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National Register of Historic Places Program:
Hispanic Heritage Month
Casa Dra. Concha Melendez Ramirez, San Juan, Puerto Rico
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources.
Casa Dra. Concha Melendez Ramirez
Photograph courtesy of the Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office
Concha Meléndez Ramírez (1895-1983), Puerto Rico's renowned educator, poet, essayist, literary critic and intellectual, suggested that the great Latin American novel which would encapsulate the American experience would be conceived in urban areas, "the space where the typical Latin American would achieve an ideal state of consciousness and intellectual capabilities."
As early as 1931, the famous Chilean poet, diplomat, feminist and educator Gabriela Mistral (1885 - 1957) commented about "the talent, the culture and the profound and mature critic of the Puerto Rico essayist," referring to Concha Meléndez Ramírez.
The work of Concha Meléndez Ramírez took her into direct contact with some of the most renowned literary figures of her time, producing a personal epistolary of great relevance. These personal letters have become a valuable piece of literature by themselves. Among her literary correspondents were writers like the Nobel Prize winners Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and the above-mentioned Gabriela Mistral; also Alfonso Reyes, one of Mexico's most distinguished men of letters, Ecuadorian poet and historian Jorge Carrera Andrade, Argentine philologist and literary critic Raimundo Lida, liberal philosopher and Vice-President of Cuba Enrique José Varona, Cuban writer and attorney Jorge Mañach and Peruvian politician and novelist Ciro Alegria, among others. They all considered the work done by Meléndez to be an extremely significant contribution to the understanding and analysis of American literature.
Casa Dra (Spanish abbreviation for Doctor) Concha Meléndez Ramírez, in San Juan, Puerto Rico was the residence and workplace of Concha Meléndez Ramírez for 44 years until her death on June 26, 1983, at the age of 88. One of the most significant intellectuals in Puerto Rico's history, she was a co-founder of the Hispanic Studies Department at the University of Puerto Rico and founder of the Chair of the Hispanic American literature. The home named after her is located in el Condado, one of the oldest and most prestigious suburbs in Puerto Rico. Designed in a sober Spanish Revival style, the most significant architectural elements on the building's exterior façade includes the repetition of arches. The presence of balconies and the double-sided wooden windows crowned with concrete canopies roofed with clay tiles add detail to the house.
Image courtesy of the Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office
Concha and her older sister, Rafaela Meléndez, acquired the lot in el Condado in August 1939; the two-story house was recorded as built in January 1940. Rafaela, like Concha, never married, and the ownership of the house was shared by the two sisters. When Rafaela died in May 31, 1969, she left her share of the property to her younger sister, and Concha transformed the house into her personal library, collecting over four thousand books; which she referred to as "my children." The residence became her place for social gatherings. Almost every interview done for magazines and newspapers, including the recording for the Library of Congress, were either conducted at the gardens, surrounded by the plants and her dogs that she loved so much, or at her sanctuary, the studio where she worked. In every way, the property is associated with the productive life of Dr. Meléndez, one of the most significant and influential academians in Puerto Rico's cultural history. Casa Dra. Concha Meléndez Ramírez was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on June 30, 2011.
Concha Meléndez Ramírez was born in the city of Caguas, Puerto Rico, on January 21, 1895. At the age of seven, her family moved to San Juan. After graduating from the Normal School at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Miss Melendez became a teacher at the UPR High School. In 1926, Concha Meléndez obtained a Masters in Arts from Columbia University in New York and by 1932 completed her doctoral degree in Philosophy and Letters at the Universidad Autonóma de Méjico. Dra. Meléndez became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. from the prestigious Mexican school. A lifetime bachelorette, Miss Meléndez dedicated her entire life to the cultural and academic world. She became an essential member of what was later known as the Thirties' Generation, a group of academics that molded and guided the cultural life of Puerto Rico for generations to come. In the 1930s, the economic crisis created by the Great Depression also caused a crisis in Puerto Rican culture that, among other things, questioned the political relationship with the United States and the lack of a position to define the national identity of Puerto Rico.
Dra. Concha Melendez Ramirez
Image courtesy of the Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office
Meléndez was also a strong supporter for the defense and proper use of the Spanish language in an island politically and culturally intervened by an Anglo-Saxon power, the United States of America. Meléndez believed that Puerto Rico's cultural history (with emphasis on the literature) had to be seen as part of the wider Latin American whole. According to her, the insertion of Puerto Rico within the Latin American cultural network, along with the strong defense of the Spanish language, was the best defense against what many of her generation saw as the ideological attack coming from the United States' policies regarding Puerto Rico, which was ceded from Spain to the United States after the Spanish-American War of 1898. While limited local representation existed, and Puerto Ricans became citizens of the United States in 1917, there was a real fear that their Spanish/Latino cultural heritage, including the Spanish language, would be lost to the cultural invasion of the English-speaking Norte Americanos, prompted by the imposition of the English language as a primary educational tool in the local schools.
After completing her Ph.D. in Mexico and coming back to Puerto Rico, Melendez's intellectual life transitioned over two principal lanes: her work as an educator at the University of Puerto Rico for 34 years and her literary production, mostly as an essayist. She influenced many generations of students, emphasizing the study of Latin American literature, and was a co-founder of the Hispanic Studies Department. Meléndez established the Chair of Hispanic American Literature and was the Dean of the Hispanic Studies Department from 1940-1943.
Photograph courtesy of the Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office
Throughout her life, Dr. Meléndez received numerous local and international recognitions for her great intellectual contributions. Her publications received medals and awards from the Atendo Puertoriqueňo and Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueňo. In 1971, Dr. Meléndez became the first woman ever to be invited to formally lecture at the Real Academia de la Lengua Espaňola in Mexico. She was also the first woman member of the Puerto Rico Academy of the Spanish Language. In 1971, Dr. Meléndez received from the government of Venezuela the prestigious award Andrés Bello, the first time that the recognition was bestowed upon a non-Venezuelan woman. That very same year, she was designated Woman of the Year by the Union of American Women. Also in 1979, the Puerto Rican writer was selected to be recorded as part of the Library of Congress' program Archives of Latin American Literature. Initiated in 1942, by 1979 the archives consisted of the voice recording of 265 carefully selected Hispanic writers, among who were great masters like Miguel Angel Asturias, Juan Ramón Jiméz, Pablo Neruda (world famous poet but probably more familiar to American audiences as the subject of the Italian film Il Postino), Gabriel Mistral, Nicolás Gullién and Jorge Gullién. Concha Meléndez earned her place among the greatest.


