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Riverhead High graduate named Obama's cabinet secretary
Danielle Gray was voted 'Most Likely to Succeed' by her Riverhead High School class of 1996.
And succeed might just have been an understatement.
Profiled by the News-Review in December 2008 after she had helped then-Senator Barack Obama get elected to the presidency, Ms. Gray, now 34, was recently named cabinet secretary to the Obama administration.
"She's recently been promoted to Cabinet Secretary, where she'll essentially weigh each cabinet secretary's priorities with those of the president. As an economic expert, she'll see all through the lens of how policy affects people's pocketbooks, continuing to push a healthy economy through all her work," MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski wrote in an article published Wednesday.
According Ms. Brzezinski, Ms. Gray also helped two women get confirmed by the Supreme Court during the president's first term.
The article comes as part of MSNBC's Women of Value series.
Click here for the full article.
According to a White House press announcement on changes in what's called the White House Counsel, Ms. Gray previously served in the administration as "Deputy Policy Director for Obama for America, focusing on domestic policy as well as law and judicial issues."
That announcement was made last week.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Monarch Park Clinic,
Toronto, ON
Walk-in Medical Clinic
100 - 688 Coxwell Ave, Toronto, ON
Monarch Park Clinic is a Walk-In Medical Clinic located in Toronto, ON. Our clinic is dedicated to providing quality medical care to our patients. We offer a wide range of services, from general health care to specialized treatments. Our team of experienced and knowledgeable physicians and staff are committed to providing the best care possible.…
- Acne TreatmentAcute CareAddictionAllergiesBirth ControlBites & HivesCastingChronic disease careCold SoresConjuctivitis (Pink Eye)Rapid COVID-19 Antigen TestingCOVID-19 assessement centreCOVID-19 Testing for TravelDermatitisDiabetesDiabetes Reversal ProgramDiabetic CounsellingDietetic CareDoctor's noteEar flushingEmergency ContraceptionErectile DysfunctionFlu shotsFree Prescription DeliveryGastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)Health ConsultationHemorrhoidsHypertension ManagementMedical Imaging RequisitionImmunizationInfections - chest, ear, bladderInjuriesIUD Insertion & RemovalLaboratory RequisitionLifestyle CounsellingMedical AdviceMedical examination for driver's examinationMedical examination for immigration purposesMedical examination for life insuranceMedical examination for school or universityMedical examination for recreational and sporting activitiesMedical examination for employmentMen's HealthMinor cutsMinor surgery - biopsiesCosmetic mole excisionNail TreatmentOral HealthOut-of-country visitsPaediatric CarePap TestPediatricianPrescription DeliveryPrescription refillsPrescription refills (excluding narcotics and benzodiazepines)PrescriptionsPrescription TransferPreventative Medicine ConsultationProlotherapyReduce Insulin Resistance ReferralsReproductive HealthRestore Good Health Restore Normal Blood SugarSexual HealthSexually Transmitted Infection - Testing & TreatmentSkin and Wound CareSmoking CessationSore throatSpeech TherapySprainsSustainable Behaviour ChangeStitchesTravel adviceTravel HealthTravel Medicine ConsultationTravel VaccinationsTreatment Plans for Hair LossType 2 Diabetes Treatment PlanVaccinationsVirtual VisitsWart removalWeight ManagementWomen's Health
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- Acupuncture ClinicAestheticsBotox ®Chiropractic clinicDental ClinicDermatology clinicLabMassage therapy clinicMedical CannabisMedical imaging centreMental HealthPharmacyPhysiotherapyRespiratory therapy clinicSleep Apnea TreatmentSport MedicineUrgent and primary care centreWeight Loss Clinic
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Chris Cornell Says New Soundgarden Album Could Be Heavy, But Also Quiet
With his third solo album, 2009′s 'Scream,' Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell surprised and frustrated longtime fans by abandoning heavy guitars and exploring more pop- and hip-hop-flavored textures.
So what should the Soundgarden faithful expect from the recently reunited band, which is working on its first studio album since 1996? According to Cornell, something unlike its back catalog, but not necessarily a drastic departure, either.
"Well, no matter what, Soundgarden is always going to be heavier," Cornell recently told ARTISTdirect. "However, I also think musically the new Soundgarden stuff is different than anything we've ever done."
Cornell believes that it's always been difficult to compare a Soundgarden album to its predecessor. Based on Cornell's description, though, it's possible that the new one, due next spring, will remind listeners a little bit of his first solo effort, 1999′s 'Euphoria Morning.'
"I think [there] may be some moments that are sort of sonically quieter and more stripped-down," Cornell adds. "On the whole, it's a rock record. That's what we do."
Meanwhile, Cornell has recorded an acoustic song called 'The Keeper' for the upcoming movie 'Machine Gun Preacher' (starring Gerard Butler), and Soundgarden is set to headline the Voodoo Music Experience festival, taking place Oct. 28-30 in New Orleans.


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COP22 Marrakech
A summit for action
COP22, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Marrakech, Morocco, was the first Conference of the Parties following the adoption and ratification of the Paris Agreement. It was a COP of action and solutions, taking the first steps towards implementing the goals of the Paris Agreement.
COP Impressions
Jump to the COP22 Ambassadors | Schedule and highlights
The UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech was the first Conference of the Parties (COP22) following the adoption and ratification of the Paris Agreement, which was undoubtedly a milestone for climate policy internationally.
Key results
The entire conference was characterised by a positive atmosphere and strengthened resolve to take action, in spite of Donald Trump's election. According to Dietmar Mirkes of Climate Alliance Luxembourg, the delegates in Marrakech called the progress on the international climate negotiations irreversible. They unanimously adopted the Marrakech Proclamation for Action on Climate and Sustainable Development, which calls for stronger reduction targets and describes the relationship between climate protection and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Markus Hafner-Auinger, director of Climate Alliance Austria, also came back from the 'working conference' satisfied. "Many of the negotiations and working groups arrived at comparatively fast results and we have made some important steps in the practical implementation of the Paris Agreement." A total of 48 developing countries, banded together in the Climate Vulnerable Forum, announced their intention to convert to 100 percent renewable energies, with target years ranging from 2030 to 2050. They see climate adaptation as a key precondition for further development. The financing commitments of many industrialised countries, on the other hand, are not enough to fund the necessary adaptation projects.
The local level
Just as important to acheiving our climate goals is wide-ranging cooperation between national governments and cities, business, investors and citizens. The Global Climate Action Agenda, previously known as the Lima Paris Action Agenda, aims at reinforcing such cooperation with these so-called "non-party actors" and has a huge potential to accelerate climate action. It was reinforced throughout COP22. Really making a success out of this Global Climate Action Agenda though entails more structured processes that involve non-party actors such as local authorities in a more systematic way. Various new structures in the form of thematic work streams were featured at COP22, such as the Work Stream on Human Settlements and Resilience, in which COP 22 ambassador Steen Christiansen played a role. Technical working groups and national level dialogues will be important to ensuring multi-level cooperation throughout the year and not just at the annual COPs. The Slovakian Secretary of State, currently holding the EU Council Presidency, set a prime example when he expressed interest in starting a dialogue with Slovak cities on meeting national determined contributions (NDCs).
More such examples must follow. During our side event on 11 November, proposals for enhancing collaboration and creating further partnerships between US and European cities were raised. The event inspired participants with successful examples of cooperation between the different government levels that accelerate climate action on the ground.
A definite highlight for local level stakeholders during COP22 was the second Climate Summit for Local and Regional Leaders, co-organised by Climate Alliance. There, COP22 Ambassador Andreas Wolter spoke on behalf of Climate Alliance, stressing the need to ensure sufficient resources to build capacities for the development of local projects that are 'investment ready'. The summit culminated in the adoption of the Marrakech Roadmap for Action, which launched two new initiatives: Global Campaign for Localising Climate Finance and Global Action Framework towards Localising Climate Finance. We are eager to see these initiatives implemented.
Kids for climate action
And finally, no COP would be complete without taking children's efforts into account via the Climate Alliance ZOOM campaign. On 14 November, we presented over 1.7 million "green footprints" earned by some 175,000 children in 10 countries for making climate-friendly trips to school and other sustainable behaviours to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa.
For further Climate Alliance activities, see our schedule and highlights below.
Climate Alliance COP22 Ambassadors
Climate Alliance sent two special ambassadors to the Summit, to speak on behalf of Climate Alliance members and drive home the importance of the local level in international climate action.
Steen Christiansen, Mayor of Albertslund, Denmark
"Cities represent both challenges and possibilities for the green transition and climate action. I am honoured to be appointed Ambassador of the Climate Alliance and I very much look forward to reaffirming our local ambitions and commitments to driving the green transition forward so that we can reach the targets of the COP21 Climate Agreement, to sharing ideas and learning from other green champions – and to celebrating the ratification of the Paris agreement." Christiansen's video message
Andreas Wolter, Deputy Mayor of the City of Cologne, Germany
"The Paris agreement was an important step forward to fight global warming. It is now time to set up specific goals in order to implement the agreement and support each other with all our strength. It is a great honor to represent Climate Alliance in Marrakech. The City of Cologne is strongly committed to the goals of the Paris agreement and will use all of its strength to help make the Paris agreement and the Marrakech negotiations a success."
Schedule and highlights
Climate Alliance was present throughout the Summit at a variety of key events.
8 November
- 16:45 – 18:15: NDC Peru and indigenous alternatives about mega-drivers, REDD+, MRV, Zero net deforestation
10 November
- 13.30 – 18.00: Global Climate Action Agenda: Dialogue with cities on buildings and resilience | Final report of Resilience Work Stream (pdf) | UNFCCC Press Coverage
11 November
- 15:00 - 16:30: Progress in indigenous REDD+ alternative in Peru
- 16:00 - 17:30: Financing the Paris Agreement: Harnessing Crowdfunding Platforms for Low-Carbon Development
- 18.30 – 20.00: Local and national climate action in a governance perspective | view on YouTube | Final results (pdf) | Presentations from Austria and Luxembourg (pdfs)
14 November
- 10:20: Handover of Green Footprints to UNFCCC secretariat | View on YouTube, UNFCCC Press Coverage
- All day: Second Climate Summit For Local and Regional Leaders | Summit for local leaders roadmap
15 November
- 10:00 – 12:30: Regions and cities: Fast-tracking climate action | Brochure (pdf)
- 11:00 – 12:00: The Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa
- 16:30 – 18:00: Contribution of cities and regions to the COP22 negotiations – for an inclusive governance on climate


