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Last year I accepted an invitation from Ben to go to ENAR 2013 – my first ENAR. I used to go to JSM and useR!, and apparently I enjoy useR! most. The reason is not, or not only, because I'm more of a technical person. It is just hard to concentrate at large statistical conferences. I want to make a few suggestions from the perspective of a student, although it is unlikely that any future conference chairs will come here and listen to me:
- Go green and get rid of printed programs. A program book is thick and clunky and nobody will take it with them when they leave. The hundreds of pages of paper will only end up in garbage. If you have to print them, print N/5 copies instead (N is the number of participants) and let the participants share with each other.
- Improve the websites and add social network features. For example, we can "reserve" the talks which we are interested, so all participants immediately know which are the popular and highly expected talks, and organizers can schedule appropriate rooms. The discussion session by John Chambers, Duncan Temple Lang, Thomas Lumley and Michael Lawrence at the last JSM in San Diego was a failure in the sense that many people were standing outside of the room (presumably fans of John Chambers). By comparison, my session at ENAR was assigned to a room of (more than?) 400 seats but only 20 people showed up.
- If we tell the organizers which sessions we plan to go, the program book can be a lot thinner! If there are changes in these sessions, only a small group of people need to be notified. If you notify everybody by inserting a few pieces of announcements, it is a waste of time of most people.
- One thing I really wish to have for conferences is I want to know which people in my "circle" are also going there. It is hard to go through 1000 names of participants and spot some familiar names. I met a friend at ENAR who collaborated with me (translating an English R tutorial to Chinese) almost 10 years ago but we have never really met in person so we do not know each other. I did not know he was coming as well. I was just sitting on the sofa in a corner and he randomly saw my badge. We were so excited that we finally met in such an unexpected place.
- If participants can make connections with each other beforehand, it is likely to save us money as well – we can share the costs when we rent cars, take cabs, book hotels and so on.
- So please do not charge us upon registration – give us a deadline and charge us later. Perhaps I will change my mind later if I cannot find enough interesting people to meet, or the popular talks seem irrelevant to me.
- I heard from Hadley that some IEEE conferences require the speakers to do a 30-second talk before the conferences, and I think that will be cool and useful for statistical conferences as well. Nowadays I still hear certain speakers read their slides word by word. Some speakers may be shy or are not confident in their oral English, but I do not think the language problem is a really big problem. My suggestion to these speakers is to spend more time preparing jokes instead of the slides: jokes make the audience concentrate and speakers relax. I have told a lot of stupid jokes that I regret afterwards, but I think the net effect is still positive.
- If it is not possible to arrange 30-second talks, the conference website should allow speakers upload mini versions of their talks to attract more audience.
- Some people go to conferences for both presentations and sightseeing. Personally I do not care about the latter at all, but unfortunately all big conferences take place in famous big cities. This ENAR was held in the largest Marriott in the world. Am I proud of that? No, not at all, because I had to live in a much cheaper hotel three miles away. One evening I tried to walk back and it took me one hour and twenty minutes. What is more, this place is not really walkable – I had to walk on the grass on the roadside for half an hour because there was no pavement! I do not really mind walking (even for three miles), but it is not a happy memory walking on the grass. The Marriott was such a closed universe that it was hard to walk out, as Karl's picture showed.
By comparison, useR! conferences often take place in a university campus. Last year it was in Vanderbilt, and they provided dorms to students. I lived happily in the dorm, because all I wanted was a place to sleep (there was free wireless too); nothing luxury. Usually there are also inexpensive restaurants on campus. I met helpful local students/researchers there who gave me free ride to some scenic spots, and I had to fight to pay my tickets by myself (but was still treated). It was just a touching trip and I managed to make acquaintance quite a few interesting people (Frank Harrell, Bill Venables and Kevin Coombes, etc).
ENAR "kindly" included a ticket for the Epcot theme park in the registration fee. What did I do in the theme park? I had a dinner in an expensive restaurant (Karl felt guilty for taking me there and generously treated me), and watched a 10-minute fireworks show. Yes, we were so nerdy that we kept on discussing the role of measure theory and GitHub in a place where we were supposed to say hello to the Mickey mouse.
So my major suggestion to the big statistical meetings is, create an environment which emphasizes the communication among people and do not include distracting activities in the registration package by default. There are a couple of small things you can do, for example:
- More seats in the open place so we can sit and chat.
- Free beer. I'm sure it is more doable than an Epcot ticket.
- Always print the participant name on both sides of the badge. You know how stupid it is to show a blank side of your badge to other people (and the badge always flips to the damn wrong side, always, flips!!), especially given that statisticians are socially awkward and feel embarassed to ask other people for names.
- Choose a university campus instead of Marriott. If you do not know how to choose one, choose Iowa State University then. I'm sure all participants will be highly concentrated unless they are interested in seeing corns and pigs on the farms.
Okay, rants ended. Positive energy coming.
As I said on Twitter, I was happy to meet Karl Broman (who introduced Matthew Stephens to me later, the smartest person in statistics and human genetics according to Karl) and John Muschelli there. I noticed Karl long time ago, mainly due to Top ten worst graphs, but have never met him.
I did not know much about the Johns Hopkins biostat department before I visited them last year, and it has become a place that surprises me more and more. It is a weird and crazy department. I like people for bizarre reasons. For instance, I like Jeff Leek because he prefers steak to be well done (me too). Rafa hides jokes under his very serious-looking face. "Behind the Tan Door" is the best video in the history of statistics. Karl has a series of hilarious stories about the JHSPH logo. There are people in the world that you know for sure you will be excited to meet. Currently I have yet another person on my list: Tyler Rinker.
In case you have not seen it, I strongly recommend you read (and apply for) the postdoctoral fellow position in reproducible research at Hopkins. Note in particular the phrase "serious moxie"!!
So do I regret ENAR? Certainly no. If I can organize my time more efficiently meeting more people like those above, it will be even better. BTW, if you are not the 20 people in my session, feel free to check out my slides on knitr (Brian Bot simply called them "animated gifs" instead of "slides").


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Robert Grudin
American writer
Robert Grudin (born 1938) is an American writer and philosopher.
This article about a philosopher is a stub. You can help Wikiquote by expanding it. |
edit- Our units of temporal measurement, from seconds on up to months, are so complicated, asymmetrical and disjunctive so as to make coherent mental reckoning in time all but impossible. Indeed, had some tyrannical god contrived to enslave our minds to time, to make it all but impossible for us to escape subjection to sodden routines and unpleasant surprises, he could hardly have done better than handing down our present system. It is like a set of trapezoidal building blocks, with no vertical or horizontal surfaces, like a language in which the simplest thought demands ornate constructions, useless particles and lengthy circumlocutions. Unlike the more successful patterns of language and science, which enable us to face experience boldly or at least level-headedly, our system of temporal calculation silently and persistently encourages our terror of time.
It is as though architects had to measure length in feet, width in meters and height in ells; as though basic instruction manuals demanded a knowledge of five different languages. It is no wonder then that we often look into our own immediate past or future, last Tuesday or a week from Sunday, with feelings of helpless confusion.- Time and the Art of Living (1982)
Note: The above quote also appears in the section 27 "Date input formats" of the GNU coreutils manual. (info 'date input formats' on GNU/Linux command line).
- Fast drivers can see no further than slow drivers, but they must look further down the road to time their reactions safely. Similarly, people with great projects afoot habitually look further and more clearly into the future than people who are mired in day-to-day concerns. These former control the future because by necessity they must project themselves into it; and the upshot is that, like ambitious settlers, they stake out larger plots and homesteads of time than the rest of us. They do not easily grow sad or old; they are seldom intimidated by the alarms and confusions of the present because they have something greater of their own, some sense of their large and coherent motion in time, to compare the present with.
- Time and the Art of Living (1982)

