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San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 16, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 53
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Even a gambling enterprise requires marketing, so the national lottery organization is setting up a special, fatter drawing for Sunday to honor San José, the patron of the capital.
The Bible does not say if San José, known in English as Saint Joseph, was a gambling man. But human nature being what it is, there is a good chance he put down a bet or two.
His feast day in Roman Catholicism is Saturday, and the special lottery drawing is Sunday at 7 p.m.
The Junta de Protection Social promised 1.5 billion colons in prizes, about $2.8 million. The top prize is 200 million colons or about $370,000. That's a far cry from the top prize in the Christmas Gordo, but full sheets of lottery tickets, an entero, is just 12,000 colons, a bit less than $23.
There will be two top prizes, and the profits are distributed to charities and other non-profits. The Junta has been running national lotteries for 170 years.
The Día de San José is not a time for big celebration in Costa Rica, but there are celebrations and special foods in Italian culture.
Our reader's opinionDedicated taxes distort the market
Dear A.M. Costa Rica:
Hypothecation is bad for everyone.
Before everyone reaches for the dictionary to read about a new illness, let me disappoint you by saying that this refers to taxation in Costa Rica. A hypothecated tax is one dedicated to a particular item of government expenditure. Such taxes appear in U.S. states where citizens get a vote on particular taxes, because the electorate does not trust the government to fund something or with general funds. A.M. Costa Rica has covered the many such taxes in its reports.
The whole $100-billion special districts scandal in the U.S. is an example. Costa Rica is rife with special purposes taxes, probably in the belief that a tax for worthy causes is likely to get support from the people. One effect may be that some organizations build new facilities when there are vacant premises elsewhere.
So why are such taxes bad for everyone? There are several reasons:
They make budgeting income and planning difficult. One problem with any tax is that the amount collected is uncertain. For example, a tax on beer will yield more or less according to consumption. If funding for the Bomberos or the Policia is from a single tax, they do not know how much they will receive. It will vary from year to year. This means that they may have too much. They might spend a surplus on parties. If the tax yield is too little, the government has to bail them out because the service is essential.
Hypothecation makes auditing and control difficult. Letting some government and supported organizations run their affairs in isolation makes overall economic management virtually impossible. If some but not all of a ministry's budget is from a dedicated tax, it might well spend that money on vital services and still fund parties from the central budget. Dedicated taxes may tempt recipients to give the finger to any audits and attempts at control. In a country of dubious public ethics, this can be a real problem.
Special taxes distort the free markets. The result is certain goods or services are taxed and priced more than others. This may be in the public good, but is as likely to simply bend the economy in fairly random ways. The lobbies for particular industries love such opportunities.
So what is better? If there has to be taxation, it should go into a central pool. This does require open disclosure, honest supervision, auditing and planning. Then there can be no hidden backwaters where the public funds semi-autonomous organizations from single taxes. In addition, a central budget can aggregate the swings and roundabouts of greater or less than expected single taxes to smooth out distortions.
Let us hope that legislators see the opportunity for reform rather than the opportunity to seek their own ends from special purpose taxes.
Chris Clarke
Retired economist and businessman,
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|San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 16, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 53
|On the way to the U.S.: Coyotes, thieves, gunfire and uncertainty
By Rommel Téllez
Special to A.M. Cuba
By the time this piece gets published, 20-year-old Magalys de Loyola should be arriving to join her mother and sisters in Orlando, Florida.
Hers is not the story of just any gathering. It is the ending of a tale shared by 7,822 other Cubans who got trapped in Costa Rica on their way to the United States.
Back in November, Costa Rica faced its biggest immigration challenge. Waves, tides and tsunamis of Cubans began to add up in the northern area of Peñas Blancas. The Nicaraguan government had shut its border for those seeking to reach Mexico and the United States.
When Ms. de Loyola arrived to Costa Rica in mid December, the Costa Rican government already had a contingency plan. The national emergency commission, the International Migrants Organization, churches and their volunteers along with crowds of civilians had all organized food and shelter for those in need.
Ms. de Loyola was assigned to a refuge located in La Cruz in the province of Guanacaste, where she spent almost three months with her husband and her father, all of them trying to keep busy.
Born and raised in the province of Camagüey, Ms. de Loyola, her father and her husband wanted a tourist visa from the U.S. to visit family in Orlando. However, their request was denied on the grounds that they fit the profile of illegal immigrants. It did not take long for the three of them to make up their minds.
Once they found the right person, they sold the house for $20,000. A newer state policy allows citizens to sell property. Then they went after human traffickers, better known as coyotes who would charge them $1,500 per person to get to Panamá.
"You never get to see their faces. They give you a mobile line and ask you to call as soon as you arrive to Ecuador. It's not complicated. Everyone knows at least someone who knows a trafficker."
Ecuador was the only country where Cubans could enter without a visa. Once in the territory, calls and messages started to arrive. They were short and concise. "Go," "wait," "move again," "wait" and "get in the truck."
Ms. de Loyola emphasized that all of these logistics take place during the night and, at least in her case, there were no upfront payments. The only requirement was to be well behaved.
And so, they continued their travel through Colombia and Panamá, two places that posed a bigger risk.
"In Colombia, Panamá and even Nicaragua, police officers will take your money and values away, use violence and even shoot their guns for intimidation," said a Cuban musician who has lived in Costa Rica for the past 13 years. He wanted to remain nameless because he said he fears retaliation from the Cuban government.
Ms. de Loyola has no fear because she says she left the island legally. She even goes as far as to say that her trip with the coyotes was flawlessly organized. They took care of every action, every bribe.
Coyote customer service had been so engaging for Ms. de Loyola, that she even tried to continue her way through the jungles of Nicaragua in spite of the government ban.
Magalys de LoyolaphotoMagalys de Loyola when she was in a government shelter in La Cruz de Guanacaste.
She couldn't do it. She was robbed. She returned to the camp.
"Well, I didn't have all the money on me, and my family in the U.S. would send me some cash from time to time," she said.
So, Ms. de Loyola and his companions decided to wait. Though the Costa Rica government had offered the immigrants a direct flight to Mexico, about 3,500 of them continued their journey with coyotes.
"That's because they got afraid" says Ms. de Loyola. "At the very beginning people were told that Guatemala and Honduras would open their borders for us. A week later that changed, and we were told about the trip to Mexico. Then that option took so long to start working that people started to run out of money."
"It's true we had mattresses or tents and the daily meals," she added. "But there are always other expenses such as medicine, cell phone charges and other stuff. Many of them panicked and ran away."
Ms. de Loyola, is quite sure she is going to have a fresh new start once she settles down in Florida. After all, she and her husband are both college graduates in economics. That should smooth things out a bit.
She can go back to the island after 24 months and no penalty would be applied to her. She says she is happy when she thinks about it.
But in spite of the future ahead, she is cautious. And she added her final two cents for other Cubans:
"Think about it thoroughly. If you don't have a reason don't do this. It's hard, dangerous and many have suffered a lot."
