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The public likes Democrats more than Republicans. But it also hates Obamacare more than it loves it.
After President Obama's rather comfortable victory over Mitt Romney last November, some Democrats thought the president could defy the laws of political gravity. They are now disappointed. So are Republicans who thought that controversies over Benghazi, the Internal Revenue Service, and domestic surveillance would bring Obama's approval ratings crashing down into the 30s, if not the 20s, as has happened with some second-term presidents. Obama's approval numbers have been on a very gradual decline and are now at the political equilibrium point where equal numbers of Americans approve and disapprove.
In Gallup polling the week of June 17-23, 46 percent approved and disapproved of Obama's performance. If you take an average of the most recent polls by ABC News/Washington Post, CBS News/New York Times, CNN, Fox News, Pew Research, and NBC News/Wall Street Journal, all conducted either this month or last, Obama's approval is a point higher, 47 percent, with a disapproval of, you guessed it, 47 percent. This puts Obama's job-approval rating at basically the same place as George W. Bush's at this point in his second term and behind the 55 percent and 58 percent levels where Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan were, respectively, at this stage.
The good news for Obama is that the economy is getting better. The bad news is that Washington and much of the news coverage in recent weeks have been focused on just about everything but the economy.
Of course, Republicans not only want to see Obama's numbers drop but their party's favorability ratings climb. So far, that hasn't happened. Gallup polling shows that the percentage of Americans viewing the Republican Party favorably has been declining since the beginning of 2011. Most recently, in a June 1-4 poll, 39 percent rated the party favorably, 53 percent unfavorably, compared with 46 percent who saw the Democratic Party favorably and 48 percent unfavorably (which is certainly nothing for Democrats to cheer about). The other two major national polls asking about party ratings in the past two months indicated that the GOP's brand damage has continued. The Pew Research Center pegged Democrats with 51/45 favorable/unfavorable ratings, in contrast to Republicans' 39/53 ratings. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll put Democrats at 39/37 and Republicans at 32/41. Average the three polls together, and 45 percent gave Democrats a favorable rating and 43 percent unfavorable, compared with 37 percent with favorable views of the Republican Party and 50 percent unfavorable.
Even stipulating for a moment that the Republican brand is badly damaged, we can't say that this will be the determining factor in the 2014 midterm elections. We know that in recent years the kinds of voters who have boosted Democrats in presidential years have a track record of staying home in midterms. Even some Democrats totally enamored with Obama are unlikely to show up and vote for a congressional candidate whom they don't know.
Another potentially important issue is the Affordable Care Act, aka "Obamacare." Unquestionably health care, aided by a weak economy, was most responsible for Democrats in 2010 losing their House majority and a half-dozen seats in the Senate. In 2009 and 2010, during the height of the health care debate, some people decided that Obama's proposal was terrific, many thought it was terrible, while still others were ambivalent. Few minds were changed in either direction during 2011 or 2012.
But what about 2013 and 2014, as more elements become operative? The Kaiser Family Foundation's health tracking poll asks about current attitudes toward the health care law. At the moment, 35 percent have a favorable impression of the law, 43 percent have an unfavorable impression, and 23 percent remain undecided. Equally important, twice as many Americans, 30 percent, have a "very unfavorable" view, compared with just 15 percent who have a "very favorable" one. Indeed, the people who don't like the ACA hate it (30 percent very unfavorable, 13 percent somewhat unfavorable), but the people who like it don't necessarily love it (15 percent very favorable, 20 percent somewhat favorable). In recent months the unfavorable share has been gradually increasing, and the favorable share has been in a slow slide, although nothing earth-shattering. The key is those undecided in the middle, many of whom are cross-pressured on the issue. They may think we needed to do something about the affordability and access of health care, but they aren't sure whether this law was the right way to do it.
The thing that makes it difficult for Republicans to capitalize on the ACA issue is that many in the party are so blinded by their hate for Obama and Obamacare that only the word "repeal" comes out of their mouths. This is something that is virtually impossible to achieve unless Republicans get at least 60 seats in the Senate, which is very unlikely to happen anytime soon. Smarter Republicans would say that "we need to fix Obamacare," or that "we need to make changes to the law so it won't screw up health care." These sorts of arguments are more likely to resonate with voters outside of the party's conservative base (keeping in mind that only 35 percent of Americans identify themselves as conservatives—25 percent are liberal, 40 percent moderate, according to the 2012 exit polls, roughly the same as in other national polls).
So, at the halfway point of 2013, we're at a place where we still don't know what the dominant theme will be in the 2014 midterm elections, and that probably won't change until this fall, at the earliest.
This article appears in the June 29, 2013, edition of National Journal as Split Verdict.

subset: commoncrawl


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Get your image featured in the next installment of TAY!
All you need to do is put a joke or some sort of witty word-ballooned comment on top of this month's image.
Two technical notes:
1) post your submissions at 640-pixel width.
2) the image needs to be in a 16x9 aspect ratio, which for a 640-pixel-wide image, requires it to be 360 pixels high. *NOTE THE NEW IMAGE RATIO*
Have fun...


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Nicolas Forest has been Global Head of Fixed Income Management at Candriam since 2013 and a member of the Executive Committee since 2016.
His first role was as an assistant structured products manager at CDC-Ixis in 2003, before joining Candriam in 2004 as a money market fund manager. In 2008 he was appointed Head of rates strategy and in 2012 Head of rates & forex strategy.
Nicolas has Master's degrees in economics and finance from the University of the Sorbonne in Paris, and a Bachelor degree in philosophy from the same university.
Click here to download the HQ picture of Nicolas Forest.


