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Intelligence Gathering And its Implications.
A Brief Look At The ECHELON System- And the proposed South African Look Alike.
I've never heard about this operation so i though i would post it
Got it from http://www.iwar.org.uk/sigint/resour.../EchSAsum4.htm
Unlike many of the electronic spy systems developed during the Cold War, ECHELON is designed primarily for not only military but more specific for non-military targets as: governments, organizations, businesses, e commerce, the internet and individuals in virtually every country. It potentially affects every person communicating between (and sometimes within) countries anywhere in the world.
ECHELON is not a single entity, it is a complex system of which some portions monitor communications satellites, others land-based communications networks, others radio communications and more recently due to the end of the cold war, any activity as directed with what ever means. Together all these facilities spread all over the world enable the NSA (National Security Agency) and its partners to intercept a large portion of the worlds communication directly or indirectly.
ECHELON includes programmes as CLASSIC BULLSEYE and PUSHER HF Direction Finding, STEEPLEBUSH, RUNWAY and MOONPENNY Satellite surveillance and VOICECAST Voice recognition. There are many others, some old, some new to replace obsolete programs but altogether they makeup the ECHELON system.
The ECHELON
system is not primary designed to eavesdrop on a particular individuals e-mail, phone or fax link, (but can be so directed). Rather, the system works by indiscriminately intercepting very large quantities of communications and using computers to identify and extract messages of interest from the mass of unwanted ones mostly in real time then sorting it for more detail analysis later. (5)
ECHELON apparently collects data in several ways. Reports and facts, suggest it has massive ground based radio antennae / satellite dishs to intercept / eavesdrops on just about every electronic communication that crosses a national borderphone calls, faxes, telexes, and E-mailplus all radio signals, including short-wave, airline, and maritime frequencies) even cellphone calls. In addition, some sites reputedly are tasked with not only, tapping surface - cable and microwave, and submarine traffic but business offices, political parties and even prominent figures. These sites are reportedly not only in the United States, England, New Zealand, Canada and Australia, but also in Japan, China, Turkey, Puerto Rico, Denmark, Italy, Germany, the Middle East, Africa and Hong Kong. Also rumoured are sites at Ascension Island (Atlantic Ocean) and in the Indian Ocean the Diego Garcia atoll.
For many years prior to WW II there has existed an informal agreement regarding intelligence gathering between the Americans and the British. This grew to a more formal alliance (BRUSA COMINT ratified in 1943) (12) during WWII and then formalized as the UKUSA agreement in 1947/8 to intercept radio transmissions, aimed, then, primarily against the USSR (5) (Later redefined to intercept all traffic irrespective of nation, irrespective of purpose military or non military (read political and commercial)). (12)
The UKUSA partners are:
1 US - Main Partner ((now the NSA National Security Agency) and provides most of the funding for the operation, maintenance, staffing, upgrades and new hardware worldwide.
2 UK - Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
3 Canada - Communications Security Establishment (CSE)
4 Australia - Defence Signals Directorate (DSD)
5 New Zealand - Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB)
For decades before the introduction of the ECHELON system, the UKUSA allies did intelligence collection operations for each other, but each agency usually processed and analysed the intercept from its own stations and then shared with the others. During 1952 President Harry Truman created the NSA (the present main USA Intelligency Agency) (12) (. Its mandate was the interception and analyst of all signal intelligence (sigint) from all over the world from phone calls, telex to radar signatures to missile launches.
In the late 1960 early 1970s the NSA introduced the ECHELON system (Project P-415) - an ultra secret system, which is used to intercept telex, and telephone communications, fax, digital data and now e-mail, carried over the worlds telecommunications networks. Be it via radio, underwater / submarine cables, satellite transmissions, microwave links and fiber-optic communications traffic. (1)
The five UKUSA agencies are today still the largest intelligence organizations in their respective countries. With much of the worlds business occurring by fax, e-mail, and phone, spying on these communications receives the bulk of intelligence resources. The US being the main primary partner via the NSA gets to receive all collected data with the other partners (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand 2 nod tier) only certain relevant data and other nations (as Germany, Norway, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, China etc. 3 rd tier) only selected items of intelligence.
GCHQ at Cheltenham (Mostly staffed by NSA) is the co-ordinating centre for Europe, covering Europe, Africa and the Soviet Union (west of the Ural Mountains) as well as the western part of Asia. NSA covers the rest of the Soviet Union and most of the Americas (North and South) and the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, whilst Australia - co-ordinates the electronic monitoring of the South Pacific and South East Asia.
Although there are many more sites the most well know are the following: Includes Satellite, Radio and Land based Telecommunication intelligence collection centres -
1 New Zealand - Waihopai - Blenheim, South Island. (Satellite)
2 New Zealand - Tangimoana - North Island. (Radio)
3 Australia - Kojarena near Geraldton West Australia. (Satellite)
4 Australia - Pine Gap, near Alice Springs in central Australia. (Rec Satellite)
5 Australia - Shoal Bay, outside Darwin in northern Australia. (Satellite)
6 Australia Bamaga, Cape York, northern Queensland. (Radio)
7 Australia Tindal Air Force base northern Australia. (Radio)
8 Canada - Leitrim, just south of Ottawa. (Satellite)
9 Canada British Columbia. (Radio ?) ?
10 Lackland Air Force Base San Antonio Texas. ? (Radio ?)
11 NSA station at Sugar Grove, southwest of Washington, DC. (Satellite / Radio)
12 NSA Station Yakima in Washington State. (Satellite)
13 NSA Headquarters at Fort George Meade, Maryland. Only station with full access.
14 NSA Station Buckley Field Denver Colorado. ? (Radio)
15 UK - Menwith Hill Harrogate Yorkshire in northern England. Previously F83. (All))
16 UK - Chelteman headquarters of the GCHQ.
17 UK - Morwenstow, near Bude, Cornwall. (Satellite, Land)
18 Germany - Bad Aibling. Previously F91. (Rec Satellite)
19 Japan - Misawa in northern Japan. (Radio ?)
20 Denmark - Sandagergard located at Aflandshage on the island of Amager south of the capital, Copenhagen. (Radio ?)
21 Puerto Rico - Sabana Seca. (Radio)
22 China - Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Two sites ? (Radio)
23 Hong Kong - Chung Hom Kok. (closed downed 1994) ? (Satellite)
24 Ascension Island
25 Most Embassies and Consulates, irrespective of region or country have some method of monitoring and passing on relevant information. (Radio)
Note: Present Status of Sites and interception speciality with ? Are unknown by the author at this present moment. (Rec = All Other Satellites than, but could also include Intelsat / Inmarsat monitoring.)
NSA computer network codenamed Platform - "ties together 52 separate computer systems used throughout the world. (5) The main command centre,' for this massive network, is the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland. (10)
How it works:
The computers at each station in the ECHELON network automatically search through the millions of messages intercepted for ones containing pre-programmed keywords. Keywords include all the names, localities, subjects, and so on that might be mentioned. E.G.: Every word of every message intercepted at each station gets automatically searched whether or not a specific telephone number or e-mail address is on the list. The computers in stations around the globe are known, within the network, as the ECHELON Dictionaries. E.g.: USA - Yakima site - COWBOY Dictionary, New Zealands satellite interception station at Waihopai - FLINTLOCK Dictionary, and in the UK - Menwith Hill SILKWORTH Dictionary ?
(The following is an extract from Exposing the Global Surveillance Systems by Nicky Hager). A highly organized system has been developed to control what each station is searching for and who can have access to it. This is at the heart of ECHELON operations and works as follows.
The individual station's Dictionary computers do not simply have a long list of keywords to search for. And they do not send all the information into some huge database that participating agencies can dip into as they wish. It is much more controlled.
The search lists are organized into the same categories, referred to by the four digit numbers. Each agency decides its own categories according to its responsibilities for producing intelligence for the network. The agency then works out about 10 to 50 keywords for selection in each category. The keywords include such things as names of people, ships, organizations, country names, and subject names. They also include the known telex and fax numbers and Internet or e-mail addresses of any individuals, businesses, organizations, and government offices that are targets. These are generally written as part of the message text and so are easily recognized by the Dictionary computers.
The agencies also specify combinations of keywords to help sift out communications of interest. For example, they might search for diplomatic cables containing both the words "South Africa" and "intelligence", or cables or any other communication containing the word "South Africa" but not "consul" (to avoid the masses of routine consular communications). It is these sets of words and numbers (and combinations), under a particular category, that get placed in the Dictionary computers. (Staff in the five agencies (UKUSA) called Dictionary Managers, enter and update, the keyword search lists for each agency as and when needed by NSA.)
The Dictionary computers search through all the incoming messages and, whenever they encounter one with any of the agencies' keywords, they select it. At the same time, the computer automatically notes technical details such as the time and place of interception on the piece of intercept so that analysts reading it, in whichever agency it is going to, know where it came from, and what it is. Finally, the computer writes the four-digit code (for the category with the keywords in that message) at the bottom of the message's text. This is important. It means that when all the intercepted messages end up together in the database at one of the agency headquarters, the messages on a particular subject can be located again. Later, when the analyst using the Dictionary system selects the four- digit code for the category he or she wants, the computer simply searches through all the messages in the database for the ones which have been tagged with that number.
This system is very effective for controlling which agencies can get what from the global network because each agency only gets the intelligence out of the ECHELON system from its own numbers. It does not have any access to the raw intelligence coming out of the system to the other agencies. (5)
Although through the proper channels, controls and checks, information can be requested and forwarded, from the archives and data banks of NSA Headquarters at Ford Meade at the NSA discretion.
Although the written and digital word is easy for ECHELON to deal with, the spoken word is a little more difficult for the network to handle. The primary means for intercepting voice communications is targeted towards watching and recording calls to or from certain numbers. The NSA also uses another method called "traffic analysis," which doesn't analyse the content, but just whom is talking with whom, by taking a voice sample for later matching and possible identification and by noting the telephone numbers dialled. But as speech becomes more digitally encrypted the easier it will be to monitor it (as voice recognization method's improves) despite more advanced encryption and security measures which, once captured, can just as easily be broken. (24)
Echelon Map from Theyre Listening To Your Call. (11)
South African Look Alike.
South Africa, for many years has been involved in a similar manner Look at all the activity in and around independence of the then Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, and South West Africa now Namibia. Although with significantly less sophisticated equipment, techniques and resources.
Since post 1994 the establishment of NIA - (National Intelligence Agency), as the sole Intelligence agency with the absorption, amalgamation and integration, of those intelligence agencies of the former homelands and exiled movements with the existing ones. (This also includes Military and Defence Intelligence Agencies, SA foreign Secret Service, South African Police and other related organisations.)
South Africa plans to follow a similar framework. Although this interception would be mainly in the fields of analogue and digital communication, radio, data, telephone, cellphone, e-mail, faxes and satellite phone. Essentially to counter acts of terrorism, violence - be it taxi, faction (Zulu to Xhosa), political ANC (African National Council), Inkata, PAC (Pan African Council) and PAGAD (People Against Gangs and Drugs) and of rising crime.
More recently, due to the ever growing sophistication and ease of communication, via the internet, e-mail and especially cellphones for the planning of terrorist attacks (Latest - Bomb blasts in the Cape Town - during December 1999), a need has been created to monitor communications intelligence gathering (commit) more effectively than previously, on a similar and more local, but far smaller scale than with ECHELON thus the re establishment of the South African Parliaments Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and the redefinition of the NIA during the current fiscal year 2000, in addition to the normal daily comint gathering. (15)
This, with the present government enforced monopoly in the telecommunications arena - Telkom, the state run Telecommunications agency, will be a relative easy task. As at the moment, all parties (from Local to External users) have to go through Telkom's networks to connect to the outside world - (Monopoly extends until 2003) By Law, according to the South African Telecommunication Act of 1996, all users, from the local telephone user, to ISP (Internet Service Providers), to Satellite Phone companies as Iridium, ICO, GlobalStar have to uses it services (be it Satellite, Microwave or Submarine / underwater cable).
Thus to set up a local monitoring agency at central points (Pretoria and Cape Town) will be easy, as most of the infrastructure, equipment and facilities exists, suitable trained staff is already on hand to perform the monitoring. Thus any phone call, including cellphones, fax, telex, Internet request and e-mail, where local, national or international will be intercepted, recorded and dissected for content with the minimum expense. In addition ISP, at there expense are being, request to provide additional monitoring facilities and equipment for the intelligence agency.
In the South African context, Interception - will include all our neighbouring states as, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique Zimbabwe and Zambia. Those Countries in Central and West Africa - As Rwanda, Burundi, Nigeria, Somalia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Libya as well as the Islands of Madagascar and the Seychelles.
Politically it could (so it is claimed as with Echelon) enable South Africa to achieve internal stability, increases its continental influence, as one of the most powerful nations in Africa, thus be more actively involved in enforcing regional security to help stabilize, or at least contain, conflicts on the continent in Southern Africa, as well as in Africa in general. (25)
For more detail and comparison to other countries legal positions regarding intelligence collection and civil rights: See South African Law Commission Discussion Paper 78 Project 105 (Review of Security Legislation The Interception and Monitoring Prohibition Act) (Act No: 127 of 1992). (14)
If formally requested, the NSA, if so inclined, will or could provide the NIA, of relevant intelligence gained via ECHELON. But due to the different importance attached to a request of this nature much of the desperate intelligence, needed today, would only be available tomorrow, (much to late in the fast moving field of present date intelligence gathering.)
Likewise the French are rumoured to be trying to establish a similar system for Europe (with the exclusion of the Americans and UK whom have been suspected of ruining several major French contracts by releasing confident commercial details to US companies, allowing them to win these contracts (12)) France is looking for partners and are trying to woo the Swiss in joining them and not the present UKUSA alliance.
In Conclusion:
The ECHELON networks of the future faces a much harder task, (so it is claimed - but for every problem there is a solution) with the sheer volume of traffic, encryption, more security and more informed public about ECHELON and other countries methods of interception and detection. E.g. the Russians - System of Operative and Investigative Procedures or (SORM-2) -. By the Federal Security Service (FSB), The French - (DST - Direction de la Surveilance du Territoire), the Chinese (Ministry of State Security [MSS] Guojia Anquan Bu [Guoanbu]), the Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to mention but a few.
New techniques and methods are being developed to assist as TEMPEST - NSA code name for the ability to eavesdrop on electronic equipment by intercepting and decoding their electromagnetic radiation.
Thus be warned, no matter where you are, no matter whom you are, there is some agency monitoring not just your physical movements, but nearly every written or spoken word which you entrust to what ever format, whatever the method or means of communication.