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Reading assignments, lab exercises, and quiz questions from an undergraduate course given in Autumn 2018
Assessment Materials in Econometrics
Slides, lecture notes and assignments from a 2019 course. Some of the documents are available via a GitHub repository
On this page for a 2017/18 course whose primary text is Verbeek's "A Guide to Modern Econometrics", under the "Public resources" tab there are problem sets and lecture slides in PDF format
PDF lecture slides and class exercises (without data sets) from a 2016/17 course are found under the "Public resources" tab. "Following a review of linear regression methods, students are introduced to maximum likelihood estimation and instrumental variable methods, before proceeding to a more in-depth treatment of certain classes of models that arise in economics and finance to deal with particular types of data."
A set of questions from a econometrics course as Leicester, without answers, as a six-side PDF document.
Archived materials from a Spring 2012 course that aims to take students "through the process of forming economic hypotheses, gathering the appropriate data, analyzing them, and effectively communicating their results". Includes reading suggestions and assessment materials (without answers). The course presumes knowledge of statistical methods in economics.
This webpage provides ten multiple choice questions for introductory econometrics, written by Guy Judge of Portsmouth University. The quiz is hosted by the Quia service, which allows academics to add their own quizzes by subscription. Marking and feedback on the correct answers is provided.
Fifteen detailed lecture handouts in PDF are archived here along with 11 exercise sheets with answers. The lecture topics are: Sets and Boolean Algebra, The Binomial Distribution, The Multinomial Distribution, The Poisson Distribution, The Binomial Moment Generating Function, The Normal Moment Generating Function, Characteristic Functions and the Uncertainty Principle, The Bivariate Normal Distribution, The Multivariate Normal Distribution, Conditional Expectations and Linear Regression, Sampling Distributions, Maximum Likelihood Estimation, Regression estimation via Maximum Likelihood, Cochrane's Theorem, and Stochastic Convergence.
This is a course website for Introductory Econometrics as taught by Mike Abbott at Queen's University, Kingston (Australia). It includes extensive course materials, lecture notes, statistical tables, datasets and assignments and a number of past exams, going back to 1997, some with answers in separate files.
This is a large set of exercises keyed to chapters of the textbook "Basic Econometrics" by Damodar N. Gujarati, with suggested answers for all questions.
This 1998 course page has seven sets of extensive lecture notes totalling more than 160 pages of explanatory material. There are also seven quizzes, also in PDF and PostScript formats. The course is an Introduction of Econometrics / Statistics as taught by Daniel McFadden, James Powell at University of California, Berkeley.
Available are notes from lectures, problem sets, and a sample exam. Lecture topics are: Discrete Response Models, Sampling and Selection, Generalized Method of Moments, Instrumental Variables, Systems of Regression Equations, Simultaneous Equations, and Robust Methods in Econometrics. From an Econometrics / statistics course as taught in 2001.

subset: commoncrawl


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2020's Defining Moment? Pensioner Mistakes Slushie Machine For Hand Sanitiser!
To COVID-19's credit, it's given us many wonderful things to laugh about. "Karens" going off in Bunnings and fist fights in the toilet paper aisle to name but a few.
However, new CTV footage of an elderly chap mistaking a service station's slushie machine for hand sanitiser could well be the image that defines 2020.
The unnamed, but socially aware gentleman, can be seen entering the store in a face mask and dutifully using the raspberry slushie machine to wash his hands.
The footage is now been widely circulated online, although the store's location remains a mystery.
Despite the gaffe, the man's actions quickly won praise on social media.
"God bless his little heart, one thing his hands still will be clean – sticky but clean – melted my heart this," tweeted one.
"Better effort than half the young hard nuts who don't give a shit about sanitisation," penned another.
While another added: "Poor bugger just trying to do the right thing – he could have someone really poorly at home."
Check out the sticky situation below:
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"Simplicity is supreme sophistication"
Leonardo da Vinci
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"128 emergencies"
That tells us nothing about the numbers of excessively obese people. It could even represent one fat bastard rescued 128 times.
Mine's the XXXXXL one.
The London fire brigade has over the past five years been called to 128 emergencies involving "excessively overweight" people trapped in "beds, baths or chairs" - at a cost of £292,992, the Evening Standard reports. The total bill includes incidents in NHS hospitals and those involving prising the obese from their homes "when …
Fat people usually* consume more than they need, which brings in more tax, this is exactly the smoking costs money/no it doesn't argument, and, like smokers, fat people don't live as long so they are less likely to be a pensions burden in later life.
Personally, I think the skinny non smokers are scum because they contribute less to the economy.
*yea, usually - as in almost without exception, it's not genetic, you consume more calories than you burn therefore you are fat.
I believe the O word has been proscribed by nu labour - prOscribed, not prEscribed - and it remains only to burn all deviant dictionaries, wrap content filters around the intertubes, and fry a small part of the prefrontal lobes of all over-5s.
And offer up such Good Works to the nu insect overlards.
I smell something here.
Are we really getting heavier, or are we just getting more reluctant to move people? Or even just getting keener to talk about it?
I don't buy this whole "obesity epidemic" thing. It's a meme that the Government are drilling into us, in order to groom us into accepting a stealth tax on food. And because it's a short step from controlling what a person eats to controlling what they think.
> Shadow health minister Mike Penning said it demonstrated
> "the severe strain the growing obesity epidemic is putting our
> emergency services under"
How high's the military budget again? How much cash has been shoved up banks' arses lately, again?
Silly me. It's all the fatsos' fault, of course.
Though i have yet to see it, I have heard some obese folks describe their consumption habits as ' I eat like a sparrow' meaning they consume very little indeed....but
have you seen sparrows eat? They are greedy little barstewards I can tell you!
I'd be spherical if I ate like one of those feathered gormands!
Surely there must be some mistake here. Is el Reg really expecting us to believe there are fat people other places in the world than just the U.S.? I thought that was a thing of " 'murkin" thinking that we were the only country in the whole world capable of producing fat bastards.
Now if there were only a way to triple the UK population, us Americans could make every other joke/insult about our cousins 'cross the pond as being next in line for Richard Simmons workouts and third rate "diet" pills that cause gray, oily discharge and being just fat, whining layabouts.
I, for one welcome our new and improved, BMI challenged, overly watched, database mongering, thinking of the children while stuffing kabobs in their gullets, overlords.
So the food they consume comes to them how? Either they are motivated to get it themself (Krispie Kreme comment above) or someone provides it. Shouldn't be that hard to fix the problem. Even Pooh got unstuck from Rabbit's door after not eating for a while.
When PH gets "stuck", she doesn't really mind.
I commented on this article on another news site (shock horror i'm not faithful to El Reg!). You have to blame (although not entirely) these supermarket home delivery services. They promote such a lazy assed attitude - I can sit on my fat ass and get food delivered to me, thus eliminating probably the only excercise these fat bastards get (walking/rolling to the shops).
I'm sorry but anyone who lacks the common sense to do even the most basic form of excercise and lose the ability to move properly deserves what they get. If the fire brigade charged them personally for the removal service cases would soon drop, on top of that if fat people were charged more for their home delivery it might prompt them to get off their fat asses and burn some calories getting the grub.
Not matter what excuses I hear as to their condition (gladular, big boned, inherited etc etc blah blah) it boils down to - You're too lazy and moronic. If nature was in charge you couldn't have got that way and if you did you'd be easy prey for predators and so be DEAD - unable to enforce your moronic ways onto future generations.
I'm a big advocate of survival of the fittest
Any 'OMG fattest person alive' documentary will show you that anyone who gets that fat has severe psychological issues. It's more a function of mental illness than indolence when it's that extreme. It really isn't that simple, much as I'm sure you'd like it to be.
Also, may I just say that I hate the practice of saying "I'm sorry but" before expressing an opinion that suggest you're not remotely apologetic. Don't bullshit. Just say what you think and let it stand without faffing about pretending you're reluctant about it.
-just order me anotherTerrifying Taco-
bb says:
These delightful gentlemen have attained the holy grail of sloppy-chef cooking: Saturday Night Live's Taco Town Taco: a taco in a taco in a gordita in a pizza in a blueberry pancake in batter, deep fried.
Yes, you can buy these at every kebab shop in Glasgow,
but it's a very good effort for Americans.
If they can't be moved from their house etc. then just leave them there to starve until they can move again (or never move again), and if they are treated, bill them and up the amount of tax they pay..
Hmm that will work. Cardiac arrest. Hey you lazzy bastard get your ass into the ambulance .
he is not moving cause he is dead ..
The people that should be prosecuted are the ones that keep on feeding them. Like Ms Bee said its mental condition. Feeding them beyond what the need after they can't move is the same as leaving and elder person in fecal soaked clothing. Only Difference is you would have compassion for an elderly person that has lost their mental faculties .
...(but a happily mobile one, and diminishing for it, might I add - as if it were anybody elses business), we have, as a society, become accustomed to excess in all walks of our life to the point that we feel it to be an entitlement. Were we to draw a scale with "what we need" at one end, "comfortable sufficiency" somewhere further along and "healthy excess" further along from that we would have "what we actually churn through" somewhere so far down the scale that especially small fonts or sellotaped extensions to the paper would need to be employed to depict it.
Now I am not extolling some sort of socialist virtue where things are dolled out to folks based on some arbitrary assessment of need, but I am suggesting that we all, in all walks of our life, need to take responsibility for our own consumption and realise that what makes us feel happy is not necessarily good for us and that to moderate our consumption may, in fact, greatly improve our general wellbeing even though it may be at the expense of some transitory pavlovian "joy". The fact is that our own perception of satiety (again, in all areas) has become so skewed that soon, after some natural adaptation, we will probably find the same joy with a little less.
We all feel outrage at the excessive remuneration of top execs, but folks comfortable with less than us feel similar outrage at our own excesses - whether it be the number of computers we have or the number of televisions or the number of cars or the amount we eat or the amount we drink or the amount we smoke or the amount we just throw away. In our society we are largely given the right to moderate ourselves (we feel outrage when it is taken away from us) but it is also a responsibility and if we took the time to become more aware of our own needs and our own foibles - and moderate ourselves accordingly - we would probably find that we would be happier, less subject to the spikes and troughs of availability, and more able to respond to the needs of others without feeling faux deprivation and its associated outrage. Our governments would have less reason to "deprive" us because we would be less often harming ourselves or others with our own excess. Our industry and innovation might not be so much spent on satisfying our cravings for volume or convenience but, rather, quality.
Anyhow, that's my rant for the week. Anonymous, because rants are never pretty things and always lead to regret. Probably shouldn't have indulged myself. I am of for a perambulation.
Here we have it more of the "it's okay to get fatty" culture. Next they will be proposing an obesity tax. I would like to ask, what is the yearly cost of peoples stupidity to the fire brigade? What is the cost of partaking in dangerous sports to the emergency services as a whole? Lifestyle choices, whether they are dangerous to our health or not are our choice and this continuous harping on personal decisions affecting wider society is just an excuse to dictate to people how to live their lives.
I'm sick to death of tabloids exploiting fat, one of the last acceptable forms of bigotry and government fuelling it with their incessant preaching and threats to "protect us from ourselves".
I propose a new pressure group whose whole purpose shall be to the allegiance of the self-righteous abstainers with the guilty indulgers in their efforts to hammer everyone into the same size, shape and outlook.
Come on you "guilty indulgers" I'm calling on you all to stand proud, as long as you have the breath, and proclaim your right to smoke, eat, drink and fornicate until you drop. Now is the time!
Tell the puritans to get stuffed!
Should read; "whose whole purpose shall be to oppose the allegiance of the self-righteous abstainers with the guilty indulgers in their efforts to hammer everyone into the same size, shape and outlook."
I'm serious about this. Aren't people getting tired of the "latte set" telling what is and is not acceptable behaviour? They try to rationalise their prejudices with "the effect on wider society", but as has been pointed out, in the scheme of things such expense is generally of less cost to the country than a gagle of unneeded spin-doctors.
Where do we draw the line? At what point do we say, you are free, but not to do things we find distasteful? We already have laws which will lock people up on the grounds of taste alone, so eating "unhealthily", drinking more than the recommended amount, offending our sight by being fat and wobbly or thin an rake-like or just plain not being "one of us", ie. those who believe they are our "rulers", will be next.
Time to say NO! I'll eat all the junk I decide to, I'll drink as much I as think is reasonable, not you, I'll gamble, smoke, wank and watch internet porn, not because you don't like it, but because I do. I'll play violent video games and read trashy novels, I'll think for myself and I refuse to be one of your identikit clones.
I hereby inaugurate the "GET STUFFED YOU SELF-RIGHTEOUS GITS!" campaign.
Biting the hand that feeds IT © 1998–2020


