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VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California — A rocket carrying a N
NASA satellite lit up the pre-dawn skies Wednesday on a mission to track atmospheric carbon dioxide, the chief culprit behind global warming.
The Delta 2 rocket blasted off from California at 2:56 a.m. and released the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite in low-Earth orbit 56 minutes later, bringing relief to mission officials who lost a similar spacecraft five years ago.
The flight was "a perfect ride into space," said Ralph Basilio, the OCO-2 project manager, at a post-launch press conference.
Power-supplying solar arrays deployed, initial checks showed the spacecraft was healthy and two-way communications were established, he said.
The launch was delayed a day because of a failure in ground equipment 46 seconds before liftoff Tuesday morning.
NASA tried in 2009 to launch a satellite dedicated to studying carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas caused by the burning of fossil fuels. A satellite plunged into the ocean off Antarctica after a hardware failure with the Taurus XL rocket.
After the loss, NASA spent several years and millions of dollars building a near-identical twin.
Mike Miller, a senior vice president with satellite builder Orbital Sciences Corp. who has been with the program since its earliest days, said he was among those devastated by the first failure.
"It was very much like losing a close family friend or member ... so we're very happy to see this new day," Miller said.
Like the original, OCO-2 was designed to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide from 438 miles above the Earth's surface. Its polar orbit will allow it to cover about 80 percent of the globe.
About 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide are released yearly from factories and cars. About half of the greenhouse gas is trapped in the atmosphere, while the rest is sucked up by trees and oceans.
The goal of the $468 million mission, designed to last at least two years, is to study the processes behind how the environment absorbs carbon dioxide.
NASA spent more money on the new mission, mainly because it is using a more expensive rocket. Engineers also had to replace obsolete satellite parts, which drove up the price tag.
"Seldom do we get a second chance to be able to do a mission like this but because of the importance of the mission to the nation we've been given this second chance to do the OCO-2 mission," said Geoff Yoder, a deputy associate administrator from NASA headquarters.
The satellite is approximately the size of a telephone booth, with solar arrays spanning about 30 feet. The launch placed it into an initial orbit 429 miles high.
Completing spacecraft system checks will take about two weeks and then OCO-2 will be moved higher during a span of several weeks into its operational orbit, joining a loose formation of other Earth-observing satellites informally called "the A-train," said Basilio, the project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
There will then be a period of instrument checks to ensure the validity of observations.
Production of science data is expected early next year, he said.


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I am trying to come up with an web interface that allows the addition of an item to a list. For simplicity I'll use an example of a list of names which, when selected will be assigned to a club/group.
I originally thought of a drop-down list containing all the names. However if you have a lot of them it can be a pain to go all the way though the list. So then I thought of an auto complete text box which will auto-predict as they type, problems with this would be speculative browsing though the list and the ability to type names which are not in the database.
I wondered two things; Is it a good idea and can you think of a technique that would intersect both UI elements? Perhaps an example of recommendation of something similar that is used?

subset: commoncrawl


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Olympia Snowe on Civil RightsRepublican Sr Senator (ME) | |
- the flag of the US is a unique symbol of national unity...
- the Bill of Rights should not be amended in a manner that could be interpreted to restrict freedom...
- abuse of the flag causes more than pain and distress... and may amount to fighting words...
- destruction of the flag of the US can be intended to incite a violent response rather than make a political statement and such conduct is outside the protections afforded by the first amendment to the Constitution.
Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.
The amendment is about how we are going to raise the next generation. It is not an issue that the courts should resolve. Those of us who support this amendment are doing so in an effort to let the people decide.
Supporters rail against activist judges. But if this vaguely worded amendment ever passes, it will result in substantial litigation. What are the legal incidents of marriage? Is a civil union a marriage?
Supports granting Congress power to prohibit the physical desecration of the U.S. flag. Proposes an amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorizing the Congress to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.
H.R. 914/S. 872 the ADA Notification Act.
Republican Main Street Partnership Congressman Mark Foley (FL) introduced this legislation to protect the Americans with Disabilities Act from a growing number of lawyers who are generating huge sums in legal fees for pointing out accessibility violations by business when often simple fixes would bring properties into compliance with the ADA's accessibility standards. This variety of litigation abuse stems from the lack of any notification provision in the ADA. RMSP supports a 90-day delay between notification of an alleged accessibility violation and any legal proceedings. This notification will allow honest business owners to become ADA compliant without added legal expense while freeing up the courts to pursue legal action against bad players.
H.R. 2341/S. 1712 Class Action Fairness Act.
Class Action suits, most often claiming product defects, have increasingly become fertile ground for unscrupulous trial attorneys. Using jurisdictional loopholes, trial lawyers are suing for enormous sums with little or no payout to injured parties. Multi-million dollar interstate lawsuits filed on behalf of irrelevant plaintiffs, often unaware that a claim has been filed, are filed in state courts. This increases the volume of claims filed, and leads to multiple, expensive, settlements. H.R. 2341, supported by Republican Main Street Partnership Reps. Judy Biggert (IL), Tom Davis (VA), Porter Goss (FL), Melissa Hart (PA), George Nethercutt (WA), and Rob Simmons (CT), eases the burden of addressing interstate claims in federal court. At the federal level, courts have greater resources and uniform rules. This provides a more appropriate venue for such cases and protects legitimate claimants ability to recover losses.
Our ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization's preferred position.
OnTheIssues.org interprets the 2005-2006 HRC scores as follows:
The Human Rights Campaign represents a grassroots force of more than 700,000 members and supporters nationwide. As the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, HRC envisions an America where GLBT people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.
Ever since its founding in 1980, HRC has led the way in promoting fairness for GLBT Americans. HRC is a bipartisan organization that works to advance equality based on sexual orientation and gender expression and identity.
OnTheIssues.org interprets the 2005-2006 NAACP scores as follows:
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has worked over the years to support and promote our country's civil rights agenda. Since its founding in 1909, the NAACP has worked tirelessly to end racial discrimination while also ensuring the political, social, and economic equality of all people. The Association will continue this mission through its policy initiatives and advocacy programs at the local, state, and national levels. From the ballot box to the classroom, the dedicated workers, organizers, and leaders who forged this great organization and maintain its status as a champion of social justice, fought long and hard to ensure that the voices of African Americans would be heard. For nearly one hundred years, it has been the talent and tenacity of NAACP members that has saved lives and changed many negative aspects of American society.
Prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity by covered entities (employers, employment agencies, labor organizations, or joint labor-management committees). Prohibits preferential treatment or quotas. Allows only disparate treatment claims. Prohibits related retaliation.
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorizing the Congress to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission by the Congress:
Article--'The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.'