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Natty's Elizabeth Gathered-Waist Dress
Added Jan 12, 2013
by nattyjane
Berkeley, Califo...
Late last year I got an email from the lovely Jamie Lau of BurdaStyle, who is one of the authors of the new BurdaStyle book, Sewing Vintage Modern. In her email she asked me if I would like to try out one of the patterns from the book. I happen to be a sucker for dresses, especially when they are styled with a 1950s aesthetic, so of course I asked to do the Elizabeth Gathered-Waist Dress.
Awhile back, my mom gave me a set of vintage bandanas that she found while thrifting. I have been meaning to use them in a sewing project ever since, and the simple bodice of this dress pattern seemed like the perfect opportunity. To incorporate the bandana, I started by rounding off the square neckline of the pattern. Once the pattern pieces were cut in the main fabric, I positioned the bandana to my liking and cut it to match the pattern. Last I basted the neckline and straight stitched along the edges.
After attaching the skirt to the bodice, I decided to add some pleats above the hem to make it a bit more interesting. I will admit that I wasn't very precise with this part and just eyeballed it as I sewed. Surprisingly it didn't turn into a disaster, and I'm super happy with the result!
I would definitely recommend this dress pattern. It is simple with a flattering fit, plus it is easy to alter and sew. I'm looking forward to trying some of the other variations for this pattern that are in the book, including the adorable Lillian Blouse.
Also on my blog! nattyjanesews.blogspot.com
Material Notes
Cotton chambray, invisible zipper, vintage bandana.
15 Comments Sign in to add a post
Jan 22, 2013, 06.29 AMby Jamie Lau
Love the hem and neckline!
Jan 19, 2013, 12.46 AMby carottesauvage
one of the most compelling adaptations of the pattern!
Jan 18, 2013, 10.53 AMby kusum k
It looks very nice,good job.
Jan 18, 2013, 12.48 AMby EmmaDarwin
Lucky you.. Looks great :)
Jan 17, 2013, 08.10 PMby JEFare
well done :)
Jan 17, 2013, 02.36 PMby toupinette
just waouh!
Jan 16, 2013, 10.27 AMby olg
very inspiring! thanks and keep it up :)
Jan 16, 2013, 06.08 AMby AmyNicoleStudio
LOVE what you did with the bandana – genius! So going to copy that ;) Also love the pleats you added to the hem.. which got me thinking.. could be a fun way to hem a skirt or dress thats a bit too long!
Jan 13, 2013, 08.34 PMby nookie
everything about this dress is gorgeous and give me a great idea for using some scarves of my mothers.
Jan 13, 2013, 04.33 PMby pampula
I love the idea of using bandana in dress bodice and your dress looks so pretty and fun!
Jan 13, 2013, 02.23 AMby tilshmil
Very pretty! I love the way you used the bandana, genius! The hem is wonderful, subtle but great design. I would wear your dress proudly! Well done!
Jan 12, 2013, 05.25 PMby prettysewinggirl
Wow, great job :) love your ideas… and it all came out very very well :)
Jan 12, 2013, 10.50 AMby klasika
Great job! Like it very much! (:
Jan 12, 2013, 10.15 AMby gemmafloyd
I love the idea with using a bandana! I have a couple lying out there, which I think I might just use for a dress pattern! I love the color combination as well!
Jan 12, 2013, 09.21 AMby Mary Athey
You did a fab.job with this pattern. I love the added bandana!! It makes the dress so unique.x
Add to Favorites 46 people added it

