text:
I am going to tell you about the role natural gas currently plays in the United States and the role it can, and should, play in America's future. The United States of America sits on one of the planet's most abundant energy sources. It can be the key to our continued security and prosperity for generations.
Natural gas utilities make peoples' lives better. We deliver essential energy. Our companies are at the forefront of an energy revolution—a sound investment for our customers and our shareholders.
The United States is the largest producer of natural gas in the world. Continuing to develop and deliver this resource in a responsible manner and ensuring public confidence in our demonstrated ability to do so will provide an opportunity to transform the energy industry.
One of the great advantages of gas shales in the lower-48 states is that this abundant natural gas resource is located near existing infrastructure. Shale plays such as the Marcellus in New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and the Haynesville shale in East Texas and North Louisiana, are located near pipelines and markets that are getting this gas quickly, reliably, and cost effectively.
Total dry natural gas production averaged 53.3 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day from 2000 to 2010. During 2012, it averaged nearly 64 Bcf per day. The AGA believes it is possible for the United States to produce more than 80 Bcf per day by 2022.
Future of Market Stability
For the next decade and beyond, domestic natural gas supplies are expected to be sufficiently robust to meet even significant growth in demand across all sectors. Furthermore, there is room to grow natural gas demand at reasonable and relatively stable prices.
Many of the identified but not developed shale gas resource plays and more traditional production models become economically available to the market at a projected development cost of $5–$6 per million metric British thermal unit (MMBtu).
Even significant increases in demand can be supported by North America's robust and diverse natural gas resource base. We envision relative natural gas market stability during the next ten years and possibly beyond.
There are new markets for U.S. natural gas with significant potential for expanding its domestic use in homes, businesses, power generation, industrial plants and vehicles, as well as the export of liquefied natural gas. The goal of all stakeholders should be creating opportunities to better optimize our nation's energy resources.
The low cost of energy due to the use of natural gas in an industrial capacity is bringing a manufacturing base back to U.S. We are seeing this with the chemical and steel industries, among others.
We are still a few years away from any liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the U.S. and further still from a significant impact on the market. At present, Cheniere's terminal at Sabine Pass is the only facility that has been approved by our Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for exports to free-trade-agreement and non-free-trade-agreement countries. It is not expected to be operational until 2015 and will begin by exporting up to 1.2 Bcf per day.
Reliable Service, Safety
From the market forces that surround the price, to the pipeline network that delivers this commodity, natural gas is reliable. Even during unprecedented storms like we saw with Superstorm Sandy, natural gas service continued, uninterrupted, for hundreds of millions of Americans.
I would especially like to recognize some of our member utilities. They faced the challenges of Sandy and did an outstanding and, in many cases, heroic job in taking care of their customers and restoring the delivery of natural gas—they include New Jersey Natural Gas, Public Service Electric and Gas, Con Edison and National Grid.
Safety is the top priority for the American Gas Association and our members. My top priority as AGA chairman is ensuring that our customers, regulators, elected officials and investors are confident in our ability to safely deliver our product.
We have the largest integrated pipeline system in the world, with 2.4 million miles of natural gas pipelines. In order to continue to improve the safety of our systems we are consistently working to upgrade and expand that infrastructure, and while the financial commitment is significant, helping ensure the safety and reliability of our systems is paramount.
Initiatives in the year ahead include a continued focus on the integrity of our nation's transmission pipeline infrastructure and continuing to work to modernize the distribution pipelines, which deliver gas directly to homes and businesses.
Cyber-security has become an increasing focus of safety programs across all industries. During my time as chairman, natural gas utilities in this country will raise the bar for protecting our nation's critical infrastructure from those who seek to harm it.
We are working closely with the government to seek legislation, regulation, processes and procedures that will help enhance our ability to protect our infrastructure in a common sense and effective way. AGA is committed to helping its membership reduce the risk of cyber-security attacks that could significantly affect our businesses and the nation's energy infrastructure.
Public-private partnerships are the foundation for effective critical infrastructure protection, and timely, trusted information sharing among stakeholders is essential. Cyber-security legislation should focus on what industry vitally needs: more robust information sharing between the government and private industry bolstered with liability protections.
Policies that change the existing and successful cyber-security public/private partnerships could potentially undermine productive working relationships already in place.
Cleaner & Greener
Methane emissions from systems operated by America's natural gas utilities are low and getting lower, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Greenhouse gas emissions from the natural gas system were lower in 2010 than in 1990 due to a more efficient natural gas distribution system.
Ninety-two percent of energy produced at the wellhead is delivered to customers, reducing environmental impact and lowering energy bills.
Households that use natural gas appliances for heating, water heating, cooking and clothes-drying spend an average of $518 less per year than homes using electricity for those applications.
I believe that every single American should have access to the promises of natural gas. We can see greater benefits from natural gas if we:
- Promote the expansion of the natural gas delivery infrastructure and enhance the operation of the energy network to provide real-time information to customers about their energy use.
- Deploy energy efficiency programs that fully leverage the efficient use of natural gas for space and water heating.
- Expand the use of combined heat and power in commercial and industrial applications to unlock the potential for fuel cells, micro-grids and future energy innovation using natural gas.
- Encourage public-private partnerships to expand the network of refueling options for natural gas vehicles
Growing Infrastructure
Expanding our natural gas infrastructure is a capital-intensive process, and we have to find ways to balance the needs of our investors, our customers and our regulators.
America's natural gas utilities are working with policymakers at every level to develop innovative models for making the capital investments necessary to enable the expansion of the natural gas delivery network. Several states have developed innovative rate designs, working with their natural gas utilities, to build and maintain an advanced energy delivery system while continuing to deliver natural gas at affordable prices.
Combined heat and power (CHP) generates electricity and captures useful heat simultaneously to increase the overall efficiency of an energy system. This proven technology should be included in state renewable portfolio standards and federal clean energy standards. CHP can help enhance reliability, as we saw when New York University and Princeton University both kept the lights on during Sandy due to their use of CHP.
Driving a More Secure Future
On average, natural gas is 57% less expensive than an equivalent gallon of gasoline and 64% less expensive than an equivalent gallon of diesel. Compared to gasoline and diesel powered vehicles, natural gas vehicles (NGVs) can reduce tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions by 20 to 30 percent.
Natural gas producers and utilities are working together to build refueling stations throughout the country and spur advances in home refueling technology.
We are seeing major progress in the medium and heavy duty markets with companies such as Waste Management, UPS, AT&T, Comcast, Sysco and Ryder, which have made significant commitments to NGVs in their national fleets.
One-fifth of city transit buses run on natural gas today, and market share of is growing. More than 35 U.S. airports use NGVs in their fleets or encourage NGVs in private fleets operating on natural gas.
The governors of 22 states are teaming up to start replacing thousands of fleet vehicles with ones that run on natural gas. The time is right for a low-cost home compressor unit for vehicles.
Fueling Economic Growth
Natural gas delivers jobs. In June, IHS Global Insight projected that unconventional gas development in the United States will support nearly 1.5 million jobs in 2015, and more than 2.4 million jobs in 2035.
And natural gas benefits our economy as a whole, both now and in the long run. By 2015, unconventional gas activities will contribute nearly $50 billion in federal, state, and local government tax and federal royalty income. This is projected to rise to almost $85 billion by 2035.
From helping to create economic growth and increasing energy security to improving our environment, securing a role for natural gas as a foundation fuel in a national energy policy will help address many of our national priorities.
We are pleased that the American Taxpayer Relief Act addressed one of our highest advocacy priorities and will preserve and make permanent 15 percent tax rates for dividends and capital gains for individuals earning up to $400,000 or couples earning up to $450,000, while dividends and capital gains for families who earn more than $450,000 will be taxed at 20 percent.
The importance of low tax rates for dividends and parity with capital gains is significant. Keeping the taxes on dividends low will help utilities expand and rebuild our infrastructure, in turn, helping to meet the nation's energy needs. Tax rate parity between dividends and capital gains creates a level playing field and allows investors to make decisions rather than creating a tax-code-driven bias for one over the other.
Only through a comprehensive agreement to address the long-term deficit, can we reassure the financial markets, restore public confidence and create the foundation for long-term economic growth and prosperity that our industry, the business community and the American people need.
Positive Financial Health
Our industry continues to demonstrate a strong record of creating shareholder value. This past year, shareholders invested in our industry are happy that we continue to pay strong dividends. As you know, most of our energy utilities have paid dividends continuously for more than 50 years.
Moreover, our industry's bond ratings continue to reflect the positive financial health of energy utilities. These ratings are generally in the BBB/BBB+ range or higher—which is significantly higher than the average ratings of the rest of corporate America—with the average natural gas utility rating at the BBB+/A- just as strong or greater.
For overall investment performance, the shares of our investor-owned AGA member companies, as measured by the performance of the AGA Stock Index, has performed very strongly against the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Utilities Average.
Based on the AGA Stock Index, the Gas Utility Index Fund, managed by Hennessy Funds, has provided strong returns over the 3, 5, and 10-year period. Of course, past performance does not guarantee future results.
The country has experienced a transformational shift in the perceived role of natural gas—from an energy source sometimes seen as unreliable and scarce 10 years ago, to one that is now recognized as a foundation fuel for a clean and secure energy portfolio.
Since there's been so much focus on Abraham Lincoln lately, I'd like to agree with Abe when he said: "I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."
For years, we've been stressing that natural gas is the most promising solution to our nation's energy, economic and emissions challenges. I'm more optimistic about our energy future today than I've ever been.
*These remarks were delivered before the New York Society of Security Analysts on Jan. 30, 2013, in New York, and were expressed by Jibson in his capacity as chairman of the board of the American Gas Association and not in his role with Questar.
The AGA represents more than 200 local energy companies that deliver clean natural gas to 177 million Americans throughout the United States.


