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Moderators: Scottish Warrior, Yellowstone7, richwest, Pitti
I want only note that during the course of the next Saturday 16.6.07 our clubhouse will go online. At the same time the first club competition will start too. This will take a week and it will be not easy. So you could look here at Saturday so that you can beginn the fishing directly.
Now I have a little problem and need your view about it. I'll organize the contests, highscores and some other things at the clubhouse. Nevertheless I would like to participate the funny contests too. I promise that I'm no cheater (I hate cheating). Also I will do not claim any prices. And you can be sure, I'm a very bad angler and have only few time. Would you have problems with my participation?
Regards Pitti
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subset: commoncrawl


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I like to think of Interaction Design in its purest form as being about shaping the perception of an environment of any kind. Yes, today the discipline is so closely tied to visual displays and software that it almost seems to revolve around that medium alone, but that's only because as of now, that's pretty much the only part of our environment over which we have complete control.
The one field that has come closest to overcoming this limitation is the video game industry whose 3D games are the most vivid and complete alternate realities technology has been able to achieve. Game designers have control over more aspects of an environment, albeit a virtual one, than anyone else.
Lately I've been thinking a lot about this idea that interfaces can be more closely integrated with the environment in which they operate. I'd like to share some of what I've learned from the universe of video games and how it might be applicable to other kinds of designed experiences.
In Designing for the Digital Age, Kim Goodwin criticizes the term "Experience design" as being too presumptuous because we don't really have the power to determine exactly what kind of experience each person with their own beliefs and perceptions has. Even when we work across an entire event from start (e.g. booking a flight) to finish (arriving at the door), there are still countless factors outside our control that can significantly impact how a person will experience it.
Video game designers on the other hand can orchestrate a precise scenario since almost every detail in their virtual world is for them to determine. They can arrange exactly what kind of person sits next to you on a flight no matter who you are or how many times you take that flight.
That isn't to say that videogames don't have their limitations. Of course, it isn't completely true that game designers can determine who sits next to you. They can only determine who your avatar sits next to. The most significant weakness of videogames is the inability to truly inhabit a designed environment or narrative. As much control as we may have over a virtual world, as long as we are confined to experiencing it through television screens and speakers, it won't be anywhere near comparable to our real world.
Fortunately, there's a growing effort to address this lack of immersion.
A key area of the problem lies in how we're presented and interact with complex information diegetically, that is, interfaces that actually exist within the game world itself.
Before continuing, it helps to be familiar with some basic concepts and terminology around diegesis in computer graphics, the different spaces of representation between the actual player and their avatar. The diagram above illustrates the four main types of information representation in games.
Non-diegetic representations remain the most common type of interface in games. In first person shooters, arguably the most immersive type of game since we usually see the scenery through our avatar's view, the head-up display has remained an expected element since Wolfenstein 3D first created the genre.
While we're mainly talking about the diegetic space here, spatial representations are worth touching on. While not truly diegetic, spatial representations nonetheless manage to embed interface elements in a less disruptive way by integrating them more seamlessly into the 3D world. Mirror's Edge uses this to great effect by highlighting objects visually as a navigation aid for the player as they move through complex urban settings using creative ways besides plain running.
If we're aiming for immersion though, the interface will usually have to be at least partially diegetic (and Mirror's Edge actually does make use of them as well; that is, the interface is visible to the character in the game and exists "physically", so to say, in that world. There has been some discussion recently on the merits of diegetic representations of information versus the more traditional non-diegetic type (typically HUDs). The fact that there is a debate on this issue alone reflects the progress graphics technology has made recently. For most of the history of video games, diegetic interfaces were impractical or plain impossible because of computing or hardware limitations.
Here is a fairly recent example of a diegetic interface in the Need For Speed series that illustrates a common problem with in-game interfaces. Even though I initially liked the realistic cockpit view, I eventually switched over to the HUD mode most of the time because it was just easier to follow than the digitized instrument panels.
In comparison, it's worth noting the more effective use of the actual rear view mirrors for their intended purpose. Traditionally, these types of auxiliary views were usually featured in a non-diegetic window overlay, presumably because of the difficulty of displaying real-time scenes at non-orthogonal angles and in an amorphous frame.
In the early 1990s, LucasArts' X-Wing series used an in-game cockpit that was effective enough that most of the instrumentation did not have an alternative non-diegetic representation as an option. There is a tradeoff though. Unlike some driving games in which the view pans horizontally when the car takes a turn, the instruments here are on a static background that we never see from any other angle.
One of the most graphically impressive (and demanding of computer hardware) games is Crytek's Far Cry 2 where several types of information are presented through their actual medium diegetically (map, watch, GPS, etc.).
As Marcus Andrews points out in Gamasutra, Far Cry 2 does use a traditional HUD sometimes to complement the diegetic elements. He views this as a failure on the designers' part to express all information in the diegetic manner, but others have argued that it may have been merely the case that they determined the combination of the two was the most effective way to balance immersion and clarity of information.
There are games that have a fully diegetic interface. The most notable recent example of this is Dead Space which set an explicit direction from the start of its development to have all interactions take place within the fictional world.
This led to clever but logical ways to represent game mechanics traditionally displayed in HUDs. For example, a tube filled with a luminous liquid on the avatar's back acts as a health indicator while the hints for the player are displayed as messages from other characters in the game.
Interestingly, this has been partially facilitated by not using the standard first person perspective used in First Person Shooters (hence the name). Instead it has a third person tracking view where the player's character is visible from behind and the game is played mainly by seeing over the character's shoulder. Unlike a straight first person view where the hologram screen would take up most of our field of view, this perspective allows the use of the interface while still being able to watch the area in front of them. (This can be critical because the monsters in Dead Space won't wait around while you're busy saving your game.)
Finally, there's Aliens: Colonial Marines. As the in-game still shows, there are no non-diegetic elements present in the first person view. The avatar is holding a device instead that will be immediately familiar to anyone who has seen Aliens. Even in the film, the motion tracker served as an effective diegetic interface since the audience could clearly understand what the moving dots on the display meant.
While it's a little odd that it took a quarter century until someone made a true video game adaptation of a film that has more or less served as a template for the First Person Shooter genre, it's just as well since even ten years ago, it would have been impossible to render a motion tracker so realistically and effectively in a game.
Technology seems to be finally overcoming the restrictions that have kept diegetic interfaces limited to gimmickry until now. While still in its infancy, the push to duplicate more of our natural interactions with our environment seems to be gaining momentum as evidenced by new products using non-traditional interaction models. Most of them, like the popular Nintendo Wii, have yet to deal with immersion in terms of interfaces. On the other hand, Microsoft's, whose controller-free gaming technology Kinect is about to enter the market, has stated its intention to eliminate what it calls the "barrier" between the player and the game world.
While researching this article, I was really interested to find how other professions are making use of this technology. To my surprise, I struggled to find examples. While 3D has been widely adopted by fields like architecture and medicine in other ways, the value placed on presenting complex information in more immersive ways still seems to be largely limited to entertainment media.
How can this technology be applied outside gaming and what value would it be providing that other alternatives cannot?
In a way, diegetic interfaces have been used for training purposes since the first flight simulators were created to teach pilots to fly by instruments. The instruments may not have been represented on a digital display, but they were complex interfaces in an immersive simulated environment, which fits the definition of a truly diegetic interface at least as much the in world devices in Dead Space.
Modern professional flight simulators still use physical interfaces. Unfortunately, while it may be cost less than using a real airplane, the price of these devices still remained out of the reach of most people. This all changed when PC based flight simulation software brought the experience, complete with diegetic instrumentation, to the mass market.
Why not extend this to other types of complex products as well? At Cooper, we're currently working on a life-supporting medical device that's used on critical patients in operating rooms and intensive care units. Not surprisingly, training people to use this device is not a simple task. Let's say there are 3 components required to create an effective training scenario for this type of product.
- The user interface, which in this case is likely to be a touchscreen plus separate hardware buttons.
- Basic hardware parts like storage compartments, cables and other tasks that require physical interaction.
- An environment that is frequently unpredictable and chaotic including other people who have different personalities.
The two last points are fairly easy to simulate with 3D simulations and advanced AI and in fact are in use already. Interactions with more complex interfaces, often screen-based, however are still divorced from these and exist as separate recreations of the screen only. Embedding this last component into the virtual space would finally create an immersive learning environment that is the next best thing to using the real thing but far more affordable.
I'm interested if anyone else is aware of other applications of diegetic user interfaces. How else might these ideas be applied?


text: Tricky Tactics: William Henry Harrison was one of the first U.S. politicians to use false advertising. Although he came from a well-to-do Virginia plantation and went to medical school, he campaigned as a simple man who lived in a log cabin. That, and his reputation as a military leader, earned him electoral victory. In the end, Harrison has the distinction of giving the longest inaugural speech and of serving the shortest term of office, dying of pneumonia just 31 days after his inauguration.