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Fuller Theological Seminary, one of the most esteemed evangelical theology training schools in the nation, has given its nod to a new campus club for homosexuals. CBN News reported that the California-based seminary has approved as an official student organization an LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) group calling itself One Table. The homosexual group explains on its website that it exists to support the "LGBTQ community at Fuller Seminary," while also offering "a safe place for dialogue between LGBTQ students and the wider Fuller community." CBN noted that the group formed last fall and now boasts some three dozen members.
The news, which many conservative evangelical Christians find troubling, came to light via an Associated Press article that highlighted the group's founder, Nick Palacios. The article recalled how Palacios, a Fuller student, "struggled to get his conservative Pentecostal parents to accept him as a gay evangelical Christian for nearly a decade before his family found a common ground through faith." Now, continued AP, the homosexual seminarian "hopes to carve out a similar acceptance for other gays in the broader evangelical community through his role as president of the nation's first LGBT student club sanctioned by a major evangelical seminary."
In spite of overwhelming scriptural evidence condemning homosexual behavior, Palacios came to the conclusion that he would not have to give up his gay lifestyle to be a Christian. "It quickly became apparent to me that I was going to be OK and that I wasn't going to have to forsake my faith for my sexuality," Palacios told AP. He said he hoped to expand that attitude into the Fuller community. "I really hope that people will see Fuller and OneTable as a model of what the body of the church is supposed to do in this situation," he said.
While a few other Christian schools have taken Fuller's approach toward tolerating homosexual expression on campus, others have stuck to biblical principles. AP recalled that last year "a group called the Biola Queer Underground was quashed by Biola University, a small, conservative Christian school" not far from Fuller.
Juan Martinez, who oversees the approval of Fuller's student groups, insisted that allowing One Table to have a presence on campus does not equate into acceptance of homosexuality by the seminary. Fuller told AP that as long as One Table members adhere to Fuller's standards there are no problems with the group meeting at Fuller. Those standards include the stipulation that unmarried students remain celibate, and that only traditional marriage between a man and a woman is acceptable. Additionally, homosexual students may not advocate politically for their lifestyle of choice.
"If you are ready to make that kind of commitment, then we're ready to walk with you," Martinez said. "We're not going to turn around and say, 'No, you can't be here because you like girls or you like guys as opposed to the opposite sex.'"
The Christian News Network noted that in years past the 66-year-old evangelical seminary was more intentional in making a distinction about what constitutes behavior that accords with biblical principles. "In 1983, [Fuller] leaders published a document titled 'Mission Beyond the Mission,'" noted the Christian website, "which outlines several of the school's key priorities and beliefs. While the document does not express unequivocal opposition to homosexuality, it does mention several 'concerns that rightly evoke the attention of many Christians,' including alcoholism, drug abuse, abortion, pornography, and — notably — 'the promotion of homosexuality as an acceptable alternative lifestyle.'"
Presently the seminary's website specifies that under "the authority of Scripture we seek to fulfill our commitment to ministry through graduate education, professional development, and spiritual formation. In all of our activities … Fuller Theological Seminary strives for excellence in the service of Jesus Christ, under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of the Father."
Richard Flory of the University of Southern California's Center for Religion and Civic Culture took a mildly critical stab at Fuller's attempt at tolerance, noting that it is little more than experimentation. "It sounds like they want to have it both ways," Flory offered: "Jesus loves you as you are, however there are limitations to what you can be. It's like sticking your toe in the deep end of the water to see what happens."
Not surprisingly, a few conservative Christian leaders have stepped forward to criticize Fuller's approach, warning that the school is dealing in compromise. For example, Peter Sprigg of the conservative Christian Family Research Council said that Fuller should be encouraging students who identify as homosexual to separate from the lifestyle. "It's possible to change any or all of these attractions," he insisted.
Such comments prompted Fuller's new president, Mark Labberton, to issue a statement in an attempt to clarify the school's somewhat muddied position on homosexuality. "Fuller's position on same-sex marriage and behavior, reflective of our evangelical tradition's reliance on the scriptures, affirms that every student, faculty member, administrator, and staff person at Fuller is expected to abide by the Community Standards that 'premarital, extramarital, and homosexual forms of explicit sexual conduct (are) inconsistent with the teaching of Scripture,'" Labberton explained, insisting, "This position is clear."
Labberton then mouthed One Table's own slogan, that the homosexual group exists to provide "a safe place to discuss issues related to sexuality and gender — issues that are vitally important, personal, and fraught with debate that is frequently divisive and contentious, not least in an evangelical context." Ignoring that One Table was formed by a confirmed homosexual who is convinced he can embrace the Christian faith without rejecting what the Bible clearly says is sin, Labberton nonetheless insisted that the gay club "is not an advocacy group to alter seminary policy nor to direct any efforts in that direction."
The Fuller president said that in welcoming the homosexual club, the erstwhile conservative evangelical seminary "hopes to be a context in which many of the significant issues of our day can be discussed in relation to the Bible's teaching for the life and witness of the church."
Photo of Payton Hall on the Pasadena campus of Fuller Theological Seminary