text:
Conspiracy of Silence US Politicians Pedophile Ring | Conspiracy Reality TV – Documentaries, Movies and Videos
On Tuesday May 3rd 1994 this program was scheduled to air on the Discovery Channel. Influential members of congress applied pressure to the cable industry to stop the airing of the program and destroy ALL COPIES. It was already listed nationwide-wide in the April30th-May 6th edition of TV Guide and newspaper supplements. The Discovery channel and Yorkshire Television were reimbursed for the 1/4 to 1/2 MILLION dollars production costs. THIS IS THE PROGRAM THEY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO SEE!
StolenKids-ThePress: PAEDOPHILE RINGS & HOW SECRET SOCIETIES WORK
I have posted this but do NOT endorse it however I would ask you to consider what you can irrefutably discount and what is your provenance – that is what COMMENTS is for!
Thanks – the aim is that we all stop and think about what is, or is NOT being done TO US!
Once you realise that even The British police murder innocent citizens with virtual impunity – once you realise these Government Enforcers killing innocent citizens ARE acting as hit squads you start to realise what else the State may be doing to you.
'Blair covering up paedophile scandal?' | www.tpuc.org
early 2003, British police began to close in on some top suspects in
the Operation Ore investigation, including senior members of Blair's
However, Blair issued a D-Notice, resulting
in a gag order on the press from publishing any details of the
investigation. Blair cited the impending war in Iraq as a reason for
the D-Notice. Police also discovered links between British Labour
government paedophile suspects and the trafficking of children for
purposes of prostitution from Belgium and Portugal (including young
boys from the Casa Pia orphanage in Portugal).
Powered by ScribeFire.
Filed under: Bilderberg, BlackOPS, Desinformation, Intelligence, Manipulation, Media NWO, NWO, Politics, USA | 3 Comments »

subset: commoncrawl


text:
German town goes solar, buys local energy plantSaturday, November 10th, 2012
After Chernobyl, the German town of Schönau didn't want to get its energy from nuclear power. So its citizens turned the town into an energy producer via solar panels and other green carbon neutral sources. Watch the short film by Journeyman Films. Sadly the German government has cut subsidies to the renewable energy industry, saying it's not sustainable economically.


text:
ATV: The most challenging spacecraft ever built by Europe is taking shape
The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), Europe's most crucial element of the International Space Station (ISS), is born. In December, soon after the impressive full-size mock-up of the 20-tonne spacecraft was assembled, it successfully started its 11-month test programme at ESA's European Space and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
The bus-size (10 m by 4.5 m diameter), cylindrical cargo-ship financed by ESA has been designed to periodically service and re-supply the ISS, starting in 2007.
About once a year a new ATV will fly unmanned and automatically dock with the ISS. The ATV can remain docked for up to six months before being loaded with waste and then disposed of in a destructive re-entry.
The first successful test was to simulate with acoustic vibrations the stress the ATV will encounter during the first three minutes of launch on top of the powerful European Ariane-5 launcher.
"Preliminary analysis has shown we had very good results after putting the whole structure through a level of frequencies up to 8 kHz with an acoustic level ranging from 141 dB to 147 dB" said Geoffrey Beckwith, ESA's ATV Test Supervisor. This is equivalent to being directly in the exhaust jet behind several commercial airliner engines.
The four different test runs have been conducted in a special enclosed facility called LEAF (Large European Acoustic Facility) with 150 sensors put in different areas of the ATV to measure and check its hardware behaviour. Two dozen technicians and engineers from prime contractor EADS-LV, Astrium, Alenia Spazio, Fokker Space, ETS (European Test Services) and from ESA have coordinated the runs during 10-hour operations.
Detailed computer analysis of the test data acquired during the acoustic tests will continue in parallel to the post-test inspection and reconfiguration of the ATV for the next tests. Until next October, the ATV mock-up will undergo a series of mechanical and critical thermal tests, including solar array deployment.
Thanks to its own avionics and propulsion capability, in orbit the ATV will resemble the combination of a tugboat and a river barge carrying supplies to the ISS. At the ESTEC facility, during the testing, the ATV service module, which includes propulsion systems, electrical power, computers and most of the avionics, was filled with 1000 kg of propellant-like glycerin and water to recreate the most realistic flight conditions.
The ATV is designed to re-supply the ISS with up to 7500 kg for net cargo. Depending on the ISS' own needs, the ATV is able to carry different combinations of supplies, carrying up to:
- 840 kg of drinking water
- 100 kg of air (oxygen and nitrogen)
- 860 kg of refuelling propellant for the station own propulsion system
- 4700 kg of propellant for re-boost
- 5500 kg of dry supplies like bags, drawers and food.
Most of this cargo will be stored in the second section - the Integrated Cargo Carrier - the pressurised upper segment that docks with the ISS. Once docked, two astronauts will be able to work in the Cargo Carrier, offloading supplies and conducting experiments. Air can also be released from the Cargo Carrier into the Station cabin. In assembling these two modules, ESA's sub-contractors Astrium and Alenia Spazio have built the first ATV test model, also called the structural and thermal model (STM), which is not intended for launch.
Construction of ATV flight hardware has already started and the main integration of the first flight model will begin next summer with a scheduled launch to the ISS in September 2004. At present, about 1 000 people, in ten different European countries, are working on this ESA programme. "We have a heavy and tight schedule in front of us to be ready for flight in less than two years, but we feel confident that we can do it together with our industrial partners," said Patrice Amadieu, ESA's ATV Deputy Project Manager.
As an unmanned space transport vehicle, the ATV, ESA's most challenging spacecraft project yet, requires a very high level of safety and reliability to automatically perform the critical operations of rendezvous and docking with a huge manned station. "The ATV will have to fulfil the demanding requirements of human spacecraft safety and at the same time have enough automatic capabilities to never involve the astronauts in manual rendezvous intervention to dock the ATV with the ISS," says ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy, who is supporting ATV development.
Built under management of EADS-LV (Les Mureaux, France), the vehicle will be launched on top of a dedicated version of the Ariane-5 launcher, currently under development. ATV is a non-reusable module and after docking with the ISS it will be loaded with 6500 kg of waste material generated onboard the Station and sent on a self-destructive return flight steep into the Earth's atmosphere where it will be burnt up.
This new European vehicle will dock with the Station's Russian Service module, Zvezda. The ATV has three times the payload capability of the current Russian Progress-M vehicle. Until now, only Progress-M is available to re-boost the station into a higher orbit around the Earth. This new logistics capability for Europe to carry out rendezvous, docking in space and re-boost the Station provides a way for ESA to contribute to the costs of ISS operations in orbit.


text:
canoncopierdrivers.com offers you a download link for Canon PIXMA TS8250 Drivers with many different printer types. This means you can download the driver software for your Canon printer despite the type of printer that you are currently using
For those who need a driver for their Canon printer, you just need to search for the model of your Canon printer. After that, you can choose the operating system that you are using and download the driver of the printer.
Download Canon PIXMA TS8250 that compatible with your operating system.
TS8250 Full Driver & Software Package (Windows)
This file will download and install the drivers, application or manual you need to set up the full functionality of your product.
Driver Detail
File version: 1.0
File Size: 19 MB
File name: win-ts8200-1_0-n_mcd.exe
Release date:21 August 2018
Operating Systems:
Windows 10 (32-bit)
Windows 10 (64-bit)
Windows 8.1 (32-bit)
Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
Windows 8 (32-bit)
Windows 8 (64-bit)
Windows 7 (32-bit)
Windows 7 (64-bit)
File Size: (19 MB)
Latest Update Driver: Canon PIXMA TS3150 Drivers
Canon PIXMA TS8250 Download / Installation Procedures
Mac OS X:
1. Download the file. For the location where the file is saved, check the computer settings.
2. Double-click the downloaded file and mount it on the Disk Image.
3. Double-click the mounted Disk Image.
4. Double-click the packaged file in the folder. Installation starts automatically.
1. Click the link, select [ Save ], specify "Save As", then click [ Save ] to download the file.
Memo :
If you select [ Run ] ( or [ Open ] ) instead of [ Save ], the file will be automatically installed after it is saved.
2. The downloaded file will be saved in the specified place in the self-extracting form ( .exe format ).
3. Double-click the downloaded EXE file to decompress it, then installation will start automatically.


text:
AllianceApts necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 142 diseños de 24 diseñadores freelance.
Alliance Management, Inc.
Management side: The Management side offers the full spectrum of apartment management services to maximize your profitability and minimize your effort. Applying a core philosophy that the key to success is to keep buildings fully rented and expenses tightly controlled, Alliance Management has significantly increased the bottom line for all of the many buildings it has managed for over its 24 year history.
Investment description: Investment side focuses on multi-family projects located in the northwest. Investment side targets multi-family properties with added value opportunities afforded by good management and renovation. The investment side commitment to this specific product and strategy has enabled them not only to develop strong expertise, but also to generate a consistent track record of high investment returns.
Owners of multi-family real estate, multi-family real estate investors, and a logo is easily recognizable to former, current and future residents of the properties that we manage. If someone see the logo they know that the property, building and residents are being taken care of.
Simple, concise, clean logo that portrays honesty, integrity, prosperity, and growth. Needs to be modern to potential put on branding materials from business cards to signage on large buildings. The acronym AMI can be used but is not a requirement.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
Can California take a joke?
Or have we become, collectively, one of those guys who flies off the handle at one unkind word? You know.
That guy.
U.S. & World
Because the response to an off-hand comment from Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has been over the top.
Romney told Iowa voters that the country needs to respect foreign investors--or risk losing the confidence of markets.
His quote: "Entrepreneurs and business people around the world and here at home think that at some point America is going to become like Greece or like Spain or Italy, or like California - just kidding about that one - in some ways."
Romney is not a funny man, but he made plain he was making a joke, and distinguishing California, correctly, from those troubled European countries.
But Californians didn't get it. Headlines quickly moved over stories suggesting Romney was dissing California. A spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown offered a rebuttal. Various experts have held forth about how wrong it is to compare California to Greece.
Twitter was atwitter.
None of these things needed to be said. Whatever your views on Romney, it's totally unreasonable to believe he thinks California has the economic problems or public debt of those European countries. Heck, as a part-time resident of La Jolla, Romney seems to understand California's virtues well enough to have invested here.
But that doesn't stop the freakout -- not in a political era where discourse has been replaced with waves of freakouts.
There are two lessons to take away from this. First, Romney should avoid making jokes -- humor is not what businessfolk would call one of his "core competencies."
And Californians might stop listening to Mitt Romney. He's not campaigning for our votes anyway.
Lead Prop Zero blogger Joe Mathews is California editor at Zocalo Public Square, a fellow at Arizona State University's Center for Social Cohesion, and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (University of California, 2010).
Send us your thoughts via Twitter @PropZero or add your comment to our Facebook page.