subset: commoncrawl


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The Sport line is performance oriented, perfect for aggressive cruising. The hull design allows for great handling and visibility and the sitting arrangement is comfortable and provides support. The cabin is perfect for extra storage.
color line
hydraulic steering pump
chemical toilet
mattress set
passangers seat
fuel instalation
laminated table in cockpit


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Jan '05 - Feb '07
The students of the UF School of Architecture run an independent design magazine (funded in part by student government via AIAS) by the name of Architrave. The publication is 6 years old or so, originating as a copy paper newsletter, evolving into a full-color bi-annual magazine.
If anyone at all is interested in receivng a copy of issue #10 as well as #13, soon to be published by the students currently running the magazine, please EMAIL me your mailing address. If you contact Architrave directly, it may be trickier to get the back issue (#10).
The mags are free and certainly good reading. Once this list is together I will forward it to the new staff and in the early Fall mailings should be made. Thanks for your interest.
Also, feel free to include your firms info if you would like.
[mission statement below copied from the website]
Architrave, an independent student-run design magazine, fulfills its mission to document, distribute, and expand the architectural ideas of the students and faculty at the University of Florida. It serves as an opportunity to showcase the design work being produced by students of many disciplines, including the College of Design, Construction and Planning, and the College of Fine Arts. Architrave also addresses current design related issues in the architectural community as a whole. As a design project in itself, Architrave sets in motion a catalyst for discussion and community involvement throughout the school. This momentum begins to unfold a document that combines the efforts of many who support it. The final product is a cohesive blend of work and ideas that is distributed to schools and firms worldwide.
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It has been said that all of story telling, every arc in human history, in fact, is ultimately a retelling of the same plot line. Aristotle is known for believing that central to plot is the pathos, or suffering, of a central protagonist – catharsis. If you think about it, it is remarkable thing that Brothers Karamazov and Little Red Riding Hood have plots that are nearly indistinguishable in their elemental form.
Our own literary epiphanies, the winning of our hearts and minds, are therefore almost certainly not a function of only overarching plot outline. Literature that changes our lives demands that a story supplants our paradigm and illumines truths that are as glaringly powerful and self-evident as they are generally overlooked in the daily course of our lives.
Gustave Flaubert, the famed French novelist, said that he wanted to write a book that rested on the beauty of the prose alone (paraphrased), as opposed to a reliance on a hypnotizing plotline. He was certainly right that prose matters but from a sales standpoint there is a reason that Madame Bovary is not as widely read as the Hunger Games amongst contemporary youth. It does highlight, however, that as with literature, the narrative of your "edge" as a manager, the presentation of how you tell your story, matters just as much as what the story is to begin with.
This second of 12 articles discusses both the "what" and the "how" of how you describe your value proposition, or edge, to investors.
What's your edge?
Here are important characteristics of what an "edge" does and does not look like:
1) Your edge is not a function of current conditions. Communicating your edge as something that could terminate as a result of circumstance evolution will not win the hearts of investors. For example, it is not compelling to suggest that your value proposition is partially a function of your trading fewer assets than a larger competitor. What happens when you grow?
Another example happens from time to time with discretionary managers. Representing that your contact base provides information flow difficult to access by others is concerning. This is a weak argument, among other reasons, because very few people stay in their current circumstances long and an investor cannot monitor your contact network. Your edge could deteriorate rapidly without anyone knowing of a change. Examine your value proposition carefully. Do not rely on circumstances as a defense to your potential value to an investor.
2) Do not claim uniqueness in approach. A sophisticated investor's vocation is plane hopping the world and visiting with often hundreds of potential managers a year. They are in a position to evaluate what is unique; as a manager your self-critique is of little value. This does not mean that you are not unique; it means that you gain nothing by suggesting your self-proclaimed adulates to investors. The investor's stream of thought is likely to drift towards attempting to disprove your claims rather than being impressed by your self-created reality. If what you do is genuinely unique, the investor will arrive at that conclusion regardless and proclaiming it yourself seems self-congratulatory.
3) Trading profitably is hard; state clearly how you can do it when so many others cannot. No one knows what is truly compelling about your approach better than you. Rather than throwing out a laundry list of potential reasons investors should care, be explicit in how your approach is profitable and thoughtful in your intuitive justifications. There must be an intuitive connection for investors as to why your approach works better than thousands of competitors. This does not mean that you should not share other aspects of your program that are sound and thoughtful. Be sure to represent all compelling aspects of your program while the driving thesis of your marketing materials and presentation is clear. Your articulation of "edge" must represent why you have the conviction you do, as opposed to a list of possibilities hoping the investor resonates with one of them.
Honing the message
Getting the "what it is" of your value proposition well tuned is critical, but delivering the message effectively can clinch investor interest. Here are thoughts on improving the presentation of your edge to investors.


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Stentor Student Standard Violin Outfit, 1/16
Stentor Student Standard Violin Outfit, 1/16Details
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With hardwood pegs and fingerboard and a carved solid body, this violin produces a sound and timbre that you would expect of a more expensive instrument. All components have been built to a standard th at matches this high standard, right down to the strings and the bridge. This is unlike many other economy instruments that either use composite woods or laminate tops for the violin bodies.
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- Pegs and Fingerboard Material: Blackened Hardwood
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- Size: 1/16 Size
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- Bow: Solid Wood Bow with Ebony Frog and Natural Horse Hair
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Fall Meet & Greet: Thursday, September 21, 5:30pm in 241 McDonnell Hall
The Geography Department Meet & Greet PIZZA PARTY was held on Tuesday, Sept 21st. This event is an opportunity for students and faculty met to find out what's in store for Geography this year.
Trip to Washingtion, DC: Thursday, November 18
Sign up by October 28th.
* Meet Bucknell alum Lee Schwartz '76, Geographer of the U.S.
* Visit the National Geographic Society
* Explore the Library of Congress Map Room
* Enjoy lunch and dinner with Bucknell alums
For more information or to sign up, please contact Michelle Ayoub at email@example.com by October 28th.
Thinking Geographically: Politics, Ecology, and Resistance. Thursday, February 17
Join us for research talks by four Bucknell alumni who went onto academic careers as well as a panel discussion, "Geographers' Views: Local Environmental Struggles, Global Context." The entire campus community is most welcome to attend any or all of this conference and we especially encourage student participation.
Brian King '95, HIV/AIDS and Political Ecologies of Health
Sonja Pieck '99, Transnational Amazonian Politics
Jacqueline Vadjunec '97, New Amazonian Geographies
Joel Wainwright '95, Climate Leviathan
Learn more about the conference
Margaret Pearce. Tuesday, March 1, 221 Coleman Hall
Margaret Pearce, a cultural/historical geographer and cartographer from the University of Kansas will be on campus March 1st and 2nd. Her work focuses on cartographic representation, particularly as regards indigenous peoples, place, and narrative, and will make a nice follow-up to our recent alumni panel.
Her lecture on Tuesday March 1st at 4:30 will be held in 221 Coleman Hall.