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Michielle Yong, July 08th , 2020.
Many times the attic is a room seldom used by homeowners. An attic is like a blank canvas in which you can design however you please. A great way to utilize this often overlooked space would be for a children's bedroom. The attic is quite the unique space in which your child can grow up in. Using the attic a bedroom would allow for extra living space. Utilizing the attic as an extra room generally raises the value of a home and often times has a great return on investment.
Bunk rooms. Island-style suites. Gorgeous guest quarters. Each of these beach-inspired sleeping spaces has a look worthy of imitation. Designing and decorating your bedroom in beach style is perfect choice if you want to achieve cozy and bright room look. Bedrooms in beach style are decorated with details that symbolize the sea and the beach so for the decoration are used things and furniture pieces in bright and in pastel colors. For perfect beach style bedroom it will be great if the room have balcony.
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Paul Rubin has written an article in WSJ regarding Environmentalism as a type of religion which I find quite interesting. The factors he lists as similarities are pretty dead on:
• There is a holy day—Earth Day.
• There are food taboos.
• There is no prayer, but there are self-sacrificing rituals that are not particularly useful.
• Belief systems are embraced with no logical basis.
• There are sacred structures.
• Skeptics are not merely people unconvinced by the evidence: They are treated as evil sinners.
One could also add:
• Prophet - Al Gore.
• Scripture - The IPCC reports.
However, environmentalism is far from being alone in the specter of issues and causes that people become fundamental about, and many political opinions tend to get stuck because people refuse to change their them - even when faced with overwhelming contradictory evidence. This is not confined to the "right", and possibly afflicts more people on the "left". Scientists routinely refutes diverging opinions with ad hominem argumentation, freezing out those who disagree, withholding resources etc. Economists (sorta one myself) believe their social science is a hard science with evidence based facts proved by complex mathematics. Attempting to critcize a parenting is something I can absolutely forget about since I don't have children myself. Even our hero Einstein refused to accept quantum theory.
What are your opinions on this subject? Can these opinions-turned-fundamentalism be compared to religion?
Views: 650
Exactly my point. The best thing about the scientific method is that everything can end up being falsified if a better theory emerges. It's a paradigm shift, just as religion was replaced by scientific method.
Question is, can you accept a paradigm shift in one of your non-religious beliefs? If not, aren't they very similar to religion?
I wish I had written another OP to be perfectly honest...
I find religion to be part of a bigger problem - that many people end up leaving thinking to others and prefer being spoon fed opinions, be it from religion, party or cause. They therefore refuse to alter their opinion unless whomever is serving them does so, and play a game of blindly following the leader.
When I choose which party to vote for I do not look at which I agree with the most, but with which I disagree the least. That way I do not force myself to follow opinions of others unless I actually agree. I tend to find people who 100% support something to be no different than religious fundamentalists.
I'll take a sip of it too :)
But I would like to pose a hypothetical question: If one scans the brain of a religious person and finds out which parts of the brain is stimulated by religious thoughts, and find that the same areas are stimulated by a deep adherence to other beliefs, shouldn't these beliefs also carry the same categorization?
doone - A question I am left with.
If there are areas in the brain "specialized" to deal with religious thoughts, does that not lend creedence to the concept of religion? And if there isn't, then which parts of the brain deals with religion, and what other thoughts are dealt with in the same regions?
As a side note, I am really eager to check out those scans you were talking about, sounds very interesting. :)
No. Updating our beliefs on the basis of new evidence is a good thing. But being obstinate is not the same thing as being religious (which is devoting oneself to an unprovable premise).
an unprovable premise? An good example wood be man-made global warming.
Climate change theory has proved itself valid. In the 80's it predicted the current climate. That is a way of proofing a theory, that it does predict the future accurately.
Man-made global warming is not a fact. Climate change is a fact. Climate change has been a fact throughout human history. Climates have changed long before humans existed. So how am I wrong that man-made global warming is an unprovable premise? On another note, psychics predict the future not climate change theory. This theory from what I understand is based on evidence collected from our natural world. I must confess that I am skeptical that you know the difference between man-made global warming and climate change.
I think we need to seperate environmentalism and Environmentalism, as in those who attempt to reduce our impact on the environment vs those who treat the environment as a deity which humanity is sinning against.
Some examples of things which generally hurt the environment rather then help it, but is high on the Environmentalist list are:
Locally grown food - smaller production units decreases efficiency.
Recycling - remelting glass is no better than melting new sand. Paper should be burned and ashes sent to foresting areas (naturs way of solving it).
Solar panels- requires massive amounts of energy to produce vs gain from operation.
Hydroelectric - massive local habitat destruction.
Low energy bulbs - silly in areas where your house is heated for 9 months out of the year.
Hybrid cars - has a substantially higher environmetal impact in production and higway mileage is no better than a regular car.
But misunderstand me correctly, I have nothing against environmentalism; I am opposed to Environmentalism gone avry - when the focus is on the problem and not solutions. Personally, I do my utmost to reduce my impact, and I am a supporter of carbon taxation, pesticide reduction, heavy fines for pollution, I eat little meat etc.
Also, this was only part of the question I posed. We all know that a number of religious people are impervious to reason due to their strongly held conviction, I just find that a number of non-religious people are equally impervious to reason in non-religious matters for the very same reason.
Edit: To move the discussion a bit forward. In Europe many people believe the healthcare service should be wholly government run. In the US many believe the government should have nothing to do with the healthcare service at all. Both sides present the most horrid picture of what will happen if even parts of the opposite system is imposed, and blankly refuses to accept any evidence that there are positive and negative aspects of both.
Locally grown food: "Consumers are increasingly being told that "local" foods—typically regarded as those grown within 100 miles of the point of purchase—are environmentally superior to foods that are grown farther away. But research suggests that this is not the case (Shimizu and Desrochers, 2008). The transport of agricultural products actually accounts for a relatively small proportion of the total energy-related emissions generated in food production (Weber and Matthews, 2008). In fact, in many instances, imports have a smaller environmental "footprint" than locally produced food."
Glass could essentially be dumped into the deep ocean and return in a few millenia as sand. Paper should probably be burned and the ashes returned to the foresting areas so similate nature's way of recycling. Metals should of course be recycled. Plastics can be burned to produce energy and reduce landfills.
"New research shows, albeit unintentional, that generating electricity with solar panels can also be a very bad idea. In some cases, producing electricity by solar panels releases more greenhouse gases than producing electricity by gas or even coal." http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/03/the-ugly-side-o.html
In much of Europe and the US it is cold 7-10 months out of the year. A regular light bulb demands less resources to produce and does not contain heavy metals such as mercury and quicksilver. It burnes much more energy, the vast majority being turned into heat, which essentially only reduces the heating bill. In warmer regions the low energy bulbs make sense, but not in i.e. Northern Europe or Canada.
I can't find the study at the moment, but someone had calculated the life cycle environmental impact of different car models. As I recall it was the VW Polo which was the least polluting. It would be much better for the environment if people did not lug around 4 unused seats and a few m2 of empty air at all time.
I didn't really want to discuss the environment, but it is a good example that people become dogmatic to the point where suboptimal solutions are preferred because the sides have become too entrenched.


