text:
WWII Doolittle Raiders make final toast
Published 12:00 am Sunday, November 10, 2013
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — The last of the Doolittle Raiders, all in their 90s, offered a final toast Saturday to their fallen comrades, as they pondered their place in history after a day of fanfare about their 1942 attack on Japan.
"May they rest in peace," Lt. Col. Richard Cole, 98, said before the three Raiders present sipped an 1896 cognac from specially engraved silver goblets. The cognac was saved for the occasion after being passed down from their late commander, Lt. Gen. James "Jimmy" Doolittle, who was born in 1896.
In a ceremony Saturday evening at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio, hundreds of people including family members of deceased Raiders watched as the three Raiders each called out "here" as a historian read the names of all 80 of the original airmen.
A B-25 bomber flyover helped cap an afternoon memorial tribute in which a wreath was placed at the Doolittle Raider monument outside the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton. Museum officials estimated some 10,000 people turned out for Veterans Day weekend events honoring the 1942 mission credited with rallying American morale and throwing the Japanese off balance.
Acting Air Force Secretary Eric Fanning said America was at a low point, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other Axis successes, before "these 80 men who showed the nation that we were nowhere near defeat." He noted that all volunteered for a mission with high risks throughout, from the launch of B-25 bombers from a carrier at sea, the attack on Tokyo, and lack of fuel to reach safe bases.
Only four of the 80 are still alive. The Raiders said, at the time, they didn't realize their mission would be considered an important event in turning the war's tide. It inflicted little major damage physically, but changed Japanese strategy while firing up Americans.
"It was what you do … over time, we've been told what effect our raid had on the war and the morale of the people," Lt. Col. Edward Saylor, 93, said in an interview.
The Brusset, Mont. native, who now lives in Puyallup, Wash., said he was one of the lucky ones.
"There were a whole bunch of guys in World War II; a lot of people didn't come back," he said.
Staff Sgt. David Thatcher, 92, of Missoula, Mont., said during the war, the raid seemed like "one of many bombing missions." The most harrowing part for him was the crash-landing of his plane, depicted in the movie "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo."
Three crew members died as Raiders bailed out or crash-landed their planes in China, but most were helped to safety by Chinese villagers and soldiers.
Three of the four surviving Raiders were greeted by flag-waving well-wishers ranging from small children to fellow war veterans. The fourth couldn't travel because of health problems.
Twelve-year-old Joseph John Castellano's grandparents brought him from their Dayton home for Saturday's events.
"This was Tokyo. The odds of their survival were 1 in a million," the boy said. "I just felt like I owe them a few short hours of the thousands of hours I will be on Earth."
More than 600 people, including Raiders widows and children, descendants of Chinese villagers who helped them, and Pearl Harbor survivors, were expected for the invitation-only ceremony Saturday evening.
After Thomas Griffin of Cincinnati died in February at age 96, the survivors decided at the 71st anniversary reunion in April in Fort Walton, Beach, Fla., that it would be their last and that they would gather this autumn for one last toast together instead of waiting, as had been the original plan, for the last two survivors to make the toast.
"We didn't want to get a city all excited and plan and get everything set up for a reunion, and end up with no people because of our age," explained Lt. Col. Richard Cole, the oldest survivor at 98. The Dayton native, who was Doolittle's co-pilot, lives in Comfort, Texas.
Lt. Col. Robert Hite, 93, couldn't come. Son Wallace Hite said his father, wearing a Raiders blazer and other traditional garb for their reunions, made his own salute to the fallen with a silver goblet of wine at home in Nashville, Tenn., earlier in the week.
Hite is the last survivor of eight Raiders who were captured by Japanese soldiers. Three were executed; another died in captivity.
The 80 silver goblets in the ceremony were presented to the Raiders in 1959 by the city of Tucson, Ariz.
The Raiders' names are engraved twice, the second upside-down.
During the ceremony, white-gloved cadets pour cognac into the participants' goblets.
Those of the deceased are turned upside-down.


text:
Statement on the relation between standards and patents at WIPO SCP/15
Standing Committee on the Law of Patents: Fifteenth Session, Geneva, October 11, 2010 to October 15, 2010.
Summary: Software standards must be implementable in any software or business model, including those based on Free Software. When patents are included in software standards, they need to be licensed in a manner that doesn't restrict their implementation in any way. Besides the absence of any other restriction, that means royalty-free licensing to any party implementing the standard.
Intervention by Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)
Thank you, Chair, for the opportunity afforded to the Free Software Foundation Europe to speak on the very important topic of standards and patents. We would like to congratulate you on your skill in guiding this meeting in a productive and inclusive fashion.
Document SCP/13/2 provides a good starting point and correctly identifies the central role of standards in enabling economies of scale and competition on a level playing field. We would like to limit our comments to the area of software standards.
In November 2008, Mr Karsten Meinhold, chairman of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute IPR Special Committee highlighted that "IPRs and Standards serve different purposes: IPRs are destined for private exclusive use, Standards are intended for public, collective use".
Before commenting on the document in detail, I would like to highlight very briefly why the topic deserves close scrutiny despite its highly technical nature.
According to the OECD, SMEs make up between 90 and 98 percent of companies in most economies. This reflects the situation in the software industry. In developing countries and countries in transition, the SME share of the economy tends to be even more pronounced.
Barriers to entry into the software business are quite low. Many of today's software giants had their start in garages. The could grow rapidly because they were not hampered by their bigger rival's patents, and often because they were able to implement existing Open Standards in innovative ways. Free Software, also known as open source, lowers those barriers to entry even further.
According to the consultancy Gartner, 100% of companies today use at least some Free Software in their systems. The Linux Foundation projects that in 2011, Free Software will underpin a 50 billion dollar economy.
Free Software also holds a unique opportunity for developing nations and countries in transition. When they import non-free software, they become dependent on the company that provided it to them. In contrast, when they use Free Software, they foster the growth of local companies. This helps to create a local knowledge base of technologically skilled experts, who go on to add value for the national economy.
This is an extremely condensed summary of the economic perspective on Free Software. It constitutes a necessary background to the debate on standards and patents which we are having here today.
Standards always imply wide public access, an openness in both the process of creating the standard as well as access to the standard. It is therefore important to realise that an Open Standard would necessarily have to meet higher standards of openness than those provided by article 41 of document SCP/13/2.
It is furthermore important to add that "de facto standards" are typically not standards, but vendor-specific proprietary formats that were strong enough to impose themselves on the market. It is for this imposition on the market that "de facto standards" are commonly used to describe monopolistic situations and corresponding absence of competition, which conflict with the basic purpose and function of standards.
This holds true in particular for the so-called RAND or FRAND approach. RAND stands for "Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory". In truth, this model discriminates against Free Software. It requires anyone who distributes a program that implements the standard to pay a roylaties to the patent holder. In contrast, Free Software licenses do not allow for attaching royalty requirements when distributing a program.
It follows that patents included in software standards need to be licensed royalty-free. Any licensing model which requires running royalties to be paid is impossible to implement in Free Software.
Some argue that the inclusion of standards in patents on RAND terms is a necessary incentive for companies to innovate. Free Software Foundation Europe begs to differ. We join the Development Agenda Group in highlighting that the monopoly power conferred by a patent is exponentially increased when the patent is included in a standard.
If a company has been awarded a patent, it has already received a strong incentive to innovate, in the form of a 20-year monopoly on the use of the invention, to the exclusion of all others. Why should society incur a further, even more substantial cost by handing this patent holder a means to effectively control competition in the marketplace, by letting it control the price of a patent license?
Today's software market is already rife with monopolies and dominant companies in several domains. It should be the goal of norm-setting efforts to reduce the obstacles to competition in the software market, rather than increasing them.
FSFE believes that it would be most useful for the SCP to analyse the various approaches on the grounds of their inclusiveness of the entire IT industry and all innovators, and identify the minimum requirements that are necessary to uphold standards as drivers of competition, innovation and economies of scale.
We also recommend that in its deliberations, this committee should be careful to distinguish between different areas for standardisation, as the requirements in each area are quite diverse.
At the beginning of the process to create a standard, standard-setting organisations should require disclosure of patents that are necessary to implement the standard, along with their licensing terms.
Standard-setting organisations should require that patents deemed essential to implement standardised software technologies should be made available royalty-free, in order to permit their implementation in Free Software (also known as open source), including software distributed under the GNU General Public License.
In particular, we recommend that member states push for a mandate for the SCP to create a cluster of experts to examine possible best practices or global norms with respect to certain issues regarding patents that are necessary to implement standardised technologies (so-called "essential patents"), including possible best practices or norms.
See also
- Georg C. F. Greve, Analysis on balance: Standardisation and Patents, fsfe.org
- FSFE's work on Open Standards

