text:
Moustakas' Phenomenology: Husserlian?
Feb 6th, 2013 | By Marc Applebaum | Category: ResearchStudents new to phenomenological psychology often ask me what's the difference between Clark Moustakas' and Amedeo Giorgi's research methods, since both approaches are called "phenomenological." In fact there are major differences: in this post I'll examine Moustakas' Phenomenological Research Methods (1994) from the perspective of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological philosophy. Naturally I'll also be speaking as someone grounded in Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological psychological method (1970, 2009).
Moustakas and Giorgi seek to develop qualitative research approaches that do justice to the human subject. They each make the claim that their methods are based upon Husserl's phenomenological philosophy. Hence both offer adaptations of Husserl's philosophy for psychology. Moustakas seeks to articulate what he terms a "transcendental phenomenological" approach while Giorgi presents an empirical-psychological approach.
Moustakas' reading of Husserl
I would argue that a close reading of Phenomenological Research Methods (1994) reveals that Moustakas' approach is not grounded in a good grasp of Husserl's work–something a phenomenological philosopher would quickly realize in reviewing the book. As a result, Moustakas' renderings of key phenomenological terms like transcendental subjectivity, the reduction, and the epoché are inconsistent with Husserl's work, as is his account of the critical distinction Husserl makes between the empirical and transcendental ego.
I think Moustakas' 1994 book is best regarded as representing his own approach to working with people, one based upon a humanistic therapeutic perspective, rather than one well-grounded in Husserl's philosophy. Moustakas' statement that his approach not only follows Husserl but is at the same time "heuristic" suggests that Husserl is more a source of inspiration for Moustakas than an actual epistemological foundation.
Examples of misreadings include Moustakas' equating of transcendental subjectivity with presuppositionlessness (p. 60) and his description of the epoché and reduction as nothing more than the setting aside of personal prejudices. Moustakas describes the phenomenologist's research attitude in the following way: "presumably this person has set aside biases and has come to a place of readiness to gaze on whatever appears and to remain with that phenomenon until it is understood, until a perceptual closure is realized" (p. 73). Moustakas emphasizes that in phenomenological research "I, the experiencing person, remain present. I, as a conscious person, am not set aside" and "with an open, transcendental consciousness, I carry out the Epoché" (p. 87). There is enough similarity between this representation and Husserl's words for a beginning student to assume Husserl's phenomenology is being carefully read and applied. Yet, for one better-acquainted with Husserl's writings, problems are immediately evident, as will be seen.
The first difficulty is that Moustakas neglects Husserl's critical distinctions between the various modes of subjectivity, as well as between various types of phenomenological reductions. And whereas these are philosophical distinctions, they are fundamental to understanding what's meant by a "phenomenological attitude," and therefore central for adapting Husserl's philosophy for psychological research.
Why does this matter?
The heart of the matter is this: for Husserl, the empirical and transcendental modes of subjectivity are embodied in the same locus: the individual human being. However, Husserl does not intend to suggest that the transcendental "I" is merely the familiar "me" of everyday life, but with a more humanistic, open-minded attitude, as Moustakas' formulation implies. This would mean that we can "become" transcendental subjects merely by reflecting and setting aside biases—in other words Moustakas reduces Husserl's sense of the transcendental to something like "becoming a more enlightened person"—a plain misreading of Husserl. Though this appears to be a more easily understandable, humanistically-rendered version of phenomenology, it contains important flaws.
First and foremost, for Moustakas transcendental subjectivity represents an achievement of the empirical ego. As a result, Moustakas collapses the transcendental into the empirical: he wants to say that the researcher remains present as the person that he or she is, and that he or she has or adds a "transcendental consciousness" to their personal presence by setting aside biases. Hence he claims that once a researcher has "achieved" transcendental consciousness, then "the perceiving self is an authentic self…the self is actually present" (p. 61).
Revealingly, he uses clinical examples to illustrate what he means by authentic presence, and it is tempting to conclude that Moustakas is seeking a clinical and humanistic appropriation of Husserl's philosophy in order to represent it as a means of self-actualization. But this raises the question: is the interpretation sustainable? In other words, is it compatible with Husserl's phenomenology? Or instead, it is more accurately viewed as a humanistic, clinical approach to research that isn't–and perhaps need not be–based upon phenomenology?
Transcendental subjectivity–Gupta and Kohák on Husserl
In Husserl's philosophy transcendental subjectivity is not an achievement of the empirical ego. For Husserl, transcendental subjectivity is a non-personal mode of consciousness—not an accomplishment of empirical (personal) subjectivity.
On the contrary, the transcendental dimension of subjectivity is always already present, and only stands out when the empirical mode has been bracketed. For Husserl this bracketing is a methodical practice of suspending naïve conceptions of both world and self. Furthermore, for Husserl bracketing is not just one thing—there are many different kinds of bracketing in Husserl, relative to the specific context in which the bracketing is being practiced: the bracketing which yields the transcendental is a specific application of a general practice. Philosopher Bina Gupta (1998) describes the specific practice of phenomenological bracketing that provides access to the transcendental dimension in the following way:
If we succeed in bracketing all presuppositions of our natural conception of the world and of consciousness as a part of the world, then there would result an experience of our own consciousness that is no longer understood as a part of nature in the sense of belonging to this body, or person, or psychophysical organism. Husserl calls consciousness so experienced "purified consciousness" or "transcendental consciousness." (p. 154)
As Erazim Kohák wrote, "I can and indeed must bracket myself as what Husserl will later call a 'natural subject'" (1978, p. 45). In fact Husserl wrote once the epoché has been effected, "I am not an ego" in the sense of an empirical I (1970, p. 184). The researcher loses the validity (facticity) of the natural attitude and must suspend the "distinction and ordering of the personal pronouns," since the facticity of I-the-man, you, we, etc., has all been rendered phenomenal, not real.
Hence Husserl wrote: "The 'I' that I attain in the epoché…is actually called 'I' only by equivocation—though it is an essential equivocation since, when I name it in reflection, I can say nothing other than: it is I who practice the epoché, I who interrogate, as phenomenon, the world…[as] ego-pole of this transcendental life" (1970, p. 184). This bare ego-pole, Husserl writes, "is not a piece of the world; and if he says 'I exist, ego cogito,' that no longer signifies, 'I, this man, exists.' No longer am I the man who, in natural self-experience, finds himself as a man" (1973, p. 25). In other words the transformation of perspective that Husserl's positing, and indeed claiming as a lived-experience, is more profound and has far deeper implications that those acknowledged by Moustakas.
The Transcendental Onlooker, or Witness
Turning to Husserl's words we see that transcendental reflection is not a mere noting and setting aside of biases. Rather, it requires a mode or dimension of consciousness termed the "transcendental onlooker" which is not equivalent to or subsumed by the empirical ego. As Eugen Fink (1970) wrote, Husserl's transcendental phenomenology describes three egos in the context of the reduction: "the ego which is preoccupied with the world," which he terms "I, the human being," the transcendental ego, and the "onlooker" who performs the epoché (p. 115-116). The ego preoccupied with the world is the empirical "I," the self of the natural attitude. This "I" does not perform the epoché but rather is bracketed by the epoché. Summarizing the Husserlian position Gupta (1998) writes:
Prior to transcendental reflection, a human ego's reflection upon himself is confined to human self-apperception, and it moves within the parameters of the natural attitude. Bracketing of the world implicitly implies that, for the first time, an attempt is made to establish a reflective ego that is outside human perception from the very beginning. (p. 155)
So when Husserl emphasizes that I am still present, performing the epoché, he does not mean I am present as an empirical self, the "experiencing person" in Moustakas' words. Rather, I am present in the transcendental mode of subjectivity, which transcends personal modes. The empirical person is, of course, still present—but one is witnessing from within a specific research attitude that places one's empirical self and life "in brackets."
From the perspective of my discipline, psychology, we can say that the epoché implies a very important and chosen psychological shift in one's lived-perspective, a mode of being present that (whether or not one accepts its validity) has much more far-reaching consequences than merely becoming more open-minded. More than setting aside personal prejudices, Husserl's epoché requires a qualitatively more substantial bracketing, the setting aside of my habitual mode of being-an-I, that is, one's empirical ego, what Husserl terms "I the man."
The personal ego in transcendental phenomenology
We see that the empirical ego, "I the man," is the point of departure for transcendental phenomenology, not the object of transcendental phenomenological praxis. Having enacted the reduction I discover that I am witnessing, "I the man" from a different standpoint. Phenomenology obliges us to take this shift in perspective seriously, to recognize that the I who can bracket his empirical self does so from a standpoint beyond the facticity of the empirical ego, and it is this standpoint Husserl terms transcendental.
As I've noted, Moustakas mistakenly equates transcendental subjectivity with the presuppositionless state aimed at through performance of the epoché, defining the transcendental mode of consciousness as the "person who is open to see what is" (p. 45). In fact this statement makes an ontological and psychological claim that's diametrically opposed to Husserl's philosophy, properly understood: the epoché requires setting aside the question of "what is" in order to explore how presences are present. Moustakas' aim seems to be self-actualization, personal openness, and authenticity. Moustakas' discussion of phenomenology as a means of rendering the individual authentically present in their personal self-hood can only refer to the psychological, not the transcendental mode.
Of course phenomenology is not opposed to personal openness and authenticity! But once the transcendental reduction has been employed one is not in the "personal" realm in the sense normally meant by contemporary clinical psychology—and in fact the magnitude of that shift is unaddressed by Moustakas. Nor, as Moustakas seems to imply, is transcendental subjectivity a possession or a tool of the empirical self; as Kohák (1978) remarks in his commentary on Husserl's Ideas I, "I do not 'have a transcendental ego'" (p. 181). Rather, one recognizes the transcendental mode of subjectivity by means of a disciplined, systematic practice of bracketing.
Husserl describes not one but multiple kinds of phenomenological reductions, each with a specific and nuanced meaning: for example, eidetic, phenomenological-psychological, intersubjective, and transcendental reductions. Moustakas neglects to acknowledge these differences and therefore blurs Husserl's distinctions between the various modes of consciousness. For example, according to Husserl in order to examine psychic subjectivity the researcher must perform a phenomenological-psychological reduction, suspending the "taking-for-grantedness" of psychological phenomena. In the psychological reduction, Husserl wrote, "psychic subjectivity, the concretely grasped 'I' and 'we' of ordinary conversation, is experienced in its pure psychic owness" (1927/1973, p. 62). But for Husserl it is the "transcendental" reduction that allows transcendental subjectivity to stand out. By omitting the distinction between the psychological and transcendental reductions from his discussion and characterizing his work as transcendental, Moustakas not only misconstrues the transcendental dimension of Husserl's phenomenology, but mixes this misunderstanding with a more broadly humanistic clinical perspective.
How is this handled in Giorgi's research approach?
For Husserl the psychological reduction is the means of access to psychological structures of consciousness, whereas the transcendental reduction is the means of access to transcendental structures. In Giorgi's approach (2000) this issue is handled through a choice to seek psychological and not transcendental structures and hence to employ the psychological, not the transcendental reduction. What this means is that "only the objects of the experience are reduced, not the acts" (Giorgi, 2000, p. 65). Using the psychological reduction, the facticity of the empirical objects described by the participant is bracketed, but not the facticity of the psychological subject. That is to say, "the acts are considered to be correlated with an existing, world subjectivity" (p. 65). The approach remains a psychological one because the participant's empirical ego, the individual psyche, is regarded as a fact rather than bracketed and regarded as an instance of transcendental subjectivity.
Moustakas' driving interest appears to be psychotherapeutic work with individuals. But Husserl's investigations are philosophical rather than therapeutic-psychological. Husserl's work requires painstaking study and then careful modification in order to be applied in clinical or scientific contexts. For an example of a carefully thought-through clinical application, I would direct readers to Davidson and Solomon's (2010) chapter, "The Value of Transcendental Phenomenology for Psychology: The Case of Psychosis" in The Redirection of Psychology: Essays in Honor of Amedeo P. Giorgi.
Davidson, L. & Solomon, L. A. (2010). The value of transcendental phenomenology for psychology: The case of psychosis, in The Redirection of Psychology: Essays in Honor of Amedeo P. Giorgi, T. F. Cloonan and C. Thiboutot (Eds.). 99-130. Circle Interdisciplinaire de Recherches Phénoménologiques.
Fink, E. (1970). The phenomenological philosophy of Edmund Husserl and contemporary criticism. In R. O. Elveton (Ed.) The phenomenology of Husserl: Selected critical readings. pp. 73-147. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.
Giorgi, A. (1970). Psychology as a human science: a phenomenologically based approach. New York: Harper & Row.
Giorgi, A. (2009). The descriptive phenomenological method in psychology: A modified Husserlian approach. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press
Gupta, B. (1998). The disinterested witness: A fragment of Advaita Vedanta phenomenology. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Husserl, E. (1970). The crisis of European sciences and transcendental phenomenology: An introduction to phenomenological philosophy. (D. Carr, Trans.). Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Kohák, E. (1978). Idea & experience: Edmund Husserl's project of phenomenology in ideas I. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
tree photo credit: JourneyVerse via photo pin cc
thanks to SAGE publications for permission to use an image of the book Phenomenological Research Methods