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TechRadar Verdict
The GamePad 2 is a vast improvement on the first, but it still doesn't have the blockbusters or price tag to compete with the dedicated handhelds.
- +
Stylish, comfortable design
- +
HD IPS screen
- +
Plenty of games to choose from Impressive battery
- -
Priced too high
- -
Tinny speakers
- -
Can't cope with more demanding games
- -
Button mapping is poor
Why you can trust TechRadar
These days, Android games are popping up as fast as cheap, third-party Android tablets.
It's a hit and miss marketplace, with many games disappearing deep into the ether after launch and most seeing fewer than 100 downloads. But because of the rapid increase and ease of development, Android games are gradually improving in quality.
The same can be said for tablets and gaming tablets. The Archos GamePad 2, and the arrival of other gaming-specific tablets, is the result of refining the Android gaming experience. Archos has improved on its initial attempt with the GamePad by redesigning the console to look more like a dedicated gaming device, while making sure it also offers most of the standard tablet features.
The GamePad 2 now has a sleek, black, matted exterior that the previous version missed and doesn't just look like a d-pad and buttons have been stuck to either side of a tablet.
It also comes with an improved 1280 x 800 screen, 2GB of RAM, a quad-core A9 1.6GHz processor and a quad-core GPU Mali 400 MP4. But then it also comes with a hefty launch price - £179 ($199.99, about AU$330).
The GamePad 2 doesn't confidently command that price tag. Issues with lag and multitasking - issues that plagued the previous GamePad - still exist, and there simply aren't enough blockbuster games in the Play Store to justify a launch price that's higher than the PS Vita.
But that's if you compare the GamePad 2 directly with another gaming console. If you include the fact that it's also a tablet then the plus points begin to rack up. Archos makes it clear in its marketing that the GamePad 2 is multifunctional, not just a gaming tablet. Although that is its main focus, it's also a pretty decent Android tablet.
And, if you judge it purely on its ability as a tablet, it fares pretty well. It boasts features that are missing from other high-end 7-inch tablets like the Nexus 7, such as a mini HMDI port for PC connectivity and a MicroSD card slot for extra storage. Features that are desperately missing from its tablet rivals.
But at its core, the GamePad 2 is a gaming tablet with Android tablet functionality. The hardwired buttons to the design make sure of that. This is perhaps where the Wikipad, a gaming tablet with detachable controls, scores some points ahead of Archos's unit.
Granted, the design is bulky and unattractive but it does have the dual functionality that the GamePad 2 lacks. With this in mind, Archos has taken a bit of a gamble by attempting to take on the handheld gaming market, instead of playing it safe like the Wikipad.
Does it work? Yes and no. It's well designed and comfortable to hold, but the Android market place doesn't have the high-quality games you'll get on a PS Vita or 3DS - and at around the same price, it doesn't really stack up.
If you're looking purely at Android gaming, the GamePad 2 makes perfect sense. If you're looking at the wider handheld market, however, this device isn't going to compete.


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Kaskey, a correspondent for private Radio Banadir, was shot in the southwestern city of Bardera while returning from a journalism training workshop in Mogadishu, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists and local journalist Mohamed Gaarane.
Kaskey died of a single bullet to the chest when local clan gunmen opened fired on a Toyota truck carrying 15 people, Gaarane said. At least two passengers were wounded in the incident, which occurred just after midnight.
Gaarane reported that officials of the local Geledle sub-clan, to which the gunmen allegedly belonged, announced they would hand over the perpetrators to provincial authorities.
Kaskey, 20, was an active reporter respected by his colleagues, according to Radio Banadir producer Ali Moalim. A day before his death, he had visited the offices of the press union in Mogadishu to discuss the working conditions of journalists in southwestern Somalia. He was also a correspondent for Radio Maandeeq in Gedo and Radio Daljir in the northeastern semi-autonomous region of Puntland, according to local media reports.


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Chances are, the first person you saw in an ugly Christmas sweater wasn't wearing it in the spirit festive irony.
Chances are, this person was your great aunt or your 2nd-grade teacher who sported those sequined Christmas trees and embroidered snowflakes with pride and distinction.
Flash forward to now, and look how far these sweaters have come. Just Google "Ugly Christmas Sweater," and you'll find listings from top retailers like Nordstrom, Target, and Forever 21.
In a sea of hideous holiday garments, how do you find the one that's right for you? Maybe you need to look for your great aunt for inspiration.
The original ugly Christmas sweaters were never intended to be ugly. In fact, they were "really an art in a way," said Asta Skocir, an associate professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
That's because in 80s and 90s, designers hand-knitted one-of-a-kind sweaters. For years, they were culturally adored, made especially popular by their ubiquity on television sitcoms.
Skocir herself designed several holiday sweaters using Christmas cards as inspiration.
"Were they attractive? No, but people bought them and loved them," Skocir said.
The internet helped shape the ugly sweater trend as we know it today. Young people started buying these vintage knits on eBay, and soon enough, friends competed with another to find the ugliest sweaters online. Social media gave the trend a huge boost, and this ugliness competition suddenly had global reach.
Now, big retailers have jumped on board, mass-producing sweaters that prioritize cost efficiency over authenticity.
So if you want to get your hands on a unique and outrageous sweater, you have to head to a vintage shop, like the West Village's Rags-A-Gogo.
Owner Joshua Susanne said the store has at least 300 ugly Christmas sweaters, all for $28. Her motto: Whatever you pick, make it fun.
- GO VINTAGE: Many Christmas sweaters made in the 80s and 90s were hand-knitted, so chances are the holiday garments at your local vintage shop are one-of-a-kind.
- ADD FLAIR: Personalize your sweater by adding some flair! The Tipsy Elves recommend "anything from pom-poms, bows, and sequins, to straight up ornaments and garland hanging from the sleeves."
- GET WEIRD: A cyclops Christmas cat? Sure! Ambiguous oval that might be Baby Jesus? Why not!
This story was originally published in 2016.


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Career Center to offer lower budget
MIDDLEBURY — Steadily surging enrollment and some cost-cutting has allowed the Patricia Hannaford Career Center (PHCC) board to craft a proposed 2011-2012 budget that represents a 1.05-percent decrease in spending and produces the lowest tuition rate in recent memory.
The PHCC board is recommending a budget of $3,343,333, which is $35,528 less than this year's spending plan and represents slightly more savings than was requested from the school under the state's "Challenges for Change" education spending directive.
Helping the financial picture at PHCC is an enrollment increase of about 16 full-time equivalent students, for a total of 178. The center's 13 career and technical education programs draw students from the Addison Central, Addison Northeast and Addison Northwest supervisory unions. Enrollment at the state's technical centers is calculated based on a six-semester average.
That surge in student population has helped reduce the proposed local assessment — the "tuition rate" charged to sending towns for their students at PHCC — to $8,656, down 15 percent from the current $10,180.
"We have a whole lot more students, and our budget went down," PHCC Director Lynn Coale said. "It's all very good news for the taxpayers."
Coale called the proposed $3,343,333 spending plan a "tight budget," one that he is concerned might prove a little too low, "considering our enrollments are growing."
The budget features a combined total of 1.25 fewer staff, one of which is a cut of a full-time teaching assistant. The other 0.25-percent position savings is derived from a staffer who will be taking a leave of absence for a semester next year. PHCC — which runs programs at its headquarters next to Middlebury Union High School; at its "North Campus" in Middlebury's industrial park; and at Vergennes Union High School — employs 40.
"We have taken some major reductions in things like equipment (down $12,000), repairs and heating fuel oil costs," Coale said.
Anticipated $10,000 in fuel savings is based on current heating oil prices and a two-year average of those costs, Coale noted. With that in mind, a substantial spike in heating fuel prices could push that account into the red, he said.
Career center officials are also proposing to save money by printing what Coale said would be a "minimal number" of copies of PHCC's annual report, which will be available on-line.
That move is expected to save $11,000, Coale said.
Also working in PHCC's favor is an estimate that health insurance premiums will increase by 3 percent next year, an amount that would be substantially lower than recent trends.
Still, there remains one major unknown going into the next budget year, Coale noted. The current PHCC teacher and staff contract runs out at the end of this school year, and negotiators are just beginning to hammer out terms for a new pact.
The school expects to have $101,000 in a fiscal year 2010 fund balance to carry over to the 2011-2012 budget. Career center officials hope to place that money in PHCC's building reserve fund. Voters will get the final say.
Coale sees many good years ahead for PHCC, which Coale said is tailoring its programs to meet the interests and needs of students and employers.
"The balancing act that we always have is to be able to offer programs that kids like and will sign up for, and that will result in (skills) that are high-wage, high-skill and in high demand," he said.
Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].


