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Recent Weather Summary: A wet June/July in the Sierra Nevada
An unusually active summer weather pattern has continued across much of California over the past couple of weeks. Conditions have been particularly noteworthy in the Sierra Nevada, where widespread thunderstorms have brought an impressive array of torrential downpours, large and accumulating hail, and even (at the highest elevations in the Southern Sierra) a rare July snowfall.
Most coastal and valley areas, on the other hand, have experienced less spectacular (but still unusual) cool, cloudy, and even showery conditions. The primary culprit: an unusually cool, deep, and slow-moving low pressure system off the California coast, which acted upon a preexisting moist (monsoonal) airmass. This low has since moved on to the east, and more seasonably dry and warm conditions have returned to California. Where recent mountain downpours did occur, wildfire risk in tinder-dry drought-stricken forests has been notably (if locally and temporarily) reduced, though it won't take long for vegetation to dry out again.
Near-term outlook: More active summer weather on the way
The CFS has been hinting at an unusually active summer for a couple of months now, and those early predictions may be realized. It now appears that there will be at least two opportunities for active weather across large portions of California over the next 10-12 days. Later during the coming week, deep southeasterly flow will develop over at least the southern half of California. This kind of pattern is a classic summer monsoonal setup, with the potential for a couple of easterly waves to propagate into Southern California from the Desert Southwest. Models also suggest that a weak upper-level low or trough may develop off of the NorCal coast as well, which would allow subtropical moisture to advect northward over much of California.
At the same time, soon-to-be Hurricane Dolores will slowly move to the west-northwest off the coast of Baja California. There is still considerable uncertainty regarding the ultimate track of Dolores, and if the system takes a more westward trajectory, there will likely be few (in any) impacts in California. If, however, the system takes a more northerly trajectory–as recent runs of the GFS and ECMWF models suggest–prevailing southerly flow around the low off of NorCal may draw a considerable amount of remnant moisture and energy from then-former-hurricane Dolores over the state.
Both of these features together have the potential to produce a prolonged period of mountain and desert thunderstorms. There may eventually be a notable potential for showers and thunderstorms in coastal/valley regions, possibly including (at some point) all of the major metro areas in the state (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento). It's worth noting that the remnants of decaying East Pacific hurricanes do occasionally bring warm season precipitation in California–especially during major El Niño years. The likelihood of this kind of scenario unfolding is much higher than usual this summer due to widespread record-warm ocean temperatures throughout the northeastern Pacific Ocean, and Dolores probably won't be the last tropical system to potentially affect California before hurricane season ends in late autumn.
Very strong El Niño now most likely outcome for fall/winter 2015-2016
El Niño has been making headlines in the weather and climate community for the better part of two years now. Early forecasts from winter/spring 2014 hinted that a major event might take shape during summer 2014–but, as regular readers of this blog are acutely aware, those initial projections failed to come to fruition. A weak "El Niño-ish" event instead developed and persisted through late winter 2015. The atmosphere failed to respond to the unusually warm ocean conditions in the way we typically observe during canonical El Niño events, and global impacts did not resemble those usually associated with El Niño (though global temperatures were still the warmest on record in 2014).
Starting earlier this calendar year–during late winter and early spring 2015–a series of westerly wind bursts (WWBs) developed in the tropical West Pacific Ocean, allowing much of the extremely warm water that has accumulated over the past two decades of persistent "La Niña-like" conditions to "slosh" back eastward. Several large oceanic Kelvin waves generated in response to these westerly wind bursts propagated across the entire Pacific basin, inhibiting upwelling off the west coast of South America and allowing ocean temperatures near the Peruvian coast to rise dramatically. For a while, early 2015 looked a lot like early 2014: the atmospheric precursors to a major El Niño event were in place, and the ocean was beginning to respond. But unlike 2014, the ocean was already in a weak El Niño state in early 2015–and the early WWBs acted to reinforce the already anomalous state of the tropical Pacific Ocean.
Since the early spring, 2014 and 2015 have diverged even more dramatically from and oceanic and atmospheric perspective. Powerful westerly wind bursts–including at least one which may have been the strongest on record for this time of year–have continued during summer 2015, and have recently extended eastward nearly all the way across the Pacific Basin. The most recent of these has generated another very strong Kelvin wave, which is now making its way eastward (and will arrive at the South American coast later this summer).
Meanwhile, an extraordinary (and apparently record-breaking) string of tropical cyclones has developed in the central and western Pacific Ocean. Easterly trade winds have dramatically weakened across the tropical Pacific–in some spots even reversing entirely–and as a result impressive ocean surface warming has occurred in the central and eastern tropical Pacific over the past 2-3 months. Ocean temperatures in some spots are now higher than during any previous July on record (even including the powerful El Niño years of 1982-1983 and 1997-1998). Finally, relative sea surface temperatures have recently started falling in the far western Pacific near Indonesia–a hallmark of a well-defined, powerful, and maturing El Niño event.
All of this is to say: from an observational perspective, the current El Niño event is going full-steam ahead. The Multivariate ENSO index–which measures the overall strength of an El Niño event by taking into account a variety of atmospheric and oceanic indicators–just hit its highest value since the 1997-1998 El Niño (and is still rising). Therefore, by at least some metrics, strong El Niño conditions already exist in the tropical Pacific Ocean as of July 2015.
And this El Niño is not done strengthening yet. Essentially all dynamical models available suggest that the current event will continue to intensify through the summer and autumn months, not peaking until some time between November and February. In fact, the flagship American and European models (the CFS and ECMWF, respectively) continue to hint at the possibility that this event could eventually become the strongest on record. That's a pretty tall order–given the enormous magnitude of the events which occurred in 1982-1983 and 1997-1998. On the other hand, model projections have become increasingly eyebrow-raising at the same time of year when our confidence in their reliability increases dramatically, so it would be unwise to discount them outright. Generally speaking, healthy skepticism is warranted when complex dynamical models make predictions that involve totally unprecedented extreme events. But 2015 has already been a year of record-breaking meteorological extremes across vast swaths of the Northern Hemisphere, and considerable evidence suggests that there will be more to come. At this point, it seems quite likely that very strong El Niño conditions will be in place by late autumn 2015, and there is some risk that the present event could eclipse even the extreme events of 1982-1983 and 1997-1998.
Well-developed El Niño conditions already exist in the tropical Pacific Ocean, and observational/model evidence suggests that the current event may become one of the strongest on record by late autumn.
Latest NMME ensemble shows >95% chance of a strong #ElNino & >60% chance of the strongest in modern times #climate pic.twitter.com/jKFfjhFlw7
— Eric Blake ? (@EricBlake12) July 7, 2015
El Niño impacts in CA will depend on overall North Pacific ocean conditions
I've already written extensively about the potential impacts of a strong El Niño in California (here and here). The most noticeable effect is to increase the risk of heavy precipitation during the winter rainy season, though the signal is most consistent for the strongest events and in the southern half of the state. But it's critically important to remember that even a large increase in the likelihood of a wet winter does not eliminate the possibility of another dry one.
This is particularly true regarding the current event due to the unusual–and in many ways unprecedented–configuration of Northern Hemisphere ocean temperatures. The much-discussed "Blob" of warm water in the far northeastern Pacific has made a comeback in recent months as an incredibly persistent blocking high pressure system set up over the Pacific Northwest and western Canada (sound familiar?). In fact, highly anomalous warm water now extends continuously from the south coast of Alaska to the west coast of Peru (!). This is a truly enormous expanse of very warm ocean–spanning thousands of miles–and represents a staggering amount of extra energy in the atmosphere-ocean system. It's possible that these record-warm ocean temperatures could add a considerable amount of water vapor to the atmosphere this coming winter–even more than has been the case with previous strong El Niño events, since these warm waters extend well outside of the canonical tropical warm zones.
But water vapor doesn't tell the whole story, either, since we still need to experience winter storm systems to act on all that extra moisture. El Niño tends to strengthen the subtropical jet stream and low-latitude storm track, which is the primary mechanism by which California sees extra precipitation during such years. The strength of the jet stream depends on the magnitude and spatial orientation of atmospheric temperature variations, which themselves are dependent on spatial variations in ocean temperatures. Since the entire North Pacific basin is anomalously warm at the moment, it's possible that the strong subtropical ocean (and atmosphere) temperature gradients that usually exist during El Niño may not develop as they normally would, which could interfere with the subtropical jet stream enhancement. The magnitude of the expected event is sufficiently large that very strong tropical warming will most likely be able to overwhelm the high-latitude ocean warmth, but at this point that's just an educated guess–no one knows for sure. One piece of good news on this front is that the persistent tropical Pacific warm pool which is thought to have played a leading role in the generation and maintenance of the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge over the past several winters is rapidly fading as El Niño strengthens. While there are plausible hypotheses regarding other contributors to the Triple-R's persistence–including the effects of melting ice and snow in the Arctic and the role of regional ocean temperature variations–the overall Pacific SST configuration this coming winter has probably changed enough from the past several winters to prevent a recurrence of the Ridge (at least in its recent, unrelenting form).
Overall summary: a very strong El Niño event in the tropical Pacific is now highly likely, and although the likelihood of a wetter-than-average winter in California is increasing, considerable uncertainty remains due to a highly unusual temperature configuration elsewhere in the Pacific.
No matter what, it's going to be a very interesting winter ahead. Stay tuned.
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This article is more than 1 year old
Doner kebabs: Death wrapped in pitta bread
Shock findings of takeaway survey
Those of you with a penchant for the traditional post piss-up English delicacy of doner kebab might do well to keep a defibrillator to hand - if the results of a study by council food standards officers are anything to go by.
The Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS) coordinated a doner dragnet in which operatives from 76 councils across Blighty examined 494 post-pub pitta-wrapped pabula. If your heart can stand it, the shock results were: The average kebab contains 98 per cent of daily salt, nearly 1000 calories (half a woman's daily food intake) and 148 per cent of daily saturated fat.
And that's just the average kebab. The LACORS press release (.doc) outlines the health benefits of the worst offenders thus: 1990 calories before salad and sauces - over 95 per cent of a women's daily calorie intake; 346 per cent of a women's saturated fat intake; and 277 per cent of an adult's daily salt intake.
The upshot of this is that, were doners subject to the supermarket "traffic light" system, 97 per cent would be red for fat, 98 per cent would be red for saturated fat and 96 per cent would be red for salt.
Well, if that's not enough to get you waddling breathless to the salad bar, LACORS explains you might not even be aware of what your late-night death-with-chilli-sauce extravaganza actually contains. It elaborates:
The study found a major issue with food labelling, 40 per cent of sampled kebabs that provided labelling information did not have an exact declaration for the meat species present. Tests also showed that in 15 per cent of cases beef was found in the kebab, but not declared on the label. In fact, 35 per cent of the labels listed different meat species than that actually contained in the kebab. Alarmingly, six kebabs tested positive for pork when it had not been declared as an ingredient, of which two were claimed as Halal.
LACORS chairman, Cllr Geoffrey Theobald OBE, said: "We would never consider kebabs part of a calorie controlled diet, but the level of saturated fat and salt in some is a serious cause for concern."
Oh yes, and if you think you can avoid certain death by deploying the old "no, I'll just have a small doner thanks mate I'm watching me waistline" trick, think again, because the study found "little difference between small and large kebab weight".
LACORS's full-fat report is available here (.doc). ®
LACORS sums up the regional doner situation thus: "It makes a difference where in the UK you buy your kebab, as the North West averaged over 1,100 calories per kebab, while in Northern Ireland and London the figures were more modest at 843 and 912 calories per kebab. The South West of England supplied five of the worst ten kebabs collected in the study."

