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A scroll with two paragraphs of the Torah written on it. It is affixed to the doorposts in Jewish homes.
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Should there be a mezuzah on a room that has baby diapers?
If there is a general purpose room (like a bedroom) wherein a child's soiled diapers are often disposed of, does that room take on the status of tashmish she'aino shel kavod - a room who's use is not ...
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Who needs to check a m'zuza?
I have heard that a m'zuza must be checked twice every seven years by a qualified sofer. I have also heard that, assuming it's known to have been kosher at one point, it need only be checked for faded ...


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"It's time these companies take more responsibility for their immense influence on poor people's lives," said Offenheiser. "Eighty percent of the world's hungry people work in food production and these companies employ millions of people in developing countries to grow their ingredients. They control hundreds of the world's most popular brands and have the economic, social and political clout to make a real and lasting difference to the world's poor and hungry."
'Behind the Brands' –part of Oxfam's GROW Campaign - will launch in more than 12 countries including the US, Mexico, China, Brazil and across Europe.
Its first public action will target Nestle, Mondelez and Mars for their failure to address inequality faced by women who grow cocoa for their chocolate products. Today Oxfam is also releasing a brief with first-hand accounts of the inequality that women cocoa growers face. Oxfam is urging the three companies to do more to know and show how women are treated in their supply chains, create an action plan to address inequality for women in their supply chains and engage in advocacy to influence other powerful actors to do the same.
"No brand is too big to listen to its customers," said Offenheiser. "If enough people urge the big food companies to do what is right, they have no choice but to listen. By contacting companies on Twitter and Facebook, or signing a petition to their CEO, consumers can do their part to help bring lasting change in our broken food system by showing companies their customers expect them to operate responsibly."
See the full scorecard at www.oxfamamerica.org/behindthebrands
Read Oxfam's Behind the Brands report: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/behind-the-brands
Read Oxfam's media brief Mars, Mondelez, Nestle and the Fight for Women's Rights: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/mars-mondelez-and-nestle-and-the-fight-for-women2019s-rights
Images of women cocoa farmers in the Ivory Coast: http://resources.oxfamamerica.org/pages/search.php?search=!collection1974&k=6969f243a8
Images of women cocoa farmers in Nigeria: http://resources.oxfamamerica.org/pages/search.php?search=!collection1971&k=23d6307910
Video: The Truth about Women and Chocolate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYqZO4fUSzg
]]>"Tensions in the El Sireaf area are still high and have the potential to spread more widely. We are worried that there will be more displacement and we are already struggling to meet the needs of those who have already been forced to flee their homes," El Fateh Osman, Oxfam's Sudan Country Director said.
At least 90,000 people have been estimated to have been displaced by intertribal fighting in the Jebel Amir area of North Darfur's El Sireaf locality famous for its gold production. The UN has said that the displacement from Jebel Amir area in the past weeks has been more than the number displaced through all of 2012.
"People are really in a panic and very fearful of more violence. Those who have been able to flee are not sure when they will be able to return to their home areas, many of which have been destroyed in the fighting," Oxfam's Humanitarian Coordinator for North Darfur Hamouda Kanu said. "They have inadequate shelter for this colder time of year and are forced to defecate in the open. This could lead to the spread of disease."
Oxfam and its partner the Kebkabiya Smallholders Charitable Society (KSCS) have been able to provide clean water through trucking and additional latrines for a large proportion of the estimated 1,800 households (between 7,200 and 10,800 people) that fled to Kebkabiya town. KSCS have also been able to distribute blankets and plastic sheeting to around 1,500 households in Gahra El Zawiya but shortages have meant some 300 households there have not received any assistance.
An estimated 40 to 60,000 people have been displaced from surrounding villages to El Seraif town. Oxfam and KSCS are attempting to send materials to construct 200 latrines in El Sireaf together with two technical experts but called on government authorities to improve access for humanitarian groups that so far has been limited. Oxfam and KSCS also called for local authorities and tribal leaders to meet and together diffuse tensions in the area.
Oxfam said the road linking Kebkabiya to El Sireaf town must be immediately opened to allow for bulky aid supplies to be transported to the area in order to help prevent the crisis there from worsening.
Oxfam also warned that the areas affected by the new surge in fighting may also experience food shortages. Farmers were preparing for a good harvest this year but many crops in the area were burned in the conflict. Last year's poor harvests in North Darfur have left people especially vulnerable.
"The world has moved on from this entrenched conflict and humanitarian work is already severely under-funded. We are struggling to meet already existing needs even as more are pushed into crisis," Osman said. "This conflict in Darfur is now 10 years old and we need to see a renewed effort to bring about stability and peace in this devastated area."
Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working together in over 90 countries and with partners and allies around the world to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice.
The NRA and its allies have mounted a campaign of lies aimed at building opposition to the treaty, based on their distortion that the treaty would infringe on American Constitutional rights.
"Americans deserve the truth about the international gun trade – not NRA lies," said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. "Our ad is part of a major campaign to debunk the paranoia that the NRA is spreading about the ATT. The ATT will provide a global solution to the rogue and illicit sale of weapons to war criminals, human rights abusers and violent extremists across the globe."
The ad, which will run in Roll Call this week and CQ Weekly next week displays an image of a man holding a Kalashnikov rifle. The top line states, "The Arms Trade Treaty will not infringe on your right to bear arms…unless you are an international war criminal." The ad copy continues, "Leaders of the NRA want you to be afraid. Don't be fooled by their lies. The Arms Trade Treaty will prevent dangerous weapons from reaching the hands of war criminals, extremists and human rights abusers, but not affect your Second Amendment rights. Stand with truth and justice."
In conjunction with the ad push, Oxfam America issued a briefing document, "The Truth about the Arms Trade Treaty: What the NRA isn't telling you" to help Members of Congress and the public separate the facts from fiction.
"For too long, we have witnessed the civil unrest and horrific violence that the irresponsible arms trade creates," said Offenheiser. "Members of Congress should not let the false claims of the NRA frighten them from making the world a safer place."
]]>The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved final regulations implementing Section 1504 or "Cardin-Lugar" provision last August. The law requires oil, gas and mining companies reporting to the SEC to disclose tax, royalty and other payments to governments in countries where they do business. In October, API, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Foreign Trade Council sued the SEC in an effort to overturn the statute and the final regulations.
"We are encouraged to see a major oil company with global operations in such places as Angola, China and the United States refusing to support a lawsuit based on unsubstantiated claims," said Ian Gary, senior policy manager of Oxfam America's oil, gas and mining program.
API's members, such as Statoil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhilips that have publicly supported anti-corruption and transparency measures in the past have been under pressure from campaigners to take a stand against the industry lawsuit. Statoil is the first oil company to come out publicly against the lawsuit to date.
"Statoil has not supported the lawsuit initiated by API; in fact, Statoil has explicitly withheld support for the litigation," stated Baiba Rubesa, Statoil's Vice President for Corporate Social Responsibility in a letter to anti-corruption campaigners Global Witness in London.
Statoil has been a leader in sector transparency, publicly disclosing payments in every country of operation since 2007, including in some countries where API has claimed disclosure is prohibited by law. In contrast to some claims made by API and other companies, Statoil says "such reporting is not an impediment for doing business, but has in fact been a competitive advantage for company."
The letter follows three court briefs submitted last month to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by prominent Members of Congress, as well as Oxfam America, in response to API's arguments. The briefs defend the law and highlight the lawsuit's frivolity.
"From Equatorial Guinea to the United States, the Cardin-Lugar provision sheds a powerful light on the murky world of financial flows between oil and mining companies and governments," said Gary.
"Oil companies that don't have anything to hide should follow Statoil's lead and stand up for what's right. If API's overblown rhetoric regarding costs of compliance were true, Statoil would be using every available means to fight disclosure. Their rejection of API's scorched earth legal approach reveals the emptiness of API's claims."