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Okay, I know this is not a very appealing photograph. I do like it, though, because it illustrates a few things.
See the ultra-shiny crust? This illustrates what happens when you steam your bread too much. It's like shellac. Not really the effect I was going for.
See how dark the crust is? This illustrates what happens when you don't really remember how to operate your oven (this would be your occasional oven, not your most-of-the-time oven) and the oven display is broken so you have no visual clue that you're operating it incorrectly, and you haven't really turned the temperature down when you think you have. The very learned Raymond Calvel said it is nearly impossible to overbake bread. Maybe I should gain some satisfaction in knowing I nearly accomplished the near-impossible. (I say nearly because the crust did not burn. It's just very very dark. Again, not the effect I was going for; merely very dark would have sufficed.)
See how the resolution of the photo is not very good? This illustrates what happens when you do something brainless, the details of which you'd rather not get into at the moment, and end up wrecking your DSLR camera, and have to use your little point-and-shoot (and then have to crop the photo so the really dark parts of the loaves are conveniently omitted).
Okay, lessons learned: Don't pour too much water into the steam pan. Read The Fine Manual (and better yet, call the oven repair guy). And don't be stupid. Simple enough.
Now consider this photograph:
I like this one because it illustrates that even when a few things go wrong, you can still end up with a pretty nice, 50%-whole-grain, fruit-and-nut-laden, pleasantly-dense-and-chewy, thinly-sliceable, great-on-its-own-or-with-soft-cheese kind of loaf.
So there.
As proof that I really do like this bread, I'm sending it to Zorra (1x umrühren bitte) for BreadBakingDay #31, Bread with Nuts, in celebration of the third anniversary of BBD. Thank you for three years of this inspiring event, Zorra!
Nutty Fruity Sourdough
Yield: 700 g (two small loaves, or one large one)
- Mix (including autolyse): 35 minutes
- First fermentation : 2.5 hours with folds at 50 and 100 minutes
- Preshape, rest, and shape: 35 minutes
- Proof: 2.5 hours minutes
- Bake: about 25 minutes (longer for larger loaf)
Desired dough temperature: 76F
- 89 g flour
- 74 g whole wheat flour
- 74 g coarsely-ground whole rye flour
- 170 g water
- 118 g mature 100%-hydration sourdough starter
- 6 g (1 t.) salt
- 200 g mixed nuts, seeds and dried fruits (I used 40 g walnuts, 35 g pecans, 30 g pumpkin seeds, 35 g dark raisins, 30 g golden raisins, and 30 g cranberries.)
- In a bowl, mix the three flours, the water, and the starter until roughly combined. Cover and let rest (autolyse) for 30 minutes.
- Add the salt and mix briefly in the bowl. Then turn the dough out onto an unfloured counter and mix by hand until the dough reaches a low-medium level of gluten development. The dough will be sticky but you should be able fold it into a smooth-surfaced ball:
- Fold in the fruits and nuts and continue mixing by hand until they are evenly incorporated. The dough will be sticky.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container. Cover and ferment for 2.5 hours, with folds after the first 50 and 100 minutes.
- Turn the dough into a lightly floured counter. Divide into two pieces. Preshape them into balls and let rest, covered, for 30 minutes.
- Shape the dough into small batards and place them, seam-side-up, in a floured couche or linen-lined baskets.
- Proof, covered, for 2.5 hours, or until the indentation left by a fingertip springs back very slowly.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with baking stone, to 475F. You will also need steam during the initial phase of baking, so prepare for this now.
- Just before baking, slash the loaves as you like.
- Once the loaves are in the oven, reduce the temperature to 450F. Bake for 5 minutes with steam, and another 15 minutes or so without steam. Then turn off the oven and leave the loaves in for another 5 minutes, with the door ajar.
- Cool on a wire rack.
Note that the volume of dough seems small compared to the volume of fruits and nuts. This is correct!
To illustrate the stickiness of the dough, as evidenced by the mess on my hand, I washed one hand to take the picture. If you're thinking this was a pain, it was. This is what I do for you. You're welcome.


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With Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg coming to town next week, a group of housekeepers, nightclub servers, and other employees of a Boston hotel are trying to turn her now-famous campaign for empowering women in their favor as they move toward forming a union.
Unite Here Local 26, which is organizing workers at the Hilton DoubleTree Suites hotel near the Charles River, said it wanted to enlist Sandberg's help after facing resistance from Hilton and receiving no encouragement from Harvard University, which owns the property where the hotel is located.
So, the union decided, why not appeal to the author of the bestseller "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead"?
Organizers asked Sandberg to meet with the hotel's female workers. They started an online petition calling for her to become involved in their cause. And they created leaflets depicting the book's cover, with faces of housekeepers replacing Sandberg's, and a message that reads, "Sheryl Sandberg, will you lean in with the women of Harvard's hotel?"
The Facebook chief operating officer, who is scheduled to deliver a Class Day address at Harvard Wednesday, has sent word she does not have time to host a "Lean In circle" with the hotel employees. Undeterred, the workers are planning to hand out the leaflets during Sandberg's speech in Harvard Yard.
"It's a way of continuing to say to Harvard that at every turn these women are going to be in your face," said Brian Lang, president of Local 26, which represents hospitality industry workers. "It's very clear to us that Harvard is calling the shots."
Lang said the school already has about 600 unionized food service workers on campus.
Going after the property owner, along with the business owner, is a tactic unions sometimes use to garner more attention for their campaigns, said James Green, a labor historian at the University of Massachusetts Boston. And invoking a high-visibility landlord like Harvard is a natural fit. "It's got the reputation of being a liberal institution," he said.
Bill Murphy, Harvard's director of labor and employee relations, said through a spokesman that it "will support any fair process for unionization that is agreed upon between Hilton and Local 26."
But in a letter sent to the union last May, Murphy wrote that Harvard "respectfully declines Local 26's request for the university to insert itself into this organizing campaign."
The attempt to unionize the workers began more than a year ago, when 70 percent of the approximately 112 nonmanagerial workers at the DoubleTree — housekeepers, banquet servers, front desk agents, van drivers, and Scullers Jazz Club employees — signed a petition asking for a "fair process," Local 26 said.
Such an agreement would allow them to discuss joining a union without retaliation from the company. When a group of workers and Harvard students tried to deliver the petition to the former general manager, he refused to accept it, according to Local 26.
In March, the union called for a boycott of the hotel and workers started asking regular guests to stay elsewhere.
A spokesman for Hilton Worldwide, which operates the DoubleTree Suites, said the appropriate way to determine if workers want to organize is through a secret ballot overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.
Hilton also said most of the hotel's workers do not want union representation.
"This belief was reinforced by the recent protest rally at the hotel that was attended by only a very small minority of our team members and by a nearly complete absence of employee support for subsequent unsuccessful rallies that the union has tried to organize," the company said in a statement. "We have reason to believe that a large majority actively oppose any boycott."
DoubleTree management has held meetings with employees, both in groups and one-on-one, to discourage them from unionizing, according to Local 26. It said management retaliated against one organizing committee member by putting fliers in the cafeteria and locker room calling him a "mole" and taking away extra shifts at Scullers.
Hilton declined to respond to the allegations.
Sandberg has been criticized for creating a movement aimed at financially well-off women, but her Lean In foundation says it has partnered with several organizations that serve lower-income women, including Dress for Success, and supports Lean In circles of domestic workers in San Francisco, as well as rescued sex slaves in Miami.
"The principles of Lean In are just as, if not more, important to women with lower incomes," foundation spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an e-mail.
As part of the local hospitality workers union, DoubleTree workers would stand to get a bump in pay, more affordable health insurance, and standardized workloads.
DoubleTree workers are not necessarily on the bottom rung of the economic ladder. Housekeeper Delmy Lemus, for instance, earns $15.82 an hour, plus tips, and has access to company-subsidized health insurance.
But Lemus, 33, said the family plan rates would consume nearly half her weekly paycheck. She decided to opt out of the benefit and enroll herself and her two daughters in MassHealth, the state insurance plan for low-income residents.
The job is physically demanding, Lemus said. When she was pregnant with her now 4-year-old daughter, Lemus began suffering sciatic nerve pain and was barely able to stand by the end of her shifts.
In her eighth month of pregnancy, she was assigned to the hotel's laundry room. Lemus said she had to push carts loaded with linen and pull out heavy sofa beds.
"Almost every day I was crying," the Revere resident said.
In a survey of dozens of DoubleTree workers done for Local 26 last summer, Harvard student Gabriel Bayard said every employee he interviewed complained of chronic pain, and nearly all said their workloads had increased in recent years.
More than 100 Harvard students have gotten involved in the DoubleTree campaign, including Sasanka Jinadasa, 21, president of the Radcliffe Union of Students, a feminist advocacy group. "If [Harvard] has a vested interest in the profits and the outcome of the company, it should care about what the workers want as well," she said.
"Harvard has a duty to make sure that the standards of the DoubleTree are up to the standards of the workers on campus."
Lemus, a single mother, wants to save up enough money to send her daughters to college and eventually start her own housecleaning service. She said "leaning in" to make her voice heard, and fighting for union protections, is the beginning of that process.
"We're just housekeepers, people without education. But we work very hard," she said. "We have dreams. . . . We don't want to die cleaning rooms in a hotel."
Katie Johnston can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @ktkjohnston.