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IBM forms Watson Business Group: Will commercialization follow?
IBM on Thursday outlined plans to form the Watson Business Group, a division aimed making its Jeopardy winning cognitive computing application more of a commercial success.
At an event in New York Thursday, IBM CEO Ginny Rometty and executives will outline the master plan for Watson. Like IBM's push into analytics, cloud and mobile commerce, the Watson Business Group will get similar investment. Big Blue said it will invest $1 billion into the Watson division including $100 million to fund startups developing cognitive apps.
Read: IBM Watson: How the Jeopardy-winning supercomputer was born, and what it wants to do next
IBM said the Watson division, based in New York City's Silicon Alley, will have about 2,000 employees focused on software, services, research, experts and sales people. IBM's Watson commercialization efforts have reportedly struggled and account for only $100 million in revenue over the last three years, according to a transcript obtained by the Wall Street Journal.
Watson has initially been focused on healthcare, but also has applications in insurance, financial services and other verticals. The biggest challenges to date for Watson have revolved around implementation and tailoring its artificial intelligence for new industries.
IBM plans to speed up Watson usage by turning it into a cloud service that can be used in the pharmaceutical, retail, banking, media and education industries. The idea is that Watson can be a natural language tool for research and development and an advisor in various industries.
Big Data Special Report
The Watson division will be led by Michael Rhodin, former senior vice president of IBM's software solutions group, which includes analytics, smarter cities and social business.
Specifically, IBM is launching the following Watson cloud services:
- IBM Watson Discovery Advisor is aimed at pharmaceutical, publishing and education research. The promise here is that Watson will wade through search results to deliver data and context faster for researchers.
- IBM Watson Analytics Advisor is designed to be used by enterprises to send questions and raw data sets to Watson and allow the system to deliver insight.
It's not like Watson has been a complete non-starter---pilots in Memorial Sloan Kettering, Wellpoint and Cleveland Clinic are promising---but commercialization efforts needed more structure. A new unit will provide the IBM support---software, research, hardware and services---that Watson will need to be fully commercialized.
The Watson Business Group will break down into four groups:
- One focused on research and development on cognitive computing.
- Another aimed at applying Watson to new industries to "disrupt and transform how business is done."
- An implementation group to ensure Watson has services support to keep customers satisfied.
- An engagement team to sell and market Watson.


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Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Associated Press
PARIS (AP) - Actor Gerard Depardieu denied in an interview aired Monday that he accepted a Russian passport to escape the taxman in France, and said that while he may also seek Belgian nationality, he is still French.
Depardieu's first public remarks since acquiring a Russian passport on Saturday suggest that his threat last month to turn in his French passport was a bluff, or the indignant reaction of a wounded man.
"I have a Russian passport, but I remain French and I will probably have dual Belgian nationality," he said in the interview with the sports channel L'Equipe21. "But if I'd wanted to escape the taxman, as the French press says, I would have done it a long time ago."
Depardieu, 64, is one of France's best known actors, has appeared in more than 150 films and has an international following. He has been at the center of a heated debate over tax exiles as France's Socialist government looks to fill state coffers with a hefty tax on the rich. Depardieu drew scorn and insults with his recent decision to move to neighboring Belgium, where taxes are less steep for the well-off.
After Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called him "pathetic" and "unpatriotic," Depardieu penned an open letter in mid-December saying he was handing in his passport and social security card. Then, over the weekend, Depardieu showed up in Russia to accept a passport delivered personally by President Vladimir Putin.
Depardieu spoke to the sports channel from Zurich, Switzerland, on the sidelines of a soccer awards ceremony. Referring to tax exiles, Depardieu said that some high-profile rich in the entertainment industry had left France two decades ago.
Depardieu has a court date Tuesday in Paris, where he is expected to agree to a plea bargain in a case of alleged drunken driving. The burly actor was arrested after falling off his motorcycle in November and failing a sobriety test.
Elisabeth Depardieu, the actor's ex-wife, said in an interview on Monday with RTL radio that her former spouse is by nature very emotional.
"When he feels refused, he becomes provocative," she said. "Should we throw stones? He is a monument. He is a poet."
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Women's rights are human rights, and human rights are women's rights.
It sounds simple, but it's a point that needs underscoring, and was a key message driven home by a panel of women judges and experts brought together Friday to culminate the Virtue Foundation Senior Roundtable on Women and the Judiciary in Washington, D.C.
The two-day event at the Supreme Court and the State Department was kicked off by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan and convened judges from around the world to discuss ways to further women's rights worldwide.
Friday's final event, presented by Newsweek and The Daily Beast's Women in the World salon series, focused on Africa and finding ways to get more African women into positions of judicial power.
Why? Well, for several reasons.
Panel member Dr. Ebby Elahi, a surgeon and associate clinical professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, stressed the importance of educating girls. Once they reach positions of power, he said "it's almost Darwinian in that they not only have the skill sets of men but additional ones" just by virtue of their struggle to succeed. Elahi has worked extensively in Mongolia, Burundi, Ghana, and other countries where he has also learned another very important lesson: "Women tend to be less corrupt."
And, he points out, "You want to work in places where work gets done."
Kakenya Ntaiya, however, knows what it takes for a woman to get ahead in Africa, and the price is often steep. She was engaged at the age of 5 and destined for ritual circumcision and early marriage in Kenya. She made a deal with her father: She would endure the surgery if he let her finish high school. Later she negotiated another deal with her village elders to leave her Maasai village and go to college in the U.S. Now 32, Ntaiya has opened the Kakenya Center for Excellence, a girl's school in her village that has seen enrollment more than double since it opened in 2009 with 32 girls. Speaking Friday, she told moderator Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC, how her childhood helped her shape the lives of others.
"Genital mutilation, for example, is not a just a medical problem but a legal problem."
Her father abused her mother, said Ntaiya "but my mother was very inspirational to me" and supported her in her dream to become a teacher. Her dream came at the price of circumcision, but now that she is familiar with Kenyan laws, she is in a position to help others who were not as fortunate as herself or her mother. One of her students recently told a teacher she didn't want to be cut, but that her parents were preparing for the ritual. Understanding their legal recourse and their need as a school to follow the law (in Kenya ritual circumcision of girls is outlawed), Ntaiya's school got the ministry of education and the village chief to intervene and stop the procedure.
Mitchell asked how the judiciary could better reach rural areas. Ntaiya pointed out that in Kenya, for example, laws and rules in fact "are already there" but like many others with fates similar to hers, "I didn't have access to them. The laws are in Nairobi, not in the villages." She recommended training local chiefs and elders in the legal advances that have been implemented in cities and how to enforce them in rural settings.
Chief Justise Georgina Theodora Wood of Ghana's supreme court also weighed in on how to get laws put into action, arguing that legal authorities in Africa often put too much weight on what she called "black letter law" and not on the spirit of the law. In other words, she later explained to The Daily Beast, judges and citizens too often accept "that what is written in black and white is the law," going by the book without actually looking to understand the meaning and intent of the law. For example, she points to a recent case in which extended family members of a man who had died argued that because his home was unfinished, it did not count as marital property. "But the intent of the law was to give a good beginning to a surviving wife," says Wood. Had she only followed "black letter law," the wife would have lost her home.
The smallest changes can have large effects. The Honorable Judge Ann Claire Williams, the first judge of color appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, has traveled to Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, and other African countries to train judges and lawyers. She told the group that it is women in those countries, more and more of whom are joining the judiciary, who are making gains large and small for legal progress. Williams gave an example of how judges in Liberia were working to be more efficient at hearing rape cases. A female judge in rural Liberia said she had to close her day at 4 p.m. in order to make it home safely, because there was no electricity in her courthouse. With full access to electricity, "In the U.S. I can take my files home if I need to," says Williams. But the Liberian judge chose to solve things differently. "She said, 'I want to hold court starting at 8 a.m. to get more testimony in.'"
Dr. Elahi argued that the lack of access to the law also hinders medical efforts in rural areas. "One of the main challenges we face in health care is that we can do great things with surgery but what's the point if a person has no recourse to the law? Genital mutilation, for example, is not a just a medical problem but a legal problem." Failure to holistically approach Africa's problems, he warns, will lead to "patchwork" solutions.
Ghana's Chief Justice Wood agreed, laying out her personal vision for a "one-stop shop for women" in Ghana in which they could obtain everything from legal help to microfinancing and reproductive-health advice. Ghana may be the right place for such a pilot project. Dr. Elahi, who is also director of the Center for Innovation and Philanthropy in Ghana, says he has worked in other countries "that were not at the stage where they could really take off. Ghana is politically stable and ready for this kind of work."
That work, according to those gathered who know and love Africa, consists of finding ways to get the laws of the cities into villages and encouraging judges, as Williams puts it, "to go beyond the robe" in deciding cases and reaching out to communities. And last but not least, of course, to get more women in those robes.
Eve Conant is a Newsweek staff reporter covering immigration, politics, social and culture issues.