]]>Many food traders, who are predominantly Arabs or ethnic Tuareg, fled the area as French troops advanced. They were key suppliers of food, fuel and other goods sold in markets across northern Mali. These markets are rapidly running out of stocks of food and fuel – and much of what food was available has been looted. The traders have yet to return and many Arab and Tuareg refugees in neighboring countries tell Oxfam they fear that they would become subject to reprisal attacks if they do return.
"If traders do not come back soon and flows of food into northern Mali remain as limited as they are now, then it is likely that markets will not be properly stocked and prices will stay high – making it very difficult for people to get enough food to feed their families. These traders are critical for local economies – and these economies have already been enormously weakened by almost a year of crisis.
"This phase of the war may almost be over, but the battle to build peace and stability has only just begun. If people feel that their lives are at risk and that their families are not safe they will not return to Mali. It's as simple as that," said Philippe Conraud, Oxfam country director in Mali.
Food is already getting scarce in many markets in parts of the Gao region, where communities have been facing shortages since last year's drought. According to recent assessments by Oxfam, food prices have risen by nearly 20 percent since foreign military intervention in Mali in January.
Conventional trade routes between northern Mali and the south, Niger and Algeria are severely restricted at the moment.
Oxfam is calling on both Malian and international forces to ensure the security and safety of all Malian people so that communities can put their lives together and the process of peace and reconciliation begins.
]]>"As a Boston-based organization with offices around the world, Oxfam America sends our heartfelt congratulations to Senator Kerry for his confirmation and we look forward to working with him towards a world free from poverty, hunger and injustice.
"America's foreign policy and development assistance are powerful tools for sharing America's values, fighting poverty, and advancing human dignity. The United States government cannot solve poverty or injustice on our own, but our nation can do much to encourage and support governments in developing countries to be more accountable to their people and meet their needs.
"To do so, America needs to invest in building strong, lasting partnerships directly with local citizens, governments, and entrepreneurs in developing countries. The Obama Administration's 2010 Global Development Policy and related reforms have already put the United States government on this path. We trust that Secretary Kerry will continue to advance this effort towards more transparency, local engagement and investment.
"Under the leadership of Secretary Clinton, the State Department has been a strong promoter of increased revenue transparency in the oil, gas and mining sectors in order to reduce corruption and monitor the use of billions of dollars in government revenues generated by these industries. We hope that Secretary Kerry will maintain US leadership on this critically-important priority and support the Securities and Exchange Commission as it defends landmark payment disclosure legislation.
"We also look forward to working with Secretary Kerry to address the impact of climate change on the global food system and vulnerable populations around the world. Secretary Kerry's leadership on climate change in the Senate can provide a critically-needed jolt for action to address the causes and consequences of a warming planet.
"In a world where the massive and poorly regulated global trade in arms and ammunition continues to threaten the security and rights of millions of men, women and children, we urge Secretary Kerry to negotiate a strong UN Arms Trade Treaty at the UN in March. In order to be effective, it must include all conventional weapons and associated ammunition, and ban the transfer of arms that could be used for genocide, serious war crimes, or crimes against humanity.
"Most importantly, we stand behind Secretary Kerry as he will undoubtedly face humanitarian crises around the globe. During his confirmation hearing, he referenced the worsening insecurity and humanitarian situation in Darfur and the ongoing conflict in Sudan's Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states. We hope that he will put his extensive experience with the Sudans, and his personal relationships with senior leadership of both countries, to good use and ensure the US plays a strong role in seeking humanitarian access and peace within and between Sudan and South Sudan.
"There is so much work to do. We at Oxfam hope for a productive relationship with the State Department under Secretary Kerry's leadership, as we continue working to right the wrongs of social injustice and poverty in developing nations."
]]>"We applaud the Council for recognizing that a truly comprehensive plan requires an integrated vision to leverage investments in ecosystem restoration to build more resilient communities and greater economic opportunity for the working families along the coast, many still impacted by the oil spill," said Jeffrey Buchanan, Senior Domestic Policy Advisor at Oxfam America. "Gulf Coast communities are facing the inter-related reality of spiking poverty and enormous long-term ecological challenges, and the Council's vision sets a path for creating new career pathways for struggling, hardworking families connected to projects addressing these environmental needs."
The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council was created under the RESTORE the Gulf Coast Act, legislation signed by the President in July 2012, which will send up to $20 billion in civil fines under the Clean Water Act from the 2010 BP oil spill directly to the Gulf Coast states. The Council is tasked with developing a comprehensive plan to expend funds on critical coastal and marine restoration projects and guide the use of other resources.
"Instead of debating false choices that pit the economy against the environment, the Council is pointing towards a path to make things right in the community and in the environment," said Patrick Barnes, President of BFA Environmental, a regional environmental engineering firm, and founder of Limitless Vistas, a nonprofit organization preparing New Orleans-area disadvantaged youth for environmental jobs. "We need an integrated comprehensive plan that restores the coast and ensures those projects promote training and real job opportunities to revitalize the local economy and the life of these coastal communities as they adapt to new challenges."
Ecosystem restoration projects create from 17 to 36 jobs for every one million dollars invested. This includes middle skilled, decent wage jobs -- like boat captains, pipefitters, welders, heavy equipment operators, construction inspectors and surveyors -- that low-skilled workers could obtain with access to additional skills training and on-the-job learning opportunities.
"Coastal restoration projects have the opportunity to wrap together both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum in the Gulf Coast as it relates to jobs," said Elliott Bouillion, CEO of Resource Environmental Solutions (RES), a leading provider of wetland solutions based in Houston, TX and Baton Rouge, LA. RES operates Louisiana's largest commercial native plant and coastal grass nursery in Pointe-aux-Chenes, LA. "Under the leadership of the Department of Commerce and the Gulf Coast states, this is a chance to put scientists and engineers to work together with construction and monitoring crews. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to invest in the Gulf environmentally and economically."
In many coastal communities along the Gulf where livelihoods rely on a healthy marine ecosystem, individuals and families have been struggling to survive since the spill in 2010. According to the Census Bureau, coastal counties and parishes across Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana (the states closest to the spill site) saw poverty rates jump by as much as 33 percent between 2009 and the most recent post-spill data in 2011.
"As our shrimp, crab and oyster fisheries continue to suffer the impacts from the BP spill, we have seen more and more fishermen fall on hard times, particularly in the Vietnamese community," said Kaitlin Truong, Chair of Ocean Springs, MS based community development organization Asian Americans for Change. "We need to remember the people of the Gulf, and we look forward to the opportunity to engage the Council to ensure community input is heard as its starts to construct a regional restoration plan that repairs our natural resources and finds new ways to help the most impacted communities access new livelihood opportunities."
"Through the years our company has seen how investing in the environment can mean jobs for workers and economic growth for local communities," said Ashley Kerns, vice president of Westlake, LA-based Mike Hooks, Inc. a regional dredging and marine construction firm. "The industry is excited to work with Acting Secretary Blank, the Council, and the Gulf States to execute projects and help create new career opportunities for Gulf Coast workers -- jobs that in many cases, for those willing to work hard and stay with it, can provide working families with good wages and a shot at economic mobility."
Oxfam America is an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. Together with individuals and local groups in 99 countries, Oxfam saves lives, helps people overcome poverty, and fights for social justice. Oxfam America is an affiliate of Oxfam. To join our efforts or learn more, go to www.oxfamamerica.org
]]>Food is getting scarce in many of the markets in parts of the Gao region of northern Mali and stocks are likely to end in few weeks, according to international humanitarian organization Oxfam.
Communities have been facing shortages since last year's drought and conflict and will struggle to afford or even to find enough food to eat if the Algerian border and roads remain closed and the north remains inaccessible.
"Communities are effectively cut off and if the situation continues then food stocks in the area will only last few weeks. Things are set to get worse for people who cannot or do not wish to leave and have been living in incredibly tough circumstances for almost a year," said Philippe Conraud, Oxfam Country Director in Mali.
The situation is acute in rural markets, in areas where people depend upon their livestock, and where a large part of Northern Mali's population live. These markets, only supplied once a week, are no longer operating as usual and people are finding it difficult to sell their animals to get the cash they need.
