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Text-only Preview http://www.eclipseeducation.com.au/courses_FWHP.asp
What Food Handler Certification Is
All About
It is imperative for people distributing and selling foodstuff
to receive training on food safety. A foodstuff handler will
be certified only when he or she has completed this safety
training. Food handler certification can be a great tool that
can land you a job in the foodstuff production industry.
Getting into the industry will allow you to implement the
knowledge and skills you posses. Remember, it is also possible
for you to open your foodstuff business.
At the end of this course, the student will be knowledgeable
on the preparation, storage and safe foodstuff disposal, which
is ideal in maintaining a clean environment. The acquisition
of this certification will be a green light for someone to
commence his career in hospitality industry. This course can
also be taken online. The online arrangement is a perfect
option for students that wish to study in their convenience or
students away from school.
The course can be taken in modules, which allows the student
to have his or her course done in smaller portions rather than
taking it all at once. By simply signing in, a student will be
able to resume for his online course. Upon the completion of
your course and settling all the fee arrears, a student will
have his certificated emailed to him.
The certification will give you unlimited opportunity to work
in numerous places where foodstuff is sold. Sandwich shops,
restaurants, cafes and conference venues are some of the
places where someone that has undergone this course will be
able to work. Hygiene is normally observed keenly in the
advanced procedures of handling foodstuff. This is to ensure
clients are not affected by illnesses related to poor hygiene.
It is worthwhile considering that your reputation will be
tarnished when your clients complain of how foodstuff is
handled in your business. This will make you to lose clients.
Students in this program are normally taught on diverse food
borne illnesses and how they spread. With these teachings,
students will be well equipped with knowledge on how to handle
different kinds of foodstuff.
Students are also taught on how to expose foodstuff in the
right temperatures and how they can alter temperatures without
spoiling it. There is a test that comes at the end of this
course. The test is to confirm whether you have mastered the
skills you have learned on techniques related to foodstuff
handling.
Food handler certification is normally a key requirement for
people in the hospitality industry in many states. It is
important enrolling into a food handling course if you have a
plan of opening a business with kitchen. The certificate will
allow you to work in virtually every area in hospitality
industry.
http://www.eclipseeducation.com.au/courses_FWHP.aspFormat Pages Price 3 $40.00 ADD TO CART Hardcopy ( shipping and handling) 3 $40.00 ADD TO CART Significance and Use
This test method will provide a guide for the choice of metallic materials for applications in high pressure hydrogen gas.
The value of the P
He/P H2 ratio will be a relative indication of the severity of degradation of the mechanical properties to be expected in hydrogen. 1. Scope
1.1 This test method covers the quantitative determination of the susceptibility of metallic materials to hydrogen embrittlement, when exposed to high pressure gaseous hydrogen.
1.2 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as the standard. The values given in parentheses are for information only.
1.3 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.
2. Referenced Documents (purchase separately) The documents listed below are referenced within the subject standard but are not provided as part of the standard. ASTM Standards
E384 Test Method for Knoop and Vickers Hardness of Materials
ICS Code
ICS Number Code 77.040.99 (Other methods of testing metals)
UNSPSC Code
UNSPSC Code 12142101(Hydrogen compound gases)
Link Here Link to Active (This link will always route to the current Active version of the standard.) DOI: 10.1520/F1459-06R12 Citation Format
ASTM F1459-06(2012), Standard Test Method for Determination of the Susceptibility of Metallic Materials to Hydrogen Gas Embrittlement (HGE), ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2012, www.astm.orgBack to Top | 1.399485 | 1,000 | 998 |
Home News Sports Business Entertainment Lifestyles Community Opinion Driveway World Impress
Place Classified Ad Browse Classifieds BC Jobs CrowdFunding Victoria News Oak Bay News Peninsula News Review Goldstream News Gazette Real Estate Victoria Vancouver Island Free Daily LETTER: Nisga'a parallel state poses tough questions
Re: Nisga’a prove critics wrong,
B.C. Views (Dec. 3)
Despite a perceived regretful tone in Tom Fletcher’s opinion piece, he seems to have had an epiphany that’s led to his urging acceptance of the Supreme Court of Canada ruling which enabled the creation by the Nisga’a First Nation of (Fletcher’s words) “a parallel state” in B.C. Not noted is that Supreme Court rulings can be, and not infrequently are, overturned.
Fletcher, unlike many of us, may never have learned “that two wrongs don’t make a right.”
The first long-standing wrong at issue is the sorry treatment of aboriginals in both B.C. and across Canada.
Despite significant improvements over recent years, more remains to be done.
The second wrong is that the Supreme Court of Canada ruling now enables a new layer of government in B.C.
What’s been created is a “landed gentry” of sorts who’ve in effect received Supreme Court authority to exercise sovereign powers, and they now plan to establish multiple export-enabling LNG terminals on the B.C. coast.
B.C. taxpayers will follow such developments with interest, particularly if there is no parallel commitment by the Nisga’a to assume increasing responsibility for both federal and provincial government services as their “parallel state” business plans prove profitable.
The old adage that “there’s only one taxpayer” could, with Nisga’a concurrence remain a truism.
It’s based on the realization that whether for services provided by local, provincial or federal governments, most voters and elected leaders have long recognized that it’s the voting taxpayer who, over time, determines both government funding levels and program priorities.
Unanswered questions include: Will this aboriginal “parallel state” acknowledge a responsibility to – within its anticipated capability – participate as a fully functional entity within our national federation?
Will it fund a portion of the many provincial and federal government services it now receives? Will it commit to creating and funding its self-determined unique government service programs?
Historical antipathy between First Nation, local, provincial and federal agencies indicates a need for strong but flexible leadership at all four governmental levels. In seeking a comprehensive governmental rebalancing, we’ll hopefully avoid historically based emotional rhetoric supporting retributive rationale if we’re to minimize (costly) long-term confrontational negotiations.
In B.C., our often-envied Canadian cultural mosaic is at risk of becoming a dysfunctional and tattered societal quilt.
Ron Johnson SaanichCompanies and shareholders: introduction: evidence of ownership - registered shares
A company is required by law to maintain a register of members- a list of current shareholders, called the company’s share register. Shares whose ownership is recorded on the register are known as registered shares. The registrar is responsible for maintaining the register - in smaller private companies this is often the company secretary, but larger companies usually employ a specialist firm of registrars. The register must be kept at the company’s registered office, or some other office notified to Companies House. Any member has the right to inspect the register, without payment.
In order to record the name of the owner of a share, the registrar requires evidence of ownership in the form of either a share certificate or a stock account within the CREST settlement system (see STSM131050).
Share certificates are the documents issued by the company to the shareholder, certifying the details of ownership and bearing the name of the legal owner of the shares. That person may be the beneficial owner of the shares, or a nominee appointed to hold the shares on behalf of the beneficial owner. Use of nominees is a common and convenient way of managing an investment portfolio. Shares may also be held in ‘dematerialised’, electronic form in a member account in CREST.
The register must show the following particulars:
the name and address of each member; the number and type of shares held by each member; the amount paid, or agreed to be considered as paid, for the shares; the date at which the person was registered as a member, and the date at which he or she ceased to be a member.
When registered shares are transferred from one person to another, it is necessary for the register to be altered to record the change of ownership. See STSM071060.
Not all shares are registered shares. Bearer shares are not listed on a share register. See STSM071050. | 1.893575 | 965 | 963 |
Jobs have useful perks photo by unk’s dumptruck
Finding a job can be tough. If you’ve been laid off, are looking for a part-time primary or second job, or are returning to the workforce after being a stay-at-home parent, it can feel as if there aren’t any jobs out there. One thing to consider is that many jobs don’t seem appealing at first glance. For example, maybe the pay is far less than you’re hoping for, but there might be perks that make the job worth taking. Some companies such as Starbucks, Kroger and United Parcel Service offer healthcare benefits to part-time staff. You can ask whether the position has any extra perks, such as free or discounted cell phone, gas or parking allowance, flexible spending accounts, adoption or tuition assistance, fitness incentives, community discounts, restaurants, etc.
What jobs have you done that had useful perks?
Here are a few additional jobs with budget-friendly perks.
CARE PROVIDER: If you’re working at a child-care center, you might get discounted child care for your kids. This can be a great advantage. There isn’t any extra transportation, and you can check in on your children to see how they’re doing. You wouldn’t think an adult care-provider position would have many perks. Kita in New Jersey shares: “My part-time job is taking care of mentally handicapped adults. We take them out into the community. Fairs, restaurant meals and movies are all free for staff. They also pay for me to take the defensive-driving course, which reduces my insurance. And flu shots, too.” MOVIE-THEATER EMPLOYEE: Work at a local movie theater, and many companies will let you see new releases and/or provide free concession food. Along the same lines, video-rental stores will often let you rent free movies and games. MUSEUM EMPLOYEE: Employees often are given free passes to exhibits and discounts for the gift shop. UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEE: Many universities offer free tuition for their employees. Some even extend it to immediate family members of the employee, too. That’s a huge perk that can really pay off. Some universities offer season passes to athletic events, local gardens and the planetarium. RETAIL CLOTHING: There are generous discounts (10 percent to 50 percent) given at many retail-clothing stores. Plus, you’re first to see when items are clearanced, too. FLORISTS: Many florists will let you take home older flowers and plants or provide a discount on merchandise, such as balloons, gift baskets or giftware. Because holidays are so busy, some florists will buy food for their employees, too. BAKERIES: Work in a bakery, and there’s a chance you can get many bakery goods free or discounted. This can be especially nice for special occasions. Another reader, Jill in New Jersey, shares: “I used to work at a bakery and could take home as much bread/muffins/bagels as I wanted when I was closing. (Food we didn’t take got donated to a soup kitchen.) Tuesdays, we got to take home cakes that didn’t sell. Holidays, we could take home unsold pies. Believe me, my family and friends did not go hungry. I’m talking big black garbage bags full of stuff.” COMMUNITY CENTER OR GYM: Some have on-site child care. A great way to stay fit. Often, family members are given deep discounts, too. SALON: While not every salon gives free haircuts, nails or waxing, some do offer these perks. Most offer a discount on products and services. Often, stylists simply swap their time and service. HOTEL WORKER: Work at a hotel, and get free or discounted rooms. This often will include hotels in the chain. This can be a wonderful perk when planning a vacation or getaway.How can I dissolve this sugar more quickly? How can I get this cake to cook more quickly? How can I get this glue to set more quickly?
The answer to all of these questions is likely to be raising the temperature. Temperature has a huge and important effect on reactions and the chemical industry relies heavily on this. Without tempertaure, the Haber process would not function to make ammonia, and we make use of it constantly in our everyday lives.
Extending the collision theory of reactions
Think of the reaction between nitrogen and hydrogen to make ammonia in the
Haber process: N2(g) + 3H2(g) --> 2NH3(g)
The collision theory says that reaction can only occur when N2 and H2 molecules collide. The more frequently they collide, the faster the reaction. For example, N2 and H2 molecules are forced together when the… | 1.713762 | 972 | 970 |
iBeacons: A High-Tech Approach in Retail Marketing
Technology has surpassed thresholds with its ever developing phenomenon. It has managed to make its reach to higher and diversified formats thereby providing better convenience to the masses. One of its insights has been in the field of marketing.
There have been lots of developments in the marketing world during the recent years. With the commercial sector getting more aggressive, every enterprise now wants to market its products directly to the people.
No doubt, there have been various strategies for such a purpose, but this is now even more possible through the use of incredible technique which has been termed as beacon. This method after its evolution has resulted in the revolutionary transformation among the fraternities.
What are Beacons?
These are small sections of hardware which are utilized to transmit messages and directions directly to smart phones within a specific range through the use of Bluetooth technology.
Beacons have emerged as a better alternative when the specific niches like retailers, enterprises, institutions and other organizations want to converse virtually with the people.
Let’s consider an instance. A consumer is in a mall for shopping and while he passes across your store; his smart phone instantly receives a discount offer! This is what one of aspects of beacons.
Apart from this, beacons have also been implemented for other arrays of other purposes. They could be very well used for offline contactless payment system especially in the retail stores in order to expedite the checkout process.
And if we consider past retail marketing, then beacons have also turned out useful in the sectors such as airports along with ground transit hub for the proper management of check-in process and to provide updates on passenger’s smart phone regarding departures and delays of flights.
Likewise concert venues, theme parks, museums and many more sectors could be integrated with beacons technology. Conversely some of the brands like PayPal, Qualcomm, Estimote, Swirl and GEShopper have adopted the beacon management platform.
The various incorporated feature of beacons go truly advantageous to you as an entrepreneur. Further, Apple has taken a step by introducing this technique to receive beacon signals into its smart phones through the application known as iBeacons.
What is an iBeacon?
This is a promising technique which could be used for various ecommerce applications. It is a standard technology acquired by Apple which permits mobile apps to receive messages from beacons implementing the effective technique of Bluetooth Low Energy or BLE.
Additionally, BLE is based upon wireless networking that could send data over short distances. Well, this technology is beneficial when compared to traditional Bluetooth version in some of the following terms-
Applications Power consumption Minimal cost
Keeping up with iBeacon, this technique has been specifically designed for mobile apps to determine the exact position of application enabled gadgets thus delivering small data packets or information based upon the location.
Any iBeacon installed smartphone when comes in the range of beacon equipped area then it responds to the received signals.
The App Enabled Devices-
iBeacons could work conveniently upon iPhones and iOS devices. The technology entirely supports to some of the following Apple devices which include-
iPhone with version 4s or higher iPad with third generation or higher iPad mini iPad touch with fifth generation or later
Other than that, Android 4.3 and higher versions are also well supported with BLE technology.
A Resourceful Solution-
No doubt, major ratio of people use smart phones today. Hence the gadgets appended with iBeacons prove out a beneficial aspect for the entrepreneurs. You could easily convey or advertise your product to the people available in range of your beacon enabled retail stores.
This enables the people to know about the associated services, products, offers and other information. Thus, this technology provides you the opportunity to cover as much people within the range of your store to convert them into prospective consumers.
To consider real world references, many stores like that of Lord & Taylor stores in United States and Hudson’s Bay stores in Canada have acquired this exclusive in-store marketing through smart phones.
iBeacon because of its assorted features is gradually getting into the main stream of marketing. It’s progressively getting well accredited by the people. As an entrepreneur you could instantly send notifications, alerts, greetings and schemes.
This is a sort of location based marketing method of its own kind. Besides getting alerts, iBeacons also result in creation of maps and locations. One of the surprising features of this application is that it could display 3D view of the object regarding its appearance in actual.
The technology could be stated as a big leap towards new methods of marketing techniques. Furthermore, with the effect of this technology you could expect for a probable rise in the growth of your store’s sales.
Wrap Up –
Meanwhile iBeacons is in its testing stage but still it has shown favorable results specifically for the entrepreneurs. Apparently, once this technology comes to the trend, it would establish better interaction medium between the retailers and shoppers. The marketing experts too consider it as one of the acute options for future marketing trends. | 2.421682 | 999 | 998 |
SHABQADAR: While the world observed Literacy Day on September 8, a state-run girls school was dynamited by Taliban insurgents in the Khazina Safi area of Mohmand Agency on the night between Friday and Saturday.
According to an unofficial tally, the militants have blown up as many as 500 schools in the tribal regions, thus far.
The bombing is a stark reminder of the challenges facing the education sector in the tribal areas. At the same time, it demonstrates the militants’ opposition to basic literacy, jeopardising the future of a whole generation of young tribal children.
While elsewhere in the country the public education sector is plagued by a myriad of problems, including ghost schools, outdated curricula and teachers’ absenteeism, in the tribal regions the problem is compounded by obscurantist Taliban who are opposed to secular education.
The hardest hit of the seven semi-autonomous tribal agencies that make up the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or Fata, is Mohmand Agency where 102 schools have been destroyed since the start of the Taliban insurgency.
Elsewhere in Fata, 273 schools were blown up by insurgents over the same period. According to the breakup, 98 schools were dynamited in Bajaur, 70 in Khyber, 65 in Kurram, and 40 in Orakzai. Surprisingly enough, schools in the Waziristan region – both North and South Waziristan agencies – have been spared by militants.
In the Safi area of Mohmand alone, almost 60 schools have been blown up so far, according to the education officer for Mohmand Agency.
However, he believes that with almost 30 to 40 per cent literacy rate among males and 25 to 30 per cent among females, the agency fares better than other tribal regions.
Officials at the Fata Education Directorate paint a bleak picture. They say that the literacy rate in Fata is well below the national average.
Officially, the average literacy rate in Pakistan is 58 per cent. On the other hand in Fata, male literacy is reported to be as low as 25 to 30 per cent and female literacy is as low as 5 to 10 per cent in some parts of the tribal belt. Of the 20,000 teachers employed by the Fata Education Directorate, 6,000 are reportedly drawing salaries without reporting for duty. These teachers, according to sources, cite the volatile security situation as the reason for not reporting at their respective schools.
While a few schools have been re-built by Pakistan Army, and foreign donors such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, analysts say the government should make concerted efforts to ensure that the next generation of tribesmen is not deprived of education which is important for fighting the menace of militancy.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 9 th, 2012.The KitchenAid instant hot water dispensers work by heating water from the cold water supply line and saving it in a reservoir. This reservoir maintains the temperature of the hot water until it is needed.Continue Reading
Instant hot water dispensers have a built-in heating element. When water is brought in from the cold water supply, this element activates. It remains on until the water has reached the needed temperature. The specially designed reservoir ensures that the water remains at the desired temperature until it is called upon. This process is similar to the operation of hot water heaters.
In order for the instant hot water dispenser to work, the device must be connected to an electrical line. KitchenAid models accomplish this by connecting the device to a standard electrical outlet. This electric current allows the heating element to reach the desired temperature. If the device stops producing hot water, the power source may be the cause. Resolving this problem involves checking the plug and breaker.
The hot water reservoir is a limited resource. As a result, using a lot of instant hot water may cause the supply to be diminished. The device should refill in 15 to 20 minutes. As a result, projects which require a large amount of hot water are not easily accomplished using the instant hot water dispenser.Learn more about Small Kitchen Appliances Bavisi is president and co-founder of the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council), a global organization that provides training and consulting services on issues of e-commerce and cybersecurity. Jay is a regularly featured speaker at e-commerce and cybersecurity conferences in the U.S., Asia, Europe and the Middle East. www.eccouncil.org even terrorism -- do not in fact regulate financial markets as most experts claim.
Sponsors Subscribe to Newsletter | 1.446084 | 965 | 961 |
(Medical Xpress)—The American dream is alive and well in Illinois' rural communities among Latino immigrant families, who demonstrate considerable resilience in the face of multiple challenges, a new study indicates.
However, broader-scale efforts are needed to integrate these families into their communities and help them thrive, suggest the researchers, Angela Wiley and Marcela Raffaelli, who are professors of human and community development at the University of Illinois.
Wiley and Raffaelli's study explored the well-being of immigrant Latino families living in six Central Illinois counties – Champaign, Douglas, Iroquois, Macon, Piatt and Vermilion – that are served by the university's Child Care Resource Service. Wiley is the director of the service. The current study was part of a larger project that examined Latino parents' beliefs about child care services.
The research team conducted extensive interviews with 120 immigrant Latino parents, primarily mothers. Most of the study participants had been born in Mexico, had lived in the U.S. an average of 12 years, had limited formal education and spoke little English. All families had at least one child under age 18. More than 46 percent of the families were living in poverty, with annual household incomes of less than $20,000.
Despite myriad challenges, study participants indicated that they were generally satisfied with their lives and emphasized that the better quality of life and financial opportunities available to their families in the U.S. mitigated the hardships that they endured.
"The parents are working to improve the future of their children, and this is a message they convey in so many different ways to their kids," Raffaelli said. "That is what I'd say is their greatest strength."
In the first of several publications from the project, the researchers examined how three indicators of family and individual well-being – food security, financial security and life satisfaction – were related to a set of risk and protective factors.
Risk factors included community challenges – families' level of difficulty accessing health care, transportation and affordable housing – and personal experiences of discrimination. The extent to which participants experienced these challenges varied. Community challenges were associated with well-being and with decreased food security, while discrimination was linked to decreased financial well-being.
Latina mothers whose families had greater difficulty accessing resources and negotiating life in their communities or who personally experienced discrimination had lower levels of life satisfaction.
Protective factors comprised three types of capital assets: economic resources, such as income and home ownership; social capital, such as people who could provide practical or emotional support or advice; and human capital, which included participants' educational levels, English fluency and years of residency in the U.S. Higher levels of these capital assets were generally associated with increased individual and family well-being.
"We found in our research that personal strengths are important but so are support networks," Raffaelli said. "Even in these small isolated communities, most of the parents have one or two people they could count on. Having social capital is related not only to life satisfaction and psychological well-being but also to food security."
The study indicates a need for broader initiatives that promote immigrant families' economic security and social capital, such as policy reforms that help employers provide living-wage jobs or offering financial education programs that promote home ownership and savings through social service providers.
Requiring service providers in rural communities to learn Spanish to eliminate language barriers probably isn't realistic, Wiley and Raffaelli said.
However, immigrants with limited English proficiency and formal education may benefit from services that are currently lacking in many small communities, such as English classes and adult education.
Bolstering social capital could also enhance families' well-being, the study suggested. Other analyses by the researchers showed that most participants had rich and supportive social networks in their new communities that served as important pipelines of information and sources of emotional support, advice and shared resources. However, Latino families were less connected to the greater community and formal support infrastructures, indicating that efforts are needed to welcome and integrate them.
"The young citizens who are being raised within these immigrant families are the future," Wiley said. "Any investments that we make, if we can't bring ourselves to do it for reasons of dignity and decency, caring and reaching out to others around us, I think we must do it from a policy perspective because of that new generation. That's why we need to care about the factors that promote resilience and reduce risk."
The Bureau of Child Care and Development within the Illinois Department of Human Services provided grant funding for the research.
The study, "Risk and Resilience in Rural Communities: The Experiences of Latina Mothers," appears in the October issue of the journal
Family Relations. | 1.412506 | 947 | 946 |
There are so many good causes, both big and small. Thanks to WordPress and some nifty plugins, anyone can collect funds online for the cause of their choice.
Plugins for Collecting Donations and Fundraising With WordPress
Let’s examine some tips for accepting donations online and take a peek at some WordPress plugins to simplify the process.
1. Encourage Recurring Donations
Whether you’re raising funds for a political campaign or to help a
friend in need, recurring donations can play an important role in maintaining momentum. Providing donors with an option to automatically give weekly, monthly or yearly will keep funds coming in while you focus on recruiting new donors. Even small recurring donations can really add up over time.
Total Donations for WordPress
is a complete fundraising suite that provides recurring donation capabilities. Using the PayPal/PayPal Pro, Stripe or Authorize.net payment gateways, you can set up donations that recur monthly, yearly or daily (or any multiple of these).
2. Offer Perks
In this age of crowdfunding, offering rewards (or perks) for specific
donation levels is a widespread practice. Rewarding donors encourages them to give in larger amounts than they may have otherwise been prepared to do. Plus, if the perks are interesting enough, you might just create some extra buzz around your campaign.
Galaxy Funder
works alongside WooCommerce to create a complete crowdfunding-style website. Community members can create their own fundraising campaigns through the front end of the site, and they can offer multiple levels of perks to donors.
3. Proudly Display Campaign Goals
Sharing your fundraising goals with potential donors can help to
create a sense of community. That “we’re in this together” spirit can inspire donors to take action. By making donations and encouraging others to support the campaign, they’ll want to ensure that goals are met and even surpassed.
To share your goals, check out WordPress Goal Thermometer.
This plugin enables you to create a classic charity “goal thermometer” to display as a widget on your site. Colors and text can be easily customized. Plus, PayPal integration makes creating a donation button quite simple. If you already have a donation system in place, use the thermometer widget to display progress toward your goal.
4. Make the Process Simple
If you’re going to ask people to part with their hard-earned money,
don’t make your website’s donation process difficult. Clearly state your case for donating and then ensure that it’s easy to do so.
That simplicity is at the heart of Donation Manager for WordPress.
Quickly create a fundraising campaign, then add it to any WordPress page or post with a shortcode. Users have to fill out a small form and pick their payment method. No hoops to jump through or obstacles to work around. 5. Incorporate Donations Into an Existing Shop
Maybe you already have an online store and would like to start a new
charitable effort. It can be a wonderful way to help raise funds while bolstering your own reputation. In this case, you don’t necessarily need to make donating a centerpiece of your site.
WooCommerce Donation Plugin
is an excellent solution, as it can be added to an existing WooCommerce site. Create a “donation” product in WooCommerce and it will be added to the checkout process. There, a shopper can add an amount to donate and continue on with checkout. It’s easy to use and can help make a positive impact.
Do Good With WordPress
WordPress, by its very nature, is all about democratizing the publishing process. Through plugins, we can easily bend and shape it into a force for good. Taking donations has never been easier.
Think of all those little donations from all corners of the earth. Add them together and see the difference they can make.Canadian consumers’ confidence in the Canadian economy has held relatively stable for the week ending June 26
th
according to data from Bloomberg and Nanos Research. The main index of the weekly poll shows that there was a slight increase to 56.81 from 56.61 a week earlier and reveals that the housing market is the main reason for the optimism: “Real estate remains the one positive driver of consumer sentiment in Canada,” said Nanos Research Group Chairman Nik Nanos. “Any negative changes in the real estate market would have a material downward impact on the confidence in the Canadian economy.”
The sub index on real estate prices and the economy as a whole increased slightly despite the percentage of those polled who expect higher home prices in 6 months slipping to 36.97 from 37.25. Positive sentiment in the economy and personal finances also declined while job security optimism grew. Consumer confidence was highest among renters.
Are you looking to invest in property? If you like, we can get one of our mortgage experts to tell you exactly how much you can afford to borrow, which is the best mortgage for you or how much they could save you right now if you have an existing mortgage. Click here to get help choosing the best mortgage rate
More market watch: | 1.664929 | 1,024 | 1,022 |
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By Zein Basravi
For CNN
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MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistani-controlled Kashmir (CNN) -- From the sky, the mountains in this part of Kashmir seem fragile. Loose soil and fractured rock precariously poised on steep slopes wait for rains and tremors to set them free.
On the ground survivors forced to leave camps are apprehensively returning to destroyed villages. Injured men, old women and small children can be found climbing over landslides, carrying everything they own, trudging up blocked roads for hours where cars can't go under skies helicopters no longer fly.
Eight months after the earthquake that struck Kashmir and southeast Asia, relief operations are being impaired by the threat of landslides.
Aid workers also say the forces of nature are compounding an aid squeeze created by cutbacks in relief operations.
While seasonal landslides are a common threat in northern Pakistan, last October's earthquake has made the terrain more susceptible to rains and tremors. As a result, this year's landslides are more widespread and more frequent, making dangerous terrain -- narrow roads with steep drops -- even worse.
"There is no doubt the earthquake has destabilized many of these mountainous areas and thereby increased the frequency ... of these landslides," said Brian Isbell, head of the United Nations Joint Logistics Center (UNJLC) based in Islamabad.
In coordination with other U.N. agencies, the UNJLC has been conducting landslide surveillance to help relief work in the region.
Rock falls and mounds of earth bigger than buses have been blocking roads and stalling recovery efforts. The migration of returnees from camps around the region has become a logistical nightmare, compounded by depleting resources.
Relief agencies are nervous about the implications for quake survivors as the monsoon season -- June to September -- gets under way. Such organizations are predicting tough times for unprepared survivors, many still living in tents, over the course of the next winter.
Relief operations cut back
Before landslides began forming their own roadblock, relief operations in the Kashmir quake zone were already facing budget cutbacks.
According to a UNJLC information bulletin dated April 19, 2006, relief agencies have been cutting back efforts across the region due to funding shortfalls and pressure from the Pakistani government to wrap up relief operations, as programs move toward recovery and rehabilitation.
As a result, fewer helicopters are in the air and fewer trucks and buses on the roads to offer free transport for earthquake survivors headed home.
The Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) -- an umbrella agency set up by the Pakistani government to oversee aid operations -- has been cutting funding to various programs to phase out relief operations.
Budget cuts have also forced the cancellation of a special reconnaissance program that used high-altitude mountaineers to support returnees and collect geographical information used to evaluate terrain in faraway places. The loss has effectively paralyzed much of the U.N.'s ability to monitor and assess landslide activity.
Additionally, helicopter capacity has also been reduced due to a lack of funding and while land travel is less expensive ongoing landslides are leaving relief agencies and area residents stranded.
"The whole recovery operation relies a lot on this effort, to clear roads...so its' crucial, crucial," said Olivier Dubois, a field coordinator with the International Committee of the Red Cross based in Muzaffarabad. "That's a condition to make sure the recovery phase can go on and also I would say the normal life of the population can take place."
Engineers with the Pakistani army are working to clear roads. Army and ERRA officials are quick to point out that the problem is nothing new to the area.
"It is a continuous process," said Maj. Farooq Nasir, an army spokesman based in Muzaffarabad. "The slide will keep coming down. It was this way before the earthquake as well, so we'll keep clearing it."
Nasir said that army engineers are stationed near areas known for landslides and that clearing operations begin as soon as an incident is reported. But bulldozing fallen earth is often a slow and tedious process, stranding people indefinitely. Roads can be blocked for several days and the unpredictable nature of the terrain means routes are unreliable from one day to the next.
Back on the ground, families are still waiting in camps in and around Muzaffarabad and throughout earthquake-affected areas. In many cases, reluctant returnees from Islamabad and Rawalpindi find themselves living in impromptu setups by the side of the road with no support, no transport home, no food or water and nowhere else to go.
"People appear like they want to go back, but reasons vary," said Mary Giudice, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration in Mansehra. "In general they have been told that if they don't come back they will not get their compensation. | 1.784653 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
An Analysis by Marvin Bartelof Paul Duncum's "WhatElementary Generalist Teachers Need to Know to Teach Art Well" ( ArtEducation. November, 1999) and "DrawingIs Basic" by JeanMorman Unsworth, A response to What Elementary Generalist Teachers Need To Know to Teach Art Well Art Education. November,2001, pages 6 to 11.
Strategies A, C, E, and F are largely acceptable as written by Duncum. Strategies B.
Conversatioinal and D. Conventional, are problematic.
A. Verbal strategies. We agree with Duncum on verbal strategies. I use this strategy a lot, especially with younger children. The teacher gives lots of verbal feedback. Anybody can easily do this. Avoid meaningless praise such as, "That's beautiful." Make comments about specific accomplishments. Talk about the shapes, asking the name of shapes. Or ask about the name of colors. "How did your arm move to make these dots?" Ask motivational questions to make passive knowledge active. Promote accretion. "What does the dog like to play with?" With older children use lots of art terms that acknowledge what they have done. "I notice lots of repetition. It helps my eye move around the picture? What do you think I am noticing?" "What do you think gets my attention when I look at your picture?" "Okay. Why do you think I notice that first?" C. Perceptual strategiesWe agree with Duncum on perceptual strategies. Asks students to focus attention on the thing being represented. With young children this may mean asking detailed questions about what they see in order to get them to become better observers. I will provide multi-sensory experiences. I think of it as studying the subject before and during the drawing. I do not expect young children to "get it right", but I expect them to include more detail in their work. Beginning in grade 1, I will also use questions to help children to pay attention (define these terms as talking) to size and proportion, orientation, contour, color variations, texture, quantities, and other details. Beginning in grade 2. I would start some blind contour practice, shading, and so on. These sessions are described as practice. If this is done often enough, we will have very few children who feel experience a serious crises (explain this) of confidence when they reach grade 3. Lots of preliminary sketches would be used for any observation based assignment. E. and F. Non-Sequential strategy and Inductive strategy Non-Sequential strategy and Inductive strategy are ways of responding to artworks.Most art educators would agree with Duncum that these are both useful strategies for teachers to use.
Strategies Duncum Unsworth and Bartel B. Conversational strategies Duncum Peer learning. Plus one phenomenon. People learn what is just slightly more difficult than what they already know. Duncum wants us to encourage children to learn from each other. This will exploit the natural tendency to learn by imitation. Judith Harris writes in a book called, The Nuture Assumption, that children, will instinctively imitate slightly more advanced children and learn to do what their slightly older peers do. She feels that this learning behavior is probably genetically predetermined in our makeup. Unsworth and Bartel disagree with parts of this.There is no doubt that the process of imitation works if the goal is to learn how to do something. When some of us do not think this is an appropriate learning method, it is because we do not think of learning in art as learning to do, but as learning to think, to feel, to respond, to know, to express, and so on. We are not learning the make a thing, so much as we are learning to think a make. On page 77 of our text, Carroll explains that art making is "making thought and feeling visible." Some of us feel that peer imitation tends imitate a product more than a thought process. Too often you get a copy of a copy of a copy . . . Furthermore, Unsworth makes the point that those who are copying are not enjoying the same status as the copied. She says we stigmatize those who are copiers as the have nots in the classroom. Duncum Unsworth and Bartel D. Conventional strategies This has children learning to make pictures by having children copy pictures made with cameras and made by adult artists. In Duncum's Conventional Strategy children are encouraged to imitate and borrow. Duncum claims that case studies have shown that this kind of practice has been beneficial to children who have drawn copiously in their own time. He also claims that children should learn by imitation so they should not be expected to reinvent the wheel. There was a time in western art education during the days before photography,artists were trained in apprenticeships. Parents who felt their childrenwere "talented" would place them in an artist's studio to learn to help | 2.171118 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
the master paint or sculpt the artist's work. They were requiredto learn to work exactly like the master and to do work the master couldsign as her own or his own work. In art education literature thisis called the academic method of art education. Lynn Lais is a Marylandpotter who was an art major from Goshen and went to Europe for this typetraining before setting up his own business. This method also includesthe method of setting up an easel in an art museum in order to copy paintingsfrom master works. I think that children who do lotsof self-initiated drawing in their own time should not be reprimanded forcopying from examples, but I do not compliment them for the quality ofcopy work. I encourage them to also practice blind contour drawing. This is in place of copy work, so that they can learn to "copy" real thingsrather than pictures of things. I would also showthem how I can use drawing aides and sighting devices such as viewfindersand measuring methods using the pencil and an outstretched arm to "getit right" so that they do not need to copy a photograph or an artist'swork. If I encourage students to think of copyingas a way to learn to be an artist, I am telling them that art teachersare not needed. If you can learn to be an artist by copying, whywould a teacher be needed? Do writers learn to write by copying otherworks? Imitation is natural and needs no teachers other than modelsto copy. On the other hand, direct representation of reality and innovationrequire different parts of the brain. A good teacher can teach approachesto good observation, problem finding, problem solving, and innovation. These are often too hard to learn without the help of a good teacher. A good writing teacher will teach methods of good descriptive writing,good imaginative writing, and good writing from remembered experience. Art teachers can do the same when they teach to create art from observation,from imagination, and from memory. Unsworth says there aregood reasons to study the work of artists, but not with the intention ofcopying. "Seeing the many wrong lines in a Matisse or a Delacroix drawing,lines they drew and then rethought and drew again, is an important wayto encourage students to risk drawing and not to be inhibited by fear of'messing up.'
file: duncum-review.html 2-25-02
back to Drawing is BasicDoes Coevolution Promote Species Richness in Parasitic Cuckoos? View Download Date2009-8-19 Related DOI10.1098/rspb.2009.1142 Author
Krüger, Oliver
Sorenson, Michael D.
Davies, Nicholas B.
MetadataShow full item record Permanent Linkhttp://hdl.handle.net/2144/3142 CitationKrüger, Oliver, Michael D. Sorenson, Nicholas B. Davies. "Does coevolution promote species richness in parasitic cuckoos?" Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276(1674): 3871-3879. (2009) Abstract
Why some lineages have diversified into larger numbers of species than others is a fundamental but still relatively poorly understood aspect of the evolutionary process. Coevolution has been recognized as a potentially important engine of speciation, but has rarely been tested in a comparative framework. We use a comparative approach based on a complete phylogeny of all living cuckoos to test whether parasite-host coevolution is associated with patterns of cuckoo species richness. There are no clear differences between parental and parasitic cuckoos in the number of species per genus. However, a cladogenesis test shows that brood parasitism is associated with both significantly higher speciation and extinction rates. Furthermore, subspecies diversification rate estimates were over twice as high in parasitic cuckoos as in parental cuckoos. Among parasitic cuckoos, there is marked variation in the severity of the detrimental effects on host fitness; chicks of some cuckoo species are raised alongside the young of the host and others are more virulent, with the cuckoo chick ejecting or killing the eggs/young of the host. We show that cuckoos with a more virulent parasitic strategy have more recognized subspecies. In addition, cuckoo species with more recognized subspecies have more hosts. These results hold after controlling for confounding geographical effects such as range size and isolation in archipelagos. Although the power of our analyses is limited by the fact that brood parasitism evolved independently only three times in cuckoos, our results suggest that coevolutionary arms races with hosts have contributed to higher speciation and extinction rates in parasitic cuckoos. | 1.623782 | 1,001 | 999 |
The streptococcus and lactobacillus strains are the strains that make up the 'probiotic' class. When you see a probiotic like S. thermophilus, the S stands for streptococcus (there ar many), similarly L. acidophilus is one of the lactobacillus strains.
Quoted from Wikipedia
Buttermilk is a fermented dairy product produced from cow's milk with a characteristically sour taste. The product is made in one of two ways. Originally, buttermilk was the liquid left over from churning butter from cream. Today, this is called traditional buttermilk. Buttermilk also refers to cultured buttermilk, a product where lactic acid bacteria have been added to milk.[1]...
...The Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) comprise a clade of Gram positive, low-GC, acid tolerant, non-sporulating, non-respiring rod or cocci that are associated by their common metabolic and physiological characteristics. These bacteria, usually found in decomposing plants and lactic products produce lactic acid as the major metabolic endproduct of carbohydrate fermentation. This trait has historically linked LAB with food fermentations as acidification inhibits the growth of spoilage agents. Proteinaceous bacteriocins are produced by several LAB strains and provide an additional hurdle for spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms. Furthermore, lactic acid and other metabolic products contribute to the organoleptic and textural profile of a food item. The industrial importance of the LAB is further evidenced by their generally regarded as safe (GRAS) status, due to their ubiquitous appearance in food and their contribution to the healthy microflora of human mucosal surfaces. The genera that comprise the LAB are at its core Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Pediococcus, Lactococcus, and Streptococcus as well as the more peripheral Aerococcus, Carnobacterium, Enterococcus, Oenococcus, Teragenococcus, Vagococcus, and Weisella; these belong to the order Lactobacillales....
...Kefir (alternately keefir, kephir, kewra, talai, mudu kekiya, milkkefir, b˙lgaros) is a fermented milk drink that originated in the Caucasus region. It is prepared by inoculating cow, goat, or sheep's milk with kefir grains... ...Kefir grains are a combination of bacteria and yeasts in a matrix of proteins, lipids, and sugars. This symbiotic matrix forms grains that resemble cauliflower. Today, kefir is becoming increasingly popular due to new research into its health benefits. Many different bacteria and yeasts are found in the kefir grains, which are a complex and highly variable community of micro-organisms.[2]GENDER BIAS AGAINST CARIBBEAN WOMEN DURING THE 1900's
IMMIGRATIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL BIAS
Planters did not really wish to have female labourers. Even though they had used so many African women as field labourers under slavery, they changed their views in the post-slavery period. They now argued that women were less efficient labourers than men and that if they hired women, they would have to meet the cost of rearing their children. They reasoned that female labourers would be constantly absent from work because of pregnancy and did not want the added expense of childrearing. Planters believed that only men were 'able-bodied' labourers. Planters and recruiters felt that insisting on a higher female-male ratio would only increase the likelihood of more prostitutes emigrating. Men did not want their young wives to travel. On the whole there was great resistance to female emigration in the patriarchal society of Indians. Some agents were reluctant to take on single women.
They accused them of being prostitutes and undesirables and carriers of veneral diseases.
This was the period in which the Caribbean, aided by conservative missionaries, was influenced by the Victorian ideas that women were to stay at home and be housewives and men should go out to work and bring home the income. This belief had been applied to working-class women in the Caribbean. This led to the labour force in the Caribbean becoming male-dominated as many proprietors discriminated against women in the allocation of work.
Society held the view that there were certain occupations that women should not pursue. Up to the Second World War, women had access to a very narrow range of occupations compared with men and there was little demand for female workers outside strictly defined categories. This trend of gender-specific occupations was temporarily reversed during the First and... | 1.432306 | 959 | 957 |
Policy analysts are beginning to realize that the Food and Drug Administration often does more harm than good.
Consider the FDAs restrictions on pharmaceutical manufacturers ability to advertise drugs both to consumers and physicians. Such advertising would be the most effective method of informing physicians and consumers of many health benefits.
For example, it has long been known that a regular dose of aspirin can reduce the risk of heart attack in middle age by almost one-half. Bayer even makes a small coated aspirin for just this purpose.
One recent study also shows that when aspirin users do suffer heart attacks, they are much milder than attacks suffered by others. Another finds that aspirin can sometimes cut the rate of colon cancer by 40%.
Each year, 700,000 Americans die of heart-related disease and 50,000 die from colon cancer.
But thanks to the FDA, many dont know that aspirin could help. Most consumers are unaware that some drugs used for one ailment may be quite effective for others. And the FDA forbids manufacturers from advertising the heart attack benefit of regular aspirin use. For the thousands at risk for heart attack, the FDAs gag order is a prescription for disaster.
The FDA says consumers can get this information from their doctors. But many consumers dont visit physicians routinely, and many physicians dont suggest aspirin.
A recent survey shows that only one-third of patients with a history of heart trouble have ever talked to a physician about aspirin to reduce risk. And that drops to 13% among people over 50 with no history of heart disease.
Advertising could persuade many patients to ask about aspirin. This could reduce the annual number of needless deaths by tens of thousands.
What motivates the FDA? Fear that regular aspirin use slightly increases the risk of stroke for some. But the benefits far outweigh the increased risk. Advertising could caution consumers where risks outweigh benefits.
This behavior is typical of the agency. It invariably places a much greater weight on any potential harm from a drug than on any benefit. This explains the tremendous delays in FDA approval of new drugs: The agency is much more fearful of approving a harmful drug than of delaying or blocking a beneficial one. The result is excess deaths.
Other drugs also suffer from the FDAs advertising restrictions. For prescription drugs, it insists that most advertising aimed at consumers contain a one page "brief summary" in unintelligible language. Nicotine patches or gum, both effective smoking-cessation aids, require this page of warnings. As a result, prescription-drug ads can appear on TV only if they dont mention what the drugs are used for.
Recently, the FDA forbade manufacturers from informing physicians about research on "unapproved uses" for prescription drugs, even though the research may have been published in leading journals and physicians are allowed to prescribe any drug for any use. This policy is particularly harmful for anti-cancer drugs, where about one-third of all prescriptions are for unapproved uses.
The FDA says that drug manufacturers should seek approval for new uses. This can take as long as getting approval for the first use, and we already know that this process is too slow. Because the patent may expire before the new use is approved, companies often do not bother to seek such approval.
Regulations of truthful advertising may violate the First Amendment. But firms are unwilling to challenge it in court because the FDA wields enormous power over them. It regulates drug manufacturing and decides what drugs may be sold. Pharmaceutical companies fear that speaking out against the FDA would invite regulatory revenge.
Some authorities advocate shifting advertising regulation from the FDA to the weaker Federal Trade Commission to encourage firms to challenge unjustified or harmful regulations.
Granting excessive power to any government agency to restrict speech is a tremendous risk. In the case of the FDA, restrictions on free speech have literally stopped innocent people dead in their tracks.
Paul H. Rubin is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics at Emory University, and a contributing author to the book American Health Care: Government, Market Processes, and the Public Interest (Independent Institute).Your email address will be used for Wildy’s marketing materials only. We will never give your email address to any third party.
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Building on the extensive interest in company law and corporate governance development in post-communist transformation, this book examines the legal regime for protection of company investors in the CIS. The different contributions focus on issues such as basic shareholder rights, shareholder rights in special circumstances, cumulative voting, and protection through securities markets regulation. The discussion centers on the problems of domestic legal reform and the extent to which international legal standards and best practice are reflected in the process. In doing so, it offers a thorough comparative law analysis covering all twelve CIS countries. Importantly, the book accords a special place to the contribution that the model legislation adopted within the CIS framework makes to the process of legal reform and voluntary legal harmonization. | 1.586887 | 1,016 | 1,014 |
The pressure is building on Vladimir Putin: Russia will be hit by a wave of bankruptcies unless it cuts interest rates very soon, a top financial official warned Monday.
Anatoly Aksakov, president of Russia's regional banking association and deputy chairman of parliament's financial markets committee, said firms were running out of cash.
"Bankers believe that keeping the situation as it stands will cause a wave of bankruptcies, not only credit institutions but also a number of businesses and companies," Aksakov wrote in a letter to the central bank, according to Russian state media.
Aksakov said the central bank must cut rates this month to 15% from 17%, then gradually to 10.5%, the level they were at before the current financial crisis. A central bank rate of 17% meant some companies were having to pay as much as 30% to borrow.
