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Sales tax holiday starts Sunday
Retailers, experts debate effect on state's economy, consumers
With the state's annual sales tax holiday for clothing and shoes set to begin Sunday, retailers are gearing up for eager shoppers hoping to save a few bucks.
"It does have a pretty good impact, said Andy Csejka, manager of Jimmy's in downtown Bridgeport. "We see an uptick in sales. Sometimes people are waiting for that week."
But some argue the temporary tax break -- clothing and shoe purchases under $300 will be exempt through Aug. 23 -- is more gimmick than sound economic policy.
"Why it's done is politics," said Peter Gioia, an economist with the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. "It's done two months before election time. There is a weak boost from this and some shopping is delayed. The economic impact is not that great. If you want to increase spending, tax less all the time."
The state's sales tax is due to change July 2015, when a year-round exemption for clothing and shoe purchases under $50 takes effect. The one-week, $300 and under summer break will continue.
For the state, sales-tax-free week means a revenue loss of between $7 million and $8 million, according to the state Department of Revenue Services. The increase in retail sales for merchants could not be immediately obtained.
The state's 6.35 percent sales tax is the 10th highest in the nation, with California the highest at 7.5 percent.
"Having this week-long sales tax holiday not only makes back-to-school shopping just a little bit easier, but also helps retailers boost their bottom line," said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy during a visit Friday to a Berlin clothing retailer.
"Many stores also plan sales and discounts to coincide with this week, which allows families to stretch their hard-earned money a little further. This is a great opportunity to shop locally and support Connecticut retailers," Malloy said.
When Malloy took office, the state offered a year-round sales tax exemption for clothing and shoe purchases under $50 in addition to the larger late summer break. Faced with massive deficits, Malloy eliminated the year-round break in 2011.
The budget approved this year by Malloy and the General Assembly reinstates the $50 or less exemption for clothes and shoes, effective next year.
"That was one thing that went because of the deficits," Gioia said, referring to the year-round break. "Now there is spending on all sorts of programs. There is a vast amount of spending built up and it forces more taxes."
Gioia said sales tax free week mostly benefits lower income consumers, noting $200 in spending provides only $12.70 in savings.
Fred Carstensen, director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut, said the tax holiday is a gimmick with a small advantage.
"Merchants like it because they use it for marketing. The politicians love it," Carstensen said. "You might get a tiny bump in sales. It costs the state money to implement. There are now 689 exemptions to the sales tax. It's not working well. We ought to be having a serious discussion of the revenue base for the state."
DRS Commissioner Kevin Sullivan said retailers appreciate sales tax free week, pointing out it has been offered for more than a decade.
"I'm proud that we can continue this tradition, make it a little easier for families to do back-to-school shopping and offer all taxpayers a break," Sullivan said.
Connecticut Retail Merchants Association President Tim Phelan said tax-free week offers customers a chance to buy items normally out of their price range because retailers offer sales and coupons.
"The CRMA has always advocated for the sales-tax free week because of the benefits it offers both consumers and retailers throughout Connecticut," Phelan said.


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The Challenge: use my iPad alone (no other computer) to do my genealogical research for 1 week!
So, I've been using my iPad, and only my iPad, for my genealogical research for 2 days now. How's it going?
Better, but I am still maddeningly slow with my iPad 2, as compared to my desktop PC. Or so it seems…
I'm sure I'm actually doing better than I think. When yesterday dawned, I had actually very little experience is even simple iPad tasks, such as reading my email or checking CNN. But as that day wore on, I became more and more comfortable with it. I did run into a couple of problems, both of which have been pretty much resolved:
- Big fingers- I get my hand size from my Dad! Talk about family history… Anyway, yesterday I bought a stylus and that helps immensely with copy/paste tasks, clicking on links, etc.
- Zooming in on an image using the iOs finger gestures made the image in general larger, but did not make it any clearer. We all know how notoriously bad a census enumerator's handwriting can be. Zooming in on the census sheet can sometimes make it easier to read, but that doesn't seem to work very well with the iOs 2-finger zoom technique. However, this morning I noticed something about Windows Photo Viewer, which is the program I use to view images:
I never realized that little zoom thingy was there before! Technology is a wonderful thing! Piece o' cake!
This morning I updated one ancestor's file, just a couple of minor changes, no big deal…
The next name on the list was that of my 4th great-grandfather, Isaac Turney. Prior to today, all I had for him was his name. No census, BMD, cemetery, land, military… nothing but a name. The perfect project to really test my iPad's research capabilities!
Step 1 was to look at the data I had for Isaac's daughter, my 3GGM Elizabeth Turney. I'm pretty sure she was born in Tennessee about 1805, so that's where my iPad and I started looking for Isaac. I'm guessing he was born ca 1750-1775 (ballpark!), so to begin my research, I looked for cemetery, census, Bureau of Land Management and War of 1812 records for Isaac Turney.
So for the next 2 hours, we (my iPad & me) visited Ancestry.com. Fold3.com, FamilySearch.org, Find A Grave, the Bureau of Land Management site and USGenWeb for Tennessee. Lots of search boxes to be filled in, lots of links to click. Even a few images to zoom in on and try to read and analyze.
I must say, we did a pretty good job, for just having a couple of hours to search for Isaac. We found several clues.. a good start!
Still seems to take too long…
One added benefit I have noticed about my iPad: I can leave my eyeglasses on all the time when using it, as opposed to playing "musical chairs" with my glasses with the PC. The iPad's font seems to be just the perfect size for my 54-year-old eyes… 🙂
Also in this series:

subset: commoncrawl


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Sentences beginning in "What if we got a flamethrower and..." usually result in horrible, moronic, burnt disaster. But we're glad director Tomas Mankovsky threw caution to the fiery wind to see what happens when a flamethrower meets a fire extinguisher.
Sometimes, music videos are supposed to provide some sort of symbolism or thematic complement to a song. Maybe that's the case here for Dancing Pigeon's track "Ritalin", where we see a creepy showdown between two hillbilly types. Perhaps they stand for something? But really, it does not matter at all with this video. It has a flamethrower being shot into the stream of a fire extinguisher. In slow motion. Why are you still reading this. [Laughing Squid via CubicleBot]


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Midwest Living Holiday Cookbook 2004
Snowmen Shortbread Cookies
To make our cute edible snowmen, roll out shortbread cookie dough and cut into a snowman shape. Decorate with powdered sugar icing, gumdrops and colored candies.
Russian Creme Custard
Luscious and smooth, this elegant dessert gets a swirl of crimson raspberry sauce.
Fresh Fruit with Orange-Honey Yogurt Sauce
Add a dash of color to your breakfast table by borrowing from the spa menu at Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago. Guests are pampered with a rainbow of fruit with yogurt sauce on the side.
Sunrise Smoothie
It's no wonder people love smoothies. Not only are they great-tasting, but they're good for you, too. Try this one with a sliced strawberry garnish.
Creamy Butter-Pecan Cinnamon Rolls
We can't resist a good sticky roll -- especially one this easy to make. Starting with frozen bread dough, we added brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans and chocolate chips. When you turn it out, it makes its own gooey topping.
Cherry and Golden Raisin Bread
Quick breads come in handy at the holidays. They're easy to make for giving as a gift from the kitchen, slicing for breakfast or serving as a break with hot tea or coffee. Choose your favorite dried fruit to add to this lemon-glazed loaf.
Open-Faced Party Sandwiches
Three petite sandwiches -- salmon, chicken and watercress -- entice guests who order from the spa menu at Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago.
Wilted Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing
Here's a delicious take on a classic side-dish salad from a Dearborn, Michigan, restaurant.
Creamy Scalloped Potatoes
This easy-to-make layered cheesy potato dish pairs well with pork chops or ham.
Chicken Artichoke Brie Soup
Bits of spinach and artichoke color this creamy chicken soup, perfect for a first course at dinner or alongside a sandwich for a holiday lunch.
Spa Shiki Stir-Fry
At Spa Shiki at the Lodge of Four Seasons in Lake Ozark, Missouri, guests are served the meatless side-dish version of this colorful, fresh-tasting recipe. Add 2 cups cooked chicken to make it a main dish.
Herbed Chicken with Wild Rice
This herbed chicken and vegetable main dish was inspired by an entree at Spa Shiki at Lodge of Four Seasons in Lake Ozark, Missouri.
Snowballs and Nutjammers
The Cole family of Wadsworth, Ohio, bakes these each year for friends and family. The tradition started more than 50 years ago when Phrania (Fran) Cole and her sister, Ann, began making cookies as affordable gifts. The Coles like the Snowballs' tang of black walnut and the snowy, powdered-sugar coating. You can choose from two fillings when you bake the tiny, turnoverlike Nutjammers.
Pear Clafouti
This puffy French dessert features a batter poured over the fruit. It puffs as it bakes and falls as it cools. At the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn, Michigan, the pastry chef uses hazelnut flour in the recipe. We substituted easy-to-find all-purpose flour.
Orange-Chocolate Bread Pudding
It's amazing how simple bread pudding is, yet how good it tastes. This version from the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn, Michigan, packs a wonderful, full chocolate flavor with a hint of orange.
Date-Orange Bars
Date-nut desserts can be cloyingly sweet, but orange juice brightens these simple bars.
Kimmy's Fancy Sandwich Cookie
Kim Kordich of the Cole family in Wadsworth, Ohio, likes writing words or putting holiday symbols on these little sandwich cookies. The cookies taste wonderful filled with jam, preserves and even frosting.
Kolackys (also spelled kolaches or kolaces) are a central European pastry with a sweet center. "These cookies are time-consuming, but so worth it," says the Ohio reader who contributed the recipe.
Linzer Cookie Tarts
Our taste panel loved the tender, buttery cookie used in these preserve-filled sandwich cookies. We added dusting of powdered sugar to give them a holiday look.
Holiday Roast Turkey with Cranberry-Apple Glaze
Turkey takes center stage in many holiday menus. For this moist roast bird, we created a glaze reminiscent of a sweet barbecue sauce. Serve with Cranberry-Apple Stuffing.
Holiday Roast Turkey with Cranberry-Apple Glaze
More recipes from the 2004 holiday cookbook