subset: commoncrawl


text: Kilo Volt Meter (kV) meters used tomeasure the kilo volt value of an Instrument Transformer, CT/PT etc. The unit is used for higher value calibration with a wide range from 1% to 110%. Kilo Voltmeters are highly accurate, portable voltage measurement systems traceable to NABL standards. The Kilo meter series consists of a high voltage divider assembly, a precision readout device and interconnection leads. The battery operation makes the system completely portable for field testing while the precision divider assembly and readout device makes it suitable for laboratory use.


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The ACLU National Prison Project is dedicated to ensuring that our nation's prisons, jails, and other places of detention comply with the Constitution, domestic law, and international human rights principles, and to ending the policies that have given the United States the highest incarceration rate in the world. We promote a fair and effective criminal justice system in which incarceration is used only as a last resort, and its purpose is to prepare prisoners for release and a productive, law-abiding life at the earliest possible time. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, we work to ensure that conditions of confinement are consistent with health, safety, and human dignity, and that prisoners retain all rights of free persons that are not inconsistent with incarceration. Achieving these goals will result in a criminal justice system that respects individual rights and increases public safety for everyone, at greatly reduced fiscal cost.
Our goals include:
Substantially reducing the incarcerated population, especially among people of color, people with mental disabilities, and other vulnerable populations. The human and financial costs of mass incarceration are staggering, and the burden falls disproportionately on the poor and people of color. However, the current fiscal crisis and years of falling crime rates have combined to create the best opportunity in decades to challenge our nation's addiction to incarceration.
Increasing public accountability and transparency of jails, prisons, and other places of detention. Because places of detention are inherently closed environments housing the unpopular and the politically powerless, external oversight is critical to guard against mistreatment and abuse. The increasing privatization of detention, which creates financial incentives for both increased incarceration and harsher conditions of confinement, has made public accountability even more important. The federal Prison Litigation Reform Act and its state analogs have significantly reduced judicial oversight of prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities, and resulted in serious abuses going unchecked.
Ending cruel, inhuman, and degrading conditions of confinement. Far too many prisoners are held in conditions that daily threaten their health, safety, and human dignity. Denial of adequate medical and mental health care, basic sanitation, and protection from physical and sexual assault are all too common. Tens of thousands of prisoners are held in long-term solitary confinement. The devastating effects of such treatment, particularly on persons with mental illness, are well known.
Expanding prisoners' freedom of religion, expression, and association. Prisoners' rights to read, write, speak, practice their religion, and communicate with the outside world are often curtailed far beyond what is necessary for institutional security. Not only are these activities central to the ability of prisoners to retain their humanity, they also contribute to the flow of information between prisons and the outside world and thus provide a vital form of oversight of these closed institutions.
Related Issues
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Mapping your Neighborhood
Many students don't know much about the environmental resources and locations of designated hazardous sites in and around their own neighborhood. This exercise challenges the students to learn more about their places where they live and explore the environment beyond the surrounding parks and trees. In this exercise student will explore geospatial data to locate and map the college campus, sources of water supply, destination of campus waste, and EPA's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) sites. Simple analysis in a GIS will be conducted to determine the proximity of the TRI sites to water resources and the college. A follow up activity will analyze the geographic proximity between demographic groups and pollution sources within the county where the college is located.
Learning Goals
1. Explore the information about polluters from on line resources
2. Visualize and analyze the spatial distribution of hazardous sites in relation to other environmental and physical resources.
3. Find spatial association, if any, between critical environmental resources and pollution sites.
4. Identify any environmental injustice in the community
Context for Use
The lecture will be followed by one or two hands on exercises in data downloading, manipulation, analysis, and creating output in a map format using ArcGIS from ESRI. This exercise is designed for students with introductory skills in using GIS. Lab time should be at least 3 hours divided into two separate sessions in a week.
Description and Teaching Materials
Teaching Notes and Tips
An outline of college campus along with the following on your map template:
- County boundary with an inset map of NY state
- Major road network
- Location of drinking water source & waste sites
- TRI sites in the county with a one mile buffer around each
References and Resources
Data Source:


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SANAC Resolution on SA Country Position in Negotiations for the UN High Level Meeting
Thirty years into the AIDS epidemic, and 10 years since the landmark UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, the world will come together to review progress and chart the future course of the global AIDS response at the 2011 UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS from 8–10 June 2011 in New York. Deliberations on the draft declaration to be adopted at the conclusion of the HLM have commenced and some of the delegations have raised concerns regarding lack of consensus on key issues and principles that must underpin this new declaration.
In light of these, South Africa has taken a resolution that sets out the country's position and seeks to guide deliberations to ensure that the Declaration is comprehensive, forward-looking and human rights based. Click here for the statement of resolutions issued by the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) on the country's position.
The UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS is a commitment made by all heads of state and Governments and Representatives of States and Governments convened at the Special Session of the General Assembly in June 2001 to review and address the problem of HIV/AIDS in all its aspects and to secure a global commitment to enhancing coordination and intensification of national, regional and international efforts to combat the pandemic in a comprehensive manner. The full Declaration can be found here: http://www.un.org/ga/aids/coverage/FinalDeclarationHIVAIDS.html


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I have a php website where everything is in the public_html\ folder, including an includes
folder with config and classes. I told my developer to move it away from public folder but he said there is no risk as files are php files and even if someone types in browser the
all they will get is a blank page.
Is that correct? Is there no way someone can download a php file and see whats inside, even if hacker logs into my server somehow to download the file or include it in a php file on his server using XSS?


