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Parsons, Ch 3, Formalism
2. What rejecting post modernism (=PM)/anything goes approach involves
a. Rejecting PM's idea that all ways of thinking about nature for purpose of aes app are equally valid
b. Parson (mistakenly) that rejecting PM involves the idea that in order for aes appreciation to be appropriate, one must conceptualize nature in the correct way
c. But rejecting anything goes does not entail one correct way only better and worse ways to appreciate
3. Three approaches to normative standards for aesthetics
a. (1) Anything goes
b. (2) One correct/appropriate way to appreciate
c. (3) There are a plurality of better/worse ways to appreciate (perhaps some are plain wrong/inappropriate/incorrect)
5. Formalism definition
a. The correct way to think about nature for aesthetic purposes is as a perceptual array of pure lines, shapes and colors--purely formally (as pure form)
b. Bring no thought, or minimal thought to aes appreciation
6. Fred's appreciation of night sky is best according to formalism
a. Fred delights in the night sky simply as pleasing patterns of light; arrays of line, shape and color and nothing more
i. Most appropriate or correct
b. Penny (thinks of stars as mythological characters) and Sam (stars are vast cosmic structure) capture less of genuine aes character of night sky than does Fred
7. Fred is not thinking much, he's just looking in comparison to rich thought-component others bring
8. Formalist goals of aes appreciation
a. Not to maximize aes enjoyment (as PM view thinks)
b. Bring a smaller, more austere thought component to our appreciation rather than richer one
c. Favors attentive act of just looking
9. Disinterested (=DI) defense of formalism
a. DI justifies limiting our aes appreciation to line, shapes, color
b. Goal of DI to detach from desires and enjoy object for own sake, rather than for benefits to us
c. By emptying our head of thoughts about object and what it might be good for
i. We enjoy perceptual appearance of object for own sake and not any practical benefit it brings us
d. Delight springs solely from perceptual appearance, as that is the only thing we are thinking about
e. Mind best equipped to aes appreciate nature when "vacant and unemployed," unclutter by thoughts about the object
10. Formalism in art appreciation rejects art's function to represent, to express emotions, convey ideas/thoughts
a. If we allow shapes/patterns of painting to get us to think about characters and events (what it represents), to have emotions and ideas, we prevent ourselves from appreciating it aesthetically
b. Representation, emotions, thoughts irrelevant to aes appreciation
c. Focus on pure form alone
11. Nature example
a. Instead of seeing fields and cottages view landscape as pure form, lines, colors
12. Formalism and PM diametrically opposed
a. Instead of embracing wide variety of thoughts, should avoid those thoughts and focus only on perceptual appearance itself, lines, colors, shapes
14. Formalism ties to the scenic viewpoints/picture postcards/snapping photos manner of appreciating nature
15. Scenic look off
a. Presents nature's forms (lines, shapes colors) in optimal configuration and with a minimum of distraction
b. Allows viewer to compose surrounding landscape into a balanced picture
c. Turns nature into a giant three dimensional painting laid out for our enjoyment
d. Nature should be appreciated like a big picture/painting
i. By treating nature more like a picture it helps us focus solely on pure form
16. Picture postcard
a. Captures the carefully orchestrated arrangements of lines, shapes and colors that the scenic look off allows us to experience
b. Tourist's ideal of aes excellence in nature
c. A kind of formalist appreciation of nature
18. One: Illuminates and explains (and justifies!) what people actually do in aes appreciation nature
a. Standard tourist practice of stopping at scenic look off, snapping a photo, and buying the picture postcard image at gift shop
i. Makes perfect sense given formalism
b. Little thought: Most tourists aes appreciate nature w/o bringing much thought to what they appreciate
i. Motorist who pulls off and takes a quick look not likely to be thinking much about what he sees
ii. Plaques conveying historical and scientific information will not be relevant to aes character of scene (says formalism)
19. Two: Explains nature appreciation as an escape from stress of life
a. Rejuvenation, relaxation and renewal of gazing at stars or watching waves role in
b. Attend solely to their forms and leave behind our thoughts and distractions and worries
c. Aes appreciation "lifts us above the stream of life" and go into the realm of pure aesthetics
d. "Childlike wonder" at the world around us
e. Is formalism committed to idea small child's appreciation of nature is as valuable/good (e.g., rich, full, deep, worthwhile) as an adult's? If no thought is required, then would seem answer is yes
20. Three (NH): Formalism makes nature appreciation and art appreciation similar in way you might have thought they differed
a. Intentions behind the aesthetic object are not relevant
i. Intentions of artists are irrelevant to art appreciation
ii. No intentions behind nature
b. So fact that art is an intentional creation by an artists and nature is not is not any reason for appreciating them differently
c. Assumes "unified aesthetics" is desirable
21. Formalism has answers to important objections to PM view
22. Four: Responds to analogy with art argument (=One should treat aes of art/nature same unless some reason for difference, unified aesthetics assumption)
a. PM allows anything goes (all appreciation is equally valid) in nature appreciation, but because this is implausible with art, get disanalogy between art and nature
b. Formalism says some nature appreciations is more appropriate than others (as is true with art) so parallelism/anaogy holds
23. Five: Avoids ethical criticism of PM that "anything goes" makes aes appreciation of nature useless in debates over env preservation
a. If no better or worse aes responses to nature, then no point in appealing to aes in env policy disputes
b. Formalism allows better and worse
i. Need to app in terms of form
ii. Some forms more aes pleasing than others
(1) Horses pleasing form? One persons says horses aes excellent, another says aes poor and if horses really do have pleasing form then one is right and other is wrong
24. Six: Formalism also is useful in policy debates because one can quantify landscapes in terms of the degree to which they present pleasing forms
a. Reduces aes to visual elements that can be quantified
i. Use photos to measure visual parameters of natural scenes
ii. Geometric techniques applied to measure formal elements
(1) Curvature of lines, diversity of shapes, graduations of color
iii. Quantify them and calculate numerical value of aes value of landscape
iv. Questions: From where take picture? How to weight different formal features in determining overall visual quality?
b. Such "landscape assessment" actually takes place!
c. If formalism is correct than general idea of quantifying nature's aes value is sound
d. If can get such numbers, then aes value of nature need not be regarded as nebulous subjective affair it seems to be under PM view
i. Matter of measurable facts to which one can appeal in debates over env policy
25. Question: One can measure extent of diversity, symmetry, color changes and so on
a. But how does this translate into aes value?
b. One could use empirical approach and simply find out which arrays of lines, colors, shapes people in fact preferred
c. But why assume that what people in fact prefer is what is of aesthetic value?
27. Aesthetic qualities of objects go beyond pure form
a. If all one does is look, one (often?) misses object's true aes qualities
28. Form is often relatively unimportant to an aesthetic object
a. What is more important is the meaning of those forms in light of artist's intentions or art theory
b. Does this apply to nature which does not have artistic intention behind it?
29. Red squares example
a. Red squares painted by different people: One is Kierkegaard's mood, another is a religious painting depicting enlightenment
b. Although forms are identical, very different paintings (one psychological portrait that is not serene, one a religious painting that is serene)
30. More examples where aes character of work depends on more than pure form
a. Maya Lin's Vietnam's Veterans Memorial,
b. Andre Serrano's Crucifix in Blood and Urine ("Piss Christ")
c. Aes character of Duchamp's fountain is not in its pure form (gleaming curved whiteness) which is also had by an identical toilet in the warehouse
d. Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper
31. All these examples of aes qualities that go beyond form are examples from art
a. Are there lots of examples of natural aes object whose aes qualities clearly go beyond pure form?
32. Formal appreciation of art or nature fails to appreciate the artwork or the natural object and instead appreciates perceptual impressions of them
a. To appreciate the object themselves, some thought is necessary
b. Basic flaw in formalism is it treat landscapes as gigantic arrays of lines, shapes, and colors when actually much more than this
i. Valley is not just assemblages of formal elements
ii. To appreciate it as such is to distort is aes qualities
iii. Hepburn's leaf would not be a symbol of transience of life, but a small fluttering reddish-born material object and no more
33. Ethical criticism: Failure to respect nature by failing to appreciate it on own terms
a. Treating mountain as array of lines/colors fails to appreciate it on own terms because it is not simply lines/colors/shapes
b. Manifests a disregard for natural things
34. Formalism's ability to quantify is not a virtue because it does not quantify the full/true aesthetic value of the object
a. Only quantifying one dimension of aesthetic object and the object is much more than that
b. Absurd to quantify art's value in same way:
i. Imagine mathematically quantifying the formal features of an artwork and claiming we were capturing the objective value of the artwork with that number
35. Don't need (formalism's) quantification to resolve aes disputes
a. Lack of ability to quantify art's or nature's aes value does not rule out the possibility of resolving disputes about their aes value
b. In art, we do this via art critics who bring to bear knowledge of art history and genres
c. This thought component allows for more correct or appropriate appreciation of art
d. What plays similar role for nature? Perhaps natural science?
Questions on Parson's Ch 3: Formalism
1. What is a "normative standard" for aesthetic appreciation? What are three different possibilities here? If one rejects PM's anything goes, does that mean one must accept the idea that there is one correct way to aesthetically appreciate?
2. Explain the formalist approach to nature appreciation. What role does thought play in this type of appreciation? What role do emotions and representations play?
3. Why does Parsons think formalism and PM are "diametrically opposed?"
4. What is the relation between formalism and the contemporary practice of appreciating nature via scenic look off, picture postcard, and camera snap shot?
5. Why might it be thought that formalism in the aes appreciation of nature might be particularly useful for aesthetic preservationism? (Hint: quantifying beauty)
6. Provide some examples where the formal appreciation of art misses what is central to those art objects.
7. Does the formal appreciation of nature miss what is central to nature appreciation? Does formalist appreciation of nature appreciate nature for what it is? Why might the formalist appreciation of nature be accused of failing to respect nature?
8. Is it important to aesthetically appreciate something for what it is rather than for what it is not?