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Jun 14
How IT Solutions of Medical Practice Can Help Streamline Your Business
Guest post by Saqib Ayaz, co-founder, Workflow Optimization.
IT solutions are intended to making businesses more efficiently run and developed. In terms of medical practice, the business extends way beyond tending to patients only. Factors such as keeping both medical and billing record of patients, scheduling appointments that do not clash with each other, adhering to medical laws and regulations, and maintaining cross communication with patients as well as the support staff are central to smooth running of the medical practice.
The streamlining of these central factors among others constitutes "medical practice management" that is fueled and run consistently with the application of IT Solutions. These mainly include the usage of relevant software to help keep up with the daily operations; be it the medical activities or the administrative and support activities.
Some of the ways information technology solutions can help streamline your medical practice have been discussed in detail below.
Record Keeping
Higher the number of patients a medical practice tends to see, the trickier it is to keep up with the specific information and follow up instructions for them. IT solutions help manage the plethora of information ranging from medical record numbers to past medical prescriptions, medical tests history and health graph of specific patients. Employment of software such as the electronic health record help streamline these jobs, thereby making it easier to access detailed data regarding each patient.
Same goes for billing records. The best part about such software is their ability to converge different aspects of information about a patient at a single point, accessible through the patient's medical record number prescribed by the practice.


text:
About the National Space Club & Foundation
The National Space Club and Foundation is a non-profit organization devoted to fostering excellence in space activity through interaction between industry and government, and through a continuing program of educational support. Awards are offered to recognize significant achievements in space science and enterprise. Scholarships and other education support are a major focus of Club activity.
Contact Us
The National Space Club and Foundation welcomes your questions and comments, including any comments or corrections to information on this website.
(202) 547-0060


text:
Mod APK Features:
- Full Version.
- Donated.
- Updating...
- No ads.
- Unlock Pro.
- Unlock Premium.
- Unlock VIP.
- Unlocked features.
- Paid.
- Fixed.
- Delete Logo.
Is this for real? A real volleyball game developed by real high school students!
The Spike returns with a new design.
Play the new remastered version now!
You'll be surprised.
(Warning) The game may be somewhat difficult.
A little practice and you'll get the hang of it in no time.
■ Community( Discord )
Game Introduction
A game developed by volleyball-loving high school students!!!!
Arcade style retro graphics!!!!
Try serving a spike before saying anything.
Game Characteristics
■ A volleyball game developed by a high school indie development team!
- Expect huge and frequent updates!
■ A game where the developers kept communicating with players!
- This game was able to make a comeback, thanks to the support of so many!
■ Let your stress melt away with the beautiful sound of a spike!
- No more stress from school and work!
■ The hyperactive sounds will make it feel like a workout!
- The sounds of shoes screeching on the floor give the feel of intense exercise!
■ A game that showcases the future of indie games in Korea!
- This is how advanced high school students are!
Created by volleyball lovers, "The Spike: Remastered"
Create your player and progress through the story!
In volleyball, the middle hitter may be quite important, but the skills of the setter are what dominate the game!
Your precious ratings and reviews greatly encourage the developers :)
■ Access Guide
[Required Access]
- Storage: Used to store data on the SD card in case the device runs low on memory.


text:
The seventh annual expedition of the Jewish Galicia and Bukovina Organization set out on August 2nd, 2015. The 15 members of the expedition – students and graduate of hesder yeshivas, students from the Catholic University of Lviv and staff members from Israel and St. Petersburg guided by Dr. Boris Khaimovich (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)– spent two weeks working in the Jewish cemetery in Kuty, a town situated on the border between Galicia and Bukovina. Kuty was a relatively small town, numbering a general population of about 6,740 at its peak, around 1910. About half of this number were Jews. However, the community of Kuty earned a reputation far beyond its modest size due to famous personages who originated from there. The best known of these was the rabbi of the city and a famous kabbalist, R. Moshe ben Menachem Mendel Kitever, who headed a group of kabbalists during the first half of the 18th century. No less famous was the name of his most notable student, R. Abraham Gershon of Kuty, a kabbalist and scholar and the brother-in-law of the Ba'al Shem Tov. According to Hassidic tradition, the Ba'al Shem Tov spent the years of his "hiding" close to Kuty as well, where he supported himself by digging up and selling clay.
The Jewish community of the town began to develop at the beginning of the 18th century, when Kuty received city privileges, leading to its settling by Armenian and Jewish merchants and tradesmen. The Jewish cemetery was consecrated at this time, and the building of the central synagogue begun.
The Jews of Kuty made their living through trade, tannery, carriage making and different crafts. Toward the end of the 19th century the Jewish population of Kuty also included industrialists and owners of flour-mills. A small number of Jews occupied administrative posts in governmental and municipal institutions.
Most of the Jews in Kuty lived in the center of the town, near the market square and west of it, where the central synagogue and two smaller prayer houses were situated. The city also included study halls and Hassidic kloizes, of the Vizhnitz, Kosów and Czortków Hassidic strands.
During the First World War the city suffered greatly: Following the invasion of the Russian army and the passing of control between Ukranian, Romanian and Polish hands, many of the citizens of Kuty left the city and its population declined. The Polish rule between the two world wars brought a period of calm and development: the city was connected to the railway system and became a popular vacation destination. Many Jewish institutions operated in the city: a supplementary Hebrew school, a girls' Beit Ya'akov school, a tradesmen's guild, a branch of Wizo, a sporting association and public libraries. Lively political activity also took place in the Jewish neighborhoods.
In September of 1939 Kuty was annexed to the Soviet Union, but with the outbreak of war between Russian and Nazi Germany the city was captured by Romanian and Hungarian army forces. In September of 1941 the city came under direct German control and the Jewish population began being heavily persecuted. In a Nazi roundup on 10.4.1942 about 950 Kuty Jews were murdered. These victims were buried in the Jewish cemetery in the city. The Jewish community of Kuty was completely wiped out when, on 7.9.1942, all of the Jews were ordered to move to the ghetto of Kołomyja, from whence they were sent to the Belzec extermination camp.
It is difficult, nowadays, to find traces in Kuty of the well-developed Jewish community which existed there for over 200 years. The old Jewish cemetery, however, still stands. Parts of it were destroyed and some of the headstones were used for the construction of a Lenin monument in the city and for other construction purposes, but it still offers a most important testimony to the lives of the Jews of Galicia during the 18th-20th centuries.
The members of the expedition discovered, documented and photographed around 2,100 tombstones – all of the tombstones which were available without extensive digging on the grounds of the cemetery. Many tombstones, including some very important ones on the historical or artistic level, were in very bad shape, due either to natural causes or to human intervention. Some of them had been broken or had sunk into the earth, some were in advanced stages of decay. However, the majority of the tombstones (including R. Moses ben Menachem Mendel's) survived. The artistic variegation of these tombstones, the many folkloristic and heraldic elements and the impressive quality of stone carving on many of them make the Jewish cemetery of Kuty a heritage site of the first importance.
Photographs of all of the headstones and inscriptions deciphered and transcribed by the members of the delegation is available on the JGB Organization's website.


text:
A bit of a diversion from the usual posting faire, I had the privilege of catching the Syracuse stop of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist's Renegades of Rhythm tour from the other side of the security gate (for the first 10 minutes, anyway, then a bunch from the back). 80% performance and 20% history lesson, the set featured selections from Afrika Bambaataa's own vinyl collection (current in the process of digitization at Cornell Library, where hip hop's Amen Ra currently graces the campus as a Visiting Scholar).
The extra-special access provided through arrangement between the performers and Gregory Allis of, among other things, Live High Five. From Greg's post of the event at livehighfive.com:
DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist brought their touring ethnomusicology lesson to a respectable and excited crowd on a cold Tuesday in Syracuse, NY a few weeks back. After catching the show in Austin during the tour's first leg, it was pretty much mandatory to follow up with a second helping of tunes cultivated from Afrika Bambaataa's personal stash. It isn't often that the longtime friends pair up and bring their skills on the road, but it's always a spectacle when they do!
A few things need to be said: 1) Hip Hop = DJ's, MC's, Breakdancing, and Graffiti, 2) DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist incorporated all those elements into the performance and tour, 3) Afrika Bambaataa deserves every ounce of recognition he has coming to him, and 4) the beginning of Boogie Down Production's "South Bronx" is one of the hardest things on Earth.
Gallery below:
For the full set, off to flickr -> flickr.com/photos/somewhereville/sets/72157649174784268/