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Amish Midwife, The - eBook
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Lexie learns the true meaning of the Pennsylvania Dutch word demut, which means "to let be" as she changes from a woman who wants to control everything to a woman who depends on God.
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Vendor: Harvest House Publishers
Publication Date: 2011
Series: Women of Lancaster County
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A dusty carved box containing two locks of hair and a century-old letter regarding property in Switzerland, and a burning desire to learn about her biological family lead nurse-midwife Lexie Jaeger from her home in Oregon to the heart of Pennsylvania Amish country. There she meets Marta Bayer, a mysterious lay-midwife who desperately needs help after an Amish client and her baby die.
Lexie steps in to assume Marta's patient load even as she continues the search for her birth family, and from her patients she learns the true meaning of the Pennsylvania Dutch word demut, which means to let be as she changes from a woman who wants to control everything to a woman who depends on God.
A compelling story about a search for identity and the ability to trust that God securely holds our whole life past, present, and future.
This story accurately portrays the human desire for belonging and acceptance. Clark and Gould accomplish this masterfully by magnifying this need as the focal point of the story. While not exaggerated, it is emphasized just enough to be evident. The authors also demonstrate how dissension grows and destroys if it is not dealt with properly. The climactic scene shows this above and beyond what is expected, and it springs to life as the perfect culmination to the plot.
Whereas many of the characters are in constant conflict with one another throughout the book, Clark and Gould do not overdo it, and rewarding moments are nicely balanced with setbacks and challenges. The plot is strong and enjoyable, and the characters' back-stories naturally complement the narrative. The Amish Midwife is also sound in its portrayal of godly relationships. This book, with its seamlessness, mystery, and Christian values, is a must-read. It will be enjoyed by both young adult and older women. Rachel Vachon, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com


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Could Anyone Have Saved Phoebe Prince?
She was tormented by bullies at school and online. Here's what we can learn from her suicide.
See Emily Bazelon's special report on the untold story of Phoebe Prince and her suicide.
Last September, South Hadley High School in Western Massachusetts hosted a workshop on bullying for parents and anyone else interested. Attendance was low. As the school year progressed, a ninth-grader who'd recently arrived from Ireland, Phoebe Prince, got caught in a torrent of mean-girl taunting. In school, girls who didn't like the way she was talking to their boyfriends called her a slut. Someone scribbled Prince out of a student-body photo hanging in a classroom, one student said. Outside school, her tormenters ganged up on her on Facebook, making the bullying incessant.
In January, Prince, who was 15, hanged herself. Both school officials and students connected her death to the bullying that preceded it, and the school committee meeting that followed her suicide was packed with 300 people. Many of them were parents, and some of them blamed the school. One father, whose daughter had also been bullied in ninth grade said, "This is not a new problem," according to the local paper.
That's why school administrators had convened the bullying workshop and asked anti-bullying expert Barbara Coloroso to talk to parents. The school had been looking at the problem of bullying for two years, they said, and had been about to convene a task force when Prince took her own life. They'd also been savvy enough to add warnings about online cruelty to the twice-yearly handout they give students about bullying, Coloroso said. Prince even got some counseling at school before her death, according to the principal. And yet none of this was enough. Prince's suicide stands as an awful illustration of how the Internet is making the old problem of fighting bullying even more difficult. It's not that prevention is a theoretical puzzle—the experts know a fair amount about what works. But actually implementing a prevention effort is another matter. It requires getting the attention of the whole school. And getting it before a tragedy, not after one, is no easy feat.
For starters, cyberbullying is trickier than the on-campus variety for schools to police. The basic conundrum is that harassment via Facebook, text messaging, and e-mail usually involves off-campus student speech, which is more protected by the First Amendment than what happens on school grounds. The standard is that schools can only discipline students for off-campus speech if it causes a "material and substantial disruption" within school. Online bullying that takes place off-campus is a new test for this standard, and courts are just beginning to sort it out. So far, they've been split. Some judges have said that speech that makes it difficult for one student to learn counts as a substantial disruption, as Nancy Willard of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use explains. Other courts have erred on the side of protecting the First Amendment rights of students by ruling that schools can only discipline for bullying that disrupts school activities more widely. (See this recent ruling in California.) Unsure of their power to discipline, schools sometimes assume they can't do anything at all.
But that's never true says Elizabeth Englander, a psychology professor who directs the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State College. "They can always sit down with the cyberbully and with the parents and say: 'This isn't about discipline. It's about making sure you understand that if you take this further, you could break the law. And also you're really hurting people. Often, in milder cases, kids underestimate how hurtful what they're doing is." Schools can support the kids who are targets of bullying, too, as South Hadley tried to do.
When working to prevent the new mix of bullying and cyberbullying, schools can look at the lessons learned from an earlier effort to stop the traditional, in-person kind of kid cruelty. After the rash of school shootings in the 1990s, a comprehensive study by the Secret Service of 37 such incidents found that many of the shooters were chronic victims of bullying who hadn't gotten help. Other research, conducted around that time, showed that bullying reduces school achievement. And so a series of prevention programs were launched at schools across the country. Some of them were shown to work. But this was before Facebook and text messaging became part of the bully's arsenal. So what translates?
The overall insight is pretty basic. "You have to work with the whole school—students, teachers, administrators, everyone," Englander says. "You need a new social norm, where the community looks down on these behaviors." How to pull this off? Essentially, a school or a school district has to decide to mount a public health campaign, like the ones that have reduced the rates of teen smoking or drunk driving. Here's an outline for schools from Patricia Agatston, who co-wrote the book Cyber Bullying. Here's a curriculum from the Seattle public schools, where Mike Donlin, who works on both technology and safety for the district, is at work on the evolving problem of bullying. So is the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use. To summarize the approach that the experts advocate: A school asks students how big a problem cyberbullying is and how, exactly, it's playing out. That assessment in hand, administrators and teachers start talking—to students, parents, and the community—about the damage it's causing, and they keep talking about it. They get parents' attention so they actually show up for workshops, for example, and absorb the importance of talking about the subject with their kids—the importance of taking the issue seriously.
The best thing parents can do, Englander says, is simply to start a conversation with their children. Ask teens and 'tweens where they go and what they do online. Ask if they've seen hurtful postings or texts. Ask what they'd do if they did. Schools can jump start this process by giving parents advice about how to respond, so they don't feel like they're fumbling around in a brave new world they don't understand.
If all of this sounds obvious, well, that's the upside. These efforts take awareness and effort and commitment on the part of schools and parents, but they're not technical or particularly difficult—you don't need to open Twitter account to help your kid navigate the online world. That's a relief, because cyberbullying and traditional bullying are increasingly tangled up with each other. One 2008 paper found that about 60 percent of kids who said they'd been bullied online had also been bullied in person. The bullies were also active both on and offline, said Agatston, who co-wrote her book with the paper's authors, Robin Kowalski and Susan Limber. There are also, of course, kids who just get drawn in by the anonymity and ease of trashing someone online—just press "send" while you're at a safe remove from the person who's your target. But often the mean girls and the menacing guys online are the same ones who are mean and menacing at school.
In South Hadley, the bullying-prevention taskforce was postponed for a month in the aftermath of the suicide to give the Prince family space and students time to process it, the principal said. The school, the local DA, and the South Hadley police are each investigating the events that led up to the suicide. (Two students have already been disciplined.) Chillingly, after Phoebe Prince's death, comments taunting her were posted on her Facebook memorial page. It's been taken down.