text:
Show All Answers
Parking in the Village is very limited. On-street parking is only allowed on one side of most streets. No Parking is allowed on any street between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. for reasons of safety, snow removal, and street sweeping.
If your car cannot be driven or you have special needs (such as a party, or your driveway is being resurfaced) please advise the Riverside Police Department and we will try to accommodate you. Other parking restrictions vary by area.
To register your vehicle for an online overnight parking pass, please visit the Frontline PSS portal.
To pay for hourly parking online, click here to visit the Passport Parking website. You may also pay by phone at 708-716-0716. Riverside is Zone 60546.
Commuter parking is available in 2 places:
Lot 1 is south of the tracks, west of the train station. Some metered spaces are paid by the hour/day and some are sold as quarterly permits. The spaces with blue number signs are for metered parking, and the spaces with brown number signs are for quarterly permit holders only. The cost is $165 per quarter for commuters or $200 per quarter for 24-hour parking.
Lot 8 is located south of the tracks, east of the crossing. These spaces are only for permitted daily commuters at a cost of $165 per quarter.
There is generally a short waiting list (1 – 3 months) for spaces in Lot 1 and a longer waiting list (approximately 5 - 6 years) for spaces in Lot 8. Please contact the Finance Department to be placed on the waiting list. You will be called as soon as something becomes available.
The spaces in Lot 1 with blue number signs are metered. The meter machine is located on the west end of the train station platform. Remember the number of the space you park in and enter that number into the machine.
Payment can be made by cash, credit card, with your phone via app, website or phone number. Signage explaining payment options is located above the machine. The meters cost 30 cents per hour, and can be programmed for up to 24 hours at a time. These spaces are free on weekends, from midnight on Friday until midnight on Sunday, and holidays.
Permit holders must renew each quarter by the deadline or they will lose their space. The Village will mail out renewal notices, however, it is the permit holder's responsibility to pay by the deadline even if the paperwork is lost. The deadlines to renew for each quarter are December 15, March 15, June 15 and September 15.
There may be a waiting list for residential and commuter parking lots. To be placed on the waiting list, fill out the Permit Parking Waitlist Form or contact Juana Garcia in the Finance Department. The typical wait time for a residential parking space is 2 - 4 months. You will be called when a space is available.
There are many apartments and condos near the central business district with no designated overnight parking. To these residents, the Village offers limited parking spaces by quarterly permit only, which cost $200 per quarter. There are 4 lots where residential parking is offered:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Is it time they re-named "reality" television to something more "real" – like imagined, feigned, or totally fake television? While it has been widely assumed that "reality" shows are far from real – it seems a string of recent lawsuits and embarrassing accusations could cause the popular genre to unravel.
Earlier this year, local police in the Lancaster County, PA, called out "Amish Mafia," a new show on the Discovery Channel, claiming that they had no knowledge of such a mafia, and if it existed they "would know about it." During one episode, the narrator even states that one of the lead characters was arrested by the "Lancaster County Police" –but there is reportedly no such law enforcement agency.
A Discovery rep told FOX 411 they "don't see a need to comment on someone's speculation" and that they "stand by the show."
And late last year, Kristin Cavallari confirmed what we all had been thinking – that the long-running MTV series "The Hills" was far from unscripted. In an interview on Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live," the reality star revealed that the show was "pretty fake" and that she was "pretty much" told what to say, who to date and who to argue with.
Similarly, Jesse Csincsak, winner of the fourth season of "The Bachelorette," had less-than-flattering things to say about his time of the hit ABC series.
"It is as fake as they come," he insisted. "The producer casts people then puts them into roles they are not aware of until they see the show and by then it is too late. Their public images are ruined for life. People who never even knew them now hate them for how they were falsely portrayed."
A rep for ABC said the network "doesn't comment on speculation and rumor."
Even the famed E! reality series "Keeping Up With the Kardashian's" has come under fire over its authenticity.
The allegations hit an all-time high when paparazzi shots were taken of Kim, and her mom Kris leaving an L.A studio – donning exactly the same clothes, makeup and hair as footage shot in Dubai, sparking speculation that "Dubai" scenes were in actual fact shot in Los Angeles.
Reps for Ryan Seacrest Productions did not respond to a request for comment.
Still, it's not just the mainstream reality networks that are being accused of faking scenes. Last year, HGTV's "House Hunters" became the subject of scripted speculation when a woman blogged that producers changed her back story to make it more compelling when she appeared on the show. She also charged that two of the three homes showed to her on the series were friends' houses that weren't even on the market.
In response, a network rep said the show is not "a documentary" and is "simply entertaining viewers in a 30-minute format that conveys the ideas, emotions and experiences of the house hunting journey."
And the accusations about reality shows don't end there. Some of these claims eventually turn into lawsuits, which have the potential to cost the networks millions for their allegedly faked drama.
In December, Dave Hester – a former cast member of "Storage Wars" filed a $750,000 lawsuit against his former A&E show, claiming the show was staged.
The Discovery Channel also recently found itself in a legal battle. A ship owner filed a suit against its Animal Planet series "Whale Wars" for $5 million, claiming the show lied about the state of his ship and sabotaged the boat to encourage viewers to donate to an anti-whaling organization, the Sea Shepherds.
"Animal Planet's producer of 'Whale Wars' over the five seasons has documented the activities of the Sea Shepherds during campaigns and has not controlled nor directed any their activities," the show's rep told FOX411's Pop Tarts column.
So what do these accusations and lawsuits mean for the ever-lucrative reality TV shows?
"The 'reality' shows are in all actuality, lying to their viewers," John DiThomas, Producer/Partner at Rough Water Films said. "The audience, even if they subconsciously know it is not real, will become angry, and personally I think they should."
But according to prominent reality television agent Alec Shankman, there is little chance faked scenes will impact the audiences of these shows.
"Although the fact that certain storylines and shows are contrived has certainly been brought to light, what matters most to the audience are the characters," he said. "As long as the characters are genuine, the 'produced' storylines don't seem to be a real concern for fans and ratings."
Reality TV producer Casey Brumels, of Ping Pong Productions, said the genre seems to entertain, so maybe all it needs is a name change.
"Perhaps as the landscape evolves we will see a name change from reality TV to situational TV?"
Stay tuned.