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Our efforts are directed towards assisting our clients in creating a dominant web presence backed with robust software. Websites that we develop are right blend of creativity, modern design, latest web standards, secure codes and Search Engine friendly web-pages.
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To achieve this, we have a team of expert Ecommerce developers skilled with modern tools and techniques having expertise knowledge in the following.
Shaping Cart
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Here's a thoughtful young lady in about 1912; in need of support, as her little legs probably grew tired waiting for the photographer to frame his shot. I wonder if there were any impatient sighs. Her hair is short as she's only about two and a half, but look at that charming 'kiss-curl' in the middle of her forehead. She's wearing a simple linen dress, appropriate for a toddler at that time, but a pretty little crocheted collar to take away the plainness. I wonder what colour her boots were, probably a soft brown leather. Who is this little charmer? It's my late mother-in-law, Mary, in one of a handful of infant pictures we have of her.
Here she is a few years later, as a young woman. She's aged about seventeen, in the first one, but perhaps a little more mature in the one on the right. It looks as though she still needs support and it would appear that she is leaning on the same small table. She was always an elegant lady and before her marriage she was a fashion buyer for a large department store in Manchester; her sense of style is evident here. By now she would have learned to curb any irritation with the photographer and she is confident and relaxed. It doesn't mean that a small sigh did not escape her lips at some point however.
Our Sepia Saturday prompt this week is of a thoughtful young lady, also clearly in need of support, as she leans on a faux mantelshelf. Perhaps it was the weight of all that hair that was too much for her! It reminds me of the quote from Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet':
"See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!"
Says Romeo as he gazes up at his love on the balcony. Juliet of course is lost in thought and sighs:
"Ay me."
Grace Sutherland, here in the original cdv (1890) from which the prompt picture was taken, may well have been sighing "Ay me" herself. She was one of The Seven Sutherland Sisters, who lead an amazing life. You can read more in this Collectors Weekly article, where you can see more thoughtful poses and young ladies, leaning on a variety of objects.
Join other Sepians this week as they comb through their collections in search of the perfect match for the prompt


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The Apr. 19-20 conference will explore the fate of economic governance, the growing diversity within European societies, and relations of Europe to other parts of the world.
At the peak of the Eurozone crisis in fall of 2011, German Chancellor Angela Merkel contended that "if the Euro fails, Europe fails." Diverging national interests and diverse concepts in solving the current crisis challenge the future of the European project. What is the significance of the crisis for the process of European integration? How can Europe best cope with the crisis?
On April 19-20, speakers from both sides of the Atlantic will address key features of the current crisis and discuss future challenges as Deutsches Haus at New York University presents the Max Weber Chair Conference 2012, "Confronting the Global Crisis: The Role of Europe." The two-day event will be held at Deutsches Haus, located at 42 Washington Mews (at the corner of University Place), New York, N.Y. It begins on Thursday, April 19, at 6 p.m., and resumes on Friday, April 20 starting at 10 a.m.
The conference, which will explore key issues such as the fate of economic governance, the growing diversity within European societies, and relations of Europe to other parts of the world, opens with an address by the EU ambassador to the United Nations, Thomas Mayr-Harting, followed by a keynote speech by historian Charles S. Maier. Panels will address transnational governance (Peter A. Hall, Damian Chalmers), diversity in societies (Erik Bleich, Martin Schain), and external relations (Jutta Joachim, Holger Moroff).
The Max Weber Chair Conference 2012 is made possible by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies (C.E.M.S.) and DeutschesHaus at New York University. Attendance is free. For further details, please send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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How Would You Help a Spiritually Stagnant Church?
How would you help a spiritually stagnant church?
I would begin by preaching the gospel and displaying the infinite and all-satisfying worth of God. In other words, I wouldn't start at the symptom. Absence of love is a symptom of the absence of faith. And absence of faith is a symptom of the absence of seeing the beauty of God. It's the absence of truth.
You need to start at the bottom and just celebrate the glory of God—especially near the cross, because these people are going to need forgiveness. After that you move on to seeing the beauty of the cross. Then you work on being satisfied with and savoring the beauty of the cross. Finally you come to all of the fruits that begin to grow out of a happy church.
My goal in fixing the love problem is to fix the prior-satisfaction problem. The reason people aren't loving each other is because they think that satisfaction is found only in having the last word in arguments, revenge, or personal securities (which keep them people getting out of their comfort zone in order to bless other people). But all such satisfactions are lies of sin. They lie and say that more satisfaction is to be found in unloving ways than by going back to Jesus, finding complete satisfaction in him, and letting that spill over onto others, even if it costs you something.
You must start with what will make people happy in God, namely, a display of the beauty and the glory of God.