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South African Journal of Science
On-line version ISSN 1996-7489
Print version ISSN 0038-2353
S. Afr. j. sci. vol.103 n.7-8 Pretoria Jul./Aug. 2007
The science in the intelligent design debate: teach it like it is
Philip W. BatemanI, *; Jo Moran-EllisII
IDepartment of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa
IIDepartment of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, U.K
Intelligent design, the new incarnation of creationism, is appearing in schools and universities across the world. The stock response by scientists seems to be: 'It is not science'. What proponents of intelligent design and irreducible complexity have managed to do, however, is introduce enough of the scientific method into their arguments to make this stock response untenable. We argue that, in South Africa, students of biology are conflicted and confused over this issue and the reconciliation of their religious and scientific beliefs, and therefore need to learn about it in such a way that they are fully cognisant of what science and the scientific method is. In this way they can fully understand the weaknesses of the intelligent design position from a scientific point of view.
Intelligent design (ID) is 'creationism in a cheap tuxedo';1 ID is 'creationism dressed in the robes of science';2 ID is 'not science and is essentially religious'.3 Such statements, issued primarily by scientists, are intended, we assume, to end the debate between the two ontological positions which attempt to explain the diversity of life on this planet. The debate has not ended, of course, and it runs the risk of polarizing into two unassailable camps when such unequivocal statements are used. Here, we argue that it is the ID camp that has made the boldest moves to take the battle to the evolutionists. They have done so in direct response to such assertive statements on the nature of science and ID. In doing so they have strengthened their ideological standing but they have also exposed their theory to counter attacks based on the scientific standing of their theory.
How would we define science? This question, when presented to zoology Honours classes in South Africa, as often as not, results in hesitant suggestions as to 'truth', 'facts', or 'experimentation'. If we were to agree that science, as understood in the natural sciences, is about competing hypotheses that can be tested, falsified, examined and re-examined, then evolutionary theory would fall within this definition of science. We then should ask whether ID can be considered science, or whether valid arguments exist which make it pseudo-science. One argument often put forward to demarcate ID from science relates to the teleology supposedly inherent in the phrase 'intelligent design'. This logically supposes the existence of an 'intelligent designer', usually perceived as 'divine'.
Proponents of ID (ID-ers), however, claim not necessarily to mean an Abrahamic god as Creator when they invoke ID. In fact, they need claim no 'divine' prime mover in creation (sensu St Thomas Aquinas's first and second proofs of God in Summa Theologiae), just a mover that 'designed' and that this 'designer' may be perfectly natural. Steven Meyer, of the Discovery Institute (www.discovery.org) and one of the architects of ID, says 'intelligent design is not a religious-based idea, but instead an evidence-based scientific theory about life's originsone that challenges strictly materialistic views of evolution.'4 This argument smacks of dissimulation in that ID is the ideological child of creationism and those ID-ers who are vocal on the subject are theists. For example, Phillip E. Johnson, regarded as the father of ID, says 'my personal view is that I identify the designer of life with the God of the Bible, although intelligent design does not entail that.'5 Johnson also mentions the 'famed atheist philosopher Anthony Flew',5 who, in 2004, apparently converted to theism due to scientific evidence. Flew said: 'I think that the most impressive arguments for God's existence are those supported by recent scientific discoveries',6 by which he meant intelligent design and 'more than fifty years of DNA research'.6 Johnson even avers: 'although as yet Flew does not adhere to Christianity or any other creedal faith, he has taken a giant step in that direction.'5 This implies that acceptance of a supernatural god is the intent of ID, rather than a weak, philosophical, non-revelatory deism (which is what Flew really appears to be supporting) or, say, the inference of an extraterrestrial bio-engineer, which would just push a naturalistic explanation of evolution onto another planet.7
It could, therefore, be argued that this dislocation of 'god' from the ID argument is merely tactical. Berger8 even opines that the deliberate injections of science and empiricism into creationism through ID are not serious but 'designed to sow doubt and confusion amongst those not well acquainted with the methods and results of scientific research.'8 This may be true, but it is important to realize that just because there is a theological agenda behind the ID movement, by removing the divine (albeit speciously) from the argument the ID-ers become successful in promoting their agenda. Justice Antonin Scalia9,10 successfully defended the teaching of creation/ID alongside evolution against the charge of being unconstitutional, due to the religious implications of the creation/ID argument, by citing 'irrelevancy of intent'. His theoretical example: if a professor teaches in class that the Roman Empire was not present in Palestine at the time of Christ, against all the historical and archaeological facts, the implication is that the Crucifixion story is wrong. Christians would therefore complain for theological reasons. There is religious motivation in the complaint, but here is a case where it would clearly not be unconstitutional to order the professor to teach otherwise. An example like this shows that a theological reason for an argument need not rely on theological precepts; 'natural' precepts can support a theological agenda and be independent of it.
ID-ers have been very successful in capitalizing on this argument. They have, to a much greater extent than before, been able to divorce the divine endpoint of ID from their argument by embracing 'irreducible complexity'. As with ID, irreducible complexity does not need a divine creator, it merely requires a designer; a specious argument perhaps, but effective. A book-length argument by the biochemist Michael Behe for the existence of irreducible complexity appeared in 1996.11 The now-notorious illustrative example of irreducible complexity that he used was that of a mouse trap. A mouse trap needs a platform, a spring, a catch, and a bar that is released to kill the mouse. All four separate elements are interdependent: take away any one element of the trap and you have a pile of junk useless for its purpose. The trap therefore is irreducibly complex.
By irreducible complexity I mean a single system which is composed of several interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, and where the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning. An irreducibly complex system cannot be produced gradually by slight, successive modifications of a precursor system, since any precursor to an irreducibly complex system is by definition non-functional.11
This simple example has been expanded by Behe and others, particularly William Dembski in his book The Design Inference in 1998.12 Purported examples of irreducible complexity that will be familiar to most who have followed this debate are the chemical cascade resulting in blood clotting, and the complex internal workings of bacterial flagella.4,1115
Irreducible complexity is effectively William Paley's watchmaker argument in his Natural Theology of 180216 (in turn, Paley 's argument is an expansion of Aquinas's fifth proof of God, which is that of evidence of intelligent design so it is an argument that has been around in written form since at least the 13th century), which states that just as a complex watch found upon a heath would indicate a watch maker, living organisms express such complexity that 'natural' processes cannot explain them: they must be the result of a designerGod. What irreducible complexity does for the ID movement, however, is provide a scientific way to divorce the divine from the debate even further than does ID. It does this by concentrating on the premise that natural processes (evolution and its prime explicator, natural selection) are insufficient to explain the diversity of form and function of life which bespeak design, whatever the designer may be.
But here is our major point: irreducible complexity fulfils the requirements of being science. It relies on empirical, historical and experimental evidence to support its stance. For example, the evolutionist Kenneth Miller, arguing against irreducible complexity, claimed that to test its validity one could, through molecular genetics, 'wipe out an existing multiple-part system and then see if evolution can come to the rescue with a system to replace it.' Miller then describes an experiment that shows this, and concludes that Behe is wrong.17 That is a fine example of the scientific method. Behe disagreed with Miller's example, but he also (with some glee, we would imagine) pointed out that Miller had shown how irreducible complexity could be tested empirically and potentially falsified.18 Behe has also said that, 'despite much general progress by science in the past half century in understanding how complex biochemical systems work, little progress has been made in explaining how such systems arise in a Darwinian fashion.'19 In addition he stated that, 'the Darwinian mechanism does not look like it can produce what it claims to be able to produce.',20 and that 'the idea of common descent has some support, and also some problems. Right now, I am willing to accept it as a reasonable working hypothesis, but I could always change my mind.'20 It is difficult to dismiss these viewpoints as 'non-scientific', even if one disagrees with them. The last quote is pretty much unassailable, certainly if one accepts the precepts of the scientific method.
There is an important corollary to this: if we accept the arguments above as being scientific, and thus accept the challenge of ID-ers to argue their viewpoint scientifically, then we move away from sterile, unequivocal assertions. If one's viewpoint is that evolution is the best explanation for biological diversity and function, as we assume is the case for most biologists, ID and irreducible complexity are highly unlikely to persuade one otherwise. Most importantly, however, ID would fail as a scientific theory not because of philosophical arguments about divine teleology, but simply because it fails to find support through irreducible complexity or any other scientific design inference. Most biologists would fail to be convinced by purported examples of irreducible complexity. There is not space to discuss these examples but a huge compilation of arguments against the science of irreducible complexity can be accessed online at 'Behe's Empty Box'.21 By insisting that ID and irreducible complexity are scientific, ID-ers will have their arguments challenged scientifically and will have them found wanting.21 In reviewing Behe's book, the evolutionary geneticist H. Allan Orr sums up this position beautifully: 'the latest attack on evolution is cleverly argued, biologically informedand wrong' (emphasis added).22 It is this viewpoint that we feel we should embrace when teaching evolution. Yes, the scientific method relies on falsifiability23 (and one should remember that Karl Popper, the father of falsificationism, took some convincing that evolution was falsifiable), and it relies on empirical testing of data. Apply this to the hypotheses of ID and irreducible complexity and neither proves to be robust or reliable, while evolution and natural selection continue to prove so (although, of course, they may fail to do so at some time).
Why is this important? One of us (P.W.B.) asked a third-year B.Sc. class of 13 students a series of questions about the evolution/ID debate and found that, while there was general acceptance of evolution (86% of the class agreed that 'the diversity of species on earth today is the result of the process of evolution', and 69% disagreed with the statement that 'a belief in evolution is incompatible with a belief in God'), 61% of the class agreed with a final statement referring obliquely to irreducible complexity: 'complex structures such as the eye can be brought about by evolution'. When irreducible complexity was discussed, many students who had never heard of it before found it revelatory and became very interested. For many, even zoologists, conflicted over the religion/evolution dualism, irreducible complexity may be a clincher for religion.
Evans24 summarizes the ontogeny of evolutionary understanding in children as spontaneous generation of species at 68 years, creationism at 810 years and creationism or evolution at 1012 years. Dempster and Hugo25 cite Moore et al.,26 who show that first-year university students in South Africa are also at this last stage, but with a Lamarckian rather than a Darwinian bent to their understanding of evolution. The cognitive processes to understand/adopt an evolutionary standpoint appear to be achieved only by 1012 years,24 and may stay undeveloped at that level for several years.26 Dempster and Hugo25 make a strong case for teaching a wide, historically-based, detailed approach to natural selection-driven evolution due to its undoubted importance as the unifying empirical explanation of biology.27,28 Dobzhansky29 sums it up by stating that 'nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution'.
We agree with Dempster and Hugo.25 Our experience with students suggests, however, that, at third-year and Honours-level zoology, ID and irreducible complexity also should be taught and discussed and dissected. One does not need to support it; in fact, as we have indicated above, once ID and irreducible complexity are discussed scientifically, there is no support for them. They become a non-argument that is merely a counterpoint to examining and testing evolutionary theory. Students, however, need to come to this position (if they do) formally; denying the science of ID and particularly of irreducible complexity ultimately does damage to the scientific standing of evolutionary theory. Universities need, perhaps, to consider the introduction of courses on the history and philosophy of science at an earlier stage than Honours (if they even do that), so that defining science, and the whole paradigm of the scientific method into which they have, apparently unwittingly, bought, is not a difficult question resulting in blank stares and halting answers from students in their fourth year of study.
The philosopher of science, Thomas Kuhn, believed that science goes through a series of paradigm shifts30 and the revolutionary before becoming orthodox. If the ID debate is entered into by the evolutionary biologists in the same way as do the ID-ers, then ID is found not to be reliable or robust.21 This, with simple philosophy, is what we need to teach.
We thank the students of the Zoology & Entomology Department: those who filled in the questionnaire and those who have entered into discussions and debates about intelligent design, evolution and science with vigour, interest and occasional fury.
1. Melott A.L. (2002). Intelligent design is creationism in a cheap tuxedo. Physics Today, June 2002. Online: http://www.aip.org/pt/vol-55/iss-6/p48a. html [ Links ]
2. University of Warwick podcasts. Intelligent Design or Evolution Professor Steve Fuller and Professor Jack Cohen Episode. Online: http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/339 033 [ Links ]
3. Kitzmiller et al. vs Dover Area School Board. Online: http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/kitzmiller/ kitzmiller_342.pdf [ Links ]
4. Meyer S.A. (2006). Signs of Intelligence. An originator of ID makes a case for weighing the theory about how we got here on its scientific merits. Dallas Morning News, January 29, 2006. Online: http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/ index.php?command=view&id=3189 [ Links ]
5. Johnson P.E. (2007). Intelligent design prospects in biology: the current situation and future prospects. Think (The Royal Institute of Philosophy) February 19, 2007. Online: http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command =view&id=3914&program=DI%20Main%20Page%20%20Article&callingPage=discoMain Page [ Links ]
6. Flew A. and Habermas G.R. (2004). My pilgrimage from atheism to theism. An exclusive interview with former British atheist Professor Anthony Flew. Philosophia Christi. Online: http://www. biola.edu/antonyflew/index.cfm [ Links ]
7. Shermer M. (2005). God & Evolution: Intelligent Design Theory, George W. Bush & the Question of God. eSkeptic. Online: http://www.skeptic.com/ eskeptic/05-08-16.html [ Links ]
8. Berger M. (2006). The clash of cultures in the classroom and the teaching of evolution. S. Afr. J. Sci. 102, 90. [ Links ]
9. Edwards vs Aguillard. Online: http://www. talkorigins.org/faqs/edwards-v-aguillard/ amicus1.html [ Links ]
10. Shermer M. (1997). Science defended, science defined. Evolution and Creationism at the Supreme Court. In Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of our Time, pp. 154172. W.H. Freeman, New York. [ Links ]
11. Behe M. (1996). Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. The Free Press, New York. [ Links ]
12. Dembski W.A. (1998). The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities. Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction and Decision Theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. [ Links ]
13. Meyer S.C. (2004). The origin of biological information and the higher taxonomic categories. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 17, 213-239. Online: http://www. discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php? command=view&id=2177 [ Links ]
14. Meyer S.C. (2005). The letter Nature wouldn't print. Online: http://www.discovery.org/scripts/ viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2565 [ Links ]
15. Meyer S.C. (2005). Not by chance: from bacterial propulsion systems to human DNA, evidence of intelligent design is everywhere. National Post of Canada, December 1, 2005. Online: http://www. discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php? command=view&id=3059 [ Links ]
16. Paley W. (1802). Natural Theology: Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature. Oxford University Press, Oxford. [ Links ]
17. Miller K.R. (1999). Finding Darwin's God: a Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution. Cliff Street Books, New York. [ Links ]
18. Behe M. (2000). A true acid test: Response to Ken Miller. Online: http://www.arn.org/docs/behe/ mb_trueacidtest.htm [ Links ]
19. Behe M. (2007). Home page, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Lehigh University. Online: http://www. lehigh.edu/~inbios/faculty/behe.html [ Links ]
20. Wieland C. (1998). The mousetrap man. Interview with Mike Behe, the mousetrap man Creation 20 (3), 17 June. Online: http://www.answersingene sis.org/creation/v20/i3/mousetrap.asp [ Links ]
21. Behe's Empty Box: Book reviews and criticisms. Online: http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/ WorldOfDawkins-archive/Catalano/box/behe.sht ml#reviews [ Links ]
22. Orr H.A. (1996). Darwin v. Intelligent Design (again). Boston Review December 1996/ January 1997. Online: http://bostonreview.net/BR21.6/ orr.html [ Links ]
23. Popper K.R. (1959). The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Routledge, London. [ Links ]
24. Evans E.M. (2000). The emergence of beliefs about the origins of species in school-age children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 46, 221254. [ Links ]
25. Dempster E.R. and Hugo W. (2006). Introducing the concept of evolution into South African schools. S. Afr. J. Sci. 102, 106112. [ Links ]
26. Moore R., Mitchell G., Bally R., Inglis M., Day J. and Jacobs D. (2000). Undergraduates' understanding of evolution: ascription of agency as a problem for student learning. J. Biol. Educ. 36, 6571. [ Links ]
27. Dennett D.C. (1995). Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the meanings of life. Simon & Schuster, New York. [ Links ]
28. Dawkins R. (2006). The God Delusion. Bantam Books, U.K. [ Links ]
29. Dobzhansky T. (1973). Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. The American Biology Teacher 35, 125129. [ Links ]
30. Kuhn T.S. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. [ Links ]
* Author for correspondence. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Authorities said a 28-year-old Northboro, Mass., man, who was missing and was sought for nearly two days in rugged terrain along the New York-Massachusetts border told investigators he intentionally stayed in the woods.
The Columbia County sheriff�s office said officials will now consider criminal charges and may try to recover the cost of their search for Kyle Pember.
Mr. Pember was hiking with his father Monday afternoon when the two men got separated. Police launched air and ground searches but didn�t find any sign of Mr. Pember until he made a cellphone call late Tuesday night saying he was lost, cold and scared.
He was rescued uninjured around 4 a.m. yesterday in Taconic State Park, 40 miles southeast of Albany.