text:
Kathmandu – Nepal ranks as the fourth most climate-vulnerable country in the world and is highly exposed to a range of water related hazards such as floods, droughts and landslides. Current projections predict increased climate variability and increased frequency and higher intensity of extreme events. These hazards pose enormous costs to Nepal's economy and an estimated one percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is lost to natural disasters consisting of frequent events such as floods and landslides. Poor and rural populations including women tend to be the most vulnerable to such risks. In the climate sensitive agricultural sector, farmers need timely information on weather and climate variability to adjust their farming practices and minimize adverse impacts on rural livelihoods, agricultural productivity and food security.
The Government of Nepal has officially started implementation of the Building Resilience to Climate Related Hazards (BRCH) Project for a value of $31 million. Dr. Som Lal Subedi, Secretary Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment (MoSTE) officially initiated the BRCH project at a function in Kathmandu. Representatives from various Government of Nepal Offices, development partners and civil society attended the program.
The BRCH project, signed on April 30, 2013 between the Government of Nepal and the World Bank, aims to transition Nepal's hydro-meteorological services into a modern service-oriented system that will build resilience today as well as adaptive capacity for the future. It intends to enhance government capacity to mitigate climate related hazards by improving the accuracy and timeliness of weather and flood forecasts and warnings for climate-vulnerable communities. The project will also support agricultural management information system services to help farmers mitigate climate-related production risks. By strengthening hydro-meteorological data and services, the BRCH project is also likely to benefit a number of different sectors including hydropower, aviation, disaster risk management and water resources management.
The BRCH project is part of the global Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR). Recognizing the high levels of exposure to climate change risks, in 2009, the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) selected Nepal as one of nine pilot countries for the PPCR. Nepal's Strategic Program for Climate Resilience (SPCR) was developed by the Government of Nepal in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank. The BRCH project is one of the five projects identified as per Nepal's SPCR and will be implemented over a five year period through collaborative efforts between the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) under the MoSTE and the Ministry of Agricultural Development.


text:
Atheist Republic Fan Signs
We love our fans, and we want to give you a chance to show how much you love Atheist Republic. Here are some images that Atheist Republic Fans have submitted to us!
If you're also an Atheist Republic Fan and want to share a photo of yourself, your family and/or your friends showing off the Atheist Republic name, logo, or the website, Send us your fan signs and we'll post it up on the site and on our facebook page which also shows our user-submitted fan signs.
Already bought a shirt from the Atheist Republic Store and want to show your support for AR? Send us a pictures of yourself wearing your shirt by clicking the button below.
If you haven't bought a shirt yet, click here to find the best atheist shirt designs and buy one now.
Donating = Loving
Bringing you atheist articles and building active godless communities takes hundreds of hours and resources each month. If you find any joy or stimulation at Atheist Republic, please consider becoming a Supporting Member with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner.


text:
(betamethasone valerate)
How does this medication work? What will it do for me?
Betamethasone valerate belongs to the class of medications called topical corticosteroids. It is used to treat skin irritation and itch caused by skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, contact dermatitis, and seborrhea. It works by reducing redness, inflammation, swelling, and irritation of the skin.
This medication may be available under multiple brand names and/or in several different forms. Any specific brand name of this medication may not be available in all of the forms or approved for all of the conditions discussed here. As well, some forms of this medication may not be used for all of the conditions discussed here.
Your doctor may have suggested this medication for conditions other than those listed in these drug information articles. If you have not discussed this with your doctor or are not sure why you are being given this medication, speak to your doctor. Do not stop using this medication without consulting your doctor.
Do not give this medication to anyone else, even if they have the same symptoms as you do. It can be harmful for people to use this medication if their doctor has not prescribed it.
How should I use this medication?
Cream or ointment: Apply enough cream or ointment to completely cover the affected area with a thin film. Massage it gently and thoroughly into the skin. This medication is usually applied once daily in the morning, or twice daily (in the morning and at night) as directed by the doctor. The treatment should be stopped when the condition is cleared. The medication should not be continued for a period longer than 4 weeks without further consultation with your doctor.
Lotion: Apply a few drops of lotion or enough to thinly cover the affected area. The lotion should be gently massaged into the area until it disappears. The lotion is usually applied once or twice.
Wash your hands after applying this medication unless you are treating your hands.
Many things can affect the dose of medication that a person needs, such as body weight, other medical conditions, and other medications. If your doctor has recommended a dose different from the ones listed here, do not change the way that you are using the medication without consulting your doctor.
Shake the lotion well before applying it to the affected area.
Do not cover the area with an occlusive dressing (a dressing that doesn't breathe) unless directed to do so by your doctor.
Avoid applying the medication in or near the eyes.
It is important to use this medication exactly as prescribed by your doctor. If you miss an application, apply it as soon as possible and continue with your regular schedule. If it is almost time for your next application, skip the missed application and continue with your regular dosing schedule. Do not apply a double dose to make up for a missed one. If you are not sure what to do after missing a dose, contact your doctor or pharmacist for advice.
Store this medication at room temperature and keep out of reach of children.
Do not dispose of medications in wastewater (e.g. down the sink or in the toilet) or in household garbage. Ask your pharmacist how to dispose of medications that are no longer needed or have expired.
What form(s) does this medication come in?
ratio-Ectosone is no longer being manufactured for sale in Canada. For brands that may still be available, search under betamethasone valerate. This article is being kept available for reference purposes only. If you are using this medication, speak with your doctor or pharmacist for information about your treatment options.
Who should NOT take this medication?
Do not use this medication if you:
- are allergic to betamethasone or any ingredients of the medication
- have a skin infection caused by viruses, including herpes simplex, vaccinia, and varicella (chickenpox)
- have had an allergic reaction to other corticosteroid medications
- have untreated infected skin lesions caused by an infection with fungi or bacteria
- have tuberculosis of the skin
Do not apply this medication around the mouth, to the eye, or on or around the anal and genital area.
What side effects are possible with this medication?
Many medications can cause side effects. A side effect is an unwanted response to a medication when it is taken in normal doses. Side effects can be mild or severe, temporary or permanent.
The side effects listed below are not experienced by everyone who takes this medication. If you are concerned about side effects, discuss the risks and benefits of this medication with your doctor.
The following side effects have been reported by at least 1% of people taking this medication. Many of these side effects can be managed, and some may go away on their own over time.
Contact your doctor if you experience these side effects and they are severe or bothersome. Your pharmacist may be able to advise you on managing side effects.
- burning, dryness, irritation, itching, or redness or skin (usually mild and temporary)
- skin rash (usually mild and temporary)
- stinging sensation when applied (lotion only)
Although most of these side effects listed below don't happen very often, they could lead to serious problems if you do not check with your doctor or seek medical attention.
Check with your doctor as soon as possible if any of the following side effects occur:
- increased skin sensitivity
- lack of healing of skin condition
- ongoing burning, itching and irritation of skin
- itchy rash with small, red, raised bumps
- skin discolouration
- skin infection
- "spider veins" or blood vessels visible through the skin
- thinning of skin with easy bruising
Additional side effects may occur if this medication is used improperly or for long periods of time. Check with your doctor as soon as possible if any of the following side effects occur:
Some people may experience side effects other than those listed. Check with your doctor if you notice any symptom that worries you while you are taking this medication.
Are there any other precautions or warnings for this medication?
Before you begin using a medication, be sure to inform your doctor of any medical conditions or allergies you may have, any medications you are taking, whether you are pregnant or breast-feeding, and any other significant facts about your health. These factors may affect how you should use this medication.
Absorption: Topical (applied to the skin) corticosteroids such as betamethasone are known to be absorbed into the bloodstream, especially if used for prolonged periods of time on large areas of the body. It is advisable to use betamethasone for brief periods of time only and to stop using it as soon as the problem clears.
Eyes: Use this medication with caution on lesions close to the eye. Take care to ensure that it does not enter the eye, as glaucoma or cataracts may result. Report any changes in your vision to your doctor, as soon as possible.
Infections: Betamethasone should not be used on any infected area until the infection has cleared. Corticosteroids applied to the skin may increase the risk of developing a skin infection. If you notice any increased redness, swelling, heat, or pain around the area where the medication is applied, contact your doctor, as these are possible signs of infection.
Stopping this medication: Suddenly stopping corticosteroid medication may cause your skin condition to return. If you have been using this medication for a long period of time, discuss with your doctor the best way to discontinue the medication.
Thinning of skin: Using topical corticosteroid medication for a long period of time can cause skin and the tissues underneath to thin or soften, or cause stretch marks. Your doctor may recommend you stop using this medication once in a while or to apply to one area of the body at a time to give the skin a chance to strengthen. If you notice changes to the texture or colour of your skin contact your doctor as soon as possible.
Pregnancy: Betamethasone should not be used during pregnancy unless the benefits outweigh the risks. If you become pregnant while using this medication, contact your doctor immediately.
Breast-feeding: It is not known if betamethasone applied to the skin passes into breast milk. If you are a breast-feeding mother and are using this medication, it may affect your baby. Talk to your doctor about whether you should continue breast-feeding. If this medication is used, it should not be applied to the breast in order to avoid the baby getting this medication in their mouth.
Children: Betamethasone belongs to the family of medications known as corticosteroids. Children may be more likely to experience side effects (e.g., slowing down of growth, delayed weight gain), especially if large amounts of this medication are used for long periods of time. The use of this medication by children should be limited to the smallest amount that will be effective for the shortest period of time. Discuss the risks and benefits of the use of this medication by children with your doctor.
What other drugs could interact with this medication?
There may be an interaction between betamethasone and any of the following:
- aldesleukin
- 'azole' antifungals (e.g., itraconazole, ketoconazole, posaconazole, voriconazole)
- ceritinib
- clarithromycin
- cobicistat
- HIV protease inhibitors (e.g., atazanavir, darunavir, indinavir, lopinavir, nelfinavir, ritonavir, saquinavir)
- mifepristone
If you are taking any of these medications, speak with your doctor or pharmacist. Depending on your specific circumstances, your doctor may want you to:
- stop taking one of the medications,
- change one of the medications to another,
- change how you are taking one or both of the medications, or
- leave everything as is.
An interaction between two medications does not always mean that you must stop taking one of them. Speak to your doctor about how any drug interactions are being managed or should be managed.
Medications other than those listed above may interact with this medication. Tell your doctor or prescriber about all prescription, over-the-counter (non-prescription), and herbal medications you are taking. Also tell them about any supplements you take. Since caffeine, alcohol, the nicotine from cigarettes, or street drugs can affect the action of many medications, you should let your prescriber know if you use them.
All material copyright MediResource Inc. 1996 – 2024. Terms and conditions of use. The contents herein are for informational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Source: www.medbroadcast.com/drug/getdrug/ratio-Ectosone


