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Government's new scheme to bolster social security is still hopeless
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has announced that starting in April it will "take action" to increase the "collection rate" of national pension premiums, specifically those for kokumin nenkin, the obligatory pension plan for the self-employed and those who otherwise don't belong to the company-supported kosei nenkin pension system. According to Tokyo Shimbun the idea is to send warning letters to individuals whose incomes are more than ¥4 million and who haven't contributed for at least 13 consecutive months.
Presumably, the next step will be for the ministry to start siezing assets. The initial criteria would target approximately 140,000 pension scofflaws. Eventually, however, they will go after everyone who hasn't paid, and since it is estimated that close to 3 million people who should be paying into the system haven't been for at least 24 months, the job seems daunting if not impossible.
There are many reasons for this delinquency, but the main one has to do with the system itself. Basic pensions apply not only to the self-employed, but anyone who is employed part-time or on a contract basis, meaning their employers don't pay into the kosei nenkin system. It also includes the unemployed, because according to the law every adult who lives in Japan must belong to the system, whether they work or not. And the premiums are the same, regardless of income or lack thereof: right now ¥15,250 a month (it goes up gradually every year).
The ministry assumes that about 90,000 people who should be "members" are not, and that number is probably higher, but in any case, excluding those who are exempt from paying (very poor, disabled, etc.), the rate of payment into the kokumin nenkin fund was only 59 percent as of 2012, and that portion continues to decline.
In a 2011 government survey, the number one demographic of delinquents was the unemployed, which is easy to understand. However, 28 percent of delinquent payers had part-time jobs, and they said they didn't make enough to pay. Moreover, 22 percent of the so-called deadbeats were self-employed or working in their families' businesses. Overall, 74 percent of those who said they couldn't pay gave their reason as "can't afford the premiums." The percentage is increasing because the number of non-regular employees is also increasing.
But the government says that 10.5 percent of households whose income exceeds ¥10 million have also failed to pay their fair share, and it's these people they are citing first. After that, 17 percent of households with incomes of between ¥5 and ¥10 million are delinquent. Both of these seemingly solvent income brackets say in surveys that they, too, cannot afford the premiums due to "financial difficulties," but there is also a considerable number who refuse to pay simply because they "don't trust the system."
The pension system's fairness has always been a point of contention. As it stands, if a person pays his fair share for 40 years, the maximum monthly payment he receives at 65 will be ¥66,000, which is not enough to live off of. The main concept behind kokumin nenkin when it was first devised was that the self-employed would still have income from their businesses or the sale of their businesses when they retired. Not only is that not necessarily true, but the bulk of basic pension members are non-regular employees who have nothing else to fall back on when they retire, unless they've saved and invested, which is unlikely.
Also, everyone in Japan must also pay into the national health insurance plan, which for most people takes priority since anyone can get sick at any time, but you only retire when you get old. Then there are people with some money who have bought life insurance annuity plans that give them some income when they retire. They may not see the point in paying double for a pension, so they don't bother paying nenkin.
But the most discouraging aspect of the system is that in order to receive even the minimum payment at retirement, which is less than ¥30,000 a month, you have to pay into the system for at least 25 years. Regardless of one's mathematical skills, it doesn't take much calculating to understand that paying ¥15,000 a month for 25 years for a pension that will be so low one will have to apply for supplemental welfare (which is increasingly the case) is not worth it.
What's particularly maddening about the government's refusal to acknowledge reality is that it continues to throw money at the problem. Tokyo Shimbun estimates that for every ¥100 that the ministry will collect with its new hardline policy starting in April, it will spend ¥90. In real terms, the ministry has budgeted ¥5.3 billion for "forced collections." Also, according to the law, it can only make delinquents pay up to two years retroactively, and if the individual has been delinquent for much longer than that the individual may wonder, "What's the point?," since he can only receive a pension if he's paid for a full 25 years.
There is no sense to the system, especially when you consider that the Democratic Party of Japan wanted to change it to something more rational, and made the Liberal Democratic Party promise to revise the system when it gave up the reins of government in December 2012. Since then the LDP has done nothing, because it believes that any change would be unfair to the people who have paid into the system properly all along. Famous last words.


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U of I adds LGBT question to admissions application
The University of Iowa has become the nation's first public university to include optional questions about sexual orientation and gender identity on its admissions application.
The university announced Wednesday that its new application asks students whether they identify with the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender. The application also offers transgender as a gender option.
Campus Pride is an advocacy group that works to improve the college environment for gay and lesbian students. It says Iowa's move is the first by a "major, public, and national research university."
University officials said the move sends a strong signal that that they value the diversity that gay and lesbian students bring to campus.
They said knowing some students' sexual orientations will allow them to track their enrollment and retention rates and promote programs that might improve their social and academic success.
Elmhurst College became the first U.S. college to include similar questions on its application last year. Elmhurst is a private college in Illinois.

subset: commoncrawl


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Thousands of protesters across the country have rallied against the Abbott government's budget in a vocal display of discontent at cuts to health and education.
As state and territory leaders attend an emergency meeting to discuss measures designed to cut $80 billion from health and education spending over the next four years, voters have voiced their anger under "March in May" banners in capital cities including Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
The gatherings, a sequel to the "March in March" rally held earlier this year, were not limited to budget discontent.
Protesters also showed their objection to Prime Minister Tony Abbott's stance on human rights, environment and industrial relations.
Social media was awash with #marchinmay and #bustthebudget posts.
Sydney protest organisers said they turned down offers by the Greens, the Labor Party and the Socialist Party to speak at the rallies.
Protesters started meeting at Sydney's Belmore Park from 1pm, with police estimating 8000 people were present by 2.45pm. The protesters marched to Victoria Park, arriving about 4.30pm.
A number of people were arrested during the march for disobeying police directions after they diverged from the planned protest route.
Blacktown resident Michelle Konnecke, who attended the protest with her daughter and granddaughter, said she wanted to show her frustration about GP co-payments.
The three attended the "March in March" protests earlier this year and this time came prepared with a home-made placard saying: "This sign is too small to list all their broken promises."
"This is only the second time we've come to a protest and we just decided to make a sign to make our voice heard. It's my daughter's and granddaughter's future we're talking about," Ms Konnecke said.
While some had been busy preparing placards for the event, Edna Dashwood was taking an afternoon stroll with her two children when she stumbled upon "all these left wing hippies hanging about".
"I wouldn't say I'm left-wing or right-wing, I'm in the centre wave. We'll march if they start talking about anything we feel passionate about. I am more concerned with changes that affect workers rather than those to do with welfare," Ms Dashwood said.
Jill Kaye, 70, came specifically to protest the breakdown of funding for universal healthcare.
"I'm not a radical, but having worked in healthcare as a nurse in Canada, Africa, England and Australia for more than 40 years. I know what I'm talking about," she said.
The protest signs were a mix of the funny, artistic and downright bizarre.
They called for an "Abbott proof fence", an end to the "nightmare on Abbott street" and to "stop the mad Wabbott".
It wasn't just an anti-Abbott placard party - there were signs in support of sharks, ABC funding and asylum seekers.
In among them all was Blue Mountains resident Beverly Redshaw with her sign: "Grandparents give a Goneski, too."
"I figured they weren't going to take photos of just my husband and I, so we made the sign," Ms Redshaw said.
"I am angry about the budget. Mr Abbott might be able to afford education for his kids but how about the rest of us? I believe in more funding for public education."


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|1,322 free recipes at www.edenfoods.com
Serves 4 | Prep Time 10 minutes | Cook Time 35 minutes
1/2 cup Eden Wild Rice, rinsed well and drained
1 cup boiling water
2 Tbsp Eden Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup minced red onion
1/4 cup small diced celery
1 cup fresh or frozen green peas
1/4 cup finely chopped green onion
1/2 tsp ground sage
1/4 tsp Eden Sea Salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Place the wild rice in the boiling water, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer about 25 to 30 minutes until tender and fluffy. Remove and set aside. Heat the oil in a skillet and sauté the garlic and onion for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and sauté about 5 minutes, and serve.
NOTE: This stir fry can also be used as a stuffing for winter squash, peppers, etc..


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We turn our backs for 5 seconds, and this is where he ends up. Still not sure how he was so sly and stealth-like as he slipped into place.
September 24, 2020, 101 North Court
15 hours ago
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Lisa Bernasconi
Office Location:FO 208
Office Hours:T,R 10:30-11:30
Email: email@example.com
Lisa Bernasconi's Faculty Page
Lisa Bernasconi received her B.A. in 1996 and M.A. in 1999 from the Philosophy Department at San Jose State University. She has been teaching in the Department of Philosophy for four years after a career as an insurance agent and broker in Salinas, California, where she grew up.
Mrs. Bernasconi's areas of interest in philosophy are Ethics, Political Philosophy and Metaphysics. She has taught courses in Professional and Business Ethics, Logic and Critical Thinking, Science, Technology and Human Values, and Introduction to Philosophy. She is excited to be teaching a course in Philosophy and Literature for the first time in the Spring 2004 semester.
Mrs. Bernasconi met her husband Robert at San Jose State University, when they were both enrolled in Professor Doug Henslee's British Empiricism course.