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All questions and answers are based on the 2008 NEC.
Q. What are the grounding requirements for a satellite dish?
A. Article 810 includes the requirements for various antennas, including satellite dishes [810.1]. The antenna mast [810.15] and antenna discharge unit [810.20(C)] must be grounded as follows, according to 810.21 and shown in Fig. 1.
Grounding the lead-in antenna cables and the mast helps prevent voltage surges caused by static discharge or nearby lightning strikes from reaching the center conductor of the lead-in coaxial cable. Because the satellite sits outdoors, wind creates a static charge on the antenna as well as on the cable attached to it. This charge can build up on both the antenna and the cable, until it jumps across an air space — often passing through the electronics inside the low noise block down converter feed horn (LNBF) or receiver. Grounding the coaxial cable and dish to the building grounding electrode system helps to dissipate this static charge.
Nothing can prevent damage from a direct lightning strike, but grounding with proper surge protection can help reduce damage to satellite and other equipment from nearby lightning strikes. Here are some key items to keep in mind.
- Material. The grounding conductor to the electrode [810.21(F)] must be copper or other corrosion-resistant conductive material, stranded or solid [810.21(A)].
- Insulation. The grounding conductor isn't required to be insulated [810.21(B)].
- Supports. The grounding conductor must be securely fastened in place [810.21(C)].
- Mechanical protection. The grounding conductor must be mechanically protected where subject to physical damage and where run in a metal raceway. Both ends of the raceway must be bonded to the grounding conductor [810.21(D)].
Installing the grounding conductor in PVC conduit is a better practice when the AHJ judges that physical protection is not required. The grounding conductor must be run in as straight a line as practicable [810.21(E)]. Lightning doesn't like to travel around corners or through loops, which is why the grounding conductor should be run as straight as practicable.
The grounding conductor for the antenna mast and antenna discharge unit must terminate to the intersystem bonding termination, if there is one [Art. 100 and Sec. 250.94]. Bonding all systems to the intersystem bonding termination helps reduce induced potential (voltage) between the power and radio and TV systems during lightning events.
In buildings or structures without intersystem bonding termination, the grounding conductor for the antenna mast and antenna discharge unit terminates to the nearest accessible:
- Building or structure grounding electrode system [250.50].
- Interior metal water piping system, within 5 ft from its point of entrance [250.52(A)(1)].
- Accessible means external to the building, as covered in 250.94.
- Metallic service raceway.
- Service equipment enclosure.
- Grounding electrode conductor or the grounding electrode conductor metal enclosure.
In buildings or structures without a grounding means, the grounding conductor for the antenna mast and antenna discharge unit terminates to:
- Any individual electrodes described in 250.52.
- Structural steel grounded in accordance with 250.52(A)(2).
The grounding conductor can be run either inside or outside the building [810.21(G)], and it must not be smaller than 10 AWG copper or 17 AWG copper-clad steel or bronze [810.21(H)]. Copper-clad steel or bronze wire (17 AWG) is often molded into the jacket of the coaxial cable to simplify the grounding of the satellite dish by eliminating the need to run a separate grounding conductor to the dish [810.21(F)(2)].
If a ground rod is installed to serve as the ground for the radio and TV equipment, it must be connected to the building's power grounding electrode system with a minimum 6 AWG conductor [810.21(J)].
Termination of the grounding conductor must be by exothermic welding, listed lug, listed pressure connector, or listed clamp. Grounding fittings that are concrete-encased or buried in the earth must be listed for direct burial [250.70] and marked "DB" [810.21(K)].
Q. When does the Code require branch circuit conductors to be pigtailed at receptacles?
A. Continuity of the neutral conductor of a multiwire branch circuit must not be interrupted by the removal of a wiring device. Therefore, the neutral conductors must be spliced together, and a pigtail must be provided for the wiring device according to 300.13(B), as shown in Fig. 2.
The opening of the ungrounded conductors, or the neutral conductor of a 2-wire circuit during the replacement of a device, doesn't cause a safety hazard, so pigtailing of these conductors isn't required [110.14(B)].
Caution: If the continuity of the neutral conductor of a multiwire circuit is interrupted (open), the resultant over- or undervoltage could cause a fire and/or destruction of electrical equipment.
Q. When is the neutral conductor allowed to be used as an equipment grounding conductor?
A. The neutral conductor can be used as the circuit equipment grounding conductor for metal parts of equipment, raceways, and enclosures at the following locations [250.142(A)]:
Service equipment — On the supply side or within the enclosure of the service-disconnecting means in accordance with 250.24(B). Danger: Failure to connect the service neutral conductor to the service disconnect enclosure as required by 250.24(C) creates a condition where dangerous voltage from a ground fault will not be removed.
Separately derived systems — On the supply side or within the enclosure of the system disconnecting means in accordance with 250.30(A)(1). Danger: Failure to install the system bonding jumper as required by 250.30(A)(1) creates a condition where dangerous touch voltage from a ground fault will not be removed.
Except for service equipment and separately derived systems, the neutral conductor must not serve as an equipment grounding conductor on the load side of service equipment [250.142(B)].
In existing installations, the frames of ranges, wall-mounted ovens, counter-mounted cooking units, and clothes dryers can be connected to the grounded circuit conductor, according to 250.140, Ex. [250.142(A), Ex 1].
The neutral conductor can be connected to meter socket enclosures on the load side of the service disconnecting means if [250.142(A) Ex 2]:
- Ground-fault protection is not provided on service equipment,
- Meter socket enclosures are immediately adjacent to the service disconnecting means, and
- The neutral conductor is sized in accordance with 250.122, based on the ampere rating of the occupancy's feeder overcurrent device.
Q. What is the rule on using 16 AWG tap conductors for lighting fixtures supplied by a 20A branch circuit?
A. Fixture wires installed in accordance with Art. 402 and protected against overcurrent in accordance with 240.5(B)(2) are permitted to run from the luminaire to an outlet box located at least 1 ft away from the luminaire, as long as the conductors aren't more than 6 ft long.
As a general rule, branch circuit conductors must have an ampacity sufficient for the loads served and must not be smaller than 14 AWG [210.19(A) (4)]. Luminaire taps are an exception to this rule [210.19(A) (4) Ex 1], and the overcurrent protection rules for fixture wires in 240.5(B)(2) allow fixture wires to be protected by overcurrent protection devices tapped from the following circuits:
- 20A – 18 AWG, up to 50 ft of run length
- 20A – 16 AWG, up to 100 ft of run length
- 20A – 14 AWG and larger.