text:
The following information is provided to assist districts in meeting the posting requirements stipulated in PA 173 Section 1249(3)(c). It is worth noting that MASB's instrument is intended for use by school board members in the evaluation of superintendents. As such, effort has been invested to ensure that the language in the rubrics and the recommended process is easy for noneducators to understand and implement.
National Policy Board for Educational Administration (2015). Professional Standards for Educational Leaders 2015. Reston, VA: Author.
The 2015 Standards are the result of an extensive process that took an in-depth look at the new education leadership landscape. It involved a thorough review of empirical research (see the Bibliography for a selection of supporting sources) and sought the input of researchers and more than 1,000 school and district leaders through surveys and focus groups to identify gaps among the 2008 Standards, the day-to-day work of education leaders and leadership demands of the future. The National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Association of Secondary School Principals and American Association of School Administrators were instrumental to this work. The public was also invited to comment on two drafts of the Standards, which contributed to the final product. The National Policy Board for Education Administration, a consortium of professional organizations committed to advancing school leadership (including those named above), has assumed leadership of the 2015 Standards in recognition of their significance to the profession and will be their steward going forward.
Midcontinent Research for Education and Learning (2006). School District Leadership That Works: The Effect of Superintendent Leadership on Student Achievement. Denver, CO: Author.
To determine the influence of district superintendents on student achievement and the characteristics of effective superintendents, McREL, a Denver-based education research organization, conducted a meta-analysis of research—a sophisticated research technique that combines data from separate studies into a single sample of research—on the influence of school district leaders on student performance. This study is the latest in a series of meta-analyses that McREL has conducted over the past several years to determine the characteristics of effective schools, leaders and teachers. This most recent meta-analysis examines findings from 27 studies conducted since 1970 that used rigorous, quantitative methods to study the influence of school district leaders on student achievement. Altogether, these studies involved 2,817 districts and the achievement scores of 3.4 million students, resulting in what McREL researchers believe to be the largest-ever quantitative examination of research on superintendents.
The Michigan Association of School Boards has served boards of education since its inception in 1949. In the decades since, MASB has worked hands-on with tens of thousands of school board members and superintendents throughout the state. Evaluation of the superintendent has been a key aspect of that work – MASB developed superintendent evaluation instruments and trained board members in their use nearly half a century before the requirements.
MASB staff and faculty involved in creating the MASB Superintendent Evaluation instrument Include:
New York Council of School Superintendents staff and leadership involved in creating the Council's Superintendent Model Evaluation (which significantly influenced MASB's instrument):
Validity refers to how well an instrument measures what it is supposed to measure. Construct validity was established for the MASB Superintendent Evaluation instrument. Construct validity ensures the assessment is actually measuring superintendent performance. Validity was established using of a panel of experts familiar with the research base and work of the effective school superintendent. The experts examined the research, identified performance indicators for measure and refined the scale for measurement.
Panel members included:
Efficacy refers to the capacity of the evaluation instrument to produce the desired or intended results. The MASB Superintendent Evaluation instrument has three intended outcomes:
MASB will seek to establish efficacy of the MASB Superintendent Evaluation instrument by surveying school board members and superintendents from a representative sample of school districts (see details below). An electronic survey instrument will be used to ascertain the extent to which:
Reliability is the degree to which an evaluation instrument produces stable and consistent results. While there are several types of reliability, MASB will seek to establish the test-retest reliability of the MASB Superintendent Evaluation instrument. Test-retest reliability is a measure of reliability obtained by administering the same instrument twice over a period of time to a group of individuals. To accomplish this, a representative sample of school districts using the MASB Superintendent Evaluation instrument will participate in a reliability study. A minimum of 15 school districts (with low board member turnover and no transition in the superintendency) will conduct an evaluation at the midpoint of their evaluation cycle (T1) and again at the end of their evaluation (T2). Scores from the two assessments will then be correlated in order to evaluate the test for reliability. A coefficient of 7.0 or higher will indicate acceptable stability.
The complete MASB Superintendent Evaluation instrument is available in the following formats.
Planning: At the beginning of the year in which the evaluation is to occur, the Board of Education and superintendent convene a meeting in public and agree upon the following items:
Checkpoints: The Board of Education and superintendent meet at key points in the evaluation year as follows:
Validity, reliability and efficacy of the MASB Superintendent Evaluation instrument relies upon board members using evidence to score superintendent performance.
A list of possible artifacts that may be used as evidence is provided at the end of each professional practice domain rubric. Appendix H of the evaluation instrument offers additional artifacts that may serve as evidence of performance.
Prior to meeting:
During meeting:
If a superintendent receives a rating of developing or needing support, the Board of Education must develop and require the superintendent to implement an improvement plan to correct the deficiencies. The improvement plan must recommend professional development opportunities and other actions designed to improve the rating of the superintendent on their next annual evaluation. See the appendixes of this document for more information on developing an Individual Improvement Plan for the superintendent.
If a superintendent receives a rating of effective on three consecutive annual evaluations, the Board of Education may choose to conduct an evaluation biennially instead of annually. However, if a superintendent is not rated as effective on one of these biennial evaluations, the superintendent must again be evaluated annually.
Individual Improvement Plans are an excellent way of helping employees develop their skills. Boards of education should encourage superintendents to develop an IIP in order to foster professional development.
In the event that a superintendent receives a rating that is less than effective, the law requires the creation of an IIP. The following process is a framework for creating and implementing an IIP for the superintendent.
MASB provides training on its Superintendent Evaluation instrument to board members and superintendents via a cadre of certified trainers. Training is as follows:
Instrument-Specific Training/Rater Reliability Training: This training covers the use of the MASB Superintendent Evaluation instrument including the cycle and processes of evaluation, rating superintendent performance on the rubric, rater reliability training, as well as the use of evidence to evaluate superintendent performance. This training fulfills the requirement of evaluator training for board members as well as evaluatee training for superintendents whose districts are evaluating their superintendent with the MASB Superintendent Evaluation instrument. It is conducted on-location in districts with board members and superintendent present.


text:
Trying generate consistent gain creating personal football betting system may seem like a choice at to start off. The problem is that creating your own football betting systems is undoubtedly an arduous course of action. There is a lot of statistical analysis involved. Specific to constantly pay focus on various changes that may affect any system.
If you are a beginner in football betting, you should consider that betting can be addictive. Help to make sure you determine bets that you can afford to cover or shake off. Placing high bets can make you obtain into issue with other adult men and women. You can not avoid losing in betting. The best you can help is conducting some research and also bet sensibly.
It will be important to watch for your way the casino bonus is gonna be feature money that will not be easily cashed while in. When a person gets money using a casino bonus that person will be free in order to it anywhere that one wants to it back. However, when the person wins money off with the money has been used from a casino bonus the person may not get money off of the usb ports.
Another football betting advice worthy of mention is you need to obtain as much information as should. This should not consist problem in the information year. All you need to do is to click away with your mouse and also the Internet believe that the information you need. There will be several tasks that you are certain to get which are valuable within your bets. Items may not you will discover will to be able to understand doesn't all the times are winning season for all your team.
Though very simple still remains that online casinos specifically from U.S. don't declare is going to be of your winnings, nicely course impact all civilian federal law don't know a person have win or lose, you still have the obligation adhere to the law and declare it within your own because at the end, you will still upward explaining on the IRS where your money comes from because they will track your cash through their audit.
The second factor necessitates the limits depending on how much money a player can earn before cashing anything and also. A player must play through the free bonus a certain amount of time before this may be cashed out. This particular done for making sure that an individual tries to abuse the bonus plan from any kind of cyber casino in thailand.
The online betting game for football is almost exactly like how appeared with the other sports; the difference is it takes very much more skill and data when placing bets. If you're an aspiring football bettor, you would then need a rock solid strategy to just about guarantee your success. To help you get a much better understanding, allow me to share 3 online betting tips; if followed correctly, they'll boost the chances of you winning.
taruhan judi bola within the casinos in India tend to be found in Goa. Actually, India has very little locations where legal gambling is allowed. It is carried out in just 5 cities in a rural area. If you want to gamble away in India then Goa could be the place to be able to. Most for this top notch hotels over here have casinos where may let the hair down and bet outside. In fact, casinos are a perfect place delight in with family and spend time, especially if you have a wad money you for you to squander. You can hook at the friends also when a person gambling or take a pile money home a person's win. Either ways, gambling at casinos is a smashing solution to spend time and party utilizing your pals.


