text
stringlengths 116
653k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| edu_int_score
int64 2
5
| edu_score
float64 1.5
5.03
| fasttext_score
float64 0.02
1
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.65
1
| url
stringlengths 14
3.22k
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The future of malware
Personal information belonging to a full third of Massachusetts residents has been compromised in one way or another, according to the state's attorney general, citing statistics gleaned from a tough new data breach reporting law.
Watch a slideshow version of this story.
RSA recently announced that security of its two-factor SecurID tokens could be at risk following a sophisticated cyber-attack on the company. And Sony suffered a massive breach in its video game online network that led to the theft of names, addresses and possibly credit card data belonging to 77 million user accounts. The cost to Sony and credit card issuers could hit $2 billion.
The data breach quiz
Of course, that's just a sampling of recent breaches, and if you think it's bad now, just wait. It's only going to get worse as more information gets dumped online by mischievous hacker groups like Anonymous, and as for-profit hackers widen their horizons to include smartphones and social media.
For example, in August AntiSec (a collaboration between Anonymous and the disbanded LulzSec group) released more than 10GB of information from 70 U.S. law enforcement agencies.
According to Todd Feinman, CEO of DLP vendor Identity Finder, AntiSec wasn't motivated by money.
"Apparently, they don't like how various law enforcement agencies operate and they're trying to embarrass and discredit them," he said.
But, he adds, what they don't realize is that when they publish sensitive personal information, they are helping low-skilled cyber-criminals commit identity theft. Every week, another university, government agency or business has records breached. Feinman estimates that 250,000 to 500,000 records are breached each year. Few details from those breaches are published on the Internet for everyone to see, however.
While certain high-profile attacks, like the one on Sony, may be intended to embarrass and spark change, the U.S. law enforcement breach could represent a shift in hacker thinking. AntiSec's motivations appear to have a key difference, with the attackers consciously considering collateral damage a strategic weapon.
"In one online post, AntiSec came right out and said 'we don't care about collateral damage. It will happen and so be it,'" Feinman says.
Social networking
Experts say the future of malware isn't so much about how malware itself will be engineered so much as how potential victims will be targeted. And collateral damage won't be limited to innocents compromised through no fault of their own.
Have you ever accepted a friend invite on Facebook or connected to someone on LinkedIn you didn't know? Maybe, you thought this was someone from high school you had forgotten about or a former business partner whose name had slipped your mind. Not wanting to seem like an arrogant jerk, you accept this friend and quickly forget about it.
"When people make trust decisions with social networks, they don't always understand the ramifications. Today, you are far more knowable by someone who doesn't know you than ever before in the past," says Dr. Hugh Thompson, program chair of RSA Conferences.
We all know people who discuss every single thing they do on social networks and blogs - from their breakfast choices to their ingrown toenails. While most of us simply consider these people nuisances, cyber-criminals love them.
"Password reset questions are so easy to guess now, and tools like, while not created for this purpose, provide hackers with a war chest of useful information," Thompson says.
Thompson believes there are two areas the IT security industry desperately needs to innovate around: 1) security for social media, along with ways to manage the information shared about you on social networks and 2) better methods for measuring evolving risks in a more concrete way.
Thar she blows
Chris Larsen, head of Blue Coat Systems' research lab, says the most common social engineering attack their lab catches is for fake security products. He also explained that social networks aren't just being used to target individuals.
Larsen outlined a recent attack attempt where the bad guys targeted executives of a major corporation through their spouses. The logic was that at least one executive would have a poorly secured PC at home shared with a non-tech savvy spouse, which would then provide the backdoor needed to compromise the executive and gain access into the target company.
"Whaling is definitely on the rise," says Paul Wood, senior intelligence analyst for "Just a couple years ago, we saw one or two of these sorts of attacks per day. Today, we catch as many as 80 daily."
According to Wood, social engineering is by far the most potent weapon in the cyber-criminal's toolbox (automated, widely available malware and hacking toolkits are No.2). Combine that with the fact that many senior executives circumvent IT security because they want the latest and trendiest devices, and cyber-crooks have many valuable, easy-to-hit targets in their sights.
Fortune 500 companies aren't the only ripe targets. "Attacks on SMBs are increasing dramatically because they are usually the weakest link in a larger supply chain," Wood says.
Today, there's no sure way to defend against this. Until Fortune 500 companies start scrutinizing the cyber-security of their partners and suppliers, they can't say with any certainty whether or not they themselves are secure. While it's common for, say, General Electric to run parts suppliers through the ringer with factory visits that result in the implementation of an array of best practices, companies aren't doing this when it comes to cyber-security.
Watch your e-wallet
While smartphone threats are clearly on the rise, we've yet to see a major incident. Part of the reason is platform fragmentation. Malware creators still get more bang for their buck by targeting Windows PCs or websites.
Larsen of Blue Coat believes that platform-agnostic, web-based worms represent the new frontier of malware. Platform-agnostic malware lets legitimate developers do some of the heavy lifting for malware writers. As developers re-engineer websites and apps to work on a variety of devices, hackers can then target the commonalities, such as HTML, XML, JPEGs, etc., that render on any device, anywhere.
Smartphones are also poised to become e-wallets, and if there's one trait you can count on in cyber-criminals, it's that they're eager to follow the money.
"The forthcoming ubiquity of near-field communication payment technology in smartphones is especially worrisome," says Marc Maiffret, CTO of eEye Digital Security. Europe and Asia are already deep into the shift to m-commerce, but the U.S. isn't far behind. "Once the U.S. adopts mobile payments in significant numbers, more hackers will focus on these targets," he adds.
Over time, smartphones might replace other forms of identification. Your driver's license and passport could be on your phone instead of in your pocket. In the business world, this shift is already occurring.
Mobile phones are serving as a second identity factor for all sorts of corporate authentication schemes. Businesses that used to rely on hard tokens, such as RSA SecureID, are moving to soft tokens, which can reside on mobile phones roaming beyond the corporation as easily as on PCs ensconced within corporate walls.
"Two-factor authentication originally emerged because people couldn't trust computers. Using mobile phones as an identity factor defeats two-factor authentication," Maiffret says.
For consumers, mobile payments aren't necessarily all that troubling, especially if m-commerce is tied to credit card accounts and surrounded with the same consumer protections. Banks have been aggressively pushing consumers towards e-banking for years. Obviously, even with the risks involved, e-banking generates better ROI than traditional banking. Otherwise, they wouldn't do it.
Moreover, m-commerce should have all of the behind-the-scenes security benefits wrapped around it, such as advanced fraud detection. You can't say that for cash.
Today, Android is the big smartphone target, but don't be surprised if attackers turn their attention to the iPhone, especially if third-party antivirus programs become more or less standard on Androids. IPhone demographics are appealing to attackers, and when you talk to security pros, they'll tell you that Apple products are notoriously insecure.
Apple is extremely reluctant to provide third-party security entities with the kind of platform access they need to improve the security of iPhones, iPads, MacBook Airs, etc. "Apple is very much on its own with security," Maiffret says. "It almost mirrors late-90's Microsoft, and it'll probably take a major incident or two to incite change."
If we've learned anything about digital security in the last 20 years, it's that another major incident is always looming just over the horizon. And then there are the new threats to cars and homes.
During the Black Hat and Defcon conferences in early August, researchers demonstrated a number of disturbing attack scenarios. One particularly scary hack showcased the possibility of hijacking a car. Hackers could disable the alarm, unlock its doors and remotely start it through text messages sent over cell phone links to wireless devices in the vehicle.
Other at-risk embedded devices include airbags, radios, power seats, anti-lock braking systems, electronic stability controls, autonomous cruise controls and communication systems. Another type of attack could compromise a driver's privacy by tracking RFID tags used to monitor tire pressure via powerful long-distance readers.
"As more and more functions get embedded in the digital technology of automobiles, the threat of attack and malicious manipulation increases," says Stuart McClure, senior vice president and general manager, McAfee. "Many examples of research-based hacks show the potential threats and depth of compromise that expose the consumer. It's one thing to have your email or laptop compromised but having your car hacked could translate to dire risks to your personal safety."
Of course, cars represent just one example of hackable embedded systems. With the number of IP-connected devices climbing to anywhere from 50 billion to a trillion in the next five to 10 years, according to the likes of IBM, Ericsson and Cisco, tomorrow's hackers could target anything from home alarm systems to air traffic control systems to flood control in dams.
From CSO: 7 security mistakes people make with their mobile device
You Might Like
Join the discussion
Be the first to comment on this article. Our Commenting Policies | <urn:uuid:cef0a703-8eaf-4899-9765-8d84d3ea1f7b> | 2 | 2.265625 | 0.031239 | en | 0.955755 | http://www.networkworld.com/article/2181632/network-security/the-future-of-malware.html |
Tweets heard round the world: Live reporting of bin Laden raid shouldn't be surprising, experts say
The fact that the CIA firefight outside Islamabad that took Osama bin Laden's life was reported live on Twitter should not shock anyone, experts told Nextgov Monday.
Nor should it be surprising that news of bin Laden's death leaked on Twitter before it was picked up by cable news channels and newspaper websites.
"The government doesn't get to manage information as much as it used to," said Jim Harper, the director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank. "I was actually impressed by how well held the secret was until 10:00 or 10:15 p.m., when the Twittersphere started broadcasting it."
Several people on Twitter and elsewhere online began speculating that bin Laden had been killed soon after the White House announced at 10 p.m. that President Obama would address the nation in a live television appearance. Keith Urbahn, chief of staff to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, has been widely credited with breaking the news on Twitter.
The 27-year-old Urbahn tweeted around 11 p.m. Sunday: "So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama bin Laden. Hot damn."
Urbahn's post was quickly re-tweeted and taken by many as confirmation of the kill.
Urbahn tried to inject a note of caution in rapid follow-up tweets, noting that his scoop "could be misinformation or pure rumor." But the re-tweets didn't stop, and soon cable news stations and newspaper websites were also reporting Bin Laden had been killed, citing anonymous sources in the Obama Administration.
Urbahn didn't respond on Monday to a Nextgov interview request, but he told Politico that his source for the initial tweet had been a TV producer trying to set up an interview with Rumsfeld.
After Obama announced around 11:30 p.m. that CIA agents had killed bin Laden during an attack on a compound in Abbottabad, 35 miles from the capital city of Islamabad, it became apparent that Sohaib Athar, who describes himself as a Pakistani IT professional and coffee shop owner, had live-tweeted the entire attack.
Athar described helicopters flying overhead and speculated about possible targets, but was unaware while the firefight was going on that it was directed at bin Laden. Soon after learning that Pakistani intelligence had confirmed that the al Qaeda leader was killed in the attack, he tweeted, "Uh oh, there goes the neighborhood :-/."
Cato's Harper described the bin Laden operation as an example of effective government secrecy rather than a lapse.
Between August 2010, when CIA officers first learned bin Laden might be hiding in the Abbottabad compound, and Sunday, when the attack began, the secret was closely held, with no evident leaks by a national security team that likely numbered just tens of people, Harper said.
"That's in contrast to everything else the government is doing in terms of secrecy, stuff that's held for very long periods of time and allegedly in secret though tens or hundreds of thousands of people are accessing it," he said. "That's how you get WikiLeaks."
Harper speculated that Obama's decision to announce the killing late Sunday night rather than waiting until Monday morning when he could get a larger audience was another nod to the difficulty of holding secrets in the Twitter age.
"News travels so fast worldwide now that as soon as the president's ready to speak and all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed, you've got to go," he said.
George Washington University media and public affairs professor Steven Livingston described government fears about Twitter leaks as an outgrowth or successor to the so-called CNN effect, first discussed in the 1980s, a worry that live broadcasting by television stations would inadvertently tip off rival militaries or hostage takers about a military or police raid.
Ironically, the Twitter effect may be less dangerous than the CNN effect precisely because the capacity to share information is so much more widespread, Livingston said. It's much more likely, in other words, that bin Laden or his aides would be watching CNN International than following a Pakistani coffee shop owner's 140-character updates.
"In terms of what bin Laden knew in the last moments of his life, it wasn't from a live Twitter feed," Livingston said, "but from the helicopters overhead and people knocking on his door."
Price Floyd, formerly a Defense Department deputy undersecretary for public affairs and now vice president for digital media strategy at BAE Systems, said the Twitter reports of the bin Laden operation were most notable for how unexceptional they are.
"When I hear from people about things like this, they want to find a way to ensure that it doesn't happen again," Floyd said. "But it's going to happen. It's no longer significant or unusual. It's just the norm. It's just Sunday."
The most effective thing the government can do to mitigate the amount of sensitive information that seeps into the Twittersphere, Floyd said, is to train soldiers and government officials to be scrupulous about what they put into the public domain.
One of the military's greatest successes with social media, he said, is that, despite most soldiers having access to Facebook, Twitter and other social media, there hasn't been a significant report of a U.S military operation scuttled by online loose lips.
Threatwatch Alert
Thousands of cyber attacks occur each day
See the latest threats
Close [ x ] More from Nextgov
// 5:13 PM ET
X CLOSE Don't show again
Like us on Facebook | <urn:uuid:1caace37-5f97-40b5-9b34-cdc023336083> | 2 | 1.507813 | 0.055299 | en | 0.977287 | http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2011/05/tweets-heard-round-the-world-live-reporting-of-bin-laden-raid-shouldnt-be-surprising-experts-say/48994/ |
MONROVIA, Liberia, Sept. 15— The West African intervention force in Liberia used tanks and gunboats to pound the presidential mansion in the capital today in an effort to dislodge rebel soldiers who say they have taken over the country.
Mortars and gunfire rocked Monrovia as dusk fell. The fighting heralds the emergence of yet another armed faction in Liberia's five-year civil war. The rebels in the mansion were led by Gen. Charles Julue, a commander in the army of the slain former dictator, Samuel K. Doe.
General Julue fled Liberia in 1990 after Charles Taylor, a former aide to President Doe, invaded from the Ivory Coast on Dec. 24, 1989. But a faxed message sent by a group in Philadelphia asserted that he and a faction called the Liberian New Horizons had seized control in Monrovia. Most of the Liberian factions have representatives in the United States.
Mr. Taylor's popular rebellion to end General Doe's dictatorship ballooned into a tribal war that the United Nations now estimates has killed more than 150,000 people. General Doe himself was killed by a breakaway rebel faction in 1990.
Brig. Gen. A. S. Mukhtar, chief of staff of the eight-nation West African force, said fighters of the new rebel faction infiltrated the mansion, the national radio station and the telecommunications center around 2 A.M. It appeared that the influence of the new faction led by General Julue did not extend far beyond the gates of the mansion, an Israeli-built fortress backing onto the Atlantic.
The fighting came just three days after the West African nation's three main warring factions signed a peace agreement. The accord caused an uproar in Monrovia, particularly because of a provision for replacing a civilian-dominated interim government with a council of warlords.
Today members of the intervention force tried for hours to negotiate with the attackers, then opened fire from three gunboats and some tanks that surrounded the mansion. | <urn:uuid:c44439d0-ae5c-49cc-a57b-7a43a1641c09> | 2 | 2.0625 | 0.024854 | en | 0.954047 | http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/16/world/west-african-force-pounds-liberian-rebels-holed-up-in-capital.html?src=pm |
HONG KONG, July 13— Now that Beijing has won its long-coveted Olympics, it must confront the costs of staging the Games. The real numbers may never be fully disclosed, but the vote today by the International Olympic Committee is likely to be remembered more as a political victory than as an economic windfall.
Chinese officials estimate that they will spend $20 billion to modernize Beijing by 2008. In one of the most ambitious municipal makeovers in history, Beijing will build dozens of sports facilities, upgrade its public transportation and communications networks, and clean up its blighted environment.
That last goal will require converting 20,000 city buses from diesel fuel to natural gas, nearly doubling the length of the subway system and relocating dozens of coal-burning factories outside Beijing.
''The whole city will be transformed,'' said Andy Xie, an economist at Morgan Stanley here. ''But most of the money will be spent on the environment.''
Xie said the Olympics would provide Beijing with much-needed money to confront problems like poorly-planned streets, which are prone to traffic jams, and the desert, which is expanding at an alarming rate north of Beijing. The projected spending is nearly half the city's annual economic output.
Beijing is the latest in a long line of upwardly mobile cities to seize on the Olympics as a way to better itself. Some, like Sydney, which played host to the Summer Games last year, benefited from the increased visibility. Tourist arrivals there increased 15 percent in the last quarter, beating the forecasts.
But other cities that have hosted the Olympics, like Montreal and Barcelona, were saddled with billions of dollars in debt. Even Los Angeles and Atlanta, which turned a profit on their Games, reaped little in the way of long-term economic benefits.
The Games will have less of an impact on the rest of China, particularly since the preparations will coincide with the early years of the country's membership in the World Trade Organization. Most analysts expect China to be granted entry into the W.T.O. in November, and formally join by 2002.
By opening markets and eliminating trade barriers, economists say, the W.T.O. will make far bigger ripples in China's trade, investment and corporate sector than a one-time event, even one of Olympic proportions.
At $20 billion, the Games would not even be the country's biggest public-works project. That remains the Three Gorges Dam, which is rising on the Yangtze River in central China at a cost of more than $30 billion. All told, the government spends $100 billion a year on public investments.
''The infrastructure projects in Beijing could draw resources away from other parts of the country, because China is still fiscally constrained,'' said Dong Tao, a China economist at Credit Suisse First Boston here.
Still, Tao said that the Olympics would boost confidence in China, particularly among foreign investors. He noted that Beijing wants these Games to be state-of-the-art, which will stimulate China's growing information technology industry as well as open the door to foreign companies.
As these companies scramble to provide mobile phones and fiber-optic networks at the Olympics, Goldman Sachs estimates that foreign direct investment in Beijing will jump from $1.5 billion in 2000 to nearly $5 billion in 2008.
Another major opportunity for China is in tourism. The country currently attracts 10 million tourists a year, generating about $16 billion in foreign exchange revenues. That is about the same as tiny Hong Kong. Xie said a successful Olympics could double or triple that number.
Goldman Sachs estimates that tourism revenue will grow 18 percent a year between 2002 and 2008. That, combined with the public works spending, leads the company to estimate that the Games will add 0.3 percent a year to China's economic growth between 2002 and 2008, or a cumulative gain of $32 billion.
The Sydney Olympics will add about $4 billion to the economic output of Australia between 1996 and 2006, according to a report by KPMG, a consulting company. But Australia has a smaller economy than China. And the total cost of those Games, including roads and other public works, was less than $3 billion.
Some experts on China said that the Olympics, with its vast construction projects and heavy dose of national pride, will also be a breeding ground for corruption and cost overruns. Even Sydney, which was subjected to relentless scrutiny by the news media, exceeded its budget by $38 million.
''The big lesson for us is that you don't need seven years to get ready,'' said Graham Cassidy, a former spokesman for the Sydney Games. ''In that euphoric period after you win, there's too much time to dawdle. When people dawdle, they spend huge chunks of money. If the deadline is a lot closer, people tend to be more focused.'' | <urn:uuid:c779f995-e636-4d0d-832a-34c561832fac> | 2 | 2.265625 | 0.022039 | en | 0.956902 | http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/14/sports/olympics-cost-environmental-transportation-improvements-could-send-price-soaring.html |
(Page 2 of 2)
As a result, security experts say, cooperation between the European police and intelligence agencies has grown substantially since Sept. 11, 2001. They said that, despite Washington's anger over French and German opposition to the war in Iraq, European and American intelligence groups continue to work closely. And this has led to the arrest of numerous Al Qaeda suspects in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Italy.
''I think that at an intelligence level Europe has made tremendous progress in degrading the capability of Al Qaeda in certain key countries,'' said Magnus Ranstorp of the Center on Terrorism and Political Violence at St. Andrews University in Scotland. ''But there is still much to do, notably on the issue of identity theft. It is still easy to buy a passport off the street in Europe. The United States is sealing itself off and the question is whether Europe should follow.''
Most experts here say no. ''Every European country has strengthened its police and judiciary since 9/11,'' said Sergio Romano, a former Italian ambassador to Russia and NATO. ''But they cannot go much beyond that. There is a great deal of resistance in Europe to more radical measures impinging on individual rights.''
Other political variables also affect European attitudes. Britain was quick to endorse President Bush's war on terrorism as evidence of its ''special relationship'' with the United States. But Britain, like France and Germany, is also wary of radicalizing Europe's large Muslim populations by appearing to link them to Islamic terrorism (although France risked Muslim anger with its decision to ban the head scarf, in the name of social integration).
Spain, like Britain, embraced the American approach, principally in order to place its fight against ETA in the context of a global war on terrorism. France, though, has played a more crucial tactical role in the Basque conflict, by clamping down on ETA's traditional use of France's own Basque region as a logistical rear guard. Several top leaders of ETA are among 124 suspects or militants currently in French jails, and until last Thursday, those arrests, in addition to arrests and weapons seizures in Spain, had convinced Spanish leaders that ETA had been weakened.
More than anything, political differences over Iraq have altered European perceptions of the terrorist threat. ''I think Europeans soured on the 'war on terrorism' because the United States applied it to the war in Iraq,'' said Gary Saymore, director of studies at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, who served as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton. ''Before Iraq, I don't think there were major differences in terms of policy responses.''
Yet even if Al Qaeda is ultimately blamed for the Madrid bombings, few experts believe Europe will respond as the United States did after 9/11. ''Some weeks ago, we discussed whether Europe would react violently to its own 9/11,'' Mr. Ortega said, ''and we agreed that instead it would take measures to increase the safety of citizens, to advance on homeland security, to improve ties with the Islamic world. I think that's what we'll see.''
On the other hand, if ETA is found responsible, the experts believe the Madrid bombings should still serve as a warning. ''Among counterterrorism experts watching Al Qaeda and other Islamic groups,'' Mr. Ranstorp said, ''the question is not 'if,' but 'when.'''
Photos: The Shadow of Terror -- A normally packed Madrid subway line, a day after bombs killed nearly 200 people. (Photo by European Pressphoto Agency)(pg. 1); Friday was a day of mourning in Seville and across Spain. Will more Europeans now embrace President Bush's war on terrorism? (Photo by Agence France-Presse)(pg. 3) | <urn:uuid:fd440c20-dd58-4499-9311-e19c767d9206> | 2 | 2 | 0.023669 | en | 0.964134 | http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/weekinreview/the-world-target-europe-knows-fear-but-this-time-it-s-different.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm |
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Thursday she expects the court to rule on a gay marriage case possibly as early as next summer.
In an interview the AP, Ginsburg, 81, said she expects such a case to be heard and decided by June 2016, or possibly a year earlier.
“I think the court will not do what they did in the old days when they continually ducked the issue of miscegenation,” she said of the high court's 1967 ruling striking down interracial marriage bans.
“If a case is properly before the court, they will take it,” Ginsburg said.
Ginsburg was in the majority on two marriage equality cases decided last year. In one case, the court struck down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which led to the federal government's recognition of the legal marriages of gay couples. The court declined to rule on the merits of the second case, effectively allowing a lower court's ruling invalidating California's marriage ban, Proposition 8, to stand.
The DOMA decision set off a flurry of litigation challenging all 31 of the nation's bans and a race back to the Supreme Court. So far, two appeals courts have sided with plaintiffs. | <urn:uuid:f15905a7-b02a-4abe-8758-ced62bf49d47> | 2 | 2.078125 | 0.021061 | en | 0.952047 | http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=19139 |
Root DSE
The only attributes that give an answer are namingContexts and
supportedLDAPVersion. I hope I have interpreted correctly the
BTW, RFC2251, section 3.2 describes namingContexts as things as
'mastered by a particular server'. Given the usage of 'master'
or 'mastered' in the RFCs, I am not sure if a server that has
a replica of a subtree has to include it in its response. I cannot
imagine the purpose of namingContexts if they are not to be included.
All other attributes, except for one, that I will get into below,
are for capabilities we do not support [yet].
The missing one is the schemaSubentry. It can be argued that it
is the most important data in the DSE. But it requires things
we do not have yet and that lead me to further questions.
How do we give a DN to the subschema, can we just cannibalize the
CN=SCHEMA that is there in skeleton?
Am I right in thinking that the schema requires an overhaul of
the config file?
I would appreciate that people compared the output of the DSE to | <urn:uuid:bbb2a49a-87cd-49e1-b396-3fc68b094f53> | 2 | 1.648438 | 0.424425 | en | 0.893373 | http://www.openldap.org/lists/openldap-devel/199904/msg00043.html |
Feeling ambivalent about teenagers' 'right' to buy violent video games? So is the Supreme Court
Susan Nielsen | By Susan Nielsen | The Oregonian
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on June 29, 2011 at 8:40 PM, updated June 30, 2011 at 8:18 AM
SUPREME_COURT_VIOLENT_VIDEO_GAMES_18039283.JPGView full sizeJack Schooner, 16, looks at Grand Theft Auto video game in California on Monday. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that it is unconstitutional to bar minors from buying or renting violent video games, saying government doesn't have the authority to "restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed" despite complaints that the popular and fast-changing technology allows the young to simulate acts of brutality.
The Supreme Court overturned a state law this week banning the sale of violent video games to minors. The lopsided 7-2 vote masks a deep ambivalence among justices about teenagers and the First Amendment.
In fact, the four separate opinions in this case are a must-read for anyone interested in free speech. They show how messy and inconvenient it is to extend First Amendment protections to everyone -- including to teenagers who are already exquisitely attuned to any perceived violation of their rights.
The 2005 California law forbade the sale or rental of violent video games to people younger than 18. Retailers who violated the ban faced a fine of up to $1,000. The goal, supported by the Democratic-led Legislature and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was to protect minors from an industry that glorifies virtual rape, murder and assassination.
The law didn't prevent teenagers from playing violent games, and it didn't bar parents from buying the games, either. The Supreme Court kicked it to the curb anyway -- but not without significant handwringing and internal disagreement.
The justices' opinions broke four ways, starting with Justice Clarence Thomas' characteristically old-school dissent.
The Puritan dad: Children, said Thomas, have limited free-speech rights. The conservative justice dredged up stories about Puritan society, belaboring the traditional and absolute power of fathers to decide what their children learn or read. He saw the California law as supporting that natural parental authority, not undermining minors' so-called "rights."
(Thomas' logic has no basis in state or federal case law, as the court majority acidly pointed out. But Thomas is rarely deterred by such details.)
The good-government liberal: Justice Stephen Breyer, a reliable liberal vote, also voted to uphold the video-game ban but for different reasons. In a separate dissent, Breyer cited the conventional wisdom that violent video games have no socially redeeming values, and he quoted research suggesting that games encourage aggression, suppress empathy and reduce impulse control. The California law helps families make good choices, he said.
"This case is ultimately less about censorship than it is about education," Breyer wrote. "... Sometimes children need to learn by making choices for themselves. Other times, choices are made for children -- by their parents, by their teachers, and by the people acting democratically through their governments."
The flaming free-speechers: Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the court's majority opinion for fellow conservative Anthony Kennedy and the liberal trio of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. These judges rightly said the court has no business creating a new category of speech (violence-tinged entertainment) and classifying it as uniquely dangerous. They said the government should butt out of private matters involving words, ideas, expressions and games except in narrow circumstances -- for example, if a person causes chaos by yelling "fire" in a crowded theater.
These judges didn't try to defend the social merits of violent video games. In fact, they almost apologized to the California Legislature for overturning the ban. Yet they stuck to their guns.
"(W)e have long recognized that it is difficult to distinguish politics from entertainment, and dangerous to try," Scalia wrote.
The wary parents: Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts agreed with the majority to a point. However, they wrote a concurrence leaving themselves an out. If video games become sophisticated enough to actually cause depravity rather than merely celebrate it, or if someone writes a tighter law, they're willing to reconsider.
They also expressed revulsion about the games that simulate rape and murder, and they're worried about emerging technologies that will allow players to commit virtual crimes in increasingly vivid ways. They didn't hide behind abstract principles like their peers in the majority. Instead, they posed a question on behalf of incredulous parents everywhere. (We're going to treat minors' access to "Resident Evil 4" as an unfettered right? What?)
I do think the court made the right decision by overturning the ban. Though parents often expose their kids to too much violence, and companies often market games irresponsibly, the government creates a bigger problem by labeling certain games (or books or ideas) as too dangerous for citizens' own good.
Still, I don't think anyone should be misled by the resounding 7-2 vote or by the high court's strong record of protecting free speech. When it comes to impressionable teenagers and their freedoms, the court is like the country itself.
Forever unsettled.
-- Associate editor Susan Nielsen, The Oregonian | <urn:uuid:eb11d76c-6d51-4444-ac3d-3f00c26e0cca> | 2 | 1.921875 | 0.032376 | en | 0.954798 | http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/susan_nielsen/index.ssf/2011/06/feeling_ambivalent_about_teena.html |
Parrot Enrichment
Parrot toys provide opportunities for our birds to participate in activities in our homes that would replicate some of the natural behaviors of a parrot in the wild; foraging, evading predators, bathing, socializing, nesting, exercise and flying. In our homes we don't want to encourage nesting behavior or replicate the need to evade predators. But we do want to encourage other natural behaviors. We can do this in the form of play with bird toys that offer parrots opportunities to engage in activities such as chewing, manipulating, foraging, and destroying toys. Parrot toys provide opportunities for our birds to have something to do during the day and afford our birds the possibility to make choices, solve problems and keep active.
Photo credit: Sydney Kaderman
If you Google bird toys or parrot toys you will find an overwhelming assortment of toys to choose from and for a new parrot owner the task of finding toys or parts to make toys can be challenging. How do we go about finding the right toy? The one they will play with? I think that is where making your own toys has its advantages. If you can determine what your parrot likes you can customize a toy that appeals to him and one that he is more likely to interact with.
I've divided this section of the website into a few categories of toys that have worked for me over the years. It is at these pages I plan to share some ideas for homemade bird toys as well as sources for ready made parrot toys that I've found essential to my own parrot toy enrichment program. Many toys will fall into more than one category. A destructible toy may also serve as a foraging toy, but if it is primarily a chewing or shredding toy I will list it on the Destructible Toys page.
Toy Categories
Foraging Toys
Foraging toys give your parrot an opportunity to work for his food as he would do in the wild.
It is my belief that providing your bird with foraging toys is an essential form of parrot enrichment. Examples of foraging toys are those in which treats can be hidden, threaded on a skewer, stuffed in a hole, or otherwise incorporated into the toy.
Destructible Toys
These are toys that are meant to be destroyed and provide your bird an opportunity to chew.
Chewing is a major activity in the wild and a natural activity for the companion parrot. Examples are toys made out of wood, such as pine and other soft woods (larger parrots should be challenged with harder woods), leather, vine balls and grass mats, soft plastics, paper and cardboard. These types of toys are often referred to as chewable or shreddable bird toys.
Manipulative Toys
A manipulative toy often will serve as a foraging toy. If a foraging toy requires your bird to open a drawer, spin a wheel or otherwise manipulate a device to get a treat or toy I will list it on the Manipulative Toy page of this website.
Manipulative or Puzzle toys offer your bird the opportunity to problem solve.
Parrot foot toys are very easy toys to make from a variety of things such as small pieces of wood, leather strips, wooden beads, etc. The list is as long as your imagination.
Parrot foot toys are toys that your bird can hold in his foot.
Foot Toys
Stainless steel bells are often added to bird toys to make noise. Some parrots like to push buttons of children's music box toys. Rattles and clackers can be made out of PVC pipe or plastic bottles.
Noisy bird toys would be parrot toys that ring, rattle or clang.
Noisy Toys
Swings and bungees are good examples of parrot toys that provide birds with an opportunity to exercise.
Parrot exercise toys encourage movement.
Exercise Toys
There are two categories of toys often seen on parrot toy sites that I have intentionally left out:
Comfort and Preening Toys.
Descriptions for the category of parrot comfort toys often read to the effect, "Birds enjoy physical contact with each other in the wild. Pet birds need the same thing; they like to cuddle with or crawl into something soft. This helps alleviate stress and provides a sense of security for your bird."
Examples of parrot comfort toys usually are perch tents or snuggle huts. I see potential problems with these items triggering nesting activity and as a result, increased reproductive hormone production which can lead to behavior problems.
I disagree with the idea pet birds need to cuddle or snuggle with something. In her article, Hormonal Behavior: Is Your Parrot A Victim?, Pamela Clark, CVT, CPBC, quotes Dr. Fern Vansant, "Physical contact is important in the nest and lavished on young birds. As young adults join the flock, most are driven by a need to sharpen foraging and flying skills. Most flocks are characterized by a discipline that maintains a critical distance between individuals while flying, feeding and roosting. In most cases, physical contact is reserved for courting and breeding." Pamela Clark goes on to write, "Parrots in the wild who are not breeding enjoy each other's company, but this type of bond is maintained through parallel activities and brief, playful interactions, not physical closeness."
As for the idea comfort toys help to alleviate stress, I would again quote Pamela Clark, "If a bird needs a "comfort" toy, then that means that the parrot is stressed. Instead of providing some sort of soft thing for cuddling, changes must instead be made to the environment to reduce the bird's stress. Then it won't need a comfort toy. Parrots don't have comfort toys in the wild, whereas they do forage, chew stuff up and figure out problems."
I would encourage you to read the article Hormonal Behavior: Is Your Parrot A Victim? which can be found at .
Comfort Toys
When I see descriptions for preening toys it usually reads something like this, "Stress and boredom can lead to your bird over preening or feather plucking. Preening toys are a great outlet for birds to satisfy their need to preen."
Parrot preening toys are usually made of materials, like strands of cotton rope or fabric that people think can be preened by a bird. They are often advertised as having qualities that will encourage your parrot to spend hours working on the strands of the preening toy which will satisfy the need to preen and keep your bird from plucking its feathers. It has been my experience that parrots don't spend hours working on strands of preening toys and you will get more interaction and sustained activity by giving your parrot foraging and destructible toys.
Pamela Clark, CVT, CPBC, is a well respect parrot behavior consultant who specializes in feather destructive behavior. I asked her about preening toys and she had this to say, "Parrots need to preen their feathers, and if they aren't doing that normally, then the need is to increase bathing, examine their diet, provide enrichment in the environment, etc. Parrots certainly can differentiate between feathers and cotton rope and in my experience aren't likely to preen anything except their own feathers and the hair of an overly-bonded human."
Preening Toys | <urn:uuid:d0dbf1c6-81ff-4126-b99c-f2f5901e00d5> | 2 | 2.46875 | 0.0914 | en | 0.950105 | http://www.parrotenrichment.com/toys.html |
Promoting Altruism This Emotional Life on PBS
Promoting altruism
In order for altruism to promote happiness, it has to be freely offered.
Volunteer commitments, donations, and acts of kindness won’t make you happier if you feel obligated, overcommitted, or pressured.
Promoting altruism
Promoting altruism
Suggestions for creating more kindness in your life:
• Pick one day a week to go out of your way to do extra acts of kindness; if you take on too much it can become routine or a burden, and making it a special event seems to promote positive feelings
• Vary your acts of kindness; mix up what you do and who you do it for to keep it spontaneous and fresh; this has the additional benefit of exercising your creativity
• Think of ways to be generous that don’t cost any money; giving the gift of your time and talents can be just as valuable to others and helps you practice your strengths
• Surprise someone with a gift, favor, phone call, or letter
• Try to do more of something that doesn’t come easily to you (such as, striking up a conversation with a stranger, or being patient and courteous in traffic)
• Think of kind acts to do anonymously; tell no one and expect nothing in return
Acts of kindness can start a chain of events where the recipient of your kindness is grateful and is motivated to “give back” or “pay it forward” by helping others. Research has found that people who witness kind and heroic acts are more likely to be generous themselves.
There are times when people may not welcome your kindness. When you are kind or generous to another you are putting yourself in a position of greater power—even if it is simply the very well-intentioned power to give freely.
Giving with thoughtfulness, respect, and humility—and with no expectations in return—can help promote the positive feelings of kindness, rather than triggering negative ones.
The How of Happiness, by Sonja Lyubormirsky
Find Help
| <urn:uuid:11739fa5-9137-4c3b-91a7-6aa4fbbcf41c> | 3 | 2.53125 | 0.020559 | en | 0.916016 | http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/node/333/print/print |
NEW YORK, April 2 (Reuters) - General Electric Co and Intel Corp have joined forces to develop devices to help doctors monitor patients' health remotely, an area they believe could become a multibillion-dollar business.
The U.S. conglomerate and the world's largest chip maker will develop devices that they expect to save money by allowing health care workers to monitor the sick and the elderly outside of hospitals or medical offices.
They plan to invest $250 million in the field over the next five years.
"The digitization of health care is in the first inning," said Jeff Immelt, chief executive of GE, the world's largest maker of medical-imaging devices. "We think it's going to grow quickly."
It could become a "multibillion-dollar" business, he said.
By treating patients remotely, the venture aims to reduce the cost of health care for the elderly and people with chronic conditions.
"Something like 80 percent of the spending today in the health care system is on chronic care patients," said Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel. "This has the potential to take that down dramatically because a day at home costs a heck of a lot less than a day in the hospital."
The two companies estimate current market demand for these products amounts to $3 billion a year, a figure that they expect to grow to $7.7 billion by 2012.
GE and Intel already have products on the market aimed at filling this niche. GE's health-care unit will take over distribution and marketing of Intel's Health Guide product.
That product allows physicians to check vital signs like blood pressure and weight remotely and to provide patients with reminders related to their health, such as when to take medicine.
GE offers QuietCare, a system primarily used in nursing homes that tracks residents' movements and can alert doctors to falls. GE's current home health-monitoring business generates less than $100 million in revenue, Immelt said.
Immelt said GE sees the opportunity to use this technology around the world.
"The needs are the same globally," he told reporters. "The needs in places like Japan and France, with aging populations are exactly the same as here in the U.S."
Intel chose to join forces with GE because it already has a sizable operation selling health care products to institutional buyers like hospitals and insurance companies, which are the primary customers for these devices.
GE's healthcare arm, which Immelt headed before taking on the top job at the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company, also makes medical imaging devices like MRI machines. Profit at the unit last year fell 7 percent to $2.85 billion on revenue that rose 2 percent to $17.39 billion.
GE shares were up 7.5 percent at $10.93 and Intel's rose 5.7 percent to $15.89 on a day that U.S. stocks were sharply higher. (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Derek Caney)
| <urn:uuid:0d6b6433-92ce-4cdd-bb30-6b5af06658cb> | 2 | 1.695313 | 0.025625 | en | 0.964037 | http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2344339,00.asp |
Facebook Twitter
Enjoy our fun science experiments, make cool projects with easy ideas for children, show friends & family what you've discovered and most importantly, have fun! Sci. Science for Kids. Water is an amazing substance!
Science for Kids
It can form into a beautiful snowflake in its solid state or evaporate into the air as a gas. Experiment with solids, liquids and gases to learn more about these states of matter. How do objects move? How far can a rubber band stretch? How does energy affect what we can see, hear or feel? What lies beneath the surface of our Earth? The human body is made of various chemicals to help us smell, see, move, and most importantly, survive.
Have some fun playing with science. Tag along with our friend Meg A. BrainPOP - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts. Kids' Games, Animals, Photos, Stories, and More. | <urn:uuid:71e59398-15ee-4dcb-b2f0-d4265df10822> | 4 | 3.625 | 0.173659 | en | 0.909678 | http://www.pearltrees.com/acodonnell/science/id4064972 |
Tips For Shooting Wildlife
Moth on a Flower
Bee on a Flower
Slow Down and Control Your Breathing and Heart Rate
These tips, above all else, are what I’ve had to keep in mind to get my shots. By slowing down, you are letting the animal not think that you are a threat to it and you probably will not bother it while it is going about its normal business. This way you can move in closer and closer to the animal. Further, you may want to switch on manual focus: in my experience I’ve found that the “chirping” noise made by my camera’s autofocus has sounded a bit like a bird. That can scare off some animals and you don’t want to do that in order to get the shot.
By slowing down and stopping at some intervals you also calm yourself down and your heart rate won’t pick up. When you’re excited, your body language shows it. Animals communicate heavily through body language and are masters at reading it. The picture above was taken after slowing and quietly approaching the bee while it was on the flower. In addition, I made sure that I did not block any incoming light in order to not alert the bee to my presence. Manual focus was used.
Bug Love
Find Intimacy and Love
Intimacy in the animal world is always displayed: sometimes we just don’t pay attention to it or read into the body language of animals. That’s where slowing down and observing nature as occurrences happen comes in.
Yes, it looks like the bugs above are, “doing it like they do on the discovery channel.” In truth, I don’t know what they’re doing. But they’re surely not fighting and it’s not something one sees everyday. A conclusion can be made to say that they are being intimate.
Duck and Ducklings
As humans, we know that intimacy and love can all be photographed and some of history’s most iconic shots show intimacy. In the shot above, a mother duck is leading her ducklings in a swim. Some people find ducks and ducklings so darn cute and the shot above displays the bond between a mother and her babies. Her babies obviously follow her anywhere.
This can be easily shot, especially around summertime. All you have to do is go looking for it and observe. Approaching a family of ducks too quickly and enthusiastically can set off an alarm with the parents who will quickly turn against you. Granted, this shot was taken with a telephoto zoom lens right as the ducks were coming out from underneath a bridge. But the framing is what counts here as the point of intimacy and animal love is captured.
Squirrel in heaven
In this shot, a man is feeding a squirrel. Now how often do you see squirrels taking food straight out of a person’s hand? It’s obviously not often. However just like your dog, cat or bird, animals are always happy for a free meal. The reason why this shot looks intimate is because of the lighting. The squirrel is in a spot in which the rays from the sun coming through the trees is brightest. Additionally, the squirrel looks very happy and with the “spotlight” on him it looks almost as if it’s in heaven and being fed by the hand of God.
Despite all this, the image isn’t perfect. A tighter crop would have been much better: to the point of only showing the full body of the squirrel, the rays of light and the hand. The reason why it wasn’t achieved was because of the kit lens being used (Canon XSi) and because I wasn’t able to get in closer in time. The fence really takes away from the true focus of the image.
Go For the Unusual
Animals do weird things that make us laugh all the time. Think about the times that your cat falls asleep on your laptop keyboard, your ferret getting its head stuck in a tube, or your puppy spinning around and chasing his tail. Capturing these moments always elicit responses from people: anything from being in awe to nostalgia amongst other expressions.
Squirrel climb
How many times have you seen a squirrel climb up onto someone’s knee to get food? Most squirrels are not that brazen or bold. In fact, most animals aren’t. This is all part of the unusual. Capturing the unusual makes people stare are your pictures longer and gets expressions/comments out of them. Getting the timing perfect and documenting the exact moment the event happens can sometimes be better than filming or seeing it happen in real life.
The above image was taken with a Canon S5 IS hacked with the CHDK: similar to the firmware update for the 5D Mk II blogged about earlier.
Look For Action Shots
Seagull Battle
Searching for action shots and timing your shutter release perfectly should be a no-brainer for you sports photographers. The animal kingdom is filled with action: from hunting, to fighting, to following the pecking order and beyond. This is the case with the above image. The seagull on the left and the seagull in the mid-ground were fighting over the lizard in the mouth of the seagull in flight. When the lizard was thrown into the air and landed on the ground again, the bird in flight swooped in and gobbled up the free meal all by being opportunistic. The bird in the mid-ground is in total confusion as to what’s going on and doesn’t notice his meal is gone. The bird on the left is angry that it’s meal is gone.
Bird Sand Bathing
In this shot, the bird is not in pain or did not land hard on the sand. In fact, it’s sand batheing in order to get rid of an bugs or parasites. You may not see something like this often, but timing your shot correctly will give your audience the feeling that you probably got when looking at this picture: what’s going on here? What a moment!
Happy shooting (photos, that is)!
1. Alan B Steele says
Unless you’re shooting at a zoo or park the best time of day to capture wildlife is at dawn or dusk. Insects and small mamals especially need time in the morning to warm up; butterflies will spread their wings to capture the sun and many other insects will climb plants to “display” to the rising sun.
The LCD screen is almoat essential for macro work and as both P&S and DSLR systems have this they should both produce acceptable results.
2. Alan B Steele says
One more tip. Don’t let your profile break the horizon, keep low with you shaddow behind you.
3. says
I am trying to make a foray into wildlife photography. I am shooting with Canon 1d M4 and a 5d M3. I use a 600mm telephoto and 2.0 extenderIII. I don’t know if I am just expecting too much of the equipment. It seems that no matter what I try the focus seems soft when I zoom in the shot in lightroom. I am using a promaster tripod and a Wimberly II mount for support. I usually shoot with the camera on manual, however, for wildlife I have been using shutter priority basically to shoot birds. I may simply be expecting too much of the equipment? | <urn:uuid:d52124db-ccd0-45b7-93e1-2b54f18dca77> | 2 | 2.171875 | 0.030551 | en | 0.960632 | http://www.photographybay.com/2009/07/05/tips-for-shooting-wildlife/ |
Journal Article
The effect of traditional birth attendant training on maternal and neonatal care
To determine whether traditional birth attendants (TBAs) trained via the “SMART Dai” method were superior to untrained TBAs in knowledge and practice regarding maternal and newborn care.
In a cluster-randomized trial in the Dera Ghazi Khan District of Punjab, Pakistan, 120 rural communities each with a population of approximately 5000 were randomly assigned to a community-based intervention (CBI) or a health systems intervention (HSI). In the CBI communities, 288 TBAs underwent an innovative 8-day training course on maternal and newborn care, initially evaluated by pre- and post-tests. After an average of 19 months post-training, 277 TBAs, together with 257 comparably chosen untrained TBAs from the HSI communities, were tested and interviewed. Patients from both referred and non-referred deliveries were also interviewed.
Characteristics of TBAs in the two groups were similar. The TBAs were evaluated according to various measures of knowledge, skill, and practice (including referral), with patient reports on practice compared with TBA reports. By most measures, trained TBAs outperformed untrained ones, often to significant degrees.
SMART Dai training seemed to be an important factor in the significant reduction in perinatal mortality in the CBI areas. Properly trained TBAs can substantially contribute to improved delivery outcomes. | <urn:uuid:d95564f9-3191-4826-8d18-166c6ea46b25> | 2 | 2.375 | 0.020121 | en | 0.958257 | http://www.popcouncil.org/research/the-effect-of-traditional-birth-attendant-training-on-maternal-and-neonatal |
Skip Nav
Autism On the Rise
Is Autism on the Rise or Are Parents Misreporting?
Parents were alarmed when the one in 150 statistic was released a while back. Now, a new study says as many as one in every 91 children in the United States has been diagnosed with some form of the developmental disorder. The statistic is a result of 78,000 verbal interviews with parents of children between the ages of 3 and 17 years old. And, some experts worry that the numbers are inaccurate because there's no way of knowing who made those diagnoses. Additionally, experts say 40 percent of kids who were once diagnosed with some form of autism, no longer meet the criteria. Do you believe autism is on the rise or are parents who need resources too quick to label their offspring?
Latest Moms | <urn:uuid:9ead4679-f61d-4552-a2e9-2c5782f1e829> | 2 | 2.171875 | 0.0973 | en | 0.980125 | http://www.popsugar.com/moms/Autism-Rise-5450740 |
High pressure and adjustable propane regulators
High Pressure LP Gas Regulators
High pressure LP Gas regulators, like all propane regulators stand between higher pressure on the inlet side and appliances or equipment requiring a lower pressure on the outlet side. Red propane regulators signify high pressure modulation and are often used in combination with a second stage regulator in a two stage regulator system. However, they can also be used independently in systems where appliance or gas equipment demands are high and the only way to satisfy requirements is with a high pressure regulator.
High Pressure Regulator Use
Propane high pressure regulators used independently are servicing high demand appliances and equipment. While residential applications primarily consist of service pressures measured in water column (ounces per square inch), high demand propane equipment utilizes service pressures measured in pounds. High capacity and demand equipment such as roofing tar kettles, crop dryers and industrial boilers will use high pressure regulators because the propane demand is such that delivery pressure must be high enough to satisfy the appliances demand. Certain high pressure regulators are designed to work in either propane liquid or vapor service while others are designed to work in LP Gas vapor service only. The propane delivery capacities of these high pressure regulators satisfy BTU ratings up to 10,000,000 BTU/hr and even higher! This means that the usage can be in excess of 110 gallons per hour and supplying that amount of gas at a constant level requires high level pressure regulation. So how does that compare to a residential tank regulator that supplies 11" water column? A 10 psig regulator delivers pressure of about 277" water column, or 25 times the amount delivered by a standard residential tank regulator. Also know that high pressure regulators can deliver up to 100 psig!
Keep in mind that high pressure regulators vary in design, purpose and pressure delivery and just because the regulator is red doesn't mean that it's suitable for any installation requiring high pressure regulation. Just like any other regulator, high pressure regulators are utilized in accordance with laws, regulations and the manufacturers recommendations. As described above, it is safe to say that regulators are not all the same as all high pressure regulators are not all the same. They are in fact all very different.
Adjustable High Pressure Regulators
LP Gas flow pressure adjustment in high pressure propane systems is made possible by direct operated regulators, another name for adjustable high pressure regulators. The primary purpose of an adjustable regulator is to ensure that the required pressure is delivered to the appliance when the liquid level of the tank (or cylinder) is such that vaporization is not fast enough to meet the gas demands of the appliance. In other words, an adjustable regulator compensates for the lack of vaporization by allowing more pressure through the outlet and into the downstream gas line. Adjustable high pressure regulators are commonly seen attached to bottles and tanks supplying roofing tar kettles, asphalt mixers and on propane powered torches. Direct operated regulators are not designed to act as a service valve but rather to allow for the manual intervention in the regulation of delivery pressures as needed by the appliance.
Relief Valves and High Pressure Regulators
LP Gas systems operating with high pressure lines downstream of the regulator sometimes require additional protection due to the possibility of excessive pressure buildup in the piping. Unlike other propane regulators that incorporate an internal relief valve as part of the regulator functionality, some high pressure regulators do not have relief valves or vents built in (and are designed as such) because of their intended application. Under certain circumstances, high pressure regulators must be fitted with a pressure relief valve or the downstream piping must be fitted with a safety relief valve. The reason for additional relief valves is due to the high pressures these gas lines are subject to, even with a regulator. For instance, piping that installed on the outlet side of a high pressure regulator is itself under high pressure and if the pressure builds to an excessive level, the piping joints and connections can form leaks due to pressures beyond what they are designed to withstand. A supplemental relief valve installed at the regulator or in the piping itself will vent excessive gas line pressure before a leak can form at any of the pipe interconnections and fittings. | <urn:uuid:8ef28848-7dc4-47e7-9a50-b0686a93341e> | 2 | 2.15625 | 0.039886 | en | 0.937997 | http://www.propane101.com/highpressureregulators.htm |
Changes in Mortgage Rules May Lead to Factory Lending
Marcus Arkan, a mortgage expert and CTO of Syndicate Mortgages, talks about the implications of the changes in Canadian housing and mortgage rules on credit unions and their existing customers
(PRWEB) December 03, 2012
Ottawa, Ontario - The recent amendments in Canadian housing and mortgage rules have not left anyone unaffected. The home sellers will be affected with a reduced demand for homes. In addition, the buyers will have to face increased prices of homes and increased costs of mortgages. Both of these combined will slow down the housing and mortgage market leading to a slower economic growth.
The reduction in the amortization period of mortgages from 30 years to 25 years has led to an increase in the overall costs of mortgage. The monthly mortgage costs and total interest costs have increased significantly making it more unaffordable for individuals to undertake mortgage loans and hence purchase homes.
Some of the amended mortgage rules announced by Ottawa, particularly, will be detrimental for credit unions and their customers alike. According to the Credit Union Central of Canada (CUCC), the rules imposed by the Federal Government will eventually promote commoditization of mortgages, leaving them undifferentiated, and will not allow for lending characterized by lower risks. Therefore, it can be said that the rules of Ottawa will consequently lead to factory lending.
The amended lending rules imposed by the government would impact the credit union’s ability to lend to individuals who may not be income rich but possess sufficient equity or assets. This eventually would reduce the risk of payment default on part of the borrower or consumer. The individuals who have lower income and sufficient assets at their disposal are often the wealthy seniors of the society and owners of small businesses who have the ability to benefit from tax advantages on their incomes. Nevertheless, they are sufficiently capable of servicing significant home mortgage loans.
Marcus Arkan, CTO of Syndicate Mortgage and a mortgage expert elaborates further, “The direction of the rules imposed by the federal government can be risky for the credit union system as it favors factory lending to some extent. The changes in the housing and mortgage rules have increased regulatory oversight which may lead to further commoditization of mortgages or other loan products. This will eventually damage the long standing practices of the credit union of lending on the basis of intangible information”.
About Syndicate Mortgages Inc.
Contact Details
Syndicate Mortgages Inc.
Toll Free: (888) 646-1062
Email: info(at)smibroker(dot)com
Follow us on: Contact's Facebook Contact's Twitter Contact's LinkedIn | <urn:uuid:8c217960-3f90-42c3-aa2d-ff7ec7955251> | 2 | 1.671875 | 0.037196 | en | 0.949959 | http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/12/prweb10148571.htm |
image of magazine
on the cover buttonmasthead buttonsubmit feedback buttonsubmit an article button
Control room of German Sub
By Korvettenkapitan Rico Jarschke and
Kapitanleutnant Roman Schwab, German Navy
Auf 100m gehen! (“Down to 100 meters”) the officer of the watch orders, taking a last survey of the surface picture through the observation periscope. The helmsman dials in the digits of the ordered depth on a keypad of the ship’s control station and the submarine begins its tilt and descends to 100 meters (328 feet).
An alle Stellen: Schleichfahrt! In an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) duel against a nuclear attack submarine, the CO orders silent running. The helmsman pushes a button to change the operating mode of the ship’s control station and puts his hands on the two joysticks. For the next two hours, he will steer the ordered course and depth manually.
These are two examples for maneuvering a U212A-class submarine with the Ship’s Control Station (SCS)—developed by Italy’s Fiat Avio—as part of the integrated Engineering Maneuvering and Control System (EMCS) developed by Siemens. Not too long ago, on the recently decommissioned U206A-class boats of the German Navy, maintaining course and depth required three helmsmen: two controlling the fore and aft depth planes and one manning the side rudder. Nowadays this job is done by just one man, supported by a very sophisticated computer grid.
When the original design of the U212A-class submarines was conceived, the Cold War
paradigm was still the informing scenario. The central mission at that time for West German submarines was to leave undetected from the submarine bases in Eckernförde and Kiel and block Warsaw Pact forces from exiting the Baltic Sea through the Northern Approaches along the Norwegian coast. To do this, the boats had to negotiate the very shallow and confined waterways of the Kadettrinne connecting the eastern and western Baltic and the Great Belt opening the Baltic to the Jutland Sea. The depth of the Kadettrinne, however, is only 75 feet. This not only limited the size and draft of submarines, it required them to operate there at periscope depth and required high maneuverability. The 20.8 square meter (224 square foot) rudder area of the tail X- and fin rudders of the U212As guarantees turning rates of more than 200 degrees per minute to maneuver in shallow waters and near harbors and offshore installations. Even more important, though, is precision: at times it might be important to go to 41 feet and not 42.5 feet. This is where the SCS comes in. Even while conducting quick turns at periscope depth, the SCS is able to keep the ship on depth. If there is a need to go deep quickly, a U212A is able to reach maximum operating depth within two minutes with all planes on full dive.