Lower rates would allow banks to lend more to companies and individuals, he said.
The comments signal deepening stress in Russia's financial sector. Ratings agency Fitch downgraded the country's sovereign debt rating last week, blaming a sharp deterioration in its economic outlook.
The impact of Western sanctions imposed over Russia's actions in Ukraine has sparked a cash crunch by shutting many companies out of international funding markets.
Regional airline Ak Bars Aero said Monday it would suspend operations until March, joining several other Russian carriers that have halted flights as the ruble slides and their financial troubles deepen.
A collapse in the ruble, driven in part by plunging oil prices, is causing economic pain by driving up inflation.
The ruble was under pressure again Monday, falling 1.3% against the U.S. dollar as oil prices continued to slide. Russia is heavily dependent on oil revenues. The currency shed about 40% of its value in 2014.
BNP Paribas said Monday that Russia's banks may need an overwhelming amount of support this year.
"Banks may need up to ... $45 billion in capital in 2015 to support lending and absorb credit losses, and another ... $11.5 billion to address foreign exchange valuation losses," wrote credit specialist Tatiana Tchembarova.
At the same time, the central bank has been running down its stash of foreign cash to try to stabilize its currency and contain the economic crisis.
It burned through more than $120 billion in foreign currency supplies last year. It now has $388.5 billion left in total international reserves, including gold and other liquid foreign assets.
- CNN's Emma Burrows in Moscow contributed to this reportPrunus microsatellite marker transferability across rosaceous crops First Online: Received: Revised: Accepted:
DOI: 10.1007/s11295-010-0284-z
Cite this article as: Mnejja, M., Garcia-Mas, J., Audergon, JM. et al. Tree Genetics & Genomes (2010) 6: 689. doi:10.1007/s11295-010-0284-z Citations 405 Downloads Abstract
A total of 145 microsatellite primer pairs from
Prunus DNA sequences were studied for transferability in a set of eight cultivars from nine rosaceous species (almond, peach, apricot, Japanese plum, European plum, cherry, apple, pear, and strawberry), 25 each of almond genomic, peach genomic, peach expressed sequence tags (EST), and Japanese plum genomic, 22 of almond EST, and 23 of apricot (13 EST and 10 genomic), all known to produce single-locus and polymorphic simple-sequence repeats in the species where they were developed. Most primer pairs (83.6%) amplified bands of the expected size range in other Prunus. Transferability, i.e., the proportion of microsatellites that amplified and were polymorphic, was also high in Prunus (63.9%). Almond and Japanese plum were the most variable among the diploid species (all but the hexaploid European plum) and peach the least polymorphic. Thirty-one microsatellites amplified and were polymorphic in all Prunus species studied, 12 of which, covering its whole genome, are proposed as the “universal Prunus set”. In contrast, only 16.3% were transferable in species of other Rosaceae genera (apple, pear, and strawberry). Polymorphic Prunus microsatellites also detected lower levels of variability in the non-congeneric species. No significant differences were detected in transferability and the ability to detect variability between microsatellites of EST and genomic origin. KeywordsTransferabilityRosaceaeUniversal PrunusSSR set | 1.304913 | 1,005 | 1,003 |
State secondary schools are increasingly raising funds themselves from fees and private sources, an analysis of My School website data has shown.
Fairfax Media extracted data on more than 2000 Victorian primary and secondary schools from the My School website when the site was updated last week.
Fees and income from other private sources at the secondary schools analysed made up 10.7 per cent of those schools' total revenue in 2012, increasing from 8.7 per cent at the same schools in 2009. Contributions and private income at primary schools remained almost unchanged over this period.
However, the state government remains the overwhelming source of state school funds.
An Education Department spokesman said the inclusion of full-fee paying international students contributed to the increase at some schools.
But principals said they were also asking parents to contribute for equipment such as computers.
Koonung Secondary College in Mont Albert North is one of 25 state secondary schools where fees, charges, parent and other private contributions rose by more than 75 per cent compared with 2011. Principal Peter Wright said the spike was driven by the cost of notebook computers and optional school trips.
But he said the school ensured all students had a notebook even if their parents were unable to buy one. ''That's a very important part of our policy,'' he said.
Money raised by hiring out rooms to a language school and sports facilities was used to subsidise educational programs and additional teachers, Mr Wright said.
The school also has international students.
Fees and charges at Koonung increased from $946 a student in 2009 to $1848 a student in 2012, My School data shows, including $800 for notebooks if purchased through the school upfront. Combined state and federal funding increased by $272 a student at the school over the same period.
Australian Council of State School Organisations president Peter Garrigan said schools faced pressure to raise money for computers, expensive materials for vocational courses and some costs associated with overseas trips.
State schools may look to the fund-raising strategies of their independent counterparts, he said.
''Government schools still have to master the art of the old-boy network.''
Brighton Secondary College earned about $1 million from overseas students in 2012, but college principal Julie Podbury said schools also faced steep costs in caring for them.
Monash University education lecturer Scott Bulfin said many schools felt they had to offer modern digital equipment to compete with other schools. ''You can understand the pressure … in a highly competitive market,'' he said.
Monash and Melbourne university students collected data for this story.As more and more lay consumers get involved in crypto-currency, they will begin asking a question: Bitcoin, Litecoin or another coin?
Certainly, as this blogpost points out, Bitcoin will most likely garner the largest number of followers; it was first on the market, it continues to receive the majority of press attention (good or bad) and its infrastructure is better supported the world over than many altcoins.
Furthermore, the system is slowly solidifying, ironically helped by recent major meltdowns such as Mt. Gox, which effectively enhanced the reliability of the network by removing troublesome parties. Much like the risk of a 51% attack, the more such parties are excluded, the less likely it is that more than half the computing power can fall into malicious hands and harm regular users.
Competition
Altcoins, however, can and do offer some major advantages over Bitcoin, at least at present. LiteCoin’s considerably faster block time and lighter use of resources makes it, along with forks such as WorldCoin which take the premise even further, a serious alternative to Bitcoin for those who are mindful of the real cost of getting involved in the fledgling industry.
There is already an altcoin to fulfill a huge variety of consumer functions. However, what will most likely change the scene in the near future is coming from within Bitcoin itself: the advent of sidechains.
The Coin Telegraph reported on the technological innovation sidechains represent earlier this month, as well as their potential use for humanitarian causes. What is exciting about them, aside from their own merits, is that they could shift the emphasis of Bitcoin for the public away from confusing technology and scandal onto usability and demonstrate its advantages more clearly.
Simply put, a project such as funding a well in Kenya from consumer Bitcoin donations made, for example, via a user-friendly Bitcoin app such as ZeroBlock, brings functionality and ‘friendliness’ to the fore for the public, while technological and legal rows appearing in the press are forced to take a back seat.
While such initiatives are currently the domain of altcoins, sidechains could bring this functionality into Bitcoin, consolidating both the crypto-currency market and its own status.
Time will tell whether the altcoin world can engineer a response to sidechains, should they catch on, as well as which party will ultimately win the race for consumer confidence and appeal. | 1.876111 | 1,019 | 1,017 |
OPINION emre-deliveli
A 'biutiful' financial center
HDN | 9/29/2011 12:00:00 AM | Emre Deliveli - [email protected]
It has been exactly two years since economy tsar Ali Babacan unveiled the Istanbul Finance Center Strategy and Action Plan, or SAP, with great fanfare at the IMF-World Bank meetings in Istanbul.
It has been exactly two years since economy tsar Ali Babacan unveiled the Istanbul Finance Center Strategy and Action Plan, or SAP, with great fanfare at the IMF-World Bank meetings in Istanbul.
The economists and policymakers I talked to then politely (and humorously) mentioned that traffic would be the biggest obstacle to the project. Incidentally, infrastructure was one of the topics at the Istanbul Finance Summit, or IFS, on Wednesday. But as Peter Casey, one of the architects of the Dubai Financial Center, noted, it is never a center’s edge over others.
Despite Turkish authorities’ good understanding of the challenges ahead and their early move, not much has been achieved so far. Babacan himself admitted back in April that only nine of the 71 actions in the SAP had been completed. Simple algebra reveals that at this rate, the SAP could be completed by the centennial of the Republic of Turkey in 2023.
But things are about to speed up. The government is planning to pass a large Omnibus Law by the end of the year, which would cover many of the actions included in the SAP. This big-bang method would address my main criticism of the SAP that it does not take into consideration binding constraints. Such “grocery list” approaches with long to-do lists do not tell you where you’ll be getting the biggest bang for the buck, but if you are buying all the groceries at one time, the issue becomes less relevant.
In addition, unless you are planning to tap into Martian funds, benchmarking is necessary. After all, becoming a financial center is not an exercise in creation, but one in competition. Istanbul does not seem to fare well in that regard: It is ranked 71st in the Global Financial Centers index prepared by the Z/Yen Group.
The Omnibus Law will surely make Istanbul much more attractive as a financial center and push up its Z/Yen ranking, but some of Istanbul’s strengths – including its location – will nevertheless not be captured by this type of index.
Plotting Z/Yen’s list of top 75 financial centers reveals that the vast area east of the Danube and west of the Ganges, encompassing the whole African continent, the Balkans, Middle East and Western Asia, is only a served by a handful of financial centers.
Of these, the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, centers in Dubai, Qatar and Bahrain are one step ahead of the others, which include Istanbul, Johannesburg, Moscow and Mumbai. Despite the lack of many instruments found in global financial centers, Istanbul differentiates itself by being the only diversified center in the region, with the possible exception of Johannesburg.
However, the same Z/Yen report reveals that Istanbul is still perceived as a local, rather than a global or even regional, financial center. This matters because, in the finance world, perception often trumps reality. Moscow, which is neither as deep nor as diversified as Istanbul, is nevertheless viewed as a global center.
Despite its widely publicized economic woes, Dubai is regarded by the respondents as one of the centers likely to become more significant. Similarly, it is also one of the top 10 centers where respondents’ organizations are most likely to open offices.
The Omnibus Law could be an important step in putting Istanbul ahead in this beauty contest, as it would likely make changes that Z/Yen survey respondents deem important, such as taxation and regulatory simplification. Such private sector-oriented reform would not be a big surprise, as the authorities have been very willing to listen to and engage finance professionals.
But financiers look at, above anything else, stability and clarity of regulation. In other words, they want to able to see ahead clearly. In that regard, the recent political and macroeconomic stability needs to be complemented by a stable policy regime, including monetary policy.
Otherwise, Istanbul will become a “biutiful” financial center, rather than the “beautiful” one Central Bank Gov. Erdem Başçı mentioned at the IFS.
Emre Deliveli is a freelance consultant as well as a columnist for Hürriyet Daily News and contributor to Roubini Global Economics. His blog on the Turkish economy, The Kapalı Çarşı, is at Nouriel Roubini’sEconomonitor: www.economonitor.com/emredeliveli. | 1.738182 | 977 | 976 |
The Seattle condo market results for May show a marked improvement across the board. In fact, it was on fire with increases in median sale prices, pending sale transactions, the number of closed sales and shrinking inventory levels.
The citywide median condo sales price continued to trend upwards to $268,500, reflecting a one-month increase of 3.3% and a year-over-year improvement of 7.4%. It was the first positive year-over-year result and the highest median sales price in the past 13-months.
Those results were generated by the strength of sales in downtown & Belltown (+11.9%) and Capitol Hill (+7.1%). They were, however, tempered by year-over-year median price declines throughout the rest of the city based on MLS areas (see table below). West Seattle and Northeast Seattle both experienced double digit YOY declines of 21.9% and 15.2%, respectively.
The number of pending transactions remained healthy with 311 condo units going under contract in May, equaling the number of pendings in March. The ongoing low mortgage interest rates and a better economic outlook in the Seattle region have helped to keep the Seattle condo market active. More significantly, the number closed Seattle condo sales spiked 29.6% over the same period last year, and 21.9% over April, to 228 units. Just how impressive was that? It was the highest number of closed condo sales dating back to June 2008. Not even the artificially induced activity from the tax credit incentives was able to produce a similar level of sales volume. There were 596 available condo units for sale in May, which reflected a 6-year low and a 64% drop from the height of the glut in 2008. The robust sales level and dwindling available inventory pushed the Seattle condo inventory supply rate down to 1.9 months of supply…the lowest level since June 2006. At 1.9 months, Seattle is exhibiting a solid seller’s market. The current market environment is not likely to change anytime soon (e.g. this year) as the main drivers are the amazingly low mortgage interest rates, the increasing costs to rent, a growing employment base in the region and constricting inventory. Bosa Development is expected to break ground on Insignia Towers shortly, which would be the first condo start in years. Though, it won’t be delivered for at least another 2-3 years and it doesn’t appear any of the newer apartment buildings will convert anytime soon.
Source: NWMLS. Some figures were independently compiled by SeattleCondosAndLofts.com and were not published by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
________________________ © SeattleCondosAndLofts.comPsychological Egoism vs. Ethical Egoism
When we discuss modern ethics there are two theories that emerge above all others and although both are supported they are often controversial in nature. Ethical Egoism states that we should put ourselves and our interests before those of others leading to the conclusion that if we do things that are only in our own self interest then we have achieved morality. Psychological Egoism presumes that we always put ourselves and our interests before others and that every act is motivated only by our own self interest. Even when an act appears on the surface to be totally unselfish it is in all reality a selfish act. Simply feeling good about doing an “unselfish act” makes it selfish. Ethical and Psychological Egoism may seem similar at first glance but they are actually quite different. We will discuss these two theories and their differences, compare the doctrines of motivation for both and discuss selfishness and self interest. Let’s first take a look at the fallacy of Psychological Egoism. The fallacy of Psychological Egoism is the belief that people are only motivated by self interest but as we all know there are many things that can motivate people to do things. Take for instance the seven deadly sins; sloth, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and pride. Any one of these can be a motivating factor. So it is easy to see that the fallacy of Psychological Egoism is the erroneous belief that the only motivating factor is self interest. Furthermore you can never know without doubt that you are acting in your definitive self interest because your actions could have undesired results in the future. Psychological Egoism fails without the ‘method of reinterpreting motives’ (Rachels, 1995). Now that we know the shortcomings of Psychological Egoism let’s discuss the versions of Ethical Egoism. Ethical Egoism has a strong version and a weak version. Simply put the strong version states that it is always moral... | 1.560351 | 990 | 988 |
تحقیق و توسعه مرتبط و سیاست های سرمایه گذاری به نفوذ بازار CCS از طریق یادگیری دو عامله
کد مقاله سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی ترجمه فارسی تعداد کلمات 9983 2013 14 صفحه PDF سفارش دهید 12850 کلمه Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت) Journal : Energy Policy , Volume 52, January 2013, Pages 439–452 چکیده انگلیسی
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has the potential to play a major role in the stabilization of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. To develop the capture technology from its current demonstration phase towards commercial maturity, significant funding is directed to CCS, such as the EU’s €4.5 bn NER300 fund. However, we know little about how this funding relates to market diffusion of CCS. This paper addresses that question. We initially review past learning effects from both capacity installations and R&D efforts for a similar technology using the concept of two-factor learning. We apply the obtained learning-by-doing and learning-by-searching rates to CCS in the electricity market model Hector, which simulates 19 European countries hourly until 2040, to understand the impact of learning and associated policies on CCS market diffusion. We evaluate the effectiveness of policies addressing learning-by-doing and learning-by-searching by relating the policy budget to the realized CCS capacity and find that, at lower policy cost, both methods are about equally effective. At higher spending levels, policies promoting learning-by-doing are more effective. Overall, policy effectiveness increases in low CO2 price scenarios, but the CO2 price still remains the key prerequisite for the economic competitiveness, even with major policy support.
مقدمه انگلیسی
prime challenge for the 21st century is the limiting of global warming to 2 °C through the reduction of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, formulated as a central result in the joint Accord of the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change (2009) and the Cancun (2010). There are several CO2 emission reduction targets addressing this challenge, such as the EU’s commitment to a 20–30% target by 2020 (EU Commission, 2008). As the main contributor to these emissions, the energy sector is especially impacted by this development and significant efforts are made to address this challenge. Besides renewable energy sources, energy efficiency increases, nuclear power generation and others, Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is widely seen as a major opportunity to contribute to CO2 abatement, but at the same time also continue fossil-fuel-based generation. In a context of increasing demand of energy, the measures of improvement of the energy efficiency and the development of the renewable energies are indispensable. However, they are not sufficient to give up fossil energies, which remain the main source of energy in 2030 (IEA, 2010a). The IEA’s World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2010 in its 450 ppm CO2e scenario predicts that 581 GW of CCS capacity will be in operation by 2035 worldwide (IEA, 2010a), and CCS has now been accepted as Clean Development Mechanism by the UN (IEA, 2010b). Whereas the expectations placed on CCS are very high, the capture technology has still not been widely proven at full scale and technological progress has been limited in recent years, with only a few CCS pilot power plants being operational.1 This presents a key obstacle to the anticipated large-scale CCS deployment. The solution lies in technological and managerial learning through extended R&D efforts as well as in the physical construction of an increasing number of (demonstration) CCS power plants. Given the relatively high profile of CCS, we observe the need for additional CCS pilot plants and therefore investments, as foreseen for example in the EU’s plan to have 12 plants operational by 2015 and to provide approx. €4.5 billion (300 m EU ETS certificates) of co-funding for CCS pilot plants in the NER300 fund (EU Commission, 2009a). The United Kingdom (UK),2 Canada,3 and the State of Illinois, USA,4 have similar policies in place. This support is also needed, as stand-alone CCS power plant projects are only commercially viable in specific situations, such as in combination with enhanced oil recovery. Without this support, CCS runs the risk of being trapped in the "Valley of Death", the gap | 1.43077 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
between public and private funding, especially due to the high up-front investment costs (Murphy and Edwards, 2003). A variety of support methods are available, such as R&D grants, subsidies for investment costs and others (Woerdman and Couwenberg, 2009). However, whereas the need to support CCS is accepted and continuously growing, we know little about the dynamics of how to optimally support this technology. This paper addresses these questions concerning R&D effectiveness, funding distribution, and funding level. One method to estimate the relationship between R&D funding and technological improvement is “two-factor learning curves” (2FLC). This approach is based on "technological learning", the phenomenon that the cost of a specific technology decreases along with its cumulative deployment (initially Wright, 1936 and Arrow, 1962), but is extended by the additional consideration of cumulative R&D efforts (Kouvaritakis et al., 2000a, Kouvaritakis et al., 2000b and Jamasb, 2007). From a policy-analysis perspective, traditional learning-by-doing approaches only consider capacity deployment as the driving factor, thereby limiting any policy research to procurement policies that support investments in new capacity. However, policies supporting R&D, although a very popular method, cannot be analyzed with this approach, especially if the technology is at an early development stage. In this paper, we estimate a 2FLC for CCS power plants through analogies, as no empirical data are available because CCS deployment has not yet started. We therefore empirically derive the 2FLC for the SO2 scrubber technology, which is similar to the CO2 scrubber technology used for CCS power plants,5 using cost, patents, and deployment data for the years 1970–2000. To validate the results, we compare them to already-published 2FLC estimates across the energy-generation industry as well as existing one-factor learning estimates for CCS, derived through the same SO2 scrubber analogy (Riahi et al., 2004) or through expert panels (McKinsey, 2008). Based on the 2FLC, we address the question of R&D and investment policy effectiveness for CCS power plants using a modified version of the Hector simulation model (Lohwasser and Madlener, 2009 and Lohwasser and Madlener, 2012). We provide an outlook for the European electricity market, including the diffusion of CCS technology under different policy scenarios until 2040 to explicitly consider the long-term effects of technological learning. The long time horizon is required due to the initial development stage of CCS, as early learning has a strong impact on the future. The analysis explicitly analyzes potential CCS policies considering the two effects mentioned: learning-by-doing (stimulation of deployment through investment cost subsidies) and learning-by-searching (promotion of R&D through grants). The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. In Section 2, we discuss the concept of technological learning which, in Section 3, we then apply to CCS, using our own empirical analysis and comparisons to preexisting one- and two-factor learning curves. Section 4 focuses on the implementation of two-factor learning to the model used to simulate market diffusion as well as the description of the Base Case. In Section 5, we analyze the impact of learning-by-doing and learning-by-searching and, in Section 6, the impact of R&D and investment subsidy policies. Finally, Section 7 concludes with key takeaways and policy recommendations from our analysis.
نتیجه گیری انگلیسی
CCS is a technology with a very large GHG abatement potential, yet it is still far from reaching technological maturity and commercial readiness. To date, significant public and private funding is already dedicated to the technology. However, we know little about how different subsidy schemes relate to the success of the technology in the market, especially with regard to the impact of R&D. A method to relate R&D efforts to the economics of a technology is the concept of two-factor learning, which describes the relationship between the costs of a technology with its cumulative deployment through a learning-by-doing rate, and with cumulative R&D efforts through a learning-by-searching rate. It extends the well-known and intensively-researched notion of technological learning, which just relates cumulative deployment with R&D efforts. To estimate the learning rate for CCS, we estimate the values for FGD based on its empirical R&D, capacity and cost development between 1970 and 2000. FGD uses SO2 scrubbers, which are technologically similar to the CO2 scrubbers deployed in post-combustion CCS, so that this analogy was also already applied to CCS for (one-factor) learning in related work. We find that the learning-by-doing rate | 1.445118 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
is 7.1% and the learning-by-searching rate 6.6%, assuming that R&D patents can be used as a proxy for R&D spending. This effectively means that the cost reduction caused by a doubling of installed capacity is roughly the same as for a doubling of R&D efforts. Other technologies that are currently promoted through subsidies and other funding types, such as solar power and wind power, have learning-by-searching rates that are 2–5 times higher than their learning-by-doing rate, indicating advantages for R&D-driven policies over capacity-addition-driven policies. This conclusion cannot be drawn for CCS, however, as the observed learning rates are very similar, a fact that should be considered when comparing or even applying wind and solar promotion policies to potential CCS promotion policies. The observed values are also in line with expectations drawn from existing publications in the literature. To understand the relevance of technological learning for commercial success, we simulated CCS deployment across 19 European countries with different learning rates with the bottom-up, hourly electricity market model Hector. As a simulation result, we observe only a relatively limited impact of technological learning, with CCS capacity variations of only 2–3 GW by 2040, depending on the learning rate in the high CO2 price scenario CO2-38. This is marginal, considering an overall capacity of 217 GW. Even without learning, CCS capacity is only reduced by 12 GW. The impact of learning is stronger in the low CO2 price scenario CO2-25, but still quite low. Total CCS capacity is, however, almost halved, due to the less favorable market conditions, at only 154 GW by 2040 at the standard 7% learning rate. This effectively means that the learning rate is not the real driver for the market success of CCS. Instead, other factors such as CO2 prices or national plant portfolios, play a far more important role in terms of plant profitability, the driver for investment in our model. A key reason for the relatively low importance of learning is that it only applies to the CCS equipment; the attached coal-fired power plant makes up the majority of the cost, but hardly experiences any learning at all. In an individual sensitivity measurement for each learning rate, a variation of the learning-by-doing rate has a slightly larger impact than the learning-by-searching rate, leading to the conclusion that technological advancement through capacity additions plays a slightly more important role than through R&D. To link specific CCS promotion policies to technological learning, we analyze two policies. One provides R&D funding, addressing learning-by-searching progress. The other provides a subsidy for new CCS plants, reducing the investment costs investors have to pay by a certain percentage. This demand-side policy promotes diffusion and addresses learning-by-doing. At high CO2 prices, both policies only slightly improve the diffusion of CCS technology, and the policy type – i.e., R&D or investment subsidies – plays only a secondary role as their effectiveness is relatively similar, with slight advantages for an R&D-based policy. At lower CO2 prices, the impact of the investigated policies rises and they provide a suitable method for improving CCS diffusion. However, even a massive policy budget cannot compensate for CO2 prices as a key driver for CCS success. Even if €5 billion is spent annually after 2015 on CCS, the technology will not reach the capacity needed to reach commercial readiness of 21–22 GW by 2020, regardless of policy type. In a direct comparison between both policies, their effectiveness is similar at a budget below €0.5 billion p.a., but beyond that, investment subsidies are the more effective policy type. This is due to the logarithmic impact of R&D effort on investment costs, which cannot compensate for the linear reduction of investment costs of the investment cost subsidy. The overall situation is difficult for policy-makers: If CO2 prices are sufficiently high, no diffusion stimulation policies are needed in the first place. If not, opportunities for specific CCS promotion policies exist and do improve the situation, but their impact will never outweigh the unfavorably low CO2 prices, unless extraordinarily high budgets are allocated for CCS. Aggressive GHG reduction policies with high CO2 prices are therefore of prime relevance for CCS. If CCS policies are deployed at relatively low CO2 prices (such as 25 €/t), the impact of R&D and investment subsidy policies on CCS diffusion is about equally effective below €0.5 billion p.a.; beyond that, R&D policy effectiveness stagnates, compared to a continued linear growth for investment subsidies. In summary, we can therefore conclude that both effects on technological learning – R&D and capacity diffusion – are very similar for CCS, suggesting a simultaneous and balanced two-way policy, an insight consistent with the findings in 3 and 5. Given the already high policy budget of over one billion Euros annually across Europe, however, the R&D stimulating portion should be lowered. | 1.754679 | 1,014 | 1,013 |
2002 Timoshenko Medal Lecture by John W. Hutchinson
LIFE AS A MECHANICIAN: 1956-
John W. Hutchinson
This is a great honor for me; I know that I am undeserving. Nevertheless, I will gladly accept the medal. Several weeks ago, the NPR journalist, Daniel Schor, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in his acceptance speech he remarked that he had learned how to be gracious about undeserved honors from Henry Kissinger. Shortly after Kissinger received his Nobel Peace Prize, a reception in his honor was held at the State Department. An elderly woman approached Kissinger, grasped his hand, and thanked him from the bottom of her heart for saving the world. Following one of his heavy pauses, Kissinger replied, “you’re welcome”. In my case, I can thank you because, in addition to recognizing whatever contributions I have made to mechanics, the medal recognizes contributions of the teachers, colleagues and students with whom I have had the pleasure to interact over many years. In fact, I have always felt that the Timoshenko Medal is above all else a celebration of mechanics as a wonderful field. We have the great luxury to work in a field where basic math and science mix side by side with engineering applications. In any given day it is not unusual for our thoughts to range from the highly theoretical to very practical. I’d like to use my twenty minutes before you tonight to give a few randomly selected, personal reminiscences about some of the subjects on which I have worked with asides on a few the people in our field that I have had the pleasure to know. Speaking of this, I must mention that, although I cannot claim to have known Timoshenko, I did have the pleasure of meeting him briefly very early in my career. I’m not sure how much longer our Timoshenko Medalists will be able to make this claim. I will also say that I pick up one of his books on the average about once a month.
For me professionally, mechanics has been structures, fracture and materials. If you think back to 1956 when I started college, you will recall that computers were just beginning to be used to solve structural problems, fracture was just beginning to develop as an engineering science, and the mechanicians working on materials could be counted on the fingers of one hand. How things have changed! Those of us here over fifty or so have all been at the center of this revolution, most of the time without realizing that a revolution was underway. I will not be putting special emphasis on the role of computers in mechanics, even though this is like ignoring a bull in the china shop. The computer has transformed not only our field, but most fields of engineering and science. We can be proud that it is our colleagues in mechanics who led the way in developing the some of the most powerful numerical methods for engineering problems. In recent years the Timoshenko Medal has gone to some of the pioneers of the finite element method. I’ve been a user of computers, but not a developer of numerical methods, per se, so I am happy to leave it to future colleagues to tell us more about the ongoing developments on the computational side.
When pressed to state what I regard as the most remarkable single contribution of an individual in solid mechanics in my lifetime, I am inclined to say that it was Warner Koiter’s Ph.D. thesis, “On the stability of elastic equilibrium”, published in Amsterdam in 1945. The thesis developed the theory of elastic buckling and post-buckling behavior, the effect of initial geometric imperfections on buckling, and applied this theory to columns, plates and shells. But that was not all, most of Koiter’s subsequent seminal contributions to shells, both linear and nonlinear, had their beginnings in his thesis, and many aspects were already well developed there. I take pride in the fact that Bernie Budiansky and I were among the first to discover Koiter’s thesis, and that was not until 1963. Incidentally, the thesis work was carried out during the war in occupied Holland. Koiter later told me he did much of the work in a closet by the light of a candle—he may have been exaggerating. The thesis was published in Dutch. Budiansky and I relied on our astrophysics colleague, Max Krook, who knew Afrikaans and, therefore, a little Dutch to provide us translations of critical sections. Some years later, after Koiter’s approach was widely appreciated, I naively asked Koiter why he had never published his work on stability. He looked at me down his long nose and informed me it had been published! In Dutch, as his thesis! Shell buckling was one of the hot areas in the 60’s, motivated by rockets and other aerospace structures. The perplexing aspect everyone was trying to come to terms with at the time was the notorious discrepancy between the collapse load of actual shells and what was predicted theoretically for buck | 1.541832 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
ling of a perfect shell. Thin cylindrical shells under axial compression were observed to collapsed at loads as small as 20% of the theoretical prediction in contrast to columns and plate structures which showed good agreement between experiment and theory for the perfect structures. The key to understanding the discrepancy was the highly nonlinear post-buckling behavior and the extreme sensitivity to imperfections, which were related and clarified by Koiter’s thesis. Skeptics at the time thought that the basic theory for the perfect shell was intrinsically flawed, but it wasn’t. In fact, in the late 60’s, Rod Tennyson at the University of Toronto succeeded in making shells so nearly perfect that they buckled within 95% of the prediction for the perfect shell. All that is now history. Buckling problems of all kinds arise continually in many areas of technology. Sometimes I wonder where the expertise on buckling will reside when all of us aging bucklers cross the bar. ABAQUS can solve buckling problems, but it can’t pose or understand them. I’m afraid it would not take long to count the number of courses on buckling now taught in this country. On that somewhat pessimistic note, I’ll move on to fracture.
I was born a few years after Griffith wrote his landmark paper on the fracture of glass, but all the other developments of fracture mechanics occurred during my lifetime and most of them occurred during my lifetime as a mechanician. It is worth extolling fracture mechanics since to me it represents mechanics at its best: mathematical theory and problem solving (analytical and numerical), strong experimental underpinning, test method development, and, last but not least, engineering applications and materials characterization. All these are mixed together in an essential and rich manner. Fracture mechanics is going strong after fifty years of development. Fracture problems also arise every day in many areas of technology, and fundamental connections to microscopic and atomistic failure processes will continue to challenge some of us for many years to come. The chief limitation of fracture mechanics is simultaneously its great strength—namely, the details of the failure process are all swept under the rug as a critical parameter to be measured by experiment. Thus, crack mechanics provides a framework for carrying out macroscopic measurement and application of behavior that is controlled at much smaller scales, even at the atomic scale in some instances. Tests are designed to measure material toughness, or crack growth rate, and then this data could be applied to predict the integrity of a structure. I think I am correct in saying that after fifty years of measuring toughness and fatigue crack growth rates experimentally, there is probably not a single instance where a critical application has made use of toughness that has been predicted theoretically. You have to give the earlier developers a great deal of credit for understanding this from the start—I’ll single out George Irwin and Paul Paris as two of many of our colleagues who had the great insight to set this in motion. Paris’s early contribution was not the Paris Law (Paris, himself, is always the first to say it is no law at all). Along with Irwin, his contribution was the recognition that a truly esoteric quantity from elasticity theory, the stress intensity factor, could be used to develop a framework to measure crack growth and predict structural integrity.
Two motivations drove the development of nonlinear fracture mechanics. One was the quest to characterize behavior nearer the tip where the fracture process occurs. But equally important was the more practical problem of the huge specimens required for measuring fracture toughness based on linear fracture mechanics of the tough, ductile steels used in the nuclear reactor industry. In the late 60’s and early 70’s, engineers at Westinghouse were using specimens the size of a large file cabinet and weighing several tons to determine the toughness of pressure vessel steels. For every set of conditions, several specimens must be tested. Even for the most important applications, this was untenable. Thus, Jim Begley and John Landis at Westinghouse had plenty of motivation to see if they could make use of Jim Rice’s J-integral theory when extensive plasticity occurs, in analog to the way the stress intensity factor is employed when the deformation is elastic. It worked, not immediately, of course, but after the usual hard work. Now the fracture toughness of very tough steels can be measured using small specimens, thanks to a healthy mix of theory and experimentation. It has to be emphasized that this approach is still phenomenological—just like the linear approach it makes no pretense at incorporating a description of the microscopic fracture process. A computational approach to crack growth in ductile alloys based on the mechanics of the fracture process began to emerge in the early 70’s, motivated by problems in the nuclear power industry. Just when progress started to be made, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and EPRI, who were supporting most of this work, stopped the funding. It took almost a whole decade before groups working independently in France, Germany, the UK and America moved ahead on this more fundamental approach. While much remains to be done | 1.868444 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
on the nucleation and propagation of cracks in tough, ductile alloys, the approach appears to be the first computational method based on microscopic fracture processes that is ready as an engineering tool. I would be remiss if I did not emphasize that this approach still requires experimental calibration. As I said in the beginning of my remarks on fracture mechanics, toughness is measured not predicted, and I suspect this will just as true ten years from now.
Fracture mechanics remains a remarkably vital subject, and I’ve only scratched the surface of the history. Nevertheless, it is time to expand into my last period, materials, which is an even larger subject and which I will treat even more cursorily. The mechanics of materials has been around a long time, but back in the early 1960’s mechanicians working on fundamental aspects of material behavior were few and far between. Certainly, Frank McClintock deserves special mention as one of the earliest of the modern generation. As an undergraduate applying to graduate school, I recall being told by C.C. Lin, an eminent fluid mechanician at MIT, that materials (not plastics, incidentally!) were the future for a young man. Indeed, by the mid¬1970’s, structures had definitely lost out to materials as far as attracting the attention of many of us. Looking back, one can see that the emerging interest in materials had an enormously energizing effect on solid mechanics. So much so, that I remember friends in fluids wistfully envying our great source of problems. There is an enormously rich set of physical phenomena at many length scales associated with materials, and mechanics seems to be uniquely suited to organizing the interplay among the multitude of influential factors. Incidentally, color is not necessarily one of the influential factors, as this story will relate. I had worked on the transformation toughening of a ceramic, zirconia, for over a year and was giving a talk on the subject, when someone in the audience had the audacity to ask me for the color of zirconia. I hadn’t a clue, of course. For about the last twenty years, I’ve had the great fortune to work closely with Tony Evans on many different materials engineering problems. Evans knows that too much information will confuse any mechanician, and he has always been very selective about the facts he feeds me. Needless to say, the color of zirconia was not one of them.
The subject of materials is too big for an after dinner talk, apart from some light hearted remarks. I’ll repeat the advise that Rod Clifton gave to young mechanicians when he was up here a couple of years ago-- young man or young woman, its biological materials.
I’ve already remarked on the wonderful mix of theory, experiment and application comprising mechanics: a veritable melting pot of engineering, mathematics and physics. Lying at the crossroads of such intellectually diverse fields can create tensions. When I was a young fellow, there was a decided tension between colleagues who viewed mechanics as rightfully belonging to the field of mathematics and those who saw mechanics as part of engineering science. One of the first technical meetings I attended was the US National Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at the University of Minnesota. For the opening general lecture, Clifford Truesdale gave a lecture with a distinctly mathematical tilt on nonlinear continuum mechanics. George Carrier, a colleague of mine in fluid mechanics from Harvard, gave his general lecture on oceanography the following day. To the great amusement of his audience, he spent the first few minutes of his lecture mimicking Truesdale by giving an overly formal mathematical definition of an ocean. Without slighting the contributions of our former colleagues on either side of the fence on this issue, I think nearly all of us here will agree on how this tension has played out. Leaving aside who foots the bills for our research, mechanics is rightfully part of engineering and science. The fact that mechanics abounds with so many wonderful mathematical problems is a seductive added bonus.
Colleagues of my generation owe much gratitude to the Russians for stimulating the flow of research funds and university expansion in engineering and science. I was a sophomore in college when Sputnik went up, and it is only a slight exaggeration to say that I surfed the wave that Sputnik generated for many years afterward. The high flying years in the 1960’s in engineering and science funding contributed to unrealistic expectations in later years, which haven’t completely faded away. I’m going to resist the temptation to speak on the erosion of funding for mechanics in the current environment, which provides grist for many a Timoshenko after dinner talk. The idea of funding for research in mechanics, as if it were a basic science or mathematics, is a product of the two trends of the 60’s that I just mentioned. That is, mechanics as mathematics rather than engineering science, and the overly flush period in the 60’s when funding could be had for almost any reasonable research project in the physical sciences. My younger colleagues here may regret not experiencing the | 1.912581 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
As we grow older, it can be extremely challenging to lose fat just through diet and exercise. To really fight that stubborn fat, the ancient medical system of India, known as ayurveda, uses age-old techniques that target the exercise-resistant fat by igniting your digestive fire. This is the biggest difference between ayurvedic weight loss and techniques and more conventional Western methods – ayurveda focuses on why your fat cells are getting bigger and gives you solutions that work long term. These techniques have worked for thousands of years and can be performed on a daily basis.
There is a special concept used in ayurvedic medicine known as amathat is key to losing weight. Ama means “toxins.” These toxins are an accumulation of impurities in our bodies that are the result of improper diet, chronic stress, and environmental pollutants. Some of these toxins are water-soluble, making them easier to remove from the body with diet and exercise. But other toxins are fat-soluble, meaning that they become stuck deep inside fat cells. The fat cells expand as they accumulate these toxins, which leads to weight gain, especially in those hard-to-remove pockets of fat around the stomach, hips and thighs.
Ayurvedic techniques are targeted specifically at removing
ama from your body, which shrinks your fat cells. The older you get, the more common it becomes to have ama in your body, but it doesn’t have to be this way. If you implement daily habits and detox programs that help remove these toxins, they don’t have to become a chronic issue leading to weight gain.
The first step is to determine if you have toxins in your body. Once you recognize that you have an accumulation of
ama in your body, then it is time to take action to reduce these toxins. To learn more about ama and how it manifests in your body, take this quiz.
Each one of the following recommendations will help you to shed those extra pounds. Individually, they are helpful, but when you put them all together, you may experience impressive weight-loss results. These fat fighters will help you not only lose weight – but you’ll be able to keep it off. You can adhere to this plan indefinitely – I consider the steps life-long “maintenance” recommendations.
Remember, we are targeting that stubborn fat that never seems to go away. I’ve seen my patients lose dress sizes and some have lost up to 80 pounds! Most of these patients did not even come in to my practice for weight loss. The weight loss was just a natural byproduct of the ayurvedic programs they implemented. Now, let's get started.
Ayurvedic Fat Fighter #1
The first ayurvedic fat fighter is a special “detox” tea. It includes a combination of ingredients that help to improve digestion, break down fat, and “unclog” the channels in our body by removing
ama. Detox Tea Boil 4 to 5 cups of water in the morning. Add 1/2 teaspoon of the following seeds to the water and continue to let it boil for about 5 minutes with the lid on. Whole cumin seeds Whole coriander seeds Whole fennel seeds
Strain out the seeds and pour the liquid into a thermos. The key is to make the tea fresh every morning, place it in a thermos, and take small sips of it throughout the day. It is best to drink it warm or hot. If the tea is too strong or if you experience some initial discomfort, reduce the amount of seeds to 1/4 teaspoon for 2 weeks, and then increase it back to 1/2 teaspoon. the male’s front legs are in view. In all the photos Joy took, this stance was maintained. It is likely that this position reduces the risk that the male will be attacked by the female. Note the enlargement of the underside of the male.
The egg sacs produced by a single female number from one to five, and are constructed in late summer or during the fall.
Each sac is a leather-like pouch that contains up to 1,000 eggs and measures from 5/8-1.0 inch in diameter.
In the photos Joy sent, we can see both the structure of the egg sacs themselves, and the silk scaffolding that the female usd to fix their positions in space. Scaffolding stabilizes the egg sac against buffeting by wind, rain, and other natural conditions that, under extreme conditions, can destroy the egg sac and its contents. Since the offspring of spiders that take time to secure their egg sacs with scaffolding have a greater chance of survival, scaffolding can be seen as an adaptation for which evolution selects.
—————————————–
Questions? Corrections? Comments? BUG ME RIGHT NOW! Feel free to e-mail me at jerry.cates@bugsinthenews.info . You may also register, log in, and leave a detailed comment in the space provided below. | 1.64749 | 1,016 | 1,014 |
Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete" (John 15:9-11).
While reading this passage, which is a portion of Sunday's gospel, I was struck by Jesus emphasis on joy. He wants our joy to be "complete." That led me to theologian Paul Tillich, who reflected on the joy of the Christian life in
The New Being:
Blessedness is the eternal element in joy, that which makes it possible for joy to include in itself the sorrow out of which it arises, and which it takes into itself. In the Beatitudes, Jesus calls the poor, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst, those who are persecuted, "blessed." And He says to them: "Rejoice and be glad!" Joy within sorrow is possible to those who are blessed, to those in whom joy has the dimension of the eternal.
Here we must once more reply to those who attack Christianity because they believe that it destroys the joy of life. In view of the Beatitudes they say that Christianity undercuts the joy of
this life by pointing to and preparing for another life. They even challenge the blessedness in the promised life as a refined form of seeking for pleasure in the future life. Again we must confess that in many Christians, joy in this way is postponed till after death, and that there are Biblical words which seem to support this answer. Nevertheless, it is wrong. Jesus will give His joy to His disciples now. They shall get it after He has left them, which means in this life. And Paul asks the Philippians to have joy now. This cannot be otherwise, for blessedness is the expression of God’s eternal fulfillment. Blessed are those who participate in this fulfillment here and now. Certainly eternal fulfillment must be seen not only as eternal which is present, but also as eternal which is future. But if it is not seen in the present, it cannot be seen at all.
This joy which has in itself the depth of blessedness is asked for and promised in the Bible. It preserves in itself its opposite, sorrow. It provides the foundation for happiness and pleasure. It is present in all levels of man’s striving for fufillment. It consecrates and directs them. It does not diminish or weaken them. It does not take away the risks and dangers of the joy of life. It makes the joy of life possible in pleasure and pain, in happiness and unhappiness, in ecstasy and sorrow. Where there is joy, there is fulfillment. And where there is fulfillment, there is joy. In fulfillment and joy the inner aim of life, the meaning of creation, and the end of salvation, are attained. (Tillich, Paul,
The New Being: Chapter 19, The Meaning of Joy, Chas. Schribner's Sons, 1955)
When our inner joy finds outward expression, it is "complete." When our inner joy finds outward expression, it is contageous. Joy is the essence of our salvation and the fruit of faith-filled living.
The world needs more joyful Christians! Lord, give us an abundance of joy so that we may spread it around liberally enough to change the world.Lois Rogers writes in the Times:
Scientists have proved for the first time that a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks can damage human metabolism and is fuelling the obesity crisis.
Fructose, a sweetener derived from corn, can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and heart disease.
It has increasingly been used as a substitute for more expensive types of sugar in yoghurts, cakes, salad dressing and cereals. Even some fruit drinks that sound healthy contain fructose.
Experts believe that the sweetener — which is found naturally in small quantities in fruit — could be a factor in the emergence of diabetes among children. This week, a new report is expected to claim that about one in 10 children in England will be obese by 2015.
Previous studies of the potentially adverse impact of fructose have focused on rats, but the first experiment involving humans has now revealed serious health concerns.
Read More: Times
Latest posts by ralph (see all) Fats Domino Has A Really Awesome Couch - Nov 8, 2012 You Are Still Being Lied To: Howard Zinn’s “Columbus and Western Civilization” - Oct 8, 2012 If ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Was Marketed Today (Video) - Jul 27, 2012 | 1.514986 | 1,021 | 1,019 |
The great thing about Google is that it gives you exactly what you want. The problem with Google is that it gives you exactly what you want.
That’s what Todd Lohenry said to me a couple days ago when we were talking about managing knowledge, how to build expertise, and how to be recognised as an expert – three things he’s thought about a lot. And he’s got a point.
He has developed a method for handling a lot of incoming information that he calls the e1evation workflow. This is a clever system for finding, processing and sharing high-quality information.
The issue that he’s grappling with though, is how do you identify the areas that you need to know about? The problem is that search engines give you precisely what you ask for – and only that. So how can you tell if there is an important area of knowledge that relates to your specialty about which you’re unaware? A search won’t tell you.
There is a parallel here with the concept of T-Shaped skills – something that Ralph Ohr brought up in his first guest post here.
He quoted Nicholas Donofrio, who said:
The kind of people who will be best able to seize these opportunities are those I call “T-shaped” as opposed to “I-shaped.” I-shaped people have great credentials, great educations, and deep knowledge – deep but narrow. The geniuses who win Nobel prizes are “I-shaped,” as are most of the best engineers and scientists. But the revolutionaries who have driven most recent innovation and who will drive nearly all of it in the future are “T-shaped.” That is, they have their specialties – areas of deep expertise – but on top of that they boast a solid breadth, an umbrella if you will, of wide-ranging knowledge and interests. It is the ability to work in an interdisciplinary fashion and to see how different ideas, sectors, people, and markets connect. Natural-born “T’s are perhaps rare, but I believe people can be trained to be T-shaped. One problem is that our educational system is still intent on training more “I’s. We need to change that.