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Hamas' flagship university in Gaza has a new diploma on offer – Hebrew, the official language of its arch-foe Israel.
Gaza's Hamas rulers say they want to produce qualified teachers as the government gradually introduces Hebrew studies in its high schools. The aim is simple: It wants Palestinians in Gaza to learn their enemy's language. "As Jews are occupying our lands, we have to understand their language," said Education Ministry official Somayia Nakhala.
Related Stories:
- Yiddish becomes hit among Israeli Arabs Pope addresses Christians, Muslims in Arabic for first time
- Dutch university's Hebrew club visits Israel
There are 19 students enrolled in the first one-year Hebrew diploma course offered at the Islamic University in Gaza City, a stronghold of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza since 2007.
Hamas does not recognize Israel, is officially pledged to its destruction and has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, rocket strikes and other attacks.
Officials hope graduates will become Hebrew teachers. Hamas has already begun offering Hebrew studies as an elective to ninth graders in 16 schools, and plans to expand the program to dozens of other schools in the coming months.
Tortured relationship
Israel occupied Gaza for 38 years after capturing it, along with the West Bank and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. Since withdrawing its settlers and troops from Gaza in 2005, Israel has fought two wars against Hamas and restricts access to the territory by air, land and sea.
The coastal strip still relies on Israeli-run crossings for most consumer goods, and Gaza patients must receive special permits to reach medical care in Israel or the West Bank.
Students need to "understand what's going on, like wars, medical treatment in Israel, in the West Bank," said the Education Ministry's Nakhala.
There is no shortage of Hebrew speakers in Gaza, at least among older residents. For years, Gaza Palestinians entered Israel to work in restaurants, construction and other menial jobs. Thousands of others learned the language while held in Israeli prisons. In quieter times, many Israelis would come to Gaza to fix their cars, bargain hunt or eat at local restaurants.
But after the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s, Israelis stopped coming. After a second uprising erupted in 2000, Israel sharply restricted the entry of Gazans. Since Israel's pullout and the subsequent Hamas takeover, direct contact between the sides is virtually nonexistent.
Semetic tongues
This tortured relationship with Israel was on display during Hebrew class this week at the Islamic University.
Two women, their faces veiled in line with conservative Muslim beliefs, practiced Hebrew in a doctor-patient dialogue. When the conversation turned to the chilly weather, another student described being cold while held in an Israeli prison because he wasn't given a blanket. "Saval maspik," he said in broken Hebrew. "Suffered enough."
Discussing medical terms, lecturer Kamal Hamdan and a student created a dialogue between Palestinian paramedics and Israeli officials, asking how many people were wounded in an Israeli military incursion into Gaza.
Hamdan noted the similarities between Arabic and Hebrew, which are both Semitic tongues. He pointed at parts of his body, calling out the words.
"Rosh. Ras," he said, speaking in Hebrew, then Arabic as he pointed at his head. "Af, anf," he said, gesturing toward his nose, "Re-ot, Ri-a," he said, speaking the words for lungs.
"The head is `rosh'?" a student asked. "Ah!" he exclaimed as it clicked.
"Even if there's a difference in politics, culture, even if there is an occupation and oppression, the languages resemble each other," Hamdan told the students.
The conversation even delved gingerly into Zionism, Israeli life and history.
In discussing the Israeli health care provider, "Maccabi," Hamdan told the students the word referred to ancient Jewish rebels. That led to a discussion of the early Zionist hero Joseph Trumpeldor, who helped bring Jewish immigrants to Palestine and was killed in 1920 while defending a Jewish settlement.
Hamdan repeated a phrase attributed to the fighter as he died: "It is good to die for our country."
Studing to understand the news
Some students said they were studying Hebrew to understand Israeli TV and radio broadcasts, which are easily accessible in Gaza.
Ghada Najjar, 26, described her frustration at not understanding Israeli news broadcasts during the last major round of Israel-Hamas fighting in November. At the time, Israel pounded Gaza from air and sea, while Palestinian militants fired rockets toward cities deep in Israeli territory. "It's a weapon, even if it's not very powerful, to understand," said the mother of two.
Jihad Abu Salim, 24, said he began studying Hebrew after participating in a four-month coexistence program at New York University. "I felt it was my duty to learn more about their history, politics and culture," he said.
Palestinian students in Gaza face unique challenges to learning Hebrew. Because of Israeli restrictions, few will ever practice the language with native speakers.
Contact with Israelis is frowned upon in Gaza, where it angers many residents who have lost loved ones or suffered injuries in fighting.
A small group of Gaza residents, mostly traders and medical officials, regularly enter Israel for business purposes. However, Hamas bristles at other contacts, and the government recently banned Gaza journalists from working for Israeli media.
Some Gaza residents who communicate with Israeli friends on email or Skype say they shy away from discussing those relationships with others.
Memories of a peaceful time
Hostile attitudes have left veteran Hebrew-language teachers treading a careful line. Like most Gaza residents, they view Israel bitterly after years of conflict. But they also have memories of more peaceful times, when they could freely enter Israel to study Hebrew.
Instructor Jamal al-Hadad, 60, railed against what he called linguistic theft, noting the many Arabic words that have been incorporated into modern Hebrew. "Like they stole Palestine, they also stole our words," al-Hadad said.
But he also proudly showed off a collection of poems he had written in Hebrew, a mix of pro-Palestinian rhymes and odes to love. And he said he objected to the idea he was merely teaching the language of his foes. "It is the language of our enemies," he said. "But it is also the language of our neighbors."
Mixed attitudes are common on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide. Arabic is supposed to be mandatory in Israeli high schools from 7th to 10th grade, but only about half of them teach it. In most cases, students take it for two years, according to the coexistence group Abraham Fund.
Israeli Arabic language specialists are typically sought for military and intelligence positions, to monitor Arabic media, interrogate Palestinian suspects, handle Palestinian informants or use it during undercover operations.
In Gaza, high schools stopped teaching Hebrew in the mid-1990s, after a Palestinian self-rule government took over civilian affairs. Last year, the Hamas government decided to bring the language back - an acknowledgment that Gazans need the language to deal with Israelis, a people they are intertwined with for the foreseeable future.
And while Hebrew had been offered as an elective at several Gaza universities, this is the first diploma to exclusively focus on the language.
Regardless of Hamas' intentions, teaching Hebrew could open doors of understanding, said Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist.
"It has the potential to change world views," said Baskin. "Facebook, email, chatting, the whole world is open. You can't prevent contact if people want contact."
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Google's $12.5 billion Motorola Mobility bet: 6 reasons why it makes sense
Google's aims to fix multiple lingering wireless issues with its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility and overall the deal is just crazy enough to work.
On a conference call with analysts, Google CEO Larry Page outlined the rationale for the deal. In a nutshell, Page is betting on mobility as the future of computing (Google statement, blog). But even with the grand themes of software-hardware integration and better user experiences, Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility cures a lot of ills for the search giant.Page said minutes ago regarding Motorola:
I think they have an exciting product roadmap, a strong vision for the future and are poised for growth. I think there's an opportunity to accelerate innovation in the home business by working together with the cable and telco industry as we go through a transition to Internet protocol. Motorola also has a strong patent portfolio which will help protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies. Many hardware partners have contributed to Android's success and we look forward to continuing our work with all of them on an equal basis to deliver outstanding user experiences. We built Android as an open-source platform and it will stay that way.
Can this marriage work? Here's a look at the ledger and six reasons why the Google-Motorola deal makes sense:
Integration may be all that matters in the wireless industry. Apple's hardware-software-ecosystem business model brings better profit margins, can grab market share and seems to delight consumers. Google's Android effort could be a bit like herding cats. The larger question is whether the vertically integrated model is the only one that works in the wireless industry.
Google lands its patent treasure trove. If you consider that Google was going to pay nearly $4 billion for Nortel's 6,000 wireless patents, $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility doesn't look like a big chunk of change. With Motorola Mobility's patents, Google can fend off lawsuits. In other words, Google builds out its patent portfolio. On a conference call, Page called out patents as a big reason for the Motorola Mobility acquisition.
Google gets a TV play. While Google's Motorola acquisition primarily revolves around wireless devices, there's a significant living room play here. Why? Motorola Mobility has a significant set-top box business. In the cable box world, there are two players: Cisco and Motorola Mobility, which is the leader. Google will get significant relationships with cable providers and give Android more of a foothold.
There's a good chance that Google can keep hardware partners in the fold---for now. Page reiterated that Google will keep Android open source and work with partners such as HTC and Samsung. Also keep in mind that this Google-Motorola deal could win it some goodwill with hardware partners. Motorola was thinking about suing other Android hardware makers over patents. Google's acquisition would put an end to that.
The deal forces Microsoft's hand. When it comes to the art of war, Google and Motorola force Microsoft's hand a bit. With the Google-Motorola deal, Page is basically acknowledging that there's no money in third-party operating systems in the mobile space. The upshot: Mobile software players need a hardware component. As a result, Microsoft may be forced to acquire a hardware player. Research in Motion and Nokia are prime takeover candidates. In any case, Microsoft will be distracted by a big acquisition.
And Android boxes in Nokia and RIM. With Motorola, which has some enterprise credibility and Android innovations, Google can enter the enterprise easier. As a result, RIM increasingly looks like the odd man out. Nokia is already under fire as it waits for Windows Phone 7 to gain traction. RIM is betting on QNX as an operating system. Google is indicating that the wireless market is a two-platform race. And those two horses are going to be Android and iOS.
Around the network coverage:
- Google buys Motorola Mobility and its patent portfolio for $12.5 billion
- Google buys Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion
- Google's Motorola acquisition: Microsoft patent case takes a new turn


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(Hopefully not off-topic noob question)
We have a hearing loop set up which uses a Sennheiser collar radio mic and receiver which works pretty well. We recently bought a handheld Sennheiser mic for use in meetings so that hearing loop users can hear speech from audience members. Unfortunately, when both mics are switched on, there is a lot of mid-high frequency interference which makes the system barely useable.
Is there any way to salvage this setup? I've tried various different frequencies and all sound pretty much the same. Do we need a receiver that runs on separate frequencies for each mic?