As in most navies, the helmsman is supervised by the diving officer of the watch, who is also the engineering control supervisor, a task usually assigned in the German Submarine Service to an experienced engineering CPO. However, due to the easy and intuitive steering system, the helmsman watch aboard a U212A-class submarine is manned by the boat’s paramedic, the radio operator, and the sailors of the electronics department. To be capable of operating the SCS under stress in all conditions and emergency modes, all helmsmen are trained and drilled at the German submarine training center’s depth steering simulator. To follow the maxim “train as you fight,” a real world SCS provides optimum training benefit to the trainees, while the movement of the three-axis motion simulator gives them the realistic feeling of driving a submarine even in heavy seas. A prominent feature of the SCS is its capability to change operating modes, thus providing the CO the ability to optimize the performance of the system for different tasks. The A-mode (automatic mode) reduces the strain on human resources, requiring less concentration from the helmsman on long transits. The helmsman simply enters the desired course, depth, and ship’s angle via the keypad. The computer system moves the control surfaces to reach the ordered parameters, then holds the depth within one foot and the course within half a degree. The variables are constantly monitored, and any divergences beyond the limits allowed by the operator are reported with an alert signal. Only the roughest seas or very dynamic operations at periscope depth reveal the limits of the computer-controlled maneuvering.
In A-mode, the SCS calculates offsets for the planes to adjust for trim. Based on these offsets, the
EMCS is able to put the boat back in trim automatically by pumping, flooding, and trimming. Additionally, the system calculates a safe operating envelope depending on the current speed, depth, and rate of turn and/or descent, and an alarm sounds if the ship departs from this envelope.
Control Room Sailors on German Sub
A U-32 crew member operates the Integrated Engineering Maneuvering
and Control System
For ASW tasks, the preferred operating mode is the E-mode (Ersatzbetrieb – manual steering via joysticks). In E-mode, the planes are under direct control of the helmsman; he decides when and how to move the planes. This reduces the frequency of movements of the planes and reduces transient noises, but depth control is less precise. E-mode is in a way the multi-purpose mode of the SCS. The helmsman steers the sub with two joysticks, left hand for the sail planes and right hand for the X-rudder. Thus, the right joystick has both a rudder and a stern plane function. The helmsman views a screen that gives a graphic impression of moving through the water, similar to an artificial horizon indicator in an airplane cockpit. All turning, ascending, and descending can be monitored and manipulated in an intuitive way. Effective variables in follow-up control are the angles of the rudder and the planes. When A-mode operates at its limits, especially in rough seas at PD, a seasoned helmsman has the advantage. He can let the boat move with the sea to some extent and is not obliged to hold a neutral ship’s angle, as the computer would. But these are the only circumstances in which the helmsman can outperform the SCS. In fact, the opposite is more often the case: if the helmsman finds himself in danger of losing stable control, he can switch back to automatic mode; the
SCS will stabilize the submarine immediately, even out of extreme rates of turning or descending, and put it on an even keel. Then, the helmsman can safely revert to E-mode.
The SCS is a computer aided steering system that is multi-redundant. Several computers are computing the same values but are physically decoupled from each other, even to the point of having independent power supplies. The different operating modes are further redundancies in and by themselves and if all systems fail, the crew retains the ability to operate the planes mechanically, directly on the levers controlling the hydraulic valves of the rudder engines.
The X-rudder itself consists of four independently driven blades, each with an angle range of ±35°. Each blade’s angle will have an effect on the course and balance of the submarine. With all four blades, a total angle of ±35° stern plane or rudder can be achieved. It is also possible to order a plane angle and rudder angle at the same time as long as the sum is less than 35°. The sail plane is integrated into the tower construction and has an angle of ±25°. Its placement has been chosen carefully such that it will not affect the boat’s trim.
Although the maximum angle of any of the X-rudder blades is limited to ±17.5° the boat’s maneuverability is still impressive, even if two blades fail. Thus, the maneuverability is highly redundant, not only through the number of the blades but also by the design of the hydraulic system. The sail plane drive and each X-rudder blade drive has a redundant hydraulic oil supply and an additional emergency oil supply. Emergency control stations are on standby in all sensitive situations such as diving stations, shallow water operations, and piloting.
In more than seven years of operations with the SCS both in the German and the Italian submarine services, the dive-by-wire system has proven all nay-sayers wrong: reliability and precision are high and its maneuverability is quite impressive. Particularly in light of the challenge of recruiting and retaining highly qualified personnel, the significance of reducing the crew size and relieving crew-members from performing boring and tedious—but critical—tasks should not be underestimated. The second batch of U212As will therefore see little change with respect to the steering control system apart from the change of manufacturer. The drive of the sail plane is now hull mounted so that the steering rod no longer penetrates the pressure hull.
From the German perspective, dive-by-wire is by now a proven design. For the future, two avenues of development are conceivable to reduce acoustic signature of control surfaces: hydraulic drives with variable pressure supply or an “all-electric-ship” concept with electric drives for planes and masts.
Cmdr. (jg) Rico Jarschke is Head of Basic Operational Training, 1st Submarine Squadron, Submarine Training Centre. Lt. Cmdr. Roman Schwab is Head of Systems Support Submarines, 1st Submarine Squadron, Systems Support Group | <urn:uuid:e3629012-7e0d-4c0a-8b3d-3050499f0cd6> | 3 | 2.53125 | 0.07155 | en | 0.928525 | http://www.public.navy.mil/subfor/underseawarfaremagazine/Issues/Archives/issue_51/DiveByWire.html |
Utah Department of Public Safety
Highway Patrol - Accident Investigation Mapping System- 'AIMS'
In March 1994, the Training Section of the UHP obtained a computerized Accident Investigation Mapping System (AIMS) from the Nikon Corporation for testing and evaluation. Sergeant Kirk Middaugh, Trooper Stan Locker, and Trooper Greg Lundell received training with the AIMS. The system was then assigned to Davis County for an evaluation period.
Upon completion of the evaluation, efforts were made to secure funding for an AIMS system for the Patrol. Funding was obtained through the Utah Department of Transportation as part of the I-15 Incident Management Plan, a federally funded program designed to reduce traffic congestion and to increase air quality along the Wasatch Front. Three AIMS units were purchased including the necessary computer hardware and software. These units are currently assigned to Weber County, Davis County, and Salt Lake County. In November 1995, 20 troopers were trained to operate the AIMS system.
The AIMS system is designed to collect large amounts of information at an accident scene in as short a time as possible. This information is then used to reconstruct a detailed scale diagram of the accident scene.
The AIMS system utilizes infrared technology. An infrared beam is reflected off a prism to record various locations. This information is stored in a data collector which is later downloaded to the AIMS computer. The computer then analyzes and edits this information and produces a scale diagram of the accident scene.
With AIMS technology an investigator can record several hundred points at an accident scene, with more precision, in the same time required to gather 20 to 30 points using conventional methods. The AIMS system can then produce a scale diagram in minutes, versus hours using conventional methods. By utilizing technology such as the AIMS system, the Utah Highway Patrol continues to be a leader in accident investigation and reconstruction.
| <urn:uuid:9342e9ce-6151-4b63-b9eb-45a51d2f1aa5> | 2 | 2.375 | 0.03294 | en | 0.950007 | http://www.publicsafety.utah.gov/highwaypatrol/history_2000/aims.html |
Building a US export economy
The US is losing ground to peer economies in terms of export performance. In fact, only 1% of US firms are exporters.
A seismic economic shift is underway. By 2030, more than 90% of global middle-class spending will happen outside North America. Will US firms adjust?
Until recently, many US companies could realize sufficient gains by selling into the domestic market, which has historically been one of the world's largest. | <urn:uuid:1fe375fa-6254-40eb-87fa-400955117afe> | 2 | 1.632813 | 0.032244 | en | 0.953006 | http://www.pwc.com/us/en/executive-business-briefing/us-export-economy.jhtml?WT.ac=TL+library_Browse+by+role_CEO+Primary |
What Are Calcium Media Reactors And How DO They Work?
A Brief History of Calcium Reactors
Calcium Reactors, as they are known today, are still quite similar to the original reactor designed by Rolf Hebbinghaus at the Aqua zoo Lobbecke Museum in Dsseldorf, Germany. I visited the museum and met Mr. Hebbinghaus in 1993 while attending the World Marine Aquarium Symposium in Lunen, Germany.
Rolf was very excited about his creation and rightly so. The main display aquarium at the zoo was a magnificent coral reef aquarium of 18,000 liters (-4600 gals+). It was home to some of the largest colonies of Acropora I have ever seen in captivity. He made the reactor out of an EHEIM 2050 canister filter filled with large chunks of coral sand. He introduced CO2 by way of the filter intake that entered the bottom of the reactor and, as it made its way up through the sand, slowly dissolved the material freeing the minerals and nutrients bound within. After its installation, growth rates of the SPS increased by 50% and the Soft corals increased by 100%!!
This invention was truly groundbreaking and it was incredible to be there and see it in its original form. Little did I know it would become a common peace of equipment found within reef aquarium systems around the world! Though the original reactor was very simple in design, the concept gave rise to a multitude of different designs that have been refined again and again since 1993 where now, in 2008, we have an incredible array of reactor designs to choose from.
Images and references taken from Bulletin de lInstitut ocanographique, Monaco, n spcial 20, fascicule 1 (2001)
| <urn:uuid:8c6ffbf1-94e7-4fbc-baf3-c9510a228615> | 2 | 2.375 | 0.026107 | en | 0.956573 | http://www.reefdynamics.com/Articles.asp?ID=245 |
Complex modulation of androgen responsive gene expression by methoxyacetic acid.
Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology (Impact Factor: 2.41). 03/2011; 9:42. DOI: 10.1186/1477-7827-9-42
Source: PubMed
ABSTRACT Optimal androgen signaling is critical for testicular development and spermatogenesis. Methoxyacetic acid (MAA), the primary active metabolite of the industrial chemical ethylene glycol monomethyl ether, disrupts spermatogenesis and causes testicular atrophy. Transcriptional trans-activation studies have indicated that MAA can enhance androgen receptor activity, however, whether MAA actually impacts the expression of androgen-responsive genes in vivo, and which genes might be affected is not known.
A mouse TM3 Leydig cell line that stably expresses androgen receptor (TM3-AR) was prepared and analyzed by transcriptional profiling to identify target gene interactions between MAA and testosterone on a global scale.
MAA is shown to have widespread effects on androgen-responsive genes, affecting processes ranging from apoptosis to ion transport, cell adhesion, phosphorylation and transcription, with MAA able to enhance, as well as antagonize, androgenic responses. Moreover, testosterone is shown to exert both positive and negative effects on MAA gene responses. Motif analysis indicated that binding sites for FOX, HOX, LEF/TCF, STAT5 and MEF2 family transcription factors are among the most highly enriched in genes regulated by testosterone and MAA. Notably, 65 FOXO targets were repressed by testosterone or showed repression enhanced by MAA with testosterone; these include 16 genes associated with developmental processes, six of which are Hox genes.
These findings highlight the complex interactions between testosterone and MAA, and provide insight into the effects of MAA exposure on androgen-dependent processes in a Leydig cell model.
• [Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Methoxyacetic acid (MAA) is a primary metabolite of ester phthalates that are used in production of consumer products and pharmaceutical products. MAA causes embryo malformation and spermatocyte death through inhibition of histone deacetylases (HDACs). Little is known about MAA's effects on cancer cells. In this study, two immortalized human normal prostatic epithelial cell lines (RWPE-1 and pRNS-1-1) and four human prostate cancer cell lines (LNCaP, C4-2B, PC-3, and DU-145) were treated with MAA at different doses and for different time periods. Cell viability, apoptosis, and cell cycle analysis were performed using flow cytometry and chemical assays. Gene expression and binding to DNA were assessed using real-time PCR, Western blot, and chromatin immunoprecipitation analyses. We found that MAA dose-dependently inhibited prostate cancer cell growth through induction of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G1 phase. MAA-induced apoptosis was due to down-regulation of the anti-apoptotic gene baculoviral inhibitor of apoptosis protein repeat containing 2 (BIRC2, also named cIAP1), leading to activation of caspases 7 and 3 and turning on the downstream apoptotic events. MAA-induced cell cycle arrest (mainly G1 arrest) was due to up-regulation of p21 expression at the early time and down-regulation of cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) and CDK2 expression at the late time. MAA up-regulated p21 expression through inhibition of HDAC activities, independently of p53/p63/p73. These findings demonstrate that MAA suppresses prostate cancer cell growth by inducing growth arrest and apoptosis, which suggests that MAA could be used as a potential therapeutic drug for prostate cancer.
American journal of clinical and experimental urology. 01/2014; 2(4):300-12.
• Source
[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Exposure to ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (EGME), a glycol ether compound found in numerous industrial products, or to its active metabolite, 2-methoxyacetic acid (2-MAA), increases the incidence of developmental defects. Using an in vitro limb bud culture system, we tested the hypothesis that the effects of EGME on limb development are mediated by 2-MAA-induced alterations in acetylation programming. Murine gestation day 12 embryonic forelimbs were exposed to 3, 10, or 30 mM EGME or 2-MAA in culture for 6 days to examine effects on limb morphology; limbs were cultured for 1 to 24 hr to monitor effects on the acetylation of histones (H3K9 and H4K12), a nonhistone protein, p53 (p53K379), and markers for cell cycle arrest (p21) and apoptosis (cleaved caspase-3). EGME had little effect on limb morphology and no significant effects on the acetylation of histones or p53 or on biomarkers for cell cycle arrest or apoptosis. In contrast, 2-MAA exposure resulted in a significant concentration-dependent increase in limb abnormalities. 2-MAA induced the hyperacetylation of histones H3K9Ac and H4K12Ac at all concentrations tested (3, 10, and 30 mM). Exposure to 10 or 30 mM 2-MAA significantly increased acetylation of p53 at K379, p21 expression, and caspase-3 cleavage. Thus, 2-MAA, the proximate metabolite of EGME, disrupts limb development in vitro, modifies acetylation programming, and induces biomarkers of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis
Birth Defects Research Part B Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology 05/2014; · 1.97 Impact Factor
Preview (2 Sources)
Available from | <urn:uuid:54635b7c-00de-426d-bde7-74c453ffd0e1> | 2 | 1.578125 | 0.04091 | en | 0.902995 | http://www.researchgate.net/publication/50938769_Complex_modulation_of_androgen_responsive_gene_expression_by_methoxyacetic_acid |
Which brings us to the latest issue negatively affecting the United States, skyrocketing CEO pay and income inequality. The parade of bad societal effects that are related to that has been well established — especially with income mobility.(Surprisingly, Wikipedia has a good overview).
Duff McDonald has a new book coming out this Fall titled The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business. He points to you-know-who as the early mover in a number of societal ills. It should come as no surprise that CEO pay is one of them. In terms of income & wages, Duff traces McKinsey’s influence back to 1935, when “managers sought advice about how to deal with the rising power of unions, they turned to outside advisers such as McKinsey & Company.”
That then morphed into something different entirely in 1952. That was when the CEO of Pan American World Airways got interested in a McKinsey study of stock options.
The entire We can trace the rise of CEO compensation to that date:
Crony capitalism and the transfer of wealth from shareholders to insiders goes back much further than you may have guessed.
Good ideas gradually die of their own accord, replaced with better ones. Bad ideas have a death grip on society, often with wealthy sponsors benefiting from them. That’s why they seem to hang around forever…
The Godfather of CEO Megapay: McKinsey Consultant Arch Patton Didn’t Invent Wealth Inequality — He elevated it to an art form
Duff McDonald
NY Observer 8/13/13
23 Responses to “Is McKinsey to Blame for Skyrocketing CEO Pay?”
1. You can follow Duff McDonald on Twitter here:
2. [...] McKinsey is Public Enemy Number One in the hollowing out of the American middle class. (TBP) [...]
3. Petey Wheatstraw says:
Greed has been elevated to the highest of social virtues. Whether wealth is gained by hook or crook no longer matters. The honest, law abiding capitalist is a fool and/or a pariah. In the end, money buys immunity, with a huge percentage of the “profits” remaining in the control of the immune criminal(s).
As for being in a death grip, it’s more like a python swallowing itself, tail first.
4. lburgler says:
If they had paid Ron Johnson more, JCPenny would still be alive, OK?
What are you, Barry? A job-creator-hater? Someone should pay these people twice as much, or they’ll go GALT. Really, they will leave our sorry selves to fend for ourselves.
The undocumented laborors who do Ackmann’s landscaping are going to see their wages cut. And then where will the aggregate demand come from?
• I am a shareholder advocate
I hate Insiders who transfer money from the owners to themselves.
• constantnormal says:
While I cannot deny that there is the stench of cronyism emanating from corporate America, I think that a look at dividends vs corporate profits might dispel the notion that there is a sufficient amount being transferred to impact shareholders.
Or maybe not, as the FRED chart I linked to shows only dividends alongside profits … stock appreciation is not in the picture and may not have grown as well as dividends have (I think it has done better, but don’t have the data to prove it).
I think the real parties who have had their pockets emptied have been the employees, thus explaining the continued rise in profits and dividends in near-lockstep, while at the same time seeing executive compensation literally explode upward …
But it’s hard to prove that shareholders have been impacted much by management thievery …
• DeDude says:
How well have the shareholders of investment banks been doing in the past decade and how well have the banksters themselves done?
• odnalro zeraus says:
Why should shareholders be impacted at all?
Salary, bonuses and options are not always the only thing that they take home.
There are many other ways to skin the corporate cat.
Like corporate jets, real estate property to “hold company meetings’ in Acapulco.etc. etc.
Remember one occasion when the Chairman announced that effective immediately company executives will only fly first class for flights longer than 4 hours, and a Division CEO asking him: “Are you changing the first class leather seats to regular economy seats in the company private jet too?”
5. constantnormal says:
McKinsey was right about “… from 1939 to 1950, the pay of hourly employees had more than doubled, while that of “policy level” management had risen only 35 percent.” However, they neglected to mention that while management’s pay was soaring by 35% atop a post-war industrial boom, the rank-and-file’s compensation was also adjusting to the feudal economic inequality of the 1880s through the 1930s being lifted from their lives, courtesy of financial reforms, prosecution of financial criminals, and the rise of effective labor unions. Management never suffered a bout of declining compensation, they only grew at a slower rate, allowing the oppressed peasants to become more complete players (and thus also valuable customers) in the economic expansion.
A clear case of McKinsey selling a the story to the customer that the customer wanted to hear.
If the customer had been the labor unions, doubtless the story McKinsey presented would have been different, focusing instead on the not-closing-rapidly-enough participation in the economy of workers as compared to management.
Consultants nearly ALWAYS sell the story that the paying customer is willing (or eager) to hear.
6. Moss says:
McKinley tells them what they want to hear how else can they justify the fees they charge.
7. farmera1 says:
Got to plug John C Bogle’s (the founder of Vanguard) book: THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF CAPITALISM. The main point of the book is that we as a country have morphed to Managerial Capitalism, where companies are managed to maximize the wealth of upper management vs the old way of managing to maximize the wealth of the owners (share holders).
Don’t recall any mention of McKinsey but the book does a very good job of telling the story of CE0′s greed and destructive behavior.
Good read.
8. TheUnrepentantGunner says:
Barry those last few sentences are simply brilliant. It’s amazing in how many other fields this is true, even things relatively concrete such as chess. (at least among the non professional ranks)
9. VennData says:
The Compensation consultants all did this handing the boards shrink-wrapped justifications of ridiculousness.
If you don’t think this has taken money out of your dividend payments, you’re kidding yourself.
“…the U.S. payout ratio has steadily declined for decades with no change in tax policy…”
Job creators my ass! These CEOs are cookie cutter fill-ins, caricatures of ‘Caddyshack’ gold buddies. And they are talking money from your retirements and your monthly income. Keep on voting for that freedom for boards of directors to be stocked form their local drinking hole. You suckers.
10. rd says:
The Efficient Market Hypothesis is also to blame along with CEO deification.
Since the 80s, the relentless focus has been on shareprice as the only meaningful measure of a CEO’s success. The accounting shenanigans that have come out of this to goose stock price and maximize the short-term value of CEO’s options has been a major problem. However, the value of this to overall shareholders is the assumption that the stock market is capable of accurately pricing comapnies in the short-run. 2000-2 and 2007-9 were emphatic declarations that this ability is not a given as many stock market darlings vanished entirely.
It is also one of the primary reasons why many stocks have eschewed paying or raising their dividends. Sending cash out the door doesn’t do much to raise the short-term value of the company although a steady stream of dividends is a good reward for patient long-term investors..
11. noilifcram says:
Back in college studying corporate finance and capital markets, it seemed everyone wanted to become Gordon Gekko. “Greed is good!”
• AtlasRocked says:
one man’s greed is another man’s relentless drive to be the best. This idea that you guys can see into another man’s heart and proclaim it is evil is an act grand deception. No one can do that, and giving the gov’t power to do so is always abused.
You have limit gov’t to judging citizens on what laws they break, and that is all.
Imagine Charlie Rangel or Sheila Jackson deciding on who is greedy and should be abused by the IRS, the DHS, and the Pay Scale Committee. That should sober you up a bit.
• Atlas rocked = one hell of a crony capitalist!
You utterly misunderstand the concept of SHAREHOLDERS RIGHTS. When management excessively pay themselves it is a transfer of wealth from shareholders to insiders. And you defend these under performing neer do wells with your Randian nonsense.
Stop being a tool of this class of takers. You are so afraid of government confiscating wealth by lowering rates that you miss a blatant theft right in front of your eyes.
Quite pathetic.
12. Frilton Miedman says:
I would add a second element atop this, the transfer of wealth from consumer to insiders that’s done in two forms -
1 – As % of population that owns stocks has diminished to a smaller & smaller group, banking deregulation (removing Glass-Steagall, CFMA loopholes) has enabled corporations to tap a new source of profit, the general public.
The housing/credit/sub-prime bubble is a perfect example of the manipulation/deception that goes on constantly in a smaller scale in energy, materials, commodities.
2 – There’s also the effect of technology & outsourcing that results in lower production costs, but does not reflect a reciprocal change in lowered end consumer costs – those differences are used toward increasing executive salaries, while at the same time those executives abuse their influence over government to game themselves lowered tax rates.
13. S Brennan says:
“with the specific finding that from 1939 to 1950, the pay of hourly employees had more than doubled”
This of course, ignores inflation, which eats 71% of that gain. But from 1920 to 1938 hourly wages went from .54 to .64 in 1939, or an 18% gain in 2 Decades*. Additionally, servicemen returning were trained by the US military in the latest technology even if the economist still considered them “unskilled”. So there is that, a much better trained/disciplined work force is part of the increased productivity enjoyed by CEO’s who “had better things to do” in WWII.
It pays to watch how economist with an axe to grind cherry pick their dates. This one was obvious, start at the end of depression, when War production begins and huge government spending on direct investment, plus retooling for a civilian economy. If you know your history, the frequency of fraudulent “economic” arguments is laughable.
Another one that fraudsters love is metrics, what one chooses to measure, can be used to achieve jst about any outcome an “economist” is paid to find. Yes, many economists are personable, but so too is any salesmen with something to sell.
* using 1900-2000 as dates
14. lburgler says:
Luckily this will resolve itself. The “free market” will prevail.
What happens when wages don’t increase in tandem with productivity, and the excess capital is swept into the coffers of the capitalists, is that aggregate demand collapses. Prices fall. Earnings fall.
Consumer credit and HELOC debt can mask the trend for a decade or two, but that is over. Welfare programs, SSD, and other forms of deficit spending can hide the trend further. But that is also coming to an end.
When the capitalists finally get what they want, when the debt is exhausted, and the government programs get gutted, We/They will finally get what is coming to us. I suspect it will not be the utopia they were hoping for.
15. mrflash818 says:
It it ultimately the board of directors that sets CEO pay, correct?
Is it possible to have shareholders start to hold the board of directors accountable, and remove members that do not start to lower CEO/top tier compensation?
Lastly, can legislation be passed that provides carrot/stick incentives about worker-to-executive compensation ratios for qualifying to get Federal/State/County/City contracts?
16. [...] Is McKinsey & Co. to blame for skyrocketing executive compensation? An excerpt from Duff McDonald’s new book The Firm: The History of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business. (NY Observer also Big Picture) [...] | <urn:uuid:d20f3058-5e56-4015-a85f-8988839bf289> | 2 | 1.867188 | 0.054663 | en | 0.959347 | http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/08/is-mckinsey-to-blame-for-skyrocketing-ceo-pay/ |
The Beginnings of Open Ocean Travel across the Mid-Atlantic
Using charts like this in the 1440s the Portuguese became Europe's first regular open-ocean sailors, traveling to the Azores for more than a week without sighting land.
This 1440 chart has the approximately correct longitude of the Mediterranean. The Iberian Muslim astronomer Az-Zarqali (Azarquiel) correctly determined the longitudinal extent of the Mediterranean in the 11th century AD. Thus the Canary Islands show up exactly where they should be.
But why does the chart show the Azores in the wrong place?
a) Were the chart makers trying to hide the distance from sailors who might be fearful of the open ocean? Might chart makers have been trying to mislead the ordinary sailors on board?
b) Or was the reason more prosaic? Did they just run out of paper, or not want to waste paper drawing a vast expanse of ocean?
Before 1300, European navigators sailed at most a day (in the Mediterranean) or two (from Iceland to Greenland) away from the sight of land.
Az-Zarqali (who died circa 1100) corrected Ptolemy's estimate of the length of the Mediterranean sea from 62 degrees to approximately correct value of 42 degrees. He also anticipated Kepler by arguing correctly that the orbits of the planets are not circular but egg-shaped. Iberian astronomy was the most advanced in Europe.
What is the size of the earth? | More about this chart | A slow loading look at this chart | Home page | <urn:uuid:21576836-b5b9-43fd-9da1-a49d5aa56e6e> | 4 | 4.25 | 0.200986 | en | 0.923954 | http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~feegi/azores.html |
Sacred Texts Misc Index Previous Next
There came a sage whose name was Bhagīratha: he stayed in a forest of Himalaya practising terrible austerities. For a thousand years he remained with arms upraised, with four fires burning around, and with the sun blazing upon him. At last Brahma had compassion upon him. The Lord of All came to that sage and told him he could ask a boon as a reward for his austerities.
Then the sage said, "The boon I ask is that King Sagara's sixty thousand sons win to Indra's heaven. Their ashes lie far down in the earth. And until a water which is not the water of earth flows over the ashes and purifies them they cannot win to heaven." The Lord of All was pleased with what the sage asked, and the boon was granted.
And so Brahma promised that Gangā would descend upon earth. Now Gangā was the daughter of Himalaya, the Lord of Snow, and she had held herself back from leaving the heaven-world. She would leave at Brahma's command, but her downward rush would be so terrible that the earth would be dashed to pieces by it. Only one
p. 221
thing could save the earth from that tremendous stroke: if the head of Shiva received her stream the fall of Gangā upon earth would be broken.
For a year the sage worshipped Shiva. Then he was taken into Shiva's heaven and he saw the God with his four faces. Once Brahma had created a nymph out of all that is loveliest in the world, and he had sent her to Shiva so that her beauty might distract him from his eternal meditation. As she walked around where he stayed a face appeared at each side of the God: the faces looking east and west and north are beautiful and pleasant to behold, but the face looking south is terrible. With the face looking east Shiva rules the world; with the face looking west he delights all beings; with the face looking north he rejoices in the company of his wife Umā. But the face looking south is his face of destruction.
Shiva, moved by the prayers of the great ascetic, agreed to take the fall of Gangā upon his head. He went forth with his trident, and standing upon a high peak he bade the daughter of Himalaya descend upon the world. She was made angry by his imperious call. "I shall descend, and I will sweep Shiva away," she said. And so, in a mighty fall, Gangā came down from the heaven-world.
But Shiva, knowing what Gangā would have done, smiled to himself. He would shame her for her arrogance. He made her streams wander through the locks and clusters of his hair. For seasons and seasons Ganga wandered through them as through the forests of Himalaya, and she was made ashamed by her powerlessness to reach the earth.
Then the sage, not seeing the river come down, prayed to Shiva once more, and once more went through awful austerities. Shiva, for the sake of Bhagīratha, allowed Gangā to make her way through the locks and clusters of his hair and come down upon the earth.
In seven streams she descended. The Gods came in their golden chariots to watch that descent upon earth, and the flashing of their chariots made it seem as if a thousand suns were in the sky. Fish of all kind and colours, dolphins of every shape and hue, flashed in the river. And sages and saints came and purified themselves in the water, for the stream that had wandered upon Shiva's head made even the wicked pure. The Gladdener, the Purifier, the Lotus-clad, the Fair
p. 222
eyed, were the names that were given to four of her seven streams. Three flowed to the east, three flowed to the west. The middle stream, the fullest, the clearest, flowed to where Bhagīratha waited in his chariot. He drove on, and where he drove, there did the bright, full, clear river flow.
On and on it flowed, following the chariot of the sage: now it was a sweeping current, and now it went on as though it was hardly able to bear on its wave the feather of the swan, and now full and calmly it flowed along. At last it came to the wide sea. There it sank down, and as it sank into the middle of the world the sage prayed that it would purify the ashes of King Sagara's sixty thousand sons.
In an age before, King Sagara and his sixty thousand sons had been on the earth. The king would have himself proclaimed a world-ruler, and that this might be done a steed was loosed and set to range the distances. All the land the steed ranged over would be proclaimed the king's domain, and when the steed returned it would be sacrificed to the Gods. But Sagara's steed was stolen and led down into the very middle of the earth. The king commanded his sixty thousand sons to find the steed and bring it back for the sacrifice.
They made their way down to the very middle of the earth. They went beyond where the Elephant of the East, the Elephant of the West, the Elephant of the South, and the great white Elephant of the North stand, bearing up the earth. These immortal ones they worshipped, and they passed on. At last they came to where Kapila, at the very centre of all things, sustains the world. There the steed was grazing. King Sagara's sixty thousand sons went to seize it, and as they did they attacked Kapila with trees and boulders, crying out that he was the robber of their father's steed.
As they came near he turned a flame upon them, and the sixty thousand sank down in heaps of ashes. Kapila went on with his meditation and thought no more upon the destruction he had brought upon King Sagara's sons. The king then sent his princely grandson to find die steed. He came down to the very middle of the earth. He passed the immortal elephants; he found the steed grazing near Kapila and he saw the heaps of ashes that were there. Then the bird Garuda that was flying there told him of what had befallen the sons of King
p. 223
[paragraph continues] Sagara, and told him, too, that they could win to Indra's heaven only when Gangā was brought down and made flow over their ashes.
The prince led the steed back to Sagara. He became king after his grandfather, and when his duties as king had been fulfilled he went into a forest of Himālaya and engaged in sacrifices to bring Gangā down from the heaven-world. After him his son engaged in sacrifices. Then his son's son, the sage Bhagīratha, engaged in austerities that had never before been known, and these austerities won Brahmā's compassion, and so, with the mighty aid of Shiva, Gangā was brought down upon the earth.
There where Kapila ponders, sustaining the world, Ganga flowed. The river went over the heaps of ashes that were the sons of King Sagara. They were purified, and the sixty thousand, rejoicing, went into the heaven of great Indra.
Next: Sāvitrī and the Lord of the Dead | <urn:uuid:4bba3d4d-35b3-4ec5-b871-4d08a3ca8781> | 2 | 2.375 | 0.19755 | en | 0.987164 | http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/omw/omw65.htm |
-- James A. Michener, 1982
As with every other form of communication, there's a code of proper behavior for talking on the Internet -- it's called "netiquette". Knowing and following proper "netiquette" is extremely important because of the ease of communicating almost instantaneously on the Internet. When you find yourself with the ability to respond immediately and in a semi-anonymous fashion to the remarks of another, you may also discover within yourself an uncomfortable tendency to "shoot from the hip" verbally, and that can cause problems.
Because you have the ability to answer an email or discussion list message a moment or two after receiving it, you may find yourself forging straight ahead, without taking time out to consider how your remarks are likely to be received at the other end. Then, there's the problem with humor -- clever asides, gentle sarcasms, and friendly kidding are sometimes lost in the transmission, because the receiver of your message can neither hear your voice nor see your expression. Furthermore, he may not know you at all, and thus not be familiar with, or attuned to, your individual manner of speaking or "quirky" sense of humor.
Many an argument on the Net has been started over a small and simple misunderstanding that could easily have been avoided. If not squelched early, the argument could provoke a "flame," a particularly nasty verbal attack on somebody in response to what he or she has previously written. Sometimes, an exchange of flames can erupt into a "flame war" that can go on for days and clutter mailboxes with unwanted and unnecessary pieces of mail serving no useful purpose.
That's what this lesson is all about -- observing the rules of proper Netiquette in order to calm the conversational waters, promote safe navigating, avoid treacherous rocks and shoals, and reach safe harbor.
Here's some basic rules of Netiquette that you should know and follow:
1. Never communicate in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. On the Net, this is *shouting* and it's considered rude. Without being able to see expressions or hear voices, there aren't many ways to express strong opinions in Net correspondence; so ALL CAPS has been designated for this purpose. Besides, if you've ever tried reading a document written in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, you'll know immediately how it can strain your eyes. Staring at a computer screen all day is hard enough to begin with, so don't make it harder. If you want to emphasize a word or phrase, ALL CAPS is fine, or better yet -- separate it from the rest of the text by using the * at either end, *like this*.
2. Always fill in the subject line in your correspondences to others on the Net; this is considered polite. If the original subject line was "Gopher Subject Tree Sites," make sure your reply says "Re: Gopher Subject Tree Sites, or mentions "Gopher Subject Trees" somehow as a reference. That way, the recipient of your message will know what to expect. If you are communicating to a discussion group or listserv, members then have the option to read or to discard your message without reading it -- an option they may choose if it's a subject in which they have no immediate interest. Keep your messages short and to the point. Remember, some of us have other things to do with our lives. (That's a joke; don't flame me! ;->)
3. Respect the character of the list and try to stick to its designated subject. If the list is one devoted to discussing reference issues, members may not be willing to consider problems associated with various types of hardware and technical support. When you first subscribe, don't jump into the discussion right away but listen for awhile before you post. Members may have only recently finished discussing your topic when you broach it again, and they may resent your coming in and dragging them back over ground they just covered (that's what those archives are for!).
4. Answer individual requests individually, and submit relevant responses of global interest to the list. Some large lists ask members to do this, in order to keep correspondences to a manageable level.
5. Don't type anything on your screen that you wouldn't tell someone face-to-face. Remember, there are *people* out there on the Internet, and sometimes they get cranky and take what you say the wrong way. If you're rude, or if your words appear to be rude, you could start a "flame war" and end up being flamed yourself. That's not a pleasant experience, and it creates unwanted litter on the information highway.
6. If you are replying to a previous posting, always quote or paraphrase the part you are replying to; do *not* include the entire original message in your reply. Take the time to delete, cut and paste so that only relevant parts of the original message remain. This is important because it's tedious to re-read the entire original message in someone's else's reply. However, inserting a clue, or reference point, is appreciated, especially if the reply is delayed or if it arrives before the original message does (this happens!).
7. Avoid being labelled a "ditto head." If you have nothing more than a "me too" to offer, don't post at all. Unfortunately, the worst offender is often the one who includes an entire previous message in his posting, and then adds a single line: "I agree." To top it off, he's likely to be the sort who will append a monstrous signature to his posting (more about "sigs" in a moment).
8. Don't talk out of school. Email is not secure and someday, you may be dismayed to learn that the words you sent to one recipient, even in confidence, have been forwarded to the multitudes. :-(
9. Be very careful not to make statements that could be interpreted as official pronouncements of your organization or as offers to do business. In his online workshop, "Roadmaps," Patrick Crispen quotes his dad, the Rev. Bob Crispen, as saying, "treat every post as though you were sending a copy to your boss, your minister, and your worst enemy." Excellent advice; please try to follow it.
10. Remember, no one can see you or hear your tone of voice. If you're not sure how your remarks will be received, insert an emoticon, i.e., <g> for "grin," or a "smiley," like the few you've been seeing throughout this lesson. To read the smiley, cock your head slightly to the left and you'll see a face. For example, here's a wry "winky" smiley for those times when you make a comment you hope the recipient won't take too seriously: ;->
And here's a mini-list of smileys to get you started. (BTW, you can create smileys either with or without the nose ... it's a private, personal, and individual decision that only can be made by you. Your smileys may either look like this, :-) or like this, :) It's your call. I prefer the nose, so here goes:
In order to save space and give your fingers a break, there's also an accepted list of abbreviations, or *Net-Lingo* you can use:
Finally, if your organization allows you to create a signature file for yourself, don't overdo it. If you do, you'll not only be guilty of taking up too much bandwidth, you might also end up as another example in the files of the Usenet newsgroup, alt.fan.warlord, which delights in ridiculing big .sigs. Five lines or less should be sufficient for any .sig file.
Find and read "The Net; User Guidelines and Netiquette," written by Arlene Rinaldi, Florida Atlantic University. This is the best handout on netiquette I've seen yet. It includes "best-behavior" advice for email and files, USENET, listservs, Telnet, and anonymous ftp. It also contains the Ten Commandments for Computer Ethics. It is available on the web at:
Return to BCK2SKOL Index
Go to Next Lesson
Copyright © 2000 the Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina.
URL: http://www.sc.edu/bck2skol/fall/lesson11.html | <urn:uuid:93b9e179-6e16-48e7-ae2d-ad0818613563> | 2 | 2.46875 | 0.080828 | en | 0.947609 | http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/BCK2SKOL/bck2skol/fall/lesson11.html |
Montreal’s Biosphere Environmental Museum Resides Inside Massive Buckminster Fuller Geodesic Dome | Top CAD Experts updates |
Looking like Epcot Center in Disney World, Montreal’s Biosphere is a museum dedicated to the environment. Originally built as the United States pavilion for the 1967 World Fair Expo, the dome was repurposed into the museum in 1990.
The interactive museum initially showcased the water ecosystem of the Great Lakes region, but has since expanded to encompasses environmental issues such as climate change, air, eco-technologies and sustainable development.
Via Lauren Moss | <urn:uuid:1d10451c-462f-4426-816b-7882e5df012e> | 3 | 2.96875 | 0.182276 | en | 0.898187 | http://www.scoop.it/t/topcadexperts/?tag=dome |
Standard view
Full view
of .
Look up keyword
Like this
0 of .
Results for:
No results containing your search query
P. 1
Understanding Alternators
Understanding Alternators
Ratings: (0)|Views: 1,181|Likes:
Published by Caleb06866
More info:
Published by: Caleb06866 on Jun 21, 2009
Copyright:Attribution Non-commercial
Read on Scribd mobile: iPhone, iPad and Android.
download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
See more
See less
Understanding Alternators -- an Overview
by Dan Masters,[email protected]
ALTERNATOR WARNING LIGHT"What does that little red light that says ALT mean when it comes on?" Very basically, it meansthat either the alternator output voltage is lower than the battery voltage, or the battery voltage islower than the alternator output voltage. If the light gets dimmer as you rev up the engine, thenyou most likely have a problem with the alternator. If it gets brighter, then the battery is mostlikely bad.That's all well and good, but just exactly what does all that mean? To get a good idea, it is firstnecessary to understand how an alternator works. You don't need an engineering degree, just a basic understanding of the general principles. Figure 1, below, is a block diagram, or a"functional" diagram, of an alternator, and its connections to the remainder of the automobileelectrical system. Following the figure is a description of the various components that make upan alternator, and a description of how each operates to keep the battery charged in your car.
ALTERNATOR ROTOR We'll start our tour of the alternator where it all starts in the alternator itself - at the alternator rotor. The rotor consists of a coil of wire wrapped around an iron core. Current through the wirecoil - called "field" current - produces a magnetic field around the core. The strength of the fieldcurrent determines the strength of the magnetic field. The field current is D/C, or direct current.In other words, the current flows in one direction only, and is supplied to the wire coil by a set of brushes and slip rings. The magnetic field produced has, as any magnet, a north and a south pole.The rotor is driven by the alternator pulley, rotating as the engine runs, hence the name "rotor."STATOR Surrounding the rotor is another set of coils, three in number, called the stator. The stator is fixedto the shell of the alternator, and does not turn. As the rotor turns within the stator windings, themagnetic field of the rotor sweeps through the stator windings, producing an electrical current inthe windings. Because of the rotation of the rotor, an alternating current is produced. As, for example, the north pole of the magnetic field approaches one of the stator windings, there is littlecoupling taking place, and a weak current is produced, As the rotation continues, the magneticfield moves to the center of the winding, where maximum coupling takes place, and the inducedcurrent is at its peak. As the rotation continues to the point that the magnetic field is leaving thestator winding, the induced current is small. By this time, the south pole is approaching thewinding, producing a weak current in the opposite direction. As this continues, the current produced in each winding plotted against the angle of rotation of the rotor has the form shown infigure 2. The three stator windings are spaced inside the alternator 120 degrees apart, producingthree separate sets, or "phases," of output voltages, spaced 120 degrees apart, as shown in figure3.
Activity (21)
You've already reviewed this. Edit your review.
1 hundred reads
1 thousand reads
kccasey liked this
hmthant liked this
hmthant liked this
necuofk liked this
don_akech liked this
routhsanjeev liked this
nanocycle liked this
philip_bullas liked this
You're Reading a Free Preview
| <urn:uuid:1fea95a6-c45c-430c-8b3c-4dccfb8aea77> | 3 | 2.921875 | 0.082766 | en | 0.890835 | http://www.scribd.com/doc/16619108/Understanding-Alternators |
The Weissman Lab and collaborators created, which tracks Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections in the continental United States.
Outbreaks of carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pose significant public health threats, but there is currently no surveillance network that alerts public health officials when outbreaks occur or provides easily-accessible information about the strains involved.
To fill this gap, the Weissman Lab and its collaborators created , a website that is designed to provide real-time information about outbreaks across the U.S. and, potentially, around the world. The goal is to give public health officials a powerful new resource that helps identify new outbreaks and develop strategies for containing them. | <urn:uuid:a345513c-18b0-4555-b00c-f8fdbeb35b0f> | 3 | 3.40625 | 0.041056 | en | 0.905307 | http://www.seattlechildrens.org/research/global-infectious-disease-research/weissman-lab/tracking-carbapenem-resistant-bacteria/ |
Subject: File No. S7-19-07
From: Oswald Campbell
July 22, 2008
Dear Mr. Cox
Please explain something to your employers.
(The American People and the Investing Public)
When a police Officer sees a bank robber in the process of
robbing a bank what does he do?
He has two options.
1. He analyzes the situation and determines if he can handle
the suspect on his own and arrest the perp.
2. He analyzes the situation, if the officer determines that in this situation he may need some assistance he calls for backup.
The brokers,hedge funds are currently steeling money from the investors.
Why have you the police officer stood by and allowed the thieves to rob the bank.
It is time for you to call in some backup FBI,DOJ,CIA.
Help restore the confidence needed to run an orderly and fair market. | <urn:uuid:2702fa1a-593f-4e6a-aea8-f00a5492fb7f> | 2 | 1.609375 | 0.992156 | en | 0.934735 | http://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-19-07/s71907-1152.htm |
Ads 468x60px
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Five Key Questions About America's Proposed Internet Piracy Laws
David Makarewicz
2. Would this law simply legalize actions the government is already taking? In 2002, George W. Bush asked Congress to create the Department of Homeland Security because "we must take action to protect America against the terrorists that seek to kill the innocent." The American people, still reeling from 9/11, permitted the creation of the DHS. However, the DHS was not exactly as advertised. It turned out that the new agency would not limit its reach to the War on Terror. Instead, in between protecting Americans from evil terrorists, the DHS spends its time and considerable resources protecting corporations from copyright infringement. Recently, the DHS shut down websites that were even linking to sites accused of infringing. Then, last weekend, DHS mistakenly seized the domain names of 84,000 websites mistakenly accused of child pornography. If federal agencies can already simply shut down and take control of a domain and website without due process to the owner, how much more of a blacklist does the government need?
3. Is the push for new laws based on flawed facts, figures and arguments? Senator Leahy's primary justification for COICA has been his claims during testimony that copyright piracy costs "the American economy billions of dollars annually and hundreds of thousands of lost jobs." Critics call his numbers "bogus." These critics claim that such quantification of the effects of piracy is impossible and that Leahy ignores GAO findings about the way that lost profits and tax revenues are offset by consumer benefits. Others object to Leahy's unsubstantiated numbers because they were provided by the very industries whose profits COICA is poised to protect.
Another set of critics took issue with arguments made by COICA advocate, author Scott Turow, who testified in favor of the legislation on behalf of the Authors Guild. Turow's New York Times Op-Ed entitled "Would the Bard Have Survived the Web?" weakly attempted to invoke Shakespeare to argue that money, which copyright theft drains from modern artists, has historically been the only effective fuel for the world's great creative works. Turow's gross misapplication of 17th century playwriting concepts to the modern publishing industry and internet landscape was appropriately criticised with words like "stupid" and "balderdash."
4. How has COICA generated both bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition? Maybe this is the bipartisanship America has been promised. You have to love an issue that brings the Tea Party and ACLU to the same side of the table--in this case, opposing COICA. On the other side of the table, lawmakers from both parties, pushed by their allies in the content industry, appear poised to join together to pass this legislation.
Opposing the legislation rom the right, Tea Party members are arguing that this legislation is nothing more than another power grab for Barack Obama and Eric Holder. This was evidenced at last week's Conservative Political Action Conference, which was littered with flyers warning that COICA is just a way for big government to take your website.
Opposing the legislation from the left, civil liberties organizations like the ACLU are renewing their stern warnings about the way this legislation, even as revised, allows the government to trample civil liberties by shutting down a website without even obtaining a court order. If the far-left and far-right agree that COICA gives the government dangerous powers, it will be fascinating to see if the bipartisan group of unconcerned moderates in the House and Senate is large enough to push the leglislation through.
5. Why has Google stood up the Committee? Although the COICA Committee has now heard from representatives from Rosetta Stone Inc., Authors Guild, The Go Daddy Group, Inc., Verizon Communications, and Visa, Inc., search engine giants, Google and Yahoo have both declined Senator Leahy's invitations to testify. Leahy defiantly responded to the snub by saying "It would have been helpful to have their testimony here to prepare for it, but we will have the legislation one way or another." Despite these dismissive comments, Leahy continues to lobby for Google's support.
Google's position on COICA remains undefined. Recently, it has unleashed its own series of anti-piracy measures, including punishing the search engine rank of infringing websites and outright blocking some file-sharing sites. Some of Google's measures are probably in response to threats, such as the MPAA's recent warning that it will attempt to disconnect Google from the internet if the search engine does not take protective action. However, whether or not you agree with Google's approach, the steps it has taken demonstrate that private industry, which does not have to concern itself with the Bill of Rights, is capable of a level of self-policing that should decrease the need for a new government blacklist.
Leave Comments: | <urn:uuid:0abe6b45-67cb-40ce-a0a8-5d6868751b9d> | 2 | 2.140625 | 0.050838 | en | 0.91829 | http://www.sitesandblogs.com/2011/02/five-key-questions-about-americas.html |
Climate Science Glossary
Term Lookup
Enter a term in the search box to find its definition.
Term Lookup
Home Arguments Software Resources Comments The Consensus Project Translations About Donate
Twitter Facebook YouTube Pinterest
RSS Posts RSS Comments Email Subscribe
Climate's changed before
It's the sun
It's not bad
There is no consensus
It's cooling
Models are unreliable
Temp record is unreliable
Animals and plants can adapt
It hasn't warmed since 1998
Antarctica is gaining ice
View All Arguments...
Keep me logged in
New? Register here
Forgot your password?
Latest Posts
Exxon-Mobil CEO Downplays the Global Warming Threat
Posted on 13 July 2012 by dana1981
Rex Tillerson is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ExxonMobil. In 2006 he replaced Lee Raymond, who was its CEO from 1999 through 2005, during which time he denied the reality of climate change and ExxonMobil spent tens of millions of dollars funding climate change denial groups like the Heartland Institute. Raymond's ExxonMobil also paid for expensive, weekly "Opinion Advertorials" on the New York Times opinion pages disputing mainstream climate science.
In 2008, under Tillerson's watch, ExxonMobil pledged to cut funding to several climate denial groups. The company does continue to fund some climate contrarians like Willie Soon; however, Tillerson has certainly been an improvement over Raymond in terms of climate realism, and he does acknowledge that human greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming. Tillerson seemed to have changed ExxonMobil's stripes on climate change.
However, Tillerson recently gave a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations (video here, transcript here) which not surprisingly, since he's a fossil fuel company CEO, centered around assertions that we have tons and tons of oil and natural gas reserves remaining. During the question and answer session, an audience member asked him this question about the climate implications of burning these immense quantities of fossil fuels:
As might be expected from a fossil fuel company CEO, Tillerson responded to this question by downplaying the threat posed by climate change, but as we will see in this post, he misrepresented the state of climate science and economics research in the process, and advocated a rather foolhardy approach to risk management.
Models Are Reliable
Tillerson's first response to the climate threat question was to emphasize uncertainty by disputing the accuracy of climate models:
Climate models are of course not perfect, and Tillerson identified two specific challenges they face - the uncertainty regarding the size of the cooling effect aerosols have on the climate, and the response of clouds in a warming world.
That being said, climate models have accurately simulated a number of observed climate changes. Additionally, the larger our greenhouse gas emissions, the more confident we can be that they will result in large and bad climate change consequences, and Tillerson is essentially advocating that we burn through all known fossil fuel reserves. If we do, we can be confident that the consequences will very likely be disastrous. As Ronald Prinn, director of the Center for Global Change Science at MIT noted in response to Tillerson's comments,
"The models are certainly good enough to clearly show the benefits of mitigation policies compared to no policy, in lowering risks. We cannot wait for perfection in climate forecasts before taking action."
Uncertainty is Not Our Friend
Tillerson proceeded to further emphasize climate uncertainties:
"when you predict things like sea level rise, you get numbers all over the map."
It's important to remember that uncertainty cuts both ways. It means that we can't rule out the possibility that the consequences of climate change will be relatively benign, but we also can't rule out the possibility that they will be utterly catastrophic. Uncertainty is no excuse for inaction, and is certainly not a justification for foolish optimism.
In fact, when doing proper risk management, it's important to look at the full range of scenarios, including the worst case. To follow Tillerson's example, there is a large range of potential future sea level rise, with the worst case scenario exceeding 1 meter by 2100. Such a large sea level rise would have very costly impacts, and the more fossil fuels we consume, the larger that sea level rise will be.
Tillerson should know how to conduct proper risk management, since ExxonMobil is in the very risky business of oil drilling. In fact, they made their health and safety policies much more conservative after the Exxon Valdez disaster, correctly erring on the side of minimizing the risk of another catastrophic spill. Tillerson would undoubtedly say that we should do what we can to prevent oil spills from happening rather than simply adapting and implementing engineering solutions once they occur. We should apply the same risk management approach to climate change rather than employing Tillerson's newfound cavaleir attitude.
Adaption is Costlier than Mitigation
Tillerson then made an increasingly popular argument amongst climate contrarians - that we can simply adapt to climate change.
It's true that if we had infinite resources, we could probably successfully adapt to the consequences of climate change, to a point. However, in reality we don't have infinite resources, and thus we generally try to utilize those resources most efficiently. When it comes to climate change we have the option to choose our desired combination of mitigation, adaptation, and suffering.
If we so desired, we could shift our agricultural production to wholly different geographic regions. We could move entire cities away from the coastlines. We could change or diets to eat less seafood as marine ecosystems are decimated by ocean acidification. But these sorts of adaptive measures tend to be very expensive, and also tend to be steps people would prefer to avoid.
As we recently examined, climate change consequences from carbon emissions are already costing our society hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Research by the German Institute for Economic Research and Watkiss et al. 2005 have concluded that choosing mitigation above adaption would save us tens of trillions of dollars (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Approximate global costs of climate action (green) and inaction (red) in 2100 and 2200. Sources: German Institute for Economic Research and Watkiss et al. 2005
While some climate contrarians have argued that adaption is cheaper than mitigation, they have yet to produce a single economic study to support this assertion. Most frequently they reference (and misrepresent) the work of William Nordhaus, who got sick of these distortions of his research and set the record straight, saying:
"My research shows that there are indeed substantial net benefits from acting now rather than waiting fifty years...the loss from waiting is $4.1 trillion."
In short, while we could adapt to the consequences of climate change to a certain point, as Tillerson argues, that doesn't mean that we should. Listening to Tillerson and choosing adaptation over mitigation would cost us many trillions of dollars.
Helping the Poor in Developing Countries
Like John Christy, Tillerson also argued that poor people in developing countries need fossil fuels.
While the poor in developing countries would certainly benefit from increased access to electricity, there is no reason that electricity must come from fossil fuels. Traditionally fossil fuels have come at the cheapest price, but only because they are in effect massively subsidized, because the cost of the climate impacts resulting from their carbon emissions are not reflected in their market price. When we account for all of the costs associated with fossil fuel combustion, they become more expensive than many clean, renewable options.
The irony here is that poor developing nations have the fewest resources available to pursue Tillerson's recommended path of adapting to climate change. This is why as Samson et al. (2011) showed, the countries with the lowest CO2 emissions are most vulnerable to and will generally experience the largest climate impacts (Figure 2).
Pay particular attention to Africa, which is generally the region that comes to mind when discussing cooking food with animal dung and having insufficient access to electricity. As the bottom frame of Figure 2 shows, African nations tend to be the most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change, in large part because they lack the resources necessary for adaptation. Tillerson's advocacy for consuming all available fossil fuels and trying to adapt to the consequences is not doing these poor people any favors.
The Progression of Climate Denial
Given that as ExxonMobil CEO, Tillerson's job is to maximize the company's profits, it's not at all surprising that he would downplay the risks associated with consuming his company's products. Since Tillerson is neither a climate scientist nor economist, his opinions on these issues are not particularly credible anyway.
Nevertheless, it is a positive sign that ExxonMobil and climate denial groups like the Cato Institute are moving away from denying that the planet is warming and that humans are causing that warming, and falling back to adaption vs. mitigation arguments. At least this is a step in the right direction, although it still shows that the ExxonMobil climate contrarian tiger has clearly not entirely changed its stripes.
0 0
Bookmark and Share Printable Version | Link to this page
Comments 1 to 10:
1. Considering the long held position that somehow climate skeptics can't get funding Exxon's admission of funding climate model studies for 20 years at MIT is useful to note in rejoinder. More interesting is who there is doing the work (Lindzen? I didn't think he did GCMs) and whether they are publishing and whether they are acknowledging E-M as a source of funding. Project for John Mashey). But here's the real takeaway as far as I'm concerned: Exxon Mobil isn't saying/can't say that "we've done our own climate modeling and our rise is temperatures is due to X and not increasing CO2 in the atmosphere." You can bet the folks and Shell have been trying too. Where's the model that doesn't involve CO2?