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Company dissolution procedure – summary
From shareholders deciding they wish to retire to the assets and goodwill of a company being sold to a new owner (as opposed to a share sale), there are many reasons why business owners choose to dissolve a company.
Voluntary dissolution, sometimes called striking a company off or winding a company up, is a slow process that can be taken by any business as long as it has not, in the previous three months:
- carried out its normal business activities
- changed its name
- carried out any activity not related to the winding up of the business. Activities which do not obstruct an application to dissolve a company include selling property or rights that a company needed when it traded and settling its debts
- been threatened by creditors with liquidation
- entered into a credit agreement like a company voluntary arrangement
- been the subject of any legal proceedings
If any of these situations apply to your business,Companies House will require you to file for voluntary liquidation to close operations instead of filing for company dissolution.
For help and advice on company dissolution, please callus on +44 (0) 207 689 7888 or email us at email@example.com
Company dissolution service UK – our service
Completion and submission of DS01 form and payment of the fee to Companies House
Companies House require a payment of £10 and the completion and submission of form DS01 to start the company dissolution process. We make this payment on your behalf when you use our service.
Completion of board minutes documentation
Our legal experts write up the minutes of a board meeting showing that a vote has been passed to dissolve the company. You will need to hold onto these records as well as others (detailed below).
Dissolution of company UK – frequently asked questions
Who needs to know that I'm dissolving the company?
Under the requirements of the Companies Act 2016, you must, within seven days, inform anyone with an interest or stake in the continued running of your business. These people and companies include but are not limited to shareholders within the business, banks, creditors, landlords,suppliers, guarantors, HMRC, employees, any person suing for a personal injury claim against you, employee pension fund managers, and directors who have not signed the DS01 form.
Can I change my mind?
Once you have started the dissolution process, you can stop it by using a DS02 form from Companies House – this can be done online or with a paper form.
You will also need to fill in a DS02 form if you start trading again, change your company name, carry out an activity that's not related to the dissolution of your business, or your business becomes subject to insolvency proceedings or a section 900 application.
Are there any tax considerations I should know about?
If your business assets are worth £25,000 or less, you may distribute them prior to your company's dissolution. This might be treated by HMRC as a capital gain. If your business assets are worth over £25,000, you may pay it to yourself and other shareholders in the form of a dividend. In both cases, Entrepreneur's Relief might be applicable and, if so, you would only pay 10% tax (subject to a lifetime limit of £10m).
This is a complicated area of taxation so we recommend that you consult with an accountant before deciding on a course of action.
How long does the process take after the submission of the DS01 form?
Between three to six months.
What support do I get from Your Company Formations?
We're committed to providing our customers with the highest level of support. Please feel free to contact us before, during, or after you have used us to change your company name by phone or email.

subset: commoncrawl


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Forecasting the Future of Law in the Cloud
December 13, 2018
Seemingly every industry in the world is being digitized, that's no secret. Even the more traditional lines of work in the legal world are finally making a huge push to the internet and the cloud on devices that are getting smaller and smaller. Starting this year, we will see the legal industry and cloud computing evolve together like never before, which will result in a host of shiny, new cloud applications tailored specifically to lawyers.
However, digital trends change in an instant, and there could be devices in the marketplace next year that we couldn't even have thought of today that completely changes the legal or cloud computing landscape. What we can do is look at the bigger picture, and see where the legal industry is moving and how cloud computing can help it get there.
Law on the Phone
The safest guess is that lawyers will rely much more heavily on their phones and other mobile devices for their day-to-day operations as time goes on. This is where most businesses in the developed world are heading.
In 2017, the American Bar Association Legal Technology Survey Report revealed that 94 percent of lawyers "regularly or occasionally us(e) a mobile device for law-related tasks at home."
So lawyers are already using their mobile devices, the next logical step is that they will be using them for increasingly important tasks. How does the cloud fit in this equation? Well, mobile devices still carry security risks. They get malware and spam the same way desktop computers do. Cloud providers are going to have to step up their mobile protection game if they want to keep up with the legal industry's demands in the near future.
Take for instance TOSS C3's MobileEnterprise™ that is a BYOD compliant MDM solution. Law firms will need the same protections on their smartphones, including encryption and ransomware protection, that they (hopefully) have on their work computers.
Proactive, never Reactive
Most spam and malware people get is just annoying and slows down their computer. A simple anti-virus can quarantine these bad actors and get the user on their way. However, for many professionals, and especially lawyers, cybercrime is a really dangerous adversary and they can't afford to be breached for even a second.
With the surge in ransomware attacks and dangerous viruses, cyber defense needs to be a preventative measure, not a reactionary one. The moment a law firm is attacked with ransomware, they've already lost money and data, anything they do afterwards just helps them not totally bankrupt the business.
A cloud provider that can proactively stop cyber threats through education and expertise is hard to find. You need to find a provider that is proven in the legal industry with exceptional engineers that can also help draft policies to show your employees how to use their work computers and applications safely.
Gone will be the days of getting rid of a virus after it's infected your computer, now you can't even risk getting one in the first place.
For more information on the cloud and how it can help protect your law firm from cybercriminals, check out the TOSS C3 website and call us anytime at 1-888-884-8677!
Subscribe now and stay up to date with News, Tips, Events, Cybersecurity, Cloud and Data Compliance.


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Rural & Frontier Clinics
Rural Clinic
A medical clinic located in a rural or frontier area, but not certified — either as part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Rural Health Clinic (RHC) or Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) programming. Non-certified clinics may apply to become RHCs or FQHCs, based on meeting organizational, operational and programming criteria. A clinic may not hold concurrent certifications; an RHC cannot simultaneously be an FQHC, and vice-versa.
Rural Health Clinic (RHC)
The RHC program was established by Public Law 95-210, the Rural Health Clinic Service Act, in 1977 to increase primary care services for Medicaid and Medicare patients in rural communities. RHCs receive special Medicare and Medicaid rates, depending on the type of services that the clinic provides and the payer mix of the patient population. RHCs may operate as public, private, or non-profit entities. The national organizing body for RHCs is the National Association of Rural Health Clinics (NARHC).
More on RHC eligibility and certification
Map | Directory
Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC)
Federally Qualified Health Centers (also called Community Health Centers) were created under Medicare in 1991 when Section 1861(aa) of the Social Security act was amended by Section 4161 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. FQHCs are safety net providers that primarily provide outpatient services. FQHCs may be rural or urban and may be operated by a tribe. In Oregon, the organizing body for FQHCs is the Oregon Primary Care Association (OPCA).
Tribal Clinics
Eleven of Oregon's tribal health clinics are located in ORH-defined rural or frontier areas. These clinics are not certified RHCs. All of Oregon's tribal clinics are provided direction and oversight by the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board.
Map | Directory
Contact: Stacie Rothwell| firstname.lastname@example.com | 971-235-3978