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Great tips and pointers. I will surely make use of them. Catherine, keep up the good work and keep blogging.
Finding employment is often a turning point in anyone's life. Most times, this may require making some hard decisions about ourselves and what we want to do. This is not easy and often most job seekers need some help with the process. The most important factor in securing your next job is to be sure of your capabilities and what you want.
To help you find the job you are looking for; it's best to follow these three steps listed below:
Step 1: Choose a Career Path
One of the best ways to get a job is to know exactly what you are interested in doing. You need to ask yourself the following questions:
The Catherine's Career Corner and some of these 100 Best Blogs for Your Job Search can help you to know more about job search, work out a career direction through a series of articles, tips, advice and activities. They all will guide you through career exploration and the planning processes.
The sites below will also let you search through databases of available jobs:
Totaljobs.com – Covers a number of job sectors. Searches can be bookmarked (results.asp) and they offer a jobs-by-email service.
Monster.co.uk – The UK arm of the large US jobsite.
Topjobs.co.uk – Medium sized job listings, URLs bookmarkable, but I don't have a current example of featured jobs by email service that unfortunately ignores keywords in the saved search.
Fish4jobs.co.uk – Features a large number of jobs and a jobs by email service. Their search engine seems to become less specific (rather than more specific) when searching for multiple keywords, which isn't very useful. The search page does not include posting dates or salary. In the past I managed to bookmark their search by decoding their search form.
Silicon.com – IT news and job listings. Includes a listing of IT recruitment companies (in the search section) and a jobs by email service.
Jobsearch.co.uk – Smallish number of jobs and a CV posting service.
Gumtree.com – Now owned by eBay.
Via these entire major career websites are tips, tools and information interview tutorial. There is also a list of the various questions you can ask when researching a career you are interested in.
CV posting sites
Some friends had recent success with calls from agencies that found their CV on a CV posting website. All the sites below allow you to upload your CV in Word format (possibly RTF). Although, you may need to refresh your CV regularly to attract a recruiter's interest.
Planetrecruit.com – Popular CV posting site.
Jobserve.com – includes a CV distribution feature.
Reed.co.uk – Includes a configurable CV posting service.
Totaljobs.com – Largish jobs site, (same database as Gojobsite).
Workthing.com – Part of the Guardian media group.
Jobs.guardian.co.uk – The Guardian newspaper's jobs section, powered by Workthing.com.
CVposter.com – Posts your CV to a number of job agencies (I have not tried this site).
Advice on company targeting
Asktheheadhunter.com features advice on applying direct, making the most of your CV and interview techniques. Ideal for those a bit shy in coming forward. The best section by far is the Articles section, which includes insights from both the job-seekers and the employee's sides.
Step 2: Securing Employment of your choice
Finding the right job may take some time; however, while you are looking for work why not make full use of the Internet and Social Media?
Register on LinkedIn, the social network site where you can connect your targeted companies. In addition, showcase your achievements and job skills story in a streamlined way and let potential employers and connections know that you are available for work.
You can also set up a Facebook account to fan, like, friend and connect with people in your field or companies that you want to work for. Talk nicely about their products, follow their news and get on their good side. If you don't have anything nice to share, then, don't share anything.
Don't forget that recruiters are all over the Internet these days looking for the best workers with the right skills and that special x-factor. So, it is important that you as a job seeker have a presence there too.
You can utilise Twitter and all that it has to offer. Know the people to follow. Below is a list of people to follow because they have their fingers on the pulse of career, job search and job vacancy tweets:
@AlisonDoyle, @CatherineAdenle, @GayleHoward, @myFootpath, @AMAnet , @TalentCulture, @phyllismufson, @OnlineResume, @PongoResume, @CareerBuilderca, and @Careertip.
Also make these hashtags your daily tags to search through on Twitter: #Jobs, #Jobseekers, #Jobsearch, #Career, #Resume, #CV, #Interview.
You can also subscribe to pertinent Google alerts. See how
Click on the links below for tips on how to create a great resume, cover letter and lasting impression at a job interview.
Free Resume and job CV templates
Cover letter samples and information
Job interview questions and tips
Step 3: Keeping the Job
First see the Top Ten Tips: How To Keep Your Job In Today's Economy and How To Keep Your Job
Once you've made the big transition through job searching and landed the job, the next goal is job success. There are specific skills you need to know and use in order to be successful at your job. It's important to practice these skills prior to starting the job. This isn't a complete list but will point you in the directions:
First impressions show from day one. You only get one first impression.
From day one, it's a good idea to check with your manager about what's most important. Employers say many people lose their job because they don't use good work habits and not because they are unable to do the job.
The following list of suggestions is based on feedback from a majority of surveyed employers.
See the slides below on how to be a Superstar Job Seeker
Be a Superstar Job Seeker by Catherine Adenle
Employer Expectations
• A positive attitude is one of the most important factors in achieving job success. Don't carry negative feelings into your new workplace. Resolve them elsewhere.
• How long will it take to get to work? Allow a few extra minutes for traffic problems and let your manager know beforehand if you are responsible for your children's school run in the mornings. Set an alarm clock to help you get up. Being reliable and dependable gains the trust and respect of your new employer.
• Good attendance is always important. If you're going to be unavoidably late or out sick, ask your manager the proper method of informing them.
• Know and follow all office rules, policies and procedures. Read the employee manuals. Ask your manager if there is one in place for newly recruited staff.
• Listen and learn. Be open to new ways of doing things, even if you were taught differently in school or on a different job. Don't be quick to find fault, criticise or complain until you can prove you can do something a better way.
• Meet and exceed your employer's expectations.
• When you need to talk with your manager, ask when would be a good time to meet.
• Take advantage of your performance reviews.
• Stay calm.
• Learn from them. Ask how you can improve.
• Show results or job-related classes you've taken. Most managers appreciate employees who are concerned about performance and in finding ways to improve. Your job success is also their success.
• Be a team player. Be willing to help.
• Know the goals of your job and how your job fits into the overall organization. Avoid a "know-it-all attitude." Try to fit in with the team. Keep your sense of humour.
• Follow the proper chain of command. Discuss items with your manager first.
• Be willing to learn new skills. Review things with your manager at an appropriate time.
• Take time in making new friends. Find positive and upbeat co-workers. Avoid negative, highly critical and over gossiping people.
• Be professional. Wear clean and job-appropriate clothes. Pay attention to how your co-workers are dressed.
• Keep your personal life and problems at home, don't moan about your home problems at work.
• Do not use the employer's equipment and time to do personal things like making personal phone calls, using the copy machine or resolving your personal problems on the job. If you're having trouble resolving personal problems, counselling, support groups or employee assistance programs may be useful.
• Create a responsible image and dress for the job you want next.
• Volunteer for projects and committees if your work is completed and your manager approves.
Getting Along With Others
• Don't express your opinions, biases or prejudices about others while you're at work. Diversity is a priority in the workplace.
• Accept criticism as constructive. Don't become defensive or take criticism personally. Thank the person for their input. Consider changing if it's warranted.
• If you're unsure how to handle the situation, check with your supervisor.
• Always be friendly to everyone. Be willing to go the extra mile. This creates goodwill with employers, co-workers, and customers.
• Notice who your boss relies on and model yourself after them.
• Find a mentor, someone who knows the employer and the job well enough to coach you or show you the ropes.
• Realise that gossiping and playing politics or power games could be dangerous and backfire on you.
• Keep your emotions under control. The job isn't the place to express or show your opinions or feelings.
• Show appreciation. Let your manager know you appreciate their training, support, input, feedback, etc.
• Strive to be positively recognised.
Do you have further tips on how to find the job you are looking for? Please feel free to share them with us, add your comments below.
Great tips and pointers. I will surely make use of them. Catherine, keep up the good work and keep blogging.
Great article, Thanks for sharing. By the way, one of my friends is looking for a technician job in Pittsburgh & he has an offer from Field and Technical Services & he has other offers pending too. He asked my advice. As far as I got to know FTS was selected as one of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette's 2011 Top Work Places as voted on by their employees. I think it is a good place to work
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The parents of a 6-year-old boy are fighting the first-grader's suspension from a public school in Montgomery County, Maryland for pointing his finger like a gun and saying "pow," an incident school officials characterized in a disciplinary letter as a threat "to shoot a student."
The first-grader was suspended for one day, Dec. 21. The family's attorney filed an appeal Wednesday, asking that the incident be expunged from the boy's school record amid concerns of long-term fallout.
The boy "had no intention to shoot anyone," said attorney Robin Ficker, who described the child as soft-spoken, with no propensity for violence. "He's skinny and meek. In his words, he was playing."
The suspension came in a week when the U.S. was reeling from the massacre that claimed the lives of 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. — and left elected leaders, educators and parents debating how best to keep schools safe.
But it also comes as leaders in Maryland and a growing number of states are working to reduce out-of-school suspensions, which have increased greatly in the past several decades and are linked in studies to lower achievement and students dropping out of school.
Ficker attributed some of the reaction by school officials to the widespread alarm that followed the Newtown shootings. But he contended that the school system's portrayal of the episode could be damaging to the boy. The Washington Post generally does not identify juveniles accused of crimes or other wrongdoing.
"They took the worst possible interpretation of this little child's actions, and five years from now, if he gets into a tussle, they're going to look back and say, 'This is one bad little kid,' " Ficker said.
Montgomery schools spokesman Dana Tofig said he could not discuss individual students for privacy reasons. But in a written statement, Tofig said the suspension "was not a kneejerk reaction to a single incident."
In disciplining young students, Tofig added: "We always make sure there is clear conversation with the student and parents about any behaviours that have to change and what the consequences are if that behaviour doesn't change."
School officials recognize that "suspending a student is a serious matter, and that is especially true of a student who is in our early grades," Tofig said, adding that school officials must deal with behaviour that affects a school's sense of safety and security.
Across the Washington region, school systems have suspended thousands of students in the early grades, according to a 2012 Washington Post analysis that showed kindergartners and first-graders had been ousted for disciplinary offences in nearly every local school system.
In Silver Spring, Md., the 6-year-old's parents received a Dec. 20 letter from Renee Garraway, an assistant principal at Roscoe Nix Elementary School, saying that their son "threatened to shoot a student" and that he had been spoken to earlier about similar behaviour.
Responding to questions from the family's attorney, school officials later offered more detail, responding in a letter that an assistant principal had warned one parent that the child's behaviour could lead to a suspension. At school, a counsellor "had an extended conversation" with the child to emphasize "the inappropriateness of using objects to make shooting gestures," and an assistant principal had talked to the boy about the "seriousness" of the issue, the letter said.
"Yet, after the meeting with the counsellor and assistant principal, [the boy] chose to point his finger at a female classmate and say 'Pow,' " wrote Judith Bresler, the school system's attorney.
The boy attended school Wednesday, and school officials are considering the appeal, according to the family's attorney.
The suspension comes as the Maryland State Board of Education is preparing for a final vote in the coming weeks on proposed regulations that would transform the use of out-of-school suspension for minor offences. The new regulations ban zero-tolerance approaches and require school systems to adopt a rehabilitative philosophy toward discipline, with the goal of limiting suspensions and teaching positive behaviour.