text:
FTC wants to hit the spyware guys where it hurts
Calls on Senate for civil penalties
The Federal Trade Commission told a US Senate committee it could bring new vigor to the fight against spyware by making spyware purveyors pay civil penalties.
Under current statutes, the federal watchdog agency can file lawsuits in spyware cases that seek court orders and monetary fines for ill-gotten gains, but not for punitive damages. FTC Deputy Director Eileen Harrington said the limitation makes it harder to mete out meaningful punishments on violators.
"It has been the agency's experience in spyware cases, however, that restitution or disgorgement may not be appropriate or sufficient remedies because consumers often have not purchased a product or service from defendants, the harm to consumers may be difficult to quantify, or the defendants' profits may be slim or difficult to calculate with certainty," she wrote in prepared comments (pdf) submitted on Wednesday. "In such cases, a civil penalty may be the most appropriate remedy and serve as a strong deterrent."
Harrington was addressing the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which is considering a bill known as the Counter Spy Act. While many spyware opponents seek more effective measures against abusive software that frequently gets installed on consumers' PCs with little notice, not all are enthusiastic supporters of the bill.
Among them is Maxim Weinstein, manager of StopBadware, an organization initiated by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Oxford University's Oxford Internet Institute. He worries that the Counter Spy Act may weaken the hand of enforcers trying to crack down on spyware by narrowly defining the types of things that constitute violations.
"StopBadware.org has changed its badware guidelines multiple times in just two and a half years, due to ongoing changes in technology and badware practices, as well as an ongoing desire to make sure that we're 'getting it right'," Weinstein wrote. "If legislation defines spyware specifically, what happens when a new piece of spyware falls outside that definition?"
The FTC hasn't taken a position on definitions in the Counter Spy Act, although "there certainly is a concern," said Rick Quaresima, the assistant director in the FTC's advertising practices division. "If spyware were defined too narrowly, it might have the effect of tying our hand," he added.
The discussion comes as a new anti-spyware law took effect on Thursday in the state of Washington. It removes loopholes and weaknesses in earlier statutes by creating liability for web hosting services that ignore the abuse of their customers, adds violations for new forms of spyware and removes some of the hurdles in proving cases against violators. ®
Sponsored: Webcast: Build the next generation of your business in the public cloud


text:
The purpose of screening is early diagnosis and treatment. Screening tests are usually given to people without current symptoms, but who may be at high risk for certain diseases.
There are no current screening guidelines for cold sores.
Revision Information
- Reviewer: EBSCO Medical Review Board David L. Horn, MD
- Review Date: 03/2018 -
- Update Date: 03/15/2015 -


text:
For more than three decades, the Palestinian oud virtuoso Simon Shaheen has relentlessly championed his soft-spoken instrument across America and beyond.
He has penned solo works, pieces for oud with wind quintet and string quartet and compositions for his jazz-tinged band Qantara. And he has brought traditional Arabic music to listeners who otherwise wouldn't have encountered it, with his Near Eastern Music Ensemble.
But Shaheen has made perhaps his boldest gesture along these genre-crossing lines by composing a Concerto for Oud and Orchestra in C Minor, which will receive its Chicago-area premiere Friday at the Harris Theater and Saturday at North Central College's Wentz Concert Hall in Naperville, in a performance featuring Shaheen and the Chicago Sinfonietta.
The piece sounds and feels like nothing else in the orchestral repertory, its merger of Middle Eastern, Western and jazz methods producing unexpected harmonic, rhythmic and melodic combinations. Better still, the work shows a high level of craft, Shaheen's themes urgently lyrical, his solo passages often technically demanding, his orchestral writing sensitively wrought.
Quite an accomplishment, considering the challenges involved.
"It is very difficult, because I needed to be aware that this as an oud, it's not a piano, it doesn't have the projection of the piano," says Shaheen, noting the hurdles involved in casting the oud alongside so many strings, horns and percussion.
"I had to be careful about the orchestration, and how to manage the symphonic sound on one hand delicately, on the other hand without losing its grand beauty. It was, I would say, a (labor) of a great deal of sensitive balance, where I don't bury either, the orchestra or the oud. It's the opposite: bringing the sonorities of both in a very alive sound."
Judging by the DVD of the performance I watched, Shaheen achieves that, his flourishes on oud dovetailing elegantly with commentary from the strings and pulsing rhythms from Western and Arabic percussion.
But then there's the matter of playing the piece, for Shaheen has written an oud part clearly designed to test the soloist: himself. In lyrical passages, the simplicity of the writing means that Shaheen must make the most of every carefully chosen note. And in bravura sections, he faces the daunting challenge of articulating fast-flying notes while the orchestra also has its say.
Ultimately, the musical weight and virtuosic cadenza of the first movement, the give-and-take between soloist and strings in the second movement and the rhythmic sway and lustrous orchestral writing of the finale suggest that Shaheen's Oud Concerto deserves to be heard widely and often.
Certainly the project represents a high point in Shaheen's long and distinguished career. Born in Tarshiha, a Chrisitian village in the Galilee region of northern Israel, Shaheen graduated from the Academy of Music in Jerusalem in 1978 and came to America two years later for graduate studies at Columbia University and the Manhattan School of Music. Doubly trained on oud and violin, he routinely plays both instruments in concert, merging Eastern and Western musical cultures on each.
But the oud always has been central to his identity as man and musician.
"When I opened my eyes, this was the first instrument in front of me, and when I opened my eyes, the first person playing on this was my father," says Shaheen, referring to Hikmat Shaheen, an admired composer and teacher of Arabic music who placed the oud in his son's hands when Simon was four.
"I experience this instrument with the closest person to my life, and I developed my musicality around this instrument, and then, a year later, on the violin.
"So I think the oud is the closest instrument to my heart."
When Shaheen plays the oud, he's combining at least two distinct ways of making music: contemporary Western composition and ancient Arabic improvisation, which only enhances the appeal of his work. The version of the Concerto that he plays this weekend, then, won't be exactly the same as earlier or future ones – each carries melodic embellishments, turns of phrase and solo passages invented on the spot.
Not what you typically encounter in a modern-day concerto performance.
During rehearsals, "I warn the conductors that this will happen," says Shaheen. "This is beauty, in my view."
In truth, improvisation was long integral to classical music performance, but it mostly expired in 20th century concert practice. In effect, Shaheen helps return these methods to the concert hall with his concerto, a welcome development for anyone who values the spontaneity and risk taking integral to jazz and earlier eras of classical music.
So what does Shaheen do as an encore to writing a major concerto for his beloved oud?
"I have been thinking in the last few months about writing a suite – a suite that will include vocals and instrumentals, and it will use Arabic classical poetry," says Shaheen, who teaches at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and at an annual Arabic Music Retreat at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass. In 1994, he won a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship.
Shaheen says he'll work on the new piece when the current term at Berklee ends. But are American audiences ready for another major oud opus?
"Yes, I would say that when I go and play the oud in cities and towns, people aren't surprised anymore to see the instrument," he says.
A large share of the credit goes to Shaheen himself.
Simon Shaheen and Chicago Sinfonietta
7:30 p.m. Friday at Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph Dr.; 8 p.m. Saturday at Wentz Concert Hall, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville; $26-$50 at the Harris; 312-334-7777; $40-$50 at Wentz; 630-637-7469; chicagosinfonietta.org
Also worth hearing
Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau: Two free thinkers – mandolinist Thile and pianist Mehldau – offer a provocative partnership. 8 p.m. Friday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; $27-$41; 312-294-3000 or cso.org
Matt Ulery's Loom. Bassist Ulery achieved a musical breakthrough last year with his recording "By a Little Light," which has taken his work into dark, moody terrain. 9 p.m. Friday at the Green Mill Jazz Club, 4802 N. Broadway; $12; 773-878-5552 or greenmilljazz.com
Roscoe Mitchell & Mike Reed Duo: Reedist Mitchell and drummer Reed play Chicago's newest and most promising venue for adventurous music. 9:30 p.m. Friday at Constellation, 3111 N. Western Ave.; $15-$20; constellation-chicago.com
Latest Music
Bobby McFerrin: The one-of-a-kind vocalist performs his "Spirit You All" show. 8 p.m. Saturday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; $30-$110; 312-294-3000 or cso.org
Victor Goines: A remarkably versatile reedist, Goines plays in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and heads the jazz studies department at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music, making any performance under his own name a rare and welcome opportunity. 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Room 43, 1043 E. 43d St.; $10; valet parking available; hydeparkjazzsociety.com
To read more from Howard Reich on jazz, go to chicagotribune.com/reich.
email@example.com | Twitter @howardreich