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ParadigmDev brauchte ein neues Website Design und hat einen Wettbewerb auf 99designs gestartet.
Aus 27 Designs von 6 Designern wurde eine Gewinner gewählt.
Tufts-Skidmore in Spain
This overview is for the design and development of the Tufts-Skidmore Study Abroad Program in Spain, a study abroad program sponsored by Tufts University and Skidmore College that is located in Madrid. The Madrid campus is the main center, however there are two "campuses", one in the heart of Madrid, and another in the nearby city of Alcalá de Henares. Both campuses should be referenced on the site.
The goal of the website is to organize and distribute information about the program for prospective students and parents, and for administrators, to serve as a knowledge base for current enrolled students, and to be a live blog where students can publish news, reviews, articles, and photos and videos.
The site will be mainly composed of static informational pages with an events and news section that will be updated daily/weekly (and we are considering WordPress to run the CMS). There will also be a blog section (Noticias de España / News from Spain) where students can publish articles, reviews, and photos and videos. There will also be a FAQ section where students can search a FAQ database and view FAQs based on different topics that can be administered by the program staff. We will provide the Tuft-Skidmore in Spain logo and we expect the site template to match well with the logo's color schemes.
The site will be primarily in English but the live blog will be in Spanish.
The target audience for this project is currently enrolled students, administrators, prospective students, and parents of current or prospective students. The site should appeal to college aged men and women who are interested in finding out more about study abroad and living in Spain.
The purpose of this site is three fold. The main purpose is to get students interested in coming to the program by showing them what it offers. In reality, that is the most important function this site serves. The second is to be an information resource for current and prospective students. The third is to provide current students a publishing platform for articles, videos, and essays about being in Spain (they are required to submit one essay or article per month at least).
You will be designing the home page which will be used to create the header/footer/sidebar for rest of the site.
The site should feel engaging, visually stunning, and alive. It should draw people in. Use the color scheme of the logo but feel free to go further as well. We don't want the color red to be overused as it tires the eye. We are looking for a design that has consistent navigation and a home page / landing page that contains constantly updating information taken from the news, events, student articles, photos, and FAQs. The design will likely be translated into a WordPress template.
The home page should be filled with relevant information about the program, but we do not want a "texty" home page. Photos should be promiment. Site designs should be optimized for 1024 width browsers and we are not worried if the design goes down below 768 height.
Some photos from the current program can be used in the site and found here:
Reference Sites (NOT necessarily for design):
We will need the design in layered Photoshop PSD with the layers clearly organized.
See attached files for Logo, and design brief that lays out the site navigation and structure.


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Nicki Minaj's Wildest Tour Story Was When She Passed Out After Taking 3 Shots With Drake
Nick Minaj Speaks On Her Wildest Tour Story w/ Drake
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Officials at the Vatican were faced with a tough question when the Pope announced his retirement: what do you get God's Rottweiler as a leaving present?
Fortunately that question didn't trouble them for long, because the answer was so very, very clear to them: his very own virtual photograph album! And, ladies and gentlemen, here it is, in all its glory.
Sadly, all the pictures in the world of the ex-Pope leading mass, kissing babies and wearing hats can't hide the fact that it seems like someone actually made it in the early 90s. This thing is a mess of textured backgrounds, comic sans, awful page turns, and a page jump feature that looks like it was coded by a child. Poor Pope; he deserved better than this. [Vatican via Verge via Ernie Smith]


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"I wanted to involve kids because children are very adorable, innocent and like a blank canvas you can dress from head to toe," says Kesha Styles Wilson, creator of Fashion Wars. "I wanted to give these stylists the opportunity to see if they can transform these tiny muses into glam stars!"
Kids Rule! That was the sentiment running the show here at the newest Fashion Wars production, "My Mini Me" Fashion Show. Created by Kesha Styles Wilson, "Fashion Wars" is a fresh new fashion show production company who's goal is to encourage the creative interests of children and to then put their newly acquired skills on display. Tutus, scarves, sunglasses, bows, ties, shoes, hair, makeup and accessories ruled the runway at the "My Mini Me" Fashion Show held on March 10th in downtown Chicago's Lacuna Fitness.
Set to an urban beat, girls and boys of all ages walked the runway to flaunt the creations of three fashion stylists - Baron, aged 10, and Carly and Claudia, both in their early teens (and sisters, too!). These three are Fashion Stylists - those enviable persons who KNOW how to put you together no matter what your tastes are or your budget allows for. And these kids were impressive! With taste, style, and talent - these motivated and inspired artists put together all sorts of trendy and imaginative looks.
For the girls - how about mixing a crochet neck tie with solid top, a striped tutu, and sparkly shoes - and it works! What about pink "lace" imprinted sunglasses with pink polka-dot socks, a pink frill skirt, and a green jacket - and that works! As for the boys - they sported dark sunglasses, bow ties, blazers, and tons of fashion attitude! Stylists and models alike - they rocked the house and brought it down! We LOVE that this is a total kids production from top to bottom (with just a tiny-winy bit of help from Styles Wilson). Styles Wilson has a lot of fans - the house was standing room only. The audience had a blast. Giving tons of support with cheering and clapping - this was a good time. We also love that Styles Wilson's "My Mini Me" stylists and models are strutting for a good cause - RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). At "My Mini Me", everybody is a winner.
Kesha Styles Wilson is the creative mind and visionary behind the curtain. A fashion wardrobe stylist, Styles Wilson founded Fashion Wars and created the "My Mini Me" event to turn the spotlight on our children in a fun setting to inspire an eye for fashion! Ultimately, her goal is to build self-esteem in children and to cultivate a sense that being different and showing individuality is amazing. "Fashion Wars" gives participating kids a very hands-on opportunity - allowing them to be involved in the production of a huge fashion show, become models for a day, and to become mini fashion stylists.
For more information on Fashion Wars, please visit the following websites:
Website: http://fashionwarschicago.com/
Photos by variety of photographers. Please review captions for photo credits.