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Kids John Cena Chain Gang Pendant
Now you can be a true Chain Gang Soldier with the Official John Cena Chain Gang Soldier Spinning Replica Pendant!
This is an exact replica of the pendant worn by John Cena on WWE television just scaled down for a smaller child to wear.
The pendant is adorned with over 500 faux diamonds, and has a three dimensional spinning center plate showcasing the Chain Gang Soldier logo. The side of the pendant features Cena's "You Want Some, Come Get Some" slogan in three dimensional lettering.
The pendant comes with a velvet like box with the WWE logo printed on it.
The kid size pendant measures approximately 3 3/4 inches in diameter and weighs aprroximately 2 pounds and is suitable for children under 10 years old.
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Great Plains
Great Plains, extensive grassland region on the continental slope of central North America. They extend from the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba south through W central United States into W Texas. In the United States the Plains include parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas.
Sections in this article:
- Introduction
- People and Economy
- Physical Geography
- History
- Bibliography
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. Physical Geography


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FRISCO — Laurent Courtois and Juan Agudelo both scored in the final four minutes of the match as Chivas USA rallied for an improbable 2-2 draw with FC Dallas on Sunday night.
The hosts looked to be cruising to their seventh home win of the season after second-half goals from Jackson and Fabián Castillo, but Chivas scored in the 90th and 94th minute to earn the Goats an improbable point in both teams' season finale at a chilly FC Dallas Stadium.
First-half defense has been a calling card of FC Dallas all season and that trend continued this evening as Chivas USA were held without a shot on goal through the first half. But it was the Goats who had the best chance of the half.
Winger Ryan Smith was a constant threat through the first stanza and found some space on the left side to send a cross in to the feet of Juan Agudelo. The 19-year-old took a good first touch, but sent his shot wide from less than ten feet out as the clock struck 45 minutes.
A tepid first 45 minutes transitioned into a much more open second half. Blas Pérez, in search of his 10th goal of the season, was given a golden opportunity in the 48th minute when Fabián Castillo's ball found him unmarked in front of goal. But like Agudelo, his shot couldn't find the goal.
Minutes later, Kevin Hartman was called into action for the first time on the evening as Jorge Villafaña's driven cross was hammered on goal by Agudelo from point, but "El Gato" made a fantastic kick save in the 54th minute to keep things scoreless.
The breakthrough finally came in the 73rd minute as, out of nothing, David Ferreira sent a ball over the top to a streaking Jackson. The Brazilian took a slight touch before using his knee to chip the ball over an on-rushing Tim Melia.
OPTA Chalkboard: FCD keep Chivas off-balance in first half
Castillo was a thorn in the side of Chivas USA all night and the Colombian finally got his goal in the 80th minute. Another pass from Ferreira sprung the 20-year-old and he made no mistake, beating Melia to the far post.
Chivas showed late signs of life, however, as Courtois beat Hartman from the top of the box as the game moved into the 90th minute. Then in the third minute of stoppage time, Courtois crossed into the box for Agudelo to flick in for the equalizer.
The point ends a frustrating season for Chivas USA on a positive note, despite failing to post a victory in their final 14 matches of the campaign. FC Dallas end their season by throwing away yet another lead, the 11th time in 17 matches in which they failed to win despite scoring first.


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Rosner, Katharina (d. 1528)
Katharina Rosner(in), an Anabaptist martyr who was executed by burning at the stake with four others at Bamberg, Bavaria on 30 January 1528. They confessed that they had been meeting at Mühlhausen.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. III, 549.
Wappler, Paul. Die Stellung Kursachsens und des Landgrafen Philipp von Flessen zur Täuferbewegung. Münster, 1910: 45 and 238.
|Date Published
Cite This Article
MLA style
, . "Rosner, Katharina (d. 1528)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 24 Sep 2020. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Rosner,_Katharina_(d._1528)&oldid=146160.
APA style
, . (1959). Rosner, Katharina (d. 1528). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 September 2020, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Rosner,_Katharina_(d._1528)&oldid=146160.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 362. All rights reserved.
©1996-2020 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.


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Nineteen years after last hosting Saturday Night Live (when she was 10), Christina Applegate took command of Stage 8H to sing a song about her love of the mid-October, pre-holiday season with special guests, The Frumpetts and "Dane Cook" (Jason Sudeikis):
Applegate also showed off her dance moves as Fosse-obsessed dance teacher with her own language (aka ka-cunks and za-zous instead of a normal count). Oh, and did we mention her one night with Tommy Tune?
Applegate replaced Kristen Wiig as Fred Armisen's new love in the reprisal of the directions-obsessed "The Californians." Like any good soap, all of her dirty secrets, including her shopping addiction and her comatose first husband, came out of the woodwork just in time to (almost) ruin their wedding:
Sudeikis and Taran Killam went head-to-head as Vice President Joe Biden and Vice Presidential candidate Paul "Shark Eyes" Ryan in the show's cold open, which recreated Thursday night's debate. Although there was talk about the budget and jobs, it really came down to "gym strong" (Ryan) vs. "old-man/monkey strong" (Biden). The debate got a little star power from Ryan's running partner, Olympic gold medalist and special guest Usain Bolt:
What was your favorite skit of the night?


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December 27, 2009
The Sealed Letter
The Sealed Letter is based on an actual divorce case from 1860s London which caused quite a scandal at the time. Centring on a friendship between two women, one of whom is married and having an affair and one who has defied social convention to work in business and for women's causes, the story chronicles the effect on that friendship of public scandal. Well written by Canadian author, Emma Donoghue, it develops the story from each of the character's points of view as we watch them descend into a tabloid drama that leaves none of them unscathed. The legal system, specifically the divorce laws of the time is the other player in the drama - as one of the characters observes, if you made divorce easier for women, lots of them would leave their husbands. Wendy
Posted by Camden Council Library Service at Sunday, December 27, 2009
Labels: Divorce, Fiction, Historical, Lesbian fiction, U.K., Victorian England
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I've been asked many times to rank what I think were the most important speeches of the year by women speakers, but this is the first time I've turned myself to that task. And what I found in compiling this 2016 list was a mix of themes that are familiar to any woman who engages in public speaking.
2016 was a year of big defeats and stumbles: Five of the women whose speeches made this list were defeated, removed from office, or widely criticized. And yet they spoke up. They achieved power, or came close to doing so, and lost power or reputation, or both. And yet they spoke up. The optimist would say they've made enough progress to have the chance to speak, even in failure, but I think we may hope for more than that. These women's speeches were important despite the failure, and in many cases, they used the speech to make sure their views were noted and counted. In the world of women leading nations, we took 3 steps backward this year (U.S., Brazil, South Korea) and a step forward (England); together, those women leaders make up half of this top-10 list with 5 speeches between them.
It also was, for women speakers, a year of speaking truth to power, be that power an opponent, society at large, an elected body, or an industry. Those who did so often used a speaking opportunity to witness an ignored truth. I am particularly struck with how many of them called out misogyny this year, plainly and clearly. That didn't end the practice, but helped their audiences understand what was going on. We are at a seismic moment of women using their voices against sexist treatment of women, and that's perhaps the most enduring trend I see from this year.
Whether you agree or disagree with them is not the point: They have the right to say their piece. As classics scholar Mary Beard has noted, "It is still the case that when listeners hear a female voice, they don't hear a voice that connotes authority; or rather they have not learned how to hear authority in it..." So let's give these women a listen, shall we?
Each of these speeches is among the more than 200 speeches collected in The Eloquent Woman Index of Famous Speeches by Women. At the links, you will find video and text (where available) for each speech, as well as some history, analysis, and tips any speaker can glean from these important speeches. They come from U.S., South Korean, Brazilian, British, and Australian speakers. I hope you find these speeches as fascinating as did I this year:
- Hillary Clinton's U.S. election concession speech, given despite her eventual nearly 3 million-vote victory in the U.S. popular vote, is still seen as controversial by her supporters; her detractors found numerous ways to try to gender it and diminish it. But this speech drew some lines in the sand, and contains a special message to young girls who watched the possible election of the first female U.S. president.
- Michelle Obama's "enough is enough" speech about misogyny in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign was a heart-stopper and equally important in its message to women and girls: The bad behavior was noticed, and not normal. As with her Democratic convention speech, it was all about the Republican candidate--but never mentioned him by name. That's a powerful tool for any speaker.
- Park Geun-Hye's pre-impeachment speech was one of a few unusually public--and failed--efforts to forestall her eventual impeachment. Perhaps this one was chosen to make sure she got the chance to speak for herself in an important way, since it contains a clear personal message from the woman president deemed to be "neuter" and "not a woman" by some.
- Dilma Rousseff's post-impeachment speech also ensured that she had the chance to counter the propaganda against her, and encouraged women to continue their fight for representation. This speech marked her second smackdown by a coup, and gave as good as it got, describing the hatred and misogyny behind what was happening.
- Theresa May's first Prime Minister's questions signaled that Britain's second female PM could hold her own in the no-holds-barred atmosphere of this weekly session with the Parliament, the first of many to come. Her taunt of the opposition party leader used his own words to create a sticky metaphor and deployed it smoothly.
- Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination for president in an historic moment for America, and a revealing one for this speaker. If you're an introvert, this big speech is well worth a study. Well-written and well-delivered, it is indeed a presidential speech.
- Melania Trump's Republican National Convention speech got attention at first as a novel speech from a beginning speaker, and later for having plagiarized its content from none other than Michelle Obama. The furor and the error offer lessons for all women speakers, getting this now-First Lady of the U.S. off to a rocky speaking start.
- Linda Burney's maiden speech in the Australian Parliament wasn't just important because she's that country's first indigenous MP. She also used indigenous song, objects, language, and traditions--as well as strong words on racism--to make what is, today, a one-of-a-kind statement. But I think you'll see more women's speeches get creative in this way going forward.
- Beyoncé's speech on fashion and racism, given the night the fashion industry gave her "icon" status, described how it felt to have been rejected by every design house at the start of her music career...and thanked the family members who hand-sewed her costumes instead. I've heard many people wonder, not in a nice way, why her mother designs so many of her outfits. This subtle and powerful speech explains the racism behind that, the only decision left to the family.
- Lionel Shriver's cultural appropriation speech used a keynote at a writers' conference to cast aside her stated topic for a diatribe on political correctness, and to argue for the white author's right to appropriate other cultures. It wasn't popular at the conference, thanks in no small part to its mean-spirited tone, but it was famous, covered around the world. It is an example of the backlash against equality movements and identity politics so prevalent today--in effect, the opposite of numbers 8 and 9 on this list. I suspect it is a bellwether for more such speeches to come.
Get involved in more conversations on public speaking with The Eloquent Woman. Follow our Facebook page, read great quotes from eloquent woman on Pinterest, follow me as @dontgetcaught on Twitter or track when others tweet about the lack of women speakers on programs via @NoWomenSpeakers. Learn how to be a better panel moderator with The Eloquent Woman's Guide to Moderating Panels.