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~Unfinished Business, Lee Kravitz
Ten boxes of stuff that have been stored for thirteen years lead to a unique and fulfilling year for Lee Kravitz, a workaholic who has just lost his job as editor-in-chief of Parade magazine. As he goes through the contents of the boxes, his trip down memory lane leads to the realization that there is more than a bit of unfinished business he needs to take care of, in the present day. Letters from relatives and assorted items remind him of the people and events from his past, and he decides to take action. He starts by visiting his Aunt Fern, who he has not seen in fifteen years, which is a heart-warming experience. After meeting with Fern, Lee Kravitz meets with many of the other people who were important to him from his past, and he describes these encounters in a clear and candid way in this book, which was published in 2010.
I enjoyed reading Unfinished Business: One Man's Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things. This book is a good reminder that life is short and that the time to act is now. Reach out to others before it's too late, make amends, send notes (or email), reconnect. With all the means we have today, including social media, it's easier than ever to find the people we've lost touch with. (I try to do a lot of what's covered in this book already, on a regular basis, because I don't like to be weighed down by unfinished business.) Lee Kravitz's book is honest, touching, and inspiring.
Good news! The publisher, Bloomsbury USA, is generously offering a copy of Unfinished Business as a giveaway (U.S./Canada only).
- To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment.
- For another chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower, or that you subscribe in Google Reader.
- For an additional chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.
- For an extra chance, describe some unfinished business you'd like to take care of.
Enter by 5PM PDT on Monday, June 27. One winner will be chosen randomly and announced on Tuesday, June 28. Good luck!
Special thanks to Lisa from TLC for sending me this book. For more reviews of this book, please visit the other stops on the TLC's Unfinished Business book blog tour.


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The Music That Immortalised 90s Subculture with electronic technologies
Written by DREAMMEDIALLC on January 16, 2017
The 90s undoubtedly marked the Golden Age of underground music zines cataloguing subcultural movements. Without an avalanche of Tumblr accounts offering endless information on what your favourite band is wearing, Soundcloud recommendations about who to listen to next, or Twitter documenting your most-loved guitar player's childhood fear, publications such as the pioneering DIY zine Sniffin' Glue and groupie-focused Star found their way into the eager hands of music fans around the world. To celebrate a simpler time, here is our rundown of the five most iconic underground zines you might not have heard of, and where you can read them.
Starting off this list with the OG of all zines, Sniffin' Glue was the first publication to chronicle punk from an insider's point of view. Created in the UK in 1976, right after editor Mark Perry (who was a bank clerk at the time) watched a Ramones concert, Sniffin' Glue's haphazard DIY style, with felt-tip titles, shabby grammar, swear words and informal writing paved the way for the many punk zines that followed. Submitting to the movement's idea of creating your own culture and rejecting the old, it did not subscribe to any traditional forms of publishing, and in fact was closed down after only 14 issues due to fear of becoming incorporated into the mainstream music press. Unfortunately, it is not catalogued online – but if you're London-based, you can check out the full archive at the London College of Communication's zine library.
Considered scandalous at the time, 1973's LA-based Star magazine was aimed at teenage girls and chronicled the lives of the decade's most iconic groupies, from Sable Starr to the hyper-controversial Sunset Strip "baby groupies". With a manifesto that could almost be called feminist, the first issue opened riddled with angry letters from teachers and parents – one of them surprised the magazine "didn't come wrapped in plain brown paper" as a porn magazine would – to which the editorial team answered: "How about letting Arkansas' girls decide about Star?" It even featured a commentator that could've come straight from 2016, who stated that men like him don't like this "Women's Lib baloney" that the magazine advocates. Referring to their readers as Foxy Ladies (also a name used for baby groupies), Star never undermined their pheromone-ridden teen readers, and featured plenty of pictures of a young Mick Jagger, alongside comic strips of fantasy scenarios, for example where a fan dresses up as glam rock icon Marc Bolan to get backstage. With five printed issues painstakingly collected and digitalized, you can access the whole archive here.


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Shaping the future: Our strategy for research and innovation in humanitarian response.
You are seeing this because you are using a browser that is not supported. The Elrha website is built using modern technology and standards. We recommend upgrading your browser with one of the following to properly view our website:
Windows MacPlease note that this is not an exhaustive list of browsers. We also do not intend to recommend a particular manufacturer's browser over another's; only to suggest upgrading to a browser version that is compliant with current standards to give you the best and most secure browsing experience.


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Welcome to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton
Close-to-home health care in Hamilton, NJ
RWJUH Hamilton is a network of health services providing medical, surgical, diagnostic and treatment services to the community. Located in Hamilton Township, the hospital provides emergency and acute care to patients when they need it.
Our services also go beyond the walls of the hospital, providing outpatient and specialty care clinics such as the Cancer Center at RWJ Hamilton, RWJ Outpatient Center in Columbus, RWJ Rehabilitation, outpatient surgery centers, physician offices and the RWJ Fitness & Wellness Center.
Proven Commitment to Quality & Service
Our commitment to health care and the community has earned numerous awards in quality, performance, and patient experience. This includes being the first of only two hospitals in New Jersey to receive the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award presented by the president of the United States. It has earned recognition as Top General Hospital twice and earned a hospital safety grade "A" by The Leapfrog Group. The hospital is fully accredited by The Joint Commission with specialty certifications in stroke care, spine surgery and hip/knee replacement. The cancer program is accredited by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. As New Jersey's only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rutgers Cancer Institute, together with RWJUH Hamilton and RWJBarnabas Health, provides patients access to the most advanced treatment options including complex surgical procedures, sophisticated radiation therapy techniques, innovative clinical trials, immunotherapy, and precision medicine.
No matter where you seek care, the promise is the same – quality and service you can trust.


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Rup & Forn Creative
Metal F LED Letter Light
Regular price
9 Inch / 22cm Battery Operated Vintage Marquee Letter Light F.
Perfect for weddings, gifts and home decor.
Indoor use only.
Battery operated - requires 2 x AA batteries. On/Off switch located on the side for ease.
Made from sturdy steel - nothing like the cheap metal or plastic imitations.
Wall Mountable and Free Standing.
LED fitted bulbs. Safe and a great option for night lights.
Dimensions: 22cm high, 5cm thick, width varies depending on letter.