NOTE: This article first appeared in A.M. Cuba, another title of the A.M. Newspapers corporation.
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|San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 16, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 53
urge adaptation to protect coastal areas from sea-level
By the University of Georgia news staff
A new study by researchers could help protect more than 13 million American homes that will be threatened by rising sea levels by the end of the century.
It is the first major study to assess the risk from rising seas using year 2100 population forecasts for all 319 coastal counties in the continental U.S. Previous impact assessments use current population figures to assess long-term effects of coastal flooding.
The study is based on analyses by Mathew Hauer for his doctoral work with the University of Georgia, Deepak Mishra of the university's department of geography and Jason Evans, a former faculty member now with Stetson University. It was published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Based on year 2100 population forecasts, the authors report that a 6-foot sea level rise will expose more than 13 million people to flooding and other hazards from rising seas. Florida faces the most risk, where up to 6 million residents could be affected.
One million people each in California and Louisiana also could be impacted.
Some scientists believe worldwide sea levels could rise by 3 to 6 feet by 2100. Even with a 3-foot rise, population trends indicate that more than 4.2 million coastal residents in the continental U.S. would be at risk, according to Hauer.
"The impact projections are up to three times larger than current estimates, which significantly underestimate the effect of sea level rise in the United States," Hauer said. "In fact, there are 31 counties where more than 100,000 residents could be affected by 6 feet of sea level rise."
The data can help policymakers develop practical adaptation strategies for protecting land threatened by frequent and repeated inundation, according to Mishra.
research merges population forecasts with sea level rise.
It gives policymakers more detailed information to help
them assess how sea level rise will affect people and
infrastructure," he said.
By employing year 2100 population projections, the data also provide a more accurate measure of potential flooding risks in some of the nation's fastest-growing communities, Hauer said. For example, more than 25 percent of the people living in major urban centers like Miami and New Orleans could face coastal flooding by the end of the century if adaptive measures aren't taken.
"Adaptation strategies are costly, and these are areas of especially rapid population growth, so the longer we wait to implement adaptation measures the more expensive they become," Hauer said.
With a 6-foot rise in sea level, flooding could impact more than 80 percent of the people living in America's three most vulnerable communities: Monroe County, which is the site of the Florida Keys, and two lightly populated counties on the North Carolina coast, Hyde and Tyrrell.
More than 10 percent of the population in Georgia's coastal counties would be impacted by coastal flooding, said the researchers.
Outside of the Southeast, a 6-foot rise in sea level would put at risk more than 16 percent of the population in San Mateo County, California, just south of San Francisco, and over 10 percent of the population in Nassau County, New York, which is on Long Island just east of New York City.
Since the end of the last Ice Age, the sea level has risen about 120 meters. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration says that the oceans have risen 200 millimeters, about 8 inches from 1870 to 2000. More accurate measurements by spacecraft show that the oceans have risen 76.13 millimeters since 1993. That's about three inches.
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|San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 16, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 53
for Cuban trade and travel
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The White House announced changes Tuesday to travel and trade restrictions on Cuba, ahead of President Barack Obama's historic visit to the island nation next week.
The easing of restrictions marked the latest round of efforts to improve relations between the two countries since the formal restoration of diplomatic relations last year. The changes open up educational travel to Cuba for individual Americans, allow Cubans working in the United States to earn salaries and reduce trade and financial barriers to improve business ties between the two countries.
In a briefing call with reporters, Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser, said the easing is part of a continued effort to "adjust our policies to empower the Cuban people and improve their lives."
The changes, effective Wednesday, allow for Cuban nationals in non-immigrant status to receive salaries in the United States. U.S. companies also can sponsor Cuban nationals for work in the United States.
The new amendments increase opportunities for people-to-people exchanges, including allowing individual U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba and American support of educational projects in Cuba through grants and scholarships.
Robert Muse, a Washington, D.C.,-based lawyer who specializes in U.S. laws relating to Cuba, said the changes effectively mean there are no restrictions for Americans traveling to Cuba.
"Without saying so, the Obama administration has deregulated travel to Cuba," he said.
John Kavulich, a senior policy adviser at the U.S. Trade and Economic Council, said, "This change in travel was all driven by the airlines, because airlines need to fill seats if they have regularly scheduled service. They need individuals, not just groups."
The U.S. and Cuba are expected to resume scheduled commercial air flights later this year.
Tuesday's changes also included amendments relating to licensing of Cuban exports and cargo, and allowed for Cubans to open U.S. bank accounts from Cuba.
The administration's goal with the monetary policy change is to "re-create what the Cuban Revolution destroyed, a middle class in Cuba. By supporting small businesses, exporting directly to small businesses, that's all about resurrecting the middle class," Kavulich said.
Restrictions on direct U.S. investment in Cuba and Cuban imports to the United States remain in place because of the embargo with Cuba. Tourist travel to Cuba also remains prohibited. The amendments mark the fifth round of changes in Commerce and Treasury restrictions.
Earlier, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the new steps toward normalized relations with Cuba "build on the actions of the last 15 months as we continue to break down economic barriers, empower the Cuban people and advance their financial freedoms, and chart a new course in U.S.-Cuban relations."
Rhodes, in the briefing, said the administration welcomed efforts to engage with Congress on lifting the embargo fully or in part.
"At a certain point, the embargo is an impediment to the very engagement that has a chance of promoting a better life for the Cuban people," he said.
Outstanding U.S. property claims dating back to the early days of the Fidel Castro regime, as well as Cuba's reparation claims, remain a continuing obstacle in the relationship between the two countries.
Rhodes said the administration believed it could make significant progress in the dialogue regarding those claims.
"The resolution of those claims can also help open up space for American businesses to engage in greater commercial activity with Cuba, so there is some incentive for Cuba to resolve those issues," Rhodes said.
Russian whistleblower's wife
blames crime probes in death
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The widow of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian intelligence officer who was poisoned in London in 2006, says a recent British public inquiry
Owen, she said, did an incredible job.
"He not only investigated all the facts of Sasha's death," she said, using her husband's nickname, "he found a connection of this murder with the Russian state. The Russian state sponsored this crime."
Owen concluded there was a strong probability the two men whom the British authorities accused of poisoning Litvinenko with radioactive polonium-210 at a London hotel in November 2006, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, were acting under the direction of the federal security service, Russia's main security agency. Both men have denied involvement in Litvinenko's death.
The retired judge also concluded that Litvinenko's slaying was probably approved by then-security service head Nikolai Patrushev and President Vladimir Putin.
A veteran first of the KGB, the Soviet intelligence agency, and then the federal security service, Litvinenko began speaking out against high-level Russian governmental corruption. He also made a number of accusations against Putin. He later gained asylum in Britain with his family.
Mrs. Litvinenko said her husband's investigation of alleged ties between the Kremlin and the Russian mafia might have triggered the decision to kill him.
