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Automation to the rescue
Think Again: Productivity, resource management, energy efficiency, skilled workforce shortage—with many challenges, the cure remains smart applications of automation, controls, and instrumentation. See software usability poll results and advice.
Many issues challenge the world today: productivity, resource management, energy efficiency, skilled workforce shortages. Don't be humble; you know the cure. It's all about smart applications of automation, controls, and instrumentation. To win, use the right tools and apply them by building trusting, revenue-producing relationships with employees, partners, and customers. I don't just say this stuff to get your attention. I hear it again and again and pass along the wisdom.
Lt. Col. Rob "Waldo" Waldman, former combat decorated fighter pilot and businessman, told attendees at the 2012 Siemens Summit to:
– Prepare for every mission
– Build courage to adapt to change and adversity
– Promote one team and one culture
– Commit to excellence in business and in life outside of work
– Overcome your fears, let your passions drive your beliefs, and recommit yourselves to action
– Preparation builds confidence: The more you sweat in peace the less you bleed in battle.
Study up, get briefed on the mission, gather the latest intelligence, understand technology, get system upgrades, software upgrades, and learn and relearn as needed. Have the courage to ask for what you need from those around you.
Why? Automation can help significantly in this resource-hungry world, noted Raj Batra, president, Industry Automation Division, Siemens Industry Inc., and on other worlds, too, like for new Mars exploration, designed with Siemens PLM software. Batra pointed to automation integration as a cure for many challenges. Resource productivity is becoming increasingly important for energy, water, steel, raw material, and food, especially since 3 billion people will enter the middle class in next 20 years, creating a new set of challenges for resource efficiency. Since 2000, there's been a 147% rise in commodity prices. The cost to bring oil wells online increased 100% in 10 years.
Even on other worlds, automation is the answer. The NASA Jet Propulsion Lab designed and built the Curiosity Rover (as big as a car, landed on Mars on Aug. 6). Siemens software helps with modeling, data storage, programming, and data management, reducing time for design and manufacturing, improving reliability through simulation, reducing costs, increasing the likelihood of success, and improving productivity.
We're building deeper process know-how, understand domains, apply technologies, and are sharing lessons learned as work is refined over time. Think again: Automation shouldn't chase the cure. Applied correctly, as Batra suggests, integration automation in the right combinations delivers improvements and repeatability. Let's drive industry know-how.
Mark T. Hoske is content manager, Control Engineering, CFE Media
ONLINE extra
See links at bottom for more wingman tips, more on the Summit, and Mars Curiosity Rover.
See results immediately below from July control software usability poll.
Poll results
Here are your control software usability poll responses and comments between July 10 and Aug. 3.
1. How user friendly is the control systems software on your site?
0% Nearly impossible
50% Difficult
43% Reasonable
7% Intuitive
2. Would wider use of icons help users with the control software and decrease training time?
40% I think so
20% Unsure
40% I doubt it
3. Is wider use of smart phones and tablets likely to make control software easier to use?
20% I think so
7% Unsure
73% I doubt it
4. My advice for companies that design control software:
Every new control device uses some form of new control language, not compatible with the installed software. This makes updating very complicated. Reprogramming is required to accomplish the previously adopted sequence of operation. Usually, the previous equipment is out dated and no longer supported, requiring the upgrade.
Do the systems engineering right, including all security engineering.
Make smart phones and the software safer to use, and you might be headed somewhere.
Make everything look like controls in your house. They are easily recognizable by everyone. Simple actions avoid mistakes. Fancy=downtime.
Use modular ISA88-compliant device libraries. Avoid customization as much as possible. Leverage reusable content with exacting discipline.
Use context sensitive help EVERYWHERE! F1 is the go to item for everything. "Contact system administrator" is not an acceptable statement. Most of the time, I am the administrator. Tell me what I'm missing, including background information not necessarily part of the product at hand. Forget about web help. Access is not always available, and one must be self supported.
Standardize communication platforms. There are way too many systems that can't talk to each other.
Continue improving object-oriented development concepts and functionality. Easier development of alarm management, history logging, and trending are areas of consideration. External file system read/write access is another, as connectivity means are becoming mature via IEEE 802. Regarding icon-based user interfaces, there remains differences in symbologies between ANSI and IEC burdening development and training. Symbol libraries are helpful though.
The easier to follow and the more intuitive it is the happier the end user will be, and the learning curve drops in proportion.
Icons create more confusion; text is much better. Icons are the least common denominator across all languages and communicate the least information. The real issue is to ensure the developer's view of the system matches the system design model and not the user's view of the equipment.
More engineering interaction: Did you miss the poll and have comments or advice to add? Put Software Usability Poll in the subject line and email your thoughts to email@example.com.
Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our CFE Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process.


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DOLAN SPRINGS, Ariz. >> A 9-year-old girl accidentally killed an Arizona shooting instructor as he was showing her how to use an automatic Uzi, authorities said.
Charles Vacca, 39, of Lake Havasu City, died Monday shortly after being airlifted to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Mohave County sheriff's officials said Tuesday.
Vacca was standing next to the girl at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range in White Hills when she pulled the trigger and the recoil sent the gun over her head, investigators said.
Video released Tuesday by sheriff's officials shows the 9-year-old, wearing a gray T-shirt and pink shorts with her hair pulled back in a long braid, holding the firearm in both hands. Vacca, standing to her left, tells her to turn her left leg forward.
"All right, go ahead and give me one shot," he tells the girl, whose back is to the camera during the entire 27-second video. He then cheers when she fires one round at the target.
"All right full auto," Vacca says. The video, which does not show the actual incident, ends with a series of shots being heard.
Authorities said the girl was at the shooting range with her parents. Her name was not released.
A woman who answered the phone at the shooting range said it had no comment. She did not provide her name.
It is not known if the range had an age limit on shooting or if the girl was going through a safety class.
Ronald Scott, a Phoenix-based firearms safety expert, said most shooting ranges have an age limit and strict safety rules when teaching children to shoot. He said instructors usually have their hands on guns when children are firing high-powered weapons.
"You can't give a 9-year-old an Uzi and expect her to control it," Scott said.

subset: commoncrawl


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$35.00 $40.98
Wireless car parking sensor set, detect small objects and bars, prevent from dangerous and costly collisions.
Two-digit digital display distance, colorful light bar display direction.
With 4 probe for better coverage and detection.
Provide more safety for passengers, pedestrians and family members who happen to be around the moving vehicle.
Description: Name: Wireless reversing radar system Power: 1W Rated working voltage: DC 12V Working voltage range: DC 10V ~ 15V Working current: 20mA ~ 500mA Radar detection distance: 0.3 ~ 2.0m Ultrasonic frequency: 38kHz / 40kHz Host working temperature: -40 ° C ~ + 85 ° C Buzzer volume: 65dB Probe installation method: drilling Probe diameter: 22mm Display mode: two-digit digital display distance, colorful light bar display direction
Packing list: 1 * LCD display 1 * Radar host 4 * Probe 1 * Drill 1 * Power cord 1 * English manual
Note: There might be a measurement tolerance of 1-3 cm due to different measuring methods. Color deviation might exist due to different monitor settings and light, please kindly understand.