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Prioritizing People
Carl Wieland chats with environmental biologist Douglas Oliver
Dr J. Douglas Oliver earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Toronto, and his Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Georgia. He has worked for the Ontario, Canada government, as well as for the Florida Dept.of Environmental Protection. He has also taught at Florida A & M University. He is currently a Professor of Biology at Liberty University, where he is also the Associate Director of the Center for Creation Studies.
Dr Doug Oliver was raised in a 'liberal Christian' home and church. He says, "I thought that being 'good' and believing in a vague, traditional God was probably good enough to get me into Heaven." His adoptive mother had even lived with an occultist for some time, yet despite this, she thought that people being descended from apelike creatures was 'stupid'.
This may have been one reason why in 8th grade, when his theistic evolutionist teacher held a class creation/evolution debate, he was the only student who decided to take the side labelled as 'fundamentalist' (i.e., in favour of biblical creation). He says, "In some vague way, I wanted to be good and to support God the Creator. However, this was before a lot of the modern creation revival, so I did not have much information to back up my position."
Years later, when about to go to university to become a scientist, he had basically only heard the case for broad-scale evolution and billions of years. So, he just accepted these concepts, like "everyone else". Gradually, he says, "the evolution-supporting and liberal influences at the secular university I attended, plus the attitudes of my friends, led me to join them in premarital sex, drugs, and general non-Christian living. However in my senior year, Jesus intercepted my life through a very kind, Bible-believing pre-med guy in my secular dorm, who led me into personal repentance and I received Jesus the Creator for salvation."
Challenged to rethink
In spite of this, he says, "It was not until I was doing my Master of Science in biology that a very biblical pastor and teacher challenged my theistic evolutionary thinking and got me to read a couple of Dr Henry Morris's books on the subject." This convinced Doug of biblical creation, and since then, he has done talks, debates, and articles on the scientific case for creation.
Dr Oliver is well aware of the powerful biblical evidence for creation, too. As he says, "Jesus, the Bible, and traditional Christianity and Judaism, clearly support a direct, six-day Creation. For example, the scriptural chronology of all history from 'the beginning' is given from the first six evening-and-morning days of all Creation, including creation of the first human, Adam, who was made directly from dirt, not from animals; then through only about 6,000 years of biblical history, until now. Furthermore, according to other passages, the holy, loving God is not the author of this world's sickness and death; therefore, upward evolution, which supposedly uses such negative influences to produce all life, cannot have been the true means of creating the original, 'very good', pre-Fall-of-man world" (cf. Genesis 1:31).
Life by chance impossible
He has always been a science buff, even before receiving his qualifications, and Dr Oliver says that he prefers to use biological and other scientific arguments for creation in talking to people, many of whom would not listen to what they perceived as 'just religion'. He points out how, for example, "the probability of accidentally producing even a small nucleic acid, a molecule necessary to produce even the simplest conceivable living thing, is vanishingly small. Furthermore, the simultaneous presence of hundreds of precise proteins and many other molecules, at appropriate concentrations, would also have been necessary at one place and time—yet even this still would not have been sufficient."1
From the perspective of his own teaching and research area of ecology and the environment, he says, "Christians should respect the world that Jesus has created and that He now upholds, and how its various living parts work together. But we have been given 'dominion' over the earth in Scripture (Genesis 1:28). Clearly, humans are supposed to use the animals, plants, minerals, petroleum, etc. as a bounty to help our fellow human beings. Wise dominion is particularly important because in our current world, the original perfect garden has been cursed following man's Fall, and it needs informed but productive trimming, harvesting for people, etc. This can provide increased food for needy, hungry people."
Caring for people first
"In essence, I think we need to properly prioritize the crown of God's creation, namely people, but not be unkind or uncaring to other creatures, especially those that assist us in our tasks, such as cattle and plant pollinators. We need to be good stewards of our plant resources, e.g. clover that adds nitrogen to the soil,2 a broad range of fishes, etc. It seems as if the devil is instead 'educating' us, especially the young, into prioritizing protection of many weedy plants and pest animals, possibly to try to reverse man's taking dominion over the earth and to try to slow progress toward Christ's (spiritual and physical) ultimate kingdom." What about the 'hot' issue of global warming? He thinks there is a reasonable case that some warming may be happening, but that it may well not be likely to cause large-scale problems, now or in the future.3 He said, "This is largely because the Creator has built numerous self-correcting ecosystem properties into our environment." As one example, he referred to how a warmer atmosphere would increase evaporation of underlying water, thus would produce more clouds to reflect heat back into space.
Another example was how the rare accidental release of petroleum into seawater, such as in the recent Gulf of Mexico spill, was followed by natural bacterial digestion of a lot of the oil. He says, "I think we need to (carefully) continue to find and use our world's abundant energy-producing materials, like coal, oil, and natural gas— themselves probably largely a result of plants and animals that died in the God created 'environmental disturbance' of the Genesis Flood."
Dr Oliver says that, in his view, "continued large-scale carbon use is important in order to continue to provide energy and chemicals for agriculture, roads, medicines, electricity, vehicles, evangelism, education, housing, etc.,—and especially for helping the poor."
Doug was positive about the many publications and internet material put out by CMI, which he says have been very helpful to him in his work and outreach. He teaches Creation Studies, Introductory Biology labs and an Environmental Biology course at Liberty University, a Christian institution where he has been working for about nine years. He says, "Liberty is a rare creation-supporting oasis in a sea of evolutionist colleges and universities. Even many Christian colleges today support evolution and/or the unbiblical idea of the supposed billions of years of past history. Unfortunately these old-earth concepts have typically been the start of the growth of other liberal and unbiblical teachings at such colleges, so that most universities that started biblically are no longer even Christian."
"The perceived need for accreditation," he went on to say, "may have tended to push some colleges toward abandoning biblical timeframes and other politically incorrect concepts. However, it is still possible to maintain such foundations and obtain accreditation, too. I think an important key to maintaining biblical views is the careful interviewing of potential faculty and others on their beliefs re the age of the earth, no death before sin, etc. and not hiring any who are unbiblical about such things."
Doug says that he has certainly experienced discrimination and pressure due to his views on creation. In fact, he says, "It started during my Ph.D. program in Georgia, in my first class, and did not cease until I graduated, years later. Some Christians said I should not even mention creation or the age of the earth in classes, etc., but through prayer and in conscience, I realized I wanted to be a witness to these important concepts for both non-Christians and Christians. This resulted in me having to do years more work and effort, but it was worth it. The early Christians even endured torture and death for their Scripture-supporting testimonies, so why should believers today be less forthright, in order to avoid a little rejection?"
"During that Ph.D. program, incidentally, my first major professor4 was a well known and likeable evolutionist biologist. However he dumped me as his Ph.D. student after I noticed him staring wide-eyed at my Jesus bumper sticker (even before he found out I was a creationist)! My second (and ultimate final) major professor, also a convinced evolutionist, somehow put up with my creationism, and I initially wondered why. Years later, I heard from this professor that his own brother was, in his words, a 'well known, successful petroleum geologist who somehow could incorporate his young-earth creationist worldview into his very successful geological career'. In retrospect, Jesus was protecting me, even through my less-than-godly, creation-disliking prof!"
A huge source of joy for Doug and his wife, Nancy, is their daughter from China, Jayden (see photo right), whose adoption was the result of years of hopeful prayer. He says, "Nan and I have both been blessed to see a number of miraculous answers to prayer in our lives, and Jayden is surely one of them. We pray that He may use our adoption situation to remind our Christian brothers and sisters around the world to persevere in prayer. If you believe something is God's will—never give up!"
Re-posted on homepage: 12 January 2022
References and notes
- For more information, see creation.com/origin and creation.com/probabilities. Return to text.
- Thanks to a finely designed enzyme that can split the strongly bonded nitrogen molecule. See Demick, D., The molecular sledgehammer, Creation 24(2):52–53, 2002; creation.com/sledge. Return to text.
- See also Wieland, C., Global warming (or climate change): what is the creationist view ? creation.com/warming, 3 January 2007. Return to text.
- This refers to the particular professor overseeing the major subject of the Ph.D. program. Return to text.