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Coliseo Regional Madre de Dios (Puerto Maldonado)
Friday, 19 January 2018
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Here with you, I feel welling up within me the song of Saint Francis: "Praise be to you, my Lord!" Yes, praise be to you for the opportunity you have given us in this encounter. Thank you, Bishop David Martínez de Aguirre Guinea, Hector, Yésica and María Luisa, for your words of welcome and for your witness talks. In you, I would like to thank and greet all the inhabitants of Amazonia.
I see that you come from the different native peoples of Amazonia: Harakbut, Esse-ejas, Matsiguenkas, Yines, Shipibos, Asháninkas. Yaneshas, Kakintes, Nahuas, Yaminahuas, Juni Kuin, Madijá, Manchineris, Kukamas, Kandozi, Quichuas, Huitotos, Shawis, Achuar, Boras, Awajún, Wampís, and others. I also see that among us are peoples from the Andes who came to the forest and became Amazonians. I have greatly looked forward to this meeting. I wanted to begin my visit to Peru here. Thank you for being here and for helping us to see closer up, in your faces, the reflection of this land. It is a diverse face, one of infinite variety and enormous biological, cultural and spiritual richness. Those of us who do not live in these lands need your wisdom and knowledge to enable us to enter into, without destroying, the treasures that this region holds. And to hear an echo of the words that the Lord spoke to Moses: "Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground" (Ex 3:5).
Allow me to say once again: "Praise to you, Lord, for your marvellous handiwork in your Amazonian peoples and for all the biodiversity that these lands embrace!
This song of praise is cut short when we learn about, and see, the deep wounds that Amazonia and its peoples bear. I wanted to come to visit you and listen to you, so that we can stand together, in the heart of the Church, and share your challenges and reaffirm with you a heartfelt option for the defence of life, the defence of the earth and the defence of cultures.
The native Amazonian peoples have probably never been so threatened on their own lands as they are at present. Amazonia is being disputed on various fronts. On the one hand, there is neo-extractivism and the pressure being exerted by great business interests that want to lay hands on its petroleum, gas, wood, gold and forms of agro-industrial monocultivation. On the other hand, its lands are being threatened by the distortion of certain policies aimed at the "conservation" of nature without taking into account the men and women, specifically you, my Amazonian brothers and sisters, who inhabit it. We know of movements that, under the guise of preserving the forest, hoard great expanses of woodland and negotiate with them, leading to situations of oppression for the native peoples; as a result, they lose access to the land and its natural resources. These problems strangle her peoples and provoke the migration of the young due to the lack of local alternatives. We have to break with the historical paradigm that views Amazonia as an inexhaustible source of supplies for other countries without concern for its inhabitants.
I consider it essential to begin creating institutional expressions of respect, recognition and dialogue with the native peoples, acknowledging and recovering their native cultures, languages, traditions, rights and spirituality. An intercultural dialogue in which you yourselves will be "the principal dialogue partners, especially when large projects affecting your land are proposed".[1] Recognition and dialogue will be the best way to transform relationships whose history is marked by exclusion and discrimination.
At the same time, it is right to acknowledge the existence of promising initiatives coming from your own communities and organizations, which advocate that the native peoples and communities themselves be the guardians of the woodlands. The resources that conservation practices generate would then revert to benefit your families, improve your living conditions and promote health and education in your communities. This form of "doing good" is in harmony with the practices of "good living" found in the wisdom of our peoples. Allow me to state that if, for some, you are viewed as an obstacle or a hindrance, the fact is your lives cry out against a style of life that is oblivious to its own real cost. You are a living memory of the mission that God has entrusted to us all: the protection of our common home.
The defence of the earth has no other purpose than the defence of life. We know of the suffering caused for some of you by emissions of hydrocarbons, which gravely threaten the lives of your families and contaminate your natural environment.
Along the same lines, there exists another devastating assault on life linked to this environmental contamination favoured by illegal mining. I am speaking of human trafficking: slave labour and sexual abuse. Violence against adolescents and against women cries out to heaven. "I have always been distressed at the lot of those who are victims of various kinds of human trafficking. How I wish that all of us would hear God's cry, 'Where is your brother?' (Gen 4:9). Where is your brother or sister who is enslaved? Let us not pretend and look the other way. There is greater complicity than we think. This issue involves everyone!"[2]
How can we fail to remember Saint Turibius, who stated with dismay in the Third Council of Lima "that not only in times past were great wrongs and acts of coercion done to these poor people, but in our own time many seek to do the same…" (Session III, c. 3). Sadly, five centuries later, these words remain timely. The prophetic words of those men of faith – as Hector and Yèsica reminded us – are the cry of this people, which is often silenced or not allowed to speak. That prophecy must remain alive in our Church, which will never stop pleading for the outcast and those who suffer.
This concern gives rise to our basic option for the life of the most defenceless. I am thinking of the peoples referred to as "Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation" (PIAV). We know that they are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. Their primitive lifestyle made them isolated even from their own ethnic groups; they went into seclusion in the most inaccessible reaches of the forest in order to live in freedom. Continue to defend these most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters. Their presence reminds us that we cannot use goods meant for all as consumerist greed dictates. Limits have to be set that can help preserve us from all plans for a massive destruction of the habitat that makes us who we are.
The recognition of these people – who can never be considered a minority, but rather authentic dialogue partners – as of all the native peoples, reminds us that we are not the absolute owners of creation. We need urgently to appreciate the essential contribution that they bring to society as a whole, and not reduce their cultures to an idealized image of a natural state, much less a kind of museum of a bygone way of life. Their cosmic vision and their wisdom, have much to teach those of us who are not part of their culture. All our efforts to improve the lives of the Amazonian peoples will prove too little. We hear disturbing reports about the spread of certain diseases. The silence is alarming and deadly. By remaining silent, we fail to work for prevention, especially among adolescents and young people, and to ensure treatment, thus condemning the sick to a cruel ostracism. We call upon states to implement policies of intercultural health that take into account the experience and the worldview of the native people, training professionals from each ethnic group who can deal with the disease in the context of their own worldview. As I pointed out in Laudato Si', once again we need to speak out against the pressure applied to certain countries by international organizations that promote sterilization policies. These are particularly directed at the native peoples. We know too that the practice of sterilizing women, at times without their knowledge, continues to be promoted.
The culture of our peoples is a sign of life. Amazonia is not only a reserve of biodiversity but also a cultural reserve that must be preserved in the face of the new forms of colonialism. The family is – as one of you said – and always has been, the social institution that has most contributed to keeping our cultures alive. In moments of past crisis, in the face of various forms of imperialism, the families of the original peoples have been the best defence of life. Special care is demanded of us, lest we allow ourselves to be ensnared by ideological forms of colonialism, disguised as progress, that slowly but surely dissipate cultural identities and establish a uniform, single… and weak way of thinking. Please listen to the elderly. They possess a wisdom that puts them in contact with the transcendent and makes them see what is essential in life. Let us not forget that "the disappearance of a culture can be just as serious, or even more serious, than the disappearance of a species of plant or animal".[3] The one way for cultures not to disappear is for them to keep alive and in constant movement. How important is what Yésica and Hector told us: "We want our children to study, but we don't want the school to erase our traditions, our languages; we don't want to forget our ancestral wisdom!"
Education helps us to build bridges and to create a culture of encounter. Schooling and education for the native peoples must be a priority and commitment of the state: an integrated and inculturated commitment that recognizes, respects and integrates their ancestral wisdom as a treasure belonging to the whole nation, as María Luzmila made clear to us.
I ask my brother bishops to continue, as they are doing even in the remotest places in the forest, to encourage intercultural and bilingual education in the schools, in institutions of teacher training, and in the universities.[4] I express my appreciation of the initiatives that the Amazonian Church in Peru helps carry out in favour of the native peoples. These include schools, student residences, centres of research and development like the José Pio Aza Cultural Centre, CAAAP and CETA, and new and important intercultural projects like NOPOKI, aimed expressly at training young people from the different ethnic groups of our Amazonia.
I likewise support all those young men and women of the native peoples who are trying to create from their own standpoint a new anthropology, and working to reinterpret the history of their peoples from their own perspective. I also encourage those who through art, literature, craftsmanship and music show the world your worldview and your cultural richness. Much has been written and spoken about you. It is good that you are now the ones to define yourselves and show us your identity. We need to listen to you.
Dear brothers and sisters of Amazonia, how many missionaries, men and women, have devoted themselves to your peoples and defended your cultures! They did so inspired by the Gospel. Christ himself took flesh in a culture, the Jewish culture, and from it, he gave us himself as a source of newness for all peoples, in such a way that each, in its own deepest identity, feels itself affirmed in him. Do not yield to those attempts to uproot the Catholic faith from your peoples.[5] Each culture and each worldview that receives the Gospel enriches the Church by showing a new aspect of Christ's face. The Church is not alien to your problems and your lives, she does not want to be aloof from your way of life and organization. We need the native peoples to shape the culture of the local churches in Amazonia. And in this regard, it gave me great joy to hear that one of Laudato Si's passages was read by a permanent deacon of your own culture. Help your bishops, and help your men and women missionaries, to be one with you, and in this way, by an inclusive dialogue, to shape a Church with an Amazonian face, a Church with a native face. In this spirit, I have convoked a Synod for Amazonia in 2019 whose first meeting, as the pre-Synodal Council, will be held here this afternoon.
I trust in your peoples' capacity for resilience and your ability to respond to these difficult times in which you live. You have shown this at different critical moments in your history, with your contributions and with your differentiated vision of human relations, with the natural environment and your way of living the faith.
I pray for you, and for this land blessed by God, and I ask you, please, not to forget to pray for me.
Many thanks!
Tinkunakama (Quechua: Until we meet again)
[1] Encyclical Letter Laudato Si', 146.
[2] Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 211.
[3] Encyclical Letter Laudato Si', 145.
[4] Cf. FIFTH GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN BISHOPS, Aparecida Document (29 June 2007), 530.
[5] Cf. ibid., 531
Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana


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The 29th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts
Delightful Horror and the Sense of Wonder: Appreciating the Sublime in the Fantastic
[Feel free to distribute this general Call for Papers. The more it's passed around the merrier! Also, although the original deadline of Oct. 31 has passed, the recent news of SFRA's change of venue ((see below)) for SFRA 2008 has prompted the IAFA to revise its deadline for paper proposals for ICFA-29. The new deadline is December 15th.]
The 29th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts will be held March 19-23, 2008, at the Orlando Airport Marriott in Orlando, Florida. The conference begins at 3 pm on Wednesday and ends at 1 am on Sunday upon the conclusion of the conference banquet. The focus of ICFA-29 is on the relationship between the sense of wonder embodied by the sublime and the fantastic in literature, film, and other media. The sheer magnitude of the universe gives rise to the amazing, the astonishing, the astounding, the thrilling, and the wondrous. Edmund Burke argued it is "infinity [that] has a tendency to fill the mind with that sort of delightful horror which is the most genuine effect and truest test of the sublime." It then should come as no surprise that the sublime has been a mainstay in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other related fantastic modes. Papers are invited that explore this topic. In addition, we especially look forward to papers on the work of our guests:
Guest of Honor: Vernor Vinge, author of "The Technological Singularity" and Hugo Award-winning A Fire Upon the Deep.
Guest of Honor: Greer Ilene Gilman, author of the Crawford Award-winning Moonwise.
Guest Scholar: Roger Luckhurst, author of The Trauma Paradigm (Routledge) and Science Fiction (Polity Press).
As always, we also welcome proposals for individual papers and for academic sessions and panels on any aspect of the fantastic in any media.The new deadline is December 15th.
We encourage work from institutionally-affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, graduate students, and undergraduate students.
The Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for an Essay Not in English is open to all members of the IAFA. The IAFA Graduate Student Award is open to all graduate students presenting papers at the year's conference. Details are available via Robin Reid, Second Vice-President (email@example.com). Finally, the Dell Magazines Undergraduate Science Fiction Award will also be handed out at this year's conference.
Please See Page Two (Over) for Submission Guidelines
Look for Information and Updates at the IAFA website: www.iafa.org
Submission Guidelines
In order to be considered for the 2008 program, your proposal to (1) read a paper, (2) recruit and chair a paper session, or (3) organize and chair a panel discussion should be date-stamped no later than December 15th.; electronic correspondence is welcome. Proposals must be sent to the appropriate Division Head (addresses below). Advise the Division Head if you would like to volunteer to chair a paper session. Proposals must include a 500-word abstract and appropriate bibliography indicating the project's scholarly or theoretical context. Presenters must be members of IAFA at the time of the conference. Be sure to indicate all audio-visual equipment needs in this initial proposal; later A/V requests cannot be guaranteed.
All aspects of the fantastic in work aimed at children and young adults. Division Head: Joe Sutliff Sanders, California State University, Dept. of English, 5500 University Parkway, San Bernardino, CA, 92407-2397 (email@example.com).
All aspects of the fantastic in British, American and Commonwealth literature. Division Head: Charles W. Nelson, Humanities Dept., Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931 (email@example.com).
All aspects of the fantastic in television, video, and film. Division Head: Susan A. George, Gender & Women's Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 3326 Dwinelle Hall, Berkeley CA 94720-1070 (email@example.com).
COMMUNITIES & CULTURE IN THE FANTASTIC [formerly PCVA]
All aspects of the fantastic in fan cultures and communities, including fan fiction, comics/graphic novels, filking, conventions, hypertexts, viral marketing, RPG. Division Head: Barbara Lucas, VIS, 31225 Bainbridge Rd, Suite M, Solon OH 44139 (firstname.lastname@example.com).
VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS [formerly PCVA]
All aspects of the fantastic in live drama, music, dance, sculpture, body art, and photography and digital imagery. Division Head: Stefan Hall, Bowling Green State University, Dept. of Theatre and Film, 338 South Hall, Bowling Green, OH, 43403-0180 (firstname.lastname@example.com)
All aspects of horror in mainstream and popular literature, including literary traditions, aesthetics, psychological constructs, and comparative influences. Division Head: Stephanie Moss, 10032 N. 52nd. Street, Tampa, FL 33517 (firstname.lastname@example.com).
All aspects of the fantastic in international and comparative literature. Division Head: Dale Knickerbocker, Dept. of Foreign Languages, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858 (email@example.com).
All aspects of science fiction literature, history, and theory. Division Head: Sherryl Vint, Dept. of English Literature, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1 (firstname.lastname@example.com).
March 19-23, 2008
Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel
Look for Information and Updates at the IAFA website: www.iafa.org


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RK-520R: Red Reflective "Stripe" Kit fits both 8" and 10" Jesse Odyssey Bags.
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Remember, this kit fits both the 8" and 10"Jesse Odyssey Bags. If you're interested in this same kit, but in Silver Reflective that shines back Bright White, take a look at Kit #RK-520S.


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It is probably not an understatement to say that the development of written language is one of the most significant developments in human civilization. Writing marks the distinction between history and prehistory, and early written documents are extremely important to scholars in many fields, especially to those who study history, linguistics, or ancient literature.
Papyrus, pen, and inkwell from ancient Egypt
The study of early written documents from around the time of the Roman empire is known as papyrology, a term which refers to the fact that most of these documents were written on a material called papyrus (plural papyri). Papyrologists study all manner of writing done by hand, including writing done in ink or inscribed on wooden, lead, or waxed tablets. Although papyrus was used as a writing material as early as 3000 BC and as late as 1000 AD, papyrologists focus on the period beginning in the 4th century BC, when the Greeks conquered Egypt, and ending in the 7th century AD when the Arabs overtook the region.
Of course, writing occurred throughout the ancient world, but most of the examples that survive today come from Egypt. Egypt's dry, desert climate is ideal for the preservation of papyrus and other materials. In rare cases, papyri have survived outside of the desert; the Herculaneum papyri were carbonized during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, ensuring their preservation but also badly damaging the papyri. Other materials, such as wooden writing tablets, have survived as far north as Britain, near Hadrian's Wall. However, the vast majority of examples of writing from this time period come from Egypt, where the influence of first Greek and later Roman rulers created a unique blend of languages and cultures.
Continue on to learn about the Languages and Scripts of Graeco-Roman Egypt
This exhibit is proudly presented by the University of Michigan Papyrus Collection To reach us, email firstname.lastname@example.com or visit our contact page. Images of objects used with permission from the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology Copyright 2004 The Regents of the University of Michigan | Last Updated September 8, 2004 .