Many traders have moved their remaining stocks from Gao to villages and communes outside of the town. Many have left Mali completely.
As current fighting moves north there is a growing fear that Gao will be the next center of conflict – forcing more people to flee their homes into areas where there will be limited access to food, drinking water and medical care.
They face a precarious future with few options of escape as the main public transportation services to the South and neighboring Niger has been suspended since the past 10 days.
"Most people left in the area are those who cannot afford to leave. If people are to receive urgently needed aid then humanitarian organizations need to be allowed into the conflict-affected zones. Borders with neighboring countries should be kept open and critical supply routes for food accessible. If help does not arrive soon then we may be seeing the start of a major humanitarian emergency," added Mr. Conraud.
Oxfam and its local partners have been distributing blankets and mattresses, heaters and gas oil to help the new arrivals stay warm during the harsh winter. Significant funds are needed to reach more refugees before winter takes its toll.
An estimated 670,000 people have fled violence in Syria to neighboring countries since the onset of the crisis in March 2011. In the past week, there has been a sharp increase in numbers fleeing intensified shelling and fighting. On Thursday alone, 6,400 Syrian refugees arrived in Zaatari camp; while more than 30,000 people have crossed into Jordan since the beginning of the year. Some 16,413 refugees arrived in Zaatari camp in December 2012. In Lebanon, so far this month, more than 24,591 have been registered as refugees.
Francis Lacasse, Oxfam's Syria crisis response manager said:
"Families have arrived exhausted and traumatized. Some have faced bombs and bullets to get here. Now, they are trying to get through one of the most brutal winters in the last two decades with almost nothing. Most families have to rely on the generosity of relatives and neighbors. Along with local organizations, Oxfam is trying to help thousands of families through this difficult winter period, but we could do so much more if we had more funds."
In December, the United Nations estimated that the numbers of Syrian refugees would reach more than 1.1 million by June. But it is now predicting this figure will be reached much earlier because of the rapidly deteriorating security situation. Not all refugees register with UN refugee agency UNHCR, which means that the number could be much higher. In May 2012, there were just 70,000 refugees seeking safety in neighboring countries.
This month, the region experienced harsh winter weather conditions, with heavy rain and snowstorms sending temperatures plummeting to below zero. Many of those fleeing Syria have had to endure the bitter cold staying in makeshift, unheated buildings such as garages and sheds, unfinished buildings and self-built tents in informal settlements. Many shelters across Lebanon were flooded, forcing families to move, snow also blocked roads, leaving many areas inaccessible and disrupting delivery of aid supplies. In Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp, home to nearly 60,000 refugees, tents collapsed or were flooded during strong winds and heavy rains.
New arrivals say they are struggling to stay warm and are especially worried about the health of their children, who have developed respiratory infections. In the last two months, some hospitals and clinics in Lebanon's Beqaa valley have reported that the number of refugees being treated for respiratory infections and pneumonia account for up to 50 percent of their caseloads; with a figure of 35 percent in Tripoli, north Lebanon. Health workers say these figures are likely to increase since most Syrian refugees are staying in poor and overcrowded living conditions, which lack heating. Some 35 percent of the acute health conditions being treated by medical staff in Zaatari camp are respiratory infections and influenza-like illnesses. There have also been a number of deaths reported in Lebanon and Jordan, with several people being killed in fire accidents as they were trying to stay warm.
Oxfam said that the situation was likely to be worse still in Syria. The UN estimates that 4 million people – nearly one in five of the pre-crisis population – are in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria. Even those who still have homes are suffering from the cold as they are often unable to heat their houses due to shortages of fuel and electricity. Many of the displaced are living in shelters with no winter clothes and no blankets.
Oxfam is currently working in both Lebanon and Jordan. The organization is trying to gain access to people in need in Syria through the UN and official channels and is also negotiating with Syrian organizations to deliver urgent humanitarian aid.
The UN and aid organizations are struggling to meet the needs of the growing number of families fleeing Syria's conflict. In December, the UN launched its largest ever short-term humanitarian appeal, asking for $1.5 billion to fund its work within and beyond Syria's borders. So far, this appeal is only three percent funded. A donor conference will be hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in Kuwait this Wednesday, January 30 to bolster the funds for the response to the crisis.
Oxfam's Syria crisis response manager, Francis Lacasse, continued:
"The tragedy will be if families who fled for their lives seeking safety in a nearby country end up feeling they've swapped one misery for another, with their families struggling for support, feeling abandoned - left out in the cold to fend for themselves. We urgently need to bolster the aid response to get help to the growing numbers of people in desperate need. We'd urge everyone to be generous – from donor governments to individuals. With the right determination and resources, we can help make things better for Syrian families who have lost almost everything."
Oxfam teams are planning to assist 120,000 people in Lebanon and Jordan.
]]>With aid organizations already struggling to meet all refugees' basic needs, Oxfam says it is extremely concerned about the conditions faced by Malians who have fled their homes over the last year and are living in neighboring countries. Host communities in these countries were already struggling to deal with food shortages and the consequences of drought and food crisis last year.
With the escalation of the conflict, including an offensive by armed groups controlling the north, the recent intervention of French and Malian armed forces and with the UN mandated African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA) operation set to be deployed, Oxfam is warning in a report published today that the already dire situation for tens of thousands of Malians could get much worse.
Since January of last year, more than 147,000 civilians have fled northern Mali and found refuge in neighboring countries such as Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Niger. In its report, Mali's Conflict Refugees: Responding to a Growing Crisis, Oxfam says that Malian refugees also face a number of threats including forced recruitment by armed groups crossing from northern Mali. Even before the recent escalation in fighting, the report highlights that insecurity was increasing in host countries, leaving refugees and host populations at great risk. There are also thousands newly displaced people in southern Mali during the most recent outbreak of fighting – in addition to nearly 220,000 people displaced over the last year – and limited information from the north means there could be many more people who have left their homes but remain in territory held by armed groups.
"After nearly a year of assisting tens of thousands of people across four countries in extremely tough conditions, the aid community is struggling to meet their needs. It is paramount now that we ensure that aid will continue to be provided to people who are leaving everything behind," said Mamadou Biteye, Oxfam West Africa Regional Director. "We call on countries neighboring Mali to continue to keep their borders open to allow refugees a safe haven, and for the UN to show the leadership that is needed to deal with the impact of this conflict on Malian refugees and their hosts."
Oxfam also points to the difficulties in responding to the crisis over the last months. Host governments and communities, and humanitarian organizations have provided vital assistance to refugees, but the scale-up has been slow due to logistical challenges, limited experience of in-country humanitarian organizations in dealing with refugee emergencies, and a small UNHCR presence in the region in the early days of the response. Almost one year since the start of the conflict in the north of Mali "basic needs are still not uniformly covered, particularly with regard to nutrition, protection, and education," according to Oxfam's report.
"Operating a major refugee response in the Sahel region is extremely difficult and it is clear that it will become even harder if there is a significant influx of refugees into Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Niger. At the same time, in Mali, those who have not made it out also need access to life saving aid. All those involved in the conflict need to ensure that we have access to the areas where these people are," said Caroline Baudot, author of the report.
The aid organization highlights child malnutrition rates in some refugee camps that are already well above the 15 percent emergency threshold set by the World Health Organization. For example in Niger, malnutrition rates among children under five years stand at 21 percent.
Oxfam says that ahead of a probable increase in refugee flows, aid groups need to rapidly adapt their programs to better support host communities and pastoralist refugees – who have arrived with tens of thousands of cattle putting further pressure on limited resources and igniting tensions with local communities. At some sites, the report says, refugees outnumber host populations, such as in Mauritania where in Bassikounou – a town of some 42,000 inhabitants – there are now 54,000 refugees at a nearby camp.
"What people want is to be able to go home. But refugees are clear that after decades of being displaced, they will not go back unless there is a lasting-peace in Mali. Ultimately, they tell us, the real causes of Mali's conflict need to be solved before they return," concluded Aime Lukelo, Oxfam's Country Director in Mauritania.