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16 February 2013 Last updated at 01:51 GMT
Jeremy Fernandez could easily be the face of the new Australia, a poster-boy of immigrant success.
Born in Malaysia, of southern Indian heritage, he came here with his family 22 years ago, aged 13, and is now an up-and-coming presenter on the ABC news channel, News 24. He is one of the national broadcaster's rising stars.
This past week, however, in a classic case of a newsman himself making headlines, he has been the focus of a national conversation about Australian racism, having been the victim of the kind of ugly racist incident that usually goes unreported.
Mr Fernandez was riding on a bus through inner Sydney, when a small girl started pinching and flicking his two-year-old daughter.
To offer protection from what he thought was some pretty harmless child's play, he put his arm around his daughter, but still the girl persisted and then started flicking him. "That was my arm," he told the child, at which point her mother let racist rip.
"She began hurling abuse and accused me of reaching behind our seats and touching her daughter," he recalled afterwards. "Of course, I had not done anything of the sort."
Then came the racist onslaught, which he described as "the longest 15 minutes of my life". His two-year-old daughter heard every single word of the rant, which culminated in foul-mouthed abuse.
Alighting from the bus, he described to the driver what had happened. "It's your fault, mate," responded the driver. "You could have moved."
In the week that Americans celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of the great heroines of the struggle for black equality, Mr Fernandez described it as his very own "Rosa Parks moment". After dropping off his daughter at daycare, he cried.
'Touched a nerve'
Jeremy Fernandez shared the episode with his followers on Twitter, and it soon went viral.
End QuoteFew countries have experienced such massive and rapid demographic change with such little violent backlash and rancour"
"Anyone who says racism is dying is well and truly mistaken," he wrote, as part of a series of tweets. "It's a sad thing when a coloured man in 2013 has to show his kid how to hold their nerve in the face of racist taunts." The conversation had started.
"Most people don't talk about this stuff," says Fernandez. "That's why I think it touched a nerve. I honestly thought it would generate a bit of discussion for a couple of hours. I had no idea it would take off." Since last Friday, he has been contacted by about 6000 people.
Racism has been part of the Australian story since the moment of white settlement in 1788. During the Gold Rush of the late 19th Century, fears that an overwhelmingly white nation could be overrun by non-whites bordered on the paranoid.
The White Australia policy, which restricted non-white immigration and which survived until the early 1970s, became in 1901 one of the first legislative acts of the new Australian parliament. The modern-day Australian story, however, is one of multicultural success.
Just after World War II, over 90% of the 7.5 million Australians were of Anglo-Celtic stock. Since then, the population has tripled, with close to 45% of the population having at least one parent born in a foreign country. Now over 260 languages are spoken in Australia, and the country is made up of people with 270 different ancestries.
Few countries have experienced such massive and rapid demographic change with such little violent backlash and rancour. Part of the reason why the Cronulla riot in 2005 was so jolting, for example, was because these kinds of racist eruptions were so exceptional.
The rise in the mid-1990s of Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party also cuts both ways. Revelling in her notoriety, the Queensland fish and chip shop owner came to personify Australian intolerance. Yet Hansonism proved a short-lived phenomenon, and its one-time figurehead is now a figure of fun.
Today, there is no Australian equivalent of the British National Party. Nor is there an equivalent of the National Front, the English Defence League or other European far-right groups.
Racial abuse and insensitivity, however, is widespread, which goes some way towards explaining why the country is often cast as a "redneck nation" - not least by Australians themselves. The tabloid and political hysteria surrounding the asylum seeker issue has echoes of a past in which a predominantly white nation felt insecure in a predominantly non-white region.
The comedian Barry Humphries, better known perhaps as Dame Edna Everage, struck a chord when he noted: "Xenophobia is love of Australia."
Success story
But in an important new book, "Don't Go Back to Where You Came From: why Multiculturalism Works," the academic Tim Soutphommasane argues that Australia now rivals Canada as the world's most successful multicultural country.
End Quote Tim SoutphommasaneEpisodes like Jeremy's happen every day, but they're not wholly representative of Australian society"
There has never been "a numerically significant underclass of immigrants," he notes. Australia is one of the few OECD nations where the children of immigrants "constitute a higher proportion of people in highly skilled occupations than the children of natives".
Residential segregation is not a is not a problem. Interracial marriage rates, a key indicator of ethnic integration, are high. By the third generation, a majority of Australians of non-English-speaking background marry partners with a different ethnic heritage.
Mr Soutphommasane bemoans the under-representation of immigrants in boardrooms, senior management, the military and parliament, which boasts just three lawmakers from non-European backgrounds, and highlights the problem of workplace discrimination.
As an immigrant himself - his parents were refugees from Laos - he has also been the victim of abuse and vilification, which he describes vividly in his book. Nonetheless, he argues: "Australia has done multiculturalism well."
"Episodes like Jeremy's happen every day," he says, "but they're not wholly representative of Australian society."
"It's important to resist the temptation for reflexive self-flagellation on racism," he adds. "We tend to think of ourselves as the worst in the world, and we're not. We can some sometimes ignore the big picture, although these cases underscore the fragility of our achievement."
Jeremy Fernandez agrees that "Australia is not a racist country", but that these kind of ugly episodes are dispiriting. "Even if it is once a month," he says, "that's a lifetime of it happening 12 times a year."
Still, the huge public response, online and in person, has heartened him. "It's overwhelmingly been message of goodwill," he says. "That needs to speak as loudly as the incident itself."