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Show All Answers
A "CERT" is a group of people that is organized and receives special training for the purpose of enhancing their ability to recognize, respond to, and recover from a major emergency or disaster situation.
CERT is organized under the leadership of the fire protection or law enforcement authority having jurisdiction on the area where the CERT will operate.
CERT members are trained by Fire Department and/or Police Department certified officers in areas that will help the citizens take care of themselves and others should the need arise, during a major emergency or disaster.
As an organized team, CERT provides a valuable support function to the professional emergency responder whose arrival might be delayed due to the nature and/or scope of the event.
When a major emergency overwhelms normally available resources, response delays of hours or even days may occur; someone with "basic skills training" should be able to immediately assist those in distress.
Various reports of "Lessons Learned" from different disasters including the more recent weather emergencies throughout the States of Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Neighborhoods/Homeowners' Associations:
The members of the CERT may be trained in the following areas depending on the current needs of the department:
Training will be conducted in phases over a period of time on an as needed basis.
Disaster is typically considered an event that causes injury, loss of life, and widespread damage. It almost always causes local resources to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crisis.
In our daily lives, citizens unable to help others make up one of the principal elements that will overwhelm the emergency responders and their resources and will ultimately enhance the intensity of the disaster at a personal and professional level.
Citizens trained in the manner proposed should be able to deal more effectively with daily emergencies so they won't create that personal disaster or the professional disaster that could otherwise be the situation; and they can advise responders of the pre-emptive steps that have been taken.
The "Team," in its most general sense, would refer to the group of citizens that seek training and share a common interest in becoming more aware of the problems and solutions that may affect them, their families, and their neighborhood.
Students attend the class in "teams" in order to experience the camaraderie that is associated with a group of people that organize to accomplish goals together.
The graduate of this course is encouraged to go back to their neighborhood and garner the interest necessary to form "neighborhood teams" that can prepare for and respond to each other's needs in the event of an impending or actual emergency situation.
Neighborhood Watch is a Team based concept that has neighbors watching out for neighbors.
The CERT Program adds a new dimension to this concept and gives participants the skills and learning bank that allows them to deal with many of the problems that can affect a community.
"Teams" are people working toward a common goal or cause.
Many cities around the country have implemented this program to help their citizens' deal more effectively with disaster.
if you are interested in becoming a member of our CERT or have any questions about our program, please call us at 305-948-2955 or complete and submit the form below. One of our officers will contact you in the near future to discuss our program.
A formal application must be completed to become a member of our CERT. Successfully completing a background investigation is also required.
You must fill in either a phone number or email address for us to contact you.


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On all qualifying purchases of Pond Supplies over $59.00 or more! Offer valid within the Continental United States
Welcome to LaBrake's Garden Path & Pond LLC.
Garden Ponds & Water Garden SuppliesSupplies for Water Gardens and Fish PondsWe carry Garden Pond Supplies from all the major manufacturers in the water gardening industry.
We carry all the Top Brands of water garden supplies from manufacturers such as Aquascape and all the Water Gardening Pond Algae Control products from your favorite's like Pondmaster, Pond Care and Microbe-Lift to name only a few. Our knowledgeable sales staff can answer all your Pond algae control questions and assist you in purchasing the proper products the first time, saving you time and money.
Use the Shop by Manufacturer drop down menu or the left side of the page Navigation to find Water Gardening products from the top brands such as, Alpine, Atlantic Water Gardens, Matala, Crystal Clear and many more.


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Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston whose failure to stop child molesters in the priesthood triggered the worst crisis in American Catholicism, died Wednesday in Rome at age 86.
Law, who spent the final years of his career leading an important basilica in Rome and continued to wield considerable influence inside the Vatican, had been sick and was recently hospitalized.
Law was once one of the most important figures in the U.S. church, serving in one of its most visible and storied posts. From 1984 until he resigned under pressure 18 years later, he was spiritual leader in Boston, the nation's fourth-largest archdiocese, with 1.8 million Catholics.
But in 2002, The Boston Globe began a series of stories that revealed that Law and his predecessors had transferred child-molesting priests from parish to parish without alerting parents or police — a scandal later chronicled in the Oscar-winning film "Spotlight."
Within months, Catholics around the country demanded to know whether their bishops had done the same. And the scandal quickly spread overseas, to Ireland, Belgium, Chile, Australia and beyond.
In Boston, Law's death was met with anger and bitterness among some.
"I hope the gates of hell are swinging wide to allow him entrance," said Alexa MacPherson, who says she was abused for six years as a child. "I won't shed a tear for him. I might shed a tear for everyone who's been a victim under him."
Robert Costello called Law "a cruel, selfish bastard," while fellow abuse victim Phil Saviano wondered: "How is he going to explain this when he comes face to face with his maker?"
Law's successor as archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, said it was a "sad reality" that Law's legacy will forever be tied to the abuse scandal, when the church "seriously failed" to care for its flock and protect children.
Pope Francis, who is being watched closely by the faithful over his handling of bishops who shield pedophiles, is set to preside over Law's funeral rites at a Mass on Thursday at St. Peter's Basilica, an honor accorded to all Rome-based cardinals.
The pope said nothing about Law's death during his weekly general audience Wednesday, and in a condolence letter he made no direct mention of the cardinal's tenure in Boston.
"I raise prayers for the repose of his soul, that the Lord God, who is rich in mercy, may welcome him in His eternal peace, and I send my apostolic blessing to those who share in mourning the passing of the cardinal," Francis wrote.
Since 1950, more than 6,500 of the nation's priests, or about 6 percent, have been accused of molesting children, and the American church has paid over $3 billion in settlements, according to news reports and studies commissioned by the U.S. bishops.
As the leader of the archdiocese at the epicenter of the scandal, Law became a powerful symbol of the crisis. His fall from grace was swift.
Law tried to manage the scandal at first by refusing to comment, then by apologizing and promising reform. But the release of thousands more church records exposed additional cases in which Law and others expressed more concern for accused priests than for victims.
Amid a groundswell against him, including rare public rebukes from some of his own priests, Law asked to resign and the pope said yes.
"To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes, I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness," Law said in stepping down in 2002.
Still, Law retained some support in the Vatican. In 2004, he was appointed archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of four principal basilicas in Rome. When Pope John Paul II died the next year, Law was among the bishops who presided at a Mass for the pontiff in St. Peter's.
Law also continued to serve on Vatican policy-making committees, including one that recommends bishops' appointments to the pope, before retiring in 2011 from his church assignments.
Advocates for victims saw his continued influence in Rome as a slap in the face from an unrepentant church.
"Cardinal Law's soft landing in Rome, after his Boston disgrace, reminds us that prelate privilege remains the rule in Catholicism," said Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, a database of the global scandal in the church.
Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who has represented dozens of people who say they were abused by priests, said Law "turned his back on innocent children and allowed them to be sexually abused and then received a promotion in Rome."
Fifteen years after the scandal broke, the issue of holding bishops accountable for failing to protect children remains a pressing matter for the church. Francis had promised to go after bishops but backed off a proposed Vatican tribunal to prosecute them and opted instead to use existing measures.
SNAP, the main U.S. advocacy group for those who were abused, urged Francis to keep the victims in mind during the funeral and said Law doesn't deserve the pomp.
"This celebratory focus on abuse enablers like Law must end," said SNAP's Joelle Casteix.
Law is expected to be buried in Rome, O'Malley said. The location hasn't been disclosed, but Law would be entitled to burial at St. Mary Major.
Born Nov. 4, 1931, in Torreon, Mexico, Law was the only child of a U.S. Air Force colonel and a mother who was a Presbyterian convert to Catholicism. He graduated from Harvard University in 1953. He was ordained in 1961 and campaigned for civil rights in Mississippi, sometimes traveling in the trunks of cars for safety.
He was named bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri, then archbishop of Boston, one of the most prominent and important posts in the U.S.
He broadly influenced Vatican appointments to American dioceses, served as a representative of the church to presidents and was favored by Pope John Paul.
He broadly influenced Vatican appointments to American dioceses, served as a representative of the church to presidents and was favored by Pope John Paul.
Law publicly challenged public officials over their support for abortion rights and joined other bishops in criticizing Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic vice-presidential candidate and a Catholic, over the issue. He was a regular visitor to the White House under President George W. Bush.
He was devoted to building Catholic-Jewish relations, leading a delegation on a 1986 visit to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. He worked closely with church leaders in Latin America, acting as an unofficial envoy of the pope to Fidel Castro's Cuba.
The scandal in Boston broke when the Globe reported that Law and two predecessors as archbishop had transferred former priest John Geoghan to various assignments despite knowing he molested children.
More than 130 people eventually came forward to say Geoghan abused them. The archdiocese paid $10 million in settlements with 86 of his victims and their relatives as Law clung to his job.


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Some new Chanel goodies I got at Barneys the other day.
Gold is my new fav and this one is pretttty!!
And can we talk about that sick black bottle for the mat topcoat?
Stoked that mat is back!
I have to admit I don't know what "mat" means, is it the same as "matte"?
you just reminded me I need to head over to the dept. store. We are headed on our honeymoon this coming weekend and I can't decide between tropical coral nails or GOLD!! You just helped me make up my mind!
You can never have too much Chanel. I love the lipgloss shade.
I don't think I ever tried matte nail varnish... WANT!


