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(This was originally published in Columbia Living – "The Premier Lifestyle Magazine of Columbia South Carolina", July/August 2011)
With every generation, raising children takes on new challenges never before seen by parents. Think about how parenting has changed through the ages. Before the invention of the light bulb, kids were "in" by dark. Now, they can stay out late and see all night. Before the automobile was invented, children had to walk or take the family horse. Now, they are able to travel hundreds of miles in just a few hours. Before the invention of television, kids were outside all the time. Now, there are enough channels in the basic cable package to entertain them 24 hours a day, literally. Before the invention of the internet, kids had to go to the library for hours to do research. Today, with a few clicks from home and they can find what they want in minutes. It used to be that parents had to set a geographical boundary and curfew for their children to obey. In this day and age, those boundaries are primarily online. "Don't go past that landmark" has now been replaced with "Don't go to that website".
Like it or not, we are in the Zenith of the technological age and it seems that parenting has to morph just as rapidly as the technologies that are created. Just in the last 15 years, parents have had to address the following technological bombardments: MP3's, iPods, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Nook, Kindle, instant messaging, web cams, cell phones, texting, Xbox, DVR, TiVo, etc. To an older ear, some of those terms can bring confusion. To an "old-timer", YouTube can sound like your toothpaste. Isn't Kindle something you do to a fire? Should the trend continue parents will have to address and adapt to even more technology in order to stay current and communicate with their children. So, how do you do it? How does a parent stay informed, connected and even communicate with their children in such an age?
- Get educated. Listen to your children and you will learn a lot. They will talk about the latest technology, how they use it or how they want to use it. Ask questions. Get online and "google" to find answers. Go to the store and talk to the employees. Knowledge is power and too often parents are powerless simply because they don't even know what they don't know.
- Get online. If your kids are on Facebook, you need a Facebook account. If your kids use Twitter, you need to have a Twitter account and "subscribe" to it. If your child plays Xbox, you need to at least be familiar with the game and how it's played. If your child likes to text message, you need to learn how to do it. Nothing can distance a parent quicker than not understanding their child's world. There is already a great chasm between a child and his "old man". You being online and trying to interact with your child can help bridge that gap a bit. It does not mean you have to "like" everything your child "posts". It does not mean you have to "tag" every photo your child is in. It just means you have to be "nearby" online. Isn't that the heart of parenting anyway – being "near" your children? (By the way, if you aren't familiar with the phrases "Twitter", "subscribe", "like", "tag" and "posts" you are officially out of touch and need this article more than you realize.)
- Do not over react. Remember, technology is not the problem. It's the use or abuse of it that can be the problem. Just because you heard a story about some kid in some mid-western state that abused MySpace does not mean that your child will do the same. Just because other teenagers are "sexting" (sending naked pictures of themselves via text) does not mean yours is or will. When you hear stories of how technology is being abused, talk it through with your kids. Make sure they understand the pitfalls and realize the consequences are real when technology is abused. Just as you would warn them of the dangers of driving, you too need to make sure they understand the dangers online or with various technologies.
- Do not be too trusting. While overreacting can be a problem, so can too much trust. Just because you have a "good" child, does not mean he/she cannot get in trouble with certain technology. Children, particularly teenagers, are still developing portions of their brain. The common sense and rational portions are still a work in progress. These factors combined with the influence of friends and the ease of access to technology can cause them to go down a road you never dreamed they would. Education will help you know what's out there and what the dangers are. Knowing your child and maintaining an open, close relationship with them will help you keep access as to how they are handling emerging technology. If you are concerned that your child is doing some things online that are inappropriate or destructive, there are accountability websites and keystroke logging software available to help.
- Know their friends. How well do you know their friends? Are they in your home often? Are you creating opportunities where you can interact with them? Are you placing yourself in proximity (even online) to see, hear or read what is going on in their world? Who do they email or text regularly? If you do not know their closest friends, you do not know who is influencing them, positively and negatively.
- Communicate with other parents. You would be surprised what you can learn in this regard. All parents like to talk about their kids. Ask them questions. Share your struggles. You will not only realize you have similar parenting issues but some of them may have some good suggestions as to how they handle it.
- Get passwords. This is a controversial suggestion but one that I firmly believe can make a huge difference in the protection of your child. Having a child's password gives you access to their online world. If they argue about giving it to you, that's probably a good indication they are probably doing or saying something they shouldn't be. It doesn't mean you have to read their mail, but if you wanted to – you could. Some would be quick to say, "Isn't that an invasion of their privacy?" If you are financing any aspect of their life, you have the right to see what they are involved in. Obtaining an online password is just like doing a random drug test. Privacy is an earned freedom after a proven track record of wise behavior. The more responsible your child is and proves to be, the more freedoms he/she should be given.
- Be yourself. You will never be as "cool" as your kids. The only way you will be "hip" again is when you get yours replaced. Don't try to be their "BFF", just be their parent who cares enough to try and engage them on their turf. Don't comment on every picture they post or "like" every status update. Don't respond to every Tweet or try to get in on every chat. Be yourself. After all, you are the only parent they have. Do not trade down your elite position by trying to be their friend. They have enough of those.
- Get outside. Remember when we were kids we had things like trees, parks, museums, sporting events, zoos, books and sunshine? Oh wait, we still have those things. Though technology is playing an ever increasing role in our world, it is important that we still find ways to get our children offline, outside and being active. They might not be interested or good at sports but it is important that you encourage activities that don't require a broadband internet connection. Wii sports is great but it's not the same as being outdoors.
My teenage son (like most) enjoys playing Xbox. So, I created an account and now play with him when I can. The truth is, I stink. I lose every race and get killed first in every game we play. Unfortunately for me, this will never change. Fortunately, what my son will remember is that I tried and that we are spending time together. Would I rather throw a Frisbee with him? Yes. But the point is we are "together" and as a dear friend has reminded me over the years, "Together is better". Last week, I received a text message from my 12 year old daughter asking me for a drink. She sent it from the living room, twenty feet from the fridge. I sent her a picture of Orange Juice. My daughter learned that there is still a benefit to face to face interaction with her Dad.


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Custom planner
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Export 3 results:
[ Author] Title Type Year Filters: Author is Hoyos-Barceló, Carlos [Clear All Filters]
"Efficient computation of image moments for robust cough detection using smartphones", Computers in biology and medicine, vol. 100, pp. 176–185, 2018.
, "Evaluation in a real environment of a trainable cough monitoring app for smartphones", Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing: Springer, Cham, pp. 1175–1180, 2019.
, "Efficient k-NN Implementation for Real-Time Detection of Cough Events in Smartphones", IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, vol. 23, pp. 1662-1671, 2018.


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The Schüco Technical documentation App is available for the Android, iOS and Windows operating systems and enables the user to easily access technical documentation and Architect Infos from Schüco. Clearly sorted by category in a kiosk, documentation can be easily viewed or downloaded onto the end device. The manuals are also available when there is no network coverage.Manuals that have been previously downloaded can be easily updated. There is no need for the time-consuming addition of supplements. And there is a clearly structured contents page for fast navigation within a manual.
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text:
Photo Credit: Zach Lewis (www.zachmlewis.com)
Susan writes:
I am a frequent bar customer. I need an explanation of the concept behind buybacks.
One bartender who I was friends with would not let me pay for my drinks, ever. He said they were on him.
One day when it was very slow in the bar I asked him if he could let me pay for my drinks, because he was losing $14 for the two drinks that I had. The owner was present and heard me say this. Thee next time I saw him he was absolutely furious with me and said that this got him in trouble (reprimanded).
How do you get in trouble for this?
Thanks so much for your thoughts,
Dear Susan
I'll just bet your friend was furious with you: buybacks may come in many colors, but you just caught him robbing the place blind.
Let me back up and explain the concept of "buybacks" for those who aren't familiar with the idea. See, in many lower-end bars, neighborhood dives, juke joints, roadhouses, taverns and shitkicker saloons, the bartender has developed a symbiotic relationship with his or her customers that puts a few extra dollars in the barkeep's pocket at the end of the night, and keeps the clientele coming back for more. It's called the buyback and it works like this:
I'm a regular customer. I come into your bar five, six nights a week and hoist a good three pints at a sitting, tipping a dollar or more on each beer. You and I have a mutual understanding that my fourth drink is going to be on the house. I, as a customer, don't really know why this is the rule, and you most likely haven't been trained by the owner in this practice. But as long as I'm tipping and we've got a good relationship as customer and bartender, that fourth drink is gonna be free.