"Of course, what Sasha touched and what became his last drop when he was killed, is difficult to say," she said. "But it's obviously his ability to investigate the connection of the Kremlin to organized crime. It was very important."
London has called for both Lugovoi, who was elected in 2007 to the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, and Kovtun, a businessman, to be extradited, but Moscow has refused. Russia's constitution prohibits the extradition of citizens to stand trial abroad.
Native Americans expressing
concern over voting rights
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
When Americans go to the polls this November to elect the next U.S. president, Native American groups worry that many of their members will be turned away from the ballot box.
Native Americans won U.S. citizenship more than 90 years ago. Even so, many states denied them, as they did African Americans, the right to vote, subjecting them to poll taxes, literacy tests, harassment and intimidation.
In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act banning such discriminatory practices and giving the federal government the authority to monitor elections to ensure they are fair.
In 2013, however, the Supreme Court defeated a key provision in the Voting Rights Act. As a result, certain states with a history of racial discrimination are no longer required to get pre-clearance from the Federal government before they can make changes to election systems.
Soon afterwards, states began to change the rules. Some argued that they acted to prevent non-U.S. citizens from voting. But Native Americans and other minority groups complain the new policies discourage them from voting.
Kansas, for example, passed a law requiring voter registrants to provide proof-of-citizenship documents such as birth or naturalization certificates or passports. Voters have 90 days to produce the documents before the state will remove them from the rolls altogether.
Arizona, which is home to one of the largest Native American populations, in 2014 placed more than 500 registered Navajo voters on what it called a suspense list because they lacked proper street addresses. Indeed, as the Nation noted in 2012, Arizona's voter registration form includes a large box on which Navajo voters can draw the location of their home in order to determine their precinct.
North Dakota, where Native Americans represent about 5 percent of the population, requires voters to present identification cards bearing their current residential address. Because many Natives don't have ID cards or drivers licenses, they are disqualified from voting.
O.J. Semans, an Oglala Sioux, is co-executive director of Four Directions, a nonprofit that promotes Native voting rights across the country. Because his county is not organized, up until just a few years ago, he and other residents of the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota were forced to drive 60 miles to the next county to vote in elections.
"What you are looking at are individuals that have been consistently shown to be in the top 10 poorest counties in the whole United States," Semans said. "You are looking at unemployment of 70 to 80 percent. And you are looking at one house, five families, three houses, one car. Never mind paying for the gas to get to the next county."
South Dakota also allows registered voters to vote by mail, but Semans said even that is a hardship for Native Americans.
"If I wanted to vote absentee without going to the county office, I would write them a letter with an affidavit. I would have to find a notary to notarize my signature, saying that this was me," said Semans. "Then I'd have to go to the post office and mail it, and sometimes, believe it or not, 49 cents for a stamp is kind of hard for some folks to come up with."
Because many residents in Rosebud don't have mailing addresses, mail delivery is sporadic, and the mail-in ballot may never arrive. And even if it does, tribal members may have a difficult time filling it out.
"A lot of our elders still speak our traditional language, and they don't read or write that well," said Seman. "And if they do manage to fill out the ballot, then they have to go to the post office to mail it back to election authorities."
So Semans' and his colleagues negotiated with county commissioners, and ultimately convinced them to open up satellite voting offices on Rosebud and Pine Ridge Indian reservations.
It was a costly battle, he said, and in order to pay for it it, a local politician who consults with Four Directions sold off some of his cattle. Semans laughs uproariously at the memory.
"Fighting for the right to vote, we gotta send a white guy to sell his cows so we can get more money to keep going!" he said.
Despite many similar lawsuits across the U.S., states and counties continue to find creative ways to discourage Indians and other minorities from voting, said Laughlin McDonald, a lawyer with the American civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project who has argued many cases on behalf of Native Americans, most recently, Navajo Indians in San Juan County, Utah.
"Voting in that county was typically done in polling places on the Navajo reservation, but in 2014, the county shut down the polling places and adopted a system of mail-in voting," said McDonald. "It would have taken Native voters four, five, even six hours to drive to the county seat."
Furthermore, the Voting Rights Act requires San Juan County, among other localities, to provide assistance to Navajos and other minorities who aren't fluent in English.
"But in San Juan County, the mailing ballots are written only in English, and they don't provide any way to explain those ballots to Indian voters," said McDonald.
The county election commission refused requests to abolish the mail-in system, so the ACLU, the Navajo Human Rights Commission and eleven Navajo tribal members filed suit.
Meanwhile, in Washington, lawmakers have introduced two separate bills that would protect minorities from discriminatory election procedures, but both are stalled, to McDonald's dismay.
"Congress needs to act," said McDonald. "If you don't participate in the political process you are not only denied the benefits of government but you become the victims of government."
Voice of America photoVoters cast ballots in Chicago Tuesday.
Rubio becomes a victim
of latest super Tuesday vote
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican, has dropped out of the presidential race and Ohio Gov. John Kasich beat front-runner Donald Trump in the governor's home state on a day of major presidential primary elections Tuesday.
Republican Trump won Florida by a huge margin over second-place finisher Rubio, while Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Kasich were far behind. Trump also won the Illinois and North Carolina primaries and appeared to be winning late Tuesday in Missouri by a slight margin.
Florida is a winner-take-all state, meaning Trump will get all 99 delegates without having to split them with the runners-up.
After a humiliating loss in his home state, Rubio said he was grateful to everyone who supported him, adding that it was not part of God's plan that he become president in 2016, or maybe ever.
Ohio also is a winner-take-all state, and Kasich's win over Trump will keep the governor's campaign alive. He predicted he would be very competitive in the upcoming primaries, noting that there were still 1,000 delegates to be picked up.
In a dig at the often caustic Trump, Kasich said he would not take the low road to the highest office in the land.
But Trump did not appear to let his loss in Ohio faze him. He has a huge lead in the delegate count and said Tuesday night he is not going to stop until he wins for the country. In uncharacteristically mild comments, Trump said it is time to bring the Republican Party together.
Trump was locked in a close battle in the primary in the state of Missouri with Cruz, who also said this is the time for Republicans to unite. He said he welcomed to his campaign those who have supported Rubio and that "America has a clear choice going forward."
For the Democrats, Mrs. Clinton beat Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont by landslides in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio, taking most of the delegates in all three states. She also took Illinois. The race in Missouri also was close, but Mrs. Clinton seemed to edge out Sanders late Tuesday
Mrs. Clinton called the day another super Tuesday for her, congratulated Sanders for what she said was his vigorous campaign, and in remarks directed at Trump said deportation of immigrants and torture were wrong and would not make America strong.
Trump's election day got off to a good start when he captured all nine GOP convention delegates at stake from the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean.
In recent months, Trump has become known and some would say infamous for harsh comments and insulting remarks he's made toward Muslims, Mexicans, women and his political rivals.
They include calling Rubio "little Marco" and the socialist Sanders "our communist friend."