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Meet the new boss who, upon his inauguration, declared that the right to life is unalienable. Let me be clear, that doesn't mean he can't take yours.
In fact, he runs through a list of men, women, and children on Tuesdays, hung over from inaugurations or not, and picks whom to murder and murders them.
We're not supposed to call it murder, of course, because it's properly assassination. Except that no public figures are being assassinated; 98% of those killed are not targeted at all; some are targeted for suspicious behavior without knowing their names; one type of suspicious behavior is the act of retrieving the dead and wounded from a previous strike; and those targeted are not targeted for politics but for resisting illegal occupations. Moreover, an assassination is a type of murder.
We're not supposed to call it murder, nonetheless, because it sounds more Objective to call it killing. But murder is a type of killing, specifically unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought. Killing by accident is not murder and not what the president is doing. Killing legally is not murder and not what the president is doing — at least not as far as anyone knows or according to any interpretation of law put forward. Killing indirectly by encouraging poverty or environmental destruction or denial of healthcare may be things the president is doing, but they are not murder and not drone wars.
Imagine if a non-president went through a list of everyone in your local elementary school, picked out whom to kill, and ordered them killed. You would call it murder. You would call it mass-murder. You would call it conspiracy to commit mass murder. Why would electing that mass murderer president change anything? Why would moving the victims abroad change anything?
"Kill Anything That Moves" is the title of an important new book from Nick Turse, covering the mass-murdering enterprise known in Vietnam as the American War, and in the United States as the Vietnam War. Turse documents that policy decisions handed down from the top led consistently, over a period of years, to the ongoing slaughter of millions of civilians in Vietnam. Much of the killing was done by hand or with guns or artillery, but the lion's share came in the form of 3.4 million combat sorties flown by U.S. and South Vietnamese aircraft between 1965 and 1972. Air strikes are President Obama's primary instrument of foreign relations as well; he ordered 20,000 air strikes in his first term.
The well-known Mylai massacre in Vietnam was not an aberration, but an almost typical incident and by no means the worst of them. Turse documents a pattern of ongoing atrocities so pervasive that one is compelled to begin viewing the war itself as one large atrocity. Something similar could be done for the endless war on everywhere that we are currently living through. Scattered atrocities and scandals in Afghanistan and Iraq are interpreted as freak occurrences having nothing to do with the general thrust of the war. And yet they are its essence.
"Kill anything that moves," was an order given to U.S. troops in Vietnam indoctrinated with racist hatred for the Vietnamese. "360 degree rotational fire" was a command on the streets of Iraq given to U.S. troops similarly conditioned to hate, and similarly worn down with physical exhaustion.
Dead children in Vietnam resulted in comments like "Tough shit, they grow up to be VC." One of the U.S. helicopter killers in Iraq heard in the Collateral Murder video says of dead children, "Well it's their fault for bringing their kids into a battle."
In Vietnam anyone dead was the enemy, and sometimes weapons would be planted on them. In drone wars, any dead males are militants, and in Iraq and Afghanistan weapons have often been planted on victims.
The U.S. military during the Vietnam War shifted from keeping prisoners toward murdering prisoners, just as the Endless War on Everywhere has shifted from incarceration toward murder with the change in president from Bush to Obama.
In Vietnam, as in Iraq, rules of engagement were broadened until the rules allowed shooting at anything that moved. In Vietnam, as in Iraq, the U.S. military sought to win people over by terrorizing them. In Vietnam, as in Afghanistan, whole villages were eliminated.
In Vietnam, refugees suffered in horrible camps, while in Afghanistan children are rapidly freezing to death in a refugee camp near Kabul.
Torture was common in Vietnam, including water-boarding. But it wasn't at that time yet depicted in a Hollywood movie as a positive occurrence.
Napalm, white phosphorus, cluster bombs, and other widely despised and banned weapons were used in Vietnam as in the current war.
Vast environmental destruction was part of both wars.
Gang rape was a part of both wars.
The mutilation of corpses was common in both wars.
Bulldozers flattened people's villages in Vietnam, not unlike what U.S.-made bulldozers do now to Palestine.
Mass murders of civilians in Vietnam, as in Afghanistan, tended to be driven by a desire for revenge.
New weaponry allowed U.S. troops in Vietnam to shoot long distances, resulting in a habit of shooting first and investigating later, a habit now developed for drone strikes.
Self-appointed teams on the ground and in helicopters went "hunting" for natives to kill in Vietnam as in Afghanistan.
And of course, Vietnamese leaders were targeted for assassination.
Then, as now, the atrocities and "war crimes" were committed with impunity as part of the crime that was the war itself. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say: because there was impunity then, it remains today.
Turse discovered that the military investigated numerous accusations, documented incidents, and then buried the reports. So did others in the government. So did the media, includingNewsweek which buried a major investigation. Those who engaged in that coverup don't have on their hands the blood that had already been spilled, but do have on their hands the blood that has been spilled since in similar wars that might have been prevented.
Vietnamese victims who saw their loved ones tortured, murdered, and mutilated are — in some cases — still furious with rage decades later. It's not hard to calculate how long such rage will last in the nations now being "liberated."
The crowd that turns out and shuts down Washington, D.C., for Obama inaugurations imagines that it is advancing peace and justice. But it does so by cheering for one of two teams regardless of that team's performance. Were that size crowd to turn out just once for a substantive demand, for peace or justice or any of the good causes favored by the people involved, a real victory would be obtainable.
If the crowd learned this week that Obama is murdering people, and returned next week to demand an end to the murders, the resulting movement would indeed end them. Not only am I sure of that, but I hold it to be self-evident.