text:
Tor Browser 8.0a7 is released
by boklm | May 9, 2018
Tor Browser 8.0a7 is now available from the Tor Browser Project page and also from our distribution directory.
This release features important security updates to Firefox.
This release updates firefox to 52.8.0esr. In addition we fixed some issues with UI customization and YouTube videos play.
The full changelog since Tor Browser 8.0a6 is:
- All platforms
- Update Firefox to 52.8.0esr
- Update Tor Launcher to 0.2.15.2
- Bug 25807: Change front domain to unbreak Moat
- Translations update
- Bug 25973: Backport off-by-one fix (bug 1352073)
- Bug 25938: Backport fix for cross-origin header leak (bug 1334776)
- Bug 25458: Fix broken UI customization
- Bug 25898: Make Youtube videos play automatically again
- Bug 25980: Improve backport of bug 1448771 (fixes broken Orfox build)
- Bug 26010: Change Snowflake rendezvous to use the Azure domain front
- Linux
- Bug 26010: Change Snowflake rendezvous to use the Azure domain front
Please note that the comment area below has been archived.
Achtung! Tor Browser is not…
Tor Browser is not fully compatible with Windows 10, version 1803 (Spring Creator Update, RS4)!
Therefore, it disables e10s and sandbox automatically!
This happens by default on a clean installation.
Multiprocess Windows 0/1 (Disabled by accessibility tools)
This is Microsoft's fault,…
This is Microsoft's fault, many fine people complained about all the breakage that ensued following the procedure known via the name of Microsoft forced-down-your-throat update
I've done the smart thing:…
I've done the smart thing: gone back to Windoze7.
tor install complete however…
tor install complete however when opening browser I get message
Tor failer to establish a Tor network connection.
any advice?
Does this happen with a…
Does this happen with a clean Firefox 52 from Mozilla as well? See: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/#legacy for downloading a test version.
Win64 installer is now…
Win64 installer is now singed with correct SHA-2 certificate (not mentioned in changelog).
We did not change anything…
We did not change anything with respect to the signing certificate. What differences do you see between formerly signed bundles and this one?
Somebody said here he had a…
Somebody said here he had a problem on Windows 10 x64 because of SHA-1 certificate. We didn't see anything similar.
CVE-2018-5158: Malicious PDF…
CVE-2018-5158: Malicious PDF can inject JavaScript into PDF Viewer
old complain : pdf *acrobat…
old complain : pdf *acrobat vulnerabilities which inherits pdf viewer ... disable pdf viewer and download option pls.
TorBrowser can't be an universal security tool vs accessibility/anonymity !
thx for the report.
CVE-2018-5183: Backport…
CVE-2018-5183: Backport critical security fixes in Skia
You knew it was a backdoor from google, but switched to it without hesitation!
Hi, Until a few days ago Tor…
Until a few days ago Tor was working well. But now it doesn't work at all from Iran!
I tried 8.0a7 too.
Can you please fix it?
(ps:I tried it with all kinds of bridges:manual,obfs4,...)
What does "doesn't work at…
What does "doesn't work at all" mean? What happens with a freshly downloaded Tor Browser? On which operating system?
English (en-US). Windows 7…
English (en-US). Windows 7. 64-bit. Installed latest TOR version. Keep getting this prompt as soon as you launch program. Link: https://i.imgur.com/xYGeUDv.jpg
Tried older versions. Same thing.
Do you have any antivirus…
Do you have any antivirus/firewall software that could be interfering here? If so, which one? You could try uninstalling it testing whether that fixes your problem (uninstalling is often not enough).
Hi Win 7 32 bit Android too…
Win 7 32 bit
Android too is the same
It gets stuck : 10% bootstraped.
And doesn't work.
With neither of the bridges. Community or cloud.
Also I've noticed lots of fake nodes setup by gov with farsi names that jam the whole thing.
All in all they have successfully crashed tor from Iran from > week ago. Since they also censored Telegram app.
about:config type : rsa oops…
type : rsa
oops ! still here ... no comment.
oops ! mozilla / pub ... no comment.
i should need a visual alert or a sound when "they" shut down my vpn :
oops ! my linux failed here ... censured.
Hi how to use tor proxy on…
how to use tor proxy on chrome? any way to proxy whole my network?
Why Chrome? You know that it…
Why Chrome? You know that it's basically Google spyware?
Tor Browser does not work in…
Tor Browser does not work in China any more, please fix this big problem.
What did you try and what…
What did you try and what worked before?
[05-14 05:30:30] Torbutton…
[05-14 05:30:30] Torbutton NOTE: Exception on control port [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x804b000e (NS_ERROR_NET_TIMEOUT) [nsIBinaryInputStream.readBytes]" nsresult: "0x804b000e (NS_ERROR_NET_TIMEOUT)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://torbutton/content/torbutton.js :: torbutton_socket_readline :: line 837" data: no]
New version doesn't open at…
New version doesn't open at all. None of the older versions either.
From the US. Windows 7. 64…
From the US. Windows 7. 64 bit
Downloaded newest version. Does not open at all. 'Tor browser has stopped working'
Tried running older versions. All get en error prompt saying 'Tor browser has stopped working' before the browser even opens.
I've been using TOR for a few years now.
16:52:00.580 browser…
16:52:00.580 browser.ownerGlobal is null 1 ext-utils.js:800
getBrowserId chrome://browser/content/ext-utils.js:800:9
runSafeSyncWithoutClone resource://gre/modules/ExtensionUtils.jsm:71:14
emit/promises< resource://gre/modules/ExtensionUtils.jsm:384:55
from self-hosted:595:17
emit resource://gre/modules/ExtensionUtils.jsm:383:20
WebRequestEventManager/register/listener chrome://extensions/content/ext-webRequest.js:51:7
runChannelListener resource://gre/modules/WebRequest.jsm:721:24
examine resource://gre/modules/WebRequest.jsm:828:5
observe resource://gre/modules/WebRequest.jsm:511:9
I noticed that you have…
I noticed that you have control over youtube's auto-play. So is there a way to disable YT autoplay, in settings?
It is seriously annoying when you open a bunch of videos in other tabs to view after the current one, that either they all start playing at the same time (sound), or each one is set to auto-play the next video (and you have to uncheck that in each tab, although you just unchecked it in the previous one).
I can't find anything in settings regarding this... but if autoplay was disabled, that means you had finally gotten it right, and now you're undoing that great service you were doing us.
Friends, what do you think…
Friends, what do you think about these ideas?
Hey. I run a relay and exit…
I run a relay and exit node.
One was shut down after a subpoena sadly and had to make a new one.
Should I run a snowflake server or not?
Will snowflake be a replacement for tor?
Is snowflake stable and updated regularly?
Please reply
Email Me for a response.
I am willing to contribute to tor and snowflake of worth my time.
Just need info.
Hi, please advice where I…
please advice where I find checksum / hash ? (Mac OS)
You'll find the hashes in…
You'll find the hashes in the distribution directory in https://archive.torproject.org/tor-package-archive/torbrowser/ in the sha256sums-signed-build.txt
file (Thus, for 8.0a7 this would be https://archive.torproject.org/tor-package-archive/torbrowser/8.0a7/sha…).
I think it's perfect
I think it's perfect
Is there info on when Tor…
Is there info on when Tor Browser will move to the latest Firefox 60 ESR?
There will be alphas…
There will be alphas available starting in a couple of weeks. The final switch will be at the begin of September when there won't be ESR52 updates anymore.
I have Tor Browser version 7…
I have Tor Browser version 7.5.4, within a 32bit Windows 7 environment... and afterupon downloading, and attempting to add sundry add-ons by way of the Firefox Add-ons cache window, I invariably receive the response:... "This add-on requires a newer version of Firefox (and citing the preferred Firefox version)... you are using Firefox version 52.0" The problem is, I'm unable to update Firefox 52.0 to a higher version... and so, and thus, I'm unable to utilize some needed add-ons! How do I update Firefox 52.0 within Tor Browser 7.5.4?
P.S.: Please forgive my added corrections!
There is currently no Tor…
There is currently no Tor Browser available that uses a newer Firefox than 52. We are working on upgrading it to Firefox 60 ESR. A first alpha will be available in a couple of week but switching Tor Browser stable to it is not planned before September 2018.
Note that it is not recommended to install custom extensions into Tor Browser as this might be detectable by websites and functionality those extensions provide could easily defeat Tor Browser's privacy guarantees.