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This is probably going to be the most vulnerable post I've ever written.
My weight has obviously gone up and down through the last eight years of "maintenance". Since losing 125 pounds in 2009-2010, I've weighed everywhere from 121 pounds to 160 pounds. Each and every time I gain a significant amount of weight (10 pounds or so), I start to question whether it's the start of my gaining it all back.
When I lost the weight, I knew that the odds were against me; according to statistics, there was a 95% chance I would gain all of the weight back, plus more, within two years. And even though I've maintained a large weight loss for eight years now, I don't ever feel like I'm really "there" (in maintenance) yet.
And yet, every time I think I have finally figured it out and I feel confident enough to state it on my blog, I gain weight again. The times where I'm doing great and feeling great, it's easy to feel like it will last forever. Last year, for example, I was 99% sure that I'd finally gotten to the place I was looking for--I was healthy, I was eating in a sustainable way that made me feel good, and I was just doing what made me happy.
It almost seemed easy. I felt really good about my life in general, and it felt like I was going to maintain that feeling forever.
When the weight started creeping up, I was worried. I had a very hard time figuring out what to do about it. I wasn't binge eating; I was just overeating in general. Eating too frequently, off schedule, and too much.
My weight tends to jump up in spurts. I'll gain about 6-8 pounds within a week or so, and then maintain that for several weeks or even months sometimes; then I'll gain another 6-7 pounds. And that is what happened to me recently.
I remember being at around 144, and not too worried--I was "only" 11 pounds over my goal weight. Then one day, I was 152. Seeing the 150's again was very worrisome. I knew how long it would take to lose that weight (again) and I felt overwhelmed.
Recently, I stepped on the scale to see 158--dangerously close to my highest weight in 8 years. I felt like it just came out of nowhere. I still haven't been binge eating, and to see that number was a little mortifying.
Finally, yesterday, I got on the scale and saw the highest number I've seen in the 8 years since losing 125 pounds: 162.8. I am back in the 160's.
I wish I could say all sorts of inspiring things about how I'm going to lose this weight and how it's not going to stop me from trying; but honestly, I am very worried that the scale will continue to rise. I've tried counting calories again, something that has always worked in the past, but I just can't seem to stick with it very long (like a day or two).
In addition to my diet, I have NO willpower to run. I want to--I really, really want to--but I can't seem to get in that habit and make it a part of my life like I used to. Each time I run, it feels like it gets harder and harder (no doubt because of the weight gain). If it felt like it used to, where an easy run actually felt easy, I think I would be much more motivated to go out and do it. Feeling this out of shape has not just taken a toll on my body, but on my motivation as well.
I would like to come up with some sort of do-able plan to hopefully get back on track and lose this weight. It's scary to see 162. I feel like I'm too far gone and this is it. This is when I gain it all back. I try not to feel so negatively about it, but that's much harder than it sounds.
When I say that I want to make a plan, I don't mean a "challenge" (you know I love making challenges!). I need to focus on making simple changes that I can live with--just like I did in 2009. I can change more as I go along, but to start, I want to make small goals to at least get back in good habits.
My first priority is actually not my diet; it's running. I want to run regularly again so badly. I miss feeling like a runner, and pushing myself to do things I once thought were impossible. When I coach cross country, I want to be a good role model. Yes, I know how to coach--but I want to actually be a runner who coaches.
This photo is from one of my very favorite runs. I ran on Christmas day (hence the red and green) and it was a little snowy. I can still remember how crisp the air felt! I truly enjoyed it.
In 2010, when I decided to start running for fitness, I made a promise to myself: I was going to run three times per week for at least 30 minutes... no matter what. There are ZERO excuses to keep me from doing that much. I remember running early in the morning or late at night so that Jerry would be here with the kids; I asked my parents or my brother to watch them so I could run; my friend watched the kids so I could run, and then I watched hers so that she could run.
I did whatever it took. No excuses.
So, my first plan is to get back into running by going back to how it all started: running three times per week for 30+ minutes each time. No matter what.
As far as my diet goes, I want to try something new for a little while (maybe just a couple of weeks to see how it goes). Over the last nine years, I've learned that each time I gain a significant amount of weight back, I do something new to lose it.
In September 2012, I tried out Weight Watchers' new (at the time) program, starting at 156 pounds. I got down to my goal in December 2012.
I started calorie counting in August 2015 at 158 pounds. I got down to my goal weight of 133 in November 2015. I continued losing weight without really trying to, which I believe was from my heart rate training. I was 121 pounds in February 2016.
In 2017, I was diagnosed with bipolar and put on a mood stabilizing medication. I felt so much better, and I just focused on being happy. I naturally picked up a way of eating that felt good to me--a modified "intuitive eating" lifestyle. I made the decision to start fresh in February 2017, and my weight was just under 160. The changes in lifestyle kind of came naturally. I was back at my goal weight in June 2017.
I'm not proud of all of these ups and downs, but they are what they are. I've learned something from each one of them. I've recently tried going back to these things that worked in the past, and I just can't seem to stick with them. The one thing I've always said is that I will not make changes that I'm not willing to do for the rest of my life. And I'm going to stick with that.
I have always believed that reaching our healthiest weight can be achieved by simply eating less food. Small portions. Eating less frequently. I don't believe that our bodies need as much food as we are taught we should eat.
I've always done this via portion control--measuring or weighing out my food to ensure that I'm not overdoing it. When I was eating intuitively, I was eating the portions that just felt right; and I wasn't forcing myself to eat if I wasn't hungry.
I've gotten away from those habits for some reason. So, I'd like to just work on one small change right now. I want to eat only when I'm actually hungry. Lately, I've been eating when anxious, when stressed out, when celebrating something, and other reasons, whether I'm hungry or not. Focusing on just that small change will help me to feel more in control, and then later I can work on another habit.
Regardless, the running is my number one priority, and I am most determined to do that. I went for a run Wednesday morning just because I felt like it (my body is so sore and stiff from working on our house project, I actually thought a run would feel good!).
One thing I know for sure is that I want to do my best to get this weight off. I am not happy with how I look and I'm certainly not happy with how I feel. I feel sluggish, which is exactly how I felt at 253 pounds. And I can't stand the thought of becoming part of that statistic that says I will gain back all the weight.
It's embarrassing to see people in public because the gain is obvious. I haven't been posting pictures of me on my blog for the same reason. I cringe when I see photos of me. I even avoid looking in the mirror! My clothes don't fit, and now that this is jeans and sweatshirt weather, I'm super bummed that I can't wear what I have.
I know these are petty reasons to want to lose weight, but there are other more serious reasons, too. Running has always helped with my anxiety, and of course I want to be less anxious. Running has made me feel good about myself, whether I was 160 pounds or 121 pounds. Overeating causes me to feel tired all the time, which makes me unproductive; eating only when I'm hungry will make me more energetic.
Also, I've been having a lot of back, neck, and shoulder pain (just like last year when I was in physical therapy). I'm sure the extra weight isn't helping that. When I was running regularly and eating the correct portions, I don't remember feeling this much pain.
This whole post, in a nutshell:
This post is not meant to be a downer or a "poor me, I'm feeling sorry for myself". It's not meant to make excuses. I'm writing this post because it feels good to get it out in the open and not feel like I'm hiding something. I've always tried to be open and honest on my blog, even though I feel very vulnerable when I write personal things like this.- I am at the highest weight I've been in 8 years
- The extra weight is affecting my mood, health, and overall mindset
- I'm terrified that my weight will continue to climb and I'll gain everything back
- I want to run again--three times a week to start--and this is my top priority right now
- I'm going to work on eating only when I'm physically hungry
- I want to get my weight back down not just for vain reasons, but also for my health and overall wellness
I hope that I'll have good things to report in the coming weeks. Seeing the 160's was a big reality check, and I finally feel like I'm ready to do this. I'm going to work on it the slow way (one small step at a time) and eventually, I hope to get back to my goal weight (once again).
Thanks for always being so kind to me. I don't express it enough, but I appreciate the encouraging words from your comments and emails more than you know.