text:
Upcoming Events
National | Rights, Freedoms and Repression
no events match your query!
Rights, Freedoms and Repression
Persecuted journalist Assange handcuffed, stripped naked on first day of extradition trial 22:31 Mar 01 0 comments
Day 1 of Assanges US extradition hearing: What you need to know 23:02 Feb 24 0 comments
French yellow vests protest for Assange outside Belmarsh prison in London 21:20 Jan 26 0 comments
Doctors demand urgent medical intervention to save Julian Assanges life 22:54 Nov 25 0 comments
Bolivias coup: Morales toppled not due to his failures, but due to his success 22:48 Nov 15 0 commentsmore >>
Blog Feeds
Spirit of Contradiction
The Party and the Ballot Box Sun Jul 14, 2019 22:24 | Gavin Mendel-Gleason
On The Decline and Fall of The American Empire and Socialism Sat Jan 26, 2019 01:52 | S. Duncan
What is Dogmatism and Why Does It Matter? Wed Mar 21, 2018 08:10 | Sylvia Smith
The Case of Comrade Dallas Mon Mar 19, 2018 19:44 | Sylvia Smith
Review: Do Religions Evolve? Mon Aug 14, 2017 19:54 | Dara McHugh
Public InquiryInterested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Elaine Byrne: Lacking moral courage to name names
Real democracies and referendums Anthony
Public Services Card: Some still forced to comply Anthony
Catholic Church: Dark influence still active Anthony
Tom Parlon launches new career in comedy Anthony
The SakerA bird's eye view of the vineyard
The Saker Blog needs your help! Mon Apr 06, 2020 04:08 | The Saker
Moveable Feast Cafe 2020/04/06 ? Open Thread Mon Apr 06, 2020 04:00 | Herb Swanson
Serbia SITREP: Serbian Bishop Naum arrested by state-of-exception regime Mon Apr 06, 2020 01:00 | The Saker
This will not convince those who are already sure, but nonetheless Mon Apr 06, 2020 00:51 | The Saker
Saker announcement: COVID19 and the Saker Community Sat Apr 04, 2020 21:32 | The Saker
Seanad Referendum - a camouflaged erosion of Constitutional rights?
national | rights, freedoms and repression | feature Friday September 20, 2013 16:14 by nmn
The coming referendum on the abolishment of Seanad Éireann would, if passed, remove the existing constitutional right of the President to refer proposed Bills to the people for a referendum. It would pass the initial responsibility of passing Bills into law onto the Dáil alone - a dangerous development, particularly where any ruling party might hold an overall majority.A vote to abolish the Seanad would in fact pass most law making decisions that impact upon the people to the Dáil alone, passing such responsibility to a single parliamentary body, thus removing existing safeguards meant to protect against the introduction of unconstitutional or politically or otherwise motivationally biased law.
Abolition of the Seanad would mean that a single body, the Dáil, will be responsible for passing any new laws through parliament, which must then be signed into law by the President.
However, the existing constitutional right of the President to refer any Bill to the people for referendum will be removed from the Constitution.
Related Links:
With access to justice slowly being priced out of the reach of the ordinary citizen and making individual public legal challenges prohibitively expensive, this is a move that will result in the passing of extraordinary measures of unchecked power to the Dáil.
Although this aspect of the referendum is considered important enough to be detailed in the initial section of the Referendum Commission's public information booklet, it only appears on a secondary page of 'other changes' on the Referendum Commission's website and does not appear in the list of 'Main Changes'. One might wonder why, when this is a move that effectively removes the right of the people to decide on important changes in law that directly affects them.
Perhaps someone may care to comment or throw additional light on this.
Comments (20 of 20)
by T Fri Sep 20, 2013 11:11
The way this referendum is being presented is that removal of it is the same as reforming it which is pure nonsense.
by fred Fri Sep 20, 2013 14:49
look at the poster in the background of the image below. These bloody posters are all over the place. Very misleading yet convincing to the ill informed ordinary person sick of politicians lying and with their heads in the trough.
by nmn Fri Sep 20, 2013 15:01
Thank you to whoever added the image to this item
Investigative journalism essential. What happened to Gemma O'Doherty - too close to the truth perhapsby Comyn - Justice Fri Sep 20, 2013 15:44
Excellent posting.
by Cynical Realist. Fri Sep 20, 2013 18:21
What good did that barn called the Seanad ever do?
by T Fri Sep 20, 2013 20:13
Actually quite a lot. And if you read Comyn's comment above, you will realize at the foundation of the State, the actions of the Senate saved us from paying a whole heap of money to the UK.
by Damon Matthew Wise - NCPD - the National Council for People with Disabilities Ltd Sun Sep 22, 2013 20:58 Damon.Matthew.Wise.Ireland at Facebook dot com 29 Ballycaseymore, Ballycasey, Shannon Town, Co. Clare 061-361945
People with Disabilities have rights of access ONLY in Town and City Governments and right of representation in the Seanad. The Government proposed to waste low cost direct representation in favour of parish Pump Partisan Politics and thus remove PwD rights to affect ANY policy in Ireland, despite these rights existing in European and International Law, already ratified and in the constitution. Our places in the voluntary and community form, strategic policy committee and the Disability sub-panel of the administrative Panel of the Seanad, under Aarhus, Lisbon and the UN Conventions would be removed. Ireland will have reverted to Victorian morality of People with Disabilities being told, rather then consulted on matters that effect them - removal of local and Seanad would remove Public consultation and participation of community and consensus politics which use expertise from the voluntary sector in favour of over-paid commercial party politicians.
by Brian Flannery - Justice Mon Sep 23, 2013 16:04
by Pragmatist. Mon Sep 23, 2013 17:08
Nobody will remember the Seanad.
by T Mon Sep 23, 2013 19:19
by T Mon Sep 23, 2013 19:32
The Irish Times reported on Sep 20th that at a media event on the plinth of Leinster House, Deputies Finian McGrath, Shane Ross, Stephen Donnelly and Mattie McGrath as well as North West MEP Marian Harkin all contended it would be a mistake to abolish the Seanad and that a radically reformed Seanad was a preferable option.
by nmn Mon Sep 23, 2013 19:42
Yes, it may be in need of change and improvement.
by T Mon Sep 30, 2013 22:08
The Irish Times is reporting today (Sept 30th) that the latest MRBI/IT poll is showing 44% in favour of abolishing it with just 27% to retain it. The remainder which are undecided from a statistical point of view would always be split evenly.
by W. Finnerty Wed Oct 02, 2013 12:02
This morning, and probably prompted (I imagine?) by this coming Friday's (October 4th 2013) "Official Referendum" in the Republic of Ireland, I received an e-mail from an "anonymous sender" which contained the text in the first section below.
WBY 'Once you attempt legislation on religious grounds you open the way for every kind of intolerance & for every kind of religious persecution"by Comyn - Justice Wed Oct 02, 2013 16:12
'Save a bit of money' by deleting the Senate. 'save £5 million or could it be in the long-term £20 m'.
by W. Finnerty Thu Oct 03, 2013 08:20
The two quotes just below are by Thomas Jefferson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson), who was the 3rd President of the Republic of the United States of America (during the period March 4th ,1801 to March 4th, 1809).
by BS Thu Oct 03, 2013 22:49
With all of the legals around surely a charge of false advertising could possibly negate the result and they would have to run it again.
by nmn Sat Oct 05, 2013 19:55
It is gratifying to note the outcome of the Seanad decision. The focus can now shift to reform, hopefully towards improvement and not repression.
by T Sat Oct 05, 2013 20:50
It looks like very low voter turn out worked in favour of the No side to the Seanad referendum as it has been defeated.
by T Wed Nov 27, 2013 23:12
It was reported in the IT (link below) 2 days ago that the government are proposing a bill that will allow graduates of all third level colleges to vote in the Seanad elections.


text:
April 2012 - Social Media Seminar at Norfolk Business Centre
February 2011 - Delivering Social Media Marketing Seminar for the BRC
January 2011 - Pixel Power develops Team Building Exercises using Microsoft Kinect
February 2010 - Now offering iPhone Development, Programming and Apps for Clients in Brantford, Brant County and anywhere!
February 2010 - Pixel Power delivers Facebook seminar in Brantford, ON
Welcome to Pixel Power Media Corporation
If you're looking for a unique solution to a technology problem, you've come to the right place.
At Pixel Power, we specialize in unique solutions for your situation. Whether it's finding the right people to develop your web presence, create a custom application to run in a special situation, or something we just haven't had to tackle yet - get in touch.
Based in Brantford, Ontario we build solutions for dynamic, database driven websites and media solutions involving audio, video and the art of putting it all together.
We'll even come and speak to your group about the latest technology trends with our seminars, or custom build a presentation just for you.
So what are you waiting for? Send us a note and we'll get started.
Web Hosting Clients
Need to get access to your e-mail on the road? Just visit our webmail application and provide your full e-mail address and password and away you go!


text:
ALEX Toys Rub a Dub Water Flutes
by ALEX Toys
In stock
Buy Online:
Product Description
Tub time is symphony time! Help little ones discover musical notes and sounds while in the tub. These five water flutes can be filled with varying amounts of water to create different tones. Try water flute fun outside of the tub, as well.
Little ones can follow along with the instructions to learn simple songs: download songs sheets & instructions
There are no reviews yet.