text:
- Free newsletter
- The Latest
- Topics
Redeeming the dreary
One of the fundamental characteristics of modernism, that cultural shift in the way we see the world, ourselves and our condition, was the celebration of the ordinary – ordinary life, ordinary work, ordinary people and the ordinary things they do. Not everything about the "modern movement" – which began over a hundred years ago – was a boon to humanity. For Christians one dimension of modernism made a total muddle of theology and bears a big share of the blame for the creation of that "desert of relativism" of which Pope Benedict XVI speaks. But surely a vision of the ordinary things of life, liberated from the realm of the humdrum and the boring is something to rejoice in?
This positive dimension of our modern sensibility was taken up in a paper by an American professor teaching in Rome. Professor John Paul Wauck*, at a congress on Poetics and Christianity, spoke of a change in how Christians now see ordinary life. He described this change as "a genuine revolution" in terms of ascetical theology and found it epitomised in the words of St. Josemaría Escrivá when he wrote that the Christian vocation, "consists in making heroic verse out of the prose of each day." Those words, along with all his teaching, moved Blessed Pope John Paul II to proclaim Escrivá "the saint of the ordinary" on the occasion of his canonisation in 2002.
Wauck was, however, setting out to explore another dimension of modernity's celebration of the ordinary – how this celebration in general, and this theological revolution in particular, seemed to have to struggle to make its way into literature. He set out to look at how literature and ordinary life stand in relation to one another, and more particularly, to look at how Christian faith might affect that relationship. "Ultimately," he said, "the question I hope to raise is whether a change in how Christians see ordinary life could change the way we see, read and write literature."
Professor Wauck seems to suggest that there is a conspiracy against the ordinary in a great deal of literature, and particularly in the classics, ancient and modern, against the celebration of the ordinary. This conspiracy is rooted in our apparent deep attraction to what we see as the heroic. He speaks of "the tension between the thirst for the heroic, grand, ecstatic life and the reality of the life we actually live, with its humbler virtues." He quotes the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor:
"We are in conflict, even confusion, about what it means to affirm ordinary life… We are as ambivalent about heroism as we are about the value of the workaday goals that it sacrifices. We struggle to hold on to a vision of the incomparably higher, while being true to the central modern insights about the value of the ordinary life. We sympathize with both the hero and the anti-hero; and we dream of a world in which one could be, in the same act, both."
To develop his point, Wauck draws on the work of the American writer, Walker Percy, a convert to Catholicism, quoting his biographer, Jay Tolson: "The horror of 'dailiness' is in fact the starting point for many of Walker Percy's novels, and if it is not the central problem for many of Walker Percy's works it is always at least one of the problems."
"Tolson", Wauck says, "uses the word 'horror' advisedly, for Percy does not mince words:
'[A]s Einstein once said, ordinary life in an ordinary place on an ordinary day in the modern world is a dreary business. I mean dreary. People will do anything to escape this dreariness: booze up, hit the road, gaze at fatal car wrecks, shoot up heroin, spend money on gurus, watch pornographic movies, kill themselves, even watch TV. Einstein said that was the reason he went into mathematical physics.'"
How many of us, when we pick up our papers to read the news, are drawn to the "great" events, the exceptional, the extraordinary? Is that not the definition of news? Not many of us have the insight which moved the Irish poet, Patrick Kavanagh to write his 1938 poem, "Epic":
I have lived in important places, times
When great events were decided: who owned
That half a rood of rock, a no-man's land
Surrounded by our pitchfork-armed claims.
I heard the Duffys shouting "Damn your soul"
And old McCabe stripped to the waist, seen
Step the plot defying blue cast-steel –
"Here is the march along these iron stones."
That was the year of the Munich bother. Which
Was most important ? I inclined
To lose my faith in Ballyrush and Gortin
Till Homer's ghost came whispering to my mind.
He said : I made the Iliad from such
A local row. Gods make their own importance.
And so does God. The mite of the widow tossed into the Temple collection box looked like a very small and ordinary thing. It is now, for all mankind, a symbol of heroic detachment and sacrifice.
But for Kavanagh's ordinary Monaghan farmers, fighting over scraps of land, this was warfare. In some ways fighting has raised the stakes in the human imagination, lifting our actions out of the realm of the ordinary and into the heroic. Wauck alludes to this when he again cites Percy's observations about our struggle with the ordinary.
"The apparent emptiness of ordinary life is only intensified by our occasional tastes of the extraordinary, dramatic and heroic – nowhere more typically experienced, as Percy was keenly aware, than in that timeless feature of heroic literature, warfare."
But if literature in general has had problems coping with the ordinary, literature in the context of Christian faith is where he finds the greatest challenge. The revolution in ascetic theology has still, he feels, to translate into the realm of Christian literature. He asks, "If Christianity offers an answer to the dilemma of ordinary life on the existential level, might it not also open up new possibilities for capturing the grandeur of ordinary life in literature?" The perception is that clearly it has not done so yet.
He illustrates the problem by quoting a letter from the non-believing American novelist, Shelby Foote, to Walker Percy who was his friend, in which he says: show me a Catholic writer who doesn't write about doubt, putting God in scare-quotes, but instead handles religion with the matter-of-factness of Maupassant writing about sex. Certainly the oeuvre in Catholic Ireland's substantial literary canon would seem to bear out the validity of that challenge.
But even in this Irish context, there are exceptions. The later novels of John McGahern – Amongst Women and That They May Face the Rising Sun – show not only a wonderful and delightful portrayal of the lives of simple and ordinary people in rural and small-town Ireland, but also show them in the simple practice of their Catholic faith. In these novels – written over the last years of McGahern's life – there is the full spectrum of the faithful, the unfaithful, and those with doubts, but all are sympathetically and authentically presented in ways which do not diminish the glorious ordinariness of their lives and their communities.
However, that being relatively exceptional, Wauck's speculations remain very pertinent. "How might one, then, in practice," he asks, "convey the heroism of ordinary Christian life? To appreciate the difficulty, consider, for example, the following point from The Way by Saint Josemaría Escrivá, the champion of sanctity in ordinary life:"
"We were reading – you and I – the heroically ordinary life of that man of God. And we saw him struggle whole months and years (what an 'accounting' he kept in his particular examination of conscience!) one day at breakfast he would win, the next day he'd lose…. "I didn't take butter… I did take butter!" he would jot down. May we too – you and I – live our…. 'drama' of the butter."
The protagonist of this little drama was an Irish Jesuit priest, Fr Willie Doyle, who went on to die a more traditionally heroic death in the trenches of the Great War where he served as a chaplain in the British Army. It was, however, the "butter" drama of his daily interior struggle which appealed to Escrivá as an example for ordinary Christians in their own struggles to live lives pleasing to God.
Wauck speculates at the end of his lecture that perhaps it is not possible to directly portray the grandeur of an ordinary Christian life. "Perhaps the ordinary is not meant to be the subject of great Christian literature. I can think of no a priori reason why it has to be.
And yet, might it not be that, by and large, Christians simply haven't tried to capture the drama of ordinary life? Are there really no heroes and villains, sorrows and joys, dangers and dramas to describe in day-to-day Christian existence, or are we simply refusing or failing to see them? We do, after all, in principle, believe that each Christian, every day, at home, in the office, on the street, is walking on a battlefield – a battlefield where the stakes are very high, higher even than mere life and death. That same Christian is also, at the same time, caught up in an extraordinary love story – a love affair with a God who is willing to die for him, Who gives Himself to him as food to eat every day. That same Christian is on a journey that will take him farther than Ulysses ever dreamed of travelling.
I for one resist the idea that we are still living under the sign of Boileau, a French poet of the 17th century, who said that the mysteries of the faith are 'too majestic to be represented in a work of art.'"
"The project that lies ahead of us" he suggests, "seems to have been glimpsed already by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), who wrote that 'the great poems of heaven and hell have been written, and the great poem of earth remains to be written.' To put it another way: where, we might ask, is the Dante of this world? Surely, it would be an odd thing for a Christian to maintain that Homer and Virgil have exhausted what there is to say about the earth."
Patrick Kavanagh would agree.
Michael Kirke is a freelance writer in Dublin. He blogs at Garvan Hill.
* John Paul Wauck studied renaissance history and literature at Harvard and lives in Rome, where he is a professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
Join Mercator today for free and get our latest news and analysis
Buck internet censorship and get the news you may not get anywhere else, delivered right to your inbox. It's free and your info is safe with us, we will never share or sell your personal data.
Have your say!
Join Mercator and post your comments.