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text:
Foreign Policy's Tom Ricks Appears On Fox News To Rip Its Overblown Benghazi Coverage
Ricks Rips Fox's Overblown Coverage Of The Benghazi Attack
Written by Chelsea Rudman
National security journalist Tom Ricks appeared on Fox News to blast the network's incessant coverage of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. After saying that "Benghazi was hyped, by this network especially," Ricks went on to say that "the emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox was operating as a wing of the Republican Party."
Indeed, Fox has relentlessly hyped the Benghazi attack -- and repeatedly pushed distortions of the events that happened before, during, and after the attack.
For example, Fox claimed that the Obama administration's statements that an anti-Islam video played a role in the attack were indicative of an administration "cover-up"; in fact, reports confirm that some of the attackers say they were motivated by the video. Fox has also attacked Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., for linking the video to the attacks in a series of Sunday show appearances, even though Rice was accurately conveying the consensus of the intelligence community at the time. Fox even suggested that the Obama administration abandoned Americans to die in Benghazi, despite the fact that reinforcements were sent to Benghazi from Tripoli on the night of the attack.
Others have criticized overblown reactions to the Benghazi attack: Time's Joe Klein called efforts to "create a scandal" out of Benghazi "tawdry," while the Washington Post editorial board said the conservative response to Benghazi has been focused on "half-baked conspiracy theories."
From the November 26 edition of Fox News' Happening Now:
JON SCOTT (co-host): Pressure mounting on the Obama administration over its response to the deadly attack on our consulate in Benghazi, as [Fox News correspondent] Catherine Herridge reported just minutes ago. Several top GOP lawmakers are backing off their criticism of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, instead focusing on the White House. Two senators even expressing concerns about a possible White House cover-up. Let's talk about it with Tom Ricks. He is author of The Generals. He has spent decades covering our military. He joins us now.
Senator John McCain said in the past he would block any attempt to nominate Susan Rice to become U.N. -- I'm sorry, secretary of state. She's currently the U.N. ambassador. He seems to be backing away from that. What do you make of it?
RICKS: I think that Benghazi generally was hyped, by this network especially, and that now that the campaign is over, I think he's backing off a little bit. They're not going to stop Susan Rice from being secretary of state.
SCOTT: When you have four people dead, including the first dead U.N. ambassador -- U.S. ambassador in more than 30 years, how do you call that hype?
RICKS: How many security contractors died in Iraq, do you know?
SCOTT: I don't.
RICKS: No. Nobody does, because nobody cared. We know that several hundred died, but there was never an official count done of security contractors dead in Iraq. So when I see this focus on what was essentially a small firefight, I think, number one, I've covered a lot of firefights. It's impossible to figure out what happens in them sometimes. And second, I think that the emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox was operating as a wing of Republican Party.
SCOTT: All right. Tom Ricks, thanks very much for joining us today.
RICKS: You're welcome.


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"While a superficial glance may create the false impression of a patent law advancement through the proposal, it instead actually threatens to forestall the necessary legal progress and innovation capacities for the foreseeable future.
These concerns of the Max-Planck-Institute are shared by experts throughout Europe. Likewise, considerable parts of the industry harbor doubts as to the proposed system's efficiency. Large undertakings might indeed benefit from a reinforcement of their patent portfolios through the proposed system. Particularly small and medium-sized enterprises are however likely to experience significant obstacles to their innovation activities.
Our criticism of the package is underpinned by a series of legal arguments which you find elaborated in brief in the attachment. Many of these points are also uncontested in the current debate. Yet remedies are only promised for the time after the entry into force of the package.
Experience shows that this promise for subsequent improvement is unlikely to be delivered on. Consequently, it might prove disastrous to implement patent system which is already known to be detrimental from both the legal as well as the innovation perspectives. Much rather, the correct course must be set now."
Professor Dr. Hilty |
1. Fragmentation of patent protection in the EU. Instead of consolidating patent law in Europe, the Unitary Patent Package would add to its fragmentation on both the territorial and substantive level.
a. Territorial fragmentation: The unitary patent would not cover the full territory of the Internal Market. It is restricted to EU Member States participating in enhanced cooperation. In addition, it will become operable only for those Member States which ratify the UPCt Agreement. Thirteen ratifications are required. Accordingly, not all 25 signatory States need to ratify and it is even unlikely that all will do so in the foreseeable future. From the EU perspective, this fragments the Internal Market and runs counter to the cohesion objective. From the perspective of patent holders, the lack of patent protection in major European markets (at least Italy and Spain) jeopardizes innovation
there. Thus, the unitary patent would need to be flanked by national patents.
b. Substantive fragmentation: The Unitary Patent Package would create four overlapping levels of patent protection in Europe (see Annex 2; not counting utility model protection):
(1) national patents granted nationally;
(2) national patents granted by the EPO (European patents) within the system of the UPCt
(3) national patents granted by the EPO, but without subjection to the UPCt (due to transitional
opt-out, non-ratification by Member States, or for non-EU States);
(4) European patents with unitary effect.
According to the principle of optionality, all systems would coexist alongside each other.
2. Fragmentation in the rules applicable to the unitary patent. A patent grants a right of exclusivity. This serves to protect against infringers; it may also serve as an asset. Arts. 6 to 8 of the UP Regulation provide for a broad, albeit not complete set of rules on infringement and on its exceptions.By contrast, as regards the unitary patent as an object of property, the UP Regulation contains only a very truncated set of rules. Basic rules, as contained in all previous proposals (transfer of right, rights in rem, treatment in execution and insolvency, erga omnes effect of restrictive contractual licensing, date of third-party effects of patent transactions), are missing. Instead, Art. 10 of the UP Regulation provides for the exclusive application of national law.
This means that to a given unitary patent only one national law would apply throughout the territories of enhanced cooperation. Yet it also means that different national laws would apply to different unitary patents. Therefore, instead of creating uniformity, a multiplicity of national laws would apply.
While some reference to national law is inevitable as a matter of implementing the property
rules of patents, the UP Regulation misses an opportunity to provide for a minimum of uniformity and transparency for market actors.
3. Fragmentation of jurisprudence. The fragmentation on the level of the substantive law is mirrored by a proliferation of courts which would be competent to interpret and apply patent law in Europe under the proposed court system (see Annex 3). Jurisdictional competences would lie with (1) the UPCt in respect of infringements and validity of European and unitary patents for those Member States which have ratified the UPCt Agreement; (2) the ECJ in respect of preliminary references from the UPCt regarding infringements of unitary patents; (3) national courts of EU Member States not ratifying the UPCt Agreement or not participating in enhanced cooperation and those of all non-EU EPO Contracting States regarding infringements and validity of national and European patents;
(4) the EPO's Boards of Appeal in administrative appeals for European patents;
(5) national courts or administrative bodies in proceedings regarding nationally granted patents.
Under each of these alleys, similar principles of patent law might be elaborated differently, and different layers of substantive rules applied (see Annex 2). The UPCt Agreement does not provide for any method of consolidation. The Agreement simply adds an additional enforcement layer alongside the pre-existing.
4. Insufficient exceptions and limitations. The substantive rules laid down in the UP Regulation respond in no way to the modern challenges to patent law. Unlike, for example, Belgian law or the recently reformed Swiss Patent Act, the Regulation does address issues such as a general research exception or compulsory licenses for biotechnological research tools.
Dr. Matthias Lamping |
5. Absence of countervailing rights. The UP Regulation no longer contains rules on prior user rights and on compulsory licenses for enabling the use of dependent improvement inventions or in the public interest. This perpetuates and entrenches anti-innovative effects in patent protection. Prior user rights are not available at all. Compulsory licenses are assumed to be available under national law only, if at all (see reason 11). However; the application of 25 Member States' divergent standards jeopardizes the unitary effect. In addition, the unavailability of Union-wide compulsory licenses at uniform conditions places third parties seeking access to patented technology at a significant disadvantage compared to the improved possibility of the unitary patent holder to enforce the patent right before one single court.
6. Risk of dysfunctional patent practices. The insufficiency of exceptions and limitations as well as the absence of countervailing rights in the UP Regulation render the unitary patent prone to "opportunistic" behaviour. For instance, patent applicants may tend to seek protection for key aspects of a technology by unitary patents while selectively relying on national patent protection for other components of the technology. This would bring the overall system of protection out of balance and may stifle broader innovation.
7. Discriminatory effects. Art. 10 of the UP Regulation, which provides for the application of one national law to the unitary patent as an object of property (see reason 2; also Annex 2), entails discriminatory effects. According to Art. 10(3) of the Regulation, patents which have been applied for by firms without a residence or place of business in one of the Member States participating in enhanced cooperation, will be subject to a foreign law, namely to German law. By contrast, patent applicants established in one of the participating States will benefit from the application of their domestic law.
8. Inherent ineffectiveness of the Unified Patent Court. The design of the UPCt (see Annex 3) is dysfunctional. This would hamper the UPCt's effectiveness. In broad terms, these flaws can be subdivided into three groups:
(1) imbalances in the scope of jurisdiction (e.g. no jurisdiction for compulsory licenses, territorial jurisdiction limited to EU Member States, differing judicial review for European and unitary patents, etc.);
(2) imbalances in the division of jurisdiction among the first instance divisions (e.g. questionable effects of the compromise on bifurcation, reserved competences of the central division, etc.);
(3) imbalances in the organization of the UPCt (e.g. predominantly national composition of the bench in large decentralized divisions, language regime, etc.).
All of this would likely impair the development of a homogeneous body of patent law in Europe, fail to establish a fair balance in the rights and remedies available to patent holders and third parties respectively, and open the system to continued forum shopping by plaintiffs.
9. Uncertain implications of the unitary effect. The shift from a unitary and autonomous EU patent right to the hitherto unknown, hybrid creature of a "European patent with unitary effect" casts doubts on the legal quality of the patent protection thereby afforded.
a. Legal nature of the unitary patent. Under the proposal, the unitary effect seems to be attached to a European patent only as an accessory feature. This obscures the legal character of the unitary patent (international law, EU law or a new sui generis right?). However, the unitary effect concerns the substance of the right of exclusivity. In this regard, only EU law can guarantee an autonomous and supranational character and a complete and coherent system of legal protection for individuals.
b. Multi-layered legal structure. The European patent with unitary effect is split into different layers of international law, EU law and national law. The cross effects between these layers are unclear. Examples include the reach of EU law primacy vis-à-vis the EPC or the role of national law vis-àvis the UP Regulation. The complexity would even be reinforced should the substance of protection become hidden behind a system of legal referrals replacing Arts. 6 to 8 of the UP Regulation, as is currently discussed as a compromise formula.
10. Incorrect legal basis for the unitary patent. Art. 118(1) TFEU provides a legislative basis for the "creation of European intellectual property rights to provide uniform protection of intellectual property rights throughout the Union". Accordingly, the provision envisages the establishment of a regime of protection which derives its substance from EU law. The Unitary Patent Package falls short of this.
a. Mismatch with the legal basis. The UP Regulation claims EU origin for the unitary patent, but disclaims EU law quality for its central features (see reason 9.a). This approach is not covered by the scope and purpose of Art. 118(1) TFEU. At the very least, the terms of the individual right granted under the UP Regulation (patentability, exclusivity, property) must be such as to enable the ECJ to exercise its judicial review. This is even more necessary since the unitary patent forms part of the rules governing the functioning of the Internal Market.
b. Evasion of the EU legislative process. Under the consistent jurisprudence of the ECJ, recourse must be had to legal bases where they are provided for in EU law. There is no legislative discretion as to what aspects of the unitary patent may be regulated in the UPCt Agreement vis-à-vis the UP Regulation. This concerns in particular the definition of the scope of exclusivity. Otherwise, the procedures and procedural safeguards provided for in the Treaties would be side-stepped and the principle of institutional balance compromised. A similar issue arises regarding the relationship between Art. 114 TFEU and the rules on infringement of the European patent in the UPCt Agreement.
11. Exclusion of compulsory licenses through EU law primacy. Contrary to recital 9a of the UP Regulation, it is questionable whether national judicial or administrative authorities might grant national compulsory licenses in respect of the unitary patent. First, there is no competence left for Member States under Arts. 2(2) and 4 TFEU, should the matter be one of shared competences at all.
Second, under the principles established by consistent jurisprudence of the ECJ, national authorities cannot invalidate or detract from acts of EU law and may defer their enforcement under very limited conditions only. The UP Regulation does not provide for any such exception. Finally, any granting of national compulsory licenses would quash the unitary effect, thus running against free trade rules.
12. Persisting incompatibility of the Unified Patent Court with EU law. The UPCt Agreement does not adequately address the concerns voiced by the ECJ in its Opinion 1/09 in terms of the EU law compatibility of the preceding court model. Although the UPCt is based on the example of the Benelux Court of Justice, its features significantly differ. Suffice it to mention that, unlike that of the Benelux Court, the UPCt's jurisdiction is not limited to preliminary references and that the UPCt is fully detached from the national legal systems (in fact replacing them). In addition, the issue of ECJ review of EPO decisions is not addressed in the proposal at all, thereby infringing the EU law principles of rule of law and of completeness of the system of judicial review.