Click here to download the full paper Mali's Conflict Refugees: Responding to a growing crisis. A summary document is also available here.
]]>Known as Section 1504 or the Cardin-Lugar provision of the Dodd-Frank Act, the sunshine law will arm the public with information it can use to track the amount of money governments receive from oil and mining companies and help investors assess a company's risk. In October, the American Petroleum Institute (API), a lobby group representing companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Foreign Trade Council sued the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) following the issuance of final rules in August.
"From Equatorial Guinea to the United States, the Cardin-Lugar amendment sheds a powerful light on the murky world of financial flows between oil and mining companies and governments," said Ian Gary, senior policy manager of Oxfam America's oil, gas and mining program. "Protection of the law is essential for resource-rich communities in poor countries around the world and here in the United States to hold governments to account."
Senators Ben Cardin (D-M) and Carl Levin (D-Mi) joined recently retired Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind) in filing a joint brief highlighting the years of study and history of the legislation that became known as the Cardin-Lugar amendment and countering some of the industry's arguments. In particular, the Senators stressed the industry's demand that the SEC carve out exemptions for companies flies in the face of the plain language of the statute and the evidence presented during consideration of the proposed rule.
API can "point to no evidence that the final rule would actually conflict with the existing laws of any foreign country. Absent that evidence, there is no practical basis even to consider an exemption, and if the agency allowed exemptions, this would provide an incentive for foreign governments to subvert U.S. law by passing laws that prohibited disclosure," stated the Senate brief.
Another brief signed by several Members of Congress, including ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee Maxine Waters (D-Ca) and ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee Ed Markey (D-Ma) argues that the Cardin-Lugar amendment will ensure "potential investors will have access to, among other things, material and other information about the commercial, political, and legal risks companies may face."
Oxfam's intervenor brief highlights how the law will support stable and democratic governments while helping investors calculate a company's risk. The brief further argues that API's claims are without merit and that the SEC sensibly dismissed most of them in its final rule. Regarding oil industry claims of First Amendment violations, the brief says that oil companies have "no constitutional right to keep payments to foreign governments secret."
"The oil industry lawsuit is based on a series of unsubstantiated claims," said Gary. "As the Senate and House briefs emphasize, Congress was clear in the statutory language requiring public reporting of oil, gas and mining company payments at the government and project levels."
The Senate brief also explains Congress' judgment that voluntary payment disclosure through the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) was insufficient. The EITI is voluntary initiative implemented by countries whose governments sign-up to do so.
The three briefs submitted yesterday follow the US Department of State's declaration last week that Cardin-Lugar advances US foreign policy interests in increasing transparency and reducing corruption.
"Corruption and mismanagement of these resources can impede economic growth, reduce opportunities for U.S. trade and investment, divert critically-needed funding from social services and other government activities, and contribute to instability and conflict," declared the State Department.
"We are heartened to see prominent members of Congress and the US State Department stepping forward to defend the rules promulgated by the SEC," said Gary. "The oil industry should drop its last ditch effort to deprive investors and citizens of important information regarding billions of dollars companies pour into countries for oil and mineral projects."
The movement for mandatory disclosure of these payments continues to grow rapidly outside of the United States. The European Union is expected to finalize rules complementing the US law early this year.
Note to Editors:
• House brief signed by Edward J Markey, Maxine Waters, Eliot L Engel, Jim McDermott, Gregory W. Meeks, Betty McCollum, Jim Moran, Earl Bluenauer, Andre Carson, Sam Farr, Peter Welch, And Barbara J Lee.
• Senate brief signed by Benjamin Cardin, former Senator Richard Lugar, and Carl Levin
Read the full briefs here:
Oxfam intervenor brief
Senate amicus brief
House amicus brief
Ms. Byanyima has held roles that reinforced the governance of the African Union, and she influenced the international agenda at the United Nations and through her leadership in many coalitions of civil society organizations. She is recognized for extensive work in peace-building, budget and electoral reform, and building social coalitions. She is also an authority on the gender dimension of climate change, economic policymaking, and social and economic equality. In her earlier career, she founded a still-thriving nongovernmental organization in Uganda and served three terms as a member of the Ugandan parliament.
Starting in April, Ms. Byanyima will lead Oxfam International, which offers strategic guidance, support, expertise and coordination across Oxfam. Oxfam works with people in over 90 countries to find effective ways to end the injustice of poverty. Through its 17 affiliates, Oxfam provides humanitarian relief in crisis, empowers poor and marginalized people to gain social and economic equality, and campaigns for a more just world.
Ms. Byanyima was selected after a global search, led by the Chair of Oxfam International, Keith Johnston, with the help of an international executive search firm.
"In an outstanding field of candidates, Winnie stood out as exemplifying Oxfam's values and ambitions," said Johnston. "She brings clear vision fired by her commitment to social justice, the toughness of an able negotiator and campaigner, and leadership based on her capacity to inspire and convene, in many circles, cultures and levels."
"The world is witnessing a shift in global development, growing inequality, volatility on many levels, and mounting aspirations and impatience for change. Oxfam understands how this changing context means it must be strategic and adaptable in its mission to overcome poverty and reinforce peoples' rights," said Winnie Byanyima. "I am very proud to be invited to lead such an important organization as Oxfam, with its passionate commitment to social justice."
Ms. Byanyima earned engineering degrees in aeronautics and in energy conservation and the environment in the United Kingdom, where she went as a refugee student during the repressive regime of Idi Amin in her native Uganda.
She was an engineer for Uganda Airlines before being appointed to the diplomatic service in 1989, where she represented Uganda in France and at UNESCO in Paris. She returned to Uganda in 1994 and served as a member of parliament until 2004, actively representing a poor urban constituency and developing expertise in parliamentary process and practice as well as forming the first parliamentary all-party women's caucus. In that same period, she founded and led the Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), a national NGO in Uganda to champion women's equal participation in decision-making.
From 2004 until 2006, she established and directed a unit for women, gender and development at the African Union Commission as part of a mandate to improve the institution's governance and equality. In 2006, she moved to the global stage as director of the gender team of the United Nations Development Program, working on crucial issues of development, climate change and economic policy through the prism of gender considerations. In that role, she also co-founded a 60-member Global Gender and Climate Alliance of civil society, bilateral and multilateral organizations; and chairs UN-wide task forces on gender aspects of the Millennium Development Goals, and of climate change.
Ms. Byanyima will replace Jeremy Hobbs who decided last year to step down after serving as Executive Director of Oxfam International since 2001. Under his leadership, Oxfam has become an ever more respected and effective global enterprise that has increased its impact through the closer coordination of its affiliates and its programs.
]]>The hard-hitting ads superimpose DC insider buzzwords, such as "job creator" and "beltway outsider" with decidedly non-DC imagery—people surrounded by fishing boats in Ghana, a plant nursery in Tanzania, a roadway in Malawi. By showcasing community leaders and advocates in developing countries who have leveraged US foreign aid investments in their work, Oxfam's ads create dramatic effects. The ads also highlight the measurable impact that can be achieved utilizing US foreign assistance when the US partners with local leaders who are engaged in fighting poverty and injustice in their own countries.
"People in America should know this: American foreign aid is working. With a small investment from partners like USAID, my organization has successfully advocated for improved health services in communities that previously had none," said Martha Kwataine one of the civil society leaders featured in the ad campaign. "Last year, at least 10,000 more Malawians had access to basic health services as a result of our advocacy."
Alongside Ms. Kwataine, the ads feature Emiliana Aligaesha, a farmer in Tanzania, Manuel Dominguez, the mayor of a Peruvian town and Nana Kojo Kondua IV, chief of a Ghanaian fishing town, all who are turning small aid investments to create a sound future for their nations and their communities.
"People like Martha, Emiliana, Manuel and Kojo are having dramatic impacts in their communities with the US as their partner. What they lack are the well-heeled lobbyists to fight for their interests in the ongoing budget battle," said Gregory Adams, director of Oxfam America's aid effectiveness program. "As an organization committed to fighting poverty and injustice, we have taken it upon ourselves to deepen the US government's commitment to making aid more effective so that people can bring themselves out of poverty."
