text:
ANDERSON, S.C. – A pair of walk-off home runs, first from sophomore Molly Child, then off the bat of junior Rebecca Martin, lifted the 21st-ranked Anderson University softball team to a 7-5 and 11-10 sweep past GRU Augusta in nonconference action Tuesday afternoon at Smethers Field.
The potent Trojan offense belted six home runs and three doubles on the afternoon, including Child's two-run shot with no outs in the bottom of the seventh in game one, and Martin's leadoff round-tripper in the final frame of the nightcap. Both Child and Martin ripped a pair of homers in the twin bill.
Anderson (15-1) has won five-of-six during its current eight-game homestand and has claimed four victories straight past GRU Augusta, which fell to 7-11 on the season with the losses.
"It was great to finally get those two wins," said Anderson head coach Tommy Hewitt. "We could very easily have lost both games."
Game #1
Anderson 7, GRU Augusta 5
Molly Child was 1-for-3 in the opener, with the two-run homer and was also hit by a pitch, while junior Jessica Neidigh added a pair of singles in four at-bats and scored twice. Junior Bri Cason was 1-for-3, with a three-run double in the sixth inning, with catcher Laura Jansky adding a two-run single in the sixth inning.
Junior Katelynn Howser earned the win with 4 2/3 innings of relief. The right-hander struck out five and walked two, while allowing just one hit.
Molly Child's walk-off two-run home run beyond the right-center field fence with no outs in the bottom of the seventh also plated Neidigh, who led off the inning by pulling a single through the right side of the infield.
The Lady Jags took an early lead with two runs in the top of the first inning and added three additional runs in the third inning.
Trailing by five heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, the Trojans' bats woke up, as AU sent 10 batters to the plate en route to plating five runs with two outs. Neidigh ignited the comeback with a one-out single – the Trojans' first of the contest – and four batters later Jansky ripped a single to left to bring home both Neidigh and Abby Child, who earlier drew a walk. With the bases loaded, Cason doubled to the fence in left-center to plate three more runs and even the score at five apiece.
With stellar defense behind her, Howser set GRU Augusta down in order in the top of the seventh inning to set up Child's heroics in the bottom of the frame.
Game #2
Anderson 11, GRU Augusta 10
Martin ripped a pair of solo homers, including the game-winner over the left-field fence, while Jansky recorded a one-out grand slam in the second inning. Molly Child was 2-for-3 in the nightcap, including a solo homer in the fifth inning. Senior shortstop Abby Child finished the game 2-for-3 and scored twice, with Neidigh adding a home run and a walk in four trips to the plate.
Howser (7-0) earned her second win of the day after surrendering four runs (three earned) on six hits over 4 1/3 innings of relief. She struck out three and walked two.
Neidigh set the tone early as the second baseman led off the slugfest by notching her third home run of the season. Freshman Courtney Czentnar's two-out double to right gave AU a quick 3-0 lead.
With two outs in the bottom of the second inning, Neidigh crossed the plate on Abby Child's sharply-hit single back up the middle and with the bases loaded, Jansky lifted a shot over the fence in center field for a gram slam, giving the Trojans an 8-0 cushion.
But the Lady Jags answered with seven runs in the top of the third frame, trimming Anderson's lead to just one. Each team plated a run in the fifth inning, courtesy of solo home runs, and with the Trojans holding a 10-8 lead in the seventh inning, GRU Augusta rallied with a pair of runs to even the score.
Martin answered for the Trojans by leading off the bottom of the seventh with her third homer of the season and second of the afternoon.
After a day off, Anderson will get back on the diamond Thursday, when the Trojans play host to Young Harris. First-pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Smethers Field.


text:
James wants to keep a low profile.
I wanted to hide his identity by calling him Jim in my articles, but James prefers to be called James instead of Jim.
We have been exchanging e-mails.
He seems to be a nice fellow and I have fun making jokes about genealogy.
James thinks he is a serious amateur genealogist, and I agree with him.
James wanted to know more about people here in Quebec. I told him about "les dits", kind of nicknames that people gave to others.
James sent me this question…
Hi Pierre,
Were these second names added later or were they given at birth?
I told him this…
They were given later at first, then… at birth
This came about to be able to distinguish people having the same given name.
Before, people had only a given name.
Then I told him this story I made up…
There was a James, and there was also a James living close by who had, of course, a son named James.
Then James emigrated with his son James and all the people were mixed up.
– Ah… This is James… the soldier who was carrying a rifle… we'll call him La Gâchette.
– And this one.
– Oh… this is James. He likes flowers. We'll call him La Rose.
– And this one…
– Well… he's a lumberjack. We'll call him La Forêt.
James the lumberjack had a baby boy and wanted to call him… You've guessed it… James.
So in the parish register they wrote…
On this date, we, priest, have christened James, son of James dit La Forêt. Godfather, James dit La Rose and godmother Marie, wife of James dit La Gâchette…
Instead of…
On this date, we, priest, have christened James, son of James. Godfather, James and godmother Marie, wife of James…
Have a nice day. I hope it's sunny and warm in Memphis, Tennessee.
See you.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Most examples I've seen are like this:
\begin{tabular}{@{}l r r@{}}
that is, with one
@{} to the left of first column specifier and another
@{} to the right of the last column specifier.
Yet the "Not So Short Guide to LaTex" says this construct suppresses the leading space.
I'm a bit confused. Which of the following interpretations are correct?
@{}suppresses the space on the side of the column specifier where it is placed (i.e. placed to the left of the specifier it suppresses the leading space and, conversely, placed to the right it suppresses the trailing space)
@{}should be placed to the left of the first column and/or to the right of the last column, but not in between.
neither of the above.
Unfortunately I'm not at a computer with LaTeX at this very moment so I cannot try it instead of asking.
Thanks a lot.


text:
Financial literacy is an essential life skill for the 21st century. Increase your financial knowledge with Cash Course.
Want to make the most of your money? View these short videos on topics that will help!
Making the most of your money!
Who gets aid?
FAFSA Overview Video
More information about federal student aid
The Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority (KHEAA) website contains instructional videos on financial literacy and is dedicated to instructing students on how to control their finances. You can also download their financial flyer (pdf).
It's Money Baby!


text: G&L Clothing can now outfit your entire family with a great selection of kids' clothing from Carhartt, Farm Boy, and more! G&L offers bibs, hats, pants, and shirts in both infant and toddler sizing. With our extensive collection, your little ones can finally dress just like you! Carhartt kids' outerwear is perfect for keeping your tykes warm and dry with the bibs, jackets, and hats available through us! They can be covered from head to toe, and with the same high quality Carhartt outerwear you've come to trust and endorse for years.


text:
Motorola's $199.99 Droid Razr HD takes all the great features of the original Droid Razr and kicks them up a notch. Featuring a 1.5-GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and yes, a massive 4.7-inch 720p AMOLED display, this is the best Razr yet. Even better, the Razr HD packs everything neatly into a chassis a third of an inch thick. Now throw in Android 4.0, Motorola's enhanced UI, plus Verizon 4G LTE data, and you've got one of the hottest handsets of the holiday season. That said, it faces stiff competition from the Samsung Galaxy S3, Apple iPhone 5, and Motorola's own Droid Razr Maxx HD. What also makes the Razr HD tougher to sell is its camera, which lacks killer image quality compared with other high-end handsets.
Measuring 5.2 inches tall by 2.7 inches wide and a mere 0.33 inch thick, the Motorola Droid Razr HD is very pocketable despite its large 4.7-inch display. It's a hair thinner, in fact, than the Samsung Galaxy S3 (5.4 x 2.8 x 0.34 inches) but slightly thicker than its predecessor the original Droid Razr (5.1 x 2.7 x 0.28 inches).
The 5.1-ounce Droid Razr HD is also heavier than both the Galaxy S3 (4.7 ounces) and Droid Razr (4.5 ounces) but only slightly so. That's no doubt due to Motorola's use of more premium materials in the Razr HD's chassis. A thin silver strip circles the phone's edges, lending the device a touch of luxury similar to the HTC Evo 4G LTE, iPhones, and pricey BlackBerry handsets.
I also like how the Razr HD's only physical buttons, a trim volume rocker and power key placed on the right side, are crafted from metal as well. Unfortunately though, there's no dedicated shutter button for firing up the camera in a flash. The phone's left side does contain micro ports for HDMI and USB along with slots for microSD and LTE SIM cards.
A standard 3.5mm headphone jack sits up top, which is where it should be. I can't abide headphone ports placed on a phone's bottom edge. Above the screen are the Droid Razr HD's 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, proximity and ambient light sensors, as well as a wide notification light, which I'm personally a sucker for. On back is the phone's main 8-megapixel imaging device, backed up by an LED flash. Razr fans will be glad to find Motorola's distinctive Kevlar fiber coating that protects against scratches and abrasions here, too. I also like the coating's soft-touch feel that repels fingerprints and grease.
One of the biggest draws of the Motorola Droid Razr HD is its expansive 4.7-inch 720p (1,280x720-pixel) screen. It's much sharper than the first Droid Razr's display, which has a qHD resolution (960 x 540) but produces the same vivid colors because both devices use AMOLED screen technology. Viewing angles are nice and wide, too, something that I appreciate since I often watch movies or other content while doing household chores. I typically place the phone on a nearby shelf at odd angles and steal glances at it as I walk around the room.
For banging out messages, the Droid Razr HD uses Motorola's virtual keyboard, which offers four rows of large, well-spaced keys and an arrangement identical to that of the stock Android layout. Thanks to the big screen, I found typing on the device to be both fast and accurate. You can also switch over to the Swype keyboard, which lets you drag your finger through letters to form words and sentences quickly and even with one hand.
Software and UI
If you're expecting the Motorola Droid Razr HD to ship with Google's latest OS, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, right out of the box, you're in for a disappointment. The Razr HD runs the next best thing, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), which offers a modern look and plenty of enhancements over Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Motorola claims, however, that the phone will be upgradable to Jelly Bean in the future.
One of Android 4.0's improvements is visible right from the lock screen that showcases the time and date in clean lettering on the upper left. ICS brings with it the capability to display icons for various phone functions on the lock screen that users can jump directly to. Just like with other Motorola handsets such as the Droid Razr M, the Razr HD lets you drag a pulsating key icon over to the camera, phone, or text symbols to fire up these applications. Additionally a sliding button that toggles phone volume sits in the lock screen's top-right corner.
The Razr HD also features Motorola's interface layered over Android, essentially the remnants of the maligned Motoblur of old. I'm happy to say it's not intrusive and even provides a few handy perks over basic Android. The phone offers two home screens to start with, but you can have a total of seven to fill with widgets and application shortcuts. The primary home screen occupies the leftmost pane and scrolls from left to right. An interesting and useful tool is the Quick Settings screen that appears when you swipe left from the main home screen. There you have access to often-used functions such as ringtone, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and Airplane mode.
If you've seen the Motorola Droid Razr M, Motorola Atrix HD, or Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE, you'll recognize the Circles widget taking center stage on the home screen. It's one of the slickest home-screen user interface gadgets since HTC's legendary Sense weather clock. It features three interactive discs that display analog and digital clocks, weather, and battery level.
Instead of physical buttons, there are three virtual Android keys running along the bottom edge of the screen, with icons representing back, home, and recent applications. Above this are four shortcuts to launch the same functions found on the Droid Razr HD's lock screen, though you can switch them for others if you'd like.