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An assistant professor who teaches voice, speech and acting in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Theatre has been named a 2011 National Teaching Artist by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF).
Marlene Johnson, M.F.A., is one of six national KCACTF teaching artists chosen to receive a $2,000 grant for professional development. Johnson first was honored by the KCACTF as a regional teaching artist following nomination by her peers and became eligible to be considered for the national award. The award recognizes the recipients' achievements as teachers, professional artists and contributors to KCACTF programming.
Only two of the six national teaching artists selected are performers, and that adds to the prestige of Johnson's honor, says Kelly Allison, M.F.A., professor and interim chair of the UAB Department of Theatre.
"This recognition by the Kennedy Center is a testament to Marlene Johnson's prowess as an artist and an educator," he says. "She is the second member of the theatre department to be honored with a national Kennedy Center award during the past five years." Associate Professor Dennis McLernon, M.F.A., was awarded an Actors Center Teacher Development Fellowship in 2007.
Johnson is the vocal coach for every play presented by Theatre UAB. She helps student actors improve vocal clarity, expressivity and accents and learn to fully embody their characters on stage.
"Many people don't understand what it is a vocal coach does. I teach voice, speech, breathing, dialects and text work, all with an acting perspective. My areas of research have been looking for ways to expand the actor's presence," Johnson says. "I seek to free the actor's voice and body to find greater ease and power, and discover latent strengths. I am committed to teaching them to speak with clarity, expressivity and power and to be present in their bodies and in relationship with their environment. This is more than actor training."
Johnson will attend the national KCACTF festival April 18-23, 2011, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The six teaching artists will be recognized by the KCACTF with a full-page ad in one of the largest theater magazines in the country, American Theatre. Johnson will use the grant money awarded to complete her studies of the Alexander Technique, a method of study that encourages improved balance, posture, movement, breathing and body awareness.
"Because of my own quest to integrate body and voice, the discovery of the Alexander Technique some years ago excited me. This is why I began studying, and once I got a taste of what it could do for me as a performer and as a trainer of performers, I was determined to become an Alexander Technique teacher," she says.
"This award is going to allow me to continue another year of training, so that I will be certified in the Alexander Technique," she says. "The work helps me, helps my students and helps the professionals with whom I work."


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The NBA playoff series between Denver and Dallas erupted into a verbal free-for-all after Nuggets' star Kenyon Martin unleashed a profanity-filled tirade at Mavs owner Mark Cuban, who had ripped the player before trying to make peace.
Cuban got personal when he told Martin's mom that her son was a thug while leaving the court Saturday following a controversial non-call that resulted in Dallas losing Game 3 and falling to 0-3 in the series. He apologized for the remarks Tuesday, one day after Martin, a Dallas native, lit into him at the conclusion of Dallas' Game 4 win Monday night at the American Airlines Center. In the same game, Carmelo Anthony's girlfriend was escorted from courtside.
While walking off the court, Martin looked in Cuban's direction and said, "You better walk that way. You better walk that way you fa***t motherf****r. You gotta come to Denver bi**h."
Talking with fans last night, Cuban could be seen laughing off the verbal assault. But today he struck a more conciliatory tone.
In an open letter on his blog today, Cuban apologized for ripping Martin to his mother, while all but promising a Game 5 win in Denver Wednesday night.
On his blog, Cuban offered to let Martin's family stay in his suite when the series returns to Dallas for Game 6.
The series will only return to Dallas at this point if the Mavs win Game 5 ... so even in his apology, Cuban was getting in a dig.
Cuban then continued to smooth things over by assuring readers that his family has also played the victim in opposing arenas.
"So if we can put this behind us, I will make sure when the series comes back to Dallas, your family and friends, and that of your teammates are very comfortable at our Arena," Cuban wrote.
While it's true that optimism can take you far in sports, it's not clear if the Big Mo has completely shifted into Dallas' corner. Dallas is now 1-7 against the Nuggets and are heading into extremely hostile territory.
Tip off for Game 5 is Wednesday night at 8 p.m. in Denver. Cuban, who has a previous engagement, will not be there.


text:
On January 25, 2020, my beloved dad, Manny, died after a tough battle with mesothelioma and congestive heart failure. To honor the man who taught me so much, I'm rerunning my 2015 Father's Day essay about Papa Leite.
My father is a good man. Just ask my mother. Actually, if you spend enough time with her, she'll tell you anyway, blurting it out while watching TV or holding out a bag of mini Milky Way bars to you. "Manny Leite's a good man," she'll say.
The measure of a good man is calculated by many yardsticks. For my father, it was being a provider. It began with a home. First with a floor, eventually covered in the lightest of oak—"Only three-quarter-inch will do," he'd say—that supported us, two-by-fours that became walls that surrounded us, and, finally, a roof that protected us—all built with his own hands.
Then there was sustenance. He cut a garden from what has to be God's rockiest half-acre, situated behind our house. A grape arbor appeared first. Beneath it, we lingered over many long, lazy meals, just we three. Plump bunches of grapes hung heavily, and my father would pluck some and feed them to my mother. The shaded table grew crowded with our expanding family my father brought over from the Azores. First my grandfather, then my uncle, my aunt, another aunt, and finally my grandmother and the youngest aunt of all. And, in time, their spouses and later their kids gathered round. It was understood back then that this half-acre was on loan: It was meant for me, my wife, and my children—a family that would never come to be.
A small vegetable garden replaced the arbor, way back in the '60s when my father's shovel was taller than me. A few parallel lines of plants I can't remember. But as my father came to understand that I would never live there, that my future lay somewhere else—somewhere I wasn't so asthmatic, wheezing at the confines of a small New England town—the plot grew, and he weeded more rocks from it. Enough rocks to make a wall around the side of the property. He planted tomatoes, onions bigger than softballs, waxy long red peppers, big bouquets of satiny-looking kale, corn with its incessant hissing of leaves in the wind, and potatoes. Always potatoes. My father loves potatoes. I love my father's potatoes.
We had little in common, my father and I. Oh, we were similar in some ways. We didn't like sports, and neither of us ever delved much into books. And, of course, we shared values and morals. How could we not? They were his and my mother's, and they taught me well.
But left alone, he and I didn't have much to say to each other. How many times did my mother elbow me: "Go outside and help your father." I'd pull back the lacy curtain to see him, the rototiller bronco-bucking in his hands, tearing up the earth for another year's worth of vegetables. Or snapping suckers off tomatoes. Or tying up the grapevines that had come to take up half of the half-acre.
I wanted nothing to do with that work. It was manual labor. It was also Manuel's Labor. I was convinced it wasn't work meant for me. "I'm going to hire someone to do this when I get older," I would tell my father, after I was forced by my mother to help lift rocks into the barrow and wheel them, weaving as if I was plastered, to the growing stone wall. He'd wince and shake his head. I thought he was being judgmental, even smug, but my father isn't a smug person. I see now he was wounded that I didn't find value in what he held so sacred.
Gardening wasn't a luxury for my father when he was growing up. It was survival. Back in the Old Country, if you didn't garden, you didn't eat. Small squares of land, no bigger than our front cement porch, would have to supply a family of seven. I think he always held the fear of going hungry again.
I don't know what it was that seized me this year to want to create a big garden. I'm a lousy gardener. But there I was, overseeing the construction of four huge raised beds. Annoying J.D., the carpenter, with my constant comments, my million little adjustments. Aggravating Ron, the yard guy, with questions about exactly how organic his organic soil was. Bullying The One into planting the rows the way I wanted them—the way I remembered my father planting his.
What I've never told The One in 23 years is that I understand plants far better than I've let on. For two or three summers beginning when I was 13, my parents sent me to work on a farm as a way of, hopefully, combating what we later learned was terrible depression. I've never copped to my understanding so I could avoid work. But there I was, standing in front of three beds The One and I had planted, a fourth waiting to be seeded, and I felt something. I felt something of my father in me.
It was the potatoes, my father's potatoes that he gave me to plant, that did it. I had fantasized they were potatoes that had been in our family for 25, maybe 30 years. But their lineage goes back only a few years.
I began calling him, asking how deep and how far apart should I plant them, sending photograph after photograph, asking for the precise places to cut through the tubers so I could maximize my yield. The thought that in about 75 days I would be eating potatoes that were related to those from that half-acre of rocks back home moved me something fierce.
And it filled me with awe and guilt and closeness. I blubbered on the phone, eyes nearly swollen shut, snot running down my face, a knot burning a hole through my throat as I spoke to my father. I felt connected to this good man. I began to appreciate the lure of the garden, understand the pleasures he found among the plants. Unlike writing, my trade, whose harvest at the end of the day is never guaranteed, gardening always promises something. There is no such thing as gardener's block. Nothing wishy-washy, no doubt or self-recriminations. You plant, you hoe, you feed, you weed, you harvest.
When I go out to the garden, I think of my father. It's a contemplative time when I hoe my worries, weed my discontent. I wonder what my father used to mull over when he was alone in his garden when I was younger.
The strange sadness and fear that gripped me? My possibly being gay? My imminent departure, "as soon as I turn eighteen, just you watch," which I never ceased to remind him of? I've never asked. A man should be allowed his mystery.
Each morning, bent over these beds, I marvel at how the broccoli has shot up another three inches. How two or three more shoots from my father's potatoes have wormed their way up through the soil. How the tomatoes need, yet again, to be staked because they grew so quickly. How the cucumber tendrils and leaves must be woven through the fence as they climb, creating an eventual wall of green.
Yes, my father is a good man. Not so much because he has been a good provider. He proved that long ago. But because he holds no resentment that it has taken me 40 years to come around to the simple act of following in his muddy footsteps.
I frantically, obsessively want to know what he knows because his garden, which at one time crowded out the backyard, grows smaller each year. It's now a mere two rows, as long as I am tall. A few potato plants, fewer tomatoes, and even fewer peppers. I want, no, I need so much for my father's spirit and his thrill of the garden to live on in me. I have no child or legacy. This garden is the closest he will ever get to a grandchild. Or to something that, though not spun from his DNA, descends directly from him.
Happy Father's Day, Daddy.