Google is an I-Shaped search engine – it goes very deep, but it isn’t broad. How do we get the breadth we need here?
This is another people-tech interaction issue. You can map the history of search using the matrix I’ve talked about before – by analysing where the intelligence sits in the system:
When the web started, there wasn’t much in the way of search. There was no systematic method for finding things, and no technology to support looking for stuff either – dumb tech and dumb people.
Then we had the first tools for searching the web – things like yahoo and lycos. These indices were compiled by hand, and put into categories by people using judgement. This was smart people with dumb tech. The problem with this approach is that it works fine when there are 32,000 websites to catalog, but it breaks when there are millions.
Enter google. With this, all of the intelligence is placed in the tech – the action is in the algorithm. The early search sites were hyphens, and the algorithm-driven ones are i-shaped. It’s possible that algorithms may eventually solve this problem. Bottlenose is a tool that is moving in this direction. And of course, once we hit the singularity, then it’s not an issue! Terri Griffith pointed me to Avogadro Corp, a book that outlines how this could happen. I’m still not sure if the outcome is really cool, or terrifying…
I think that to get to t-shaped search, we need to combine algorithmic filtering with some form of judgement-based filtering. That’s what gets us up into the corner with smart people using smart technology. Right now, we don’t know what will do the job – but solving this will trigger more disruption, and probably will make a bunch of money too.
Of course, it’s probably not enough to target a big disruption. If it were me, I’d be looking at problems that require t-shaped data to solve. Those are the most interesting ones around these days anyway.The solution will most likely come from someone experimenting around the edges. Larry Page and Sergei Brin weren’t trying to destroy yahoo and lycos when they started out – they just wanted to catalog books in libraries.
Solve a similar problem now, and you might solve the problem with Google. problem in our backyards," Katz added. | 1.780419 | 913 | 911 |
Jamison, in an interview, said she was an "exuberant" person, yet she longed for peace and tranquility; but in the end, she preferred "tumultuousness coupled to iron discipline" over leading a "stunningly boring life."[10] In her memoir
An Unquiet Mind, she concluded:
I long ago abandoned the notion of a life without storms, or a world without dry and killing seasons. Life is too complicated, too constantly changing, to be anything but what it is. And I am, by nature, too mercurial to be anything but deeply wary of the grave unnaturalness involved in any attempt to exert too much control over essentially uncontrollable forces. There will always be propelling, disturbing elements, and they will be there until, as Lowell put it, the watch is taken from the wrist. It is, at the end of the day, the individual moments of restlessness, of bleakness, of strong persuasions and maddened enthusiasms, that inform one's life, change the nature and direction of one's work, and give final meaning and color to one's loves and friendships.
Jamison was born to Dr. Marshall Verdine Jamison (1916–2012), an officer in the Air Force, and Mary Dell Temple Jamison (1916–2007).[11][12] Jamison’s father, and many others on his side of the family, also had bipolar disorder.[12]
As a result of Jamison’s military background, she grew up in many different places, including Florida, Puerto Rico, California, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C.. She has two older siblings, a brother and a sister, who are three and one half years older, respectively.[12] Jamison’s interest in science and medicine began at a young age, which her parents fostered. She worked as a candy striper at the hospital on the Andrews Air Force Base. In addition, Jamison interned at St. Elizabeths in Washington.[12]
Jamison moved to California during adolescence and shortly after this move began to struggle with bipolar disorder. Jamison then continued to struggle in college at UCLA wanting to first become a doctor, but with her increasing manic episodes realized she could not withstand the rigorous discipline needed for medical school. She then found her calling in studying psychology. She flourished in this field and was extremely interested in mood disorders. Jamison, despite all her studying, did not realize she was bipolar until three months into her first job as a Professor of UCLA’s Department of Psychology. After finding out, she was put on lithium (medication), a common drug used to contain moods. At times she would refuse treatment because her motor skills became impaired from the medication but after a greater depression decided to continue to take lithium. Jamison even attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on lithium but was unsuccessful.
Jamison has said that she has had a near-death experience, and has written about it, saying "mental illness can trigger religious revelations and visions -- even out-of-body and near-death experiences".[13]
Jamison is an Episcopalian,[14] and was married to her first husband, Alain André Moreau, an artist, during her graduate school years.[12] She then married Dr. Richard Wyatt in 1994,[15] and they remained married until his death in 2002.[16] Wyatt was a psychiatrist who studied schizophrenia at the National Institutes of Health. Their romance is detailed in her memoir
Nothing Was the Same.
In 2010 Jamison married Dr. Thomas Traill, a cardiologist and fellow faculty member at Johns Hopkins.[17]IC, BULATS, ELYTE…) can assess your ability to use a specific language in a business context. Don’t just say you can speak Spanish, prove it. Addressing misconceptions about returnees
The value of
international experience and cross-cultural knowledge might seem quite obvious to you. Nevertheless, you might meet some prospective employers who have some negative beliefs about returning expatriates. What are the most frequent misconceptions? Returnees have gotten used to exotic environments and constant holidays. Returnees don’t stay: they are eager to leave the country once again. Returnees have re-adjustement problems. Work experience abroad is unverifiable.
Don’t let yourself be startled by hasty assumptions and get employers to relax by showing you have completely settled back into your home country and have a clear career plan. Let them know that being independent doesn’t mean you can't fit into a team. Expatriation has taught you adaptability!
To find out more about how to market international experience:
Take a look at the five
Europass documents. | 1.773627 | 990 | 988 |
Inspecting, Donning, and Doffing Half-Face Air-Purifying Respirators(Mandatory Performance Test)(1)
"(1) Alert: For any trainee who does not have documented medical clearance to wear an air-purifyingrespirator, the performance test can be performed with the removal of the cartridges/filter elementsfrom the respirator facepiece after step 4 on the checklist. Step 9, the negative pressure user seal check,will be performed by placing the palms of the hands over the inhalation valve inlets and inhaling slightlyfor a count of 10.
Copy of the performance checklist for each trainee
Instructions:
Demonstrate, practice, coach, and talk through the task as a trainingexercise; repeat as needed.
Divide trainees into pairs to work together.
Require each trainee to take the performance test while the secondtrainee observes.
Require each trainee to talk through his/her thinking, inspection,and decision-making process while they complete the performance test.
Score each trainee on each task, using the performance checklist.Trainees will be given two separate scores. One will be for correctperformance of the operations listed (e.g., the trainee actually removesthe exhalation valve cover and checks for foreign material) and thesecond score will be for making the correct decisions (e.g., the traineeexplains verbally that the exhalation valve cover must be removed inorder to check for foreign material). To score, circle a “yes” arrowfor each correct operation performance or decision; circle a “No” arrowfor each inadequate or incorrect response. The total number of circled“Yes” arrows in the “Performs Operation Correctly” column will be theOperations Performance Score. The total number of circled “Yes” arrowsin the “Makes Correct Decisions” column will be the DecisionMaking Score.The maximum possible number for each score is 29.
Discuss scores with each trainee. Have trainee sign and date checklist,together with evaluator’s signature.
File checklists for future reference.
Retest if a trainee fails to sufficiently pass checklist requirement.
Report the range of scores for only the Operations Performance Scoreon the “Training Certifications and Information” section of the DisasterSite Worker Course #7600 Outreach Training Report. FROM will be thelowest Operations Performance Score obtained by any student and TO willbe the highest Operations Performance Score.
Inspecting, Donning, and Doffing Half-Face Air-Purifying RespiratorsPERFORMANCE CHECKLIST(1)
(1) NOTE: For any trainee who does not have documented medical clearance towear an air-purifying respirator, this performance test can be performedwith the removal of the cartridges/filter elements from the respirator facepieceafter step 4 below. Step 9, the negative pressure user seal check, willbe performed by placing the palms of the hands over the inhalation valveinlets and inhaling slightly for a count of 10.
TASK
RATING
Performs Operation Correctly
Makes Correct Decisions
Yes
No
Yes
No
1. Examine the face piece for:
Excessive dirt.
Cracks, tears, holes, or distortion from improper storage.
Inflexibility (stretch and massage to restore flexibility).
Cracked or broken air-purifying element holder(s), badly wornthreads, or missing gasket(s) (if required).
2. Examine the head straps or headharness for:
Breaks.
Loss of elasticity and twists.
Broken or malfunctioning buckles and attachments.
3. Remove exhalation valve cover andexamine valve for:
Foreign material, such as detergent, residue, dust particles,or human hair under the valve seat.
Cracks, tears, or distortion in the valve material.
Improper insertion of the valve body in the facepiece.
Cracks, breaks, or chips in the valve body, particularly in thesealing surface.
Missing or defective valve cover.
Improper installation of the valve in the valve body.
4. Examine air-purifying elements for:
Correct cartridge, canister, or filter.
Correct/incorrect installation, loose connections, missing orworn gaskets, or cross-threading in holder.
Expired shelf-life date on cartridge or canister.
Cracks or dents in outside case of filter, cartridge, or canister.
Evidence of prior use of sorbent cartridge or canister, indicatedby absence of sealing material, tape, foil, etc., over inlet.
5. Attach neck strap.
6. Place chin in chin cup and pullcrown straps or head harness across head.
7. Adjust straps to correct fit.
8. Perform positive pressure user sealcheck by placing palm of hand over exhalation valve cover and exhalingslightly for a count of 10. Notice any leaks.
9. Perform negative pressure user sealcheck by placing palms of hands over filter intakes and inhaling slightlyfor count of 10. Notice any leaks.
10. Readjust straps, if necessary | 1.299985 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
Oxygen-depleted toxic oceans had key role in mass extinction over 200 million years ago
Changes in the biochemical balance of the ocean were a crucial factor in the end-Triassic mass extinction, during which half of all plant, animal and marine life on Earth perished, according to new research involving the University of Southampton.
The study, published in the upcoming edition of Geology, reveals that a condition called ‘marine photic zone euxinia’ took place in the Panathalassic Ocean– the larger of the two oceans surrounding the supercontinent of Pangaea.
Photic zone euxinia occurs when the sun-lit surface waters of the ocean become devoid of oxygen and are poisoned by hydrogen sulphide - a by-product of microorganisms that live without oxygen that is extremely toxic to most other lifeforms.
The international team of researchers studied fossilised organic molecules extracted from sedimentary rocks that originally accumulated on the bottom of the north-eastern Panthalassic Ocean, but are now exposed on the Queen Charlotte Islands, off the coast of British Columbia, Canada.
The team found molecules derived from photosynthesising brown-pigmented green sulphur bacteria - microorganisms that only exist under severely anoxic conditions - proving severe oxygen depletion and hydrogen sulphide poisoning of the upper ocean at the end of Triassic, 201 million years ago.
The researchers also documented marked changes in the nitrogen composition of organic matter, indicating that disruptions in marine nutrient cycles coincided with the development of low oxygen conditions.
Previous studies have reported evidence of photic zone euxinia from terrestrial and shallow, near-shore environments during the latest Triassic, but the new research is the first to provide such evidence from an open ocean setting, indicating these changes may have occurred on a global scale.
The University of Southampton’s Jessica Whiteside, who co-authored the study, explains: “As tectonic plates shifted to break up Pangaea, huge volcanic rifts would have spewed carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, leading to rising temperatures from the greenhouse effect. The rapid rises in CO2 would have triggered changes in ocean circulation, acidification and deoxygenation.”
“These changes have the potential to disrupt nutrient cycles and alter food chains essential for the survival of marine ecosystems. Our data now provides direct evidence that anoxic, and ultimately euxinic, conditions severely affected food chains.”
“The same CO2 rise that led to the oxygen depleted oceans also led to a mass extinction on land, and ultimately to the ecological take-over by dinosaurs, although the mechanisms are still under study.”
Although the Earth was very different during the Triassic Period compared to today, the rate of carbon dioxide release from volcanic rifts are similar to those that we are experiencing now through the burning of fossil fuels.
Jessica comments: “The release of CO2 was probably at least as rapid as that caused by the burning of fossil fuels today, although the initial concentrations were much higher in the Triassic. The consequences of rapidly rising CO2 in ancient times inform us of the possible consequences of our own carbon dioxide crisis.”Peers have taken part in a dinner-break debate on how the government intends to implement its strategy for energy efficiency, on 10 December 2012.
The debate was tabled by Liberal Democrat peer Lord Teverson.
The government published its
energy efficiency strategy
last month, claiming it could help boost jobs and growth.
Opening the debate, Lord Teverson said it was a shame the introduction of the strategy had gone largely unnoticed, but said such a strategy was important to the future of the UK.
He told peers: "Energy efficiency means that emissions come down, it means there is greater energy security and it also means, according to the secretary of state, we will need 22 less power stations in our investment programme by 2030."
Labour peer Lord Judd used his contribution to call for clothes manufacturers and fashion designers to be encouraged to produce warmer clothes to assist with energy efficiency.
He said: "Fashion is all about smartness and elegance and how you look - surely in a society that was taking its energy needs seriously it would be about keeping warm?
"Why don't we give higher priority in our clothing design to the need to keep warm and use less energy?"
Replying to the debate on behalf of the government, Energy Minister Baroness Verma told peers energy efficiency must be at the centre of the UK's energy policy.
She said: "This country has an excellent record of using its resources effectively and energy should be no different." | 1.272706 | 917 | 915 |
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
A year ago, New York and Michigan apple growers were reeling from spring freezes that caused their worst crop devastation in decades.
Things look a whole lot better so far this season, with potentially record-large crops, but frosts could still occur for another month.
Last year, early March warmth pushed bud development and then late March and April freezes killed the buds by the millions.
In the fall, New York harvested about half of a normal 30 million boxes of fresh and processing apples. Michigan suffered a nearly 90 percent loss, harvesting 3 million boxes instead of its normal 22 million.
Washington state, with a record-shattering 129.4-million-box fresh crop and additional 26 million boxes going to processing -- a 155.4 million total -- moved into Midwest and East Coast markets to fill market demand normally met by New York and Michigan apples.
So far this year, New York is poised for its largest crop on record with "a textbook perfect season and enormous bud development" caused by last year's freezes, said Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple and Cherry Growers Association in Fishers, N.Y.
"Bloom potential is record-breaking" as there's been no frost damage, he said.
With "massive" plantings over the last five years now coming into production, the 29.5-million-box five-year average is probably low, Allen said.
Diane Smith, executive director of the Michigan Apple Committee in Lansing, would not speculate on crop size but said weather has been normal after 22 frost-freeze events last April. Trees are still dormant and frost damage can occur into late May, she said.
Last August, the committee issued a news release quoting Michigan State University Extension educator Amy Irish-Brown about the potential for a large crop the year after a freeze because nutrients that would have gone into fruit development go into the following year's buds.
While bud development is 10 days late due to cool weather, this year's crop should be greater than normal, perhaps 30 million boxes not just from the freeze but new plantings in recent years, Irish-Brown now says.
Growers, packers and shippers, seeing value, have invested heavily in recent years in expanding newer, high-density plantings, more wind machines for frost protection and new storage and packing equipment, Smith said.
Crops should increase in two to three years, and some people believe it will reach 30 million to 40 million boxes, she said.
In strategic planning last summer the industry agreed to ramp up exports of fresh apples, she said.
Washington state apples have long dominated domestic and export sales.
The 58th annual Fruit Crop Guesstimate, sponsored by the Michigan Frozen Food Packers Association, will be held June 19 in Grand Rapids. It's the first estimate of apple and other fruit crop sizes.
The Michigan Apple Committee had to make budget cuts after the 2012 crop loss but now has hired two account managers to facilitate 2013 sales. One is Terry Braithwaite, East Wenatchee, Wash., who was formerly marketing director of Chelan Fresh Marketing in Chelan, Wash.It’s been dubbed one of the most successful video games of all time, and now the
Wii Fit is down to £51.96 on the Hut. So now that it’s far too cold to be exercising out doors as winter is almost upon us – plus gym memberships are about the first thing everyone sacrificed to the economic recession – it’s all about getting into shape the Wii fit way. However do bear in mind regarding this deal that you need to enter the code Wii10 prior to checking out £51.96.
There is no doubt that striving to fit etc is a very good thing, but, with regard to the Wii fit, just remember that it can be quite a cruel game, especially when you’re getting weighed by that board. The
Wii Fit uses the good old BMI (Body Mass Index) to calculate your weight and, if you are over weight, will tell you by how much – and actually create a bloated little avatar to represent you (charming!).
The problem with BMI is that it is very inconsistent – in fact, after the decision of an American health corperation who moved the BMI ‘normal’ category down from 27 to 25, millions of people were made obese overnight! But whether you believe in BMI or not,
Wii Fit can make you very paranoid. I’ve even heard of children who look perfectly in proportion being told they are overweight and being pretty devastated as a result. So as a Christmas present this one can be a bit of a double edged sword. Thanks to Jake1983 from Hotukdeals. | 1.931788 | 992 | 990 |
Monopoly is a game that many play. There are many different versions, such as those based on Disney, Star Wars, Star Trek and cartoon characters to name a few. The rules however are the same for every Monopoly game. The object is to be the wealthiest player.
Check to see that you have all the equipment. This includes a board, two dice, tokens, houses and 12 hotels. In addition, there are 16 chances and 16 community chest cards as well as 28 deed cards. Instructions should be in the box also.
Set up the game. Shuffle the cards for Chance and Community Chest and place them face down on the spots where they go on the board. Each person playing gets $1500 in cash: two $500's, two $100's, two $50's, six $20's, five $10's, five $5's, and five $1's. Pick a token and place it on the "Go" space. Roll the dice to see who goes first. The player with the highest number goes first.
Select one person to be the banker. The banker collects the money you pay to the bank, provides change to players and sells the deeds, houses and hotels.
Roll the dice and move your token the required number of spaces. Follow the instructions on the space you land. If you hit chance or community chest, pick a card and do what it says. This could be "Go to Jail," "Go" or a specific property. Alternatively, it may say you have won money or have to pay it. If you land on a property that nobody owns you can buy it. If somebody owns it, you need to pay the player who owns it the amount of rent the deed specifies.
Get out of jail by one of three methods. You can pay $50 on your next turn and get out, you can roll doubles and get out or you can use a "Get Out of Jail Free" card. However, you can only stay in jail for three turns. On the third turn you must pay the $50 to get out.
Land on "Free Parking." Although the official rules of Monopoly say that nothing happens when you land on this space, many people use it to collect money. The way you do this is that whenever you have to pay money to the bank for income taxes, to get out of jail or for any penalties, rather than paying the bank this money it goes into a pot in the middle of the board. When a player lands on "Free Parking," he collects this money.
Buy houses or hotels when you get a monopoly. A monopoly is when you have all the properties of one color. For example, "Boardwalk" and "Park Place" are a monopoly because they are dark blue. You have to buy houses equally. You can't buy two houses and place them both on "Boardwalk." One has to go on "Boardwalk" and the other on "Park Place." After you have bought four houses for each of the properties, you can than buy hotels. You can only put one hotel on each property.
Collect rent from the properties you own. Every time a player lands on a property you own, you collect rent. The amount depends on several things. If you have just one of the color group, you collect the rent that is on the deed. If you own all the properties in the color group, then you collect double the rent that is on the deed. If you have houses or hotels on the property, then you collect the rent that is on the deed for the number of houses you have on the property.
Win the game. When all the other players go bankrupt, you win the game. However, there are other ways to win. You can set a time limit and the player with the most money wins. Alternatively, when the first player goes bankrupt, whoever has the most money wins. If you are playing the game and counting who has the most money, you need to include properties, houses, hotels and get out of jail free cards. So reach out to your recent customers and request them to leave honest reviews. Because buyers often use ‘latest’ filter while sorting out reviews If you have offline customers, ask them if they can post a review on Amazon (as anyone can write here). If they aren’t tech-savvy, take their permission to post a review on their behalf in their words Lastly, report every fake review you spot with proofs, even if no action is taken Amazon can follow Snapdeal’s example
Indian etailer Snapdeal recently introduced a new seller rating framework where it will consider only verified customer reviews. This is a very good move and Amazon should consider following the same route. Don’t you think?
Sellers, let us know your opinions. Do you think only verified reviews should be allowed on an online marketplace? Or do you think restricting reviews will have a negative impact on your business? | 1.215006 | 1,017 | 1,015 |
Why do people act and perceive the way they do? This can be explained by Charles Taylor’s social imaginary. There are underlying thoughts and rules in society that shape the way people think. Sometimes topics such as sexuality, which most people view only in one way, may not be so clear after all. The social imaginary is what enables the practices of a society. This is done though making sense of ideas and expectations.
It is “how they [people] fit together with others, how things go on between them and their fellows, the expectations that are normally met, and the deeper normative notions and images that underlie these expectations” (Taylor pg. 23). Charles Taylor seems to focus on how people envision their social settings. Our social imaginary is “shared by large groups of people,” and “is that common understanding that makes possible common practices and a widely shared sense of legitimacy” (Taylor pg. 23). In other words, the social imaginary is what makes common practices and ideals socially acceptable. Without it, no one would know how to interact with others. It is like a complex, unsaid law, given to people that allows them to carry out their social lives. Taylor relates his idea to government elections where he explains, “Part of the background understanding that makes sense of our act of voting for each one of us is our awareness of the whole action… this kind of macrodecision, in other words, has to meet certain norms if it is to be what it is meant to be” (Taylor pg. 4). However, only relevant backgrounds can apply to an act or scenario for it to make sense. It is also explained that understanding different practices, makes them possible. While at the same time, the practice itself is what carries the understanding. These practices are implicit in society; people know how to act in different situations, and with whom, without being told. A social imaginary has always been in existence, even before humans started theorizing about it. Taylor has explained three different types of social imaginary: explicit, symbolic, and tacit. The explicit level of the social imaginary is the level that anyone can overtly talk about, it is obvious. Take a stop sign, for instance, this is something that everyone can see and talk about. When people see a stop sign it is a known rule to come to a complete stop. This is an example of the explicit social imaginary. The tacit dimension consists of the implied rules of the social imaginary. If a teacher came into class and started baking a cake, this would not be normal. Students would perceive the teacher in a confused way, as this is not something a teacher should be doing in class. The idea that a teacher is supposed to teach and not bake is one of the unsaid rules of the tacit social imaginary. Symbolic social imaginary is the level that involves both explicit and tacit traits. For example, blue is for boys and pink is for girls. These are just colors; however they are recognized symbolically as things for girls or things for boys. Anne Fausto-Sterling is someone who does not see sex as clearly black and white. She believes there is more than just male and female sexes, and that this gray area should not be looked down upon. In her article, “The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough,” she describes the five sexes in which she has categorized these people who do not fall under male or female. The medical language uses the term “intersex” to group all intersexual bodies. However, Fausto-Sterling breaks this group down into three groups. Hermaphrodites, or herms, “possess one testis and one ovary (the sperm and egg-producing vessels, or gonads)” (Fausto-Serling pg34). Herms can technically become pregnant and also impregnate someone else. Male pseudohermaphrodites (the “merms”), have testes and some aspects of the female genitalia but no ovaries” (Fausto-Sterling pg34). Merms are not able to become pregnant. “Female pseudohermaphrodites (the “ferms”), have ovaries and some aspects of the male genitalia but lack testes” (Fausto-Sterling pg34). Ferms are able to become pregnant. Fausto-Sterling believes in the idea that these three categories of human sexes should be considered additional sexes, along with male and female. It seems crazy that people like this exist in our world, yet we don’t even have names to identify them. Even language refuses other possibilities; … I have had to invent conventions –s/he and his/her- to denote someone who is clearly neither male nor female or who is perhaps both sexes at once” (Fausto-Sterling pg 33). Although the concept of intersexuality has existed long before our time, people still view this is as a controversial subject. Some doctors perform surgeries on intersexual infants in order to make them “normal. ” | 1.585054 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
But who is to say what normal is? Doctors say their policy reflects the “wish that people be able to ‘fit in’ both physically and sychologically” (Fausto-Sterling pg34). However, Fausto-Sterling states cases where children growing up as intersexual “adjusted to their unusual status,” and found that “there is not a psychotic or a suicide in the lot” (Fausto-Sterling pg38). Therefore maybe being a transsexual isn’t as bad as society makes it seem; maybe doctors should not be performing surgeries on infants while they are not yet able to make decisions for themselves. Charles Taylor’s social imaginary plays hand in hand with Anne Fausto-Sterling’s five sexes. The fact that most of society today does not accept intersexes just because it is not the norm is a social imaginary. It makes people act is if the only sexes that exist are male or female. Fausto-Sterling says, “Scientific dogma has held fast to the assumption that without medical care hermaphrodites are doomed to a life of misery” (Fausto-Sterling pg37). Although there is evidence to prove this otherwise, the social and scientific stigma holds this statement as true. Many believe that both intersexes and their parents will suffer in life, if they do not change their physiology. This social imaginary is made up from the idea that there are two and only two sexes: male and female. “Why should we care if there are people whose biological equipment enables them to have sex ‘naturally’ with both men and women” (Fausto-Sterling pg37)? Fausto-Sterling is talking about the inability for society to see people different from themselves as acceptable human beings. A tacit part of this social imaginary would be defining a person by their intersexuality, or thinking that “normal” males and females are superior to intersexes. As well as affecting judgments and medical practices, the perspective on sexuality that the social imaginary creates also affects laws. In some states in the U. S. , the sex of a child on their birth certificate is able to be changed if a doctor has performed the surgery on the child. However in other states, it is illegal to change the sex of a child; they are still seen as their original sex based on their chromosomal makeup. “Modern Anglo- Saxon legal systems require that newborns be registered as either male or female” (Fausto-Sterling pg35). There is no category of intersex to be registered under. The social imaginary creates skewed perspectives on sexuality in society. In the court case of Littleton vs. Prange, Christie Lee Littleton was a transsexual female, born male. She was “diagnosed psychologically and psychiatrically as a genuine male to female transsexual” (Littleton vs. Prange pg68). Christie’s doctors believed that this meant Christie, and any similar case, is “psychologically and psychiatrically female before and after the sex reassignment surgery” (Littleton vs. Prange pg68). Christie went through with her sex reassignment surgery and continued her life by marrying a man. It is stated that “Texas (and Kentucky, for that matter), like most other states, does not permit marriages between persons of the same sex” (Littleton vs. Prange pg69). Therefore, in my mind, Christie was legally looked at as a female at her time of marriage, since she and her husband had a ceremonial marriage ritual. However, the judge did not share the same views as me. Christie Littleton was found legally male and her marriage was found invalid. Therefore, in the event of her husband’s death, “Christie cannot bring a cause of action as his surviving spouse. ” Christie lost her case. It is stated that “the majority assumes that gender is accurately determined at birth,” in the dissenting opinion by Alma Lopez (Littleton vs. Prange pg71). This leads me to believe that social imaginary did in fact play a role in the decision of the Littleton vs. Prange case. When Christie’s gender on her birth certificate was changed, and lawfully corrected, only the original birth certificate was taken into account in the hearing. It seems to me that the social imaginary on sexuality influenced the judge’s decision. Although Christie was not biologically female, she was told, and doctors testified, that she was medically female. This leads me to believe that maybe the judge did not view Christie’s marriage to her husband as legitimate, since it is not a typical marriage. I do not agree with the judge’s decision. I believe that since Christie was legally married to her husband, she should be found as the surviving spouse of her husband. Although gay marriage is illegal in Texas, she is technically now female. The marriage should never been accepted in the first place if it was to be questioned later on. As you can see, the social imaginary can create controversies and flaws in our practices, judgments | 1.706598 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
Paced by a recovering market for nonresidential projects and expanding housing activity, billings at U.S. architecture firms increased 11 percent between 2002 and 2005 to reach $28.7 billion annually.The total construction value of projects that architecture firms directly designed approached $360 billion, accounting for almost three percent of overall U.S. Gross Domestic Product.These findings are from The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Business of Architecture: 2006 AIA Firm Survey which is conducted every three years to examine issues related to business practices of AIA member-owned architecture firms.The study also revealed continued improvement in diversity in the profession and an increase in the number “green” design projects.
“While the residential design category posted the strongest gains in share of firm activity during this period, the institutional market – led by the health care and education sectors – remains the largest source for architecture services,” said survey co-author, AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA.“State and local governments were the leading architecture clients, followed closely by developers/construction companies.The most common project delivery method remains traditional design-bid-build, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of project activity at architecture firms.”
Top 5 sectors served by architects in 2005
Health care: 14.3%
Office: 11.7%
Education (K-12): 11.1%
Multifamily residential: 10.7%
Education (college/ university): 7.7%
(Percent of firm billings)
Diversity continues to increase within profession
Women currently comprise 26 percent of all architecture staff, up from 20 percent in 1999, and the percentage of minority architecture staff has risen from 9 to 16 percent over the same period.
Baker added, “ Of particular note, women and minority architects have both made advances in leadership positions.Women principles and partners at firms have quadrupled from 4 percent in 1999 to 16 percent in 2005.Minority architects have also increased their share as principals and partners across the spectrum of firm sizes.”
Green architecture grows in popularity
Due to rising energy costs and growing concerns over the impact that construction activity has on the environment, there has been a rise in the use of sustainable (“green”) design principles.In 2005, just over one-third of firms with nonresidential projects and a quarter of firms designing residential projects characterized some of their projects as green.
Percent of firms with green projects:
Nonresidential construction: 34%
Residential construction: 25%
Residential remodeling: 22%
Additional details are available in the survey relating to fees and profitability, range of services offered, international work, marketing practices, IT expenditures, liability insurance, and continuing education at U.S. architecture firms.The survey is available at no charge to AIA members and can be ordered by calling Information Central at 800-242-3837, option 1.
About The Business of Architecture: The 2006 AIA Firm Survey
The survey was researched and compiled by the AIA department of market research. The survey data were weighted to reflect the population proportions of AIA member-owned firms in terms of number of firms in each of six size categories, as well as their geographic distribution in terms of the nine census regions.Buying marijuana in Denver is a downright pleasant experience.
Customers wait in a well-appointed waiting room. There’s a variety of reading material — feel free to choose between the gardening magazine and the Cannabible on the coffee table — and plenty of information about the product.
When their names are called, they will follow an attendant through an atrium where they can buy t-shirts or smoking paraphernalia, and into a quaint shop where they can peruse the wares.
There, they will find a wide array of aromatic marijuana flowers in glass jars, pot-infused products — mints, beverages, or something to satisfy the sweet tooth — as well as pre-rolled joints and servings of cannabis concentrates.
Customers are rung up on a computerized point of sale system. They get a receipt — a receipt! — after paying for their marijuana.
They are free to walk out to their cars, drive their marijuana home, and smoke it.
It’s a remarkably clean system. It doesn’t feel like a violation of Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, the federal law that governs controlled substances, even though it is. It’s a safe, stable, professional environment.
It’s remarkable that only two years ago, the whole system almost came crashing down during the most difficult economic event the infant cannabis industry has ever faced: The Great Marijuana Price Crash Of 2011.
How did it all come about?
– Read the entire article at Business Insider. | 1.469427 | 1,020 | 1,018 |
The TV might look great, but as far as adding yellow, it's gotta be pure marketing bullsh#t. The RGB spectrum already has yellow (it's just not in the acronym), so they're not adding anything.
Ryan
Ryan
Post removed
As humans, among other critters are trichromatic beings, meaning we perceive color by subjective appraisal of differences between long medium and short wave light, including yellow now should add to the overall color schemes we might see.
Green and blue are close to one another in the light wave bandwidth, with Red and yellow being more diverse. Longer, and shorter, respectively.
Red yellow and Blue are the basic colors I recall being taught about in school. having less diversity in the basic colors chosen for projection by using two similar ones and only one more different type always bugged me.
Too bad they waited till now to include more diversity by adding yellow.
All that said, it comes down to the rods and cones in our own eyes, so in the end, I suspect some will be quite taken by this new application and some will not be quite so gladly affected.
As stunning as is what can be gained from using only 3 or 4 primary portions of the light spectrum itself, just think what could be if six colors in all should comprise the basic format from which the image is derived. Allowing for a still greater and more even and naturally displayed image.
Two from the long end, two from the middle and two from the shorter end of the light wave span itself.
05-03-10: EricjcabreraNo. Cyan/magenta/yellow are the primary pigments--the primary colors of *reflected* light. Red/green/blue are the primary colors of direct light. The division of red/green/blue is arbitrary and the lowest number of colors possible to *approximately* cover all of them. This method takes the visible light spectrum and divides it equally into three parts; the visible products are red, green, and blue. But if you look at a lot of TVs and even after you adjust them, you'll find that some favor greens, some are redder, and some, no matter how you twiddle the knobs, just can't do neutral grey shadows or believable skin tones. Or sometimes there's a persistent green tint that--by the time you adjust it out--goes straight into overly red.
This is because the 3 color system works, but it isn't perfect. Lithographers have known this for nearly 200 years. I have hanging in my living room a limited edition litho of a pair of Siamese cats. Standard color printing requires 4 colors of ink--magenta, cyan, yellow, and black. This litho used 6 colors--the standard four plus specially mixed inks of blue and green to more accurately capture the color of the cats' eyes and the foliage surrounding them as depicted in the original watercolor painting. The lithographer wouldn't have gone to that trouble if the standard 4 inks would have sufficed.
One could create an entirely different color system by dividing the visible light spectrum into (for example) six segments. Then there would be six different colors than the three primaries we're accustomed to. Color renditions would be more accurate as well.
some of you are confusing the mixing of pigments to produce color, and spectra of light. They are not the same thing and do not work the same way. Mix all the colors on your palette, you get a dark, dirty gray. All the colors in the spectra combined equals white, clear light.
Most monitors reproduce only about 70% of the color spectrum in an NTSC signal. The best ones (e.g., Sony Qualia) produce the whole enchilada. You don't know what you're missing until you see it done right, as apparenly Larry did.
I was under the impression that the addition of yellow was motivated by upcoming new energy efficiency regulations. The addition of yellow permits a brighter picture while using less energy. Currently brightness unto itself isn't much of problem for most typical applications. Meeting the new energy regulations and maintaining desired brightness might be problem.
Well, someone said 'total marketing bull*hit', that may be true of many things retail, but the 'color shading difference' sans marketing on this unit, calls for it to produce 256 colors plus one more factor of 256 making the total of shades, not in the millions, but into the >1Trillion color shades.
I, without knowing somehow fealt that the colors were more approximation and not the full range of color that is shown by sunlight or a halogen, and that is apparently true, if we're to believe that the shades of color reproduction have increased by such an order of magnitude.
I only know that there WERE more colors, and that sublte 'combinations' of others were rendered with more subtle shadings. My eyes, like my ears didn't lie to me.
Larry
First | 2.195863 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
off, pigments are a completely different conversation than the RGB light spectrum.
The reason I say the extra yellow color is marketing bulls#t is because RBG are the primary colors of the entire spectrum of light that our eyes can see. You get every other color in the spectrum by mixing them together. When we see the color yellow, we're actually seeing a mixture of pure red and pure green. That's what yellow IS. They can't add and extra yellow color because it's still red and green mixed together.
Ryan
The question is not whether three RGB lights with variable intensity and backlight can produce yellow. They obviously can. The question is whether or not adding a fourth light in the way Sharp does produces a better picture. The newest large-screen RBG LCD TVs look better than the first RPTVs which came out but it is still the same RBG. The goal is a better perceived picture, not satisfying purists' theoretic ideals.
Anyone who has ever painted knows that you can use the three basic colors and white to get to everything, but I have known any number of painters over the years and none of them starts a painting with only four tubes of paint in the box.
Typical logic had me believing that the additional yellow would produce an Enhanced RGB. Printing CMYK, whether on press or some digital output device is commonly augmented with special colors to enhance areas where the standard 4-colors go flat.
Generally, I see reflective color (printing/painting) as very lossy in color purity. Additive color (light) can exist in a much more loss-less environment. I have a lamp that use 4 halogen "guns", three are dichroic filtered to produce pure RGB and the fourth unfiltered White light. Each of the RGB and White can be individually intensity controlled. To cut to the chase, if I added a Yellow lamp to the RGB mix, the colors produced would be altered or pushed in a direction. I am assuming I could readjust the RGB mix to repeat the original color prior to the addition of yellow. So theoretically, I am not necessarily improving the color, just changing the hue.
In the case of RGBY in a matrix, I think the fields of color can be positively enhanced at the glass. The processing would be more complex to properly incorporate the yellow push, but the addition of a specialized color could theoretically improve the richness of hues.
I look forward to seeing RGBY.
It probably wouldn't change the requirements for HDMI transmission. It receives a standard digital RGB via HDMI and remaps the incoming 3-color signal into a 4-color array to assign colors to the pixels in the display.
Just as Dolby ProLogic could matrix out 5.1 surround from 2-channel, the RGBY TV probably extrapolates the yellow signal from within the RGB transmission received. Another illustration of the principle is the various tricks applied to 16/44.1 KHz digital to increase playback resolution via upconverting and bitmapping.
Everyone will think I'm crazy if they see the RGBY under the conditions I saw it at Best Buys. Usually they do a decent job, (OK at the Louisville, KY store).
But I took a friend in, and the sets were set up poorly, with color adjustments varying wildly.
At HH Gregg, the sets were all perfectly adjusted, moreover they were set 'the same' as one another, making heads up comparison easy.
FWIW.
LarryWASHINGTON, D.C. – States will be required to keep medical certificate records on file electronically along with commercial drivers' licenses, according to a new rule from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
FMCSA on Dec. 1 issued a final rule that streamlines the process for combining CDL and medical records for commercial truck and bus drivers. When fully implemented by the states in three years, the new combined CDL will provide instant electronic access by state and federal enforcement officials. In addition, the rule requires states to take enforcement actions against CDL holders if they do not provide medical certification status information within the deadline.
"While we have made significant improvements in motor carrier safety, these actions will support and strengthen our continuing commitment to ensure that only medically qualified individuals are allowed to operate an interstate truck or bus. Safety is our paramount responsibility," FMCSA Administrator John H. Hill said.
FMCSA issued a proposal for a related rulemaking that would establish a National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners to ensure that physical qualification examinations of CDL holders are performed by qualified medical practitioners and are administered in a uniform and consistent manner. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking can be found at www.regulations.gov, docket number FMCSA-2008-0363. Public comments on the proposal should be submitted by January 30, 2009.
The final rule on Medical Certification Requirements as Part of the CDL is available for review at www.fmcsa.dot.gov.
Source: Traffic World | 2.013839 | 1,011 | 1,009 |
Physical Changes Physical Change is a change where there is no change in the composition of the substance and only the physical state of the substance takes place. Examples include the melting of a solid, The freezing of a liquid, sublimation of a solid to a gas, formation of a solution, evaporation, boiling process, crystallization, etc. In a physical change the molecular particles remain unchanged and no fragmentation of the molecules take place. Physical changes may be accompanied with energy being absorbed or given off during the physical change.
Chemical Changes Chemical change involves a change in the composition as well as the physical state (perhaps). In a chemical change molecules fragment and recombine to form new molecules with a different composition. Evidence of Chemical Change include formation of evolution of gas at room temperature, the formation of a precipitate at the mixing of two solutions. Examples of Chemical Change include the souring of milk, fermentation, combustion (burning), cooking of foods, metal corrosion, electroplating of objects, etc.
Which clues can be used to decide if a chemical change has taken place? One view in which we can perceive such a change is the "sub-microscopic" view. This view is what I call the "molecular" view. It is a view that we can only hope to envision with our mind's eye. We can't actually view the particles (molecules or ions), but by envisioning molecules and atoms dynamically where the particles are in constant movement we can better understand what is actually happening. The relationship between the two viewpoints is important. Often we can't really understand what we are viewing macroscopically until we have developed a sub-microscopic or molecular view of that change. There are a number of clues that will point to a Chemical change taking place. A chemical change will take place when the molecules or ions of matter undergo rearrangement or fragmentation where in many cases the fragments recombine to form new molecules or ions. The bottom line from a molecular view is that molecules undergo change in structure or shape. However from a "macro-scopic" view, the view that we can see in the laboratory what are some laboratory observations? A rapid evolution of bubbles at room temperature. A solid forms upon the mixture of two chemical solutions. This is called "precipitation". Do not confuse this with another process that takes place which would be described as a physical change, solidification or crystallization. When a pure liquid becomes a solid, a solid does appear (macroscopically), but this is the physical change of liquid molecules into more rigidly fixed solid molecules. Since the molecules are the same (whether in the liquid or solid state) no chemical change is taking place. A precipitation also results in a solid appearing (macroscopically). However the solid is caused as a result of two solutions (containing ion particles) being brought together. Two of the ions of opposite charge get together and a new substance is formed which is insoluble in the solvent present (usually water). This results in the new substance appearing as a solid. Since the new substance was not present before the change took place this would be described as a chemical change. The precipitate upon further examination of its properties would have a different property profile. Energy is being exchanged (absorbed or liberated). However, we have to be very careful with this observation since physical changes can also involve energy exchanges. The important thing is that if we reverse the energy exchange that the pure substances before and after the energy exchange are the same. How can we know that the pure substances are the "same"? That brings us to our fourth observation. The measurable properties of a pure substance before the change will be altered to a new value after the change if the change is truly a chemical change. Every pure substance (elements and compounds) have a set of measurable properties such as melting point, boiling point, density, etc. I call this its' "property profile" of the pure substance. If the property profile is altered after the change has taken place then we can suspect that a new pure substance is present and a chemical change has apparently taken place. For example, if we have a pure substance "A" and a change takes place where the boiling point of a pure substance "B" is measured and is shown to be different than the boiling point of substance "A", then we have to conclude that a new substance "B" has formed that was not there initially. | 1.444401 | 898 | 897 |
Prepare Your Dog for Holiday Visitors & Stress - Dog Training Tips
The holidays are a busy time for many households. Friends and family come and go, deliveries are made to the door, delicious smells emanate from the kitchen, and a general happy hubbub means that something special is happening. Among those affected by these changes is the family dog.
While one dog may revel in the change of pace, another may find it a confusing, stressful time. Your normally placid dog may suddenly begin to exhibit unusual behaviors, such as stealing food, jumping up on people, or growling or snapping at visitors. As pack leader, you need to communicate and demonstrate to your dog that while his world may be different, you will continue to keep him safe and secure.
When an insecure dog-no matter his size or breed-encounters a new situation, he doesn't know what to do. If he feels threatened, he may react defensively with a snap or bite.
On the other hand, a well-socialized dog is comfortable meeting and being with others, both dogs and people. He has been introduced to a variety of situations and knows he and his pack have remained safe through them all.
The following are some tips to help calm your dog and keep everyone in the home safe during the active holiday season.
Children visitors Dogs that live in a household with no children may not be comfortable when kids come to visit. The chaos created by youngsters like grandchildren will inherently raise the energy level in the house, causing the dog to worry or stress. Here are some ways to control such situations if your dog does not cope well with children. Always supervise kids (especially very young children) and dogs when they are alone together. This is when most dog bites to children occur. With a very young child, parents must be vigilant and monitor their tot's interactions with the dog. Parents should teach children of all ages to treat dogs with respect and gentleness. Never invite a child to feed the dog by hand-this teaches the dog it is acceptable to take any food from a child. Because of a child's small size, the dog may view her as an equal and thus may try to take advantage of the situation. Boundaries and security Dogs need to have their own "home," a place where they feel secure and calm. If your dog doesn't already have a place of his own, create one for him. A crate or pet carrier provides a natural safe haven for your dog. Keep his crate or dog pillow in a quiet area of the home, and direct your dog to go there when you need to set boundaries. While he may not like being separated from you, he will still feel secure. If your dog begins to bark or nip at visitors, remove him from the area and keep him in his safe place until your guests have gone. Keep the dog out of certain rooms where he can get underfoot. For example, training your dog to stay out of the kitchen-where most household accidents occur-is a good safety measure. It also helps to prevent your dog from begging for food. If you travel during the holidays, taking his crate/carrier will help your dog feel more relaxed, since "home" is wherever he finds you and his familiar bed. Elderly dogs Elderly dogs may not enjoy the extra hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Be mindful of keeping your older dog comfortable when his routine is disrupted. If your elderly dog gets cranky around visitors, simply take him to his special quiet place where he won't be bothered and can feel secure. Remind children to be respectful of your older dog. Always provide supervision when dogs and kids are together. Front door behaviors A knock on the door can be a stimulating event for a dog, whether he sees it as fun or alarming. It is natural for him to want to know who the visitors are to determine if they are friendly or not. However, a dog that explodes with excitement at the sound of the doorbell is both annoying and unsafe-he may dash out the door and run into harm's way, he may get underfoot and become a trip hazard, he may knock people over, or he may become aggressive to the visitor. To help your dog be calmer, exercise him prior to the arrival of guests. After 30 minutes of walking or playing, your dog will more likely be relaxed or want to nap. As a general rule, don't allow the family dog to greet unfamiliar guests because commotion and unusual circumstances can cause stress for dogs. Consider putting your dog on a leash as guests arrive to maintain better control of him. Teach your dog to sit and stay on command. When the doorbell rings, put him in a sit-stay and do not open the door until he calms down. If your dog gets overly excited with arriving visitors, remove him from the scene ahead of time. Place him in his crate in a quiet room, and then let him join the party later.