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text:
More investment in protecting children from rheumatic fever
Hon Tony Ryall
Minister of Health
15 January 2013
Media Release
More investment in protecting children
from rheumatic fever
Nearly three thousand more children most vulnerable to rheumatic fever will join the Government's battle against the third world disease when they start back at school this term.
The children are from 24 schools in Northland and Waikato.
"Rheumatic fever is largely preventable, yet it can develop into a life threatening heart disease if left untreated," says Health Minister Tony Ryall.
"It is unacceptable that preventing this third world disease was listed as a priority back in 2001 - but nothing was done and the rate increased."
"However the National-led Government is making a difference. Our rheumatic fever prevention programme is one of the Prime Minister's better public service targets to support vulnerable children.
"We have committed $24 million to reduce the incidence of rheumatic fever by two-thirds to 1.4 cases per 100,000 people by June 2017."
"As well as sore throat swabbing and follow-up antibiotic treatment if needed, programmes are also working with local services to address other common health issues such as skin infections, healthy housing and insulation.
All up this year, 20 thousand more school children who are most vulnerable to rheumatic fever are set to join the Government's drive to reduce this third world disease.
This will bring the total number of children being tested and treated for a sore throat before it progresses to rheumatic fever to over 50,000 at 208 schools and five community based services around the country. They are in the most vulnerable local communities of eight areas – Northland, South Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay and Porirua.


text:
All the structures
The province of Novara was founded in 1992 when it separated from the province of Vercelli.
The lands of Novara are flat in the south and hilly in the central-northern part. The plain is mostly planted with rice.
To the north are the beautiful Maggiore and Orta lakes that partly belong to Novara.
From Lake Orta you can see the chapels of the scenic Sacred Mount, a World Heritage Site dedicated to St. Francis.
The vegetation on the Sacred Mount is maintained as a kind of historical garden, with beech, lime, oak, pine forest, box, laurel and holly.
The romantic at heart can wander among the beauties of the small village of Orta San Giulio in the maze of streets around the main square. Balconies and small craft shops embellish the village.
You will be enchanted by the island of San Giulio, dominated by the ex-seminary and bell tower.
In the north of the Novara province, the Mottarone peak, part of the Vergante mountain range, is 1491 metres high
24 km from Novara, on the right bank of the Sesia River, is beautiful Ghemme with its landscape of moraine plains and vineyards. The town dates from Roman times and was also important during the Middle Ages as the De Castello Barbavara family stronghold. At the end of the 1400s many of the richest Piedmont and Lombardy families took up residence there, attracted by the fertility of the land and the excellent produce, such as the wine and cheese. The bell tower of the parish church of Beata Panacea dominates the town centre. The Ricetto fortification, a richly historical, traditional building 12 meters high, was where the population sought protection for themselves and their harvests from barbarians, soldiers and bandits.
South of Ghemme, nestling among the Novara hills, is Sizzano. Originally Roman, it was the ancient centre for the diffusion of Christianity, as the epigraph of Aucusta from 519 testifies, preserved in the parish church of San Vittore. Sizzano, like Ghemme, was plundered many times, and to protect the citizens and their goods the Ricetto was built. Divided into a hundred lots, families could keep their crops and livestock there and use it as a refuge in times of invasion. Worth a visit is the Santa Maria church from 12th-13th centuries, the 12th-century former oratory of S. Grato, and the Tornielli family palace with its 16th-century screw press for making wine.
Fried fish, exceptional cheese, polenta and cold meats are the delicacies not to be missed in Novara. Among the best wines are Sizzano, Ghemme and Colline Novaresi. The true "king" of the locally produced cheeses is gorgonzola, considered one of the most important and exquisite products of Italian gastronomy.