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60 Watt LED Power Supply
aspectLED offers a full line of constant voltage LED power supplies (drivers). A high quality constant voltage power supply/transformer results in your LED lights using less energy, shining brighter, and lasting longer. That's why aspectLED offers the highest quality LED power supplies. Our power supplies can be used with a wide variety of in-line LED dimmers. All of our power supplies are energy efficient and eco friendly.
Our power supplies feature flexible input voltage (100-265VAC) and can be ordered in 12VDC or 24VDC outputs. Wattage displayed is the Maximum Wattage. These power supplies are rated to run at 80% continuous wattage or 48 Watts continuous.
Physical Dimensions & Specifications
|Part #
|Power Supply Dimensions
|7-1/2" Long
2" Wide
1-3/8" Tall
|7-1/2" Long
2" Wide
1-3/8" Tall
|Input Voltage
|Output Voltage
|Output Current
|Power Consumption
|60 Watts Maximum
|60 Watts Maximum
|Maximum Continuous Wattage
|48 Watts
|48 Watts
|Housing Material
|Recommended Box/Enclosure (Optional)
|1.2 lbs
|1.2 lbs
|IP Rating
|Suitable Uses
|Interior/Exterior Dry, Damp Locations
|Interior/Exterior Dry, Damp Locations
|1 Year
|1 Year
|Standards / Certifications
|ETL Listed
|ETL Listed
- Easy to install and mount with mounting tabs/screw holes on both sides
- Maintenance free
- Solid-state construction makes for high shock and vibration resistance
- Extremely long life
- No RF interference
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How does the army of a liberal, multi-cultural and often secular society develop in its soldiers the spiritual resilience to cope with war, to face trauma, death and bereavement, and to fight opponents who have the advantage of a strong and common religious faith?
That's the question the Pentagon has been grappling with, as it tries to cope with the record numbers of veterans returning from the front line of Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder, drug problems and other emotional disorders. In October, it came up with a response, called the 'Comprehensive Soldier Fitness' programme, which will aim to strengthen the emotional, psychological and, yes, spiritual resilience of each of the 1.1 million soldiers serving in the US army.
The programme is being organised and rolled out by Brigadier-General Rhonda Cornum, who was kind enough to give me an interview. She told me:
The US Army has never provided training to soldiers for their emotional and psychological strength. We thought that being in the Army, and adhering to the Army's values of 'mission first', 'never quit', 'never leave a fallen comrade' and so on, would lead to emotional and psychological strength simply emerging. But after eight years of war, with much of the Army going to the front-line every other year, we're very stressed. So we realised we would probably be better served if we had a preventative programme for psychological and emotional strengthening, rather than a reactive one that only began after someone had developed a problem.
Brigadier-General Cornum is herself an example of emotional resilience. She was captured and tortured during the first Iraq War, but seemed to have come through the experience with her powers of agency strengthened rather than traumatised. She says: "When you're a POW, your captors control pretty much everything about your life: when you get up, when you go to sleep, what you eat, if you eat. I realised the only thing I had left that I could control was how I thought. I had absolute control over that, and was not going to let them take that too."
In other words, she approached a situation in which she had minimum control not from the perspective of being a passive victim, but from the perspective that this adverse situation was actually an opportunity to exercise her agency, to assert her autonomy.
She says:
There are people who are just naturally resilient, who look at problems as challenges to be overcome. Some people even see adversity as opportunities to excel. I recognised that I had those skills, and others didn't. What we have learnt since then, mainly thanks to the work of Penn University's psychology department, is that these thinking skills that lead to resilience can be taught. And that's what we're trying to do with the new programme: teach resilience.
The Penn psychology department's pioneering work began in the 1950s, when professor Aaron T. Beck developed 'cognitive behavioural therapy' – a type of therapy that taught people to become aware of how they interpret events through their 'self-talk' , and how their habitual interpretations of the external world lead to their habitual emotional responses.
In other words, our beliefs about ourself and the world lead to our emotional responses. We choose what we believe, so we also choose what we feel – though often our beliefs are unconscious and highly irrational. CBT tries to make the beliefs that colour our world-view more conscious, and more rational.
CBT sounds simple, but it's based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy of Stoicism, which taught its students that 'it's not events, but our interpretation of them, that causes suffering', in the words of the philosopher Epictetus. Stoics taught their students resilience – the ability to cope with exile, imprisonment, bereavement, torture, death, and all the other occupational hazards of a political career in the Roman Empire, without losing their cool.
Stoics could cope with adversity because they constantly reminded themselves that the world was an unpredictable and often frustrating place, and the only thing truly in our control was our own thoughts and opinions. They took an attitude of indifference to externals – it didn't matter if you were emperor of Rome or a prisoner in a cell, what mattered was using each situation that came your way as an opportunity to exercise your moral agency, your ability to rise above your circumstances.
Epictetus said:
It is circumstances which show what men are. Therefore when adversity falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man…that you may become an Olympic conqueror; but it is not accomplished without sweat.
Stoic resilience didn't mean just 'sucking it up'. It didn't mean just repressing your emotions behind a 'stiff upper lip'. It's far more subtle than that. It's about learning how your beliefs lead to your emotions, and then learning to challenge and dismantle any beliefs that don't make sense and are leading to destructive and pointlessly negative emotions.
CBT drew on many of the ideas and techniques of Stoicism. Both Beck and the other founder of CBT, Albert Ellis, were directly influenced by Stoicism, as they've told me in interviews. What CBT showed was that the therapeutic techniques of Stoicism could be used even if one didn't share the religious beliefs of Stoicism. Indeed, Albert Ellis was a rabid atheist. You might not accept the Stoic idea that all externals are morally indifferent and the only thing worth pursuing is the development of your moral agency, but you could still use Stoic techniques to overcome emotional disorders, by becoming aware of how your habitual interpretations of the world lead to your emotional responses, and you could still learn how to change those interpretations when they were irrational or self-defeating.
So CBT adapted Stoic therapy to the needs and requirements of a multi-faith society. It used the techniques of Stoicism, but without Stoicism's moral dogma – although it still retained some of the vestiges of Stoic ethics, in the idea that our emotions are our responsibility, and that the 'good life' is ultimately a life of Socratic self-knowledge and Stoic moral autonomy.
But most of the people who use CBT, and most of the people who teach CBT, have little or no idea of the connection of CBT to Stoicism. It's been kept quiet, because Stoicism is a religious philosophy, and anything that smacks of religion wouldn't go down well in the public sector. So CBT's Stoic roots had to be kept slightly quiet for the psychotherapy to gain widespread acceptance.
A colleague of Beck's at Penn University, Martin Seligman, then took the ideas and techniques of CBT and showed how they could be taken from the hospital or psychiatric ward, and taught to healthy individuals, such as children in schools, in order to strengthen their health and resilience before they ever developed an emotional disorder. So he made what was originally a therapy into an educational course. This, of course, is what Stoicism always was: an educational course, for young leaders.
Both CBT and positive psychology managed to gather a large body of evidence that showed that CBT was the most successful therapy at combating depression, social anxiety, PTSD and other emotional disorders; and that positive psychology, if taught in schools, reduced the likelihood of children developing depression in their teens.
The results started to impress government officials, and to make an impact on public policy. The UK's government developed a particular enthusiasm in the last few years, thanks to the public support of government advisor Lord Layard for all things CBT. He was sufficiently impressed by CBT's success at treating survivors of the Omagh bombing, that he successfully lobbied for the government to ear-mark around £150 million to train over 1,000 new CBT therapists to work in the NHS.
Layard also campaigned to get Seligman's team to create a pilot 'resilience programme' in UK state schools. Some aspects of CBT are already included in the new curriculum subject, Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning.
Meanwhile, in the last couple of years, the Pentagon has, independently, become interested in the work of Penn, and its possible uses in helping it cope with the stress of eight years of war. It had already, controversially, used Martin Seligman's theory of 'learned helplessness' to inform its interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay. Now, General George Casey, Chief of Staff of the US Army, decided to contract Seligman and his team to teach the entire army 'learned optimism'. The Pentagon began working on the programme in August 2008, and launched it in October 2009.
The $125 million programme will mean that every American soldier has to take a questionnaire, every two years, which will assess his or her cognitive skills in five domains: physical, social, family, emotional and spiritual. The results are only shown to the soldier. If the soldier is below optimum in a domain, he or she is encouraged to take classes to strengthen their cognitive skills in that domain. The junior soldiers will be "required" to do the training. Most of the classes are online – they use hand-outs and videos to show different ways of thinking about and approaching difficult situations.
So how can a publicly-funded programme improve the 'spiritual' strength of an army, without conflicting with the pluralist ethos of a multi-faith society in which the government is supposed to be secular?
Brigadier-General Cornum says: "The spiritual strength domain is not related to religiosity, at least not in terms of how we measure it. It measures a person's core values and beliefs concerning their meaning and purpose in life. We assess their self-awareness, their sense of ownership and responsibility, their self-regulation of thoughts and feelings which they can control, that those things don't randomly appear, that self-motivation is important, and social awareness is important. It's not religious, although a person's religion can still affect those things."
She adds: "Spiritual training is entirely optional, unlike the other domains. Every time you say the S-P-I-R word you're going to get sued. So that part is not mandatory. The assessment is mandatory though, and junior soldiers will be required to take exercises to strengthen their other four domains. Because there's no question that the most vulnerable populations are the younger people, whether we're looking at stress or drug use. That's partly because they're 'emerging adults', with all the problems that go along with that. And it's also because they're the people we're asking to do the most difficult things."
So the spiritual training is not mandatory, but the other aspects of the course will still teach the country's soldiers the techniques and ideas of CBT and Stoicism, and so are, in a sense, spiritual training (or what the Greeks called askesis).
This sort of spiritual training isn't totally new to the US Army. The military elite have already been trained in this way for some time. West Point's Cadet Leader Development System, for example, trains its students in six domains – intellectual, military, physical, social, moral-ethical and 'the domain of the human spirit', the latter of which models itself on Plato's education of the elite Guardian class. It regularly invites top philosophers such as Martha Nussbaum to come and lecture to the cadets on Aristotle, the Stoics and other ancient ethicists.
The US Navy has also used ideas and techniques from ancient Greek philosophy in its officer training programme – indeed, the inaugural holder of the Distinguished Chair in Ethics at the United States Naval Academy, Nancy Sherman, went on to write a book called Stoic Warriors, discussing how Stoicism continues to inform the ethos of the American military.
She paid particular attention to the example of Vice-Admiral James Stockdale, who famously used his knowledge of Stoicism to survive seven years of imprisonment and torture during the Vietnam War. Stockdale learnt first hand, as a POW, the value of the Stoic idea that most things are not in our control, but one thing is in our control – our thinking, our moral purpose – and no one can take this from us, even if they kill us.
Stockdale's experience, and his use of Epictetus, is still taught to US Special Forces cadets at the Green Berets' survival school in Fort Bragg. Michael, a 47-year-old major in US Army Special Forces, tells me:
We were taught how to survive prisoner-of-war experience, and one of the things we were taught was James Stockdale's experience in Vietnam. Afterwards, I found out more about him online, and gradually became more and more interested in Stoicism. Eventually, I thought we should change our Special Forces training to simply a course in Hellenic philosophy – because so much of Stoicism is about understanding humans and why they make the decisions they do, which is a crucial part of Special Forces operations.
So the elite of the US military have often drawn on the ideas and traditions of ancient Greek philosophy, particularly Stoicism, to train and develop themselves. But this is the first time such ideas and therapeutic techniques have been rolled out to the entire army, from the bottom to the top.
Of course, other armies, which have the benefit of a common religion, can draw on that to teach their own recruits resilience. Take the example of the Lebanese guerrilla movement Hesballah's training of its soldiers. I'm quoting from Alaister Crooke's recent book, Resistance:
Hesballah's strengthening of the individual comes from contemplation within him or her of the concept of God's attribute of 'power', and through a personal 'drawing' of this attribute, the acquisition of an inner mental 'strength', a Hesballah Sheikh explained. This quality enables a person to contrive the willpower and spirit with which to confront and overcome disproportionate force used against him or her…From this same attribute of 'mental strengthening', the Sheikh suggested, it was possible to cultivate a steadfastness and resilience that 'will drive a superior adversary to despair at being able to inflict a psychological defeat'.
At times, indeed, the Hesballah resilience training programme sounds positively touchy-feely: "Building individual self-esteem is seen as an element of developing resilience…one activist described is as 'a process of personal coaching of individuals'."
But of course Hesballah has the advantage of a common religious faith. In a liberal, democratic, multi-faith society, in which the government is secular, it is a thorny question as to how far the state can go in the development of character and virtue, before it steps over the line and is interfering in an individual's personal moral choices.
I personally think CBT has done our society a great service by allowing us to draw on the spiritual traditions of western culture, particularly Stoicism, without getting into dogmatic debates over metaphysical beliefs in the after-life, providence, the existence of God and so on.
This, to me, is what Richard Dawkins and others miss in the debate over the value or vice of religion. Religion isn't just dogma, though of course millions of people have been killed over disagreements about religious dogma. But at its most useful, religions are the ancient storehouses of knowledge of the human mind, the human spirit, and knowledge of the techniques one can use to strengthen the mind and spirit. Many of these techniques can be used even if one doesn't believe in God. This is what CBT has discovered through its debt to Stoicism.
At the same time, I think the public sector (whether schools, armies, prisons or the NHS) have to be careful not to be too prescriptive in their assertion of what makes one 'happy' or 'resilient' or any of the other virtues and character-traits that positive psychology teaches. There is no one scientifically-proven path to happiness and virtue. All the great spiritual traditions – Stoicism, Buddhism, Islam, and also secular traditions like Epicureanism – have important points of disagreement. I don't think positive psychology should paper over those disagreements and pretend that 'science' can arrive at some perfect and unarguable path to happiness and resilience. We can't escape that we live in a pluralist society, and we always will.
And you can never force people to be free, or happy, or resilient. You can lead the soldiers to the revitalising water of ancient philosophy. But, unlike the theocratic states of the Middle East, you can't force them to drink.


