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Checkerboard Problem
Date: 07/30/97 at 00:18:38 From: Anonymous Subject: Checkerboard Problem Dear Dr. Math, I'm a student in New Iberia, Louisiana and I love math. I work on problems for fun. Here's one I've been wondering about. I saw the problem you answered about how many squares are on the checkerboard. It made me think of whether or not there's a pattern developing that would allow the formula to go in all powers. For example, to add up all the numbers from one to n you would use n(n+1)/2. To add up all the squares from the square of 1 to n^2 you would use n(n+1)(2n+1)/6, a product of the previous equation when you multiply it by 2n+1/3. Then I thought I'd try to get a new formula by multiplying that by 3n+1/4, and it kept coming out one less than the answer. I did some more figuring and I think for cubes it would be [n(n+1)(2n+1)(3n+1)+24]/24 It seems to work when I try it, but could the pattern go on even further?
Date: 08/01/97 at 10:16:52 From: Doctor Rob Subject: Re: Checkerboard Problem You are looking at a very interesting problem, and one which will lead you eventually into some advanced mathematics. The subject is called the Calculus of Finite Differences. Let S(k,n) denote the sum of the first n k-th powers: S(k,n) = 1^k + 2^k + ... + n^k. It is clear that S(0,n) = n. You point out above that S(1,n) = n*(n + 1)/2, and S(2,n) = n*(n + 1)*(2*n + 1)/6. The simplest formula for k = 3 is S(3,n) = [n*(n + 1)/2]^2. This disagrees with your conjecture above. I looked up formulae for larger values of k, and found the following: S(4,n) = n*(n + 1)*(2*n + 1)*(3*n^2 + 3*n - 1)/30 S(5,n) = n^6/6 + n^5/2 + 5*n^4/12 - n^2/12 S(6,n) = n^7/7 + n^6/2 + n^5/2 - n^3/6 + n/42 S(7,n) = n^8/8 + n^7/2 + 7*n^6/12 - 7*n^4/24 + n^2/12 The pattern here is not obvious, but parts of it are. One general formula is given by S(k,n) = n^(k+1)/(k+1) + n^k/2 + (1/2)*C(k,1)*B(1)*n^(k-1) - (1/4)*C(k,3)*B(2)*n^(k-3) + (1/6)*C(k,5)*B(3)*n^(k-5) - ... Here the last term involved n^2 if k is odd and n^1 if k is even. C(k,i) is the binomial coefficient k!/(i!*[k-i]!). B(i) is a so-called Bernoulli number. The first few are B(1) = 1/6, B(2) = 1/30, B(3) = 1/42, B(4) = 1/30, B(5) = 5/66, B(6) = 691/2730, B(7) = 7/6. There are complicated formulae for the Bernoulli numbers, one of which is the following: B(i) = 2*[(2*i)!]*(2*Pi)^(-2*i)*[1^(-2*i) + 2^(-2*i) + 3^(-2*i) + ...] (It may appear that this might not be a simple number like 1/30, but such is always the case). The defining properties of S(k,n), k >= 0 are: S(k,n) - S(k,n-1) = n^k, for every n > 0, and S(k,0) = 0. The expression on the left is called the first difference of the function S(k,n) with respect to n. The whole equation is one of a class called difference equations. The hard part it to solve this equation. That is where the Bernoulli numbers and binomial coefficients come in. So you were right that there is a pattern, but wrong in your guess as to what that pattern might be. It is far more complicated than you thought. Your attempts are admirable, however. Please keep up that activity. -Doctor Rob, The Math Forum Check out our web site! http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
Date: 08/03/97 at 13:36:41 From: Anonymous Subject: Re: Checkerboard Problem Thank you. This explains why the formula I found only works for the number 3. I am a ninth grader in New Iberia, Louisiana and I have a great interest in mathematics.
Date: 08/07/97 at 13:48:21 From: Doctor Rob Subject: Re: Checkerboard Problem Keep up your interest in mathematics! -Doctor Rob, The Math Forum Check out our web site! http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
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An Ode to My Single Friends
Yes, this is yet another married Christian attempting to offer advice to his single brethren. Que the rolling of the eyes… Stay with me though, this may be a bit different.
Evangelical pastors have pulled off a phenomenal feat. In the same breath they've painted the family as the ultimate Christian value and without a hint of irony, described the married life as one of interminable agony. This, to understate the problem, leaves singles in a confused position; tacitly asked to both idolize and fear marriage. Thankfully, the Bible tells us something wildly different, something completely contrary to the position promoted from the pulpits today. It tells us of the incredible, unique value of the Christian single as well as the indescribable joy of marriage.
Please Don't Focus on The Family.
Why are evangelicals so obsessed with the family? The Christian religion is perhaps the least family focused religion in the world. Jesus rarely spoke of how to be a good parent or husband. In fact he explicitly broke down the importance of the family unit when he said "For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother." In his other big mention of family, Jesus uses it as an example of second class, JV love; the type of stuff even a wicked pagan can pull off.
We've taken a value Jesus said was so basic that it didn't require the Gospel to accomplish it, and made it our central goal. It would be akin to spending a month training in the Alps with Lance Armstrong and upon returning home, proudly riding your dusty tricycle around the block, wondering why no one was impressed. Worse, you'd go on to form political committees and non-profits dedicated to the refinement of tricycle riding skills. Jesus described loving your family as the starting gate, not the finish line.
Marriage is for Companionship
Here is where it gets weird. Singles are also told marriage is pretty lame. Of course, it is sanitized in Christianize, but the subtext is clear. You've heard the phrases before, complete inanities like "marriage isn't about happiness, it's about holiness" or "marriage is for sanctification". Where is that found in the bible? 1st ridiculonians? I'd hate to be their wife. What do love notes look like for these people? –Honey, I love how being married to you highlights the wickedness of my soul. Or – It's so wonderful to know we're committed to 50 years of inducing suffering in each other.
Genesis clearly tells us god created marriage for joy and companionship. Even more, if marriage was primarily for sanctification, why on earth did the apostle Paul fail to mention this? It seems a rather glaring omission. Paul wrote much about the factors that assist in our sanctification, yet he never mentions marriage as important or even helpful in this pursuit. In fact his primarily mention of it is as a distraction to the work of the Gospel. Let me be absolutely clear. If you live your life fully for Christ, your singleness has no restriction on your path toward sanctification.
The problem, of course, is that few of us truly pursue God in the way Paul described. We just wait for life to impress upon us it's own sanctification. It is one thing to drop to your knees in prayer when you're diagnosed with cancer. It is quite another to drop to your knees every night because you're simply overwhelmed with the Gospel. The result? We don't do much real digging into the sin in their life, until marriage forces it upon us. We follow the logic and wrongly believe marriage is critical for exposing our sin. No, it's just God's backup plan because we were too lazy to engage it on our own.
Pastors also disproportionately use examples of their family while preaching. When a pastor peppers his sermons with spiritual analogies from his last fishing trip with Johnny or his daughter's first piano recital, the inescapable, albeit non-obvious conclusion is that marriage is essential for understanding the gospel. Think of the opposite. If a pastor used analogies about single missionaries risking their lives smuggling bibles, wouldn't that have a positive effect on the felt worth of unmarried people? Wouldn't singles begin to rightly say to themselves – Hey, I keep hearing of ministry opportunities where it's actually helpful to be single, maybe this unmarried stage of life isn't such a curse.
Ok, pastors need not shoulder the entire burden. Some of it comes from within. Many Christians grew up under terrible parents, and, upon finding Christianity feel as if they've finally discovered a path toward redemption. The logic goes like this: Jesus rescued my opinion of marriage, therefore Jesus mostly cares about marriages. Though the mistake is understandable, we must never let our joy over where the Gospel entered our life satiate our appetite for the Gospel to enter the rest of our life.
Did the leper healed by Jesus run off and tell everyone Jesus' mission on earth was to heal lepers? Doubtful, the bible just tells us he rejoiced and proclaimed Jesus' power. Yes, if you feel called, start a marital counseling ministry. We certainly need it. Just don't let it define your faith. It doesn't take the gospel to love your family.
I'm not sure why did evangelicals embraced family life as the preeminent christian value. Perhaps it is because in the last century we had already absconded our position in every other regard (academics, education, science, literature, music, poverty, etc.) It's almost like we got together and said – hey guys, we've pretty much dropped the ball on every other value God called us to, let's focus on the last one where we still have a slight edge on the pagans. If we just start calling it our #1 priority, we'll instantly look successful.
The result? The world looks at us and finds us irrelevant, quaint and worst of all, average.
Posted: July 21st, 2011 under .
Comments: 5