And in the 2nd largest privately held Oil Company (Koch Brothers), their foundation helped fund the BEST study that ended up showing that all those climate scientist were doing it right.
As a starting point- in 2011 this was published:
Reference Type: Journal Article
Author: Prinn, Ronald
Author: Paltsev, Sergey
Author: Sokolov, Andrei
Author: Sarofim, Marcus
Author: Reilly, John
Author: Jacoby, Henry
Primary Title: Scenarios with MIT integrated global systems model: significant global warming regardless of different approaches
Journal Name: Climatic Change
Cover Date: 2011-02-01
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Issn: 0165-0009
Subject: Earth and Environmental Science
Start Page: 515
End Page: 537
Volume: 104
Issue: 3
Doi: 10.1007/s10584-009-9792-y
Abstract: A wide variety of scenarios for future development have played significant roles in climate policy discussions. This paper presents projections of greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations, sea level rise due to thermal expansion and glacial melt, oceanic acidity, and global mean temperature increases computed with the MIT Integrated Global Systems Model (IGSM) using scenarios for twenty-first century emissions developed by three different groups: intergovernmental (represented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), government (represented by the U.S. government Climate Change Science Program) and industry (represented by Royal Dutch Shell plc). In all these scenarios the climate system undergoes substantial changes. By 2100, the CO 2 concentration ranges from 470 to 1020 ppm compared to a 2000 level of 365 ppm, the CO 2 -equivalent concentration of all greenhouse gases ranges from 550 to 1780 ppm in comparison to a 2000 level of 415 ppm, oceanic acidity changes from a current pH of around 8 to a range from 7.63 to 7.91, in comparison to a pH change from a preindustrial level by 0.1 unit. The global mean temperature increases by 1.8 to 7.0°C relative to 2000. Such increases will require considerable adaptation of many human systems and will leave some aspects of the earth’s environment irreversibly changed. Thus, the remarkable aspect of these different approaches to scenario development is not the differences in detail and philosophy but rather the similar picture they paint of a world at risk from climate change even if there is substantial effort to reduce emissions.
0 0
2. Tillerson appears to try to infer, given sea level rise predictions being "all over the map", that the lower estimates are therefore the most likely.
Obviously, this is a non sequitur. Even assuming his premise is correct, without any further analysis any single predicted sea level rise by, say, 2100 is as likely as any other. And by that reasoning there are a lot more alarming, high end predictions (such as the .75 to 1.9 m range given from Vermeer & Rahmstorf 2009, which I'm sure I was led to from here on Skeptical Science than soothing, low-end ones.
0 0
3. Good rebuttal, but one minor quibble...
Saying that "Tillerson's job is to maximize the company's profits" undeservedly lets him off the hook for many people. I know that's not what you're trying to do, but it has that affect for some people.
They say things like "well, it would be nice if the corporation could do something, but it's not allowed to because it has to maximize profits, and action would cost money". It grants an excuse for inaction.
But there is no law declaring that the sole objective of a corporation is profit maximization. Milton Friedman popularized this line of thought in the 70s, but it has no legal basis. Corporations are capable of engaging in all lawful activities.
It's inherently contradictory to say "profit maximization" anyway. For whom? A day trader wants maximum profits now. If I'm retiring in 20 years, I want it maximized at that date. If I'm a pension plan representing people retiring tomorrow as well as people retiring in 30 years, I want it as high as possible now while at the same time not preventing it from staying/rising higher for the 30 year period.
By destroying the environment which allows his company to make money, Tillerson is doing a great disservice to his company's long term ability to not only maximize profit, but even stay solvent.
These people need their feet held to the fire as much as possible, no excuses.
0 0
I wonder how farmers (not to mention coastal inhabitants and others) like the cavalier attitude that their individual livelihoods and lives don't matter at all...they can just adapt.
Also, by analogy to the reckoning that ultimately came to the tobacco industry, one day there will be lawsuits assigning blame for the damage caused by industry obstructionism and lying, and we need to remember facts such as ExxonMobil's 20 years of climate modeling that indicate they knew what their product was doing to the planet.
0 0
5. As the denier camp morphs into the staller camp the arguments for mitigation will get trickier. Economic models are not reliable. It is one thing say 97% of climatologists think X, but quite another to say most economists think we should do something about X. It is even easier to troll out pseudo-economists before the public than quack scientists. (Just look at the budget debates.)
We've spent a lot of time thinking about how to explain the science but very little on how to explain policy choices. Among those who favor mitigation some are for cap and trade while others are against this approach; some are pro nuclear power while others are anti-nukes; some see natural gas as a helpful bridge while others do not. It will be very easy for the stallers to use divide and concern tactics.
0 0
6. I feel a bit like a broken record, but we adapt to the consequences, not before the consequences. That means if adaptation is the plan, it will be after there's been massive floods, droughts, famine and loss of life--much of that loss could have been avoided if we decided to reign in our fossil fuel dependency.
0 0
7. An interesting observation (maybe) that I recall from reading Naomi Oreskes' and Erik Conway's book "Merchants of Doubt": It is from a part of at the book about US government sponsored reports on the likely seriousness of AGW during late 1980's or early 1990's, and the response of those who got to write the summary (I'm going from my memory of the book, so apologies for not remembering specifics regarding specific personalities, committees, official report names). Anyway, what I recall is that the book documented that when the climate science was largely confirming what is more certain now some 20 years later, the then-proponents against contemplating mitigation did not argue against a synthesis of the science. Instead, they accepted it and simply attached a summary, without any references to support it, stating that we can just adapt by picking up and moving to more preferable living/ growing conditions. The difficulties and specifics involved with this "plan" were not elaborated on.
Thanks to Mr. Tillerson, Exxon Mobil is back to where the anti-mitigation proponents where something like 22 years ago. It seems like Déjà Vu all over again.
0 0
8. sorry - just a clarification to my comments above: the report itself was from "the late 1980's or early 1990's", not the anticipated seriousness of AGW. That was in the future.
0 0
9. I like the way that adaptation is a simple matter of engineering whereas mitigation is seen as impossibly expensive and civilisation destroying. If we can adapt to a mush hotter world why can't we adapt to a carbon free economy?
0 0
10. re:9
Tillerson's remarks that AGW is an engineering problem is "void for vagueness". All of the possible engineering solutions might involve drastically curtailing carbon energy. The simplest ones definitely do.
0 0
The Consensus Project Website
(free to republish)
The Scientific Guide to
Global Warming Skepticism
Smartphone Apps
© Copyright 2015 John Cook
Home | Links | Translations | About Us | Contact Us | <urn:uuid:ef803194-117f-45da-9606-fbee0f7702b4> | 3 | 2.515625 | 0.118442 | en | 0.949808 | http://www.skepticalscience.com/exxon-mobi-ceo-denies-climate-threat.html |
Would Merged United be 'Too Big to Fail'?
A few years ago, the concept of "too big to fail" meant nothing to most people, but several bailouts and a one massive recession later, the term seems as commonplace as "would you like fries with that?" Now, some are worried that the mega-merger between United and Continental could result in an airline industry dominated by huge carriers that are simply too large to live without.
The New York Times reports that at a hearing focused on the United merger in Washington yesterday, William J. McGee, a consultant with the Consumer’s Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine, made the case: "Just as we have seen with the banks, with financial services companies and with automobile manufacturers, we are now seeing the domestic airline industry evolving into an oligopoly of 800-pound gorillas.
"In the past, Wall Street investors and executives at competing airlines have decried any form of assistance to financially struggling carriers, asserting the government should let the marketplace decide which airlines survive and which airlines fail. In the future, these same parties will reverse that argument claiming that a megacarrier such as United-Continental will be too big to fail. And they will be right."
The man has a point. Along with Delta, a merged United would control just over 40 percent of the domestic air travel market—that's a lot of real estate for just two carriers. If just one of Delta or United succumbed to some form of economic calamity, the resulting void in domestic air service would be severe. And while it's difficult to contemplate a circumstance that would vanquish both Delta and United, it goes without saying that the loss of both airlines would be disastrous.
More likely than either of those scenarios is one where the threat of bankruptcy at either carrier is imminent enough to call for government action, as we saw in 2008 with the banking industry. What then? Should the government step in to save an airline that controls one-fifth of domestic air travel, and that provides a major percentage of overseas service for Americans? Should the government allow said carrier to wither on the vine? Do we want to have to answer these questions?
The flip side is that these mergers are meant to provide financial stability and prevent the sort of financial distress most major carriers are currently facing. Mergers allow airlines to consolidate routes and reach more destinations. Put more usefully, mergers allow them to save money and bring in new revenue. Heck, the airline's executives say they don't even plan on raising fares! Sounds like a recipe for long-term success, doesn't it?
The way I see it, United will probably be fine—but the key word there is "probably," and that's a somewhat uncomfortable concept when talking about the nation's largest carrier. Do we really want to be asking ourselves, "what if ... ?"
Read comments or add your own insight!
Please enable JavaScript to properly view and use this web site. | <urn:uuid:bec45153-02b9-4d2e-9389-a7bf7ca93c9f> | 2 | 1.828125 | 0.139475 | en | 0.961076 | http://www.smartertravel.com/blogs/today-in-travel/would-merged-united-be-too-big-to-fail.html?id=4942675 |
H 34° L 25°
Cloudy | 9MPH
The Way I See It!
Another Marijuana Myth
Drugs, Marijuana
Myth - Smoking Marijuana makes you mellow
Does Marijuana Cause Violence?
One of the claims by those advocating marijuana legalization is that smoking grass does not lead to the violent behavior associated with drinking alcohol. They instead ascribe qualities to marijuana smoking of soothing the savage beast in humans.
What they learned was that "the percentages of youths engaging in delinquent behaviors in the past year rose with increasing frequency of marijuana use."
Page Tools | <urn:uuid:db102a82-2a1a-41b0-a4dd-3dfadaa70673> | 2 | 1.632813 | 0.195235 | en | 0.901289 | http://www.southmilwaukeenow.com/blogs/communityblogs/249155901.html |
Dealing with bugs in your garden
— Creepy, crawly things used to freak me out; I'd squish them in a minute. But that changed after I met Whitney Cranshaw, professor of entomology at Colorado State University who taught a segment on garden insects for Master Gardeners.
Garden pests already suffer tremendous mortality without our added intervention. According to Cranshaw, a mated female insect typically lays 100 eggs. On average, 98 of these usually fail to reach adulthood. Most die from starvation, severe weather, or end up as breakfast for some other animal. Many garden insects are beneficial. They break down dying plant materials into small pieces so they decay quicker and put nutrients into the soil. Some insects eat other insects that could overrun your garden. Spiders, earwigs and lady beetles (ladybugs) find aphids and mites especially delectable.
Kill these good bugs, and the bad bugs will take over!
Some species of wasps and flies are insect parasites that develop by growing within a host insect, often caterpillars and wood-boring beetles which soon die. Cranshaw says that what we choose to call a pest varies with the situation. Honey bees are more than welcome while pollinating our plants, but when they nest in the wall of our home, they become a pest. Earwigs are disgusting little bugs, but when they are not nesting in a flower bud or vegetable leaf, they are probably eating aphids, caterpillars and other pests.
But let's face it: some bugs are just plain nuisances. Boxelder bugs, crickets and cluster flies are home invaders that can be real problems. Preventive practices such as sealing your exterior openings and reducing the conditions that attract these bugs (light and moisture) can help. Insecticides are another alternative, either spot treating your points of entry or applying the product where bugs aggregate such as between the walls of your home. Often, the treatment you choose, whether a biological control (insect predators) or cultural/mechanical control (pest-resistant plant varieties, sanitation, barriers, traps) or chemical control (insecticides) must be implemented at the appropriate time of year.
Observe and note what happens at different times of year in your garden. Your experiences will help you address the bug issue before it becomes a problem next time. For instance, adult white pine weevils (a huge problem here in Steamboat) wake up in early April and move to the top of spruce trees to feed and lay eggs. This upper area of the tree should be treated at the time adults are feeding and laying eggs. Pruning (and destruction) of the infested top branch (terminal) while the insects are still present can also contribute to control. But, once eggs have hatched and the bugs are airborne, it's futile to attempt any damage control.
Requires free registration
Posting comments requires a free account and verification. | <urn:uuid:a2f1fd92-f620-41e7-908f-d3d6fafad61d> | 3 | 3 | 0.031468 | en | 0.925281 | http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2001/aug/23/dealing_with_bugs/ |
Make us your home page
A Times Editorial
Editorial: A modest start on cutting carbon pollution
The carbon-cutting plan the Obama administration unveiled Monday is not the fastest or most effective approach to reducing global warming pollution. But with Congress refusing to act, someone has to lead and take bold action on an issue that will require sustained attention for decades. The plan should force Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature to stop ignoring accepted science on global warming and craft a more thoughtful energy policy.
The proposed federal regulations would cut emissions of carbon dioxide from existing power plants by nearly one-third by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. States could meet their targets in a variety of ways, from investing in efficiency programs and clean-energy projects to upgrading old power plants and collaborating with other states. As the first-ever guidelines on cutting carbon pollution from existing plants, the rules would be a helpful guide as states and utilities move away from coal-fired electric plants. They also would give the United States more standing to prod China, India and other polluters to clean up their acts.
Any national effort to address climate change must involve America's power plants. These plants are the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the country, accounting for one-third of all domestic greenhouse gas emissions. President Barack Obama's plan would remove 730 million metric tons of carbon pollution from the air by 2030, equal to the emissions from two-thirds of the nation's passenger vehicle fleet. The public health benefits of cleaner air — in lives saved and damage spared to the economy — would reach at least $55 billion by 2030, or seven times the cost of the cleanup effort.
Congressional Republicans and the coal industry were quick to label the proposal a jobs killer that could spark the next energy crisis. It is exactly the opposite. States, cities and utilities are already moving away from coal, taking advantage of lower costs for cleaner natural gas and new technologies that are making renewable energy sources such as wind, biofuel and solar more attractive. If anything, the rules go easy by giving states virtually free rein in reaching their goals. And while states would have to submit a plan by 2016, the rules allow for delays that push back that deadline up to two more years. States would have an additional decade or longer to fully implement the pollution control measures.
A federal rule aimed at the states is not the best approach to reducing carbon emissions. It is really a job for Congress, and a more direct approach such as a tax on carbon emissions would be quicker and fairer. But the Senate failed to move a comprehensive energy package in 2010 that was passed by the House, and time is running out on the Obama administration.
Obama's proposal builds on his previous measures to limit emissions and increase fuel efficiency in cars and trucks. And it comes as the federal courts have strongly endorsed the EPA's authority to regulate air pollution. Though a national carbon tax would be better, the president has shifted the heat of public attention to states such as Florida. It will be up to the governor and state legislators to stop sticking their heads in the sand and draft a responsible energy policy.
Editorial: A modest start on cutting carbon pollution 06/02/14 [Last modified: Monday, June 2, 2014 6:02pm]
Photo reprints | Article reprints
Join the discussion: Click to view comments, add yours | <urn:uuid:8240f73d-0541-476d-b4ea-ce601418487a> | 3 | 3.03125 | 0.062054 | en | 0.951494 | http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-a-modest-start-on-cutting-carbon-pollution/2182597 |
After Hours
What are the implications of the new Super DMCA laws?
The broad scope of the new Super DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) law could be problematic for IT managers trying to protect their networks.
By Alex Breeding
Editor's note: This article contains the writer's observations and opinions.
Just when you got used to the 1998 Federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), there comes a new legislative kid on the block. And don't be tricked into thinking the new Super DMCA laws, which have been passed in 10 states and are under review in six others, are just extended versions of the federal DMCA. The scope of these laws is far broader than the DMCA and could threaten the very heart of technology innovation, including your ability to protect your network.
A little background
You may be familiar with the most famous alleged violation of the DMCA, when Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov was jailed and prosecuted for creating ElcomSoft's Advanced eBook Processor tool, which broke encryption on Abode's e-book technology. ElcomSoft was found not guilty at trial. Other security experts have removed their research from published Web sites due to threats of prosecution under the DMCA.
The federal DMCA law was written in 1998 as an attempt to bring copyright laws into the digital age. The act makes it a crime to circumvent copy protection or to distribute devices that can circumvent copyrights. While the goal of this legislation was admirable, the law has created precedents for action against those who are not participating in classic "hacker" activities. For example, Edward Felten, a computer science professor at Princeton, was threatened with a lawsuit after his research broke the protection scheme created by the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI)—in response to a challenge SDMI itself had issued.
States affected by Super DMCA
The new Super DMCA has been passed in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wyoming, and it's currently under consideration in Georgia, Massachusetts, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. For the latest information, see or
When these laws were going through the legislative process, they were strongly supported by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and the Business Software Alliance (BSA). This go-round, the push for SDMCA laws is being spearheaded by the MPAA with little support from the software industry and no support from any law enforcement agency.
The SDMCA makes its presence known
SDMCA laws have already claimed some victims. Tom Liston developed LaBrea, an open source application designed to stop the spread of worms across a network. He recently removed the application from his Web site under fear of prosecution under the Illinois version of the law. And Niels Provos, a University of Michigan graduate student well known for his research into steganography and honeypots, has removed his research papers and software from Web servers located in the United States.
The goal of these laws is, again, admirable. This time, the law is attempting to make it a crime to steal communications services, cable signals, premium cable programming, and/or bandwidth via wireless broadcasting or receiving devices—most of which are already covered under existing laws. These laws also attempt to legislate whatever the Internet might evolve into in the coming years. In order to accomplish this, the laws have been written in extremely broad terms. And since all of these state laws stem from the same model legislation, they all have the same flaws.
The most objectionable aspect of SDMCA makes it a crime if a person "knowingly: (1) possesses, uses, manufactures, develops, assembles, distributes, transfers, imports into this state, licenses, leases, sells or offers, promotes or advertises for sale, use or distribution any communication device: (ii) to conceal or to assist another to conceal from any communication service provider, or from any lawful authority, the existence or place or origin or destination of any communication." In other words, breaking these laws will bring severe penalties painted with a broad brush. Later, the law defines merely possessing plans or instructions or materials for creating such a device as a crime.
All of this is in addition to an overly broad initial definition that makes it a crime to merely receive and/or retransmit a signal transmitted by someone without express authorization. I'm not sure how I am supposed to prevent reception of a radio signal, other than to not use any device that receives such a signal—like my wireless LAN access card, my pager, my Toshiba e740 PDA with built-in WiFi, my cell phone, my radio, my television, or my satellite dish.
Making it a crime to retransmit a signal would mean that you can't share an Internet connection among multiple computers without express authorization from your Internet Service Provider. It also means that you can't use a proxy server. Making it illegal to conceal the origin or destination of any communications services means you can't use a firewall, virtual private network (VPN), filtering software, or network address translation (NAT).
CompUSA, Fry's, RadioShack and other outlets will have to stop selling devices capable of receiving/retransmitting communications services and "materials for creating" such devices. and will have to stop operating. And I'm pretty sure that SDMCA also outlaws call forwarding and caller ID block. These laws could even conceivably be stretched to allow any communications services provider to legislate which hardware devices (Dell or HP, but not Gateway) and/or software, including operating systems (Windows XP Home Edition ONLY), are authorized to operate on their systems.
Keep in mind, these laws do not merely make a violator subject to civil penalties, such as fines. Violating these laws is a criminal offense. That means you could go to jail for operating a firewall. And while the crime is defined as a misdemeanor, depending on the number of separate offenses (each communication, unlawful device and 24-hour period), fines of between $1,500 and $10,000 per offense may be assessed by statute. If a person is found guilty of willfully violating these laws for financial gain (meaning you saved money by not paying for it), a court may increase the total damages by up to $50,000 for each offense.
The MPAA has stated that this legislation is exclusively about stealing communications services. It contends that criminal and civil remedies are evoked only if someone steals services offered for a fee. The MPAA also contends that these laws merely expand the criminalization of electronic devices and software—like illegal cable television descramblers—if they are made expressly for the purpose of stealing communications services. The MPAA does not address SDMCA's inadequate definition the newly added "intent to defraud," which is the heart of the criminal statute. And it do not address "fair use" except to say that fair use is not a law and is unnecessary in a digital world.
Fair use
Fair use is what allows you to copy certain copyrighted material in an educational setting and lets you make backups of your copyrighted software. Fair use, of course, has been at the heart of countless previous copyright cases, such as those involving Napster, the Sony Betamax, photocopiers, cassette records, and even the basic text press.
Clearly, the MPAA is concerned about protecting copyrighted works, particularly movies distributed illicitly over the Internet and other forms of digital piracy. And digital piracy is certainly a serious problem.
However, these laws propose a radical paradigm shift in technological innovation that forbids any technology that's not expressly permitted. SDMCA laws make most, if not all, independent computer security research illegal. They impose rules that will stifle technological innovation and creativity. They could create unreasonable liabilities for any communications provider, making it responsible for the content of any user (already an issue on some college campuses), which would certainly increase the network administration burden. They also practically outlaw peer-to-peer networking because of their zeal in attacking file sharing and file distribution services.
These laws impose huge economic burdens on those found guilty of violations and those accused of violations. (See this story about college students being sued for $97.8 billion.)These laws do not even allow a defendant to recover court costs and attorney's fees if they prevail. And they would outlaw some actions of the US Government (see "Software Rams Great Firewall of China," by Paul Festa). Most disturbing is the fact that MPAA and RIAA have also lobbied for the right to hack into your network and remove copyrighted material, either by explicitly doing so or by distributing worms. That is an optional remedy under these laws.
Ultimately, in the United States anyway, it will be up to the Supreme Court to decide what is fair use and what is not. And I'm certain those nine justices will have an opportunity to consider these SDMCA laws, if they're not struck down by some lower court. But keep track of this in your state, and nationwide. If it's not in your state yet, it's coming. Stay informed.
Editor's Picks | <urn:uuid:c2e86f67-674d-498e-9b44-99be40d45bc0> | 2 | 2.296875 | 0.103533 | en | 0.952681 | http://www.techrepublic.com/article/what-are-the-implications-of-the-new-super-dmca-laws/ |
TEDxYouth Organizer, TEDxKhartoum
This conversation is closed.
How to motivate TEDx speakers before the event?
As the TEDxYouth@Khartoum conference approaches, our question is about how we can help motivate and prepare our speakers, psychologically and mentally, to give a great talk.
• Nov 4 2012: Hi Khalid
If you question is about how to make then to be confident in the moment of speaking I will give you handful and useful tips.
1. ask them to remember a moment they were confident
2, make a circle around them where they stand at the very moment.
3. touch their shoulder (this called anchoring)
(let them have/create a movie in their mind about this moment while they are standing in the circle)
4. take them out of circle, let them shake their arms.
5. ask them how they felt when their were in circle (at that moment touch exactly where you have touched when they were in circle)
6. make them imagine there are in the circle (while actually they are not standing in the circle)
if at some point it wouldn't work, go back and repeat the steps. make them remember a moment , then go to stand in the middle of circle, then anchor the moment. and then take them out of circle.
make them imagine that they are going to talk in front of cartoon characters. (this even works with adults)
if you wonder how I know all this. I can tell you that I help students and small and medium size business people with their presentational and public speaking, I use NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) techniques - (NLP is known as applied psychology)
Feel free to ask any question you may have
Good luck and success with your event
• thumb
Nov 2 2012: I am also a speaker at the coming TEDxAkure. A worthy example for speakers is Gandhi's way, as expressed by his assistant Mahadev Desai: "What Gandhi thinks, what he feels, what he says, and what he does, are all the same. He does not need notes."
• thumb
Lejan .
• +1
Nov 2 2012: Unless you sedate them with drugs, stage fright is always part of the game... :o) And that's ok.
What you can do as a backstage host is just being friendly and try to sense what an individual may need. Some may wish to talk about anything just to get their thoughts off the speach in front of them. Some may wish for silence and time to focus and concentrate. So a backstage area should offer both if possible. A meeting area and a retreat. You could also serve some teas of the calming type and stimulating drinks like coffee and such alike. For some people a small glass of champagne does wonders, but alcohol should only - if at all - be served in very small quantities, as it becomes destructive otherwise. Smokers would be happy if they could smoke somewhere, and little bowls of snacks like peanuts would keep many nervous hands beautifully busy... :o)
Finally, a view words of encouragement and an open smile on the way out to stage will support as best as you can.
Good luck and good success with your conference!
• Nov 3 2012: Am not a backstage host i am in the speaker comity, I'm talking about in reahearsal how make them ready to Event
• thumb
Nov 2 2012: The situation is difficult to visualize. Have you invited people with little experience speaking to groups? Have they been expressing nervous concerns to you or reluctance to be on your program?
How to prepare people depends very much on why you do not expect them to speak well without your assistance.
Are they nervous and lacking in intrinsic motivation - or is it really that you don't have confidence in them?
Whatever you decide to do, I would suggest that you try not to let your anxiety about their motivations or ability to speak well interfere with their natural motivation and poise.
• Nov 1 2012: If they are not motivated why have them to speak?
• Nov 2 2012: They are motivated but we wont them to be more motivated , they are nerves
• Nov 4 2012: Entropy
Public Speaking is not an easy job.
if you have ever tried to do in front of 5 or 10 unknown to you people group, you may know what it is.
it is not like telling your 5 friends at once about your great idea or telling them your last night dream. | <urn:uuid:c3e81fa1-5a5e-4c02-8f19-9fe2f36e5625> | 2 | 2.15625 | 0.040891 | en | 0.972799 | http://www.ted.com/conversations/14705/how_to_motivate_tedx_speakers.html?c=558417 |
How . . . stimulating
By Megan McArdle
Are there any sweeter words in the English language than "The election is over?" Starting tomorrow, I can turn my attention to things like budget deficits, and stimulus packages.
About which, I'm already confused. Everyone, except me, seems to think that a massive stimulus package will improve things. But as I learned it, the theory behind stimulus is that it expands aggregate demand by tapping into excess savings at home. Instead of fruitlessly chasing too few investment opportunities, savings is helpfully channeled into consumption, smoothing the business cycle. Else it expands aggregate demand by bringing in foreign savings that are not needed elsewhere.
But for the first time in, well, ever, we're flirting with an actual decline in global production; we will not be beseiged with flush foreigners looking to park all those nuisance profits. And I don't think anyone believes that America has a problem with excess savings. Given that, a stimulus package seems more likely to move money around into slightly different kinds of consumption than to actually expand aggregate demand. One economist friend suggests that it might increase velocity--but that seems a rather slender thread upon which to hang one's hopes for economic stimulus. How large is the problem of money accumulating under metaphorical mattresses?
But clearly, I must be missing something, because almost all the smart economists disagree with me.
This article available online at: | <urn:uuid:9a23f0e0-a6c2-45b3-ae5d-8f32baf688f0> | 2 | 2.140625 | 0.224306 | en | 0.939327 | http://www.theatlantic.com/business/print/2008/11/how-stimulating/4319/ |
The Full Wiki
Structural Biochemistry/Lipids/Membrane Transport: Wikis
Up to date as of January 23, 2010
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
All cells need to acquire the molecules and ions that they need from their surrounding extracellular fluid. There exists an exchange of molecules and ions in and out of the cell wall, as well as in and out of membrane-bounded intracellular compartments such as the nucleus, ER, and mitrochondria. Examples of substances that exchange through the membrane include glucose, Na2+, and Ca2+, ATP, mRNA, etc. The lipid bilayer of cell membranes is impermeable to large and polar molecules but permeable to water molecules and other small uncharged molecules like O2 and CO2. To solve this problem, the cell membrane contains proteins that are selective for unique, water soluble molecules. Continuous protein pathways are composed of carrier proteins, channels and pumps. The transport may be active transport by carrier proteins with an energy source, or it may be facilitated diffusion or passive transport via channels. A cell's activity depends on what biochemical reactions it may complete, and these reactions are dependent on the compounds extracted from the extracellular fluid. The array of transporters expressed in any given cell defines the cell's function and effectiveness.
Quantifying Free Energy Stored In Concentration Gradients
The process or movement of any molecule or ion moving down or up a concentration gradient requires a change in free energy. Understanding free energy is the heart of understanding how molecules are transported and/or behave in a concentration gradient. From the second law of thermodynamics molecules spontaneously move from a higher concentration to lower concentration. The availability of free energy is one of the factors that determine if a molecule will move across a membrane, the other being the permeability of the molecule in the lipid bilayer. The free energy change in the transportation of an uncharged species from one side of a membrane containing a concentration of x1, to another side of a membrane containing a concentration of x2 is given as followed:
ΔG (x) = RT ln (x2/x1) = 2.303 RT log10 (x2/x1)
R: The gas constant, 8.314 x 10-3 kJ mol-1 K-1
T: Temperature
x: Concentration
ΔG: Free Energy
At 25° (298K), ΔG is +11.4 kJ mol-1 (+2.7 kcal mol-1), indicating that this transport process requires an input of energy.
For charged species, an electrical potential is generated by an unequal distribution of ion charges across the membrane because “like” charges will be repelled. Taking the sum of the electrical terms and the concentration, electrical potential, generates the general expression.
ΔG (x) = RT ln (x1/x2) + Ζ F ΔV = 2.303RT log10 (x2/x1) + Ζ F ΔV
Ζ: Electrical charge of the transported species.
F: Faraday’s constant 96.5 kJ V-1 mol-1.
ΔV: Potential in volts across the membrane.
When ΔG is positive the transport is active, an input of energy is needed to move a molecule up a concentration gradient, contrary to ΔG being negative the transport is passive, which means that such molecules will pass through a membrane down their own gradient, simple diffusion.
Active-passive transport.jpg
Passive Transport
Passive diffusion of one solute across a membrane
Passive transport is the moving of biochemicals across membranes of cells without the use of chemical energy. The four main types in include diffusion, facilitated diffusion, filtration and osmosis.
Diffusion is the process by which molecules migrate over the cell membrane from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower concentration. When the amounts of molecules become stabilized, this state is called equilibrium. This occurs through random molecular motion.
A diffusion coefficient is a factor of proportionality that represents the amount of substance diffusion across a unit area through a unit concentration gradient in unit time. It is represented with a D and is based on Frick's law of diffusion.
There are 2 kinds of diffusion:
1) Tracer diffusion is the spontaneous mixing of molecules that occurs in absence of a concentration gradient. This diffusion takes place under equilibrium
2) Chemical diffusion occurs in the presence of a concentration gradient. It will result in a net transport of mass. The overall system will increase in entropy and it gradually moves closer to equilibrium until it is reached.
Other types of diffusion include:
• Osmosis is the diffusion of water through a semi-permeable membrane. Water will move from an area with a higher concentration of water to the other side of the membrane with a lower concentration of water. Osmosis is very important in biological systems because many membranes are semipermeable. They are impermeable to organic solutes (ie. large molecules) but are permeable to water and small uncharged solutes. Permeability does not only depend on size, but also depends on solubility properties, charge and chemistry.Further information: [[1]]
• Atomic diffusion is a diffusion process that incorporates the random thermally-activated movement of atoms in a sold, which eventually results in the net transport of atoms. Examples include how a Helium atom inside a balloon can diffuse through the wall of the balloon. The balloon will eventually deflate.
• Brownian motion is the random movement of particles suspended in a fluid (could be liquid or gas). There is also a mathematical model that is used to describe such random movements.
• Collective diffusion is the diffusion of a large number of particles. This usually takes place within a solvent. This is different form the brownian motion because it is the diffusion of a single particle and the interactions between the particles may need to be considered.
• Eddy diffusion is also called "turbulent diffusion." It is any diffusion process by which substances are mixed in the atmosphere or in any fluid system due to eddy motion.
• Effusion is the process in which individual molecules will flow through a hole without collisions between molecules. It occurs if the diameter of the hole is considerably smaller than the mean free path of the molecules.
Types of Passive Membrane Transport
Ion Channels
Ion channels are proteins that forms water-filled pores through membranes, which allow specific ions to passively transport down the electrochemical gradient. For instance, the ion channels commonly found throughout the human body include Na+ channels, K+ channels, Ca2+ channels, and Cl- channels. These passive transport ion channels make use of the electrochemical potential to drive physiological processes, such as nerve impulse. The electrochemical potential is maintained by various active transport mechanisms, such as the Na+-K+ ATPase.
The selectivity of the ion channels arise from the amino acids formation from which the protein is formed. Two main criteria determine what ions pass through these channels unimpeded: diameter of the pore and the electrical properties of the amino acids. The ion channels essentially forms a hole through the lipid bilayer of the membrane. The diameter of the hole helps determine which substances are allowed to pass through the channel. Only ions of an appropriate size will be able to pass through the hole of a specific ion channel. The observation that some larger ion channels only permit a specific ion to pass while smaller ions do not is based on the energetics of dehydrating the ion as it passes. The arrangement of amino acid carbonyl groups inside channels dictate the passage: the arrangement of the carbonyl groups is so that the dehydration energy costs are lowest for certain hydrated ions. Thus a larger pore has a favorable arrangement for larger hydrated ions, whereas a smaller hydrated ion passing through would require more energy to dehydrate. In potassium channels, this dehydration region that mediates the passage of K+ ions is known as the selectivity filter.
In addition to the diameter of the pore, the electrical properties of the amino acid help determine which ions are allowed to pass through the ion channel. If the amino acids facing the inside of the pore are negatively charged, then only cations can pass through the channel. Anions will be repelled away from the negatively charged amino acids in the channel due to charge repulsion. Conversely, anions will be able to pass through channels lined with positively charged amino acids.
There are some inherited ion-channel diseases. Some include: -Chloride-channel diseases include cystic fibroses and inherited tendency to kidney stones. -Potassium-channel diseases include some inherited life-threatening defects in the heartbeat, a rare inherited tendency to epileptic seizures in the newborn and several types of inherited deafness. -Sodium-channel diseases include inherited tendency to certain types of muscle spasms and Liddle's syndrome.
Side view, illustrating the antiparallel beta barrel structure.
Porins are a type of membrane proteins what form a beta-barrel pore across the lipid bilayer. Unlike other protein transport channels, the pores from porins are large enough to allow passive diffusion. As a result of the large diameter, porins generally mediate the diffusion of small metabolites, such as amino acids, sugars, and ions.
The general structural properties of various porins are the same, regardless of their type. Porins are proteins composed primarily of beta-sheets, connected in the anti-parallel direction. Sixteen to eighteen strands of beta-sheets fold into a cylindrical tube, which is labeled as the beta-barrel. The amino acid sequence is roughly an alternating pattern of non-polar and polar residues, which are positioned in an appropriate way as to generate the tertiary barrel structure. This beta-barrel is located in the lipid bilayer, forming the large hole into the cell. As a result of these interactions, the amino acids facing the outside of the beta-barrel are generally nonpolar, to interact with nonpolar region of the lipid bilayer. However, the inside of the beta-barrel typically contains polar amino acids, to interact with the aqueous environment connecting the two sides of the membrane.
Porins are also found in the outer membrane of gram negative bacteria. Gram negative bacteria contain an outer membrane that helps keep out unwanted chemicals, as well as increase virulence. The porins facilitate the diffusion of small molecules and nutrients through the outer membrane and into the periplasm.
Ionophores are molecules that help transport ions from a hydrophilic environment into a hydrophobic environment. In other words, ionophores are ion carriers that help transport hydrophilic ions across lipid bilayer membranes. There are two broad mechanisms by which ionophores transport ions across cell membranes: carrier and channel forming.
In the carrier mechanism, the ionophore forms a complex with the ion. The ionophore wraps around the ion with its polar interior. The exterior of the ionophore-ion complex is primarily hydrophobic, thus allowing the complex to cross the hydrophobic cell membrane. The carrier ionophore basically shields the ion’s charge from the environment by solvation.
For the channel forming mechanism, the ionophore induces a hydrophilic channel through the lipid bilayer membrane. The formation of this polar pore allows ions to cross through the cell membrane. Ionophores can be used as antibiotics due to its ability to disrupt the transmembrane electrochemical gradient. This electrochemical gradient is essential in driving metabolic processes. Without the gradient, there would be no net movement of ions into and out of the cell, essentially disrupting normal cellular processes. Ionophores disrupt the electrochemical gradient by allowing ions to freely diffuse across the cell membrane, either by forming complexes or channels. This free diffusion disrupts the normal ion balance between cytoplasm and the extracellular environment, thus eliminating the electrochemical gradient.
Facilitated diffusion
Facilitated diffusion occurs in almost all cells. Facillated diffusion of ions takes place through proteins or assemblies of proteins that are embedded in the plasma membrane. These proteins are water-filled channels through which ions can pass down their concentration gradient. These channels can be either opened or closed, and others can be considered "gated".
One critical example is the metabolism of glucose. Glucose molecules cannot pass easily through cell membranes; passive diffusion alone is slow, which can be problematic for cell metabolism. One way nature has solved this problem is by facilitated diffusion (another rapid mode of glucose transport is active diffusion). Like passive diffusion, the movement of glucose is always from a region of high to low glucose concentration and independent of ion coupling. Glucose transport proteins catalyze the reaction of glucose movement across the membrane. Facilitated diffusion of glucose molecules is fast and bidirectional. The actions of glucose transport proteins are analogous to enzyme mediated catalysis. [[2]]
Facilitated diffusion is a form of passive transport that uses no energy for the transport of molecules and substances through the membranes of cells. It is largely aided by proteins that are an integral part of the membrane. Facilitated diffusion is the spontaneous passage of substances or molecules across a membrane passing through specific transmembrane transport proteins. The hydrophilic substances can avoid contact with the lipid by layer core of the membrane by passing through transport proteins. Some of these proteins function by having a hydrophilic channel that lets through polar molecules. Aquaporins are an example of channel proteins that facilitates the transport of water molecules through the membranes. Other proteins termed carrier proteins grab the molecules and change shapes so as to avoid contact of the molecules with the hydrophobic core and goes through the membrane. Most of the proteins are very specific that is they only transport certain types of substances.
Gated Ion Channels
These ion channels open or close in response to when it binds to a signal molecule or "ligand." The ligand is not the substance that is transported when the channel opens. Some ions are gated by extracellular ligands and others are by intracellular ligands.
Another type of protein channels are ion channels that lets through ions. Many of them are stimulated by electrical or chemical signals and are called gated channels. The stimulants either open the channel or clothe them. Stimulation of a nerve cell by certain neurotransmitter molecules, for example, opens gated channels that allow sodium ions into the cell. External ligands bind to a site on the extracellular side of the channel. Examples include:
- Acetylcholine (Ach) which is the binding of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine at certain synapses. It opens channels that admit sodium ions and initiate a nerve impulse or muscle contraction.
- Gamma amino butyric acid (GABA)- binding of GABA at certain synapses allows for the central nervous system to admit chlorine ions into the cell, which inhibits the creation of a nerve impulse.
- Calcium channels that permit calcium ions to flow into the membrane. These Ca2+ ions then serve as second messenger internal ligands to initiate various processes, such as activating calmodulin.
External ligands may be regulated by enzymes. In neurosynapses, acetylcholinesterase degrades ACh into recyclable components; GABA is degraded in a similar fashion. Ca2+ is removed by active transport via an Na+/Ca2+ pump. These various ligand removal processes help regulate the overall concentrations and restore membrane asymmetry.
Internal ligands bind to a site on the intracellular side of the channel exposed to the cytosol. Examples include:
- cyclic AMP (cAMP) ad cyclic GMP (cGMP) which are both called "second messengers". They are channels that are involved in the initiation of impulses in neurons responding to odors and light
The channel that allows chlorine and bicarbonate ions in and out of the cell is regulated by ATP. This channel is defective in patients with cystic fibrosis
Mechanically-gated ion channels
- Sound waves bending the cilia-like projections on the hair cells of the inner ear. They open up, which leads to the creation of nerve impulses that the brain interprets as sound.
- Mechanical deformation of the cells of stretch receptors open up ion channels leading the to creation of nerve impulses.
Voltage-gated channels
These neurons and muscle cells are "excitable cells". Some channels open or close as a response to changes in the charge (measured in volts) across the plasma membrane. An example is an impulse that passes down a neuron and the reduction in the voltage opens sodium channels in teh adjacent portion of the membrane.
Carrier Proteins
Carrier proteins are membrane-bound transport proteins that bind with specific substrates and changes conformation to carry the substrate across the membrane. Facilitated diffusion occurs by use of carrier proteins. There are several types of carrier proteins: uniport carriers, symport carriers, and antiport carriers.
Uniport carriers are carrier proteins that move only one kind of substance across the cell membrane. They work by binding to one molecule at a time and transporting that molecule down its electrochemical gradient. Uniport carriers can be regulated by various mechanisms: voltage, physical, and ligand binding. By the voltage regulation, the uniport carrier opens or closes at a critical difference between transmembrane voltage. For the physical regulation, physical pressure will cause the carrier to open or close. Lastly, for ligand binding regulation, ligands bind to the uniport carrier on either the intracellular or extracellular side to induce opening or closing of the carrier.
Other carrier proteins can carry more than one molecule across the cell membrane at a time. Symport carriers are carrier proteins that transport two or more different molecules simultaneously across the cell membrane in the same direction. In contrast, antiport carriers are carrier proteins that transport two or more different molecules simultaneously across the cell membrane, of which at least one of the molecules are transported in the opposite direction compared to the others. Generally, these carriers transport at least one molecule down its electrochemical gradient and the other molecules would go against its gradient. The molecules going down the electrochemical gradient will provide the driving potential to push the other molecules against its electrochemical gradient. These types of proteins are classified as secondary transporters, or cotransporters.
Facilitated diffusion by carrier protein transport is ultimately based on the embedded membrane proteins, in contrast with passive diffusion which occurs everywhere in the membrane. In particular, uniport transport and passive diffusion, both of which describe ion movement down concentration gradients across membranes, differ by their maximum rates: uniport transport is limited to and located at the carrier proteins in the membrane.
Active Transport
Active transport in a cell occurs when energy is used to transport molecules across the cell membrane. While passive transport takes advantage of favorable concentration gradients to facilitate ion diffusion through membranes (i.e. moving a protein from high to low concentration), active transport requires energy input because the molecule in question is being moved against the concentration gradient (i.e. moving a protein from low to high concentration). Because this type of movement is "uphill", meaning that it is thermodynamically unfavorable, energy is needed to compensate for the thermodynamic loss. This ensures that the transport in question is completed successfully and that the cell can obtain whatever nutrients it requires, even if this means moving proteins and ions into areas where their concentration is already relatively high. THe ATP used in active transportation may be used either directly or indirectly. For direct active transport, some transporters will bind ATP directly and use the energy of its hydrolysis to drive active transport and establishes a concentration gradient. Indirect Active transport will use the energy already stored in the gradient of a directly-pumped ion.
Membrane Pumps
The cell makes use of membrane pumps to help in accomplishing active transport. Pumps can convert free energy into different forms, depending on which form is required by the cell at a given time. This property makes membrane pumps a convenient choice for mediating active transport since they can provide the energy needed to initiate the transport. The two main types of pumps employed by the cell are P-type ATPases and ATP-binding cassette transporters (ABCs). Both of these pumps are powered by ATP, one of the more common forms of cellular energy. One method by which these pumps can perform active transport is by binding to ATP. This binding, followed by hydrolysis, induces a conformational change in the pump that allows bound ions to be transported across the cell membrane. These pumps can also use active transport to establish favorable concentration gradients for separate transport processes. For example, one pump can create a given concentration gradient by performing active transport on a certain ion, and then another pump can exploit this new concentration gradient by facilitating ion diffusion down the concentration gradient. Thus the cell can couple active transport with passive transport (much like it couples endergonic reactions with exergonic reactions) in order to efficiently use the results of one process to drive another process to completion.
Na+-K+ pump
The Na+-K+ pump, also known as the Na+-K+ ATPase, is an enzyme used by the cell to control the ion gradients in its intracellular media. As the name of the enzyme suggests, the ions it deals with are those of potassium and sodium, which are two of the more common ions present in living systems. In this case, the Na+-K+ pump hydrolyzes ATP in order to supply the energy needed to actively transport Na+ out of the cell while bringing K+ into the cell. It is for this reason that most animal cells tend to have a significantly higher concentration of potassium ions than sodium ions; the cell requires this concentration in order to be able to facilitate various cellular processes. The Na+-K+ pump helps it maintain this concentration by generating the necessary ion gradient.
Two other such enzyme "pumps" that are homologs of the Na+-K+ pump are the Ca2+ ATPase and the H+-K+ ATPase. Ca2+ ATPase is responsible for transporting calcium ions (Ca2+) from the cytoplasm of normal tissue cells into the sarcoplasmic reticulum of muscle cells. Calcium ions are needed by the muscle cells in order to function at peak efficiency; thus this pump ensures that they receive enough calcium ions to fulfill this requirement. H+-K+ ATPase pumps large quantities of protons (H+) into the stomach's gastric juices in order to keep the pH less than 1.0. Such a low pH is required because the stomach is responsible for digesting all the foods and fluids that enter it; thus its gastric juices need to be acidic enough to dissolve and break down anything that needs digesting.
The three aforementioned pumps are all part of a family known as the P-type ATPases, so called because they all form a phosphorylated intermediate during their reactions with ATP. Hundreds upon hundreds of known homologs of these pumps exist within the P-type ATPases, and each plays a definite role in maintaining the functions of the cell.
Multidrug Resistant (MDR) Pumps
MDR Pumps are activated by ATP and are found in bacteria as well as cancer cells. They work to effectively monitor and prevent unwanted chemicals from entering the cell. They prevent antibiotics from entering bacteria and chemotherapeutic agents from entering cancer cells. Administering antibiotics with MDR inhibitors may be a way to circumvent the MDR pumps in bacteria.
Vesicles are simply a bubble of fluid within a cell. Specifically, vesicles are a membrane bound sac that aid in transportation and storage of cellular waste or cellular products, metabolism, and buoyancy control. The membrane surrounding the vesicles shares many characteristics with the plasma membrane of the cell. As a result, the vesicle can fuse with the membrane in order to dispose of its contents.
Transport Vesicles
These are just a specific type of vesicle with a function of transport. They move molecules, products etc. between the Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum and the Golgi apparatus. Two types of proteins are synthesized on the ribosomes present on the Rough ER. From here the transport vesicles take the new proteins to the Golgi apparatus. At the Golgi apparatus the proteins age and mature in order to be transported to their final destination. The proteins always travel around the inside of the cell with transport vesicles.
Lipid Vesicles
Also known as liposomes, these vesicles are aqueous compartments that are surrounded by a lipid bilayer. These vesicles are used to monitor membrane permeability and to deliver chemicals to the cell. Lipid vesicles aid in determining the level of impermeability of a membrane to ions and polar molecules. Ions and polar molecules are trapped in the aqueous compartment of the liposome. The rate of the flow from the inner compartment of the vesicle to the outside solution during membrane transport determines the membrane's impermeability to the ions or polar molecules contained in the inner aqueous compartment. Liposomes are formed by sonicating phospholipids in the presence of an ion, polar molecules or a water soluble substance.
Coated Vesicles:
These are vesicles that form when emerging buds are detached from the cell membrane. Depending on the formation of the vesicle, the formation of the outer coat may form the vesicle, where in other cases, other enzymes are necessary to form the vesicle. It is an intracellular structure. The outer surface of the vesicle is covered in a lattice or cage like coating of the protein Clathrin.
Clathrin is a protein that forms a lattice shaped covering on the cytosolic side of the cellular membrane. These cytosolic sides are referred to as coated pits, the first stage of forming coated vesicles. It is made through a process of making subunits called triskelioins. The Triskelioins are a three pronged molecule with three N-terminus regions. They are known as heavy chains, about 192kDa in weight and are bound to light chains, about 30kDa in weight. The invagination of the pit is during the first states of endocytosis and results in a clathrin coated vesicle. Clathrin can self assemble spontaneously and it plays a major role in deforming the budding vesicle. While clathrin is a major player in the deformation, there are other accessory proteins that aid in the assembly and dissembly of the coats.
COP I is another protein that coats vesicles during protein transportation. However, this vesicle coat transports from the Golgi apparatus to the Rough Endoplasm Reticulum. Since this is in the reverse of direction of normal transportation, it is known as a retrograde transport. The protein coat is made of large protein sub-complexes that possess 7 unique subunits.
The protein is known as an ADP Ribosylation Factor dependent adaptor protein. This basically means that they are regulators of vesicle biogenesis. They also aid in the selection of the proteins that are used for the carriers.
COP II is very similar to COP I in the fact that it transports proteins, however COP II transports from the Rough ER to the Golgi apparatus and is known anterograde transport. COP II has a coat that is made of 4 unique protein subunits. COP II has three different binding sites that it can complex with other proteins.
Both COP I and COP II are very active in membrane trafficking. They perform the necessary tasks of selecting the correct cargo for the proteins and they change the shape of the phospholipid bilayer into the correct buds and vesicles.
The anterograde and retrograde transport off set each other to help keep the flow of the membranes and secretions in balance. There is constant recycling going on to maintain the equal amounts of resident proteins in the different pathways.
Exciting the Membrane
Semipermeable membranes are often sensitive to charge and voltage across the lipid bilayer. Remember, membranes are charged entities so exacting a charge across a membrane is likely to cause a reaction such as an action potential. An action potential is generally created at the axon hillock once the membrane is depolarized due to an increase or decrease of voltage. When the membrane potential goes up, integral proteins in the membrane called voltage gated ion channels start to open to allow ions into the cell. While some ion channels allow ions into the cell, other channels let ions out of the cell. This is most exemplified by the sodium potassium pump. So since sodium ions are flowing into the cell and potassium is flowing out of the cell, depolarization occurs where the usual membrane potential, called the resting potential is disturbed. Note that action potentials are all or nothing, meaning the occurance of action potentials does not depend on the magnitude of stimulus. A single action potential can trigger several along the membrane thus propagating the signal.
Only certain types of cells have the activity of action potentials. The most important one is the neuron. A neuron is a cell in the nervous system that creates messages and sends signals through electronic excitability through action potentials. The axon hillock is the part of the neuron that connects a cell to the axon. This area has many voltage activated ion channels and is considered to be the key ingredient to creating the depolarization that exacts an action potential.
Neurotransmitters are chemicals that amplify or control the signal between a neuron and another cell. When neurotransmitters are released into the synaptic cleft, they bind to receptors and cause an action potential which can then trigger other neurons to do the same creating a surge of energy across a group of neurons that carry out a specific process. This overall process is called neurotransmission. Action potentials can be transferred from one cell to an adjacent cell because of direct connection of these cells through gap junctions. Channels and other membrane proteins make sure that action potentials only travel one direction. Some cells need no stimulus to fire action potentials while others need an external stimulus. For example, the pacemaker cells in the heart maintain a rhythm that can be changed and altered with external stimuli such as a shock to the body. While sensory neurons like the ones in your eyes that sense light are excited by external source which then provokes action potentials. This is the same for cells in the ear that are sensitive to sound.
Several chemicals block neurotransmitter binding by competitively binding to the receptors. Substances such as curare or atropine, dubbed antagonists, compete with neurotransmitters, specifically acetylcholine (ACh), binding to and preventing the ligand-gated channels from opening and allowing ions to flow, thus preventing the generation of action potentials. In a natural environment, this competitive inhibition leads to paralysis and death. In a controlled environment, these antagonists can be used to prevent muscle spasms or convulsions during surgery.
Alberts, B., Bray, D., Lewis, J., Raff, M. and Roberts, K. 1989. The Cell, 2nd Ed.
Berg, J.M, Tymoczko, J.L. and Stryer, L. Biochemistry. 6th ed. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 2007. Print.
Carruthers, Anthony. 1990. “Facilitated diffusion of glucose.” Physiological Review, vol 70-4: 1135-76. PubMedhost(accessed November 16, 2009).
Silverthorn, Human Physiology 5th Edition
Purves et al, Neuroscience, 4th Edition
Lodish, Harvey, et al. 2003. Molecular Cell Biology 5th Edition. pages 708-710. W. H. Freeman.
Got something to say? Make a comment.
Your name
Your email address | <urn:uuid:584a8be9-99d9-4cf3-8b4f-9f5faab8bf3f> | 4 | 3.5625 | 0.526209 | en | 0.922667 | http://www.thefullwiki.org/Structural_Biochemistry/Lipids/Membrane_Transport |
Global warming rate discovered
The warning from US scientists that warming at the present rate over 10,000 years would cause sea levels to rise by a kilometre is mathematically correct but physically impossible. We omitted a qualifying statement from the Nasa briefing paper which said "if there were that much ice".
"This energy imbalance is the smoking gun that we have been looking for," said James Hansen, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "It shows that our estimates of the human-made and natural climate forcing agents are about right, and they are driving the Earth to a warmer climate."
Most of the world - with the exception of the US and Australia - has signed up to the Kyoto protocol to limit greenhouse gas emissions and further global warming. The US government has repeatedly argued that scientific opinion about global warming is divided. With this new research, US government-funded scientists have once again told the US administration that they believe global warming is real, and inexorable.
Computer models of future global warming suggest that planetary temperatures could rise by as much as 5.8C in the next century, with sea level rises of a metre. Since 1993, the world's oceans have risen at the rate of 3.2cm per decade. This is twice the sea level rise of the last 100 years. The warmer the oceans, the faster the planet's ice sheets will melt.
"We need to monitor the ice sheets and sea level precisely to be sure that the system is not running out of our control," Dr Hansen said. | <urn:uuid:577bc258-296a-4ba5-9f97-b90eef643a15> | 3 | 3.3125 | 0.131334 | en | 0.958067 | http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/apr/29/environment.society |
Survival of the unfittest
Imagine a program used by 120 million people, of whom about 119m hate it. Sound unlikely? Yet that's the perception one garners in trying to discover whether Lotus Notes, IBM's "groupware" application, is - as readers of Technology blog suggested - the "world's worst application". The discussions (at and suggest that those who have used it are united: to the average person, Notes displays all the user-friendliness of a cornered rat.
Take a few examples from the Lotus Notes Sucks website (, devoted to listing flaws in the user interface. When new mail arrives, you get a message saying "You have new mail". But the mailbox display doesn't update; you have to press a key or menu item to refresh it. So the program is smart enough to know email has arrived, but not to show it - something the clunkiest free email program does routinely. (That's mistake No 38 on the Sucks site.)
Or the user dialogue boxes - such as the one that reads: "You must change your password. It expired on 11/20/2005. Do you want to change your password now? Yes/No". Why offer users the chance to say "No"? What if they choose it?
A typical process
The panoply of interface errors raises two questions. Why do users hate Notes so much? And why, then, do they use it? The answers illuminate a typical process when companies buy "enterprise" software: the people who choose a product tend not to be the ones who use it.
Notes was intended to be the first properly collaborative product. Developed by Ray Ozzie at Lotus (which in the early 1980s made its name with 1-2-3, a combination spreadsheet, database and graphing package), Notes was devised when the internet was virtually unknown, and even local area networks were slow and unreliable. Documents would be stored on a central server, and made accessible to anyone, rather than hidden on personal PCs. It would be able to work on Windows PCs and Macs. Yet even IBM's official history of the product ( 9mzly), reveals the early quirks that would drive later users mad: "Around this time Apple Computer released the Macintosh with a new easy-to-use graphical user interface. This influenced the developers of Lotus Notes, and they gave their new product a character-oriented graphical user interface." So was it character-oriented, or graphical? You can't be both.