text:
Windows 7 Product Keys 100% Working Serial Keys
What's Special About Windows 7?
Windows 7 Professional Product Key 2019
Windows 7 Product keys for activation:
Windows 7 Home Premium Product Key Serial Keys 2016
2V36J-4RK8B-GW27Q-4DXPG-RQP78 none of this work it a clean install to used a upgrad home premiuum
Windows is funny. My win10 died and I put old win 7 64bit on that HDD and used the product key from the install CD. Worked fine but I found out that it was the actual HDD which was damaged. So I bought new HDD, put new clean install of win 7 from the same CD and... the product key which worked on the old HDD yesterday didn't work on the new HDD today (same installation from the same CD. Don't understand it.)
Nevertheless, the first key from here (6RBBT-F8VPQ-QCPVQ-KHRB8-RMV82) worked just fine. So, I have no clue what's the deal, but it works now and I'm happy. Thanks for the codes
Can i have a newest one. Thanks.Delete
This is my suggestion: I have a second computer that I built and I used the same copy of my Win 7 ultimate twice; on my first and second computer that I built. It was activated successfully on BOTH computers. That might be because Microsoft servers are not checking if THAT same copy of win 7 was already activated on another computer?
I don't know. But I still haven't turned ON both computers and use them at the same time to see if there is a conflict. We'll see.
Windows 7 Professional Product Key 2016
Win-7 Professional
not working ser! ;((Delete
this worked for me
HODFJASDLKFG;SAD THESE CODES WORK HOW DO THEY WORK HOWWWWWWWWWWW IT WORKED OMGDelete
7YWX9-W3C2V-D46GW-P722P-9CP4D WORKS😉Delete
7yWX9 did NOT work it has been blocked by microsoftDelete
Don't wotkDelete
it works!!!!!:)Delete
Thanks worksDelete
It worked for me too! Thank you so much!Delete
its work thank youDelete
Last key Worked for Win-7 Ultimate
Much thanks
now blocked...Delete
its blocked
Just worked for me, Internet connected and allDelete
its not working now......... blocked
its working for me, just set up (:Delete
it just worked for me!Delete
Worked for me. Thank you!!Delete
Thanks it workedDelete
Bump. It worked. Sweeeeeeeet! Much appreciated.Delete
Worked for me!!!!!!Delete
Worked for me!!Delete
Thanks, it worked for me! :)Delete
Worked for me, thanks a ton!Delete
did not work for me. why?Delete
thank you, worked!!!Delete
Strange how it only works for some people. I just used it and it worked.Delete
is this windows 7 ultimate 64 bit ? and give me product key method please how to activate ? i have windows 7 ultimate 64 bit setupDelete
It worked thanks
none of the windows pro worked
All of the keys for Windows 7 Ultimate does not work for my PC...Pls help me
Can we perform windows update after using these keys??ReplyDelete
window 7 ultimate key plzReplyDelete
win 7 ultimte keys dnt work @ all...please resolve itReplyDelete
It seems to be saying the keys are 'default' keys and not for activation?... any help I have Windows 7 Professional second hand machine...Think Pad IBM 2009 Windows 7 Professional software on it.. ?ReplyDelete
win7 ultimate 64
This key worked 7YWX9-W3C2V-D46GW-P722P-9CP4D Win 7 UltimateReplyDelete
for me worked this 22MFQ-HDH7V-RBV79-QMVK9-PTMXQ
home basic
win 7 64 activation key?ReplyDelete
Need new key 4Th April 2017 please for ulimateReplyDelete
Every product key I tried for Windows 7 Ultimate either didn't work, or Microsoft has blocked them.I can't seem to find any product keys that will work, anywhere, and believe me, I have been checking. Anyone got any idea's??
First one tried for professional worked. ExcellentReplyDelete
Ultimate keys is not working!!!!ReplyDelete
This 7 Professional worked for me.
Good,,, thank's for your allReplyDelete
Thanks alot this one worked for my win7 pro.
Tried every last one of them and got nada.ReplyDelete
None of the ultimate keys worked for meReplyDelete
windows7 ultimate non ofthis work plasehelpmeReplyDelete
I've got error: 0xC004E003 on all home basic product code :(ReplyDelete
i need windows 7 ultimate genuine key
anyone with Windows 7 Enterprise Genuine Key Pls?
Please reup new key for win professional 32xbit.. need help..ReplyDelete
22TKD-F8XX6-YG69F-9M66D-PMJBM you welcome lol 7 ultimateReplyDelete
all keys 64 bit ?
this worked for me 7YWX9-W3C2V-D46GW-P722P-9CP4D the last one in UltimateReplyDelete
its activated for my laptop
i am trying to download windows 7 disc images (iso files) from microsoft and i need an active product key. can anyone help me?ReplyDelete
no work windows 7 ultimate please help me sirReplyDelete
Can anybody provide windows 7 ultimate 32 bit keys ?ReplyDelete
Thank you for help
no one of the keys work for me :(ReplyDelete
How do I use these keys, kuz I've tried them all at the official Microsoft website to download Window 7 ISO images, and none of them work, am I using them wrong?ReplyDelete
the keys are blocked, please is there any product key for windows 7 ultimate.ReplyDelete
7YWX9-W3C2V-D46GW-P722P-9CP4D This one work perfect for window 7 ultimate. Thank EnzoReplyDelete
The very first key for Windows7 home basic worked for me
This one worked for me
Thanks alot
2666Q-HGXKH-DFP6M-7YGBB-BG7Q7 for windows 7 professional will fail with message 0xC004F063. Any new product for windows 7 professional ?ReplyDelete
Worked for me. Thanks.
Ir worked for me homie. Thanks a ton!!ReplyDelete
Windows 10 single lang code is legit 👌ReplyDelete
windows 7 home premium N ?
Product Key for windows 7 Ultimate 32Bit please.thanksReplyDelete
i need a windows 7 product key for 64Bit please. Thank youReplyDelete
HELP ME WITH KEY OF WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATEReplyDelete
This code didet work for me on windows 7 ultamete
all keys are not workingReplyDelete
plz help windows 7 ultimate 64bit plz a key
windows 7 home premium product key please?ReplyDelete
pls give me a product key for my windows 7 ultimate thnksReplyDelete
need key for ultimateReplyDelete
This one worked fo me..thanx somuch
Windows7 professional
I need one Windows 7 professional 32bit. thanks!ReplyDelete
I NEED ONE WINDOWS 7 32 BIT .. tHANKSReplyDelete
I've got error: 0xC004E003 on all ultimate product code :(ReplyDelete
Hey guys, are the windows 7 home premium keys verified to work because I'm having no luck :^/ If anybody's feeling generous I would appreciate it to no end.ReplyDelete
I am in desperate need of a Windows 7 Ultimate Product Key!!! I just tries all of the above Keys and none of them work for my Lenovo Laptop.ReplyDelete
None Worked. Need a key for any version Windows 7 Home/Professional. Please help.ReplyDelete
i tried all the keys under ultimate, but does not work. pls notify me of any development. Thank youReplyDelete
win 7 home basic oem keyReplyDelete
Please help not workingReplyDelete
windows 7 ultimate 32 bit keys ?ReplyDelete
Win-7 Ultimate 32 bit key worked with my PC
Thank you.
please provide me for
windows7 ultimate 32bit
service pack1
anyone having a working key for Windows 7 pro? thanksReplyDelete
22MFQ-HDH7V-RBV79-QMVK9-PTMXQ worked perfectly. for windows 7 basic. Thank you very much. :DReplyDelete
7YWX9-W3C2V-D46GW-P722P-9CP4D worked perfectly for win ultimate...thanks
funcional perfeitamente...grato
please provide for me
"windows 7 professional N" - 32bit
service pack1
nothing works for me. I tried them all.
WINDOWS 7 PROFESSIONAL 2009 SERVICE PACK 1. please i need help!!!
please provide for me
"windows 7 professional N" - 32bit
service pack1
7YWX9-W3C2V-D46GW-P722P-9CP4D worked for me! Thanks!ReplyDelete
none have worked so far can anybody help with a working ultimate 7 key please please thank you so muchReplyDelete
please !i need key ultimate win 7 -64bit ..please !!!i need it
please !i need key ultimate win 7 32 bitReplyDelete
please i need win 7 ultimate 32bit pleaseeeeeReplyDelete
Windows 7 Professional Product Key 2016
AYOOOOOo any good people out there Have Win 7 ultimate Product key ? I can't buy one because windows 7 is OUT OF DATE AND OLD wich they dont support updates for windows 7 anymore ... Just wondering if any has a ultimate key ... Cheers.ReplyDelete
Need a working Windows 7 ultimate 32 Bit key code I have tried them all and none of them worksReplyDelete
pliz sir give me window 7 professional prodect key
my laptop not work
please any one tell me the soluction for error 0xc004f063 (Windows 7 Professional)ReplyDelete
22TKD-F8XX6-YG69F-9M66D-PMJBM this key works to my pc windows7 ultimate x64. :dReplyDelete
THANKS KEY IS WORKINGReplyDelete
Worked on my friends laptop
any key for win 8.1 pro 64bit or win 7 64 bit?ReplyDelete
It worked for my laptop
Win 7 ultimate 64 bit
Thank you
Thank you, Sofia. Windows 7 Home Basic on iMac 9,1
indeed the Windows 7 Ultimate Product Key 2018
works, thanks guys :D
7YWX9-W3C2V-D46GW-P722P-9CP4D works for me... thanks guys !!!ReplyDelete
If Non of the key above working for you then i will suggest you to please install a fresh copy of windows 7 and after installation try one of the keys above to activate your window.... :)ReplyDelete
win 7 ultimate 2009 64bit key please.ReplyDelete
Still unable to activate my windows seven ultimate operating system after using all of the above keys... Please, let someone help me.ReplyDelete
Please help me with windows 7 Enterprise keyReplyDelete
Help me, i need the activated key for Windows 7 professional :(ReplyDelete
Windows 7 Professional Product Key 2016
Windows 7 Professional Product Key Please
Thsnk you !
Please help me with windows 7 Enterprise keyReplyDelete
please product key for win 7 professional 64 bit sp1ReplyDelete
hey pliz help me with the key for window 7 home premium
thank you so much sirReplyDelete
please product key for win 7 professional N 64 bit sp1
this key not work 273P4-GQ8V6-97YYM-9YTHF-DC2VPReplyDelete
ultimate is better or starterReplyDelete
While I have using this key 237XB-GDJ7B-MV8MH-98QJM-24367, it has appeared this error message. I don't know how to resolve this.
"Code: 0xC004F063,
Description: The software License Service reported that the computer BIOS is missing a required license."
From Start Menu, type: CMD'
Right click CMD and select Run as administrator
At the command prompt windows, use the following commands:
slmgr.vbs -ipk xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx (this will let you to replace the current product key)
Replace xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx - with your current product key
Hit Enter and you are done!
Exit the command prompt
Restart your computer and try one of the keys above
please i need product key for windows 7 pro 32bits...