text:
A permit is required to plant a tree in the street right-of-way. It is also required if you are removing a tree or if you plan major tree care. If you believe a tree needs to be pruned, you should contact the Town Planner at 360-466-3125 to determine if a permit is required or if the Town can do the work for you.
Show All Answers
To report weed problems on either Town or private property, please call Town Hall at 360-466-3125.
Please contact the Town Planner at 360-466-3125 to see if you need a permit to trim a tree. In some instances, Public Works will trim trees along the right-of-way.
The Town has ordinances which prohibit certain types of trees being planted along the right-of-way because they may damage utilities or create a hazard. Please call Town Hall at 360-466-3125 for further information.


text:
At a Google+ fireside "hangout" on Thursday, President Obama fielded questions about baby names and Valentine's Day.
Obama also tackled an issue that's of interest to tech startups: patent trolls.
An entrepreneur told Obama she had friends who were interested in starting new tech companies but feared being targeted by software patent trolls.
Obama had strong words about patent trolls, a derogatory term for companies that make most of their money from patents they own – either by licensing them or filing patent litigation.
"They don't actually produce anything themselves," Obama said. "They are essentially trying to leverage and hijack somebody else's idea and see if they can extort some money out of them."
Obama pointed out that Congress passed patent reform during his term but said, "Our efforts at patent reform are only about halfway to where we need to go."
The America Invents Act that Obama signed in 2011 aimed to cut down on costly patent litigation, but it contained just one minor provision aimed to cut down on patent trolls, Ars Technica has pointed out. Under the patent law, it's tougher to name a huge amount of defendants in a single suit.
The law's biggest change was granting patents to the first companies or people to file patent paperwork rather than the first ones to invent something. The change from a "first to invent" rule to a "first to file" rule is not likely to have any impact on trolls, according to Ars Technica.
Obama acknowledged Thursday that we need "smarter patent laws" so startups have an incentive to keep innovating. He seemed open to some kind of expiration date on patents.
But, he added, "We also want to make sure the patents are long enough that people's intellectual property rights are protected."


text:
Women in Government
Women in Government (WIG) is a Washington D.C.-based 501(c)(3), non-profit "of women state legislators providing leadership opportunities, networking, expert forums, and educational resources to address and resolve complex public policy issues." [1] The bulk of WIG's sponsors in 2006 were from the drug industry and the energy sector.
In its 2005 annual report to the Internal Revenue Service, WIG explains that it conducted "regional forums on critical topic such as: cervical cancer prevention, green house gas reduction, cardiovascular disease prevention, domestic violence, and others".
Merck Vaccine Support
In early 2007, WIG came under scrutiny for supporting a lobbying campaign by one of its funders, the pharmaceutical company Merck.
Merck is "helping finance campaigns to get states to pass legislation that would make it mandatory for girls as young as 11 or 12 to receive" its human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, reported Associated Press. Merck has "given money to Women in Government, an advocacy group that includes female state legislators throughout the United States. Many of the state bills advocating the use of Gardasil have been introduced by members of Women in Government." [2]
According to the WIG website, the organization launched its "Challenge to Eliminate Cervical Cancer" in January 2004. In August 2004, WIG "announced the creation of the HPV and Cervical Cancer Policy Resource Center." [3]
Business Council
WIG has also established a "Business Council which it describes as a group which "provide a private sector perspective to our programs" with members playing "an integral role in planning for future growth, have the ability to attend our regional conferences, and support the financial stability of the organization." [4] Members are:
- Majorie Maginn, Chair Vice President, Industry and Political Affairs Wellpoint, Inc.;
- Linda Alexander, Ph.D., F.A.A.N. Vice President, Women's Health Digene Corporation;
- Deborah Alfano, Executive Director, Health Policy and External Affairs Merck Vaccine Division;
- Marianne A. Becton, Director, Public Policy and Strategic Alliances Verizon Communications;
- Sara Tays, Southwest Government Relations Manager, ExxonMobil Corporation; and
- Elizabeth Seifert, Director Public Policy GlaxoSmithKline.
As well as staff from WIG:
- Susan Crosby, President, Women In Government;
- Lisa Kos, Senior Director of Development Women In Government; and
- Abby Mills, Development and Foundations Relations Manager, Women In Government.
In its 2005 annual report to the Internal Revenue Service, WIG reports that its total revenue was $2.426 million and expenses of $2.198 million.
On its website, WIG lists its 2006 sponsors as including:
- 2 Red Hens
- 3M Pharmaceuticals
- Abbott Laboratories
- Adeza Biomedical
- Allergan, Inc.
- Altria Corporate Services, Inc.
- Alzheimer's Association
- American Diabetes Association
- Amgen
- Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
- The Annie E. Casey Foundation
- Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc.
- AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals
- Bayer HealthCare
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont
- Bobby Hogue & Associates
- Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- Bose Treacy Associates
- Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
- Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation
- Catalis
- C-Change
- Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association
- Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Foundation
- CVS/pharmacy
- DaimlerChrysler
- Digene Corporation
- Digital Healthcare, Inc.
- Discovery Health Channel
- Duke Energy
- Edison Electric Institute
- Electronic Data Systems
- Eli Lilly and Company
- Entergy Arkansas
- ExxonMobil
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Highland Campus Health Group
- Hoffmann-LaRoche, Inc.
- Ice Miller LLP
- Indiana Health Care Association
- Indiana Ophthalmology Association
- Indiana State Chiropractic Association
- Indiana State Medical Association
- Indiana Statewide Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives
- Insight Communications
- Johnson & Johnson
- KWK Management Group, LLC
- Lumina Foundation for Education
- Managed Health Services
- McDonald's
- Merck & Company, Inc.
- Michigan Association of Health Plans
- Mullenix & Associates
- National Hemophilia Foundation
- National Life Group
- Nellie Mae Education Foundation
- Novartis Pharmaceuticals
- Novo Nordisk, Inc.
- Ohio Hospital Association
- Pepco Holdings, Inc.
- Pfizer, Inc.
- PhRMA
- Procter & Gamble
- Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan & Silver, LLC
- Sanofi Aventis
- Schering-Plough Corporation
- Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- State Farm Insurance
- Third Wave Technologies, Inc.
- Verizon Communications
- Wal-Mart
- Ward Health Strategies
- WellPoint, Inc.
- Wholesale Beer Distributors of Arkansas, Inc.
- Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
- Susan Crosby, President
Contact Details
Women In Government
2600 Virginia Ave., NW
Suite 709
Washington, DC 20037
Phone: (202) 333-0825
Fax: (202) 333-0875
Web: http://www.womeningovernment.org
Other SourceWatch Resources
External links
- TBTAM, "Big Pharma and Women in Government - Partnering for HPV Legislation", The Blog That Ate Manhattan, December 21, 2006.
- Health Highlights: "Merck Pushing for Mandatory HPV Vaccination," Forbes, January 31, 2007.
- Andrew Pollack and Stephanie Saul, "Merck to Halt Lobbying for Vaccine for Girls," New York Times, February 21, 2007.