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Thermaltake Blacx Hard Drive Dock
The Thermaltake Blacx Hard Drive Docking Station functions as an external hard drive enclosure, but with the brilliant benefit of being able to quickly and easily insert and eject the disk drive without having to get inside the hard drive enclosure. The unit has many useful purposes for providing extra disk space anywhere needed. We're currently using it to provide extra disk space to a network media player. It could also be used to move large data that will not fit on a USB flash drive between rooms, offices, etc. The Blacx handles both desktop and notebook drives at sizes up to 1TB. It also features hot swap support for drives. The docking station is fully USB 2.0 complaint, to offer speeds as high as 480Mbps, and it works with both PCs and Macs. The Thermaltake Blacx is very affordably priced at $39.99.


text: Contact Us Thank you for your interest. Please fill out the form below to inquire about our work in Metals & Mining. Please note: while we appreciate your questions, we are unable to respond to all inquiries. To learn more, visit how we help clients. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*). NAME * EMAIL * ORGANIZATION SUBJECT * MESSAGE * Security validation*


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Wave Music Community Board
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Days Like This (The Spen and Karizma Files) - Sean Escoffery
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Days Like This (The Spen and Karizma Files) - Sean Escoffery
Listen/buy Days Like This (The Spen and Karizma Files) -
Sean Escoffery
Shaun Escoffery
'Days Like This (The Spen & Karizma Files)'
1. Deepah Dub ReRub
2. Spen & Karizma Remix â Re-Touched
Remixed, Produced & Arranged by DJ Spen & Karizma
Keyboards by Gary Hudgins
Bass by Irvin Madden
Guitar by Sukarno 'Snookie' Richardson
Additional Vocals & Vocal Arrangement by Martin Wilson
Horns by Eric Marner & Eric McMilan
Executive Producers DJ Spen & Thommy Davis
Published by Copyright Control & Hit & Run Music
Next up on Quantize a very special remix package of a truly great song from Shaun Escoffrey.
Originally release in 2002, âDays Like Thisâ was Escoffery's second single and went on to cement his place as one of most exciting British artists to emerge in Soulful House.
Having been a fan since first hearing Escoffreys soulful tones, DJ Spen and long-time studio partner Karizmaâs âMain Mixâ featured on the original single release and went on to become a firm favourite for many.
Fast forward ten years and Spen and Karizma are back with this timely rework. In the hands of seasoned vets, homage is paid in all areas and Spen and Karizmaâs filter disco fuelled âDeepah Dub Re Rubâ mix packs an infectious punch, destined to bring smiles to many a dance floor this summer.
As the title indicates Spen and Karizmaâs âRetouchâ does just that adding a smattering of up-tempo brilliance to their original remix.
Phil Asher : Love iT - X
Hector Romero : That Dub is HOT!! Gonna be fun to play
DJ Booker T : One of My fav tune with mixes by two Bad boys spen & karizma The mixes are on fire HOT HOT HOT Will Support on my radio show
N'Dinga Gaba : nothing to say but I LOVE DAYS LIKE THIS!!!!!
Ultra Nate' : digging both..full support.
ATFC : cool thanks
Rich (BBC) : Total quality what a couple of re rubs... cant fault at all have to give 5 stars. looking forward to dropping both mixes tonight
Mr.V : Talk about BALLS!!!! Gotta say.... this record is a classic and the first thing in my mind was... "THIS BETTER BE GOOD!". AND IT IS!!!!! Props to Spen & Karizma for giving this an additional push and for making a dope ass 2013 version. V.
Groove Assassin : SLAM-JAM-A-LAM! Timeless ..2 great mixes for the floor!
Claude Monnet : Ace remixes. Will support!
Rocco (Rodamaal) : Nice Deepah version ! thank you Rocco.
Davide Fiorese : CLASSIC TUNE!!!!LOVE ORIGINAL & RE-DUB!!!!
Candice McKenzie : Exciting stuff! I love both remixes, thank you!
The Layabouts : great to see a new mix of this classic.. thanks!
Kiko Navarro : the dub is a killer, just in time for my gig in italy tonight, muchas gracias amigos see you both soon in mallorca
Mr Mike : Full Support!
Gianni Junior : Great rework,Deepah Dub for me!
Ian Friday : Nice rework of a classic!
John Morales : Another Quantize SPen Killa Full Support
MArio Chrisostomou : Great to have this back n refreshed!
Craig Stewart : What can I say, love, love, love this jam soooo much - great work on the Re-Rub, can't wait to smash it out
Dj Damond Ramsey : Nice work guys, love it full support.
DJ Rob Tarter : Been waiting for this one! Hawtness!
Mind Street : New hit on Air from Quantize, One More.....
DJ Pope : love it
Miss Kelly Marie : Oh my !! one of my favourite tracks anyway !! this is been retouched so well. gets my full support so nice to have new mixes of this ..
DJ Oji : This song is TIMELESS! A rebirth? A retouch? Ain't nothing wrong with that!
Maurice Joshua : HOTT!!! in rotation ight NOW!!!
EDDIE Boom : yhe dub jus complete genius sums it all up
DJ Chocolate Brown from RiskSoundSystem : FIRE!!!!!!!!!
Paul Trouble Anderson : Troubtastic track
Danny Rampling : Total respect awesome remix Love the original MAW mix an all time House classic favourite . Well done and thanks ...Get the party started
LUIS RADIO : great to have a new nix of this timeless song thanks
Mark Mendoza : The anthem revitalized... slammin work!
Jerome Hicks : great rework...
Master Kev : Always been a fan of these mixes as well as the original Spinna mix. great to see it get a digital release
DNH : Fire!
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Before & After: Danielle's Double-Oven Dream Kitchen
Like this entry? Favorite it below!
- Name:
- Danielle
- Location:
- Birmingham, MI
- Division:
- United States
- About my kitchen reveal:
- This is the kitchen I've been dreaming about since we hosted our housewarming party in our old teeny tiny bungalow, 15 years ago! My husband and I hired a kitchen designer who acted as our general contractor. We worked within our original kitchen footprint to keep costs down and replaced the flooring, cabinets, countertops, lighting and one window.
- My best tip for a successful kitchen makeover::
- As we'd never worked with a kitchen designer before, I was surprised to learn that he didn't offer much advice regarding, well, much. He designed the basic space - with suggestions/input from us - but then gave us no direction in terms of lighting fixtures and hardware. I'm not sure if that's typical or not.
- My favorite meal to cook in my kitchen::
- While I love my 6 burner cooktop, as an on-again, off-again pastry chef, the double ovens give me the most happiness! I'm looking forward to hosting our big family Thanksgiving dinner with space for side dishes and hot from-the-oven rolls!


text:
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You…yes YOU…Could Present at Next Year's Conference!
How would you like to be famous?
Well, not famous, exactly, but someone looked up to as a leader in the writery sciences? It's possible. Although the memories–and the extra pounds–are still fresh from this year's conference, we're already planning for next year. That includes taking proposals for the sessions that are part of next year's conference.
Some of the sessions are penciled in pretty firmly, but most are wide open.
To be considered for a conference session, you have to present something of general interest to at least a decent subset of attendees. For instance, a session on why you should all buy a beer for the conference blogger is, unfortunately, not going to be seriously considered. However, a session on how to use a blog as part of your book-marketing efforts would be seriously considered.
You've got a little time to consider your ideas. Your proposal is due by January 15, 2013. Your idea should ideally fall into one of the following categories: fiction, nonfiction, the business of writing, or perhaps a panel discussion of some sort. You could also propose to be part of the agents, publishers, and acquisition editors panel, or the self-publishing panel.
Ideally, to present, you should have some public-speaking experience. We wouldn't want your first time in front of the mic to be in front of a ton of writers–some of whom you know!
When you submit your idea, you should be able to discuss how your session will be interactive. And although your session can't be about how great your book is, and how everyone should run over to the conference book store this instant and buy it, you will have a bio in the conference program and you'll be introduced by the room monitor. Your bio can include what your book is, and that it's available at the conference bookstore.
Not all the ideas will be accepted, but if yours is, you'll know by early March. And if your session isn't selected, you should watch this space for mini-conferences.
Interested? How could you not be?
Just click here to download the Call for Presentations form and have at it!
Comments are closed.