subset: commoncrawl


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Click here to print the obituary below
In Memory of
Annie Mae Shatley Hollar
March 13, 1945 - April 13, 2013
Annie Mae Shatley Hollar
Annie Mae Shatley Hollar, 68, of Lenoir, passed away Saturday, April 13, 2013 at Blowing Rock Hospital.
Born March 13, 1945 in Caldwell County, she was the daughter of the late Mark Columbus Shatley and Lucy Victoria Edmisten Shatley.
Mrs. Hollar was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Dale Calvin Hollar; and four brothers, Sherman, Bruce, Jerry and Gordon Shatley and one sister; Emma Jean Shatley Waters.
Those left to cherish her memory are her daughter, Elizabeth Hollar Crump of Collettesville, NC and Angel Hollar Mahaffey of Mulberry, NC; sisters, Shirley Shatley Calloway and husband Ronald of Lenoir and Bessie Shatley Parson and husband Allen of Lenoir; and five grandchildren; Matt Crump, Ethan Crump, Dalton Crump, Thomas Mahaffey and John Mahaffey.
The family will receive friends on Monday, April 15, 2013 from 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm at Pendry's Funeral Home.
The funeral service honoring Mrs. Hollar will be Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 3:00 in Pendry's Chapel with the Rev. Roger Cox officiating. Burial will follow at Littlejohn United Methodist Church Cemetery.
Serving as pallbearers will be Matthew Crump, Ethan Crump, Dalton Crump, Thomas Mahaffey, John Mahaffey and Richard Crump.
Online condolences may be left at
Pendry's Lenoir Funeral Home is honored to be serving the Hollar family.
Funeral Service
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 | 3:00pm
Pendry's Chapel
522 Wilkesboro Blvd Se, Lenoir, NC 28645-4637 | (828) 754-3441
Driving Directions
Monday, April 15, 2013 | 6:00pm - 8:30pm
Pendry's Chapel
522 Wilkesboro Blvd Se, Lenoir, NC 28645-4637 | (828) 754-3441
Driving Directions


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Focus Requirements
Hawaiian or Second Language (HSL)
UH Manoa Graduation Requirements
3. Focus Requirements
The Focus requirements identify important additional skills and knowledge necessary for living and working in diverse communities. Courses fulfilling Focus requirements are offered in departments across the curriculum and vary each semester. To meet a Focus requirement, a course must have official UH Manoa Focus designation during the semester in which it is taken. Courses taken outside the UH System cannot be used to fulfill Focus requirements. Instead, non-system transfer students' Focus requirements are adjusted according to the number of credit hours awarded by UH Manoa for non-System courses.
These courses focus on issues in Hawaiian and Asian or Pacific cultures and history; they promote cross-cultural understanding between nations and cultures.
These courses involve significant readings on and discussion of contemporary ethical issues; they give students tools for the development of responsible ethical judgments.
These courses provide students with training in oral delivery and give them the opportunity to do individual and/or group oral reports.
These courses collectively help students both to learn course content and to communicate through writing. Small writing-intensive classes, in which instructors work with students on writing related to course topics, are offered in nearly all departments.
Note: Students are strongly encouraged to satisfy the
Foundations-Written Communication (FW) requirement before they enroll
in writing-intensive courses.
Focus Courses
Focus courses are not shown in this Catalog, but appear in each semester's Schedule of Classes (as H, E, O, and W) and on the UH Manoa Registration Homepage (as HAP, ETH, OC, and WI). Because the approved Focus courses change each semester, students should consult the UH Manoa Registration Homepage's up-to-date online course listing each semester before they register.
Focus Requirements for non-UH System Transfer Students
Students who transfer from a non-UH System institution may have adjusted ("pro-rated") Focus requirements. The adjustment is based on the number of non-UH transfer credit hours accepted when a student is admitted to UH Manoa.
*including at least two "W" courses numbered at the 300- or 400- level.
Focus Requirements for UH System Transfer Students
Students who enter the UH System in Fall 2011 and thereafter must meet all of the Focus requirements. Students who entered the UH System from spring 2005 through spring 2011 must meet requirements given in the table below. Students who entered UH prior to Spring 2005 should check with a UH Manoa college/school advisor to determine their Focus requirements. Depending on the number of UH transfer credit hours accepted, E and O requirements for transfer students may be reduced. The W and H requirements are not affected, since students may transfer approved UH System courses to help them satisfy the W and H Focus requirements.
*at least two "W" courses must be numbered at the 300- or 400- level.
Exemption from a Focus Requirement
Students who engaged in an extraordinary educational experience that
took place outside of the ordinary university curriculum may request a
one-course exemption from a Focus requirement that is directly related
to that educational experience. To request an exemption, students must
demonstrate to the General Education Committee that the experience was
extraordinary and educational and fulfilled the goals of the Focus area.
If approved, the exemption reduces the number of courses required for
the appropriate Focus requirement; however, it does not reduce the total
number of credit hours needed to graduate. Students are limited to one
exemption. Restrictions apply. For information, students should consult
a college/school academic advisor and visit www.hawaii.edu/gened/focus_exemption.htm.
Home About UH Academic Calendar Courses Undergraduate Education Graduate Education Degrees, Minors & Certificates Colleges, Schools & Academic Units
Please note: This Catalog was prepared to provide information and does not constitute a contract. The University reserves the right to change or delete, supplement or otherwise amend at any time and without prior notice the information, requirements and policies contained in this Catalog.
|Catalog Coordinator, Manoa Catalog Office, 2600 Campus Road, QLC 102, Honolulu, HI 96822 :: Web Design by Christine Galiza, Modified by Michelle Saoit ::


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Interview with Mr. Maulik Parekh
Few of us are born to be an excellent communicators. A clear understandable message always gains the support of the listeners. Maulik Parekh is one such person who always comes out to be clear and to the point in his message.
Tell us about your career path in diamond industry?
I started my career in diamond industry in March 2001 as a management trainee at Core Jewelry (Lucid Gems), company is owned by respected Mr. Kamal Bhansali. I worked here for 3 years and gained practical knowledge and experience of diamond jewelry manufacturing. I also learned about different types of jewelry used in different sectors – with quality control parameters. I was responsible for European business for the organization. Later worked at MK Jewelry, Supergems Jewelry Manufactures Pvt. Ltd., Jewel Goldie (Shree Ramkrishan Exports). Currently I am working as Assistant Production Manager for Gitanjali gems (Allianz Jewelry).
Please comment on 2008 slowdown in diamond industry?
Common people got the biggest hit due to 2008 slowdown. Due to loss of jobs, many people who were trying to settle in big cities had to move back to their hometown. Many of them were here with their family.
What's yours [dream]/[dream job] in diamond jewelry Industry?
I would love to see some day running my own company in diamond jewelry with a good corporate standard. Have a strong and skilled production team. Company that does business globally; strives to be best in customer satisfaction.
If you were not in diamond jewelry industry which industry would have preferred?
I guess I could have opted for fashion industry.
If you get a chance to change one thing in diamond market what would that be?
If I could get a chance to change one thing in diamond industry – it will be importance that is given to personal reference. In Diamond industry Personal reference is given priority over talent and skills. A family connection makes more difference then aspirations and capabilities of an individual. Today I cannot think of any other field with such a bias except for diamond industry.
If all diamond market companies get listed on Stock exchange – what shares would you buy and why?
Companies that come to my mind are Jewelex ( P.D.Kothari). These companies have good management team and excellent industry quality standard. There are many other companies I can think of including Kiran Exports.
Tell us about one tough decision you have taken in yours career?
I made a plan to move from my existing job at SuperGems during 2008 slowdown. I resigned without any new opportunity in hand and felt it was one of the toughest things I have tried. Fortunately I had a new opportunity within couple of days and started working.
Do you want to give any message to DiamondBhai.com readers?
Technology is changing very rapidly. Everyone faces challenges when a new technology or software becomes way of working in our diamond industry. However if we approach changes with smart preparation, we will be able to harness the power of new technology and benefit whole organization as well.
No related posts.


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I do editing of special occations movies (weddings, universaries, reunions, parties etc.). I edit them on my PC (with windows XP Professional system) , using Ulead 11 software. My original video clips are in *AVI format. I render them into DVD format (*MPG). My storage system is 200 GB.
I have heard that Mac system is much better for film and graphic editing, than PC Windows XP. Could anybody comment on this. Also I would like to purchase more "transitions" for my movies and DVD slide shows. Where can I get them. What comes with Ulead 11 is not enough.
Would Adobie DVD editing software be better than Ulead?