The buyback has been around for a long, long time. My guess is that it's been around for so long that it originated in a time when owners still worked behind the bar and would buy a drink for a customer as a sign of appreciation for his loyalty. Done in an appropriate manner by someone who actually owns the booze, the buyback can be a very effective tool in maintaining a regular customer base. But don't be fooled, Susan. Your friend isn't a savvy businessman, sliding you an occasional drink to thank you for your regular patronage, but rather a douchebag and a thief – giving away alcohol and putting the money in his pocket.
As you said in your email, "One bartender who I was friends with would not let me pay for my drinks, ever… How do you get in trouble for this?" Well, Susan, you get in trouble the same way a teenage employee of The Gap gets busted for putting a pair of leggings in her purse – the only difference is that The Gap would have the good sense to fire the employee in question and your friend's boss is clearly a moron.
I get upset with bartenders like your friend, because it perpetuates a myth that many people carry with them into bars: that alcohol should be free and well-liked people should never have to pay for a drink. I don't know where this prevailing attitude comes from, but I suspect it grew out of the venerable buyback. Look at it in another light: every morning you stop at the place by your house for a coffee and a bagel. And every morning you pay full price, never expecting to have the girl behind the counter refuse to take your money. It doesn't faze you in the least, does it?
So why do some people expect the opposite treatment when it comes to bars? This isn't even an expectation you see sales-wide in the liquor industry, it's bar-specific. You would never, ever expect every fourth six-pack at your local grocery store to be free, would you? Really?
As a bartender who doesn't steal from his employers, I'm forced to rely on a smile, some solid conversation, and a well-made drink to make my living. Sure, I'd probably make more money hopping from job to job, giving away booze at every place in town until either I was fired or the place went out of business, but that's not much of a career. Sure, I'd be the most popular guy in town, but my hope is that eventually people will once again admire bartenders as hosts, craftspeople, and trusted civic figures and regard us less as petty thieves and scam-artists.


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By Martin A. Lee | July/August 1983 Issue
Mother Jones
VIGTIGE INFORMATIONER OM CIA´s FORBINDELSE TIL SMOM I DENNE ARTIKEL. Søg "smom"
One day in July 1944, as the Second World War raged throughout Europe, General William "Wild Bill" Donovan was ushered into an ornate chamber in Vatican City for an audience with Pope Pius XII. Donovan bowed his head reverently as the pontiff intoned a ceremonial prayer in Latin and decorated him with the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Sylvester, the oldest and most prestigious of papal knighthoods. This award has been given to only 100 other men in history, who "by feat of arms, or writings, or outstanding deeds, have spread the Faith, and have safeguarded and championed the Church."
Although a papal citation of this sort rarely, if ever, states why a person is inducted into the "Golden Militia," there can be no doubt that Donovan earned his knighthood by virtue of the services he rendered to the Catholic hierarchy in World War II, during which he served as chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the wartime predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 1941, the year before the OSS was officially constituted, Donovan forged a close alliance with Father Felix Morlion, founder of a European Catholic intelligence service known as Pro Deo. When the Germans overran western Europe, Donovan helped Morlion move his base of operations from Lisbon to New York. From then on, Pro Deo was financed by Donovan, who believed that such an expenditure would result in valuable insight into the secret affairs of the Vatican, then a neutral enclave in the midst of fascist Rome. When the Allies liberated Rome in 1944, Morlion re-established his spy network in the Vatican; from there he helped the OSS obtain confidential reports provided by apostolic delegates in the Far East, which included information about strategic bombing targets in Japan.
Pope Pius' decoration of Wild Bill Donovan marked the beginning of a long-standing, intimate relationship between the Vatican and U.S. intelligence that continues to the present day. For centuries the Vatican has been a prime target of foreign espionage. One of the world's greatest repositories of raw intelligence, it is a spy's gold mine. Ecclesiastical, political and economic information filters in every day from thousands of priests, bishops and papal nuncios, who report regularly from every corner of the globe to the Office of the Papal Secretariat. So rich was this source of data that shortly after the war, the CIA created a special unit in its counterintelligence section to tap it and monitor developments within the Holy See.
But the CIA's interest in the Catholic church is not limited to intelligence gathering. The Vatican, with its immense wealth and political influence, has in recent years become a key force in global politics, particularly with Catholicism playing such a pivotal role in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Unbeknownst to most Catholics, the Vatican, which carefully maintains an apolitical image, not only has a foreign office and a diplomatic corps, but also has a foreign policy. And with Polish Communists embracing Catholicism and Latin American Catholics embracing communism, the U.S. government and particularly the CIA have recently taken a much greater interest in Vatican foreign policy. A year-long Mother Jones investigation has revealed a number of unlikely channels — both overt and covert — which the agency uses to bring its influence to bear upon that policy.
Since World War II, the CIA has:
- subsidized a Catholic lay organization that served as the political slugging arm of the pope and the Vatican throughout the Cold War;
- penetrated the American section of one of the wealthiest and most powerful Vatican orders;
- passed money to a large number of priests and bishops — some of whom became witting agents in CIA covert operations;
- employed undercover operatives to lobby members of the Curia (the Vatican government) and spy on liberal churchmen on the pope's staff who challenged the political assumptions of the United States;
- prepared intelligence briefings that accurately predicted the rise of liberation theology; and
- collaborated with right-wing Catholic groups to counter the actions of progressive clerics in Latin America.
It was in this last regard that the CIA supported factions within the Catholic church that were instrumental in promoting and electing the current pope, John Paul II, whose Polish nationalism and anti-Communist credentials, they thought, would make him a perfect vehicle for U.S. foreign policy. John Paul's recent trip to Nicaragua could not have been matched by any American's for the contribution it made to President Reagan's Central American initiative. And hopes are high in Washington, D.C., that the pope's forth-coming trip to Poland, where 90 percent of the people are Catholic, will respark the anti-Soviet uprising so vital to Reagan's plans for Eastern Europe.
Dark Knight of the Soul
Every year in late June a bizarre ritual takes place in Rome. Men and women fly in from all over the world to participate in a ceremony that has been performed for centuries. Next year, the assembled might find CIA director William Casey in their midst. And Casey could well be accompanied by former Secretary of State Alexander Haig.
If they make the journey, Casey and Haig will join a gathering of the world's Catholic elite on St. John's Day. Dressed in scarlet uniforms and black capes, brandishing swords and waving flags emblazoned with the eight-pointed Maltese cross, these Catholic brothers and sisters will, in an atmosphere of pomp and circumstance befitting a coronation, swear allegiance to the defense of the Holy Mother Church.
Casey and Haig are both members of the Knights of Malta, a legendary Vatican order dating back to the Crusades, when the "warrior monks" served as the military arm of the Catholic church. The knights, in their latter-day incarnation as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), are a historical anomaly. Although the order has no land mass other than a small headquarters in Rome, this unique papal entity holds the status of nation-state. It mints coins, prints stamps, has its own constitution and issues license plates and passports to an accredited diplomatic corps. The grand master of the order, Fra Angelo de Mojana di Cologna, holds a rank in the church equal to a cardinal and is recognized as a sovereign chief of state by 41 nations with which the SMOM exchanges ambassadors.
But the real power of the order lies with the lay members, who are active on five continents. Nobility forms the backbone of the SMOM; more than 40 percent of its 10,000 constituents are related to Europe's oldest and most powerful Catholic families. Wealth is a de facto prerequisite for a knightly candidate, and each must pass through a rigorous screening. Protestants, Jews, Muslims and divorced or separated Catholics are ineligible.
"The eight-pointed white cross stands out everywhere as a symbol of charity toward mankind and as a comfort and consolation to the sick and the poor," says Cyril Toumanoff, official historian of the SMOM. In recent years its members have carried on the Hospitaler tradition of the original knights by supporting international health care and relief efforts. They proudly offer aid to the needy regardless of race, creed or religious affiliation.
But the needy aided by certain SMOM members in the late '40s were some of the 50,000 Nazi war criminals who, with the assistance of the International Red Cross, were furnished fake Vatican passports and, in some cases, clerical robes, and were smuggled on Bishop Alois Hudal's "underground railroad" to South America. Among those was Klaus Barbie, the "butcher of Lyons."
