibility. States can request waivers of 10 provisions of NCLB, including determining Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), implementing school improvement requirements, allocation of federal improvement funding and more. States must address four principles in their requests for flexibility: college- and career-ready expectations for all students; recognition, accountability and support for schools and districts; support for effective instruction and leadership; and reduction of duplication and unnecessary reporting requirements. To access the state’s waiver request, visit http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/Administrative+Resources/Commissioner+of+Education/Unbridled+Learning/ See more details on the flexibility opportunity at http://www.ed.gov/esea/flexibility.
Chapter 6: Recording Transactions in a General Journal Chapter 6 Study Plan Chapter 6, Section 1, The Accounting Cycle Chapter 6, Section 2, Recording Transactions in the General Extend: A Matter of Ethics Chapter 6: Gossip in the Workplace, p. 139 - Gossip in the workplace that affects another person's reputation can become a legal issue. - Using your favorite search engine or one of the Web sites below, research the legal terms "defamation of character," "slander," - Prepare a report that defines these terms and explores how they might affect your decision in the ethical dilemma presented in your textbook.
Connect to share and comment The country is shocked when a convicted rapist is arrested for the rape and murder of a young student. North Korea wants the South to resume tours of a scenic northern mountain, but Seoul refuses until civilian safety is guaranteed. The financial officers who were involved in the North's currency reform are reportedly executed by firing squad. LG announces a focus on new technology manufacturing. Car sales are almost back to pre-crisis levels. And matchmaking agencies may be held responsible for divorces. Top News: The police captured a 33-year-old man, who is believed to have raped and murdered a middle school student, almost two weeks after the crime had occurred. The country was thrown into shock when news of the murder was made public, and many criticized the police for the lack of a speedy investigation on the case. The suspect, who is a convicted rapist, was caught roughly two weeks into the investigation, after the body was dumped in a water tank. A rise in sexual crimes and heinous murders has heated up a debate on whether the country should uphold capital punishment, as it has been more than ten years since it has implemented the death penalty. North Korea said it will seek out a new business partner for an inter-Korean tourism project at a scenic mountain site in the North, if the South does not resume tours that have been suspended due to a disagreement over security issues. Seoul has suspended tours at the site for more than a year, after a South Korean woman was mistakenly shot by North Korean guards adjacent to the tourist site. Pyongyang also threatened to seize property at the Mount Kumgang site held by South Koreans, if Seoul denies restarting the mountain tours, which have been considered a cash stream for the impoverished North. The South’s Unification Ministry dismissed the threats and reiterated that it will not resume the tours until the North guarantees the safety of South Korean civilians that cross over into the North on tours. North Korea executed its top financial officers in order to calm public unrest caused by a recent currency reform aimed at cracking down on underground money in the market, according to South Korean news reports. The official, who is believed to have been executed by a firing squad in Pyongyang, was demoted and disappeared from public events after small riots started occurring in the North due to the crackdown, according to reports. Analysts say the execution, if it did indeed occur, could be a sign that the North’s leadership is struggling to regain power and support from the public. Money: LG Electronics, a major South Korean electronics manufacturer, announced that it will focus on the development of four new technologies this year: solar cells, light-emitting diodes, rechargeable batteries, and air conditioning systems. The group announced that it will pour in roughly $3.27 billion this year for research and development, a near 23 percent jump from the previous year. Sales of local automobiles in South Korea have almost recovered and are nearly back to pre- economic crisis levels, according to market data in the industry. Published by the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, the data indicated that car sales had jumped by 21 percent compared to a year ago, according to numbers from February. Service sector jobs make up more than 70 percent of the employment market in Korea, according to data released by a government statistics office. The number of workers in the service sector was roughly 16.4 million in December, making up for 70.6 percent of the workforce, while the numbers again hovered above the 70 percent mark. It is the first time that service sector jobs have accounted for more than 70 percent of the workforce in South Korea. Elsewhere: International matchmaking agencies in the country will face harsher guidelines for matching up local men and foreign brides. The country’s fair trade commission ordered that matchmaking agencies will be required to return payments made by their clients, mostly from rural areas in the country, if they get divorced due to lack of correct information provided by the companies.
A minute must record: A minute may also record discussion. The section Principles and Purposes covers some issues which are commonly relevant in deciding your approach to this. Information about the more formal presentation of discussion in minutes is set out in the section below under "Noted". Section headings in the agenda such as "Matters for discussion" or "Matters arising" are not included in the corresponding minutes, which are divided only by headings corresponding to the specific items on the agenda. Below the item heading, each of which has a minute number, there are "keywords" (specialist sub-headings) within a minute to help distinguish at a glance inputs of information from what the committee did with these inputs, and from the outcomes. Four keywords are in use within the Goldsmiths committe system: Received, Noted, Recommended and Resolved, and they are always written in bold font. "Received", if needed, appears at the beginning and indicates the main sources of information used, together with a paper number if the information was in written form. If there is no "Received" section, the paper number must appear at an appropriate point in another section. Please see the minute writing examples page [pdf], section 2. Using the keyword/subheading "Noted" can be a useful subheading for recording key facts reported to the meeting, or opinions which can straightforwardly be expressed either in a short statement, or in a series of short statements which are fairly freestanding. Each of these facts/statements should be cast in the form of a clause introduced by "that", indented under the word "Noted", and labelled "(i)", "(ii)" etc if there is more than one (see note on Numbering below, and the minutes of Finance and Resources Committee of 4 May 2006 [pdf] demonstrate this.) You could also consider a "mixed mode" approach where there are one or two introductory sentences, followed by a structured list of points with a more flexible structure than would be used with a "Noted" heading. Please see the minute writing examples page [pdf], section 3. In minuting discussion, you should distinguish between the views of the meeting as a whole and points supported by only one or two members (where this needs to be minuted at all), although not normally by naming the individuals concerned. The "continuous prose" approach can sometimes be the most helpful one where such differentiation needs to be made. Some of the issues discussed in the section Minutes: Principles & purposes may help you decide which reported facts or arguments you should select when minuting discussion: it is important to focus on your best prediction of the uses to which the minute is likely to be put afterwards. Other things being equal, it is more important to include reported facts if they emerged at the meeting itself than if they were merely in the papers. Facts already in a circulated paper need only be minuted if it is otherwise difficult to make the minute meaningful as a whole, or if the minute is likely to be used extensively in isolation from the paper (for example if a slightly longer minute might save circulating the whole paper for some other meeting of your Committee or another one). The "outcome" subheadings, which come at the end of the Minute (but before any Secretary's Note), must be set out in a very formal way. They cannot be in continuous prose as it important that it should be clear at a glance where decisions are to be found, and whether the Committee is exercising powers of final decision or not, in line with the terms of reference. However, unless the discussion went in a completely different direction from what you and the Chair were expecting, you may already know more or less what the minute will look like (or at least that it will be one of two or three alternatives) from the stage of preparing the business for the meeting. If the business is straightforward and you have had time, you may even have drafted some of the minutes before the meeting: certainly this is advisable for any particular item which you will have to forward to another committee almost immediately. The "Resolved" keyword normally marks where a final decision is being made, either because the Committee has powers of final decision under its terms of reference, or because a decision about the internal organisation of the Committee's business is being made. "Recommended" indicates that the Committee has taken a definite view on an issue but its parent body has power of final decision. The order in which "Resolved" and "Recommended" material appears is whatever you judge logical in terms of the content, although it will often be most appropriate to start with "Resolved". (You should however normally group all "Resolved" outcomes together, and all "Recommended" items together.) In neither kind of decision should a document be defined by reference to a URL on the College website, as this is likely to change within a few years, whereas a minute must be a permanent record. (It can however be very useful to include URLs for information in circulated papers.) "Resolved" can be used for passing business through an unusual route - generally sideways in the committee hierarchy tree, rather than upwards via the parent body. For example, in the (entirely fictitious) decision below, the Graduate School Board wishes to obtain advice from Research and Knowledge Transfer Committee (a Committee of Academic Board other than its parent body) on a matter of mutual concern. t o ask Research and Knowledge Transfer Committee to comment on the proposals from the Research Council for Widget Sciences concerning the PhD (07-5), in terms of the likely impact of these proposals on the position of the College's Department of Widgets in the next Research Assessment Exercise. If a committee has been asked to comment on a proposal in which it is not the main player, and where it may only be concerned with one particular aspect, the standard "Recommended" keyword will probably not seem appropriate, even when reporting to the parent body. A possible formula in this case is as in: that no objection be taken to the proposal to set up a an International Research Centre for the Study of Early Modern Widgets, to be attached to the Department of Widgets. A Secretary's Note appears after the end of an individual minute. It consists of a brief factual statement in italics explaining any related supplementary decisions, or changes to the direction of the business which occurred soon after the meeting. The purpose is to prevent the minutes from misleading the reader by indicating an agreed course of action which was not pursued. Routine developments such as the outcomes of recommendations at the next meeting of the parent body should not normally be the subject of a Secretary's Note. Please see the minute writing examples page [pdf], section 4. The numbering of minutes need not follow the numbers or order of the agenda precisely. However it is useful if the order is fairly similar. Minutes should be numbered sequentially with arabic numerals, starting at 1 at the beginning of each meeting (and not continuously through the successive meetings within an academic year, as was the house style up to 31 August 2010.) The keyword subheadings"Received", "Noted" etc do not themselves have numbers, or any sequential labelling, but within them any sequential labelling of points within a section should be (i), (ii), (iii) etc at the first level, and (a), (b), (c) etc at any further subdivision. [See example of Format for minutes Never use automatic numbering/ordered lists at any level in minutes , as it is important that the numbering does not change when extracts are cut and pasted into other documents. (Microsoft Word has automatic numbering as a default setting: you need to suppress this by selecting (in successive menus) "Tools - - Autocorrect Options - - Autoformat as you type, and then unticking "Automatic Numbered lists".) The system of numbering described above means that there may be several sequences of small Roman numerals, and perhaps of letters, within a minute. Therefore it is the arabic numerals only - used only at the top (whole minute) level - which should be used in minute references. The following is an example of a minute reference: (Academic Board (25 May 2005), Minute 6, refers) When you are referring more generally to something which happened at a particular meeting of your own or another Committee (and are perhaps writing it before the (numbered) minutes have been issued), it is generally preferable to use the exact date (including the year unless it already appears in the same sentence), rather than vague terms such as "at its last meeting". The present and future tenses are never used in the main text of minutes (although the present is used in cross-references - see above). This is because Minutes are written from a point of view focusing on the meeting which is in the past, and all time references are relative to the point at which that meeting occurred.Please see the minute writing examples page [pdf], section 5. URLs should be avoided in minutes, as the minute will be kept long after the webpage has moved or been deleted. In the future web-based applications are likely to be increasingly used for the archiving of minutes, and this creates problems if minutes contain old URLs which may appear in some systems as broken links. Since it is normal practice to draft minutes by saving the agenda under a new name and modifying it, it makes sense to adopt general formats for agendas and minutes which result in the minimum number of trivial amendments (such as changes in fonts) being required. Always use the current standard committee paper font, currently Arial 12. Underlining has become the convention for hyperlinks, and its use is therefore best avoided in other contexts, given that committee material is increasingly being mounted on webpages in some form. Automatic numbering and Tracking Changes should also be avoided. (This is dealt with in more detail in the section on Committee Record-keeping) Format for minutes [pdf] [Note that there is no Word template for minutes, because a minute file should be created by saving the agenda file under a new name and modifying it appropriately.] Content last modified: 20 Jan 2011 Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, UK Telephone: + 44 (0)20 7919 7171 Goldsmiths has charitable status
The physiotherapists at Good Country Physiotherapy are generalist practitioners who have broad skills in the assessment and management of a very wide range of conditions and problems, including: The physiotherapists at Good Country Physiotherapy are committed to delivering high quality, evidence-based treatment to ensure a rapid recovery and return to function, be that work, sport or activities of daily living. Outpatients – With clinics in Keith and Bordertown and satellite services in Tintinara, Kingston and Padthaway, Good Country Physiotherapy provides an outpatient service for the wide range of conditions mentioned above Inpatients – Physiotherapists visit the Bordertown Memorial Hospital to treat patients with a range of complaints, including musculoskeletal or cardiothoracic conditions. Paediatrics – Physiotherapists provide an assessment and treatment service for paediatric clients in both Keith and Bordertown. Links to the Child Development Unit (CDU) in Naracoorte and Country Health SA paediatric services to ensure your child is treated using a team-based approach. Women’s Health – Physiotherapists treat women’s health conditions, such as pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic pain, prolapse and pre-natal pain. Worksite assessments – All physiotherapists have experience at providing worksite assessments to identify potential issues for injured workers and make recommendations regarding improving workplace safety and injury prevention strategies. Aged Care – Physiotherapists visit the Aged Care facilities attached to both the Keith and Bordertown hospitals on a regular basis to conduct assessments and treatment sessions. Home visits – Physiotherapists are able to visit you in your home if you are unable to attend one of the clinics. This means that you can still receive the treatment you need but in the comfort and convenience of your own home. Pilates – All physiotherapists teach classes in Keith, Bordertown, Kingston and Tintinara. Beginners, intermediate and advanced classes are offered. Hands on Health – This is a strength training program for people with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease (such as high blood pressure) and arthritis. Referral into the program is required from your doctor. Classes are currently conducted in Bordertown and Keith. Falls and Balance – This is an education and exercise program for people keen to decrease their falls risk and improve their balance. Classes are regularly held in Keith and Bordertown and will be held once per week. Referral into the program is required from your doctor or your treating physiotherapist. Cardiac rehabilitation – These classes are soon to commence in Bordertown and will provide a local option for those people who suffer a heart attack or have heart surgery. The classes will provide education and exercises to help patients get back to their usual activities of daily living as quickly as possible. Some of the treatment techniques used include:
Asking for Help Unlike Jared, who knew he needed help, Dan was angry with doctors who put him in the hospital and insisted he eat. But, after repeated hospitalizations and being rushed to the intensive care unit on one occasion, Dan eventually was able to see that something was terribly wrong. With the help of psychotherapy and medication, Dan is now trying to put the disorder behind him. He shows off his basement hangout, where he and friends play pool and Nintendo, and listen to music. He points to a photo of himself with his girlfriend at the junior prom. He has plans for college -- and for his life. But he realizes he has a long way to go. "I just want to be able to eat normally," he says. Although he eats three meals a day, he is so rigid about his diet that it is difficult for him to eat anywhere but at home. Typically he will eat two bowls of cereal with skim milk for breakfast, turkey with soy organic cheese on pita bread for lunch, and small portions of spaghetti, chicken or beef for dinner. "All junk food I am scared of. I don't eat anything fried," he says. Eventually, he adds, he'd love to just be out during the day and "be able to stop someplace and eat something." Experts say there is no easy way to explain why young men develop eating disorders. But some of them point to the powerful messages from the mass media on physical appearance. Girls have long been influenced by unrealistic images, ranging from the slim yet buxom Barbie doll to waif-thin model Kate Moss; now boys seem to be finding their own equivalents. "The physical standards are becoming just as impossible for men as they are for women," says Arnold Andersen, M.D., one of the nation's experts on male eating disorders. The new male standard is a svelte body with clearly articulated muscles. It can be seen in ads, on TV, in the movies, in video games, even in children's toys. That image is taking a toll. Dr. Andersen, director of the eating disorders program at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, says his latest research on boys reveals that some 80 percent are dissatisfied with their bodies: "Half want to bulk up, and half want to lose."
Imagine Broadway as a pedestrian mall. Vehicles are banned, except for deliveries. Cafes and stores overlook a wide plaza, bisected by a row of trees. There are benches, chairs and tables where people can meet or take a break from shopping. Little kiosks sell coffee or a quick snack. Bicycle parking is plentiful. A few years ago, anyone suggesting this would have been laughed out of the room. It is almost a rule of nature that New York City streets exist to move as many cars and trucks possible, as quickly as possible, and to provide the maximum number of parking spots. But the balance is starting to shift. Two key goals of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2030 are to reduce traffic congestion and increase open space. City agencies, including the Department of Transportation under its new bicycle-riding commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, are working intensively to lay the plan's groundwork before the end of the mayor's term. Streets for People - and Flowers Against this backdrop, many West Side residents and elected officials believe the time has come to reclaim the streets as public space. In November, several hundred people filled the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan to hear Jan Gehl, the Danish urban planner renowned for humanizing the streets of Copenhagen, London and dozens of other cities. Gehl's talk launched the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance, a campaign to radically reconfigure the streets led by Transportation Alternatives, the Project for Public Spaces and the Open Planning Project. Gehl is working as a consultant for the transportation department. With a team of volunteers, he conducted studies of how the streets are used in various parts of the city and made recommendations for supporting “walkability” in public life. He was not free to reveal his suggestions for specific locations, but his vision for the city as a whole inspired the Upper West Side crowd. He said there is plenty of room on New York's broad streets for bus and bicycle lanes, along with wider sidewalks lined with trees as on the boulevards of Paris. Where space allows, there can be flowers, nice benches, good paving stones and public art. " The nicer a city is, the more you will sit down, not to miss anything," he told a group of reporters on a walk earlier in the day. "New York was made to get from point A to point B. That has changed in many cities. It can change in New York." Rethinking The Space Between Buildings The city's minimum open space goal is 1.5 acres per thousand residents. Yet many neighborhoods, particularly low-income minority areas, fail to reach this bar. If current population trends continue, 59 neighborhoods will be deficient in parkland by 2030, according to the projections in PlaNYC. PlaNYC sets a goal of ensuring that every New Yorker lives within a 10-minute walk of a park. To do that, it proposes re-imagining the entire public realm, not just underused parks and schoolyards but also the public space between buildings, including streets, sidewalks, medians and unused asphalt at oddly shaped intersections. The plan proposes creating or upgrading a public plaza in every community district and filling in barren blocks with street trees. If this happens, along with reducing traffic congestion, extending greenways and encouraging bicycling, the city could be a much greener place 25 years from now. Although it would seem that taking away space for automobiles on some streets would clog other nearby roads, research shows that doesn't happen. Instead, the traffic shrinks. When driving becomes too inconvenient or expensive, people decide to take public transit, carpool, bicycle or walk. In New York City, 90 percent of car commuters have another transit choice. Creating plazas, adding greenery and making it easier to get around on foot and bicycle offers many environmental, health and social benefits. These changes can also boost property values and business revenue. Studies have found that when safe and appealing public spaces make it easier for people to walk to stores, they spend more time shopping - and more money. People-friendly streets also help create a sense of community. Studies show that people living on heavily trafficked streets go outside less often and don't allow their children to play in the streets. Gehl believes that urban public gathering places are even more important now than they were in the past. "Today you can easily have a life where you do everything by Internet and driving," he said. "We have found that when we offer bigger public spaces, people come streaming out of their houses to see what's happening." Taking Back Broadway Gehl's ideas have particular resonance on the Upper West Side. It is a highly residential area, with a lot of families and senior citizens. Only 10 percent of the residents commute by car, but the high volume of traffic overwhelms the community's streets with noise and pollution and makes it dangerous to navigate on foot or bicycle. Two of the city's great parks - Central and Riverside -- bookend the blocks of apartment buildings and brownstones, but in between there are few public spaces, except for benches on narrow islands of greenery amid Broadway's tumultuous stream of cars and trunks. Over the next year, the Streets Renaissance campaign intends to bring together planners, elected officials, residents and businesses to create a blueprint to make the Upper West Side into the most walkable, bike-friendly and vibrant neighborhood in the country. To accomplish this, it hopes to introduce traffic calming and safer intersections, encourage bicycle and bus travel, develop a cohesive network of protected bike paths, address the pricing and best use of parking spaces, and reimagine Broadway as a pedestrian way. An exhibit displayed at the campaign's launch suggests some possible changes. A block of 81st Street zigzags around three alternating mini-parks (replacing parking spots), while wider sidewalks at the intersections make crossing safer and add space for plantings, seating and bicycle racks. On Amsterdam Avenue, a tree-filled median separates bicycle and bus lanes from traffic, and curb extensions provide more room to plant trees. Many ways of reconfiguring the streets would be inexpensive to put in place, requiring mostly a change in policy. For example, on weekends, half the streets could be closed to make playstreets. "You would within a year have a generation of kids growing up meeting their neighbors," said Mark Gorton, founder of the Open Planning Project, who lives on the Upper West Side. " Basically, every street should be thought of as public space," he said. "A lot of functions that we think of as belonging in parks - it wasn't always that way. Kids used to play in the streets." One participant in the effort is the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District, which covers the stretch from 67th to 82nd streets. The business improvement district has been working for more than a year with the Project for Public Spaces to develop a plan for a greener, more inviting streetscape and has prepared a wish list for the Department of Transportation. It includes a physically separated bike lane, expanded sidewalks at the gateway intersections, benches and bike racks. The list also calls for the installation of Muni-meters so that parking can be priced to encourage turnover and make spots available at all times. The Beginnings of Change Whatever specific recommendations ultimately come from the Streets Renaissance campaign, there is no guarantee that they will be put in place by the Department of Transportation, which has to weigh competing interests, such as delivery trucks and business owners who want people to be able to park in front of their stores. Over the past few years, though, the agency has begun making some areas more people-friendly. It has altered streets and intersections to make them safer, and in 2006, it created a very successful temporary public plaza on Willoughby Street in downtown Brooklyn. These efforts have gained a lot of momentum now that PlaNYC is pushing all the city agencies in the same direction. At the Department of Transportation, Commissioner Sadik-Khan has refocused the staff toward the goals laid out in the plan. In the last half-year, the agency turned a parking lot in DUMBO into a pocket park and created a public space, a bike lane, and safer pedestrian crossings at the intersection of Ninth Avenue and 14th Street. To oversee the creation of four new plazas a year, as promised by PlaNYC, the agency hired Andy Wiley-Schwartz, formerly at the Project for Public Spaces, as assistant commissioner in its new Office of Planning and Sustainability. In an e-mail message, Wiley-Schwartz said that the agency is considering sites for new plazas, although none have been selected as yet. "We are especially looking to build plazas in 'underparked' neighborhoods to start, to help fulfill the PlaNYC goal of putting every New Yorker within a 10-minute walk to a park," he said. At the urging of City Councilmember Gale Brewer, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and the community boards representing the area, the Department of Transportation has also begun a comprehensive study of traffic, parking and pedestrian issues in the Upper West Side. Given the political clout of automobile commuters and their deep sense of entitlement to drive and park wherever they want, it is still a stretch to think that Broadway could one day resemble a European-style promenade. But clearly, more livable streets are coming to the Upper West Side. " I think we have a tremendous opportunity to push the envelope," said Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, "to not just realize some very progressive street changes but also to lock in a whole new paradigm for street management that will continue into the next mayoral administration." Speaking at the Streets Renaissance event in November, Commissioner Sadik-Khan described a recent trip she and City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden had taken to Denmark. "To see how safe everyone felt on the streets in Copenhagen really affected me," she said. "I don't see why we can't have some of that here." The next event scheduled for the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance campaign is a talk on December 10 by Dr. Donald Shoup, author of the "High Cost of Free Parking," on how changes in parking policy can improve the public realm and generate the revenue to do it. Anne Schwartz, in charge of the parks topic page since its inception in 1999, is a journalist who specializes in environmental issues.Â The comments section is provided as a free service to our readers. Gotham Gazette's editors reserve the right to delete any comments. Some reasons why comments might get deleted: inappropriate or offensive content, off-topic remarks or spam.
The Business Model The 1990s mantra that the government is too risk-averse, that it should adopt businesslike practices that encourage innovation, comes to mind. Clearly, that mantra can be taken too far, especially when the risk that is encouraged is focused on short-term gain rather than long-term growth. Many lessons will be gleaned as business analysts dissect the faltering economy in the next few months. But one lesson already is clear, for both federal managers and the nation's financial titans: More than ever, everything is connected. As Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other political leaders attempted to deal with the increasingly troubled economy, they argued that the decline of the housing market that started in 2007 crossed over into the financial sector, which subsequently crippled the credit market, which furthered the financial sector decline, which could stifle the entire economy. The economy is one giant system of systems with complex interconnections among all of them. Problems can travel easily across those connections from system to system. As those problems multiply, solutions become more difficult because the law of unintended consequences is so powerful in complex systems. That fact seems obvious when you look at the snowballing financial crisis. The government's intervention in Bear Stearns, followed by the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the nonbailout of Lehman Bros., then the intervention in AIG, followed by the call for a $700 billion asset purchase program run by the government shows how each attempt by Paulson to solve the economy's problems got run over by the snowball. Forces beyond Paulson's control already were working their way through the system of systems. Unintended consequences lurked around every corner. The government is, of course, one system in the economy's system of systems. Its revenues represent roughly one-fifth of the nation's gross domestic product. The system of government is extremely complex since it is subject not only to the rules of the economy but also to the rules of politics. Just witness the difficulty Congress and the executive branch had in crafting ways to deal with the economic crisis. Federal managers are all too familiar with the frustration inherent in a complex system in which problems far away from their own operations-in Congress, for example-can have profound effects on their ability to do their jobs. Many will be struggling to operate their offices during the next six months at the same funding levels as last year, not because of anything they did but because Congress and the White House did not come up with new appropriations bills for nonsecurity-related agencies. All this is a reminder that risk courses through both the economic system of systems and the government system. Instead of running government like a business, should business be run like government? Maybe the truth lies somewhere in the middle, where a healthy willingness to experiment is tempered by a realistic dose of long-range thinking about the good of not just one's own agency or business, but also of the country as a whole. Brian Friel covered management and human resources at Government Executive for six years and is now a National Journal staff correspondent.
Working Your Weakest Link People like doing what they are good at and avoid doing things that they are not so good at. It’s an ego thing: nobody likes looking like an idiot, and once martial artists get good at something they tend to stick with it. The tendency to specialize isn’t necessarily bad thing – in fact it is essential to improving – but don’t get so caught up on improving your strengths that you ignore your weaknesses. Your fastest progress may come from working your weakest link. As in so many things, my inspiration here is Dan Inosanto. The protégé of Bruce Lee and a black belt in many martial arts (including BJJ), he is always the first to tie on a white belt and try something that he is not good at. He loves learning new material, and is not put off by the possibility of looking like a beginner. Weak links come in many forms. Your weak link could be -Takedowns (drill takedowns for a few minutes after every class) -Endurance (start working your cardio) -Pin escapes (let your training partners start with you pinned) -Flexibility (do yoga) -Armlocks (don’t allow yourself any submission except armlocks) -Strength (lift weights) Don’t be a slave to your ego and stay in your comfort zone all the time. If you are honest with yourself you can figure out what is holding you back – be strong enough to put on the white belt, acknowledge your weak link, and do something about it.
~ EROTIC ~ Erotic: from Eros the Greek love god, identified by the Romans with Cupid. Erotic: pertaining to or arousing sexual desire; amatory; amorous. Erotic: a person who is particularly susceptible to sexual arousal; an amatory poem or composition. Erotica: erotic literature. Eroticism: amorous temperament or habit; erotism. Eroticise: to make erotic; to arouse sexually. Erotism: sexual desire; the manifestations of sex in its widest application. Erotogenous: producing erotic desire or gratification. Erotomania: strong sexual passion.