The result, which appeared in 1989, is a product split in two: the Notes "client" side, which users experience, and the back-end Domino server, which administers the processes such as storing documents, passing email, hosting messaging discussions and organising shared calendars.
IBM acquired Lotus, principally to get Notes, in July 1995, and has driven a series of upgrades. Fast-forward to today, and Notes has gained widespread takeup: users in the UK include British Airways, Toyota, Volkswagen, Standard Life Assurance and most major newspaper groups (including Guardian Media Group). But further investigation shows that its proponents tend to be administrators, and its detractors the end users.
The Lotus Notes Sucks site insists its mission is not to put Lotus people out of work. "It's to embarrass them into fixing the egregious problems. Specifically, the front end. Also, to influence people into not buying Lotus Notes until it works for users."
The main focus for frustration is Notes's odd way with email, and its unintuitive interface. But to complain about that is to miss the point, says Ben Rose, founder and leader of the UK Notes User Group ( He's a Notes administrator, for "a large automotive group".
"It's regarded by many as an email program, but it's actually groupware," Rose explains. "It does do email, and calendaring, but can host discussion forums, and the collaboration can extend to long-distance reporting. It will integrate at the back end with huge systems. It's extremely powerful."
So why are so many people down on it? "Too many companies rely on email too much," Rose suggests. "Email is quite inefficient. People like to 'Reply To All' and send copies of attachments to each other, instead of doing what Notes does, which is to have a single copy on the server that everyone sees."
Dave Delay, who worked on Notes from 1996 to 2002, points out that it is one of the few products Microsoft has tried - and failed - to wipe out. "People dislike Notes because their expectations don't jive with the intent of the product. At its core, Notes is a runtime environment for collaborative applications, but when people complain about Notes, they are usually not talking about core Notes. They are talking about the Notes Mail and Calendar applications (").
However, most people aren't administrators, and while Notes' back-end functions have advanced, its user interface has continued in a parallel universe where Windows never happened (though arguably it introduced tabbed browsing years before Mozilla). For Notes users, email and calendaring - the same functions that Microsoft offers through its Outlook and Exchange products - are what they do a lot of the day.
Missing the point
Stowe Boyd, president and chief operating officer of the collaborative software company Corante, who has a long history of reviewing software, says: "The problem is ... most people don't have Notes, and you need to collaborate with them, too. So, naturally, Notes the platform is judged by comparison with alternative solutions that allow you to communicate and coordinate with anyone, anywhere... not just with other users of the same collaboration product you are using.
"The point that is missed by advocates is that people want to be able to communicate ... with anyone, not just those who are using the same programs. That's why email was the killer app of Web 1.0. And Notes has fallen by the wayside. That's one of the reasons that something as uncollaborative as Outlook kicked Lotus's ass."
That's a red rag to Rose. "Microsoft has been trying to catch up with Notes for years," he says. "It's trying to put collaboration into the next version of Office, something Notes has had for years."
IBM wants to know what you think and says that results of a survey, at and intended for those using version 6 and above, will inform the next version. None of the options includes "rip up the interface and start again".
You could suggest it, though.
| <urn:uuid:794a3120-70e7-4775-a693-b535a319788e> | 2 | 1.679688 | 0.307458 | en | 0.966663 | http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2006/feb/09/guardianweeklytechnologysection |
The editorial “Recycle the bulb” (Oct. 28) is timely and thought provoking. We find that most environmental issues are so complex that any remedial action on one end can have an adverse impact on another. Through government subsidy and vigorous awareness campaigns, CFLs found their way into every household, replacing ordinary bulbs. But that has opened up new problems of mercury pollution.
Now most of the electric light companies manufacture CFLs and it appears that there is no effective quality control of their products. The result is that more and more used CFLs end up in the wasteyards polluting the land, soil and water.
K.V. Ravindran,
Proper recycling of the bulb is the answer to pollution caused by mercury. But an even better way would be to replace bulbs with light emitting diode (LED) lamps. LEDs are more energy efficient and they do not cause pollution.
Thejus Joseph Jose,
More In: Letters | Opinion | <urn:uuid:10c8950d-9c20-47e3-840f-bef989be5c48> | 3 | 2.953125 | 0.077323 | en | 0.937206 | http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/letters/recycle-the-bulb/article2577702.ece |
Limited government and restricting definition of marriage
There is a unique argument by William J. Haun at First Things on why those who believe in limited government should oppose expanding the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. It sounds counter-intuitive, but it is not. Haun says that, “The new basis of marriage, same-sex marriage advocates tell us, is not procreation or sexual difference, but love. For them, the personal promises husbands and wives make to each other is the government’s only reason to license (or not license) a marital relationship.” The state, says Haun, has a compelling reason to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman for the purpose of reproduction. However, official recognition of relationships rooted in love is not much of a limiting principle and serves no over-rising national or social interest; doing so would open the state to giving its imprimatur to all kinds of relationships. If the state did not legally sanction every possible loving relationship (brothers, close friends) says Haun, granting legal recognition to homosexual couples would “expand government so as to discriminate in favor of relationships with sex partners versus relationships without sex partners.” It is a very interesting libertarian argument against same-sex marriage; whether or not libertarians would find it persuasive is another matter.
| <urn:uuid:28d8c872-2fab-49e3-801a-f3231f52c184> | 2 | 2.15625 | 0.081306 | en | 0.935287 | http://www.theinterim.com/soconvivium/limited-government-and-restricting-definition-of-marriage/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheInterim_Soconvivium+%28The+Interim+Blog%3A+Soconvivium%29 |
Linux Blog
Section: Perl Programmers Reference Guide (3)
Updated: 2001-09-21
Index Return to Main Contents
File::Find - Traverse a directory tree.
use File::Find;
find(\&wanted, @directories_to_search);
sub wanted { ... }
use File::Find;
finddepth(\&wanted, @directories_to_search);
sub wanted { ... }
use File::Find;
These are functions for searching through directory trees doing work on each file found similar to the Unix find command. File::Find exports two functions, "find" and "finddepth". They work similarly but have subtle differences.
find(\&wanted, @directories);
find(\%options, @directories);
finddepth(\&wanted, @directories);
finddepth(\%options, @directories);
"finddepth()" works just like "find()" except that is invokes the &wanted function for a directory after invoking it for the directory's contents. It does a postorder traversal instead of a preorder traversal, working from the bottom of the directory tree up where "find()" works from the top of the tree down.
The first argument to "find()" is either a code reference to your &wanted function, or a hash reference describing the operations to be performed for each file. The code reference is described in ``The wanted function'' below.
Here are the possible keys for the hash:
The value should be a code reference. This code reference is described in ``The wanted function'' below.
Reports the name of a directory only AFTER all its entries have been reported. Entry point "finddepth()" is a shortcut for specifying "<{ bydepth =" 1 }>> in the first argument of "find()".
The value should be a code reference. This code reference is used to preprocess the current directory. The name of the currently processed directory is in $File::Find::dir. Your preprocessing function is called after "readdir()", but before the loop that calls the "wanted()" function. It is called with a list of strings (actually file/directory names) and is expected to return a list of strings. The code can be used to sort the file/directory names alphabetically, numerically, or to filter out directory entries based on their name alone. When follow or follow_fast are in effect, "preprocess" is a no-op.
It is guaranteed that an lstat has been called before the user's "wanted()" function is called. This enables fast file checks involving _. Note that this guarantee no longer holds if follow or follow_fast are not set.
This is a no-op on Win32.
This is also a no-op on Win32.
If true and a code reference, will be called with the symbolic link name and the directory it lives in as arguments. Otherwise, if true and warnings are on, warning ``symbolic_link_name is a dangling symbolic link\n'' will be issued. If false, the dangling symbolic link will be silently ignored.
Does not "chdir()" to each directory as it recurses. The "wanted()" function will need to be aware of this, of course. In this case, $_ will be the same as $File::Find::name.
See above. This should be set using the "qr" quoting operator. The default is set to "qr|^([-+@\w./]+)$|". Note that the parentheses are vital.
The wanted function
The "wanted()" function does whatever verifications you want on each file and directory. Note that despite its name, the "wanted()" function is a generic callback function, and does not tell File::Find if a file is ``wanted'' or not. In fact, its return value is ignored.
$_ is the current filename within that directory
Don't modify these variables.
$_ = foo.ext
default / / .
no_chdir=>0 /etc / etc
/etc/x /etc x
no_chdir=>1 / / /
/etc / /etc
/etc/x /etc /etc/x
When <follow> or <follow_fast> are in effect, there is also a $File::Find::fullname. The function may set $File::Find::prune to prune the tree unless "bydepth" was specified. Unless "follow" or "follow_fast" is specified, for compatibility reasons (, find2perl) there are in addition the following globals available: $File::Find::topdir, $File::Find::topdev, $File::Find::topino, $File::Find::topmode and $File::Find::topnlink.
produces something like:
sub wanted {
int(-M _) > 7 &&
$dev < 0 &&
Notice the "_" in the above "int(-M _)": the "_" is a magical filehandle that caches the information from the preceding "stat()", "lstat()", or filetest.
sub wanted {
See also the script "pfind" on CPAN for a nice application of this module.
If you run your program with the "-w" switch, or if you use the "warnings" pragma, File::Find will report warnings for several weird situations. You can disable these warnings by putting the statement
no warnings 'File::Find';
Mac OS (Classic) users should note a few differences:
The default "untaint_pattern" (see above) on Mac OS is set to "qr|^(.+)$|". Note that the parentheses are vital.
The invisible system file ``Icon\015'' is ignored. While this file may appear in every directory, there are some more invisible system files on every volume, which are all located at the volume root level (i.e. ``MacintoshHD:''). These system files are not excluded automatically. Your filter may use the following code to recognize invisible files or directories (requires Mac::Files):
use Mac::Files;
# 0 if it's visible or undef if an error occurred
sub invisible($) {
my $file = shift;
my ($fileCat, $fileInfo);
my $invisible_flag = 1 << 14;
if ( $fileCat = FSpGetCatInfo($file) ) {
return undef;
Generally, invisible files are system files, unless an odd application decides to use invisible files for its own purposes. To distinguish such files from system files, you have to look at the type and creator file attributes. The MacPerl built-in functions "GetFileInfo(FILE)" and "SetFileInfo(CREATOR, TYPE, FILES)" offer access to these attributes (see for details).
Files that appear on the desktop actually reside in an (hidden) directory named ``Desktop Folder'' on the particular disk volume. Note that, although all desktop files appear to be on the same ``virtual'' desktop, each disk volume actually maintains its own ``Desktop Folder'' directory.
Despite the name of the "finddepth()" function, both "find()" and "finddepth()" perform a depth-first search of the directory hierarchy.
The wanted function | <urn:uuid:7f789c73-0a93-4444-b0a6-9bcbda28968b> | 3 | 3.4375 | 0.093344 | en | 0.869119 | http://www.thelinuxblog.com/linux-man-pages/3/File::Find |
Mystery traffic redirection attack pulls net traffic through Belarus, Iceland
There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear.
Tons of internet traffic is being deliberately diverted through locations including Belarus and Iceland, and intercepted by crooks or worse, security experts fear.
Network intelligence firm Renesys warns that victims including financial institutions, VoIP providers, and governments have been targeted by the man-in-the-middle attacks. It reckons the diversions are malicious, and probably pulled off by manipulating BGP routing tables.
BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) is a core routing protocol that maps out the connections for internet traffic to flow through, from source to destination. As things stand, BGP has no built-in security. Routers may accept dodgy connection routes advertised by peers, internet exchanges or transit suppliers.
These suspect routes, once accepted, can have local, regional or global effects. Routers look for the shortest logical path (the least number of hops, in other words) and place blind trust in any path that's advertised. And the shortest logical path can take weird and wonderful physical geographical routes.
In 2008, changes by Pakistan Telecom intended to restrict access to YouTube solely within the country had the affect of briefly diverting ALL YouTube traffic into a global blackhole, rendering the site unreachable for hours. Two years later, China Telecom rerouted up to 15 per cent of the world's internet destinations on two brief occasions, after advertising false BGP route information that directed traffic through its networks.
The Pakistan YouTube hijack was accidental, but security researchers have since demonstrated how the same techniques might be used to highjack or otherwise interfere with internet traffic. Renesys reckons this is just what's been happening in cases it has monitored this year:
For years, we’ve observed that there was potential for someone to weaponize the classic Pakistan-and-YouTube-style route hijack. Why settle for simple denial of service, when you can instead steal a victim’s traffic, take a few milliseconds to inspect or modify it, and then pass it along to the intended recipient?
Done correctly, such an attack would be undetectable to a casual inspection and was even avoid introducing noticeable latency in a connection. But Renesys is monitoring BGP connections in real time from multiple locations worldwide and this monitoring has flagged up some highly suspicious and as yet unexplained behaviors that started in February:
In February 2013, we observed a sequence of events, lasting from just a few minutes to several hours in duration, in which global traffic was redirected to Belarusian ISP GlobalOneBel. These redirections took place on an almost daily basis throughout February, with the set of victim networks changing daily. Victims whose traffic was diverted varied by day, and included major financial institutions, governments, and network service providers. Affected countries included the US, South Korea, Germany, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Libya, and Iran.
The Belarus traffic diversions stopped in March. They restarted briefly in May, using a different customer of BelTelecom as the source, and then ended for several months. Within the same hour as the final Belarus hijack of May, however, we saw a first BGP hijack lasting only five minutes from a completely new source: Nyherji hf (AS29689), a small Icelandic provider.
The Icelandic traffic hijack was repeated after two months of inactivity by another but different source within the country, Opin Kerfi (AS48685) which "began announcing origination routes for 597 IP networks owned by one of the largest facilities-based providers of managed services in the US, a large VoIP provider".
All this was weird not to say suspicious. "On a normal day, Opin Kerfi normally originates only three IP networks, and has no downstream AS customers," Jim Cowie, Renesys CTO and co-founder, notes.
Síminn, which provides internet backbone services in Iceland, told Renesys that the redirections to Iceland were the result of a software bug that resolved itself when a patch was applied. Renesys' Cowie claims this explanation is implausible, especially in the absence of supporting details, which he claims were repeatedly requested but never delivered. "We believe it’s unlikely that a single router vendor bug can account for the 2013 worldwide uptick in route hijacking with traffic redirection," Cowie writes.
We contacted Síminn to ask if it had any comment on Renesys research but have yet to hear back from the Icelandic outfit. We'll update this story as and when we hear anything more that sheds light on the mystery web redirection attack.
Renesys concludes that although it's quite sure routes were hijacked on multiple occasions it's still unclear about the motive of the attacks much less who might be behind them.
Various providers’ BGP routes were hijacked, and as a result, some portion of their Internet traffic was misdirected to flow through Belarusian and Icelandic ISPs. We have BGP routing data that show the second-by-second evolution of 21 Belarusian events in February and May 2013, and 17 Icelandic events in July-August 2013.
We have active measurements that verify that during the period when BGP routes were hijacked in each case, traffic redirection was taking place through Belarusian and Icelandic routers. These facts are not in doubt; they are well-supported by the data.
What’s not known is the exact mechanism, motivation, or actors.
Renesys conclusions means that Man-In-the-Middle BGP route hijacking has evolved from a longstanding theoretical concern, discussed at hacker conferences such as Black Hat and among network engineers, to something that happens fairly regularly and carries a severe risk of traffic interception.
"Everyone on the internet - certainly the largest global carriers, certainly any bank or credit card processing company or government agency - should now be monitoring the global routing of their advertised IP prefixes," Renesys concludes. ®
Sponsored: Designing and building an open ITOA architecture | <urn:uuid:96ad5662-6a23-4d8f-99f3-fccdd301d123> | 2 | 2.15625 | 0.109443 | en | 0.962154 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/22/net_traffic_redirection_attacks/ |
Transmission line route selection and acquisition is one of the most important steps in planning of transmission line projects. In selecting the final route, the following should be considered after taken into consideration all of the alternatives.
1. Impact of length, terrain, angles, obstacles, and special crossings on the cost and strength of the line.
2. Ease and cost of maintenance, including maintenance of tree trimming.
3. Vegetation management. Can trees be cut, trimmed, or avoided.
4. Impact of existing overhead and underground utilities paralleling or crossing the route. This refers to electric, telecommunications, gas, oi;, water, sewer system, drainage, and irrigation.
5. Availability, restrictions, or limitations on the use of public rights of way.
6. Impact of line on land use, environment, and on historical, archaeological, or biologically sensitive sites or areas.
Transmission line selected route must be mapped and identified in detail to have a smooth proceedings during coordination with other involved parties, may it be utilities, government agencies, owners, etc. This very important during acquisition of rights of way and application of necessary permits.
There will be times wherein our probable routes will lie on areas or points which set limit or prohibit the setting of supporting structures. Cases as such, there are factors in determining locations and alignment of structures and are commonly called control points. These points include:
1. Locations where it is necessary for the line to change direction.
2. Man-made structures, facilities, and land use.
3. Topographic and geographic land features.
The limitations imposed by the control points may be the following:
1. Define the general alignment of the route
2. Require special supporting structures
3. Prohibit use of the route.
These control points must be identified since they are critical to the selection of final route.
Related post
No comments: | <urn:uuid:ae3e9759-ce3e-46d4-b083-b1386a146654> | 3 | 3.25 | 0.144064 | en | 0.909186 | http://www.transmission-line.net/2011/03/transmission-line-route-selection-and.html |
The Baby Plumen 00 Light Bulb is Beautiful Enough to Forget the Shade
By: Trenton Millar - Published: • References: plumen & itsnicethat
Light bulbs have never been the most attractive of necessities, but the Baby Plumen 00 light bulb realizes light bulbs can be well-designed instead of just covered up all the time. The Baby Plumen 00 light bulb is the dwarfed version of the Brit Insurance Design of the Year winning light bulb, the Plumen 001.
The Baby Plumen 00 is an eco-friendly light bulb that was designed by Samuel Wilkinson and Hulger. Deyan Sudjic of the Design Museum explains, "It's a bulb that doesn't need a shade and so goes a long way to make up for the loss of the Edison original."
Save money buying this light bulb as it will last a long time and will allow you to forgo the lamp shade. Stats for Designer Eco-Friendly Bulbs Trending: Older & Mild
Traction: 1,727 clicks in 129 w
Interest: 1.4 minutes
Concept: Baby Plumen 00
Related: 78 examples / 60 photos
Segment: Neutral, 18-55
Comparison Set: 29 similar articles, including: cheerful teardrop lamps, warped hanging lamps, and gamer-inspired lights. | <urn:uuid:21d05f3b-4d8f-4d92-a17b-885303af4a1d> | 2 | 1.539063 | 0.021756 | en | 0.879244 | http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/baby-plumen-00 |
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration on Friday, Feb. 1, proposed yet another compromise to address strenuous objections from religious organizations about a policy requiring health insurance plans to provide free contraceptives, but the change did not end the political furor or legal fight over the issue.
The latest proposed change is the third in the past 15 months, as President Barack Obama has struggled to balance women's rights, health care and religious liberty. Legal experts said the fight could end up in the Supreme Court.
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said the proposal would guarantee free coverage of birth control "while respecting religious concerns."
"Today's proposed rule does nothing to protect the religious freedom of millions of Americans," Duncan said.
But the proposal left many questions unanswered and did not say how coverage would be provided for self-insured religious organizations.
"Under the proposed rule, insurance companies -- not churches or other religious organizations -- will cover contraceptive services," said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, who helped develop the proposal as deputy director of the federal office that regulates health insurance.
Moreover, she said, "Nonprofit religious organizations like universities, hospitals or charities with religious objections won't have to arrange, contract or pay for coverage of these services for their employees or students."
But some of the lawsuits objecting to the plan have been filed by businesses owned by people who claim religious reasons for not wanting to provide contraceptive coverage.
Under the proposed rule, "for-profit secular employers" would have to provide birth control coverage to employees, even if the business owners had a religious objection to the idea.
Many insurers asked where they would get the money to pay for birth control pills if -- as the proposed rule says -- they cannot "impose any premium, fee or other charge" for the coverage.
The 2010 health care law generally requires employers to provide women with coverage at no cost for "preventive care and screenings," which the administration says must include contraceptives for women under most health plans without charge.
The proposed compromise is somewhat ambiguous about exactly who would pay the cost of contraceptive coverage.
| <urn:uuid:a4fdc0df-0edb-4dc2-b8a0-0bc52d6792f7> | 2 | 1.5 | 0.034875 | en | 0.97214 | http://www.twincities.com/national/ci_22503221/birth-control-coverage-compromise-offered-by-white-house |
Archive for September, 2011
3 Easy Tips for Potty Training Your Puppy
Friday, September 9th, 2011
Deciding to get a puppy is exciting, picking one out is something you will always remember, and playing around at home the first day will fill your camera with the cutest pictures. But, the challenge of owning a puppy will sink in as soon as you begin the dog potty training process. The first few weeks you have a puppy, you must make a commitment to take care of them, have patience when they make mistakes, and be consistent in your training methods so the puppy can learn and soon take care of themselves. Before you make the move and bring a new puppy home make sure you are ready for the task at hand, housebreaking a puppy can be a trying task at times. Three general tips for a future puppy owner are to make sure you have the commitment, patience, and consistency to take care of the puppy. Dogs enrich our lives so much, but remember, you’ve got to make the puppy’s life happy, too!
· Watch Constantly: When you have just gotten a puppy you’ll want a indoor dog potty otherwise they will wander and potty all over the place. You have to constantly keep a close eye on them to make sure you can properly train them to go potty outside or wherever you designate the appropriate location. Keeping an eye on them is harder than it sounds, but it will help the training process move along quicker.
· Take them Outside: Every single time the puppy is sniffing around to go potty or immediately after they eat you must take them outside to the designated potty location. This may seem hard at first because the puppy needs to go outside often but as you train them and they get older it will become much easier.
· Cleaning Up: The puppy will make a mess both inside and outside the house and you have to be committed to immediately cleaning it up. If you don’t clean it up right away, the puppy will likely make a mess there again in the future because they like to return to the same location.
· Tools for the Job: If you plan on having a puppy, you have to go get all the necessary supplies. You will need to buy a collar with tags, a leash and maybe a harness, food and water bowls, dog crate, toys, and a dog bed. Potty training pads or dog potties like UGODOG are helpful during the potty training process, and can be a great permanent solution for apartment dwellers. The biggest expense will soon become the constant purchasing of dog food, but that comes with the job.
· Expectations: A puppy is bound to make many mistakes, especially when it comes to going potty in the right location and at the right time. You have to go into puppy ownership with the right set of expectations. Remember that your new puppy’s habits are a blank canvas, and it’s up to you to transform them.
· Praise: Always praise your dog when they do something right. Immediate praise will help them to learn through repetition what they are doing right.
· No Yelling: Despite popular belief that punishing a dog will help them to learn, it’s positive reinforcement that really does the trick. Don’t scold or yell at your dog, it will only confuse them. Also, don’t rub your dog’s nose in its mess—it’s inhumane and can make him sick. (You’d never do that to a child, right?) Instead, when you see your dog going potty in the wrong area, or preparing to, pick him up immediately and move him to the appropriate place. When he gets it right on his own, give lots of praise and a treat.
· Feeding: You have to have a consistent feeding schedule in order to create a consistent potty time schedule. Every time they eat or after drinking lots of water they should be taken outside to go potty. If you plan the meals at the same time every day, it will become a habit for them to go potty right afterwards.
· Message: Your verbal message should always remain consistent. You can say whatever phrase you like to make them go potty, but make sure to use that exact phrase every single time. It is important to consider the tone you use when saying the phrase because dogs understand tones more than they actually understand words. Dogs pick up on human’s moods, so your message will be more effective if you deliver it with a loving tone.
· Location: Before you bring your puppy home, pick out one spot that you are okay with for a puppy potty area. Then once you have the puppy, take them to that same location every single time. They will soon realize this is where they are allowed to go potty and once completely trained they will always go back to the same location, making cleanup easier and decreasing the chances of a mess all over your yard.
· Reward: An often overlooked tool when potty training is the act of offering the puppy a reward immediately after they go potty. It needs to be right after so they know what they are receiving it for, but it will make them want to go out to go potty in the right location and promptly every single time you want them to if they know there is a treat in store for them.
Popularity: 5% [?] | <urn:uuid:780ec1ae-9ac0-4a00-9126-7457cb2b5175> | 2 | 1.671875 | 0.035167 | en | 0.948651 | http://www.ugodog.net/blog/2011/09/ |
Back to Psychology Index
Factors Affecting Human Intelligence Psychology Essay
The objective of this context is to discuss human intelligence. To achieve the following sub titles constituted as guidelines for the discussion; anatomy of human of intelligence, theories of human intelligence and factors affecting human intelligence
Anatomy of Human Intelligence
Human nature has intelligence that governs the human mental ability and to as cognitive ability. Despite being a widely studied and debated topic there is still lack of a universal definition for intelligence because of its compound and many-faceted nature i.e it engages multiple areas of the brain, instead of just having one intelligence center. Intelligence facilitates the gaining of knowledge and consequent wide applications in solving problems. The roots of intelligence are biological and it is believed to have evolved over time and is connected to structure of the brain and its development in that the intelligence quotients are related to the brain volume (Frohlich, 2004). According to Sternberg (1981), psychologists and laymen agree that intelligent people are characterized by their capacity for solving problems, their expertise with language and their open-minded nature to innovation.
According to Flinn et al (2004), the evolution of human intelligence has been so rapid compared to other species such that the human brain increased by about 250% in less than 3 million years. This is evidenced by remarkable behavioral changes of the past few generations. They further argue that the high evolution rates leading to greatest complexity in human are due to the demand of their environment citing ecological demands, such as hunting or climatic variability and selective pressures favoring other species compared to them.
Research on human intelligence has become intense in trying to answer the several questions raised on basic structure and mechanisms of intelligence following the discoveries made in relation to genetics of intelligence and it’s functioning in the most recent stages of human development. In trying to classify intelligence, the following three classes were arrived at; social intelligence, natural or potential intelligence and “academic” intelligence. The social intelligence is a practical mode of intelligence used in making day to day life decisions in all fields. Natural or potential intelligence helps in acquisition of knowledge and cognitive abilities essential for easy interaction with the surrounding environment. The third form of intelligence is more of as measure of the cumulative levels of the former two types of intelligence describing the complexity of intelligence and is characterized by the IQ tests. Modern psychology classifies intelligence in two categories namely fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence is mainly the use of self acquired knowledge through life experiences to solve challenges and crystallized intelligence is more like academic knowledge as it largely depends on long-term memory. However all these different forms of intelligence are dependent and do not operate in isolation (Colom & Pueyo 2000).
Theories of Human Intelligence
In an endeavor to understand human intelligence, there are various theories advanced to explain it. They can be divided into the unilateral construct based on unitary entity of general intelligence and those based on multiple dissimilar activities. Some of the theories discussed below include Psychometric approach theories, Piaget's stages of cognitive development, Sternberg’s Triarchic theory of intelligence and Gardner's multiple intelligences theory.
Psychometric approach to understanding intelligence is the most used and is based on psychometric tests. Some of the theories advanced based on this include; Charles Spearman in 1904 came up with Two-factor Theory of intelligence as a way of measuring general intelligence using Tetrad Differences. His basic inputs were common sense (native capacity) and sensory discriminations. It stated that every test can be divided into a “g” factor and an “s” factor. Where the g-factor measures the “general” factor or common function among ability tests and the s-factor measures the “specific” factor unique to a particular ability test. This however had its limitations because the g factor showed that any cognitive ability regardless of how different they were had a positive correlation (Spearman, 1904).
Following the shortcomings of Spearman, L.L. Thurstone came up with the Centroid method for modern factor analysis. Modern factor analysis took in seven orthogonal factors referred to as Primary Mental Abilities; verbal comprehension, word fluency, numerical capability, spatial visualization, associative memory, speed of understanding and reasoning to yield multi factors, unlike Spearmans single factor yield (Thurstone, 1934).
Raymond B. Cattel spotted a weakness in the former theories as a result of the use of single generation in trying to measure intelligence. He developed The Gf-Gc Theory measuring intelligence using fluid intelligence (Gf) and crystallized intelligence (Gc) to account for differences between children/adolescents and adults. The Gf represented the ability to discriminate and perceive relations while Gc represented the ability to differentiate earlier established relations using Gf. He supposed that crystallized intelligence increases gradually to old age where it slowly declines whereas fluid intelligence reaches a peak in adolescents and remains almost constant through adulthood (Carroll,1993).
J. P. Guilford ventured more into the adulthood intelligence developing a Structure-of-Intellect model (SI model). The model had a 3-D cube shaped model with five categories of how the information is presented on a test, six operation categories of what is done on a test and six product categories of the form in which information is processed on a test. Upon conducting a test and filling all the categories, the point of intersection provides foundation for generating hypothesis of intelligence (Carroll, 1993).
Using re-analysis of several data sets John B. Carrol proposed the Three Stratum Theory. This consists of three different levels of intelligence. The first layer represents narrow abilities that are highly specialized, the second level represents moderate abilities but in several areas and Spearmans concept was a sufficient representation for the third level (Carroll, J. B. 1993).
The latest work using psychometric approach is the Cattel-Horn-Carrol (CHC) Theory. This is an amalgamation of The Gf-Gc theory, Horn theory and The Three-Stratum Theory.
According to Horward Gardner (1999) psychometric tests had ignored other forms of intelligence of equal importance; that our minds handle different tasks using several cognitive mechanisms and not through a single centralized system. He therefore developed Theory of Multiple Intelligences basing his studies on both the normal and abnormal personnel coming up with eight different components of intelligence with the eighth one just added in 1999.
Robert Sternberg came up with Triarchic Theory of intelligence based on three aspects of intelligence. These were creative intelligence (experiential), analytic (componential) intelligence and practical (contextual) intelligence; where analytical intelligence deals with academic brilliance, creative intelligence deals with insights, fusion and reaction to events while practical intelligence deals with acquiring knowledge, understanding and dealing with life challenges. He was of the opinion that general intelligence is only but part of analytic intelligence and therefore cannot give a full insight of intelligence. Following its use in evaluation of individual success in the modern times this has later been named as Theory of Successful Intelligence by Sternberg (Sternberg, 1984, p.271).
Jean Piaget advanced one of the used theories in the development of school curriculums. He used the development approach in the study of intelligence. His view was that growing up is a process that has stages and every stage bracket has its maximum capabilities. The group stages of development he came up with are Sensimotor stage (0-2 years), preoperational stage (2-7 years), Concrete stage (7-11 years) and formal operational stage (11 years and above). At Sensimotor stage (0-2) intelligence is based on perception and how other objects work, the thoughts occur mentally and cannot be expressed. In the preoperational stage (2-7 years) one learns to speak, image representation of objects with the thoughts being external. Concrete stage (7-11 years) involves logic reasoning and thinking. The formal operational stage (11 years and up) is the final stage of development of human intelligence. His theory suggests that growth of intelligence is continuous process of assimilation and accommodation of new ideas and which lead to expansion of field of applications.
Factors affecting Human Intelligence
Human intelligence is affected by biological factors, environmental factors and ethical factors. Biologically genes pass cognitive abilities from parents to the children through the DNA. This is evidenced by a number of factors that include the correlation of IQs between an individual and the parent, hereditary brain diseases, similar IQs in identical twins, similarity in brain language areas among family members and cognitive skill such as verbal and spatial abilities, reaction times, and even some personality qualities, including emotional reactions to stress. Intelligence is connected to structure of the brain and its development in that the intelligence quotients are related to the brain volume. Since intelligence is affected by the brains some factors like ratio of brain weight to body weight, the ratio in for instance of brain weight to body weight in a fish is 1:5000 whereas in humans it is 1:50. Occasionally brains metabolic activity may lower intelligence for big brains. The size of the frontal lobe critically affects fluid intelligence tests Other factors affecting intelligence related to the brain include location of the grey matter tissue and its volume and the overall thickness of the cortex (Colom & Pueyo, 2000).
Environmental effects are affect intelligence of human population both at individual and group levels. Some environmental factors are either enhanced or suppressed by the genes of the individual. The social set up has impacts on the level of intelligence attained by an individual as it dictates things like what he does, what he values and how he lives. This is attested by the different level of intelligence of different communities living in different locations say urban-rural places. Their different tend to improve one aspect of intelligence compared to the other set up. Occupation of individuals also tends to affect their intelligence depending with the scope pr demand of their job jurisdiction. Education is also a major factor influencing level of intelligence; this will depend on the level of education where highly educated individual is likely to have a high level of intelligence compared to one with low levels of education in general skills and problem-solving and abstract thinking. Another environmental factor affecting intelligence is nutrition, it has been largely converged that prolonged malnutrition during childhood has long-term effects on level of intelligence. Intelligence is also affected by the manipulation of existing normal conditions; eugenics is currently being practiced to improve the human species by improving human genes. This is mainly to correct congenital disorders and cognitive skills. There are also studies being conducted to try coming up with artificial intelligence through increasing IQs and also using machines. There major cognitive skills of interest are reasoning, knowledge, perception and reaction (Flinn, 2005)
Ethical issues also affect human intelligence. In this work the ethical issues discussed are privacy, accuracy and accessibility. Human intelligence is likely to be compromised by wrong information availed to it leading to wrong conclusions or decisions. Lack of information or refrained access to vital information required later translates to lack of knowledge which limits the level of operation of the human intelligence.
Human intelligence is surely a not so well understood phenomenon that still requires more research to give a clear insight and understanding of its complex nature. Simulation and improvement of the advanced theories will be key to any further development in these field
Request Removal
Request the removal of this essay
More from UK Essays | <urn:uuid:ce1f4a2c-491d-489b-aec7-26588f5ddaf1> | 3 | 3.140625 | 0.379534 | en | 0.950483 | http://www.ukessays.com/essays/psychology/factors-affecting-human-intelligence-psychology-essay.php |
Back to Sciences Index
Assessing The accomplishments of Galileo Galilei
In the field of science, Galileo Galilei is well known by the world for discovering the laws of failing bodies and motions of projectiles; pioneering telescopic observation and discovering sunspots, the irregular surface of the Moon, the satellites of Jupiter, and the phases of Venus. Most of all, he also contributed to championing Copernicus' Sun-centered universe and prompting the split that freed scientific knowledge from the restrictions of spiritual belief. There are uncountable accomplishments made by him. Now we give his life story and how it began.
Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15, 1564, and he was the oldest of seven children. His father, Vincenzo Galilei, who instigated his own revolution in the arts by disputing the current theories on the structure of music, believed that medicine would be the best profession for his son. However, Galileo had told his father that he wanted to be a monk. This was not what his father had in mind, so Galileo was taken away from the monastery. In 1581, at the age of 17, he entered the University of Pisa to study medicine, as his father wished. At that time, Galileo discovered something that no one else had ever realized: The law of the pendulum, and that made Galileo instantly famous. Galileo Galilei then moved on to the University of Padua, and started to learn his real interests, mathematics and mechanics.
In 1590, Galileo made a "two ball while landing," at the tower of Pisa, this famous experiment, corrected Aristotle's theory of the "falling object is proportional to the speed and weight, "which continued for 1900 Years of wrong conclusionsListenRead phonetically. In the year 1592, Galileo entered the University of Padua to study mathematics, where he stayed for eighteen years. Since then, Galileo ushered in the golden age of life. Galileo stayed at the Palace in Florence to continue scientific research, but his astronomical discoveries and his writings clearly reflected astronomy out of the Copernican heliocentric view. Thus, Galileo began to receive the church's attention.
In 1610, Galileo published a book, The Starry Messenger, describing his findings that supported the Copernican theory. Galileo's support for the heliocentric theory got him into trouble with the Roman Catholic Church. He was forced to abandon his astronomical pursuits. From 1616, Galileo accused by the Roman Inquisition and began over twenty years of brutal persecution. But, Galileo retaliated by publishing a book later on, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. This book cause more arguments with the church due to it were in Italian which was a direct conflict with the church.
Galileo's later life is very miserable, taking care of his daughter Sailisite even before he died. The sadness of losing his daughter made Galileo blind. Even in such conditions, he still did not give up his scientific research. January 8, 1642, 4:00, for science, for truth and life of the soldiers fight, Galileo passed away at the age of 78 years. Died on the eve of his departure, he repeated the phrase: "the pursuit of science requires a special courage."
During 18 years of working in Padua University, Galileo initially focus on the mechanics he had been interested in research, he discovered an important phenomenon in physics - inertia of the movement of objects; did the famous slant practice summed up the objects from falling through with the relationship between the number of time; He also studied the shells of the campaign, laid the theoretical basis of the parabola; on the concept of acceleration, but also made his first clear: even to measure a patient with fever when the temperature increases, the famous physicist, invented in 1593 is also the first air thermometer. However, an accidental event made Galileo changed the research direction. He turned to mechanics and physics of the expansive space of the vast expanse. Galileo telescope was invented.
It was June 1609, Galileo heard of news that the Dutch businessman has glasses found in the occasional in the distance with a lens to see invisible things. "Is this not exactly what I need clairvoyance it?" Galileo was very happy. Soon, a student of Galileo's wrote him a letter from Paris, to further confirm the accuracy of this information, the letter said the glasses made a by the businessman definitely a mirror tube, using it can make magnified the object many times.
Galileo began to draw a diagram and an imaging lens. This prompted the mirror control Galileo was inspired, it seems that the secret to magnify objects through mirror tube is to choose the right kind of lens, in particular, convex and concave to match. He got the information about the lens and continued to calculate. After a whole night, Galileo finally understand that the convex and concave lenses in a proper distance, as the Dutch saw it, the distant object the naked eye cannot see can be seen when magnified. Galileo attended to rest and quickly started grinding lenses, this is a very time-consuming and requires carefulness job. He did well for several days, a pair of convex and concave lens grinding, and then produced an elaborate two-tier metal tube which can slide. Galileo carefully put a bigger one end of the tube lens safety, the other end of the placement of a smaller concave lens, and then put the tube in front of the window. When he looked from one end concave, miracle appears, the church seemed distant sight, he could clearly see the cross on the tower, even a dove settled on the cross are also seen very realistic.
Galileo then made a series of profound discoveries using his new telescope, including that the moon has craters, valleys, and mountains much like the Earth's terrain. He also was able to see four small lights orbiting around the planet Jupiter and discovered that the planet Venus had phases much like our Moon. Later at University of Padua he was exposed to a new theory, proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus, that the Earth and all the other planets revolved around the sun. Galileo's observations with his new telescope convinced him of the truth of Copernicus's sun-centered or heliocentric theory.
Through continuous improvements, the telescope has 30 times more magnification than before, enlarged 1000 times to objectives. The astronomy research is a landmark revolution. Thousands of years astronomers observed the era of moon and stars through naked eye alone can end, it is replaced by optical telescopes , with this powerful invention, the door to modern astronomy was opened.
The invention of the telescope and the series of discoveries that resulted from it made Galileo famous. However, by supporting the theory of Copernicus he aroused opposition in important Catholic Church circles, and in 1616 he was ordered to stop from teaching the Copernican hypothesis. Galileo chafed under this restriction for several years. When the Pope died, in 1623, he was succeeded by a man who had been an admirer of Galileo. The following year the new Pope, Urban VIII, ambiguously stated that the prohibition would no longer be in force.
Galileo spent the next six years composing his most famous work, the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. This book was a masterly exposition of the evidence to support Copernican theory, and the book was published with the permission of the Church censors. Nevertheless, Church authorities still responded in anger when the book appeared, and Galileo was soon brought to trial before the Inquisition of Rome on charges of having violated the 1616 prohibition.
It seems clear that many churchmen were unhappy with the decision to prosecute the famous scientist. Even under the Church law of the time, the case against Galileo was questionable, and therefore he was given a comparatively light sentence. He was not arrested in jail at all, but merely to house arrest in his own comfortable place in Arcetri. Theoretically, he was to have no visitors, but that provision of the sentence was not enforced. His only other punishment was the requirement that he publicly recant his view that the earth moved around the sun. This the sixty-nine-year-old scientist did in open court. (The Religious Affiliation of Astronomer, Scientist Galileo Galilei, 12 July 2005)
All of this what he has suffered was just for Copernicans, not for any dissenting theological views. Moreover, it may be noted that Galileo's Catholic leaders considered his views about heliocentricity to be heretical even though himself did not believed to be heretical at that time. However, today the Catholic Church does not consider heliocentricity or any of Galileo's writings to be heretical anymore.
"Famous Scientists Who Believed in God" by Rich Deem stated that Galileo is often remembered for his conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. He paid an enormous price for what he has done throughout his scientific career. However, after the "trial" and being forbidden to teach the sun-centered system, Galileo did his most useful theoretical achievement on dynamics. Galileo expressly said that the Bible cannot be wrong, but he was just concerning the issue of how the Bible should be interpreted.
Galileo, it would be noted, was a deeply religious man. Despite his trial and conviction, he did not reject either religion or the church, but only the attempt of Church authorities to stifle investigation of scientific matters. Of greater importance, however, is the role he played in founding modern scientific method. I have quite rightly admired Galileo as a symbol of revolt against dogmatism, and against authoritarian attempts to stifle freedom of thought.
Galileo is probably more responsible than any other man for the empirical attitude of scientific research. It was him who first insisted upon the importance of performing experiments. He rejected the notion that scientific questions could be decided by reliance upon authority, whether it be the pronouncements of the Church of the assertions of Aristotle. He also rejected reliance on complex deductive schemes that were not based on a firm foundation of experiment. Medieval scholastics had discussed at great length what and why should things happen, but Galileo insisted upon performing experiments to determine what actually did happen. In this case, I am quite inspired by him with his scientific outlook.
In conclusion, Galileo was a very strict Catholic but he had some imperfections that wasn't in catholic way. However, this will no affect him to become one of the greatest scientists in history. There is no doubt that Galileo Galilei has been named one of the smartest men in history. His inventions and theories have an enormous impact on modern science. It also has been a great success to our society. With his magnificent work, he will forever be remembered as the pioneer of science, and for how he brought the world into a new era of knowledge. Most of all, he will always be remembered as the man who cared more about working out the truth than himself.
Request Removal
Request the removal of this essay
More from UK Essays | <urn:uuid:7dce88ea-5710-4d9a-b38d-c19ebec143e0> | 3 | 3.390625 | 0.238096 | en | 0.980196 | http://www.ukessays.com/essays/sciences/assessing-the-accomplishments-of-galileo-galilei-science-essay.php |
From UB
It is very good news that the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) has received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for its Humanities Indicators project.
This is the second in a two-column series. The first, published in May 2006, was an anonymous letter from a chief marketing officer to a college president.
In preparation for this month's column on best practices for employee and pre-employment drug testing, human resource departments at more than 25 colleges and universities nationwide were contacted. Many responded, stating that their school did not drug test employees beyond the U.S. Department of Transportation mandate. The Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991 requires all employers to drug test transportation workers who perform safety-sensitive functions, such as employees whose jobs require them to have a commercial driver's license or operate motor vehicles that weigh more than 26,001 pounds, transport hazardous materials, or carry 15 passengers or more.
Yet, the same scenario doesn't hold true in the private sector. A March survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 84 percent of the 454 employers contacted said they conduct pre-employment drug testing; 39 percent do random drug testing.
So why the discrepancy? Are college campuses considered safer environments than corporate campuses? Or, is drug testing just considered an invasion of privacy?
Some of these schools were asked the same questions, but none really offered any answers. As vice president of Drug Testing Services at Aurico Reports, Wayne Hovland runs into the same problem every time his drug screening company contacts institutions of higher education.
IHE "bury their heads in the sand and don't even entertain the thought of a faculty drug-testing program." -Wayne Hovland, Aurico Reports.
"They bury their heads in the sand and don't even entertain the thought of a faculty drug testing program," says Hovland. "When I bring it up, they will say something like, 'We are not going to talk about that,' or 'We are not interested in doing that.' I have heard it said that faculty would not put up with it."
There are plenty of reasons to drug test. During the last decade, federal and nonprofit organizations have published hundreds of sobering facts about the impact of drugs and alcohol on the job.
According to Drug Free Pennsylvania, the annual cost of substance abuse in the workplace for U.S. employers is $140 billion due to lost productivity, absenteeism, accidents, medical claims, and theft. Pennsylvania workers who are problem drinkers are absent from work four to eight times more often than those without a problem, while drug users miss an average of five days per month. Likewise, 38 percent to 50 percent of all workers' compensation claims relate to substance abuse. Drug users are also three times more likely to use medical benefits compared to other employees, and 80 percent steal from their employer to support their habit.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration revealed more startling statistics with its 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health ( Eight million full-time workers, age 26 or older, reported being heavy alcohol users. Another 9.5 million full-time employees, age 18 or older, reported using illicit drugs in the past month. Alcohol is also a contributing factor in 39 percent of all work-related traffic crashes, states the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
To be fair, let's examine the other side.
If drug testing is conducted in a vacuum, it can be perceived as oppressive and a way to weed out undesirables, leading to a poor work environment, says Elena Carr, director of Working Partners for an Alcohol- and Drug-Free Workplace, a U.S. Department of Labor program. In such situations, she says, drug testing is considered more of a policing function rather than a program that focuses on employee safety or health.
Carr also points to many organizations that function well with a zero-tolerance drug policy that's supported by a strong employee assistance program (EAP).
"A policy can stand alone, but I'm not sure it replaces drug testing as a tool of detection and deterrence," says Carr, adding that the five components of a drug-free workplace are a policy, supervisory training, employee education, drug testing, and an EAP. "But it does set the expectation."
No one disputes the danger of alcohol or drugs in the workplace. How would officials at a school that decides to expand drug testing to other employee populations in the future proceed?
There are currently four different types of drug tests, explains Jeffrey Ellins, president at Datco Services Corp., a third-party administrator for drug and alcohol testing and compliance. He says the most stable is urine, because there are established or accepted industry standards and it's very difficult for people to cheat the sensitive testing technology.
An alternative is blood testing, which Ellins says is not reliable because the federal government has not yet set any standards. For example, someone's blood test may turn up positive for amphetamines. That could mean several different things. The employee could be abusing illegal drugs or under a doctor's care, taking a prescription drug. In the latter case, there may only be a trace amount in the person's system. But since there is no standard, no one really knows what is an acceptable amount.
Hair follicle testing is yet another method. It reveals a person's 90-day history with drugs/alcohol, so some employers prefer to use it as a prehiring tool. But it can't test for current usage.
The last test-on oral fluids or saliva samples-was introduced three years ago. Ellins says this test is becoming more stable and doesn't require a sealed bathroom like with urine testing. A person's mouth is simply swabbed and the results are instant. However, there is a downside: The test is subjective. It is conducted with a reagent that chemically reacts with the cotton swab. If it's positive, there's no reaction. If negative, a line will appear. What if the line is faint? It then becomes a judgment call by the test administrator.
For those using instant kits, Ellins recommends urine kits, partially because of their expense-less than $10. Oral fluid kits are available for under $20. Blood and hair tests are the most expensive, since they must be conducted by a lab, and can run from $35 on up per employee.
Any drug-testing program, he adds, must include two essentials-a policy that explains the consequences of a positive test and a training component that communicates information to employees about the signs and symptoms of drug or alcohol misuse. His company publishes a handbook that explains the U.S. Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988, the physical effects of drug and alcohol abuse, and a list of resources where people can seek help.
When the DOT began testing, Ellins says the positive rate was 10 percent. That number has dropped and stabilized at four percent. "Four percent sounds small, but it could be over hundreds of thousands of employees," he says.
Ball State University (Ind.) drug tests approximately 83 of its 3,500 employees due to the DOT mandate. In the last 10 years, only a handful have tested positive, says Marta Stephens, coordinator of the school's work/life programs.
"Initially, we jumped right on the [DOT testing]," she says. "The workers know we're going to be right on top of this and not let anything slip. The supervisors are really great about making sure licenses and physicals are updated. It takes a lot of people to make this work."
While the DOT decreased the number of employees who had to be tested for alcohol from 25 percent to 10 percent, Stephens says the school stuck with 25 percent as a safety precaution. Still, BSU has no plans to expand its drug-testing program. "There's no need to extend this to new hires in general," she says. "There just doesn't seem to be any reason to."
Besides understanding the DOT's drug-testing rules and procedures, one of the most difficult challenges for Pepperdine University (Calif.) was finding a reliable vendor for its testing process, says Chip Moore, chief HR officer. Nearly 10 years ago, the school began sending a sample of its workforce-about 10 employees out of its 1,400-member workforce-to an external lab for drug testing annually.
Moore's staff scoured the local market for a vendor before finding one that not only understood the federal guidelines and was precise with testing, but also who would manage the entire process, from training employees to random testing.
What's more, he says, the vendor had to show respect for employees. That can sometimes be overlooked by schools.
So far, drug testing has been a continuous learning process, Moore notes. But he does believe there is a good argument to be made for testing more employees.
"The basic premise is you want to protect your people from either themselves or the impact of drugs," says Moore. "We will probably in the long run increase the number of people involved in that. We've just chosen not to do so at this point. We haven't gotten to the discussion part."
So what about your school? Are you ready for that discussion?
There was a time and place in American higher education when our urban universities sat at the pinnacle of power, prestige, and influence.
Anyone who is following technology trends is hearing more about the marvels of RFID. Prognosticators envision a not-too-distant future in which there will be no lines in supermarkets and no need to pay cash at the gas pump. RFID will act like a "smart" system, tracking items as they are pulled off the shelf and deducting payments automatically from bank accounts.
These pundits are obviously putting a lot of faith in RFID, a technology that is simple in theory, but-like all new technology-expensive to implement. Still, retailers and security services are finding more mainstream uses for RFID. Can it be too long before RFID comes to campus?
Truth is, some universities are already using RFID technology, although use is limited.
"RFID technology allows us to run a better library."
-Bruce Miller, University of California, Merced.
It may be a while before RFID technology is in place at campus bookstores, dining halls, and rec centers, but if current buzz is any gauge, RFID is going to become a common technology on campus and everywhere.
The letters RFID stand for "radio frequency identification." An RFID tag, which can be embedded in a security card or placed on a packaging label, gives off a radio signal that is picked up by antennae in the reading devices.
If programmed into the system, a person's identification information and other data are easily verified-sometimes at great distances-without the need for the user to swipe a card or stand in close proximity to the technology.
Some RFID tags are made to be "read only" for one-way communication-these types of tags are the ones most commonly used by libraries, or in highway speed-pass systems.
Other tags are in "read and write" format, allowing for more control. Data can not only be read by the system, but can be changed on the fly. The data stored in an RFID tag can be updated-a retail price can be marked down, for example.
RFID technology has been around for a while, but uses have been mostly applied to agriculture and industrial sectors. For example, ranchers are already tracking large herds of cattle with RFID signals; transportation managers use it to monitor railroad cars.
If RFID technology is being used at all on campus, it's most likely in the library to track research materials and sign out books. The library system at the University of California, Merced started using RFID technology this year. "RFID technology allows us to run a better library," says R. Bruce Miller, the university librarian.
The UC, Merced library uses RFID technology in two ways: to check out books and to monitor the use of research publications and other materials that do not leave the building. The system reads data programmed to the RFID tags that have been placed on cards inside the library's books and publications. Each book is identified by a string of numbers that can be matched to publication name within the system.
A database records that ID when a book is checked out, or even if it is moved off a shelf for a period of time. Staff can monitor who has taken out a book, but the RFID tag inside the publication does not contain any personal information about who is reading what, nor does it include the book's title. The system was set up this way to quell fears of privacy violations, says Miller.
"Even if some other RFID system breaks the encryption, all someone would see is a string of numbers. There is no personal content on the card," explains Miller.
The RFID system, though, will be relied upon to do more than track materials. After all, libraries already have bar code systems and related readers that can help do that.
The real use for RFID will come when the library culls through the research material that does not leave the facility. Librarians at research facilities routinely have to decide which materials should be kept and which ones should be removed, says Miller.
Until RFID systems, this required poring through written requests for research material and also relying on memory. "We would have to take a highly paid librarian and walk through asking about what has been used. That cost is horrendous," he says. "You literally have to touch every book in the system."
RFID will automatically track usage. "Down the road, when I have to take 15 percent of the books out of the library, I will be able to see what hasn't been used." RFID will allow the staff to rely less on manual labor and more on analytics.
Considering the efficiency, why aren't RFID systems used on more campuses and in more general retail locations? High cost is the reason. An RFID reader can run $1,000. Comparatively, the cost for the standard reader used for mag-stripe technology might be several hundred dollars.
Miller compares the RFID costs to other library tracking systems. Inserting and tracking a book with a bar code system might cost 10 cents per publication, whereas inserting an RFID tag costs 85 cents. "When you are dealing with 100 books, that's no big deal. When you are talking about millions of books, that's an interesting number," he posits.
UC, Merced is in the enviable position of being a start-up facility. It is the newest campus in the UC system, having opened just last year. The library, which opened this year, has only 40,000 books. Investment in RFID is possible because there are fewer books to deal with and no older volumes to retrofit with the new technology. The institution's inventory is quite manageable when compared to other libraries in the UC system. UC, Berkeley, for example, has at least 10 million books in its library, Miller notes.
That's not to say that other higher ed library systems haven't implemented RFID. The library at the National University of Singapore is known for its RFID system, says Miller. Still, it will be awhile before the technology is more the norm than the exception at campus library systems.
And while RFID holds the promise of potential labor cost savings and more accurate data, Miller has obviously not realized them yet.
But there are reasons other than cost that explain why RFID is not more commonly in use on campus.
A concern:
Hackers can exploit imperfections in RFID just as they have with software and networks.
There is not yet a universal RFID technology standard, notes Jim Zaorski, CEO of Sequoia Retail Systems and a recent speaker on RFID at the 2006 CAMEX conference sponsored by the National Association of College Stores.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed an RFID technology, but the rest of the industry has been hesitant to recognize that format as the RFID protocol.
"People said, 'This is great, but we shouldn't have one lab in Cambridge making the standards.' By this point everyone thought we would have a set of RFID standards, but we don't," says Zaorski. Until there's a universal standard, there will be hesitancy to select a commercial system that may not work on a wider or global scale.
The other concern is security. Hackers can exploit imperfections in RFID technology just as they have with software and networks. The media has already covered the instance of a graduate student at UC, Berkeley who checked out books from the Oakland Public Library and overwrote the data on the RFID tags with a commercial system to prove that libraries should employ tighter RFID security.
Another report, released this spring from researchers at the Vrije University in Amsterdam, warned that RFID codes can be infected with computer viruses that can be spread from point to point. The report, titled "Does Your Cat (or Passport) Have a Computer Virus?", is meant to dispel the widely believed assumption that RFID tags cannot become infected with such viruses because of their limited memory.
"The tags apparently are more vulnerable than first thought," the researchers write, while recounting their own successful efforts to place viruses into RFID tags. They also warn that small, infected tags can do a huge amount of damage. An entire database can become corrupted if a virus is not detected in time. They offer tight security measures and routine system checking as the main antidotes.
Despite some of these new findings, momentum is growing for RFID use.
This spring card vendor HID announced a partnership with MIT to create a website that will not only be a primer about RFID technology, but also address concerns about privacy and vulnerabilities.
It may be a while before every student is carrying a card with an RFID tag, but given the interest and the potential, it may not be too long before the technology is part of higher education.