In 1948, the SMOM gave one of its highest awards of honor, the Gran Croci al Merito con Placca, to General Reinhard Gehlen, Adolf Hitler's chief anti-Soviet spy. (Only three other people received this award.) Gehlen, who was not a Catholic, was touted as a formidable ally in the holy crusade against godless Marxism. After the war he and his well-developed spy apparatus — staffed largely by ex-Nazis — joined the fledgling CIA. Eventually, hundreds more Nazis ended up on the U.S. government's payroll. Among them was Klaus Barbie.
"The CIA very early on made a decision that Nazis were more valuable as allies and agents than as war criminals," says Victor Marchetti, an ex-CIA officer who was raised a Catholic. Marchetti is disturbed by the role of the CIA and his church in perpetuating the Nazi outrage. "It gets a little crazy," he said, "when you let one thing [anticommunism] take over to the extent that you forgive everything else."
The SMOM had given a different prestigious award in 1946 to another high-level CIA operative, James Jesus Angleton. "It had to do with counterintelligence," Angleton told Mother Jones, when asked why he was chosen for such a distinction. During World War II, Angleton was head of the Rome station of the OSS. Later, on his return to Washington, he ran what was tantamount to the "Vatican desk" for the CIA. According to Angleton, the agency does not have a Vatican desk. Nor does it have an Israel desk, for that matter, yet Angleton also covered that area. The extreme sensitivity associated with Israel and the Vatican required that work relating to them be buried among Angleton's counterintelligence staff, which was well-suited for such assignments.
During the early years of the Cold War, Angleton organized an elaborate spy network that enabled the CIA to obtain intelligence reports sent to the Vatican by papal nuncios stationed behind the Iron Curtain and in other "denied" areas. This was, at the time, one of the few means available to the CIA of penetrating the Eastern Bloc.
According to previously classified State Department memoranda, Angleton recommended that the CIA fund Catholic Action, an Italian lay organization headed by Luigi Gedda, a prominent right-wing ideologue who had also been honored by the knights. Gedda was a key operative in an effort undertaken by the CIA and the Vatican to "barricade the Reds" in the 1948 Italian elections. Only weeks before the election, it appeared the Italian Communist party would prevail. The CIA and the Vatican both feared the Communists might win unless drastic measures were taken.
At the behest of Pope Pius XII, Gedda mobilized a huge propaganda machine. More than 18,000 "civic committees" were formed to get out the anti-Communist vote. The Christian Democrats scored a decisive victory. Catholic Action is credited with turning the tables.
Catholic Action continued to be a dominant factor in Italian politics throughout the Cold War. It had great influence on trade unions and youth groups in Italy-groups that were heavily subsidized by the CIA, then under the leadership of Alien Dulles. Christian Democratic politicians and church figures were also among the beneficiaries of the CIA's largess, which exceeded $20 million per year in the 1950s. The agency provided "project money" to numerous priests and bishops, usually in the form of contributions to their favorite charities. Often, these prelates were unaware of the true source of these funds. "We would consider people of this sort as our allies," recalls Victor Marchetti, "even though they may not consider themselves in any way allied with us."
Amazing Grace
The American section of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta has about 1,000 members — including 300 "dames." They represent the vanguard of American Catholicism, the point at which the Vatican and the U.S. ruling elite intersect. "The Knights of Malta comprise what is perhaps the most exclusive club on earth," Stephen Birmingharn, the social historian, has written. "They are more than the Catholic aristocracy…[they] can pick up a telephone and chat with the pope."
And who are the American Knights? Mother Jones managed to obtain part of the secret membership list. On it we found some familiar names: Lee lacocca of Chrysler; Spyros Skouras, the shipping magnate; Robert Abplanalp, the aerosol tycoon and Nixon confidant; Barren Hilton of the hotel chain; John Volpe, former U.S. ambassador to Italy; and William Simon, who served as both treasury secretary and energy czar in the 1970s. At least one former envoy to the Vatican, Robert Wagner (the ex-mayor of New York), and the current emissary to the Vatican, William Wilson, are also members of the Knights of Malta. But there is one institution that stands out as the center of the SMOM in the United States — W.R. Grace & Company. J. Peter Grace, the company chairman, is also president of the American section of SMOM. No less than eight knights, including the chancellor of the order, John D.J. Moore (who was ambassador to Ireland under Nixon and Ford), are directors of W.R. Grace.
J. Peter Grace has a long history of involvement with CIA-linked enterprises, such as Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe, which was the brainchild of General Rein-hard Gehlen. He is also the board chairman of the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), which has collaborated with multinational corporations and their client dictatorships in Latin America to squelch independent trade unions. Up to $100 million a year of CIA funds were pumped into "trustworthy" labor organizations such as AIFLD, whose graduates, according to AIFLD executive director William Doherty, were active in covert operations that led to the military coup in Brazil in 1964. During the early 1970s, Francis D. Flanagan, the Grace representative in Washington, D. C., was a member of ITT's "Ad Hoc Committee on Chile," which was instrumental in planning the overthrow of Salvador Allende. AIFLD's National Workers' Con-federation subsequently served as the chief labor mouthpiece for the Pinochet junta.
There are many other knights with CIA connections. Clare Boothe Luce, for example, the grande dame of American diplomacy, served as a U.S. ambassador to Italy in the 1950s and is now a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which oversees covert operations. William Buckley, Jr., a former CIA operative and the editor of the National Review, is a member, as is his brother James, a former senator from New York and now undersecretary of state for security assistance.
Targeting the Pope
The American section of the SMOM is one of the main channels of communication between the CIA and the Vatican. Of course, neither party will acknowledge this. "The Knights of Malta is an honorific society of Catholics. That's all it is. … It has no political function," asserts former CIA director William Colby, who declined an invitation to join the illustrious order. ("I'm a little lower key," he confessed.)
Technically speaking, Colby is correct; the knights do not have an explicit political function. They would never approach the Vatican with a message from the CIA. Nor would the Vatican ever openly ally itself with the political aims of the CIA. "Obviously, this is a dynamite type of proposition," explains Victor Marchetti. "I'm sure that in the clandestine area there was real consideration of how to influence the Vatican, but you'll never find a paper trail within the agency establishing an operational objective. A covert action of this sort is a very complex and sophisticated sort of thing…How much pressure the CIA would dare to exert on the Vatican is debatable. It would have to be done indirectly, on an informal basis."
This is where the American section of the SMOM fits in. "They all belong to the same club," says Marchetti. "One happens to be the director of the CIA, and another is a cardinal. When they get together and fraternize on a social basis, they exchange ideas and opinions as private individuals. But how do you separate the private individual from the professional?"
During the 1950s and the early 1960s, relations between the U.S. and the Vatican were conducted largely through Francis Cardinal Spellman, the "Grand Protector and Spiritual Advisor" to the SMOM's American wing. An ultra-conservative ideologue, Spellman served as the right arm of Pope Pius XII and was a vocal supporter of U. S. military involvement in Vietnam.
But relations have not always been smooth, because Vatican policy has not always pleased American knights. In the early 1960s, Pope John XXIII took major steps to liberalize the church and to open a dialogue with the East. By doing so, he shifted papal policy from the strict anti-Communist line of his predecessor, Pius XII.
John XXIII felt that the Vatican had to adopt a more flexible posture — both socially and politically — if the church was to endure as a relevant institution. His attempts at rapprochement with the Soviet Union caught everybody by surprise and sent Vatican watchers at the CIA into a frenzy. But the agency had to step up its intelligence activity in the Vatican most cautiously, as the Kennedy ad-ministration was bending over backward to avoid any overt association with the Holy See. Kennedy, America's only Catholic president, was so consumed by the possibility of a Protestant backlash that he rebuffed the pope's efforts to mediate a thaw in East-West relations. Meanwhile Khrushchev, the supposed atheist, welcomed the pontiffs diplomatic overtures.
In May 1963, John McCone, a member of the SMOM and then director of the CIA, received a memorandum from James Spain, of the agency's Office of National Estimates, on the ramifications of Pope John's policies. There is "no doubt," wrote Spain in the recently declassified 15-page memo, entitled "Change in the Church," "that vigorous new currents are flowing in virtually every phase of the church's thinking and activities. . . . [this has] resulted in a new approach toward Italian politics which is permissive rather than positive."
When Spain visited the Vatican, posing as a scholar on a foreign service grant, he voiced his concerns about major gains made by the Italian Left in the 1963 election. Many felt the Left's success was attributable to Pope John's conciliatory attitude toward the Communists. This was the first election in which the Christian Democrats were not officially endorsed by the Italian Bishops' Conference. The pope had insisted upon maintaining a neutral stance so as not to jeopardize his Soviet initiative.