A Clinton supporter called Trump a "narcissist and a racist" who brings out the worst of Americans, while a Sanders voter called the senator the only candidate addressing what he said was the country's fundamental problems of the uneven distribution of wealth.
Argentina says coast guard
sunk Chinese fishing boat
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
The Argentine coast guard has sunk a Chinese trawler illegally fishing in its territorial waters, the coast guard said Tuesday.
The boat was detected Monday off Puerto Madryn, 1,300 kilometers south of Buenos Aires.
The trawler led the coast guard on a high-seas chase during which it "carried out maneuvers to collide with the coast guard patrol," the maritime authorities said.
The fishing boat's crew was rescued after the Argentine coast guard fired on the vessel Lu Yan Yuan Yu 010.
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|San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, March 16, 2016, Vol. 17, No. 53
|Avocado ban still is
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The Costa Rica ban on Mexican hass avocados does not find universal support here.
México has brought the situation to the attention of the World Trade Organization after the Servicio Fitosanitario del Estado forbade the importation of the fruit.
A representative of the Cámara de Industria y Comercio Costa Rica-México expressed unhappiness at the situation during a visit to the Comisión Permanente de Asuntos Agropecuarios Tuesday.
The representative, Yolanda Fernández, said that in the last 21 years while the two countries had a trade treaty, Costa Rica has never blocked a product.
The Servicio Fitosanitario del Estado has been criticized by those who see the import ban as more of a trade barrier that benefits Costa Rican growers.
The problem is avocado sunblotch which is caused by a viroid, a small piece of genetic material that can reduce production of the avocado trees.
As A.M. Costa Rica has reported, the viroid cannot be transmitted except through pollen or by physical contact to trees by diseased plant material. In the case of pollen, the viroids cannot be transmitted unless the infected avocado seed is propagated and the subsequent plant comes in contact with other trees.
Vaquita porpoise are on borrowed time
By the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration news staff
In the Gulf of California lives the most endangered marine mammal in the world. It's called the vaquita porpoise, and it has the bad luck of being caught in gillnets that fishermen set for other species. In other words, vaquita are bycatch, the unintended victims of fishing, and this has brought vaquita to the edge of extinction. To make matters worse, much of that fishing supplies an illegal trade in wildlife parts to China.
Scientists estimate that fewer than 100 vaquita remain, and the Mexican government, with technical assistance from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, is working to protect what's left of the species.
Barb Taylor is a conservation biologist with the agency's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, and she was the co-chief scientist on an expedition last summer to estimate how many vaquita remain. Dr. Taylor points out that, historically, several species of marine mammals have been rescued from similarly dire straits. But time is running out for vaquita.
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U.S. reverses decision on drilling in Atlantic
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
In a major policy reversal, the Obama administration is barring oil drilling off the U.S. Atlantic coast.
U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Tuesday the decision comes after listening to thousands of people from New England fishing villages to Florida beach resorts and the Pentagon which conducts military drills in the ocean.
Jewell said the decision protects the Atlantic for future generations.
"When you factor in conflicts with national defense, economic activities such as fishing and tourism and opposition from many local communities, it simply doesn't make sense to move forward with any lease sales in the coming five years."
The White House announced a plan last year that would have opened a large area of the Atlantic Ocean from Virginia to Georgia to oil and natural gas drilling 80 kilometers off shore.
Environmentalists are thrilled the administration is scrapping its plans.
The oil industry is not. The head of the American Petroleum Institute says the decision appeases extremists who want to stop U.S. oil and natural gas production.
Oil and gas drilling leases that will be available for sale starting in 2017 include 10 areas in the Gulf of Mexico and three sites off Alaska, but not portions of the state's Beaufort and Chukchi seas and Bristol Bay which Obama has already declared off-limits for environmental reasons.


text:
I know, too simple to make it a recipe… yet it's a great, quick, no bake, sweet treat, for all the family.
To make 12:
2 bars of chocolate
1 small packet of marsh mellows
Cornflakes (as many as the chocolate gooey mixture covers)
1 family sized bag of Mini eggs.
Cake cases, or a baking dish to make it tray bake style.
1.Bowl of chocolate in pieces, microwave for 30secs, stir, 15secs stir – keep an eye out for any burning… you have to be vigilant when melting chocolate.
2.Add cornflakes, as many as the chocolate will cover, mix together.
3.Then add marsh mellows, mix in.
4.Then microwave for 15secs and stir all together.
5.Fill bun cases, or baking dish, then add a mini egg or two on top and fridge.
Happy Easter, Enjoy, from all at Norfolks Hidden Gems

subset: commoncrawl


text:
A key subject in the Garden of Eden event is the wrongful aquisition of knowledge. God Himself intended on supplying mankind with knowledge, however, man rejected God as the source and chose to find out through trial and error experience. Man was then put out of the Garden of Eden and a Cherub with a flaming sword was set to guard the way back.
Man got what he chose. God has taken a position of "hands-off" for the last 6,000 years. During that time, man has developed his own types of governments, education, religions, and social orders.
We can only guess what knowledge we have missed out on , and what will be revealed once Christ returns to end this experiment of man and to set up the Kingdom of God on earth.
Some of the things we have discovered on our own has been: ELECTRICITY, RF energy transmissions, A "CIRCULAR" EARTH, MOUTH-TO-MOUTH ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION, LEADERS AND STREAMERS THAT PROCEED A LIGHTNING STRIKE, THE EXISTENCE OF GERMS, PLATE TECTONICS, etc.
Most of those discoveries have occured within the last 100 years! Had man been willing to receive instruction from God we may have had many of those things THOUSANDS of years ago! And, probably many other things we have never even dreamed of yet. Such as anti-gravity technology to power transportation without the need of costly highways such as we have today. Power to supply homes without the crazy maze of electrical lines and poles. We can only imagine.
However, there are several verses in the Bible that, had man paid attention to, would have pointed us in the right direction, hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Here are a few examples:
There exists an electrostatic field throughout the universe. Through it, man has learned that he can transmit signals. By modulating an intelligent signal through this pre-existing power, man can even communicate across the vaccuum of space.
Although the genius, Nikola Tesla , discovered the ability to transmit radio waves through this field, it is commonly credited to Marconi (about 100 years ago).
It is very easy to pass references to such things while reading through the Bible for two reasons: (1) People don't expect such things to be in such an ancient book as the Holy Bible; and (2) They think of the Bible only in preconceived "religious" terms never letting it enter their minds that it also is a very practical book!
But consider now the following verse:
EPHESIANS 2:2 --"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience"
All input into our brains, whether it comes in through the sense of smell, sight, hearing, tasting, or touching is immediately transformed into various electrical impulses. They are then routed to their respective parts of the brain where they cause us to smell, see, hear, taste, or feel. The prince of the power of the air (Satan) can deceive, tempt, discourage, and otherwise, influence people. As the Bible says, there is a POWER in the air; and Satan has (and is) used it millennia before Marconi!