subset: commoncrawl


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You Are There (studio album) by Mono
Mono bestography
You Are There is ranked 3rd best out of 18 albums by Mono on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Mono is Hymn To The Immortal Wind which is ranked number 4054 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 353.
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The tracks on this album have an average rating of 78 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
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08/27/2023 08:54 | DommeDamian | 6,356 | 49/100 | |
08/16/2023 00:20 | BorderFreeAndrew | 11,262 | 75/100 | |
01/08/2023 10:39 | videoheadcleaner | 11,387 | 85/100 | |
06/16/2022 01:30 | Rm12398 | 2,143 | 76/100 | |
01/23/2022 14:01 | doombringer | 1,724 | 77/100 |
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This album is rated in the top 11% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 74.8/100, a mean average of 75.4/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 75.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.4.
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Would love to see these live
My favorite Post-Rock record by far.
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text: The town Krystynopil was founded on the lands of setting Novyj Dvir. In 1613 it was firstly mentioned about this small village in monastery books of catholic Bernardine order from Sokal, which patronized the rome-catholic society in Novy Dvir. Feliks Kazimierz Potocki, the founder of the town got the Magdeburg low for the town in 1692, and built the wooden church of Holy Spirit and invited Bernardine monks to take care of Catholics in the town. Soon the fire destroyed the wooden church, that's why Feliks Kazimierz Potocki began to build new church in baroque style in 1701. Francisk Silezij Potocki got st. relics of St. Klymentiy I, pope and martyr, which was sent to Krym, where he died. Those relics were given by Pope Innocent XIII. The second relic in the church was the part of cross brought from Rome in 1752.


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If you have to travel frequently for business purposes, you are certainly aware of the importance of hiring the right airport transfers. Traveling outside the city or in the city for business meetings requires a transport service that can include all business-related equipment. Here, choosing a limousine for airport transfers is definitely the best choice.
The limousine service means that you have a professional, well-trained and experienced chauffeur at your disposal. When you travel for business, you want to think about the meeting ahead of us, points to discuss, presentations and all related matters. In such a state, you should never worry about anything else. The limousine service only gives you the desired peace of mind for safety reasons. Limousines are usually fully insured and you can always travel safely. This is also important, especially when the city in which you travel is new to you.
Fixed Rate
You can be sure of a fixed rate from a reputable airport limousine service. Taxi companies such as Uber may use pricing techniques that charge normal rates twice. When you rent a limousine for a business trip, these things will never happen to you. Due to the lack of hidden prices, you gain peace of mind.
Being late to the airport and not flying can be a nightmare for any traveler. But if you use a professional limousine transfer to the airport, you will definitely arrive on time. This will also avoid stress related to delay. Professional airport limousine services often track your flights in case of delays and adjust your pick up and drop off times accordingly. This is also a great relief for you.
Relaxing in a luxury vehicle such as a limousine will definitely liven you up. If you want to attend an event or business meeting, you'll definitely want to look relaxed and fresh. The interior of the limousine is always relaxing and luxurious. During the entire journey, you can relax in the large space provided by the vehicle to refresh yourself before the meeting or event.
Related posts
- Aladdin's vip Chauffeur Service 01/15/2020
- 5 Benefits of Hiring a Limo Service 01/14/2020
- Benefits of Taking a Limousine 01/05/2020
- News (3)


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No name suppression for investorA Queenstown property investor facing fraud charges will appear in court again on December 2. Kerry Christian had sought name suppression but dropped the application.29-11-2013 more >> Trade Me claims overstatedClaims of a boycott of Trade Me over an increase in fees for real estate agents are probably overstated, one commentator says. Harcourts says it will no longer promote Trade Me to clients, many say they will no longer offer free Trade Me listings, and several agencies have removed existing listings from the site.29-11-2013 more >> Residential investment strong: Stats NZSoaring residential investment statistics are indicative of growing confidence in the market, says the president of the Auckland Property Investors Association.28-11-2013 more >> Builders: Expect consent drop in MarchBuilders say they have seen inquiries drop by more than a quarter since the introduction of loan-to-value restrictions.27-11-2013 more >> Interest rate rise may need to be sharp: NZIERInterest rates will need to rise quickly next year if the loan-to-value restrictions don't make a big enough dent in Auckland's house prices, the NZIER says.27-11-2013 more >> Landlords told: Watch out for rising ratesPredictions that mortgage rates will start to rise significantly next year should serve as a wake-up call for property investors, the NZ Property Investors Federation says.26-11-2013 more >> Property speculators are not property investorsCurbing property investment is a Dominion Post reader's solution to New Zealand's current housing crisis. However, this solution demonstrates confusion between property speculators and property investors.25-11-2013 more >> Wake up call for property ownersThe Reserve Bank has predicted that floating mortgage rates will rise to 7 or 8 percent over the next two or three years. "This is a wake up call for rental property owners,†said Andrew King, Executive Officer of the NZ Property Investors' Federation.25-11-2013 more >> Migration pressure increasesA sharp turnaround in migration is going to put a lot of pressure on the housing market. New Zealand had a seasonally adjusted net gain (more arrivals than departures) of 3000 migrants in October 2013.25-11-2013 more >> Capture opportunities in office marketCompetition for properties may force landlords' yields to all-time lows, Jones Lang LaSalle research analyst Sarah Dominey says.22-11-2013 more >> OECD identifies house price fall riskNew Zealand is at risk of a house price fall, the OECD says in its latest economic outlook forecast. Real house prices have risen 88% since the start of 2000, the biggest increase in the OECD.21-11-2013 more >> Alexander: Prices not to blameClaims that the absence of first-home buyers in the property market is due to rising prices are not correct, says the chief economist of the BNZ, Tony Alexander.21-11-2013 more >> Report suggests affordability improvementsMoney paid in GST on new house builds should go back to local councils, The New Zealand Initiative's latest housing report says.19-11-2013 more >> BNZ-REINZ Residential Market Survey 14 November 2013The result of this survey supports the data from other sources that shows first home buyers are giving up hope of making a property purchase in the near future. However a net 6% or responding agents say that they are seeing a increase in investors looking to make a purchase.18-11-2013 more >> Northern lifestyle blocks popularLifestyle blocks at the top of the country are proving popular, the latest Real Estate Institute figures show. Northland had the largest increase in year-on-year sales of lifestyle blocks in the three months to October, up by 73. Auckland followed, with 52 more sales this year than last.18-11-2013 more >> Rents creeping up: BarfootLandlord returns are dropping as rent rises fail to keep pace with the increase in Auckland house prices, Barfoot and Thompson figures show.18-11-2013 more >> Rent increases bad news for all"The impact of rent increases low income groups in Auckland is not good for anyoneâ€, said Andrew King, Executive Officer of the NZ Property Investors' Federation, in response to a Salvation Army' report by social policy analyst Alan Johnson.16-11-2013 more >> Increased costs mean increased rent - landlordsLandlords say they are not to blame for rising rents.16-11-2013 more >> Investors won't make a loss: KingRent increases are bad news for everyone, the New Zealand Property Investors Federation says. The Salvation Army has released a report which says that rent rises over the past five years have made all low-income groups in Auckland, except superannuitants, worse off in real terms.15-11-2013 more >> NZPIF Strategic Plan adopted by AssociationsWhat I believe to be a significant event in New Zealand's Rental Property Industry occurred during the NZPIF AGM in Wellington last month. Associations voted to accept the NZPIF's Strategic Plan, which included the employment of an Executive Officer and a Communications Officer, each on a part time basis.15-11-2013 more >> Andrew King interviewed on RadioLive Thursday 14 NovemberMarcus Lush talks to Andrew about the situation of a young woman living in a mould-ridden unit in Auckland14-11-2013 more >> First-home buyers giving up: SurveyReal estate agents say first-home buyers are deserting the market as the loan-to-value restrictions take effect. In the latest BNZ/REINZ survey of real estate agents, 78% said they were seeing fewer first-home buyers than in the previous month.14-11-2013 more >> Pick suburbs carefully: WestpacBuying in a slightly different suburb could save homeowners hundreds of thousands of dollars and carve up to 10 or more years off their mortgage, Westpac says.14-11-2013 more >> Respecting tenant rights."No tenant should have to live in a mould-ridden unit,†said Andrew King, Executive Officer of the NZ Property Investors' Federation the national organisation representing landlords13-11-2013 more >> Construction demand tipped to remain highLow-deposit loans for housing construction make up a very small part of the mortgage market, the Reserve Bank said today.13-11-2013 more >> |
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"You said to go back to the beginning, Vezzini…"
Ducks In 3D
It's been a while, hasn't it?
Continue reading Ducks In 3DFour Hundred In The Bag
Would you believe there are four hundred of these things in the archive now? I'm looking at the WordPress dashboard and still can't quite believe my eyes.
I don't know what the final count will be; my slight mania for round numbers may or may not manifest. We'll all find out come May, won't we?
Partway Through Year Four
Well, here we are, somewhere near the midpoint of the "year" of Quacked Panes. Where do things stand?
- There are over 380 of these things in the archive. We'll clear 400 before we're done, with room to spare.
- The new backdrop is working well, though it's already looking a bit the worse for wear.
- A few new ducks have made it into the comic, though none as headliners.
- Plans are not yet finalized (yes, with very little time to go) for this year's Christmas special. We'll see.
The really important part, though is this bit of news that I've hinted at before but should probably make official:
Year Four is the final year of full-time regularly-scheduled Quacked Panes comic production.
I'm not shutting down the site or anything like that, but… I accomplished most of what I set out to do, and the things I didn't accomplish are either outside my grasp & skillset or not important enough to me to pursue. I learned some skills, told some good and some terrible jokes, and held to a twice-per-week release schedule essentially without fail for three and a half years & counting.
Year Four will still wrap up next Spring, mind you, at the usual time. I'm not done here, yet. And I reserve the option to add new comics down the road as the whim strikes, or even to pick up a regular schedule at some later date.
But the bulk of this experiment is over, and I want to end the main production run cleanly before I truly start to burn out.
Thank you, one and all, for your patronage and your comments and your support. It wouldn't have been even half as much fun without you.