text:
Your Body
C. Norman Shealy, MD, PhD
Over the past 100 years our environment has exploded in toxicity--chemical
pollution, nuclear pollution, chlorinated and fluoridated water, machine
pollution, silver/mercury fillings, electromagnetic pollution, herbicides and
pesticides, and more. Foods with sugar, MSG, trans-fats, preservatives, corn
"sweeteners", artificial sweeteners, fats, colorings, flavorings fill
the grocery stores. Our soap is no longer soap--it is a detergent.
Everyone can benefit from regular
detoxification, especially those with toxic diseases such as:
For detoxification: choose at least one, once
a week for the healthiest; at least five days a week for those with disorders:
Add magnesium chloride crystals to tubs or use magnesium
lotion after the others.
Fill the tub with pleasantly warm water (102-104 degrees F).
Step in and rub castor oil over the entire body (4 to 8 oz.). Soak 20 to 30
minutes. Use an inexpensive shampoo and rub every part of the body liberally
with the shampoo. Wash the entire inside of the tub well. Be certain
there is no feeling of slipperiness before and after you empty the tub. Rub
your hands on the bottom of the tub to be certain it is not slippery before you
stand to dry off.
Rub castor oil liberally over the entire body up to the
neck, including arms and legs. Put on an old pair of sweat pants and
shirt or long Johns and socks and sleep in them overnight. You may reuse the
suit three to four nights before washing it. It will never lose all the oil so
you won't be able to use the suit for anything other than a castor oil suit.
Store the suit in a plastic bag with a few drops of lavender oil.
Dr. C. Norman Shealy MD is a neurosurgeon,
psychiatrist, founding president of the American Holistic Medical Association,
and president of Holos Institute for Health. An international speaker and
researcher, he holds ten patents for innovative discoveries and introduced the
concepts of Dorsal Column Stimulation and Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve
Stimulation (TENS), both now used worldwide. He has published over 300 articles
and is the author of twenty-five books, including his most recent from A.R.E.
Press, Medical
Intuition: Your Awakening to Wholeness. Featured in the documentary Medical
Renaissance: The Secret Code, he is cofounder of the American Board of
Scientific Medical Intuition and is perhaps the world's foremost expert on
medical intuition. Learn more at SelfHealthSystems.com.
Norman Shealy
Edgar Cayce's A.R.E. blog offers opinion pieces from contributors with a wide variety of backgrounds. These opinions are valued and create points of discussion. Opinions expressed in our blog may not necessarily represent the opinion of A.R.E.


text:
USD offers a Volume Discount Program, negotiated with a variety of vendors, to provide software applications to faculty and staff at no cost or at significantly discounted rates.* The four major categories are defined below.
Back to List of Available Software
|Enterprise Campus Licenses (Free)
|Enterprise Campus Licenses (Fee Based)
|Workstation/Limited Number of Licenses
Back to List of Available Software
*Our Campus Agreement is based on full-time equivalent (FTE) count of faculty and staff. Please note that students are not eligible. Students seeking software support are advised to visit the USD Bookstore.


text:
My laptop keyboard does not have media shortcut keys (e.g. "Next Track", etc). I frequently use the laptop connected to an external keyboard, which does. I go to Settings->Keyboard->Shortcuts tab, and select "Sound and Media", and I see that "Next Track" is bound to the shortcut key "audio next". I see that I can replace this with a custom key binding, but it overwrites the "audio next" shortcut.
I'd like a solution that allows me to map a second shortcut to this command without overwriting it. I see that I can define custom keys, so I could make a unique mapping for
rhythmbox-client --next, etc, but that would be a solution specific to rhythmbox. I'm looking for a more native Ubuntu solution that will work in any player the same way the current "audio next" media keys do on my external keyboard. Any ideas?


text:
NBML Course
From Noisebridge
Revision as of 00:09, 16 February 2011 by SpammerHellDontDelete (Talk | contribs)
Noisebridge Machine Learning Course
We're trying to come up with a hands-on curriculum for teaching Machine Learning at Noisebridge. Please help out in any way you can, such as:
- Volunteer to teach a course in one of the subjects below
- Fill in one of the subjects below with links to learning material and related software
- Show up to classes and ask questions
- Join the ML Mailing List and talk about stuff
- Don't talk shit on mathematics - it wants to be your friend!
Online Machine Learning Courses
Machine Learning
- The data
- The model
- Unsupervised vs. Supervised Learning
- Training a Model
Linear Regression
- Least Squares Formulation
- Maximum Likelihood Formulation
- Regularization
- Bayesian Linear Regression
Linear Classification
Generalized Linear Models
Gaussian Process
Support Vector Machines
Neural Networks
Clustering and Dimensional Reduction
- K-Means Clustering
- Principle Component Analysis
- Independent Component Analysis
- Dimensional Reduction and Clustering for Visualization
- Clustering Techniques for Text Collections
Graphical Models
Hidden Markov Models
Other Perspectives
- Linguistics and The Role of Language
- Simulation and Integrated Software Systems
The Fundamentals: Basic Math
Note: it's not essential to understand everything in this section! But the more you learn, the more things will make sense. Wikipedia is your friend.
- Linear Algebra
- Calculus
- Probability Theory
- Geometry for Computer Vision and Simulated Environments
- Logic and Set Theory