text:
Wholesale of sugar, sweets and bakery products (46.36.0.00)
Charges for this service
Here you can find an overview of the important charges applicable in Bavaria.
If you select a location (see "Your selection - location"), you will find locally valid charges if available.
More information about charges may be available on the internet site of the responsible public authority.
- Fees, Bavaria-wide
- Fees, locally limited


text:
Oct 03, 2011 | |
Researchers discover 2 early stages of carbon nanotube growth |
(Nanowerk News) Boston College researchers have discovered two early-stage phases of carbon nanotube growth during plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, finding a disorderly tangle of tube growth that ultimately yields to orderly rows of the nanoscopic tubes, according to a report in the latest edition of the journal Nanotechnology. | |
By using a thin layer of catalyst, Professor of Physics Zhifeng Ren and researcher Dr. Hengzhi Wang discovered two previously overlooked stages of carbon nanotube growth, they report. The method yields a first stage where budding tubes appear randomly entangled, then a second stage of partially aligned tubes, then a third and final stage of tubes in full alignment, which is the standard used by researchers who produce carbon nanotubes for use in a range of materials and biomedical research. | |
"These growth phases are controlled by the thickness of the catalyst in use," said Wang. "Each stage, it turns out, has its own merit. Each stage has its own purpose." | |
In plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, carbon nanotubes are grown through the repeated accumulation of carbon atoms from the decomposition of gasses upon a catalyst particle, which creates multilayered carbon material on a substrate. Researchers have sought to create neatly aligned rows of millions of carbon nanotubes upon the substrates. | |
"We didn't know why we were seeing these nanotube configurations," said Ren, among the pioneers in the development of aligned carbon nanotubes. "This is really why you are a scientist. You see a new phenomenon and then you try to understand it." | |
Ren and Wang say that in the process of achieving the third stage of nanotube growth, the two earlier phases of growth have gone overlooked as each stage is etched away by the next application of plasma. Further masking these early-stage carbon nanotubes is the fact that they are not present when a thick catalyst is used, according to their findings. | |
The first stage tubes, produced in zero to four minutes, are described as a tangle of random large and small diameter carbon nanotubes. The second stage tubes, created in four to ten minutes, are generally smaller in diameter, but taller and only partially aligned. | |
Wang says that while these nanotubes are not in neat, orderly rows, they do have the advantage of offer a larger volumetric density and create a larger surface area, which could be an important development in the use of carbon nanotubes in heat transfer in thermal management. A potential application could involve in applying a thin coating of carbon nanotubes to an integrated circuit in order to draw away heat and efficiently cool the device. | |
After ten minutes of plasma etching, the early stage nanotubes have been washed away and the third stage tubes begin to emerge in tall, ordered rows upon the substrate. At this stage, the tubes themselves are shielded by makeshift "helmets" of catalyst particles, which effectively protect them during the last part of the growth process. Eventually, these last bits of catalyst are etched away as well. |
Source: Boston College |


text:
Links found between paternal diabetes and low birth weight
One of the first studies to use recently released data from the UK Biobank has provided the strongest evidence yet for a link between fathers' diabetes and low birth weight. The research shows that your dad can influence your size at birth and that diabetes genes may explain some of this effect.
The study is unprecedented in its size, using 250,000 adults from the UK, in a resource which will help scientists analyse large data sets to answer questions on human health.
Published in the International Journal of Epidemiology the findings show that people of below average birth weight are more likely to have a father with late onset diabetes (most likely type 2 diabetes).
The study has been conducted by researchers at the University of Exeter Medical School. The team are one of the first groups to use data from the UK Biobank, a huge repository of health information from people aged between 40 and 70 years old.
Co-lead researcher on the study, Dr Jessica Tyrrell, said "Using such a large amount of data has allowed us to be very confident in our conclusions. The finding that parent and offspring diabetes could be genetically linked has important implications for current treatments which aim to increase birth weight to help prevent the onset of the disease, suggesting they may be ineffective."
Birth weight is an important factor for new-born babies, with smaller infants having a higher risk of developing a number of conditions later in life, including cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
The relationship uncovered by this research is likely to be caused by genetic variations passed from father to child which influence both low birth weight and increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
The study marks an important advancement in our understanding of the causes and implications of low birth weight. However, the analysis has also shown that babies born to mothers with diabetes were more likely to be heavier at birth, demonstrating a complex relationship between diabetes and birth weight.
Co-author Professor Tim Frayling stressed "This study really shows the power of the UK Biobank. It is really important that scientists are able to analyse very large numbers of people to get to the true causes of disease. We can waste huge amounts of time following up false leads, but the size of UKBiobank means that we can be far more certain that our result is real. The UK Biobank will be a hugely valuable resource for UK and scientists worldwide."
Professor Rory Collins, Chief Executive of UK Biobank, said "I am delighted that the UK Biobank resource is already helping scientists in their research. We are grateful to all the volunteers who have given up their time to provide the detailed health data to make this sort of research possible."


text:
Most students have far to go before they master the skills and knowledge outlined in the new common standards that have been adopted by all but seven states, concludes a report released today.
The study is the first to try to identify the ground that must be covered if states and school districts are going to hold their students to the new standards. It found that only one-third to one-half of the nation's 11th graders are proficient in the content and skills that the common-core standards specify as necessary in mathematics and English/language arts for access to good jobs or success in entry-level, credit-bearing college courses.
ACT Inc., the Iowa City, Iowa-based nonprofit that produces one of the country's two dominant college-entrance exams, performed the analysis by identifying items in the ACT exam that reflect specific skills or content in the new standards. As its sample, the ACT looked at some 257,000 high school juniors who took the exam as part of a statewide administration, to winnow out the tilt of a sample heavy with college-aspiring students.
Using that broad pool, the organization determined how students who score in the ACT's "college ready" range performed on the items deemed reflective of common-core content. That created a proxy, or estimate, of the cutoff score all students must reach to be considered well prepared in those areas, said Scott Montgomery, an ACT assistant vice president who worked on the report.
The resulting profile is one of a student body largely unprepared for the common standards. The problem was worse in mathematics than in English/language arts, and worse for racial and ethnic minority students than for their white peers.
Within English/language arts, only 38 percent of 11th graders hit the proficient range in reading, and barely more than half reached it in writing and in language. Particular subsets of skills stood out as weaknesses: Only three in 10 proved themselves well-versed enough in conquering progressively more complex texts, and only a shade more demonstrated enough strength in their knowledge of language and vocabulary.
Science Literacy Weak
Of particular concern to ACT researchers—and common-core authors contacted by Education Week—was students' weak performance in science literacy. Not even one-quarter of the students showed college-ready levels of skill in understanding scientific reading material. They showed more strength in reading literature, and in grappling with informational texts and social studies material, though proficiency levels in those areas still ranged only between 37 percent and 41 percent.
SOURCE: Education Week
In math, only 37 percent of students showed proficiency in statistics and probability, and only four in 10 did so in functions. The weakest math area was number and quantity, where only 34 percent showed proficiency in skills considered foundational to later math study. ACT officials were troubled by students' weaknesses on a set of items that reflect their prowess with "mathematical practices," such as reasoning abstractly, modeling with math, and making sense of problems and persevering to solve them. Only one-third of students showed proficiency in those skills.
Both math and English showed minority students' particular struggles with mastery. Only one in 10 African-American students, for instance, reached college-ready levels in reading and in the number and quantity area of math. Hispanic students consistently outperformed black students, but significantly trailed Caucasian peers. Results for Asian students were not broken out because there were too few in the sample size to facilitate that, ACT officials said.
Cynthia B. Schmeiser, the president of ACT's education division, said that the study defines "clear areas of instructional deficiency" that states and districts can address as they reshape teaching and learning in response to the common standards.
"States need to know what their students' achievement looks like relative to the common core," she said in a conference call with reporters. "What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What can they focus on now and get a leg up to move forward with implementation?"
The report is a "baseline study" that "raises some real important issues for policymakers at the state level" as they gear up to implement the new standards, said Gene Wilhoit, the executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, which co-led the initiative to have state and private-sector experts collaborate in designing the standards.
Accordingly, the study's authors offered detailed instructional recommendations to address the weaknesses pinpointed in the report. They suggested, for instance, that states funnel more energy into making sure students read progressively more complex texts as they go through school and that they develop stronger cross-disciplinary literacy skills. In math, schools should pay greater attention to building a strong foundation in early-grades number-and-quantity skills and beefing up students' understanding of mathematical processes and practices, the report urges.
The authors advised states, as well, to ensure that teachers have sound professional development so they are prepared for the new standards and that they are provided with model lessons, good formative assessment strategies, and other tools for guiding instruction.
States must also recognize and prepare for the "significant shift" of moving to "fewer, clearer, higher" standards, which will "fundamentally reframe" expectations for students, the report says. Crucial to successful implementation, the authors said, is setting realistic goals and timelines for proficiency under the new standards.
"Rather than encouraging states and districts to adopt weakened definitions of college and career readiness, policymakers should improve current accountability systems so that schools embrace challenging yet realistic goals rooted in how well students demonstrate academic growth" in mastering the standards, the report says.
Assessment Issues
ACT officials, as well as outside experts, cautioned that while the study's findings offer an instructive early portrait of students' readiness for the standards, they must also be interpreted with caution because the analysis was done before any serious, widespread effort to teach to the new standards.
Additionally, no one yet knows the format and content of the assessments currently being designed for the common standards by groups of states. How those assessments take shape will be pivotal in making the curricular aims of the common standards meaningful, said W. James Popham, a professor emeritus of education at the University of California, Los Angeles who focuses on assessment.
"Any long-lasting educational decisions based on as-yet-unmeasured curricular aims should be made warily until we have goal-attainment assessments at hand," he wrote in an e-mail.
Douglas J. McRae, a retired assessment expert based in Monterey, Calif., commended the ACT report for being the first to shed light on the gap between where students are and where they need to be under the new standards. The report pinpoints a key policy problem as well, he said, by suggesting that states adopt realistic goals and timelines for proficiency, thus avoiding the public-relations fallout that could result if unrealistic expectations aren't met.
"The realistic thing to do is to adopt longer timelines than what may be politically possible," he wrote in an e-mail.
Jason Zimba, one of the lead authors of the math section of the common standards, said he welcomed the study's recommendation to focus on early-grades foundational math, which is typically "beneath the radar of state testing."
And David Coleman, who co-led the writing of the English/language arts section, said the study confirms much of what the standards are meant to address: among other things, students' struggles with such college-necessary skills as handling complex texts and mastering reading material in subjects like social studies and science.