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I'm not sure if that's the proper usage of breaking, but why not? You only live once; let's be enthusiastic!
Sources (a hungover J-WOWW??) suggest that Snooki may be pregnant for the second (!!!) time. The pint-sized, pickle-loving starlet, though, hasn't revealed anything yet because it might interfere with upcoming apearances. Of course, it might just be that she ate a giant burrito for lunch and we're all a bunch of weirdos for caring too much about the maybe pregnancy of a woman who is famous for being tan and living in a house on TV. Nah, that's not it. Carry on!
Follow Laura on Twitter.


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Requisition ID: 65856
Ministry: Presence Resurrection Med Cntr
Location: Presence Resurrection Med
Location Address:
7435 West Talcott, Chicago, IL 60631 United States (US)
Department: 20710430 IP Rehabilitation Unit
Daily Hours: 8
Standard Hours: 20
Employment Status: Part-time
Employment Type: Regular
Shift: Day
The Staff Nurse I - Registered Nurse is a Registered Professional Nurse (RN) who practices within the scope of the Illinois Nurse Practice Act to ensure the delivery of comprehensive, high quality, individualized nursing care, based upon knowledge and experience, the nursing process and leadership skills. The RN incorporates the Carative Factors of human care and performs established procedures in accordance with policies, procedures and standards of care of Presence health and the nursing division. The RN coordinates family involvement in the assessment, treatment and continuing care of the patient, and delegates tasks to competent and appropriate caregivers.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Education and/or Experience
Graduate of an accredited Nursing program, Bachelors of Science in Nursing preferred
Computer Skills
Knowledge of Microsoft Office software, MS Outlook, and EMR applications.
Experience in EPIC preferred.
Certificates, Licenses, Registrations
Current Illinois RN license, BLS certification. Certification is area of specialty is preferred.
Business Unit: Presence Resurrection Med Cntr
Job Function: Nursing
EOE of Minorities/Females/Vets/Disability


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Connect with the Career & Internship Services Office
As the holidays begin, you and your student will have the joy of spending about three weeks together. In addition to family celebrations and connecting with friends, this time can be used to have conversations and experiences that can sharpen the focus for your child's future. You are one of your student's most valuable resources for networking and identifying suitable career options, and as such, we invite you to partner with Career & Internship Services. We hope you will take a careful look at our freshly revised brochure and will strategically discuss with your student how our office can assist – click here. In last month's newsletter we highlighted our Informational Interviewing Guide and stressed that the holidays are a great time to conduct these kinds of interviews. Something magical happens when professionals are asked to "tell their story" and give advice. Few people can resist. Click here for the Guide. If your student would like to meet with a staff member in Career & Internship Services for guidance on any of the topics listed in the brochure, please encourage him/her to email Jen Paolino at firstname.lastname@example.com to schedule an appointment with a professional Career Advisor.


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Information Sessions - Chicago
Information Sessions - Outside Chicago
Lunch and Learns
The strategic problems managers face are typically ambiguous and do not lend themselves readily to solutions using formulae or models. Strategic management helps understand the practical realities behind organizational decision-making. Strategic management solutions are required to answer questions such as: What products should you make? Which markets should you enter? What type of organization should you build? How should you respond to competitors' behavior? Which operations should you outsource?
The Chicago Booth curriculum emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach involving psychology, sociology, and economics to develop analytical frameworks that examine the strategic issues managers face. This three-pronged approach provides an understanding of how managers employ the formal and informal relationships that exist between firms in an industry, and devise solutions to the externally-focused questions facing a company. The Strategic Management concentration builds the skills needed to formulate and implement an organization's key strategies, the results of which will shape the structure and functioning of your firm.
You'll have the chance to explore activities outside the classroom in numerous ways that will also allow you to build new skills, relationships, and networks. These include:
You'll have the option of taking courses that address your individual career choices. Samples include:
You'll study with professors who conduct groundbreaking research, consult with businesses, and bring their experiences examining the practical realities behind organizational decision-making into the classroom.
Marianne Bertrand, Chris P. Dialynas Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, is an applied microeconomist who has done work on racial discrimination, CEO pay and incentives, and the effects of regulation on employment, among other topics in labor economics and corporate finance.
Eric Budish, associate professor of economics and Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow, researches auction and matching markets, and more broadly he is interested in the design of market institutions. His most recent work concerns the design of markets that allocate schedules of courses to students, or schedules of shifts to workers.
Ronald S. Burt, Hobart W. Williams Professor of Sociology and Strategy, studies the social structure of competitive advantage in careers, organizations, and markets. Burt is the author of six books, two software programs, and numerous articles and chapters in academic works.
Harry L. Davis, Roger L. and Rachel M. Goetz Distinguished Service Professor of Creative Management, studies leadership, strategy, creativity, and innovation. He developed the first core leadership program of any top-rated MBA program in the country and also pioneered the Management Lab.
Matthew Gentzkow, Richard O. Ryan Professor of Economics and Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow, studies empirical industrial organization and political economy, with a specific focus on media industries. Gentzkow's work has been published in the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the American Economic Review, and Econometrica, and has been covered in major national media. Gentzkow received an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in 2009.
Robert H. Gertner, Joel F. Gemunder Professor of Strategy and Finance and deputy dean for the Part-Time MBA Programs, focuses his research primarily on industrial organization, resource allocation and decision making in organizations, corporate investment, law and economics, and strategic pricing.
John P. Gould, Steven G. Rothmeier Professor and Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, studies strategy, microeconomics, industrial organization, law and economics, the economics of information, and investment by the firm. Considered an expert in his field, Gould has been called to testify in many court cases and his research has been widely published.
Emir Kamenica, professor of economics and Robert King Steel Faculty Fellow, studies a variety of topics in applied microeconomics, including the design of informational environments, behavioral industrial organization, discrimination, and dating and marriage markets. He has published work in the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Review of Economic Studies.
Marc Knez, clinical professor of strategic management, has evolved his research from a focus on applying game- and decision-theory to strategic decision making to a focus on market analysis, strategy development, and organizational structure. His work has appeared in the Harvard Business Review, the Journal of Business, and the Journal of Labor Economics.
Neale Mahoney, assistant professor of economics, studies public finance, industrial organization, and health economics. His dissertation examines health insurance markets. Mahoney has worked as an associate at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company and on health care reform for the Obama administration. For his research, he has been awarded a National Tax Association Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award (first runner-up) and the Lamport Prize for the best undergraduate thesis in economics at Brown University.
James E. Schrager, clinical professor of entrepreneurship and strategic management, completed the first IPO of a US private company in Japan, and has turned around several businesses, including a company with $500 million in sales and operations in 20 countries.
Jesse M. Shapiro, Chookaszian Family Professor of Economics, is a research associate in labor studies at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a coeditor of the Journal of Political Economy, and an associate editor of the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Before joining the Chicago Booth faculty, he was the inaugural Becker Fellow at the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory.
Ram Shivakumar, SM '97, clinical professor of economics and strategy, specializes in industrial organization and corporate strategy. His research has appeared in the California Management Review, Journal of International Economics, the Canadian Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Industrial Economics.
Chad Syverson, J. Baum Harris Professor of Economics, researches several topics, including the interactions of firm structure, market structure, and productivity. His work has been published in several top journals and has earned several National Science Foundation Awards, Olin Foundation Grants, and a Brookings Dissertation Fellowship.
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business |
University of Chicago |
Privacy Notice