text:
The Single-Issue Trap
In 2007 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, a guide for American Catholics seeking to discern their political responsibilities in view of the upcoming 2008 national elections. In 2011 the bishops reissued the same document for the 2012 elections, along with a new introductory note. Though no one doubts that the ballots cast by Roman Catholics are a key factor in national elections, it's unclear what impact the bishops' guide has on that vote. A 2011 poll suggests that only a small minority of American Catholics consulted Forming Consciences before the 2008 election. Nonetheless, journalists, politicians, political strategists, and political scientists take the document seriously, viewing it as a significant intervention in American political life made by the religious leaders of a powerful segment of voters.
How should Forming Consciences and other voting guides issued by the bishops over the years be understood? What, exactly, is their purpose? The guides do not endorse any candidate or list of candidates—indeed, they can't without the USCCB losing its tax-exempt status. Yet clearly the bishops intend to influence Catholic voters by shaping their consciences in accordance with Catholic teaching. Furthermore, while the voting guides acknowledge the enduring principles of Catholic social teaching, their emphases clearly reflect the bishops' perception of the challenges facing the American people during a particular national election. One might more properly say, then, that the bishops' guides are "issue" guides, largely dedicated to articulating Catholic teaching on controversial issues in a particular election.
To situate these guides in the context of Catholic moral and political thought, it's instructive to note their evolution since the original 1976 version. In Political Responsibility: Reflections on an Election Year, the bishops addressed themselves to all Americans; insisting that "we specifically do not seek the formation of a religious voting bloc," they assumed implicitly that the interests, responsibilities, and perspectives of Catholics were broadly consonant with those of all Americans, particularly those who are religious. The guide's title expressed its worry over widespread political apathy, cynicism, and "the abandonment of political participation." While it did not flinch from the problems facing American society in 1976, Political Responsibility tacitly presupposed that effort and commitment in favor of the common good would be rewarded with results. Moreover, it presumed that the church's political efforts would be joined—or at least appreciated—by all people of goodwill. Such a belief rested on an array of optimistic assumptions; there is a natural, almost youthful energy in the guide's call for all Christians to "join together in common witness and effective action to bring about Pope John's vision of a well-ordered society based on truth, justice, charity, and freedom."
By 2007 these optimistic assumptions had evaporated. The tone of Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship is decidedly battle-weary, suggesting a lament for a nation mired in political crisis and trapped in a moral self-contradiction verging on hypocrisy. Whereas in 1976 the bishops addressed the challenge of political engagement, by 2007 the predominant concern is moral skepticism and relativism; the bishops worry more about the human capacity to recognize moral truth than about the motivation to act upon it. Accordingly, their text emphasizes the church's capacity to teach the moral truth relevant to political society. "What faith teaches about the dignity of the human person and about the sacredness of every human life helps us see more clearly the same truths that also come to us through the gift of human reason." As its title indicates, the guide is concerned about faithful citizenship—citizenship exercised in accordance with the truths recognized by the Catholic faith.
Forming Consciences is directed primarily to Catholics, and manifests a pervasive desire to steer the Catholic population toward a distinctly Catholic type of political engagement, one that will "apply authentic moral teaching in the public square." In 1976 the bishops hoped their words would "provide an opportunity for thoughtful and lively debate," whereas the 2007 document invites deference, even obedience, stressing "the moral responsibility of each Catholic to hear, receive, and act upon the church's teaching in the lifelong task of forming his or her own conscience." One might say that the 2007 drafters suspect there has been too much debate over the past few decades—and not enough effort on the part of Catholics to accept and act upon magisterial teaching.
The two guides show striking differences in both content and treatment. In 1976 the bishops identified eight issues for the reader's consideration—abortion, the economy, education, food policy, housing, human rights and U.S. foreign policy, mass media, and military expenditures—and covered them for the most part with brief summaries, referring readers to other documents, listed at the end, for a fuller explanation. In contrast, the 2007 guide identifies many more issues, and circles around them again and again. Part 1 lays out seven key themes: the right to life and the dignity of the human person; the call to family, communion, and participation; rights and responsibilities; the option for the poor and vulnerable; the dignity of work and the rights of workers; solidarity; and caring for God's creation. Part 2, titled "Applying Catholic Teaching to Major Issues: A Summary of Policy Positions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops," groups fifty-seven (!) issues under four broader themes: human life, family life, social justice, and global solidarity. Finally, part 3 identifies ten "policy goals that we hope will guide Catholics as they form their consciences and reflect on the moral dimensions of their public choices."
The most obvious contrast between the two guides is their different prioritization of the issues—in particular, the emergence of abortion as the paramount issue. In 1976 the bishops began with abortion only because they presented topics in alphabetical order. In contrast, the 2007 begins with abortion and goes on to treat the topic repeatedly and with special emphasis. Affirming the status of the unborn has not only acquired pride of place in the years since the bishops' first electoral missive; it has also acquired a certain organizational force and power. The right to life for the unborn is repeatedly used to provide the touchstone for the theoretical evaluation of other issues. Quoting Pope John Paul II, the USCCB goes so far as to say that any concern for human rights is "false and illusory" if it does not include an antiabortion program. The document regularly mentions the plight of the unborn in connection with other issues to which it is not commonly linked, such as the preferential option for the poor and marginalized, and the need to combat violence. The moral framework of Forming Consciences presents the right to life as standing at the center of all other rights. For the bishops, there is no doubt that the right to life is the fundamental issue of social justice.
This ordering of issues shapes the bishops' advice regarding voting. "A Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who takes a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, such as abortion or racism, if the voter's intent is to support that position," they write. And while they also remind us that "a voter should not use a candidate's opposition to an intrinsic evil to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life and dignity," note the contrast: a clear prohibition against voting for a candidate because he or she supports abortion rights, but only a vague admonition against "indifference or inattentiveness" to other important moral issues. The USCCB could have made the point in the reverse way, with a clear prohibition of voting for someone with an unacceptable stance on other moral issues, set over against an admonition against "indifference or inattentiveness" to abortion. But the bishops did not do so. The logical structure of the passage prioritizes abortion.
So when can a Catholic vote for a prochoice candidate? According to Forming Consciences, "a Catholic who rejects a candidate's unacceptable position" may vote for that candidate "only for truly grave moral reasons." Regarding abortion, the bishops' discussion seems to limit this option to a situation where there is no prolife candidate available. "When all candidates hold a position in favor of an intrinsic evil," the guide advises, "the conscientious voter faces a dilemma. The voter may decide to take the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate or, after careful deliberation, may decide to vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other authentic human goods."
Given the guide's sustained emphasis on the importance and uniqueness of abortion, what does it mean for the bishops to affirm that "as Catholics we are not single-issue voters"? "A candidate's position on a single issue is not sufficient to guarantee a voter's support," the bishops assert. "Yet a candidate's position on a single issue that involves an intrinsic evil, such as support for legal abortion or the promotion of racism, may legitimately lead a voter to disqualify a candidate from receiving support." Nowhere does the document straightforwardly allow a Catholic voter to select a prochoice candidate if there is a prolife candidate in the race. In contrast, on numerous occasions the USCCB affirms the decision to refuse to cast a vote for a prochoice candidate, even if the only alternative is to refrain from voting altogether. The ordering of issues is clear: First consider abortion and then consider everything else. Other moral issues become important after the candidates successfully pass the abortion hurdle.
Consequently—in contradistinction to the 1976 document—the USCCB now strongly encourages Catholics to walk into the polls with one particular issue at the top of the list. Only after emphasizing again that "the moral obligation to oppose intrinsically evil acts has a special claim on our consciences and our actions" do the bishops gesture toward other factors involved in electing a candidate: "a candidate's commitments, character, integrity, and ability to influence a given issue." This one lonely sentence pointing to the need to evaluate the personal qualities of the candidate reads like little more than a half-hearted afterthought in the context of Forming Consciences' overwhelming emphasis on abstract issues. The guide does not pursue the logical follow-up questions. The bishops do not even raise, for example, the possibility that a particular candidate (or party) might fabricate a commitment to end abortion for strategic political reasons. Forming Consciences does not caution voters to evaluate the sincerity with which a candidate holds a particular position; rather, it seems simply to assume candidates will enact their platforms if elected to office.
But aren't questions about character, integrity, and efficacy the crucial questions? What do we do, after all, when we vote in an election? Selecting a candidate for public office means judging a candidate's probable exercise of his responsibilities while in office. It combines judgment about the merits of the candidate with a prediction about the nature of the challenges he or she will face during the upcoming term. In assessing candidates for a particular office, four considerations are paramount: 1) Competence—does the candidate have the intellectual capacity, the experience, the temperament, and judgment to do the job? 2) Character—does the candidate have a good set of moral values and the integrity to pursue them in situations of temptation and fear? 3) Collaboration—can the candidate work well with other people, both political allies and opponents? 4) Connections—what are the moral and practical ramifications of the candidate's political and financial connections for the manner in which he or she will carry out the job? Politicians, after all, do not act alone; they operate within networks of political power, including party affiliations, lobbyists, and big corporate and individual donors.
The point of electing candidates to an office is to empower and enable them to accomplish a set of tasks in service of the common good. Various qualities go into being an effective political servant. These qualities are not fungible, and a certain minimum level of achievement is indispensable with respect to each: saintly demeanor does not make up for lack of experience or intelligence; strategic brilliance does not compensate for antisocial behavior, and so on. Precisely because politics is not a solitary activity, the same criteria for holding political power ought to be applied with respect to the party with which a particular candidate is affiliated. In some cases, in fact, the voter's view of the party ought to be decisive. Depending on the situation, "voting the party" rather than voting for a particular candidate may be a morally justifiable strategy. If party politics are strong, then voters in a general election often find themselves choosing between already assembled political teams with competing governing strategies and priorities.
Such reflections allow us to gain some critical perspective on the idea of faithful citizenship—and on Forming Consciences. First, it would have been wise for the bishops to focus on what it means to vote for a candidate rather than an issue. Yes, the bishops' tax-exempt status prevents them from endorsing or opposing particular candidates; it does not, however, prevent them from reflecting on a candidate's competence, collaborative abilities, connections, and character. What are the virtues of a good public servant? Recent Catholic moral theology has witnessed a resurgence of interest in the role of virtue in the moral life; it would make sense to extend the analysis to the virtues necessary for political leadership, particularly in a pluralistic liberal democracy such as our own.
In that context we might ask, Does someone who does not support overturning Roe possess ipso facto a defective moral character that renders him or her unfit for office? In my view, the answer very much depends on the reasons underlying the position. Living in a pluralistic society requires citizens to develop a sense of which views fall within the category of "reasonable, but wrong." So, for example, the character of a candidate who thinks that unborn life has no value whatsoever at any stage in pregnancy should be evaluated differently from one who thinks that American society is too divided over the issue to make fundamental alterations to U.S. constitutional law.
Let me emphasize that I am not implying that abortion is not important or even fundamental. I mean only to say that part of the reason abortion is such an intractable issue is that social patterns have crystallized around the fact that abortion is a readily available, widely used, and legal option. Moreover, the fundamental legal status of abortion is not subject to significant immediate change by any elected official, including the president. Because the Supreme Court has conferred constitutional protection on a woman's right to choose abortion, it will take the Supreme Court to reverse its own holding—or a constitutional amendment. It is true that the president appoints Supreme Court justices who then go on to serve life terms. No president, however, can control how many nominations he or she will get to make, or whether the Senate will confirm them—or, for that matter, how a justice votes after he or she is confirmed. Finally, there is good reason to think that the justices are acutely aware that overturning Roe could be as destabilizing to the legal system as the original opinion was some forty years ago.
Am I suggesting that a candidate's stand on legal abortion is insignificant? Absolutely not. I do believe, however, that simply correlating a politician's stand on Roe v. Wade with a vote for or against him or her does not do justice to the question of how, morally, citizens should vote. After all, apart from referenda items, voters are asked to select among people, not positions. Election guides would do well to place more emphasis on assessing the fitness of candidates for a particular office. That assessment should include scrutiny of both the candidate's moral character—paying particular attention to the virtues and vices most likely to be involved in the elected post—and the candidate's social and political networks. With whom will he or she work? To whom will he or she be loyal? These are key questions. Many election guides, however, emphasize instead the issues they perceive to be (or hope to be) relevant to the voters. The election guides issued by the USCCB are no exception.
How, then, should citizens think morally and practically about the issues relevant to a particular election? In my view the term "issue" is vague; too often the word simultaneously encompasses the diagnosis of a problem, an account of its cause, and a proposed solution. Evaluating a candidate's stand on the issues requires careful attention to each of these three factors. Furthermore, political issues and the underlying problems they highlight claim our attention in different ways. Some are important, even fundamental, because they go to the basic structure of the political community; others are urgent because the mandate to protect the well-being of the community demands that they be addressed here and now. Issues, then, are not abstract propositions about the community; they are action items, indicating the problems that can be addressed by the tools available to political officeholders. Instead of evaluating the relative significance of issues in the abstract, voters should consider whether and to what degree the problems identified by the issues can be ameliorated by the particular candidate seeking a particular office.
For nearly forty years, abortion has been a constitutionally protected practice, and its legal status is not immediately susceptible to any sort of significant change at the federal level. The difficulty of changing this reality via a constitutional amendment has led large segments of the prolife movement, including the U.S. bishops' conference, to concentrate on achieving that same goal indirectly, by electing presidents who will over time remake the Supreme Court. It seems to me that the divisions in the country that make the direct strategy practically impossible also tell against the effectiveness of this indirect strategy.
Moreover, the indirect strategy has significant moral problems. Supporting a constitutional amendment directly targeted at undoing Roe conflicts with few, if any, of a voter's other duties to promote the common good, and merits serious consideration. But the prolife movement's indirect strategy of making abortion a litmus-test issue for voters, with the expectation that they will elect officials who will somehow overturn Roe, does raise red flags. The duty of a voter is to promote the common good by selecting the best candidate for a political office in light of the range of factors I have outlined. Given that most office-holders have multifaceted responsibilities, voters cannot consider only one issue—even a fundamental issue—in casting their ballots. Presidential elections are no exception.
Voters cannot blind themselves and focus single-mindedly on one issue in the abstract, even if the issue is abortion. They must select among candidates, not among issues—and they are morally required to do so in light of the concrete challenges and possibilities for the common good posed by a specific election at a specific time. This, and not a litmus test of issues, is what forming consciences for faithful citizenship is really all about.
This essay is adapted from her book Law's Virtues: Fostering Autonomy and Solidarity in American Society (Georgetown University Press). Funding for this article is provided by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
About the Author
Cathleen Kaveny is the Darald and Juliet Libby Professor in the Theology Department and Law School at Boston College.
10 comments
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This is a very helpful article. I would like to add one distinction. I am dismayed when the term "pro-life" is considered synonymous with "anti-abortion". I think for someone to be regared as truly pro-life from a Catholic point of view, they should be able to read Evangelium Vitae by Pope John Paul II and affirm every position the Pope takes, or else explan why not.
For example, is a person against abortion, and also agains the death penalty, against torture, against the arms trade and against war? Many anti-abortionists are enthusiasts for execution, torture, more expenditure on the military and are happy to go to war with little provocation.
Certainly this is a complex issue, but let's not call such a person "pro-life". Call them anti-abortion until they prove their wider pro-life credentials.
"For the bishops, there is no doubt that the right to life is the fundamental issue of social justice." If the right to life were truly the fundamental issue in the bishops' eyes wouldn't we be consantly hearing from them condemnations not simply of abotrion, but also of modern warfare (where noncombaant civilians are the main causualties), nuclear strike forces (which would necessarily result in indiscriminate slaughter), massive "collateral" damage taken as a matter of course, non- judicial assasinations and coups orchestrated by government agencies, terrorist attacks, capital punishment at least in any first-world society, and so forth? We are absolutely certain that the men, women and children killed in such ways are human persons. If defenseless human life is so important to the bishops, why do they not speak out on these other things at least as much as they do about abortion? Is it really the right to life that matters so much to them? I wish Archbishop Bernardin were still alive to help me word this better. He must be turning over in his grave. God rest him.
I take the statement that the voter cannot use opposition to the intrinsic evil of abortion to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important issues, not as a prioritizing of abortion above other grave evils[pre-emptive war, torture, bombing civilians to get one or more combatants, assassinations, indefinte detention etc.] but as an appeal to raise the consciousness of anti abortion one issue voters.The phraseology is used to appeal to these voters and to admonish them that there are other intrinsic evils where people are treated as means to an end.The church has spoken out against these other evils yet many right wing catholic hawks or one issue anti abortion voters pay no heed. This statement is an attempt to meet these people where they are to remind them that indeed life outside the womb is as sacred as life inside the womb. I myself cannot in good conscious vote for any of these candidates as none of them are truly pro-life i.e. believe in the seemless sanctity of life .I know that my one vote is just a drop in the bucket inf a culture that has normalized intrinsic evil[abortion,pre-emptive war, torture,assassinations,indefinite detention etc.] but it is a drop in the bucket I have the power to withhold. I know I also contribute to this normailiztion of intrinsic evil just by living here and paying taxes-but at least by not voting I can choose to not add that extra drop of validation if not complicity with intrinsic evil.
Professor Kaveny:
Thank you for the fine analysis. The Bishops are caught in a way of thinking that would I suspect lead them to write off your essay as "relativism" because their moralism would reduce contrext to their dreaded relativism. Their absolutism seems to assume context is like marbles in a box rather than, as you indicate, more like events in history. A fellow Catholic once asked me if what I had said was true was absolutely true. I remember wondering what would 'absolutely' add if I said yes.
Why can't we hear why Christians believe that having a child is such a great act of hope? And why our hearts are hurt when we hear of an abortion?
My reading of the bishops' voting guide in 2008 was a bit different from Kaveny's. I interpreted it as saying that unless I voted for a candidate mainly because of their pro-choice stand, I was free to vote for that person. I did, but only after strongly considering not voting for president at all. I had quickly ruled out the Rep candidate because of GOP proposed welfare cuts that would have increased the number of abortions.
Cutting AFDC resulted in those formerly eligible for these benefits having the highest rate of abortion. More welfare cuts would mean even more abortions. But this is not the only kind of abortion. There is also post-natal abortion (failure to survive) caused by inadequate nutrition and medical care for newborn and mother. And there is spontaneous abortion caused by inadequate nutrition and medical care for mother and fetus.
Does anybody really know what the Nazi position on healthcare was? Does anybody really care?
The hierarchs are so irrelevant and alienated from my life and the lives of millions of Americans that their advocacy for any candidate or issue is meaningless to voters decisions.
Until such time as I have a say in who is my pastor or bishop, I don't need or want their opinion.
The hierarchs should save their breath.
If a man was running for President and stated, " I hate black people and if I am elected I will fund programs to eliminate the black population," NO ONE WOULD VOTE FOR THEM. But wait racism is only one issue? Some issues are so important that their importance trumps all other issues. Abortion is considered murder by the Catholic church there fore are you really surprised the bishops require their flock to vote Pro-Life? Murder is murder. If someone murdered someone and then immediately after handed a check to st.vincent de paul would that make him a good person? Obama supports murder but he wants to help the poor...does that make him a canidate worth considering? Yes, I voted based on one issue and one issue alone. Because I am Catholic and do not treat my faith like a buffet in a cafeteria where you can pick and choose what to take or beileve. For example "oh i'll agree with the church on this but no i wont agree that abortion is murder." If you will not vote with the church on the issue of abortion....why even label youself a catholic. Sitting in a garage doesnt make you a car the same way kneeling at church on sundays doesnt make you a catholic. What does make you a catholic is your works, your actions, the proof of your faith.
I'm sorry I missed this article when it came out. It is very important.
In a nutshell, the bishops are asking us to compromise our adherence to the full teaching on social justice to accommodate politicians who are only nominally pro-life. Without accountability for actual results, many Catholics are selling their votes on the cheap.
Furthermore, the bishops too easily accept how the abortion debate is currently framed: as a wedge issue designed not to educate or unite people towards respect for life, but to instill fear and play to anger in order to simply win votes. Instead, the bishops should take a more enlightened position and demand full justice from our all our politicians and respect for life at all stages from conception to natural death.
In the end, abortion is about the loss of hope. Faced with an unintended pregnancy, young women seeking abortion have lost hope in their ability to secure their own futures, lost hope that their communities can support them and their families, lost hope in the futures of their children, and, especially, lost hope in the power of God's creation and the redemptive force of His love.
Until the bishops demand policies that restore hope to women, and that reflect the full and indivisible meaning of social justice, we will never solve the problem of abortion.