By anticipating how your dog may react to new activities and visitors, you can help ensure that everyone-both two- and four-legged | 1.518298 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
For what is wisdom and to whom does it apply. Wisdom is a finer knowledge that is a result of many years of one's living experiences within human form. To have acquired wisdom, one must have actively sought after this prize and worked diligently to attain it's mastery. For wisdom is only for those who have paid the price of many years of living within human form. For even the angels, so full of Light can be lacking in wisdom if they have never chosen to visit the Earth Realm. For, wisdom is a concept that was develooed within the Earth Realm by those who have visited here many times and have gained the knowledge of nature along with the living knowledge of humanity. There is no other road to wisdom, but a long one that has been traveled by a few. Yes, those few share their knowledge with others to make their way a little less perilous, but not in a way that will interfere with one's development toward being a complete human being. For the one's of wisdom act as guides, as teachers, and benevolent participants in this journey that you call a human lifetime. One of many journeys. For one must travel to the Earth Realm often to attain a mastery over himself before winning the prize of wisdom. Many fail at this task, but in reality, there is no failure. For there are always lessons learned and strength gained through one's life experience. We are here to remind you and others in a gentle way that wisdom is available to all who seek this prize. And by prize, we mean a gift not given to all, but to those who train and complete the tasks given to them. For, do not your athletes win prizes? No one sees the long years of discipline and hard work that was necessary to win the prize, but the athletes themselves and those close to them. So, do not misunderstand. We are here to help those who wish to grow in wisdom, not to bestow this most precious and unusual jewel upon those who think that they can steal this prize. This attitude is so common today within the Earth Realm. Those who promise the most ridiculous and absurd, acquire great wealth and power that is built upon lies. People so want to believe these untruths and fall victim to those who prey upon the weakness in others. We say again, there are no easy ways or quick fixes, only a slow, deliberate, step by step process of learning. Yes, we can help you to open up and see what is possible and in reality, what the individual has already attained within a future time, but this effect will last but so long. This is only a tool used to show what is possible to attain, if only the individual make a decision and do whatever is necessary to bring the changes about.
M.N. HopkinsIgA Nephropathy is one kidney disorder that may cause a series of symptoms and complications. To fight against kidney disorder, patients are suggested to do some exercise. Swimming is one gentle exercise loved by many people. Is it suitable for IgA Nephropathy patients?
Swimming can help build and strengthen tissues, because it is beneficial to boost energy for the body and prompt patients’ immune system.
For patients with IgA Nephropathy, their kidney disease is due to immune disorder. To prevent kidney disease from further damage, patients are suggested to take steroids or immunosuppressants. Although these medicines can help deal with this disease, it may cause some side effects including weakening immune system. Then, they are at a high risk of infections, cold, fever, chill, and so on.
Swimming is one exercise that can help boost patients’ immune system, so it is able to prevent the onset of problems the above mentioned. However, urinary tract infections and hematuria are also common symptoms of IgA Nephropathy. If patients are suffering from one of these two problems, they are suggested to stop their swimming exercise plan. In severe cases, they should have more rest in bed.
In addition to swimming, walking, yoga, jogging, Taichi,
Qigong, etc, are also beneficial for patients with IgA Nephropathy. These choices of exercise can help boost patients’ overall health condition. If they want to treat their kidney disease very well, they should take some therapies to reverse their kidney damage and stop inflammatory reactions within kidneys effectively. Immunotherapy is just one therapy focusing on treating immune disorder and rebuilding kidney filtration membrane. When the pathogenic factors are removed, patients’ IgA Nephropathy can be managed very well.
To make sure you can swim safely and beneficially, you can have a detailed talk with doctor online. | 1.880803 | 943 | 941 |
ALLOPURINOL THERAPEUTIC ACTIONS This drug acts by inhibiting the enzyme responsible for the conversion of purines to uric acid, thus reducing the production of uric acid with a decrease in serum and sometimes in urinary uric acid levels, relieving the signs and symptoms of gout. INDICATIONS 1. Management of the signs and symptoms of primary and secondary gout; 2. Management of patients with malignancies that result in elevations of serum and urinary uric acid; and of patients with recurrent calcium oxalate calculi whose daily uric acid excretion exceeds 800 mg/day (males) or 750 mg/day (females); and 3. Orphan drug use: Treatment of Chagas' disease; cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis CONTRAINDICATIONS This drug is contraindicated with patients who are allergic or hypersensitivity to allopurinol, and has blood dyscrasias. Use cautiously with patients with liver disease, renal failure, and women who are pregnant or lactating. ADVERSE EFFECTS CNS: Headache, drowsiness, peripheral neuropathy, neuritis, paresthesias Dermatologic: Rashes—maculopapular, scaly or exfoliative—sometimes fatal GI: Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, gastritis, hepatomegaly, hyperbilirubinemia, cholestatic jaundice GU: Exacerbation of gout and renal calculi, renal failure Hematologic: Anemia, leukopenia, agranulocytosis, thrombocytopenia, aplastic anemia, bone marrow depression INTERACTIONS Drug-drug 1. Increased risk of hypersensitivity reaction with ACE inhibitors; 2. Increased toxicity with thiazide diuretics; 3. Increased risk of rash with ampicillin; 4. Increased risk of bone marrow suppression with cyclophosphamide, other cytotoxic agents; 5. Increased half-life of oral anticoagulants; 6. Increased serum levels of theophylline; and 7. Increased risk of toxic effects with thiopurines, 6-MP (azathioprine dose and dose of 6-MP should be reduced to one-third to one-fourth the usual dose) NURSING CONSIDERATIONS Assessment Allergy to allopurinol, blood dyscrasias, liver disease, renal failure, lactationHistory: Skin lesions, color; orientation, reflexes; liver evaluation, normal urinary output; normal output; CBC, LFTs, renal function tests, urinalysis Physical:
Physical:
Interventions
Interventions
1. Administer drug after meals;
2. Promote increased fluid intake from 2.5 to 3 L/day to decrease the risk of renal stone development;
3. Check urine alkalinity - urates crystallize in acid urine; sodium bicarbonate or potassium citrate may be ordered to alkalinize urine; and
4. Discontinue drug at first sign of skin rash; severe to fatal skin reactions have occurred.
1. Instruct patient to take the drug after meals; Teaching points
Teaching points
2. Avoid over-the-counter medications. Many of these preparations contain vitamin C or other agents that might increase the likelihood of kidney stone formation. If you need an over-the-counter preparation, check with your health care provider;
3. Educate patient that he may experience these side effects: Exacerbation of gouty attack or renal stones (drink plenty —2.5–3 L/day—of fluids while on this drug); nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite (take after meals or eat frequent small meals); drowsiness (use caution while driving or performing hazardous tasks); and
4. Encourage patient to report unusual bleeding or bruising; fever, chills; gout attack; numbness or tingling; flank pain, skin rash.
REFERENCES:
Allopurinol Image. http://www.vetpetmed.com/images/ALLOPURINOL_300mg.jpg Karch, Amy M. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 2007 Nursing Drug Guide. | 1.135651 | 882 | 881 |
September 22, 2015 | Issue Brief on Health Care
Recent videos suggesting that Planned Parenthood Federation of America affiliates are harvesting and selling the body parts of aborted unborn children have led to renewed calls for Congress to end taxpayer funding of the nation’s largest abortion provider. During the 2013–2014 reporting year alone, Planned Parenthood affiliates performed over 327,000 abortions, while the national organization reported $127 million in revenue over expenses, and held $1.4 billion in net assets. Yet, the organization’s affiliates receive over half a billion dollars in government funding each year from both federal and state sources.
Congress should end federal taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood affiliates and redirect those funds to health centers that provide health care for women without entanglement in abortion or questionable handling of baby body parts. Planned Parenthood affiliates face serious allegations of profiting from the sale of baby organs and other disturbing conduct, adding to arguments that taxpayer funding should not subsidize the nation’s largest abortion provider.
Numerous statements made on the recently released videos raise questions as to whether Planned Parenthood is violating federal law that makes it illegal for any person “to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human fetal tissue for valuable consideration if the transfer affects interstate commerce,” excluding reasonable payments associated with the transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control or storage.[1] In fetal tissue research conducted or supported by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services for therapeutic purposes, human fetal tissue may be used only if the woman who supplies the tissue and her attending physician make signed written declarations complying with statutory requirements. The woman must declare that she (1) donates the tissue for such research, (2) does not restrict who may receive transplantation of the tissue, and (3) has not been informed of the identity of recipients. The attending physician must declare (1) the woman donated the tissue in accordance with requirements for her declaration, (2) the woman received full disclosure of any interest the physician had in the research conducted with the tissue, and any known medical risks to the woman or risks to her privacy that might be associated with donation of the tissue, and (3) in the case of tissue obtained by an induced abortion, the woman’s consent to the abortion occurred before she was asked to donate the tissue for such research, no alteration of the timing, method, or procedures used to terminate the pregnancy was made solely for the purposes of obtaining the tissue, and performance of the abortion complied with applicable state law.[2]
The recently released videos allegedly show Planned Parenthood executives haggling over the price of organs from aborted unborn children and casually discussing performing abortions in ways that would better preserve baby body parts for sale.[3] According to a former employee of a fetal tissue procurement company that works with Planned Parenthood affiliates, some Planned Parenthood clinics allegedly failed to obtain informed consent from some mothers before harvesting their aborted children’s tissue.[4]
Whether Planned Parenthood and its affiliates have violated federal laws is unclear from the videos alone. Congress, the Department of Justice, and state governments owe it to American taxpayers who have funded Planned Parenthood for decades to determine whether the organization has violated any federal laws. Some of those investigations have already begun.
During its 2013–2014 reporting year, the latest available, Planned Parenthood reports its affiliates receiving over $528 million in government funding—41 percent of the organization’s total revenue.[5] The annual report does not provide a breakdown of federal versus state funding or the exact government grants, contracts, and reimbursements Planned Parenthood affiliates receive.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released in March 2015, however, shows that the organization’s affiliates receive taxpayer money through family planning grants under Title X of the Public Health Services Act, and also through a few similar programs, but that Planned Parenthood affiliates collect most of their government funding through a combination of state and federal Medicaid payments.[6]
In order to end the flow of federal tax dollars to Planned Parenthood affiliates, Congress must disqualify the national organization and its affiliates both from receiving grants under specific family planning programs, like Title X, and from receiving any federal Medicaid reimbursements. Congress can address both funding sources during the appropriations process.[7] Disqualifying Planned Parenthood affiliates from receiving Title X and Medicaid reimbursements would not decrease the amount of overall funding available for women’s health services. Both Title X grants and federal Medicaid funding could still flow to the many other qualified health care providers that offer the same and additional services as Planned Parenthood affiliates without entanglement in abortion.
No federal funds under either Title X or Medicaid may be used to cover the direct cost of elective abortion procedures. But the influx of hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers each year has buttressed Planned Parenthood’s climb to the top of the nation’s abortion providers. In particular, Title X family planning grants are provided as upfront funding that can be used for overhead costs of family planning centers. Even the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute admits Title X | 1.276905 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
’s funding “helps supply a cash-flow cushion” for grant recipients.[8]
During its last reporting year, like many before it, Planned Parenthood reported revenues after expenses exceeding $127 million and net assets of more than $1.4 billion. In that same year alone, Planned Parenthood affiliates performed 327,653 abortions—almost one out of every three abortions in the U.S.[9]
Planned Parenthood and its supporters are quick to point to the other medical services provided by the organization’s affiliates—including sexually transmitted infection testing, cancer screenings, and contraception—to justify continued and expanded government funding of the organization. But a closer look at Planned Parenthood’s own report and actions points to a dwindling provision of other services for women in exchange for an increasing emphasis on abortion procedures.
The number of annual abortion procedures performed by Planned Parenthood affiliates has increased from 255,015 in 2004 to over 320,000 in 2013.[10] While Planned Parenthood affiliates performed 327,653 abortions in the 2013–2014 reporting year, they made only 1,880 adoption referrals and provided just 18,684 prenatal services.
Meanwhile, cancer screening and preventive services at Planned Parenthood affiliates have decreased by more than 50 percent since 2004 and the number of individuals served by Planned Parenthood each year has declined by almost 10 percent over the same time period.[11] Contrary to some reports, Planned Parenthood clinics do not perform mammograms.[12]
In addition to current allegations of harvesting and selling tiny livers, lungs, and hearts of aborted unborn children, Planned Parenthood has faced accusations of bad conduct in the past. Planned Parenthood affiliates have also been accused of financial waste, abuse, and possible fraud with taxpayer dollars.[13] While claiming to support the interests of women, some Planned Parenthood clinics have been accused of failing to report sexual abuse of minor girls.[14] Additionally, others have been accused of neglecting the health and safety of patients.[15]
Women’s health care services are available without entanglement in abortion. There are about 1,200 federally qualified health centers (FQHC) across the country that operate over 9,000 service sites in medically underserved areas, providing family planning services, cancer screenings, and women’s health exams, not to mention a wide range of primary health services for women, children, and men.[16] In 2013 alone, FQHC sites served over 21 million people—seeing about eight times as many patients as the 2.7 million Planned Parenthood’s 665 clinics reported seeing.
In addition to those and many other health care centers, there are about 2,000 pregnancy centers across the country that provide medical testing, prenatal care, ultrasounds, and childbirth classes, among other services, all of which supply women with life-affirming options.[17]
Congress should not force American taxpayers to fund the largest abortion provider in America, especially after videos suggesting it harvests and sells the body parts of unborn children it aborts. Congress should permanently end federal taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood affiliates and put the funds to more efficient and effective use by redirecting them to the thousands of health centers across the country that provide women’s health care that is not entangled with abortion or questionable handling of baby body parts.
[1] 42 U.S. Code §289g–2(a) and (e)(3).
[2] 42 U.S. Code §289g–1. For further discussion, see Hans von Spakovsky, “How Specifically Planned Parenthood May be Violating the Law,” The Daily Signal, August 9, 2015, http://dailysignal.com/2015/08/09/how-specifically-planned-parenthood-may-be-violating-the-law/, and “Planned Parenthood Employees and Contractors Raise Probable Cause of the Systemic Violations of Federal Criminal Laws and Unethical Behavior,” memorandum sent to Representative Chuck Grassley, by Charmaine Yoest, President and CEO, Americans United For Life, August 27, 2015, http://www.aul.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/PP-CMP-Videos-Backgrounder-AUL.pdf (accessed September 18, 2015).
[3] Center for Medical Progress, “Transcript by the Center for Medical Progress,” July 25, 2014, http://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/PPFAtranscript072514_final.pdf (accessed September 21, 2015); Center for Medical Progress, “Transcript | 1.330231 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
by Center for Medical Progress,” April 9, 2015, http://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/PPGCtranscript04092015_final.pdf (accessed September 21, 2015); and Center for Medical Progress, “Transcript by the Center for Medical Progress,” February 6, 2015, http://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/PPFA020615_transcript.pdf (accessed September 17, 2015).
[4] Center for Medical Progress,
Human Capital, Documentary Web Series, http://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/human-capital/documentary-web-series/ (accessed September 21, 2015), and ibid.
[5] Planned Parenthood Federation of America,
2013–2014 Annual Report: Our Health. Our Decisions. Our Moment, http://issuu.com/actionfund/docs/annual_report_final_proof_12.16.14_/0 (accessed September 9, 2015).
[6] U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Health Care Funding: Federal Obligations to and Expenditures by Selected Entities Involved in Health-Related Activities, 2010–2012, March 20, 2015, http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/669140.pdf (accessed September 17, 2015).
[7] Sarah Torre, “Congress Can (and Should) Defund Planned Parenthood During Appropriations Process,” The Daily Signal, August 6, 2015, http://dailysignal.com/2015/08/06/congress-can-and-should-defund-planned-parenthood-during-appropriations-process/.
[8] Adam Sonfield, Kinsey Hasstedt, and Rachel Benson Gold, “Moving Forward: Family Planning in the Era of Health Reform,” Guttmacher Institute, 2014, http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/family-planning-and-health-reform.pdf (accessed September 21, 2015).
[9] Planned Parenthood Federation of America,
2013–2014 Annual Report.
[10] Planned Parenthood Federation of America,
Annual Report 2005–2006, http://liveaction.org/research/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/2005-2006-Planned-Parenthood-Annual-Report.pdf (accessed September 21, 2015); Planned Parenthood, 2013–2014 Annual Report; and Americans United for Life, “The New Leviathan: The Mega-Center Report. How Planned Parenthood Has Become Abortion, Inc.,” 2015, http://www.aul.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AUL-Mega-Center-Report-06-24-2015.pdf (accessed September 9, 2015).
[11] Ibid.
[12] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration weekly updates a comprehensive list of every licensed mammography center in the country. No Planned Parenthood clinics are included on the list, meaning they cannot provide mammograms, only refer for them. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “Consumer Information (MQSA),” http://www.fda.gov/Radiation-EmittingProducts/MammographyQualityStandardsActandProgram/ConsumerInformation/default.htm (accessed September 17, 2015).
[13] Nathan Koppel, “Planned Parenthood Settles in Fraud Case,”
The Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2013, http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323455104579016951262314732 (accessed September 21, 2015), and Alliance Defending Freedom, “Planned Parenthood’s Waste, Abuse, and Potential Fraud: Alliance Defending Freedom’s 2013 Report on Federal and State Audits of Planned Parenthood Affiliates and State Family Planning Programs,” April 10, 2013, http://www.adfmedia.org/files/StearnsReport042013.pdf (accessed September 9, 2015).
[14] Alliance Defending Freedom, “How Planned Parenthood ‘Cares’ for Child Victims of Sexual Abuse: A Summary of Planned Parenthood Failing | 0.832131 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
Conservation groups, represented by Earthjustice, put the Caribou-Targhee National Forest and J.R. Simplot Company on notice they could be sued for allowing selenium pollution at the Smoky Canyon Mine in southeast Idaho. Earthjustice is representing the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
A 60-day notice letter sent by Earthjustice says the open dumping of waste rock at the phosphate mine illegally contaminates the underlying aquifer with toxic levels of selenium. Selenium is a mineral that is prevalent in the southeast Idaho phosphate mines. Phosphate ore is primarily used for fertilizer and agricultural chemicals.
The Trouble with Selenium
Selenium at trace amounts is not harmful. But at higher concentrations, selenium can trigger serious toxic effects in fish, livestock, wildlife, and humans. Reproductive failure, severe deformations both at birth and in adults, and even death can occur. Once released into our land and water, toxic levels of selenium persist for hundreds of years, threatening the health and prosperity of future generations. Selenium also builds up in the food chain with increasing concentrations in plants, fish, and animals - including trout, deer, and elk that are eaten by local hunters and anglers and their families.
Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans said, "The mine and the Forest Service are breaking the law by polluting the water of one of the most beautiful regions in America. We intend to do something about it."
The Forest Service and the company are violating the open dumping prohibition of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). A waste rock dump in the active portion of the mine is contributing selenium to the groundwater at levels above the RCRA regulatory standard. The Smoky Canyon Mine is one of 17 phosphate mines in southeastern Idaho that have been designated as Superfund sites as a result of serious selenium contamination. Current and past phosphate mining in the region has resulted in ongoing widespread selenium contamination of streams, groundwater, vegetation and soil. Despite the ongoing environmental damage, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have just released a final environmental analysis that will lead to a 1,300-acre expansion of the mine into the Sage Creek and Meade Peak roadless areas.
"Selenium pollution from phosphate mines in southeast Idaho has caused over 500 documented livestock deaths, untold numbers of wildlife deaths, and depleted native trout from streams in southeast Idaho," said Marv Hoyt of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.
"Not a single phosphate mine in southeast Idaho has ever been fully cleaned up after mining," said Johanna Wald of Natural Resources Defense Council. "These mines continue to pollute the land and water long after mining ceases."
In September, Edgar Imhoff, a retired federal hydrologist and environmental clean up expert, released a report documenting the decades-long cover-up of toxic selenium contamination in southeastern Idaho by federal agencies and the phosphate mining industry. The industry together with federal land managers have claimed publicly the harmful effects of elevated selenium concentrations were not known until after a 1996 incident when several horses had to be euthanized after becoming poisoned by selenium in a pasture downstream from the Maybe Canyon phosphate mine.
Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request made clear that mining companies and federal agencies have colluded for years to cover up knowledge of potential harm from selenium contamination. It is clear that, in 1982, Simplot and the Forest Service knew of the connection between the disposal of waste rock and selenium contamination of the environment. Also, the Forest Service and Simplot must have been aware of the extraordinarily high concentrations of selenium in the ore at Smoky Canyon Mine -- the highest in southeast Idaho -- and the highest ever found in the history of sampling selenium in the United States.
Read a fact sheet on the Smoky Canyon Mine
Read the 60-day notice to Simplot
Learn more about the issues at Smoky Canyon
Contacts
Lisa Evans, Earthjustice, (781) 631-4119
Marv Hoyt, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, (208) 522-7927 About Earthjustice
Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people’s health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer. | 1.391064 | 887 | 886 |
Regular smoking substantially increases risk of asthma in adolescents
Adolescents who smoke cigarettes regularly have a significantly increased risk of developing asthma during their teens compared to their non-smoking peers, according to the latest results of the Children's Health Study (CHS).
The research appears in the second issue for November 2006 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
Frank D. Gilliland, M.D., Ph.D., of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, and six associates analyzed 2,609 children with no prior history of either asthma or wheezing. All participants were recruited from fourth- and seventh-grade classrooms in 12 southern California communities as part of the CHS, which tracked the respiratory health of school-aged children during the 1990s.
For periods of five to eight years (depending on a student's age at the beginning of the study), the investigators annually collected data on demographic factors, medical histories, household exposures, cigarette smoking and newly diagnosed asthma through interviews and questionnaires. They used this information to estimate a child's relative risk for new-onset asthma.
"The results of our study provide clear evidence that regular smoking increases the risk for asthma and that important chronic adverse consequences of smoking are not restricted to individuals who have smoked for many years," said Dr. Gilliland.
Among the children studied, there were 255 cases of new onset asthma (104 males and 151 females). Children who reported smoking 300 or more cigarettes per year had almost a four-fold increased risk for new-onset asthma compared with nonsmokers. Surprisingly, this increased risk was greater in non-allergic children than those with a history of allergies.
The adolescents most at risk for developing asthma, Dr. Gilliland noted, are those who were exposed to cigarette smoke while in the womb and who later became regular smokers (seven or more cigarettes per day). The investigators found this combination led to more than an eight-fold increased risk of asthma compared with unexposed nonsmokers.
"The effects of smoking may be mediated by changes in airway function, as smoking causes increased bronchial hyper-responsiveness in children and adults without asthma," said Dr. Gilliland. "The combined effect of increased bronchial hyper-responsiveness and the pro-inflammatory milieu in smokers may set the stage for the onset of asthma."
The link between active smoking with asthma were not substantially affected by adjustments for demographic factors like educational attainment, family income, birth weight, gestational age, health insurance availability, physical activity levels, family history of asthma, pets, humidifier use, other household characteristics, or exposure to ambient pollutants and indoor combustion sources, including secondhand smoke.
"The clinical and public health implications of our findings are far-reaching," said Dr. Gilliland. "Effective tobacco control efforts focusing on the prevention of smoking in children, adolescents and women of childbearing age are urgently needed to reduce the number of these preventable cases of asthma."
Contact: Jennifer Chan, Media Relations Representative, University of Southern California, 1540 Alcazar Street, CHP 236, Los Angeles, California 90033
Phone: (213) 703-1482 E-mail: [email protected] Last reviewed:By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Apr 2016 Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.Browse by Month Climate Change & Global Warming Department:May 30, 2014
In response to recent decades' warming, forests in the eastern United States have been "inhaling" more carbon dioxide through photosynthesis than they've “exhaled” through respiration.
Department:May 22, 2014
CarbonTracker is a tool for modelling sources and sinks of carbon dioxide. Users can download the code, carbon dioxide data, and the tool's carbon flux estimates to conduct their own analyses or to help improve the system.
Department:May 13, 2014
Jeanine Jones, Interstate Resources Manager for the California Department of Water Resources, talks about the state's ongoing drought conditions and planning for California's water future.
Department:May 8, 2014
Ocean water acidified by increasing carbon dioxide is corroding calcium carbonate minerals—an essential ingredient for shell- and skeleton-building that creatures like this tiny snail rely upon. | 1.195793 | 925 | 923 |
A few readers requested my approach to integrating pain science with MDT. I wish there was an easy way, it's not quite as natural as combining MDT and OMPT for me (despite some saying that it is impossible!)
MDT gets criticized mainly for it's overly simplistic, mechanistic approach, and explanation that has been both proven and disproven for explaining the how's and whys of Derangement Syndrome. Even recent studies have shown repeated flexion and flexion loading increases posterior disc protrusions. Either way, MDT has been shown to be an excellent predictor of outcomes in regards to centralization and peripheralization. A recent study also found MDT to have better outcomes in the long term for lumbar pain patients compared to SMT, an article I will cover next week.
As I have stated previously, the "all your pain is in the brain" approach is well researched, but extremely difficult to implement clinically. The patients who need it the most are the ones who are most hard wired in their thoughts, anxieties, and catastophization. I use whatever plausible explanation that has anatomical and scientific merit to explain a patient's condition to them on evaluation, why it is occurring, and what we as a team must do to meet their goals. MDT does this naturally by showing cause and effects of postures and repeated motions, and most of the time showing patients they have a directional preference. Empowering the patient with a simple and effective HEP is a sure fire way to decrease anxiety and thus diminish CNS sensitivity. The DP makes more sense if you use the traditional "disc" model that so many non MDT clinician abhor. Believe the theory or not, the directional preference along with centralization and peripheralization occur in response to loading and unloading of structures.
The DP is the main reason why I stick to mechanistic explanations for most. Most of the naysayers state that SMT or STM only work because the patient thinks it's going to work. That doesn't explain why a patient, who believes they must "stretch" their back or neck, goes into repeated flexion, a motion many of them are already doing thousands of times/day. One of my favorite sayings is "If forward bending was going to help, it would've helped you by now." If the patient truly believes it was going to help, why didn't it eventually? If general motion was going to help, why did repeated stretching into forward bending worsen their complaints or in the least delay their healing? I recently had a lumbar patient with pain for over 10 years state he has been afraid to extend his lumbar spine for the same amount of time. During the subjective, he was afraid to go through postural correction. After education, and hip mobilizations, he was extending repeatedly with repeated end range loading and therapist overpressure. He was genuinely amazed that it not only helped, but it didn't hurt and worsen his complaints!
The DP of favoring backward bending or sidegliding over flexion when it actually centralizes complaints while remaining better is enough to make me think
partof the dysfunction is mechanical. If all output is from the brain, and you can control it, it does not mean there is not a peripheral problem. For example, if a patient had a nail hammered into his shoulder, but could successfully educate his CNS to stop the pain output, it does not mean there is no longer a nail in his shoulder. Again, the concept of perceived threat works well for chronic cases, but not as well for acute cases. An acute derangement or what we would call an acutely locked cervical facet in OMPT, may occur by "sleeping incorrectly." If you are unconscious during sleep, why would the CNS perceive a threat during sleep and cause pain?
Getting back to integration, again, I only use this particular approach if my traditional combination of OMPT and MDT is not working with chronic pain patients. It is not easy and I am still struggling with practical ways of explaining this. I have always been a natural educator and speaker, able to change my explanations on the fly depending on a patient's level of comprehension an education. Dealing with catastrophizing patients is often like talking to a wall that is in a lot of pain.
If someone is not responding, I instruct on stabilization, and start to educate on CNS sensitivity. I tell them to read Explain Pain, and Mindfulness. I tell them to go for walks, hang out with friends. I tell them to tell everyone they are doing "GREAT!" I encourage function, strength, and ROM over pain. I am finding very few patients are willing to purchase a text. They want a "fix," not a text. I try to make their visits as comfortable as possible, often giving them a private room until it's time to do more exercise. I spend more time educating them and comforting them, sometimes up to 3/4 of the standard visit time.
If this post seems to be more 90% MDT and 1 | 2.186563 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
Although I try to garden with a low-maintenance hat on, I can never restrict myself to the most sensible choice of plants. I like a plant that has a mind of its own; I like the unforeseen, the sprawl and the chance happenings that come when one thing runs into the next. I am also gardening intensively and cramming far too much into one place to be sensible. There are layers to cater for seasonal change, early peonies that are consumed by late salvias. But I don't want the salvias to swamp the peonies, or for the lilies that come up among them to be bowing their heads so low that I lose the flowers in the crowd. The secret is finding the balance between sensible and romantic, practical and unpredictable. But as with a puppeteer pulling the strings to create a semblance of order, it is important that the strings remain unseen.
In the allotment, providing this support system is part of the aesthetic, and I'll go out of my way for the pea sticks to look good to keep the peas from sprawling into the spinach. We spent a good afternoon out there in May, setting up the bamboo canes for the tomatoes and climbing beans. Having your own canes is part of the pleasure and why I would always want to have a bamboo patch in the garden. This year's supports are made from last year's bamboo thinnings, harvested in summer. I prefer tripods or wigwams to the linear supports you see in the best veggie gardens. Wigwams have an integral strength because they are never vulnerable from any one direction, but a client pointed out that if you cross your canes low in a conventional run, you can encourage the beans to hang low for easier picking. This year I am trying it out.
In a garden setting, providing support for the sprawlers is something that is best kept hidden. The old-fashioned method of twisting hazel bundles together so the perennials grow up into them is wonderful if you have time but has its disadvantages. Sourcing the bundles in a city is difficult, and you also have to get in there early in March before everything starts growing. By now it is impossible. I tried getting by for too many years in this garden hoping that I wouldn't have to stake, but the aconites always toppled while I was out and righted themselves from a slant where they lay. Trying to right them by tying them to bamboo canes or setting up a web of strings between canes only inspired cursing, and the plants looked like they had been seized by the scruff of the neck.
Friends who make their own steel supports invited me down to Kent three years ago to use their plywood former to bend a batch of my own. We made three heights of two different diameters of U-shaped hoops from reinforcing rod cut to length. A small one that stands about knee height once it is pushed into the ground, perfect for preventing the Geranium 'Patricia' from swallowing the valerian. The middle size is the most useful and stands about 3ft tall and is perfect for plants like angelica or persicaria that need redirecting from low down. The tallest come to my waist and are useful later for the dahlias once they decide they are not going to stand up on their own. The bending day was time well spent and now I can stake my perennials in a couple of hours by wading into the beds in May and early June and placing them where they are needed. In a few days, any that are visible sink into the background and I am set up for the summer to do whatever it decides to do. My plants survive deluge and the tendency to lean out of shade, which is always a problem because my garden is now so full.
Of course there is a host of perennials that don't need support. The grasses, for instance, and eupatoriums that can rise to 2 metres without the need for something to lean on. Rudbeckias and echinacea rarely need it, but some forms of plants that flop have been selected for their uprightness. Echinops 'Veitch's Blue' and Veronicastrum virginicum 'Lavendelturm' are happy to stand stoutly while retaining their grace. You can also initiate a pruning regime in late May called the 'Chelsea chop' (too late unless you are 'Up North') and this can be applied to late bloomers with a tendency to lean. Some of the asters, if they are reduced to half their height in Chelsea week, will re-branch along the stem to provide you with a stockier, self-supporting plant. This is a secret that is well worth the apparently brutal action. And in terms of action, a little foresight now will give you time to sit back and enjoy the up-and-coming show.
· Observer offer: Create a bamboo patch. Phyllostachys nigra, or black bamboo, has a graceful form, dark stems | 2.107944 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
“I like my money right where I can see it: hanging in my closet.”
-Carrie Bradshaw
Post Trump parading around Cleveland, we’re all well aware of what it looks like to be big time. And I mean big time.
Big Daddy Rich. Money oozing out of their flow. Really expensive shoes and suits. These people are so rich, they don’t need helicopter money.
Admittedly, it doesn’t always go over well… but in all of my macro meetings these days, I delve into what I think is one of our better ideas in
right now – shorting a certain kind of rich people. Consumer Discretionary
And not just people who have money – that means we’d be shorting ourselves! I mean the people who, fully levered and lathered up in the illusion of their “wealth”, are about to meet their maker – it’s called mean reversion.
Back to the
… Global Macro Grind
In today’s
Chart of The Day is slide 48 of our current deck. It’s titled “ Q3 Macro Themes The High-End Matters” and it shows that the Top 20% of US Households account for 39% of US Consumer Spending. That’s not a typo.
Looking at the percentage of annual aggregate US consumer expenditures by decile of income:
Top 10% = 23.5% of consumer spending
Ninth 10% = 15.5% of consumer spending
Bottom 30% = 10.6% of consumer spending
Yeah. The Top 10% is killing it. They own 84.5% of US Financial Assets. The poor bastards in the Bottom 50% (lots of peeps) own 1%. That’s probably why plenty of card carrying Republicans are becoming politically “flexible” enough to associate with Trump.
You see, when you have to start every sentence with how big time you are – you know, how rich and famous … and generally just nailing it in everything that you do… there’s some implied insecurity in that. And there should be.
Another chart that we often show to remind you of the mean reversion risks associated with someone who acts like they are big time (all of the time) is
US Household Wealth as a % of Disposable In : come
A) It just rolled off an all-time high of around 655%
B) When it rolls off
high, it always crashes #TheCycle
To be fair, there’s always a chance that “it’s different this time”… and nothing (other than US Equity Volume, European and Japanese Equities, etc.) ever crashes again… but I don’t buy lottery tickets.
Measurable mean reversion risks complimented by real-time data is how I roll.
On an economy-wide basis, the “wealth effect” (i.e. how sweet the Trump Jr. slick back flow is looking at the highs) is in the process of rolling off its Q1 2015
. That’s why the Fed has been desperate to protect the SPY house. #CyclePeak
Newsflash: the super-high-end ballers I’m talking about didn’t make it with their daddy’s Long Bond fund. When their net worth slows, their spending slows. That’s why
is running at a cycle-low of down -2.7% year-over-year. US Luxury Goods Spending
That’s probably why you’re seeing headlines like:
“Christie’s and Sotheby’s High-End Art Sales -25-33% year-over-year”
“This is bs. We demand helicopter-money!”
One of the super-rich places that my colleague and Sector Head of Demography Research, Neil Howe, has written about lately is Silicon Valley. I know. They know everything.
I’m sure they know
is slowing and VC funding to the area was down -14% year-over-year in the 1 Tech Employment st half of 2016. There’s definitely not a bubble in “wealth” there.
That said, with the recent addition to our
Research Team – Technology Sector Head, Ami Joseph – we’re going to ham & egg it for the next traverse of Nasdaq 5100 and see if we can find ourselves some obscene corporate behavior to sell into.
Not to be confused with the Nasdaq all-time-bubble-high that you could have got sucked into when “the chart looked good” at this time last year (Nasdaq 5219 turned into a -19.3% draw-down by FEB 2016), this one is a lower-high on decelerating volume.
Yep. Yesterday’s Total US Equity Volume was down -17% and -22% vs. it’s 1-month and 1-year averages, respectively. At the all-time highs, who is crushing it? Or, are they about to get | 2.386261 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
With such poor consumer regulation, underfunded/uninterested police services and weak sentences by our courts, it should be no surprise that the UK is rife with dodgy salesmen willing to go that extra mile to coerce honest homeowners into parting with their cash.
Here are 20 Ways to Deal With Pushy Sales People
An ounce of prevention is worth than a pound of cure, so here is our list.
1) If you are receiving a lot of sales calls, it’s highly likely that you are on a “sucker” list. You can opt out of UK sales calls by signing up the government backed Telephone Preference Service, while it won’t stop all unwanted sales calls it will help to reduce them. 2) If after a month or so you are still being cold called by sales people, report them here – https://complaints.tpsonline.org.uk/consumer 3) Some homeowners suffer from such a relentless barrage of sales calls that changing their telephone number is the only option. It may be an inconvenience, but if you have had the same landline number for a number of years, chances are you could be on hundreds of sales/sucker lists. 4) Never give companies permission to contact you with marketing calls. they may pass on your details to third parties who will only do the same. Always be careful when filling out online forms, pay attention to check boxes and statements about how they use your contact information. 5) Never respond to unwanted text messages from sales people or companies you have never heard of before. Even if you reply with “stop” they will probably just add your number to a sales list. 6) Join your local Neighbourhood Watch scheme or create a new one. These are a great way for neighbours to get chatting about local issues, including gangs of persistent sales people. 7) Put “No Salesmen” stickers on or near your front door. Buy them from Amazon. 8) Never even contemplate agreeing to work from cold callers/doorstop sales people. Just say no and close the door or put the phone down. 9) Never let a salesman into your home without doing THOROUGH research on the company he represents, pay attention to complaints that may have been posted on the web by other customers. You can start here – www.google.com 10) If they are a ltd company, take a look at their financial situation and do some background checks on the directors. Start here. 11) Find out how much you should expect to pay for this type of work. Check out our example quotes here on QuotationCheck, try Building Sheriff, see the price guides on Which? Also post questions in related web forums (My favourite forum is DIYnot) so others can give you a “ball park” figure. 12) Print off your example quotes from QuotationCheck, Building Sheriff and Which? You can show them to your salesman if you feel his quote is too high. Safety in Numbers 13) If you are uncomfortable dealing with sales people and are concerned that you may be coerced into a contract then always make sure you have at least one other person with you, preferably more. It doesn’t matter of it’s a friend, a daughter, son or a neighbour. These people can share their thoughts with regards to the product being pitched, they can also raise any concerns about pushy sales tactics. A dodgy sales person might be able to pull the wool over your eyes but it’s less likely to work with 3 or 4 people in the room with you! 14) Be polite but firm. If you want to the person to leave your home then ask them to leave. If they continue with their sales pitch then walk to the front door and open it, ask them to leave immediately. If they try to delay you with paperwork then just tell them to post it to you. Be firm and direct and don’t let them push you around! Understand Your Rights 15) Do your research and understand your rights to cancellation. Read this article. Don’t drag your feet and waste time, before you know it your chosen company will have finished the work sent you a bill. Act quickly if you want to cancel your contract within your cooling off period. 16) If you want to cancel a contract you have already signed then back this up in writing and send it by recorded delivery. Expect the salesman to fight tooth and nail to get you to change your mind. Be firm and be prepared but don’t back down. 18) Record telephone calls with the company or salesperson. While this may sound drastic, it is actually very easy to do on modern smartphones, just by pressing a few buttons you can record the whole conversation. Don’t forget to warn the salesperson/company that you are recording the call, you can’t submit this as evidence in a court if you don’t inform them you are recording the call, that is entrapment and it’s frowned upon by the courts. 19) | 1.544554 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
Fort Wayne, Indiana — Two teachers from Fort Wayne, Ind., are using ''preventive History'' to heighten student interest and demonstrate cause-effect relationships. Don Evans, head of the social science department at North Side High School, and I have collaborated to replace ''what was'' with ''what if'' in the analysis of some historic conflicts.
What Mr. Evans calls ''the preventive perspective'' was used to reverse chronology and look both backward and forward to assess causes and effects of the Mexican War, the Civil War, the France-Prussian War, the Russo-Japanese War and the Spanish-American War.
Students were asked: '' At what point could a decision or a group of decisions have been made that would have improved later events?'' What treaty provisions were included or could have been included that would have removed the original causes of conflict?'' ''What lessons can we find for the future?'' Students were urged to consider how leaders were chosen in the nations in the conflict and how important it is for citizens to understand the decisions their leaders are making.
Students discovered many ways conflict could have been avoided -- lover-key reactions to ''trigger'' incidents, a better informed citizenry as a check on political leadership, the presence of open communications between governments. ''If there had been a UN, maybe the war could have ended before it started,'' one suggested. Students formulated their own conclusions: ''There are no winners in a war.'' ''It is very difficult to stay neutral.''
Mr. Evans used such questions in planning the study of World War II and the period from 1945 to the present. In future years he expects to use it to investigate various international conflicts.
Evidence that countries need to revitalize political processes appears in the number of United States citizens who don't vote, worldwide resort to terrorism, and tyrant leaders who keep their powers through armed bullies. The young are least likely to vote; worldwide, they also constitute the backbone of terrorism. Urged to cast their ballot, students say it doesn't matter who gets in because nothing changes, while terrorists maintain they have no other way to get anything changed. Social studies classes can alter this perspective.
One way to do this is to introduce each unit, sometimes each lesson, with such questions as: What unhappy events happened during this period in history? Was there something - rooted in the past - that made these events occur. What could have been changed in preceding years that might have prevented the events we deplore? Who could have behaved differently and changed the course of events? Might such changes have had worse side effects? How do we locate the point at which intervention could have been effective?
Conclusions may indicate that events really could not have been altered without a different kind of leadership. This turns thought to ways people choose leaders, ways leaders emerge, and the kinds of leaders needed to accomplish productive change. If existing leaders did not provide needed leadership, given the limitations of the times, given who they were and what they believed, how could better leaders have emerged? What processes of choosing leaders and decisionmakers lead to good decisions?
Preventive history directs thought to the past as prelude to the future, provides effective review, and bridges epochs. It encourages looking ahead, suggesting that seeds of future events lie in decisions being taken now. At North Side High School, the aim is to use this awareness of consequences to challenge fatalistic apathy and transmute violence-prone frustration into creative action.Potsdam. The ability to create and secure trust on the Internet is the topic that leading scientists and economic experts will be examining on the 22nd and 23rd of March at an international symposium to be held at the Potsdam Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI). Experts from all over the world will be looking at ways in which to intelligently transfer processes of trust building in personal communication to the interaction taking place among computers in the network.
“The recent CeBIT with its principle theme of Managing Trust shows that building and strengthening trust are becoming increasingly important areas in handling the Internet and IT technical systems,” said HPI Director, Prof. Christoph Meinel, Head of the Department of Internet Technologies and Systems. Meinel highlighted the opportunity which presents itself in assembling worldwide leading scientists and economic experts for a trust management symposium in Germany.
Among the experts in Potsdam will be, among others, both authors of the book, “Building Web Reputation Systems,” Randy Farmer and Bryce Glass. Speakers from the corporate sector include members of the companies IBM, General Electric and SAP. Principle talks will be given by scientists from Hasso Plattner Institute, the Universities of Bayreuth, Oslo, Helsinki, Naples, Kent and Sussex, as well as from other research institutes, for example The Fraunhofer Institute (FOKUS).
For more information see http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/meinel/lehrstuhl/symposia/trust_management_symposium.html.
Download this press release (PDF) | 1.870523 | 1,012 | 1,010 |
Student & Personnel Services Division
Breathing Martial Arts into the Curriculum
Over the past two and a half years, the Physical Education for Body, Mind and Spirit (PEMBS) program has become an integral part of life for many of the students who attend Santa Cruz County Office of Education Alternative Education schools. Currently, six different forms of martial arts, yoga and meditation plus a course that focuses on developing lifelong fitness and nutritional practices are offered at Watsonville Community School, San Lorenzo Valley Community School, STAR, Cesar Chavez School for Social Change, YES School and OASIS. Through these courses, students have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of disciplines and techniques that they otherwise might not have been aware of.
Why is this of interest?
Most high schools across the country offer only conventional sports for students to fulfill their PE requirements. The concept behind PEMBS was to create a program that includes broader choices for all students who attend the Alternative Education Program (AEP). Many of the classes offered through PEMBS do not have physical fitness as their only focus. The disciplines offered are steeped in traditions that focus on respect and discipline towards self and others. Physical education then becomes more about a student's own personal goals and challenging themselves, rather than competing with and being compared to other students in the class. Students are able to experience growth physically, mentally and spiritually. Teaching students martial arts has also been shown to reduce levels of aggression and substance abuse.
Below is a list of brief class descriptions offered through PEMBS.