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Non-compound Objects
For non-compound objects/items, transcripts simply add a page-level extension to the item number.
For example, item u0008_9999999 might have 10 transcripts which will be named as thus for the transcript .tif files: u0008_9999999_0001.tif through u0008_9999999_0010.tif. The same applies to ".ocr.txt" files as well, that is to say the OCRed versions of the transcript TIFFs.
Compound Objects
Often tiff/wave files do note have a one to one match with transcript files or vice-versa.
Below are three scenarios and the naming rules devised on 6/19/09 to allow the file names themselves to denote a correlation between different file types that point to the same information (i.e. an audio interview and a transcript of that interview).
Situation 1: One to Many (One media file to many text files)
ex: 1 .wav file and 3 .txt transcript files
Situation 2: Many to One (Many media files to one text file)
ex: 3 .wav files and 1 .txt transcript file
Situation 3: One to One (One media file to one text file)
ex: 1 .wav file and 1 .txt transcript file
*For general information on filenaming conventions, see File_naming_schemes.
- What if you have 2 .wav files and 3 pages of transcripts? That is, what happens when a transcript page contains the transcription for part of each of the 2 .wav files?
In that case you might have a scenario like this: _0001.wav goes with _0001_001.txt and _0001_002.txt while _0002.wav goes with _0002_001.txt and _0001_002.txt. In this case, _0001_002.txt and _0002_001.txt are the SAME document, simply existing twice with different file names. This still allows people to know what transcripts correspond to what media items based simply on the file name.
We understand that this calls for more storage space to be used (given that an analog item exists as two distinct files), but the greater concern is the removal of confusion regarding relation of items to one another.
Important: It was discussed on 070209 that in the case of .txt file transcripts (OCR), we can simply edit the .txt files so that there is a 1 to 1 match between the transcript and the media file (wav, tiff, etc.). That is to say that if the transcripts have no value in themselves (i.e. tiffs of historically important original transcripts WOULD have value in and of themselves) we can then use the OCR-ed .txt files and divide them up as needed to get a 1 to 1 match with the media file.
- What about a scenario in which there are 2 tiffs (of original analog materials) and 1 transcript file (in tiff format) which contains the transcription for both original tiffs? How will someone know what part of the transcription tiff matches with the respective portion of the scans of the analog materials?
They won't know exactly, but they'll be in the right "ballpark" and will only have to peruse one transcript page to find the information that corresponds to each scan of the analog materials. Perhaps, in the future we can incorporate X/Y axes of the transcription files in the metadata.
Audio Transcript Matching: Compound Objects
Audio interviews for compound objects can have multiple transcript files/scans associated with one audio file. It is important to name these transcript files in a way that delineates which transcripts match with particular .wav files.
Here is a link to a small tutorial that demonstrates a method for doing such a thing provided the transcript scans are good candidates for OCR.


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Thanks to each and every person who has helped us reach our minimum goal for covering our production costs. With just a few days left, we've set ourselves a stretch goal of 70k to help begin to chip away at our post-production costs which will include licensing fees for Olympic footage of Claressa's fights. Not a cheap piece to the puzzle. Any additional contributions will go directly to the costs associated with those licensing fees. We thank you all for your continued support and generous contributions!
"T-Rex" is an intimate coming-of-age story about a new kind of American heroine. For the first time ever, women's boxing is included in the 2012 Olympics. Fighting for gold from the U.S. is Claressa "T-Rex" Shields, just 17 years old, and by far the youngest competitor. From the hard knock streets of Flint, Michigan, Claressa is undefeated and utterly confident. Her fierceness extends beyond the ring. She protects her family at any cost, even when their instability and addictions threaten to derail her dream. Claressa does have one stable force in her life. Coach Jason Crutchfield has trained her since she was a scrawny 11-year-old hanging out at his gym. Jason always wanted a champion; he just never thought it'd be a girl. Her relationships with her coach and her family grow tenser as she gets closer and closer to her dream. But Claressa is fierce and determined. She desperately wants to take her family to a better, safer place and winning a gold medal could be her only chance.
We've been shooting for six months now. Flint. Canada. China. Las Vegas. Colorado. And London is looming. The almighty Olympic Games! As you can imagine, making a film on 3 continents can get expensive. Which is why we are here. We want to finish strong but we need your support.
The funds we are hoping to raise will be used to cover the hard costs of our production. Flights. Hotels. Visas. Hard drives. Sandwiches. Steadicams. Minivans. Cameras. Batteries. You get the idea. We've have about another 4-6 months to go.
Brass tacks: We need your help! We need support and love and if you have any, we need money. We wouldn't be asking if we didn't believe in this project, Claressa and ourselves. We'll take whatever you are willing to give. And we'll be forever grateful to you for giving it!
We don't make films in bubbles, vacuums or ivory towers so we promise a steady (but not annoying) stream of words and photographs from the road. In addition to all the fine gifts/rewards/prizes that are available, most importantly, a donation of any size makes you an official member of Team T-Rex. So feel free to make little dinosaur arms and roar like an animal. We do it all the time...
Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper began working together in 2009 right after Zack shot Drea's wedding and then proceeded to lose all the photos. Since then, they've produced an online series of short documentaries called "California is a place", and have directed a handful of commercial films for clients such as Apple, Toyota, Ray-Ban, Adidas and Chevrolet. They are the proud owners of 3 fancy glass awards from film festivals you've never heard of and one that you have (Sundance!). What else do you want to know? Drea is better at racket sports. Zack has a red beard. Neither one of them really speaks Hindi or Spanish but they sure do like to pretend...
Sue Jaye Johnson has worked in pretty much every medium there is -- radio, photography, video and sometimes all of them together in award-winning productions. She has been following the women who are attempting to be the first ever to step into the Olympic Boxing ring for the New York Times Magazine, NPR and WNYC. She boxed just enough to know that her best shot at the Olympics is probably in curling. No offense to curling.
Bianca Darville is a documentary and commercial line producer. A film theory graduate from UC Berkeley, she has produced films and commercials for the Pearson Foundation, Apple, Toyota, Ray-Ban and Chevrolet. She dreams of one day directing a mocumentary about professional skipping. You'll have to ask her...
Spread the Word. FACEBOOK. TWITTER. Handwritten letter. Morse code. Megaphone. TELL ANYONE! TELL EVERYONE! And we thank you.
Drea, Zack, Sue and Bianca


text: Sort by DateRelevance Items per page 102550100 The Australian Banking Association 22 May 2019 Under consideration Bis Industries Holdings Limited - proposed acquisition of Cougar Mining Group 17 May 2019 Industry: Mining Under consideration Saputo Dairy Australia Pty Ltd - Lion Dairy and Drinks Pty Ltd's cheese business 16 May 2019 Industry: Dairy - Speciality Cheese Under consideration Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd - variation - s.87B undertaking 15 May 2019 The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accepted a court enforceable undertaking from Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd (Jetstar). In December 2018, the ACCC also instituted proceedings against Jetstar in the Federal Court of Australia, alleging that Jetstar had made certain false and misleading representations to consumers about the nature and potential application of their consumer guarantee rights, including about the remedies that consumers may be entitled to in the event of flight delays or cancellations. Sunshine Coast Regional Council 13 May 2019 CompletedAllowed to stand ANZ Terminals Pty Ltd proposed acquisition of GrainCorp Liquid Terminals Australia Pty Ltd 9 May 2019 Industry: Bulk liquid storage Under consideration GlaxoSmithKline plc proposed acquisition of the consumer healthcare business of Pfizer Inc 9 May 2019 Industry: Healthcare CompletedNot opposed Myer Pty Ltd 9 May 2019 CompletedGranted TPG Telecom Limited (TPG) - proposed merger with Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty Ltd (VHA) 8 May 2019 Industry: Telecommunications CompletedOpposed New Energy Tech Consumer Code 30 April 2019 Under consideration « first ‹ previous … 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 … next › last »


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2008 Hyundai Santa Fe 4DSW at Rocky's Glendalehttps://rockysautocredit.com/cars/Used/2008/Hyundai/Santa+Fe/4DSW/5800744
2008 Hyundai Santa Fe 4DSW
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Rocky's Glendale
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Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum
Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum
Key Terms for Program 24: Applying Psychology in Life
Apnea: Heavy, disruptive snoring with repetitive pauses in breathing. Results include fatigue, memory loss, impotence, and high blood pressure.
Displacement: The phenomenon of redirecting one's anger or frustration towards individuals other than the ones who are the source of anger.
Discovering Psychology: Home | Series Info | Series Glossary | Pioneers | Site Map | Credits
Program Pages: Text Links to Programs 1-26
Explorations: History | Research | Brain | Development | Approaches
©2001 WGBH Educational Foundation All Rights Reserved
© Annenberg Foundation 2017. All rights reserved. Legal Policy