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Doogan's Favorite Spot
12 comments:
Thanks for stoppying by my blog the other day. I appreciate your comments.ReplyDelete
Doogan is such a sweet boy, I can tell. What does he like to see when he's looking out the window? Birds? Squirrels? Butterflies? Lizards basking on the ledge?
Aww he looks very cosy there. I am loving his hair at the moment!ReplyDelete
Alfie's coat is looking very similar although I must get him a winter coat soon as it is starting to get cold on his walks.
Doogan is totally adorable and I just love his favorite spot! Looks totally comfortable and great for a "look out" spot!!ReplyDelete
Hope all's well with you girlfriend!! You have been BUSY!!!
When we brought Elsie home we wondered if we would let her on the sofas and chairs, but then I remembered that Jilly Cooper (who is one of my favourite authors) lets the dogs in her books sleep on the sofa, so that was good enough for me.ReplyDelete
Doogan looks so cozy, and it's a great position to watch out of the window. :)
He's still the cutest boy around! Isn't it funny how he pushes between the cushion and the back of the sofa? xo DianaReplyDelete
Oh I just love this dog so much and am still praying for the safe return of his brother. such cute photo!ReplyDelete
Hi Doogan!ReplyDelete
Well what do you know? That is MY favourite spot to sit too!
Woofs and licks from Bella XXXXXXXXXXXXX
I love that he gets between the back of the sofa and the pillow...like a little private nest. He is adorable! My love bug gets on the furniture too. His favorite spot is the very large black & white ticking chair or the ottoman that matches. Both are washable and easy to handle. As long as he's happy, I'm happy! :-)ReplyDelete
He is so cuddly and cute! And you cannot tell him from the slip covers there!ReplyDelete
Oh my, Max better not see this post! He'd be very jealous that Doogan is allowed on the furniture as he is not. I'd have to tell him that when he gets a starring role in a local theatre production of Annie then he can have a spot on the sofa too.ReplyDelete
Sweet post Teresa.
He's so sweet! Spike & Bluebell love to look out the window, too! Although, Spike is getting so chubby, that he spills OVER the windowsill. ;)ReplyDelete
WHEE! I like to believe you wrote this post just for me - didn't I bug you about this like ten times last month? =) My three dogs love that spot, too, and our darn couch is totally destroyed because of them. We call it "front yard TV." Thanks for the tips!!! ~KristiReplyDelete