Confluence Aikido Systems classes promote sound physical structure, positive discipline, practical self-defense and a full body, mind and spirit workout. Fast attacks are met with flowing, elegant turning and precise timing. Quick directional shifts and fluid movements absorb force and neutralize aggression. Attacks are redirected into open and dynamic throws. Students learn to roll gracefully, so practice is fun and safe. As a method of mind, sitting, walking, and moving meditations are a part of every class. Classes combine ages and abilities and students leave more invigorated and centered than when they arrived. Tai Chi, as it is practiced in the west today, can be described as a combination of yoga and meditation. Involved are a number of 'sets' which consist of a sequence of movements originally derived from the martial arts, although in Tai Chi they are performed slowly, softly and gracefully with smooth and even transitions. Learning to do the exercises correctly leads to better posture, alignment and movement, combining to ease tension and injury. The meditative nature of the exercises is calming and relaxing. Warrior Yoga was developed as a training tool, to be used in conjunction with martial arts training. A series of stories, oral traditions, and personal practices in the yoga system are founded on the importance of turning obstacles into opportunities, problems into solutions, challenge into growth, and conflict into harmony. Quantum Jujitsu is an integrative approach to martial arts and life defense which combines multiple forms of combat and conflict resolution to create a discipline whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Emphasizing grappling arts both on the ground and in takedowns/throws, Jujitsu offers a unique approach to martial arts that includes, but does not emphasize, striking for PEBMS students. Principles and concepts of body movement are used to teach effortless power and disclose greater detail of the "gentle art" (Jujitsu). Quantum Jujitsu suggests that the most difficult battles we fight are on the inside and that true conflict resolution starts with oneself. A great martial artist must be more than just a good technician; the martial artist must also work towards developing mastery in life. Quantum Jujitsu brings students into contact with their true source of strength and courage, and teaches power in the context of sensitivity. If one truly respects life, one will learn to preserve it. Martial Arts Fitness blends the philosophies, movements and practical aspects of the martial arts with the fundamental principles of fitness and physical health. Lessons focus on flexibility training, strengthening exercises, self-defense techniques and strategies for overall improvement in health and wellbeing. Come and Get It! Nutrition and Physical Fitness for Lifelong Health teaches nutrition and physical activity principles to students along with the skills to utilize the information beyond the walls of the classroom. Students are taught basic nutrition information and how it applies to food labels, the food pyramid, calorie intake and setting goals. Students learn the components of physical activity by participating in different exercise and meditation practices and design an individualized exercise prescription. Students are taught skills to identify positive and negative influences and how those influences play into their choices and decision making about their overall health. Mindfulness and the Art of Living teaches Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a powerful tool to decrease stress, enhance academic performance, and promote emotional and social wellbeing. Mindfulness is gaining increased recognition as an essential support for students, teachers, school administrators, and parents. MBSR focuses on developing a person's capacity for attention and awareness, and creates the optimal underlying conditions for all learning and teaching.
Comments From AEP Teachers
"The teen | 1.933564 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
parents were able to see themselves as role models and understand the importance of setting a good example for a healthy family lifestyle."
– Dorrie Stalling speaking about the Nutrition and Physical Fitness for Lifelong Health course at Watsonville Community School
"We cannot imagine not having Warrior Yoga as part of our curriculum, as it has been a positive force in the well being of our students."
– Larry Tousey talking about Warrior Yoga at San Lorenzo Valley Community School Visits from other School Programs
Due to the innovative nature of this program, interest has been expressed on local, state and national levels. In November of 2006, a group of teachers came from Orange County to observe the program. They had heard about PEMBS and wanted to implement a program similar to it at some of their Alternative Education sites. The teachers spent the day visiting and participating in a Warrior Yoga class at San Lorenzo Valley Community School and an Aikido class at STAR. They also had the chance to meet with a group of teachers, instructors and program assistants to ask questions and talk about the program. The Orange County teachers were very impressed with the Santa Cruz program and are currently in the process of starting a similar program in their own county.
Program Guide
This project is a true collaborative partnership between the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and ETR Associates
, a Scotts Valley based health and education non-profit organization. ETR Associates is developing a web-based program guide on how to develop a program like PEMBS. Teachers and school administrators nationwide will have access to the lessons learned in Santa Cruz County. This will enable them to build upon documented effective practices in order to establish this type of innovative PE program in their own settings. The guide should be available before the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year.
Aikido Video
At the end of the 2005-2006 school year, parents, teachers and peers gathered at STAR Community School to watch the Aikido class hold a demonstration performance to highlight many of the skills that they had acquired over the previous year. Many of the students who participated in the video had never heard of Aikido prior to learning the martial art. They have come a long way and we are all very proud of them. Star Aikido Movie
(27.6 MB, requires Quicktime Player)
Confluence Aikido instructor Jen Smith wrote the following article. In it she reflects on her experience as an instructor over the past two years at Star Community School. "Daily practice in Aikido will make your spirit shine." – Motomichi Anno Sensei
The day is beautiful. Plum blossoms are bursting from bare stems, strawberries are groaning their way through cold mulch, and bulbs are again beginning to provide the yearly promise that spring is around the corner. The oceans hush is so constant that no one seems to notice it anymore. Doka (students) are filing into the dojo (sacred place of the way) one by one. Today is a winter day. Today is another day of aikido practice at Star Dojo.
For almost two years I have been meeting with students four days a week at Star Community School, an alternative high school on Frederick Street in Santa Cruz, California. Together we practice Confluence Aikido (CA), a progressive form of traditional aikido. Aikido means 'essential joining with the universe' or 'path of harmonized energy'. Confluence means 'flowing together' and is literally a location in nature where two bodies of water merge. Aikido is translated often as 'The Art of Peace". Traditional aikido emerged from ancient Japanese and Chinese Budo (martial traditions). Together, Confluence and Aikido refer to a 'flowing philosophy' or 'moving Zen' because physically effective movement generates a place of deep knowing within and results in the realization of our own unique wholeness. From that inner wisdom students learn how to move effectively, freely and wisely in the face of life's turns. CA shares the joyous quality found in dance-embedded arts, like Capoeira, and is strictly a method to subvert violence through harmony. Just as the stream doesn't fight the river, competition is useless in the pursuit of harmony and is ultimately forbidden among practitioners of Confluence Aikido. Our daily practice begins with warm-ups, a bell meditation, and rolling exercises to prepare our bodies for receiving the immensely powerful throws and joint locks that are the signature of aikido form. One student raises her hand "Jen Sensei, I'm tired. I don't feel like practicing aikido today," she says to me. "I know how that feels," I say back to her. "Why don't you just do the warm-ups and then see how you feel afterwards? Sometimes my feelings change when my body gets more relaxed." I am intimately familiar with the levels of resistance that fly through the body in the space of growing. These students are growing both | 1.817418 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
upwardly and inwardly. "OK," she say, "I'll try". Later in class I see her laughing and practicing with a friend. All her groans of resistance are long forgotten; the tension has left her body and she is enjoying herself and is practicing with great enthusiasm. The founder of Aikido (O'Sensei) wrote: "True victory is self-victory." I believe this is what he meant. Upon entering the dojo one student slows, bows, and says to me "Konichi wa, Sensei." "Konichi wa, kohei," I reply in earnest. The next student passes through the door nods in recognition of my presence, walks past silently, and looks around the room as she removes her shoes. In the room already are several students engaging in the daily ritual of assembling our training space. Tumbling mats are laid on the floor; clocks removed from the wall; clutter is tidied; flowers are arranged on a desk in the front of the room and a picture of O'Sensei (Morihei Ueshiba the celebrated founder of aikido) is hung respectfully on the shomen (front wall). After the mat assembly has been completed the students line up in a single file on the edge of the mat and sit in seiza (traditional Zen seating) as they wait for me to lead the class. Three bows symbolize respect to our ancestors, our parents, and to our practice. Four claps represent the harmony of all things, and then one final bow commits our learning in respect for one another. True harmony sees no disadvantaged students. Every person who enters any dojo comes with a mixed group of skills. Confluence is a method for gaining balance in all elements of our life and this is the martial beginning point. While some of these students have lacked in formal education, they are not without knowledge. They have had an education of 'the street', of multi-cultural richness, and of the emotional razors edge that life provided, for some, too early. Sometimes looked upon as burdens the aforementioned qualities are invaluable and even advanced in the context of martial arts. They are skills that you cannot buy. The young students of the Star Dojo will most likely tell you that Confluence is a way of life that doesn't involve fighting. "There is no wrong in Aikido!" one of them said to me "Correct," I smiled, "as long as you are practicing harmony principles, there is no wrong, only different." He nodded his head and returned to his technique. These students are quick detectives, rapt in curiosity when not habitually chatting with one another. Some students who have been practicing for the entire span of the program have become natural mentors (sempai) to newer students (kohai). These exceptional young people exercise instincts in appropriate ways toward younger/newer students by helping them absorb etiquette. The sempai provide modeling of correct technique; they offer a guiding hand to grab first; they exhibit sincerity that can only be developed through the sincere repetition of etiquette and fluent form. The older students offer a glimpse into the future of practice for the newer students—a future that is immediately calmer, confident, tolerant, dedicated, directed, and enjoyable, a future that is already beginning, a future that is theirs. Today we practice. One foot in front of the other, turning, entering, right, left, forward, backward, triangle, circle, square. This class is a balancing act. It is an exquisite dance of force and receptivity, a fight of no enemy, a win with no loser, a martial art of maximum benevolence. This is the ultimate paradox of non-dualism, the teacher guiding while learning from the student. The Japanese term for this state of eternal learning is shoshin, which means 'beginner's mind'. It is my privilege to train with the students and staff at Star Community School. Today let us all begin again. Onegaishimasu (I ask you a favor).
Download the printable Physical Education Body, Mind and Spirit brochure (requires Adobe Reader).
Thank you to Karen Lemon for providing the photos and video accompanying this article.Sounds fishy, a trained, “qualified assessor” comes to your home — for a fee — and collects approximately 40 pieces of data about the home’s “envelope”, I see another tax coming.
Check it out: The Energy Department on Tuesday is rolling out new, improved software to help Americans measure the energy efficiency of their homes.
DOE says its energy-scoring software — called the Home Energy Scoring Tool — is like a vehicle’s mile-per-gallon rating because it allows homeowners to compare the energy performance of their homes to other homes nationwide. It also provides homeowners with suggestions for improving their homes’ efficiency.
The software is part of the government’s effort to reduce the nation’s energy consumption; but it’s also billed as a way to keep home-retrofitting going, at a time when stimulus funds for weather-proofing have run out. | 2.108676 | 1,022 | 1,020 |
Over at the New Yorker, there is a must-read for those who are following the political and economic situation in the United States on the Koch family, who are famous for funding right-wing causes.
The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus. In a statement, Koch Industries said that the Greenpeace report “distorts the environmental record of our companies.” And David Koch, in a recent, admiring article about him in New York,protested that the “radical press” had turned his family into “whipping boys,” and had exaggerated its influence on American politics. But Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said, “The Kochs are on a whole different level. There’s no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, and I’ve never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times.... ...After the 1980 election, Charles and David Koch receded from the public arena. But they poured more than a hundred million dollars into dozens of seemingly independent organizations. Tax records indicate that in 2008 the three main Koch family foundations gave money to thirty-four political and policy organizations, three of which they founded, and several of which they direct. The Kochs and their company have given additional millions to political campaigns, advocacy groups, and lobbyists. The family’s subterranean financial role has fuelled suspicion on the left; Lee Fang, of the liberal blog ThinkProgress, has called the Kochs “the billionaires behind the hate.”Only the Kochs know precisely how much they have spent on politics. Public tax records show that between 1998 and 2008 the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation spent more than forty-eight million dollars. The Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, which is controlled by Charles Koch and his wife, along with two company employees and an accountant, spent more than twenty-eight million. The David H. Koch Charitable Foundation spent more than a hundred and twenty million. Meanwhile, since 1998 Koch Industries has spent more than fifty million dollars on lobbying. Separately, the company’s political-action committee, KochPAC, has donated some eight million dollars to political campaigns, more than eighty per cent of it to Republicans. So far in 2010, Koch Industries leads all other energy companies in political contributions, as it has since 2006. In addition, during the past dozen years the Kochs and other family members have personally spent more than two million dollars on political contributions. In the second quarter of 2010, David Koch was the biggest individual contributor to the Republican Governors Association, with a million-dollar donation. Other gifts by the Kochs may be untraceable; federal tax law permits anonymous personal donations to politically active nonprofit groups. In recent decades, members of several industrial dynasties have spent parts of their fortunes on a conservative agenda. In the nineteen-eighties, the Olin family, which owns a chemicals-and-manufacturing conglomerate, became known for funding right-leaning thinking in academia, particularly in law schools. And during the nineties Richard Mellon Scaife, a descendant of Andrew Mellon, spent millions attempting to discredit President Bill Clinton. Ari Rabin-Havt, a vice-president at the Democratic-leaning Web site Media Matters, said that the Kochs’ effort is unusual, in its marshalling of corporate and personal funds: “Their role, in terms of financial commitments, is staggering.” Of course, Democrats give money, too. Their most prominent donor, the financier George Soros, runs a foundation, the Open Society Institute, that has spent as much as a hundred million dollars a year in America. Soros has also made generous private contributions to various Democratic campaigns, including Obama’s. But Michael Vachon, his spokesman, argued that Soros’s giving is transparent, and that “none of his contributions are | 1.429858 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
in the service of his own economic interests.” The Kochs have given millions of dollars to nonprofit groups that criticize environmental regulation and support lower taxes for industry. Gus diZerega, the former friend, suggested that the Kochs’ youthful idealism about libertarianism had largely devolved into a rationale for corporate self-interest. He said of Charles, “Perhaps he has confused making money with freedom.” But, here's a key piece of information: the Kochs haven't just given to right-wingers. Back in April of 2001, The American Prospect's Bob Dreyfuss reported that the Kochs also funded the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC): And for $25,000, 28 giant companies found their way onto the DLC's executive council, including Aetna, AT&T, American Airlines, AIG, BellSouth, Chevron, DuPont, Enron, IBM, Merck and Company, Microsoft, Philip Morris, Texaco, and Verizon Communications. Few, if any, of these corporations would be seen as leaning Democratic, of course, but here and there are some real surprises. One member of the DLC's executive council is none other than Koch Industries, the privately held, Kansas-based oil company whose namesake family members are avatars of the far right, having helped to found archconservative institutions like the Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy. Not only that, but two Koch executives, Richard Fink and Robert P. Hall III, are listed as members of the board of trustees and the event committee, respectively--meaning that they gave significantly more than $25,000.I added the emphasis. The DLC board of trustees is an elite body whose membership is reserved for major donors, and many of the trustees are financial wheeler-dealers who run investment companies and capital management firms--though senior executives from a handful of corporations, such as Koch, Aetna, and Coca-Cola, are included. Fitting, isn't it? The entity that tries to undermine the progressive agenda from within the Democratic Party was getting funding from the guys who are trying to destroy the Democratic Party from the outside.
There has been a concerted effort in the past 40 years to take right wing money and use it to distort the legal system (Federalist Society), the political system (the various groups funded by the Koch brothers), and even organized religion (The Institute on Religion and Public Life and The Institute on Religion and Democracy). At the time this has happened these groups have had a disparate effect on influencing public policy, and now we have the highest unemployment of any developed nation, and we spend more per capita on the military than any other comparable nation. Our roads are crumbling, our schools are underfunded. Hunger is a real issue in many American communities.
A class war has been waged against the American people by these people who have bought the government for their own ends. There simply isn't a nicer, gentler way to put it.
This situation can only be reversed by people pushing back against this in a way that helps all. Even the right-wingers, since ultimately, if their policies were to come to fruition, it will eventually destabilize our political system entirely. But at the very least the American people should realize that a class war is being waged against them.HOP on, hop off. The frog Kama Sutra just got updated. An Indian night frog has been caught in a new sexual position dubbed the dorsal straddle.
Sathyabhama Das Biju at the University of Delhi and his team spent 40 nights filming the sex lives of Bombay night frogs (
Nyctibatrachus humayuni) in a forest in the Western Ghats in India. They have now spotted the seventh known mating position in frogs.
Many frogs do it “doggy style”, with a male on top of a female’s back. The new position is a variation of this, but there is no contact between the sex organs. Instead, when a male straddles a female, sperm is released on her back. The female then lays her eggs and the sperm trickles down to fertilise them. “It was unexpected,” says Das Biju.
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The team observed other unusual behaviours in these frogs. In addition to male mating calls, which are typical in all frogs, they found that females occasionally initiated calls when they couldn’t make contact with a vocal male (
PeerJ, DOI: 10.7717/peerj.2117).
Ryan Taylor at Salisbury University, Maryland, who studies frog courtship, thinks that the successive release of semen and eggs is particularly interesting.
“This behaviour appears to be unique and it is unclear how or why it evolved,” he says.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Froggy style in the heat of the night” | 1.780265 | 992 | 990 |
It Is Ok To Be Human November 19, 2009
A week or so I met with a woman whose husband just recently passed away, after they had shared a life together for more than twenty years. She told me of their vacations, and their joys and trials of raising children together. She told me of a lifetime of experiences, and what they have meant and continue to mean to her.
In the hour and a half that I met with her, I was given a brief glimpse into the wonderful world filled with loving memories shared by two people. As this woman shared these memories with me it was clear that doing so was a joy for her.
And as I asked her “how do you feel you are doing now” I watched as that joy faded into something much less pleasant, and she began to cry as she spoke with me. “Horrible”, she replied. She spoke of the waves of crying that hit her, and how difficult it is to get out of bed each day.
She also spoke of how much more difficult everything is now than it was a short time ago, when her husband was still alive. Her memory and attention span, she told me, is non existent…much like her ability to handle “the small things”. She told me of all the things that she should be doing better by now, a month after her husband had passed away.
When someone we care about has died, we need to forget everything we thought we knew about how we cope with obstacles in life. This isn’t losing a job, or being late on a car payment. This is the permanent physical loss of someone we love, and it will likely cause pain the likes of which you’ve not felt before.
So why are we so hard on ourselves, expecting that we will be back to normal in a month…when our lives are so far from it right now?
Everything has changed over night. You need to have patience with yourself, and lower your expectations of yourself just a little bit. Rather than setting the bar at getting through the day without crying, set it at being able to get out of bed and put your clothes on. And if those clothes actually match, well consider that a plus. Nothing is simple now, and you will find that most things are more difficult than they usually are.
Being able to concentrate, having energy, and being able to smile are things that may not be in the realm of possibility for you at this time. But know that you will regain them in the future, just not right now. You may have to do a great deal of faking and acting at this point as you get through the day, and that’s ok.
This isn’t figure skating. There is no panel of judges that is grading you on how gracefully you get through this period. So if you find yourself tripping over your own laces, know that you’re not going to get kicked off of the ice. I am giving you permission to be human. And if any of you need that in writing, come on down to my office and I will gladly write you up a formal permission slip.
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The Tax Realignment Commission has completed its work.
The panel was created to examine the tax structure of the state for “adequacy, fairness, and efficiency” to make sure South Carolina is an “optimum competitor in its efforts to attract business and individuals to locate, live, work, and invest.”
That’s according to the letter in the final report written to the General Assembly by TRAC Chairman Burnet R. Maybank III.
It should not have taken too much work to see which way that wind blew. According to the Tax Foundation, South Carolina ranked 43rd in 2009 in state and local tax burdens. Ask anyone moving here from New Jersey how they feel about local taxes.
The Garden State was ranked number one.
According to a recent report, South Carolina Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, praised the commission’s work. He then let the state’s lawmakers off the hook because, apparently, elected officials have just realized they have budget challenges and there is this newly discovered every-decade requirement to realign districts based on census numbers.
TRAC was supposedly aiming at eliminating tax exemptions, such as placing a 1.25 percent tax on electricity. That was last September. In October, another entity was pushing lawmakers to allow tax breaks for renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal.
In one hand and out the other.
After the final report was filed in February, South Carolina approved a $5.2 billion spending plan that cuts welfare, Medicaid and college spending. So much for broadening the tax base and finding nearly $10 billion worth of new revenue sources.
But don’t worry.
One thing the TRAC did not do was cost us anything because it was funded without taxpayer money. | 1.756555 | 1,010 | 1,008 |
Step 1
Determine a location for your permaculture garden. The location should be close to the house and have six to eight hours of sun as well as some shaded areas. If you are starting with lawn area, remove the grass. Lay down cardboard or newspaper mulch approximately eight inches thick on the newly exposed earth.
Step 2
Use organic soil to create your beds. This first application, should your garden be successful, will be the only time "outside soil" is used. Build up your beds in mounds, allowing for paths between mounds so you have access to your plants.Your beds need not be columns of neat rows. You don't want to plant all your tomatoes in a row, all your beans in a row, and so on. You want to mix your plants to take advantage of companion planting and mimic nature's landscapes.
Step 3
Install an irrigation system. Use a drip system that allows for slow, deep watering. Add a small water feature, such as a pond, to attract birds and frogs. These are predators and will aid in pest control.
Step 4
Seed your beds. Plant seeds only as deep in the soil as necessary. Plant the vegetables, herbs and flowers that are indigenous to your region and plant according to the season. Sustainability in a garden is more easily obtained if the plants are adapted to your local climatic conditions such as temperature and rainfall. Include flowers and herbs that will attract bees and butterflies, as these will aid in pollination and pest control.
Step 5
Add a 6-inch layer of mulch over your seeded beds. Irrigate the beds and monitor for seedlings. Remove weeds, but do not use herbicides.
Step 6
Build a compost pile. This can be in a commercial composter or other container. Add kitchen scraps and grass clippings to your compost and continually turn. If you have chickens, add chicken bedding and chicken manure to the compost.
Step 7
Monitor your garden for pests and predator insects, for worms and for butterflies and bees. If you see all of these life forms present, you are on your way to a successful permaculture garden.
Step 8
Each season, harvest your vegetables and cut the stems down to the ground. Leave the roots and add the stems to the compost. Do not till your beds. Add your compost and mulch from natural materials found on your property, continually building on the healthy soil without disturbing the earth. it was over...the second I looked at a donut, it came back! I gained back all the weight, even the weight I didn't want to come back!' she says, laughing." ("Beyoncé: 'I'm in no rush to get married'" The Belfast Telegraph, August 25, 2006)
The truth: I believe weight gain is a result of accumulated toxins. It's been shown that the body protects itself from toxins that are too numerous for the liver to handle by putting them into fat cells. That's why going on a raw vegan diet results in people losing weight. The liver is finally able to handle some of these stored older toxins because it doesn't need to handle as many from the raw vegan diet. That's also why people who go back to eating the Standard American Diet (lots of artificially flavored, colored and preserved food that has been heavily processed and practically no fresh, raw greens, vegetables and fruits) immediately regain any weight they lose on any diet, let alone the Master Cleanse. The better your diet afterwards, the less weight you put back on. The informal survey of 141 Master Cleansers mentioned earlier discovered that the average woman completing the Master Cleanse lost about 12 pounds and regained about 6. The average man lost about 16 pounds and also regained about 6. Interestingly, most people reported they ate a healthier diet after completing the cleanse.
Misconception #8: The Master Cleanse is for everyone.
The truth: The Master Cleanse is great, but it's not for everyone. It is probably the second most powerful (read that as the fastest) way to detoxify the body. Only a water fast is more powerful. If a person has a great deal of stored toxins, releasing them too quickly results in detox symptoms, such as headaches, rashes, tiredness, irritability, even vomiting. Those people should not do the Master Cleanse. They should detoxify much more slowly with a better diet. Also, people recovering from surgery need large amounts of protein to regenerate tissue and so should not do the Master Cleanse until they have completely recovered from surgery. Pregnant and nursing women should not do it either, as there is a remote possibility that the toxins may find their way into the infant. Although, I have never heard of such actually occurring, but better safe than sorry. For the rest of us, the Master Cleanse is really amazing!
Click Here For The Master Cleanse Book & Ingredients Kits | 1.643766 | 1,017 | 1,015 |
Beyoncé Before and After the Master Cleanse
A lot was written about Beyoncé's weight loss (losing 20 pounds in 10 days) on the Master Cleanse for her movie role in "Dreamgirls" where her character first appears on screen as 16 years old, then later as 36.
While it was true that Beyoncé was 14 pounds lighter and looked 10 years younger for shooting the younger part, there were many misconceptions in the articles that I'd like to clarify.
Misconception #1: "Health experts claim that this diet sends each of its followers in a hospital if they try it more than 10 days." (originally written in www.playfuls.com and then reprinted in www.chinadaily.com.cn).
The truth: Literally thousands of people do the Master Cleanse for anywhere between 10 and 40 days and feel better afterwards. I personally have done it 18 times and 6 of those were for more than 10 days. I have never been to the hospital since I started eating better (predominantly raw vegetarian, but not completely) and doing regular Master Cleanses (about 1 every 3 months). Many more experiences can be found in my book, Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days. (Click here to buy it.)
Misconception #2: "People would start to feel very lethargic and would be unable to concentrate... They will probably end up in hospital, especially people who try it for more than 10 days." (from the same article)
The truth: I do it to have more energy and think more clearly. In an informal survey in January 2005 of 141 people who had completed at least one Master Cleanse, more than 3/4 had more energy and more than 90% were happier!
Misconception #3: "The problem is not what's in the diet but what's not. There are no fats, proteins, vitamins or minerals and the only carbohydrate is in the form of sugar." (from the same article)
The truth: Most people know that citrus fruit (including lemons) are a good source of vitamin C. What many people do not know is that lemon juice is also a good source of potassium. However, that's beside the point. The idea that people cannot exist without protein for 10 days may be a dream of the meat industry, but it is not true. Fasting, as recommended in the Bible, has been recognized by many doctors for hundreds of years. The most current, visible American MD who is a major proponent of fasting is Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of Eat to Live and Fasting - and Eating - for Health. He has had numerous successes curing with diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. In Europe, there are many health spas run by doctors that practice fasting for healing and rejuvenation.
Misconception #4: "The diet was presented for the first time by a Swiss health company in 1985 and reached a high popularity very fast." (from the same article)
The truth: The Master Cleanse was first developed by Stanley Burroughs and later appeared as The Master Cleanser, first published in 1976.
Misconception #5: "The cleanse became popular again with the 2004 publication of Peter Glickman’s Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days. (Click here to buy it.)." (www.calorielab.com)
The truth: I appreciate the publicity. (They never even called or emailed. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered this.) However, the Master Cleanse has consistently grown more popular due to the great word of mouth from the hundreds of thousands of people who do this detoxification diet every year and discover its benefits.
Misconception #6: "The lemonade (which you drink 6 to 8 glasses per day) is made from 2 tablespoons of Grade A maple syrup, juice of ½ lemon, 1/10 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and 1 quart of spring water." ("Hot Stuff" New York Daily News, August 17, 2006)
The truth: I appreciated the reporter, Jane Ridley, giving my website a direct link from the article, but "1 quart" should read " 8 ounces". I don't know what would happen to a person if they drank 8 quarts of water every day for 10 or more days, but I wouldn't want to be the one to find out. "6 to 8" should read " 6 to 12 glasses per day".(By the way, Burroughs recommends Grade B organic maple syrup because it has more minerals, but says any grade will work.)
Misconception #7: " 'I ate everything when | 1.498539 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
In all the discussions I’ve had regarding agile and from all the presentations I’ve seen, articles I’ve read, etc, the most valuable thing I’ve heard so far has been what I’ve been calling the feature-of-the-week.
The feature-of-the-week was something I picked up at the very first APLN (Agile Project Leadership Network) group meeting I attended here in Calgary. The presentation was given by a fellow named Jonathan Rasmusson who is a Calgary-based agile coach and software developer (he’s got a blog here). Jonathan was giving an introductory level presentation to the group and talked quite a bit about how to get started. The best advice he had (which is also the best I’ve heard so far) was “don’t get caught up in trying to define agile for a team as part of some big master plan or organizational overhaul… just tell someone you’re going to deliver something that works in a week, then do it. That’s agile”.
I’m not sure if Jonathan actually said feature-of-the-week that day or if I imagined it afterward. If he did say it, I don’t know if he’s the one that actually coined the term, but it doesn’t matter. I credit him for the simplest yet most useful thing I’ve heard so far regarding agile methods in hardware development.
That was an important day for me because I do most of my work with clients remotely, which means I work as part of a development team but instead of being on the other side of the cube wall, I’m on the other side of a phone call. Remote development is not an ideal arrangement but it can work quite well. The communication barriers are obviously higher and I’ve seen that make things difficult. I’ve come to wonder, though, whether its the distance between remote developers that makes things difficult or the way we work and how we measure progress that presents the real difficulties. It was my first time attempting the feature-of-the-week that got me wondering.
In case I haven’t made it obvious, the feature-of-the-week entails writing, testing and releasing code for some feature in a week or less. Not just writing
or testing some chunk of code, writing and testing a feature then releasing it to the rest of the team, all in a week or less! A week was a fast turnaround for me since I was used to writing a few weeks worth of code, then coming back to see if it worked.
The first time I tried this with a client, it was obvious that I was committing to a focused and intense approach to development. I was onsite for a week getting acquainted with the project and while onsite, I committed to a delivery from home the following friday. Granted, it was a pretty small delivery but I didn’t realize how hard it would be until I sat down monday and glanced at the calendar. Friday was only 5 days away and I had a lot of work to do.
I’ll spare you all the details, but in a nutshell what started as a series of daunting delivery milestones ended up being the best thing I’ve done as a verification engineer. With the ability to demonstrate my work every 5-10 days (yes… the feature-of-the-week ended up being the feature-of-the-week-or-2) I could show that either:
a) I knew exactly what I was doing; or
b) I was out in left field and in need of help.
Demonstrating – as opposed to telling – is key and the purpose of that wasn’t to prove I was actually working on the other end of the VPN, it was to close a tight feedback loop with the designer. I could ask a question about a feature, code the answer immediately, run it and ask for confirmation soon after (i.e. “take a look at this sim… is that what you meant Tuesday when you said <blah blah blah>?”).
That tight feedback loop kept me on track. I’ll admit to having a few misses, but I was able to recover quickly every time. To understand how the quick recovery was possible, try debugging 5 days worth of code and then 2 months worth of code. Which is easier?
From that experience, these are the lessons I learned:
Describing “lines/classes/modules/tests written in a status report” will never be as reliable as “code done and demonstrated” Short tasks are easier to estimate and complete on time than long tasks 1 week screw-ups are easier to fix than 2 month screw-ups As a remote developer, regularly releasing code to the rest of the team is the only way to show them you know what you’re doing.
The last lesson was most important. I’m now convinced that perceived productivity limitations of remote developers aren’t in fact caused by distance alone. They are a product of the way people work together and how they measure progress. Simply put, the feature-of-the-week with it’s weekly deliveries, tight feedback loop and increased transparency made me more productive as a remote contributor (if you want more details, you can tune into an open discussion on our AgileSo | 1.741128 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
end of the week random links…
July 23, 2010 § 4 Comments
some random notes:
The POWERful classes are innovative and off the beaten path of standard childbirth classes because they serve a dual purpose. The first is to share information with women about their pregnancy, birth and postpartum so that they can make informed and empowered decisions about their health and the health of their baby. The second purpose is to introduce women to social justice organizing so that they can impact positive change as leaders in their communities.
The classes, which were also offered last year at Power U, will cover topics ranging from birthing options, nutrition and breastfeeding to reducing toxic housing conditions, improving neighborhood schools and negotiating fair rent prices.
“I feel more respected in these classes,” stated one class participant, who is also a teen mom.
–this weekend i am doing the printable pdf for outlaw midwives zine. pulling out my geometry brain…any help in this arena would be much appreciated…
–aza insists on being called: princess mafina or amira mafina. but not aza. definitely not aza.
–midwife pamela on fb linked to this article:
This is especially true when it comes to pregnant drug using women. For nearly two decades popular media claimed that any illegal drugs used by pregnant women would inevitably and significantly damage their babies.
The actual scientific research contradicts this assumption. Carefully constructed, unbiased scientific research has not found that prenatal exposure to any of the illegal drugs causes unique or even inevitable harm. This research is so clear that that courts and leading federal agencies have concluded that what most people heard was “essentially a myth.” As the National Institute for Drug Abuse explains, “babies born to mothers who used crack cocaine while pregnant, were at one time written off by many as a lost generation. . . . It was later found that this was a gross exaggeration.”
–some of these notes may develop into blog post. or maybe not.
–i am basically nanowrimo-ing a memoir and then after a couple of weeks seeing if it is worth working on. i had just figured that i didnt have the emotional energy to do it. but i hate having something sitting there undone staring at me. me, unsure if it works or it doesnt. so i am writing my ass off and then when i am done, i can see what the next step would be.
anyways the writing reminded me of living in the woods reading the peace pilgrim. and how reading her little book really did act as a guide for how to live in this world as a free person no matter what.
–oh there are a couple of awesome posts on checking dilation during labor without a vaginal exam. lovely.
–i will write soon about the viva palestina september/october convoy to deliver aid to gaza. but here is the link to it for now…
–while the more that i learn about the placenta, the more amazed i am by it, i am not sure if i could knowingly eat placenta lasagna.
–aza is running around with a can of tuna. habibi is cooking potatoes. it is july in cairo and the heat swims in the air like a prayer. i can drink smoothies all day. mornings are chaos here.China's shipbuilding tonnage is expected to reach a record high of more than 12.5 million in 2005. This represents 17 per cent of the global shipbuilding market, up from 14.3 per cent in 2004. Growth of China's shipbuilding tonnage will account for most of the global growth, which will increase to 71.2 from 61.4 million in 2004, according to Zhu Rujing, an analyst with Beijing-based China Shipbuilding Economy Research Centre.
Despite the rapid growth, China will continue to be the world's third biggest shipbuilding country following Japan and South Korea. Both Japan and South Korea now control more than 30 per cent of global shipbuilding market, while many Chinese shipyards appear short of capacity to satisfy the world's strong demand for new ships. However, there is a danger of overcapacity starting from the second half of 2008 because Chinese shipyards are developing on a massive scale, and growth of global ship demand will slow down. The analyst estimated that total shipbuilding capacity in China would exceed 30 million tons by 2010, up from nearly 14 million at present.
Shipbuilding giants from South Korea and Japan are accelerating penetration into China, with some hoping to gain controlling stakes in Chinese shipyards, and even build wholly-owned shipyards. But it is expected that China might ban foreign shipbuilding groups from doing this, with an anticipated new policy on the shipbuilding sector. function in healthy normotensive pregnant women with bilateral uterine artery notch... | 1.981325 | 1,005 | 1,002 |
As I have said before our new Alberta CEO Ed Stelmach is haunted by the ghost of a Premier past; the lame duck Harry Strom.
Edmonton Sun columnist Neil Waugh knows this too and gloating with glee likes to rub it in;
Listen up on land
Last week Premier Ed Stelmach finally gave Albertans a peek under the tent flaps about his plans to stop the insanity of Ralph Klein's flawed oilsands policy, which sees energy companies pay a penny-on-the-dollar in royalties while at the same time shipping raw bitumen and jobs down the pipeline to Illinois and Texas and turning 48 townships of pristine boreal forest around Fort McMurray into a vast industrial zone.
"My government is committed to ensuring there will never again be a major downturn like we saw in the 1980s," Stelmach boomed to the Canadian Energy Research Institute.
He plans to thwart any National Energy Program rerun by "developing and diversifying" the energy industry.
During the Alberta PC leadership campaign last fall Stelmach compared pipelining raw bitumen to Texas as selling the "topsoil" from a farm.
"This includes encouraging more upgrading and value-added activities in the province," he told the oilmen. "Our government will encourage that to happen."
He has a strange way of doing it. The latest jobs-down-the-pipeline dust-up happens before the National Energy Board in Calgary on June 4 when TransCanada Pipelines pitches its ultra-controversial Keystone bitumen pipeline to the States.
Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan has already filed an intervention describing the dubious line as a "devil's bargain".
NEB documents reveal the Alberta government is intervening too. But instead of a blizzard of submissions backing up the premier's pledge, Alberta taxpayers will be represented by one lowly "regulatory analyst" who is only there to "monitor" the hearings on behalf of his Edmonton bosses.Spare us any more goofy speeches, Ed.
Tories drop ball on housing problem
They recommended the premier consider "limited, short-term market intervention." In short, they proposed the province impose "rent stability guidelines" consisting of once-a-year rent increases of no more than 2% above inflation. Also proposed was a one-year notice for condo conversions with no lease-busting rent increases in the meantime.
The task force report described this recommendation as a "very difficult one."
The Alberta Tories obviously had a difficult time of it as well. Because when the smoke cleared and Housing Minister Ray Danyluk released his $285-million response this week, rent controls were mysteriously missing.
In their place were a series of half-hearted attempts to rein in runaway accommodation costs.
The proposed condo conversion restrictions have been accepted. But landlords can impose once-a-year hikes with no ceiling.
Instead of responding boldly and constructively to a problem that's creating economic hardship for large numbers of Albertans and employment problems for many Alberta businesses trying to compete with the oilsands developers for workers, the Tories tried to dodge the bullet. They're attempting to buy a little more time.
In the meantime, apartment owners will continue to record huge profits, the affordable housing crisis will continue and the whole problem will blow up again next spring.This is not leadership.
Boom's deadly toll
The blood spilled and the body count wasn't as high as in the tragic Diversified 690 bus crash. Thank God for that. But the cause of the death of two Chinese temporary foreign workers at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.'s Horizon oilsands plant this week can be traced back to same source.
And that's the Alberta Tories' botched - and now extremely deadly - oilsands policy, which triggered a massive oilsands building boom without first putting in place the necessary infrastructure.
The Tories then conspired with the developers to tear up the labour peace treaty that ruled the oilsands for more than a decade.
There followed the airlift of cheap foreign workers, while thousands of Alberta tradesmen and women sit on union dispatch lists.
The collapse of the tank roof structure that killed Genbao Ge and Hong Liang Liu and injured four others working for the Chinese-government-owned contractor was the culmination of this goofy policy.
It's the same one that allows oilsands developers to pay a penny-on-the-dollar royalty until the multi-billion-buck plants are paid out, while at the same time shipping raw bitumen and jobs down the pipeline to Illinois and Texas and leaving behind irreparable environmental damage in the pristine boreal bush north of Fort McMurray.
It wasn't until after the bus crash that killed six construction workers on the Syncrude job that the Alberta PCs finally admitted that Highway 63 was fundamentally dangerous. And they're now playing a desperate game of catch-up to twin the major route to the oilsands.
But only last week, Finance Minister Lyle Oberg was bragging in his budget speech about more offshore workers coming in.
"We will develop an immigration strategy to encourage more skilled workers to come to Alberta." Oberg boomed. Well, how do you like your | 2.065941 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
strategy now, Lyle?
And just how panicked the Stelmach government is to control the damage and deflect the blame has been clearly evident since Tuesday's tragedy.
A limited internal investigation by government bureaucrats - and no public report, but simply a handover to the dubious Alberta Justice Department, which already has the worst record in Canada on bringing boardroom bad guys to justice. (They've yet to get the trucker who crashed into Bus 690 into court - an accident that happened way back on May 20, 2005.)
Worker error
Meanwhile, CNRL is being allowed to do a parallel "full investigation" of the incident, where worker error will be the inevitable conclusion.Heck, Employment Minister Iris Evans didn't even bother to issue a press release acknowledging the latest oilpatch accident even happened.
Smoke and mirrors
"Alberta intends to borrow $300 million on behalf of its corporations this year," noted CIBC World Markets economist Avery Shenfeld. "With half of that raised in the public debt market."
Shenfeld added that the government-backed Alberta Capital Finance Authority and ATB Financial plan on floating paper worth $2 billion this year.
BMO Capital Markets economist Michael Gregory also determined that the Tories are back in the borrowing business "which will be subsequently lent to other provincial corporations to meet their funding requirements."
Things get even more murky when you dig deep into the budget documents to find the true meaning of P3 (public/private partnerships), like the Anthony Henday and Stoney Trail ring roads in Edmonton and Calgary.
P3 magic, we are told, is that it "allows the government to transfer certain risks that the private sector is better able to manage."
Without getting too specific.
But the background blurb also admits: "contribution of public financing to a P3 project should reduce total project cost."
And under a section called "debt servicing costs," Oberg's documents show a line identified as "financing costs for government-owned capital (P3s)" growing from $8 million this fiscal year to $22 million by 2009-10.
Yup, we're back in debt.
Except the budget book would prefer to call it "alternative financing" or "capital lease liability".
Of course, there's more debt on the books in "debt free" Alberta.
Another $166 million in medium term bonds comes due this year.
That leaves over $1.2 billion of old Don Getty debt on the books to be paid off from the debt retirement account when it comes due. Some of that won't be until 2013.
Sure, there's another $2.2 billion surplus in the forecast this year plus another $7.7 billion ticking over in the Sustainability Fund.
OTHER FUNDS
At the same time, the Tories will pull another $1.4 billion of investment income out of the Alberta Heritage Fund, while other funds will yield an additional $2.1 billion more.
But isn't the HTF supposed to be used for a rainy day?
Don't worry, it could be pouring soon.
The University of Calgary's Institute for Sustainability, Energy, Environment and Economy recently released a paper on Alberta's economic future.
The results of that study are suddenly showing up in government documents.
The "bulk" of the government resource revenue came from gas royalties in recent years.
In 2004, it hit over $8 billion. By 2013, the institute predicts gas royalty revenue will be only $3 billion.
While oilsands revenue is the next big thing, the way the Tories have screwed up the royalty regime with their goofy penny-on-the-dollar giveaway leads the institute to a grim conclusion.
"In general, one would expect significantly lower royalties as a percentage of revenues in the case of oil- sands compared to conventional oil," the paper warns. Expected royalties compared to recent years will be "substantially lower."
And the projected royalty revenues for 2013 are "just over $5 billion" - which the report points out are "about one-half the average levels" over the past five years.Looks like Oberg is just getting warmed up for when Alberta is back aboard the debt and deficit wagon.
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Social Credit,Socreds, PC, Calgary, Party of Calgary, politics, leadership, Conservatives, Edmonton, One Party State,History, Politics, Economics,leadership, politics, PC, piece of ribbon and make a loop at the top of the wreath. Tie securely as this will be used to hang the wreath. If you wish, you can use extra ribbon to make a bow under the loop. | 2.146354 | 978 | 976 |
noun, Physics. 1. the spectrum formed by electromagnetic radiations emitted by a given source, characteristic of the source and the type of excitation inducing the radiations. noun 1. the continuous spectrum or pattern of bright lines or bands seen when the electromagnetic radiation emitted by a substance is passed into a spectrometer. The spectrum is characteristic of the emitting substance and the type of excitation to which it is subjected Compare absorption spectrum emission spectrum The distribution of electromagnetic radiation released by a substance whose atoms have been excited by heat or radiation. A spectroscope can be used to determine which frequencies have been emitted by a substance. The emission spectrum is a combination of the atomic spectra of the various kinds of atoms making up the substance and can be analyzed to determine the substance’s chemical or atomic composition. See more at atomic spectrum.
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Emissions trading
noun an approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants; also called cap-and-trade Examples The fact that the permits in emissions trading have value as an item to be sold or traded gives the owner an incentive to reduce their emissions.
Emissive
[ih-mis-iv] /ɪˈmɪs ɪv/ adjective 1. serving to emit. 2. pertaining to .
Emissivity
[em-uh-siv-i-tee, ee-muh-] /ˌɛm əˈsɪv ɪ ti, ˈi mə-/ noun, Thermodynamics. 1. the ability of a surface to emit radiant energy compared to that of a black body at the same temperature and with the same area. /ɪmɪˈsɪvɪtɪ; ˌɛm-/ noun 1. a measure of the ability of a surface to radiate energy; the ratio of the […]
Emit
[ih-mit] /ɪˈmɪt/ verb (used with object), emitted, emitting. 1. to send forth (liquid, light, heat, sound, particles, etc.); discharge. 2. to give forth or release (a sound): He emitted one shrill cry and then was silent. 3. to utter or voice, as opinions. 4. to issue, as an order or a decree. 5. to issue […]Real estate sales and construction are picking up on Hilton Head Island and so is the money raised through town fees, according to town financial statements.
A staff report presented to Town Council on Tuesday indicates more revenue was collected from real estate transfer fees and construction permits between July 1 to Jan. 31 than during the same time span a year ago. The combined increase was 22 percent.
Revenue from real estate fees was $1,223,205, an increase of 17 percent.
Revenue from construction permits totaled $745,060, a 31 percent increase, according to town data.
These increases are "all positive signs of progress and improvements" in the local economy, town manager Steve Riley said, adding that he expects the growth to continue through the rest of the year.
"To me, this shows that the real estate market is slowly but surely improving -- and that's a good thing," said Mayor Drew Laughlin, who also mentioned that his law practice has been helping more people close home sales lately.
As property changes hands and is developed, "you're going to see a positive rebound for many other businesses, as well as the town," said Jean Beck, executive vice president of the Hilton Head Area Association of Realtors.
The town's financial report indicates properties aren't just being purchased -- they are being improved as well.
Redevelopment construction -- including additions, renovations, pool installation and other types of projects -- accounted for more than two thirds of the construction-permit revenue received so far this fiscal year, which began July 1. The town issued 2,440 construction permits for redevelopment projects between the beginning of this fiscal year and Jan. 31.
Last calendar year marked the first time in three or four years that there were more construction permits issued than in the year before, said Ashley Feaster, executive officer of the Hilton Head Area Home Builders Association.
"We're seeing a year that seems to be even more successful and positive than last year," Feaster said, adding, "this is looking like a very good time for our local economy."
The increase in construction is due to low selling prices on homes that buyers are interested in renovating, reduced prices of construction materials like lumber and steel, and more competition among construction firms, Feaster said.