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Winchester Signs Extension
Carl Winchester has signed a 12 month extension and will remain at Oldham for the coming campaign.
The 20 year old has already won one Northern Ireland international cap, and whilst he prefers playing in midfield, Lee Johnson believes he has all the attributes to be a fantastic right back.
After making his debut back in November 2010, he has only made 22 starts and 9 substitute appearances, so Johnson is hopeful he can give him much more playing time this coming season.
Speaking to the Official Site Johnson said.
'I'm really pleased that Carl has signed his extension, I felt bad for him last season because he didn't have enough game time when you consider how well he training and played in the reserve games. I know Carl wants to play in midfield, but I want to have a look at him at right back.'


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How can I deal with the challenge of anorexia
Although I am not a medical person, from my observations and (limited) experience I understand that self esteem can be a major component of anorexia and perhaps not coming to terms with "growing up" and being responsible for one's own life. There is a very real need to develop new habits. There is a psychological element to this disorder - and there is certainly hope for complete recovery.
When facing any adversity, I believe that it is extremely important to talk about it with an understanding and knowledgeable counsellor.
It may be difficult for someone suffering from anorexia to realise that their eating habits are not "normal" and they may have a distorted view of what is a "normal" body image. What I believe is that when you recognise a life challenge, or issue, then you're 50% of the way through the challenge. The next 25% is saying - Yes, I want to do something about it. The remaining 25% is doing it - that's what my methods help with - and to be more specific about this, it is important to use a goal, with visualisation to help re-establish a healthy, sensible eating regime. In addition, a goal of body image would be important - to visualise your beautiful self wearing a lovely size 12 dress (instead of size 8).
Recently I happened to be listening to ABC Radio National Health Matters program and heard Dr. Norman Swan interviewing Dr Per Soedersten from Sweden on the topic of Anorexia and Bulimia.
Dr Per Soedersten goes back to basics, throws out psychiatric theory, stops drugs and reckons these disorders are explained by progressive starvation and the profound changes to hormones in the brain which results from this starvation. His therapy is just about the only treatment for anorexia proven to work in a scientific trial. Dr Soedersten, a researcher and clinician, is Professor of Behavioural Neuro-Endocrinology at the Karolinska Institute, Novum, S-141 57 Huddinge, Sweden
Dr Soedersten has amazing success results with the rate of remission being 75%, and that's full remission. Out of the 25% who do not go into full remission, half of those go into partial remission. About 10% or 12% do not get better. The risk of relapse is 7%.
In his treatment, Dr Soedersten does not use any medication at all because he believes the usual drugs prescribed simply do not work. In fact he believes that the main anti-depressants prescribed (eg. Prozac) make the condition worse, by producing the very hormone or chemical transmitter that inhibits eating (ie. Serotonin, which is prescribed for obese people to lose weight!).
Patients come in to the Institute for one-and-a-half days, for a very careful clinical examination, and are then divided on the basis of the severity of their disorder. About 30% are treated as in-patients for an on-average 25 days, and the others are treated as out-patients. The treatment consists of four things: training of eating using a computer-scale; warming up in warm rooms; slowing down the physical activity which is very important. The fourth thing is to restore social life and for that there is a range of support such as teachers, hairdressers, dentists and housing officers.
It was a patient who suggested to Dr Soedersten to use a computer scale, because she said 'I don't know how to eat, I don't know how to feel when I have had sufficient.' So, to train them to eat, a patient is asked to estimate their level of when their appetite is satisfied and they have had enough to eat. The computer scale is used and the bar is gradually raised.


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A moment with ... Colbie Caillat, pop singer
Updated 10:00 pm, Monday, September 10, 2007
Last year, Colbie Caillat was working at a tanning salon and singing in small clubs. Today, the dusky-voiced, 22-year-old singer-songwriter from Malibu, Calif., is a bona fide pop star.
It wasn't "American Idol" that propelled the quintessential California girl to fame. It was MySpace.com.
On the strength of her song "Bubbly," a breezy, acoustic-pop tune about young love, Caillat became the top unsigned artist on the social-networking Web site for four months, after a friend created a page for her last September at myspace.com/colbiecaillat.
Caillat (pronounced cal-LAY) has since signed to Universal Republic Records, which released her debut album, "Coco," last month. "Bubbly," the first single, is at No. 59 this week on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart and at No. 34 on the Hot Digital Songs chart.
While growing up in Malibu, Caillat learned about the music business from her father, Ken Caillat, who co-produced the "Rumours" and "Tusk" albums for Fleetwood Mac. Until she discovered MySpace, she was writing songs just for fun.
To date, Caillat has nearly 180,000 "friends" and more than 18 million song plays on MySpace, making her a true Internet phenomenon. She recently finished a tour with the Goo Goo Dolls and is on her own headlining tour, which includes a show with Vicci Martinez and Tyrone Wells Tuesday at Showbox at the Market.
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On becoming a MySpace phenomenon:
I was completely surprised. I didn't even know about the whole MySpace thing. My friend made the page and uploaded the songs for me. I was like, "OK, cool." But once I started getting messages from people all over the world telling me what my songs meant to them, I thought, "Wow, this is great."
On adjusting to her new life as a pop star:
It was overwhelming a few weeks ago because I didn't realize what I'd gotten myself into. I didn't realize that I'd have such a crazy schedule and that I wouldn't be going home for a while. I was scared. I was scared to perform. But now that I'm prepared, I'm really excited.
On having her dad's help in the studio:
He was there almost the whole time. He brought in so many ideas for (producer) Mikal Blue and me. Mikal's a great producer, but he's pretty new at it and my dad sort of showed him the old techniques from back in the day. I really wanted him to be involved.
On writing in the bathroom:
I like to go in there and play because the acoustics are so great. It echoes, so when I'm performing I feel like, "Omigosh, I don't have to sing that loud because it carries so well."
On what makes her songs so appealing:
From what I hear, people just relate to them. They're so simple. People say every song reminds them of a relationship or a family problem or a battle with themselves.
On the song "One Fine Line," in which she sings about stage fright:
I was taking an acting class in college a couple of years ago because I was really shy on stage and I really wanted to get better about that. But I quit the class (laughs) and then I wrote that song because I was really mad at myself for quitting.


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BOSTON (Jan. 21)
A gift of $150,000 to be used for the expansion of the psychiatric services at Beth Israel here, was made today by Mr. and Mrs. George Sherman, well-known philanthropists here.
The announcement of the gift was made by Irving W. Rabb, chairman of the hospital's $7,500,000 development fund campaign. Both George Sherman and Mrs. Beatrice Sherman had previously made large contributions to Brandeis University, the Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Jewish Memorial Hospital, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Hebrew Home for the Aged and the development program of Boston University.


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Thomas G. Bever is Chair of the Linguistics Department at the University of Arizona.
Using sentence comprehension as a case study for all of cognitive science, David Townsend and Thomas Bever offer an integration of two major approaches, the symbolic-computational and the associative-connectionist. The symbolic-computational approach emphasizes the formal manipulation of symbols that underlies creative aspects of language behavior. The associative-connectionist approach captures the intuition that most behaviors consist of accumulated habits.
These essays by some of the most prominent figures in linguistics, artificial intelligence, and psychology explore the problems involved in creating a general cognitive science that will treat language, thought, and behavior in an integrated fashion. They address the fundamental questions of the relations between linguistic structures and cognitive processes, between cognitive processes and language behavior, and between language behavior and linguistic structure.Contents: Introduction, Thomas G. Bever (Columbia University), John M. Carroll and Lance A. Miller (IBM Thomas J.
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Azarenka heads into final with new Juice
CHICAGO — Following 10 days of intense heat and competition at this year's Australian Open, Wilson Tour player Victoria Azarenka will take on Maria Sharapova in the anticipated showdown that will decide the world's no.1 player. Azarenka, the 22-year old WTA Tour world no. 3, is the newest member of Wilson's team of elite players.
Known for her powerful playing style that continually challenges her opponents, the 5-foot-11-inch Belarusian uses the Wilson Juice™100 racket featuring Amplifeel™, Wilson's proprietary handle system designed to increase power and spin.
"Vika is a fiercely passionate player," said Jon Muir, general manger of Wilson Racquet Sports. "Her confident attitude and consistent performances are great examples of what it takes to win."
Azarenka switched to the Wilson Juice late last year, after signing a long-term partnership with the brand. Since then, she has shown solid form, winning the Apia International Sydney title and defeating defending champion Kim Clijsters en route to the finals of the Australian Open.
If Azarenka wins the final, she will become the third player in history to rise to the top ranking after her first Grand Slam win. She is the first player from Belarus to compete in a Grand Slam final in 24 years.
About Wilson: Wilson Racquet Sports is a division of Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods, one of the world's leading manufacturers of sports equipment and owned by Amer Sports. Wilson designs, manufactures and distributes sporting goods throughout the world and focuses on making technologically advanced products which help players of all levels perform better. For more information, visit wilson.com.
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- Chris Evert Partners with Osteo Bi-Flex
- Tennis Industry Rallies For 'Play Tennis Month' in May
- USTA Mid-Atlantic Selects Prince William County for New Home of Tennis
- College MatchDay Events to Air Live on Tennis Channel
- TI Publisher, TIA Prez Jeff Williams Named USTA Eastern Man of Year
- Wilson Honors Federer with 'Platinum' Collector-Edition Racquet
- Stich, Sukova To Be Inducted Into Hall of Fame
- Third 'Tennis Innovation Challenge' April 9 in Charleston, S.C.