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Ladies Bath Falls is possibly the most spectacularly beautiful place that I have ever been.
Imagine my shock when I first found this location by pure chance. Each and every rock, from the largest to the smallest on the bottom of the stream, looks to have been thoughtfully placed by a Master Landscape Architect.
This is not a place that you can simply walk into and start taking photographs.... it needs to be absorbed, quietly enjoyed ....then, once your senses have returned from overload, the image taking can commence. - Russell
View more Waterfall Images.
Prints priced from only $103.50
Note: Frame Previews are simulations and are not to scale - they are intended as a guide to colour combinations only.
Our premium Floating Acrylic & Canvas landscape prints are available for purchase via the gallery, while traditional Paper Matte & Frame presentation options are available on request.
All of our Canvas Prints are finished with Mirror Wrap sides that repeat the main image. We believe Mirror Wraps to be more pleasing than single colour sides.
Quoted image size represents the longest side of the overall image as previewed here and includes the decorative borders and mattes if selected. Frames are in addition to the quoted size.
A nominal shipping fee is applied during checkout, however large or heavy items may incur an additional fee. Similarly, delivery to remote locations may incur an additional fee.
International orders will incur an additional shipping fee and all local import duties and/or taxes are the responsability of the customer. Please contact us to discuss international shipping prior to placing an order.
10 working days are required for production and delivery. *Subject to Courier timing.
Each order is custom produced and shipped directly from the Brisbane print lab. A tracking number will be supplied once shipped.
For further information please visit the About menu link, or Contact Us to discuss your specific image requirements.


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Visions of chocolate bunnies are dancing through my head.
For whatever reason, I'm so totally wanting chocolate bunnies specifically. Not just chocolate (though I'm sure that would do) but bunnies. Are bunnies tastier? Who knows. But I want to bite their ears off with gusto.
Today is Day 10 processed-sugar-free. Or 14% to my goal. Not sure how that makes me feel..."Yay 14% already!" or "OMG only 14%?!"
I'm ultimately the one who is in charge here, and I'm not going to give in, no matter how much the little chocolate-bunny-loving sonofabitch devil on my shoulder is whispering in my ear.
This is the single most important thing I can currently do for my health, and to take a big leap toward the me I want to be. I spent the first 40 years of my life in its grip. I won't be a sugar addict anymore. I simply refuse.


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Twitter data may help shed light on sleep disorders
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Researchers from Boston Children's Hospital and Merck have built the beginnings of "digital phenotype" of insomnia and other sleep disorders based on data from Twitter. This study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is one of the first to look at relationships between social media use and sleep issues, and--based on assessments the sentiments expressed in users' tweets--gives preliminary hints that patients with sleep disorders may be a greater risk of psychosocial issues.
The study--led by Jared Hawkins, PhD; David McIver, PhD; and John Brownstein, PhD, of Boston Children's Informatics Program and researchers at Merck--is the product of a Boston Children's/Merck collaboration on social media and sleep announced in 2014.
Insomnia and other sleep issues affect between 50 and 70 million Americans. Apart from their impact on productivity, accidents and risky behaviors, chronic sleep disorders also contribute to diabetes, cardiovascular disease and depression.
Historically, population-level research on sleep disorders has relied on survey methods such as the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System. However, such methods are time- and resource intensive, expensive, suffer from long lag times before reporting and are not generalizable to the larger U.S. population.
Research based on social media data may help overcome these limitations. To support such research, Hawkins, McIver, Brownstein and their colleagues sought to develop a "digital phenotype," or baseline profile of what a person suffering insomnia or other sleep disorders "looks" like on social media.
"Sleep deprivation and chronic sleep disorders are not well understood," said Brownstein, who directs the hospital's Computational Epidemiology Group. "We wanted to see if we could use new forms of online data, such as Twitter, to characterize the sleep disordered individual and possibly uncover new, previously-undescribed populations of patients suffering sleep problems."
The research team used publically available anonymized data from Twitter to create a virtual cohort of 896 active Twitter users whose tweets contained sleep-related words (e.g., "can't sleep," "insomnia"), or hashtags (e.g., #cantsleep, #teamnosleep), or the names of common sleep aids or medications. They then compared data from that cohort to those of a second group of 934 users who did not tweet using sleep-related terms. The team examined each user's:
- ♦ age
- ♦ total number of tweets
- ♦ total numbers of followers or people followed
- ♦ number of favorite tweets (that is, the number of tweets by others that the user had favorite)
- ♦ length of time on Twitter (that is, how long the user had had an active Twitter account)
- ♦ average number of tweets per day
- ♦ location
- ♦ time zone
The researchers also assessed the time of day and average sentiment--positive, neutral, negative--of each user's tweets.
The resulting profile of a Twitter user with sleep issues--compared to a Twitter user without--looked like this:
- ♦ have been active on Twitter for a relatively long time
- ♦ has fewer followers and follows fewer people
- ♦ posts few tweets per day on average
- ♦ more active on Twitter between 6:00 pm and 5:59 am
- ♦ more active on Twitter on weekends and early weekdays
- ♦ more likely to post tweets with negative sentiment
Taken together, the data suggest that Twitter users suffering from a sleep disorder are less active on Twitter on average but tweet more during traditional sleeping hours. The increase in negative sentiment in their tweets suggests that sleep-disordered users could be at an increased risk for psychosocial issues.
"These findings are preliminary and observational only, and need to be studied further," Brownstein cautioned. "But they suggest that social media can be a useful addition to our toolkit for studying the patient experience and behavioral epidemiology of sleep disorders."
Note: Material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.
Boston Children's Hospital press release
Brownstein JS et al. Characterizing Sleep Issues Using Twitter. Journal of Medical Internet Research, Published June 8 2015. doi: 10.2196/jmir.4476


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Scenes from "Worlds of Flavor" 2010
Over the weekend, the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena presented its 13th annual "Worlds of Flavor International Conference & Festival."
It was the first time that the conference — attended regularly by top chefs, restaurateurs, purveyors, food scientists and media — focused entirely on the cuisine of Japan.
For good reason.
Everywhere you turn these days, you can't help but notice the influence Japanese cuisine is having around the world — from sushi being sold in most every American supermarket to ingredients such as edamame, yuzu and nori finding their place in professional kitchens around the world.
Turn on the TV to watch the excitement of "Iron Chef"; visit New York to wait in line at Chef David Chang's wildly popular Momofuku Japanese-style, street food-inspired restaurants; or pick up the latest Michelin Guide, which awarded its highest honor of three stars to an astounding 12 restaurants in the Kansai region of Japan — more than any other area in the world.
The conference, "Japan: Flavors of Culture, From Sushi and Soba to Kaiseki," was attended by 750 people, including more than 54 presenters from Japan, some of whom were visiting the Napa Valley for the first time.
It was a kick to see Masaharu Morimoto, Hiroyuki Sakai and Yukio Hattori — all of "Iron Chef" fame — wandering around the storied culinary campus. And even more memorable to hear Morimoto belt out an a cappella song in Japanese at the end of his cooking demo.
And what cooking demos there were — from watching a chef from Japan painstakingly make soba noodles from scratch on stage to the intricate details that go into making a perfect dashi stock to seeing Chef Doug Keane of Cyrus in Healdsburg prepare a broth made with his favorite matsutake mushrooms, which he confessed to loving even more than prized European truffles.
So many top American chefs waxed poetically about their trips to Japan, all returning with a new-found reverence and respect for Japanese cooking, with its hallmarks of seasonality, perfect ingredients and precise techniques.
In fact, Chris Cosentino of San Francisco's Incanto, who was attending his first "Worlds of Flavor" conference, was so inspired that he's itching to make his first trip to Japan.
It goes without saying that the food at the conference was unparalleled. Each day, the huge former barrel-room was transformed into a marketplace with chefs cooking up specialty tastes from Morimoto's pork belly congee to Cosentino's cured sardine with spicy, spreadable salami to comforting curry udon to Osaka-style pressed sushi to unforgettable uni tempura made by a chef from Japan who owns a tiny, seven-seat tempura bar.
For someone like me who has yet to visit Japan, it was the next best thing to being there.
More: My Q&A with Morimoto


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Many books are launched these days with more than just a poster in a bookshop. In this multimedia age, many authors (and/or their publishers) are using publishers' websites, FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube to capture the attention of their potential readers; especially those attuned to some sort of screen during the day. So this is a new way of selecting books which you may be interested in reading.
Thus it is often possible to find a short book trailer being used to launch or further promote a book. Some examples I recently came across included not only newer books like Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and City of Ember by Jeanne du Prau; but also included classics such as Number the Star by Lois Lowry.
I had shown these to a class – to give them ideas for presenting a review of the books they had been reading for Literature Circles. The impact was quite powerful as we discussed some of the elements trailers involved. In short bursts, they learned of several books they had not all read. As one girl commented when leaving the class, the trailers could influence their choice, as much as a powerful book cover – "If I had seen that one (Number the Stars) before choosing my novel, I would have chosen it!"
Of course, this was only a 'snippetty' use of book trailers, and a lot more discussion and instruction would need to follow before students could begin to create their own. It's certainly given food for thought, though at this stage we might spend a bit of time looking and reviewing examples first.
Most certainly, I will need to look into posts like that at Crystal Booth's blog – http://www.squidoo.com/booktrailers to get started.