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Thank you, thank you, thank you to Wal-Mart, all our dedicated volunteers and all the generous donors who helped create another successful Stuff the Bus school-supply drive July 20 and 21.
On behalf of the United Way of Perry County, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the residents of our community who helped support our sixth annual "stuff the bus" school-supply drive for students in need.
Donations of much-needed school supplies were received for children who may not otherwise have had the provisions needed to start the new school year.
The two-day event gathered more than 4,700 items valued at approximately $3,750. Additional cash donations of a little over $1,800 were also received, bringing the value of all donations to over $5,550 for our friends and neighbors in need.
Buses from Tell City-Troy Township Schools, Perry Central Schools, Cannelton Schools, Perry County Head Start and North Spencer Schools were parked at Wal-Mart during the event to draw attention to the drive. As donations for each school system were collected, volunteers "stuffed" the buses with the school supplies, which ranged from pencils to backpacks. The supplies will be distributed through the schools to help children be fully prepared to learn as they start the school year.
Volunteers from Perry and Spencer counties helped man the doors all weekend to accept donations.
We would like to extend a huge thank you all our volunteers, Arleela Connor, Earla Williams, Jennifer Brown, Ben Lawalin, Kelli Braunecker, Tricia Vaal, Patrick and Wendi Rich, Kris Walsh, Jen Jazyk, Vicki Bolin, Shelly Gagliardi, Becky Walts, Mary Cassidy, Diane Plassmeyer, Chad Schnieders, Julie Kemp, Kim and Mia Waninger, Jackie Colucci, Tammy Saalman, Dixie Dickerson, Dan and Jane Hayden, Julie Harris, Bill Amos, Mary Snyder, Mary Aders, Lora Melton, Mikki Garrett, Candy Davis, Heather Cronin, Logan Davis, Kara Braunecker, Cindy Lewis, Laura Noble, Joan Goble, Mary Lee Smith, Cathy Hagedorn, Emily Parke, Jeff Cochren, Jane and Sydney Goffinet, Amanda Evans, Becca Etienne, Sandy Daugherty, Scott Fudge, Kim, Carrie and Madelyn Steen, Jane James, Sarah Ford, Jill Lacy, Debbie Dauby, Angie Spinner, Lauren Braunecker, Whitney Litherland, Dan Scherry, Bridget Bruggeman, Kelly Vogt, Grace, Wyatt, Bob, Stacy and Ava Kreilein, Elizabeth Kehl, Pat Jarboe, Anna Hagedorn, Michelle Gibson, Pam Hess, Glen Grippenstroh, Carmen Fischer, Margie Weatherholt, Bree Noland, Wanita Lawson, Stephanie James, Parker James, Karen Lutgring, Cassie Williams, Casie Quinn, Madeline, Drew and Makena Labhart, Hannah Flamion, Heidi Zellers, Zosha, Bill and Mary Roberson.
Many thanks to all the school-corporation representatives who assisted in organizing the buses and supply distribution.
A very special note of appreciation goes to Tell City Wal-Mart for their continued support of this project and our community.
Thanks again to the hundreds of citizens who gave supplies or money to help our area children.Your donations will make a huge difference in a child's level of success this school year.
Executive Director, United Way of Perry County
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Two deputies with the Logan County Sheriff's Department have been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of an Arkansas State Police investigation into a Friday incident in which an armed suspect was shot by the deputies, according to Logan County Sheriff Steve Smith.
Smith identified the two deputies as Thomas Hobbs and Jason Massey, one of the department's criminal investigators. Hobbs has been with the department for 12 years and Massey has been with the department for five or six years, Smith said.
The two responded to a call around 9 a.m. Friday morning, Smith said. When they arrived at a residence on East State Highway 197, between Scranton and Subiaco, a man, described by Smith as being in his 60s, appeared with a weapon in his hand. Smith declined to name the man or describe the weapon.
Smith said the man fired his weapon at the two deputies and they returned fire, hitting the suspect in the hand.
"There were shots fired by all those involved. That's my understanding," Smith said. "My understanding is that when he fired shots, the deputies were trying to get behind cover."
The deputies then called for an ambulance and secured the weapon, Smith said. The man was airlifted to the University of Arkansas Medical Science campus in Little Rock, Smith said.
Smith added that he was not aware of any previous problems with the suspect.
The deputies were not harmed, Smith said.
The Arkansas State Police arrived at the scene a short time later and the investigation was turned over to them, Smith said.


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Lawrence Frank's tenure as Detroit Pistons head coach came to an end on Thursday, when he was informed by the team that he would not be back for next season.
A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed that Frank is out. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been announced.
Soon after the team released a statement:
"We thank Lawrence for his hard work and dedication, but we feel it is in the best interest of the franchise to make a change at this time," Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said. "Decisions like this are never easy, and we wish Lawrence well in the future."
Frank, who was named head coach Aug. 3, 2011, had a regular-season record of 54-94 (.365) in two seasons with the Pistons.


text: The American Honey Queen was buzzing with facts while on her visit to Maine September 23 - 27. Lisa Schluttenhofer, from Thorntown, Indiana, is serving as the American Honey Queen. In this role, she travels around the United States promoting the honey and beekeeping industry. While many people connect honeybees with the honey they use for their biscuits, honeybees mean so much more. … [Read more...]


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The Port St. Joe Jr./Sr. High School football team hoped to be in this position as the season played out.
The Port St. Joe Jr./Sr. High School football team hoped to be in this position as the season played out.
The Tiger Sharks wanted to arrive at this week 1-0 in District 1-1A with back-to-back home games against West Gadsden and Liberty County in the next two Fridays.
Mission accomplished.
Coming off a 21-12 road win against Tallahassee FAMU last Thursday, raising their record to 5-2 overall, the Tiger Sharks have destiny in their hands as they face the Panthers of West Gadsden 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday at Shark Field.
Win and Port St. Joe is assured of a playoff spot in the four-team district, which also includes a winless Franklin County.
Lose and the Tiger Sharks would have to beat visiting Liberty County next week to force a three-way tie for the district title and the two district playoff spots.
Beat West Gadsden and Liberty County and the district title belongs to Port St. Joe.
�You never know how your season is going to start and how it is going to go, but this is where we wanted to be,� said Port St. Joe coach Chuck Gannon. �We have to take of West Gadsden. We win and we are in.
�We are focused on West Gadsden. We can not look ahead. We have to take care of things Friday night.�
West Gadsden, Gannon said, will provide a similar look as the FAMU squad Port St. Joe beat 21-12 last Thursday in Tallahassee.
Behind Dwayne Griggs, who rushed 10 times for 135 yards, the Tiger Sharks pounded out 317 yards rushing. Cole Cryderman added 78 yards, Aaron Paul 45 and Jak Riley 32 as Port St. Joe averaged over 10 yards a carry.
Paul scored from 22 yards and Griggs from 64 sandwiched around an 18-yard pass from quarterback Drew Lacour to Griggs as Port St. Joe put up all its points in the opening half.
Lacour converted all three extra-point kicks.
FAMU added a touchdown, failing on the extra point, just before halftime and did the same early in the fourth quarter.
�Offensively I thought we did a good job in the first half but in the second half I thought we bogged down a bit,� Gannon said. �The coaches did not feel we did a good job in the second half.
�I thought overall we came out and gave a good effort. They are a very athletic team, and we swarmed around the ball and hit them which I think was important. Overall we did a good job.�
West Gadsden, Gannon said, will present similar problems exponentially enhanced.
�They are a mirror of the team we played at FAMU,� Gannon said. �They are very athletic and maybe a little more athletic than FAMU. They have some big receivers and a good running back.
�They are good and they are well-coached.�
Gannon said that after a bye week the team was a bit sluggish in practice leading up to FAMU.
With the two-day Fall Break for public schools to begin this week, Gannon said he was pleasantly surprised by the focus and attitude on Monday.
�We had a good day of practice,� Gannon said.
The keys, Gannon said, will be limiting big plays, an early lead and holding onto the football.
�We have to take care of the football,� Gannon said. �We also would like to get up on them. A team like that, you let them stay around, they are going to become more confident as the game goes along. Getting up a couple of touchdowns would help.
�We also have to tackle them. They are good in space and we can�t afford to give up the big plays. We have to make them drive to score.�


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Medicine & Healthcare in Togo by Ailsa Campbell
Before I arrived in Togo, I had no idea what to expect: would my French be good enough? Would I like the food? Would the locals be friendly? Could I cope with the work at my volunteer placement?
I needn't have worried because as soon as I left the airport I was greeted by the sights, sounds and smells of a country distant (in more ways than one!) from my own. The moto-filled streets lined with vendors, sights of people of all ages dancing their hearts out to a mixture of traditional African music and Azonto – not to mention the sounds of people shouting "Yovoyovo – bonsoir!" as I passed. Such a vibrant and colourful place I had never seen – all my nerves and fears melted away.
My Host Family
During my time volunteering in Togo I lived with a local family - kind and funny people who were always there when I needed them. I became incredibly close to my Mama – who always made an effort to teach me about her culture and involve me in her day to day life. Being introduced to her friends and uncountable "nieces and nephews" as her daughter, Adjo, made me feel like a genuine member of the family.
She taught me how to make my favourite dishes, koliko and aloko, in exchange for my recipe for highland shortbread, and showed me the best places to get bargains in the market (and how to haggle most effectively!). My most enduring memory of her is when I woke up in hospital after a minor bout of illness and she had slept there just to watch over me – and asked my local friend to bring me my favourite foods for breakfast.
My Placement
My placement working at the Clinic Medico-Sociale Jerusalem, was one of the most exciting and rewarding jobs I have ever had. My colleagues were incredibly patient and helpful - always keen to teach me medical French vocabulary and new skills to help me in medical school. I was able to perform procedures and consultations under the guidance of my experienced mentors - allowing me to build confidence in my abilities. The staff were also incredibly good fun – playing practical jokes on me, teasing me about my sunburn, jokingly trying to marry me off and wearing the kilts I made for them – all day!
I made a very special friend in Béni – the son of the secretary. His attempts to take my temperature with a pen and find my heartbeat in my stomach never failed to brighten my day – and his love of the dubstep music on my iPod came as a surprise to everyone! The highlight was when I watched the clinic's choir singing acapella on the rooftop at sunset during a night shift - followed by a traditional dancing lesson by the children of the attached church's congregation.
Free Time
While I enjoyed working in Togo, I was also able to take full advantage of my free time. Taking part in classes on local culture, cuisine, language and the arts allowed me to really begin to understand the country that had made me so welcome. I was also fortunate enough to be able to travel extensively during my stay - from swimming in the highest waterfall in West Africa, to being tattooed with plant dyes in Kpalimé, to going on safari in Sarakawa, to following the slave routes of Bénin. I cannot deny that these trips were challenging at times - but what would life be without adventure?
I can now say that I have been chased by a monkey, danced until dawn, eaten a whole pig (with help!), driven on a motorbike, got full head braids and ridden in the back of a pick-up truck which I think not many people can say they have done. The travelling I did was invaluable in allowing me to get a sense of the different areas of such a diverse country – which are incredibly different from just Lomé itself. The memories from these trips will last me a lifetime – not to mention the friendships I made in the process.
Coming back home
After returning to my home in the north of Scotland I can definitely say that I am a changed person. Not least because I don't have to share my car with 9 other people, 3 goats and 2 chickens! I have met and experienced people, places and partying like no other - and probably none like I ever will again. My iPod is full of the local music, my kitchen full of yam and plantain, and my bedroom full of African art, jewellery and statuettes.
I read books in French in the hope that I can continue to improve so much that it may be possible for me to live and work permanently in Franco-phone countries - my Togolese and Scottish French teachers would both be proud. I begin university next year with an invaluable understanding of the practical and emotional sides of medicine.
I can honestly say that the time I spent in Africa was the most worthwhile thing I have ever done - and I will treasure those memories forever. And one last thing - I was told this by a Togolese friend - and I believe it to be true:
"Malgré ton depart d'Afrique, c'est sur que l'Afrique continuera de vivre dans ton cœur pour toujours"
Ailsa Campbell
Ce témoignage est basé sur l'expérience unique d'un volontaire à un certain moment donné. Nos projets s'adaptent constamment aux besoins locaux, ils évoluent au fur et à mesure que des volontaires s'impliquent et s'adaptent aux saisons, ainsi votre expérience sur place pourra être différente de celle décrite ici. Pour en savoir plus sur cette mission, vous pouvez consulter la page de ce projet ou bien contacter l'un de nos conseillers de volontaires.