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Proteam Axle Turbo Nozzle
ProTeam Axle Turbo Nozzle
This ProTeam Axle Turbo Nozzle will be delivered in the United States in 3 to 6 days (international orders are usually delivered in 7 to 14 days). If you're not sure if this is the correct item for your machine, simply enter the model name of your machine in the "Notes" section when checking out. We will verify that this is the correct item for your machine before shipment. You can also call our customer support staff at 800.960.2015 or click the live chat button on the right side of this page. We offer over 150,000 parts and accessories. Our courteous and professional customer support team is always glad to help!
The Vacuum Cleaner SuperStore, VacSite.com is owned and operated by World Net Enterprises, Inc. of Harrison, AR, USA. World Net Enterprises offers over 200,000 products on 8 shopping websites. Your satisfaction is guaranteed when shopping with World Net Enterprises!
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Wed 13 Jul 2011
Wait, economists get to just guess and call it explanation?
Posted by Ed under development, Development Institutions, globalization, policy, research
[3] Comments
An interesting review of Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion and Wars, Guns and Votes by Yale Anthropologist Mike McGovern has gotten a little bit of attention recently in development circles, speaking as it does to ongoing debates about the role of statistical analysis, what counts as explanation, and where qualitative research fits into all of this. I will take up McGovern's good (but incomplete, in my opinion) review in another post. Here, I needed to respond to a blog entry about this review.
On the Descriptive Statistics, Causal Inference and Social Science blog, Andrew Gelman discusses McGovern's review. While there is a lot going on in this post, one issue caught my attention in particular. In his review, McGovern argues that "Much of the intellectual heavy lifting in these books is in fact done at the level of implication or commonsense guessing," what Gelman (quoting Fung) calls "story time", the "pivot from the quantitative finding to the speculative explanation." However, despite the seemingly dismissive term for this sort of explanation, in his blog post Gelman argues "story time can't be avoided." His point:
On one hand, there are real questions to be answered and real decisions to be made in development economics (and elsewhere), and researchers and policymakers can't simply sit still and say they can't do anything because the data aren't fully persuasive. (Remember the first principle of decision analysis: Not making a decision is itself a decision.)
From the other direction, once you have an interesting quantitative finding,of course you want to understand it, and it makes sense to use all your storytelling skills here. The challenge is to go back and forth between the storytelling and the data. You find some interesting result (perhaps an observational data summary, perhaps an analysis of an experiment or natural experiment), this motivates a story, which in turn suggests some new hypotheses to be studied.
Now, on one hand I take his point – research is iterative, and answering one set of questions (or one set of new data) often raises new questions which can be interrogated. But Gelman seems to presume that explanation only comes from more statistical analysis, without considering what I saw as McGovern's subtle point: qualitative social scientists look at explanation, and do not revert to story time to do so (good luck getting published if you do). We spend a hell of a lot of time fleshing out the causal processes behind our observations, including establishing rigor and validity for our data and conclusions, before we present stories. This is not to say that our explanations are immediately complete or perfect, nor is it to suggest that our explanations do not raise new questions to pursue. However, there is no excuse for the sort of "story time" analysis that McGovern is pointing out in Collier's work – indeed, I would suggest that is why the practice is given a clearly derisive title. That is just guessing, vaguely informed by data, often without even thinking through alternative explanations for the patterns at hand (let alone presenting those alternatives).
I agree with Gelman's point, late in the post – this is not a failing of statistics, really. It is a failure to use them intelligently, or to use appropriate frameworks to interpret statistical findings. It would be nice, however, if we could have a discussion between quant and qual on how to avoid these outcomes before they happen . . . because story time is most certainly avoidable.
3 Responses to " Wait, economists get to just guess and call it explanation? "
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[…] of the other, the value of this mixing drops off – qualitative team members become fig leaves for "story time" analyses, or quantitative researchers become fig leaves for weak sampling strategies or […]
[…] of the other, the value of this mixing drops off – qualitative team members become fig leaves for "story time" analyses, or quantitative researchers become fig leaves for weak sampling strategies or […]
[…] we already know that. What is interesting and important is why it occurs. Going for "story time" explanations of complex behavior does not contribute to our understanding of human behavior, […]


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Why Take This Course
The American Heart Association states that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) provided by a bystander immediately after sudden cardiac arrest can double or triple a victim's chance of survival. Brain death starts to occur four to six minutes after someone experiences cardiac arrest if no CPR and defibrillation occurs during that time. This course will help prepare you to handle cardiovascular events and other life-threatening incidents. Meets ILCOR/AHA 2015 Guidelines.
What You Will LearnYou will learn how to perform CPR, use an automated external defibrillator (AED) and become familiar with the signs and symptoms associated with heart attacks and respiratory arrest. Managing shock and controlling external bleeding are other skills covered that can help save lives.
You will learn about:
You will develop the following skills:
Find a BLS: CPR & FA Instructor near you.


