In the three weeks before the governor signed House Bill 244 -- which requires that voters carry one of six forms of picture ID to the polls to be allowed to vote -- his office received 331 calls asking him to veto it. And only 13 calls in its favor.
Our clients feel the impact of every donation. Every donor fights in the trenches of the war on freedom of expression and thought. The following is a list of the foundations and corporations recognizing the value and impact of cartoonists in the political and social process. We thank these foundations and corporations for their support and confidence.
Challenge Fund in Journalism, New York, NY, United States. A one-year $15,000 challenge grant to help CRNI develop its infrastructure and individual donor base. The Challenge Fund in Journalism is a partnership of the Knight, McCormick Tribune, Ford and Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundations. We were able to match the challenge through a donation from one individual of $25,000.
UNESCO, Paris, France. A grant in 2006-07 to support the strengthening of CRNI's website. During 2007 the website came under very aggressive hacking attack from militant Islamists who wanted to silence our support for cartoonists in trouble. Most of the resources from this grant was devoted to defending our website with UNESCO consultants and reconstructing and reposting materials that had been lost during the attack. We were able to assure that no one would hack our website. To date, no one has.
Open Society Foundation, London, England. A companion grant to the UNESCO project to strengthen our original website. Later, another grant to construct an entirely new website after repeated hacking. Working with a Baltimore website developing firm, we are busy developing new materials while designing a more exciting and dynamic website.
Herb Block Foundation, Washington, DC, United States. A series of one-year grants to support CRNI's core operating costs. The Herb Block Foundation also assists in supporting our annual awards ceremony where CRNI honors a deserving cartoonist with the Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning.
Jyllands-Posten Foundation, Viby, Denmark. A grant to assist CRNI hold its annual awards dinner in Washington, D.C. in July, 2007.
Young D.C., Washington, DC, United States. A series of annual grants from the Cartoons and Cocktails charity cartoon auction held each October at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. These grants usually average about $1,500 each, with an accompanying donation of up to $650 for our featured cartoonist.
New York Times Company Foundation, New York, NY, United States. A $5,000 grant to publish cartoon illustrated advocacy documents for cartoonists who are under great threat.
DOEN Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. A grant in 2012 to support MENA region cartoonists, to develop institutional capacity in the region, and to develop a safety manual for endangered cartoonists.
Doha Center for Media Freedom, Doha Qatar. A grant to support our annual Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning event in Salt Lake City, Utah USA that took place on June 29, 2013.
Have your group play a quick game of "Taboo", "Charades" or "Win Lose or Draw". After a round or two ask these questions:
Jesus often used parables to help his followers understand what the kingdom of heaven is like. They had never personally experienced the fullness of the kingdom of heaven. It is radically different than anything they had ever known He had to use ordinary life experiences to explain.
In the "Sermon on the Mount" Matthew 5-6 Jesus lays out a whole new kingdom order. Essentially He takes the old laws that people had grown up with and set a much higher standard.
Read Matthew 5-6 and circle the number of times Jesus says, "You have heard it said". How many times does Jesus say "blessed are those..." in chapter 5?
Pretty radical stuff huh? Do you think it is possible to live up to Jesus' new standards? Why or why not? Does the Bible offer any suggestions as to how we can live such a holy life?
2. The parable says the weeds are planted by the enemy. Why do you think the enemy would do this? Spiritually speaking, what impact do you think a "weed" would have on the whole crop?
3. The owner of the field chooses to let the weeds and the crop grow together. He does this so that the true crop will have a chance to grow and mature naturally. What harm would have come if attempts were made to eliminate the weeds before the harvest?
3. When did you make the decision to become a fully devoted follower of Christ? What was that experience like?
No body likes to think about impending doom. Some find it difficult to believe that a good and gracious God would actually condemn us to eternal punishment. But, Jesus' words are hard to dispute.
Have you ever had an incredible and unique life changing experience and then tried to explain it to someone else? It can be a little frustrating. Sometimes the only thing you can do is describe your experience in terms the other person can relate to. You would use different comparisons as you speak to different people: A cook, a farmer, a mariner or a fisherman. This is exactly what Jesus does in Matthew 13. He uses common every day experiences to help his disciples understand what the kingdom of heaven is like.