Speaking with officials of the Curia, Spain discovered a great deal of discontent regarding the direction in which the church was moving. Some even suggested to him that the pope was "politically naive and unduly influenced by a handful of 'liberal' clerics." He heard tales about "the moral and political unreliability of [the pope's] young collaborators." Among those who were particularly concerned by Pope John's policies, according to Spain's report to McCone, were members of the Roman aristocracy and the papal nobility, who, according to Spain, had lost many of their traditional privileges when Pius XII died.
A Holy Mole
John McCone now took a personal as well as professional interest in the Vatican situation. Thomas Kalamasinas, the station chief in Rome, was instructed to raise the priority of the Vatican spying operation. But the CIA ran into a snag when it learned that some of its best contacts — for example, the conservative prelates who held key posts in the Extraordinary Affairs Section of the Papal Secretariat, which was responsible for the implementation of Vatican foreign policy — were shut out by John XXIII's tendency to circumvent his own bureaucracy when dealing with the Russians. The pope evidently feared that his diplomatic efforts might be sabotaged by some Machiavellian monsignor. Thus, he pursued his goal outside the normal channels of the Curia. A small group of trusted collaborators served as couriers for the pope, who rarely used the telephone to speak with anyone outside the Vatican for fear that the line might be tapped.
When John XXIII died in 1963, CIA analysts prepared a detailed report predicting that Giovanni Cardinal Montini of Milan would be the next pope. They were right. But more amazing than the prediction is the fact that the agency was later able to confirm the identity of John's successor in advance of the official announcement. How was the CIA privy to such information, given the excessive secrecy surrounding the College of Cardinals during a papal election? Italian intelligence sources maintained that the CIA bugged the conclave. Time magazine correspondent Roland Flamini speculates in his book Pope, Premier, President that the agency may have developed an informant among the cardinals, who communicated with the CIA through a hidden electronic transmitter.
Giovanni Montini was no stranger to American intelligence. During World War II, he worked in the Office of the Papal Secretariat and passed information to a grateful OSS. Later he had a falling out with Pope Pius XII and was "exiled" to Milan. This news was well-received by Vatican watchers within the CIA, who had pegged Montini as a "liberal". Nevertheless, he remained an important figure in the church, with extensive religious and political contacts. Every CIA station chief in Italy made a point of getting to know him, and CIA "project money" was donated to various orphanages and charities whose principal benefactor was the archbishop of Milan.
When Montini became pope, taking the name Paul VI, he continued to pursue an open-door policy with the Soviet Union. Leaders from Eastern Europe were received on state visits (Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko had seven meetings with Pope Paul), and many Vatican officials traveled to Moscow for talks. Toward the end of his papacy, Paul VI let it be known that he was not averse to a center-left coalition of the Italian Communist party and the Christian Democrats. This infuriated hard-line elements within the CIA. In 1976, the Georgetown University Center for Strategic and International Studies, a conservative think tank, sponsored a conference on the Communist threat in Italy. Panelists included former CIA director William Colby (who was station chief in Rome during the 1950s); Clare Boothe Luce, who was U.S. ambassador to Rome at the same time; Ray Cline, another ex-CIA official; and John Connally, then a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Their message, which doubtless reached the pope, was unequivocal: Eurocommunism was a threat to U.S. security, and Marxists must never be allowed to participate in the Italian government.
This was not the first time pressures from outside the Vatican were exerted on Pope Paul. In 1967, Paul authored a controversial encyclical, Populorum Progressio, in which he criticized colonial repression and recommended economic and social remedies that were widely interpreted as a denunciation of capitalism. Shortly thereafter, an international group of businessmen asked the Holy Father to "clarify" his economic views. The delegation included George C. Moore, then chairman of Citibank. Pope Paul subsequently issued a statement in which he denied any hostility toward private enterprise.
Liberation Theology
Classified CIA studies prepared throughout the 1960s with titles such as "The Catholic Church Reassesses Its Role in Latin America" depicted a church with a commitment to economic and political reform. The studies foresaw the emergence of "liberation theology," which would provide the theoretical basis for a "people's church" that would establish itself in Latin America in the early 1970s. Pope Paul helped fulfill the CIA's predictions by appointing socially conscious bishops and by encouraging church activists who opposed South American military dictatorships. Paul's gesture toward the Left was, no doubt, a calculated maneuver directed at the hearts and minds of the Catholic masses. Political reality demanded the promotion of a palatable Christian alternative, lest the brethren put their faith in "Saint" Fidel or Che Guevara. At first, some CIA officials favored Paul's reformist approach as an effective antidote to communism, but as time went by a consensus developed inside the agency that Paul VI had gone too far, that his strategy would backfire and play into the hands of the Marxist revolutionaries.
As Pope Paul VI grew older, great concern developed within intelligence circles over who would succeed him. Agency analysts drew up profiles on leading papal candidates, identifying those who were likely to be sympathetic to American interests. In 1977, Terence Cardinal Cooke, the current Grand Protector and Spiritual Advisor of the SMOM, traveled to Eastern Europe to discuss the matter of choosing a candidate to succeed Pope Paul. During this sojourn, Cardinal Cooke met personally with Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Krakow, who was noted for his anti-Communist leanings. Cooke's coalition-building efforts bore fruit the following year, after Paul's successor, Pope John Paul I, died, having served scarcely a month. (There were widespread rumors that he had been poisoned.) In October 1978, the Vatican's Sacred College of Cardinals elected Karol Wojtyla as pontiff.
The New Inquisition
October 1976. Father Patrick Rice is dragged from his prison cell in Buenos Aires by members of the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance, a paramilitary police agency. He has already been held incommunicado for several days and has been beaten ruthlessly. The routine is about to begin again: electric shock treatment, water torture that makes him feel as if he is drowning. Throughout the ordeal he hears the screams of other prisoners. Eventually he is transferred to police headquarters, in which are passage walls covered with swastikas.
"My Christian faith became very real to me," remembers the priest, who survived two months of captivity and recovered in a psychiatric ward.
Father Rice is one of the lucky ones. During the past 15 years, 1,500 priests, nuns and bishops have been murdered, imprisoned, tortured or expelled from Latin America. "Any Christian who defends the poor," says Rice, "can expect to be persecuted and mistreated by the security police."
Only a generation ago, the persecution of the Catholic clergy would have been unthinkable, for the church had always sided with the reactionary sectors of society — the wealthy landowners and the military. But Pope John XXII's vision of Catholicism as a community of believers in and of the world sparked major reforms. His policies set the stage for the historic gathering of Latin American bishops that took place during the papacy of Paul VI at Medellin, Colombia, in 1968. It was at this conference that the liberation theology predicted by the CIA earlier in the decade was born. The bishops called upon the church to "defend the rights of the oppressed" and recognize a "preferential option for the poor" in the struggle for social justice.
Liberation theology came to life in the form of thousands of grassroots Christian communities that sprang up throughout Latin America, where nine out of ten people are Catholic, and eight out of ten are destitute. Within these groups, religion became less a ritualistic phenomenon and more an inspiration to clergy and laity attempting to remove the yoke of oppression from the poor. Some priests even began to align themselves with the left-wing guerrillas engaged in armed struggle against U.S.-backed regimes. "The Christian base communities are the greatest threat to military dictatorships throughout Latin America," said Maryknoll Sister Ita Ford in late 1980, three weeks before she, two other American nuns and Jean Donovan, a lay missionary worker, were brutally murdered in El Salvador.
The CIA was quick to recognize the "subversive" potential of liberation theology and mounted an extensive campaign to undermine the new movement. The agency's strategy, formulated during the late 1960s and early '70s, when Richard Helms was director, was to exploit the polarization between the activist clergy and those who still identified with the established order (the holdovers from the Cold War era, when missionaries were routinely employed as agents and informants). Toward this end, as Penny Lernoux documents in her book Cry of the People, the CIA used right-wing Catholic organizations in Latin America to harass outspoken prelates and political reformers. The agency also trained and financed police agencies responsible for the torture and murder of bishops, priests and nuns, some of them U.S. citizens.