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by Melissa Brunner
I visited this week with recent Washburn Rural graduate Haley Molden. She and Topeka Swim Association teammate Sammie Schurig head to Omaha next week to compete in the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.
What a great accomplishment and opportunity for them! And it strikes me that I'm marveling at their milestone during this week that will mark 40 years since Title IX came into being. The legislation provided that girls would have equal opportunity to boys when it came to school extracurriculars.
It's incredible to me to think of a time when I wouldn't have been able to try out for the school volleyball, basketball and track teams. To think we might never have cheered our Washburn and Emporia State women's teams to national titles, or K-State's women to the NIT championship. What if we'd never been amazed by Flo Jo or Jackie Joyner-Kersee or Alyson Felix and their speed and grace on the track? Can you imagine not seeing Mary Lou or Kerri Strugg soar in gymnastics?
And what if girls like Haley and Sammie never had the chance to be inspired by the likes of Janet Evans or Dara Torres or Natalie Coughlin?
Seeing women compete is such a part of our lives today that it seems unfathomable that they ever were relegated to the sidelines. While I understand Title IX remains the source of heated debate, I must also give a thanks to the girls who insisted on getting in the game.


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Unraveling the Mysteries of Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing may not be as easy as a swipe and a tap, but it's a channel that marketers must master.
The Linchpin Channel Of the Omnichannel Marketing Future
Is there one channel that can help ensure the success of an omnichannel approach to marketing? Twelve experts sound off.
Monetizing Content Marketing
Content is most likely to drive conversions when marketers use such tools as email and social to support their content marketing efforts.
Personalized Marketing = Customer-Centric Marketing
The way to profitably engage customers across marketing channels is to get personal.
Marketing's Next Big Move
Reaching the right prospects at the right time is integral to marketing and sales performance. Here's how to shorten the distance between a dream account and a signed account.
Don't Fear the Data
Big Data may not be a new concept for email marketers, but its growth and availability require new strategies for harnessing its power as a competitive asset.
Data technology crucial to digital marketing
To get at the heart of some of the challenges facing marketers when it comes to defining the best strategies and programs to drive marketing success, Direct Marketing News convened a select group of senior marketers in a closed-door roundtable discussion sponsored by Marketo.
B-to-b success depends on social, data clarity
B-to-b marketers contend with an enormous amount of customer data coming into their organizations every day. Managing volumes of information located in various places within a company, coordinating sales and marketing teams and facing the dynamic rate at which b-to-b data decays, these marketers often have more steps to take than b-to-c marketers to make sure that their messages are relevant.


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I want to emphasize a word in a sentence. I've seen it somewhere but couldn't find the picture. Its like the selected word is normal but all other things are blurry. And maybe the word is closer than the rest. Any tutorial or tips on doing this?
In Photoshop, you can manually create a blur effect in everything surrounding your image using the Blur Tool.
For example:
You're question could benefit from further info (available software, intended use, what you've tried already, etc). Nonetheless, I'll take a shot.
I would recommend wiping out the emphasized word in the original text and inserting the necessary clear space in it's place.


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The company I work at goes through computers fairly regularly. When we get a new computer, someone has to manually go through and remove all the bloatware that comes with the computer. Right now, I am compiling a database of known bloatware and their silent uninstall commands, but many programs either don't have or require a silent uninstall script to be created. I'm wondering if there are any methods that I have missed that would silently reduce the windows installation to just the barebones OS and drivers.
It's called a format. Just use a PXE server with some windows images. When a new computer comes in you automatically install a new windows image on it. In my experience, that's the easiest way.
Lucas's answer is the best way to go but if you have a situation where that's not practical you can create a machine image using an OEM install of Windows, customised to your liking. Give a copy of that image to your OEM supplier and instruct them to use it for all future PC purchases. If the supplier won't agree to do that find a supplier who will work with you.
PC Decrapifier is actually pretty good for this.


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I have a question that is confusing me with making a game.
For my game launch i pre load everything for the main menu then i loop the game to display it.
But lets argue player wants to launch a new game or a specific level, then you preload the relevant sounds/graphics for that level right?
How ever, the player must already be running the game loop if they are at the main menu, so you can't load in the game loop or you will load every frame...but im pretty sure most big games don't preload every level when you first run the game from desktop because it would take a long time on some of these games....
How is it done :S


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In Nebraska, there is no doubt that immigrant entrepreneurs and innovators play an important role. Immigrant entrepreneurs bring in additional revenue, create jobs, and contribute significantly to the state's economy. Highly skilled immigrants are vital to the state's innovation industries, and to the metropolitan areas within the state, helping to boost local economies. Furthermore, local government, business, and non-profit leaders recognize the importance of immigrants in their communities and support immigration through local "welcoming" and integration initiatives.
Immigrant entrepreneurs contribute to Nebraska's economy.
- From 2006 to 2010, there were 3,905 new immigrant business owners [1] in Nebraska, and in 2010, 3.9 percent [1] of all business owners in Nebraska were foreign-born.
- In 2010, new immigrant business owners had a total net business income [1] of $126 million, which is 2.7 percent of all net business income in the state.
- Nebraska is home to many successful companies with at least one founder who was an immigrant or child of an immigrant, or companies [2] whose success relies on immigration like ConAgra. Many brands now sold by ConAgra, which employs more than 26,000 people and has more than $13 billion in revenue, were brands that started as immigrant founded businesses.
Highly skilled immigrants are vital to Nebraska's innovation industries, which in turn helps lead American innovation and creates jobs.
- Immigrants contribute to Nebraska's economic growth and competitiveness by earning degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields from the state's research universities. In 2009, 11.5 percent [3] of STEM graduates from the state's research-intensive universities were foreign-born, and 77.4 percent of graduates earning PhDs in engineering in Nebraska were not born in the U.S.
- In 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor certified 982 H-1B labor certification applications [4] in Nebraska, with an average annual wage of $60,671, which is more than both Nebraska's median household income [5] of $51,381 and its per capita income of $26,523.
- An expansion [6] of the high-skilled visa program would create an estimated 1,800 new jobs in Nebraska by 2020. By 2045, this expansion would add [6] around $781 million to Gross State Product and increase personal income by more than $650 million. The following are examples [7] of metropolitan area demand for high-skilled foreign-born workers.
- The Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area had 710 H-1B high-skilled visa requests [8] in 2010-2011, with 75.1 percent of H-1B visa-holders working in STEM occupations. Major employers with a need for H-1B high-skilled workers include Prokarma Inc, Creighton University, and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
While the numbers are compelling, they don't tell the whole story.
- Immigrant entrepreneurs not only contribute to large innovative companies, but to small business formation in local communities. In cities across Nebraska, immigrant family-owned small businesses contribute to the vitality of their local communities. Although initially aimed at other immigrant customers, many businesses quickly see an expansion of their clientele to include a diverse array of immigrant and native-born customers alike.
- In Omaha, Marta Sonia Londoño Mejía directed the Midlands Latino Community Development Corporation [9]. Over a two year period, the agency assisted entrepreneurs in launching around 50 new companies including day care centers, auto mechanics, restaurants, bakeries, retail, and tax preparation services. As Mejía stated [10], "Latinos love to start businesses—it's cultural."
- Also in Omaha, Yesenia Wilson, from Peru, started [10] Machu Picchu imports in 2008 in the city's popular Old Market shopping area. Her business sells Inca jewelry, ponchos, and other crafts imported from Peru.
- In Norfolk, Juan Sandoval, from Venezuela, directs the Hispanic Business Center [11] for the Rural Enterprise Assistance Project. He noted [10] there has been a growing trend of Latino-owned businesses opening in places such as Schuyler, Columbus, and South Sioux City.
- Cousins Arturo and Tomas De La Paz own El Mezcal Mexican restaurant in Norfolk, and Cilantros Mexican Bar and Grill in Omaha. Each restaurant employs [10] around 20 people.
In Nebraska, some localities have begun recognizing and supporting immigration through local "welcoming" and integration initiatives.
- Across Nebraska and the broader Midwest, local places recognize the importance of immigrant entrepreneurs in their communities. According to the Chicago Council of Global Affairs [12], "Public and private-sector groups across the region have launched business incubators for immigrant entrepreneurs, sponsored networking opportunities with local employers, and helped skilled immigrants translate their foreign credentials to maximize their economic potential in the United States."
- Specifically, the Council states [12] that "the Midwest cannot hope to keep up with other regions or international competitors without a vital entrepreneurial sector…Immigrants, risk takers by nature, are unusually successful entrepreneurs, more than twice as likely as native-born Americans to start their own firms."
- Although the Midwest has historically found it difficult to attract and retain new talent, the Council suggest [12]s that the region needs new entrepreneurial energy. They note that "business incubators in immigrant communities, microloan programs, and other initiatives to make credit available can make a difference."
- Nebraska is Home, a project of Nebraska Appleseed and an affiliate of Welcoming America [13], is a community-led initiative [14] focused on "creating a welcoming atmosphere—community by community—in which immigrants are more likely to integrate into the social fabric of their adopted hometowns." Nebraska is Home has local chapters in Crete, Grand Island, Lincoln, Omaha, and Schuyler.
- You're Welcome in Omaha, a part of Nebraska is Home, is a collaborative effort [15] "to celebrate Omaha as a welcoming and inclusive community of all of its immigrant neighbors." The initiative is based on the understanding that "immigrants settling in a community have a far better chance of integrating if the others in that community are receptive to including their new neighbors."
- In Lincoln, the New Americans Task Force is a "network [16] of public and private organizations and community members dedicated to supporting new Americans" in the community. Approximately 40 agencies participate in the task force, which meets monthly to share information about news, events, and issues related to new Americans.
- In 2013, the City of Lincoln was designated as a Welcoming City for immigrants [17], part of Welcoming America's Welcoming Cities and Counties Initiative [18]. This recognition means [17] that the city "seeks to integrate immigrants into the community by creating a welcoming atmosphere that embraces people from all nationalities and backgrounds."
- The official proclamation [19], signed by Lincoln's mayor and dozens of members of the New Americans Task Force, represents [17] the city's commitment to "fostering an environment that welcomes people regardless of race, ethnicity or place of origin."
- Christa Yoakum, coordinator of Nebraska is Home, said of Lincoln's designation [17], "As we continue to build a thriving 21st century economy and city, this commitment to working together to attract and engage immigrants as an important part of our Lincoln community will help create a strong and vibrant future for all of us."
Download the Infographic here. [20]
Published On: Wed, Oct 16, 2013 | Download File [21]