text: FINIS is Latin for "The End" or "Finale", and it signifies in the name of this company both the developmental goals that swimmers have and the end that they strive to reach—the finish line. Founded in 1993, FINIS provides highly technical competition suits, training equipment, child water-safety products and high end goggles. Their very popular SwiMP3 water-proof digital media player is revolutionary in its streamlined design, enabling a swimmer to listen to music while practicing laps and other exercises in the pool.


text:
I'll start this question with a bit of background first...
I've been playing in a new group as a Cleric. Our warrior was in a pretty bad state but survived the encounter. He was about to use 3 surges during our rest to heal himself to max hit points. I told him that I could use Healing Word on him and heal him to max hit points using just 1 surge (getting the maximum benefit from it because of the Restful Healing feat).
I was then told by others in the group that Healing Word is an encounter power and cannot be used outside of an encounter. This didn't make sense to me because of the way Restful Healing is described in the Players Handbook:
After you take a short rest or an extended rest, any healing power you use before the start of your next encounter restores the maximum number of hit points possible.
For example, if a 6th level cleric with Wisdom 18 and this feat uses healing word after a rest, that power allows the target to regain hit points equal to his or her surge value plus 16 (the maximum result of 2d6 + 4)
This seems pretty clear cut to me. They wouldn't use an illegal example in the manual would they?
I'd also like an answer to the more general question, are you allowed to use encounter powers outside of an encounter?


text:
IS&T offers the MIT Wiki Service to provide MIT groups and organizations with collaborative web spaces. Any MIT community group, project, or organization can request a wiki space.
Benefits and key features
- Wiki spaces can be restricted to a small group of colleagues or can be opened up to the world.
- Integrates MIT's well-established Moira list management service to manage group permissions.
- For authorization, Wikis integrates with MIT's Touchstone authentication service.
The MIT Wiki Service uses Confluence from Atlassian Software.
The MIT Wiki Service is intended for use by MIT academic, administrative, research, and student groups.
Getting started
- Request an MIT Wiki Service space for your group or course.
- Get help: MIT Wiki Help Page | Confluence's User Guide
Access existing MIT Wiki spaces:
- Go to the MIT Wikis Dashboard, and click on the name of the space you want to visit, or search - some spaces may require permissions to view or edit.
Click Log In to see the full list of spaces you have permission to view.
For more information on permissions and access controls, see: Controlling Access to Your Wiki Space.
Note about support: Support is provided for creating spaces, setting up access control to spaces, and basic instructions and documentation on how to use a space. Since rules, page formats, and guidelines often differ from space to space, IS&T can only provide limited guidance to individual users. As a space administrator, you may need to assist your content creators as they get used to creating or editing pages in your space.


text: The Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics invites applications for Postdoctoral Research Associate or more senior positions, to join in research efforts of interest to its faculty. Domains of interest include nonlinear partial differential equations, computational fluid dynamics, material science, dynamical systems, numerical analysis, stochastic analysis, graph theory and applications, mathematical biology, financial mathematics, mathematical approaches to signal analysis, information theory, structural biology and image processing. Appointments are made for one year, renewable yearly for up to three years, if funding is available and performance is satisfactory. For details on specific faculty members and their research interests, please go to https://www.pacm.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/faculty_interests2018-19apc_0.pdf Applicants must submit a cover letter, CV, bibliography/publications list, statement of research and three letters of recommendation online at https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs. Ph.D. is required. This position is subject to the University background check policy. Princeton University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. |


text:
About Our Signs: We offer signs and products in a variety of designs, sizes, and materials. Choose your size, material, and quantity, then click continue to customize your design with your information! Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed!
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text:
There is absolutely nothing from the Founding Fathers – and I mean nothing – in which they said your number one course of action in response to massive, repeated constitutional violations should be to "vote the bums out."
They never said that. Nowhere. Ever.
For some reason, though, opponents of endless federal power seem to pull the "vote the bums out" card first. And a vast majority of them seem to have just that one card – and no others.
Wherever I speak around the country, "vote the bums out" is the first thing people tell me needs to be done to fix problems created by the federal government. People everywhere back this up with their money. The 2012 elections saw around $6 Billion dollars spent.
Six Billion dollars. Anyone who complains about how Congress spends money should be appalled at this utter waste of resources.
When Congress spends hundreds of dollars on a toilet seat, at least they get something to sit on.
When you spend your hard-earned money on federal candidates that are going to reduce the size and scope of the federal government, you get nothing. Zilch.
"Government today is bigger and more unconstitutional than it was before the last election."
If you could travel through time, you could make that statement in any of the last 100 years and you'd almost never be wrong.
"Voting the bums out" has proven to be a complete and utter failure as a strategy.
Some people will tell you that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
While I doubt that people spending their hard-earned money on this proven failure are insane, there's certainly something to be said here.
Let's say you have a new restaurant open in your neighborhood. You give it a try; they treat you rudely and don't even give you what you ordered. They serve you something completely different and refuse to fix it. After talking with your neighbors, you learn that every one of them had the same experience there.
You probably wouldn't give them your money again, would you?
Well, maybe the owners want to give it another try. They hire a new manager, walk around the neighborhood, door-to-door, apologizing for the horrible treatment and making great promises about service, better prices and higher quality.
OK, you think, time to give these people another chance – they're human, after all!
The second time you go there…it's worse.
Again, they bring you food you never ordered and refuse to correct the mistake. They spill food on your clothes, and then force you to pay them to clean it. And after you leave, they double-charge your credit card too.
I can guarantee that even if you got to the 2nd try, there would never be a third.
But, for some odd reason, even though each and every one of us deals with this kind of treatment (well, much worse, actually) from the federal government, there's more than a 2nd try or even a 3rd. Way more.
After watching government grow every year for our entire life, millions of us pour our heart, soul – and money – into the next person who promises to fix things.
These bums, and the new bums who replace them once in a while, have an insatiable appetite for money and power. They often sound like underdogs, make wonderful promises about all the good they'll do, and never have enough of your money.
Occasionally, you get someone who's the real deal. They are an honest person, they'll work hard to do the right thing, and will do everything they can to move the federal government closer to the constitution.
Even when a few good people get elected, they fail.
Here's the hard truth. It doesn't matter what political party is in power in Washington DC, or what person is in charge in the White House – federal power always grows and your liberty is always less. This is how things have gone for at least 100 years.
Even though government-schools will never teach you how to limit government power, the Founders did – in fact – offer solutions.
No, there's no silver bullet. No one's riding in on a white horse to save you in the way people view presidential candidates. And no, those unaccountable, politically-connected lawyers who make up the Supreme Court aren't going to fix things either. They work for the organization that's violating your rights more than any in the world – the federal government. They're part of the problem, too.
James Madison, generally regarded as the "father of the Constitution," was pretty direct about what should be done. He wrote the following in Federalist #46:
Should an unwarrantable measure of the federal government be unpopular in particular States, which would seldom fail to be the case, or even a warrantable measure be so, which may sometimes be the case, the means of opposition to it are powerful and at hand. The disquietude of the people; their repugnance and, perhaps refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union, the frowns of the executive magistracy of the State; the embarrassment created by legislative devices, which would often be added on such occasions, would oppose, in any State, very serious impediments; and were the sentiments of several adjoining States happen to be in Union, would present obstructions which the federal government would hardly be willing to encounter.
James Madison said that when the federal government passes an unconstitutional measure – or even if they pass something that's totally constitutional, but still unpopular – there are ways to successfully resist it.
Notice that Madison didn't mention a single thing about elections or voting bums out.
He did, however, point to methods which are "powerful and at hand." Two prominent examples that you should be doing today:
– "refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union"
– use "legislative devices" to create "very serious impediments"
Madison also told us that if several adjoining States would do the same it make things extremely difficult for the feds to deal with.
Judge Andrew Napolitano has said virtually the same recently – that a state refusing to comply would make federal laws "nearly impossible to enforce."
I happen to agree.
We've all got extremely limited time, resources and money. It's important to try to have the biggest bang for the buck when it comes to the Constitution and your liberty.
Let's say, for example, you have 1 hour a week to dedicate to an effort, and $100 a year to donate.
If you're knocking on doors trying to help someone win a congressional primary race, or you've donated your $100 to a 2016 presidential candidate, you've already lost.
Instead, you could dedicate your 1 hour per week to following Madison's advice. You could work to advance legislation in your state, county, city or town that would, by law, require a "refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union" on a specific issue – as Madison advised.
Stop pouring your time and money into the siren song of federal election campaigns. Voting the bums out is a failed strategy.
If your goal is the Constitution, it's high-time that you start following James Madison's advice on how to get there.
Your country needs you. Your community needs you. Your family needs you. Liberty needs you. The time to act is now.
- Constitution 101: Supremacy Clause - January 29, 2024
- Benjamin Franklin's Finest: Top Views from the "First American" - January 17, 2024
- Breaking Free from the Monster State: 5 Essential Principles - January 15, 2024