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By Scott Malone
BOSTON (Reuters) - A judge said on Monday he would decide on accused Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger's claim that he cannot be tried for 19 killings because former prosecutors gave him immunity.
District Court Judge Richard Stearns said there was no reason to put off a decision on Bulger's claim, noting that there would be little reason to go forward with a trial if Bulger could prove he had a valid claim to immunity.
Bulgers' lawyers request that the immunity claim be settled at trial.
"It would present a disservice to judicial economy and the orderly administration of justice to sit idly by awaiting the raising of an objection that is now ripe and which defendant has unequivocally indicated his intent to invoke," Stearns said in court papers.
Bulger was arrested in 2011 following 16 years on the run after he fled Boston on a tip from a corrupt FBI agent that arrest was imminent.
His attorneys have argued that former Assistant Attorney Jeremiah O'Sullivan gave him immunity from prosecution for crimes committed while he ran Boston's "Winter Hill" gang in the 1970s, '80s and early '90s.
Bulger, 83, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
When prosecutors offer a suspect immunity from prosecution from a previously-committed crime, they often do so in exchange for information on a more serious offense. Bulger's attorney, J.W. Carney of the Boston law firm Carney & Bassill, said last month that his client had never been an informant.
"James Bulger was never an informant to the FBI or anyone else at any time," Carney told reporters after a hearing on Bulger's immunity claim.
He declined to say why O'Sullivan, who died in 2009, would have given Bulger immunity if not in exchange for information.
O'Sullivan in 2003 Congressional testimony, denied giving immunity to Bulger or any other members of his gang.
Assistant Attorney Zachary Hafer in a Friday court filing called Bulger's claim to have received immunity without exchanging information "strange and unsubstantiated."
Bulger's attorney had argued that deciding on his immunity claim before the trial would have unfairly limited his right to present a full defense case.
Stearns said on Monday that any grant of immunity would not have given Bulger the right to commit murder.
"Any grant of prospective immunity to commit murder was without authorization and is hence unenforceable under any circumstance," Stearns said.
Bulger's name was prominent on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list for years before his arrest in California.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on all charges and his trial has been scheduled to begin in June.
His case inspired Martin Scorsese's 2006 Academy Award-winning film "The Departed."
(Reporting By Scott Malone; editing by Andrew Hay)


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Quick paint of Chen Stormstout's precious face;
Some practice sketches of drawing angry wolf snarl faces (so I could draw worgen). First two are real wolf refs, third no refs, fourth and fifth are reffed from my rogue.
Painting of a golden cloud serpent that is not totally done yet;
Aaaand some non-WoW stuff!


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Mister Ed wrote:[quote=staff]
You'll need to buy all 7 sets if you want to get the complete Fellowship...
Don't know where you get this idea. From your descriptions it seems like you can get the whole Fellowship by buying four sets. 9469 (Gandalf and Frodo), 9470 (Sam), 9472 (Merry and Aragorn), and 9473 (Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, Pippin), give you at least one copy of each Fellowship member (with 2 extras of Frodo, and Gollum to boot).
deskp wrote:Are you sure that it is Eomer in "uruk-hai army" ?
Any new molds you could highlight?
JamesBenjamin wrote:The new 1x2 brick with molded bricks on it is already out. Its in 2 Ninjago sets in light tan, and 2 larger city police sets in light flesh. I picked up one of the $7 Ninjago sets last night to check out the part, its pretty neat. Each side is different (like the 1x2 grill brick) so they seem really useful... once they make it out in significant colors/quantities.
bigospedros wrote:This is the brick I'd seen in the new City advent calendar, and was new to me ... but from what I recall, the one in the LOTR set was different, although again, it was a brief look, so I may be mistaken. Unless it was the other side of this brick, which is different again?!
Thanks for pointing out it isn't that new. I don't collect City or Ninjago, so it was new to me
THX 1138 wrote: The only one I don't like is Boromir. They could've done a much better job of making its face look like Sean Bean. Right now, it looks a lot more like Théoden.
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text: Job Discussion Forums :: View topic - English teaching books Get TEFL Certified & Start Your Adventure Today! Job Discussion Forums"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in English teaching books Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> France View previous topic :: View next topic Author Message TomtonJoined: 08 Nov 2004Posts: 66 Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:19 pm Post subject: English teaching books I live in France and teach English on a freelance basis. When I moved here three years ago I bought dozens of books that I thought would be useful for the students. I have got student books, work books and teachers books and most have NEVER been opened. I would like to sell that at 50% discount. Any one know how I can advertsie them? All of them are from UK. Thanks for your suggestions. Back to top lolwhitesJoined: 29 Jun 2005Posts: 158Location: France Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:36 pm Post subject: If you live in Paris, Gibert on Boulevard St Michel might take them off our hands. I don't know what they's give you for them, though. Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> France All times are GMT Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Where to Begin----------------General DiscussionNewbie ForumCurrent Events ForumTechnology ForumOnline Teaching Forum Africa Forums----------------General Africa Forum Asia Forums----------------CambodiaChina (Job-related Posts Only)China (Off-Topic)Hong KongIndiaIndonesiaJapanMalaysiaPhilippinesSingaporeTaiwanThailandGeneral Asia ForumVietnam Caribbean Forums----------------General Caribbean Forum Europe Forums----------------Czech RepublicFranceGermanyGreeceItalyMacedonia and the BalkansPolandRomaniaRussia & C.I.S.SpainTurkeyUkraineUnited KingdomGeneral Europe Forum Latin America Forums----------------ArgentinaBrazilChileColombiaCosta RicaMexicoMexico (off-topic)PeruGeneral Latin America Forum The Middle East Forums----------------BahrainEgyptIsraelKuwaitOmanQatarSaudi ArabiaUnited Arab EmiratesGeneral Middle East Forum North America Forums----------------General North America Forum Oceania----------------Australia/New Zealand You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling. Contact Dave's ESL Cafe Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved. Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group Teaching Jobs in China


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When writing about energy fundamentals, a key component over the last few decades has been geopolitical risk. But while in the past geopolitical risk meant one thing — fear of a disruption in the Middle East, or another of the world's hotspots that also produces crude oil, because of a threat of war — today it represents two-way risk. It is not only war that poses a threat to the supply/demand status quo, but peace.
Yes, there is still a threat that Israel will attack Iran over its nuclear enrichment program, and Iran will retaliate by mucking up oil transport through the Straits of Hormuz. But that threat has been reduced, and there is the hope of peace as the tentative agreement between the United States and Iran over its nuclear program eventually could lead to more Iranian oil on the global market.
"There always will be geopolitical risk. Iran seems to be cooperating with the U.S. and the world is pleased. I don't think the Saudis and Israel are pleased," says Todd Kramer, general partner at Blueshift Capital Group. "Can crude oil crash? Don't know, but the path of least resistance is lower."
Most analysts agree, but are cautious. "There is a lot of skepticism on how the Iran talks will go," says Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. "One of the things that is going away is the fear that there will be an imminent attack on Iran. For years there was this thought that an attack on Iran from the Israelis was inevitable."
The point being, when you talk geopolitical risk, it now cuts both ways. "[That's] exactly right," says Dominick Chirichella, founding partner at Energy Management Institute. "Sometime within the next six months we are going to see more Libyan oil coming back. That is bearish."
In fact, with so much production shut-in, the risk is on the side of a supply spike.
Flynn says, "There is still instability in Iraq, but if the political instability calms down there is a possibility of a major increase in both countries. This is causing concern within the cartel on how they are going to handle increased production."
The last time we discussed energy fundamentals, we noted how the increased U.S. production had offset the impact of production disruptions in the Middle East (see "Top dog once again," below). We did not see a massive reduction in price with increased U.S. production; however, we did not see a huge spike in prices despite most of Libyan production being shut-in, a worsening Iraqi situation, continued sanctions on Iran and the threat of a U.S. strike against Syria.
Those factors still exist and U.S. production continues to increase. So for the first time in a long time, there is perhaps more risk of a sudden increase in production than a shortfall.
While this is not yet being reflected in the price of crude, it certainly is showing up in the options market according to Kramer, who trades a volatility program. "We are definitely seeing more put buying," Kramer says. "This is a relatively new phenomenon. The put skews are steep while call skews are quite negative."