BYZANTINE AND CHRISTIAN. The Byzantine Museum in Athens was founded in 1914 and is one of the national museums of Greece.Since 1930 it has been housed in the fine "Ilisia" building complex, erected near the river Ilisos in 1848 by the architect Stamatios Kleanthis for Sophia de Marbois, the Duchess of Piacenza (ancient Placentia). Unique collections of icons, sculptures, wall - paintings, ecclesiastical vestments, jewellery and other works of minor art from the 4th to the 19th century. Recently renovated museum shop. Vas. Sophias Ave.22, Tel. 72.11.027. Open Tuesday - Sunday 8:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. Closed Mondays. Admission 1.50 Euro. JEWISH MUSEUM OF GREECE. Its collection, which includes more than 7.500 artifacts, reflects the life, customs, rites and traditions of Greek Judaism. Nikis str. 39 - Syntagma 105 58 . Tel. 32.25.582. Open daily 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Saturday closed, Sunday 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Entrance fee 1.50 Euro. Patission 44 (28th October street.) Tel. 82. 17.717. Opening days and hours: Winter hours ( 16th October to 31st March) Tuesday - Sunday: 8:30 - 15:00. Monday: 10.30 - 17.00 and Holidays 8.30 - 15.00 Summer hours (1st April to 15th October) Tuesday- Sunday: 8.00 - 19:00 Monday 12.30. - 19.00 Holidays: 8.30 - 15.00. The Museum is closed on 1st January, 25th March, 1st May, Easter Sunday, Christmas and Boxing Day. Entrance fee 6 Euro. Minimum required time to visit a museum like this 2 hours. NATIONAL HISTORICAL. The museum should be visited by those who are interested in modern Greece and more especially in the period from the fall of Byzantine (1453) to the end of the Second World War. A big part is dedicated to the Greek war of independence against the Turks (1821-1830) . Stadiou Str.13 & Kolokotroni. Tel. 32.37.617. Open daily 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Monday closed. Entrance fee 3 Euro. Sunday free entrance. ACROPOLIS MUSEUM For the first time after the completion of the archaeological excavations on the rock, all important findings of the Acropolis will be exhibited together within a single area of 14.000 square meters with the main aim of narrating the history of the Acropolis and its foothills. From prehistoric to classical times and then to Hellenistic, Roman and up to later antiquity, the rich collections of the museum will convey to the visitor the presence of man at the Acropolis. At the same time, the extensive ruins of the Ancient city of Athens, brought to surface at the site where the Museum is built, will enrich the exhibition programme. Acropolis Museum FOUNDATION OF THE HELLENIC WORLD. Cultural Centre "HELLENIC COSMOS" World wide Web Address : http://www.hellenic-cosmos.gr/ . Interactive Virtual Reality presentations in the first and only VR Systems installed in Greece . Thems : The Ancient Olympia - A journey through Ancient Miletus- The Magic Wardrobe - The Traditional Olive Oil Press. Film productions. Internet cafe Exhibitions: "National Evants and Historical Memory", "Krossia, Chitones, Doulamades, Velades - 4000 years of Hellenic costume". Pireos Str.254 , Tavros 177 78 , Greece . Tel. (301)48.35.300. Opening hours: Mon. , Tues. 09.00 - 18.00, Wen., Thur., Fri. 09.00 - 21.00, Sat. 11.00 - 15.00, for Winter and closed for the Summer. Sun. 10.00 - 15.00 new! MUSEUM OF GREEK FOLK ART. The visitor begins to know the richness of the modern Greek folk civilization through the unique collections of embroideries, woven fabrics, traditional costumers, silver ware, ceramics, wood - covings, figures of the shadow theatre, popular paintings. The objects of these collections cover a chronological period from 1650 to this day. At the ground floor there is the renovated Museum's shop with selected works of contemporary handicraft, inspired from traditional subjects as well as replicas from the exhibits. Kydathineon Str. 17 , Plaka, Athens. Tel. 32.29.031. Museum visiting hours : Tuesday - Sunday 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Mondays closed. Entrance fee 1.50 Euro. TRADITIONAL POTTERY . The museum of tradidional Pottery is housed in a beautiful neo - classical building, built in 1875 and recently renovated, at the area of Keramikos. In the rooms of the museum you see the different types of workshops which used to operate in various areas of Greece like Crete, Cyclades, Lesbos, Messenian Gulf. In the museum's shop you will find ceramic masterpieces made by traditional patterns, books, postcards all at very good prices. Melidoni Str. 4-6 Athens 105 53 (Kerameikos). Open hours: Monday to Friday 09:00 - 15:00, Sunday 10:00 - 14:00. CYCLADIC ART . Over 1000 objects of Cycladic and ancient Greek art (dating from the 3rd millennium BC to the 4th c. AD) are displayed in the galleries on the three floors of the museum of Cycladic art. The Museum has one the most important collections of Cycladic art worldwide. In the New Wing of the Museum, the Stathatos Mansion ( a nineteenth century neoclassical building designed by Ernst Ziller) there is the exhibition "The city beneath the city". Neophytou Douka Street 4, Kolonaki, Athens. Tel. 72.28.321-3, Fax 72.39.382. Website: http://www.cycladic-m.gr, NUMISMATIC. You can admire this exclusive exhibition of 2.500 coins, representative of all the periods of the Greek history in a neoclassical building, the former house of Heinrich Schliemann. On the first floor there is a gift shop where, except from books, posters and booklets, the visitor can also buy direct copies of ancient Greek coins, in silver. El. Venizelou Str. 12 (Panepistimiou). Tel. 36.43.774. Open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays closed. Entrance fee 2.50 Euro.WAR MUSEUM . An interesting trip to the most important moments of the Greek history. Rizari Str. 2 . Athens. Tel. 72.52.975 -6. Open daily 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Monday closed . Entrance free. FRISSIRA . The only Museum of Contemporary European Painting in Greece houses the Frissiras Collection - that numbers more than 3.000 works of art- as well as temporary exhibitions. Housed in two impressive, fully renovated neoclassic buildings in Plaka, the Museum has an Art Shop with high quality art works. Monis AsteriouStr. 3&7. Plaka. Tel. 32.34.678. - 33.16.027. Open Wed. to Fri. 11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. Satur. and Sun. 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Mon. and Tues. closed. Holidays closed:January 1st, March 25th, Good Friday (until 12.00), Easter Sunday, May 1st, December 25th & 26th, The ticket (12 euro /per person) is valid (Several days) for the Archaeological Sites of Athens (Acropolis - Parthenon, Athenian Ancient Agora, Theatre of Dionysus, Olympieios Zeus, Roman Agora). Acropolis Museum ticket is 5 euro Opening Hours from 08.00 to 20.00 Monday is closed Telephone: +30 - 2103214172 - 2103210219 - 2109238724 \|Copyright © 1999 www.greecetaxi.gr All the rights reserved.\|
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Don’t Be Boiled Alive, 4 Keys to Staying Relevant They say that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. It’s a metaphor that speaks to the inability of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually. Of course change in photography has been going on since it was invented, but I can remember when the “water first started to warm” for me. It was when I was handed a Kodak NC2000 in the early 1990′s to photograph a Presidential debate in Lansing, Michigan for the Associated Press. It was the start of digital photography for me. (Rob Galbraith has an excellent essay on the NC2000 here.) And change continued. And the water got warmer. Digital cameras over the next 20 years evolved to where they are today: incredible machines that take astonishingly good photographs for as little as about $200. And now, the water is indeed boiling and many photographers are being “cooked to death.” Now clients are taking their own photographs for their basic needs and call one of us only when the situation, setting, or circumstances require a better-than-basic knowledge of photography. But I didn’t set out to reminisce or complain in this post. Rather, to suggest that because of this change, you need to do a couple of things to remain successful. First, get better clients. The more sophisticated the client, the more they appreciate excellent photography. The more they understand licensing. The more they appreciate YOU. Second, listen closely to what prospective clients are telling you they need and find a way to deliver it profitably. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you simply buckle and charge less for the same or additional licensing.) Third, differentiate. How are you different (read: better) than your competitors? If you cannot show your unique value to a prospective client, why on earth would they hire you? Your value is what make’s you a better choice for your client. And, in many cases, your value will permit you to charge more. Don’t become a commodity. And last, don’t be an evangelist on behalf of the industry or all photographers. The minute you start explaining to a client why he or she doesn’t really need unlimited usage, why you don’t do buyouts, why, why, why, why… they will click the back button in their browser and move to the next photographer in the list that Google returned when they entered their search query. You lose. California-based photographer Mark Loundy wrote in his excellent blog “Common Cents”: “Telling them [clients] about my costs of doing business or how many hours it takes for a project’s post-production is like explaining Purina’s manufacturing process to a dog — they just won’t care.” I couldn’t have made my point any better. The water is boiling, many of my friends have left the business. Ask yourself, how can you adapt to the new photography business? Are you willing to change your business model? Willing to reinvent yourself yet again? How has your approach to our business and your clients changed? If you’re willing, share your story in the comments below.
Three-Year Program Helps Male Adolescents Establish, Maintain Sexual Limits In a largely Hispanic middle school population in California, male youth receiving a three-year, 20-lesson, theory-based curriculum on pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention had delayed sexual initiation compared with their peers receiving regular sex education;1 however, the program did not delay sexual initiation for females. Even a full year after the program ended, males who had received the intervention were significantly less likely than their peers to report having any sexual activity in the previous 12 months; this is explained, in part, by program participants' successful avoidance of situations that could lead to sex. The intervention, called Draw the Line/Respect the Line, aims primarily to decrease the proportion of students having sex and to increase condom use among sexually active youth. Program participants and controls in this randomized trial came from three ethnically and socioeconomically diverse urban school districts in northern California. Students at 10 middle schools were randomly assigned to receive the intervention as their main source of school-based pregnancy and STD prevention education throughout grades 6-8; students at nine other schools, the control group, received their school's usual education on these topics. The intervention group received 20 lessons presented in English or Spanish by experienced health educators during classroom periods; instruction techniques were interactive and included small group discussions and skills practicing. Sixth-grade intervention recipients and controls—2,829 students in all—completed a baseline survey in the spring of 1997; they also completed annual follow-up surveys at the end of grades 7-9. Surveys asked about demographic characteristics, sexual behaviors and psychosocial measures that used scaled scores to assess students' knowledge of HIV and condoms, attitudes toward potential reasons for having or not having sex, normative beliefs, self-efficacy to refuse sex, sexual limits and situations that could lead to sex. Nearly equal numbers of males and females completed the baseline survey; the mean age at baseline was 11.5. More than half the students were Hispanic (59%); 17% were white, 16% were Asian, 5% were black and 3% were of other races or ethnicities. Four percent of students reported having had intercourse at baseline. Males in the intervention group differed statistically from those in the control group at each follow-up in the proportions reporting two key sexual behavior variables: The adjusted proportions reporting any sexual experience were 10% among intervention recipients and 14% among controls in seventh grade, 15% vs. 22% in eighth grade, and 19% vs. 27% in ninth grade. Sex in the past year was reported by 7% of intervention recipients and 11% of controls in seventh grade, 11% and 19% in eighth, and 17% and 25% in ninth. The groups also differed significantly (and increasingly) over time in the proportions reporting any sexual experience. On these same two variables, no statistically significant differences were found between females receiving the intervention and female controls. The adjusted proportions reporting ever having had sex were 6% for both groups in seventh grade, 11-12% in eighth grade and 20-22% in ninth. Sex in the past year was reported by 4-5% in seventh grade, 9% of both groups in eighth and 18-20% in ninth. No group differences were found for either males or females in the proportions reporting recent condom use. However, statistical power for this analysis was limited. In regression analyses, improvements over time were significantly greater among males in the intervention group than among male controls in the adjusted mean scores reflecting HIV and condom knowledge, attitudes favoring reasons for not having sex, sexual limits and situations that could lead to sexual behavior. For each gender, the intervention group demonstrated greater improvements over time in peer normative beliefs favoring sex; in addition, the intervention and control groups differed at each follow-up for HIV and condom knowledge. The investigators also used regression models to examine whether psychosocial variables measured in the eighth grade mediated the effects of the intervention on males' report in the ninth grade of having had sex in the previous 12 months. According to the investigators, being in situations that can lead to sex was "the most important behavioral mediator": Males receiving the intervention had 30% lower odds of being in such situations than males in the control group; meanwhile, those who reported being in such situations had increased odds of reporting sex in the past year (odds ratio, 1.6). Other mediators were ability to set sexual limits, peer norms supporting sexual activity and belief that it is all right for females to pressure males to have intercourse. Commenting on the program's success among males, the authors note that "this intervention may have created a new norm within the school environment—one that made boys more comfortable with the idea of refraining from sex." In addition, they assert that the intervention "provided boys with a crucial skill—recognizing and avoiding situations that might lead to sexual intercourse." 1. Coyle KK et al., Draw the Line/Respect the Line: a randomized trial of a middle school intervention to reduce sexual risk behaviors, American Journal of Public Health, 2004, 94(5):843-851.
APRIL 28, 1939 WORCESTER, Mass., Thursday—At noon yesterday, I went to the Girl Scout practice house for lunch. Mrs. Arthur Choate of New York City, Mrs. Frederick Brooke of Washington, and many other Washington Girl Scout executives were there. The photographers who took our pictures, left with the odor of freshly baked rolls in their nostrils and I feel sure they would have liked to remain to eat. Certainly the home making group here is doing very well, for they served us with a perfect souffle, even though I saw them obliged to open the oven door and keep it open for the benefit of the photographers. I trembled for the souffle's success! We talked over the new program of work and I was enormously interested in the comprehensive field from which these girls may choose. I like the idea that, after they reach the age of 14, they no longer work for badges, but to obtain a greater skill in any one of the fields which they have tried out and find especially enjoyable. When the King and Queen of England are over here, the Girl Scouts hope to have some part in their entertainment wherever they go, for the Royal Princesses are members of the Girl Guides. In the afternoon I received over a thousand young people who will graduate from various Washington schools. They were an attractive young group and moved by with great rapidity, which is a great comfort to anyone who has to stand and receive for a long period. Two other groups were also received. In the evening I spoke for the National League of Women Voters, who are now holding their general council meeting in Washington. They are emphasizing a general program of expansion with the object of making democracy work by having each individual more conscious of his or her place in it. We took the midnight train to New York City and, after a brief time at our apartment, during which we had our breakfast, we started off on a drive through Connecticut and Massachusetts. It is a beautiful season to visit this countryside, but I am still reminded of last year's storm when I see how many trees are missing along all these village streets. It takes so long to replace an old tree. It is a loss to more than a generation. We lunched with some friends, Miss Esther Lape and Miss Elizabeth Read, at Westbrook, Conn., and proceeded to Worcester, Mass., where I give a lecture tonight. I have just been looking through the manuscript of a book written by a young Washington lawyer, Mr. L. A. Roe, on the parole system. I would be impossible to deny the truth of what he says. He has illustrated his points so well with human interest stories, that I think everyone will find this book interesting and have a better understanding of the real reason for parole.
Friday, January 9, 2009, 3:00–5:00 p.m. A Labor History of Hippies: The KMPX and Wild West Festival Strikes and Countercultural Workers in Late Sixties San Francisco Michael J. Kramer, Northwestern University Commentators: Paul Mishler, Indiana University at South Bend, and Ronald Cohen, Indiana University Northwest This essay examines two strikes that occurred among countercultural workers in San Francisco's nascent rock music industry. Typically, the counterculture is understood as a movement in the realm of leisure and consumption, however these strikes demonstrate that labor and production were also crucial factors. Participants in the strikes sought to rearrange the boundaries between work and play, labor and leisure, in postwar America's system of consumer capitalism. Drawing upon the Old Left tradition of union organizing, they reached for new modes of creativity, productivity, artistic freedom, and collective action. All papers are pre-circulated electronically to those who plan to attend the seminar in person. For a copy of the paper, e-mail Jenny Butler at [email protected], or call 312-255-3524. Please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend. *Please note that requests for the paper made after 5:00pm on Thursday, January 8, are unlikely to be read before the seminar begins on Friday afternoon. If you plan to attend the session, please request the paper early. The Newberry Library Seminar in Labor History is co-sponsored by the History Department of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Northern Illinois University, Northwestern University and the Labor and Working Class History Association Send comments and questions to H-Net Webstaff. H-Net reproduces announcements that have been submitted to us as a free service to the academic community. If you are interested in an announcement listed here, please contact the organizers or patrons directly. Though we strive to provide accurate information, H-Net cannot accept responsibility for the text of announcements appearing in this service. (Administration)
Organised by Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. A/P BUNNELL Tim, Dr LAI Chee Kien and Dr POW Choon Piew. By almost all conventional measures, Asia is the urban centre of the world. While there are other regions which have higher proportions of urban population, almost as many people live in urban areas in Asia as in the rest of the world combined, and the current total is projected to double over the course of the next generation. In addition, more than half of the world’s most populous cities and urban regions are found in Asia. To what extent does such continental significance find expression in urban theory and planning practice, or even in cultural imaginings of the leading edge of an urbanizing world? The ‘centre’ is still often imagined to reside elsewhere, such that the high-rise skyline of Hong Kong makes it ‘the Manhattan of Asia’, while urban sprawl in Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta sees those cities likened to Los Angeles. Framing Asia as a global urban frontier means thinking critically about the impulse to refer back to imagined antecedents in Europe or North America. The agenda is not to develop some unifying theory of the Asian city – the wide range of urban forms and experiences in Asia clearly precludes any such generalization – but to take Asia’s urban diversity as a resource for pushing towards less Euro-American-centred assumptions, theories, practices and narratives. As part of a couplet of proposed workshops involving collaboration between ARI’s Asian Urbanisms cluster and urbanists at University College London, this workshop will contribute to wider efforts to ‘post-colonialize’ (Robinson, 2006) urban theory and planning practice. Examining Asia as a region of urban innovation and theoretical possibility means extending the frontiers of area studies knowledge. All-too-often research on regions beyond the Euro-American heartlands of academic knowledge production has been understood as amassing local empirical detail rather than possessing any wider theoretical purchase. Yet area knowledge is not irredeemably localized or regionally-bound in this way. It is perhaps most clearly in regard to the study of cities and their extensive constitutive networks that any such provincialization becomes untenable. This workshop will foreground ways in which Asian urbanisms ‘travel’ as part of the wider diffusion of urban typologies, aspirations and strategies that have conventionally been transfixed by western models and origins. As such, it will consider ways in which cities in Asia shape – while also being shaped by – other cities ‘within’ and beyond the region. Cast as a global urban frontier, Asia becomes a site of urban developments which are of more-than-regional scope, interest or application. The invite proposals for papers relating (but not restricted) to: * The more-than-regional significance of Asian cities and urbanization The dominance of western models and concepts and their diffusion to Asia in planning practice and education The emergence of Asian models or centres for emulation The ‘travel’ of Asian cities (both intra and extra-regional) in theory, planning and cultural imaginings The city and/in area studies * Theorizing ‘the city’ or ‘urban’ from Asia * Methodological practices: researching Asia’s urban diversity * Relational forms of comparative urbanism We are particularly keen to receive submissions from scholars based at institutions in the region. Participants should submit a 250-word abstract and a short paragraph of personal self description by 26 March 2010. Please go to the webpage to download the Paper Proposal Form. Please submit and address all applications to Miss Sharon Ong ([email protected]) of the Asia Research Institute. Successful applicants will be notified by 9 April 2010. Full Papers are due on 31 July 2010. A/P Tim Bunnell Asia Research Institute & Department of Geography, NUS Send comments and questions to H-Net Webstaff. H-Net reproduces announcements that have been submitted to us as a free service to the academic community. If you are interested in an announcement listed here, please contact the organizers or patrons directly. Though we strive to provide accurate information, H-Net cannot accept responsibility for the text of announcements appearing in this service. (Administration)
A hypocritical divide Why is it that the U.S. government and the majority of the American people exhibit a sympathetic understanding for Israel's predicament as it battles the terror Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat unleashed on the people of Israel 18 months ago, while the governments of Western Europe compete with each other in support for Arafat and condemnations of Israel? The cover story of the latest issue of The Economist deals with "the rift between America and its allies over Israel". The allies of America are the countries of Western Europe that oppose U.S. support for Israel's war against Palestinian terror. Why is it that the U.S. government and the majority of the American people exhibit a sympathetic understanding for Israel's predicament as it battles the terror Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat unleashed on the people of Israel 18 months ago, while the governments of Western Europe compete with each other in support for Arafat and condemnations of Israel? For that matter, why is it that the same West European governments consistently oppose the plans of President George W. Bush to take action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's efforts to acquire non-conventional weapons? The underlying reason why the United States and Western Europe frequently disagree on matters of policy is that ever since the American Revolution, the United States has been a nation guided primarily by moral principles, while the countries of Western Europe have, in general, preferred commercial interests. With the exception of Britain under Winston Churchill during World War II, expediency and appeasement have characterized the positions of the leaders of Western Europe over the years. It was by no accident that most of Europe ended up in Hitler's camp during the war, or that the Jews of Europe found themselves abandoned during the Holocaust. Feelings of shame, or perhaps even guilt, stilled the latent anti-Semitism among the European nations during the years after the war. Now it seems to be coming out in full bloom - sometimes in the form of ferocious attacks against the State of Israel and its leadership; while at other times, it is the sentiment that is just plain anti-Semitic. Jean-Marie Le Pen appearing as a presidential candidate in the second round of the elections in France may be a fault of the curious French political system; but the fact that he and his ideological ally, Bruno Megret, shared almost 20 percent of the votes cast in the first round should not be ignored. European charges that Israel is using immoral and illegal methods in its fight against Palestinian terrorism reek of hypocrisy. Anyone reading the recently-published book by French General Paul Aussaresses, "Services Speciaux Algerie 1955-1957," can only come to the conclusion that in relation to the actions of the French intelligence services during the war in Algeria, the Israeli security services seem like a welfare organization. The Belgians, who are leading the charge against Israel in Europe, still have much to answer for with regard to their share of the responsibility for the genocide in Rwanda. The tactics used by NATO aircraft during the recent fighting in Serbia and Kosovo seem to have taken to the limit concern for the safety of NATO aircrews and disregard for civilian casualties resulting from high-altitude bombardment of ground targets. The election of Syria as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council serves as an almost obscene example of such hypocrisy. Syria, which, with good reason, appears on the U.S. list of terrorist states, and which, at the present time, assists Hezbollah in its belligerent activities on Israel's northern border, was elected to the UN Security Council on October 8, 2001. Syria won the support of 160 UN member-nations in a secret vote in the General Assembly. There is good reason to believe that this support must have included a number of Western European nations. In June, we will be treated to the spectacle of the Syrian delegate assuming the chairmanship of the Security Council. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to expect that the investigation initiated by the UN Security Council into the Israel Defense Forces' anti-terrorist operation in Jenin will be handled in an objective manner. The investigation itself is a sham. What happened in Jenin is quite clear. The Palestinian terrorists decided to confront the IDF in the Jenin refugee camp, knowing full well, and caring less, that such action would result in casualties to the non-combatant population of the camp and to extensive property damage. Rather than using the air force to pulverize the area, the IDF entered the camp with infantry units, suffering substantial casualties in the ensuing fighting. The accusations of a massacre are an outright lie, apparent to all reporters who have visited the area. But the chance to blacken Israel with this false accusation is too good an opportunity to be passed up by Israel-bashers. All thought of morality has been left behind, by politicians insisting that their only concern is for moral principles.
View Full Version : The truth about bi-wiring and bi-amping? 29-05-2011, 08:23 PM This thread is concerned with bi-wiring and bi-amping. 30-05-2011, 07:10 PM As I've posted before, my opinion FWIW is that bi-wiring does nothing to improve SQ. What matters is having suitable (shielded) speaker cable of appropriately thick gauge, which depends on the length of the run. I have a 25 foot run and I use inexpensive copper Canare style cable (14 AWG, which equates to 11 AWG when not bi-wired). 31-05-2011, 11:08 AM I can't offer an explanation, but my observations with biwiring Proac speakers demonstrated a difference in sound. I'd have been confident nailing the difference in a double-blind. I observe no difference whether bi or single wiring my current ES2s (so I stick with single). I suspect a difference in cross-over design concept. 03-06-2011, 08:06 PM BASH raises an interesting point. I know nothing of speaker / cross-over design, but it makes sense that such design could affect the merits of bi-wiring. What does NOT make sense to me, however, is why a manufacturer would implement such a design. More to the point, why would a speaker maker want his or her product to sound better one way or the other. Surely he or she knows that not everyone will bi-wire and that many customers don't even know what bi-wiring is.
Auto detailing is a very broad term. Exactly WHAT do auto detailers detail? Well pretty much anything and everything. It’s called detailing for a reason and it includes a thorough (and we mean thorough) tire clean, seat wash, leather treatment, vacuuming between the small creases and cracks, buffing, tinting, coating, waxing, dent removal, paint jobs, scratch removal and so much more. We love this video made by NorthWest Auto Detailing up in Seattle, Washington because it can show you exactly what we can do to your car. If you like the way the BMW looks at the end, come into our Lake Havasu Auto Detailing location today and we can have your car looking like that. - Heat - Your car can be 60% cooler if you add tint onto your windows as it has the power to block out the heat waves that penetrate the glass of a regular car. - Health - The glass on a regular car lets in heat and sun. This means it also lets in harmful UV rays that can cause cancer. Window tinting blocks out 99% of these rays. - Accident Protection - In the case of a car accident, a tinted window will actually hold together shattered glass, better than a regular un-tinted window. - Safety - Get rid of the blinding glares you get when driving during peak sun hours. Window tinting reduces glare from the sun, snow, and other headlights while letting you see clearly during daytime and nighttime. - Privacy - Drive comforably knowing that you can see out of your windows, but nobody can see in. - Car Luxury - You can keep your car’s interior in perfect conditions because window tinting blocks out UV and heat waves that cause fading of fabric and crackling of leather. For those of you that keep track of heavy metal and the car scene you probably know that Metallica lead singer James Hetfield and guitarist Kirk Hammett are car guys. In the upcoming Orion music festival to celebrate their love for cars they will have a motorcycle and car show. According to Hemming's classic car the show is free. Hemmings reports the following:according to Hetfield, “so everybody can get a taste of the automobile passion and obsession that I have. The idea is for a Metallica fan to come in and experience stuff they wouldn’t normally see if they wouldn’t normally go to a car show.” Awards will be given for the best custom, hot rod, muscle car and custom motorcycle at the show, and selected participants will receive two two-day general admission passes to the festival. The festival takes place June 23 and 24 at Bader Field in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but the deadline for applications is May 15. For applications and for more information, visit Orionmusicandmore.com. It's probably a little too far to drive your classic car across the country but it would be a good excuse to jump on a coast to coast flight, sounds like fun. For all your Mobile classic car needs call Nathan at Havasu Detail 928-231-6678 During the car cleaning process we often think that it's the natural progression to Wash, Wax and then Polish. Could that be right? What's your guess? Well if you thought that it should be Wash, Polish and then Wax - You're right! The logic behind this is actually quite simple. Washing the car first is a no-brainer, you need to get rid of the dirt before you can actually do anything to the paint job. The reason for Polishing next is because polishing's function is to bring out the shine in the car. The polishing step is where you get the show car shine which we all aim for. Waxing serves as a protective coat on your paint. Think of waxing as sealing the previous 2 steps. So if you answered Wash, Polish then Wax you were right but if you wanted to save time and have a professional apply a new car shine to your car we're always here to help. Call us at (562) 438-1572 to schedule an appointment, please ask for Mitch and remember that we're always here to help at Long Beach Auto Detail. the seductive Fiat 500 commercial. "You'll never forget the first time you see one." - And when it is time to give her a car detail - call us at Havasu Mobile Detail so we can see it too. Often we think about mechanical maintainance for our cars, oil changes, tire rotation, brakes and all the things that keep us rolling on the freeways but how about the body of the car? One added benefit of regular washes and waxes is higher resale value. If you really stop to think about it before people actually pop the hood they need to be interested in the shiny package. Here is some advice from howstuffworks.com "Regular waxing also protects the paint from the daily wear and tear our cars get from being exposed to the outside world. Bird droppings, wind, rain, hail, tree sap, smog, ultraviolet rays from the sun -- you name it. There are a host of threats to your car's shiny finish." We'll do the dirty work for you at Lake Havasu Mobile Detail from washes and waxes to complete interior and exterior details. Think of it as a Spa Day for your car. Call us to schedule your detail and we will come to you: 928-231-6678 Have you ever had that feeling that your car actually goes faster after it's been waxed? We get the feeling too but no scientific studies have ever backed up a car actually going faster due to it's cleanliness. For more pictures of fun car art check out this link: @car-art The race to break the speed barrier was a hot topic in the late 1940’s, which fueled automotive design in the early to mid 50’s. Everybody wanted some type of rocket or jet engine design implemented in their automobile. Chuck Yeager was an American hero who broke the sound barrier in 1947 and everyone noticed, especially Detroit. It fueled an era of automotive design where the American public was fascinated with wings, turbines and afterburner taillights. Not to mention the cockpit like interior layout of many cars. Ever see the interior of a 1957 T-bird? Looks like a post WWII airplane layout. Come get your 50's jet detailed at Lake Havasu Mobile Detail. To schedule an appointment l at Lake Havasu Mobile Detail, call Nathan at 928-231-6678. The car ideas of the past might have even been more advanced than we are today! Some of the concepts would have really benefited car companies and the 'Go Green' enthusiasts if they would have actually started putting these cars into production. Heres a look at the inventive ideas car companies had back in the day. Simca showed the Fulgur concept during the 1961 Chicago car show. This was the first model to include no-wheels hovering, atomic power, and We were surprised to find that non of these futurists came up with an entire self-washing car. Push a button, BAM it's clean. Well, until then, you too should imagine the future and picture how awe-dropping and inspiring you can make your car look with a car wash from Lake Havasu Mobile Detail. As we head into the holidays, some of you may be taking a vacation into colder climates. For those you you who will be driving to go skying or snowboarding, it’s very important that you prepare your car for lower temperatures as these small adjustments could be life saving. Get the right kind of oil change. If you are approaching the 30,000-mile full service for your vehicle, don’t procrastinate. The service should include an oil change, and the oil used should have the right thickness for this time of year. Oil will thicken as it gets colder, and if it’s too think, it will not do a good job of keeping your engine lubricated. Your owner’s manual is a great guidance about which oil to use in different climates and temperatures. Make sure you can see. When was the last time you replaced your windshield wiper blades? They usually work effectively for up to one year, make sure you check yours and if they don’t work the way they used to, it’s time to replace them. Also, make sure to full up your windshield washer reservoir with windshield washer fluid. Plain won’t do the trick at this time of year, it will freeze. Also check your heater and defroster to make sure both are working and will be able to keep your windshield nice and clear. Give your battery a little TLC. This is a perfect time to make sure your battery’s posts and connections are corrosion-free and that your battery has enough water. If your battery is more than three years old, take it to a certified repair shop and have it tested to see its ability to hold a charge. Getting stuck in the middle of a blizzard trying to find someone to help jumpstart your car is definitely avoidable. Examine your belts and hoses. When you have that full service done on your vehicle, make sure the belts and hoses are checked - even if you’re driving a modern car. Cold weather can have a great effect on belts and hoses. Check your tire pressure. Tires must be properly inflated. This ensures you’ll have the best possible traction driving along wet, snowy or icy roads. The air pressure in your tires has probably dropped as the weather has gotten colder, it’s important to see how yoiur tires are doing now. Your owner’s manual will tell you what your target pressure should be. Get the antifreeze mixture just right. Aim for a 50-50 mix of antifreeze and water inside your radiator. This will prevent the mixture from freezing, even at ridiculous temperatures. It’s easy to check the mixture with an antifreeze tester. They’re inexpensive, easy to use, and available at any auto parts store. If the mixture is off, drain your cooling system and refill it. Be sure you are equipped to dispose of your old antifreeze properly if you do this job yourself. It can’t just be poured down the drain. Prepare an emergency kit. Store this stuff in your trunk during winter months: - a blanket - extra boots and gloves - an extra set of warm clothes - extra water and food, including hard candies - an ice scraper - a small shovel - a flashlight - windshield washer fluid - windshield wipers - jumper cables - a tool kit - tire chains - a tire gauge - a spare tire with air in it - tire-changing equipment - a first-aid kit - paper towels - a bag of abrasive material such as sand, salt or non-clumping kitty litter, which can provide additional traction if a tire gets stuck in snow. Also, keep the gas tank as full as you can to prevent the gas lines from freezing. Know what to do if you get stranded. Never wander away from your car unless you know exactly where you are and how far away help is. To call attention, light two flares and place one on each end of your vehicle. Put on extra clothes and use a blanket to stay warm. If you have enough gas, run the engine heater for 10 minutes every hour while you wait for help. Leave one window open a little bit so that snow and ice don’t seal the car shut. Suck on a hard candy to prevent your mouth from getting too dry.