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text:
A lung scan is a
nuclear scanning test that is most commonly used to
detect a blood clot that is preventing normal blood flow to part of a lung
(pulmonary embolism). See a picture of a
lung scan.
Two types of lung scans are usually done
If the lungs are working normally, blood flow on a
perfusion scan matches air flow on a ventilation scan. A mismatch between the
ventilation and perfusion scans may mean a pulmonary embolism.
Ventilation and perfusion scans can be done separately or together to
diagnose certain lung diseases. If both scans are done, the test is called a
V/Q scan. The ventilation scan usually is done first.
A lung scan is done to:
Before your lung scan, tell your
doctor if:
A chest X-ray is usually done the same day either before or
after the lung scan.
You may be asked to sign a consent form
before the test. Talk to your doctor about any concerns you have regarding the
need for the test, its risks, how it will be done, or what the results will
mean. To help you understand the importance of this test, fill out the
medical test information form(What is a PDF document?).
A lung scan is usually done by a
nuclear medicine technologist. The scan pictures are usually interpreted by a
radiologist or
nuclear medicine specialist.
You will
need to remove any jewelry that might interfere with the scan. You may need to
take off all or most of your clothes, depending on which area is being examined
(you may be allowed to keep on your underwear if it does not interfere with the
test). You will be given a cloth or paper covering to use during the
During the scan, you will either lie on your back with the
scanning camera positioned over or under your chest, or you will sit with the camera
positioned next to your chest. The camera does not produce any radiation, so
you are not exposed to any more radiation while the scan is being
For the ventilation scan, a mask
will be placed over your mouth and nose. Or you may have a nose clip on your
nose and a tube in your mouth that you use for breathing. You will inhale the
tracer gas or mist through the mask or tube by taking a deep breath and then
holding it. The camera will scan for radiation released by the tracer and
produce pictures as the tracer moves through your lungs. You may be asked to
breathe the gas in and out through your mouth for several minutes. You may then
be asked to hold your breath for short periods (about 10 seconds) and to change
positions so your lungs can be viewed from other angles. The camera may move to
take pictures from different angles. You need to remain very still during the
scans to avoid blurring the pictures.
Afterward, the radioactive
gas or mist will clear from your lungs as you breathe.
ventilation scan takes about 15 to 30 minutes.
For the perfusion scan, the
technologist cleans the site on your arm where the radioactive tracer will be
injected. A small amount of the radioactive tracer is then injected.
After the radioactive tracer is injected, the camera will scan for
radiation released by the tracer and produce pictures as the tracer moves
through your lungs. The
camera may be repositioned around your chest to get different views. You need to
remain very still during the scans to avoid blurring the pictures.
The perfusion scan takes about 5 to 10 minutes.
You may find that breathing through the
mask during the ventilation scan is uncomfortable, especially if you feel very
short of breath. But you will be given plenty of oxygen through the
You may feel nothing at all from the needle puncture when the
tracer is injected, or you may feel a brief sting or pinch as the needle goes
through the skin. Otherwise, a lung scan is usually painless. You may find it
hard to remain still during the scan. Ask for a pillow or blanket to make
yourself as comfortable as possible before the scan begins.
Allergic reactions to the radioactive
tracer are very rare. Most of the tracer will be eliminated from your body (through
your urine or stool) within a day, so be sure to promptly flush the toilet and
thoroughly wash your hands with soap and water. The amount of radiation is so
small that it is not a risk for people to come in contact with you following
the test.
Occasionally, some soreness or swelling may develop at
the injection site. These symptoms can usually be relieved by applying moist,
warm compresses to your arm.
There is always a slight risk of
damage to cells or tissue from being exposed to any radiation, including the
low level of radiation released by the radioactive tracer used for this test.
A lung scan is a
nuclear scanning test that is most commonly used to
detect a blood clot that is preventing normal blood flow to part of a lung
(pulmonary embolism). The results of a lung scan are
usually available in 1 day.
The radioactive tracer is
evenly distributed throughout the lungs during ventilation and
The ventilation scan is
abnormal but the perfusion scan is normal. This may mean abnormal airways in
all or parts of the lung.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or
asthma may be present.
The perfusion scan is abnormal
but the ventilation scan is normal. Depending on the difference between the two
scans, a pulmonary embolism may be present.
Both the ventilation and
perfusion scans are abnormal. This can be caused by certain types of lung
disease, such as
pneumonia, COPD, or a pulmonary embolism.
Lung scan results can help your doctor determine the
likelihood that a pulmonary embolism is present. The results are generally
reported in one the following ways:
Reasons you may not be able to have the test or why the results may not be helpful include:
Other Works ConsultedFischbach FT, Dunning MB III, eds. (2009).
Manual of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests, 8th ed.
Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.Pagana KD, Pagana TJ (2010). Mosby's Manual of Diagnostic and Laboratory Tests, 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby Elsevier.
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Last Revised:
October 1, 2012
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
Anne C. Poinier, MD - Internal Medicine & Myo Min Han, MD - Nuclear Medicine
This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
To learn more visit Healthwise.org
© 1995-2012 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.