"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field..." (Matthew 13:24"
1. The good news will be imparted to everyone. But not everyone will choose to accept it. (Parable of the Sower and the Seed)
2. It is not always easy to recognize the true followers of Christ. (Parable of the Wheat and the Tares)
3. The enemy will always fight against progress. But the kingdom of heaven will advance and flourish despite efforts by the enemy. (Parables of the Farmer Sowing Seed, Mustard Seed, and the Levin)
5. Some day every Individual will held responsible before God. There will be a day of judgment which includes eternal rewards and punishments. (Parable of the Wheat and Tares and Parable of the Fish)
Jesus uses these parables to spell out plainly what it means to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven. This second lesson in our series on Jesus' parables brings us face to face with the same sobering question. Are you willing to move from being a casual observer to a fully devoted follower of Christ?
"When Christ first came on the scene, teaching and healing, many were drawn to Him. He was a curiosity, Someone to be impressed with and to talk about. Even the leaders of the people viewed Jesus as God's messenger (John 3:2).
But as Jesus' message became more clear, and as He confronted each hearer with the challenge to choose, attitudes began to change. Jesus' teaching, exposed more and more clearly the sinfulness of current attitudes and ways." (Lawrence Richards) It would have been very easy for Jesus to draw a line in the sand and declare, "Are you in or out?" But he didn't. Instead he used a parable to explain the natural process of discerning true followers from the false.
He will wait until harvest time, when he will sort out the thistles from the wheat and burn them. (13:30)
"One of the most sobering passages of Scripture tells of a day when many who consider themselves to be followers of Jesus will be stunned to find out that He doesn't even recognize them. In the gospel of Luke chapter 13, Jesus tells of a day where everyone who has ever lived will stand before God. On that day many who call themselves Christians and identify themselves as followers will stand confidently in front of Jesus only to hear him say, "I never knew you. Away from me." Idleman's series is designed to help believers understand the difference between a fan and a follower.
Jesus is equally clear in Matthew 13:40-42. "As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
There's an old saying, "if it walks like a duck and swims like a duck, it must be a duck." The truth is, if it walks like a duck and swims like a duck, it might just be a goose. Sometimes it's impossible to tell who is a follower and who is a fan. Who are the true Christians and who is just faking it? Let's consider a few practical applications from this parable:
1. Counterfeit Christians are everywhere.There are times when you really can't tell who is a true follower of Christ.
2. We should not judge others. Only God knows the true intentions of a man's heart. We have far better things to do than to cast judgement on others. God calls us to a life of patience and grace.
3. One day we will all stand before God. Since He is righteous and just, there is no way we can scheme our way into heaven. If we have rejected God, He will reject us and send us to our just reward.
As the White House unveils its long-awaited proposals to prevent another Wall Street meltdown in the future, keep a lookout for three essentials. Without them the Street will revert to its old ways as soon as the coast clears. In fact, now that the government has bailed out the Street, the biggest banks will take even larger and more irresponsible risks because they’re officially too big to fail. So these three reforms are critical.
1. Stop bankers from making huge, risky bets with other peoples’ money. At the least, require they back their bets with a large percentage of their own capital, and bar them from raising money off their balance sheets through derivative trades. Also require they take their pay in stock options or warrants that can’t be cashed in for at least three years, so they’ll take a longer-term view. Best of all would be a requirement that investment banks return to being partnerships and the capital on their books be their own, not yours or your pension fund’s. When investment banks were partnerships, every partner took an active interest in what every other partner and trader was doing. The real mischief started once they started selling shares to the public.
2. Prevent any bank from becoming too big to fail. Separate commercial from investment banking, as they were before the late 1990s. Commercial banks should return to their basic function of linking savers with borrowers. Investment bankers should return to their casino function of placing bets in the stock market and advising you and others about where to place your own own bets. Combining the basic utility with the casino only made bankers far richer and subjected you and me to risks we didn’t bargain for. If separating commercial from investment banking isn’t enough to bring all banks down to reasonable size, use antitrust laws to break them up.
3. Root out three major conflicts of interest. (1) Credit-rating agencies should no longer be paid by the companies whose issues are being rated; they should be paid by those who use their ratings. (2) Institutional investors like pension funds and mutual funds should not be getting investment advice from the same banks that profit off their investments; the advice should come from sources without a financial stake; (3) the regional Feds that are responsible for much bank oversight should no longer be headed by presidents appointed by the region’s bankers; non-bankers should have the major say, and the regional presidents should have to be confirmed by the Senate.