text:
President Barack Obama signs into law the massive $787 billion economic stimulus plan in Denver, CO...with 10 different pens!
Today does not mark the end of our economic troubles. Nor does it constitute all of what we must do to turn our economy around. But it does mark the beginning of the end - the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs; to provide relief for families worried they won't be able to pay next month's bills; and to set our economy on a firmer foundation, paving the way to long-term growth and prosperity.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that I will sign today - a plan that meets the principles I laid out in January - is the most sweeping economic recovery package in our history. It is the product of broad consultations - and the recipient of broad support - from business leaders, unions, and public interest groups, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, Democrats and Republicans, mayors as well as governors. It is a rare thing in Washington for people with such different viewpoints to come together and support the same bill, and on behalf of our nation.
President Obama's full remarks below the fold...
It is great to be in Denver. I was here last summer to accept the nomination of my party and to make a promise to people of all parties - that I would do all I could to give every American the chance to make of their lives what they will and see their children climb higher than they did. I am back today to say that we have begun the difficult work of keeping that promise. We have begun the essential work of keeping the American dream alive in our time.
Today does not mark the end of our economic troubles. Nor does it constitute all of what we must do to turn our economy around. But it does mark the beginning of the end - the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs; to provide relief for families worried they won't be able to pay next month's bills; and to set our economy on a firmer foundation, paving the way to long-term growth and prosperity.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that I will sign today - a plan that meets the principles I laid out in January - is the most sweeping economic recovery package in our history. It is the product of broad consultations - and the recipient of broad support - from business leaders, unions, and public interest groups, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, Democrats and Republicans, mayors as well as governors. It is a rare thing in Washington for people with such different viewpoints to come together and support the same bill, and on behalf of our nation, I thank them for it, including your two outstanding new Senators, Michael Bennet and Mark Udall.
I also want to thank my Vice President Joe Biden for working behind the scenes from the very start to make this recovery act possible. I want to thank Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid for acting so quickly and proving that Congress could step up to this challenge. I want to thank Max Baucus, Chairman of the Finance Committee, without whom none of this would have happened. And I want to thank all the Committee Chairs and members of Congress for coming up with a plan that is both bold and balanced enough to meet the demands of this moment. The American people were looking to them for leadership, and that is what they provided.
What makes this recovery plan so important is not just that it will create or save three and a half million jobs over the next two years, including nearly 60,000 in Colorado. It's that we are putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done in critical areas that have been neglected for too long - work that will bring real and lasting change for generations to come.
Because we know we can't build our economic future on the transportation and information networks of the past, we are remaking the American landscape with the largest new investment in our nation's infrastructure since Eisenhower built an interstate highway system in the 1950s. Because of this investment, nearly 400,000 men and women will go to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, repairing our faulty dams and levees, bringing critical broadband connections to businesses and homes in nearly every community in America, upgrading mass transit, and building high-speed rail lines that will improve travel and commerce throughout the nation.
Because we know America can't outcompete the world tomorrow if our children are being outeducated today, we are making the largest investment in education in our nation's history. It's an investment that will create jobs building 21st century classrooms, libraries, and labs for millions of children across America. It will provide funds to train a new generation of math and science teachers, while giving aid to states and school districts to stop teachers from being laid off and education programs from being cut. In New York City alone, 14,000 teachers who were set to be let go may now be able to continue pursuing their critical mission. It's an investment that will create a new $2,500 annual tax credit to put the dream of a college degree within reach for middle class families and make college affordable for seven million students, helping more of our sons and daughters aim higher, reach farther, and fulfill their God-given potential.
Because we know that spiraling health care costs are crushing families and businesses alike, we are taking the most meaningful steps in years towards modernizing our health care system. It's an investment that will take the long overdue step of computerizing America's medical records - to reduce the duplication and waste that costs billions of health care dollars and the medical errors that every year cost thousands of lives. Further, thanks to the action we have taken, seven million Americans who lost their health care along with their jobs will continue to get the coverage they need, and roughly 20 million more can breathe a little easier, knowing that their health care won't be cut due to a state budget shortfall. And an historic commitment to wellness initiatives will keep millions of Americans from setting foot in the doctor's office for purely preventable diseases.
Taken together with the enactment earlier this month of a long-delayed law to extend health care to millions more children of working families, we have done more in 30 days to advance the cause of health reform than this country has done in a decade.
Because we know we can't power America's future on energy that's controlled by foreign dictators, we are taking a big step down the road to energy independence, and laying the groundwork for a new, green energy economy that can create countless well-paying jobs. It's an investment that will double the amount of renewable energy produced over the next three years, and provide tax credits and loan guarantees to companies like Namaste Solar, a company that will be expanding, instead of laying people off, as a result of the plan I am signing.
In the process, we will transform the way we use energy. Today, the electricity we use is carried along a grid of lines and wires that dates back to Thomas Edison - a grid that can't support the demands of clean energy. This means we're using 19th and 20th century technologies to battle 21st century problems like climate change and energy security. It also means that places like North Dakota can produce a lot of wind energy, but can't deliver it to communities that want it, leading to a gap between how much clean energy we are using and how much we could be using.
The investment we are making today will create a newer, smarter electric grid that will allow for the broader use of alternative energy. We will build on the work that's being done in places like Boulder, Colorado - a community that is on pace to be the world's first Smart Grid city. This investment will place Smart Meters in homes to make our energy bills lower, make outages less likely, and make it easier to use clean energy. It's an investment that will save taxpayers over one billion dollars by slashing energy costs in our federal buildings by 25% and save working families hundreds of dollars a year on their energy bills by weatherizing over one million homes. And it's an investment that takes the important first step towards a nationwide transmission superhighway that will connect our cities to the windy plains of the Dakotas and the sunny deserts of the Southwest.
Even beyond energy, from the National Institutes of Health to the National Science Foundation, this recovery act represents the biggest increase in basic research funding in the long history of America's noble endeavor to better understand our world. Just as President Kennedy sparked an explosion of innovation when he set America's sights on the moon, I hope this investment will ignite our imagination once more, spurring new discoveries and breakthroughs that will make our economy stronger, our nation more secure, and our planet safer for our children.
While this package is mostly composed of critical investments, it also includes aid to state and local governments to prevent layoffs of firefighters or police recruits - recruits like the ones in Columbus, Ohio who were told that instead of being sworn-in as officers, they would be let go. It includes help for those hardest hit by our economic crisis like the nearly 18 million Americans who will get larger unemployment checks in the mail. And about a third of this package comes in the form of tax cuts - the most progressive in our history - not only spurring job-creation, but putting money in the pockets of 95% of all hardworking families. Unlike tax cuts we've seen in recent years, the vast majority of these tax benefits will go not to the wealthiest Americans but to the middle class - with those workers who make the least benefiting the most. And it's a plan that rewards responsibility, lifting two million Americans from poverty by ensuring that anyone who works hard does not have to raise a child below the poverty line. As a whole, this plan will help poor and working Americans pull themselves into the middle class in a way we haven't seen in nearly fifty years.
What I am signing, then, is a balanced plan with a mix of tax cuts and investments. It is a plan that's been put together without earmarks or the usual pork barrel spending. And it is a plan that will be implemented with an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability. With a recovery package of this scale comes a responsibility to assure every taxpayer that we are being careful with the money they work so hard to earn. That's why I am assigning a team of managers to ensure that the precious dollars we have invested are being spent wisely and well. We will hold the governors and local officials who receive money to the same high standards. And we expect you, the American people, to hold us accountable for the results. That is why we have created Recovery.gov - so every American can go online and see how their money is being spent.
As important as the step we take today is, this legislation represents only the first part of the broad strategy we need to address our economic crisis. In the coming days and weeks, I will be launching other aspects of the plan. We will need to stabilize, repair, and reform our banking system, and get credit flowing again to families and businesses. We will need to end a culture where we ignore problems until they become full-blown crises instead of recognizing that the only way to build a thriving economy is to set and enforce firm rules of the road. We must stem the spread of foreclosures and falling home values for all Americans, and do everything we can to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes, something I will talk more about tomorrow. And while we need to do everything in the short-term to get our economy moving again, we must recognize that having inherited a trillion-dollar deficit, we need to begin restoring fiscal discipline and taming our exploding deficits over the long-term.
None of this will be easy. The road to recovery will not be straight and true. It will demand courage and discipline, and a new sense of responsibility that has been missing - from Wall Street to Washington. There will be hazards and reverses along the way. But I have every confidence that if we are willing to continue doing the difficult work that must be done - by each of us and by all of us - then we will leave this struggling economy behind us, and come out on the other side, more prosperous as a people.
For our American story is not - and has never been - about things coming easy. It's about rising to the moment when the moment is hard, converting crisis into opportunity, and seeing to it that we emerge from whatever trials we face stronger than we were before. It's about rejecting the notion that our fate is somehow written for us, and instead laying claim to a destiny of our own making. That is what earlier generations of Americans have done, and that is what we are doing today. Thank you.