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"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
My Advice for a Safe and Happy Halloween
Exclusive to STR
October 31, 2008
I anticipated it almost as much as Christmas when I was a kid. You probably did, too. The colors are just about off the trees, and the nights are far colder. Just the way I like it. I grew bored with it for a time when I was a teenager, relegating myself to helping my mom decorate the front hall (in as macabre a fashion as she would permit). But I am all gung-ho for it once more, because I realize now that Halloween is probably more anarchistic than all other holidays.
And I truly believe that all holidays are anarchistic in various ways, excepting the fake days the government tries to sell us, usually resulting in little more than one less day at the grind. Beyond not having to go to work, who actually gives a damn about Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Presidents Day, or Memorial Day?
No, an anarchist's holiday is something more like Christmas. The spontaneity of people decorating their houses trying to outdo the neighbors, the charitable contributions, the giving of gifts to family and friends, the get-togethers, the way that stores chime in with decorations and sales, the simple change in greeting strangers with "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas." Thanksgiving is much the same way. Valentine's Day has its own organic rules. The Irish invite everyone along for St. Patrick's Day. Cinco de Mayo means little to me, but I understand it's on the rise now, and mostly as a way for adults to find one more way to celebrate something, anything. Probably an excuse to drink. I don't, but if you do, more power to you.
I may not be a dad, but I know what the first and most important refrain is that parents constantly teach their children: Don't talk to strangers. Personally, I think the most important one is: The meat cleaver is not a toy. But how is it that this maxim guarding against unknown grownups falls by the wayside one night per year? When I was a kid, parents didn't even escort their children door to door for trick-or-treating. That may have changed, but little else has. You still get candy for free, and often from strange adults. So you're not supposed to talk to strangers, but you're definitely not supposed to take candy from strangers, right? Another custodial caution swept away for a single cold, dark night every autumn.
At Christmastime, the gifts are usually exchanged between coworkers, friends, lovers and families. At Halloween, anybody who shows up at your door walks away with something for free. Understand that true charitable exchanges are always mutually beneficial. Once, after a brief conversation with a homeless man on the streets of New York City , I went to an ATM and gave him the funds necessary to get a hotel for the night. Maybe it was a ruse to get drug money, or maybe he even did this for a living, but I doubt it. The feeling I had afterward was one of genuine gratitude. I was thankful for what I had, and that I could impart it to another.
The same thing happens at Halloween. It's a quick fix, but it works. Dropping candy into the bags of grateful kids will give you the same feeling. You ought to get something out of every charitable act. If you don't, you're either not doing it right or you're not doing the right thing at all. Trust me. Handing out treats to excited kids is always the right thing to do. In any free market transaction, the mutual benefit should be readily apparent, and fully appreciated.
What happened to all those tainted candy scares that marred Halloween when I was growing up? It never actually ruined anything for me, but mainstream media certainly did their best. If you want to know what happened, and happened quickly, just look at the free market response. What candy company wants to lose sales at Halloween? What candies are parents most likely to buy? What candies are concerned neighbors, who want every trick-or-treat stop at their house to be a pleasant one, going to buy? Any public relations guru or marketing executive at any candy company in this country will tell you what will sell. If some loser tries to trick the treat by adding poison or other harmful products, you can now tell by the wrapping. No government mandate necessary. It's simple logic, really. The demand for safe candy, and the accompanying clamor for the continuance of a long holiday tradition, will deliver safe candy.
Parents are a bit more cautious these days, and that's understandable. My parents never actually had us go trick-or-treating, but that was okay with us, as there was always a party either at our church or for all the neighborhood kids. I know other parents who only do trick-or-treating at the homes of people they know, which means a lot more driving than walking is involved. There was no government demand for this. When a threat is perceived, parents, churches and communities will normally take care of these things themselves. Sound judgment at Halloween time does not need to be enforced, merely encouraged; and not by the police, but by parents and neighbors.
Halloween means taking your kids out of the unnatural environment of public school and "play dates." They'll have an opportunity to see people they might not otherwise meet. They'll be out in the fresh air. They'll get a brief glimpse into how life is lived in other people's homes. They deserve to know much, much more about their neighbors, but at least for one night a year, they'll see the normalcy, the ordinariness, and the sheer beauty of other people's lives: the young married couple down the street, the widower next door, the retired couple a few blocks away, where that cat that's always sniffing around in your backyard mysteriously comes from. These are they whom you live amongst. You should know them. They should know you.
Halloween will be good for you, too, now that I've married it to that loathsome word: anarchy. No government is needed to tell people how to celebrate, how to have fun, how to associate, how to protect themselves, how to enlist free enterprise in their enjoyment, how to decorate. Take a walk with your kids, or stay home and load up on the goodies for distribution, and just observe, as the original meaning of community comes roaring back to life for a few magical hours.
Just for fun, and to get a little on the dangerous side, light a Jack-O-Lantern with a real candle -- without having a fire extinguisher handy! Wait. You were probably going to do that already, weren't you? Well, then. See? You're on your way to being an official peace-loving, free market-embracing anarchist already.
Enjoy your Halloween, and the mutual satisfaction of small acts of anarchistic charity.


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Logged in as:
Genome Editing / CRISPR
Prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells
Genetic engineering terms the targeted modifications of genetic information of living organisms/cells. Genome editing stands for targeted engineering by using specifically designed nucleases. The recent CRISPR/ Cas-9 method uses RNA-guided nuclease. That makes the process faster, easier and more specific compared to other gene editing methods. Since the DNA-binding element is RNA it is simple and cheap to manipulate and it allows sequence specific programming. The high targeting efficiency, results in significant time saving, e.g., for the generation of knockout mice. In basic research CRISPR is mainly used in cell line engineering and animal genetic engineering (e.g. of disease models) to investigate gene function.


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Packing Stadium for Anti-Internet Message
It's not too late to save Michael Fromowitz.
Fromowitz, 18, and a pack of his yeshiva classmates had come to the ultra-Orthodox anti-Internet rally at Citi Field in Queens from the Hasidic enclave of New Square in upstate New York. A redhead with long side curls, Fromowitz doesn't have his own email address. He does have a cell phone, but it's a so-called "kosher phone," so it doesn't take pictures or send text messages.
For Hasids even a few years older, that sort of distance from the web is rare. So it is yeshiva students like Fromowitz who are not yet a lost cause, according to one rally speaker, Rabbi Ephraim Wachsman.
"We don't have to lose the zero to 20s," he exclaimed at the May 20 event. "We can put a stop to it now."
"You can see it in the ebbing eyes of the younger generation, in the jittery inattentiveness of our children… and the unbelievable breaches of [modesty]," Wachsman said, his image projected on the stadium's JumboTron as 40,000 ultra-Orthodox Jewish men looked on.
For the older generation, it may already be too late. At the stadium, and en route to and from the rally, BlackBerrys and iPhones were everywhere. On a Brooklyn subway platform, men heading to the event discussed directions they had read on the transit website HopStop. Days later, videos of the rally were all over YouTube.
So much for being cut off from the Internet.
The evening had some trappings of a regular night at the ballpark. Roving cameras put cute kids in the stands up on the JumboTron. Lines for the men's room were long. Airplanes taking off from La Guardia Airport periodically drowned out all other sounds.
Still, many of the men and boys in attendance had never been to a ball field. Some said they didn't even know how baseball was played. They weren't going to learn the game that night. The Mets were in Pittsburgh, and the baseball field was empty. Meanwhile, twin billboards advertising Cholula Hot Sauce flanking the Citi Field JumboTron were covered with white plastic to hide thedrawing of a demurely clad woman pictured on the Cholula bottles.
I interviewed Fromowitz and his classmates in the right field nosebleed seats. Reporters had been barred from the event — a representative preposterously blamed "Homeland Security" — so I paid $20 for my ticket in the parking lot from a member of the Skver sect who had an extra. This meant that I was sitting in a section full of Skver Hasids, many of them from New Square. (One New Square man told me that his wife had said that there were no men left in the town.)
I found it impossible to talk to only one or two Hasids at a time. As I interviewed the Skver Hasids in the bleachers, the crowds around me grew. At one point, a middle-aged man pulled me from a group of younger Hasids, hoping to have a quiet word, boxing out a preteen on the way.
On the G train home, I was swarmed again by the mostly Satmar Hasidic crowd headed for the Williamsburg. I asked one of the men next to me what he had thought of the rally. He referred me to a Satmar across the aisle, and soon half the subway car had formed a circle around us.
But getting any of their names was difficult. This had been a problem the entire day. On the way to Citi Field, a young Bobov Hasid traveling with his father and brother told me his name was Ben Zion Halberstam. I wrote it down, then noticed everyone was laughing. He had given me the name of a Bobov rebbe.
With the Satmar Hasids on the subway after the rally, we got to talking about Zionism. A rally speaker named Rabbi Yechiel Meir Katz had drawn an implicit parallel between the 19th-century rejection of Zionism by the ultra-Orthodox and the need to reject the Internet. "Everyone who has a Jewish heart knows Zionism is against Judaism," one man said when I asked about Katz's comparison. Others told him to be quiet, perhaps understanding better how the quote would sound in a non-Orthodox Jewish newspaper.
The sentiment isn't rare among the Satmar, who remain among the most anti-Zionist of the ultra-Orthodox groups. It was unusual for me to get close enough to the insular, Yiddish-speaking Hasids to see the fault lines between their sects, which can blend together from a distance. The Skver Hasids in my section seemed uncomfortable with Katz's invocation of Zionism as a great threat to the Jews. The Bobov Hasids on the subway showed me how to tell their hats from the very similar style of hat worn by the Satmar Hasids. And the Satmar Hasids, by and large, seemed to be the least comfortable speaking English.
Though organizers had described the event as promoting the use of Web filters to make the Internet acceptable for those ultra-Orthodox Jews who needed it for work, some speakers took a harder line. Rabbi Don Segal, who cried while addressing the crowd, told a story about an Israeli ultra-Orthodox man who had been forced to use the Web to make a living. The man "became completely spoiled," Segal related. "This device destroyed his Yiddishkeit," or his Jewishness.
In a gesture that underlined the event's significance in the eyes of its organizers, a rabbi led the huge crowd in the Sh'ma prayer in the manner in which it is sung at the close of Yom Kippur, with the second line, read silently on other days, chanted out loud. The prayer's words, sung 1,000 different ways, droned through the stadium like a decades-old modem struggling to connect.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter @joshnathankazis.


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Various Denominations Attittude toward Hymns
- High versus Low Church
- The Plymouth Brethren
- The Disappearance of Hell from Revival Hymns in the 1870s
The Hymn as a Literary Form
- Introduction
- Rhetoric and Structure
- Relations to Secular Poetry
Political and Social Contexts
- The Importance of Hymns
- Gender Matters
- Class and Society
Individual Authors
- Anonymous, "Jerusalem, my happy home"
- Anonymous, "Lord! may the inward grace abound"
- William Cowper, "Old Testament Gospel"
- Joseph Griggs, "Behold! a Stranger's at the door!"
- Julia Ward Howe, Battle Hymn of the Republic
- William Montague Toplady, "Rock of Ages; other mentions and Fairbairn's criticism.
- William Montague Toplady, "Deathless principle, arise! (second example)
- John Newton, Olney Hymns
- Isaac Watts, "Captain and Conqueror"
- Isaac Watts, "Go, worship at Immanuel's feet"
- Isaac Watts, "There is a land of pure delight"
- William Williams, "Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah!"
Bibliography: E-Texts
- A Collection of Hymns, for the Use of the People Called Methodists by John Wesley (HTML at CCEL)
Last modified 6 May 2007