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Two year executive summary - Report for the 2005 general assembly
Four years after its official start in March 10th, 2001 and the finalisation of its founding process in April 24th, 2001, the general assembly on 7 May 2005 in Vienna, Austria marks the end of another electorial period for the Free Software Foundation Europe Extended Executive Committee.
The organisation itself has seen two busy years and has grown in size, activities and impact. Instead of trying to achieve or claim completeness, this report will briefly summarize some of FSFE's milestones of the past two years.
European Union: Microsoft Antitrust Investigation
Following up on the work it began during its first two years, FSFE in cooperation with the Samba Team were delivering crucial expertise in the antitrust investigation of the European Union against Microsoft for extending its desktop monopoly into the server market. After Microsoft filed suit at the European Court of First Instance against the fine and obligations to make available its protocol specifications, FSFE entered [1] the court case as third party, also representing the Samba Team. Together, FSFE and Samba, represented in court by Carlo Piana of FSFE's Italian team, were able to help convince [2] the court to not suspend the EU decision. More information available online. [3]
[1] https://lists.fsfe.org/pipermail/press-release/2004q3/000067.html [2] https://fsfe.org/activities/ms-vs-eu/intervention-20040930.html [3] https://fsfe.org/activities/ms-vs-eu/
UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
The first phase of the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) took place December 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland. [4] FSFE participated in the complete series of conferences leading up to this event from the intersessional meeting in Paris to the last PrepComs in Geneva. FSFE's president, Georg Greve, participated in the German governmental delegation on behalf of the German Civil Society coordination circle, co-coordinated the Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks (PCT) Working Group [5] and helped establish and coordinate the European Caucus of Civil Society. [6]
During the summit itself, FSFE organised the "Free Software, Free Society" side event where Richard Stallman, Lawrence Lessig and others talked about the issues of freedom in a digital society. Working with other Civil Society and governmental representatives, Free Software Foundation Europe was able get some significant changes into the final documents. [8]
[4] https://fsfe.org/activities/wsis/wsis.html [5] http://www.wsis-pct.org [6] https://lists.fsfe.org/postorius/lists/wsis-euc.lists.fsfe.org [7] https://fsfe.org/activities/wsis/event-03-12-10.html [8] https://fsfe.org/activities/wsis/debriefing-geneva.html
Towards a "World Intellectual Wealth Organisation"
After speaking at a course of WIPO and the University of Torino held at the International Training Center (ITC) of the International Labor Organisation (ILO) in Torino, Italy, FSFE decided to become observer of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). [9] WIPO is one of the 16 specialised UN organisations and it is administrating 23 international treates dealing with different aspects of limited monopolies on knowledge. As such, it has a central position in the global governance and power structure in relation to Copyrights, Patents and Trademarks, in particular.
Together with other groups, organisations and governments, FSFE is working towards turning WIPO into an organisation oriented at increasing the intellectual wealth of all of humankind. [10]
A very important step in this direction was taken at the Inter-sessional, Inter-governmental Meeting (IIM) for the establishment of a development agenda for WIPO and the Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development related to Intellectual Property (PCIPD) at which FSFE had its first official appearances within WIPO. [11][12]
[9] https://fsfe.org/activities/wipo/ [10] https://fsfe.org/activities/wipo/wiwo.html [11] https://fsfe.org/activities/wipo/statement-20050413.html [12] https://fsfe.org/activities/wipo/statement-20050415.html
Press Work
One of the most seminal tasks for Free Software is creating awareness and informing people about issues of digital freedom. While Free Software is becoming increasingly important in the IT industry, many people do not yet understand it. Outside of the IT industry, most people will not even have heard of it.
Changing this requires getting the issues and topics covered in mainstream media in a language that the readers, viewers and listeners can relate to. For that reason, Joachim Jakobs took responsibility of the media relations for FSFE in 2004, allowing for a much higher presence of software freedom in the "traditional" media.
Some media in which FSFE was covered within the past years are: ARD, Bloomberg, Computerzeitung, DIE ZEIT, Deutschlandfunk, FAZ, Financial Times Deutschland, Financial Times, FR, Handelsblatt, International Herald Tribune, Le Figaro, Mediemagasinet(Sveriges Television), ORF m@trix, ORF Mittagsjournal, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Wall Street Journal, arte tv.
International Free Software Cooperation
FSFE did not only increase its activities towards the part of the world that had never heard of Free Software before, it also increased and strengthened its activities inside the Free Software community.
In particular, FSFE's president Georg Greve served as interim board member for the X.Org [13] foundation during its establishment, trying to help in organisationally, legally and politically. He also worked with the group of people planning and coordinating the establishment of Free Software Foundation Latin America [14] to help strengthen the global FSF Network.
[13] http://www.x.org [14] http://www.fsfla.org
Associates & Participants
This of course only became possible because FSFE itself grew considerably during the past two years. Besides Joachim Jakobs, who is handling media relations on a full-time basis, FSFE took on Stefano Maffulli, FSFE's Italian Coordinator, on a part-time basis. A recent addition to the team was Ciaran O'Riordan, who is currently working full-time for FSFE in Brussels on European Union issues, such as software patents.
Another important addition were the interns: Matthias Kirschner, who was with the FSFE for eight months, and Karsten Gerloff, who is currently in his third month working for FSFE. Both participated fully in the activities of FSFE: While Matthias Kirschner was deeply involved in the inception, planning and implementation of the Fellowship, [15] Karsten Gerloff largely set up the Hamburg Office of FSFE and participated in the WIPO conferences, which he helped document and make accessible in his blog. [16]
Also, the network of associate organisations [17] has grown again within the past two years to
AFFS, UK [18] ANSOL, Portugal [19] ASSOLI, Italy [20] FFII, Germany [21] FFIS, Germany [22] FFS, Austria [23] FSIJ, Japan [24] Fundacion Via Libre, Argentina [25] IFSO, Ireland [26] OFSET, France [27] Vrijschrift, Netherlands [28] Wilhelmtux, Switzerland [29]
of which IFSO was the latest addition. These associate organisations often play a critical role in the establishment and coordination of the national teams of FSFE.
[15] https://my.fsfe.org/donate/ [16] https://blogs.fsfe.org/gerloff/ [17] https://fsfe.org/about/associates/ [18] http://www.affs.org.uk [19] http://www.ansol.org [20] http://www.softwarelibero.it [21] http://www.ffii.org [22] http://www.ffis.de [23] http://www.ffs.or.at [24] http://www.fsij.org [25] http://www.vialibre.org.ar [26] http://www.ifso.ie [27] http://www.ofset.org [28] http://www.vrijschrift.org [29] http://www.wilhelmtux.ch
After several months of preparation, the FSFE finally released its Fellowship [30] campaign in late February 2005. The Fellowship is a community for digital freedom -- it is a way of raising your flag to show that you care about these issues and the easiest way of contributing to the ongoing work of FSFE both politically and financially to protect your freedom.
All Fellows of FSFE get a login on the Fellowship portal, which is slowly evolving into a platform of communication, coordination and collaboration.
Each Fellow also gets a personalised OpenPGP SmartCard with the possibility to have the keys signed by the Free Software Foundation Europe. This gives all Fellows a state of the art crypto token that allows Fellows to protect their own privacy and data as well as spread general awareness for these issues.
Thanks to the success of the Fellowship, FSFE was able have Ciaran O'Riordan working full time in Brussels and further increase its activities -- sign up and protect your freedom! [31]
[30] https://my.fsfe.org/donate [31] https://my.fsfe.org/donate
Ongoing activities
There were numerous other activities FSFE has been working on during the past couple of years, from teaching at World Bank courses to working with local activists in various activities. In order to allow people to better follow the many things that are often happening in parallel, FSFE also established a monthly newsletter, which is the easiest way of remaining informed about FSFE's activities. [32]
[32] https://fsfe.org/news/newsletter.html
Being an educational effort as well as a political organisation, one of the permanent tasks for all people in FSFE is being present at trade shows and conferences, create and distribute information material, talk to people in various places and fora to inform them about Free Software and issues of freedom in the digital age.
These are some of the places and events where FSFE did this work
ALANTEJO Party 2004, Evora, Portugal Banco Central do Brazil, Brasilia, Brazil BerLINux, Berlin, Germany Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey Chamber of Commerce, Vienna, Austria CONISLI, Sao Paulo, Brazil Computerworld Conference, Zurich, Switzerland DRM and alternatives, Berlin, Germany European Social Forum (ESF), London, UK FOSDEM, Brussels, Belgium Florence World Vision, Forence, Italy Free Software Forum, Porto Alegre, Brazil Free Software Seminar, Västerås, Sweden Free Software Summer Event, Caceres, Spain Free Software Workshop, Damascus, Syria Free Software in a Free Society, Sarajevo, Bosnia GNU/Linux Day in Bozen, GNU/Linux Infoday, European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium GNU/Linux World Expo, Milan, Italy GNU/LinuxTag, Karlsruhe, Germany Handelsblatt Conference, Berlin, Germany Instituto Bruno Leoni, Milan, Italy KDE Community World Summit, Ludwigsburg, Germany KIPA Free Software Conference, Seoul, South Korea LOTS Event, Berne, Switzerland LiMux Project Inauguration, Munich, Germany Linux World Expo & Conference Birmingham, UK Linux World Expo, Frankfurt, Germany LinuxForum, Copenhagen, Denmark Linuxwochen, Eisenstadt, Austria Linuxwochen, Linz, Austria Linuxwochen, Wien, Austria Ministry of Communication, Brasilia, Brazil National Congress, Montevideo, Uruguay National Technical University of Athens, Greece Nordic University Computer Club Conference, Uppsala, Sweden Red Hat World Tour, Munich, Germany Senate of Buenos Aires, La Plata, Argentina South Tyrol Free Software Conference, Bozen, Italy Summit of Italian Free Software Organizations, Avellino, Italy UN World Summit on the Information Society, Geneva, Switzerland UNCTAD expert meeting on Free Software, Geneva, Switzerland USUARIA conference, Buenos Aires, Argentina Universita Bocconi, Milano, Italy University of Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland University of Torino & UN WIPO, ITC-ILO, Torino, Italy WIPO IIM, Geneva, Switzerland WIPO PCIPD, Geneva, Switzerland Week of Digital Freedom, Rome, Italy Week of freedom road tour, Italy Wizards of OS, Berlin, Germany World Bank course at ITC-ILO, Torino, Italy World Social Forum (WSF), Porto Alegre, Brazil
FSFE is now growing out of the startup phase and find itself involved in many activities that are going to require attention for some time in the future -- like software patents, the case of Microsoft against the European Commission or the United Nations activities, such as a reform of WIPO.
Having grown up now in many aspects, FSFE will need to consolidate its activities to make sure they will be sustainable for the next decade to come. At the same time, FSFE will need to increase its activities throughout Europe on the national and European Union level.
Finding a balance between these two and finding more people who are willing to do and/or support this work will be a necessity in order to make this happen.