text:
We say $343 dollars a day! This is totally a guess right now, but it sure sounds good to me. Here's the math, get ready:
343 dollar x 7 days in a week x 52 weeks in a year = $124,852
That would cover our expenses and allow us to go anywhere, and do anything, whenever we wanted to, and still have a "traditional" home somewhere.
So as of today here's the plan:
1. Launch internet projects to generate streams of income.
2. Acquire a 35-45 foot catamaran.
3. Lock up the house and sail to the Bahamas for an undetermined amount of time.
4. The first three sum it up, and we'll figure out the rest later.
Some may say we are crazy, and those that know us will probably confirm your suspicions! We do things with both feet in and never look back.
And that's the point of this website, we are going to document our experiments, teach you how to do it(right or wrong), and share our adventures.
I know in researching "how do you drop everything and go sailing for a year", i have not found a good explanation. Everyones case is different, but most people don't have tons of money to throw around, so I'm gonna figure out how to do it in a way most people could do. I'm not going into this with 100′s of thousands or millions of dollars. I want this to be self sustaining and reasonable for many people to accomplish. People say sailing is for the elite, well that just can't be true, it's not cheap, but not out of reach.
If you want to learn more about the method to this madness, go get this book now by Timothy Ferriss and change your life.
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Expanded and Updated)
Stay tuned or better yet, contact us and lets push each other toward our dreams.


text: Jon wrote: >In the future I may want to try using some form of evaluation in which some of the grade will be based on effort. > Appreciating the problem, may I suggest that as effort is only a learning tool, you continue to struggle with the problem of grading them on what they learned. Grading the students on effort would make sense if the class were "Effort -1" . Not an easy problem at any level. Quent. Qdurham at aol.com or Tabletop Press POB 2064 Orinda CA 94563


text:
Several months after Samsung's Galaxy Note 2 was released into the wild, the rumors about the device's successor started to swirl across the nether-regions of the internet, but it didn't take long for them to get picked up and circulated. There's nothing surprising there, though. Rumors and speculation are a common courtesy here in our line of work. And the Galaxy Note 3 rumors themselves weren't all that surprising, either.
We heard about faster processors, better cameras, thirteen (exaggeration) different models, metal and glass, and a loss of AMOLED displays. We heard it all. One of the more common pieces of speculation was the display size, though. We kept seeing the reports go back and forth: the Galaxy Note 3 will have the same size display as the Galaxy Note II, or the Galaxy Note 3 will have a display that's actually quite a bit bigger than its predecessor.
For obvious reasons, I saw a lot of unrest with those latter rumors. At 5.5-inches, the Galaxy Note II's display was plenty big already, and if Samsung was honestly thinking of making it "quite a bit bigger," well, that seemed almost pointless. Thankfully, though, Samsung didn't go too crazy with the size increase, and bumped the Galaxy Note 3 up to 5.7-inches.
Not bad.
We've embraced big screens in the mobile market. It's just something that's happened, and while the adoption rate has increased, many manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon. LG, HTC, and many others all have their own versions of devices with big display. And, in most cases, it looks like many of them are looking towards the bigger display size as the "go-to size." Meaning, as we move into 2014, we may see the 4.x-inch display size thin out considerably.
Back in November, while rumors about HTC's M8 device were spinning at a constant rate, I asked all of you what you thought HTC could do to top the One. I was happy to see that not a lot of people thought a bigger display would do the trick. At 4.7-inches, the One is plenty big already, and it has one of the best displays on the market.
But, the rumors of HTC's next flagship device suggest a different tactic from HTC. According to the reports that have surfaced of the unannounced unicorn device, HTC's not going to keep the screen size the same, but instead make it bigger. It could be anywhere between 5- to 5.2-inches.
It won't be the biggest phone on the market, but it is a sizable increase from the One. And it goes to show that manufacturers are finding that a 5-inch phone seems to be the perfect size for the mass market.
I wish I could agree.
I honestly don't think a flagship device needs a huge display. While I've grown accustomed to using the 5.7-inch display on the Galaxy Note 3, I certainly don't think it's the perfect display size for me. In fact, I think the One's 4.7-inch display is the perfect size and I'd honestly be okay with the display staying the asme size, as long as the company figured out a way to make the already great display even better.
Admittedly, there's something nice about a phone that's super thin and has a big display, but not because of the display itself. Simply because it's amazing how big it doesn't feel, courtesy of the decreased profile. I think it's a great leap in technology. But that doesn't mean I want every flagship out there to have a thin frame and a huge display.
I'm obviously in the minority here (not counting iPhone fans, mind you), but hopefully I can find some like-minded folks around here. Do you think all flagship devices should have a big display? Or do you think a flagship device with a 4.7-inch display is big enough? Does every device need to be 5-inches or bigger these days? Let me know what you think.


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Topps revealed its plans for a 2009 World Series commemorative baseball card set on Wednesday for either the New York Yankees or the Philadelphia Phillies as the Series begins tonight.
The set will consist of 27 cards — players coaches and highlights for the winning team — and will cost $9.99.
Want to see what the Yankees set will look like? It's after the jump.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Graded Card Investor. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Aug 27,2007
4,000-acre controlled burn slated for Branson-Fossil Creek area
by Bend Weekly News Sources
PRINEVILLE, Oregon — The Prineville District of the Bureau of Land Management in partnership with the National Park Service, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument will be conducting the Branson North controlled burn on approximately 4,000 acres between Branson and Fossil Creek.
Ignition will be between September 4th and October 1, 2007. Fire Specialists indicate the prescribed burn will help improve wildlife habitat, reintroduce the role of fire in rangeland ecosystems, reduce the expansion of invasive juniper woodlands and create a mosaic of ecological conditions. This burn will take advantage of the burned area created by the 2007 Fossil Creek Fire by using a control line along the north perimeter of the fire.
All controlled burns are weather-dependent and completed in cooperation with the Oregon Department of Forestry smoke management plan. Smoke may intermittently impact public land users such as hunters, campers, and hikers recreating in the area. Smoke will likely settle into drainages during nighttime hours when the air cools and forces it downward. This may impact visibility for motorists. Signs will be posted identifying burn areas for residents and motorists and flaggers will be positioned along State Hwy 19 between Kimberly and Dayville. If smoke drifts onto roadways, motorists should reduce speeds and turn on headlights.
Firefighters trained in the use of prescribed fire will ignite the burn and patrol it for several days to ensure it does not cross containment lines.