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Toxic Fertility
Toxic Fertility
Last December, talks on the climate treaty reached an impasse. The treaty process is supposed to result in a blueprint for reducing carbon emissions. But when delegates met in the Hague, in the Netherlands, for their sixth official conference of the parties, the agenda focused not so much on cutting fossil fuel use as on the issue of "carbon sinks." Sinks are areas, primarily young forests, that are absorbing more carbon than they are releasing. Since they draw carbon from the atmosphere, sinks offer an attractive accounting option for the United States and some other nations that have high carbon emissions. These nations want to claim a "carbon credit" against their emissions, on the strength of their sinks. How big a credit-if any-should be allowed? In one way or another, that question underlay much of the discussion, and the delegates weren't able to agree on an answer. They failed, in other words, to agree on a way to balance the global carbon budget.
Apart from the immediate reasons for concern over this failure, there is the matter of another unbalanced natural budget. Nitrogen, like carbon, plays a key role in the vast biochemical cycles of life. And increasingly, the nitrogen cycle is being reshaped by human activity-a process that could eventually affect virtually every ecosystem on earth. Our economies are in urgent need of a "nitrogen audit."
Like carbon, nitrogen is a basic ingredient of living things. It's found, for example, in DNA, in proteins, and in chlorophyll, the pigment that drives photosynthesis. Nitrogen shares another key characteristic of carbon: it's very common. It comprises a whopping 78 percent of the atmosphere. But nearly all of this atmospheric nitrogen is elemental dinitrogen, or N2-it exists in the form of two nitrogen
atoms linked together. Elemental nitrogen cannot be metabolized by most living things. Nitrogen becomes biologically active only when it is "fixed"-that is, incorporated into certain other molecules, primarily ammonium (NH4) and nitrate (NO3). Fixed nitrogen flows throughout the food web: it is absorbed first by plants, then by plant-eating animals, then by their parasites and predators. Death at each stage of the way releases nitrogen compounds to begin the cycle anew. The fixation process is what makes the nitrogen cycle so different from the carbon cycle. Despite the abundance of elemental nitrogen, fixed nitrogen is frequently what scientists call a "limiting nutrient." Under normal natural conditions, it is often in short supply, so the level of available nitrogen is a key regulator of ecological processes.
The gate-keepers to the biological part of the nitrogen cycle are certain micro-organisms capable of fixing elemental atmospheric nitrogen. Some of these organisms live in soil, often in close association with plants that belong to the bean family. This relationship benefits both parties: the plants get the nitrogen compounds; the microbes get carbohydrates, which the plants produce through photosynthesis. (Sometimes the plants themselves are said to be nitrogen fixing, but this is a kind of terminological short-hand.) Nitrogen fixing occurs in water as well. One of the biggest mysteries of the nitrogen cycle involves marine plankton. These microscopic plants are fixing enormous quantities of nitrogen, but their role in the global cycle has yet to be clearly defined. Finally, in addition to these living portals, there is an inanimate natural process that fixes large quantities of nitrogen: lightning fuses nitrogen and oxygen to create nitrate.
Recent human activity has greatly increased the rate at which nitrogen is being fixed. Since the 1950s, the amount of nitrogen circulating through living things is thought to have doubled. And increasingly, in forests and fields, in rivers and along the coasts, scientists are blaming excess fixed nitrogen for a range of ecological problems-some of them obvious, others very subtle. Any one of these problems can usually be linked to some local or regional cause; the nitrogen balance of a river, for example, might be upset by increased sewage outflow. But when you step back and look at the cycle from a global perspective, three general activities emerge as the primary reasons for the growing fixed nitrogen glut.
First, coal and oil combustion is releasing a huge, long-buried reservoir of fixed nitrogen by burning the residues of ancient plants, in the form of coal and oil. The fossil fuel economy is disrupting not just the carbon cycle but the nitrogen cycle as well. Second, the progressive destruction of forests and wetlands is releasing the nitrogen contained in these natural areas, just as it releases the carbon. Taken together, these two activities are releasing about 90 million tons of fixed nitrogen annually; that's about 43 percent of the human addition to the nitrogen cycle. (See table below.)
The remainder of the human addition-some 120 million tons-comes from agriculture. Nitrogen-fixing crops produce about a third of that amount; the rest comes from artificial fertilizer. Fixed nitrogen is the basic component of fertilizer. Through its dependence on artificial fertilizer, modern conventional agriculture has become, in a sense, a form of industrial nitrogen management. This is a relatively recent development in agricultural history. Low-cost techniques for synthesizing ammonia emerged shortly after the Second World War. Cheap ammonia led to mass production of artificial fertilizer and heralded what the ecologist and nitrogen expert David Tilman has called "the 35 most glorious years of agricultural production."
For farmers in the industrialized countries-and increasingly, in the developing countries as well-this limiting nutrient is now available in virtually limitless quantities. As is typical of cheap commodities, a great deal of it is wasted. Fertilizer is often very inefficiently applied; much of it never reaches the crop. It leaches out of the fields and into the streams, or it's converted into a nitrogenous gas like nitrous oxide and escapes into the atmosphere.
Nearly all crops grown in the industrialized countries are now nitrogen-saturated-that is, they're being exposed to more nitrogen than they can use. But fertilizer production continues to grow, on the strength of developing world demand. At current rates of production, fertilizer is adding some 80 million tons of fixed nitrogen to the cycle; by 2020 that burden is expected to reach 134 million tons-just 6 million tons shy of the total input from all natural terrestrial sources combined.
On the morning of June 22, 1995, the wall of an artificial "waste lagoon" gave way at a factory farm in North Carolina. Some 95 million liters of putrefying hog urine and feces spilled out of the lagoon, washed across several fields and a road, then poured into the New River. Millions of fish and other aquatic organisms died in what became one of the worst incidents of water pollution in the state's history. Unfortunately, it wasn't an isolated incident-or at least not for long. Very large livestock farms, known as "concentrated animal feeding operations" or CAFOs, had become a major part of the state's agricultural sector, and the CAFOs had begun to hemorrhage waste.
A couple of weeks after the New River spill, 34 million liters of poultry waste flowed down a creek and into the Northeast Cape Fear River. In August of that year, another 3.8 million liters of hog waste trickled through a network of tidal creeks and ended up in the Cape Fear Estuary. But the worst was yet to come. The hurricanes of 1998 and 1999 brought a series of massive floods to North Carolina's seaboard and untold millions of liters of hog waste were washed out of various CAFO lagoons. The state's coastal ecosystems have yet to recover.
Like sewage, CAFO pollution is extremely high in nitrogen, and most of that nitrogen comes from the artificial fertilizer used to grow the animal feed. You could say that CAFOs are a consequence of chemical fertilizer, because fertilizer has allowed for the "uncoupling" of livestock and crop. When farmers get their fertilizer out of a bag, they don't need manure. And feed corn can be shipped to CAFOs just as readily as fertilizer can be shipped to corn growers. In each case, the basic input is no longer produced by the landscape in which it is used, so the local ecology no longer effectively limits the intensity of production. The environmental costs of this fractured system are likely to make it untenable over the long term. But at least for the present, fertilizer is the source of about a third of human dietary protein (from both animals and plants), according to Vaclav Smil, a professor at the University of Manitoba who has written extensively on global biochemical cycles.
The logistics of managing CAFO waste are formidable. Each of the 50,000 or so sows in one of those North Carolina facilities will produce about 20 piglets over the course of a year. A sow and its piglets will excrete some 1.9 tons of waste annually-that's enough manure to fill a pick-up truck. The waste cannot simply accumulate in lagoons, since lagoon space is obviously limited, so CAFOs require huge amounts of "spreadable acreage"-cropland on nearby farms where manure can be spread, sprayed, or injected. But crops can only use so much nitrogen. Adding too much can actually reduce yields; like people, plants can overeat, and excessive nitrogen uptake tends to interfere with a plant's ability to manufacture the various chemicals needed for its metabolism. Too much nitrogen can also throw the soil community out of balance by favoring only those organisms that thrive in high-nitrogen conditions, at the expense of many other organisms.
If you're trying to do a conscientious job of it, finding adequate spreadable acreage is a very difficult task indeed. For each of those sow and piglet units, a CAFO should ideally have access to 1.2 hectares (3 acres) of land. (This ratio is actually determined not by the manure's nitrogen concentration but by the concentration of phosphorus, which is also frequently a limiting nutrient and therefore capable of causing some of the same "over-fertilizing" effects that nitrogen does. Sufficient spreadable acreage for the phosphorus will-at least in the case of pig manure-accommodate the nitrogen too.) A 50,000 animal CAFO would need about 60,000 spreadable hectares. Inevitably, given the size of the CAFOs, that ideal is not attained. Frequently, far too much manure is spread on the fields. Or the manure may be spread at the wrong times in the growing season, when the crops cannot effectively take up the nutrients. Or sometimes the manure is spread on fields of nitrogen-fixing crops like soybeans and alfalfa, which require little or no additional fertilizer. In North America, it's estimated that only about half of livestock waste is now effectively fed into the crop cycle. Much of the remainder ends up as pollution-of the water, the air, and the soil itself.
Take the water pollution first. Nitrate contamination of groundwater can create serious risks for public health. (See "Groundwater Shock," January/February 2000.) For example, high nitrate levels in wells near feedlot operations have been linked to greater risk of miscarriage. In extreme cases, nitrate contamination can cause methemoglobinemia, or "blue-baby syndrome," a form of infant poisoning in which the blood's ability to transport oxygen is greatly reduced, sometimes to the point of death. Nitrate water pollution is a serious ecological concern as well, even when it doesn't involve millions of liters of hog feces. Perhaps the most obvious form of ecological disruption involves algal blooms, explosive growths of algae and cyanobacteria (so-called "blue-green algae") that can suffocate many other aquatic organisms. There are more subtle wildlife effects as well; some amphibian declines, for example, appear to be caused by chronic exposure to elevated nitrate. (See "Amphibia Fading," July/August 2000.)
But as anyone who lives near a CAFO can tell you, groundwater contamination is hardly the most noticeable environmental effect. If raw manure is exposed to air, up to 95 percent of the nitrogen in it will escape into the atmosphere as gaseous ammonia (NH3). In the vicinity of a CAFO, the process results in an olfactory experience that is difficult to forget. But that's not all it does, since the nitrogen doesn't usually stay airborne for long-it's usually deposited within 80 to 160 kilometers of its source. In the words of Merrit Frey, who studies factory farming for the Clean Water Network, a coalition of U.S.-based nonprofits concerned about water quality, the ammonia from CAFOs is "not just a localized odor nuisance, but a regional environmental problem." Once it falls from the sky, it tends to contribute to the same problems that result from the more direct forms of soil and water pollution.
As livestock production continues to intensify, such problems are likely to become more common. Already, North Carolina's 7 million factory-raised hogs create more waste than do the 6.5 million human residents of the state. Intensive livestock production is the rule in the United States and western Europe, and producers are increasingly interested in setting up similar operations elsewhere. In part, such interest is the result of the growing regulatory attention that established operations are now attracting. In the United States, for example, CAFO waste is the target of new regulations recently proposed by the U.S. EPA, and of proposed amendments to the Clean Water Act. But the export of the CAFO model is also partly a variation on a standard economic theme: investment in developing markets. The demand for meat is growing in the developing world, and the costs of producing it are generally much lower there than in the United States or Europe.
China, for example, is interested in boosting domestic meat production to satisfy growing domestic demand, according to David Brubaker, an expert on factory farming at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in Maryland. Brubaker says that several U.S. agribusinesses are trying to sell the Chinese on CAFO production of hogs, poultry, and cattle. In the Philippines, two such corporations, Tyson Foods and Purina Mills, opened a hog breeding facility near Manila in 1998; the facility can produce 100,000 hogs per year. Richard Levins, an agricultural economist at the University of Minnesota, says that even Canada is becoming a prime location for hog CAFO developers looking for lots of space, few people, and relatively lax environmental regulations.
Taken globally, livestock production has become a major outlet pipe for much of the nitrogen that humanity is injecting into the natural cycle. The planet's population of some 2.5 billion pigs and cattle void more than 80 million tons of waste nitrogen annually. The entire human population, in comparison, produces just over 30 million tons. Manure, once a valuable farm resource, is now being produced in such quantities that it might be better considered toxic waste.
Here and there, along China's 18,000-kilometer coastline, fishers and fish farmers have long contended with an unwelcome form of marine bounty. Red tides, the toxic blooms of certain algae species, are a natural phenomenon in these waters during the spring and summer, but the frequency of the blooms is increasing. Scientists suspect that the algae are responding to two factors. Sea surface temperatures in the region are rising-a likely effect of climate change-and more and more nitrogen-rich waste is pouring into China's coastal waters. The annual load of such pollution-in the form of sewage, industrial waste, and farm runoff-now exceeds 8 billion tons.
Warmer, nutrient rich water is ideal habitat for algae, and the resulting red tides have been poisoning not just fish and shellfish, but any people unfortunate enough to consume the contaminated seafood. Nontoxic algal blooms are on the upsurge too. Even though these algae produce no poisons, they use up most of the water's available oxygen as they decompose. The resulting hypoxic "dead zones"-areas where dissolved oxygen concentrations are too low to support most forms of life-can last for months.
Algal blooms are hardly unique to China. Perhaps the most famous of these events is the recurrent bloom in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Texas and Louisiana. Almost every spring, and increasingly at other seasons as well, thick clouds of algae form in these waters. The Gulf dead zone is vast-in 1999 it covered 18,000 square kilometers, about the size of the state of New Jersey-and it does millions of dollars in damage to the region's fisheries every year. Here too, nitrogen is the key factor (although increasing loads of phosphorus and silica are also apparently feeding the algae). Most of the nitrogen appears to be coming from sewage and agricultural runoff. According to a report by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, manure alone contributes some 15 percent of the nitrogen that makes its way into the Gulf. That's more than all nonfarm industrial nitrogen sources combined.
But farm runoff and sewage aren't the only components of the nitrogen cycle that are promoting algal blooms. In the Baltic Sea, the primary burden of excess nitrogen comes from fossil fuel emissions. A full third of the nitrogen entering the Sea-by far the largest share of the excess load-consists of nitrogen oxides produced by the combustion of coal and oil in the surrounding countries. The Baltic is a naturally low-nitrogen environment that supports a unique community of organisms adapted to those circumstances. But as the nitrogen levels have increased, cyanobacteria are responding with large, eerily beautiful blooms. The blooms are shading out the sea's "forests" of bladderwrack, a species of brown seaweed that requires clear, well lit waters. The bladderwrack is prime spawning and nursery habitat for many fish species, now threatened by the seaweed's decline. And as the blooms decompose, they steal oxygen from the water-a form of change to which the Baltic is especially sensitive, since its waters are relatively low-oxygen to begin with. The drop in oxygen is working change in the seafloor community, where bristleworms, which tolerate hypoxia, are replacing the once-dominant mussels. This change, in turn, is likely to restructure the foodweb, since mussels are an important prey item for many fish that won't eat bristleworms.
Algal blooms and dead zones are now a regular feature of coastal life in many other places around the world-off the coast of New England, for instance, off the west coast of India, and off Japan and Korea as well. Most of the world's major coastal ecosystems appear to be suffering some degree algae-induced hypoxia. And toxic blooms are an increasingly conspicuous part of this problem. According to scientists at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Oceanographic Commission, the 1980s and 1990s saw a global upsurge in red tides. As these episodes have become more common, so has the number of algae species known to be involved. In the early 1990s, only about 20 species were known to produce toxic blooms; today, at least 85 have been identified.
Some effects of nitrogen pollution are much more subtle than algal blooms, but arguably even more dangerous. For example, the nitrogen oxides produced through fossil fuel combustion are a major component of the acid rain that is attacking soil and fresh water in many parts of the world. Waters that become increasingly acidic support fewer forms of aquatic life. In a similar fashion, the acidification of soils tends to impoverish the soil community. That's partly because the acid releases aluminum ions from the mineral matrix in which they are usually embedded. Free aluminum is toxic to plants-and to many aquatic organisms if it washes into streams. The acid also causes certain minerals to leach out of the soil. Calcium, magnesium, and potassium are essential plant nutrients and are often in relatively short supply. Where they become rare, plant growth is likely to slow, and the more mineral-hungry species may fade from the scene.
These minerals come into the soil through the weathering of rock. Since weathering is a very slow process, acidification could reduce the productivity of affected soils for centuries-or longer. The extreme case appears to involve cropland, where too much fertilizer may perform the role of acid rain. According to Phillip Barak, a professor of soil chemistry and plant nutrition at the University of Wisconsin, nitrogen-induced mineral leaching in some U.S. cropland has artificially "aged" these soils by the equivalent of 5,000 years.
Over the past couple of decades, the industrialized countries have made considerable progress in reducing emissions of one main ingredient of acid rain: the sulfur dioxide produced by the combustion of sulfur-contaminated coal. The switch to low sulfur coal and the installation of smoke stack "scrubbers" on coal-burning powerplants have greatly reduced this type of pollution. But incremental solutions aren't as useful in reducing the nitrogen compounds released by fossil fuel combustion. The fixed nitrogen in fossil fuels cannot be readily removed-and _additional nitrogen is fixed as a byproduct of the combustion itself.
Excess soil nitrogen is sickening forests and fields in other ways as well. Nitrogen pollution may reduce cold hardiness in certain tree species, making them more liable to injury or death during the winter. Too much nitrogen also tends to reduce fine root density, which in turn restricts water and nutrient uptake, making plants more susceptible to drought.
On a community level, nitrogen loading is a homogenizing force, because it strongly favors fast-growing plant species that can use extra nutrient, at the expense of slower-growing species that cannot. Affected areas may show robust growth but that growth is likely to be quite uniform. Surveys in Great Britain by the Institute for Terrestrial Ecology found that near major sources of nitrogen pollution, such as large poultry farms, the ground-layer flora of nearby woodlands was dominated by dense stands of a few rank, tall grass species. The farther away from the farms the researchers went, the more varied the woodland flora became. This homogenizing tendency is also apparent in the heathlands of Northern Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, which has the greatest concentration of livestock on the planet. Formerly a diverse assemblage of shrubs and herbs, these heathlands are increasingly dominated by invasive grasses and trees. Excess nitrogen is indeed fertilizing more and more of the world's wild communities. But it is promoting the growth of a few opportunistic species, at the expense of a more diverse whole.
Over the past few years, Indian researchers have been detecting substantial quantities of nitrous oxide rising out of the Arabian Sea, off India's west coast. The Sea's emissions are now thought to contribute up to 21 percent of total output of the gas from the world's oceans. In the upper atmosphere, nitrous oxide tends to deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, which shields the Earth against harmful ultraviolet radiation. Nitrous oxide is also a potent greenhouse gas. On a molecule-per-molecule basis, it's 200 times more effective at retaining heat than is CO2. Luckily, it's far less common than CO2, but it still accounts for 2 to 3 percent of overall greenhouse warming.
Why is the Arabian Sea exhaling so much of this gas? Rajiv Naqvi, a researcher at India's National Institute of Oceanography sees a link with intensifying agriculture. Over the past four decades or so, fertilizer use has grown substantially on India's western coastal plain, as it has in most of the country's croplands. (According to FAO statistics, Indian fertilizer consumption nearly doubled from 1965 to 1998, rising to over 11 million tons.) As in many of the world's coastal waters, the resulting nitrogen-laden runoff is feeding cyanobacteria and other plankton. Cyanobacteria generally produce some nitrous oxide as they grow, but their activity in these waters is affected by another powerful factor: India's June to September monsoons. Since freshwater is lighter than salt water, the hard monsoon rainfall tends to blanket the ocean surface, reducing the aeration of the saltier water beneath. That drops the oxygen level, and the lack of oxygen in turn causes the cyanobacteria to metabolize nitrogen in a way that releases larger amounts of nitrous oxide. This effect appears to have been exacerbated in recent years because of unusually heavy monsoon rains, a possible result of climate change.
Ice core data indicate that the atmospheric concentration of nitrous oxide was quite stable until about a century ago, when it began to increase. The current rate of increase is estimated at 0.2 to 0.3 percent per year. Atmospheric concentrations are now about 10 percent higher than they were at the beginning of the century.
In the abstract, this is what seems to be happening in the Arabian Sea: an increase in fixed nitrogen, possibly combined with climate change in the form of intensifying monsoons, is putting more pressure on the climate system. There is a subtle connection here between the nitrogen and carbon cycles, but this is just one of many such links. Pamela Matson, Director of Stanford University's Earth Systems Program, puts it simply: "In order to understand carbon and Earth's other cycles, we have to understand how nitrogen is changing." How will the changing nitrogen cycle affect the changing carbon cycle?
Given the climate treaty negotiations, there is a nearly irresistible political impulse to look for links that might be increasing carbon absorption from the atmosphere. Perhaps the nitrogen glut will increase the carbon sinks. At first glance, that looks like a reasonable expectation. After all, nitrogen is often a limiting nutrient; more of it should mean more plant growth, which should increase CO2 absorption. But it doesn't seem to be that simple.
In the oceans, plankton growth out beyond the coastal waters is often limited not by nitrogen availability but by the availability of iron, another essential nutrient. So extra nitrogen doesn't automatically translate into extra CO2 absorption. (It's true that some scientists advocate seeding the oceans with iron to increase CO2 absorption, but given all the unforeseen problems we've already created with excess nitrogen and carbon, it would hardly be wise policy to interfere with yet another cycle.) And even in the case of the coastal algal blooms, which may increase CO2 absorption, at least periodically, it's not clear whether that extra CO2 will remain in the waters over the long term, or end up back in the atmosphere relatively quickly.
On land, the issue is primarily a matter of forest growth, since forests generally store more carbon than other types of terrestrial ecosystems. It's true that excess nitrogen may cause forests to grow more rapidly over the short term. But over the long term, the prospects for such forests are fairly dismal, given the acidification, aluminum poisoning, and other forms of physiological and ecological disruption that nitrogen loading tends to cause. And a declining forest is more likely to be releasing carbon than absorbing it. Despite the connections between the nitrogen cycle and the carbon cycle, there is no good reason to assume that disruption of the former will partly "cancel out" disruptions in the latter.
In terms of its technical detail, stabilizing the nitrogen cycle is likely to be just as demanding a task as is stabilizing the carbon cycle. But perhaps the most obvious aspect of this problem is its familiarity: the types of change that would make the most difference are already standard items on the environmental agenda. Three basic reforms appear to be necessary if we are to achieve major reductions of our fixed nitrogen emissions. We will need to convert the dominant mode of agricultural production from its current, "high input" paradigm to one that emphasizes organic production. (See "Where Have All the Farmers Gone?" September/October 2000.) We will need to convert our fossil fuel-based energy economy to one based on sunlight, wind, geothermal, and other forms of renewable energy. And finally, we will need to slow and eventually reverse the destruction of the planet's remaining natural areas, especially its remaining forests.
These are enormous goals, of course, but each of them shares some characteristics that can help chart the way forward. In the first place, they all aim at broad systemic reform, but they focus on the small-scale unit. Organic farming usually works best when the farms are small enough to accommodate the local landscape. Sophisticated renewable energy systems generally create networks of smaller producers rather than one or two enormous powerplants. And sustainable forest use, by definition, is carefully attuned to local ecological realities. There's a second common feature too: each of these goals emphasizes creative use of diversity. A polycultural cropping system, a range of renewable energy technologies, a combination of agroforestry, timber, and tourism-in each case, the idea is to replace a "monoculture approach" with a system that is more diverse and therefore more flexible, more likely to be sustainable over the long term. Small-scale and diverse would appear to be the way to go. You could say that the agenda points towards a high degree of local adaptation.
Humanity has reached a point at which we are dominating-not just particular ecosystems-but the cycles that regulate the basic processes on which all life depends. Our capacity to understand the effects of our interference is growing rapidly. But will we be able to use that understanding productively? Increasingly, it seems, progress on the global level will depend on our ability to reinvent our relationships to the local level-to the particular ecosystems and societies in which we actually live.
Danielle Nierenberg recently completed her M.S. in the agriculture, food, and environment program at Tufts University, in Massachusetts, and is currently working with the World Watch staff.