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SAMJ: South African Medical Journal
On-line version ISSN 2078-5135
Print version ISSN 0256-9574
SAMJ, S. Afr. med. j. vol.99 n.5 Cape Town May. 2009
Vaccines for Africa (VACFA) website an innovative immunisation advocacy tool
Immunisation is the most cost-effective and successful public health intervention of all time, saving more than two million lives each year.1 There are currently more than 25 vaccine-preventable diseases, and the number of diseases that can be prevented by vaccines is growing as a result of advances in biomedical research, science and technology.
The introduction of immunisation programmes worldwide, following the initiation of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1974, has resulted in significant accomplishments. In 1977 smallpox was eradicated after a 10-year campaign.1 Poliomyelitis will be the next disease in line to be eradicated. Since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in 1988, the incidence of poliomyelitis has decreased by more than 99% and about 5 million people have escaped paralysis by the wild poliovirus.1,2 In addition, the WHO estimates that measles deaths worldwide fell by a remarkable 74% between 2000 and 2007, from 750 000 to 197 000. It is estimated that during this period 11 million deaths were averted globally as a result of measles control activities.3 Furthermore, in 2007 global coverage for the third dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis combination vaccine was 81%, up from 20% in 1980.1
However, despite these tremendous advances, more than 24 million children still do not have access to basic immunisation services, including 7.3 million in sub-Saharan Africa.1 Those who miss out on routine vaccination programmes tend to be people living in remote locations, urban slums and border areas. Such hard-to-reach populations also include displaced populations, those lacking awareness or motivation to be vaccinated, and those who refuse to be vaccinated. The consequence of not having access to vaccines, or not being immunised, is the untimely death of 2 - 3 million people each year from vaccine-preventable diseases.1 A large proportion of these deaths occur in Africa.
Africa lags far behind other continents in the uptake of life-saving vaccines. Most children in Africa have access to only 6 - 8 vaccines. In contrast, a child born in a high-income country such as the USA has access to over 15 vaccines.4 This vaccine gap is widening by the day. There is an urgent need to reduce morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases in Africa by increasing awareness of the benefits of vaccines, promoting the uptake of existing EPI vaccines, and advocating for the inclusion of new vaccines into national EPI programmes. In this regard, it is pleasing to note that the South African Health Department has introduced the rotavirus vaccine and the conjugated pneumococcal vaccine into the national EPI programme.
Effective communication should be an essential component of the EPI in Africa, because it could mobilise resources for national immunisation programmes, encourage wide participation and ownership of immunisation services among all stakeholders in every African country, and lead to positive changes in knowledge, behaviour and attitudes towards vaccines and immunisation in Africa.
These are the reasons why the Vaccines for Africa (VACFA) website (www.vacfa.com) was launched on 31 March 2009. The website is intended to be an interactive forum for the exchange of accurate, up-to-date and evidence-based information on vaccines and immunisation practices relevant to Africa. As such, it would be a 'one-stop shop' of targeted information for health professionals, policymakers, programme managers and the general public. VACFA complements the work of international immunisation advocacy organisations such as WHO, UNICEF, GAVI Alliance and other agencies in bringing relevant up-to-date information to decision makers in Africa in order to facilitate timely evidence-informed decisions.
Charles Shey Wiysonge
Zainab Waggie
Linda Rhoda
Gregory Hussey
School of Child and Adolescent
Health and
Institute of Infectious Disease and
Molecular Medicine
University of Cape Town
1. World Health Organization. WHO immunization work: 2006-2007 highlights. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2008/9789241596749_eng.pdf and http://www.who.int/immunization_monitoring/data/SlidesGlobalImmunization.pdf (accessed 7 April 2009). [ Links ]
2. World Health Organization. Progress towards interrupting wild poliovirus transmission worldwide, 2008. Wkly Epidemiol Rec 2009; 84: 109-116. [ Links ]
3. World Health Organization. Progress in global measles control and mortality reduction, 2000 - 2007. Wkly Epidemiol Rec 2008; 83: 441-448. [ Links ]
4. US Department of Health and Human Services. Recommended immunization schedule for persons aged 0 through 6 yrs United States 2009. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/downloads/child/2009/09_0-6yrs_schedule_pr.pdf (accessed 7 April 2009). [ Links ]


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NEW YORK, N.Y. – Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Friday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market:
PG&E Corp., down $1.75 to $41.89
Federal criminal charges are likely, the power company said, in a fatal gas pipeline explosion in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Visa Inc., down $3.68 to $212.09
Wal-Mart is suing the world's largest processor of debit and credit card payments over fees it was charged for transactions.
Red Hat Inc., down $3.90 to $52.23
An outlook that many considered weak overshadowed better-than-expected quarterly earnings from the open source software company.
Tesla Motors, Inc., up $5.05 to $212.37
The U.S. closed an investigation into electric car battery fires after the company agreed to install more shields beneath its cars.
BlackBerry Ltd., down 64 cents to $8.41
The smartphone company reported a steep drop in profit and revenue as it transitions to a software business under its new chief executive.
Finish Line Inc., up 57 cents to $27.05
The athletic retailer beat Wall Street profit expectations for the second quarter and sales at established stores jumped 6.3 per cent.
SolarCity Corp., up 64 cents to $61.38
Raymond James has stepped back from earlier doubts about the value of the solar company, and upgraded its shares to "outperform."


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Where you been? I've missed our excellent discussions. Glad you found time for a visit.
The term "quote mining" is usually used to speak of the fallacious use of quotes taken out of context. I agree that finding quotes can be like looking for rare gold and silver. For example, I love the quote from Voltaire "If you wish to converse with me, define your terms." I think that's great.
But when quotes are taken out of context to make it look like an author was saying the opposite of what he believes and said elsewhere, then it is a "high crime" of internet debate. Do you agree?
- Skepticism is the antiseptic of the mind.
- Remember why we debate. We have nothing to lose but the errors we hold. Who but a stubborn fool would hold to errors once they have been exposed?
Check out my blog site
In Isaiah 40:22, it gives a general outline of Earth as seen from outerspace... a CIRCLE.
In Psalm 103:12, it says,"As far as the east is from the west, so, far has He removed our transgressions from us".
Since God's forgiveness places our sins at the bottom of the sea, so that God will remember them no more. Ps.103:12 is giving an analogy of the distance between east from the west as being infinite. But, the distance of the east from the west cannot be infinite if it's flat... only if it's a sphere.
Job 26:10 says, if we look over the ocean's horizon, we'll see a circular horizon, or a curve on its horizon, which I've seen. A flat Earth would not show a circular horizon... but, a sphere would.
When the Bible talks of the 4 corners of the Earth... that's the 4 directions of South, North, East, West.. Also, when the book of Matthew says, that Jesus saw all the kingdoms of the Earth from a high mountain, which Satan took Him there to be tempted... that was a VISION, not physical reality.
The Bible does NOT say, the Earth is flat. But then again, haters of the Bible will continue to hate and lie about what the Bible actually says.
Taking things out of context is something Christians do all the time with the Bible to try and cover up all the horrific, immoral actions of its god!
Never trust anything you are afraid to question ~
To know oneself is to know the universe...
Live Fully...Love Extravagantly...For the sake of Goodness
Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Matt.10:16
Come let us reason together...Isa.1:18
My new Blog site: God and Butterfly
Accurately quoting folks in a way that accurately represents what they really meant is never quote mining. Quote mining is the attempt to mislead your audience by quoting out of context so as to give a false impression of what your opponents actually believe. Creationists are famous for quote mining in their effort to create the false and misleading impressions about what leading evolutionary scientists really believe.
There is no need for an atheist to "quote mine" because the best case against creationistism is to accurately quote what they wrote in context so that everyone can see what they really meant so their arguments fall under the weight of their own absurdity.
Here it is in a simplified nutshell:
Creationists tend to "quote mine" because the truth does not support their arguments so they must misrepresent their opponents.
Atheists do not need to "quote mine" because the truth supports their arguments and the absurdity of the creationists claims is most obvious when they are accurately quoted.
- Skepticism is the antiseptic of the mind.
- Remember why we debate. We have nothing to lose but the errors we hold. Who but a stubborn fool would hold to errors once they have been exposed?
Check out my blog site
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(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that's happening with country music artists behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.)
Sara Evans has an open-door policy. "I saw on TV that the happiest countries in the world are the ones where the people get together with friends and family often," Evans told People Country. "I just like to be around people and laugh." And when her house is full of people, she says easy comfort food is the best because that way she's not stuck in the kitchen cooking. "Everybody wants comfort food and finger foods. Most people don't treat themselves to that kind of food on a daily basis, so if you can go to someone's house and have something just so yummy, it feels like a special occasion." But if you do go to Evans' house, don't expect anything too formal. Evans wants you to put your feet up, and she doesn't care if you spill a drink on the couch. "I'm not a fancy cook," she adds. "We'd never serve caviar." Instead, she might opt for some of the recipes that accompany the story — spinach-cheese dip, cowboy nachos, turkey Rueben sliders and banana-caramel-sea-salt Krispies.