text:
Photos: Family and practice leave Federer ready for another Slam
Weeks of practice and family time have left Swiss maestro Roger Federer fit and refreshed ahead of what the 17-time major winner believes could be an unpredictable Australian Open in the absence of old foe Rafael Nadal.
Federer, 31, opted to skip his usual Australian Open warm-up tournaments in the Middle East this year and instead spent it working on his game and parenting, all part of a shorter 2013 schedule that he hopes will extend his career but has left him hungry for matches.
Image: Roger Federer
Photographs: Scott Barbour/Getty Images
'I'm confident, I am mentally refreshed'
"I am very happy that the year is starting. It's a bit of a different preparation for the Australian Open this year but I'm confident, I am mentally refreshed, which I am, and physically I am fine and that I will play a good Australian Open," Federer said.
"I have been practising really hard the last few weeks and didn't play a leading up tournament this year just because I thought practice is very important for me coming up in the next year, year-and-a-half."
The World No. 2's last match on Tour was back in November when he was defeated in the final of the ATP Tour Finals in London by Serbia's Novak Djokovic.
Photographs: Scott Barbour/Getty Images
'It is key to always have a healthy schedule'
With only some exhibition matches in South America since, some questioned the move to go straight to the Australian Open but Federer, who won the last of his four Australian Open titles in 2010, said rest was required.
"It is key to always have a healthy schedule, it is difficult to do as they (the tournaments) are spread out basically from January to October-November," he said.
"It is hard to say I'm going to take one or two months off and practice hard while there are 10 to 15 new tournament winners on the Tour and you are sitting at home."
Photographs: Clive Brunskill /Getty Images
'I want to stay healthy and enjoy what I am doing'
Federer said he had never been scared to take such decisions.
"For me, in the long run, I want to stay healthy and enjoy what I am doing, I want to have fun, I want to be excited and motivated coming back to the Tour," he explained.
"For that I really need to get away from it all, which I have done for the last two or three weeks now after an incredible busy South American trip and an incredible busy year so it is important for me to have the family time."
While the Swiss seemingly manages his career like clockwork, avoiding injury and ensuring he is always suitably refreshed to add to his record grand slam haul, the same cannot be said of Spaniard Nadal.
The 11-time Grand Slam champion has not played since losing in the early rounds at Wimbledon last year as his troublesome knees continue to require rest, forcing a late withdrawal from the Jan 14-27 Australian Open.
Photographs: Michael Regan/Getty Images
'Obviously with Rafa not around it is unfortunate'
Federer said the continued absence of Nadal was an opportunity for one of the other players in the men's draw to break the Federer-Djokovic-Nadal domination, like Briton's Andy Murray did at the US Open in September.
"I think it is an exciting one, we have had four different Grand Slam champions in the last year and everybody seems in great shape," he said, acknowledging that defending champion and World No. 1 Djokovic was the favourite.
"Obviously with Rafa not around it is unfortunate, we would love to see him back so we were all hoping he was going to come back, but it creates opportunities for many other players with one less guy who normally runs through 90 percent of the guys so it is an interesting Australian Open."
Photographs: Regis Duvignau/Reuters


text: How small is your housing? Why are you limiting yourself to 8 square feet? Can you multi purpose a different room with a sensible piece of furniture and keep the scrappy stuff out of site? I re-purposed my dining room, looks like a dining room when my paper isn't out. Used dining room furniture is cheaper than any new scrappy storage too. This room cost less than $1000 (including lighting, table, chairs, china hutch, entertainment hutch, and buffet) and if my budget and dining room were smaller I could have done it for much, much less.


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A police call handler's failure to pass on all information from a 999 call did not contribute to death of Andrew Lorimer, the Police Ombudsman has found.
Mr Lorimer's body was found in his flat at Portlec Place in the town on February 5, 2012, two days after a 999 call was made to report an assault in the street.
The Chief Constable subsequently asked the Police Ombudsman to investigate the police handling of the incident, with a police call handler disciplined.
Enquiries established that during the 999 call, made at 10.49pm on February 3, 2012, a police officer was told: "Mourneview Estate, Portlec Place, a fella been beaten to f**k. Get there." The caller – later established to have been one of three men involved in killing Mr Lorimer - then hung up.
When requesting patrols to check the area, the officer failed to advise them that the caller had referred to Portlec Place. Instead he asked them to check the area around the phone box used for the call, at nearby Russell Drive.
Two police patrols checked streets around Russell Drive, including Portlec Place, but saw nothing suspicious.
The pathologist concluded that Mr Lorimer was likely to have survived for some time after the assault, but it was difficult to be precise about how long for.
The officer who dealt with the 999 call (Officer 1), as well as officers in the patrols which responded, were all interviewed.
Officer 1 said he could not recall Mourneview Estate and Portlec Place having been mentioned but acknowledged that the information should have been recorded and provided to patrols.
However, the investigation found that two police patrols had nevertheless checked Portlec Place in response to Officer 1's initial instruction to check the area around the Russell Drive phone box.
Having reviewed the evidence, Police Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire concluded there was no evidence Officer 1's failure to mention Portlec Place had contributed to Mr Lorimer's death. Three police patrols had checked the street and found nothing suspicious.
However, Dr Maguire found that Officer 1 should have taken "greater care to record all relevant information" provided during the 999 call.


text:
My point was slightly different. For your use cases where you go to an external source and query it then it seems to me much better modelling to separate the address from the query components and to have that address be part of the external call. So one would have: 1. External(src, P(x,.. y)) 2. External(src, o[p->s .. p'->s']) Your use cases for frame access seem to be rather better satisfied by a construct like (2) above. In your example you are forced to go to each university whereas I might want to go to a central clearing house, or dbpedia or whatever to query the same information. I agree that frame or predicate form are both reasonable in this case. The case of builtins are different. In that case there is no external source to go to and all our current builtins are handled perfectly find as predicates and functions and there seemed to be no use cases for builtin frames. Dave Michael Kifer wrote: > Even though a number of people said that they understood the issue, a good > example, I think, would help. > > CSMA and others raised two issues: > > 1. How does one know the address of the external entity to which to send > the external query? > 2. Why frames if everything can be encoded with predicates? > > > 1. First, even with predicates one cannot know the address of the external > entity to which to send the request. For instance, consider > External(http://a.b.c/d/e/f/g(1,?X)). > Which address should one use? http://a.b.c/d/e/f/g? http://a.b.c/d/e/f? > http://a.b.c/d/e? Or http://a.b.c/somethingelse? > I claim that without a convention it is impossible to know. > With a convention, however, the same applies to frames. > I would say that in case of the frames the convention should be that > it is the object (not the property) that determines the external entity > (as usual in the object-oriented modeling). The rest of the convention > should be the same as in the case of predicates. > > 2. Now to an example. Let's suppose that we have a system that all > universities adopt in order to provide a query access to their statistical > and other info. Let's suppose that they adopt a common ontology > so they would use common terms like (where ac is a prefix for the > ontology) > > ac:president > ac:employee_number > ac:budget > ac:department > etc. > > Let suny be the prefix for the State U of NY, uc for Univ of CA, etc. > Each university might put out an object to represent itself and then one > would be able to ask queries like (note the use of terms to simulate > methods): > > // total # of employees in the EE dept + total UC budget > External(uc:berkeley[ac:employee_number(uc:ee)->?Y > ac:budget->?X]) > > // budget of CS dept + SBU President > External(suny:stonybrook[ac:budget(suny:cs)->?X > ac:president->?X]) > > > Now try the same using predicates for comparison. > First, you will notice that you would have to use a whole bunch of > builtins AND two External(...) queries > in each case. In general, one might need to use 3 or more externals. > Second, you might not quite like how the model looks like when you use > predicates. (This is, of course, subjective, but whatever one can say > against the use of frames in External(...) can be also said against the > use of frames in RIF in general and, in fact, against object-oriented > languages as such.) > > > > > --michael >Received on Saturday, 27 September 2008 12:23:28 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 21:47:52 UTC


text:
Garrett Wade is well-known for creating some of the slickest tools around with its latest one being the Combination Knife & Precision Rule.
Normally, the idea of a ruler and a knife forged into one isn't something most would think of, but that's exactly what the Combination Knife & Precision Rule is. It's an ultra-slim, durable stainless steel measure that just happens to have knives two knives built into it. One blade is located at the end of the stick while the other is placed in the middle. At 3/8" thick and 0.8 oz, it's a lightweight piece that's easy to carry around.
The Combination Knife & Precision Rule definitely carries swagger in its design. Besides, who doesn't want a bit of danger in their tools?
Dual Blade Measures
More Stats +/-
69 Cutting-Edge Knives
Suave Weapon Staffs
Bladed Fashion Accessories
Badass Defense Blades
Suave Silver Blades
The Combination Knife & Precision Rule is a Dangerously Stylish Hybrid Piece
- By: Matt HoDec 3, 2011
References: garrettwade & theawesomer
References: garrettwade & theawesomer