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Handmade, wood turned one of a kind custom urns for your pet.
Custom Wood
The opening of a log now exposes the beauty of nature hidden inside.
These urns are handmade and wood turned for honoring the life of your beloved friend.
The woods are collected by the artists and are sourced from trees that have been cleaned up from storm damage and from arborists who typically dispose of them in landfills.
The talented men and ladies, the artists who hand craft these pieces are Certified Green by the Green Burial Council. These wooden urns are made in America using domestic materials and domestic labor.
Once carved they truly are a one of a kind piece of art. Each urn is unique in color, wood, grain, and shape. No two urns are alike. Each urn has a turned secure top that is threaded to insure a secure seal. Available at an additional charge you can have a custom pocket under the top carved, a chamber allowing for small remembrance items to be kept. Custom tops and engraved bases can also be added to personalize your urn.
After your urn is hand carved it is assigned a unique serial number and signed by the artist who created it.
Equestrian Urns
950+ Cu. Inches
Pet urns
1 Cu. Inch+


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Upon Entering - After getting completely lost in the maze of corridors inside the hotel we eventually found the breakfast room. Although a fairly big area it suddenly dawned on us there was nowhere to sit. We found a small sofa about 2 feet away from a table which was occupied by an old couple, they looked a bit uncomfortable but it was just a case of sitting and waiting till a table was free. If im honest a bit of a nightmare! 4/10
Service - Very efficient and friendly staff soon clear our table and set it up again almost instantly. A menu on the table lists everything available very clearly. You help yourself to cereal & fruit juice which is kept on a table to the side. 8/10
Contents - Not huge but the menu does clearly state "If you are still hungry, feel free to order again!" 1 Sausage, 1 bacon, fried egg, beans & toast. 5/10
Presentation - Nicely placed in the centre of the plate. 7/10
The food - Incredibly juicy pork butchers sausage, good quality tasty bacon, perfectly round and nicely cooked fried egg and ok beans. Hot toast and real butter. 8/10
Value for money - It is included in the price of your stay and you can eat as much as you like! 10/10
Veggie option - Yes
Overall - Once seated it was a pleasant experience, friendly staff and efficient service. The cooked breakfast was not very big and lacked content but what you did get was delicious. The option to order another cooked breakfast was good to see and kind of eliminated any concerns about the size of it. I left thinking "Im up for staying here again!" 7/10


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Lotus Assessment Suite
Who we are
If you, or a family member, experiences a mental health crisis you may find that you are referred to the Lotus Assessment Suite. The Lotus Assessment Suite provides a safe and stable, calming environment away from A&E which allows mental health staff to undertake more detailed and informed assessments of people experiencing a mental health crisis and to agree what the best follow up support for them will be. The assessment suite is not a ward and does not have beds; instead we have 7 recliner chairs.
Who is the service for
This service is for adults who are experiencing a mental health crisis and need urgent assessment.
Where to find us
Springfield University Hospital
7 Springfield Drive
Telephone: 020 3513 5000
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Our opening hours
24 hours
Who you might see / our staff
Team Manager: Jess Kidd-Scott
Consultant Psychiatrist: Dr Sean Whyte
What you can expect
When you arrive you will be seen by a nurse who will show you around the assessment suite. The nurse will discuss the nature of your crisis with you and what the best options might be.
The time and space that the assessment suite offers, gives patients time to think through the immediate crisis and the sort of help they need to recover, both over the short and longer term.
It also gives our staff time to carry out an informed assessment, create a collaborative, tailored treatment plan and make appropriate arrangements for on-going support in the community where feasible. The assessment suite is not a ward and does not have beds. However, we will ensure your comfort, privacy and dignity throughout the assessment through:
- meals and snacks being provided
- access to bathroom/showering facilities
- horizontal recliner chairs enabling people to rest/sleep as required
The assessment is designed around your needs, but we expect most assessments to be competed and follow up plans agreed within 24 hours. Most people will have follow up through one of our community mental health services, although some will require inpatient treatment.
Referrals to the Lotus Assessment Suite will come from within acute hospitals' Liaison Psychiatry service, mental health Street Triage teams in partnership with the police and ambulance services and Crisis and Home Treatment Teams.


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It is the time of year for crisp spiral notebooks and meeting your teacher. Whether you and your kids dread the return to early alarm clocks and after-school pickups, back-to-school season signals opportunity to learn new things. Since minds will soon be in "learning mode" why not make this the season to talk to your kids about energy conservation?
Topics: Energy Conservation, Natural Gas, conservation
If you live in our region, you know. The memory of past hurricanes may seem unfortunately too recent to many, but it's always wise to brush up on hurricane preparedness basics.
Topics: Natural Gas, propane, electric, natural gas appliances, hurricane, Hurricane Preparedness, electricity, hurricane safety, utilities, florida public utilities, storm
Some people believe that money makes the world go 'round; others say it's politics. We are all subject to the rules and regulations determined by elected/appointed or volunteer decision makers. From our local neighborhood HOA's and district school boards to our county commissioners and representatives, all the way up to our Governor and his cabinet, through to the President of the United States, our lives are affected by the decisions these people make.
Florida Public Utilities offers Free Energy Check-Ups to all our natural gas and electric customers. Also referred to as energy audits, Free Energy Check-Ups allow us to generate a personalized analysis of your home's or business's energy usage. Here are four reasons why you should sign up for a Free Energy Check-Up this year!
Topics: Energy Conservation, Energy Efficiency, Rebates, Free Energy Check-Ups, FPU Energy Experts, Energy savings
Fortunately, winter is often our shortest season in Florida. However, every year at this time, utilities all over the country begin getting calls concerning energy bills that seem overly high to consumers. In this blog, I will give you four reasons you may experience an elevated bill.
Topics: Energy Conservation, Natural Gas, Natural Gas Water Heaters, FPU Energy Experts, Energy savings
The new Florida Building Code, V. 6 goes into effect for all homes permitted after December 31, 2017. We ran some simulations to see the impact natural gas could have on helping a builder meet the Florida Energy Code Compliance, as well as the impacts on the HERS (Home Energy Rating System) score.
The HERS score is a national standard builders use to market their energy efficient homes. Here is the impact bringing natural gas to your home or development can do. Here are the top three findings to this research.
Topics: Energy Conservation, Natural Gas, natural gas appliances, florida, New Construction
Topics: Natural Gas, propane, natural gas appliances, florida, outdoor living, propane appliances, gas spa heater, gas patio heater, outdoor gas appliances, gas fire pit, gas pool heater
Topics: Natural Gas, propane, natural gas appliances, florida, outdoor living, propane appliances, gas spa heater, gas patio heater, outdoor gas appliances, gas fire pit, gas pool heater
Topics: Energy savings
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If you are tired of increasing power costs and are researching how to make your own electricity then you need to consider domestic solar panels. Solar panels are very expensive, not only to buy but also to have installed. However you can make your own domestic solar panels following schematics such as those included with Homemade Energy or Earth4Energy.
Apart from becoming more self-sufficient and less dependent on utility companies you also have the satisfaction of doing something that is beneficial for the environment. The sun is always available and won't go down in the same way that the electrical grid can go down.
You don't need direct sunshine either as daylight is sufficient to generate electricity. However less sunny areas will require more solar panels than an area that is bathed in constant sunshine. You aren't going to be totally dependent on your solar power as you will still remain connected to the power grid for when you need it. Unless of course it is your goal to be completely self-sufficient. Some people with solar panels generate more electricity than they need and they are able to sell it to the utility company.
The first step to make your own electricity is to determine your budget. Are you prepared to pay the price for new domestic solar panels? Or is the only way you can make your own electricity going to be to make your own solar panels?
The secret to making your own domestic solar panels as cheaply as possible is to get solar cells that are slightly damaged or blemished. These are solar cells that have failed the quality control process due to being scratched for instance but are still perfectly functional. For a fraction of the cost you can get fully functional solar cells to build your solar panels. The only difference is that they may be perhaps 2-3% less efficient due to being scratched.
The main task to make your own electricity by building solar panels is to construct the actual cases that contain the solar cells. You can purchase all of the components in your local hardware store. The main materials are plywood for the case and plexiglass covers. All of these materials can be cut to size for you at the store using the dimensions that are given with the domestic solar panels design found in the manual such as Homemade Energy or Earth4Energy.
The cost to make your own electricity with you own made domestic solar panels will depend on how many panels you require which is determined by the amount of sunshine and the size of your property. But you can expect to pay around $100-$200 to obtain the materials you need for each solar panel.