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|Institution Type:
|Campus Setting:
|Great Lakes Large suburb
|Highest Degree Offered:
|Bachelor's degree
|Level of Institution:
|Four or more years
has a nice, well-maintained campus. professors are knowledgeable and approachable. has a great variety of online classes to choose from.…
I really like the ease of getting to my college. I also can find a parking spot at this location. My teachers are easy to communicate with, easy access.…
This school is easy to apply to, easy to get ready for classes, and everyone is extremely helpful and willing to work with the students.…
This campus is a great learning environment. Students and professors are very helpful and personable. It is a small campus with small classes; a great place if you are looking…
Like I said I enjoy being a COUGAR! I love the atmosphere, and the cafe. This is some of the best food on all of the University Campuses. The people here are awesome and you will always run into someone you know which makes the college transition comfortable.Read More


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Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip, a premium dessert destination franchise concept, has opened its newest café at the Guildford Town Centre in Surrey – the first location in Canada.
Situated at 2695 Guildford Town Centre, local entrepreneurs Ed and Tammy Goh opened the internationally renowned brand's 101st shop worldwide and the first in this country.
"It is a very exciting opportunity for us to grow with this world-class brand at a time when the company is experiencing such robust growth," said Tammy Goh, who co-owns the new Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip with her husband Ed.
"The brand is not only well-known, but also respected for its high-quality dessert options. We are honoured to open the company's first location in Canada, and look forward to offering indulgent, world-class desserts at an affordable price to our community."
In addition to its signature cookie creations, Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip offers a unique selection of bakery goods, including macaroons, cupcakes, and brownies, among other items. Cafés also serve frozen ice cream treats, premium coffee drinks, refreshing frozen yogurt and real fruit smoothies.
"This is a great time to be a part of the Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip family," said Ziad Dalal, founder and president of Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip. "Celebrating the opening of our café's first location in Canada is a significant milestone for us, and we are thrilled to share our passion for high-quality, indulgent desserts with franchise partners on an international level. We look forward to continuing to provide consumers worldwide with an unrivaled, one-stop dessert experience."
The Surrey opening stems from a larger company growth plan, which calls for more than 10 additional locations to open in the Vancouver area during the next three to five years.
In addition, Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip plans to open nearly 25 locations throughout Canada in the next five years. Key markets for expansion include Vancouver and Toronto. Another entrepreneurial team will open the brand's second location in the Vancouver market in early 2012.
Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip presents a proven business opportunity for individuals seeking to invest in a world-class brand. Seeking potential single- and multi-unit franchisees, as well as master and area developers, the company is looking to award franchises to individuals who possess an entrepreneurial spirit, passion for the brand, and are committed to providing quality and service.
For more information on franchising opportunities with Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip, visit www.nestlecafe.com or contact Ted Milburn at 360-863-6326 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
For more information on the Surrey Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip, contact -778-300-3941 or visit, www.nestlecafe.com


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(Editor's note: The following is an article submitted by Pastor Lester Weldon regarding the Appling County Food Bank. The food bank is a tremendous asset to Appling County. Please support this worthy cause.)
By Lester Weldon, President Appling County Food Bank
While attending a pastor's conference at Moody Bible in Chicago, a man on the street approached us asking for assistance. He felt that five would make a difference in getting food to eat and affect his life for the day. I am thinking of the Appling County Food Bank and what a difference 'five' would make. But the five is not in monetary terms, but one of our most valuable assets, "Time."
[Full Story »]