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It's usually pretty easy to avoid touristy swamps in New York - just dodge Times Square. But what if you want to be more precise than that? Eric Fischer's brilliant "Locals and Tourists" maps show a city's divided hangouts.
Using photo geotags, Eric separated blue "people who have taken pictures in this city dated over a range of a month or more" (locals) and red "people who seem to be a local of a different city and who took pictures in this city for less than a month" (tourists). The results are both beautiful and insightful. While some parts of the city are a swirl of insiders and outsiders, there are wide stretches that are photo-segregated. Fisher's work spans cities far beyond New York - from Budapest to Hong Kong. Turning cities into abstract, GPS-correlated red and blue heat maps doesn't make them impersonal - it opens up the humans down below. [Eric Fischer via Alex Rainert]


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2014 NAIA Men?s Golfer of the Week ? No. 6
By: Chad Waller, Director of Communications & Sports Information
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – David Houlding of William Woods (Mo.) has been named the NAIA National Men's Golfer of the Week, the national office announced Wednesday. Houlding was selected based on his performance from April 14 – 20 and was chosen out of a pool of conference, independent and unaffiliated group winners.
Houlding, a freshman from Leeds, England, fired an 11-under round of 61 at the Williams Wood University Dual on April 17. The score set a new school record and sent the freshman to a first-place individual finish. With his effort, Houlding notched his second individual victory of the year. The Owls defeated NCAA Division III member Westminster (Mo.) by a 263-358 score, for their fifth-straight team win.
The final Men's Golfer of the Week will be announced on April 30. For the complete 2014 Golfer of the Week schedule, click here.
Nominees: Evan Ball, Tennessee Wesleyan; Zach Mode, Corban (Ore.); Justin Doeden, Cardinal Stritch (Wis.); Austin Gass, St. Francis (Ill.); Nathan Edwards, Taylor (Ind.); Dalton Miller, Indiana Wesleyan; Charlie Phillips, Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio); Tanner Priest, Lewis-Clark State (Idaho); Matt Pitts, Morningside (Iowa); Ben Vetrovsky, Hastings (Neb.); Jose Acevedo, Bethany (Kan.); Gabe Vlasic, Ottawa (Kan.); Franklin Crist, Indiana East; Collins Holmes, Point Park (Pa.); Michal Pospisil, Cumberlands (Ky.); Nick Saunders, Shawnee State (Ohio); Brandon Collier, Campbellsville (Ky.); Deryk Speck, Haskell (Kan.); Byron Lindeque, William Penn (Iowa); Tyler Christians, Grand View (Iowa); Michael Strain, Jamestown (N.D.); Jorge Benitez, Davenport (Mich.); Ben Torchia, Lourdes (Ohio).
2014 NAIA National Men's Golfers of the Week
Week 1 (March 19): Dylan Freeman, Coastal Georgia
Week 2 (March 26): Julian Taylor, William Woods (Mo.)
Week 3 (April 2): Nicolas Herrera, Bellevue (Neb.)
Week 4 (April 9): Julian Taylor, William Woods (Mo.)
Week 5 (April 16): James Marchesani, Oklahoma City
Week 6 (April 23): David Houlding, William Woods (Mo.)


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The prospects for using an abandoned stretch of the TV spectrum to bring wireless service to rural areas will get an extensive test in the months ahead, as the Gigabit Libraries Network pilots Super Wi-Fi at public libraries in six states.
Super Wi-Fi uses unlicensed, low-frequency bands in the radio-frequency spectrum — called TV white space — that were opened up by the Federal Communications Commission in 2010 after TV broadcasters switched from analog to all-digital signals. The lower frequency limits throughput but greatly extends its range compared with established Wi-Fi signals, allowing signals that can go for several miles and pass through walls and buildings. It's seen as a potential solution for bringing wireless service to underserved, mostly rural, areas.
GLN put out the call July 1 for libraries interested in forming a consortium for testing the technology and got submissions from more than 50 library systems, GLN said in an announcement. It accepted proposals from Delta County, Colo.; Pascagoula, Miss.; Stokie, Ill.; Humboldt County, Calif.; eight libraries in New Hampshire; and four locations in Kansas: Kansas City, Lawrence, Manhattan and Topeka/Shawnee.
The library systems will deploy Super Wi-Fi access points on e-bookmobiles and other publicly accessible places, GLN said.
Libraries, as a traditional source of public information, are a logical place to test the technology. About 15,000 libraries around the country currently have Wi-Fi access, but their short-range signals require people to be on premises. And another 1,500 libraries have no wireless access at all.
The national pilot, which grew out of a local initiative in Kansas City, will be "extremely important" in assessing Super Wi-Fi's ability to help bridge the digital divide, Don Means, GLN coordinator, told Government Technology.
Super Wi-Fi projects have been somewhat slow to develop since the FCC freed up the spectrum, but pilots began cropping up this year. In January, Wilmington, N.C., and its surrounding New Hanover County launched the first municipal Super Wi-Fi network. And in July, West Virginia University deployed the first such network on a university campus.
Super Wi-Fi is not technically Wi-Fi, since it doesn't conform to the set of IEEE 802.11 standards designated by the Wi-Fi Alliance as Wi-Fi, but it still functions on the same interoperable principles. GLN said the national pilot is an attempt to show how combining Wi-Fi compatibility with the far-reaching signals of the TV white spaces can deliver free wireless service.
Posted by GCN Staff on Sep 16, 2013 at 1:28 PM
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With 10 months on the job, Veterans Affairs CIO Jim Gfrerer is pushing his organization toward a culture of constant delivery.
At his Senate confirmation hearing, Defense Department CIO Dana Deasy said the department's $10 billion cloud contract was awarded by a team of experts.
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Thanks for your interest in the American Battle Monuments Commission. Our goal is to assist you in every way possible. We welcome your suggestions and recommendations on how to improve our service to you. Submit your ideas or questions to us via mail, telephone or the online form below.
American Battle Monuments Commission Overseas Operations Office
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2300 Clarendon Boulevard DPO AE 09777-1030
Arlington, VA 22201 +33.(0).22.214.171.124.00
(703) 696-6900


text: Gypsy Flame offers artisan pizzas from a wood-fired pit grill. Our toppings are fresh, unique, revolutionary. Now available at BarrelHouse Brewing Co. every Sunday throughout Summer. In the winter, with the El Nino season, the BBQ pizza is weather permitting and when the pit is rained out, gypsy flame will come with homemade soups. Either way, get ready for some delicious, hand-crafted food!


text:
DENVER (AP) — Hillary Clinton is visiting Colorado.
The former secretary of state and possible presidential candidate will be the keynote speaker at a women's lecture series presentation at the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield on Monday evening. In the morning, she's also scheduled to visit Intertech Plastics in Denver to learn more about its training and mentoring of young workers, something she's been focusing on at the Clinton Foundation.
Hillary and Bill Clinton will be back in Denver later this month for a Clinton Global Initiative America meeting.


text:
Persian Islamic Iran Silver Sterling Plate MK
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Directory: Vintage Arts: Regional Art: Middle Eastern: Metalwork: Pre 1950: Item # 1223289
Directory: Vintage Arts: Regional Art: Middle Eastern: Metalwork: Pre 1950: Item # 1223289
Please refer to our stock # dr12412 when inquiring.
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Persian Silver Sterling Plate Marked
It is 2 inches (5.2cm) tall by 11.6 inches (29.5cm) wide. It weighs 629 gram.
It is in good condition with no repairs, dents, chips or cracks except surface wears (as seen in the photos).
Our Guarantee: We stand behind all of the items that we sell. That is to say, if you purchase an item from us and are unhappy with it for any reason, return it for a 100% refund of the amount you originally paid. All you need to do is return the item to us within 10 days of receipt and in the same condition that we sent it to you. It is that simple. Buyer has to pay shipping, and insurance costs for both the purchase and the return.


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All of our Beef, Chicken, Turkey, and Pork Jerky ship in 3.5 oz vacuum sealed packages. Addtitionally, they can be purchased in bulk, with a minimum 5 lb purchase (each flavor comes in 1 lb increments, so you can mix and match or stick with one flavor). Our thin-cut Jerky Chips come in 3oz packages and our Wild Game Jerky comes in 3 oz packages.
Our most popular flavor. Cherry Maple is sweet, smooth and loaded with flavor. Try it today and find out for yourself why our customers love it so much.
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Sunrise orange handcrafted kanjivaram Saree
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Beautiful hand crafted kanjivaram saree is straight out of your dreams! This beauty is purely handcrafted by a weaver from small town near Kanchipuram and is purely authentic! It is a must have in your festive wardrobe :) The saree is 6.3 meter long and it weighs around 700 gms. The zari used is the best quality one and has the guarantee for its shine and sheen.
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text:
Exciting Announcement!!
These top ADT Authorized Dealers have joined forces to become the #1 ADT Authorized Dealer in the nation. Gaylord Security/Secure Your Home, ASC Security USA and SafeStreetsUSA have all worked closely together for several years and have decided to become one company officially as of 01/01/2016. The companies will operate under the name SafeStreetsUSA and will now be able to leverage the benefits that a national company can provide to their customers and employees.
We look forward to 2016 and Beyond to be exciting and rewarding times ahead!