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Filter Catalog and Distributor Partnerships
Thanks to our never-ending attempt to provide our customers with the very best when it comes to value and overall service, we have partnered up with many of the top distributors in the filtration sector.
Although we are based in Canada, our partnerships include those that are based in the US and North America. This is a demonstration of CPS Filtration's drive and ambition to be the very best in filtration distribution. We have carefully selected each manufacturer we do business with, working with smaller local companies as well as big international names, enabling us to offer the most complete collection of filtration products in Canada.
All of our partnerships allow us to off the best and most diverse filters to our customers. From liquid filters to intake air filters, we are unmatched when it comes to the filtration systems we supply. Whatever the industry and whatever the reason, we have the filter to cater to all needs. Carbon filters, sock filters, compressed gas filters etc.—It is all available right here at CPS Filtration.
For your convenience, we have designed this section of the website as a handy guide to all your filtration needs. Along with a brief description of what each distributor offers, a PDF catalog for every supplier is also supplied. These catalogs contain extensive details about all the products our distributors supply, further helping our customers to be able to select the best filter-related item that meets their requirements.
To view one of the PDF catalogs, simply click on the button associated with the distributor of choice below:
Shelco Filters
Since 1973, Shelco has used state-of-the-art research and development to design high-quality filters that increase performance and reduce costs. Our proven single shell design has become an industry standard – and today, our entire product line offers innovative solutions for each customer.
Global Filters
At Global Filter, we're not just about products that help keep your processes flowing, we're also here to solve your filtering
problems and issues.
Pentair Industrial Catalog
Industrial filtration solutions are the sole focus at Pentair Industrial. Our industrial filtration products include components for food & beverage, fuel & chemical, power generation, municipal, and medical & pharmaceutical sectors, to name a few.
Harmsco Products Catalog
Harmsco Filtration Products is pleased to provide our complete line of Liquid Filtration Products. The information contained herein is intended for the exclusive use of Harmsco personnel, distributors and their customers in the specification and selection of filter housings, cartridges and related products.
Parker Hannifin offers more filter types, configurations and filter solutions than any other company. Parker filter engineers collaborate with customers at the earliest stages of design to develop optimum filter system solutions.
Filtration Systems Inc.
Filtration Systems, Inc. was founded in 1980 by Richard Bayerlein, P.E. and his son, Doug, who holds a BSME from SMU. The Bayerleins have extensive experience in the filtration industry, and are the creators of the "Swirl Flow" patent, which combines high flow rates and exceptional dirt-holding capacity in a depth-type filtration cartridge.
Parker Hannifin offers more filter types, configurations and filter solutions than any other company. Parker filter engineers collaborate with customers at the earliest stages of design to develop optimum filter system solutions.
Classic Filters are a UK based manufacturer with a global distributor network specialising in particulate & coalescing filter housings and elements. Please contact us if you need some assistance in selecting the correct filter housing & element for your application.
FTC – Filtration Technology Corporation
Filtration Technology Corporation was founded in 1987 to provide quality filtration solutions to the Oil & Gas Industry.


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Excited as I am for the Meatless Meals Freezer Cooking Challenge, I've not done one thing to prepare for it. We've been at soccer games all weekend long with not an extra moment to spare in the kitchen. In fact, I'm barely scraping meals together. Sunday lunch today was none other than tuna salad on tortillas (with mixed greens stuffed in), eaten in the five minutes we had between church and a soccer game. Shin guards and cleats were flying, let me tell you.
My goal is to (sleep and) hit the challenge hard on Monday morning, then just do a little at a time throughout the week. Since the plan is to cook for this week's meals along with making extra for the freezer, you'll see many of the challenge meals sprinkled throughout my menu plan.
If you need a new easy meal idea, I recommend Italian Cream Cheese Chicken. :)
Sunday, May 4
Strawberry shortcake
Tuna salad on tortillas, mixed greens, sweet peppers, raspberries
Small group – grilled hot dogs and brats, potato salad and other sides people bring
Monday, May 5
Peanut butter pancakes, scrambled eggs, bananas
Bean and cheese burritos, fresh pineapple, sweet peppers
Meatless spaghetti pie (recipe in {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook), tossed salad, green beans
Tuesday, May 6
Crock pot breakfast casserole, creamy orange cooler
Baked mac and cheese cups (recipe in {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook), peas, fruit and kefir smoothies with spinach tossed in
Lasagna casserole, tossed salad, roasted asparagus, honey glazed carrots
Wednesday, May 7
Strawberry cream muffins, fried eggs
Calzones, pineapple mango smoothies, cucumbers with ranch
Italian cream cheese chicken, tossed salad, steamed broccoli and carrots
Thursday, May 8
Oatmeal breakfast bars, raspberries
Hamburger sauerkraut dip with chips, kiwi, blackberries
Orange chicken, baked potatoes, green beans, tossed salad
Friday, May 9
Poptarts, blueberries
Chicken tacos, tomatoes and lettuce, olives, cantaloupe
Chili mac, tossed salad, peas
Saturday, May 10
Cheesy scrambled eggs, pears
Grilled barbeque chicken, creamy coleslaw, cucumbers and carrots with ranch, watermelon
Have you used the grill yet this season?


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Even though the GlobalBeacon flight-tracking service announced by an Aireon-FlightAware partnership last week won't be fully operational until 2018, launch customer Qatar Airways will launch an interim non-global version of the service immediately.
Yesterday Aireon and FlightAware announced Qatar Airways had signed to become the first airline to use GlobalBeacon. It is doing so to meet ICAO's planned Global Aeronautical Distress Safety System (GADSS) distress-tracking requirement that from 2021 all new aircraft report their positions automatically at least once a minute when in a distress condition.
The full GlobalBeacon service will provide Qatar Airways' Integrated Operations Centre with minute-by-minute tracking globally of ADS-B Out-equipped aircraft by 2018, according to FlightAware and Aireon.
However, FlightAware CEO Daniel Baker reveals to RGN that its GlobalBeacon agreement will see Qatar Airways immediately begin taking FlightAware's Firehose combined feed of ADS-B data from 8,000-plus ground-based ADS-B receivers in more than 140 countries and data feeds from many air traffic control centers internationally.
"As part of our partnership, they'll be able to leverage our existing data effective immediately to augment their existing internal solutions," says Baker. "Qatar Airways will … be receiving that data in the form of our Firehose data feed and implementing that into one of their existing tools that currently receives data directly from the aircraft."
This will provide Qatar Airways immediately with a non-global solution to ICAO's one-minute GADSS distress-tracking requirement. However, says Baker, GlobalBeacon's capability to provide automated alerts when it stops receiving updated positions from an airborne aircraft won't be available until Aireon's space-based ADS-B service becomes fully operational in 2018.
Qatar Airways appears also to have agreed to take other data from FlightAware in order to augment its internal fleet-tracking system.
"Our systems have a variety of different value-adds beyond position tracking including route amendments (re-routes), ETA (estimated time of arrival) calculations, etc.", says Baker, adding, "I can't speak to their specific elements that they'll be leveraging in the short term."
The 26 September news release announcing Qatar Airways' adoption of GlobalBeacon quotes Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways Group chief executive, as saying, "GlobalBeacon will seamlessly integrate with our existing ICAO 2018-compliant flight watch technology (Total Operations System), and further enhance our fleet management by providing updates every minute … We will be the first airline in the world to have the capability to use worldwide satellite air surveillance to support our airline operations and to achieve the highest of flight tracking standards ahead of the ICAO 2021 mandate."
But just what Qatar Airways' Total Operations System consists of, as well as the categories of data the airline receives from its aircraft in flight and over which communications channels this data is transmitted to the carrier's Integrated Operations Centre, remains a mystery.
An email request yesterday by RGN to Qatar Airways seeking information on its capabilities to track and receive near-real time streaming data from its aircraft received no response by the end of the 27 September business day in Qatar.
Ten months ago, when attending the delivery ceremony at Boeing's Everett facility for Qatar Airways' 25th Boeing 787, Al Baker told RGN the carrier's operations control center had been receiving streamed black-box data from its aircraft in-flight for almost a year.
Al Baker said this streaming system automatically generated ACARS messages to explain to operations control staff why any deviations from established flight plans had occurred. However, he didn't indicate which communications channels transmitted these ACARS messages, though it is known Inmarsat's new SwiftBroadband Safety system wasn't used.
At the November 2015 Everett event, Al Baker also said Qatar Airways would invite international media "very soon" to Qatar for a live demonstration of its flight-tracking capabilities. This media event appears not to have taken place.
Related Articles:
- Aireon still targets early 2018 operations despite SpaceX delay
- Flightradar24 gears up for a new wave of flight tracking
- Economic impact of global flight tracking cited in analysis of delay
- Aireon confident it can meet industry need for space-based ADS-B
- Op-Ed: Aireon offers positioning to industry that craves redundancy
- Qatar Airways CEO says carrier is already streaming black box data
Header Image: Qatar Airways' Flickr