Man once thought the earth was flat. It was said that if a ship travelled too far out into the ocean it would fall off the end of the world. As the ages went by, those who studied natural science began to doubt such a thing. As time went on, they began to believe it was not flat at all, but instead, if a ship sailed beyond the horizon far enough, it would make a huge circular trek back to where it started.
Ferdinand Magellan is credited with discovering that the earth truly is round. In the year 1519 he sailed from Seville, Spain to the foot of South America to reach the ocean he named the Pacific. He was killed in a battle in the Philippines, but his ships continued back to Spain in 1522, thus completing the first circumnavigation of the earth.
Travelling in one continuous direction, his path around the earth took a circular route.
Do you suppose he was inspired, and encouraged because of having first read the following scriptures:
ISAIAH 40:21-22--" Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
" It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:"
Back in the 1950's and 60's children were taught a variety of methods of artificial resusitation. Among them were the Back Pressure-Arm Lift method and the Holger-Neilson method. Students would practice on a dummy.
They were to lay the dummy face-down on the floor with its head turned to one side. The student would then kneel at the head of the dummy, placing his or her hands on its back. Keeping the arms stiffened, the student was to rock forward pushing the air out of the lungs.
Next, they were to grab the dummy by the arm pits and rock backward in an effort to pull air back into the lungs. Remember those days?
Then about 35 years ago along came the Mouth-To-Mouth method. It is so superior to all other methods that they have all been forgotten. And it just makes sense. Why not simply blow air directly into the lungs?
Many lives could have been saved had we been using the Mouth-to-Mouth method all those years.......for the other methods often failed.
Many professional people in the medical community read the medical journals to keep up on the latest developments in health care and emergency procedures.
It's a shame they hadn't consulted this example:
GENESIS 2:7 --"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
After discovering the existence of germs, man learned to isolate victims of certain diseases until they recovered in order to keep the unaffected from catching the same disease.
I remember having the measles back in the 1950's. A local health official came to our house and put a "Quarantined" sign on our door until the sickness had passed. People of ancient times may, or may not, have possessed the knowledge of microscopic life forms called germs.......but God did.
Look at His instruction of quarantine to the Israelites:
LEVITICUS 13:26 -- "All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be."
Objects such as wood, metal, etc. are considered to be opaque, not allowing light to pass through the. Hence, we cannot see through them.
translucent objects, such as stained glass, certain plastic, etc. allow light to pass through, however, they are not clear enough to see through.
Transparent objects, on the other hand, are clear. Light passes through them, and one can clearly seethrough them. Window glass is a good example.
I thought I had a good understanding of which objects were opaque, which were translucent, and which were transparent. It was the writer of the Book of Revelation whom I thought did not understand, for he referred to gold as being transparent!
"Gold is a metal. It is opaque," I thought.
I wondered how the apostle John could record such an unscientific, untrue statement.
Here's the scripture:
REVELATION 21:21 -- "And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass."
That scripture stayed unreconciled in my mind for years.
Then in 1983, while in my 30's, I lost my job of 13 years and decided to go back to school to get a degree in electronics.
Several weeks of study went by till we came to the place where we were studying the nature of various electrical conductors.
Gold headed the list. man had determined that gold was the best conductor offering the least resistance to the passage of current.
Several other metals were also discussed. The most prescious metals always seemed to be the better conductors. However, gold stood out by itself as having very unusual properties. But, the single property of mallability almost knocked me out of my seat.
That day I learned that gold is so Mallable that it can be rolled into sheets so thin that a person can actually SEE THROUGH IT!!!
Later that week I read an article in Popular Science magazine about a certain glass manufactured by PPG Industries call SolarBan 600. It is two layers of construction grade glass with a very, very, very thin layer of gold sandwiched in between them.
Using such construction material seems too expensive at first. However, because of its unique qualities, and affect on light and heat, heating and air conditioning costs are cut in HALF!
There is a building constructed of SolarBan 600 standing on the top of Green Tree Hill as you approach Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Interstate 79.
You cannot see into the building from the outside, however, you can see out of the building from the inside.
Later, I was to also learn that the visors of the astronaut's helmets are also constructed of gold!
I was wrong! John was right!
It is possible for streets to be made of gold, transparent as glass!
Back in the 1970's several magazines with a science format ran articles concerning the nature of a lightning strike. It had been discovered that a set of occurences preceed each strike.
As a storm passover head, a "shadow" of opposite electrical potential follows it on the ground. This shadow rides up church steeples, trees, buildings , etc.
As this occurs, invisible fingers of electrical potential reach down from the cloud as fingers of opposite potential reach up from the invisible shadow on the ground.
These fingers of potential are called "leaders" and "streamers." If they connect together, they set up a "way".......a path.......for a discharge of the tremendous difference of electrical potential that exists between the ground and the cloud.
This discharge is lightning. The "way" for this lightning to occur is preceeded by the opening of a path.
Job said it this way:
JOB 28:26 -- "When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:"
While in school, we were taught about the hydrological cycle. We were taught how water evaporated from the oceans, travelled over land as clouds, and was dropped over the land as rain, only to collect into streams and rivers that ran back into the sea to begin the process all over again.
Solomon knew that thousands of years ago. he put it very succinctly thus:
ECCLESIASTES 1:7 -- "All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again."
(How Wind Is Created)
I used to go squirrel hunting in my early years. One thing I often noticed was this: I would walk into the woods just before sun-up to pick a spot to sit under some big old Oak or Beech tree.
Fifteen or twenty minutes would go by before it would be light enough to start making out smaller objects.
Soon the sun would peep its burning head over the far eastern horizon casting an orange hue across the upper limbs of the largest trees.
The next 10 - 15 minutes would be the prime hunting time of the day. Every thing was in a dead calm, bathed in the glorious golden light of the sun.
Squirrels do not move about when it is windy. They cannot hear as well, and everything in the woods begins moving....branches, leaves, etc. On a windy day, they stay hidden.
But, even though it was an absolutely calm, autumn morning, I knew it wouldn't stay that way. As the sun rose higher in the sky, its direct light would bath my part of the world in light energy.
If the earth were merely a glass or metallic sphere, it would heat up evenly....everywhere.
However, since there are ponds, woods, roads, rivers, fields, etc scattered over the surface of the earth, it heats up unevenly.
The air expands faster in some areas than others. Pressure differences build. Air from high pressure areas begins to move toward areas of lower pressure, much like water running down hill.
Breezes are born!
Job knew the sun was responsible for the breezes:
JOB 38: 24 -- "By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?"
During the last couple of decades, scientists have developed the study of plate tetonics. They have learned that the outer surface of the earth is a shell, from 12 to 20 miles thick, floating upon a spherical sea of denser, molten rock.
This outer shell is cracked into different pieces called plates.
These plates are floating independent of each other, and as they scrape past each other, and ram into each other, volcanos and earthquakes accur.
In short, the surface of the earth is divided.... and it moves.
I know geologists, and archaeologists will not agree with what I'm about to say, however, I will still direct your attention to it.