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WASHINGTON (AP) — In a stinging rebuke of the military's efforts to curb sexual assault, members of a Senate panel hammered Defense Department officials on Wednesday for making too little progress in combating the crimes and failing to improve a military justice system that victims described as slow and uncaring.
During a two-part hearing, the panel heard harrowing testimony from several victims, who said military justice is broken and pushed for Congress to take action to stem the rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment that they said are pervasive in all the service branches.
Pentagon officials said they are taking the problem seriously. "Sexual assault in the military is not only an abhorrent crime that does enormous harm to the victim, but it is also a virulent attack on the discipline and good order on which military cohesion depends," said Robert Taylor, the Pentagon's acting general counsel.
"The Air Force has zero tolerance for this offense," added Lt. Gen. Richard Harding, the judge advocate general of the Air Force.
But lawmakers pointed to a decision by an Air Force general to reverse a guilty verdict in a sexual assault case as evidence of how the military fails the victims who come forward to report the crimes. Under military law, a commander who convenes a court-martial is known as the convening authority and has the sole discretion to reduce or set aside guilty verdicts and sentences or to reverse a jury's verdict.
Her voice rising, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said all the training and all the promises of "zero tolerance" from the witnesses amounted to nothing if a convening authority is the only individual who can decide whether to overturn a case. Gillibrand is the chairwoman of the Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee.
"I appreciate the work you're doing, but it's not enough," she told the military officers arrayed at a long witness table.
Rebekah Havrilla, a former Army sergeant, told the panel that she encountered a "broken" military criminal justice system after she was raped by another service member while serving in Afghanistan. Havrilla described suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and described how her case was eventually closed after senior commanders decided not to pursue charges.
"What we need is a military with a fair and impartial criminal justice system, one that is run by professional and legal experts, not unit commanders," Havrilla said.
BriGette McCoy, a former Army specialist and a Persian Gulf war veteran, said she was raped when she was 18 and at her first duty station. But she did not report it. Three years later, she reported being sexually harassed and asked for an apology and to be removed from working directly with the offender.
"They did remove me from his team and his formal apology consisted of him driving by me on base and saying 'sorry' out of his open car door window," McCoy told the subcommittee.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered a review of Air Force Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin's decision to overturn the sexual assault conviction against Lt. Col. James Wilkerson, a former inspector general at Aviano Air Base in Italy.
The case is generating support for legislation that would prevent commanding officers from overturning rulings made by judges and juries at courts-martial proceedings.
"It appears to me that the Aviano general has really failed," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., referring to Franklin.
Anu Bhagwati of the Service Women's Action Network told the panel that commanders are unable to make impartial decisions because they usually have a professional relationship with the accused and, often times, with the victim as well. Bhagwati, a former Marine Corps captain, said court-martial cases should be left in the hands of "trained, professional, disinterested prosecutors."
Gillibrand called the Wilkerson case "shocking" and promised to take a hard look at the military justice system. Nearly 2,500 sexual violence cases in the military services were reported in 2011, but only 240 made it to trial, Gillibrand said.
Wilkerson was found guilty on Nov. 2 by a jury of military officers on charges of abusive sexual contact, aggravated sexual assault and three instances of conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman. The victim was a civilian employee. Wilkerson was sentenced to a year in prison and dismissal from the service.
Wilkerson was at the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C., until Feb. 26, when Franklin exercised his discretion as the convening authority. Franklin reviewed the case over a three-week period and concluded "that the entire body of evidence was insufficient to meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt," Hagel wrote in a March 7 letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
But Hagel told Boxer neither he nor the Air Force secretary is empowered to overrule Franklin, who is the commander of the 3rd Air Force at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Boxer said during testimony before the subcommittee that "immediate steps must be taken to prevent senior commanders from having the ability to unilaterally overturn a decision or sentence by a military court."
Taylor, the acting general counsel, said in his written testimony the Defense Department is examining the role the convening authority plays, including a commander's power to set aside a court-martial's findings. But Taylor also stressed that commanders have long held this authority and it is directly tied to the need for the "portability" of military justice throughout the world and the need for senior officers to maintain discipline in the ranks.
In the wake of Franklin's decision, Reps. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, and Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., introduced legislation Tuesday in the House that would strip military commanders of the power to overturn legal decisions or lessen sentences. Their bill would amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice to take away the power of a convening authority to dismiss, commute, lessen or order a rehearing after a panel or judge has found the accused guilty and rendered a punishment.
McCaskill plans to introduce legislation that would change the Uniform Code of Military Justice by preventing a convening authority from overturning a decision reached by a jury. The legislation also would require the convening authority to issue a written justification for any action.
"This is not a crime that we're going to train our way out of," said McCaskill, who emphasized the need for the strong and effective prosecution of offenders.
Brian Lewis, a former Navy petty officer, told the subcommittee not to forget that many victims of sexual assault and harassment in the military are male. Lewis said he was raped in 2000 by a non-commissioned officer who outranked him. His commanders ordered him not to report the crime to Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Lewis said he was later misdiagnosed with having a personality disorder and he was discharged from the service in 2001.
"I carry my discharge as an official and permanent symbol of shame, on top of the trauma of the physical attack, the retaliation and its aftermath," Lewis said.
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, asked whether the culture would change if the laws were overhauled. Lewis described the limitations of military law, arguing that it was unconscionable that punishment is solely at the discretion of a single individual and the offense of sexual assault is merely a year in prison.
"The military does not value what happened to the victim," Lewis said.


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Revis happy to begin new chapter with Buccaneers
Recommended Video:
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Darrelle Revis is confident he will fully recover from a major knee injury and help transform the Tampa Bay Buccaneers into a playoff team.
The three-time All-Pro cornerback acquired from the New York Jets was formally introduced Monday as the newest member of a defense that ranked last in the NFL in pass defense in 2012.
Revis said he's going to "do my best" to play up to expectations that come with a new six-year, $96 million contract and insisted during a news conference that he holds no grudges against his old team, which was reluctant to give a player coming off surgery to repair a torn knee ligament such a commitment.
"I have nothing to prove to the New York Jets," Revis said. "I have nothing to prove to anybody."
Weeks of reports about the 27-year-old's future ended Sunday when the Jets traded Revis to the Bucs in exchange for the 13th overall pick in this week's NFL draft and another selection next year.
The star cornerback also agreed to what Revis conceded is a "unique" contract that includes no guaranteed money.
"The contract will take care of itself," he said. "I've just got to go out and play."
The Buccaneers not only are banking on Revis to be physically ready to open the season in September against -- yes -- the Jets, but believe he's far enough long in his recovery to reasonably expect he'll be able to get on the field for the start of training camp this summer.
"We did our due diligence," general manager Mark Dominik said, "or else we wouldn't have made a deal of this magnitude."
Revis was entering the final year of a contract that would have paid him $6 million in 2013, $10 million less than he'll receive annually with Tampa Bay. His old contract also included a clause that would have prevented the Jets from using the franchise or transition tag on him next year.
So rather than risk the chance of losing Revis as a free agent in 2014 without receiving as much compensation as the cornerback would have commanded now, the Jets decided to trade him.
Tampa Bay, which was more than $32 million under the salary cap, was thought to be the most likely suitor.
"We felt it was one of those win-win situations for both organizations," Dominik said.
Nevertheless, talks between the Bucs GM and new Jets general manager John Idzik dragged on for a couple of months. Negotiations heated up when Tampa Bay insisted a deal be in place a minimum of a week before the start of the draft.
The teams agreed to compensation last Thursday. Dominik then received permission to contact Revis' agents to begin discussions on a long-term contract and eventually flew the cornerback to town for a physical on Sunday.
Revis said he met Idzik for the first time last week and that the Jets GM told him he wanted the cornerback to remain in New York.
Asked if he felt Idzik had been untruthful, Revis said: "Yeah. ... I felt that type of vibe."
At the same time, the seventh-year pro said he's not bitter about how his stay in New York ended. He admitted he "felt some type of way" when he learned the Jets were willing to trade him, but insisted he's not upset.
"It's over. It happens. I've got to move on. It's a new chapter in my life," Revis said. "I don't have a sour taste in my mouth. Not at all."
Instead, the cornerback said he's focused on doing everything he can to get back on the field and help his new team.
The Bucs, 7-9 a year ago, haven't made the playoffs since 2007. They haven't won a post-season game since winning their only Super Bowl title.
Revis hardly considers himself a saviour. He said he's joining a talented team with a playoff-caliber roster even without him, citing quarterback Josh Freeman, receiver Vincent Jackson and running back Doug Martin by name. Jackson and Martin made the Pro Bowl last season, and Freeman is coming off a year in which he became Tampa Bay's first 4,000-yard passer.
"I can go down the list of players we have on this team. We have some great guys. That was one of the things me and my (agents) looked at to be part of this organization. We have some guys who can already play," Revis said.
Schiano, beginning his second season, agreed.
"He doesn't have to do it alone," said Schiano, who coached against Revis when the cornerback was in college at Pittsburgh and Sciano was at Rutgers. "He has a good supporting cast."
The trade also reunites Revis with his old college coach Dave Wannstedt, now the special teams coach in Tampa Bay, and defensive backs coach Jeff Hafley, who was his position coach at Pitt.
"I'm going to do my best. That's how I work. I'm going to bring as much leadership as I can to this team," Revis said. "Our biggest goal is to win, and there's no better place to win than here."