text:
A Look at Home Price Appreciation Through 2025
A Look at Home Price Appreciation Through 2025
Home prices have increased significantly over the last year, which in turn has grown the net worth of homeowners. Appreciation and home equity are directly linked – as the value of a home increases, so does a homeowner's equity. And with these recent gains, homeowners are witnessing their financial stability and well-being grow to record levels.
In more good news for homeowners, the most recent Home Price Expectations Survey – a survey of a national panel of over one hundred economists, real estate experts, and investment and market strategists – forecasts home prices will continue appreciating over the next five years, adding to the record amount of equity homeowners have already gained over the past year. Below are the expected year-over-year rates of home price appreciation from the report:
What Does This Mean for Homeowners?
Home prices are climbing today, and the data in the survey indicates they'll continue to increase, but at rates that approach a more normal pace. Even still, the amount of household wealth a homeowner stands to earn going forward is substantial. This truly becomes clear when we consider a scenario using a median-priced home purchased in January of 2021 and the projected rate of appreciation on that home over the next five years. As the graph below illustrates, a homeowner could increase their net worth by a significant amount – over $93,000 dollars by 2026.
Home Price Appreciation and Home Equity
CoreLogic recently released their quarterly Homeowner Equity Insights Report, which tracks the year-over-year increases in equity. It shows an average annual gain of $33,400 per borrower over the past 12 months. In the report, Dr. Frank Nothaft, Chief Economist for CoreLogic, further explains:
"Double-digit home price growth in the past year has bolstered home equity to a record amount. The national CoreLogic Home Price Index recorded an 11.4% rise in the year through March 2021, leading to a $216,000 increase in the average amount of equity held by homeowners with a mortgage."
The expected, sustained growth of home prices means homeowners can continue to build on the past year's record levels of home equity – and their financial prosperity. It also presents today's homeowners with a unique opportunity: using their growing equity for a home upgrade. With so few homes available to purchase and strong buyer demand, there may not be a better time to sell your current house and move into one that better meets your needs.
Bottom Line
Home prices are expected to continue appreciating over the next five years, and the associated equity gains are the quickest way homeowners can build household wealth. If you're a current homeowner who's ready to take advantage of your built-up equity, let's connect today to discuss your options.


text:
Source: Swanson-2004
Brain Maps: Structure of the Rat Brain.
From the publisher, Elsevier: "This updated edition of Brain Maps: Structure of the Rat Brain provides atlas maps aligned in 3-dimensional space and created using color photomicrographs of histological sections based on a single rat brain. Where other atlases use multiple brains as models, the use of a single brain allows for true 3-D reconstruction. The atlas employs color coding of the major parts of the brain and extends this coding system to the atlas levels, flatmaps, and nomenclature tables for easier reference." The atlas includes as well: systematic nomenclature tables, references to the primary research literature for all of the structures, and coverage of the neuroanatomical methods and mapping.