text:
I am calling this post: Odds and Ends
There is no overlying theme today. There is no specific rant or rave or anything I am praising or disparaging. It is going to be like a Larry King article, odds and ends, and I hope it is infinitely more interesting.
My son is home from college and brought along a friend from Cyprus. I thought Cyprus was a part of Greece but it is its own free standing island nation. It is located closer to Turkey and Syria than to Greece. It is near Israel and Lebanon but hopefully the ocean is a big enough space for them to keep out of the crap going on in the Middle East. They speak Greek, our guest looks Greek, and he is going to be going to a Thanksgiving celebration with 30 of our family members.
We are not hosting Thanksgiving but we will be hosting Christmas. I told my wife that I would paint our dining room. I have hated the color for five or six years and I want to paint it before we put in new flooring. That way I can mess up the place and not have to worry too much about splashing. My wife and I picked out a color but she wants me to do a pattern on it. I don't think it will be too hard but she likes to see me work harder than I have to. Just kidding, her judgement is solid and I know it will look fantastic once I am done with it. You know the best part? I get to take down some old wallpaper edging! I love doing that job.
We got a new TV and broached the world of UHDTV. It is supposed to be twice as sharp as regular high definition TV but there is really no programming to go with it so who knows? I bought a Samsung even though I hate that they use the TV to spy on us. There is no opting out of the user agreement because you have to be in so that you may work the TV. We got it for out bedroom because the old TV was small and it was not fun to watch TV up there. Now we have a TV on steroids and the picture is incredible and the TV is a piece of artwork. I am excited about it.
Other odds and ends
Winter is coming in Minnesota. I have winterized the lawn mower and readied the snow blower and I am simply waiting for a big storm to come and hit us. Iowa was pounded last week but we missed it. In fact it is going to be 40 degrees today which really feels like a fall day. I like when the weather is warmer, and no, I do not believe in global warming.
My wife has to go in for a colonoscopy tomorrow. I am lucky in that I have already had that procedure. It is painless except for the prep work. By the time you are done cleansing your intestines, your butt is rubbed raw from even the smoothest of toilet papers. The only advice I gave her was use a gentle touch when wiping. Other than that she is on her own.
My daughter is supposed to show up Wednesday. The poor cats. They are going to get smothered with love. She loves anything with a fury face. She has been missing them so bad that she has a cat friend on campus who she goes and visits three times a week. That cat does not like to be held so she still is missing the hugs and kisses you can give them. For the next three days they will be smothered with hugs and loves and kisses. I tried to warn them but they looked at me with indifference.
We are dog sitting tomorrow. We already have two dogs but this one is a puppy and had high energy. His name is Nikkon and he is as smart as can be. He is also hyper and he bugs the hell out of the cats. Maybe after Nikkon the cats will not mind my daughter attacking them. There is usually an hour or so of getting to know the level of the pack and then the dogs get along swimmingly.
That is all. A nice short odds and ends column.


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First Posted: 5/31/2014
The Foundation of Robeson County Community College will be holding its 30th annual Clifford Bullard Memorial Golf Tournament on Sept. 18 at Cliffwood Golf Course.
The tournament supports the world of the RCC Foundation in its mission to provide financial support for the school's students, activities and programs, especially as the need for scholarship assistance rises.
The tournament raised more than $22,000 and the foundation expects a record-breaking event. Registration information will be announced at a later time.
Cliffwood hosts a senior shootout every Tuesday at 9 a.m. Entry is $20 per player, which includes greens and cart fees and includes a meal catered with Smithfield Chicken and BBQ.
Scothurst GC
Fayetteville's Jennifer Evans had the best round of her career on May 18, scoring a 1-over-par 73. Evans, playing with Rick Evans, birdied Nos. 6, 8, 10 and 12.
Pinecrest CC
The school social workers of Public Schools of Robeson County will be holding their inaugural People Helping People golf tournament on Saturday at Pinecrest Country Club.
The tournament will help raise money to help children and families around the county who are in need.
For information contact Tina Locklear at 910-827-4450 or Jill Brown at 910-785-3778.
Fairmont GC
Tim Moore and Ricky Rogers won the championship flight of Tuesday's senior shootout. Mel Britt and Tommy Sipka took second.
The first flight was won by Mike Gandley and Marlon Lowry, who finished ahead of Mike Tyson and John Rancke. Second flight winners were Paul Stone Jr and Everett Davis, followed by Gene Brumbles and Jerry Jolly. Special event winners were Tommy Belch, Wayne Beasley, Mel Britt, Jerry Jolly and Richard Moore.
The next senior shootout will be held Tuesday with a 9 a.m. shotgun start. Call the club's pro shop at 910-628-9931 for information and registration.
Send your golf news to Sports Editor Scott Schlaufman at 910-272-6111 or at firstname.lastname@example.com. The deadline is Thursday at 5 p.m. for that Sunday's publication.


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Patapon 2 Possible For PSN On PS3?
So it seems PSP owners will finally get the long-awaited sequel to Patapon, and although we're still not aware of the reasons for such a delay, we do have some interesting news.
According to Joystiq, Associate Producer Chris Hinojosa-Miranda has said the team has gotten numerous requests for a downloadable version of the game to come to the PlayStation Store. In other words, a lot of people want to be able to play Patapon 2 on the PlayStation 3, and that sounds like a great idea to us. And oh yeah, if it does come to the PSN, shouldn't it boast online multiplayer modes? Well, Hinojosa-Miranda says this suggestion is worthy of their attention and they're currently looking into the idea. As for the continuation of this popular and critically acclaimed series, there's no real surprise:
"There's such a critical love for Patapon, the characters, the story overall, and the music especially ... there's a good chance that the franchise will continue."
Well, of course! If you're not familiar, you can always check out some reviews, but it's basically a music-based rhythm game that sends you to war with...well, with the beat at your disposal. Get the rhythm and your combat strategy right, and you will succeed; those little Patapons will do their bidding if your feet are a-tappin' to the rhythm. It's so very cool, and it'd be a fantastic addition to the PSN! Patapon 2 will release for the PSP in North America on May 5.
4/30/2009 Ben Dutka
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text:
Putnam Plastics Corp. (Dayville, CT), is commercializing a proprietary process for manufacturing custom monofilament fibers up to 0.100 inch (2.54 mm) in diameter from nylon, polypropylene and other materials.
The goal is to use the large diameter medical monofilament for x-ray and MRI applications as a metal replacement.
Oriented, large-diameter fibers provide substantial strength for applications requiring x-ray transparency or non-magnetic properties for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), according to Putnam Plastics.
"The convergence of minimally invasive devices and medical imaging technologies are increasing demand for non-metallic components made from high performance materials. These emerging device solutions are custom by definition," said Ray Rilling, general manager at Putnam. "There is no off-the-shelf source for medical monofilaments with diameters greater than 0.025 inch (0.64mm). Our monofilament lines are built for custom medical applications, with capabilities for processing the broadest range of sizes and materials for device prototypes through production."...
Read more


text:
Full DescriptionFinis Rapid Monofin
The Rapid monofin is a recreational single-blade fin that will help you learn and develop a proper undulation in the water and build a great core and leg workout. The blade is flexible in order to produce greater speeds. The adjustable foot straps are comfortable to wear and have a quick release system for added safety in the water.
Rapid Monofin Features:
- Single, flexible blade fin
- Helps you to develop a proper undulation in the water
- Build leg and core strength (activates 60% of muscle mass, including the core and lower body
- Makes swimming the dolphin kick fun and easy
- Swim at faster speeds and greater depths
- Stabilization channels cause the fin to flex in the optimal wave motion
- Great for use in pools, ocean or lake
- Floats on water
- Adjustable heel strap with quick release system
- Men's 8 to 12
- Women's 9 to 13