Oswald Stender shares some of his thoughts on all things Hawaiian, from sovereignty to ditching the Akaka Bill \|photo: Jimmy Forrest\| On the Akaka Bill I say forget the Akaka Bill. My view, and it’s not a popular view around here, is to forget sovereignty, forget all the property rights and governance issues, forget all that stuff. You can always come back and do those things. All we want is native recognition. That sets Hawaiians apart from the other citizens in this country, and declares [them] a special group of people, just like Congress has done for the Indians and the Alaskans. What that does is take us out of the 14th Amendment issues regarding racial preference. Then all the challenges that Kamehameha Schools and OHA and [Department of Hawaiian Homeland] face—they don’t go away, but at least we’ve got a strong line of defense that already has precedence before the Supreme Court. A lot of cases have been granted in favor of the Indians because congress has given them special status. On ceded lands During the overthrow [of the Hawaiian Monarchy], 1.8 million acres were taken from the Hawaiians, but only 1.2 million acres were returned to the state. If the overthrow was illegal, which the federal and state governments admitted it was, then we should get all 1.8 million acres back. Not just 20 percent of the revenues from the lease of state lands [roughly $15 million each year], which is what we get now. But we’re not asking for all the land back. We’re not even asking for 100 percent of the revenues. That’s unrealistic. What we want is the back rent the state owes us from 1978 [to 2005], which is when we should have started receiving the payments. That’s our goal this year. On Hawaiians in business Back in the day, everything on the front page was all the bad things Hawaiians did. There was nothing good about Hawaiians. I was in the business community—I knew there were a lot of good Hawaiians. Then I learned it wasn’t popular to tell people you were part Hawaiian. Johnny Bellinger, who was president of First Hawaiian Bank, he was Hawaiian and nobody knew. So we started the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce to let the world know that there are good Hawaiians around. We’re in business. We are successful. We speak English, and all of that. On Gov. Linda Lingle I’m impressed with her aloha for Hawaiians. When she came to Hawaii from New York, she lived on Molokai for 10 years. She got to know the Hawaiians and she loves the Hawaiians. When she first ran for governor, OHA had a forum and we asked her questions about how she was going to deal with the Hawaiians and she was right on target. She said, “Look at my Cabinet, and the people on my campaign—all Hawaiians.” When we asked the same question to Mazie Hirono, who was her opponent, she said, “Well, I’m sure we can teach them to be department heads.” I’m a nonpartisan. I vote for the person. I don’t vote the party line. Although in the days when you had to register, I registered as a Republican. But I’ve always looked at the person. I look for their values. I want to see if their values are similar to Hawaiian values, or even the 10 commandments. And you can only sense that in politics, because people say one thing and do something else. But with enough conversation, you can find out exactly where they are. On OHA’s failed attempt to purchase KGMB Originally, I looked at it as a venue for Hawaiians to get the word out. An ethnic station. But the FCC has so many rules governing that sort of thing that it wasn’t going to happen. As I looked into it though, I realized it was a pretty darn good business investment. That station netted over $3 million a year. On top of that, the station comes with the land underneath it, worth about $20 million. I was very disappointed that the trustees wouldn’t let me do the due diligence on it. We could’ve made some money on that deal, but the other trustees are very risk averse. They’ve got little experience in business, but none in real estate in particular. On OHA’s status as a government agency We’re a government agency only by fiat. We’re like a stepchild of the government, yet we’re stuck with that ‘government’ label. One of the problems with that is that we have to live under the sunshine law – we have to publish everything we do. When we looked into buying KGMB, everybody found out. Same thing with Moanalua Park. We were trying to buy the park, but because we had to publish the whole thing, the guy who was bidding against us bid $100,000 more than we did and waived all the conditions we put on our purchase. So he got it. We cannot do real estate this way. We can’t do business this way. I’m convinced we’ll never get there, because there are 28 different ideas as to what form sovereignty should take. The ideas run from a nation within a nation all the way to seceding from the union—which I don’t think most Hawaiians want to see happen. I don’t want to see that happen. I tell Hawaiians, how many of you retired from the government? Do you realize if we become sovereign you lose your pensions? You don’t get Medicaid. You don’t get Medicare. You don’t get Social Security. You sever yourself from the mother country, you sever yourself. Do you like what you read? Subscribe to Hawaii Business Magazine »
Isaac Yerks was born circa 1823 to John Van Tassel and Fanny Yerks in New Castle, New York. He was the first of nine children born to them. Somewhere in the mid-1850s, Isaac married a woman by the name of Elizabeth and began their family, living in the town of Mount Pleasant near other Yerks relatives. Ezra Yerks, Isaacs younger brother was born circa 1830 and does not appear to have ever married. On July 4, 1856 Isaac and Elizabeth gave birth to their first child, Charles W. Yerks. In April of 1869, Issac and Elizabeth Yerks moved to the Tarrytown area of Mount Pleasant and set up residence in Isaac Van Wart Buckhout’s house. A move that he would undoubtably regret. Issac worked on Buckhouts farm for shares. According to the 1870 United States Census record, Ezra Yerks was also living with them in Mount Pleasant. Isaac Van Wert Buckhout was a wealthy man, an accomplished violinist, and a reportedly a misogynist who brooded over the perversity of women. He lived in his Sleepy Hollow Road home with his wife Louisa Ann, who owned the house in which they resided. On New Years day, the normally quit and reserve Tarrytown village was rocked with the news that two of its citizens had been brutally murdered. Louisa Ann and Alfred Rendall, a wholesale liquor dealer from New York City, were found dead in the Buckhout home. Alfred was fatally shot in the head. Luisa and was killed with blunt force trauma to the face using the same rifle that was used to kill Alfred Rendall. Rendall’s son Charles, was also seriously injured with a bullet wound to the eye.
What is a Radiology Technician? Explore how to become a radiology technician in today's competitive health care job market... Become a Radiology Technician Radiology Technician Resources Radiology technicians, also called radiographers or x-ray techs, produce x-rays of the patient for diagnostic purposes. A radiology technician is not to be confused with a radiology technologist, which performs more advanced imaging. Radiology technicians prepare the patients for the x-rays, operate the equipment, keep patient records, may even adjust and maintain the machines, and could eventually manage a radiology department. Preparing a patient for an x-ray can involve explaining the procedure, removing any jewelry, positioning both the patient and the machine properly, and employing protection devices so that only the portion of the body requiring the x-ray is exposed to radiation. They are responsible for controlling the equipment so that the radiographs are of the correct contrast, detail, and density. They work under the supervision of a physician and follow medical protocol very carefully. It is very important that they prevent any unnecessary radiation exposure to their patients, coworkers, or themselves. Some ways they do this are with lead aprons, shielding devices, and monitoring instruments to measure exposure to radiation. Where do radiology tech's work? Radiology technicians usually work in hospitals or diagnostic imaging centers, and generally work standard 40-hour work weeks. However, some employers may require weekend, evening, or on-call hours. Some radiographers may work for multiple employers, or travel with their equipment in a large vehicle to their patients. With improvements in technology, some physicians’ offices may employ them as the technology becomes more affordable. These technicians are on their feet most of the day, and may also have to help lift disabled patients or heavy machinery, so it is important that they are physically capable of these tasks. What type of training, education, and certification do I need? You will need some education and training to take advantage of this career. The most common way is by earning an associate degree in radiography. An associate degree requires just two years of study. Just make sure you choose a radiography educational program that is accredited by the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology (JRCERT). While you could also earn a bachelor’s degree, it is not required for most of these positions. If you are still in high school and interested in this type of technician job, be sure you have completed courses in physics, chemistry, and biology, as well as in mathematics. Certification in radiography is offered through the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT). Technologists who perform more advanced radiology screenings need to be licensed in some states, but radiographers do not. However, certification is often required by employers. Certification by the ARRT involves meeting their educational and ethics requirements, and passing a certification exam. You will need to have at least an associate degree in radiography from an accredited educational program, and be free of any felony or misdemeanor convictions. The actual certification exam will cover topics such as radiation protection, image production and evaluation, equipment operation, and patient care and education. Certification with the ARRT makes you more competitive, as it demonstrates that your skills meet professional standards. Job outlook and salaries for a radiology technician The average salary for a radiology technician was $52,000 in 2008. There is plenty of room for growth in this job, and the outlook in general is very good. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), radiologic technologists and technicians are projected to grow at a rate of 16% from 2008 through 2018. Further training can enable you to become a technologist with knowledge and training in more diagnostic imaging procedures, such as mammography, computed tomography (CT) scans, and magnetic resonance imaging (MR). The American Society of Radiologic Technologist (ASRT) is a professional organization and good resource for information and networking opportunities. First you will have to find the right associate degree program though. Get started on your education in radiography and you can have a strong career with plenty of growth opportunities. To learn more about becoming a radiology technician, you may wish to explore schools that offer radiology tech programs. You may also be interested in learning more about the certification and licensure process for radiology technicians across the country.
Hospitals' Fear of 30-Day Penalties May Speed Hospice Admissions At some point, he continues, clinicians are now starting to say, if patients like this one will go into hospice soon in the near future, "Why couldn't we move them into hospice quicker?" He's also concerned that these clinicians—increasing numbers of whom are employed by hospitals—will take it a step further, encouraging hospice designation for patients for whom the question of hospice appropriateness is less clear. "There may be someone who is very old, a 93-year-old man comes in with an MI (myocardial infarction). Should they go to the cath lab or not? They have no other medical problems. What should be the level of care? What is the expiration date on a person? Is it 90 or 80, or after one procedure or two? "There are people in the [federal] administration who believe that the only way to really solve the high cost of healthcare is to ration care," Kupfer says. He doesn't think that's a good direction for national policy. Kupfer, a practicing cardiologist, doesn't stop there with his concern. "My question really is, are incentives constructed around physician behavior morally ethical? Should a physician get paid extra for what [he or she is] supposed to do in the first place, like prescribing beta blockers or ace inhibitors? "And when you have incentives like this, and hospitals have financial interests in the incentives, what kinds of processes do they put into place to make sure they win the incentives. There's a balance between positive and negative effects." - CMS Sets 2014 Pay Rates for Hospital Outpatient and Physician Services - FDA hopes hospitals will switch to newly regulated pharmacies - New G-Codes to Pay Doctors for Broad Array of Non-Face-to-Face Care - States Rejecting Medicaid Expansion Forgo Billions in Federal Funds - Why You Should Involve Patients in Nursing Handoffs - Not-for-Profit Hospitals Find Opportunity Amid Uncertainty - The Most Polarizing Topics in Healthcare IT - Substance Abuse Resurfaces Among Anesthesiologists in Training - Safety Net Executives Renew Call to Preserve DSH Payments - The 5 Biggest Healthcare Finance Trouble Spots
Henderson's downtown churches use cemetery alternative Many churches have their own cemeteries, where members can be buried in ground that has special meaning for them and their families. But for urban churches, where land is at a premium, providing a cemetery may not be feasible. Three downtown Henderson churches have found an alternative. They have columbariums, where urns holding the ashes of deceased members and their families can be placed in individual niches. The columbarium wall in the memorial garden of Church of the Holy Innocents was dedicated on Sept. 28, 1988. Designed by church member Marsha Nelson, the columbarium features brickwork that coordinates with the classic architecture of the church. A bronze plaque with a name and dates marks each niche containing ashes of the deceased. Each unused niche in the curved brick columbarium is marked by three vertical bricks, which stand in contrast to the horizontal motif throughout the wall. Like other columbariums, this one is designed so a brick mason can remove the outer bricks in order for ashes in an urn to be placed inside before the niche is resealed. Some people preferred to have ashes scattered throughout the garden rather than placed in an urn. Above their names is a plaque bearing the inscription: “Alleluia, Christ is risen. In memory of those whose ashes rest elsewhere in this memorial garden.” The Rev. Donald Lowery, rector of Church of the Holy Innocents, explained why people choose cremation rather than traditional burial. “There are several issues,” he said. “One is cost. It’s less expensive. And some people are concerned about the amount of land they take up. It’s an environmental issue.” Churches have built columbariums to accommodate people who select cremation and would like to be interred on church property. “City churches don’t have enough land to have a cemetery,” Lowery said. “If you want to be buried in a city church, a columbarium is the only way to go.” At First Baptist Church, the columbarium is constructed of stonework to match the granite of the church building. “We went to the same quarry in Mount Airy to get the granite,” said Nettie White, a church member who helped guide development of the columbarium. A stone walk leads through the memorial garden. The columbarium walls on each side contain niches for urns. Each occupied niche is identified by a name and dates carved into the stone. Some niches have only a family name, indicating that they have been purchased by a church member to reserve it for future use. Phil Young was minister of music at First Baptist Church for 45 years. His wife, Mary Lou, was associate minister of music and organist until her death in 1998. “It was her choice,” Young said, explaining why her ashes are in the columbarium wall. “It’s rather comforting to me to know that Mary Lou is there a few feet from where she worked all those years. The children’s choir room is just on the other side of the wall.” A memorial wall in the garden is inscribed with numerous names. Young said these are names of people buried elsewhere but whose families wanted them honored in the memorial garden. Standing beside the memorial wall, a fountain carries the motto, “In Loving Memory.” Richard and Marietta Noel have reserved a niche for themselves in the columbarium. In addition, the names of Richard’s parents are on the memorial wall. “They’re buried in Elmwood Cemetery,” he said, but honoring them on the memorial wall seemed appropriate for long-time members of the church. Some family names show up on more than one columbarium. A niche in the columbarium at Church of the Holy Innocents is engraved with the name of Eric Flannagan, Jr. At the Baptist church, a niche is reserved for his brother Steve and wife Helen. “That’s because I’m Baptist,” Helen said. The columbarium at First Presbyterian Church is relatively new. It stands at the north side of the garden adjoining the church’s fellowship hall. Older residents of Henderson will remember the lot as the site of Nanny Crowder’s home. Rick Brand, now retired, was pastor of the church at the time the columbarium was constructed. Members have an option of buying a niche in the columbarium wall or having ashes of the deceased sprinkled in the garden area and the name added to a larger plaque, he said. The word columbarium is derived from “columba,” the Latin term for dove, a traditional Christian symbol of love and peace. Placing the ashes of the deceased within the columbarium, with that ancient meaning, can be the family’s way of wishing those blessings for their loved one. Contact the writer at [email protected].
29. A Slip of the Tongue By evening, I was feeling quite happy. I finally excused myself and went back to the Citadel. The Elf and the Dwarf went to find the King. Pippin and Merry were in the garden. Pippin squealed in delight when he saw me, much to my dismay. He is a rather effusive creature and his enthusiasm, I have found, sometimes overwhelms me. "Oh, Alqua! I so wish you had been here. Legolas and Gimli came and told us all about their ride through the Paths of the Dead and how they fought the pirates and how they came up the river and saved Minas Tirith. Now mind you, not as great an adventure as we were having here, but still a great adventure indeed." I smiled. 'I am sorry I did not hear the tale. But, Pippin, we have both been quite rude to your cousin.' Pippin looked at me in surprise. 'We have not been formally introduced.' "Oh lawks! You're right. Let me." He stood up and bowed to Merry. "Merry, my lad, I would introduce you to Alqualondë, of the line of the cats of Queen Berúthiel of Gondor and friend to the Lord Denethor." I bowed. 'Very pleased to meet you,' I said and sent a quick thank you to Pippin for the kind remembrance of Denethor. Pippin continued. "And Alqualondë, I would introduce you to Meriadoc Brandybuck, only son and heir of the Master of Buckland, Saradoc Brandybuck." Merry bowed. "Very pleased to meet you." "I hope you forgive me for not introducing you properly before, but Merry was indisposed at the time, and not quite himself, so I thought it best to keep still." Merry looked at his cousin in surprise. "Peregrin Took, when did you ever keep still?" I watched in astonishment as the two began to tussle right on the Houses' lawn. How did the Hobbit have the strength of arm to even... But I noted Pippin's holding back and smiled at the love that shone from that face. However, if Ioreth ever came out and found them... The thought was too gruesome to dwell upon. I jumped lightly onto a nearby bench and waited. After a moment, I gasped in astonishment; I recalled Boromir and Faramir doing the same as youngsters. I waited no longer and ran directly into the Houses and Faramir's room. He slept. I climbed up onto the bed and tucked myself in next to his feet, thoroughly ashamed that I had been gone so long from his side. "Alqua?" I heard his soft voice. 'I am sorry. Did I wake you?' "Nay. I am glad to see you. I... have had some strange dreams and a friend's face is most welcome." "I dreamt of my father," his voice choked, "but I will not recount it. There was a pleasanter dream, but peculiar. I dreamt of a beautiful woman, with hair as gold as the sun. She wore mother's cloak. How came she by it, I know not. She stood in the moonlight and..." He blushed. "I had my arm about her waist. Think you that I gave it to her, the cloak?" 'I think the first question might better be, who is she?' "I thought she resembled Lady Éowyn of Rohan. I have not seen the lady since she was a child, but there was something about her that recalled that girl to my mind." 'Rohirrim have golden hair, mayhap that is why you think it is her?' Faramir frowned. "I know not. It must be her, for I have seen her brother..." I held my paw to my forehead. 'What a dolt I am. Of course it was she. She is here. Here in the Houses. She was wounded in the Battle.' "Wounded? How? In the Battle? Who would let her? Where were her guards? She is niece to Théoden King!" I put my paws over my head and mewed in distress. My mouth was as unchecked as Pippin's. Faramir's jaw set. "You have further news, have you not, Alqualondë?" I sighed resignedly. 'The Lady Éowyn, if the story Pippin tells me is true, disguised herself as a Rider and rode to battle with the other Pherian, Merry, upon her steed.' "What was Éomer thinking? How could he let a woman go to battle, never mind his own sister? Where was her father?" Patiently, I waited for the flurry of questions to cease. 'She was disguised and hid amongst the lesser guard of the Rohirrim, towards the back of the assemblage. She did not come forward until they had entered the Pelennor. Faramir, she fought bravely. A true shieldmaiden. Her grandmother would have been quite proud of her.' "You say she is here? Is she gravely hurt?" 'Yea and nay. Her arm was broken by the Witch-king - " Faramir almost leapt out of the bed and I had to stand on his chest to keep him down. "The Witch-king?" 'Calm yourself! You will open the stitches and the healers will never let me stay here.' He finally leaned back against the pillow and I continued. 'The Witch-king.' I shuddered. 'May I find Meriadoc and bring him here? Best you should here it from one who was there with her. Oh and Faramir, the Hobbit helped kill him.' He shuddered at the thought. 'I will return in a moment.' This is a work of fan fiction, written because the author has an abiding love for the works of J R R Tolkien. The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of the Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Enterprises, and possibly New Line Cinema, except for certain original characters who belong to the author of the said work. The author will not receive any money or other remuneration for presenting the work on this archive site. The work is the intellectual property of the author, is available solely for the enjoyment of Henneth Annûn Story Archive readers, and may not be copied or redistributed by any means without the explicit written consent of the author.
The Vyne, Vyne Road, Sherborne St John, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG24 9HL An intimate family home, the history of the Vyne spans the centuries. From its royal beginnings in Tudor times to its place today as a intriguing retreat for you to explore, you can lose yourself in the surroundings that inspired great authors such as Jane Austen. Discover a chapel where sunlight streams in through stained-glass windows, a ring that may have inspired Tolkien or an oak gallery fit for a king. You could enjoy the view from the house in winter of the first hoarfrost or the autumnal glow of the woodland on a misty morning. Can you see yourself spending lazy summer days picnicking on a lawn that stretches to a shimmering lake? The gardens are a peaceful escape with secret picnic spots, or you can stroll by the ornamental lake. Why not take in the restored Walled Garden, now a working kitchen garden selling delicious, fresh and seasonal produce. Our brand new 'Hidden Realm' play area provides a great chance for little ones to let off some steam. Turf-covered tunnels with sound tubes, surrounded by an ‘Iron Age’ wooden fort and bridge, slide and stream that runs into a limestone-bordered sandpit – all designed to be crawled through, climbed up and slid down. There are hiding places in the form of mini bamboo jungles and a covered seating area is perfect for picnics. We also have a range of trails, quizzes and tracker packs for all ages of explorer inside and out, as well as a range of lunchtime goodies for our younger visitors. This event took place in September 2013 and the entry is now archived. There is no wheelchair access to the upstairs parts of the house and there are 24 steps with no handrail. The visitor entrance of the house has photo albums for anyone unable to go upstairs. Please be aware that you may be asked to leave pushchairs at the entrance of the house as some of our doorways are narrow and the collection is fragile. Please visit the website for further details. Date last modified: 12th June 2013 at 13:19
Over time the technology for testing cannabis and concentrates has evolved. Now, thanks to companies like Herbal Synergy, testing samples goes far beyond THC percentages. Labs like Herbal Synergy can test for contaminants, terpene profiles, and a litany of cannabinoids with relative ease and incredible accuracy. Herbal Synergy’s Charlie Steinberg is one of the main men behind all the gas chromatography testing in the state of Colorado. Here, he discusses the latest in lab testing cannabis and concentrates. What's the difference between gas and liquid chromatography? Gas chromatography and liquid chromatography differ in one way that is important to the analysis of cannabinoids. Gas chromatography uses heat and liquid chromatography does not. Heat allows the sample of marijuana to go through a chemical process called decarboxylation, which is a necessary step to determine the exact amount of CBD and THC that can be absorbed into the body. The body will not absorb marijuana that has not been decarboxylated. Marijuana is decarboxylated either through smoking, vaporizing or cooking butter. Analyzing medical marijuana without decarboxylation, like through liquid chromatography, allows only for the measurement of the maximum THC and CBD possible in a sample. This produces high numbers that are not useful to patients because they will need to decarboxylze marijuana in order to feel its effects. This is why gas chromatography has been the method of choice for the quantification of cannabinoids by both the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. When you’re doing these tests, what exactly shows up for flowers and concentrates? Is it just cannabinoids or can you test for contaminants, residuals, etc.? We're able to do several different types of screening, as well as several different types of testing. As far as visual screening, we do that for foreign contaminants such as bugs, mites, mildew and molds. In GC we’re testing for cannabinoids on one column and then we’re able to switch over to a whole new application to do residual solvents, gases, pesticides and also a terpene profile. When you’re testing for concentrates there are several different consistencies – like wax, budder, shatter, etc. Does one consistency generally test “dirtier” than the others? Based on what we've seen, I would say shatters are consistently dirtier then budders. Then again, I've worked for a couple companies that do some forms of shatters that never have any contamination in it, so it's kind of a hard question. There are so many variables that contribute to “dirty” BHO. What's the best or worst brand of butane to make BHO? A lot of people think N-Butane is great to run with because the closed-loop system is a cleaner way to run stuff. In the test results I've seen, it’s not necessarily the cleanest way to run it. It looks like there's much more of a saturation happening in a closed-loop system with N-Butane. I don't think the people have their timing right there. I think the product is sitting in the gas and the liquid a lot longer and the molecular structure of N-Butane is a chain, just like the tail end of the THC cannabinoid structure, so there's a bonding going on there. So running with just N-Butane wouldn't be as good as running with a combination of Propane, ISO Butane and N-Butane? In the 1,000 samples that I've seen so far, I would say N-Butane probably has shown significantly dirtier results. Usually, runs using Newport, Vector or a Power x5 canned gas test at an average of 1-3 PPM – and that’s from somebody who I would consider to be an extraction artist. I would say generally that canned gases are cleaner. There are people using Propane to extract – and call it Propane Hash Oil or PHO. Can you let me know the difference between that and Butane Hash Oil or BHO? I have a client who gives me propane hash samples all the time – it's crazy! It's darker, more of a copper color. This hash maker runs it in a CO2 extraction machine. The test results usually come out a little bit higher and it appears to be cleaner, generally. But I haven't done enough research and I have not seen enough samples to verify any of that and back it up yet. A lot of people worry about the health risk of butane. There are tons of health risks. From blowing yourself up to running a case in a closed room – maybe you didn't blow yourself up but you are absorbing it. I've heard stories of people who passed out from inhalation of butane. Or someone opens the door, fresh air rushes in, and everyone in the room starts vomiting. All sorts of weird stuff I've heard. Does Herbal Synergy only test for dispensaries or can someone with a legal home grow bring their cannabis in for testing? We’re pretty much the only lab that will do private caregivers. I do have my red card so I can hold up to eight ounces of legal cannabis in the state of Colorado. I'll basically test anybody's stuff whether they’re a patient, grower or dispensary. If there’s something that you think is wrong with your pot or hash – especially BHO – and you think it should be checked out, we will test it. How can people contact you? Our web site is the best way – you can find us at HerbalSynergyLLC.Com.
A fort at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, for many years the northernmost military post in the land of the Sioux and Chippewa. The name Fort Snelling was assigned to LSD-23 on 19 June 1944 but construction was canceled on 12 August 1945. (LSD-30: dp. 6,880; l. 510'; b. 84'; dr. 19'; a.21 k.; cpl. 756; a. 16'3"; cl. Thomaston) Fort Snelling (LSD-30) was launched 16 July 1954 by Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., Pascagoula, Miss.; sponsored by Mrs. Robert F. Briscoe, wife of Vice Admiral Briscoe; and commissioned 24 January 1955, Commander H. Marvin-Smith in command. Homeported at Norfolk, Va., Fort Snelling carried out an intensive exercise schedule along the east coast and in the Caribbean, almost always with Marines embarked for amphibious training. She made her first deployment to the Mediterranean in 1956, returning the next year again to serve with the 6th Fleet. During her 1958 deployment, she was at sea bound for the island of Rhodes when on 14 July she wasnotified to land her Marines at Beirut, Lebanon, the next day. Thus, Fort Snelling took part in the immediate response of the U.S. Navy to the Middle Eastern crisis of summer 1958. Several times more before leaving the Mediterranean she returned to the coast of Lebanon to support the Marines ashore. Through 1959 and 1963, Fort Snelling continued her training operations with marines in the Caribbean and on the Carolina coast. USS Fort Snelling (LSD-30)
Clearly there is little anyone can do if the people to whom such sensitive information is entrusted don’t have the wit to keep it safe. If the culture of “taking care” can’t be taught and the people are clueless or congenitally irresponsible, perhaps Government regulations should insist nothing is ever removed from an office where it is only signed out within a controlled environment. But the bigger questions have to be: why is it necessary to keep much of the data in the first place? And why is it ever necessary to download it onto portable hardware? Surely one of the main reasons digital data storage was invented was to eliminate the need for it to be lugged around or put in the post? It can be encrypted and sent down wires. And why should it be necessary for anyone to have to take it home? Who needs to access the names and addresses and confidential passwords of millions of people in their spare time? In the latest embarrassing gaffe involving a contractor, the employee is said to have removed the memory stick from the company premises in “direct breach” of its operating procedures. So that would be stealing, then, would it? But if so, why take it to a pub car park and then mislay it? The Prime Minister also doesn’t get it. Mr Brown, not for the first time in the past seven days, describes it as “unacceptable behaviour” – not unlike comedians making lewd phone calls? The important thing, he says, is “to prevent these kind of things happening in future.” But how many times have we heard that? Meanwhile the Department for Work and Pensions insists data on the memory stick was encrypted – despite an independent computer security firm saying it contained the “source code” for the entire system – invaluable to any fraudster who’d got their hands on it. So someone is lying too. It’s just as well we don’t have an ID card scheme in the UK. Can you imagine?
The raw file has characters that need to be removed... Sometimes when you run an extract, the file contains data characters that you don't want in your file list. These could be commas, dashes, stars or any weird character that is added with source files. Want to strip this out quickly? Here is a formula that can help. Note - there is an easier way to do this using "text to columns" - but lets keep it interesting and use just formula. Our first sheet So you have a list of names in one column of a workbook - and you want to work out if they are attending a special event that is coming up. Column A - has the list of names we are looking at (This is our Master List) Column B - needs to be filled out with either a "Yes" or a "No" using our look-up from another list. The information we want is actually on another Excel sheet - lets take a look at what this 'Other' sheet looks like... Abe Dahbache has been working with EXCEL for over 15 years. He is a Microsoft Office User Specialist and has been developing solutions in Excel for some of the worlds largest companies.
"Praia da Pipa" is about 85 km from Natal. The beach with 9 kilometers long, manages to mix nearly untouched nature with lively activity. The name is due to a stone that, seen of the sea by the old navigators of last centuries, had the form of a pipe. Those containers that the wine-producing ones use for storage of wine. The beauty of Pipa was discovered by the surfers in the 70's for its waves, and today it is known by the landscapes such as "Baía dos Golfinhos" (dolphins' bay), "Chapadão" (plain), the cliffs and the beautiful people that frequent the beach. The main street shelters dozens of bars, good restaurants and stores of crafts. Pipa Beach is good for surfing. It has reefs, natural swimming pools, besides dolphins and marine turtles. It shelters an old colony of fishermen.