These three reforms will reduce the possibility that you and I and other taxpayers will ever again have to spend billions bailing out bankers who robbed us blind while amassing fortunes. But because that would make it next to impossible to make such fortunes in the future, the big bankers will fight every one of these with all guns blazing, and their lobbyists in full force. They’ll try to inundate you in a blizzard of buzz words. They want your eyes to gaze over, but don’t let them. Keep focused on these three issues. Congress, for its part, may not be much help. It’s awash in money from Wall Street. Big Finance is second only to the health-industrial complex in owning a large portion of the Hill. Barney Frank at House Banking can be relied on to try his best but others in the House and Senate may well roll over. The President wants to do the right thing but he’s spread thin and spending political capital on health care. Tim Geithner doesn’t have the stomach to take on the Street; the plan he announced a few days ago to regulate pay is a bad joke. Expect lots of blather about rearranging boxes on the regulatory organization chart.
Bottom line: Genuine financial reform will be almost as difficult to achieve as real universal health care. Immense private interests are amassed against the public interest in both cases because staggering amounts of money are at stake. But they are the two most important domestic issues right now. Keep careful watch, and weigh in.
Do you see anything in Obama’s proposals that relates seriously to these points?He seems to want to create a new regulatory safety net that effectively makes large US corporations equivalent to existing government sponsored entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This increases moral hazard rather than reduces it!Experience in the EU shows that when governments subsidize lame duck industry as the US is doing with bankrupt auto and financial institutions, this takes a life of its own with the expanded political patronage. Obama as a Chicago politican comes from this tradition. The prospects of an expanded captive electorate would excite any politician. The financial consequences are grave.The deadwood sustained by the government becomes a permanent drag on the economy resulting in permanantly lower growth rates. Public debt rises faster than GDP growth.Small wonder the IMF and former IMF advisers like Simon Johnson have taken such a negative view on the US right now. The US preaches fiscal responsibility to others but is practicing crony corporatist capitalism. Many Russian economists at the recent St. Petersberg economic forum were mocking the US for this hypocrisy.
Stop bankers … bets with other peoples’ money. … When investment banks were partnerships, every partner took an active interest in what every other partner and trader was doingLove it. But, didn’t Lloyd’s have a problem in this situation? The killer on this is that there is a bigger entity than all of these financial institutions. That entity is all about “other people’s money”. How can that situation be fixed?Prevent any bank from becoming too big to fail.Agreed, but again, why stop with banks? Robert, are there any other entities you can think of that are “too big to fail”?Big Finance is second only to the health-industrial complex in owning a large portion of the Hill.Looking at campaign contributions, it looks like the financial guys are #1. Certainly for the presidential dollars, weren’t they? Makes sense, though, this election round. They knew they’d need a patsy real soon.Any highly regulated industry or government sector is guaranteed to toss in some pretty hefty cash bags. They’d be criminal and incompetent not to.Hey, what happened to telcom? Didn’t they used to be the #1 contributor of the non-government monopoly sectors?
(ISMRM 2010) Design of a Dynamically-Controlled Resistive Shield for a Combined PET and Superconducting MRI System for Small Animal Imaging
Design of a Dynamically-Controlled Resistive Shield for a Combined PET and Superconducting MRI System for Small Animal Imaging
Combining conventional PET and MRI faces numerous technical challenges, particularly the sensitivity of photomultiplier tube-based (PMT) PET detectors to magnetic fields. The authors describe an approach to PET/MRI in which a resistive electromagnet shield is used to null the field at the PMTs of a conventional PET system in the vicinity of a superconducting MRI system. The electromagnetic characteristics of the shield coil are presented. This approach benefits from allowing the use of commercially available PET systems, which include state-of-the-art timing & energy resolution, high sensitivity, and highly optimized event processing hardware.
ability abstract acceptable account advantage allowed allowing anatomical animal approaches authors available avalanche axial axially block boundary calibrated certainly challenges channel characteristics coil commercially compatible connected connects consists contrast cooling copper coupled coupling crystal deposition described design designed detector detectors directly disconnection distance disturbing dose efficiency element energy entire equipment essentially expected exposure extend extended field fields flow front function gain gauss gradient handler highly hollow human improved include insert intended interaction introduced layer length located location long longitudinal magnet magnitude major make medical mesh micron milliseconds modalities modification module monitoring motion moves must negligible novel null numerous offer operation optimized passive patients performance permanent physical physics place position power profile proposed radial radius reduce required requirements resistance resistive resolution ring section sensitivity separated separation several shield shielding studies substantially suffers superconducting supply system systems table targeted targets temperature term timing track turned type typically vicinity view water western widespread wire