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Posts Tagged sd
Booting off of external flash memory on the Nokia n800 with a 16GB SDHC… (workaround)
Posted by scott in n800, nokia web tablets on 2010.03.08
Booting off of the secure digital (SD or SDHC) card on the Nokia n800 web tablet is a godsend for extending the device's usability far into the future. Instead of being saddled with 256MB of flash memory, one can instead boot off of either one of the two SD slots and extend your application space to up to 32GB! (Alas, 32GB is the maximum AFAIK for an SDHC card, after that we head into SDXC territory.)
I bought an n800 two weeks ago for $80 CDN. I then bought a 16GB and a 32GB card for $30 and $50, respectively. You can't even get an 8GB iPod Touch for that! And with the n800 and a bit of technical grit, you can have more applications available to you too! And better yet, no jailbreaking required. Currently that's $180 for a 64GB n800 vs $400 at Best Buy for a 64GB iPod Touch. One of my favourite specs about the the Nokia web tablets is the screen resolution, 800×480 pixels. When you have two and half times the amount of pixels on the screen, pinching in and out to zoom in and out of the screen seems more like a hindrance than a feature.
Rather simple instructions at the Maemo Wiki exist using the initfs_flash utility. It's fairly automated, you run the same script several items with a numerical argument for each step of the process. Before you start using the script though, you'll be creating partitions on the SDHC card using fdisk (on a Linux system) or sfdisk (on the tablet).
A couple hints for going through this process:
- Limit the size of your partition to no more than 4GB! If you need more space, you should be configuring persistent data to reside on another SDHC card or on another partition on the same card. (you'll see why later)
- Do not use a journaling filesystem for your (root) partition! Flash and journaling filesystems (like ext3) don't mix! The short of it is that flash has a limited number of writes…
- Use a good SDHC card! Use at least a CLASS 6 SDHC card or greater. I personally use an AData 16GB CLASS 6 SDHC card for my boot partition and a 32GB CLASS 4 card for data storage. The greater the 'class' of card, the faster it can transfer data. Otherwise you'll be doing a trade off between storage capacity of the SDHC and access speeds of the NAND flash.
Now for the need of a workaround. Booting off of the flash fails for me about 20% of the time. Instead of spending another evening reinstalling or giving up and only using the 256MB internal flash, I backed up the partition to file in Linux (as root):
root# dd if=/dev/mmcblk0p2 of=n800.sdhc.4gb.backup.img
Whenever the system went down, I would just write the backup file, "n800.sdhc.4gb.backup.img", onto the SDHC card.
root# dd if=n800.sdhc.4gb.backup.img of=/dev/mmcblk0p2
My first work around was to keep this card on my laptop and then rewrite the image back to the flash card. It worked, but I'd lose any changes in data from my last backup, and until the n800 reunited with the laptop, I was stuck booting off of the flash. My next step was to keep the backup on my 32GB SDHC card and write it back whenever it went down. This solved the portability issue, but I'd still lose any new data since my last backup.
My latest work around is a bit counterintuitive but it works: Write the partition back onto itself in terminal on the tablet!
root# dd if=/dev/mmcblk0p2 of=/dev/mmcblk0p2
NOTE: Only do this when your SDHC card becomes unbootable and you've booted from flash (or some other working partition)


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German artist Martin Kippenberger once proposed a subway system for the entire world, connecting Los Angeles to Helsinki, Tokyo to Rome, Münster to Dawson City. Greek islands, Canadian towns, Swiss lakes, pharaonic tombs – there would be entrances everywhere.
So Kippenberger actually began building these things – doors in the earth, leading nowhere – including this portable subway entrance.
But then he died.
The project ended.
Here are some construction specs and photo-speculative images to ponder.
So who's up for re-starting this thing? After all, an entrance was built on the roof of the World Trade Center – but, even though the towers have been destroyed, the entrance is still there, hovering invisibly above Manhattan. It leads to an unexplored subcavern deep inside Mammoth Cave – where you'll find a door to the Vatican. Which leads to the International Space Station. Which leads to the aerotropolis. Which connects onward to Cape Farewell, via the Cabinet Magazine National Library. Rumor has it, an Australian bone surgeon once uncovered another entrance in a patient's rib. Eve was an entrance.
(Thanks to Brand Avenue for pointing out Kippenberger's project to me – nearly seven months ago. And thanks to Andrew Blum for reminding me of The New Yorker cover, above, which I've been saving in a box of files since August 2002).


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Drinking one to three glasses of champagne a week can help prevent dementia and Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study.
A compound found in the black grapes used to make a bottle of bubbly is said to prevent the onset of the brain diseases.
"These exciting results illustrate for the first time that the moderate consumption of champagne has the potential to influence cognitive functioning, such as memory," Professor Jeremy Spencer said in a press release.
The research, which was based on an experiment involving rats, was published by academics at Reading University, who now hope to carry out the experiment on people.


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Dear teachers, staff and students of Zaporizhzhya National University!
We congratulate you on 2016
Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!
Let this New Year bring to your homes peace, happiness,
prosperity and stability, all relatives health
and will be generous to you in joy and creative inspiration.
Let certainly realized all your
light intentions will be put into reality good deeds,
fulfilled wishes of health and happiness,
that they generously wish these holidays
and our Ukrainian country
will be happy and prosperous in the blessed
native land under the peaceful skies!


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Best Holiday Catering Service for Rutland
Whether it's a week-long trip home for Christmas or a ten day stay at a cottage during the summer, a holiday is a time that is all about kicking back and taking it easy. Having worked hard all year, there are few things more rewarding for a Rutland man or woman than to spend time with friends and family without the day to worries that accompany a busy working life in the city. However, for some family members, a holiday, especially Thanksgiving or Christmas, can represent the busiest time of year, as it involves cooking and preparing meals for others. If that sounds like you then why not treat yourself to a rest this year and allow a professional catering company to take care of everything from start to finish. Why not call Scott Toupin Catering Service today to get information on our range of catering option and to avail of our affordable prices and flexible payment plan. Trust us, you won't be disappointed.
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One of the compliments that we receive most frequently at Scott Toupin Catering Service is that we use all our experience and skill to enhance to special family events. So, if your family are used to a cooking the turkey a certain way for Thanksgiving dinner, then we will work closely with you to make sure that it is prepared just how you like it. Or, if you use a certain type of burger meat for your annual family barbeque, we will be sure to get our hands on enough to keep everybody satisfied. It is this personalized touch, as well as our discreet catering service that allows us to fit so seamlessly into a range of family gatherings and holiday situations. So, why not get the best of both worlds on your next holiday by choosing the catering company that will cook your food and serve your drinks just how you like it.


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Antwerp, Belgium
Some work from last month's outdoor show in Antwerp. A massive thanks to everyone (around 6000!) who turned out, despite the rain, to hunt down the little people. It was a fantastic - and rare - experience for me to see so many people looking for and taking their own shots of the installations and it was great to get to meet so many of you.
You can see a selection of my photography on display this Friday 29th June at the V&A Friday Late (kindly loaned by my friends at Andipa Gallery!) - and also get the chance to make your own miniature sculptures to display around the museum.
The 'Big Invasion of Small Sculptures' event is being hosted by Drink, Shop & Do. Make a sculpture of your choice with the materials that they'll provide, incorporate it in to the surroundings of the museum, take a picture and upload it - Drink, Shop & Do will be giving away signed copies of my book for the best images taken.
This month's Friday Late is titled 'Un-built: De/Constructing architecture' and there are a ton of other activities, installations and workshops exploring the interplay of art and architecture. And if that sounds too high-brow, there is the usual bar and live music too. Should be a fun night. Check the flyer below for more info or click here.


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In a small hamlet in China, a local shelter received a distressing call from a concerned man who witnessed a shocking incident. He saw a rickshaw driver cruelly pulling his dog by the neck, prompting outrage and concern.
The injured dog, unable to move properly, sought refuge at the shelter's entrance to warm up. However, the heartless owner forcefully tossed the poor pup back into the cold. The scene was heartbreaking and infuriating.
The dedicated rescue team wasted no time and swiftly arrived at the location to assist the distressed dog. The sight before them was truly horrific—a callous man was mercilessly yanking on his dog's neck. With compassion and urgency, they intervened to save the tiny canine from further harm. The rescue team carefully secured the dog in a bag to ensure his safety. In order to secure his freedom, they had to pay approximately 30 dollars to purchase him from his owner.
The dog, who appeared visibly malnourished and hungry, had likely been neglected by his previous owner. Recognizing his dire state, the rescue team immediately took him to a medical clinic to assess his health and provide the necessary care for his recovery.
Now, the once-abused dog is safe in the hands of caring individuals who will offer him the love and attention he so desperately lacked before. He will have the opportunity to live a life filled with compassion and care, surrounded by people who appreciate his worth.
This heart-wrenching incident highlights the importance of rescue efforts and the need for compassion towards animals. Through the dedication of the rescue team, this brave dog has been given a chance at a better life—one filled with love and the care he deserves.