In 1975, the Bolivian Interior Ministry — a publicly acknowledged subsidiary of the CIA — drew up a master plan for persecuting progressive clergy. The scheme, dubbed the "Banzer Plan" — after Hugo Banzer, Bolivia's right-wing dictator (who retained Klaus Barbie as his security advisor) — was adopted by ten Latin American governments. The plan involved compiling dossiers on church activists; censoring and shutting down progressive Catholic media outlets; planting Communist literature on church premises; and arresting or expelling undesirable foreign priests and nuns. The CIA also funded anti-Marxist religious groups that engaged in a wide range of covert operations, from bombing churches to overthrowing constitutionally elected governments. The success of the Banzer Plan was vividly demonstrated in San Salvador in the late 1970s, when an anonymous group distributed a leaflet that read: "Be a Patriot! Kill a Priest!" A series of clerical assassinations followed, culminating in the murder of the progressive and popular Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero.
More recently, the Reagan administration has sharpened its attack on progressive elements of the church, both at home and abroad. The Santa Fe Report, prepared for the Council for Inter-American Security and presented in 1980 to the Republican Platform Committee by a team of ultraconservative advisors, states that "U.S. foreign policy must begin to counter (not react against) liberation theology as it is utilized in Latin America by the 'liberation theology' clergy." In order to garner support for this policy, the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD), an interdenominational organization, was established in 1981 with funding from right-wing institutions, including the Smith 'Richardson and Sarah Scaife foundations, both of which have served as CIA financial conduits. The IRD unleashed a propaganda drive against church activists at the forefront of domestic opposition to U.S. aid to the government of El Salvador and other repressive regimes in Latin America. The IRD campaign has been highly successful, even reaching the pages of Reader's Digest, from where it was picked up by 60 Minutes.
The Holy Mafia
Under Casey, the CIA has continued its attack on progressive elements within the church. Casey is also a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
Of all the groups that are engaged in the U.S.-sponsored campaign against liberation theology, none has played a more significant role than Opus Dei ("God's Work"). A fast-growing Catholic lay society whose political activities are shrouded in secrecy, Opus Dei was founded in 1928 by Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer, a young Spanish priest and lawyer. Escriva espoused complete obedience to church dogma. Today, there are more than 70,000 members of the order in 87 countries. Only a small percentage are priests. The rest are mostly middle- and upper-class businessmen, professionals, military personnel and government officials. Some are university students. The members contribute regularly to the group's financial coffers and are encouraged to practice "holy shrewdness" and "holy coercion" in an effort to win converts.
Much of what is known about Opus Dei comes from ex-members such as John Roche, a professor at Oxford University in England, who broke his oath of secrecy after leaving the order. According to Roche, self-flagellation with whips and spiked chains is a normal part of the rigid spiritual discipline that Opus Dei imposes on its full-time members, including college-age recruits of both genders. "Personal identity suffers a severe battering: some are reduced to shadows of their former selves, others become severely disturbed," writes Roche in a paper called "The Inner World of Opus Dei." "Internally, it is totalitarian and imbued with fascist ideas turned to religious purposes, ideas which were surely drawn from the Spain of its early years. It is virtually a sect or cult in spirit, a law unto itself, totally self-centered, grudgingly accepting Roman authority because it still considers Rome orthodox, and because of the vast pool of recruits accessible to it as a respected Catholic organization."
In recent years, Opus Dei has emerged internationally as one of the most powerful and politically committed of the Catholic lay groups. Detractors have likened the organization to a "saintly Mafia," for its members control a large number of banks and financial institutions, including Rumasa, the largest conglomerate in Spain's private sector. In the latter stages of the Franco regime, ten out of 19 cabinet officers belonged to or were closely allied with Opus Dei. Despite the active political role the order plays wherever it exists, Father Malcolm Kennedy, an American spokesperson for Opus Dei, insists it is "inconceivable…that Opus Dei leaders in any country would try to influence political decisions."
The tentacles of "Octopus Dei," as it is sometimes called, stretch all the way to the U.S., where David Kennedy, former chairman of Continental Illinois Bank and treasury secretary under Richard Nixon, is said to be a "conspicuous friend" of the conservative religious order, despite the fact that he is a Mormon. Continental Illinois owns shares of an Opus Dei bank in Barcelona (for more on Kennedy's links to the church, see box, page 37).
Opus Dei also controls a wide range of media assets (600 newspapers, 52 radio and TV stations, 12 film companies and 38 news agencies) and sponsors educational and social programs in various countries. These efforts have been endorsed by members of the American section of the SMOM such as William Simon (Citicorp) and Francis X. Stankard (Chase Manhattan Bank), who have spoken at Opus Dei seminars and other functions of the group.
"One of the problems that Opus Dei runs into," says Sargent Shriver, a cooperating (not full-time) member of the order and a former Democratic candidate for vice president, "is that a lot of Catholics join the organization, and they're doing this, that and the other thing, and Opus Dei becomes tainted because of them."
This is particularly true in Latin America. In Chile, for example, Opus Dei elicited support from Chilean bishops for the overthrow of President Salvador Allende and worked closely with CIA-funded organizations such as the Fatherland and Liberty goon squads, which subsequently merged with DINA, the dreaded Chilean secret police. In 1971, the CIA began financing the Chilean Institute for General Studies (IGS), which has been described as an Opus Dei think tank. Its members include lawyers, free-market economists and executives from influential publications. One of the leading IGS staffers was Hernan Cubillos, founder of Que Pasa, an Opus Dei magazine, and publisher of El Mercurio, the largest newspaper in Santiago (and one that was subsidized by the CIA). After the coup, a number of IGS technocrats became cabinet members and advisors to the Pinochet junta; Cubillos served as foreign minister.
Opus Dei powerbrokers have gained enormous influence inside the Vatican since they helped install the current pope. The courting of John Paul II began when he was still the archbishop of Krakow. He was asked to speak at Opus Dei colleges and at the group's international headquarters in Rome. In an effort to enhance Wojtyla's image as papabile, these speeches were printed by Opus Dei in book form and circulated among members of the Vatican hierarchy. When Karol Wojtyla became pope, he returned the favor by elevating Opus Dei to the unique status of a "personal prelature." Critics of Opus Dei fear that the pope's edict will allow its members to elude the authority of local bishops in special circumstances, thereby strengthening the order's tendency to function as a "church within a church." This was an important victory for Opus Dei, which had been rebuffed on previous occasions by both Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI.
The decision to upgrade the status of Opus Dei appears to be part of an over-all strategy to counter the influence of Jesuits and other progressive clerics active in the liberation theology movement. Pope John Paul II's feud with the Jesuits came to a head in October 1981, when he suspended the order's constitution and replaced its ailing superior general, Father Pedro Arrupe, with a Jesuit of his own choosing. Many Jesuits have caused turmoil in the 'Vatican by questioning papal pronouncements on birth control, priestly celibacy, the barring of women from the priesthood and, most significantly, clerical involvement in politics. Because it is predominantly a lay organization, Opus Dei is exempt from these rules. The pope recently asked leaders of Opus Dei, which thus far has kept out of Communist countries, to begin operating in Poland.
It is rather ironic that John Paul II should chastise priests for engaging in political activity when he is by far the most overtly political pope of modern times. A strong patriot, John Paul has even threatened to fight alongside his countrymen should the Soviets try to crush the workers' rebellion in Poland. And his political activism has not only included well-publicized trips and rhetorical speeches. With his approval, the Vatican quietly funneled $40 million to Solidarity. But despite the pontiff's support for the Polish union — and the issuing of an encyclical in strong defense of the rights of labor — his sympathies do not extend to the rights of workers in Vatican City: he has opposed demands for decent wages by the Vatican's low-paid employees, and there have even been rumblings of a possible strike.
The New Strategy
When John Paul II assumed the papacy nearly five years ago. Catholics the world over wondered whether he was the right person to lead their 700 million members (the world's largest religious denomination). He was a unique choice in many respects: the first non-Italian pope since the 16th century, the first pope from a Communist country and the only modern-day pope (aside from his short-lived predecessor) with no work experience in the Curia.
John Paul II came to the Vatican during troubled times for Catholicism. Political upheavals in Poland and Latin America promised to make the new pope's job more than that of spiritual leader. Karol Wojtyla knew that, as did the cardinals who elected him. And the CIA, which knew that another John XXIII could spell disaster for U.S. foreign policy, doubtless brought its influence to bear on the election through Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta. Thus far it seems likely that the agency is, on balance, fairly pleased with the pope's performance.