text:
App Report for Aqua World Emoji Stickers
App Store Description for Singapore
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text:
New publication by Carnegie scholar Karim Sadjadpour. Sadjadpour does what no one has done before–write a book based on Supreme Leader Khamenei's writings and speeches.
Here is the link to video (and transcript) of a talk he gives on the book at the Carnegie Endowment.
Khamenei is the real power in Iran. He uses Ahmadinejad to create some controversy/tough talk whenever the West threatens more action against the country.
Sadjadpour's analysis is both in certain more fear-inducing and yet more hopeful (more realistically hopeful) than the media narrative.
He focuses on three issues with Khamenei: relationship with US, Israel, and the nuclear issue.
1)US=deep, abiding contempt. Not surprising: he is still as Sadjadpour points out caught in the fights of the 60s/70s (sound famiilars in US pol contexts). Khamenei when he was the understudy of Khomenei was imprisoned and tortured multiple times by the Savak, the CIA-trained security services of the Shah. So the feeling is personal.
The really important point is that Khamenei sees (correctly in my mind) the policy as regime change and no change of external behavior would matter–unless regime change is taken off the table.
2)Israel=Similar deep contempt which Sadjadpour finds in some ways inexplicable. [This is not the same as Iran is just waiting to bomb Israel the second it gets its hand, if and when, on a nuclear weapon]. For a great book on the Israeli-Iranian relations, cf Trita Parshi's Treacherous Alliance. During the time of the Shah of course, Iran and Israel were deeply allied. Even after The Islamic Revolution, during the Iran-Iraq War, Iran and Israel had a backrooom anti-Saddam alliance.
vis a vis Israel, Khamenei would like to see a one-state solution (and not via cleansing of the Israelis) but rather a referendum, which given the larger number of Palestinians, he thinks would come out as to undo the (in Khamenei's eyes) Zionist regime. Tehran is the only city in the world essentially where the synaoguges are not protected/bunkered in. Even here in Vancouver, the Synagogues are all highly gated, securitized.
Sadjadpour sees Khamenei's anti-Israeli state stance as the biggest roadbloack to US-Iranian relations.
3)Nuclear issue. Sadjadpour here thinks (as opposed to the other two) that either Khamenei is flat out lying or totally misinformed (which seems impossible). Khamenei focuses on the themes of self-sufficiency, economic and religious justice, and the nuclear issue hits upon all of those–including the famously easily piqued Iranian self-identity.
Lastly on what to do vis a vis Iran. Sadjadpour is not naive about how hard negotiations will be. Unless something were to happen Khamenei, he is the leader for the near future. Sadjadpour argues that after his death, if the Islamic Republic still holds (which I think is well entrenched at this point), there will be No One single Supreme Leader but a Council.
Attacks on Iran would be a disaster. Iran's popluation is still the most pro-American population in the Middle East. And an attack would be only one of two things that would save Ahmadinejad's presidency according to Sadjadpour. The other would be talks BEFORE the Presidential Elections in Iran in June 2009. So for those who support the talks–as in a Presidential level (e.g. Obama)–only after the elections.
Khamenei does not believe Iran can show any weakneess (sound familiar?) by giving into pressure. So the regime change has to be off the table. Deal with Khamenei (forget Ahmadinejad). And offer carrots and not just sticks and go big or go home (or to war?). Bury the hatchets, everything on the table.
Khamenei made a speech recently in which he stated, "The day Americans relations prove beneficial to Iran, I will be the first to approve it."
The deal is to be struck, but not until after Ahmadinejad loses the presidential election. Which minus the bombing scenario (either US or Israel–the all about certain McCain outcome) and dumbly wading into quickly on diplomacy (the Obama trap), he will lose next year. Then the iron will be hot as Conservatives and Reformers (as opposed to the Radicals in the Ahmadinejad camp) will align to make a deal and Khamenei has signaled publicly he will back it. Under the right conditions.
Click the link below for the pdf of Sadjadpour's thesis (really excellent):sadjadpour_iran_final2
Here is a list of his articles/op-eds on Iran.


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Mayor's Office
Mayor Chris Beutler today presented the Mayor's Award of Excellence for May to Terry Gustafson, a Labor Supervisor I with the Street Maintenance Operations Division of Public Works and Utilities. The monthly award recognizes City employees who consistently provide exemplary service and work that demonstrates personal commitment to the City. The award was presented at the beginning of today's City Council meeting.
Gustafson has worked for the City since 1991 and was nominated in the categories of customer relations, productivity and safety for his work during this winter's snow removal operations.
He was nominated by all 23 people in his crew at the Northeast District shop. They said Gustafson's positive interaction with citizens, contractors and the people he led set an example for his co-workers.
The nominators said Gustafson repaired equipment during snow blowing operations, saving the City money and keeping City crews and contractors on the street. He identified the safest locations for equipment refueling and repair to protect the workers and the public. He showed his dedication by working nights, holidays and even during his son's basketball games.
The other categories in which employees can be nominated are loss prevention and valor. Consideration also may be given to nominations that demonstrate self-initiated accomplishments or those completed outside of the nominee's job description.
All City employees are eligible for the Mayor's Award of Excellence except for elected and appointed officials. Individuals or teams can be nominated by supervisors, peers, subordinates and the general public. Nomination forms are available on the City Web site at lincoln.ne.gov (keyword: personnel) or from department heads, employee bulletin boards or the Personnel Department, which oversees the awards program.
All nominations are reviewed by the Mayor's Award of Excellence Committee, which includes a representative with each union and a non-union representative appointed by the Mayor. Award winners receive a $100 U.S. savings bond, a day off with pay and a plaque. Monthly winners are eligible to receive the annual award, which comes with a $500 U.S. savings bond, two days off with pay and a plaque.


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Fresh off of her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in August, Lady Gaga will be taking the stage again as one of the performers at the first-ever YouTube Music Awards.
The new award show is scheduled to stream live on the Google-owned site on Nov. 3 and will also feature performances by Arcade Fire and Eminem.
The event will broadcast globally from New York City's Pier 36 with actor Jason Schwartzman playing host and director Spike Jonze as the show's creative director.
True to the nature of the 8-year-old online streaming and video sharing site, the announcement was made via web video.
"You decide who wins," said Schwartzman in the video. "It's all about you, the fans. This is a night for you."
YouTube will announce the nominees in mid-October, according to a statement on their official blog. Fans will then be able to cast their votes to determine which artists--including YouTube-only stars who have not had mainstream success--will come away as victors.
Watch the announcement here:


text: DIY + Home + Projects / Friday, 3 Feb 2012 DIY: Friendship Bracelet chevron rug You know how friendship bracelets are totally back? Well, I can't quite bring myself to get into it after 15 years but I love the bright colors, the patterns, the idea of it….It got me thinking where else I could apply the process and I thought it'd be fun to make a huge friendship bracelet that you could walk on. You know, given my love of all things oversized. After multiple attempts I came up with this rug for the new Chalkboard Magazine (it's awesome. Check it out here). Any other size is too thick to actually use. The one you see here is two final rugs stitched together. CLICK HERE FOR FRIENDSHIP BRACELET MATERIALS FacebookTwitterPinterest