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Connecting with Other Homeschoolers (You Probably Know Some Already)
Connecting with other homeschoolers probably won't be as hard as you imagine it is likely that you already know several homeschoolers even if you don't know that you do. Just keep your ears and eyes open as you live your daily life and you are bound to come across homeschoolers with whom you can build relationships. Here are some sources from which you are likely to find other homeschoolers:
- Public libraries, especially during regular school hours
- Churches
- Your friends and family
- Places where your kids participate in activities, such as dance lessons, music lessons, or sports programs
- Co-workers and other acquaintances or their spouses
- Formal homeschool groups in your area
- Homeschool conventions
- Internet Web sites connected to your state, city, or town
- Tutors (they might have some homeschoolers as clients)
More on: How to Homeschool
Reproduced from Absolute Beginner's Guide to Homeschooling, by Brad Miser, by permission of Pearson Education. Copyright © 2005 by Que Publishing. Please visit http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0789732777 to order your own copy.


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I am interested in hearing about the practitioner state of the art for testing the time independence of a VaR model (i.e. that VaR violations are independent in time). There are a number of tests in the literature. What do people actually use? Which are viewed as the most powerful and useful in the real world? I'm interested in hearing about what kinds of specific quantitative criteria people might use to cause them to re-evaluate their VaR model's current ability to handle violation clustering.
The following thesis deals with VaR back testing procedures in the Basel framework link. In chapter 7 tests for violation clustering are presented. An R implementation of the runs test is e.g. given in the tseries package.
The Kupiec test is frequently used to back test VaR values. I would refer you to read this article from the federal reserve