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Annual polling shows how county governments are using digital technologies to serve their citizens and streamline operations.
Montgomery County, Md.; Chesterfield County, Va.; Catawba County, N.C.; and Charles County, Md. made it a clean sweep for the East Coast in the 2013 Digital Counties Survey announced Thursday, July 18.
The four counties earned top rankings in their respective population categories for effectively and efficiently using digital technologies to serve their citizens, streamline operations and achieve measurable benefits. The annual survey is conducted by the Center for Digital Government in conjunction with the National Association of Counties. Hundreds of submissions were judged by a panel of experts, including Center for Digital Government executives.
Editor's Note: Government Technology and the Center for Digital Government are owned by the same parent company, e.Republic Inc.
Survey questions were asked in a variety of areas such as computing, networking, applications, data and cybersecurity, open government, mobile services, and much more. The survey results reflect work done during 2012. The top 10 counties in each of four population categories received a ranking. (See sidebar below.)
Besides identifying the nation's most tech-savvy county governments, the survey also points to some big-picture trends that are occurring across the country. For instance, 84 percent of counties that submitted the survey said they are consolidating data centers, applications and staff – a 13 percent increase over the past two years. Meanwhile, 80 percent are pursuing joint service delivery – a 10 percent increase compared to two years ago. In addition, 49 percent said they were implementing business intelligence and/or advanced analytics at the enterprise level – up 18 percent from last year.
And the Winners Are ...
500,000 or more population category:
250,000-499,999 population category:
150,000-249,999 population category:
Less than 150,000 population category:
"This year counties are focused on saving money where they can by simplifying their information technology infrastructure and sharing systems with other governments," said Todd Sander, the Center for Digital Government's executive director. "Many of them have found ways to provide better information security, transparency and citizen engagement with innovative uses of social media and advanced decision support tools."
The winning counties in this year's survey are actively working on projects in these focus areas. Here are synopses of what the four No. 1 counties have accomplished.
Montgomery County is tackling the issue of open data and transparency like few counties have, reaching for goals more common in big cities and state governments. Backed by a mandate established through local legislation, the county launched a major open government initiative featuring a suite of interconnected websites designed to offer data sets and engage citizens in conversations, as well as bring them to the county's mobility, transparency and accountability offerings. In whole, the program is called openMontgomery.
"We're very excited about it and have grand plans to expand it in the future," John Gillick, the county's technology services manager, said about openMontgomery.
In tandem with the transparency program, Montgomery County launched a mobile application strategy of creating HTML 5-based mobile applications. The county's mobile website is now the launching place for HTML 5 applications such as real-time bus data and 311. With openMontgomery, the county is encouraging the public to use the data for writing their own applications.
In addition, many of openMontgomery's online components are hosted in the county's private cloud, which includes more than 100 applications and 22 departments, groups or agencies. Montgomery County says it's saving $2 million annually through the private cloud strategy.
Last year the county also started a formal innovation program and appointed a chief innovation officer, utilized its data analytics program called CountyStat, continued to expand its private fiber network to additional sites, including the local public school system and a college.
In the midst of all this, Gillick said everyone that recognizes the budget is a constraint for Montgomery County's government, as it is in most other counties.
"Money is tight; we try to do the best with what we have," he said. "We have smart people working here, and that's how we get things done."
Chesterfield County has regularly placed in the top five in the Digital Counties Survey, and came out on top this year due to the completion of several projects that were a long time in the making.
As with many local governments, Chesterfield County is engaged in mobile and social projects. A major bring-your-own-device pilot is leveraging desktop virtualization for hundreds of users and devices. The county has finished a speedy mobile version of its website, and county departments like animal control are moving into Facebook and social media channels.
Work continues to optimize citizen services. Chesterfield County has been expanding its CitizenWiFi initiative to nearly 90 locations. County libraries, meanwhile, are now lending PCs to residents.
Chesterfield County and its Board of Supervisors also continue to get high marks for transparency. When the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors approved a financial plan for fiscal 2013, all presentations, videos and a searchable line-item version of the budget were posted online for citizens to view.
CIO Barry Condrey said it all starts with the Board of Supervisors, which he said has always supported investing in technology. The county tries to proactively provide solutions as departments need them, and priority is given to projects that can be used at the enterprise level – 10 or more departments.
"We spend a lot of time making sure we're working on the right stuff," Condrey said. "There's always three times as much need as there are people and resources to do the work."
Chesterfield County is one of eight Virginia counties making an appearance in the 2013 Digital Counties Survey Rankings. Condrey said that may be due in part because cities and counties are completely separate entities in Virginia. Cities don't reside in counties.
"We're used to having to be more independent and fending for ourselves, and that's led many Virginia localities to seek their own efficiencies and innovations, and ferret out their own applications for their population," he said. "I think it drives a lot of innovation."
Catawba County is trying hard to ensure all its technology services and systems are as mobile-friendly as possible.
"We are constantly exploring ways to make our system better and adapt to all the new devices out there," said CIO Terry Bledsoe. "I think that's probably what put us out front [in the survey rankings]. There's hardly a week that goes by that we don't change something to make it a little bit easier for somebody to use some type of device."
For instance, the maps on the county's GIS site are available on everything from a desktop to a smartphone, and are adaptable and easy to use for citizens and workers alike. The county's programmers commandeered every type and brand of device they could find to make sure the maps worked correctly.
Mobility even has reached into the world of building permits, where Catawba County has put QR codes on building permit cards to help contractors and interested residents access property ownership details, inspection times and other information on their smartphones. The QR codes link to a GIS site where these data sets are publicly available.
Catawba County is making strides in several other areas besides mobility. The county launched "best practice dashboards" that link metrics to budget and performance goals. For example, under a dashboard for the county's 911 center is updated information on dispatch call numbers and call times, as well as several other statistics.
The county also is involved in a public-private regional EcoComplex with Appalachian State University that is converting waste products to energy or raw materials. The facility is selling excess power back to the grid, and a biodiesel operation there is turning corn, soybean and sunflower crops into biofuel, some of which is powering the county's vehicle fleet. Bledsoe's department used a National Association of Counties grant to build out a wireless mesh network throughout the EcoComplex, which is several hundred acres.
Charles County made two big leaps last year that propelled it to the top of the Digital Counties Survey. One was an all-in approach to mobility, which gave county employees the "either-or" choice of bringing their own device or opting instead for a county-issued BlackBerry. The county also began issuing tablets and installed an overarching mobile device management system called Airwatch, while focusing on developing and acquiring mobile applications for use in the county's mobile ecosystem.
The other priority was a complete overhaul of Charles County's website and development of a new mobile website. Employees in all areas have been empowered to update the websites' content so that IT staff doesn't have to manage the updates alone anymore.
Along the way, Charles County constructed its first LEED-certified building (a library), installed building automation systems, has three electric vehicle charging stations at county facilities, offered streaming video of live and past meetings of the County Commissioners, and put the Planning Commission's documents on a cloud solution to improve efficiency and transparency.
Charles County IT chief Evelyn Jacobson said the community is reaping the benefits of a supportive governing board that realizes the value of technology, and is leaning on the county's experienced IT staff and developers, who bring many years of institutional knowledge to the new projects. The county's institutional fiber network also is invaluable, she said, because it's bringing high-speed Internet to about 100 sites, and allows those locations to utilize the same tools as what's being used at the county building.
"We have a lot of positive things going for us here," Jacobson said.
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From July 8-16, I will join hundreds of internationals for a week of solidarity actions in coordination with 15 Palestinian civil resistance organizations in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. To my knowledge, this will be the first attempt to bring such a large number of internationals—already over 500, according to organizers—to the West Bank and East Jerusalem in a coordinated manner. While Freedom Flotilla 2, sailing in the coming days, rightly puts the spotlight on Israel's cruel blockade of Gaza, we intend to show that Israeli repression in the rest of historic Palestine—the West Bank, Jerusalem, and what is now Israel—is no less important and is part of the same project of ethnic cleansing and colonization.
The opening act of our week of nonviolent resistance is, in my opinion, its most creative and daring component. On a single day, July 8, hundreds of internationals and Palestinians living abroad will fly in to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport and perform one simple but radical action: refuse to lie about the fact that we are there to travel to the Occupied Territories and visit Palestinians.
Anyone who has traveled to Palestine knows the potential risks associated with this action. Israel controls all entry points into Palestine, except for the Rafah crossing into Gaza, which is controlled by Egypt and has its own Kafkaesque challenges. The Israeli government routinely denies entry to people it knows or simply suspects of being Palestine solidarity activists; journalists, academics and cultural workers sympathetic to the Palestinians; even people coming to do volunteer or charity work in the Occupied Territories.
This means that for years, the most common strategy among solidarity activists entering Palestine has been to keep your head down and lie about why you are there.
Plenty of us know the routine. You say that you're a tourist. You play dumb about history and politics, and you never say you are going to visit Palestinians. You don't point out the fact that every person of color in your group just got picked out for questioning. You submit calmly to interrogation and construct non-offensive half-truths, conveniently leaving out certain parts of your itinerary. When they search your stuff, you nod and say you understand it's for "security reasons." You swallow every rebellious instinct that brought you to Palestine in the first place and temporarily submit to a racist, invasive, intimidating security apparatus in the hope that they will deign to let you in to Palestine, and accept that this is the price to be paid for being able to do the work you want to do.
For the record, I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with this strategy. In any given situation, the most useful way to interact with agents of the Israeli state is a tactical decision. I understand there are many groups of people who do not have the luxury of pissing off Israeli security: people who depend on free movement in and out of Palestine for work, study, or to see family; those engaged in long-term projects in the region for whom maintaining access to the Occupied Territories is crucial; those engaged in critical media work that gets Palestine's story out to the world; those who may be in a more vulnerable position for any number of reasons.
But at the same time, we should be clear that Israel's border controls and repressive entry policies are part of the apartheid system—a big part. Entry restrictions on solidarity activists, journalists, and NGO workers are a natural outgrowth of the restrictions that prevent a large percentage of the worldwide Palestinian population from returning to their own country and/or moving about freely within it. They are a component of the elaborate matrix of borders, walls, checkpoints, permits, soldiers and secret police by which the Israeli government exerts a choke-hold on free movement and political activity throughout occupied Palestine. They are part and parcel of the occupation machinery that seeks to isolate the Occupied Territories and make life there unbearable so that Palestinians will leave, and that frequently forces them out whether they want to go or not. And like all other parts of the apartheid system, they deserve to be challenged.
This year's Nakba and Naksa Day protests saw Israel besieged on every one of its garrisoned borders by unarmed Palestinians simply wanting to return home. At the end of this month, Freedom Flotilla 2 will defy Israel's punitive and illegal naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. We see the July 8 fly-in as our contribution to the new movement that is chipping away at Fortress Israel.
Some fellow activists have raised the possibility that this action will result in nothing more than hundreds of us being summarily deported, and possibly banned from entering Palestine in the future. It is entirely possible that this will happen, and anyone participating in this action should be aware of the risk. It seems to me a very small risk to take in comparison to the crushing violence Palestinians have stood up to for over 60 years. While this action is not for everyone, I believe the time is right for those in a position to expose and nonviolently resist Israel's repressive entry policies to do so on a mass scale.
Just as no one thinks one flotilla (or two or three) is going to bring the siege of Gaza to an end, no one believes this one day of action will immediately alter the state of affairs at Ben Gurion Airport and the rest of Israel's borders. In the short term, it is possible that it may even make airport personnel more suspicious and aggressive. That is how oppressors respond to acts of resistance. They often become more aggressive before they are defeated, because they rightly sense that the momentum is on the side of justice.
July 8, and the week of solidarity it opens, is one step in the long process of taking down the apartheid system. The Arab revolutions, the growing BDS movement, and Israel's own increasingly hysterical reactions to nonviolent protest have radically accelerated the timeline of that process from what many of us believed possible only a few years ago. Israeli apartheid's days are numbered, and now is the moment to challenge it on every front.
Laura Durkay is a member of Siegebusters Working Group and the International Socialist Organization in New York City. You can follow updates from the week of solidarity on her personal blog, Laura on the Left, and on Twitter at @lauradurkay.
Individuals interested in participating in the July 8-16 week of solidarity should email firstname.lastname@example.com or visit http://www.palestinejn.org/ for more details.