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We delegates filed through the light-filled atrium, past a beautiful ancient tree, up the escalators and into the large, state-of-the-art conference hall. We found our seats, prepared ourselves and made diligent notes as Kiyoji Tanaka, Ph.D., told us about increasing "vital age" with a sound programme of diet and exercise. We listened intently as he told us about how to increase our "human-being power" by switching on our "health channel," bathing in warm water, dancing, and looking for inner peace. (This was accompanied by some more widely known recommendations for healthy aging, including eating less salt and more fibre, drinking less alcohol, and losing weight).
The location was Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan and the date was July 29, 2008, the last day of the World Congress for Aging and Physical Activity. Our speaker, Tanaka, was the chair of the organizing committee of the 7th World Congress, the first ever held in Asia.
Delegates had travelled from across the world to Tsukuba, one of Japan's premier research universities, which is 45 minutes from Tokyo on the Tsukuba Express train. Researchers and practitioners in the field of aging and physical activity made the most of this opportunity to share research outcomes, hypotheses, and plans. The Congress consisted of four action-packed days of symposia, poster and oral sessions, keynote speakers, special workshops, and roundtable sessions. Topics covered research methodologies, epidemiological research, successful interventions, and the psychosocial aspects of physical activity.


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Ending the Epidemic: A Call for Leadership
By Paul A. Kawata
April 26, 2012
This article was provided by the National Minority AIDS Council; Paul Kawata is the organization's executive director.
Last year Secretary Hillary Clinton called for the U.S. to demonstrate leadership and bring about "an AIDS-free generation." On World AIDS Day 2011, President Obama announced a deepened U.S. commitment to fighting the pandemic, declaring "make no mistake, we are going to win this fight." Now it's time to incorporate Treatment as Prevention (TasP) into these efforts. We need bold leadership. We may not have all the answers, but we have enough science to start planning to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in America.
I'm in Vancouver at the International HIV Treatment as Prevention Workshop where there's no question about whether treatment prevents HIV transmission. Now the question is HOW to scale up to treat thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Antiretroviral treatment cannot do it alone, it works best when used in combination with other proven methods that reduce the transmission of HIV. I'm calling on all sectors of the HIV/AIDS response to provide leadership and translate the promise of TasP into real world options. Specifically, we need action from:
Federal Government
The President and Secretary Clinton gave us the vision, now it's time for various federal departments to provide the substance to realize that vision and for Congress to appropriate the necessary resources to make it a reality. The following are some initial items that have been recommended by NMAC's constituents via our Regional Dialogues:
The results of the HIV Prevention Trials Network study 052 (TasP) were released after the National HIV/AIDS Strategy was developed. While the NHAS includes targets to increase viral suppression among Blacks and Latinos by 20%, these are not sufficient to see the benefits of TasP and reduce HIV incidence below one percent of the population. It's time to amend the Strategy to include goals to implement TasP in America.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there are just over 328,000 American who are HIV positive and have an undetectable viral load. According to remarks made at last year's USCA by Dr. Julio Montaner at least half of PLWHA will need to achieve viral suppression to produce significant decreases in HIV incidence. As such, the NHAS should be amended to include yearly numeric goals to ultimately increase the number of HIV positive Americans with an undetectable viral load to 600,000 and eventually all PLWHA who are ready to accept treatment.
More than simply setting these goals, it's critical to ensure that the health care system can manage keeping hundreds of thousands of new PLWHA on optimal treatment. Our health care delivery systems are already at their breaking point. How will state health exchanges and the essential health benefits packages set up under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) provide HIV/AIDS services for these additional PLWHA? Without adequate healthcare infrastructure, TasP is destined to fail.
How the ACA is implemented will also directly impact the future of the Ryan White Care Act (RWCA). A new RWCA should be used to support wrap around services not covered by the ACA. We have a lot to learn about the ACA before we can honestly discuss the future of the Ryan White Program.
To best determine effective use of limited resources, we recommend Demonstration Projects to research and evaluate models that lead to system changes and capacity development necessary to implement TasP. Cities and states selected should represent the diversity of communities impacted by HIV/AIDS. Of particular concern to NMAC is TasP's ability to work within communities of color, women, gay and bisexual men, and the transgender community.
If the Demonstration Projects are successful, we then need economic models that look at both costs to implement as well as the costs of failing to take bold action. There will be significant upfront costs associated with enrolling hundreds of thousands of individuals onto treatment, but there will also be massive reductions in costs over time as a result of decreased HIV infections and improved health outcomes. This modeling needs to be presented to Congress as justification for short term increases in resources that will lead to long-term savings.
Even with the new goals for TasP, we still need a cure and vaccine. TasP may stop the epidemic, but it won't end AIDS. Only a cure can end HIV/AIDS.
Health Departments (State, County and City)
Leadership from Health Departments (HDs)/state, city or county is essential as we implement TasP, the ACA, and the new prevention priorities outlined by the CDC. HDs need to make hard decisions with limited and shrinking resources. Everyone is not going to be happy. Agencies that can adapt and change will be more successful.
There is no new money, so HDs will need to plan how they will implement TasP both with current and reduced funding. These new initiatives require local leadership. HDs play a coordinating role in bringing together all the necessary parties to develop new strategies. PLWHA need to meaningfully be included in the planning process.
Based on these new plans, HDs need to support CBOs in their efforts to adapt. Treatment education will once again become essential and prevention case management may become an increasingly important way to support PLWHA.
The Essential Health Benefits (EHB) packages, established by the Affordable Care Act will be determined at the state level. Does your state plan(s) have the benefits necessary to care for PLWHA? HDs will need to help PLWHA seamlessly transition into the plan/s that can best meet their needs.
Understanding state insurance cooperatives/policies will also be necessary to better plan the wrap around services necessary to support engagement in care and treatment adherence for PLWHA. This is why we will need continued funding through the RWCA. CBOs and PLWHA will look to their HDs for leadership and understanding during these rapidly changing times.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says "we must act" even if our work is imperfect. He says we cannot afford to delay.
In a message that could be aimed at the divided Congress where battles await him in his second term, Obama is cautioning against mistaking absolutism for principle, substituting spectacle for politics or treating "name-calling as reasoned debate."
Even so, Obama says that today's accomplishments will be partial, and it will be up to people four, 40 or even 400 years from now to advance them further.
RecommendedSlayed 'Em: Here's Grassley Killing Democratic Hopes For An FBI Investigation Into Kavanaugh
Matt Vespa
The president spoke at the U.S. Capitol after taking his public oath of office for his second term.


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Herbicide resistance continues to take a toll on crop yields in the Southeast and Delta regions and, increasingly in the Midwest. Jamie Nielson, product manager for Valent USA Corp., is one of a growing number of crop professionals who are urging farmers to take a proactive approach with residual herbicides on resistant weeds. Nielson was interviewed at this year's Farm Progress Show near Boone, Iowa.
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The Milky Way and other galaxies in the universe harbor many young star clusters and associations that each contain hundreds to thousands of hot, massive, young stars known as O and B stars. The star cluster Cygnus OB2 contains more than 60 O-type stars and about a thousand B-type stars. Deep observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have been used to detect the X-ray emission from the hot outer atmospheres, or coronas, of young stars in the cluster and to probe how these fascinating star factories form and evolve.
About 1,700 X-ray sources were detected, including about 1,450 thought to be stars in the cluster. In this image, X-rays from Chandra (blue) have been combined with infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red) and optical data from the Isaac Newton Telescope (orange).
Image Credit: NASA. Larger image
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Sprint's Kyocera Echo - World's First Dual-Touchscreen Smartphone
Posted: 08:23PM
Author: bp9801
Sprint held an event today in which it unveiled a very interesting new phone, the Kyocera Echo. What makes the Echo unique is that it features two 3.5" 480x800 touchscreens, making it the world's first dual-touchscreen smartphone. The two screens can combine to form one massive 960x800 resolution, 4.7" screen, or be set up in the laptop-style fashion as seen in the photo. You can even close the device and use just a single screen. The sliding mechanism for the screens is something Kyocera calls a liquid-metal hinge, which it has filed several patents on, and seems to operate smoothly. Powering the whole thing is a 1GHz second-gen Snapdragon processor though no mention was made of how much ROM or RAM. There is 1GB of internal storage plus an included 8GB microSD card in the external slot, though you can expand that with up to a 32GB card. The phone is running Android 2.2 which Kyocera had to extensively customize to utlize the two screens.
There are seven core apps that have reconfigured to use the dual screens, apps like the Internet browser, email, and messaging. You can have a digital keyboard on the bottom screen and have the top screen display what you are typing, or have the browser appear on both screens for a much larger experience, or even have email open on the lower screen and the browser on the top. However, third-party apps use the entire display though Sprint and Kyocera say an SDK is forthcoming so other developers can utlize the dual screens. There is even a dual-screen app manager which is accessed by tapping on both screens simultaneously.
The phone uses Sprint's 3G network instead of the faster 4G WiMax one, but that shouldn't be too much of a hassle for most. There is a five megapixel camera with flash on the rear and you can even record in 720p with it. The Kyocera Echo will be available for $199 after a $100 rebate when it launches in the next few months. Sprint will sell you an extra battery pack and charging dock as well, though Kyocera expects the Echo to hold a charge for over a day with use.


