text:
University will use Coursera to explore online class materials
As part of efforts to employ technology to enhance the Princeton academic experience and enable faculty to extend their teaching beyond the physical borders of the campus, the University will explore the development of online class materials via the new educational platform Coursera. According to Coursera, Princeton will join Stanford University, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania in developing Web-based course materials from a variety of academic fields.
"The Coursera platform will allow our faculty to explore ways to improve teaching in our own classrooms, while at the same time allowing them to make exceptional educational opportunities available well beyond the confines of our campus," Princeton President Shirley M. Tilghman said. "We are very pleased that faculty in a broad range of disciplines are interested in tailoring the use of this technology to their own particular courses for the purposes of improving both the impact and the scope of their teaching."
Coursera, which was founded in 2011 by two Stanford computer science professors, is modeled on an interactive learning experience. The Coursera website features recorded video lectures that are embedded with quizzes and interactive exercises to reinforce concept retention as well as collaborative forums for viewers to discuss materials and pose questions. Users from around the world may access Coursera for free.
Provost Christopher Eisgruber said the University is interested in exploring innovative technologies for use in the Princeton classroom, where appropriate, and that while the Coursera platform offers one option, the University may also pursue other collaborations or develop approaches specifically tailored to Princeton.
"Coursera's innovative platform will provide valuable opportunities for some Princeton professors who want to use online supplements to enhance their classroom teaching in ways that reinforce Princeton's vibrant culture of student engagement," he said. "Princeton will also continue efforts to identify other collaborations and approaches that facilitate the pedagogical initiatives of its faculty, whether they are invoking new technologies or sustaining the virtues of traditional teaching methods."
Deputy Dean of the College Clayton Marsh, who is helping oversee the collaboration with Coursera, said the venture is part of Princeton's broader efforts to support and encourage innovative uses of technology in teaching and learning.
Marsh said the University has formed a project team based in the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning that will work over the summer with professors interested in developing online materials for their courses, and expects that some content will be ready for use on campus in the fall. Dean of the Faculty David Dobkin will form a faculty committee to address policy issues related to the development of online courses, Marsh added. When Princeton faculty choose to place course materials on the Coursera website for public access, the University does not plan to offer course credits or certificates to public viewers who access those materials.
"Princeton's exploration of online course materials will focus on how they can be used to accentuate the particular strengths of undergraduate education on this campus — how they can be used to enhance the frequency and quality of student-faculty interaction, both in and out of the classroom," Marsh said.
For example, Marsh said, the self-assessments embedded within the pre-recorded online materials provide faculty with real-time feedback about student learning so that classes may be used more in more focused ways to address areas that require special attention.
"Students will be able to work through and review pre-recorded course materials at their own pace, giving them a better chance to master difficult concepts that are especially elusive when presented through the fleeting medium of live lecture," he said.
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering David Wentzlaff, one of the faculty members who has expressed an interest in developing content for Coursera, said he hopes that students will be able to learn in different manners by increasing the online material for his class on computer architecture.
"I am curious to try putting all of my course's current lecture material online in an interactive way, and then use our class time to discuss some of the more challenging problems and focus on synthesizing the key takeaway points," he said.
Robert Sedgewick, the William O. Baker *39 Professor in Computer Science, said he anticipates using Coursera to extend the reach of the popular teaching websites on algorithms and introductory computer science that he has been developing with Kevin Wayne, the Philip Y. Goldman '86 Senior Lecturer in Computer Science.
"The Coursera platform provides an opportunity to leverage the demonstrated appeal of this content by adding videos associated with lecture slides, increasing the extent to which assessment can be automated and exploring other innovative approaches to teaching and learning," Sedgewick said. "Not only will this substantially expand our audience around the world, but also Princeton students will benefit from this effort because it will lead to more and better Web content, improving what they already use, and because it will provide extensive and powerful tools for use by their preceptors, giving them more time for personal interaction with students."
While noting that programs like Coursera are part of an exploration of "new terrain," Senior Lecturer in Psychology Andrew Conway said online lectures could supplement a course "much like a good textbook, and then more class time could be devoted to discussion."
Historian Jeremy Adelman, the director of the Council for International Teaching and Research, said such educational technologies promote more experimental and global learning opportunities. He noted that Coursera also supports supplemental materials, such as interactive maps.
"One of my big themes is change in global commerce. Imagine during the first weeks of the course asking students to go online to fill in a blank map of the world with what they have learned about what commodities were traded, who did the trading, where the main arrows of long-distance trade are traced, and the technologies and religious beliefs of merchants," said Adelman, the Walter Samuel Carpenter III Professor in Spanish Civilization and Culture. "The point is, what is posted is not just my lectures and my chosen readings, but the product of the students."
Adelman said the opportunity to share some of his lectures with a worldwide audience also is an exciting prospect.
"My first priority is to my students at Princeton. But, what I can share with them and encourage them to explore can equally be of value to others," he said.