text:
About Us
Cinebook, Publisher of the best-selling European comic books for all ages.
For many English-speaking readers, knowledge of European comic books is limited to popular characters Tintin and Asterix.
Lucky Luke, Iznogoud, Blake & Mortimer, XIII, Valerian, Thorgal, Largo Winch, Spirou & Fantasio, Billy & Buddy, Yakari, the Bluecoats, Yoko Tsuno, Buck Danny, Cedric . . . These European comic book characters, already boasting more than 300 million copies sold, are featured stars in Cinebook's catalogue.
The comic book and its close relative, the graphic novel, are a highly respected art form in France, Belgium and the rest of Western Europe—so well regarded that Cinebook takes our tagline ("The 9th Art Publisher") from the classification of comic books as No. 9 on the list of plastic arts in Europe (Plastic Art list: 1st-Architecture; 2nd-Painting; 3rd-Sculpture; 4th-Engraving; 5th-Drawing; 6th-Photo; 7th-Cinema; 8th-Television; 9th-Comic books), In fact, one of every eight books sold in France is a comic book.
Since the end of 2005, Cinebook has worked to become the premier publisher of the Franco-Belgian Ninth Art in English in markets dominated by American superhero comics and Japanese manga.
Cinebook selects series and individual titles based on a number of factors in order to please a wide range of readers—factors such as geographic settings, protagonists' age and gender, historic themes, genres, etc.
Cinebook publishes top-selling Franco-Belgian authors and series in English:
René Goscinny, co-creator and writer of the Asterix series, has sold 500 million books. His Lucky Luke, a cowboy character dubbed "the man who shoots faster than his own shadow" and created with Morris, has sold over 250 million copies in multiple languages and is popular with all ages.
Along with Lucky Luke, Cinebook released in 2008 Goscinny's hilarious character the grand vizier Iznogoud, who wants to become Caliph instead of the Caliph in old Baghdad.
Edgar P. Jacobs (Blake & Mortimer) and Roger Leloup (Yoko Tsuno), both of whom worked with Hergé (the father of Tintin), have sold, respectively, 12 million and six million copies.
Jean Van Hamme is one of Belgium's most successful contemporary novelists and comic writers. Thorgal, his exciting fantasy series with Rosinski, and Largo Winch with Francq (which was adapted to the big screen in 2008, with a sequel in 2011) have sold, respectively, 13 million and 10 million copies. At the end of 2008, Cinebook added Lady S, Van Hamme's espionage series with Aymond, and The Francis Blake Affair with Benoit, based on the Blake & Mortimer characters of E. P. Jacobs.
In 2010, Van Hamme's most famous series XIII joined Cinebook's catalogue. The adventures of the tattooed amnesiac had never been translated past the 3rd volume before, but they were published at the rhythm of one every two months, and the original series was completed in 2013 – until a second season was launched in 2014, which is being translated concurrently.
Raoul Cauvin excels in humorous adventures and visual gags for all ages. His Bluecoats with Lambil, starring two soldiers in the U.S. Union Army during the Civil War, and his Cedric with Laudec, about an eight-year-old boy, have sold, respectively, more than 15 million and eight million copies.
Stephen Desberg, an American living in Belgium, is one of the most successful new-generation comic writers for young adults (15 and older) and adults. His IR$ series with Vrancken stars a specialist from a little-known branch of the Internal Revenue Service. The Scorpion with Marini is a swashbuckling thriller series set in the mysterious shadows of the 18th century Vatican. Each series has sold more than one million copies.
Francis Bergèse, pilot and aviation enthusiast, is the most reputable illustrator in the area of aviation art and was chosen to be in charge of the new Buck Danny adventures. This series, the creation of Georges Troisfontaines, Victor Hubinon and Jean-Michel Charlier, has sold 15 million copies. Bergèse also adapted non fiction history into graphic novels which have been translated under the label Cinebook Recounts.
Sylvain Runberg, a young French author living in Sweden and a rising star of the BD world, created the science-fiction series Orbital with Serge Pellé; the adventures of a human-alien pair of diplomatic super-agents have been met with critical acclaim. With Eduardo Ocaña he gives the reader an alternate version of the life of a great scientist in Darwin's Diaries.
Leo, creator of The Worlds of Aldebaran (Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Antares, The Survivors), takes the theme of the colonisation of space further than most sci-fi comics. His series has sold more than one million copies. In collaboration with Rodolphe, he also created Kenya, a gripping sci-fi mystery in late 40s Africa complete with dinosaurs and UFOs, followed by second season Namibia.
Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mezieres are two very important figures of French BD, and their creation Valerian and Laureline has defined French science-fiction for over 40 years and sold 2.5 million copies, not to mention it's had a broad and lasting influence over many other works of sci-fi, including Star Wars itself. Now at long last it is being made into a major feature film by Luc Besson, with Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Rihanna and Clive Owen; Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets will be out in July 2017.
Two legendary series of the ninth art joined the crew in 2009. Billy and Buddy, about a little boy and his canine best friend, and Spirou and Fantasio (created in 1938), the flagship series of Spirou Magazine, have respectively sold 25 million and 20 million copies.
Xavier Dorison, a young author but already an old hand of the comic world, has written several highly regarded series with distinguished artists. With Fabien Nury and Christian Rossi, he created SPOOKS, chronicling the otherworldly adventures of a very special team of investigators in early 20th century America. And with the immensely talented Mathieu Lauffray, it's the story of original pirate Long John Silver he tells us, 20 years after the events of Treasure Island.
Fabien Vehlmann is regarded as one of the great names in the new generation of comic writers. His wonderfully dark and cynical Green Manor, illustrated by Denis Bodart, delighted English-speaking readers. In 2014, Cinebook began publishing his hit series Alone, drawn by Bruno Gazzotti. This tale of five children waking up in a deserted city has drawn critical acclaim in both French and English, as well as the public's seal of approval.
Thank you for sharing with us a passion for the numerous talents of the Ninth Art!


text:
This color composite image of nearby NGC 300 combines the visible-light pictures from Carnegie Institution of Washington's 100-inch telescope at Las Campanas Observatory (colored red and yellow), with ultraviolet views from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. Galaxy Evolution Explorer detectors image far ultraviolet light (colored blue).
This composite image traces star formation in progress. Young hot blue stars dominate the outer spiral arms of the galaxy, while the older stars congregate in the nuclear regions which appear yellow-green. Gases heated by hot young stars and shocks due to winds from massive stars and supernova explosions appear in pink, as revealed by the visible-light image of the galaxy.
Located nearly 7 million light years away, NGC 300 is a member of a nearby group of galaxies known as the Sculptor Group. It is a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way.