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From left to right: Max Holman, Scott L. Holman, Scott S. Holman, Jason Holman.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is funded solely by freedom-loving individuals and organizations that find value in its conviction of free-market principles. For this issue of IMPACT, we hear from Scott L. Holman. He was elected chair of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors for 2014.
MCPP: Where are you from?
Scott Holman: I was born and raised in Ishpeming, Michigan, which is in the Upper Peninsula. I spend six months of the year there. I was a student at Northern Michigan University. Twenty-three of my family members are graduates of NMU. I served on NMU's Board of Trustees.
MCPP: What's your outlook on life?
Holman: I've always believed in partnering and providing value for people. I was the first person in the U.P. to have a SCUBA dive shop. I enjoyed diving, and had to find a way to support my hobby and also pay for school. Since there was not a big interest in diving, I created my own market and introduced people to the activity. I would take people out on dives to give them a taste for it, and then they got hooked. The shop was in Marquette. I called it the Lake Superior Skin Diving Company.
Whenever I've had to fill out a form that asked what my occupation was, I would always write "entrepreneur." My dad was a dentist in Ishpeming and at first looked down on all of my ideas. He thought that if you weren't working, you weren't making money. But I found ways of working smarter and harder. {laughs} My dad finally warmed up to my ideas when I became successful. I stayed close to home as a kid and adopted a deep conviction for family values and principles.
MCPP: Tell us about your family.
Holman: My wife Martine and I met in the U.P. in 1965. She is from Paris, France. We celebrate 48 years of marriage this year. She didn't speak English and I didn't speak French, but we both had taken Spanish, so we spoke that at first.
I have three sons: Scott, Max and Jason. I also have nine grandchildren. I've instilled the value of hard work into all of them.
My sons would work around the BayCast facility in Bay City when they were young. They would mow the lawn and do other small tasks. They never complained. They wanted to work. I never pushed them to follow in my footsteps, but they wanted to.
I eventually sold the business to them. I did not give it to them, mind you. I sold it to them. They did their homework, too. They made sure that the price they paid for it made sense. That made me proud. They're common-sense smart and business smart. After I sold it to them, I got out of their way and they're doing a great job.
MCPP: How did you end up owning BayCast?
Holman: That's a great question and there's a great story that goes with it. Would you believe that I never borrowed a penny from the bank or from a private investor for that? I couldn't. Nobody believed I could turn around the former Bay City Foundry that had been in the red for quite a while. But that created an opportunity for me. After being turned down initially, I offered $148,000 to finish the work that was already in process, acquire the raw materials, and the equipment to do the job. They rest, as they say, is history. That story helped me become Inc. Magazine's Turnaround Entrepreneur Award winner for 1991.
MCPP: What value do you find in the Mackinac Center?
Holman: I've been fond of the Mackinac Center since it started. I knew Larry Reed and Joe Overton. The Mackinac Center brings the research needed to find out what works. Public policy is everything.
I remember in 2008 when a Mackinac Center intern discovered the Reform Michigan Government Now ballot proposal that would have hijacked the Michigan Constitution to favor one political party.
MCPP: Why have you stayed in Michigan?
Holman: I've been all over the world. I've spoken in Russia to business leaders. I took down a piece of the Berlin wall with a hammer and chisel. I've had many wonderful experiences across the globe, but nothing compares to Michigan. Its natural resources and beauty is in a class by itself. There's nowhere in the world I'd rather be.


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REW Public Comment : RE/MAX Allegiance - The MCL Group LLC (Lodge, George) 10/24/2005, REW-0213
Antitrust Division The MLS is a cooperative, broker-to-broker offer of cooperation and compensation that help both brokers and customers buy and sell homes. It is not a public utility, nor should it be. The beauty of the MLS is that it allows real estate brokerages of every size to compete on a level playing field. It gives all of us access to an inventory of property listings that we are able to show and sell to our clients. The MLS doesn't discriminate. All MLS members are treated equally, regardless of their size or their business model, and yet the rights of property owners and their listing brokers are respected. The rules of the MLS achieve a delicate balance between respecting the rights of listing brokers so they will continue to be willing to contribute their inventory of listings and permitting cooperating brokers the ability to show those listings and be assured of receiving compensation if they bring about a successful sale. George W. Lodge |