Adult and Children's Adaptive Toys Adaptive Games and Toys: Vendors Abilitations is a company whose primary focus is serving the needs of individuals with special needs. Product mix focuses on movement, positioning, sensorimotor, exercise, aquatics and play. 3155 Northwoods Pkwy; Norcross, Georgia 30071 USA This site owned by the National Lekotek Center offers independent ratings and reviews of toys for children with Note: Please keep in mind that you are the final judge as to what is good for your child. Reviews are just that; reviews. A review is an opinion based on personal preferences. However, a rating must be based on a certain and consistent set of criteria. Make sure you are aware of the criteria used when viewing a rating of any - Adapted Toys and Switches The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast; 730 East Beach Boulevard; Long Beach, Mississippi 39560 USA Organization that adapts toys for children with special needs. AdaptivePlay promotes the use of Play as therapy for children with special needs. Switch-Adapted toys make it easier for children to adhere to their therapy - Accessible Computer Games Arcess offers Simple arcade games that contain control panels for adjusting the parameters of the game to match the ability of the players. These games are great for improving hand and eye coordination and even older folks or those having difficulty with hand movements. Dennis Asher; 10 Liverton Crescent; Christchurch, New - American Girl Offers a variety of books and dolls for girls. One of its products includes a doll-sized wheelchair. This company offers books and games that encourage children to meet their developmental tasks, learn to deal with their feelings, and find ways to cope with their emotional, behavioral or learning disorders. - Claudia's Kids A doll which introduces children to basic human anatomy, indulge the natural fascination they already have with what occurs inside the body, help alleviate any fears or misconceptions they may have regarding medical procedures and visits to the doctor or hospital. - Come Play With Me Developmental toys for young children - has a section on special needs. - Constructive Playthings Offers early childhood educational toys, equipment, books, records, tapes, videos, art supplies, and teaching - Different Roads to Learning Specializes in learning materials and playthings for children with developmental delays and challenges. The catalog puts together educational toys and materials that stimulate the skills leading to speech and language for challenged children ages 2 to 10. - Down Syndrome Dolls The dolls are approx, 16" long, and have hand-painted faces, custom made clothing. With their soft, cotton-wool blend bodies and reusable poly limbs, they are machine washable in the delicate cycle. Dolls are available in open & closed mouth versions. The also carry "Chemo Dolls". Suitable for use in Kindergarten, - Downi Creations This non-profit organization has a doll with down syndrome features. - Dragonfly's Special Needs Store From toys to technology, for children with special needs. - Educational Toys for Expanding Minds Educational wooden toys offered by Brain Building Toys. - Enabling Devices A division of Toys for Special Children, Inc., a company dedicated to developing affordable learning and assistive devices to help people with disabling conditions. Offers adapted toys such as two favorite cars from Disney's movie Cars...Mater and McQueen! Activities for Children with Special Needs - Fisher-Price has developed a partnership aimed at helping special needs children learn with experts from the Let’s Play! Projects. The federally funded program supports family play activities and experiences for children with special needs. Global supplier of physical education equipment and products, equipment and programs to both physical education and recreation professionals, as well as professionals who deal with children and adults with physical and - Fun-Attic Sports and Toys Offers unique childrens indoor/outdoor games, toys for active play and innovative sporting goods. - Fun and Function Special Needs Toys Complete selection of Toys and Therapy Products for special needs children from Fun and Function - Providing both parents and professionals with articles and information. Child Therapy Products, Special Needs Toys, - Innovative Products, Inc Manufacturing company that specializes in custom built mobility devices for children with - Learning Curve International Offers a variety of children's products and toys from birth to age 12. - National Lekotek Center Source for toys and play for children with special needs. National Lekotek Center: 2001 N. Clybourn, Chicago, IL 60614 USA - S&S Worldwide Offers Kid Crafts, Party Decorations, School Supplies and Religious Crafts. - Sassy Baby Products Innovation for the Early Years: a parents' learning center, highlighting babies' changing developmental needs; a product catalog, featuring developmental toys. - Sew "Able" Dolls 18" Play Therapy Dolls: Find A Sweet Disabled Child Doll With Crutches, Prosthetics, A Wheelchair or Wig! Doll size Wheelchairs, Arm Braces, Walkers, Parallel Bars, Trampolines, Gym Mats and Swiss Therapy - Smart Start Toys UK online toy shop of quality toys and games for schools, childcare and parents. Fun learning toys; baby toys; educational games; children games, construction toys, children's books, outdoor toys, and Special Needs toys for children of all ages.br> - Spinoza Bear Spinoza® is a talking teddy bear who has lots of great things to say and sing songs about! Spinoza and his Woodland Friends™ have a library of nine original cassette tapes. Through fun stories and songs they instill self worth, give positive reinforcement, are motivating, help open communication, can be relaxing and comforting or energizing and invigorating.. - Touch Feel Heal(TFH) Designs and produces toys and multi-sensory for adults and children with special needs. TFH Special Needs Toys; 4537 Gibsonia Road; Gibsonia, Pennsylvania 15044 USA
What are the seven wonders of the ancient world How many still exist ? Here is the seven wonders of the ancient world list and pictures. Where seven wonders of the ancient world ? 1. The Great Pyramid of Giza of Egypt(2584–2561 BC) that still are in existence, today at Giza Necropolis, Egypt. It’s the oldest and largest man-made pyramid of Giza area but it remains intact. It is the tomb of Khufu, the 2nd pharaoh of the 4th dynastythe 4th Egyptian dynasty. (2560 BC). Initially 147 m high, there are 3 known chambers inside the Great Pyramid, the Queen’s. and King’s Chamber higher up within the pyramid. 2. Hanging Gardens of Babylon of Iraq (600 BC) built by the Babylonians or Assyrians after 1st century AD. These Gardens are not existing anymore. They should have been located at Hillah or Nineveh in Iraq today. Actually, we do not have any evidence that the Gardens existed. They have been said to have been built in the ancient city of Babylon and they were described in details by famous classical authors as Stabo, D.Siculus nd A.Curtius Rufus. A new theory tells us that the Hanging Gardens were constructed by the Assyrian king Sennacherib (7th cent. ) for his palace at Nineveh (today in north Iraq) 3. The temple of Artemis at Ephesus of Turkey (550 BC and again in 323 BC) built by the Greeks or Lydians but destroyed by in 356 BC by Herostratus and in 262 AD by the Goths. It was located near Selçuk at Izmir Province in Turkey today. 4. The statue of Zeus (435 BC) at .Olympia, Greece in a temple ( 466–456 BC). It was disassembled and reassembled at Constantinople (Istanbul) and later destroyed by fire. It was at .Olympia,peloponnese area in Greece 5. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (351 BC) built by the Greeks or the Carians. It was destroyed in the 12th-15th cent. by earthquakes. It was in Bodrum, in Turkey today. 6. The Colossus of Rhodes of Greece (292–280 BC) builts by the Greeks but destroyed in 226 BC by earthquake. It was in Rhodes in Greece. 7. The Lighthouse of Alexandria of Egypt (280 BC) built by the Greeks or Ptomelaic Egyptians. It was destroyed in 1303 AD by earthquake from Crete. It was in Alexandria, in Egypt.
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), following a formula approved by the Board of Education and the US Department of Education (USED), has established new annual benchmarks for raising achievement in the commonwealth’s lowest-performing schools. The new annual objectives in reading and mathematics replace the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets schools were previously required to meet under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Under the provisions of the two-year flexibility waiver granted by USED on June 29, ambitious but achievable annual measurable objectives (AMOs) have been set for student subgroups, including new “proficiency gap groups” comprising students who historically have had difficulty meeting the commonwealth’s achievement standards: - Proficiency Gap Group 1 – Students with disabilities, English language learners and economically disadvantaged students, regardless of race and ethnicity (unduplicated) - Proficiency Gap Group 2 – African-American students, not of Hispanic origin, including those also counted in Proficiency Gap Group 1 - Proficiency Gap Group 3 – Hispanic students, of one or more races, including those also counted in Proficiency Gap Group 1 The benchmarks are set with the goal of reducing by half proficiency gaps in reading and mathematics between schools performing at the 20th and 90th percentiles — overall and for each subgroup and proficiency gap group – over six years. “Accomplishing this goal will make a difference in the lives of thousands of Virginia students in chronically underperforming schools,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright said. “The commonwealth and school divisions are now able to focus federal resources on the schools most in need of reform while maintaining accountability for raising achievement in all schools through Virginia’s accreditation standards,” Board of Education President David M. Foster said. The AMOs were determined using a formula based on the federal law and student-achievement data from the state’s assessment program. Annual reading benchmarks for the first year of flexibility are based on achievement on 2010-2011 state assessments and mathematics benchmarks are based on achievement during 2011-2012. Reading Annual Measurable Objectives \|All Students\|\|85\|\|Reading AMOs for accountability years 2013-2014 through 2017-2018 will be calculated based on achievement on revised Reading SOL tests administered during 2012-2013\| \|Proficiency Gap Group 1\|\|76\| \|Proficiency Gap Group 2 (Black Students)\|\|76\| \|Proficiency Gap Group 3 (Hispanic Students)\|\|80\| \|Students with Disabilities\|\|59\| \|Economically Disadvantaged Students\|\|76\| \|Proficiency Gap Group 1\|\|47\|\|49\|\|52\|\|54\|\|56\|\|58\| \|Proficiency Gap Group 2 (Black Students)\|\|45\|\|48\|\|50\|\|52\|\|54\|\|57\| \|Proficiency Gap Group 3 (Hispanic Students\|\|52\|\|55\|\|57\|\|60\|\|62\|\|65\| \|Students with Disabilities\|\|33\|\|36\|\|39\|\|42\|\|45\|\|49\| \|Economically Disadvantaged Students\|\|47\|\|50\|\|52\|\|54\|\|56\|\|59\| “The mathematics AMOs are based on student achievement on the rigorous new Standards of Learning (SOL) tests introduced last year and are designed for the specific purpose of cutting in half the gap between Virginia’s lowest- and highest-performing schools,” Wright said. “These new annual objectives should not be compared with last year’s AYP benchmarks.” Reading benchmarks will be reset next year based on the performance of students during 2012-2013 on new reading SOL tests reflecting the increased rigor of the 2010 English standards. Under the flexibility granted last month, Virginia schools and school divisions will no longer receive annual AYP ratings. However, information on schools and school divisions meeting and not meeting the new, annual federal benchmarks will be reported in early September on the VDOE website. VDOE also will report on low-performing schools identified as “priority” and “focus” schools. Priority and focus schools are subject to state-approved and monitored school-improvement interventions. Priority and focus schools, however, are not subject to previous federal “improvement” sanctions, such as having to provide public school choice or private tutoring. Five percent of Virginia’s Title I schools (36) will be identified as priority schools based on overall reading and mathematics achievement as well as graduation rates for high schools. Priority schools must engage a state-approved turnaround partner to help implement a school-improvement model meeting state and federal requirements. Ten percent of Virginia’s Title I schools (72) will be designated as focus schools based on reading and mathematics achievement of students in the three proficiency gap groups. Focus schools must employ a state-approved coach to help the division develop, implement and monitor intervention strategies to improve the performance of students at risk of not meeting achievement standards or dropping out of school. Many of the commonwealth’s underperforming schools are already subject to these and similar interventions as a consequence of state accountability provisions and requirements for schools receiving federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) funds. All public schools — including schools that do not receive Title I funds under the federal education law — must develop and implement improvement plans to raise the achievement of student subgroups not meeting the annual benchmarks. School divisions also are expected to meet the new annual measurable objectives in reading and mathematics for all student subgroups and proficiency gap groups.
In the Baltic Sea port of Rostock, children are learning the benefits of water, based on the teachings of naturalist Sebastian Kneipp. Water walking and alternative baths belong to the concept at 200 Kneipp child care facilities in Germany. A new hydrotherapy center in Zambia's capital, Lusaka, is making an impact in the special needs field. Underprivileged children with disabilities now have renewed hope for better and free treatment. © 2017 Deutsche Welle \| Legal notice \| \| Mobile version
Refugees should be housed in disused church buildings such as old convents and monasteries while they should be welcomed and not feared, Pope Francis has told asylum seekers in Rome. During the week, the pontiff made a private visit to a Rome soup kitchen and shelter run by the Jesuit Refugee Services, the Centro Astalli, Vatican Radio reported. There Pope Francis thanked the staff and volunteers for their generosity and time in helping around 21,000 refugees who pass through the shelter each year. He appreciated the center for "recognizing them as people," and for working "to find concrete answers to their needs." "Empty convents and monasteries should not be turned into hotels by the Church to earn money," said Francis on Tuesday noting that the buildings housing them "are not ours, they are for the flesh of Christ, which is what the refugees are." Turning empty convents and monasteries that no longer have nuns and priests due to a drop in vocations into hotels has raised funds for the Church, but also attracted criticism, Reuters news service reported. In Rome, Jesuit Refugee Services runs three shelters, an Italian language school, and a health facility providing special attention for victims of torture, and legal counseling services. Among the refugees the Pope met were asylum seekers from Syria. Francis and many other global churches leaders have urged peace and not more war in the area from which the United Nations estimates at least 1.5 million people have fled. The pontiff said that Francis those who care for the poor and afflicted should not just be specialists but all members of the Church, and that priests should be trained in such work. Pope Francis note that "our city" Rome is often the second stop for tens of thousands of refugees who first make their way to the island of Lampedusa at Italy's southern most tip. Francis visited there in July. The Pope described their passage from North Africa as "difficult and exhausting" and said he thinks "above all about the women, the mothers who endure these hardships in order to ensure a future for their children... and a different life for themselves and their families." "How many times," Francis wondered, "have many people with '(under) international protection' written on their sojourn permits - here and in other places - been forced to live in impoverished conditions, at times degrading, without the possibility of beginning a dignified life, to think about a new future." Noting the elements of Jesuit mission, Pope Francis said to serve means "welcoming the person who arrives, with care" and "bending over" those in need by "offering a hand" without "calculation" or fear, but with tenderness and understanding.
New Ambulances an Investment in Safety Island EMS, a subsidiary company of Nova Scotia-based Medavie EMS, began operating the ground ambulance service in Canada's Prince Edward Island in April 2006. Through a long-term service contract with the PEI government, Island is solely responsible for the delivery of prehospital emergency care and nonemergency transfers for the entire island province. It employs approximately 100 paramedics. In conjunction with Medavie, Island started working in 2008 on researching a new vehicle design. Leaders consulted with the EMS Safety Foundation to develop a safer ambulance that would provide maximum protection for paramedics, patients and the public. The project involved automobile engineers, ergonomics experts, crash safety engineers, occupancy-protection professionals and conspicuity experts. The team also incorporated work done by IEMS paramedics and management on a multipatient unit they implemented in the spring of 2010. As the research began, it became clear that one chassis stood out from the rest in reliability, economy and safety: the Mercedes Sprinter, a German-engineered unit equipped with a standard BlueTEC V6 turbo diesel engine that minimizes fuel consumption. The Mercedes also has the longest average maintenance intervals, which makes it very cost-efficient. If that made it appealing, the safety features pushed it over the edge: The vehicle comes equipped with Adaptive ESP (a proprietary electronic stability program), ABS with brake assist, rollover mitigation, and roll movement intervention, all aimed at keeping occupants and members of the public safe. The Sprinter also rates best in class ergonomically. After months of research and consultation, the team produced a request-for-proposal (RFP) document consisting of 22 sections and more than 68 pages, including required safety testing. The design document was specific in components, equipment and products to be used, with the goal of improving safety engineering and implementing best practices. We allowed the engineers to suggest a layout design reflecting their expert input. We also attended the EMS Safety Foundation's 2010 post-EMS World Expo workshop in Dallas and incorporated feedback from various safety experts there. The new vehicle design had many key features to allow paramedics to deliver safer care. The first area we focused on was the rear patient compartment--we wanted to arrange it so the paramedic had all their essential and frequently used equipment within arm's reach, so they could remain secured in their seats. A swiveling attendant seat equipped with a shoulder belt was installed instead of a squad bench. The seat swivels 280 degrees and also moves forward and back to allow the paramedic to provide care. The wall console area next to the attendant has a suction unit and an action console that includes lighting, suction, ventilation, intercom and temperature control. There is also a radio. Above the attendant's head and recessed into the wall are four glove box holders that allow easy access. In front of the seat is a compartment system with the defibrillator secured on top. There is a slide-out writing tray and two compartments that allow for equipment storage below. There is also a kick-open sharps and waste container storage system. The airway seat allows the attendant to be positioned next to the head of the stretcher, giving them maximum airway control while remaining belted. All seats are ergonomically friendly and fluid-resistant for easy cleaning. The aluminum interior cabinets have a locking mechanism that helps prevent equipment from flying loose in a collision. All exterior equipment is secured with straps and solid doors or walls that can be accessed when the main doors are open. These cabinets include the stair chair, spine boards, portable oxygen and equipment bags used when arriving on scene. There is also a double-locking narcotics storage cabinet that helps secure controlled substances. All areas for entry have grab bars as well as high-visibility yellow padded head-strike zones. The rear lighting is all LED with multilevel lighting ability. The structural integrity of the rear compartment is not reduced in any way. The front cab area has plenty of storage, with compartments located throughout. The flares, helmets, vest and four sizes of gloves are all located in the cab, which also has an extra set of straps to help secure personal belongings. There are map and clipboard holders, as well as a heads-up display for main controls. The unit is also equipped with an antitheft device. The lighting, controlled by a Demers multiplex system, reduces the normal ambulance wiring by over 70 lbs. and also allows for easy electrical diagnostics, reducing maintenance costs and out-of-service time. The unit's exterior bears high-conspicuity markings for visibility on the road. When the LED emergency lighting is activated, it makes the unit highly recognizable, providing additional safety on scenes. The rear compartment even has a light bar inside for when the rear doors are open. The unit also comes equipped with standard features such as outside temperature gauge and running boards with holes in them, allowing snow and slush to drain through. We added features such as a rear-vision camera, rear bumper sensors and the Acetech AVI (auto vehicle informatics) component. This unit also has a rear loading height of less than 19 inches to reduce risk of provider back injury. By April, Island EMS will have five new type II Mercedes Mirage EX Sprinter ambulances built by Demers. It will be the first service in Canada to implement the Sprinter. Demers won a 2010 Top Innovation Award from EMS World for this model. Medavie EMS and its group of companies are committed to providing innovative healthcare solutions through caring professionals, while continually working to improve and build on their foundation of safety. Our goal is to keep our healthcare providers, patients and members of the public safe. Matt Crossman is manager of safety operations for Medavie EMS.
Industrial, Commercial, Institutional, and Multi-Residential Properties: Backflow prevention devices are required in Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional (ICI) properties, as well as multi-residential properties of five or more units, where there is a greater potential for backflow situations causing contamination to the public’s water supply. These properties must have a backflow prevention device installed after the water meter on the main domestic line and any sprinkler lines coming in from the public water supply line. The potential hazard for cross-contamination varies for each type of property resulting in varied degrees of hazard to the purveyor’s system. EOS Mechanical Inc. has the experience and expertise to work in all capacities to ensure cross-contamination of our public water system does not occur. Our clients include commercial complexes, offices, retail stores, restaurants, workshops, factories, condominiums, town homes, fitness centres, parks, recreational facilities and more.
Realized by the Alpine troops of the Task Force Presidium, the new rock climbing complex has been recently inaugurated near the Mosul Dam, in presence of several representatives of the local and the coalition military components. The ceremony has been presided by the Deputy Commanding General for Training at the Combined Joint Force Land Component Command – Operation Inherent Resolve, General B. Francesco Maria Ceravolo, who is the Coalition responsible of the training activities for the Iraqi Security Forces, during his last visit to the Task Force at the end of his mandate. The realization of the training complex derives from the interest expressed by the Kurd-Iraqi Security Forces operating in the area around the dam for the operational capabilities of the Alpine troops, particularly adapted to an environment with the same orographic features as the area near the hydraulic infrastructure. The training area has been named "Monte Nero", in memory of the peak conquered by the 3rd Alpine troops during the First World War. It offers a wide range of elements useful to the mountain training and it has been made safe and equipped with a "via ferrata" and 12 rock climbing routes characterized by different difficulties up to the fifth level, some of them dedicated to Kurdish soldiers fallen during the conflicts against ISIS. Coordinated by the Kurdistan Coordination Centre (KTCC), the Italian-led multinational training Unit will launch soon the first course for Mountain Warfare Basic Skills, carried out by Alpine troops instructors in favour of the Zaravani Kommando Battalion of the Kurdish Security Forces. On the framework of "Prima Parthica" Operation, Italy participates in the "Inherent Resolve" Operation to oppose the international terrorism, as second contributor after the USA: 1,500 servicepersons coming from all the Armed Forces, employed in Baghdad and Erbil for the training of the Kurdish Security Forces (Peshmerga) and the Iraqi ones. Moreover, thanks to an airmobile Task Group deployed in the airport of Erbil, it ensures the Personnel Recovery (PR) capability to the Coalition, in all the northern area of the Iraqi theatre. In this mission the Task Force Presidium, with 500 servicemen and servicewomen, guarantees the security near the dam where the Italian company "Trevi" is working to make the hydraulic infrastructure safe, avoiding the risk of a natural disaster.
The business-backed Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released two ads last week to “counter global warming alarmism.” One of the ads says research shows “The Antarctic ice sheet is getting thicker, not thinner…Why are they trying to scare us?” Actually, scientists say increased snowfall in Antarctica’s interior is evidence that global warming is taking place. Scientists also say that the ice sheet is melting at the ocean’s edge and a recent report says it is shrinking overall. The ads drew a protest from a University of Missouri professor who says they are “a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public about the global warming debate.” He said one of them misuses a study he published in Science magazine last year on the Antarctic ice sheet. An editor of Science also said the ads misrepresent the findings of that study as well as a second study on Greenland’s glaciers. The second CEI ad notes that carbon dioxide (CO2) is “essential to life,” and says, “they call it pollution. We call it life.” That ad fails to mention that too much CO2 can cause global temperatures to rise or that there is more of it in the atmosphere than any time during the last 420,000 years. CEI, which gets just over 9 percent of its budget from Exxon Mobil Corporation, said it was only trying to make sure the public hears “both sides of the story.” CEI released two ads last week as part of a $50,000 ad buy in 14 cities scheduled to take place from May 18th to May 28th. CEI Ad: “Glaciers” Announcer: You’ve seen those headlines about Global Warming. The glaciers are melting. We’re doomed! That’s what several studies supposedly found. (The Cover of Science Magazine is shown opening up) Announcer: But other scientific studies found exactly the opposite: Greenland ’s glaciers are growing, not melting; The Antarctic ice sheet is getting thicker, not thinner. Did you see any big headlines about that? Why are they trying to scare us? Global warming alarmists claim the glaciers are melting because of carbon dioxide from the fuels we use. Let’s force people to cut back, they say. But we depend on those fuels to grow our food, move our children, light up our lives. And as for carbon dioxide, it isn’t smog or smoke. It’s what we breathe out and plants breathe in. Carbon dioxide. They call it pollution. We call it life. The CEI ad “Glacier” quotes two studies in Science magazine, one as saying “Greenland’s glaciers are growing, not melting” and the other as saying “The Antarctic ice sheet is getting thicker, not thinner.” That drew quick objection from an editor of Science and from the author of the Antarctica study. Brooks Hanson, a deputy editor at Science, complained in a May 19 news release that CEI was misrepresenting both the studies and also the general state of scientific knowledge: Hanson: The text of the CEI ad misrepresents the conclusions of the two cited Science papers and our current state of knowledge by selective referencing. The lead author of the Antarctica study, University of Missouri professor Curt Davis, said in the same release that CEI was twisting his findings deliberately to mislead the public: Davis: “These television ads are a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public about the global warming debate. They are selectively using only parts of my previous research to support their claims. They are not telling the entire story to the public. For one thing, the release said, Davis’ study only reported growth for the East Antarctic ice sheet, not the entire Antarctic ice sheet. More importantly, it said that growth of the interior ice sheet is just what scientists had predicted would happen as a consequence of global climate warming, bringing about more snowfall in previously arid regions of the continent. Davis’s study indicated the increased ice accumulation in the interior might be offsetting the loss of ice at the coastal regions, or might not. It said that whether the entire ice sheet is shrinking “will depend on the balance between mass changes on the interior and those in coastal areas.” What CEI Says CEI posted a rejoinder to this criticism on their Web site. In it, they say: CEI: Professor Davis admits that he doesn’t know whether the coastal losses offset or outweigh the gains in the interior. This is precisely our point – the public needs to hear both sides of the story not just the coastal loss, if they are to judge whether we face an imminent catastrophe justifying policies that would drastically affect our way of life. Actually, a more recent study (also published in Science magazine) says satellite measurements show that the ice sheet as a whole is in fact shrinking “significantly,” and that most of the loss is taking place in the smaller West Antarctic ice sheet. That study, by Isabella Velicogna of the University of Colorado and John Wahr of the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, used satellite measures of gravity to estimate the mass of the Antarctic ice sheet during 2002–2005. “We found that the mass of the ice sheet decreased significantly,” the study said. It estimated the rate of loss at between 80 and 152 cubic kilometers of ice per year. As for Greenland, the CEI ad says its glaciers “are growing, not melting.” That’s a misrepresentation of a study by five scientists from Norway, Russia and the US published by Science magazine in November 2005. That study did report that the ice sheet in the interior of Greenland had grown thicker over the 11 years ending in 2003. But it reached no conclusion about whether “Greenland’s glaciers” were growing or melting overall. The study said it is conceivable that melting at the coast more than offset the growth in the interior, and that the “the 11-year-long data set developed here remains too brief to establish long-term trends.” It called for more measurement by newer, better satellite sensors to calculate what is going on with Greenland’s glaciers overall. A more recent study in Science, published in February, reports that Greenland’s glaciers accelerated their movement to the sea between 1996 and 2000. It concluded, “As more glaciers accelerate farther north, the contribution of Greenland to sea-level rise will continue to increase. ” CO2: Too Much of a Good thing A second ad, “Energy,” downplays the adverse effects of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere by identifying it as a natural biological occurrence. Announcer: There’s something in these pictures you can’t see. It’s essential to life. We breathe it out.Plants breathe it in. It comes from animal life, the oceans, the earth, and the fuels we find in it. It’s called carbon dioxide—CO2. The fuels that produce C02 have freed us from a world of back-breaking labor, lighting up our lives, allowing us to create and move the things we need, the people we love. Now some politicians want to label carbon dioxide a pollutant. Imagine if they succeed. What would our lives be like then? Carbon dioxide. They call it pollution. We call it life. The ad correctly asserts, “we breathe it out, plants breathe it in.” As many of us learned in high school biology classes, humans and animals breathe in oxygen and out carbon dioxide, and plants take in the carbon dioxide and release oxygen. The ad goes on to say, “they call it pollution, we call it life.” It is true that some politicians and environmental groups want to label CO2 as a “pollutant.” Several environmental groups, states and municipalities are currently suing the EPA to do so. But they are doing so for regulatory purposes so that CO2 emissions can be brought under the Clean Air Act. Nobody is claiming CO2 poses the immediate health threat that smog, smoke, and other conventional pollutants do. But in June 2005, the science academies of 11 leading industrial nations (including the National Academies of Sciences from the US) released a statement listing CO2 as a greenhouse gas and saying: Joint Statement: Carbon Dioxide levels have increased from 280 ppm in 1750 to over 375 ppm today – higher than any previous levels that can be reliably measured (i.e. in the last 420,000 years). Increasing greenhouse gases are causing temperatures to rise . Heeding his Own Advice Even though CEI minimizes the impact of carbon dioxide, they still take Al Gore to task for his carbon footprint as a result of his travel surrounding his “Inconvenient Truth” presentation and documentary. They posted a video with their TV ads as a “special web only bonus.” It includes quotes from Gore’s film about personal accountability for global warming by taking such actions as telecommuting, and limiting air travel. The video then shows Gore’s lengthy air travel schedule and displays a rolling meter of carbon dioxide output and challenging Gore to start “walking the walk.” He says he is. According to NativeEnergy, Paramount Classics and Participant Productions plan to announce that they offset 100% of the global warming impact from production activities. In addition, NativeEnergy is offsetting all CO2 from Mr. Gore’s travel to discuss and promote the film and book. This is achieved by calculating how much CO2 your activities produce and purchasing the corresponding amount of credits to generate renewable energy. Who Funds CEI CEI is supported, in part, by several major corporations and corporate foundations, including oil companies, according to the liberal organization SourceWatch. In 2004 CEI declared revenues of $2,919,537 with the IRS, according to their Form 990. Just over 9 per cent of that total, $270,000, came from donations from ExxonMobil, according to the oil company’s 2004 Worldwide Contributions and Community Investments Report. Exxon said two-thirds of their donation was earmarked for “Global Climate Change and Global Climate Change Outreach.” Watch CEI Ad: “Glaciers” Watch CEI Ad: “Energy” Watch CEI Video: “An Inconveniant Story” Davis, Curt H.; Yonghang, Li; McConnell, Joseph R.; Frey, Markus M.; Hanna, Edward, “Snowfall-Driven Growth in East Antarctic Ice Sheet Mitigates Recent Sea-Level Rise.” Eilperin, Juliet, “Antarctic Ice Sheet is Melting,” Washington Post . 3 March 2005. Johannessen, Ola M.; Khvorostovsky, Kirill; Miles, Martin W.; Bobylev, Leonid P., “Recent Ice Sheet Growth in the Interior of Greenland,” Science . 11 Nov 2005. Rignot, Eric and Kanagaratnam, “Changes in the Velocity Structure of the Greenland Ice Sheet,” Science. 17 Feb 2006. Vedantam, Shankar, “Glacier Melt Could Signal Faster Rise in Ocean Level,” Washington Post. 17 Feb 2006. Velicogna, Isabella and Wahr, John, “Measurements of Time-Variable Gravity Show Mass Loss in Antarctica,” Science. 24 March 2006. Vergano, Dan, “Greenland Glacier Runoff Doubles over Past Decade,” USA Today . 17 Feb 2006. Press Release, “MU Professor Refutes National Television Ads Downplaying Global Warming,” University of Missouri. 19 May 2006. Press Release, “CEI Launches Ad Campaign to Counter Global Warming Alarmism,” CEI, 17 May 2005. Joint Statement of Science Academies: Global Response to Climate Change, 2005.
Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird. So begins “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens. Rereading this poem is, for me, the perfect way to unwrap the winter season. Start with the ribbons — great flocks of blackbirds twisting in the early November sky. Nothing brings stark definition to the pale light on the cold side of the equinoxes quite like blackbirds. Stevens, himself an odd bird with a poet’s heart stuffed inside a lawyer’s dark suit, stuffed inside an insurance office in Hartford, saw this so clearly. He got it all down in 13 quick stanzas — an odd dark number — that perfectly captures the strange dance of animus and bleakness that is winter. Some of it is achingly beautiful. At the sight of blackbirds Flying in a green light, Even the bawds of euphony Would cry out sharply. I have stopped several times in recent weeks to look at blackbirds. Not by fours and twenties, but by four and twenty thousands. Usually, you hear them before you see them. It sounds like Yankee Stadium pitched upwards a few kilohertz. Look up and you will see them taking the place of recently departed leaves in great naked trees. If you are looking straight up, it is best to move out from under; when birds overhead number in the thousands, you are soon to be anointed. I remember walking with friends through a stand of sycamore trees near a rushing river on a rainy day in rural Pennsylvania many years ago. The sound of the rain and the river blended with the cacophony of tens of thousands of blackbirds overhead. So, as we moved along rapt in conversation, we weren’t immediately aware of what we had walked into — literally. The ground was white with bird droppings. We bawds of euphony cried out sharply once we understood what we were standing in, startling the great assembly above. The black horde launched itself at once, and the reflexive beat of a hundred thousand wings cast a mighty freighted downdraft upon us. But for our slickers, we would have been lost. It is one of the great sights in nature when one of these metropolis-sized avian populations takes wing at once to fill the sky. It roils and coalesces, rolls out, and turns in on itself, finding direction as a whole with thousands of independently moving parts. Somehow it locates the next cornfield feed or tree-top roost. The cohesion of these flocks has always intrigued scientists. Back in the 1930s, one prevailing hypothesis was that the group constituted a kind of telepathic cloud, communicating movement and intention instantaneously between the individual members of the flock. But that raised the question: Is there one conductor bird somehow making all the decisions? “Left, no right! Up, c’mon, higher! No, wait, let’s land over there!” This was a theory that was still seriously considered as late at the 1970s. In recent years, mathematicians and computer animation experts have gotten into the act. They suspected that there are some simple rules that transform the chaos of thousands of independent birds into the order of a flock. Using computer models, they were able to try out various flocking theories. Craig Reynolds, an MIT grad and Academy Award winner for science and engineering in computer animation, created flocking computer entities called “boids,” and he gave them three simple rules to follow: maintain a minimum distance from other objects including other boids; steer toward the perceived average heading of the flock; and move toward the average position or center of the flock. The resulting simulation, which you can see at www.red3d.com/cwr/boids, mimics exactly flocking birds in nature. He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage Wallace Stevens reminds me of why these three rules of flocking seem so familiar. They are rules of the road: keep your distance; stay on the road; and don’t speed or stop suddenly. If my fellow commuters and I were freed to roam the skies in our cars, it would feel quite natural for us to pitch and yaw between horizons en masse like blackbirds. But in the pale light on the cold side of the equinoxes, the road is not where I want to be. Every road has a destination, and ultimately my road always leads home. That is where my little flock is. That is where I want to roost as winter closes in. And that is how “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” ends. It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs.