Mayor Manuel Dominguez of San Martin Alao in Peru, also featured in the ad campaign, was committed to using his limited city budget as best as he could to tackle the problem of waste management in his city. However it was not until USAID began providing technical assistance to the Peruvian Ministry of Environment, that Dominguez succeeded getting significant funds from the Peru government.
"My people and I can stop pollution in our district. We just needed a partner. We know how to get it done," Dominguez says.
Many people's futures depend on less than 1% of the US budget that supports poverty-reducing foreign aid. These programs give the world's poorest people the tools they need to help lift themselves out of hunger and poverty, help build a stable, inclusive global economy with new sources of prosperity and advance democracy and human rights. Strategic and effective aid investments also help make a safer world today and avert costlier interventions and humanitarian emergencies tomorrow.
"Foreign aid works best when it helps local people take charge of tackling their own problems—supporting them to build a dream, build a business, support their family, or help their community," continued Adams. "It is precisely these kinds of programs that we must keep off of Washington's chopping block."
]]>Oxfam calls on all military forces in the country, including French and Malian troops already engaged in combat, armed groups in northern Mali, and regional troops yet to be deployed, to respect international human rights and humanitarian law. This includes ensuring all necessary measures are taken to minimize harm to civilians, as outlined in UN Security Council Resolution 2085, adopted in December 2012.
Oxfam's Country Director in Mali, Michael Quinn, says: "Oxfam calls upon all military forces to ensure the safety of civilian populations and refrain from any actions that jeopardize the ability of humanitarian actors to provide assistance or the ability of civilians to receive it.
"We urge all forces, including the French military, to take every possible precaution to ensure that military operations do not cause further harm to already distressed civilian populations, particularly women and children.
"30,000 people are already reported to have been displaced by recent combat, adding to the 345,000 Malians who have been displaced already over the last year. Further fighting will inevitably lead to greater numbers still, and the international community cannot turn its back on those most in need."
While information remains limited, reports of the humanitarian consequences include 30,000 people estimated to have been displaced by fighting.
In the last 24 hours, nearly 500 new arrivals have been reported in the Fassala transit camp in Mauritania, with thousands more reported to be en route. The main camp in Mauritania, Mbera, already hosts 54,000 people. Refugees are living among populations that are themselves struggling to get by in the face of poverty, food insecurity and limited basic social services. Impoverished host communities, still recovering from a region-wide food crisis last year, now have to share scarce food and water.
In December, when adopting UN Resolution 2085, the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of the African-led International Support Mission to Mali, requiring all parties to adhere to applicable international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights law, as well as take appropriate measures to reduce the impact of military action upon the civilian population.
Oxfam is calling for UN monitors to be urgently deployed and calls on the Malian authorities and France to regularly report to the UN Security council on civilian casualties and human rights violations by all parties, and measures taken to address these. At the same time, no effort should be spared to give high priority to finding a peaceful and lasting political solution to achieve long-term stability in Mali, as requested by the UN Security Council.
Oxfam is providing humanitarian assistance in the Gao region of northern Mali, as well as to Malian refugees in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. We are supporting populations in need to have access to basic food, clean water and public health related assistance. Oxfam's programs aim to reach 59,250 people in Gao, and over 147,000 refugees and people in host communities in Niger, Mauritania and Burkina Faso.
]]>"Thanks to the determination of the Haitian people and their government and the generosity and solidarity of the public and governments around the world, a lot of tangible progress has been made. However, major challenges remain to rebuild Haiti after the earthquake and overturn decades of collective neglect and weak governance. Basically, it's three steps forward and two steps back," said Andrew Pugh, Oxfam´s Country Director in Haiti.
Approximately 358,000 people are still living in over 500 camps scattered around Port-au-Prince and its surrounding areas. Their access to basic services, such as sanitation, health care, and education, is very limited and they are extremely vulnerable to any future shocks.
"At its peak after the earthquake around 1.5 million people were living in some 1, 500 displacement camps around the city, so the numbers have decreased steadily in the past three years. Progress has also been made in reconstruction with many thousands of homes built, nearly all the rubble cleared, and ongoing construction of roads and outdoor lighting," said Pugh.
The government made efforts in the last year to lead the process of reconstruction. It proposed a return and relocation plan that helped more than 53,000 people move back into neighborhoods, through cash grants, rental subsidies, and stepping up investments in neighborhoods to improve basic services. The government also established a housing policy, but the land available for reconstruction of homes is still insufficient and investment in basic services remains inadequate.
"What continues to be needed is a comprehensive, realistic long-term resettlement plan led by Haitians for Haitians. The international community has an important role to play, but it has to be a supportive role not an alternative role," said Pugh.
While Haiti slowly recovered from the aftermath of the earthquake and the outbreak of cholera, which began in October 2010, it was hit by two tropical storms in 2012. Tropical Storms Isaac and Sandy aggravated the chronic vulnerability of people already living in precarious situations.
"With ongoing and recurrent challenges, the government and international community must do all it can to ensure that all of those who remain in camps are supported to relocate to secure housing with access to basic services," said Pugh. "The Haitian government with the support of the international community must have a strategy to lessen the impact of future disasters that threaten the lives and livelihoods of both urban and rural families."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Investigations in muscle are diverse and include skeletal, cardiac, diaphragm and smooth muscle. The objectives are to:
Expertise within the research team spans exercise physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology through to applied and clinical aspects of muscle health.
Robin Daly
Kirsten Howlett
Dawson Kidgell
Severine Lamon
Phillip Parker
Aaron Russell
Rod Snow
Glenn Wadley
Stuart Warmington


text:
X-Cart is a PHP shopping cart software used by tens thousands on-line merchants worldwide. It provides a wide range of e-commerce features, flexible "tableless" design, easy text content modification using WYSIWYG tools, W3C XHTML 1.0 compliance, SEO friendly product catalog, Web-based administration, on-line payment gateways support, real-time shipping cost estimation based on product dimensions, inventory management, full multi-language support, and report management. X-Cart has no logical limitations on the number of products and categories in product catalog.
uBee512 emulates all of the Microbee Z80 series of microcomputers, including ROM, Floppy and Hard disk-based models. Up to 2MB of extended memory is supported. The optional on board sn76489 sound IC is also emulated. The display may use SDL or OpenGL video rendering. Z80 PIO emulation includes tape, speaker, RTC, serial to PC RS232, and mouse peripherals. Parallel port peripherals include BeeThoven (AY-3-8910), BeeTalker (SP0256-AL2), Compumuse (SN76489), DAC, printer, and joystick. Many disk image types and floppy disks are supported. A joystick may be optionally mapped to keys. A large number of options are available as well as a built in OSD console.
Magnolia is a CMS which delivers smartphone simplicity on an enterprise scale. The mobile-inspired HTML5 user interface works through customisable, task-focused Apps, a notification stream called the Pulse, and a system of Favorites for quickly accessing the workspace. Magnolia allows organizations to orchestrate online services, sales, and marketing across all digital channels, maximizing the impact of every touchpoint. Magnolia's Open Source technology, support of open standards such as CMIS and JCR, and integration with the Spring Framework enable developers to unlock backend systems and third-party applications. Magnolia is used in more than 100 countries across the world by governments and leading FORTUNE 500 enterprises.
msmtp is an SMTP client with a sendmail compatible interface. It can be used with Mutt and other MUAs. It forwards messages to an SMTP server which does the delivery. Features include various SMTP AUTH methods, TLS/SSL-encrypted connections (including support for client certificates), support for multiple accounts, DSN, and IPv6 support.
HTTrack is an easy-to-use offline browser utility. It allows you to download a Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack arranges the original site's relative link-structure. Simply open a page of the mirrored Web site in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads. WebHTTrack is a Web-based GUI for HTTrack.