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Asia Evolution Tour employs more than 20 staff at our officies in Thailand. The company were starting up on Koh Chang in 2003 and later on Koh Lanta(near Krabi). In 2010 we opened a sales office in Chiang Mai, North Thailand and in 2018 we opened in Bangkok.
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The evolving corporation: next steps for the business community; Last of a series.
SEE Change, of course, aims to evoke the promise of a sea-change. So far, however, the initiative has been an extension of business as usual, with participating companies simply repackaging ongoing environmental programs to convince the public that these companies are acting ever more responsibly. Yet SEE Change spokesperson Tita Freeman maintains that the initiative "is not a repackaging," but will establish clear annual goals starting in late 2006, and will work to engage companies that currently lack sustainability programs. If true, SEE Change could significantly improve corporate environmental and social records and possibly even become a tipping point for the fledgling corporate responsibility movement.
Some of the participating corporations are indeed environmental leaders. 3M, for example, has been a pioneer in waste reduction for the past 30 years, implementing its 3P program (Pollution Prevention Pays) with the triple goal of cutting waste, reducing costs, and encouraging employee innovation. 3P has reduced pollution by millions of tons and saved almost $1 billion. Yet this is a 30-year-old initiative, and for SEE Change 3M has simply vowed to keep on this track.
Worse, SEE Change includes some serious environmental offenders, such as Weyerhaeuser (targeted by the Rainforest Action Network as "one of the world's largest and most destructive logging companies"), General Motors (producer of some of the least efficient vehicles on the planet, including the infamous Hummer), and Coca-Cola (currently under fire in India for its pollution and depletion of village groundwater sources).
Furthermore, at the heart of SEE Change is a celebration of sustainable growth, a term essential to a business model in which corporations depend radically on consistent quarterly rises in profits to keep shareholders from fleeing. But under the current business model growth will never be sustainable. It's time for the business community to be honest. Instead of snazzy new public relations initiatives, corporations need to truly lead the charge in creating a sustainable economy. Production systems must be redesigned to imitate natural systems so that waste products become sources of "nutrients" (feedstocks), not sources of pollution. Corporations will have to become transparent and lay out specific long-term plans to achieve sustainability. And because this transformation will need the help of governments, corporations will need to redirect their vast political influence from lobbying for laws that enhance only short-term returns (often at the expense of society) to pushing for reforms that advance society's--and their own--long-term interests.
Many companies are trying to reduce toxic waste, carbon emissions, and energy use--that is, to become more "eco-efficient." Along with 3M, hundreds of companies have prioritized waste reduction and profited in the process. DuPont and IBM, for example, have cut costs by hundreds of millions of dollars by reducing carbon emissions. Eco-efficiency has proved to be a good investment, since it not only saves money, but by lessening environmental impacts also reduces other liabilities, such as lawsuits, potential government regulation, and detrimental health effects on workers and communities. Yet becoming more efficient is not enough. Eco-efficiency will simply delay the environmental collapse threatened by the unbridled growth of the global economy. And with nearly two-thirds of the environmental systems on which human society depends already degraded or used unsustainably, a slow-down is not enough.
To maintain an industrial economy in a world of increasing environmental constraints, businesses will have to become not just eco-efficient but eco-effective. Eco-effectiveness, as industrial design experts William McDonough and Michael Braungart explain, means redesigning goods and production processes to follow the laws of nature. Currently, almost everything that companies produce is toxic at one level or another, because of dependence on fossil fuels for energy, petrochemicals for inputs, or pesticides and chemical fertilizers for cultivation. An eco-effective product would be designed so as to produce no waste, being either perpetually recyclable or compostable, a model known as cradle-to-cradle.
Swiss textile maker Rohner's effort to create an eco-effective fabric offers a good example of the complicated reformulation needed. In the early 1990s, the Swiss government classified the company's fabric trimmings as hazardous waste because of the toxic chemicals in the dyes, thus preventing disposal or incineration within Switzerland. Exporting the trimmings would be too expensive, so Rohner had to find an alternative. The company called in McDonough and Braungart to find a way to create an eco-effective fabric. After testing 8,000 chemicals, they found 38 non-toxic ones that could produce the needed colors. Today this fabric, which uses only organic ramie, pesticide-free wool, and the non-toxic dyes, produces no pollution during production and at the end of its life is fully compostable.
To be successful in the long term, corporations will have to create similar plans to redesign products and services for eco-effectiveness. Considering the large infrastructure of modern corporations, this will be a challenge. Yet the transition is possible if companies make deliberate efforts to create transparent long-term plans with specific stepping stones that transform their production processes gradually.
At present this sort of long-term vision is rare, but a few innovative companies have begun working toward it. One company, Fetzer Wines (a subsidiary of conglomerate Brown-Forman) is striving to use only organic grapes by 2010. To date it has achieved an 11 percent share, while at the same time switching totally to renewable energy and reducing waste output by 97 percent since 1990. Another example is Nike, which is designing a non-toxic, recyclable sneaker. Perhaps the most impressive initiative so far comes from the Fuji Xerox Company. In 1993, Fuji Xerox (a joint venture between Fuji Photo Film and Xerox) realized that simply recycling old photocopiers would not be sufficient to reduce natural resource use, so the company started designing a photocopier with components that could be reused in future models. While it has taken much effort to create durable parts that would be effective in new models, by 2003 Fuji Xerox was reusing 54 percent of components in new copiers. Moreover, by recycling the other parts the company has been able to reduce waste practically to zero.
Yet these are companies that have much to gain by transforming: reduced pollution and materials usage and improved reputation, for example. And since there are alternative methods to create their products, they do not have so much to lose if they can find a way to make the transition cheaply. However, other companies whose businesses are at the very root unsustainable, such as those in oil extraction and refining, face a much greater challenge: reinventing their business models. Their profits come from infrastructures that have required huge investments, such as oil wells and pipelines. Even if they wanted to, managers could not shut down these operations tomorrow without risking financial ruin. But oil supplies will decline and carbon taxes will most likely increase, so by not starting to invest in renewable energy, oil companies risk being deposed by new start-up renewable energy firms. It will be essential for these (and all) companies to reassess their business models and design long-term plans in which they transform their models to be eco-effective. Only then will they be able to maintain long-term profitability in an ever more environmentally constrained world.
In the late 1980s a Swedish oncologist had an epiphany: the unsustainable global economy is like a spreading cancerous growth on the world, consuming and destroying the systems on which it depends. This realization transformed Dr. Karl-Henrik Robert's life, converting him from successful doctor to untested sustainability practitioner. Over the next several years, Dr. Robert developed The Natural Step, a program that offers businesses and other interested institutions a guide to gradually and profitably transforming their operations into sustainable ones. While far from being mainstream, The Natural Step has spread to 12 countries, increasing the sustain-ability of companies as diverse as the Swedish hotel chain Scandic Hotels AB and the American fast food giant McDonald's Corporation.
At the time The Natural Step was introduced, Scandic Hotels was a struggling company trying to reinvent itself as it teetered towards bankruptcy. Adopting the mission to become a sustainable hotel chain helped reinvigorate the firm. Scandic at first took easy eco-efficiency steps that both cut costs and improved its environmental record. For example, it created the Resource Hunt program in 1995 to challenge its hotels to reduce waste and energy and water use. Within a year, Scandic cut energy consumption by 7 percent and water consumption by 4 percent. But more important than the eco-efficiency measures themselves was the fact that the measures led Scandic toward implementing an eco-effective transformation, reformulating and reducing chemical usage for cleaning and laundering, and designing a 97-percent-recyclable eco-room. Recognizing that interior designs and furniture are replaced as they wear out and as fashions change, Scandic employees proposed making environmentally friendly rooms that could be recycled at the end of their life cycles. This led to an annual savings of 90 tons of plastics and 15 tons of metal, and a halving of mercury used--all while costing less.
Along with programs like The Natural Step, companies are using other strategies for long-term change, including corporate responsibility reporting. In 2004 some 1,700 corporations or their affiliates filed responsibility reports, up from virtually none in the early 1990s. These reports detail everything from labor standards and impacts on local communities to toxic releases and greenhouse gas emissions. As the chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, explains, "We have seen how, if done honestly, reporting forces companies to publicly take stock of their environmental and social performance, to decide improvement priorities, and deliver through clear targets." By reporting, corporations admittedly expose their operations to more public scrutiny, yet they also increase trust among stakeholders and provide themselves a guide for improvement.
Admittedly, many of the corporations filing reports do it more out of obligation or as an opportunity to greenwash their operations than out of a desire to hold themselves accountable. Of the 1,700 reports filed in 2004, many lacked detail, transparency, or long-term goals. In 2003, less than 40 percent of the reports underwent any sort of third-party verification. Yet a few corporations are using these reports as a means to push their sustainability commitments further. Starbucks Coffee Company, for example, has used its annual reports to declare its commitment to reduce its environmental and social impact through the creation of a sustainable coffee supply. In 2004, 19.7 million kilograms of its coffee supply (14.5 percent) adhered to Starbucks' rigorous Coffee and Farmer Equity (CAFE) standards, up from 6 million kilograms the year before. These standards, verified by an external auditor, award points for 28 key sustainability indicators, such as the amount of water, energy, and pesticides used and how equitably the profits are distributed among workers. Starbucks has declared its goal of increasing the share of its CAFE standard coffee to 60 percent by 2007.
Again, one can argue the companies described here can implement these changes without much difficulty. It will take significant investment, but the return will come in the form of higher profits, respectability, and brand enhancement. But what about those companies that depend on unsustainable resources? Some have recognized the danger of inaction. In December, oil giant BP declared that it would double its investments in renewable energy production, hoping that this will produce annual revenue of around $6 billion within the next 10 years. DuPont has also increasingly invested in the means to produce chemicals from agricultural stocks such as corn instead of petroleum products. Already, 17 percent of its products no longer are derived from petrochemicals, and by 2010 the company plans to increase that to 25 percent.
Change is possible, with commitment and vision. However, vision is often lost to short-term profitability pressures--a problem further exacerbated by the political pressures that corporations face (and help create). The transformation of corporations into sustainable entities will be induced as much in the political arena as it will be in the marketplace.
In May 2005, BP, as a member of the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, wrote to British Prime Minister Tony Blair that "like you, we are convinced that we need to take urgent and informed action now if we are to avoid the worst impacts of climate change," and offered their help in addressing this issue. Two weeks later, BP lobbied against two different bills in the U.S. Senate that would have imposed mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions, and instead supported a weaker voluntary reduction proposal.
Without question, lobbying is a double-edged sword which, when wielded by corporations, can eviscerate political debate. Yet the likelihood of banning corporations--which spent $2 billion on lobbying just in the United States in 2004--from politics is zero. Besides, not all corporate political influence is necessarily problematic. If responsible companies simply bow out of politics the debate will continue to be shaped by irresponsible companies. Rather, by disclosing lobbying expenses and what they are directed to, corporations could be actively engaged in the political debate in ways that will improve society (and their own interests if they choose their causes right) while actually improving their records on responsibility.
Starbucks again offers an example: a company known for its generous health care benefits has focused its lobbying effort primarily on strengthening national health care in the United States. While this may sound altruistic, it's really enlightened self-interest. The company's concern is driven by the fact that it provides health insurance to all its part- and full-time employees. This is a strong perquisite and has helped make Starbucks the 11th best place to work in the United States in 2005 (according to Fortune Magazine). But it is costly, especially as most of its competitors do not provide such generous benefits. So the company got creative and started lobbying the government to improve health care nationwide--which would benefit all Americans and companies hurt by burgeoning health costs (including Starbucks), not to mention Starbucks' reputation as a caring company.
But there is a long way to go before most lobbying is for broader social goods that also have inherent business benefits. According to Influencing Power, a 2005 report by the NGOs SustainAbility and WWF, 49 percent of Standard & Poor's Global 100 companies provide no information on their lobbying strategies. While 8 percent received the second highest rating (because they have systems to disclose lobbying activities), none received the highest rating, signifying that a company's corporate values are judged to mesh with its public policy agenda. In other words, even the best companies (including BP, which was in the top eight) are contradicting their own stated values by pushing inconsistent lobbying agendas.
Along with influencing the political debate through lobbying expenditures, corporations often influence politicians through political contributions (which reached $1 billion in the United States in 2004). The Center for Political Accountability, in a 2005 report investigating the political contribution policies of 120 companies, found that only one (Morgan Stanley) merited a passing grade for disclosing its political contributions and its system to control where they go. Since then, five other companies have joined Morgan Stanley, though only after shareholders filed resolutions demanding increased disclosure. Now the boards of directors of all six will review the companies' political contributions, and these contribution amounts and the rationales for them will be posted on their websites.
Less than 10 percent of the biggest (and most scrutinized) companies are transparent in their lobbying and political expenditures, let alone consistent in their policies. But as in the other arenas of corporate responsibility, a few companies can be identified as leaders. In November, Goldman Sachs became the first investment bank to adopt an environmental policy, similar to those Citibank and other bank holding companies created after being pressured by NGOs. In addition, Goldman Sachs acknowledged that climate change "is a reality" (not to mention a financial risk), and along with reducing its own carbon footprint pledged to lobby governments around the world to address climate change. Even a leading U.S. coal company, Duke Energy, announced in mid-2005 that it would begin lobbying for a carbon tax. Recognizing that climate change poses a significant threat and that regulation of carbon emissions seems inevitable, Duke Energy realized that it was in its own interest to proactively help shape a national policy. As Duke CEO Paul Anderson noted, "The worst scenario would be if all 50 states took separate actions and we have to comply with 50 different laws."
These examples foreshadow a potential future where corporate lobbying is welcomed, not feared. To achieve this, however, it will be essential to create a fully transparent lobbying system, reward companies that lobby for laws benefiting society, and punish companies seeking laws that benefit themselves at society's expense. Of course, even as groups like the Center for Political Accountability push for more transparent lobbying systems, Natural Step practitioners help companies make their operations eco-effective, and trailblazing companies risk criticism in admitting their weaknesses and designing strategies to improve, the majority of the 69,000 transnational corporations worldwide continue to ignore the looming environmental crisis. The question remains: will initiatives like these be enough to trigger an ecological industrial revolution before the systems human society depends on suffer irreparable harm?
Erik Assadourian is a Staff Researcher at Worldwatch and Project Director of Vital Signs 2006-2007.
For more information about issues raised in this story, visit www.worldwatch.org/ww/corporations/.
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Apartment Evêque
up to 4 guests
3 rooms
2 bedrooms
2 bathrooms
Distance to centre closeby
Proximity to public transport 150 m
Balcony / Terrace
Baby cot
Non smoking
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"Evêque", 3-room apartment 112 m2 on 4th floor. Spacious and bright, comfortable furnishings: large living/sleeping room with 1 double sofabed, TV and DVD. 1 double bedroom with 1 french bed. 1 double bedroom with 2 beds. Open kitchen (dishwasher, X ceramic glass hob hotplates, electric coffee machine, combination microwave). Bath/shower, shower, 2 sep. WC's, double hand-basin. Heating. Small balcony. Facilities: iron, hair dryer. Internet (WiFi, free). Please note: non-smoking house.House/Residence
Brussel: Modern, comfortable small apartment house. In a busy position, in the heart of the city. In the complex: lift, central heating system. Room cleaning (included). Pre-arrival grocery service. Public car park at 200 m, public parking 200 m extra. Shop 50 m, supermarket 300 m, restaurant 50 m, underground station "Brouckere" 150 m. Nearby attractions: Grande Place 300 m. Please note: car not advisable. Baby equipment on request (extra). The photograph shows a typical example. There are more similar properties for rent in this same residence. All houses/apartments are individually designed/furnished. If you wish to arrive outside opening hours, please contact the keyholder at the emergency number. You will be charged extra for a late check-in. The office is closed on Sundays.
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Large, busy town, in a central position, 50 km north-east from Antwerpen, 125 km north-east from Maastricht, 55 km north-east from Gent. More possibilities for shopping and entertainment 10 km.Summer
Oceade (complex with different swimming pools, jacuzzi, wave pool etc). Mini Europe, Soignes forest. Numerous museums: ancient art, modern art, Instrumental (more than 6000 different instruments dating from Stone Age to Modern Day. Costume and lace museum. Parc du Cinquantenaire with several museums (art and history, antiques, islamic art, byzantine and tapestries). Natural science museum. Several cathedrals, basilics.
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Brazilians ramp up preperation for FIVB World Tour by reaching South American Games quarterfinals
Two of the teams, Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt and Liliane 'Lili' Maestrini and Eduarda 'Duda' Lisboa Santos, have one match each to play in the group stages, but having secured two wins from two are assured of their places in the last eight.
Having comfortably won their opening match Alison and Bruno faced a tougher proposition in Argentina's Julian Azaad and Ian Mehamed, but again won 2-0 (21-18, 21-14). They will now take on Surinam's Keven Sporkslede and Jermain Shioe on Friday, March 14, before the quarterfinals later that day.
Lili and Duda are in a similar position after they defeated Colombian sister's Andrea and Claudia Galindo 2-0 (21-14, 21-14). They also face Surinamese opponents in the final match, Sandrina Hunsel and Cheryl Brunings.
Brazil's leading pairs wrapped up their groups with two wins on the same day.
FIVB women's world ranking champions Talita Antunes and Taiana Lima started off with a 2-0 (21-3, 21-1) win over young Peruvian duo Gianella Serna and Michelle Mogollon, before returning to court later in the day to beat Venezuela's Norisbeth Acute and Gabriela Brito 2-0 (21-8, 21-8).
Emanuel Rego and Pedro Salgado meanwhile began the day with a 2-0 (21-15, 21-6) win over Equador's Daniel and Javier and followed that win up with a 2-0 (21-14, 21-13) defeat of Renzo Cairus and Nicolas Zanotta from Uruguay.
The South American Games are currently taking place in Santiago, Chile from March 7-18, with the beach volleyball competition running from March 12-15.