text:
(CNN) -- Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation announced Wednesday an immediate voluntary recall of approximately 36 million pounds of ground turkey meat because it may be contaminated with salmonella bacteria.
"I'd say it's one of the larger recalls," said Joel Brandenberger, president of the Washington-based National Turkey Federation, where he has worked for more than 20 years. Indeed, that's the weight of more than 36 fully-loaded Boeing 747 commercial airplanes.
Cargill's plant in Springdale, Arkansas, processed the suspect fresh and frozen ground turkey products between February 20 and August 2, the company said in a news release.
Federal health authorities said Tuesday that an outbreak of multi-drug-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg that has killed one person and sickened 76 others in 26 states appears to have been traced to ground turkey products.
The company said it has suspended production of ground turkey products at the processing facility until it can determine the source of the bacteria strain.
See the full product recall list here (PDF)
Consumers are being encouraged to return any opened or unopened packages for a full refund.
Other turkey products from Springdale are not affected by the recall. Nor are products from Cargill's three other turkey processing facilities in the United States.
"It is regrettable that people may have become ill from eating one of our ground turkey products and, for anyone who did, we are truly sorry," said Steve Willardsen, president of Cargill's turkey processing business. "We go to great lengths to ensure the food we produce is safe and we fully understand that people expect to be able to consume safe food, each serving, every time."
About 5 billion pounds of ready-to-cook turkey meat are sold in the United States each year, Brandenberger said. That's nearly double what it was 40 years ago, he said.
Salmonella and E. coli symptoms, prevention and treatment
It works out to 17 to 18 pounds of turkey per person per year, of which about 10% is ground, he said. The recalled meat represents slightly more than 6% of the national production of ground turkey in a given year, he said.
Each year, about 260 million turkeys are raised in the United States. Brandenberger predicted the recall will have little impact on turkey consumption. "The fact that the government and everybody involved worked through this issue pretty quickly to resolve it will maintain consumer confidence in ground turkey," he said.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service released a public health alert for frozen or fresh ground turkey products that underscored the importance of following cooking instructions and general food safety practices when preparing any raw meat or poultry.
It recommends meat be cooked to 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 Celsius).
Infection with the bacteria can cause people to develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection.
The sickness usually lasts four to seven days, and most people recover without treatment.
But severe diarrhea can require hospitalization and, if the infection spreads from the intestines to the bloodstream and then elsewhere in the body, the bacteria can prove fatal, according to public health experts.
The aged, infants and people with impaired immune systems tend to be at highest risk.
CNN's Chelsea Bailey contributed to this story.


text:
WASHINGTON — Calling quits on a bruising election-year fight, negotiators on Capitol Hill announced an agreement late Wednesday on legislation to renew a payroll tax cut for 160 million workers and jobless benefits for millions more.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., announced the agreement after a wrapup set of talks that capped a long day of wrangling over final details of the measure, which is a top priority of President Barack Obama. The announcement paved the way for votes in both House and Senate this week.
"We have reached an agreement," Camp said, though he added that a few technical details still need to be sorted out by staff aides.
The $150 billion measure represents a tactical retreat for Republicans, who were generally unenthusiastic about the legislation but eager to move beyond the issue. With the campaign season starting, they don't want Obama and Democrats in Congress to be able to claim that the GOP was standing in the way of a middle-class tax cut.
It represented a rare burst of bipartisanship in a bitterly divided Congress.
The legislation would continue a 2 percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax, renew jobless benefits averaging about $300 a week for people languishing for long periods on unemployment rolls and protect doctors from a huge cut in their Medicare reimbursements.
The measure carries a price tag of roughly $150 billion over the coming year, partly financed by new auctions of telecommunications spectrum to wireless companies and by requiring newly-hired federal workers to contribute 2.3 percent of their salary toward their traditional defined benefit pensions. The pension provision would raise $15 billion but was more palatable to supporters of federal workers in the Maryland and Virginia delegations than a version sought by House Republicans — and initially, tentatively agreed to by key Democrats — that would have required current federal workers to contribute 1.5 percent more to their pensions.
Wednesday evening featured brinksmanship from Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., a member of the House-Senate negotiating panel, who withheld his support for the entire measure until the pension modifications were made. Cardin's state is home to many federal workers. His signoff was especially crucial since Senate Republican negotiators, who were largely out of the talks, were withholding their support too.
Auctions of portions of the nation's airwaves to wireless companies would net another $15 billion or so — even after $7 billion is set aside to construct and run a new public safety network for emergency first responders.
Extending the payroll tax cut and renewing long-term jobless benefits were key planks in Obama's jobs program, which was announced last September but has been largely ignored since. The measures are intended to help the economy by giving people more money to spend, fattening a typical bimonthly paycheck by $40 or so and giving the unemployed critical cash that most of them turn around and spend immediately.
The measure also includes a key adjustment to the badly broken Medicare payment formula for doctors, which would otherwise impose a 27 percent cut on March 1 under a 1997 budget law. The $20 billion cost would be covered in part by cuts to a fund created under Obama's health care law that awards grants for preventive care and by curbs on Medicaid payments to hospitals that care for a disproportionate share of uninsured patients.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the legislation would probably be voted on by the end of the week. GOP leaders had jump-started the talks over the weekend by dropping a demand that the tax cut be paid for with spending cuts. On Monday, Republicans upped the ante by threatening to advance the payroll tax cut on its own — and leave jobless benefits and the Medicare fix behind, which set off alarms with Democratic lawmakers and at the White House.
"We were not going to allow the Democrats to continue to play political games and raise taxes on working Americans," Boehner told reporters. "We made the decision to bring them to the table so that the games would stop and we would get this work done."
Some rank-and-file Republicans continued to grumble that the measure was flawed and that the payroll tax cut, first enacted in December of 2010, has done little to prop up the economy. But the prevailing instinct among Republicans was political survival and not wanting to look like they were getting in the way of an election-year tax cut.
"Not going to do this again, but if it gets us through the year, gets this issue off the table, it's worth doing this way," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
One snag on Wednesday, aides said, had involved a spat over new auctions of wireless spectrum, a key provision required to help defray the $30 billion cost of extending jobless benefits. House Republicans moved in the Democrats' direction on the amount of money dedicated to creating the public safety communications network for first responders.
Republicans claimed victory in reducing the number of weeks of jobless benefits that workers would be eligible to receive. The maximum number in states with the highest jobless rates would be cut from 99 weeks to 73 weeks by the end of the year, according to aides in both parties. Republicans had wanted to cut the maximum to 59 weeks.
But in states with particularly high unemployment, such as Rhode Island and Nevada, the measure is actually more generous over the next few months than current law.
Negotiators also dropped House-passed language that would have forced low-income people to have Social Security numbers in order to get government checks by claiming the children's tax credit, a move that was aimed at illegal immigrants and caused a furor among many Hispanics.
Republicans also dropped a proposal requiring unemployed people to seek high school equivalency degrees to obtain benefits. But a GOP provision requiring jobless people to be more diligent in job searches as a condition of receiving benefits was included.
The measure also would prevent welfare recipients from using their electronic benefits cards to withdraw money at ATMs in strip clubs, casinos and liquor stores.