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The Winter Pascha, Chapter 16: The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
The following is an excerpt from The Winter Pascha, by Fr. Thomas Hopko
The gospel reading for the Divine Liturgy on the Sunday before Christmas is "the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham," taken from the gospel according to St. Matthew. This genealogy lists the generations of people from Abraham to David, to the Babylonian captivity of the people of Israel, to the birth of Jesus. It is a selected genealogy, ending in the appearance of "Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ" (Mt 1:16). It differs from the genealogy presented in St. Luke's gospel which begins with Jesus "being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph," and goes back all the way not simply to Abraham but to Adam (Lk 3:23-38).
There are many purposes for presenting the genealogy of Jesus in the gospels, chief among which is the affirmation that Jesus, being in truth the Son of God, as all the gospels testify, has come "in the flesh" as a real human being. This affirmation was critically important in the time of the apostles and the first Christian generations because, unlike today, the temptation of the early period of Christianity was not to deny Jesus' divinity, but to deny His real and authentic humanity.
As a matter of historical fact, the first Christian heretics were those who said that Jesus was some sort of divine being (how this was explained had many variations and versions) who only appeared to be a true man, but was not really one since "flesh and blood" were taken to be intrinsically degrading if not downright evil. Thus the apostle Paul had to insist that in Jesus, who belongs to the Jews "according to the flesh" (Rom 9:5), the "whole fulness of deity dwells bodily" (Col 2:9), and that it is the same Jesus who died and was buried and raised in the flesh as a real man, who is Messiah and Lord.
The genealogies in the gospels of Saints Matthew and Luke are made to and from Joseph. This is not to give the impression that Jesus came from Joseph's seed. Both gospels are absolutely clear on this point. Jesus is born from the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. The point is rather that Joseph is Jesus' father according to the law, and it is from the father that one's lawful descent is to be traced. Jesus' legal father is "Joseph, son of David," the legal husband of Mary (Mt 1:20).
One other important point is made in listing the human generations which led to the birth of Jesus. This is the fact that God is faithful to His promises even though His chosen people are often not faithful. Among the people from whom Jesus came are both sinners and heathens. In a word, Jesus comes not only from the righteous and holy, but from the wicked and sinful. And He comes not only from Jews, but from Gentiles. The names of the four women specifically mentioned in St. Matthew's list-- Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba)-- were noted, not to say notorious, Gentiles, including one of David's own wives, the mother of Solomon. The point to be seen here is one beautifully made in an early Christian hymn quoted in the Bible in the second letter to Timothy:
If we have died with Him,
we shall also live with Him;
If we endure,
we shall also reign with Him;
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us;
If we are faithless,
He remains faithful-- for He cannot deny Himself. (2 Tim 2:11-13)
This is the wonderful witness of the genealogies of Jesus: If we are faithless, the Lord God remains faithful-- for he cannot deny Himself!
Behold, the time of our salvation is at hand.
Prepare yourself, O cavern,
For the Virgin approaches to give birth to her Son.
Be glad and rejoice, O Bethlehem, land of Judah,
For from you our Lord shines forth as the dawn.
Give ear, you mountains and hills
And all lands surrounding Judea,
For Christ is coming to save the people
Whom He has created and whom He loves.1
1Vespers of the Sunday before the Nativity
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story of King Midas and his golden touch is told today as a tale of the price
of greed, and in some, the rewards of repentance. This is how the first part of
his story is generally told today:
Midas was a king of great fortune who ruled the country of
Phrygia, in Asia Minor. He had everything a king could wish for. He lived in
luxury in a great castle. He shared his life of abundance with his beautiful
daughter. Even though he was very rich, Midas thought that his greatest
happiness was provided by gold. He would spend many days counting his coins.
One day, Dionysus, the god of wine and revelry, passed through the
kingdom of Midas. One of his companions, a satyr named Silenus, got lost along
the way. Silenus got tired and decided to take a nap in the famous rose gardens
surrounding the palace of king Midas. He was found there by the king who
recognized him instantly and invited him to spend a few days at his palace,
where they feasted and rested. After that, Midas took him back to Dionysus. The
god of celebration, very grateful to Midas for his kindness, promised Midas to
satisfy any wish of him.
Midas though for a while and then he said: "I hope that everything
I tough becomes gold." Dionysus warned the king to think well about his wish,
but Midas was positive. Dionysus could do nothing to dissuade him and promised
the king that his wish would start the following day. Everything he touched
would turn to gold.
The next day, Midas, woke up eager to see if his wish would come
true. He extended his arm touching a small table that immediately turned into
gold. Midas jumped with happiness! He then touched a chair, the carpet, the
door, his bathtub, a table and so he kept on running in his madness all over
his palace until he got exhausted and happy at the same time! He sat at the
table to have breakfast and took a rose between his hands to smell its
fragrance. When he touched it, the rose became gold. "I will have to
absorb the fragrance without touching the roses, I suppose," he thought in
disappointment. Without even thinking, he tried to eat a grape but it also
turned into gold! The same happened with a slice of bread and a glass of water.
Suddenly, he started to sense fear. Tears filled his eyes and that moment, his
beloved daughter entered the room. Giving Midas a hug, she turned into a golden
statue! Despaired and fearful, he raised his arms and prayed to Dionysus to
take this curse from him.
The god heard Midas and felt sorry for him. He told Midas to go to
river Pactolus and wash his hands. Midas did so: he ran to the river and was
astonished to see gold flowing from his hands. The ancient Greeks said they had
found gold on the banks of the that river. When he turned home, everything
Midas had touched had become normal again. Midas hugged his daughter and
decided to share his great fortune with his people. His people led a prosperous
life and when he died, they all mourned for their beloved king.
is more to the mythology, none of it complementary to the king. There are a few
variations of details; many tellers add morals and speculation to the myth as a
tale to teach virtue. Turning his daughter to gold was a later palimpsest, told
by Nathanial Hawthorne in 1852.
there were several kings named Midas; the common reference is King Midas from
the 8th century BC, who ruled Pessinus, Phrygia. He was married to a Greek
princess, daughter of Agamemnon. According to Greek and Assyrian sources he
traded with the Greeks, and many other nations.
Was it Greed? Or Science!
order to decode this legend we must look at the electromotive series. History
tells us the Greeks found gold on the river banks where Midas washed the curse
from his hands. This may be the most significant statement for decoding this
story. If you take a tin cup and place it in water that is downstream from a
copper mine or processing plant, in a while, with the proper liquid medium, you
will have a copper cup. Iron turns to copper, copper to silver, and silver to
gold. This is called the electromotive series, and is, in general, how
batteries work. In the Smithsonian Museum there are two silver Llamas which
fell into a river where silver trace was, and they turned to silver, well
preserved to the detail. It is this process that is symbolized by Midas turning
everything to gold, and washing the gold off in the river.
is also important to look at what was happening at the time of Midas. Turkey
used young children to mine tin, as they were smaller and could go deeper into
the mines. Some died and were left in the mines. If the mine collapsed, or
flooded, the children were left there. One mine did flood with water that held
gold sediment, and a young girl about five years old was preserved as electrum;
a silver & gold child. Pristine details remained: Her eyelashes were
preserved to the hair, and the flowers in her basket still had their petals.
The story of Midas turning his daughter into gold likely comes from records
about the discovery of this young girl.
A man found in a Danish bog preserved as copper.
how did the story become so detrimental to the reputation of King Midas?
significant thing to know about Midas was that he invented coins for standard
measurement. Well, his wife invented the idea and he had them made. Great! you
might say. It was. Trade in precious metals and stones were big business and it
was full of thieves and cheats. The coins prevented Midas and others from being
swindled in transactions, and the swindlers hated him for it. The king's
reputation became one of greed and avarice, a reputation which spread rapidly
as stories made up by angry traders. In the stories about his daughter
she has been called Marigold (a name derived from Mary of the Catholic
tradition). That name would not have been used then, if he had a daughter, more
likely her name would have been Elora, or Lura.
about many legendary and mythological characters arise from similar slander.
The monster Medusa was a result of stories told to tear down the power of the
Vanir navigators. It is said that Athena turned her into the snake headed
creature – in theory, she did. Stories are powerful. They can create a persona
that is hard to correct. Peeling away layers of information and looking at each
in historic context helps determine what is valid and what is layered into
history for deconstructive purpose. Midas was subject to just such
About Symbologist
Michelle Snyder
Michelle is a professor of mythology and
symbolism, fairy tale author, blogger, and geek. She did her postgrad research
at the University of Wales, and her artwork, inspired by her love of symbolism
and folklore, has appeared in galleries from Massachusetts to California.
Michelle is co-owner of White Knight Studio.
Symbology series:
Symbology ReVision: Unlocking Secret Knowledge
Symbology: Hidden in Plain Sight
Symbology: My Art and Symbols
Symbology: Fairy Tales Uncovered
Symbology: Decoding Classic Images
Symbology: World of Symbols
Symbology: Secrets of the Mermaids
Fairy Tales:
A Tale of Three
Kingdoms: Book One – The Lost Unicorn
A Tale of Three
Kingdoms: Book Two – The Lost Mermaid
The Fairy Tales,
Once Upon a Time Lessons: First Book


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GCL is released under the terms of the LGPL and is the official common lisp of the GNU System. It runs on twelve GNU/Linux architectures (x86 amd64 powerpc s390 sparc arm alpha ia64 hppa m68k mips mipsel), Windows, Sparc Solaris, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X. GCL has support for cross-platform graphical user interfaces using the Tk widget set.
GCL is closely associated with the Maxima, ACL, ACL2, and Axiom projects.
GCL is under active development: the last version was released in December 20, 2022. The project is a GNU Savannah project and uses the GIT version control system.
The current stable release of GCL is 2.6.13, and can be downloaded from GNU's FTP site. You can check out the GIT development source tree using the following commands:
git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/gcl.git cd gcl git checkout master cd gcl
You can download a MS Windows executable (".exe") and get other information for using GCL with Windows here.
The official home page has release notes and describes more of GCL's features (X, MPI, flexible C FFI).