John Paul II has shown himself to be an aggressive and wily statesman. In 1979, during his first trip to Latin America, he drew enormous and enthusiastic crowds wherever he spoke. Each message was carefully tailored to each audience. At one stop he would stress religious discipline and devotion, seemingly at the expense of social commitment; at the next he would use stronger language than any previous pope defending the rights of the oppressed. Conservative Vatican watchers in the CIA undoubtedly blanched when he told 40,000 Mexican Indians, "You have a right to be respected and not deprived of the little you have, often by methods that amount to plunder. You have a right to throw down the barriers of exploitation."
Yet the pope's deeds often do not reflect his words. Earlier this year, he gave the cardinal's red hat to Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, a Colombian sympathizer with Opus Dei and a staunch opponent of liberation theology. Inside the Vatican, Lopez Trujillo is considered the protege of Sebastiano Cardinal Baggio, another Opus Dei ally, who heads the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (the pope's main source of information on events in that region). One of Lopez Trujillo's closest aides is Roger Vekemans, a Belgian priest who received as much as $5 million from the CIA during the 1960s, which he in turn gave to anti-Communist organizations in Chile. Vekemans has also written articles and books condemning church activists and liberation theology.
In October 1982, President Reagan sent his roving ambassador, General Vernon Walters, a devout Catholic, to confer with John Paul II. The pope may have wondered why Reagan would select a former deputy director of the CIA, one who had been involved, both before and after he joined the agency, in some of its most notorious coups: Iran, 1953; Brazil, 1964; Chile, 1973.
More recently, Walters has played a key role in organizing CIA-backed Nicaraguan exile groups based in Honduras who are seeking to overthrow the Sandinista government by force. Not surprisingly, the situation in Latin America was one of the main issues that Walters discussed with the pope. He also attempted to convince the Holy Father that the American bishops had erred in drafting their pastoral letter opposing nuclear weapons. Although John Paul II stood fast on the nuclear question, soon after Walters left the pope did demand that five priests with official positions in the Nicaraguan government resign from office.
The Split
Five months later, in March 1983, John Paul II himself visited Nicaragua during an eight-day swing through Central America. Before a large audience in Managua, he attacked the "people's church" as "absurd and dangerous," implying that the only role the church had in Nicaragua was to oppose the Sandinistas. Such an outspoken repudiation of liberation theology, delivered in the only Latin American country that can claim a revolution with significant Catholic participation, must have been well-received within the CIA.
The pope's condemnation of the Nicaraguan revolution coincided with a dramatic increase in border raids from Honduras by CIA-trained exile groups. But perhaps more damaging than the military actions was the psychological impact of the pope's refusing to pray for the souls of Nicaraguans killed by Somozistas, despite the pleadings of wives and mothers who wept openly before him. And injury was later added to injury when the pope did pray for six "suspected subversives" who had been executed by Guatemala's Protestant dictator Efrain Rios Montt. Whether or not it was his intention, John Paul II had, in effect, given his blessing to the CIA's campaign to destabilize the Sandinista government.
Such developments reaffirm the significance of the Catholic church as an intelligence priority, and the CIA undoubtedly will continue to utilize its contacts in the Vatican and in conservative lay orders to bring its influence to bear on the papal chambers. But the agency realizes that much has changed since the days when all good Catholics obediently toed the line of the Vatican hierarchy and Catholic churchmen at all levels cooperated willingly with American intelligence. The Catholic church, once a rock-solid monolith, is now in a state of flux. The new church poses an enormous challenge to the agency. The pontiff is no longer an absolute monarch. The papacy has become a point of convergence for a multiplicity of forces, an arena in which competing ideologies vie for influence. The CIA, accordingly, has gradually revised its strategy from one of using the church to one of splitting the church. By encouraging internecine conflict between progressive and reactionary church elements, it has made a direct assault on John Paul II's cherished ideal of a unified church that can speak to and for all people.
For his own part, the pope has attempted to walk a fine line, acknowledging the need for social reform while expressing disdain for the grassroots movements that also advocate it. He cannot embrace progressive Catholic organizations, because they threaten to undermine papal authority. The mixed signals John Paul II has been sending his bishops in Latin America (where more than half the world's Catholics will reside by the year 2000) are evidence of the dilemma he faces. To the extent that he denounces injustice and oppression, he risks the wrath of the CIA. But if he fails to be a sufficient critic of fascist governments that kill priests and nuns, many of his followers will seek other roads to salvation.
And John Paul II's dilemma promises to get worse before it gets better. Despite the best efforts of the CIA, liberation theology is spreading to countries such as Thailand, South Korea and the Philippines, where activist priests are also being persecuted by U.S.-backed dictatorships.
As liberation theology spreads throughout the East, it seems certain that Asian Catholics will soon be repeating the popular South American aphorism: "When the CIA goes to church, it doesn't go to pray."


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Camila Cabello's 'Havana' Logs Longest No. 1 Single on Pop Charts by a Lead Female in Five Years
Camila Cabello has been doing just fine after leaving Fifth Harmony. Don't believe us? Just take a look at the current charts. The ex 5H member's hit single, "Havana," featuring Young Thug, has been sittin' pretty on the top of Billboard's pop songs chart for seven weeks now, which marks the first time a solo female artist has secured the No. 1 spot for that many consecutive weeks in nearly five years.
The last woman to do it? You may have guessed it: Taylor Swift. Tay Tay's "I Knew You Were Trouble" sat on top of the pop songs chart for seven straight weeks, debuting on February 2, 2018.
Before that, Rihanna reigned supreme for eight weeks with her hit Calvin Harris collaboration, "We Found Love," back in 2011-12. Can Camila beat that record? We'll find out next week! In the meantime, revisit "Havana" below:
Cabello recently chatted with Rolling Stone about leaving Fifth Harmony back in 2016, although she skillfully skirted the reason for her departure. She's gearing up to release her debut solo album, Camila, on January 12, 2018.
Fifth Harmony first made its debut back in 2012. Assembled by judges including Simon Cowell on the now defunct U.S. version of The X Factor, the all-girl group has had its fair share of successes and continues to perform and make music as a foursome after Cabello's departure.


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Thursday, February 23, 2006
Panda Silver Coins
The Chinese peoples Bank have been issuing what is popularly known as Panda silver coins for some years.
2006 is no exception and the recent issue of Panda silver coins continues the tradition of beautiful design these coins are known for.
Actually both gold and silver panda coins were issued and information can be found here about the panda gold coins
These coins commemorate the 10th Anniversary of China Minsheng Banking Corp. Ltd and were all minted by the Shenzhen Guobao Minting Co. Ltd in China.
The obverse of the coin features the Hall of Praying for Good Harvest of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, and the title of the People's Republic of China, year 2006, as well as some Chinese characters
The reverse design of the one ounce silver bullion coin features a mother panda and her son, The characters '1oz Ag.999', '10th Anniversary of China Minsheng Banking Corp. Ltd.' and some Chinese characters.
The one ounce round silver coin is bullion in quality, containing 1oz. of pure silver, is 40mm in diameter and10Yuan in face value,. It is 99.9% in purity and the mintage was 70,000.
There is also a five ounce round silver coin and a one kilo silver coin also. Both are proof coins with a .99.9 percent purity. The five ounce coin has a face value of 50 Yuan, a mintage of 10,000 and the one kilo coin a face value of 300 Yuan and a mintage of 4000.
The Panda silver coins are avidly collected by coin enthusiasts and many have some impressive collections obtained over the years and the value of the collections increases as they are added to over the years.
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Visual Code is a collection of Actionscript codes specifically for designers and artists. The benefit of this collection is that it does not require any previous knowledge in programming - it is a source of inspiration for students and professionals.
We now offer all the codes as an Actionscript 3.0 version. We acknowledge the growing popularity of this newer language version, and are keeping up the simplicity of our codes in Actionscript 3.0.
The examples published, originate from the teaching practice of Andres Wanner and Roman Schnyder. They were developed at HGK FHNW, Basel and at HSLU, Lucerne.
We would like to express our most sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Werner Hartmann (PH Bern) and Marc Pilloud (HSLU) for their exceptionally competent scientific advice. Big thanks to Ted Davis and Hasti Seifi for their great help! Our appreciation extends to the Swiss Federal Office for Culture, for their financial support.
Andres Wanner, Roman Schnyder


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While La'Kendra and Nicholas didn't meet until shortly after graduating they're prospective high schools a few years apart (La'Kendra from White Plains in 2006 and Nicholas from Ossining in 2005) they are essentially a classic high school sweetheart tale.
They started off their relationship slowly, but after a few months, decided to take things more seriously and six happy years later Nicholas proposed.