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From the diaries.
There's a lot to like about Paul Ryan's budget proposal. It cuts some spending. It flattens the tax code down to just two individual marginal tax rates. It also includes some innovative policies designed to halt the unsustainable growth of health care entitlement spending. However, on balance, the budget is disappointing for fiscal conservatives for two main reasons: It waives the spending restraint that was agreed to in last year's debt limit deal, and it doesn't balance the budget until 2040. Broken promises and unbalanced budgets as far as the eye can see are neither good policy nor a good campaign rallying cry.
Last year, an agreement was reached in which Republicans gave President Obama a massive increase in the debt ceiling, in exchange for promised spending cuts that supposedly had "real teeth." As part of the deal, Congressman Ryan and most Republicans voted to require an annual spending cap and $110 billion in automatic spending cuts for next year – otherwise known as "sequestration" – if the so-called "super-committee" failed to find $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction.
Since the predictable collapse of the super-committee, the House GOP should have been working toward a budget proposal that allows for the sequester to take place for the coming year. Such a budget would include the $110 billion in reductions. Ryan's budget achieves vastly less. It contains $19 billion in discretionary savings and, at most, $53 billion in cuts to mandatory spending — $38 billion short. Thus, it leaves House Republicans breaking the terms of the deal they agreed to just seven months ago.
That debt ceiling agreement provided that half of those cuts would come from defense spending, and half from non-defense spending. Some conservatives object to that level of defense cuts. Fine. The key to the agreement was securing the total $110 billion reduction in spending, not which part of the budget was cut. If some want to rearrange the location of the cuts, that would be fine, as long as the overall magnitude of the spending restraint was sustained.
House leaders claim they are making more overall cuts. However, they are clearly short of the requirements for next year and are pushing the deepest cuts out into the future. We've seen this movie before. Lots of times. In other words, they are kicking the can down the road . . . again. No matter how you slice it, the Ryan budget breaks the promise of spending restraint that was agreed to in exchange for raising the debt limit. And make no mistake, we're not just arguing over $38 billion. Now that this budget breaks that deal, both parties will work to unravel the entire $1.2 trillion in sequestered cuts. Don't be surprised if the full unraveling happens later this year.
A group of fiscal conservatives in the House, the Republican Study Committee, has proposed a budget that balances in five years. It contains strong tax reform and spending restraint. In addition, the RSC deals with Social Security, an entitlement program left untouched by the Ryan budget. And just like the Ryan budget, the RSC plan shifts the burden of the sequester away from defense, but preserves, and in fact exceeds, the overall spending reduction level agreed to last year. That is the right way forward.
By waiving the sequester and refusing to balance the budget until 2040, the Ryan budget and the Republican Party are playing a dangerous game. It is hard to have confidence that our long-term fiscal challenges will be met responsibly when the same Congress that passed the August debt deal wants to ignore it less than one year later.
America does not have thirty years to balance the budget. We may not have ten. We hope that fiscal conservatives will take a harder look at the House GOP budget, and ask themselves if they can and should demand more.
Chris Chocola
President – Club for Growth


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Gay marriage could provide an economic boost in New Zealand by generating a spike in wedding ceremonies, says the politician behind the first same-sex marriage legislation in the world.
Former Dutch MP and gay rights advocate Boris Dittrich said one of the unanticipated consequences of legalising marriage for gay, lesbian and transgender couples was a much larger spend created by a rush of weddings - worth US$100 million ($122 million) a year in New York alone.
Mr Dittrich, who is on a speaking tour in Wellington and Auckland, noted that the economics of weddings were an aside to the debate about same-sex marriage. But there was a serious message in this observation.
He said the financial boost was the only surprising consequence of legalising marriage in the Netherlands in 2001, despite warnings of moral, social and family decline from opponents.
"It's a non-issue in the Netherlands now. About 85 to 90 per cent of the population is in favour."
One of the first openly gay MPs in Dutch Parliament, he helped push through same-sex marriage and adoption laws as part of a coalition government.
As New Zealand considers legalising same-sex marriage, Mr Dittrich will speak before a parliamentary select committee on the experience in his country.
The arguments against gay marriage in New Zealand - that it would redefine marriage, undermine the nuclear family, harm children, or force church ministers to marry people - were identical to the debate in the Netherlands in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
He said even in a country with a progressive record on social issues, the law change was bitterly fought in the Netherlands, especially because legalising gay marriage would have been a world first.
"The Prime Minister said the rest of the world will laugh at us because they all know our marijuana, coffee shops, euthanasia, legalisation of prostitution, and now we come with same-sex marriage?
"In the final debate before voting, an orthodox Christian MP said the wrath of God would be upon those who voted in favour. When I was driving home, I thought I should drive very carefully because if I get in an accident they'll think God is punishing me."
Eleven years on, he said none of the warnings of social disintegration had eventuated and many of the political opponents of the law change regarded it with a sense of pride. A conservative Christian Party swore to repeal it, but after entering Parliament have left it untouched.
However, he noted that legalising gay marriage had not been a silver bullet for ridding the country of discrimination on the grounds of sexuality.
Anti-homosexual attitudes had prevailed, and the law change had not made a tangible difference to the disproportionately high suicide rate among homosexual teens.
"You cannot just sit back and relax because emancipation is an ongoing process."
Mr Dittrich, who is now an advocacy director at charity Human Rights Watch, is being hosted in New Zealand by Labour and the Greens.
Public lectures
Tomorrow, 1pm: Stone Lecture Theatre, Law School, University of Auckland.
Thursday, 6pm: St Matthew in the City, Auckland.
The series
Yesterday: Our mismatched skills
Today: Vocational Pathways
Tomorrow: Industry training
Thursday: Second-chance education
Friday: Tertiary education.


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Some words to consider each morning from the Trappist Monks in the Abbey of the Genesee:
This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it or use it for good. What I do today is important because I'm exchanging a day of my life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, leaving in its place something I have traded for it. I want it to be gain, not loss; good, not evil; success, not failure; in order that I shall not regret the price I paid for it.
When this day is over what will you have received in exchange for it?


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Not only do Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon show off their twins on tonight's episode of "20/20," but they also give us a sneak peek into their cutesy side as couple. Three years after marrying, the two are still smitten, finishing each other's sentences, and looking to each other (literally).
Watch the two talk to Barbara Walters about the fear they felt when they found out they were having twins and singing and reading to the babies while in the womb:
Mariah Returns To The Studio With Jermaine Dupri [PHOTOS]