Related content | 1.197472 | 952 | 950 |
Lightweighting is the automotive industry’s best bet to achieve the 2025 corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard, according to Chuck Evans, corporate vice president at Henkel’s automotive group. The US standard raises the average fuel economy of cars and light-duty trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. In his … Read more »
The Federal Aviation Administration has selected a team of universities to lead a new Air Transportation Center of Excellence (COE) that aims to benefit airlines by developing cleaner jet fuels and exploring other ways to meet next-generation air transportation environmental and energy goals. Led by Washington State University and the … Read more »
Packaging and paper products manufacturer Boise has cut CO2 emissions by 60 percent by switching from road to rail and packing its products more efficiently in rail containers, says a case study from Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). EDF, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has put together a … Read more »
MIT engineers have developed carbon fiber “Lego bricks” — interlocking blocks that can be used to build large structures — that are 10 times stiffer than comparable lightweight materials, ExtremeTech reports. The online technology publication says robots could mass-produce these carbon fiber blocks, which could then be used to build … Read more »
Here’s the latest news on hirings, promotions and departures among environmental leaders. GSE: The geosynthetic containment systems manufacturer says Mark Arnold, president and CEO, is leaving the company. GSE’s board of directors has appointed Charles A. Sorrentino, a current member of the board, as interim president and CEO, effective immediately. … Read more »
MIT researchers have invented a “plug-and-play” carbon dioxide scrubbing system that they say could be added relatively easily to any existing power plant, and uses less power than existing systems. Most existing systems rely on complex plumbing to divert the steam used to drive the turbines that generate power in these plants. … Read more »
Scottish startup Celtic Renewables says it can turn waste from the country’s £4 billion ($6 billion) whiskey-making industry into millions of gallons of renewable fuel, creating a £60 million ($90 million) biofuels industry, National Geographic reports. Only 10 percent of a distillery’s product is future whiskey, the magazine says. The … Read more »
Some of the processes being looked at as cheaper ways of capturing carbon dioxide emissions include a government-led large-scale implementation at a power plant, a installation at a natural gas production facility and rolling out the technology to other industrial facilities, according to an article in the MIT Technology Review. Despite the … Read more »
More than two-thirds of a running shoe’s carbon footprint can come from manufacturing processes, with a smaller percentage arising from acquiring or extracting raw materials, according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers. The MIT team says a typical pair of running shoes generates 30 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. The … Read more »
Researchers at MIT have found a way to manufacture steel without greenhouse gas emissions. Steel from the new process should be of higher purity, and — once the process is scaled up — cheaper, according to a paper that was published this week in the journal Nature. Worldwide steel production totals about 1.5 … Read more »
Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, cloud platform company Akamai Technologies and the city of Cambridge, Mass., have agreed to work collaboratively to address climate change issues at the local level. The groups say they hope to attract additional signatories from the corporate and nonprofit sectors. The Community Compact … Read more »
In celebration of Earth Day today, a host of companies have announced eco-initiatives and sustainability targets. These include: InterContinental Hotels Group announced progress made with its online environmental management tool IHG Green Engage, which helps more than 2,300 IHG hotels reduce energy, water and waste consumption. The group exceeded its … Read more »Home News Sports Opinion Obituaries Features Special Sections Classifieds Public Notices
If you are a dog owner, I do not need to tell you how much joy and benefit your pet dog brings you, but did you know there is actually some scientific basis for that?
Oxytocin is a hormone that seems to be released in the blood when we have contact with our pet dogs. Oxytocin is a stress-reducing hormone that helps people calm down and decreases their anxiety.
It is produced in the hypothalamus at the base of the brain, and there are neurons, which are nerve cells, in part of the neurologic system that produce and secrete this oxytocin hormone.
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ZIP Code: | 1.563426 | 1,019 | 1,017 |
Question
patricia
Art, Media & Literature
What is the relationship of media to advertising and consumer behaviour?
What is the relation of media to advertising and consumer behavior?
Did you know that we write custom assignments? We have experts in each specific subject area with vast experience. Get a complete answer and find out more about our writing services.
Answer
Internal Staff
Media takes many forms, particularly since the development of the internet, but broadly it relates to individuals and organisations presenting information to the public in an organised manner.
Media organisations have long been considered to have an important effect on those who are exposed to them, particularly in the case of large and/or trusted organisations. The issues around the influence and the ethics of media are growing in prominence due to scandals such as the widespread hacking of phones (an illegal action) in the UK by newspapers (Jounalism.co.uk). In addition, some online media organisations have been caught up in moral and legal controversy (such as Gawker (Mac, 2016)).
The media is widely accepted to have a very strong influence over public opinions through the information it provides them, and in doing so has control over consumer behaviour. As an extreme example of the power of media, State media companies, for example in North Korea, have been used as a method of indoctrination, with apparent success.
Media can directly or indirectly influence consumer behaviour, such as their attitude toward a company or product, through reviews, opinions or selective release of information. Social media allows an even more direct avenue to interact with the public, allowing quicker and more frequent influence.
An important element to this is that media companies are often heavily reliant on advertising revenue to stay operational. This then may create a conflict of interest where media may favour their advertisers or sponsors, or may attack that company’s competitors.
They can also exert influence on both companies and consumers through their acceptance or refusal to publish adverts of particular companies.
Whilst the existence of largely unrestricted media is meant to be beneficial for society, the commercialisation of media opens up many avenues for commercial interests to take over from public benefit.
ReferencesMac, R., (2016), This Silicon Valley Billionaire Has Been Secretly Funding Hulk Hogan's Lawsuits Against Gawker (online), Forbes, Available: [http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2016/05/24/this-silicon-valley-billionaire-has-been-secretly-funding-hulk-hogans-lawsuits-against-gawker/#6ab1899b7805], Accessed: 12/09/2016
Journalism.co.uk, 2016, Phone Hacking (online), Available: [https://www.journalism.co.uk/phone-hacking/s278/], Accessed: 12/09/16Brazil is getting ready to play its first World Cup game and the real is trading firmly. For the last three days, the dollar has been flirting with its 100-day moving average, just above BRL1.80. Today's break below that looks, well, for real.
The fundamental story looks fairly solid. The economy is enjoying robust growth, which by most accounts is probably above trend. It is one of the few countries to have recouped the output lost to the global crisis. The central bank has hiked rates twice by a combined 150 bp and more hikes are expected.
On the capital flow side, there are three significant sources of demand. First, foreign investors, especially from Japan, continue to be drawn to the relatively high yield. Second are domestic entities. Several large Brazilian businesses, including Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) and a couple of banks, will be selling shares or bonds abroad.
The Petrobras offering is particularly noteworthy, as it is expected to raise between $50-$60 bln in a share offering in late July or August. Foreign investors could take down a third to half of this and that translates into fairly strong demand for BRL.
Another source of domestic-based demand comes form Brazilian corporates themselves. Some estimates suggest that Brazilian companies may be sitting on $15-$20 bln of foreign earnings that will repatriated at some juncture.
Brazilian officials have tried to discourage BRL strength with various measures including a tax on foreign fixed income investors and ADRs, and nearly daily dollar purchases.
However, with the central bank in a tightening mode, there is a suspicion that officials may show a little more willingness to accept a gradually firmer real. With the BRL1.80 level giving way today, the next target is near BRL1.77 and then BRL.175. The BRL1.70 area is likely to be more formidable support for the US dollar.
Disclosure: No positions | 1.769775 | 999 | 997 |
Language learners need authentic opportunities to practice and improve their skills. Activities both online and face-to-face that require attention to vocabulary and pronunciation as well as a spoken response help students master English.
Listening and Speaking
ESL listening activities must motivate students to listen actively. Active listening requires a person's full involvement. One of the best means to accomplish this is to use activities that students connect with personally or enjoy doing.
Activities that require both listening and speaking with a partner as well as with the class are popular choices for most ESL classrooms.
For Beginners
Since speaking and listening go hand in hand, this activity requires students to do both.
Before class write out a list of about ten sentences, which include nouns, verbs, and adjectives from your current lesson. Keep the sentences relatively short, but make them natural sounding. Have your students sit in rows of fives. If you have a small class, one row of five is fine. Explain to the class that the first person in the row is going to receive a piece of paper with sentences in English written on it. That person is to read the first sentence slowly and quietly to the student behind him. The student listening will not see the sentence written out. He or she must listen, understand what is being said and repeat it to the next person in the row. This continues until the last person in the row hears the sentence. The last student stands up, speaking the sentence aloud for everyone in the row to hear.
Hopefully, his/her version will be close to or the same as the original. Have the last student write his/her understanding of the sentence on the board. The first person in the row writes the correct sentence under it. Together, students can review the differences with the teacher.
Before repeating, have the first person go to the end of the line. This allows all the students to be first as well as last. Repeat with additional sentences until the entire group has had a turn to be first and last.
This activity will work in classes with young children up to adults. Older students may be a little more hesitant to participate, but usually, everyone ends up having fun.
For Intermediate Level
Preparation: Find a brief biography or article on a famous person. This will be read to the class. Either tape a reading of the text or plan to read it aloud to the class. Handout this downloadable timeline table to students. Explain to students that they will be listening to a biography of a famous person. They will fill in the timeline table as they listen. Play or read the timeline three times. Check accuracy of answers as a group. Ask students to take turns giving one fact they learned about this person.
An alternative activity is to have students in small groups create a biography for a famous person. They tell the class about the person as their peers fill in their timeline tables. Discuss what they learn.
Advanced Level
Riddles require good listening skills as well as understanding of language. Challenge advanced learners to figure the answers to several riddles.
Preparation: Give students a text of the riddles to see as they are read.
Riddles below are followed by answers in parenthesis.
What starts with a T, ends with a T and has T in it? (A teapot) What is once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in a thousand years? (The letter M) For some I go fast; for others I'm slow. To most people, I'm an obsession; relying on me is a well-practiced lesson. (Time) A blue house is made of blue bricks. A red house is made of red bricks. A yellow house is made of yellow bricks. What would a green house be made of? (Glass) I am bigger than an elephant but lighter than a feather. What am I? (The wind) What can run but never walks; has a mouth but never talks; has a head but never weeps; has a bed but never sleeps? (A river) All Levels
Preparation: A picture of a room A text to be read describing the room and placement of objects in it
Have student listen to the description of the room. Ask them to make three columns on their paper. The columns are headed - Position, Object and Description. Read the text again, slowly, asking them to list under the columns what they hear. Place students in pairs. Have them describe the room to each other without looking at each other's lists. They can fill in missing information as they discuss the room.
Have students make a box sketch (like what designers do to show where furniture will be placed) of what the room looks like. Once they are done, show them the picture of the room.
References: Some content from author's own experience. New Ways in Teaching Listening, D. Nunan and L. Miller: TESOL, Alexandria, Virginia (2002)
Resources: | 1.437655 | 992 | 991 |
KEY DATA: Retail Sales: up 0.2 percent; Excluding Vehicles: up 0.4 percent; Import Prices: up 0.1 percent; Excluding Fuel: down 0.1 percent
IN A NUTSHELL: “Consumer exuberance remains restrained, and that raises questions about how strong the economy can or will grow.”
WHAT IT MEANS: The winter of our consumer discontent continued into the spring of our shopping boredom. Most economists assumed that the weather drove down spending in the first part of the year but that would change dramatically as we got to the summer. Well, spending is up, but not nearly as robustly as forecast.
Retail Sales increased less than expected in June. Strangely, vehicle sales fell. I say strangely because unit sales hit their highest level in eight years in June. After going crazy at the Home Depots of the world in April and May, demand for building supplies collapsed in June. And since we weren’t shopping like crazy, we didn’t eat out a whole lot either.
But there were positive signs in the data. Sales of food, clothing, sporting goods, health care products and appliances and electronics were up. We shopped online and at general merchandise stores, so we really did spend some money. These are the products that show up in the consumption component of GDP, so we could see a decent spending number when the second-quarter growth rate comes out on July 30, the same day the next FOMC meeting ends.
Consumers can continue to buy lots of things, even with limited incomes, since inflation is well restrained. We saw that again with the import price numbers. The cost of foreign products rose minimally in June, but most of the gains came from a jump in energy costs. Food prices fell while the costs of consumer goods, capital equipment and vehicles were flat. In other words, consumer purchasing power, at least when it comes to most imported products, is holding up.
On the export side, a similar pattern was observed as prices fell pretty much across the board.
MARKETS AND FED POLICY IMPLICATIONS: I keep saying we cannot get strong growth until we get strong income growth, and so far we don’t have either.
Part of the problem with the expected rebound in spending is that some of the demand was lost forever. If we didn’t go out to eat in February, we were not going to make up for that in June. But another, longer-term change may be in the wind: The long-lasting, slow recovery may be eroding the “shop till you drop” mentality. People may be discovering they really can live without all the things they used to think were necessary. Doing without for a short time may cause only temporary reductions in demand, but cutting back for an extended period could change habits. We will see what happens when income growth gets back toward decent levels, but we have to consider that the Great Recession and the Not-So-Great Recovery have modified spending patterns.
With the Fed worried about disappointing growth, the decline in non-fuel import prices provides further cover to keep rates low for an even longer period of time. Inflation is hardly a threat right now.
As for the markets, the focus of attention is where it should be, on earnings.Pfizer Inc. is announcing that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its pill Xeljanz to treat moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis.
The largest pharmaceutical company notes Xeljanz, which is seen as a potential big seller, is for patients who cannot take methotrexate or haven’t been helped by it. Xeljanz is intended to slow the progression of the disease. The approval comes about two weeks sooner than expected.
Xeljanz, also known as tofacitinib, is the first rheumatoid arthritis treatment from a new class of pain medications called JAK inhibitors. The drugs interfere with enzymes in the body that contribute to tissue inflammation.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a major area of research for drug companies because it is a chronic condition. Therefore, patients will likely take drugs regularly to alleviate it for a long time. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported arthritis affects 3 million U.S. Hispanics and Latinos.
“These findings suggest a critical need to expand the reach of effective strategies aimed at arthritis prevention and management, particularly among underserved populations,” said Dr. John Klippel, President and CEO of the Arthritis Foundation on the CDC release.
“Hispanics…will account for nearly a third of our population by 2050. That is why it’s important to understand how arthritis, the most common cause of disability, affects their lives and their work,” said Dr. Wayne H. Giles, Director of the Division of Adult and Community Health at the CDC. “This study…will help us to target our limited resources in ways that maximize the impact public health measures have on improving the lives of Hispanics with arthritis.”
Based on reporting by the Associated Press. | 1.621343 | 1,022 | 1,020 |
市場調查報告書
中國的Trastuzumab市場調查 Investigation Report on China Trastuzumab Market, 2010-2019 出版商 China Research and Intelligence 商品編碼 296113 出版日期 內容資訊 英文 20 Pages
商品交期: 最快1-2個工作天內
價格
中國的Trastuzumab市場調查 Investigation Report on China Trastuzumab Market, 2010-2019 出版日期: 2015年06月18日 內容資訊: 英文 20 Pages
Trastuzumab是妨礙HER2/neu受體的單株抗體，主要是用作特定乳癌的治療。Trastuzumab在治療HER2陽性轉移性乳癌上有莫大影響。中國由於醫療環境的限制及知識不足，每年接受乳腺疾病檢查的女性為10％以下。為此，初期階段發現的乳癌，美國是80％，但中國僅為20％。在中國的醫院市場中，Shanghai Roche 與GENENTECHT佔Trastuzumab的市場佔有率。在2005-2014年之間，醫院的Trastuzumab的市場規模年複合成長率達到52.9％。
本報告提供中國的Trastuzumab市場相關分析，提供您提供您主要廠商的市場佔有率，中國的醫院市場上價格變化·銷售額，主要企業，及市場展望等資訊。
※ 本網頁內容可能與最新版本有所差異。詳細情況請與我們聯繫。
Monoclonal antibody, an epochal drug variety, plays an important role in the upgrading process of treatments for tumor and autoimmune disease, and has become a mainstream in the global market of targeting therapeutic agents. The manufacturers of antibody mainly concentrate in the hands of such drug giants as Roche, Amgen, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, Novartis and Merck, among which Roche's Genetech boasts of the largest amount of monoclonal antibody varieties.
Developed by Genentech, trastuzumab was approved by FDA to be used in clinic in Sep. 1998 under the trade name of Herceptin, a major product of Roche. In 2013, the sales value of trastuzumab was USD 6.56 billion around the world.
After entering China in 2002 for the treatment of HER2 metastatic breast cancer, trastuzumab develops fast with annual sales value rising from less than CNY 20 million in 2005 to CNY 577 million in 2014 and CAGR during this period reaching up to 52.9%. Currently, trastuzumab in the Chinese market are monopolized by the subsidiary companies of Roche such as Genentech and Shanghai Roche Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd who has the largest market share of 80.60% with sales value in 2014 reaching up to CNY 465 million.
Due to its low toxicity and obvious therapeutic effects, trastuzumab can prolong patients' lives and improve the life quality of patients with advanced cancer, thus becoming the major driving force behind the growth of tumor monoclonal antibody market. The market size of trastuzumab in China is expected to keep expanding in the next few years.
Readers can get at least the following information from this report:
The author suggests the following groups of people purchase this report:
本公司檢索負責人員將免費協助尋找顧客的市場調查資料，提供提議服務。請由下列[免費委託檢索]按鈕詢問。Abstract
The nucleus is an intricately structured integration of many functional domains whose complex spatial organization is maintained by a nonchromatin scaffolding, the nuclear matrix. We report here a method for preparing the nuclear matrix with improved preservation of ultrastructure. After the removal of soluble proteins, the structures of the nucleus were extensively cross-linked with formaldehyde. Surprisingly, the chromatin could be efficiently removed by DNase I digestion leaving a well preserved nuclear matrix. The nuclear matrix uncovered by this procedure consisted of highly structured fibers, connected to the nuclear lamina and built on an underlying network of branched 10-nm core filaments. The relative ease with which chromatin and the nuclear matrix could be separated despite extensive prior cross-linking suggests that there are few attachment points between the two structures other than the connections at the bases of chromatin loops. This is an important clue for understanding chromatin organization in the nucleus. | 1.400118 | 1,008 | 1,006 |
A woman will cheat on a man for many different reasons, some of which can be prevented.
Here are 10 reasons why women cheat, even if her man is a good man who loves her and truly wants to be with her.
1. A lack of attraction
The main reason why women cheat on a man is a lack of attraction for him.
When a relationship first begins, it’s very easy for her to feel attracted to the guy because she’s excited about all the little things she likes about him. Yet, if he is unable to deepen her feelings of love, respect and attraction over time in the relationship, she will eventually begin to lose interest.
In the past, women had to remain a virgin before marriage, get married and then stay their chosen man for life. If she was unhappy or if he wasn’t able to deepen her feelings of love, respect and attraction, she was stuck with him. She had to put up with it.
Not anymore.
In today’s world, women are free to have sex and relationships with whomever they want for as long as they want. Unfortunately, many TV talk show hosts, movie stars and pop singers even make divorce and break ups out to be “cool.” It’s just the world we live in today.
To be successful at keeping a relationship together in today’s world, a man needs to know how to deepen a woman’s love, respect and attraction for him over time, rather than just expecting that she will stick around because things felt good at the start.
2. She was worried that he would cheat, so she did it first
Getting cheated on really hurts.
It’s a hot, stinging pain that can remain buried deep within your mind for years after being cheated on. If a woman has experienced being cheated on in the past by a man that she loved and gave her heart to, she will often go overboard in trying to protect herself from that pain again.
Sometimes, she will get into a relationship and never really open herself up to the love because she wants to protect herself. She will enjoy being with the guy and kind of love him, but she will never give him her full heart of love.
In some cases, nothing that her boyfriend or husband says to her gives her enough assurance that she won’t be cheated on. A woman like her will almost always have a niggling doubt in the back of her mind that it will happen. She will imagine her man flirting with another woman, kissing her and then having sex with her…and it will make her feel sick to the stomach.
If you are with a woman who is constantly worrying about you cheating on her, then she will almost always be flirting with other guys and keeping them waiting in the wings in case she needs them to make herself feel better.
My advice would be to dump her and move on. If you don’t, you will end up wasting a lot of time and energy trying to convince her that you have been and will always be faithful to her…only to then have her turn around one day and say that she has cheated on you.
When it comes to relationships with women, the best piece of advice to follow is that you don’t put up with bullshit. You love the woman, respect her, listen to her and care about her, but if she introduces crazy bullshit into your relationship, you’ve got to dump her and have come crawling back to apologize.
Then, if she goes crazy again, repeat the process as often as you can be bothered. If she doesn’t change after a couple of break ups, you’re almost certainly wasting your time with a woman who is going to be more trouble than she is worth.
If you’re the sort of guy who knows how to attract women, then you’re not going to be worried about losing her. You can easily attract and hook up with new women whenever you want, so you begin to see her as being unnecessary.
3. She isn’t ready to fully commit to just one guy
Even though a relationship might start out well and the woman says things like, “I love you and want to be with you forever” or “I want us to get married one day” it doesn’t mean that she is making an iron clad promise.
Feminine women change their mood, feelings and desires for things like the weather. One day she likes a certain song and the next week she hates it. One day she loves the new pair of shoes she spent a lot of money on and the next week she hates them.
We men are different.
If you are a man with very masculine energy, then you are most-likely going to be a man of your word. If you promise something, then it’s an iron clad promise that you will stand by no matter what. If you tell a woman that you will stick with her for life, then you mean it.
Masculine women (i.e. women who think, behave and act more like men or “one of the boys”) are more likely to stick by their promises for longer. They are less likely to | 1.50241 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
change their mind like the weather because they approach things in a more logical, manly way.
So, if you’ve ever wondered why a woman said that she loved you so much and wanted to be with you, only to then cheat on you or dump you, this is the reason why: She was just expressing how she felt in THAT moment. She wasn’t promising that she would feel that way forever, no matter what.
To keep a feminine woman in a committed relationship, you have to know how to deepen her love, respect and attraction for you over time. You can just expect that what she used to feel will be enough to see you through for the rest of your lives together. You have to actively make her feel more attracted to you, more respectful of you and more in love with you than ever before.
4. She enjoys the thrill of lying and cheating
Some women are bad, disloyal and untrustworthy people. That’s just how nature works – there are good and bad people.
If you’ve chosen a woman who has bad character, then you can expect bad things to happen.
When selecting a woman as your girlfriend or wife, it’s not enough that she is beautiful with a great personality. She also has to have great character (i.e. loyal, trustworthy, sincere, caring, loving, warm, friendly).
If you just accept whatever woman you can get and try to make it work with a woman of bad character, then you are asking for trouble. Some women have the type of character where they enjoy the thrill of lying to their man and cheating on him.
I was once in a relationship like that with a woman who was so sexy to me and had such a great personality (we laughed together all the time and got along really well). Yet, every now and then, I noticed that she told me a small lie and sometimes a big lie. I also noticed that she lied to other people and she actually enjoyed it.
After a while, I realized that no matter how physically attracted to her that I was and how much fun we would have together, I absolutely had to break it off with her. I didn’t want to end up getting her pregnant and then have to deal with having a liar in my life for the rest of my life.
It was very difficult to break it off with her, but what I did was create a Pros and Cons (Positives and Negatives) list and tried to note down as many negatives as I could. Despite all the negatives, I was still drawn to her because she was so sexy and I enjoyed being with her so much, but I did it.
I broke it off with her.
It wasn’t easy, but I did it. Now that I’m married to the girl of my dreams years later, I couldn’t be more thankful that I had the courage and foresight to get rid of the dishonest women.
If you are with a woman who enjoys lying to people, tricking people or getting herself into trouble with people, then I would recommend that you get rid of her before she cheats on you and then enjoys herself as she watches you cringe in emotional pain.
5. Her boyfriend or husband isn’t enough of a man for her
I’ve been helping guys to get an ex girlfriend, fiancé or wife back for many years now and one of the main problems I keep encountering is that the guy just wasn’t enough of a man for his woman.
Being enough of a man for a woman is about being the sort of man that she can look up to and respect. A woman will lose respect for a guy when he:
Hides from his true potential in life behind her and the relationship. In other words, he lacks ambition and spends way too much time on things that don’t get him anywhere. Becomes needy, clingy, jealous or insecure in the relationship. Stops making her feel loved and appreciated. Puts her down or belittles her too often. Lacks confidence around confident men or alpha males. Cries or becomes emotionally weak when life gets tough. Is overly bossy or controlling of her in the relationship. Lets her be overly bossy or controlling of him. Doesn’t follow through on his promises.
Getting a woman into a relationship is the easy part, but what takes skill and wisdom is knowing how to keep the relationship together once you’ve got it.
We don’t get taught that sort of thing in school when we’re growing up and most of us (including myself) didn’t have a good enough father figure who could teach us how to be men.
In the past, a man could be a complete failure in life after getting married and his woman would still have to stick with him. Not anymore. A big part of keeping a relationship together in today’s world is to be the sort of man that your woman can look up to and respect. You’ve got to be the sort of guy that women refer to as a real man.
6. She is using it as a way to break up the relationship
If a woman is unable to break | 1.550038 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
up with a clingy, needy boyfriend who won’t let her go, she will often cheat on him and then use that as a way to destroy the relationship. To really push her guy away, she might say that she is in love with the new guy and is starting a relationship with him.
I see this a lot with the guys that I help to get an ex back. In cases like that, the guy needs to rebuild his confidence and quickly fix the issues about himself (e.g. insecurity, neediness, not being enough of a man for her, etc) before he is ready to get another chance with his ex. Essentially what needs to happen is that he needs to learn how to make her feel respect, attraction and love for him again.
With the right training, many of the guys I’ve helped succeed at getting another chance with the woman who cheated on them. Yet, by the time I’ve improved his confidence and taught him how to actively attract women, he often ends up dumping her after only being back with her for a short while because he has met a new woman on the side to replace her. What goes around comes around I guess!
7. Her boyfriend or husband doesn’t turn her on or make her feel sexy enough
Most women are much more insecure that men realize. According to the global study on beauty conducted by Dove cosmetics, 96% of women don’t consider themselves to be beautiful.
When in a relationship with a woman, a man will often make the mistake of regularly pointing out things that he doesn’t like about her physically (e.g. “You’ve put on weight” or “Your hair doesn’t look as healthy as it did when I first met you,” etc).
While it’s fine to encourage your woman to keep herself looking good, putting her down isn’t the way to accomplish it. You’ve got to make your woman feel like the sexiest woman on Earth in your eyes, no matter what she is wearing or how she is looking. From that, she will feel sexy around you and will be much more keen on having sex with you.
She will feel confident in her sex appeal to you, which will get rid of a lot of the worries about you wanting another woman. It will also allow her to open her heart more to you and experience the full potential of the love that you can both share.
By taking that approach, she will then naturally want to look better for you. She will know if she’s looking fat or if her hair isn’t soft and shiny and she will put in effort to improve that. When she does, you’ve got to give her compliments about that and find her even sexier as a result.
If you aren’t taking that approach and are instead making her feel less and less attractive around you, she may get to the point where she begins flirting with other guys to get them interested in her so she can feel better about herself. The more she does that, the more likely it becomes that she will cheat, especially if she finds a guy that she really connects with and who makes her feel much sexier than you do.
8. To get revenge
If her man has been flirting with other women in front of her, a woman will often begin flirting with men to get revenge. Likewise, if she suspects or knows that her man has cheated, she will often be feeling so betrayed and be in so much emotional pain that she will just sleep with another guy to feel the relief of revenge.
To her, it doesn’t matter if her cheating on him will cause further problems in the relationship. What she is more concerned about is getting rid of the sickening feelings of betrayal and loss that she’s been feeling ever since she saw him flirt with other women or found out that he cheated.
9. She made a stupid mistake when drunk
When in a committed relationship, a woman shouldn’t be going out and having regular “girl’s nights out” without her man, especially if she is going to be drinking a lot.
There’s nothing wrong with a man having a boy’s night with his friends and a woman having a girl’s night with her friends, but it should be a rare thing. If a couple is serious about being in a committed relationship and really love being with each other, they will want to go out as a couple with other couples who are also serious about their relationship.
If a woman is hanging around her single girlfriends all the time who want to get drunk and meet guys, it’s usually only a matter of time before she makes a mistake and lets a guy kiss her when she is drunk. Once that happens, the whole dynamic of her relationship with you changes. She has now cheated on you and she’s either going to tell you about it and create huge drama between you and her, or keep it a secret and maybe even do it again the next time she goes out.
Personally speaking, I met my wife in a nightclub. At the time, both of us were into clubbing and had lots of single friends who enjoyed clubbing at least twice a week. | 1.58431 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
So, when we got together, I ensured that we would both transition out of the club life together by continuing to go out twice a week until she eventually began to say, “I’m bored of going clubbing…I’m over it.”
After that happened, we began doing more things on our own and then we began to become closer with our friends who were in relationships. Now, two and a half years later, we rarely hang out with any single friends and spend most of our time with friends who are in relationships or married and with family.
So, if you’ve got a girlfriend, fiancé or wife who is going out and getting drunk without you often, it’s a sign that she isn’t taking your relationship very seriously. If she is more interested in partying without you, then it’s only a matter of time before she opens herself up to being with other guys.
The way to prevent that happening is to begin going out with her and partying with her friends. Get them to like you, have a great time with it and let your girlfriend (fiancé or wife) see that her friends like you and respect you. After a while, she will want to do more things just as a couple and you will gradually be able to transition out of the party lifestyle.
If you do continue to party, it will be together, which is much better than her going out and getting drunk without you.
10. To feel love again
Love is what we really want and need.
Now that I’ve experienced true love and am in a relationship where the love is always deepening more and more over time, I know that love is a very powerful and life-changing thing. When other women try to flirt with me, I essentially feel nothing for them because if I were to cheat and leave my wife (I wouldn’t), I would have to start from scratch again with a woman who might not even have the capacity to be in love the way that my wife and I are.
When you reach that level of love, cheating becomes absolutely unnecessary. Both of you would lose something amazing just for a quick bit of pleasure with a person who doesn’t make you feel the same way.
However, if a woman is in a relationship with a man who hasn’t been able to open her up to experience the full potential of love, she may begin to open herself up to feeling love with another guy.
In many relationships that end in cheating, break up or divorce, the couple became more like friends than lovers. By “lovers” I don’t mean that you have to have as much sex as you did when you first met for the rest of your life, but that you still feel sexually attracted to each other and enjoy being sexual or intimate with each other.
If you don’t know how to make your woman feel sexually attracted to you and look up to you and respect you as her man, those initial feelings of love can fade. Additionally, if you focus on just being her friend and treating her like one of your male buddies, you will lose that masculine/feminine attraction that made you feel so excited in the beginning. a candidate, made net neutrality a campaign issue and has called himself a “big believer” in the approach.
Democratic lawmakers released a letter yesterday urging Genachowski to act on Web regulations this year to ensure “that the Internet remains an open network.” The letter was signed by Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon.
Three Votes Needed
The regulations need three votes to pass at the FCC, where two Democrats join Genachowski to form the agency’s majority.
“I strongly oppose this ill-advised maneuver,” Robert McDowell, one of two Republican commissioners, said in an e- mailed statement. “Such rules would upend three decades of bipartisan and international consensus that the Internet is best able to thrive in the absence of regulation.”
Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, a Republican, said the agency doesn’t have authority to act and called Genachowski’s proposal “a mistake.”
Genachowski said he had abandoned his proposal to put Internet service under the regulatory regime used for telephone service -- a prospect opposed by companies that said such a move might lead to rate regulation.
Not applying rules for telephone companies would benefit AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision, Gallant said in a Nov. 19 note to clients.
Telephone regulation offered a way to reclaim authority undermined by a U.S. court, Genachowski said in May. Judges ruled in April the FCC lacked authority to punish Comcast for interfering with subscribers’ Web traffic.
“I am satisfied that we have a sound legal basis” for proceeding without using telephone rules, Genachowski said today.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Allan Holmes at aholmes25@bloomberg.net | 1.567748 | 982 | 980 |
♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Development at 1/04/2011 11:13:00 AMMartin Ravallion of the World Bank should be familiar to those interested in development studies as one of those who've waded into the highly contested area of poverty and inequality measurement. On the overwhelmingly optimistic side, you have the likes of Xavier Sala-i-Martin of Columbia University. On the more pessimistic side, you have Ravallion's World Bank colleague Branko Milanovic as well as Sala-i-Martin's fellow Columbia academics Thomas Pogge and Sanjay Reddy. Ravallion lies somewhere in between, though he tends to be on the more upbeat side of neutral IMHO. (I've looked at this debate in one of the first posts I made for this blog; it is in need of updating to be honest in light of more recent PPP weights.)
In a recent issue of the online
Journal of Globalization and Development, Ravallion has a new paper out detailing a less-studied facet of inequality. Namely, are developing countries more inequitable because their redistributive capacity is less? In other words, inequality is attributed to an inability to make richer folks pay their share. This can be due to any number of things: there aren't really that many wealthy folks; it's hard to identify the wealthy; the wealthy have a relatively lower tax burden; or the wealthy are able to make those less well-off shoulder more in taxes if made necessary by, say, IMF fiscal balance conditionalities.
The conclusion Ravallion ultimately draws is that economic growth is necessary for building the aforementioned capacity to redistribute wealth. Here is the abstract:
Development aid and policy discussions often assume that poorer countries have less internal capacity for redistribution in favor of their poorest citizens. The assumption is tested for 90 developing countries. Most countries fall into one of two groups: those with little or no realistic prospect of addressing extreme poverty through redistribution from the “rich” and those that would appear to have ample scope for such redistribution. Economic growth tends to move countries from the first group to the second. Thus the appropriate balance between growth and redistribution strategies can be seen to depend on the level of economic development.
And here are the main policy implications:
This inquiry offers support for focusing development aid on poorer countries—on the grounds that they have less scope for addressing poverty internally. The emphasis often given to the role of economic growth for poverty reduction in poor countries can also claim support from these findings, given that they cast doubt on the feasibility of redistribution from the rich to the poor as a poverty-reduction strategy in poor countries. While the poorest countries appear to have weak capacity for attacking poverty through income redistribution—given the sheer weight of poverty and thinness of the rich strata in their starting distribution—with sufficient economic growth the tax rates on the rich required for covering the poverty gap start to fall rapidly. So it makes sense for the relative emphasis on growth versus redistribution, and the reliance on external aid, to change with the level of economic development.
It's interesting stuff even if I'm not entirely sure what to make of it just yet. Some might even identify a fiscal spin on "trickle down" theory.New Publication provides Guidance on Nickel Aluminium Bronze for Engineers
Alloys of copper and aluminium are known as aluminium bronze. Their corrosion resistance and strength can be improved with the addition of nickel in combination with iron, producing nickel aluminium bronzes, which also offer excellent galling properties. End uses range from aircraft landing gear bearings to sea water pumps and valves, propellers and non-sparking tools. The alloys are manufactured both in wrought and cast forms.
The most commonly used alloys have around 5% nickel. Their microstructure is complex, which allows hardening but also requires strict control during manufacture, and heat treatment to obtain optimum properties for specific applications.
A newly-released publication offers practical guidance for engineers wishing to specify, design or produce nickel aluminium bronze components for marine, aerospace and other sectors. Their corrosion behaviour is explained and information given to obtain good service performance. Methods of manufacture, welding and fabrication are described and a list of references and useful publications is provided. Full details of designations, specifications and related composition and mechanical property requirements are included in an appendix.
A PDF version of CDA Publication 222
Guide to Nickel Aluminium Bronze for Engineers can be downloaded here.Increased competition in the NJ business environment places significant pressure on employers to control costs. Premiums are based, in part, on the extent and severity of a policyholder's workers' compensation claims. However, many costs associated with workers' compensation insurance are considered manageable expenses.
NJM offers the following resources to help policyholders prevent accidents and control their workers' compensation insurance expenses: lymphoma, multiple myeloma, aplastic anemia, myelofibrosis and a number of autoimmune diseases.
Thomas also helped found the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center nearly four decades ago,
WSJ reported.
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CHICAGO, Feb. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the U.S. Metals & Mining, including
ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT), United States Steel (NYSE: X), Nucor (NYSE: NUE), AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (OTC: NSSMY).
A synopsis of today's Industry Outlook is presented below. The full article can be read at
The automotive and construction markets have historically been the largest consumers of steel. The automotive sector has been promising in recent times. Auto sales in the U.S. surged 13% to 14.5 million vehicles in Dec 2012, the highest volume attained in the last five years. The seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) in December was 15.4 million vehicles, the second straight month of above 15 million SAAR in 2012. This performance will likely generate solid momentum going into 2013.
The robust growth rate in the sector has been fueled by strong pent-up demand, cheap financing, launch of several redesigned and fuel-efficient vehicles and rebound in consumer confidence thanks to a growing belief that the housing market is recovering. Another major market, the construction sector, has so far been a drag on the steel companies' earnings. However, in 2012, the sector finally started picking up began signaling a recovery evidenced by solid growth in the major indicators. The architecture billing index (ABI), an economic indicator that provides an approximate nine- to twelve-month glimpse into the future of non-residential construction spending activity, climbed back into the positive territory with a score of 50.2 in August after languishing in the negative territory for five consecutive months. Any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings and the score has remained stable till December. The ABI readings in the fourth quarter of 2012, in fact, exhibited the strongest growth since the downturn in early 2008. This momentum is expected to persist and conditions are expected improve, albeit at a slow and steady rate. The American Institute of Architects projects a 5% increase in spending in 2013 for non-residential construction projects, on the back of higher construction of commercial facilities, particularly for hotels followed by industrial construction spending. The spending is expected to shore up to 7.2% in 2014. Meanwhile, the residential housing sector is also showing signs of positive growth with figures at highest levels in more than four years. In 2012, housing starts totaled 780,000, surging 28% from 2011 and housing permits (an indicator of future demand) escalated 30% to 813,000. Both attained their respective highest level since 2008. Housing completions rose 11% to 651,000 in 2012, the highest level since 2010. According to the most recent most issued data, in December housing starts spiked 37% year over year to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 954,000. Building permits were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 903,000, 29% higher than the year-ago figure. In a nutshell, record-low mortgage rates, rising rents and reduced prices of properties are luring buyers. These figures reinforce the belief that U.S. residential construction is finally stabilizing and is on the road to a much awaited recovery. Analyzing the fourth quarter results of the major steel companies in our coverage -- ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT), United States Steel (NYSE: X), Nucor (NYSE: NUE) and AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) -- we see revenues were marred by the drop in average steel prices. This does not come as a surprise as oversupply in the U.S. steel industry and increased steel imports in the domestic market affected steel prices, which in turn hurt margins and profits of the steel players. Furthermore, the gloomy macroeconomic condition in Europe is another area of concern as it is the largest market for total U.S. exports. Given the scenario in Europe, ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker in terms of volume and Europe's largest steelmaker, recently announced its plans to permanently close its plant in Liege, Belgium owing to the slack demand and weakening European economy. The company also announced the idling of its liquid phase in Oct 2011 due to structural over-capacity in Northern Europe. The production halt at the Liege plant was done to better focus on the company's downstream activities, operating five core lines and seven flexible lines. However, economic conditions worsened since then and demand for steel in Europe declined another 8%-9 | 1.403553 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
% in 2012 and is currently 29% below the pre-crisis levels. The Leige business is heavily dependent on the automotive sector, which faced a major downturn in 2012. Consequently, tepid demand also had a hand in idling of the facility and ArcelorMittal further stated that it will close six production lines at Liege that manufacture finished steel products for the auto industry. It is also closing a coke plant, which produces fuel for blast furnaces. Going into 2013, steelmakers expect profits to be affected by continued increase in steel imports, volatility in steel pricing along with macroeconomic uncertainty stemming from the recessionary conditions in Europe and sluggish growth in the emerging markets. However, the sector will benefit from the strong momentum in the automotive markets. The outlook for other key markets -- transportation, energy, industrial and agricultural sectors also remains favorable. The turnaround in the so-far faltering construction sector will definitely provide a much-needed impetus to the sector. Steelmakers are increasing their consolidation efforts, particularly in China and India, to derive economies of scale and other synergies to remain competitive. A major development in this sector was the recent merger of Japan's largest and the world's sixth-largest steel maker Nippon Steel Corporation with Sumitomo Metal Industries to form the world's second biggest steel firm -- Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (OTC: NSSMY). With a combined capacity of 46.1 million tons, it has replaced China's Hebei Group in the second position, with production of 44.4 million tons. The merger is targeted to generate savings in the face of increasingly intense global competition. China's recent attempt to bolster its economy by approving 60 infrastructure projects worth more than $150 billion will help bolster the steel sector. Prices could potentially stabilize on the back of a rebound in construction activity in the developing countries, in particular China, India and South Korea. Furthermore, the sector will reap the benefits of the Federal Reserve's move to boost the U.S economy. However, the European debt crisis and its potential global impact remain headwinds for the industry. About Zacks
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RELATED LINKS to provide workshops and individual training to subscribers of her YouTube channel. While this is a natural extension of what Paula currently does online, it would require a considerable investment of time on her part and the concerns about her personal safety cannot be dismissed.
The best option appears for Paula to expand the scope of her videos to encompass other art forms which could complement the ones that she already makes. She could even leverage her previous business foray and create videos about the process of making scented candles. This is an area where she already has the knowledge and skill and would allow her to expand the business at her own pace without requiring significant additional resources.
Eventually, Paula might even be able to transition the new videos to their own YouTube channel and create a second source of revenue.
Ultimately, however, monetising social media requires a ferocious focus on creating high quality content as well as audience engagement. Once Paula overcomes the challenge of getting people to watch her videos, she would be well on her way to achieving her dream of becoming a YouTube star.
Dr Barney Pacheco is a lecturer in the Department of Management Studies at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine | 1.66844 | 949 | 947 |
Recently, Annie went walking in Sligo Creek Park and saw a sign announcing the ongoing deer population management initiative, which involves mass killing. The Montgomery County Dept. of Parks will be reviewing public comments through November 10th, and Annie felt compelled to respond.
The letter below is her response to the Montgomery County Dept. of Parks.
While my husband and I understand people’s concern regarding the current deer population, we strongly oppose your plans for a mass killing of deer when there’s a more humane alternative available. We’ve found information about a protein contraception vaccine that has been effectively used in Gaithersburg and other areas
[1]. We’ve also found information that supports the effectiveness and safety of this method and it shows a 60% reduction in the deer population [1][2]. The cost of this method is lower than what is shown on the reports cited on your website. [3]
From NIST: “Two-shot PZP vaccination programs, sponsored by the HSUS, have been more than 90 percent successful at blocking pregnancies for one year in white-tailed deer and wild horses in other areas of the country. In addition to its proven effectiveness, the PZP vaccine can be delivered easily by darts, cannot pass into the food chain, does not affect normal mating behavior, shows no side effects and allows a return to fertility when no longer administered.”
[1]
Even if the contraceptive method has to be done annually, the deer population and the need for contraceptive vaccines will decline
[2]. This is a better solution than the annual killing of these deer.
If deer have no natural predators, are we to reduce ourselves to the levels of animals and simply kill? What makes us different is that we have the ability to feel compassion. I’ve been in a car accident involving a deer; deer have eaten plants from my garden. However, I don’t see this as justification for a mass killing of these animals. Deer can’t come to public meetings, send emails, or protest for their right to live. It’s our responsibility to protect those who don’t have a voice and are being inhumanely treated.
Works citedThis web map was designed at the Huxley Spatial Institute at Western Washington University and funded through a grant from the Environmental Council of States. The concept for this web map application was introduced in 2011 in the book, Coming Clean, by Michael E. Kraft, Mark Stephan, and Troy D. Abel. Coming Clean puts forth the idea that information disclosure can be a policy strategy for environmental protection. This web map is designed to use a visual representation of environmental information to provide access to a larger audience of citizens so that they may be able to influence the environmental policy directly affecting their health and the health of their communities.
This web map visually represents the chronic health relative risk to communities from toxic chemical industrial air releases and how those potential risks might change over time (figure 1). Facility pollution information comes from the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) dataset collected by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA collects and processes data annually on releases and transfers of certain toxic chemicals from industrial facilities. TRI facilities are depicted as circles with colors that correlate to a risk screening value that is based on modeled output data from the EPA's Risk Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) model for assessing TRI data. RSEI is a screening model, not a risk assessment that allows one to make a direct link to a facility’s chemical releases to potential harm being caused to a specific population in a location. As with any model, a number of simplifying assumptions are made.
Circles representing TRI facilities have been classified into 7 sizes and 7 colors to reflect changes in pollution performance and amount so the map user will be able to see if a certain facility has been getting better or worse over time, or, if their neighboring industrial plants are getting safer and cleaner. Smaller circles indicate fewer pounds released; larger circles indicate more pounds released. Each increase in size represents an order of magnitude increase of pounds of pollutants released (Figure 2). Lighter circles represent facility releases that are posing less risk to human health based on the RSEI model risk screening value; darker circles represent polluters who are posing more potential risk. Each shift in color represents an order of magnitude change in potential risk (Figure 3). Gray circles represent facilities that did not report any diffuse or point source air emissions for that year. Users are also able to click facilities to get information about the facility, including emission trends over time, specific chemicals released and related health information, as well as comparisons of the facility to other similar facilities in its state and in the United States. There are currently more than 17,000 facilities reporting to TRI and viewable in the web map for the years 1988 to 2015. | 1.641944 | 991 | 989 |
TEXT OF STORY TESS VIGELAND:One option he may have is to visit a job fair. They're popping up all over the country for people who need help with resume-writing and figuring out what job might fit their skills. But even with all those fairs, the jobs are sparse and they don't generally promise riches.