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The voices of Tax Policy Center's researchers and staff
In two weeks, about $1 trillion in automatic spending cuts will begin to kick in, a testament to the inability of policymakers to reach a grand fiscal bargain. Allowing these cuts to happen would be terrible policy.
Here's the background: In August 2011, Congress passed the Budget Control Act (BCA) as a last-minute solution to an impending debt ceiling crisis. BCA averted fiscal and financial disaster by allowing additional Treasury borrowing authority, but also put in place deficit-reduction measures that would cut the deficit by $2.1 trillion over 10 years.
These measures included caps on discretionary spending—cutting outlays by over $900 billion over the decade—and a requirement that Congress achieve an additional $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction. BCA stipulated that if Congress failed to cut the deficit by this amount (and it did), deficit reduction would be automatically achieved by "sequestration"—formulaic cuts in federal spending.
The cuts were originally due to begin on January 2, but fiscal cliff legislation pushed off the official commencement until March 1. On that date, the Office of Management and Budget will implement $85 billion in cuts for the remainder of the 2013 fiscal year—this translates into cuts of about 9 percent for affected non-defense discretionary programs and 16 percent for defense. If no action is taken, sequestration will reduce spending by $109 billion per year for the subsequent eight years. In all, cuts will total $960 billion, with an additional $216 billion in saving coming from lower interest payments.
Allowing sequestration to occur is a mistake. Here are five reasons why:
- It was never intended to take effect. Sequestration was designed to be so unpalatable that Congress would have to devise a better plan. Deep, immediate cuts in defense spending were intended to bring Republicans to the table while broad reductions in domestic programs were meant to push Democrats to compromise. Combined, these cuts were regarded as so severe that they would eventually force a grand bargain.
- It will hurt the economy. In its recently released Budget and Economic Outlook, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) noted that the scheduled cuts in federal spending were a primary driver of the slow economic growth projected for this year. Cutting billions of dollars in federal spending in the middle of a tepid recovery is a mistake. Thousands of public-sector jobs will be lost; federal contractors will cut even more. (The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that the sequester will cost one million jobs.) One of the lessons from the Great Depression is not to cut spending in the midst of a recovery. Let's not repeat the error.
- The sequester slashes funding for discretionary programs to historic lows, but does not cut entitlements. Nearly all of the sequestered cuts come from discretionary programs that fund government operations. Even without the sequester, the caps imposed by the BCA will limit discretionary spending. Sequestration will drive down discretionary spending even further—to 5.5 percent of GDP by 2023—the lowest level in our nation's modern economic history. Yet mandatory programs, accounting for $29 trillion in spending over the next decade, will be largely immune from cuts.
- The cuts are destructive and unfair. Arbitrary, formulaic cuts mean that federal budgeters have limited discretion in how the cuts are applied. Key public programs, such as Head Start, air traffic control, and law enforcement, will be cut; disaster relief for Hurricane Sandy will be cut as well. Others will be forced to unfairly bear a disproportionate burden. Medicare providers, for example, are on the hook for $112 billion in cuts—one-quarter of the non-defense cuts. There are better ways to cut spending.
- The federal government needs to offset the continuing contraction in state and local governments. If sequestration had been implemented in a typical recovery, it's likely that state and local governments could pick up the slack. However, unlike in past recoveries, subnational governments have been laying off workers and contracting at an alarming pace. Sequestration, and near-term budget cuts more generally, will compound the problem.
Our country is in desperate need of a sensible framework for deficit reduction that includes future cuts to entitlement spending and new revenues from economically efficient tax reform. Arbitrary cuts aimed mostly at one relatively small piece of the budget are no substitute for a comprehensive deficit-reduction package.
Posts and comments are solely the opinion of the author and not that of the Tax Policy Center, Urban Institute, or Brookings Institution.


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In real estate today, less is more! There is a trend towards smaller homes for many reasons; families have fewer children on one end of the spectrum, the well-known 2.5 children under the age of 18 per household have dropped, now coming in at an average of 1.93. Often, homeowners find rooms that once were needed and vacant a great deal of the time.
Additionally, there has been a surge in retirement over the past few years. With less house, you may find yourself pursuing previously undiscovered passions or checking off everything on your bucket list. Typically, less time is spent near the home or even in the same state once these retired homeowners find themselves freed from the daily grind of work. You may become a master gardener, take classes at a local college or take off on world adventures,
Whatever the reason you are considering a move to less space, it is helpful to have as much information as possible to make an educated decision when weighing the pros and cons. Read on to learn more about these five benefits of downsizing your house in Mobile, Baldwin County, & Gulf Coast Mississippi.
Less Stuff
Owning things means you must pay for where they sit; the less stuff you have, the fewer life costs. Smaller spaces by their nature force homeowners to be more selective about their possessions. However, before you start, you should be aware that the organization of like items and thoughtful utilization of storage space is key to successful living in a smaller area. The process of letting go of the extras can be quite uncomfortable; however, it can also be very freeing, finding yourself relieved of the burden of caring for all of that extra stuff. Saving time and energy for more enjoyable activities is an unexpected benefit of downsizing your house in Mobile, Baldwin County, & Gulf Coast Mississippi.
Lower Utilities
Homeowners can heat or cool smaller spaces with less power, and there is less power demand overall in a smaller home which means you can save a tidy sum on your monthly utility bill. In addition, installing extra insulation and off-grid resources such as collecting rainwater and adding solar paneling can lower costs for utilities even further, as will upgrading to more energy-efficient windows and installing awnings. Finally, purchase energy-efficient appliances to realize the most savings on energy. Over the year, these savings add up to a money-saving benefit of downsizing your house in Mobile, Baldwin County, & Gulf Coast Mississippi.
Lower Taxes
The value of your home influences your property taxes, and with less home, there will be less property tax due, which is one more cost-saving benefit of downsizing your house in Mobile, Baldwin County, & Gulf Coast Mississippi. Often, smaller homes, such as mobile homes, are not considered real estate if you do not own the land the home sits on, and any taxes paid are significantly less for personal property.
Cheaper to Insure
Another benefit of downsizing your house in Mobile, Baldwin County, & Gulf Coast Mississippi is that less cash from your pocket will go towards homeowners insurance when you own a smaller home. Insurers base their rates on a replacement per square foot basis, so less is less costly for your policy payments. Like those at Southern House Buyers , professionals in the real estate industry are familiar with many ways you can save further on homeowners insurance.
Lower Mortgage
Last but not least, the saving on the mortgage payment is a motivating factor for many homeowners and is the most significant of the benefits of downsizing your house in Mobile, Baldwin County, & Gulf Coast Mississippi. Because the home is much less expensive, buyers can often pay for a smaller home in full from the proceeds of their existing home and begin living life mortgage-free. But, of course, you must still do your research to ensure that your real estate investment is sound and holds value over the long term. Take the time to perform due diligence and work with a local expert who knows the area, like the professional buyers at Southern House Buyers .
Ready to learn more about the benefits of downsizing your house in Mobile, Baldwin County, & Gulf Coast Mississippi? A professional buyer like those at Southern House Buyers will take the time to answer any questions or concerns you may have about making a move to a smaller home. So you can decide what is best for your situation, why not work with a professional buyer from Southern House Buyers who will help you discover what your home is worth on the market today, with no obligation. Then, you can compare this to our cash offer, which you will agree is more than fair. In addition, Southern House Buyers provides you with a guaranteed closing date convenient to you. With no closing costs, no commissions, or hidden fees, you will save time and money with a direct sale to Southern House Buyers . At Southern House Buyers , we want you to feel good about working with us long after the deal is closed. Contact Southern House Buyers at 251-333-7556.


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Stone Wrap Bracelet/Necklace River Stone/Silver/Gold - Stone of Balance
Bracelet becomes a necklace & Ta-Da!
Tap into the energies of the earth. Semi precious gemstones adorn wrist & neckline. Effortlessly converts from bracelet to necklace. Can be wrapped 4-5 times as a bracelet and 1-2 times as a necklace.
- 34" length
- Materials: 4.5mm semi precious stone beads, plated brass, stretch cord
- Presented on cards that tell the meaning of each stone:River Stone | Stone of Balance. Gives the wearer energy from waters around the world. Facilitates change and encourages balance. Grounding and harmonizing. Attracts prosperity and good luck.


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Gradually combine the ingredients for one chain link block.
Add a healthy dose of equilateral triangles.
Chop twelve 3" curve blocks. Sew one. Set the remain ingredients aside. Permanantly. Seriously, these are just too small!
Preheat (press) a double layer of freezer paper to preshrink. Cut random shapes and press to the wrong side of fabric. Cut 1/4" seam allowance.
Baste with a brush on exposed fabric. Fold over the freezer paper and heat set with an iron.
Remove the freezer paper.
Add a handful of rectangles with stitch and flip triangles.
Trim the fat.
Generously apply some strip piecing.
Combine with half square triangles.
Separate the dog ears.
Organize your ingredients.
It's alright to improvise.
Cut some freezer paper templates.
Apply the melon to your pickle dish.
Allow the components to stew.
Apply decorative flourishes.
I'm linking up with:


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My heart is singing a joy song. |
Take a moment to Google "iOS 7 waterproof". Do it. It's worth it.
Yes. Someone Photoshopped some fake iOS 7 ads to tell people that a software update would make their phone waterproof. And some other people, who may in fact not be as insightful as they possibly could be, believed it. So now thousands of articles saying that, no, a software update will not change the physical properties of your phone.
Anonymous evil ad maker with Photoshop, I wish I could shake your hand. Here's why.
The Internet is an immensely new, hugely important mode of human communication, but we don't yet know how to use it. People don't understand this about the Internet: It is half lies. At best.
Most people who saw the fake ad read it, smiled, and moved on. A few people, however, believed it. They took their phone in the shower. The device was destroyed. They learned a valuable lesson, in a way that won't soon be forgotten, and all it cost them was a few hundred bucks.
And you know something? Maybe they will be less like my older relatives, who never read anything in e-mail so ludicrous they didn't believe it.
I promise you this. One of these days, someone who trashed their phone will get a message saying vaccines are killers, or a guy in Nigeria wants to give them a hundred million bucks, or that they should quit the chemo for their Stage 3 breast cancer because eating enough lemons will take care of it (yes, real example). Maybe, dare to dream, when this happens they will think about their phone and maybe, just maybe hit Delete. Like they should.
It is a small price to pay for a lesson of such value.
Oops. Sorry. What I meant to say was, it's real. You can install iOS 7 on your iPhone and give it to your kids to play in the bathtub. Go try it. You know it's true, because you just read it.