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I woke up today and was greeted by a brand-new best friend on my forehead – a zit. Is it gross to post a photo of a zit on a blog? Oh well, I'm doing it anyway:
I've been lucky in that I've never had a huge acne problem. I get a zit every once in a while, but I wasn't one of those teenagers that suffered terrible acne break-outs. As a result, I've also never really had a skin-care regimen. I use soap in the shower, and that's about it. Oh, and I drink tons of water, which everyone says is great for your skin. I shoot for a gallon of water a day. I don't drink the water expressly for my skin – I drink it because I like it, and it's healthy, and the skin thing is just a added benefit.
What's in the future for this zit? I guess I'll let it run its course. Unless it gets bigger and worse, in which case I might take matter into my own hands, by which I mean I'll apply a little toothpaste to it. Isn't that supposed to work? I remember hearing that on TV years and years ago.
There was no time this morning to focus on the zit anyway, because I had plans to meet my friend Amy at 9am to go running! I met Amy a few months after moving to Los Angeles over 8 years ago – we were both Pages at NBC (like Kenneth on 30 Rock), and we've been friends since. She read my post last week about adjusting my crappy attitude towards running, and suggested I join her for a run that she really enjoys, in Encino. Since part of my plan to enjoy running again involves running in new locations, I was game. Plus, at 9am on Sunday, it was only a 15 minute drive.
At 9am, we were in the parking lot of the Balboa Golf Course. Amy runs here regularly – at one point she was training for a marathon, until an injury derailed her training – and was familiar with the paths. There's a trail that circles the golf course that totals 3.2 miles, or we could do a route that's about 5 miles. I've only run 5 miles once in my life, and so we decided to do the 3.2 mile route, and just extend it if we were feeling good.
The path around the golf course was mostly hard-packed gravel, and all the rain from the past 2 days had created a lot of mud that I did my best to avoid (I'm glad I wore my old shoes). There was one time I couldn't avoid it, and it was the worst kind of mud – really thick, like pudding, and slick – I had to be careful for my next few steps, for fear of slipping or sliding, because I knew that if I slipped, I'd definitely fall, and maybe even die. (Sorry to be so extreme, but ever since my near-fatal run a few weeks ago, that's where my mind goes!)
I haven't gone running with a friend in a long time, and it really does make a huge difference. It's nice to have someone there alongside you, and, as a result, I felt really good during the run. My pace might have been a little on the slow side, but it was consistent, and I did notice my thoughts were along the lines of "I can probably keep this up for a while" instead of "How much longer 'til this is over?" So, when the time came to choose between heading back to the car or extending the run beyond the 3.2 mile loop, we opted to go further.
We headed up Balboa Boulevard, and entered Lake Balboa Park, which is a big city park built around a man-made 80-acre lake. There's playground equipment, and in the summer you can rent paddleboats, and you can fish and picnic and relax. There's a path that circles the lake, so Amy and I ran around that.
I went back afterwards to take these pictures. Here's the lake, with the mountains in the background:
Note the snow-capped mountains. That can be seen from Los Angeles – a very rare sight! It actually snowed in Burbank yesterday, for only the third time in recorded history, and my car was pelted by hail yesterday, too. Very exciting!
The cherry blossoms were in bloom, so there was lots of pretty trees to run past:
And there were also tons and tons of birds. Birds everywhere. There were lots of birds that I recognized, like ducks and pigeons and seagulls. I didn't see this swan when Amy and I were running, but when I circled back to shoot these photos, there he was:
Then there were the birds that I didn't recognize. Any ornithologists out there? There were hundreds of these guys, everywhere – what are they?
And here they are walkin' around:
And then there were these guys, who might be some sort of heron, or crane, or emu, or dodo?
I'm no scientist, but I'm pretty sure I've discovered where those birds like to shit – it's right there, on that roof. Gross!
The path around the lake is 1.3 miles. After that, we headed back to the parking lot. I looked at my iPod when we were finished, and the run lasted…. 60 minutes, exactly. WOW. This is only the second time ever I've run for a full hour without stopping! The distance, though, is an educated guess: the two loops we ran were 3.2 and 1.3 miles, so that's 4.5 miles, and the educated guess part is that we think we ran about .5 miles between them. Amy and I agreed upon calling it a 5-mile run. Time to update the chart!
- 9/21/10: Distance: 3.1 miles. Time: 41 minutes. MPH: 4.53
- 9/27/10: Distance: 3.3 miles. Time: 45 minutes. MPH: 4.4
- 10/5/10: Distance: 3.2 miles. Time: 40 minutes. MPH: 4.8
- 10/12/10: Distance: 3.8 miles. Forgot to note time and MPH
- 10/16/10: Distance: 2.9 miles. Forgot to note time and MPH
- 11/1/10: Distance: 3.1 miles. Time: 36 minutes. MPH: 5.16
- 11/6/10: Distance: 5.1 miles. Time: 60 minutes. MPH: 5.1
- 11/14/10: Distance: 3.9 miles. Time: 45 minutes. MPH: 5.2
- 11/28/10: Distance: 4.2 miles. Time: 46 minutes. MPH: 5.47
- 1/4/11: Distance: 3.0 miles. Time: 34 minutes. MPH: 5.3
- 1/24/11: Distance: 4.4 miles. Time: 45 minutes. MPH: 5.86
- 2/1/11: Distance: 1.9 miles. Time: 20 minutes. MPH: 5.7
- 2/9/11: Distance: 3.5 miles. Time: 38 minutes. MPH: 5.52
- 2/16/11: Distance: 2.9 miles. Time: 33 minutes. MPH: 5.28
- 2/27/11: Distance: 5 miles. Time: 60 minutes. MPH: 5.0
As suspected, not my fastest run, but I'm still very proud.
Keep it up, David!


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This was published 6 years ago
Conroy right to highlight lack of transparency
General Angus Campbell is a soldier. He follows orders. He cannot seriously question those orders without resigning his commission. He cannot even reflect on government policy without resigning his commission. General Angus Campbell, like the men and women under him effectively has no opinion on the government's use of the military to intercept and turn back asylum seekers.
And be not mistaken, this is a good thing.
You do not want to live in a country where the military makes policy.
But living in a country where the worst sort of people, the liars and scum and vicious misanthropes make policy, and where they use the armed forces of the nation not just to enforce that policy, but to surround it with the reflected aura of Anzac, that is not such a good thing.
Because that country sucks. That's a not a country to be proud of. That's not a country to love.
That's the sort of country that gets called out for lulz by egregious hypocrites like China and Iran 'for violating the human rights'. That's right, you're living in a country that the worst regimes in the world feel comfortable criticising as a human rights abuser. Nice work, Australia.
That's the sort of country that forces decent men and women who have taken an oath to serve, to not serve the national interest but rather sectional, partisan interests that are deeply destructive to the esteem in which that service would otherwise be held.
So Senator Conroy is right to call General Angus Campbell to account for the lack of transparency in the use of Australian military forces to seal the borders against the hungry and the wretched and the damned, even if Conroy and his party played their own ignoble role in turning away the seekers.
In free, decent countries, where the military stays quietly in its barracks, and callous deceivers and hypocrites do not debauch the public offices and discourse, in those countries it is considered a matter of no great import for tendentious policy and those who implement it to be questioned with the utmost vigour.
In this country though, that is not the way of late. In this country the worst are full of a passionate intensity, the best lack not conviction, but the means to effect that conviction in any way beyond gathering in their thousands, impotent and grieving with candles to mourn the murder of one such as Reza Barati, his head smashed to a pulp of bone shards and blood and grey offal as a consequence of public policy.
A policy it is apparently wrong of Senator Conroy to question.
Poor, poor fellow my country.
John Birmingham is a columnist for the Brisbane Times. He is also an award winning magazine writer and the author of Leviathan, the Unauthorised Biography of Sydney, which won the National Award for Non-Fiction. He amuses himself in his down time by writing novels which improve with altitude.


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Warren gives fiery defense of Obama
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren delivered a fiery endorsement of President Barack Obama on Wednesday evening while blasting Mitt Romney as a plutocrat blind to the needs of the middle class.
Warren, a consumer watchdog and hero of the left, aimed her remarks squarely at blue-collar, middle-class voters, repeatedly calling them victims of a "top-down" corporate world that, she said, had a close ally in the Republican presidential candidate.
( Also on POLITICO: Elizabeth Warren DNC speech: 5 best lines)
"I talk to nurses and programmers, salespeople and firefighters, people who bust their tails every day. Not one of them — not one — stashes their money in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying their fair share of taxes," the Massachusetts Democrat said of Romney, a barb that elicited a roar of applause.
"Mitt Romney wants to give billions in breaks to big corporations — but he and Paul Ryan would pulverize financial reform, voucherize Medicare and vaporize Obamacare," she added.
Warren, who's locked in a pitched battle against Sen. Scott Brown for a seat that could determine the balance of power in the Senate, steered clear of mentioning her Republican opponent.
( PHOTOS: Female speakers slated for the DNC)
Instead, she spent much of her time hammering away at a corporate world — one she said benefits from an unfair tax system that hurts families "hanging on by their fingernails."
"People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here's the painful part: They're right. The system is rigged," she said. "Look around. Oil companies guzzle down billions in subsidies. Billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Wall Street CEOs — the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs — still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors and acting like we should thank them."
Republicans, she added, "believe in government to help themselves and their powerful friends."
Warren also used her speech to highlight her working-class upbringing, detailing her early years growing up in a family that was "on the ragged edge of the middle class." And she touted her work on 2010 Wall Street reform package that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that, as Republicans are quick to point out, Brown voted to create.
"For many years, our middle class has been chipped, squeezed and hammered," Warren said.
Her speech came on a night when Democrats cast Romney as a symbol of corporate greed. Just before Warren took to the podium, a string of people told the crowd how they had lost their jobs to cuts imposed by Bain Capital, the corporate consulting and buyout firm that Romney headed up.
In her remarks, Warren praised Obama as a president who "believes in a level playing field. He believes in a country where nobody gets a free ride or has a golden parachute."
Brown, for his part, spent his day touting another endorsement from a local Democrat and his campaign said he will accept the endorsement of a former Democratic mayor Thursday morning.
Brown told reporters that he'd probably watch the opening game of the NFL season Wednesday night rather than his opponent, according to The Associated Press.