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|Can I re-start taking Complera after having stopped?
Jul 21, 2013
I began taking Complera in January of this year and had to stop in order to treat an H Pylori infection. The infection hasn't cleared, so I will be starting a second and different round of antibiotics plus a proton pump inhibitor. I will need to continue taking a proton pump inhibitor in addition to something called Carafate for a while, but not sure for how long.
CD4 was 1171 and VL was 80,000 at the time i began taking Complera. Don't remember what CD4 was when I stopped but VL was undetectable.
Given that Complera is to be started by individuals whom have never started treatment and whose viral loads were > 100,000,
1) would this disqualify me from resuming treatment?
2) Would I need to have another geno/phenotype lab test done?
3) Should i consider taking Atripla instead even though the prerequisite conditions are the same as Complera (listed above)?
Is there anything else I should be aware or concerned of?
Thank you in advance for your time and help.
Response from Dr. Young
Hello and thanks for posting.
1) A treatment interruption doesn't disqualify you at all for resuming your previous treatment.
2) Unless your adherence was really poor prior to the interruption, there's no reason to be worried about drug resistance (and hence, resistance testing).
3) While you could switch to Atripla, the reason to do so would have nothing to do with the concerns that you've raised. If you previously tolerated Complera, you could simply restart (with appropriate monitoring of adherence and viral load response).
Be well, BY
Low CD4 and no symptoms
Missed Dose
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Brazil experienced a "historic day in the oil and gas sector" with its 14th Round, as the joint venture of Petrobras and ExxonMobil signed the largest bonus of US$701 million (R$2.24 billion) for a block in the Campos basin.
Oddone. Image from ANP Facebook.
A total of 287 exploration blocks were auctioned across nine basins today (27 September) with an estimated total of 50 billion bbl in place, both offshore and onshore.
The round saw the largest total signing bonus in the country's history, which came in at nearly $1.2 billion (R$3.8 billion), and resulted in the two largest offers per block: about $701 million (R$2.24 billion) and $376 million (R$1.2 billion).
Companies acquired 37 blocks at an area of 25,011sq km for exploration and production with a projected investment of $264.6 million (R$845 million). The offshore acreage included blocks inPelotas, Santos, Espírito Santo, Sergipe-Alagoas, and the Campos basins.
In the Campos basin, eight blocks were sold at a value of $1.1 billion (R$3.65 billion).
The largest signature bonus in Campos was R$ 2.24 billion, offered for block C-M-346 by the Petrobras-led JV (50%), with partner ExxonMobil Brasil (50%).
Other winners in the Campos basin were: Exxon as operator with 100% stake in each of Blocks C-M-37, and C-M-67; and Petrobras as operator with 50:50 partner Exxon for Blocks C-M-210; C-M-277, C-M-344, C-M-346, C-M-411, and C-M-413.
In the Espírito Santo basin, winners consisted of CNOOC with 100% of Block ES-M-592; Repsol with 100% of ES-M-667; Bertek Produtos, Serviços e Mineração with 100% ofES-T-345 and ES-T-476; Imetame Energia with 100% of Blocks ES-T-354, ES-T-373, ES-T-441, ES-T-487, and ES-T-477; and Vipetro Petróleo with 100% in ES-T-453.
In Sergipe-Alagoas, winners included: Exxon as operator with 50% of SEAL-M-501 and SEAL-M-503 with partners Queiroz Galvão (30%) and Murphy E&P (20%) on both blocks; Muncks & Reboques Brasil with 100% stake in SEAL-T-132; and Greenconsult Consultoria Empresarial with 100% stake in SEAL-T-430.
Karoon's Brazil subsidiary Karoon Petroleo e Gas won the lone block that was bid on in the Santos basin, Block S-M-1537. The total signing bonus charged on the concession of these blocks was approximately $6.2 million (R$20 million). The minimum investment planned for the basin is nearly $2 million (R$6.19 million).
There were no offers for the Pelotas basin.
In total, 20 companies from eight countries participated in the bid. Seventeen of them acquired blocks, of which 10 are Brazilian and seven are from other countries. The signing of contracts is expected to occur until 31 January 2018.
The success of the auction reflects the regulatory changes made by the Brazilian government, which have made the business environment more attractive to companies of different sizes, Brazil's National Petroleum Agency (ANP) said.
ANP said it continues its strategy to expand exploration areas in the country and attract companies of different profiles.
For the 14th Bidding Round, some rules of the Brazilian concession regime were simplified, including: the adoption of a single exploration phase and the possibility of extending it due to technical reasons; the removal of local content as a bidding criteria; distinct royalties for new frontier areas and mature basins of greater risks; and incentives to increase the participation of small and medium-sized companies.
During the opening of the public session, the ANP Director General, Décio Oddone, stated that the occasion is "a historic day to the oil and gas sector in Brazil.
"This bidding round marks a new beginning of investments, after the biggest crisis this sector had ever experienced in Brazil,"Oddone said. "These measures will bring hundreds of billions of reais in investments, that is, wealth to the Brazilian society."
The third pre-salt round will be held on 27 October in Rio de Janeiro, consisting of four areas that are close to fields or prospects whose reservoirs extend beyond the granted area. The areas are related to the discoveries Cat of Mato and Carcará, and to the fields of Green Turtle and Sapinhoá.
The third round will offer four areas in the Campos and Santos basins, in the region of the pre-salt polygon, related to the prospects of Pau Brasil, Peroba, Alto de Cabo Frio-Oeste and Alto de Cabo Frio-Central.
Currently, the 10 most productive wells in Brazil are located in the pre-salt polygon, which already accounts for half of the Brazilian production, according to the ANP.
Brazil plans to hold nine auctions between now and 2019. Investments related to these auctions is estimated at US$80 billion, resulting in 300 marine wells, plus 10 billion bbl recoverable, around $100 billion in royalties, 17 new production units, plus 2 MMb/d, over the duration of the contracts.
Bidding round positive for Petrobras, ExxonMobil
The 14th round was good news for the Brazilian government from a fiscal perspective and a positive outcome for Petrobras as it establishes a strong partnership with ExxonMobil to develop its pre-salt acreage, said Horacio Cuenca, Research Director, Upstream Latin America at Wood Mackenzie.
The company had previously formed partnerships with world-class operators like Shell, Total and Statoil. These are likely to extend into the upcoming 2nd and 3rd pre-salt rounds and the surplus volumes transfer of rights round expected in 2018.
"For ExxonMobil, a lack of presence in Brazil's pre-salt has been arguably the biggest gap in its portfolio, especially now that Shell holds a dominant position in this prolific, relatively low-breakeven play," Cuenca said. "ExxonMobil's wins this round and its expected participation in the upcoming 2nd and 3rd production sharing contract rounds in October will help plug that gap and provide the company with perhaps the strongest pipeline of future oil growth opportunities within its peer group."
"Additionally, establishing a material position in Brazil's pre-salt play through exploration success would mark another positive step in repositioning ExxonMobil's oil portfolio lower down the oil cost curve, complementing Permian tight oil and Guyana," Cuenca said.
However, basins outside of Brazil's pre-salt areas received very little interest, indicating Brazil faces challenges in attractive significant investment in these areas even after implementing substantial regulatory enhancements, Cuenca added.
Read more:
Brazil sees spike in pre-salt round interest
Brazil reveals 14th Round terms