New Zealand: River QueenMana Bay: Coastal Garrison of the British Army Mana Bay features in the New Zealand period drama River Queen, filmed in 2004 by Kiwi director Vincent Ward. The bay lies at the mouth of the Patea river and around 1.5 kilometres southwest of the small coastal settlement of Patea. During the New Zealand Wars (1845 to 1872) between the Maori and the New Zealand government, Patea became an important military garrison. On 15 January 1865, the British General Sir Duncan Alexander Cameron arrived with a small fleet and fortified the banks of the Patea river mouth. After the war was over, Patea turned into an important trading town and was once the third-largest cheese exporting hub in the world, until the port shut down in 1959. Director Vincent Ward and his crew meticulously recreated a British garrison above the river mouth. This being one of the few locations close to civilisation, cast and crew must have been rather delighted with the prospect of not having to travel for hours on end to get to the set each day. The garrison is an important setting for the story. This is the place where a disillusioned Sarah O'Brien returns to from the wilderness after she has realised that her son must be lost to the Maori tribes forever. Here, she meets Maori warrior Riremu who seems to be working for the British army but in secret is spying for Maori chief Te Kai Po. He convinces Sarah that if she heals the wounded chief, he can take her to her long-lost son. The river mouth with its garrison can also be seen in an overflight shot that was created as a matte painting by LA-based design company HatchFX. From minute 0:16, the footage below again shows the river mouth with its garrison before the camera pans towards the river sneaking its way through the primordial forest towards the horizon. Mana Bay: Coastal Garrison of the British Army Share your journey
The largest and most politically influential republic of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia has had a well-developed film culture centered in Belgrade, including several production companies as well as national educational, archival, and publishing institutions. While films by Dušan Makavejev and Aleksandar Petrović are well-regarded in the West, Serbia has been home to many auteurs. Surrealist-inspired Puriša Dorlević was a very prolific director, with some fifty features to his credit, and a major contributor to novi film , a tendency in filmmaking with its center in Belgrade. The directors representing the so-called Black Wave, Živojin Pavlović and Želimir Žilnik, were based there, as well as several members of the Prague Group who established themselves in the 1980s: Goran Marković, Srdjan Karanović, and Goran Paskaljeví. Other directors of this generation particularly active during the 1980s were Miloš Radivojević, Jovan Aćin ( Bal na vodi [ Hey, Babu Riba , 1986]), Slobodan Šijan, Branko Baletić and Boro and Drašković ( Vukovar—jedna priča [ Vukovar—poste restante , 1994]). Film production as well as film culture in Serbia begun to flourish in the 1990s despite enduring periods of war and considerable destruction to its infrastructure. Many established directors returned to Belgrade to complete their projects, and a new generation of filmmakers began to emerge. They initially focused on documenting the interethnic conflict and the war but soon turned to fictional works concerned with the trauma of the Yugoslav breakup and the social and economic decline of Serbia. Srdjan Dragojević belongs to the youngest generation of Serbian directors who attracted critical attention. His Lepa sela lepo gore ( Pretty Village, Pretty Flame , 1996) is a witty antiwar film. Other directors of note who successfully launched their careers during this period include Oleg Novković, Gorčin Stojanović, and Mirjana Vukomanoví with her Tri letnja dana ( Three Summer Days , 1997). In Montenegro, Levćen Film was responsible for most of the film production. Its first film, Zle pare ( Cursed Money , 1956), was directed by Velimir-Velja Stojanović. Zdravko Velimirović directed Dan četrnaesti ( The Fourteenth Day , 1960) and Derviš i smrt ( The Dervish and the Death , 1974). Other noted Montenegrin directors are Boško Bosković, Milo Djukanović, and Živko Nikolić.
The Spanish windlass When I worked at a boat yard, we used a technique called the Spanish windlass for drawing two objects together. It’s especially useful when the objects are some distance apart, such as a pair of posts on a deck. As shown in the drawing, this simple technique requires only a rope and a stick. The knot isn’t important — even a granny knot will do. Begin by making a loop of rope that is just tight enough to keep it from slipping down the posts. Now slip a stick through the loop somewhere near the midpoint between the posts, and start twisting. As the two sides of the loop twist together, the span of the rope’s loop shortens, and the posts are drawn together. When the tension is sufficient, slide the stick almost all the way through the loop and let its long end catch on the deck to hold it steady. Now your posts are held in place while you install the railing, brackets, braces or whatever. One note of caution: If you plan to put a lot of tension on the loop, use a beefy stick such as a 2×4. I’ve seen ordinary 1x stock snap like a toothpick. And don’t let go of that stick accidentally. It’ll spin around like a propeller, and it takes no prisoners. You can apply this technique to many tasks. For example, I’ve seen two Spanish windlasses used as comer clamps to draw large rectangular frames together. Roe A. Osborn, Woodbury, CT
survey of the ancient medicine, but I'm quite disappointed with the iconography; in particular, the section "Surgery and Surgical Instruments" doesn't even show some real artifacts! While there are many referenced ones; the ones I know already: from Pompei, from a 3rd cent. tomb of a doctor found near Paris I would also have liked to see a mention about the magical stones with apotropaic power that the Romans used to wear in rings. Also a better case studies section with some ancient description of diseases with current identification , for example. Well, deserves a positive vote anyway
An Atlas Five rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station successfully around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday . Officials say the rocket is carrying a GPS satellite. This launch marked the tenth launch of twelve Global Positioning Satellites for the U.S. Air Force. Officials say the GPS series is vital to U.S. national security providing greater accuracy for navigation, improving military signal strength and also helps with commercial aviation and search and rescue operations. The new satellite will join a GPS constellation of 31 currently orbiting in six planes about 12,000 miles up. The new arrival will allow a near 20-year-old satellite to settle into backup status. A Delta IV rocket is scheduled for liftoff with a military communications satellite on July 22.
This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," October 25, 2005, that has been edited for clarity. Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and listen to the "Radio Factor!" BILL O’REILLY, HOST: Just Tuesday, the ACLU (search) again accused the American government of 21 detainee homicides in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now "The Factor" is way ahead on that story. We reported the allegations back in May. There’s no question anti-American organizations have capitalized on the terrible abuses at Abu Ghraib (search) and other places, paint a very dark picture of the USA. With us now is Colonel Janice Karpinski, who was in command at Abu Ghraib when the abuses took place there. The Army demoted her from Brigadier General to Colonel in May. And she’s written a new book called, "One Woman’s Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story." Now you feel that the Army treated you very unfairly. COL. JANIS KARPINSKI, AUTHOR OF THE BOOK "ONE WOMAN’S ARMY": I do. KARPINSKI: Well, for many reasons. They singled me out, they singled the soldiers out to be fully responsible and accountable for what happened at Abu Ghraib. And I was convinced from the first time I saw the photographs that there were other people involved. Clearly, 32 boots in one photograph, 16 soldiers. Even if all seven soldiers from the military police brigade were on shift that night, there are nine others that have managed to walk away from any blame. O’REILLY: All right. So let’s walk through it. You don’t condone Lynndie England (search) and this other guy, her boyfriend, you don’t condone what they did, right? KARPINSKI: No, absolutely not. O’REILLY: They are going to jail and they should be going to jail, correct? KARPINSKI: They should be punished, that is correct. O’REILLY: You didn’t know those people, did you? KARPINSKI: No, I did not. Personally. But they were soldiers assigned to one of my subordinate companies, under one of my battalions. O’REILLY: But I don’t think people understand how much contact day to day you had with the abusers. Did you walk the cell every day, did you say hello to these people or did you let your subordinates do that? KARPINSKI: Well, Abu Ghraib, of course, is one of 17 facilities we were responsible for running, so I was not there every day. I did not live at Abu Ghraib. And in fact, by November of 203, the prison was transferred to the command of the military intelligence brigade commander. When those photographs were reportedly taken. So they were my soldiers. They were assigned to one of the subordinate units. So yes, I have a portion of the responsibility in this, but nobody else is sharing that responsibility with me. O’REILLY: In a month’s time over there, how many times would you visit those cell blocks in Abu Ghraib? KARPINSKI: From July until the end of September, probably three or four times a week. O’REILLY: So you would be down there three or four times a week? O’REILLY: Did you ever see anything that troubled you when you were down there? KARPINSKI: Only the austere conditions, and that was present in all of our prisons. O’REILLY: So you think they sanitized it and everybody was on their best behavior when the general walked through? O’REILLY: That would make sense. Now there is a school of thought and our military experts say that look, if something goes wrong under your command, hey, the buck stops here, you have to take the rap. KARPINSKI: Correct, but it also went wrong under General Sanchez's (search) command. O’REILLY: He was above you? KARPINSKI: He was. It also went wrong under Colonel Pappas' (search) command. He was punished but he remains on active duty. I think that in large measure, they have silenced the people who have further information by keeping them on active duty. O’REILLY: I see. So they did a trade. You keep your mouth shut; we won’t come down on you as hard. Do you think you got punished because you spoke out earlier? You were on “The Factor” with your attorney what was it, four, five months ago, correct? KARPINSKI: Much longer than that. At the very beginning when all this broke. O’REILLY: Do you think you got hurt because you spoke out and said, look, I didn’t have anything to do with this, it wasn’t my fault, I didn’t know? Do you think they punished you for that? KARPINSKI: Yes, I think this is about my First Amendment (search) rights, too. I think they want me to be quiet and they want me to stop speaking out, and I won’t. O’REILLY: How about the woman factor? Do you think they singled you out because you’re a woman? KARPINSKI: Look, General Sanchez was a career army officer, he was a combat arms officer. He did not want a female general officer commanding troops in his back yard, and I have said and I will continue to say that he didn’t care if we failed, and he kept throwing unusual missions at us despite our declining numbers of personnel. O’REILLY: You didn’t have a good relationship with Sanchez? KARPINSKI: No, I did not. O’REILLY: OK. Now, last question. They want to release more Abu Ghraib pictures, the ACLU, as usual. I think this would put our soldiers over there in jeopardy. Myers says it’s nothing knew there, just the same old stuff, just more of it. How do you feel? KARPINKSI: I feel if they had released all of the information from the beginning, we would be through the discussions and we would be through the shock. They didn’t. O’REILLY: Would you want them released now or no? KARPINSKI: Only because not releasing them, it allows fodder for speculation. People can say how bad are they if they are refusing to release them? Release them, get it over with, and let’s move on. Let’s make sure it never happens again. O’REILLY: All right, colonel, the book is "One Woman’s Army." We appreciate you coming in and talking with us today. KARPINSKI: Thank you very much. O’REILLY: Good luck. Content and Programming Copyright 2005 Fox News Network, L.L.C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2005 eMediaMillWorks, Inc. (f/k/a Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, L.L.C.'s and eMediaMillWorks, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.
Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge is a place of great distances and greater dramas. Here winds whip through the grasses of rugged, wave-pounded islands; and active volcanoes simmer, venting steam above collars of fog. It is a place of contrasts, where relics of a past war slowly rust in deserted valleys, while, nearby, great forests of kelp team with life. It is, and has long been, a place of refuge, and has seen some of the most dramatic wildlife conservation stories in our nation's history. The refuge headquarters and visitor center is located in Homer, which is at the end of the Sterling Highway, approximately 225 miles south of Anchorage. Regularly scheduled flights are available from Anchorage. The Alaska State Ferry System also serves Homer. Since most of the refuge is very remote, access is difficult and expensive. Visitors should contact the refuge for specific information about particular sites.www.hobogrill.org
Call to name and shame polluters By Isabel Davies and Johann Tasker ENVIRONMENTAL watchdogs have claimed that £500m could be saved each year if farmers adopted better environmental practices. The Environment Agency has accused producers of polluting water, soil and air with chemicals and organic matter, of spreading disease and of increasing the risk of flooding through erosion. The annual cost of agriculture to the environment is £1.2bn, according to the agencys report Agriculture and Natural Resources. But this is offset by benefits only of up to £900m. But the negative impact of farming could be reduced by £331m/year if farmers adopted a number of simple techniques, the document claims. And this figure would rise to £525m/year in the long term. The report calls for on-the-spot fines for bad farming practises. Regulations should be updated to ensure that farmers are adequately penalised for farming in a way that breaks codes of good agricultural practice, it says. To increase compliance bad farmers should also be "named-and-shamed" in special advertisements taken out in magazines such as farmers weekly, it says. A pesticide tax and diffuse pollution phosphorus taxes should also be considered, it proposes. Alternatively, the tax system could be reformed to encourage farmers to change their behaviour. But there are some positive aspects to the report. It says agri-environment support is "money well spent" and believes the governments proposed sustainable food and farming strategy should help farmers meet new standards. But the report urges ministers to go beyond the policy commissions report recommendation of a modulation rate to 10% in 2004, suggesting it would support 50% modulation in 2006. It also suggests that a government-led development and accreditation scheme for land managers should be set up to improve land management. Tanya Olmeda-Hodge, head of environment at the Country Land and Business Association, said: "We recognise that there are some environmental impacts from land management as with any other activity , but stress that the financial costs of the options to reduce them must always be borne in mind. "Imposing further costs on land managers, such as green taxes is not the way forward. They are blunt instruments that will not deliver any environmental benefit, only increase funds for the Treasury." * The Environment Agency wants a pesticide tax to be considered.
Aliases for HIST2H3A Gene External Ids for HIST2H3A Gene Previous GeneCards Identifiers for HIST2H3A Gene Histones are basic nuclear proteins that are responsible for the nucleosome structure of the chromosomal fiber in eukaryotes. This structure consists of approximately 146 bp of DNA wrapped around a nucleosome, an octamer composed of pairs of each of the four core histones (H2A, H2B, H3, and H4). The chromatin fiber is further compacted through the interaction of a linker histone, H1, with the DNA between the nucleosomes to form higher order chromatin structures. This gene is intronless and encodes a replication-dependent histone that is a member of the histone H3 family. Transcripts from this gene lack polyA tails; instead, they contain a palindromic termination element. This gene is found in a histone cluster on chromosome 1. This gene is one of four histone genes in the cluster that are duplicated; this record represents the centromeric copy. [provided by RefSeq, Aug 2015] GeneCards Summary for HIST2H3A Gene HIST2H3A (Histone Cluster 2 H3 Family Member A) is a Protein Coding gene. Among its related pathways are Activated PKN1 stimulates transcription of AR (androgen receptor) regulated genes KLK2 and KLK3 and Meiosis. GO annotations related to this gene include protein heterodimerization activity and histone binding. An important paralog of this gene is HIST2H3C. UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot for HIST2H3A Gene Core component of nucleosome. Nucleosomes wrap and compact DNA into chromatin, limiting DNA accessibility to the cellular machineries which require DNA as a template. Histones thereby play a central role in transcription regulation, DNA repair, DNA replication and chromosomal stability. DNA accessibility is regulated via a complex set of post-translational modifications of histones, also called histone code, and nucleosome remodeling.
In page 34, Junior and Mr. P are in the porch, and there is a heavy silence. The author says “That silence got so big and real that it felt like three people sat on the porch.”. What does he means with this and who would be the third person at the porch? Answers 1Add Yours Junior is embarrassed for what he did and sad for disappointing his family. Smashing Mr. P in the face with a book did not go over well. Junior is sent home. His sister, his father, and his grandmother are on the porch. There was an awkward silence when old Mr. P walked up our driveway.
BEVERLY, Wash. – The foundation below Wanapum Dam was not a factor in creating the fracture discovered on the dam’s spillway pier monolith No. 4. The team of engineers and analysts has determined that the fracture was not caused by: - Seismic activity - Foundation settlement or uplift - Activities at the U.S. Army’s Yakima Training Center - Operation of the spillway gates Data is showing that a contributing factor to the fracture was tension from water pressure on the face of the spillway pier monolith. Grant PUD is working to determine how the tension caused the fracture. The fracture was detected by divers on Feb. 27, three days after a worker at the dam noticed that the top of the spillway pier had shifted slightly downstream. When the reservoir behind the dam was drawn down, the pressure on the spillway was reduced and the fracture closed, stabilizing the monolith. Grant PUD will continue to evaluate and examine the spillway. Six holes have been drilled into the monolith and more holes are planned to determine the geometry of the fracture. The drilling has been temporarily suspended while the utility assesses the best way to complete the task. When finished, the drilling will identify the reach of the fracture into the monolith. It is anticipated that the drilling and the root cause analysis will be completed by June. These tasks must both be accomplished before necessary repairs are made to stabilize the spillway. Grant PUD will not raise the reservoir to an intermediate level until the stabilizing repairs are finished. The Wanapum reservoir shoreline will remain closed to the public until the water level is elevated to the intermediate level. All Grant PUD and Department of Fish and Wildlife shoreline access points on the Wanapum shoreline are closed, including boat launches and recreation areas. The closure is necessary to protect sensitive cultural areas and for public safety. The utility continues to work on modifications to the fish ladders at Wanapum Dam. The modifications are on track for a completion date of April 15. Upon request from stakeholders, including tribes and agencies, Grant PUD will trap migrating spring Chinook salmon at Priest Rapids Dam and then haul them in trucks to release them in the Wanapum reservoir until the fish-ladder modifications have been evaluated under working conditions. Grant PUD continues to provide information for irrigators affected by the drawdown as they seek permits to modify their irrigation systems. Wanapum Dam is generating electricity at between 50 to 60 percent of its capacity. The dam will be able to accommodate spring runoff flows in coordination with other dams operating on the Columbia River. For additional information, visit: http://www.grantpud.org/your-pud/media-room/wanapum-dam-spillway-response. (509) 754-5035 / [email protected]
I listen with dismay to the so-called conventional economists in Europe and America as they continue to misunderstand the fiscal crisis. Public spending takes money out of an economy, it does not put it in. The fiscal crisis is because governments have spent too much money for too long. Money they do not have. Government spending is a wealth creator’s tax, a grandchild’s debt or an inflationary money print. We are not cutting deep enough or soon enough. For a lesson from history look at President Warren Harding’s handling of the economy in 1921/22 to see what should be done. Let us avoid the crazy spending of the Roosevelt era which dragged into a depression on for over 10 years. UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire
CSB says explosion at California refinery could have been "catastrophic" 02 October 2015 The Chemical Safety Board (CSB), the federal agency charged with investigating the February 18 explosion and fire at ExxonMobil's Torrance refinery, has said the incident could have had far more serious consequences than the four workers who were injured. A piece of equipment weighing 36 tonnes was thrown more than 30 metres in the blast, landing close to a tank of hydrofluoric acid. Had the tank been broached, a lethal cloud of toxic gas could have spread over the nearby Los Angeles suburbs. In an interview with CBS News, Vanessa Sutherland, the recently appointed head of the CSB, , said: "We were really, really lucky. I think it is of concern to us that we have a facility that had a near miss. It could have been much more catastrophic." More than 200,000 people live within three miles of the plant and, according to CBS, in documents filed with the Environmental Protection Agency, ExxonMobil itself estimated in a worst-case scenario release of hydrofluoric acid, all of them within that distance could be injured or even die. Sutherland said ExxonMobil is now resisting the agency's subpoenas for information about the February explosion. "Generally my experience as a regulator and enforcer when somebody doesn't want you to have records is because they don't want you to see what's in it," she said. A United Steel Workers study into half of the 50 US refineries using hydrofluoric acid found that 75% had near misses within the past three years and 50% of those would have impacted a community. ExxonMobil said on September 30 it will sell the Torrance refinery to New Jersey-based PBF Energy. This follows PBF's purchase earlier this year of the Chalmette, Louisiana, refinery which Exxon owned jointly with Petroleos de Venezuela. PBF said it would return the 155,000 bpd refinery to full production before the deal closes in the second quarter of 2016, the company said in a statement.The refinery has remained at reduced output rates since the February incident. Contact Details and Archive...
LE Niamh saves 125 more migrants from Mediterranean The LE Niamh has rescued another 125 migrants in the Mediterranean and was today making its way to port in Sicily. Another 375 people were transferred to the naval vessel from an Italian ship the Mimbelli last night. The latest rescue happened off the Libyan coast yesterday when the crew of the LE Niamh was tasked to help with an overloaded inflatable rubber craft reported to be in distress. A total of 125 people were rescued from the boat – 92 men, 26 women and seven children. The migrants were from sub-Saharan African countries including Ghana, Mali, Ivory Coast and Togo. This was somewhat different from the more typical migrants who have so far been rescued, who are mainly from Syria and Eritrea. “Our information is that traffickers charge a higher fee for people to travel on the upper decks of the vessels, and typically the ones who can afford the higher fees are the Syrians and Eritreans and the sub-Saharan Africans tend to be below decks and it is likely the death toll is higher. We tend to see less of them on board,” said Lieutenant Commander Caoimhin Mac Unfraidh from the Naval Service. Yesterday’s rescue was the 11th operation in which the Irish naval vessel has been involved since it arrived in the Mediterranean last month.
On this day in 1974 Richard Nixon signed into law that mandated lowering the speed limit to 55 mph. Now, the reason for this was to make the country preserve gasoline in the middle of an OPEC embargo (which it did), but they also sold the bill to us as a march towards safety. After all, speed is a factor in most automobile accidents, right? Not really. After the law's repeal in 1995 Montana decided that it just wouldn't bother with any non-urban speed limits at all. Traffic fatalities didn't rise. Hell, traffic fatalities across the country didn't even drop when the law went into place. As much as it pains us to admit it, Sammy Haggar was right about the 55 mph speed limit. That doesn't mean we're going to listen to him crow about it. Here are our top 10 songs about fast driving. If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters. SHOW ME HOW You have successfully signed up for your selected newsletter(s) - please keep an eye on your mailbox, we're movin' in!
Steve Roberts of the Wildfire Management Branch said crews are making progress on many of the fires, including the fire that burned a number of homes in Montreal Lake. And although 200 members of the military returned home Saturday, he said there are still 1,250 firefighters on the front lines. The crews are being supported by 60 helicopters and 13 air tankers. Deputy Premier Don McMorris highlighted how the work by Armed Forces members played a big role in stabilizing and putting out the wildfires. "We're a proud people in Saskatchewan, and we don't have to ask for help very often. But it sure is reassuring to know the Canadian Armed Forces is there," he said. Brig.-Gen. Wayne Eyre noted the military re-evaluated some criteria to determine current needs for military personnel. "The risk to human life and critical infrastructure had gone down. The province developed enough resources to do this internally. So there was no longer a requirement for unique military capabilities," Eyre said. As risks lessen, displaced evacuees continue to return home to northern Saskatchewan. According to the Ministry of Social Services approximately 4,500 people are still being cared for by the government, though that number is dropping significantly each day. The ministry has also begun to amalgamate evacuation centres at its two major sites in Saskatoon and Prince Albert. The remaining 1,660 people in Saskatoon will be centralized at the Henk Ruys Soccer Centre. In P.A., the 2,200 evacuees will be moved to Saskatchewan Polytechnic. A small number of evacuees still remain in North Battleford and Regina. As of Sunday morning, the last 140 people remaining in Cold Lake, Alta., were being bused home.Suggest a correction
evil_beau via Getty Images indiaphotos via Getty Images While exploring the colourful past of papads and the role they played in Indian history, Vikram Doctor spoke to author Saaz Aggarwal who in her book Sindh: Stories From A Vanished Homeland talks about how after partition, the Sindhi community found purpose in preparing papads. Finger millet is known to reduce the risk of diabetes and gastrointestinal tract disorders and as an excellent source of calcium and fibre; it also helps to lower cholesterol levels in your blood. This leads to less plaque formation, prevents blood vessel blockage, and reduces your risk of heart attacks. So, it's safe to say that Ragi represents the people it nourishes: Earthy, resilient and nutritious. Shutterstock / lenetstan As time went on, colonialism began to run its course and cheese making spread far and wide across Europe - it was not unusual for a region to produce its own, unique type of cheese. In Asia, however, cheese never really garnered the same popularity and acceptance. Even today, Asian cuisine does not involve the use of too much cheese, if at all. No one knows the real reason for this. Wine and religion, two unlikely comrades, have fraternised to form Nashik's newfound, unorthodox charm. Taking a detour from the typical "exotic mysticism" that most of India offers, Nashik, known for its Kumbh Melas, has transformed itself into the unlikely, yet celebrated, wine capital of India. Ablestock.com via Getty Images Indian LitFests Anuvab's sick of the barrage of LitFests, and how pretentious they are. Kunaal was invited to speak at a Business School but says he has nothing to contribute because he has no real, i... ALLEKO via Getty Images Today, heart transplants have become routine, but the procedure is fraught with logistical nightmares and requires precise teamwork and coordination. This episode of The Intersection goes behind the frenzy, bringing you the real-life story of how a heart was transported from Indore to Mumbai, saving the life of a 16-year-old girl. muharrem öner via Getty Images What would be India's national dish? More importantly, can a country like ours, with its sundry eating habits, even have a dish that would represent all? Most of us would think that it's a tough ask. But, if you study our varied cuisines closely, you will find that there is one preparation that unites all our diverse food cultures. And this is Khichdi. Rachel Husband via Getty Images Who's the most important person at an Indian wedding? The bride? The groom? The parents? None of them. It's the uncle, the self-appointed head of all things wedding-related. Sesame's appearance belies its rich history and deep links to our culture. But, it is one of those foods that surprise you and make you see them in new light once you discover the story behind them. For many Gujaratis, winter marks the end of a long, long wait for Undhiyu, a seasonal dish that derives its name from the way it is traditionally cooked - upside down, under the ground. "We Indians are really good at feasting," says Vikram Doctor in this episode of The Real Food Podcast. The last few months for most of us in India are full of festivals and grand occasions. And, from... Christmas definitely is not just a Christian festival anymore. As Vikram Doctor puts it perfectly, "When Christians brought Christmas to India, we lost no time in making it a very Indian festival." bernie_photo via Getty Images Consider this - the WHO says that "no threshold [of small particulate concentration] has been identified below which no damage to health is observed" and so, they've instead stated a guideline that aims to achieve the lowest possible PM concentration - this is 10 micrograms per cubic metre for PM 2.5. Delhi's is 15 times that much! Anuvab & Kunaal discuss the high pollution levels in Delhi and the government's recent odd-even formula. Merit aside, it is the logistics they are worried about - what if a traffic cop can't read the last digit on a number plate because of all the smog?
The Importance of Moisturizing Your Hair in the Summer It’s summer time, and it is just as important to hydrate now as it is during more arctic months. The sizzling heat can singe your hair and zap it of its essential oils, especially if you live in a more arid climate. Let's not forget the larger amounts of perspiration, that we're blessed with during this season. Perspiration is laden with salt. Salt robs our hair and scalp of moisture, as well. This is also the time when a lot of us opt for lighter-hued tresses---whether you chose to use a permanent haircolor or lightener (bleach). Lighteners can make your hair feel more parched because they lighten the hair by dispersing, dissolving, and decolorizing the natural hair pigment or by removing color achieved from previous permanent haircolor. This can minimally or drastically lift the cuticle, causing unfavorable changes in porosity. Porosity refers to the hair’s ability to absorb and retain moisture---which is vital to the health of our hair. To give your hair a boost, here is a DIY intensive moisturizing masque for you to try. Your hair will thank you! 1 ripe avocado ¼ cup Aloe Vera juice or Gel 1 tablespoon of Coconut or Babassu oil 1 teaspoon of Olive oil Blend/mix avocado and Aloe Vera juice or gel until creamy. Pour mixture into a glass or plastic bowl. Add oils and mix thoroughly. Usage: Shampoo with your shampoo of choice. Rinse. Add the intensive moisturizing masque, cover with a processing cap and process for 20 minutes without heat. With heat, process 10 minutes. Rinse thoroughly with warm water. Optional: Apply your favorite conditioner. Rinse. Style.
Transformation Pathways And Investment Needs For The Multi- Purpose Agricultural Sector This paper, based on research conducted in the framework of the project TISD (Transformative Investment for Sustainable Development) which brings together key development actors to contribute to the French, European and global conversation on development financing around particular key sectors, identifies the conditions of success of national programmes—a number of which were partly supported by official development assistance (ODA)—aimed at developing political ecosystems conducive to sustainable agricultural practices, and derives recommendations for ODA providers. ODA programmes supporting policy planning should focus on the development of practical and detailed agricultural development policies establishing clear priorities, both for long-term objectives and step-by-step courses of action. Backcasting is a useful approach to frame such policies and establish the links between long-term objectives and courses of action, targeting specific subsectors, areas and agricultural models. Assisting policy development processes without supporting local collective action processes will fail to achieve results. It is important to provide all communities with appropriate resources to organise themselves and interact with others communities, and especially producers’ organisations or farmers’ cooperatives that have proven difficult to set up in developing contexts. More efforts need to be directed towards (i) ensuring the existence of a political will to foster the development of such institutional arrangements through national dialogues, and (ii) developing more adapted ODA financial tools (such as smaller tickets) directly targeting grassroots organisations. - There is no silver bullet for designing effective agricultural development programmes. Stakeholders engaged in agricultural development, from both public and private spheres, need virtual and real knowledge exchange platforms to meet and discuss the initiatives, programmes and projects they have implemented in their own countries, as well as the outcomes. ODA should support the development of such learning platforms.
Technical diving takes divers beyond the limits of recreational diving. It is distinguished and includes, in addition, one or more of the following characteristics: dive to over 40 meters / 130 feet deep, respect mandatory decompression stop, manage decompression expedited and/or use of gas mixtures. All courses can be done either on side or back mount configurations as by the student willing. If you are unexperienced about a side mount configuration, we strongly recommend to purchase a Open Water Side Mount Course or at least a Tech Day before you start a tech course with such equipment to fully enjoy the benefits of it during and after the tech courses. Maximal ratio during all tech courses are 2 students to 1 instructor (2:1). \|ENTRY TECH\|\|DEEP AIR\|\|TRIMIX\|\|OVERHEADS\|\|OCEANREEF\|\|STAGE DIVER\| \|Tech Day Lite\|\|TEC 40\|\|Trimix 65 (normoxic)\|\|Overheads Procedure\|\|OCEANREEF Tech\|\|Stage/Multistage Diver\| \|Tech Day Pro\|\|TEC 45\|\|Trimix Diver (hipoxic)\|\|Cavern Diver\|\|OCEANREEF Tech Multistage\| \|Tech Diver Essential\|\|TEC 50\|\|Trimix Diver\|\|Wreck Diver\| \|Sidemount Diver Essential\|\|TEC Deep\|\|Limited Mine Diver\| \|Advanced EAN X\| Find out what is included or extra cost, rental equipments, discounts & student training materials! COURSE NOTES & EXTRAS
May Theilgaard Watts Pen Name: May Petrea Theilgaard Watts Born: 1893 in Chicago, Illinois May Watts grew up in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Biographical and Professional Information May began a teaching career in a one-room schoolhouse outside of the city. She attended college during the summer at the University of Chicago, where she studied botany and ecology with Henry Chandler Cowles. Watts graduated in 1918 as a Phi Beta Kappa. She has had the May T. Watts Nature Park in Highland Park, Illinois, and the May Watts Elementary School in Naperville, Illinois, named after her. Her house in Highland Park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The May Theilgaard Watts Reading Garden of Morton Arboretum was named for her in 1963. - Reading the Landscapes of America, Nature Study Guild Publishers, 1999 - Reading the Landscape of Europe, Nature Study Guild Publishers , 2009 Titles for Purchase and at Your Library Reading the Landscape of America Release Date: 1999-03-15 Reading the Landscape of Europe Release Date: 2009-08-01 Speaking Engagements and Upcoming Appearances Speaking Engagement Availability: (No) This page can only be edited by Illinois Center for the Book staff, this author or this author's representatives. Please contact us for access.