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Lower School Primary Concert
Lower School Primary Concert
Wyoming Seminary students in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, as well as grades 1-4, performed in the Lower School's Holiday Chorus Program on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022, at the Amato Auditorium. Musical selections included "All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)," "Jingle Bells" and "Seven Feet of Snow!" and the evening concluded with a visit by Santa Claus. An art gallery, featuring creations by Lower School students, was also on display throughout the building.
Middle School Choral Concert
Middle School Instrumental Concert
National Signing Day, Fall '22
Grandparents Day at the Lower School
2022 Upper School Commencement
2022 Lower School Graduation
Boys lacrosse wins district championship
Senior art show at the KCCA
Primary Choral Concert/Art Show
John Vaida's Farewell Concert
"Space play" by kindergarten
Second Grade Art Show
Walk for Water 2022
Long spring weekend
"Impossible Made Possible" by third grade
Sem Dance Marathon 2022
"The Lion King Jr." at the Lower School
Opening Night, "Footloose" at the KCCA
Lower School students play the ukulele
January 2022 Wrestling Weekend
Kindergarten Flight to Australia
"Nutcracker Sweets" rehearsal and concert
Opening Night: Nelson Bell Tower STEAM Maker Challenge Exhibit
First grade trip to Roba's
Pumpkin Painting on the Back Campus
Science Research Group, 25th Anniversary
First Day of LEGO Robotics Learning
Back to School 2021 — Complete Collection
Johnny Appleseed Day for kindergarten
Football season opener against the Peddie School
First Day of School, 2021
Fall 2021 Activities Fair
7th/8th grade co-ed soccer practice
Summer at Sem Creative Arts
Upper School Commencement 2021
Fourth Grade Chalk Art Fun
2021 Open House
Spring scenes at the Upper School
Lower School Dolphin Quest
Boys lacrosse and softball practice
LEGO Day in Sordoni Library
2020-21 Girls Basketball Senior Night
Lower School Valentine's Day 2021
Kindergarten studies Australia
STEAM Virtual Event
Cinti and Johns signing day
Upper School Tree Planting
Fall Dude.Be Nice event
Student snapshots
Lower School Halloween Celebration, 2020
First Day of School 2020
Lower School 50th Anniversary Celebration
Lower School Virtual Science
Seventh Grade Cloud Study
Eighth Grade Graduation Gifts
Summer Explorations Week 1
Lower School Sem Pride Day
Lower School Pet Week
Lower School asks What's for lunch?
Lower School Online Learning
Virtual Kindergarten Birthday Party
Lower School Last Day of School!
Wrestling teams win 2020 National Championships
Roaring 20s Day in eighth grade
Schoolhouse Rock at Lower School
Lower School Party Bots
Upper School Annual Sem Bowl 2020
Party Bots at Lower School
Lower School students try martial arts
MLK Day Literacy Project at Lower School
Dentist visits kindergarten
Lower School Love to Run event 2020
Lower School Valentine's Day Pizza Parties
Lower School Cupcake Wars
Lower School Valentines Day Celebration
Third Grade QR Carols
2019 Preschool Grinch Day
2019 Lower School Holiday Concert and Tea
Lower School Green Holiday Crafts
Lower School Grandparents Day 2019
Scholastic Book Fair 2019
WEBS Program at Wilkes University
STEM Saturday Cardboard Challenge 2019
Summer at Sem 2019
2019 Society Day
Lower School Field Day 2019
Round Square in Peru
Second Grade Art Show
Lower School Mother's Day Teas
Kindergarten Space Play
Third Grade Wax Museum
Accepted Students Day 2019
Poet Visits Lower School
Lower School Party Bots
Mongolian wrestlers visit Lower School
Fire Inside Photo Exhibit
School House Rock 2019
Lower School Cupcake War
Second grade democracy project
Dentist visits kindergarten and first grade
Reading to help feed others
STEM Saturday at Sem...Beyond the Hour of Code
Fourth Grade studies owl pellets
Fifth grade builds Hogwarts Castle
Penguin visits Pre-Kindergarten class
Lower School MathCounts team
18-19 Lower School Science Olympiad team
Lower School Immigration Day_19
Australian Olympics in Kindergarten
Radical Readers, Puzzle Month
Grinch Day
Field Hockey state champions
Kindness Rocks
First Day of School 2018-19
Activities Fair
Bernstein at 100
Billy Bustamante visits Sem
Renaissance Men
Choral Orchestra Concert
Junior Creative Arts
Orientation Weekend
Udi Bar-David Concert
Seize the Day performance
Summer Exploration
Alex's Lemonade Stand
Lower School celebrates Pi Day
Winter Sports Awards Assembly
Winter Sports Championships
Lower School Math Counts State Competition
Wilkes Engineering students visit Lower School
Lower School STEM Night 2019
French students visit Lower School
First Grade Fish Tales play
Third grade Wax Museum project
First Grade visits Dolphin Quest Bermuda
Fourth Grade visits Franklin Institute
Frida Kahlo stories in second grade
Tesla cars visit Lower School
Preschool Easter Egg Hunt
Lower School Earth Day observance
White Team service project
Lower School Spring Choral Concert and Art Show
Lower School Ice Cream Surprise
Fourth grade visits Quiet Valley Farm
Lower School Sidewalk Chalk Poetry
Lower School Spring Instrumental Concert
Tesla cars at Lower School
Sixth-grade Storytellers Event
3-D Eiffel Tower Puzzle
Environmental Club donates to Blue Chip Farm
Third-grade Egyptian project
Lower School First Day of 2019-20!
Camp Orchard Hill Retreat for new students
Upper School First Day and Convocation
Community Day of Service
Franklin Institute Science Show
Second grade studies microbes
Lower School WEBS 2019
Second grade studies in Gover Garden
Football players visit Lower School
Nat Geo interview in fifth grade
Microbe study in second grade
Seventh-grade visit to Camp Orchard Hill
Second Grade currency lesson
Lower School Maker Space Monday
Fourth grade studies bones
Trip to Lackawanna Coal Mine
Of Mice and Mozart 2019
WEBS students create lip balm
Lower School Halloween 2019
Lower School STEM Week--3D Printing
Fourth-grade paper cutting
Second grade visits Everhart Museum
Second grade airplane project
Lower School STEM Week activities
Veterans Day exhibits at Lower School
Lower School Players present "Aesop's Fables"
Fourth Grade and Wilkes University Book Project
Pre-K Thanksgiving Opera
Third Grade Thanksgiving Lunch
Sem Goes Shopping 2019
Upper School Grandparents Day 2019
Upper School Parents Weekend 2019
Second Grade studies bird and animal bones
November WEBS projects
Preschool letters to Santa
2nd and 6th grades collaborate on projects
Holiday stories at Lower School
2019 Hour of Code at Lower School
LEGO Holiday Village
Lower School Mix It Up Lunch and Dude.Be.Nice
Second Grade Architecture Project
Fourth Grade Metric Measurement
Select Chorus sings at Penguins game
Dude.Be Nice Week 2020
Summer at Sem Creative Arts
Upper School Living Wax Museum
A Penguin visits pre-kindergarten class
Lower School Apple Teachers
Sustainable Nutrition Gathering
Eighth-grade Immigration Day 2020
Australian Animals visit Kindergarten
Outback Olympics
First grade celebrates the Lunar New Year
Beyond Hour of Code at Lower School
Jessie Hooker-Bailey '06 live at KCCA
First Grade Fish Tales musical
Second grade studies vision and taste
Blue Team at St. Vincent Soup Kitchen
175th Anniversary Gala Dinner Dance
175th Anniversary Founders Day Assembly
175th Anniversary Community Party
175th Anniversary Celebration Showcase
Scenes from the 175th Anniversary All-School Photo
175th Anniversary Poetry Project
175th Anniversary Arts Events
Lower School 175th Anniversary Historical Display
Upper School 175th Anniversary Historical Displays

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Just because we spend a lot of time in school doesn't mean we're smart.
American adult proficiency in literacy, numeracy and problem solving ranks as some of the lowest among developed countries, despite a relatively high level of education, according to a recent survey.
In literacy, the United States came in 9th out of 13 industrialized countries surveyed, according to a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
In problem solving America ranked 8th, right below average. And Americans are particularly bad at math, coming in third from last in the numeracy rankings.
"It's distressing to see we are not performing well," said Mary Alice McCarthy, a senior policy analyst at the New America Foundation. "Young people are moving into adulthood and they do not have the necessary skills."
This comes despite the fact that the number of years Americans are expected to spend in school -- 17.1 -- is just below the OECD average of 17.5 years, and above the 16.6 years expected in the U.K. and the 16.2 years in Japan.
Related: Why young people are saying 'no' to the workforce
McCarthy said one thing that was particularly problematic is that young people in the United States are not showing a much higher level of skill than older people, despite the fact that the jobs of tomorrow will require a greater degree of knowledge.
The report attempted to measure the reading, math and problem solving skills in real world situations of over 5,000 Americans between the ages of 16 and 65.
It noted that a lack of these skills translated into real life hardships, and they were especially pronounced in America. In the United States, the odds of being in poor health are four times greater for low-skilled adults than for those with the highest proficiency -- double the average of other countries in the study.
One of the reasons America may not have scored so high is immigration, said William Thorn, a senior analyst in the education division at OECD. Immigrants tend to have fewer skills, and can bring down the average.
As with income inequality, the skills disparity was also high in the United States, said Thorn, with a big discrepancy between the good and poor performers.
Yet having a high skill set doesn't necessarily translate into a more productive economy or greater economic output. After all, Japan topped the list in both reading and math yet hardly has a red hot economy.
"The skills of a population are not entirely summarized by literacy, numbers and problem solving," said Thorn.
Still, if we want to right the situation, grades K-12 seem to be the place to start -- American college students tended to have skills more on par with their international peers.
There's no shortage of ideas on how to make America's schools better. Sandra Stotsky, a retired education professor at the University of Arkansas' Department of Education Reform, thinks students need to be held more accountable. There needs to be less testing throughout the year, but more high-stakes testing at crucial times. If students don't pass the test, they don't move on to the next grade.
Stotsky also thinks students need more options to go into the trades in high school instead of a relentless focus on sending kids to college, especially when they are not prepared.
Finally, a greater cultural emphasis on reading would do wonders, Stotsky said.
"Our students spend an enormous amount of time watching TV and playing video games," she said. "How can we expect high levels of literacy from people who don't read?"
Other ways to boost the U.S. skill set include greater access to early childhood education and more adult education programs targeting low-skilled workers, said New America's McCarthy.