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5 June 2003
DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTANGovernment, Parliament Dispute Over President's Powers
The Tatar Constitutional Court considered a request from the government for an official comment on the constitutional provision saying that Tatarstan's president forms the Cabinet of Ministers and the system of executive branches in accordance with corresponding laws on 4 May, Intertat reported the same day. The cabinet is reportedly interested in the precise definition of the term "to form," whether it allows the president only to make appointments or decide on the structure of state bodies. In the government's view, presidential powers are not limited to the right to appoint or dismiss the members of government.
Under federal laws, the activities of Tatarstan's Cabinet of Ministers should be regulated by the Tatar Constitution and the special republican law. But due to the absence of such law, the activities of the Tatar government are covered by the constitution and the presidential decrees.
Artur Shakaraev, the deputy head of the Tatar State Council's legal department, said during the court session that in the parliament's opinion, the president is only allowed to appoint government officials and not to define the government's structure.
Deputy Tatar Prosecutor Vladimir Meterlin told the court that both the presidential and parliamentary decrees regarding the operation of government adopted previously were already acknowledged as violating federal law and there should be a special republican law on the government's activities. On 11 May 2001, Tatarstan's State Council adopted a decree on establishing, abolishing, and reforming the ministries and state committees of Tatarstan.
Constitutional Court Chairman Seyfikhan Nefiev closed the court session by saying that the court's ruling will be made public on a date yet to be announced.
Red Tape Mars Resolution Of Headscarves Affair
Despite recent reports saying that the Russian Interior Ministry had put an official end to the "Muslim headscarves affair" by allowing the use of headwear for passport photographs if required by an individual's religion, Muslim women in Tatarstan are still unable to have their photographs taken in an Islamic way, RFE/RL's Kazan bureau reported on 4 June (see "RFE/RL Tatar-Bashkir Report," 3 June 2003). Almira Adiatullina, who was among the Muslims demanding the right to have a passport photo taken wearing a traditional headscarf, told the bureau the same day that republican passport-visa service officials were refusing to accept photographs with headscarves, saying they still had not received an official document on the matter.
Kashapov Cancels Hunger Strike
Refis Kashapov, head of the Tatar Public Center's branch in Chally, stopped his hunger strike on 3 June, Tatarinform reported the next day. Kashapov declared the hunger strike after being placed in a psychiatric hospital for mental examination on 26 May. Kashapov's recent decision was reportedly inspired by hospital director Naile Yanisheva, who told him that he had to "save himself for his family and the life ahead."
Kashapov, arrested on 26 March, is currently under investigation on charges of inciting interethnic and interconfessional discord (see "RFE/RL Tatar-Bashkir Report," 13, 22 and 23 May 2003).
Tatarstan Ranked 12th In Credit Rating
According to a ranking of Russia's regions by their credit rating published by AK&M on 4 June and topped by Moscow, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and St. Petersburg, Tatarstan was ranked 12th. The republic ranked seventh in annual income, while in average income per capita it was ranked 26th.
Compiled by Iskender Nurmi
DAILY REVIEW FROM BASHKORTOSTANDaily: Moscow Oligarchs To Back Rakhimov's Candidacy
"Nezavisimaya Gazeta" reported on 4 June that the decision of Relif Safin, the Russian Federation Council member representing the Altay Republic, not to run for the Bashkir presidency in the December 2003 vote was rather explained by the interests of the "old Moscow group of oligarchs," to which Safin belongs, than by the private agreement between Safin and President Murtaza Rakhimov (see "RFE/RL Tatar-Bashkir Report," 3 June 2003). The paper cited unnamed officials from the Bashkir presidential staff, who said that the "Moscow group" was interested in supporting Rakhimov in order to prevent Sergei Veremeenko, the former head of Moscow's International Industrial Bank (MezhPromBank), from winning the presidency (see "RFE/RL Tatar-Bashkir Weekly Review," 3 June 2003). Veremeenko is thought to represent the interests of Sergei Pugachev, one of the bank's major owners and the head of the St. Petersburg group of oligarchs, closely related to the top management of the Russian Gazprom monopoly. Aleksandr Veremeenko, Sergei's brother, is currently heading the Bashkir branch of Gazprom, Bashtransgaz.
Duma Deputies Seeking Dismissal Of Committee Chairman
Russian State Duma deputies representing Bashkortostan Zeynulla Bagyshaev (Fatherland-All Russia) and Mikhail Bugera (Russian Regions) along with Unity faction members Galina Strelchenko and Sergei Zhitinkin are pushing for the dismissal of Aleksandr Salii, the chairman of the Duma commission on elections and a Communist deputy in Tatarstan, because, according to them, he "uses the commission for political purposes.... Possessing no grounding, [and] no powers he makes negative conclusions about the [March 2003] elections for Bashkortostan's State Assembly," "Izvestiya" wrote on 4 June. Salii commented on the affair by saying that he acted within his jurisdiction when he distributed copies of a videotape allegedly showing falsifications during the March vote to deputies. He claimed that he was authorized to do so by one of the Duma's deputy speakers. "When I see that a pack of 100 ballots is being pushed into a ballot box I have to disseminate this information. Deputies have to see this and make their own conclusions."
Bashkir Communist Party Replaces Election Commission Representative
The republican committee of Russia's Communist Party in Bashkortostan fired its official representative to the Central Election Commission Tavris Khekimov on 4 June, the government agency Bashinform reported the same day. According to the agency, Bashkir resident Khekimov will be replaced by Vladimir Ruzlyaev from Moscow. The agency speculated that Ruzlyaev has connections to the Russian Tax Minister Gennadii Bukaev, "who is strongly interested in Bashkortostan's energy complex." Earlier reports in the Russian and Bashkir media touted Bukaev as a possible candidate for the Bashkir presidency.
Compiled by Iskender Nurmi