La'Kendra lives in White Plains and works as an editor at a local television station (WRNN) and Nicholas is from Peekskill and works as a chef at the Black Cat Café in Irvington, New York.
This past Memorial Day Weekend La'Kendra and Nicholas were celebrating both the holiday weekend to kickoff summer and Nicholas' birthday with a barbeque with family and friends at Nicholas' house.
As the night was winding down and the guests were tapering off, La'Kendra decided it would be the perfect time to give Nicholas his birthday gift, but as she was doing so, he very suddenly and strangely dashed out of the room.
He came rushing back in bearing a small jewelry box, got down on one knee and told La'Kendra " I love you. I've always loved you and don't want to spend another minute without you." La'Kendra still in shock by it all hugged him and took the ring, but Nicholas had to ask her again if she would marry him, because with all the commotion, she forgot to tell him "yes".
La'Kendra was overjoyed with Nicholas' proposal and despite the late hour, called everyone close to her to share the great news. "I was so surprised. I kept saying 'oh my gosh' and then ran into Nicholas' sister's room and began jumping up and down on her bed in excitement".
While the engagement was a total surprise to La'Kendra, Nicholas had already asked her father's permission, as well as conspiring with her mother and his sister to pick out the perfect ring for his soon-to-be-bride.
He was originally planning on proposing later on in the week, while out at a romantic dinner, but was way too excited to wait when he executed his impromptu proposal that fated night.
Wanting to enjoy their engagement, the newly engaged couple is thinking a wedding in the spring of 2014 would suit them just right. "We would like to keep the wedding small and intimate, but we both have big families, so that is probably not going to happen" La'Kendra commented.
So far no concrete plans have been made just yet, although a honeymoon on the beach is definitely in their horizon.


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Is hot food (in an open container) stored in the product?
1. Frost builds up in the freezer.
1. Hot food directly stored in the freezer releases steam, creating frost and icicles. When icicles form on refrigerator ceiling, door may not closed
How to fix
1. Hot foods should be cooled down before being stored in the freezer.
2. Remove icicles on ceiling with a hot towel .
[Frost in the freezer]


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The American Civil Liberties Union is on a vigorous campaign to integrate Mississippi's public schools, making requests across the state to find out which have segregated classrooms and weighing whether or not to sue.
But the investigation isn't about racial segregation — it's about sex-segregation. Single-sex classrooms are a growing phenomenon across the country. In 2002, just about a dozen schools had them, but now as many as 500 do, according to the Associated Press. The movement shows no sign of slowing down and has set off a pair of debates: a pedagogical dispute over whether sex-segregation makes for better education, and a legal one — which the ACLU is at the center of — about whether this sort of separation violates civil rights laws.
(MORE: Can Parents Take Over Schools?)
Today's argument for sex-segregation increasingly turns on scientific — critics would say pseudo-scientific — arguments about how the two sexes acquire knowledge. The separation of boys and girls into different classrooms lets administrators and teachers tailor the instruction to what they see as the different learning styles of boys and girls.
These "different learning styles," however, may be better described as gender stereotypes. Are you a girl who is interested in mathematics in its most theoretical form — the kind of math that predominates in university mathematics departments? Well, the National Association for Single Sex Public Education — a leading advocacy organization — does not seem to think that you exist.
On its website, the group advises about teaching mathematics that "[w]ith boys you can stimulate their interest by focussing [sic] on the properties of numbers per se. With girls, you want to tie what you're teaching into the real world. Keep it real and relevant." For one lesson, it urges teaching boys by emphasizing the way the numbers work in the abstract — while girls should be told to bring in pineapples and pinecones to visualize the concepts. There are more stereotypes where that one came from — a lot more.
(MORE: Do Mothers Hamper Their Daughters in Math)
One way of knowing that the advocates are dealing in stereotypes rather than solid pedagogy: the science does not support what they are saying. Last fall, the journal Science published a wide-ranging study of the academic literature on same-sex education. The study acknowledged that there are sex differences in children's brains. But it debunked the idea that these differences have a significant impact on learning.
While the Science piece did not find appreciable advantages to same-sex education, it did identify serious downsides. Separating students by sex, it said, "makes gender very salient," which "reinforces stereotypes and sexism." It has the same problems as segregation by race or income. "Any form of segregation undermines rather than promotes equality," the study said.
(MORE: Are Scout Handbooks Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes?)
But is same-sex public education illegal? It can be, if it relies on groundless preconceptions about the sexes that interfere with educational opportunities. For example, as the ACLU argues as part of their "Teach Kids, Not Stereotypes" campaign, it is unacceptable for taxpayer-funded schools to "teach boys to be active and aggressive — by shouting at them, spanking them, and allowing them to toss a football in class — while they simultaneously coddle girls, using soft voices, encouraging them to talk about their feelings, and giving them untimed tests to create a less stressful environment."
Dividing up boys and girls and teaching them in this way is a rare form of bias. It is not simply discrimination against girls or discrimination against boys. It is discrimination against both.
MORE: Reboot the School


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clinical nutrition
Michael Reese Hospital Medical Center
Graduated from the Department of Food Science and Technology of the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece, in 1996. In 1998 he received a scholarship for post-graduate studies from the State Scholarship Foundation of Greece and in 2002 he received the Ph.D. degree in Food Microbiology from the Agricultural University of Athens. In 2003, he joined the Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Laboratory of Food Quality Control and Hygiene as a member of the scientific personnel where he works until today. He has participated in several research projects funded by the EU, the Greek Secretariat of Research and Technology as well as food industries. He has co-authored 35 publications in peer-reviewed journals, 22 book chapters, over 70 publications in national and international conference proceedings and has received more than 600 citations.
Research Interest
Food Science , Food Nutrition, Food Analysis.


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The Massachusetts Chamber of Business & Industry (MassCBI) is now The Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce
Welcome to the new name and new home of the Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce (formerly MassCBI). We're updating our look to make it easier for you to learn how the Mass Chamber is working for you and your business.
• Check out Updates/News to learn more about what the Mass Chamber is working and for legislative updates.
• Go to our new Membership page to learn about the benefits and services that are available exclusively to Mass Chamber members.
• Our Politics page will give you more information about the Mass Chamber's Political Action Committees and provide you with information about state legislators.
• Learn more about Mass Chamber Events being held across the state.
• The Mass Chamber has established a Foundation to provide manufactures across the state with grants to assist with workforce development.
• We love to hear from you. Contact us for more information.
The Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce provides legislative advocacy, marketing, networking, educational and informational programs for businesses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Chamber also provides managerial services for local chambers of commerce and professional organizations such as West of the River Chamber of Commerce and the Realtors Commercial Alliance of Massachusetts.
Upcoming Mass Chamber Events
Annual Golf Tournament
Monday, June 11, 2012 11:00 Shotgun Tekoa Country Club, 459 Russell Road, Westfield, MA (413) 568-1636
Click Here and register today!
For more information download our Golf Flyer
Sponsorship's are still available. Sign-up today!
Welcome to Massachusetts
A Practical Guide to Living in the State
Massachusetts, located in the heart of New England, is the region's most populous state. Lively urban areas, picturesque seaside communities, and tiny rural towns offer a unique ambiance which each year attracts many new residents. This webpage is designed to provide people contemplating a move to Massachusetts and those who have recently come here with specific information on the practical aspects of residency. I hope that new residents and those considering a move to the Bay State find this webpage a good source of useful information.
Sincerely, William Francis Galvin Secretary of the Commonwealth


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The End of Men? — A Hard Look at the Future
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
June 22, 2010
Is our postmodern, postindustrial society simply better suited to women than to men? Hanna Rosin makes the case for this claim in the current issue of The Atlantic, and her article demands close attention. Men, she argues, are simply falling behind women in almost every sector of cultural influence and economic power. This shift, she understands, is nothing less than unprecedented in the span of human history.
Rosin begins her article with the fact that sex-selection technologies in the West are now more often used to select a preference for girls than for boys, reversing the historical trend. Why? She explains: "Man has been the dominant sex since, well, the dawn of mankind. But for the first time in human history, that is changing—and with shocking speed. Cultural and economic changes always reinforce each other. And the global economy is evolving in a way that is eroding the historical preference for male children, worldwide."
Rosin's article is well documented and forceful in argument. The bottom line is the claim that the trend and trajectory of the global economy have for some time now been headed toward female skills and talents. At the most basic level, this means a shift from physical strength to intellectual energies and education. At the next level, it also means a shift from leadership models more associated with males toward the nurturing leadership more associated with women. In any event, the changes are colossal.