VisIt is an interactive parallel visualization and graphical analysis tool for viewing scientific data. Users can quickly generate visualizations from their data, animate them through time, manipulate them, and save the resulting images for presentations. VisIt contains a rich set of visualization features so that you can view your data in a variety of ways. It can be used to visualize scalar and vector fields defined on two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) structured and unstructured meshes. It was designed to interactively handle very large data set sizes in the terascale range, and works well down to small data sets in the kilobyte range.
oXygen is an XML editor that supports any XML document, and works with XML Schemas, DTDs, Relax NG schemas, and NRL Schemas. It has powerful transformation support that allows you to edit XSLT and XSL-FO documents and to obtain documents in the desired output format (such as HTML, PS, or PDF) with just one click. It also includes a complete Subversion client, support for flattening XML Schemata, an XML Schema instance generator, integration with the X-Hive/DB, MarkLogic and TigerLogic XML databases, editing actions on the diagram, and a rename refactoring action.
MatrixSSL is an embedded SSL and TLS implementation designed for small footprint devices and applications requiring low overhead per connection. The library is less than 50K on disk with cipher suites. It includes SSL and TLS client and server support, session resumption, and implementations of RSA, AES, 3DES, ARC4, SHA1, and MD5. The source is well documented and contains portability layers for additional operating systems, cipher suites, and cryptography providers.


text:
Mr. Beans is a 3yr old brown pitbull my brother saved at the spca. He loves people and kids and well he just doesnt want his paws to freeze. He'd rather sit in the window and watch his almost 1yr old sister a blue pitbull her name is Bella blue play and slide and have tons of fun in the snow, then walk out there and freeze..
winter is coming
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text:
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Global Nation
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Editorial cartoon, September 13, 2012
1:03 am | Thursday, September 13th, 2012
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text:
Hush Adds Rob Cohen
Cohen, whose work spans the design and advertising worlds, has cultivated and managed integrated projects for marquee brands Lenovo, Nokia, Chobani, Random House, and Nature Valley. His recent work building InTheMO's interactive division resulted in their development of the Nature Valley "Trail View" online platform, which featured interactive, 360-degree video exploration of hiking trails in major US National parks – and garnered two Gold Lions in the Cannes Advertising Festival.
Prior to joining HUSH, Cohen spent time at creative representation firms Reprizent and Moustache, immersed in digital, design, and content creation. Before that, he fell in love with art, graphic design, and photography in Austria and Germany as a gallery manager organizing exhibitions and cultural events.
Additionally, HUSH welcomes Sue McNamara, a development producer with a specialty in management of creative projects, focusing specifically on the design and experiential realms. Prior to joining HUSH, she learned her trade on the rigorous pipelines of leading New York post and VFX companies, most notably Method Studios.
"Both Rob and Sue are great additions and will provide an even stronger infrastructure for all of our clients – existing and future," noted Schwarz. "As HUSH continues to lead the industry in creating compelling design experiences, we're committed to working with clients in broader ways to develop more compelling, more holistic and more powerful work. The only way to achieve this is to bring more top talent into the mix, which is exactly what we've done here."
Source: HUSH


text:
St. John's Office of Community Relations held a luncheon on Monday, March 26th honoring the top 25 blood donors at the university. These individual contributions over the years have totaled more than 1,500 pints or 180 gallons of blood, assisting 4,500 to 6,000 people whose lives may have been saved with the "Gift of Life." According to the New York Blood Center (NYBC), this is a most notable amount of blood to have saved lives in the NYC Metropolitan Area.
The honorees were from a diverse group of University administrators, former professors, students and staff. Joseph Sciame,Vice President for Community Relations and Joe Ferrara, Account Manager for the NYBC presented the honorees with individual "Awards of Appreciation" in recognition of their service as dedicated blood donors.Some of those being honored included: William Emmel, 36 gallons donated; Roger So, 22 gallons donated; John Konesci, 20 gallons donated; William Malone, 11 gallons donated; Marge Cashin, 7 gallons donated and Mary Kay Sarosy, 5 gallons donated. When asked why they have continued to donate through all the years, Mr. Malone stated: "The bottom line is that it makes you feel good to know that you have helped save a life."
In saluting the contributions of the University community at such high levels of blood, Mr. Sciame remarked: "Our small luncheon recognition, of such a major contribution to the lives of so many, affords us an opportunity to show what a difference St. John's University does make to the wider community. And, as always, this is a learning experience for our students, who continue to contribute at high levels as well during their respective courses of enrollment."
Each pint donated goes on to save three to four lives. In response to the need for blood and the importance of donating, St. John's sponsors blood drives on all of its New York campuses: Queens, Staten Island, Manhattan and Oakdale. The NYBC operates in New York City, Long Island, Hudson Valley and New Jersey. These priceless 'gifts of life' go to the 200 hospitals that are served by NYBC and to people counting on generous volunteer blood donations not only from these top donors but from as many people as possible.
For more information on St. John's University blood drives, call Paul Lazauskas, Associate Director, Office of Community Relations at 718-990-1941.


text:
Amazing log loaders that deliver performance far beyond their size...
COMPACT Log loader |
HEAVY DUTY log loader |
LIGHT WEIGHT log loader |
5,41 m (17 ft 9 in) |
2,49 m (8 ft 2 in) |
2 180 kg (4806 lbs) |
29 x 12, 5 x 15 |
Included |
Included |
Included |
Included |
These log loaders |
Low impactLightweight, strong, highly maneuverable and designed to be very stable even when fully loaded, they minimize ground compaction while handling and transporting substantial loads. More capacity
High autonomy
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High modular adaptabilityThe modular design of the M-90 allows you to separate the trailer into two sections. The boom can then be mounted on an additional optional axle with wheels for straighter digging. An optional towing bar can be attached to the trailer. |
M-115 light weight log loader Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site M-90 compact log loader Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site |
"Under the laws applicable in some states or provinces or countries, additional security measures (not shown) may be required on the equipment shown. " |


text:
Most Recent
A Colorado carpenter takes a chance on hemp
Can an agrarian insurrection revitalize this High Plains town?
by Allen Best, Dec 03, 2013 -
Ecosystems 101: Hard lessons from the mighty salmon runs of Alaska's Bristol Bay
The world's longest ongoing salmon research reveals the astounding complexity of wild ecosystems -- and how easily it can be lost.
by Ray Ring, Dec 02, 2013 -
A demographer predicts big changes for the West's housing landscape
Are we all headed to "megapolitan" areas like the Wasatch Front and Sun Corridor?
by Samuel Western, Nov 29, 2013 -
A remembrance of Jo Anne Garrett
A remarkable Western activist.
by Abby Johnson, Bob Fulkerson and Patrick O'Driscoll , Nov 28, 2013 -
Oil shale never stays down long
The implications of Shell Oil's abandonment of its oil shale project in western Colorado.
by Steve Andrews and Matthew Garrington, Nov 26, 2013 -
Montana's Dueling Dinosaur fossils get no action at the auction
The controversial specimens still seek a scientific home.
by Montana Hodges, Nov 25, 2013 -
Worst place for a major mine?
Update on the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay region -- a threat to the world's best salmon ecosystem.
by Krista Langlois and Ray Ring, Nov 25, 2013 -
Redrock storyscapes
A review of Utah's Canyon Country Place Names, Volume 1 & 2 by Steve Allen
by Michael Engelhard, Nov 25, 2013 -
The Latest: Court strikes down BLM plan in Utah
The plan failed to adequately protect archaeological sites or control off-road vehicles.
by Katie Mast, Nov 25, 2013 -
The great nonflagration?