text:
Ash arrives at the Canalave Gym, only to hear bad news: the Gym Leader is away on Iron Island, and the locals are all sleep-deprived due to horrible nightmares! Officer Jenny blames the Darkrai that visits Canalave City once a year; a Cresselia from Full Moon Island always drives Darkrai away, but Darkrai is early this year and Cresselia is nowhere to be found. Officer Jenny bought a Lunar Wing charm to ward off bad dreams, but it's not working. When Brock inspects it, he realizes it's just a fake made from a lacquered Pidgey feather! An investigation leads Ash and the gang to Team Rocket, who are using a nightmare-generating machine to create a market for their fake Lunar Wing charms.
Pikachu and Ash knock out Team Rocket in no time, and everyone looks forward to a good night's sleep. But that night, the nightmares return! Concerned that Darkrai may be in town after all, Jenny takes our heroes to Full Moon Island in search of Cresselia. Dawn's Swinub tracks Cresselia's scent to a cliff known as Cresselia's shrine. Sure enough, Cresselia appears, but Team Rocket's Magikarp sub pops out of hiding and snags everyone in a net. Swinub tries to fight Team Rocket to save everyone, but it's no good—until it evolves into a mighty Piloswine and smashes the sub with a single hit!
As soon as Cresselia is freed, Officer Jenny asks it to help protect the people of Canalave. Cresselia flies to the city and calls Darkrai out of hiding. Darkrai is lurking near the ruins of Team Rocket's nightmare machine, almost as if it was the machine's signal that lured Darkrai to town. Cresselia challenges Darkrai, and Darkrai wisely decides to retreat. Its work done, Cresselia disappears as well. At last, everyone can enjoy a peaceful night of sleep. Ash will surely need that rest so he can start training for his Canalave Gym challenge!


text:
New books by CoLED Ethnographers!
Announcing this season's recent monographs!
CoLED member and this year's director of UC San Diego's Studio for Ethnographic Design Christo Sims has a new book out with Princeton University Press, Disruptive Fixation: School Reform and the Pitfalls of Techno-Idealism. The book takes ethnography as a critical mode of approach to the problem of design as a platform for innovation. Drawing on research in a "public school for the digital age," Sims traces the hubristic impulse of design and technology's commitment to innovation that constantly remakes the world, dubbing this modality techno-idealism.
CoLED member and noted anthropologist of human rights and politics Nancy Postero (UC San Diego Anthropology) has a new book out with UC Press. The book, The Indigenous State: Race, Politics, and Performance in Plurinational Bolivia, is available on the open access platform, and can be read online for free. The Indigenous State follows ten years of politics and the practices of decolonization following the election of Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president.
CoLED Member Marisol de la Cadena's (UC Davis Anthropology) new book, Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds (Duke University Press), received warm reception at the 2016 AAA meeting. The book offers a sustained ethnographic engagement with the political worlds of a Quechua father and son, as a means to grapple with the incommensurability of ontological worlds.
For a full list of recent books by CoLED members, click here.


text:
D & J Construction is dedicated to doing quality work by employing quality people. Quality people, high standards and cutting edge technology are the core to what makes D & J a highly successful business in the construction industry. These high standards can be seen on every job we do, making D & J one of the premier highway construction companies in the state. D & J's philosophy is to make a positive difference on the job, in our community, and in the lives of all our employees.
D & J Construction Company is a heavy highway construction contractor. In business for more than 40 years, D & J has grown to be an industry leader in the state of Louisiana. Located in the northeast part of the state in West Monroe, D & J operates several asphalt plants and aggrergate pits ideally located throughout Louisiana. D & J manufactures its own "HOTMIX" product for use on government projects and for sale to local independant contractors in the area.
D & J Construction Company is proud to be heavy highway contractor for the great state of Louisiana. Working with Local, Parish and State Governments, our Quality Control Department strives to complete projects with the highest standards providing the people of the state with a quality product. Company safety programs help create a "zero-injury" work place with the intention to protect workers on the job and those passing throught our work zones.
"Quality People = Quality Roads" is our motto!
Many businesses have mottos or slogans, but at D & J Construction our motto is our work ethic.
A work ethic of doing quality work is at the core of how D & J Construction does business. From the company's inception in the 60's, the owners have insisted that jobs be done with the utmost of quality and professional workmanship. Whether the job is a 4 lane Interstate reconstruction or an asphalt overlay of a minor state highway, all jobs are done at levels that meet or exceed job standards.
Our Team
"We bid state Asphalt Paving Projects (Interstates, Highways, City Streets, Parish Roads and Airports) ranging in cost from $50,000 - $50,000,000." Jerry WhiteVP of Operations
"D & J's commitment to doing the job right is paramount. It far exceeds the fact we were lowest bidder." Jim HegwoodProject Superintendent


text:
These were the lovely goodies she sent me, complete with the most fantastic label
and she really sweetly included a package for the Little Lockets
full of lovely crafty goodies - sorry the photo isn't very good - but there are transfers, bags of glitter and the most fantastic finger puppets to decorate -
Thank you so much Vicky - we are all very, very grateful!
The other topic of interest for today's post is........................
TLC is a little club that we have set up in the Locket Household as Dorothy has left Brownies but can't get into Guides, Daisy has left Rainbows but can't get into Brownies and Fred is still too young for Cubs.
We came up with the idea a few months ago and made club badges and a sash each to wear them on and then I bought the supplies to make them all club t-shirts too but we forgot. So the first job on starting the club again today was to make the t-shirts
while the children made the sign and decorated their Ladybird Club Notebooks
Here is part of Daisy's design
We decided not to use the sashes anymore as they went across the ladybirds on their t-shirts so I very quickly (and very roughly) made them some little bags from the legs of old jeans to put their badges on instead.
One of the things we want to do in our "club" is earn badges like you used to do in Brownies (sadly this didn't seem to happen in Dorothy's Brownie group) using this book as inspiration
Today the children earned their "Sewing badges"
for all the stitching they have been doing recently and because we finished their cushions today.
here they are busily stuffing them - and the finished products are pretty cute too
When you actually read the rules of the badges we used to do you can see how much more was expected of us back then (crumbs that makes me sound so old!!!) For example, to get the knitting badge you needed to be able to
1.Choose your own pattern and, following the printed directions, knit a garment introducing two types of stitches.
2. Knit a pair of socks or gloves, or mittens with thumbs, using two or four needles.
I don't think many modern under-10s would be able to do this level of knitting do you? The needlework one is pretty hard too - they expect loads of different stitches - but I think the Little Lockets have definitely earned theirs!
We are planning to move onto the Cookery badge
and the Gardening one too (I need some incentive to get my seeds sown or we are going to have a very empty allotment!)
I'll let you know how we get on but I will leave you today with this gorgeous photo of the Ladybird Club Members modelling their new t-shirts
I absolutely LOVE this photo - it's amazing how animated they look when you get them to say "KNICKERS" instead of "Cheese"!!!!!


text:
Adidas UltraBoost All Terrain Off White Grey Black Shock Red Shoes For Man And Women EG8096
Adidas UltraBoost All Terrain Off White Grey Black Shock Red Shoes For Man And Women EG8096
- Release Date: November 08, 2019
- Item Code: EG8096
- Color : Off White / Grey Six / Shock Red
- Style: Sports
- Upper Material: Synthetic Leather
- Applicable Season: All Season
- Functionality: Wearable, Slip-resistant
- Sole Material: Rubber Sole
- Upper : Low Cut
- Toe Type :Round Toe
- Heel type: Flat heel
Free Shipping Worldwide
Free Shipping Worldwide
Orders are shipped via UPS, DPEX, FedEx, DHL, S.F. Express, SpeedPost(EMS), or Air Mail, depending on the your location.
The processing time of an order varies as your item may need to be transferred to our central processing facility. Please allow for 1-3 days for orders to be processed at our central processing facilities before the order can be dispatched.
After dispatch, tracking link will be provided to you via email and your order will be delivered within8-15 business daysat the shipping address provided by you while placing the order.
30 Days Easy Returns
30 Days Easy Returns
We have a 30-day return policy, which means you have 30 days after receiving your item to request a return.
Returns will be processed only if:
- The product shipped to you is different from what is shown on our website, replacement can be done in this case.
Need Help?
Need Help?
You can reach our customer support team via email at email@example.com or through our Contact Us page. We strive to respond to all inquiries within 24 hours.