Nothing has brought this into clearer sight than the current global recession. In the United States, the recession has been dubbed a "he-cession," due to the fact that three-quarters of the 8 million jobs lost were lost by men. Even more devastating to men, most of these jobs will not return, given the vast changes the recession has brought about. "The worst-hit industries were overwhelmingly male and deeply identified with macho: construction, manufacturing, high finance. Some of these jobs will come back," Rosin predicts, "but the overall pattern of dislocation is neither temporary nor random."
It's not just the United States, either. In Iceland, Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir (the first openly-lesbian head of state) ran her campaign for office with a pledge to end the "age of testosterone."
But the picture in the United States is particularly striking. For the first time in the nation's history, women now outnumber men in the workforce. The working class, "which has long defined our notions of masculinity," Rosin argues, is "slowly turning into a matriarchy, with men increasingly absent from the home and women making all the decisions."
Why? "The postindustrial economy is indifferent to men's size and strength. The attributes that are most valuable today — social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus — are, at a minimum, not predominately male."
Rosin actually makes two main points, and both demand attention. The first has to do with what is taking place in working class families. The matriarchy Rosin describes is now coming more fully into view. In many cases, it is husbands and fathers who are unemployed and wives and mothers who have paying jobs. This means a huge shift in male function, and many men just exit the family process or forfeit decision making. Rosin refers to these men as "casualties of the end of the manufacturing era." Across the nation, older men are increasingly unemployed and younger men face little hope of a job in this sector — the virtual birthright of previous generations.
Of the fifteen job classifications marked for future growth, men dominate only two: janitorial services and computer engineering. The same pattern is now extending to managerial and professional roles, where women currently hold 51.4 percent of jobs. Why are women gaining and men falling behind? Rosin explains:
They make up 54 percent of all accountants and hold about half of all banking and insurance jobs. About a third of America's physicians are now women, as are 45 percent of associates in law firms—and both those percentages are rising fast. A white-collar economy values raw intellectual horsepower, which men and women have in equal amounts. It also requires communication skills and social intelligence, areas in which women, according to many studies, have a slight edge. Perhaps most important—for better or worse—it increasingly requires formal education credentials, which women are more prone to acquire, particularly early in adulthood.
Beyond the numbers, Rosin reports that office environments and corporate cultures are adapting to women, as well, reshaped by the gender transformation of the last twenty-five years.
And yet, even after all this, Rosin makes her most powerful argument when she looks, not at the current workforce, but at what is happening on America's college and university campuses. There, she explains, "we can see with absolute clarity that in the coming decades the middle class will be dominated by women."
She continues:
We've all heard about the collegiate gender gap. But the implications of that gap have not yet been fully digested. Women now earn 60 percent of master's degrees, about half of all law and medical degrees, and 42 percent of all M.B.A.s. Most important, women earn almost 60 percent of all bachelor's degrees—the minimum requirement, in most cases, for an affluent life. In a stark reversal since the 1970s, men are now more likely than women to hold only a high-school diploma. "One would think that if men were acting in a rational way, they would be getting the education they need to get along out there," says Tom Mortenson, a senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education. "But they are just failing to adapt."
While many theories to explain this pattern have been offered, no one can argue with the numbers. Boys are clearly falling behind girls in both educational achievement and aspiration. The long-term consequences of this shift are momentous and virtually impossible to reverse in a single generation. This pattern has vast implications for marital prospects, since women express a strong preference to marry a man of equal or greater educational and professional potential. The collapse of the marriage culture within the working class, Rosin argues, is due to the fact that women are in control and have set expectations "too high for the men around them to meet."
Hanna Rosin's article is not the first salvo of information on these troubling trends, but the fact that The Atlantic chose her essay as a cover story is itself evidence of how this phenomenon is taking hold of attention, even among the elites.
For Christians, the importance of this article is even greater. God intended for men to have a role as workers, reflecting God's own image in their vocation. The most important issue here is not the gains made by women, but the displacement of men. This has undeniable consequences for these men and for everyone who loves and depends on them.
The failure of boys to strive for educational attainment is a sign of looming disaster. Almost anyone who works with youth and young adults will tell you that, as a rule, boys are simply not growing up as fast as girls. This means that their transition to manhood is stunted, delayed, and often incomplete. Meanwhile, the women are moving on.
What does it mean for large sectors of our society to become virtual matriarchies? How do we prepare the church to deal with such a world while maintaining biblical models of manhood and womanhood?
The elites are awakening to the fact that these vast changes point to a very different future. Christians had better know that matters far more important than economics are at stake. These trends represent nothing less than a collapse of male responsibility, leadership, and expectations. The real issue here is not the end of men, but the disappearance of manhood.
I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at email@example.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.
Hanna Rosin, "The End of Men," The Atlantic, July/August 2010.
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me using the contact form. Follow regular updates on Twitter at @albertmohler.
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I am a huge fan of goat cheese. I know that not everyone is but if you do like it you must try this breakfast cheese spread. I saw it at Harris Teeter and it retails for $11.99 which I would probably not normally pay, but right now they have it on special for $4.99. I bought the Fig flavor and I have been eating it on toast every morning. It is also tasty on crackers! There are 5 different flavors. I think I will try the Honey one next. It is kind of similar to cream cheese and so delish.
I was browsing in JCrew yesterday and saw this beautiful stripped blouse. I love the kelly green and navy color combo. Since the New Year I have implemented the 24 hour rule for purchases where I really think about how bad I want/need the item. Well I can't get this blouse out of my head. I am picturing it with skinny jeans, long gold chains, and high heeled booties. Sigh, it's 24 hours later and I am still dreaming about her. I think I need to buy her.
I am convinced I need to wallpaper Sterling's bathroom in this adorable whale wallpaper. It comes in three color choices: gray, blue, and aqua. I am leaning towards the gray. How adorable is it?
Ladies trust me when I say I will never have really short hair again (and I mean it). I did it once, along with going very dark brown (also a horrible idea) and will never do either again. That being said I am thinking about cutting it a little bit. I have the itch for a new do for Spring. I am smitten with Gwennie's hair in this picture not to mention her color. Thinking about bringing this to my hairdresser in a few weeks. Dish- Love the long bob it or Hate it?
This quote reminds me of both my boys. LOVE.


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Our three-bedrooms apartments in Monte-Carlo Sun, Monaco
Heritage Properties is here to support you in all your real estate projects and answer your questions about the purchasing process of your three-bedrooms apartment!
For many years now in the luxury real estate sector, Heritage Properties will be your ideal partner to guide and provide you with the best knowledge on the purchasing process of your three-bedrooms apartment. With a real expertise of the market and on local dynamics, our agency will be at your side throughout investment experience within the building in Monte-Carlo Sun, Monaco.
A selection of three-bedrooms apartments in Monte-Carlo Sun, Monaco.
Heritage Properties can offer you tailor-made service regarding your property purchase project in Monte-Carlo Sun, Monaco. We are here to help you find the apartment of your dreams.
Buying your main residence or investing in Monte-Carlo Sun, Monaco
The Monegasque real estate market, in addition to the constant increase in prices of underlying assets over the past ten years, offers many opportunities for investors. Thanks to the different tropisms and sensitivities of our employees and our diversified listing, you will benefit from the expertise and pragmatism of a renowned agency with a patrimonial approach.
Why buying in Monte-Carlo Sun, Monaco ?
The Monte-Carlo Sun is a 26-storey building delivered in 1975, located in the La Rousse Saint Roman district of Monaco. One of the few residences with a swimming pool, Le Monte-Carlo Sun is very popular with families. It is in the North-East of the Principality.


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Every toolbox needs what we like to call the dirty dozen – twelve must have tools. Here's the rundown: A cordless drill, a hammer, an angle square for marking or checking corners, a multi-head screwdriver, a pry bar, a utility knife, a 25-foot tape measure, an adjustable wrench, a chalk line, a circular saw and a level. Have them handy in your toolbox and you'll be good to go with just about any project you have on tap.
Here are some quick tricks if you're in a home improvement hard-place:
•A dollar bill is 6 inches long, you can use it in a pinch to measure.
•Use a rubber pencil eraser if you lose a glue cap.
•Toothpaste can be used to spackle in a pinch.
•Put masking tape on the side of measuring tape for an easy, portable place to record measurements as you go.