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Buster Keaton Collection
Buster Keaton at MGM
Buster Keaton, one of the true geniuses of silent comedy, was going
through some bad times in 1928. His marriage was on the rocks, his
last couple of films had lost money, but worst of all, he lost his production
studio. Joseph Schenck had set Keaton up in his studio years before
and had bankrolled a lot of Keaton's films. But Schenck had lost
money on nearly every film he produced since 1925 and was running United
Artist too. In late 1927, he decided to stop being an independent
producer and devote his time to UA. This meant that Keaton no longer
had a source of funds to make his films. In effect he was out of
a job.
Schenck was one of the last big time independents still working in Hollywood,
and there really wasn't anyone else that Keaton could turn to that would
put up the money for his movies, and leave him alone to create them.
The other two big silent comedians, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd started
financing their pictures themselves. (Lloyd had a production unit
at Paramount but financed it himself.) Keaton didn't have to money
to do that. So his only choices were to stop making movies, or to
join a studio.
Keaton could have gotten work at any of the major studios at the time,
but he settled on MGM. They were one of the premier movie factories
at the time, but more importantly Joseph Schenck's brother Nicholas was
running the studio at the time. Keaton probably felt that he would
have a similar working relationship with Nicholas as he did with Joseph.
He was mistaken.
MGM was a movie factory, almost an assembly line. They had writers
crank out scripts, directors to film them and stars to act in them.
Everything was scheduled and planned out before hand. It was an efficient
and profitable way of making films, but it wasn't what Keaton was used
to. Keaton's style was to gather everybody around, writers, actors,
camera and lighting men, and come up with a premise. They'd loosely
work out the opening and conclusion to a film, and worry about the middle
later. While they were actually filming, they would incorporate gags
that presented themselves and alter the script (more of an outline really)
This way of making films just didn't fly at MGM. They wanted a
completed script with all the gags worked out in detail before shooting
began. That way they could accurately estimate how long the filming
would take and how much the movie would cost before shooting even began.
Keaton baulked at this and ended up fighting the management a lot during
production of his first film for MGM, The Cameraman. Though
it was a contentious time, the film turned out wonderfully and is considered
Keaton's last great film.
Warner Brothers, in association with Turner Movie Classics, has now
released the first three films that Keaton made at MGM in a two DVD set
entitled The Buster Keaton Collection. This includes his last two
silent movies, The Cameraman and Spite Marriage, and his
first talking film, Free and Easy. Even though this is the
chronicle of a true talent in decline, they are still a very interesting
set of movies.
"Buster" is a tintype photographer, taking people's pictures on the
street for a dime. When a parade passes by, he's jostled by the crowd
and bumps into Sally Richards (Marceline Day,) a beautiful woman whom he
instantly falls in love with. After the crowd leaves, Buster takes
Sally's picture, but she leaves with her boyfriend, Stagg, before he can
give her the photograph.
Tracking Sally down, Buster finds out that she works for MGM in their
newsreel department. Wanting to impress her and compete with Stagg,
who's a cameraman, Buster hocks his tintype for an old used movie camera.
He scours the city for news but every time he thinks he's on to something,
the shot gets ruined. He eventually ends up in the middle of a Tong
war in Chinatown, but even that gets messed up. Will this shy and
unassuming man ever be able to get a good story?
Widely regarded as Keaton's last great film, The Cameraman is
also his most romantic movie. Buster's wooing of Sally is both touching
and humorous. When Buster stays up all night dressed in his finest
clothes while waiting for Sally's call, he gets both laughs and sympathy.
The scene near the end were Buster rescues Sally from certain death only
to have Stagg take the credit pulls at the heart strings just as effectively
as Chaplin's films.
Even with the romantic plot, this is still a gag driven comedy, like
all of Keaton's best work. This is a funny movie with some great
comic sections. In one scene Buster plays baseball by himself, manning
all of the positions. Buster improvised this part, along with one
of the other great gags in the film, where he tries to break open a dime
bank that just doesn't want to open.
The big action scene in the movie, the Tong War, is uproariously funny.
My favorite part is where Buster is filming two men rolling of the ground
fighting. In order to make the scene more exciting, Buster finds
a knife and hands it to one of the fighters, then continues filming.
One of the nice things about The Cameraman is that the gags are
there to advance the plot in addition to getting a laugh. They aren't
there just for comedy's sake, but also to assist the narrative. A
good example is when Buster has to buy a monkey from an organ grinder in
order not to be arrested. It's an amusing scene, but it also places
the animal with Buster for the rest of the movie where she's used to great
The plot is also very simple, cut down to the minimum so that the jokes
are in the forefront. From here on out, Keaton's films would be more
and more complicated, and less and less funny.
After all of the hassles with management, The Cameraman did great
business. It was one of Keaton's most successful films.
Unfortunately, MGM saw this as proof positive that their method of production
worked. From here on out, Keaton would have less and less control
over his movies.
Spite Marriage:
Keaton's next movie for MGM, and his last silent picture was Spite
Marriage. This movie had tighter controls than The Cameraman
and a smaller budget. The result is an uneven film that has a couple
of bright moments in it but overall isn't that good.
In this film, Buster Keaton plays Elmer, a worker at a dry cleaners
who is infatuated with a stage actress Trilby Drew (Dorothy Sebastian.)
He sees every performance of her play, and sends flowers to her backstage.
Trilby though, is in love with her leading man, Lionel Benmore (Edward
Earle.) When she finds out that Lionel has dumped her for another
woman, Trilby proposed to an astounded Elmer in order to get Lionel jealous.
The two are wed that night, but her scheme doesn't work. Lionel doesn't
seem to care.
The plot gets complicated here, with Elmer encountering some rum runners
who want to kill him. He eventually ends up on a ship out at sea
alone with Trilby, and then the rum runners show up and attack.
This isn't a great film. It is filled with routine sketches, and
it has lost a lot the charm of Keaton's earlier work. There are some
very good scenes though that make the movie worth watching. The section
with Elmer trying to get a drunken Trilby into bed was great, but the highlight
of the film is the stage play at the beginning. It was set up wonderfully.
Elmer watches the first act, making amusing cracks about the villain and
other actors to the uninterested man seated next to him. Then he
takes the place of one of the supporting actors and totally messes up the
next performance. Knowing how the play was supposed to look makes
Elmer's bumbling all that more amusing.
The problem with this film is that it is to complex with too many unnecessary
plot elements and scenes. The rum-running thread only serves to crowd
out gags and jokes, so this film seems to have a lot less than Keaton's
other films. They repeated a lot of jokes too. The hat-tipping/hand-shaking
scene was done three times, and Trilby luring the pirates down the hall
so Elmer could knock them out was also repeated several times.
Working from a totally prepared script, (one that borrows from Keaton's
earlier films at that) Keaton had almost no room to make the film seem
real and funny. The fight at end contains a lot of good acrobatics,
but it isn't humorous. As a late 20's comedy, it is pretty good,
but when compared to Keaton's other work, it pales in comparison.
Free and Easy:
The last movie in this set was Keaton's first talking picture.
I'm actually glad they included this film, since I hadn't seen it before.
It was interesting, though very sad, to see how quickly Keaton's career
plummeted once he signed with MGM. To say that Free and Easy
is a disgrace is an understatement, it is so unsuited as a Buster Keaton
vehicle that it is painful to watch.
Elvira (the gorgeous Anita Page) has just won the Miss Gopher City,
KS beauty contest and is going off to Hollywood to make her fortune.
Accompanying her is her bossy mother (Trixie Friganza) and her sheepish
manager Elmer Butt (Buster Keaton.) On the train to California Elvira
bumps into a movie star (played by Robert Montgomery) who invites her to
visit him at the studio when she arrives in LA. She and her mother
do go, but Elmer is left behind and has to find a way to sneak onto the
MGM lot, and mayhem occurs when Elmer tries to evade the studio guards.
Elmer messes up several film shoots, but even with guards and directors
chasing him, Elmer is determined to make Elvira a star.
It is hard to imagine a worse vehicle for Buster Keaton. This
film is an all-singing all-dancing musical comedy, not the type of film
he's suited for at all. This movie does have a simple plot, which
is a step in the right direction, but it is so simple it almost doesn't
exist. The movie is very poorly structured, without anything to really
move the narrative forward. It is just a series of below par scenes
strung together with very little thought to the big picture.
That could have been excused if the scenes were funny, but they aren't.
The writers, now that they could make sound movies, were determined to
make sure that everyone talked all the time, and filled the movie with
very lame verbal jokes. Exchanges like this make the movie abysmally
Director: It's very simple, say it after me: The Queen has swooned.
Say it after me.
Elmer: The Queen has swooned, say it after me.
This scene goes on for a while in this fashion. Not in a "Who's
on First" clever and funny manner, but a dull and tired series of verbal
word plays that are easily anticipated. It makes you wonder if the
writers had ever really heard a joke before.
This movie, as the above dialog illustrates, changes Keaton's character
drastically. In his other films, even the ones in this set, he plays
a shy and nervous but determined and competent man who is out to win the
girl. Here he plays an incompetent bumbler. His other films
often had him being a klutz or awkward, but by the end of the film he had
saved the girl and redeemed himself. Not so in this movie.
Here he starts off as a goofy fool, and that's the way he is at the end
of the picture. He never uses his intellect to solve a problem or
overcome an obstacle. He just messes up everything he come into contact
Physical comedy, Keaton's forte, is almost nonexistent in this
moviealso. Buster takes a couple of pratt falls, but doesn't
do any real stunts that his films are noted for. Instead they make
him spout inane dialog and even sing!
The ending, which was lifted directly from Chaplin's movie The Circus,
was supposed to be bittersweet like a Chaplin's film, but it wasn't.
The writers and director just didn't understand why Chaplin's movie was
so touching, and consequently, this ending is neither. It was actually
quite depressing and brought the whole film down. A horrible ending
to a very lousy film.
The movie proves that MGM didn't know what to do with Keaton.
They dressed him up in funny costumes for a laugh. They had him sing
and tell jokes, but they didn't realize that he didn't do that sort of
comedy. Ultimately, the problem was that MGM treated Buster like
an actor. He wasn't an actor though, he was a film maker. He
was well versed in just about all aspects of film making, and knew how
to set up a physical gag. MGM didn't want to risk their star getting
hurt, so they wouldn't let him do stunts anymore. They wanted a movie
that was on time and on budget, and Keaton wanted to make art. (Though
he would never call it that....he'd just say that he wanted to make quality
entertainment. Unintentionally he did create works of art though.)
Keaton stayed at MGM until 1933 and made seven talkies for them. They
were all of low quality, and the studio eventually teamed him up with Jimmy
Durante. They didn't think he could carry a picture by himself anymore.
Keaton drank more and more and MGM finally fired him. After that,
he made many low budget two reel films and had many hard and lean years.
Buster was eventually hired back by MGM as an uncredited gag writer.
He had small parts in several movies, including Around the World in
80 Days and It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. In the 1950's
and 60's people started to discover his classic films again, and realized
the talent the he had. He was hailed as a genius and received a special
Oscar "for his unique talents which brought immortal comedies to the screen"
in 1959. Buster Keaton died in 1966, but his classic movies live
The DVD:
The audio on The Cameraman was a two channel mix, whereas the
other two movies has Dolby Digital mono mixes. The Cameraman
was the best sounding movie, since it had a newly recorded score.
It was clean and clear, just as you would expect.
Spite Marriage's audio track was obtained from Vitaphone discs
that were distributed with the film during its release. Keaton reportedly
hated the audio that MGM released with the movie, and it's easy to see
why. In addition to the musical accompaniment, MGM added sound effects
were very intrusive and marred the presentation of the film. It was
really obnoxious, with some effects being put for humorous effect.
It didn't work. The sound quality was very good though, with very
little in the way of defects of background noise.
Free and Easy's soundtrack was easily the worst of the lot.
It has not been restored and it really shows. There is a background
hum through the entire film and the loud sections are distorted.
There are a fair amount of pops and cracks also. Even taking into
account that is an early sound film, it still should have sounded better.
These three films look pretty good, especially for something of this
age. A majority of The Cameraman comes from a fine grain print
struck from the original negative. The negative itself was destroyed
in a fire in the 60's. It looks very good, with a nice amount of
contrast and strong definition. Unfortunately the fine grain print
was incomplete and the missing sections were filled in with a lower quality
print. These sections had less contrast and more scratches and spots,
but they weren't horrible. Even with these sections added in, The
Cameraman is shorter than its original theatrical length. The
missing sections are lost, but do not effect the plot or rhythm of the
movie. Overall this film looks better than any previous versions available
to the general public.
The print for Spite Marriage comes from a full aperture 35 mm
negative made from the studio's nitrate print. This is the full theatrical
release of the film as confirmed by the continuity script. This is
the best looking film in this set. The contrast and range of grey
tones are both excellent. The image is clean and easy on the eyes.
A nice looking transfer.
Free and Easy is easily the worst looking show of the three.
The contrast isn't very high, and details are lost in dark areas and shadows.
There is a good amount of print damage including missing and torn frames,
scratches, and spots. There are large sections of the film that are
faded also. This is still watchable, but it doesn't look as good
as the other two films.
This set had a good amount of extras included. The Cameraman
had a commentary by Glenn Mitchell author of The A-Z of Silent Film
Comedy. This wasn't the best commentary. I disagreed with
his interpretation of some scenes, and he makes a couple of minor errors,
like the number of times that Buster breaks the newsroom door window, but
it is worth listening to if you don't know a lot about Keaton. He
gives short biographies of the other actors in the film, and explains some
antiquated jokes, but not all of them. Ironically, he notes the phrase
"from soup to nuts" in the movie, but doesn't explain its meaning.
He also explains the origin of the print for the film. (He does this
twice.) There are a good number of long pauses and he describes the
action on screen a little too often. He does include some interesting
information, but not enough to hold my interest for the whole movie.
Spite Marriage's commentary track is with authors John Bengston
(Silent Echoes) and Jeffrey Vance (Buster Keaton Remembered.)
The former doesn't talk nearly as much as the latter, and it sounds like
they did their commentaries separately which were then spliced together.
This was a little better than the commentary for The Cameraman,
but it still wasn't as interesting as it could have been. Bengston
talked a lot about the locations that were used, and how they looked today,
and Vance gave some background on Keaton and the other actors.
Both The Cameraman and Spite Marriage had Robert Osborne's
introduction from when the movies were aired on TCM and a 2-minute reel
of publicity shots from the films.
The most interesting extra was So Funny it Hurt: Buster Keaton at
MGM: a 38 minute featurette narrated by James Karen. Made by
Kevin Brownlow's Photoplay Productions. This was a very good overview of
Keaton's career at the time he made these films. Filled with behind
the scenes photos and quotes from people who knew him at the time, there
are also a lot of clips with Keaton talking about his time at MGM.
These were culled from an interview from the late 60's. Very informative
and entertaining, this is a great addition to the set.
Final Thoughts:
This is a set that I really have mixed emotions about. The
Cameraman is a very good movie, and Spite Marriage has some
great scenes, but Free and Easy is wretched. Knowing what
was happening to Keaton's career, and the ultimate outcome, makes watching
these films a little sad. Knowing that you are watching a comic genius'
talent be misused is hard to take. Having said that, I'm glad that
I have these films in my library. In the first two you can still
see the old Keaton in his mannerisms and the way he approaches a scene.
It is also interesting to contrast those films with Free and Easy.
You can tell the Keaton had practically given up by the time he made his
first talkie. There wasn't that energy and dynamic quality to his
performance that even his lesser early films had.
The picture quality on the silent movies in this set are quite good,
and while I wasn't impressed by the commentaries, the documentary that
was included was a very good extra. Fans of silent comedies should
pick this set up. There is a lot of good stuff here, even they are
movies Keaton made on his way down. Recommended.
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text:
I have two VEPRs, both have fit and finish that puts any Saiga I've seen to shame. However, one thing that may make conversion more difficult is that many of them are slant cut receivers (although square backs are becoming available).
I was going to turn my 5.45 into an RPK-74 cloe, but the factory wood is so gorgeous I'm likely to leave it alone. The 7.62x54R is waiting for the Ironwood SVD stock I have on order to show up.