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U.S. international broadcasting is intended to communicate directly with audiences in countries with limited journalism alternatives and to inform, engage, and connect people around the world. U.S. international broadcasting has grown considerably in the seven decades since it was first launched, with Congress creating additional broadcasting entities to target new audiences. These entities now broadcast through radio, television, Internet, and mobile technology, reaching an estimated weekly audience of 175 million people. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is the federal agency responsible for U.S. international broadcasting. The Board oversees BBG's broadcast entities—Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc.
In January 2013, GAO found that nearly two-thirds of the BBG language services—offices that produce content for particular languages and regions—overlap with a language service offered by another BBG entity by providing programs to the same countries in the same languages. GAO identified 23 instances of overlap, involving 43 of BBG's 69 language services. For example, in 8 instances involving 16 services, a Voice of America service and a Radio Free Asia service overlapped. Almost all overlapping services also broadcast on the same platform (i.e., radio or television). The figure following shows the extent of overlap among BBG language services as of June 2012.
Overlap of BBG Entities' Language Services, as of June 2012
The total cost associated with maintaining the 43 overlapping language services is about $149 million, or nearly 20 percent of BBG's total appropriations for fiscal year 2011.[1] This amount represents the sum of the total cost for all overlapping language services as reported in BBG's Annual Language Service Review Briefing Book from fiscal year 2011. The amount of money that could be saved by reducing or eliminating overlapping language services would depend on a variety of factors, including which services were reduced or eliminated, which transmission assets or broadcast hours were reduced or transferred, and whether staff and other resources from an eliminated service were transferred to the remaining services.
According to BBG officials, language services that broadcast in the same country and language are sometimes distinguished by broadcast hours or purpose and content.
The International Broadcasting Act, as amended, directs BBG to consider issues related to overlap, such as duplication, among some language services. For example, the law requires that grant agreements to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty shall include a provision stating that duplication of language services and technical operations between RFE/RL and VOA should be reduced to the extent appropriate, as determined by BBG's Board of Governors.[2]
BBG's annual language service review—the agency's primary method of prioritizing broadcast languages and planning resource allocations—does not systematically consider the cost and impact of language service overlap. BBG's language service review is intended to help the agency make decisions on allocating resources to language services by considering factors such as foreign policy priorities and the domestic media environment in countries that receive BBG broadcasts. The resulting Annual Language Service Review Briefing Book provides detailed data for all language services, but does not discuss the cost or impact associated with overlap. BBG officials stated that the methodology for the language service review does not include an assessment of the cost and impact of overlapping language services because officials are already aware of overlap among their language services and because the law has not required BBG to include assessments of overlap as part of its annual language service review. However, by not systematically considering overlap, the agency risks missing opportunities to reduce overlap as appropriate, strengthen impact, and improve coordination among its entities.
[1]The cost for each language service includes employee salaries and benefits, and general operating expenses. This amount exceeds the potential savings from eliminating or reducing overlap, given that it includes all services that overlap in a particular country and language and that some staff and other resources from eliminated language services would likely be transferred to remaining services.
[2]BBG is managed by a nine-member part-time bipartisan Board of Governors.
In January 2013, GAO recommended that BBG take the following action:
GAO was able to estimate the total cost for overlapping language services but was not able to determine the potential savings associated with reducing overlap; the amount of money that could be saved by reducing or eliminating overlapping language services would depend on a variety of factors, including whether staff and other resources from an eliminated service were transferred to the remaining services.
The information contained in this analysis is based on findings from the product in the related GAO product section. GAO reviewed laws, reports, and other documents related to U.S. international broadcasting. GAO also reviewed and analyzed information on the missions of the five BBG entities—Voice of America, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc., Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty—and on their broadcast coverage, by country, language, and platform. We interviewed officials from BBG, and each of the five BBG entities. Table 10 in appendix IV lists the programs GAO identified that might have similar or overlapping objectives, provide similar services, or be fragmented across government missions. Overlap and fragmentation might not necessarily lead to actual duplication, and some degree of overlap and duplication may be justified.
In commenting on the January 2013 report on which this analysis is based, BBG agreed with our recommendations and said that it had begun the planning necessary to include a more in-depth and systematic review of overlapping language services in its annual language service review. BBG noted that its spending in fiscal year 2011 to maintain language services broadcasting in the same countries and languages—$149 million—represented the baseline budget for the 43 overlapping language services we identified but not the amount that could be saved if overlapping services were eliminated. For example, BBG stated that some overlap may be necessary and beneficial and that, in some cases, the overlap resulted from statutory mandates.
GAO provided a draft of this report section to BBG for review and comment. In an e-mail received on February 22, 2013, the BBG Congressional Coordinator stated that the BBG is making some progress toward addressing GAO's January 2013 recommendation regarding the annual language service review process. Specifically, BBG has begun work on an online information portal that will integrate information on research, strategy, development, budget, and performance by country, and will allow for more in-depth analysis of overlap. BBG hopes to use this tool for the 2013 Language Service Review.
For additional information about this area, contact Timothy J. DiNapoli at (202) 512-3665, or firstname.lastname@example.com.
Nearly two-thirds of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) language services--offices that produce content for particular languages and regions-- overlap with another BBG service by providing programs to the same countries in the same languages. GAO identified 23 instances of overlap involving 43 of BBG's 69 services. For example, in 8 instances involving 16 services, a Voice of America servic...
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Public anxious on climate, to a point
Many climate change polls suggest a clear enough overall trend: Majorities of Americans believe global warming is real and the federal government should act.
But that fact can offer little help for some policymakers trying to gauge public opinion, thanks to variations in how the polls are worded, along with people's deeply rooted perceptions of how others view the topic.
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Three-quarters of the public believe that global temperatures have "probably" slowly increased during the past century — a finding that Jon Krosnick, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, says has been consistent throughout 15 years of surveys he has conducted on the topic.
"We've seen almost no movement," he told POLITICO, adding that about the same percentage say humans are contributing to climate change. And the percentage of people who say the federal government should do more to address the problem has grown from 49 percent in 1997 to 61 percent in 2008 and 2012, Krosnick found.
Belief in global warming is strong even in politically deep-red states housing some of the biggest climate skeptics in Congress, says Krosnick, who compiled state-by-state results from about a dozen surveys he has conducted in partnership with media outlets over the past five to 10 years.
For example, 85 percent of people surveyed during the past decade in GOP Sen. Jim Inhofe's state of Oklahoma believe that global warming has probably been happening — second only to Arizona's 86 percent, Krosnick said. In nearly all states, he concluded that majorities believe humans are causing warming and that the federal government should do more — and in no states did skeptics come close to outweighing the believers.
Meanwhile, Democrats looking for more aggressive federal action may be heartened by poll results suggesting it's a wise move politically to address climate change rather than be a skeptic.
"There's been a certain myth that's been created about climate change becoming the third rail of modern politics," said Edward Maibach, director of George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication, who has briefed Democrats on his findings.
In January, Maibach's center released the third in a series of polls underscoring his point that many Democrats and independents want action on climate change. He later discussed his findings with an informal group of Senate Democrats led by Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
Since early November, polls by Rasmussen, the National Wildlife Federation, the University of Michigan, Duke University, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Pew Research Center and others have found that most people agree with some language stating that climate change is a problem or is at least occurring.
But Republicans are skeptical that the polls are so conclusive, noting that Democrats remain skittish about taking steps on climate legislation.
"If it's such a good concrete slam-dunk issue, why aren't Senate Democrats doing anything about it?" one senior Senate GOP aide said. "And I think the reason is the cost implications. And nobody is addressing that. That is what all of these surveys fail to account."
But other possible explanations exist for Congress's inaction.
For one thing, people underestimate how many others believe climate change is a problem that should be dealt with, as well as the partisan divide on the issue, Krosnick said.