text:
In her mid-90s an acclaimed poet returns with her first book since her National Book Award finalist, An Altogether Different Language
Living Things: Collected Poems. By Anne Porter. Foreword by David Shapiro. Steerforth/Zoland, 176 pp., $15, paperback.
By Janice Harayda
A few months ago, a fascinating article about Anne Porter appeared in the Wall Street Journal under the headline, "A 95-Year-Old Poet Finds Her Muse and Literary Praise." The story noted that Porter was 83 when her first collection, An Altogether Different Language, was published in 1994. The book was a finalist for a National Book Award for poetry and followed by Living Things in 2006.
The Journal article included excerpts from Porter's poems that were so good that I began looking for Living Things – online, at libraries and bookstores in Manhattan and the suburbs. Nobody had it, or could get it. It seemed that – whether because of the Journal article or Porter's growing literary reputation – the book had sold out everywhere.
Just before Lent, Living Things turned up again. And the timing couldn't have been more apt for the return of this fine collection, which has all the poems from An Altogether Different Language and 39 new ones. Living Things makes clear that Porter is an Easter lily in the field of late-blooming poets. She is a Catholic poet in the same way that Flannery O'Connor was a Catholic novelist: She describes a world that is, as O'Connor put it, founded on "the theological truths of the Faith, but particularly on three of them which are basic – the Fall, the Redemption, and the Judgment." But she transcends the label "Catholic writer." As the poet David Shapiro has said, Porter transmits "her Franciscan joy in created things" and "reminds us that the idea of the holy is still possible for us." At the same time, her poems spring from everyday life, particularly her role as the mother of five children by her late husband, the artist Fairfield Porter.
Many of her rhymed and unrhymed poems are meditations on saints, holy days or Bible verses. Others are hymns or prayers, steeped in a sense of wonder and gratitude reminiscent of that of Gerard Manley Hopkins, the Jesuit poet who wrote: "Glory be to God for dappled things." One of the most memorable poems is "A Short Prayer," an interpretation – you might even call it a brief modern translation – of the "Hail Mary." In "An Easter Lily" Porter considers the gift of a lily
Whose whiteness
Is past belief
Its blossoms
The shape of trumpets
Are mute as swans
But deep and strong as sweat
Is their feral perfume.
In seven short iambic lines, Porter links the Easter lily to glory ("trumpets"), martyrdom ("swans"), and purity (the whiteness of the lily and swans). And she does more. The best-known Bible verse about lilies, Matthew 6:28, says they "toil not" – they don't sweat. Porter's similie – "strong as sweat" – encourages you to consider the strength of the lily as well as its grace. It also connects flower implicitly to the sweat of Christ carrying the cross. Could anyone look at a lily the same way after reading this poem?
Perhaps the most poignant poem in Living Things is the loving reminiscence, "For My Son Johnny." Porter told the Wall Street Journal that she believes her late son suffered from either schizophrenia or autism. In the poem she recalls, among other things, his kindness:
Though your shoelaces were hardly ever tied
And you seldom wore matching socks
You tried to behave with dignity in the village
"So as not to embarrass my little sisters."
Porter's natural tone and diction, here and elsewhere, are part of the charm of her book. The work of religious poets can imitate, consciously or unconsciously, the language of Scripture or the great metaphysicists. Porter has a voice all her own. How lovely that, however belatedly, people are discovering it.
Best line: At this time of year, many people may especially appreciate the poems that relate to Easter, which include "In Holy Week," "Cradle Song II" and "Four Seasons Carol." Anyone who looks for strong rhymes may also enjoy "House Lots," a meditation on the arrival of bulldozers: "Good-bye sweet whistling quail/ Milkweed and Queen Anne's lace/ Good-bye shy cottomtail/ Quit your secret room …"
Worst line: None.
Published: January 2006
Furthermore: The back cover of this book has an evocative portrait of the author by her husband. Search Google for "Video: Portrait of Anne Porter" to watch a short video of Porter reading from and talking about her poetry. The Wall Street Journal article by Lucette Lagnado ran on Nov. 11–12, 2006.
Consider reading also: Common Life: Poems (CavanKerry, 2006), by Robert Cording, Barrett Professor of Creative Writing at Holy Cross. The poems in this book reflect a religious perspective and include the four-page "Lenten Stanzas" and the briefer "Pentecost in Little Falls, New Jersey."
Janice Harayda is an award-winning journalist has been the book editor of the Plain Dearler and vice-president for awards of the National Book Critics Circle. She wrote the comedies of manners The Accidental Bride (St. Martin's, 1999) and Manhattan on the Rocks (Sourcebooks, 2004).
© 2007 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.


text:
Dodge Auto Repairs and Maintenance in Spartanburg
Advantage A/C, Tire & Repair Pro Mechanics for American cars, SUVs, and trucks
Our staff here at Advantage A/C, Tire & Repair, which is located in Spartanburg is friendly and knowledgeable about your Dodge vehicle. They are waiting to answer your questions and get you scheduled for any necessary repairs or maintenance. Our technicians can diagnose and fix a wide array of problems that can arise in Dodge vehicles over time, because we know the Dodge standard for engineering and performance.
Dodge is the sporting brand in the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles stable of offerings. The muscular cars and trucks are sharply designed and are icons of American designed torque and power. Your Dodge is one of the most desirable car and trucks amongst drivers looking for thrills as well as those looking for reliable and affordable transportation. Advantage A/C, Tire & Repair in Spartanburg, has expert technicians eager to help you keep your Dodge in prime operating condition.
Dodge cars and trucks have similar problems to those that affect its corporate stablemates such as powertrain performance and AC cabin control function. Chrysler and Dodge cars and trucks are made to be affordable. At Advantage A/C, Tire & Repair we also work everyday to ensure repairing and maintain your Dodge is affordable. Issues may arise, but the well-trained Dodge service technicians at Advantage A/C, Tire & Repair in Spartanburg can handle it.
Our eager and friendly staff is waiting patiently here at Advantage A/C, Tire & Repair to meet all your Dodge repair needs. We understand the hassle one can face without their car, so we promise to work quickly and efficiently to get your Dodge back on the road and you back on your way. All you have to do is call us at 864-585-0025 to schedule an appointment. Or you can stop by our service center and meet our staff in person.