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Ham::APRS::FAP - Finnish APRS Parser (Fabulous APRS Parser)
use Ham::APRS::FAP qw(parseaprs); my $aprspacket = 'OH2RDP>BEACON,OH2RDG*,WIDE:!6028.51N/02505.68E#PHG7220/RELAY,WIDE, OH2AP Jarvenpaa'; my %packetdata; my $retval = parseaprs($aprspacket, \%packetdata); if ($retval == 1) { # decoding ok, do something with the data while (my ($key, $value) = each(%packetdata)) { print "$key: $value\n"; } } else { warn "Parsing failed: $packetdata{resultmsg} ($packetdata{resultcode})\n"; }
This module is a fairly complete APRS parser. It parses normal, mic-e and compressed location packets, NMEA location packets, objects, items, messages, telemetry and most weather packets. It is stable and fast enough to parse the APRS-IS stream in real time.
The package also contains the Ham::APRS::IS module which, in turn, is an APRS-IS client library.
Unless a debugging mode is enabled, all errors and warnings are reported through the API (as opposed to printing on STDERR or STDOUT), so that they can be reported nicely on the user interface of an application. This parser is not known to crash on invalid packets. It is used to power the http://aprs.fi/ web site.
APRS features specifically NOT handled by this module:
special objects (area, signpost, etc)
network tunneling/third party packets
direction finding
station capability queries
status reports (partially)
user defined data formats
This module is based (on those parts that are implemented) on APRS specification 1.0.1.
This module requires a reasonably recent Date::Calc module.
None by default.
Returns a reference to a hash containing all possible return codes as the keys and their plain english descriptions as the values of the hash.
Convert mic-e message bits (three numbers 0-2) to a textual message. Returns the message on success, undef on failure.
Enables (debug(1)) or disables (debug(0)) debugging.
When debugging is enabled, warnings and errors are emitted using the warn() function, which will normally result in them being printed on STDERR. Succesfully printed packets will be also printed on STDOUT in a human-readable format.
When debugging is disabled, nothing will be printed on STDOUT or STDERR - all errors and parsing results need to be collected from the returned hash reference.
Returns the distance in kilometers between two locations given in decimal degrees. Arguments are given in order as lon0, lat0, lon1, lat1, east and north positive. The calculation uses the great circle distance, it is not too exact, but good enough for us.
Returns the initial great circle direction in degrees from lat0/lon0 to lat1/lon1. Locations are input in decimal degrees, north and east positive.
Count the number of digipeated hops in a (KISS) packet and return it. Returns -1 in case of error. The header parameter can contain the full packet or just the header in TNC2 format. All callsigns in the header must be AX.25 compatible and remember that the number returned is just an educated guess, not absolute truth.
Check the callsign for a valid AX.25 callsign format and return cleaned up (OH2XYZ-0) callsign or undef if the callsign is not a valid AX.25 address.
Please note that it's very common to use invalid callsigns on the APRS-IS.
Parse an APRS packet given as a string, e.g. "OH2XYZ>APRS,RELAY*,WIDE:!2345.56N/12345.67E-PHG0123 hi there" Second parameter has to be a reference to a hash. That hash will be filled with as much data as possible based on the packet given as parameter.
Returns 1 if the decoding was successfull, returns 0 if not. In case zero is returned, the contents of the parameter hash should be discarded, except for the error cause as reported via hash elements resultcode and resultmsg.
The third parameter is an optional hash containing any of the following options:
isax25 - the packet should be examined in a form that can exist on an AX.25 network (1) or whether the frame is from the Internet (0 - default).
accept_broken_mice - if the packet contains corrupted mic-e fields, but some of the data is still recovable, decode the packet instead of reporting an error. At least aprsd produces these packets. 1: try to decode, 0: report an error (default). Packets which have been successfully demangled will contain the mice_mangled flag.
raw_timestamp - Timestamps within the packets are not decoded to an UNIX timestamp, but are returned as raw strings.
my %hash;
my $ret = parseaprs("OH2XYZ>APRS,RELAY*,WIDE:!2345.56N/12345.67E-PHG0123 hi", \%hash, 'isax25' => 0, 'accept_broken_mice' => 0);
Convert a KISS-frame into a TNC-2 compatible UI-frame. Non-UI and non-pid-F0 frames are dropped. The KISS-frame to be decoded should not have FEND (0xC0) characters in the beginning or in the end. Byte unstuffing must not be done before calling this function. Returns a string containing the TNC-2 frame (no CR and/or LF) or undef on error.
Convert a TNC-2 compatible UI-frame into a KISS data frame (single port KISS TNC). The frame will be complete, i.e. it has byte stuffing done and FEND (0xC0) characters on both ends. If conversion fails, return undef.
Accepts a TNC-2 format frame and extracts the original sender callsign, destination callsign (without ssid) and payload data for duplicate detection. Returns sender, receiver and body on success, undef on error. In the case of third party packets, always gets this information from the innermost data. Also removes possible trailing spaces to improve detection (e.g. aprsd replaces trailing CRs or LFs in a packet with a space).
Creates an APRS object. Returns a body of an APRS object, i.e. ";OBJECTNAM*DDHHMM/DDMM.hhN/DDDMM.hhW$CSE/SPDcomments..." or undef on error.
1st: object name, has to be valid APRS object name, does not need to be space-padded 2nd: object timestamp as a unix timestamp, or zero to use current time 3rd: object latitude, decimal degrees 4th: object longitude, decimal degrees 5th: object symbol table (or overlay) and symbol code, two bytes if the given symbole length is zero (""), use point (//) 6th: object speed, -1 if non-moving (km/h) 7th: object course, -1 if non-moving 8th: object altitude, -10000 or less if not used 9th: alive or dead object (0 == dead, 1 == alive) 10th: compressed (1) or uncompressed (0) 11th: position ambiguity (0..4) 12th: object comment text
Note: Course/speed/altitude/compression is not implemented.
This function API will probably change in the near future. The long list of parameters should be changed to hash with named parameters.
Create an APRS (UTC) six digit (DHM or HMS) timestamp from a unix timestamp. The first parameter is the unix timestamp to use, or zero to use current time. Second parameter should be one for HMS format, zero for DHM format.
Returns a 7-character string (e.g. "291345z") or undef on error.
Creates an APRS position for position/object/item. Parameters:
1st: latitude in decimal degrees 2nd: longitude in decimal degrees 3rd: speed in km/h, -1 == don't include 4th: course in degrees, -1 == don't include. zero == unknown course, 360 == north 5th: altitude in meters above mean sea level, -10000 or under == don't use 6th: aprs symbol to use, first table/overlay and then code (two bytes). If string length is zero (""), uses default. 7th: hash reference for options: "compressed": 1 for compressed format "ambiguity": Use amount (0..4) of position ambiguity. Note that position ambiguity and compression can't be used at the same time. "dao": Use !DAO! extension for improved precision
Returns a string such as "1234.56N/12345.67E/CSD/SPD" or in compressed form "F*-X;n_Rv&{-A" or undef on error.
Please note: course/speed/altitude are not supported yet, and neither is compressed format or position ambiguity.
APRS specification 1.0.1, http://www.tapr.org/aprs_working_group.html
APRS addendums, e.g. http://www.aprs.org/aprs11.html
The source code of this module - there are some undocumented features.
libfap, a C library port of this module, http://pakettiradio.net/libfap/
Python bindings for libfap, http://github.com/kd7lxl/python-libfap
Tapio Sokura, OH2KKU <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Heikki Hannikainen, OH7LZB <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Copyright 2005-2012 by Tapio Sokura
Copyright 2007-2012 by Heikki Hannikainen
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
To install Ham::APRS::FAP, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm Ham::APRS::FAP
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Ham::APRS::FAP
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.


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(Warner Todd Huston/The Union Label) – In a recent story detailing the efforts of 3,000 postal employee union members marching against USPS management in Detroit, one quote by a union member stuck me as wholly emblematic of the arrogance of government employee union members and it shows the disconnect between the real world and the cushy world of government workers.
As the 3,000 postal workers marched against proposed cuts in the U.S. Post office, tucked at the bottom of the Detroit Free Press piece was a quote by post office employee Kim Sauceda, of Tallevast, Florida.
"People have gone from being very confident and sure that this is a lifetime career to now not being so sure."
Notice how this government employee imagined that her position with the USPS is supposed to be a never ending, permanent job? This shocking sense of entitlement does not exist outside of public employees unions.
Certainly people in the private sector imagine that their career might be one they might one day retire from. But no one in the real world outside of government imagines that their particular job is permanent, no one in the private sector imagines that they will never lose their job. In fact, few in the private sector have the luxury of staying with the same job for years on end.
Jobs come and jobs go in the real world. People move from company to company as some fold and go out of business or as employees find better opportunities elsewhere. Practically no one in the private sector imagines that they'll get "a" job and then hold it for 30 years, and then retire from it with a fat pension.
But that is precisely what government employees think of their jobs, work paid for at the expense of the taxpayers.
However, it must be quite a shock to government employees all across the country that are actually losing their cushy jobs, those positions that they imagined were theirs forever. With the reality of the massive overspending by Democrats spurred by union leaders the consequences of which are finally coming home to roost, these union members that for so many decades felt entitled to their jobs are losing them.
Union members are aghast that this could happen to them. The uncertainty of life should never have happened to them like it happens to the suckers we call taxpayers, they feel.
But it shows the arrogance of government workers. After all, why should government workers be free of the uncertainty in life that normal people have lived through since the cave men decided to step out of their caves and embark on their first adventure?
What makes government workers think they should be treated like royalty like this?
There is an answer to this question, of course. Democrats have played to the feeling of union entitlement so that unions would return fat contributions to campaign funds. This has worked well for fifty years. But the parasitic relationship of unions to politics has reached its logical conclusion: a corrupt end.
Now that unions are becoming universally understood as having a pernicious effect on good government we need now to begin to move the discussion toward eliminating public employees unions altogether.


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