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A month of the Hurd: bug fixing / flubber re-installation.
A bit of bug fixing has been going on:
Samuel Thibault taught GNU Mach that Intel Pentium
4 and Opteron-class CPUs are not just
i386, but
in fact a bit more advanced. Not only does this help GNU Mach to select
optimized code paths, but this information is also propagated to the user
space, and used for the uname
command, for example.
Pino Toscano continued fixing bugs in the socket-related glibc code and Hurd's pfinet.
After finding out that our pread
implementation does not conform to the POSIX
standard in one aspect, Manuel Menal analyzed this, and posted a
Alexey Kuznetsov privided IPv6 raw socket fixes for pfinet.
Michael Banck uploaded a new version of crosshurd to keep up with recent packaging and dependency changes.
Samuel Thibault uploaded gopherfs packages to the Debian repository. He also enabled IPv6 support for Debian Installer installations.
Thomas Schwinge:
It's been a really long-long time (hooray!), but now flubber's root file system is totally hosed, and thus needs to be re-installed. (I've been running
apt-get dist-upgrade
when the box apparently crashed.) Runninge2fsck
on it spew out over 50.000 lines of illegal and multiply-claimed block lists, before I terminated it, so no chance. I'll do this over the weekend./home/
etc. are not affected, thanks to being on a separate partition.
As of two days later, the machine was re-installed.


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A key element in evaluating the quality of a pairwise sequence alignment is the "substitution matrix", which assigns a score for aligning any possible pair of residues. The theory of amino acid substitution matrices is described in [1], and applied to DNA sequence comparison in [2]. In general, different substitution matrices are tailored to detecting similarities among sequences that are diverged by differing degrees [1-3]. A single matrix may nevertheless be reasonably efficient over a relatively broad range of evolutionary change [1-3]. Experimentation has shown that the BLOSUM-62 matrix [4] is among the best for detecting most weak protein similarities. For particularly long and weak alignments, the BLOSUM-45 matrix may prove superior. A detailed statistical theory for gapped alignments has not been developed, and the best gap costs to use with a given substitution matrix are determined empirically. Short alignments need to be relatively strong (i.e. have a higher percentage of matching residues) to rise above background noise. Such short but strong alignments are more easily detected using a matrix with a higher "relative entropy" [1] than that of BLOSUM-62. In particular, short query sequences can only produce short alignments, and therefore database searches with short queries should use an appropriately tailored matrix. The BLOSUM series does not include any matrices with relative entropies suitable for the shortest queries, so the older PAM matrices [5,6] may be used instead. For proteins, a provisional table of recommended substitution matrices and gap costs for various query lengths is:
Query length Substitution matrix Gap costs ------------ ------------------- --------- <35 PAM-30 ( 9,1) 35-50 PAM-70 (10,1) 50-85 BLOSUM-80 (10,1) >85 BLOSUM-62 (11,1)
The raw score of an alignment is the sum of the scores for aligning pairs of residues and the scores for gaps. Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST use "affine gap costs" which charge the score -a for the existence of a gap, and the score -b for each residue in the gap. Thus a gap of k residues receives a total score of -(a+bk); specifically, a gap of length 1 receives the score -(a+b).
To convert a raw score S into a normalized score S' expressed in bits, one uses the formula S' = (lambda*S - ln K)/(ln 2), where lambda and K are parameters dependent upon the scoring system (substitution matrix and gap costs) employed [7-9]. For determining S', the more important of these parameters is lambda. The "lambda ratio" quoted here is the ratio of the lambda for the given scoring system to that for one using the same substitution scores, but with infinite gap costs [8]. This ratio indicates what proportion of information in an ungapped alignment must be sacrificed in the hope of improving its score through extension using gaps. We have found empirically that the most effective gap costs tend to be those with lambda ratios in the range 0.8 to 0.9.
[1] Altschul, S.F. (1991) "Amino acid substitution matrices from an information theoretic perspective." J. Mol. Biol. 219:555-565. [2] States, D.J., Gish, W. & Altschul, S.F. (1991) "Improved sensitivity of nucleic acid database searches using application-specific scoring matrices." Methods 3:66-70. [3] Altschul, S.F. (1993) "A protein alignment scoring system sensitive at all evolutionary distances." J. Mol. Evol. 36:290-300. [4] Henikoff, S. & Henikoff, J.G. (1992) "Amino acid substitution matrices from protein blocks." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:10915-10919. [5] Dayhoff, M.O., Schwartz, R.M. & Orcutt, B.C. (1978) "A model of evolutionary change in proteins." In "Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure, vol. 5, suppl. 3," M.O. Dayhoff (ed.), pp. 345-352, Natl. Biomed. Res. Found., Washington, DC. [6] Schwartz, R.M. & Dayhoff, M.O. (1978) "Matrices for detecting distant relationships." In "Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure, vol. 5, suppl. 3," M.O. Dayhoff (ed.), pp. 353-358, Natl. Biomed. Res. Found., Washington, DC. [7] Karlin, S. & Altschul, S.F. (1990) "Methods for assessing the statistical significance of molecular sequence features by using general scoring schemes." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87:2264-2268. [8] Altschul, S.F. & Gish, W. (1996) "Local alignment statistics." Meth. Enzymol. 266:460-480.** [9] Altschul, S.F., Madden, T.L., Schäffer, A.A., Zhang, J., Zhang, Z., Miller, W. & Lipman, D.J. (1997) "Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST: a new generation of protein database search programs." Nucleic Acids Res. 25:3389-3402.