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Dear Lifehacker, After years and years of signing up for every new webapp under the sun (most of the time using the same password), I'm afraid of becoming the next Mat Honan and getting all my data hacked into oblivion. I've changed all my important passwords, but I want to close out all of the old, forgotten accounts I never use. How can I figure out what sites have accounts open tied to my email address? Sincerely, Erasing Everything
Dear Erasing,
While there isn't one simple way to see all of the accounts you've opened over the years, there are a few things you can do to find them — but effectiveness can vary from person to person. Here's what we recommend.
Check Through Your Old Email
The best place to find services associated with your email address is, well, your email. Assuming you archive most of your mail as opposed to deleting it, you probably still have a lot of welcome emails from the services you've used over the years. Do a search for phrases like:
- "Confirm your email"
- "Your new account"
- "Welcome to"
- and even "Unsubscribe"
Be sure to search all your email addresses, not just the one you use now. This could help you find quite a few old services you've forgotten about. You also may find that you get emails from those old services from time to time, which will help weed out any few that you might not have records of on hand.
Search for Old Passwords
Next, if you ever save your passwords in a password manager (or your browser), searching through those can help you find other accounts you've forgotten about. Look inside any current and old password managers you may have used, including the ones that come with your browser. Some (like LastPass) will even order them by last used, so if you just start at the bottom you're sure to find some old services you forgot about. Plus, you'll have the password handy so you can get right in and close your account!
Clear Out Permissions
A lot of services allow you to sign in with Google, Facebook, Twitter and may want access to other services you use like Flickr, Instagram or Dropbox. A good way to discover some of those older, unused services is to look through the permissions of the services you do use. A great way to do this all at once is previously mentioned MyPermissions, which shows you everything you've allowed to Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo!, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Instagram, FourSquare, Windows Live, Aol, Flickr and Familio.
What You Should Do Going Forward
Now that you've cleaned up as much as you can, you should prepare for this going forward in the future. If you're going to sign up for new services you aren't sure about (let's be honest, we all do it), make sure you archive your welcome emails instead of deleting them. This will help you find them later on and clean out any services you don't use. Alternatively, you can also sign up for new services with a variation of your Gmail address, like
[email protected]. That way, the emails still come to you, you can do a simple search in Gmail for messages sent to the +service address and clean them out.
Cheers Lifehacker