text:
Credit Card Processing
Products &
Custom Flowers
Customer Care
See our blog
Credit Card Processing
Products &
Custom Flowers
Customer Care
See our blog
Overview of Flowersbangkok.com - Online florist & gift shop
Flowersbangkok.com is an reliable, high quality, and on-time online florist servicing
Bangkok. We have helpful Customer Care representatives and
staff who are honest and reliable. We are very thankful and
lucky that our business has experienced continual success
of steady and fast growth since starting the business in 2000. We believe it is due to our business
ethics as we work hard to fulfill our customer orders well and are happy to be in the
business of making people happy.
Here are a couple of examples of some of the successful orders we have delivered. As orders are mostly sent through our network of florists, the results will vary and substitutions may apply. We will always try to have our florists do their best to arrange the order the best they can.
-Reasons for being the #1 Choice for Customers.
Highlights - Same
day orders allowed, make your own custom
flower bouquet or custom fruit
basket, donate to charity, self modify your own orders,
make extra money with our unique Beebate
program, be reminder of special occasions with our Date
reminder, and get confirmations
of your order, payment and delivery.
HIGH QUALITY: We use very high quality flowers and prepare
your order right before delivery to ensure freshness.
LOW PRICES: We believe our prices are fair and competitive with other florists. We must respect other online florists and do not want to put unnecessary pressure against other florists but we just want our customers to have a good experience and good products at good prices. If you feel our price is not the best, please let us know so we can better serve you.
EXCELLENT Customer Care: Our customer care staff are honest and hard working. They will always do their best to help. Our email response time is very fast and we handle questions quickly.
Express SAME DAY Service: In most cases, we are able to accept same day
orders throughout Bangkok . This service is available throughout
the whole year except major holidays such as Valentine's and
Mother's day.
HIGH SECURITY PAYMENT SYSTEM: Our payment system is highly
secure. We offer Paypal's payment processing as well as Authorize.net. Paypal is a public company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange
in the USA. We keep strict rules as we believe security
is important to our customers. With Paypal, we never see your credit card
BUSINESS ETHICS: We are in business to make people happy.
We have expanded our business by offering good quality products
and services. We do not take our repeat customers for granted. We believe we have to earn our customer's trust with each order. We work hard for every order which may be the reason our repeat customers have been
continually loyal.
LARGE PRODUCT MIX: We have a large product mix of over
thousands of items to choose from.
Autofill Delivery Address: You can log into your account
to view previous orders and use the previous delivery address
to autofill into your next order. This helps save time and
is more organized. This can be found at the login page.
Petalpoints are given for most items ordered. Petalpoints
are shown at the bottom of the photo under the Buy button.
You can accumulate Petalpoints and use them for future free
gifts and upgrades. Petalpoints vary for different items.
You must have an account set up to use them. Petalpoints can
be used at anytime except Valentine's. Petalpoints do not
expire. To view the current Petalpoint offers, you may click
Beebates: Beebates
have two parts. 1) Discounts 2) Commissions. Beebates
are similar to rebates where after you make a purchase you
are given a discount for the next order based on the subtotal
of your current order. When using your Beebate code to order,
you will receive both the discount as well as commissions.
You can share your Beebate Code with your friends so that
your Beetbate Revenues increase and your commission payout
is higher. Commision payout is 30% of your Beebate Revenues. When the Beebate commissions accumate
over USD
50, you can request the cash payment via Paypal.com. You must have an account to use Beebates.
A. Custom make bouquets. You can visit our virtual flower shop webpage which you can
custom make your flower bouquet.
B. Custom make fruit baskets. You can now custom make your own fruit basket.
C. Self-Modifications of orders. You can change
and self-modify your order. Our website
has been designed to provide you with enough tools to order
the exact kind of flowers you wish to deliver.
D. Photo Return Service. This service is to take a photo of the recipient and send the photo back to you
in email. This is a wonderful way to see the person you miss
and care about. This service has been widely used for love
relationships and when flowers are sent to grandparents. Please note this service is not available in all areas.
E. Singing telegrams. In some areas, we offer an unique services through, SingAlive.com, which most Bangkok florist don't provide..
We offer singing telegrams which can be ordered with your
flowers. Please first check to make sure the singer can be
arranged. This service is not available in all areas and needs to be ordered in advance. The singers are hired on a third party basis and are amateurs which dress in normal clothing.
F. Charity Donations. We have
been sincerely thankful for our success in our online floral
business. We created this extra service so that anyone who
cares about the world and wishes to help the homeless, animals in need or the needy can
send three types of donations. 1. Money donations. 2. Rose
Donations. 3. Food and Clothing Donations. With or without extra donations we try to make it a point to help the homeless and needy when possible. If you do not donate here or anywhere else, please try to give to the needy when you can. There's a lot of people in this world that feels no one cares about them. When you give a small gift, even non monetary, the people in need will feel your warmth and care and make them feel happy. It will be also rewarding for you when you see how much you can make someone else happy. Please also consider both homeless people as well as animals too. Because animals are even more helpless than people, please try to help any animal in need.
G. Email-Real-Gifts: Emailroses.com will help you send real flowers and
gifts with just an email address. This is especially helpful
for those who meet people online on websites such as social
networking, lovematch, dating sites, singles, alumni, special
events, Facebook.com, Wechat, Match.com, Myspace.com,
Linkedin.com, Orkut.com, online chat, chatrooms, and the alike. You do not need the person's address at all to send gifts!
CONFIRMATIONS: We will send you confirmations along the
way for your order.
1) A confirmation will be sent to confirm your order which
you can modify or update.
2) A confirmation will be sent from our website confirming
your payment and that your order is in progress.
3) A confirmation will be sent from our payment processor, such as
Paypal.com, confirming your payment.
4) A confirmation will be sent to confirm scheduling of your
order on the day of the order.
5) A confirmation will be sent after delivery has been made.
Order reminders. When an order is made but payment has not
been completed, we will send a friendly reminder for payment.
At this point, prior to payment, you can still modify or update
your order. This way you can make your order and pay later.
2) Date reminder. You can apply
for reminders so that you won't forget special occasions.
To use our website your computer device needs to accept session
cookies since the application uses browser session cookies
for some features (Mainly the shopping cart). The cookies
expire when the user session expires. No cookies are permanently
stored on the customer's computer. We never use cookies to
store your information nor use it for any other purpose other
than for the use of the shopping cart.
Card Processing
Currently, Flowersbangkok.com uses Paypal.com, Amazonpay and Authorize.net as the credit card processor. Having a third party credit card processor such
as Paypal.com is very safe, secure and private. Flowersbangkok.com
never sees the customer's credit card and any information
on the credit card. This is very safe and protects the consumer
against fraud. We also accept direct bank deposits and checks.
Orders will be delivered upon the completion of the deposit
& Custom Flowers
offers a large selection of flowers. We keep our flowers fresh
and good looking. We also offer the unique service of custom
make flowers. You can now choose your own floral additions
and arrangement.
Petalpoints are given for most items ordered. Petalpoints are shown
at the bottom of the photo under the Buy button. You can accumulate
Petalpoints and use them for future free gifts and upgrades.
Petalpoints vary for different items. You must have an account
set up to use them. Petalpoints can be used at anytime except
Valentine's. Petalpoints do not expire. To
view the current Petalpoint offers, you may click
have two parts. 1) Discounts 2) Commissions. Beebates
are similar to rebates where after you make a purchase you
are given a discount for the next order based on the subtotal
of your current order. When using your Beebate code to order,
you will receive both the discount as well as commissions.
You can share your Beebate Code with your friends so that
your Beetbate Revenues increase and your commission payout
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2 dead, 2 injured in crash near North Marion Middle
Two former North Marion High School students died and two other young men were taken to a hospital with serious injuries early Thursday morning after a car ran off a two-lane road and struck a tree near North Marion Middle School in Citra.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers said the vehicle was headed west on County Road 329 approaching a right-hand curve. The driver lost control of the car, and it ran off the road and hit a tree.
Cornelius Lamar Rawls Jr., 19, of Reddick, and Bryan Lorenza Blunt, 22, of Ocala, were killed, according to FHP.
Rawls' brother Demontay Drantail Billups, 22, of Reddick, and Eddie Donate Woods, 18, of Ocala, were taken to Ocala Regional Medical Center, according to FHP. Woods was in critical condition Thursday morning and Billups was in stable condition.
Clarissa Billups, the sister of Rawls and Billups, said the family is taking the news hard about Rawls.
"He always liked to joke around, and he had a baby on the way," she said.
She said Billups' nose is broken and he has an injury on his hip.
She said Woods and Blunt were cousins.
The crash occurred about 100 yards from North Marion Middle School shortly after 3 a.m., officials said.
Capt. Grady Grimes, a watch commander for the Marion County Sheriff's Office, said the Sheriff's Office received a call early Thursday about a strange person knocking on doors in the neighborhood. A deputy was dispatched to the area and, upon arrival, found the individual, Demontay Billups.
Clarissa Billups said Demontay told her that Blunt was speeding and lost control of the car. She said he told her he was knocked unconscious and that when he woke up Woods was crying. He said when he tried to wake his younger brother, he did not get a response.
Then, she said, he went looking for help.
"A lady came to the door with a gun and he told her not to shoot him but they were in a wreck and needed her to call for help," she said.
He told her that by the time he returned to the car, emergency personnel were on scene.
Sheriff's deputies detoured traffic from the scene as troopers investigated and worked to clear the road. Marion County Fire Rescue officials also were called to the scene. CR 329 was reopened by 8:45 a.m.
According to FHP, Blunt was driving the vehicle, Billups was in the front passenger seat, Rawls was in the left rear passenger seat and Woods was in the right rear seat. Troopers said none of the men were wearing a seat belt. Rawls and Blunt were thrown from the car.
The car was split in two, though the front and back halves remained close to each other. One of the front seats landed across the highway about 70 feet from the accident location.
Troopers said the wet roadway was a contributing factor, but they had not yet determined if speed played a role.
Rawls, Blunt and Demontay Billups all have connections to North Marion High School.
Rawls left the school in January, after playing football and basketball during one semester. He previously attended Vanguard High School and was in the process of re-enrolling at that school.
NMHS football coach Craig Damon and basketball coach David Waters both said Rawls was a very good kid who was very respectful. They said he had played sports at Vanguard then went out of state and played one semester at North Marion when he returned to the area.
Damon said Rawls was a talented young man and had the ability to play college football.
"He worked hard in practice, and was fun to be around," Damon said.
"He wanted to be a part of the program," Waters said.
The coaches said Billups played basketball at North Marion and also went to Vanguard, where he finished school. They said Blunt played freshman football at NMHS. Superintendent of Schools George Tomyn indicated that Blunt had left North Marion High in 2008.
Tomyn said counselors were sent to both North Marion High and North Marion Middle schools Thursday.
NMHS Principal Mike Kelly said about 25 to 30 students there had received counseling and that he had addressed all the students about the crash.
So far this year, there have been 13 traffic fatalities. Of those, three were students, according to FHP.
Residents of North Marion are familiar with tragedies. Ten young people with ties to North Marion High School died in a three-year span, from 2007 to 2010. Because of those tragedies, a group of NMHS students banded together to do something about the rash of deaths of fellow students and graduates due to distracted driving. The student body launched a campaign called Drive for Life. Wesley Sapp, student body president, attended a statewide student government summit late last year. He also asked the other high school leaders to join forces to lobby the Legislature to require school districts to provide distracted-driving education. The Drive for Life campaign, which gets teenagers to sign pledges agreeing not to drive while distracted, has now become a statewide movement.
Kelly said that in times of tragedy, such as Thursday's crash, the community, as well as the school, stick together and "look out for each other."
Clarissa Billups said of the four young men, "They did everything together."
Staff writer Joe Callahan contributed to this report. Contact Austin L. Miller at 867-4118 or email@example.com.