text:
Certified Farmers Market
Name: Certified Farmers Market
Date: April 7, 2020
Time: 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM PDT
Event Description:
Come out to the Placentia Farmers' Market every Tuesday at the Placentia Town Center on the corner of Yorba Linda Blvd. and Kraemer Blvd. Support local businesses and local vendors who provide certified healthy food.
Now excepting EBT.
Now excepting EBT.


text:
| 6.3°C Belfast
Chemical safety checks need to be tightened up around the world to protect children from a "silent epidemic" of brain disorders, say experts.
In the past seven years, the number of recognised chemical causes of brain development conditions has doubled from six to 12, two leading scientists who conducted a review of study evidence found.
The list of chemicals known to damage the human brain but not regulated to safeguard children had also risen from 202 to 214.
These hazardous substances are found in everyday items including clothing, furniture and toys, the experts point out.
They are calling for universal legal requirements forcing manufacturers to prove that all existing and new industrial chemicals are non-toxic before they reach the market place.
In the EU, the Reach (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) regulations already impose such rules.
Without them being applied globally, the world faces a "pandemic of neurodevelopmental toxicity", said Dr Philippe Grandjean, one of the study authors from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, US.
"Current chemical regulations are woefully inadequate to safeguard children whose developing brains are uniquely vulnerable to toxic chemicals in the environment," Dr Grandjean pointed out.
Neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia and cerebral palsy affect one in six children worldwide.
Growing evidence strongly links these conditions to childhood exposure to hazardous chemicals such as mercury, lead, solvents and pesticides, say the scientists writing in the journal The Lancet Neurology.
Dr Grandjean and co-author Dr Philip Landrigan from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York believe this is only the tip of the iceberg.
The vast majority of the more than 80,000 industrial chemicals in widespread use in the US have never been tested for their toxic effects on the developing foetus or child, they argue.
"The only way to reduce toxic contamination is to ensure mandatory developmental neurotoxicity testing of existing and new chemicals before they come into the marketplace", said Dr Landrigan. "Such a precautionary approach would mean that early indications of a potentially serious toxic effect would lead to strong regulations, which could be relaxed should subsequent evidence show less harm."
A new international prevention strategy is needed that places the burden of responsibility on chemical producers rather than governments, say the experts.
They conclude: "The total number of neurotoxic substances now recognised almost certainly represents an underestimate of the true number of developmental neurotoxicants that have been released into the global environment.
"Our very great concern is that children worldwide are being exposed to unrecognised toxic chemicals that are silently eroding intelligence, disrupting behaviours, truncating future achievements, and damaging societies, perhaps most seriously in developing countries."
Prof Andy Smith, senior scientist at the Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit in Leicester, cautioned: " The epidemiological studies that this review looked at have reported links between toxicity of synthetic chemicals and brain development differences.
"However, these studies mostly identify associations rather than causal relationships. As usual thousands of chemicals of 'natural' source are not considered.
"The implication that present exposure to minute levels of many thousands of synthetic chemicals, even as mixtures, are strong drivers of highly complex neurological disorders and intelligence should be considered with reservation."


text:
It has come to our attention that some of you have been receiving a suspicious private message (PM) claiming to be from the forum administration. Those PMs are fake and suppose a serious threat to your system's integrity. The Emulator Zone does not have reasons to send PMs to you (unless it's extremely necessary and forum-related) and plus, in a threatening manner like "deleting your account and report your ISP if you don't pass this test", there's more reason to believe it's fake.
So, what to do?
- Check who is sending you those PMs.
- DO NOT click the links.
- Report the PM via report button and we'll take care of them.
Thanks and happy posting!
For the record, click here to view the Emulator-Zone staff list just in case.


text:
When the first pregnancy tests became available there were widespread calls to prevent women from performing these tests themselves.
People have concerns about any new technology. The same goes for developments in the field of DNA science.
The three main ethical questions linked to DNA analysis concern:
To ensure that everyone can see how we deal with these issues at iGene, we have drawn up an ethical code.
This code serves as a guide for our actions and a reference if dilemmas arise.
All the information we provide via the iGene Passport has been thoroughly screened, checked and tested against our scientific analysis model in advance. To guarantee the reliability of the results, we employ strict validation criteria. We therefore consult expert reviews to compare the results of scientific studies and we re-analyse source material from the reviews ourselves.
iGene does not provide any information about diseases that cannot (yet) be prevented or cured.
iGene never passes on client data to third parties. To guarantee the privacy of our clients, we process payment data and account data using two separate systems on two different servers. After we have processed a new DNA sample we remove the personal data of the client concerned from his or her account.
Generally speaking, we support the position taken by medical ethicist Eline Bunnik in her thesis 'The New Genetics and Informed Consent', i.e. that everyone must be able to weigh up the pros and cons of DNA analysis themselves.
We believe that everyone has the right to find out, completely anonymously, about the latest scientific developments linked to their own health and how they can take the initiative to improve their health.
DNA analysis is still the subject of much discussion within society. If new insights or developments give us cause to do so, we will refine our ethical code further.
© Copyright 2020 - iGene |
Disclaimer |


text:
Uncyclopedia:Anniversaries/January 18
< Uncyclopedia:Anniversaries(Redirected from January 18)
- 1610 - God divinely inspires Sidney Trammell; Trammell doesn't notice for another two years.
- 1778 - James Cook is the first known European to discover the "Sandwich Islands", which are later renamed the "Tuna Sandwich Islands", then "Tuna Sandwich with Chips Islands", "Tuna Sandwich with Chips and a Drink (no ice) Islands", and "Japan's Target Islands" before they eventually became the "Hawaiian Islands".
- 1952 - The first issue of Mad Magazine is thrown in the garbage by your mom.
- 1990 - The Humpty Dance is the #1 song in America. Depressing, eh?
- 1991 - Bill Clinton holds a conference about creating a uniting Europe and Asia in to the Nation of Eurasia.
- 1996 - The Spice Girls declare their hatred for the West.
- 2000 - David Beckham is transformed from human being into a brand.
- 2008 - Cloverfield hits theaters across America, unfortunately for New York the movie was based on a true story.


text:
'The Next Three Days' finds Russell Crowe on his game (trailer)
Paul Haggis is back to his tricky script tricks with the thoroughly engrossing prison break thriller" The Next Three Days." He foreshadows, hides details, delays his "reveals" and does a pretty good job of keeping us guessing, even if we remember the 2003 French film he adapted for this Hollywood project.
Russell Crowe, one of the few actors able to suggest "mild-mannered community college teacher" and "obsessed husband capable of breaking his wife out of jail" at the same time, stars as John, that teacher whose wife (Elizabeth Banks) has been arrested, tried and convicted of murdering her boss. John almost but not quite takes his lawyer's bad news lying down.
"I need you to look at the evidence," that lawyer (Daniel Stern) begs him. "Lara is not getting out."
John, being an academic, starts doing his research. He'll watch how-to videos on YouTube and come up with a plan, a plan he'll have to change, on the fly, time and again as he realizes just how out of his depth he is as he undertakes this.
Haggis bounces back and forth with the narrative, catching us up on "the last three years" counting down to the attempt. That allows the director to establish the sexual heat Lara and John have as a couple, her devotion to their young son and the toll prison has on her. It's what justifies John's declaration, visiting her in a Pittsburgh jail, that "This will not be your life."
Haggis deftly makes great use of terrific actors in brief but important roles. Liam Neeson knocks his lone scene out of the park, playing a convict who escaped from numerous prisons and lived to write a book about it. Brian Dennehy plays John's distant dad, a man who has no lines in his first few scenes, saving his words for when they matter. Lennie James and Jason Beghe score as cops who eye the husband of the convicted killer with suspicion.
Banks does only a so-so job of suggesting a woman who might be capable of this crime, and yet who dies a little every time she looks at her future and sees no husband or son in it. But this is Crowe's movie to carry and he does it with an earthy realism that reminds of the actor he is beneath the persona. It's no stretch seeing him as a man of action. But we believe John's desperation, his clumsy blunders when dealing with the criminal element he needs to enlist in his scheme.
Some story threads feel a little off. The hot young single mom attracted to John (Olivia Wilde) is a Hollywood producer's fantasy of a supermodel who falls for a community college literature teacher, though Wilde makes her character credible enough that their encounters don't stop the movie.
Haggis takes relish in doling out clues, false leads and red herrings (some a little too obvious). As he has fun leading us on, we have fun letting him, making "The Next Three Days" a detail-oriented thriller that lets us keep up even as it races to a conclusion.
-Title: "The Next Three Days"
-Cast: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Brian Dennehy, Daniel Stern
-Director: Paul Haggis
-Running time: 118 minutes
-Rating: PG-13