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I spend so much time at my desk. Reading, editing photos, answering emails, making jewelry, packaging, and shopping...it's pretty much my life these days. As with anything it gets tiring and old. I dream of vacation around this time of year!
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21 comments:
I hope you power through it and hopefully that vacation comes soon! You have such a beautiful blog and jewelry, too!ReplyDelete
Thank you so much Theresa!Delete
I love your pictures, especially the ones that you get to see glimts of Sweden..ReplyDelete
You should visit us sometime!Replies
We will someday!Delete
Just LOVE your style!ReplyDelete
mine too...my desk is my quiet spaceReplyDelete
Ah! I love everything about your work space, so clean, functional and minimal.ReplyDelete
I'm in the midst of researching vacation ideas, too. Hope you get to plan yours soon :)
Amazing pictures as always. You are so inspiring! Love your blog and pictures. And your home. :)ReplyDelete
So I'm eyeing those white headphones like nobody's business!ReplyDeleteReplies
Urbanears, they're great!Delete
My dear, is that YOUR office?! It's stunning and officially my inspiration for my own :) BTW - where did you get the oversized pegs for your walls? I'm obsessed!ReplyDeleteReplies
It is my office! The dots are by Muuto.Delete
Love this and think I need to add some of your jewelry to my collection. If you ship to Sweden ^^,ReplyDelete
Nice pictures! Thanks for the inspiration!ReplyDelete
Ow my.. I am totally with you on that one! Vacation is much needed! Lovely work space tho! :DReplyDelete
- Anna SvahnSeptember 21, 2012
While you´re sitting there at your desk, waiting for that vacation you might wanna know that the jewelry you are making are just fantastic!ReplyDelete
I recieved the ring and earrings yesterday and I instantly fell in love when i unpacked them! Thank you so much : )
Wishing you a lovely weekend now!
/ Anna from Sweden
- AnonymousSeptember 23, 2012
I love this ring, how can I buy it? Thanks, AnnekeReplyDeleteReplies
There is a link above to my shop, or you can go to under my header & click on 'shop' or go to amerrymishap.etsy.comDelete
I just discovered your blog and i love it!!!! Can you help me and tell me where to find the lamp from the firts image?ReplyDelete
It's from Urban Outfitters.Delete
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