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I'm excited to share that we have another guest post by the multi-talented Gry Tina Tinde. Many of you remember Tina's first guest post, the wild and wacky adventures of A Ski Instructor to Die For or more recently her piece On Marriage I Go With Brad Pitt. For anyone just joining us, Tina has spent a lifetime […]
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The Downside of Learning a Foreign Language, Part I
Posted in Expat Life, Guest Posts, Learning Dutch or Other Foreign Languages, tagged Cambodia, Gry Tina Tinde, guest post, learning a foreign language, New York, Norwegian Ministry of Defense, Russian, Russian Embassy, UN, writing on November 27, 2011 | 3 Comments »


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For the longest, I was insecure about my weight. I didn't want anyone taking pictures of me because it showed every inch of my body that I hated.
Not to mention, I have always been careful about who I shared my business with. I would literally write in a diary before I spilled my personal tea. Until one day, I realized the gift of transparency and my size meant nothing! Sooooo, I am here shameless, bold, and transparent.
I am serving a daily dose of fashion, a little tea and adventure.


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The 100 Essential Directors Part 9: Victor Sjöström to Luchino Visconti
Today we present a glorious spate of international auteurs that range from cinematic innovators from the silent era to those who continue to push the limits of film in their contemporary work.
In between Victor Sjöström and Luchino Visconti there is a glorious spate of international auteurs that range from cinematic innovators from the silent era to those who continue to push the limits of film in their contemporary work, carrying on the rich traditions of those who came before them and directly referencing these innovators in their work, re-interpreting the past for modern movie-going audiences, often brilliantly.
(1879 - 1960)
Three Key Films: The Phantom Carriage (1921), He Who Gets Slapped (1924), The Wind (1928)
Underrated: The Outlaw and His Wife (1918)
Unforgettable: Letty (a career-best Lillian Gish), shot in agonized close-up, as the sandstorm wailing outside the door of her shack threatens to tear both her and the entire place to pieces. Insidiously, her new environment has eroded her mind and in this moment, Letty goes from perfectly rational city girl on the prairie to wide-eyed madwoman lost in the eye of a monstrous Texas cyclone. Though The Wind is one of the final films of the silent era, this ghostly image is always the first that comes to mind when I think of silent film, for the very expressiveness of that violent moment defines what can be said onscreen without words.
The Legend: Sjöström is arguably best known to today's cinephile crowd as an actor rather than a director, appearing in the key leading role of Isak Borg in Ingmar Bergman's melancholic masterpiece about aging, Wild Strawberries (1957), for which he was recently celebrated in PopMatters' 100 Essential Male Film Performances as one of the classics that everyone should know. Even though his uncomfortability with the form's transition into sound is allegedly what sparked his return to the theater and to acting, as a pioneering film director Sjöström's contribution to cinema as both a visual storyteller and technician remains one of the most under-appreciated of the silent era.
Beginning in his native Sweden, where he made over forty films after leaving the theater and before being drawn to Hollywood by Louis B. Mayer, Sjöström honed his craft on films such as Sons of Ingmar (1919) and Karin, Daughter of Ingmar (1920). Though much of his early Swedish ouevre has been forever lost, Sjöström would come to be known for building poetic, surrealist paens to love, obsession, and brutality in the decade that immediately preceded the first sound films. Initially, his stylistically-innovative work was more than often dismissed by critics of the time as a pastiche of old conventions, of techniques that were quickly going out of vogue, from expressive, theatrical acting performances to the clean, clear moments of repetitive visual symbolism (think the wedding ring or the transposed, braying horses in The Wind). Thankfully, modern film critics have slowly but surely given Sjöström his proper due as one of the medium's earliest and most influential artists to dynamically cross international borders as an actor, and most importantly, as a director who seemed to be in constant pursuit of technical excellence and innovation through pure artistic impulse and expression. Matt Mazur
- The 100 Essential Directors Part 8: Jean Renoir to Douglas Sirk ... ›
- The 100 Essential Directors Part 6: Ernst Lubitsch to Vincente ... ›
- The 100 Essential Directors Part 10: Josef Von Sternberg to Zhang ... ›
- The 100 Essential Directors Part 3: George Cukor - John Ford ... ›
- The 100 Essential Directors Part 5: Derek Jarman to Mike Leigh ... ›
- The 100 Essential Directors Part 4: Samuel Fuller - John Huston ... ›
- The 100 Essential Directors Part 2: Robert Bresson to David ... ›
- The 100 Essential Directors Part 1: Chantal Akerman - Bernardo ... ›
- The 100 Essential Directors - PopMatters ›
- Luchino Visconti's L'Innocente Is a Lush Moral Quagmire - PopMatters ›
- 'The Great McGinty' Takes on the Great Political Machine - PopMatters ›
- Honest Deception in Sturges' 'The Lady Eve' - PopMatters ›