First, consider this: Certain animals, such as the kangaroo, platypus, and others are found only in the area of Australia. If all present-day animals walked off the Ark after the flood, why hasn't a single kangaroo skeleton been found between Australia and Mesopotamia?
Furthermore, some animals, such as tortises and snails move so slooooow....they should STILL be crawling to the places where they are now found!!!
How did these animals get to where they are today?
Consider this possibility: The ark came to rest after the flood, and the animals were released. God influenced their subsequent generations to spread to respective parts of the single landmass super-continent that existed at that time. Later that land mass (the earth) was divided by stepped-up movement of plate tectonics, and when the continents were moved to their respective positions on the planetary surface......the various animal species were already on them........with thousands of miles of ocean in between.
Could such a thing actually have happened? You be the judge....let's look
The ancient Greeks believed all the land surface of the earth was once a great single land mass that they referred to as Pangaea.
Modern geologists belive it too, except they have a different name for it. They call it Gondwanaland. They believe that some time in the remote past this great super-continent broke apart and drifted to their respective places today. As proof, they often refer to how the African and European Continents seem to fit, like the pieces of a puzzle, into the continental contours of North and South America.
They probably are right.
Look closely at the following verses out of the Holy Bible:
GENESIS 1:9 -- "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so."
Notice God did not say let the dry "lands" appear, but the dry land! (also see Psalm 95:5)
PSALM 24:1-2 --"The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
" For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods."
Notice, He hath founded IT (singular)upon the seas.
But is there any place in the Bible that even remotely refers to any such thing as plate tectonics......the dividing and moving of this great super-continent? Here it is:
GENESIS 10:25 -- " And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan."
Many have assumed this was referring to the dividing of nations........the "world." But it isn't.
When the Bible speaks of the "world" it is referring to the society man has built upon this planet.
When it speaks of the "earth", it is referring to the planet itself!
This verse clearly says that about six generations after the Ark came to rest on Mt. Ararat, the EARTH was divided!
Mankind has developed some awesome machines. Giant bulldozers, front-end loaders, scrapers, Drag lines, etc. But we have not yet gained the ability to use them in conjunction with the forces of nature.
However, such a thing is in our future. Jesus is returning to replace every government of man with the Government of God..... the Kingdom of God on earth (Study Daniel 2 for example).
For a thousand years, He and the resurrected saints, will guide the greatest re-construction job ever to occur on earth. The land and seas will be re-shaped in preparation for the much bigger Second Resurrection and the period of time called the Great White Throne Judgment.
Here's mention of one piece of equipment He intends on giving to surviving man to accomplish that great project:
ISAIAH 41:14-16 -- " Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
" Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
" Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel."
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Well what about when the cat hates your singing and makes sure you know it? That's this guy's scenario. Though he doesn't make it any better by egging the cat on…
Thomas can't remember a time when his household didn't have a four-legged member of the family. When our Giant Schnauzer isn't digging around for rodents to play with, she's patiently waiting for food to drop to the floor or barking at the mailman. Thomas now swears by Schnauzers as being the best breed ever—they don't shed and they're the smartest and most entertaining dogs he's ever met. Plus the Giants make great wrestling partners.


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Please read the following conditions carefully.
1. We are a travel agent and in that capacity we offer for sale to you various products and/or services on behalf of our Principals viz. airlines, other transport operators, hotels and other accommodation providers, tour operators and all other principal suppliers. These are referred to throughout as "the Principal/s"
1. 1 Our services consist of arranging and co-ordinating the services offered by the Principals. We are instrumental in bringing about a direct contractual relationship between you, the customer, and the Principals. We undertake to perform our services with reasonable care and skill but we cannot and do not guarantee the performance of the functions offered by the Principals and we will not be liable in the event that you suffer loss, injury or disappointment by reason of any acts or failings of any Principal. In any such case your remedy will lie against the Principal.
1. 2 You should be aware that the brochures which we supply to you are the brochures of our Principals and that the statements and representations contained in such brochures are not ours but are made by the Principals. Unless we specifically advise you otherwise we have no first hand knowledge of the facilities or services referred to therein. We are merely passing on to you the Principal's instructions and we accept no liability for any inaccuracies or misrepresentations contained in such brochures.
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text:
RT @adactioJournal: Without delay adactio.com/journal/10084
When I wrote about mobile Safari adding support for
touch-action: manipulation, I finished with this snarky observation:
Anyway, I'm off to update my CSS even though this latest fix probably won't land in mobile Safari until, oh ….probably next October.
Historically, Apple have tied mobile Safari updates to iOS version number increments, and they happen about once a year. But this time, it looks like my snark was unfounded:
On Safari for iOS, the 350 ms wait time to detect a second tap has been removed to create a "fast-tap" response. This is enabled for pages that declare a viewport with either width=device-width or user-scalable=no. Authors can also opt in to fast-tap behavior on specific elements by using the CSS touch-action property, using the manipulation value.
That's from the release notes for Safari 9.1—a point release.
I'm very pleased to have been absolutely wrong with my prediction of Apple's timing.
RT @adactioJournal: Without delay adactio.com/journal/10084
Mobile Safari removes 350ms touch delay. When it comes to performance, this matters a lot. adactio.com/journal/10084
"Without delay" < looks like a lot of interesting stuff is arriving in Safari 9.1 adactio.com/journal/10084
I'm eating my words here too. Happily. twitter.com/adactioJournal…


text:
Wong Fei Hung is a Chinese folk hero widely recognized in pop culture because of Tsui Hark's Once Upon A Time franchise starring Jet Li. It has become a film synonymous to the martial arts genre and an icon in HK cinema that even the first few beats of the theme song can ignite serious bouts of nostalgia.
A drama version 国士无双黄飞鸿 is currently filming in Hengdian World Studios and it will star Ryan Zheng and Haden Kuo. I have never heard of either of them before so I'll simply judge the book by its cover to say that at the very least, they seem to have it down in the looks department.
Ryan Zheng stars in the titular role of Wong Fei Hung who starts out a simple man with simple ideals. Adhering to his father's teachings, he vows to protect the people that he cares about and soon realizes that his passion extends to the people of China.
Taiwanese-American Haden Kuo stars as Thirteenth Aunt and her Eurasian look resembles that of Rosamund Kwan from the earlier Jet Li films. Thirteenth Aunt is investigating her father's death yet she becomes conflicted when all clues lead back to Wong Fei Hung. But come on, he can't possibly be the culprit.
Wu Li Peng who shot to fame as the Third Prince from Legend of Zhen Huan is also cast as Bucktooth So, making for a very dapper bucktooth.
Wong Fei Hung is a bold attempt to adapt a classic film and sorry for being Debbie Downer but I just hope it doesn't suck. Expected release date is in 2017.
For synopsis, cast and ratings, see 2016 popular c-dramas.


text:
Service provider: The service provider provide the service and implements the service. It make the service available on the internet.