For the last two decades, much of the public and media attention has been focused on the problems in K-12 education. Higher ed coverage was concerned largely with stories on school rankings or sports scandals.
| <urn:uuid:4372f344-a72d-436e-b92a-2390e25f1945> | 2 | 1.726563 | 0.02648 | en | 0.957695 | http://www.universitybusiness.com/articles-by-topic?page=166 |
UPI en Espanol
White House: Obama would veto supercommittee resolution
Updated Oct. 8, 2013 at 11:35 AM
1 of 5
| License Photo
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The White House said if Congress passes legislation establishing a so-called supercommittee on deficit reduction, U.S. President Barack Obama will veto it.
U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, Tuesday introduced a resolution calling for such a bicameral commission -- with 10 members appointed by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and 10 appointed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. -- to develop recommendations on "discretionary spending levels" for fiscal year 2012, "a change in the debt limit" and "reforms to direct spending programs," an executive summary of the resolution said.
Backers proposed passing the resolution jointly with a budget plan known as H.J. Res. 89, but the White House said in a statement Tuesday such a move would do "nothing to solve the immediate, pressing obligations the Congress has to open the government and pay its bills."
"The House should allow a straight up-or-down vote on Senate-passed H.J. Res. 59 to reopen the government, bring all the nation's dedicated civil servants back to work and provide the services middle-class Americans deserve," the statement said. "In addition, the House should pass a clean debt-ceiling bill without drama or delay so that the United States can continue to pay its bills and fulfill the nation's obligations."
The statement came after Obama and Boehner held Washington news conferences on the budget and the debt limit.
Obama rejected any suggestion he could raise the debt limit under the 14th Amendment. He said legal problems would make such a move uncertain, asking, "What if there's a Supreme Court case saying these [actions] aren't valid?"
House Republicans have refused to fund the government unless the Affordable Care Act is defunded or delayed. Senate Democrats assert they have already compromised with Republicans by adopting a budget far leaner than what they prefer and say they will not compromise further unless the House passes a so-called clean continuing resolution on the budget without conditions.
The president again asserted there are enough votes in the House for a clean continuing resolution if the House leadership lets the vote occur.
Boehner told reporters on Capitol Hill the Republican-led House already has passed bills to fund the government, bills that provided "fairness to the American people over Obamacare."
He said past presidents have negotiated deals over the budget and Obama should do so as well, citing the 2011 deal that resulted in drastic cuts known as the sequester.
But Boehner said Obama was refusing to sit down with him.
"What the president said today was if there's unconditional surrender by Republicans, we'll sit down and negotiate," the speaker said. "That's not how government works."
On raising the debt limit, facing a deadline next week, Boehner said, "I certainly didn't come here to default on our debt."
Despite the president's assertions, "there's going to be a negotiation here," Boehner said. "We can't raise the debt ceiling without a conversation."
At the White House news conference earlier, Obama said he spoke with Boehner "and I told him what I am saying publicly, I am happy to talk about anything," including the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.
But talks "shouldn't require hanging the threats of a government shutdown or economic chaos over the American people," Obama said, adding, "House Republicans don't get to demand ransom for doing their jobs."
Obama asked reporters what the reaction would be if a Democratic House demanded a Republican president approve gun control background checks, threatening a shutdown and default.
The president said the shutdown and threat not to raise the debt ceiling were part of a Republican strategy.
"They've said it from the start," he said.
Obama said he or his chief of staff have met with Republicans on the budget 20 times during the last few months.
The president repeatedly hammered House Republicans, saying, "We can't afford these manufactured crises every few months." He said the impasse was driven by "the Republican obsession with dismantling the Affordable Care Act and denying healthcare to millions of American people. ...
"The greatest nation on Earth should not have to get permission from a few irresponsible congressmen every few months" to avoid economic chaos.
House Democrats were not receptive to the GOP proposal for a new supercommittee.
Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., said: "Not again. Not again. Oh my gosh," The Hill reported.
Becerra heads the House Democratic Caucus and was a member of the first supercommittee, formed during the debt limit fight of 2011.
"The speaker knows the votes exist to stop this gimmickry," Becerra said.
The supercommittee failed to find $1.2 trillion in savings, leading to broad sequester cuts.
Earlier Tuesday, Obama called Boehner, saying he is willing to negotiate after the shutdown is ended and the U.S. debt ceiling lifted.
A statement issued by the White House said Obama telephoned Boehner "and repeated what he told him when they met at the White House last week: The president is willing to negotiate with Republicans -- after the threat of government shutdown and default have been removed -- over policies that Republicans think would strengthen the country."
The statement said Obama is willing "to negotiate on priorities that he has identified, including policies that expand economic opportunity, support private sector job creation, enhance the competitiveness of American businesses, strengthen the Affordable Care Act and continue to reduce the nation's deficit."
As he has before, Obama urged Boehner to hold a vote in the House on the Senate-passed measure to re-open the federal government immediately.
"Citing the Senate's intention to pass a clean, yearlong extension of the debt limit this week, the president also pressed the speaker to allow a timely up-or-down vote in the House to raise the debt limit with no ideological strings attached," the White House said.
Boehner, speaking after his weekly meeting with fellow House Republicans, was still on the attack, saying Obama and Reid were "putting our country on a pretty dangerous path" by refusing to enter talks.
"Listen, there's never been a president in our history that did not negotiate over the debt limit, never, not once," Boehner told reporters. "As a matter of fact, President Obama negotiated with me over the debt limit in 2011. He also negotiated with the Blue Dog Democrats to raise the debt in ceiling in 2010. So the way to resolve this is to sit down and have a conversation to resolve our differences."
Boehner did not say under what conditions he would negotiate, and declined to answer a reporter's question on whether he would support a short-term lifting of the debt ceiling, The Washington Post reported.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Reid again said he would negotiate with Boehner if the House passes a clean continuing resolution to open the government and raises the debt ceiling.
CNN reported Tuesday there are enough Democrats and Republicans in the House to pass a "clean" continuing resolution on the budget.
The U.S. broadcaster said all 200 Democrats and 17 Republicans would support a clean CR, the minimum needed, bearing out what Obama said Monday. MSNBC said its vote count was the same.
But CNN said the vote count does not mean the House will take up the measure soon because even those who support a clean CR do not want to force Boehner to allow a vote, and the vote count is shifting day by day.
Boehner has said there are not enough votes in the House for a clean CR ending the partial government shutdown.
The government shutdown started its second week Tuesday with no bipartisan meetings planned on resolving it.
The U.S. Treasury says it will reach the debt limit Oct. 17.
Related UPI Stories | <urn:uuid:b1512078-9faf-4679-9379-ca1c97f0e7af> | 2 | 1.507813 | 0.085191 | en | 0.965804 | http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/10/08/Senate-leaders-mull-raising-debt-ceiling/UPI-63281381209905/ |
1 definition by ru revolution
Top Definition
A versatile word that can be used in several situatons to mean several different things.
1. use it as you would any other cuss word i.e. Oh, ru! I forgot to bring that.
2. Use it to describe something totally awesome. i.e. that was so ru!
ru snowflake.
by ru revolution May 12, 2003
Free Daily Email
| <urn:uuid:b1aa04ef-763d-4f6a-90f3-ebf37ded76be> | 2 | 1.921875 | 0.296175 | en | 0.932247 | http://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=ru+revolution |
Top Definition
A term used to confuse people and play a practical joke on them. When using the term one is suppose to convince the other person to either look it up or, preferably, ask someone who will look at them funny and as foolish. Most often used as a fake sports term.
Justin: "Mandy, you're a call gooder."
Mandy: "What's a call gooder?"
Justin: "Wait a minute! You coach and ref basketball and you don't know what a call gooder is?!?! Wow. You must be a "die hard" basketball junkie!" <<sarcasm>>
Mandy: "What is it?"
Justin: "I can't believe this. Your dad coaches basketball too, ask him!"
by JR STEELE January 22, 2007
5 Words related to Call Gooder
Free Daily Email
Emails are sent from We'll never spam you. | <urn:uuid:865a774e-1d7e-46d5-a023-0b7f1342b324> | 2 | 1.726563 | 0.151632 | en | 0.955758 | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Call%20Gooder&defid=2210676 |
Top Definition
1: The act of stepping up to a challenge every time, and never failing, no matter what.
2: Being a champion in every little thing you do.
Girl 1 - "Wow, how does Jacob do it? He's always on top of everything and two steps ahead of everyone else."
Girl 2 - "Oh Jacob? He's just Championing all day long."
Girls 3 - "I'd bang him."
by theonesanch December 19, 2011
Free Daily Email
Emails are sent from We'll never spam you. | <urn:uuid:3216884d-0bf3-4edb-a8c8-c49fdedde040> | 2 | 1.796875 | 0.025747 | en | 0.951045 | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Championing&defid=6299226 |
Leadership And The
Changing Role Of Ethics In Public Life
The Honorable James A. Joseph
Every day leaders make decisions that are shaped by their values. Some of them are small, affecting a few people for a short time. Others are large, setting the long-term direction of an organization or a community. And still others are deeper and even more enduring, determining who they are as moral persons and the shape of the world in which they and future generations will live. In looking at ethical leadership for a changing world, we are left, therefore, to ponder the question posed by Socrates, "What is a virtuous man, and what is a virtuous society?" Of course, today we are more likely to ask "What is a virtuous man or woman and is it possible to build a virtuous society?"
It is not my intention to try and answer that question in this one lecture, but I want to speak instead about the changing role of ethics in public life and its implication for leadership in the new millennium. I want to argue: 1) that a new moral consciousness is dawning in which ordinary people who strive to live morally are now insisting that their institutions do the same; 2) that while we have often used ethics to humanize and domesticate power, we now live in an era where ethics is power; and 3) that the private virtues which gave us our moral strength at the dawning of independent nation states must now be transformed into public values appropriate for an interdependent world that is integrating and fragmenting at the same time.
Let me turn first to the idea that the focus on private virtues that saw the emergence of a small, but noisy group of virtuecrats near the end of the last century is likely to be matched in the new millennium by a focus on the public values that drive our institutions and empower leaders. Francis Fukayama, who burst into national attention a few years ago with a book entitled The End of History, has written a new book in which he draws on the latest sociological data and new theoretical models from fields as diverse as economics and biology to argue that though the old order has broken apart, a new social order is already taking shape. Western society, he contends, is weaving together a new fabric of social and moral values appropriate to the changed realities of the postindustrial world.
To re-state Fukayama's argument in my own language is to say that for more than a decade now, we have been preoccupied with the micro-ethics of individual behavior, the private virtues that build character. We must now give as much attention to the macro-ethics of large institutions and systems, the public values that build community. You may not agree with the tactics of some of the demonstrators who gather at meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, but it should not deflect from the reality that more and more people are concerned about how large institutions of all sort impact on their cultures, their communities and general well- being. They want to know whether or not these institutions have a moral center.
I think I hear the same voices and see the same changes in the moral ecology of the twenty first century that Fukayama is writing about. The need is not only for perspective in our political and cultural life, but in our organizational and institutional life as well. For some time, we have been romanticizing small local units as faster, more focused, more flexible, more friendly and more fun - to borrow the five Fs that have made the rounds of organizational theory. According to this view, small units can best get close to the customer, the member or the citizen. They can be less bureaucratic and more personal. Local groups are, thus, the easy part. Their members tend to share a history and a geographic tie. They can identify with their neighbors and they know each other's faces.
We live, however, in an age of non-geographic communities and huge systems - organized industrial production, global communications, organized bureaucracies, organized benevolence and even organized crime. We will need to balance the natural preference for the small and informal with an understanding of when it is necessary to have organized systems, when it is necessary to have a strong center in order to adequately and effectively service the parts and what social values are appropriate for whatever options we choose.
Why this renewed preoccupation with values in public life? How should the new national discourse take place? To ask these questions is to raise again the full question posed by Socrates "What is a virtuous man and what is a virtuous society which educates virtuous men" There are many voices urging the return of the public intellectual who can speak sense both to colleagues in academia and to fellow citizens in the larger society. Certainly, all of us on campus and in the community need to help de-politicize the public discussion of values, to help make it less partisan. It is all too often the case that those who speak most loudly about promoting "good values" are those who want simply to argue that someone else - Democrats, Republicans, poor people and others - has "bad values." It is time for us to apply the concept of virtue in ways that uplift rather than downgrade, heal rather than hurt, build rather than destroy.
What then should the next generation of moral habits encompass? William Bennett found that writing about virtue could be lucrative when he identified ten virtues that he considered essential to good character: self-discipline, compassion, responsibility, friendship, work, courage, perseverance, honesty, loyalty and faith.
This is a good list, but we cannot permit the discussion of values to focus only on the micro- ethics of individual behavior. We need to be equally concerned with the macro-ethics of large social institutions, including government, business and the institutions of civil society now playing such a major role in shaping public policy and public priorities. Much has been made of the breakdown of families and there is a lot of talk about family values, but except for the writings of the largely academic communitarian thinkers, not enough attention has been given to the breakdown of communities and how social virtues often serve as a prerequisite to the development of individual virtues.
While there are those who would argue that it is difficult to separate public values from private virtues, and they are largely correct, I am reminded of how often Martin Luther King spoke of the need to link the individual's duty to embrace the responsibilities of citizenship with the obligation to act in concert with others to ensure citizenship rights. He sought to transform both individuals and society.
So how would a lexicon of public values look. A few years ago, a public opinion polling firm was asked by the Kettering Foundation to convene focus groups to find out how Americans feel about multiculturalism and diversity. The first question asked was what does it mean to be an American. The respondents did not answer in terms of geography or genetics, ideology or theology, but in terms of the commitment to a set of values. When the question was first asked, people initially thought in terms of freedom - freedom of speech, religion, and the freedom to better yourself economically. Of course, after listening to the platitudes, one man said "We Americans have been arrogant since 1492." After deliberating for a while, people tended to expand their notion of what it means to be an American to include, in addition to freedom, an array of other values such as tolerance, respect for others, and even the appreciation of diversity. The pollsters concluded that bringing a diverse group together to deliberate makes people more sensitive to diversity. Amatai Etzioni has called, therefore, for a megalogue, society-wide dialogues that link community dialogues into one national dialogue.
The only public dialogue we have had about values has really centered around William Bennett's Book of Virtues that he wrote to emphasize the ten traits he considered essential to good character. I have found it useful in my public life to think in terms of ten public values essential to community. They require no special moral training or theological literacy to be understood, for they are part of the basic values necessary for the orderly functioning of community.
Bennett's private virtues constitute a good starting point for identifying rudimentary forms of private morality, but while they are indispensable for individuals, far more is needed for a complex community or an interdependent society to thrive. The issues and problems of public life are greatly aggravated by the fact that we are constantly dealing with people and systems with which we have no direct personal relationship. Personal responsibility is in many ways diluted. The directors of a business corporation are individual persons, for example, but they are being asked to think as directors or shareholders. The private virtues to which they are committed may help them assess and monitor the private behavior of the chief executive, but where are they to find moral guidance in deciding on dividends, the welfare of the workers or the obligation to the community in which the company operates.
The decision about dividends, like the decision about profits and where to locate a new plant, is likely to be regarded as morally neutral, but is it? If a decision affects the welfare of people, it is likely to require moral judgment and can not be neatly separated from moral choices. I do not have time to develop the argument for the ten social values I would place along side William Bennett's ten virtues, but I am delighted that Bennett included compassion on his list because it has become an important part of our national discourse about leadership. Like Adam Smith who wrote The Wealth of Nations, I would begin my own list of public values with empathy, a prerequisite for compassion and fundamental to building community. When Adam Smith set out to develop a basic theory about how human beings could transact business with each other in an orderly and predictable fashion, he set forth the principle of empathy, the ability to feel what another person is feeling. Knowing what gives others joy because we know what gives ourselves joy and pain became the unstated basis for his economic theory in The Wealth of Nations.
Smith is remembered best for what he had to say about economics, but he was a moral philosopher before he was an economist. He wrote A Theory of Moral Sentiments before he wrote his better-known work on economics. His economic theories were based on his ideas about moral community, especially the notion that the individual has the moral duty to have regard for his fellow human beings.
Like Smith, Fukayama ties social values to economic prosperity. In a second book Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, he argues that there is a relationship between social values like trust and the prosperity of nations. The greatness of this country, he maintains, was built not on the imagined ethos of individualism but on the cohesiveness of its civil associations, the strength of its communities and the moral bonds of social trust. He warns that a radical departure from that tradition holds more peril for the future of American prosperity than any competition from abroad. Both Adam Smith and Francis Fukuyama are, thus, arguing that the affirmation and practice of certain public values are not only a moral imperative but in our national interest.
We might have described this notion of trust and otherly regard in a more innocent age as the associated virtues of love. But the "L" word love, once the central imperative of social ethics, seems to have been banished from the public discussion of values. We rarely ask in government, business or civil society, "what is the most loving thing to do?" It may be useful to remember that in Plato's inquiry into virtue he came to associate it with goodness. In one of his dialogues, Socrates meets the eminent Sophist Protagoras, who explains that his profession is the teaching of goodness. In the subsequent exchange, the foundation of the moral imperatives that have come to undergird the notion of civil society was laid. The emphasis is not simply on knowing the good, but doing the good.
It is, thus, not surprising that in the Republic, the concern with virtue comes to focus on justice and kindness. Without a commitment to the promise of justice and the practice of kindness, virtue remains a concept with little context. Yet, today's virtuecrats rarely mention justice. Like the "L" word love, the "J" word justice seems to be missing in action. Love thy neighbor as one loves thyself is still good advice. But an abstract value void of committed action does little to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility or promote the general welfare. The most often repeated example of compassion is the story of the Good Samaritan in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. A traveler comes upon a man on the side of the road who had been badly beaten. He stops and provides aid and comfort. But suppose this same man traveled the same road for a week and each day he discovered in the same spot someone badly beaten. Wouldn't he be compelled to ask who has responsibility for policing the road? His initial act of compassion must inevitably lead to public policy. It is this progression from private compassion to public action that is often missing in our discussion of private virtue. Genuine compassion requires that we not only ameliorate consequences, but we also seek to eliminate causes.
We come next to my second point about the changing role of ethics in public life. It is the assertion that while ethics has been used to domesticate and humanize power, we now live in a world where ethics is power. Many speak of the United States as a marriage of Jerusalem, Athens and Rome. They argue, quite correctly, that the strength of America has been its moral strength. According to Gertrude Himmelfarb, long before the founding of the American republic," those concerned with morality explained that "Virtue is the distinctive characteristic of a republic, as honor is of monarchy, and moderation of an aristocracy." I would now say much the same thing about values. We cannot long preserve the public ethos of America's founding without the simple understanding that while we used ethics in much of the twentieth century to domesticate and humanize power, in the twenty first century ethics is power.
We hear much these days about American military strength and American economic power, but there is very little discussion of the many ways the international system is changing and the implications for American power and influence. Many foreign policy analysts are appalled by the lack of realism in the allocation of our national budget and the lack of emphasis in our national security strategy on what is increasingly called soft power. In a July 1999 article in the Foreign Affairs journal, Professor Joseph Nye, who heads the Kennedy School at Harvard, made an important distinction between "hard power" and "soft power." Hard power refers to the use of military might or economic muscle to influence and even coerce. Soft power refers to the ability to attract and influence through the flow of information and the appeal of social, cultural and moral messages. Hard power is the ability to get others to do what we want. Soft power is the ability to get others to want what we do. The former is based on coercion while the latter is based on attraction.
Military power in the world is unipolar, with the United States outstripping all others states. Economic power is multipolar, with the United States, Japan and Europe accounting for two- thirds of the world's production. Soft power is more widely dispersed. It crosses borders and is not dependent on military or economic power. A compelling message from a disaster area, a gross human rights violation, a military conflict or a story of hope and healing conveyed by the Internet or television can easily catapult new priorities into a nation's foreign policy. And that is why values may be the most fundamental and the most significant source of soft power.
The power that comes from being a "city on the hill" does not provide the coercive capability with which presidential candidates and most Americans identify, but in the new age of national security it can sometimes be the most influential. While greater pluralism in the mobilization and use of soft power may diminish the ability of the United States to impose its will through the use of hard power, the attractiveness of our institutions, the openness of our society and the values we espouse should continue to give us an edge in the new world of soft power; providing our people and our leaders recognize that while American military and economic advantages are great, they are neither unqualified nor permanent.
I saw the impact of soft power first hand during my tenure as United Sates Ambassador to South Africa; for Nelson Mandela represented the epitome of soft power. His moral standing and political stature in the world went far beyond that suggested by the size of the military or the Gross Domestic Product of South Africa. His influence came from the power of his humanity and the elegance of his spirit. His influence came from his message of reconciliation and the moral instinct embodied in his spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation. He is the prototype of the leader whose influence comes not from military or economic might, but from the power of ideals and the ability to capture the minds and hearts of people in all corners and colors of the universe. Among the many lessons we should have learned from the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela is the fact that diplomacy increasingly depends on a moral ecology that can not be found in military or economic power.
It is not only governments that must come to understand that ethics is power. The same is true of multinational business. The Reverend Leon Sullivan, who authored the principles used in South Africa by those American corporations operating under the apartheid system, has been conferring with international organizations and businesses to come up with a global set of principles. He has been in conversation with multinational corporations from three continents, business associations, non-governmental organizations and national governments.
While several hundred companies have signed on, there are those who reject this exercise as fruitless or an attempt at self-aggrandizement or publicity, but there are others who feel strongly that signing and affirming these principles is not only right but in their company's self-interest. Many of these groups have pledged to develop and implement policies, procedures, training and internal reporting structures to ensure integrity and responsibility in the operation of business corporations. Here's what they are asking their colleagues in business to do:
1. Express support for universal human rights and, particularly, those of their employees, the communities in which they operate, and the parties with whom they do business.
2. Promote equal opportunity for their employees at all levels of the company with respect to issues such as color, race, gender, age, ethnicity or religious beliefs, and operate without unacceptable worker treatment such as the exploitation of children, physical punishment, female abuse, involuntary servitude, or other forms of abuse.
3. Express support for the voluntary freedom of association of their employees.
4. Compensate employees at a level that enables them to meet at least their basic needs and provide the opportunity to improve their skill and capability in order to raise their social and economic opportunities.
5. Provide a safe and healthy workplace; protect human health and the environment; and promote sustainable development.
6. Promote fair competition including respect for intellectual and other property rights, and not offer, pay or accept bribes.
7. Work with communities in which they do business to improve the quality of life in those communities - their educational, cultural, economic and social well being - and seek to provide training and opportunities for workers from disadvantaged backgrounds.
8. Promote the application of those principles by those with whom they do business.
These are voluntary principles without any enforcement mechanisms except for the positive images enjoyed by those who sign them. Why, it might be asked, should a company bother? Given my own experience in international business and my service as an advocate for American business abroad, I am convinced that a sound set of principles can have an affect on the bottom line in at least five ways:
1. They build trust within the company and within the community. That trust translates into loyalty, consistency and greater productivity.
2. They demonstrate that companies are only as good as its people and its policies. A company is what it rewards. It is not so much what it says in its mission statement or code of conduct as it is what it rewards its people for being. The performance review and reward system must reflect the values the company affirms.
3. Customers and consumers increasingly take note of company values. They like to know that they are doing business with a company that not only produces an excellent product or provides excellent service, but it is committed to fairness, honesty, integrity and the larger community. As international competition increases, companies that do things ethically, and are seen doing them, may have a competitive edge in some countries.
4. More and more shareholders also care about company values. The socially responsible movement, once laughed at and dismissed as a minor nuisance, is now a $650 billion movement and growing. According to Rush Kidder of the Global Ethics Institute, socially conscious investments now account for some ten percent of invested funds in the United States.
5. Self-regulation can make government regulation unnecessary. As President of the Council on Foundations, I frequently had to testify before Congressional committees on proposed legislation to regulate foundations. I often found a more sympathetic hearing when I could show that foundations were not only concerned about the matter under discussion, but also engaged in self-regulation.
Does responsible behavior affect the bottom line? I am convinced that it does and I believe that in the years ahead you will see increasing evidence that principles affect profits and have a powerful, practical and immediate impact on the bottom line.
We come now to my third point about the changing role of ethics in public life. Social ethics at the dawning of the nation-state helped us understand the obligations of the citizen to the state. We now need public values that will help us cope with an interdependent world that is integrating and fragmenting at the same time. A major contribution of social ethics at the birth of the nation state was to help citizens understand the implication of freedom from tyranny, particularly the social obligation of citizenship and the limits of freedom.
Consider for a moment, the evolving vision of citizenship. The earliest vision of democracy was that the people have the power. The evolving vision is that the people have the vote, which is no longer the same as having the power. The awakening of the sense of citizenship as obligation to a larger community came with the French and American revolution when the word signified in theory, but not in practice, the equal participation of everyone in a social contract. The notion of citizen is still evolving, but we can draw lessons for enlarging the meaning of citizenship from the almost unknown civic traditions of some of the groups that are transforming our national life.
Long before Alexis deTocqueville became the most quoted (and probably the least read) authority on American civic life, Benjamin Franklin had become so enamored with the political and civic culture of the Native Americans he met in Pennsylvania that he advised delegates to the 1754 Albany Congress to emulate the civic habits of the Iroquois. Long before Martin Luther King wrote his Letter From A Birmingham Jail, African American's had come to believe that the primary passion of the patriot should be the passion for justice, and that justice is often a precondition to order - where a people feel a stake in a community they are more likely to work for order and value tranquility. Long before Robert Bellah wrote Habits of the Heart, Neo- Confucians in the Chinese community were teaching their children that a community without benevolence invites its own destruction.
All of these traditions now join our evolving vision of public values, but understanding our obligations as citizens also requires an understanding of what it means to be members of a public. We need to keep in mind that instead of a well-defined, distinct public, many publics exist, and the idea of public good frequently depends on which public is defining the good. It is only in the broadest sense that we are able to speak of a mass public. In the recent presidential campaign, we were reminded often that there is a voting public, which is all too often only a small fraction of the mass public and there are issue publics who hold strong opinions and are often seeking influence.
We need students, graduates and faculty who are willing to be a voice for those publics who are poor, weak or marginalized; all those whom someone powerful might deem inconvenient or outside the circle of care. We need politicians who are willing to seek power to disperse it rather than simply concentrate it. We need community leaders who can, by example, convey the message that doing something for someone else - making the condition of others our own - is a powerful force in building community. When you experience the problem of the poor or troubled, when you help someone to understand the human condition through theater or dance, when you help someone to find meaning in a museum or creative expression in a painting, when you help someone to find housing or regain his health, you are far more likely to connect on a deeper level, and you are likely to gain a sense of self-worth in the process.
Robert Putnam, who writes about the declining role of social capital in a democracy, Amitai Etzioni, who argues that shared values are essential for social solidarity and community and Robert Bellah, who wrote about his fears of a democracy without citizens, are all pointing to the importance of what Alexis deTocqueville once described as the habits of the heart of the American people; the tendency to form voluntary groups to meet social needs and to solve social problems. We now know that when neighbors help neighbors and even when strangers help strangers both those who help and those who are helped are transformed. When that which was "their" problem becomes "our" problem, a new relationship is established and new forms of community are possible.
And here we can learn a lot from the South African people about building community. Their emphasis on reconciliation may be at the heart of our search for public values appropriate for a world that is integrating and fragmenting at the same time. To live together in community is to be constantly engaged in connecting or re-connecting with those who differ not simply in race or religion, but tradition and theology as well as politics and philosophy. Where there is diversity, there is likely to be alienation and separation. Conflicts are inevitable and social relationships are constantly threatened and broken.
Reconciliation, thus, becomes as highly prized a value in the age of interdependence as freedom was in the scramble for independence. Reconciliation has to do with re-establishing or sustaining a connection to a wider community. There is an implicit notion of brokenness, a relationship that needs to be built or rebuilt. But the estrangement individuals and communities face can be moral as well as social and political. In South Africa, reconciliation is both a public value and a public process. It is fused into the political culture of those who govern, the theology of those who claim a new moral authority and the ancestral tradition of those who now have the lead in building a new society. The commitment to a reconciling society has deep roots in the African experience. In the worse days of apartheid, the African National Congress wrote into its charter that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. These words also found their way into the new constitution.
There is among black South Africans a traditional concept of community called ubuntu. It assumes that all of humanity is bound together into a relationship that is bigger than any individual or group. This notion of community is best expressed in the Xhosi proverb Archbishop Tutu likes to quote, "People are people through other people." It follows that to deny the dignity or seek to diminish the humanity of another person is to destroy one's own. This is the message so badly needed in a world where the more interdependent we become the more people are turning inward to smaller communities of meaning and memory. This may, at first glance, appear to be reason for anxiety and even despair, but I am increasingly convinced as I travel around the world that the search for beginnings, the focus on remembering and re- grouping, may simply be a necessary and natural stage of the search for common ground. People are demanding respect for their primary community of history and heritage before they can more fully embrace a larger community of function and formality.
With so much happening in so many places, with so many pressing needs within the American borders and beyond, and with so many conflicts still to be resolved, many Americans still feel the tug of separateness, of ultimate loyalties devoted exclusively to their own group. Yet, while it is only natural to feel an affinity with those whom we share a special heritage and a special history, it is time that we learn to see ourselves and our group, not through the haze of parochial emotions, but against the backdrop of a larger vision and as part of a larger community.
So let me conclude by suggesting that we can not understand nor appreciate the changing role of ethics in public life without trying to understand the many voices urging a return of respect for the spiritual dimension, without trying to understand why religion is playing such a large role in public life. Many people, whether they are Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Jew or some other expression of a spiritual connection, are coming to believe that we are not here alone, that we do not exist for ourselves alone, that we are a part of something bigger and more mysterious than ourselves.
It is not yet clear what role religion will play in the search for either common ground or public values, but there are many reasons to believe that the search for a higher level of being is a reflection of the human condition. And it may be that it is the common search, rather than our different answers, that will provide the basis of our unity. And that is why I am so pleased to have been given this opportunity to address the subject of the changing role of ethics in public life.
As we look to the future, it is clear that the ethical issues with which policymakers now struggle are tame compared to some of the issues on the horizon. It is now reliably predicted, for example, that within five years either a U.S. government agency or a private corporation (perhaps both) will have in a desktop computer the entire human gene decoded. Policy analysts and ethicists will then be arguing over the implications of extending the human life span for Americans beyond 150 years, at the same time that the AIDS virus and other infectious diseases devastate populations in Africa and elsewhere. I hope that the emerging community of leadership educators, the institutes they develop and the students they teach, will be prepared to handle the new generation of public policy issues as well as the old.
But even more fundamentally, I hope the new leadership industry is prepared to handle the diversity that will characterize leadership in the new millennium. Although the present leadership climate may appear at first glance to be a leadership vacuum, it is more likely that we have simply been looking in the wrong places for leadership. If we have learned anything from those who are building new societies in Eastern Europe, Southern Africa and Central America, it is that the next generation of leaders is not likely to fit the traditional mold, nor are those leaders likely to be found in traditional places.
The days of looking for leaders with the right endorsements and the right credentials as defined by an established elite are hopefully nearing an end. The leaders of the future are not likely to come riding out of the sunset on white charges - heroes without heroism. Many will instead be ordinary people with extraordinary commitments. Their styles will be different. Their accents will be different and so will their color and complexion. We do not yet know much about these emerging leaders, but we know enough about the changing role of ethics in public life to suggest at least these four conclusions:
1. The demographic changes are creating a demand for a new group of leaders who seek power in order to disperse it rather than simply hold it. The demand is for leaders who understand what it means to share power rather than simply dominate it. Those who seek power to concentrate it may ultimately lose it to those who seek it only to diffuse it.
2. Tomorrow's leaders must be able to use their values not simply to affirm absolutes but also to cope with ambiguities. During times of rapid change, there is always a revival of religion. Zealots emerge claiming one truth and one theology. As people search for something to hang on to, they tend to respond to those who provide answers rather than those who point to ambiguities. No religion, however, offers absolute clarity and self- evident truth; hence no vision of the present - let alone the future - can be accepted as final; no institution can be accepted as complete; no ideology can be accepted as closed. In matters of faith and morals, the right question is usually more important than the right answer to the wrong question.
3. It is imperative that leaders develop the capacity for humility. Our world desperately needs leaders who are open to the possibility of error in themselves and human wisdom in unlikely places. I remember my early days in a new administration in Washington. The euphoria of victory after long months of struggle produced a climate in which it was easy to believe that the rascals had been thrown out and intelligence and foresight had finally come to government. In fact, some rascals had probably been thrown out, but in every group of people there are likely to be a few who share a commitment to the same goals. The challenge of leadership is to identify them and make them allies rather than adversaries.
4. It is the involvement with the needs of others that provides the social cement that binds people together in community. Much attention has been given to individualism and "lone ranger" leadership in American history. It remains a major theme of historical analysis and self-understanding. But leadership scholars and educators may need to acknowledge and affirm another tradition that goes back to John Winthrop's notion of a city on a hill. Those who seek "to make the condition of others their own" will find that the effect of doing something for some else is powerful. When by trying to help you experience the problems of those economically disadvantaged or politically disenfranchised, you are far more likely to find common ground. And you are likely to gain a sense of self-worth, personal satisfaction and meaning in the process. Once the potential leader discovers the ability make a difference, the leadership impulse - which may start out as a very personal and solitary drive - is likely to be transformed into a larger commitment to making the concern for others, to making some form of civic engagement on behalf of others, a part of the human journey.
In the midst of all the reasons for pessimism about some of the leaders we see and some of the leaders we know, I think I hear what Albert Camus described as the flutter of wings. I think I see what Robert Kennedy called a million points of daring, and I think I see it in what Robert Geenleaf called the servant leader who sets out to serve and leadership is what follows. I hope, therefore, that in all of our study of how leaders are developed, how they behave and what should be the relationship with followers, we will not forget that in its essence ethical leadership is about service, "making the condition of others our own." | <urn:uuid:06cc6577-4715-43eb-b150-679b76439b25> | 2 | 2.03125 | 0.024784 | en | 0.965911 | http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/archive/research/leadership/publications/conference1/LeadershipChangingRoleofEthics.html |
UCSD: Genes can influence how you vote
This month's San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering will feature the “Science Speed Round,” an event in which prominent scientists deliver short talks on subjects as different as “growing” new fuels and whether genetics influences how a person votes.
The event will be held March 21 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at The Neurosciences Institute, 1640 John Jay Hopkins Dr., San Diego.
The speakers include James Fowler, a UC San Diego geneticist and political scientist who will give a talk titled, “Red Gene, Blue Gene: The New Science of Voting.” Fowler discussed the topic with us by email.
Q: Is there evidence that our genetic makeup influences who we vote for?
A: Absolutely! Our best guess right now is that genes can explain between one-third and one-half of the variation in our political attitudes and also the parties we tend to support.
James Fowler, UC San DiegoUC San Diego
Q: How can scientists tell that genetics weighs in to such decisions?
A: There are two different kinds of evidence.
First, we use twin studies, which compare identical twins to fraternal twins. Identical twins share 100 percent of their genes because they come from the same fertilized egg. But fraternal twins share only 50 percent of their genes (just like ordinary brothers and sisters) because they come from two different eggs.
Since identical twins are genetically much more similar to one another, if their politics are similar then it suggests that genes are helping to explain why. And that’s exactly what we find. Identical twins are much more likely to vote for the same party and to share the same political beliefs than fraternal twins are.
Second, we study specific genes. We have identified several gene variants that help to explain whether or not people will vote, whether they will identify with a political party, and how liberal or conservative they are. However, it is important to remember that each gene (there are thousands!) only has a tiny effect. Plus, many of these studies show that it is not the gene by itself that matters. For example, the gene that contributes to a tendency to be liberal only works for people who have many friends in their social network. This is a new field called “epigenetics” — it’s about how genes and environment work together to affect our behavior.
Q: Are you saying that there’s literally a “liberal” gene and a “conservative” gene? And if there is, how do you explain the Tea Party?
A: Yes, there are genes that make us more inclined to be liberal and conservative — even genes that make us more likely to join the Tea Party! But genes are not destiny. Being tall does not guarantee that you will be a pro basketball player — there are many factors. An example I always like to describe is this: even if you have in your hands the world’s most perfect seed, if you do not give it water, it will not grow. In some sense, the environment is always primary, even if genes matter a lot.
| <urn:uuid:8231658d-aa3e-472c-aee0-987e6e1528ab> | 3 | 2.796875 | 0.155721 | en | 0.944697 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/mar/01/uc-san-diego-genes-can-influence-how-you-vote/?sciquest |
Research Western
Juan Luis Suarez: Going for Baroque
Currently undergoing a renaissance, so to speak, baroque customs may hold a key to better understanding cultural diversity.
In music, the term baroque refers to emotional, highly stylized and flowery presentation. In visual art, it denotes dramatic light and shade, turbulent composition and exaggerated expression. Rising to prominence 450 years ago, baroque culture swept across the globe in what historians refer to as the first stage of globalization.
Modern Languages & Literatures professor Juan Luis Suarez is looking at how artistic expressions generally considered baroque in the Hispanic world emerged from a larger system of interactions between 1550 and 1750, coinciding with the establishment and ascendency of the Spanish imperial presence in Central and South America.
He is also interested in the current baroque revival and by the extent to which the contemporary world has been shaped by this first Atlantic Empire.
Suarez attributes the globalization of baroque culture to interactions, relationships and information exchanges developed through mestizaje – the fusion of cultural traditions, including language, religion, food and music between groups in Spain and Latin America. Once it permeated the culture, it spread across the world.
“We would like to develop a clear model of how cultures co-exist while allowing for a certain cultural autonomy and interdependence at the same time,” says Suarez. He also hopes to explain why the baroque strategy of communication – where a single cultural message is communicated with enough ambiguity that it unfolds in different ways to people with different backgrounds – is emerging in other places around the world.
Las Vegas is one of the most visible current cities where baroque characteristics are evident.
“Sin City is the perfect baroque example because it’s the ideal combination of spectacle and technology used to fully impact the spectator in much the same way rhetoric was used in the first baroque period,” says Suarez. “Seeing and being seen are just as important as the spectacle itself, which is a characteristic that can be traced to baroque times.”
In the true spirit of globalization, Suarez leads an international, multi-disciplinary team of scholars from diverse fields, including music, literature, mathematics, computer science and anthropology. Called the Hispanic Baroque – Complexity in the First Atlantic Culture, the study received a $2.5 million-SSHRC grant in 2007, the largest ever in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
By learning from the past, Suarez believes the Latin American baroque era will provide valuable information to help countries around the world deal with issues related to diversity.
“History is a great repository of knowledge,” he says, “but I’m merely working in the past because we think the solutions are there.”
For more information, please visit: | <urn:uuid:c070dce6-4c52-44fd-aeda-a2bccd87c387> | 3 | 3.34375 | 0.037914 | en | 0.929076 | http://www.uwo.ca/research/excellence/faces/suarez.html |
Tuesday, March 03, 2015
Advertise with us
Seven things you didn't know about Easter
March 25, 2010 at midnight
Updated April 1, 2010 at 11:02 p.m.
The Easter egg tradition dates back to the early days of Christianity.
Easter, a multi-layered holiday considered the most important Christian holiday, commemorates the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ for some. For others, the holiday symbolizes chocolate bunnies and plastic neon eggs.
A few facts both religious and commercial you might not know about the holiday:
1. The Passion play, the re-enactment of Jesus' procession to his crucifixion, is celebrated throughout much of Latin America and perhaps most voraciously in Iztapalapa, a neighborhood of Mexico City. The place has hosted the play since 1843 and authorities estimate about 2 million visitors come to watch the procession during Holy Week.
2. Orthodox Christian churches usually celebrate Easter on different dates than Western churches - often as much as weeks apart. This year, the dates of the celebration coincide, something that happens only about three times a decade. Orthodox churches also don't have a sunrise Easter service, something typical of Western Christian, but host a midnight vigil that can last past 2 a.m.
3. Peeps, a puffy, brightly-colored marshmallow snack, is perhaps the most popular non-chocolate Easter-time candy. According to the company, it has been the best-selling non-chocolate candy for the past decade. The amount of Peeps chicks and bunnies eaten for Easter are more than enough to circle the Earth's circumference.
4. Forget the Easter bunny, in Sweden the Easter witch is the holiday superstar. Before Easter, children celebrate the holiday in the same way American children would Halloween. Little girls dress as witches, paint their faces and go door-to-door with brooms and ask for treats. The tradition stems from superstitions that witches would steal brooms and fly to dance with the devil the Thursday before Easter. In parts of western Sweden it is still tradition to light fireworks and bonfires to keep witches away.
5. Rapa Nui island, better known as Easter Island, is famous for its mysterious human-like statues that scatter the land. The island, located in the eastern Pacific Ocean about 2,000 miles west of Chile, was named in honor of the day it was discovered by the first European explorers.
6. The Easter egg tradition dates back to the early days of Christianity. Legend has it Mary Magdalene used the example of the egg to explain the resurrection of Christ to a Roman governor, said the Rev. Dimitri Cozby, pastor of the All Saints Orthodox Mission. Eggs look dead on the outside, but have life on the inside, he said. Mary Magdalene also died the egg red to symbolize Jesus' blood.
7. Although the origin of the holiday's name is uncertain, one view is that it grew from the name Eostre, the pagan Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility and spring. Other theories point to the idea that the word came from the Latin term for white, which referenced the color newly-baptized Christians would wear at that time.
Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica Online, the Rev. John Stroup, the Rev. Dimitri Cozby, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, marshmallowpeeps.com, nordicway.com and Lonelyplanet.com.
Powered By AdvocateDigitalMedia | <urn:uuid:88d7abf2-fcca-4f98-bb20-f3fff1dc3dc2> | 3 | 2.53125 | 0.018398 | en | 0.950959 | http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2010/mar/25/er_7_things_easter040310_90159/?features |
Medieval Play: Knight Time
Kenneth Lonergan's newest play serves up Papal bull
After seeing Medieval Play (Signature Theatre), I can't help picturing playwright Kenneth Lonergan as a young, idealistic, 14th-century monk, burning to illuminate a chronicle of his struggle to lead a Christian life in a time of upheaval. But his eagerness is arrested by an older, more cynically worldly monk, whom I also picture as Lonergan, somehow. The elder warns his junior that all such struggles are futile and all chronicles of them merely travesties.
In shock, the young monk hurtles forward in time and writes this play, drowning its initial seriousness of purpose in a torrent of misguided jokes, all meant to show the moral superiority of 21st-century hindsight to the falsity and hypocrisy of 14th-century Christian Europe—with an occasional clubfooted attempt to link the latter to the falsity and hypocrisy of business, religion, and government, circa 2012. Directing the sorry result himself, the transplanted monk makes the sin fall doubly onto his own head. Thus does disaster strike when idealistic youth hearkens to its inner hipster voice. Woe unto our theater that no Abbott lived to guide him on a wiser path.
Interminable like all 14th-century chronicles, Medieval Play tells of a decidedly errant knight-errant, Sir Ralph (Josh Hamilton), who deserts the band of mercenaries with whom he has been plundering the countryside, in favor of a more virtuous life, exactly when the era's corrupt, politicized Papacy is transiting from Avignon back to Rome. Everything Sir Ralph touches turns to gore and mishap, while the Papal move toward Rome and reform leads only to bloody schism. It reduces even St. Catherine of Siena (Heather Burns), watching over it all, to bitchery and profanity.
14th-century jape, anyone?
Joan Marcus
14th-century jape, anyone?
Medieval Play
By Kenneth Lonergan
Signature Theatre
480 West 42nd Street
Many have ridiculed the Middle Ages' shortsightedness, but none, till Lonergan, was foolhardy enough to choose the era as a topic and then condescend to it for nearly three hours. Thinkers like Huizinga, Burckhardt, and William Morris have suggested that medieval life might have contained values unwisely jettisoned by modern civilization, but the puerile 21st century, which insists on viewing all past epochs as putrid reflections of its own paltriness, won't stand for any such intellectual effort. Painfully, Lonergan's laborious jape wastes some delightful cartoon scenery, by Walt Spangler, plus a cast that could, given less flimsy material, match its delights. Burns, Kevin Geer, and John Pankow bring smiles even as their lines thud, while Hamilton has ripened into a strong, centered actor who deserves far better than this presliced glibness.
My Voice Nation Help | <urn:uuid:1177b8ea-4dd3-4b5b-a9cd-656473a64c69> | 2 | 1.609375 | 0.019493 | en | 0.937722 | http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-06-13/theater/medieval-play-knight-time/ |
TV Broadcast URI Schemes
11th March 1999
Warner ten Kate <>.
Gomar Thomas <>.
Craig Finseth <>.
Copyright ) 1999 W3C (MIT, INRIA, Keio), All Rights Reserved.
This version:
Latest version:
Previous version:
This document is an informational document and discusses the requirements posed to URI schemes for identifying resources in TV Broadcast environments. The document is the outcome of discussions on this subject by the W3C TV-Web Interest Group [TVWebIG, TVWebMail].
Table of Contents
TV Broadcast: Definition and scope
Application Scenarios
Requirements on Global TV Broadcast URI schemes
Exceptions in TV Broadcast URIs
TV Broadcast: Definition and scope
Definition of TV Broadcast
In this document TV Broadcast is used as the generic term to refer to currently existing TV systems, their transport protocols, and their typical operation of content provision and distribution. TV Broadcast concerns both digital and analog systems and includes systems like DVB, ATSC, DSS, NTSC, and PAL. The TV Broadcast "network layer" is typically non-IP based.
The term TV Broadcast URI refers to URIs which identify, and possibly locate, TV Broadcast content. In this document "URI" is used to indicate TV Broadcast URI.
Typically, TV Broadcast systems are push systems. The content streamed along a TV Broadcast transport is scheduled by the service provider; the user has no influence on that. In this model the user accesses the stream(s) rather than the server at the upstream station.
Hierarchy in TV Broadcast content
TV Broadcast content is modeled in a four-layer hierachy, consisting of service, event, component, and fragment. Service is at the top, fragment is at the bottom of the hierarchy.
The term service is used to refer to a concatenation of programs, all being broadcast by the same service provider. The programs of a service share some tuning characteristics. Service corresponds to the naming "channel" as used in today's analog TV.
The term event is used to refer to a single TV program. An event consumes a time period within a service and therefore can be characterized with begin and end times. The service provider determines the granularity in which the service is split in events. An event can be a complete program or an episode of a program. Events can be grouped in series, e.g., to form a serial. Events are the typical entities which EPGs list to present program schedule information.
The term component is used to refer the constituents of an event. The audio and video of a TV program are obvious examples. In case of multilingual programs there are multiple audio components. In case of interactive programs the components are the application documents and the other data these applications are using. Next to continuous data like audio and video, component also encompasses discrete data like Web pages and applications describing composition and interactivity. The URI identifying an application can constitute the base URI for the further components referenced by that application.
The term fragment is used to refer to a subpart of a component. For instance, it can be a slice of a video sequence, or a subregion in an image.
Due to the push character of TV Broadcast there are two dimensions of hierarchy, a schedule related and a content related. The first is the hierarchy of transport system, transport stream, service, series, event; The second is the hierarchy of series, event, component, fragment.
The term resource is to be understood as in RFC 2396, sec.1.1 [RFC2396]. In the context of TV Broadcast a resource refers to the entities service, event, component, and fragment in particular.
Setting and usage of TV Broadcast URIs
TV Broadcast applications need a mechanism to identify and locate the components building the application. The URI scheme is a useful tool for that as it opens possibilities for seamless transition in referencing resources at TV Broadcast transport and Internet sites. URI schemes to locate resources at the Internet are well-known, and are not further observed in this document. URI schemes to locate resources in a TV Broadcast transport channel have been proposed, but most are designed with a particular TV Broadcast transport environment in mind.
Next to locating components at TV Broadcast transport channels, another aspect of TV Broadcast URIs concerns referencing the events. In the first place, events are accessible at the TV Broadcast transport channel, possibly at several channels and at multiple periods of time. The above mentioned URI schemes also address this aspect, but all in their own way. In the second place, the content may be stored and made available through another path than the TV Broadcast transport channel. Most evident are local storage, like VCR-type of devices, and the Internet itself. Local storage devices can be connected through an in-home network to the user agent presenting the application. Local storage in the sense of the client's local file system or in the sense of cache buffering are not observed in this document.
TV Broadcast content delivered through a so-called IP-tunnel is considered as content made available through the Internet. An IP-tunnel refers to a forwarding path which is logically separated from the conventional TV Broadcast transport protocol but uses the same physical transmission link.
Application Scenarios
Application types, further definition and scope
Applications can be distinguished in usage of URIs for Global and Local scope.
Global refers to URIs contained in documents which can be accessed anywhere around the world, and which identify content related to any TV Broadcast system in the world, including storage devices associated with that TV Broadcast system. Such a global URI may include identification of the TV Broadcast system to be used.
Local refers to URIs contained in documents which are accessed within a certain TV Broadcast system, and which identify content to be accessed through that TV Broadcast system. URIs that reference content outside the local TV Broadcast system, are assumed to be either Global URIs or traditional URIs for locating resources at the Internet.
This document concentrates on Global URIs, as those have a world-wide interest for standardization. It would be nice when Local URIs bear an identical format, but that is considered not a necessary requirement. Local URIs can be specified within their respective application domains. On the other hand, it would be nice when Global URIs can serve as a base URI for Local URIs, either as direct copy or by some mapping function.
Further, URIs can be distinguished in identifying a service or event, and in identifying a particular content item (component or fragment) in such a service or event. This reflects the two dimensions observed above of schedule related and content related hierarchy. The use cases where a content item in a certain service is to be identified while the context isn't already that service, seem rare. Consequently, a URI is not required to carry both informations (service and content item) together.
This distinction suggests that identification of a particular content item belongs to the Local class of URIs, and that Global URIs typically identify a service or an event. However, an exception can be found in the case where the same content item is referenced in various transport contexts, e.g. in a commercial.
An important class of Global URIs identify their resource in a location and time independent way, i.e. independent of the particular TV Broadcast transport system and particular schedule. For instance, they are also valid after local storage. As such, they resemble URN behavior, opposed to URL behavior.
As the set of resources and their various locations can scale to large numbers, it is preferred that the URI scheme imposes a hierarchical structure, certainly when the URI's purpose is to locate a resource. A hierarchy allows for step-by-step resolution and navigation to the resource identified. By that, efficiency and scalability is improved. Further, implying a hierarchical structure allows to group resources, and by that to distinguish between, for example, in identifying a serial and an event in that serial.
Use cases, both Local and Global URI
Below, some representative use cases are listed. An exhaustive list of application scenarios is provided in [USECASES].
1. Basic EPG type of locating:
Reference TV Broadcast services and events from a Web page for navigating to them. The references are tolerant to modifications in the actual transmission schedule, but a coarse indication can be derived. The broadcast program can be indicated through tuning data or through naming. Next to navigation to the program, the EPG also supports for setting reminders or recording of programs. Instead of a single program, the serial of which the program is part, is referred to, such that setting a reminder or a recording for all episodes can be accomplished.
It is the year 2002. Fox is broadcasting a World Cup game from South Korea in both analog and digital formats, with the broadcast reaching North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, Australia, etc., through a wide variety of local affiliates and re-broadcast operators. Fox wishes to put a hyperlink to the broadcast on its web site, so that users of Internet-connected TV receivers all over the world with the right software (perhaps native, perhaps downloaded) can click on the hyperlink and have their receivers tune to the broadcast (or set a reminder for the broadcast, if the game is not currently on).
2. A sports fanatic wants to watch all the above broadcasts by Fox. Therefore he records all the broadcasts and copies the above Fox World Cup page to his local disc. From that page he can access the broadcasts or, when they have been recorded, view them from his recording device. At its site Fox also provides the transmitted broadcasts, albeit at high compression rates. The page will direct users who haven't recorded the broadcast to these videos.
3. A Web page is composed for presentation on a TV Broadcast receiver. The Web page is delivered in association with a TV Broadcast program (the transmission paths may be physically separated). The Web page includes an object which refers to the associated audio/video image of the TV broadcast program.
4. In a Web page a TV Broadcast event is referred, but the exact location is not known at authoring time. The URI is incomplete in its information. Instead a query is added to retrieve the missing information. When the available TV Broadcast system supports the query mechanism, the URI can be resolved and the identified resource can be retrieved. The query language is technology-independent, i.e. it is not relying on specific fields, such as SI data, in the TV Broadcast transmission system.
Examples are:
5. A TV Broadcast of a soccer match is data-enhanced; in a data carousel module or an encapsulated IP datagram a file is contained which gives up-to-the-second statistics on goals scored, fouls committed, corner kicks taken, shots at goal, shots on goal, etc. The broadcaster wants to put a URI on their web site which references this file, allowing applications on Internet-connected TV receivers all over the world to get to the file and display it in nifty ways.
6. A data file is transmitted along with a TV program, the data file is containing additional information to that program. It also contains hyperlinks to the programs and/or data in other data files being broadcast on the same channel and in other channels, so that receivers can set reminders for the upcoming game and/or data file.
7. A Web page is transmitted with a TV Broadcast commercial. The commercial is about an upcoming TV Broadcast program. The viewer can click a hotspot area such as to set a reminder for that program. The Web page can also be accessed at the broadcaster's Web site.
8. A set of three Web page is transmitted with a TV Broadcast commercial. The viewer can navigate the three pages. The pages are transmitted frequently along various TV Broadcast systems. The pages can also be accessed at the advertiser's Web site, where they are maintained at a particular sub directory. Therefore, the advertiser uses relative referencing between the pages.
9. A live quiz show is enhanced such that the viewer can play along. The enhancement data are a mixture of Web pages, which compose the quiz's question and answer environment, element values, which carry the actual questions and (correct) answers to be inserted in the Web pages, and procedural cells to control the viewer's score. The Web pages are provided at a Web site long before the show is aired, such that viewers can prepare. The element values are transported along the TV Broadcast transmission channel during the show. They are synchronized with the actions in the show such as to complete and update the application.
There are several levels of play along: some pages provide the viewer with hints such as to ease answering, and some pages provide less alternatives in the multiple choice questions. The viewer can select his level by navigating between these pages.
Upon the actual broadcast an application is broadcast with the program to initiate the enhancement. The application references the Web site, such that upon tuning to the TV Broadcast the Web site's home page gets retrieved. Triggered by stream events in the TV Broadcast transport stream, the application also controls the insertion of element values (questions and answers) and the score management (e.g., no score increment after answer presentation).
10. A Web site provides a EPG covering programs transmitted world-wide. A viewer is visiting this site and browses the EPG. Upon encountering his favorite movie "Once upon a time in the Cyber" he clicks the item on the EPG. Regretfully, the movie isn't scheduled for the 419 TV Broadcast satellites his receiver is configured to. Instead of setting a reminder, the receiver informs the user the movie will not appear on his reception links.
Requirements on Global TV Broadcast URI schemes
Conventions used in this document
In this document three levels of priority are used to indicate the desirability of a requirement.
The key word "MUST" is to be understood as an essential and critical requirement.
The key word "SHOULD" indicates an important requirement.
The key word "MAY" indicates a useful feature.