text:
Staying Fit
President Donald Trump gulps down a dozen Diet Cokes each day, The New York Times reported Saturday. You might think drinking sugar-free diet soda is better for you than regular soda, which is packed with sugar. After all, experts have been sounding alarm bells for years about the dangers of consuming excessive amounts of sugar, which has been associated with obesity and a litany of health problems.
But research published in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke earlier this year finds that the artificial sweeteners used in diet drinks are also a cause for concern, as they have been linked to a greater risk of stroke and dementia.
Flash Sale! Join AARP today for $16 per year. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP The Magazine.
The April 2017 study involved 2,888 adults older than 45 and 1,484 adults older than 60. Researchers asked the participants to answer questions about their eating and drinking habits at three separate points during a seven-year period. Then, for the next 10 years, they kept tabs on the participants, recording which of them suffered a stroke or developed dementia.
In the end, researchers learned that those who drank at least one artificially sweetened drink per day were nearly three times more likely to have a stroke or develop dementia compared to those who drank ess than one a week. Their findings held up even after adjusting for other factors such as age, gender, calorie intake, diet quality, physical activity and the presence of genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's disease.
The data collected did not distinguish between the types of artificial sweeteners used in the drinks.
Although lead researcher Matthew Pase of the Boston University School of Medicine acknowledged that the findings showed only a correlation — and not causation — he said they do provide yet one more piece of evidence that diet drinks are not as healthy an alternative to sugary drinks as many people think.
"We recommend that people drink water on a regular basis instead of sugary or artificially sweetened beverages," he said in a statement.
Pase added that the study shows a need to direct more research to this area, given how often people drink artificially sweetened beverages.
Responding to the new study, the American Beverage Association released a statement saying that low-calorie sweeteners found in beverages have been proven safe by worldwide government safety authorities.
"The FDA, World Health Organization, European Food Safety Authority and others have extensively reviewed low-calorie sweeteners and have all reached the same conclusion — they are safe for consumption," the statement said. "While we respect the mission of these organizations to help prevent conditions like stroke and dementia, the authors of this study acknowledge that their conclusions do not — and cannot — prove cause and effect."
Even so, you might want to think twice before gulping down diet soda. A 2015 study of adults 65 and older found that those who drank diet soda daily gained more weight than those who never drank it. Still another previous study found that diet soda could disrupt gut bacteria, leading to glucose intolerance in some people and raising the risk for type 2 diabetes.


text:
Girls wanted to be able to construct anything they could imagine, and our testing enabled us to create a toy that equipped them with the perfect tools.
By Alice Brooks, Bettina Chen & Jennifer Kessler (Founders, Maykah)
In January, we set out to design a toy that would inspire young girls to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), by exposing them to the subjects in a fun way. Soon, we had built a toy car that they could wire, build, and decorate. Six months later, our product had evolved dramatically into Roominate – a stackable, attachable, and customizable miniature room.
Roominate is the story of how we learned when to iterate, when to test and how to design for our customer – and stay true to our vision. We thought our toy car idea was brilliant. Girls built circuits to power home made cars that they could decorate to look like animals. Girls would associate fun with engineering, while gaining confidence in their abilities to build something themselves. We called our prototype Peggy the Pig. She had a birth certificate and life story. We thought she was adorable.
Alas, 6-10 year-old girls did not.
We set out on a journey of rapid iteration and customer testing. Every time we learned something new, we adjusted our design. And, every time we adjusted our design, we tested it with customers and learned something new. This cycle of feedback and iteration drove our creative process.
We soon figured out why Peggy the Pig had flopped. She was chocolate-covered-broccoli – something educational (a circuit) covered with something fun (a craft project). Kids caught onto our guise quickly.
So, we started again by endeavoring to understand how young girls played. We learned that girls loved designing private, imaginary worlds in their dollhouses. We realized we could use educational components to make these dollhouses even more interesting – the complete opposite of chocolate-colored-broccoli.
The circuits we had developed for Peggy remained at the center of our design. We first tried coupling them with pre-built furniture and rooms. Through testing and iteration, the pre-built furniture evolved into specialty furniture pieces, and, finally, into completely modular building pieces. The rooms evolved into connectable walls, which ultimately became stackable and attachable. Girls wanted to be able to construct anything they could imagine, and our testing enabled us to create a toy that equipped them with the perfect tools.
Roominate was born! Stackable, attachable, and customizable miniature rooms with working circuits that girls connect themselves.
Girls' eyes lit up when they completed circuits that made light bulbs illuminate their rooms and excitedly designed kitchens around the motors they connected themselves. Buzzers inspired restaurants, doorbells, and game shows. Puzzle-like building pieces inspired dog houses and loft beds. We gave girls the tools to imagine their own worlds – a 3-D puzzle of modular circuit components and building pieces. We had taken something they loved and expanded the opportunity for imagination with additional components that developed their STEM thinking.
We designed Roominate for 6-10 year old girls. But the truth is, their input was the critical component of our design process. There were times when it felt like we would be iterating on our product forever. But as soon as we landed on Roominate, the smiles on girls' faces told us we were done.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign that sold more than 1300 units across six continents, the Roominate team is currently raising a seed round to scale up manufacturing and meet growing holiday demand (the waiting list numbers almost 10000. Roominate and its creators have been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, TechCrunch, Wired, Fast Company, CNET, The Huffington Post, and Babble. The Maykah team can be reached at email@example.com.
Roominate is the first product from Maykah Inc. – a company started by three Stanford graduate students who wished they saw more females in their upper level math and science classes.
Editor's note: Got a question for our guest bloggers? Leave a message in the comments below.
About the guest blogger: Alice Brooks is a founder of Maykah. She grew up in the Boston area and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Currently in her second year as a Master's student at Stanford University, Alice is focused on Mechanical Engineering Design. She spent six months working at Nest Labs. In her spare time, she loves making anything from light fixtures to stuffed animals to strawberry shortcake.
About the guest blogger: Bettina Chen is a founder of Maykah. Bettina graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 2010 with a BS in Electrical Engineering. In March, she graduated from Stanford with her Master's. She loves volunteering and working with kids, and is looking forward to getting kids as excited about engineering as she si! Bettina is a ultimate frisbee enthusiast and plays competitively on the Stanford club team. As a young girl, Bettina loved Legos and built hundreds of extravagant creations with her older brother.
About the guest blogger: Jennifer Kessler is a founder of Maykah. She is an MBA student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied Math, Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology. After college, she worked in NYC as a management consultant. She loves crossword puzzles, Settlers of Catan and hiking. Growing up, Jen loved solving math riddles with her dad and an early childhood memory is her grandfather teaching her to do long division in her head.


text:
• malversation •
Pronunciation: mæl-vêr-say-shên • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Misconduct or malfeasance in public office, at one time also known as jobbery.
Notes: No, today's Good Word doesn't mean bad conversation. It should be heard more frequently in our conversations, good or bad, given all we read and hear about malfeasance in public office these days. Well, if you have ever wanted to express "misconduct in public office" in a single, tidy word, malversation is the word for you. It is a paronym of the verb malversate, which usually suggests the misappropriation of public funds, as a mayor who malversates city tax revenues. The adjective would be malversational or malversative, should you like to be the first to use either.
In Play: It is difficult to think of this word as "in play", given its meaning, but here is an example: "The senator resigned before the Senate Ethics Committee could initiate an investigation into possible malversation." Many people in public office seem to be unable to avoid the practice: "Since when is ignoring the mayor's parking tickets malversation?"
Word History: The -ion on the end of today's Good Word is a dead giveaway that it comes from French, where it is the noun from the verb malverser "to misbehave". The French word descended from the Latin phrase male versari "to behave badly", made up of male "badly" + versari "to behave". Latin malus "bad" from which the adverb male derives, can also be seen lurking in such English words borrowed from French and Latin as malign, malady, malevolent and dismal—all bad things. (No, don't even think it, girls: English male is totally unrelated.)
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!