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What invention most improved women's lives during the past century? The birth control pill for granting women greater control over child bearing, and modern, electric clothes and dish washers for freeing them from time-consuming housework likely spring to mind.
Here's another candidate to consider: the creation of the internet and wireless technologies. Certainly, everyone has benefited from the dawning of the information age, but women have been uniquely touched as these technologies make it easier for women to perform critical tasks-from generating income to getting an education-while at home.
That makes it all the more important that policymakers at all levels of government stop viewing wireless technologies as a cash cow for closing budget deficits. A recent report by economist Scott Mackey shows that the combined federal, state, and local taxes on wireless services have grown from 14.1 percent in 2006 to 16.3 percent today. Those numbers mask incredible variations at the state and local levels. Nebraska imposes the nation's highest wireless taxes of 18.6 percent, bring the total combine state and local tax to an eye-popping 23.7 percent. New York and Washington aren't far behind.
These wireless tax rates far exceed sales taxes imposed on other goods. In fact, the 16.3 percent average tax on wireless is twice the average retail sales tax rate. This fact-that wireless technologies, like tobacco and alcohol, are singled out for extra taxes-may surprise many Americans. Those who believe government shouldn't micromanage people's lives may object to "sin taxes," like those levied on beer and cigarettes, but at least we can understand the logic behind them. Drinking and smoking tend to lead to bad behaviors and outcomes (what economists refer to as "negative externalities") that create costs for society, and that's why government tries to discourage the use of those products.
What's the logic behind extra taxes on wireless goods?
The thinking may once have been that wireless services are a luxury, so that a tax on wireless was a way to soak the rich. Perhaps that made some sense years back when only the wealthy used cell phones or had internet service at home. Today, however, Americans at all income levels use wireless technology, and, in fact, a growing number of Americans depend exclusively on cell phones, while forgoing a land-line.
Policymakers may also mistakenly lump wireless services in with pure entertainment, like television. But wireless technologies are fundamentally about access to information, and much of that information can be critical for climbing up the economic ladder. People use the internet to find job listing and apply for new positions. When public school fail children (which is too often the case), parents can supplement with inexpensive online learning materials. Parents also access online learning to get their own degrees or complete job training programs, which can be critical for finding jobs in the modern economy.
Having the ability to access that information from home-rather than having to go to a library, school or office place-is particularly important for women, who are more likely to be caring for children or other family members for much of the day. Working mothers who struggle with competing obligations see these technologies as fundamental, so they can pick up Susie and Johnny at school at 3:00 pm and still participate in the 4 pm conference call and then complete paperwork after the kids are asleep.
Far from progressive, taxes on wireless technology particularly affect those with tight budgets and who can't afford to pay the extra dollars a month. High taxes contribute to the "digital divide," which keeps poorer families from having access to the same information that helps educate the middle and upper class.
Some policymakers are recognizing that unlike other highly taxed items wireless technologies' externalities are positive, leading to a more educated, economically-productive citizenry. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Reps. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) recently introduced The Wireless Tax Fairness Act of 2011, which would prevent states from imposing additional taxes on wireless services for the next five years.
That's a fine start, but locking in existing high taxes shouldn't be the goal. There's an old adage that if you want less of something, then tax it. Americans want more, not less, of these life-enhancing technological breakthroughs. Government officials from Washington DC to the state capitols to the mayors' offices throughout the country should roll back punitive taxes on these technologies so that more Americans can enjoy these technologies and the economic benefits that they bring.


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The councils themselves need to change their mindset, and start doing things instead of always using the excuse that they're not permitted to, or that central government doesn't want to, or that they don't have the finance. Councils need to think much more imaginatively themselves.I had to re-read that when I first read it. It's a strange definition of localism. She also talks about the quality of local councillors.
Clearly the quality is variable, just as the quality of Members of Parliament is. There's no evidence that the quality of councillors has got worse or better. It's interesting that even in the 18th century you found commentators railing against the poor quality of local councillors so I think this is a theme - a bit like people complaining that young people are badly behaved. There are some extremely impressive councillors in many different sorts of councils who are operating in innovative ways for their local communities. And there are some very unimpressive councillors. I suppose it's fair to say you tend to get more of the unimpressive ones in areas where one political party has more or less an uninterrupted hold on the control of the local council.I totally agree with that analysis. One party fiefdoms seldom result in good government. Anyway, read the rest of the interview HERE.


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The Church's Year
The Introit of this day's Mass is the sigh of an afflicted soul confiding in God:
INTROIT Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of refuge, to save me: for thou art my strength and my refuge: and for thy name's sake thou wilt be my leader, and wilt nourish me. (Fs. XXX. 3. 4.) In thee , O Lord, I have hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in thy justice, and set me free. (Ps. XXX. 2.)
COLLECT O Lord, we beseech Thee, graciously hear our prayers, and unloosing the bonds of our sins, guard us from all adversity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the Unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end, Amen.
EPISTLE (I. Cor. XIII. 1-13.) Brethren, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not; dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious; seeketh not her own; is not provoked to anger; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part: but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away the things of a child. We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. And now there remain faith, hope, charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.
EXPLANATION In this epistle St. Paul speaks of the necessity, the excellence and the nature of true charity. He says that all natural and supernatural gifts, all good works, even martyrdom, cannot save us if we have not charity; because love alone can render our works pleasing to God. Without charity, therefore, though ever so many prayers be recited, fasts observed , and good deeds performed, nothing will be acceptable to God, or merit eternal life. Strive then, O Christian soul, to lead a pious life in love, and to remain always in the state of grace.
Can faith alone, as the so-called Reformers assert, render man just and save him?
Faith alone, however strong, though it could move mountains, without love, that is, without good works performed for love of God and our neighbor, can never justify or save us. For, when St. Paul says, that man is justified by faith without works, (Rom. III. 28.; XI: 6.; Eph. II. 8. 9.) he means to refer to those works which were performed by command of the law of Moses, and which, as they were external and without true charity, were of no avail; he did not refer to those works which are performed in a state of grace with a lively, love-inspired faith. Therefore the same Apostle writes to the Galatians: (Gal. V. 6.) Faith only availeth which worketh by charity; to Titus: (Tit. III. 8.) It is a faithful saying: and these things I will have thee affirm constantly: that they who believe in God, may be careful to excel in good works. These things are good and profitable unto men; and he exhorts the Colossians (Colos. I. 10.) to be fruitful in every good work. St. James confirms the same by saying: (James II. 17-24.) So faith if it have not works, is dead in itself; by works man is justified and not by faith only. That this is the true doctrine of Christ is evident from His own words, when He says: "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down and shall be cast into the fire." (Matt. VII. 19.) At the day of judgment Christ will demand good works from all men, (Matt. XXV. 35.) and will not judge them only according to their faith, but by their good works, which true faith must always produce. (Apoc. XX. 12.) Would Christ and His apostles demand good works, if faith alone be sufficient? "The devil's also believe and tremble," (James II. 19.) they believe, but they are not saved, and their faith but increases their torments. Therefore, the assertion that faith without good works is sufficient for justification and salvation, is plainly against the doctrine of Christ and His Church, and must of necessity lead man to vice and misery, as shown by the history of the unhappy separation of the sixteenth century
Are good works available which are performed in the state of mortal sin ?
Good works performed while in a state of mortal sin avail nothing in regard to eternal life, writes St. Lawrence Justinian, but aid in moderating the punishment imposed for disobedience and the transgression of God's commandments. They bring temporal goods, such as honor, long life, health, earthly happiness, etc.; they prevent us from falling deeper into sin, and prepare the heart for the reception of grace; so the pious Person writes: "Do as much good as you can, even though in the state of mortal sin, that God may give light to your heart."
ASPIRATION O God of love, pour the spirit of true charity into my heart that, according to the spirit of St. Paul, I may endeavor to be always in a state of grace; that all my works may be pleasing to Thee, and meritorious for me.
GOSPEL (Luke XVIII. 31-43.) At that time, Jesus took unto him the twelve, and said to them Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man. For he shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and scourged, and spit upon; and after they have scourged him, they will put him to death; and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things, and this word was hid from them, and they understood not the things that were said. Now it came to pass, when he drew nigh to Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the way-side, begging. And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And they that went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried out much more: Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus standing, commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come near, he asked him, saying: What wilt thou that I do to thee? But he said: Lord, that I may see. And Jesus said to him: Receive thy sight; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
Why did Christ so often foretell His passion to His disciples?
Because He wanted to show how great was His desire to suffer for us, for we speak often of that which we crave; and because He wished His disciples when they should see Him treated as a criminal and martyred, not to think evil of Him, or imagine themselves deceived, but remember that He had foretold all minutely that all happened of His own will.
Did not the disciples understand anything of what He predicted in regard to His future sufferings?
They may, certainly, have well understood He was to suffer, for which reason Peter tried to dissuade Him from it; (Matt. XVI. 22.) but they did not comprehend why or for what He would suffer, or how He would rise again. All this the Holy Ghost gave them to understand, after it had come to pass. (John XIV. 26.) The light of the Holy Ghost is of so much value, that without it even the clearest doctrines of faith are not understood.
Why does Christ so often call Himself the Son of Man?
He wished to show, in the Jewish way of speaking, He was also man, a descendant of Adam, and that we should be humble, and not seek or desire high titles.
Why did the blind man call Christ the Son of David?
Because, like all the Jews, he believed that the Messiah, according to humanity, would be of the house of David, as was promised. (Ps. CXXXI. 11.)
Why did Christ ask the blind man: What wilt thou that I do to thee?
This He asked, not because He was unaware of the blind man's wish, but to enable him the better to prove his faith and hope that through Christ he would receive his sight; and to teach us how willing He is to help us, and how it pleases Him if we confidingly place our wants before Him. We should learn from this blind man, who would not be restrained by the passing crowd in his ardent and reiterated request, not to pay attention, in the work we have commenced, to human respect, or human judgment, but to persevere, and not allow ourselves to be led astray by the world's mockery or contempt. We should also learn to be grateful to God, and faithfully cling to Him, if He has once opened the eyes of our mind, and healed our spiritual blindness, which is far more deplorable than physical blindness, for nothing can be more miserable than not to see and understand God, not to know what is necessary for our salvation, and what is pernicious.
Why is this gospel read on this Sunday?
The Church wishes to remind us of the painful passion and death of Jesus, and to move us by the contemplation of those mysteries to avoid and despise the wicked, heathenish amusements of carnival, sinful pleasures which she has always condemned, because they come from dark paganism, and, to avert the people from them, commands that during the three days of carnival the Blessed Sacrament shall be exposed for public adoration, sermons given, and the faithful exhorted to have recourse at this time to the Sacraments of Penance and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, with the reception of which Pope Clement XIII. (Breve, 23. June 1765) connected a plenary indulgence. A true Catholic will conform to the desire of his holy Church, considering the words which St. Augustine spoke, at this time, to the faithful, "The heathens (as also the wordly people of our days) shout songs of love and merriment, but you should delight in the preaching of the word of God; they rush to the dramatic plays, but you should hasten to Church; they are intoxicated, but you should fast and be sober."
PRAYER O most benign Jesus! who didst so desire to suffer for us, grant, that we may willingly suffer for love of Thee; that we may hate and flee from the detestable pleasures of the world and the flesh, and practice penance and mortification, that by so doing we may merit to be released from our spiritual blindness to love Thee more and more ardently, and finally possess Thee forever.
Who instituted Lent?
According to the fathers of the Church, Justin and Irenaeus, the fast before Easter was instituted and sanctified by Christ Himself; according to the saints Leo and Jerome, the holy apostles ordained it given by Jesus.
Why has the Church instituted this fast forty days before Easter?
To imitate Christ who fasted forty days; to participate in His merits and sufferings; to subject our flesh by voluntary mortification to the spirit, and to mortify our evil desires as did St. Paul; (Col. I. 24.) to enable us to lead a pure life, and thus prepare for the holy festival of Easter, and the reception of the divine Lamb, Jesus: and, finally, to render God satisfaction for our sins, and do penance, as Pope Gregory says, for the sins of one whole year by one short fast, lasting only the tenth part of a year.
Was the fast of Lent observed in early times as in the present?
Yes, but more strictly; for the people of the early ages not only abstained from meat, but also from all that which is connected with it, such as eggs, butter, cheese, etc., even from wine and fish, although this was not the general command of the Church; they fasted all day, and only ate in the evening after vespers, in remembrance of which, vespers are now said before dinner-time, because the Church, as a kind mother, now permits the supper to be changed into a dinner, and also allows something to be taken in the evening, that the body may not be too much weakened, and become unfit for labor.
How much does this ancient custom put to shame the Christians of to-day who think the fast in our times too severe! "But," asks St. Ambrose, "what sort of Christians are they? Christ, who never sinned fasted for our sins, and we will not fast for our own great and numerous offences?"
How should the holy season of Lent be spent?
As according to the teaching of St. Leo, the main thing in fasting is not that the body be deprived of food, but that the mind at the same time be withdrawn from wickedness, we should endeavor during Lent, not only to be temperate in eating and drinking, but especially to lead a modest life, sanctifying the days by persevering prayer and devoutly attending church.
Almighty God! I unite myself at the beginning of this holy season of penance with the Church militant, endeavoring to make these days of real sorrow for my sins and crucifixion of the sensual man. O Lord Jesus! in union with Thy fasting and passion, I offer Thee my fasting in obedience to the Church, for Thy honor, and in thanksgiving for the many favors I have received, in satisfaction for my sins and the sins of others, and that I may receive the grace to avoid such and such a sin, N. N. and to practice such and such a virtue, N. N.