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Educators Urge Congress To Protect Their Social Security
NEA Calls for Passage of the Social Security Fairness Act
WASHINGTON - January 16, 2008 -
Peg Cagle, an architect with 15 years experience, entered the classroom during the 1990s to meet California's growing demand for math and science teachers. But when she retires, she will pay a huge and unexpected price for her dedication to the children of the Los Angeles Unified School District due to a Social Security offset—the Windfall Elimination Provision.
"I knew that my career move would result in an immediate pay cut," said Cagle. "I did not realize, however, that I would suffer further financial penalties upon retirement. Had I been fully informed at the time, I seriously doubt that I would have chosen to embark on a career in public service."
WEP significantly reduces the Social Security benefit for former private sector employees who retire with a pension from public sector employment not covered by Social Security. Currently, educators in about 15 states do not pay into the Social Security system. WEP penalizes individuals, like Cagle, who spent part of their careers in jobs not covered by Social Security. Some have seen their Social Security benefits reduced by as much as $328 a month.
Cagle, who testified on the matter before a House subcommittee this morning, later joined NEA President Reg Weaver and Representatives Howard Berman (D-Calif.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) in calling on Congress to pass the Social Security Fairness Act, which would repeal WEP and another punitive provision—the Government Pension Offset.
The Government Pension Offset affects people who are eligible for a pension from public sector employment not covered by Social Security and Social Security's survivor/dependent benefit. GPO reduces their survivor/dependent benefit by two-thirds of their public pension.
"When you are on a fixed income and have lost a spouse, this amount can make the difference between self-sufficiency and poverty," said Cagle. "Without changes at the federal level, it is highly unlikely that knowledgeable and passionate individuals will choose to leave the private sector to become educators in our public schools."
NEA has rallied for many years to eliminate these unfair provisions in Social Security law that deny educators of full retirement benefits. Weaver said the time for congressional action is long overdue.
"This is an issue of fairness, justice and respect," said Weaver. "If Congress is serious about encouraging professionals from the private sector to answer the call to teach, it must repeal these offsets. This is about respecting our public school educators enough to assure them a secure retirement."
The National Education Association is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing 3.2 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers.
Contact: Brian Washington (202) 822-7823


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Self-advocacy and personal responsibility are keys to success. Advocacy means standing up for your needs and requires knowledge and skills. Start building your skills by reading and completing the materials below.
This checklist has suggested skills relating to personal health and medical information, hearing and other assistive technology use, and accommodations.
This plan describes a little about who you are, your hearing loss, how you prefer to communicate and what technologies you use. Use it to start the conversation about your preferred communication practices with anyone whom may communicate with you.
Print and complete this card and carry it in your wallet in case you need to use it in an emergency or to explain how you best communicate.


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7+ Taskbar Numberer is a tiny tool which adds numbers to the icons on your Windows 7 or 8 taskbar.
Why? If you want to launch or switch to, say, the 7th icon from the left on the taskbar then you can hold down the Windows key and press 7. But it may take a moment to figure out exactly which number any particular icon might be - unless you have 7+ Taskbar Numberer add and display the details for you.
Of course, while the numbers are very small, this still isn't the most visually appealing of effects. The author understands that, though, and has recently added an option to help: you can now tell the program to display numbers only when the Windows key is held down. Normally everything looks as normal, and only when you press the Windows key will the numbers appear.
Getting started with the program is easy enough. Just launch the appropriate version for your system (32 or 64-bit), choose the display mode - only when the Windows key is down, say - and you'll see the results immediately.
If you have any problems (or just don't need the program any more), right-click its system tray icon and the numbers will disappear immediately.
And if you decide you want to launch the program automatically, without the default status window appearing, all you have to do is create a startup shortcut with the appropriate commands, like: "C:\Software\7 Taskbar Numberer\64\7 Taskbar Numberer.exe" -v2 -hidewnd
See the program's Readme.html file for more details.
If you use the WinKey+Number shortcut (or any similar quick access option) to switch to programs then 7 Task Numberer will make the process quicker and easier.


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Episode 84 – The One Where We Didn't Say G****e
16 April, 20121 comment
This week we consider the question of whether Apple and five major publishers colluded to fix e-book prices and the prospect of a Department of Justice Anti-trust suit against them. We also argue the question of whether buy-in from Blackboard will be good or bad for open source learning management projects Moodle and Sakai and join the chorus of praise lauding the online release of the 1940 U.S. Census. On the lighter side, we check in on the ongoing saga of @FakeElsevier. Finally, we celebrate our unintentional, but surely very welcome, neglect of a certain not-evil web search and services company.
Late update: Since we recorded this episode on April 4, 2012, the DOJ showed its hand and officially filed suit against Apple and its partners in the publishing industry, announcing terms of a possible settlement with at least three publishers.
Other links mentioned on the podcast:
Bigger Than Agency, Bigger Than E-Books: The Case Against Apple and Publishers
Blackboard Buys 2 Leading Supporters of Open-Source Competitor Moodle
Fake Elsevier's complaints about academic publishing leads to fake takedown notice
Big Day for Family History Hunters: 1940 U.S. Census Is Online
Running time: 45:38
Download the .mp3
Categorized under Apple, Blackboard, course management systems, ebooks, Elsevier, iPad, law, Microsoft, publishing, social networking, Twitter


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Emergency 24 Hour Locksmith Serving Parrish & Surrounding Areas
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In short, if you need any sort of emergency locksmith services – whether it's residential or commercial – we're the ones to call. We'll be right there to help you in a flash! From automotive locksmith services to commercial locksmith services and everything in-between, there's no lock problem we can't solve for you. Get in touch with us today! We'll have a Parrish 24 hour locksmith dispatched to your location fast.
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Corrosion can occur on external and internal surfaces of pipes, tanks and radiators. In the design phase various issues have to be considered such as pipe material, insulation, medium, humidity and air purging etc.
Internal corrosion can occur if there is oxygen in the pipe or if there is very fast flow in the fittings. To prevent corrosion, system speeds should not be too high, and air must be prevented from getting into the system, e.g. do not use pipes into which air can diffuse. Air vents can be added if required as this will limit the amount of oxygen in the water.External corrosion occurs when a steel pipe is fitted in a humid environment or when condensation occurs on the surface of a pipe used to transport a cold medium. Thus, the outer surfaces of cooling system pipes need to be protected from corrosion or to be made from non-corrosive materials such as plastic. Because air can diffuse through plastic, plastic pipes should not be used together with steel pipes.
Corrosion can occur in a tank or radiator when slurry precipitates in the bottom or when air accumulates in the top.