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Tail continues to wag dog
Nicholas Kristof has this right; even Nicholas Kristof! "Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems locked in a self- defeating dynamic in which it feels misunderstood and gives up on international opinion. It lashes out with force in ways that undermine its own interests. It is on a path that could eventually be catastrophic."....for the United States as well as Israel. Will Obama's support of Netanyahu be his single largest step in the wrong direction? Or will he pull a peace agreement from this?http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/opinion/03kristof.html?scp=4&sq=Nicholas%20Kristoff&st=cse
About the Author
Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, a former editor of Commonweal, writes frequently in these pages and blogs at dotCommonweal.
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Hi, Margaret,I saw Kirstof's piece yesterday. I thought that it made interesting reading juxtaposed with David Warren's piece.http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/06/03/singling_out_israel... strength of Warren's piece is that it cuts through the ethical fog engendered by Hamas and its first-world stooges and fellow-travellers, and provides much-needed moral clarity. I find Warren convincing: morally and legally, Israel is right, and 'world opinion' is easily manipulated by those who desire to destroy the State of Israel and all the Jews within it.The strength of Kristof's piece is that he acknowledges this, and yet also points out that it is not enough to be right: Israel needs to learn to be wise as a serpent, playing it smart in a morally corrupt and craven world.That's my view, fwiw.
(Confused by the headline. Who's the dog, and who's the tail?)Interesting letters to the editor in the NYT this morning, imho. From one:"If President Obama really wants there to be peace, he needs to apply real pressure on Muslims to stop the violence and incitement. Israel wants peace. It does not and will not commit suicide to get peace. Would you commit suicide to get your neighbors to stop attacking you?" From another:"Heres a simple idea for the Palestinians in Gaza: Recognize Israels right to exist and completely abandon the pursuit of its destruction."http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/opinion/l04mideast.html?ref=opinion
Gerelyn: beleive the US is the dog, and Israel is the tail.
Jim, Gerelyn, et al.May I suggest that you occasionally read the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. It's available free online.Jim, sometimes stooges like Margaret and Kristof have something important to say. If that makes me a "stooge squared" c'est la vie.
Bernard - I included neither Margaret nor Kristof in the "stooge" category, and am not sure why you'd think I would - neither, to my knoweldge, has ever evinced the slightest sympathy for Hamas or any other violent terrorist organization with genocidal aspirations. Nor am I aware that you have, and in a fraternal spirit, suggest you exercise caution in donning that mantle.
"I suggest that you occasionally read the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. "Here are some excerpts from today's edition, from a piece by Yoel Marcus:"This flotilla was not a humanitarian operation but a public relations campaign that Israel lost because Israel acted exactly as expected: like a bull in a china shop. The global response from friends, and even more so from non-friends, is serious because it indicates our overall situation in the world.People are beginning to get tired of our viewpoints and excuses. "And later:"I dont like that word, but the Palestinians have successfully introduced our image as occupiers into global awareness. And Israel, with steps such as our siege on Gaza, is only strengthening our negative image. When President Barack Obamas America is working to use agreements to reduce areas of tension around the world, Israel cannot behave like the neighborhood bully."And later:"It turns out that you can show contempt for some of the world some of the time, but not all of the world all of the time. 'Something has thinned out in the Jewish brain,' says MK Nachman Shai. 'Every misstep of ours contains the beginning of the next one.'"
It is fairly simple and straightforward - you borrow from Eisenhower in 1956. You confidentialy lay out a plan for Israel- US will recognize the state of Palestine on this date- you outline what this means; e.g. open and protected port in GAZA with US/UN fleet protecting this; any pushback or subversion by Israel results in immediate suspension of all military and foreign aid;- US/UN will work with the new state of Palestine to insure safety in the region - this means a plan that will limit or strike back at HAMAS if they do not respect the defined nature of the new state of Palestine built on partnership with Israel - might include temporary UN troops along the borders of Gaza and key points in the West Bank, Gaza port- give Israel time to respond to this; yet set a date when this will be announced and brought to the UN.Congress - well, that will be tougher than HAMAS.
To clarify headline: tail=Israel; dog=U.S. Meaning: Israel's policies toward the Palesinians in the West Bank and those in Gaza (who are not all supporters of Hamas) trump the national interests (including the moral interests) of the United States.
Kristof also said what needed to be said about Hamas and pointed to the self-defeating behaviors of both the Palestinians and Israel. "Abba Eban, the former Israeli statesman, is famously reported to have said in 1973: The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The quotation resonated because it was largely true...."Yet now, as a rabbi noted on my Facebook page, it is Israel that never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity."
I don't like seeing my country referred to as a dog, or Israel as a tail.And I don't like seeing renowned journalists like Margaret Steinfels and Nicholas Kristof referred to as stooges.
I think the dog and the tail observation goes back to the Greeks. Has its merits as an image.
The Greeks? I always thought it came from Lord Dundreary (he of the big bushy side whiskers) in Our American Cousin.
It's interesting to see how, on the one end of the spectrum, the Pope has more or less condemned the tragedy and, long before the tragedy, the way Gaza is being treated by Israel; on the other end of the spectrum, I keep seeing "conservative American" Catholics consistently presenting the Israeli "we were attacked" explanation as justification for evil.
Henry Karlson, I don't think it is only "conservative American" Catholics who defend Israel's policies toward the Palestinians; I know "liberal American" Catholics who do as well. My reading suggests that American Catholics, in general, defend Israel no matter what, while Catholics in other parts of the world have more diverse views. The Vatican is especially sensitive to the plight of Palestinian Christians vis a vis the Israel issue; but it is also attuned to the state of Christians in Iraq, Lebanon, etc., in a way that Americans Catholics are not. Like many Americans, Catholic Americans do not seem to pay much attention to foreign policy, our own or anyone else's. This means that the prevailing views, often set in stone, are never examined afresh. We (American Catholics) have bought the idea that the Catholic Church always and everywhere has been rife with anti-Semitism. Criticism of Israeli policies (back in a minute!) (Back) is taken therefore by many American Catholics to be a form of anti-Semitism, which charge trumps all reasonable criticism. This doesn't help Israel; it doesn't help U.S. policy, and it doesn't help genuine efforts to bring peace.
Margaret,I see far more "conservatives" especially on the blogosphere openly supporting Israel, and just reporting what Israel has to say. They ignore the Pope, they ignore the Church, they ignore the statements of the Christians there. I am not saying all conservatives do this, but it is within their sphere we find this. The "liberals" might be pro-Israel, but they also tend to also understand justice, and also tend to at least recognize more of the problems.
HenryBeing a dopey conservative I'd really like to know what five things you think Israel should do to resolve their problems or at least make them better?The Israelis giving up on international opinion - I'm shocked, absolutely shocked that they should feel that way after all the support they get.
I se little hope for any successful resolution as long as the Bebe regime remains in power.Twice now, Obam's regime has been caught by Israeli actions just as the Biden meeting and now Bebe's avorted visit here ended up with little or nothing.Obama is committed to both Israel and , I think, the palestinians so he's fundamentally at this point between a rock and a hard place.I wonder what difference it would have made if we had voted differently in the UN??????
"We (American Catholics) have bought the idea that the Catholic Church always and everywhere has been rife with anti-Semitism."----Recent examples would reinforce that notion. ----"Like many Americans, Catholic Americans do not seem to pay much attention to foreign policy, our own or anyone elses."----Or maybe they pay attention but arrive at conclusions different from yours.
After all the second-guessing, the over-intellectualizing, the sub-floor of hatred for the West in general, and America in particular, it all comes down to this: Israel has an absolute right to exist and defend itself against the slavering hordes of Jew-haters wherever they nest. Look again at a map of the middle east: You see a small nation surrounded by entities that thirst after the destruction of Israel and the exterination of all Jews. I stand with the Jews and with Israel, always and forever. If the Palestinians truly want peace, they will immediately rid themselves of Hamas, Hezbollah, and all the rest of that putrescent crowd. Deal with it.
An interesting article in today's Der Spiegel:http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,698766,00.html
A right to defend itself does not equate to the means of such defense; the means Israel consistently engages are intrinsically evil.
To defend Israel's right to exist is one thing. To defend Israel's actions always and everywhere is quite another thing.I have visited the Holy Land 8 times since 1987 and have seen quite a bit of escalating evidence over the years that Israel has taken a chance on excessive force as a course of action that now has come back to bite it in the butt more and more each day.The US has quite dirty hands when it comes to facilitating much of what Israel does and this is now coming back to bite us in the butt more and more each day.When you lie down with dogs don't be surprised to have fleas.
The Der Spiegel article gets at Hamas's tactics, which, nonetheless, don't justify Israel's blockade. In fact, it sounds like the blockade makes the tactics possible and contributes to Hamas's ability to coerce conformity to its political agenda. Who's the tail here and who the dog?
In case folks are not reading carefully here: I haven't attributed the adjective "stooge" to anyone who posts or comments here. (Examples of stooges for murderous terrorist organizations would surely include some of the Westerners aboard the flotilla, though).I praised the Kristof piece, and in fact usually find him an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.I haven't said it yet, but let me say it now: I have a lot of respect for Margaret's perspective and analysis of the Middle East. I find that she brings a genuinely Catholic sensibility to the issues.
"In fact, it sounds like the blockade makes the tactics possible and contributes to Hamass ability to coerce conformity to its political agenda. "But what would be an alternative to the blockade that wouldn't also result in the escalation of the shelling of Israeli cities and settlements, and/or suicide bombs, and/or the intifada?
When I see these accusations of excessive force I always ask what would you do and what would you expect your government to do if people were launching missiles at your home and your children's school. Then apply that standard to the Israelis. In my opinion, most of the critics don't. They start from a position in which the Israelis inherently have less right to protect themselves than other countries.Even in talking about the laws of war, we apply them differently to the Israelis. What is proportionality? In the case of the Israelis the term is used to mean that the lethality or destructive force of the response should be no more than the lethality of the threat. That, unfortunately, is not what proportionality is or has ever been in the law of war. A proportional response is one which is proportional to the threat. Think of Indiana Jones - shooting the guy with the scimitar is proportional - it's not fair, but it is proportional.They face an existential threat. In the face of that they have shown enormous restraint.
"In my opinion, most of the critics ... start from a position in which the Israelis inherently have less right to protect themselves than other countries."I also think that there is a lot of historical ignorance and amnesia in the West, abetted by television images that provide no historical or political context.
For those who say - like Henry Karlson - that the means Israel employs to defend itself are intrinsically evil, documentation please. And how come that is never said about the Palestinians indiscriminantly lobbing missiles into Israel, not even pretending to take care to avoid innocent civilians? This is such rank hypocrisy. No, there is a very tangible bias against Israel and for the "Palestinians" in this blog; it is so obvious that if it wasn't so infuriating it would be comical. Let me caution those of you who urge "restraint": If the israelis were to show a lack of restraint, your hair would turn white (if it isn't already :))
BobYou need to study things like proportionality and consequentialism. Beyond that, are you serious?! There is a reason why the Pope has consistently condemned what we see going on - collective punishment, attacks on civilian populace -- all condemned.
In addition, the history of the region and even the statehood of Israel is complex. Sorry, but the quote above that roles have changed is very much to the point....Israel is now seen as the "bully."Why are we waiting for Bibi's approval - the US needs to act in consert with other countries esp. the Quartet of Four and have the UN declare two separate states with clear expectations and steps if groups such as Hamas decide to reject Israel's right of existence or continues the use of violence.In many ways, Hamas is behaving exactly as the Irgun and Stern gangs did in 1946, 1947, and 1948 which ultimately led to Israeli statehood. There were legitimate non-violent Jewish or Zionist Movements that were working with the Palestinian Arab population. Unfortunately, the historical racial, religious, and ethnic patterns saboteuged any peaceful evolution and progress. Just as Hamas or Hezbollah have leveraged these traditional patterns, so did some groups within the Jewish statehood movement.There is blood on both sides....but Israel has now moved to almost total isolation given its overwhelming military response to any and all threats. Folks used to see and feel for them because they were seen as the "little guy vs. the big goy"....that is hard to do now. Yes, there are challenges any time you are faced by non-national groups; terrorist organizations, etc. but responding only with military might wins you no battles. Israel needs to learn how to effectively move the playing field - e.g. West Bank has gotten its act together and its economy is growing as it's political and governmental structures. Permanent seige of Gaza will never allow these people to experience or have a change to develop - it only pushes them deeper into Hamas.Obama can try to remain cool and collected but he faces a choice and no political finesse is going to get him out of this. The US has tried to finesse with Israel for 20 years.
Henry: you saidThere is a reason why the Pope has consistently condemned what we see going on collective punishment, attacks on civilian populace all condemned.Besides the fact that the Pope gets Israel's attempts at self defense completely wrong, if he really meant what he said he would attach consequences to the actions of any and all Catholics who participated in or materially aided such actions, as for example excommunication of said Catholics. He doesn't do so becauxse he knows that he is playing the game of mollify the Muslims at just about any cost. Like what happened in Nazi Germany; he danced around the Nazis, trying to keep them from slaughtering Catholics in the same manner as they slaughtered the Jews. He wants to prevent the Muslims from slaughtering Catholics (that is, where Muslims even allow Catholics to worship) so he dances with them, playing the old game. But he knows, he knows the score.
One of the things that always strikes me about the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians is how very differently the story gets told depending on where one's sympathies lies. I have been following another internet conversation among friends of mine where this week's events around the Gaza blockage were described by different commenters as either: 1) an Entebbe-like raid by elite Israeli commandoes in which civilians bringing humanitarian aid were callously shot and killed, or, 2) frightened young soldiers who panicked when ambushed by a violent mob of extreme radicals with links to terrorism. I find it very hard to understand what goes on in the Middle East; there's not even a commonly accepted narrative.
Narratives: I have often thought that one of the serious and underlying reasons that there has been no resolution to this is: not only is there no commonly accepted narrative, the two (or three or four!) narratives don't even overlap. Among both Israelis and Palestinians, there are different versions of what has happened and what should happen. Rumors of civil war in Israel itself point to at least two stories: the heroic, secular founders and the kubbutzniks are one story, the Greater Israel and the land given by God to the Jewish people is another. Ditto the Palestinians...the majority of whom do not belong to either Fatah or Hamas, but are long-time (even forever) residents, both Christian and Muslim, who have lived under Ottomans, Crusaders, maybe even Romans.
You can't use "Self defense" to justify intrinsic evils. Remember abortion?
Narratives: A book that got a bad press in Israel and not much attention here that gives one of the Israeli narratives is, The Holocaus Is Over; We Must Rise From the Ashes. The title itself is a provocation. It is by Avraham Burg whose mother came from Hebron and his father from Germany (Dresden); the perspective is of an Israeli of European origins and instincts.
"You cant use Self defense to justify intrinsic evils. Remember abortion?"Actually you can. The 773 civilians intentionally targeted for killing by the 91 US airstrikes into Pakistan since January 20, 2009 are morally justified by the doctrine of preemptive self-defense, for example.
Closely related to Israel and Gaza: First Things, an ecumenical Christian journal with Catholic intellectuals among its editors, advisers and contributors, published on its website today an article that makes the case for a pre-emptive war against Iran in order to forestall its nuclear weapons capability. The article is logical, clear and terrifying. Do read it.http://firstthings.com/onthesquare/2010/06/iranrsquos-nuclear-weapon-cap... the comments to the piece is this:"Israelis had moved submarines into the Persian Gulf. Being a bloody-minded ex-Merchant of Death, I did a brief study of Iranian population centers: the 26 largest Iranian cities contain over half of Iran's population. Each of the Dolphins can load out 16 missiles. The Israelis have five Dolphins. Do. The. Math. If Mr Ahmadinejad's threats against Israel are carried out, Iran can without a doubt, kill many, probably most Israelis. The Israelis would no doubt return the gesture, from the grave so to speak. "
Read it, Jim. The news of Israeli subs equipped with nuclear weapons has been zipping around the ethernet in recent days. The Israelis are not denying it, confirming yet again that they have nuclear weapons and that they want Iran to know that (nukes were confirmed as well by a recent document dump in South Africa that showed the Israelis offering nukes to SA's apartheid government). What is intended? Is it a deterrent meant to threaten Iran? Is it meant to steel the UN for the sanctions vote. Is it leveraging the U.S. into attacking Iran?
"What is intended? Is it a deterrent meant to threaten Iran? Is it meant to steel the UN for the sanctions vote. Is it leveraging the U.S. into attacking Iran?"Whatever Israel's intent (and it could be all of the above), it seems the least likely outcome is that the its threat will deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons. When a country is threatened by an enemy with nukes, isn't the reaction to accelerate the development of one's own nuclear capability in order to equalize the threat? The point of the First Things piece seems to be, 'we've tried diplomacy and it's failed. Sanctions are a nice idea but the world lacks the will to impose them. What is left except pre-emptive war?'
Another thought: the template for pre-emptive war has already been created by the prior American administration, and from the point of view of regime replacement of a major Middle East nation, it's been shown to be successful. (That the aftermiath is bloody and draining of capital and morale is another story. But possibly the case can be made, 'We've made our mistakes and learned our lessons in Iraq. Next time will be smoother.')Please note: I'm not advocating this train of thought. Just trying to imagine how it could work.
Jim, it's a thorny issue, alright--even a conundrum. There are probably a thousand scenarios in play. Here's one I was mulling and talking about last night. Israel has a deterrent (it's nuclear weapons as well as an array of conventional weapons--even that latter could seriously damage Iran). But Iran has a deterrent too--Hezbollah now said (by the IDF) to be supplied with longer range missles that could reach into Israel. Each side could inflict serious damage on the other; Iran because of its size and its allies could probably do more damage than Israel could do (unless Israel uses its nuclear weapons). Perhaps enters here the United States. But to do what? Pre-emptive war doctrine or no, we are in over our heads in two wars already: managing to get out from one (Iraq) and barely holding our own in the other (Afghanistan). A third front in Iran--even if only an air war--would sink the global economic recovery, endanger our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and maybe send Pakistan into a nuclear tizzy. I don't count out the U.S., Israel, and Iran doing something collectively stupid, but I'm inclined to think not. Or maybe I'm hoping not.
I just finished "reading in on" this live web chat from The Brookings with one of their mideastern experts, Shibley Telhami.It is to my mind a straightforward, middle of the road analysis of what's at stake at least diplomatically. Mideastern Mavens might find it useful: http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2010/0609_gaza_crisis_chat.aspx
"Perhaps enters here the United States."If that is the sequence, then I really hope it's not just us. I can understand that the world wouldn't want to jump in with both feet into our little adventure in Iraq, but if it comes to an action to prevent Iran from completing or deploying or using nuclear weapons ... I'd hope we'd get more than moral support from our allies for that.
Except for the Gulf States, who would our allies be?
(Btw, re-reading my last comment, 6/9, 2:43, it's kinda spooky how that line of thought re: allies could have come from a neo-con blog ca. 2002 re: Iraq. AAAUUUUGGGGH!)
"Except for the Gulf States, who would our allies be?"Britain, France, Russia, China ... I'd think there are a lot of folks whose interest would be that Iran be prevented from brandishing nukes. Why not India, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt?
Think also of the "cry wolf" phenomenon here. The United States made enormous claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons, which it turned out no longer existed. We lied, misrepresented, etc., cf. Colin Powell. Who will believe us now? Whatever one thinks of Iran, its government, and its human rights policy, lets face the fact that no country, not even its neighbor Russia, has quite the level of paranoia and animosity that we do.