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Adding coffee to coffeecake is a simple way to take something great and make it even better.
Because if you think conventional coffeecakes pair well with your favorite cup of java, wait until you try a coffeecake spiked with coffee. Still not enough jolt for you? Head to the grocer"s coffee aisle and grab a jar of instant espresso powder, then substitute that for the instant coffee.
Start to finish: 1 hour (20 minutes active)
Servings: 12
For the topping
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons sugar
Pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
For the cakE
2 tablespoons instant coffee granules
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sour cream
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-by-9-inch baking pan with baking spray.
2. To make the topping, in a medium bowl use an electric mixer to beat together the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla until creamy. Add the flour and mix just until moist crumbs form. Set aside in fridge.
3. To prepare the cake, in a medium bowl mix the coffee granules and water until dissolved. Add the cinnamon, vanilla, butter, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Use an electric mixer to beat until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl between additions.
4. Stir in half the flour followed by half the sour cream, then the remaining flour and sour cream. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Sprinkle the cake batter with the topping. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
5. Let cool in the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Nutrition information per serving: 300 calories; 140 calories from fat (47 percent of total calories); 16 g fat (10 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 75 mg cholesterol; 35 g carbohydrate; 1 g fiber; 15 g sugar; 5 g protein; 250 mg sodium.


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Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane is called after the art collector Hugh Lane, who was born in Cork in 1875. His aunt was Lady Augusta Gregory, a leading figure in the Irish Celtic Revival. Hugh Lane loved art and he bought and sold paintings in London. He felt that there should be a Gallery of Modern Art in Dublin representing the best of Irish and International artists. Together with his friends, Lane established the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in Clonmell Harcourt Street, Dublin in 1908.
Later in 1933 the Gallery moved to Charlemont House in Parnell Square where it is today. Lane bought many of the paintings that are in the Gallery's collection and he also wrote to artists asking them to donate works to the Gallery. However, in 1915 Hugh Lane died at the young age of 39. The ship, the Lusitania, on which he was travelling coming back from a visit to America was torpedoed by a German U-boat during WWI and sunk.


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Beautiful Failure
I am now ready to tell my firsthand encounter of being left alone to die this last May on Everest. It is a true story with no details embellished. I am willing to sell my story and photos to the party willing to pay the most for a story about human greed and the fight for survival.
Dear Editor,
I am now ready to tell my firsthand encounter of being left alone to die this last May on Everest. It is a true story with no details embellished. I am willing to sell my story and photos to the party willing to pay the most for a story about human greed and the fight for survival.
Rock and Ice received this e-mail in September and it provided the grist for many jokes. I'm willing to sell my story about greed to the highest bidder. Classic irony, and pitiful and sad.
It's old news that high-altitude mountaineering has its share of crooks and self-indulgent bastards intent on capitalizing on misfortune and suffering. Books like High Crimes and Dark Summit lay out the offenses against common decency ad infinitum. Some mountaineers bum-rush tragedy like hyenas feeding on a half-dead gazelle. As evinced by the above letter, there's money to be made out of sweat, blood and death. The only way you could wring more value out of a pile of bodies on a high peak would be to re-animate them, strip them naked and get them to have sex. Today's culture thrives on the lowest common denominator, and new-school mountaineering ethics are malleable enough to allow climbers to abandon people and even ignore murder [see Secret Passage, No. 180] if it means tagging the summit and scoring a book deal.
The history of mountaineering is replete with examples of climbers deserting partners to gain the summit or save their own skins. Yet there are numerous shining instances of the opposite, where men have banded together in dire straits and sacrificed their own safety and success to follow a higher ethical imperative, what used to be called the Brotherhood of the Rope.
Two weeks after the ironic e-mail pinged up, Dr. Charles Houston died [see Passages, p. 24]. Houston, part of a group of brilliant and tough mountaineers who opened many gnarly peaks in Alaska, Canada and the Himalaya before they were even mapped, is considered one of the best American mountaineers, but his 1953 expedition to K2 is his legacy.
The facts are well known: After 10 days tent-bound in a storm at 25,500 feet, unable to light their stoves, eating jam mixed with snow in a futile effort to hydrate, Houston discovered blood clots in Art Gilkey's legs. With no debate, in spite of being poised to nab the first ascent of the most difficult mountain in the world, the seven men initiated a rescue effort that has inspired generations of climbers.
In the end, Gilkey died, and Houston, as the leader of the expedition, seemingly never forgave himself. A year later, and one day after K2 was summitted by an Italian team, Houston wandered into a hospital in Nashua, New Hampshire, 40 miles away from his home in Exeter, with no idea who he was. The stress of his failure had brought on an emotional collapse resulting in amnesia, and Houston would never climb another mountain.
Perhaps Jim Wickwire's letter to Houston was some consolation, and it is surely a lesson to today's aspiring climbers. Even better, I think, than having climbed K2 in 1978 would have been to have been with you 25 years before.
As Reinhold Messner said years later, Houston and his team were decent [and] strong and this is the inspiration for a lifetime.


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Greetings from Italy, where I am unable to attend the Nationals six-game homestand that starts tomorrow vs. the Phillies and Reds. Rather than recruit somebody to update the blog during this stretch, I've realized the best thing to do is to let you the loyal Let Teddy Win readers take over!
Going to the game? Please leave a reply on this blog post with your reports describing what happened in the presidents race (be sure to mention the date). Got photos? Add them to the Flickr presidents race group. When I return I will update the Presidents Race Standings page with all the results!
Photo by flickr member K Gifford