text:
Thousands of pages of previously secret military documents about detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison now put a name, a history and a face on hundreds of men in captivity there. The documents include details on 158 men on whom no information has ever been released.
The hundreds of classified documents — marked "secret" and "noforn," meaning the information is not to be shared with representatives of other countries — are assessments, interviews and internal memos from the Pentagon's Joint Task Force at Guantanamo. The task force was supposed to determine who the detainees were, how they might be connected to terrorism and whether they posed a threat to the U.S. and its allies in the future.
The files are part of a trove of classified information that was leaked last year to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. They were made available to The New York Times by another source, on condition of anonymity. NPR is reporting on the documents with the Times.
These intelligence summaries and assessments — which date back as far as 2002 and run until the beginning of 2009 — pull back the curtain on a sometimes chaotic process as officials at Guantanamo tried to determine whether detainees would continue to be held, be released to a third country, or be prosecuted for terrorism and other crimes.
Among the findings in the files:
-- A former detainee, Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda Bin Qumu, who is believed to be training rebel forces in Libya, has closer ties to al-Qaida than previously understood publicly. According to his detainee assessment, Qumu allegedly trained at two al-Qaida camps, fought in Afghanistan against the Soviets and the Northern Alliance, and moved to Sudan with other al-Qaida members.
-- There is new detail on a senior explosives trainer for al-Qaida, Tariq Mahmud Ahmad al Sawah, the man who claimed to have designed the prototype for a shoe bomb that failed to ignite on a U.S. plane in 2001. He was recommended for release from the prison because of his cooperation with authorities.
-- Shaker Aamer, also known as Sawad al-Madani and called "the professor" at Guantanamo, said he had no connection to al-Qaida. His military assessment says he was Osama bin Laden's personal English translator.
-- Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the suspected plotter of the USS Cole attack in Yemen, reported directly to bin Laden, according to the documents.
-- And in at least two cases, the documents show that Guantanamo officials were aware that they had innocent men in captivity and even put that in writing in their prison files, and yet it took months to return them to their home countries.
In an official statement to NPR and The New York Times, the Obama administration defended the system for processing detainees.
"Both the previous and the current administrations have made every effort to act with the utmost care and diligence in transferring detainees from Guantanamo," the statement said. "Both administrations have made the protection of American citizens the top priority, and we are concerned that the disclosure of these documents could be damaging to those efforts."
The statement said it's "unfortunate" that NPR, the Times and other news organizations are publishing the classified Guantanamo documents. "We strongly condemn the leaking of this sensitive information," the statement said. It was signed by Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell and Ambassador Dan Fried, the State Department's special envoy in charge of negotiating the closure of the Guantanamo facility.
The Return of Qumu
U.S. intelligence sources tell NPR they have been tracking the former Libyan detainee, Abu Sufian Qumu.
He was picked up in Pakistan and arrived in Guantanamo in early 2002. The Libyan government asked for him back in 2007. Guantanamo officials who investigated Qumu at that time thought he posed a future risk to the U.S. and its allies. But four years ago, the U.S. released him to the Libyan government anyway.
U.S. intelligence officials now believe Qumu is helping train anti-government forces in Benghazi, Libya. It is unclear whether he is a leader of the rebels or simply joining in the anti-Gadhafi movement. What is certain is that his secret Guantanamo file shows an association with al-Qaida that stretches back decades.
It says he trained at two al-Qaida camps, joined Taliban forces to fight both the Soviets and the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, and moved to Sudan with other al-Qaida members, where he drove trucks for one of bin Laden's companies. The documents say he was forced to leave Sudan sometime in 1997. From there he went directly to the tribal regions of Pakistan, where he allegedly received additional training with al-Qaida.
U.S. intelligence reports in the file say his name appeared on a hard drive that listed al-Qaida employees and their monthly wages. That's significant because most of al-Qaida's ranks tend to be volunteers; people on the payroll are considered more than just lowly foot soldiers.
Now that Qumu has turned up in Libya, U.S. intelligence is trying to figure out if he still has those al-Qaida connections.
Members of Congress are wondering the same thing. During congressional hearings earlier this month, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), asked Adm. James Stavridis about the presence of al-Qaida among the rebel forces.
"The intelligence that I'm receiving at this point makes me feel that the leadership that I'm seeing are responsible men and women who are struggling against Col. Gadhafi," the admiral said. He added, "We have seen flickers in the intelligence of potential al-Qaida, Hezbollah. We've seen different things. But at this point, I don't have detail sufficient to say that there's a significant al-Qaida presence or any other terrorist presence in and among these folks."
Intelligence officials tell NPR they don't doubt that the rebel forces are focused on defeating Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. What worries them is what might come next. Will the rebels push for Shariah law in Libya or allow al-Qaida to train there? Or would Qumu, if he becomes a leader among the anti-Gadhafi forces, be part of a contingent that permits terrorists to hide out amid the chaos of Libya's civil war?
With such close links to al-Qaida, there is some question as to how Qumu managed to get out of Guantanamo. Those familiar with the detainee release process said that by the end of 2003, diplomacy and politics began to play a larger role in transfer decisions.
In Qumu's case, U.S. officials tell NPR that Gadhafi had asked for Qumu's release almost four years ago. Gadhafi and, in particular, his son Seif al-Islam were trying to convince Islamists in Libya that the government intended to reconcile with them in good faith. Qumu was part of that effort. He transferred to Libya in October 2007, and he was released last summer.
New Details On Other Detainees
The documents also provide new details about other detainees that provide more insight into who has been held in the detention facility. Consider Tariq Mahmud Ahmad al-Sawah. The Joint Task Force said he was a senior explosives trainer for al-Qaida. He joined the group in late 2000 and served as an advanced explosives instructor for al-Qaida in Afghanistan. He told authorities he had trained about 80 students.
Al-Sawah was renowned for his creativity. He boasted about designing the prototype for the shoe bomb that was later used in a failed bombing attempt against a U.S. airliner in 2001.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, al-Qaida leaders asked al-Sawah to experiment with "mines that could be used against U.S. ships." He allegedly designed "four magnetic limpet mines that could be attached to the underside of a metal-hulled ship and detonated, thereby sinking the ship," his file reads.
Because al-Sawah had been very cooperative with interrogators, he was deemed a medium risk — and was slated for transfer to a third country.
Shaker Aamer, also known as Sawad al-Madani, a 44-year-old Saudi, is known as "the professor." He has denied having ties to al-Qaida, but his file reads like a Who's Who of al-Qaida operatives.
While in London, he allegedly lived with Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks. He met with former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg in Afghanistan and eventually worked as bin Laden's personal English translator. He was rated a "high-risk" detainee who could provide good intelligence to the U.S. He is not recommended for transfer or release.
The secret files also document examples of prisoners who should never have been at Guantanamo in the first place. For example, one of the first men to arrive at the camp was an 89-year-old Afghan man who had dementia. He was held for a little more than five months.
According to his file, officials had discovered a list of phone numbers associated with the Taliban close to where he was picked up in Afghanistan. Officials said they couldn't link the phone numbers to the detainee directly. It turned out later that the detainee didn't even know how to operate a phone. So, he was released.
Gathering Intelligence And The Cole Bombing
At the end of each detainee assessment is a section set off in bullet points titled "areas of potential exploitation." It reads like a wish list for intelligence officials.
Detainees who had attended training camps were seen as being able to provide information on recruitment or the movement of personnel and equipment. Explosives experts could offer new insight on the target selection process or how al-Qaida decided which recruits should get such advanced training.
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri's file is a 15-page goldmine of information chronicling aborted plots, secret cells and turf battles among senior operatives. (Al-Nashiri is one of three prisoners who were held overseas and subjected to harsh interrogation techniques including waterboarding. He is slated to have a military trial at Guantanamo.)
In one episode in the fall of 2000, bin Laden allegedly didn't like the operatives al-Nashiri had chosen for an upcoming attack on a U.S. warship.
Al-Nashiri flew to Afghanistan to discuss the selection with bin Laden face to face. Before he left for Afghanistan, he told the two men he had chosen for the attack to go ahead and strike the very next U.S. ship that stopped in Aden. Two weeks later, the destroyer USS Cole came into port for refueling. A small rubber boat filled with explosives detonated near the waterline of the ship. Fourteen sailors died and 40 others were injured. Al-Nashiri was still in Afghanistan when it happened.
Officials gathered a lot of information contained in the secret files by playing detainees off one another — crosschecking stories against known timelines and previous investigations.
Officials allegedly learned a great deal about al-Nashiri's role in al-Qaida from another detainee, Abu Zubaydah. He told authorities that al-Nashiri was part of a plot to attack the United Nations in New York with chemical weapons. He revealed al-Nashiri's alleged role in a previously undisclosed plot in South Korea and claimed al-Nashiri planned attacks on the U.S. embassy in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. (Zubaydah, still at Guantanamo, was also subjected to harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding.)
Another report, cited in the documents, said al-Nashiri was so dedicated to jihad that he "received injections to promote impotence and recommended those injections to others so more time could be spent on jihad (rather than distracted by women)."
Jim Clemente was part of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit at Guantanamo in the prison's early days. He was sent to the base to help military interrogators who were having trouble extracting information from detainees.
"A lot of it is rumor and innuendo, and then you get a consensus of information," Clemente said. "It is a multifaceted approach and a bit of a chess game, except that you are blind, in a sense. They come to you without any identification, and you have to go with 'this could be the guy who did X, Y and Z,' and then you try to prove it by assessing the detainee at capture, and human intelligence and other sources."
Cover Stories
Joint Task Force commanders were so concerned about the detainees' use of cover stories that they drafted a four-page, single-spaced memo laying out ways interrogators could detect deception.
The memo chronicles counter-interrogation techniques found in an al-Qaida manual. They range from something as simple as "speak slowly" because "this causes the interrogator to become bored" to sweeping strategies. "If you want to confess," it says, "you should have a plan that is well laid and rehearsed. ... What we mean by confessing here is the cover or fabricated story that you will give the interrogator to explain how you got caught, so you can conceal the other culprits and the important information."
Karen Greenberg, the executive director of New York University's Center on Law and Security, wrote a book about Guantanamo's first 100 days. She said interrogators faced a Sisyphean task. The odds and ends found in detainees' pockets when they are captured — known as pocket litter — were sent to Guantanamo in one large sack, she said, and couldn't be easily connected to individuals.
"Officials down there never knew who they had in custody, and they had no way of assessing them at the outset, other than by observing them and their interactions," Greenberg said. "Bad assessment in and bad assessment out, you could say."
In some of the files, there was evident frustration: "The detainee's account is only partially truthful," reads the file on Omar Khalif Mohammed Abu Baker Mahjoub, an alleged Libyan explosives expert. "Numerous gaps and inconsistencies remain in detainee's account. He has provided different versions of the story about how he lost his leg," and admitted lying about "the training he received on the use of poisons and explosives."
Creating Systems 'On The Fly'
During the Bush administration, the decision to transfer detainees to third countries — either to serve out sentences there or to be released — was made by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, two people familiar with the process said. Former Bush administration officials said he had to personally sign off on every transfer.
The process at the time these documents would have been used included basically sending detainee summaries and other intelligence to the CIA, FBI, Department of Justice and State Department officials. They would hold informal meetings in Washington, D.C., to come to some consensus about who should or should not be released. Those recommendations would then go up the chain until they reached Wolfowitz's desk, the officials said.
After the Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that foreign born detainees had the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts, the officials said, two things happened. The Bush administration set up combatant status review tribunals, or CSRTs, to review each case and determine whether the detainee was an enemy combatant; and diplomatic efforts to transfer detainees out of prison stepped up.
That's why, people familiar with the process told NPR, British detainees like Moazzam Begg were sent back to the U.K. in 2004 and 2005 regardless of their perceived risk to the U.S. and its allies. Around the same time, Afghan detainees were sent home.
Officials said the lower-risk detainees were sent first, in what was supposed to be seen as a vote of confidence in the Karzai government. The idea, the officials said, was that as the Karzai government grew stronger, more dangerous Afghan detainees would be transferred into their care.
The Bush administration transferred nearly 200 detainees to Afghanistan in this way. The Obama administration has made more individualized transfers. And so far they have only moved 67 detainees out of the prison.
New Guidelines
The Obama administration released new guidelines for dealing with Guantanamo detainees in January 2010. They put less emphasis on abstract risk categories and more on individualized decisions about whether detainees could be feasibly prosecuted or safely transferred to other countries, or whether their potential threat to the U.S. was such that they would need to be detained indefinitely under the laws of war.
Under the new guidelines, a 60-person task force drawn from the Department of Justice, Department of Defense, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, the CIA, the FBI and other intelligence agencies is supposed to review all of the detainee files and recommend action twice a year.
Those recommendations, which are expected to contain classified information and general assessments, then go to a Guantanamo Review Panel. That's another interagency group that has to decide unanimously on the fate of a detainee.
As a general matter, the Obama administration has been hesitant to return detainees to countries that can't guarantee that they will either keep the detainees locked up or keep a close watch on them.
That's why nearly 60 Yemenis at Guantanamo are in a kind of purgatory, awaiting the day when the Yemeni government is stable enough to manage their return. As a general matter, in the Obama administration, each detainee's background is considered as much as the country to which he will be sent. Sending a "high-risk" detainee to Europe, for example, would be preferable to sending him to Afghanistan.
For detainees who will not be sent to third countries and are not slated for prosecution, the Obama administration introduced new rules that require a detainee's status be reviewed every three years to determine whether or not he remains a threat, should be scheduled for a military trial or should be transferred.
That's the executive order that essentially codifies indefinite detention, though the administration was careful not to use that language.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
Read important news and the latest announcements about Arcane Legends here!
Provide your input to the developers directly on various topics!
Please use this forum to discuss Arcane Legends.
Discuss Arcane Legends Player vs. Player here.
Guilds are what we call player organizations. If you are looking to find a Guild or to advertise your Guild in Arcane Legends, this is the place to do it!
This is a repository of Guides created by players to detail various aspects of Arcane Legends. If you want your guide moved here, please report your thread and ask for it to be moved to the guide section.
Talk about trading items in Arcane Legends here. Please, no real world trading, thanks!
Have an idea on how to improve Arcane Legends? Let us know!
Please use this forum to report any technical issues or bugs in Arcane Legends. Thanks!
Like to draw? Make movies? Do art stuff? Write stories? Post your Arcane Legends themed creations here!
Share your home and invite others to find it in game in the Arlorian Home Show