text:
We help the best talent in the Digital analytics market to find rewarding careers.
Upload your CV and select your preferred disciplines so we can ensure your CV goes to one of our relevant specialist recruitersSend us your CV
Are you a Data Engineer looking to join a trendy start-up in the real estate industry? If so, this opportunity is the one for you.
This real estate company in the heart of NYC is looking for a highly experienced lead data engineer to join their team! You will have the opportunity to contribute to the engineering team, improving on existing pipelines and having an immediate impact in the business. This is a fun, fast paced environment where you will have the opportunity to introduce new technologies and ideas!
As a Lead Data Engineer, you will work in a fun, exciting environment with accelerated growth opportunities at your disposal to enhance your own skill set and constantly improve on results. With an opportunity to work in an incredibly relevant industry with the chance to teach junior data engineers, you will have an immediate impact on the business and its consumers.
As a Lead Data Engineer your responsibilities will include:
You will need:
Please register your interest by sending your CV to Caroline Schlueter via the Apply link on this page.
Lead Data Engineer, AWS, Redshift, Scala, Data bricks, Start-up, New York, Data, Analytics
US$440 - US$520 per day + Additional Benefits
New York
Hi All, I'm currently recruiting for this position. Please click on the job title below to view the Job Description and apply to it!
US$185000 - US$210000 per annum
San Francisco, California
Work with one of the largest Hadoop clusters in the world as our client looks to migrate PBs of data to empower their client's customers.
US$120000 - US$150000 per annum + Unlimited PTO - 401k Match
New York
Big Data Engineer
US$170000 - US$200000 per year + Bonus
San Francisco, California
The Lead Data Engineer will work at a global leader in their field who due to an increase in business are looking to grow their Data Engineering team.
With over 10 years experience working solely in the Data & Analytics sector our consultants are able to offer detailed insights into the industry.
Visit our Blogs & News portal or check out our recent posts below.
GitHub. How-To Geek. Toptal. Zapier. These are just a few of the businesses which have been 100% remote since their inception. On the front lines of the remote working lifestyle, they understand the benefits and the challenges businesses new to remote teams are facing. In recent years, some businesses tried offering remote working, then pulled workers back in house. Some offer part-time work-from-home opportunities, but still required a few days in the office. In today's climate, businesses have been forced to develop remote working strategies and everyone is learning how to manage this new way of doing business. There are a variety of apps and software to help businesses work as close to the old ways as possible. So, as remote workers learn how to balance their personal and professional lives while at home, leaders also must learn how to manage remotely. Below are a few immediate benefits of remote teams for business. Three Immediate Benefits of Remote Working Less overheadsLess office politicsIncreased productivity However, there's more to leading remote workers than the above. As teams tighten, it's important to ensure everyone is on the same page. Most of what's been done within the office walls can also be done virtually. Planning a staff meeting? Zoom. WebEx. GoToMeeting. Google Hangouts. Microsoft Teams. These are all video conferencing call software applications you can use to not only conduct your weekly staff meetings, but client meetings as well. Record the meetings so you can refer to comments or questions, you may have missed or to refresh your memory of planned next steps. Managing projects? Think Trello. Asana. Monday. Basecamp. Slack. Assign teams. Have a space just for brainstorming or just for fun. Emulate the office environment of those quick hallway meetings and watercooler chats. Need to access documents from anywhere? Google Drive. Dropbox. Box. These are just a few of the applications which allow anyone with a link to jump in and add their two cents, comment or correct. Does your team have all the necessary equipment? Computers, phones, access codes, passwords? How can you help them best do their jobs? These are just a few things to think about when planning for and leading remote teams. Leading Remote Teams One of the issues remote workers once faced was "out of sight, out of mind" leadership. In an office, it can be easy for a manager to walk past someone and communicate on the fly or for remote workers to feel left out in company events, strategy sessions, or general camaraderie with others in the office. Companies who have always been or are moving to fully virtual teams have now levelled the playing field. However, this change marks just how important communication is for your team. Often, the best managers will check-in regularly. These managers are good listeners who offer feedback, check on progress, and determine if there's too much workload or if an employee is ready to take on another project. Managers who communicate without micromanaging engage in trust and accountability of their employees. Having this kind of ownership of habits and behaviors can improve productivity and the trust goes both ways. Reach out to everyone on your team regularly. To ensure you're including everyone when you assign tasks or projects, it's a good idea to have a list of employees with their photos. Set Clear Boundaries and Guidelines It's even more important when working from home to set clear hours for working and avoid burnout. Add to this the best methods of communication to use such as a project management app like Slack, a quick text or Skype call, or an email. Don't forget to make allowances for how things like childcare may be handled as many are not only working from home, but may also be homeschooling, too. Ensuring everyone is clear on when they can turn to colleagues versus when they should reach out to their leaders helps put everyone on the same page. Keep Everyone Connected Remote working is a lifestyle. But not everyone may be ready for it or have the personality for it. One benefit of the brick-and-mortar office is camaraderie and connection, even if it's just a smile and wave in the hallway. Even the most resolute remote workers feel lonely and disconnected at times. Staying on task can feel paramount to success, but to meet the new challenges of a virtual team go a little deeper. Not only is it important to make time for personal interaction, but businesses can organize virtual check-ins and fun events. Think Trivia time, funny videos or GIFs, even virtual pizza parties. It's important in this time of social distancing and remote working lifestyle to stay connected and engaged with your workforce. It could even make your business stronger and more in sync than ever before. Not only can it be of benefit to your business, but can also offer and open up opportunities for more future employees. Without a location base, you open yourself up for the right person for the job, no matter where they are.In the wake of work-from-home policies, remote working, and the shifting landscape of working outside the office, technology careers are prime opportunities to both gain increased knowledge in your chosen field or begin your career path. If you're interested in Big Data & Analytics or other Data professional opportunities, check out our current vacancies or get in touch one of our expert consultants to learn more. For our Mid-West and East Coast teams contact us at (212) 796-6070 or send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com. For our West Coast Team, contact us at (415) 614 - 4999 or send an email to email@example.com.
02. April 2020
So, you've been told to work from home. Finally, more time with the family… Wait, more time with the family? How will you get your work done while also homeschooling your children? Maybe you're married and your spouse is home, too. The routine of work has been disrupted, and though many businesses were already turning to remote work, this is something else. So, how do you morph from leaving the house to go to the office to simply walking into your kitchen or home office to begin your day? In other words, how do you draw the line between work and family when you're working from home? We know it can be difficult and unsettling in this troubled time, so we have a few tips to get you started. Getting Started in Your Remote Working Lifestyle DEFINE YOUR WORK SPACE What room can you designate in your house to be your "office." It's best to have someplace with a door, but this isn't always possible. Is it the kitchen table? Ok, but this will mean you need to set strict ground rules about the hours you're "on." Make sure everyone understands when you're "at work." Whether it's your kitchen table, a quiet room, or the end of your sofa with your laptop, these are your remote working tools. In some cases, it may even be a good idea to invest in noise-canceling headphones to help you stay focused. HAVE SET HOURS Define what hours you're working and stick to them. Begin and end your day at the same time. Don't forget to schedule breaks – coffee break, lunch, a stretch of the legs – around the same time each day as well. Work with your team to set hours for when you'll be online working and respond to off-hour messages within your working hours. Without designated hours, it can feel like you're constantly available and always "on" blurring the lines between work and family. Get some fresh air when you can. Step outside for a walk or a coffee, whatever brings you outside can help recharge and energize you for the work ahead. ENSURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TOOLS Remote working apps, videoconferencing tools, and cloud-based filing systems help ensure the job gets done. Make sure you keep your passwords in a safe place and be extra cautious when logging in from a new location. Is your computer up-to-date? Does it have all the security measures and capacity in place for the additional online tools and apps you may need to add? Making sure you address these things can help to solidify your workspace and ensure you're able to meet with your team online and get the job done. FOLLOW THE 20-20-20 RULE The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes look away from your screen and focus your eyes on something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. TAKE A BREAK FROM TALKING ABOUT WORK If you're not used to working-from-home, loneliness can quickly set in. Remember those quick hallway chats or discussions over lunch or coffee? Take that impulse and use it when talking with your team. Have a virtual coffee break. Take a break from work and talk about hobbies, something funny that happened to you, or even just how you're feeling away from everyone. You won't be alone in these feelings with everyone in the same work-from-home boat. These tips can help you put your best foot forward for your remote working lifestyle. But don't forget, you can use these same rules for family time, too. In the wake of work-from-home policies, remote working, and the shifting landscape of working outside the office, technology careers are prime opportunities to both gain increased knowledge in your chosen field or begin your career path. If you're interested in remote Big Data & Analytics opportunities, we may have a role for you. Take a look at our current vacancies or contact one of our expert consultants to find out more. For our West Coast Team, contact us at (415) 614 - 4999 or send an email to email@example.com. For our Mid-West and East Coast teams contact us at (212) 796-6070 or send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com.
26. March 2020


text:
Mercury 100 HP EFI Command Thrust Fourstroke - Unbridled power, unexpectedly compact, uncompromising reliability, unbelievable fuel efficiency. Unlike any other mid-range Fourstroke the world has ever seen.
|HP / kW
|Engine type
|Displacement (L)
|Full throttle RPM
|Air induction
|Fuel induction system
|Alternator amp / Watt
|Recommended fuel
|Recommended oil
|Engine protection operator warning system
|Compatible with SmartCraft digital technology
|Shaft length
|Gearcase ratio
|Dry weight *Lightest model available
|Emissions Star Rating
|Bore and stroke
|Fuel system
|Cooling system
|Gear shift
|Gearcase options
|Trim system
|Exhaust system
|Shallow water trim range (degrees)
|Lubrication system
|Oil Capacity
|Maximum Trim Range
|Maximum Tilt Range