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What We Can Learn from Haiti
The most damaging effect of the earthquake in Haiti was not the ground movement itself, but that buildings collapsed. The rebuilding has lessons for us all.
When the 7 moment magnitude (Mw) earthquake hit Léogâne, Haiti, about 16 miles west of the capital city, Port au Prince, on January 12, killing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving about 1 million homeless, at least 280,000 buildings collapsed or were severely damaged. On February 27, an 8.8 Mw earthquake rocked Chile. Although it released approximately 500 times more energy, the Chilean earthquake was responsible for only about 500 deaths. What accounts for the difference? The most damaging effect of the earthquake in Haiti was not the ground movement itself, but the collapse of those 280,000 buildings, crushing people, turning a natural disaster into a man-made one. How did so many buildings fail, and what can we learn from this experience to apply to future building practices, in seismic zones and elsewhere, in Haiti and beyond? With the hurricane season approaching and the media having turned their eyes to other news, questions abound as to how to house and rehouse Haitians without making the same devastating mistakes.
To answer these questions—to figure out how to improve Haiti's built environment while repairing it—many shelter reconnaissance and design programs are now on the ground in Haiti. Here are just a few of them:
- Cordaid – An international development organization with a strong base in the Dutch community. Provides emergency aid internationally and works to eradicate structural poverty.
- Grassroots United – Connects relief workers, social groups, and humanitarian organizations to local resources in order to streamline small-scale disaster response operations.
- Kleiwerks, International – Promotes ecological regeneration and empowers communities through the education of natural building and sustainable technologies.
- World Bamboo Organization – A global organization for growers, processors, and users of bamboo and bamboo fibers and products.
- Build Change – Designs safe houses, trains builders and engineers, and empowers homeowners to rebuild better.
- Architecture for Humanity – Promotes architecture and design to seek solutions to global social and humanitarian crises.
- Habitat for Humanity – Ecumenical Christian organization that builds simple, decent, affordable housing in partnership with people in need.
- Builders Without Borders – An international network of ecological builders working together to help ensure a sustainable future.
- Article 25 – A U.K.-registered charity that designs and delivers buildings and other structures for those in greatest need worldwide.
How the Concrete Buildings FailedEduardo Fierro of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center presents his findings on the collapsed structures in Port-au-Prince, Léogâne, and other surrounding areas in a two-hour video. Fierro's video shows several kinds of weaknesses in several samples of concrete buildings that collapsed. Examples include very little reinforcement, undersized and improperly placed rebar, hoops in strange configurations, and open stirrups—all of which show lack of continuity in the overall structure and failure to build to seismic codes. And some of these buildings, Fierro says, were built with engineers on-site, by construction companies. "Three days after the earthquake, the city was littered with bodies . . . This was not an earthquake disaster," Fierro says. "This was a disaster caused by the construction industry in Haiti. The construction industry that didn't know how to use codes. They didn't have any codes. The people that built these things [who] are building in very bad shape caused this tragedy and the loss of human life . . . We have to design things and construct things and assume that our children, our grandchildren, and our mothers are going to be in this building when the earthquake hits, so we can check all of our numbers and do the proper design to do this."
What's frightening, Fierro says, is that with few other options, Haiti is rebuilding in the same way that caused these failures in the first place, and with rebar salvaged from the rubble using hacksaws. Other critical assessments like Fierro's are being performed before large-scale rebuilding begins. Buildings that didn't fare so badly are being analyzed as well. What kinds of building systems might be more reliable in a culture that tends to build for itself, rather than hiring contractors, architects, and engineers?
A Traditional/Modern Approach
Darrel DeBoer is coauthor, with Megan Groth, of Bamboo Building Essentials, the Eleven Basic Principles. He was named by Metropolitan Home magazine in 2001 as one of the 100 most influential designers, and by Natural Home as on of the Top Ten Green Architects.
Climate-Appropriate Housing: Traditional Meets Modern
Architect Darrel DeBoer points out the economic causes of so much building failure. When a bag of concrete is prohibitively expensive, people tend to amend it with river sand, weakening the mix. Owner-builders still consider concrete the material of choice, even though, with a high rate of illiteracy, many can't read the instructions on the side of the bag. DeBoer suggests a solution that blends the old with the new. The vernacular styles of building in Haiti, such as wattle-and-daub (in which uprights of rot-resistant woods like acacia are driven deep into the ground, horizontal members of wood are woven onto those, and an earthen plaster is applied), may have fared better than poorly built concrete in the earthquake (see photo above). Wattle-and-daub buildings are certainly more comfortable than concrete in the tropical climate, with their breathable earthen plasters, and their thatch roofs, which weigh less than concrete and provide better insulation. They are also far safer. Since the whole structure is held in place by burying the uprights in the ground, it's similar to a pole barn. The floor is a poured mixture of clay, sand, and straw, similar to adobe. If the buildings do collapse in an earthquake, or are blown away by a hurricane, occupants are more likely to survive to rebuild them, using their own skills, with locally available, inexpensive, renewable, economy-feeding materials and labor. The downside is that these buildings need to be maintained. For example, uprights eventually need to be replaced. So when concrete was introduced in the 1920s and was promoted as rot-resistant, easy to maintain, and fashionable, it became very popular. Rot resistant isn't an issue if your family dies inside your house, however.
DeBoer, a strong advocate of bamboo in building, says, "One modern solution, combining the traditional integrity with modern convenience, uses timber—or in this case bamboo—uprights with earthen infill. Used in pure tension and compression, there is no better building material in strength-to-weight ratio. And since bamboo can grow up to 17 times as much biomass as structural softwoods, the area needed to grow a supply of building material is relatively small. It allows builders to be in control of the inputs to their livelihood. Very few materials can make that claim—especially in politically unstable places, where they're dependent upon corrupt supply chains and unstable pricing. The important thing is to plant the right species. (See "A Traditional/Modern Approach.")
Randolph Langenbach, author of Don't Tear It Down!, a study of the earthquake-resistant vernacular architecture of Kashmir, has studied the patterns of success and failure of various building types all over the world. He observes, "Traditional is modern in those many parts of the globe where pre-modern vernacular buildings of unfired earth, timber, and masonry have remained standing while modern buildings of reinforced concrete and steel have fallen." Langenbach, along with Martin Hammer, Patrick Sparks, Kevin Rowell, and Stephen Kelley, was invited by the World Monuments Fund, Fondation konnaissance et Liberté (FOKAL), and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) to survey historic buildings in a neighborhood called the Gingerbread District in Port au Prince and make recommendations for their repair to the owners.
The word "gingerbread" comes from the United States. This style is characterized by elaborate ornamentation, high ceilings, and the use of colombage wall systems—timber frame with diagonal bracing and infill of masonry or rocks and clay. The old-growth timbers that frame these buildings contributed to their survival in the earthquake. While the group's research was not primarily intended to suggest techniques for future building but to advise on repairing the existing historic buildings, much can be learned about building for these seismic and tropical zones from the relative survival of these structures in the earthquake and from their lasting comfort, such as the natural A/C provided by their high ceilings, broad porches, and the many tall doors and windows.
The GingerbreadsThe historic preservationist and engineer Patrick Sparks, who has a passion for saving old dance halls, judges a structure by attributes other than form or beauty. "Historic preservation in the United States is predicated on a mistaken concept," he says. "It's the decoration, or the artistic aspect, that people pivot on as a decision point for them to say that a building is historic. I'm not any more thrilled by the grand style than I am by the simplest hut. The reason is, the beauty to me is in the simplicity and the performance." Sparks and the team of engineers looked at over 200 gingerbread houses. He says, "They're not all huge houses with turrets and stuff. A lot of them are very simple, like our shotguns on the southern coast of the United States. They are very basic dwellings that anybody could build, and the small ones were probably owner built, so that means a lot to me. I look at the scale of the house. Is it something an individual or two men could build by themselves? What makes a thing endure? A lot of times, it's not the ornamentation. I look for structural survivability and characteristic vulnerabilities. For seismic regions, some of those vulnerabilities can be fixed by making small, incremental improvements, such as putting in a basic, yet durable, floor-to-wall connection. And then, of course, educating people not to put concrete blocks in their walls and not to pour concrete on their floors, which they do when they want tile, which overloads and compromises the building." The group's research revealed one instance in which a concrete addition to a gingerbread house toppled, crushing the person in it. In another instance, the concrete buildings adjacent to a school crushed 30 people, while the gingerbread still stands.
Sparks says, "Many of the owners and residents at least know what they have, and have an instinctive understanding that their house was made of wood, and that was what made it survive. That was clear—more than one time I was speaking to the residents or the owners—often the women of the house—and they would say to me, 'Oh no, this is a good house; it's made of wood.'"
People, Not Codes, Build HousesPeople seem to have adapted to concrete, since it is the only conventional building material in Haiti, but as Sparks says, "Concrete is not and cannot be a vernacular building material, because the part about concrete that makes it structural is not intuitive. There's no chance that reinforced concrete can become a vernacular building system in an owner-builder/dweller-builder society in the developing world because it requires mathematics, and a high level of deduction and analysis, to understand how it's supposed to work and how to do it correctly." One frustration with the many reports on Haiti and other seismically volatile communities is that they conclude that buildings failed because they were not built to code, and that the buildings that didn't fail were built to code. While it's a true pattern, the problem is that analysis does not lead to solutions, nor does it cause a culture of owner-builders to build to a code, especially where no code exists. As Sparks says, "Codes don't build buildings, people do." The lesson learned so far is to ask questions. And the first question is, What can Haiti teach us?
How to Make a Two-Dimensional Image from Two Identical Photographs
In one aerial photograph of an informal settlement, we see flattened dwellings everywhere. One might blame the builders. But Randolph Langenbach shows me how to place two identical aerial photos side by side and then cross my eyes to reveal a third, three-dimensional image magically floating between the two. Suddenly the topography is visible. The landscape is full of very steep ravines, with concrete dwellings stacked and balanced on the hillsides. Poor retaining walls and mudslides were at fault here, not bad home building. Langenbach used this technique to gather more information from the aerial photographs to help in mapping the Gingerbread District, and also to gain useful information that the on-the-ground analyses, combined with the aerials, couldn't have answered fully.
In another example of asking the right questions, Kevin Rowell, of Kleiwerks International, shows an image of a home that stood despite the fact that it was unreinforced masonry block with an earthen mortar. The assumption was that the wall was mortared with cement, but on closer examination, it turned out to be mortared with earth, an easy thing to determine. Raising the issue of what is missing helps prevent researchers and rebuilders from jumping to conclusions. Perhaps we have learned from Haiti that the high-tech, industrial way to build is best in high-tech, industrial cultures, and that—based on what's standing—the low-tech, DIY, small-is-beautiful way to build is better in a low-tech, small-is-beautiful culture. For cultures all over the world faced with a housing crisis (including the United States and Canada), lessons abound in the deconstruction of a city from a natural disaster. We have much to learn, and Haiti is a good place to start.
Leslie Jackson is associate editor for Home Energy.
For more information:Langenbach, Randolph. Don't Tear It Down! Preserving the Earthquake- Resistant Vernacular Architecture of Kashmir. Berkeley, California: Oinfroin Media, 2009.
Learn more about FOKAL.
Learn more about ICOMOS.
Learn more about Kleiwerks, International.
Watch the PEER video.
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Perspective: Super PAC reform
The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee on super PAC reform:
To the glee of many of his detractors, Karl Rove and the multimillionaires and billionaires who fattened his super PAC and nonprofit political arm had a horrible election night.
The return on investment was abysmal, or so the argument went, given that Mitt Romney lost, along with most Senate and House candidates backed by the bloated political action committees and tax-exempt "social welfare" corporations established by Rove and other consultants.
Schadenfreude is powerful. There is pleasure to be gained in reveling in the blunders of others who have such high opinions of themselves.
However, we who care about the political system all suffered wounds at the hands of super PACs, and not just those controlled by Republicans.
The tone of the attack ads coarsened the political discourse. The $6 billion raised and spent to control the White House and Congress had a corrosive impact on the U.S. system of government.
Billionaires assumed their money could buy the election. They failed, thankfully. But the record-shattering spending degraded democracy ...
The 113th Congress should redouble efforts to require disclosure of hidden campaign money, although with the Senate controlled by Democrats and the House by Republicans, we hold out little hope for much change. ...
No act of Congress or of the Legislature will stop the corrosive flow of money into politics. But at least voters ought to know who is trying to sway their opinion as they decide how to vote.