[These key words and their meaning are based upon RFC 2119 [RFC2119]. That RFC specifies similar wording for implementation compliance with a protocol specification. In this document the wording reflects specification compliance with protocol goals.]
1. The URI scheme MUST comply with RFC 2396 [RFC2396].
2. Where the URI serves as a name identifier (URN), the corresponding URN specifications MUST be taken into account, e.g. [RFC2141, RFC2168].
3. Where the URI serves as a locator identifier (URL), the definition of the URI scheme MUST follow the guidelines as set forth in [URLGUIDE].
4. The URI MAY support queries to be posed to the TV Broadcast receiver. The query language MUST be independent to the TV Broadcast system.
5. The URI scheme SHOULD support relative referencing such that a TV-program with all its associated resources can be referenced against a common base, which is the TV Broadcast URI of that aggregate.
6. Where the URI serves as a locator identifier (URL), the URI scheme SHOULD include a hierarchical structure either to identify the resoure as a service or an event from a service, or to identify the resource as an event, a component from an event, or a fragment from a component. The structure SHOULD provide optional levels to group events into series or serials and to group components into composites.
Where the URI serves as a name identifier (URN), the URI scheme MAY include such hierarchical structure.
7. The URI scheme SHOULD support the spectrum of transport protocols applied and standardized in TV Broadcast systems. This includes both audio/video and data broadcast protocols.
8. A URI MUST be invariant with respect to the normal range of transport stream transformations along the path from provider to user, both in referencing the time and the location of the resource in that transport stream.
9. Given a URI, it MUST be possible for a receiver to actually locate the resource, or conclude that it is not reachable.
10. A URI MUST be meaningful when interpreted, independent of the transmission context in which the URI is called. Transmission context refers to a coherent set of content streams as they arrive at the receiver. An example is a set of TV broadcast services sharing a same physical connection; another is an Internet connection. In case the context is the same transmission system as in which the content is located, the URI MUST be resolvable.
11. Where the URI serves as a name identifier (URN), it SHOULD be resolvable under any of the following network access conditions:
1. TV Broadcast
2. Internet
3. In Home/local storage
The actual resource's retrieved content data MAY differ in terms of content encoding, content quality, performance, and edit version.
12. Where the URI serves as a name identifier (URN), the scheme MUST support referencing various instantiations of the same content (encoding, quality/compression ratio, versions/edits).
13. Any actual scheme SHOULD be coordinated with standardisation bodies such as ATSC, DVB, and DAVIC, and SHOULD be reasonably acceptable to those bodies.
14. The URI scheme MUST interoperate with the Internet access schemes, such as to enable seamless transition in referencing resources at TV Broadcast or Internet sites.
Exceptions in TV Broadcast URIs
TV Broadcast differs from the conventional Internet in several ways. The TV Broadcast URI scheme is affected by that in the following aspects:
1. The host is not necessarily a server identifiable through an IP-address. For instance, the "host" is a transport stream.
2. The resource access and retrieval scheme is not necessarily IP-stack based.
3. The resource's availability implicitly depends on, or at least relates to, a transmission schedule.
Because TV Broadcast is a resource constrained environment, it is worthwhile to keep the length of the URI limited. This document does not pose a requirement on a maximum length of a TV Broadcast URI. It is left to the particular application domain to specify such limitations.
[RFC2119] Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels,
RFC 2119, S. Bradner. March 1997.
[TVWebIG] W3C TVWeb Interest Group,
Group page of the W3C TV-Web IG. Philipp Hoschka.
[TVWebMail] TV-Web Mail Archives,
Threads starting with messages 0040, 0041, and 0046. Oct/Nov 1998.
[RFC2396] Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax,
RFC 2396, T. Berners-Lee, R. Fielding, L. Masinter. Aug. 1998.
[RFC2141] URN Syntax,
RFC 2141, R. Moats. May 1997.
[RFC2168] Resolution of Uniform Resource Identifiers using the Domain Name System,
RFC 2168, R. Daniel, M. Mealling. June 1997.
[URLGUIDE] Guidelines for new URL Schemes,
Internet-Draft, L. Masinter, H.T. Alvestrand, D. Zigmond, R. Petke. November 1998.
[USECASES] Applications list,
Posting to the TV-Web IG, C. Finseth. December 1998. | <urn:uuid:b0dd8a57-c180-4a5a-8cd3-d4b525dd7a04> | 3 | 2.640625 | 0.05184 | en | 0.908192 | http://www.w3.org/TV/TVWeb/TVWeb-URI-Requirements-19990311 |
KFD teams up with local family affected by Addison's Disease
10:33 PM, May 6, 2013 | comments
• Share
• Print
• - A A A +
Thousands of Americans don't have what's known as the "fight or flight" response, the heightened instinct your body gives you in times of stress.
The condition, called Addison's Disease, is an abnormality in which your body's adrenal gland doesn't work to its full capacity, and as a result, your body doesn't get that sense of urgency.
Now, the Knoxville Fire Department is making sure it knows what to do in case of an emergency by teaming up with a local family affected by it.
As part of the campaign, KFD is making sure all of its responders have the proper medication.
"This is a disease that they may encounter while they're responding to an accident or a trauma situation. That way, being aware of it, it helps them to better serve the patients," said Andy Adzima.
Addisonian crises can cause people with the disease to faint or go into a coma when put in a stressful situation. 140,000 Americans suffer from the disease.
Most Watched Videos | <urn:uuid:e46efdef-b1ea-42fb-881a-287cbff6a108> | 2 | 2.34375 | 0.054293 | en | 0.971419 | http://www.wbir.com/news/article/273215/2/KFD-teams-up-with-local-family-affected-by-Addisons-Disease |
Incremental Search
Incremental search forward (isearch-forward).
Incremental search backward (isearch-backward).
C-s starts an incremental search. C-s reads characters from the keyboard and positions the cursor at the first occurrence of the characters that you have typed. If you type C-s and then F, the cursor moves right after the first `F'. Type an O, and see the cursor move to after the first `FO'. After another O, the cursor is after the first `FOO' after the place where you started the search. At each step, the buffer text that matches the search string is highlighted, if the terminal can do that; at each step, the current search string is updated in the echo area.
If you make a mistake in typing the search string, you can cancel characters with DEL. Each DEL cancels the last character of search string. This does not happen until Emacs is ready to read another input character; first it must either find, or fail to find, the character you want to erase. If you do not want to wait for this to happen, use C-g as described below.
When you are satisfied with the place you have reached, you can type RET, which stops searching, leaving the cursor where the search brought it. Also, any command not specially meaningful in searches stops the searching and is then executed. Thus, typing C-a would exit the search and then move to the beginning of the line. RET is necessary only if the next command you want to type is a printing character, DEL, RET, or another control character that is special within searches (C-q, C-w, C-r, C-s, C-y, M-y, M-r, or M-s).
Sometimes you search for `FOO' and find it, but not the one you expected to find. There was a second `FOO' that you forgot about, before the one you were aiming for. In this event, type another C-s to move to the next occurrence of the search string. This can be done any number of times. If you overshoot, you can cancel some C-s characters with DEL.
To reuse earlier search strings, use the search ring. The commands M-p and M-n move through the ring to pick a search string to reuse. These commands leave the selected search ring element in the minibuffer, where you can edit it. Type C-s or C-r to terminate editing the string and search for it.
If your string is not found at all, the echo area says `Failing I-Search'. The cursor is after the place where Emacs found as much of your string as it could. Thus, if you search for `FOOT', and there is no `FOOT', you might see the cursor after the `FOO' in `FOOL'. At this point there are several things you can do. If your string was mistyped, you can rub some of it out and correct it. If you like the place you have found, you can type RET or some other Emacs command to "accept what the search offered." Or you can type C-g, which removes from the search string the characters that could not be found (the `T' in `FOOT'), leaving those that were found (the `FOO' in `FOOT'). A second C-g at that point cancels the search entirely, returning point to where it was when the search started.
An upper-case letter in the search string makes the search case-sensitive. If you delete the upper-case character from the search string, it ceases to have this effect. See section Searching and Case.
If a search is failing and you ask to repeat it by typing another C-s, it starts again from the beginning of the buffer. Repeating a failing reverse search with C-r starts again from the end. This is called wrapping around. `Wrapped' appears in the search prompt once this has happened. If you keep on going past the original starting point of the search, it changes to `Overwrapped', which means that you are revisiting matches that you have already seen.
The C-g "quit" character does special things during searches; just what it does depends on the status of the search. If the search has found what you specified and is waiting for input, C-g cancels the entire search. The cursor moves back to where you started the search. If C-g is typed when there are characters in the search string that have not been found--because Emacs is still searching for them, or because it has failed to find them--then the search string characters which have not been found are discarded from the search string. With them gone, the search is now successful and waiting for more input, so a second C-g will cancel the entire search.
To search for a newline, type C-j. To search for another control character, such as control-S or carriage return, you must quote it by typing C-q first. This function of C-q is analogous to its use for insertion (see section Inserting Text): it causes the following character to be treated the way any "ordinary" character is treated in the same context. You can also specify a character by its octal code: enter C-q followed by a sequence of octal digits.
You can change to searching backwards with C-r. If a search fails because the place you started was too late in the file, you should do this. Repeated C-r keeps looking for more occurrences backwards. A C-s starts going forwards again. C-r in a search can be canceled with DEL.
If you know initially that you want to search backwards, you can use C-r instead of C-s to start the search, because C-r as a key runs a command (isearch-backward) to search backward. A backward search finds matches that are entirely before the starting point, just as a forward search finds matches that begin after it.
The characters C-y and C-w can be used in incremental search to grab text from the buffer into the search string. This makes it convenient to search for another occurrence of text at point. C-w copies the word after point as part of the search string, advancing point over that word. Another C-s to repeat the search will then search for a string including that word. C-y is similar to C-w but copies all the rest of the current line into the search string. Both C-y and C-w convert the text they copy to lower case if the search is currently not case-sensitive; this is so the search remains case-insensitive.
The character M-y copies text from the kill ring into the search string. It uses the same text that C-y as a command would yank. See section Yanking.
When you exit the incremental search, it sets the mark to where point was, before the search. That is convenient for moving back there. In Transient Mark mode, incremental search sets the mark without activating it, and does so only if the mark is not already active.
To customize the special characters that incremental search understands, alter their bindings in the keymap isearch-mode-map. For a list of bindings, look at the documentation of isearch-mode with C-h f isearch-mode RET.
Slow Terminal Incremental Search
Incremental search on a slow terminal uses a modified style of display that is designed to take less time. Instead of redisplaying the buffer at each place the search gets to, it creates a new single-line window and uses that to display the line that the search has found. The single-line window comes into play as soon as point gets outside of the text that is already on the screen.
When you terminate the search, the single-line window is removed. Then Emacs redisplays the window in which the search was done, to show its new position of point.
| <urn:uuid:a18278ea-e7f3-4ccf-96b4-60d2490b888d> | 3 | 3.375 | 0.237661 | en | 0.931288 | http://www.whitman.edu/mathematics/emacs_doc/emacs_81.html |
Edit Article
To balance work and family means to give yourself equally to both areas of your life and not neglect one over the other. Creating this balance does not always come naturally and needs organization and discipline. The benefits of a happy family and a successful career are worth the effort, however. If you are looking for ways to balance work and family, then consider the following ideas.
1. 1
Establish your priorities. Even if you feel that both your work and family are important, you have to decide what takes precedence when both areas of your life need nurturing at one time, thus creating a conflict. You should not have to neglect one to take care of the other, so determine which one is the most pressing at the time. For example, if your child is sick but you have to go to work, you should choose to stay with your child because the sickness is more pressing than a regular day at work. In contrast, preparing for a scheduled meeting should take precedence over a day at the park. Only you can decide what is needed to nurture your work and family. Don't beat yourself up if you find that a work obligation conflicts with a family commitment. Decide which should take precedence by determining the significance of each, and then learn from the experience.
2. Balance Work and Family Step 2.jpg
Create a list of family goals and establish a deadline. This parallels your efforts at work to prioritize your objectives. You have to fulfill your responsibilities at work, but you may not always do the same at home. Families grow so fast that oftentimes we make plans to do things with and for the family, but they never come into fruition. Examples include a trip somewhere or a home improvement project. By writing these goals down and scheduling them, you are committing yourself to doing them. Just make sure that you follow through to aid in achieving work-family balance.
3. Balance Work and Family Step 3.jpg
Revise your calendar to benefit your family as your work obligations change. If you can get more time with your family because work allows it, then take advantage of that. There may be times when work is consuming and you feel as if you are neglecting your family. Just make sure that these moments of imbalance are compensated accordingly and that you regain your family and career balance as soon as possible.
4. Balance Work and Family Step 4.jpg
Develop your time-management abilities so that you are able to give your family their due time. If you organize yourself well, there should be no reason why you cannot give time to your family. Time-management skills also means learning how end your day at work and begin your day at home. This may also mean learning how to say "no" when a work colleague asks you to help on a project that you just cannot fit into your schedule.
5. Balance Work and Family Step 5.jpg
Keep the communication lines open with your spouse, and don't be afraid to voice your concerns about the lack of imbalance between home and work. Accordingly, don't be afraid to listen when your spouse accuses you of the same. Work and home balance should be respected by both parties in order to be successful.
We could really use your help!
Can you tell us about
different ways to get stronger
Can you tell us about
decorating backpacks?
decorating backpacks
how to make your backpack look unique
Can you tell us about
how to use a muzzle to correct nipping
Can you tell us about
skin rashes?
skin rashes
how to treat a skin rash
Thanks for helping! Please tell us everything you know about
Provide Details.
Don't say: Eat more fats.
Article Info
Categories: Creating Life Balance
In other languages:
Español: Cómo mantener un equilibrio entre el trabajo y la familia, Русский: сбалансировать работу и семью, Português: Como Manter um Equilíbrio entre o Trabalho e a Família, Italiano: Come Bilanciare Lavoro e Famiglia
Did this article help you?
Yes No
an Author!
Write an Article | <urn:uuid:8f8328ab-e959-41d1-be82-2572d873223b> | 2 | 2.140625 | 0.064286 | en | 0.941656 | http://www.wikihow.com/Balance-Work-and-Family |
Edit Article
"Should I do this? No, I don't think so. Are you sure? Well, I'm sure if you're sure-" "Who are you talking to?" Uh, oh. You've done it again. You were talking to yourself, and freaked out a passer-by. Have you ever been in this awkward situation? If so, read on.
1. 1
Decide whether or not it is a problem. Only you can decide if it is a problem. If it is a serious problem, you may need therapy to determine what is causing it. Ask yourself these questions:
• Is the first thing someone hears from me is me talking to myself?
• Do people give me weird looks while I'm walking around?
• Have my teachers ever recommended me to the school counselor?
• Is me talking to myself such a big problem that I try to avoid public situations to prevent embarrassment?
2. Stop Talking to Yourself Step 2.jpg
Make conversations with people. Sometimes, the only reason you're talking to yourself is that you have no one else to talk to. But if you make small talk with people frequently, then you should eventually stop talking to yourself.
3. Stop Talking to Yourself Step 3.jpg
Try to keep the conversation inside your head. As soon as you find you are talking to yourself out loud, shut your mouth closed. This way, the conversation should continue on in your head. Press your teeth down on your lips so you cannot open your mouth. This will help dramatically.
4. Stop Talking to Yourself Step 4.jpg
Cut down talking to yourself. Only allow yourself to do it while searching for keys, glasses, change, etc. But be careful with this step, because once you allow yourself to talk out loud, you might start talking to yourself at other times too. Have strict rules to limit your talking, and if you've followed them for a week, do something to reward yourself, i.e. watch a movie, buy candy, etc.
5. Stop Talking to Yourself Step 5.jpg
Listen to music. When on you are on your own or walking somewhere, give your brain something to focus on instead of the subject you are talking to yourself about. If you are wearing headphones and realize you are talking to yourself, maybe people will think the headphones accessorize your cell phone. They will assume you are talking to someone else.
We could really use your help!
Can you tell us about
summer squash?
summer squash
different ways to cook summer squash
Can you tell us about
repairing couches?
repairing couches
how to fix a sagging couch
Can you tell us about
how to care for a Siberian cat
Can you tell us about
youth finance?
youth finance
Thanks for helping! Please tell us everything you know about
Provide Details.
Don't say: Eat more fats.
• Find a good listener if you really need someone to babble to, or talk to your pets. If you really need to talk out loud to someone, there are other options besides yourself!
• Try to think a lot more than you talk. When you find yourself talking out loud, simply become aware that you are doing so.
• If none of the above seems to work, try instead to whistle or hum in place of the compulsion to whisper. This may sound more socially acceptable in certain situations and you won't be playing the risk of giving out personal thoughts and opinions you would deem confidential.
• If you constantly need to remind yourself of things, write lists or leave yourself voicemails instead. That way, you have what you need, but you don't need to repeat things out loud.
• If it is a serious problem, visit a counselor for a diagnosis.
• If talking to yourself is a habit, then instead of talking to yourself in a normal talking voice, whisper instead. That way, less people will notice you. (Caution should be advised if you are trying the whispering tactic. If a passer-by still hears you, you could end up looking much weirder.)
• When you start having conversations with yourself in your head , just stop and ask yourself ; "what the hell am I doing?"Normally having conversations with yourself starts out with day dreaming or just being bored , so keeping yourself busy will help you stay focused.
• Remember that everyone talks to themselves for most of the day (internally) so you probably are no different than anyone else, you just happen to verbalize.
Article Info
Categories: Emotional Conditions
In other languages:
Español: Cómo dejar de hablar contigo mismo, Italiano: Come Smettere di Parlare da Solo, Português: Como Parar de Falar Consigo Mesmo, Русский: прекратить разговаривать с собой
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 252,011 times.
Did this article help you?
Yes No
an Author!
Write an Article | <urn:uuid:a3e55a90-1447-46f2-87d0-56c724c7c87a> | 2 | 2.28125 | 0.066777 | en | 0.931673 | http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Talking-to-Yourself |
In a few short years, fitness has become so much more than just recording how many calories you burn or how many miles you run. There are mobile apps and standalone gadgets that'll monitor your heart rate, how many hours you slept, the number of steps you take at work and so on.
If Facebook tells you everything about what's happening with your friends, RunKeeper wants you to know everything that's going on in your body.
Tucked away in Boston's South End neighbourhood, the 11-person, 3-year-old startup announced this morning that users may now see all their health and fitness data points aggregated together into a Health Graph, an interactive graphical representation of their workouts over time and how they compare to friends in their FitnessFeed, akin to Facebook's News Feed or your standard Twitter stream.
More over, RunKeeper has also released an open API for outside developers to plug into RunKeeper users' feeds, like so many various Twitter clients and Facebook partners. FourSquare, Zeo and Polar are just a few of the launch partners being announced today.
"It became clear that no one was pushing us harder than our community to enable them to get a holistic view of their health in one place," RunKeeper cofounder Jason Jacobs told Wired. "If someone gains 10 pounds, it's not just the food they eat or how much exercise. There are all these different drivers. Who's peeled back the onion to start to understand what those factors are for you as an individual?
"Nobody has ever had all this information in one place before to be able to make sense of it."
The Health Graph and its corresponding API is the result of a 15-month development overseen by Mike Sheeley, RunKeeper's other cofounder. It's an idea that sprung up after RunKeeper partnered up with Withings, which manufactures a $160 Wi-Fi-connected body scale.
"We had started to collect weight and body fat percentage, and as soon as we integrated with Withings, all of our users were saying, 'Well, there's this other scale and there's one for heart rate and so on,'" Sheeley told Wired. "From a technical standpoint, we looked at our database where we were storing all of our data and we knew that if this was going to continue, we had to think about how we should store it, collect it and actually structure it so that it makes sense."
Jacobs sees the Health Graph -- and its inevitable growth from the open API -- as a significant step toward connecting all the relevant health points in your life, from working out to your regular physician checkups.
"You have one Health Graph and when you go to the gym, your program is based on the graph that the trainer can know about you, and then the exercise you do will feed back into the graph," Jacobs said. "When you run a race or when you go to a doctor, same thing."
Latest on | <urn:uuid:152e9cb9-3b47-481b-80ef-7c2b0206a715> | 2 | 1.664063 | 0.104564 | en | 0.970149 | http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-06/08/runkeeper-facebook-of-fitness?page=1 |
What Is Cerebrospinal Fluid?
A spinal fluid analysis may be required for individuals who are suffering from meningitis.
Headache and radiating pain down the neck may occur after a spinal tap.
A buildup of cerebrospinal fluid may cause pressure on the brain and severe headaches.
A medical manometer may be used to measure cerebrospinal fluid pressure.
Cerebrospinal fluid is constantly circulating around the brain and spinal cord to help remove waste.
Article Details
• Written By: Emma Lloyd
• Edited By: A. Joseph
• Last Modified Date: 27 February 2015
• Copyright Protected:
Conjecture Corporation
• Print this Article
Free Widgets for your Site/Blog
Cerebrospinal fluid is a clear fluid that surrounds the brain and provides the organ with protection and support. The fluid is produced and secreted by cells in the brain called ependymal cells. Certain infections and diseases can be diagnosed by testing samples of cerebrospinal fluid.
The fluid is produced in a central section of the brain called the choroid plexus. More than half of the choroid plexus is made up of ependymal cells, arranged in many layers of cells and blood vessels. The cells produce and secrete cerebrospinal fluid, and the fluid flows from the choroid plexus to circulate around the brain and spinal cord.
Cerebrospinal fluid has several functions. First, the fluid provides the brain with buoyancy, which allows the organ to support its own weight without collapsing. Without the fluid, the weight of the brain would prevent it from maintaining a constant blood supply to lower sections. The fluid also provides an important level of protection by acting as a mechanical buffer which prevents the brain and skull from coming into contact. Spinal fluid also helps remove metabolic waste from the brain and spinal cord. The fluid is constantly circulating around the brain and spinal cord, allowing waste to diffuse through the blood-brain barrier and be removed from the body.
Cerebrospinal fluid analysis is carried out to test the fluid for infection and other signs of disease. Healthy fluid is clear, but when bacterial infection is present, the fluid is cloudy and might contain blood. The types of proteins present or absent in the fluid also can provide diagnostic clues. Conditions that might require a spinal fluid analysis include encephalitis, epilepsy, hydrocephalus, meningitis and pituitary tumors.
The most common method for collecting the fluid is via a procedure called a lumbar puncture or spinal tap. The patient lies on his or her side with knees tucked toward the chest or sitting up in a bent-over position. The lower back is cleaned, and an anesthetic is injected into the spine. A fluid collection needle is then inserted into the lower back to collect a sample. After the sample is taken, the site is cleaned again and bandaged.
During this procedure, it is very important that the patient remain still while the fluid is being collected. This is because movement might cause the needle to move and injure the spinal cord. Careful cleaning of the area is important to prevent infection. In addition, the patient should rest for several hours following the procedure, in order to prevent any leakage of spinal fluid.
You might also Like
Discuss this Article
Post 3
@ddljohn-- My sister had this done. It took her six weeks to get the results. The equipment needed to test spinal fluid isn't available at every lab, so don't be surprised if it takes a long time.
What they look for in the cerebrospinal fluid for diagnosis of autoimmune disorders, is antibodies. The same is true when there is an infection. When the body is fighting off infections, or fighting its own tissues due to an immune system disorder, it releases antibodies in the cerebrospinal fluid. They might look for some other substances as well, but I'm not sure what all of them are.
Post 2
@ddljohn-- The most important thing while cerebrospinal fluid collection or the injection of medications into it, is to stay very calm. Just relax and let the medical professionals do their job. If you get stressed out and react, they won't be able to do it properly.
I received epidural while delivering my son. Epidural is a pain reliever and it's injected into the spinal fluid. After they inject it, you have to sit upright so that the fluid doesn't go above your chest. It makes the lower half of the body go numb so that the mother doesn't feel pain while giving birth.
I didn't stress out during the injection at all. It didn't take very long, I felt a pinch during the injection but nothing after that. I was completely awake while delivering my baby and everything went well.
It is a risky procedure to inject medications into the cerebrospinal fluid, but it's also the fastest way to get medication into the system. And many disorders like yours wouldn't be diagnosed as easily if doctors didn't sample this fluid. As far as I know, it's also used to diagnose Alzheimer's, Jacob disease, leukemia and many more.
Post 1
I will have a spinal tap test done in three weeks for testing of multiple sclerosis. I've had a lot of fatigue, stiffness in my muscles and blurry vision lately. My doctor said that these are some symptoms of multiple sclerosis but we won't know for sure until they test my cerebrospinal fluid.
I'm apprehensive about the test. I know that it's a very sensitive test and if something goes wrong it could be bad. I'm trying to stay positive and hope for the best.
Has anyone had a spinal tap test before? Do you know how long it will take to get the results back? And which substances do lab experts check for to differentiate between a normal cerebrospinal fluid and an abnormal one?
I was told that the results would be delivered directly to me, although they didn't tell me a time frame. It might be another week after I get the results until I can show them to my doctor. I'm wondering if I will be able to tell from the results myself if I have multiple sclerosis or not?
Post your comments
Post Anonymously
forgot password? | <urn:uuid:697dc08a-1e05-4abf-9def-fbf1f34b9272> | 4 | 3.625 | 0.022933 | en | 0.952079 | http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-cerebrospinal-fluid.htm |
How to Make Money Online: FAQs
Get all the answers to your pressing money questions
By Sabah Karimi
Photo by: iStockPhotos
Special Offer
Online jobs have opened up a wealth of opportunities for stay-at-home parents, retirees, students and others interested in making a steady income without a formal job. It's now easier than ever to sell products and services through your own Web site, or to provide freelance services where you get paid to write articles, take surveys or post comments on forums. But how many of these "jobs" are legitimate? Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about making money online.
Do I need to share my Social Security number?
Some Web sites will require you to submit your Social Security number to verify your account. This is also necessary for sending you tax forms after you've made more than $600 in any given year. Remember that you still need to pay taxes as an independent contractor, so you can expect to receive a 1099 Miscellaneous Income form.
How do people get paid with online jobs?
Most online job sites and opportunities pay using PayPal, a service that allows you to send and receive payments electronically. There may be some fees involved with each transaction, but this is the most convenient way to get paid; it's the preferred method of payment for most companies that work with independent contractors online.
Do you have to pay a fee to get online jobs?
Legitimate online job opportunities will not require you to pay any fees to get the job. Always remember that you are being hired as an independent contractor to complete a job or task. Companies that require you to pay a fee to access a job bank or become certified to pick up their assignments are likely a scam. Always read the fine print before signing up.
Are "paid forum posting" jobs real?
You'll find a number of Web site owners looking for people to post on various forums. Paid forum posting services can pay you up to 50¢ or more for posting comments or responses in a forum, and participating with the community. As a paid poster, you can make money online by providing this service, but you need to keep up with the conversation and provide real value to the community. This job can be a great fit for you if you're passionate about the topic.
Can you really make money online by taking surveys?
You might have come across job postings for paid surveys; some of these are real, others are just scams. Some of the legitimate paid-survey jobs are available from SurveySavvy and Lightspeed Consumer Panel. Both of these will pay you with incentives, and you can make cash by entering into drawings. You probably won't make a steady income with these, but it's another popular online moneymaking opportunity.
How much money can you make blogging?
There are hundreds of successful bloggers out there, people who are getting paid for writing about their hobbies, ideas and pursuits. However, developing a moneymaking blog does take some time and dedication. Bloggers typically make money from ads that are posted alongside the blog (such as through Google AdSense) or by selling affiliate products for a commission. If you're relatively tech-savvy, or are willing to learn some basic technical skills needed for blogging, you may be able to make a steady income that way.
There are many ways to make money online, but it's important to read all the terms of service of any opportunity so you don't fall for a scam. | <urn:uuid:c24d06fe-b18f-4dbe-aad7-574b90b34f9a> | 2 | 1.59375 | 0.091209 | en | 0.961179 | http://www.womansday.com/life/saving-money/how-to-make-money-online-faqs-76655?src=shelter_footer |
Australia's Karoon discovers oil offshore Brazil
Australia's Karoon discovers oil offshore Brazil
SYDNEY -- Karoon Gas said it discovered oil off the coast of Brazil in a promising start to a three-well exploration campaign. The Kangaroo-1 exploration well, part of a joint venture (JV) with Pacific Rubiales intersected oil columns with a combined length of 25 m. The discovery proved that oil exists in the JV's permits, an encouraging sign for its upcoming Emu and Bilby wells nearby.
Karoon and Pacific Rubiales's five adjoining properties are in much shallower water than recent big discoveries further offshore such as the Tupi field. However, significant commercial discoveries have been made closer to shore. The most notable is the Piracuca oil field just five km northeast of Karoon's blocks.
In a minor setback for Karoon, the underground rock formation targeted by its Santonian well didn't contain any oil. Instead, Karoon discovered oil in the Eocene formation, which lies on top of the Santonian. The well caught the edge of the Eocene, so there could be more oil further up the geological structure. The JV has the option of drilling an appraisal well nearby and further "up dip" to find out if this is the case. The JV plans to meet to decide whether to perform further tests on Kangaroo-1 to assess its commercial potential.
Pacific Rubiales took a 35% stake in four of the exploration blocks last year from Karoon for up to $250 million.
Dow Jones Newswires
Related News ///
Comments ///
comments powered by Disqus | <urn:uuid:725e4112-c98d-4ef3-b95e-c6df85d29cce> | 2 | 1.953125 | 0.044185 | en | 0.945866 | http://www.worldoil.com/news/2013/1/25/australia39s-karoon-discovers-oil-offshore-brazil |
ProtoCorinthian Pottery of Ancient Greece
In the 7th Century BC, there were two main hubs of pottery making in Ancient Greece - Corinth, and Attica (the area surrounding Athens). Other city-states made pottery too but not of the same quality, and during this century, the Corinthians were miles ahead of the Athenians in the quality of their pots (Athens of course catches up and supercedes Corinth in the 6th and 5th centuries BC).
There were two main differences between Corinthian and Athenian pottery of this time - the Athenians favored gigantic pots, they thought the larger the better, and most of their pot-making in the 7th century BC was for funerary pots (where the ashes of the deceased were placed in the pot, and the pot was then buried). The Corinthians by contrast were miniaturists. They made exquisite items for the household, and such was the quality of ProtoCorinthian pottery, it was exported far and wide - examples have turned up in Spain and in North Africa. Part of the reason for this is because the Corinthians founded many of the Greek colonies in the Mediterranean, and the new states traded a lot with the mother city, but a lot of the pottery is found in places with no Greek presence, like Mesopotamia, indicating a vigorous export market.
The other difference between Corinthian and Athenian pots is the color of the clay. Attica is iron-rich and all Athenian pots had a red look to them because of the red clay. Corinthian clay by contrast was creamy, almost white. As a result their pots had a cream look, which had the effect of showing color painting to advantage. So while Athenian pots are red and black (red pot, black glazed figures), with some use of white paint for accents, the ProtoCorinthian pottery is painted with a full range of colors.
The jug shown above dates back to 650BC, and is currently in the British Museum. It is small, and each of the animals depicted on it are no more than an inch high - the painter was producing incredible detail in miniature.
ProtoCorinthian Perfume Bottles
The perfume bottles shown above are just three inches high (in other words, they are much smaller than the picture). The bottle on the left shows the characteristic "dot rosette" that is found so often on ProtoCorinthian pottery (if you look closely, the jug at the top of this page also shows these dot rosettes in the background).
These perfume bottles were found in the graves of their owners (the Greeks tended to bury people with their most treasured possessions, and for many women of the time, this was their perfume bottle. Perfumes in ancient Greece were mainly flower essences preserved in olive oil.
The Chigi Vase
The Chigi Vase is so-called because it was found in 1881, in an Etruscan tomb on the property of Prince Mario Chigi. The Etruscans were the early inhabitants of Italy, occupying what is now Tuscany, and clearly the Corinthians traded with them.
The Chigi vase is unusual, because rather than depict fora and flora, it depicts four scenes which could be taken to be the stages in a young man's life.
The first scene at the bottom of the jug shows a group of unarmed young boys chasing rabbits with the help of their dogs. These are clearly boys trying to learn to hunt small animals with just their enthusiasm and swift legs, they are too young to be allowed weapons by their parents.
The next scene shows a procession of young men riding bareback on horses, but each man also controls a second riderless horse. The third scene shows three youths in a lion hunt, rescuing a fourth youth who is being attacked by the lion. Now Greece didn't have lions, but at this early period in their history (7th century BC) all the civilizations around them depict lions, so they do too (and this practice is echoed in modern times by the Queen of England's arms showing lions too, despite the fact that Britain doesn't have any lions either - the idea that he who controls lions is brave has now been absorbed into most of the world's civilizations, though it originated in Egypt).
The fourth scene (shown in the detail in the image above), shows two groups of warriors facing each other, with a flute player on the left.
The vase is about maleness in ancient Greece, with boys graduating from chasing rabbits, to defending themselves from wild animals, to going to war.
The Chigi vase is important because it's one of the earliest instances of Greeks starting to use pots to tell stories, rather than just depict random images and decoration on them.
Early Corithian Pottery and Corinthian Pottery
As the 7th century BC draws to a close, ProtoCorinthian pottery gives way to Early Corinthian Pottery (late 7th C BC) and Corinthian Pottery (6th century BC) - the names have been given by archaeologists to mark a timeline, with Proto-Corinthian being the earliest pottery made in Corinth.
Sadly, the Early Corinthian and Corinthian pottery just isn't of the same quality as Proto-Corinthian pottery. The later generations of Corinthian potters get lazy and sloppy. Where the ProtoCorinthian potters would carefully paint dozens of images, all to scale, on their tiny jugs, the Early Corinthians stretch out their images to fill the pot, to save themselves from extra work in doing extra drawings.
It culminates in the type of perfume bottles seen above, where instead of perfectly scaled figures, the artist has produced one bloated weird figure that covers the pot, simply because he wants to save himself the trouble of sketching more than one image on the bottle. The delicate dot rosettes are replaced with coarser "blob rosettes" simply because they are easier to fill the space.
But while the Corinthian potters are declining in quality, across the straits of Corinth the city state of Athens is stepping up a gear, and will go on to dominate high quality pottery in the 6th and 5th centuries BC.
Anonymous on said:
I would like to use some of this information in an essay I am writing. Would you please let me know the source of this material or how I may source this information. Thank you.
40 leaves
35 forum posts
Rose on said:
My source is my old university notes plus one of my old university textbooks by Wiliam Samuel Hart who wrote "The Relationship of Proto-Corinthian to Proto-Attic Pottery" I think it's out of print now though, but you might be able to find it in a library. I've added a link in the article above to a book on Amazon which might help you - "Greek Painted Pottery" by R M Cook - it's pretty comprehensive and covers pottery styles from all over ancient Greece from the earliest periods, (proto geometric), including Proto Corinthian, and onto 5th C BC black figure and red-figure pottery from Attica, Boetia and Etruria. Hope this helps!
Add new comment | <urn:uuid:fd850354-1e74-4e9f-b93c-db1654d43b84> | 3 | 3.453125 | 0.045929 | en | 0.970767 | http://www.zujava.com/protocorinthian-pottery-of-ancient-greece |
Andy Crouch on Occupying vs Marching
Occupying a park is very different from, say, marching down a street. A march has a destination and a goal, passing through space and time and then disbanding, leaving space before and after for others to flow into. And because marches flow through space and time, they can grow, including more and more people in their train; they can ebb and adjust to the shape and capacity of the spaces they pass through, and (unless marred by opportunistic or deliberate violence) they can coexist with other uses of space in ways that an “occupation” cannot. To “occupy” a space is to completely master and dominate its use, and to do so in a way that cannot easily scale or grow beyond that space’s fixed capacity… Such a context is zero-sum – two people, or two groups, cannot “occupy” the same space in the way that they can join together in one march. To march is to embody hope – hope that others will join, that a momentary demonstration can lead to enduring change, that there is a symbolic goal we are moving toward. To occupy is to take a much grimmer view, planting oneself in determined and static resistance to implacable forces on the other side, and to hope that one’s cause will triumph in a kind of metastasis, driving out the others.
-Andy Crouch, Playing God (2013). I’m just a few chapters in, but so far this book is proving insightful, readable, and very helpful.
One comment
1. Pingback: Andy Crouch on Occupying vs Marching |
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s | <urn:uuid:e44acd2a-7a4a-43a2-aaa1-9c84b2ba1fd5> | 2 | 2.0625 | 0.027314 | en | 0.918722 | https://davidswanson.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/andy-crouch-on-occupying-vs-marching/ |
Analysis of Dulce est Decorum est
The title ‘Dulce est Decorum est’ means, ‘How sweet and fitting it is to die’, so merely by just looking at the title it tells is that this is a poem about death. The title is written in Latin which makes the poem sound very old but powerful at the same time as Latin is a powerful language till today.
The poem is very powerful and it conveys the same message throughout, ‘War is devastating’, and this gives the readers the exact feeling that the poet wanted us to have. The poet uses powerful devices like similes, metaphors and most of all very strong imagery to convey the sense of hopelessness and loss. The 1st line grabs and pulls the reader in the poem. The poet uses simile in the first line ‘like old beggars under sack’ which shows that the soldiers had been fighting so much that they had become like beggars who hadn’t slept for days. The strong use of figurative language shows a clear image of the poet’s emotions. In line two, when he says, ‘Coughing like hags…’ it shows us that poet was very angry, frustrated but at the same time sad and depressed because his heart went out to the soldiers. The word ‘trudge’ in line four shows us how tired and hungry the soldiers were as they weren’t running but trudging as though they were using up all the time they had and walking really slowly because they knew that once they entered the war, there would be no turning back. ‘Men marched asleep…’ these three words create a very powerful image in our mind and gives rise to very intense emotions. The line, ‘Drunk with fatigue, deaf even to the hoots’, tells us that the soldiers had been fighting for so long that they were so tired and had no idea what was going on, They were fighting just for the sake of it. They also had heard so much noise that they were so used to it they couldn’t even hear the hoots.
The poet describes the droppings of gas-shells as ‘softly’ which tells us that here was no way of surviving from them as you wouldn’t even hear them coming. In line 7, he says ‘deaf even to the hoots’ but in line 8 he says ‘Gas! Gas! Quick boys!’ and then he says there was an ‘ecstasy of fumbling’ which tells us how disturbingly the soldiers had got up from their sleep and were fumbling to put on their masks, in order to save themselves from the gas. The phrase ‘ecstasy of fumbling’ is also an oxymoron as it shows us the intense fumbling that the soldiers were doing as if they were still very young and in ecstasy, but here it portrayed the opposite. The author uses ‘floundering like a man in fire…’ which shows how much the soldiers were confused and just dragging themselves in hopes that the war would get over soon. The poet shows us that they didn’t have time when he says ‘the wagon we flung him in’ which tells us that there wasn’t a single moment to lose as they didn’t even have time to put their fellow soldier’s body properly and had to just fling it in.
The use of words such as ‘guttering’, ‘choking’, ‘drowning’ arise such ghastly images in our mind that it is painful to even think about it. The description of the face of the man is very vivid, ‘white eyes withering in his face’ and ‘his face like a devil’s sick of sin’ which shows how bad the war was and dying was not at all sweet and fitting. The phrase ‘of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues’ tells us how the wounds made by the war, mentally not physically were so ugly that they were incurable and these innocent people did not need to see all of this.
In the third last line he addresses the reader himself almost as if saying very sadly and giving us advice that the ‘Old lie – How sweet and fitting it is to die for our country’ is nothing but an old lie which only brings more and more deaths to the country. The whole poem also emphasizes the stark contrast of the poem with the title, as it is not at all sweet to die in such a way.
All in all this poem gives us a very realistic idea of what war is and describes it very clearly stating that war brings devastation, frustration and sadness for many years to come, and that this bruise can never be cured no matter what you do.
2 thoughts on “Analysis of Dulce est Decorum est
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s | <urn:uuid:fa19af82-3107-48bd-b2fb-b3bb6e003895> | 3 | 3.0625 | 0.142289 | en | 0.982827 | https://elixirofmemories.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/analysis-of-dulce-est-decorum-est/ |
Japan making cell phones easier
Techno-geeks may not realize it but there are a lot of people that are overwhelmed and intimidated by technology. Cellphones are particularly bewildering to neophytes, especially now that most phones can do email, IM and even play MP3 music files. To help ease these users into using the technology several Japanese companies have been working on systems that makes it very simple to access some of the more advanced features of cellphones.
NEC has developed a system that lets the inquiring user speak a question into the phone, such as "how can I send an email" or "how can I turn off the speakerphone". The user query goes to the phone carrier where a customer service system has thousands of problems and questions stored. The system will determine the correct answer and the proper instructions are displayed on the user’s phone screen. NEC says this system is almost ready for deployment. Fujitsu has produced a system for the Foma cellphone service that gives step by step instructions on the phone screen for common functions, like sending an email.
These systems are designed to remove the intimidation factor and entice timid users into taking full advantage of the advanced services offered by the phone carriers.
(via Asahi)
Comments have been disabled for this post | <urn:uuid:40ac63c2-0279-4c6a-88d0-b23607d02478> | 2 | 2.0625 | 0.044451 | en | 0.943283 | https://gigaom.com/2004/11/20/japan_making_ce/ |
JavaScript Articles
Sort by:
1. JAL – Just Another Loader for JavaScript
A long time ago I saw the film "Interview with the vampire" starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst. The scene that struck me the most is when Pitt's character realizes that Lestat is using him in order to adapt to the current age. For a developer this is not a very bad rule. In fact it is actually quite good. If you want to keep up and stay on top, follow the bleeding edge, experiment and copy what others are doing. Reverse engineering and reinventing the wheel is a bliss. Apply this to open source and we – developers, hackers, designers – have a wide array of tools at our hands. Just think of "View Source" in the Web Browsers. Without it we wouldn't be where we are today. Copying is learning. Inventing is impossible without standing on the shoulders of our predecessors.
The company where I work, Tail-f Systems has just recently open sourced a small JavaScript library called JAL, which is an acronym for Just Another Loader. This is an infant project, it lacks certain features but does the job and does it well. It is, as the name implies, a tool for parallel conditional dependency loading of resource files. We use it in our Web UI for loading scripts and CSS files. It is there for one reason only: To speed things up!
We tested YepNope, which is a great loader, but felt it could be faster. It also had features we didn't really need. So we wrote our own. We reinvented the wheel. How hard could it be? Well, it was pretty hard.
What we needed was a resource loader that could load, not only JavaScript but stylesheets as well. It also needed to be able to load resources in parallel and in groups to handle dependencies, such as loading jQuery before loading a jQuery plugin. The final requirement was conditional loading, i.e. load JSON.js if the browser is lacking native JSON support.
Parallel dependency loading
A typical setup looks something like this:
, 'js/rectangle.js'
.ready(function() {
// Start app
There are three dependency groups set up. The first one loads a shape. The second loads a circle and a rectangle, which are dependent on shape. The last group contains a square which is derived from a rectangle. In this trivial example, the speedup happens in the second group since the circle and the rectangle are loaded in parallel. Now, imagine you have a large number of scripts with different dependencies in your application. The traditional way is to concatenate all the scripts into one large bundle and then minify that bundle. What you are actually doing is that you are loading your scripts the old fashioned way, one after another. Modern browser are capable of loading scripts and resources in parallel. They actually open up multiple connections to a web server and load multiple resources all at the same time. So if you have a script that takes, say, 5 seconds to load and you break that into 5 pieces and load the pieces in parallel the loading time becomes, theoretically, 1 second. That is five times faster than before!
Conditional loading
Now to conditional loading. Conditional loading is where you load a resource if a certain condition is met. Does the browser have native JSON support? No? Well, we'll fix that! Here's an example of loading a JSON polyfill:
.when(typeof window.JSON === 'undefined', function(loader) {
Done is done
Once a resource group has loaded, JAL allows you execute code. Here is an example where the "ready" event in jQuery is halted until all scripts have loaded.
// Stop jQuery from triggering the "ready" event
, 'js/script-two.min.js'
.ready(function() {
// Allow jQuery to trigger the "ready" event
// Start app
How it was done
Writing JAL was both challenging and fun. The most difficult part was to make sure that the load order was respected between the groups. This was tricky since things were happening fast and there was a big performance difference between the browsers.
JAL was implemented using a resource queue and a polling function. The queue is locked until a resource group has been loaded. Once loaded the "done" event is fired. This allows you to inject one or more resource groups to the front of the queue, if you ever need that. After the "done" event has been triggered the queue is unlocked and the poller is free to load the next resource group.
The poller itself is started once the loader sequence has been executed. This is done by pushing the poller to the top of the script stack using setTimeout with a timeout of 0 milliseconds. It's a classic example of how the single threaded model of a web browser’s JavaScript engine can be used.
Closing words
Do you have a large concatenated JavaScript file? Is it minified and gzipped? Is it loading fast? Do you want faster? Then minify and gzip your resource files individually and use a conditional parallel dependency loader instead.
2. The making of a hack – Media Query Mario
Where to start?
Push any button to start
.startBtn {
Letsa Go!
Animation Properties
animation-name: mario-jump;
animation-duration: 500ms;
animation-timing-function: ease-in-out;
animation-delay: 0s;
//how many times the animation should execute
animation-iteration-count: 1;
animation-fill-mode: forwards;
@keyframes mario-move {
from { left:0px; }
to { left:200px; }
@keyframes mario-jump-sequence {
0% { bottom:30px; left: 445px; }
20% { bottom:171px; left: 520px; }
30% { bottom:138px; left: 544px; }
32% { bottom:138px; left: 544px; }
47% { bottom:228px; left: 550px; }
62% { bottom:138px; left: 550px; }
64% { bottom:138px; left: 550px; }
76% { bottom:233px; left: 580px; }
80% { bottom:253px; left: 590px; }
84% { bottom:273px; left: 585px; }
90% { bottom:293px; left: 570px; }
100% { bottom:293px; left: 570px; }
Animating the action
.mario {
animation-timing-function: step-end;
//the animation repeats 5 times
animation-iteration-count: 5;
//the animation repeats infinitely
animation-iteration-count: infinite;
Adding Audio
function createAudio (audioFile, loopSet) {
var tempAudio = new Audio();
var audioExt;
//based on the previous detection set our supported format extension
if (canPlayMP3) {
audioExt = '.mp3';
} else if (canPlayOgg) {
audioExt = '.ogg';
//set whether the sound file would loop or not
//looping was used for the animations background music
return tempAudio;
mario.addEventListener('animationstart', marioEventListener);
function marioEventListener(e) {
Game Complete
3. JavaScript Style Badge – Your JS Signature
I recently launched a new hobby website of mine: The purpose of this page is simple: after filling out a JS-related questionnaire, users are awarded by a small fingerprint of their answers (somewhat similar to the Geek Code). It is possible to use the generated badge as an e-mail signature or to impress your friends. There is a second purpose for this web as well: measuring and gathering of selected answers, which allows for some neat comparison and usage statistics.
This article explains some design decisions and implementation techniques used during the development of the JS Style Badge.
Page navigation
My goal was to design a website which does not reload, but keep the amount of necessary JS code at an absolute minimum. Fortunately, there is a pretty neat way to do this in pure HTML+CSS. We use semantic HTML5, naturally, and give the page a proper <nav> section with local anchor links:
<li><a href="#page1">To page 1</li>
<li><a href="#page2">To page 2</li>
<li><a href="#page3">To page 3</li>
<section id="page1">...</section>
<section id="page2">...</section>
<section id="page3">...</section>
Then, a tiny CSS one-liner (with the crucial :target pseudoclass) kicks in:
section[id]:not(:target) { display: none; }
And voilà – we have a working cross-page navigation with full browser history support.
Questions and their Answers
All the questions and their potential answers are defined in a separate file, def.js. This allows for easy maintenance of the questionnaire.
It is necessary to assign some IDs to questions (these need to be immutable and unique) and answers (immutable and unique within one question). These IDs are used to:
• Guarantee fixed question ordering in the generated data (even if the visual ordering of question changes)
• Guarantee the chosen answer, even if its textation or order changes
• Represent the color and/or character in the generated image/ascii
As an example, the question “Semicolons” has an ID of “;” – this makes it the fifth question in the resulting fingerprint (IDs are sorted lexicographically). Its answer “sometimes” has an ID of “=“, to be used in the ASCII signature. This answer is third (sorted by IDs), which corresponds to a blue color in the answer palette (to be used in the <canvas> image).
Results: ASCII and <canvas>
When the questionnaire is complete, we need to generate the resulting badge. Actually, three different things need to be generated: image version, ASCII version and the URL, which is used as a permalink.
This is the most straightforward task: take a HTML5 <canvas>, fill it with a proper background color, render a “JS” at the right bottom corner. (Remark: the official JS logo is not drawn with a font; it is a purely geometric shape. I decided to go with Arial, as it is relatively similar.)
Individual answers are represented by small colored squares. Their order is given by the sort order of question IDs; in the image, the ordering goes like this:
0 2 5 9
1 4 8
3 7
…and so on. Converting the answer index to a pair of [x, y] coordinates is a simple mathematical exercise. We pick the square color from a fixed palette, based on the sort order of the picked answer. When the user skipped a question, we leave the corresponding square transparent.
Textual version corresponds to the image version, but instead of colored squares, answer IDs are used to visualize the output. The whole signature is rendered into a <textarea> element; there is a tiny bit of JS which “selects all” when the area is clicked.
I spent some time looking for an optimal styling of a <textarea>: with a proper width/height ratio, aesthetic font and a reasonable line height. The optimal solution for me is the Droid Sans Mono typeface, implemented using the CSS @font-face.
We want the generated permalinks to be truly permanent: invariant to question/answer textation or ordering. To achieve this, a simple algorithm encodes the picked answers:
1. Sort questions by their IDs
2. For every question, take the user’s answer. If the question was not answered, output “-“
3. If the question was answered, take that answer’s ID and get its unicode code points
4. Answers use IDs from unicode range 32..127. Subtract 32 and left-pad with zero to generate a value from “00” to “99”
5. Concatenate these values and/or hyphens (for empty questions)
The resulting “hash” does not need to be URL encoded, as it consists solely of numbers.
Sharing is caring
I decided to include links to three popular sharing services. They all expose a sharing API, but not all of them expect you to build their sharing UIs via JavaScript calls. Let’s have a look:
• Google Plus button is the most straightforward: after including the JS API file, it is sufficient to call the gapi.plusone.render function. Two minor caveats:
1. Make sure the button’s container is appended in the page when your render into it.
2. The resulting button is hard to align perfectly; some !important CSS tweaks were necessary.
• Twitter does not expect you to build stuff on the fly. It is necessary to create a hyperlink, fill it with data-* attributes and append the Twitter JS API to the page.
• Finally, the LinkedIn share button is very peculiar: once their sharing API is loaded, it is necessary to create a <script> node with a type of IN/Share, enrich it with proper attributes, append to page and call IN.parse().
I had some fun time writing this tiny service; so far, over 1400 signatures were generated by users. As this number grows bigger, more and more interesting JS usage patterns emerge in the usage statistics. If you have not done it so far, go ahead and generate your own JS Style Badge!
4. The Web Developer Toolbox: Backbone
Basic usage
The Model objects
The Collection objects
The View objects
The Router objects
Getting started or Digging into it
Limits and precautions
5. Creating the future of mobile with Firefox OS – resources, docs and more!
Just under a month ago I wrote a personal post about my thoughts on Firefox OS and why I think there is something ‘magical’ about what it stands for and the possibilities it brings to the table. This post is a follow-up that aims to cover much of the same ground but with extra detail and more of a technical focus.
What is Firefox OS?
In short, Firefox OS is about taking the technologies behind the Web, like JavaScript, and using them to produce an entire mobile operating system. It’s effectively a mobile OS powered by JavaScript!
Firefox OS screenshots
This is achieved with a custom version of Gecko, the rendering engine in Firefox, that introduces a variety of new JavaScript APIs needed to create a phone-like experience; things like WebSMS to send text messages, and WebTelephony to make phone calls.
You might be wondering what’s running Gecko, as a phone can’t naturally boot directly into Gecko. To do that, the phone boots into a very lightweight Linux kernel that, in turn, boots the Gecko process. The process is a little more involved than that and much more detail can be found in the B2G Architecture documentation, including how Gecko accesses the radio hardware and other phone-specific functionality.
The Firefox OS project also aims to combine many of the other projects at Mozilla into a single vision, what we refer to as the Web as the platform. These projects include the Open Web Apps initiative and Persona, our solution to identity and logins on the Web (formally known as BrowserID). It’s the combination of these various technologies that completes Firefox OS.
If you want to find out more technical information about the OS then definitely check out the Firefox OS pages on MDN.
Why Firefox OS?
A couple of common questions that come up are, “Why Firefox OS?” and more specifically, “Why build a mobile OS using JavaScript?” These are incredibly important questions so let’s take a moment to delve into them in a little detail.
Why build a mobile OS using JavaScript?
Answering this question can quite simply be boiled down to one sentence; because it’s possible. It’s not the one and only answer but it succinctly handles most of the arguments against JavaScript being used in this way.
A longer answer is that a JavaScript-powered OS unlocks a whole range of possibilities that aren’t normally or easily available to developers and users with existing operating systems.
The most obvious of the possibilities is the ability to build applications using the technologies that we already use to build websites; namely JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. While not a truly unique feature of Firefox OS — projects like PhoneGap have done this for years on ‘native’ platforms — it allows developers everywhere to create mobile applications without having to learn native languages and APIs.
Another draw of JavaScript is that it’s both extremely well documented and free to develop with. Anyone could sit down for a weekend and put together an application without having to pay for a single thing. Obviously that’s not true in the majority of cases, as people tend to buy their own hosting or tooling, but theoretically there is nothing to stop you building with these technologies for free.
What’s arguably most interesting about JavaScript being used in this way is that it inherently enables physical devices to communicate using the same APIs that we already use on websites. In effect, instead of accessing the Web through a mobile browser the entire phone is now capable of accessing and communicating with any Web API. For example, there is nothing to stop you building an application for Firefox OS that uses WebRTC (once added) to create Skype-like P2P video communication between phones, desktop computers, or anything else that supports WebRTC.
This really only scrapes the surface of “Why JavaScript?” but it certainly gives you a feel of how this is both interesting and important, beyond the tired debate of ‘native’ vs. Web. If you’re still not convinced, just think for a moment about how you can now customise an entire mobile OS using nothing by JavaScript. You’d be hard pushed to deny that it’s pretty darn interesting!
OK, but why Firefox OS?
Effectively, Firefox OS has been built to put our money where our mouth is (so to speak) and prove that JavaScript is capable of doing what we say it can do. However, there is much more to the project than just proving the the technology is fast enough.
The first reason ‘Why Firefox OS’ is that the mobile ecosystem is overrun with proprietary platforms, most of which prevent you from easily moving between various platforms. What Firefox OS aims to achieve is a truly ‘open’ platform that doesn’t lock you in and inherently makes it as easy and possible to move between devices as and when you choose.
Mozilla is effectively replicating its success with Firefox, in which it stormed the browser market and showed users that there is an alternative, one that lets them be in control of how they use the Web. In this case, it’s less about browsers and more about mobile platforms and application portability.