text:
Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal by Aviva Chomsky provides a detailed overview of migration and immigration policies specifically within the United States of America as they relate to Mexican and Central American migrants and immigrants. The book traces history from the open borders and heavy recruitment for seasonal work of the 1800's and early 1900's through to the first immigration laws targeting Mexican immigrants and the ways in which industry and corporations have benefited from and relied on first seasonal and then undocumented labor. She also talks about the more recent immigration activism and reforms such as DREAMers and DACA and the ways in which they attempt to change the conversations.
In this illuminating work, immigrant rights activist Aviva Chomsky shows how "illegality" and "undocumentedness" are concepts that were created to exclude and exploit. With a focus on US policy, she probes how people, especially Mexican and Central Americans, have been assigned this status—and to what ends. Blending history with human drama, Chomsky explores what it means to be undocumented in a legal, social, economic, and historical context. The result is a powerful testament of the complex, contradictory, and ever-shifting nature of status in America.
The book begins by providing a brief history of where illegality came from. It provides high level ideas and concepts from history of how domination, religion, and race have been used to limit mobility while not delving into the specific laws outside of North America related to this. This general beginning sets the stage for the more detailed examinations in the rest of the book, as it focuses in on immigration history and laws in the US, especially it's relationship with immigrants from Mexico and Central America.
The author begins from the assumption that we find borders and illegality natural and without question. As my last review showed, I'm not of this mind and I would hope that at least a few others are also of this understanding – that borders and laws and citizenship are constructs created for applied for specific purposes. Chomsky begins by highlighting the similarities between Michelle Alexander's theory in The New Jim Crow on the criminalization of African Americans and the increasing criminalization of Latinos, with the main difference being that the criminalization of African Americans is to remove them from the labor market while the criminalization of Latinos is to make them especially vulnerable and exploitable in the labor market. This helps set the stage for the ideas and concepts raised through the rest of the book.
Chomsky walks through a history of Immigration laws in the United States, how they were applied, and who they targeted. She also talks about the history of migratory work in Mexico and in Central America and how, in Mexico especially, the US government encouraged it until relatively recently. We see how those coming to work often don't even realize it is illegal – they are following the same migratory patterns as previously, are working with the same companies, and / or are being recruited by the same recruiters as previously to work within their own country but now the recruiter may be bringing them to a job in the US. She talks about how originally forced migratory work has become a habit for many, especially as local subsistence farming and economic opportunities have disappeared.
In providing a history of immigration law as it relates to those of Mexican and Central American nationalities, some history of anti-immigration sentiment is also provided. In fact, media and politicians are shown as gaining benefits from expressing these sentiments throughout history.
In addition to attracting voters or increasing ratings, the Latino threat narrative serves the more subtle purpose of channeling national anxieties about social inequality; environmental crisis; economic downturn; lack of access to jobs, housing, health care, and education; deteriorating social services; and other real issues facing the US population away from their real cause. Those who benefit from the status quo would rather have people blame immigrants than fight for real social and economic change. (page 102)
Chomsky argues that illegal immigrants are an expected part of the immigration process – that there are less visas available than jobs that need to be filled, that companies prefer to be able to pay employees less and extort bribes up front, and so the system benefits them – why would they change it? The government can deport the employees and then simply assume more will show up to do the work and that any employees injured or who should be able to retire do not need to be assisted in any way. In fact, using undocumented workers makes it much easier for companies to get rid of any who start agitating for better wages or working conditions.
Undocumentedness has everything to do with work and the economy. It is a key component of the late-twentieth-century global system. Every so-called industrialized country – or more accurately, deindustrializing country – relies on the labor of workers who are legally excluded to maintain its high levels of consumption. (page 151)
The use of undocumented labor allows companies to keep prices lower, and allows more individuals within the country to benefit from this exploited labor. Using the structural violence examinations of Violent Borders and applying them to the details provided by Chomsky, we can see clearly how we all benefit from this violence. Lower prices on food, cheap landscaping, and cheap nanny services are just some of the ways in which we might benefit. In the same way that Jones' analysis showed the violence caused by keeping poor people within their own borders and subject to low wages and lack of regulation, here Chomsky shows that keeping immigrants undocumented or "illegal" allows companies within the receiving country's borders to exploit workers in many of the same ways with little to no repercussions.
The inexpensive nature of these services – in part because of the often undocumented immigrant labor that provided them – helped to sustain an illusion of upward mobility for people in the working and middle classes. (page 145)
As well, Chomsky points out the fact that stronger border enforcement has no effect on immigration – while it may make the crossings riskier, it is, rather, political and economic situations in the countries of origin that dictate the fluctuations in migrant crossings. The US has played a part, and continues to play a part, in those very political and economic situations. As well, one large consequence of stronger border enforcement is the breaking of the seasonal patterns of migration – outflows of migrants slows, while new migrants continue to cross over, causing increasing numbers of undocumented immigrants within the borders.
The book ends on a chapter titled Solutions, that unfortunately did not provide many ideas or solutions. The chapter instead provided a recap of immigration law as it relates to people of Mexican and Central American origin. While providing a recap of the book, Chomsky only hints at the idea that the major solution would be free movement for all. Her hope for the book is that it educates people and opens room for more debates, which I think she has done.
This was an interesting and well-written read, although due to the lack of solutions, I did find the book a bit lacking. I wish that chapter had offered true solutions and ideas rather than simply rehashing what had already been said throughout the book. The use of a theory (criminalization of African Americans) that more may be familiar with might also help others see the similarities and civil rights issues endemic to undocumentedness. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about the history of and effects of undocumentedness on immigrants, on the economy, on regulations, and on all of us.
* Earlier this week I posted my thoughts on Reece Jones's Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move. The link will take you to that post. I'm working my way through a number of books on immigration policies, borders, and refugees just for my own interest as a bit of a personal project.


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1 Corinthians Chapter 5 and 6
This Preaching in Shorts Bible study is on 1 Corinthians. Each chapter is read verse by verse with the major points highlighted and discussed.
You can listen to the study by clicking here
or you can watch it below:
1 Corinthians 5:1-13 (NIV)
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3 Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. 6 Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast–as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. 9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people– 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."
1 Corinthians 6:1-20 (NIV)
1 If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4 Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! 5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6 But instead, one brother goes to law against another–and this in front of unbelievers! 7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. 9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 12 "Everything is permissible for me"–but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"–but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"–but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." 17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
In Chapters 5 and 6 Paul is dealing with three problems in the church in Corinth. A failure to discipline an immoral brother. Resolving personal disputes in a Godly manner. The importance of maintaining sexual purity.
1 Corinthians 5:1-5
Apparently, someone in the church was in an immoral relationship with his stepmother. This relationship was not only a violation of OT law, but specific Roman law as well.
Leviticus 18:8 (NIV)
8 "'Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife; that would dishonor your father.
Paul says that this man needs to be disciplined. Paul does not say anything about the woman involved, which means she was probably not a believer.
A big part of the problem here was that not only were the Corinthians not troubled by the relationship, they were actually quite arrogant about it.
The goal of discipline was that the brother in the relationship would repent. That needs to always be the goal of discipline. It should produce a change of mind, purpose and life.
1 Corinthians 5:6-11
A little yeast soon permeates a whole batch of dough. Dealing with sin in the church. I am going to talk about this more in a minute when we look at 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
1 Corinthians 5:12-13
Paul says it was not his business to judge those outside the church, (why he was silent on the woman in verse 1), and it wasn't the business of the Corinthians either. That judgment is God's. However, those in the church who continue to sin with an unrepentant spirit need to be dealt with.
1 Corinthians 6:1-8
People in the church need to be able to handle personal disputes between themselves. This problem is another example of the divisions that existed in the church in Corinth. Paul keeps using the phrase "do you not know" which is his way of telling them that they already know better. The problem with division is always pride. Paul was upset about this because it not only kept the divisions going, it was a bad witness to unbelievers.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
OK. Let's talk about church discipline for a moment.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
There is something very important to note. The verse speaks of "idolaters" rather than idolatry. It says "adulterers" rather than adultery. The wording of the verse is important, because it indicates a person who has stopped struggling with sin and decided that it is OK even though it goes against the Word of God. Paul is not saying that an individual is to be disciplined by the fellowship for a single act or failure. Transformation is not instantaneous; we need to give each other room to grow.
But when a person decides that the issue is no longer an issue, than it needs to be approached by the church. They need to be disciplined so that they see their need to repent.
Jesus said in Matthew 18:17 to treat an unrepentant brother like a pagan or tax collector.
Matthew 18:17 (NIV)
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
There is a change in the level of intimacy that will hopefully lead to repentance. But, consider this, how does Jesus treat pagans and tax collectors?
1 Corinthians 6:9-20
Paul now deals with something that he had taught the Corinthians which they were using as a cover for sin.
The phrase:
Everything is permissible for me
This phrase had apparently become a slogan to cloak the immorality of some in Corinth.
This statement is true but it needs to qualified by the principle of loving God and loving others. If the action of liberty is detrimental to someone else, it is not loving. Also, if the liberty becomes slavery (I will not be mastered by anything) it is not loving but self hatred.
Filed in: Preaching in Shorts