Despite a few high-profile wildfires, 2013 was a fairly quiet fire season after all.
by Mitch Tobin, Nov 25, 2013 -
Restoring the red pulse
Alaska's Bristol Bay can teach us how to preserve what we still have and to restore what we've lost.
by Paul Larmer, Nov 25, 2013 -
Montana tribes will be the first to own a hydroelectric dam
The three tribes of the Flathead Reservation may see significant economic and cultural benefits.
by Sarah Jane Keller, Nov 25, 2013 -
The national park popularity contest
An Oklahoma senator's financial fix for our national treasures.
by Judith Lewis Mernit, Nov 25, 2013 -
"Bear with me," he said, and meant it
Mishaps and mayhem from around the West.
by Betsy Marston, Nov 25, 2013 -
California Boomin'
Former HCN editor takes the reins of a California journal, and friends come to visit the office from near and far.
by Jodi Peterson, Nov 25, 2013 -
The Latest: Teton pronghorn migration helped by overpasses
The animals are using state-built bridges to cross deadly Highway 191.
by Katie Mast, Nov 25, 2013 -
On being away from my primal landscape
It was no secret I didn't want to leave the West.
by Charles Finn, Nov 21, 2013 -
A group of paddlers works to make kayaking legal on Yellowstone's rivers
Should all national park waters be opened to boaters?
by William Freihofer, Nov 21, 2013 -
Health care reform: A chronic national malady
Will we ever get it right?
by Travis Kelly, Nov 20, 2013 -
We need younger hunters
Without new hunters to carry on conservation traditions, wild game and habitat will suffer.
by Andrew Gulliford, Nov 19, 2013


text:
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Preforms as PromisedPros: My entire office which uses 3 different cell carriers went from 1 or no bars to FULL BARS! We always called our building the cell phone black hole but no more!!! Cons: Now I have no excuse to miss my bosses calls :( Did you find this review helpful? |
So SoPros: It does what the sales lit says it does. If you have the indoor antenna a few inches away from the device you wish to have signal..... you get full bars! Great compared to the NO bars I had in my home before. Cons: The indoor antenna seems to have a range of 3-4 feet! Yes, that is it. So if you use the product as pictured on the box, a laptop with a wireless card right next to the antenna... you will be extremely satisfied. If you are using it for your mobile device... plan on not being very mobile! Other Thoughts: I slight better indoor antenna would make this product perfect. Wilson does offer a better antenna..not she why they would sell a kit with this one. 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? |
Pros: this thing works very very well. I have full bars on my cell phone. Worked as soon as it was installed. Cons: NOT A ONE!! Did you find this review helpful? |
So Not So GoodPros: Easy to set up, Cons: Indoor antena in description did not say it was only for one room coverage. 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? |
Works well as designed if setup correctly.Pros: Improved signal from 23% to 78% Cons: Indoor antenna has limited range for larger homes, get optional indoor antenna for better coverage. 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? |
Huge differencePros: I just installed my booster last week. I have a single story house with a steel roof and ever since we installed the metal roof most of our house has been a dead spot for cellular signal unless we stood in an outside doorway or near a window. Outside we have a consistant 3-5 bars on our phones. This booster works great! Now we have 3-5 bars in all but the back bedroom where there is four walls and a lot of electrical wiring between it and the indoor antenna. It is relatively simple to install and setup, just pay close attention to the instructions and you should be just as satisfied as I am. Cons: None Other Thoughts: If the included cables aren't long enough for your installation you can buy or make your own, just make sure you use RG6 cable. I had to make my own - about 70 feet with a grounded connector about 3 feet below the outside antenna. 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? |
It worksPros: It works great. I have a Sprint Evo 4G (no 4G signal where I live) and the booster even picks up 3G. Cons: It works for my phone wonders but it doesn't work for my roommates. Do research on what band your cellphone uses or you might not be able to use this booster. 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? |
Pros: Easy to setup Cons: Did not get any improvement in the signal strength to any phones even right next to the unit no matter where it was placed in the house. 0 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? |
This just worksPros: It works and works well. I live in an area where I'm lucky to get an edge connection while in my home. Quite often it's no signal whatsoever. After a little research as to where the nearest cell tower was and careful placement of the directional antennae, it worked and worked well. Cons: Placement of second antennae relitive to the booster itself is touchy and can cause problems. Other Thoughts: Consider this ... it was this solution, or none other, that I could figure out. 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? |
Good product for rural area with limited signal.Pros: Little or no configuration. We live 15 miles from any town in any direction. With my iphone I could never get signal. If I did it was one bar. Walked around the outside of our house and found the best signal strength and installed it on my roof. We now get four to five bars inside our house. At the least we always have three bars. Great improvement and the voice quality of our calls improved dramatically. Easy to install. I read the directions included with the product and tried it in the house before I installed it. Worked like it was supposed to. The package even came with lots of cable and a joiner which was a really handy piece. Cons: At the moment I don't have any with the technical aspects. I would like to see the price come down. Other Thoughts: I know this technology is pretty new but I think a price drop would really help the company sell more of these. 2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? |


text:
Archer (Fate/Prototype)
Talk0this wiki
Redirected from Bab-ilu
Nasuverse character | |
Archer | |
Japanese name: | アーチャー |
Franchise: | Fate |
Appears in: | Fate/Prototype |
Voice actor: | Yuichi Nakamura |
Character type: | Servant (Master: N/A) |
Servant stats
| |
Gender: | Male |
Hair color: | Golden |
Eye color: | Red |
Addresses self as: | Ore (我, ?) |
Archer (アーチャー, Āchā?) is a Servant in Fate/Prototype.
He shares a basic design with Archer of Fate/stay night. His armor is based off of the design of Gilgamesh's armor in Fate/stay night, but it was designed with a more Mesopotamian-influenced style.
Archer is an alternate version of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk and the hero from humanity's most ancient epic.
Archer is still the most self-centered person in the world like his Fate/stay night counterpart, but he lacks the same kingly temperament and he is able to properly read the situation around him. While he is not an evil person, he has a callous personality. He has no real interest in the Holy Grail, so he instead wishes to establish himself as the strongest of Heroic Spirits. He finds incomparable joy in the battle of heroes splendidly fighting each other to the death for a miracle, and is angered by the fact that such an event never happened during his lifetime. Due to his Master's influence, he is a Servant accustomed to the modern society.
He falls in love with the glasses-less Ayaka Sajyou much like a typical shoujo manga. Unlike his counterpart's haughty declaration that Saber will become his possession, Archer proposes to Ayaka in a somewhat more normal manner. He finds her beauty to be incomparable to even that of the women of Uruk, who had never won his approval during life. In contrast, he bitterly detests ■■, whose name is left blank, due to the similarities he sees between her and Ishtar. He believes "women who are absolutely confident in their good looks are repulsive creatures!"
He, as the "best and strongest hero under the sky", wishes to be the highest ranking Servant. Having two above him enraged him to the point where he wanted to kill his own Master, but he decided to forgive Berserker because he did not hesitate to sacrifice his reasoning to seek power. He instead focuses on Saber, referred to as Holy Blade Wielder (聖剣使い, Seiken Tsukai?), as his target, seeing him as a formidable opponent. Though his Master commands him to simply let Saber perish on his own, he thinks that a disgustingly formidable opponent is more precious than gold. Wanting to kill another person from the bottom of one's heart is something that can only be experienced once in a lifetime. He is still quite cocky towards him, telling Saber that he should smile at being Archer's opponent even with his Master on the verge of death, else he deserves to be trampled upon.
Archer is the prototype version of Gilgamesh that was to be used in the original Fate/stay night novel that was penned and left uncompleted. He was only briefly mentioned in notes detailing the plot of the novel, and received an expanded role in Fate/Prototype. He is summoned by the unnamed owner and president of a skyscraper that overlooks the city. He dislikes his Master's methods, calling him a boring man. As a person careful to the end, he is a coward who will miss a good show like Archer's fights by using indirect methods.
While Saber and Ayaka fall into a romantic mood as they are alone in her classroom, Archer suddenly enters and begins a passion-filled speech on the Holy Grail War from atop the teacher's desk. He declares two things about the War leave him unsatisfied, their rankings and Ayaka. He, as the Archer-class Servant, is ranked third, while Saber is ranked as first among the seven Servants. He is currently focusing on Saber to obtain his rightful ranking, and he declares his attraction to Ayaka, telling her to become his empress once he overthrows Saber. Saber, displeased by the display, downplays it as insane talk, so Archer challenges him to show their difference in power with Enki.