Another reason is that Firefox OS is an attempt to push the Web forward into the world of physical devices. One direct benefit of this is the addition of brand new Web standards and APIs that allow for things like hardware access using JavaScript.
Plenty of challenges
It’s fair to say that the Firefox OS journey will contain a number of technical challenges along the way, however that’s part of the fun and the reasons why we’re working on it.
One of those challenges is how to manage an apps ecosystem that is open and distributed. This is something that we are tackling with the Open Web Apps initiative and the Mozilla Marketplace. It’s a challenge that we are dealing with as things progress and as we learn more about how things work best, as is the nature with new ways of thinking.
Another of the challenges is making sure that the phone runs as fast as possible, creating the best experience possible. This also relates to questions raised within the developer community around the performance capabilities of JavaScript, particularly when it is used to do things that are perceived to be complex, or when it is compared against ‘native’ technologies. This is a challenge that we are taking very seriously and one which we feel we can overcome. In fact, it’s a challenge that I believe we have already overcome.
One prime example of how capable JavaScript has become is seeing beautiful JavaScript games running in Firefox OS at near-enough 60 frames per-second, on a low-end, cheap phone.
Beyond the mobile phone
While the phone aspect of Firefox OS is immediately interesting, you should consider the wider implications of a JavaScript OS and what possibilities it unlocks. For example, what other devices could benefit from being powered by JavaScript? And, what would a network of JavaScript-powered devices allow us to do — things like Ubiquitous Computing, perhaps?
These aren’t things that we are exploring directly at Mozilla, but they are things that are now inherently possible as a result of the work that we’re doing. There is nothing to stop you taking the Firefox OS source code from GitHub and porting it to a device that we’ve never even considered.
We’re already starting to see this happen with examples like a Firefox OS port for the Raspberry Pi, as well as another for the Pandaboard.
What about a game console powered by Firefox OS? A TV, or set-top box? What about a fridge? Individually, these are all interesting projects, but together they offer something we don’t really have at the moment, a network of different devices powered by the same, open technologies and able to access and communicate across the Web with the same APIs.
We are a long way away from that kind of world but it is projects like Firefox OS that may pave the way for it to happen. You could even be a part of it!
Getting started with Firefox OS
The hope is that by now you’re sufficiently interested in Firefox OS to begin exploring, experimenting and playing with it. The good news is that there are a whole host of ways that you can do that.
One of the first places to start is the MDN documentation surrounding Firefox OS and its related technologies. This is where you’ll find everything you need to know about the developer-facing aspects of the platform.
If you’re more interested with the inner-workings of the platform then you’ll want to cast an eye over the B2G wiki, which outlines much of the internals in plenty of detail.
Source code
If you’re keen to get to grips with the source code of Firefox OS then you’ll want to head over to GitHub and check it out. The two main repositories that you want are ‘b2g’ (the underlying Gecko engine) and ‘gaia’ (everything you can see, the OS).
Getting involved
There are a few ways to get involved with the project. You could check out some of the issues and get involved in fixing them, or perhaps just hang out in the mailing list for B2G, or the one for Gaia, and take part in the discussions there.
If you just want to ask a few immediate questions then try out the #b2g and #gaia rooms on We’re all pretty friendly!
Development options
If you just want to dig in and make some applications, or perhaps customise the OS, then you’ll need to know about the various development options available to you. They are covered in some detail on MDN but here is a brief overview.
The simplest method to get started is running Gaia (the visual side of Firefox OS) within Firefox Nightly. This doesn’t give you a true representation of a phone environment but it will allow you to install applications and use all of the developer tools within the browser that you’re already used to.
Slightly more involved than Nightly is using the desktop B2G client. This is effectively a chromeless build of Firefox that looks phone-like has some added APIs that aren’t normally available in standard Firefox. This doesn’t replicate phone hardware but it’s the next best thing before starting to develop on an actual device.
Setting up the desktop B2G client isn’t too hard, but it could be made easier. In the meantime, projects like r2d2b2g aim to make the process super simple. Definitely worth checking out.
The last method, and arguably the most important one, is developing on an actual Firefox OS device. This is the only method that will give you a true representation of how your application will perform. It is also the only method that will give you access to the all the new APIs that come with Firefox OS.
Right now, you’ll need to build and install Firefox OS on one of the supported devices. In the future you will be able to skip this step and get access to devices that already run Firefox OS. We don’t have any dates for that just yet.
Go forth and be part of something big
My hope is that by now you should now have enough inspiration and information to go forth and begin building for this new platform, powered by the technologies you already use. We hope you do and we’d love to see what you come up with.
It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to be a part of something that could quite literally change the way we do things.
6. HTML5 in Sao Paulo, Brazil – the bootleg recordings
It is always nice to have the opportunity to get to travel and meet developers in various communities in the world: to understand their context, challenges and interests!
In April I was in South America, and part of that included giving two talks at a MDN Hack Day (well, evening) in Sao Paulo in Brazil. They were filmed with a handcam from front row by Laura Loenert, but I do believe that the videos with sound, combined with the slides, can prove to be useful for sharing – see them as the bootleg version. :-)
Besides, I prefer that we share what we have – even though it might be rough – than having a lot of material that never gets out there.
So, I hope you will enjoy these:
HTML5, The Open Web, and what it means for you
(If you’ve opted in to HTML5 video on YouTube you will get that, otherwise it will fallback to Flash)
HTML5, The Open Web, and what it means for you – MDN Hack Day, Sao Paulo from Robert Nyman
JavaScript APIs – The Web is the Platform
This talk is similar to the The Web is the Platform presentation at the .toster conference, but a couple of other bits, including a look at Mozilla Collusion.
JavaScript APIs – The Web is the Platform – MDN Hack Day, Sao Paulo from Robert Nyman
7. No Single Benchmark for the Web
Benchmarking black boxes
Is Mandreel representative of the web?
Performance of generated code is highly variable
Box2DWeb is not the best port of Box2D
8. The Web Developer Toolbox: Modernizr
This is the third in a series of articles dedicated to useful libraries that all web developers should have in their toolbox. The intent is to show you what those libraries can do and help you to use them at their best. This third article is dedicated to the Modernizr library.
Modernizer is a library originally written by Faruk Ateş.
It is one of the key libraries for building cross-browser websites or applications in a modern fashion. The heart of the library is the web design pattern known as Progressive enhancement & Graceful degradation. This design pattern does not require Modernizr, but Modernizr can make things a lot easier. It detects the availability of native implementations for next-generation web technologies such as HTML5 or CSS3 and allow you to adapt your application accordingly, which is way better than trying some ugly voodoo user-agent sniffing.
Basic usage
Using this library is amazingly simple: Download it, link it to your pages—you’re done!
Modernizr will automatically add some CSS classes to the root html element. For example if you want to test Web Sockets support, it will add a websockets class to the html element if the browser supports that feature, otherwise it will add the no-websockets class. It will do the same with JavaScript by adding a global variable Modernizr.websocket with a boolean value.
Let’s see a simple example: Doing some stuff with RGBa colors.
First: Download a customized version of Modernizr
Modernizr, download page.
Second: Link it to your document
<!DOCTYPE html>
The "no-js" class is here as a fallback.
If Modernizr is not running, you'll know
something is wrong and you will be able to act
accordingly. In contrast, if everything goes well,
Modernizr will remove that special class.
<html class="no-js">
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>I want to do stuff with RGBa</title>
<script src="modernizr.js"></script>
Third: Use it
With CSS
.rgba div {
/* Do things with CSS for browsers that support RGBa colors */
.no-rgba div {
/* Do things with CSS for browsers that DO NOT support RGBa colors */
With JavaScript
if(Modernizr.rgba) {
// Do things with JS for browsers that support RGBa colors
} else {
// Do things with JS for browsers that DO NOT support RGBa colors
Let’s see this silly example in action:
Advanced usage
The basic usage is already awesome when you have to deal with a heterogeneous environment (such as mobile browsers for example), but there’s more.
Conditional loading
Modernizr offers a convenient way to do conditional loading. Actually, the YepNope library is a standalone spin-off of the Modernizr project. So, if you wish, you can bundled YepNope directly inside Modernizr. It’s perfect if you want to load based polyfills depending on specific browser capacity.
test: Modernizr.indexeddb,
nope: "indexeddb-polyfill.js"
This is a very powerful tool: do not hesitate to read the documentation. Note that the Modernizr team maintain a list of very accurate polyfills. Feel free to use whatever you need (with caution, of course).
Custom tests
Modernizr come with a set of 44 tests for mainstream technologies. If you need to test some other technologies, Modernizr provide an API to build and plug your own tests.
// Let's test the native JSON support ourselves
Modernizr.addTest('json', function(){
return window.JSON
&& window.JSON.parse
&& typeof window.JSON.parse === 'function'
&& window.JSON.stringify
&& typeof window.JSON.stringify === 'function';
Assuming the above test passes, there will be now a json class on the HTML element and Modernizr.json will be true. Otherwise, there will be a no-json class on the HTML element and Modernizr.json will be false.
Dealing with CSS prefix
CSS prefixes is a very sensitive subject. Modernizr provides cross-browser code to take care of this issue. Modernizr offers a very useful tool to deal with this: Modernizr.prefixed(). This method works with CSS properties (in the CSS OM camelCase style) as well as with DOM properties.
For example, Modernizr.prefixed("transition") will return “MozTransition” with Firefox but “WebkitTransition” with Safari and Chrome.
Testing media-queries
There is currently no simple way to test a media query from JS in any browser. To help with that, Modernizr has a special tool: This method will test the media query of your choice and will return true or false accordingly.
if("screen and (max-width: 400px)")) {
// Do some stuff for small screens
Limits and precautions
This library is a fantastic tool but it’s not magic. You should use it with caution and do not forget about other techniques to deal with unpredictable behaviors. For example, do not forget to rely on the CSS cascade when it’s sufficient.
The following example is a huge misuse of Modernizr:
div {
color : white;
.rgba div {
background : rgba(0,0,0,.8);
.no-rgba div {
background : #333;
If for some reason Modernizr is not executed, your text will not be readable (white text over a white background). In this specific case, you are better doing the following (which, by the way, is also easier to read and maintain):
div {
color : white;
background : #333;
background : rgba(0,0,0,.8);
So, don’t be blind when you use this library, take the time to think about what will happen if Modernizr is not available. In many case you have existing fallbacks, don’t forget to use them.
Modernizr is the most useful tool when you have to build large cross-browser stuff, from the oldest Internet Explorer 6 to the latest Firefox Nightly. Once you master it, you will be able to add some magic to your sites and applications. However, as with all the powerful tools, it takes some time to become comfortable with and to use it wisely at its full potential. But, Modernizr is definitely worth the effort.
9. The Web Developer Toolbox: ThreeJS
This is the second of a series of articles dedicated to the useful libraries that all web developers should have in their toolbox. The intent is to show you what those libraries can do and help you to use them at their best. This second article is dedicated to the ThreeJS library.
ThreeJS is a library originally written by Ricardo Cabello Miguel aka “Mr. Doob“.
This library makes WebGL accessible to common human beings. WebGL is a powerful API to manipulate 3D environments. This web technology is standardized by the Kronos group and Firefox, Chrome and Opera now implement it as a 3D context for the HTML canvas tag. WebGL is basically a web version of another standard : OpenGL ES 2.0. As a consequence, this API is a “low level” API that require skills and knowledge beyond what web designers are used to. That’s where ThreeJS comes into play. ThreeJS gives web developers access to the power of WebGL without all the knowledge required by the underlying API.
Basic usage
The library has good documentation with many examples. You’ll notice that some parts of the documentation are not complete yet (feel free to help). However, the library and examples source code are very well structured, so do not hesitate to read the source.
Even though ThreeJS simplifies many things, you still have to be comfortable with some basic 3D concepts. Basically, ThreeJS uses the following concepts:
1. The scene: the place where all 3D objects will be placed and manipulated in a 3D space.
2. The camera: a special 3D object that will define the rendering point of view as well as the type of spatial rendering (perspective or isometric)
3. The renderer: the object in charge of using the scene and the camera to render your 3D image.
Within the scene, you will have several 3D objects which can be of the following types:
• A mesh: A mesh is an object made of a geometry (the shape of your object) and a material (its colors and texture)
• A light point: A special object that defines a light source to highlight all your meshes.
• A camera, as described above.
The following example will draw a simple wireframe sphere inside an HTML element with the id “myPlanet”.
* First, let's prepare some context
// The WIDTH of the scene to render
var __WIDTH__ = 400,
// The HEIGHT of the scene to render
__HEIGHT__ = 400,
// The angle of the camera that will show the scene
// It is expressed in degrees
__ANGLE__ = 45,
// The shortest distance the camera can see
__NEAR__ = 1,
// The farthest distance the camera can see
__FAR__ = 1000
// The basic hue used to color our object
__HUE__ = 0;
* To render a 3D scene, ThreeJS needs 3 elements:
* A scene where to put all the objects
* A camera to manage the point of view
* A renderer place to show the result
var scene = new THREE.Scene(),
camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(__ANGLE__,
__WIDTH__ / __HEIGHT__,
renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();
* Let's prepare the scene
// Add the camera to the scene
// As all objects, the camera is put at the
// 0,0,0 coordinate, let's pull it back a little
camera.position.z = 300;
// We need to define the size of the renderer
renderer.setSize(__WIDTH__, __HEIGHT__);
// Let's attach our rendering zone to our page
* Now we are ready, we can start building our sphere
* To do this, we need a mesh defined with:
* 1. A geometry (a sphere)
* 2. A material (a color that reacts to light)
var geometry, material, mesh;
// First let's build our geometry
// There are other parameters, but you basically just
// need to define the radius of the sphere and the
// number of its vertical and horizontal divisions.
// The 2 last parameters determine the number of
// vertices that will be produced: The more vertices you use,
// the smoother the form; but it will be slower to render.
// Make a wise choice to balance the two.
geometry = new THREE.SphereGeometry( 100, 20, 20 );
// Then, prepare our material
var myMaterial = {
wireframe : true,
wireframeLinewidth : 2
// We just have to build the material now
material = new THREE.MeshPhongMaterial( myMaterial );
// Add some color to the material
material.color.setHSV(__HUE__, 1, 1);
// And we can build our the mesh
mesh = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, material );
// Let's add the mesh to the scene
scene.add( mesh );
* To be sure that we will see something,
* we need to add some light to the scene
// Let's create a point light
var pointLight = new THREE.PointLight(0xFFFFFF);
// and set its position
pointLight.position.x = -100;
pointLight.position.y = 100;
pointLight.position.z = 400;
// Now, we can add it to the scene
scene.add( pointLight );
// And finally, it's time to see the result
renderer.render( scene, camera );
And if you want to animate it (for example, make the sphere spin), it’s this easy:
function animate() {
// beware, you'll maybe need a shim
// to use requestAnimationFrame properly
requestAnimationFrame( animate );
// First, rotate the sphere
mesh.rotation.y -= 0.003;
// Then render the scene
renderer.render( scene, camera );
JSFiddle demo.
Advanced usage
Once you master the basics, ThreeJS provides you with some advanced tools.
Rendering system
As an abstraction layer, ThreeJS offer options to render a scene other than with WebGL. You can use the Canvas 2D API as well as SVG to perform your rendering. There is some difference between all these rendering contexts. The most obvious one is performance. Because WebGL is hardware accelerated, the rendering of complex scene is amazingly faster with it. On the other hand, because WebGL does not deal always well with anti-aliasing, the SVG or Canvas2D rendering can be better if you want to perform some cell-shading (cartoon-like) stuff. As a special advantage, SVG rendering gives you a full DOM tree of objects, which can be useful if you want access to those objects. It can have a high cost in term of performance (especially if you animate your scene), but it allows you to not rebuild a full retained mode graphic API.
Mesh and particles
ThreeJS is perfect for rendering on top of WebGL, but it is not an authoring tool. To model 3D objects, you have a choice of 3D software. Conveniently, ThreeJS is available with many scripts that make it easy to import meshes from several sources (Examples include: Blender, 3DSMax or the widely supported OBJ format).
It’s also possible to easily deploy particle systems as well as using Fog, Matrix and custom shaders. ThreeJS also comes with a few pre-built materials: Basic, Face, Lambert, Normal, and Phong). A WebGL developer will be able to build his own on top of the library, which provide some really good helpers. Obviously, building such custom things requires really specific skills.
Animating mesh
If using requestAnimationFrame is the easiest way to animate a scene, ThreeJS provides a couple of useful tools to animate meshes individually: a full API to define how to animate a mesh and the ability to use “bones” to morph and change a mesh.
Limits and precaution
One of the biggest limitations of ThreeJS is related to WebGL. If you want to use it to render your scene, you are constrained by the limitations of this technology. You become hardware dependent. All browsers that claim to support WebGL have strong requirements in terms of hardware support. Some browsers will not render anything if they do not run with an appropriate hardware. The best way to avoid trouble is to use a library such as modernizr to switch between rendering systems based on each browser’s capabilities. However, take care when using non-WebGL rendering systems because they are limited (e.g. the Phong material is only supported in a WebGL context) and infinitely slower.
In terms of browser support, ThreeJS supports all browsers that support WebGL, Canvas2D or SVG, which means: Firefox 3.6+, Chrome 9+, Opera 11+, Safari 5+ and even Internet Explorer 9+ if you do not use the WebGL rendering mode. If you want to rely on WebGL, the support is more limited: Firefox 4+, Chrome 9+, Opera 12+, Safari 5.1+ only. You can forget Internet Explorer (even the upcoming IE10) and almost all mobile browsers currently available.
ThreeJS drastically simplifies the process of producing 3D images directly in the browser. It gives the ability to do amazing visual effects with an easy to use API. By empowering you, it allow you to unleash your creativity.
In conclusion, here are some cool usages of ThreeJS: | <urn:uuid:b9be74e2-0858-4adb-8fd2-9016860122a8> | 2 | 2.015625 | 0.059616 | en | 0.924981 | https://hacks.mozilla.org/category/javascript/as/complete/page/7/ |
Braille Monitor July 2012
(back) (contents) (next)
by Deborah Kendrick
From the Editor: The following column first appeared in the Columbus Dispatch on Sunday, June 5, 2011. It is reprinted from the summer 2011 issue of Que Pasa, the publication of the NFB of New Mexico. Deborah Kendrick is a Cincinnati writer and advocate for people with disabilities. You can reach her at <>.
Deborah KendrickWhen meeting someone with a disability, some cross the line. There's a certain kind of assault unique to people with visible disabilities. It's an assault on privacy, an overstepping of boundaries, an occasional aberration that can ruin your whole day. "Sooo, what happened to you?" is the bluntest, most raw form of the invasion. And it usually catches you off guard. Imagine yourself daydreaming at the swimming pool or riding the bus home from work, and suddenly a stranger is in your face with such a question.
The sniper-like surprises can occur anywhere. Sometimes they're more specifically directed. In an elevator or a doctor's waiting room, a stranger might suddenly ask me, "Is your husband blind too, or what?"
Or maybe I'm at an awards luncheon, and after such getting-to-know-you topics as the salad dressing and the hot rolls have been exhausted, the guy beside me might casually inquire, "How'd you lose your sight?" It doesn't happen often, but most people with a disability that can be seen know the experience. Gripped by curiosity, complete strangers or acquaintances abruptly demand personal information in a way they would ordinarily consider unthinkable. How did disability strike? Was it accident or disease? And how do you function in such a state?
I'm not talking about the constructive curiosity that helps us communicate better with someone who has a disability. It's OK to ask how one gets the wheelchair into the car, how a guide dog knows to find the door, or if a deaf person is able to read your lips. What's not OK is to fire intimate questions of personal history at someone you barely know.
Think about it. Would you ask a black person what it feels like to be black? A white person if her spouse is white? Or a fat person how long he's been that way? One Vietnam veteran who uses a wheelchair told me that people will actually ask him if his children are biologically his own. What is it, I'd like to know, about that wheelchair that gives people the idea they have permission to interrogate a man about his sex life?
For me one of the most offensive inquiries is when I'm asked if my husband is blind too. What is the translation here? First, that I must have a husband because I couldn't possibly take care of myself? And next, if my husband has normal vision, the interloper can feel relieved that there must be, after all, someone behind the scenes to take care of me? Or, if my husband is blind or has some other disability, that we are appropriately keeping to our own kind? Marrying within the ranks?
Does this sound angry? Well maybe just exasperated, but here's the reality: People with disabilities can sometimes be angry. They can also feel humiliation, amusement, rage, and pain, just as their nondisabled peers do. People with disabilities come in all racial, sexual, and economic packages, and they have good days and bad ones. For most of us, though, a time arrives when the disability itself takes a decided back seat to life. The nuts and bolts of living take priority over specific limitations.
Don't get me wrong: It's not that we forget that we can't see or run or speak quite the same as others. You never forget entirely—because disability, like any personal trait, is a factor that, when you have it, becomes integrated into your total personality. But once the adaptations have been learned and the abilities discovered, disability generally loses its center-stage status.
People with disabilities, just like people without them, spend emotion and energy in three basic areas: our work, our play, and our relationships with others. Remember that the next time you meet someone with a disability--and, if the urge still washes over you to ask how they "got that way," ask yourself instead how you got to be so rude and find a more sociable approach to conversation.
(back) (contents) (next) | <urn:uuid:5c5f7aad-a8be-4814-8deb-3458da7ca412> | 2 | 1.664063 | 0.650856 | en | 0.968748 | https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm12/bm1207/bm120710.htm |
Joe Bastardi Show Parallels To The 1950s, And Tells Us What to Expect Looking Forward
Guest post by Joe Bastardi
The Way it Is: Back to the 50s.
In 2006 , I loudly proclaimed on national outlets that we were going back to the 1950s as far as the climate pattern went and that the patterns of the 50s which opened the east coast up for hurricanes, as well as hot, droughty look, for the southern US would take over. The reason was simple, we were in a cycle roughly like the period when the PDO and AMO warmed and a flip to the cold PDO was on the way. So its not brain surgery to then go to the maps of the summer of the 1950s with heat and drought,
and then the remarkable slamming of the east coast in the 1950s
This Made it relatively unremarkable to me to simply forecast the similar event based on the reality of where the pattern was going.
So in 2006 I made the statement that by 2015 2 major hurricanes should hit the northeast, which I thought was conservative given the physical reality of what the warm AMO and Cold PDO produce as far as the pattern around N America. Even this year, with the low ACE I have for the classic breeding grounds, I think there is reason to be very concerned along the east coast yet again, from in close developments such as we saw with Bob ( 1991) Belle ( 1976) or Carol (1954). I was taken aback at charges of “hype” given I merely identified what should be an obvious elephant in the room. But what is most remarkable is that they have not come. Even Irene, though a formidable storm and pressure wise, as strong as they come, fell apart compared to the sisters of 1954 and Donna of 1960. See that map above. Consider what happened in the Carolinas, and that does not even show Diane in 1955 which came right after Connie.
So imagine how completely flabbergasted I am when I hear nonsense about co2 and causing global warming and Irene is a product of that, , when in a 2 year stretch, 1954-1955 6 hurricanes, affected N Carolinas with at least hurricane conditions and 8 in a 7 year stretch from 1954-1960. And cat 2 or greater in New England with a sideswipe to the west from the great Hazel in 1954, and then Donna in 1960, a storm that gave hurricane force winds to every state on the east coast.
So climate clowns, be forewarned. We have your number. What you should be asking ( and I am) is why we haven’t been hit, not blaming co2
You know, I thought when I got on some national outlets and laid out a forecast for a pattern like the 1950s, it would serve as a warning to these clowns not to play the co2 card. Seriously, you have to be pretty ignorant to blame a drought that was being forecasted because of a large scale pattern change by people years before ( not just me), on co2 after the drought sets in. But I find they either don’t know, don’t understand, or could care less about this matter. There is a physical reason for why this happens , why the US warms at first when the pacific cools and the atlantic is still warm When the PDO flips, the cooling of the tropical pacific and the waters that ring the warm core lead to a stronger jet that aims itself toward the northwest part of the US. South of the mean jet, large scale sinking takes place, hence the drier, In addition, the colder pacific means less water content in air masses south of 40 north that come into the US, unlike when the tropical pacific is warm. It shows why
Pres Obamas proclamation that the Texas drought was because of global warming was sheer ignorance. During the warming PDO, texas had above normal precip as global temps responded to the warming of the Pacific, the opposite happens when the Pacific, and global temps cool
Look at 1980 to 2000 temps.. warming globally during the warm PDO
Look at US, Texas precip opposite of what happened in the 50s when the PDO flipped to cold and cooling began
So the warming pattern in the Pacific and then corresponding response in global temps is a WET PATTERN, opposite of what was being hoisted on the American public, like now, and the media sheep swallow and follow.
When its dry, its hotter in much of the US, which climate clowns don’t seem to understand is CLOSER TO THE EQUATOR THAN THE NORTH POLE. In the meantime, the overall global temps start to cool, but until the AMO cools, atlantic basin then becomes a key source of warmth to the pattern. Now I want the climate clowns out there to think.. what happens when you have a warm ocean naturally to your east ( warm AMO) and you are warming the southern part of the US.. where should you look for enhanced hurricane activity relative to normal, based on the overall signal of a colder pdo and warmer amo? Its not that hard, you can do it, just look.. Should be relatively close to land right.. the intersection of where the pdo induced southern US warming and the amo warming is taking place. Sure its simplified, but you don’t see many hurricanes off the west coast do you ( don’t see any, really, why, the water is cold and the air is cool
So since you simply ignored the facts when it comes to warmer weather and drought, ESPECIALLY RIGHT AFTER THE PDO FLIP, THE EARLY TO MID 50S, AS WE ARE IN NOW, You will not be able to blame any major east coast hurricanes the next 5-10 years, or for that matter anytime, on the fraud of AGW. In fact you should be expecting them to happen simply because of the pattern. The history you choose to ignore says so, though that never has stopped you before.
So now, if we see these comments based on what has to be ignorance of the past and the physical realities of how the atmosphere reacts when basic climate cycle patterns take over, we have a reference point for them to go to. Its not rocket science and yes to some extent it does diminish the importance perhaps of the forecaster and the climate scientist , and maybe that is why they are so threatened and wish to ramp up what is going on. But CO2 is not responsible for what you see going on, as it is right in line with basic climate cycle theory.
So to the climate clowns trying to use these events, I want you to explain how this can possibly be so similar
Here is the summer of 1951, the first “el nino summer after the pdo flip from warm to cold
Here is the summer of 2009, the first el nino summer after the latest pdo flip from warm to cold
Now watch the following 3 summers in the 1950s
Look at 2010, 2011 and then given what has happened so far , use reasoning to come up with the three will look like after this year
let me help, the core of the warmth this year is such that it will add more to the northwest and probably cut down in the southeast making these almost perfect matches
Now how any rational human being, yet alone a phd in anything, can not see how close this link is with the climate cycle is either because they have not looked, or they are simply lying trying to push their agenda. What else can it be. You cant get a closer match. In fact I cant even believe how close this is. Its amazing. But guess what, we have similar cycles of the Pacific and atlantic, but co2 is not a constant!
So when hurricanes come, lets be ready. They are a part of the pattern that we are in, and the data and physical reasoning show it.
About these ads
About stevengoddard
Just having fun
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.
33 Responses to Joe Bastardi Show Parallels To The 1950s, And Tells Us What to Expect Looking Forward
1. gofer says:
I vote that “alarmist” be retired and instead we refer to them with what, apparently, Joe has coined……”climate clowns” or CC for short. It has such a nice ring to it.
• JC Smith says:
Who’s the REAL clown? In September of 2010 Joe Bastardi called for the Arctic ice sheet to drop back to the level of 2005 and continue BUILDING up over coming years. Instead, the ice sheet has continued its downward decline and it is at record lows. Who is the clown that predicted in September of 2011, that areas around the Great Lakes were in for a “nasty winter”. Instead, they had the WARMEST WINTER ON RECORD. I’m afraid that Joe is the clown, and everyone is laughing at him. I can’t WAIT for his next call on the Arctic ice extent………he has been consistently wrong. Video is a wonderful thing.
• I take it you are ready to bet on a record low this year. How about $1000? Or perhaps you are just full of crap.
NOAA and just about everyone else forecast a nasty winter for the Great Lakes. Did you forget to mention that part?
• Joseph Bastardi says:
I made no forecast on the arctic ice cap until after the record low ( 2007) and was not even involved that much in the stone throwing you guys do till after the PDO flip i 2008 when I appeared on the Oreilly factor with the Triple Crown of cooling. . The first climate conference I ever attended was 2006) My forecast for the ice as, temperatures was for the return to late 1970s levels by 2030. As for the one year debacle, it actually did get back to normal in April that year for a time, but I admitted I was wrong ( that was 2 years ago btw)
Knock it off, you dont have a leg to stand one, and if you want to argue global sea ice, then better take a look at the southern hemisphere.
And how bout that global temp since the pdo flip. What is NCEP now a right wing think tank?
How do you possibly blame co2 when you see the maps of a past event almost exactly as they are now. How can you not say, heh wait a minute, how does that happen.
ANd by the way, here is the reality of the forecast of the IPCC
so what are the satellites and hadcrut making it up?
Simple test for you 1) What is the global temp going to do as the pdo and then the amo continue to fall. Remember you have a lot to go before you can make up how far you are behind, so the answer has to be a sharp rise.
2) What do you need to see to cause you to change. For me, it would be the rapid rebound in temps according to objective measurements even as the oceanic cycles flip
3) Finally if the enso signals are always being touted by hansen and his reliance on super ninos to spike global temps, then doesnt that say that because of the flip in the pdo to cold where la ninas out do el ninos 2 to 1 in amont and length, that they are admitting its not co2. Part of all this was the idea that the Pacific would be in a constant warm enso, and that is clearly not the case as the PDO has flipped
food for thought, I wish you the best, and about that I am not clowning around. Just give my ideas a shot.
By the way, when I hear people saying Irene was global warming and know what happened with hurricanes in the past, just what do you want me to say.. that they are serious?
• Brandon says:
LOL, Now I’m sitting here in the year 2014 reading these comments. Lake superior is frozen over, The polar vortex is crushing the entire US with snow and record low temps. I guess you are the real Clown JC Smith. It just came one year late.
2. Eric Webb says:
Nice post Joe. Just wait until a hurricane threatens the east coast and see the kind of hype and AGW rhetoric we’ll have then. The public in general is slowly, but surely losing interest in climate change, and it may take years or even decades until these climate clowns’ ideas are finally put to rest, but they’re hype and propaganda is as predictable as the changing of the seasons. Sigh….
3. johnmcguire says:
Thanks Joe , and thank you Steven . I have been watching and listening to you for some time now Joe and what you say roughly correalates with what has been happening ; this I know from observations in my own area and not what the above refered to ” climate clowns ” put out. No one else that I’ve heard of has been more accurate with their predictions , in fact the “climate clowns ” have been total failures . My actions have reflected my belief as I’ve been planting accordingly , I’m thinking we here in the northwest need to start thinking more corn as the world needs huge amounts and God has blessed us with the climate that will produce it. With the coming shortages a farmer out here might make a decent living on corn. Just picked my pie cherries so looks like cherry pie this winter.
4. kirkmyers says:
It’s time to drive a stake through AGW scare campaign being waged by the pseudo-scientists and their allies in the mainstream press. There has never been any empirical proof linking CO2 (man-made or the much larger natural component) to global warming. The entire scare is based on climate models whose GIGO predictions have completely failed. Many of the so-called climate “experts” pushing the bogus global warming theory on the taxpayers’ dime should be charged with fraud.
Ten or 20 years from now people will shake their head in wonder at a world that went crazy over a 6-degree-centigrade increase in temperature, most of which occurred early in the 20th century. What we should be worried about now is the current weak solar cycle, which may foreshadow a period of long-term cooling or, worse, another Little Ice Age.
5. Andy DC says:
The northeast has not had anything comparable to Carol and Hazel since Carol and Hazel. Maybe Bob was close, but just on Cape Cod
6. Don Gaddes says:
Why go back to the 1950’s Joe? The most recent equivalent Two Solar/Earth Year ‘Wet’/Normal Period.(before the current one,) after a One Solar/Earth Year ‘Dry’ Cycle, was 2003. It also happened in 1994, 1976, 1958, 1940,———1805,1787, ————- etc.The next correlation will be 2030.
Yes, the U.S is in for two years of hurricanes, {hopefully not exacerbated by explosive volcanic activity, (albedo,)} but your reliance on ENSO/PDO ‘flips’ means you are ‘shooting in the dark.’ (and somewhat ‘clownishly’ at that.)
An updated version of ‘Tomorrow’s Weather’ (Alex S. Gaddes, 1990) (with ‘Dry’ Cycle forecasts to 2055) is available as a free pdf from
• Joseph Bastardi says:
You have me wrong about the sun. Just as you play to your strengths I play to mine. I most certainly agree with you that the sun is driving the whole shooting match in the larger sense. I assumed that the reader knows that with the planet created the way it is, and the only true source of energy to warm the planet being the sun, the earths reaction to the uneven distribution of land and ocean and variance in radiation because of the season, means everything has to originate with the sun. But in the immediate term, the coming decade to two flips in the amo and pdo, which of course can be traced back to the cyclical nature of the weather simply because of the uneven way the earth is created and receives radiation, has to have a sensible effect that can be quantified through a test.. does the temperature react to the oceanic cycle. That right off will destroy the co2 argument, if the flip of pdo and amo means our temps are back to the late 70s by 2030,
But I am a big sun worshipper, but in the larger sense. Perhaps its cause I cant get my hands around it as well as perhaps you would like me too, but I have no quarrel with you.
In wrestling terms, it would be like arguing which takedown is best head inside or outside…. I happen to be a head inside single man, but see how one would think the other is the best.
I do not disagree with you, I have set up ideas that can be tested though in the coming years, but those ideas have to have the suns input behind them
so no mas, por favor
7. Eric Webb says:
I agree with Joe when he says this current weather pattern is in the 1950s again, but in several years he said we’d be in the 60s, so I wonder what the 60s were like weather wise. The hurricanes seem to ease off the east coast some and focus towards the gulf of mexico and in the 70s too, but by the time the PDO was warm again by the 1980s, both coasts looked the same threat wise, but I’m certainly no expert on this matter and I need to dig a little further into the hurricanes of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, to see what’s going on.
8. Don Gaddes says:
ENSO is not a ‘strength’ Joe, it is a fallacy!
If you are basing your forecast methods on ENSO/PDO ‘flips’ etc, you (and other ENSO proponents, including most tenured meteorologists) certainly do have a quarrel with me.
I have provided an exact forecast method that is perpetual (forward and back) and easily verifiable from records, thus, unable to be ‘adjusted’ or tampered with, (even by me.) It is not just based on THE SUN, as you would glean if you bothered to read the offered pdf.
It is time for you to come up with a viable forecast and method Joe, or withdraw from the field.
I suggest you start by reading ‘Tomorrow’s Weather’.
9. Eric Simpson says:
“So its not brain surgery to…’ I like that one. I usually use “it doesn’t take an Einstein to…”, though Einstein was no rocket scientist.
One thing is clear, and this is verified in the cgate emails (I don’t have the link offhand), the climate clowns purposely tried to present a trumped up facade of complexity to baffle the public into thinking “this is very complex, let’s leave this to the climate experts.” This was and is deliberate obfuscation. Truth is much of it is NOT that complex. Like temperature readings.. that contradict the warmist case, and the OBVIOUS falsehood of the ipcc’s claim of a causal correlation between CO2 & temps ( It’s not rocket science.
10. Don Gaddes says:
I don’t ‘get’ the correlation with highway 17 Steven, but perhaps you were not referring to my post.
11. Don Gaddes says:
At the beginning 1997 America was around seven months into a five year ‘Dry’ Cycle. (depending on the longitude.) I would suggest to you Steven, that your particular so called ENSO rain event in 1998 was a result of the ‘albedo’ effect from various explosive volcanic activity around that time. The most likely being the eruption in the Caribbean of Soufriere Hills volcano on 25 June 1997. There was also activity in Alaska, Japan, etc, that may have contributed.
Alex S. Gaddes devoted a chapter in ‘Tomorrow’s Weather’ to the possible effects of explosive volcanic activity in ameliorating ‘Dry’ Cycles, or exacerbating ‘Wet’/Normal Periods. especially, in Australia’s case, explosive volcanic activity in Indonesia. (Mt Merapi, alleviated a ‘Dry’ Cycle in the second half of 2010.) A further graphic example was the eruption of Eyjatjallajokull in Iceland in 2010, the effects of which closed Heath Row airport and brought blizzard conditions to the UK. In 2011 volcanic ash from eruptions in Mexico caused Melbourne Airport to close in Australia, and produced severe flooding in Southern NSW and Victoria.
Nothing to do with ENSO/La Nina,or AGW.
For continuity’s sake, I recommend you (and others) read the work for yourself.
• Eric Webb says:
For community;s sake, I recommend YOU to come out with proof showing us how ENSO DOES NOT affect global climate. An increase in surface water temperatures over the eastern and central pacific leads to a change in the distribution of atmospheric pressure over the equatorial region, and those thunderstorms give off latent heat which alters the wind patterns over the tropics and the globe. Don, seriously the albedo “effect”, is what helped to cause the significant rain events on the San Francisco area, not the super el nino that was going on in the ocean upstream, and as I’ve said before, the americas see an overall wetter pattern in el ninos, and the overall cycle of ENSO, AMO, and NAO also contribute. “Your so-called ENSO rain event.” Wow, you’re incompetence is showing. If you want me or anyone on this website to believe your outrageous claims that ENSO has no effect on climate then prove how it DOESN’T.
• Eric Webb says:
You are also going to have to prove that Joe Bastardi too, because he clearly states in the post on this page how ENSO plays a significant role in climate.
12. Ray Brunker says:
I can clearly see the parallels between the early 50’s and the present weather. My family farms in ne Kansas and I remember my Dad telling me about the 51 flood, but not much more about the weather following it. I would be very interested in knowing how 1955 stacks up compared to the averages along with 1956 and following years. It might give us a glimmer of hope with all of the heat and dry out there right now.
13. Don Gaddes says:
The US is entering a Two Solar/Earth Year ‘Wet’/Normal Period (August 2012,) that started around 110 degrees East of Prime Longitude (Bejing) in March 2011 and will reach Australia (East Coast) in early January 2013. (30 degrees longitude/month with the East – West Solar Orbit of the Earth’s Magnetic Field.) This will be followed by a severe Five Year ‘Dry’ Cycle (drought) that will reach the American East Coast in August 2014. ( The equivalent Two Solar/Earth Year ‘Wet’/Normal Period of 1950/51 and the subsequent Five Year ‘Dy’ Cycle of 1952/56.)
You may obtain an updated version of ‘Tomorrow’s Weather’ Alex S Gaddes 1990.(including ‘Dry’ Cycle forecasts to 2055) available as a free pdf from
14. Don Gaddes says:
Eric, neither you nor Joe have read ‘Tomorrow’s Weather’ (after repeated offers) and it seems you have no intentions of doing so. Stop trying to waste my time.
Try hitting the books to learn how the warm air from the Southern Hemisphere does not go to the Arctic! It’s a wonder Joe didn’t pick you up on that one. (unless he didn’t know either!)
• Eric Webb says:
Wow, now you’re bringing this up? Your prediction for a 2 year “wet period” will also fail because after this year, la nina will once again take over and continue to worsen the already dry conditions over much of the country, and North America as a whole. Wow, and you’re attacking Bastardi. It’s a wonder Joe didn’t pick YOU up on the statement that “ENSO has nothing to do with it.” I asked you multiple times and you still won’t answer my statement. If you are so confident in your belief that ENSO has NO ROLE IN CLIMATE then explain to me and everyone else on this blog HOW ENSO, SOI, and it’s related more long term cycles of PMO and AMO don’t play a role in climate. I won’t even look at your book “Tommorrow’s Weather” until you can validate your statement that “ENSO has nothing to do with it.”(it being the climate.) Until you can come up with evidence that ENSO and its related cycles have nothing to do with climate, specifically precipitation, please don’t waste my time.
• Eric Webb says:
However, in saying that I do believe, like Bastardi, that in the very long timescales of earth’s history, (centuries) ENSO’s effect on climate becomes minimal, and gets lost in the “noise” as the overall effects of the sun are more prominent, and these factors along with precession, and the variance in distance from the sun play a bigger role as you look over longer periods of time. In the shorter term, decades and years themselves, ENSO and the related oceanic cycles are much more noticeable.
• Eric Webb says:
I also did some searching around for your wet and dry cycles, and did find an article that mentioned some of what you were saying about dry and wet cycles, but in the long timescales in terms of centuries or more. A simple google search titled, “dry climate cycles” should work as well.
15. Jon Julnes says:
Where can I find something that gives me a feel for the next 3 – 5 winters in the Seattle market area? One of the companies I own is a paving company which also does sanding and de-icing in our typically short Seattle winters, and it would be very helpful to have that kind of info 6 months in advance (knowing that anything beyond that is based on history and science, but not always entirely accurate obviously). My email is (Thanks for your help Joe!)
16. SLHaynes says:
Thanks Joe. Really though, what you are saying, is that we don’t learn from history. This is an underlying truth about many of the problems human kind faces right now.
17. italguy says:
I’m with Global Warming all the way… No proof at all on the earth cooling going forward, we have the proof now and in the past ten years or so we are in a warming trend which is not going to stop anytime soon, this is reality not that cooling crap, just like the bull that was said all spring- This is not last Summer- certainly was not it turned out Hotter – so anyone out there can believe the cooling theory i dont buy it, there trying to sell a product.
18. italguy says:
Recent Antarctic Peninsula Warming Unusual
Aug 22, 2012; 3:50 PM ET
New ice core research from the Antarctic Peninsula shows that the rapid warming of this region over the last 100 years has been unusual.
19. Kathy Byrne says:
I hate what happened on the East coast and I am praying for all…but Joe was right. I remember Joe writing about a huge hurricane that could devestate the East coast several years ago. He didn’t say it would happen the year he wrote the article, but he did say we would see one in the next few years. He said it was only a matter of time and it seems the time was October 2012. .
20. Caroline says:
The Australian scientists who tried to prove that the Arctic ice was melting ended up being marooned in Arctic Ice in the Arctic SUMMER and needed to be rescued. I didn’t stop laughing for a whole week. And they have the temerity to continue to blow the Climate Clown tune. Keep up the very excellent work Joe!
Leave a Reply
You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )
Twitter picture
Facebook photo
Google+ photo
Connecting to %s | <urn:uuid:57052036-4015-49d8-a5a9-687f1befbd74> | 2 | 1.648438 | 0.03828 | en | 0.954182 | https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/joe-bastardi-show-parallels-to-the-1950s-and-tells-us-what-to-expect-looking-forward/ |
U.S. Fur Sales Tank Internationally
Despite the trapping industry’s sanguine spin, the fur market is bottoming out, presumably due to the global recession. The North American Fur Auctions (NAFA) named raccoon, coyote and beaver as species that usually drive the market, yet have seen the lowest sales this year. NAFA blames Russia’s declining ruble, since the country is the industry’s largest consumer. There is little money to be made from the furs, therefore fewer animals are now being trapped. Contrary to what fur trappers claim about being good wildlife managers, they trap based on fur prices and sales, not the size of animal populations. | <urn:uuid:52675227-3081-4fcd-9185-fa2d7109011e> | 2 | 1.734375 | 0.881023 | en | 0.945051 | https://www.awionline.org/awi-quarterly/2009-summer/u-s-fur-sales-tank-internationally |
2012 RISD Differential
• 259
• 8
• 0
• This documents the 3rd generation differential for the 2012 RISD Moonbuggy vehicle. One of the major challenges of producing a three wheeled vehicle is the powertrain to the front two wheels. Independently splitting the power produced between the two wheels in a lightweight, and efficient manor is critical to propelling the moon buggy vehicle in the time trial.
The first generation powertrain in 2010 worked, but was clunky and non centric causing friction meaning efficiency loss.
The second generation differential in 2011 tackled the task of unifying the assembly into a singular module to keep components centric and non binding. This design was a 46% size reduction but the weight loss was marginal and its high tolerance assembly was difficult to maintain. Its complex and delicate assembly caused self degradation over general wear and tear. It relied on adhesives and welds to assemble; costly, difficult to maintain and reproduce.
The third generation I designed utilizes no adhesives or welds and is completely modular. It is a 30% size reduction from the second generation differential and is approximately 25% lighter. Stronger and can operate in a wider range of conditions and can be assembled and disassembled quickly with just an allen wrench. No exotic components required to function. | <urn:uuid:6239627c-9352-442f-9eec-62a63a7dfd4b> | 2 | 1.867188 | 0.057591 | en | 0.950534 | https://www.behance.net/gallery/2012-RISD-Differential/8255925 |
All of us are searching for some sort of purpose in our lives. Yet, when we find it we may find ourselves unwilling to accept it. And, for that reason, we find ourselves once again searching. Only this time we will never find it, for we have rejected that purpose in selfishness. Yet the rejection we did so willingly, knowing that we would not have another purpose in our lives. Yet some part of ourselves lies to our soul, telling it that we will find something eventually, telling us that there's something out there waiting for us, we jsut have to keep waiting and to keep searching and we will find it.
Only we have found it...we just don't want it.
Could it be then that we only search because we know we should? Because if we stop searching then we truly have no purpose, life no longer has a meaning and we have given everything up for apathy?
Alas, maybe it is nothing more than another lie that we feed our minds. Reality, it seems, is far too hard to cope with for many people and, knowing that, we twist it into whatever seems fitting. We do not twist everything, of course, for to do so would mean that we are going insane willingly, and that we are running. Thus we twist only enough so that we may also twist the fact that we are running away to where we can beleive ourselves when we say that we are not, and beleive ourselves when we state that we are not in fact going (what we beleive to be) 'insane'.
It is a difficult ledge that we sit on, this ledge of selected apathy, and from sitting on it so long we often lose ourselves at some point in time, falling to either side of the curb and are either lost in the disallusion even further, and upon being comfortable with the lies overcoming us, are scoffed at by those around us. Either that or we are hit with how much of reality we have ignored and are terrified by the truth of things and become either iron cold in our strength or give in, giving ourselves up to the pain, no longer able to smile.
Yet, all the same, knowledgeable in a way of what is coming to us, we continue to balance. Yet to balance is tiring, and that fact itself weighs down on our existance. It is such a struggle, even, that we surround eachother with others who are balancing in like ways, so that we may convince ourselves that the ledge we stand on is the correct one, and the selected truths we beleive are correct. It is easy then, to beleive that those who have selected other truths than us are incorrect, that those who face other realities and act as such are committing immoral deeds and are evil. That those who act odd from knowledge or illusion are then the ones who are truly 'running' or are truly 'insane'.
Thus we speak words such as 'truth' and 'purpose' as if we have them or are searching for them. Yet we neither have nor seek either. We live our own illusion to the fullest, and will never find the truth. Knowing this we burry the fact and live...We live and grow tired and beleive in our lies, for without them we fear being torn apart by all the we do not understand, by how much pain and terror and destroyed hope truly exist. | <urn:uuid:712aa99d-cf42-4c57-889b-00dd7640b077> | 2 | 1.640625 | 0.037873 | en | 0.975239 | https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2939471/1/Illusion |
Virtual hosts not working
Discussion in 'Installation/Configuration' started by erik, Aug 25, 2005.
1. erik
erik New Member
I've setup ispconfig (Fedora c4) and created a client and several websites(Virtual host) but somehow the default apache page shows up instead of the standard webpage of ispconfig (wich includes the domainname).
I've looked in the httpd.conf file. This file makes a reference to the file Vhosts_ispconf.conf in the Vhosts directory. But the Vhosts_ispconf.conf file is empty. There are files in this directory that contain the data but they are called Vhosts_ispconf.conf<_date_time>
Does anyone know what is causing this an most imotantly how to solve it?
2. falko
falko Super Moderator
Share This Page | <urn:uuid:5baf2b9d-793d-4044-b33d-9bb0305e68c6> | 2 | 1.554688 | 0.025657 | en | 0.930779 | https://www.howtoforge.com/community/threads/virtual-hosts-not-working.381/ |
Kirkus Reviews QR Code
GIANT BLUEFIN by Douglas Whynott
by Douglas Whynott
Pub Date: June 1st, 1995
ISBN: 0-374-16208-5
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Whynott takes readers out to sea with ``the true sons of the whalers of old''--the men who make their living harpooning bluefin tuna in the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Cod to Maine. Only 200 harpoon permits are issued to East coast fishermen each year, and about 30 of their boats, says Whynott (English/Mount Holyoke; Following the Bloom, not reviewed), actually harvest any fish. There is no daily limit for harpoon fishermen (regular permit-holders are allowed but one tuna per day), but the total quota for the entire western Atlantic is 53 tons--about 240 fish. Whynott followed the fortunes of Bob Sampson and his son, Brad, for the 1992 and 1993 seasons. Like most harpoon fishermen based on Cape Cod, the Sampsons employ a spotter plane to locate schools of giant bluefin. The pilot will sometimes watch for humpback whales, which, like tuna, feed on herring and mackerel. When a school is spotted, the boat races to the area and one man climbs into the pulpit wielding a 12-foot-long harpoon, usually of aluminum, with a bronze ``dart'' wired for 800 volts. Thanks to the sushi boom, one throw can bag a fish that will bring as much as $50,000 at the Japanese auction houses. Bluefin tuna can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh as much as 1,500 lbs., but most are in the 300- to 500- lb. range. The Sampsons, who helped organize a group of Cape Cod fishermen to deal directly with the Japanese, got an average of $16.50 per pound for their fish in 1992; they grossed almost $200,000 for the 1993 season. Not bad, notes Whynott, for a fish that just 20 years ago was sold as cat food for five cents a pound. Whynott's natural history of the giant bluefin tuna, its mating and migratory habits, and his profiles of the Cape Cod fishermen and their lifestyle, is engagingly rendered. | <urn:uuid:cba8eac5-360e-4101-877d-d60b716c7cb3> | 2 | 1.640625 | 0.031908 | en | 0.948679 | https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/douglas-whynott/giant-bluefin/print/ |
From: (Mr C Smith)
Subject: Re 'dialectics' - again.
Dear Andy,
I think it's time I asked - yet again - for someone to tell us just what this discussion of the dreaded 'dialectics' is actually about. When Hegel - or any other philosophical geezer - talks about the world, just what are they discussing? Only when this is clarified could I begin to understand what this agonising over whether there is a dialectic in, on, around or underneath nature is really looking for.
As far as I'm concerned, I refuse to pay any attention unless it concerns the relationship of humans to each other and to nature. (These two are inextricable, because the human relationship with nature is a social one.) Only in this context have philosophers got any business meddling with physics, chemistry, biology etc. There might then be a pay-off in the illumination of some problems faced by the natural scientists. This is because their difficulties often express the contradictions of social life, only the poor dears haven't got a clue about that.
Before we get further into the mire, can somebody please answer!!
PS Please don't tell me that my contributions are 'stimulating'. That just means you are going to ignore the issue. | <urn:uuid:92306b22-bf0a-4c3d-ae3d-c24c79810554> | 2 | 1.585938 | 0.617474 | en | 0.954608 | https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/txt/cyril19.htm |
C, compiler - write a table from a program
1. Hi,
I am trying to write a program on a C compiler and Im not too sure how to do it.
The question asks to write a full program to calculate the squares and cubes of the numbers from 0 to 10, which uses tabs (\t) to illustrate the data in the table.
Click on the uploaded document to view the question.
"Ques Example.jpg"
Also I have given an example of a square root I have calculated for a number in
"Example of.jpg"
However Im not too sure which instructions are needed to show the information in a table.
Please help, thanks very much !
Attached Files:
2. jcsd
3. D H
Staff: Mentor
Some questions:
• What work have you done so far?
• What is the general layout of your program?
• Do you know how to do the math, how to print?
• Do you know how to do this for each integer from 0 to 10?
4. Well I only know how to add, subtract and multiply groups of numbers together and find the average of them.
I know how to print instructions on the screen, for instance, phrases like "Enter two integers", "Answer/sum ="
Thats about it
5. D H
Staff: Mentor
You have to compute the square and cube of a number. You already computed the cube. Print the data using printf, one line at a time. If formatted correctly you will get the desired pretty table. You already used "\n" to generate an end of line. Tab is just another special character: "\t" instead of "\n".
Have you been taught about looping yet?
6. How do you prevent the numbers from showing up.
Shouldnt it be so that when you type in the number "3" under the number title (for example) all of its possible combinations will show up such as "9" and "27" under the squared and cubed titles.
I think we havent been taught looping yet?
Any example of this?
7. Hang on,
Do I just type the correct values under each header instead, without it actually being a flowing program.
8. D H
Staff: Mentor
Looping in 'c' is done with the for or while statement.
I think you are supposed to do the calculations. You could easily write a one statement program that produces the table (just print the table), but that would violate the spirit of the assignment and would probably result in some point deductions.
9. haha.
Yes thats right.
Um... I have only really mannaged to seperate the three columns. But when I type in the numbers it wont show properly, as Im missing out a large part of the program.
10. Can you post your code? You can post your code on rafb.net/paste - you will be provided with a link - please paste that here.
Also remember to make sure "C" formatting is on when you're on that website.
11. Yes I have it here now.
It automaticaly calculates the square and cube roots of the first number typed in.
However the first number you type appears in the table as well and will not let me type in more numbers for the next line.
A loop in the program is needed here ????
Last edited: Oct 8, 2007
12. yes a loop is needed here.
EDIT sorry I thought you didnt want to input numbers to appear for some reason.
Pay attention to the carriage return that will make your table look bad after scanf.
Last edited: Oct 8, 2007
13. This code is fairly simple as long as your know about the math header and how to use loops. I commented this code fairly well, so you shouldn't have any trouble understanding. Make sure you know what's going on in every line though. This is some VERY BASIC stuff that is extremely vital in computer programming. So it's important for you to learn about this stuff now, rather then later.
Code (Text):
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>
int main(void)
/* declare your variables */
double idx, square, cube;
/* initialize your variables */
idx = 0;
square = 0;
cube = 0;
/* first row of table aka titles */
/* main for loop. prints table */
for(idx; idx <= 10; idx++){
/* raise each increment to power of 2 */
square = pow(idx, 2);
/* raise each increment to power of 3 */
cube = pow(idx, 3);
/* print your floating point variables to zero decimal */
printf("%.0f\t%.0f\t%.0f\n", idx, square, cube);
printf("\nPress Enter to continue...");
return 0;
14. Thanks very much for your help!
I have been changing parts in the program to get a better understanding of how it works.
I see that you added in maths header and how the "<= 10" part is there to decide on how many numbers (increasing from 0) are required in the table, as the numbers must be less than or equal to 10. Also the word "double" is an instuction that must be enterd just like "printf, scanf, int" e.t.c for it to be performed.
And then what ever you replace "n" with in "A = pow(x, n);" will determine the power in the coloumn labeld as "A".
The ".0f" after the answer given by "%d" is needed for the answers to appear in that coloumn.
"getchar();" is needed for the black screen to appear on the screen until the user closes it.
But Im not sure why the "++" part is needed after the "<= 10; ix" bit.