text: Metroid Prime Hunters - Achievements Metroid Prime Hunters is a shooter game developed by Nintendo Software Technology and released on Nintendo DS.Here you will find a list of all achievements and trophies available in the game. Jump to a section: Home Releases Credits Overview Walkthrough Achievements Cheats Share Achievements with others < Prev: Walkthrough Next: Cheats > Do you want to earn money creating pages just like this? Gamewise is currently looking for writers, find out more here. Around the Network Metroid Prime Hunters Brainwaves View all → Metroid Prime Hunters Achievements


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Climate and Clean Energy Action in Latin AmericaIssue BriefNovember 22, 2019
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Morning Minutes: April 23
Morning Minutes: April 23
Word of the Day
Stratum STREY-tuhm, STRAT-uhm (noun) A layer of material, naturally or artificially formed, often one of a number of parallel layers one upon another - dictionary.com
Website of the Day
Shakespearean Insulter
Celebrate the anniversaries of Shakespeare's birth and death by learning some Shakespearean insults. This site generates insults, and lets you know which of Shakespeare's plays they originated in.
Number to Know
52: William Shakespeare's age when he died on this date in 1616.
This Day in History
April 23, 1564: William Shakespeare is born (he died 52 years later on the same date).
Today's Featured Birthday
WWE wrestler Joh Cena (36)
Daily Quote
"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." - William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"


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73 Comments
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I did not think that this would work, my best friend showed me Elwood Avalos website, and it does! I get my most wanted eBook
wtf this great ebook for free?!
It's very easy to get quality ebooks ;)
so many fake sites. this is the first one which worked! Many thanks
wtffff i do not understand this!
Just select your click then download button, and complete an offer to start downloading the ebook. If there is a survey it only takes 5 minutes, try any survey which works for you.
lol it did not even take me 5 minutes at all! XD


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U-bolt top plate M1558 for International 3-1/2 inch spring air suspension only, 3-1/2 inch wide 'Z' spring. Replaces International part 16005070, 572112C1 and 572112C2.
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Mysterious aircraft puzzles Quincy residents
FAA says 'it's an authorized flight'
The Federal Aviation Administration knows what's up there but it's not telling the public.
A slew of Quincy residents have been complaining and calling police and the city about an aircraft that appeared about two weeks ago and has been taking wide, repeated loops in the air, between about 7 p.m. and 4 a.m., the Patriot Ledger reported.
Residents from Wollaston to West Quincy describe a low-pitch humming sound coming from the aircraft. Some have said it's reminiscent of a drone, which is an unmanned aircraft operated by remote control.
"It's not a drone," FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. "It's an authorized flight and we are aware of it."
Peters declined to make any further comment.
The FAA first allowed the use of unmanned aircraft in U.S. airspace in 1990. It continues to allow limited use for firefighting, rescue, law enforcement and military testing, the FAA's website says. Interest in the use of drones is growing.
Quincy Police Capt. John Dougan said police are aware of the aircraft and "it's nothing to be concerned about."
Ward 4 City Councilor Brian Palmucci thinks residents are entitled to know more about the aircraft's purpose, particularly following the intense police operations following the Boston marathon bombings.
"People are on edge," he said. "Law enforcement is always very vocal about how one of the best resources they have in combating crime is the vigilance of the public. And that's clearly what's happening here, the public being vigilant ... Getting no information as to what the purpose of these flights are only raises the concern in an already hyper-vigilant situation."
Palmucci said he contacted the FAA, officials, and police seeking answers to his constituents' questions, but did not get answers.
Centre Street resident Greg Zacchine wrote Palmucci to ask about the aircraft.
"It is flying at night and day constantly," he wrote. "I am curious about its purpose and who is spending so much time and resources flying around in endless circles. This plane makes a low pitch humming sound that's somewhat of a distraction while outdoors."
Wollaston residents Paul O'Malley and John Barnett also complained of the buzz coming from the aircraft.
"It makes it hard to get back to sleep," O'Malley said.


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Michelle Teheux: Time is slipping by for all of us
I'm missing a lot. You probably are, too.
Times moves quickly. There are many things to do. Not all of them can be done.
The summer is quickly coming to an end, and most of the outdoor things I set out to accomplish this spring remain undone. The bricks I salvaged from the old Pekin Daily Times building demolition last fall have still not been turned into a garden path or anything else. Nor has my deck been refinished, nor has my front porch been repaired and painted.
None of the fun things one looks forward to all winter have happened, either. I haven't been swimming or boating even one time. I didn't swim last summer, either. Floating, while listening to music and having a beer, is one of life's great summertime pleasures, yet there never seems to be an opportunity.
Meanwhile, my little granddaughter is 8 months old. She lives a little more than three hours away, so each time I want to visit her it's a grueling six hours in the car. My husband usually has to work six days a week, and really needs a day of rest, so we can't go every weekend. She is standing unsupported, jabbering adorably, and I'd like nothing more than to spend time with her every day, or at least every week. It isn't possible.
This isn't just poor little old me. Most people face this. There is never enough time to do all the things one wants to do.
I'd like to get more sleep. I'd like to exercise more. I'd like to socialize with my friends more. I'd like to read more books. I'd like to do more writing. I'd like to keep my house cleaner. I'd like to do lots and lots of things that I can't do.
Money can buy time, to a certain extent — you can pay to have your home and yard maintained and gain some leisure time that way. But for most of us, if it needs to be done, we'll have to do it ourselves.
What happened to all the leisure time we were all supposed to have? Don't you remember the predictions, made decades ago, about how we would all be working part time by now, thanks to robots and other technology?
Of course, all too many people DO have lots of leisure time, and part-time work — if that — due to technological advances. They also have little to no income.
Those of us who have work, are working more, not less, and others have no work at all. Forgive me if this does not seem like progress to me.
I'm constantly trying to figure out ways to squeeze more out of my day. I've made time to bike more, but it has meant a messier house. I've made time to socialize more, but it has meant an even messier house. It's slowly dawning on me that a lot of this is out of my hands; I cannot find some magic efficiency that will allow me to do all the things I have to do and all the things I want to do.
It's like playing "Whack-A-Mole." I devote a weekend to getting one thing done and feel great about it, until I look around and realize I've neglected a lot of other things in life. So I address another thing, then another, and yet I cannot get all the moles whacked at once. The thing that is most whacked, after a period of concerted effort, is me.
This is how we've chosen to set up our society. Americans work more hours, with fewer vacation days, than almost anyone else. Studies comparing hours worked per week show that we're working more, and more, and more. Compare us to anyone you like — our peasant forebears or our hunter-gatherer ancient ancestors — and we're working more than they did. This isn't true of Europeans, by the way, who work far fewer hours than Americans and have much more leisure.
So it's a choice that we Americans have collectively made to live this way, and we could decide we want it to change. It would mean we could no longer brag about how many days we've gone without a day off, or how many lunches and dinners we've skipped because we were working. These aren't things to be proud of; they are failures of our system.
A little balance is a beautiful thing, and we've lost ours. I don't know how we get it back, but as soon as I catch up with some of the things on my to-do list, I'm sure going to think about it.
Follow Michelle Teheux on Twitter @michelleteheux. The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of this publication.