text:
Father knows best
By Lady Liberty
Every June, we celebrate Father's Day. Well, every June since 1972, that is (although the origin of Father's Day dates back to 1909, it wasn't an official holiday until Richard Nixon declared it so). Despite its official status in the pantheon of holidays, I've long considered it a "Hallmark Holiday." By that, I mean that — sort of like Sweetest Day* and Grandparents' Day — it's a pseudo-holiday intended mostly to make all of us buy cards and make phone calls, or feel really, really guilty if we don't. (For the record, I buy the card and make the phone call because I'd feel really, really guilty if I didn't.)
Please don't misunderstand anything I've said so far to mean that I don't appreciate my dad in particular, or fathers in general. That's not at all the case. I just think it's kind of sad to set aside one day where we're effectively shamed into making phone calls, sending cards, or buying bad ties when the reality is that we should appreciate fathers all the time. After all, if they're doing a good job, they're important people who have an incalculable effect on their chidlren!
Good fathers teach their children to be responsible for their behavior. That means that there are consequences for bad behavior. In my own case, that could mean anything from a spanking to a lecture to a look. Those of you with good dads know exactly the look I mean! And if you know, well, then, you're also well aware that "the look" was the single most effective weapon in our fathers' arsenal. Those "Scared Straight" prison programs so popular a few years ago had nothing on Dad's original scared straight program!
Good fathers are good examples. They're honest. They're kind. They work hard. They show their children how to be responsible, productive adults by being responsible, productive adults. Because they have high expectations from their children, they work to uphold those same expectations from themselves. They know that their children are watching them and that what they do all too often speaks far louder than any words they might choose to say, and has far more of a long term effect than any temporary disciplinary measure might have.
Good fathers prove they love their children by refusing to give them every single thing they ask for. Good fathers don't feel the need to buy their children's love. In fact, the best fathers are willing to risk it by getting tough when it's necessary for them to do so. I remember more than a few occasions when I hated my father. And by "hated," I mean with a burning, weeping passion. Of course, that hatred later turned to resentment when he was (again) proved right; the resentment became respect when it really sunk in that he was (again) proved right.
Good fathers plan for the future by taking effective actions today. They do all that they can teach their children so that when the children are ready to leave the family home, they're really ready to live on their own. Those fathers who allow children to grow up and remain dependent on them aren't the loving fathers they think they are, but are rather the overprotective parent that hobbles his children and makes their stumbles inevitable because they've never learned to walk by themselves. Good fathers know the old adage, "If you love something, set it free..." is more than just an old adage. It's the road to adulthood.
We all know that not all fathers are good fathers. Some are absent emotionally. Some are just absent. Some set poor examples by being freeloaders, liars, bullies, or worse. Unfortunately, these men also have an incalculable effect on their children. Fortunately, good fathers and those who strive to be good fathers still outnumber the poor ones. (Maybe we should consider setting up a Bad Father's Day. If anybody deserves to feel really, really guilty, it's bad fathers — well, and bad mothers, too, but I should have written that story in May.)
The word "father" has a similar connotation even when it's not used in connection with children. Some men (and women, of course) leave legacies behind them that are — at least in part — the direct result of one "brainchild" or another (and there are a lot of them — a list published via Wikipedia of those known as "the father or mother of something" is extensive). But how well they considered the impact of their ideas and how well they planned for any eventual implementation can be almost directly compared to the hallmarks of a good father of an actual child.
Consider, for example, the Founding Fathers of this country. They planned carefully as they saw their child "born" because they knew that the years ahead would bring new things and experiences that could cause big changes. While leaving room for those big changes, they worked hard to craft a Constitution that would be flexible and at the same time be immutable where basic freedoms are concerned.
These fathers, of course, were exceedingly responsible men. Most were businessmen. Most were educated. And even those who were neither were sufficiently loyal to the cause of freedom that they could be relied upon to do their duty to the fledgling country. Now, while you and I might fail in our responsibility by bouncing a check or by calling in sick when we're not, the men who instigated and fought the American Revolution could have died or been executed for any irresponsibility — and worse, in failing the cause, they would likely have taken some of their associates with them.
The truth is that, while the founding fathers may have been particularly courageous, where responsibility goes they weren't so very unusual. Most men (and women) of that time were responsible people. They had to be! Whatever their own fathers may have taught them, they would have been quick to be outcast or become destitute if they didn't live up to the responsibilities of earning a living and of getting along with others in society. Perhaps that's why no one suggested that "responsibility" be enshrined in the Constitution.
It could be said, however, that "responsibility" is as strongly implied in our founding documents as is "privacy." When it suggests that men vote on their political representatives, it clearly assumes that men will accept that responsibility. When it discusses who has the charge of standing armies, it suggests that men will step up to take responsibility in defense of the country. When it says that all able-bodied men are part and parcel of the United States militia, it goes so far as to imply that all able-bodied men are responsible men. When it notes that all men have the right to have their case heard by their peers, it clearly denotes that most men are responsible enough to take the judging of their fellows so seriously that justice will be served if they do.
It is, perhaps, more fair to point to the Founding Fathers as setting good examples. George Washington was revered after the Revolution, and was, in fact, offered the chance to become a king. Washington was wise enough — and cared enough for his newly minted "child" and the kings it might have to endure at some time in the future — that he declined. Thomas Jefferson was extraordinarily well educated, and he did most of the work of learning for himself; though he preferred peace and quiet, he served the country wholeheartedly and with no small success. Benjamin Franklin was a diplomat who knew a little something about a lot of things, but who knew best how to get along with others. Patrick Henry showed us uncompromising devotion; Samuel Adams exemplified passion. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton offered their intelligence and philosophies freely in support of the cause.
Each Founder, of course, had his faults as well. George Washington endured deep depressions when he was forced into inactivity, or when he had to "gladhand" people for effect rather than acting quietly and decisively to get the job done. Thomas Jefferson loathed public speaking and wanted simply to retire to Monticello; while not a "fault" I'd condemn, there are doubtless many who would also consider Jefferson's overt questioning of Christianity a real flaw.
Benjamin Franklin was an agnostic at best (again, not something I'd consider a fault, but something that some would) and a libertine (though neither his contemporaries nor history seem to condemn him for it). Patrick Henry was sometimes a little too upright for his own good — and for the good of those with whom he had to work. Sam Adams was a terrific rabble-rouser, but failed — repeatedly — as a businessman. John Adams didn't take to compromise well and couldn't get along with Thomas Jefferson even when he needed to (the reverse was also true). And Alexander Hamilton's brilliance is largely to credit — and to blame — for the Federal Reserve System.
And yet, no man is perfect. Neither is any father no matter how good, but we love them and honor them anyway. Their sacrifices for their children are all too rarely acknowledged, but in submitting their own desires to the betterment of their children, they raise the standards of their own legacy. The Founding Fathers, for all of their genius, courage, warts, and shortcomings, certainly offered their posterity that much, and each and every American owes them a debt for that.
It's taken more than 200 years, but the example our forefathers set for us has been all but forgotten. Their philosophies, once revered, are now actually relegated by some to the dustbin of "dead white guys." Their writings, written in plain and simple English, have been "interpreted" by those who would usurp power and mitigate freedom. Education has been devalued to the point where schools are turning out students who are functionally illiterate. Courtesy is all but forgotten; respect for the freedom of others has been replaced by demands for the "freedom" to never be offended.
Sadly, even a good father can raise up a child that can tear his legacy to shreds, or worse, can obliterate it with a much darker one of his own. Consider Jeffrey Dahmer's father, for example, or John Walker Lindh's (although in the case of the latter, it could be argued that the father was a little too anxious to please his son in that the teen was permitted to go to the Middle East to study the Koran in Arabic, something he likely couldn't have done without both daddy's money and consent). Think about Scott Peterson's dad.
Americans in general, like the worst serial killer or most twisted jihadist, are in the process of destroying the legacy our fathers bled and died to leave for us. No, unlike "real" killers, the vast majority of us haven't hurt anybody, but is killing freedom really any better, especially when the death of liberty will sooner or later end up in bloodshed? Look at Tiananmen Square, and try to pretend that it won't! Better still, take a good, hard look at what happened in our own country in Waco, Texas and consider the fatal mistakes made by government agencies that are supposed to protect us and uphold freedom. Look at the broad domestic surveillance by the NSA since 9/11, the infiltration by the FBI of groups protesting the war in Iraq, the written "exceptions" made to many of the rules by President George W. Bush, and be afraid...
We must acknowledge that every time we let our politicians get away with voting for freedom-stealers like the USA PATRIOT Act or REAL ID, we're supporting the loss of freedom. Whenever we don't protest — loudly — when we see people convicted and jailed for draconian terms for committing victimless crimes that are really wrong solely because they offend somebody else's sense of propriety, we're helping to kill liberty. Any time we make exceptions to the Bill of Rights for the sake of expedience or because we're afraid a guilty man might go free, we're contributing to the future conviction of innocents or those who were coerced or entrapped into their acts — or, even worse, to the already too rapid change in our justice system that's more and more often considering those arrested to be guilty 'til proven innocent instead of the other way around.
There's one more trait that all of the best fathers have, and that's that they love their children. In addition to everything else they may or may not do, they give their children their love. Our Founding Fathers loved freedom, and they bequeathed it to us accordingly. It's ours to care for, and you don't have to visit a prison or see the Congressional record to know that we're failing. James Madison, known as the "Father of the Constitution," left a letter behind to be opened on the occasion of his death. In that letter, he wrote, "The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated."
The Founding Fathers were the fathers of our country; we are the fathers (and mothers) of our country's future. Will we follow Madison's fondest wish and cherish and perpetuate our shared "child?" Or will we continue on the path to destroy that which so many have long held so dear?
If you want to send cards on "Hallmark Holidays," by all means go ahead and send one. But if you really want to honor your father and tell him how much you appreciate what he's done for you, live your life to make him proud. Be responsible. Be good. Be strong. And if you really love liberty, then make up your mind to live in a way our Founding Fathers would appreciate. Be responsible for their legacy and ours by preserving it. Be good by knowing that freedom is always the right answer to whatever the question may be and acting accordingly. Most important of all, be strong enough to be good and responsible so that liberty can be our legacy, too.
Thanks, Dad, for teaching me to be responsible, good (most of the time anyway), and strong (though it's not always easy). We all owe the Founding Fathers, but I also owe you.
*Sweetest Day is actually about selling candy, but you get my point.
Lady Liberty, a senior writer for ESR, is a graphic designer and pro-freedom activist currently residing in the Midwest. More of her writings and other political and educational information is available on her web site, Lady Liberty's Constitution Clearing House, at http://www.ladylibrty.com. E-mail Lady Liberty at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Get weekly updates about new issues of ESR!