Sunshine filtering through the leaves of a tree or trees. This is one of my favorite Japanese words, Komorebi. The same thing goes with life, just as light filters the thought the leaves of a tree of trees, the same things goes with our life. Filtering through the leaves in my opinion is the same thing as how you influence other people's heart. Not only through material support but more to emotional, moral supports. Forgiving someone, accepting someone for who they really are the light that filters through someone's heart, you shine a light in a their deep dark forest, showing and telling them that "Hey man you have a hope!" The shine does not need to light the whole forest, a little Komorebi navigates people where they should go, a little Komorebi helps people to see that there's a light that can accept them for who they are and give them hope to go out from their deep dark forest. What's the meaning of shining your light in a group of lights. No matter how sparkling you are, you will be the same as the other lights. But when you shine through the dark forest, no matter how small you are, you can light the darkness. No matter how small you are, how young you are, you can be someone's light in their darkness. Guarda o meu coração, Senhor. Sou humano, sou falho... e de onde vem esta canção? As atrações do mundo se torna palco de desilusão, a quem temerei se sou sal e luz para multidão? Assim, o Mestre chama para estar em alerta, baixo a cabeça para a ordenança, minha missão rumo a uma meta. Just a little something that was on my heart today... #maybeitsjustme . I want to live a simple, quiet life in which I’m married to a godly man and we raise our children in a Christ-centered home. . I feel like that statement is so contrary to what I’m supposed to want by the world’s standards. So, when it comes to people asking what do you want to do or where do you want to be in 5, 10 years, I feel as though I can’t say “I want to be married and have kids”, plain and simple. I have to come up with something that sounds ambitious and lucrative. Something that’s “acceptable”. Media and society throw in our face to be independent. Be whatever (and they mean absolutely whatever) you want to be! . Sure, part of me wants to have a fancy job with an important title and all that... But, more of me, by the grace of God, wants to be like Christ. Which unavoidably means being contrary to the world and being uncomfortable sometimes because I’m different and I want different things. It’s not an easy path for sure, but it’s the best path. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14 NIV 💌 E #faith#prayer#Godisgood#perfecttiming#forGodsglory#grace#hope#iamweakHeisstrong#community#Godlovesyou#progressnotperfection#gracenotperfection#saltandlight#lampandlight#trustintheLord#itiswellwithmysoul#bestillandknow#liveinthemeantime#realtalk#inspiration#fellowship#fuelfortheheart Currently rocking this sweet boy while he naps in my arms. Somehow he’s closer to being 2 than to being a baby. Becoming a mom has changed. It’s one of those “before and after”s in life. So thankful for this “after”. God, you sure know what you’re doing. Thank you. Just another amazing pic from @ellbeedesign #DearGod , Thank You for this day, for this day to live a little better than I did yesterday. To live more for You and less for me. Thank You for the sun's warmth but thank You more for Your #Son 's warmth I feel living inside me. Thank You for the suns light and for Your #light You give me when I'm going through #darkness . May I be #saltandlight like You have asked us to be in this world and may I bring more people to You because I know the only #true way is by #believing in Your Son #JesusChrist . Thank You Lord for the sun giving #life to things and for Your Son giving us #EternaLife . And thank You Father, for being the biggest thing in my life even if at times You seem so small or not even there. When I looked at the sun today it made me think how, although it looks like just small circle in the sky it's actually 109 times bigger than the earth. We can't even imagine how big and great You are! Thank You for never giving up on me, in Your Son's name I pray,#Amen ~ cheri #ilovejesus#christianmom#faithandfitness#bestself#legionofboom At a point when Victoria's life seemed out of control, God intervened and showed her how much she needed His presence back in her life. On Sunday, Victoria recommitted her life to Christ and pledged to be #saltandlight while #amplifyinghope across the Gulf Coast! It’s sweet to think that the freckles on my body might make up constellations in the night. Every time I sit with the sun a new star is born between the canvas of my skin and the map of the sky. 📷: @sheenism.ca Ladoru would like to introduce you to the "Heart Felt" Tee. Here's a little back story about it: "La dor" in Portuguese translates to "her pain" and that's exactly what inspired @ladoru to be created. 4 years ago I was going through a painful break up not only with a man but a breakup with my old self. I was entering a time of transition and not knowing what else to do with my time and those negative thoughts so I chose to express it with creative outlets like doodling. Along that journey (287 doodles to be exact) my pain was transformed into purpose. I didn't see a broken heart anymore my eyes saw a healing heart. 💔✨ Stay tuned for more stories and designs. #ourwordsshapeourworld#myLadoru This touched me this morning in a way that I knew God was speaking right to my heart. I hope it inspires you today as it has me! ❤️ And remember, we are like FINE WINE, 🍾 we just get better and better with age! Thanks be to God for walking with me all of my 46 years 🎉 and for never leaving my side...I am eternally grateful 🙏🏻 and His Servant until my end. Peace and Love to all who are reading this.💕 #saltandlight#lifebydesign#blessed#grateful#love#loveeachother#bekind I heard a quote this morning... “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” It got me thinking about how so many people drift through life aimlessly, letting things happen to them. What a shocking, and revolutionary change we would see in this world if each of us woke up daily with PURPOSE. Lived our lives on PURPOSE, making a point to be the person we want to be. The days and years fly by, and life is too short to waste. I challenge you to walk into this weekend with a heart for GOOD. To touch every person you interact with in a positive way. To live each day with an attitude of patience, kindness, and grace. How different our world would be if we all attacked life with passion and zest for GOOD. Copycatting what you see "the gurus" doing automatically leads to feelings of imposter syndrome, insecurity and disappointment. Never put yourself in anyone else's shadow!! You are uniquely gifted and called to great things of your own... so stop trying to reinvent the wheel of what’s already been done, because you were born to FLY! PS. The ICON Method is an unconventional and soul-driven path to creating an ICONIC BRAND and MEDIA PLAN that has YOU at the centre of your own revolution. You ready!?!!! #ICONSAreMadeNotBorn#LaunchingSoon "They say fear haunts And pain hates I say pain strengthens And fear drives faith." -@lecrae, "I'll Find You" Our response to challenges dictates the effect they'll have on us. We get to choose whether they make us or break us. I am loving Lecrae's All Things Work Together album recently! What have you been listening to on repeat? There is no better way to start off the weekend..On my way to work I just about ran into this lady in the moist dangerous spot as people rush to get to where they are going. I immediately pulled over and told her to get in the car I'm going to push her with one hand (lol💪) to a safe place down the road and then God got the Glory. She called a tow and offered me $50 and I assured her I don't work for money I work for The creator of heaven and earth. God Bless and poof I was gone. I’ll try not to bombard your feed between tomorrow and Halloween (anymore than usual, that is 🙃), but with this new moon tonight I’m setting an intention for the next month and sticking to it. I will finish a challenge. It’s not the fear of not winning that keeps me from entering, it’s the crazy-big “what if I DO win?.. What happens then?” I know of yogis who were happily doing their thing and winning a challenge opened doors for them. New opportunities. And that scares me right now. Could I handle bigger? More?.. My mantra during practice lately has been: “Don’t Run”. So I’ll do this thing and I’ll finish it. And hopefully post on the right days and in the right order. (#tbd ) Anyway, wanna join me homies? @rromeroart @rachelaruss @bropell @hollonbeasley @tay_bay_bay__ @_akjoyce @price_bennett @maryrunsyoga — and if not, do you agree to at least snap pics for me if I ask? 😁🙏🏼 Day 18/19 of #creativesprint Combined with Day 292 of 365 days of making shacks! Prompt: use salt as your medium today. 🎶Salty Little Shack!😁 When I read the prompt for salt I couldn't wait to get started! I had so much fun with salt today ended up making both art pieces in salt. In the second piece used two finger lights I had left over from a party 🎉 and since I'm cleaning out cupboards, cabinets and attic I found them in some random bin yesterday! ❤️Coincidentals! Most nights we go on walks in the dark and use flashlights🔦to be safe and to take closer looks at things like mini pumpkins 🎃 Loving my city back to life. Today I made up loads of giftbags and handed them out to rough sleepers and the homeless across London. There are but two commandments God calls us to: love God, love your neighbour. Being able to partner with God in order to spread joy and serve my community is always such a privilege. Being his hands and feet today reminded me of His great love for His people and a reminder that in order to see real change in our communities all we need to do is look to Jesus to be our guide, helper, teacher and strength. “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:13-16 💡 • This 1" copper pendant was a custom request by a dear friend. As I dig into these these verses and seek the true meaning, I'm challenged to reach out and actually 1) spend time and do life with those who don't know Jesus and 2) take great care in what I say, think, and do and of course 3) root myself in His word, and with people who love Him and can sharpen me as His daughter . My heart should yearn to glorify God as I live. Simple, right? And yet I can't do it without Jesus. It's all Him. Side note: these little captions have a theme... most of them are me preaching to myself. 'Cause I can be dense and I need that reminder. I am weak, but He is strong. • Praying for His light to shine forth. 💡 The SALT Confrence is just around the corner! Jan 5th-7th~ Be prepared to have your faith built, your advocacy and leadership skills strengthened, and your knowledge of the issues facing Israel expanded. Ask your regional coordinator about this invite-only confrence today! #CUFIonCampus#SALT2018#saltandlight You ::can:: stand for transformation on your own… but it will never be nearly as impactful, transformational or FUN if you’re “lone wolfing” it! STACK YOUR PACK with loyal peeps that get you, that love you and that support your audacious vision… while also giving you the privilege to support theirs. BADASS COACHES run in BADASS PACKS! We’d love to have you join our pack when we launch in November 2018! #StayTuned Tegan's neighbour's tree uprooted and fell towards her house last night, but nothing was damaged. I've been struggling in talking to you. But as I was getting ready to close in for the night she sent me this: "Focus on the wind/storm. For me, the thing that has stuck out is the uprooting of that tree. He's uprooting those beliefs or things about ourselves and others that aren't in Him but he's doing it in a way that protects us.. He won't let any harm come to His home.. And it's not necessarily in a gentle way that He'll do it, but once again, He will protect." I know I need to grieve and move on from how I thought it would look. She mentioned after that All I Want by Barry Polisar saying that you were singing it about me. I had posted about that song a couple of months ago, and you're constantly reminding me that I am your sweet honeybee, and you love me so much. And thank you for making a person like Tegan. Couldn't do it without her, she is so loved. The trees are falling in front of me, uprooting things I use to believe But my house stays warm, Tucked in your sweet safety "Every day, just as we get to choose whether to work at the tasks God has put before us, we get to choose whether to seek the Lord and allow the Holy Spirit to make us more like Jesus." God calls us to more than just doing certain things. Read more on wholistically pursuing calling on the HTT blog and grab a free lock screen while you're there! (3 min read; 🔗 in profile) So many things trying to tell us who we are, how we should be, how to make decisions about our life, finances, relationships, etc. God will not be mocked!! We must be set apart! And speak and stand up for the truth! #shaniselollie#inspiration#god#saltandlight As it is a hot and tiring day where I (Rachel @kentexmom) am today, I completely related to what @br_randall shared with this picture. Anyone else? She said: "I feel as though Rich Mullins could have written this song specifically for someone like me, living overseas in a hot and tiring place." And the song? Rich Mullins, Sometimes by Step Sometimes the night was beautiful Sometimes the sky was so far away Sometimes it seemed to stoop so close You could touch it but your heart would break Sometimes the morning came too soon Sometimes the day could be so hot There was so much work left to do But so much You'd already done Oh God, You are my God And I will ever praise You Oh God, You are my God And I will ever praise You I will seek You in the morning And I will learn to walk in Your ways And step by step You'll lead me And I will follow You all of my days Sometimes I think of Abraham How one star he saw had been lit for me He was a stranger in this land And I am that, no less than he And on this road to righteousness Sometimes the climb can be so steep I may falter in my steps But never beyond Your reach
Stronger whistleblower protection needed IMPACT has said it wants stronger protections for whistleblowers than the measures set out in the Protected Disclosures Bill, which was published in early July. The union will be part of an Irish Congress of Trade Unions delegation to meet departmental officials on the issue later this month. The union has expressed disappointment that the proposed legislation fails to provide instant remedies for workers who suffer victimisation for revealing illegal or unethical practices in the workplace. This means sacking whistleblowers will remain a relatively risk-free option for bad employers. The Bill increases the maximum compensation for unfair dismissal in whistleblowing cases from two to five years’ salary. But this would still leave staff seeking retrospective justice if they were sacked for whistleblowing, and IMPACT says the maximum compensation is still too low to properly protect staff. IMPACT national secretary Matt Staunton said the Bill was overdue but welcome. “Under these proposals you can still lose your job for reporting corporate wrongdoing. And, if you have ten or 15 years to go on your mortgage, you could end up losing your home too. Staff who blow the whistle in good faith should be able to go to work the next day and carry on with their lives,” he said. The union concedes that the new Bill is an improvement on existing legislation, set out in the 2011 Criminal Justice Act. Under this law, workers can be prosecuted, fined, and even jailed if they discover financial malpractice in their workplace and fail to report it. But they face prosecution themselves if they report in good faith and the information turns out to be wrong. IMPACT says this places all the responsibility on the worker, while legal protections against victimisation of whistleblowers are too weak. One IMPACT member lost his job after blowing the whistle on €4 million worth of fraud in his workplace. “His reward was a four-year ordeal. It began with him being disciplined for not reporting earlier. Then he had his own honesty questioned. The company he had helped put him through years of harassment, disciplinaries and hearings. He won them all, but his ordeal still culminated in him being thrown out of work,” said Mr Staunton. The union wants the new legislation to include a statutory code of practice, which sets out procedures for whistleblowing including a clear process to deal with disputes between whistleblowers and their employers. Mr Staunton said the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) should be asked to draw up the code of practice. Unions also want whistleblowing protections to extend beyond financial wrongdoing so that staff are protected if they report corporate illegality on a range of issues including consumer protection, workers’ rights, environmental safeguards, and health and safety. IMPACT has also called for legal protections against employers who victimise staff for being a member of a trade union or for seeking union representation to pursue their interests and entitlements under employment rights legislation
The University of Connecticut has an unusual perspective on diversity. — The Source Magazine (@TheSource) January 29, 2016 UConn is building a separate residence for black males. They think this racially segregated housing will help with retention and graduation. The university hopes to “make UConn feel like home” and match students with like-minded peers. They have residences for environmentally-conscious students too. Another type of safe space? Dr. Erik Hines, a professor of educational psychology at UConn said black students are graduating at a lower rate “so the University of Connecticut was forward-thinking in bringing a solution to this issue.” There is absolutely no common sense in this solution. What if we had an only white residence? Some students were critical but at least one student sees racism in the criticisms because blacks are getting something better than whites. “The white portion of the University of Connecticut is probably not ready for it,” Isaac Bloodworth, a puppetry major, said of the criticisms. “You have people who are going to go against it because they are just racist and they see this as a form of segregation or that we’re getting better things than they are.” Colleges should give some thought to lowering tuition and offering courses that lead directly to jobs instead of building separate but equal housing. What about black women or Asian men or Hispanic women? There’s no end to where we might take this. More endless identity politics to divide us. The articles about this keep referring to blacks as African-American but they are Americans, period. Is it time to think of one another as Americans and reverse this climate of division instead of furthering it in college.
If there is one topic that gets humanitarians and other aid workers talking - apart from the obvious discussions about capacity-building and food aid - it is the challenge of finding a prospective partner in the field. In the last 20 years aid work has become more dangerous, and security restrictions have made it harder for aid workers to meet their significant other. “You are sitting in a compound; every day you see the same people - working together, living together with the same 10-15 people. Of course, that influences the chances to find a partner in very negative ways,” Lala Ahmadova, staff counsellor at the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told IRIN. “Aid work always looks very glamorous from the outside. Everybody expects that they will meet somebody amazing like the French MSF [Médecins Sans Frontières] doctor with whom they will have these wonderful romance travels around the world,” said Julia, an aid worker who just left Haiti after a lengthy tour of duty and is ready to start a stable relationship. “Occasionally that happens, but looking at my colleagues in the business, many are feeling isolated and torn apart. These are the much more likely stories.” While there might be reason enough to date an aid worker - the popular blog WhyDev lists the most obvious (your partner will never make you listen to Bono - after all, what does he know about aid?) - the aid worker life makes it difficult to maintain a relationship. In countries like Afghanistan, where life is restricted to guarded compounds, a new face - potential dating-material - is always noticed quickly. “The problem is the choice. Sometimes you don't get what you want. I have a female colleague arriving soon; could this work?” asked Giaco, an Italian in northern Afghanistan. Security considerations do not only affect the chances of meeting someone: “If you are aid workers in Gaza, want to spend the night together and do not live in the same house, you will have to check in with security so that they know where you are. A bit of an odd moment,” said John, a UN worker in the occupied Palestinian territory. There is always the option of “going local”, but that can raise an additional set of problems around the dynamics of class and race, and issues of exploitation. Robert Simpson started the dating portal “Humanitarian Dating” as a spoof on his satirical blog, but soon realized there was a real need. In 2007 the website went online and has since attracted thousands of people looking for soulmates. The authors of the book Emergency Sex, a tale of three UN staffers in peacekeeping missions, and read by many an aid worker, describe the heightened need for human intimacy that many people feel when facing stressful situations in the field. Rebecca, who spent eight of the last 10 years in the field and currently works in Afghanistan, knows it quite well: “I have started a lot of relationships in the field that I only realize in retrospect probably wouldn't happened under "normal" circumstances. I've been convinced that we would get married and have babies. But then it only takes one or both people leaving the environment… to realize that it's not really a great match. In the field we tend to be more lonely and feel more outcast, and we grab onto things faster than we would otherwise.” \|Everybody expects that they will meet somebody amazing like the French MSF doctor.\| She terms these unlikely pairings “locationships”, as they are tied to a specific place in the field, where it is often just their common experience which keeps couples together. “The life that we are having here is quite artificial. Maybe that is why people, when leaving from here, they want to detach themselves as much as possible,” said Ahmadova. Even under the best of circumstances dating fellow aid workers creates additional problems – beyond dealing with the gossip that can happen in small, closed expatriate communities. “You are quickly confronted with serious decisions,” John said. “It leads you to come together more quickly, but it also shows the limitations more quickly. One of us is leaving. So does it end here? Should one quit his job? Are we moving together?” Constantly changing duty stations is not easy, and finding an appropriate job for your partner is not always possible. Often one partner has to put the career on hold. “Times are changing. You see that with diplomats as with aid workers. Twenty years ago your wife would follow you. You still have such cases but less and less,” said John. Skype doesn’t help Modern communication can sometimes make up for a partner not coming along, said Martin Knops, staff counsellor at Oxfam GB. But it is “no real substitute for sharing your daily lives,” Ahmadova remarked. And often aid workers seem to feel that it is better to find a partner who is in a completely different profession. According to Ahmadova, many aid workers give up and leave the profession. Julia stayed with her organization, but just moved back to her country because she felt there was no chance of meeting a partner in the field and making a family. “Relationships I had in the field were with people who are just too much like me,” Julia told IRIN. “My partner now is in a very different field of work and I really, really like that. We cover things from a different perspective. We always have things to talk about. We haven’t talked about work at all, it’s just fantastic.” Deciding to have children is especially difficult in the field. Aid workers are often hired for a limited period to complete a specific project. Long maternity/paternity leave or part-time work is difficult to organize. John believes that sooner or later men face the same problems as women. “I see the women who have stayed in the field for too long and then realize that it is too late to have children or find a partner. Men can keep it off a bit longer but at the end of the day they will also have to make some life decisions.” And while many aid workers look for a stable relationship with a partner who might accompany them around the world, others do not want that kind of stability. Does the job change the person, or is the person drawn to the job because of his attitude? Many aid workers might be caught between the two extremes, idealizing the one they currently do not have. “I get jealous of my friends who went into some kind of boring industry,” Rebecca said. But in her last relationship outside the aid field, “in the end I bailed [out] because if I stuck around, then I would probably resent the guy and blame him for giving up all these adventures - that I hate to love and love to hate - for a suburban life probably on a shitty cul-de-sac in small town America. That thought was unbearable.” *not a real name
Co-operative Learning - the power of peers! Co-operative Learning should not be confused with group work. If students are working in an unstructured interaction, then this is group work. Co-operative Learning activities, on the other hand, must have all four of the following elements: • Positive Interdependence • Individual accountability • Monitor the groups • Equal Participation Research verifies that students’ results improve with co-operative learning as opposed to individual learning (Hattie, 2009). With co-operative learning, students have the opportunity to see other perspectives, there are more opportunities to discuss, debate and challenge the material being learnt and there are greater opportunities for peer tutoring. Time: 90 minutes - 3 hours A. Co-operative Learning • Ensuring all co-operative learning activities have the PIME criteria • Avoiding the pitfalls • What does the research say? • Why is co-operative learning so effective? B. Co-operative Learning Tools • Silent Card Shuffle – for matching, sequencing, classifying and positioning activities • Round Robin and Hot Potato – for brainstorming activities • 1:4:Publish:Circle:Refine – for writing and creative / design tasks • Think:Pair:Share – allows thinking time and more thoughtful responses • Stimulus RAS Alert – for improved retention of a film, field trip or book. • Judge Jury – for debatable topics • 3:2:1: RIQ – for consolidating information
Are you self-conscious about your weight? Many people are very self-conscious about how they look and they don’t have to be. Some folks just have a self-conscious nature. You have to decide if you are truly self-conscious about being overweight or whether you just have a self-conscious nature. Both can easily be fixed. Before we begin this discussion regarding being overweight let’s take a moment to define what is meant my being self-conscious. It is when you have an unpleasant feeling about being watched or observed by others. Being self-conscious is when you do not want the attention you think you are attracting. Or at least the type of attention you think you are getting. Therein lies the true definition of being self-conscious. It is what you think or perceive. It may not be reality. Are You Being Watched? Do you think, “everyone is looking” at you? It may just be your imagination. Your self-image and self-esteem play a big role in how you imagine yourself in the eyes of other people. Some people are naturally more self-conscious than others. Sometimes such feelings can go beyond just being shy and actually verge on being paranoid. Being concerned about how you are seen by others when you are overweight can exaggerate these feelings. It is the same type of embarrassment you would experience if you suddenly found yourself in public without clothing. It’s definitely going to make you uncomfortable and embarrassed. And this phenomenon particularly occurs with overweight boys and overweight girls in their teenage years. Being overly conscious of their bodies seems to be a phase teenagers go through. Being overweight is just another thing for teenagers to obsess over. However, these feeling from the teenage years can impact a person’s image of themselves well into their adult life. Become Aware Of Small Things Being self-conscious means you become acutely aware of even the smallest and most innocuous thing about yourself. Then you begin to obsess over it. As it relates to your being overweight, you may think everyone is looking at you when you purchase a candy bar or go into a bakery. In this instance you may worry whether they are thinking, “Why does that fat girl/boy need that candy bar?” or some other silly notion. Of course, it is only a silly notion to an uninvolved third party looking at the situation through their eyes in a detached manner. To the person purchasing that candy bar it becomes a serious issue fueling their self-conscious feelings. A similar feeling may occur when a self-conscious person is eating in a restaurant. They may feel as though everyone is “looking” at them to see what and how much they are eating. Don’t Be So Self-Centered By the very definition of being self-conscious you are placing way too much emphasis on yourself. Being overweight only gives you a reason (in your own mind, at least) why people may be watching you and thinking unkind thoughts about you. Unfortunately, when you are overly concerned about what you are doing and how your are doing it, you become nervous and make “mistakes.” You drop items that clatter noisily to the floor. You knock things over making a mess. This only adds to your anxiety because now everyone (once again, in your own mind) has another reason to look at you and be critical. It’s a negative situation that feeds upon itself making you feel worse about yourself with every passing moment. Lose Weight – Decrease Your Self-Consciousness An amazing thing happens when you lose weight. You begin feeling better about yourself. You experience improving self-confidence. Your self-esteem skyrockets and you begin to feel good about your relationships. And your self-conscious attitude dissolves. Life becomes so much better for you. You will begin wondering why it took so long to lose the weight that has been plaguing you for so many years. That is a great thing to happen.
An American scholar and diplomat who aided Jews during the Holocaust and challenged the Roosevelt administration’s refugee policy was the focus of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration on Capitol Hill last week. The late James G. McDonald, who served as the League of Nations’ commissioner for refugees and as an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was featured in the Capitol Hill program, which was sponsored by U.S. Congresswoman Donna Christensen. Christensen, a Democrat who represents the Virgin Islands, said she felt “a deep personal connection” to McDonald’s efforts on behalf of refugees because the governor and legislative assembly of the Virgin Islands offered, in 1938, to open their doors to Jews fleeing Hitler. President Roosevelt rejected the offer on the grounds that it could enable Nazi spies to sneak into America. The Capitol Hill program included the debut of a one-hour documentary, “A Voice Among the Silent: The Legacy of James G. McDonald,” by Chicago filmmaker Shuli Eshel. The film describes how McDonald, as a young foreign policy scholar, was one of the first Americans to meet personally with Adolf Hitler in early 1933. The Nazi leader openly vowed to McDonald that he would “get rid of the Jews.” McDonald brought that information to Roosevelt and other world leaders, but his warnings were ignored. In a panel discussion accompanying the film, Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, spoke about McDonald’s attempts to solicit U.S. support to aid the Jewish refugees. “McDonald asked FDR for a token $10,000 contribution to support his work as League of Nations commissioner for refugees,” Medoff noted. “Roosevelt said yes, but months went by and the promise was never fulfilled. A few years later, FDR told McDonald he would ask Congress to allocate $150-million to help settle Jewish refugees outside of Europe – but those funds likewise never materialized.” Also on the panel was McDonald’s daughter, Prof. Barbara McDonald Stewart, who discussed her father’s motives in helping the Jews. “As a Christian, he was keenly aware of his moral obligation to help people who were being persecuted. He used to say, ‘If Christians acted like Christians, there wouldn’t be any anti-Semitism.’ ” Prof. McDonald also recalled her experiences as assistant to her father during his post-World War II role as the first American ambassador to Israel. “Israel’s first years were a difficult time, as they were trying to build a state and defend themselves [against the invading Arab armies] while also developing a relationship with the United States.” She said she was “very proud” that her father helped rebuff State Department officials who wanted to impose sanctions on Israel at one point during the 1948 war. Ms. Eshel, the filmmaker, told the Capitol Hill audience that “the fact that the world did so little in response to the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur shows that many people have still not learned the lessons of the Holocaust.” She said she hopes her film about McDonald “will inspire young people to day to realize that they too can – and should – stand up against evil, as McDonald did.” During a Q & A session after the screening, audience members strongly praised the film and urged that it be shown in schools. A young woman from Mississippi, who said she serves on the staff of one of Washington’s museums, said “It’s especially important that Christians see this film–and remember James McDonald as a role model for this generation.”
Read an article in Huffington Post that brought up that Elizabeth May was criticized for pointing out a possible connection between the Fort McMurray wildfire and climate change and that charge was considered too political. I am just amplifying the issue. I agree it is necessary to concentrate on cleaning up the mess and restoring the displaced people back to normalcy as quickly as practical. The article suggested the claim of being too political (Justin was one of the many accusers) would not have been made if a virus had been causing a problem in Fort McMurray. We would all want to know the cause so we could prevent a future occurrence. Climate change has been made a political issue, when it really should be a scientific issue. My contention is that climate change has been established by reputable scientists as a major problem requiring international co-operation. It should be considered the top priority for politicians, but unfortunately they are tied in too strongly to vested interests who can take advantage of basic ignorance and suspicion. On Facebook I was disturbed so see one post stating that while the mess was being cleaned up the government should not spend one cent helping refugees. The priorities are always changing, but a commitment has been made and until it has been fulfilled it seems to me that we are honour bound. After that it is logical to re assess our priorities, but I hope we would not base our decisions just on racially charged concerns and the overblown fear of terrorism. Reviewing my thoughts on the refugee crisis. We are complicit in it, one item of which is climate change has been a factor. We benefit from new blood while Syria suffers a brain drain. Previous blog: http://www.johnfdavidson.com/2015/11/the-syrian-refugee.html Politics has always been about power. Sometimes it is tied to the people's welfare, but too often it is a convenient cover for vested interests. In the case of climate change the people's welfare has been taking a back seat to vested interests of those who control fossil fuels. We are talking about literally trillions of dollars presently in the ground which can buy an awful lot of political power. To read the original article in Huffington Post by G. Ellijah Dann of Simon Fraser University: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/g-elijah-dann/fort-mcmurray-fire_b_9890178.html Let's have that political discussion about a scientifically claim that affects everyone.
FROM Meeryo Choe Advice for Athletes and Others: Watch Your Head! Loyola High School, an all-boys Catholic campus in downtown LA, is doing something unprecedented in high-school education: testing not just the athletes who play contact sports, but every student, in case there’s need to determine if they have suffered a brain concussion. Some 500 students have completed a 45-minute exam. Concussions and Youth Sports Two hundred sports officials, medical experts, parent activists, and young athletes gathered at the White House today to talk about concussions in youth sports. The issue has taken on a sense of urgency since more information has come out about traumatic brain injuries in NFL football players, as well as college level players. Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same? The longest US war: Will Trump send more troops to Afghanistan? The Trump White House is divided over the Pentagon's request for more troops in Afghanistan—where the US has been fighting for the past 16 years. Is there a formula -- either for "victory" or a political settlement? Is there an end in sight for America's longest war?