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23 August 2006
The Hindu
In Iran, democracy wrestles with clerical authority
Siddharth Varadarajan
NEARLY THREE decades after the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, the Islamic Republic has managed to create a political system and society that defy easy description.
Direct popular elections are held regularly for the post of President, the Majlis, or Parliament, as well as for the all-important Majlis-e-Khobregan, or Assembly of Experts, which is responsible for selecting, overseeing and even dismissing Iran's powerful Supreme Leader, or Vali-e-Faqih. Yet, no candidate can contest any election unless his or her name is cleared by the Guardian Council, half of whose members are chosen by the Supreme Leader and half by Parliament. On paper, this complicated system of interlocking supervision is meant to create checks and balances but in reality, it is the Supreme Leader — earlier Ayatollah Khomeini, and now Ayatollah Khamenei — who has virtually unlimited authority.
The end result is an Islamic Republic that is more `Islamic' than republic, in which democracy flourishes but squarely within the limits established by the Supreme Leader's ultimate oversight.
There is contestation in political life and the print media too reflects this diversity. Mehdi Karroubi, a former Majlis Speaker and the leading reformist contender for President in the 2005 elections, publicly accused the authorities of rigging the first round in order to push him to third place and out of the run-off. In an interview to The Hindu at his Tehran office earlier this month, he repeated his accusation. But with an eye to the future, he has started a new party and newspaper, both called `Ettemad-e-Milli', and is busy preparing for the next round of elections, including to the Guardian Council. Ettemad-e-Milli editor Javed Haghshenas regularly takes on the Ahmadinejad government on a range of issues, including economic mismanagement. Newspapers which are too critical are sometimes shut down, only to resume publication the next morning under a new name. "The government got upset when our cartoonist did a caricature of the President," he said. "But as you can see, we continue to come out."
Society, too, has moved on. There is greater freedom than in the early revolutionary years and despite the hold of the clerics, some slackening of the hold of religion, especially on the youth, has also occurred. One university administrator who had been a student before the revolution said there is far greater discussion of politics on campus today than during the Shah's time when students and academics feared the control of Savak, the secret service. "Back then, the prayer room at the university used to be full. Now, kids go there to rest or sleep."
Conservatives ascendant
Throughout much of the past two decades, `pragmatists' and `reformists' favouring greater openness had the upper hand within the elected sphere. But since the 2004 Majlis elections, in which hundreds of reformists were summarily disqualified by the Guardian Council, and the 2005 presidential election which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won handily, it is the "conservatives" and "radicals" who are increasingly setting the agenda.
But even here, the system is capable of surprises. When Mr. Ahmadinejad was elected, most urban women braced themselves for stricter enforcement of the public dress code which requires female hair to be covered at all times and the body to be cloaked in a loose-fitting coat or robe known as a manteau. Not only has that not happened yet — as can be seen from the stylistic licence many middle class women take with their manteaux — the President went a step forward and announced, to the consternation of conservative clerics, that he favoured women entering stadiums to see men play football.
At the same time, the recent conservative ascendancy is no ordinary swing of the political pendulum. Said one analyst on condition of anonymity: "There has never been a time when all branches of government have been so united. In Khatami's time, and even Rafsanjani's, officials and leaders in government, the majlis and the various councils, tended to have different ideas. But in the set-up today, the ideas are uniform. And I think this is what is leading to a certain sense of alienation and disenchantment among the youth."
For the past two decades, the primary function of the Supreme Leader has been to balance the pushes and pulls from different factions in government. Today, with virtually everybody in government pushing in the same direction and with high oil prices providing unprecedented fiscal power to President Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei is seen as looking for ways to temper this concentration of power. Among the steps he has taken is accommodating prominent non-conservatives like Mr. Rafsanjani, who lost the presidential elections to Mr. Ahmadinejad last year, and former foreign ministers Kamal Kharazzi and Ali Akbar Velayati in the power structure.
"The leader has veto power when major decision-makers are at an impasse but I don't think he involves himself in the nitty-gritty of the nuclear issue, for example," one prominent academic said. And yet, the fact that one individual can enjoy powers which place him above the constitution is a source of profound discomfort for many, even if public criticism of the system is relatively rare. One exception is Hojatoleslam Mohsen Kadivar, a philosopher and religious scholar who has been arguing for nearly a decade that the Vali-e-Faqih system is incompatible with both Islam and democracy.
In an interview to The Hindu, Dr. Kadivar, a professor at the Tarbiat Modarres University, said that the case for a Supreme Leader standing above the Constitution could not be made by recourse to the Quran, the teachings of the Prophet, Shia doctrine, or reason. "Even in practice, Iran's constitution 100 years ago did not grant the monarch as much power as the Supreme Leader enjoys in legal terms today," he said.
In his book, Hukumat-e-Velayi, Dr. Kadivar criticised the Supreme Leader theory in terms of jurisprudence. He argued that the system was a mixture of Plato's theory of the philosopher-king, Ibn-e-Arabi's mystic idea of the "perfect individual" and the ancient concept of Iranian kingship as propounded in the Shahnama of Firdousi and elsewhere.
"The mixture of these concepts is Velayat-e-Faqih and they wrote this into the Constitution," says the soft-spoken cleric who is widely regarded as one of Iran's most prominent reformist intellectuals. "[In jurisprudence], velayat refers to authority that is akin to that which a father exerts over minor children... This is a very dangerous concept." Soon after his book came out about eight years ago, Dr. Kadivar was sent to prison. "Officially, I was not jailed because of the book but for some speeches and interviews... I had called the regime here an `Islamic Kingdom' and they said this was a crime and imprisoned me for 18 months."
Later, the head of the special court for the clergy sent word that he had made a mistake. "Before, no one knew you and now everyone does. But if you go to prison again, it will be for a long time," Dr. Kadivar was told.
Though he has not been imprisoned since then, Dr. Kadivar says he is subject to other limitations. "For example, no newspaper wants to publish my political articles. And publishing books nowadays is also very difficult because it needs permission from the ministry." The rule for books was always there but it was rarely enforced during the Rafsanjani or Khatami presidencies. "Three months ago, I wanted to speak at a seminar on the first decade of the Iranian constitution at Sorbonne and the School of Oriental and Africa Studies in London. Forty-eight hours before I was to leave, I was told by the president of my university that I was not allowed to go as my leave had been cancelled!"
Dr. Kadivar also says that his lectures on philosophy are recorded without his permission and that two months ago, the university authorities told him he could not meet any foreigner in his office without permission a week in advance.
Right to democracy
Asked how his views on current affairs differed from those of the establishment, Dr. Kadivar said the most important differences were on domestic issues. "But even in foreign policy, nuclear energy is not the most important point for the reformists. We have many other rights too, including the right to be free. But for conservatives, the nuclear right is the first right of Iranians, more important than other rights... The regime sees nuclear energy as a currency of power but our problem is we need democracy."
On his part, Dr. Karroubi doesn't minimise the importance of the nuclear issue for Iran. But asked how he might have handled things had he been elected president, he says confidence building is the key. "Iran should not do anything which will lead to sanctions... We should negotiate according to our principles... but this issue should be solved peacefully." The U.S., he said, is sticking to its positions out of pride so there are difficulties. "But if there is dialogue on a fair basis, a just basis, a solution can be found."


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Title: Walt Whitman to William Sloane Kennedy, 17 March 1889
Date: March 17, 1889
Whitman Archive ID: duk.00917
Source: Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. The transcription presented here is derived from The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 4:303. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Blake Bronson-Bartlett, Caterina Bernardini, Stefan Schöberlein, and Stephanie Blalock
Evn'g March 17 '89
Matters not very different—the Transcripts rec'd—read & sent to O'Connor1—O'C had a very bad spell ag'n since I wrote you ab't him (epileptic fits)—but was better three days ago, but weak & in bed—Dr B[ucke]2 here yet—
I sit here alone same as ever, in my big old chair with the thick wolf-skin back—Mrs Spaulding3 call'd to-day.4
Walt Whitman
William Sloane Kennedy (1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933], 336–337). Apparently Kennedy called on the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman, in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was "too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February 1881), 149–158. For more about Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan, "Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
1. William Douglas O'Connor (1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, published in 1866. For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
2. Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) was a Canadian physician and psychiatrist who grew close to Whitman after reading Leaves of Grass in 1867 (and later memorizing it) and meeting the poet in Camden a decade later. Even before meeting Whitman, Bucke claimed in 1872 that a reading of Leaves of Grass led him to experience "cosmic consciousness" and an overwhelming sense of epiphany. Bucke became the poet's first biographer with Walt Whitman (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883), and he later served as one of his medical advisors and literary executors. For more on the relationship of Bucke and Whitman, see Howard Nelson, "Bucke, Richard Maurice," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
3. As yet we have no information about this person. [back]
4. In her March 27, 1889, letter to Whitman, Mrs. A. H. Spaulding expressed extravagant gratitude for the visit. On one of her calling cards the poet wrote: "dear friend of L of G & me—a middle-aged lady—I sh'd say—one of the real circle." The calling card is part of the Charles E. Feinberg Collection of Walt Whitman papers, held by the Library of Congress, See MSS18630, Box 41, Reel 26. [back]