text:
99.9% of programmers out there have not received any formal training whatsoever in optimization at all.
Some have, but it rarely goes beyond "try a few different approaches and pick the best one" (or rather, pick the one that somehow worked best for the chosen datasets, it could really be the worst of the options when dealing with live data.
THere's only a very few programmers that can look at a bunch of code, or look at a profiler output and see what's wrong and see how to tackle the problem.
And I'm talkign just "code" here. There's actually a bigger amount of optimisation experts when it comes to specific programming related fields such as optimizing/improving SQL queries and improving network related issues, and improving the GPU (3D) pipeline. I don't eally catalogue them as general code optimizers per se, what they do isn't really improving the interaction between their app and 3rd party api's by tailoring the code to suit the needs of the 3rd party API.
that's because that's not the job of an (optimizing) compiler. You expect the compiler to produce a bunch an object/binary in an acceptable amount of time and that will run the program with a reasonable amount of performance.modern compilers are very poor things to perform true HPC.
Under that ruling, compilers have become incredibly good at what they do. But in the end, they produce 'general purpose code', just like most libraries provide 'general purpose containers and routines'.
SPecialising Always makes code go faster, but compilers and libraries can't afford to go that route, unless you have compilers that are specialized at a particular task (and those do exist). There are compilers out there that will produce facinating blindingly fast code for math problems, but which won't do well on other problem domains.
and you will never know unless you write your fsort WITH if. Compile both with optimizations turned on. and run them side by side on the same computer with the same datasets.No magic, Just good Asming does do it for
I highly doubt removign a couple if's will produce improvements in the same order as the fsort/qsort comparison (which is comparing apples vs oranges).
microoptimizing doesn't provide that kind of percentage improvement and 'handholding the compiler' definately doesn't.