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Undergraduate Honors
Honors Convocation
Each year, Mississippi College honors our outstanding students at the annual Honor's Convocation. For more information about Honors Convocation, please contact Margaret Cole at email@example.com or 601.925.3809.
Honors at Graduation
Students graduating from Mississippi College with Latin honors wear stoles indicating their special academic accomplishment: white stoles designate cum laude, gold stoles designate magna cum laude and blue stoles designate summa cum laude.
Graduate students are not eligible for Latin honors.
Baccalaureate degrees at Mississippi College may carry two types of academic honors. These honors are recognized in the commencement exercise and on the academic transcript.
Graduation with Latin honors
Students, including transfer students, who have completed at least half of their work at Mississippi College (a minimum of 65 semester hours at MC, excluding AP, IB, CLEP, or credit by correspondence) will receive their degrees with special recognition in accordance with the following grade averages:
- 3.500 - 3.699: Graduation cum laude
- 3.700 - 3.899: Graduation magna cum laude
- 3.900 - 4.000: Graduation summa cum laude
Graduation in the Honors Program
In the Honors Program, juniors and seniors with high academic averages may complete a program of independent research leading to an honors thesis or project. Graduation with Honors requires a satisfactory paper (or project), a cumulative average of 3.25, and an average of 3.5 in the major field; Graduation with High Honors requires a superior paper (or project), a cumulative average of 3.5, and an average of 3.75 in the major field.
Jurisprudence Honors at Mississippi College
Transfer students must earn 60 credit hours at Mississippi College School of Law to qualify for these designations.


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I have to prove this most difficult trigonometric identity.
$$\tan(A+B+Y)=\frac{\tan A+\tan B+\tan Y-\tan A\tan B\tan Y}{1-\tan A \tan B-\tan B\tan Y-\tan Y\tan A}.$$
I know $$\tan(A+B)=\frac{\tan A+\tan B}{1-\tan A\tan B}$$
My problem is with the extra $Y$ in this problem. What can I do about I think I know a solution which is to do $\tan(A+B)$ then $\tan(B+Y)$ but I am not sure how to apply it.


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Neva M. Valentine (Kleven), 90, of Lake Odessa (and Lowell) passed away peacefully, Monday, Oct. 1, 2012, after a long and progressive decline from the effects of Dementia/Alzheimer.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Buford (Boots) Valentine; her parents, Henry and Nora (Fossum) Kleven; and a sister, Eunice Eldridge.
Neva is survived by her children, Janet (Bill) Pitman of La Quinta, Calif. and James (Cheryl) Valentine of Lowell. She is also survived by her grandchildren, Rosemary Ranger, and her children Shania and Sebestian, of Marshall, Alana (Ron) Acheson and their children Logan, Ella, Brady and Sadie of Lowell, and Keith (Sara) Valentine and their children, McKenna, Caroline and James of Midland, Texas.
Honoring Neva's wishes there will be no funeral service and cremation has taken place. Interment will be at the Lake Side Cemetery in Lake Odessa. The family will gather to receive family and friends to remember Neva at the St. Edwards Church Hall in Lake Odessa on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012 from 1 to 4 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests making a donation in Neva's name to the Ionia County Animal Shelter. Arrangements were handled by the Verdun Family Funeral Home of Belding (616) 794-1300 or verdunfh.com.
Location, ST | website.com


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I love it when an undergraduate catches me out. I'm lecturing a first course in (not necessarily commutative) rings (with 1) and I've spent the last few weeks doing basic module theory. I defined a short exact sequence of (left) $R$-modules and a homomorphism of short exact sequences (a homomorphism from $0\to A\to B\to C\to 0$ to $0\to A'\to B'\to C'\to 0$ is just $R$-module maps $A\to A'$, $B\to B'$ and $C\to C'$ such that the obvious two squares commute). There's hence an obvious notion of an isomorphism of short exact sequences.
Today one of the students asked me if it was possible to have a ring $R$ and modules $A,A',B,B',C,C'$ sitting in two short exact sequences as above, and such that $A$ was isomorphic to $A'$, $B$ was isomorphic to $B'$ and $C$ was isomorphic to $C'$, but that the sequences weren't isomorphic. I said "sure, I'll email you a counterexample later" (the logic being that if this were a theorem, it would be one I knew about). I thought I'd knock up a counterexample on the tube home -- but I failed :-/
If $R$ is a field then short exact sequences split (yes we're assuming AC) so that's not going anywhere. So I thought that $R=k[X]$ would be a good place to start, $k$ a field. In this case an $R$-module is just a $k$-vector space equipped with an endomorphism and I figured this would give me enough flexibility. I wanted $A,A',C,C'$ to be $R/(x^2)$ and tried some messy matrix calculations to figure out an example, but I couldn't get it to work. I then went for $R=k[x,y]$ but now a 2-dimensional vector space is an $R$-module when we give it two commuting linear maps and somehow this set-up had too many endomorphisms for me to face doing the algebra. I then figured that I might want to try a polynomial ring in two noncommuting variables--but then it was my stop and it was time to start thinking about other things.
I am almost certain that there will even be a counterexample with $R$ commutative (that's why I was thinking about the commutative case). Can anyone tell me the trick I'm missing?


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Why does the Earth revolve with the Sun at one of its foci? Does the other focus do nothing? Why is there this asymmetry in our solar system?
I'm almost certain there used to be an answer to this question, but it seems to be gone, I'll write another one. The Earth and Sun both orbit their mutual barycenter (disregarding any other objects of course). That one point is a focal point of both ellipses, and all three focal points are collinear.
It may appear asymmetric because the Sun's motion is so small, which comes from the asymmetry in the masses. Imagine smoothly scaling the Sun down to an Earth mass. As you did so, the ellipses would approach each other in size, and your missing symmetry would be restored. The key is to notice that there are three, not just two, foci in the system.
The other focus fixes the solution: it selects a particular ellips out of the infinite solutions that could revolve around the first focus.
Note that the law of equal areas only depends of the central force, this is the focus where the Sun is.