In fact, as Lisa Napoli tells us, some of them don't pay at all.
Lisa Napoli: When you walk into the massive ballroom on the campus of UCLA for the Idealist.org career fair, there's a chart that helps you navigate the 80 non-profit groups that are recruiting here.
Green means they've got full-time work. Orange part-time. Purple's for internships.
Red is for volunteer positions.
Job-seeker Jose Gutierrez says he sees a whole lot of purple and red and not a lot of orange and green.
Jose Gutierrez:It doesn't seem there's too many opportunities.
Jose's been unemployed for five months. His last job was as an advocate for immigrants; before that he was a teacher in the Los Angeles schools. So a career fair focused on non-profit jobs was a tantalizing prospect, until he walked the floor.
Jose:It's like being so close but just so far.
Many of the experienced professionals who have come here today are like Jose. They figure if you've got to work for a living, you might as well do something meaningful with your time.
Jeremy Taback is a branding and marketing guy. And in this economic downturn that's left him without a full-time gig, he's had an awakening of a sort, about where he should be directing his energy these days.
Jeremy Taback:IF I'm going to work the way I work, I want to do something that's going to make some difference that's tangible to me.
But since he's not worked in the non-profit world before, Jeremy finds himself in a tricky spot.
Jeremy:Because I'm kind of in that tweener space of having some senior level experience and being new to this. I'm not ready to strap on the intern. I've got kids.
Working for free at a non-profit can be an excellent way to get a foot in the door and could lead to paying work down the line. Not to mention volunteering is a productive way to spend downtime during a job search.
Steven Joiner is director of the "Career Transitions Program" at Idealist.org. He says these fairs offer a good way for potential employees to shop for opportunities.
Steven Joiner:Everything we know about non-profits and HR hiring and organizational philosophy says that two hours -- one hour spent at a networking event and one hour conducting an informational interview -- will get you lightyears ahead of two hours of sending resumes out into cyberspace.
But these days, the math isn't adding up for job-seekers. Pamela Miller-Macias has been volunteering with the homeless for a few years now in her spare time. A few months ago, she lost her paying job in journalism. And that's given her a sense of urgency about her quest to find full-time work in the nonprofit world. Today, she's disillusioned:
PAMELA MILLER-MACIAS:I have a few years experience working with the homeless population in one-to-one situations, but not from the background of someone with social work. Recruiter:Right now, I don't have any openings in that respect.
The agencies here that are recruiting for paying work say they're overwhelmed by the number of applications.
Jake Smith is a senior recruiter for Planned Parenthood in Los Angeles. He's looking to fill medical, clerical, and outreach jobs.
Jake Smith:The email inbox when we post a job is just blowing up. I mean, where you would typically expect 75 or less responses, say over the weekend if I put something up on the job sites. If I put something up on Friday, I'll get 500 responses perhaps.
Despite this, Jose Gutierrez is steeling himself to remain optimistic.
JOSE:It's just a matter of time, so it's being patient, let fate take its course.
And in the meantime, keep circulating.
In Los Angeles, I'm Lisa Napoli for Marketplace Money. for hiatel hernia treatment without surgery. The common way out is following some home remedies. In case of approaching the latter method, one common way to get ideas of home remedies is internet surfing. Many people surf the internet to find out ways and methods to deal with thus problem in a way that they need not go to doctors for any surgery. In this process they come across different types of ideas and claims that are put forth by all together different type of people. Now one thing that a rational searcher needs to keep in mind is that these tricks given on the net are not always provided by the experts, these sometimes may be the random opinions of the people who might have used the same sometime. -wonderslist | 1.737431 | 1,010 | 1,008 |
Visit Freedom's Zone Donate To Project Valour Thursday, June 14, 2007 DNA Oops "We're finding that a lot of the genome is as mysterious as 'dark matter' in physics; we know it is out there doing something. The challenge is to find out what and why," said Thomas D. Tullius , professor of chemistry at Boston University and one of the ENCODE researchers. "There were huge surprises; this research has upset a lot of thinking about how the genome works."It certainly does. Among other items, it calls into question very basic tenets of evolutionary gene studies based on gene "clocks" and it calls into severe question the statement that we share almost all of our DNA with our closest primate relatives. It's so radical that it's hard to construct a parallel. Something on the order of geologists holding a press conference and announcing that the world is flat after all. This isn't really new because the individual studies have been piling up. This is rather the admission of a shift into a new consensus. He added in an interview: "There now appear to be thousands of places in the genome that were long thought to be useless or meaningless, but which we now see to have a functional role. But we don't really understand what that role is." Most startling, according to researchers, is that some areas of the genome looming as crucial are regions that don't contain specific instructions for making proteins. That recognition amounts to a sea change in basic biology.
Evolutionary psychologists have posited that the "extra" genome is somehow involved in memory. For example, if you stub your toe, how does it know to deal with an infection that had previously only been in your nose? The cells in the toe must "remember" somehow, but how? Where? It can't be neurotransmitters coming from the nervous system because the initial information substances come from the toe.
Anyway, there seems to be intergenerational memory that the body has, too. This, too, is unexplained.
It is hubris for evolutionary scientists to be so certain about things like primate relatives. We know less about the human body than we know about the ocean and we don't know much about the ocean.
But yes, we have a long way to go in understanding the world, and how life interacts with it.
Economist:
Ever since the human-genome project was completed, it has puzzled biologists that animals, be they worms, flies or people, all seem to have about the same number of genes for proteins—around 20,000. Yet flies are more complex than worms, and people are more complex than either. Traditional genes are thus not as important as proponents of human nature had suspected nor as proponents of nurture had feared. Instead, the solution to the puzzle seems to lie in the RNA operating system of the cells. This gets bigger with each advance in complexity. And it is noticeably different in a human from that in the brain of a chimpanzee.
If RNA is controlling the complexity of the whole organism, that suggests the operating system of each cell is not only running the cell in question, but is linking up with those of the other cells when a creature is developing. To push the analogy, organs such as the brain are the result of a biological internet. If that is right, the search for the essence of humanity has been looking in the wrong genetic direction.
I don't think journalists do a very good job in writing about these initiatives.
There are theological implications as well. The Buddhists aver that life resides in the whole organism. They seem in fact to be correct. Also, it makes one think again about the Catholic church's insistence that life begins at conception. That appears to be true.
The "consensus" explanation of how genes work doesn't explain how living organisms work or develop. I agree with you that the description of the network is closer to reality.
Yeah, I had wondered how long it would take for this to go the way of 'you only use 10% of your brain'. Just think, you're a rational biologist, and a believer in natural selection as a driver in evolution. But you also believe that DNA strings are mostly irrelevant, when competition for rescources would favor jettisoning excess baggage, so to speak.
You also understand that highly complex creatures, such as upper primates, share massive amounts of chromosone structure with lesser flora, such as tomato plants.
The spirit of Victor Frankenstein is alive and well, and they think hubris is a flavor of Ben&Jerry's.
Your flat earth analogy doesn't fly... a decrepit explanation would still require evidence.
Yes, all sorts of widely accepted scientific hypotheses have become the superstitions of yesteryear. That's the virtue of science, but I am not sure that our ascientific culture truly understands that.
The next 10 or 15 years in biology is going to be very exciting. The phenotype/genotype neat split of my youth is already | 1.970049 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
a tattered flag. Neo-Lamarckism is already raising its head.
See especially CB 130. This is a change in emphasis from genetics to epigenetics, not a discovery of epigenetics.
"Among other items, it calls into question very basic tenets of evolutionary gene studies based on gene "clocks" and it calls into severe question the statement that we share almost all of our DNA with our closest primate relatives."
No, neutral mutations still happen at the same rate and genes still propagate through a population at different speeds depending on if they are selected for or against. It just adds a different level at which changes can occur at. We still share most of our protein coding genes with great apes but the regulatory genes (those that control how long bones should grow to or how much hair should grow where or how big a liver should be) are able to change at faster rates since the effects of them changing are less likely to cause fatal mutations than knocking out or changing a gene that codes for a crucial protein.
Has anyone ever wondered why the results of genetic dating (there are several different and independent methods of doing this) are so consistent with the results from anatomical, fossil and geological, radioisotope studies and lines of evidence? There are minor adjustments to the picture on occasion but for all lines of evidence to give the same general picture should require some kind of explanation should it not? And to blame it on a huge conspiracy or fear of the elite ignores the fact that so many scientists from different cultures with different religious views all conspire to trick everyone. This is not some computer climate model that requires one to know the code to be able to evaluate it. This is the sum total of huge amounts of experiments, observations and analysis by vast numbers of scientists at scales from the nuclear physics up to genes and proteins, to single cellular organisms, to work by zoologists and botanists and population biologists and geologists. Even computer science has demonstrated the ability of random changes and automated selective pressures to produce novel and complex results.
As for the fact that cells are running chemical "operating systems" (more like software on a DNA computer but I will go with your analogy) having anything to do with the moral status of a cell, all cells are running such software and are constantly changing their state based on signals from other cells and the environment. Human beings are not reducible to chemical states of single cells. A person is a person due to the emergent properties of billions of cells.
Regarding genetic "clock" studies: First, the postulated population crash to about 10,000 individuals kind of strips out information. Second, if these areas are of more use than previously thought, then natural selection could be stripping out the mutation clock. Third, population swamping and immunological selection might be more of a factor than we are willing to grant. Fourth, I have been amazed out how small the samples are in such studies.
If anything, I think that paleontology is coming up with more varied fossils and a more confusing picture of human evolution. These studies are one lens, but only one lens, and all the possible mathematical paths are not being checked. The two studies that I tried to look at in detail seemed to me to be skewed by assumptions that fit the other evidence. Money is always a factor, but it would have been better to select a much larger sample size and use four or five non-coding regions.
If you look at very modern history, the population crash in the Americas has not really been explained. There seems to be evidence that it might have been occurring before significant European incursions, although European diseases certainly cut a swath.
Consider what that did, and think of the possible interactions between early human populations crossing in the tropical zones. It may be that the heuristics used have been a bit lousy scientifically.
I am suggesting that the assumed "conversion" of evidence is at least capable of being skewed to fit current ideas.
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recalibrate in a few seconds, which is critical when you are working in production. The athletes put the MVN Biomech on as the first layer, and then put all of their pads and equipment over it. After a while, they don't notice it is there.” Here, watch motion-capture of a high jumper recorded using the system.
“However, for Sport Science the MVN Biomech system’s greateset asset is the quality of the data it captures. It collects at a high enough rate to take measurements of an athlete that we normally wouldn't be able to record. Production teams get excited about taking the information and building models over it for computer graphics, but as a scientist, I get excited about the biomechanical output.” www.xsens.com | 2.406587 | 980 | 978 |
— This article by Jerry Cates, Pete (Spring, TX), Amy P. (Ponder, TX), and Joy R., first published on 25 January 2011, was revised last on 18 August 2013. © Bugsinthenews Vol. 12:01(09) ——————————
The yellow garden spider ( Argiope aurantia) is a common sight in mid to late summertime yards, gardens, and woods throughout the contiguous 48 United States. The female is marked with black, yellow, and white on the abdomen, and silvery hairs on the carapace. Males are much smaller, with less dramatic colors and markings; because the males die spontaneously at the terminus of the mating ritual, they are rarely observed beyond midsummer (but see CASE 07292010, below, for excellent images of a male observed in San Antonio in late July, 2010).
The genus
Argiope is discussed in a separate article.
Pierre-Hippolyte Lucas (1814-1899), a French entomologist, first described this species in 1833, applying to it the specific epithet
aurantia. The name derives from either of the Latin words aurum, “golden,” or auranticus, “orange-colored.”
Female yellow garden spiders tend to remain within a limited, localized area throughout their lifetimes. They construct elaborate orb webs, with bright white stabilimenta in their hubs. The webs are oriented in the vertical plane, and are effective snares for flying insects. In areas with abundant prey, these spiders grow quite large, inspiring awe and fear in those who come upon them on the trail, especially on watching the speed at which they swathe and kill the insects that become entangled in their webs.
These spiders are capable of biting — even through light clothing — if handled roughly, or if accidentally captured between their webs and one’s body (as can happen when one by happenstance walks into a web strung across a trail). Though the bite can be painful, the venom is not considered dangerous. Allergic individuals may suffer unusual complications, however.
Individual case histories, provided below, supply additional details on the anatomy and life histories of these spiders.
——————————————————–
Amy wrote on 15 August 2010:
Jerry: This fine lady has been on my porch for about three weeks. She just re-located her web on a window which gives me great view. Notice that she has a baby in the web with her. I’m so enjoying her – she is absolutely beautiful. The photos don’t do her color justice. Amy P. Ponder TX Amy’s surname has been shortened to protect her privacy.
I hastened to let Amy know that the “baby” she had photographed on the web with the fine female yellow garden spider was, in fact, a male.
We don’t often see males on these webs, as most mate and die early in the season. Here, as late as mid-August, a male had taken up residence of the web with this female.
As with Joy R., whose yellow garden spider encounter is chronicled below — and who was actively photographing her yellow garden spiders, male and female, at the same time — Amy enthusiastically took up the task of recording and observing the lives of these spiders for the viewers of
. BugsInTheNews
We thank both of these ladies heartily!
The photos sent in by Amy are posted as thumb nails in two groups. Group I is above, and shows the images dated 15 August 2010.
That group of nine images shows, in the first five shots (plus the first image at the head of this Amy’s report) a small, live male, with a much larger live female.
Both are at rest in these images, with the female at the center of her web, and the male — on the other side of the orbal plane — positioned directly behind her.
This would place the male essentially out of sight.
On the other hand, the male would not be “hidden” in the fullest sense of that word, as any movement by the male would transmit vibrations in the web to the female, who would be able to use those vibrations to track the male’s position very precisely. Because of this, it must be presumed that this female has chosen to tolerate the presence of this male, for otherwise the latter would either be chased off so aggressively as to cause it to find another place to stay, or would be stalked and eventually killed. Tolerance suggests receptivity to mating, and it seems likely that this male has sensed that receptivity, and is now biding its time, awaiting the proper moment when mating would be most propitious.
In the last four images in this first group of photos, we see the female wrapping and biting a grasshopper, after the latter had flown into the web. The | 1.771632 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
male could not be seen in any of the full sized photos from which these images are taken, even on the periphery of the web. That is expected, inasmuch as the female is not safe to be around when attacking, swathing, and killing prey.
In the second group of images, we see the male, now dead, and are able to examine the condition of the male’s palps.
From these photos we see that the dead male has not been attacked by the female, as the corpse appears to be in intact.
The palps, on the other hand, show signs that they have been used in the act of mating.
Also, though the left-hand palp is intact, the right-hand palp shows signs of damage, with — according to my interpretation of the images — the embolus caps of both palps now missing.
That evidence suggests strongly that both palps were inserted into the female’s genital tract, that the left-hand palp was inserted first, and its embolus cap was left behind when the palp was withdrawn. Then, generally after a period of re-courting behavior, the right-hand palp was inserted next, at which point the male suffered a fatal cardiac arrest
en copula, before that palp was withdrawn.
The embolus cap of the right-hand palp would have snapped off the moment the palp was inserted, and additional damage would have been done to the embolus itself, when the female detached the male’s corpse from her body. The embolus caps would have effectively plugged both sides of the female’s genital tract, as described by Foellmer (2008, Adelphi University, N.Y.), in his paper on this subject. This has the effect of preserving the priority of this male’s sperm, i.e., protecting its paternity, by preventing another male from mating with this female.
It is of interest to note that mating took place just prior to the female’s deposition of eggs. Amy reports that she saw the male alive the evening of 30 August, but on the morning of the 31st the male’s corpse was found on the web, and the female was observed preparing an egg sac.
Amy is hopeful she will see this spider’s offspring in 2011. She wrote:
Jerry: It’s great seeing these photos on the Internet! She made a third egg sac and then passed away shortly after that – I would guess by mid Sept 2010. I do miss her and appreciate the enjoyment she gave us. The egg sacs were relocated to our front flower bed. I look forward to seeing her offspring in the spring. Maybe we will have another set of photos for you. Amy
——————————————————–
Joy wrote on 29 July 2010:
Hi, Jerry. Here’s a nasty “little” guythat’s on my porch. He looks scary.He also looks like he has some massive teeth. What is he? Thanks, Joy R. Note that the photographs posted on this page, as with all the photos posted on bugsinthenews.info, can be enlarged for more detailed viewing by placing your cursor over them and left-clicking.
The photos posted here are not ordered precisely as Joy sent them in, but each is dated in its caption.
The first set of photos, referenced in the email of 19 June, were of a mature female yellow garden spider (
Argiope aurantia), all alone on its web, that Joy had photographed that morning. We know this female is sexually mature because, prior to the last molt, the carapace (the hardened anterior portion of the body, distinguished from the softer posterior abdomen) is marked with dark radial bands not observed in Joy’s specimen. After the last molt the carapace is entirely covered with silvery hairs, rendering the carapace essentially unmarked.
The “massive teeth” Joy referred to are not fangs but diminutive, jointed appendages, in front of the spider’s face, called pedipalps; females use them to examine prey prior to feeding, and to manipulate prey for mastication. For that reason the female’s pedipalps (shown in the two photos below) are uncomplicated, leg-like structures covered with innervated hairs. The male’s pedipalps, by way of contrast, are tipped with specialized structures (emboli) that are used as reservoirs for sperm prior to mating, and that effectively discharge the sperm into the female’s epigynum during copulation.
I asked Joy to think about taking additional photos to chronicle the spider’s life, preferably all the way to where the female would produce an egg sac. The yellow garden spider is the most beloved of our North American garden spiders. It is quite small in the early spring, after emerging from the egg sac produced by its mother the previous fall, but in the presence of abundant prey the females grow quickly to enormous size, entertaining us throughout the summertime with their awesome beauty and the powerful | 1.872917 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
ways they capture, swathe, and consume insects and other animals that are unfortunate enough to be snared in their webs.
Juvenile females spin individual webs and begin capturing prey. After molting several times, the female arrives at the penultimate state of development, just one molt from sexual maturation. At that state, males often congregate on or near the web, awaiting the next molt.
One or more of these males will successfully mate with the female in the midst of the ensuing molt, when — because she is immobile — they are not at risk of being attacked. This is important, as studies have shown that males who attempt to mate with mature, mobile females face a high risk of attack, and are often killed before mating can be consummated. Having previously filled the bulbs of their pedipalps with sperm, they insert one of these into the female’s epigynum, then — by increasing the pressure of the blood supply (hemolymph) to the palps — sperm is discharged into the female’s seminal vesicles, where it is stored until the eggs are fertilized.
Matthias W. Foellmer (then at Concordia University, Montreal) and Daphne J. Fairbairn (University of California, Riverside) published a study (2003, Spontaneous male death during copulation in an orb-weaving spider) that described this process, and its curious aftermath.
It happens that, for this particular species, the male expires soon after its second pedipalp is inserted. Evidently, the mating male suffers a cardiac arrest triggered by the physiological processes associated with discharging sperm from the second pedipalp; his dead body remains attached to the female’s underside until she takes steps to remove it. Foellmer published a later study (2008, Adelphi University, N.Y.) showing that the male pedipalp often snaps off as his body is removed, effectively plugging the female’s epigynum and protecting his sperm from competition by future males.
Virgin males that fail to copulate with females during the final molt continue to search for females, though before long their chances of mating opportunistically (as copulations with molting females are termed) become nil. These males, however, refuse to accept a life of celibacy, and — whenever possible — seek out and attempt to mate with fully mature females, whether the latter have mated previously or not. The male photographed by Joy is one of these spider-come-lately fellows. As the photo shows, the male’s pedipalps are intact, and this plus the very fact the spider is alive suggests strongly that it has not copulated successfully in the past. In Foellmer’s 2008 study, he provides a photo of the male pedipalps, which may be compared with the photo provided here.
In either case, whatever sperm is deposited in the female’s epigynum is stored in internal spermatotheca, and weeks or months later are used to fertilize the eggs as they are discharged from the female’s body, into an egg sac of the female’s manufacture.
Shortly after producing, and filling, the egg sac, the female dies, as the species doesn’t usually overwinter in the adult stage. My hope was that Joy would photograph the sequence of events as it unfolded, and though she wanted to comply with this request, there was a problem:
The spider had built its web in the worst possible place, on the porch precisely in the way of traffic. Although she and her husband had no children, they did use the porch, and having the spider there would be a serious inconvenience.
We then discussed how the spider dismantles its web every night, and rebuilds it just before daybreak. If incentives could be provided to entice the spider to move to another location, chances are it would take the hint.
Most likely it was on the porch because the outside porch light was left on all night long, which attracted bugs and kept the spider busy at night as well as during the day.
Turning the porch light off would cut off that source of food, and that ought to make it choose another place to build its webs.
Joy turned off the porch light, and before long the spider dutifully moved to her flower garden, nearby, where flying insects were now more plentiful. There, the spider was no longer in the way of traffic, and Joy could take photos to show how it was developing.
Joy took additional photos on July 29, and sent them in, mentioning that the spider’s mate was on the web with her.
The first photo posted on this page shows both of them, together on the web, the relatively large female on the side of the web closest to the camera, the correspondingly diminutive male on the other side of the web.
Notice that the male is positioned back on the web relative to the female, with its body oriented so that she cannot visualize the male’s body, although | 1.74656 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
Special Series: Technology and the CEO >> [Part 3] Technology Conveniences
In this third part of our series, a look at the basic needs for a campus community in the 21st century.
By Rosemary E. Jeffries, RSM
We all expect instant communication, ease and speed in computation, constant access to information, and lighter and smaller devices to travel with us everywhere. The conveniences of technology in the 21st century are expected like the hot and cold running water, electricity, heat, air conditioning, air travel, and 24-hour communication that made their way into our expectations through the 20th century. Each convenience of our modern society promised greater ease for living or greater ease for connecting people.
Today’s technology promises the same ease for living and, certainly, for access to information. It equally promises greater capability for connecting with people near and far, in consistent ways. Clearly, to attract, serve, and retain students and faculty in the technology-rich culture of this first decade of the 21st century will require staying current in a rapidly changing environment.
"For this generation of technology-savvy prospective students, nine o'clock in the evening is the best time to shop for a college."
In fact, the expectations for technology and the actual development of technological capacity are accelerating at an even faster rate than our 20th century conveniences. For example, commercial broadcast television developed and marketed in the 1920s took a long time to catch on. Now in the 21st century, about 98 percent of households have a television, and 70 percent or more households report having two or more televisions. Yet, it took 60 years or more for TV to become an expected household convenience (Source: 2004 World Almanac).
By contrast, Apple and IBM marketed the first personal computers in 1975, and by 2001, one billion PCs had been manufactured and sold. The next billion is expected to be shipped and sold within the next five to six years. By 2001, only 26 years after the first personal computers were introduced, 56 percent of households had a computer and 50 percent had an Internet connection (Source: 2004 World Almanac).
In about half the time it took television to become a major part of life, computers and the Internet are now expected elements of life. As we approach the midpoint of the first decade of the 21st century, the integration and influence of technology in everyday life—and definitely in the college campus world—is pervasive.
The accelerated inclusion of technology into household, work, and education environments increases the expectations of students and faculty coming to institutions of higher education. In these centers of learning and research, they expect not only the convenience of 21st century technology, but the access to technology that supports and keeps pace with their intellectual careers and their personal lives.
The traditional-aged students coming to college today grew up with technology, using computers in kindergarten, getting their own cell phones by 8th grade, and watching the first and second Iraqi conflicts, live, in their homes. This generation of students d'es not see technology as an added value in their lives; rather, they see technology as an expected convenience. As Howe and Strauss sum up in
Millenials Go to College (Neil Howe and William Strauss, American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, 2003), “Millenials take digital technology for granted
institutions that are paleotech—not wired with powerful intranets, PowerPoint tools and the latest information retrieval systems—will face a real handicap when recruiting students, and not just in technology fields.”
Though faculty and older students did not grow up with technology in the same way, they too are users with clear expectations. Today’s faculty rely on technology to store and manipulate data easily, aid their research, facilitate their class management, and keep them in touch with students and colleagues. The older student, often returning to school while balancing work and family, expects the convenience of accessing class notes online, registering online, and, in general, staying connected through technology. Everyone has accepted the more accelerated pace of new technology as we watch technology prices come down, and PCs and other computing and communications devices become smaller and lighter and ever more convenient.
Making Web presence and response compelling and engaging through personalization tools is as critical as providing stunning streaming video of the campus and campus activities. The use of portals facilitates the possibility of gaining immediate information about prospective students who are shopping the Web. Using e-mail response direct to the prospect launches an initial relationship between the institution and the student. In short, technology changes the recruitment business for students. Beyond the campus, prospective students and faculty access their first glimpse of the campus through the Web presence available.
"To attract, serve, and retain students and faculty in this technology-rich culture will require staying current in a rapidly changing environment."
Technology also provides | 1.773476 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
an initial view of the campus to a prospective faculty candidate, well in advance of the campus visit. The 24/7 access to information—and even communication for students and faculty through enhanced technology— accommodates each person’s schedule. The number of hits to our Web page between 9 and 10 pm is, on average, 6,450 per month. Nine o’clock in the evening is usually not the time most admissions folks answer inquiries; yet, for this generation of technology-savvy prospective students, nine in the evening is the best time to shop for a college. Faculty who find the 5:30 to 6:30 morning quiet time as the best time to post class assignments or bibliography are equally serviced by technology, which allows them to work when they feel most inspired. Technology enhances the exchange between faculty and students, while at the same time allowing for the differences in lifestyle.
How the 21st century campus uses technology to attract and serve students and faculty is clear and compelling. History tells us that the advancement of new devices for connecting and accessing information will improve at a rapid pace and will move beyond even what we can imagine. Keeping pace with the advances in this area is critical to keeping campuses current and cutting edge.
Yet, more important than the way it brings convenience to campus life, technology helps to establish immediate relationships that are essential to the 21st century campus, offering an initial relationship between the prospective student and the institution, or establishing a more consistent relationship between the enrolled student and the professor. Technology also launches the relationship between the prospective faculty candidate and the campus. It is these various relationships that support the ability of a college to attract students and faculty, but ultimately, technology enhances relationships that serve both students and faculty, and helps to retain their engagement with the campus.
With all the opportunity for connecting that it presents, technology in the 21st century is as important to campus life as running water and electricity. We have come to expect the convenience of instant messaging, constant access to information, and ease of connecting with other members of the campus community.
; yet, the capacity of technology to connect and create relationships to support community might be the most important advantage of this 21st century convenience. As Rosa Beth Moss Kanter concludes in her study of the virtual world, Technology can be a great factor in retaining, attracting, and ultimately serving the campus Evolve: Succeeding in the Digital Culture (Harvard Business School Press, 2001), “Community might seem a strange word to use in conjunction with the ever-expanding virtual world. But one of my most robust findings about e-culture is that it centers around strong communities, online and off.”
In her book, she outlines the hazards of the technology-saturated culture to human relationships, and ultimately, to social institutions. Briefly, Kanter cautions that the Internet can connect or isolate; it can enable community or it can destroy a community. As campuses depend more and more on the convenience of technology to connect students and faculty, and as technology facilitates access to information and the exchange of ideas through the virtual world, the caution to be wary of the ways technology can encourage isolation or be used as a means to undermine community needs to be included in technology planning.
Institutions of higher education are places that must help people navigate the virtual world in a way that is productive in the real world. Campuses need to provide state-of-the-art technology access while maintaining focus on establishing a learning environment that supports students who will become the educators, business and government leaders, researchers, and citizens of the world. Preparing students for roles in our new world requires more than knowledge of their chosen field and facility with technology; it requires a sense of community responsibility. As higher education continues to keep pace with the advances of technology to attract, serve, and retain students and faculty, may we not lose sight of a key part of our noble mission of education: to provide learning communities focused on preparing people for meaningful and productive lives for themselves and their civic and world community.
Rosemary E. Jeffries is president of Georgain Court University (NJ). SunGard SCT (www.sungardsct.com) is the publisher of President to President: Views of Technology in Higher Education (2005) from which this article is excerpted, and is also corporate sponsor of the New Presidents program. Marylouise Fennell, co-editor of President to President, is coordinator of the New Presidents program, and senior counsel to the Council of Independent Colleges (www.cic.edu). Scott D. Miller, co-editor of President to President, is president of Wesley College (DE), and chair of the program. | 1.964788 | 959 | 958 |
What is a waste exchange? A waste exchange is a formal or informal marketplace for materials that are often passed over as waste and subsequently landfilled. By setting up a brick and mortar space, a catalogue, or an online "storefront," waste exchange operators are able to find markets for materials so that they can be purchased or traded as a commodity. Some harder-to-market materials can be sourced for free. The bottom line is that waste exchanges help facilitate markets for recyclable materials and prevent further materials from being landfilled. The upside for buyers and sellers is an opportunity to gain from an exchange.
The following waste exchanges do not represent every exchange available in the south. We have compiled state specific waste exchanges for all eleven states. While some states have very mature infrastructure, other states have collaborated with neighbors to utilize that state's exchange. Therefore, each state may not have an exchange listed.
If you are a state or waste exchange representative and notice a major outlet missing, please contact elizabeth.jackson@serdc.org for the list to be updated.
Alabama
Alabama Biomass (Wood Waste) Exchange
ADECA-STE Division
P.O. Box 5690
Montgomery, AL 36103-5690
Contact: Clarence Mann Phone: 334 242-5330 Fax: 334 242-0552 Services: Financial assistance, biomass exchange service, educational materials.
Alabama Material Surplus Exchange Contact: Gilles Gutnecht Phone: 864-425-6733 Web site: Services: Manufacture/Buisness to post ads for surplus waste allowing other Manufacutrers/Buisness to obtain that waste avoiding the landfill Arkansas
ARMAX
Arkansas Material Exchange Directory
Contact: Teresa Bechtel Phone: 501 682-0609 Web site: Services: ARMAX will help match up materials wanted with materials available.
Arkansas Wood Waste Exchange Contact: Teresa Bechtel Phone: 501 682-0609 Web site:
E-match
Arkansas Department of Economic Development (AEDC)
1 Capitol Mall
Little Rock, AR 72201
Contact: Evan Brown Phone: 501 682-7396 Fax: 501 682-2703 E-mail: ebrown@1800ARKANSAS.com Web site: arkansasedc.com/business_development/energy/ Services: Lets visitors place ads for buying or selling used materials. Operates E-match, a market identifier for various materials; finds markets for industrial scrap materials. Publishes a bimonthly catalog containing listings for all types of nonhazardous and hazardous materials available for exchange from sources throughout the United States and some areas of Canada and Mexico; serves states in EPA Regions 5, 6, and 7.
Florida
Florida Waste Exchange
A Service of Environmental Research and Restoration Corp.
2848 North State Road #7
Hollywood, FL 33021
Phone: 954 967-0011 Fax: 954 989-3377 E-mail: dpkart@icanect.net Services: A for-profit research service locating outlets for hazardous and non-hazardous waste; commonly handled non-hazardous wastes include drums and building materials. Fees: Depends on commodity and amount of research required to find an outlet.
Industrial Materials Exchange, Inc.
1101 SW 2nd Avenue
Suite 234
Boca Raton, FL 33487
Phone: 800 541-9444 Fax: 407 995-7156
Georgia
Georgia Industrial Materials Exchange
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Pollution Prevention Assistance Division
7 Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr., Suite 450
Atlanta, GA 30334
Phone: 404-651-5585 (800-685-2443) Web site: www.ScrapMatchGA.org Services: Anyone may browse listings, but one-time registration is required to post or respond to a post. The service is free. "Materials Available" posts are limited to entities with a Georgia business address.
Kentucky
Kentucky Industrial Materials Exchange
Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center
420 Academic Building
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
Phone: 502 852-0965
800 334-8635, Ext. 0965
Fax: 502 852-0964 E-mail: kime@kppc.org Web site: www.k | 1.562701 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
ppc.org/kime Services: Home page lists materials handled, including municipal solid waste and industrial process waste; serves Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia.
Louisiana
Transcontinental Materials Exchange
University of New Orleans
820 Engineering Bldg.
New Orleans, LA 70148
E-mail: rlcce@uno.edu Services: Publishes a bimonthly catalog that lists materials available and wanted (along with business advertisements) including 11 standard categories, plus electronics and other miscellaneous products. Fees: Listing materials in catalog is free, but a catalog subscription fee is charged.
Mississippi
Mississippi currently utilizes the Tennessee Materials Exchange, as well as other nearby waste exchanges.
North Carolina
North Carolina WasteTrader
North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance (DPPEA)
1639 Mail Service Center
Raleigh NC 27699-1639
Phone: 919 715-6500 or 800763-0136 Fax: 919 715-6794 E-mail: wastetrader@p2pays.org Web site: www.ncwastetrader.org Services: NC WasteTrader (NCWT) is a free waste exchange serving North Carolina. This is an actively managed exchange providing staffed assistance, matching post-industrial waste and surplus commodities with markets. NC DPPEA also provides free, non-regulatory, onsite waste reduction technical assistance to North Carolina businesses. Funding for NCWT is provided by the North Carolina Energy Office and the Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance. A P2Assist Waste Reduction Listserv is also available. Mecklenburg County Waste Exchange Mecklenburg County Government 700 N. Tryon Street Charlotte, NC 28202 Web Site:https://wasteexchange.mecklenburgcountync.gov/Source/MainFront.aspx South Carolina
South Carolina Materials Exchange
SC Department of Health and Environmental Control
Office of Solid Waste Reduction and Recycling
2600 Bull St.
Columbia, SC 29201
E-mail: SCME@dhec.sc.gov Web site: www.scdhec.gov/scme **waste exchange is currently undergoing updates, please check back soon** Services: Free service that seeks to reduce waste by facilitating the exchange of reusable materials by businesses, non-profit institutions and government.
Tennessee
Tennessee Materials Exchange
193 Polk Ave, Suite C
Nashville, TN 37210
Web site: http://www.tme.tennessee.edu Services: An electronic newsletter is delivered bi-monthly; serves Tennessee and its surrounding states; does not handle radioactive materials.
All-Scrap.com
P.O. Box 110
Pulaski, TN 38478
Phone: 931-363-0950 Web site: www.all-scrap.com Services: Database of scrap and recyclable materials which include: batteries, computer and escrap, Foam, Glass and Fiberglass, metals, paper, plastic, rubber and textiles. Offers secondary listings and services for new and used equipment, waste collection and hauling, transportation services and an industry calendar. Fees: Charges monthly membership fee.
Virginia
Mid-Atlantic Consortium of Recycling and Economic Development Officials (MACREDO) Recycling Markets Directory Search Web site: www.macredo.org/directory.php Services: MACREDO's compilation of recycling facilities in the region presented in the form of a searchable database. Users can search the database for entries based on business name, location, commodity group, or facility type.
Waste Exchange Center of Southwest Virginia (ExCeS)
Radford University Environmental Management Assistance Program
P.O. Box 6953
Radford, VA 24142
Phone: 540 831-5453 Fax: 540 831-6735 E-mail: envirobiz@radford.edu Web Site: http://bac.asp.radford.edu/SBDC/waste%20database.html
Regional Exchanges:
Southern Waste Information Exchange (SWIX)
PO Box 960
Tallahassee, FL 32302
Phone: 800 441-7949 Fax: 850 386-4321 Web site: wastexchange.org Services: Catalog, published twice a year, contains listings for all types of materials; information clearinghouse for industry provides information concerning solid and hazardous waste management; an electronics
equipment exchange.
Industrial Material Exchange Service
PO Box 19276, MC#24
1021 North Grand Avenue, East, #24
Springfield, IL 62794-9276
Contact: Diane McClain Phone: 5 | 1.496815 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
It is sometimes suggested that schools no longer teach children values, but this assertion would not be true of P.S. 321, in Park Slope, which has been offering an “Ad-Busters” class as an after-school program, intended to impart radical skepticism to kindergartners. The class is taught by Susan Gregory Thomas, a P.S. 321 parent and the author of “Buy, Buy Baby,” a soon-to-be-published exposé of the depredations of kiddie consumer culture. One recent very cold Friday, Thomas’s charges were crowded around a lunch table in the cafeteria in advance of a field trip to Key Food.
“Who goes shopping with their parents?” Thomas, who has brown curly hair and was wearing a pastel-colored jacket trimmed with fake fur, asked.
Walter, whose lips bore faint traces of blue that might have been caused by food coloring (unlikely) or marker pen (probable), said, “I sometimes go to Met Foods, or D’Agostino’s.”
Ishai, who was eating a bag of Pirate’s Booty, said, “I go to the Food Co-op.” Thomas asked if Pirate’s Booty was healthy. “It’s snacky,” Ishai said.
“How do we know when something is healthy?” Thomas asked.
“From reading the nutrients list,” Ishai said.
“I can’t read,” Walter said, pulling on a fleece hat.
The children headed down Seventh Avenue holding hands in boy-girl pairs: their choice. The group passed Back to the Land Natural Foods and the D’Vine Taste fancy-food emporium.
“There’s the wine market!” a boy named James said.
“I want to take off my coat, I want to take off my hat, I want to take off my shoes, I want to take off my pants, I want to take off my underwear!” Walter was saying as he entered the supermarket. Once inside, he yelled, “I want candy!”
The children milled around a bin filled with bananas, blocking the efforts of a middle-aged man to navigate his shopping cart beyond Fruit. “I know what this is,” Walter said, momentarily dispirited. “It’s the grownup aisle.”
As the group rounded the corner into Canned Goods, a quiet boy named Charlie reached for a pack of soy chips. “We’re not buying those, Charlie,” Charlie’s dad, a parental monitor, said. “You had those for snack.” Thomas halted in front of an array of Campbell’s soups, pointing out that the packaging on many of the cans featured cartoon characters. “Leave the cans of soup on the shelf,” Charlie’s dad warned, as Charlie picked up two cans—bearing Chicken & Stars and Goldfish labels—and knocked over a display of pickle jars.
“Does anyone know what saturated fats are?” Thomas asked. “If you ate three of these cans in a day, you would be over the fat limit for a child of your age. You would have to say, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t have the cupcakes and the cookies.’ “
A boy named Sam looked dubious. “I don’t even like soup,” he said.
Further along the aisle were packages of mix for macaroni and cheese. “Would you choose this one, or the one without characters?” asked Thomas, holding a box featuring Shrek.
“I’d choose the plain one,” Maeve, who had blond hair and was just getting over a cold, said. “Shrek is bad for you.”
“Why is all the macaroni and cheese orange?” Thomas asked.
“Food coloring!” Ishai said, dropping dramatically to the tiled floor and picking himself up.
“Who is it aimed at?” Thomas asked.
“Kids!” Ishai answered, dropping to the floor again.
In the cereal aisle, James, who was wearing a white Power Rangers cap, grabbed a box of Fruity Pebbles. “That’s ‘The Flintstones,’ “ he said. “That’s a very old show.”
Thomas picked up a box of Health Valley granola and asked, “What does ‘organic’ mean?”
“It means it’s organized,” a boy named Henry said. An older gentleman who was carrying a tub of Quaker Oats paused to listen. “You wonder why people are dying of heart attacks every day,” he said. “The corporations are running America and poisoning Americans, and the people don’t realize it. The politicians are paid off to let them kill people.”
Thomas ushered the children past Paper Products and back outside, where a truck decorated with a Canada Dry logo and covered with wintry ice was making a delivery.
“Icicles!” Walter shouted.
“Icicles aren’t packaged!” Ishai said.
“You can’t eat icicles,” a wary Maeve warned. None of the children expressed a desire for ginger ale. ♦ | 1.522521 | 997 | 996 |
Coolahan, J.c.c. (temporarily assigned).
This is a civil action in which the plaintiffs assert claims against the named defendants for personal injury and property damage arising out of a collision which occurred on the New Jersey Turnpike on June 7, 1953. The defendant, Burton A. Fern, was a resident of this State at the time of the accident but shortly thereafter became a resident of the State of Connecticut. In July of 1954 summons and complaint were served upon Fern through the Director of the Division of Motor Vehicles. A motion to quash such service was argued before this court.
It is conceded by the plaintiffs that R.S. 39:7-2, the sole statutory provision for substituted service on non-resident motorists, did not authorize its invocation when non-residence did not exist concurrently with the happening of an accident. The Legislature, however, saw fit to correct this unequal situation by its passage of chapter 61 of the Laws of 1954, N.J.S.A. 39:7-2.1, 2.2, which is a supplement to R.S. 39:7-2, and provides as follows:
"1. Any resident of this State who shall drive a motor vehicle, or cause a motor vehicle to be driven, upon any public highway in this State, whether or not such motor vehicle is registered under the laws of this State and whether or not such person or the driver of such motor vehicle is licensed to drive a motor vehicle upon the highways of this State, shall by the operation of such motor vehicle, or by causing the same to be operated, within this State, make and constitute the Director of the Division of Motor Vehicles in the Department of Law and Public Safety his agent for the acceptance of process, in any civil action or proceeding, issuing out of any county district court, County Court or other court of civil jurisdiction of this State against him by reason of an accident or collision in
this State in which such motor vehicle, while so driven or caused to be driven, shall be involved if, and in case, such person shall cease to be a resident of this State and service of such process upon him within this State cannot be made by reason of his nonresidence. The operating or causing to be operated of any such motor vehicle within this State shall be his signification of the agreement of such person operating the same or the person for whom such motor vehicle is operated of his agreement that any such process against him which is so served after he becomes a nonresident of this State shall be of the same legal force and validity as if served upon him personally in accordance with law within this State.
2. Service of process shall be made, and notice thereof shall be given, under this act in the same manner and with the same effect, the same fees shall be chargeable and payable, continuance may be ordered and the same records shall be kept, as is provided in the act to which this act is a supplement.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
Approved and effective June 24, 1954."
It is the contention of the plaintiffs, who began their action following the enactment of chapter 61, that the supplement should be construed retrospectively. Such a construction, however, is not consistent with recognized principles. The settled law of this State demands the prospective construction of a statute unless the language of the Legislature clearly indicates a retroactive intent. In the case of Citizens' Gaslight Co. v. Alden , 44 N.J.L. 648 (E. & A. 1882) the court, at page 653, says:
"Laws, generally, are enacted for the regulation of future affairs and conduct, and to establish the basis on which rights may thereafter under them be rested, and are not usually designed to alter or affect the quality or legal relations of past acts and concluded transactions, much less to disturb rights which have arisen under laws running concurrently with their birth. Hence we do not look for or expect in any enactment that it shall be operative as of time prior to its own existence; and before we are permitted to ascribe to it such purpose, there must be found in the law such clear and indubitable expression of the legislative design as precludes any other reasonable interpretation of the words used. The rule in the Courts is, that retroactive effect will not be given to a statute when the words in it can be construed as designed to make it prospective only. Williamson v. N.J.S.R.R. Co. , 29 Stew. Eq. 311."
R.S. 39:7-2 and its supplement, chapter 61, provide for the designation of the Director of ... | 1.222941 | 982 | 981 |
By Jamie Nelson, | January 11, 2017
Sleeping for an hour after lunch has been linked to a mental boost in older adults. (YouTube)
The habit of sleeping for an hour or 30 minutes after lunch has been found to boost brain activity in older adults. The researchers behind this finding believe that a nap in general in the afternoon can keep the brain five times younger.
According to the Daily Mail, the study involved more than 2,000 Chinese adults who were older than 60 years. More than 50 percent of the participants in the study reported that they took naps everyday after lunch for 90-30 minutes.
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The study involved giving the participants a range of calculations to undertake as well as memory-related tests to assess their cognitive abilities. The research findings were published in the scientific journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
The study revealed that those who took hour-long naps performed better at the tasks. This test was also conducted on individuals who were part of a control group and did not take naps.
The research revealed that those who took short naps displayed a decrease in their cognitive abilities. However, those who took slept for an hour displayed four to six times increase in their cognitive abilities, Health reported.
Dr. Junxin Li, one of the researchers behind the study, explained that those who did not take a nap or took shorter naps also experienced a decline in their mental capabilities.
While the research study displayed a link between an hour long nap and mental abilities, the research was unable to establish a cause and effect relationship to confirm the findings. However, previous studies have highlighted significant health benefits of indulging in short naps called "power naps."