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Nebraska state trooper convinces transfer to join the Cornhuskers
In a story that speaks to the football-crazed state of Nebraska, a college football transfer was convinced to join the local Cornhuskers after getting pulled over by a state trooper en route to his first visit to the campus.
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Pat Smith, a kicker from Western Illinois University, was on his way to Lincoln, Neb., over the weekend when a Nebraska trooper pulled him over shortly after he crossed the border from Iowa, presumably for exceeding the speed limit.
Rather than hand Smith a ticket, however, the trooper let him off with a warning and a description of what it means to be a Cornhusker.
Matt Shuckman, the sports editor of the Quincy Herald-Whig, writes that Smith told the trooper he was "exploring the possibility of transferring from Western Illinois University and making this his official visit to the Big Ten Conference school."
BIELEMA: Arkansas coach engages Wisconsin fans on Twitter
Smith gives some of the details:
"(The trooper) took my insurance card and went back to his car. He then waved me back to his car. We spent about 15 minutes talking about the Huskers."
After the chat, the trooper let Smith off with a written warning and "an idea of what the rest of the visit would be like," Shuckman writes.
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"It made an impression," Smith said. Writes Shuckman, "It convinced him there's no place he'd rather be."
Nebraskans love the Cornhuskers.
Smith is enrolling at Nebraska as a graduate student, meaning he can kick immediately without sitting out the 2013 season as a transfer. As a junior, Smith was one of 10 finalists for the Fred Mitchell Outstanding Place-Kicker Award, which is given to the best kicker on the FCS, Division II, Division II, NAIA and junior college levels.