text:
Defense Secretary re-affirms Obama administration's unconstitutional stance
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Following controversy over his assertion that seeking "international permission" from the UN to launch wars trumps the authority of Congress, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta re-affirmed this premise during recent testimony in which he again stated that Congress would play second fiddle to the international community.
Asked by Congressman Walter Jones, who has launched a resolution re-affirming the limits to Presidential power by making the launching of war without Congressional approval an impeachable offense, whether President Obama would seek authorization from Congress before attacking Iran or Syria, Panetta stopped short of answering in the affirmative.
"We will clearly work with Congress if it comes to the issue of the use of force," said Panetta, backing away from comments made in March when he told a Senate Armed Services Committee, "Our goal would be to seek international permission. And we would come to the Congress and inform you and determine how best to approach this, whether or not we would want to get permission from the Congress."
However, Panetta later told Congressman Randy Forbes during the House Armed Services Committee meeting, "The commander in chief has the authority to take action that involves the vital interests of this country," adding that the President would have to "take steps" to get Congressional approval under the War Powers Act.
"Would the approval be required before you could take military action against Syria?" asked Forbes.
"The President could in fact deploy forces if he had to if our vital interests were at stake," said Panetta.
"So you get the support of Congress after you began military operations?" asked Forbes.
"In that particular situation, yes," said Panetta, re-affirming that Congressional authorization would not be needed.
Asked by Forbes if the Obama administration's position was that a consensus of opinion from the international community would be required before military action was taken, but that no such permission would be required from Congress, Panetta responded in the affirmative.
"In that situation if the international action is taken pursuant to a Security Council resolution or under our treaty obligations with regard to NATO that obviously we would participate with the international community," said Panetta, adding that Congress would only have an influence later when it came to questions about funding the effort.
Although not as brazenly as in the first instance, Panetta's testimony once again highlights the Obama administration's unconstitutional position in believing it has the power to launch foreign military interventions without Congressional approval.
In June last year, President Obama arrogantly expressed his hostility to the rule of law when he dismissed the need to get congressional authorization to commit the United States to a military intervention in Libya, churlishly dismissing criticism and remarking, "I don't even have to get to the Constitutional question."
Obama tried to legitimize his failure to obtain Congressional approval for military involvement by sending a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner in which he said the military assault was "authorized by the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council."
Watch yesterday's interview with Rep. Walter Jones in which the Congressman discusses his resolution to make the launching of wars without Congressional approval an impeachable offense.
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.
This article was posted: Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 8:33 am


text:
|Article Index
|UNRIC Library Newsletter - May 2005
|New information material
|New titles
|All Pages
General Assembly – Subsidiary Organs
English: http://www.un.org/ga/subsidiary/
French: http://www.un.org/french/ga/subsidiary/
Spanish: http://www.un.org/spanish/aboutun/organs/ga/59/subsidiary.htm
Reform at the UN: Management Reform Measures to Strengthen Accountability, Ethical Conduct and Management Performance
English: http://www.un.org/reform/reform_update.html
French: http://www.un.org/french/reform/update.html
Spanish: http://www.un.org/spanish/reforma/medidas.htm
Speeches Made by Permanent Missions on the Occasion of UN Anniversaries
English: http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/anniversary/index.html
French: http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/dhlf/anniversary/index.html
Spanish: http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/spanish/anniversary/index.html
UN Chronicle Online Edition
The United Nations General Assembly: A Review of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial)
UN Pulse (new UN-focused blog created by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library)
"UN Pulse alerts you to just-released UN online information, major reports, publications and documents. Created and maintained by a team of reference librarians at the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library in New York, UN Pulse is updated as new information is published and received."
United Nations Public Service Day [observed on 23 June] http://www.unpan.org/dpepa_PSDay2005.asp
United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)
UN Peacekeeping Operations – Background Note (DPI/1634/Rev.47— May 2005)
English: http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/bnote.htm
French: http://www.un.org/french/peace/peace/bnote.htm
UN Political and Peace-building Missions – Background Note (DPI/2166/Rev.22 – May 2005)
English: http://www.un.org/peace/ppbm.pdf
French: http://www.un.org/french/peace/reports/peace_operations/docs/ppbmf.pdf
2005 Economic and Social Survey of Asia and Pacific: Dealing with shocks (UNESCAP)
A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour (ILO report)
"This new report is the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken on the facts and underlying causes of contemporary forced labour. It contains the first global and regional estimates by an international organization of forced labour in the world today, including the number of persons affected, as well as the profits made by those exploiting trafficked workers."
Available in English, French, German and Spanish: http://www.ilo.org/dyn/declaris/DECLARATIONWEB.GLOBALREPORTDETAILS?
Business Contributions to UN Emergency Relief Efforts: An Orientation Guide
(OCHA & Global Compact Office)
International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking [observed on 26 June]: "Value yourself...make healthy choices"
Iraq Living Conditions Survey 2004 (UNDP)
"The results of the survey appear in three volumes: a "Tabulation Report", which presents the main results of the survey in tabular form; an "Analytical Report", and a "Socio-Economic Atlas" which depicts the situation in Iraq using maps and diagrams."
World Malaria Report 2005 (WHO)
Executive Summary is available in English, French and Spanish.
World Refugee Day [observed on 20 June]
Multilateral Treaty Framework - Focus 2005: Responding to Global Challenges
English: http://untreaty.un.org/English/TreatyEvent2005/Focus2005.pdf
French: http://untreaty.un.org/French/TreatyEvent2005/Focus2005.pdf
The Brussels based United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe - UNRIC provides information on UN activities to the countries of the region. It also provides liaison with institutions of the European Union in the field of information. Its outreach activities extend to all segments of society and joint campaigns, projects and events are organized with partners including the EU, governments, the media, NGOs, schools and local authorities.
United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC Brussels)
Residence Palace, Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 155, Block C2,7th and 8th floor, Brussels 1040, Belgium
Tel.: +32 2 788 8484 / Fax: 32 2 788 8485


text:
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Often we are Sydney's choice for residential, strata and commercial window cleaning, gutter cleaning, gutter guard, pressure cleaning, mould removal, house washing and pest control. Which makes us your one stop business for high quality, professional and insured property services. We value you and your property and offer you a satisfaction guarantee on all work. We specialise in regular maintenance work as well as one off jobs like pre-sale cleans (transformations). Obligation free quotes and an amazing service. We service Sydney Northern Beaches, Sydney North Shore, Sydney Lower North Shore, Sydney City and beyond.
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Arrested for DWI in Bates County? Call Butler DWI Attorney Matthew Lowe today for help
Protecting Your Driving Privileges after a DWI in Butler
Payment Plans Available for Drunk Driving Defense in Bates County
An arrest for DWI in Missouri is a serious offense. DWI laws in Missouri are very complex and the penalties for being found guilty are severe, making it very important to seek legal guidance from an experienced Butler DWI attorney.
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Being found guilty of Missouri DWI would mean having a criminal arrest record, which could impact your employment opportunities and keep you from opening a line of credit.
Protect your future and try to keep your driver's and arrest records clean by contacting Bates County, Missouri DWI Lawyers Dull & Lowe.
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Matt Lowe was born in Clinton, Missouri in 1977. He graduated from Clinton High School in May of 1995 and continued his education, preparatory and legal, at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Mr. Lowe received his B.S. in Political Science in 1999, and his J.D. in 2002. Matt was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 2003, and began working at the Law Offices of Dull & Lowe, LLC.
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Mr. Lowe is a member of the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys, Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers ("M.A.C.D.L."), the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers ("N.A.C.D.L."), and the Missouri Society for Criminal Justice ("MoSCJ"). Recently, Matt was elected as member of the Board of Directors of the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
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Call 24/7 (660) 885-9600