After a week, Ayaka ends up poisoned by Sancraid Phahn, and Saber, while searching for him, meets Archer within the downtown subway at midnight. Challenging Saber with an arrogant, proud expression, he presents a medicine that can cure any poisons hurting her even if he doesn't actually know the specifics of them. Using that to issue their final duel, he tosses the bottle toward Saber and races towards him while wearing a fierce smile. As they fight through the subway to open air, they dogfight between the skyscrapers of Fukutoshin while engaging each other.
It is a close battle between them, and as each has met the conditions to unleash their final weapons, they are each looking for an opportunity of sure-kill. Once they reach the end of their fierce melee, Saber is knocked to the ground and Archer obtains his chance from atop a skyscraper. Summoning Enki, he seeks to overwhelm Saber with the tsunami. He is so exhausted that he can hardly move, but still manages to laugh as if it is the duty of the victor. Saber tells him it is too early to celebrate, unleashes Excalibur, and cleaves through not only Enki, but the arrogant king as well, as he sighs with despair at his defeat. He is not killed during their battle, and it is noted he later goes on to crush Berserker.
Archer has two Noble Phantasms similar to Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon and Ea, Bab-ilu: Key of the King's Law (王律鍵(バヴ=イル), ?) and Enki: Sword of the End (終末剣(エンキ), ?). Bab-ilu is identical in function to the Gate of Babylon, but the actual Noble Phantasm is a tattoo which proves his Kingship rather than a key-sword. It acts as the key to access his treasury, allowing him to draw out weapons for personal use or fire them like a machine gun from a circular pattern of ten glowing orbs that appears around him. He comments that it contains many pointless things, such as a glass bottle containing a medicine that can cure any poison in the world. Unlike how Gate of Babylon acts as Gilgamesh's main weapon from a standing, long range position, Bab-ilu is instead used in conjunction with Enki in close combat and to keep the opponent at a distance.
"Behold! The inferno of destruction fills the heavens! Come forth! The Surge of Utnapishtim! This is what it means to destroy the World! Heroic Spirits, suffer the curse that the insolence of challenging the King of Heroes has brought upon ye!"
— Archer.
Enki, named after the same god as Ea, is a pair of dual blades that is stored within Bab-ilu and often worn on his back, which have the function to turn the hilts ninety degrees to allow them to be used as tonfa knives. Differing from Ea, he has to meet a condition to unleash this imperial Noble Phantasm, and it takes most of his magical energy in order to utilize it. As a sword which can summon floods, it must be deployed for seven days, as the volume in water increases each day after its activation. After the seventh day, it turns into the Surge of Utnapishtim from the the Epic of Gilgamesh, the original tsunami that gave shape to the deluge myth of Noah.
Upon invoking its true name, Enki takes the form of a longbow by connecting the two swords at their hilts. It generates an arrow that is fired at the ground to act as a "tracer round" for his true trump card that is deployed high in satellite orbit above the earth. The actual Enki is surrounded by six bolts that converge around the sword in a spiral to become an arrow that falls toward the Earth as a "Star of Destruction." Upon reaching the area, it disappears in the sky and deploys a giant Magic Circle that cleaves space to summon the Surge of Utnapishtim. The tsunami easily covers the entire city only seconds after emerging, and he implies that it has the capacity to destroy the world. Saber's Excalibur is able to win in a clash against it by splitting the water, vaporizing the sea, and cleaving the Star of Destruction.
While it is unknown if he still retains it in Fate/Prototype, he had a Noble Phantasm in the planning stages of the original novel that imparted the ability "Absolutely Survive" (絶対に生き残る, ?). It would have clashed with Berserker's Noble Phantasm at the time, which was to "not lose for eleven battles." The concepts of the two abilities clashed and the paradoxical situation had to be resolved. Berserker eventually died even though he won, while Archer lost but survived.[1]
[Category:Characters in Fate/Prototype]]


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Nursing Symposium – Evidence Based Practice
May 11, 2013
Rockland Center
Are you satisfied with your nursing career? Have you thought about going back to school? Attend this year's Career Reinvention for Nurses Symposium discussing "Evidence Based Practice" on May 11 from 9 a.m. to noon in Rockland Center on Stevenson's Owings Mills campus. Current Stevenson students and alumni will share their thoughts on the importance of advanced degrees for today's nurses. They will also share their knowledge and experiences and how they use evidence-based practice on the job.


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U.S. live cattle futures turned higher on Tuesday, lifted by the turnaround in wholesale beef prices that stirred short-covering, said traders and analysts.
Also, fund buying developed after Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) December and February broke through the 10-day moving average resistance level of 125.49 and 129.33 cents (all figures US$).
"Most of what we saw had to do with the strength in wholesale beef prices, a sign that maybe beef demand is picking up in the East recovering from recent storms," said Vaught Futures Insights president Dan Vaught.
The wholesale price for choice beef Tuesday morning was $194.04 per hundredweight, 74 cents higher than Monday, and select cuts jumped $1.92 to $175.63, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Nonetheless, investors expect packers to control cash spending because of their unprofitable margins and more cattle available for sale this week.
Packers will also need less cattle for next week that will be shortened by one workday due to the U.S. Thanksgiving Day holiday on Nov. 22.
There were no cash bids or asking prices reported. Fed cattle last week traded at mostly $125-$126/cwt.
Beef processors' average margin for Tuesday was negative $68.50 per head, compared with negative $76.35 on Monday and negative $84.10 on Nov. 6, according to HedgersEdge.com.
December and February settled up 0.45 cents per lb. to 125.8 and 129.8 cents, respectively.
The December contract eased from highs of day as funds rolled long positions into deferred trading months.
Funds that follow the Standard + Poor's Goldman Sachs Commodity Index rolled spot-month December hogs and live cattle futures long positions mainly into February and April.
Monday was the last official day for the current Goldman roll period.
Feeder cattle at the CME settled mixed with November pressured by lower cash feeder cattle prices at the most-watched Oklahoma City market.
January drew support from the higher live cattle market and weaker corn prices, reducing feed input costs.
November settled down 0.5 cent per lb. to 143.5 cents. January ended up 0.2 cent to 146.15 cents.
Hogs snap back
Hog futures reversed Monday's losses on buying fueled by December future's discount to CME's lean hog index at 82.02 cents, pushing the contract to a four-month high.
February futures marked a fresh contract high of 87.3 cents in after-hours trading as funds rolled some of their December long positions into deferred months.
December hogs settled up 0.175 cent per lb. to 80.5 cents. February closed at 86.85 cents, 0.575 cent higher.
However, futures ended off their highs after Tuesday morning's wholesale pork prices fell, led by hams and pork bellies, which touched off profit taking, said traders.
Also, they said uncertainty about cash hog prices in the near term kept investors on the defensive.
Tuesday morning's average hog price in the western Midwest direct hog market rose $1.98/cwt from Monday to $79.75 while hogs in the eastern region dropped 94 cents to $74.51, according to USDA.
Some packers bought hogs to fulfill this week's slaughter while others have needs met into early next week, a trader said.
-- Theopolis Waters writes for Reuters from Chicago.
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Winter Championship BBQ
By Alice Levitt and Elizabeth Rossano [02.23.11]
Want to cook like a champion? John Delpha, chef-owner of the Belted Cow Bistro in Essex is one. His barbecue team, I Que, is currently the top-rated squad in both the New York and New England circuits. He shows Alice how he makes ribs for Tuesday barbecue nights at his restaurants — even in the snow.


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Putin says he will sign anti-U.S. adoptions bill
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he will sign a controversial bill barring Americans from adopting Russian children, as the Kremlin's children's rights advocate recommended extending the ban to the rest of the world.
The bill is part of the country's increasingly confrontational stance with the West and has angered some Russians who argue it victimizes kids to make a political point.
The law would block dozens of Russian children now in the process of being adopted by American families from leaving the country and cut off a major route out of often dismal orphanages. Russia is the single biggest source of adopted children in the U.S., with more than 60,000 Russian children being taken in by Americans over the past two decades.
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