Service requestor: This is any consumer of the web service. The requestor utilizes an existing web service by opening a network connection and sending an XML request.
Service registry: Centralized directory of services. It is logically registry provides a central place. At that place developers published new services and find existing services.
Service transport: Service transport is responsible for transporting messages between applications. Its includes hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), file transfer protocol (FTP). Its include something newer protocol named Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP).
XML messaging:
Service description: Responsible for describing the public interface to a specific web service. Currently, service description is handled via the Web Service Description Language (WSDL).
Service discovery: Responsible for centralizing services into a common registry. Its provide easy publish and find functionality for the developer. Currently, service discovery is handled via Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI).


text:
|First Contact
"So then what?" Angela asked. "Two years of hiding?"
"Pretty much," he replied. "I wanted to contact you, really, but I just didn't want to drag you into my mess."
"Until now, you mean," she said.
"Yeah, well, when Miss Judgement showed up on my doorstep, I kind of panicked," he said.
"How did she find you?" Angela asked.
"I don't know," he replied. "She's been popping up all over town for the past couple weeks, searching for us. We've just been trying to stay out of sight until she gives up and goes home."
"So that part of your story was true, at least," Angela said.
Kay chuckled.
"Yeah, basically," he said. "Now you see why calling the cops isn't an option."
"And if she doesn't give up?" Angela asked.
"I've got a guy working on some fake passports," Kay replied. "Worst comes to worse… we'll hop a ferry to Seattle and get as far away from here as possible."
"You'd really leave the country?" Angela asked.
"It beats the alternative," Kay replied. "One of our crew, Martin, has already been arrested. Could be looking at twenty years. I'd rather not risk the same."
"Fair enough," Angela said, then a thought occurred to her. "What if you, like, talk to Miss Judgement? Convince her to leave you alone?"
Kay scoffed and said, "How do you suppose I'd manage that?"
Angela spoke the alien word and shrank to normal size.
"You've seen her true form," Angela said. "Use that against her."
"Are you suggesting I blackmail a superhero?" he asked.
"Do you have a better idea?" she replied.
"Not really," he said, "but in any case, a face isn't much good without a name."
An image floated through the back of Angela's mind; two children, very young, very vulnerable. She felt an intense desire to protect them.


text:
bout 20 million Americans are living with asthma and about 5000 die from it every year.
Now a new treatment for people with severe forms of the disease could save lives.
Most asthmatics take a variety of medications and now researchers are hoping a new procedure, called bronchial thermoplasty, will help patients get rid of some of their meds and live healthier lives.
"This is the first ever, non pharmacological approach. By non-pharmacological, I mean no medicines are involved," explains Dr. Ali I. Musani, University of Pennsylvania
In bronchial thermoplasty, doctors insert a tube in the lungs through the nose or mouth.
It releases a wire basket, which delivers a burst of heat, destroying the smooth muscle responsible for the attacks.


text:
The Short Track Speed Skating Competition to qualify the number of skaters each country may enter at the
2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.
The rink is the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, which will be the same rink for the Olympics.
All photos by
Jerry Search,
Copyright 2001, All Rights Reserved.
Note: These pictures, are digital: No flash, no negatives, and no prints!
You are welcome to download and use these photos for your personal use, your own screensavers, personal or
club websites, school projects, etc. More information is available on the
Copyright Page
There are a
of photos on these pages. My intention is bring more awareness to the world about Short Track Speed Skating, and at the same time show these skaters
(and their friends and families) nice photos of themselves racing.
Please remember that these photos may be used free
for non-commercial purposes only


text:
Elective courses in Family Medicine are offered for credit only to senior medical students. These clinical options involve various aspects of primary care: family medicine sub-internship, outpatient clinics or a special aspect of family medicine, preventive medicine, clinical and laboratory aspects of infectious disease and epidemiology, and research opportunities in primary care, family medicine, and preventive medicine. Seniors may also include in their elective program listed courses from the new curriculum of the Master of Public Health Program on subject areas such as management, public policy, health resource allocation, health planning, and environmental health. Directed study elective courses may also be undertaken. The proposal must be cleared with the Department as it is dependent on preceptor availability. Graded as Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory.
Students spend two weeks on the inpatient service and two weeks in the outpatient family medicine residency clinic. During the inpatient phase, students work one night of call per week, with one of them being a weekend call. The medical students are responsible for attending and participating in morning report, including making presentations, when appropriate. Students are expected to attend weekly didactic sessions and to give one presentation at didactics during the rotation. During the outpatient phase, students will provide care to patients being seen in the ambulatory clinic. They will attend conferences before and after each clinic session. Students must be able to provide their own transportation. Students work with faculty attendings and residents as members of the medical care teams during the four week rotations. They are expected to improve their proficiency in caring for patients who present with the most common outpatient and inpatient diagnoses. They will provide care throughout the full spectrum of family medicine.
Students are expected to function at the level of sub-interns. They should evaluate the patient using history taking and physical exam skills, synthesize the information, present the case to the resident and/or attending including an assessment, differential diagnosis, treatment plan and follow-up care needed. Students will have opportunities to rotate through procedure clinics. Students are encouraged and expected to be assertive in their quest for learning. Students will be expected to see and participate in the care of patients with acute and chronic health issues. Continuity of care is stressed in the outpatient clinics. Students are also involved in the care of inpatients and obstetric patients.
Students who are considering applying to this residency program are given precedence in being assigned to this elective from August to February. Grading is pass-fail.


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Jelly-like wafers suitable for bitter powders such as antibiotics. Please use this for bitter powder.
"Your medicine drink was I chocolate flavor 100g" is firmly guard the taste and smell of medicine, is a jelly-like wafers. Can firmly masking the taste and smell of the drug, it can take more than one drug at a time. Choking or without or servant, you swallow comfortably. Bitter powdered medicine is optimal to weak children, chocolate flavor.
Please use Karame the drug put this product in a large spoon. Put this product into a container such as a cup, there is also a way to scoop with a spoon and put the drug.
Erythritol reduced maltose syrup cocoa powder agar gelling agent (thickening polysaccharides) sucrose fatty acid ester perfume sweetener (stevia)
(Per 100g) energy 61kcal Protein 0.3g Lipid 0.2g Carbohydrate 0g carbohydrate 14.5g sodium 20mg
● Because this product is intended to take the aid of a drug, please to compensate for the water, if necessary. In order to generally drug is absorbed into the body, it has moisture in the full glass of been needed. ● The constitution and physical condition of the person who is drinking, that it may your stomach loose, please pay attention to drinking too much. ● or changed color and mix with your medicine such as antibiotics, it might bitterness increases (in which case, we recommend the chocolate flavor (100g)). ● Due to the nature of the jelly, it will come out some of the moisture. After opening, please use the Discard the first to come out moisture. ● after opening was sealed in the clean cap and plug opening, on top of the store in the refrigerator, please use within one week.
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As a kid, you probably remember having slumber parties where everyone gave each other a makeover using your mom's makeup. It was a really great time and made you feel like a grown up, but probably resulted in a lot of horrifying-looking little girls.