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Anti-federal regulation gun bill proposed in Mich.
Republican state senators have introduced a bill that would exempt Michigan-made guns and ammunition from federal regulations.
Thirteen Republican senators introduced the "Michigan Firearms Freedom Act" this week. The bill's introduction came on same week that President Barack Obama laid out his extensive gun proposal, which includes reinstating the military-style assault weapon ban.
Progress Michigan said the bill was "copy and pasted from fringe Missouri legislation" and asked lawmakers to "stop introducing legislation written by radical out-of-state special interest groups."
The bill's primary sponsor is Republican Rep. Phil Parlov of St. Clair County's St. Clair Township. MLive.com reports that Parlov introduced the same bill in 2009, but the bill stalled in committee under the Democratic-controlled House.


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Boulder County: Moratorium extended Tuesday for 18 months.
Boulder: Under one-year ban; council seeking ballot language for three-year ban.
Broomfield: Council has considered, but did not pursue, a ban; a citizens' group, Our Broomfield, is circulating a petition for a ballot issue seeking a five-year ban.
Erie: Fracking resumed after 180-day ban, under new rules, Sept. 3, 2012.
Lafayette: Signature drive under way seeking a ban vote on November ballot.
Longmont: Voters passed a fracking ban in November 2012; the city is being sued by the state of Colorado.
The dozens of activists who crowded into the Boulder County commissioners' meeting space Tuesday were united not only in a fervent belief in their cause, but a sense they had achieved a milestone in their multi-pronged campaign against fracking.
In convincing the three county commissioners to extend a moratorium on new applications for oil and gas development in unincorporated areas by another 18 months, activists obtained a result many had thought unlikely. Tuesday's vote represented a substantial shift from the stance the board majority staked out one month ago — that another long-term hiatus was not an option.
Russell Mendell, a Boulder resident and statewide organizer for Frack Free Colorado, said he sensed Tuesday that he and his fellow activists were in the middle of a historic moment.
"It represents the citizen movement that has been really sort of spreading across Colorado and across the country as well, as people learn about the health impacts of fracking, the impacts on home values, the impacts to so many different elements of people's lives including the economy, and the tourism economy and to local business," he said.
Mendell added, "The anti-fracking movement in Boulder has really grown a lot over the last year, and the people here really made their voice heard. And because of that, the commissioners are electing to study the issue and see the full range of impacts — including health impacts."
It was no accident that the commissioners' third-floor hearing room at the County Courthouse was packed Tuesday. And that the overflow room was packed. And that the corridor was also crowded.
Ana Tinsly, of Frack Free Colorado, said in an email that the commissioners were met by a room full of people because her group and others had "turned up the heat," generating 3,000 to 4,000 emails and postcards to the commissioners in the span of three weeks.
The activists held "call-in days," generating hundreds of calls to representatives, as well as a Mother's Day rally in front of the Boulder County Courthouse and a town hall attended by 300 people after the commissioners decided in May not to extend the moratorium, she said.
On May 22, Mendell noted, Frack Free Colorado hosted Academy Award-nominated director Josh Fox and a showing of his "Gasland Part II," the follow-up to "Gasland," the documentary widely credited with raising many Americans' awareness to the issue of hydraulic fracturing. Mendell recalls that the Glenn Miller Ballroom at the University of Colorado, where Fox appeared and his film was shown, was filled.
"It's amazing," Mendell said. "Every time there is a public meeting, more people show up than the last time. And it just seems like people are starting to be educated on the issue, and more and more people are showing they are passionate about protecting the community from the impacts" of fracking.
Commissioners say need for facts drove vote
Courtney Loper, mountain states field director for Energy in Depth — a research, education and public outreach arm of the Independent Petroleum Association of America — on Thursday issued a statement critical of the commissioners' latest vote.
"Oil and gas operators spent more than a year having good-faith discussions with the Boulder County staff and commissioners to address their concerns," she said. "Only a month ago, the Boulder County commissioners were against extending their moratorium. The facts haven't changed over the past month, so we're left to wonder what caused this flip-flop."
She added, "There is no reason to place a moratorium on a commercial activity that scientists, engineers, state regulators and federal officials have said over and over again is fundamentally safe and tightly regulated under existing environmental laws."
The two commissioners who showed the greatest hesitation in granting an extended moratorium in May, but then joined a unanimous vote to enact the 18-month extension last week, say their votes represented an evolution, not a reversal. They were reluctant to place too much weight on the activists' input in influencing their final decisions.
"It was important, but it wasn't the only factor, either," said Commissioner Deb Gardner, who pointed out that people opposed to an extended moratorium also contributed to the size of Tuesday's crowd. "We also had a lot of other information that was particularly new since our last meeting."
While noting that the board received more than 1,100 emails on fracking in about a 10-day period leading up to Tuesday's vote, Commissioner Cindy Domenico insisted that raw public sentiment did not drive the board's vote.
"I understand the (anti-fracking) sentiment completely," Domenico said, "but the most helpful (input) were ones that looked to scientific studies, and had specific comments about how we could make our rules tighter and stronger, and what we should specifically look at that applies to health and safety."
A significant document that came into commissioners' hands between the May 21 meeting and the session Tuesday was the 2018 Ozone Sensitivity Modeling for the Greater Denver Area, which was presented to the Regional Air Quality Council on May 31.
The council — of which Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones is a member — was shown data projecting that volatile organic compounds from oil and gas activities in the nine-county Front Range area from 2008 to 2018 will grow in absolute amounts from 533.1 to 618.8 tons per day. The same report showed oil- and gas-related VOCs growing as a percentage of all VOCS in that period by 16 percent.
Citing that study, Jones said, "There is a strong scientific and public health justification for extending the moratorium.
"However, it is our job as local elected officials to represent our constituents. And so hearing from them through the public process is also very important in shaping our policy and ensuring that we're taking the right steps."
The battle beyond Boulder
Jones said while Boulder County now has the extended moratorium, Weld County, immediately to the east, leads the state in current oil and gas development.
"While we're doing what we can to protect air quality in Boulder County," Jones said, "unless there is a statewide solution — because our air knows no political boundaries and blows between jurisdictions — we won't solve the problem."
It's unlikely Weld County will be following Boulder County's example any time soon. But Lafayette, which borders on Weld County, may see a fracking ban on its November ballot if the advocacy group East Boulder United collects enough signatures. Longmont voters passed such a ban last year, and the city has since been sued by the state for allegedly overstepping its regulatory limits.
Broomfield council members discussed but rejected the idea of a fracking moratorium June 4. A six-month moratorium in Erie expired in September, but at the same time, its Board of Trustees committed to a series of agreements with energy producers that town officials billed as a rigorous check against unsafe extraction practices.
And Tuesday night, the Boulder City Council asked for language on a proposed three-year ban that could go to voters in November.
Fracking opponents feel last week's victory at the county level gives them fuel for the long haul, within and beyond Boulder County's borders.
"I think by them putting an 18-month moratorium in place, in spite of the legal risks, this could be a stepping stone for other counties and other communities to do the same and for other communities to also stand up and fight against it," said Jennifer Palazzolo, a co-founder of the anti-fracking group Erie Rising.
She said she moved from Erie to Gunbarrel last month, largely to be farther from any fracking activity.
Boulder attorney Dan Leftwich has advised both the Sierra Club and Frack Free Boulder, contributing to legal memoranda urging county commissioners to exercise their authority to protect the interests of their constituents, independent of what the state is choosing to do — or not do.
"This is a problem that needed to be addressed assertively, by Boulder County asserting its inherent responsibility to protect the health, safety and welfare of its citizens, regardless of whether the state is doing it or not," Leftwich said.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Charlie Brennan at 303-473-1327 or email@example.com.