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From the Chair: Our Hang Ups
Author: Paul D. Bagley
Copyright: 9-1-1 Magazine, Feature Content
Date: 2012-08-25
In a recent New York Times article it was intimated that a problem exists with regard to 9-1-1 hang ups and calls where dispatchers are confronted with silence at the other end of the line. While I believe that premier publications like the New York Times only run stories on the horrors of emergency services when they are experiencing slow news days, I'll give the Times the benefit of the doubt and say it was a research piece that took some time to prepare. I'm all for raising the public consciousness about emergency dispatch, but I prefer it be done with a little less incendiary vibrato, and by appealing to intellect rather than emotion. At any rate, as a result of that piece it's been suggested by a number of folks that I weigh into this topic and see where it leads us.
First, let's understand that I'm an old-school dispatcher. My initial years were marked by answering phone lines that were not equipped with caller identification capability or even a suitable method for tracing from whence a call originated. We had no logging system, no call-check, and nothing other than dispatcher integrity to know that a call was actually received. We had our wits, which according to many, was only half a solution. 9-1-1 capability existed only in big cities, and advanced technology was purely a pipedream to us hicks here in the backwoods of New Hampshire. Although it would be decades before we would ever experience a "butt dial" from a cellular phone, we had our share of empty calls or open lines – calls where there is a connection but no one says anything. The frustrating element in those days was there was no way to trace them. Luckily for us the public had no idea just how uncommunicative our communications system really was.
One evening I received a call from a man instructing me to check out the police cruiser in a neighboring town where the police department was only part time. Despite trying to coax his name and address from him, the man was unrelenting. I sent a neighboring police unit to investigate and the officer discovered that the part time department's cruiser had been fire-bombed. An hour or so later the same man called back trying to find out what happened. Again I tried prying out his name; again he was reticent. He finally stated that he didn't want to get involved. I explained to him that he was already involved and that I was merely waiting for the man in the central telephone office to hand me a slip of paper with the caller's name and phone number on it because the phone trace had already been completed. I further explained that if the caller gave me his name before that happened, he would be considered a witness; if he waited until afterward to give me his information, he would be considered an accomplice to Class A felony arson. He couldn't give me his personal information fast enough.
We had no central office; no phone company employee sitting around on a Saturday night on the off chance he'd have to run a trace on one of my twenty in-coming phone lines. Had the caller stuck with his original strategy we never would have caught the culprits. That was then; now we have technology and we still run blind more often than we deem comfortable.
With the advent of Automatic Number Identification (ANI), Automatic Location Identification (ALI), the Global Positioning System (GPS), and late Twentieth Century computer technology guiding and protecting our lives, we have all kinds of tools available to dispatchers that are designed to make things more efficient. The problem is not every dispatch center across the land has access to all these cutting-edge technologies. Cellular technology is good, but it's not inclusive. There are all kinds of places where cell phones are less than effective. Ever try using a cell phone in an elevator that is five stories below ground level? How about along Interstate 40 between Barstow and Needles, California, or between Kingman and Flagstaff, Arizona? There are all kinds of dry spots in those regions – no water and no cell coverage.
The concern suggested in the Times article had to do with how or even whether abandoned calls are handled at all. With the development of the Enhanced 9-1-1 system in my state, new laws were enacted that compel dispatchers to send someone. If the caller reports a fire, the fire department is sent; if the caller needs an ambulance, we send an ambulance. Every other call to 9-1-1 – butt dials, hang-ups, and open lines – a police officer is sent to verify whether or not there is an emergency. Is this a drain on police resources? Of course it is. Is it really necessary? It is essential!
Government established the original 9-1-1 system so that there would be a universal nationwide method of getting help in an emergency. Dialing three little digits was apparently still too much for many who preprogrammed it into their speed-dialers. The phone rings when no one is home; the new Labrador retriever puppy leaps up to the sound of the ringing bell on the wall and manages to knock the handset from the cradle onto the floor; as the handset lays there the puppy steps on the keypad. Somewhere in the process the speed dialer gets pressed and the 9-1-1 dispatcher is confronted with the sound of a panting puppy. The ANI/ALI data shows where the call is and the police respond to find a lonely and extremely friendly lab in the kitchen with a telephone handset lying on the floor. Thank you speed-dial!
That panting pup could easily have been an elderly person gasping for air because their oxygen supply ran out and they couldn't catch their breath enough to speak. The periods of silence could easily have been that same elder lapsing into unconsciousness. There is no way of knowing for certain what is actually happening at the other end of the line until a trained set of eyeballs can observe things firsthand. Yet, there are jurisdictions in this country that have yet to embrace this method of verifying every 9-1-1 call, and I shudder to think of their liability exposure, much less their insurance premiums. True, the ratio of frivolous-to-real calls is staggeringly high, but letting even one real emergency call go unanswered in lieu of ignoring all the phonies is unacceptable in a zero-defects industry like emergency telecommunications. We must verify!
In addition to the insanity foisted upon dispatchers by those whom they serve, telephone manufacturers have also played a role. Although not even mentioned in NENA Document 56-501 published ten years ago, many portable telephones were programmed to automatically dial 9-1-1 when their batteries drained to a point where the phone's power could no longer sustain voice transmission. This was to insure that a call for help begot an official response on the off chance there might be an emergency. This is partially why so many silent calls are received after prolonged power outages. Cops arrive to find the residence locked up tight and no one home.
The New York Times article pointed out the horrific realities of the silence that confronted the dispatcher handling the O.J. Simpson case. Being met with no sound on the line, or with only the ambient sounds of normalcy like a running dishwasher or the blare of television in the background, provide little solace. But obtaining no information is still acquiring information; it just doesn't seem so to dispatchers. We're equipped to fill in the blanks and answer the five W's: who, what, when, where and why. On those occasions when we're not given such an opportunity we feel cheated somehow. Only when the police arrive at the scene and determine what has happened, and only if they report their findings back to dispatch, do we achieve vindication.
Abandoned 9-1-1 calls are truly a nuisance, but it's like a store owner computing the impact of shoplifting on his margin of profit; it's the cost of doing business. The public fails to fully comprehend that the instant that second numeral one in the sequence is pushed their ANI/ALI data is captured by the PSAP. Many believe that sending a police officer to check up on these calls is a waste of municipal resources. But, every now and then there is the call that was initiated by one spouse and terminated by the other in the heat of a domestic squabble, and salvation rests in the hands of the police official that you send despite verbal assurances that all is well. Saving one real one justifies responding to all the fakes. Besides, responding to 9-1-1 hang ups or abandoned calls still constitutes a call-for-service, and police departments justify their budgets with those numbers every year; it's the public's cost of doing business.
What's next? Well, there is Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1), which promises all kinds of technological advances that will make the public's access to emergency communications easier and seamless… for them. That doesn't mean it will be any easier on dispatchers. NG9-1-1 promises to heap even more responsibility on those in The Chair. True, NG9-1-1 may provide a new wrinkle where sight and sound can be incorporated into calls providing dispatchers with a first-hand real-time look at what's happening through phone and laptop cameras. But this presupposes that every communications center will instantly embrace all these new technologies the moment they're available. While it might be a far cry from those days when I was bluffing the guy at the other end of the line that I had his info, it's likely that comprehensive widespread upgrades will take considerable time and funding for this next evolution to be implemented universally, as was the case with E9-1-1.
Maybe while the federal cabal in Washington is working with the techno-geeks in trying to figure out what the new technology should look like, it could pay a little more attention toward making this next giant leap more affordable to every little hamlet in America. It's fine to develop an architectural concept that will accommodate any size disaster, but if Ma and Pa Kettle and their fellow townsfolk can't afford to purchase it, what good is it? Beyond cost, one thing that goes right along with technological advancements is the need to develop universal standards in dealing with the care and feeding of technology. Of course that would mean national standards for dispatching (akin to air traffic controlling) and fully-funded training for everyone who finds themselves in The Chair. But then, that's a topic for yet another column.
Taking critical incident reports from Twitter and Facebook accounts and responding to text messaging from some fifteen-year-old who's having a bad day with his girlfriend will be analogous to the good old days when we'd receive calls-for-service over the fax machine. We didn't care much for the public choosing that medium for communicating with us, but we got used to it and eventually accepted it as the cost of our doing business. Just as those in The Chair rose to the challenges of dealing with dedicated emergency lines known as 9-1-1, and just as we accepted initiatives like emergency medical dispatch (EMD), telecommunicators will rise to the new challenges placed before them with NG9-1-1. There will always be plenty of curve balls hurled in our direction to test our professional acumen, and there will always be a learning curve. Let us hope that this next new wave of methods and equipment will finally help illuminate the true value of emergency dispatchers, if to no one else but to those whom we dispatch to calls. It's too much to ever expect that the public will grasp our worth; after all, they're still programming 9-1-1 into their speed dialers! As for the Times; well, it's a newspaper; what more need I say?
Paul D. Bagley is a published author of both fiction and non-fiction books, a retired police officer and emergency dispatcher. He is the past president of New Hampshire Emergency Dispatchers Association, and he is editor and publisher of the association's monthly newsletter, "The NHEDA Broadcaster."
"From the Chair" is produced for 9-1-1 Magazine by 911Lifeline, a national 501(c)(3) membership association providing services for 9-1-1 telecommunicators, assistance to the media, and public education programs. For more information visit http://911lifeline.org.
Post a Comment
Date: 2012-09-20 10:16:23
Company: USMC Iwakuni, Japan
Title: the background
Subject: We listen to any.
The other day I received a call with some children and one adult male voice. It sounded rather chaotic. I listened for four minutes and decided to hang up to dall back. I concerned a lot. It didn't answer me for more than one hour. Finally when it had connected, I found out it was soccer ball. A boy's cell phone quick dial activated accidentaly.
Two years back, a call with just background of chaos was a fighting in an elevator. A guy closest to the phone hit it, expected we listen the scene, and dispatch. It works. We listen to any.
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