text: Hey there plant based foodies! I am Jill Dalton, Host and Chief Flavor Officer for the Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show. My family is working hard to share with you all our hard earned knowledge about living a plant based lifestyle. I am so pleased you have found our site and hope you will join our growing community!


text:
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Zidarich for a chilly day
This post takes us to Slovenia, by way of Greenwich Village.
A winter weekend lunch in a now chilled Manhattan, wind finding its icicle way up cuffs and sleeves, and a revolving door pushed around to a warm interior. Warm walls, warm colors. Reds, oranges. The smell of garlic and flatbread.
What to order from a list so long, in such tiny print it makes one think of miniatures and meticulous manuscripts? Italy sprawled out, not only geographically, but in the hills and gullies of winemaking styles. A Super-Tuscan? A carbonic natural wine? Something aged in anfora? A spit-clean Brunello? Something luscious from Paolo Bea? Well, not with the bottarga, please.
Sitting on the left side of the page was a small series of words that drew my eye: three or four in a row, lines ending in "Vitovska."
Having spent most of my wine-drinking life within the pleasantly diverse confines of the Gallic hexagon, I still get a thrill from forays into the beyond. Oh! A Ridge Zinfandel! A Nikolaihof Grüner Veltliner! Dry furmint from Hungary!
Vitovska is still a grape that looks like a vista I will not know. A sea of crisp, floral newness.
So a bottle of 2007 Zidarich Prulke was ordered. It's not actually a vitovska, just most of it. (It's got malvasia and sauvignon blanc in the mix.)
The wine was poured and, though still on its first breath of air and a bit of a refrigerated chill, it showed the skin-contact tannins and spicy appeal of its style. It was taut in the glass, with a lighter color than I had expected, a kind of orange iridescence.
Over the next hour, it went places. Places I wanted to go along with it. It opened into something of increasing textural complexity, with spicy and floral playing together in an offhanded and compelling way. The wine was also exceptionally pure.
Pure is not usually a qualifier that comes to mind when describing the so-called "orange" (skin-contact white) wines. More often, such as Movia's Lunar or Radikon's Jakot, they're a bit cloudy, and their appeal stems from their bold contradictions and intemperately prepossessed oddity rather than from any sense of fineness, chisel or purity.
Yet here it was in my glass, a chiseled thing. A chiseled orange thing.
8 comments:
What an evocative post. I don't know this wine, but I am glad you are back!
- February 17, 2012 at 1:45 AM
- Sharon said...
Thank you—I hope to start posting more frequently, going forward!
- February 18, 2012 at 3:18 PM
Sharon, there you go again. Distracted by life from musing about wines and travels and places. We sure hope to see you back soon.
- June 8, 2012 at 6:26 PM
- Red Wines said...
Sounds like a lovely wine, I must try it!
- September 6, 2012 at 5:39 PM
- PerfectCellar said...
You have a great writing style. Isn't it nice to be taken to places all over the world by just drinking a bottle of fine wine?
- November 16, 2012 at 1:35 PM
- expensive wines said...
I never taste this wine but yeah my friend told me about this wine he actually love this wine. So I asked him to sen some to me lol I guess this coming saturday I will taste this.
- March 12, 2013 at 3:02 PM
- wine tours russian river valley said...
It's worth trying, how does it taste by the way?
- July 4, 2013 at 1:43 AM
- wine tours russian river valley said...
By the way, thanks for the response.Just curious with the wines.
- July 4, 2013 at 1:45 AM
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text:
The UVM Mobile Hops Harvester visited six hop yards this year, harvesting approximately 400 dry pounds of hops, over a 4 week period plus harvesting the UVM Extension NW Crops and Soils Team's research hop yard. This harvester, developed as a result of a Northeast Hops Alliance, UVM Extension, VT Agency of Ag Food and Markets, and MA Department of Agriculture sponsored project, aims to provide proof of concept of a mobile hops harvester in support of the re-emerging hop industry in the Northeast US.
The reintroduction of hops to the northeast requires scale-appropriate harvest and processing equipment. At the start of this project there was no feasible mechanized harvest options for a 1-2 acre hop producer. Handpicking is the most wide-spread current practice which is labor intense and time consuming leading to expense and quality impact due to delayed harvest.
As a result of this project, cooperative use of a single, mobile harvester has been demonstrated and logistics for this operation are being continually improved. The harvester has a demonstrated capacity of 60-120 bines per hour compared to 1 bine per hour per person for manual picking. This rate enables the harvest of a 1 acre yard within 8 hours resulting in optimal harvest timing and improved quality. Assuming a harvest team of 4 people in either case, this translates to a harvest labor cost savings of 97% or $3,120 per acre at $15 per hour wage (approximately $2 per lb of dried hops (10-20% of retail price)).
"The hop harvester significantly sped up harvesting. With the size of the bines this year, some may not have been harvested at all without it's use. Knowing the UVM harvester is available helps me plan for hopyard expansion over time. Without a large harvester, such a UVM's, expansion would not be practical.", notes Kris Anderson of Addison Hop Farm in Addison, VT.
Trevor Lewis of Mad Mountain Hop Farm in Berlin, VT concurs, "Absolutely amazing! My harvest time went from 5 days to 5 hours! Though I am unsure of expansion at this time, this machine makes it possible to expand beyond a half acre which really isn't an option without a harvester."
This mobile, trailer-based mechanized hop-harvester was developed and documented as an open-source design for others to replicate and adapt to their needs. The design was the result of a collaborative design effort involving growers, brewers, agronomists, fabricators and engineers. Additionally, 255 people have downloaded the plans for the machine and 5 others have built harvesters at least partially informed by this work. This harvester pulls a complete bine (central bine/vine, leaves and cones) through a section of stripping fingers that separate the cones and leaves from the bine. The cones and leaves are conveyed to a secondary sorting section with rolling dribble belts against which the leaves lie flat while the cones roll backward down the belts. In this way the machine takes a loaded bine and produces two output streams of cones and leaves.
We've been reasonably pleased with capacity and efficiency of the machine. There is still room for improvement, and we plan to install chutes and fences over the winter to better contain all matter within the machine, improve separation and, thus, net yield. We also had two bearings fail this harvest season and will likely upgrade them to heavier duty bearing housings.
The entire machine is placed on an 18 foot equipment trailer for ease of transport. This year, the machine traveled approximately 3,400 miles visiting some yards multiple times as different varieties matured. Each year, the harvester travels further afield for an outreach demonstration. This year we traveled to Westfield, Maine (Aroostook County) to Aroostook Hops to help with their harvest and to give them some experience with the harvester.
"Having the UVM mobile hops harvester had a HUGE impact on our success this year. We had a hops picking party the previous weekend (Labor Day) with many volunteers handpicking hops (we estimate about 60 people passed through that weekend) and we got about 40% of our crop harvested," says Krista Johnston, " We had two articles in the local press about us and lots of interest was generated, so we couldn't have done better on "many hands", but without the harvester here the following weekend we could not have gotten all the hops in this season by handpicking alone."
Krista and her husband, Jason are thinking ahead to building a harvester of their own.
"We plan to fabricate a version of the mobile machine, so being able to use it ourselves and have our fabricators come out and operate it (for about 2 hours of time x two men) was absolutely invaluable to us. We had thought that "mobile" was less important to us and that we would build stationary with electric motors, but seeing how convenient it was to move around different locations made us reconsider that. Also, we recently expanded (last year) 3 acres so can't even think about getting bigger any time too soon, but having the capacity to harvest at the rate that the harvester can accomplish will remove that as a limiting factor when we catch our breath and consider future operations. We do plan to contract our harvester to other growers, and had thought we'd have bines come to us, but mobile is looking attractive."
Others have replicated and adapted the UVM design to their needs for the 2013 harvest season.
"We wouldn't have been able to build our harvester without the knowledge and research from the UVM machine," says Dean Heltemes of Lunatic Fringe Farms in Wisconsin. "I'm sure this picker will create a lot of buzz around our co-op. We might have the opportunity to do some harvesting for a farm a couple hours from here. The more hours we can get on this thing, the better off we will be for next year." Video of Lunatic Fringe Farms' harvester can be viewed on YouTube.
And so it goes, each year more hours are accrued on the harvester, more variations are built and we all continue to learn and improve together using this open source design. Plans for the machine can be downloaded from the UVM Hops Project Wiki at http://www.uvm.edu/extension/cropsoil/wikis. Chris Callahan can be reached by email or phone at 802-773-3349.