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Crossroads Int. necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 53 diseños de 23 diseñadores freelance.
Crossroads Interactive, LLC
We specialize in marketing and consulting for national and international companies. We use all forms of marketing and business development to maximize our clients traffic, sales, revenue, and return. Crossroads consist of a group of young entrepreneurs. We are looking for a logo that conveys to these business owners that we understand the world of business has changed around you, and that you don't have experience or resources to compete(Have come to your crossroads) and we can show you the way.
We want to instill a notion of representation of much like a lawyer. So our clients know that we align our interests with theirs and leave no doubt that they are in most capable and loyal hands.
National small business. Intelligent business owners not afraid to experiment, that is looking for new revenue streams to move their business online or entrepreneurs starting from scratch.
International/national retailers. Looking fro expert Etail experience to develop new business online or expand existing business.
Logo, horizontal in orientation (to be used at the top left of a website design) can include text and imagery. It can also be usable for water mark for documents, business cards, newsletters, email signatures.
-Abstract designs are welcome.
-Color or monotone is fine.
-Should be professional, intelligent, and modern/futuristic.
-Does not have to be technological or computer oriented (these themes are fine, but we like to see other things as well).
-The URL for the company is http://www.theXroadz.com. This does not have to be incorporated but can be if you think of something cool.
We will respond and comment often. We look forward to seeing your designs.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Model #MTR-604MP
|List Price:
|Our Price:
General Description
We're committed to exceeding your expectations:
- Found it for less? We'll match the price
- 25-Year or Limited Lifetime Warranty
Our customers come first — we guarantee it!
This round cafeteria table has an MDF core for extra sturdiness. ProtectEdge around the surface prevents dirt and germs from getting stuck in the table.
With a unique design that balances safety and convenience, these Folding Bench Cafeteria Tables let you get the best for your students and your space. A curved frame and well-spaced benches enable students to get in and out without tripping. The torsion bar system allows one person to easily fold and unfold the table. Automatic locking in the fully-open and fully-folded positions ensures secure placements.
With all of the tough use required in a school cafeteria, durable lunchroom tables are a must. Low maintenance laminate surfaces, a phenolic backer, a steel frame and tamper-free hardware create a robust table that can handle heavy daily use. Heavy-duty casters automatically lift off the floor when this cafeteria table is in the fully-open position.
- Manufacturer:
National Public Seating
National Public Seating manufactures a wide range of portable furniture including folding chairs and tables for a variety of purposes, moveable risers and stages for musical performances and solutions for furniture transport.
- Diameter:
- 60 in.
- Weight:
- 337.5 lbs.
- ADA Compliant:
- Optional
- Bench Core
Medium-density Fiberboard
Medium-density fiberboard (MDF) is made from wood particles and resin fused together under pressure. It is cost-effective and durable.
- Bench Height:
- 17"
- Bench Thickness:
- .75"
- Bench Width:
- 11.25"
- Bench-Top Finish:
Laminate creates a smooth, scratch-resistant surface that is easy to clean.
- Casters:
- 4" Swivel
- Folded Dimensions:
- 34"W x 72"D x 74"H
- Folding:
- Yes
- Frame Finish:
Powder Coated
Powder coat is a paint finish that is electro-statically applied to steel components leaving a highly-durable, scratch-resistant, rust-free, eco-friendly finish.
- Frame Specs:
- 14-gauge apron
- Glides:
- Tamper-proof non-marring nylon glides
- Green
- MAS Certified LEED
- Leg Specs:
- 14-gauge steel, 1.05" and 1.25"
- Locking Mechanism:
- Automatic Open and Closed
- Meets ANSI-BIFMA:
- Yes
- Overall Width:
- 82"
- Seating Capacity:
- 8
- Style:
- Cafeteria Tables
- Tabletop Core Material:
- Medium-Density Fiberboard
- Tabletop Edge:
Protect Edge
Protect edge consists of a polyurethane epoxy resin chemically bound to the edge of the laminate, core and backing sheet. This resin helps from food getting stuck in between the core and ends.
- Tabletop Support:
- 1 7/8"D, 16-gauge steel aprons
- Tabletop Surface Material:
High-Pressure Laminate
High-pressure laminate is the finish commonly found on kitchen counters (commonly known as Formica). It is extremely durable and easy to clean.
- Tabletop
- .75"
- Warranty:
- Limited Lifetime
- Certified Green
- Firm Core: Durable MDF core prevents warping in damp spaces.
- Enhanced Protection: ProtectEdge prevents food from being trapped between the laminate surface and the table edge.
- Color Options: Available in a selection of laminate hues.
- Easy Clean: Power-washable phenolic backer on tabletop adds sanitary protection.
- Secure Opening: Automatic lock ensures engagement every time table is fully opened or closed.
- Convenient Design: Table locks in the partially-folded position for easy cleaning underneath. Lock releases manually from both sides of the table.
- Sturdy Support: Tamper-free hardware, a 14-gauge steel apron under the tabletop, 16-gauge steel aprons under benches and steel legs ensure strength.
- Safe Frame: A curved-frame design and generous spacing between benches prevent tripping to ensure safer entry.
- Reliable Positioning: Casters lift off floor when table is in open position to prevent movement.
- No Tripping: Lifted casters do not stick out beyond the stools, preventing tripping.
- One-Person Lift: Torsion bar system requires only one person to fold and unfold the table.
- Smooth Rolling: Rolls on heavy-duty, extra-wide 4" non-marring casters. Each caster can support up to 275 pounds.
- Height Selection: Comes in standard 29" height as well as 25", 27" and 32".
- Lifetime Coverage: Our Limited Lifetime Warranty guarantees many years of use and enjoyment.
This product has been tested by an independent testing laboratory to establish that it confirms with the ANSI/BIFMA Safety and Performance Standards. This means it is safe, durable and adequate for use in a commercial environment.
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Sura 5, "The Table," dates from the Medinan period (as do suras 2-4). Verses 1-11 exhort Muslims to obey Allah's commands regarding food, religious observances, and sexual morality. V. 5 permits Muslim men to marry not only "chaste women who are believers, but chaste women among the People of the Book." However, nothing is said of Muslim women being permitted to marry non-Muslim men, and indeed, this is prohibited in Islamic law. This is part of the subjugated status of the dhimmis, the "protected people," in Islam: since traditionally a man takes his wife into his own household, but not vice versa, the prohibition of Muslim women marrying non-Muslim men, but the allowance of Muslim men marrying non-Muslim women, means that the Islamic community will be in a position always to grow, while the non-Muslim community declines.
Verses 12-26 return to castigating the Jews and Christians. Allah, we're told, "did aforetime take a covenant from the Children of Israel" (v. 12), but the Jews broke it. And so they are now cursed by Allah, for they have altered the divine revelations they received, and also because they are deceitful; nonetheless, the Muslims are told here to "forgive them, and overlook (their misdeeds): for Allah loveth those who are kind" (v. 13). According to Allusi in his Ruhul Ma'ani, this forgiveness should be extended only to those Jews who become Muslims or agree to pay the jizya and accept subservient dhimmi status in accord with 9:29. Tabari, on the other hand, suggests that v. 13 was abrogated by the commands to wage jihad against the unbelievers that came later in Muhammad's career.
The Christians, meanwhile, "forgot a part of that whereof they were admonished," so Allah "stirred up enmity and hatred among them till the Day of Resurrection" (v. 14). Thus as far as the Qur'an is concerned, the divisions among Christians demonstrate the falsity of the religion – a proposition for which Jesus stated the obverse: "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). Says Ibn Kathir, "Indeed, the numerous Christian sects have always been enemies and adversaries of each other, accusing each other of heresy and cursing each other….Each sect among them will continue to accuse the other of disbelief and heresy in this life and on the Day when the Witnesses will come forth." The Jews and Christians should accept Islam (v. 15).
The Qur'an in several places presents itself as the arbiter between these warring sects, clearing up disputed questions. Thus when asserting that Jesus was not crucified, but someone who looked like him was crucified in his stead (a position held by some Gnostic Christian sects), Allah says "those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain" (4:157). And here the Qur'an declares that those Christians who believe that "Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary" are "unbelievers." Abdullah Yusuf Ali's translation says that those who believe this are "in blasphemy," but the Arabic word used here is kafara, (كَفَرَ), is a form of kufr, unbelief. Of course, in Islam there is a fine line between unbelief and blasphemy in any case, but the passage does refer to unbelief, not blasphemy. It is noteworthy that Islamic spokesmen in the West frequently assert that the Qur'an never refers to Christians as infidels or unbelievers, when in fact this verse is quite clear that those who believe in the divinity of Christ are unbelievers indeed. To those Jews and Christians who claim to be God's children, Muhammad is directed to retort, "Why then doth He punish you for your sins?" (v. 18).
Verses 27-34 retell the story of Cain and Abel, culminating in one of the most oft-quoted verses of the Qur'an, the one that President Bush refers to most frequently: v. 32, which contains the admonition that some who kills a human being, "unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land, it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people." Sa'id bin Jubayr explains 5:32 this way: "He who allows himself to shed the blood of a Muslim, is like he who allows shedding the blood of all people. He who forbids shedding the blood of one Muslim, is like he who forbids shedding the blood of all people."
Never mentioned by the President or any of the others who quote this verse as if it condemns Islamic jihadist violence are several important facts: it comes within the context of a warning to the Jews, and is not presented as a universal principle; it contains the important exception "unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land," and it is followed by v. 33, which specifies the punishment for that mischief: "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter."
Thus this passage is explaining what must be done with Jews who reject Muhammad, not dictating lofty moral principles. Ibn Warraq sums it up: "The supposedly noble sentiments are in fact a warning to Jews. 'Behave, or else' is the message. Far from abjuring violence, these verses aggressively point out that anyone opposing the Prophet will be killed, crucified, mutilated, and banished!"
Verses 35-40 warn again of hellfire and prescribe amputation of a hand for theft (v. 38). Said Muhammad: "Let there be the curse of Allah upon the thief who steals an egg and his hand is cut off, and steals a rope and his hand is cut off."
In verses 41-60, Allah consoles Muhammad for the Jews' and Christians' rejection of him, and he and his message are again presented as the crown and completion of the messages brought to them by their prophets. But the Christians are told to "judge by what Allah hath revealed therein" (v. 47), which seems to suggest that Muhammad was assuming that the Christian Scriptures were not corrupted in his day, although today it is common Islamic teaching that the New Testament as we have it is not the original, but has been altered by wicked Christians to reflect their false doctrines. Thus Muslims are not to befriend Jews and Christians (v. 51); Ibn Kathir explains: "Allah forbids His believing servants from having Jews and Christians as friends, because they are the enemies of Islam and its people, may Allah curse them." Verses 52-60 continue in this vein, excoriating the hypocrites and the People of the Book (most of whom are "rebellious and disobedient" – v. 59), reminding them that some of "those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath" were "transformed into apes and swine" (v. 60).
Next week: The curse that came to the Jews for saying, "Allah's hand is tied up."
(Here you can find links to all the earlier "Blogging the Qur'an" segments. Here is a good Arabic/English Qur'an, here are two popular Muslim translations, those of Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, along with a third by M. H. Shakir. Here is another popular translation, that of Muhammad Asad. And here is an omnibus of ten Qur'an translations.)


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Excerpt from Spotlight on Young Children: Exploring Science
by Peggy Ashbrook and Ingrid Chalufour
For all ages it is important for the teacher to encourage and support problem solving. The following classroom vignette illustrates both the content and process of science, as well as the essential relationship between experience and conversation.
Maria and Akil are busy at the water table. They try using a piece of clear tubing to move water from the water table to a plastic tub two feet away. The children experiment by adding water into the tube with a baster, a squirt bottle, and a funnel. They observe carefully, comparing how far each tool moves the water.
This class of 4-year-olds has been working with these materials for a few weeks, using forces—air pressure, water pressure, and gravity—to move water down, up, and sideways. Today they are investigating a question that grew out of their inquiry. How much and what kind of force will move water a longer distance? The teacher guides their preparation for this investigation by talking with them about what they want to try, how they might proceed, and what they think will happen. After trying each method, they draw a picture showing the results. The children will use their drawings to share their experiences and findings with the class.
With the purpose of gaining a better understanding of how forces move water, the children are posing questions, using tools, working collaboratively, making plans, predicting outcomes, observing closely, documenting results, and talking about their findings. They are using inquiry skills —and science and engineering practices—that they have learned in their preschool classroom. Through many experiences and conversations over weeks and months, Maria, Akil, and their classmates develop and refine their ideas about how force moves water. Guided by their teacher's open-ended questions, the children share their observations as evidence that supports their evolving ideas.
In the vignette, the content of the children's investigations includes some of the big ideas in physical science. Water, a liquid, is a form of matter that has characteristics that can be observed and described. These characteristics, along with forces that act on water, influence how water behaves in different circumstances. The children are deeply engaged in the process of inquiry, an evidence-based approach to studying the natural world that scientists use to explain the hows and whys of the world. Both content and process are essential aspects of children's science learning.
One-time activities—a single exploration of materials or a demonstration by the teacher—have serious limitations. They deprive children of opportunities to actively engage in scientific inquiry and to collect and compare many related experiences over time in pursuit of new explanations or ideas. Not only do children learn science best through long-term investigations focusing on physical, life, earth, and other sciences, but when inquiry is a central focus of the curriculum, they learn literacy skills, social skills, and mathematics as well. Inquiry requires learners to use language to build a specialized vocabulary, talk about their experiences, and record their observations and ideas. Maria and Akil practice language and literacy skills as they design and document their investigation. Comparing the flow of water through their tube, they use mathematics to measure the distances. And they are working together on a common goal, which helps build social competence.
From Spotlight on Young Children: Exploring Science, edited by A. Shillady. Copyright © 2013 National Association for the Education of Young Children.