15. ++ is to increment variable idx so after it deals with one number say 3 in the loop and adds it to the table, it will move to 4 and so on.
idx++ means idx=idx+1. If this was not put then you will get stuck in an infinite loop and have a program crash.
16. Ah cool, I understand now.
Thanks once again !
Also I tried running the program without the "void" in between the brackets "int main( )" and it seemed to work fine, what is the reason for this?
Last edited: Oct 11, 2007
17. I have another question and managed to answer it, as it seems like it is working correctly.
Th program below is designed to state whether the integer entered is an Even or Odd number. I just thought there might be a better and more proffesional way of writting it?
Here it is:
18. Hey sorry for the late response.
"int main(void)" is just a c99 standard which means it's universally accepted by any compiler...
although almost every compiler accepts "int main()" since void is assumed because no command line arguments are needed..
"int main(int argc, char **argv)" is also the appropriate c99 standard way of using command line arguments...
The link you posted doesn't work. But THE BEST way to check for even and odd numbers without going outside the C standard library is to divide by 2 using modulo... module is just "%" and it returns the remainder... so odd will return 1 and even will be 0..
here's a quick example
Code (Text):
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
int idx = 0;
if((idx % 2) == 0) {
printf("%d = even\n", idx);
printf("%d = odd\n", idx);
return 0;
anyways im just coming off a 3 hour shroom trip n im still feeling a bit magical at this point.. so if this post was confusing it was the magic ;)
19. Hey NoUse, why is it that when you add .0, or even . in front of f in the 2nd to last printf statement it removes the 0's after the decimal place for each number? I noticed that if you take out the .0, the output will be 0.000000, 1.000000, etc. And if you add the . or .0 before f it will just print 0, 1, etc. Also, I notcied that if you use int, instead of double the program just outputs all 0's, why is double needed? I know double is for double precision and that's it. Thanks!
Last edited: Feb 4, 2009 | <urn:uuid:5ba84a55-4213-4f44-b35d-920a9989caf6> | 3 | 3.15625 | 0.479342 | en | 0.900298 | https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/c-compiler-write-a-table-from-a-program.188506/ |
Does synthetic dna give life to a dead cell
1. or can synthetic dna give life to a dead cell.
i.e when scientist removed genetic material of a cell, didn't the cell died. And when this synthetic genome is injected into the nucleus, it survive. Is this what happened.
2. jcsd
3. Do you have a specific experiment in mind? If yes could you give a link to the the place where you read about it?
In general though cell death, whether via apoptosis or necrosis (things like necroptosis have also been suggested for some pathways) is not as simple as just the DNA being degraded. DNA is not the magical life giving material (the alleged Vital Principle) that'll grant life to anything in which it is present; in fact such a vital principle doesn't even exist. When a cell dies, it is no longer able to maintain its state of metabolism; all its components stop working and the state of organization in the cell disintegrates. The mess is usually cleaned up by phagocytes or it may also just lie around, sometimes causing damage to nearby cells as well.
4. cell death means loss of all biochemical functions or are unsustainable. DNA, synthetic or not does little to change the fate of the cell. However , this not take into account organisms such as viruses.
5. NO.
I just wanted to know does a cell dies if its genetic material are removed.
6. Yes if you remove the nucleus the cell will eventually die, but putting it back into a dead cell will not bring it back to life.
7. If the cell dies on removing the gentic material, if i understand right, then how is it made possible to alive the cell by replacing with synthetic genome.
8. I only know of two directions for the current research of cellular *renewal*; one is the synthetic approach and the other is -(don't know how to name but it looks like to regrow the tail of a lizard without tail or having its tail cut)-. The latter to me looks more promising, I have watched amazing experiments on Italian TV and reports from known universities of it, so I believe it should be a very competitive field.
Last edited: Jun 12, 2012
9. Ryan_m_b
Staff: Mentor
Perhaps I'm off the mark here but are you alluding to regenerative medicine?
10. Once the DNA has been reinserted into a new cell they zap it with electricity to make it divide. Frankenstein like. I was looking for why they did this and found this which is very interesting -
I think you are asking at what level does life exist at. Viruses are not considered to be alive as they do not metabolise and can't reproduce without infecting another host cell. There is an acronym for all the things they don't do which are seen as required for cell life. They are not considered dead either as they still operate. Some viruses can fix broken cellular machinery and use it for their own use.
: dna | <urn:uuid:2ca07c92-68de-46e0-83d2-9d56ff58a3f6> | 3 | 2.796875 | 0.706976 | en | 0.969881 | https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/does-synthetic-dna-give-life-to-a-dead-cell.612726/ |
Likelihood distribution
1. Hey everyone,
i am new to using statistics and have come across a problem. I am trying to regenerate the result of a paper in which a theoretical parameter is constrained.
I have calculated the chi squared and plotted the likelihood function (exp[-chisquared])to see what value of the parameter has the highest likelihood.
I am getting almost the same value as the paper but my graph is not scaled like it. I would like the maximum value of likelihood to be 1. What normalization constants am i missing?
Also in the likelihood function do we use the reduced chisquared?
2. jcsd
3. Chalnoth
Chalnoth 5,082
Science Advisor
Well, first of all, there may be a factor of two error. The way the Chi square is usually defined, you should be dividing it by two in the exponent to the probability distribution.
That said, the key point here is that for most problems, the normalization is simply not known when the Chi square is generated, so you have to manually integrate the probability distribution to determine the normalization. If your distribution is Gaussian, you can do this analytically, though for real distributions we typically make use of Markov-Chain Monte Carlo to perform the integration numerically.
At any rate, you can read up on the multivariate normal distribution here:
4. Thanx,
I thought of integrating the likelihood and equating it to find the normalization constant but the problem is my chi-squared itself is a function of an unknown parameter,the value of which I want to find. So we have two unknowns-the parameter and the normalization constant and only one equation!!!!
5. Chalnoth
Chalnoth 5,082
Science Advisor
Well, no, the unknown parameter is left variable like so:
[tex]\int P(x) dx = 1[/tex]
Where [itex]x[/itex] here is the set of all parameters in the chi square, and the integral is over the entire available parameter space. If your chi square is Gaussian-distributed, this normalization is relatively straightforward. If not, you have to actually perform the integral numerically.
Basically, the unknown input parameters to the chi square are never solved for, we merely find their probability distributions.
6. hii,
i tried doing the normalization as you suggested by doing
[A*integral(exp[-chisquared/2])] over the parameter(-inf,inf) and equated it to 1 to calculate A.
then i plotted A*exp[-chisquared/2] vs the parameter. but still it is not normalized to 1. the maximum value the function takes is nearly 2.
what am i doing wrong?
7. i also tried normalizing each event(i have 17 data points) to 1 and find corresponding normalization constants. Then i plotted (product of constants)*exp[-chisquared/2],but even that is not scaled to 1.
8. Chalnoth
Chalnoth 5,082
Science Advisor
What do you mean it isn't normalized to one? If the integral of the probability distribution is equal to one, then it is normalized to one. Depending upon the width of the distribution, it could easily take on values at any given point that are much larger than one. This isn't a problem.
Normalizing the individual events changes the problem significantly, and should not be done.
9. Thanx,
So I guess what i have done is correct and the authors of the paper must have just scaled the graph to one somehow.I was worried because I was getting the peak at the same point and my graph intersects the x-axis at the same coordinates as the paper.
10. Chalnoth
Chalnoth 5,082
Science Advisor
Right, so, a lot of the time people don't care to normalize probability distributions. So if they simply set the peak equal to one, that would explain their graph. | <urn:uuid:eca5c483-b49d-4af6-81f6-f16442adb80c> | 2 | 1.96875 | 0.583583 | en | 0.916261 | https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/likelihood-distribution.439229/ |
Double Falsehood Scenes
Scene 1
The prospect of a village.
(Fabian; Lopez; Henriquez)
Fabian and Lopez overhear Henriquez as he wrestles with his conscience after raping Violenta, trying to convince himself that her silence implied acquiescence. He is terrified of being found out and dishonored, especially as he is no longer in love with Violante but with Leonora, even though she is his friend Julio’s lady. His despair is strong enough that the two onlookers are worried he will harm himself. (41 lines)
Enter Fabian and Lopez; Henriquez on the opposite side.
Soft, soft you, neighbor; who comes here? Pray you, slink aside—
Ha! Is it come to this? Oh the devil, the devil, the devil!
Lo you now! For want of the discreet ladle of a cool understanding, will this fellow’s brains boil over.
To have enjoy’d her, I would have given—what?
All that at present I could boast my own,
And the reversion of the world to boot,
Had the inheritance been mine: and now,
(Just doom of guilty joys!) I grieve as much
That I have rifled all the stores of beauty,
Those charms of innocence and artless love,
As just before I was devour’d with sorrow,
That she refus’d my vows, and shut the door
Upon my ardent longings.
Now then to recollection—was’t not so? A promise first of marriage—not a promise only, for ’twas bound with surety of a thousand oaths—and those not light ones neither.
Yet I remember too, those oaths could not prevail;
Th’ unpractis’d maid trembled to meet my love:
By force alone I snatch’d th’ imperfect joy,
Which now torments my memory. Not love,
But brutal violence prevail’d; to which
The time, and place, and opportunity,
Were accessaries most dishonorable.
Shame, shame upon it!
What a heap of stuff’s this—I fancy, this fellow’s head would make a good peddler’s pack, neighbor.
Hold, let me be severe to myself, but not unjust. Was it a rape then? No. Her shrieks, her exclamations then had drove me from her. True, she did not consent; as true, she did resist; but still in silence all.
’Twas but the coyness of a modest bride,
Not the resentment of a ravish’d maid.
And is the man yet born, who would not risk
The guilt, to meet the joy? The guilt! That’s true—
But then the danger; the tears, the clamours of the ruin’d maid, pursuing me to court. That, that, I fear will (as it already does my conscience) something shatter my honor. What’s to be done? But now I have no choice. Fair Leonora reigns confest the tyrant queen of my revolted heart, and Violante seems a short usurper there. Julio’s already by my arts remov’d.—O friendship!
How wilt thou answer that? Oh, that a man
Could reason down this fever of the blood,
Or sooth with words the tumult in his heart!
Then, Julio, I might be, indeed, thy friend.
They, they only should condemn me,
Who born devoid of passion ne’er have prov’d
The fierce disputes ’twixt virtue and desire.
While they, who have, like me,
The loose escapes of youthful nature known,
Must wink at mine, indulgent to their own.
Exit Henriquez.
This man is certainly mad, and may be mischievous. Prithee, neighbor, let’s follow him; but at some distance, for fear of the worst.
Exeunt after Henriquez.
Get the Shakespeare Pro app | <urn:uuid:5b34c11e-bee4-44ca-889f-4d3e273a3c8e> | 2 | 1.859375 | 0.023475 | en | 0.921242 | https://www.playshakespeare.com/double-falsehood/scenes/4867-act-ii-scene-1 |
Texas Annexation
Questions and Answers
Q: Why did Texas get to keep its public lands?
In 1845, Texas was still sparsely settled with about 40,000 inhabitants. More than 225 million acres of land were still public domain—that is, they were unsettled and legally owned by the Republic of Texas. Texas had always considered this land its chief source of future revenue.
One of the compromises that won over opponents of annexation provided that Texas would extinguish its own debt. To do this, Texas became the only state in the Union to retain control of her own public lands.
Texas relinquished 67 million acres in the Compromise of 1850 in exchange for a cash payment that wiped out the debt. Future land sales were earmarked to fund Texas education. But sales proved to be disappointing. Over the remainder of the 19th century, about 86 million acres—more than half the present area of Texas—were simply given away, rather than sold, to encourage settlement and development in remote areas.
However, in the 20th century, the public lands of Texas proved to contain billions of barrels of petroleum. Revenue from oil sales sent billions of dollars into the Texas Permanent School Fund and Permanent University Fund, providing an endowment that still underlies the funding for the Texas public school system, state institutions, and the University of Texas System.
In the 1950s, the federal government tried to claim that offshore oil in the Gulf of Mexico was not covered by the annexation agreement. The “Tidelands” crisis became the most serious dispute in federal-state relations since the Civil War before eventually being resolved in favor of Texas.
Back to exhibit
Complete list of questions
Page last modified: April 5, 2011 | <urn:uuid:b3ed465d-2115-49f8-8387-7188a6bc9a7e> | 3 | 3.390625 | 0.047097 | en | 0.975251 | https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/annexation/part5/question8.html |
Dirty money on the wires: the business models of cyber criminals
Guillaume Lovet Fortinet
Scammers, phishers, bot herders, spammers, online extortioners, identity thieves... The names may seem obscure, but their intent is not: they are all out to steal our money. It is no secret that, today, cyber crime is draining massive amounts of money every year, all around the globe. And while old-school hackers would rent their services to conduct a limited number of high-profile industrial spying operations, today's cyber criminals combine social engineering, viruses, trojans and spyware to target average, everyday users.
There are several questions that we must try and understand in order to fight these cyber criminals: who are the culprits and do they fit any standard profile? What is their business model and how easy is it to set up? Through which channels is the cyber crime money flowing and who is getting this money, eventually? Are the 'real' organized criminals - the so called mob - implicated at certain levels in the model?
This paper will attempt to shed some light on these questions. Answers will be developed, correlated and backed up by concrete data, numbers, and figures. The expected proliferation of increasingly used mobile smart phones will open the door for a broad range of new cyber crime possibilities and business models, which this paper will also examine. The goal is to raise public awareness and industry anticipation of this potentially severe issue.
VB Conferences
VB2016 (Denver)
VB2015 (Prague)
VB2014 (Seattle)
VB2013 (Berlin)
VB2012 (Dallas)
VB2011 (Barcelona)
VB2010 (Vancouver)
VB2009 (Geneva)
VB2008 (Ottawa)
VB2007 (Vienna)
VB2006 (Montréal)
VB2005 (Dublin)
VB2004 (Chicago)
VB2003 (Toronto)
VB2002 (New Orleans)
VB2001 (Prague)
VB2000 (Orlando)
VB99 (Vancouver)
VB98 (Munich)
VB97 (San Francisco)
VB96 (Brighton)
VB95 (Boston)
VB94 (Jersey)
VB93 (Amsterdam)
VB92 (Edinburgh)
VB91 (Jersey)
‘This was my first time attending and I hope I can attend future VB events.’
Global Forum on Cyber Security for Financial Secto | <urn:uuid:17cab954-c0dd-45cf-b127-70ef5257134a> | 2 | 1.609375 | 0.071475 | en | 0.892172 | https://www.virusbtn.com/conference/vb2006/abstracts/Lovet.xml |
YouTube home #DearMe
The Country - Billy Collins Animated Poetry
The interactive transcript could not be loaded.
Rating is available when the video has been rented.
Uploaded on Jun 29, 2007
Billy Collins, former US Poet Laureate and one of America's best-selling poets, reads his poem "The Country" with animation by Brady Baltezor of Radium.
Transcript -
I wondered about you
when you told me never to leave
a box of wooden, strike-anywhere matches
lying around the house because the mice
might get into them and start a fire.
But your face was absolutely straight
when you twisted the lid down on the round tin
where the matches, you said, are always stowed.
Who could sleep that night?
Who could whisk away the thought
of the one unlikely mouse
padding along a cold water pipe
behind the floral wallpaper
gripping a single wooden match
between the needles of his teeth?
Who could not see him rounding a corner,
the blue tip scratching against a rough-hewn beam,
the sudden flare, and the creature
for one bright, shining moment
suddenly thrust ahead of his time -
now a fire-starter, now a torchbearer
in a forgotten ritual, little brown druid
illuminating some ancient night.
Who could fail to notice,
lit up in the blazing insulation,
of what once was your house in the country?
to add this to Watch Later
Add to | <urn:uuid:d796437a-b0b7-423a-9fd4-b76540746cf1> | 2 | 1.90625 | 0.030904 | en | 0.934023 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xovLpim_1s |
UCrew Update
Gamer Goes Into A Coma After 4-Liters of Energy Drinks
Every gamer has been there. It’s about 3AM, you and your friends have been racking up the killstreaks like they are commission checks and you are a shady car salesman. Your body is crying out for sleep while your friends cry out for a UAV and all you want, all you need is a slight pick me up for one more game. At that point every gamer has reached for that oh so important nectar of the gods, caffeine. And while I myself have put down enough soda and coffee in one sitting to kill a small gerbil, one kind has gone beyond the event horizon and has actually ended up in the hospital.
14-year old Henrik Eide Dahl of Norway was hospitalized for kidney failure after drinking 4 liters of energy drinks in a 16 hour span while playing Call of Duty at a LAN party. He slipped into a coma, and spent nearly two weeks in the hospital recovering from damage to his kidneys, lungs, cardiovascular and nervous systems. There has been no word on whether or not the caffeine in the drinks was the sole cause of Dahls coma, due to the fact that energy drinks commonly contain a wide array of chemicals and stimulants.
While I’m sure there will be quite a few parties who attempt to throw the blame for this incident at either the energy drinks or video games, one must remember that caffeine is in fact a drug. Though energy drinks may not be the healthiest choice, anything in excess can be life threatening, even water. The fact of the matter is someone chose to put an exceptional amount of a drug into their system in a short period of time. Ultimately the consequences of their actions are on them. Besides, everyone knows you aren’t supposed to pass out from putting poison into your body until you are 21. Then no one cares. | <urn:uuid:fa7d50a7-c275-4bdf-ae28-3bd9fe6df11a> | 2 | 1.875 | 0.101432 | en | 0.964711 | http://98kupd.com/gamer-goes-into-a-coma-after-4-liters-of-energy-drinks/ |
Prototype Online: Historian David Rhees tours the "Medical Alley" hot spot
July 16, 2011
How did Minnesota spawn a world-class cluster of medical device companies? David Rhees begins the “Medical Alley” hot spot story in 1949, when Earl Bakken co-founded Medtronic as a repair shop for medical electronics, before the company became a world-leading medical device manufacturer. In 1957, with Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, a cardiac surgeon at the University of Minnesota, Bakken developed the first wearable, external, battery-powered, transistorized pacemaker. Rhees describes Minnesota’s evolving health care industry and culture of innovation. | <urn:uuid:f8ddcb33-1e0d-497c-a62c-b0fb8d3116cc> | 2 | 1.867188 | 0.20628 | en | 0.917367 | http://americanhistory.si.edu/connect/podcasts/prototype-online-historian-david-rhees-tours-medical-alley-hot-spot |
Animal-World’s Featured Pet of the Week: The Dwarf Gourami!
The Dwarf Gourami
Animal-World’s Featured Pet for this week is: The Dwarf Gourami!
You will often see Dwarf Gourami fish displayed at pet stores! They have brilliant colored bodies and stand out from many other fish. They are extremely popular among freshwater fish enthusiasts. The Dwarf Gourami Trichogaster lalius is also known as the Dwarf Banded Gourami because of their stripes or ‘bands’. Males are especially pretty – having very vibrant colors as well as a pointed dorsal fin.
There are several reasons why it is appealing to keep Dwarf Gouramis. Other than their beautiful neon colors, they also stay small once full-grown. They reach a maximum size of 2 inches and can be kept in smaller aquariums. They are quite hardy fish as well as a peaceful fish. They are good for beginner aquarists. They can be an ideal community fish and are more shy than aggressive. Many hybrid types of Dwarf Gourami’s have been developed as well. They come in many colors and varieties and are generally readily available. You can choose from any one of these types! A couple of these are the Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami and the Flame Dwarf Gourami.
Here is a cool fact about these guys! They are one of several labyrinth fish. The labyrinth fish have an organ which allows them to absorb oxygen directly into their bloodstreams They also create “bubble” nests during breeding. Dwarf Gouramis will go al out with their nests. They bring in plants, fibers, twigs, and other debris to help fill out their nests. Their eggs and fry are both lighter than water and the whole nest will float up to the surface of the water!
The Dwarf Gourami was first characterized in 1822 by a man named Hamilton. It has gone through several names. It was first described as Colisa lalia. In 1999 it was treated as part of the Polyacanthus genus. In 2009 it was changed to the current Trichogaster lalius. It’s homelands include the Far East, Assam, Bangladesh, west Bengal, and India. They tend to live in tropical areas with lots of vegetation. Some of the common rivers it inhabits are the Ganges River and the Baram River in Borneo.
Caring for Dwarf Gouramis is easy. They can be fed any number of flake foods, pellets foods, live foods, and fresh foods. Provide a flake or pellet food as the bulk of their nutrients and then offer small amounts of live bloodworms or brine shrimp. This will keep them healthy, happy, and thriving!
Set up an aquarium which provides a minimum of 5 gallons per gourami. That is a minimum however and they will do better with larger aquariums. They love lots of plants and hiding places, so this gives you the go-ahead to decorate as much as you want! There is a common misconception that gourami’s don’t need water changes due to their labyrinth organ. This is FALSE. They can and will develop toxin build-up and tissue degradation if they are not kept in a clean environment. You should change approximately 25% of their water on a weekly basis.
If you are a beginning fish owner, I highly recommend trying out the beautiful Dwarf Gourami! They should provide a good experience as your first fish! Not only are they beautiful and easy to care for, but there is such a wide range of hybrid dwarf gouramis to choose from! Have fun and good luck!
Read more on Animal-World’s Red Factor Canary page!
Comments are closed. | <urn:uuid:cdd6c847-f0e5-428f-934f-a290f579a200> | 2 | 2.390625 | 0.028358 | en | 0.97225 | http://animal-world.com/newsfeed/animal-worlds-featured-pet-of-the-week-the-dwarf-gourami/ |
All posts tagged ‘Pyschology’
Gamifying Education With Superfunner
Kids on laptops in class
Neurocinema Aims to Change the Way Movies are Made
Producer Peter Katz views a BrainMovie at MindSign. Image: Nate Fu)
Producer Peter Katz views a BrainMovie at MindSign.Image: Nate Fu
When we sit down in a movie theater and see a film for the first time, we think we know how we react to that film. In reality, we have no clue as to how our brains are actually processing the images we are seeing on screen. Most of what we think we know is what we’ve been conditioned to know. We know to be scared at the scary parts, laugh at the funny parts and feel sad at the sad parts. Our inability to correctly communicate how films make us feel has skewed focus groups and created a standard template in the film industry as to how to make a movie.
Now, the fairly new practice of neuromarketing — where MRI technology is used to determine a shopper’s preferences and actual brain reactions to a particular product or idea — is being applied to the film industry, starting with the horror genre.
MindSign Neuromarketing is leading the charge in applying neuroscience to feature films, with assistance from film producer Peter Katz. They are calling this new hybrid of neuromarketing and how it applies to film, rather than commercials or movie trailers, neurocinema.
Recently they finished their first full test with results that could change the way films are made. Yes, someone had to lie still in an MRI machine. The objective of the research, specifically, was to determine the brain response in the amygdala to watching scenes from the horror film Pop Skull. For those that don’t know, the amygdala is the emotional center of the brain. It’s involved in feelings of disgust, anger, lust and fear — all emotions especially elicited during a horror film.
For two sessions of 48 seconds and 68 seconds, a 24-year-old female watched two scenes from the movie while being scanned in a Siemens 3T MRI scanner. With a 20-second break in between three viewings of each scene (to refocus her eyes to center), the data was converted into a BrainMovie (like those cool, colorful brain-scan things you’d see on House) and analyzed by the team at MindSign. What they saw (and what you can see in the movie below) is that for most of the two movie scenes, the amygdala lit up like a Christmas tree out of fear. This activity was pinpointed to the frame, the exact scene and action that registered the response. For instance, “The scariest moment in Scene 1 came when the hand reaches further around the corner.” It is that precise. How can any focus group be that exact in locking down the exact moment that they felt fear? Producer Peter Katz explains further in this video.
You can view a second video here (contains violence, NSFW).
To find out more about this technology and what it means for the film industry, I spoke to producer Peter Katz, an award-winning filmmaker focused on utilizing new innovative storytelling techniques from neurocinema to transmedia storytelling — and Dr. David Hubbard, a board-certified neurologist who is the leading neurologist on the project.
Continue Reading more on neurocinema and full interview with Katz and Hubbard
LEGO Love Affair: A Geekological Profile
What is it about LEGO? (image: LEGO)
What is it about LEGO? (image: LEGO)
I was sharing this site with my brother recently, and he asked me a very poignant question. He wondered what our obsession with Lego was. He lamented that whatever tech or geek related site he goes to, he’s almost guaranteed to find a post related to Lego. Of course, being a huge Lego geek myself I became defensive and warned him not to go sailing anytime soon, lest I build a pirate ship to blast him out of the water.
Aside from my empty threats of pirate revenge, I actually started thinking about this question and decided it could only be answered by building an all black space ship, complete with the little all black explorer mini-figs and blasting around the house with it. That also got me thinking. Why, as a grown man was I playing with Lego toys? What is my obsession with Lego all about? Why do geeks love Legos so much? Stocked up on Mountain Dew and some psychology 101 knowledge, I aim to answer those time tested questions. If you were wondering, the answer is not 42.
Oh, and from what I understand, the company name is LEGO and there is no plural because that is a proper noun and should always be referred to as LEGO. However, the bricks can be called en masse as Legos, as each brick is not the company, but rather the product made by the company. For the sake of this post and not getting further confused, I’m done talking about the company LEGO and will only be talking about the toy Lego. Therefore, I can use the plural Legos at my leisure, where applicable.
Continue Reading LEGO Love Affair | <urn:uuid:93599af2-15f2-413a-be58-70fb6c791a82> | 2 | 2.171875 | 0.092203 | en | 0.954063 | http://archive.wired.com/geekdad/tag/pyschology/ |
Survivors Of Nazi Era Seek Prewar Swiss Bank Funds
Panel Hears Plea For Data On Old Accounts
April 24, 1996|By Timothy J. McNulty, Washington Bureau.
WASHINGTON — Greta Beer suspects she owns millions of dollars in a numbered Swiss bank account.
She just doesn't know the number.
Beer is one of thousands who believe they are the rightful heirs of money deposited in Swiss accounts half a century ago by European Jews seeking sanctuary for their money as well as their lives.
The star witness at a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Banking Committee, Beer took up the cause of an entire generation, using her memories of the fear and chaos of the Nazi era and a plea that Swiss bankers give a full accounting of dormant accounts from that time.
Elderly and slightly hard of hearing, Beer told the panel how she worked as a tour guide in Washington for nearly two decades as her family tried to track down money that her father, Zeigfreid Deligdisch, a Romanian textile mill owner, had deposited in Switzerland before the war.
"We looked towards Switzerland like a bastion, a citadel," Beer told the senators, and she recalled her father's words before he died of a kidney ailment in 1940: "You have nothing to worry. You'll be provided for. The money is safely deposited in Switzerland."
Besides private accounts, there also may be secret Swiss accounts and deposits set up by Nazi officials to hide additional millions in money, gold ingots and art work stolen from Holocaust victims, Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, testified.
Estimates of unclaimed assets range into the billions of dollars, although there are no central records on which to base the claims.
Bronfman said the Swiss Bankers Association says there are 775 unclaimed accounts from that era holding $32 million. That amount "defies credibility," he said.
"It is ironic that the bank secrecy laws originally enacted to shield assets of Holocaust victims from the Nazis are now being used as a sword against those same victims and their families," said the committee chairman, Sen. Alphonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.).
Fiercely critical of the Swiss for a "failure of integrity" and for being willing to look the other way at deposits that came from the looting of Jewish institutions, Bronfman called for "a verifiable audit of all Nazi-era assets, those deposited by Jews and those assets stolen from the Jews by the Nazis."
Caught up in the tide of displaced persons, Beer and her mother and brother spent years moving from the Balkans across southeastern Europe and eventually to the United States. For several years in the 1970s, her mother lived in Switzerland and visited bank after bank in Geneva, Zurich, Lausanne and Montreaux in hopes of finding her husband's private account.
It was a journey that brought her to the Dirksen Senate Office Building where she pleaded with senators to help end the injustice of the Nazi era.
Stuart Eizenstat, a longtime Democratic Party adviser and newly appointed undersecretary for international trade in the Commerce Department, testified that the Clinton administration is encouraging a new committee to investigate how Swiss financial institutions find the rightful heirs to such Nazi-era accounts.
Eizenstat, who served as special envoy for property claims in Central and Eastern Europe, also suggested that in cases where no survivors can be found, the money should be donated to Holocaust survivors in Central and Eastern Europe. The Bankers Association had also proposed distributing unclaimable funds to charity.
In 1946, after the war, an agreement between the U.S. and the Swiss governments provided for unfreezing some assets. In 1962 the Swiss banking establishment released about $5.2 million and said there was a statute of limitations on further claims.
"We are committed to resolving all outstanding questions about assets that may have belonged to victims of the Holocaust in a sensitive, equitable, open, accurate and professional manner," Hans Baer, a representative of the Swiss Bankers Association told the panel.
"The last thing we would ever want to do is prolong the suffering of those victimized during the Holocaust." | <urn:uuid:bdcbdf75-7e27-429a-86cd-651bd86432ea> | 2 | 1.84375 | 0.035881 | en | 0.960486 | http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-04-24/news/9604240250_1_swiss-bankers-association-nazi-era-holocaust-victims |
Skip to content
Not Your Typical Cesarean
Not Your Typical Cesarean
An Intro to Special Scars by Jessica Tiderman
Most people know at least one person that has had a cesarean. Not many realize that there are a variety of incisions that can be used on the uterus during that cesarean. The most typical incision is a low transverse incision, which is a horizontal cut in the lower portion of the uterus usually called the lower uterine segment (LUS). Due to the lack of shorthand to describe the more unusual uterine incisions such as classical, inverted T, J, upright T or any cesarean incision other than the low transverse incision, I started calling them Special Scars. Without a way to describe these incisions, women weren’t getting the information and support that they needed.
An inverted T incision starts out with a low transverse incision and then the OB makes a vertical incision upward in the center of the uterus. A J incision also starts out with a low transverse incision but the OB makes the vertical incision up along the side of the uterus rather than the center, perhaps because the placenta or the baby was in the way. An upright T incision can happen in two ways; either the OB started with a low vertical incision and then needed more room at the top of the incision or started with a low transverse incision and made a vertical incision down toward and sometimes reaching the cervix. These three incisions are usually used for babies that are severely malpositioned and/or very stuck. The vertical portion of these incisions can range from a few millimeters to several centimeters. These are also usually contained within the LUS, but can extend into the upper uterine segment (UUS).
Classical incisions are vertical incisions and can be placed just about anywhere on the midline (middle) of the uterus but tend to be in the UUS. There is some dispute about the standard placement of a classical incision. They are still commonly used for early preterm cesareans although some doctors have switched to using the low transverse incision for those as well. Finally, low vertical incisions are simply that, a vertical incision on the midline that is contained within the LUS. This is used when the baby is in a transverse lie or if the placenta is in a location where they would typically cut.
Clearly, the Special Scars are a more complicated matter. The cesareans that end up in these incisions tend to take longer due to baby’s position, which leaves the mom more vulnerable to infection or other adverse effects from being open for so long. Moms with these incisions are more likely to have a host of problems that are less likely to occur with low transverse incisions – wound infection, endometritis, septicemia, transfusion, ICU admission, hysterectomy, and maternal death. These incisions can also increase the mother’s length of stay in the hospital. Babies born from these incisions also have increased risks – stillbirth, neonatal death, APGAR less than 7 at 5 minutes, ICU admission.(1)
Emotionally, the moms may suffer from postpartum depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. It is very likely that they were told many times during their stay in the hospital after their cesarean that they would never be able to have a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) after that particular surgery. They likely heard that statement so many times that they believe it. When they find out that it is possible to have a vaginal birth after their Special Scar they may feel shocked, angry, betrayed or any combination of those. Sadly, there is no research about the emotional effects of these incisions on women.
Once the woman decides she wants to have a vaginal birth it can be very difficult to find a care provider who is willing to assist a VBAC after a Special Scar (VBASSC). The search usually requires calling many doctors and/or midwives before locating one that will attend a trial of labor. When a care provider is not initially open to the idea, it is usually best to not even try talking them into it. It is unlikely that you will be the one to change his or her mind. University hospitals tend to be more willing to assist due to their size and staff. Some home birth midwives are willing to attend VBASSCs when not legally restricted from doing so by their state.
Many care providers are unwilling to assist a VBASSC because the risk of rupture is slightly higher than the risk of rupture after a low transverse incision. The generally accepted risk of rupture for low transverse incisions is 0.4-0.9% while the risk of rupture for inverted T, classical and J incisions is 1.9%.(2) Interestingly, low vertical incisions have no more of an increase in the risk of rupture than low transverse incisions.(3) If the cesarean was performed preterm there is a minimal increase in the risk of rupture.(4) As we know from Dr. Sarah Buckley’s writings, if a woman is allowed to labor unhindered her birth much more likely to go as it was designed.
Clearly, there is a need for further studies on these scars, the effects on future pregnancies and the effects on the mother emotionally. The few studies that are available used a relatively small number of subjects. Therefore, without clear evidence of exceptional risk the woman and her partner should be the ones to make the decision whether or not she attempts to have a vaginal birth. Care providers should not be making decisions about VBASSC due to a level of fear or a lack of information. Indeed, if the care provider does have that much fear he or she should excuse themselves from serving the woman and let her find a care provider who is willing to serve her and trust her body to work as it was designed. There are already a number of women who have succeeded in having a VBASSC. To read their stories, for more information about this topic and access to the studies that I have mentioned, please visit
(1) Patterson et al. Maternal and Perinatal Morbidity With Cesarean.Obstet Gynecol 2002;100:633-7
(2) Landon et al. Trial of Labor after Prior Cesarean Delivery. N Engl J Med 2004;351:2581-9.
(3) Shipp et al. Intrapartum Uterine Rupture. Obstet Gynecol 1999;94:735-40.
(4) Sciscione et al. Preterm Cesarean Delivery and Uterine Rupture. Obstet Gynecol 2008;111:648-53.
1. Abbey says:
Love it! Thank you for sharing!
2. [...] also very happy to share that this week on the ICAN blog they are featuring articles about the Special Scars group. What is a special scar? The vast [...] | <urn:uuid:d26947bb-fa81-497d-9b67-45e791e4bd56> | 2 | 2.203125 | 0.048228 | en | 0.954361 | http://blog.ican-online.org/2012/02/06/not-your-typical-cesarean/ |
Buddhasasana Home Page
English Section
Prosperity and Happiness The Buddhist View
Suvimalee Karunaratna
The Buddha's prescriptions for prosperity and happiness have been always laced with liberal doses of ethics. But sometimes the correlation between ethics and happiness is not very clear. The following pages try to make this connection.
The Buddha's attitude towards material wealth
Many people, including Buddhists, believe that Buddhism spurns the acquisition of material comforts and pleasure and is concerned only with spiritual development. The attainment of Nibbana is, indeed, the goal. However, the Buddha was very much alive to the fact that economic stability is essential for man's welfare and happiness.
1) Atthisukha - The happiness of ownership.
3) Ananasukha - the happiness derived from not being in debt.
4) Bhogasukha - the happiness of sharing one's wealth. This kind of happiness is an extremely important concept in Buddhism.
Although the Buddha saw that economic stability was important for man's happiness, he also saw the harmful side of wealth. Rather, he saw that man's natural desires and propensities are such that wealth provides ample scope for these propensities to surface and indulge themselves. Yet, it appears, desires can never be fully satisfied for it is stated in the Ratthapalasutta (M.II.68) "Uno loko atitto tanhadaso." The world is never satisfied and is ever a slave to craving. The Dhammapada (vs. 186-187) also points out this insatiability in man. "Na kahapana vassena titthi kamesu vijjati..." Not by a shower of gold coins does contentment arise in sensual pleasures.
On another occasion the Buddha said, " Grass is to be sought for by those in need of grass. Firewood is to be sought for by those in need of firewood. A cart to be sought for by those in need of a cart. A servant by him who is in need of a servant. But, Headman, in no manner whatsoever do I declare that gold and silver be accepted or sought for. "(S.IV 326) The meaning is very clear from these statements. Wealth is to be sought not as an end in itself but as a means to an end, for attaining various objectives and fulfilling duties.
The Andhasutta (A.I. 128-129) presents an apt analogy where we can locate the ethically ideal position. The Buddha says there are three types of persons to be found in the world: The totally blind, the one who can see with one eye, and, the one who can see with both eyes. The man who is totally blind is the one who can neither acquire wealth nor discern right from wrong. The one who can see with one eye is the man who can acquire wealth but cannot discern right from wrong. The one who has perfect sight in both eyes is the ideal individual. He can acquire wreath and also discern what is right from wrong. The Buddhist view is that the ideal man is the man who is wealthy and virtuous.
In another analogy (S.I.. 93ff) the Buddha classified people into the following categories:
Tama (dark) to Tama (dark)
Tama (dark) to Joti (light)
Joti (light) to tama (dark)
Joti (light) to Joti (light)
The tama person is poor and may or may not possess good qualities such as faith and generosity. The Joti person is rich and may or may not possess good qualities such as faith and generosity. The Tama person who does not possess good qualities who is mean and devoid of faith will go from from darkness to darkness. The Tama person who has faith and is of a generous disposition will go from darkness to light. The joti person who is devoid of faith and generosity will go from light to darkness. The Joti person who has good qualities will go from light to light.
Sometimes wealth causes certain people to be miserly. The Buddha has remarked that riches "that are not rightly utilized run to waste, not to enjoyment" and compares such a person to a lake of pure water lying in an inaccessible savage region. (S.I. 89-90).
How should one acquire wealth in a way that will conduce to prosperity and happiness?
People from various walks of life and of varying temperaments came to the Buddha to ask him all kinds of advice. The people of Veludvara and Dhigajanu Vyaggapajja of Kakkarapatta, for instance (on separate occasions) visited the Buddha and requested him to teach them those things which would conduce to their happiness in this life as well as the next.
Dhiajanu Vyaggapajja (like the people of veludvara) confessed to enjoying life thoroughly. "Lord" he said "we householders like supporting wives and children. We love to use the finest muslins from Benares and the best sandalwood, deck ourselves with flowers, garlands and cosmetics. We also like to use both silver and gold." (A.IV 280)
With great compassion did the Buddha give Vyaggapajja (as he did the people of veludvara on another occasion) a comprehensive prescription for the attainment of prosperity and happiness without ever deprecating the life of sensuous enjoyment Laymen like to lead. It is in this sutta that the Buddha advocated four conditions which if fulfilled would give one prosperity and happiness. They are:
1. Utthanasampada - achievement in alertness. The Buddha has described this quality as skill and perseverance and applying an inquiring mind into ways and means whereby one is able to arrange and carry out one's work successfully.
2. Arakkhasampada - achievement in carefulness,
3. Kalyanamittata - having the compainionship of good friends who have the qualities of faith, virtue, generousity and wisdom.
4. Samajivikata - maintaining a balanced livelihood. This last condition requires one not to be unduly elated or dejected in the face of gain or loss but to have a good idea of one's income and expenditure and live within one's means. A man is advised not to waste his wealth like shaking a fig tree to get one fruit, thereby causing all the fruits on the tree, ripe and unripe, to fall on the ground and go waste. Nor is one advised to hoard wealth without enjoying it and die of starvation.
This advice with regard to acquiring material wealth is followed up with four conditions for one's spiritual welfare which would ensure one a happy birth in the next life also. They are: Having the qualities of faith, (saddha) virtue, (sila) charity (dana) and wisdom (panna)
A careful look at the two sets of four conditions clearly show that the principle underlying them is that one should maintain a balance between material and spiritual progress. Directing one's attention to one's spiritual welfare along with one's daily activities having to do with acquiring wealth acts as a break to ever-increasing greed. The purpose of restraining greed or sense desires is to develop contentment with less wants. Amassing wealth for its own sake is condemned by the Buddha. When wealth is not shared and is used only to satisfy one's own selfish aims, it leads to resentment in society. When this sutta is carefully considered the connection between ethics and happiness becomes apparent.
Further in the sutta, wealth is likened to a tank of water with four outlets through which the water is liable to flow out and go waste. These outlets are what dissipates wealth, viz., debauchery, addiction to liquor, gambling and keeping company with evil doers. The four inlets which keep replenishing the supply of water in the tank are the practising of the opposites of what has been mentioned above such as abstaining from debauchery, etc.
According to the Alavakasutta (Sn. p.33) wealth is acquired by energetic striving, amassed by strength of arm and sweat of brow.
The Buddha has also observed that in acquiring wealth one should not be deterred by cold, heat, flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, creeping things, dying of hunger and thirst but that one should be prepared to endure all these difficulties. (M.I. 85) In short, being idle and shirking hardhips is not the best way to succeed in gaining prosperity.
Earning wealth through selling intoxicating liquor, harmful weapons, drugs and poisons or animals to be killed are all condemned. They fall into the category of wrong livelihood (A.III 206.) One's livelihood must be earned through lawful means, non - violently (S.IV 336). In fact, the Buddha has stated that the wealth of those who amass it without intimidating others, like a roving bee who gathers honey without damaging flowers, well increase in the same way as does an anthill. (D.III 188)
In the Dhananjanisutta (M.II. 188) ven'ble Sariputta states that no one can escape the dreadful results of unlawful and non - righteous methods of livelihood by giving the reason that one is engaged in them to perform his duties and fulfill obligations. The Dhammikasutta of the Sutta nipata states "Let him dutifully maintain his parents and practise an honourable trade. The householder who observes this strenuously goes to the gods by name Sayampabhas."
In the Parabhavasutta of the Sutta nipata, the Buddha stressed ethical conduct if a man is to avoid loss of wealth. In fact, innumerable are the discourses which advise one to observe the pancasila - the five precepts, which are based on the principle of respect and concern for others. They imply that one should not jeopardize the interests of others (M.I. 416), that one must not deprive another of what legitimately belongs to him (M.I. 157) for it is indicated that a man's possessions form the basis of his happiness (M.A.II 329, Commentary to the Saleyyaka sutta, M.I. p.285) Far less should any one deprrive another of his life or cause pain or harm to any living being. The Dhammapada (v 129) states:
"Sabbe tasanti dandassa
Sabbe bhayanti macuno
Attanam upamam katva
Na haneyya, na ghataye."
How should one spend wealth so that one may obtain optimum happiness?
In the Anguttaranikaya (A III 279) the Buddha says that there are five advantages to be gained in having wealth. With one's wealth one can make oneself, parents, wife, children, workers, friends and colleagues happy and also make offerings to recluses and Brahmins. The Buddha says that a person who spends his money in this way can be compared to a lovely lake with clear, blue, cold, delicious, crystalline water which lies near a village or township from which people can draw water, drink from it, bathe in it and use it for any other purpose. (S. I.90) The Pattakammasutta (A II 67) extends this list besides the above ways of spending money to include securing wealth against misfortunes by way of fire, water, king, robbers, enemies or ill disposed heirs, spending wealth for the fivefold offerings such as natibali (relatives), atithibali (guests), petabali (departed ancestors) rajabali (king's tax) devabali (gods), and offering gifts to recluses and Brahmins who abstain from sloth and negligence who are genuinely disciplined, kind and forbearing.
The Pattakammasutta goes on to say that if a person disregarding these fourfold purposes spends his money it is called "wealth that has failed to seize its opportunity, failed to win merit, unfittingly made use of."
How should one protect the wealth one has earned?
The Buddha has pointed out that wealth must be protected from fire, floods, the king, robbers, enemies and unbeloved heirs (A.III 259). Two out of these five dangers are natural calamities. The other three arise through human agency. This is where the importance of the second precept is seen. If each individual observes the five precepts, society is to a great deal made secure against infringement of individual rights and a peaceful, harmonious existence is ensured. What the Buddha points out is that ethics have a direct bearing on one's security and happiness.
The correlation between ethics and happiness
Buddhist ethics are based on the principle that certain actions (kamma) result in certain effects; in short, they are based on the Law of Causality - Paticcasamupada. But, we may ask, why do immoral acts result in suffering and unhappiness? What is the correlation between moral acts and beneficial results?
The Culakammavibhangasutta of the Majjhimanikaya mentions that a person who kills a living creature will be born in an evil state. This remark is not based on mere speculation. Such states are observable through higher knowledge - abhinna - attained through meditation. It is through this higher knowledge obtained at Enlightenment, by assiduous mind training and purification, that the Buddha was able to see by means of a thoroughly clarified mind, free from all defilements, the data on which he based his theory of Causality. This doctrine of Paticcasamupada or conditionedness explains the relational dynamics of phenomena, both physical and psychological. Paticcasamupada is the process through which the law of kamma also operates. Kamma, as every Buddhist knows, originates in volition. The oft quoted words of the Buddha regarding kamma are, "Cetena, bhikkhave, kammam vadami....." (A. III 415) At the same time, Buddhism acknowledged the fact that there were laws, other than kammaniyama, that operated in the world such as uttuniyama, bijaniyama, cittaniyama and dhammaniyama.
As has been seen the pancasila ensures our security in society. Also, to a great extent, the fact that good actions lead to beneficial results and that bad actions lead to suffering is observable in daily life and we are able to know this experientially.
The Buddha's prescription for prosperity and happiness in this and in the next life is based on very practical advice of a worldly nature, inextricably linked with ethics. The layman's code of ethics - which includes the observance of the pancasila - the five precepts - is a sine qua non for all Buddhists. The social consequences of observing the basic ethics enunciated in the layman's code of ethics are very extensive. They contribute to producing a protective atmosphere of security and goodwill around one which is conducive to both material and spiritual progress.
The most important suttas included in the layman's code of ethics are the Mahamangalasutta, Dhammikasutta, Parabhavasutta and Vasala sutta of the Sutta nipata, the Sigalovadasutta of the Digha nikaya and Vyaggapajjasutta and the Gihisukhasutta of the Anguttaranikaya.
There is no space here to go into the reciprocal duties listed in the Sigalovadasutta between a householder and members of his family and the reciprocal duties of a householder vis - a - vis the members of society on the periphery of his family. Briefly, there are duties and obligations which a layman should perform for each of the individuals represented by the six directions, viz., the East (parents - children), the South (Teachers - pupils), the West, (husband - wife), North (friends and associates), Zenith (religieux - laymen), Nadir (employer - employee). If these duties and obligations are fulfilled they would contribute considerably to establishing harmonious relationships within the family and without. Among the duties and obligations of an employer towards and employee are assigning work according to ability, supplying food and wages, tending them in sickness, sharing delicacies, and giving them leave. Employees should perform duties well, uphold the employer's good name, take only what is given, rise before him and sleep after him.
Among the duties of children towards parents are supporting them (in their old age) and performing other duties for them. The duties of parents towards children include restraining them from evil, encouraging them to do good, training them for a profession, arranging a suitable marriage and handing over their inheritance at the proper time.
A husband should be courteons to the wife, not despise her, faithful to her, give her, authority over household matters, provide her with adornments. A wife should perform her duties well, be hospitable to relatives on both sides and attendants, faithful, protect the husband's wealth, and be skillfull and industrious in discharging her duties. This advice shows that good relations between a husband and wife and the good relation they maintain with others and their own industry conduce to their prosperity and happiness. Co - operation, interaction and good will are stressed.
A classic definition of good actions and bad actions is given in the Ambalatthika Rahulovadasutta of the Majjhimanikaya:
"Whatever action, bodily, verbal or mental, leads to suffering for oneself, for others or for both, that action is bad (akusala). Whatever action, bodily, verbal or mental, does not lead to suffering for oneself, for others or for both, that action is good (kusala)"
A guiding principle concerning Buddhist ethics is the axiom, "Yo attanam rakkhati, so param rakkhati" -- He who protect himself protects others; or "Param rakkhanto attanam rakkhati" -- When you protect others, you protect yourself.
It is said that one protects others by tolerance (khantiya), non - injury (avahimsa) compassionate love (mettata) and kindness (anudayata). It can be seen that pancasila is implicit in these. When the pancasila is observed scrupulously it protects one and others very adequately.
Buddhist ethics urge that one's actions should flow from a view that is not egocentric but which regards oneself and others as one. What is stressed is not a monism but the principle of anatta in the psycho - physical process which goes to make up the human being. Consider stanza 7 of the Karaniyamettasutta of the sutta nipata:
"Mata yatha niyamputtam
ayusa ekaputtam anurakkhe
evampi sabba bhutesu
manasam bhavaye aparimanam."
"Just as a mother would protect
her only child with her life,
even so let one cultivate
a boundless love towards all beings."
The view of anatta in the philosophy shows that the division between the mentally constructed notion of "I" and the rest of the world as the "other" is artificial. When actions flow from this stand point, then such actions are bound to be ethical (kusala); that is to say, they do not lead to raga (attachment) but viraga (detachment). This, of course, is the ideal - the goal,
This view of detachment recommended, based on the belief that all phenomena are devoid of a permanent essence, demonstrates the fact that there is no radical difference between the outlook of one who is bent on attaining nibbana and the one who is practising the path in lay life.
The Buddha's prescriptions for the attainment of prosperity and happiness through material wealth in an ethical manner ensures one's gradual progress on the path. The following quotation from David J. Kalupahana's book, Buddhist Philosophy explains this idea well.
"It may not be far from the truth to say that this attitude of renunciation is behind every moral virtue. Not only those who leave everyday life and embrace the life of a monk, but everyone is expected to practice renunciation to the extent to which he is able. Without such sacrifices, there cannot be perfect harmony in society. Thus, even the simplest of virtues, such as generosity, liberality, caring for one's parents, family, fellow beings and others cannot be practiced without an element of renunciation or sacrifice. This is the 'sacrifice' the Buddha emphasized."
Source: Buddhist Cultural Centre, Sri Lanka
Home Page: http://www.lanka.net/bcc/ | <urn:uuid:5c091496-fd6d-4fa0-b7db-1b3a3b876492> | 3 | 2.71875 | 0.024764 | en | 0.954063 | http://budsas.org/ebud/ebdha049.htm |
NewsApp (Free)
Read news as it happens
Download NewsApp
Available on
Rediff News All News » Business » Why it makes sense to build a business and sell it
Why it makes sense to build a business and sell it
January 29, 2010 11:29 IST
It has become old fashioned to be attached to your business, says Bhupesh Bhandari.
The Oberois of East India Hotels have brought in Analjit Singh as a white knight. ITC has acquired close to 15 per cent in the company - a few more shares to go for the mandatory open offer, and the Oberois could lose the business they have built painstakingly over three generations.
They have done what we have always expected all businessmen to do: Protect their company.
But that doesn't always happen. Some time back, I had asked Anand Burman if it hurt when Dabur Pharma got sold to Fresenius Kabi of Germany. He thought for a while and said, "No."
The answer, I must admit, surprised me. Dabur Pharma had been his baby from day one. He had made it a research-driven company, and Dabur Pharma was able to develop a niche for itself in the field of oncology. Not an easy task. Burman himself is a scientist.
He has over three dozen patents under his belt, and the best days of his working life, he admits, have been spent in a laboratory. It didn't hurt him to sell a business he built from scratch? I was stumped.
This perhaps is the new fact of business in India. It is no longer a matter of shame to build a business and then sell it for a good price. The Oberois could find themselves in a minority.
The idea of business, the argument goes, is to make money. So, if there is somebody who values your business more than you, what's wrong with selling it to him? Another argument says that if somebody else can run the business better than you, then let him do so; that's in the best interests of the business. It has become old fashioned to be attached to your business.
In the past, there were just a handful of serial entrepreneurs like C Sivasankaran or Amit Judge. Others would baulk at the idea of selling an asset they had built. (Some even drove their companies to sickness rather than turn it over to somebody else.
Of course, any reference to the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction meant you got the creditors off your back.) I had once asked the late Lalit Mohan Thapar if he would ever sell his grand house on the banks of the Ganga near Hardwar to any hotelier; he almost choked with shock. But that's not what the new lot thinks.
Take the example of Ranbaxy. Bhai Mohan Singh, who bought the company from Ranjit Singh and Gurbax Singh in a distress sale, would often call it his fourth son, after Parvinder, Manjit and Analjit. Yet, his grandsons, Malvinder and Shivinder, sold it to Daiichi Sankyo of Japan for close to Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion).
Apart from some old timers who felt bad, most others complimented the brothers on the timing of the sale - the Ranbaxy stock fell soon thereafter. The family could never have made so much money had it stayed invested.
Merchant bankers these days are flooded once again with mandates to sell assets -companies, land, factories, brands et al. The list of sellers they mention will shock anybody.
These include some of the most venerated names of the Indian corporate landscape. Everybody knows that valuations are on a rebound and it is once again good time to sell.
So, expect some big names to change hands over the next couple of years. Buyers though are still cautious - the valuations demanded by sellers, they feel, have like in 2006 and 2007, become unreasonable. But everybody knows that it's just a matter of time before they arrive at an agreeable price.
This is a significant mindset change from the past. Family silver was never pawned or sold, no matter how dire the situation may have become. This perhaps is the reason why hostile takeovers were unheard of in India till recently.
There were never enough sellers in the market. In the mid-1980s, Swraj Paul came to India and found sitting ducks in Escorts and DCM. The promoters had small stakes in the company.
The Shrirams of DCM (it was called Delhi Cloth Mills before the raid) had, in fact, been merrily selling shares to pay the punitive taxes levied by the government. It was only after the raid was called off (after substantial government intervention, of course) that businessmen realised how tenuous their hold was over their companies.
In the new scheme of things, when promoters are ready to "unlock value", businesses have come to be structured differently. It's an open secret that the company has always been the cash cow for most businessmen.
The purchase function, for example, was always entrusted to a member of the family. I don't have to tell you why. The methods have now become more sophisticated.
My advice would be to check out who owns the real estate where the company's offices are located, and who owns the security company that has been hired to guard the factory?
The idea is that even if a company gets sold, a steady source of income should be there for the promoters.
Bhupesh Bhandari | <urn:uuid:ffd6c9b9-c4b0-484e-a3ba-1d0b2e092436> | 2 | 1.867188 | 0.089519 | en | 0.981401 | http://business.rediff.com/column/2010/jan/29/guest-why-it-makes-sense-to-sell-a-good-business.htm |
What Do the United States and India Have in Common (Besides Indians): Enough for a Strategic Alliance?
Kern W. Craig
The United States and India have much in common (besides Indians), enough in fact to constitute a comprehensive alliance. Both countries are former British colonies. Both use the English language: unofficially but more in the US; and, officially but less in India. Both are complimentarily large, the US in terms of area and India in terms of population. The people of India are however younger and poorer. Both countries have long coastlines and together they are adjacent the major oceans of the world: Pacific, Artic, and Atlantic including the Gulf of Mexico; and, Indian including the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.
The United States of America and the Republic of India have now converged as welfare states. The US was once more capitalistic whereas India was once more socialistic. Both countries use Affirmative Action: for minorities and women in the US; and, for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes in India. Both governments are secular but the US is predominately Christian whereas India is predominately Hindu. Both countries face the threat of Islamic terrorism particularly the US vis-à-vis Afghanistan and India vis-à-vis Pakistan. And both the United States and India must contend with the new super-state, China.
Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.5539/ass.v9n2p70
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Copyright © Canadian Center of Science and Education
| <urn:uuid:6ba78337-95fe-4e90-8b3f-fb076a49f1b4> | 3 | 2.9375 | 0.176726 | en | 0.891019 | http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/view/24355/0 |
Subsets and Splits