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If you missed parts 1, 2, 3, or 4 of this trip report click on the corresponding number and that installment will magically appear in front of you.
After leaving the tasty treats at Epcot we hopped on a bus to check in at our new hotel, Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. After staying in Pop Century for the first five nights of our trip, Animal Kingdom Lodge was luxurious to us. I'll have a review of the hotel soon but I will spoil that by saying this hotel was my favorite of any we've stayed at in Walt Disney World.
I thoroughly enjoyed the extra few moments in the morning or late at night when we'd come back to our room and could sit out on the deck and look at the animals. I found this relaxing and a perfect way to unwind from the busy parks.
Speaking of, the parks were really pretty busy. Our trip was around Columbus Day and that weekend wasn't very busy, I'm guessing in large part due to Hurricane Matthew. The following week and weekend did see pretty large crowds though. October is becoming less and less of a great time to visit the parks, as many kids have fall-breaks. If it's an option, I'd definitely recommend going in September instead of October.
After relaxing in our hotel for a bit, we hopped back on the bus and went to Hollywood Studios. After wandering around for a bit, we went to Fantasmic! I don't really get excited about the DHS version of Fantasmic! anymore. I find Disneyland's version to be far superior and the Hollywood Studios version just doesn't measure up. I don't really enjoy the Pocahontas scene and the amphitheater takes away from some of the environment that the Disneyland river has. I'd love to see a new show inside of that amphitheater that could be used during the day and into the night. With Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular stealing the show as Hollywood Studios nighttime spectacular, I think it's time that they add more entertainment to the park. Where Fantasmic! currently sits is a perfect spot for that.
From a 'meh' experience to an excellent experience, we hopped on a bus after Fantasmic! and went over to the Polynesian Village Resort. We had another hour before our Ohana dinner reservation so we sat out on the deck of Trader Sam's and got a drink. After writing about this day, I realize that it was one of my favorite of the trip and also one of the most relaxed. If you have read this blog at all, you know that I prefer a leisurely pace at the parks and this day definitely fit the bill. For what it's worth, the outdoor seating at Trader Sam's is nice but does not measure up (or even come close) to the actual bar.
After a drink we went inside for dinner, which was spectacular. Darin reviewed Ohana shortly after we got back from our trip so I'll just add a few quick thoughts here. I somehow had never been to this restaurant, even though most of the reviews were positive. Now that I've been, I can't wait to go back. I thought the food was excellent, especially the noodles, wings and beef. While the price point is pretty high, there's value to be had if you are a big eater. In other words, starve yourself leading up to this meal as the wait staff (at least in our experience) is more than happy to refill your plate. The environment is calm, fun and relaxing. I thought the theme here was second to none and that's mostly thanks to the staff who gave off a beautiful Hawaiian vibe. Last of all, that dessert was heavenly.
One quick tip for Ohana. If you are going for dinner without little ones, go for a late reservation around 8:30. The restaurant has sneaky good views of the Magic Kingdom fireworks, especially if you are close to the windows. We timed our reservation just right to see HalloWishes (it was a Halloween Party night) as we ate dinner. If you want to see the holiday party fireworks without having to pay for the party, watching from Ohana is a good option.
After stuffing ourselves, we waddled back to our room and crashed for the night. The next day found us back in a spot we visited too often – Hollywood Studios. If you do have a park hopper, I do think that taking DHS in small doses is the way to go. One thing this park has going for it is location. You can do a little bit here and then go to Epcot or hang out on the Boardwalk. We did that plenty on this trip.
In this case, we were there to see Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage. This show isn't bad but it doesn't do much for me. I think this spot is prime for a replacement, even more than Fantasmic! A year or two ago, there were rumblings about Tangled taking the spot of Beauty and the Beast. I haven't heard or read anything about that for a while though.
After watching the show we headed back to our hotel and went to lunch at Sanaa. This restaurant has earned hidden gem status from most Disney bloggers. I'd have to agree, as the prices are lower than most table-service restaurants and the food is better. We'll get to a review soon but Sanaa is definitely worth checking out. Plus, there are animals all over the place!
After lunch we took a short break and then headed to Magic Kingdom for the afternoon parade. The ladies were going to tea at the Grand Floridian that afternoon so it seemed like a decent time to watch Festival of Fantasy. It turned out that we got there a little late and the only spot we found was in the sun. It was easily the hottest day we'd had there and the viewing experience wasn't exactly great.
Still, the parade is just weird enough to keep me interested. I think some of the floats are really interesting, especially the Peter Pan float. Here's a review of that parade.
After some time in Magic Kingdom, we split up. I went back to the hotel to try out the AKL pool. The area around the pool is fantastic, with some animals around the area. As for the pool itself, it was decent but not the highlight of the hotel.
This was the last night that our friends were on the trip with us and we still hadn't seen Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular so it was back to Hollywood Studios again! At least this time we got to see Muppet-Vision 3D, which is still great after all of these years. I wouldn't mind an update to that show but the queue and the jokes still work.
Before the fireworks began, we were pretty hungry. I was trying to hold out until we got to Epcot later that night. Unfortunately, my appetite got the best of me and I had to find a snack. After walking half the park, Darin and I happened upon a counter-service restaurant. He ended up with a foot-long hot dog and I had a giant ice cream sandwich. He claims that the hot dog was one of the worst things he's ever eaten. The ice cream sandwich was pretty average. This moral of this paragraph is to not eat counter-service food at Hollywood Studios.
On a brighter note (pun intended), the fireworks were fantastic. There will be a review soon but the use of pyro, lasers, and projections offer a good look into the future of nighttime spectaculars.
After the crowds cleared we took the 15 minute walk to Epcot. In the evening this is a really nice walk as the heat isn't so intense. I particularly enjoyed it at the end of our trip as we could talk about some of our favorite moments. The view isn't bad either.
Once we made it Epcot, I found some actual dinner and then settled with Melissa in a spot for Illuminations. This is when we experienced the infamous drunk Food & Wine Epcot guest. There were tense moments – when he was doubled over looking as if he'd lose whatever he ate any second. Other moments were humorous – the man staring into the sky contemplating life… Or wondering where he was. Finally there was relief – the man booked it out of the area (I assumed to throw up) and ended up on the other side of the path leaning against a rail. After that pre-show was over, it was time for Illuminations.
Illuminations remains my favorite of the Walt Disney World nighttime spectaculars. I know that the show is fairly old and will likely be replaced in the next decade but I love the abstract nature of the show. The soundtrack is somewhat cheesy but it works. I also think the pyro in the show is underrated. The improvements to the lasers in Illuminations were noticeable and did help it feel pretty fresh.
After Illuminations we spent some time taking in Epcot and finally headed back to the hotel. Our friends left the next morning while we stayed for another day and a half (which will be the 6th and final recap.) For those that have never taken a trip with friends to a Disney Park, I think you're missing out. Going with family is incredibly special and something else that everyone should try but going with friends is a different experience. I'll remember that aspect (and all the other aspects) of this trip fondly.
The final installment of the trip report will be about our final day, including time in Animal Kingdom, a different hotel and some closing thoughts!
Do you have any question about Walt Disney World? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for reading Wandering in Disney!
– Andrew
Categories: Trip Reports


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That 100 proof voice grabs you by the throat at jump, strokes your cheek tenderly, leads you through rollicking barroom arrangements that are expert but almost secondary to, yes, that wonder of a voice. And the way Angel Olsen wields that most core of instruments is what will have you coming back for more: that dry, effortless mapping of twisty emotional terrain, that telegraphing of invulnerable vulnerability. If ever you longed for a Mirah who aches like PJ Harvey aches, look no further.
Thu., Feb. 20, 5:30 p.m., 2014


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Bronze Age tools
We have been exploring the question 'How did Britain change from Stone Age to Iron Age?' in history. The children discussed why the introduction of bronze was such a significant change that this period was named after it. The children then made their own Bronze Age tool using cardboard and string to replicate some skilled Stone Age craftsmen.


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Activist investor William Ackman teamed up with Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International to make a joint run at buying wrinkle-treatment maker Allergan.
This is according to security filings last night.
The move to acquire Allergan, which is worth around $42 billion, is highly unusual as activist investors typically buy stakes and then agitate for strategic change, such as a sale of the company.
One source familiar with their plans said it comes after Valeant tried for over a year to court Allergan but was turned away.
Ackman and his $13 billion hedge fund, Pershing Square, have a long record in pushing companies to do his bidding, which could help Valeant buy Allergan.
Allergan and a spokeswoman for Pershing Square declined to comment.
Valeant, which has been on a buying spree and most recently acquired Bausch & Lomb Holdings, said that a merger with Allergan would create an "unrivaled platform for growth and value creation," and that it would soon finalise its proposal and then announce it.
A deal would bring together two mid-sized pharmaceutical companies with expertise in skin care and eye care products.
Allergan, which also has a lucrative portfolio of ophthalmic drugs to treat conditions such as glaucoma and dry eye, is larger by revenue, reporting $6.3 billion in sales last year. Valeant reported $5.8 billion in revenue last year.
Allergan's longtime CEO, David Pyott, is also an avid dealmaker who built Botox into a blockbuster by continuously testing it for new uses.


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