But that's ok, because it was just a fun activity that you did on a special occasion. It's not like you left the house with mascara and foundation and lipstick plastered over your face when you were three years old.
Unfortunately though, it seems that is what the world is coming to these days. The makeup company Luna Star has come out with a new line of products called Luna Star Naturals. It's a healthy set of makeup that is made using clean, natural ingredients without extra chemicals. Sounds great, right? Oh, I forgot to mention, it's marketed towards girls ages three to 10.
The mineral-based line features several different themed kits for children to take advantage of. The kits have age-appropriate names, such as Princess Fairy or Ballet Star, so it's not as though the company is trying to make the children lose their innocence. In fact, the kits are even dubbed to be "play make up kits," suggesting that the company does not intend for children to wear the makeup seriously.
However, the fact still remains – Luna Star has started a makeup line specifically for kids. It's a sign that the standards of our culture are changing, and not for the better.
Giving young girls the idea that makeup is an essential part of their lifestyle will only lead to a myriad of self esteem and image issues. They will feel, as they grow older, that they need to wear makeup all the time in order to fit in and be considered beautiful.
When children are young, they should be worried about other things, like playing soccer or doing homework or having a pretend tea party. Makeup and the way they look should not be their first priority. Obviously, girls will have to deal with these self image issues eventually, but that should be reserved for later in life. It makes no sense to put a girl's childhood at risk simply because society demands it. Sure, it's fun to play around with, but when it becomes something that a girl thinks she needs to wear, then it is a problem.
The lesson we should be teaching kids is that beauty is more than skin deep. What we should not be teaching them is the correct way to apply eyeliner.
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While the upstart Magnus Carlsen looks a phenomenal talent, in the world of chess few would dispute that the achievements of Garry Kasparov are second to none. In spite of Kasparov's many great achievements he is perhaps unfairly best remembered as being the first world champion to lose a match against a computer - IBM's Deep Blue in 1997. The news kicked up a media firestorm that challenged the superiority of the human mind over computers, leading to many asking the question - would the game of chess be solved as the lesser game checkers had been several years before? While such propositions are best left to the theorists, it is two lesser known games that Kasparov played against human opponents that are most instructive for the average investor. The question we are seeking to answer is whether 'lesser' investors can beat 'master' investors, solely by cultivating a better process.
Enter the cyborg…
In an article in the New York Review of Books Kasparov explained that having lost to Deep Blue in 1997 he became fascinated with 'Moravec's Paradox' or the fact that what computers are good at, humans are weak at and vice versa. Computers are excellent at calculation and computation, but humans have far higher levels of strategic intuition, sacrificial awareness and pattern recognition. What if instead of pitting one against the other, the man and machine played in tandem - could it create the highest level of chess ever played?
In 1998 he and another Grandmaster Veselin Topalov played a match in this way armed with laptops loaded with software. While a month earlier Kasparov had beaten Topalov 4-0, in this instance the match ended a 3-3 draw. When both were armed with machines, Topalov had managed to draw level in skill with the usually superior Kasparov.
While such a result raised a few eyebrows, jaws didn't drop until 2005 when Playchess.com took the 'Advanced Chess' idea even further by setting up a big prize-money tournament for all comers - grandmasters, amateurs, algorithms or any hybrid of each. The early rounds predictably showed the technologically enhanced grandmasters destroying all comers, but in the final rounds an astonishing result bore out, the tournament was won by a pair of amateur American chess players. As Kasparov noted:
"Their skill at manipulating and coaching their computers to look very deeply into positions effectively counteracted the superior chess understanding of their grandmaster opponents".
The crowd nearly 'krushes' the master…
At the same time as the computational power of computers was wowing the chess world, the capacity of the internet was bringing previously diffuse networks of people closer together with extraordinary results. Still nursing wounds from his defeat by the brute force of Deep Blue he agreed to take part in a chess match (this time sponsored by Microsoft) against 'The World'. The idea was to allow one move every 24 hours with each move played by The World to be decided by a free for all internet vote. More than 50,000 people voted on moves throughout the game leading to an extremely hard fought battle that flummoxed Kasparov until he eventually prevailed as victor some 62 moves later. As explained in a tremendous article by Michael Nielsen Kasparov was apparently so stunned by the level of the chess played that he wrote an entire book about it admitting he'd spent more energy on it than any other game in his career.
How had 'The World' managed to achieve this feat? The average participant was magnitudes poorer in ability and their strategy and tactics were completely public on internet forums. Kasparov himself had apparently reviewed them extensively throughout the match - how could he have struggled so much?
There had been four teenage masters co-ordinating the efforts of the World Team who made public recommendations on each move, but according to Nielsen the critical individual was the 15 year old US Women's champion Irina Krush.
'Shrugging off flames and personal insults, she worked to extract the best ideas and analysis from the forum as well as building up a network of strong chess-playing correspondents'.
The quality of Krush's networked contributions were so high that every move played by the World Team between moves 10 and 50 were recommended by her. Kasparov described Krush's move 10 as 'an important contribution to chess' and the level of the resulting play reinforces the idea that the opinion of the crowd, well coordinated by a central well networked facilitator can solve problems way beyond those of the individuals alone.
The above examples both serve to illustrate how amateurs in any game can raise their playing level to that of the greatest players and beyond by fusing the capabilities of modern technology with an effective process. Kasparov wrote that:
"Weak human+machine+better process [is] superior to a strong computer alone and, more remarkably, superior to a strong human + machine + inferior process".
Process is power…
For Kasparov substitute the stock market as a whole. The market is a very worthy almost all knowing opponent that even the majority of fund managers struggle to beat. Many professional investors go about beating the market by gathering more and more knowledge and analysing stocks more and more deeply, but if there's one lesson to take from the progress of the lesser chess players above, it is that knowledge isn't necessarily power - ****process**** is power. Rather than focusing on being a better analyst, it may be more profitable to focus on creating a better process using increasingly available computational and social inputs.
These ideas clearly are a perfect fit for investment but they may not be developed enough in the public sphere for individual investors to benefit. While the wisdom of the crowd is evident in the ability of individuals to read bulletin boards, the nature of forums leaves a lot to be desired. As opposed to the structured consensus decision making evidenced in the Krush-Kasparov match above, investors using forums often individually herd into similar high risk names with poor aggregate results. Likewise the use of checklists, algorithms and quantitative approaches by individual investors is a niche practice rather than a common one.
We are attempting to make our own contributions to these fields with some of the quantitative tools developed for our subscribers at Stockopedia but the bar could be pushed so much further given the progress of development on the web. Meanwhile, in spite of some commendable attempts, crowd enhanced decision making tends to still only happen effectively in small investment clubs or offline teams rather than in investment products available to the wider public.
These are some of the things I'd like to see solved in coming years. We are always thinking about these ideas, so if you have any thoughts to add to the debate, let me know in the comments below.
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