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) ― The United States hopes that South Korea and Japan will make a concerted effort to promote the “healing” of the legacy from their shared history, especially in the 20th century, a key U.S. government official on Asia said Tuesday. “They are both dealing with the legacy of very, very sensitive and very difficult issues, historical issues from the 20th century. These legacy issues can’t be solved by any one party alone,” Daniel Russel, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said at a Senate hearing. His remarks suggest that the Obama administration is not supporting Seoul’s view that Japan’s conservative Shinzo Abe administration is fully responsible for the drawn-out standoff between the neighboring countries. Russell stressed the urgency of the two sides showing “prudence and restraint” in dealing with historical issues. “It is important to handle them in a way that promotes healing,” he said. The veteran diplomat said strategic cooperation among the U.S., South Korea and Japan is crucial in regional security, especially given North Korea’s threats and other regional uncertainties. “No one can afford to allow the burdens of history to prevent us from building a secure future,” he said. Also joining the hearing on Northeast Asia, David Helvey, a ranking Pentagon official, noted the importance of trilateral security cooperation. “The Department of Defense encourages a healthy and open U.S., Republic of Korea and Japan relationship,” said Helvey, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia. To that end, he added, the U.S. will continue to look for opportunities for the three countries to exercise together and to use the defense trilateral talks to promote cooperation, dialogue and transparency between Tokyo and Seoul. On the issue of the wartime operational control (OPCON) transfer, he said the allies are reviewing whether the agreed-upon timing, December 2015, is appropriate “in the context of the changing security environment, particularly in North Korea.” “The OPCON transition has always been conditions-based,” he added. “And we continue to assess and review the security situation on the Korean Peninsula in the context of the implementation of the strategic alliance 2015 plan.” South Korea earlier agreed to take over its wartime OPCON from the U.S. as of December 2015, but it has requested a delay in the transfer, citing North Korea’s growing military threats. Meanwhile, Russel, the State Department official, said there is no “credible indications” that North Korea is prepared to come into compliance with international obligations despite its recent peace overtures. He said North Korea has shown a pattern of provocations followed by charm offensives aimed at eliciting concessions and rewards from the U.S., South Korea and the international community. “We will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state,” he added. “We will not reward the DPRK (North Korea) merely for returning to dialogue.”
Turning nature’s defenses against human disease The sea anemone produces a toxin that defends it from its natural predators. This toxin, ShK, can be engineered to bind selectively to human receptors that modulate the immune response. Modelling the interactin of the ShK with potassium channels reveals how the toxin can be modified to improved it binding affinity and selectivity. Selective inhibitors of these potassium channels may have utility in the treratment of auto-imune diseases including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes.
PTSD and Cannabis: A Clinician Ponders Mechanism of Action by David Bearman, MD One often intractable problem for which cannabis provides relief is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I have more than 100 patients with PTSD. Among those reporting that cannabis alleviates their PTSD symptoms are veterans of the war in Vietnam, the first Gulf War, and the current occupation of Iraq. Similar benefit is reported by victims of family violence, rape and other traumatic events, and children raised in dysfunctional families. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder —once referred to as “shell shock” or “battle fatigue” — is a debilitating condition that follows exposure to ongoing emotional trauma or in some instances a single terrifying event. Many of those exposed to such experiences suffer from PTSD. The symptoms of PTSD include persistent frightening thoughts with memories of the ordeal. PTSD patients have frightening nightmares and often feel anger and an emotional isolation. Sadly, PTSD is a common problem. Each year millions of people around the world are affected by serious emotional trauma. In more than 100 countries there is recurring violence based on ethnicity, culture, religion or political orientation. Men, women and children suffer from hidden sexual and physical abuse. The trauma of molestation can cause PTSD. So can rape, kidnapping, serious accidents such as car or train wrecks, natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes, violent attacks such as mugging, torture, or being held captive. The event that triggers PTSD may be something that threatened the person’s life or jeopardized someone close to him or her. Or it could simply be witnessing acts of violence, such as a mass destruction or massacre. PTSD can affect survivors, witnesses and relief workers. Whatever the source of the problem, PTSD patients continually relive the traumatic experience in the form of nightmares and disturbing recollections. They are hyper-alert. They may experience sleep problems, depression, feelings of emotional detachment or numbness, and may be be easily aroused or startled. They may lose interest in things they used to enjoy and have trouble feeling affectionate. They may feel irritable, be violent, or be more aggressive than before the traumatic exposure. Seeing things that remind them of the incident(s) may be very distressing, which could lead them to avoid certain places or situations that bring back those memories. Anniversaries of a traumatic event are often difficult. Ordinary events can serve as reminders of the trauma and trigger flashbacks or intrusive images. Movies about war or TV footage of the Iraqi war can be triggers. People with PTSD may respond disproportionately to more or less normal stimuli —a car backfiring, a person walking behind them. A flashback may make the person lose touch with reality and re-enact the event for a period of seconds, hours or, very rarely, days. A person having a flashback in the form of images, sounds, smells, or feelings experiences the emotions of the traumatic event. They relive it, in a sense. Symptoms may be mild or severe — people may become easily irritated or have violent outbursts. In severe cases victims may have trouble working or socializing. Symptoms can include: - Problems in affect regulation —for instance persistent depressive symptoms, explosion of suppressed anger and aggression alternating with blockade and loss of sexual potency; - Disturbance of conscious experience, such as amnesia, dissociation of experience, emotions, and feelings; - Depersonalization (feeling strange about oneself), rumination; - Distorted self-perception —for instance, feeling of helplessness, shame, guilt, blaming oneself, self-punishment, stigmatization, and loneliness; - Alterations in perception of the perpetrator —for instance, adopting distorted beliefs, paradoxical thankfulness, idealization of perpetrator and adoption of his system of values and beliefs; - Distorted relationship to others, for instance, isolation, retreat, inability to trust, destruction of relations with family members, inability to protect oneself against becoming a victim again; - Alterations in systems of meaning, for instance, loss of hope, trust and previously sustaining beliefs, feelings of hopelessness; - Despair, suicidal thoughts and preoccupation; - Somatization —for instance persistent problems in the digestive system, chronic pain, cardiopulmonary symptoms (shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, palpitations). Ample anecdotal evidence suggests that cannabis enhances ability to cope with PTSD. Many combat veterans suffering from PTSD rely on cannabis to control their anger, nightmares and even violent rage. Recent research sheds light on how cannabis may work in this regard. Neuronal and molecular mechanisms underlying fearful memories are often studied in animals by using “fear conditioning.” A neutral or conditioned stimulus, which is typically a tone or a light, is paired with an aversive (unconditioned) stimulus, typically a small electric shock to the foot. After the two stimuli are paired a few times, the conditioned stimulus alone evokes the stereotypical features of the fearful response to the unconditioned stimulus, including changes in heart rate and blood pressure and freezing of ongoing movements. Repeated presentation of the conditioned stimulus alone leads to extinction of the fearful response as the animal learns that it need no longer fear a shock from the tone or light. Emotions and memory formation are regulated by the limbic system, which includes the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, the amygdala, and several other structures in the brain that are particularly rich in CB1 receptors. The amygdala, a small, almond-shaped region lying below the cerebrum, is crucial in acquiring and, possibly, storing the memory of conditioned fear. It is thought that at the cellular and molecular level, learned behavior —including fear— involves neurons in the baso-lateral part of the amygdala, and changes in the strength of their connection with other neurons (“synaptic plasticity”). CB1 receptors are among the most abundant neuroreceptors in the central nervous system. They are found in high levels in the cerebellum and basal ganglia, as well as the limbic system. The classical behavioral effects of exogenous cannabinoids such as sedation and memory changes have been correlated with the presence of CB1 receptors in the limbic system and striatum. In 2003 Giovanni Marsicano of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich and his co-workers showed that mice lacking normal CB1 readily learn to fear the shock-related sound, but in contrast to animals with intact CB1, they fail to lose their fear of the sound when it stops being coupled with the shock. The results indicate that endocan-nabinoids are important in extinguishing the bad feelings and pain triggered by reminders of past experiences. The discoveries raise the possibility that abnormally low levels of cannabinoid receptors or the faulty release of endogenous cannabinoids are involved in post-traumatic stress syndrome, phobias, and certain forms of chronic pain. This suggestion is supported by our observation that many people smoke marijuana to decrease their anxiety and many veterans use marijuana to decrease their PTSD symptoms. It is also conceivable, though far from proved, that chemical mimics of these natural substances could allow us to put the past behind us when signals that we have learned to associate with certain dangers no longer have meaning in the real world. What is the Mechanism of Action? Many medical marijuana users are aware of a signaling system within the body that their doctors learned nothing about in medical school: the endocan-nabinoid system. As Nicoll and Alger wrote in “The Brain’s Own Marijuana” (Scientific American, December 2004): “ Researchers have exposed an entirely new signaling system in the brain: a way that nerve cells communicate that no one anticipated even 15 years ago. Fully understanding this signaling system could have far-reaching implications. The details appear to hold a key to devising treatments for anxiety, pain, nausea, obesity, brain injury and many other medical problems.” As a clinician, I find the concept of retrograde signaling extremely useful. It helps me explain to myself and my patients why so many people with PTSD get relief from cannabis. We are taught in medical school that 70% of the brain is there to turn off the other 30%. Basically our brain is designed to modulate and limit both internal and external sensory input. The neurotransmitter dopamine is one of the brain’s off switches.The endocannabinoid system is known to play a role in increasing the availability of dopamine. I hypothesize that it does this by freeing up dopamine that has been bound to a transporter, thus leaving dopamine free to act by retrograde inhibition. By release of dopamine from dopamine transporter, cannabis can decrease the sensory input stimulation to the limbic system and it can decrease the impact of over-stimulation of the amygdala. I postulate that exposure to the PTSD-inducing trauma causes an increase in production of dopamine transporter. The dopamine transporter ties up much of the free dopamine. With the brain having lower-than-normal free dopamine levels, there are too many neural channels open, the mid-brain is overwhelmed with stimuli and so too is the cerebral cortex. Hard-pressed to react to this stimuli overload in a rational manner, a person responds with anger, rage, sadness and/or fear. With the use of cannabis or an increase in the natural cannabinoids (anandamide and 2-AG), there is competition with dopamine for binding with the dopamine transporter and the cannabinoids win, making a more normal level of free dopamine available to act as a retrograde inhibitor. This leads to increased inhibition of neural input and decreased negative stimuli to the midbrain and the cerebral cortex. Since the cerebral cortex is no longer overrun with stimuli from the midbrain, the cerebral cortex can assign a more rational meaning and context to the fearful memories. I have numerous patients with PTSD who say “marijuana saved my life,” or “marijuana allows me to interact with people,” or “it controls my anger,” or “when I smoke cannabis I almost never have nightmares.” Some say that without marijuana they would kill or maim themselves or others. I have no doubt that cannabis is a uniquely useful treatment. What remains is for the chemists to determine the precise mechanism of action. Patient Resources \| Medical Uses \| News & Events \| Message Board \|
\|Street Life in London, published in 1876-77, when photography was still in its infancy. This book of essays and photos is highly regarded as an important work in the history of documentary photography. It consists of a series of short individual articles by the "radical socialist journalist" (as he was often referred), Adolphe Smith and photography by the Scottish photojournalist John Thomson (1837-1921). Smith portrayed the lives of impoverished tradesmen and women, such as flower sellers, street doctors, fishmongers and chimney sweeps, who eked out a living on the streets of London in the second half of the 19th century. Their work was originally published as a monthly series and soon after reissued in book form as Street Life. Their intention was never artistic, but it was to inform the middle class of the plight of the poor and homeless working class. Thomson's 21 brown-tone photos were reproduced photomechanically by the difficult and now obsolete Woodburytype process which resulted in a strikingly sharp, almost three-dimensional quality with a wide tonal range. When this book was published, it marked the first collection of social documentary photographs anywhere in the world. Moreover, it brought readers some empathy for the tradesmen and women and gave these poor people a small measure of dignity. View the full text of this book here.\| \|The London Boardmen were regarded as some of the most unfortunate of street people who let themselves out for hire as walking advertisements. Young children and old men who performed this unskilled sandwich-board labor were frequently insulted and abused, which was considered fair play of the day. Their street-walking services were generally contracted out and they would often be paid just 2 shillings per day, and a 25% fee as compensation for the trouble they endured. \| ::Gratitude to LSE Library for their Flickr set on the Street Life of London, as well as the actual LSE Digital Library.
Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education Interdisciplinary Studies (Non-licensure) Liberty University’s Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education Interdisciplinary Studies, 100% online program, is designed to be pre-teacher preparation that will give you the opportunity to practice educational planning by creating lesson plans and units. Courses will teach you to evaluate educational methods and interventions such as differentiated learning and direct instruction. You will also explore current educational trends practiced in today’s private and public schools. This program compliments our Masters of Arts in Teaching which would be the step needed to obtain your teaching licensure. You also will develop skills relevant in: - Principles of education. - Education philosophy for teachers. - Learning theory and portfolio development. - Classroom management. Potential Career Options: - Christian school administrator - Church educational minister - School teacher You may also be interested in exploring our bachelor degree in Early Childhood Education or Special Education.
made for Native use 14 1/2” d x 18” high This Western Apache olla is beautifully formed and woven with a rhythmic geometric vertical lightening design. It is coiled out of willow and devil's claw and has old saddle leather handles. Apache ollas with leather handles were made for native use and are fairly rare. After the Apache were put on Reservation, they settled down into a less nomadic tradition. The coming of the railroad provided a way for the women to continue weaving, as per their tradition, while at the same time it helped them generate an income to support their families. Pots and pans were now available for use but the baskets, most especially the 3-rod coiled "fancy" baskets, were very collectible. The olla form was not used by the Apaches until the 19th century. Information is scarce about why they began to weave ollas but we know that Anglo visitors really liked the form. Presumably some Apache women used the ollas for grain storage and handles helped them carry the basket. Anglos, on the other hand, collected the baskets as tourist items.
“Aunt Mid’s is pleased to issue this update of the State of Michigan’s test results, which confirms the Company’s position that its products were not the source of the E. coli contamination. All test results maintain and reinforce Aunt Mid’s sterling reputation in the produce industry for product safety and integrity." Although it is clear, that as the Detroit News reports, that the source of an E. coli bacteria outbreak that sickened 50 people last month in Michigan, Illinois and Canada has been identified as California lettuce manufactured by Aunt Mid’s Produce Company, Aunt Mid’s seems bent on denying the truth – they just "can’t handle the truth." Here are the findings of the Michigan State Department of Health: Based upon analysis of scientific evidence from MDCH’s epidemiological investigation, iceberg lettuce has been identified as the source of the illness outbreak. Case control studies performed independently in Michigan and in Illinois both identified iceberg lettuce as the common source of illness. Based upon the product trace back investigation conducted by the MI Department of Agriculture (MDA), Fresh Pak/Aunt Mid’s was the common processor of the lettuce supplied to the outbreak locations at MSU, Lenawee County Jail, and in Illinois as well as other foodservice locations identified by ill individuals. The heads of lettuce being supplied to Aunt Mid’s for washing, cutting, and bagging during the outbreak timeframe were identified as lettuce from California. However, the point at which the lettuce was contaminated is still unknown. MDA continues to work in close cooperation with our food safety partners at the California Department of Public Health – Food & Drug Branch who are investigating the origin and handling of the lettuce in that state. MDA conducted product and environmental sample testing at Aunt Mid’s the week of September 26. The firm, MDCH, MSU, and FDA conducted additional testing and all those tests were negative for E. coli. However, those were CURRENT products, not products from the outbreak timeframe. Lettuce from the outbreak timeframe was not available for testing during the investigation due to the perishable nature of the product.
Mascoma is currently improving on its technology for the production of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) from both first and second generation sugars. IPA can be produced today as a byproduct of ethanol, improving overall economics for a typical first generation corn ethanol or sugar cane ethanol mill. IPA can be produced at a cost less than or equivalent to the same product derived from oil and it can be converted into propylene, which is an important intermediate in the chemical industry. Our current IPA technology utilizes an anaerobic pathway in an industrially relevant and robust yeast. Given this and, the characteristics of IPA, very little capital is required to retrofit an existing ethanol mill to produce this product in a more sustainable fashion. For more information on our IPA program, please contact us
RTD simulator Masibus RS-12 is a high precision Simulator for the simulation of Pt100 resistance thermometers. RTD simulator RS-12 covers the general operating range of Pt100 thermometers with 12 calibration points. The Simulator is small in size, rugged and easy to use and it has been especially designed for field use. Since the output is a purely passive resistance, it can operate with all types of Pt100 measuring equipments, including the live systems using pulsed, or interrupted excitation current. The precision Pt100 simulator is used wherever measuring instruments or controlling systems have to be tested or calibrated with great precision. A distinctive feature of this simulator is their simple operation. The resistance values required for simulation are directly set in °C. There is no need to use tables. Features of RTD simulator - Direct Temperature output 12 Switched Steps - < 0.3 °C Accuracy - Quick Check Switch BOX - Allows 2, 3 or 4 wire connections - Compact Size Applications of RTD simulator - Food Industry, Medical Science - Simulates RTD’s in all types of instruments, such as transmitters, controllers and data acquisition, process control, lab equipment etc. - For Maintenance & trouble shooting
Teaching in Illinois The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 awarded more than $3 billion dollars of education money to the state of Illinois. As of April 2012, almost 96 percent of those funds have been dispersed, saving/creating education jobs and promoting educational reform. But reform hasn’t stopped with the end of the stimulus money—and as legislators continue to work toward improving their state’s school system, they particularly look to attracting more effective teachers to their public school classrooms. - What’s the education climate in Illinois? - How’s the job outlook for Illinois teachers? - What benefits do Illinois teachers have? - What are the credentialing requirements in Illinois? - Find schools offering Masters in Education programs in Illinois What’s the education climate in Illinois? Illinois has been taking serious, targeted steps towards improving its public education. Annual state tests measure student progress against grade-level standards. High-performing and improving schools are examined for models, while failing schools are targeted for correction. Of course, students’ test scores can be affected by more than just their schools—parental involvement (or lack of) and economic background impact them, too. But when scores are high in a school despite a high level of poverty among the students, then educators in other schools in impoverished areas can look to the succeeding schools for help. Starting/Average Salaries – Illinois Teachers - Elementary School Teacher: $36,590 / $55,830 - Middle School Teacher: $36,590 / $56,940 - Secondary School Teacher: $40,750 / $64,310 - Average for all Illinois jobs: $20,210 / $35,080 Source: Illinois Department of Employment Security – 2012 The feedback gained from state testing is so important that Illinois upped the ante, closing a loophole that allowed many high school juniors to escape testing on college preparedness. This has resulted in 80 percent more students taking the state exams—and a significant drop in average scores. But this drop was due to the fact that in previous years only the best students took the test, instead of all students. The new results give a much more accurate picture of how the student population is doing, which in turn gives parents and teachers more information on how they’re doing, and how to respond. In order to continue improving feedback, new exams are due in 2014. These new exams will require written explanations of answers, demonstration of research skills, and require students to apply a given concept to a new context. The test questions are all based upon revised state standards for college and career preparedness, broken down into a grade-by-grade plan to properly equip students. Much of the 2009 stimulus money was targeted specifically to improving low-performing schools, through teacher training and development, providing resource support, and introducing technology to more classrooms. Additionally, a new data system was established to track students’ progress from kindergarten through 12th grade, to provide longitudinal data as well as snapshot data to educators improving the system. Another important reform in Illinois education is in regard to the hiring and firing of teachers. Previously, tenure and seniority were the most important factors for retaining teachers—meaning that schools often had to lay off newer teachers who were doing a much better job than others. Under the new reform, teacher achievement becomes more important than the number of years spent in a district. Tenure has not been eliminated (and high-performing new teachers can earn it within only three years), but performance is now more important than seniority in staffing decisions. Illinois actually joins several other states in reforming teacher hiring and firing—but Illinois has the advantage of bipartisan support for its reforms, whereas most other such reforms are disputed on party lines. Even Illinois teachers’ unions have supported the new reforms, after providing input on some of its aspects. Finally, Illinois is also looking to increase the length of its school day. For years, Illinois has had one of the shortest school days in the nation, and one substantially shorter than that of charter schools in the state. The added instructional time will be phased in as budgets (and teacher contract negotiations) allow. How’s the job outlook for Illinois teachers? Illinois is adding 8,830 new teaching jobs a year (counting both growth and replacement of teachers retiring or otherwise leaving the profession)—a growth rate of 1.5 percent, about twice that for all jobs in Illinois (0.83 percent). With the changes regarding the importance of seniority, more positions will become available to new teachers than ever before. Teacher salaries in Illinois are already well above the average for all citizens of the state—but with the increase in the length of the school day, teachers’ unions may bargain for increased pay to compensate. However, state budget shortfalls may delay such an increase (in both teacher pay and school day). Since local property taxes make up the bulk of school funding in Illinois, opportunities for teachers may vary according to region. Schools surrounded by higher property values can spend up to three times as much per pupil on education, offering more programs (including more teaching positions, such as for music or computer science). On the other hand, schools struggling with performance—whether in a rich or poor area—will be free to hire new teachers to improve test scores. What benefits do Illinois teachers have? The school year in Illinois has a minimum of 176 days of student attendance (plus a few teacher in-service days); but few schools have days beyond the minimum. The standard schedule is from late August to early June, giving teachers the summers off. The teaching day is only five hours long—one of the shortest in the nation. The cost of living in Illinois is less than in states offering comparable teacher salaries; in terms of salary versus cost of living, Illinois is actually one of the most comfortable places in the nation for teachers to live. Illinois Teacher Organizations Teacher benefit packages include health, dental, and vision insurance, and a substantial retirement provision. The retirement age in Illinois is 55. At an average of $43,000/year (with a three percent annual cost-of-living adjustment), Illinois teacher pensions are better than those in the private sector for jobs of comparable salary—and among the highest in the nation even for federal employees. Unfortunately, this situation has put the state pension fund in the hole; there is a current political battle waging over how to fix the problem. But even if pension amounts are reduced, they will probably remain competitive nationally. In the meantime, factoring in the value of pension and health benefits, the average teacher total compensation package in Illinois is worth $105,000 annually. Several organizations in Illinois (see to the right) are devoted to teacher development, and to providing educational resources to Illinois teachers. These organizations often publish and discuss research on teaching programs and techniques, and often offer classroom activities or curriculum supplements to improve teachers’ classrooms. What are the credentialing requirements in Illinois? All teachers in Illinois public schools must possess at least a bachelor’s degree and have completed an accredited teacher preparation program (which may or may not involve a graduate degree). After completing such a program, you will have to pass two examinations, the Illinois Certification Teaching System (ICTS) Basic Exam, which tests for reading, mathematics, writing, and grammar; and the particular ICTS Content Area Exam, for whatever subject you’re applying to teach. A criminal background check is not required to obtain a credential, but it is a part of being hired to teach in an Illinois school. Illinois teaching credentials come in three tiers: an initial certificate, a standard sertificate (obtained after teaching for four years), and a master certificate. Find additional information about teaching certification in Illinois.
Vascular Surgery has evolved to balance clinical medicine, open and minimally invasive surgical interventions, and innovation into a unique career where technological advancement is constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible in surgical capabilities. Being awed and inspired by the Vascular Surgery specialty, we have put together the 6Ps for pursuing a career in Vascular Surgery in the spirit of the notorious 6Ps for acute limb ischemia. 1. Patients: Vascular patients are a unique and complex population of patients burdened with numerous comorbidities. Approaching and managing vascular patients requires a good understanding of preoperative medical assessment, risk factor modification, and clinical medicine. Moreover, the nature of vascular disease allows vascular surgeons to develop longstanding relationships with their patients and their families, and follow them through numerous stages of their illness and recovery. 2. Procedures: Performing vascular surgery is a delicate and exhilarating experience operating on arteries, veins, and lymphatics virtually in every part of the body, from the neck, chest, abdomen, and upper and lower limbs. We perform complex procedures from minimally invasive routes to intricate open procedures. Vascular surgeons offer lifesaving, limb-salvaging and quality of life-improving procedures on a daily basis. 3. Problem solving: As medical students and residents can appreciate in vascular teaching rounds, there is never one answer to a clinical situation. Each particular case may be considered through multiple approaches – open surgery, endovascular surgery, hybrid surgery, or medical management. Strikingly, within each category there are further numerous options to consider. Trying to develop the solutions and clinical judgment around a case is what makes this specialty tantalizing. 4. People: Vascular surgeons are the nicest group of surgeons we have ever worked with (there might be a large bias in this statement). They are passionate about their specialty, dedicated to patient care, enthusiastic to teach students, and always easily approachable. We have both been fortunate to be mentored by vascular surgeons and as such decided to pursue careers in this extremely patient-centered field. Given that it is a small community, it truly feels like you are part of the vascular family. 5. Potential: Technology is advancing at an extraordinarily fast pace and the vascular community fosters innovation from preventative strategies, new imaging modalities, and new graft designs just to name a few. The big question is, where will the vascular specialty be in 10 years? And our belief is that it depends on the limits of our imagination. We need to challenge conventional thinking with courage and imagination, bringing innovation to the health care platform. And finally, one should pursue a career in vascular surgery because it is simply ... 6. Pretty awesome. As the frontiers of science and technology push forward, so too do the ideas, creativity, and innovation of talented people. Our hope is to be at that cutting edge leading the development of improved medical care and surgical delivery as vascular surgeons.
St. Alban-Anlage 66, 4052 Basel, Switzerland Tel. +41 61 683 77 34 Fax: +41 61 302 89 18 For more contact information, see here. Journal: Remote Sens., 2013 Article: Evaluation of Land Surface Models in Reproducing Satellite Derived Leaf Area Index over the High-Latitude Northern Hemisphere. Part II: Earth System Models Authors: Alessandro Anav, Guillermo Murray-Tortarolo, Pierre Friedlingstein, Stephen Sitch, Shilong Piao and Zaichun Zhu MDPI provides reprints in high quality with convenient shipping to destinations worldwide. The articles are printed in on premium paper with high-resolution figures. Our covers are customized to your article and designed to be complimentary to the journal. These reprints are ideal additions to your portfolio. Copy details: 135g/m2 paper, 2x stitched, full colour and glossy finish, orderable in quantities from 10 to 1000. If you have any questions, or special requests, please write to our support team; we are happy to provide you with the information you need.
What you’ll need: 1 Cup of blanched almonds 1 Special cloth bag for seeds (made of pure cotton, no dyes or chemicals) 2 or 3 cups filtered water. The less water the creamier the consistency To Blanch almonds Soak almonds overnight in water. Next day, remove the skins (they come off easily. 1. 3 cups of filtered water for every 1 cup of almonds. 2. Put in blender while gradually adding 3 cups of room temperature water. It will blend easier if you avoid adding all 3 cups in at once. 3. Once blended, strain/squeeze liquid through the cloth bag into a container. Almond milk will be good kept in the fridge for up to 5 days . “Those who would eat two to three almonds each day need never fear cancer.” Edgar Cayce Nuts about nutrition! Cancer Prevention – Almonds are low in saturated fat and contain many other protective nutrients – calcium and magnesium – for strong bones, vitamin E and compounds called phytochemicals, which may help protect against cardiovascular disease and even cancer. Reduce Heart Attack Risk – A Loma Linda School of Public Health study showed those who consumed nuts five times a week had a 50% reduction in risk of heart attack. Lower Cholesterol – In one clinical study, Dr. Gene Spiller, Director of the Health Research and Studies Center, Inc., showed that almonds added to the diet had a favorable effect on blood cholesterol levels and that none of the study groups experienced weight gain in the study. One ounce of almonds contains 12 percent of your daily allowance of protein. And absolutely no cholesterol, of course. You’ll also get 35 percent of your daily allowance of vitamin E, that valuable antioxidant with so many cancer-fighting qualities. And most of the fat in almonds is monounsaturated, also known as the “good” fat. This little nut is also loaded with minerals like magnesium, phosphorus and zinc, as well as lots of healthy fiber. And don’t forget calcium and folic acid – they’re in there too! 20-25 almonds (approximately one ounce) contain as much calcium as 1/4 cup of milk, a valuable tool in preventing osteoporosis. Almonds are the best whole food source of vitamin E, in the form of alpha-tocopherol, which may help prevent cancer. If you’re pregnant, or thinking about it, almonds are a great source of the folic acid you need! Almonds contain more magnesium than oatmeal or even spinach. Build strong bones and teeth with the phosphorus in almonds. Want to see it all? We’ve got a complete list of all the nutrients in almonds. Go Here! (Nuts about nutrition facts cited from www.nutsforalmonds.com/nutrition.htm) >
Now if the pitcher had to hit 99mph balls from a machine that shoots out balls in random curves and random intervals, I think the author would be right and it would, in fact, be nearly impossible. One day during the 1930s the Pittsburgh Crawfords were playing at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, where their young catcher, Josh Gibson, hit the ball so high and so far that no one saw it come down. After scanning the sky carefully for a few minutes, the umpire deliberated and ruled it a home run. The next day the Crawfords were playing in Philadelphia, when suddenly a ball dropped out of the heavens and was caught by the startled center fielder on the opposing club. The umpire made the only possible ruling. Pointing to Gibson he shouted, "Yer out -- yesterday in Pittsburgh!" « Older Great banter \| Miniature masterpieces Newer » This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Everglades National Park Volunteer Paula Baxter calls herself "another 70-year-old on an adventure." For the past six years she has trekked through wildness exploring the park’s beauty from the Anhinga Trail to Flamingo. She takes photos all along the way. She is now sharing her finds of nature in photos as "a glimpse into the lives of (the park’s) creatures and the ecosystems they inhabit. Each is a testament to the need to preserve and protect this unique environment." Baxter’s photo exhibit, her second since 2011, will be on display Dec. 1-31 at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center Gallery in Everglades National Park. Monthly exhibits there feature the work of artists, including students, of all ages. Baxter is calling her second show More Gifts From the Everglades. There is a “Meet the Artist” reception for her at the gallery at 2 p.m. on Dec. 15. "I am an amateur photographer, self taught, but it's hard not to get good pictures with such beauty surrounding you," she said. The Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center Gallery has a mission "to educate, enhance and enrich the visitor's understanding and experience of Everglades National Park through quality Everglades' specific exhibits; foster a unique opportunity for the future generations of Park stewards to learn about the Everglades." To plan a daytrip to the gallery and park, go to www.nps.gov/ever/index.htm. The visitor center is after the park’s main entrance at 40001 State Road 9336, Homestead, FL 33034. BASKETS OF CARE The members of Soroptimist International of Homestead are doing their part to help local women suffering with serious illnesses. The group is reaching out to women who have been diagnosed with cancer, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia or any other condition that makes it difficult to complete simple tasks. Many do not wish to burden family or friends. The Soroptimist Baskets of Care project was started just over a year ago. In that time the volunteers have given out customized baskets that include head wraps, earrings, inspirational books, gift certificates, floral arrangements, specialized hair products, home cleaning services, teas and other items. The baskets are customized for each woman’s needs. And once the women have received their baskets, Soroptimist members continue to send them cards, "letting them know they’re still thought of, should they need anything again." The group holds regular fundraisers, most recently its Martinis, Manicures & Massages (MM&M) event on Nov. 1 at the Woman’s Club in Homestead. At that event three women were honored with care baskets. Soroptimist is a global voice for women through the guiding principles of "Awareness, Advocacy and Action." For more information on Soroptimist of Homestead, call 305-247-0902 or visit www.sihomestead.com. HOLIDAY HOUSE TOUR This year, The Villagers 2013 Holiday House Tour will be in Coconut Grove from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Dec. 7. All six homes featured will illustrate the diversity and charm of the Grove. To see the homes, you can walk the tour or take a jitney transport available at Plymouth Congregational Church. There will also be the popular food and holiday boutique open at Davis Hall at Plymouth Church. Tickets are available in advance for $35. To reserve a spot send a check and self-stamped addressed envelope to: The Villagers Inc., P.O. Box 141843, Coral Gables, FL 33114-1843. Be sure to include your phone number and name on the check. If you have questions, call Joan Bounds at 305-442-2330. The Villagers is a volunteer organization that focuses on preservation and restoration of historic sites. Money received from the house tour goes directly to fund scholarships and projects. For more on this very involved group that has created awareness and preserved historic sites since 1966, visit www.thevillagersinc.org. Local artist Elaine Andrews was recently honored with the National Association of Women Artists Memorial Award for watercolor. She traveled to attend the award reception at the 124th Annual Exhibition of NAWA in New York. The NAWA was established in 1889 as the first professional women’s art organization in the U.S. Andrews, who lives in the Schenley Park/Coral Way Heights neighborhood, is a longtime resident of Miami and a signature member of the Miami Watercolor Society. Her art form often uses Mylar to reflect watercolor images. The colors interact and the images can appear to move and change shape. Andrews’ art is in several permanent collections. To see more of her work, visit www.miamiwatercolor.com/elaineandrews.html. Celebrate the holidays at the 27th annual Caroling Competition hosted once again by the 550 Biltmore Way Building in Coral Gables. Concerts are free to the public with the first at 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., Dec. 4. The events are presented by the Coral Gables, Florida Merrick Festival. The competition includes performances by singers from different schools every half hour, each evening until Dec. 8. The concerts are held on the steps of the 550 Building. There are 30 public, private and parochial schools competing this year for $20,000 cash. Prizes are awarded in the Junior and Senior Division for small ensembles, full choirs and show choirs. Local foundations, municipal organizations, corporations and local businesses, and the City of Coral Gables Cultural Development Board and Miami Dade Cultural Affairs support the event. In the spirit of the season, Piano Music Center is providing the red piano for the schools’ accompanists. The winners of the Competition will return for a short program to accept their awards at 7 p.m. on Dec. 10.
Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford offered a compelling personal story to emphasize his support for a robust social safety net despite his stance against expanding Medicaid under the federal healthcare law. Weatherford’s parents relied on a safety net program — he didn’t say which one in his speech on the opening day of the legislative session — to pay medical bills for his 20-month-old brother Peter, who died of cancer. That program, Weatherford’s father told The Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times, was funded with Medicaid dollars. The news angered advocates of the expansion who said Weatherford wanted to deny other families relief that helped his own. “I should have done a better job, and I take ownership of that, of having more facts before I gave my speech,” Weatherford said on March 8. “But it doesn’t change my belief, which is that what we’re talking about is 85 percent of the expansion are for single, childless adults. That’s what this Medicaid expansion goes to. Single, childless adults. It puts them on a government-run system that we potentially will have to pay for.” Weatherford’s main complaint seems to be that these people are “able-bodied,” as he put it. We wanted to give Weatherford’s statistic, so instrumental in his opposition to the expansion, the PolitiFact Florida treatment. Weatherford was referring to internal figures determined by budget experts on his staff, said spokesman Ryan Duffy. But Duffy quickly acknowledged that Weatherford quoted the wrong numbers, which were derived from data supplied by the Legislature’s Social Services Estimating Conference on March 7. The 85 percent figure Weatherford cited for “single, childless adults” was actually an estimate of all adults who would be covered if Medicaid expanded. (The House’s actual estimate is 82 percent.) How many of that group would single and childless? We don’t know. The state didn’t estimate that. The closest it came was estimating the impact on childless adults. Duffy said 62 percent of those who would receive Medicaid as part of the expansion would be childless adults. (That makes sense because childless adults currently cannot receive Medicaid under any circumstances in Florida. The expansion would change that.) We wondered what other experts know about the percentage of childless adults — again we can’t measure childless and single — who could get Medicaid coverage under an expansion. The state’s chief economist, Amy Baker, told us there are many ways of analyzing who could be covered by the Medicaid expansion. Her group, the Legislative Office of Economic and Demographic Research, identified a pool of 1,079,337 potential Medicaid beneficiaries using public microdata from the American Community Survey. Of that pool, 87 percent were adults 19 and over. Childless adults comprise 67 percent of beneficiaries, Baker said. Non-disabled childless adults (excluding 19- and 20-year-olds) would amount to 61.8 percent. The Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy, which supports the expansion, came up with its own breakdown of who would benefit from the expansion. By the center’s calculations, about 58 percent of the newly eligible would be childless adults. We should note the center uses a larger pool of newly eligible enrollees than Baker’s group, about 1.3 million people. The center offers a deeper dive into that population: About 22 percent are childless adults who do not have jobs. About 25 percent represent childless workers. The other 10 percent is composed of young adults age 19 to 25 and the disabled. (There was no way to extract the disabled from the center’s calculations.) “This is not the number of newly eligible adults that we think would actually enroll in Medicaid,” said Greg Mellowe, FCEFP director of health research and analysis. “In fact, not all of those who appear to be eligible based on income will even qualify due to other factors such as immigration status.” So what about our ruling? We know Weatherford’s assertion that 85 percent of the expansion’s beneficiaries would be childless adults is wrong. (He later corrected the number in an op-ed piece for the Tampa Bay Times.) The number should have been, by the House’s calculation, 62 percent. Weatherford, however, erred additionally by referring to only “single” adults. No one measures that. Weatherford is off on his number and his characterization. Yet, the statement contains an element of truth in that Medicaid is expected to benefit childless adults more than any other population. We rate his claim Mostly False.
Firm Eyes Coal-bed Methane ProspectPublished by MAC on 2007-03-18 Source: Manila Bulletin () Firm eyes coal-bed methane prospect By MYRNA M. VELASCO, Manila Bulletin 18th March 2007 Local firm Sultan Energy Philippines Corporation is validating prospect for potential development of a 100-megawatt power facility in Sultan Kudarat utilizing coal-bed methane (CBM) gas resources. According to Sultan Energy president Rufino B. Bomasang, their prospect in Mindanao area is sprawling on 7,000 hectares and could yield up to 100 billion cubic feet of CBM that could be converted for electricity generation purposes. Sultan Energy has been awarded coal operating contracts within the Daguma mountain range, which is lying between the provinces of South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat. Methane gas generally poses danger to coal miners as it can trigger explosions. But Bomasang emphasized this can be turn into an asset if utilized for power generation and with the application of appropriate technology. "Sultan Energy is willing to put in additional investment to develop CBM," Bomasang indicated. The re-assessment and development of coalbed methane for energy applications and usage was the subject of a recent bilateral deal concluded by the Department of Energy (DoE) with the United States government. The energy department has identified 19 coal districts nationwide containing significant coal deposits and offered these to prospective developers like Sultan Energy. Together with its affiliate firm MG Mining & Energy Corporation, Sultan Energy previously committed investment of up to $ 300 million for a 200megawatt mine-mouth coal power project in Sultan Kudarat which is targeted for commercial operation in 2011. The presented project costs would include 0 million [sic] for the power project and $ 50 million-$ 100 million for coal mine development activities. As assessed, the quality of coal to be mined for the proposed coal facility is lignite. Project proponents said they will utilize circulating fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) technology for the proposed power facility. It was bared that the coal mines operated by MG Mining in the area could yield up to 800,000 tonnes a year; which would be enough to run the planned power project. The company noted that it already extracted extensive coal resources in its seven blocks in Daguma; while advancing development of three more coal operating contracts in Surigao del Sur. The off-take arrangement or market of the electricity output, project sponsors said, would not be much of a concern given forecasts that the area would soon be badly needing additional power supply because of briskly expanding economic activity in northeastern part of Mindanao.
Lac qui Parle State Park Descriptions of Selected Resources Minnesota state parks contain a variety of historic properties. These images are representative of the Rustic Style historic resources built in Minnesota state parks. Architect: Petersen & Nielsen The Model Shelter is a 65'8" x 29'6" rectangular structure covered with a hip roof. The walls consist of random ashlar masonry rising to a height of 4' with rough board and batten siding placed above. The building may be entered through three 6' openings located on both principal facades or 7' openings on the side walls. All openings are capped with 10" x 10" wooden lintels and are flanked by posts of the same dimension with brackets. The building was constructed to house a relief map cast in reinforced concrete of the Minnesota River Valley and the Lac qui Parle Flood Control System. The model is 50' long and 2'8" high and consists of an 18' section, 10' wide, which tapers to an 8' wide section, 32' long. The model rests on a concrete footing and a rubblestone foundation wall faced with a stone veneer. The area immediately beneath the model is filled with sand. The model was cast in several sections. The interior walls are covered with random widths of shiplap siding. Wooden benches which rest on stone supports are built in all four corners of the building. The roof is supported by 2" x 8" rafters with 2" x 6" collars beams, 4' on center.
\|The Norman Church\| The monastic revival in Anglo-Norman England After the Norman Conquest England witnessed a revival of monasticism. Barons with the resources derived from their new lands sought the redemption of their souls by making grants to religious houses in Normandy or by founding new ones in England ruled by French abbots. One of the earliest was Battle Abbey founded by William the Conqueror to atone for the bloodshed at Hastings. In the late 11th century the new houses were often in towns or close to baronial castles, emphasising the intimate relationship of secular and religious power in society. At the same time Benedictine rule ceased to be the only basis for monasticism and new orders, such as the Augustinian canons and Cistercian monks, appeared. In the first half of the 12th century the Cistercians took advantage of the growing appeal of a monastic ideal promoted by their founder St Bernard of Clairvaux, which rejected worldliness and sought a greater zeal in dedication to God than was found in houses following the Benedictine code. The Cistercians emphasised the virtues of contemplation, prayer and manual work and chose remote sites, such as Byland and Rievaulx (N. Yorkshire), for their abbeys. Opportunities for women in holy orders were few until the 12th century when a number of Benedictine nunneries were founded. In 1131 Gilbert of Sempringham (Lincolnshire) founded the only monastic order of English origin, later known as the Gilbertines, which catered for nuns as well as canons. Another 12th century development, arising out of the crusades to the Holy Land, was the emergence of military orders which aimed at both a monastic and knightly ideal. The largest in England was the Knights Templars, created after the establishment of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem in 1128.
Welcome to Mountain Sky Reiki My name is Jennifer Kimbley, and I teach Reiki healing in Surrey, British Columbia. I studied to be a Reiki Teacher and Practitioner in Osaka, Japan under Hyakuten Inamoto Sensei, a Japanese Buddhist monk. Classes are only offered during the months of July and August. What is Reiki Ryoho (Reiki Healing Art)? Reiki Ryoho is a Japanese method to improve your mind and body. It reduces stress, increases relaxation, and is an alternative method of healing. It originated in Kyoto, Japan in the 1920s. Reiki Ryoho is easy to learn and use, and anyone can practice Reiki healing art after taking a class from a trained Reiki teacher. In addition, while Reiki is spiritual, it is not a religion and can be practiced by anyone. I’ve created this website to share what I know about Reiki with you. I hope you enjoy it, and please contact me if you are looking for a traditional Japanese Reiki class! I’m looking forward to hearing from you! What Does Reiki Mean? The top part of the character (on the left) is Rei, meaning something mysterious, ethereal, transcendental and sacred. The bottom part of the character is Ki, meaning the atmosphere, or something subtle, or the energy of the universe. When combined to form the word Reiki (Ray-Key), these characters represent the sacred energy of the universe. This sacred energy, called Reiki can be used to heal and balance the body and mind. Komyo Reiki Kai Komyo Reiki Kai is a school of Reiki that was founded by Rev. Hyakuten Inamoto Sensei (1940 – ) when he started teaching Reiki in 1998. Hyakuten Sensei is a non-sectarian Buddhist monk, and he lives in Kyoto, Japan. He studied with Yamaguchi Sensei in 1996/1997. Komyo Reiki Kai follows the teachings of Usui Sensei, with some of the modifications made by Hayashi Sensei. Traditional Japanese Reiki techniques are taught and used, and the focus of teaching is on healing not only the body, but also the soul. Usui Sensei believed that with spiritual improvement and development that the body would be better able to heal itself, and Hyakuten Sensei and the Komyo Reiki Kai school follow this belief. Rev. Hyakuten Inamoto has taught Reiki classes in Japan, Australia, Canada, the United States, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Greece and Argentina, and he hosts weekly Reiki shares at the Daizen-In Buddhist Temple in Kyoto.
MZ Reader James Russell On MS and Mozilla Saturday November 6th, 1999 Reader James Russell has contributed a great opinion piece evaluating Judge Jackson's findings of fact and the effect that Microsoft's activities have had on Netscape and the creation of the Mozilla project. Click "Full Article" below to read more. #7 Write Once, Run Anywhere. Sunday November 7th, 1999 8:44 PM You are replying to this message One of the big points of this whole fiasco was that Microsoft tried to prevent anyone from attaining the goal of write once run anywhere. Netscape was a threat, Java was a threat and Intel became a threat when they were going to support such technologies. There is still one unotouched technology that can acheive this goal and it's owned by a company many people don't like. That company is Apple. The Yellow Box, Cocoa, whatever you want to call the NeXT Object oriented stuff; I beleive can do what Java set out to do. The only problem is the developer community, whom I'm not a part of and know little about, needs to get Apple to release this stuff freely or at very little cost. The more I read about this technology the more I hope Apple doesn't screw it up. There is hope, seeing as Apple is bascily being run by all the key people from NeXT. I can only guess their goals haven't changed, just the way in which they are carried out. Mac OS is supposed to be more like NeXTstep with Mac OS X and very early screenshots I've seen support that. Perhaps NeXT's goals are still a priority in Cupertino. Do I just not get it since I'm not a programer? Am I totaly off base?
Re April 18 article, “Coastal cities ponder how to prepare for rising sea levels” Today’s article by Erica Bolstad warns all beachfront property owners to head for the hills because of “rising sea levels caused by man-made global warming” which will cease if only we stop burning fossil fuels. In the interim, each of us must shell out gazillions of dollars to minimize carbon dioxide release even though many climate scientists accept that temperature increases drive CO2 levels, not vice versa. Global warning fanatics should check out the state of the art United States Climate Reference Network. According to this vastly improved system, the average temperature for July 2012 was 75.55 degrees F. This compares to an average temperature from July 1936 of 77.4 degrees. Proponents of “manmade” global warming should also compare a few metrics from 1936 and 2012 to see how ridiculous this concept really is. In 1936, the population was 128 million. By 2012, it was 312 million, 2.44 times more people. In 1936, there were 28 million cars, a number that had increased to 247 million by 2012, or 8.8 times more cars. How can any sane person make a valid argument that “global warming” is caused by man given the huge difference in CO2 producing machinery in the 76-year span from 1936 to 2012? The writer lives in Pawleys Island.
This fall, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation will open a new exhibition and visitors center at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at Building 92. Among the many items on display at this new museum will be an intricately detailed model of the 19th century ship of the line USS Ohio. The model was built by former Air Force officer Steven Myatt. He began construction of the model in 1998, making slow but steady progress in short weekly sessions of research and construction. One of the reasons it took so many years to complete the model is that Myatt’s work was meticulous. The primary plan he used to recreate Ohio was one drawn by Howard Chapelle in his book “The History of the American Sailing Navy.” This provided the body, sheer, and top deck plans. Myatt wanted the top two decks fully constructed, so he made a trip to the National Archives to obtain plans for the main gundeck – and anything else they happened to have handy. He was fortunate enough to find an interior sheer plan, a stern draught, a spardeck plan, the main gundeck plan, a plan for the ship’s boats, and a couple of plans showing the arrangement of the channels and upper gunports. For the figurehead, Myatt made a trip to StoneyBrook, Long Island to take photographs of the actual figurehead, on display in the Hercules Pavilion. But Myatt’s research did not end with these sources. From the memoirs of Roland Gould (“Life of Gould” published in 1867), he discovered that the companionway in front of the ship’s wheel was done in shining brass. Gould also supplied plenty of lower-deck scuttlebutt about the ship and current events. He also utilized official papers and memoirs written by Ohio‘s crew, including ship’s papers from the “Papers of Isaac Hull.” Myatt discovered that in April of 1841, Ohio fished up carronades from storage in the ballast and mounted them in preparation for war with England. The model is set for April, 1841 and shows all guns mounted. Why did Myatt choose to build Ohio? In his own words, “Ohio represents the pinnacle of sailing line-of-battle design.” This heavily armed, fast sailing, good looking ship was marveled at by crowds overseas during her service. USS Ohio was laid down in 1817 at New York Navy Yard. Launched on 30 May 1820, she spent her early years in ordinary, until refitted for service in 1838. She served as flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron for two years, including a role in suppressing slave trade off the coast of Africa. She went into ordinary again in 1840 at Boston, serving as a receiving ship. Recommissioned in 1846, she participated in the War with Mexico, landing guns at the siege of Vera Cruz, and lending 336 of her crew for the Tuxpan River Expedition. After the war, Ohio spent two years in the Pacific, and helped to keep order off California during the Gold Rush. She returned one last time to Boston in 1850, where she once again served as a receiving ship until 1875. She then went into ordinary and was sold off in 1883. In the process of being broken up, in 1884 in Greenport Harbor, NY, she broke from her mooring during a storm, and became stranded. She was burned to the waterline, and portions of her hull remain scattered and buried under the mud to this day. For more on Ohio‘s service, please visit the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships page on the Naval History and Heritage Command website. Steven Myatt’s model is an amazing display of craftsmanship and dedication. The ship is a little over 5 feet long & 3 ½ ft tall. It weighs 25 pounds and was built at 1/72nd scale – any larger and it would have been impossible to get it out of Myatt’s basement. The model was built using the popular plank-on-bulkhead construction technique. There are approximately 1500 individual white holly planks used to do both decks. The bulkheads (frames) were cut from aircraft plywood. The keel is Cocobolo. The planking (including the decks) were all done with white holly. Deck fittings were made using boxwood. Masts were constructed with poplar and the spars are cherry. The tops were built using Swiss pear and boxwood. The bottom is covered with around 1200 copper plates. The standing rigging is composed of Irish linen line for the shrouds and silk for the stays. The running rigging is all silk. All rigging was created on a rope-walk built by Myatt to turn individual strands of cord into rope. The guns are all brass except for the two 32 pounders on the forecastle. These were turned from boxwood. Silver solder was used for all soldering work – lead solder can rot. According to Myatt, he built the model to last “hundreds of years.” The model’s configuration is based on what Myatt determined to be Ohio’s armament in April, 1841: 34 – 42lb on lower deck 34 – 32lb on gun deck 32 – 42lb carronades on spar deck 2 – 32lb long guns on forecastle 102 guns total A bit of trivia: Myatt always signs the inside of any ship model he makes. He signed his name and date on the cabin floor under the master table – now visible only to a mini-camera snaked in through a gunport. Myatt originally intended to donate the model to the National Museum of the United States Navy at Washington Navy Yard as a gift. But he was contacted last year by representatives of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, who asked if they could display the model in their new museum. As the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation is a private enterprise, Myatt agreed to loan them the model indefinitely. The Center at Bldg 92 opens later this year – if you have the chance to visit, be sure to give the Ohio model a close look.
Reviewed by Michael F. Solecki. USS Biddle (DLG later CG 34) had a colorful and illustrious career. The last of nine Belknap- class cruisers, she was the fourth U.S. warship to carry the name. She was delivered to the U.S. Navy by the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine on 10 January 1967, commissioned 21 January 1967 and decommissioned 30 November 1993. As with any warship their “real” career begins when she is introduced to the reason of her existence, WAR! As aptly described in the book, The Biddle began her “real” career during the early years of the “hot” war in Vietnam, and continued into the remaining years of the Cold War. The U.S. Navy was on the front line of that war and the Biddle was riding that line. The historiography and perspective of the book was that of the eyewitnesses Biddle plankowner James A. Treadway, a former Data Systems Technician and Thomas F. Marfiak, a retired rear admiral, augmented by a well-qualified and sometimes colorful cast of “characters” that either served in USS Biddle, another Belknap class cruiser, or were involved with the technological development of the class and its systems. Each of the chapters were very comprehensive in the technical aspects of the ship’s operation. As anyone who ever served on a ship especially a warship, can attribute, from the lay of the keel to the final decommissioning and/or her death, they are a living entity. Each contributor clearly presented that picture with an obvious knowledge of their respective subject. Through conceptual views of the technology that made the Biddle tick including the Sailors, they described how she earned “live” status and the right to be called “she” instead of “it.” Major “foul ups” that occurred were also presented, and the people and chronology of the attempts to correct them were colorfully presented with personal notes and touches; that would often put a smile on my face not only from the occasional humorous perspective but, also in recognition of honesty. The contributors and editors appear to keep the story and each chapter in perspective for the most part except for an occasional ramble. I appreciated that the names of the responsible person was often included for credit of a development or the resolution of an issue. I do feel strongly however, that the chapter order could have been better arranged. Beginning the book with the history of the general technological developments deferred getting to “USS Biddle” and her life as expressed in the title. I read the book twice. The first time as is and the second time I began with Chapter 5 then 6, 3, 4, 2, 1, 8, 9, 7, 10, 11… I found that it flowed much better and tended to better put the technical information in perspective hence, kept my interest and minimized confusion. From the laying of the keel to the death of a ship is a maturing process and would be better described that way. I also recommend a few pictures of the old computer systems in their spaces, floor plans, radar dishes, etc. to provide a visual comparative perspective to today’s technology to the younger readers. On that note I do highly recommend the book to both those interested in ships and naval technology history in spite of the organizational issues. Michael F. Solecki is an independent naval historian, U.S. Navy Destroyer (AAW & ASW) and NOAA (Atmospheric and Marine Physical Scientist) veteran of the Cold War and performs peer reviews for several publishers of U.S. and Japanese Naval History.
The Great Unwinding of the central banks stimulus policies is underway, as discussed last week. Oil markets have been one of the first to feel the change, as the chart shows, with prices finally falling out of the ‘triangle’ shape built up since 2008. The value of the US$, interest rates and the S&P 500 will also be impacted as the Unwinding continues. The ‘triangle shape’ is one of the most interesting ’technical’ shapes. It monitors the balance of power between the bulls (seeking to push prices higher) and the bears (trying to take them lower). And the oil triangle since 2008 has been particularly interesting as in reality it has monitored the balance between: - The financial players, trading electronically on the futures markets second by second - The physical players, actually using the product for transport, heating and other ‘real’ purposes Essentially what has happened is that the market long-ago stopped being based on supply/demand fundamentals. Instead it became driven by financial players. In hindsight, we can see there were two stages to this development: Stage 1, 2005 – 2008 - Investment banks had made easy gains from 2005 onwards, by buying large volumes of futures contracts - Prices then collapsed back to the historical $30/bbl level at the end of 2008 Stage 2, 2009 – 2014 - Prices recovered sharply as central banks began printing cash on a low-cost model with low interest rates - Pension funds bought oil as a ‘store of value’, as the US Federal Reserve devalued the $ to boost exports - Investment banks created hype about supposed shortages, whilst hedge funds jumped in to follow the trend - High-frequency trading added to the chaos, creating the ‘correlation trade’ with the US S&P 500 Index One set of statistics highlights the change that took place (data from ThomsonReuters): - 2005: Just 920,636 contracts were traded in the US WTI futures market - 2008: There were 21,485,557 contracts traded - 2011: There were 41,943,006 contracts traded Futures markets had originally been created to allow producers and consumers to hedge positions. The blog helped to develop the contract in its early days when working for ICI in Houston, Texas. It still believe they have a valid purpose. But as the blog noted as long ago as July 2010, the financial players’ strategy have reversed the normal working of the markets. They have created a contango structure, where prices for future delivery are higher than today’s. This is the opposite of the traditional role, where producers hedge their positions and create backwardation – making today’s price higher than tomorrow’s. FINANCIAL PLAYERS CAME TO DOMINATE OIL MARKETS Thus oil markets have thus lost their price discovery role since 2005, and have instead been swamped by financial players. - In 2005, world oil production was 82 million bbls/day of crude: WTI hedging was less than 1 million bbls/day - By 2011, world oil production was still only 84 million bbls/day: but WTI hedging was now half of the total History shows that the global economy cannot support oil prices being more than 2.5% of GDP. But since 2009 they have taken 5% of GDP, due to the actions of the financial players. The gap has been bridged by the central banks, creating $35tn (50% of global GDP) of new money on a low-cost basis over the period. Naturally, prices soared as all this new financial demand appeared. The reason is simple: it takes only a microsecond to create a trade on a futures market, but it takes at least 5 – 10 years to find new oilfields and bring them into production. Speculators thus began to dominate the market, creating a completely artificial balance between supply and demand – based on financial flows instead of product flows. THE GREAT UNWINDING OF STIMULUS IS NOW UNDERWAY But now the central banks are starting to pull back. Logic says you can’t go on printing money forever – in the end, you have to start paying it back, or defaulting. China was the first to do this last year under the new leadership. Thus Reuters reports its implied oil demand was down 6% in July. Now, the International Energy Agency has reported in its latest Report that: “Oil supplies were ample, and the Atlantic market was even reported to be facing a glut” Thus the oil price is finally starting to fall out of its triangle: - 10 years of historically high prices has led to major new investment, which is finally starting to come online – not only in oil, but also in gas and other energy sources - At the same time, central bank lending is finally starting to reduce in China and the US - 10 years of high prices have also led to demand destruction via greater efficiency and conservation efforts - The result, as the IEA note, is that we suddenly find we face a supply glut as So the chart is telling us that the financial players are now retreating from the market. In turn, this means physical supply/demand levels will come to drive the process of price discovery once again. MAJOR OIL PRICE VOLATILITY IS NOW LIKELY How low will prices go? We can have no idea, as prices have never been this high for so long. Nor can we rule out a further massive stimulus effort by the central banks at some point. But ‘technical trading’ logic would suggest they will fall to at least the 200-day exponential moving average, currently around $70/bbl, and probably lower (red line). Equally, if price discovery does start to become based on real supply/demand balances again, we will have to watch out for geopolitical issues. Ironically, there was never a single moment when supplies were interupted whilst prices were high. It was all hype, as the blog described at the time. But today there are real concerns developing on the supply side. Will Russia cut Europe’s gas supply through the Ukraine in the winter, for example? That could easily push oil prices much higher, as users panicked and tried to substitute oil for gas. Companies need to urgently prepare for major and unprecedented volatility in energy markets, as the Great Unwinding continues.
As part of NFPA’s commitment to eliminate fire deaths and injuries through effective public education programs and information, NFPA strives to be the source for fire and life safety information. With help from our official mascot, Sparky the Fire Dog®, and our national outreach efforts, like our public education advisors, public education network, Safety Source e-newsletter, Remembering When™ program, Learn Not to Burn® programs, and our annual Fire Prevention Week campaign, NFPA is helping to make the world a safer place. Strategies are integrated throughout our programs to reach those at highest risk including young children, older adults, people in low-income communities and people with disabilities. NFPA Safety Index Use our index to quickly find information on the safety topics you're looking for. A \| B \| C \| D \| E \| F \| G \| H \| I \| J \| K \| L \| M \| N \| O \| P \| Q \| R \| S \| T \| U \| V \| W \| X \| Y \| Z
So in 2005, a spec sheet was created for “Super Mario Revolutions”. Koizumi explained, "The concept was to play with Mario running around on spherical objects – something Miyamoto had come up with 5 years before, and something I came up with too. Why spherical worlds... What distinctive features attracted us to spherical worlds? Was it just because they were novel?" He went on to explain more elements of spherical objects and what new ideas they bring to the platforming table. Galaxy also adds two new actions only possible with Wii -- one is the spin attack, and the other is the use of the pointer to gather stars. The spin attack provides an alternative for players for whom mis-perception of depth makes it a challenge to stomp Goombas. The spin fulfilled other roles as well, like launching coconuts or twisting a screw. "You could use the spin for almost any interaction where you didn’t know what else to do," Koizumi added. "The spirit of simplicity we used in Jungle Beat comes out very well here." The article talks at length about the thought process behind the game and a number of others, its well worth a read if your interested in game design and what happens behind the scenes. Find the full article over at Gamesutra.
Cyprus is an island divided by a border that runs west to east across the middle of the land mass with approximately two thirds of the total area to the south and the remaining third in the north. It has been thus since 1974 when the Turkish armed forces intervened to stop the internal conflict between the ethnic Turkish and Greek Cypriot people. Until 1983 the northern part was a federated state of Turkey under the control of the Turkish Government in Ankara. In 1983 a democratically elected Government of Turkish Cypriots took the reins of power and the (TRNC) Turkish Republic of North Cyprus was born. In the Turkish language this becomes (KKTC) Kuzey Kibris Turk Cumhurriyet, with TRNC and KKTC being fully interchangeable in publicity, advertising and promotional material. Over the period of twenty eight years since independence the TRNC continues to be unrecognised by all countries of the world with the exception of Turkey and therefore it relies very much on funding from the Government of Turkey for the financial assistance necessary to maintain and improve the infrastructure that is so important for a people whose livelihood depends almost entirely on agriculture and tourism. The lack of recognition of the northern part of the island for the last thirty seven years has resulted in a country that is still in many ways stuck in a time warp which in the early stages of its development was a benefit. Tourists who came soon after the military intervention, were charmed by the lack of sophistication and made repeat visits. They brought their friends with them and encouraged others to do the same. Then they saw the emergence of a newly created state that remained an area of unspoilt and undeveloped beauty to be discovered by those who wanted to get away from the more usual sun and sand holiday. The TRNC continued to improve its tourism facilities, building small family run hotels and holiday villages and over the last fifteen years there has been a steady increase in tourist numbers and permanent population. North Cyprus has proved to be an extremely popular destination for retirees who benefit from a warm winter climate and the domestic infrastructure has improved to keep pace with the increased number of inhabitants. Town amenities and major roads have all been given a make-over that has put them into the 21st Century, and though there is now an air of prosperity in all the towns and villages the Cypriot people remain the same, warmly welcoming to all.

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