Learn more from the video below:
'Pokemon Sun and Moon' Special Battle Season 2 Starts, Transfer ‘Pokemon Red and Blue to Sun and Moon Intel Pentium G4560 Review: Kaby Lake CPU Beats FX-6300; Can Compete With i3-6100 Skylake Processor 'Pokemon Go' Rolls Out New Updates for 2017 This is why the Largest Shark ‘Megalodon’ Went Extinct Tiny Moth With Unique Hairstyle Named After Donald Trump Vampire Bats Found Feeding on Human Blood Scientists Create a Software That Predicts Time of Heart Failure Central Asia Could be the new Home of Tigers: Scientists Massive 'Wave' Seen on Venus Atmosphere Scientists Reduce Spread of Cancer by 75% in TestsHalstead, J. Mark (2007)
In Place of a Conclusion: The Common School and the Melting Pot. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 41 (4). pp. 829-842. ISSN 0309-8249 Abstract
Drawing substantially on the arguments put forward by the contributors to this Special Issue, this final article examines the two main purposes of the common school in contemporary western societies: to develop a set of shared values and a unified sense of citizenship, on the one hand, and to iron out disadvantage and equalise opportunities, on the other. Four main justifications for the common school are discussed—its symbolic value, its compatibility with liberal values, its inclusiveness and its provision of practical opportunities to learn to live together. Nevertheless, the common school faces a number of challenges, including how much freedom of choice to allow parents, how to interpret the principle of equality in practice, how to devise a common curriculum that meets the needs of all students and how to respond to the apparent inequalities of the neighbourhood school. It is argued that the biggest dilemma facing the common school is a cultural one: that is, finding a balance between the need to respect the diverse cultural identities of its students and the need to develop a common set of loyalties and shared national identity at the same time. An examination of the case of Muslims in England suggests that intentionally or otherwise the common school is still in the business of assimilating minorities into a new identity through processes very similar to those of the melting pot. The article concludes by warning that continuing this policy may result in stronger resistance in the future.
Item Type: Article Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
L Education > L Education (General)
Schools: School of Education and Professional Development Related URLs: Depositing User: Cherry Edmunds Date Deposited: 12 Nov 2008 11:45 Last Modified: 19 Jan 2010 04:47 URI: http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/2625 Downloads
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Overview
A heel spur is a painful condition that occurs due to inflammation in the plantar fascia tissue in the bottom of the foot. The inflammation causes a protrusion of bone from the heel bone to develop. A heel spur causes the foot and heel to swell and become painful. The pain is strongest upon first awakening in the morning and diminishes as the day progresses, notes Natural Home Remedies. Patients can try a variety of approaches to managing heel spurs. Naturopathic remedies are part of a holistic approach to health with minimal use of surgeries and drugs. Patients should consult a physician before attempting naturopathic remedies at home, however.
Rest the Heel
Resting the heel is a required part of heel spur treatment. Taking a break from running, long walks or other activities that pound the heel against a hard surface will help the heel spur pain to dissipate, notes the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar may reduce the pain of a heel spur. Apple cider vinegar works to pull out excessive calcium from the area of a heel spur. It is a natural treatment for a heel spur, notes Foot-Care.org. Patients can apply it by soaking cotton balls in the vinegar and dabbing it on the heel area or by cutting out a piece of paper or towel in the shape of the foot and submerging it in apple cider vinegar. Patients then place the paper or towel in their shoes, rotating it between all the shoes that they wear for five days, notes Natural Home Remedies. Patients should keep the towel or paper with the apple cider vinegar moist, reapplying the vinegar as needed throughout the day.The foot with the heel spur can also be soaked in a tub of cool or warm apple cider vinegar to treat the heel spur. Patients should consult a doctor before using naturopathic remedies at home.
Strech the Heel
Patients who seek medical treatment for a heel spur may receive instructions for stretches that they can do to help eliminate the pain from the heel spur, notes the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Regularly performing the recommended stretches helps the heel stay loose.
Ice Pack
Patients can wrap ice packs in a dish towel and place them on the heel spur. The cool temperature of the ice reduces swelling and pain in the area of the heel spur.
Turmeric Powder
Turmeric creates the yellow color in curry. It is a natural treatment for inflammation and pain. Taking 500 mg of turmeric powder first thing in the morning, before eating, may help to reduce the inflammation of a heel spur, according to Natural Home Remedies. A compound called curcumin in the turmeric may help ease the pain of the heel spur. Patients can also add turmeric powder to foods to reduce the pain from a heel spur. Please consult a doctor before using naturopathic remedies at home.
Heel Insert
Using heel pad inserts in the shoe as recommended by a doctor will also help remedy pain from a heel spur, notes the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Patients should ask their doctors how long they should wear the heel pad insert to treat their specific condition.To ensure to ensure you have up to date information please click here to view the Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC) of this product on the VMD product information database
Presentation A round, white, scored tablet containing 50 mg praziquantel. Uses For the treatment of adult tapeworms in dogs and cats. The tablets are effective against both immature and mature forms of adult tapeworms in both dogs and cats. The product is a highly effective treatment against all the common species of tapeworms infecting dogs and cats in the United Kingdom and Ireland including Echinococcus granulosus, Taenia multiceps, Taenia hydatigena, Taenia ovis, Taenia pisiformis, Taenia taeniaeformis and Dipylidium caninum. Droncit is also effective against Echinococcus multilocularis.(see note under further information).
Dosage and administration The recommended dose rate is 5 mg/kg (1 tablet per 10 kg bodyweight). The tablets are administered by opening the animal's mouth and pushing the tablet over the back of the tongue so that it cannot be rejected. Alternatively, a tablet can be wrapped in a piece of meat or butter and offered to the animal or crushed and mixed with the food. A single dose is all that is required. However, for dogs in rural areas and for packs of hounds this dose should be repeated every six weeks to ensure that newly acquired tapeworms are destroyed before reaching maturity. Dosing must be associated with strict control of the dog's diet to ensure that uncooked offal is not eaten. Use during pregnancy and lactation The product may be administered to pregnant females. It is safe to the female herself, to the unborn foetus and to the newborn young. | 1.182083 | 1,022 | 1,020 |
Stuck in the Doldrums: An Attack Plan
by
Jen Hatmakeron April 2nd, 2013 dol·drums
[dohl-druh mz, dol-, dawl-]
noun ( used with a plural verb )
1.
a state of inactivity or stagnation, as in business or art: August is a time of doldrums for many enterprises.
2. a belt of calms and light baffling winds north of the equator between the northern and southern trade winds in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
3.
a dull, listless, depressed mood; low spirits.
~
Conversation with Brandon two months ago:
Me: Blah.
B: What’s wrong.
Me: Nothing. Just everything. Everything is bad.
B: Specifically?
Me: Just that our kids are probably all going to hate us and struggle with multiple incarcerations, I apparently will gain a pound a month until I die from diabetes, this house is a craphole of chaos, and my weird quirks are getting worse. I hid in the bathroom at another conference.
B: Is that all?
Me: And also, only two of my kids love to read, so obviously,
Failure, your name is motherhood, and all I do is put out fires and discipline, so I’ve basically come to hate the sound of my own voice. I can’t stand myself and these kids aren’t faring much better on my Like-O-Meter, and I’m sorry to tell you, but your scores aren’t great either. I cannot even talk about emails. My Bible feels like a useless lead weight. I don’t feel like I’m taking skin care seriously enough. I also ate a tub of pimento cheese. All hope is lost.
B: But at least you’re working on that melodramatic tendency.
Me: Just lost another four points, Pal. Feels like a dangerous time to
mess with me.
I essentially slid into a two-month case of the doldrums,
trapped by inertia and overwhelmed by the escape requirements.On my best days, our life is heavy duty, but during my low days, Google search: “fake my own death and disappear,” which Brandon might dub melodramatic, but he is just a dude with a stable mind and can’t be trusted.
Here is the bummer about the doldrums: the very efforts needed to lift out are the same things you’ve lost energy for. The simplest remedies feel like weights drudged up from the bottom of the ocean.
Your mind knows to do them, but your will refuses to cooperate.Which makes your mind furious and mired in shame, which makes your will dig its heels and wallow, which makes you realize you are turning on yourself, you are your own worst enemy. No one can oppress me like myself.
Nothing miraculous happened, except one day I said,
this is enough. Virtually nothing changed that day. Or the next. These things aren’t overnight success stories, because if it took three months and 459 lazy, unhealthy, toxic choices to get stuck, it takes some time to climb out. Also, the work required is unsexy, ordinary, boring old labor that lacks the appeal of instant gratification and the pizzazz of an unsolicited miracle.I wish I had better news, but apparently we just have to grab a shovel and start digging.
For my dear readers stuck in the doldrums, and may I say that I love you and you are not alone, these are the labors that pulled me through, one teeny moment at a time:
First, make a list of everything you are behind on.
The amount of emotional energy this steals from me is almost unbearable.Ironic too, because each line item could be accomplished in minutes at best, a day at worst: mail these things, return this, make those appointments, answer these emails (<--- just, omg), scan that contract over, send in the money for that school thing (this, times a zillion, free public school my eye), pick up that stuff, return that phone call (<--- just, omg), finish writing that article. Overdue tasks contribute heavily to my Shame Spiral, and writing them all down in one place and slowly crossing them off is an instant boon, literally. Unbelievable the weight that rolls off when the Behind Pile starts to shrink.
Second, the house. For the love of Mary Magdalene, the house. I am one of those annoying people who needs order and declutterfication. Oh to live in chaos and whirl and twirl amongst the piles instead of, say, barking like a seal at the humans who live here and begrudging everyone for being such
So, brace yourselves, we launched another chore chart. This one is simple and repetitive. Everyone has one chore a day, and it is the same every week. This is not for pay, because their prize is getting to live in my house for | 2.145822 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
free, oh my gosh. The kids did these tasks before but with no regularity and primarily after I turned into a lunatic.
Not allowing the house to slip into entropy is mentally healing.The chart is imperfect, but even loose structure restores order to my inner turmoil. Yes, I succumbed to chalkboard paint. Next up: Chevron.
Third, parenting. Obviously my five kids are perfect and make straight A’s and speak loving words to each other constantly, but clearly their classmates have poorly influenced them lately, because they’ve turned into savages. (This surely has nothing to do with their mother’s two-month doldrum disorder, because children are never the thermometer simply reflecting the temperature of their parents. I’m sure their digression is just a coincidence.)
So this cute thing happened where the kids were horrible and fighting and I went to my room to cry about these terrible children God stuck me with, and He said a little thing to me: He immediately brought to mind six,
sixlovely moments my kids engineered that very day, and He said, “You are only noticing the bad moments and completely ignoring all the good ones.”
God never coddles me when I want him to, GAH!
So we started the Brag Board. Anytime we catch someone being kind, helpful, gracious, or awesome, we write it down, big or small. It has to be about someone else, because the first thing my humble offspring would write is
It was so incredible how I unloaded the dishwasher.Funny thing: I’m not positive they’ve had more shining moments than before, but I’m sure noticing them now. Evidently we will see exactly what we’re looking for.Does this mean I’ve had to follow a certain child around, searching for one tiny good thing to say? Yes. But catching kids in their goodness totally beats reprimanding them only in their struggles, and the Brag Board has pulled the whole family up a few degrees. To be clear, Ben was recyling, not resicking, which we frown upon.
Finally, I made a list of all the practices that make me feel healthy. Not surprisingly, I noticed most absent in my doldrums: cooking, reading good books, limiting screen time, eating well, date nights, taking walks, scheduling time with a counselor, being outside, praying, changing out of my pajamas (this is a thing), my friends. All ordinary, nothing new or dramatic. These are mainly things that fit in the gaps of life. But
I just committed some time back to my staples, maybe just one a day.
None of these were executed at once. Over a few weeks, I just implemented healthier practices, one at a time. It was not revolutionary when I sat down with Alan Bradley’s latest novel finally (
“Whenever I’m a little blue, I think about cyanide which so perfectly reflects my mood” ~Flavia), nor did my world tilt back on its axis when I wrote the first entry on the Brag Board. The chore chart didn’t solve the crisis, and neither did catching up on emails.
But all together, over weeks,
just doing the work, bit by bit, digging deep for diligence and grace and best practices, the doldrums receded. These things make us healthy and whole for a reason, because we are not succumbing to disorder and shame anymore. It’s not fancy or quick work unfortunately, but it is effective.
If you feel stuck today, can I suggest approaching the doldrums in a reasonable way, one tiny element at a time?
Alone, none of these are monumental, but together they begin to lay small paver stones out of the mire, forging a path back to health.It will be imperfect with incremental steps forward and back, but God can use your brave movement to soothe the shame of stagnation and restore peace to the chaos.
Grab my hand. Let’s do this.
~
Two things: This is not a post for you to tell me my family is awesome, so thank you for refraining. I am writing this precisely because we have been so unawesome. Second, this does not apply to serious trauma or depression. The doldrums are a funk, not a severe crisis. Sometimes our hearts require therapy, intervention, and possibly medication, and the practices I described are inadequate. Readers, how else do you beat back the doldrums? Posted innot categorized Tagged withno tags U.S. position would be warranted,” he said.
While unable to speak to the precise nature of the deliberations within the administration, Daulaire said that HHS officials “are now very much engaged in this and in these conversations and are looking for ways to make sure that public health is well protected in this process.” He said there is an “open consideration of what we can do to move things forward that is going to work both in terms of the negotiations and in terms of public health.” | 2.403001 | 1,014 | 1,012 |
Here you go, Roger followers. Comes now some truth for you to digest, as to getting after those weathy fatcats you so detest. Have fun. UB The ObamaCare Bailouts Hidden treasures for public unions and well-connected corporations. by John Hayward 04/01/2011 Back when ObamaCare was being shoved down America’s throat, Nancy Pelosi assured us we needed to pass it to “find out what’s in it.” The House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Republican Fred Upton of Michigan, just found something else that was hidden in it: “a $5 billion bailout fund for state governments, Fortune 500 companies, and Hollywood unions that is rapidly going bankrupt after doling out half a billion dollars much more quickly than anticipated.” That five billion in funding, by the way, is roughly the same as the amount allocated to the high-risk pool for people with pre-existing conditions – ostensibly the major reason we detonated ObamaCare and destroyed the American health insurance system. It’s going to end up costing taxpayers a lot more than $5 billion, because “so far, fewer than 5 percent of the organizations ‘approved’ to participate in the program have received funds.” The bailout fund is formally known as the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. It’s a federal subsidy to “employers and unions that provide health coverage to early retirees.” According to the committee’s analysis, “The ERRP reimburses the employer 80 percent of the actual cost of an early retiree’s health expenses between $15,000 and $90,000,” based on “qualified claims beginning on or after June 1, 2010.” The Energy and Commerce report notes that “Like many provisions and accounting gimmicks in the health care law, it has largely escaped public scrutiny because of the sheer volume of programs and spending crammed into the law without scrutiny or Congressional oversight.” In other words, nobody has really paid much attention to where the money went. Naturally, a lot of that crazy unsupervised money ended up in the hands of public unions. Over one thirdof the $535 million spent in 2010 went to five public union benefit and pension plans, in California, New Jersey, Georgia, Kentucky, and Texas. 56% of all funds distributed in 2010 went to government organizations. Over five thousand entities have been approved for EERP bailouts, and 47% of them are government organizations. In the private sector, the committee tactfully notes that ERRP money is going to “companies that do not appear to need the financial assistance of the federal government,” including “Fortune 500 companies with billions of dollars in revenue and Hollywood unions.” The Energy and Commerce Committee concludes, “It is inappropriate that a bill sold to the American people as health care legislation would contain a sweetheart deal for unions and Hollywood, and it is grossly inefficient that in troubling economic times the American taxpayer would be asked to subsidize the health care costs of massive corporations.” Along with the billion-dollar windfall for AARP, this is another example of how the primary function of socialist programs is making well-connected people rich… at the expense of average Americans, who are told they have a moral duty to fork over their tax money and be satisfied with a reduced standard of living.Looking to retire in 20 years? You're likely in your prime earnings years. Here are the best Vanguard Funds for target date 2035. More
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These are three of the best Vanguard funds for the fourth quarter of 2016, which will likely be challenging for investors. MoreDiabetes, can come to you specially if you already have a family history that predisposes you to it. A sedentary life with a poor diet, or being overweight can contribute to acquiring Type II Diabetes.
Answered: Fri, 18 Dec 2009
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Not every spot is ideal for holding a function. Only a few spots qualify to be party venues. Where the word ‘great’ comes in, the number even gets smaller. That means even if a venue qualifies to hold any other party, it doesn’t mean that it can hold the great parties. The choice of an event venue will ever have an impact on how the guests and you, the host feel about it later on or in the course of the party. If you are seeking for an excellent party venue, you must understand that there are key characteristics that define that. Having an eye on these traits will land you there. And most of these features are about facilities available at the venue. Check out what really defines the great venue.
Convenient access
You may be the party host but that doesn’t give you all the freedom. It’s just like being the president. You have the power but you must use it for the benefit of the masses or you will be impeached. The location of a party venue is important. You must consider the guests and from which direction they are coming from. The means to get there must also be available. Choosing a central spot easily accessible for all guests is ideal.
Positive impact to you party and brand
Holding a party at some venues does not impress the guests as they would have been if the venue was more classic. You were not born for the average. You got to believe that. It’s time to get happy and the next time you get such an opportunity will be a year later or even never. Seek for a venue that will leave your guests smiling. If it’s a business party, your employees and guests want to see some advancement. Pick for them a venue that is above the obvious. That spot that offers a little more than the average makes the best
function venues. Professional staff, catering and accommodation services
Don’t make a mistake of locking yourself at a place where you don’t have services at your disposal. The venue must provide professional assistants to guide you in case you need directions or need some extra supplies. You can imagine if food or drinks got depleted with some guests having none and you don’t have catering services within the venue. It will be a disappointment. Accommodation is also key as the party will not last forever. Time for sleep means actual sleeping on a nice bed.
Availability of technology
These days, tech is a must no matter where you go. Music systems, TV screens and the internet are among the basics of a party. For cooperate functions, you might need a projector or high-speed video conferencing systems. A venue with all such facilities is ideal for a function. Again, there must be a technician to help you out in case you don’t have an expert of your own.Don't count on your toddler being willing to eat airline meals and snacks! Little chewy fruit snacks work great during takeoff and landing for keeping his ears comfortable, and the different shapes keep him interested.
Look into purchasing some Goodnites. These protect kids from accidents (which tend to happen often while traveling) but are more underwear-like. They fit kids over 125lbs. Any kids who you are traveling with (especially in the car) should wear them just in case. It can really save clothes and car interiors in heavy traffic. Goodnites can fit kids anywhere from 3 to 16 years old too.
When traveling with children by air, if at all possible book at non-peak times (late at night, midday and Monday to Wednesday). This gives you a chance at a free seat for your child to stretch out and sleep. Arrive at the airport early. Sprints down an endless terminal are difficult enough, but nearly impossible when packing a baby on your back and holding a small child's hand. When traveling by car and you bring along "treats" NEVER give out them out too fast! Try every hour. You might even take a timer.
When traveling with small children, take along a package of outlet covers. Most hotel rooms neglect to provide these little shock savers, and there are often outlets placed tantalizingly at child height. For rooms equipped with stoves/ ovens, remember to bring knob covers, or simply remove the knobs while not in use.
When travelling with children, be sure to pack a change of clothes for yourself. Time and again my children have spilled sticky drinks all over me on the plane and I was glad I had thought to bring extra clothes for myself! Also it helps to premake airsickness bags at home as the ones the airlines provide are not always there. Another tip--put some cold drinks such as Capri Sun or juice boxes in your carry-on. If your child is thirsty and it will be a while for the drink steward to come down the isle, you will be glad you have them. | 2.05141 | 985 | 983 |
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New simulation software for micro-molded parts allows for internal runners to be designed within the simulation (right) rather than separately with conventional CAD software (left).
Ultrasonic sensing is a new method to analyze the potential for sink marks during injection molding by evaluating the characteristics of the sonic signal through the tool and part.
The IKV in Aachen, Germany, is known internationally as one of the foremost academic incubators of new plastics technology. At its 23rd International Plastics Colloquium this spring, the IKV (which stands for the German equivalent of Institute for Plastics Processing) presented the latest results of injection molding research projects on computer simulation of micro-molding, ultrasonic analysis of sink marks during molding, and alternative techniques to improve surface quality of foamed parts.
Simulating micro-molding
While injection molding of micro-sized parts with dimensions in the millimeter range is growing in importance, current simulation software reportedly is not appropriate for parts of such scale. Said IKV engineer Axel Cramer, “No simulation software exists that considers the typical characteristics of micro-parts.”
He identified several software improvements that would be required. One is a provision for internal runners to fill non-continuous parts—i.e, ones with multiple inserts such as tiny letters. “The internal runners are difficult to predict and have to be designed in CAD software separate from the mold design, then simulated together with the whole part. If that runner needs to be optimized for rheological layout, it is modified in CAD software and the entire system must be meshed again—a time-consuming process,” said Cramer.
Heat transfer between part and mold during filling is another area for development. With tiny parts, rapid dissipation of heat from the melt causes fast solidification of the melt. Small variations in mold temperature can dramatically affect filling of parts less than 1 mm thick. Cramer recommended coupling simulation of mold filling with simulation of transient local changes in mold temperature caused by heat transfer from the part.
Cramer added that material models for simulation typically are based on melt-viscosity measurements taken with capillary rheometers at shear rates between 100 and 10,000 sec-1. But in filling micro-sized parts, shear rates can exceed 100,000 sec-1 and even reach 1 million sec-1, according to Cramer. These values are typically extrapolated with conventional simulation software, which opens the door for inaccuracy in flow prediction.
Another overlooked aspect in conventional simulation software is that capillary rheometers take the viscosity measurements under isothermal conditions (constant temperature), but in micro-molding, very high shear rates generate a rise in temperature.
Cramer and IKV were a part of a consortium of 13 universities and companies on a project funded by the European Union. One partner, Simcon Kunststofftechnische Software GmbH, used its Cadmould simulation software for the research.
The project developed new software for non-continuous parts that allows internal runners to be easily modified within the simulation without further work in a CAD program. To address heat exchange between the part and mold, a new software interface allows the simulation program to use the result of a heat-exchange calculation by standard 3D finite-element software such as Abaqus. The interface makes it possible to calculate mold temperature throughout the process cycle (instead of assuming a constant wall temperature) based on the cooling medium, its temperature and flow rate, and mold cycle time and open time.
Furthermore, a new material model was developed for the simulation that describes viscosity at very high shear rates and determines actual viscosity (not extrapolated values) by accounting for shear at high injection speeds and fill times as short as 0.1 sec.
Ultrasonic sink analysis
A new way to predict the occurrence and severity of sink marks while the part is still in the mold was developed by Oliver Lingk, an engineer in the IKV Dept. of Injection Molding. The speed of travel of ultrasound waves through plastic are affected by temperature and pressure. When the melt is at its hottest, sound travels slowest, and as the part cools, the sound velocity increases until the part detaches from the cavity, at which point the signal ends.
Using pairs of ultrasonic emitters and receivers in a mold, Lingk varied the machine parameters while molding a test part and analyzed the resulting sink depths with an optical laser. He performed a multiple regression analysis to correlate the ultrasonic information and the sink dimensions. Lingk thereby derived a linear equation that estimates the sink depth for a particular material in a particular mold according to ultrasonic measurements taken during molding. This new on-line QC tool could be used to fine-tune molding parameters to minimize sinks.
Rethinking foam molding
One well-known difficulty in foam injection molding is producing parts with smooth unblemished surfaces. Axel Cramer discussed a second project to solve this problem. Unlike the usual low-pressure, short-shot approach for filling a foam mold, Cramer described several alternatives that can yield better surfaces by starting | 1.651111 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
De-clutter your bathroom
What are your thoughts on the bathroom? Is it a throne to sit on and admire the view, a powder room to bless yourself with beauty, or even a library to enjoy a good read in peace and quiet.
If your bathroom isn’t quite the tranquil and heavenly environment you’d hope for, then sort it out with Big Yellow Self Storage’s top de-cluttering tips.
1. Plan your attack – If you want to leave the harder things till last, start with small items like the vanity. It’s easy to decide what to keep and what to throw in the rubbish bin. Plan on moving to open shelves next. Then head under the sink, and finally into the closet.
2. Pull out all the items you are not using – If you’ve got items that have been collecting dust for months or even years, it’s time to pull them out and open up shelving space. 3. Get rid of expired products – you may find many items have expired even though they haven’t been used up yet. It’s best to chuck out any products that have reached their expiration date. 4. Check the shower – The shower and bath area is one of the most obvious places we collect half-used items over the months. Make sure to ask everyone in your home if their products are actually being used or if it’s safe to throw them away. Purchasing a shower caddy is an easy way to organize your shower and bath area. If you have children, you can also purchase a string bag for the bath to keep all those rubber duck toys together! 5. Invest in storage baskets and boxes – Sometimes, separating items into different baskets or small boxes can make you feel that much more organized. It’s easier to locate that nail file or eye shadow if you’ve designated a certain basket for them. Inexpensive storing options can easily be found at Tesco for as little as £3, as well as Debenhams and BHS for £9. 6. Downsize your collection of towels. Sort through them and decide which ones are the best to keep and then donate the rest to charity. You’ll find you have a lot more room in your cupboard for storage! 7. Keep what you’ll use – After de-cluttering it’s time to organize your products and place them back on the shelves. Try to group similar items together, making it easier and faster to find the products you’re looking for in the future. By following these simple tips, you’ll have all the items you need within arm’s reach without all that clutter and chaos from before and hopefully you’ll finally be able to start enjoying your new and improved de-cluttered sanctuary!
If you’re moving bathroom furniture and you don’t quite feel like throwing it out yet, you can always put it in a small Big Yellow Self Storage unit which start from just £7 a week!To what extent do you agree with Foucault that we live in a ‘disciplinary society’?
Foucault’s belief that the social control in disciplinary pervades all elements of life and there is no escape from this type of control. Michel Foucault is not a Freudian, a Marxist, a structuralist, a phenomenologist, a sociologist, or a historian, but his work draws on ideas and assumptions and methods from all of these areas or disciplines. Rather, Foucault, like Derrida and Freud, is the founder of his own ‘school’ of thought.
Michael Foucault born in 1926 was best known for his critical studies of social institutions. He entered the Ecole Normale Superieure in 1946 and over the past thirty years he has made an enormous influence over criminology. Foucault was not only a philosopher and an intellectual but also a political positivist. Three influences are particularly important in Discipline and Punish: Nietzsche, Structuralism and Foucault’s political activism.
Foucault credited Nietzsche with freeing him from the ‘’prison’’ of Hegelian philosophy and the existentialism and Marxism of Sartre. Nietzsche’s philosophy emphasized the coming crisis of religion and morality and his deep-felt hostility towards religion. It seems that he was the first philosopher to argue that ‘’God is dead’’. The concept of genealogy is Nietzsche’s main legacy to Foucault. Foucault had always detached himself of being a ‘structuralist’ but many critics have linked him to the work of structuralist thinkers like, Levi-Strauss, Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes. Michael Foucault was also immensely influenced by the French campaign for prison reform (GIP). He visited prisons in France and America which drove him to write Discipline and Punish. However his book wasn’t just a theoretical adaptation of prisons, but an explanation of the conditions and structures of the places he visited due to the operation of power in the society.
Discipline and Punish is a history of the modern penal system.... | 1.750374 | 1,020 | 1,018 |
In This Episode << SLIDE LEFT TO SEE ADDITIONAL SEGMENTS
KIM LAWTON, correspondent: Driving through downtown Port-au-Prince, it’s difficult at first to see much change since we were last here nine months ago. The presidential palace is still in ruins. Thousands are living in a massive tent city across the street, and according to aid officials, more than a million Haitians are still homeless. Around the corner from the palace, people are living in tents on the grounds of the destroyed Roman Catholic cathedral. There, piles of rubble and broken stained glass still fill what was once a beautiful hundred-year-old sanctuary. But despite appearances, faith-based workers who have been active here over the past year insist there has been progress in dealing with this humanitarian catastrophe. NICOLE PETER (Haiti Operations Director, World Vision): The progress is slow, maybe not as quick as other emergencies, but we’re moving forward. LAWTON: Nicole Peter is the Haiti operations director for the Christian group World Vision, which has already spent more than $100 million in post-earthquake work. They’ve been involved in a variety of projects including shelter, water and sanitation, job creation, education, and family support. One example of their work is the Corail displaced persons camp on a windy, flood-prone field outside the capital city.
In April, the government of Haiti moved almost 7,000 people to this location about an hour outside Port-au-Prince. But there were no preparations. There were no essential services or infrastructure, so nongovernmental agencies had to step in to help the people. World Vision and other agencies provided sturdy tents to help withstand the elements. Groups brought in latrines and clean water and set up schools. The government still hasn’t developed a long-term housing and resettlement plan for the people here, so World Vision has begun building even sturdier transitional shelters.
MARY KATE MACISSAC (World Vision): We had to negotiate with donors to convince them that timber frames were necessary. They said that those were perhaps too permanent, but we said no, these people need something strong. LAWTON: The houses are designed to last up to seven years. They can withstand winds up to 100 miles per hour, and in typical Haitian style they all have a front porch. One of the residents, Jeanne, invited me to sit on her front porch with several of the seven children who live here with her. She says she loves this house, and she’s grateful the kids are able to attend school. She says she’d like to get a small business going, so she can feed her children better.
Mary Kate MacIssac says there’s been a lot of criticism from the outside media—and even some donors—that more hasn’t been done. She’s also frustrated by the slow pace, but she says people don’t fully understand the realities on the ground.
MACISSAC: Haiti was a country that was facing humanitarian crisis even before the earthquake. Then you have a massive earthquake hit an urban center, the capital of a country, and it’s a complexity of urban disaster that agencies have not had to deal with before. LAWTON: Adding to that complexity is a rising cholera epidemic. World Vision has set up cholera treatment units near various tent camps. Visitors are disinfected before they enter and when they leave. According to the official numbers, more than 150,000 people have now come down with cholera, and nearly 3,500 have died. Aid groups say the numbers are vastly under-reported. On this morning, 10 people have already been brought in for treatment, including a five-year-old boy who is also being treated for malnutrition. PETER: It’s a new emergency within an emergency, so it’s basically heightening issues that existed previously. LAWTON: Rick Ireland, administrator of the Free Methodist Haiti Inland Mission, is also all too familiar with the complexities here. After the earthquake hit, denominational officials asked him to get to Haiti immediately. The Free Methodist mission had suffered tragic losses. This multistory building on their compound was completely destroyed. The American administrator of the mission, Reverend Jeanne Munos, was killed. Two other American workers and a Haitian staffer also died in the collapse. Ireland had to oversee rubble removal, restore missions operations, and help coordinate relief and reconstruction. REV. RICK IRELAND (Free Methodist Haiti Inland Mission): Everything is just a little bit harder here, and that does get discouraging. LAWTON: The Free Methodists have been working through local churches like this one. Sunday morning services here start at 6 am. Shoe-shine vendors line up out front to help congregants look their Sunday best, while local taxis called “tap-taps” keep bringing more worshipers. With over 2,000 people, it’s standing room only. Ireland says this is the best resource to aid Haiti’s recovery. IRELAND: They knew their | 1.596907 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
community. The pastors, both their church people and the non-church people, were very aware of where the needs were. LAWTON: They’ve been rebuilding churches and schools and training people how to construct something that will withstand any earthquakes in the future. IRELAND: We trained Haitian civil engineers how to build earthquake-resistant buildings, and from that group the Haitian teams went out all over Haiti and did a number of seminars teaching people how to build earthquake-proof buildings. LAWTON: Across from a UN displacement camp is one of those schools. It isn’t quite finished, but enrollment has already doubled from last year. They are also providing clean water for the entire community. IRELAND: We really have tried to step alongside the Haitians and say, “Here are the resources we have, here’s the challenge. How do you think we can best do this?” LAWTON: One local pastor who has been leading the Free Methodist efforts is Jean-Marc Zamor, who also has a larger vision for Haiti. He took us down bumpy roads heading to a remote location where he wants to build a Christian university that will focus on character and leadership development and train people to work in the public sector. REV. JEAN-MARC ZAMOR: After the earthquake, it’s become more and more difficult to find good professionals, and that’s give me even a higher conviction that this is what we need to do now. We need to train people that will carry on the work. LAWTON: He and a team of other Haitian leaders used their own money to buy 200 acres of land. They’ve hired local workers to begin pouring the foundation of their first building, and they hope to have students by the fall. He gets frustrated that many outsiders see all Haitians as needy victims. ZAMOR: There are a lot of people living with cholera, a lot of people in need. But Haiti is not only that. At the same time, there are a lot of people doing a lot of things, a lot of work going on. Otherwise, we would not survive. LAWTON: Local leaders are also active in the response of Haiti’s Episcopal Church. Crowded Sunday morning services here are now being held in an open-air structure with a tin roof. It’s right next to the ruins of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, which was completely destroyed in the quake. The church had been known around the world for its magnificent art work. Once a month, the congregation takes a special offering for the reconstruction of the cathedral. Episcopalians have been active in post-earthquake recovery. I asked the bishop how they will decide whether money should go to helping people or rebuilding the cathedral. BISHOP JEAN-ZACHE DURACIN (Episcopal Diocese of Haiti): It is a symbol. People may think that, people may say, oh, there are so people in tents and we are going to build big cathedral, and so on. No, it is a symbol of faith. It has always been so. LAWTON: And, indeed, for many in this predominantly Christian nation faith has been key to survival. IRELAND: They’re filled with tremendous hope. It’s unbelievable, because it would be so easy just to give up, and they haven’t given up. They really believe that the future can be better. LAWTON: At the Corail camp, World Vision’s Mary Kate MacIssac says she sees hope in the gardens people are planting near their temporary shelters and in the small businesses that are popping up—and in people like Jeanne’s daughter, Diana. She and her sister wrote a song that says despite the earthquake, they will always believe in God. MACISSAC: People who continue to believe in a God that loves them is really quite remarkable. ZAMOR: Haiti is not dying. I think we have taken a lot of time to get started. Once we get started, we will be well on our way, and we will be where we need to be in a couple of years. We are not dying. LAWTON: Given the enormity of the problems that still exist, that hope is likely to continue being tested. BOB ABERNETHY, host: Kim, welcome back. LAWTON: Thank you. ABERNETHY: How representative, how typical are those people, those hopeful people you talked to? LAWTON: Well, I was surprised to hear anybody even mention the word “hope,” given the enormity of the situation there, but I did hear people wanting to say we are moving forward. Yet no one is suggesting that things are great or things are where they should be. There’s a lot of frustration. A lot of people are tired. And so that is definitely the reality, but within that they are hopeful that they are laying the basis for some real long-term improvement. ABERNETHY: But the general impression I have is that most people here think that these relief efforts, these emergency efforts, are not going very well and | 1.686176 | 1,024 | 1,023 |
that they are taking an awful long time. LAWTON: I kept hearing a lot of frustration in Haiti about that criticism. They are saying look, we’ve been doing so much but the situation has been so complicated. I talked to one relief worker. She’d been in Gaza. She’d been in Iraq. She just came from Afghanistan straight to Haiti, and she said Haiti is a lot more difficult than any of those other places, and people in the outside don’t realize that. They don’t realize the realities they are dealing with and the layer upon layer of complication that make things take time. ABERNETHY: What are the worst problems? LAWTON: Well, obviously the government. There’s been a government in transition. We are awaiting a new election. There’s been political unrest surrounding that. A lot of the international money is tied to the government having a plan, and so the donors from the outside don’t want to give money or legally can’t give the money unless the government has a master plan. Well, if there’s not a good government, a strong government, there’s no government plan, then that money can’t come in and people can’t move forward. That’s one problem. There’s corruption. Haiti was in a bad situation before the earthquake, very little infrastructure, and so all of those things piled together on top of they also had a hurricane and then the cholera epidemic. So it’s just complication upon complication. ABERNETHY: There are two phases—the relief effort, the emergency relief effort which seems to be going on still a year later, and on the other hand long-term development, investment in new jobs and things like that. When are we going to get—when are the Haitians going to get to that second phase? LAWTON: Well, some of it’s happening hand in hand, or the beginning of development is happening even as relief work is going forward. A lot of the Haitians I spoke with want to do it themselves. They want to be able to be self-sustaining, and they believe that for any lasting solution that’s the way it’s going to have to be. But they admit that takes time, and so that’s part of the problem as well. ABERNETHY: Kim Lawton, welcome back.Monday, January 13, 2014
The United States Supreme Court in Zablocki v. Redhail (1978) held unconstitutional a Wisconsin state statute requiring judicial permission for a marriage license for any person who had a support order for a minor.
The opinion, authored by Justice Marshall, considers the case as one of equal protection and opines that
our past decisions make clear that the right to marry is of fundamental importance, and since the classification at issue here significantly interferes with the exercise of that right, we believe that "critical examination" of the state interests advanced in support of the classification is required.
The Court also states that more recent decisions "have established that the right to marry is part of the fundamental "right of privacy" implicit in the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause," citing Griswold v. Connecticut.
Thus, although not as famous as
Loving v. Virginia, Zablocki v. Redhail is also frequently cited in any argument that marriage is a fundamental right, notwithstanding the Court's qualification in Zablocki that "not every state regulation which relates in any way to the incidents of or prerequisites for marriage must be subjected to rigorous scrutiny," but only ones that interfere directly and substantially with the right to marry.
In a new essay,
Chronicle of a Debt Foretold: Zablocki v. Red Hail, by Tonya L. Brito, R. Kirk Anderson and Monica Wedgewood, forthcoming in The Poverty Law Canon and available on ssrn, the authors revive the importance of the wealth inequality relevance of the case and also reveal a racial aspect. Redhail, whose name is actually Roger Red Hail, is a Native American man, now in his late 50s, who still owes child support for the child he fathered when he was 16. Although the "child" is now in her 40s, he owes the money to state (with interest) and the state continues to garnish his wages.
There is a possibility that Red Hail's pending child support cases now under the jurisdiction of Milwaukee County would be transferred to the Oneida Tribal Judicial System.
The essay is a must-read for anyone considering the constitutional ramifications of equality or marriage.
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/conlaw/2014/01/daily-read-understanding-zablocki-v-redhail.html | 1.5155 | 972 | 970 |
A 53-year-old woman is evaluated for a slowly enlarging, telangiectatic, pearly, ulcerated 1-cm plaque on the left temple. It bleeds periodically when traumatized. Medical history is significant for atrial fibrillation. She takes warfarin daily. She is otherwise in good health.
On physical examination, vital signs are normal. Cardiac examination shows an irregular heart rate but is otherwise normal. The remainder of the examination is unremarkable.
Biopsy of the lesion reveals a basal cell carcinoma with micronodular and infiltrative features.
Which of the following is the most appropriate treatment for this lesion?
A: Cryotherapy
B: Electrodesiccation and curettage C: Mohs micrographic surgery D: Radiation therapy E: Topical imiquimod
MKSAP Answer and Critique
The correct answer is C: Mohs micrographic surgery.
Mohs micrographic surgery is the most appropriate treatment for this patient’s basal cell carcinoma (BCC). Many modalities are available for the treatment of BCCs. Selection of the most appropriate technique depends on a number of factors, including the size of the lesion, the location, the patient’s age and comorbidities, the histologic subtype of the tumor, and the cost of the procedure. Although standard surgical therapy is appropriate treatment with high cure rates (>95%) for tumors and a low risk of recurrence, micrographic surgery (Mohs) is preferred for tumors with high-risk pathology (micronodular, infiltrative, or sclerosing) or lesions in sites where a cosmetic outcome is important. For this patient, the size of the lesion and location on the temple indicate that a tissue-sparing procedure would be desirable because of cosmetic considerations. The histologic subtype indicates that this lesion has a relatively high risk of recurrence, and given the patient’s age, she will presumably live long enough for recurrence to be likely. Mohs micrographic surgery offers a very high cure rate (>98%) coupled with the likelihood of a good cosmetic result. It is also a cost-effective choice in this setting. The fact that the patient is on anticoagulation therapy is not a contraindication to surgery.
Cryotherapy may be used to treat superficial BCCs and some nodular BCCs, but it is not generally used for other histologic subtypes because of an unacceptably high risk of recurrence. It also has an unpredictable cosmetic result and is not generally used for tumors on the head and neck.
Electrodesiccation and curettage is a reasonable treatment for nodular and superficial BCCs that occur on the trunk and extremities. It is not appropriate for more infiltrative subtypes since the recurrence rate is quite high. It is rarely used for tumors on the face because of a relatively high recurrence rate and an unpredictable cosmetic result.
Radiation therapy is a reasonable choice for BCCs in patients who are either not surgical candidates or who refuse surgery. It carries the risk of chronic radiation skin changes in subsequent years, and given the patient’s age, this makes it a less desirable option. Radiation therapy is also less cost-effective and less convenient for the patient, since it requires multiple treatments over the course of several weeks.
Topical imiquimod treatment is often used for superficial BCCs and sometimes used off-label for nodular BCCs, but it is generally not used for other subtypes of BCC because of an unacceptably high risk of recurrence. This is particularly true for lesions on the head and neck.
Key Point For basal cell carcinoma, Mohs micrographic surgery offers a very high cure rate coupled with good cosmetic results. This content is excerpted from MKSAP 17 with permission from the American College of Physicians (ACP). Use is restricted in the same manner as that defined in the MKSAP 16 Digital license agreement. This material should never be used as a substitute for clinical judgment and does not represent an official position of ACP. All content is licensed to KevinMD.com on an “AS IS” basis without any warranty of any nature. The publisher, ACP, shall not be liable for any damage or loss of any kind arising out of or resulting from use of content, regardless of whether such liability is based in tort, contract or otherwise. So, I went
You don't have to spend your weekend in utter boredom. Even if you don't have any get-away lined up with your friends, you can still have fun together. You can opt to have a sleep-over starting
Having a safe and harmonious workplace is one of the main things that can ensure your business' smooth operations. It will flourish better if your employees are comfortable in their workstations and | 0.974573 | 971 | 969 |
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Please try again later. According to Econsultancy's State of Social 2011 report, produced in partnership with LBi and bigmouthmedia, two-thirds of companies have moved beyond the experimental phase of their social media strategies.
Following similar surverys in 2009 and 2010, this year’s research also shows that companies are now focused on the ‘big four’ networks. Not only this, but social media activity is more likely to be integrated with other marketing channels and across business functions.
Based on a sample of more than 1,000 businesses online, the report highlights that almost two thirds (64%) of respondents said that they are now beyond the experimental phase compared to 54% a year ago.
Lyndsay Menzies, CEO of bigmouthmedia and CMO of LBI International N.V., noted that since social media has moved well beyond the land-grab phase, this latest research underlines the fact that brands are now taking this seriously:
Businesses are embracing the opportunity that this presents to connect to their customer base. The increasing convergence of the channels, in particular search and social media, is fuelling adoption as awareness, advocacy and acquisition become intrinsically linked.
More than half of respondents (52%) said that their organisations use Facebook for reacting to customer issues and inquiries compared to only 29% last year.
Similarly, 50% of companies use Twitter for customer service, compared to only 35% in 2010. Half of organisations (51%) are also using Facebook for gathering customer feedback, compared to 37% last year.
The vast majority of companies surveyed use Twitter (87%) and Facebook (82%) as part of their social media marketing or online PR activities. More than two thirds of companies (69%) are using Google’s video-sharing platform YouTube and 57% are using business network LinkedIn.
Econsultancy's research manager Aliya Zaidi added:
When social media industry was in its relative infancy, there was much talk about the wide range of social channels available, including smaller platforms and the rise of niche social networks. In 2011, the social media landscape is dominated by the established ‘Big Four’ social networks, with the majority of companies using Facebook and Twitter for their social media activity.
Relatively small numbers of businesses are using other networks or web properties for social media activity such Google+ (14%), location-based platform Foursquare (15%) or question-and-answer network Quora (3%).
The research has also found that the trend expected to have the biggest impact over the next year is the increased use of mobile and smart devices such as tablets, deemed to be ‘highly significant ’by more than half of responding companies (54%).
The smartphone is overwhelmingly deemed to be the ‘most persuasive’ device for social media, according to 73% of respondents. Significantly fewer respondents cite other devices, such as the laptop, tablet and desktop computer.
The full report is available to Econsultancy subscribers here. important of the overall ad mix for the Board. When two banner campaigns run in each market, Net Conversion can test effectiveness and refine buys and creative messages, refining them depending on seasonality peaks and current incentive programs.
Hospitable Social Mix
In today’s digital world, no man is an island – not even in the Bahamas. The ability to integrate content across social outlets adds an invaluable dimension to the hospitality of Nassau Paradise Island. More than 154,000 viewers have already visited Nassau Paradise Island’s YouTube channel, where guests comment about how excited they are about their upcoming trips and then relive their recent vacations through video – which is concurrently displayed across multiple social media outlets. Visitors can sign up for special offers, keeping people informed about time-sensitive programs such as “back by popular demand,” and “offer expires today.”
“Video is a cornerstone across all our touch points,” notes Andersen. “And it’s YouTube TrueView Video Ads that have enabled us to engage prospective visitors across platforms. We now can reach targeted prospects in metropolitan markets that we couldn’t afford to even touch with television advertising, and potential visitors in these important markets are now exposed to our destination.” | 1.712634 | 942 | 940 |
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