text:
By MICHAEL VAN BEEK
Gov. Rick Snyder aims to provide students with more learning opportunities by increasing the number of charter schools, expanding the "schools-of-choice" program and providing more access to online courses. While many parents and students will benefit from these reforms, the governor and Legislature shouldn't settle for just these improvements. They should also empower more parents to take advantage of the opportunities provided by Michigan's diverse array of private and independent schools.
The Wall Street Journal recently declared 2011 to be "The Year of School Choice," citing the fact that 13 states have created or expanded their school choice initiatives so far this year. Most of these programs provide publicly financed assistance to parents who enroll their kids in private schools. In fact, three of these states border Michigan: Indiana created the country's largest school voucher program; Ohio tripled the size of its voucher program; and Wisconsin expanded the Milwaukee voucher program and created a new one as well.
In addition to the 13 states, 29 others are currently considering legislation that would expand parents' ability to opt for private schools, according to the American Federation for Children. Among these states are Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Iowa. Michigan is surrounded by states ready to increase educational freedom, and, one of only eight states not considering doing the same.
Snyder and the Legislature should adopt private school choice as part of the education reform agenda for three simple reasons: Parents want more options, voucher and tuition tax credit programs save money, and research demonstrates that these programs improve outcomes for students in both private and public schools.
More parents are recognizing that the school assigned to them by the government is not necessarily the best fit for their kids. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the percentage of students enrolled in a school of their parents' choosing rose from 20 percent in 1993 to 29 percent in 2007. Not surprisingly, parents participating in private school choice programs consistently report that they are very satisfied with their children's schools.
Private school choice programs also save taxpayers money. For instance, Arizona taxpayers paid on average about $8,500 per student enrolled in their public schools in 2008, but only about $1,900 for each student participating in that state's tuition tax credit program. The voucher program in Washington, D.C., costs taxpayers only about one-third as much per pupil as the city's public schools.
The empirical evidence on voucher and tax credit programs is thoroughly one-sided: Nine of 10 random assignment studies of voucher programs show that student outcomes improve for participants. Of the 19 empirical studies testing the impact of voucher programs on public school students, 18 found a positive impact. When public schools are given incentives to improve or lose students to competing private schools, they respond positively.
To be fair, bringing private school choice to Michigan is a monumental task. This state's constitution explicitly forbids the use of publicly funded vouchers or tax credits to support private school enrollment. Eliminating this 40-year-old restriction would require a ballot initiative, which would be undeniably difficult. But it wouldn't be impossible, especially if there were gubernatorial and legislative leadership behind it.
Of course, there would be other obstacles to overcome. Legally privileged government employee unions, like the Michigan Education Association, view expanded parental choice as a threat to their monopoly of taxpayer-funded schooling and will do just about anything to protect their turf.
While these obstacles may seem insurmountable, other states are obviously overcoming them, and in many cases doing so with bipartisan support. School choice has become much less partisan in recent years as many Democrats, especially those representing districts with a high number of failing schools, recognize that school choice can provide an immediate benefit to their constituents. Groups like Democrats for Education Reform and the Black Alliance for Educational Options have been powerful advocates for more choice as well.
Snyder has repeatedly said that he wants to make Michigan into a welcoming environment for businesses in order get this state's economy back on track. The governor should work to make Michigan an inviting place for parents as well, and the best way to do that is to create more educational opportunities for their children.
(Michael Van Beek is director of educational policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research and educational institute headquartered in Midland.)


text:
Updated at 2:27 p.m. ET Sunday
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un said the country will close down its main nuclear testing site sometime in May, South Korea says.
South Korean presidential press secretary Yoon Young-chan said Sunday that Kim agreed to the plan during a meeting between the leader and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday.
Kim also pledged to invite "experts and journalists" from both South Korea and the U.S. to visit the site to verify the deactivation.
South Korea did not specify an exact date for either event.
"The U.S. is constitutionally averse to North Korea, but through dialogue, it will become apparent that we have no intention to target South Korea, the Pacific Ocean or the U.S. with nuclear weapons," Yoon quoted Kim as saying. "If we are able to build trust with the U.S. through frequent meetings, and promises to end war, and practice a policy of non-aggression, there's no reason for us to live a hard life with nuclear weapons."
Kim and Moon's much-publicized summit near the two countries' shared border Friday ended with a promise to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons and formally end the Korean War.
"We will not repeat the painful history that is the Korean War, and I assure you that military force will not be used under any circumstance," Kim reportedly told Moon during their meeting.
South Koreans were hopeful — though as NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports — skeptical. The agreement was short on details. Some "feel they've been sold this horse before — and once the euphoria wears off, they warn, North Korea will still have its nukes, diplomacy will have failed and the threat of war will have only increased," Anthony reports.
On Sunday morning in the Unites States, officials were also less than convinced by Kim's promises.
In an appearance on CBS' Face The Nation, National Security Adviser John Bolton said that while the Trump administration is "hopeful that we can get a real breakthrough," he said it was not "naive."
"We want to see real commitment; we don't want to see propaganda from North Korea," Bolton said. "We've seen words, so far."
Previous talks between the North and South in 2000 and 2007 concluded with similar pledges to work toward denuclearization.
The nuclear site is called Punggye-ri, located in the north of North Korea where NPR's Elise Hu notes that "the Kim regime has flouted international rules six times to test nuclear devices underground."
South Korea also says Kim said he would change the official time zone of North Korea to match Seoul's time zone. North Korea moved its clocks a half-hour behind South Korea's in 2015 to create its own time zone. "The two different clocks for Seoul and [Pyongyang] hanging in the Peace House broke his heart," Yoon said of Kim.
South Korea also said Sunday that President Moon spoke on the phone with President Trump on Saturday for more than an hour. Trump said he was pleased with the inter-Korea summit and the two leaders spoke about preparing for a proposed meeting between Trump and Kim that could happen as soon as May.
"Just had a long and very good talk with President Moon of South Korea. Things are going very well, time and location of meeting with North Korea is being set," Trump tweeted Saturday morning.
"It's going be a very important meeting, the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," Trump said at his campaign rally in Michigan Saturday night, according to The Associated Press.
The AP reports that an anonymous U.S. official says Singapore is under consideration as the location for the meeting.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
This 100% cotton bag– perfect for everyday wear. While the canvas material will show off your designs in great colors, it's durable and will last for years. The bag features 20" handles (made from the same canvas), making it easy to carry even with a week's worth of shopping.
15" x 16"Width
MANA Wahine Canvas Tote Bag


text:
$150.99 $177.95
T-Top Bow Shade 6'L x 90"W - Pacific Blue
Recommended for boats 17'-21'
A quick and easy way to gain additional shaded area on your center console boat with a T-Top installed. Constructed from Hot Shot marine grade polyester fabric, the top is strong yet lightweight. It is secured to the T-Top and bow rails with adjustable straps and quick release buckles for simple and fast installation. Shade folds down to compact size for ease of storage and is available in 9 colors to best match your boat.


text:
Employer reviews
(363 reviews)
Employer review details
Apprentice reviews
(44 reviews)
Apprentice review details
Provider overview
The Sheffield College is a Further Education College, providing high quality vocational training, academic qualifications and employability skills across the City region.
The College operates from a number of sites across the city that have modern workshops equipped with the latest technology. We work in close partnership with employers, universities and schools, to ensure that our provision is responsive to the needs of the region and the wider skills market.
We offer a wide range of apprenticeships at all levels, delivered by experienced industry professionals with many years of experience. Our bespoke service can be tailored to suit your business, and caters for individuals as well as training groups of all sizes.
Courses offered
View all 60 courses offered by this provider
Select a course to view locations, training options and contact details.
Piling attendant (level 2)
62% achievement rate (out of 80 apprentices)
53% national achievement rate
Explain achievement rate
SHEFFIELD COLLEGE, THE's training options
Head office
Granville Road, Sheffield, S2 2RL
Apprenticeship location
Check SHEFFIELD COLLEGE, THE's training options for the apprenticeship location.
Contact this provider about this course
- Telephone
SHEFFIELD COLLEGE, THE is the only training provider for Piling attendant (level 2).