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Thread: In Defense of "The Rich"
Results 1 to 1 of 1
#1 In Defense of "The Rich"10-09-2008, 11:02 AM
This is informative, most people do not know who pays the majority of taxes and who pays none!
The Rich
So, what do "the rich" pay in federal income taxes? Nothing, right? That, at least, is what most people think. And Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wants to raise the top marginal rate for "the rich" -- known in some quarters as "job creators."
A recent poll commissioned by Investor's Business Daily asked, in effect, "What share do you think the rich pay?" Their findings? Most people are completely clueless about the amount the rich actually do pay.
First, the data. The top 5 percent (those making more than $153,542 -- the group whose taxes Obama seeks to raise) pay 60 percent of all federal income taxes. The rich (aka the top 1 percent of income earners, those making more than $388,806 a year), according to the IRS, pay 40 percent of all federal income taxes. The top 1 percent's taxes comprise 17 percent of the federal government's revenue from all sources, including corporate taxes, excise taxes, social insurance and retirement receipts.
Now, what do people think the rich pay? The IBD/TIPP poll found that 36 percent of those polled thought the rich contribute 10 percent or less of all federal income taxes. Another 15 percent thought the rich pay between 10 and 20 percent, while another 10 percent thought the rich's share is between 20 and 30 percent. In other words, most people thought the rich pay less -- far less -- than they actually do. Only 12 percent of those polled thought the rich pay more than 40 percent.
Let's try this another way. A U.S. News & World Report blogger went to the Democratic National Convention in Denver and conducted an informal poll of 24 DNC delegates. He asked them, "What should 'the rich' pay in income taxes?" Half the respondents said "25 percent"; 25 percent said "20 percent"; 12 percent said "30 percent"; and another 12 percent said "35 percent." The average DNC delegate wanted the rich to pay 25.6 percent, which is lower than what the rich pay now -- both by share of taxes and by tax rate!
Thirty percent of American voters pay nothing -- zero, zip, nada -- in federal income taxes. And, not too surprisingly, compared with taxpaying voters, they are more likely to support spending that benefits them. The majority of the 30 percent who don't pay federal income taxes agree with Obama's $65 billion plan to institute taxpayer-funded universal health coverage. But the majority of the 70 percent who pay federal income taxes are opposed to Obama's health care plan.
Non-taxpayers support Obama's plans for increased tax deductions for lower-income Americans, along with higher overall tax rates levied against middle- and upper-income households. The majority of non-taxpayers (57 percent) also favor raising the individual income-tax rate for those in the highest bracket from 35 percent to 54 percent. And the majority (59 percent) favors raising Social Security taxes by 4 percent for any individual or business that makes at least $250,000.
Obama calls increasing taxes and giving them to the needy a matter of "neighborliness." Vice presidential running mate Joe Biden calls it a matter of "patriotism."
:Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
I wondered why the rock was getting larger. Then it hit me.
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sai.2012 wrote:Actually i know only basics,suddenly my manager asked me to do this, i don't know wht to do.
sai.2012 wrote:I am new to sharepoint,i have created documentset and i have added few documents, if i change the status of the document to 'xxx',then i need to create copy of that documentset.(ex:original documentset name is test,after changing the status i have to create test_review.
eparcey wrote:so we have the same credentials, OS, security settings
ihoecken wrote:I'm not shure if you are right in this point, as it's sound that there are not the same settings. This would be the first point to check: are they really same?
Are you using IE? Are the setting the same? Have you included the pages to secure pages?
ihoecken wrote:Do you use Kerberos?
eparcey wrote:And no, we don't use Kerberos.
eparcey wrote:We've reconfigured to use Kerberos and we've noticed no change.
eparcey wrote:It has to be the firewall or VPN; we're running out of other options!
I will keep you posted.
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Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.


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Yolo CountyHome Sitemap Contact
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Woodland, CA 95695
Phone: (530) 666-8042
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Yolo County Receives Recognitions for Use of Green Power
(Woodland, CA) – Yolo County will be recognized next week at the Green California Summit with a Green California Leadership Award for 5.8 megawatts of ground-mounted, high-efficiency SunPower solar power systems installed at two county-owned sites in 2013, which at current utility rates, are eliminating the county's annual $1.4 million electricity bill and generating $438,000 in annual revenues. The Green California Leadership Awards were established to recognize outstanding environmental achievements in governments who undertake publicly financed and executed projects that provide a measurable benefit to the natural or human environment.
"These solar installations required no upfront capital investment and, not only do they deliver significant savings by eliminating our electricity expense, they also generate 152 percent more electricity than county operations use," said Terry Vernon, Yolo County General Services Department deputy director. "Also, as part of our partnership with SunPower, we have established an energy academy for K-12 students that provides our young people with educational opportunities in environmental science, renewable energy technology and energy auditing."
The projects include one array built at the corner of West Beamer and Cottonwood streets in Woodland and one at Grassland Regional Park in Davis. The two new systems are owned by the county and were purchased through low-interest public financing. SunPower also built the county's first solar power system in 2010, a 1-megawatt, ground-mounted system at the justice center in Woodland.
"Yolo County has demonstrated leadership and vision with this replicable model that is delivering significant savings and will produce clean, reliable energy for years to come," said Howard Wenger, SunPower president, regions. "SunPower congratulates Yolo County for this well-deserved award and we are proud to be its solar partner."
Earlier this year, Yolo County was also awarded membership into the 2014 EPA Green Power Leadership club. According to formulas provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Yolo County's new systems are avoiding 5,600 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, equivalent to the emissions displaced by removing over 26,000 cars from California's roads over the first 25 years of the systems' operation. Yolo County joins an elite group of Green Power Partners who are demonstrating exemplary environmental leadership.
About SunPower: SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) designs, manufactures and delivers the highest efficiency, highest reliability solar panels and systems available today. Residential, business, government and utility customers rely on the company's quarter century of experience and guaranteed performance to provide maximum return on investment throughout the life of the solar system. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., SunPower has offices in North America, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia. For more information, visit www.sunpower.com.
About the Green California Summit: The 2014 Green California Summit will take place at the Sacramento Convention Center, April 8-9. Now in its eighth year, this unique summit, focusing on public sector sustainability, will highlight the wide range of policies, programs, strategies and technologies that are being implemented to preserve the natural resources of the Golden State.
About EPA Green Power Partnership: As a result of buying green power, EPA Green Power Partners are helping support the development of new renewable generation capacity nationwide while also helping protect the environment. Green Power Partners who purchase a higher percentage of green power than required to become a Partner may be eligible for the Green Power Leadership Club.


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International Exchange
Ala -Too International University (AIU) maintains contact with many higher educational institutions and scientific organizations of foreign countries. The University's permanent partners are the leading universities of the USA, Italy, Kazakhstan, China, South Korea, Poland, Malaysia and many other countries. The University conducts educational, scientific, cultural activities with 82 universities in the near and far abroad. Among them, we actively cooperate with 46 universities, cooperation was terminated with the rest 36 universities because of the expiry of the contracts and some universities were closed.
Teachers from the USA, China, Malaysia and other partner countries are invited annually to read the lectures, special courses and just for teaching. In turn, teachers and students pass language and scientific-pedagogical internships and improve their qualifications in foreign countries.
In recent years, international mobility of our university students and teachers has increased. In 2008-2017 years, 190 students and 63 teachers have been sent to foreign universities within the framework of exchange programs.
In the MUA in the 2014-2017 academic year, foreign students number about 120 people (China, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Germany, South Korea, Nigeria, Pakistan, etc.).
Since 2015, Office of International Relation has been actively involved in the implementation of the Erasmus Munduz exchange program in higher education. The program provides an opportunity for students and teachers to study free at European universities with a monthly scholarship payment.