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CINCINNATI (AP) Josh Brown is kicking for the Cincinnati Bengals against the Dallas Cowboys, taking the place of injured Mike Nugent.
Nugent hurt his right calf during practice on Wednesday. He was inactive on Sunday against Dallas, opening the way for Brown - signed during the week - to take his place.
Rookie Trevor Robinson starts at center for the Bengals, with Kyle Cook in a backup role. Cook was activated off the injured reserve list on Saturday. He hurt his right ankle in the final preseason game but has recovered enough to play.
Sean Lissemore starts at nose tackle for the Cowboys, who were playing one day after defensive lineman Josh Brent was charged with intoxication manslaughter for a traffic accident that killed teammate Jerry Brown.
Online:http://pro32.ap.org/poll andhttp://twitter.com/AP-NFL


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Herschel V. and Janet Jones Endowed Fund
The purpose of the Endowment is to provide unrestricted support for Odegaard Undergraduate Library.
Herschel V. Jones III is an alumnus of the UW School of Business with an MBA in International Business. He is the Managing Director of Korn/Ferry International in Seattle. Janet Jones is an alumna of the UW Graduate School of Library and Information Science with an MLS and is a Business Management Consultant with Jones Consulting Group.


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Directed by:
Robert Dyke
Walter Koenig
Bruce Campbell
Leigh Lombardi
Robert Kurcz
John J. Saunders
Reavis Graham
Tom Case
Two space shuttle pilots bring a strange alien artifact back to Earth.
After it turns itself into a deadly war robot able to assimilate any organic or man-made matter for its own purposes, the pilots are dispatched to the Moon to seek out the origin of this ancient threat.
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Country: USA
Language: English
Ratings: USA - R
Cut / Uncut: Uncut
Duration: 82:49
File Size (MB): 683.97
Video Bitrate (KB/s): 1098
Bits / Pixel: 0.106
Video Codec: DivX 5.0 codec
Aspect: 1.50:1
Resolution: 720x480
Audio Codec: MPEG-1 Layer 3
Audio Bitrate (KB/s): 56 CBR
Audio Channel Count: 2
I couldn't find a thread for this old monkeysmasher rip, so here it is.
The AR is off and it could have done with some cropping but with no DVD available this is only way to see it.
There are other rips on ed2k but they all seem to be dubbed.
ed2k: Moontrap.1989.VHS.HHAH.avi [683.97 Mb] [Stats]


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I recently got a transformer prime and just want to check whether the odd responses in the touchscreen are normal or not.
Below I have attached a screen shot from Photoshop touch. The odd snakeing down the diagonal strokes makes me think something is not quite right about the tablets touch screen. Is this normal on other primes?


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It's never too early for summer for Dsquared's Dean and Dan Caten. The Italian design duo is expected to join the likes of Barron Hilton, Paris' little brother, and actor James Franco at a private Nikki Beach pool party in Saint-Tropez on Sunday. Hosted by Lady Victoria Hervey, the event is to fete the launch of Ne-Yo's new album, "Year of the Gentlemen," due for release Aug. 5.
This story first appeared in the July 10, 2008 issue of WWD. Subscribe Today.


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April 27, 2009 (Seattle) -- Women with epilepsy should avoid taking the drug valproate (Depakote) during pregnancy if possible, according to new guidelines developed by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the American Epilepsy Society.
"There is good evidence that valproate, whether used by itself or in combination with other medications, increases the risk of major birth defects, including cleft palate and spinal bifida," says guideline co-author Gary S. Gronseth, MD, vice chairman of neurology at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.
Additionally, taking valproate during pregnancy has been linked to lower IQs in children, he tells WebMD.
The guidelines come on the heels of a study showing that women with epilepsy who took valproate during pregnancy gave birth to children whose IQ at age 3 averaged up to 9 points lower than the scores of children exposed to other epilepsy drugs.
In response to the guidelines, a spokesperson for Abbott, which makes valproate, said the drug may be the only effective medication for some women, but doctors and patients should discuss risks and benefits of treatment.
Pregnant women may also want to avoid taking the seizure drugs phenytoin (Dilantin) and phenobarbital, as they too have been linked to lower IQs in children, Gronseth says.
Epilepsy and Pregnancy
Gronseth and other panel members stress that pregnancy is safe for most women with epilepsy.
"Overall, what we found was very reassuring to woman with epilepsy planning to become pregnant," says lead guideline author Cynthia Harden, MD, director of the epilepsy division at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine.
"Contrary to previous dogma, women with epilepsy are not at a substantially increased risk of having a cesarean section, late pregnancy bleeding, or premature contractions or premature labor and delivery," she says.
Also, if a woman is seizure-free for nine months to one year before she becomes pregnant, it's likely that she will not have any seizures during the pregnancy -- even if she switches medications, Harden tells WebMD.
About 500,000 women of childbearing age in the U.S. have some form of epilepsy, which is characterized by brief disturbances of electrical activity in the brain, according to Harden. Three to five out of every 1,000 births are to women with epilepsy.
The guidelines were prompted by a thorough review of more than 50 articles published over the last 10 years. They were presented here at the AAN's annual meeting and simultaneously published online in the journal Neurology.
Other recommendations include:
- If possible, women with epilepsy should avoid taking more than one epilepsy drug at a time during pregnancy, as doing so raises the risk of birth defects compared with taking only one medication.
- Pregnant women with epilepsy should have their blood tested regularly. "Pregnancy has been shown to lower the levels of anti-epileptic drugs in the blood, which may put women at risk of seizures. Checking these levels and adjusting the medication doses should help to keep the pregnant woman seizure-free," Harden says.
- Women planning to become pregnant should take at least 400 micrograms of folic acid a day, as supplementation has been shown to be "possibly effective" in preventing major birth defects. That's the same amount of folic acid already recommended by the CDC to prevent neural tube defects, especially spina bifida.
- Smoking during pregnancy may increase substantially the risk of premature contractions and premature labor and delivery during pregnancy.
Epilepsy Drugs and Breastfeeding
The epilepsy drugs primidone (Mysoline) and levetiracetam (Keppra) were detected in breast milk at various levels "that may be clinically important," while valproate, phenobarbital, phenytoin, and carbamazepine (Tegretol) were not, the panel says.
"We didn't find much evidence one way or another that any of the drugs caused adverse effects in babies who were breastfed, but this information can help women and their doctors to make decisions about breastfeeding," Harden says.
Women should not stop taking any drug without consulting their physician, Harden stresses.
She suggests that women with epilepsy have a discussion with their doctor about seizure medications at least six months before becoming pregnant.
Valproate is an "excellent drug," and for some women, it may be the only medication that effectively controls their seizures, Gronseth says. "Women and their doctors have to weigh the potential risk of birth defects against the potential risk of uncontrolled seizures."
Valproate Also Used to Treat Migraines
"Luckily, it's not that hard to avoid valproate during pregnancy," as there are now more than a dozen seizure drugs available, says AAN spokesman Joseph Sirven, MD, professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix.
Sirven points out that many more people, including pregnant women, take valproate to relieve migraine headaches.
"Lower doses are used than for epilepsy, so the drug may not pose the same problems [as when used to treat seizures]," he tells WebMD.
Nonetheless, women who have been prescribed valproate for any reason "should have a frank discussion with their doctors if they are planning to become pregnant," Sirven says.