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The purpose of the Student Financial Services Office at Polk State College is to assist students in obtaining funds to meet their educational objectives in accordance with state, federal, and institutional regulations. The Student Financial Services Office provides personalized service in a courteous and professional manner. All federal aid programs, as well as many state and local programs, require a needs analysis from each participating student. To fulfill this requirement the student must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to apply for any federal aid. Each Polk State College student is required to complete the FAFSA, whether he or she plans to use federal aid or not.
A student must apply online for aid through the federal government's website at: www.fafsa.ed.gov. The Student Financial Services Office on each campus can answer questions regarding the FAFSA. The major categories of financial assistance programs include grants, loans, the College Work-Study Program, and scholarships.
A grant, like a scholarship, generally does not have to be repaid, provided the student successfully complete his or her classes. Most grant programs are based on student need.
The Pell Grant is a need-based federal aid program for undergraduates. Eligibility is determined by the U.S. Department of Education when the student completes the FAFSA. The maximum award is established by the federal government, and awards are prorated according to the number of credits in which the student is enrolled. Each Pell Grant recipient is expected to complete all courses successfully. A recipient who ceases to attend or who withdraws from any class(es) prior to the end of a term may be required to repay some (or all) of the grant award.
In addition to other requirements, each student is required to maintain at least a 2.0 grade point average (GPA) and a 67% cumulative completion percentage for all attempted student semester hours (SSH) to retain federal aid. The attempted student semester hours include all remedial transfer courses as well as any course for which a grade of W, I, or F is received. No federal aid (including loans) is awarded to the student after attempting 90 SSH in a 60 SSH major or 180 SSH in a 120 SSH major. More information about these standards can be found in Polk State College Procedure 5017: Standards of Academic Progress .
Eligibility for federal financial aid is based on a number of factors:
To apply for aid, a student must:
When a student meets all applicable standards, the Student Financial Services Office updates PASSPORT with the amount of funding that the student is eligible to receive. Funds are credited to the student's account for payment toward the cost of tuition and books. In accordance with federal, state, and institutional guidelines, if there is a balance in the account after the term begins, Polk State College releases these funds to the student by the end of the term. Awards are disbursed based on the number of credit hours for which a student is enrolled. Disbursement dates can be found in the Academic Calendar. Lab courses may require more contact hours than the credit hours indicated. This may affect how certain entities view a student's full-time or part-time status. The student should refer to the program information and course descriptions to determine course-required contact hours.
Federal awards are made annually to students with the greatest financial need. Grants are distributed on a first-come first-served basis to eligible students enrolled at least half time (enrolled in six or more credits).
Florida's largest need-based program provides assistance to degree-seeking, undergraduate, resident students who demonstrate financial need and are enrolled in eligible public or private postsecondary institutions. To be considered for this grant, a student must submit a completed (error-free) Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by the deadline specified by Polk State College. The deadline to apply for the Florida Student Assistance Grant is May 15 for the following academic year. Grant monies are distributed on a first-come first-served basis to eligible students enrolled at least half time (enrolled in six or more credits).
Two education tax credits are available: The Hope Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit. These credits are based on educational expenses paid for the student, for his or her spouse, or for the student's dependents. During any particular year, a student can claim only one of the credits. The amount of the credit is determined by the amount paid for "qualified tuition and related expenses" for each student and the student's modified adjusted gross income (modified AGI).
More information regarding education tax credits is available through a tax consultant or can be found at www.irs.gov.
The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) is a federally-funded program administered through the Polk County Workforce Development Board (CareerSource Polk). This program assists economically-disadvantaged individuals, dislocated workers, or homemakers with the cost of attending college. The benefits include tuition, books, and other associated costs of learning, and funding can be applied toward Polk State College's AS, AAS, and Certificate Programs. Awardees also receive career counseling and academic assistance, as well as job counseling, job-seeking skills, and job-placement services. Additional information about this program can be obtained by contacting the CareerSource Polk Center at 863.808.1100.
The College administers loans through both the Student Financial Services Office and through the Polk State College Foundation. The Student Financial Services Office administers Stafford Loans through the federal government. Stafford Loans are long-term loans, requiring a current Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Applications and information about these loans are available through the Student Financial Services Office. To be considered for federal loan programs, a student must complete the FAFSA. In accordance with the Polk State College default-avoidance plan, the student must earn an overall 2.0 GPA per term, complete 66 2/3% of the attempted courses per term and have attempted fewer than 150% of the student's program hours. Applications are found online and must be submitted to the Student Financial Services Office. Eligibility is based on the applicant's educational need.
The Foundation administers the Walter Dent and Alice Lorraine Brown loan contingent upon available funds. The Walter Dent and Alice Lorraine Brown loan is a long-term, interest-free loan. To qualify, a student must be a U.S. citizen, be 31 years of age or younger, be attending or have attended Polk State College, and must have an overall GPA of 3.5 with a declared major in one of the following fields: Nursing, Computer Science, Engineering, Accounting, Industrial Technology, Education, Mathematics, Chemistry, Law, Media Technology, Business, or Medicine. Applications for this loan are available in the Foundation Office.
The College participates in the need-based, federally-sponsored College Work-Study Program (CWSP) in which participants work on campus or in non-profit organizations in the community. A participating student may work up to a maximum of 20 hours weekly. Income earned through the CWSP does not require repayment. The Student Financial Services Office provides additional information regarding this program.
Many academic merit, special skills, public service, and financial need scholarships are available to students at Polk State College. The Student Financial Services Office also encourages students to seek scholarship opportunities from resources and organizations with which they are already affiliated. For example, some businesses and agencies have tuition-reimbursement programs for their employees. These financial aid opportunities often are the best source of college funds, as the likelihood of acceptance is much higher than with open-competition funds.
The Student Financial Services Office administers federal, state, and institutional scholarships and grants, some of which have been explained in this section of the catalog. These include Pell Grants, the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG), Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG), Bright Futures, Florida Student Assistance Grant (FSAG), as well as Public Service, Academic Merit, trust-fund, and athletic scholarships. Students should contact the Student Financial Services Office on either the Winter Haven or Lakeland campus for information about these scholarships. Additional financial assistance is made available through the generosity of private donors. The Polk State College Foundation serves as the direct support organization for the College and encourages donors to direct funding for private scholarships to:
Polk State College Foundation, Inc. 999 Avenue H, N. E. Winter Haven, Florida 33881
Donors should include the recipient student's name or scholarship fund they wish to contribute toward, contact information, and any other specific instructions. A student who receives a private scholarship should ask the donor's permission to include information such as the name of the individual or organization making the donation, contact information, and the title of the scholarship.
In addition to these scholarships, the Polk State College Foundation awards and administers private endowed scholarships. These scholarships are awarded annually with applications accepted February 1 through the middle of March of each year. Applications for endowed scholarships are available online only. For more information about endowed scholarships and the application process, students should visit the Polk State College Foundation website. Applicants who do not otherwise have access to home computers may use computers in the TLCC on the Winter Haven or Lakeland campus to apply. Students should contact the respective campus TLCC or visit the TLCC website for hours of operation.
Periodically, the Polk State College Foundation administers special scholarships from federal, state, and local programs, as well as from various private donors. These scholarships are awarded as donors make funds available; they are advertised throughout the year on the Polk State College Foundation's website as "Third Party Scholarships." Students seeking information should click on the link for Scholarships.
The Polk State College Foundation, Inc. is a tax-exempt organization with the mission of providing Polk State College with resources for the advancement of the College, its students, faculty, staff, and other constituencies in fulfillment of the College's mission. Through contributions from donors, scholarship opportunities are provided to qualified students. Information about Foundation scholarships and the application process is accessible through the Foundation website.
The Polk State College Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors consisting of business and professional leaders in Polk County. The Foundation exists to supplement the College's budget, which enables Polk State College to offer county residents advanced educational programs promising academic excellence, personal growth, cultural development, and meaningful employment. To fulfill this commitment, the Foundation continually seeks donations of cash, securities, and property as well as deferred gifts. Information regarding donations and the process of becoming a donor can be found on the Foundation website.
Polk State College awards scholarships to academically outstanding students from all accredited high schools in Polk County. High School Academic Merit Scholarships pay matriculation fees for two years, provided students maintain satisfactory academic progress. Certain maximum dollar amounts apply.
Polk State College awards scholarships to students dedicated to who provide volunteer services to their high school classmates during the senior year and serve as student ambassadors while attending Polk State College. The high school juniors chosen for these awards must maintain a minimum 2.75 GPA, and a documented record of community service hours. High School Service Scholarships pay matriculation fees for two years, provided Satisfactory Academic Progress is maintained. The scholarship pays up to 60 credit hours taken within two years.
Additional information about these scholarships is available from high school counselors during the spring of the junior year.
A number of scholarships are awarded each year to students displaying special skills in several areas, including music, art, journalism, and drama. These scholarships pay matriculation fees (maximum dollar amounts per term apply) and are renewable, provided performance and academic progress are satisfactory. For additional information, students are encouraged to contact the Student Financial Services Office or the relevant area of the College for the particular skill.
Athletic students are invited to apply for scholarships available to individuals who qualify for participation in Polk State College's Varsity Sports Program. Scholarships are awarded in accordance with the rules published by the Florida Community College Activities Association and the appropriate Polk State College District Board of Trustees rule. Participating varsity sports include baseball and basketball for men, and volleyball, soccer, and softball for women. Interested individuals may contact the Athletic Office for information about team tryouts.
Polk State College provides scholarships for students participating in the Honors Program. These scholarships pay some or all matriculation fees, provided Satisfactory Academic Progress is maintained. Students must be eligible for admission into the Polk State College Honors Program. Further information about admission requirements for the Honors Program and Honors Program Scholarships can be found on the Honors Program website.
Transient students are responsible for covering all of their own expenses while attending Polk State College. Financial Aid can only be administered at one institution. Transient students seeking financial aid must do so through their home institutions. Polk State College transient students who are attending other institutions may contact the Student Financial Services Office for coverage information.


text:
Father of all! in every age,
In every clime adored,
By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!
Thou Great First Cause, least understood:
Who all my sense confined
To know but this—that thou art good,
And that myself am blind:
Yet gave me, in this dark estate,
To see the good from ill;
And binding Nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will.
What conscience dictates to be done,
Or warns me not to do,
This, teach me more than Hell to shun,
That, more than Heaven pursue.
What blessings thy free bounty gives,
Let me not cast away;
For God is paid when man receives,
To enjoy is to obey.
Yet not to earth's contracted span,
Thy goodness let me bound,
Or think thee Lord alone of man,
When thousand worlds are round:
Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Presume thy bolts to throw,
And deal damnation round the land,
On each I judge thy foe.
If I am right, thy grace impart,
Still in the right to stay;
If I am wrong, oh teach my heart
To find a better way.
Save me alike from foolish pride,
Or impious discontent,
At aught thy wisdom has denied,
Or aught thy goodness lent.
Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.
Mean though I am, not wholly so
Since quickened by thy breath;
Oh lead me wheresoe'er I go,
Through this day's life or death.
This day, be bread and peace my lot:
All else beneath the sun,
Thou know'st if best bestowed or not,
And let thy will be done.
To thee, whose temple is all space,
Whose altar, earth, sea, skies!
One chorus let all being raise!
All Nature's incense rise!


text:
Basic Search Stone Collection: Volume 19 - Item 10 | Advanced Search | Online Archives | Help | ||||||||||||
10. The Slaveholders' Conspiracy against Democratic Principles (N.p., [1864?]). (16 p.)
Political tract containing a loose collection of news items, poems, and excerpts from speeches urging Democrats to support the war effort and to disavow the "peace" branch of the Party. It is possible that this pamphlet was compiled for the 1864 presidential campaign.